I came across this fun article from Rodale Press supporting several facts and exposing a few myths regarding marathon running, exercise and general fitness. Of particular interest was point number 6, that running a marathon increases your risk of a heart attack.
At first I thought, "I'm in big time trouble now". Recently I've been running 4 hour long runs almost every week and the temperature over the last few weeks has been in the upper 80's and lower 90's. So I know that there's some additional cardiac stress going on.
However, I've experienced no chest pains, no dizziness, and no general ill effects, except for slowing my pace way down in the heat. I'm sure that there's probably some cardiac arrhythmia occurring at some point during my long runs. And I'm sure that under certain conditions there may be cause for concern, such as starting off the day with a Denny's Grand Slam breakfast with extra bacon on the side. But I think our guys at Rodale Press are really stretching on this one. In fact, you could probably take out the words "Running a marathon" and replace them with "Shoveling snow" and the article would still be valid.
Anyway, you can find the article here in Yahoo Health.
By the way, I also like point number 4, "exercise improves your ability to learn" which has some additional support listed in Chief Learning Officer magazine.
So go stress out your heart and improve your mind.
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