The Day Alberto Salazar Died

Running legend Alberto Salazar opens up about his heart attack, the 14 minutes when he had no pulse, and why he feels so lucky.

September 7, 2007
Media: The Day Alberto Salazar Died

I wasn't breathing, so they put the paddles on me to shock my heart. They had to do it four times before they finally got a pulse. This was about 13 or 14 minutes after I first went down. And that's pretty amazing, because I've learned since that you don't have a very good chance of surviving in good health if you go more than five minutes without a pulse. I was extremely lucky that all these guys reacted so fast.

Hearing your story is taking my breath away. What's it like for you to relive it? Every time I think about it, I'm shocked that I'm still alive. I can't believe how blessed I am that this miracle took place. It's hard to think that I was basically dead for a certain amount of time, and now I'm still here. It's very sobering. For a couple of days, I was going to sleep at night wondering, Am I going to wake up in the morning?

Now I've gotten over that and moved on to the reality of my situation--knowing that I'm going to face this again, maybe from my heart, maybe not. Maybe I'll see it coming, maybe I won't. But it's going to come again. And that makes you think, Are you prepared? It forces you to delve into every part of your life. You think about things you've put off, regrets you might have. You begin to ask: Do I have some unfinished business? Have I let old disagreements get in my way? Have I left certain words unspoken to my brothers, father, sister, friends?

And it makes you think: You know what? I'm going to take care of all this stuff now. I'm going to start crossing things off my list. I feel so lucky that this happened, because now I see things much more clearly. I see that it's stupid to worry about money and investments. Do people think I'm a great coach? That's an ego thing; it doesn't matter to me any longer.

God could have saddled me with some major physical or mental problems, but he didn't. I'm so thankful that I've been set straight, and I only got a slap on the wrist, so to speak.

You haven't used the words exactly, but it sounds as if you're saying this heart attack was part of a master plan. Yes, absolutely. I've always believed that God has a plan for all of us, but he doesn't force it on us. It's up to us to have the faith to follow the plan. In my case, I feel that I've been living a pretty good life--I've tried to be helpful to people, I've tried to help my runners perform at the highest level. But now I'm thinking God expects more from me than just that.

I'm not sure what it is. I'm starting to look around. It could be something like getting really involved with the LiveStrong foundation. I haven't even talked to anyone about this yet. It's just a gut feeling and heart feeling I have. And we have a connection here at Nike. I've been wearing 10//2 hats and shirts since they came out. I'm always wearing my LiveStrong bracelet.

LiveStrong could give me a chance to help people through what has happened to me. It feels like I'm being called to do this. I've always talked to any charity group that contacted me, and also any group associated with the armed forces. I feel very strongly about them. Whereas if a business group asks me to speak at one of their lunches or something, I have no problem saying, "Sorry, I just haven't got the time."

You stayed in the hospital for nine days. What did they do? The main thing was they put a stent into my heart, into a major artery. They did this right away, literally within an hour or so. For a day after that I was still listed in serious condition, and then I was upgraded. Then, just to be safe, they put in a Medtronic defibrillator the day before I was released. That's kind of funny because Medtronic is the main sponsor of the Twin Cities Marathon. The docs don't think I'll ever need the defibrillator because they don't think my problem is an electrical one. But it's there and if the same thing happens to me again, it will kick in. I won't need to be shocked back by the paddles.

I heard reports that you were coaching your runners from your hospital bed. That doesn't sound like the kind of thing a wife or cardiologist would want you doing right after a serious heart attack. Oh, we were just talking about their workouts. They all came in to visit me in the hospital, so I just said, "Okay, here's what you need to do tomorrow." Fortunately, it was a quiet time after the National Championships. I had Rupp and the Gouchers [Adam and Kara] take an entire week off with no running at all. Nine days after the incident, I was back on the training field with them. I felt a little tired and stuff, but I just needed an afternoon nap the first couple of days. I started back to Nike with four hours of work a day the first week, and six hours the second week.