Kuala Lumpur:Despite having gone through a heart attack that almost took his life due to a blocked blood vessel, Airulmi Mokhtar (pic) fought against the illness and did not want it to be a stumbling block to his love for sports.
Last Sunday, he took part in the full marathon (42 kilometres) at the 2023 Tokyo Marathon, one of the six world-class marathon championships recognised by the Abbot World Marathon Majors.
Airulmi, 46 managed to finish the run in the cold weather of eight degrees Celsius in six hours and 13 minutes.
Sharing his story with Bernama, Airulmi said he was selected to participate in the tournament through a voting process involving runners from all over the world.
He said the tournament was supposed to be held in March 2020 but was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I didn’t expect my name to be selected because of the high demand from runners from all over the world to participate in the event.
“I registered for the event that year because I did not have any health problems then, doing my regular exercise without fail and was in very good spirits.
“However, two weeks before the start of the event (in 2020) the organiser canceled it due to Covid-19. I was disappointed indeed because I had made all the preparations, including training, bought the flight tickets and booked my accommodation in Tokyo.
“But Allah SWT had better plans for me. A week after the marathon was cancelled, I had two heart attacks while exercising.
“The first one, I suddenly had shortness of breath and almost collapsed. I thought it was just because of asthma and went to the clinic to get nebulizer treatment.
“It was only the next day when I almost passed out that I went to the hospital for a check-up, and the doctor there confirmed that the blood vessels in my heart were blocked,” he said.
The father of two said he was thankful the blockage was not 100 percent and he was advised by doctors to do the stenting procedure.
“Imagine if I had been to Tokyo for the marathon if the event was not cancelled. The situation could have been worse.
“I also almost gave up hope then of not being able to participate in long-distance running again, but after the cardiology rehabilitation, proper diet, medicine and appropriate running exercises and training, Alhamdulillah I am able to run again,” he added.
Airulmi, who has participated in other international marathon events such as Gold Label, Singapore Marathon 2018 and Chiang Mai Marathon 2017, believed it was his previous lifestyle that triggered the heart attacks.
The Business Development head of a government-linked company said he used to be a cigarette smoker and was obese, weighing up to 105 kilogrammes at that time, but changed to living a healthy lifestyle and doing exercises actively since 2016.
Meanwhile, a physician and Cardiology consultant at Ara Damansara Medical Centre, Dr Zubin Othman Ibrahim said the chance for a heart patient to return to being active and normal is high, depending on early treatment and no serious damage to the heart.
“What we don’t want is for a patient who has received treatment and followed rehabilitation, to not want to exercise after that. If that happens, there is a possibility of the patient getting other illnesses, such as obesity and high blood pressure.
“Exercise helps improve our heart and lungs,” he said and recommended individuals aged 35 and above to go for early health screening even if they are active and have never suffered from any disease because apart from nutritional factors, heart attacks can also occur due to genetics.