'Back to the race I love.' Caroline Keating returns to Flying Pig after heart surgery
Six months after completing a grueling 100-mile race in over 26 hours, nurses told Caroline Keating she was an inspiration.
From her spot in a hospital bed at Cleveland Clinic, Keating hardly felt like a beacon of motivation.
In 2022, Keating, a St. Ursula Academy graduate, was running 80 miles every week. A few months later, she was told she couldn’t exercise after severe heart problems.
During the 2022 Kroger Heart Mini-Marathon, she experienced dizziness. Her vision blacked out and her heart rate spiked. The same thing happened in Boston a few weeks later, then again in the Flying Pig Marathon, when she knew something was seriously wrong.
Two years removed from this experience, she’ll toe the marathon line on Sunday in her first Flying Pig since her world changed.
“You don’t realize how important your health is until it’s taken away from you,” she said.
'More serious than they thought'
Keating believed low iron and dehydration caused her symptoms while running. Her primary care physician sent her to a cardiologist, who supplied a heart rate monitor that doctors could watch. One afternoon, Keating jogged with friends at a light, conversational pace. An hour later, doctors called to explain that her heart rate was over 230 beats per minute.
An ablation at The Christ Hospital revealed electrical issues in Keating’s heart. She was going into ventricular tachycardia, the second-deadliest heart rhythm you could go into.
“More serious than they thought,” Keating said. “They didn’t know what was causing it.”
'I was putting on a brave face.'
Keating has never lacked a competitive drive. That can be traced back to hula-hoop competitions with her father, William. She was later an All-American swimmer at Bowling Green University and the same spirit followed her into running.
“Running became a big part of my life,” she said. “The competitive side of me was the hardest.”
The sport fueled her ambition as a 23-time marathon finisher. It was also her social circle; an outlet from the stress of daily life. One spring afternoon, it was stripped away from her in an instant when doctors told her to completely eliminate exercise.
Friends called her lucky that she was able to identify a serious health concern. She was, but with a giant portion of her world taken away, it was hard to feel fortunate.
“I thought, ‘Am I lucky?’ I just want to be running right now. I was putting on a brave face,” Keating said.
More: Cincinnati weather: Rain, warm temps in forecast for Flying Pig Marathon this weekend
The way back
The electrical issues in Keating’s heart were fixed with surgery at Cleveland Clinic. Though the exploratory ablation was successful, the cause was still unknown. She was given a defibrillator in March 2023 as ventricular tachycardia can come back worse than it did before.
She was finally cleared by a doctor at Vanderbilt University just over a year ago to start running after eight months on the sidelines. There’s the mental hurdle to running again, blocking out the possibility of another dizziness spell or elevated heart rate.
Still, it didn’t stop Keating from making a swift return. When she was cleared in Nashville, she drove home, tossed a leash on her dog and took off. However, the fitness element of eight months off limited that jog to just a half-mile.
“I was so out of shape,” Keating laughed. “That was good for Day 1.”
More: Flying Pig named best marathon in America by USA TODAY's 10Best
New goals
Keating sought inspiration from several sources. She had a great support system in her friends, who encouraged her comeback. She also followed the journey of Kara Goucher, a long-distance runner and former Olympian, who in 2021 began suffering from dystonia, a neurological disorder that limits sensation in her right leg.
Athletes can be their own worst enemy. Keating used Goucher’s story to help take a step back.
“She (Goucher) said something to the effect of, ‘it’s OK to not be the former version of yourself. Once you’re able to let that go, you realize how much fun you’re still able to have,’” Keating said.
Keating’s expecting her time on Sunday to be north of 30 minutes longer than what it would typically be for a half marathon.
“And that’s OK,” she said.
It’s hard for athletes to completely extinguish their competitive flames. Keating still has ambitions to qualify for the Boston Marathon again and beat her late father’s family marathon record time of 3 hours, 17 minutes, a mark she previously missed by seven minutes.
That’s not what Sunday will be about, though. Keating is ready to conquer the race that altered her life just two years ago. She’ll retrace her footsteps from that fateful day, cross the finish line with no worries of the clock, only a celebration of the weight that’s been lifted.
“I’m excited to get back to the race that I love.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Caroline Keating returns to Flying Pig Marathon after heart surgery
