Mark Wagner

CURRENT AGE:  43 (going on 28!)

OCCUPATION:  Gasoline Tanker Fuel Truck Driver

FAMILY:  Married to my beautiful wife Charyl. We have 4 daughters, and 2 boys.

    At age 38, I found myself beginning to be fatigued at work. Two hours after I would start my shift, I would literally want to fall asleep. It was a continuous feeling of exhaustion. In my occupation, I am required to have a DOT physical every two years. (Yearly, now that I have had heart surgery.) During that physical, a doctor for the first time noticed I had a heart murmur, and recommended I have a follow-up with a cardiologist. Truthfully, I just blew it off, thinking he didn’t know what he was talking about. After all, I had been in the military for years and had numerous physicals, and no one ever said I had a heart murmur. A long story short, around 6 months later, I found myself so tired, that one morning I told my wife I didn’t know if I could get out of bed. Well I did get out of bed, went to the doctor, and that night found myself in Harrison Hospital in Bremerton, WA.

    After three days, I was told my Aortic Valve was bicuspid, and my heart was in the early stages of enlargement. The reason I was so ill, was that I had most likely bacterial infection on the Aortic Valve, but not knowing why I was so ill in the first place, the doctors made the choice of starting me on large amounts of intravenous anti-biotic. Unfortunately, it masked the infection before they started putting two and two together.

    I asked the cardiologist what the outlook for the future looked like, and at the time he felt I could go another 5 to 15 years with the valve I had. I made it two years from that point, and because of excessive fatigue, and the rate my heart was enlarging, at age 40 my surgeon recommended I have surgery within 5 months. He was afraid if I waited much longer, I would deteriorate past the point of no return where they would have trouble fitting a valve.

    After my surgery, I was told at the one-year post surgery mark, I would most likely feel an incredible difference. That was no exaggeration. I did feel incredible. I coped with a bad aortic valve all my life. Now I understand the fatigue I felt in sports during my high school and military years. I always felt I had to work twice as hard as my peers. What is really cool is now that I have had the surgery, when I play a lousy game of golf, (which is every time I play!) I can blame my poor swing and my heart surgery!

    Recently, on October 6^th, 2002, I came into wonderful company with a man you all know; Les Barrett. I ran my first marathon with a mechanical aortic valve. Les and I seem to be a handful of people to do so. My surgery was January 19^th 2000, and my marathon training started with about a dozen painful exhausting steps in the hospital; then going home and walking away from the house too far, (about 100 yards) and not having the strength to barely make it back home. Thank God my Dad was with me! On January 1^st 2002,  I decided to see if I could condition myself enough to run a 10K on July 4^th 2002. (6.2 mile race) I accomplished that goal, and two weeks later I ran a 15K race. (9.3 miles) At that point I set my eyes on the Marathon. (26.2 miles) October 6^th was truly a day dreams are made of.

    Since that day I have run in addition a 5K, 4mile, 8K, and 10K races. Currently I am training for additional races, but as of June 15^th this year my focus will be on my second marathon; ‘The Royal Victoria International Marathon’ in Victoria, BC, Canada. I am being sponsored by World Vision; a non-denominational relief organization; and currently through my marathon efforts am raising funds, where money raised will go directly to Zambia Africa’s displaced orphans as a result of the HIV/Aids epidemic sweeping Africa. I am not after pats on my back; I am just thankful that God has taken a setback in my life, and is using it for the good of others.

IN CLOSING:  Lance Armstrong says, “It is not about the bike.” I am no Lance Armstrong; I’m just Mark Wagner, from Port Orchard, Washington. It is not about the marathon, nor is it about the valve. It is about the heart … the deep part of the heart that is connected to God. The part of the heart God works on at looks at. When I want to quit I try to focus on two things; One, a cross on Christ’s back as he made his way to a death that has given me life. The second part then is easy. I just tell myself, “Quitting is not an option.”