Timothy O’DonnellWhen you think about that brief second, you question your mortality and, and life. You realize quickly you don’t want to lose it.
I’m a dad, husband, Navy veteran, professional triathlete, and most importantly, I’m still alive today.
I’m Tim O’Donnell, and I had a Widowmaker heart attack in the middle of a triathlon. Before I had my heart attack, I was coming off the greatest race in my life.
Mirinda (“Rinny”) CarfraeHe’s come off, you know, a phenomenal season in 2019, getting second in the world, fastest ever American in Kona, Hawaii.
TimAnd I really was in peak form and just at the pinnacle of the sport of triathlon.
RinnyHe just wanted, you know, a couple more years of solid racing. And as I said, he was in phenomenal shape. So we sent him off to Miami in March of 2021 and Finn was, I think, six or eight weeks old.
TimI was on top of the world, to be honest. Everything was going well, had a new baby, you know, even at 40 years old, I was racing better than I’ve ever raced. Leading into race morning, I was really at the best place in my career I’ve been. So, what happened shortly after that was a huge surprise.
RinnyHe texted me maybe 30 minutes after the race and said, “Hey, yeah, I’m not feeling very good. I’m struggling.” So I called him and I said, “What do you mean you’re struggling?” He’s like, “I just feel nauseous. I don’t feel very good.” And I’m like, “Well, maybe you should, maybe you should call the doctor.”
TimI called Dave right away and I told him what was happening and he said, “You need to take aspirin right now and go to the hospital.” And, that’s what I did.
They finally realized that this is most likely a heart attack that’s happening right now. The thought crossed my mind right at that second when I saw that big cart and the paddles, “Are you going to die?”
I immediately put that thought out of my head and I thought of my kids and Rinny and I said, “No,” you know, “that’s not going to happen.”
RinnyI think it was about 2AM he finally called me, and yeah, he said “I had a heart attack.” It was very hard to comprehend. Trying to navigate all of this. The future of what his life is going to look like is completely uncertain. Basically our whole life changing in an instant.
TimAfter a few weeks, I started to really have to think, “What is the rest of your life going to look like?” I love training, I love triathlon, and I wanted to keep doing it. And on top of that, it’s how, you know, we put food on the table for our kids. So it was really a decision that Rinny and I had to take together.
And obviously, she knew I wanted to keep racing.
RinnyThere was definitely a part of me that worried about him going back racing. But I’m not going to stop him from living. Like, I’m going to put him in a cage and make him sit on the couch all day?
For both of us, the most important thing is for him to be alive and to be able to see our children grow up and for us to grow old together. So I trust him and I trust him making the right judgment call.
TimI’ve had a great career, and if I had to walk away at that point, I think I would have been okay. But that being said, if I could stay around a little bit longer, let’s do it.
RinnyI found peace of mind by the amount of research he did. The top cardiologists in the endurance sport space giving him the green light that he was fine to go back and compete. But I mean, I try to put myself in his feet, right? He nearly died. Like, he nearly didn’t get to see his son grow up or his daughter grow up.
TimFor me, the hardest part of the comeback, it wasn’t the training, it was the mental side of it. And, and honestly, the emotional side of it, too. I had many, many training sessions where the thought “Is this going to kill you?” comes into your head and it just takes its toll on you.
And I knew I couldn’t train the way I needed to train. I couldn’t prepare the way I needed to prepare for a world championship, with that doubt. And I needed to get that down out of my head. And that’s when I found Cleerly.
So my scan results showed everything stabilized nicely behind the stent in my LAD and then almost no plaque in other parts of my heart. All the other tests I did were helpful, but they weren’t definitive. And it was the Cleerly scan for me, that really showed, it showed the whole picture. It put everything right in front of my eyes, and that’s what I needed. You know, I needed to be able to see it.
I knew after I did the Cleerly scan, there’s nothing else I can do that’s gonna show anything better than this.
RinnyI could see the difference in him, and then I sort of gained more confidence, “He’s okay.” There’s not like, all these other problem areas that could at any moment cause another heart attack. So having that peace of mind was, like, just incredible.
TimI think when you’re incredibly fit and you have a healthy lifestyle, you just believe you’re really impervious to the bad things might happen to you. But, at the end of the day, fitness isn’t health and I am constantly reminding myself, “Hey, don’t lose sight of what’s important.”
Don’t miss that chance to go hang with your kids, or get a new puppy, whatever it is, just to really live life.