A Second Life: Runner Returns to Rock ‘n’ Roll Vancouver With Doctor Who Saved Him

McGirr at Rock 'n' Roll Portland in 2014. Photo: MarathonFoto

Mark McGirr and Dr. Jack Jay will head out for a run Sunday morning. They’ll laugh. They’ll embrace. They’ll reminisce. And sometime during the 13.1-mile jog, McGirr will utter two words he has said often to Jay in the past year.

Thank you.

One year ago, about 15K into the first Rock ‘n’ Roll Oasis Vancouver Half Marathon, McGirr collapsed.

“Flopped flat on my face like a sack of potatoes,” says McGirr, 62, who lives in Beaverton, Ore. “My brain just stopped; my heart stopped. It turned the lights off. I was dead before I hit the ground, is what they say.”

Jay, a primary care physician who lives in Vancouver, was running a few feet in front of McGirr.

“I heard this guy go down,” recalls Jay. “I thought he tripped. When we went to help him up I thought he just twisted an ankle. Turns out he was unconscious, in cardiac arrest. No pulse. No breathing.”

Trailing McGirr was Sheila Finamore, a nurse at the same hospital where Jay works. Until last year, the doctor, nurse and McGirr had never met.

“Talk about fate,” says McGirr, who suffered a heart attack, “having the best of the best around you.”

Jay and Finamore alternated administering CPR to McGirr for 20 to 25 minutes. Because McGirr collapsed in a park that was difficult for emergency personnel to reach, a paramedic arrived by bike. McGirr’s pulse and heartbeat was revived with the use of an AED (automated external defibrillator.)

He was rushed to a hospital, a stint was implanted to clear a blocked artery and within six weeks after suffering his heart attack, McGirr was jogging on a treadmill.

“He basically came back from the dead,” says Jay.

Sunday morning, McGirr and Jay will run side by side in the second edition of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Oasis Vancouver Half Marathon. Joining them will be McGirr’s daughter, Kara, his son, Daniel, and Kara’s husband, Kirk. It’s McGirr’s first half marathon race since last year’s brush with death.

“I’ve been processing, thinking about getting past that spot where I went down,” says McGirr. “I think I know where it is. That’ll be an interesting journey in the race.”

McGirr runs a family-owned rug and carpet business. He has been running off and on since his college days at the University of Oregon in Eugene. At 6-foot-2, his weight ballooned to 225 in college.

“I kind of let myself go,” he admits.

Living across the street from the famed Hayward Field track and attending Oregon at the same time as Steve Prefontaine influenced his decision to hit the road, track and trails.

“I was a product of my environment,” he says.

He ran a leg in the first Hood to Coast relay back in 1982, and knocked off the Portland Marathon. He clocked a 3:30 marathon PR in his late 20s.

He would stop running for stretches but always return. He returned for good in 2006 when his weight swelled to 190 pounds. When he stepped in the corrals last October in Vancouver he weighed 172, thinking he was the picture of health.

“I remember going through the last water station,” he says. “We were about three or four miles into Stanley Park. After that, my memory goes blank.”

“He didn’t suffer any brain damage, which was really surprising to me given the length of time he didn’t have a heartbeat,” says Jay.

Jay and Finamore saved his life, pushing on his chest for nearly half an hour.

“They’re my two new best friends,” says McGirr. “They get the Christmas letter. It’s a bond you can’t imagine.”

The AED saved his life.

“Without that,” says McGirr, “I wouldn’t be here.”

McGirr and Jay met via Skype in May. Jay and his wife were in Portland last month to visit friends. McGirr and his wife hosted them for a barbecue.

“I’m forever indebted to (Jay and Finamore). They’re part of the family,” McGirr says. “They’re heroes.”

Jay scoffs at the hero tag.

“I’m a physician. I work in a hospital. It’s what I do.”

“To bring me back from the dead,” offers McGirr. “It’s a miracle.”

McGirr’s supervised rehab lasted two months. He has been running 25-30 miles a week for some time now. He logged a half marathon in training. He switched to a vegan diet, dropping 12 pounds to 160. His cholesterol numbers have tumbled sharper than a stock-market crash.

McGirr longs to leave a couple messages for everyone. Learn hands-only CPR. Go to the doctor and get lab work done.

Regarding CPR, Jay says, “You just push hard and you push fast. If you’re not tired after a minute, you’re not doing it right.”

McGirr refers to Sunday’s marathon as his first birthday. He’ll wear the same shirt he wore for last year’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Oasis Vancouver Half Marathon, only like his heart, it has been mended, stitched where it had to be ripped open for the AED paddles.

“Every day is a bonus day for me,” says McGirr. “Life is a gift.”

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