A 43-year-old Oklahoma man is now running marathons and half marathons just a few years after suffering from a heart attack and having open heart surgery. But he tells FOX 25 this lifestyle of his is a new one, and much different from how he was living before.
“Everything changed. That was kind of the worst and best thing that ever happened to me,” said Billy Smith.
That’s Smith’s outlook on a heart attack that happened on march 4th, 2020. He said a few days later, he had a triple bypass open heart surgery. He said he could barely walk after the operation, but little did he know that experience would kickstart a fitness journey.
“One time I walked to the mailbox, and I end up just scrolling aimlessly on Facebook and I see an apple watch, and I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna throw that thing on and track my heartbeats,’” he said.
Smith said he improved to walking a few blocks here and there and eventually became obsessed with closing the rings on his apple watch, which propelled him further in his new active lifestyle, leading him to doing something he had never done before.
“So finally, that October, I signed up for the OKC Memorial 5k Marathon, virtually, and did my first 5k. And then it kinda took off from there. I got into hiking and camping, and meanwhile I’m trying to close these rings every day, I’m obsessed with it,” he said.
Smith said his new life is a stark contrast from how he was living before the heart attack, as he was not only less healthy, but he was also diabetic.
“I was more of a couch potato, eating terrible for ya foods and clogging these arteries and became a diabetic along the way, type two diabetes. After getting active and learning how to take care of all that and moving, I no longer take any diabetic medicine, I’m no longer considered type two. I used to have a really high A1C, now it’s in the normal range,” he said.
As World Diabetes Day is Tuesday, November 14th, Smith said he shares his story to encourage people to get out and move so that people don’t have to go through the health issues that he did.