BOSTON MARATHON DIRECTOR ON INTERNET RADIO WEDNESDAY NIGHT

RUNNER’S WORLD

Dave McGillivray, cardiologist will discuss heart disease in long-time runners.

Boston Marathon race director Dave McGillivray and Boston-based exercise cardiologist Aaron Baggish, M.D., will discuss the difference between being fit and being healthy tonight on WBZ News Radio 1030’s “NightSide” show. The show begins at 9 p.m. Eastern, lasts for an hour, and streams live here.

McGillivray, 59, has completed 41 Boston Marathons in a row, but learned last fall that he has significant blockage in several heart arteries. He went to a doctor because he had experienced shortness of breath at the beginning of his workouts. Somehow word of his condition leaked out.

“At that point, I wanted to set the record straight to make sure all the facts were presented correctly,” he told Runner’s World Newswire yesterday. “I realized that maybe I could help others, particularly ‘fit’ runners, to understand that they should get check-ups, too. By being open about my condition, maybe I can save a few lives.”

McGillivray received a number of heart tests under the supervision of Baggish, who frequently performs research on exercise and heart disease, and is a 3:03 marathoner. Baggish’s most well-known paper reported on RACER (Race Assciated Cardiace Event Registry), and was published in the New England Journal of Medicine two years ago. It showed that marathoners and half marathoners have a low risk of heart attacks and deaths during races. Some of those deaths could be prevented by rapidly-administered CPR. In recent years, Baggish has championed CPR to the marathon community.

Under Baggish’s care, McGillivray has totally revamped his diet, and lost 27 pounds. “My running is going better than ever,” he says. “It’s amazing what losing some weight, and eating ‘just the good stuff’ will do for you.”

McGillivray recently completed the “Dopey Challenge” at the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend: a 5K, 10K, half marathon, and marathon on successive days. He finished the marathon in 3:59:12.

On April 21, McGillivray will direct the 118th Boston Marathon. He has been race director since 1988. A total of 36,000 runners are expected to gather at the start in Hopkinton, roughly equal to the number who ran the Centennial Boston Marathon in 1996. This year’s marathon will be the first since the Boston bomb explosions near the finish line last April 15.