"Clarence DeMar would train for races by running to and from his job at a print shop in Boston, up to 14 miles a day, often carrying a clean shirt. His hard work paid off. He won the 1911 Boston Marathon and competed in the next year's Olympics. But all that running raised eyebrows. At the time, many people and medical experts thought prolonged exercise was dangerous."
"After he died of cancer at age 70, two Boston-area cardiologists took a look at his heart. What they found contradicted all those dire warnings. Not only was DeMar's heart in good shape, his arteries were two to three times the size of a typical person's reducing the risk of a fatal blockage. The study, published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine in 1961, made the front page of the Boston Globe."
Clarence DeMar trained by running to and from his print-shop job in Boston, covering up to 14 miles daily. He won the 1911 Boston Marathon, competed in the 1912 Olympics, and won Boston seven times between 1911 and 1930. Medical experts warned prolonged exercise was dangerous and a doctor told him to quit after detecting a heart murmur. DeMar raced into his 40s and died at 70. Postmortem examination showed a healthy heart and arteries two to three times normal size, reducing blockage risk; the 1961 study ran in the New England Journal of Medicine and made the Boston Globe front page.
Read at www.npr.org
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