He puts his heart(s) into running

Crossing the finish line Nov. 2 at the New York City Marathon was “very emotional” for Grafton’s Derek Lindstrom.

It was the third marathon he has completed.

With his new heart.

He and his old one tallied 115 of the 26.2-milers, and now the 62-year-old has a bigger goal. Lindstrom wants to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

He could do the race as one of many charity runners who raise money for nonprofit organizations — Lindstrom supports Camp Odayin for children with heart disease and encourages people to be organ donors —  but he wants to make it on his own merit.

“It would be a huge deal if we can pull this off,” he said.

What led to another of his life’s huge deals was found in 2018. Lindstrom was dizzy, a common symptom among distance runners, but when his speech slurred he headed to the hospital.

He was told he would have died within minutes without treatment. It was discovered that his heart was so damaged he would eventually need a new one. Nobody knew what caused the condition, he said, and it could have been worsening for years. He never felt any different, or his body just subconsciously adjusted.

“It was a huge shock,” Lindstrom said.

He had a defibrillator and pacemaker installed, which turned out to be another lifesaving measure.

“I died twice,” Lindstrom said.

On May 22, 2021, Lindstrom was zapped back to life while playing his wife in basketball. In March 2022, it happened again while he was on a treadmill.

His heart function continued to worsen, “but I didn’t feel bad. I could still rock that treadmill workout.”

During a medical test in Minnesota in 2021, Lindstrom was told he had to have a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) installed in a few days.

Meanwhile, Lindstrom and his soon-to-be wife Kirstin Lindstrom-Collins,flew to Las Vegas and got married in a little chapel. Upon his return to the hospital in Minnesota, Lindstrom said he was told he was OK and didn’t need the surgery.

Now, he has a cardiologist in the  Froedtert Health system closer to home, Renee Kursel, and a medical team he loves.

“I don’t know why anyone would go anywhere else,” he said.

As Lindstrom’s heart condition worsened, his transplant priority level moved up. The successful several-hour transplant was on Dec. 3, 2023.

“I was itching right afterward. I gotta find a race,” he said.

Three months later, Lindstrom ran a 5-kilometer race. He was slow; it took around 38 minutes.

Eight months later, he ran a 50K.

“In hindsight, maybe too quick,” he said.

But this is a runner who once trained for the Olympic trials. He picked up the sport as a boy with his friends, inspired by Frank Shorter’s second-place finish in the marathon in the 1976 Olympics.

He hasn’t had much downtime since 1980.

“You get hurt, you take a break. There’s always another race,” he said.

His times have been dropping significantly as of late. One year after his transplant, Lindstrom ran a half marathon in Key West, Fla., in 2 hours, 40 minutes, giving him hope. In September, his half marathon time dropped to 2:09.

“Anytime you have a big drop like that, there’s a lot more there,” he said.

But he admits he is flying, or rather running, blind in training for the Boston Marathon after a heart transplant.

“Run that through ChatGPT and there’s no answer,” Lindstrom said.

Lindstrom has a short list of items to avoid after a heart transplant — hot tubs due to bacteria, feta cheese, grapefruit juice and raw eggs and meat — but none really bother him.

“I prefer medium rare but I don’t care,” he said of steak.

His career has become his passion. Lindstrom used to work in real estate and would organize races on the side, until he founded the race event management company 22 Events (Live), which he runs from his home. He named it after the date of the first time he died, and local races such as the Grafton Lucky 5K on St. Patrick’s Day and the Cedarburg Half Marathon and 5K in May are his events.

Lindstrom’s wife works at University School of Milwaukee, helps her husband with the company, and she has gotten into running.

During one race since the transplant, she and Lindstrom ran behind people from a cardiac care unit.

“Oh, good, we’re going to stick with you,” she told the group. “He’s in heart failure.”

Their new friends became a little alarmed.

“It’s OK. We’ve done this before,” Kirstin told them.

Lindstrom has tried to inspire others through his experience, speaking at Camp Odayin events where he realized he isn’t special among children ages 6 to 18.

“Every single one of these kids had a zipper,” he said, a scar that is a hallmark of heart surgery.

He encourages people to become organ donors, which saved his life. He has reached out to his donor’s family but hasn’t heard back, which he said isn’t uncommon in heart transplants.

This fall, Lindstrom coached Grafton High School’s boys’ cross country team, helping lead it to its best performance in years. 

Now, Lindstrom continues to strive for that next goal of the Boston Marathon, despite the occasional setback. He fell while training at Lion’s Den Nature Preserve in the Town of Grafton and broke two ribs.

“You know what they do for those? Nothing,” he said.

Lindstrom and his two busted ribs finished the New York City Marathon in 5:41:42 in 51,244th place out of 59,133 runners.

“New York was ugly, but it wasn’t the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Nothing I do now is,” he said.

For information on organ donation, visit https://www.organdonor.gov.

For Wisconsin’s organ donor process, visit https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/donatelife/index.htm.

Listen to Lindstrom’s podcast at https://tinyurl.com/ycwxt6y2.