Heart Issues

Hey guys. Been off the forums for a few years now. The site has changed a lot from the last visit! Still see a bunch of the same guys posting and helping the newcomers. Good to see.

Anyways, I have been doing endurance sports for 8 years now. Have done a bunch of marys, handful of 70.3, two 140.6, and the last couple years have dropped tri altogether and have been doing ultra-running including a few 50k's, two 50 milers, and one failed attempt at Wasatch 100 (completed 75 before DNF).

The reason I am writing this post is because I am having some concerns with my heart and I want to hear from some fellow endurance athletes who have done the same kind of events as me. I am all too conscious of my heart with a regular feeling of pressure on it, some incredibly low HR's, some incredibly high HR's, and regular chest pain after running over a couple hours. Just finished BHS 50 miler this past weekend and my heart felt sore and was beating over 120 all night and into the next day.

When doing tri I never (that I can remember) had heart issues on the bike or swimming. It almost always arises after stopping running. Elevation seems to play a good toll on it as well.

To help ease my mind I have scheduled an EKG and chest x-ray with my physician next week. It has been on my mind for 8 years now and I am finally getting around to it. Thinking if it is serious I probably would have had something bad happen already....

I just want to hear from my fellow endurance peers if they have the same kind of issues and how normal it is. I know there are a lot of MD's on this forum as well so any word from them would be great. I am signed up for Leadville 100 this August and want to get a better understanding of what is going on in my chest before I take to the mountains and stay anaerobic for hours at 10k feet. Thanks and any feedback is much appreciated!