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Just about the last thing I did in 2025 was visit my cardiologist for an update after my most recent treatment for atrial fibrillation (AF) in mid-September.

At my last appointment, my other cardiolotgist (I have two) opened with the words, “Your sinus rhythm is shit!” It wasn’t the most comforting of messages.

This time was different. “I’m very happy with you - you’re back in sinus rhythm.” Happy days! To be honest, I’d had an inkling this might be the case, because I’d run the ECG app on my daughter’s watch (my Garmin doesn’t support the app) in the lead-up and it seemed to indicate I was no longer in AF.

But it was still a surprise because I knew for sure as recently as mid-November that my heart was misbehaving and I’d been expecting the worst. So this was very welcome news to finish 2025 with.

AF: a recap

At this point it’s probably worth a quick recap of what atrial fibrillation is, and what you should look out for, as a runner, in terms of signs that you may have it.

AF is the most common form of arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat). The most common symptom is a feeling that your heart is racing out of control. Other symptoms include fatigue, breathlessness - especially when exercising, lightheadedness and chest pains.

But it’s also possible to have AF without any symptoms at all - and that’s been my experience. I only discovered I was in AF when I was referred to the cardiologist to investigate an elevated calcium score.

There’s no way of knowing for sure, but the best guess is that I went into AF when I had a shoulder reconstruction two years ago. The cardiologist reached this conclusion by looking at my historical heartrate data (thank you Garmin).

The shoulder op coincided with about a 20 beats per minute increase in my resting heartrate, from mid-40s to mid-60s. I knew this had happened, but I felt fine so I thought nothing of it.

So that’s something to be aware of. If you notice a sudden jump in resting heartrate, but you still feel fine, get it checked out. Because the longer you’re in AF, the more difficult it is to snap out of.

And while I have felt fine throughout this experience, being in AF is a serious business, chiefly because it markedly increases the risk of stroke. In a well-functioning heart, the sinus node sends clear signals to the chambers of the heart to beat in a rhythmic manner.

When you’re in AF, those electrical signals get scrambled and the top two chambers of the heart “flutter” rather than beat - hence the racing heart sensation. This still allows blood to flow into the bottom two chambers, but it increases the chances of blood collecting and stagnating in the top two chambers.

When this occurs, there is a risk a clot can form and if that travels to the brain it can cause a stroke. So the first thing the cardiologist did was prescribe blood thinners in order to reduce that risk.

The next step was a procedure called a cardioversion. This involves using a machine similar to a defibrillator to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm - while the patient is under a general anesthetic thankfully.

After two shocks I was still in AF, so that didn’t work although it did reduce my resting heartrate to the low to mid-30s. This seemed to worry the nurses on the cardiac ward but I felt absolutely fine and the cardiologist wasn’t concerned a bit.

A couple of months later I was under again, this time for a cardiac ablation. This involved inserting a catheter into the femoral vein in my right leg, moving that up into the right atrium of my heart, then through the wall between the atria to cauterise the ends of blood vessels in the left atrium.

The theory is this tissue is conductive and can interfere with the signals coming from the sinus node. Taking it out of the equation allows the sinus node’s signals to reach the heart without interruption. And yes, it’s amazing what they can do these days. But if it’s your heart those things are being done to, it’s a bit confronting TBH!

After the ablation it was a case wait to see what happens. It can take up to three months for normal rhythm to resume, and it sometimes requires a second or even third ablation to get there.

Disaster

Right up until the ablation, I’d been feeling fine. The advice from my GP and both cardiologists was that I could keep running as long as I felt good. Following that advice, between my diagnosis and the ablation I ran the UTA 50 in the Blue Mountains, the Sunshine Coast Half Marathon and the Sydney Marathon.

So it was deeply ironic that a week after the procedure that was supposed to “fix” my heart, the symptoms of AF kicked in. When I set off for my first run post-ablation I expected to complete a steady 5-7k just to check in on how I was feeling.

Instead, after about 60m I was bent double, unable to breathe. This isn’t great in any circumstances, but six weeks out from the New York Marathon it was extremely problematic.

It was at this point cardiologist #2 told me my sinus rhythm was “shit”. It was hard to argue. But he told me I couldn’t do myself any harm by running in New York and as it turned out, it was one of the most memorable days of my life.

But the AF was proving hard to shift, and I became resigned to the prospect of life with a pacemaker. Happily, that’s all changed and I’ve started the new year with a heart that’s fully functioning.

What remains now is to rebuild my fitness and figure out exactly how this reconditioned heart works. I’ve no idea what my maximum heartrate is or what constitutes my training zones. So that’s work for the first quarter of 2026.

I also need to plan my race calendar. I’ve been unable to commit fully to races given I’ve had no idea what my capabilities might be.

So there’s lots to look forward to as 2026 starts to get into gear.

Upcoming Events

There are way too many events for me to list everything that’s happening around the country, but here is a selection of upcoming races (with a bias towards South East Queensland).

The Running Calendar website is a great source if you want a comprehensive understanding of what’s available around A