NOTEBOOK : He Keeps Pace Despite 1985 Heart Attack

Dr. Elvin Pam ran with his son, Aaron, for a while Sunday in the Los Angeles Marathon and then they walked to the finish line.

It was Aaron’s first marathon and, when he tired at the 21-mile mark, he told his father to go on ahead of him.

However, Pam insisted that they finish together and they did, in about 5 hours and 33 minutes.

The fact that Pam, the supervisor of the psychology department at the Bronx, N.Y., Psychiatric Center, is running at all is somewhat amazing.

He received a rate-responsive pacemaker in November of 1985 at 50. He had suffered a heart attack that damaged the sinal node of his heart, which regulates the beat.

The pacemaker he received was somewhat in the experimental stage. The standard fixed rate pacemaker is programmed for 70 beats to a minute, Pam said.

“With that type of pacemaker, I wouldn’t have been able run, or do any heavy exercise,” Pam said. “I would have to lead a sedentary life.”

His personal physician, Dr. Dennis Miura, advised him to accept the variable rate pacemaker and encouraged him to run again.

“The pacemaker I have changes the heart beat according to muscle tension in the chest,” Pam said. “It has a low of 60 beats on up to 150.”

Pam decided to run in the New York Marathon in 1988, much to the dismay of his family and friends.

“I tried to keep it a secret, but they found out and thought I was going to kill myself,” Pam said, adding that he didn’t want to be treated like an invalid.

Not only did Pam run, but he finished in 5 hours 29 minutes.

His family was waiting for him at the 21-mile mark, but they got there too late. Pam had passed that point earlier.

Pam said that the pacemaker he has is more sensitive to a runner’s needs and he plans to keep on running.

Aaron, his 23-year-old son, isn’t sure that he wants to run with with his father again. As a pacemaker, he is too fast.

Horacio Pino, 23, and Valerie French, 27, ran together Sunday.

They finished in about 4 hours 23 minutes and Pino, a sergeant in the Marine Corp, had a surprise waiting for French at the finish line.

He proposed to her. She accepted.

It was French’s first marathon and Pino was concerned that his plans might have been spoiled if she had dropped out.

They met last summer in Okinawa, where Pino was stationed and French, from England, was teaching English to Japanese students.

“I liked running and she liked running and that’s how we got to know each other,” Pino said.

The Orthopedic Medical Center near the finish line of the marathon looked something like a M*A*S*H unit Sunday.

Some runners were totally exhausted, other could hardly walk because their legs were cramped and many suffered from dehydration.

It was a similar scene inside the Sports Arena, where runners leaned against walls, or were lying on the floor. The odor of lineament was stifling.

Dr. Sonny Cobble, the medical commissioner for the marathon, said that some runners don’t drink enough water on the 26-mile run, leading to dehydration and sometimes hypothermia.

Some runners were competing in their first marathon, such as Ken Ernst, 28, a former long-distance runner for UCLA.

Ernst said he has four brothers, all of whom have run in marathons, and they goaded him into competing.

“It’s my first and last marathon,” said Ernst, who limped down some stairs at the Sports Arena, his legs cramping and his feet blistered. “It was like someone took a sledge hammer to the bottoms of my feet.

“I thought it would be easier than it was and I was actually delirious at about 14 miles, but I was determined to finish.”

He finished in about 2 hours 51 minutes.

Art Boileau and Peter Fonseca, both Canadians, train together in Eugene, Ore. Boileau is a two-winner of the L.A. marathon and he urged Fonseca to compete here.

Fonseca, who runs for the University of Oregon, agreed to accommodate his friend, even though the marathon was a new experience for him.

Fonseca surprised himself by finishing third.

Boileau, who finished fifth, said that he and Fonseca had an interesting week in Los Angeles.

“We saw the Edmonton-Kings game Wednesday night, got to see Wayne Gretzky, we had an earthquake and we got to run in a marathon,” Boileau said.