CINCINNATI – Every year, thousands of runners race through the streets of Cincinnati for the Heart Mini Marathon city’s largest fundraiser to benefit the American Heart Association. The race helps promote heart health and support treatment for heart disease, an issue that affects millions of Americans every year.

Many of the runners are no exception, losing loved ones to heart attacks, strokes and cardiac arrests, but for Joshua Owens, the issue hits close to home. This year marks 15 years since he was diagnosed with heart failure, and it’s also the year he hopes to complete his first full marathon.

Owens still doesn’t know what exactly happened. He was in his late 20s, working third shift, and one day he felt off. He was struggling to breathe. He looked pale and one of his co-workers urged him to go to the hospital.

The doctors diagnosed him with heart failure.

“At the time it seemed to come on very suddenly,” he said. “By December of 2008, I couldn’t get around on my own.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control, while older adults have the highest risk factors, heart disease has been on the rise among adults under 40 since 2000. Now roughly one in five heart attack patients are younger than 40. 

For Owens, the diagnosis meant a complete shift in his quality of life and his outlook for the future.

“I spent most of the day just sitting there and I wasn’t really supposed to live until 30,” he said.

When that birthday came and went, however, Owens resolved he couldn’t sit around and wait to die. He had to get moving.

Owens finished his first half marathon in 2021.

“So I started making goals. Like can I walk to the bathroom on my own? Can I walk to the mailbox on my own?” he said. “And I’d have to take breaks. So I’d get halfway to the mailbox and then have to stop and take a break and, you know, catch my breath and kind of refocus.”

Once he’d mastered walking well enough, Owens signed up for his first 5k. It was 2018, and he expected to walk most of it.

“It was just about completing it,” he said. “But I fell in love with it. I just got hooked with the energy and the crowd and everything and from that point on I said I have to do everything I can to become a runner.”

From there Owens tried adding more and more running to his walks, paying close attention to his heart rate to avoid overexerting himself.

While running and other cardiovascular activities are associated with a decreased risk for heart disease, cardiologists caution anyone with a heart condition or heart failure should avoid high-intensity activities that push the heart too close to its max range.

“Whenever my heart rate would get above 160, I would usually stop and walk,” Owens said.

Eventually, he was able to cover farther and farther distances and in the fall of 2021, Owens completed his first half marathon. Then, in the spring of 2022, he completed his second and by that October he did two in two days.

“It still shocks me when I sometimes see like this is what I’m doing,” he said. “Ten to fifteen years ago, absolutely would not have believed that I would have done four half marathons in a year.”

The Heart Mini marks his fifth half marathon. On his bib it says “survivor.” Owens believes that describes him perfectly.

“I still have bad days where, like, my heart just isn’t in it, but those are few and far between now,” he said.

Owens said he sees his doctor regularly and his heart has significantly improved since his initial diagnosis, but its ejection fraction is still below normal levels. That’s why, even though he’s always looking for the next challenge, he said he constantly checks in with what his heart can handle.

“I really listen to my body and really take it easy because I’m always focused on the long term,” he said.

For him, that’s the Flying Pig Marathon in April and hopefully one day, a Boston qualifying time, a lifelong dream for Owens.

“When I was going to the mailbox and I would take those first steps and I would get halfway and I’d sort of stop, I would tell myself, another step and this is a step towards Boston,” he said. “And I don’t know how long this is going to take me, but I will get there.”

The Heart Mini Marathon takes place on March 19. Last year’s race raised about $3 million for the American Heart Association.