For Bridget Privett, the 2023 Plymouth Half Marathon was all going to plan until she was just 30m from the finish line. Just steps away from completing her first half marathon, Privett collapsed, suffering a cardiac arrest, which she says actually saved her life.
Like countless others, Privett found her love for running during the Covid-19 pandemic and had become the fittest she had ever been in her life. This gave her the confidence to take on her first half marathon.
Little did Privett know, she would soon find out her heart was a “ticking time bomb.”
Privett told BBC that she remembered feeling good throughout the race and was on pace to hit her goal time. However, out of nowhere, she “fell flat on [her] face,” scrapping her knee and breaking a tooth in the process.
Two competitors rushed to her side to begin CPR, however their efforts were futile. Paramedics soon arrived to defibrillate Privett back to consciousness.
“I do not remember anything – the last thing I remember is just coming up the hill,” she said to BBC of the incident. “I just remember being in the ambulance and waking in the ambulance.”
Soon after, Privett found out that she had a defect causing her coronary artery to be in the wrong spot and was crushed during physical activity.
“I was a ticking time bomb and I had a problem with my heart which I never knew. In a funny way, the Plymouth Half Marathon saved my life,” Privett said to BBC, “Looking back, had it happened anywhere else I would not have got out, so to be honest, it was the best place for it to happen.”
