About the Author

Gregory Marchand
Gregory Marchand has been a runner and competitive athlete all his life. Since suffering a cardiac arrest and subsequently undergoing open-heart surgery in 1998, his running has continued to be a major focus in his life but now as a source of wellness and spiritual growth rather than competition. An educator and counsellor for over 25 years, Marchand is also a prolific freelance writer, having published over 100 magazine and newspaper articles. He and his wife, Debbie, live on Vancouver Island and are newly-hatched empty nesters with three grown children.

Visit Gregory Marchand's website at www.gregorymarchand.com.

Open Heart Runner: searching for meaning after my heart stopped

When 40-year-old Gregory Marchand suffered a cardiac arrest at the end of an eight-kilometre road race and was without a pulse for 20 minutes, few thought he would survive. This inspiring story of hope tells how he battled through a coma, heart surgery and debilitating brain injury to search for the meaning behind his survival that doctors called miraculous. For the highly-trained athlete, weekend warrior, or anyone (runner or not) who has feared death, Gregory's meditative memoir offers insight into how nearly dying can bring new life.

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Reviews/Appearances

REVIEWS

• "People are very good at forgetting, which is why a book like this is so important. In Open Heart Runner, Gregory Marchand reminds us of many things: our fragility, our capacity for love, our deep desire for meaning. He reminds us that we are neither wholly flesh nor wholly spirit, but a strange amalgam of the two. Open Heart Runner rends the thin veil between our quotidian lives and a realm that connects us all, and teaches us to love that well, which [we] must leave ere long."
  - Terence Young, Governor-General's-Award-nominated poet and author of the novel After Goodlake's
• "Gregory Marchand takes us to a place most of us will never be, or would chose to go. He re-enters life with rich insights that can help us all on our journey down the right road."
  - Rob Reid, Race Director of the Royal Victoria Marathon
• "Gregory Marchand's memoir centers on two equal and opposite lessons. The first is that of an endurance athlete, a longtime long-distance runner in his case, isn't guaranteed perfect cardiac health. Medical catastrophes can visit even the very fit. Greg's other lesson is that the human body and mind, with assists from advanced medical science, have amazing powers to rebound, even from life-threatening crises. Greg's story is at first frightening and ultimately uplifting."
  - Joe Henderson, author, running coach and former chief editor of Runner's World magazine

RECENT AND UPCOMING APPEARANCES

• details to come