You never know what might happen at a regular doctors checkup.

In October 2017, I was at a routine checkup at Dr. Katie Cooper’s office in Alex City when the staff detected my resting heart rate was abnormally rapid. The nurse couldn’t get the automated blood pressure cuff to work, and that’s when she felt my pulse racing. Dr. Cooper then manually counted my resting heart rate, and indeed, it was 182 beats per minute. I was just sitting there, y’all — calm, cool and collected — and my heart was doing what yours would do after running 5 miles.