Hate to be the bearer of bad news...

[question everything]

www.suntimes.com

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-bike02.html

Indiana bicyclist drops dead 1 day after journey across America

May 2, 2005

ANDERSON, Ind. -- A man who pedaled 2,400 miles across the country after bypass surgery had given him a second chance at life died of a heart attack one day after completing the trip.

Bicycling provided Broc Bebout's ticket to nearly 20 years of good health after quadruple-bypass surgery at age 39, and the cross-country ride served as a testament to his commitment to exercise, said his wife, Patricia Brinkman.

However, the day after completing the ride from Carlsbad, Calif., to Brunswick, Ga., the 57-year-old retired Delphi Corp. engineer died about 8 a.m. Thursday near Smyrna, Tenn., on the van drive back to his home in Anderson, about 25 miles northeast of Indianapolis.

''Broc was a tech guy, he had a lot of fancy heart-rate monitors and equipment, and he was speaking with about that,'' said Janech Davenport, director of the group that organized the trip.


Pat Miller, a retired Anderson University health professor who also was among about 30 people on the cross-country ride, said Bebout was taking medication for his heart and for arthritis.

''He had days he was very good and seemed strong, and he had days he felt like a lot of us did, slower, took longer to get in. I think he was feeling some homesickness. He had a cough for a couple of weeks,'' Miller said.

Brinkman said her husband's living to age 57 was itself a victory. After bypass surgery at age 39, he learned to eat right and take care of himself, she said.

(snip)

[robertarctor]

1. What's the bad news?

We're all mortal. So give the late Broc Bebout props for changing his lifestyle before turning 40. Chances are he wouldn't have lived to age 57 without making the changes he made.

It is indeed sad that he died soon after completing his cross-country trip, and may he rest in peace. And I'm willing to bet that, if his spirit could speak, it would tell us that he wouldn't have done it differently, and that we all should bike whenever and wherever we can.

[BiggJawn]

2. After needing bypasses at 39, I'd say every day since was a Bonus.

He had the Ride of his Life, any way you look at it.

[Fovea]

3. Entirely possible the van drive killed him.

After all those days of overuse on those gastrocs. Then a long sedentary stretch in one position.

But I wonder which arthritis meds he was taking.