Ron Rubin was training to run a marathon two years ago to celebrate turning 60. But cardiac arrest killed his plans and nearly killed him.

So how could this happen? He was a runner with seven marathons under his belt and was preparing for his eighth.

Rubin is the CEO of Republic of Tea, a company that preaches a message of healthy practices to employees and customers: Take life easier, 'sip by sip rather than gulp by gulp."

Yet he suffered a ventricular tachycardia — a sudden cardiac arrest characterized by a very rapid and irregular heart beat. It's often fatal, usually in the aftermath of a heart problem or heart surgery, according to the National Library of Medicine.

Rubin says he survived because of CPR by his son, Todd Rubin, efforts in an emergency room in Tiburon, Calif., and his own peak physical condition.

A week later, back in St. Louis, surgeons at Barnes-Jewish Hospital implanted a small defibrillator.

The device looks a bit like a pacemaker. But the implantable cardioverter defibrillator shocks the heart when it stops beating or beats irregularly. Medtronics literature says it can prevent 98 percent of sudden cardiac deaths.

Last year, Rubin went through cardiac rehabilitation at St. Louis University Hospital.

This year, he began running, but doctors told him no marathons, he said.

'IN GREAT SHAPE'

In Rubin's case, the event came from out of nowhere — a symptom without an illness.

"I'd run 20 miles, and the next day ... I have no idea; and the doctors can't really pinpoint a reason," Rubin said. "It's just that my electrical system (that powers his heart) went off kilter. I thought I was in great shape."

Being in great shape sometimes makes no difference when sudden cardiac arrest occurs, says Dr. Richard Bach, director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

"Heart conditions run a fairly wide spectrum," he said. "Victims of cardiac arrest can have a genetic origin that never reveals itself in a family."

'RARE SITUATION'

It can be a condition that's undetectable until something happens, he said.

"What (Rubin) experienced, a near-fatal arrhythmia event with no problem with heart arteries, that's a rare situation," Bach said.

Nevertheless, 'sometimes despite a lot of investigation, it's not possible to identify the conditions," he said.

Rubin, now 62, ran the GO! St. Louis half marathon in the spring. It qualified him for the Medtronic Foundation's Global Hero program.

The Global Hero program recognizes distance runners who return to distance running even though they live with electronic devices.

The Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon and 10-Mile Race are this weekend. Rubin's 10-mile event is Sunday. He was training for the Twin Cities Marathon when he was sidelined by the cardiac arrest two years ago.

The Global Heroes — 13 marathon runners and a dozen 10-mile runners, including Rubin — will join about 18,000 runners who'll wind their way from the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis to the capitol in St. Paul.

Along with Rubin, this year's Global Hero runners include a Swedish marathoner who runs with an insulin pump, a British man who runs with a pacemaker and a woman with a neurostimulator for bladder control.

"It's a celebration of getting back to a full life, doing your passion," said Rich Fischer with the Medtronics Foundation. "They were runners and they've returned to running.

"We're hoping to show others that you can do what you want in your life; just because you've been diagnosed with disease doesn't mean you can't live your passion."

Rubin considers the episode a collision with reality. "I just know that I learned to appreciate every minute of life because it can be taken away so quickly.

"I don't let a day go by without talking to my children; I write a personal letter to my granddaughter once a week.

"And I'm telling my people at (Republic of Tea) to keep an eye on your health. Something like this can happen even when you're healthy.

"I was in great shape," he said. "Being in great shape is probably why I survived it. Thirty years of exercise kept me alive."

The device hasn't had to fire even once since he's had it.