While the heart may be filled with love, it can also be filled with cholesterol. The El Paso County Public Health reported in 2021, heart diseases were the leading cause of death, with 1,372 lives lost. Not only are heart diseases a prominent issue in El Paso, Texas but state-wide as well. The Texas Health and Human Services reported that in 2011-2017 for every 100,000 people an average of 38.6 Texans died from a heart attack each year. Although the deathrate is high, some heart diseases are preventable.  

Cardio is one of the main ways to keep the heart healthy. That includes running, cycling, walking and other various forms. Local businesses say while running is a way to improve heart health, it also improves knee health, memory and sleep quality.  

Running is one of the more popular forms of cardio in El Paso and local business, Up and Running says they are always happy to support the running community. The son of the founder of Up and running, Brian Rowley, has been running since he was 7-years-old. He says there are many positive effects he has had doing so. 

“Definitely, (running) is a lot healthier, my resting heart rate’s a lot lower now, my blood pressure has gone down, because there was a time where my blood pressure was getting kind of high up there,” Rowley said. “Overall, mental health is much better, it helps release (stress), it really is like therapy for me. If I’m feeling stressed or overwhelmed, I can go out for a run, and come back and just feel way more level-headed.” 

Rowley says the running community in El Paso has expanded since COVID-19. He says many people doubted his dad when he decided to open a running shoe business due to the lack of a running community.  

“It feels great truthfully, when my dad started this business, with his business partner Mike there were maybe only about ten 5k races in a year in El Paso that were just local races for people to sign up. I think now we have close to 70 races a year that we host,” Rowley said. 

Rowley says he takes pride in his father creating a legacy in El Paso and supporting hundreds of runners across the community. They get to provide comfortable and stylish shoes and promote long-term heart health.  

“When he started this, he had so many people tell him you know El Paso isn’t that much of a running community, why are you trying to open up a running shoe store?” 

 He says he is proud to see how far the store has come. Rowley says one of his favorite aspects of supporting the running community is also seeing people pick up their race packets as they are improving their health.  

“Our more recent 5k’s that we’ve been doing, we’ve been seeing our numbers going up on that,” Rowley said. “It is nice to know and see that through this, there are more people joining in and coming out and trying to be healthier.” 

As the running community has grown in the Sun City, more races have also become popular events, like Corazon de Niños. Six years ago, the race began aiming to donate 100% of the money raised to help children receive open heart surgery in Chihuahua, Mexico. Race director, Mario Alcazar, explains where the donation money goes to.  

“(Corazon de Niños) supports open heart surgeries in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, for families that don’t have medical coverage,” Alcazar said. “So, what we do is we organize several events, and we sponsor the supplies for those open-heart surgeries.” 

The idea for the race came when a member from Camino Real Rotary Club, a club that organizes Corazon de Niños, had open-heart surgery. Seeing there were a lot of families in similar positions as him and could not afford the expensive medical bills inspired Alcazar to start the marathon.  

“As you can tell, we are very blessed with all the things we have, we wake up every morning on a warm bed, with running water, with a job, and our families are healthy,” Alcazar said. “So, we have so many blessings, but somehow we need to share these blessings with the less fortunate.” 

Heart diseases are not only a problem in El Paso, but in Texas as a whole. There are many ways to prevent these diseases, like running, cardio and regular checkups.  

Sofia Sierra is a staff reporter and may be reached at [email protected]