Running partners can be found anywhere. Even while laying in a hospital bed. Just ask Dwayne Pickens, a 64-year-old heart survivor who recruited his surgeon to run the 2018 Dallas Marathon with him.

Pickens suffered a heart attack during the 2017 Dallas Marathon just two miles into his 5.2-mile segment of the relay. Lucky for him, a registered nurse and a lieutenant with Dallas Fire Rescue were running behind him, and were able to perform CPR until an automated external defibrillator (AED) arrived and brought him back to life.

“I fell face down. I don’t remember anything after that. Next thing I know, I’m in the ER with four or five people running around me,” Pickens told Sports News.

“It was a perfect storm” he said. “I was lucky to be on the course and have people around me, who could do what they did. I am more than grateful. I feel very blessed that I’m still here. … It’s a pure miracle.”

A couple of days later, Pickens had quadruple bypass surgery.

The experience scared Pickens, but it also influenced his surgeon, Dr. Baron Hamman from Baylor University Medical Center.  Due to long hours at his job, Hamman had put his own health to the side and not made working out a priority, according to Runner’s World.

So, after Pickens got out of surgery, Hamman made a promise to run on Pickens’s “DP Strong” relay team for the 2018 Dallas Marathon.

“I knew I needed to change, so I made a Faustian deal,” Hamman joked.

He’s trained hard, lost 20 pounds and declares that he’s “ready to go.”

The two will take to the course on Sunday, along with Pickens’s three of four sons completing the relay team. Pickens will also wear have the names of the first responders and doctors who saved his life last year on his shirt.

“I could have sat back and been a couch potato. I could have been afraid to go back out,” Pickens told Sports Day. “But here’s this guy who just repaired my heart, and he’s telling me I’m OK to do this.”

And with that permission to finish miles stemming back from last year, Pickens won’t necessarily be racing with his legs. He’ll be racing with his heart.