Clarence bicyclist finishes round-the-world mile goal after heart surgery

It is, from time to time, useful to consult a medical professional who knows how to play you like a fiddle.

In 2014, Alex Murnyack was preparing for open-heart surgery when his doctor told him that to travel around the world, the average cyclist would have to pedal a distance of approximately 25,000 miles.

Murnyack is a competitive guy. He knows this, his family knows this — it’s not much of a leap to assume that the only guy in the room with a medical degree knew it too.

An avid cyclist, he had been fastidiously recording his mileage since 2008 (he didn’t have an odometer on his first two bicycles) and after six years, 11 months, and 22 days he had accumulated 24,912 miles.

When the doctor dangled the idea of completing his globe-trotting trek as a post-recovery project, Murnyack took the bait.

Exactly two months and two days after his surgery, Murnyack was out of bed and back on his bike, his odometer already rocketing upward.

“They know what I’m like. I’ve been a competitive person. Always,” Murnyack said.

Since June 2014, Murnyack has put 5,085 miles on his new heart valve, completing his round-the-world trip and then some — and all without leaving the local tracks and trails near his home in Clarence. The Bicycle Shop in State College recently recognized the cyclist’s accomplishment by presenting him with a brand new set of wheels.

Chad Baltozer, an assistant manager at The Bicycle Shop, said Murnyack has been coming there for as long as he can remember.

Baltozer is impressed by what the cyclist has managed to achieve without ever losing his sunny disposition.

“He’s about as happy a guy as you can meet,” Baltozer said.

Fitness — or rather, competition — has been a lifelong preoccupation for Murnyack.

He was active in sports from a young age, receiving a small alphabet’s worth of varsity letters at Clarion University of Pennsylvania for his contributions to the school’s football, baseball and wrestling teams.

During his professional career, which included 34 years as a history teacher at Bald Eagle Area High School, Murnyack was forced to live vicariously through the nine young men he fielded as head coach of the baseball team.

He believes that competition forces people to be better, to push themselves just a little further than they thought they could go.

“I don’t compete against anybody now,” Murnyack said. “Just myself.”

That philosophy has served him well. At 73 years old, Murnyack’s blood pressure has been within normal range and he’s had no signs of diabetes.

There was just that one pesky heart valve.

Murnyack had just returned home from a 20-mile bike ride — his daily exercise — when his wife told him that his cardiologist had asked them to stop by the office.

Dr. Jeffery Gilbert, of Mount Nittany Health, had been keeping a close eye on Murnyack and had determined that the time had finally come to replace the weakened valve in his patient’s heart.

The impending surgery didn’t bother Murnyack. He despises negativity and refused to consider any outcome other than success.

“I went with such a positive attitude it wasn’t (even) funny,” Murnyack said.

His time in the hospital was bookended by the births of his first great-grandson and his fourteenth grandchild.

These are the events that remind Murnyack why he pushes himself so hard. He doesn’t ride 20 miles a day, or swim a mile in the YMCA pool, so that he can look good in a bathing suit.

It’s all about family, a series of interconnected lives that he wants to remain a part of for a long time to come.

“I have a wonderful wife, five wonderful children, 14 grandchildren and one great-grandchild,” Murnyack said. “And that’s why I try and stay active.”

His grandchildren in particular provide an endless supply of motivation — and some fairly ambitious goals to work toward.

One of Murnyack’s granddaughters is a speech pathologist in Atlanta, and he wanted to see if he could bike the roughly 500 miles or so between them.

Murnyack never left Centre County, but he did cover the distance.

“I feel so good about this, I want to live another 25 years and keep riding,” Murnyack said.

This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 1:10 AM with the headline "Clarence bicyclist finishes round-the-world mile goal after heart surgery."