chest pain after exertion?

A cardiogram a year ago revealed that I have athlete's heart. It's not
angina -- no pain during exertion and doesn't subside with rest. Yes, I've
made a doctor's appt. No, I'm not going to the ER. Online I've seen that
heart damage can occur in two ways in distance athlete's. 1) some have
heart attacks during or within 24 hours of the exertion. 2) Others (me?)
show elevated levels of a protein, troponin, in the blood, for what seems
like a temporary period. Chronic inflammation of the heart might be related
to 2) above.

See for example, Two Fitness Disasters That Are Threatening Your Health
http://tinyurl.com/37xtlq
"In a more recent study, published in the November issue of Circulation,
Dr. Siegel and his colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital tested 60
runners (41 men and 19 women) before and after the 2004 and 2005 Boston
Marathons. Each runner had a cardiogram to look for abnormalities in heart
rhythm. They were also checked for evidence of cardiac problems in their
blood. Troponin, a protein found in cardiac muscle cells, was used as a
marker of cardiac damage. If the heart is traumatized, troponin shows up in
the blood. Its presence is also used to determine whether heart damage was
sustained during a heart attack.

"The runners had normal cardiac function before the marathon, with no signs
of troponin in their blood. Twenty minutes after finishing, 60 percent of
the group had elevated troponin levels and 40 percent had levels high enough
to indicate the destruction of heart muscle cells. In addition, most had
noticeable changes in heart rhythm.

"Dr. Siegel said, "Their hearts appeared to have been stunned." Bingo!
During long-duration exercise, your heart is under constant stress with no
time to recover. If it goes on long enough, your heart is traumatized and
your body reacts by triggering a wave of inflammation."

Anybody else experience this? Did it go away? Did you die soon after? I'm
thinking of explaining to the doc the troponin aspect and asking about a
blood test and cardiogram. Oh -- I'm 49.

Much obliged,

JF