LITTLE ROCK, Ark.--"It was just a long dull pain and it lasted for hours," Justin Phillips said.

Phillips doesn't fit the the bill for someone with a heart issue.

"I thought that if I do this I'll be fine in the long run," Phillips said.

The 30-year-old and former Marine excercises, eats right and has no personal or family history of a heart condition.

"I get back on the bike and keep riding for a little bit and stop and it's now in my left arm, my shoulder, all the way down," Phillips said.

Last month while Phillips was in mile 33 of the 50 mile Tour de Toad in Conway, his heart hit the breaks. He left the track and headed to the hospital.

"I woke up to the doctor saying Mr. Phillips I'm afraid you've had a mild heart attack," Phillips said.

Phillips says his troponin levels had increased six times since they were first measured.

"What he said was the blood vessels around my heart constricted and just cut off the blood flow to my heart," Phillips said.

"Your body gives you those warning signs, its not just because it doesn't have anything better to do," Vickie Wingfield with the Arkansas Heart Foundation said.

Wingfield with the Arkansas Heart Foundation says Justin's case proves even younger people are just as much at risk for heart issues even without a history.

"It confirms my belief that it can happen to anyone at anytime, anywhere at any age," Wingfield said. Wingfield says new research proves 80 percent of cardiovascular disease can be prevented through excercise and diet.

Phillips now rehabs through the help of the Arkansas Heart Hospital monitering his heart while he exercises, if its up to him he'll have another race up his sleeve soon.

"Once I realize that everything is going to be fine I'm going to try to get back and knock out a triathlon or something," Phillips said.

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30-Year-Old Former Marine Struck With Heart Attack While Competing in the Tour de Toad - KARK