When West Wareham resident Howard Staples received a pacemaker to keep his heart beating regularly, he wasn't thinking he'd ever be running a marathon — let alone running a marathon for the manufacturer of that pacemaker.

But on October 7, the now 61-year-old Staples will do just that. He'll be running in Minnesota's 26-mile Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, which begins at the Metrodome in Minneapolis and ends in St. Paul.

Staples is participating as one of the 25 Medtronic Global Heroes, runners who have one of the medical company's implanted devices, and continue to pursue their athletic passions.

Staples' story begins with unexplained fainting. In May of 2009, doctors discovered that his heart stopped beating twice in one day.

Staples underwent surgery and a pacemaker was implanted to fix the irregular heartbeat and stop the fainting.

Though already an avid runner, he was determined to become healthier after the surgery.

Staples participated in his first Boston Marathon in 2010 and again in 2011. He's also participated in six half-marathons, completed a 100-mile bicycling event earlier this year, and will take on Plymouth's first ever Myles Standish Marathon in November.

Grateful for his ability to continue living an active lifestyle, Staples contacted Medtronic "just to thank them for improving my life," he explained.

The company flew Staples to its Minnesota home-base, and asked him to tell his story to medical professionals at a conference. Staples even got to meet the man who invented his particular device.

"It was kind of weird talking to the guy who invented it!" Staples said with a smile.

While at the conference Staples learned about Medtronic's Global Heroes.

"I had no idea [Medtronic] was the title sponsor of the local marathon," he noted.

This year, Staples was picked to be one of those Global Heroes, and will embark on an all-expenses-paid trip to the Twin Cities. The company is also paying for Staples' wife, Ardi, and sister to attend the event so they can cheer him on.

"It's quite an opportunity," Staples said.

Staples says he doesn't have any goals for completing the race in a certain time. He just wants "to finish," he said.

And he doesn't have any butterflies about the race.

"I'm not nervous," he said. "Just excited."

Wareham Week will be tracking Howard Staples throughout the race. We'll update WarehamVillageSoup.com with his results! For more information about the marathon, visit www.tcmevents.org.