HOUSTON (AP) — Three years ago, Walt McGuire lay in an operating room, a bypass machine ticking away the 72 hours he had to survive after a donor heart failed. With every minute, hope faded that he would one day run on the track he had spent months gazing at from his Houston hospital room window.

But this week, McGuire raced around that blue track, competing against other transplant survivors in the Donate Life Transplant Games, a biennial, multi-sport event designed to raise awareness of organ, eye, and tissue transplants.