First, sorry I’ve been away. I had a medical challenge which resulted in a couple of surgeries but am hopefully done with the surgeries. Only time will tell.
My biggest fear of course was the two surgeries (general anesthesia is scary but you really don’t remember it. Bizarre). My other fear was just when my weight was pretty stable in the 147-150 lbs, would I gain weight when I could not exercise for weeks. I turned to just drinking more and more water to keep my stomach full and despite a lot of fear, my weight did not go up.
October 19, 2014 was the date I met the distance which changed my life: 26.2 miles. The marathon. I was so nervous that morning. I had prepared for it as most marathoners do by increasing my mileage and had gotten up to 20 miles two weeks before. But at the end of that 20 miles I essentially collapsed. Shaking. Not physically stable. I was in trouble. Had serious doubts about whether two weeks later I could do the marathon. But that day, October 19, 2014 I put on my ASICS and did it anyway.
When I finished I thought I would never do another one. I came home, went to bed. Exhausted. Eventually found my way to Olive Garden with my family to celebrate the fact that in 16 months I had gone from morbidly obese to a marathon runner.
And I promised I would never … I mean NEVER do it again.
Yesterday was October 18, 2026. I ran my 61st marathon. Some promises are meant to be broken!
