In the beginning. Everyone needs a starting point. A moment in their life to say " Hey you fat bastard, you cant live like this." Here was my final moment. How does a grown Man bottom out a trampoline. This pic and having a 5 yr old say to my daughter your dads FAT. 240lbs

My wife has tried for years to give me enough of a hard time to thin down. Finally at the start of 2007 they opened a YMCA in our town. I started off gung ho. I slipped the lbs off by mid summer. doing cardio and weights. Went to spin classes and yoga. I was able to slim down and keep physically active.

In the spring of 2008 my wife decides to start running 5k's with her friend. I would go run with her choking out a mile or two. Went with her to keep he company and support her new habit. I still hated running.

Spring of 2009 I decided to try and train for a 5k. The big goal here was to run fast enough and beat my wife's time by at least 5 min. This was all it took. I ran the race in 28 min. I felt great exactly where I wanted to be. i got the bug. 3 miles was no longer enough. I read some running books, Runners world mag. I started running greater distance. I made up my mind if i could run 6-8 miles I should try for a half marathon. By the beginning of May I posted 2 goals on Face book. 1 was to run a half marathon by October and then do a full before next October when I turn 40.

I then read a article on Half vs. Full marathons. " Who trains for half of anything." Next I ran a 13.5 mile run with out killing myself. Goals just changed. Thunder road marathon was being held in my town in December. This was the new goal.

I started picking up more and more miles. I could only concentrate on running. When, where, how far. By July I hit 40 miles a week. I had my weight down to 174 lighter than i had been in years. I then was introduced to TED.com and found the most amazing stories of inspiration. Running to the South Pole, and trekking solo to the North Pole. I read the book Planet walker, where John Francis walked for 20+ years. I read Kano's book 50/50. All this positive you can do it. Hit me all at once. It was information overload but my mind was soaking it up. I had all these incredible stories rolling in my head keeping me going. Mile after mile.

I shunned the running Gods and put down Jeff Galloway's run walk method. I stopped walking at mile 3 like I had all along. I started doing tempo runs.

OUCH!!! What the hell was that pain in my left calf. I over did it. How long was this going to sideline me. I slowed down re thought the over training. 3 weeks and I was back full strength.

Careful not to hurt myself again I cut back to 3 runs a week making sure each gave me a quality work out.

By October i was running 20 miles then working a 14 hour day at work. I had this in the bag.

December 11, 2009 I had taken 3 days before the race off. I was so rested and wired I could not sleep the night before the race. My thought on the way to the race was. Wait I paid $85.00 to get up at 5 am go out in freezing temps and I'm going to run up and down hills for the next 4.5 hours. What the hell is wrong in your head?

26 deg at the start. Wow that's cold. I found out the cool air helped. So did the Pace teams.Hat off to these hero's that gave me motivation to keep going. ( Except the one who told me at mile 23.5" its all down hill from here.") One runner told me at mile 23 This will be the longest 5k of your life. My goal was 4:15 I finished @ 4:25 how AWESOME was that.

If I can run a full marathon 26.2 miles in one year. Anybody can do it!