A little about Brad

For those of you who don't know me, I will take this time to share a little about my running past.

I grew up in small town Iowa, in the Amana Colonies area, and loved football, baseball and basketball. Now, I say that I loved them, but I was never really ever good in any of them. I have always been a "bigger" guy. I was a lineman in football, a center in basketball and a catcher in baseball. Your typical places to put the "chubby kid" :)

After graduation I did what every one else does when they go off to college. I watched TV, stayed up too late, and basically didn't do much. I started to discover these wonderful restaurants that served food until 3 am. Who knew? Then there was this thing called alcohol. For some reason I think that it has a component in it that makes you think your hungry even though you just ate 2 hours ago.

I wasn't your typical college freshman. I didn't just put on the "Freshman 15", oh no, I far exceeded that (one of the few things that I passed with flying colors in college). I gained the "College 100". I loved food and hated exercise even more.

After college it didn't get much easier to exercise. It was so easy to eat a box of macaroni & cheese by yourself while watching MTV. I wasn't happy. I was depressed all of the time. Stressed out, primarily because of the way I looked and lacked any sort of motivation to do anything.

In August 2004, my wonderful wife and I went to the Iowa State Fair (the greatest fair in the world) and I ate my normal food when going. Anything and everything on a stick. The final tipping point was on the last day of the fair when I ate 2 of the biggest turkey legs in the entire world. We went back to our apartment and I was ashamed. Ashamed of how much I just ate and ashamed of the way I looked. I had to do something about it.

The next day I went to work, weighed my self and about had another stroke (different story for a different time). I looked at the scale and about started to cry. 292 lbs!!!! What was I doing weighing this much at 24??? That night we went to Barnes & Noble so that I could find a book on weight loss. At first it hurt to give up these huge portions of pizza, fried food, chocolate...............mmmmmm. But I knew that if I just did it, I would feel so much better.

I took out my old shoes, went out with the wifey and made a commitment to get healthy. We lived in Ankeny at the time and lived next to a park that has a 1/2 mile track around it. She had always been a runner and she took off without me. I ran 1/2 a lap around the track (if you can't keep up that is 1/4 mile) and threw up. I was violently ill for about 3 days. I started to think this running thing wasn't for me.

After that though, running seemed to get a little easier. I made the goal to run a 5k the following May. As I kept going, the miles seemed to get a little faster. As I found my "happy pace" I started to add more miles. I ran my first 5k in May of 2005 during the Dam-To-Dam with a good friend Jessica. A couple of months later I ran a 10k. My next goal was to run the full 20k Dam-To-Dam (12.4 miles). I really didn't know what had come over me. It is hard to explain when you start to see the pounds come off and stay off. It was almost euphoric.

Fast forward 4 years since my first race, we are now embarking on this run to benefit these children. I have run 2 marathons, a few 20k's, a few 10k's, a couple of awesome trail runs and countless 5k's. It has been a crazy ride and look to my ultimate goal of running the Western States 100 . Click on the name to find out what this is. Trust me, it is bad.

As we get trained for this run, if you are on the fence, just think about the story you just read. In a little over 3 years I was able to shed almost 80 lbs and run 2 marathons. I was comfortable sitting on the couch, but feel so much better about myself and about life now that I get up every day knowing that I don't have to worry as much about my cholesterol, about diabetes, about blood pressure, about not being able to walk up a flight of stairs. I just encourage you that if you are reading this and concerned or not happy with the way you look or feel, do something about it. Get up and put one foot in front of the other. Not everyone enjoys running as much as I do. Find something active that you enjoy and do it. You won't even believe how your life can change.

In closing, if you have any questions about how I did it, feel free to shoot me an email. I am glad to tell everyone my story. God Bless

Stay Strong, Run Long
Brad