Introduction
I have been an athlete my whole life. I played football all the way through high school, baseball through eighth grade, and even tried wrestling for a year. High school football was the peak of my career being in great condition and having major goals. After a torn ACL and realization that I did not want to continue playing on into college my competitive career came to an end. The next four years I played for recreation. I played every sport you can think of in intramurals. It was fun but the desire to do something physically challenging was just calling. So thanks to much influence I decided to run and pursue the journey of running a Marathon. A Marathon is 26.2 miles and requires a lot of work and dedication. It feels like being in varsity sports again with a big goal in mind.
Background
Football is by far the biggest sport in my family. Football just runs in the blood of both my mother and fathers side. There are all kinds of accomplishments from starting on varsity, to coaching, and a couple that have gone on to play in college. Of all the football success in the family there is one more accomplishment that was made in another sport. My dad who was also a runner growing up ran the Boston Marathon (considered the most prestigious foot race in the world) twice. His inspiration has trickled down to my brother and me as we have pursued the journey of running a Marathon. My brother ran the Memphis Marathon last December and I will be running the Walt Disney Marathon in January of 2012. This is my story of pursuing the challenge of running the Marathon.
The Beginning
Spending most of my years playing football my body was always trained to go hard for about six seconds at a time. How in the world was I ever going to get it to run for five straight hours? After football was over and I went to college, I would run up to five times a week, one mile a day. My weight was between 210 and 215 pounds and my only reason to run was to keep from gaining weight. Every once in a Blue Moon I would get out and run two or three miles and yes it took every bit of energy out of me. I hit rock bottom my sophomore year when I reached a weight of 225 pounds. This was the heaviest I ever got and every time I would run, it would feel miserable. I was able to get the weight back down to 210 but I still could not run more than three miles at a time.
The Challenge
One snowy day in December of 2009 I got a text out of nowhere from my brother Nat who had just run his first Half Marathon in Memphis. He challenged me to train and run a Marathon like he was. After much thought I decided to go for it. I thought about what Marathon I wanted to run. Since Disney World was always a popular vacation for my family I decided I wanted to run the Walt Disney World Marathon in 2012.
Training Begins
I knew I had to step my training up big time. My runs started consisting of five miles. As spring of 2010 came around I tried my first seven-mile run, and it was not easy. Training continued and I realized I was not loosing any weight. I needed to loose weight so my body could move better and further. I was about to give up and realize I was not cut out for this. Then the tide turned.
The Turning Point
As I was on the verge of calling it quits, someone made a suggestion that would change everything. My girlfriend Shaunah (who is now my lovely Wife) suggested a big change in diet. She suggested watching how much sugar I ate. I decided to cut out all soft drinks and sweet tea. I also decided to really cut sugar out of my diet as much as possible. Results started happening instantly as I would eventually get down to 175 pounds.
Ticking off the Miles and the Half Marathon
Now the Miles were just adding up one after another, my distance run got up to eight miles, ten miles, and twelve miles. On September 26, 2010 on a rainy day I ran my first Half Marathon in two hours and nine minutes. It was the Blue Grass Half Marathon in my hometown of Johnson City Tennessee. After it was over I decided there was no doubt I wanted to pursue the distance of 26.2 miles. I ran my second Half Marathon a month later in Kingsport Tennessee in one hour and fifty-nine minutes. This was called the Haunted Half and it was flat and wicked fast.
Training Intensifies
As 2011 came around my training got more intense. In March my distance run reached 16 miles. In April I got married and kind of got off my training for a bit and I knew it would be a hard summer. I got back on schedule and got my distance up to 18 miles that summer. In September I finally reached the 20-mile mark. I can see why it is called “The Wall”. The rest of the Fall I continued to run 20-mile runs to get used to it. One still remains before the attempt at 26.2 miles.
Next Stop Disney World
Now all eyes are on the goal as it is less than one month away. When I get to run the Marathon it will be the end of 25 months of training. I can do nothing but thank God for the gift and desire to pursue this goal. I thank everyone who has supported and encouraged me and supported me during training. I would like to thank my Beautiful wife Shaunah, my awesome parents, Nat and Sam Scott for being amazing brothers, my future sister-in-law Sarah Werre, My mentor and running mate Daniel McIntosh, and most of all My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I also thank all you who have supported me. Thanks and God Bless.
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