Good Morning Finishers,
For this week’s Mug thoughts, I wanted to share the story of how running a marathon changed my entire life.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Chunkers.
This was the first nickname given to me when I entered my first year of college. The photo you see above was me at around 220 pounds just a week before freshmen year began.
All summer, I had my sights set on walking on to the Arizona State University football team as a long snapper. I knew I wasn’t quite big enough to play division 1 college football during my high school days, so I committed the entire summer to lifting weights, throwing footballs between my legs, and eating as much as I could.
When I arrived at ASU, that dream changed. I quickly realized that spending my 4 years at university riding the bench as a 3rd string long snapper didn’t seem worth it.
So, I did the next best thing. I joined a Fraternity. I connected with some really great dudes in my first couple weeks, and despite being vehemently against greek life prior to college, I decided to give it a shot.
I joined an organization called Kappa Alpha Order and began meeting the people that would become my best friends today. I did the whole “pledge process” thing, got initiated into the chapter, and formed strong relationships with individuals that I looked up to, respected, and enjoyed sharing an ice-cold beer with.
Every friendship is different, and most of my friendships during this time involved a fair amount of joking around. I poke fun at you, you poke fun at me, and we all laugh because it’s funny. Well, one day one of my buddies coined my nickname “Chunkers” and to my demise, that name stuck like gorilla glue.
Mentally I couldn’t shake that name. I had spent the last 9 months dedicated to two things: doing well in school and never missing a party. My diet was that of typical freshmen in college kid, I was binge drinking booze every couple of days, and working out was a casual thing I did 1-2 times a week.
I wasn’t where I wanted to be physically or mentally, and that summer I decided that something had to change.
Then one morning in June of 2016, I woke up and realized how I was going to make that change. I signed up for my very first marathon. Had I ran more than a single mile since high school PE? No. Did I really think I was capable of running 26.2 miles? No. But I knew I wouldn’t give it a real college try unless I financially committed, so I got registered before even running a single mile.
I distinctly remember the day that I ran my first 2-miler. It. Was. AWFUL. I ran for twenty minutes and thought I was going to need to be resuscitated. I recall thinking, “how in the hell am I going to do this for another 24 miles?” There wasn’t a single ounce of hope in me, as the task of running a full marathon just seemed so impossible.
Turns out, it wasn’t. Chunkers crossed the finish line.
Finishing that race still stands as the most incredible feeling I’ve ever experienced. I’ve backpacked Europe, finished an Ironman, and was the first person to graduate college in my family, and still, none of those comes even close to that first race.
For the very first time in my life, I committed to a long term physical goal, put in close to a thousand miles of training, and got the damn thing done all on my own. No one could take that victory away from me.
At that moment, my life changed. I became addicted.
The fulfillment that comes from overcoming something hard is intoxicating. One hit got me hooked. I wanted more. I started peer pressuring others to try it. Running became my drug of choice, and I just couldn’t get enough of it.
And so that brings us here…
I weighed myself last week for the first time in probably a year and was shocked to see what the scale read. 169 pounds. That’s lighter than I was as a sophomore in high school.
Today, Chunkers is still a name that my friends call me, but it has an entirely different meaning behind it. The name Chunkers is now a symbol of the dedication I put into training for that first marathon. It’s a badge of honor I wear, and a story I use to try and inspire others. I embrace the name because it reminds me of where I began, and still motivates me to go where I want to go.
Every person that ever ran a marathon started from a similar place that I did. They tell themselves it’s impossible. They claim they, “aren’t a runner,” or that they “are too busy,” to commit to training. Then they finally get started, and from there the rest is history.
I started My First Finish because I think everyone should get to experience the high of completing their first marathon. People sell themselves short and use excuses to never even take the first step. Anyone can run a marathon. I realized this when I finished that first race, and my mission is to convince as many people as I can of this.
New to My First Finish?
My First Finish is an online running platform that helps people achieve their running goals. We provide fully customized training plans, daily accountability, and a supportive community of runners to help you unlock your fullest potential. If you have dreams of running a half / full marathon, or just want to make running a part of your life, you can signup for free HERE.