抖阴ap

Hampered by severe knee pain, Ben Reisinger walked the last 11 miles of the Colfax Marathon on Sunday, but he has overcome far bigger challenges.

Two years ago, he weighed 375 pounds. When he resolved to lose weight and keep it off, he decided to set a goal he thought was impossible — run a marathon. He lost 190 pounds, first by walking, then by kick-boxing, then running. Sunday, he wore a shirt with pictures of him before and after the weight loss with the message, “ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE IF YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO IT.”

“I was eating as if I couldn鈥檛 even look forward to tomorrow,” the 28-year-old engineer recalled. “I was only looking forward to my next meal. I told myself, 鈥榊ou have to start looking past tomorrow.鈥� I was living so much in the moment, and I was like, 鈥榃hat about five years from now? Is anything going to be different? Five years from now, if I don鈥檛 change anything, I鈥檓 going to be here in the same situation with the potential health problems that being big present.鈥�”

He considers himself a runner now. When friends tell him he inspires them, he finds it humbling.

“I never imagined I鈥檇 be not only doing something so hard athletically, but inspiring other people,” Reisinger said. “The whole marathon experience, I would definitely recommend to anybody who鈥檚 looking for a life-changing experience. It抖阴ap not the marathon that抖阴ap the life-changing thing, it抖阴ap the experience of training for one. It definitely challenges you. You鈥檝e got to develop a lot of mental toughness. It teaches you a lot about life.”

Sunday did. In recent weeks, he developed problems with the iliotibial bands in both knees, a common over-use injury for runners. When he had to stop running at mile 15, he knew it would be tough to beat the six-hour mandatory course cutoff. He walked his next mile in 16 minutes, did the math and knew if he could walk that pace the rest of the way, he would finish before the course closed. He finished in 5:47:39.

He will continue to run because it has become part of his lifestyle.

“It抖阴ap really strange how I was able to go from where all that gave me any kind of pleasure was my next meal to now, where I鈥檓 actually looking forward to working out. It抖阴ap not the funnest experience to move when you鈥檙e pushing 400 pounds. But once you get over that hump, it抖阴ap enjoyable. It抖阴ap a very cool thing to see what you can do.”