At the beginning of the year, I weighed 253.3 pounds (I’m 6’3″)… way overweight.  I began to change my diet and eating habits and began running.  At a service at church, the pastor was speaking about physical well-being and challenged the church to become more active.  It was at that time that he encouraged folks to join him and run the Marathon for clean water in Africa through World Vision.  I decided to make it happen.  I signed up for the half and began training.  Summertime was tough and I didn’t get all the runs in that I should have, but I trained and trained, each long run becoming the longest I’d ever ran at one time.

There were several other changes taking place in my life this year – a new job being one of the biggest.  Training and running became a metaphor for the transformation taking place mentally, physically, and emotionally within me.  In fact, I’ve called this my year of reinvention.

As I ran the half, there were some thing going through my mind that were especially significant regarding further growth I needed to make in my life and mind, and the race was the moment I’d been building up to in my mind as the sort-of major event that would kick off that growth.  Crossing the finish line – running, no less – was a huge success for me.  What a sense of accomplishment and pride.

As of this morning, I’m down 69 pounds since January.  I now weight 184.4 pounds!  I’ve gone from a tight size 38 pants to a very comfortable 34 (haven’t worn that size in at least a dozen years or more).  I’m making plans to join a gym and put some muscle on this body and continue the reinvention that running helped create.