The great thing about running events is the inspiration from all ages. It doesn’t matter if you are participating as an elite runner or out there walking. Each and every one of you has a story to share and I am fortunate enough to not only meet you, but get to know your stories. How sweet it is! As The Great Candy Run, we are all about sweetness, and more than just the confectionery type. We are about you, the amazing participants that inspire us on a daily basis. Recently I was reminded of just how inspirational you all are, whether you are 5 years old, or 83.
First I have to introduce you to Larry. Larry is 69 years old. Get this, he started doing marathons (yes the 26.2 mile type) at age 53. In his 16 years of running, he has done over 1,300 marathons! No that isn’t a typo, and to top that off, the last two years he holds the record for most marathons done in one year. Well we had to do some fun math around this. To accomplish what Larry has done, you would have to average 82 marathons a year. That is about 9 months of running a marathon every Saturday and Sunday for 9 months and for 16 years. Larry has run some 34,000+ miles (not including any training) in that time span as well. He is certainly one amazing and sweet runner.
Second is my good friend Eddie Lyons. Eddie is from the Denver area and is one of the nicest and most personable person I know. You can find Eddie almost every weekend running, and always with a smile. He loves being in the thick of the competition and is always proud of his 1st place age group awards. I certainly hope I am still running when I am 83, and always with a smile.
Third is all the young runners. I am always impressed to see all the great youth out there being active and having fun. Some are amazingly fast… and despite my slightly better than average running speed, they totally leave me in their dust.
I have been so inspired by the stories that I plan to feature, from time to time, some of our sweetly inspirational fans and participants. So if you have an inspirational story about yourself or someone you know, please email me (lonnie@thegreatcandyrun.com) and tell me about it. You just might show up in our sweet blogs!
So whether you are young or old, a walker or runner, you too can run Sweet.
Sweetcerely!
Lonnie