After smoking for many years, I finally found a way to get rid of that bad habit – by forming a habit around running. It began when some friends at work shamed me into running with them at lunchtime. Before I went along with them, I tried to run a mile at home. After a week of trying and trying, I finally could run for a mile without stopping, so I started to run with them at lunch. Then we all signed up for a 5K. That was fun because we stopped for beer and hamburgers after the race.

This race-burger-beer routine went on all summer and into the fall and got me hooked on running. The next spring I ran my first River Bank 25K. That was fun too, so I thought maybe I should try a marathon. I signed up for the Disney World Marathon. That was a good new habit because, other than running for 4 hours, our family had a great vacation! 

So then we looked for races in different states. I would run a marathon in the spring and then another one in the fall. This took us to places we probably wouldn’t have gone if it weren’t for running. I ended up running 29 marathons,104 half marathons, twenty-three 25Ks and so many smaller races that I can’t even recall how many.

 Then in 2004, my friend Don Kern asked me to help him measure 26.2 miles for a marathon in Grand Rapids. We did that and I have been taking care of the course every year since. I ran the first Grand Rapids Marathon and qualified for Boston (with a lot of help from our awesome Pace Teams). 

On a personal note, I have been married to my beautiful wife Jeannie for 54 years, and we have 3 great children – 2 girls and a boy. We have 4 awesome grandchildren, who all at one time or another have run the Kids Marathon with me.                 

Because of the construction downtown this year, we had to change the course of the race a little bit, but I will make sure that they are marked correctly and the correct distance. I can’t wait to see all of you out there race morning. It will be a memory that you will never forget! Good luck and great running!!!