Pretty amazing stuff, and huge congrats to Jurek, but this caught my eye in the article and really stood out:
On paper, Arbona and McCarthy were in over their heads, but they hung on heroically during the final 12 hours to keep the Yanks in the team medals. When they needed reinforcements, up from the middle of the pack came Michael Henze, who only a few years ago was a 300lb. non-runner. The Americans lost the team silver medal to the Italians in the final 15 minutes, but Henze’s late charge (from 30th to 12th place) and Arbona’s pure grit saved the bronze. It was the first time in history three U.S. men had run over 150 miles in the same race.
I did a little bit of googling on the guy and found the page for the World Championship 24 Hour Run USA Team:
Michael Henze, 40, Neenah, WI. Henze is the Plant Controller for a packing company, and is relatively new to ultrarunning. He once weighed over 300 pounds before taking up running and dropping over athird of his body weight. Since taking up long distances he has never finished worse than second in an ultramarathon race. In June, 2009, he won and broke the course record at the FANS 24-Hour with 147.41 miles.
Holy. Shit. And people have the gall to tell me I’m pushing sanity with my change. Yet more reason for me to keep pushing to marathon distances and beyond, if only for the eventual possibility to meet this guy and have a few minutes to talk to him and trade stories. To be clear, this guy went from being over 300 pounds some time in his late 30’s (I started last year at 288 at age 26) as a non runner to running 147.41 miles at a 9:46/mile pace over the course of a few years.
A little over a year from where I started, I have trouble breaking that average for an 8.5 mile run on a really good day.
I can see I have my work cut out for me.
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