1987: Even short fat guys can perform if they train for it!

Rob Crosswell

I first started running in the mid 1980s. I had gained a lot of weight, and determined it was time to take action on that matter. I went to the track at the high school, and a few of my friends were there. They told me they were training for a marathon. I was impressed. I believe that was when the seed was planted for my personal marathon mania. (By the way, none of those friends ever made it to a marathon finish.)

Shortly after that, I met an amazing guy named Joe Muldowney. Joe owned a small local running shoe store. I went in, and I guess I had him chuckling as I was asking about racing flats. At any rate he sold me an appropriate pair of training shoes and I was off. I have always been something of a passionate athlete, but I also have certain passions about food and drink that require an extra level of training effort to overcome. Joe introduced me to the necessary commitment to compensate for this lifestyle weakness. (Don’t quote me on this, but I think I may have stopped drinking beer for a year after my first New York marathon as part of a training regimen which was overseen and supervised by Joe.)