Lack Of Motivation?

Bible Verse Of The Day:
"Nothing can stop God's plan for your life." 
- Isaiah. 14:27

If you're lacking of motivation, well then you should definitely read today's post.

This is something that really opened my eyes. What an inspiring man! May God bless him!

A World Of Difference

He lost 130 pounds, ran 3:10, and his own mom didn't recognize him.

Of all the misery Jeff Le had to deal with in March 2008—a breakup, being pick-pocketed in his Washington, D.C., neighborhood, and the death of a close family friend—suffering a relapse of malaria felt almost darkly comical. "Like, what's next?" Le says. As the fever and chills set in, four years after Le had first contracted the disease while studying abroad in Ghana, he experienced a lucid dream. "I was running somewhere," he says. "I was so at peace. I was so happy and free." This was particularly odd because Le was emphatically not a runner, and he decided it was a cosmic hint that he could change his life if he wanted to. "My friends would always joke that I would only run if there were an ice-cream truck pulling away," he says. "I knew it was a sign."

The following month, on April Fool's Day to be exact, Le joined a Gold's Gym in downtown D.C. and stepped on a treadmill for the first time. He keyed in his weight: 290 pounds on a 5'9" inch frame.

Years of ingesting chicken wings and large pizzas by himself in one sitting had taken a predictable toll. Like an alcoholic who drinks past getting drunk, Le ate past the point of being full. And then kept eating. By early 2008, the 25-year-old was noticing the consequences, often feeling winded as he made his way to his office.

His first five minutes on the treadmill didn't go so well. "I saw stars, white spots," he says. And then he threw up—on the shoe of the woman next to him. "The hardest thing I've ever done was go back to the gym April 2, at the same time, with the same people who saw all that."

This time, Le ran seven minutes, and held his cookies. Then eight minutes the next day and nine minutes the day after that. By June, he had run two 10-K races, improving his pace from 12-minute to 10- minute miles, and was down 45 pounds.

Le still gorged—now on vegetables and fruit. He gave up greasy bar food. His pants size dropped from 48 to 38 and then 30, and he lost a size and a half in his feet. Friends began to donate clothes—none of his XXL fashions fit anymore.

Although it had been just three months since he had climbed atop that treadmill, Le joined the DC Road Runners and started working toward the Marine Corps Marathon. Between June and that October's race in Washington, D.C., Le ran three half-marathons, finishing each under two hours. The week before the marathon, he felt like he was flying during a 5-K tune-up, averaging a 7:30-per-mile pace. By race day, the startling transformation was complete. The nearly 300-pound man had morphed into a lithe, 160-pound racer. One-hundred thirty pounds. Gone.

"My mom flew in—she hadn't seen me," he says. "After she walked right by me, I called her phone. She turned around, dropped her bag and said, 'I know you're my son, but you look nothing like him.'"

Le took not just his new body to the starting line but an ambitious secret hope: break four hours in his first try. He finished in 3:42. In October 2009, he ran Chicago in 3:16—six minutes shy of a Boston qualifying time. He was too close to not try again. And so in December, Le ran the California International Marathon in 3:10, earning him a spot in the country's premier distance race.

"The most remarkable thing about Jeff is it all happened so fast for him," says Joe Emerson, a volunteer coach for the DC Road Runners. "Most people take years to qualify for Boston. Some people never get there. Jeff did it in a year and a half."

Registration for Boston 2010 had already closed, but Le can use his qualifying time for 2011. Next up is the Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon in June.

"When I started, the point of running was just to be in better shape," Le says. "But it became something else. It made me feel alive. The hunger pangs and the shock on my body were challenging. But I wanted that freedom I felt in my dream. I wanted to walk up the stairs without gasping for air. I wanted to travel and climb mountains. How could I climb mountains if I couldn't climb stairs?"

Runner's World Magazine
By Mike Wise
Published 11th May, 2010


God Bless xxx