its been a little over 11 months since my sleeve surgery (march 19, 2013). yesterday I accomplished a goal that ive had since I was a teenager. im 50 years old now and just ran my first full 26.2 mile marathon! my goal was under 5 hours and I did it in 4 hours 51 minutes. ive been running ever since I started exercising after surgery and when I first started I couldn't run for more than 1 minute! after running a few 13.1 mile half marathons i started training 5 months ago for a full 26.2 mile marathon and now I can finally check that off my bucket list. today im at my lowest weight ever at 180.25 pounds. for the last 20 years before surgery I was always around 300 pounds. im so grateful for this surgery, but the truth is that if you don't use the surgery as a tool along with good food choices and exercise, it will be hard to achieve your long term goals. the surgery alone may have lost me 60 pounds, but believe me, the last 60 pounds is because of me using my new sleeve as part of an entire life style change that includes eating healthy, knowing when to say no when my sleeve is satisfied (not bursting) and dedicating myself to exercise 4x a week even when I don't feel like doing it. I never thought I would be a success story as that always happened to someone else, not me....well now its me and it can be you too! best of luck to everyone, post pre-surgery and post-surgery. just remember to stop making excuses and start making the changes to guarantee yourself success.

yes jess9395 it is an older post but I did just run the 26.2 mile nyc marathon on nov. 1 which was 2 months ago. I try to run 3-4 times a week for exercise and schedule a few races a year to have a race to look forward to. thanks for the kind words and best of luck to you as well and I can see you too have done very well regarding your weight, so congrats to you too!

Ooh the NYC marathon is on my bucket list! I did my first one last May and I think I prefer the half and trail runs...BUT I know I will do another full someday, if only to earn my "s" (you know, I do marathonS instead of marathon).

Did you get into NYC via the lottery? Or run for a charity? How was it?!?!?

jess9395, congrats on running a marathon! ive only run 2 full marathons and that's probably going to be it for me. it takes too much to train and prepare for that distance and I think ill just be sticking to half marathons from this point forward. being that im from nyc I wanted to run the nyc marathon once to just run my hometown race. it was an incredible experience as there was so many people cheering us all on and I don't think any other race ever can compare to that one. I didn't get in through the lottery so I ran for charity, the jimmy v foundation for cancer research. if you do ever decide to run another marathon definitely try and make it the nyc one! and again I say great job on your weight loss, you look awesome!

Inspiring!

jess9395, congrats on running a marathon! ive only run 2 full marathons and that's probably going to be it for me. it takes too much to train and prepare for that distance and I think ill just be sticking to half marathons from this point forward. being that im from nyc I wanted to run the nyc marathon once to just run my hometown race. it was an incredible experience as there was so many people cheering us all on and I don't think any other race ever can compare to that one. I didn't get in through the lottery so I ran for charity, the jimmy v foundation for cancer research. if you do ever decide to run another marathon definitely try and make it the nyc one! and again I say great job on your weight loss, you look awesome!

Thank you!

I spent six months in Ny on a job once and would love to return and can't think of a better way to do it! But I'm with you on the training and such...will probably mostly stick to half marathons!

Best to you!

I'm happy this thread got resurrected because now I get to see it. I feel so inspired! Running a marathon is on my bucket list as well. Thanks for sharing your story! I'm only 3 weeks out now but looking forward to years of better health and fun.

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That's so awesome! A marathon is HUGE and isn't an easy thing to complete! Also thank you for the advise, you are absolutely correct! It's a tool but our choice t make the right decisions moving forward. Congrats on your success!

hi everyone! its been awhile since ive posted. im actually going to be running the boston marathon in a few months and im so excited about this! ill be doing it again for charity, the jimmy v foundation for cancer research. ive committed to raising $6000 to fight this terrible illness and If anyone here has been affected in some way by cancer and you would like to donate to the jimmy v foundation for cancer research and support my run as well as a worthy cause, feel free to click the link that follows this post. your donation is 100% tax deductible. thank you and look for another post from me in the forums with my 4.5 year update (for the last 2 years or so ive steadily stayed in the mid 190's and that's where I am today). thank you and everyone have a great day! http://jimmyv.convio.net/site/TR/Endurance/General?px=1409952&pg=personal&fr_id=1370

That is awesome! Congratulations! I can only hope that once I have surgery I can do all the things I used to do like kayaking, hiking, etc.