Mark Rucker's Journey: From Couch Potato to Triathlete

Mark after the 2012 Iron Horse Half Marathon

I've been thinking for some time to mix in some guest posts. I've been fortunate to get to know some amazing people through Twitter, DailyMile and the blogsosphere, that I want to share their stories as well.

Finally, I'm adding guest posts, and I could not think of a more perfect person to feature - Mark Rucker.

I met Mark through DailyMile and then got to meet him in person as we ran the Iron Horse Half Marathon in October of 2012 - his first half marathon. His upbeat, positive and encouraging personality you see online is exactly what you get when you meet him in real life.

Over the past couple years, Mark has been waging the Battle of the Bulge, and he is winning as he's gone from a couch potato to a soon-to-be Ironman! His story is so compelling, he was recently featured on CNN.com.

So without any further ado, here's Mark in his own words:

Focusing on the Positive

Today's run was caught on film. Relative happened to see
me running through town.

It's easy to dwell on the negative. It's easy to pile on. To whine. Complain.

When we hit rocky times, we all too often become 'Debbie Downers."

Problem is when we do so we take our focus off our goals and make the task at hand even more difficult. We become our worst enemy, and we can find victory because we're defeating ourselves.

Look, bad runs happen. They're going to happen whether we want them to or not. We're not also going to be at our best when we head out for a run, and from time to time, an "easy 6" quickly turns into a "sadistic 6."

Instead, find the positives out of the run. There's always some good to pull out of a 'bad' run.

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

To borrow the phrase from Charles Dickens: It was the best of the times; it was the worst of times.

That pretty much sums up my first month of training for the 7 Bridges Marathon ... except that it was the worst of times and THEN the best of times.

The first two weeks were rough.

Check that. The first two weeks were harsh, tempestuous, difficult, grueling. Pretty much flat out tough.