He collapsed 😦

Lately, I’ve been running.

That may not seem like much to some of you, but to me, it’s huge. I suffer from severe chronic shin splints that stem from being as overweight as I was as a kid and playing YEARS of football on the pavement. Don’t get me wrong, I was a fat white Barry Sanders with moves for days, but my shins took the brunt of the my obesity/agility.

Anyways, as many of you know, we have a little thing called TOUGH MUDDER rapidly approaching (September 18th baby birds!) and I have most DEFINITELY been on the ball with my training… except running. My endurance, strength, stability, and plyometric work is out of this world, but my body is not acclimated to running since I haven’t done it in YEARS.

The point of this post is that I’m running. Something I never thought I’d be able to do in a million years… I’m doing it. Out of the past 4 days, 3 of them I’ve run 4+ miles in the morning before my day starts. Again, never in a million years did I think I’d be running. It’s… liberating. Don’t get me wrong, my shins feel like they’re disintegrating… but not NEARLY as bad as it used to be. Before I could SWEAR a paint scraper was lodged in my tibialis anterior wrenching it away from the bone. Now, it just feels like that paint scraper is pressing against the exterior of my skin. Gnarly still, but not debilitating! Yay!

I definitely owe a big credit to my new running mate Tye-ran-asaurus Rex, but there’s a bigger drive…

I think of all of you. Team Black. Team Green. Team Hulk. The family and friends who have expressed their complete trust in me to help showcase a better way of living… I think of you. I think of all the struggle I see in the “House of Hulk” every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and the fact that you all are doing something a lot of you thought that YOU’d never be doing in a million years. I think of the sweat drenched faces soaked with the realization that “oh my god, I’m really doing this…” I think of the tears I’ve seen shed at a fitness journey coming to fruition, and my own tears I’ve shed along the way. I think about the fact that as much of a leader as I try to be, where do you all think I draw my inspiration from… You.

This post is an inadequate thank you to everyone putting their trust and faith in me and in Hulk. Truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all. Your faces flash across my minds eye as I’m running alongside Team Prime. My heart swells. Not with pride, but with the realization that as soon as my run is over, I’m going to see the very faces that inspire me doing the very thing that inspires me. It truly is a blessing to know each and every one of you.

While others are holding a candle, you are all spotlights pointed towards the sky. Only, it’s not Batman you’re calling… AhhhOOOOO!!!!!

– Hulk

Leave a comment