How Running Can Change Your Life

I am what Dr. Jack Daniels calls a “re-run” runner. That is someone who was a runner a long time ago and is now trying to get back to those glory days I guess. I was a talented runner as a kid growing up in a small Iowa farming community. Starting in about 5th grade, I would run 5-6 miles from my house in the country into town to hang out with my friends. Many times, this included dribbling a basketball on the shoulder of the two-lane highway, with a backpack on. At night my parents would pick me up and take me home.

By 7th grade, I ran a 5:14 mile and a 2:22 800 meter. In 8th grade, I ran a 5:00 mile and a 2:14 800 meter. As a freshman, I took 31st at the state cross country meet and 6th in the 3200 meter at the state track meet. I had an injury from basketball my sophomore year, 2nd place finishes in the 3200 and 1600 at state my junior year, and a 4th place finish in cross country my senior year. I was well on my way to a great running career, or so I thought…

I got in trouble a week before state track my senior year and was ineligible for the meet, but I would’ve likely placed 2nd in each of the mile (4:27 PR) and two mile (9:39 PR), along with winning as a team in the 4×800 (my PR split was 1:57) relay where we were ranked 1st in the state by a long shot.

I did run in college for a year and even made the varsity team for Nationals in Cross Country. I didn’t take school seriously though and ended up flunking out of college after one season of track and one season of cross country. I then joined the Army, where I didn’t have anyone to train with and I sort of lost my reason for running.

Fast forward 20+ years and I’d become an almost 40-year old dad that could barely put socks on without breathing hard. I had a lot of great memories of sports in my youth, but I had let life happen to me instead of creating the life I really wanted. I had built a decent professional career and moved up the corporate ladder, only adding more and more stress to my life. I had (and still have) a beautiful and amazing wife and 3 wonderful kids. I had almost everything I thought I wanted in life except for my health. I had let myself go, very slowly, over time. For years I was disgusted when I looked in the mirror, but I always blamed it on different forces that were outside my control.

One turning point I remember very clearly was when I was at a get together and someone (not going to mention names) said “You’ve put on a little weight, haven’t you?” I said, “Psh, yeah thanks for noticing.” sarcastically. In my head I was so embarrassed. He then said “Well, it must mean you’re happy!” I thought to myself, “I have never been so unhappy in my life before. How can being overweight from eating and drinking too much mean that I’m happy?” I realize now that a lot of people see letting yourself go a little as a sign that you’re comfortable, and thus “happy”. For me, that was one of the major motivations for me to get my life together. I vowed to myself that I would restart my life in a way that me and my family could be proud of. No gimmicks, no fad diets, no magic pills, just hard work and consistency. I was going to prove to myself that I could do it and in turn, show everyone else that I could. I now had a chip on my shoulder big enough to make it happen.

In January 2023, I started playing basketball at my local gym with some other dads. I found out very quickly just how bad of shape I was in. I could barely play one full-court game to 11 and I was completely embarrassed. I spent about 4 months hoping that I’d get in better shape by playing basketball and the reality was that I still was only able to play about two games in a row before needing a break. I remember telling people that I played AAU competitively in high school and seeing them look at me like I was full of crap. This same thing happened over and over again when running with others also. I got so sick of telling people that I used to run competitively in college because they would take one look at me and think “This guy can’t seriously think I believe that.” I could see it in their eyes. I was 5’11” 225 lbs when I started running and I ended up at 165 lbs in about 8 months as you’ll see in a future post.

I made the decision to get in shape in late April 2023 and decided that running was going to be a major part of it. I started running May 1st, 2023 and it was brutal. I couldn’t even run a full mile. I felt like my heart was going to explode on every run. I ran early in the morning in the pitch dark so that nobody could see me shuffling along the neighborhood streets. I spent a month doing mostly walking and mixing in as much running as I could. I finally bought a “running watch” and signed up for Strava in June to start tracking my activity. I tried to run every day, even if it was just a mile and my diet was no alcohol and intermittent fasting. I was strict about no food until noon and I never ate after 6 PM unless my family had something going on that prevented me from eating that early. I started losing weight pretty quickly and my times went from 13 minute miles to 10-11 minutes miles pretty quickly. I made friends with a local coach and started doing long runs with a group he coached and that was a major “level up” moment. I went from not being able to do more than 7 or 8 miles by myself to easily doing 10-13 mile long runs with a group.

Fast forward to November 2024 and I’m well on my way to a 2:45 marathon! My easy runs are now around 7:50/mile pace and my workouts are anywhere from 5:30 pace for intervals to 6:20 pace for marathon paced work. There’s a lot more to tell in between, and I promise I’ll fill in the gaps in future posts coming soon. I’ll lay out what each month of my progression has been like (weight-wise and running-wise), with all the ups and downs (there have been a lot of both!). If you want to see my progression on Strava, I leave it all out there for the world to see here: Tyler Mueller | Strava Runner Profile. All of my whining about how hard it is, all of my failed workouts, and all of the elation with each workout that helped me level up, etc.

Thanks for reading and I hope you continue to follow me and that my story can help inspire you to do the same!

If you’d like one on one coaching, check out my profile and training packages at https://coaches.vdoto2.com/tyler-mueller