Photo By Sgt. Brian Johnson | Spc. Brian Johnson, a Blacklick, Ohio Resident and Sioux Falls, SD native and a member...... read more read more
By Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Osborn
1194th Engineer Company
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio – It’s like you woke up one morning and said, “I want to go run a half marathon,” and then just did it.
Those are the words to describe the fitness journey of Spc. Brian Johnson, a carpenter and administrative specialist with the Chillicothe based 1194th Engineer Company.
Johnson, 38, a resident of Blacklick, Ohio, and Sioux Falls, S.D., native, and a 19-year military veteran, started working toward running his first half marathon almost a year ago. But he wasn’t a person who has always enjoyed running, or even ran at all.
“I began running when I was in Iraq on my second combat tour in 2010. My boss came into the office one day and told me that I will be running in a 5k (3.1 miles) race that weekend,” Johnson explained.
It was from that point that Johnson became a runner, but not immediately.
“I slowly started running from there. I ran a bit when we got home from Iraq later that year, but didn’t really start again until the middle of 2012.”
What caused him to get back into running? One reason that Johnson attributes was the help of two people motivating him, 1st Sgt. Gil Scroggy and Staff Sgt. Brad Payne.
“They were two people that I really respect that helped to motivate me and make me want to start in earnest,” Johnson explained. “I think more than anything, I was afraid of disappointing them.”
The other reason he started running was because Johnson was struggling to meet the Army standards for the two-mile run for the Army Physical Fitness Test.
“I was missing the standard by 2-and-a-half minutes,” Johnson said.
What does missing the standard do for a soldier? It prevents them from getting a promotion to the next rank, getting an award, and it could cause them to be involuntarily discharged from the service.
“The last thing is what scared me the most,” Johnson said. “I did not want to be so close to retiring, to only get involuntarily discharged for not meeting the standards.”
So, in the middle of 2012, working two jobs with up to 15-hour days and with no motivation to want to go run during the week, Johnson tried a different way to begin his fitness journey. He entered the Columbus 10k (6.2 miles) in June of 2012.
“I entered the Columbus 10k as a different way to try to get fit. I figured if other people were around to help motivate me, that I could maybe do the race and get a good workout in,” Johnson said.
With no preparation, and on an extremely hot day that June afternoon, Johnson paid the $25 entry fee into the race. Knowing that he couldn’t run six miles, Johnson decided to do a different approach to the race.
To get more out of the race, Johnson brought some of his Army equipment to race in. Adding an extra 60 pounds from body armor, a full ruck sack and boots, Johnson started the race.
“I finished dead last at 1:45 walking the entire time,” Johnson said. “The thing that I find funny was, the next closest finishers were 5 minutes in front of me. I had blisters on my feet for a week.”
It was from that point, after completing seven weeks of military obligations for the summer of 2012, Johnson started his exercise routine in earnest.
Over the next eight weeks, Johnson would enter into one to two competitive races a weekend. He completed numerous 5k races, sometimes twice a weekend, two 10k races, and a 20k (12.4 miles) race.
In late October 2012, Johnson finally ran in his first half marathon, the Columbus Marathon and mini-marathon.
Why do that race in such a short period of time? Johnson explained that it was about a personal goal.
“I always had a goal to run a marathon. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to complete all 26 miles of a full marathon, so I decided to just try a half marathon,” Johnson said,
So, with 18,000 of his closest friends, Johnson ran in the 2012 Columbus Marathon. He completed it in 2:41:15.
With time left to go in the year, Johnson kept running. He participated in another half dozen races before doing his final race of the year, his second half marathon at Cedar Point.
“I wanted to do that race just to prove to myself that my completing my first half marathon was not a fluke,” explained Johnson.
By the end of the 2012 racing season, Johnson had competed in 20 different races for a distance of 99.54 miles ran.
Because of all of the running that Johnson had been doing, he was able to eventually meet the Army Standards in early 2013.
“I went from running a 5k in 36 minutes to running it in 31-and-a-half minutes,” Johnson said. “I have taken six to seven minutes off of my half marathon time from the first time that I ran one. I also was able to take off the two minutes that I needed for the run.”
All of that running had an added benefit, weight loss. Over the course of the next 18 months into 2013, Johnson lost 50 pounds.
“I had to buy all new clothes because things stopped fitting me,” explained Johnson.
Are running long distances fun? According to Johnson, it can be.
“Fun is a relative term,” Johnson said. “It can be rewarding knowing that you have completed something as difficult as a 13-mile run.”
What’s next for Johnson? He plans to keep racing throughout out the summer, finding more difficult races to run and longer distances to go. He hopes to run a full marathon in the fall.
| Date Taken: | 07.16.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 07.17.2013 21:35 |
| Story ID: | 110353 |
| Location: | CHILLICOTHE, OHIO, US |
| Hometown: | BLACKLICK, OHIO, US |
| Hometown: | SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA, US |
| Web Views: | 185 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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