I was born with a congenital heart defect called tetrology of fallot. I had two open-heart surgeries when I was only a year old, and one when I was 6 years old. I was always scared of running and physical exertion because I was scared that something would go wrong with my heart again.

Because of this I slowly gained weight to the point that when I was in junior high I was only 5'3 and weighed 215 pounds. With the help of friends and family I started eating healthy and lost almost 30 pounds, and held that weight off all through high school. However, I just couldn’t seem to lose any more weight, and in my heart I knew the reason was because I needed to exercise on top of eating right.

It wasn't until the summer of 2013, 4 years after I started my weight loss journey, that I put faith in my heart and my body to sustain me through the exercise I needed to lose the weight. When I first started running I couldn't even run a mile without stopping. My mile time was 12 min and 30 seconds. After four months and through lots of hard work and dedication, I had lost 30 more pounds, my mile time got down to 7:30, and I can run at a 10:00 min pace in the half marathon. I’ve now completed two half marathons, including the Big Cottonwood Half Marathon. I am a completely different person, and running is to thank for that.

Update: Jake completed the Big Cottonwood Half Marathon in 2:00:06, which is equivalent to a 9:09 mile pace and 51 seconds faster per mile than what he had included in his story just a week before the race. Congrats, Jake!