Warming up for Mississippi Gulf Coast Marathon
On your mark, get set, well they’ll be ready to go December 8th and 9th when the third annual Gulf Coast Marathon takes off here in South Mississippi.
News 25’s Toni Miles caught up with one Coast resident who is already training for the race as he continues to live a healthy lifestyle year round.
Be fit. It’s the name of Jeffrey Ward’s local work out group and the direction he’s been taking since a diagnosis three years ago that would shake his entire foundation. “I was 284 pounds, Type 2 diabetic, and had high blood pressure, just basically everything about my blood work was wrong, and I knew I had to make a change.”
And he has. That health report was a turning point in Ward’s life. “I knew I had to make a change when I was just sitting around watching my son play baseball. He was being active. I was like, I don’t want to wind up being a statistic and have a heart attack by the time I am in my 40s or 50s and miss out on all of that.”
You can usually catch Ward and his companions running down this stretch of Highway 90 every week and he’s stepping up his fitness routine with plans to run his first ever full marathon during the third annual Mississippi Gulf Coast Marathon in December. “I did the half marathon last year, and this year will be my first stab at the full marathon. The first Gulf Coast Marathon, I was actually a spectator, so I was kind of the photographer for all the people that I saw running past, and they inspired me in a way.”
For those of you are thinking about running the marathon or just lacing up your sneakers to make strides to improve your own health, a word of encouragement from someone who has been in your shoes before. “My best advice is just to find something that you love about physical fitness. That way you are more than likely to stick with it.”
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