Aaron's Running Story

Short Running Bio

Aaron was obese from age 13 to 36, and couldn't run for a minute in high school phys ed class.

After his personal doctor brought up his obesity in 2013, and taught him the secret about eating, Aaron dropped close to 100 pounds from his highest weight, and uses running to keep his food addiction at bay. Aaron completed his first half-marathon in 2014, and cried at the finish line.

Aaron teaches finance and computer science at Boston University, and lives in Natick, Massachusetts, along the Boston Marathon route. Aaron regularly organizes group runs with his local Natick Runners club (visitors always welcome) and loves sharing in others' success.

Aaron is a member of the Marathon Maniacs and 50 States Marathon Club.

In the news

• Pacing Jack and Jill's Downhill Marathon, Maniacs/Fanatics Blog, 4 August 2024
• Six BU Runners Share Their Boston Marathon Charity Stories, BU Today, 12 April 2024
• Terriers Running Boston Maraton for Charity, BU Today, 8 October 2021
• Running for a Cause, BU Today, April 13, 2018

Why do I run?

About ten years ago, my neighbor asked to put a twelve pack of hard lemonade in our fridge. "Is your fridge full?" I asked. "No,” they replied. “I just know that if I have it at my house, I'll drink it all tonight." I realized that I had never experience that feeling with alcohol, but I knew that feeling: with food. My family of origin practiced the "clean plate club", always had second helpings, and I always have room for dessert. Three helpings of dessert.

I found this WHO online quiz about alcoholism, and if we just swap the words "alcohol" and "drinks" for "brownies" and "chocolate cake", it's clear that I still have a problem. I knew I was a food addict, but I didn't know what to do about it. Running (and marathoning) has helped me become a high-functioning food addict.

I was obese from age 13 to 36. When I was in high school, I couldn't run for a minute. In gym class, I was always the fattest, slowest, and last kid. When I graduated high school at age 17, I weighed about 270 pounds. At age 23, I remember writing down a list of goals during an airplane flight that included a goal weight of 225 pounds. I had always dreamed that my ideal weight would be 225 pounds, but never in my adult life did I get there. Once, before my first son was born in 2006, I worked my way down to about 240 pounds. I believe my all-time high weight was above 290.

I had tried running a little bit when I was 18. I followed a walk-run plan and worked my way up to running about 2-3 miles, 2-3 times per week. I would keep it up for about 3 months, and then due to some minor setback (I’m busy; it’s cold; it rained), I would take one or two years off. This pattern repeated itself throughout my twenties and most of my thirties.

Learning when to eat

On May 22, 2013, while meeting about something else, my personal doctor, Richard Galgano taught me something about eating I had never heard before:

"When you're hungry, eat. When you're not hungry, don't eat."

It only took me about 48 hours to learn the difference, and the effect was remarkable. It turns out that I was mostly eating because it was mealtime, or food was available at the office, or I was bored or anxious. Eating when hungry changed everything.

At that time, I had been running my 2-3 miles, 2-3 times per week, but as I reduced my eating, I lost weight, and I started to be able to run longer distances without knee pain. On a trip to Montreal in July of 2013, I went running in a park on wood-chip trails. What a difference! I ran for a full hour without knee pain. I think this was the first time I experienced a runner's high.

During the summer of 2013, I was losing about 10 pounds a month. For the first time since I was a teenager, I finally got to 225 pounds by the end of August. It turns out that 225 was not my ideal weight. By this point, I was running about 5-6 miles at a time, three times per week. I dropped to 200 pounds by New Year's.

Becoming a Marathon Runner

By the end of 2013, I accomplished something I never had before: I had run consistently, three times a week, for more than six months -- and into the winter! I bought proper winter running clothes and a pair of waterproof trail running shoes. I was encouraged by my weight loss and determined to run through the winter to keep up my progress. I was also feeling better than ever. Not only was I at my lowest weight in over 20 years, but my mood was good, my anxiety was gone, and my sleep improved.

In January of 2014, I ran 10 miles for the first time. It was slow going, but I felt incredibly accomplished. When I ran the Marathon Park Prep half marathon in Ashland, Massachusetts in March, I cried at the finish. I couldn't run a minute in high school, and I had just finished a half marathon! Take that Mr. Bergeron! (Mr. Bergeron was my high school gym teacher who wrote me off as a failure for being fat.)

People asked me if I was going to run "The Marathon" (i.e., Boston). I decided I'd better start with "a marathon" before trying to run The Marathon, so I entered the lottery for the 2014 Chicago Marathon, and to my great surprise, I got in. I followed Hal Higdon's 3-day-a-week marathon training plan. I loved training for the marathon, because I loved the feeling of accomplishment that I got from doing the long runs. The hardest part was tapering -- reducing my running for the three weeks before the marathon.

My brother-in-law Mike and his sister Dana also got into the Chicago Marathon lottery that year, and we used the occasion of the marathon to have a wonderful family get together weekend -- the first of several.

I met Hal Higdon at the Chicago Marathon expo, and of course I bought his book. I've read it 3 times already!

The Boston Marathon

A lot of people run a marathon (“one and done”). I had barely finished running the Chicago Marathon when I decided that I wanted to run Boston in 2015.

I live in Natick, Massachusetts, which straddles miles 8-12 of the Boston Marathon route. Each of the towns along the Marathon route receives a small number of invitational entries to help support fundraising for local non-profit organizations. I was honored to be selected to run for the Natick Service Council, a local social service organization, and I raised almost $5,000 for NSC.

Running through Natick on Marathon Monday, seeing so many people that I know, was incredible. Of course, I decided to register for a fall marathon.

The Natick Runners

Around October of 2015, I began to go on group runs with others in my town, in the newly-formed Natick Runners group. This was the first time I really experienced running with a group, and -- and -- this has made all difference.

Almost every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday now features a group run with friends from the Natick Runners group. While training for the 2016 Boston Marathon, I started to discover the network of trails around Natick and Wellesley, and coordinate group runs. By offering several distances and start times, I've found that a lot more runners will join me.

Our typical group run will include people running anything from 5-15 miles, with opportunities to join up or drop-off along the route. Group runs are not just exercise, but have become very important social outings and therapy sessions. And this is how I met my best friends.

The Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge

While I was training for my first Boston Marathon in 2015, my dad was diagnosed with bladder cancer, and due to medical errors he spent 9 weeks in the hospital in intensive care. At one point, it was very grim, and we thought we were going to lose him. My dad's eventual treatment at the University of Chicago involved an innovative treatment called immunotherapy, which uses a virus to stimulate the immune system to fight the cancer.

I am a high-school drop-out when it comes to chemistry and biology. My thinking skills cannot directly help to treat or cure cancer. But maybe my passion for marathon running can help. In 2016, I joined the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team for the Boston Marathon.

As part of the DFMC team for the Boston Marathon, I ask everyone I know to make a contribution to my fundraising campaign -- 100% of all donations goes directly to cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Over 10 fundraising seasons, I've raised over $140,000 for cancer research at Dana-Farber.

Please help me reach my goal! Visit my personal fundraising page and make a contribution for cancer research.

40 is Just a Number

I decided to run my age in miles in celebration of my 40th birthday. More accomplished runners would do this in one day, but I decided due to training and time constraints that I would be satisfied running 40 miles over the course of 3 days in one weekend -- 3 back-to-back half marathons. I invited the Natick Runners, and over the course of 3 days, about 30 people joined me. One of my companions on the Sunday run remarked that I really knew how to celebrate: a three day-long party with thirty guests for which I didn't need to prepare any food or do any clean-up!

At the spot where my GPS told me that I had completed the 40th mile of my weekend -- on a trail at Lake Waban -- I gave the following speech to about 8 friends who were still with me at that point in the run: "What have I learned this weekend? I've learned that 40 is just a number."

My birthday runs have become an annual tradition, with group runs over the course of 3 or 4 days to get the miles in. And it's a bit contagious.

The 50 States Marathon Club

In October of 2015, I ran my third marathon in Narragansett, Rhode Island. It was during this marathon that I met my first "50-stater" -- people who are attempting to run marathons in all 50 states. I didn't know this was a thing.

In 2018 (at age 41), I joined the 50 States Marathon Club -- you need 10 states to join. I planned to run marathons in 4 new states each year, to reach my goal of completing marathons in all 50 states by age 50.

The 50-States Marathon and Marathon Manics clubs introduced me to an entire network of similarly dedicated runners. I've made dozens of friends in this group, and now it seems that anywhere I go for a marathon I have people to run with, have dinner with, and share travel adventures together.

My Transformation

It is an understatement to write that has transformed my life. It has given me an identification and self-confidence that I never had before. My 5am running partners have become my best friends -- our regular group runs have become our social time and therapy group. Running a marathon started out as something I did, and then something I did again. And then it became who I am.