This ‘Fat Man on a Mission’ Wants to Run a 5K in Every Texas County – Runner’s World

When Price Robinson, 51, was contemplating whether or not he should drop out of his first 5K, the mantra of his favorite baseball team, the Texas Rangers popped into his head.

“Never, ever quit,” Robinson thought as he took the next step past the first mile of the race. He was running the 2015 Push Thru the 5K in Morristown, Tennessee, which he went on to finish in about two hours and 30 minutes.

Time didn’t matter—he was just focused on finishing—and that decision to continue on marked the first of many steps towards the healthier life that Robinson wants to lead.

At the time of the race, he was in the beginning stages of running after a health wakeup call that came in the form of a scale reading: 495 pounds.

Four years later, the Amarillo, Texas, resident has lost well over 100 pounds and is currently on a mission to run a 5K in every county in the state of Texas. As of June 24, Robinson has completed 96 of the 254 counties and documents his progress on his Facebook page titled “Fat Man on a Mission.”

“It occurred to me that you can either leave butt prints or footprints, and the choice is yours,” Robinson told Runner’s World. “You’re either going to leave butt prints in the couch or footprints on the road, and that’s kind of where I’m at. I want to leave footprints.”

Robinson’s journey from the couch to the roads began with intention after he stepped on that scale in 2015. At the time, walking around at work was difficult. Even getting out of bed in the morning was a challenge, as shooting pain from his feet to knees would begin after he took just a few steps.

“That was an eye-opening moment for me because I knew that if something didn’t change, what that next number was going to be, and I was like, ‘Oh heck to the no,’” Robinson said. “A quarter ton is how they measure payload capacity for pick-ups. It’s not how they should measure people. I just knew something had to change.”

At first, Robinson started increasing his activity in the pool, helping acclimate his body to movement. Early on in the process, he drew inspiration from his favorite baseball team, which was experiencing a resurgence of its own.

“This little scrappy team that was in last place, just starting clawing their way back up, and always under the mantra of ‘Never, ever quit.’ Before the season was over, they had taken over first place,” Robinson said of the Texas Rangers. “Having them constantly talk about not quitting really started to resonate with me.”

After a few weeks in the the pool, Robinson set his next goal: Walk to the mailbox at the end of his driveway and back to his house every single day. The effort would leave Robinson out of breath and covered in sweat, but he continued on until he felt comfortable walking to his neighbor’s mailbox and then the next neighbor’s mailbox, and so on.

Soon, he was able to walk the distance of a mile. This helped get his body slowly acclimated to the motion of running without as much impact on his joints.

Robinson also made nutritional changes in his diet. Instead of eating large amounts of food subconsciously while watching television, Robinson tries to make conscious choices when it comes to consumption. Instead of grabbing the nearest snack, he pauses to think about the decision and how it will affect his body. Usually, he decides that the extra snack isn’t worth it.

By the end of the summer, Robinson decided to run and walk his first 5K. By the first mile, he was completely exhausted and seriously considered dropping out.

“Nobody here is going to know that I signed up for the 5K, and only did the mile. If I quit now, nobody will know, nobody will care, it’s still a step in the right direction for me,” Robinson thought to himself. “But I finally thought, ‘You know what, I will know, and I didn’t come here to do a mile. I came here to do a 5K.’”

With the help of a race organizer Gretchen Zablocki who walked with Robinson for the remaining 2.1 miles to the finish line, he completed his first race. Zablocki later invited Robinson to join the Morristown Running and Hiking Club, a local group that embraced Robinson.

“They were extremely accepting of me and very supportive. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people,” he said.

After he joined the club, Robinson’s times started to get dramatically faster. After three events or so, he dropped his 5K time from two and a half hours to an hour and a half.

Then in October 2016, Price moved from his community in Morristown, Tennessee, to Amarillo, Texas, for a job opportunity, so he had to find a new motivation for running. At the time, his friend was tackling the goal of running a 5K in every county in Tennessee, so Price decided to do the same in his new home state of Texas.

“That was before I looked at a map,” Robinson said in reference to covering the second-largest state in the U.S. “But by that point, I had already said I was going to do it.”

While working as a manager of a storage facility, Robinson spends his weekends running 5Ks across the Lonestar state. One of the most memorable? The Chuck Norris 5K, which he completed on May 4. Norris, who gave each finisher a high-five after they crossed the finish line, waited for Robinson to complete the course and prayed with him afterwards.

While Robinson doesn’t like to focus on scales, he says that he’s lost over 100 pounds since taking up running in 2015. His other health numbers, like blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol, have improved, too.

“I have redefined health for my purposes as the ability to live the life that you want to live and that brings meaning to you,” he said. “That is my goal. I’ve spent my whole life chasing numbers on a scale, and there have been times where I’ve reached them, but it falls away because that’s not meaningful and it doesn’t last.”

Instead, Robinson focuses on his “why” when it comes to leading a healthy lifestyle. Being able to walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding without being in pain, and being able to play with his future grandchildren are moments that motivate him to stick with his goal, which he hopes to complete next year.

“At the end of the day, I want to encourage as many people as I can,” he says. “The life they want is waiting for them and it’s about 3.1 miles past their front door.”