Greg Brown has reached 90,000 miles (Dec. 2016)

Greg Brown
Arlington VA
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[Editor's Note: Numerically speaking, Greg Brown doesn't belong on the site yet. But he's clearly one of us in spirit. And his warm-but-cautionary tale reminds us that we can perform a valuable service with our stories and our ability to motivate-inspire others to maintain their fitness commitment.]

I'm not quite ready to declare myself a member. But this week I hit my 90,000th mile, which was my impetus to touch base.  At my current rate (and continued good health!!!) I have about 6 years to go.

Just want to let you know what a motivation that 100,000 number (and by extension your website) has been for me.  Like most of the runners on your 100K list I enjoyed decades of injury-free medium/high mileage.  Five years ago I considered eventually cracking the 100K mark a mere formality as my health and my miles were as solid in my early 50's as they had been in my 30's.  My miles, though down from my peak years, were still in the 2000-2500 range. 

Then after 25 years as an officer in the military, a colonoscopy at my retirement physical showed the dreaded "shadow".  Life changed in one phone call.  A battery of further exams and one major surgery later, a tumor was removed.  Recovery was most of 9 months.  Running began again slowly.  In 2013 I logged just 771 miles, each one completely agonizing.  I fought through it and am now back up to 1500-1800 enjoyable miles a year.  That crazy number of 100,000 was a significant motivating factor for me. 

I'm pretty sure the above story is of little interest to anyone but me (and my supportive wife who's probably done 20,000 of those miles with me) but I wanted to share with someone.