A mother's spirit inspires novice marathon runner

October 15, 9:59 AMDenver People ExaminerErnie Tucker

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Andrew Hudson (R) and pal Eric Duran celebrate at
the Chicago Marathon (Photo: Andrew Hudson)

"I can’t believe I can now call myself a marathon runner," says Andrew Hudson.

The 43-year-old founder of Andrew Hudson's Job List.com and former press secretary for Mayor Wellington Webb ran Sunday's Chicago Marathon in a very respectable 4 hours and 39 minutes.

His inspiration? His mother, who died last April, and whom he envisioned waiting for him at the finish line -- until he realized she was with him on the course in spirit.

His journey began about three years ago when he realized he was an overweight guy who had ballooned to 235 lbs. on his six-foot frame. "I had spent a majority of my career - from age 30 to 40 -- not doing anything to take care of my health,” he observes. "I got a wake-up call from my doctor who was checking my cholesterol, and he said if I don’t take care of it, I was going to die an early death."

Hudson says this triggered change. "I’m very good when somebody shows me a roadmap: Here’s how to get from here to there. The idea of trying to go on a diet, Atkins…just didn’t appeal to me. Trying to lose weight without the component of physical activity wouldn't work."

A musician, Hudson was in Colorado Springs for a gig with singer Hazel Miller. When he walked into the venue, he was stunned to see the once-hefty performer now lithe and effortlessly lifting heavy speakers onto a stage. After complimenting her on her trim physique, he asked Miller about her change, and she shared the secret: she worked out with Arvada trainer Brian Barkley who runs Functional Conditioning. "He transformed how I thought about food and exercise."

Hudson says he went from walking around Sloan’s Lake with his dog to joining a running group of friends who had repeatedly passed him, urging him to trot along with them. Finally, when he turned 40 in 2005, he ran the three miles around the lake for the first time. "I thought I would die," he chuckles. Still, he persisted and began reclaiming his health slowly, working on exercises, eventually dropping to 190 lbs. Since then, Hudson has run 5Ks, 10Ks and even half marathons.

"I was told to never consider running a marathon," but a Chicago-bound runner friend, Eric Duran, convinced him otherwise. So for the past six months, Hudson's been in a traditional training mode, ramping it up from 3 miles to weekend runs of 15- or 20-miles, then tapering off as the event neared.

“I still wasn’t totally convinced I was ready to run this race when it came around Sunday morning. I had butterflies in my stomach,” he says.

He joined a massive group that would eventually include some 33,000 finishers of the 26.2 mile course which winds through multiple Chicago neighborhoods.The temperatures reached the upper 80s – sending dozens to medical tents -- but not ending in the disaster of last year when the race was ended prematurely after a runner died of heat-related symptoms.

“One thing I learned: it is a big mental game. I saw guys in a lot better shape than me crawling off the route at about Mile 18. For whatever reason it became overbearing. They hit the proverbial wall," he says."There was one time, I thought ‘Well, maybe I’ll stop and walk.’ But I kept remembering advice I’d been receiving from subscribers on my (job) list: ‘Whatever you do, try not to stop and walk, because it’s very hard to start up again.’ I walked through the water stations, which was part of my strategy.

"I started to create a mental game inside my head. One of them was, it couldn’t hurt any worse.  The pain. I've been able to endure that for the last six miles. I could go another seven."

Then something else took hold. "My mother passed away in April. I started thinking about it – if there’s one thing,or one person, I could imagine waiting for me at the finish line, who would that be? I said, ‘OK, that’s my mom.’ I just kept imagining my mom at the finish line, and I had to get there."

His invented strategy – when “your mind really does go to mush after awhile” – helped speed him on his journey. "Somebody told me an inspirational tale of keeping pieces of paper in a fanny pack, and every mile was another person who inspired" this runner. Still, Hudson's image was him own. “I’m not terribly religious or spiritual, but I really started to think about the metaphor. She wasn’t at the end. She was actually right by my side, pushing me through.”

As he notes in his most recent weekly newsletter, “running 26.2 miles is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but I would highly encourage anyone who's physically capable, to try it.” He also wants to encourage participants in the upcoming Denver Marathon (with registration closing at midnight, Oct. 15).

Hudson says he may run another. But for now -- the triumph of spirit seems enough.