JAY LEMOS
MPF RNR Athlete
Let's see here, how the hell did I get myself into this fun mess? I was never a runner. In fact I was close to being the slowest guy on the high school lacrosse team, and after that I became your typical leg-day-skipping “meathead”. Now fast forward to the summer of 2012. My friend Chris (who some of you may know) was doing the NYC Ironman and we went to see him finish. I had never been to something like that before, and the whole atmosphere was so electrifying! We were about 100 yards from the finish taking pictures, and I sprinted to the actual finish line to get some more photos. I was winded. I actually thought I was about to have a heart attack.
I had just been inspired and intrigued by this “thing”. The whole beating yourself up for fun, and people cheering you on at the end thing. It looked like so much fun! That week I decided to hop on the treadmill at the gym for a mile. As the days went on, I was hooked and I wanted to see how much more I could go. A month later I “ran” my first 50k at Mountain Madness in Ringwood. Six months after that, I did my first 100 miler. It was flat and it took me forever but like I said, I was hooked and didn’t want to stop.
The longer I do this, the more I want; whether it's more distance or just a more challenging race. The funny thing is, I’m not competitive at all. Maybe only with myself, but that's about it. I like to keep pushing and pushing just to see what happens. So far it's brought me some moments and experiences that I will never forget and introduced me to some of the coolest, most badass people out there, many of whom I am honored to say I can now call teammates.
And of course, none of this would be possible without the support from my loved ones who have been with me every step of the way, and put up with my crankiness when I’m injured.
