It’s late but the drive thru at McDonald’s is still open….another long, stressful day at work. When asked to place his order, without needing to check the menu board, he said what had become almost a daily order, “2 Quarter Pounders with cheese, 9 piece Chicken Nuggets, super-size fries, super-size coke, and apple pie.” I joke with him now that the person probably thought he had a large family stashed in the back of his Volvo SUV. Nobody’s sure, but Bill might be responsible for the expression “Super Sizing.” When the Domino’s Pizza guy knows your voice, name and order, you know you’re in trouble. Because Bill was receiving his meal through the McDonald’s take-out window and the pizza guy was at the other end of a phone call, they were not aware they were talking to a 340 pound highly regarded data communications whiz at Harvard University. The wake up call came walking out of his doctor’s office having just been diagnosed with pneumonia and Type 2 diabetes. Some changes had to be made. As unfortunate and depressing as all of this is, without this wake up call we would have never met Bill. Many talk about changing their life, but we seldom run into someone who actually has. The window person at McDonalds and the pizza guy at Domino’s must have thought Bill moved because his new stop after work was for frozen shrimp and broccoli at his neighborhood grocery store. Some significant weight was lost within the first few months but tapered off. This is the point when Bill knew he needed to add some strenuous physical activity. He started running in Boston but in December 1999 did his first race at the “Say No To Drugs 10K” in Clearwater during a visit to his folks who had retired and moved to Sarasota. Having only been running for a relatively short time, he started increasing the length of his races and soon was at the marathon distance. It was at that point that he heard about people running a marathon in every state. Those of us that know Bill well know to never put a challenge before him. The rest is history. Bill not only accomplished running his 50th state on his 40th birthday but may in fact be the only person to have done it within one age group.

If you remember the BRC November 2004 edition of our Newsmakers (available at www.bradentonrunnersclub.com), much of the preceding is repetitious. In that article Tim Dumas of the Bozeman (MT) Chronicle wrote a wonderful description of Bill and his visit to Bozeman where he completed his marathon-in-every-state quest. The article described Bill growing up in Oklahoma, but doing a lot of his schooling abroad. His dad worked for Phillips Petroleum which afforded Bill this unique opportunity. Bill is a “Sooner”, but credits his after school job, not the University of Oklahoma, for his career choice. At Harvard Bill supervised their computer operations for several years but spent his last years as the school’s Computer Architect. This job took Bill across the country. His trips to Bradenton were now interrupted by weeks in San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas, etc….. The reason I mention these trips is that a group of us benefited from his frequent trips to San Francisco. Jill Gulash, Leslie Thompson and I followed Bill to Frisco for their half and full marathon last July. Jill was only there for support, but at the expo Bill convinced her to run the half and led her through a crowded registration and packet pickup. She and Leslie did their first half marathon. The three of us still reminisce about Bill “the tour guide.” After being led around a lot of the city and hopping on and off the trolley, it’s amazing that we were able to do the races.

Don’t mention Boston to Larry Larson. Larry and I met Bill at his Harvard office in 2004 a couple of days before the marathon. Boston Bill took over our lives for the next couple of days and walked us on what seemed like every street in Boston. Larry claims that the marathon was the easy part of the weekend.

Doug Henderson often reminds us that he was the first person to share a room with Bill on a marathon road trip. A group of BRC guys including Larry Larson traveled to Wilmington, DE for their inaugural marathon. The reason I mention this trip is that Doug not only shared Bill’s room but got to see him in operation. It was a Sunday and all hell broke loose with Harvard’s computers, and Bill’s people couldn’t be reached. We went to dinner that night leaving Bill alone in the room with his laptop and cell phone. A few hours later we got a call at the restaurant and Bill said, “All is well at Harvard, and I’m hungry.” Doug drove back and picked him up.

I have just briefly recapped chapter 1 of Bill’s life. Chapter 2 began January 2006 when Bill decided that almost 20 years at Harvard was enough. He negotiated a generous severance package and moved to Bradenton. Many of Bill’s BRC friends thought he had always lived here. His Harvard job offered him the flexibility of heading south many weekends during the year. The move seemed to go on forever. Bill needed to find a place large enough to accommodate not only a growing group of Bradenton friends but a two-car garage. Few people know that Mr. Ouchark is a full-fledged car nut. While a computer nerd during the day, he was a car guy at night. Moving his furniture was not a big deal; it was the logistics of moving his cars that needed some planning. In addition to his Volvo SUV, Bill also had to move his “muscle car.” He was able to accomplish that after last year’s Boston marathon. We all flew back to Bradenton while Bill drove his 1987 Buick Grand National to it’s new home.

Since completing the marathon in his 50th state, Bill has moved into some serious swimming and biking and has completed a couple of triathlons at the half ironman distance. I remember last 4th of July at the 2 ½ mile swim across the Peace River some worried about Bill’s swimming ability. He, of course, had told everyone, “Yes, I swim,” but no one knew for sure. Bill, as you probably guessed, swam it easily.

Esther used to think that I was part of Bill’s family. If he and I were making one of our many marathon trips, he would make all of the arrangements. Even when he lived in Boston he would meet me at the airport of the race city, having already rented the car, and get us to the hotel where he had made reservations. It’s because of this that I somewhat resent his new family. He has replaced me with three young attractive blonds. It’s no longer Bill and Chuck, but rather Bill and the ladies. It wasn’t that long ago that Bill met the girls at Bradenton’s “Get Down Downtown.” Bill, an experienced marathoner who has acquired more running knowledge in his few running years than most of us who have been doing it forever, and Cristy, Shasten, and Callie, running novices….it was a match made in heaven. Cristy Snellgroves and daughters only joined the BRC last October, Before they met, she was doing shorter races with PR’s every weekend and now has completed many half marathons, two marathons (on consecutive weekends) and has a marathon schedule through the middle of next year that would scare a normal person. Bill may have created a monster!

March 2005 another computer guy joined the BRC. He joined us for club runs and bravely announced, “As you might guess, I need to lose a lot of weight.” Jerry Landis must have felt that he had joined a group that had no experience in the battle he was just about to start. I think I was there the Tuesday night when Jerry met Bill. Bill, of course, carries a picture of himself at his heaviest in his wallet and was able to show Jerry a BEFORE and AFTER. From that point on Bill has become an inspiration and mentor to Jerry. Saturday mornings you can see Jerry drafting behind Bill as they bike to Lido Beach and back.

We’ve talked about Bill and his challenges. The challenge of an overweight guy running his first 10K, his first marathon, a marathon in every state as he turned 40, half ironmans, swimming across the Peace River, and THEN a 5K at Lake Como. I hesitate to detail Bill’s first 5K at Lake Como because I know we have high school members reading this. But the courage of a guy who lost 185 pounds to run a race nude is noteworthy. Remember, all you have to do is mention something that he hasn’t done and almost without hesitation he says, “Sign me up.” You may be aware that there are several BRC members who travel north in May to Lutz to run Lake Como’s annual 5K. One of these runners mentioned it in passing to Bill who said, “When, where and how much?” The significance of Bill doing this race is what it should teach all of us about self esteem. It might be an interesting lesson for each of us to read the aforementioned list of some of Bill’s major accomplishments and see if the 5K at Lake Como is the only one that you couldn’t do.

Most of us aren’t that interested in a lot of Bill’s stats, but in the 2004 Hops Tampa marathon he ran a 3:07:27. He, of course, hopes to break the 3 hour mark. Living in Boston for almost 20 years, he probably never imagined that he would ever run their famous April marathon. It’s a huge deal for anyone to run their first Boston, but in 2002 when Bill ran his in 3:19:35 it must have been a phenomenal feeling of accomplishment.

Rather than go on forever as I could, I’m going to end this knowing that Bill will be shortly moving into Chapter 3. This, I think, is where the fun will begin. Just when you think he’s done it all, he surprises you. Let’s give it a year or two, and I’ll do Chapter 3.