By Brian Bell

I grew up in Henry, just up the river from Peoria, so I knew about the Steamboat. I never in a million years thought I would ever run in it. I left Henry 15 years ago and haven't been back to the area much.

About 18 months ago in Jan. 2010, I weighed 331 pounds and decided that was enough, so I decided to get healthy. Then 3 months later in the end of March I decided a week before the race to run a 5K, it was a lot of walking but I finished. I got the bug of that race day feeling and decided to teach myself to run. Since then I have done many races from 3k's up to Half Marathons, improving all of the time, thanks to my great group of running friends, called „Idiots Running“.

Doing the Steamboat Classic means a lot to me because my first race back in my hometown area. I will be starting Marathon Training 3 days after the Steamboat, so a great race back home will just be a great push into training.

With all of my running and working out I have lost around 140 pounds.

Brian Bell