{"id":2065,"date":"2015-11-10T13:17:17","date_gmt":"2015-11-10T18:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=2065"},"modified":"2015-11-10T13:38:17","modified_gmt":"2015-11-10T18:38:17","slug":"ronnie-ward-says-yes-to-tenth-jfk-50-miler-no-to-salad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=2065","title":{"rendered":"Ronnie Ward Says Yes to Tenth JFK 50 Miler, No to Salad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s say you have never run a mile in your life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dX2pJ7XUTL4\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019re a good old boy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Worked in the General Motors plant in Martinsburg, West Virginia for thirty two years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then, at age 57, you start running.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And you like it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You like it so much, you start running 50 mile marathons.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In particular, the JFK 50 Mile Marathon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You run one. Then another. Then another.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And then, this November 21, you are scheduled to run your tenth JFK 50 miler.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meet Ronnie Ward.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At age 67, Ronnie has run nine JFK 50 milers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And on November 21, he\u2019s scheduled to run number ten.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That will put him in the exclusive 500 Mile Club.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first JFK 50 &#8212; in 2006 &#8212; Ronnie Ward, age 59, finished in 13:08:09.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Number nine &#8212; last year in 2014, Ronnie Ward, age 67, finished in 13:27:10.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He says his best time was 12 hours and 45 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s the JFK course like?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt starts in Boonsboro, Maryland,\u201d Ward told This Week in Morgan County with Russell Mokhiber. \u201cYou go three miles straight up the mountain until you hit the Appalachian Trail. You go on the trail for 13 miles south. You get to Weverton. You go under 340. Then you start up the canal. You have 27 miles on the canal. Then when you get to Dam 4, you have eight miles back into Williamsport. You finish at the Williamsport Middle School.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ward says that for two or three days after his first 50 miler, he could hardly walk.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI said &#8212; I\u2019ll never do this thing again,\u201d Ward said. \u201cBut once it gets in your blood &#8212; there are thousands of people cheering you on &#8212; it inspires you to keep going. It\u2019s a good feeling when you get done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ward says he was inspired to start running by his brother. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And now Ward is an inspiration for his daughter &#8212; and his granddaughter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While running in July 2014, Ward felt some pain in his chest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI went in to see Dr. Matt Hahn in Hancock,\u201d Ward says. \u201cHe got me set up for a stress test. I went to Hagerstown on a Monday. They did the stress test. They said it showed one blockage. I told them I\u2019m leaving for Myrtle Beach on Saturday. And next week I\u2019m leaving for Montana to do some hiking. Then they did the catheterization and said &#8212; you have four blockages. You\u2019re not going to Montana or Myrtle Beach. You are going to Johns Hopkins. As we speak, we have an ambulance coming.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On July 16, 2015, Ward underwent bypass surgery.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe next day, I was up walking the halls,\u201d Ward said. \u201cI had the JFK 50 miler coming up in November 2014. I had done it eight years in a row. And I was trying to do ten consecutive JFK 50 milers. That would put me in the 500 mile club.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The doctor at Johns Hopkins told Ward &#8212; \u201cyou are not running any race in November &#8212; that\u2019s only four months after open heart surgery &#8212; it will take you a year to get over this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Ward insisted. He ended up running the race with his brother. And he finished.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u201dm saying this is my last JFK,\u201d Ward says. \u201cMy brother &#8212; this will be number 25 for him. And he says that this is his last one.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What do his buddies from GM say about his running?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019ve had some responses from some of those guys,\u201d Ward says. \u201cThey say &#8212; no way Ronnie Ward is running those races. They don\u2019t believe it. No way he\u2019s running. That can\u2019t be the Ronnie Ward we used to know. But it is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ward says running changed his life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As for his diet, Ward says it used to be junk food &#8212; fried foods.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s still some of that,\u201d he says. \u201cI still can\u2019t get into eating salads. My granddaughter took a picture of me sitting in front of a salad. And my buddies said &#8212; they knew I wasn\u2019t eating that thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s say you have never run a mile in your life. You\u2019re a good old boy. Worked in the General Motors plant in Martinsburg, West Virginia for thirty two years. Then, at age 57, you start running. And you like &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=2065\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2065"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2070,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065\/revisions\/2070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}