There was a chance his right leg would need amputated from the ankle down.
After a surgeon successfully repaired his ankle seven years ago, True’s wife, Courtney, gave him a book called “The Marathon Man” to read, though he wasn’t a runner.
She thought the title matched her husband’s personality.
“Anything he sets his mind to, he approaches with excellence,” she said. “He’s always running a marathon, always reaching for excellence.”
She was talking about marathons in a figurative sense.
Now he’s literally running marathons.
True, 37, a 2005 Ross High School graduate, completed his first 100-mile ultra marathon in March in Lucasville, Ohio.
Then in early June, he began an ultimate endurance and mental test: 26 marathons in 26 weeks, or 681 miles in half a year.
His journey began when he ran 26.2 miles in Miami Woods with two running buddies and ended on Dec. 6 when he parked his Subaru in Beckett Park and ran around it until his watch indicated he reached 26.2 miles.
When asked how many times he circled his SUV, he guessed 1,000.
A couple of times, he said, city workers stopped by and asked what he was doing. The next time you see someone running around their car 1,000 times, probably will be the first and only.
So that his addiction to marathons doesn’t impact his work as a logistics coordinator at Johnson Controls in West Chester or his duties helping his wife care for their two children, Eden, 3, and Silas, 1, he runs at 3 a.m. when the rest of us are sleeping.
“What he does takes an incredible amount of passion,” his wife said. “Just trust yourself and trust the journey.”
His journey could have ended before it began if the surgery had been unsuccessful. He could be on disability instead of a long-distance runner. It took years of physical therapy to strengthen his right foot enough to withstand running a marathon, he said.
He eventually returned to “light duty” at FedEx before accepting a position at Johnson Controls.
Running marathons will remain an important part of his life. Once you start, it’s hard to stop. Running is the Lay’s potato chip of marathons.
“Peace of mind,” he said when asked why he runs. “It helps with my mental health.”
So if someone wrote a book about True, who went from possible amputee to accomplished athlete, what would the book be titled?
“The Crazy Man,” he said with a laugh. “No that’s not right. That’s a tough question.”
He paused, then answered: “A True Miracle.”
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