271: Plot Twist: How a Doctor’s Insult Inspired Martinus Evans to Run Marathons and Redefine Fitness for All

In this bite-sized plot twist episode of The Light Watkins Show, we revisit the incredible turning point in Martinus Evans’ life—a journey fueled by defiance, resilience, and a desire to prove the naysayers wrong.

It all began with a random hip injury that led to a doctor's blunt and humiliating diagnosis: "You're fat, and you'll die if you try to run a marathon." For most, such words might have been crushing, but for Martinus, they sparked a fire. Determined to prove his doctor wrong, he walked out of the office, bought his first pair of running shoes, and declared he was going to run a marathon—despite not having run a mile before in his life.

What started as an act of defiance turned into a life-altering passion. Martinus not only completed multiple marathons but also built a community for slow runners, challenging societal norms about fitness and redefining what it means to be an athlete. Along the way, he faced countless setbacks, including injuries, car accidents, and even systemic biases in the running world. But each obstacle only strengthened his resolve.

In this inspiring clip, Martinus shares the humor, heartbreak, and triumph of his journey. He talks about the ridicule he faced, the battles he fought to be seen as an equal in the running community, and the deeper lessons he learned about resilience and self-acceptance. This episode is a testament to the power of grit and the importance of creating spaces where everyone feels they belong—regardless of pace or size.

Tune in to hear how Martinus turned criticism into his greatest motivator and how he’s helping others do the same.

Transcript

ME: “ I go into the doctor's office, and he's a very short guy, very thick accent. I'm having this conversation like, “Yeah. I can't put any weight on it. I play football.” Is it a previous football injury? Yada, yada, yada. He's looking at me. He's like, “Well, Mr. Evans. I know why you're in pain.” I'm like, “All right. Lay it on me. What is it? You know already. You ain't diagnosed me. You ain't felt on me and nothing. You ain't even look at my chart. How do you know why I'm in pain?” He's like, “Because you're fat.” I’m, “What? Fat?” He goes on this whole tangent. “You got a pregnant woman's stomach, these titties, and you need to start walking. You need to lose weight. You're going to die.” All these other things. I’m like, hearing that brought me back to some of the stuff that I heard throughout my childhood, or just growing up. I remember, just saying sarcastically to him, because I'm – at this point, I've checked out, so I'm like, “Yeah, whatever.” I remember like, “All right. Yeah, I'm going to run a marathon. I'm going to run a marathon.” He's like, “You run a marathon?” Dude had the most biggest laugh ever, like I told a joke. He was like, “You run a marathon, you’re going to die.” I was like, “What you mean, I'm going to die?” “Oh, you’re going to die. You try it, you’re going to die.”
 
 

[INTRODUCTION] 

 Today, I've got another bite-sized plot twist podcast episode for you, which is a shorter clip from a past episode where the guest shares the story of that pivotal moment in their life that directed them toward what ultimately became their path and their purpose. Sometimes a plot twist is getting fired from a job. Sometimes it's losing a bunch of money. Or in the case of today's guest, Martinus Evans, a random hip injury turned into a life changing moment when his doctor bluntly told him that he was too fat. And when Martinez responded that he was going to run a marathon, his doctor laughed out loud and told him that he would die if he tried to run a marathon in his condition.

Instead of being discouraged, Martinus left that doctor's office. He drove straight to a random running store. And he bought his first pair of running shoes determined to prove the doctor wrong. And what started as an act of defiance led Martinus to not only complete multiple marathons, but he also created a platform that welcomes slow runners.

Let's listen in. 

ME: I came in and I felt a sharp pain in my hip, and I couldn't even put any weight on my foot. I couldn't put weight on my hip. That was crazy. I remember talking to one of the managers like, “Yo, I got to get up out of here.” I leave the next day after the work. I think, I was working a seven-day sprint, and come back still in pain. I remember him being like, “Don't come back until you feel better, until your hip is all right, because you're useless on the sales floor if you can't stand up.” Yeah, I went to the doctor and X-rays, and then –

LW: Did you have insurance? How did you find this doctor?

ME: Yeah, I had insurance. I mean, you got to had them benefits, man.

LW: Right. This is somebody you didn't know before. This doctor was just some guy off a list.

ME: Yeah, from a list.

LW: Okay. This is the funniest part of the whole story, by the way. Go ahead.

ME: Yeah. I had insurance. Black folk have insurance, but don't even use any. I mean, uses it to go see not one doctor in that timespan that had the insurance. Go to the doctor, that led me to another doctor, which led me to the doctor, who pretty much changed my life. I go into the doctor's office, and he's a very short guy, very thick accent. I'm having this conversation like, “Yeah. I can't put any weight on it. I play football.” Is it a previous football injury? Yada, yada, yada. He's looking at me. He's like, “Well, Mr. Evans. I know why you're in pain.” I'm like, “All right. Lay it on me. What is it? You know already. You ain't diagnosed me. You ain't felt on me and nothing. You ain't even look at my chart. How do you know why I'm in pain?” He's like, “Because you're fat.” I’m, “What? Fat?”

He goes on this whole tangent. “You got a pregnant woman's stomach, these titties, and you need to start walking. You need to lose weight. You're going to die.” All these other things. I’m like, hearing that brought me back to some of the stuff that I heard throughout my childhood, or just growing up. I remember, just saying sarcastically to him, because I'm – at this point, I've checked out, so I'm like, “Yeah, whatever.” I remember like, “All right. Yeah, I'm going to run a marathon. I'm going to run a marathon.”
 
 

He's like, “You run a marathon?” Dude had the most biggest laugh ever, like I told a joke. He was like, “You run a marathon, you’re going to die.” I was like, “What you mean, I'm going to die?” “Oh, you’re going to die. You try it, you’re going to die.” I remember, we just kept having this argument, because I'll just say something snarky, he'll say something snarky back. Or it’s like, I'll say something as like, “You just don't die.” To the point I was like, “I'm going to get the hell up out here.” I just leave. Storm at the doctor's office. Because we used to come in blows. I remember talking to him, well, like my fist balled up, and I was like, “I’m going to leave up out of here.”

Leave the doctor's office, and I'm driving home. I'm still ruminating on this conversation like, who the fuck does diagnose me, I'm going to die, if I run a marathon. Shit, I run a marathon a day. Then as I said, that I'm driving past a Fleet Feet, which is a running shoe store. I made a U-turn, and went in a running shoe store. Was like, “I need running shoes now.” I remember it's being like, “Oh, okay. What are you doing? You're going to run them 5K or something?” I'm like me, being like, “Fuck, no. I'm going to run a marathon. Run it a day.” He’s like, “You got a race or something?” I was like, “No. I'm running that bad boy today on a treadmill. Give me my shoes.”

Then, go through the whole process. I get the shoes. I go to the treadmill in my apartment complex. There's these two guys on either side of me. I run on a treadmill. They're running fast. I'm like, “Oh, okay. I can do this shit, too.” I look at one guy, his treadmill speed is at 10. I looked the other person, they're nine, or eight, or something like that. I think, I've turned mine to seven. I was like, I'm getting it in. Get on treadmill, my body just felt like it was rejecting the treadmill. I'm breathing hard. I’m breathing heavy. I don't know if I'm running too fast. I don't know if I'm running too slow.

One of the things that happened was like, I remember reaching out to turn the button off. I pull it back, I hesitated. It’s like, “Nah, I need to run this marathon today.” Then as soon as I hesitated, my feet left the treadmill and my shoulder hit the belt, man. Made the big ass noise, so everybody's looking at me. I'm getting up as fast as I can, just hoping that nobody addresses me. One of the guys that was next to me was like, “Hey, bro. Y'all, right?” I’m like, “Yeah, I just lost my balance.” Grabbed everything and just get off the fitness center.

As I was going home, I reached out to the doorknob and I have this tattoo on my right wrist that says, “No struggle, no progress.” As I was reaching to the handle on, it came out and I was like, “This got to change. I got to make it to change. He not going to beat me. I'm going to have to prove some people wrong.” That was the start, man. That was the start of the journey. I went back out there the next day, and ran 30 seconds. Went out there the end of the day, ran a minute. I just to built on it.

Each day, I'll just double what I was doing. Until somebody was like, “Hey, man, you need to download the Costa 5K.” I download, I don’t know, five, six, seven. I just picked one and I started to do Costa 5K. It was hard. I remember pitting a bunch of days, because no matter which one I did, I just felt like my body was not adjusting to the treadmill, or just running in general. I remember just repeating a lot of days in Costa 5K, until I was able to complete it. Let's say, week five, day one, you run, I don't know, 10 minutes straight. I'm just making up something. You got to run 10 minutes straight.

I'm like, “I can't run all damn 10 minutes straight.” I'll just keep repeating that day over and over and over, until I was able to run for 10 minutes straight. Then, I'll go to the next day. Sometimes it'll take me a week. Sometimes it'll take me two weeks, until I was able to complete whatever that day was, in order to feel like, I'm able to move on.

LW: What about your heel? I mean, your heel was in pain. Did that go away? Or did you just tolerate the pain? Or how did that work out?

ME: During that process, I did end up going to physical therapy. The first couple of runs, I still was in pain. That first run, I was in pain. Probably shouldn't did it. My wife's like, “Maybe, you should just prior to go to physical therapy.” Me being like, “Yeah. You know what? I probably should.” I remember just walking in physical therapy one day and be like, “Hey, my hip hurts here.” Pointing to it. They was like, “You got insurance?” I was like, “Yeah.” It’s like, “All right. Let's work.” I don't know what would happen if I didn't have insurance. Luckily, I did.

During that whole process of me running on a treadmill, and I'm completing these days. I'll go to physical therapy, and say, “Hey, I ran for this long. This is where it hurts at. How can we get this fixed?” After a while, I don’t know. Maybe three months to six months, it eventually – the pain ended up easing up. Yeah, during that whole time where I was initially running, or starting to run, I was going to physical therapy.

LW: The blog, 300 Pounds and Running, was that accountability for you? Did that help you stay committed? Or were you going to stay committed anyway, and you just want to share your experience?

ME: I'm going to tell you the truth. I started the blog, because I felt that's what people was doing during that time. I was like, “You know what?” I remember talking to my partner and being like, “Hey, I think, I'm going to start a blog with this. I think, this is what people do.” They go on a journey and then they write about it and people watching and read it. She’s like, “What's a blog?” I'm like, “A website that people will put things on and tell a story.” It's like, “Okay.” That's what I did. I started the blog. I wasn't looking for anybody to read it, or anything like that, because it was just something – I thought that's what people did. People started a journey, and then, they write about it on the Internet. You become one of the cool kids.

I don't know. I just started blog and initially, nobody was reading it. It was just me and my significant other, maybe my sister, my mom, and a couple friends. Then, people started telling other people like, “Hey, Martinus got this blog here. He tried to run this marathon and lose weight. You should read it, because it’s interesting. Some of the things he say is funny.” People just started to read it. I remember going to this conference. It was this conference called Fit Blogging, where a bunch of fitness people and fitness bloggers got together and met up and just kicked it.

I remember going there and being so nervous, y’all. Because I was like, “I only lost 10 pounds, average.” Went to the journey. Met a bunch of lifelong friends from that conference. Just to be like, “Hey, I'm Martinus. I'm trying to run this marathon. I write this blog. Y’all should read it,” type thing. I met a bunch of people who supported me and celebrated and cheered me on. People who were still cheering me on.

LW: Took you what, a year and a half to do the marathon? The Detroit Marathon?

ME: Yeah. It was no joke.

LW: Did you have a lot of people thinking you wouldn’t be able to pull it off in your life?

ME: Absolutely. Absolutely, man. A lot of family members, a lot of friends. What you’re doing is crazy. Someone will just say like, “Ooh, you’re going to pass out.” I remember the first time I'm telling my mother, and my mother's a little older. Me being like, “Oh, I need to go run.” Or coming home for Thanksgiving and being like, “All right, I need to go run, ma.” She’s like, “Oh, how far are you running?” Me, being like 16 miles. “16 miles. Ooh, boy. You’re going to pass out. What do you mean you’re running 16 miles?” They're having to explain it and tell them the story like, “Yeah. This doc called me fat. I'm trying to train for this marathon.”

“How long is a marathon?” 26 point – “26 miles. What? How long would it take you?” “I don't know. Six, seven hours.” “You’re saying, you’re going to 26 miles in seven hours? Boy, you're crazy. You ain’t doing it. Man, that’s some white people shit. You’re gone with that.” You’re going to sit these greens and this dress up. This was a lot of people response, when I was training for that first marathon, especially people of color. My family members are like, “What? You run? How long is a marathon?”

Going through that whole experience, it was like another thing to add fuel to the fire. Like, “Oh, I need to do this, because they don't understand how big this is.” Or, even this. I remember telling them the story of the marathon, or the legend. There's this war, there's the war of the marathon. The guy who runs to tell the news and gets there and he dies. It was like, you want to run something that the first time –

LW: The first guy dies.

ME: Dies?

LW: That's a good point, though. If you don't know anything about marathons, that's the story you here to sell you on it. That's like, the guy died. Okay.

ME: Yeah. Me being like, Oh. This is cool people do this. I'm going to do this.” There's like, you’re going to die just like that first.

LW: Hearing up to this part of the story, you ran the marathon, right? You crossed the finish lines, glorious moment, at least personally as an accomplishment. The story could really in there, right? That's where the credits can start rolling, because now you've created this new obsession with this activity, that's obviously going to benefit your life in all the right ways. Cut to a year later, tragedy strikes again. I mean, you either stay embarrassed, or you're in some – there’s a dilemma.

ME: That’s my life. January 2014. The marathon was October 2013. Literally months later, I get in a fucking car accident, man. I get in a car accident and totaled my car, hurt myself bad.

LW: What happened? Were you distracted?

ME: Mm-mm. I was actually driving back to school. What happened was, there was a lot of traffic and there was a school bus on the left side of me. There was a little bit of head, but the light was red. The school bus waved this mail truck over. I was coming down the street. As I was driving, the light turned green, so I accelerated. As I accelerated the school bus had waved the male truck over and I T-boned the mail truck.

LW: Wow. Was the guy okay? Or the woman okay?

ME: Yeah. The person was okay.

LW: You're out of commission. You can't run. You can't do anything.

ME: I can’t do nothing for at least seven to eight months, man. Down back. Gained back all the weight that I've lost during that time. I get depressed. I get suicidal. I get all of that stuff, man. Because that thing that I've been doing, or working on for the past 18 months, almost the past two years now was just taken away from me quickly. In a moment that I didn't have any control over. It took me about, I don't know, seven or eight months to get healed from that. Then get into another car accident. Fucking car rear ends me on the freeway. Get hurt again. I was out for another six, seven months.

Then after that, come back to it, started to feel good. Then I injured myself running. It was like, this hard good year and a half, where car accident, car accident, hurt myself. I remember being like, something's got to change. This is the thing that I want to do. I remember, in New England, when the fall hit, the colors changed and the leaves are falling and things of that sort. I remember driving and people were just – it was a very scenic day. The leaves are changing colors. People are running, enjoying themselves. I remember being like, “Man, I want that.” I'll do that, regardless what my situation is.

If I'm able to run again, I don't care what weight I’m at. I'm going to run. I'm not going to worry about weight loss. I'm just going to do what I got to do to enjoy running, because I really do enjoy it. I like the person I was when I was running and training and things of that sort. That was the promise that I made to myself.

LW: Last I checked, Men's Wearhouse doesn't have medical leave. What were you doing for money while you were sitting around on the couch for months at a time recovering?

ME: I was also in grad school during that time, too. After Men's Wearhouse, I went to grad school. Had a TA ship. I just did that, Light. I became a full-time student in grad school during that time.

LW: This is where you were working in the weight loss lab?

ME: Yeah.

LW: What was going on there? I mean, like you said, you're a walking contradiction. You're working in a weight loss lab, you're at 400 pounds. You said, your colleagues pulled you up one day and is like, “Is everything okay?” How are you reconciling all of that?

ME: It was tough during that time, because you got to remember, so let's clear that. You have Men's Wearhouse, I get injured. I started running. During that time, I get into grad school. I'm working at grad school. I've lost that weight. They reap the benefits of like, “Oh, Martinus has lost close to a 100 pounds. Yada, yada, yada.” Then, get into a car accident, gained all that weight back. That's when they're like, “Yo, are you okay? What's going on?” I am depressed man, which is bad.

LW: Were you straight up with them like that? Did you say, I’m just –

ME: No. No. I just tried to play it down like, “Yeah, I'm just going through some things. I really haven't been able to bounce back from the car accident.” Things of that sort.

LW: You're working in this weight loss lab? You're 400 pounds, or somewhere around there. Was there anything you were learning about weight loss from working in the lab that was applicable to your personal situation?

ME: Yes and no. Yeah, I was able to get some of these trainings to become a certified diabetic type of teacher. Some of the other behavior change models. Or just even learning that, right? There's a model to behavior change. Me being like, “Oh, crap. There's a model to this scientifically?” I would say, those are some of the things that stuck with me. The actual thing of, oh, this is how you're going to lose weight, I would say, the main thing that really just stuck with me was journaling, or keeping a log and being very honest about your struggles throughout that journey of trying to lose weight. That was a thing that I really learned.

Then, the main, main thing I learned is that, A, there's no difference between any other diet scientifically. If you line up all the diets together, there's no difference in the amount of weight change that happens between any of the diets. I remember, when that paper came out and being like, “Oh, this is when paleo was big.” This is when people like, “Oh, I'm going to go on this diet, and yada, yada, yada.” To have that scientific article and be like, none of this shit really matters. You are following something, and you are hating it. Guess what? You don't have to do it. Because when you compare apples to apples to any other “diet, or popular diet,” there's no significant change in the amount of weight.

During that time, I'm also going through that notion of like, “Oh, I want to run, and I want to run regardless of weight I’m at,” that I had that knowledge to be like, “Oh, this is all a scheme that the man has set up and able to make money from these people.” Me, going back to my exercise science days, in my other days, and in grad school to be like, well, there's so many other benefits to exercise. Why are we using exercise as this punishment for weight loss? Why are we just not using exercise is the overall elixir for better health? That's where a combination of those type of things was happening, because I had the knowledge myself. I had the exercise science degree.

I ran this race. Of course, I lost weight and I gained it back. When you look at the data of there's so many other benefits that comes from just exercise, then I’ll say, “Well, why am I even boxing myself in to be at a specific weight to please the other people around me? If I'm happy of what I'm doing, just do more of that, and not focus on the scale.” Because it was a lot of pressure. I'm getting on the scale. I'm blogging about it. I remember, I just think, I used to have this thing called weigh in Wednesdays. I used to get on the scale, weigh myself every Wednesday. As I was gaining this weight and all this other stuff, I'm like, “Why am I still doing this? Why am I putting myself through this in order to appease this motto, or thing that I think people want from me?”

Of course, some people love when I was like, “Yo, I'm not really focused on weight loss. I'm just trying to run marathons and really enjoy running and being in my body.” This is before I even knew the term body positivity, or self-acceptance, or things of that sort. I remember just saying like, “Yo, I'm just trying to enjoy the person that I am. I really like Martinus, when Martinus is active.” Regardless if he's losing weight, he's gaining weight, or whatever I just enjoy myself better when I'm active. That's where some of the clicking of some of the things of models that I thought of. This is not a weight loss journey and me just being like, you know, you can be active for the sake of being active and not have to do it for weight.

I know that's hard for people, because when you think about exercise and things of that sort, the main thing you associate that with is weight. “Oh, you're going for a run? You’re trying to get that weight off you, huh? Oh, you’re doing some sit-ups. Ooh, boy. You’re trying to get them abs, huh? Oh, you’re doing squats? Okay. I see, you’re trying to get them legs.” It's not like, yo, I'm running, because I want better cardiovascular health. I'm running, because I enjoy running races and doing something hard and completing it. Or, people see me and thinking, “Oh, this is his first time.” You will be okay, and trying to give me acknowledgement, or trying to give me encouragement. Then, I passed them in the race. Those are the things that bring me the most joy when it comes to being physically active.

LW: When you start running again, after your accidents, and you heal yourself, and now you're becoming more and more proficient just as someone who knows they can finish a race. What are you thinking about success? Is it about health at this point? Is it about making money? Is it about starting your own thing? Or what were you thinking?

ME: At that time, truthfully, it was about running as many races as I can. That's literally what I was trying to do is run as many races as I can. Any race that I signed up for, or could afford, I did it.

LW: You were working to run races, basically.

ME: Yeah. Because that was the fun thing. To be able to see my friends, to be able to meet other people and have conversations with complete strangers about running. I don't know if you ever ran a race before, but there's this thing of, it's the last stretch and you just look around and you see who you’re with. Look at that guy, you give them a head nod like, “We’re going to run this in together.” It was like, “Yeah, we're going to run this in together.” Y'all just run it in together. Y'all give each other big high five, or a hug. Good job. You did that shit.

LW: Speaking of that, I didn't realize that this was happening until I read into your story. Talk about some of the fucked-up things that happened to people who run really slow at the end of the races.

ME: Oh man, where you want to start at?

LW: We can start in Berlin. The race you trained for a 152 days for.

ME: Dang, man. I forgot I trained for that long. Yeah. The thing about, Berlin is a part of the world majors, or the Abbott World Marathon majors, or something like that. Google it. It’s one of those things. Abbott is marathon majors and six of them. The six are New York City, Boston, Chicago, Tokyo, London, Berlin. Big thing. 30, 40,000 people come to these races a year. They're so competitive to get in, that you have to put your name into this lottery. Then they select you. It becomes this big thing on social media day off like, “I got into the lottery.” This year, I got into Berlin marathon through the lottery. I was like, “Oh, shit. I've never been to Berlin.” I'm on cloud nine. I'm going to train for this thing, because I'm going to enjoy this thing.

Then, some of my other friends are also going. It becomes this thing of like, “Oh, we're going to travel. We’re going to go travel. We’re going to be buddies. We’re going to run this race. We’re going to have a good time.” 152 days of training in the summer. That's the thing people don't tell you. Most race seasons happen in the fall, or in the spring, which means either you're running through the dog days of summer, or you’re running through the wintertime. Berlin happens in October, so I'm running through the summertime.

LW: Hot.

ME: Imagine running 18 miles on an 80-degree day. Not fun. I trained for this thing. Get to Berlin. Have the best time of my life there. I'm having the ball in Berlin. The rest come in. It’s a weird day for me. What I mean weird is that the Airbnb I was at, I ran to the start line. It was, I don’t know, a mile away. It's okay. I can do this. I run for this marathon. Run there and I get to the start line and I'm soaked. I'm like, it’s humid and I am soaked. Anyway, still trying to shake it off. All right, it's going to be okay. I'm here. I'm going to drink some water.

The gun goes off, and we run. Then it rains. Then it stopped raining, and then it gets breezy. It gets cold. You're going through this whole experience of all right, I'm not going to quit. No, you can't quit. This is Berlin. You spent all this money. You even came all the way over here. You can't quit. You can't give it up. Get to the finish line. During that time, yet, people are starting to slow down, because of the rain, or weather, things of that sort. I'm running in soaked shoes. Every step I'm taking, you hear a squeak from the rubber and the cushion squeaking as it compressed.

As I'm progressing through it, and I noticed that I'm getting a little bit behind, but I'm talking to some of the volunteers like, “Hey, you're all going to let me finish. Are we okay?” It's like, “No, no, no. You're okay. You're good to go.” I get to the finish line, or I get to the Brandenburg Gate. To get to the finish line, you got to run through the Brandenburg Gates. I'm running and I see a bunch of people there. I was like, “All right, good. I'm going in. I'm going to cross this finish line. I’m going to get this medal.” Get to the gate, get past the gate, and there's these other gates just up. I'm talking to the guy. He's like, “No, no, no. You have to go this way.” I was like, “No, I'm running the race. I have this big one. I'm running the race. I need to finish.” He's like, “No, no, no. You have to go to the exit.” I was like, “No. I need to cross the finish line.” He's like, “No, no, no.” We're going back and forth.

Then, there's other people there. It was like, “No. We need to cross the finish line. We're running a race.” “There's the race is over. The race is over.” It's like, “The race can't be over, because I'm still here. What do you mean the race is over?”

LW: I'm in the race. The race is not over.

ME: Exactly. The race is not over, because I'm here. I need to cross this finish line. He would not let us cross this finish line. They had these gates. You go through the exit. I'm like, all right, you got to go through the exit. I'm like, “All right. Well, I need to cross this finish line.” In my head, it didn't click to me like, “Oh, this is over.” I need to cross this finish line. I go through the exit. I run through it. To get back to the finish line was maybe another mile. About time I got there, when I was there with a guy arguing, the lights was still on and everything like that. I get back to the finish line, after going an extra mile and going around and things of that sort, the lights off, people packing up shit on the stuff. I just broke down, man. I break down, because it's like, I trained for this long. I made an intentional effort to train for this race, to be like, this is the race that I'm going to conquer. This is the race that I'm going to do, and to run the whole race in the rain.

It rained multiple times. Downpours in the rain. I was paired, had a poncho. To do all these things and to get there and not be able to cross the finish line, it's the hardest feeling ever. It hurt me so bad.

LW: That's a thing. They run out of water sometimes, they run out of cups. They turn the tables over.

ME: Yeah. Somebody hands me a medal. It's a fucking in-line skating medal. It's not even a marathon medal. He was like, “Good job, buddy. Good job.” Hands me an in-line skating medal. I just lose it. “Why am I doing any of this? This is dumb.” This is me going through the motions. Eventually, I get a marathon medal. I have two medals from Berlin, because this felt just like, not looked after and not cared for, because I'm a slower runner.

This happens to a lot of people, right? You mentioned before, they flip over the tables of water. They pull up the signs. I've had people, even myself, run a race and get lost on the course, because they've took up the arrows to let you know where you need to be at, especially when you're at an intersection. Imagine being at a four-way intersection, and like, it's only you and maybe somebody else behind you. You're at this intersection. Nobody is there in front of you. There's no volunteer. You’re like, “Where do I go?”

You just taken a bet like, “All right, do I keep straight? What if the intersections want to make a right or left, and you just get off track?” They run out of water. They run out of medals. I think, this is very interesting, because this is something that I write about and I wrote about. Wrote an article called The Open Letter to Race Directors from the Back of the Pack. You can see, from the responses of mixed bags of like, you have people who was like, “Yes, I've been through this, and this is why I don't run races anymore.”

They have other people who are like, these elitist assholes, that's like, “That’s on you. Lose weight, get faster.” It's like, “But I paid the same amount of money you did. I paid the same amount of money you did.” I probably trained longer. I trained for a 152 days for this thing. Your response to me is to lose weight and get faster. What type of justice and fairness is that? Yeah, man. It’s one of the things that I fight for now, to use my voice, and my following to be like, “Hey, racists, people, we pay our green money to do the same thing that somebody else does. The least y'all can do is give us the same amount of treatment, or at least make things black and white, in order for us to know the rules.”

Because here's the thing with races is that there’s a lot of gray area. They may tell you, “Oh, the race cut off is seven hours.” Seven hours from when? Seven hours from when a person start? Seven hours from when the last person start? Seven hours when?” Then whatever it is, they don't follow it. Because there's been times where I've been on pace to the tee. A race might be a seven-hour cut off. I run the race, and I finish the race in six hours and 45 minutes. Throughout the second half of the race, there's no water. I'm asking police officers, “Hey, Officer. Which way do I go?” Luckily, for me, I have my phone, or I have the actual course map, so I got to literally stop at the intersection, trace my finger around the course and be like, “All right, I'm at this intersection. I need to turn right.”

I do all of these things, in order to cross the finish line, as a giant fuck you to the people who forgotten about us. Also, for other people to be like, “Yo, this experience doesn't make you less than an athlete. It make you more than an athlete, because you have to go through all of these adversities to get to the finish line. You got to train harder.” It's the thing of being black. You got to be twice as good, three times as good to get the same effect. I think, that's just not one of the things that I'm telling to the people who follow me and the people who are also out there to say like, this makes you more of an athlete, because you went through all of these things.

[END]

 If you'd like to hear how the rest of Martinus’ story unfolds, continue with Episode 90 at around the 1-hour and 15-minute mark. Also be sure to follow him on the socials @MartinusEvans. And if you enjoyed this conversation, check out episode 158 where I catch up with Martinus again to hear about his journey from starting a simple running blog to building Slow AF Run Club, which is a movement that supports runners who've been traditionally overlooked by the racing community.

I also recommend episode 100 with Simon Hill, whose path to becoming a plant based. nutrition expert began with his father's heart attack and him being told by a doctor that he could be next. And if you know of somebody else who's had an incredible plot twist in their life and they're out there making the world a better place, please send me your guest suggestions, my email is light@lightwatkins.com. Also take a few seconds to rate and review this show. And I'll see you on Wednesday with the next long form conversation about an ordinary person you Who's out there in the world doing extraordinary things to leave it a better place. Until then, keep trusting your intuition, keep following your heart, keep taking those leaps of faith.

And if no one's told you recently that they believe in you, I believe in you. Thank you and have a fantastic day.