John: Hi, I'm John Green and in 2017 my best friend Chris and I are gonna spend 100 days doing whatever it takes to make lasting, meaningful, healthy changes in our lives. We're trying to have a healthy mid-life crisis.

We're gonna regularly meet with a dietitian, a trainer, and a psychologist, we're gonna meditate, and eat better, and we're gonna try all kinds of exercise from rock climbing to obstacle courses to swimming. Wait a second, rock climbing? I'm not going rock climbing. Anyway, it all gets kind of overwhelming when I think about it too much.

But luckily my friend Craig has already gone through a very similar lifestyle change, you might know him as Wheezy Waiter, and he went from being a casual runner to a marathoner. For those of you who wanna make the new year count, myself included, I'm gonna let Craig tell us his story and give us some advice.

Craig: Good morning, beard lovers. It's time for a jog.

I started doing this YouTube show called The Good Stuff and the crew, my friends, said I should run a marathon for a video. And I said "OK". I thought marathon referred to just an official race. I didn't know that it referred to a specific distance, and I realized that it was 26 miles, and I was like "Oh my God!"

I, I said I'd do it so I decided to do it. It took about a year and a few minor injuries that slowed me down, but that was when I first really started exercising in earnest. Day one was three miles. I would usually run one or two miles, so three miles was very difficult, was not very fun. But after about a month, maybe five weeks, I got up to six, seven miles, and at some point I was like "Wait a second. I actually enjoy this. I actually am looking forward to running".

I have no more fear of running outside in public places. There's sidewalks almost everywhere. You can find a way to run. I run four times a week. I run three days, like, three to five miles, and then one really long run. I try to be consistent but there's a stupid thing called life that gets in the way, like other obligations. There's a video I made where we, I think Chyna and I just got back from a trip. On my schedule I had to run 12 miles that day that we got back and it was raining, and it was cold, and I really didn't want to do it.

I really feel like I don't want to run right now.

But I did it.

At about two miles. This terrible weather makes me run faster.
Ten miles. Eight and a half minute pace. We're entering uncharted territory for training for this marathon.
Did it. Twelve miles.

I think after doing it multiple times it becomes easier to motivate yourself to do it because you know that you're gonna, how you're gonna feel when you're done. You know that you're gonna feel good about it. If you're not someone who runs, if you're not very physically fit, you've never done it before, or you've tried before and failed, just start small. What's the harm in saying "Hey, I'm gonna go run half a mile" or "I'm gonna go walk a mile", just, if you don't, if you don't ever even walk. Do what you can, do what you're comfortable with. Maybe add a little bit more here and there.

Being physically fit, it makes everything feel better. It makes me more comfortable just sitting, just talking, just walking around, just breathing. It actually makes me feel refreshed, makes me feel better. But while running, it's relaxing, it's a time when I don't have to worry about anything else, I'm only focused on one thing and it's running. That's the reason I do this. I want to have energy throughout the day, I want to feel comfortable in my own skin. It's really not... For me it's not really about appearance, it's not really about looking good because, I mean, I've got the face that pays the bills, I don't need the body, right? That's really what it's all about, just feeling good.

John: Thanks for that, Craig. I'm really looking forward to that "feeling good" thing because right now I'm mostly just terrified of pain and rock climbing. If you want to follow along with Chris and me as we try to make the kinds of changes in our lives that Craig has, please subscribe to 100 Days, although I will tell you now, neither of us is planning to run a marathon. I do think, however, that Chris might play 26.2 rounds of golf in the next 100 days which is kind of impressive.

Anyway, I'll see you in January. Thanks again to Craig for the inspiration, and as we say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome.