 Following the New York City Marathon, three residents from our area had a chance to show off their running skills with a 26.2 mile long race last Sunday. Thursday we spoke with Marathon runners Tammy Riley, Dr. Farris Carter and Joel Thornberry about their experience and why they chose to run. Well the New York City Marathon is special for I think anyone, especially living in the United States of America, I can't speak for these gentlemen but for me the New York City Marathon in and of itself was a bucket list achievement that I wanted to accomplish. For me it was another world major, there are six in the world and this is another world major. It's a marathon that's difficult to get into and actually it's a very difficult course so it was a challenge, a challenge well conquered. As an endurance runner again I'm with Doc here because Doc and I train a lot together. A lot of our small goals are to run all the six majors in the world. This puts Doc up to number five, it gives me number four and it's also special because we get to take an experience from here and our small community go out, experience those events and such and then hopefully bring some small things back that we get to experience and excitement back into this area to hopefully invigorate some physical activity, excitement in running, biking, cycling, getting out and just trying to live a healthier life. With only 3,300 runners able to enter the marathon, getting in isn't so easy and with COVID-19 still a concern in most communities around the world, Dr. Carter says being able to participate is a breath of fresh air. It's been two years within this pandemic, almost two years and this is a breath of fresh air. I mean to be able to get out and run and maybe go to semi normal after being two years in this pandemic, we have lost so many people, so many patients and being able to see what normal looks like again is all what it is about this marathon. It realized that life is ahead of us, we have some hope to go back to normal with vaccinations and mitigation methods and that marathon, even though it has capacity, showed us that it's possible to stay healthy and be healthy and run a healthy outdoor sports like a marathon. Here at Pikeville Medical Center's Heart and Vascular Institute, we have assembled a comprehensive team of cardiac specialists bringing expertise from all regions of the nation and the world. We have coupled that with cutting edge technology, providing them the best equipment and operating rooms available. The result is comprehensive cardiac care for the people of our region that is second to none. The Heart and Vascular Institute at Pikeville Medical Center. As mentioned before, runners hope to use their experience to better their communities. Riley says she hopes to promote physical fitness awareness. A good example is that I ran under a team for kids. I ran four team for kids. My charity bit was under the umbrella of that organization, so I was required to raise a certain amount of money. It was actually $2,620 to go run and to promote childhood, obesity, physical fitness awareness, to eliminate childhood obesity. And while runners Riley, Dr. Carter and Thornbury were able to finish the race, they say anyone can start working on their physical fitness. This Saturday, PMC will be doing Colors for Courage as a local 5K in town or a local 5K in this community. You don't have to run it, just come to participate in it and walk it, get in that environment, get out and literally walk around with it or jog a little bit with it. Start with baby steps, none of us basically from the beginning ran 26.2 miles on a basis or at all. And as Tammy says, it's four months of training for some people and you do that and you do a little bit at a time. And lastly, runners say they hope to remember the patients that lost their lives to COVID-19 and give thanks to those who made the race possible. I typically run with sunglasses and I had green sunglasses on and so I wore those very specifically to remember the COVID patients who were currently suffering and also for those that we lost here in Pot County. So I really thought about those families all 26 miles. And then I also dedicated my race to Dr. Bill Webb who had treated me for many years. He got my body to the other three marathons and he would tease me because I would say, Doc, just get me to one more and one more and it'll be my last one. And I saw him a few weeks before he passed and he stuck his head into the room where I was working out at the YMCA and he said last one and laughed and so I put that quote on the back of my singlet and I dedicated my race to him and his family. For Mountain Top News, I'm Joel Hodgell.