Dan Runs from Couch to Coach

By Katherine Dyer City People Writer

kdyer2@greenvillenews.com

At 346 pounds, Dan Herman says he'd tried everything - diets, prescription weight- loss pills, everything - and nothing worked.

And he was fed up. Fed up from being endlessly ripped off by specialty clothing stores, fed up by the frustrating social perceptions, fed up from struggling to just move around, to sit, to stand.
He'd had enough.

"I decided to go to my local running store back home (in Pennsylvania) and get laced up," he says. It was the one thing short of surgery he hadn't yet tried.

Before starting out, he researched beginners running programs online ("What would I do without Google?") and found a wealth of information about the "Couch to 5K" training program.
Essentially, the nine-week program does exactly what its name suggests, providing tri-weekly workouts specifically designed to turn non-runners into 5K-finishers.

Herman was willing to give the program a shot.

"They say running's the most natural thing for your body to do," he says.

Yeah.

"Initially, it really sucked ," he recalls. "Those first few weeks were amazingly unnatural."
But he was doing something, he was moving, even if it was just for the 60-second intervals called for by the early workouts of Couch to 5K.

Then one day, he says, it happened. He was jogging in the park first thing in the morning, the sun was coming up, it was cool - about 60 degrees.

"There was just something," he says, "I couldn't tell you what it was. It wasn't an epiphany or anything like that, but somehow it just clicked. I challenge anybody - go out and run first thing in the morning when the sun is just coming up in the Upstate and not fall in love with it. It just sets the stage for a great day. Life is a whole lot better."

And from then on, running - jogging - was it for Dan Herman. As the weeks of Couch to 5K went by, he slowly, slowly, began to shed excess weight.

"I'm not saying that running's easy," he interjects emphatically into what sounds like a bit of a fairytale story.

"It was a labor, it absolutely was, you know. But now, five or six years later, I'm 120 pounds lighter, and it's been an absolute blessing."

He ran his first 5K, Bethlehem, Pa.'s Fountain Hill Memorial 5K, in 2006, collapsing to the ground immediately after crossing the finish line with a time of 27:03.

"You can't get that race T-shirt off me for anything," he says.

Now, Herman's pretty much hooked. He has competed in several 5Ks and 10Ks since 2006, as well as his first half marathon last fall in Greenville. Currently, he's training to run a full marathon in October.

But while he says Greenville is an area full of great runners and outdoor athletes, he readily insists that he is not one of them.

"As a bigger runner," he explains - he's now at about 220-ish pounds, "I can't run with a lot of the people I know - they're too fast for me. For a lot of new runners, that's very intimidating."

Well it's no longer intimidating for Herman, and part of his mission now is making other start-up, non-runners just as comfortable with themselves as he's become with himself.
For the past two years, he has coached seven 12-week "No Boundaries" programs through Fleet Feet.

Similar to the Couch to 5K program, No Boundaries provides simple resources and workouts that cater to beginners with the ultimate goal of participating in a 5K race upon completion of the program. No Boundaries, though, is a group training program, drawing upon social camaraderie as a means of support, encouragement and accountability.

"There's something so powerful about coming out with a group," he explains. "I preach this from the very beginning, 'It doesn't matter how fast or slow you are - there's no prize for who finishes first, and nobody leaves until the last person's in.'"

After all, he says, running doesn't have to be so serious.

"So many people are so dead set on being perfect," he says, citing the negative influence of reality weight loss TV shows on notions of eating habits and training routines. "They think, 'If I don't exercise 10 hours a day like they do on the ranch, I won't get where I need to be.'"
"Anyone who's even considering being active in any capacity," he says, "I urge them to take that first step for themselves. It doesn't matter where you go or with whom you train, just take that first step."