Just two weeks and counting 'til the day the ATX100 running team has been eagerly awaiting finally arrives.

“ATX100 is chomping away to get to that race,” says RunTex Foundation director James Russell. That race is the Capital 10K, which kicks off on March 25^th.

If you’ve been following our group, you know they started their journey back in September, about 120 of them all with the same mission: Lose 100 pounds each and complete the Cap 10K. And those who have stayed on track have each lost at least 50 pounds.

RunTex owner Paul Carrozza is their leader and team cheerleader. He takes them each week through a series of workouts, around town lake, up and down hills, and his goal is to get the group more active, more fit and stronger.

Joe Bacon has lost over 60 pounds. Remember him, with the blog alittlelessbacon.com? On his site, he chronicles his life, along with the ups and downs of weight loss and working out. He is delighted in his progress but admits, “I wish it was more. Just the more weight I lose, the more active I get and the more weight I want to lose.”

It is a good life circle to be in right now for Joe. At his heaviest he was 418 pounds.

“Everyone says you want to lose an average of one to two pounds a week,” says Joe. He struggles with wanting to lose it quicker but realizes doing it the right way will help him keep it off.

After ATX100, Joe marvels at some of the littlest things in life that so many people take for granted. He can now go to the grocery store, breeze thru the aisles and never take a break. Before, he would have to sit down at least twice before he could get through his shopping list. Or, he walks up a flight of stairs and realizes he didn’t need the handrail to help him get to the top.

The hard work is definitely making a difference.

Joe and others will stand proud on the start line of the biggest 10k race in Texas come the end of March. It is what they have been working and training for: On any given Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday you will find all or part of the group at RunTex, ready for a workout.

Joe will tell you, he was apprehensive about the Cap 10K, but he says he is ready. He has already walked the race route and has high hopes for the event. “I am shooting for making it in less than two hours, I hope I don’t fall but in reality I just want to finish. If I am not the last guy, that would be great too,”

Joe and team ATX100 want their struggles and triumphs to inspire others. It is one thing to be alone trying to exerecise and lose 100 pounds; it is so much more when you have a team to do it with.

“I hope people realize they have a place to go,” says Joe. “You would be surprised what you are capable of doing.”

The group finds support from within their circle and outside too. The stories they tell of walking along the hike and bike trail and runners will stop and ask, “Are you part of that ATX100 group?” When they answer “Yes,” folks start clapping and cheering.

You can bet those claps and cheers will carry over into the finish line of the Capital 10K.

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If you would like to cheer on team ATX100 and all the other thousands of folks who will turn out for the race, the Cap 10K begins at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 25. Wheelchair participants begin at 8:30 a.m. The race starts along the Congress Avenue bridge and finishes up in front of Auditorium Shores.