Running with diabetes
Submitted |
Ronald Haven runs during a triathlon in Flagstaff this year. Haven, 58, was diagnosed with Type II diabetes nearly 20 years ago and started running as a way to manage his disease. He now runs half marathons, marathons and competes in Iron Mans and triathlons.
Local man controls disease by competing in marathons
FRUITLAND
One afternoon Ronald Haven sat outside with his brother and vowed to someday run a 5K race.
He was nearly 250 pounds and diagnosed with Type II diabetes, but instead of letting the wall of his disease stop him, he ran right through it.
“I said ‘hey, watch me, I’m going to race,’” he said. “I ran with these guys all the way (in his first 5K) and afterward I said ‘awh, man, I felt good.’ Then I slowly began getting into these local races.”
That was about 18 years ago, and now the 58 year-old is a marathon runner, Ironman participant and triathlon athlete, who participated in the last Boston Marathon and will run in an Ironman next month, all while controlling his diabetes.
Haven, who is originally from Kinlichee, Ariz., now lives in St. Michael’s, Ariz., and works as the attorney for the Navajo Nation Election Office.
He is a 1975 graduate of Chinle High School and attended Fort Lewis College before moving onto the University of Arizona where he eventually studied law.
Haven said he was an avid runner in high school but didn’t continue once he moved onto college.
“I sort of slowed down,” he said. “I was overweight. I went to school, my weight went high up to 240-245; I was the heaviest at that time. I went to law school and of course nothing but studying consumed much of my time, I began to gain more and more weight. I was a very, very heavy person.”
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow