Community Corner

Do Life 5K Tour Stops In On Wednesday

After making a promise to his grandmother, Ben Davis lost 130 pounds. Now, the Arkansas native is touring the country to encourage others to get fit too.

Ben Davis, a 25-year-old running enthusiast from Little Rock, Ark., is inviting Northern Virginia residents to his Ben Does Life running tour stop in Vienna on Wednesday.

His 5k run with residents on the W+OD trail is part of a 31-city tour, a grass roots movement that grew out of a promise Ben made to his grandmother to change his life and get a handle on his obesity.

Since that point in 2008, when he weighed 360 pounds, Davis has documented his 130-pound weight loss on his blog. But wanted to go one step further. Now, he's taking his story from city to city hoping to inspire others to get fit.

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The Vienna run begins at 9 a.m. on the W+OD trail. Walkers, runners, rollerbladers and others will head on the trail toward Reston, turning around near Clarks Crossing, and ending at Caffe Amouri to celebrate and listen to a talk by Davis.

For those that have to work in the city that day, Davis will also host a run at 6:30 p.m. in Washington, D.C. Participants should meet at the WWII Memorial.

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Patch caught up with Ben to talk about the movement as he came off his tour stop in New York City.

Patch: What is the story behind the Ben Does Life Tour?
Ben Davis: I started at 360 pounds and I lost 130 pounds. [My]  blog was always called Ben Does Life and that's where people went to watch me in my day-to-day life go through the weight loss journey. In the past six months we've turned it into the Do Life movement. Me, my brother and father ... are trying to spread that happiness that we found through fitness and running. This tour is the kick off for an inaugural event called the Do Life Movement.

P: Why did you choose Vienna for a 5K run?
BD: We're a grassroots movement and we put the message out that if you can let us stay in your house, we'd love to hang out with you and get out the next day and do the 5K tour. We were doing a Washington, D.C. and a Baltimore stop, and a lady that was letting us stay with her in Vienna said well, why not do a Vienna stop. And we said, we don't discriminate against the smaller towns.  So let's do this. 

P: For people that have never done tackled their fitness, how would you tell them to prepare?
BD: You have to find a starting place. When I started at 360 pounds, I couldn't even do a half mile. You're not going to just get out there and run a 5K. You have to start by walking and then walking turns to jogging, and jogging lets you go a little farther and that's exactly how we did it. You have to have a support system, find a partner that can train with you ... I think that's one of the most important things in all of this is finding a support system. 

P: What will you do after the tour is done? 
BD: The long-term goal is to turn this into an annual thing or a twice-a-year thing  ... an official racing series.  It's a racing series but it's not necessarily about racing or running – it's about getting out there and meeting new people in the running world. Our message is about starting. You're not going to see us in marathons or anything, but we do the starting point.  That's what the Ben Does Life Movement is all about, helping people find that start to change their lives for the better.

P: What do you want people to take away from the run? 
BD: The coolest thing about all this is that we come into cities and people network through our social media channels, and we use what readership we have to bring people together and meet new friends. We were in New York City, and 50 people came out. You get to be a part of this community. And at the end of the event they were all swapping information so that they could continue on their running relationships and form new friendships. We really try to preach our community aspect of this whole movement.

P: Where will the tour go from here?
BD: We just finished Boston and New York City and we've got 29 cities left, 30 including Vienna. We are doing 31 cities in 40 days, including one in Toronto and all across the country until we finish in Seattle. We have a lot more coming up in the next few months.

To RSVP to the Vienna event, click on its Facebook page.


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