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John Bingham, one of the running world's best-known personalities, will return to the area next week to take part again in the Run to Victory half-marathon and 5-mile run-walk in Randleman.

Bingham, 61, is a former couch potato who smoked and drank and was overweight. Almost 20 years ago, he began setting the example for people of all ages and ability by getting himself moving, being the champion of a run-walk method. An author and writer for Runner's World magazine, Bingham has completed more than 40 marathons and many 5Ks and 10Ks as he tours the nation delivering motivational talks.

Running Shorts caught up with Bingham by phone this week:

Why should someone who isn’t a runner who might start reading this be encouraged to run?

“I go back to my own history. I didn’t start running until my mid-40s. I was a hundred pounds overweight, a smoker, a drinker. All of us know that’s not the way to live a healthy, active life. I wasn’t living on another planet. I knew my life was unhealthy and eventually would catch up with me. Running, and walking at first, was a way of trying some different. … It was a way of taking control of my life and changing my life with own two feet. It didn’t require lot of preparation, didn’t require a lot of smarts. It was a matter of getting out there and moving.”

What was the first thing you did to get going?

“I was miserable. I was hacking and coughing from smoking. Hung over. I was willing to try almost anything. For me the first day of standing here in my driveway (in suburban Chicago) and trying to figure out how to move was terrifying, absolutely terrifying. I was wondering why I even did it, how I didn’t know what I was doing. You don’t have to know what you’re doing. We all know how to walk. It’s really by the grace of God that allowed me to go back out the second day. Maybe it will go better today. That’s the attitude you have to take. You eat and drink a little bit at a time every day. You’re not going to turn it around overnight.”

What did you do on that first day?

“I ran about a quarter of a mile. I was sucking air, ready to throw up. I thought, ‘This is just awful.’ The truth is, I got angry. I’m 43 years old, I can’t move my body a quarter of a mile. It just made me mad. I had not been forced to overeat, was not being forced to smoke a pack and a half of cigarettes a day. Nobody put a gun to my head and said, ‘Make sure finish that six-pack before you go.’ I had nobody else to blame but me, and that made me mad. If I got myself into this spot, I can get myself out.”

Your website mentions “the joy of running.” How do you define that and how do you find that yourself?

“The first step to finding the joy of running is to eliminate all expectations. Your own, and anybody else’s. I’ve got grandchildren. If you turn a kid loose, they’re going to run and have fun. All you’ve got to do is look at a young child. They run without expectations. … We’re designed to run and walk, and if we just acknowledge that and let it go, the joy of movement is there. Virtually all of us knew that as kids. You can’t stop kids from running. The mystery is why do we not think there is joy in running.”

What gives you joy about running?

"One is I enjoy the movement for myself. I just like getting out there where I am and running and walking, seeing the city, or walking and running in the woods. It’s just a chance for me to be inside of myself and it’s being in touch with a sort of primal, animal part of myself. There are no cell phones, no computers. Just me and my feet. That’s an import aspect. As important at this stage is the joy that comes in watching other people find that joy. Now I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of people finish races. I’ve watched their lives change when they come across that finish line. I’ve seen them do something they didn’t think they can do. Once they’ve done that, you can’t stop them.”

But does it have to come in a road race, or can’t they just run a few miles a day, a few days a week?

“I think they’re missing an important element and becoming an important part of this wonderful running community. Before I got involved, I thought all runners were skinny and all fast and competitive. These days, it’s people of all ages, all shapes, all sizes. They just simply share the joy of running. They share common values, common goals. The idea of lining up with 500 of those people or 5,000 of those people or 30,000 of those people makes you feel like a part of a community.”

When you encourage people to become runners, how much walking is OK?

“What we know now is there is no magic number. For me, I like to run for four minutes and walk for two minutes. That seems to work well for my body and my metabolism at my age. Other people run for a mile and walk for 30 seconds. There’s no magic to it. What we do know physiologically is that by walking a little bit, you relieve the pressure and change the muscle firing order. Elites do the same thing, they’re just doing it so fast you don’t know it. They go through a glide step as opposed to a full-on run. This business that you can’t walk, it’s just crazy. Nobody cares how you get from the starting line to the finish line. You’re not cheating. … Walking is just as big a part of this as anything else.”

There was discussion this fall about marathon participation by “plodders” and some criticism that if you’re walking part of such a race, you’re not “running” it? How would you rate the achievement of a person who walks part of a marathon, who maybe finishes in five or six hours?

“The distance is the same. In my own books with Coach Jenny (Hadfield), we advocate a run-walk, or a walk-run. Everything I do is a run-walk program. There are no style points out there. My only requirement is that they take it seriously and they do the preparation. There are people for whom a six-hour marathon is the best they can do. It takes every ounce of their effort and tenacity and discipline to do that. For a guy like me, and my lifestyle previously, a five-hour marathon was like winning an Olympic gold medal. The achievement can’t be relative. The world record for the marathon is 2:04, so if you run a 2:30 that’s not very good? So where do you end that? The achievement is an absolute, and it’s not relative, and only each of us can define for ourselves what success really means. I’m at those finish lines, I see all those people finishing in five hours and 5½ hours. They’ve given it everything they’ve got. They’re satisfied and they’re spent. When you’ve done your best and and you know you’ve done your best, whether it’s a 2:06 or a 6:06, it feels the same way.”

What are the biggest concerns you have about the running world these days?

“The running world is booming right now. It’s a great time to be in the running industry. There aren’t really any overriding concerns. It’s now wide-open for anyone who wants to be a part of it. It’s become a much more equitable sport than it was 30 years ago. It’s a much more international sport. By the same token, at the New York City Marathon, six of the top 10 finishers were Americans. You’re seeing a big surge in running in America and it has produced some top-flight runners. The bigger the bottom of pyramid is, the higher the point’s going to be. There are a lot of guys at the eighth-mile dirt tracks on weekends who are not going to get to NASCAR.”

So you like NASCAR?

“That’s how the whole thing (with the Run to Victory) got started. I’ve been rooting for the Petty family for a long time. I found out Kyle was a runner and was actually a ‘Penguin’ fan. We got together at the Walt Disney World Marathon, talked about our combined interests, the idea for doing something for the camp came up, and here we are.”

Tell me a little bit more about your relationship with the Run to Victory?

“The Run to Victory is a chance for me to give back and to be a part of something that is really important. It’s really special because of the involvement with the Pettys. My son is in the Army band, and he’ll be there playing the ‘Star-Spangled Banner.’ It’s my family and their family coming together to do something that’s really important for people we think need the help.”

Run to Victory Half-Marathon and 5-Mile Run-Walk site.

JohnBingham.com