The Go! St. Louis site has an inspirational corner called My Story. Here are excerpts from a good one from Rob Gilmore, a special education teacher and retired football coach from Glendale, Arizona:

The St. Louis Marathon will represent my 10th marathon U.S. state and my 11th overall.  My goal is to run all 50 states in honor of my hometown hero, Pat Tillman.

FYI:  I am flying into St. Louis on April 3.  Driving to beline, Kansas on Friday morning.  Running the Eisenhower Marathon in beeline on Saturday, April 5.  Then driving straight to St. Louis to get y hotel room, a cold beer, some pizza and sleep before getting up unday to run again!

Jog Blog commentary: That’s a very Tillmanesque schedule.

Tillman and my family grew up less than five miles away from each other in San Jose, California.  I grew up refereeing Pat’s soccer games.  Later in life, I actually coached high school football against Pat.  His play and approach to the game raised the bar for high school players all over the bay area.  His attitude and respect towards adults was applaudable.

Again, later in life, I moved to Arizona to continue coaching and teaching and Pat also moved to Arizona to play football at Arizona State University.  I am a father of two children and I have a great marriage.  I was, however, enveloped in my work and even more with my coaching.  In 2004, when Pat lost his life, I was 335 lbs.  My kids, in 2004 at Christmas,
called me Santa!  It crushed me.  Caused me to take an honest look at my life.
On a whim, I quit coaching, joined a gym and began to slim down.  My first run 1/8/05 I planned to go three miles.  Got NINE HOUSES down the street! Power-walked the rest of the way and made the commitment to never be this heavy again.

The  race (a fund-raiser for the Pat Tillman Foundation) in 2005 attracted nearly 4,000 runners. This past year (April, 2007) we had nearly 15,000 runners!  I am proud to still be volunteering  as a race leader with this event!  The power
of Pat and what he did in his life has  had an amazing impact on the people here in Arizona!

Pat’s Run is a 4.2 mile race around Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, AZ.  4.2 because Pat wore #42 at ASU.  Six months later after running Pat’s Run 2005, I was down 100 lbs. (235) and ran my first marathon (Long Beach Marathon, 10/05).  Got hooked! I’ve dedicated my fitness to becoming a better father and husband and example to my special ed. students. My inspiration comes from Pat Tillman and the passion he had for life.