I May Be Very Heavy, But I Can Do Anythiang!    [01-04-2011] On March 20, a 40-year-old American sumo wrestler named Kelly Gneiting set a new world record in Los Angeles, California. He is a three-time American sumo champion and has represented the U.S. at the world championships. This time, he became a marathon champion! Last Sunday, he became the heaviest person ever to run a marathon! Mr. Gneiting, who lives in Arizona, is a hospital statistician now. He is also a new world record holder as the world’s heaviest marathoner. Then, how heavy is he? He weighs about 181 kilograms! It must have been very hard for the 183-centimeter-tall former national champion sumo wrestler to complete the marathon. So, why did he run the marathon? “I wanted to run the 42.195-kilometer race to encourage people who are overweight and have low self-esteem and think they can’t achieve anything,” he said. “I have high self-esteem and believe that I can do anything. I’m big, but I feel like I have a talent for marathon.” Mr. Gneiting, who is originally from Idaho, finished the marathon in 9 hours, 48 minutes and 52 seconds. “I did it, but it was really hard,” he said after crossing the finish line in Santa Monica. He completed the marathon by jogging and walking. “I ran as fast as I could at first. My feet were on fire, but I kept going.” It took him a long time to complete the full marathon course. He ran and walked nearly 10 hours. Despite his slow pace, he didn’t give up and accomplished his goal at last - becoming the world’s heaviest person to run a marathon. In fact, it wasn’t the first time for him to run a marathon. He completed the LA marathon back in 2008. At the time, it took him 11 hours, 48 minutes, and 16 seconds to complete the full course. Over the last years, he became a lot faster. Congratulations, Mr. Gneiting! Keep on running!     출처: 어린이 영자신문 키즈타임즈 (www.kidstimes.net)