Life is a challenge and that's a good thing. You love something and you lose it. But you must be flexible to adjust to the changes. You may think you know where I'm going with this, but let's see.

When I was getting divorced I weighed about 200 lbs. I'm 5'11". I have two kids and I'm the Dad. Because my kids were young I knew that my soon-to-be ex-wife would get custody.

It was devastating. I was depressed. I couldn't eat. I was alone in Canada. My family is in the US. I felt like I couldn't cope so I went back to an old friend of mine. Running!

I ran in high school and was pretty decent. But with marriage, kids, and career I kind of let myself go. So I just started running again. I ran and I ran so that I could no longer tell if I was depressed or just tired from running.

Eventually I got up to 3 hour runs. I was exhausted afterward, but I couldn't feel depressed.

I decided to enter a marathon and it was an adventure. I made it to about 20 miles and then my body just started to quit. I could hardly lift my feet off the ground, but I never stopped running. I finished in 3:47 amongst 1000 other runners but I was never so alone.

I thought about my kids. How they weren't there. I wore a short that said "Still Dad" on it for the race. I had tears in my eyes from the pain, from the joy of finishing, and from the loss I felt not having my kids with me.

So, I kept this up and eventually ran 14 more marathons. My best marathon was almost an hour faster than my first, 2:56. Running saved me. It was my best friend. But this too was taken away from me.

I got injured. Nothing big, but a chronic pain in my groin and lower abdomen as my muscles started to tear away from my pelvis. I went to a bunch of doctors but there was no solution. It was a sports hernia and could only be corrected via a surgery that was not covered by my insurance.

I moped for a week or two. But I had to move on. The solution was road cycling. I invested in a bike and gear and I was back at it. Last year I road over 8000 miles and I did a 100 ride in 4:39 by myself.

Bottom-line: Life can take things away, but you just need to find a way to move on and to find joy. I choose the pain of prolonged exercise. I’m kind of addicted to it. But there are worse things to be addicted to.