GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The defining moment in Eric Hansen’s athletic career wasn’t his first marathon or Ironman Triathlon or even what he did Saturday at the Amway River Bank Run 25k.
It also wasn’t when he dove into the confluence of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron as a novice and swam 4 miles across the straits of Mackinac.
In the wee hours of a 2014 weekday, Hansen taped paper towels to his heels to cover up the blisters created from a pair of cheap running shoes, then made his daily 3 a.m. trip to the Planet Fitness across the street from the Lansing Mall.
At 300 pounds and fresh off a two-pack-a-day smoking habit, it would’ve been easy for Hansen to let the bloody socks stop his quest for a healthy lifestyle, but he pressed on.
"At that point, I realized there was something in me that could do this," Hansen said.
Five years later, the 48-year-old Grand Ledge native and Kentwood resident is in the best shape of his life.
He has completed countless 5Ks, two marathons, one Ironman Triathlon, the Mighty Mac swim from the Lower Peninsula to the Upper Peninsula, and on Saturday, he finished the 2019 River Bank Run 25K with a personal-best time of 2 hours, 19 minutes and 41.48 seconds.
“My message for today was that growing old is inevitable; getting stronger is a choice. Today, I choose strong,” Hansen said after the race. “This was a big deal for me. I turned 48 years old (on May 5), but I feel 28. That’s the fastest 25K I’ve ran in my life, and I’m the oldest I’ve ever been. I just like proving to myself that I can keep getting stronger.”
A 3 a.m. start
By the time he was in his early 40s, Hansen was long-removed from any sort of active lifestyle and joked with his friends that "the only way I'd ride a bike is if it had a motor on it, and the only reason I'd be running was from the law."
But lounging in front of the television in 2014, he saw a public service announcement on the risks of heart disease, and it brought his own lifestyle and mortality into full focus.
Eric Hansen, left, poses for a photo during a time before his running career. (Courtesy Eric Hansen)
"I lost a brother to diabetes, and my father was a heavy smoker and drinker, and he was only 65 when he died, so there was a history in our family, and I didn't want that," he said. "I wanted to get off that unhealthy lifestyle, and I knew that if I totally committed myself to the gym, that'd be the only way I'd commit to it.
"I had to reprogram the way I thought and the way I acted, and I had to find a way to keep myself accountable, so I put myself out there on Facebook every morning at the gym."
The 3 a.m. social media selfies from outside Planet Fitness showed a confident new athlete, but Hansen's start at the gym had its share of worries and doubt.
"I started going at 3 a.m. and figured no one would see me because I was embarrassed," he said. "I had no idea what to do, so I just started walking on a treadmill for an hour.
"I saw another guy running next to me who was running really fast, so I tried to match him, and that lasted about 5 seconds, but in order to keep my goals alive, I knew I had to challenge myself."
Hansen took his pace from a walk to a jog, and after two months, he was able to run two miles around his neighborhood. At that point, the idea of signing up for a 5K started brewing in his mind.
Five months into his training, Hansen lost 63 pounds, causing his doctor to worry that he was shedding weight too quickly.
But Hansen was already hooked on the active lifestyle and after completing his first 5K in Grand Rapids, he experienced his first runner's high.
Just about every weekend that summer was booked with different races, and Hansen increased his distance to 10K races and even a half marathon.
After Hansen completed a 5-mile run across the Mackinac Bridge in 2015, he saw a brochure in his swag bag about a swim across the straits.
"I told my dad that I was going to do that, which was crazy because I was never a swimmer," Hansen said.
Diving in
Hansen was an adult when he first got to know his stepfather, Dennis Prebee, and the early part of their relationship contained plenty of back-and-forth banter.
One was a 300-pound smoker and the other was a former military man who worked as a personal trainer in Traverse City.
"I'd always make fun of him for riding his bike everywhere, and he'd make fun of me because I'm heavy and smoked," Hansen said.
"I told him that he needed to do something about his health, and he didn't do anything for a long time, but something changed with him, and after we got going, we helped each other a lot," Prebee said.
Prebee gave Hansen tips on nutrition and how to safely lift weights, but found that his stepson was already doing a lot of his own research and that he was committed to getting healthy.
When Hansen moved from Grand Ledge to Traverse City for three years, the two of them became training partners, but when Prebee heard his stepson said he wanted to swim the Straits of Mackinac, he was skeptical.
"We started swimming together, and we barely made it to the other end of the pool, while there were all these 80-year-olds that were swimming laps around us," Prebee said.
Hansen stuck with the water training, eventually stretching his longest swim to just under 2 miles, but race officials initially declined his Mighty Mac Swim application for the 2016 event.
But he explained his story to the committee members and convinced them to give him a chance.
"I heard back and they said that if I kept showing my determination, I could do it, so I didn't want to let them down," Hanse said. "Little did I know that there was an Olympic bronze medalist and a bunch of people in the field who had full rides to swim in college."
Despite 6-foot waves and 62-degree water, Hansen completed the swim in 4 hours, 2 minutes and 54 seconds.
It was a last-place finish and 15 minutes behind the next slowest swimmer, but Hansen didn't care.
"I was probably picked not to finish, and I think I wowed every person there," he said. "They all thought I'd have to get pulled out, but I stumped them all when I crawled to shore."
The holy grail
Completing the 4-mile swim across the straits opened Hansen's eyes to a new type of race he previously thought was out of reach -- a full Ironman Triathlon.
He completed a half Ironman during his training, but the 140-mile course -- divided up into a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run -- was a different beast, one that's widely considered to be among the world's most difficult one-day sporting events.
"When I found out that less than 0.01 percent of the population will do an Ironman, that's when I knew I wanted it," Hansen said.
On Oct. 15, 2017, Hansen completed the Louisville Ironman in 13 hours, 30 minutes.
"It was a day I'll never forget," Hansen said. "That was my holy grail when I crossed the finish line."
'More than running'
Hansen has accomplished a lot in the five years since he stomped out his smoking habit and stepped onto a treadmill.
He has crossed countless finish lines and taken his weight down to 197 pounds, but his new lifestyle has also strengthened his bond with his family and allowed him to find a new group of friends in the running community.
"It's much more than running," he said. "It changed the relationship with my family and it gave me life.
"When I was part of the Traverse City Track Club, they named me the most inspiring person in my second year of running. I'm not the strongest person or the fastest person, but I have a passion for it that I like to share with everyone, and I think that's what makes you stronger coming out of these events."
Saturday's River Bank Run was the first part of a busy 2019 racing season for Hansen, who also plans to finish the Half-Iron course of the Grand Rapids Triathlon, the Grand Rapids Marathon, the Traverse City Half Ironman and the Mighty Mac Swim.
For much of his adult life, those races seemed impossible, but at age 48, Hansen said he feels like he's in his 20s.
"What I keep trying to tell people is that I'm getting older, but there's no reason to stop getting stronger," he said.
He might not have any first-place finishes to his name, but he has a new perspective on life and a determination that can inspire longtime athletes or first-time runners.
“You might have a fear of failing, but if you don’t try, it’s inevitable,” he said. “Even If I’m dead last, I don’t care, as long as I’m doing it.”