Hearing Your Stories: Chris Hansen
'The main way this journey has helped me and changed me is furthering something I learned a long time ago: I can do hard things if I work at it, even things I never imagined I could do'
Morning, friends! ☀️ I’m really excited to share the story of Chris Hansen with you today, as I know you’ll find it as moving and inspiring as I did when I first read it.
A longtime reader of THM, Chris is a professor at Baylor University in Texas, where he took up running for the first time just a few years ago, after a lifetime of battling with his weight.
Starting slowly, he progressed from short runs to longer runs, spurred on by his daughters, whose encouragement was the catalyst for him to start running in the first place.
He kept at it and today, he’s running longer and longer distances, which helps him think even more expansively about what he’s capable of. I just loved Chris’s story and I know you will too — and, if you’d like to share yours, please do reach out, as I would love to hear it. — Terrell
So, let’s hear a little bit about you! Who are you, your age (if you’d like to share), where you’re from, what you do, etc.
I’m Chris Hansen. I’m 54 years old — which is weird, every time I say it or type it, because I can’t figure out how or when I got this old. I was born in New York but grew up mostly in the suburbs north of Atlanta.
I made my way to Texas after grad school, to teach at Baylor University. I’ve been here more than 20 years now (which is the longest I’ve lived anywhere in my life, so I guess I’m a Texan now), and I’m currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Film & Digital Media.
I have four grown daughters (two currently in college) and have been married to my college sweetheart for more than 30 years.
What does your running routine look like? How many times a week, and how far do you run?
This seems to change every few months. I’ve only been running a little over two years now, and there have been many discoveries and iterations of “routine” on my journey.
Were you an athletic kid growing up? What are your early memories of what fitness and health were about?
Some background: I grew up struggling with my weight. I was the definition of “husky,” which was the dubious term for kids’ clothes in my size range when I was younger. I never liked doing anything athletic because I lacked the fitness and coordination to be good at anything.
I liked basketball as a kid, and played often with my brother in our driveway, but I wasn’t fit enough to run up and down the court and play for a team. I always wanted to be good/better at sports and athletics, but I never had (or really fully understood) the commitment it takes to get and stay fit. And because I loved reading, I gravitated toward intellectual pursuits, excelling in grade school, high school, college, and grad school.
In 2022, after losing and regaining 100-plus pounds multiple times, I was at my heaviest ever, around 325 lbs (I’m currently 5 feet, 8.5 inches tall, for reference). I finally did something I’d never done before: see a doctor for treatment. And the doctor I was referred to by a friend put me on Mounjaro.
I was, at the time, completely unaware of any controversies surrounding GLP-1 medications. Frankly, I’m not sure it would have mattered to me anyway. I was desperate for real change.
But the doctor also told me that if this was going to work and cause real lasting change, I would need to move my body and eventually to also build muscle to combat my metabolism’s anticipated adjustments when I started losing. I started the medication, and it helped to shut off the “food noise” that has always plagued me. I didn’t know the term “food noise” then, but I totally get it now.
And I started exercising. Walking, at first. Then, at the doctor’s recommendation, a virtual reality fitness app. I spent almost a year boxing in virtual reality, which ended up building a strong base of cardio health and fitness.
One day, my youngest daughter said she was going for a run, and on a lark I said I’d join her. I had never voluntarily run for health or fitness purposes in my life. But that day I ran a little over one mile without stopping, something I had never been able to do. It lit a fire under me. I felt like I had crossed a threshold I’d never knew existed. I got addicted to running, and within a month was up to three, four, five miles or more every day.
Eventually, I started getting up early to run six or seven miles every morning. I signed up for my first 5K — and won my age group. At my oldest daughter’s urging, I signed up for a half marathon in Dallas. It would be six months after I started running, and 13 miles felt ridiculous. I was running half that.
But I started training for it. A week out, on my last long training run, I badly strained my hamstring. I was pretty upset because I really wanted to run the race. I wanted to finish a half marathon with two of my daughters. So I rested it, got some massage therapy, and ran it anyway. It was painful and probably ill-advised from a recovery standpoint, but I did it.
I’ve now run in cities all over when I’ve traveled. I’ve run in L.A. and London. I love how portable running is as an activity.
And since then, I’ve run a couple more halfs, including one sponsored by the university where I work, the Bearathon — also known as “the toughest half in Texas” because of the incredibly hilly route through Waco’s Cameron Park. And I now want to conquer the next
(Side note: I lost 160 lbs on my weight loss and fitness journey, and in the process I went from 48 percent body fat and an undetermined but low muscle mass to under 10 percent body fat and over 50 percent lean muscle mass. I basically lost a whole extra person in terms of the weight that I was carrying around.)
How has your interest in running evolved since then? Do you run farther, or faster now?
I started out trying to best my previous run’s speed every time I went out. I think I thought faster was better, and that’s probably what led to my hamstring injury (I also had no clue about the need to warmup before a run, so that was a contributor as well).
Now, ever since doing a training plan for my last half that emphasized zone 2 running and varying weekly runs (intervals, Fartleks, easy runs, etc.), if I’m not training for anything in particular, I’m trying to learn how to just enjoy the run.
I’m a competitive person, so I tend to think in those terms, but running is something I crave now, so when I go out to run and I’m not training, I just want to enjoy myself and reach a goal — a distance or time I want to hit that day.
Running in Texas in the summer can be a real challenge. The temperature yesterday afternoon “felt like 104” according to my weather app. Running four miles in that is draining, so my focus on hot afternoon runs is just to take it easy and pace myself.
As I said above, I really want to train for and complete a full marathon. I had planned to do the one in Dallas in December where I ran my first half. But I did not have time to start training adequately back when I needed to so that I’d be ready for that race.
What do you balance your running with? Do you have a family to take care of? Kids, parents or other relatives or loved ones? If so, how do you balance all of it and still make time to run/care for yourself?
I balance my running with having a family and with a very busy full-time job as a university professor and administrator. Though my kids are grown, two of them attend college where I work, so they don’t live at home, but they’re still in town.
And I try to balance it with my relationship with my wife as well. I am fortunate that my job allows me the flexibility to run during the day, as long as I keep up with the work — which is often a challenge!
What have you learned about yourself from your running journey? Is there anything that’s changed about you since you started?
I think the main thing way this journey has helped me and changed me is furthering something I learned a long time ago: I can do hard things if I work at it, even things I never imagined I could do. I’m especially enjoying being in the best shape of my life at the age of 54 and pushing myself to achieve new things physically when I never emphasized that before.
I have never been a person who liked exercise, but now I feel like I have to do something physical every day. And as I’ve lost weight and kept it off, my overall energy level is such that I feel antsy if I don’t do something physical every day.
Where would you like to go with your running? Is there anything special you’d like to achieve — like, say, running all six World Marathon Majors, or running an ultra?
I think my limit will be successfully completing a full marathon. Once I do that, I’m sure I’ll want to do it again, but I don’t know if an ultra is in my plans, and I’m not sure running in the World Majors is realistic for me. I would love to be able to train for and complete a full, any full, and then do one of the majors just to be able to say that I finished New York or Boston.
What keeps you going? Especially if you’ve been running for a while — do you ever get bored with it? How do you find new things to motivate you, to keep you going?
I honestly just love getting out there and listening to music or a podcast, feeling every step and thinking about how far I’ll go that day. It’s still a joy to be able to get out there and do it after never being able to before.
I do occasionally get bored of my routes and change things up for that reason. I have very few places to run in my small town outside Waco, so unless I want to hop in the car and drive somewhere else, I usually get stuck on the same few stretches of road that are safe for running.
Look back at yourself when you were a kid, maybe say 10 years old. Remember how you felt, what you thought, especially what you thought you were capable of back then. If you could talk to that kid now, what would you say?
I would tell that kid not to let himself get so far gone in terms of weight and fitness that the road back would seem so challenging. But I would also tell him that he can do so much more than he thinks he can with his body and mind.
And most importantly, I’d tell him something I’m still trying to internalize: that you must learn to find joy in the journey and not only in the result. That is true for my professional/artistic pursuits as a professor and filmmaker and for my physical pursuits as a runner.
I’m trying, still, to learn to just enjoy what I can do and not base my sense of accomplishment or happiness on where I stand against everyone else doing whatever I’m doing.
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A testament to believing in oneself, especially discovering that “you CAN do hard things”. Let us know when you do your marathon. Mine was after having done 20 half marathons over 5 years … I did it so that I could say I did it … decided to stick with halves! Best wishes on your life’s journeys.
This really resonated with me, as my own story and relationship with running (and weight struggles!) are very similar.
Thank you for sharing. You're an inspiration!