4 years ago he was 400 pounds. Now this SLO resident is preparing to run his first marathon

James Lacher had just finished his shift as a pizza delivery driver in January 2015 when he decided to do something he had never done before — take a short walk up a hill near his San Luis Obispo home.

It was a big deal for him, mainly because he weighed just less than 400 pounds and had spent most of his adult life avoiding exercise like the plague. But on this night, he was determined to climb the hill.

They were the first steps toward saving his life.

“I was sweating and huffing and puffing, and this was at 10 at night,” Lacher recalled recently while sitting at a picnic table at Laguna Lake Park. “But I did it, and I thought, ‘Maybe one day I will be able to walk up this without dying.’”

A little more than three years later, Lacher can run up the hill with ease. And after years of training and eating right, along with a dramatic medical procedure, Lacher shed more than half his body weight and will attempt the ultimate runner’s goal of completing 26.2 miles for the first time Sunday at the San Luis Obispo Marathon.

“A marathon is a big deal,” Lacher said. “So many people can run a 5K, 10K, even a half marathon — that’s a long distance don’t get me wrong — but when you run a full marathon, that’s kind of a life-changing experience."

Day by Day

Lacher said he was an average-sized kid growing up who played Little League baseball and stayed active. But he quickly started gaining weight in his 20s thanks to a fast-food addiction. He kicked a gambling habit 16 years ago, and eating became his escape.

Ben and Jerry’s ice cream was his biggest vice.

“Whenever I felt good, I celebrated with eating. Whenever I felt bad, I escaped to eating,” Lacher said. “Even when I stopped gambling, I still went to Vegas just to eat at the buffets.”

Lacher’s life started to change in 2013 when he got a job as a bus driver for the San Luis Obispo Regional Transit Authority.

“Seeing his condition, I was concerned how long he would be able to do the job,” said Phil Moores, an operations manager at SLO Regional Transit Authority who interviewed Lacher for the job. “Long-term I thought no way he would make it.”

Lacher reached 403 pounds not long after he was hired, the heaviest he had ever been. He wore a 4X shirt and size 60 pants to work.

“I remember thinking, ‘Well, I could probably squeeze in another 20 years of living. I’ll just eat and work as long as I can, and then I will die,’” said Lacher, now 46. “I wasn’t super sad or depressed, but I wasn’t happy.”

But with the job came benefits, including health insurance, so Lacher started looking into bariatric surgery procedures.

“I would joke with my friends, 'Wouldn’t it be crazy if I ever got skinny, wouldn’t that be funny?,'" Lacher said. “We just laughed about it because it was a pipe dream.”

The dream started to become reality when he had a sleeve gastrectomy procedure in March 2015. It involved removing about 80 percent of his stomach, shrinking it from the size of a football to the size of a banana.

The first year he lost 165 pounds – and it wasn’t just because of his smaller stomach. He threw away the Ben and Jerry’s he kept stashed in his freezer and cut processed foods and sugars out of his diet.

He used to start his day with seven different prescription pills to fight diabetes, gout and high blood pressure. Now, he said, those pills and chronic illnesses are virtually gone.

“I look at him now, and I say, ‘Who are you and what did you do with the big guy I hired?!’” Moores said with a laugh.

Lacher now wears medium work shirts, size 36 pants and weighs 195 pounds.

“That was the whole point of the surgery; I just wanted a better life,” Lacher said. “I wanted to get in and out of my car easier without having to worry about how far I am parked to the next guy. I wanted to do my job easier. I wanted to shop and buy clothes off the rack. I wanted not to feel tired and sick all the time.”

But the risk of gaining weight back is always a concern, so he needed something more. That’s when he found running.

Run for his life

Three years ago, shortly after his surgery, Lacher met Annette Aartman, a teacher from Lemoore.

She has been there for every step of his transformation. She was in the crowd the first time he ran a 5K race in February 2017.

“Just being active was a big change for him,” said Aartman, adding that Lacher has inspired her to lose more than 40 pounds since they started dating. “The first time he ran a quarter mile was a huge accomplishment. It’s amazing how he sets goals, hits them and then sets new goals every year.”

And it’s not just his girlfriend, co-workers or people on his bus route that are supportive, it’s the entire running community.

“(At my first 5K) the people that were coming in at 40, 45 minutes, an hour, those were the people getting the biggest cheers because those were the people who were struggling the most," Lacher said. "I thought, this is a great community that I want to be a part of.”

He will have plenty of support on Sunday. Aartman made 20 bright yellow T-shirts with "Team James" scrawled on them to hand out to friends cheering him on.

“I am so proud of him, and I know it’s going to be waterworks when he crosses the finish line,” Aartman said.

Moores, who has paced Lacher on runs before, plans to hop in the race at mile 21 to run alongside him in his final push toward the finish line at Madonna Inn.

"It's amazing watching his willingness to have a new start in life," Moores said. "He bikes to work now instead of driving. He's committed to this thing. It's like he hit rock-bottom — now he's living."

Lacher agrees. He's never been happier. And finishing the race Sunday would be the ultimate accomplishment.

“Running a marathon is something I never even thought about, much less dreamed about," he said. "And then just over a year ago I am running my first 5K, and now I am pretty confident I will be able to finish."

He hopes his story can help inspire those struggling with addiction and obesity to take the first step up their own personal hill, whatever that may be.

“God willing, on Sunday, I’ll be able to say I am a marathoner,” Lacher said. “And for the rest of my life, however long I live, I’ll be able to tell people, ‘Hey, I was a 400-pound dude, and I ran a marathon a few years later.' So whatever obstacles you have, if you put your mind to it, one day at a time, you can do it.’”

This story was originally published April 26, 2018 at 2:25 PM with the headline "4 years ago he was 400 pounds. Now this SLO resident is preparing to run his first marathon."