MYRTLE BEACH--- The Myrtle Beach Bi-Lo Marathon is just two days away and runner Jim Pence is ready to do it all over again in his 13th year.
Pence said that he never was much of a runner until the marathon came to Myrtle Beach 12 years ago.
He said he ran it once back then and had no plans to continue until it give him a reason to honor his father.
“My father had some health concerns that year and he was just tickled to death that I had done it and later that year he passed away and I said you know what? I'm going to do it for the old man," said Pence.
Pence has a glass framed collection of twelve medals that he has collected over the years mounted on his wall in his Myrtle Beach home.
He said it’s a display that he is now proud to show to his 7-year-old son whom he hopes follows in his foot steps.
"He finishes the last little bit with me every year and if you want to see a lot of smiles on faces then you see an old man running across the finish line with his young kid--everybody loves that, especially me."
Pence said that he wouldn’t be able to take part in the marathon if it wasn’t for the 3 months he’s had for training.
He said he runs 20 minutes to an hour 3 days a week along Ocean Blvd. Pence works in the food and beverage industry and is able to train in the winter months since business along the Grand Strand is slow during that time.
“A lot of my friends are in the business and you know they sit around, and sit on the couch and watch movies all day and I say I will see ya'll later, I'm going to get out and do this thing.”
"You see things you have never seen before “said Pence, “This thing is raising a lot a lot of money so you gotta give it to the guys who started this thing and have worked their tails off--it's so inspiring to see a grandfather running for his grand daughter, to raise money in awareness of his grand daughter's cancer or something it is very inspiring it really, I encourage everybody to at least one time go to finish line at a marathon."
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