“Running has saved my life a couple of times.”
For Aaron Burros, that’s not a figure of speech. Running helped him lose nearly 200 pounds after turning 40. Years later, after surviving a workplace shooting and falling into a deep depression, it became one of the tools that helped him find purpose again. His story isn’t just about miles and finish lines. It’s about rebuilding a life after it was turned upside down.
When Aaron was 40, he weighed nearly 400 pounds, he was balancing a full-time workload, school, co-parenting responsibilities, and the demands of running a business. By the time he went in for a simple physical, he knew something needed to change.
The doctor didn’t deliver life-changing news. In fact, most of the report was positive. But one conversation stuck with Burros. When his doctor told him he needed to lose 40 pounds, Burros tried to joke about it. The doctor wasn’t interested in jokes.
The message was simple: if he didn’t take care of himself, the consequences would eventually catch up with him.
“I knew what I needed to do,” Burros said. “The doing it was something else.”
Traditional workouts never stuck. Then one rainy Sunday after church, he randomly decided to do something simple: go for a run. “I realized I’d never run in the rain before.” The run lasted three miles.
What happened afterward changed his life. Burros started with a goal of running 15 minutes without stopping. Once he accomplished that, he added five minutes at a time. Then 10. Then 15. Before long, he was running for hours. He lost 40 pounds in two months and more than 100 pounds during his first year. Over the next four years, he lost another 78 pounds.
Living in Houston’s Westchase area, Burros spent hours exploring roads and trails. He ran from Westchase to Terry Hershey Park, to Fulshear, and even all the way toward Missouri City and back. He was regularly covering marathon distances before he even understood what a marathon was, yet he had no idea there was an entire running community.
As his running continued to evolve, so did his goals. After encouragement from friends he signed up for the Brazos Bend 50 Mile race in December 2015, believing the 50K option sounded too easy.
Then, tragedy struck.
In November 2015, Burros was shot five times during a workplace shooting. Three bullets entered his right glute area, the fourth struck his left glute area, and the fifth traveled down across his pelvic area and through his inner thigh. The bullets caused lasting damage to his legs and left emotional wounds that were even more difficult to overcome.
Most people would have put running on hold. Burros wasn’t ready to do that. Despite being shot five times, he still planned to run the Brazos Bend 50 Miler before undergoing a scheduled surgery. When he asked his doctor if the race was still possible, the response was surprising: it depended on how much pain he was willing to endure. Just weeks after the shooting, Burros found himself on the starting line. By mile 35, his damaged leg was beginning to buckle underneath him.
“I would fall down and get back up,” he said. Again and again.
Eventually, vertigo set in. By mile 40, he could no longer keep himself upright. Fellow runners helped him reach safety before race medical staff ended his day. At the time, Burros thought the issue was physical. Later he learned it was something much deeper. “I didn’t know it yet, but the vertigo was triggered by PTSD from the workplace shooting.”
What followed was a downward spiral. “For the next five years, there was no recovery. I was spiraling downward.”
The man who once spent hours running all over Houston withdrew from life. He isolated himself from people, struggled to sleep, and eventually found himself unable to distinguish reality from hallucinations at times. “Everything from December 2015 to 2020 feels like one big day to me,” he said.
The turning point came during conversations with psychologists and psychiatrists during the COVID era. “This is a miserable existence,” he realized. “I can’t live the rest of my life like this.”
The answer once again came through running.
Inspired by members of the 50 States Marathon Club and supported by trainer Marcus Day, Burros created a plan that was intentionally bigger than himself: run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 weeks while raising $50,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “I had to focus on a cause greater than myself,” he said. “It helped me deal with the anger and the hurt in my heart.”
The project was ready to launch in 2020. Then the pandemic shut down the world. The original timeline disappeared, but the mission remained.
As races returned, Burros resumed traveling, volunteering, coaching, and encouraging runners across the country. Along the way, he became known as “The Running Servant” because of his willingness to help wherever he went.
“Running has saved my life a couple of times,” Burros said. These days, he finds joy in helping others accomplish goals they once thought impossible. “I live through other people’s accomplishments. It has helped me stay alive.”
That is why he continues to share his story. Not because the journey is over, but because telling it is part of what keeps him moving forward. “The reason I’m telling my story,” Burros said, “is because it keeps me alive.”
To read more about Aaron’s journey, you can read his book Medal Monday.
