400-Pound Marathoner Finds Strength in Size

March 23, 2011— -- Growing up in Idaho, Kelly Gneiting dreamed of running a marathon. But his weight, which reached 245 pounds in college, pushed him towards football and wrestling instead.

"I've always considered myself kind of an anomaly of an athlete as a big person," said Gneiting, who now weighs 400 pounds.

An athlete indeed, Gneiting is a three-time national champion sumo wrestler.

"Even though I'm big, I pride myself on being strong and tough," Gneiting said.

On Sunday, after only four months of training, Gneiting finished the Los Angeles marathon -- his second marathon in three years.

"When you do something once, people can think it's a fluke," Gneiting said. "But when you do it twice, hopefully you convince people that you're just that person."

Gneiting set out to inspire heavy people to break down the barriers that stand between them and their dreams. But in the process he appears to have also broken the Guinness World Record for heaviest marathoner, finishing the 26-mile course in a grueling nine hours, 48 minutes and 52 seconds.

"I told myself, 'Even if I have to crawl, I'll do whatever it takes,'" Gneiting said. "I wanted to prove I was tougher than the road."

After his first marathon in 2008, Gneiting pledged never to do it again. But on Sunday he shaved two hours off his time, despite heavy rain.

"The bottoms of my feet looked like white hamburger," he said. "There was a few times when a blister would burst and I'd feel it, and it just about caused me to collapse. And then I'd think, 'Oh my gosh, I still have six miles.'"

Gneiting, who works as a statistician at Fort Defiance Indian Hospital in Arizona, said he wishes he was smaller but refuses to let his weight hold him back.

"I certainly don't like being this big, but to me it's unacceptable to have low self-esteem," he told ABC News.