Hillsboro Baker Runs NYC Marathon For Michelob ULTRA

Hillsboro resident Mike Gilliland will cross an item off his bucket list on Sunday: Running 26 miles in the TCS New York City Marathon.

Once weighing in at 470 pounds, Gilliland has spent the past 12 years exercising and pushing himself to change his life and his lifestyle. Now 260 pounds and feeling better than ever, 47-year-old Gilliland says he’s excited for the opportunity to join 50,000 other marathoners Nov. 5.

“New York City is iconic, but the marathon is the largest in the world,” Gilliland recently told Patch. “This is such an experience. I can’t wait. I just want to get on that flight (to New York) and be on my way.”

Earlier this year Gilliland was one of 95 people selected from a nationwide contest to run on Michelob’s Team ULTRA, and on Thursday he’s taking a red-eye flight from PDX to NYC. On Friday, Gilliland will get to participate in the marathon’s Parade of Nations in Central Park alongside four other Michelob ULTRA-sponsored runners, he says.

Michelob's summertime contest for a spot on the beer company's team asked entrants to submit an essay explaining what they’ve done to “go the extra mile,” and why they deserve the Michelob ULTRA sponsorship to run in the highly competitive New York City Marathon.

“I would never have qualified (on my own),” Gilliland admits. “I’m not the fastest.”

But his story was certainly one of the more inspirational, according to Michelob.

A pastry chef and baker by trade, Gilliland was living in Reedville, Ohio, when in 2005 he watched a group of marathon runners pass by his home. As he watched them from his porch, he says, he felt something stir within him.

“I saw people of all different sizes and shapes,” Gilliland recalls. “I thought, ‘I can do this.’”

With the support of his two children, Gilliland spent the next decade focusing on his health and was able to drop more than 200 pounds as well as participate in multiple marathons in cities all over the U.S.

Since deciding to dramatically alter his life, Gilliland has ran in Denver, Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, Washington, and will run again in Las Vegas following the NYC marathon, he says.

“I don’t want the weight to ever come back,” says Gilliland, who now works in the bakery at Market of Choice in Cedar Mill. “I refuse to be sedentary.”

“Michelob ULTRA has been there at the finish line to support runners all year, and we’re excited to continue our commitment to the running world through our partnership with the TCS New York City Marathon,” Michelob Vice President Azania Andrews said in a statement. “Marathons bring out the best in people, and we want to help tell their inspiring stories.”

Gilliland will join folks like New Jersey native Tracey McGee, “who ran a marathon in 2016 with a broken hip but still finished the race, and now wants a chance to show what she can do when running a full marathon healthy,” according to Michelob ULTRA officials. “Or Bryan Brinson of Georgia, who has yet to run a New York City Marathon, and will run this year in honor of his son who recently passed away.”

All members of Team ULTRA have been supportive of each other and look forward to sharing this opportunity, Gilliland says.

“It’s given me 95 more people I can reach out to,” he says, noting many of them have become Facebook friends. “I’m so thankful to Michelob for the opportunity. So grateful.”

Watch for Gilliland this Sunday on ESPN-2’s coverage of the NYC Marathon beginning at 6 a.m. PST. And for anyone attending the marathon, Michelob ULTRA officials say there will be a mosaic wall at the marathon expo where fans can tweet photos of themselves (using the hashtag #LiveULTRA) that will be added to a larger composite collage of an iconic New York City cityscape. All who tweet a photo will be eligible to receive a poster of the mural when it's finished.

Photos Courtesy: Mike Gilliland, Michelob