John Wayne Walding a former Green Beret, who lost a leg in battle is running his first marathon at BMW Dallas

Sunday's BMW Dallas Marathon is an opportunity for Staff Sgt. John Wayne Walding, a former Green Beret Special Forces soldier from Frisco, to achieve what he once thought was impossible. "Any time I tell myself I can't do something, I like to prove myself wrong," said Walding, a below-the-knee amputee. "No matter what, put your mind to it, and you can overcome pretty much any obstacle." Walding says he learned the meaning of "I can't" when he lost his lower right leg on April 6, 2008, in the battle of Shok Valley in Afghanistan. The Dallas marathon serves as a colossal challenge to remind him and to show his four children that there's little in life he cannot do. "John didn't think he could run 13 miles when we started this, and he definitely didn't think he could run a marathon," said his coach Mo Brossette, who has worked with Walding for two years. "Once he changed his mind-set and understood that that was the limiting factor, everything became possible." Walding has spent the past decade preparing to tackle a full marathon. He couldn't have endured this most recent 16-week build-up without years of training, mentally and physically. "It's going to be one of the hardest things I've ever done," said Walding, 37. "I'm a glutton for punishment. You don't become a Green Beret because you don't like to sweat a little bit and exert some energy."

posted Wednesday December 5th