14 February 2016

SoCal’s Project Engineer, Edgardo Castillo, recently completed the L.A. Marathon on February 14^th with a finish time of 4:19. The 26.2-mile run started at the iconic Dodger Stadium with a scenic finish at Santa Monica Beach.

As a young adult, Edgardo lived a healthy and active lifestyle. However, once he started in the “real world” by joining Pankow in June 2012 at The Village at Santa Monica and continuing on to Wilshire Boulevard Temple in July 2014, his active lifestyle was overtaken by long hours and project demands. While it was Pankow’s projects that triggered his sedentary lifestyle, it was also Pankow’s Fitness Challenge in 2015 that gave him the much-needed motivation to revamp his healthy and active lifestyle. Edgardo said, “I didn’t want to let my team down. Although it was difficult to plan group activities since we were in different regions, I wanted to step up my game in order to maintain our overall team average.”

In September 2015, upon project completion of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Edgardo started going to the gym more regularly, immediately drawn to the treadmill. He typically ran on the treadmill for one hour, 5-7 days a week, with an average of seven miles per hour. Each time, however, he continuously challenged himself by increasing distance, beating his previous time and building endurance.

By December 2015, Edgardo's friends encouraged him to sign up for the LA Marathon since “you’re already running that distance anyway.” It didn’t take much convincing. He signed up in December, with less than two months for training. The biggest challenge Edgardo faced was transitioning from the comfort of indoor running to outdoor running with weather and terrain to consider, varying from asphalt to gravel to sand. During his two-month training, he ran a 42-mile cumulative average per week. He said, “The hardest part was the pain and pressure on my knee joints.”

Starting at Dodger Stadium, Edgardo and his fellow 25,000 runners wove through the streets of downtown LA, Chinatown, Sunset, Hollywood Strip and made their way through Westwood, Brentwood and Beverly Hills with a remarkable finish at Santa Monica Beach. This 26.2-mile run couldn’t have been accomplished without the encouragement of his friends, dedication of his family, and his own self-motivation and personal attainment. He completed the marathon in 4:19.

Edgardo lost 35 lbs. overall. He said, “It’s funny; I started working out to lose weight since I couldn’t fit into my office wardrobe anymore. Now, I’ve lost the weight but I needed to buy a whole new wardrobe anyway because those clothes are now too big.”

Edgardo Castillo and Tom Connolly will be participating in the 2017 Los Angeles Marathon. If you’d like to join their team, please contact Edgardo Castillo.

Congratulations Edgardo!