Johnny Pye loves running through history at the Bartow-Pell Mansion in Pelham Bay Park.

“There’s something so special about this place, about this ground,” Pye said. “Besides being historical, this place is serene and so peaceful.”

But his life has been anything but serene. In 2015, he suffered a stroke at home while caring for his daughter. Pye was just 32-years-old, and the stroke left him disabled. 

“It took away my vocabulary. It took away my memory. It took away for me to take care of my children financially,” he said. “Even fatherly advice I couldn’t even give them, because words were foreign to me.”

Loss of words led to the loss of his job, and he had a hard time paying rent. Pye says he felt hopeless, isolated and alone. Depression set in, and so did weight gain.

“It got to a point that I reached 350, 370 pounds. I can’t even tell you, because at that point you don’t even care to check,” he said.

When he hit bottom, he says he stopped eating, and that actually helped. He lost over 100 pounds, and then started walking. The walking turned to running, and he lost even more weight, but he says something was still wrong.

“I wasn’t running towards something, I was running from things, because running was not the intention to heal, it was to run away from problems,” he said. 

He felt weak without proper nutrition, and he fell while running. The person who helped him was a doctor, and that man, he says, opened his eyes.

“He said, ‘If running is all you care about, why don’t you eat? Because you would be such a better runner,’” he said. 

Pye began eating healthier, and running to get stronger and faster.

“I stopped running away from something, and I started running towards something — I wanted to find my potential,” he said. 

Pye has been running for five years, and now, he is training for his first TCS New York City Marathon.

“Running is a source of my strength in life,” he said. “It strengthens me at work, it strengthens me as a father, and it will strengthen me through the New York City Marathon.” 

Pye will dedicate his run not only to his family, but also to his online community, “Running to Recovery.”

“The truth is, you never know what’s possible until you push yourself out there and push,” he said.