For Tuesdays with Toyota, we are spotlighting some of USATF's most dedicated members with a short feature on USATF.org and on social media. Here is our feature with USATF athlete Joel Almonte, a member of the USATF New York Association from Ozone Park, New York. Why are you a member of USATF? Running for health and fitness was the catalyst I needed to conquer obesity. Running also offers the mental therapy needed to help identify what was at the root of the reasons surrounding the need to eat my problems away. I discovered the USATF Masters community during the COVID quarantine period when I believed I was ready to be supportive of anyone looking to get their health under control, and I became a Level 1 coach with USATF. It was here where I was exposed to the Masters events offered in the community. Entering local races has long been a pillar in keeping to my health and fitness goals. The running community, training, and schedule of events were the perfect environment for me to take my next step along this fitness journey. I became certified to coach in September of 2020. By November of 2020, I was successfully able to gather 23 other amateur runners from around the country to join me in the forming of the UNFRGVN Marathon Team. We come from different backgrounds and have our own motivating reasons, but we are all here to raise health and fitness awareness with every event we enter. Becoming a member of USATF has allowed me to connect with others motivated to be their best and encourage others to do the same. What is your "why"? As far back as I can remember, food had always served as an emotional support vessel. Whenever I was sad, I remembered ice cream being the perfect comfort -- I’m sure many can relate, but I was sad often and so I ate often. I jumped on several fad diets in my late teens, but like statistics suggest, I’d often gain the weight back and then some. After my last quick fix attempt, I gained the weight back and 200 extra pounds in less than two years. These were the most depressing days of them all. I was slowly giving up. I was once someone who woke up before my 6:00 a.m. alarm and couldn't wait to get my day going, to wake up closer to 10:00 a.m. and make it to McDonald's before missing dibs on the breakfast menu. The look of shock on the faces of the people I hadn't seen before the extra weight gain and my own personal disappointment for not being better than what I was putting forth became the kindling to a restoration of life that motivated me from within when I read Rudyard Kipling's, “If”. If I wanted permanent change, then I needed to work on permanent changes. For the sake of health, there were no shortcuts, there was only the unforgiving minute. The road ahead became less bumpy once I began to appreciate the opportunity to grow with the hours of life I was being given. Over the following seven years, with the help of walking/running as my principal fitness activities, I lost and have kept off over 240 lbs. Thanks to running, my scale now sits under my bed collecting dust because I value the food I eat differently, and I know what my commitment to fitness does for my body. I don't follow any special diet and still enjoy some of the foods I gained major weight on, but I don't crave them the same way or lean on it for emotional support. The training time has allowed me to come to peace with what was causing me to feel the way I was, to view life the way I had been. What is something that helps you focus while you train? With running for mental therapeutic benefits, I spent all of my running years training alone. There is nothing wrong with this, but along the way I came to better understand the proverb, 'If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together'. During quarantine, I found the running community online through social platforms. I found value in keeping a training journal and Strava served as a great way to keep track of my fitness. Connecting with others on the platform became a healthy outlet during uncertain times. I was also picking up a great deal on training philosophies and workout types through others on the site, factors that contributed to my desire to get coaching education under my belt so I could begin training myself better. The friends I made this way were many of those who joined me in our goal to raise health and fitness awareness in our masters-aged communities. This became my first team experience since high school. There is nothing like being on a team. You should always have something or someone you don't want to let down, and my teammates became another twig thrown into my personal motivation fire. How has USATF impacted you? My two years with USATF have been nothing short of life changing. Members of our team and I entered the 2021 USATF 12km Masters Championship; it was our first team event, our first personal events of this type, and one of the first USATF events after we moved on to in-person racing post-COVID. I described the scene to my friends like it was something right out the runner’s version of Fight Club. You couldn't have asked for a friendlier group of people out in the parking lot pinning their age group bibs to their team singlets. Everyone with a smile and 'Hey, how you doing?' to then be witness to everyone's 'game face' at the starting line. It was simply awesome. I don't mean to infer that anyone was less than friendly, but the energy given off by these athletes as they were ready to put their training to the test was fascinating. At the starting line I was surrounded by Masters athletes fighting their own unforgiving minutes determined to get the most out of what life was giving them an opportunity to take part in. I knew then that this was an experience I wanted my teammates to participate in. What is your favorite USATF memory? There is only unspeakable joy felt from our team’s experience in the 2021 USATF Master’s National Grand Prix. The USATF Masters 5km Championships marked our team’s first national travel experience. Six team members from across the country got together in Atlanta to run and cheer for people they were meeting for the first time, but it felt like they had known each other for years. A month later I was in Syracuse for the USATF Half Marathon Championships. As a native of New York and having attended college just an hour away, Syracuse was a town I was very familiar with and a great feeling to come back and visit it the way I did. In the summer of 2021, our team met in Kentucky for the USATF Masters Outdoor Championships and witnessed our teammate, Chris Gray, win the 10,000m championship in his age group. I'll never run on the Olympic team, but this opportunity allowed me to feel as close to it as I could ever ask for. The energy and support at each event allowed for me to tap into the personal best I didn't think I had.