400 Pound Sumo Wrestler Plans To Run L.A. Marathon

He’s got his heart set on finishing the Los Angeles Marathon–and winning a Guinness World Record. Kelly Gneiting, who calls himself the Fat Man, is a three-time national champion sumo wrestler who weighs in at just over 400 pounds. Hardly the light-on-your-feet body type of your traditional marathoner. Gneiting’s six feet tall and has a 60-inch waist. And he says he’s all athlete. “I honestly think I’m one of the best athletes in the world,” he tells the LA Times.

As he tells the Times‘ Kurt Streeter, he moves slowly, but he gets there:

“With what I’m facing,” he says, “I have to prove to myself I can do this.” He has never run up this hill before. “Just gonna keep my head down. If I look up…it’ll be too much.”

Gneiting admits his weakness is food, as Streeter found out joining him at a pre-training meal:

“In high school, I was 190 pounds, so I know what it is to be thin,” he says, eating a late lunch at a Denny’s a few hours before his evening run. Oblivious to patrons craning their necks to look at him, he orders a mushroom cheeseburger with what appears to be half a pound of beef, thick-cut French fries, a fried chicken sandwich, and a second helping of thick cut fries.

The Los Angeles Marathon is Sunday.

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