Mike Holder is a man on a mission.  After being diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary, the Army veteran deciding to take part in competitive races.

“I was also wanting to train for the Bataan Memorial Death March,” said Holder. “I have an uncle, he was on the Bataan Death March and another goal was to keep the story alive, few people know the story anymore. There were approximately 80,000 American and Filipino soldiers captured by the Japanese at the fall of Bataan on the Philippine Islands. The 80,000, 12,000 were American and about 1,700 made it to the end of the war.”

To get to the race, Holder relied on Laura Lowe, the Coordinator of the Cardiac Pulmonary Rehab Center inside Covenant Hospital’s Lifestyle Center.

“He told us he needed to be able to walk 8 miles without his oxygen,” said Lowe. “I knew with his spirit and his determination that I would give him the tools that he needed to try and be successful at this.”

Holder already plans to walk again, next year.

“I want to do something around here 5 or 10K, to do it all over again. This year I only made it 8 of the 14 miles, next year I want to do 14.”