February is American Heart Month, a time when we are encouraged to focus on cardiovascular health. Here at Oxford Athletic Club, we kicked off the month by wearing red for National Wear Red Day and will be featuring members and employees on their heart health journeys. We are proud to feature Darnelle Turner, our Cleaning and Maintenance Manager.

In 2017, Darnelle wanted to make a change after having some health scares. He wanted to be there for his family and asked himself, “if my family needed me in 10 minutes, could I run a 10-minute mile?” After that, he got on the treadmill and never looked back. Darnelle faced challenges, as all do, on his heart health journey, but he pushed through. He struggled making the switch to eating healthier and finding a path to fitness that he enjoyed. On his journey, he found that marathon running and weightlifting were not only great workouts, but enjoyable.

Throughout his journey, Darnelle has accomplished many milestones, but he believes two to be his biggest moments. He encouraged his wife to participate in a 5k and he loved getting to see the joy in her eyes after completing a goal, especially as he ran alongside her. Darnelle also loved getting to see his son complete a one-mile run.

Darnelle has run multiple marathons throughout his journey, and this year he hopes to reach his goal of running the Pittsburgh Marathon in 4 hours. He has utilized our club for training and said, “the equipment that they have here is really, really good for marathon running and strength training. There’s a lot of trainers that can help you with your goals. There’s an atmosphere where a lot of people are moving and active.”

We asked Darnelle what his best piece of advice is for those who are beginning their journey, and he said to simply just start. He mentioned many early on in their journey worry about what next month will look like, but if you get in the gym and wake up and do it again the next day, it will become a routine.

Darnelle’s passion for fitness and running motivated him to launch a podcast and an Instagram page. His podcast is Passion, Pain, and Progress which can be found on Spotify. You can also follow his fitness and health journey on his Instagram @clutchendurance or YouTube.

Visit Oxford Athletic Club’s YouTube to watch the full video of Darnelle’s journey and be sure to check our social platforms throughout the month for more inspiration and testimonies.