John Vincent

When I lived in Littleton Colorado I had the pleasure of working with and exercising with John Vincent. He is a small man at about 135 pounds. We would run during the noontime at work. We would start out together running from the recreation center and run out of the entry gate down to Waterton Canyon. We would run the first mile at about a 7 minute pace. I would slow down to about 8 minute miles and John, with some others, would pick up the pace to about 6 minutes per mile. Afterwards we may go lift weights for a bit.

I am thankful that John always treated me with respect.

I suppose this was during the time that I was in the best physical condition, when we would run and lift weights. I was working on lifting 400 pounds in the bench press. I had done 395 pounds more than once, and I thought that I was ready to bench 400. I began my warm ups on the bench machine at a light 275 pounds. I heard a grinding sound in my shoulder and quit. John could bench twice his body weight. I never quite got there.

John and Lynn were married after having met on a rafting trip that John equipped. They married and moved into an apartment building. The place they lived had restrictions on animals. They acquired a potbelly pig as a pet. In order to continue their interest in raising potbelly pigs they moved. They acquired more animals.

And according to John on his web site:



Nestled south of Denver in rolling hills of pine trees and scrub oak, the performing hogs, dogs, and parrots live on a 24 acre ranch with the rest of their animal family which includes a European Wild Boar, Clydesdales, Miniature Donkeys & cats. Many of the animals were homeless before coming to the ranch. Now 26 animals call it home.


I admire John for his persistence. He liked to play soccer. One day he had an injury from hitting his shoulder on the ground. He went to the doctors to get his shoulder examined. From the X-rays it was noticed that there was a big black spot on one of his lungs. He went in for surgery to have the spot removed. They sawed his sternum down the middle, used an obsidian knife to cut out the growth, and glued him back together. It was only a matter of about a week after the surgery when he was back on the road running.

I always joked with John that when he made it big that I would be his chauffeur. I have not gotten the call yet.

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TOPHOGS

Merry Christmas John