Former Georgia Tech guard Trey Braun (right) with his father-in-law David DiSalvor at the 2016 AJC Peachtree Road Race. (Courtesy Trey Braun)

Credit: Ken Sugiura

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Credit: Ken Sugiura

About a year and a half ago, former Georgia Tech guard Trey Braun had completed his football career, having decided not to pursue the NFL. Wanting to lose his football weight (he had weighed as much as 297 pounds), and maintain his health, he chose to try running. He set the 2017 Rome Marathon as his goal.

On Sunday, just after 8:30 a.m. local time (2:30 a.m. EST), Braun is expected to line up on Rome’s Via dei Fori Imperiali and head off on his 26.2-mile (42.195 kilometers for the locals) journey to achieve his goal. Speaking Wednesday, his emotional state was different than it might be before a football game.

“The thing about running that’s different than football is, football, you’re nervous because you know that you could mess up,” he said. “But when you run, you can’t really mess up. You can go slow and not finish, but it’s totally different. I’m anxious to get it over with. But the thing is, you know you still have to run a marathon. After April 2, I will always have run a marathon, and that’s an exciting prospect.”

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