Which religion produces the fastest runners?

Is it the Catholics? The Protestants? The Lutherans? Baptists? Mormons? Seventh-day Adventists? Jehovah's Witnesses? Muslims? Buddhists? And there are many more that I could mention, forgive me for not. Which one produces the fastest runners?

This is not meant to turn into a religious debate, so don't start:) Many of you know that I am a Mormon (or as we like to refer to ourselves by the name of our church, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or LDS.) For those of you who didn't know, surprise! (Read more at My beliefs page)

A UCLA study proves that Mormons live longer than the average American. My exercise physiology professor says that Seventh-day Adventists live longer than members of the LDS church, and a large part of that has to do with the fact that they're vegetarian. But that still doesn't answer our question, but that's not the purpose of this post (sorry) and to be honest I don't know which religion produces the fastest runners. If you figure it out I would be curious to know and I'll let you be a guest blogger. Really I don't think it matters too much. The purpose of this post was to draw as many people into this post as possible because I want to tell you what it's like being LDS from the perspective of an active, believing, LDS person's point of view and especially as an athlete and runner. (Again to find out more about my beliefs go to my "My Beliefs" page.)

This post will focus on something incredible. It's called the Word of Wisdom. I've been thinking about posting what it's like for me to be LDS for a while and it seems right to me. If you're offended, let me know. You can start a blog too. Being LDS helps me to run fearless, period. So that's why I'm writing about it. If it didn't help me then you wouldn't see it on this blog.

The Word of Wisdom is probably one of the coolest things ever. This commandment was revealed to a modern-day prophet in Kirtland, Ohio on February 27, 1833. Now, mind you, this was before people knew that cigarettes were bad for you. Back before drinking and driving existed, it was like drinking and riding, but to my knowledge nothing bad enough happened that they had to make a law about it (unless I don't know something, which is very possible.) And this is back before drugs were as powerful, potent and addictive as they are today.

God revealed to His prophet at the time, Joseph Smith, that they were to abstain from tobacco, alcohol, coffee, tea and harmful, habit-forming drugs. They were also commanded to eat healthily. A lot of research has come out in the last many years to prove the validity of these things and I could make an already long post longer by talking about all of them. I'm not going to do that. What I do want to do is tell you that I am impressed, grateful and awe-struck. God loves us. He wants us to be happy. He provided a way that all of us could avoid things that would enslave and make us miserable and that is why I am grateful.

I want you to know that the principle reason why I am able to run fearless, why I have never given up and why I will NEVER give up is because I have a testimony that God lives and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Christ's true church restored to this earth. Thank you for reading and for being awesome. All of you inspire me and for that too I am grateful. Have a great day and run fearless!!!