Neal Bendesky likes to joke that he’s half the man he used to be.
That’s because he used to weigh 450 pounds before losing 261 pounds during what he calls a “miracle run” in which he overcame sudden cardiac death and a bout with cancer.
Bendesky, 67, a longtime sports marketing executive who lives in Phoenix, will join thousands of runners and walkers Sunday on the Strip for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Running Series Las Vegas half-marathon and 10-kilometer races.
The 10K will be Bendesky’s 37th race, including a marathon and 17 half-marathons, since he survived a “widow-maker” heart attack in 2016.
“I basically went from the couch to the concrete. That’s my scenario in doing these races,” he said. “I was a prisoner of my job with one foot in the grave, 450 pounds and working in sports but not looking the part. But I persevered.
“I was resilient and I went from an adverse situation — my weight — to triumph, and now I’m celebrating those triumphs by coming to these events. … I’m not supposed to be here.”
A New York native who lived in South Florida for more than 20 years, Bendesky was a binge eater when he worked for the Miami Heat, then-Florida Marlins and the University of Miami. He said he would work late and then sometimes polish off two large extra-cheese, extra-pepperoni pizzas by himself.
“Somebody asked me, ‘Neal, how did you get to be 450 pounds?’ It’s pretty simple,” he said. “Fan food is not fuel food. I would go to a stadium (for work), and I’d either grab fast food or fan food, which is pizza, hot dogs and stuff.”
Married with two adult children, Bendesky was first inspired to become healthier by his son Justin, who was working at a pizza parlor in 2014 frequented by his father, who was at his heaviest weight.
“One of my pivot points was when my son walked out with a salad, and he looked at me and said, ‘Dad, I think it’s time for a salad,’” he said. “Like many of us, I heard, but I didn’t listen.”
‘Are you Santa Claus?’
Another turning point took place in 2015 at an Orangetheory Fitness gym in Phoenix, where Bendesky worked for the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League.
“At that time, they allowed kids to wait for their parents. There was a little 3-year-old kid on his iPad. His name is Max, and I call him my guardian angel,” he said. “He looked at me, and I was wearing a 5X red top, and he said to me, ‘Are you Santa Claus?’
“My first reaction wasn’t PG-13. I then went to the trainer and said, ‘What do I need to do? I need to learn nutrition.’ Then I went on this miracle run. In less than two years, I lost over 199 pounds.”
Bendesky, who became known as the “199GUY,” did a TV interview about his weight loss Aug. 2, 2016, at Orangetheory — where he has completed 2,818 classes in the last 10 years. Then he literally dropped dead.
“I fell face forward 30 minutes after the crew left. I had sudden cardiac death, which is the widow-maker. I died. I stopped breathing,” he said. “So they turned me over. Less than 50 percent of people come out of it, and less than 10 percent come out of it on their own. I did both.”
After miraculously coming back to life, Bendesky was taken to the hospital. The next day, he had two stents inserted into his heart for what he said was a hereditary issue. Nine days later, he was back in the gym.
“The cardiologist told me if I hadn’t done my program, I would not still be on this earth,” he said. “I decided from that point moving forward that I was going to start running races. That God left me on this earth to help inspire other people.
“That’s when I started doing Rock ‘n’ Roll events.”
He ran his first Rock ‘n’ Roll half-marathon in San Diego 10 months after surviving the heart attack and hasn’t looked back. He has been coming to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas race since 2017.
“It’s their Super Bowl,” he said. “As a guy who has learned nutrition, like so many thousands of people who come to this event, we’re kind of rewarding ourselves for the formula, which to me is 80 percent nutrition and 20 percent exercise.
“It’s finish lines, not finish times. That’s kind of the way I look at this. The Rock ‘n’ Roll, to me, is a celebration of lifestyle success.”
Bendesky said he used the nutrition tracking app, MyFitnessPal, to count his macronutrients.
“I learned how to moderate my life and fuel my body for my workouts through educating myself about nutrients,” he said. “How much protein, carbs and fats you have in a day.”
‘Never too late’
He conquered prostate cancer last year after getting diagnosed with the disease in 2022.
“Beating cancer wasn’t crazy with the radiation treatments,” he said. “But I got done with that, and the side effects were not good.”
Bendesky said he had a rare reaction to his hormone therapy shots after radiation that caused him to gain 50 pounds. But he is on the comeback trail again, losing 33 pounds since November.
“It’s almost 11 years (since I was 450). The lowest I was was 189.4,” he said. “I’m not 189 now. I’m in the lower 200s. At the end of the day, it’s been a real challenge.
“When I worked for the Marlins, I lost over 100 pounds. This time, I lost over 199 pounds. I want to be the Muhammad Ali of weight loss. He was the world champion three times. I want to be the world champion of weight loss for the third time.”
After years of working as a sports executive, Bendesky now works as a wellness advocate, motivational speaker and author. He wrote a self-help book — “Never2Late: How A Lifestyle Reimagination Can Save Your Life!” — that was published last year and is available on Amazon.
“I was supposed to be another statistic. Instead, God gave me a second chance. If you’re here, so do you,” he said. “Your past does not define you. Your mistakes do not disqualify you. It’s never too late to become who you were meant to be.”
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.
Rock ‘n’ Roll schedule
Sunday
Noon: lululemon Yoga on the Strip, New York-New York
2 p.m.: Start line village opens at Toshiba Plaza
4:30 p.m.: 10K and half-marathon, Las Vegas Boulevard
8 p.m.: Official after party at LIV Las Vegas, hosted by Fontainebleau
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