{"id":957884,"date":"2026-07-25T07:27:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T07:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/957884\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T07:27:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T07:27:29","slug":"spring-brook-twp-man-outraces-his-past-on-trek-to-independence-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/957884\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Brook Twp. man outraces his past on trek to Independence Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis is What Failure Looks Like!\u201d blared a caption over an Instagram photo of Michael Kravitz.<\/p>\n

He smiles and holds a 3-by-5-foot flag aloft in front of Independence Hall.<\/p>\n

Underneath he wrote a smaller caption: \u201c102 miles on foot, carrying Old Glory from Scranton to Independence Hall for America 250 birthday!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ideally, he would have taken the whole 155-mile route on foot, not caught a few rides in the dark and heat. Still, it was a success for a 36-year-old Spring Brook Twp. man who a few years ago was just short of 300 pounds.<\/p>\n

He raised almost $5,000 for the veterans group Team Red, White & Blue. Along the way he posted social media videos set to patriotic songs and was cheered on by commenters over the blisteringly hot Independence Day weekend. The Philadelphia Inquirer posted a real-time tracker for following his path.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t fail the mission,\u201d Kravitz said later. \u201cI only failed the distance. The mission was about inspiring others and reminding people to come together, and pushing people out of their comfort zone and then trying to live out to their full potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Cunningham, a volunteer running coach from Jefferson Twp., was among a handful of people who ran the first few miles with Kravitz with his own flag. \u201cHe feels there has to be a purpose for him to be here, why he was able to pull himself out of that dark place,\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n

Inspired by local soldier<\/p>\n

In Roaring Brook Twp., an older man acknowledged the flags with his hand over his heart for the entire time they ran by.<\/p>\n

Kravitz posted a video with the father of a serviceman asking for prayers for a son deployed on a ship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a reminder, how real it is that men and women are still fighting for this country today,\u201d he said later.<\/p>\n

Kravitz\u2019s respect for the military was bolstered by his uncle, Kevin Metschulat of Madison Twp., who joined the Army after 9\/11 and served two tours in Iraq.<\/p>\n

A dark place<\/p>\n

Kravitz played ice hockey as a teen. The weight and health problems came later, with business travel for a manufacturing firm and personal frustrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI drank too much, I spent a lot of time on the road, I was miserable,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve struggled with romantic relationships in my life, and I essentially just lacked purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kravitz said he threw himself into helping a few homeless men only to feel worse when the effort ended in frustration.<\/p>\n

Kravitz\u2019s Independence Day trek grew out of a doctor\u2019s appointment for sleep apnea in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hit one of my several rock bottoms,\u201d he said. \u201cI realized I climbed up to 295 pounds. And part of me wanted to gain another 5 pounds to be 300, and then I said that was the completely wrong mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had tackled other big challenges and gained more weight. Nothing stuck.<\/p>\n

Kravitz says he found success with repeated attempts at 75 Hard, an online \u201cmental toughness\u201d program with two-a-day workouts, no alcohol and a slew of other daily demands. He got his weight down to 235.<\/p>\n

He is training for another challenge, an Ironman in Florida in November.<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMike Kravitz runs with the American flag outside of his Spring Brook Twp. residence Thursday, July 9, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis is What Failure Looks Like!\u201d blared a caption over an Instagram photo of Michael Kravitz. He smiles…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":957885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,385331,13162,728,95967,24531,1448,2830,1311,13163,385332,9656,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-957884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-jefferson-township","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-moscow","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-scranton","tag-spring-brook-township","tag-uncategorized","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116979437977778795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/957885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}