Art Smith to Run Second Marathon; Cooked for Dalai Lama

Chef Art Smith, who met and cooked for the Dalai Lama last weekend at the inauguration of Toronto's Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre, is gearing up to run the Marine Corps Marathon in D.C. this weekend—his second in three weeks.

Smith has become somewhat of a workout junkie since losing nearly 100 pounds with his health coach Az Ferguson. His time in the Chicago Marathon, with Ferguson by his side, was 4:32:49 and came in 16,134 out of 35,000 runners. In his own words, he said he's "a 50-year-old man who's never run in his life and has lived half his life overweight."

"I am doing [the marathon] to show folks that you can change your health and, also living with diabetes 2, you can put the symptoms in remission," Smith emailed us. To celebrate finishing this marathon, Smith plans on hitting his D.C. restaurant, Art and Soul, to eat a "big plate of fried chicken and a whole plate of baby cakes." As long as that diabetes is in remission...

· All Art Smith coverage on Eater Chicago [~EChi~]

Photo: Art Smith with the Dalai Lama