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"That was really big as a personal achievement. It was really good to get the kind of support to know that I can do this," Fuentes said.

Since then Fuentes won the Keep Austin Weird 5K and took second in the Schlotzsky's Bun Run, while also finishing third in the St. Louis Half Marathon.

Now he's ready to step up to a longer distance. Fuentes is training for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon this fall.

"I'm eager to run it," he said. "I'm not eager to win everything right now. I want to see what I can do."

The path to running success hasn't exactly been straight for Fuentes. After winning a state championship at Boerne High School, he began his college career at Texas State University, before initially giving up running all together when he transferred to St. Edwards University.

"It went from awesome high school to decent college to not wanting to ever run again, back to St. Ed's just to casually doing it for fun," he said.

When he got to St. Edwards, he wasn't part of the school's cross country team.

"I got hooked up with one of the guys on the team that I knew and they were like, 'Hey come out and run. It will be fun. No pressure,'" Fuentes said.

Fuentes ran for St. Eds until the school dropped the program before his senior year, another hurdle on his road to running success.

Nonetheless, Fuentes kept running and after school hooked up with Team Mizuno and Team Durata, who he runs for now.

"I'm glad I'm where I'm at now. I'm extremely glad. I meet new people every day in the running scene and out of the running scene. It's a great atmosphere," he said.