Is the gas fresh or left over from last year? Try some fresh fuel with some Seafoam in it. You may need to clean out the carb if the Seafoam treatment doesn't help.

i put fresh fuel in the tank. it started running really poorly on the last use of last year.

Try replacing the plug and air filter. One or both may have become fouled.

If you put fresh gas in the tank but it was half full of last years gas, you may still have a problem with stale gas.

Putting new fuel in the tank doesn't get the old stale gas out of the carb if it sat all winter. Try spraying some freah gas into the carb throat and see if it will run for a few revolutions.