So here is a long one. Feel free to skip it. I had a few people ask me to post this story. One year ago I was close enough to 260 pounds that is really didnt matter. I “lived” my life with a lot of fear and pain, and my body was a physical manifestation of all that. I had, I am very sad to say, not run for more than a decade, meaning that I had literally not ran any distance for over 1/3 of my life. It hurt, and it scared me that I would damage my back worse than it already was. A lot of things scared me into not doing them. On November 11th of 2013 I got sick. That was not uncommon for me at the time but this one was a whopper. Now every time I get the flu I think of Jim Henson, and how if I ever haven pneumonia I could die because I don’t want to be a bother. This was probably one of those I should have listened and gone to the doctors. Anyway I was down for almost 2 weeks. I came out of those 12 days with a resolve that I was changing some stuff, OK a lot of stuff. TV became the enemy. Eating became something that needed more thought put into it. I didnt stop eating anything (except Gluten which does not make me feel good, and even that I still have when I really want it), I just started to eat less. I just started caring, and setting goals. I wanted to feel healthy, I wanted to get away from pain and fear. The ideas that made me say “I can’t……” turned into a challenge. Why can’t I? So I started working, and working hard, and A LOT. In May the company I work for sent out an email saying they had a few entries into the Iron Will Race at Camp Williams, and because I had said in the past I couldnt do something like that, I was the first person to apply for the entries. I was not fast but I finished: 39th out of 156 runners. I kept working and I hit my weight goal for the year (60+ pounds and 4 months early) and then last weekend I did something else I never thought I would/could. I ran in my first Triathlon. Let me tell you I don’t care much about Pain anymore, and Fear is motivation not an end for me. Tri’s come in a few flavors and the one I did was a sprint. My goal was to not stop, to know that when I was done I had worked as hard as I could in the time I had. Swim, Bike, and Run. 275 people finished that race. I came in 88th over all, 65th male to cross the line (145 total), 15th in my age group (34 total) which included the fastest runner of the race, and I was the 4th fastest in the Beginner division. Next month is an Olympic Tri (double the distance), and my goals are the same “Work as hard as I can in the Time I have”.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 23:25:32 +0000
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