A little inspiration

Hello everyone, I'm a 1 season triathlete newbie, who did their first race on june29th, 2008. I wanted to share my weight loss story and hopefully provide some inspiration!

I had been affectionately called a "big boy" all my life by my mom, that was a bit of an understatement. The day i became brave enough to step on the scale 6 years ago August 2002, i realized just how bad it actually was. 290lbs at 17, I'm sure i had probably hit 300 at some point. That day I decided i was going to lose weight! I stopped eating junk food and hit the recumbent bike for 30 minutes a day. I manged to drop to 250lbs, 40lbs in 4 months not bad i thought; too bad Christmas was right around the corner, and with all the sweets and lack of will power i was back up to 270 and stayed that way until Sept 2003 when i started my landscape construction job, the increased activity was enough to plateau again at 250.

 I remained at that weight for another 3 years, content in the fact that i was big and thats just the way it was going to be. June 2007 i hit a point in my life where i had become tired of partying and eating all the time, i needed a change or I felt like my life was going to be over before i knew it.

I had always had an underlying desire to run, I just never did anything about it. Until that day i decided i was going to go out and try a run to walk, which my mom the seasoned runner of 5 years had been preaching to me. It was HARD!! but once i got home i knew i had fallen in love; 3 days later and 170$ later i had bought my first pair of trail shoes, i spent that much money i had to keep it up right? 2 months later i was still doing the run walk, but was closing in on a continuous 30 min run, and had dropped almost 30lbs! This was incredible! I joined a local Tuesday night running group that did speed and hill work, coupled with my new 30 mins run the weight continued to melt off.

January 2008 I ran my first 10K race, which just happened to be a snowshoe race on Mt. Washington, Vancouver island, BC.  I really wasn't prepared and probably should have done the 5K, but i still finished and with a respectable time, even though i could barely walk afterwards. I had now dropped down to about 210lbs, i still wasn't completely happy, but was going to keep racing and just keep on keeping on. Till about april i completed a handful of 10K races and a few other odd sizes, as well as my first half marathon with a time of 1:42:42, not bad for a first timer!

In all honestly Im not quite sure how triathlon popped into my head, but i suppose to the need to continually challenge myself is what started it all. I added some biking and swimming workouts to my run work outs and June 27th i finished my first sprint tri, a little over a year after i started my fitness journey. Well i think you all know how addicting it is, i had also hit my perfect weight as a result of the increased training. 175lbs! Looking back i really cant believe that i am where i am today, but i don't think i could be any happier, now with 3 sprints and 1 Olympic under my belt, I'm ready to conquer a half iron next year!

In the end, sorry if that was a bit long winded or there are any errors (im a bit tired) I want to say that you can do it! no matter what anyone says or any blocks you encounter, you have it within you to achieve whatever you put your mind to!

 
Happy training