Before & After - Thanks Triathlon

I'm not really sure if this is where one posts such a thread but I figured it'd be the most appropriate.

I've never really considered myself overweight but I did notice around june of 2008 that my khaki pants for work were fitting a little tight... and in fact all of my dress pants had magically started fitting kind of tight.  So I went out and bought a few pairs of bigger pants.

Well I figured that shouldn't have been the answer, so I expressed my frustrations with my (then fiance) wife and she decided to get me a bike for my birthday.  It started small, just riding 14 miles a day round trip to the train station every now and then for work... it eventually turned into a lonnnng 20 mile ride on the weekend which eventually turned into a "why can't I learn how to run?".  From there we were doing couch to 5k programs with great success.

About 1 super sprint race in to my career and 6 months into some off season trainer riding I decided a half ironman was right for me.  I kept it my little triathlon secret.  Imagine what folks would have said if I had gone from 1 super sprint to a half ironman?  All of the mentions of not enough experience, and stick with olympics, and all of that - but I had more in mind and that was pushing myself as far as I could with as little experience as possible.  Call me a glutton for punishment.

Well for the details I encourage you to read my race reports on steelhead and the olympic distance chicago triathlon, but to make a long post short I've only seemed to lose 10lbs but when the photos came back the proof was in the puddin' - Visibly I feel like a much different person, and I can only hope to make as much improvement for next year from where i'm at now.

I mainly just wanted to thank this forum for being a great place to read and get pumped about going out there and working out (even if i'm the worlds worst logger).  Please enjoy my picture.