The goal I was seeking was to reach the weight I had been, when I got out of high school as a 17-year old. That was 142 pounds, and about 15 years earlier. I now weighed in at a hefty, 196 pounds and the fear of increasing even further brought me to where I was ready to do what needed to be done. I did not consider myself obese, but I was. I did not realize it until after I had taken the weight off, however.
So what inspired me to begin running as a 32-year old, ex-smoking obese man? A fat lady running past my house everyday! She trudged by, wearing a gray, hooded sweatshirt and sweat pants, everyday while I watched from a ladder while painting my garage. I was amazed she could do it. This overweight woman, my inspiration, lumbered by daily and after awhile I began to time her exercise sessions. There were days when she went past and did not return for 90-minutes or more. Whether it was embarrassment or the feeling of, ‘If she can do it, so can I!’ I don’t remember. Although, she did make me take a look at myself and make me wonder, what had happened to the body I once possessed?
On my 32nd birthday, I laced up a pair of Trodds, shoes I purchased from a local discount store for $19.95, and set out to reach my first goal—running two miles.
After 15 years of hardly ever exercising, my body quit on me at two blocks. The next day I could barely get out of bed. I thought of just taking the day off from my new exercise program. I thought a lot about not doing it until tomorrow. Then I realized that tomorrow I might say the same thing and before long I would just forget about my long-range goal of being in the shape I was when I graduated from high school. Day after day, I told myself it would get better, I would run further, the pain would subside and eventually, it did. After about 2 months of running and walking, I finally reached a point where I could run 2 miles non-stop. Reaching that goal was a major step in the direction I had chosen to go. I did it with my head, I did it with my feet, and I began to lose pounds as fast as I could add miles in my running log.
The lessons I learned early in my running career have helped me to set many goals and the toughness I developed in sticking to what I had planned, has served me well over 28 years of running races and I have weighed 127 pounds for over 25 years. I later found out the “Fat Lady” ran to a nearby fast food restaurant and had a cup of coffee and read the newspaper, jogging about a quarter-mile each way. Then, 15 years later, I saw her and she said I had inspired her to exercise and she had too had become fit. A saying that was part of a running program I was involved in as a beginner, sticks in my mind to this day; “To reach a goal, you must set a goal”. Get out there and start setting! You’ll be amazed at the results.