A Wild Holiday Weekend!
So this past weekend, which for me began on Friday was a fairly wild one like none I have ever had but will probably prove to be one of man. Months ago I registered for the Atlanta Peachtree Road Race (10K), after proving to myself that I could manage a 5K. The Peachtree is an Atlanta tradition on the Fourth of July this year they had changed the format to a lottery system, as last year sold all 55,000 slots in a matter of hours, with the field set at 60,000 participants. The only ensure yourself a spot was to join the Atlanta Track Club, which I did. Think that less than 1 year ago I was a morbidly obese man who is now a member of a track club WHOA! never saw that one coming.
My office is closed on Friday so my wife thinks cool he gets to sleep in, I am like sorry I got one more training day. Friday begins as anyother week day for me with me getting up at 4am to hit the gym, I took my time in getting dressed and didn't worry about packing my gym bag as I would just come home after the gym rather than go to the office as usual. So I start my workout with some stretching as I have issues with my IT Band, anyone here decides to take up running you will understand this, and a warm up run of a quarter mile. Then I kick it into gear and punch out a 10K on the treadmill in 59 minutes and follow with a quarter mile cool down, for a total of 6.7 miles in under 65 minutes. I then hit the weights for some lower body and ab work as I am still limited on she shoulder. Fini**** up and get home and guess what? yup I am the only one awake.
So this past Saturday I had to go to the Health and Fitness expo to pick up my race packet. I was nervous as anything walking up to the counter to get my packet. I felt like I didn't belong, like the fat kid playing dodge ball or the last kid getting picked for kick ball. I walked up to the counter and gave them my confirmation and id, my hand were shaking as I gave him this and waited for my packet. He hands me my packet and suddenly all becomes calm.
Atlanta like many cities has another Tradition of a Half Marathon on Thanksgiving, this one oddly enough is named The Atlanta Half Marathon. So I am walking around with my wife and family and we see a booth that says 13.1 Atlanta, and I am like "Hey 13.1 is a Half and Atlanta must be it" They are offering a discount and tshirt if you register there so I do. After completing the registration and paying the say "Great see you in October", me not really thinking about it because I had just committed to running 13.1 miles said nothing. A few rows later I see another booth and this one has the words "Atlanta Half Marathon" and I am like WTF? I registered for the wrong race! DOH!!! so I do what any other insane post-op fat guy with a point to prove does, I agree to do them both. Yes that is right I will be doing a Half Marathon in both Oct. and Nov., which comes on the heels of me agreeing to do a 15K in Sept.
Sunday was a bit more laid back but completely filled with stress over Monday's race. I woke up and resumed my task of painting the baby's nursery, only 9 weeks left. When we first moved into our house we took on the task of painting the bedrooms of our boys. Let me just say that even though you don't have to move a lot at 325lbs this gets tiring very quick, but at 210-215 not so much. I was running up and down the ladder painting the top of the wall and having a lot of fun doing so with my oldest son. This whole time I am drinking like a mad man as I had been since Friday morning trying to get my hydration level to a solid point so I would not have issues during the race. I ate pretty much what I wanted which really wasn't much different than what I usually have. I did through in a couple extra granola bars and ceral and had 1/4 cup of mashed taters with dinner, after all I knew from training runs what kind of calories I would burn in what I hoped would be 60-70 minutes. 9:30 came and so did bedtime as waking up at 3am would quickly follow. This day had my nerves at their max as I spent most of the day questioning if I could accomplish this. I have ran the miles before, but never in a group that large, in front of so many people or in that type of heat. What made me think that I could actually do this?
MONDAY! body kicks me awake at 2:45 so I get up and start my day. Drink a couple bottles of G2 and eat breakfast. My standard race morning breakfast is always the same 2 Eggo Nutrigrain Whole Wheat Waffles with Peanutbutter and half a banana, it has yet to fail me so I stick with what works. I get dressed and see I still have 45 minutes until I have to head out. Finally I get to the race start location and as per my usual am real early which is fine by me. I sit with a friend and we tal****il it is time to head to our corals. My start time is 8:05am and as each minute goes by I get more antsy. At 7:50 my body tells me "HEY I gotta piss!" I am like Oh **** "No Time!" I know they have porta-cans on the course so I can alway**** one if I need to. Finally my start wave goes and I hit my pace and the calmness of it all sets in and I run. I run for 1 hour and 3 minutes which is how long it took me to cover the 6.2 miles with all the hills. I cross the finish line and down 2 bottles of water then hit the food lines over the next 30 minutes I eat 2 bananas, half a what bagel and a peach. Oh and I never did have to stop and ****
To think that the same time last year I was starting my preop diet and wondering what my life would be like. Would I be the same person, would this surgery work for me. This year I know what my life holds for me. I am enjoying my new life and making the most of it! I know to some degree what my future holds 15K, 2 Half Marathons, 1 Full Marathon, and a Half Ironman (70.3). What do I look forward to the most? Than is easy in about 9 weeks I get to hold my new baby daughter.
My office is closed on Friday so my wife thinks cool he gets to sleep in, I am like sorry I got one more training day. Friday begins as anyother week day for me with me getting up at 4am to hit the gym, I took my time in getting dressed and didn't worry about packing my gym bag as I would just come home after the gym rather than go to the office as usual. So I start my workout with some stretching as I have issues with my IT Band, anyone here decides to take up running you will understand this, and a warm up run of a quarter mile. Then I kick it into gear and punch out a 10K on the treadmill in 59 minutes and follow with a quarter mile cool down, for a total of 6.7 miles in under 65 minutes. I then hit the weights for some lower body and ab work as I am still limited on she shoulder. Fini**** up and get home and guess what? yup I am the only one awake.
So this past Saturday I had to go to the Health and Fitness expo to pick up my race packet. I was nervous as anything walking up to the counter to get my packet. I felt like I didn't belong, like the fat kid playing dodge ball or the last kid getting picked for kick ball. I walked up to the counter and gave them my confirmation and id, my hand were shaking as I gave him this and waited for my packet. He hands me my packet and suddenly all becomes calm.
Atlanta like many cities has another Tradition of a Half Marathon on Thanksgiving, this one oddly enough is named The Atlanta Half Marathon. So I am walking around with my wife and family and we see a booth that says 13.1 Atlanta, and I am like "Hey 13.1 is a Half and Atlanta must be it" They are offering a discount and tshirt if you register there so I do. After completing the registration and paying the say "Great see you in October", me not really thinking about it because I had just committed to running 13.1 miles said nothing. A few rows later I see another booth and this one has the words "Atlanta Half Marathon" and I am like WTF? I registered for the wrong race! DOH!!! so I do what any other insane post-op fat guy with a point to prove does, I agree to do them both. Yes that is right I will be doing a Half Marathon in both Oct. and Nov., which comes on the heels of me agreeing to do a 15K in Sept.
Sunday was a bit more laid back but completely filled with stress over Monday's race. I woke up and resumed my task of painting the baby's nursery, only 9 weeks left. When we first moved into our house we took on the task of painting the bedrooms of our boys. Let me just say that even though you don't have to move a lot at 325lbs this gets tiring very quick, but at 210-215 not so much. I was running up and down the ladder painting the top of the wall and having a lot of fun doing so with my oldest son. This whole time I am drinking like a mad man as I had been since Friday morning trying to get my hydration level to a solid point so I would not have issues during the race. I ate pretty much what I wanted which really wasn't much different than what I usually have. I did through in a couple extra granola bars and ceral and had 1/4 cup of mashed taters with dinner, after all I knew from training runs what kind of calories I would burn in what I hoped would be 60-70 minutes. 9:30 came and so did bedtime as waking up at 3am would quickly follow. This day had my nerves at their max as I spent most of the day questioning if I could accomplish this. I have ran the miles before, but never in a group that large, in front of so many people or in that type of heat. What made me think that I could actually do this?
MONDAY! body kicks me awake at 2:45 so I get up and start my day. Drink a couple bottles of G2 and eat breakfast. My standard race morning breakfast is always the same 2 Eggo Nutrigrain Whole Wheat Waffles with Peanutbutter and half a banana, it has yet to fail me so I stick with what works. I get dressed and see I still have 45 minutes until I have to head out. Finally I get to the race start location and as per my usual am real early which is fine by me. I sit with a friend and we tal****il it is time to head to our corals. My start time is 8:05am and as each minute goes by I get more antsy. At 7:50 my body tells me "HEY I gotta piss!" I am like Oh **** "No Time!" I know they have porta-cans on the course so I can alway**** one if I need to. Finally my start wave goes and I hit my pace and the calmness of it all sets in and I run. I run for 1 hour and 3 minutes which is how long it took me to cover the 6.2 miles with all the hills. I cross the finish line and down 2 bottles of water then hit the food lines over the next 30 minutes I eat 2 bananas, half a what bagel and a peach. Oh and I never did have to stop and ****
To think that the same time last year I was starting my preop diet and wondering what my life would be like. Would I be the same person, would this surgery work for me. This year I know what my life holds for me. I am enjoying my new life and making the most of it! I know to some degree what my future holds 15K, 2 Half Marathons, 1 Full Marathon, and a Half Ironman (70.3). What do I look forward to the most? Than is easy in about 9 weeks I get to hold my new baby daughter.
Paul C.
First 5K 9/27/20 46:32 - 11 weeks post op (PR 28:55 8/15/11)
First 10K 7/04/2011 1:03 First 15K 9/18/2011 1:37
First Half Marathon 10/02/2011 2:27:44 (PR 2:24:35)
First Half Ironman 9/30/12 7:32:04
First 5K 9/27/20 46:32 - 11 weeks post op (PR 28:55 8/15/11)
First 10K 7/04/2011 1:03 First 15K 9/18/2011 1:37
First Half Marathon 10/02/2011 2:27:44 (PR 2:24:35)
First Half Ironman 9/30/12 7:32:04
Just WAY too cool, Paul. I'm very happy for you. Sounds like you're living life to the fullest, and enjoying every minute of it...
But I'm more excited about the coming daughter than I am about the race - I've got experience having daughters, but none with racing - yet!
And I can definitely identify with being able to move around so much more easily, and being able to enjoy things that were "work" before WLS. This weekend, I did a bunch of honey-dos that required being up and down the ladder and stairs (a bunch of times) and it didn't bother me at all. In fact, I kind of laughed at my wife when she complained that she was tired from watching me bop up and down the stairs so many times...
Ain't life grand?
But I'm more excited about the coming daughter than I am about the race - I've got experience having daughters, but none with racing - yet!
And I can definitely identify with being able to move around so much more easily, and being able to enjoy things that were "work" before WLS. This weekend, I did a bunch of honey-dos that required being up and down the ladder and stairs (a bunch of times) and it didn't bother me at all. In fact, I kind of laughed at my wife when she complained that she was tired from watching me bop up and down the stairs so many times...
Ain't life grand?
All I can say is WOW!! I get energy from reading about your energy. Amazing FARTs. Good luck on your new baby and all of your races. Awesome!
9/9/09: Highest Weight: 506.5 lbs 9/20/10: Tufts Start Weight: 492.4 lbs
2/7/11: Surgery Wt: 462.5 lbs. 9/16/12: Current Weight: 287.8 lbs.
4/15/12: First 5K - BAA 5K - PR 35:49
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