I imagine that my story is not different from a lot of your stories. I was never a runner or swimmer and my biking experience consisted of BMX in the 80’s. I was the kid who laughed at all those people running for no reason all the time. I am now the adult (just writing that word made me feel old) that kid looked at.

Growing up I played soccer and baseball. Those were the two sports all boys my age played. Early on I lost my interest for baseball, but kept up with soccer. I gave up soccer eventually when I discovered smoking, some time around middle school.

In high school I was not athletic at all. I ate too much, smoked and was just a lazy kid. I remember that in gym class we had to run a mile, but instead of running a mile, we smoked on the backside of the track. Yes, I had my priorities straight.

I did eventually quit smoking, but I was 24 at the time.

Everything changed though when I went to work at a new company. While there I met a French co-worker who played soccer. He was really into the game and since I played it growing up, I thought it would be neat to go watch a couple of his games. Going out to watch was like reliving parts of my youth. I was quickly caught up in the excitement and action of the game. I decided I wanted to play again.

His team was in the first division of the local soccer league, so I found a division 5 team that needed players and joined them. The first day I went out there I remembered all the fun I had playing growing up. Unfortunately, my overweight and out-of-shape body couldn’t do the things I remembered doing in my youth. I played terribly, but at least I was out there.

Playing soccer got me off the couch, but it was just the start. I lost a lot of weight while I was playing soccer, about 70 pounds from when I started to when I stopped playing.

After paying for a couple years I decided to try to run my first 10k. It’s funny that I hadn’t heard of this particular race because it’s a big race. In fact the Monument Ave 10k is now one of the biggest 10k’s in the country.

Up to this point in my life, my running was exclusively on the soccer field. I really didn’t know what to do or how to do it. I did my own 12 week training program. I started at running .5 miles and ran that every day for a week. Each week I would up the mileage by .5. It’s hard to believe, but .5 miles was all I could run that first week. Every week I would come home beaming because I had upped my mileage by .5 miles. Every day the running was hard, but I pushed through and made it. The day I came home after finishing a 6 mile run you would have thought I won the lottery by the look on my face.

My goal for that first 10k was to run it in under an hour, and I did it in 55 minutes.

The next year I signed up for my first 5k and for the same 10k again. My training was still predominately on the treadmill, but I started venturing out. I decided to take on a new challenge and signed up for the Richmond Marathon.

The people in Richmond, VA are spoiled. There is an excellent marathon training team here to get you ready for the Richmond Marathon. The training is so good in fact, that I tell people it’s almost like cheating because it makes the marathon so reachable for so many.

None of my friends ran at the time and the only friends I run with now are those I met through running. I went to this training team completely alone and not sure what to expect. I know that you always hear about different groups being open and inviting to new people and I can state that the running community here in VA is definitely like that. I was taken in like and old friend and learned a lot about running.

The training took 6 months and takes you from 3 miles to 20 miles. It’s well supported and well coached. I met so many nice people during our long training runs and I am still friends with most of them, and run with them, today.

My first marathon didn’t win any time records, I finished in 4:28, but I finished it, and that’s a good goal for your first. I went on to run countless other races and two more marathons.

Along the way I also picked up mountain biking and have competed in 12 mountain biking races.

This year I decided to change it up a little. Now that I consider myself to be an athlete, I figured it was time to learn how to swim. And what better way to force myself to learn how to swim than to sign up for a Half-Ironman. When I say I didn’t know how to swim, that’s not entirely accurate. I could doggy-paddle and it’s possible that I wouldn’t drown in calm water. I completed my first lap in my life at age 34. From there I only had to complete 40 more.

A Half Ironman is made up of 3 disciplines. It’s a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run.

I did my first sprint tri in May and got out of the pool 352 out of 360, but I got out of the pool. I managed to pass a lot of people biking and running to end up with a decent finish. It was a great experience and the people racing are as nice as they come.

I am nervous a week out from my half. I’ve done all of the distances at least once, having done the run distance the most times. Even with that, I am nervous. I’m nervous about what I will eat and drink on the bike. I’m nervous about chaffing in new places. I am nervous about cramping. I am nervous about not making it out of the water by the cut-off time.

It’s funny thinking about being nervous for a race that 10 years ago I had never heard of. I often marvel at how I have changed, even my wife has remarked about it. I used to do nothing all day and now I get down if I miss one workout. One day I decided I had enough of being out of breath on stairs and I decided to make a change.

I’m still not skinny or a muscle man and to look at me you would never know that I could do any of these races. I still eat too much and not the right things. If I didn’t exercise all the time, I’m sure I’d be heavy again (so I can’t stop my run/bike/swim). One of the runners once gave me a compliment that went something like this, “Looking at you, I would never have expected you to be so fast.”