Hi, my name is Dan. In September of 2010 I decided to start working on getting fit enough to finish an Ironman. Here’s a little bit of personal history to help you understand why I made that decision.
Hitting rock bottom
For the last few years, health and fitness has taken the back seat in my life. Actually, not even the backseat. It’s more like I put a bag over its head and locked it in the trunk. The result of this was a drastic increase in extra weight. I had ballooned to 264 pounds by mid 2010.
The impact of being so unhealthy was not only physical. It’s the kind of thing that starts a chain reaction in your life. You basically start to self destruct. At least that’s how it was for me.
Eventually, I hit rock bottom. I decided there was nowhere else to go but up. It was time to start living my life again.
Time for a change
I had always been interested in Ironman, but assumed it was very far out of reach. Is there any other event that so perfectly symbolizes peak physical fitness? I don’t think so. How could I possibly even consider it?
One night, feeling adventurous, I did a quick google search. I typed “fat to ironman” in the box. Not expecting much, I was very surprised to see a number of results pop up. I started clicking through them, and reading their stories. What I found was a group of people who were in pretty similar situations, and made the same changes I was trying to make. I was really inspired by their experiences.
That was it. The seed was planted, and I made the decision.
I’m the kind of person that works best with a big goal, and a tight deadline. My target is to finish an Ironman race by age 30, just over 2 years from now. To get there from where I am now will be very difficult. I’m trying anyways.
I’d like to keep a written log of things so that I can look back someday, hopefully from the other side of a finish line, and see how far I’ve come.