Still Athletic, but...

As I began my last post, if you're wondering who that skinny guy is in the picture...it's me again! In fact, I think at this point (early 1990s) I was even lighter than I was back when playing college baseball. I'm not sure because I never thought about my weight in the past, but I would guess that I weighed somewhere between 150 and 160 in this shot.

 

So what had I been up to since the shortened college baseball "career" ended? Well, it turned out I was a pretty decent golfer,  and I actually left Rollins College after my sophomore year to pursue a career in professional golf. To transform a ten-year story into a couple of sentences, in short, I eventually came to find out that I wasn't quite decent enough to make it on the PGA Tour. Yes, I knocked around on the minitours (golf's minor leagues) for a number of years, and I held some decent golf club professional / instruction jobs; but at the end of it all, I wanted to compete. As we all know, though, a very elite few get to compete on the biggest stages, and it just wasn't in the cards (or in my driver) to make it with the big boys.

During this decade, however, I still kept in relatively good shape physically. Walking a golf course (roughly five miles) a few times a week and hitting literally thousands upon thousands of practice balls will certainly keep the belly relatively flat. That said, though, during this stretch, I drank a little too much - which can be counterproductive to one's flat belly (as well as one's putting stroke) - and in 1987 I started up the worst habit I ever started up...smoking. Yuck!

Needless to say, although it wasn't immediately apparent, my downward slide to terrible health progressed steadily. With smoking added to my repetoire, any chance of getting out and running again (although I had no desire) was gone. I tried playing in a basketball league for a while, but I couldn't even get up and down the court without wheezing with my smoker's lungs. So even though I weighed less than I had in 1985, I was actually in worse shape because my ability to undertake true cardiovascular exercise had disappeared.

And then things started getting even worse. Although I stayed in the golf business part-time until 1996, I went back to finish my last two years of college in 1993 (finished in '94) and then went back for my Master's Degree in 1995 (finished in '96). As an English major, my life became a bit more sedentary (with the reading...and reading...and reading some more), and little by little, my weight increased at a slow and steady pace. The picture below - taken in 1996 at the beginning of a semester overseas - is probably the first time I was photographed weighing over 200 pounds.

 

I weighed about 205 when I left for England (a couple of days earlier), and my recollection of this is solid because I was shocked about the scales tipping over 200 for the first time in what had been my previously fairly skinny life.  What's strange is that even though nobody even knew I had gotten this heavy, I was also embarrassed about being over 200...how can one be embarrassed about something that nobody knows about? Those of you who are or have been heavy know exactly what I'm talking about. Those of you who aren't or have never been heavy, just be thankful...trust me.

Interestingly enough, even though I ate like a horse when I was there, because of the incredible amount of walking around the university during the semester, as well as climbing up and down three flights of stairs to get to and from my room multiple times per day, I actually returned to the USA at 195 pounds; and that I remember because 1996 was the last time I stepped on a scale that told me I weighed less than 200 pounds...but we'll get more into my trip to obesity in my next post.

Until then, enjoy your journey...

The Finely Tuned Athlete (No, I'm Not Kidding)

So if you're wondering who that guy is in the picture below...it's me! No, I'm not kidding...it really is! What really grabs me when I look at this picture is not how young I look or how that skinny-faced guy doesn't look much like the guy I saw in the mirror this morning. What really gets me is that I weighed 165 pounds and stood at the same height I stand today...Wow! Even now, with very aggressive weight goals, I'm still not aspiring to get back to 165...heck, I don't even know whether I can spell "one hundred and sixty five" these days...oh, okay...I guess I can.

The thing about it is, though, is that I wasn't just a skinny, scrawny kid. I was actually in shape. This picture was taken during the Rollins College baseball team's "Spring Training" in January 1985. Two months earlier, in order to earn the practice uniform I was wearing, our coach stipulated that any NCAA athlete (even a Division II athlete) should be able to run two miles in twelve minutes...yes, two miles in twelve minutes...and he required us to do so before he handed us our Spring Training uniforms. Well, I'm sorry to say that it took me a couple extra weeks because I tweaked my knee on my first attempt - with just two laps to go, too - but I got to try again in early December; and I actually completed the two miles in 11 minutes, 27 seconds.

That's a long way of saying (or bragging about how) I was a pretty good athlete in 1985; however, that well-conditioned young man didn't stick around much longer. As you'll notice in the comment under my picture and life statistics, I was "hampered" with arm injuries; and unfortunately, because I was a pitcher and because those injuries never fully healed, what I hoped would be a nice career in baseball was pretty much over before it really got started.

So, in a phrase, I really didn't "have" to run anymore. I really didn't "need" to keep my legs strong (which, for pitchers, is critical). I really didn't need to be as finely conditioned as I had been, as there was no game to train for, no two miles in twelve minutes to run. So, in retrospect, the day my baseball career ended was really the day I started heading down a slippery slope to a less healthy life and ultimately to a pretty darned unhealthy one. It didn't happen overnight, but it happened...I'll tell you more about it in my next post.

Until then, enjoy your journey...

January 11, 2012 - Disney 5K

I know that I owe all of you some "background" blog posts to get you caught up on the first year of my journey, as well as a little bit of my personal history; but I have to interrupt that scheduled programming to let you know that, just last week, my nine-year-old daughter (Mary) and I ran in the Walt Disney World 5K down in Orlando.

This race was part of the 20th Anniversary Marathon Weekend at Walt Disney World, which includes Kid Races on Thursday, a 5K on Friday, a Half Marathon on Saturday, as well as a Full Marathon on Sunday. While I have run a few road races in my life (more about that in the background posts), I can tell you that Disney does a great job treating all runners like Boston Marathon qualifiers. I mean, in how many 5Ks do you get the chance to start the race with fireworks and then finish with a run through a marathon finishing chute with Katy Perry blaring in the background? By the way, to close the circle, the song was Firework, so we started and ended with fireworks!

I took some video of the race and will be getting that up on YouTube, as well as this blog, but I need some time to edit out some of the wobbly footage. In the interim, here are some photos from the race...

Running through EPCOT

Just a Half Mile to go, Mary!

Hello, Camera Person!

Just a Couple More Feet!

Crossing the Finish Line!

We did it!

As a final note (and a teaser for future posts), I signed us up for this race quite a while ago (I think it was in August), and at the time I was really nervous about whether I could actually be in good enough shape to make it (at the time, I was run/walking about 1.5 miles and hurting every time)...but as you'll find out in the upcoming posts, our bodies can certainly surprise us.

Until next time, enjoy your journey...

How did I get here?

Before I answer that question, I guess I should tell you where "here" is. The title of this blog might lead one to interpret it as an individual's fond recollection of how he moved, or rolled, or fell off of his couch and subsequently transformed his life and completed his first marathon.

Well, if that's your interpretation, you're probably going to click away from this page in a couple of seconds because you are about to find out that I have not yet completed nor have I attempted to complete a marathon. In literary terms, you are joining my story "in medias res" which is to say that you have stumbled upon the middle of the action...and, as you'll come to find out, if all goes as planned, you're pretty much smack dab in the middle of what is turning into a two-year journey of a 45-year-old (now 46), obese, pack-a-day-smoking middle-aged man who in the last fourteen months decided to get up and embark on a journey from his couch to a full marathon.

So where the heck is the "here" to which this blog post refers? Well, for the time being, let me just start by saying that I've made some pretty good progress on the journey; however, at this very moment, the "here" would have to be defined as that place where I felt a need to start a blog to share this journey with the world (or at least anyone willing to read or listen), particularly with those of you who think you can't change your own physical fitness for the better. I'd be lying, though, if I were to deny that this blog will serve to help me as much as anybody who might stumble across it...it's that whole accountability thing, which I'll be talking about in my next post, as well as in many others beyond that.

So, in a nutshell, what's this blog all about? At the end of the day, I've gotten to a point where I'm feeling good about myself physically for the first time in quite some time; and what I really want people to know - and you'll know more after reading my "background" posts - is that if I can do it, certainly anybody (without major physical limitations, of course) can do it. And it is my sincere hope to inspire others to take the same steps that I've taken to get off my couch and start living life again.

So it would probably be wise to end with a disclaimer (would anybody reading this actually sue me?)...I am not a doctor, a nurse, a health care professional, nor am I an exercise or physical therapist. As such, if you're not certain about your health or your ability to start an exercise or running routine, please consult a doctor if you are looking to implement any of the exercise or running schedules that I'll be mapping out in future posts.

Until next time, enjoy your journey...