If I’ve figured out the “Schedule” feature on this blog, this is going to go up Friday morning as the vans begin the trek from Chattanooga to Nashville for Ragnar Tennessee. So, quick story:
When I decided to get it together, I started with only food – no exercise. And that worked famously for the first few months – I dropped 35 pounds in roughly 3 months without what I’d think of as a ton of effort. And then I had the summer from hell – just a summer full of hospitals and funeral homes and yucky jobs and exhaustion and etc. and etc.
Now, anybody that has ever tried to lose weight will confirm that doing so takes a certain level of energy. You have to be able to focus, to shoo away the food demons (blerches), to control the hunger and not let it control you. And my energy bottomed out, and the weight started piling back on. I’d gone from 327 to about 293, and then all of a sudden I was back up to 315. Just like that. And it bummed me out. I was in a serious funk, and wasn’t even trying to eat better anymore. I needed something, but I had no idea what that was.
Then I got an email that, looking back, is going to have been an email that changed my life.
A good friend had just completed this crazy relay race across Tennessee. Ragnar, he said – google that shit. So I googled it. And when I said “wow – that looks pretty amazing,” I got the kick in the ass I needed (however gentle) … he said that even if I didn’t want to run it, some teams had dedicated drivers and that would be awesome.
One of the things I always said about my weight is that it wasn’t a problem until it started ruling out doing things that I otherwise wanted to do. Limiting choices was a red line that I wouldn’t let myself cross. Of course, now I was faced with a moment – I wanted to do this, but didn’t think I could.
Because of my weight.
I asked him, my friend, if he thought I could do it. He responded immediately – 100% yes. And not only that, but when I did it I’d be one of the very few people that got to say they followed through.
Two days later I bought a pair of shoes and penciled in the date.
I’ve run nearly 600 miles since then. And this weekend (holy crap right now) I’m running that Ragnar.
I’m following through.
And it feels good.
A Constant State of Hunger 
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