Tag Archives: adventure

One Runs, One Walks

walking_shoeToday was a good day.

Today I participated in The Dream Mile 2009 for the Bay Area. I am not a runner, by any stretch of the imagination, I don’t do running. I do walk though. As a kid I remember walking in the March of Dimes Walk-a-thons on a regular basis. As a scout, I did hike and backpack, including a 50 mile back pack trip when I was around 16 or 17. My “job” on all of the backpacking trips was to be the Pace Setter, because I was the slowest. During my scouting carrier I became very knowledgeable in the signs, symptoms, treatment and prevention of heat exhaustion.

I am a big guy, I always have been a big guy. In high school I weighed over 280 pounds. I say over because I am not sure how much over I was at the time; the schools scales topped out at 275. My first summer out of high school I went to a Marine Corps recruiting station to find out about signing up with the Corps, I went through much of the recruiting processing, which came to a screeching halt when the scales reveled I was 315 pounds. The recruiters said they could get me into “fat camp” if I got down to 280 on my own, and boot camp would get me the rest of the way down to my expected weight. Looking back I would say that was unrealistic, but hey they are recruiters right?

Fast forward 20 something years to 2004-2005, my wife was unhappy about her weight and decided to do something about it. She joined Weight Watchers, and did amazingly well! She lost 125 pounds! Inspired by her early successes and tenacity I changed my diet a little and participated with her, sort of. I was supportive and encouraging to her efforts, just not doing it myself. I did actually manage to lose some weight. After a few months we got a scale that went higher than 250, I started “tracking” my weight, and weighed in at 361 pounds. As of this writing I am at 329 which, for those of you paying attention, is only 14 pounds more than I was in high school.

Over the years I have acquired reference points in my weight; they begin with my first tracked weight a few years ago, the “Holy Crap!” weight; Now I am getting close to my “pilots license” weight of 325. My next checkpoint is “High School” weight which I am rounding to 300. Beyond that is my “Drivers License” weight, which was actually my wrestling weight class in Jr. High, 280. Keep in mind, I haven’t seen that 280 on a scale since 6th grade. After that, well, I’m not going to worry about it till I get below 300.

So how does all of this tie in together? I enjoyed doing the 5k walk today. I really enjoyed it. If I hadn’t developed a couple of blisters, I think I could have done the 10k, and I want to start doing these events on a regular basis. Today was my wife’s third run/walk and she is loving it. Though I do not seen myself running in these events, as she inevitably will, I do want to walk them.

In weight loss, it has been said that each person must come to there impetus in there own time, I don’t know if I have reached that point or not, but I do know that I have not felt this… I am not sure what word really fits the way I feel right now, accomplished is as close as I can get …I haven’t felt this accomplished and encouraged about myself since I completed that 50 mile backpack trip nearly 25 years ago.

~FlyBoyJon