Not an uncommon story.
My path to redemption may not have been quite so dramatic in terms of weight loss – I was never particularly obese, just a little too rounded in the waist.
When my marriage started collapsing I realised I needed to do something to wake me from the fog. I vowed to stop watching TV for a year and do better things with my time (this drove her MAD as she had nothing in her life apart from parenting and junk TV).
I spent more time with a local orchestra a play in and I decided to get fit. I knew my timetable was unreliable and therefore teamsports weren’t really an option, so I stepped out the door and ran.
My first run (October 2013) was about 2.5km around the block and took me nearly 30 minutes. I came back utterly exhausted and aching all over – but DETERMINED to do it better. I set myself a plan to with a series of goals:
5km in 30 minutes
10km in 60 minutes
Half marathon in 2 hours
Full marathon in 4 hours
I wrote down my goals – shared them with people to keep me accountable and even talked to the wife and suggested that may be she’d like to join me with the mission to improve fitness. She laughed, assumed I would fail and returned to her sofa to watch crappy reality TV.
I set out a plan of running 3 times a week and drew up a steady increase in mileage to get me down the path towards my goals.
6 week later I turned up to a local Parkrun (free, timed 5km races every saturday morning) – and ran 29:45. I was on my way! Whats more it wasnt hurted so much and lots of the running I was starting to enjoy. My sense of self confidence grew, my productivity at work picked up a gear and my general demeanor improved. The wife meanwhile was still sitting on the sofa miserable as f~~~, getting fatter and resenting me stepping outside so often.
After 10 weeks I planned an early morning beside the Brisbane river and ran 10km. I finished it in 59:58 and realised I was well on the way to making these goals REALLY happen.
After 6 months of steady improvement and consistent running, I entered my first half marathon. As it happens it wasnt the result I was hoping for with me detonating in the second half with some dehydration/fueling issues and it tool me 2:11, but I was hooked – I did another a few weeks later down in Sydney and managed a 1:55.
Over coming months I did a few more half marathons and joined a club to have some company on the longer runs as I worked toward the full marathon. I still had no idea whether 4hours was an achievable target, but I was feeling great, enjoying the social scene, shedding weight and getting away from the unpleasant home atmosphere. In July 2015 I completed the Gold Coast Marathon in 3:57 – it was an incredible day. Painful, challenging but immensely rewarding.
Since then I’ve run 4 more marathons including Berlin, Chicago and just a few weeks ago London and my time has been getting better and better 3:36 in London which I’m quite proud of. I have a way to go yet – I’m now determined to qualify for the Boston marathon and really show that I can achieve things.
Along the way I’ve shed about 20kg and been told I look about 10 years younger, I’ve made a lot of good friends, I spend a LOT of time with some very attractive fit younger women and as it turns out all that cardio vascular fitness and stamina does translate to some pretty epic capabilities in the bedroom that my wife no longer gets to enjoy!
Sometimes a relationship slump is just the kicker we need to make a heap of positive changes to our lives!
MarathonMan 2 years, 8 months ago.
