Hi gang!
Yesterday I stopped by a local sports bar/restaurant to get something to eat. This place has a lot of plasma TVs and good food and is a nice place to watch sports. Well, as I was leaving I recognized an older white-haired man sitting at the bar…
“Hi guy! Remember me? I met you last summer in late July. We were sitting here having drinks and watching the Tour De France. You may not recognize me because I’m a lot lighter now…120 lbs lighter!”
He stared for a moment and then replied “Yeah, I do remember… Holy crap! You’ve lost a lot of weight! Good job!”
I distinctly remember my conversations with him last summer because I wondered if he thought I was just another big-talking drunk bragging about how good I used to be on the bike… I had told him about my battles with chronic illness over the last several years (pituitary failure) and how as a result I went from a very athletic 180lb bike rider to 330 lbs, but that someday I was sure I would get my fitness back. Yeah, I’m sure I sounded like so many people hanging out in bars talking about the ‘good old days’…
But here I was in my bike clothes having just finished my aerobic intervals training session. “Do you remember me talking about someday wanting to compete in time-trials? Well, look over there. There’s my van…and there’s my Rocketwing. I just got back from my first real time-trial training session on Fiesta Island. I’m preparing to compete in the Fiesta Island time-trial races starting in September!”
He looked somewhat stunned. He stared at my bright red bike jersey… and then my Rocketwing…
“Wow Jim, that’s amazing! just amazing… It’s so good to hear of someone making a comeback like that. Wow! You’re making me think that maybe I REALLY can lose this 30-40 lbs that have been bugging me for so long. Man, keep up the good work!”
I told him a little about how I used the Body-For-Life program and bicycling to lose the weight and rebuild my body and gave him some words of encouragement to give it a try and then left.
It really made me realize just how much things can change in a year. I had no idea last summer that by the time the next Tour De France rolled around that for the first time in many years I would no longer just be a spectator - but actually be training for a bicycle race… And to not only be getting my life back, but even inspiring others to dare to dream again…and to believe that maybe it’s not too late to give it just one more try…