What a cool project – I wish I knew someone I could recommend. Maybe you guys do:
Thinly veiled challenge for tubbies
BY JOSE MARTINEZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Hardbodies need not apply.
A Manhattan store catering to triathletes is looking for out-of-shape New Yorkers craving a heavyweight challenge - training for and completing an Ironman triathlon in one year.
“We want somebody straight off the couch,” said Christophe Vandaele, who owns SBR (Swim Bike Run) Multisports on W. 58th St.
Like a college picking an incoming class, Vandaele is soliciting applications, essays and a couple of photos from wanna-be triathletes with weight issues. Guys must weigh at least 220 pounds and gals have to tip the scales at 200 pounds.
The prize is a year’s worth of hard-core training and a trip to Panama City Beach fora 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and a26.2-mile run at the 2006 Florida Ironman Triathlon.
“You see people that are so obese and I know they don’t want to be like that,” said Vandaele, 32, who has competed in nine Ironman triathlons. “I figure if we can help them change their life, that would be wonderful.”
So far, five people have applied, fully aware that training and changing bad eating patterns will be grueling.
“A lot of them get convinced that it’s hopeless, that they can’t change their lives,” said Erin McAdams, 27, a beginning triathlete who works at the store. “Well, we want to work with somebody who really, really wants this.”
Vandaele hopes to pick a winner by October. Training starts two weeks later.
“Don’t get us wrong, this is not an easy thing,” he warned. “There will be challenges.”
Originally published on August 18, 2005
