Former Fat Girl doing the Ironman - lost 160 lbs

I was at a mom’s group event this past weekend, and a friend of mine announced she wanted to do one of the warrior dashes.  She then asked if I wanted to do it with her! Hmmmm……I  said sure!  LOL now I am looking at the photos of the course……OMG!  Not sure about this!  But I like a challenge – So here we go!  Remember I am not a runner…..so this is going to be an adventure!  

So......who wants to join me??????

 

Found this article and was inspired!!! 

'Former fat girl doing the Ironman' has lost 160 pounds

By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY

Bonnie Crawford, 29, of Beaverton, Ore., is convinced that if she can lose weight, anyone can.

Four years ago, she weighed more than 350 pounds. Since then, she has shed more than 160 pounds and now participates in triathlons — running, biking, swimming. Her husband, Preston, 32, has lost 150 pounds.

Crawford is one of more than a dozen readers selected to be profiled as part of the fourth annual USA TODAY Weight-Loss Challenge. This year's challenge, which runs every Monday through May, is focusing

Before she started on her weight-loss journey, Crawford didn't believe she had a prayer at slimming down. "My family has a long history with weight issues, and I really didn't think anything was going to work for me," says Crawford, a project manager for a marketing services company.

She always had struggled with her weight, even though she was a competitive swimmer in high school and college. Her weight gain accelerated after she entered the workforce.

"I was still fueling to do varsity swimming, but I was working in an office surrounded by food. It was lack of exercise and coming home and ordering a pizza and then eating the whole pizza."

At 5-foot-7, she weighed 358 pounds and was "bursting out of size 34" in October 2002 when she decided to try the Weight Watchers Flex Plan. "I followed the program to the letter the first week, and lost 9.6 pounds."

She ate plenty of fruits and vegetables each day and allowed herself occasional treats. She also joined a gym and started walking.

The real mental turning point for her came on New Year's Eve that year. She weighed about 323 pounds at the time and decided to try to walk a 5K race, which started at midnight. "I kept getting farther behind the group. When I got to the finish line, I was just ahead of a man pushing his wife in a wheelchair. I felt like I was on the verge of cardiac arrest just to stay ahead of them. I thought to myself: 'I have to do better. I am only 25.' "

A couple of months went by, and she did another walk and finished 10th from last. Someone suggested she consider doing a triathlon. So Crawford began swimming again, only 50 yards or so at first, and she started biking a mile or two.

"In four months, I trained, and I finished the triathlon. It was an amazing experience. I'll never forget that first race. I didn't finish close to last. I finished in front of 500 people." She weighed 280 pounds at the time.

She has done numerous other triathlons since then. Right now, she is training for an Ironman triathlon in June — her first. It involves 2.4 miles of swimming and 112 miles of biking followed by a marathon of 26.2 miles.

When she is preparing for this kind of event, she works out one to two hours a day, and on the weekend she trains for three to six hours. "Since losing weight, I love to exercise. And it enables me to eat more fun foods.

"Anyone can do what I have done," she says. "Anyone. There was no magic bullet."

 http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2007-04-01-wlc-crawford_N.htm