Too Fat to Surf ??

Nine years ago I decided to be different and radically change. At that time I was morbidly obese. And having lived in California years ago in the 1980s, I had at one time known how to surf pretty well, I even shortboarded.

But then, after having been run over by a car a few years before, the best I could do was to lay on a bodyboard and hope that a wave would push me in. I squeezed into my XXL wetsuit gasping for breath. My heart pumped when I got out of a chair. I weighed 265 lbs and my clothes didn't fit.
My blood pressure was so high that if I laid down at night, my heart pumped so fast that i needed to drink a six pack just to fall asleep. If that was not enough, I drank a twelver. Or, if the twelever went down too slowly, I headed for one of the local bars and closed them down. Then I would go out to dinner, then crash.

One year after I had graduated with my first post grad degree, I was asked to join IBM's Banking and Finance Unit, on Wall Street. This meant constant travel on my part, my office was on Maiden Lane one block from the NYSE. And as such my travel was constant. I traveled twice per week to New York sometimes.

One project that I had in Boston really sucked. And the people on the project really sucked. The infighting was incredible. We constantly were required to "entertain" customers. This meant constant dinners...and drinking. At that point I could barely lift a surfboard, let alone stand up on one.

My last suit that I purchased on that project cost a lot of money and it could not be let out any further. I was constantly sweaty...and uncomfortable.

Anyway, that spring I saw the running of the Boston Marathon. I said to myself, I am going to do that, too! So I went to the running store at Fanuiel Hall and bought Jeff Galloway's book on running a marathon. I met him in that store, btw.

So instead of drinking with my colleagues, I ran. and I ran. And I ran. I lost over 60 lbs by marathon time. And by new years Eve, I'd lost 85 lbs. I did a total of three marathons, all of them in Chicago over the years. I also did two Chicago Triathlons. I joined a local Bally's in Boston and NYC. and best of all, I started running a 4.5 mile course to MIT and the Charles River, every single day.

By 2001 I was able to surf pretty well. I could do everything I wanted to, and more. I mosved to shorter boards, I was as light as ever. I now was at that time only 178 lbs. I considered competing. But I stopped running. I had three kids. I got depressed. I gained 47 lbs. I watched too much television. And I live in a fricking cold climate.

Worst of all, my surfing got worse. And then worse, and then worse. When used to easily paddle out to the lineup, now I feel like my board gets buried in the water when I try to punch through a wave. And a wave washes me off of my board! I am not strong enough to get through it...I am like a BEACHED WHALE!

Worst of all, my friend B_K shaped me a board, which I picked up this weekend at San Onofre. Besides the fact that I was blind in the water, I was TOO FAT AND HEAVY TO SURF. It was downright embarassing.

But I will change this. Today I signed up for the Chicago Marathon. And I ran five miles, slowly. Weigh In: 225.