Ever since I can remember, I was a fat kid. Nothing wrong with that, is something I pretty much accepted as part of who I was. How does this tie with The Useless Runner?. I guess you can see the connection already.
I never really understood the difference between healthy and un-healthy. I never once thought that eating so much of the wrong stuff could have consequences in my adult life. I just ate what I was given, and back in the 80s this was the way we grew up.
I was always involved in some sort of sport as a kid. I was not the best in any of them, but good enough to be part of it. My only attempt at competitive sports came in the form of Football, where I ended up in the bench for most of the season, and only got about 5 minutes of playing time. I retired after that, you know, at the top of my game.
School was something of a rollercoaster for me. I broke and arm in the 5th grade, and both legs in the 9th grade. I was always good with my grades, and somehow managed to stay active through cycling. I have enjoyed cycling all my life. I used to have this amazing silver plated BMX bike my brother put together for me, and then moved on to mountain biking, and sort of stopped when I went to college.
To summarize, I graduated, left home in hope of finding a new world out there. Held multiple jobs in variuos different areas, and finally settled with a day job.
Through all this time, since being a small kid, I struggled with my weight. I have been up and down most of my life, and tried everything under the sun to stay healthy. I never really looked at anything outside of diet and exercise. I simply assumed that working out a lot and eating very little was the solution to my problems.
This never lasted. And 35 years later, there I was, a father, going through life with a heavy cross on my shoulders, wondering why I was not able to keep it together and just lose weight and be healthy. It got to the point where I felt out of my depth. I had kids, and was not even able to chase them playing in the park, I had to catch my breath, and it was pretty obvious I had reached breaking point.
This was over 5 years ago, and a lot has changed since. A lot of things have happened in my life since then, and I am more than ever grateful for those events, and for the people who became part of my life.
Things have changed in ways I never imagined possible, when going for a walk around the block was a burden, and running was just something other people did, not me.
But things changed, they changed me, and the way I moved on in life. The way I see and appreciate my family, and the way I see myself in the future.
I am afterall, a Uselss Runner.
Thanks for reading.
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