At this time I was with my family living in Dubai! End of May 2017, a week or two before turning 38! I had weighed myself recently and I was very close to 140kg. In addition to the weight, the clinical analyzes were not great, no tragedy, but with a tendency to get worse. And the first uric acid attacks began to appear a few months earlier. All in all, something had to be done if I wanted to see my children as adults.
Where did the idea come from? As is normal, when we are living in a foreign city, we pay much more attention to the achievements of our fellow countrymen living in the region, even if there are no ties of any kind. There is also the pride of others. In this case, we followed the enormous feats of Maria da Conceição who was doing 6 Ironmans on 6 continents in 52 days, and if she succeeded, it would be the woman who achieved this feat in less time. And he succeeded. He has his Guinness diploma for this event, among others. Inspiring story that I strongly advise you to take a look at and support the Maria Cristina Foundation cause if you can. I bought her book and reading it was the motivation I needed.
Sportingly zero to date! I couldn't swim 10 meters and had zero technique! I had never cycled with clipless pedals but I knew how to ride a bike. Those who learn never forget and it's true. I hadn't cycled since I was 16/17, but that wasn't why I was going to fall. I always hated running, until this chapter of my life began. At the time of the decision, I saw it as a necessary evil to achieve a greater objective. So wrong that it was close to the race!
The closest thing to sport I had done so far was kicking a ball, very occasionally. Without any effort, he would go there occasionally for some company games, the forgotten striker or goalkeeper, which was where he was less annoying or some veteran training sessions where even with many years less he was by far the worst player. I had also had 2 forays into a gym that lasted no more than 1 month each! This sums up the first 20 years of sport in my adult life.
That afternoon in the pool, I did some research and the last IronMan before turning 39 would be Lanzarote on May 26, 2018! And ready! We already had a goal, we already had a date and we already had motivation! I just needed to know what I was getting myself into, I lacked a plan, I lacked reasonableness and clarity in what I was imagining.
Thus began a passion for life! Sport in general and Triathlon in particular!
Of course, IronMan didn't happen before I was 39 but just after I was 43, of course there were many ups and downs, of course I made all the mistakes of beginners learning from them, of course I'm still far from what I imagined I could achieve with an IronMan . But I've already achieved the goal I didn't know I wanted, being healthy by doing sport. The target weight will be whatever I have set for myself.
From 2018 to 2023 I managed to lose around 22 kilos. Always focused on achieving your weight goals through sport. But it didn't go any lower than that and the weight stabilized in the last 2 years. 2024 I started the journey of eating correctly and the results are fantastic.
We will continue to write pages in this book of my adventure, and a special chapter is planned for 2024 with 3 Triathlons at the Ironman distance, 5 Triathlons at the Half IronMan distance, 5 Marathons of which 2 have already been completed with fantastic emotions, 10km swimming and many other activities.
I hope to do a double-digit weight race very soon, I hope to continue with this passion and I hope to continue to motivate others to try. Not with the phrase “why not, even fat people can do it”.
1 comment
Bela história que vou acompanhando.