The Birth of an XL Multisport Athlete

What goes into making a multi sport athlete?

In the early 80's, one of my coworkers regularly participated in triathlons and various running events in the area. At that time, I was not interested in triathlons or running.  However, I used to tag along with him on his training rides as I liked to cycle.

Fast forward close to 30 years and 60 pounds later......

In the summer of 2009, I had the privilege of being invited to participate in the 2010 Winter Olympics torch relay as a torchbearer on Vancouver Island, BC on November 2nd, 2009. In the weeks leading up to the relay, I learned each relay segment was 300 meters.  I weighed around 250 pounds and it was a struggle to run that far. So, I decided it was time to make a change in my life and become more active and loose some weight.

A few days before I was scheduled to carry the Olympic torch, my wife was running a 15k event in a neighboring town.  After thinking about it a while, I decided to sign up for the 5k run being held at the same event.  I fed off of the energy from the crowd and was able to run half the 5k without stopping, and finished fairly well for my first run, or so I thought.   I remember a wonderful feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment after finishing that first event.

As previously mentioned, I liked to cycle,  So I began cycling and or running four to five days a week and lost around 30 pounds.  This gave me the confidence to sign up for a sprint triathlon in August, 2009.

While I am a strong swimmer, I am not very fast given the fact that I am 6' 6" and 220 pounds.  However, I made up for it on the cycling and running segments of the event.  I  placed first in my age group the first time out.  After that, needless to say, I was hooked and another multi sport athlete was born.

I competed in my second sprint triathlon a couple of months later placing fourth in age group.

I am looking forward to the 2011 season and all of the excitement that will come with it.