The Beginning - Maybe you'll train a little harder next time?

I used to be a big fellow who liked to ride my bike with friends in the annual MS 150: City To Shore, the Tour de Cure and a number of other longer rides in our area and had raced two sprint triathlons.  Being the size that I was (250 lbs give or take) usually left me at the back of the pack when climbing the hills of Chester County or finishing the run in a tri.  I would routinely get dropped before the end of the ride and the guys would have to wait for me at the last rest stop so we could finish together.  I used to drive to the rides most of the time, so they had to wait.  :)  In April 2009 a few of us entered the Brandywine Valley Duathlon.  The format was a 5k run, 13.2 mile bike, 5k run.  I'll spare you the gory details but suffice it to say that my finish time of 2 hours, 17 minutes and 12 seconds wasn't making the leader board that day.  What happened out on the bike course would be a major part what inspired me to begin my journey, though.  I was on the bike headed up a rather long/steep Chester County hill in what felt like reverse when I was passed by a heavier and older looking fellow.  This kind soul looked over as he passed and asked me in a voice dripping with sarcasm if "Maybe I was planning on training harder next time?".  I forget what my reaction was but it was probably nothing worth mentioning.  I mean, he was right.  I wasn't trained for this race... I wasn't trained for anything!  I had a three year old son and if I wanted to keep up with him in the years to come I was going to have to make some changes.  I finished with my quads cramped solid and a strong desire to never move again, but what that guy said kept coming back to me and by the next morning I had decided it was time to make some changes.  I dug out a pair of old sneakers, some shorts and an Under Armor compression shirt that I wore under my body armor in the Marines and headed out for a run.  It was only 2 miles but I did it.  It wasn't fast, but it was 2 miles more than I usually did.  Those 2 miles didn't seem like enough to make a change, though.  I mean, even if I did 2 miles every day it wasn't going to put a dent in my 250+/- lb frame.  So I decided I might need to go bigger.  Maybe I needed to put something on the calendar that instilled a little fear... something to get me out the door when I was tired from a late night.