SUMMARY

The goal is simple: to go from Joe Average to competitive age grouper:  to qualify for the Ironman World Championship (30-34) by 2011.

Hello. I’m Ken. I’m a Human Resource professional living in the heart of Philadelphia. I guess to get a full idea of where I want to  go with this blog and my goal , it’s important to know where I’ve been.

GROWING UP FAT

That’s me at age 3 or 4. Born to two parents in the NAVY, I had the unique opportunity to  travel   as a child: Iceland, Puerto Rico, Sicily are a few place I’ve been. It was my time in Sicily where my first problem with my weight began.

Living in Sicily was amazing, but being fed pasta till I burst by two Sicilian babysitters was consequential. When I returned back to the states in the 5^th grade I was hovering around a unhealthy weight.

Growing up fat isn’t fun. In fact, it right out sucks. But I love food. Something I still deal with. I remember my favorite “breakfast sandwich”. Take two pieces of toasted white bread, spread with butter and jelly. Split two sausage links and fry them in oil.  Take two eggs, cook sunny side up, remove yolks.  Place the sausage links in between the fried eggs and you have a probably the most unhealthiest sandwich on the planet. Add my mother’s pound cake, fried foods, sweet potato pie, and Nintendo…well, I guess there was no where my weight could was up…and it did.

My weight continued to increase to it’s peak around up until I was 13 when I tipped the scales at over 250lbs. My journey to fitness came in my junior year of high school when I decided to join the crew team.

THE ROWING YEARS: HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE

Entering my junior year and my 5th high school in 4 years, I was challenged to take up rowing. This would be  my first entrance into endurance sports. My senior year I became captain and had one of the best years of my life in the varsity 4 I was apart of.  I continued to row all four years in college, at Boston College and Ohio State where I transferred after my sophomore year. As a lightweight, my best time 2k time was a 6:39.

THE REAL WORLD:  ROMANIA AND JAPAN

In 2001, I joined the Peace Corps and I was placed in Romania. I hoped I could be placed in city with a river or lake so I could row, cause if you are a student of the sport of rowing, you know that Romanians are some of the best rowers in the world. Unfortunately, they sought fit to put me in the mountains, in the town of Brasov, in the heart of Transylvania.

My Romanian host parents: Nicu and Silvia

I returned to the states in the beginning of 2004 and I waited tables for a year  before I went to Japan to teach English. In 2005, still thinking I could reach an acceptable “developmental-elite” 2k rowing time, I had hoped to be put in a location with rivers or lakes…instead the put me in Okinawa on the small island of Miyako Jima. Little did I know this is where I would venture into triathlon.

There are two big triathlons in Japan: Ironman Japan (obviously), and The Strongman (3km/155km/42.195). The Strongman, is actually the more popular race of the two and it is actually held on the tiny island I was sent to. Volunteering for it the first year, I was hooked.

My favorite class in Japan

Immediately after, I began training for next years race soon after but was held up when I acquired a sports hernia. I underwent surgery in Japan (an experience in it’s own right) and healed successfully.

In the end, I completed the Strongman in 2007 , in a time of 11 hours and 45 minutes. And that’s my race resume. I returned in the summer of 2007 to Florida but I knew I wanted to accomplish this goal but I decided to finish graduate school and get settled in a new city. Now that I have completed both, I feel I’m financially and professionally stable to take on the task of becoming a top age grouper. Come follow the ups and down of the journey on my way to Kona!

Finish Line of 2007 Strongman: 11 hours 45 minutes