My name is Ron Ermis and I love to run. Plain and simple.
I have almost always been an active person. I say almost always because for a long period of time before and after I got married, my wife and I would spend our evenings eating and watching TV or playing games. My biggest downfall was World of Warcraft. Yes, I am all so a geek. I would work for 9 hours behind a desk and then go home, pop a pizza in the oven and play on my computer for a few hours before bed. There was very little activity other than an infrequent trip to the gym. After around 2 years of this, I was up to almost 280 lbs. I was not happy with myself. If I didn't think about it, it was easy to ignore the problems. My knees would hurt. Breathing was hard during any kind of physical activity. But mostly, it was just hard to make it through the day because I was always tired.
One day, my wife and I started talking and I said I wanted to start going back to the gym on a regular basis. We decided that we would go at least 3 times a week so we would still have time to hang out and even still play our games. At first it was very hard to get back into the rhythm of working out regularly. I have always enjoyed running but after a few years of sitting on my ass behind a desk and then more of the same when I came home, my stamina and conditioning had deteriorated badly. I could only jog on the treadmill for about a half mile. My wife all so was having a hard time of it. Especially since she had never been an active person. She had to learn everything. I would work out with her once a week to help teach her the basics. But I was having a hard enough time with myself that it was hard to focus on us both at the same time.
After a month or two of working out a few times a week but not really changing our diet, we finally decided that a full on lifestyle change was needed. We couldn't just expect to work out a few times a week and not change anything else and expect to see a huge difference. So we cut out the junk food(for the most part), we quit playing World of Warcraft. And we started working out four to five times a week. We had to start cooking our own meals again. All this had to change all while still having to work a nine hour day and an hour and a half of commute time. At first it was very tough for us. My wife would stress out about little things and the big things would send her over the edge. We were constantly struggling to spend quality time together.
After a while, we began to work out a schedule that worked for us. We would come home from work and head straight to the gym. We would spend an hour or so at the gym getting in the best workout we could and then go home and have dinner together and then just relax for an hour before going to bed. We still had our off days that would allow us to spend more time together or doing whatever we wanted but the gym days were set.
It has been going on like this for a year and a half now. My wife and I both lost 40 lbs and are more active than ever. Last July I completed my first race since high school. I ran Beach Palooza at Montrose Beach in Chicago. It was a 5 k race with some fun obstacles. I finished the race in about 36 minutes and was exhausted. After that race, I rediscovered my love of running. I was determined to run it again in 2012 but finish with a better time and not be dying at the end.
After Beach Palooza, I saw an ad for another race. It was called Spartan Race. The name piqued my interest so I did some research. I found out that there was a Spartan Race in October of 2011. After very little thought, my competitive side kicked in and I signed up for it not really knowing what I was getting myself into. I watched some videos, read some articles and blogs and decided this sounded like a lot of fun and would push me to the limit. This was the goal that I needed. I needed something to push me to train harder, longer and with more intensity. This was the race that was going to get me into the gym on a more regular basis. This was the race that was going to get me out of the house and running the streets of Chicago. And it did. I was determined not to go unprepared for this race. Then I found out about the Hurricane Heat.
The Hurricane Heat is special heat of the Spartan Race that starts before dawn the day of the race and the employees of SR(Spartan Race) take you out in teams of 10 - 20 people and put you through a rigorous, military style, team based event. There is no first or last place. No crowds of people cheering. Just you and your team. Only this time, for the first time, the Hurricane Heat was the night before the race. It started at 6:30 pm, right at dusk, and continued until 10:30 pm. This was by far the most challenging and rewarding 4 hours of my life. I met a lot of people and learned a lot about myself and what I can do. I am proud to say that I finished it and so did everyone else. No one got left behind. The next day, I still had to run my regular heat at 9 am. I was bruised, scraped and tired from the night before but I was on time and ready for my heat. Again this was very challenging for me but I finished with a time of 2:06. Not bad for my First obstacle course race.
My wife thought I was nuts. But then she did something that surprised me. She wanted to sign up for a race too. Now my wife has never been a runner, nor had she ever shown any interest in running. So we signed up for the Santa Hustle 5k at Montrose Beach in Chicago. Now keep in mind, this race was at the end of November in Chicago. It was probably in the 40's that day and this is her first race. I trained with my wife for the months leading up to the race and got her used to running on the pavement instead of a treadmill. We ran the race and finished with a time of 45 minutes. Not bad for her first competitive activity ever. After that she was hooked too. Since then we have run a few races together and she even ran a Spartan Race with me in Indiana.
This was the story of my journey back to physical fitness. Now I am still a work in progress. I am by no means a finished product. Nor is anyone who considers themselves an athlete. There are always new challenges to face and new goals to meet. It's what keeps us going. I sit behind a desk 40 hours a week. My workouts and my races give me a chance to get out of my rut and do something different for a change. I am lucky because I have a wife that shares my interest and works with me to reach these goals. Stay tuned for more updates from Life In My Nikes.
Ron
