Guest Post: Shawn’s Ironman by Matthew Murphy

Editor’s Note: Matthew Murphy recently contacted us to share his remarkable story.  A self-described “overweight couch potato,” Matthew had no idea the inspiration that would come with the birth of his first child.  When unforeseen medical challenges in his son turned the young family upside down, Matthew was motivated — first to get fit and then to start raising money to help diagnose and treat his son and kids like him.  Read on for the whole story, which continues on Matthew’s own blog (link below).

When I started my journey to become “Shawn’s Ironman,”  I was overwhelmed by the amount of information that you had to filter through to get started.  There are several programs, coach’s blogs, articles, etc. that really had my mind spinning.  Of course they all said that they were the best way to achieve the  goal.  I finally decided that I was just going to go out and start running ’til I could not run any longer.  That ending up being a huge mistake because I suffered for the next few days with terrible shin splints, sore muscles that I did not even know I had, and a broken will to continue.  If it was not for my wife encouraging me to sign up for a 5K that was just a few weeks from that date, I would have quit my journey right then.  They say that the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, and my first bite was to complete a 5K.

I can proudly say that I completed the program successfully and motivated.  At the beginning of the 7th week, I completed my first 5K in 0:27:37 which shattered my 30 minute goal and continued my journey to complete 3 sprint triathlons, 4 Olympic/International triathlons, a 1/2 marathon, and the Ironman 70.3 in Florida in less than 1 year. 2012  is packed with the Houston Marathon, Ironman 70.3 in Galveston, TX, Ironman Texas in The Woodlands, TX, and hopefully, with good fortune, the Ironman World Championship in Kona, HI.

When I look back now, the  app was definitely my first bite in the long journey towards my goal.  If it were not for the app, I would still be a 40 lb overweight  “couch potato” trying to eat the whole elephant and dreaming of becoming “Shawn’s Ironman”.

There’s more to the story.  Read all about it at www.shawnsironman.com.  Thanks so much, Matthew, for sharing your experience.  You and Shawn are an inspiration to us all!