Meet Travis

Sedentary to cycling to running: From avoiding running at all costs to aspirations to run for a lifetime

After high school, I avoided running at all costs and basically became a sedentary person throughout my adulthood while my wife and I raised our three children.  I always teetered between being overweight and obese, until it all pretty much came to a head in 2020 when COVID-19 hit.  The first few months of the pandemic, instead of getting outdoors and becoming active, I used it as an excuse to be even more lazy.  And thus I gained more weight and felt pretty terrible.

So in late July of 2020, I was at my heaviest weight ever (202 lbs on my 5’ 9” frame) and my father had passed away from a plethora of obese-related issues about ten years earlier.  I decided I did not want to follow in his footsteps, so I began to think about what I should do to become an active person.  It was an easy decision because I had loved bike riding when I was a kid and teenager, so I purchased a mountain bike and started riding the local trails in August of 2020 through the  end of the year.  In the winter, I started using Zwift on an indoor bike trainer and started losing weight and gaining cardiovascular fitness.  In 2021, I started road cycling and joined the local bicycle club.  Throughout 2021, I participated in group rides and events, including my first 100 mile century ride.  I never felt better!

Last winter, however, I began to get the itch to do some cross-training and I had been reading that running can be a good cross-training activity for cyclists (and visa-versa of course).  So back in February of this year, I hopped on our treadmill that had been sitting there unused and started doing some short, slow jogs using Zwift and a TV screen above the treadmill.  To my surprise, I discovered that I could actually run a mile without stopping or walking (something I hadn’t been able to do since my high school days).  All of that cycling fitness had paid off, and for the first time in many years, I actually ENJOYED running.

So I started putting more time into running, including running on some local trails because I have always loved trails.  I entered a few races, mostly 5K’s and 10K’s beginning in late spring and early summer.  I ran the Bix 7 in late July, which was quite the experience.  I ran my first trail race in May of this year, a 5K that really inspired me to run even more.  In the Quad Cities (along the Mississippi River between IL and IA), we have lots of trail systems and I started trail running all of them casually just to gain experience.  Then I ran my first half marathon trail race (Mines of Spain in Dubuque, IA), first 30K (Pleasant Creek Trail Run in Palo, IA), and Quad Cities Half-Marathon in late summer.

My main reason for joining the IRONBULL 25K was to do a destination race where I could stay overnight and enjoy a new area, along with an interesting course.  Of course, Facebook has been highlighting ALL kinds of races in my feed since I’ve been running, but this one caught my eye because the location was close enough to drive, but also far enough away for a weekend trip.  And the course with the elevation around Rib Mountain caught my attention, though I am a little intimidated by attempting the race without more experience running on hilly terrain.

I don’t think I’m quite ready for my first 50K yet, but a 27K course with some challenge sounded like the right next step up, so thanks for adding this distance for those of us who are in-between.  As a 48 yr old just starting to run this year, my main challenge is to compete against myself.  Though I may never podium or win a race at this point, I do have a desire to be “above average” eventually.  And I have dreams of eventually completing my first 50K and perhaps even a 50 miler or 100 miler some day.  But then again, I think I watch too much YouTube where they make it look MUCH easier, lol.

I don’t ever want to go back to being overweight and sedentary, and I hope that participating in races and running events like the IRONBULL Ultra Trail can motivate me to keep at it for the rest of my life.

Follow Travis on his journey on You Tube at Tangible Travis.