FOOTPRINT July - August 2011
Lake Grapevine Runners & Walkers
www.runnersandwalkers.com
The Weight Watchers Walk-!t Challenge – My Journey To It and The End Worth Waiting For By Belynda Warner hree years ago, on a road trip to Tennessee, I found myself sitting in the passenger seat with two bags of Peanut Butter M&M’s® and a Diet Coke®, praying to lose weight. I weighed 269 pounds and had a host of medical issues, not the least of which was the beginning of kidney failure. I prayed for a sign that would help me, and when I opened my eyes, there was a sign for Weight Watchers®. “Yeah right,” I thought, and flipped open the magazine on my lap. There it was: an ad for Weight Watchers. “Fine,” I
thought. “Right after this trip.” I joined Weight Watchers the very next weekend and decided that was it. However long it took and wherever it took me had to be better than where I was. It took two full years to lose the weight, and, as I’d hoped, my health improved. Even my kidney function became normal. I had the weight off for only a couple of months when I ran/ walked the San Francisco Half Marathon with the Runner’s World Challenge program. The editors found my story to be inspiring, so they put me in the January 2011 issue of Runner’s World. Kathryn Gleghorn spotted my article and found me on Facebook. I felt honored when she asked me to be part of the Walk-!t Challenge she was
directing. I had always thought if I could inspire just one other person to lose her weight or improve his health through walking and running, then my journey would have even more meaning. I was excited to team up with Kathryn and RAW. When Kathryn asked me to speak at a few Weight Watchers meetings to encourage people to register, I recalled how intimidated I felt when I wanted to walk in races and events. I would always research the previous years’ results to make sure there would be finishers slower than me so I wouldn’t be last. With that in mind, I made a promise at every meeting that if they registered, they would not finish last. This was a tough promise to make because to guarantee it, that meant I would have to be last, and I really didn’t want to be last. At the first training walk, I walked back to the clubhouse with the slowest walker to make sure she didn’t finish alone. Her story amazed me. That was the farthest she had ever walked – in her life. While others were finishing up just another run, this woman was making personal history, and I was the only one there to celebrate it with her. That was when I decided for certain that I would finish the Walk-!t last, no matter how long it took. On the day of the event, I walked out to the first water stop and then waited for the last walkers – a group of ladies that represented three generations of their family. I don’t think
Photo Tory Warner
T
Belynda Warner (back right) cheering on the walkers.
they quite understood what this “skinny chick” was doing butting into their group, but I was there to stay. Paula was a little older than me, with a bad hip, a torn meniscus, an injured foot, and asthma. Her daughter was just older than my daughter, and was in no better shape than her mom. Her granddaughter was maybe five years old and having the time of her life. Together, mom and daughter had lost nearly 50 pounds on Weight Watchers, but had a long way to go. They started Walk-!t training with the Weight Watchers plan, but the foot injury threw their training off course. The daughter did not want her mom to walk at all and kept stopping her, but Paula was determined. She’d never walked more than 1 ½ miles, but her doctor told her if she made it to 2 miles, then she could finish the 5K. We stopped twice so she could “have a word with Jesus” and countless times to let her catch
her breath. At the end, we had one of the bike medics with us continuously and our breaks became longer and longer. But no matter what, Paula was dead set on finishing. With half a mile to go, their Weight Watchers leader and some friends met up with us and encouraged her to continue. When we finally made it to the finish line after 1 hour 44 minutes, Paula and her daughter joined hands and RAN across the finish line. Never had I seen a finish harder earned. There weren’t more than a handful of people at the finish line to witness this moment, but those of us who were there had to wipe our eyes. We may have missed the door prize drawings, but I wouldn’t have missed this finish for the world. As I stepped across the finish line – dead last at 1:45:00 – I realized that when you set out to inspire someone, sometimes you are the one who is inspired.