As a kid growing up Wes was always overweight. It had a tremendous impact on his life and made things hard for him. Making friends was difficult and the friends that he did have would still pick on him because he was the “fat” kid. For many years after high school Wes tried all the different diets out there. Atkins, weight watchers, nutrisystem, you name it he tried it in an effort to lose weight. He never really had a friend that would take him under their wing and show him the way to be healthy.
Wes was bullied alot because of his weight and the fact that he would not fight back. He would just shut down and take the bullying. Wes was always told that he wasn’t good enough, he was too fat, or too slow to do anything. This caused him to not want to tryout for anything, even if he was really good at it. Shopping for clothes was even worse because he always had to shop in the big mens store and he couldn’t wear the trendy fashions that his friends were all wearing because of his size.
Wes says that, “people would laugh at me and it was extremely hard to approach any girls because I wasn’t part of the cool crowd.” In turn he kept to himself and found other ways to spend his time. Wes can’t really limit this to one specific event. There were multiple events leading back to childhood that forced him to make the change and to start his journey to a new and improved, and healthier Wes.
One day about 4 years ago he woke up in the middle of the night by what he thought was gas. Turned out that Wes had Gallstones and his blood pressure was through the roof. They removed his gall bladder and he made a promise to himself that he was going to get healthier. Not only for himself, but for his family as well.
Back in 2014 after having multiple health issues and just not leading an overall healthy lifestyle, he decided to make a change. He had constant high blood pressure even with medications, which were being increased every appointment because he couldn’t get it under control. He was smoking at least a pack of cigarettes a day, drinking and eating completely unhealthy. It was at this time that he looked at his 4 grandchildren and decided to make a change to be around for them and his family.
He started hanging out with friends that had a like mindset and were working towards their own weight loss goals. They taught him how and what to eat and how to exercise properly. He used to laugh because he was never known as a runner and he turned to them to help him with any advice they may have since they had worked hard and were attaining their goals.
In 2014, he had just started running and began getting serious about his health. His friends in turn challenged him to do a Rugged Maniac that August. He had heard about the OCR community from them and had already met alot of great people who welcomed him with open arms. They showed Wes that getting in shape didn’t have to be work and that it could be alot of fun. They accepted him for who he was and they liked him as Wes. Not one time did they pass judgement because he was overweight, or because he couldn’t do what they could do.
In August of 2014, Wes ran his first race a Rugged Maniac. His friends David Yates and Richard Estep challenged him to sign up and race with them. He knew he would never be able to keep up with them, but he decided to do it anyway. He signed up and they helped him train. David and Richard helped him prepare for the toughest challenge of his life.
Wes worked for 7 months to get ready for the race. When the race started his friends got well ahead of him. He did a majority of the race by himself. As he approached about a mile to the finish, he look up and there was David and Richard. They were coming back out to the course to finish the race with him. After that race Wes had a fire lit under him that he never had before. He was already looking forward to doing his next race, which was the “Down and Dirty” that October. He wasn’t as prepared as he wanted to be, but he went out and gave 100% and completed the race. That was the end of his first race season, but he was determined to make the 2015 season even better and he trained to do so. He started going to more events to learn different techiques and ways to make himself better. There were alot of people that were willing to help him attain his goals and they are still in his life today.
March of 2015, Wes ran his first ever Spartan race in Conyers, Ga. He didn’t know anyone there and ran with a stranger that later became a friend, Marcus Conyers. Marcus offered to go with him and help him along the course. They started the Sprint and along the way he severely sprained his ankle. It hurt him to walk, but Marcus would not let him quit. They stayed together the entire time with Marcus helping him through the obstacles. It was at this time he knew that he had to get serious about training, he didn’t want to have to rely on others to get through a course again. He wanted to be able to do it himself. When Wes crossed the finish line that day, he was met by lots of cheers and hugs from everyone. They told him how proud they were that he didn’t give up and kept fighting through the course with an injury.
Wes contributes his success to his friends David Yates and Richard Estep. They believed in him and cheered him on to complete his first OCR. They helped him to succeed by pushing him to his limits and beyond. He appreciates his GORMR (Georgia Obstacle Racers and Mud Runners) teammates for always giving encouragement and letting him know how strong he can be. He is also successful due to his family’s love and support. He says, they “have been ther since day one, with the traveling and putting up with a hectic race schedule.” Most of all his parents, they have always believed in him since he was a child. They always taught him to go out and prove to himself and not others that he can do accomplish what he sets his mind to. There is a host of people Wes would like to thank and the list could go on and on but he had to keep it short.
Currently, you can find Wes spending 3 to 4 days in the gym working on everything from cardio to strength. Two times a week he tries to get out to a local trail working on building distance and cardio in order to be prepared for the next event.
At the time Wes started his journey he weighed close to 440lbs. He smoked cigarettes and ate very unhealthy. He was on blood pressure medication and was also a chronic sufferer of gout.Currently, he is down to 275 lbs! He has not smoked since he began his journey in 2014. He has now adopted a cleaner and healthier eating lifestyle that he incorporates everyday. He admits the temptaions are there, but that is where his new found will power comes in.
Ali Tucker
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