If you’re looking for your daily dose of inspiration, look no further than Alan Greer. A year ago, Alan weighed over 300 pounds and hadn’t run a mile since high school gym class. But with a lot of hard work and willpower, he just accomplished something incredible: Not only did he drop 150 pounds to run in the 2016 New York City Marathon, he gained it all back quick enough to tear it up during cannonball season!
Talk about mind over matter!
Starting by jogging just half a mile a day, Alan trained and dieted for nine months to undergo the incredible transformation that cinched him his impressive 3:20 finish time. And when he’d crossed the finish line, he immediately switched over to an all-carb diet that piled the pounds back on, rebounding back to his original 315-pound weight just in time to perform geyser-inducing jackknifes into his local pool.
“When you have a goal, you can do anything,” said Alan, who kept up a blog through his year-long journey to 170 pounds and back. “I’m living proof of that. I wasn’t going to let my weight stop me from accomplishing my dream of running a marathon, and I wasn’t going to let getting fit stop me from dropping absolute mortar shells in the deep end. The only thing I’m more proud of than my 7:37 mile splits in the marathon is how wet I’m now getting people standing near my cannonballs.”
Alan’s become a bit of a local celebrity for his incredible story and unbelievable splash radius, and with cannonball season in full swing, he’s regularly running into fans at his neighborhood public pool. Though he loves the cheers he gets after his hard-earned massive frame displaces torrents of pool water, it’s hearing stories of how he’s inspired people to reach their full potential that he really loves. Well, that, and a bombshell off the high dive!
So what’s next for Alan? He has plans to slim back down for a Tough Mudder race in September, and then jack his weight right back up to three bills again to compete in a local Halloween pumpkin pie–eating contest. It’s an ambitious schedule, but Alan has shown that he’s not to be underestimated.
Good luck out there, Alan! Whatever you set your mind to, we know you can do it.
