Paul McDonald After Lapsure Surgery
Paul McDonald Before Paul McDonald After

Paul McDonald's Journal - 28.10.04

 

NOVEMBER 2005 -
52 Weeks Older - - - 52 Kilograms Lighter

Friday marked the 12 month anniversary of my Lapband surgery and on Sunday I was part of a triathlon team representing the Gold Coast Obesity Surgery Centre!

Review of the last 12 months:

 

The Noosa Triathlon – the lead up

Three months ago I received an email from Felicity asking if I would like to do the run leg of the 2005 Noosa Triathlon along with two other lap banders from the Gold Coast Obesity Surgery Centre.  At first I was reluctant because I had not started jogging yet and from previous experience I knew that three months was not near long enough to build up to 10km. 
However, after thinking more about it I figured it would be the perfect excuse to begin my marathon training and, if the team did manage to finish the event, we would prove to others and ourselves that our previous obesity was NOT due to a lack of will power.  
The following day I got serious about my training and, with the help of a personal training friend, devised a program.
The first day I barely managed to jog 5 minutes before collapsing in a heap.  But surprisingly I felt great afterwards and by the 5th week of training, I was up to running 20 minutes.
It was at this time I contacted the other two competitors (Julia the cyclist and Jeremy the swimmer).  Each of us had our own story of success and each of us was determined not to let the side down.

With 4 weeks remaining, I was feeling very confident.  I felt fine increasing my distances and was really enjoying the feeling of freedom that comes with running.

The Noosa Triathlon – The Big Day Arrives

Woken by my alarm at 3am, I groggily arose from a fitful sleep, had a coffee,  a light breakfast and left home at 4am to meet my fellow team mates in Noosa.
We registered in the main tent and waited for a couple of hours before the start of the teams division.  It was good to hear about the others success stories following Lapband surgery.
All throughout the day a film crew from Today Tonight followed our athletic endeavours so this gave us even more incentive to put our all into it!
Our first team member Jeremy thought he would swim the 1.5km distance in 45 minutes.  He did the team proud by coming in under 30 minutes which was an awesome achievement!
He then changed over to our cycling guru, Julia who in an effort to find out how long it would take her to cycle 40km, did it the previous day in 2 hours.
Then, while waiting for Julia, the heavens opened and all the runners including myself got absolutely saturated.  Finally the rain stopped, the sun came out (at around 30 degrees mind you) and Julia returned some half an hour earlier than expected.

The Noosa Triathlon – My Finest Hour
My saturated clothes tugged at me and felt confining as I started running through the muddy puddles and grass.  Presently I made it to the road and the course proper.

Within a couple of minutes I thought ‘oh, oh, I’m in trouble here’.  I was used to running 3-4 km in a cool dry climate and here I was attempting 10km in high heat and humidity.
After about 10 minutes I was exhausted and waiting for the 1km mark where my friend Nina had agreed to meet me – she was in Noosa that day just to help me get through this race

By about 4km every other runner had passed me or pulled out of the race and I was not feeling well at all.  I continued to the 6km mark feeling very ill indeed.  At one point I remember yelling out aloud ‘just bloody finish Paul’.  Spectators and the Marshals on  the course were constantly giving me encouragement which was great.  At the 7-8km mark I was physically ill and dizzy and Nina had to tell me to slow down my breathing and try to relax more.  She also forced me to take a teaspoon of  a gel energy replacement which seemed to help but tasted bloody awful!  At least I kept it down and the dizzy feeling went away
At about 9km we could see the finish line and I tried to run again but soon stopped feeling quite dizzy.  I thought of stopping but quickly corrected myself by remembering what we had all been through just to get here and if  the rest of my team could make it then so bloody well could I.  Fellow competitors including the  all time champion Pat Carroll cheered me on as if I was the first placed runner. 
At about 500 metres I once again tried to run home but the dizziness came back so I started walking.  Finally with about 100 metres remaining Nina said ‘go for it Paul’ and I raised a final effort to make it to the finish line.  The last 30 metres or so I ‘sprinted’ with a chorus of applause seeming to surround me.
I made it to the finish line amidst simultaneous feelings of  pride, satisfaction and pain. I felt faint as was sat down and given some cold water.  The medical people made sure I didn’t have any chest pain.

We had dedicated our ‘WIN’ to all the obese people who feel there is no hope and that they are doomed to less than a good life because of their weight.  We proved that with Lapband and some common sense eating and exercise miracles can happen! 
We also showed that our previous obesity was not due to a lack of willpower on our part but rather a terrible disease

The Noosa Triathlon – Afterwards

After the race everything was a bit of a blur.  Felicity, Nina and her sister Megan helped me back to the Sheraton for an orange juice, a shower and a change of clothes.  The whole team then went to a restaurant with Doctor Layani, Felicity and David as well as the Today Tonight camera crew who took a few more shots of us toasting our win.

Three days later as I write this journal article  I cannot believe how far I have come in twelve short months and how grateful I am to everyone associated with the Gold Coast Obesity Centre.  I now have a life where before I simply ‘existed’.  I now have hope where before there was none.

Regards,

Small Paul.