Something Has To Be Done

Roger Wright, Life Transformation Champion

Roger Wright is a 53 year old athlete and weight loss inspiration. Wright has been in the mortgage banking field for 28 years and currently runs his own company. In addition to running his company, Roger has done public speaking for various corporate outings and conferences as well as local talks. Roger is a true testament to the power we all have to reach what feel like insurmountable goals (in this case, weight loss).

I have been morbidly obese for the vast majority of my life. For as long as I can remember, I embarked upon hundreds of diets, numerous weight loss programs, never ending gym memberships and even considered surgery to lose weight. As my age increased so did my weight and at some point I peaked out around 315 pounds. And as my weight increased, my health decreased and just after my 47th birthday, in addition to high blood pressure, high cholesterol and everything else that comes with obesity. I was informed that I was now diabetic. As my doctor said “Something has to be done”.

As my doctor said “Something has to be done”.

Ironically, ever since I was 7 years old, I had a lifelong goal of running the Boston Marathon, a race my father completed 40 years earlier. Even though I loathed any form of exercise, especially running, I set an impossible goal of running the 2009 Boston Marathon. Armed with the love and support of my wife Mary and the knowledge and encouragement of my friend/trainer Rick (who was willing to train me and a goal to raise a significant amount of money for cystic fibrosis research, a disease my then 9 year old niece Julia suffered from) I started my training. I had ten months. I started out walking 3 miles, the first time taking me close to an hour.

After a week I started to run and made it 10 yards before I nearly collapsed from exhaustion. In the past I would have given up but I had an obligation to my wife Mary, to my friend Rick and to my niece Julia. And for the first time in my life, I found the courage to push myself beyond my comfort zone. And unlike any diet I had ever been on, my goal was no longer about weight loss, but about running the 2009 Boston Marathon. Like all runners, I had obstacles such as injuries, bad weather, and numerous excuses as to why I should give up. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. Ten months later I lost 113 pounds, ran the Boston Marathon nonstop and raised a significant amount of money for Cystic Fibrosis. All because I never gave up.

I should have been content with running one marathon, and for a week I was. But then a friend called and told me I had inspired him to start running and he wanted to run the 2010 Boston Marathon with me. Fortunately he pushed and I agreed. A few days later I received an email from a friend saying she wanted to run a marathon with me. After a short debate, I agreed. And I realized that I needed to keep running.

Right before I ran my first marathon, I made a video chronicling my weight loss and progress and eventually it went viral. Somewhere along the way, I discovered that people were inspired by my story and I now feel an obligation to show others that, regardless of your age, previous history, health, or circumstances, that you can change. You just have to believe in yourself. Five years after I ran my first marathon, I ran Boston 2014. It was my 34th full marathon (including running 5 marathons in 5 days in 5 states and running for around a lake for 12 hours for the last 3 years) and I have no plans to slow down.

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