A journey from fat drunk to elite Ironman
November 15th, 2007 by Aleksandar
Before I get into my story about one of the journeys I have had here in life I would like to thank Nikola for letting me to post on his website.
I’ve been writing with Nikola and asked if writing my story would be okay. He gave me an okay and I began thinking because normally my story is know by the people around me but there is a difference between telling and writing a story especially in english. A difference I have enjoyed the last couple of days. Putting my story in writing and trying to communicate it to others really made me see what an amazing turn my life has taken the last 5 years.
My fascination for triathlon began back in the middle of the 90’s. Sport was as a child and teenager number one in my life. I played tennis and basketball. I was born in Dubrovnik, Croatia and lived in Montenegro (Herceg Novi) as a child. My mother and I moved to a small town in Denmark. As a child/teenager I always felt lost and different. My mother would call me Sascha which in Denmark is also a girls name – I used to hate it and just wanted to be treated like a normal Danish boy. I really felt I had to prove I was as good as the others. So being good at something was extremely important for me as a child. Since I’m not very smart, good looking or have any natural skills except an unusual big love for all sports, playing sport felt natural for me.
My fascination for triathlon began when Danish television had a program about the great Danish triathlon star, Peter Sandvang. This guy looked and acted like the ultimate athlete. Tall, ripped and well-spoken. I lived in a city without a pool, bike club and the running club was only for old people so I quickly gave up but a dream was growing inside of me.
I was a good basketball player and went to the USA to play. To make a long story short I stopped playing and gained 25 kilos during the last 8 months of my stay which perhaps still is the most amazing thing my body has done. The following years I was really into partying and being the all or nothing guy that I was/am I developed some very bad habits in my quest for living a party lifestyle. I went travelling to central America and worked as a dive master for most of the year I was away. This didn’t help my overall health either and as I returned in 2001 I was 84 kg one kilo less than when I returned from my year in the States – looking at it now I guess there were some progress.
I went back into my old lifestyle but didn’t feel like I was happy. Something was missing. I remember being very lost at this point in my life – being lost is something I often feel. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out who I really was but couldn’t really figure out which way I wanted my life to go. Then one day the pieces fell into place. I had been out drinking heavily and had passed out and a friend and a girlfriend took me home. It might have been the gigantic hang overs that were playing me a trick but as woke up and looked at the vomit in a bucket next to me and then down at my totally out of shape body I wondered where didn’t the proud athlete within me go. I knew what had been missing in my life – sport and competing, giving yourself challenges and doing your best to succeed these challenges. The world of sport is so simple which is what I think makes it so beautiful.
I had always been fascinated with people who could run a marathon. This was to be my first challenge. My last run was years back when I was in great shape. I thought it would be nice to run again. After 10 minutes I blew up and had to walk the rest of the 5 k I had planned – but I did it and felt great (at least mentally). I signed up for a marathon in September (10 weeks away – perhaps still the hangovers were playing tricks on me). In the training I decide not to drink beer etc. and try and live healthy. After a couple of weeks I could run 15k and I felt great. I lost weight and was just much more happy. I had regained the joy of being an athlete.
I was still fighting my old lifestyle. It’s really hard to give up old habits and I failed to stay away from them several times. But each time I had gone back I made a new promise to try and stay with my new lifestyl. I think it took me a bit over 2 years to be able to stay on the course I had laid out.
I finished the marathon and had one of the most fulfilling days in my life – I did something I had thought was impossible for me – the finish time of 3:42 also made me think “what if I try and do this stuff for a couple years?â€.
The memories of Peter Sandvang was still in me and I began running more and more and was about to join a triathlon club. I got my first and only injury so far – a runners knee that kept me from running in 3 months. I began swimming despite the knee injury – one of the great things of triathlon- you can always train and stay fit.
In may in 2002 I bought a bike and was an official triathlete. That summer I did a sprint triathlon and almost finished last because I bonked on the 6 k run. But going back from the event to Copenhagen where I lived (and still live) with the other triathletes I thought to myself – you are one of them now, and I felt very proud and happy. I also did a half-Ironman and had an amazing race on a hilly course and went 4:42 with a 1:31 run. It was here I decided longer distances were for me. In the following year I got a good coach that taught me the basics of triathlon and made sure I didn’t train harder than I could handle. In 2004 did my first Ironman in Frankfurt in 9:53 and broke what I thought was the ultimate limit for my fitness – the 10 hour barrier in an Ironman. I remember this took a lot out of me to get in that kind of shape but I was also extremely happy for almost 2 months later – the pride of an athlete was again truly within me, I had regained the quality that I had been missing. After the Ironman I met a guy that made me understand just how far I could take my talent. I met him in my triathlon club. His name is Jonas Christoffersen (endurancesport.dk) and without his help I would never have had the progress that followed the next couple of years. He made me believe and showed me the way to become a better athlete. We trained together almost every day the following year and in 2005 I won a sprint triathlon in Demark and a half-Ironman in Germany. I finished 3rd overall for all age groupers at the ITU long distance world champs in 6:03 for 3–120-30. My weight was now 62 kg. I had lost 22 kg but had gained a new kind of confidence and joy for life.
I kept training harder and harder and in 2006 in my second Ironman I finished 17th in Challenge Roth in 8:43. I also had some other good results on different distances.
This year I began to feel that improvement is hard earned and not always something you can determine by the hours you put into your training. I had a though race in Roth with a flat and finished 17th again in 8:47 and I began doubting myself for the first time when doing triathlon. Jonas again guided me in the right direction and I decided to sign up with MarkAllenOnline.com. I don’t know many coaches who have the class to recommend other coaches but that is what Jonas did. He has of course also has become a close friend and sometimes he understands what I need better than I do.
With new training I had a good race a couple of weeks ago at the Ironman Florida and finished 13th in 8:44. This is a slower course than Roth and I was very happy with the result. It was great to see the new methods of training paid off.
In the next years I will try and see if I can keep improving. For the last 3 months I have begun only working part time and now have better time to train. Maybe I won’t improve maybe I will but I know I’ll have fun trying to find out what my true potential is. Best of all I’m beyond a point I thought 5 years earlier when I woke up with huge hang overs. I’m truly happy to be a part of our sport.
So there you have it, how I went from one lifestyle to another. For me triathlon has been the way to go. Writing this story is of course to tell what I have experienced but it is also important for me to let you know that I’m truly an average guy who just followed an inspiration and had the luck to discover a talent I never thought I had. I often tell my friends and the kids I teach (I’m a teacher) that you can do what ever you put your mind to, however writing this story it is obvious to me that meeting the right people and being lucky is also a part of it but I guess deciding to follow a dream is our own choice. I believe that often even our imagination can’t predict how far we can take things. I really think that this belief is the best thing I have gained from my journey in triathlon and if you don’t believe it I dare you to go find out for yourself.
Thank you for reading my story.
