Is this story some kind of Onionesque scam?
I’ve been fat and not fat. and I’m intimately familar with the relationship of calories and exercise. I just don’t seen how it’s physically possible for this guy to be fat as a barrel, and maintain a triathalon level training regimen. Even accounting for a slow metabolism it just doesn’t add up.
Well, certainly it’s physically possible; there are quite a few people who are paradoxically fit for their size (or sizable for their fitness!). Recall the story a few years back about the overweight aerobics instructor who got canned?
Where I doubt this story is in its mention of his folding his bicycle for overseas triathlons – who the hell rides a folding bicycle in a race?
I ran my first marathon weighing 260 pounds (I’m 6’0"). In two years of regular training and additional races my weight has plummeted all the way to 240.
I like to joke that my goal is to be the world’s fattest marathoner. Apparently I have no hope.
I googled the name “Dave Alexander” and triathlete and found other articles on him, including one from the Phoenix New Times and a page from a Frontline (PBS television show) website that mentioned him. So perhaps it’s legitimate. But twenty triathalons a year? You’d think he’d lose some weight.
Not if he’s eating enough.
That’s got to be taking a tough toll on his heart. Though he’ll probably be fine as long as he doesn’t have any arteriosclerosis.
He seems to be entering triathlons just with the goal in mind of finishing them, not winning them. The article doesn’t say anything about him winning any. So the folding bicycle makes sense. Who the hell rides a folding bicycle in a race? Someone poor who just wants to complete the race.
Boy, but aren’t we the uppity snarky crowd these days.
One of two absolute truths exist here.
A: The Phoenix New Times and PBS are both incapable of verifying the most simple of stories with a few phone calls and basic research, and have therefore been snookered completely- and have run the stories anyway. Furthermore, nobody ever tipped them off post-publication/broadcast and neither has suddenly run out to print/broadcast retractions.
B: The man is exactly what he purports to be.
Seems to me some folks have a very hard time dealing with one of these two truths. What- fat folks can’t have goals, can’t push themselves, can’t achieve difficult objectives? Only lithe slender weight-obsessed Uuber-waifs are capable of competing in difficult athletic events?
Nice. Very nice. :rolleyes:
Many people who enter events like this compete against their own personal best. Who is anyone else to judge whether or not his personal best is adequate? ( Well, I would ask who except that a few posters have already made it abundantly clear that they get to judge… ) My first cousin runs marathons, she ran the NYC Marathon for the first time last fall.
She did not win.
It does not matter.
Lastly, for those who are casting aspersion- I eagerly invite you to participate in the next triathalon that this man participates in. Let’s see if your hammies are as strong as your mouths…
Cartooniverse
Poor? You have got to be kidding. A good folding bicycle costs plenty more than a non-folding bicycle of the same calibre. And they are surprisingly fast, some of them.
Who said anything that even vaguely resembles this crap? To quote Liberal (roughly) some people have their knees wound so tight a butterfly landing on them could make their knee hit their chin. What people are saying is simply that someone who does that much training is very unlikely to be fat, because that much exercise usually results in someone who is much slimmer. Chill dude.