Self-indulgent lifestyle now long gone
Living long enough to experience all life has to offer is the driving force behind Carlos Kumeroa’s fitness journey.
The once cigarette-smoking, junk food-eating Fonterra worker now has a fitness-event re´sume´ worthy of our country’s fittest athletes. Kumeroa said while those starting out on their own fitness journey needed to remember it was a marathon not a sprint, he took a slightly different path.
After completing his first ever 12-Week Body Transformation programme in 2014 he immediately turned his attention to marathons – completing both a half and full in quick succession.
‘‘I went pretty hard-core into it. I didn’t start small. And it’s not the kind of training I would recommend to first timers.’’
The lure of a triathlon then offered another steep learning curve. ’’Not only did I have to learn to swim, I had to learn to swim in open water.’’
Again, having conquered both the half and full variants he was hungry for yet another challenge and turned his attention to ‘‘ultra’’ event.
He took on the inaugural Taupo Ultra before racing in the gruelling Northburn 100-mile event in 2016. ’’I have always been goal driven, but if you told me 20 years ago that I would have achieved this I simply wouldn’t have believed you.’’
For Kumeroa, his ‘‘light bulb’’ moment was watching his father’s battle with cancer. ’’I lost my father when he was 59 and
‘‘The week he passed away from cancer was the week I started to exercise.’’
Carlos Kumeroa
realised that could potentially happen to me,’’ he said. ’’The week he passed away from cancer was the week I started to exercise. I was living a pretty unhealthy lifestyle at the time. I wasn’t unhappy, but I knew I needed to change.’’
Kumeroa, who is as a personal trainer and life transformer, said the trick to overcoming excuses was tapping into your emotional driver.
‘‘I don’t leap out of bed up in the morning excited about going for a run in the rain, or going for a six-hour bike ride on the weekend. For me it’s the memory of my father that drives me forward.’’
Carlos Kumeroa said the fun, inclusiveness and sociable Ki Whanau Gym, IronMaori Hawera was changing lives in the best possible way.
‘‘It’s inspiring for me to see so many people taking ownership of their fitness journey.’’