How we lost hundreds of pounds in 2016
In 2016, these New Yorkers reached soaring new fitness heights
NEED a little New Year’s resolution inspiration? These seven New Yorkers raised the bar(bell) in 2016, running days at a time and dropping hundreds of pounds. Here, they tell The Post how they did it.
The ringleader
Ameer Haroun was doubled over on a 2015 family vacation when he realized he needed to get in shape.
“I was at the beach, standing as the goalkeeper, playing beach soccer,” says the 40-yearold Montvale, NJ, resident. “Within 10 minutes, I was so out of breath it took me two hours to recover.”
The father of two decided to hit the gym to shape up, but struggled without anything holding him accountable.
“I realized, ‘If I miss a day, does it matter?’ It didn’t,” he says.
So when his friend suggested doing a Spartan race — an intense obstacle run — he jumped at the chance.
“I thought I was in good shape, but I was just humbled,” he says. “But I went for another race a week after.”
He threw himself into race training, competing nearly every other weekend. Still, he felt like something was missing.
“I hated going to races and not knowing anyone and leaving right after they ended,” he says.
So at the end of 2015, he started Spartan 4-0, a group for Spartan competitors who are aged 30 or older. This year, it became the largest Spartan group in the world, with more than 8,200 members.
Haroun, who hopes to compete in Spartan’s Elite Masters race in 2017 and grow Spartan 4-0 to more than 12,000 members, says building the group has helped him improve his own racing skills.
“I went from someone who was finishing in the bottom 25 percent,” he says, “to now finishing in the top 5 percent.”