Hooked on the First Mile
SCOTT REIN BEGAN BY CHALLENGING HIMSELF TO WALK ONE MILE ON A TREADMILL. A YEAR LATER AND 80 POUNDS LIGHTER, HE RAN HIS FIRST HALF-MARATHON.
“Running has become part of my life. If I stop running, I will be right back to where I was.” – Scott Rein
In January of last year, Scott Rein decided that something had to change. He was returning from a winter vacation and as he stepped off the plane, he was having trouble breathing and he felt pain in his chest. He weighed 276 pounds. The manager of the Pioneer Co-op in Kyle, Sask., has always battled with his weight, even losing significant amounts in the past before gaining it back. He was a selfprofessed “couch potato” when he was home. In addition to managing the Co-op, he also worked as an ambulance driver. His days were long, and it was easy to find excuses not to workout.
But on Jan. 21, 2012, he stepped on the treadmill and walked one mile. He repeated this routine each day that week. He had lost weight before and he could do it again. This time, he would keep it off. “That first week was really tough,” Scott remembers. “The benefits weren’t immediately apparent. But after a few weeks, I felt better and had more energy.” He increased his distance to two miles per day and then three. As winter turned to spring, he moved his routine outside. He began to run on the grid roads around Kyle (population 822), and soon he could complete a lap around the town itself. At first, it was a strange sight for the residents of Kyle to see Scott on the roads – passing cars would often stop to ask if he needed a ride or if his car broke down, or his neighbours would invite him in for a slice of pie. But as his routine kept up, his neighbours became used to seeing him run around the town.
In addition to regular exercise, Scott changed his diet and began to eat healthy foods. “Running has become part of my life. If I stop running, I will be right back to where I was.” The weight began to come off. Soon, Scott was regularly running 15k per day – three laps around Kyle. He set his sights on a larger goal: he had never raced in his life, but he wanted to run a half-marathon. He didn’t make it easy, selecting a half-marathon in Saskatoon in the middle of February. “I didn’t have a time in mind,” Scott says, thinking more about the personal achievement than the time. “I just wanted to do what I thought I could do.”
Just over a year after his decision to change his lifestyle, he ran Saskatoon’s Hypothermic Half-Marathon on a cold February morning with dozens of other runners. He had lost over 80 pounds in the process of getting fit. A year ago, he could barely walk a mile, let alone run a halfmarathon. Now that he has completed his first race, he’s hooked. Furthermore, he won’t be satisfied with just finishing: “I keep thinking that I could’ve ran better. That’s my motivation for the next race.”
These days, Scott’s presence on the roads around Kyle is a familiar one. He receives friendly waves from passing drivers instead of requests for assistance. People also ask him for tips on running and losing weight. He has become an inspiration to others. Since he ran his first half-marathon, he moved on to do another spring half-marathon in May, hoping to improve on his performance. What began as a self-imposed challenge to walk one mile has now led to Scott’s lifestyle as a regular runner.