Who

                While inspiration and passion comes from within, I won’t be achieving my goal completely alone. I have a personal trainer, Regina, who is pretty awesome. Originally our three mornings a week boot camp was a class consisting of me and occasionally Regina’s husband Donald and sometimes, typically on Friday their friend Glen. Starting this week our little class was joined by the other boot camp class that also works out at 5:30am. Yes that says 5:30am it was not a typo.

                This new group has brought an interesting group of people. I will admit I wasn’t sure how I felt about giving  up my one on one time with Regina but now that I’ve spent the week with classmates it’s pretty enjoyable. Some are mothers, others aren’t and there are a couple guys. One in particular after a long siege of tire flipping and lunging breathlessly, actually more like gasping, in reference to Regina asked “where did you find her.” The inflection in his voice made the question quite humorous….add in that he was about   6’+ and a very burly guy the question was made all the more humorous.

                 To answer his question, I “found” Regina through a friend whom she trained for what I found out today was the Marine Corps Marathon. At the time I started boot camp I had suffered a serious injury to both ankles and was hobbling around in air casts on both ankles. But my need to train for the PFT outweighed the doctor’s recommendation that I rest. Thankfully Regina does not prescribe to the adage of ‘no pain, no gain.’ Instead she would prefer that you come back. So for the first few weeks while I was hobbling more than walking Regina made creative exercises and routines that got the most without mangling me any more than I already was. In the two months since I started working with Regina she has been the key factor in my transformation. Her no nonsense advice about life and other topics make me laugh and sometimes think.

                Regina is a human Energizer bunny.  Her weekly schedule of working as a nurse mixed with her nearly full time job as a trainer makes me want to lay down and take a nap. Not to mention the workouts she does on off days. She has run a 100 mile race, the JFK 50 miler along with scads of other insane sounding races, with names that honestly sound pretty goofy.

                Under Regina’s tutelage I have managed to do things I thought I was no longer able to do. From the unexpected grew this new passion to push the limits in a healthy manner. I am grateful to have met Regina and most grateful for her experience and patience and awesome sense of humor as I stumble (some days quite literally) through this.