Wayne Arner: From Huff & Puff To Buff

By my calculations, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas consume precisely three days of the calendar.

But somehow it all translates into a two-month comfort-and-junk food fest, when people tend to pack on some additional pounds. (OK, I'm projecting from my own experience--it's my seasonal pattern, anyway!)

So it was with great admiration that in developing a news release on his triathlon journey, I recently interviewed Wayne Arner, a member of Five Seasons Sports Club in Northbrook. It began in September 2006, when he tipped the scales at 206 pounds and resolved to dip his toe in the water, literally, at the Five Seasons' indoor pool.

Since then, via these two photographs, you can see the distance his fitness has traveled: above, with his daughter, Annie, in 2005; and below, in a national triathlon championship in Oregon last month.

For anyone who has ever huffed and puffed after, say, swimming only a brief distance, as was the case with Wayne two years ago, let this news release serve as inspiration.

And this sidebar release, drawn from insights shared by Five Seasons Sports Club Group Fitness Director Marie Pearson, is your caution.