Come September, Roadrunner Transportation-leased owner-operator Glenn Keller will run his first sprint triathlon (half-mile swim, 18-mile bike ride, 4-mile run) — pretty uncommon stuff, given the hauler just six months ago weighed upward of 300 pounds. Since I wrote about his selection to be one of seven individuals the nation over to be part of CNN’s Fit Nation Triathlon Challenge, which now in its third year takes selected participants through the tri training stages toward a goal of better overall health and personal accomplishment, Keller’s already dropped 35 pounds.
Last year, he got his very first one-year conditional medical certification due his blood pressure being elevated. As of a few weeks back, after his renewal DOT physical, he’s back on two-year unconditional certification and he’s feeling better than ever, he says.
“This has been crazy,” he says about the the Fit Nation program thus far. (If you haven’t seen the CNN reports thus far, find various videos, pictures and news via this page.) He’s talking mostly about the five-minutes-of-fame dynamic — not only have reporters like myself been tracking him down for stories, but it’s gone so far as folks recognizing him on the street. “Is that him? Is that Glenn Keller?!”
His hometown of Burleson, Texas, just this past weekend held a “Get Going With Glenn” 5K in his honor. He finished at 56 minutes doing a combination walk-run.
The operator’s just happy for the extra incentive his six Fit Nation teammates and community efforts like this give him to succeed in a goal that is something of a tall order for the 5’6″ hauler. “I’m shooting for around 200 pounds” ideal weight, he says, regardless of results of the triathlon competition. “I can’t go back to 300 pounds.”
He’s hurdled the barrier of understanding his weight’s origins, at least. He well recalls being in his mid-late 20s just starting out trucking and thinking nothing of it to lump loads himself and make a few extra bucks — and getting in no small amount of exercise. “Then I remember the days of coming into the truckstop all hours of the night” after a long run and hitting the buffet to then lay down right on top of it immediately after, he says. “Pretty soon it’s ‘Where are the lumpers?'” They want to charge $200 for the heavy lifting? No problem.
It wasn’t laziness, of course. We all know the financial incentive to run more miles, and for Keller what exercise lumping freight could get him was quickly gone entirely.
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