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Raad Allawi

@raad.allawi

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@nufeinbergmed | @wisalumni

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255 lbs.
August 31, 2021.

Growing up, I was always the bigger kid. I got made fun of for my weight a lot, and as much as I tried to brush it off, it stuck with me. I hated taking pictures, dreaded stepping on the scale, and spent a lot of time wishing I was different.

But more than anything, I just wanted to know what it felt like to be proud of myself.

So I started.

There wasn’t some huge moment where everything clicked. It was just me, walking on a treadmill at a 3% incline. I lost 85 pounds the boring way: one workout, one meal, one decision at a time. A lot of it was imperfect. A lot of it sucked. I fell off and had to start over more times than I can count.

Eventually, those treadmill walks turned into runs. A couple miles turned into five. Five turned into ten. Somewhere along the way, the thing I hated more than anything became something I genuinely looked forward to.

And then I got the idea that maybe I could run a marathon.

Training for one during third year of med school probably wasn’t the smartest timing. There were runs before 6 AM hospital shifts, runs after long days, runs when I was exhausted. But every one of those 1,581 miles was worth it.

And on 10/11, all of those miles added up to 26.2.

To my mom, dad, brothers, and friends: thank you for being there through it all. Not just marathon training, but every version of me that came before it. Having you by my side means more than I can put into words.

I think about him every day. The kid who cried the night after running the mile in PE. I wish I could tell him that one day he’d run 26.2 miles through Chicago, with the people he loves cheering him on. But more than that, I wish I could tell him that one day, he’d look at himself and actually be proud of the person he’d become.

I think about the person who stepped on that scale at 255 lbs five years ago.

There’s no chance he’d believe me if I told him where we’d end up.

85 pounds down.
26.2 miles later.
A marathoner.
Alhamdulilah.

#chicagomarathon #weightloss #running by @raad.allawi

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