Speedy Weight Loss

Gerry Duffy may be the poster boy for the super-fit after just winning one of the world’s most gruelling endurance races, the Deca Ironman in England, but if it wasn’t for Seve Ballesteros, he could have remained a chain-smoking, 17-stone super-slob.

Gerry (43), from Mullingar, was snapped shaking hands with his childhood hero in 1995 at the Irish Open, a moment that had fulfilled a lifelong ambition. But one look at the photo and his overweight frame standing beside the fit and tanned Seve was all it took to set him on the long path to success.

“I was so excited when I got the photo developed,” he recalls. “I had always played golf and Seve Ballesteros was my idol. So I wanted to show the photo to everyone. But it was the first time I had seen myself in about five years in a photograph. When I left school I weighed 12 stone, when this photo was taken I was 17 stone and it was a massive wake-up call for me. I was 25 and I realised if I didn’t do something I was on a very slippery slope.”

Even though he played golf, he realised that walking around a fairway was not enough to counteract the excesses of his unhealthy lifestyle.

“I had absolutely no plan at all at the beginning,” he says.

“So I just decided to start running. The very first run I went off at 6:30 in the morning and I ran three miles. I remember it took me about 40 minutes. I was averaging about 13 minutes per mile, so it was really jogging and not running. I was still coming back and smoking 25 to 30 cigarettes a day, but it was the start of a journey for me personally because I was starting to get some good exercise.”

Always an early riser, Gerry stuck to running three miles four times a week and walking four miles in the evening twice a week over the next few years to help gradually lose weight.

“I lost three stone over about 18 months so it was a deliberately slow, gradual process,” he says.

“I was eating about four takeaways every week so I went down to one. I used to take a full cup of rice when I was making curries, so I went down to a third of a cup and I realised that was more than enough. It was just simple things like this that really helped.”

Within another few months Gerry was down to 13 stone, more suited to his 5′ 11” frame.

“I know the thought of getting up and running so early in the morning would have most people pulling the duvet over their heads, but I just loved it,” he says. “I am the most average, normal and happy runner there is. I am as happy doing two or three miles as I am doing Ironman events. So at the beginning I was simply jogging and enjoying getting healthy.”

This new routine encouraged him to quit smoking in 2001, after years of going through 30 cigarettes everyday, and got the thumbs up from his partner Jacinta O’Neill.

And when his property business was ravaged by the recession, he turned to running to help give him focus and a way out.

“I know I gave the business 100%,” he says. “Running gave me a clear head even when things were going badly. I gave the business everything and it gave up on me rather than me giving up on it. So I went back to college to qualify as a fitness instructor.”

His change of career has not only seen him complete 32 marathons in 32 days to raise €500,000 for charity, and win the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile cycle, and a marathon every day for 10 days Deca Ironman, he has also managed to develop his passion into a successful business.

“I was training people and then being asked to give motivational talks to people,” he says. “After the 32-marathon challenge this began to grow and became a small business in its own right.”

Now Gerry is busy promoting his book, Who Dares, Runs, to help inspire others to achieve their goals.

“I am not an exceptional runner or athlete,” he says.

“But I just focused on being the best I could be. So that is the message I really want to give to people and what they can achieve if they break out of their comfort zones and concentrate on achieving their goals. I’ve done it and so can they.”

Who Dares, Runs is on sale at leading book shops at €14.99.

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