Glen Ellyn woman racing in New York Triathlon

Before the sun rose in DuPage County this morning, Glen Ellyn resident Shannon Hart was halfway done with the New York City Triathlon.

Hart is among more than 3,000 athletes competing in the Olympic-length 1,500-meter swim, 40K bike and 10K run.

But six years ago Hart was an unlikely candidate to register for such a demanding athletic event.

Her best guess is that she weighed about 250 pounds back then.

"Throughout my life I've always been overweight, up and down, up and down a lot, but I would never get on a scale," said Hart, 28, who hails from Mankato, Minn.

That all changed in Illinois.

"I moved out here in 2004 and started a new job," she said. "It was really stressful and so I started gaining even more weight. It got to the point that it was really hard to look in the mirror."

So, like many others who are dissatisfied with their weight, Hart started dieting.

"I went home (in) winter 2005 for Christmas and my parents told me I had lost weight," she said. "I got back in January and started working out and I was feeling good. And then one night I went out and got a scale."

"I was excited to get on the scale," she said. "And that's when I got a little reality check."

Hart said she was hoping the scale would display a number around 180.

Instead it said 237.

"From there, I just started getting on the scale and keeping track," she said.

Keeping track was just the beginning. Hart decided to start eating better and to exercise - all from self-determination. She has done everything solo, referencing blogs and articles about people like her to figure out how to start losing weight on her own.

"I just look at it as a personal thing, so I have never really relied on anyone else," she said. "I kind of have used events to keep me going and give me something to train for. The triathlon in New York is my big event for the summer to get me moving and out there training."

One recommendation Hart said worked really well for her was to change one habit at a time.

Her changes included eliminating soda, mostly Mountain Dew, from her diet, increasing fruit and vegetable consumption to the recommended five a day and educating herself about portion sizes.

Despite her huge weight loss, Hart said there have been times when her weight has shot back up, and that it can be hard to maintain.

"I look at weight loss kind of like when I'd write an English paper for school and spend all this time and think I did a great job, and then the teacher would mark it all up and then I'd have to redo it," she said.

"Unfortunately with weight loss you can't lose 10 pounds in a day," she added. "It's something that takes a lot of time and commitment. It's just a matter of sticking with it every day."

Her determination and consistency in eating well and working out has paid off. In a year Hart lost about 50 pounds from the weight displayed when she first stepped on the scale, and she dropped about 40 more in the next 12 months.

For others looking to lose as many pounds as she did, Hart recommends taking the changes slowly, day-by-day, and setting practical goals.

"I have a hard time with things like 'The Biggest Loser,'" she said. "You see people losing like 10 pounds in a week and I think, 'How can I lose 10 pounds in a week?' I think sometimes reality television isn't as real as it should be."

When her weight dropped to about 180 pounds in 2007, she signed up for her first triathlon, in Naperville. She has since completed more than seven but says that first one was such a huge accomplishment, she still considers it her favorite.

"It was something I had never done and I wasn't sure how I was going to do, if I could even do it," she said. "But it went really well and it was a great boost to my confidence. I was able to run the whole thing without stopping, which was a big goal for me. The next year I signed up for a bunch."

This year's New York City Triathlon will be Hart's third Olympic-length triathlon. She has never been to New York City, so she is excited to do some sightseeing before and after the race. Plus, the independent, self-motivator will have fans - her parents, an aunt and uncle and a friend who is driving with her - cheering her on for the first time.

"I think the spectators will bring a new element," she said. "I don't want to embarrass myself in front of my parents. It's new motivation."

After she conquers New York, Hart will keep training in preparation for the Great Illini half Iron Man in Mattoon. She said she is tempted to complete a full Iron Man one day.

"Now it's a habit," she said about training and exercising. "Sometimes I have to force myself to take an easier day because I usually won't. I'll just keep going."

This past January marked a year that Hart has run at least a mile every day, a feat that would have seemed impossible 10 years ago.

At a recent high school reunion, Hart said, she reminisced with a classmate about running in gym class. Those bad memories make her proud of herself now.

"We were talking about how we had to do a mile and we hated it," she said. "We were always the last ones to finish and it probably took us 14, 15 minutes."

Now, after preparing for New York's triathlon, Hart can successfully run 16 miles and has brought her average time to complete a mile down to about 8 minutes, 53 seconds.

"It's scary to think about," she said of her original weight. "It's embarrassing in some ways that I let myself get to that point."

Hart has burned a lot of her old pictures, but still can't forget what she used to look and feel like.

"Being overweight my whole life is the motivation - to just be more normal, or fit in more I guess," she said. "It's still a challenge right now. I still want to weigh less."

Hart also uses her times to motivate herself. At a Minnesota triathlon in June she placed third in her age group, but awards were given only to the top two. Two weekends ago she placed fourth at a local triathlon, but only the top three received awards.

She sighed, but with a big smile on her face.

"I think it'd be cool to place," she said. "Not yet, not in New York, but one of these days. I think I can definitely improve from my previous times."