The newbie: 'My whole goal is to just finish it'
Eighteen months ago, Leslie Wirsing weighed more than 200 pounds. Intense pain made her pack them on.
A few years ago, she was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis - inflammation of the connective tissue that supports the arch of your foot - and a ganglion cyst.
She went under the knife in June 2008 to remove the cyst, but it wasn't until she changed doctors and started physical therapy in March 2009 that she felt any kind of relief.
Wirsing then confronted another problem: her weight, which research revealed was a huge contributor to her pain.
Instead of going on a "yo-yo" diet, she pledged to change her lifestyle.
"Their (her physical therapists') enthusiasm to get me well made me want to do all I could to be better," Wirsing wrote in an e-mail. "I made a vow to work on my weight as hard as they were working on getting me better."
In May of that year, she joined a gym and overheard a woman talking about the Naperville triathlon. With encouragement from her physical therapist, and a year's worth of working off the weight, Wirsing's finally ready to run on Sunday.
"My whole goal is to just finish it," she said. "Next year, maybe I'll go for a good time, but this year's just a finish. I just wanted to challenge myself."
The Elgin resident is also a member of the triathlon's Team Hope - a group of women who've each committed to raising $500 for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, the official charity of the U.S. Women's Triathlon Series.
"It's a good cause and it gave me accountability," she said. "All these people are donating. Now I have to do it; I have no choice."
As a Team Hope member, Wirsing could have participated in a private, eight-week coaching program, but the commute to Chicago held her back.
Instead, she heads to the gym around 4:45 a.m. before work every morning.
She's been training for the triathlon for the past two months and said she doesn't mind doing it alone.
"I love being by myself," the mother of two said. "That's my peace and quiet every morning."