Living second half of life better than the first

Just months shy of his fiftieth birthday, Ron Cothran is determined to live the second half of his life better than the first. He’ll soon be competing in his first triathlon.

Cothran was one of six people nationwide selected to compete in the 2014 Fit Nation triathlon team at the Nautica Malibu Triathlon. He’ll be competing in CNN’s Fit Nation team with Dr. Sanjay Gupta in California.

But Cothran didn’t always consider himself an athlete. Several years ago Cothran weighed his heaviest at 353 lbs. He works as a respiratory care coordinator at St. Mary Corwin and said he “would talk the talk but it was obvious that [he] wasn’t walking the walk.”

He had a wake up call in 2008 when he nearly died during gastric bypass surgery after losing a significant amount of blood.

“That procedure saved my life. It gave me the tool I needed to overcome what I was facing,” he said.

Cothran now works out six days a week. He said exercise replaces his former addiction to food. “Exercise became my therapy and as such exercise has now become my motivation and almost my addiction,” Cothran said. It is what I do now.”

The 2014 Nautica Malibu Triathlon will be held September 13 and 14, 2014.