In Part 1 of our interview with Peter Engwall, we learned about the man who lost nearly 150 pounds when he decided to change his life for the better. In Part 2, we are going to learn about Peter Engwall, the man he is today. Peter has “an amazing wife, and the best son in the entire world!” And loves coaching his sons baseball and football teams. He’s a Project Manager for a wireless telecommunications company in Seattle, Washington. His schedule is extremely busy, but Peter always makes time for his Ironman training. Peter remains extemely active and we asked him a variety of questions relating to his fitness goals and about his website, http://auggiesdad.sweat365.com/.
As you may recall, Peter began exercising in order to lose weight and quickly discovered that entering himself in endurance events would help him stay focused on the end result of losing weight. One summer, he decided to sign up for his first Sprint Triathalon. Four years later he is planning on completing his first Full Ironman in November. Peter has also set a variety of other goals. He wants to complete an Olympic Distance race in under three hours and plans on completing his first Full Ironman in the alotted 17 hours. Lastly, he wants to remain injury free.
Peter’s life has been filled with memorable experiences. He married his best friend. He witnessed the birth of his son. He was on the Oprah Show. He completed a sprint triathalon. He completed a half marathon. And he completed a half Ironman. As a beginning runner, I know what Peter means when he says that those are memorable moments. It’s about being able to complete something that once was impossible and being able to accomplish something like that makes anything seem possible.
Training allows you to “get away from it all,” Peter says. When in training, all your thoughts and worries get focused on your training and it allows you to clear your head. And for Peter, it has been a surprisingly social activity. He has met numerous people that he has trained and worked with, including our first hero, Mitch Roberts. Peter began training with Mitch because he recognized the fact that it was important to find people to train with that are smarter and people to train with that are faster. I’m not sure which category Mitch falls into, but my guess is that it’s not the smarter one (Just Kidding).
http://auggiesdad.sweat365.com/ is a place that Peter goes to log his workouts and serves as a reminder to when his next races are scheduled. He has been able to track his distances through the website and he says it’s great to see his results grow. His post on http://sweat365.com/blog/2008/05/14/lifestyle-changes-yield-big-results/, is how I learned about Peter losing nearly 150 pounds as a result of his lifestyle change.
Through Peter’s website, he has been able to make many new friends from many different areas. His favorite websites are http://runningbrothers.com/ (obviously) and http://www.slowtwitch.com/. He encourages all of you to be yourself and have fun.
Lastly, Peter believes that every person should make someone else’s life just that much happier. He recommends that you change the life of someone else for the better. And I can honestly say that your story, your participation and becoming one of our heroes has changed our lives for the better.
If you would like to learn more about Peter Engwall, please visit his website, http://auggiesdad.sweat365.com/.