cover story
Suzanne lost 29.5
inches, 24.8 pounds, and
10.74% body fat! Her prizes
included a one-year free
membership, a one-year VIP
massage membership,
and 12 60-minute
personal training
sessions.
HAC MEMBER
SUZANNE
LENHARD
I first joined HAC to “get healthy” and start
a regular exercise routine. I would come to
some group fitness classes here and there,
but made no serious commitment to change
my life. Then, I heard of the HAC 5k Club and
decided to give it a try. That’s when I met
HAC Personal Trainer and running coach Jen
Besten. I had attempted running on my own
for many years, but I would always get so
far and then become injured or side-tracked
and quit. Jen helped me reach my first major
goal, running The Delaware Half Marathon
in May 2014. She drilled into my head that
more is not always better and consistency is
key. I found out something about myself while
training: I enjoyed setting a challenging goal
and seeing if I could reach it. I lost 40 pounds
while training for the half marathon.
I felt so good, and I wanted to see what
else I could accomplish. I signed up for the
Rehoboth Full Marathon in December 2014.
I enrolled in Jen’s full marathon training program and she trained me over the next few
months. It was very difficult to fit in all my long
training runs, but I was determined to prove
I couldn’t believe how quickly I fell
out of shape and how bad I felt. I
woke up one day and decided I did
not want to feel like that anymore.
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to myself that I could do it. I successfully completed the race, and it was one of the most
amazing feelings I ever experienced. That
being said, I found a full marathon was not
something I wanted to train for again.
HACHEALTHCLUB.COM
I needed another challenge, so I joined
the HAC Triathlon Club. What a great club! I
trained with amazing coaches for swimming,
cycling, and running. In the summer of 2015,
I completed a duathalon, a sprint triathlon, an
Olympic triathlon, and several running races.
I had so much fun! I was in decent shape, but
still not where I wanted to be. Then I was hit
with a big surprise.
In October 2015 I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. I was in training for the Rehoboth
Half Marathon at the time. I ran the race on
December 6, 2015 and on December 16th, I
had a partial thyroidectomy. The surgery was
fairly simple and I was home the next day,
but regardless, my body rebelled and I was
exhausted all the time. I stopped all exercise
and just ate whatever I felt like for a month
and a half. I quickly gained 20 plus pounds,
and I was depressed about my weight and
the way I felt. I couldn’t believe how quickly I
fell out of shape and how bad I felt.
I woke up one day and decided I did not
want to feel like that anymore. I wanted to try
to heal myself from the inside out and started
really looking at nutrition as it relates to thyroid issues. Then I saw the advertisement for
the 12-week HAC Lifestyle Challenge. I told
my husband I wanted, no needed, to join this
challenge. I needed something to motivate
me to get healthy again.
As luck would have it, I hurt my back just
as I was about to sign up for the challenge. I
have never injured my back before, and the
pain was unbelievable. I couldn’t decide if
I should just not join the contest, but something told me to go for it anyway. I needed
to do this even if I could not function at full