Dream Big and Achieve Big Goals
Collier Runs into a Happy and Healthy Future
BY JAMES COLLIER
THE ASHLAND BEACON
If your goals do not scare you then they are not big enough.
This column is a first for me because of who it is about. My wife Falecia made a courageous decision in 2020 that has changed her life forever. After years of struggling with obesity and failing at every possible diet she tried, Falecia elected to have weight loss surgery in August 2020. But the decision and the outcome were two points along a path that were very far apart.
Her journey started with a weight of 308 pounds, the heaviest she had ever been in her life. Physical activities for her were a challenge. Any form of exertion would quickly tire her out. After sitting and watching from the sidelines for many years, Falecia decided to flip the script with some life-changing goals that would change her life—and our family’s—forever.
Falecia was required to go through six months of classes to learn about the process of her surgery and to learn how to begin a new lifestyle post-surgery. Attendance was required for every session and one absence resulted in starting over at meeting No. 1. She never missed a session and had more notes about the process than a college student cramming for a final exam. She had to learn a new way of how to eat—which was a change for both of us—and how to be successful throughout the process. Her final decision prior to the surgery, set a new goal weight and she went big.
Her goal weight was to get down to 150 pounds—losing an astounding 158 pounds in this process. This August marked her third anniversary. It is safe to say, Faleica is a different person. Her total weight loss so far has been 155 pounds…and counting. More importantly, she has shed the weight while keeping it off by changing her lifestyle. Her eating habits are as disciplined as a soldier in the military. Certain foods are simply not in her vocabulary anymore. Fried foods and greasy snacks have gone by the wayside, being replaced by fruits and vegetables. Soda has become water and sitting on the couch and watching television has been replaced by exercising. But, she set another goal in the summer of 2021, which has given her a new lease on life.
While covering a 5K race in downtown Russell for the newspaper, Falecia said she wanted to run the race the following year. The word running anything had never been in her vocabulary, leaving me a little bit off guard when she claimed she wanted to run over three miles. Her exercising continued and became constant while becoming a regular part of her day, but the running part had not worked its way into the mix. In 2022, instead of running the 5K in Russell, we were covering it for the newspaper. This was a defining moment in her process because she was at a crossroads. It was time to go get that goal or to backslide into previous habits that could have been detrimental to her journey.
The next race was the Summer Motion 5K in downtown Ashland leaving her only three weeks to train. She started off running for one minute and walking for a minute until she built up to running a mile. Continuing her walk-and-run combo, one mile became two, and two became three. I tried to push her as much as I could while supporting her journey as we prepared for race day. I ran with her on race day to help her with her pace and to be there to urge her on. We crossed the finish line together—her one step ahead of me—with a time of 35:35, which at the moment was irrelevant. I grabbed her and hugged her in celebration. She had done it, but she was ready for more. She was eager to run another one, which we did two days later in Greenup at the Firecracker 5K. Her time, 27 seconds faster. Fast forward to the end of July and she had trimmed over three minutes off her time with a finish of 32:19.
It would have been easy for her to be content with just running a 5K and saying she achieved that goal, but she kept setting new goals and striving to be successful just as she had been in her weight loss journey and the goal for the 2023 season was to run a 10K. 2023 was not as welcoming as 2022 had been as Falecia had to battle through more challenges than ever, but she was not going to be stopped, even while battling her first serious injury as a runner.
We entered the Hot Chocolate 10K in Columbus the Sunday before Thanksgiving and started a six-week training program in preparation for the event. She worked to build her distance and endurance as she got out to running six miles one week before the race. Her best time for the 6.2 miles during training was 1:18. Again, this is someone who would struggle to walk a short distance outside without losing her breath and is now running for over an hour. The course was challenging with several hills throughout—unlike anything we had run in before—including a half a mile incline in the final mile of the course. I finished my run but had no way of going back out on the course to encourage her to the finish line with a field of over 8,000 runners. My only option was to send her a text message in hopes she would hear in her Air Pods.
I waited near the finish line and to my surprise, she started the descent down the long sloping hill to the finish line well ahead of schedule. She sprinted past me as I cheered for her finish, but I was overwhelmed when I saw her time.
1:07.
11 minutes better than her fastest time during training. But the time was irrelevant to me because, once again, she had done it. Another goal was achieved. Once I got to her among her fellow runners, all I wanted to do was hug her and tell her how proud I was for what she had just accomplished. I was in tears with joy.
I hope this story is one that someone like Falecia can read and find hope and motivation to make that first step toward that goal that you never thought was possible. Regardless if it's with weight loss or anything within your life, her journey over the last three years has been one that deserves to be chronicled. Life is a journey of failures, but pushing through those failures is what allows those small wins to become remarkable victories.
There are so many people who I must thank for their support with her journey. Alan O Such and O Such Tri State Race Planners for all the great events they organize in the area. Malcom Byrd for helping us with the best approach for training. Dave Coburn for taking care of rehab when injuries came along. Fellow runners Jim Cremeans, Ron Simpson and Neil Johnson for all their encouragement and positivity while welcoming us both into their running family.
As for Falecia, who has checked off the boxes of a 5K and 10K, she wasted little time setting another goal after we finished in Columbus. Up next is a half marathon next November in Huntington and who knows, she might even land in a major marathon sometime in the future.
Like I said in the beginning, if your goals do not scare you, they are not big enough. Dream big and go get your dreams.
