Jason Rollinson
Norman Langwell’s testimony of shedding 182 pounds in two years through strict dieting and exercise has garnered statewide attention as Gov. Rick Perry recently named the Huntsville resident as the 2008 Texas Round-Up Fit Texan.
“I’m ecstatic and honored to be chosen out of 300 people who got on the Texas Round-Up Web site and submitted their stories,” Langwell said. “My intentions are to reach as many people as I can with my story, telling them — ‘if I can do it, so can you.’”
The 37-year-old volunteer firefighter will run in the 5th annual Texas Round-Up 10K today along with his wife and children.
Following the race, his family will join Perry and his wife at a reception along with the Fit Kid, 9-year-old Kolton Allen of Lexington and the Fit Family, the Gonzales-Paul family of San Antonio.
“Norman’s story really stood out,” said Meredith Garcia, executive director for the Round-Up. “You could hear the passion and commitment in his letter. He was very honest that there was no magic pill. He just had to work at it.”
Langwell was featured in the Sunday Lifestyles section of the Feb. 24 edition of The Item and described the wake up call he received on March 19, 2006, when he was toting a size 58 pants and weighed 379 pounds.
He woke up and looked at himself in the mirror. The feeling was one he’ll never forget.
“Everyone gets to the point where they get a wake up call for something,” he said. “I couldn’t recognize myself in the mirror. I had tried to lose weight lots of times before — all of the diet pills and fad diets and weight-loss surgery— they just weren’t for me. Each time, I had tried to do it for everyone else.
“This time I decided to do it for myself.”
Langwell cut out the eggs, biscuits and gravy and pancakes at his work at the Goree Unit and turned to chicken, fish and salads.
“The biggest lesson I had to learn was that I had to take in less calories than I was putting out,” Langwell said. “The body will store the extra weight, especially anything over 2,000 calories a day. I know that if I want to eat tacos or other kids of fast food, I would have to work that much harder to burn it off.”
He also began walking each day, and eventually got so bored with it, that he began running long distance.
“I saw a flyer at the Iron Works gym about the Seven Hills Running Club,” he said. “I contacted Ken Johnson and he told me to start doing street runs and following their paths. I competed in my first event, the Heatwave 5K at Sam Houston and had lots of fun. Ken then suggested that I ought to do a marathon.”
Langwell finished the Chevron Houston Marathon in January in 4:26, and kept going and improving his time.
Before he knew it, he had finished his fifth marathon just 21 seconds short of breaking four hours and completed the Texas Marathon Challenge.
“We’re in marathon offseason right now, but I’ll continue to train,” he said. “My body’s telling me to slow down a bit, but if I get an opportunity, I may go out-of-state and try a couple more before November.”
Langwell’s ultimate goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon, but to do that, he must shave 45 minutes off the time it takes him to run the 26.2-mile event.
“I’ve been told by several trainers in the area that I shouldn’t have a problem qualifying pretty quick,” he said. “The easiest way is to continue to run and not let my body get out of shape.”
