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In 2014, Mark Allen of Newark, DE, decided he wanted to get healthy, so he joined Anytime Fitness and started working out with coach and co-owner Samantha Mitchell. That decision may have saved his life.
“When Mark joined, he was not a fit guy, at all,” Samantha says. “But he had ambitious goals. We looked at them holistically because nutrition and training both play a big part. I gave him a nutrition plan to follow, and Mark logged into MyFitnessPal and tracked every bite he ate, every single day.”
Mark, now 50, targeted his macros — protein, fat and carbohydrates — and tracked his food every day for over two years.
“As he was getting better and stronger, he was asking, ‘What else can I do?” says Anytime Fitness coach and co-owner Devon Mitchell, Samantha’s husband. Mark decided he wanted to run a marathon. He and Devon started with 5Ks, worked up to 10Ks, and kept going, eventually setting their sights on triathlons.
Mark was committed. Devon says, “I connected my training watch to Mark, and every time Mark did a workout, I got a notification. Every day, it was ‘bing, bing.’ Mark had finished another workout.”
Training for a triathlon is rigorous, and as the chief financial officer of a charter school, Mark had a busy schedule. But he made time for his workouts. “I was working out twice a day,” he says. “I would go to the gym in the morning at 6 a.m., go to work, and then come to the gym again after work.”
Mark fell in love with triathlons and competed whenever he could. He got to the point where he was competing in half Ironmans and winning medals in sprint triathlons. He was stronger and healthier than he had ever been in his life. He was always looking for the next event or competition, and he and Devon competed together in Spain in April 2019 in the Multi-Sport World Championship.
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