Thad Beaty, Sugarland Musician, Talks Fitness Transformation
Of the thousands of runners and spectators coming to town, one of them is a Grammy-award winning musician, but he’s not coming to put on a show. Instead, he will be in town to watch the athletes he has trained who will run the race tomorrow. Sugarland is a country music band that has won several Grammy, CMA and ACM awards. They’ve sold more than 8 million records. Thad Beaty, the band’s guitar player, has been with the group for more than a decade. He’s almost 6 ft. tall and weighs over 200 lbs. Beaty says he had a rude awakening. “I started having panic attacks and stress on a very bizarre level. So I started having numbness in my arms, weird manifestations of the lifestyle choices that I had.” Another wake up call came when the musician’s mother was diagnosed with Colon cancer. Beaty says it was those moments when he decided to take charge of his health. In six years he lost 70 pounds by becoming a vegan, running three ironman races and a marathon. “You look at these things as an individual effort whether it’s a journey to reclaim your health, or a journey to do a marathon or an iron man, you view it as an individual thing, but it’s not. It’s a team sport,” Said Beaty. Now he’s helping train tri-athletes like Nicole Serraiocco, who is getting ready for Saturday’s Montgomery Marathon. Her journey started back in 2012, just after she had her third child. “My family, my friends, from Thad… I mean, he was with me through it all,” Said Serraiocco. “He did my long hundred mile rides that I’ve never done before. I mean, I just got on a bike in January.” Like Beaty’s journey, a family illness also led Serraiocco to run. Her loved-ones battled Melanoma. “And if they can go through what they do everyday, I can get myself through an ironman. So I did it for them — for those who can’t,” Said Serraiocco. “Life is about the journey — it’s not about hitting the next marker and then going to the next marker,” Said Beaty. This race is a qualifier for the Boston Marathon. Beaty says he has no doubt Serraiocco will make the cut.
