MILO BRYANT: So long Colorado Springs

A few years ago, standing on the first green at the Country Club of Colorado, Ted Worcester had tears in his eyes.

"Thank you," Worcester said. "I couldn't do this last year. I couldn't even do this six months ago. Thank you."

By "this" Worcester meant playing pain-free golf. He'd play, but it'd hurt. He couldn't bend over to pick up the ball after making a putt without it hurting.

Worcester was overweight and a Type II diabetic. He had a pacemaker and was on a lot of medication. He also had a hip replacement about four months before we met.

So, there was Worcester out playing golf, doing something he loved and doing it pain-free.

The thanks were not needed but appreciated. They were not needed because Worcester did all the work, every rep of every set of every exercise. He's the one who made it happen, not me.

Fast forward a couple of years. The Xi Pi chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity was having its annual golf tournament fundraiser. I called Worcester to see if he'd want to play.

"Hey ... Milo! How ... are you ... doing?" Worcester said between labored breaths.

I gave him the whos, whats, whys and wheres and asked him why he was breathing so hard.

"Me ... and ... the missis, we ... bought recumbent bikes," Worcester said, obviously still pedaling. "We're ... training for ... a century ride."

Worcester had made my day. He was two years removed from training, and he still was looking for fun physical things to do.

It might sound simple. But in that simple lies why I'm leaving daily sports journalism after 14 years. This will be my final sports column for The Gazette. I'm moving to San Diego and will start a fitness training/consulting business.

The love of words never will leave me. I will continue to write the physical fitness column every Monday. But as sports columns go, this is it.

I loved opinion writing. It allowed me to have a conversation with many thousands of you several times a week. Those conversations were not always pleasant, but they forced me to grow as a writer and a person. Hopefully a few of you saw things a bit differently and grew, too.

But as great as those conversations were, the feelings elicited from a client's success were and are greater. Maybe the best explanation is watching a child, maybe even your child, accomplish something she had been working on for weeks or months. On some levels, you get to share in that accomplishment. And that sharing, however minute it might be, is immensely gratifying.

That's part of what I get from training. It's part of the reason for the change in careers, too. The other part - put bluntly - we're fat. As a nation, we're getting bigger and bigger. That drives me as crazy as it make me sad and sometimes angry. There are many programs available for us. Few work.

We are a very aware nation. For the most part, we understand what we should be doing and the measures we should be taking to be more fit. The problem lies in action. There's a chasm that exists between awareness and action.

I want to find a way to build a bridge over that chasm or fill it in. As hunky-dory as it might sound, I believe I can do more good for more people through physical fitness than I can through sports writing.

I will be going back to school, too, to earn a master's degree in public health. Physical inactivity and obesity are epidemics. I want to be in the board rooms or on the committees that make the decisions that affect our physical activity on a public level. I want to find ways to make it easier for us to get across that chasm because there is tremendous power in having good and great fitness.

This decision isn't about leaving something great as much as it's about pursuing something believed to be greater. I've enjoyed the words and the give and take. I appreciate most that you took time from your day to read.

Now, let's talk about that exercise program of yours.