BYRON, Ga. — Nine-year-old Colton Sims lives in Byron. Over the years, he has had his own struggles.
As a baby, he was in the NICU for ten days with pneumonia. He even struggled with speech apraxia. But this year, Sims did something to tackle one of his other struggles: his weight.
Over the last year, Sims lost more than 100 pounds, driven by proving his bullies and past coaches wrong. One of those coaches didn’t let him play on the all-star baseball team. But soon the feeling of deflation turned into a feeling of determination.
"You can't really let them predict your future," Sims said.
Sims decided to do something about it, getting with his parents to find a personal trainer to help change his diet — and put the work in even when it was hard.
"It was kind of like, 'Man I don't want to give up," Sims said. "I just kind of want to see what happens and then I really didn't give up and there I just lost more than 105 pounds."
While he said it took discipline, he says the progress began to show. Once he got faster and started losing weight, he decided to run a 5K.
"My trainer Lee told me — he said, 'Hey Colton do you want to do a 5K?’ And I said, 'Sure," he said.
Each Tuesday, Colton and Lee ran for one-hour-and-15-minutes to prepare. In August, Colton ran his first 5K.
Now, on Saturday, he will run his second 5K in Warner Robins.
One day, Sims dreams of getting full scholarship to Mercer University, playing for their baseball team.