&amp;quot;The hardest part of this entire thing was dealing with the naysayers,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;People are naturally skeptical and negative, so until I lost a lot of weight, I was accused of lying about swimming 1 mile or running 6 miles or whatever.  Now they can go look at the race websites, see my name and my time, and they can&amp;#39;t argue with it anymore.&amp;quot;