The next time you run, walk, bike or drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, think about this statement: “The end is just another part of the bridge.”
Those words propelled Sameya Gerwitz, who had the mantra across her jacket, from the San Francisco side to the Marin side of the span, an accomplishment 36 years in the making.
“I still can’t believe I did it,” said the 5-foot-4 Gerwitz, who has shed approximately 40 pounds after shunning the scale for the better part of her life. She now weighs less than 200 pounds. “It changes my history.”
On Jan. 17 — her 36th birthday — Gerwitz, a middle school teacher at Yavneh Day School in Los Gatos, jogged the 1.8 miles of the Golden Gate Bridge with her two best friends, Jon Prescott and Judy Schultz, by her side.
“When we first got up there, Sameya said ‘Oh my God, there’s a hill!’ said Schultz, who teaches kindergarten at Yavneh. “I said, ‘Yeah, there’s a hill. We’ll keep going. What goes up must come down.’ ”
At any given point along the famous expanse, words of encouragement buzzed in Gerwitz’s ears — not just from her friends, but also from her students and their families who braved threatening skies to walk and jog with “Morah Sameya.”
“I was shouting, ‘You can do it’ and ‘You’re awesome!’ ’’ said 12-year-old Heather Schacher. “I really wanted to support her because she’s improved so much.”
The group went from three (Gerwitz, Prescott and Schultz) to roughly 50, after students overheard Gerwitz talking about her goal of running the bridge as a means of conquering her fear of exercising in public. The students wanted in.
A widely circulated Evite turned the run into a celebration, complete with a healthy pre-run breakfast at Gerwitz’s South Bay home and an on-camera interview with the NBC Bay Area affiliate at the finish line.
“My life is completely different,” said Gerwitz, who said she consumed nearly 5,000 calories a day before she started living healthier. “The goal was to be more active, change the way I eat, sleep better and have greater peace of mind. Now, I’m truly happier than I’ve ever been.”
It took Gerwitz nearly her entire life to get to this point.
The first step was Weight Watchers. Gerwitz was just 8 years old when she went to her first meeting and sat among a group of frustrated, overweight adults. Many had been battling their bulge for years.
She listened to their stories and thought, “That won’t be my life. I’m just a kid. This ugly phase will pass.” But it didn’t.
At her heaviest, Gerwitz tipped the scale at more than 300 pounds. After years of Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and other weight-loss plans that failed her, Gerwitz hit her breaking point.
It was October 2009. She was at a New York City restaurant visiting Prescott, a marathon runner and accomplished climber (Mount Kilimanjaro is his résumé topper).
Seated across from a noticeably fit Prescott, Gerwitz started to cry. She was tired of being single. She was tired of wearing loose clothing. She was tired of being called “the fat girl.”
Prescott asked her a simple question: “So, why can’t you change that?”
“It was an empowering moment,” recalled Gerwitz, who has a family history of obesity. “Something just changed for me. I didn’t want to be that depressed, overweight woman anymore.”
Shortly thereafter, Gerwitz joined the gym at the Addison-Penzak Jewish Community Center in Los Gatos. Her initial workout brought tears to her eyes. All of the humiliation and shame she kept hidden under baggy clothes was exposed for everyone to see.
On Oct. 27, Gerwitz ran on the treadmill for nine seconds. Schultz sweated by her side for the next six days, pushing Gerwitz to complete her workouts. The pair set a goal of running 1.8 miles on the treadmill, or one length of the Golden Gate Bridge.
“What’s exciting for me is I wanted to overcome the embarrassment of a large person wanting to run,” Gerwitz said. “I finally started to see myself as healthy. Just because you weigh a certain amount, it doesn’t have to dictate your health.”
Those nine seconds are miles away from Gerwitz now. Though it took her several months to run 1.8 miles on the treadmill (she made it on Dec. 24), Gerwitz, in the meantime, ramped up her active lifestyle.
She parked farther away. She took the stairs more often. She walked her Dalmatian twice a day. She circled the mall with friends instead of meeting for dinner. She hired a nutritionist, worked with personal trainers and sampled yoga, racquetball and kickboxing.
The last week in December, Gerwitz let her towel fall to the ground and got in the public pool for the first time in 20 years.
“There were days in December when I told my students I didn’t feel like going to the gym,” Gerwitz said. “They all said, ‘You have to.’ ”
Gerwitz’s students used to joke about her rolling in a chair just to get across the classroom.
“I was the teacher who brought in candy and doughnuts,” Gerwitz said. “Now I jog at lunch and play four- square with the kids. They definitely see a difference.”
And Gerwitz sees a difference in her students, too.
Instead of munching on fried and sugar-laden foods at a recent Chanukah party, the students made fruit salad, ate veggies and snacked on popcorn by the handful.
Odds are, Gerwitz will have even more support from her students and their families when she tackles a 5k this summer, and a year-ending 10k.
Those are lofty goals, Gerwitz admitted, but in her mind, the finish line is just another part of the race.