Navigation

Biking for Bo: Matthew Burress

In this year’s Philanthopy Issue we bring you the stories of eight people inspiring others in our community.

On Aug. 20 Matt Burress asked people to do something most athletes in training hate. He went to Facebook and asked people to interrupt his workouts.

“I’ll be cycling around the county over the next three weeks wearing a fluorescent orange Go Bo skateboard helmet. In my back pocket, I’ll be carrying a pledge sheet. I want to be interrupted on my workouts!”

With a month to go before the Peninsula Century Ride he decided to use the ride to raise money for the Go Bo Foundation, named for the late Bo Johnson, a 13 year-old Sister Bay boy who died of leukemia in 2012. The foundation raises funds to support families fighting cancer. For Burress, a friend of the Johnson family, the cause meant enough to him to step outside his comfort zone for the first time to ask friends and family for donations.

Before he knew it, money was pouring in from friends. Then the Cordon Family Foundation put up $1,000 in a matching donation if Burress could hit the milestone. By the Sept. 14 ride, he had raised $3,000.

Two years earlier Burress, a 21-year-old who had never even run a 5k, tipped the scales at 240 pounds.

He wasn’t lazy – in high school Burress bounced around the halls of Gibraltar, a member of band, choir, and the energy behind the school mascot – but his energy never pointed him toward athletics.

“I was music full-time, all-time,” he says.

It didn’t help that he ate poorly. But in late 2011 he decided to start watching his diet, starting with Weight Watchers. Then near New Year’s Day of 2012 he took up running to speed up the process.

In May of 2012 he ran the Nicolet Bay 5k, finishing in 19:32, good for sixth place. In 2013, now down to a svelte 165 pounds, he ran the Door County Half Marathon and finished 70th in 1:36:26. In August he completed his first marathon, finishing in 3:19, and is now training for a new challenge, the 2014 Wisconsin Ironman Triathlon.

“To go from clinical obesity to where I am now is incredibly rewarding,” he says. “For 20 years music was my life, and it’s still a big part of it, but endurance fitness has become bigger. I want to become a certified personal trainer and help other people make the same change. I remember how crappy I felt before, and I feel so great now. I was stuffing myself with junk food and it made me a hyperactive, obnoxious kid. Now I’m calmer, I’m able to hold an adult conversation.”

Related Organizations