Runners who enter Saturday’s fifth annual Makahiki Challenge must navigate a cross-country course through Kualoa Ranch that is strewn with obstacles more suited to military commando training.

There are a dozen of them along the 5-kilometer course. Dirt berms arrayed one after the other. Pits filled with mud or ice. A net you have to crawl under and monkey bars that you swing from. And a 12-foot wall.

But first-time entrant Partner Akiona, a 30-year-old Transportation Security Administration worker and part-time college student from Salt Lake, said he isn’t worried about any of them. He’s already triumphed over a much larger obstacle: himself.

In the last 12 months, since beginning a fitness regime to improve his health, Akiona has shed 163 pounds. He’s worked out six days a week, weightlifting in a gym before sunrise and hiking the Koko Crater stairs, Diamond Head and the Makapuu Lighthouse trail.

He feels good, sleeps better and has the confidence of a teenager.

“For people who have never carried that kind of weight, that is not just physical weight,” he said. “That’s mental, too. That’s emotional weight. In having taken my life back, it’s almost as if I can now reintroduce myself.”

He’s vowing to finish the race in 30 minutes.

“I’m nervous because I have never done it,” Akiona said. “But with everything I have gone through in the last year, there is no reason I cannot make that time.”

Akiona drew from heartfelt inspiration. A great-uncle, a grandfather and an uncle had all died — in 2012, 2013 and 2014 — after leading what Akiona called “carefree” lives marked largely by unhealthy diets. His uncle, a man who had worked out every day, was only 55.

At one point Akiona even experienced a personal vision. He had seen himself walking into a hospital and not walking out.

Family members wondered who would be next, especially Akiona. He weighed 389 pounds, had the blood pressure of a man twice his age and would joke that he was one soda away from becoming a diabetic.

“Because of the status of my health, I was in my doctor’s office every two months,” he said. “I was continually getting sick. I was getting colds. It was always the same thing. Everything was weight-related.”

Akiona, a Damien Memorial School graduate, was active in youth and high school sports but had no reason to work out when he got older.

His sedentary lifestyle was fueled by overeating, Akiona said. He would stop for a fast-food breakfast before work and then, over the course of an eight-hour shift, consume three plate lunches and three large drinks.

Akiona changed his life with the help of personal trainer Kepa Gaison, a childhood friend who works at Mana Barbell gym in Kalihi. Gaison, the son of former NFL defensive back Blane Gaison, designed Akiona’s workout routine and helped him create a diet full of mixed vegetables, sweet potatoes, quinoa, white fish, chicken and steak.

There is no gravy anywhere.

Akiona insists the changes he made in his life were easier to embrace than you’d expect.

“As grim a picture as I paint, because of my motivating factors, it wasn’t hard at all because I knew it was something that had to be done,” he said. “Once we started, there was no turning back.”

He entered the Makahiki Challenge mostly because Gaison told him to, noting that without a goal Akiona’s workouts would go nowhere.

To be honest, Akiona said he isn’t sure whether he can overcome every obstacle on the course, but he feels pretty good about how far he’s come.

“I got my life back,” he said. “I’ve transformed myself.”

If you want to contact Partner Akiona’s personal trainer about fitness and diet, email Kepa Gaison at kepagaison@gmail.com.

“Good Fit” spotlights inspiring fitness stories of change, self-discovery and challenge, and other fitnessrelated topics. Tell us what motivates you and how you stay fit and healthy. Email features@staradvertiser.com.