I discovered the joy and benefits of running in later life after battling the anxiety and depression that came with the menopause.
I had been running for only eight months when I took on my first marathon at the London Marathon in 2017. I was 53 years and 7 months. It was only meant to be a ‘one off’ bucket list adventure but running, and especially that ‘finish line feeling’ had became addictive!!
I’m now 59 and with seven marathons and one ultra under my belt, I’m on a mission to complete all six of the Abbott World Marathon Majors. I currently have four…London, New York, Berlin and Chicago with a place for Tokyo in 2023 which will make five!
I absolutely love to challenge age perceptions and assumptions of what women can / should be doing at this time of life and am intrigued to find out what my mind and body are still capable of achieving…one of the reasons I took on my first 50km ultra this year. In turn I hope to inspire other women that we are still so capable of setting ourselves and achieving big dreams and goals. I’m also a big advocate of breaking the taboo around the ‘menopause’ word and talking about this challenging time of life, sharing experiences and showing that there is life on the other side.
I’m not going to pretend that I always find the ageing process easy to accept or embrace because I don’t but, and I know it’s a cliché I really do believe that age is just a number. I think the secret is not to let that ‘number’ determine what you think you can or can’t do.
One of my running highlights was being selected as a member of the ASICS FrontRunner UK team in March 2020. I love being part of this diverse group of people as well as the wider running community which I find to be inspiring, supportive and encouraging.
Running has been a real game changer for me…it rescued me from the darkest period of my life and now brings so many positives . Whilst it’s also become my natural mechanism for staving off the ageing process, both physically and mentally, I also think I’m probably my happiest when I’m wearing my running kit!!