Where the hell has the last 4 years gone?

So it was brought to my attention late last night that yesterday marked the 4 year anniversary of my blog The Fat Girls Guide to Running.

Wow.

Four Years…who ever would have thunk it?

I can remember the day I got myself a wordpress account and haphazardly thought up the blogs name, I think I was hung over at the time and feeling sorry for myself after putting loads of weight back on (again) over the summer period (Some things never change hey?)

In 2010 I didn’t even know what blogging was to be quite honest, but I thought that perhaps my friends and family would enjoy listening to my fitness antics and my tales of drunken frolicking, and bingeing at the buffet cart, with the occasional run for good measure, in fact the blogs subtitle at the time was “How not to train for a marathon, and other tales of cake, booze and overindulgence.

So I got to thinking about how different my life was back in September 2010?

Work – I was stupidly busy with a full-time job working for a local authority whilst finishing off a few outstanding contracts from my prior role as a freelance consultant juggling lots of creative projects and programmes to do with the London 2012 Olympics which were due to happen a stones throw from where I lived (and still live). I worked long hours, lots of evenings and weekends…but I partied hard too with an active social life and a new boyfriend in tow.

Family Life – I wasn’t a mum back there, and my relationship with Rose’s dad was relatively new and exciting too.

Training – my calender tells me I was doing British Military Fitness (or not doing it by the looks of it), and swimming a bit too. I was supposed to be training for the half marathon Run to the Beat, and was entering smaller races in preparation. Looking back at my diary I can see my training was not consistent, I wasn’t even a member of a running club…and I wasn’t parkrunning then either.

My first ever blog entitled When will I learn was a race debrief of one of those preparation races, the shame of finishing last wdid not provoke me to start the blog, the fact they packed away the finish line before I got to it that done it.

I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was mortified and knew that without a doubt my weight had played a part…I was THE only overweight runner at that race and it showed. So it got me thinking about overweight runners and I googled it when I got home. The results brought up a number of articles about running for weightloss and a couple of blogs from the states following the weightloss journey of overweight runners, and I figured there and then that I would give it a go too.

I didn’t realise what it would all lead to…

  • Shortlisted for a UK Bloggers Award
  • Launched a range of running merchandise
  • Get free stuff sent to review
  • Invited to exciting press launches and events
  • Have 3 running books on Amazon
  • Deliver 1 day running retreats for plus size women
  • Featured on Channel 4 for the Brighton Marathon
  • Being asked to speak on Womens Hour and various other US shows via Skype

But more exciting than all of that is close to 100,000 women have accessed my blogs over the last 4 years from almost every country in the world. I have countless messages from women who thank me for reaching out to them and writing content that speaks to them specifically…and some of these emails seriously bring me to tears.

So what next?

I have all kind of crazy ideas for developing the blog, taking my message to even more women and basically taking over the health and fitness world (joke), but catch me on a bad day and I simply feel overwhelmed by the number of emails in my inbox (most of them from people wanting something from me I might add) and I wonder if the 60 hours a week I give to this venture are really worth it.

Today I turned away the chance to apply for a full-time job working in womens fitness that I thought would quite suit me, a job that would pay my bills each month and keep me and my family fed, but a niggle in my gut told me that if I didn’t see this Too Fat to Run thing through I would forever regret it so I have nervously withdrawn my expression of interest.

Only time will tell if this venture succeeds, but this week I am back firing on all cylinders and wondering what the next 4 years will bring, so get involved people, help me take this website to the next level by sharing, liking, commenting and basically being the eyes, ears and mouthpieces for the brand. I couldn’t do it without ya!!

Happy Anniversary fellow Fatties and thanks for all the amazing people who keep me going!!!

Before you go…Please leave a message below to let me know what this blog means to you and what your dreams are for the Too Fat to Run campaign over the next four years.

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