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Your Slow, Fat Marathon
How to complete a marathon regardless of your size or speed
I had always been an athlete, but I only participated in sports that I was good at right away, and running definitely was not in that category. I’m also a fan of setting big, nearly impossible goals. So when I decided that I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone and try a sport that I wasn’t any good at, I skipped right to a marathon.
It was a tough challenge, and I dragged my extremely tolerant best friend along for the ride—but we got it done. After I finished the first marathon, I learned that I could have set a Guinness World Record for heaviest woman to complete a marathon.
Unfortunately you can’t set a record retroactively, so that set me on the path to my second marathon. I’m now a two-time marathoner and Guinness World Record Holder who is training for her first IRONMAN triathlon. Along the way I’ve learned many things that would have been helpful to know at the beginning of my journey.
Busting Myths About Slow, Fat Runners
First things first: slow and fat are not synonymous. I happen to be both a slow runner and a fat runner. But there are slow runners of all sizes, and fat runners of all speeds.