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Far 2 Fabulous
Join Catherine & Julie, your feisty hosts at Far 2 Fabulous, as they lead you on a wellness revolution to embrace your fabulousness.
Julie, a Registered Nutritional Therapist with over 20 years of expertise, and Catherine, a former nurse turned Pilates Instructor and Vitality Coach, blend wisdom and laughter seamlessly.
Off the air, catch them harmonising in their local choir and dancing to 80's hits in superhero attire. Catherine braves the sea for year-round swims, while Julie flips and tumbles in ongoing gymnastics escapades.
With a shared passion for women's health and well-being, they bring you an engaging exploration of health, life, and laughter. Join us on this adventure toward a more fabulous and empowered you!
Far 2 Fabulous
The Joy of Being Far Too Fabulous
Episode 70: The Joy of Being Far Too Fabulous
What can our bodies truly accomplish when we push beyond societal expectations? In this energising episode, Catherine and Julie celebrate their recent physical achievements while challenging the narrative about what women "of a certain age" should attempt.
Julie shares her triumphant story of winning gold at a level four adult gymnastics competition—despite competing with injured ankles and limited practice time beforehand. Her journey, which began at age 41, showcases how adult gymnastics provides extraordinary benefits for balance, strength, and mental wellness. "I'm not anything special," Julie emphasises, dispelling the myth that only certain people can achieve impressive physical feats. "I am literally the same as you, but I just chose to work on that."
Meanwhile, Catherine recounts her experience completing the London Marathon among a record-breaking 65,000 finishers. Despite scorching temperatures and crowded conditions, she describes the event as "like a carnival for 26.2 miles" with an atmosphere that fueled her determination. Catherine reveals how her approach of running for four minutes and walking for one helped her enjoy the experience far more than her previous marathon, proving that strategic adjustments can transform challenges into triumphs.
Both women discuss how these achievements have reinforced their resilience, with Catherine's mantra "I can do hard things" carrying her through difficult moments. The conversation takes an exciting turn as she hints at future adventures, potentially including a trek across the Sahara Desert, demonstrating that the appetite for challenge doesn't diminish with age.
Whether you're contemplating your first Couch to 5K or dreaming of more ambitious goals, this episode will inspire you to reconsider what's possible for your own body and mind. Share your own "far too fabulous" achievements with us in our Facebook group—we can't wait to celebrate alongside you!
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We look forward to you joining us on the next episode.
Welcome to Far Too Fabulous, hosted by Julie and Catherine. Join us on a mission to embrace your fabulousness and redefine wellness. Get ready for some feistiness, inspiration, candy chats and humour as we journey together towards empowered well-being. Let's dive in. Hello, hello, and welcome to the Far Too Fabulous podcast. I was just.
Speaker 1:We have to leave 10 seconds of silence at the beginning of our recording that it helps us with the editing, and by about second six I'm already laughing. Yeah, we're starting to laugh, aren't we? We've got a little smirk on our face, and whoever's about to do the intro knows that they're gonna just yeah, oh, that's brilliant. It's become a thing now, hasn't it? We've made it into a thing, oh yeah, and we can't do it sensibly now, unless we got a guest. And then we're very sensible, we are, we behave ourselves, which is just hilarious.
Speaker 1:But yes, welcome to this week's episode of the far too fabulous podcast. And we thought that we would talk about how far too fabulous we had been over the last week or so. Yeah, I think we need to own our fabulousness. Yeah, I'm feeling fabulous actually. So if you follow us or you have listened to the podcast in the last week or so, you'll know that I have just completed the london marathon. Yes, I do actually still have my medal in my bag. I'm not wearing it right now. I still haven't seen that medal properly. I'll get that out for you in a minute when you're telling us about what you've been up to. I haven't seen your medals, so, and you've been doing far too fabulous stuff too.
Speaker 1:Huh well, I did a gymnastics competition, but it was slightly different because there there was a group of people. So adult gymnastics is on the rise. So, anybody listening, there is no reason why you couldn't find a gymnastics class, an adult gymnastics class, near you. You've now found free and have some fun. Yeah, yeah, I'm just, I'm just going around all these places. Does a county tour for all of us? I do, yes, so there is. It's on the rise and it's been recognised finally by British Gymnastics and the world that you can do gymnastics as an adult and that there are lots of benefits to it. But there's a particular group that are really, really just so supportive and want to encourage and support adult gymnasts.
Speaker 1:And when you're a child and you do gymnastics, they have grades and so you can go through the grade system and there's certain things you need to do and it's extremely well known. I never did them, um, because I didn't do gymnastics in a club where you would do that kind of thing. I just went to a sports center on a saturday morning where they put the equipment out and then they took it down at the end and, yeah, you didn't do those sort of things. So now we've got these adult grades and there's levels up to six and I was doing level four, so I went in a competing at level four, went to Basingstoke to do this and I did really well.
Speaker 1:So you perform with other people that are at a level four or compete, yes, yeah, and actually anybody over the age of 18 can be in an adult grading. They called it set works, but they could. I could be competing against in my level level four and I was competing against people that were in their twenties yeah, level four. And I was competing against people that were in their 20s yeah, and we're all doing, we're aiming to do a certain level of skills and we're aiming to get a certain amount of points. Yeah, as to whether we pass that grading and go up to next level or whether we we go down a level or whether we maintain that. No, you can go down, you can go down, you can go down. Yeah, oh, that sucks. And do they decide? Do you do your gradings in your club or is it decided on this competition?
Speaker 1:This is, as far as I know, at the moment, this is the only competition that is doing it and the people that organise it one of the lady that organise it, who's a fantastic adult gymnastics coach? Beth. She's the one that do you remember when I was getting my round off back summer on the floor and I went to that gymnastics camp and she gave me the confidence in myself that I could do it? Yeah, and then, when I did it, I cried yeah, yeah, but that one, beth, is such a good supporter of adult gymnastics. She put together this whole format based on the grades that you would do as a child, but for adults, and is pushing it to be become a a national thing. Yeah, and that's amazing. Yeah, it gives you something to like, strive towards and improve on. That's incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've already, like, like you've just said, with that example, you've already made so many leaps and bounds if you'll pardon the pun, um, in your, in your skills. You were saying when we were chatting about this the other day you were saying that, like other coach, had given you some tips of what you would, what you were doing, that had really worked well. Yeah, so, unfortunately, just before this competition, I excuse my french buggered my ankles again. So you did it good and proper, though I don't know, geez, anyway, it's so frustrating because I was having a really good session and then I decided to have a play on the trampoline, which is exactly what I did before when I buggered my ankles In the park. In the park, you were playing on the trampoline. In the park, on the trampette, the one in the floor, yeah. And so I did pretty much the same thing and I, yeah, so I buggered my ankles up.
Speaker 1:I think it was two weeks before this competition, so I couldn't practice the moves that I had to do because I couldn't land heavy, so I couldn't do any somersaults, I couldn't do dismounts off things, I couldn't do vault landing. You know it's a bit of an issue when you've hurt your ankles and you're trying to do gymnastics. Right, I feel like they're fairly essential to gymnastics and it was was, yeah, everything I tried to do. I thought, oh, I can do beam, that'll be all right when you even stand on the beam. Guess what is is adjusting you all the time, a whole time, that proprioception, like constantly readjusting. Yeah, do the beam either. This is interesting you could only do the bars and just not dismount. You just have to hang on the bars for the whole time. Yeah, because I couldn't do that move where I would jump on and put my feet on Because, again, that move, honestly it was a nightmare.
Speaker 1:So two weeks before this competition I was really limited. So when I turned up at the competition I actually hadn't done all of my routines and my moves and unfortunately our coach wasn't able to attend. But there was this really lovely lady and this is what I like about adult gymnastics is that everybody is just really supportive. There was another coach there and I'd asked her if she would step in. Just why I did my back summing off the end of the beam, because I wanted to make sure that I didn't under rotate it and move like step forward and bang my head on the end of the beam. I just wanted someone to be there. Anyway, she gave me a tip and then when I actually did my actual competition, I did that move based on the tip she gave me. So well that her reaction was just lovely to the fact that I'd landed this move really, really well.
Speaker 1:I love that, and just small adjustments make all the difference, don't they? Yeah, because you can't see what you're doing. You can feel it and you know, I knew that. The one that I did I came in short and it's when I come in short that puts the pressure on my ankles. So you know, when your knees and your body weight is over the top of your toes, yeah, that is the problem for my ankles. So I needed to land this upright and I didn't want to do that again because beam was early in the rotations and I thought I've got to do floor and if I've done my ankles, I'm not going to be able to land my tuck back. So, yeah, she just gave me a little tip because I can't see what I'm doing, but I just just did exactly what she said and I did such a great dismount. I'm gutted I haven't got it on video, because I came round to land and I was just dead upright.
Speaker 1:You know, when you see them do it on the TV and they nail it that's what happened, yeah, and you're willing them to nail it every time, aren't you? Yeah, because it always makes me laugh in gymnastics, especially when we're adults, that we're doing these things that are ridiculous, and then the deductions you get are also ridiculous. So, if you know, if somebody in their 50s has just done a tuck back, dismount off of the beam, they should get all the points, even if you've landed and done a step. Yeah, you know, you shouldn't get such a big discount. It should be celebrated. Does it matter? Does it matter that she did a step that she landed on her feet, not her head or her face? Yeah, I feel like it should be the other way, like if you nailed it, you get a bonus. Yeah, but if you actually did it, don't don't get deducted. Don't be some main judges. No, yeah, yeah, it's amazing what you were saying.
Speaker 1:How much of it is mental as well, isn't it? The coach gave you the confidence to be able to do it and just that little adjustment made all the difference in the second move. It's just no, it was really cool and it was a really lovely competition can move. It's just no, it's, it was really cool and it was a really lovely competition. And, yeah, the level that I.
Speaker 1:I was debating whether to go in at level three. I went in at level four, which was a bit of a challenge, and then actually, the marks that came out, so I got awarded a silver, which meant that I did very well, but I stay in that category. But when the results came out, I'm actually listed as gold and it's being checked at the moment. Oh, because I think I've read it right my coach has read it right, the competition organizers have got a verify but I think I actually got a gold and now I can go up to level five. That's a bit exciting, isn't it? Yeah, wow, you have to keep with that training then. Yeah, exactly. So I've got a few competitions coming up now and then the big one in august is going to be the british championships. So that's what I'm now going to be working towards and just desperately aiming to avoid injury.
Speaker 1:Yes, you said that very specifically for my own brain's point. You know I need yeah, I need to avoid injury in order to now do this training, because it's it's not that far away really. No, no, it'll go really really quickly. I love that. I mean, the fact that you do adult gymnastics in the first place is amazing. I don't know if we've got any videos of you doing all your tumbles and all that sort of stuff, but perhaps we'll put a video in the Far Too Fabulous Facebook group just so people can genuinely appreciate that she is throwing herself upside down like the full thing. She's it's, it's proper gymnastics. And then you don't just leave it there, you go and put yourself in a competition which is bloody terrifying. Yeah, it's just brilliant. I love that.
Speaker 1:So this is kind of what we wanted to speak about today. Was, I mean, other than to tell you how fabulous we are, is to be able to champion women of a certain age going and doing things that are taking themselves out of their comfort zone and just like not toeing the line, doing something completely? Yeah, and I think it's really nice to give your body chance to show what it's really capable of, because it's always capable of more than we think, and I think we've been conditioned that, oh, as we get older or we don't do those things. Yeah, adult gymnastics why would you do that? But more and more people are taking this sport up later in life. I mean, I didn't start gymnastics until I was 41 or 42 because I'd seen that class and I'd liked it when I was younger, but I didn't do gymnastics to, you know, a high level.
Speaker 1:A lot of the adults had done gymnastics to a high level, and that's a different, a completely different ball game level. A lot of the adults had done gymnastics to a high level, and that's a different, a completely different ball game. But a lot of people are just starting. Yeah, just start just starting gymnastics, because it benefits you on so many levels one, it's fun, makes you feel like a child. It's balance, coordination, strength, it's so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're not going to be falling when you're old, are you? No? And if I do, I'll be able to get back up. Yeah, we had to bounce back up, we had to style it out. You'll just turn it into a roll and bounce back up again. Yeah, it's just, it's fantastic. Yeah, it's really good Because I mean the. It's really good because I mean the narrative is isn't it that, as you get older, that you I don't know, maybe you should keep yourself safe, like the danger of falling, or just that? Our bodies are not capable of this? And I love that. We're gonna defy that and and carry on doing things and showing that our bodies are far more just amazing, and I think sometimes the, the.
Speaker 1:The thing that makes me annoyed sometimes is that people will think that I'm something special because I can do that. I'm not anything special. I get what you mean. Well, I am special, of course you are special, you know. But do you know what I mean when someone says, well, of course you can do it? Yeah, you know, you must have done gymnastics when you were younger, or you're one of them, like flexible people, or you can just do it. No, like none of that. No, I am literally the same as you, yeah, but I just chose to work on that. I mean, I couldn't do, I couldn't do this stuff.
Speaker 1:When I started gymnastics, I remember the first time I got up on the beam I thought why on earth would you be up here? And I got back off again. I thought this is high and scary. It's really high, isn't it? Yeah, it's really high and really thin, yeah. And now I'm doing moves on the beam and routines and you've just got to put yourself out there and it's never going to be overnight. You just do it step by step. We're talking about step by step.
Speaker 1:You ran the marathon I did. Here's my medal. Let me see, there it is. Feel that way. That's actually really nice, isn't it? It's that's a nice medal, it is a. It's huge, it's absolutely huge. It's a proper nice medal. Good for you, I know I was very, very pleased with it.
Speaker 1:So it's their 45th anniversary of the london marathon. I. So there's about six, I think six men that have all done every single one. I saw an article about that. Did you see that? Yeah, and the guy well, there's one particular guy that I was looking at Was he in his 80s. So there's one left now who has done every single one Wow, and he had it on the back of his T-shirt that he'd done every single one wow, and he had it on the his, the back of his t-shirt that he'd done every single one. So I ran past and I said, congratulations, well done, yeah, very old and just like, and just keep going, just kept going, yeah, and I think that's actually that's just the uh. That is the main thing with the marathon just keep going. The like, the head fuckery as you're running around, yeah, is immense. That said so for me.
Speaker 1:I actually wasn't looking forward to it. I knew how hard brighton was last year. It was brutal, it was absolutely brutal. I walked loads for even by like halfway. A friend of mine was kind of running along with me or walking along with me and and I was just I was gone. I was like this is so much harder than I even thought it was going to be. Yeah, I've done triathlons, I didn't. I've done a half iron that I didn't complete. But even the cycle on that half iron that was up and down a blooming mountain and they took that whole course away because it was too blooming hard. They only did it one year and that happened to be the year I did it. Even I enjoyed that immensely. But Brighton, I just it found, I found it. So I had I trained.
Speaker 1:I don't know whether everybody feels like this, but I felt like I probably hadn't done enough. I don't feel like I did as much. Yeah, you definitely did, though I think, yeah, you definitely put the training in. It's just. I think that's just the thing. You just feel like you haven't done enough for the enormity of the challenge. And then you have all the anxiety about making making sure that you're there, making sure you've got all the kit. You know this, this haha, cheap, cheap hobby, you know you just go out and run and then you buy your 120 pound trainers and, yeah, yeah, you know, 60 quids worth of gels, and your new belt and your new pants and your new leggings and your sunglasses, and it's yeah, it's just ridiculous, but we got there in time and I was like, well, just kind of like I knew that once we started I'd be absolutely fine.
Speaker 1:And so when we started, I ran with my sister for about three miles or so, but she was quite determined to to get, to get going and keep her pace. So she, she went off and I started my jeffing. I had my uh gym boss, which is I've got it's a timer, so I set it for four minutes and one minute and it just beeped at me the same, the one I use for hit and so it just beeped at me every four minutes and one minute. And so I ran for four minutes and I walked for one minute and I just carried on for the whole time and I made a, just gave myself that five minutes to walk, and I was having a gel or was having a salt tablet or I was just, you know, drinking water and drinking in the atmosphere. I just kept doing it and I was able to just really, most of the time, really enjoy it. That's really good, because I guess that timer going also gave you like small, I can do the next bit, yeah, then I can do the next one. I've only got a run for four minutes. Yeah, I can do that, yeah, and then I get to walk again and it was yeah, it was brilliant.
Speaker 1:And what it also stopped me from doing I decided I wasn't going to look at my pace, it was. It was really hot, so hot. Yeah, it was really hot. That said, I think that my cold water swimming has really helped with that, because I dealt with it really well. I was, you know, I was chucking water down my back, I was stuffing ice cubes down my sports bra and every now and again when they melted a little bit, they just dribbled right down. But it was, it was quite nice. I was running under the like. The showers were all out, um, the firemen were out with their hoses spraying everybody down and, yeah, and I was. I am beyond pleased.
Speaker 1:I took 10 minutes off my Brighton time. I actually thought I might take a bit more than that off. However, doesn't matter. Yeah, I took 10 minutes off it, but this one, in my mind it was like a different race. It was just absolutely incredible, but the atmosphere I can't even I like I I can, kind of, I can see it and I can still hear it in my head and I almost can't believe it because it was like a carnival for 26.2 miles. Yeah, it was insane, like the music, like people were hanging out of balconies, hanging out of windows, nice, and virtually no part of the course was quiet and I actually I was a bit worried, I thought it was going to be a bit overwhelming. However, as an extrovert, I just got the energy from that. It really it really drove me on like I didn't get. I didn't get annoyed that people were like shouting my name was. It was fun, I loved it. My name plastered across the front of me. I didn't get annoyed that I had to. I actually ran a kilometer longer because I was weaving like in and out of people because there were so many people. It was like a wreck. I am a record breaker as well. Did you know no, I did not know this a record breaker it was.
Speaker 1:They had, I think it was over 65 000 people across the line, which is the most amount of finishers for a marathon in England and Europe. Wow, that's a lot of people, isn't it? A lot of people. I can't even get my head around how this is even organised, like, where is the start line for 65,000 people? They were really organised so you've got three pens, three different color pens, basically all over black heath, so we were nowhere near so. Blue was actually over in the middle of black heath, and I think that that is where the main start line was.
Speaker 1:We were your waves, so we were red 13 I think. I think the the highest was 15. So for red, there were 15 waves. For blue, there were 15 waves. There was a pink, which was the people that were going to be longer than seven hours, so they had their own kind of group of people. So you had to say what you expected to the running time to be, and then they give you a start time in these, within these ways. Yeah, okay, yeah, and then just staggered them off, and it was incredible, and so my start time was 11 to 11 04, and we absolutely went off at that time.
Speaker 1:I mean, you were running in that peak weather though, weren't you? Yeah, right, 11 o'clock. Thanks very much. I honestly I think they should do one of the training runs we did last year was down at Lid, the Lid 20 mile, and they said if you were going to be longer than I don't know, I think it was three and a half hours or something like that. Then you got to start half an hour earlier, which was brilliant because, you know, because then we were I mean, I think we were still quite near the end, but it meant that they weren't waiting for many, many more hours for us to come back, and it was fun because you got all the fast runners that were released half an hour later all run past. You get to watch them as they were going.
Speaker 1:But no, it was incredible and looking around at everybody's T-shirts that were like almost everybody was running for charity or running in memory of somebody, and not just people, dogs, people with pictures of dogs on their backs, they were running in memory of their dogs and things. Yeah, did you see any crazy costumes? Oh my god, I don't know how people do that. It's hard enough as it is without being in a costume.
Speaker 1:In our, in our pen, there was a guy dressed up as a robot. He must have been so hot, that was just, and it was like full-on, you know, robot. There were the rhinos. Um, do you see big ben, someone's dressed as big ben, and then they couldn't get under the finish line gaintree. They crashed straight into it. Um, all sorts of things. A guy with a radiator on his back, a guy with a like a washing machine or a fridge or something on his back, wow, um, oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:One guy we'd noticed, I. He looked like he was carrying the big, hungry caterpillar on his back. It because it was red and green and it was obviously a, a big, heavy weight. He was a big, big dude. And then claire found him on facebook or somewhere he was running for I don't know if it was Mind, but it was for a mental health charity and basically it symbolized, like, the weight that people walk around, and I think the idea was that people carried it for a bit of time for him. So as he went round the marathon, people took it off of him and they carried it for a bit of time for him. So as he went round the marathon, people took it off of him and they carried it for a bit of time and it was just yeah, the whole story and the whole meaning of that was just incredible. It was something like 24 kilos. It was a big weight. That is insane. Do you know that he finished and everything? Yeah, yeah, he did good. Yeah, I think he finished at a similar time to me.
Speaker 1:To be honest, when you said Claire found him, I thought you were going to say found him, collapsed on the floor somewhere or something. But no, there were. So when you said about your two people, I think I'm jumping ahead now, I'm going to ruin next week's story now. But when you were talking about the two people in your head and looking for evidence of where it where it is that you're going to harm yourself, there was quite a lot of evidence of people that have passed out on the course. Oh, no, it was. There were a lot. Very, very, very hot people, very ill people, yeah, um, well, I mean, I say a lot. I think, percentage wise, it was probably a very small percentage, but, um, yeah, there was definitely that danger. But the atmosphere was insane.
Speaker 1:Running around Cutty Sark was the noisiest thing I have ever, ever heard. So that was the noisiest thing. And your husband doesn't even remember running around Cutty Sark Doesn't even remember. See, and this is what's so interesting is how different we are. So for me, I fed off that energy. Yeah, yeah, it kept me going. I was I was, for the first half of it was grinning like a village idiot. I just loved it. The second half, I was grinning inside. It was just very hard but I was still feeding off of that energy.
Speaker 1:For mark, it was the total opposite. If he could have I don't know run with a box on his head, I think he probably would have done. Maybe next time he could do that. He could dress up with some costume that had a box on his head and just disappear into it. He, yeah, he had his music on his cap down and it was. It was a lot for him and I think he did take his earphones out at one point and I think he put them back in again. It was just he. Yeah, he's the total opposite that. That that doesn't feed him at all. That completely repels him and he gets his, his energy like internally. Yeah, um, but yeah, it was, it's really interesting. And he didn't. He didn't like the fact they were. There were so many people, it was. You did have to weave in and out and people were just stopping in front of you and I think if you weren't in the right headspace. That would have been really annoying. Yeah, I can imagine.
Speaker 1:What did you learn about yourself? I can do hard things. You can do hard things. Yes, that was if that. I'd seen a sign quite early on that said I could do hard things. And at one point, when it was really feeling tough, um, I thought about the fact that I'd given birth three times. Yeah, that was really difficult, um, and I thought, yeah, if I can do that, I could do this. So think about what our family went through and you think we can do hard things. We can keep you know, we can keep going. That said, I don't want everyone to do it again. That's fair enough. You don't have to.
Speaker 1:I've got lots of challenges in my mind, yeah. However, that isn't one of them. I'm I'm really happy, yeah, that I've done those and I feel like I'm kind of finishing on a high. That's really good, and I think, yeah, you can have different challenges and it doesn't have to be running a marathon to prove that you can do hard things or that you, that you've got resilience. Yeah, that's what it's given you, isn't it? Yeah, I think you could. That's when you get your like your, your life force and your energy and your vitality are when you are striving to to do these hard things, and then afterwards, when you've done it and you're like, look what I can do. And yeah, it's part of our like humanness, yeah, I think so, to need these challenges and to overcome them. And yeah, and the and the funds on the other side, that's what they, what they often say we are, um, I don't know if I should say this out loud our next challenge potentially might involve the Sahara.
Speaker 1:Really, yeah, oh, my God, you have just said that out loud and it's recorded. I did say it out loud. I did mention it to Claire and Alex yesterday. What would that involve? So meningitis now, have just put it there, uh, fairly recently as their next challenge.
Speaker 1:So next march and I just get in, there is a challenge. It's like you're flying to africa and then we are, and then it's a nine hour. You're already there. I can tell you drive there's not, if we have looked into this, or it's a nine hour drive. At that point mark was like I'm out, um, and it's a two day trek across the sahara. So it's it'll be marathon distance, um, but it's over two days and it's a, it's a trek and so then you get to spend overnight in the sahara and uh, and then, and then come home again. Yeah, I think I'd be out with a nine hour drive as well.
Speaker 1:There was like there's definitely fear involved in that. I'm like there are so many things, it's not going to be a smooth road. Is it for nine hours? No, exactly. So I've spoken to somebody that has actually done it and she said that was the most nauseating bit. Yeah, absolutely. She said that was the most nauseating bit. Yeah, absolutely. She said you know, take, take sickness tablets, take everything that you've got, and I'm not even. I can't even work out how that I am already there, aren't I? I've been thinking about training already. I'm like how did we? Yeah, you're so doing this. I'm thinking like lots of saunas, it does this work? I'm gonna march, I'm down the sauna.
Speaker 1:As much as there's fear about, about the whole kind of logistics, almost of it, the excitement and the, the, the feeling alive and the challenge far outweighs that, so that there's definitely still another half iron man in me as well still think it should be called half iron. Goddess, does somebody want to start those up? Why does it have to be called man, yeah, no, why'd they have to coin that term? Iron person just doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it? I don't know. I have gone round and round in this. I I'm fairly resigned to iron man.
Speaker 1:It's such a massive organization and I just love. I love what it, I love what it does, I love what it enables people to do all around the world. But iron goddess, I'm really loving new brand. Yeah, let's get it started, let's do it. The iron goddess, yeah, yeah. Then do you think the men would join in? See, because the women happily join in to Iron man. Would the men then go run the Iron Goddess? I can't see why not. Why would they have an issue with that? I can't think If they did, that's their problem, right? That says everything about them, about them, and nothing about the actual event. Absolutely that's. It's so funny, is it?
Speaker 1:I was a guy outside, outside the co-op, the other day, and I noticed him because he was wearing a bright pink sweatshirt. I love bright pink, but you don't often see chaps wearing that color. No, grandad baker does, though, does he? He wears bright pink rocker, rocker, bright pink jumper. I love it. He is a dude, though. Yes, he is there we go.
Speaker 1:And I did say I said I am loving the pink and he said he said it takes a real man to wear pink. It does. Yes, yeah, it's so true. Yeah, he was also laughing at me because I got really cross because I was waiting for a space and the person came in behind me into the car park and drove round me. I was just sitting there trying to breathe and I didn't think anyone else could see me and so eventually he found himself a parking space because obviously him getting into the co-op for his Benson and Hedges was far more important than me getting in there for my bagels. But I didn't think anybody would see me.
Speaker 1:So my way to patiently and actually far better spot opened up right next to me and as I walked past the lovely guy with the pink sweatshirt he said he said that really annoyed you, didn't it? I was like, oh, you saw, that, did you? You probably, probably saw me saying all sorts of lovely things, I think in the, yeah, inside of my car. It's very annoying when those things happen, but you can deal with it. I just I could do hard things. I could do hard things. I just I'd breathe. He said I'd have been out of that car, I was like, no, I wasn't gonna do that he did. He definitely wasn't. He wasn't worth my energy and my time, not worth it. But yeah, I did not see that tangent coming. No, no, that was a tangent.
Speaker 1:Well, I really want to know what our listeners are doing to be far too fabulous, because I know we've got some really fabulous listeners, yeah. And so again, we want to see what you're doing in the Facebook group. Yes, please, and it can all be relative. So we've all got to start somewhere. So it could be a couch to 5K. It could be that you've just gone and found a class for whatever it is tap dancing, is it judo or karate? You do as well, karate, karate. So it could be. Yeah, it could be something like that. That's just going to take you out of your comfort zone, because that, like first walking into a class as an adult, is really scary, right, yeah, yeah, it is.
Speaker 1:And so you can do hard things. You can go and do. Go and find something that brings you joy and, uh, brings you joy. I'm talking about running marathon. That didn't bring me joy, that did not bring you joy, and, uh, brings you joy. I'm talking about running marathon. That didn't bring me joy, but it definitely it brought me a challenge. It brought me a really super duper medal that I keep wearing everywhere, as I need it as an excuse as to why I can't get up and downstairs, although I feel much, much better now. Uh, I've got a nice T-shirt. I've got lots of lovely pictures. It was.
Speaker 1:The overall experience was Was brilliant, absolutely incredible, and you got to witness, like me, how amazing your body is. Yeah, to do that. Yeah, and how, yeah, and all these other people that are overcoming all sorts of things, like people, were on crutches. There's a guy, ant, that I follow on Instagram. He managed to stay on my feed. I didn't get rid of him on my Instagram feed and he's had a stroke and so he can basically only run with one side of his body and so his the other leg is splinted up. Uh, he'd had an injury beforehand. He didn't think he was going to be able to do it and, yeah, and he did it.
Speaker 1:They were showed up, yeah, yeah, how he did 26.2 miles, I have no idea, no idea. And they were. Yeah, they were people of every single shape and size. There was one guy. It was a DJ. He was outside his flat, in wherever we ran around, I got totally lost. I had to look at the map afterwards just to work out where I'd been. So there was a guy on the like afterwards just to work out where I've been. Yeah, so there's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was going on on the microphone. They got speakers blaring and he was saying about how today we are all one, like we all run together. We are not, uh, we and there's no ethnicity. There's no ethnicity, there's no sexual orientation. There's none of that. We are like he said, we're not brothers, we're not sisters, we are just one and we just run as one. And you've all got this goal in mind. And it was just yeah, literally, it didn't matter if someone was in a tutu or wings.
Speaker 1:Or I saw the lady who's had the double mastectomy. Yeah, you were saying about that. So she runs topless and just had her shorts on, which was so inspirational. Yeah, it was just amazing. And I saw Joe Wicks and he is championing the running without a time, so not worrying about what time you did. Yeah, because it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:No, because we all get the same medal. I got the same medal as the person that won. Yes, and it's gold. There have been plenty of kids that have been wondering why we've got gold medals when we didn't come first. You need to post your medal in the facebook group. Yes, I do.
Speaker 1:I've got some nice. I've got all the professional photos back. Now I tell you what I'm looking at some people that have done the marathon before me. They know where those cameras are and there's that. There's great pictures of them with their arms up, like in front of tower bridge or big ben. The one of me in front of big ben. You can't see my face because I'm taking my own picture of me. Oh, how annoying. The phone is in the way of the cameraman.
Speaker 1:But uh, yeah, hey, I was gonna say you're no for next time, but you're not doing it again. So, no, no, no, I'm not, but you, you said when I I said this last, uh, last week, and you went oh, here we go. I said the only time that I would ever do this again would be when I had some more time and more money to throw at professional training and just see what that created, what you could do. Yeah, yeah, but no, no, I'm done and I'm very happy with my medal. Thank you very much, I'm gonna.
Speaker 1:I think I'll have to reinforce the uh, the medal stand in the gym now, because that thing's so heavy. I think it's gonna take it off the wall, especially with marks as well. That was another thing. I got to experience that with mark, and that was really special. Yeah, that was, that was quite bonkers. I was really pleased that I get to do that with him. We get to, we get to run and do hard stuff together. I don't think I'll get my husband doing gymnastics though, do you not? No, I think he'd be really good, do you not think? I think he look fine in leotard, I think.
Speaker 1:On that note, on that note, we'll leave that thought in your head, dear listeners, and we will continue this conversation in the facebook group. See you there. Thank you for keeping us company today. If you enjoyed the podcast, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. Your support helps us on our mission to reach a thousand women in our first year, so share with your friends and family. You might just change your life. Connect with us on social media and make your life easier by joining our podcast mailing list. You'll find the links in the show notes. Your weekly episode will be delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday morning. Make it a fabulous week and we'll catch you in the next episode.