Think you’re not a runner? Two years ago, Strava’s Chief Business Officer, Zipporah “Zip” Allen, didn’t think so either. Now, at 43, she’s a marathon runner. She never dreamed she’d become one. Here, she tells us: Women’s Health It depicts how he lets go of preconceived notions about being a runner and grows into his own person, one step at a time.
I wasn’t really interested in fitness. But I grew up dancing and ballet, and at one point I seriously thought dance would be my career. I was on the dance team in college, and as an adult, throughout my 20s and 30s, my fitness classes of choice were Pilates or yoga. Running was not in my repertoire.
Later, when I started working at Strava, I felt I needed to learn about the product and the community, and running seemed like the easiest way to get a deeper understanding of the app and how it actually worked for users.
I set a goal to run a half marathon. – Helped me decide to run regularly. It was hard. The first time I ran, it was just 2 miles around my house. how Do people literally do this? time?
At first, I was running too fast. Everyone told me to slow down, that I’d be able to run longer if I slowed down. It was trial and error. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know how to run, and I was so disheartened after just two miles when I was totally exhausted. Could I run 11 more races like this? Could I run for two hours straight? I was just so scared.
I got up to 13 miles and, to my surprise, found that I enjoyed running. I ran the half marathon I’d signed up for (a local one in Orange County, California, where I live) and I was just a smiling, annoying person the whole time. I just really enjoyed the experience. So I decided to keep running.
Eventually, I started looking forward to running and noticed that I felt much better the whole time when I ran in the morning. Mornings became my “active” meditation time – time for myself. I also started a moms’ running club. To be honest, there are only four of us, but it started out as just my friends and I, using it as a catch-up time.
Running a marathon was never on my bucket list. But I told myself, if I could run a half marathon, I could probably train for a full marathon, so I decided to just give it a go and see if I liked it. And, dear readers, I loved training for it.
But the actual day of the marathon was the toughest day of running I have ever experienced. The atmosphere was great, but it was a tough journey for me. Everything just didn’t work out. I started to get cramps at mile 8, which is pretty early. It was tough from the beginning. I wasn’t expecting that many people, so it was too much stimulation, and the NYC marathon doesn’t start until 9:30-10am. I did my training early in the morning, so it was too late for me. I also brought my family along, but my son was 4 at the time and I ended up carrying him because he was tired of walking around New York City the day before. So it was probably not a very smart day to prepare.
Mentally it was really tough, but I ended up finishing it and I plan on running the New York City Marathon again this year because I want to compete against myself.
Being a mother of two small kids (ages 8 and 5), I had to do all my training early in the morning. I have a big job and my meetings start at 8am after I drop my kids off at school. So the only time I can squeeze in training is in the morning before school or after they’ve gone to bed. But I only have 2-3 hours with my kids every day, so I want to get it done before they wake up.
Juggling marathon training with a full-time job Becoming a parent is a choice – You can’t have it all at once, but you can have it all. Sometimes I say no to friends or offer lunch instead of drinks. I also try to get my long run done on Friday morning so I can spend the weekend with my family. I wake up early on Friday morning to get my run done.
I’m really glad I started running so late. I feel stronger. I feel so much more confident as a woman in my 40s. I know I can do amazing things with my body. I had a child in my late 30s and I feel like I’ve found a new me that I really love. My body is so much stronger than I ever thought it could be, and it’s capable of amazing things. It’s so powerful to discover that.
I love that my daughter sees me running.and being active. My daughter is a football player, and now she asks me, “Mom, how can I run faster on the football field?” I tell her that to run faster, you have to run a lot. So now she’s started running and walking with me, which is great. I love that my kids can see me achieve something in the future.
5 things I wish I’d known before running a marathon
1. Don’t compare yourself to others. Don’t compare your stats on Strava. If you follow me on Strava, you’ll see that sometimes I run about 12 minutes per mile, and sometimes I run 9 minutes. My running speeds vary. It doesn’t matter how fast or slow I run.
2. Decide on a schedule or routine and stick to it. I run on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and then Saturdays or Sundays, which is especially helpful for moms with families and busy schedules, as it makes it easier to fit everything else around the family.
3. Invest in a good pair of running shoes. Go to a running store and get measured, not in the shoes your best friend wears. Buy for function, not fashion. I have stability shoes. I run in big stability shoes, and that’s what my body needs because of the way my feet land.
4. Don’t forget cross-training. It’s very important. Pilates is the only reason I can still run. I do it twice a week because otherwise my hips would literally stop me from running. And I continued to do yoga to stay flexible and stretchy. And I also did strength training to prevent injuries.
5. Increase your mental resilience. Before I started training for a marathon, I didn’t realize how much mental strength it would take. But I realized that my mental strength is so much stronger than it was 10 years ago: the strength to go all the way to the end, the strength to try something that might scare you, the strength to hold on when you’re running at your limit. And this is one of the areas that we as an industry haven’t invested in in terms of the data that shows women get stronger as they age. What happens when you hit menopause? Are you really going to get stronger? Are you going to get faster?
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