In 1997 as I was approaching the finish line of the NYC Marathon, a bystander screamed at me, “You go! Lose that weight!” I think she thought it was encouraging. But I was so pissed that she inserted her anti-fatness into my experience. Anyway, I’ve gone on to run 5 more marathons. Most of them in a bigger body. Also slow AF. Love this interview! Ordering the book! Thanks for making us fat, slow runners feel SEEN and CELEBRATED!!!
Forgive me for being a dork, but this was a real fear about women’s running, not that long ago. (Not piles of uteruses but uteruses falling out.)
Joan Benoit Samuelson is an elite runner of my generation — just 6-7 years older than me. She ran in and won the marathon in the 1984 Olympics, which was the first year women were permitted to compete in the Olympic marathon — because of fears about women’s stamina for an endurance race, if not falling uteruses. When she was in high school, barely 10 years before this race, her coaches would not allow women students to run more than one mile because they feared their uteruses would fall out!
I know that it’s 50 years ago now, but I still find it striking. It means there are still plenty of folks around who either believe this or heard it growing up. Fortunately Joan and many others challenged it!
This is so fascinating and I’m so glad you shared it! I’m sorry we made fun of it without properly citing the history… but so grateful to Joan for fighting back at such absolute absurdity.
Oh, no need for apologies! It *is* funny. It’s funny that people seriously believed it then! I mean, uterine prolapse is a real thing that can happen but uteruses aren’t falling in the street!
If anything, physical activity is beneficial, especially if it strengthens the pelvic floor.
This interview resonated so much as a slow AF, larger woman runner and coach. The thing that made the biggest difference for me and kept me running was that my neighborhood running club has a "lasty" group that starts group runs about half an hour before everyone else. So few other clubs do, and it's really demoralizing (and sometimes scary) to get halfway through a route and realize that, despite heading out with people, you're now alone. Glad for the work Martinus is doing to shine a light and improve the sport.
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate and love this interview. I come at this topic with some EXTREMELY negative, anti-running feels, after I spent all four years of high school punishing myself by running on the track team, thinking if I just did it long enough, hard enough, right enough, it would eventually feel good; and if it didn't, then I deserved it. That's where I left running, twenty years ago, and I have blamed running for those bad feels ever since. So I was, like, not super hardcore here for this one, at the outset. But OMG this was such a validating and exciting and galvanizing interview!! It honestly, like, even just reading this healed me so much.
I don't think I will ever like running and that's okay. I really like the spirit and the point and the attitude of this person and this interview and I am here for literally all of it. I am so absolutely here for just knocking down the reverence and superiority we assign to specific pursuits like running - a parade!! I would so so so much rather go be in a parade, even a running parade, than "run a marathon."
This interview is so much fun -- even though I loathe running. Loathe it. There is no weight or fitness level at which running does not suck for me.
Also, solidarity with everyone who has ever fallen off a treadmill. In my case, it was before I had ankle surgery and my ankle just buckled and what I discovered was that in the sitcoms, the person who falls off the treadmill just goes shooting comically off the back. What happened in my case was that I fell down onto the belt and was helplessly getting the skin stripped off my legs until my friend on the next treadmill managed to grab the emergency stop. Do I clip the emergency stop to myself when on a treadmill since? I do not. But in any case I had the ankle surgery so it doesn't buckle anymore and I only use the treadmill for walking -- I have a desk attachment and there are certain kinds of work I can do while walking three miles an hour uphill, and while I hate to run I really like to walk.
What a delightful interview! Piles of uteruses! You’re a fat baby who can’t walk! Hahaha! Martinus makes me almost want to try running again even though I hate it. I mean, I tried Couch to 5k TWICE and both times quit in week 6 (of 9) even though I was making obvious progress, because I just hated it so much. But I can apply his outlook to other physical activities that I enjoy more.
Also thank you both so much for calling out that “when they go low, you go high” approach to bullying. Sometimes you have to go low! I would have been much happier as a young person if I’d allowed myself to do this.
Marvelous pod‼️ covers the waterfront: fat bias intersects with so many biases: race, gender, ableism. I laughed. I got enraged over the garbage bags. I finished feeling Joy @being on planet with you two. I’m going to be revisiting this one. And I sent it to 10 people.🔥
I loved this interview so much! Funny and infuriating and poignant and inspiring. I am just getting back in to running (now in my 50's) and am learning that the secret of doing this goal oriented activity with enjoyment and success is... to let go of my death grip on the goals. Striving for a certain pace makes me miserable and nets me only like 2 seconds faster than my usual leisurely pace, for instance. More is not always better, is another. The real goal is to feel exhilarated and capable and not fall on my face. One thing I loved about the last event I participated in was really see that you can't judge a running body by how it "looks;" you never know what kind of day someone is going to have.
Now I make time for the stretching and strengthening that goes along with the running (stuff I used to blow off in the old days because it didn't burn enough calories etc). As a peri menopausal woman, the uterus-falling-out jokes just hit me differently!
This is brilliant. It speaks to so many things that are a part of this space in such a fun and loving way. I had read about Martinus in the NY Times but that was a glossy puff piece in light of this. Here, so much of Martinus’s personality came through.
+1 for Black Girl Sunscreen. It’s one of my favorite sunscreens. (I’m a little obsessed with sunscreens these days.) I especially like BG Kids sunscreen. It’s super moisturizing, leaves no white cast on any complexion, and it’s about half the price of their fancy lady sunscreens. You can find it at Target!
In my small fat days I would go out dancing every Thursday night and have a great time. I didn’t know any of the people, and I didn’t care what they thought. Now in my very large fat days I am almost afraid to move. I need to reclaim my joy.
In 1997 as I was approaching the finish line of the NYC Marathon, a bystander screamed at me, “You go! Lose that weight!” I think she thought it was encouraging. But I was so pissed that she inserted her anti-fatness into my experience. Anyway, I’ve gone on to run 5 more marathons. Most of them in a bigger body. Also slow AF. Love this interview! Ordering the book! Thanks for making us fat, slow runners feel SEEN and CELEBRATED!!!
I laughed out loud several times during this interview. UTERUSES EVERYWHERE
I laugh every time I remember this.
Forgive me for being a dork, but this was a real fear about women’s running, not that long ago. (Not piles of uteruses but uteruses falling out.)
Joan Benoit Samuelson is an elite runner of my generation — just 6-7 years older than me. She ran in and won the marathon in the 1984 Olympics, which was the first year women were permitted to compete in the Olympic marathon — because of fears about women’s stamina for an endurance race, if not falling uteruses. When she was in high school, barely 10 years before this race, her coaches would not allow women students to run more than one mile because they feared their uteruses would fall out!
I know that it’s 50 years ago now, but I still find it striking. It means there are still plenty of folks around who either believe this or heard it growing up. Fortunately Joan and many others challenged it!
This is so fascinating and I’m so glad you shared it! I’m sorry we made fun of it without properly citing the history… but so grateful to Joan for fighting back at such absolute absurdity.
Oh, no need for apologies! It *is* funny. It’s funny that people seriously believed it then! I mean, uterine prolapse is a real thing that can happen but uteruses aren’t falling in the street!
If anything, physical activity is beneficial, especially if it strengthens the pelvic floor.
Absolutely! Thanks for shining light on more of the historical context!
This interview resonated so much as a slow AF, larger woman runner and coach. The thing that made the biggest difference for me and kept me running was that my neighborhood running club has a "lasty" group that starts group runs about half an hour before everyone else. So few other clubs do, and it's really demoralizing (and sometimes scary) to get halfway through a route and realize that, despite heading out with people, you're now alone. Glad for the work Martinus is doing to shine a light and improve the sport.
LASTY GROUP. Love this! The mean girl gym class vibes in these running groups that don’t consider this!!
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate and love this interview. I come at this topic with some EXTREMELY negative, anti-running feels, after I spent all four years of high school punishing myself by running on the track team, thinking if I just did it long enough, hard enough, right enough, it would eventually feel good; and if it didn't, then I deserved it. That's where I left running, twenty years ago, and I have blamed running for those bad feels ever since. So I was, like, not super hardcore here for this one, at the outset. But OMG this was such a validating and exciting and galvanizing interview!! It honestly, like, even just reading this healed me so much.
I don't think I will ever like running and that's okay. I really like the spirit and the point and the attitude of this person and this interview and I am here for literally all of it. I am so absolutely here for just knocking down the reverence and superiority we assign to specific pursuits like running - a parade!! I would so so so much rather go be in a parade, even a running parade, than "run a marathon."
Yes yes yes!
Everything in this was amazing....fun, and educating. Thank you
This interview is so much fun -- even though I loathe running. Loathe it. There is no weight or fitness level at which running does not suck for me.
Also, solidarity with everyone who has ever fallen off a treadmill. In my case, it was before I had ankle surgery and my ankle just buckled and what I discovered was that in the sitcoms, the person who falls off the treadmill just goes shooting comically off the back. What happened in my case was that I fell down onto the belt and was helplessly getting the skin stripped off my legs until my friend on the next treadmill managed to grab the emergency stop. Do I clip the emergency stop to myself when on a treadmill since? I do not. But in any case I had the ankle surgery so it doesn't buckle anymore and I only use the treadmill for walking -- I have a desk attachment and there are certain kinds of work I can do while walking three miles an hour uphill, and while I hate to run I really like to walk.
What a delightful interview! Piles of uteruses! You’re a fat baby who can’t walk! Hahaha! Martinus makes me almost want to try running again even though I hate it. I mean, I tried Couch to 5k TWICE and both times quit in week 6 (of 9) even though I was making obvious progress, because I just hated it so much. But I can apply his outlook to other physical activities that I enjoy more.
Also thank you both so much for calling out that “when they go low, you go high” approach to bullying. Sometimes you have to go low! I would have been much happier as a young person if I’d allowed myself to do this.
Marvelous pod‼️ covers the waterfront: fat bias intersects with so many biases: race, gender, ableism. I laughed. I got enraged over the garbage bags. I finished feeling Joy @being on planet with you two. I’m going to be revisiting this one. And I sent it to 10 people.🔥
You’re the best! 💜
I loved this interview so much! Funny and infuriating and poignant and inspiring. I am just getting back in to running (now in my 50's) and am learning that the secret of doing this goal oriented activity with enjoyment and success is... to let go of my death grip on the goals. Striving for a certain pace makes me miserable and nets me only like 2 seconds faster than my usual leisurely pace, for instance. More is not always better, is another. The real goal is to feel exhilarated and capable and not fall on my face. One thing I loved about the last event I participated in was really see that you can't judge a running body by how it "looks;" you never know what kind of day someone is going to have.
Now I make time for the stretching and strengthening that goes along with the running (stuff I used to blow off in the old days because it didn't burn enough calories etc). As a peri menopausal woman, the uterus-falling-out jokes just hit me differently!
This is brilliant. It speaks to so many things that are a part of this space in such a fun and loving way. I had read about Martinus in the NY Times but that was a glossy puff piece in light of this. Here, so much of Martinus’s personality came through.
Ah, appreciate that!
Love the cursing and the laughing. Also, you know, the meaningful content.
We have layers! 😂
+1 for Black Girl Sunscreen. It’s one of my favorite sunscreens. (I’m a little obsessed with sunscreens these days.) I especially like BG Kids sunscreen. It’s super moisturizing, leaves no white cast on any complexion, and it’s about half the price of their fancy lady sunscreens. You can find it at Target!
So glad you gave the nudge to listen to this! I go back and forth between reading and listening, and this was a great listen!
I second the rec for Black Girl Sunscreen. I use the kid’s version SPF 50. It feels good on the skin and it works.
In my small fat days I would go out dancing every Thursday night and have a great time. I didn’t know any of the people, and I didn’t care what they thought. Now in my very large fat days I am almost afraid to move. I need to reclaim my joy.
You so deserve to reclaim that! And please know we'll all be rooting for you.
I'm not a runner or much of an exerciser, but I loved this interview!