Ep #309: The Fat Runner Manifesto - Not Your Average Runner

What are some of your default thoughts about yourself as a fat runner? Are they serving you?

A huge part of my mission is to counteract misogyny, patriarchy, and anti-fat bias that exist in our entire society, especially in our fitness spaces. That’s why I created the Fat Runner Manifesto: a 10-point distillation of my thoughts about being a fat female runner in a patriarchal and fatphobic world.

Listen in this week as I offer new thoughts to consider about running, your body, and your right to take up space in this world without apology. My goal is for you to see that these thoughts can be true for you, and I invite you to keep practicing them until you can create a space within your mind where you are respected, loved, and treated with compassion.

If you could guarantee your success in training for a half marathon by doing just one thing, would you do it? Well, I have just the thing and it’s called Run Your Best Life. This is the training program where you’ll have multiple coaches, a fantastic community, and endless resources to support you along the way. Run Your Best Life is now open to all women who want to get running, so hop on in!

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

Why I created the Fat Runner Manifesto.
10 points from my Fat Runner Manifesto.
How repetition is key to beginning to implement and believe new thoughts.

Listen to the Full Episode:

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Full Episode Transcript:

Welcome to The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. If you’ve never felt athletic but you still dream about becoming a runner, you are in the right place. I’m Jill Angie, your fat running coach. I help fat women over 40 to start running, feel confident, and change their lives. I have worked with thousands of women to help them achieve their running goals and now I want to help you.

Hey, hey, runners. So this episode has been a long time coming and I’m finally doing it today. We are going to dive into The Fat Runner Manifesto. And I created this a few months ago but haven’t really talked about it much because of ADHD and life. But I decided now is the time, today is the time.

And the reason I made this manifesto is because I wanted to distill my thoughts about being a fat female runner in a patriarchal and fat phobic world into a few bullet points. I love bullet points. They’re so simple, so easy to remember, so easy to teach from. It’s basically me giving you some new thoughts to think about your body, about your running, and about your right to take up space in this world without apology.

I am doing my level best to counteract the misogyny, patriarchy and anti-fat bias that exists in our fitness spaces, but also in our entire society. And with this manifesto I want you to know that all of these thoughts are available to you. All of these things can be true for you.

It might seem awkward at first to think this way, especially if you haven’t been following me for a while. And you might be like, well, yeah, it would be nice to think that way but you don’t know my life circumstances, Jill. And you’re right, I don’t, but I do know that while you can’t control other people’s actions and beliefs, you can for damn sure create a space within your own mind where you are respected, loved and treated with compassion.

Now, today’s episode is going to be short because I want you to come back and listen to it a few times. Seriously, when it’s over play it again right away. See if it hits different, see if you notice anything different. And, you know, it takes time to absorb new ways of thinking, repetition is the key to that. So I really do want you to play this episode a few times, maybe even every day.

So, without further ado here is the fat runner’s manifesto. Number one, if I run I am a runner. Number two, if I run and I have a body I have a runner’s body. Number three, all forms of running, including run/walk, are valid. There is no right way to do it, just the way that works best for me.

Number four, pace and finish times are just circumstances and have no meaning or value until I have thoughts about them. A 20 minute mile is the same length as a 10 minute mile. My body is not something to hide, all bodies deserve to run in clothing that fits and feels comfortable.

As a fat runner, I am not required to be polite to others who comment on my body, my health or my athletic performance without permission. In addition, a bold and or sarcastic rebuttal is always an appropriate way of stating my position on this matter. Number seven, compliance with a training plan does not indicate moral value or worthiness. And skipping a training run does not mean that I am lazy or undisciplined.

Number eight, when fat runners run in public we show other people that running is for bodies of all shapes and sizes. Number nine, fat runners deserve to love ourselves as is. We do not need to lose weight to feel worthy or be accepted. And number ten, the word fat is not intrinsically a negative word, it is simply descriptive. The identification of this word as negative or being associated with lesser personal value is based on societal conditioning and not fact.

All right, I’m just going to let that land, let you think it over. And I would love to know what your favorite part of the manifesto was. You can go ahead and post that on Instagram or even on the Threads app, I’m obsessed with that now. Make sure to tag me. And also, I love you, stay safe and get your ass out there and run. I’ll talk to you next week.

Real quick, before you go, if you enjoyed this episode, you have to check out Run Your Best Life. It’s my monthly coaching program where you will learn exactly how to start running, stick with it, and become the runner you have always wanted to be. Head on over to runyourbestlife.com to join. I would love to be a part of your journey.