Motivational Monday: Tina Muir, retired elite marathoner

tina-muir

This weekend, I stumbled across Tina Muir, an elite marathoner who ran a 2:36 in the London Marathon. I found her blog and fell into a deep rabbit hole, the kind where you simply can’t get enough. I was hooked. Here was this elite runner who wrote about her races and experiences with a refreshing sense of honesty. She wrote about her races, her journey with improving her nutrition, pre-race fueling, hydration, and on and on. She wrote about marathons where everyone congratulated her for an amazing time, but deep down, she wasn’t satisfied. She knew she could do better. Obviously, I’m not at her level, but I totally understood how she felt. It’s a feeling of guilt where you feel like you’re “supposed” to be happy with your time and performance, and thank others for their well wishes, but in your heart of hearts, you are angry that you didn’t accomplish what you set out to achieve. And if you told anyone else, they would think you’re just being too hard on yourself, or worse, that you’re ungrateful. So many of her blog posts gave me chills, goosebumps, and even tears (!) as she was recounting such raw emotions.

The thing that stuck out the most to me about Tina was her struggle with amenorrhea, a condition where she didn’t have a period for 9 years. (9 years! What?!) She ultimately decided to retire from running in April 2017, at the peak of her running career, to try to bring her period back and start a family. Wow! What a decision. I can only imagine what a difficult decision it was and what sort of emotional, vulnerable state she must have been in to “come out” like that. That earns total respect from me.

Luckily, her story does have a happy ending. She became pregnant and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Bailey in January 2018. Yayyy! This makes me so happy :)

I just cannot get enough of Tina Muir. I want to be just like her when I grow up 🤓 (although I think she’s a few months younger than me…) Such a bad-ass runner, with an amazing blog, training plans for the 5K, 10K, 1/2 marathon, and full marathon, and even a podcast. I’ve got to check out some of her podcast episodes.

Tina, if you are reading this, please know that I admire you. And want to run like you. And if you need a babysitter, I am here for you (although I am not very good with babies or children in general).

Who are your favorite elite runners? Which runners inspire you to run your best? Any athletes stand out to you as being exceptionally courageous?

2 thoughts on “Motivational Monday: Tina Muir, retired elite marathoner

    1. Tina! I definitely didn’t expect you to stumble back onto *my* blog! Ahhh! Thank you for taking the time to read and comment :) Your podcast is all set on my phone, ready for today’s afternoon run. I’ll let ya know what I think! And thank you for writing about your journey in such an authentic way. It’s really inspiring for me to learn what goes on behind the scenes for an elite runner from the preparation to the honest thoughts and feelings.

      Enjoy your well-deserved vacation! :)

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