‘I ran my first marathon at 43 — it was so hard, but I can't wait to do it again’
Don’t consider yourself a runner? Well, just two years ago, neither did Zipporah ‘Zip’ Allen, Chief Business Officer at Strava. Now, age 43, she’s a marathoner – something she never dreamed she’d be. Here, she tells Women's Health how she’s shedding her preconceived ideas of what a runner looks like, and coming into her own, one stride at a time.
I was never really into ‘fitness’, but I did grow up dancing and doing ballet – at one point, I genuinely thought that dancing was going to be my career. I was on the dance team at university and, as an adult – through my 20s and 30s – my go-to fitness class of choice was either Pilates or yoga. Running was not in my repertoire.
Then, when I started at Strava (a fitness app which tracks your exercise), I knew I needed to learn about the product and the community, and running seemed like the easiest way to gain a better understanding of the app, and how it actually works for users.
I set myself the target of running a half marathon – to try and help me commit to running regularly. It was so hard. My first ever run was a two-mile loop around my house and I was just like, how do people do this for literally hours?
In the beginning, I ran too fast. Everybody told me I needed to slow down and said I’d be able to run for much longer if I slowed down. It was very much trial and error. I did not know what I was doing. I didn’t know how to run – and it felt so daunting when I was genuinely gassed after just two miles. I was like, how am I going run 11 more of these and how am I going run for a couple of hours straight? It just was so intimidating.
I worked my way up to 13 miles and, to my amazement, I found that I enjoyed running. I did the half marathon I’d signed up for – a local one in Orange County, California, where I live – and I was that annoying person smiling the whole way around. I just really enjoyed the experience. So I decided to keep on running.
Before long, I started to look forward to my runs and began to notice that I had way better days when I ran in the morning. It became my ‘active’ meditation time – time for myself. I also started a mum’s run club – well, truth be told, there’s only four of us – but it started with just my friend and I, and we used it as time to catch up.
Running a marathon was never on my bucket list. But I told myself that if I could run a half marathon, I could probably run and train for a whole one – so I just decided to try it and see whether or not I liked it. Reader, I loved the training.
The actual marathon day, however, was like the hardest day of running I’ve ever had. The atmosphere was electric, but my personal journey was really challenging. Nothing went right. I started cramping at mile eight – which is really early. From the word go, it was hard; I didn’t anticipate the number of people, it was overstimulating, and you don’t actually start the New York marathon until 9.30-10am – which was late for me as all my training had been done a lot earlier in the morning. Also, I had brought my family with me and my son, who was four at the time, had just had enough of walking around New York City the day before so I ended up carrying him – so that was probably not the wisest day before preparation.
Mentally it was such a challenge. But I ended up finishing it and now I’m going to run the NYC marathon again this year, because I’m competitive with myself.
Being a mum to two small children (aged eight and five) meant I needed to do all my training early in the morning. I have a big job, so I start my meetings at 8am, after I’ve dropped my kids off at school. So the only time I’m going to squeeze in any training is either in the morning before school or after bedtime. But as I only get two-to-three hours with my kids every day, I would rather get it done before they get up.
Balancing marathon training with a full-time job and being a parent is all about choices – you can have it all, just not all at the same time. There are times when I say no to my friends, or I suggest lunch instead of drinks. I also tried to get my long runs done on a Friday morning, so that I would have my weekends free to spend with my family. I would just get up super early on a Friday morning and get it done.
I’m really happy I started running later in life. I feel like I’m stronger. It's given me a lot of confidence as a woman in my 40s – it’s taught me my body can do amazing things. I had my kids in my late 30s, and I feel like I found this new version of myself that I really like. My body is so much stronger than I've ever thought it was – and it can do incredible things. There’s a lot of power in discovering that.
I love that my daughter can see me going running, and being active. She's a football player, and so now she’s started to she started asking me ‘mommy, how can I get faster on the football field?’ And I told her she’s got to run a lot of miles to get faster, so she’s started to come on runs with me, where we run walk. It's pretty cool. I love that my kids can see me achieving something later on in life.
5 things I wish I knew before running a marathon
1. Don’t compare yourself to everyone else. Don’t compare your stats on Strava. If you follow me on Strava, you’ll see I have runs that are around 12-minute miles and I have runs that are nine-minute miles. They vary. It doesn’t matter how fast or slow you run.
2. Get a schedule or routine and stick to it. I run on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and either a Saturday or Sunday. This is especially helpful if you’re a mum with a family and a busy schedule, it makes it easier to plan everything else around them.
3. Invest in a good pair of running shoes. Not the pair your best friend wears – go to a running store and get measured. You want to buy for function not fashion. I have a stability shoe – I run in the huge stability shoes, but that’s what my body needs based on how my foot strikes.
4. Don’t forget about cross-training. It’s so important. Pilates is the only reason I can still run. I did Pilates twice a week – otherwise, my hips literally couldn't do it. And then I kept up yoga for maintaining flexibility and stretching. And strength training for injury prevention.
5. Work on your mental resilience. Before training for a marathon, I didn’t realise how much mental fitness I’d need. I’ve found that my mental fitness is so much stronger than it was a decade ago. My ability to push through, my ability to try something that might be scary, my ability to hang on when I’m running at my threshold pace. And this is one of the areas where, as an industry, we have not invested in from a data perspective – on women getting stronger as we age. I wonder what’s going to happen when I hit menopause, am I actually going to be stronger? Faster, even?
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