Hike Life founder Roz Purcell braved wind and rain to launch the 40th Vhi Women's Mini Marathon earlier this morning on Killiney Hill. The first physical event since 2019 due to COVID, this year's run will take place on Sunday, June 5th in Dublin's city centre.
Although this will be her first year running as an ambassador, Purcell has participated in the run in previous years, and insists that it's an incredibly wholesome and social event.
"It was so nice because there were so many people walking with signs or t-shirts explaining why they were doing it," she explained. "It was a real feel-good event and I feel like it's the ultimate girl's day out. Groups of friends do it together and will come up to Dublin to do it."
Despite being a mini marathon, the Tipperary woman insists that there's nothing competitive about this day out. In fact, she says it's is as much about chatting with your fellow runners and walkers as it is crossing the finish line.
"I'd be quite competitive and love running, but I remember when I did it I was stopping to chat with people. There's so many amazing people along the way, it's such a social event."
"I've done a lot of sporting events and you get this rush," she adds, "it's a real excitement and everyone is behind you and there's a huge amount of adrenaline, whereas with the Vhi Women's Mini Marathon, it's almost more of a comradery. You're really involved in something. Everyone is so supportive of each other."
As an avid hiker and qualified personal trainer, it's easy to assume that Purcell could do a mini marathon in her sleep. However, the 31-year-old insists that she's taken a step back from her training over the pandemic, and will be preparing for the race with the help of the training plans.
"I think after lockdown, it made me realise that I was over training for a really long time," she explains. "I'll definitely be doing the training programmes with everyone else. I'm definitely not ready for a 10k right now, so I'll be working alongside everyone to make sure I get to the start line."
"The training plans are very doable, you start off by just walking so the programmes are not going to turn you off from doing that. It's a nice gradual build up to the event."
With 537k followers on Instagram alone, the former Miss Universe Ireland is often asked to work with various brands on collaborations. Luckily, she's in a position to be incredibly choosy about who she works with and says she turns 95% of her offers down.
"I want to work with brands like this. This is obviously such a great event for women to come together, it's a really nice thing, it's really Irish as well - it's been in Ireland for 40 years - and it's something I'm going to really love doing and training for."
"I know myself, I can't post about things I use myself otherwise I get this overwhelming sense of guilt," she laughs. "I have a lot of respect for my followers and I wouldn't post about something I wouldn't do myself."
For more information or to register go to www.vhiwomensminimarathon.ie
