The days are longer, the evenings are warmer and sun holidays beckon. 'Tis the season to get in shape for the summer. It's time to Run, Fat Bitch, Run – not an insult, but rather a book title, and its energetic author, Ruth Field, joined Ray D'Arcy on Wednesday's show to share her experiences of pounding the pavements. Ruth has helped hundreds of thousands of people to channel their inner Linford Christie and she's on a mission to help us think of running as "just an ordinary thing to do rather than a big deal". It's no walk in the park though. Literally.
"It doesn't get easy and you may always hate it but it's what happens afterwards… it feeds into the rest of your life – that's what keeps you going back to do it again and again. It's for the discipline and the commitment and how productive you are everywhere else"
The book came about when Ruth was pregnant with her twins, now six, and on a sabbatical in France. Her husband had become something of a couch potato and Ruth was having none of it. What started out as a chronicle of his efforts to get moving soon became the book, and then the movement, but Ruth wasn't always such an avid exerciser. With zero experience or training, Ruth decided to enter a marathon and figure it out along the way, and the book shares the secrets of her success.
"Even as runners we still have those excuses going on in the background – I don't have time, I can't be bothered, I need to put a wash on… we're all like that, but you can still do it anyway."
Ruth relies on her alter ego, the Grit Doctor, her "ass-whipping task mistress", to get herself in gear and do what needs to be done.
"The Grit Doctor is really a voice that we all have. It's our sensible self that says, come on, do it, dont' be such a lazy git… rearrange the spice drawer!"
More about that in her book Get Your Sh*t Together. She knows how to pick a title.
Ruth certainly walks her talk, or rather, runs it. Writer, criminal barrister, mother, wife, she relies on a run as her "secret weapon" to get her through speeches in court, and it creates space for her to think about her writing. She's currently completing a master's in creative writing and working on her first novel.
If Ruth's contagious enthusiasm about the benefits of running isn't enough to inspire you to lace up those Nikes, there are the copious medical studies extolling the virtues of getting active.
"They're saying now that exercise is one of the most effective weapons against Alzheimers and all those forms of dementia. If people over sixty can just walk for half an hour every day, that will go a long way to warding off those kinds of illnesses."
So what are you waiting for? Run, Fat Bitch, Run.
For the full interview, click here.