How To Keep Running Through Perimenopause and Menopause- My Story

One of my simple pleasures in life is reading, first thing in the morning, in bed with a cup of tea. I relish the peace and quiet, (apart from my little French bulldog snoring softly beside me). I love reading and will literally read anything, Substack is heaven for me, allowing me to dip in and out of so many different genres of articles so easily. Last week whilst I (we) were tucked up in the early hours, I read a Substack offering sage advice on “How to be a successful writer on Substack”, I made notes:

*Keep your story simple

*Plan out what it is that you want to say

*What do you, as the writer, really want to say? (apparently this is different)

And the article finished with “great stories are about survival, which often include trying and failing to control the world around us”.

I’ve thought about that last point one since. Do we, as readers, really want to read yet another great success story of how somone after years of struggling, of hanging on by their fingertips, surviving life… perimenopause, neurodiversity, childhood trauma, divorce, mid-life… I know for me, thanks to the clever algorithms, I sometimes feel overwhelmed with all of the above types of stories from such a wide variety of social media platforms, that I go a bit numb as “survival” stories vye for a bit of my attention.

Headlines seem to be getting more powerful, this week I was hooked in by a clickbait title, “Why a ‘feminist’ on OnlyFans plans to have sex with 1,000 men in a day.” What? Had I missed a memo from The Fawcett Society about feminism? I read on, I knew a bit about OnlyFans, the objective being that “creators”, aim is to turn followers into paying subscribers, but as the popularity of the site and the celebrity endorsements grew, the more extreme the creators had to become to make any significant money. The irony of the similarities between OnlyFans and Substack isn’t lost on me as I myself have recently turned on a paywall for my writing, hoping to turn followers into paying subscribers, when the pool of Substack is already awash with “real” writers.

But the comparison ends there, don’t worry, I’m not prepared to go to extreme lengths to stand out, but it did get me thinking about whether there was any point to share this week’s story when you might be thinking, oh god not another bloody story about menopause…

So I wasn’t going to share this week’s pre-planned Substack even though I’d collated all the latest research, re-looked at my own timeline in a new light, as I related my past running experiences with fresh information and the wonderful glory of hindsight. I thought why would anyone want to read about my “pity party”, no sorry, “my great story of survival, of trying and failing to control the world around me!”

But then two things happened:

1. A conversation with a fellow female runner this week, which ended with her saying “that’s your answer to everything!” when I suggested she might be in perimenopause. Have we become so saturated with menopause information that the minute someone mentions it we tune out?

2. I went for a run and thought to myself, how would the past 15 years of running have been if I’d been able to read about someone’s relatable experiences? If I’d had some practical and realistic information that could have really helped me, that gave me hope that the traditional approach of being an older runner going slower and ending up in the running club’s clubhouse washing dishes, didn’t have to be the only option available!

Back in May I wrote an article with lots of general information about menopause and running (see below), but I wasn’t yet ready to share my own story. Now, thanks in no small part to the safety of a paywall (thank you, paid subscribers!!), I feel fully able to share it in the hopes it might help someone else, and crucially, it might stop the thing I see all the time- women giving up running once they reach mid-life.

What You Need to Know About the Menopause and Running

It doesn’t need to be this way! So, in the first of this two part series, here it all is.