Bryony Gordon on the 'mental clarity' running brings during her 10Ks in 10 Days Challenge

Virgin Radio

26 Apr 2022, 10:31

Bestselling author, podcaster and marathon runner Bryony Gordon is back with a brand new challenge, 10Ks in 10 Days, which is raising money for her Mental Health Mates charity. In fact, Bryony ran all the way to the Virgin Radio studios for her interview on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, and revealed how her relationship with exercise and running has completely changed her life. 

Bryony completed her fourth day of 10Ks with her journey to the Top of the Tower, but it wasn’t always so easy to get moving. 

She explained to Chris: “I was always terrified of [exercise]. You know, we have this British thing, don't we? At school it’s like, if you're not really good at it, you shouldn't do it, which is just rubbish. 

“Also as a woman, I always used to think it was about making myself smaller. And getting a smaller waist size. The moment I started exercising for the gains or not the losses, but like the mental clarity, was the moment that it transformed for me.”

It was the fear of judgement that used to scare Bryony out of exercising freely, but after kick-starting her own running journey, and setting up peer-support network Mental Health Mates, she realised nothing could hold her down. 

Bryony continued: “As a woman, your exercise was all about, I'll make myself you know, I lose weight. It was a punishing. And I'm like a size 18. I'm a larger lady. I love it, you know, and I don't care. I don't care that I'm not the fastest person in the world. I don't care.

“I used to think people would like laugh at me. You know, look at that fatty. It's just like, a high because also, we're all in our own heads. When we're running out. We were just doing it for our own reason.”

It’s that fearlessness that Bryony has carried over into other aspects of her life, particularly after being diagnosed as perimenopausal. 

Having been open about the life-changing diagnosis, and finding relief through HRT treatment, Bryony admitted she was keen to reverse the idea of perimenopause as something only older people can experience. 

She continued: “There's a lot of people that are in denial about ageing. So last week, Liam Gallagher, he needed a hip replacement, but he wasn't going to have one because, you know, that meant he was old. I told someone that I started taking HRT, and they're like: 'Isn't that what you take when you're really old?" And I'm like: 'No, it's what you take when you become perimenopausal,' which can happen in your late 30s. We don't talk about this stuff enough.

“We still carry the hangover of a couple of decades ago. Archaic research which linked HRT with cancer. But what I was told was that a lot of those studies were done on much older women in their 70s. So it's not really comparable to what happens and actually, the earlier into perimenopause that you get on HRT, the better. There's stuff out there that we can embrace and get back to being ourselves.”

Bryony’s 10Ks in 10 Days Challenge continues until Monday 2nd May, and you can find more details on fundraising here.

For more great interviews listen to  The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or  catch up on-demand here.