We also talk about how to overcome barriers to moving your body and why every body is a runner.

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Summer:
This episode of eat the rules is brought to you by you on fire you on fire is the online group coaching program that I run that gives you a step by step way of building up your self worth beyond your appearance. With personalized coaching from me incredible community support and lifetime access to the program so that you can get free from body shame and live life on your own terms. Get details on what’s included and sign up for the next cycle at summer innanen.com forward slash you on fire. I’d love to have you in that group. This is eat the rules, a podcast about body image self worth, anti dieting and intersectional feminism. I am your host summer Innanen. a professionally trained coach specializing in body image self worth and confidence and the best selling author of body image remix. If you’re ready to break free of societal standards and stop living behind the number on your scale, then you have come to the right place. Welcome to the show.

This is episode 267. And I’m joined by Martinez Evans, author of slow AF Run Club, creator of the slow AF Run Club and the man behind the page 300 pounds and running. We’re talking about how Martinez ran his first marathon after his doctor told him to either lose weight or die. And just to give you a little bit of a spoiler, he didn’t actually lose weight. We talked about his relationship with his body and movement and how running helped revolutionize his perspective and view of himself. We talked about how to overcome barriers to moving your body and why every body is a runner. You can find the links mentioned that summer innanen.com forward slash 267 I want to give a shout out to Maddie l 99. Who left this review summer makes you feel great about being you fantastic podcasts. I only listened to summers podcasts in the morning when I’m doing my makeup. She makes me feel like I can face anything. I have recommended this to so many of my friends. Thank you so much money. It’s always so nice to hear that you recommend it to other people. I really really appreciate that. You can leave a review for the podcast by going to Apple podcasts search for eat the rules click ratings and reviews click to leave a review. Don’t forget to grab the free guides that I have. If you want support feeling better in your body get the free 10 Day body confidence makeover at summer Innanen COMM forward slash freebies and if you are a provider or another type of professional who works with people or students who may have body image struggles, get the free body image coaching roadmap at summer Innanen COMM forward slash roadmap I’ve been following Martinez online for a couple of years now. And I’ve always just really love his energy and how he promotes the idea that you know anybody is everybody is a runner and everybody is worthy of taking up space and being an athlete and how he makes it really accessible to everyone. And so I’m super excited to have him on the show today. Martinez Evans has run over eight marathons since his doctor told him to lose weight or die in July 2012. Since then, he’s also coached hundreds of runners and founded the slow AF Run Club, a community of over 10,000 members worldwide. He is also the author of the book slowly f1 Club, the ultimate guide for anybody who wants to run when he’s not running races around the world. He enjoys speaking passionately about issues related to size inclusivity mindset D AI and mental health. Let’s get started with the show. Hello, Martinez, welcome to the show.

Martinus:
Thank you for having me.

Summer:
I’m so excited to have you here. I was saying we haven’t had a man actually no, you know what I did have a show this season. But he wasn’t talking about his own relationship with his body or anything like that, or his own relationship with movement. So we haven’t had someone on to really share, you know, their lived experience in quite a while from that from the male perspective. So I’m super excited to have you here. And especially because your book is coming out which we are very, very excited about. And I’d love for you to start off just by telling listeners, like why did you decide to run a marathon?

Martinus:
Oh, man. It’s a little bit more complicated than me being like, well, you notice woke up one day team took a step further back in 2012. I was working at Men’s Wearhouse at the time, so I was on my feet eight to 12 hours a day and hard bottom shoes were in suits, right? And I started to develop some hip pain and I’m gonna go see a doctor. And I never met this doctor a day in my life. It’s my first time you In this doctor, and he was telling me and I was talking about, you know, I’m having some hip pain, yada, yada, yada. And he’s like, okay, and I was, I know what’s wrong with you? Okay, what’s wrong with me? He was like, You’re fat, you either need to lose weight or die. And I was like, What? What? For a second, it didn’t, it didn’t catch on for a second. So I was like, so what I gotta do on my head? Oh, you’re trying to insult me. So then, you know, we have this argument is debate because he went on, like, you know, you got to stomach as pregnant women, all this other stuff, you need to start walking and blah, blah, blah, and yada, yada, yada. And I remember him being like, well, what does any of that have to do with my hip? And then, you know, he continued to go on finger thumb in thumbing his nose pointing, hammering around marijuana. And I remember being like, you know, if I want to talk and run a marathon, and he laughed at me, and told me, that’s the most dumbest thing he heard in all his years of practicing medicine. And I was like, Screw this, screw you. And I left. And on my way home, I drove past a running shoe store, and I bought running shoes. And that was like the start of my journey.

Summer:
Wow. Wow. Did you have any desire to run before that?

Martinus:
Absolutely. Not.

You know, despite it was born out of spite, you know, I was a weekend warrior. So the Men’s Wearhouse is big into like black football. So we play it back football almost once a every weekend. But a lot of times throughout the time I was working. So I played flag football. I played basketball with friends and things of that sort. Like I was relatively active. Right, but like, running for fun. That was a punishment when I played football.

Summer:
Yeah, yeah. Like, when you are training for the marathon? Were there points in time where you’re like, What? What am I? Why did I? Why didn’t I choose a different sport? Why did I pick this thing?

Martinus:
There were times when I was like, dang. Like, why you can say like, I’ll swim or bike or something else underwater basket weave like you chose running? And I was like, Yep, I was running.

Summer:
Yeah, but you did it. And it’s amazing. We just had a marathon go by our city, like, pretty close to my house recently. And I was just like, I could never do that. i After reading your book, I’m like, maybe I could buy your book actually, like makes you believe? Like, I mean, that’s what’s so great about it is that it’s so motivational and encouraging. What was your relationship with like, with fitness before? Like, when you were, you know, when you were growing up? Like, was it something that you were into? Or was this kind of like a catalyst that really propelled you to like kind of focusing more on it as like a pursuit?

Martinus:
I love hate relationship with fitness. You know, so I grew up as a low fat boy, who was teased and bullied until it was able to be a commodity. So you know, I was teased and bullied until I started playing football in my junior year in high school. So at that point, I became, you know, I became one of the cool kids because I was on the team. And, you know, my body was able to be a commodity for the sport of football. And like, everybody enjoyed it and loved it. But before that, like it was it was crazy, right? Like, I’ve done tons of things to try to make myself fit in. Like, I grew up, like, I grew up with Manboobs. Like, even one of my, my experiences of, like, when I first found out I was fat had to do with like me having manboobs at a younger at a younger age.

Summer:
Yeah, yeah. How has your relationship with your body changed over time?

Martinus:
It was one of those things where you have to learn to love throughout therapy, and just understanding the change of focus, right? I really think that like, for me, when I really went from like, potentially trying to, like, change my body to being like, you know, what, I want to run and be active, regardless of what size or shape I am like that was made me more happier than trying to change my body. And like, once I did that, like everything just kind of flipped the switch. Like I went from that to like, posing nude and men’s health. So it’s, it’s amazing journey.

Summer:
Yeah. Wow. That’s, that’s like a really pivotal kind of mindset shift to then have that translate over into how you, you know, see yourself as a whole. Absolutely. So you mentioned men’s health care. What do you think about the pressure that men face as it relates to their body and their appearance?

Martinus:
Summer Have you ever seen a fat superhero? Have you ever seen a fat like you No GI Joe with a kung fu grip, no fat man or spider man or any other superhero or toys that boys play with?

Summer:
No. And I have a little boy so no, I have not. And oh, yeah,

Martinus:
oh, well is there you know, it’s in our toys. It’s in ingrained, like what the messages they send to boys, it’s there. There’s no way of getting around it. And I experienced that as well. Do you see see

Summer:
it getting worse, like I observe it, like the kind of standard for men becoming almost like worse, like more muscular, more, like shredded, so to speak, than it may be was like 10/20 years ago,

Martinus:
I will say with the advent of the Marvel movies, like all of the MCU stuff, where like superheroes really became like, the mainstream thing that we consumed. Any Marvel movie or just any movie, like, the press is like, Oh, look at you know, such and such body like follows such and such training body because it gets this jet to be become Thor, whoever, whoever, right. So I think that it’s always been there. But I think that with the advent of like, most of our modern media being like, you know, things that we watched being like the superhero movies and things of that sort that’s been the most successful. It’s there, right? I think about when creed three came out, it was a crazy three, one decrease, right when, you know, they have over the actors being like, look at their workouts, like look how they transform their body to do XY and Z and yatta yatta yatta is there?

Summer:
Yeah. And oftentimes, it’s like, extraordinarily disordered, and it but I find when they talk about it as it relates to men, it’s more like normalized. And so I mean, it is well with women or any gender, I should say. But like, it’s, it seems it kind of goes under the radar of being labeled disordered, you know what I mean? It’s like, oh, they’re biohacking or oh, they’re just like, you know, like building muscle. But a lot of times the behaviors are the same, like disordered patterns that you see across all genders. Absolutely. Yeah. So I want to talk to you about your book like what inspired you to write slow a F? Do you want me to do you see the word like, what’s the best way to do it? Do you just do you just see you say F.

Martinus:
Slowly, might be key to a ATF ambiguous, you know, never know when this they might come around and be like, hey, we want to buy your turtle or whoever. So, you know, I try to keep it. I try to keep it a little PDS thing, but we all know what a yummy but the reason why I wrote this book, so my world revolves around slowly Efrain club. So I have a club. We have about 10,000 members worldwide. I’m wearing this merch, you know, wonderful hoodie. Everything I do. Everything in my life revolves around slow Efrain club. So as I was training our members, both on a one on one and group basis, a lot of members asked me, Hey, Martinez, are there any books that you recommend that we read? Or like? Are there any books that we can learn how to be more of a better runner, yada, yada, yada? And most of the time, my answer was no, because most running books are written by what most how to running books are written by elite athletes, you know, or formerly athletes, or coaches of elite athletes telling you how to run fast like there. And for the majority of the population, that information is useless, you know, that information is just split out useless, right. And I remember when I came, became a certified run coach, and they gave me this book called, I think it’s called the Daniels book on running Jack Daniels running and it’s, you know, beat out to, you know, very scientific, very dry, very formulaic, these are the things you need to do very rigid, you know, was not any accessibility. And I remember getting my certification and then being like, this is the Bible, like you’re running Bible, everything you need to learn about running is in his book. So imagine, you know, trying to train your first person, and their pace is not in the pace chart in the back of the book, you know, how does it How does it really equip you to be a runcoach? Right. And one of the things are other things I learned about is that, like I said, most of the information there was not tailored to the individuals that I coach, for example, like they need information of like, hey, summer, you finna go run for the first time. Don’t wear cotton underwear. Don’t work on anything because you’re gonna be shaved shaved. musters gonna get you are like, Hey, you think you know you’re gonna miss a meal or like not eat before you go run? Let me tell you a time where I did that. And I ended up on the side of the road and I had to call my wife to come get me. So don’t do that. Right. So, you know, there is not a book out there that provide these types of things. Do this, or like, let’s come together, let’s go on this journey together. Everything is very formulaic. And like, do this not that type of thing.

Summer:
Yeah. And one of the things that you cover first in your book is mindset. And you talk about how that is really, that really needs to be, you know, a priority. I’m assuming most of that kind of like mainstream books, perhaps don’t cover that. I don’t know, I would never read a mainstream running book. But why did you prioritize that? Like, why? Why did you? Why did Why do you feel mindset so important,

Martinus:
because a lot of the individuals that I work with, one of the things I have to do as a coach is provide psychological safety, so that they, they’re able to feel whatever they’re feeling so they can get to the next step. Most of these books, most of these coaches don’t do that. But that’s what we’re doing providing psychological safety. So it only makes sense for me in my mind, that if I’m training people, and I’m coaching people, and the first thing that we’re doing is mindset, right off rip, you know, trying to get them to understand that, yes, you are a runner. And yes, you belong, and you may have some horrible experiences back in the day, but today, it’s gonna be different. If I if I, if that’s what I do in my everyday life, when the first time I meet somebody to train them, it only made sense for me to organize that book in the same way that I like train somebody.

Summer:
Mm hmm. So you said something there that I think really resonated with me personally, is that like, you know, if someone thinks like, Well, I’m not a runner, which is something that I’ve always said, because I was always dead last, growing up, like literally dead last to the point that I just started to embrace it and walk the whole thing, because that was less painful for me than to try and be lost. So I’ve never identified with being a runner, and yet, I do usually try to kind of go for a jog like once a week. But tell me about like, why, you know, it’s okay to say like, well, you are a runner, like, because

Martinus:
you are like, runner doesn’t mean he’s the act like a person running, right? So every any, and everybody can call themself as a runner. Like, if you get up and you started running, like in the definition. So I think that’s the thing. And I think the other thing is just really getting people to take ownership in their body, and and the things that they’re going to do. So it’s one thing to be like, Oh, you’re just a person trying to run such a such, no, you are a runner, you are an athlete. So I need you to get in the athlete mindset, so that you know that there’s going to be obstacles in the way in order to get to your goals, and you need to crush those obstacles, period.

Summer:
Yeah, I think so many of us struggle with those identifications, because they’ve always been associated with a particular archetype, like whether it’s looking a certain way or performing at a certain level. And so even like the word athlete, even though like I do athletic endeavors, I still would never like use that word I’m trying to because you’re not, you’re not the only person who’s kind of said this to me, but trying to kind of like, you know, embrace that identity, just because it means you’re just participating in something, it doesn’t mean you you look a particular way or you perform a particular way. But it’s so hard.

Martinus:
You know, calling yourself an athlete calling yourself a runner means that you’re in, you’re in the arena. Yeah. So if you are in the arena, you got to do things that that solidify that you are in the arena. So getting people to really understand that to help put that switch on and provide them that psychological safety to say like, Hey, one of the things that athletes do is become consistent in their training. The way to do that is to overcome the boredom that comes with consistency. Nobody ever told me that become doing things consistently. isn’t boring, but it is. And I wish that if we were real with it to say that sometimes is doing the boring unsexy stuff that actually gets us to our goals. That actually gets us to be onstage on a podium, put our hands up yatta yatta yatta. So by becoming an athlete and thinking yourself as an athlete, you then know that there’s going to be consistency, there’s going to be hardship, there’s gonna be things that you’re gonna have to overcome and you will overcome those because you are athlete and you know that You’ve already done something harder in the past that you can look at. So you can then go forward and keep going. I love that.

Summer:
So are you saying that like to embrace the boredom of consistency? Or are there ways to make that consistency less boring?

Martinus:
No, you just gotta embrace it. Okay, you know, we can try different tricks and habits and things of that sort, but like, consistency, some in my head equals boredom. Yeah. You know, like doing the same thing over and over again. Like, that’s how you become proficient at something. And somebody might see that and like, dang, you’re running 20 miles today? What are you thinking? Nothing? Or like, what are you thinking? Like, how do you go through this? Like, Aren’t you bored? And my answer is, well, this is the thing that I have to do. In order to run a marathon, I got to run 20 miles, like, there’s no way to get around it. So if I’m bored, if I’m talking to a friend or listening to music, I still have to do it.

Summer:
Yeah, cuz I think, you know, like, in this sort of, like anti diet space, there’s this idea of like engaging in, you know, what people refer to as, like, joyful movement, which, you know, like, I feel like, it’s kind of like one note, because I do often feel a lot of the time, sometimes when we’re actually in something like, it doesn’t feel so joyful. But afterwards, we feel really joyful. And I feel like that’s kind of similar here. It’s like, you might be bored, or it might be just really hard. But it’s, it’s sort of the pride that you get after that gives you that like, you know, sense of accomplishment and sense of joy.

Martinus:
Yes, it’s the, it’s the accomplishment of you set your mind up to do something. And not only did you set your mind up to do it, and not let it go off in the ether, you took the next step, and the next step, and the next step over and over and over again. And knowing that, you know, there might be some times where you slipped up. But guess what you slipped up and you’re set that what happened and you kept going, versus what typically happen in a typical diet, culture type thing is that somebody slips up. And then like, that’s the worst thing that has happened to them. And then like, the routine is done, and like, everything is falling off the wheels. When you’re an athlete and having an athlete mindset, you know, that you’re gonna have good days, you’re gonna have bad days, you know, imagine if LeBron James had one bad game, and he just fell to pieces for the rest of the season. He wouldn’t be the athlete or the player that he is. But we all know that we compete, we stay in the moment to do the thing. And then we move on to the next thing.

Summer:
Yeah. So what’s your advice to someone who, you know, might feel self conscious starting, because I think that’s something that I run into a lot with clients is even just like going for a walk in their neighborhood feels really scary, because they feel like they’re opening themselves up to judgment. So what’s your advice to someone who might be feeling that way?

Martinus:
But one of the things I usually tell people was that like, and we all know this, like you’ve said, harder and harsher things to yourself. I’ve said the worst things that I can tell myself worse than anything, nobody anybody else can say to myself. So you really got to let somebody the thought of somebody else, say something to you stop you, when you’ve already said worst things to yourself. Why? So you know, that’s my thing is to get people to understand is that sometimes we are we are our worst enemy. We’re literally our worst enemy. The thoughts that we have in our head, the things that we got going on, that can stop us and then all you’re doing is looking for validation, to say, like, see, somebody called me fat or see somebody told me this, stop waiting on that validation, and just do it. And I know, that’s the hard thing, right? Like, saying, Just do it. You know, people are like, well, that’s, that’s hard. I know that. So how about this? Can you do it afraid? Can you take the first step, knowing that you’re afraid to start and you do it anyway? Because here’s what happens. When we do something afraid. And we actually do the thing, we start to realize that our mind makes up likely scenarios where the actually worse or than, like, what the outcome can possibly be be. So like, let’s wait options. And this is what I do with my clients. Let’s wait our options. Let’s go through the whole scenario. You are walking. Somebody you know, somebody looks at you weird. So like, what’s the worst thing can happen? They just look at you. And he looks at them back and it’s like, well, why are you looking at me? They must be thinking X, Y and Z. Way better. Hey, how you doing? Acknowledge them. Let them know that you you see them looking at you. You know, let’s let’s go down the scenarios. Okay, you walk in and somebody call you fat. So am I spot that is a descriptor. That’s like saying you got blond hair. Thank you. Thank you for stating the obvious. So like, once we take the power away from these things, and really think about, like, what’s the worst case scenario, we really start to understand that what we’re really afraid of is like the success that actually might come from if we actually do the thing and be successful.

Summer:
Yeah. Tell me more about that. Like, did you did you? Did you experience that, like that fear of being successful at it?

Martinus:
Yeah. You know, I think the thing is that growing up as a little black boy in Detroit, you know, where I grew up on the east side of Detroit, I’ve had two brothers pass on me before the age of 10. Sorry, thank you. I stayed next to a crack house. So I experienced all these things, right. And there’s always people was telling me that you’re gonna end up like your brothers, you’re gonna end up dead or in jail. And you know, that stuff gets in your subconscious. So then what you start to do is self sabotage, because you’re like, well, they’re right. And I think that’s what happens for most individuals is that they are on the journey of self sabotage. Because I’ve done it as well. Yeah.

Summer:
So speaking of self sabotage, like you talk about running your first marathon? And I mean, I know you kind of tell the story in the book. So I sort of know the answer, or the or the answer, but I would love just to hear it in your words, like, did you want to quit?

Martinus:
Absolutely. Absolutely. You want to go running now? Like people think like, oh, like the urge to quit just goes away? No, it’s okay. How do you work around it,

Martinus:
one of the things you you start to realize is that is usually once you get past, like the first 10 or 20 minutes, that feeling goes away. It’s almost like, so when I was writing the book, and this is how more or less I think about all things and journey in life, right, if you gotta break it down to the most simplest things. So when I wrote this book, they told me, alright, Martinez, we need you to come back with 75,000 words. And I remember being like 75,000 words. What? So like, when you look at that big number, you are like, Oh, my God, I don’t know how to do this. I can’t do this. I suck as a writer, all this other stuff. And one of the things that I did was like, Hold up, wait, let’s really break this down. All right, I have 75,000 words, I need to have it done. And let’s say 18 months. All right, how many? How much do I really want to write on this. And then when you start breaking it down and start chipping away at those those objections, you really see that it only takes 250 words a day, for four days a week, over 18 months to get to 75,000 words. The same thing is true with exercise and fitness, right? Like all of that stuff builds upon on top of each other. So the thing that we’re really trying to do is build momentum. And once we get momentum, it’s harder to stop.

Summer:
Yeah, I think that’s so true, right? And it’s even like, when you talk about it with running, it’s probably just a matter of like, just put on the shoes and go outside and just move them for like five minutes and then see what happens.

Martinus:
Yeah, most of the time, what happens is people are like, Well, I’m out here now. Yeah, so you might as well keep on going.

Summer:
Yeah, yeah. So when you trained and prepared for your first marathon? Like how long did that take you like from when you were at the doctor’s office to when you decided, like you are actually going to, like be No, the first marathon that you ran? How many? What was the timeframe there?

Martinus:
So it took me about 18 months from when I met the doctor to when I actually trained for it. I was very methodical. Some people would think like that super fast. Like I was having a conversation with somebody and like, it only took you 18 months, like, dang, that’s fast. And some people was like, oh, that’s super slow. But I was very methodical, right, like, a first round was 15 seconds. So literally, go back the next day and build up, right. And then next thing, you know, minutes became miles. So I remember when I went from telling my significant other Oh, I’m going on 12 minute run, run to like, Oh, I’m running my first mile. Right. Like that was the celebration. And the same thing is true with you know, training. So I started running five K’s then started running some 10 k’s and then throughout the whole year, like I ran races, and so I ran my first half marathon. And by then, like the year was kind of overwhelming. So New Year’s day of June of 2013. I remember talking to my significant other and being like, Oh, I’m going to run this marathon. And her telling me Well, which one you’re gonna run. I was like, Well, I think I’m gonna run Detroit. And she’s like, we you know what it is? And I’m like, not really. So then I get on internet and start typing in Detroit marathon and I’ll say, oh, registration is open today. I’m gonna sign up right now, and then signed up right then in there. Honestly, okay, I got 10 months. So I got 10 months to make this happen.

Summer:
Wow. And so how did it feel when you finish the first marathon?

Martinus:
Oh, man, it was amazing. That feeling of crossing the finish finish line was like no other feeling that I’ve ever felt before. However, there was a large crash that comes along with it. So there’s this thing called post race blues, or a lot of the called post marathon depression, right? And this isn’t where you put all your eggs in one basket, right? Like you spent all of this time focusing on this one particular thing, you then can’t accomplish it and then you feel empty afterwards. Like you feel first you feel elated. And then that feeling goes away. And then you just just filled with emptiness. And that’s what happened with me as well.

Summer:
Mm hmm. How did you handle that? Therapy? Yeah, cuz I suppose it was, like, so much of your focus and like identity, and then to have that, you know, milestone pass. It’s like, via, you know, kind of avoid, I’m assuming

Martinus:
it wasn’t like therapy. And one of the things my therapist was like, Well, what’s stopping you from from signing up for another race, or like, what’s stopping you from having multiple races on your calendar, so you don’t have to fill that because you always is chasing, you’re chasing multiple races throughout the year, versus that one race. And I was like, okay, and that’s where like, race stacking came into play. So, you know, travel all over the world, and just do racist. So like, I’m, I’m in Florida, one weekend, I see mom and Boston another weekend. And that’s where for me, running became super fun, because you start to meet with the same people over and over again. So imagine being in the back. And you’re like, Well, what races are you running? And I say, Oh, I’m running XY and Z. And I say, Well, hey, I never ran a race. I think I’m gonna run it with you. And next thing, you know, you got running buddies all over the world. Like, that’s how I got some of my closest friends now is from running races and asked him Oh, hey, well, race, you got a run. And has to be like, You know what, this is fun. Like, we’re gonna run this race together. Yeah. The next thing, you know, we’re running all the races together. Yeah. Amazing.

Summer:
So you, you know, you really kind of like embrace the slow AF Run Club. Like, what I appreciate about that, as someone who is slow AF, is that it’s like, just just kind of own it is like, just, you know, instead of, you know, feeling shame, or inadequacy, for sort of being slower or being, you know, towards the back or last, like to embrace it, is that sort of the message that your apps encouraging people to have? Yeah,

Martinus:
you know, our mission of this life Run Club is to empower 1 million people to start running in the body that you have right now. You know, there’s so many people’s like, I could be a runner, but I gotta, I gotta lose weight first. And it’s like, no, you know, who told you that that was dumb. You can be a runner right now in the body you have right now, it may look different from what you see online, like, we have to maybe adjust your expectations, but you can be a runner, you can be active. And I think that’s the thing, right? Is that taking the punishment out of physical activity, or exercise or whatever you want to call it? And just letting people know that like, hey, there’s so many benefits, so many other benefits to having regular physical activity, that you’re gonna relegate it to? A number on the scale? Like, shit? What about your blood pressure? What about your a one C’s? What about all the other things, friendship, you know, meeting new people travel around the world, all the other things that money can bring to you. But you want to focus on a number on the scale? Why? Why? Because society tells you to, that’s dumb. And I think that’s the thing, right? Like, if if many of us if we could just take a second to really think about diet culture, and their their thinking when it comes to some of this stuff. You can actually think yourself out of this and be like, wait a minute, that’ll make sense. Why would I want to do that? Why would you want to do that? And you know, and, and one of the things I like to do, and this is why I like running out the body that you are right now providing joy, right? You know, one of the things like we like to say is, you know, you know, what, if the answer to this quote unquote, health crisis in the United States is joy, not shame. So like, we’ve tried saying for so long, that shit ain’t working. Let’s try joy. You know, let’s try joy. You know, running has saved me so many places, right? And I and these are like stories. I like to tell people my most funnest fondest memory of Ronny was running in London, looking for trickle pudding. So I was at a conference and London never been in London asking all of the members. Hey, like, what food or things should I experience in London? Like I’ve never been? Like, I know y’all got Bangers and Mash. I know you I got fish and chips. But like, what else should I get? And somebody was like, oh, you should get frickin pudding. So for that whole conference that I did my presentation, me and my friend, we ran around London, go on pub to pub, and just be like, Hey, this is a weird question. But do you have trickle party? And they’re like, no, ah, and then we’ll run to the next pub, and just laugh and have fun. And, like, that’s the most fun this memory of running that I have is running around London, looking at stuff, stopping at random pubs and being like, Hey, do you have chocolate pudding? And they’d be like, No. And then like, we tried to, like, add some, some voices to us. Or like, you know, you know, the commercials like, Oh, sir, by chance. Yeah, great coupons. So that’d be us like walking into the walking into the pub. And but like, hello, good, sir. How you doing? By chance? Do you have any trouble putting? And it is looking at us like no, and then like, okay, and just run out and just go to the next place? Like, don’t don’t don’t want that. Like, isn’t that more fun? Isn’t it more enjoyable? You know, joyful? Isn’t that more does not fulfill your life more than like, looking at a number on a scale that can change. You know, regardless of like, what you do like that, to me, like that’s more of a life more for field. Having that experience, then looking at the number on the scale.

Summer:
Yeah, I love that. I have what is trickle putting

Martinus:
So maybe it’s not like we never got it, we end up getting something called sticky toffee, sticky toffee putty, which is like somewhat similar to it. Okay, never got trickled bloody.

Summer:
I gotta ask, I have a couple of British friends. I’m gonna ask them. What this thing is, did you ever go back to the doctor to say, Hey, I ran a marathon?

Martinus:
Unfortunately, not. I moved around a lot. So first, I wasn’t planning on going back to that day anyway. But I moved around a lot. So you know, after I’ve seen that, Doctor, I ended up having to go to another doctor so I can get properly diagnosed, to get together. And so went through that doctor with the physical therapy and things of that sort. And then after that, I kind of moved from that state. So I was in Connecticut, so I moved. And he just became like, a mythical story than like, the actual person because like, he can walk right past me. And I wouldn’t even know or know what he looked like. I know what he you know what they say? People forget what you say. But they remember how you made them feel. And

Summer:
yeah, not that you ever have to prove yourself to him anyways, but, but I was just curious about that. So tell everyone just like us a little bit about like, who the book is for, and where they can find the book and everything else that you offer?

Martinus:
Absolutely. This is my favorite part. Slowly I’ve run club, the ultimate guide for anybody who wants to run is available wherever books are sold. So Barnes and Noble Amazon, your favorite indie store, you can find it there, we are doing signed copies at a independent bookstore called Pocket Books. So they’re a small, independent women led bookstore in Pennsylvania, I’m actually driving to Pennsylvania and gonna go hand sign a bunch of books. So that will be the only place where you’ll be able to buy an autograph book for me, is that pocket book so you can go to shop? No, it’s called pocket book shop.com. Search for a book by and you’ll get an autographed copy who the book is for, I want to say everybody, but this book, if you are an individual who wants to start running are thinking about running. This book is for you. If you’re individual who are like interested in stories, and just other stories about people journeys, this book is for you, because that’s in there. If you’re interested in just the technical aspect of what goes through my mind as a 300 pound runner. This book is for you. What I took from this book, or like what I tried to do with this book is take some of my favorite stories that I’ve experienced them running and smashed it with what how to stuff that so that way it can be a little bit more interesting. Because most how to run books are dry. Literally, they’re dry. Like you can probably watch paint dry and be more entertaining than what’s actually sparks. Oh, my goal was to make this book entertaining, make you have some feelings, but also learn something along the way.

Summer:
I love it. I love the stories so much. It was great and, and like the house, she was laid out really, really well, too. So I appreciate that. And you talked about the gear and everything that you need and what to do and, and so I like really it made me think like maybe I could run more, but I still don’t know if I will. But if I do, I will. I will use the How to but I love reading the stories regardless. And so you mentioned like that you that you have like the club like the slow F Run Club with fat.

Martinus:
So slow AF run Club is a global community of 10,000 members worldwide. We housed everything inside of an app on iOS and Android. So anybody listening, you can go download the slowly from club app on your favorite iPhone device, or Android device, right. So it was a community that when I started this Run Club, you know it was in person thing, but it happened right before the pandemic happened. So when the pandemic happened, I pivoted and made it completely virtual. So now this is where you know, we have 10,000 members all over the world. So what some of the things that we have in there is like online training plans. We have a personal trainer, who does fitness classes, live stream fitness classes, and they are super accessible every week. You know, you got live streams from yours truly in there. And then one of the things that we’re working on that I’m really excited about is that we’re launching a nonprofit portion of our nonprofit arm rather slowly at Run Club. And with this, you will be able to apply to launch year all slowly Run Club in your own particular neighborhood. So I’m really excited about that as well, because that really helps out with the mission of getting 1 million people to start running in the body they have right now.

Summer:
Yeah, and you have merch as I see. I love the turtle mascot.

Martinus:
We have March our merch goes from size, in most cases, maybe extra small to size 6x. So we’re super accessible.

Summer:
Yeah, I love it. Amazing. And of course, I’ll link to everything else. You have a podcast, you have your Instagram. I assume you’re everywhere else but i’ll link through all of it in the show notes. And I just want to say thank you so much for being here today. Martinez it was really great getting to know you better.

Martinus:
Thank you for having me summer.

Summer:
Rock on. I love that conversation. I hope that you check out Martinez online at 300 pounds on running. And if you want to run or even just be inspired by someone who has overcome and done so much to do something as incredible as running a marathon which like I can’t even fathom doing for myself, then definitely pick up a copy of the slow a run club book that is coming out on June 6. And you can find all the other links mentioned in this episode at summer innanen.com forward slash 267 Thank you so much for being here today. Rock on.

I’m Summer Innanen And I want to thank you for listening today. You can follow me on Instagram and Facebook at summer Innanen. And if you haven’t yet, go to Apple podcasts search eat the rules and subscribe rate and review this show. I would be so grateful. Until next time, rock on.