We Veggie Runners love Instagram but sometimes it can feel a bit dispiriting. Who needs to see a parade of perfect people, drinking smoothies made of fairy dust and unicorn tears, doing handstands while their abs glistened in the sunlight? It’s not inspiring, at least not to me. In fact, scrolling through the images of fakely fabulous people was starting to make me feel pretty rubbish.
The great thing about media nowadays though, is that you get to choose what you see. If people pouting in their underwear isn’t sustaining you, STOP FOLLOWING. I’m not knocking the people who create it – everybody has the right to create their own social media output and more power to the ab-tastic peeps in their pants. Likewise, though, I have the right to choose what I want to see.
And what I want to see is kick-ass authentic women having fun. The ladies I’ve rounded up here DO make me feel good – they inspire, they have adventures, they live their lives in a way that makes me want to emulate them. I hope they inspire you, too.
Professional adventurer Sophie Radcliffe is all kinds of awesome. She’s cycled London to Paris in 23 hours; she’s won triathlons; she’s adventured in Borneo. But what I like best about her is that she seems just like me, or one of my friends, but she happens to grab life with both hands. Just an ordinary girl who loves adventure so much that she has moved to Chamonix to trail run all summer and ski all winter, when she’s not travelling the globe to undertake some crazy mission. Sometimes, you need to see someone living the dream to know what the dream is.
I don’t know much about Heidi other than what I’ve seen on Instagram. She lives and breathes yoga, and has a special gift for non-cheesy inspirational quotes. In a world where difference and disability are often sidelined and hidden, it’s an honour getting to see her living so strongly and being recognised for her power. (Plus, you have to follow her for her hilarious missing-foot halloween costume…)
Lerigt värre! Muddy morning! A photo posted by Emelie Forsberg (@tinaemelie) on
Emelie Forsberg lives life like a little mountain goat. In any given post, she may be doing yoga at the top of Mont Blanc, or leading a group trail running across a heath in Sweden. She is a fearless skiier and a hearty breakfast eater. Her pictures are filled with a passion for life and I find them completely soul-reviving.
Heat like I’ve never known & a tough course unlike any other, but wouldn’t have swapped today’s second place 🏆 at the Santa Caterina Vertical for anything. #santacaterina #valtellinawinetrail #vk #vjsportshoes A huge well done to @elisadesco 🏆 & @dega1977 for making estate in montagne so damn good. A photo posted by emmie (@emmiecoll) on
Emmie Collinge is amazing for many reasons. A) She’s a vegetarian, like all the best people. B) We went to university together in Newcastle. C) She relocated to the Alps so that she could concentrate on her trail running. D) She now actually places at and wins trail races that I wouldn’t be able to walk up. E) She does the latter while still wearing her specs. Amazing.
Soggy run commute brightened up by street art 💥 #runhappy #runyourcity (Thanks to @dunsontherun for the location! 😘) A photo posted by Susie Chan (@susie_chan_) on
We LOVE Susie Chan. It’s hard to know where to begin. She’s an endurance runner who has multiple Marathon Des Sables finishes under her belt. We cannot believe she’s the mother of a teenager. She recently completed a 100 Mile race in under 24 hours, and wrote about the experience beautifully. But our real favourite things about Susie are that she’s fun, always has a smile on her face, and is fabulously supportive of other runners and bloggers. We love seeing what adventure she has planned next, and what skort she’s going to do it in.
Another pal from uni, Bella Younger reminds us not to take it all too seriously with her clean living parody account. From green juice to leg day, she takes Instagram’s obsessions and makes them hilarious. She’s fearless in a different way to some of these other ladies, having given up her job to become a stand-up comedian last year. Her Instie page has been covered everywhere from Grazia to the Guardian, so I think it may be paying off. Don’t tell anyone, but she’s actually really fit, too…
I just love reading about people who are living their lives their way. Not trying to be something they’re not, but just really going for it and trying and sometimes failing. You can, of course, find us over at Instagram too. Lots of running, the occasional smoothie and zero handstands. Mostly because we can’t do them…
I loved this round up – It’s great to follow people who make you feel uplifted and inspired…
I very briefly met Susie on Monday, she was beautiful, friendly and hugely cheery – She appeared to have a charismatic way about her…
You lucky bug! That sums her up perfectly.
We love finding people who make us want to be better, in a positive way, not make us feel worse about ourselves…
Fairy dust and unicorn tears, love it. Sums them up completely for me. As you say, all power to them but I learned early on to stop trying to compare myself to them and find others to inspire me. This list of super athletes are a total inspiration to everyone that comes in to contact with them or reads about them and long may they continue. Thank you for this great and entertaining piece.
Thanks Deborah – we like to experience people who are cool and inspirational is all the RIGHT ways.