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New Balance Canadian runner of the week: Sheila MacDonald

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Courtesy of Sheila MacDonald

Last March when Sheila MacDonald first started running, she couldn’t hold a pace for more than 30 seconds. She was overweight and went to the gym to lose weight for the summer. Reducing her body size by 10 pounds was the goal. When she signed up to get a personal trainer, she did not anticipate having to do sprints. Back then, she hoped the short bursts of intensity would last longer and longer. She wondered if maybe she could even work herself up to a minute of running. Bit by bit she gained endurance. Running got easier, she got more confident, she lost weight and hit the minute mark. MacDonald says she remembers the day she managed to run the full 3K from her home in Halifax to the gym. Now, she’s 50 pounds lighter, and happy.

“I have a lot more satisfaction with myself,” says MacDonald. She says she knows what it feels like to be confident now. Though she’s lost the weight, running is in her life permanently. “It helps me get through the day, I’m not high-strung anymore.”

Runners will often talk about running being a lifestyle. For MacDonald, that held true as well. A major part of her lifestyle that she changed when she became a runner was her diet. Losing weight in the past hadn’t worked before because it followed that roller-coaster pattern familiar to many. She’d lose weight to gain it back. Like many, the word “diet” meant being overly strict on oneself and cutting back. “It’s not about cutting back, it’s about what I put in my body,” she says. “I eat a lot of protein now. I eat vegetables now.” She says she now has the understanding that eating healthily is not a short-term endeavor either. When she came to that realization, she cut out the junk food and stuck to her guns.

 

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Courtesy of Sheila MacDonald

“I don’t crave going out to fast food restaurants anymore,” she says. For her, seeing the weight come off helped her exercise her willpower. It became her motivation. Running was tough during the early days with her trainer and the treadmill. One of her breakthroughs though was when she allowed herself to believe that she could be a runner. “It was this realization that I can do this and I DO have the ability to run,” she says. So she cleaned up her habits.

The number on the scale dropped and her fitness level soared. She has worked her way up to quite an impressive training routine. During a typical week, MacDonald will work out six times. Three of those days are for running. The other three, she trains at the gym with her personal trainer. Sometimes that includes weight training. During the winter, much of her running was done indoors on a treadmill but for MacDonald, a perfect run would be on a trail running in the woods or near the water.

She’s happy with her weight and knows she’s in better health now. That means the focus has shifted towards racing. Right now, she’s looking towards a couple 5K races coming up with a 10K planned for September.

When asked what the best thing running has brought to her is, her answer is automatic: “Feeling better about myself,” she says.

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