no more mr fat guy
change your thinking. change your life. make life amazing

this week’s sh*t-sorter is (sort of) repsonsible for me posting a video to facebook of myself singing… true story (ask me about it later) – she’s also a very friendly and supportive lady who loves running & blogging and, like so many of us, has a great story to share…

so without further ado, would you mind just letting everyone know who you are, where you’re from and what you do to earn a crust?

my name is Kate Heyward. I was born in Albury, New South Wales (NSW), and moved to northern NSW when I was 12.

I am an Environmental Educator however at the moment I’m not working for money just love…

thankyou Kate, as an aside I’d just like to point out that yet again we have someone NOT from queensland… so can you share with everyone a little about your background?

My mum actually said I was born melancholy, I don’t remember being particularly unhappy as a child however.

Everyone has their list of crap that has happened to them. I think it would shock even me if I shared it in list form. So to explain in summary, I guess through a series of unfortunate events I ended up a very self critical, and although I wouldn’t say ‘depressed’, I may say “searching for the answer to happiness’ adult.

Even while I continued to achieve at study and work and do all the things you are ‘supposed to do’ along the way. Go figure, I am not a simple creature really.

So by the time I had reached the age of 33, I had two very young children, had traveled the world, continued to study, worked and settled down with a vege garden and a great partner who I love very much.

And still no answer had come.

which, i think, is probably where running starts to come into the picture – i certainly know you’re a keen runner, so where does the motivation come from for that, and how did it all start?

I guess my motivation is selfish. I cannot be loved if I don’t love myself, I cannot help other people if I am not happy within myself and I cannot teach my daughters to be confident if I don’t figure out a way to live and not beat myself up day after day!

Most of my life my passions were what I thought should be good things, like being good at school, then working towards a better environment, getting a good job. I tend to also not think too much about the future (I leave that to my partner), I loved to party and travel and avoid facing right now.

I always loved exercise but I guess I didn’t really know how much. I played netball, swam and went through a very keen yoga phase in my 20’s. I always loved how they made you feel, and I guess that is the endorphins.

I lived a good walking distance to the beach that gave me an hours walk. I always saw runners who never said “hi” and that always annoyed me, like they thought they were better than walkers. But one night it all changed, I had a dream that I was running and I was happy. I really did.

At the time I knew not one person that ran. I didn’t even know that there were such things as fun runs! But the dream was so strong I had to listen. And I started by running (where no-one could see me) from telegraph pole to telegraph pole.

And so the story of my happiness finally began…

On another note. A book actually changed my life as well. I went through many many years of reading “self-help” books. They always impacted me for a week, or a month and then the concepts disappeared and ceased to have meaning. But I read a book called “The Power Of Now” (by Eckhart Tolle) suggested to me by a triathlon coach actually, and this book absolutely changed the way I live and think about life and happiness.

that’s fantastic, and i can really see now where your absolute love of running comes from – so tell me, is that the end of the running story or do you have specific goals?

It’s been 5 years. I’ve just turned 38. I just ran a 1:29:38 half marathon and I want to run a sub 40min 10k and a 3hr30min marathon this year. Those are my 2013 goals.  I also want to run a 50k trail. That will be next year.

My other goals are to keep creating happiness in my, and my family’s life. To write something special. To help people find a way to genuine happiness (not necessarily through running but whatever passion takes them there).

some amazing and worthy goals in there kate, and a brilliant journey to date. you must have faced some challenges along the way, and of course memorable achievements  as well – would you mind sharing some of those?

My biggest challenges are to keep working away at being content with myself, not to compare myself to others and not to care what other people think.

I was so proud of myself last year when I ran 1:30 half marathon. I was told I could never do that being so tall and bigger build.

Now I have done it twice!

obviously running has changed your life, what impacts have you seen since embarking on your running journey?

I see people around me want to tell me about their running and other fitness related achievement. I have brought so many more positive people in to my life.

I am more content with my husband having his passions because I understand how happy a real passion can make you.

I’ve lost a fair few friends who don’t understand me anymore. People try to tell me they are just jealous but I don’t think that, I think they just don’t understand what I needed to do to be (finally) content. I try not to dwell on but  maybe you’ve guessed I am pretty sensitive.

yes, well it’s always difficult when you make significant life changes and then need to somehow reconcile that with your “before” life.  you’re clearly staying as motivated as ever though, how do you do that?

I don’t really need the motivation to keep on running, actually most of the time I need holding back so I don’t overtrain and get run down or injure myself!

excellent, so your passion really is self-sustaining, providing its own motivation to continue – that’s a wonderful place to be in.

now as you know, there will be people reading this, some of whom will already be thinking about making changes to their own life, or even inspired by your story to consider changes – if you were able to say one thing to these people, what would it be?

If you think, in your soul, running or another passion could benefit your happiness and contentment then you need to grab on to it with all your heart.

Don’t worry about what other people think because it’s not their life, it’s yours.

You can be happy but you also still need to work at it every moment.

wonderful. that’s the perfect way to end i think, so thankyou so much for your time kate and i’m sure your story will be truly appreciated by the blog readers.

if you want to find out more or connect with kate, she can be found on on her facebook page “running in the rain“, and her blog www.runningintherain.com.au