More than three years ago, Coolum Beach mum-of-two Renee Chagory was battling post-natal depression and an unhealthy relationship with exercise.
Today, she has shed 42kg, started a women-only run club and will line up for the Runaway Noosa Marathon later this month.
Before she found running, Renee had struggled with weight fluctuations her whole life and was unable to form a positive relationship with exercise.
But after suffering post-natal depression following the birth of her second child, she took up running.
“I went to the gym before, but I just used to go to the gym and not really know what I was doing. I’d go there lift some weight, spend most of the time on my phone and not really push myself the way that I am now,” Renee says.
“Then I started running and it’s a way different experience now. Before running it was never a good, positive relationship with exercise, it was just going to the gym to tick the box and not really do a solid workout or enjoy being there.”
Juggling the alternating sleeping schedules of her two young children, Renee was unable to find time for herself and became housebound. Determined to put her time at home to good use, she bought herself a treadmill and began to run around her babies’ routines.
“I think when you just have the one child to care for it’s easy to manage but when you have two under two it’s chaos and madness and trying to find time for yourself, you never get it, so when you’re working around sleep times Too, Luca was on one sleep and then Vallie was on two sleeps, I was literally housebound,” Renee says.
“That’s when I bought myself a treadmill.”
But Renee says she was initially too embarrassed to run outside.
“I didn’t want anyone to see me in activewear or anything like that so I just bought a treadmill and started to run three kilometres,” she says.
Renee started a group text with some of her girlfriends who were keen to meet up and run.
As the group began to expand, Renee set up an Instagram account and named it ‘Sole Sisters Run Club’.
Renee says her main aim of the club is to provide an inclusive space for all women, of all abilities, to get together and enjoy running.
“For me, I see all these run clubs about and their social media is filled with young people who have six packs and are getting these ridiculous times and they’re racing to get podiums,” she says.
“I wanted to make an inclusive environment and then it just grew and grew, to Brisbane, to Gold Coast and South Australia and now we’ve just started one out in the Hinterland so that the girls who love running trails can run trails each week .”
Sole Sisters Run Club organises weekly runs, with some women attending the runs with the group wherever and others joining remotely from they are based.
Renee has completed a marathon and several half marathons. The Runaway Noosa Marathon will be her second race over the 42.2km distance and she will be joined at the event by a group of women from Sole Sisters Run Club.
Renee says running has completely transformed the way she lives her life.
“It’s completely reshaped my life, my best friends are now in my run club and I always go back to that saying, ‘you are a result of who you hang out with’, and we all text each other, ‘hey do you want'” to go for a run’ and it’s a Friday night, it’s not a ‘hey do you want to go the pub and drink’,” she says.
“We have a support system, we feel safe when we’re running, we never feel alone, it’s a bit of accountability too.
“You send a message or put something on social media about going for a run tomorrow at 5am in the dark, and you have 20 girls turn up who want to run 20km’s with you. It’s exciting, it’s great.”
Entries remain open for the Runaway Noosa Marathon. For more information and to enter visit https://runawaynoosamarathon.com.au/
Image: Supplied
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