Hey Sprints - I want to be your next ambassador!
Hey Sprints! Ok, I love this question - here's my list of the top 5 reasons why I would make a meaningful and fun addition to your ambassador team:
I’m fat. No, not in a self-hating or derogatory way - but I’m close to 200 lbs (I’ve been over that number for a long time, and only recently dipped below 200) and my body isn’t often represented in fitness-y spaces. It’s such a big reason that I am as vocal a physical therapist and mental health advocate as I am. I’m healthy, but I’ve just always been a bigger person, and I don’t ever want body image (or lack of body diversity) to stop anyone from getting involved in exercise and play. I am a true back of the packer, and would love to represent Sprints all the way back here. Younger me would be blown away by the audacity that older me has to sign up for races, join the running community in general, and have run my FIRST EVER MARATHON this past weekend!! I *hope* younger me would be proud, anyway. Though she’s probably too busy listening to Backstreet Boys to know much else.
I’m a writer. I have been writing on my Instagram and here on my blog since I started physical therapy school back in 2017. I have written for websites such as Recovery Warriors, The Financial Diet, The Mighty, and The National Eating Disorders Association (available here). Which leads me to my next point…
I am open about my mental health struggles and live on a principle of unconditional vulnerability. I can’t think of any better way to continue to share my journey as someone who is (and may always be) in recovery from body image issues, almost 3 years sober from self-harm and suicidal ideations, and navigating mental wellness as the eldest daughter in an immigrant, Muslim, family…than to do so in a Sprints hat! I wear Sprints for every race (most recently a Detroit edition: did I mention I JUST RAN MY FIRST MARATHON!? Sorry, I’m calm. I’m calm.)!
I’m not afraid to post on social media and be myself. I spent so much of my life embarrassed about the way I looked, talked, laughed, existed. I am so grateful to all the people in my life who have helped me to get to a place where I no longer hate who I am, and in fact love sharing different parts of my life with my social media family. I currently have over 7,000 followers on Instagram and truly feel connected to so many of them. It has been a privilege to hear their stories and for us to all inspire each other to run because we’re running towards and within a better life, not away from who we are.
I would sell my soul to be a Sprints Ambassador.
Only a little bit joking about #5. In greater seriousness, I am all about building community and genuine connection, because I’ve seen how it has saved my life and transformed so many others’. Sprints is a brand I believe in and that I already represent as part of my daily running fits. I would be honored to have the opportunity to join and grow the brand with a group of clearly dedicated and simply amazing ambassadors.
THANK YOU so much for taking the time to read my ramblings, and for considering me as a Sprints ambassador. I can’t tell you how much this means to me. Every version of me I have been and will become.
