The ones folks who’re acquainted with Peloton UK know trainer Susie Chan as a runner — a major runner, in all probability one of the crucial recognizable faces throughout the British operating neighborhood. She’s run the Marathon des Sables (a six-day ultramarathon that covers concerning the distance of six marathons) greater than every other girl athlete in the United Kingdom, she broke the 12-hour treadmill international report, and she or he’s completed all of the Global Marathon Majors, to call only a few accomplishments.
With all of the accolades and milestones to Chan’s identify, it would be simple to think she has this entire health factor totally found out. However in line with Chan, she’s now not that other from the common runner.
A True Novice
Regardless of the outstanding position health and operating these days play in Chan’s lifestyles, she did not develop up immersed within the game. “Health used to be by no means in point of fact a part of my lifestyles in any respect — I used to be a smoker and simply in point of fact rather lazy,” Chan, now 48, tells POPSUGAR. However in 2010, as a unmarried mother in her 30s, Chan “used to be feeling like I used to be in slightly of a droop, so I assumed, ‘I’m going to attempt to get shifting somewhat bit.'”
Chan did not have get right of entry to to a gymnasium, so she began operating. On the time, she had an workplace process and would jog all over her lunch hour. Sooner or later, her brother satisfied her to enroll in a half-marathon to stay him corporate whilst he educated for his first marathon. It used to be solely after she agreed that Chan discovered the space coated in a half-marathon: 13.1 miles.
“I’m going to be truthful, it used to be so tough — in point of fact, in point of fact exhausting,” she says. “However I survived the half-marathon and it made me really feel so just right about myself. I had this kind of afterglow of operating for a number of weeks after that race and simply sought after to perform a little bit extra.”
By way of then, it used to be legit: Chan had stuck the operating computer virus, and the remainder, as they are saying, is historical past. She took her first cross on the 26.2-mile distance on the Paris Marathon in 2011. Now, Chan says she’s run roughly 20 marathons, together with all six Abbott Global Marathon Majors, that are the Boston, Chicago, New York Town, London, Berlin, and Tokyo marathons.
“I discovered I used to be playing being part of the operating international and simply sought after to enjoy extra of it,” Chan says. “I used to be very a lot in an area the place I used to be simply getting into races, making pals, and in point of fact loving it.”
Inspiration to Stay Going Farther
Pushed via the problem of operating longer and longer, Chan discovered herself dipping her toe into ultramarathons simply two years after finishing her first marathon. She temporarily changed into acquainted with the Badwater Ultramarathon, which is famously referred to as the arena’s hardest race. Within the invitation-only tournament, runners quilt 135 miles in excessive summer time prerequisites, beginning at 282 toes under sea degree within the Badwater Basin, in California’s Loss of life Valley, and finishing at 8,360 toes of elevation on the trailhead to Mount Whitney.
Chan to begin with sought after to easily test off the mythical 135-mile race, which she’d had on her radar since she first began operating extremely distances in 2013. Then again, she knew it will take years of labor to simply be invited to take part — to not point out to get conditioned for what the grueling tournament would entail.
After Chan ran the 81-mile Badwater Salton Sea race and won a call for participation to run the Badwater 135, the race director instructed her that if she completed it and the 51-mile Badwater Cape Worry, she’d have finished a problem formally referred to as the Badwater Extremely Cup. That used to be all it took to inspire Chan, and in 2023, she changed into the first-ever Ecu girl to finish all 3 Badwater occasions.
Chan does not sugarcoat the enjoy. She readily admits it used to be some of the hardest demanding situations of her lifestyles, as her slower tempo had her operating thru two instantly nights, which she’d by no means carried out ahead of.
“The race used to be tricky, agonizing, and extremely painful, however I in point of fact sought after to be there, I used to be emotionally invested, and I deeply sought after to complete,” she says. “The enjoy taught me that you’ll set your middle on one thing that turns out unachievable, paintings towards it, and do the article. It taught me that it is OK to be apprehensive and intimidated via one thing and feature the braveness to take it on.”
Overcoming Adversity
That is a lesson that is served Chan smartly her whole lifestyles. In 2017, as an example, she used to be recognized with thyroid most cancers after suffering to respire then fainting upon completing the Chicago Marathon that fall. She had run the marathon with a nagging cough, which she chalked as much as breathing in sand on the Marathon des Sables, which she’d run in Morocco’s Sahara Barren region the former spring.
By way of this level, Chan have been feeling on best of the arena in relation to her operating and the place she used to be in her lifestyles. She’d left her process within the museum trade and begun to acquire sponsorships and tackle different freelance jobs like race commentating. However her prognosis threatened to deliver all of it to a halt.
“I used to be very cavalier about operating and had in point of fact began to delve into the arena of extremely operating via this level,” she says. “I additionally took the plunge and had simply given up full-time paintings and did not have that per thirty days wage coming in so to pay my loan, in order that side used to be completely terrifying.”
Chan says she used to be fortunate — her most cancers remedy consisted of 2 surgical procedures, and she or he did not wish to go through radiation or chemotherapy. “[The cancer diagnosis] used to be extra of a psychological than bodily surprise to me,” she says. To assist her thru, Chan once more grew to become to operating, signing up for a half-marathon simply two months after her surgical procedures. Having this objective served as a information and gave her center of attention all over her restoration, she says. “On mirrored image, I used to be like, possibly that used to be me simply reassuring myself that I used to be in truth OK and may just nonetheless do the article I experience and do, and turn out to myself that I am nonetheless have compatibility and wholesome via operating,” she says.
Discovering Motivation via Surroundings Achievable Objectives
With any such herbal love for the operating neighborhood, it is smart that Chan ultimately ended up at Peloton, the place she has served as a Tread trainer since 2020, after being approached via the logo to audition for the process.
“I in point of fact wasn’t certain in the event that they would wish me, however I made an overly aware choice not to you ought to be any person else and to simply be who I’m,” Chan says. “With all of the operating that I have carried out, and the operating adventure that I’ve in my view been on — having been an absolute overall newbie and newbie at operating and long past thru most of these other phases — operating has been right here to carry my hand and provides me self assurance.”
Chan emphasizes that like any person who hasn’t ever run ahead of, she didn’t get up at some point ready to run a complete mile nonstop. That is the place many new individuals who wish to give operating a take a look at finally end up caught and giving up too temporarily: they are seeking to pile on an excessive amount of too quickly with out first build up their staying power correctly. Chan makes use of this not unusual pitfall as inspo for her Tread categories, specializing in putting in place her elegance members for good fortune via encouraging them to pursue life like and achievable objectives.
“I am getting messages from folks all over the place the arena about how my message has resonated as a result of additionally they began operating somewhat bit later in lifestyles,” Chan says. “I am getting numerous the ones individuals who have simply carried out their first marathon or their first mile sharing their reviews, and it is in point of fact humbling as a result of I do know what that seems like.”
As famous on her Peloton profile, Chan is serious about serving to runners in finding the very best model of themselves, despite the fact that that does not imply the quickest.
“It is about embracing anyplace you might be on any given day, even if some days you will in finding operating really easy and others you’ll be able to in finding it to be very difficult and hard,” Chan says. “That implies that if you wish to prevent and feature a stroll slightly than a run, it is OK and you might be nonetheless shifting ahead. It does not all the time must be absolute best, it does not must be successful, and it does not must be beating everyone else at the leaderboard. So long as you simply stay at it and simply attempt to stay the tiniest bit constant, it is going to come to you.”
How Distance Operating Has Impacted Chan’s Existence
Even with all her racing good fortune and evolving profession at Peloton and throughout the British operating neighborhood, Chan hasn’t overpassed what operating has introduced her.
“If it were not for operating, I do not know the place I would be. I would almost definitely nonetheless be in a museum accumulating mud on myself,” she says. “It is a pastime that is turn out to be a profession and given me the boldness to search out myself.”
As for what is subsequent, Chan does not have a selected bucket-list race in thoughts, regardless that she is aware of that she desires to stay difficult herself, particularly as she approaches her 50th birthday.
“Within the period in-between, I am simply going to be trucking alongside and can almost definitely input a couple of races right here and there as a result of I simply find it irresistible and love collaborating,” Chan says. “I’m going to be in the market middle-packing with everyone else.”