Jenny Tough told her story to producer Cat Jaffee for an episode of The Daily Rally podcast. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I suddenly saw my body in a completely different way, and all I could see was my belly and the fact that it wasn’t concave but actually full. I remember going through my head, What are the ways that I could maybe cancel this? Of course, I couldn’t cancel it. This guy was coming all the way up to meet me in the wilderness and I had to do it. And I was so upset about it because I thought I didn’t look like an ultra runner.
I’m a writer and adventurer. My bag is in human-powered, long-distance adventures, typically in mountain environments, sometimes on foot or bike. I just really love to explore the outdoors while also pushing my body as hard as I can.
The combination of being outside in nature as well as me physically moving has always been a really healing space, and that’s something that actually came about because of a hard time, but not on purpose.
When I was younger, I always felt really self-conscious about my weight, and didn’t really know what to do about it. So…
