Finding her athletic ability
Holly Worton is a lover of nature, a runner, hiker, author, kickboxer, podcaster, and coach. And she is a storyteller. This week I’m honored to share her stories with you.
When Holly was in school she thought she was going to be a traditional teacher, perhaps an English or Spanish teacher. She says that she was never one of those people who knew from a young age what she wanted to be when she grew up.She did know that she liked to read, she liked to write, and she liked Spanish. But even after graduate school at UCLA and studying abroad in Mexico she didn’t have a clear plan for life.
Holly also says that she wasn’t athletic in high school. In fact, she hated sports. She was always the one picked last for teams. She did well in school, but did poorly in sports. She had the belief that she wasn’t born with the “sports gene” and that she would always be terrible at athletics. She said that no teacher ever took her aside to tell her she could improve if she would only practice.
It wasn’t until her early 20s that she started running and started to see that she could be athletic.
There was a point where she gained a little weight. She always thought she was immune to weight gain because she had a fast metabolism and could always eat what she wanted. But her life became a little stressful and she put on a few extra pounds. She contacted a friend from high school who was in all the sports. Her friend told her to go buy a pair of running shoes and start running. Her friend advised her to start with the run/walk method and for a short period of time. Then she could gradually increase as she built up her endurance.
Holly found she enjoyed running. She had started running to lose weight, and found an added benefit of it reducing her stress. Her life was very stressful at that time, and running gave her time to herself as well as exercise.
When she started running she said to herself, “How about a marathon?” Runners typically start with a little less distance and work their way up, but she wanted to skip the rest of the distances to start with a marathon. She chose a marathon that was about six months from the day she started running to the day of the marathon. She found it amazing to be running with people on the street cheering her on. Her normal training was running alone on the road. But as the race when on she found herself to be the last runner on the course. And the course sweep vehicle was an ambulance. It was stressful and embarrassing for her as she walked and ran, and all the while the ambulance was right on her heels. Her mindset went into a downward spiral to a quit.
This experience led to her questioning her ability as a runner and shook her confidence. She ran occasionally on a treadmill at the gym, but she didn’t feel confident as a runner.
She got involved in kickboxing, and that was her main source of exercise for years. But when the Covid shutdown happened she wasn’t able to attend class. She started running again because she decided she couldn’t just sit on the couch. She saw YouTube videos about ultramarathon running and thought, “This is amazing that people can do this!” So she signed up for her first race.
Holly started hiking and walking when she moved England. She discover a book about hiking and walking trails in England. And she began exploring. Then she moved to the countryside with a wealth of trails in every direction. So she started exploring and walking, and then started to hike some of the trails with longer distance like the national trails. And she did the Coast to Coast Trail this year. She likes to be constantly walking and hiking. She has always enjoyed being out in nature so hiking is something that rejuvenates her soul.
She tells us that she loves reading books about other people on long distance hikes and when she doesn’t feel like spending a lot of time outdoors she tends to read more books about it and although it doesn’t have the same effect it gives her ideas for season planning and things like that but she really wants to contribute to that and wanted to share her experiences being outdoors to inspire other people to do the same so she loves getting feedback from readers. She tells us that she loves the fact that sharing her story inspires other long distanceers.
She says it took her some trial and error when she went from day-hikes to longer distances. Longer distances require a bigger pack which is heavier. She discovered her training hadn’t fully prepared her for the extra weight. But she says that every backpacker, hiker, and runner have to go through this kind of learning process.
As she spent more time on the trails she found she wanted to learn more about how to manage being out in nature. She found a woodcraft school where she learned practical skills of ethnobotany and plant identification, wildlife tracking, and advance bushcraft.
Holly has a few long distance hikes in mind that she’d like to do. One of them is the Camino De Santiago. She’s still considering which route she’d like to travel.
Holly’s podcast, Into the Woods with Holly Worton originally started as a business podcast almost 9 years ago. At the time she couldn’t find any business podcasts that talked about women’s stories. So she started one. She never thought it would still be going 9 years later, only now her podcast has changed to an outdoor podcast. But the underlying theme has always been personal growth and personal development through business.
She tells us that thanks to all her personal growth she has a much broader vision of what she is capable of doing in all areas of her life.
She offers personal coaching, and she also offers coaching for book writing and book publishing as well for athletics. She is certified in PSYCH-K® and as an NLP practitioner. Personal transformation is a part of her life and she enjoys helping others transform their lives.
Bridge questions.
What is your essential piece of gear: Solomon Advance 12.
Strangest thing you’ve seen in a race: ”I was with a friend taking a walk and we were in the middle of the woods and we saw these two trays of food, they were almost like airline trays, we have different departments and different things, like two English breakfast trays, one was half eaten and one was not, right in the middle of the road, next to the trail.”
What is your word or phrase that describes your philosophy of life: Just keep practicing and work on your mind to make it better.
Connect with Holly:
Leave a Reply