By: Karen Karnis
When Christina Menssen started her blog, The Athletarian, she didn’t think anyone would read it. She started it because she loved to spend time reading other people’s blogs, and thought that maybe she would be more diligent tracking her training – after all, telling stories and posting pictures was much more fun than scratching numbers in a notebook.
The now-27-year old fitness fanatic from Toronto really had no idea that in two years she would have thousands of readers and over 6,500 Likes on her blog’s facebook page. “One of the blogs I follow, Hungry Runner Girl, has thousands of fans – I thought it was so crazy how companies would send her shoes to try. Then Mizuno contacted me out of the blue, and it’s all very surreal,” says Menssen.
Menssen started running in her first year of university because the University of Toronto had a gym that was free for students to use. “I didn’t know how to use any of the equipment, but it had an indoor track,” she laughs. Her first race was a 10K, which she finished in 58 minutes – and she’s never looked back.
“I love running because it’s time to myself,” she says. “You can lace up and run, and have nobody around you for as long as you want.” As a high school teacher who spends her days surrounded by people, she finds running to be a welcome break. “I also love challenging myself to different distances and faster times,” she adds. “I love that feeling of seeing the clock and seeing that new, faster time.”
Menssen is also a vegetarian – hence the name of her blog. She used to eat meat, but not all the time. Then she watched a few documentaries on the food industry that changed her whole outlook on food. “I thought, I don’t eat a lot of meat anyway, so it wouldn’t be a big deal to stop entirely,” she says.
She was pleasantly surprised to find she felt better overall, and more energized on her runs, after cutting out meat. She’s also cut back a lot on dairy after testing her theory – in weeks where she ate a lot of dairy, she found she felt more sluggish and her runs were slower. “I eat mostly plant-based foods now, but there are a few things I am not willing to give up completely, like ice cream,” she laughs.
Mizuno contacted Menssen because they loved her blog and discovered she was running in Mizuno Wave Elixirs. Now she’s excited to have the opportunity to try out a few other models, including the Musha. “Michelle Clarke is going to be working with me and she’s going to show me how to use the different types of shoes for different types of workouts,” she says.
Menssen met Clarke, also a Mizuno athlete, at a meet-up arranged by a fellow blogger, and is excited to have her help while working toward her goals for the year, including a sub-1:44 half marathon, and sub-4:00 marathon. “The best thing about blogging are the connections you make,” says Menssen. She’s made friends all over and met people she otherwise never would have.
When asked why people love her blog, she’s humble. “I don’t know why people want to read it,” she says, “but my best guess is that it’s because I keep it real. I never pretend I am not sore after a race, or that I don’t eat pizza – I blog the way I talk to friends, and readers often say ‘You’re so normal!’”
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