People sometimes ask me:
Why did you start blogging?”
Usually, it would be my mom or nan asking me. They didn’t understand what ‘blog’ meant digitally and just couldn’t get their around the fact that you (or anyone really) could write something on your computer, publish it, and have the world access it.. Talk about different generations!
The truth is this. I started my blog when I was a teenager because I needed an escape from grief and writing was a way to do that; which is sort of similar to how I used running as a strength mechanism for dealing with the toughest battles of life.
I lost my great Nan
When I was 16-17 I went to a youth group, where we learnt about faith, and started to build our own attitudes and belief systems of how we understood the world.
So naturally, I questioned the world when I lost my Great Nan. She was 85 year’s strong. That’s not an oxymoron. Her body was weak, her heart was strong. She passed away, so loved and so loving. She didn’t leave us because of Cancer, but I started to question a lot of things.
Why did she have to leave us? Why is there such a thing as the devil? She didn’t deserve this. I was very confused. It was my first experience of losing someone.
So I started writing
I borrowed a book about Creative Writing, and I just wrote. I wrote about running because I was figuring that out. I wrote about whatever came to my mind. I started some stories around the theme of Alice in Wonderland. But I always came back to running and how it made me feel.
I put my running blogs online
After a while, I wanted somewhere to keep all the pieces I was writing. I’d started to think I was good at writing and had already fallen in love with the magic of words. It was becoming a part of me. Writing was helping me understand myself better. So I came up with the name, Life of a Miss Fit. I didn’t think about it too much. I just wanted to share that I had sometimes felt a bit lost, a bit of a misfit. And that fitness, through running, was helping. And soon enough, Lifeofamissfit.com was born. I shared a few pieces on Facebook, and it felt surreal one day to see I’d reached 508 people. I felt inspired to write more and run more…
Then, I lost my Grandma
The next thing I knew, my Little Grandma survived a life-threatening operation, where doctors removed the cancerous cells from her Oesophagus. I woke to a message notifying me that my Grandma is still in intensive care but that a machine is now breathing for her. She is a woman whom with words I cannot even begin to describe her beauty, strength and kindness.
This time, my reaction was different. I just wept. I think I was learning to understand that even if you can’t begin to wrap your head around something, it can hurt. Yet somehow, I felt alone, safe and confused all at the same time.
I ran the next day
The next day, I went for a spontaneous run. I didn’t route it or plan a finishing time. I just decided ‘right, I’m going to go for a run now’, changed into my gear, locked the door, earphones in and ‘ON’ and started running. For the next 79 minutes and 40 seconds, I ran to the beat of my music. I let that take me.
Was I counting this as my marathon training? Yes, I was going for a run.
But did I train like it? No.
I felt my feet move, the freshness of the rain on my face, the bizarre and shocked looks of pedestrians kindly stepping to one side for me to zoom past. I took it as it was. I ran. I didn’t feel anger, hate or bitterness. I felt love. Overwhelming but completely peaceful, forgiving, gentle, love.
The next song that met my ears is by Neon Jungle. It’s called Brave Heart and I remember it starting as I jumped back onto the curb of Aldi. Both my great nan and my grandma were brave hearts and I think the following quote sums them and life up pretty darn well.
I started my blog in the hope of getting through grief
My reasons for starting my blog were entirely selfish. I enjoyed the act of writing and it gave me some form of peace during unpeaceful times. So I just wrote what I wanted and when I wanted to. And I felt better. Not on cloud nine. But I could somehow figure out how to navigate the every day life.
Maybe it was a way of connecting with the two women I’d lost
A grandma or great-grand-mother feathers her pearls of wisdom in a beautiful form of a trail of bread crumbs. You can be getting on with your day, the sky is British and dull and.. suddenly she pops into your head reminded you of something beautiful or funny and then the sunshine says hello and you realize, that’s her. She’s still alive and very much herself. That’s what we need to be, little rays of sunshine everywhere we go.
That’s why I think it’s exceedingly important to remember them in the physical ways too. I was fortunate enough to have been left some money by my Great Nan and I chose to spend it on a watch that I envision her reacting in her usual way…
“Oooooh!” *winks*
One of the most precious and funniest things I will remember her by is how she led her life around time, minute by minute. I would always arrive around 4pm to cook her Sunday dinner and if, how dare it, the level of traffic were to bulk up, I would thus be a minute behind schedule.
I’d arrive at 16:01 and I will never forget that face of shock horror and almost disappointment as if to say
“where have YOU been?!”
When the irony is, you’ve had to drive slightly slower as to not dare spill the homemade roast dinners your Mom has plated and covered up. She would then enquire as to why I wasn’t serving up waitress-style with her oldest tea towel draped over my arm. Now I will always be on time and I’ll always have her.
I became a Lifestyle Writer at the University of Birmingham in 2017
I felt like I’d really made it. I was honoured to attend a dinner to celebrate all the writers one year, and I also got published twice in the Redbrick paper in December 2016.
Fast forward to 2020: I co-formed ‘Creative Writing Babes’
I was younger, I found writing cathartic. During the COVID year of 2020, I even co-formed a ‘Creative Writing Babes’ group. It was me and three other friends from the University of Birmingham. We set up a Zoom call every Wednesday evening and we’d chat about whatever we’d written that week. We’d critique and encourage each other. It was just what we needed in the middle of the pandemic. Some of us preferred crafting poems.
Some of us loved writing stories, some creative prose or theatre scripts! But our little group was our outlet to share with like-minded women during a very strange, difficult time. We joined from all over the UK, and were leading our own lives, but we loved that this was our safe touch point with 3 other girls who loved the beauty and magic of words, connecting people. It gave us a common ground when we couldn’t actually meet up.
Here’s myself and Danni as we waited for the others on the 15th July 2020.
katie and danni on zoom creative group
I still run and write in 2025
I kept writing and I kept running. But now my mission has changed. I want to help other people find running in the hope that it does for them what it did for me.. Escape! I used to post back in 2016 every time I’d gone for a run. I still do, but with much more inner confidence and peace now. I love sharing my running tips and updates on life too. It’s all in the hope that you just never know who you’re inspiring..
Written by Katie McDonald, 23rd March 2025
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