Erin Azar.Photo: Erin Azar
WhenErin Azarfirst started running two years ago, she had no idea she’d ever run a marathon — orgo viral on TikTok.Better known to her 679K followers asMrs. Space Cadet, Azar is just days away from running in the2021 New York City Marathon— herfirst in-person marathon. It’s a journey that started shortly after she welcomed her third child.
“I was in thatpostpartum period, maybe four months-ish, where I felt exhausted” and not “right mentally and physically,” she tells PEOPLE. “I just decided, something has to give.”
Even though her sneakers had holes in them, Azar decided “I’m just going to try and run” — and afterwards, she went home and told her husband, “I think this is really good for me, we’re going to have to figure out a way to make it work.“Just weeks into her journey, the mom of three — who had already beendocumenting her progress on YouTube— shared her first running video on TikTok. Much to her surprise, it instantly went viral, getting over 1 million views that day.
Of course, it didn’t take long for Azar to realize there was nothing wrong with her account — she had just “struck a nerve in a good way with people about running.“Before she posted her first video, Azar said she searched all over social media to find “realistic videos” for beginners, but “could not find anything.““I would put in like, ‘Relatable running,’ ‘Running when you’re overweight,’ " she recalled.“So that’s kind of why I tried posting on TikTok,” she explained. “All I wanted was to find a community that I felt I fit into. It turns out I just had to make the community.”
Erin Azar.Stevie Chris Photography
“Maybe my shorts are riding up, maybe my glasses are fogging, maybe I didn’t bring enough hydration and I need my husband to pick me up halfway through,” she says. “There’s always something, there’s a whole array of struggles.”
“My husband is like, ‘You overshare so much — you were born without the embarrassment gene,’ " she jokes. “But I think because I was trying so hard to find that type of content, once I started doing it and people were like, ‘Yes, this is great,’ I just kept going. The more real, the better.”
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As for taking on a marathon — well, just like her running journey in general, things escalated quickly.“I remember on one of thosefirst TikTok running videosI was like, ‘Welcome back to another episode of a slightly overweight person who drinks too much beer trying to train for a marathon,’ " she recalls, noting that at the time, “I think I was running two miles.“Even though she had “no clue how time consuming” training for a marathon could be at the time, she has no regrets.
“Announcing it on the internet kind of makes you accountable,” she says.
Erin Azar.Erin Azar
Now, Azar is set to take on the New York City Marathon — something she wasn’t planning on doing until recently, following the cancelation of the New Jersey Marathon in August.“I just thought, ‘You know what? I’m going to take a year,’ " she recalled. “But after making that decision, a friend of mine at AfterShokz was like, ‘Hey, there’s a place onTeam Fox. You could raise money for Parkinson’s research.“Although Azar didn’t have “much time to train,” she “felt like it was meant to be.““My dad has Parkinson’s,” she explains. “I just couldn’t say no. What if I never get that opportunity again? I was like, ‘Screw it. I have to do it.’ Hopefully I can cross the finish line.““He used to run and he never got to run the New York City Marathon, so I think it’s really cool that I have the opportunity,” she says of her father. “He’s very quiet and private so he doesn’t talk much, but I know that he’s very proud.”
As for what she hopes race day will bring, Azar simply has her eyes set on the finish line.“Run the whole thing and finish,” she says of her objective. “I don’t really want to set a pace or a time because I like to keep my expectations low and then I’m always proud of myself.“In addition to all of her fans, Azar’s family will be cheering her on every step of the way. That includes her three children, who are too young to completely understand what she does for a living, but have her back just the same.“My oldest is 7. She doesn’t know exactly what TikTok is,” Azar says. “There’s some confusion there, but they’re just so proud of me. They just know that I’m doing well and that I’m happy. I feel like that’s amazing in itself.”
source: people.com
