COOL FM presenter Sonya Mac will add to her impressive £75,000 fundraising haul to date as she takes on her third London Marathon next month.
The Belfast-based radio DJ is running the 26.2 miles through the capital’s streets on April 26, just six days after she runs the Boston Marathon.
The self-confessed former “couch potato” continues to honour her late father, who died of stomach cancer two years ago, by raising money for the Cancer Research charity.
She is also opening a new gym just outside Belfast in Newtonards in the coming months, in a bid to inspire others to get fit.
“Before I started running marathons I was very much a couch potato,” she said.
“Now that I run I’m trying to get other people off their bums to get a wee bit fit too.”
Before that, Sonya will be aiming to complete her third Virgin Money London Marathon in good time - and the experienced runner claims diet is an important factor in her training regime.
“I've only really just started to get back into training," she admits.
"My diet’s usually high protein and before running I have a lot of carbs to get me going. Otherwise, it’s smoothies really.
“When I run with friends in other countries we take wheat and bread from home with us and get some peanut butter out there to prepare for the runs," she addded.
This year's races follow a mammoth 2014, in which the DJ ran ten marathons in seven months, which she labelled the ‘Macathon.’
“In 2012 I was very new to running and was recovering from injury, I was quite slow. Bur last year I did the London Marathon again and I knocked an hour off my time.
“Last year I organised six marathons held in the six counties in Northern Ireland and got people to run with me.”
As it stands Sonya’s best run time is 4 hours and 14 minutes, which she recorded in Belfast. But despite her current marathon dedication, the DJ admits she found her love of running by accident.
“It started from a drunken night out,” she joked.
“I do road-safe road shows with the PSNI over here, and we go to different schools and places to advise people to slow down on the road.
“I also do a lot of work with the emergency services, and one day the paramedic said to me, ‘do you fancy running the New York marathon?’
“We went and did that in 2011, and that’s how it started.”
See More: Fundraising, London Marathon, Radio Dj, Sonya Mac
