‘There’s something special about crossing the line with thousands of people’ – Aimee Connolly launches VHI Women’s Mini Marathon

Aimee Connolly is urging the women of Ireland to sign up for the 41st edition of the VHI Women’s Mini Marathon.

Ms Connelly said it was the race with the “best atmosphere ever”.

It is the second successive year Ms Connolly, the businesswoman behind the popular Sculpted by Aimee makeup range, will serve as an ambassador for the race which will see 25,000 people take to the streets of Dublin for the walk/run on June 4.

The race is also the single-biggest fundraising event in the country on most years with more than €225m raised for charities since the first instalment in 1983.

“Being in the race last year, you could just feel the camaraderie; it was unreal. It was the best atmosphere ever; everyone was buzzing and that was despite it being lashing rain. But that didn’t rain on anybody’s parade,” Aimee told Independent.ie.

“There was something really special about crossing the line with literally thousands of other people, it was really remarkable.

"I couldn't be more proud to be associated with it. But also, it’s keeping me on track for the next few weeks, which I definitely need as I’m getting married in August,” Aimee said.

The 29-year-old Dubliner said the mini marathon is an excellent way for women to come together on a fitness journey while gaining new friends and experiencing the buzz of a big race day.

“Having the event to work towards really helped with giving me that added motivation or inspiration, especially on the wet days, you're like, ‘I couldn't be bothered’ but then you realise there is a race happening and that you need to get up.

“And it's so inclusive in the sense that you could literally walk, jog or run so it's totally up to you. Everyone's in groups together so you feel very involved regardless of how you're participating,” Aimee said.

A survey commissioned by VHI found that 77pc of women said that having a goal like an upcoming race helped keep them on track and a similar percentage said they loved doing the training and the event with friends or family.

“That speaks to me so much as I'm always running with someone, I'm never running alone.

Just because the motivation isn't there.

So I need someone to keep you going or if you know that you're meeting someone for training, you're definitely going to arrive,” Aimee said.

VHI are also teaming up with Dearbhla Toal, known as BelleAzzure on Instagram where she has nearly 100,000 followers, to give people targeting the race fitness tips, diet hacks and even training guides on the run up to June 4.

The material will all be available on VHI and Dearbhla’s socials in the coming weeks.

“Dearbhla is amazing, she is a massive fitspiration to me. There will be so much support there for people to take inspiration from.

“I’ll also be posting how I’m getting on with my training online as I think if I'm sitting at home and I watched someone who's just finished a workout or just after a walk, you kind of feel like, ‘I'll just get up and go for one rather than staying on the couch’,” Aimee said.