How these 'Bachelor' stars are getting ready for the NYC Marathon
If you’re a fan of Bachelor Nation and happen to be in New York City this weekend, you're in luck. Two fan favorites from the franchise are running the marathon on Sunday.
Tyler Cameron, who appeared on Hannah Brown’s season of "The Bachelorette," and Andi Dorfman, who appeared on both "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette," are competing in the race after months of training.
Dorfman officially started her prep in June and said she's now fully invested in the sport.
"I've been a runner -- I put that in air quotes because I like run/walk -- for a couple of years," she said with a laugh. "I was traveling and it would be hard to find a gym when I was in certain cities, especially in other countries, so I would just run and I would see the city...and that kind of became my main form of exercise."
When New York Road Runners reached out to her to see if she wanted to run this year, she decided to give it a shot.
She says her trainer, Olympic distance runner Roberto Mandje, whom she meets with every week, has helped her improve her running style.
"We do one strength training a week, so we'll do hill runs or progression runs, where you get faster and faster each lap," she shared. "We do different strength type of runs, and then I do at least one or two long runs on my own each week as well."
Mandje sends out a schedule every week of her training plan, and she said that she sometimes doesn't even look at it ahead of time because she trusts him so much. "He's a former Olympian. He knows what he's doing, so I just like to actually listen to him and take in his expertise," she said.
Dorfman is pretty active on social media and shares updates with her followers on her fitness journey.
This openness helped her launch a supportive community for runners on her page, which she calls the "#andorfins" community.
"It started because I would Instagram story running and training for the marathon, and people would respond by sending me their own personal running videos and I would repost them," she said of the #andorfins community.
She noticed that the hashtag seemed to stick with her followers.
"Everybody just started hashtagging 'andorphins' when they went for a run," she said. "You can click on the hashtag and see people from all over the world -- people in every shape and size and every fitness condition running. They're all kind of doing different goals."
Dorfman posts fitness challenges throughout the week to keep her followers motivated, along with sharing her own marathon training updates.
Cameron, who will run his second marathon on Sunday, has also built a supportive running community since his stint on the reality dating show. His reason is personal.
"When my dad got sick, when he came home, I took it as an initiative to take the rest of my family and friends out to start running once a week on Thursday or walking – just moving for like 30 minutes, and increase it," he said.
He said he didn't want anyone to get sick like his father and wanted "just to get everybody moving and get healthier together."
When the former college football player moved from Florida to New York City, he said he wanted to keep the momentum going. With his close friend Matt James, he wanted to create a group that would inspire others to work out and also foster a sense of community.
"We thought about what would it be like if we did one here and invited everybody from the show," Cameron said. "We did and the turnout was far beyond what we could have ever imagined."
"There were so many incredible stories that came from it and friendships that were formed," Cameron continued. "The thing they all had in common was they were fans of the show, and those girls could talk about the show for hours, so we would run and talk about the show."
James said so many new runners came out of their group.
"There were people who had never worked out – had never run a mile," he noted. "People made goals to run half marathons, 5Ks ...The mission why Tyler had started to run in Florida was really coming full circle because it was helping people not only with their mental health but their physical health."
Outside of the group runs, the two trained extensively for both the Chicago Marathon, which they completed earlier this month, and the New York City Marathon.
After running the race on Sunday, Cameron says he would consider doing more marathons.
"I think it's a fun way to push yourself," he shared. "I like challenges -- and maybe I'll find a new challenge afterwards that's completely different -- but it's just like pushing the limits. This is really pushing the limits for me."
He said that anyone can achieve their fitness goals if they put in the work.
"I remember when I was first starting out with Matt, I had a hard time running a 5K," he said. "You know, you're dying at three point two miles. And like on Sunday, I ran 20 miles. It’s crazy what you can do if you just put in the work. It's just about showing up and doing it."
