Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 372. Don't Call It A Comeback: Keira D’Amato On Becoming An Author & Stepping Into Her Power On The Run & In Life
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hold on for the ride.
- 0:01Speaker 2: It's gonna get a little bumpy, but you have what
- 0:03Speaker 2: it takes to move through it. Everything you need is
- 0:06Speaker 2: inside of you.
- 0:21Speaker 3: What's going on everyone?
- 0:22Speaker 4: Emily Abadi here popping into your feed on a Wednesday
- 0:25Speaker 4: with an extra special episode of Hurdle. For today's conversation,
- 0:30Speaker 4: I am bringing you my chat with the woman of
- 0:33Speaker 4: the week. I'm talking about Kira Demato. She's a pro
- 0:36Speaker 4: runner and now a new author. Her book Don't Call
- 0:40Speaker 4: It a Comeback. What happened when I stopped chasing prs
- 0:43Speaker 4: and started chasing Happiness hits bookshelves this week and for
- 0:49Speaker 4: today's episode, we.
- 0:51Speaker 3: Are chatting all about it.
- 0:52Speaker 4: She talks to me about what it was like to
- 0:54Speaker 4: work on this book with her co author Evelyn Spence,
- 0:57Speaker 4: and how it felt revisiting so many of the highs
- 1:02Speaker 4: and the lows from her professional running career. A lot
- 1:06Speaker 4: of this book is focused on what is often called
- 1:09Speaker 4: Kira's comeback, her success as a pro since having her children,
- 1:13Speaker 4: getting back to running when she was in her early thirties,
- 1:16Speaker 4: in her words, out of shape and battling postpartum depression.
- 1:19Speaker 4: She tells me how she felt about prioritizing herself early
- 1:23Speaker 4: on with young kids a spoiler, it was really difficult,
- 1:27Speaker 4: and how she navigated the guilt that came hand in
- 1:30Speaker 4: hand with that. Fast forward, six years after getting back
- 1:34Speaker 4: on the roads, Kira broke the American woman's record in
- 1:37Speaker 4: the marathon at age thirty seven, and while the rest
- 1:40Speaker 4: is history. Today Kira tells me that she's just getting started,
- 1:44Speaker 4: that she still feels like she has so much more
- 1:47Speaker 4: in the tank, and we talk about what that looks like,
- 1:50Speaker 4: what her training looks like these days in Utah, and
- 1:53Speaker 4: what she's looking forward to at this fall and beyond.
- 1:56Speaker 4: Keeping this intro short and sweet, but make sure your
- 1:59Speaker 4: falling along with the show. Over on social It's at
- 2:02Speaker 4: Hurdle Podcast and I am over at Emily a Body again.
- 2:05Speaker 4: The book is called Don't call It a Comeback. I'm
- 2:08Speaker 4: gonna link it in the show notes. I read it,
- 2:10Speaker 4: I loved it, and I'm so excited for all of
- 2:13Speaker 4: you to get your hands on it. With that, let's
- 2:16Speaker 4: get to it, let's get to hurdling. Today, I am
- 2:32Speaker 4: sitting down with Kira Dematto. She is the former American
- 2:36Speaker 4: record holder in the marathon and the half marathon, a
- 2:38Speaker 4: pro runner with Nike Welcome to hurdle, Kira.
- 2:41Speaker 3: How are we doing?
- 2:42Speaker 2: I'm good. I'm happy to be here. I've told you already.
- 2:44Speaker 2: I've been working hard today and I've been nice to people,
- 2:46Speaker 2: so I feel like, check and check, I'm having a.
- 2:48Speaker 3: Good day, having a good day. I have to ask you,
- 2:53Speaker 3: let's level set here. How are we doing? Really?
- 2:57Speaker 2: I'm doing good, Like if I am. The past year
- 3:02Speaker 2: has been pretty tough for me, but I am doing
- 3:06Speaker 2: better every week, every month, every yeah, every quarter. So
- 3:10Speaker 2: I feel like I've worked hard to get to myself
- 3:12Speaker 2: to a good spot this year.
- 3:14Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 3:15Speaker 3: Yeah. If that's not relatable, I don't know it is.
- 3:18Speaker 4: I feel like it's been tough with just the world
- 3:21Speaker 4: gestures loosely if you're not watching. But beyond that personally professionally,
- 3:26Speaker 4: what do you think is the hardest part for.
- 3:27Speaker 3: You right now?
- 3:29Speaker 2: Probably personally, Yeah, I've gone through some struggles in the
- 3:32Speaker 2: last year, But then that's also been tied with you know,
- 3:35Speaker 2: last year at Chicago, I broke my foot in two places,
- 3:37Speaker 2: So having to take like over three months off for
- 3:41Speaker 2: that and picking myself back up and getting into like
- 3:43Speaker 2: a good routine again.
- 3:45Speaker 1: And I feel like just in the last.
- 3:47Speaker 2: Probably two or three months, things are really starting to
- 3:49Speaker 2: click again, and that's real exciting, but it's it's hard,
- 3:52Speaker 2: like you have to be really patient, you have to
- 3:53Speaker 2: show yourself a lot of grace, and just getting to
- 3:56Speaker 2: the point where it is clicking and clicking again, I
- 3:58Speaker 2: think takes like the most strength, the most courage. So
- 4:01Speaker 2: I'm proud of myself for working through that. And now
- 4:03Speaker 2: I'm on a point where it's starting to feel like real, yeah,
- 4:05Speaker 2: really exciting again because I'm like, Okay, here's back and
- 4:08Speaker 2: she's fit.
- 4:08Speaker 1: Let's see what happens.
- 4:10Speaker 4: And it couldn't be better timing because not only is
- 4:13Speaker 4: Kira the person back, but Kira's coming out with a book.
- 4:19Speaker 2: I recently, I went to a librarian conference and they
- 4:23Speaker 2: gave me a pin that says I'm an author, and
- 4:26Speaker 2: that like blew my mind, Like I've never been called
- 4:29Speaker 2: an author before, and that was the first time that
- 4:31Speaker 2: I kind of merged the fact that I've written a
- 4:33Speaker 2: book and that I'm an author together and it was
- 4:36Speaker 2: like I still have that pin.
- 4:38Speaker 1: It's a really sweet.
- 4:39Speaker 3: I'm sorry librarian conference.
- 4:42Speaker 2: Yeah, so I okay, there's official name that I'm going
- 4:46Speaker 2: to blank on it, but I've been calling it Librarians
- 4:48Speaker 2: of the World Unite that all like librarians from all
- 4:52Speaker 2: over the world came to Philly and they check out,
- 4:55Speaker 2: like all the publishers what they have coming out, and
- 4:57Speaker 2: so they get to meet different authors. And I gave
- 4:59Speaker 2: a talk on my memoir and everything, so that was
- 5:02Speaker 2: really really cool.
- 5:03Speaker 1: But I love libraries.
- 5:05Speaker 2: I love librarians, And I think my favorite thing about
- 5:08Speaker 2: that conference is like I had a really cute outfit
- 5:11Speaker 2: picked out, but I wanted to wear like my Nike shoes,
- 5:14Speaker 2: and I was like, oh, like, I probably should wear
- 5:16Speaker 2: heels with this, but who am I kidding? Like I
- 5:19Speaker 2: need to protect my feet. I'm wearing Nike shoes. And
- 5:21Speaker 2: I look around the conference. Everyone was so cute with
- 5:26Speaker 2: sensible shoes, and I'm like, these are my people, like
- 5:30Speaker 2: librarians are my people.
- 5:32Speaker 1: And it was great.
- 5:33Speaker 2: It wasn't like overly rambunctious like it was so it
- 5:36Speaker 2: was so funny.
- 5:37Speaker 4: How are you feeling now that pubdate is finally here?
- 5:41Speaker 2: Like a mix of excited and nervous and vulnerable and proud,
- 5:46Speaker 2: Like there's a lot of emotions Like I just this
- 5:49Speaker 2: week they sent me like.
- 5:50Speaker 1: The final version and I unboxed it and I like.
- 5:52Speaker 2: Held it in my hands and I was so emotional,
- 5:55Speaker 2: like I am so proud of this book.
- 5:58Speaker 1: I put everything into this book. Book. I think this
- 6:01Speaker 1: book like tells.
- 6:02Speaker 2: My story and it kind of puts like a lot
- 6:04Speaker 2: of color into my like you know, don't call to
- 6:08Speaker 2: come back, come back, but I don't know. It also
- 6:12Speaker 2: just has like a lot of personal things. So it's
- 6:14Speaker 2: and I just I hope it can help people. I
- 6:16Speaker 2: hope it can inspire people. I hope people laugh at
- 6:19Speaker 2: me and hopefully with me a little bit. And then
- 6:22Speaker 2: maybe it's going to bring up some tears. Like I
- 6:24Speaker 2: cry like a handful of times in the book. Like
- 6:26Speaker 2: I think in the first chapter I cry twice, and
- 6:27Speaker 2: I'm like, I don't even I've cried twice already in
- 6:30Speaker 2: the book, or maybe the prologue I cry. I'm like,
- 6:32Speaker 2: the book hasn't even started and I'm already crying, Like what,
- 6:34Speaker 2: I'm not even a cry Like I don't.
- 6:36Speaker 1: I'm an emotional person, but I'm not like your typical
- 6:38Speaker 1: like cry or crier. But I cry a lot in
- 6:41Speaker 1: the book.
- 6:41Speaker 3: So feeling your feelings is cool, Kiara, it is.
- 6:45Speaker 2: Yeah, it is, And I think Yeah, I felt all
- 6:48Speaker 2: the feelings throughout the book so well.
- 6:50Speaker 3: I'm so excited I've read it.
- 6:51Speaker 4: I am also in my feelings over this because it's
- 6:55Speaker 4: so much great context to what so many of us
- 6:59Speaker 4: were watching you do in this.
- 7:01Speaker 3: Don't call it a comeback, comeback moment.
- 7:04Speaker 4: I want to start off here with what you say
- 7:07Speaker 4: that your mission is in the book. Her mission, as
- 7:09Speaker 4: you write, is to encourage others, especially mothers, to take
- 7:13Speaker 4: their unfinished business off the back burner and get after
- 7:17Speaker 4: it when you got back to running. Was there a
- 7:21Speaker 4: specific goal or a specific item of unfinished business that.
- 7:26Speaker 3: You were really zeroing in on.
- 7:29Speaker 1: At first?
- 7:30Speaker 2: No, Like I didn't have the confidence to set a
- 7:33Speaker 2: goal other than for like mental and physical wellness, to
- 7:36Speaker 2: be part of community.
- 7:37Speaker 1: To do something for me.
- 7:39Speaker 2: So like at first, no, but once like mom Kira
- 7:43Speaker 2: started kicking college Cure's foot, and all that unfinished business
- 7:46Speaker 2: came back. It was to win a national title, it
- 7:49Speaker 2: was to compete for Team USA. It was to make
- 7:53Speaker 2: an Olympic team and maybe set some sort of record.
- 7:56Speaker 1: Those were kind of like the.
- 7:57Speaker 2: Finished business, and yeah, I accomplished a lot of them,
- 8:01Speaker 2: which kind of blows my mind.
- 8:03Speaker 3: Accomplished a lot of them.
- 8:05Speaker 4: When you say that sentence, is it mostly rooted in
- 8:09Speaker 4: positivity at this point, or do you have what kind
- 8:13Speaker 4: of feelings do you have about the ones that you
- 8:15Speaker 4: haven't accomplished.
- 8:16Speaker 2: I am actually very surprised that I can say I
- 8:19Speaker 2: accomplished a lot of them, because for like over ten
- 8:23Speaker 2: years in my life, I was resolved that I was never.
- 8:26Speaker 1: Going to be elite again.
- 8:28Speaker 2: I was never going to find the joy in running again,
- 8:30Speaker 2: like there was I said goodbye and.
- 8:32Speaker 1: I mourned the loss of all those goals already.
- 8:35Speaker 2: So like I feel like I already accepted that those
- 8:37Speaker 2: would not happen for me.
- 8:39Speaker 1: So the fact that I can say I hit.
- 8:41Speaker 2: Almost all of them, like is an extreme Like I'm
- 8:44Speaker 2: extremely proud to be able to.
- 8:46Speaker 1: Say that, And yeah, I didn't hit all my goals,
- 8:48Speaker 1: but like who does, Yeah, Like it's kind of yeah,
- 8:52Speaker 1: so yeah I have.
- 8:53Speaker 2: I'm really proud of how far I've come, and I'm
- 8:56Speaker 2: proud that I was able to get this like second
- 8:58Speaker 2: life and this like second chance to go after yeah
- 9:01Speaker 2: that unfinished business.
- 9:02Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 9:03Speaker 4: Now, of course we'll get into some other good things
- 9:05Speaker 4: about you on the run in just a little bit,
- 9:07Speaker 4: But I do want to talk about the writing process.
- 9:10Speaker 4: It's crazy and difficult and intricate to write a book,
- 9:13Speaker 4: regardless of what else.
- 9:15Speaker 3: You may have going on in your life.
- 9:17Speaker 4: But I would imagine while chasing some of these big, scary,
- 9:21Speaker 4: Harry audacious goals, it's extremely challenging. So what was the
- 9:24Speaker 4: book writing process like for you as a new author?
- 9:29Speaker 1: It was incredible. I was really lucky.
- 9:32Speaker 2: I teamed up with a woman, Evelyn Spence, so she
- 9:34Speaker 2: was like my co writer, and I feel like we
- 9:38Speaker 2: got along really well. Like when I first started interviewing her,
- 9:42Speaker 2: I told her that I've always like she did most
- 9:45Speaker 2: of the writing, like it was my words, and then
- 9:47Speaker 2: she somehow like her wizardry, like put it into like
- 9:51Speaker 2: a story form, which still blows my mind. But when
- 9:54Speaker 2: I first started interviewing her, I was saying that I've
- 9:57Speaker 2: always been like gotten lower grades on English because I've
- 10:01Speaker 2: always been critique that I write the way that I talk,
- 10:05Speaker 2: and I guess you're not supposed to do that, but I.
- 10:07Speaker 1: Don't know how else to write.
- 10:08Speaker 2: So when I interviewed her, I was like, I've always
- 10:10Speaker 2: been critiqued for this, but I still want this book
- 10:13Speaker 2: to feel very conversational, like I want this book to
- 10:16Speaker 2: feel like you're on a long run with me, and
- 10:18Speaker 2: I'm just like telling you a story for a long run.
- 10:21Speaker 2: So I really wanted it to feel like, I like,
- 10:23Speaker 2: not in a creepy way, but I'm like in your
- 10:25Speaker 2: house with you, just having like a chat. And I
- 10:27Speaker 2: feel like she did such a good job with that.
- 10:29Speaker 2: But so we kicked it off and she came out
- 10:31Speaker 2: to Richmond. We spent like forty eight plus hours of
- 10:35Speaker 2: me just talking at her and she just listened. And
- 10:38Speaker 2: then I was like, Okay, I got to go for
- 10:39Speaker 2: a run, so hop on a bike and we can
- 10:41Speaker 2: keep we can keep this talking at you. And then
- 10:44Speaker 2: we talked probably two or three times a week for
- 10:46Speaker 2: at least an hour for close to a year, and
- 10:49Speaker 2: we kind of broke it up. Like I knew what
- 10:52Speaker 2: I wanted the theme of the book to be, and
- 10:53Speaker 2: I knew how I wanted the book to make people feel,
- 10:56Speaker 2: and I knew the lessons that I wanted to share
- 10:58Speaker 2: that I've learned kind of the hard way that hopefully
- 11:00Speaker 2: people can see that I've learned the hard way, learn
- 11:03Speaker 2: it learned it a little easier. But so we kind
- 11:06Speaker 2: of broke it up chapter by chapter, and I'd tell her, like,
- 11:08Speaker 2: all the stories they kind of fit that lesson and
- 11:11Speaker 2: it kind of moves my path forward. And then she
- 11:13Speaker 2: would put it on paper and I'd read it and say, yes,
- 11:16Speaker 2: like I can't believe you said that so articulately, or
- 11:20Speaker 2: you know, I don't think this word is the right
- 11:21Speaker 2: one to describe what I was feeling, or so it
- 11:24Speaker 2: was a very like collaborative and very like cyclic process.
- 11:27Speaker 2: And then i'd say, you know, we talked about the
- 11:29Speaker 2: song Dynamite in the first chapter, and I'm like, okay,
- 11:32Speaker 2: a little digression here. I've once won a radio contest
- 11:35Speaker 2: but calling it and naming the artists, so like we'd
- 11:38Speaker 2: add in those little flavors to that too.
- 11:41Speaker 1: But so it was really fun.
- 11:42Speaker 2: It like it was a really great reflection of how
- 11:46Speaker 2: far I've come, like where I started from, and just yeah,
- 11:50Speaker 2: the lessons.
- 11:50Speaker 1: Learned along the way. So I really enjoyed the process.
- 11:54Speaker 4: It sounds as though it was a lot of time
- 11:57Speaker 4: to your point to reflect on everything that you've been through.
- 12:01Speaker 3: And what I find so.
- 12:02Speaker 4: Interesting about memoirs is that they're such a there's an
- 12:08Speaker 4: attention to detail or like a recall of information quotes,
- 12:13Speaker 4: et cetera. That I'm like, do I have the worst
- 12:15Speaker 4: memory possible? Because I remember nothing of my life with
- 12:18Speaker 4: this attention to detail.
- 12:21Speaker 1: It's funny because I have a really terrible.
- 12:23Speaker 2: Memory, but the stories that I tell are like really
- 12:26Speaker 2: formative stories. So even if like that one sentence isn't
- 12:31Speaker 2: exactly right, the theme, the theme is there. But yeah,
- 12:34Speaker 2: like there's one point where I say, like I was
- 12:37Speaker 2: this was probably six or seven years ago.
- 12:39Speaker 1: I was out for dinner and I mentioned.
- 12:41Speaker 2: Like what I had that I ordered Brussels sprouts, And
- 12:44Speaker 2: then I say, like, it's not important, like what I ordered,
- 12:47Speaker 2: but it is important. I can't believe what I remember, Like,
- 12:49Speaker 2: I can't believe I remembered what I ordered that night.
- 12:51Speaker 1: So to me, that's that's funny. But then it's cool
- 12:54Speaker 1: too because I think.
- 12:55Speaker 2: Through like Instagram and through like Strava and through different
- 12:59Speaker 2: places where I've journaled of sorts, that it's helped fill
- 13:03Speaker 2: in those stories too with direct quotes or how I
- 13:06Speaker 2: was feeling at the time. So I think just being
- 13:09Speaker 2: able to recall in that way was really cool too.
- 13:12Speaker 4: Was there a most difficult moment for you to recount
- 13:16Speaker 4: or process with Evelyn?
- 13:18Speaker 3: As you were working on this book.
- 13:20Speaker 1: Yeah, I think.
- 13:21Speaker 2: I mean one of the hardest things that I went
- 13:23Speaker 2: through is when I had a zero and one year
- 13:25Speaker 2: old and my husband at the time was deployed, so
- 13:28Speaker 2: he was gone for well over a year, and we
- 13:30Speaker 2: knew for when he signed up for the Guard that
- 13:33Speaker 2: it could be up to six weeks, and then like
- 13:36Speaker 2: six weeks turned into six months plus a month on
- 13:39Speaker 2: either side, plus a four month training plus this other
- 13:41Speaker 2: month here in San Anto, So it turned from six
- 13:45Speaker 2: weeks of him being gone to well over a year.
- 13:47Speaker 2: So I was at home with a zero and a
- 13:49Speaker 2: one year old, and I really struggled, and that like
- 13:54Speaker 2: I held on to a lot of resentment because it
- 13:56Speaker 2: was voluntary, and so I think that like talking through
- 14:00Speaker 2: that was really difficult, and it was a really hard
- 14:03Speaker 2: time and just especially after having kids and just I
- 14:06Speaker 2: don't know, I was treading water at the time, So
- 14:08Speaker 2: going back to that period was really hard. But I
- 14:11Speaker 2: think kind of knowing that period, that's when I started running,
- 14:15Speaker 2: and that's why I needed running so desperately in my life.
- 14:18Speaker 2: Was for something for me, was to get out of
- 14:21Speaker 2: the house for just a little bit, was to move
- 14:23Speaker 2: my body because I was just exhausted, and it turned
- 14:26Speaker 2: out for me, like not sleeping a lot and just
- 14:29Speaker 2: being on call with two young babies, doing something physically
- 14:32Speaker 2: exhausting actually was giving me energy. So I was combating
- 14:36Speaker 2: the emotional exhaustion with some physical activity. So like, I
- 14:39Speaker 2: put running back into my life to heal myself then
- 14:42Speaker 2: and to give me confidence and to give me something
- 14:44Speaker 2: to work towards. And so I feel like you need
- 14:47Speaker 2: to like understand what state of mind I was in,
- 14:50Speaker 2: to understand like what running meant to me and why
- 14:53Speaker 2: I put it.
- 14:53Speaker 1: Back into my life.
- 14:55Speaker 4: Yeah, And so when you speak about running, you can
- 14:57Speaker 4: like clearly hear in your voice just how meaningful it
- 15:01Speaker 4: is for you, which then brings me back to you
- 15:04Speaker 4: talking about breaking your foot in two places in Chicago
- 15:08Speaker 4: and having to take a step back from this sport,
- 15:11Speaker 4: knowing that you also had a very difficult year over
- 15:15Speaker 4: the last year. Would you say that this injury was
- 15:18Speaker 4: kind of the catalyst for what you felt like was
- 15:22Speaker 4: a really tough moment.
- 15:24Speaker 2: I think the injury was my body telling me what
- 15:27Speaker 2: I was going through.
- 15:29Speaker 1: And I think that like overall, I was.
- 15:32Speaker 2: Stressed and I was dealing with too much, and I
- 15:34Speaker 2: think my body like gave out on me. And I
- 15:38Speaker 2: mean maybe that's frue through or maybe that there's like
- 15:41Speaker 2: something to that, but I think my body was a
- 15:43Speaker 2: direct reflection of like it just was hard and I
- 15:47Speaker 2: needed to take a step.
- 15:48Speaker 1: Back and recover.
- 15:49Speaker 2: But yeah, to your point, like when my parents got divorced,
- 15:52Speaker 2: I used running to heal myself, you know, when, Yeah,
- 15:56Speaker 2: when I was having a really hard time with two
- 15:58Speaker 2: young kids at home, I used running, like like in
- 16:01Speaker 2: a very therapeutic way. So it's tough where you're going
- 16:03Speaker 2: through something hard and you don't have you know that,
- 16:07Speaker 2: but you kind of For me, I looked like I
- 16:10Speaker 2: did a lot of cross training and I just kept reflecting,
- 16:12Speaker 2: like Okay.
- 16:13Speaker 1: How can I make sure I never get back here again?
- 16:15Speaker 2: And I was so lucky too that like now joining
- 16:17Speaker 2: this team and working out with like the pro team
- 16:20Speaker 2: at BYU under coach ed Eystone.
- 16:23Speaker 1: There were so many teammates too that could see.
- 16:25Speaker 2: That I just needed another hand and like literally vigoredly
- 16:29Speaker 2: would like lift me up and like help me keep
- 16:31Speaker 2: going through everything. So it like I'm really lucky to
- 16:34Speaker 2: be in a place like that.
- 16:36Speaker 4: So beyond the cross training, what else would you say,
- 16:39Speaker 4: has been an outlet for you over the past year.
- 16:42Speaker 2: Cross training for sure, and then just connecting with like
- 16:45Speaker 2: friends and family. I think like I lean on people
- 16:48Speaker 2: a lot, and like especially my mom, just like I
- 16:51Speaker 2: called her a lot, I needed her a lot this
- 16:53Speaker 2: last year.
- 16:54Speaker 1: I'd family come out and visit and just help with everything.
- 16:56Speaker 2: And then like, I mean for me too, I should
- 16:59Speaker 2: I should have start out this way. Just throwing everything
- 17:01Speaker 2: into my kids is such a gift too, that like,
- 17:04Speaker 2: and I can like just so focus on them and
- 17:06Speaker 2: making sure that they have what they need and I'm
- 17:08Speaker 2: the best mother for them, and just like doing everything
- 17:11Speaker 2: I can to be the best mom I can is
- 17:13Speaker 2: a really just incredible way to like, you know, put
- 17:16Speaker 2: my focus.
- 17:17Speaker 4: Talk to me about how you're feeling in the mountains, Kira.
- 17:21Speaker 2: I love the mountains. I love the mountains, Emily, so
- 17:26Speaker 2: my whole life. People have asked like, are you a
- 17:28Speaker 2: beach or mountain person? And I've always like, I've been
- 17:31Speaker 2: like mountains, you know, because I hear the way people
- 17:35Speaker 2: talk about the beach that it centers them and it
- 17:37Speaker 2: calls to them, and they're like, you know, there's some
- 17:40Speaker 2: sort of gravity that pulls them to the beach and
- 17:42Speaker 2: I think the beach is cool, but like I don't
- 17:45Speaker 2: feel that way about the beach. And then I move
- 17:47Speaker 2: to the mountains and I feel that way about the
- 17:50Speaker 2: mountains that people have described about the beach, like it
- 17:53Speaker 2: centers me, like I could be having like you know,
- 17:56Speaker 2: just like an okay run, and I look up and
- 17:58Speaker 2: see like the mountain range and like life is good.
- 18:01Speaker 1: This is like look how beautiful this is.
- 18:03Speaker 2: I think my kids are annoyed now because every time
- 18:05Speaker 2: we turn on this one road, I'm like, look at
- 18:07Speaker 2: this view and they're like you've literally said that a
- 18:09Speaker 2: hundred times at this exact location.
- 18:11Speaker 1: Like we get it. This new is.
- 18:12Speaker 2: Incredible, but like I'm just constantly my breath is taken
- 18:16Speaker 2: away by just like how majestic it is.
- 18:18Speaker 1: And it just reminds you too.
- 18:20Speaker 2: For whatever reason, it puts things into perspective that like
- 18:22Speaker 2: we're so small, you know, and these problems are like
- 18:25Speaker 2: are okay, you know, Like I don't know, I don't.
- 18:29Speaker 3: Know, No, I can totally relate to that.
- 18:31Speaker 4: Sometimes it's like we're so caught up in our own
- 18:33Speaker 4: stuff that's going on that we like have a hard
- 18:35Speaker 4: time zooming out.
- 18:36Speaker 3: But when you have this.
- 18:37Speaker 4: Phenomenal backdrop in your every single day. It makes it
- 18:42Speaker 4: a little bit easier to like come to terms with
- 18:44Speaker 4: all right, it's not that serious.
- 18:46Speaker 2: Yeah, And then it's like when you're like faced with
- 18:48Speaker 2: all that beauty, you're like, life is so good.
- 18:51Speaker 1: Yeah, it is so good and so beautiful.
- 18:53Speaker 3: You know, yeah, no, I get it.
- 18:55Speaker 4: So I want to circle back to a theme that
- 18:58Speaker 4: you talk a bit about toward the beginning the book,
- 19:00Speaker 4: and that theme is guilt. A line that really resonated
- 19:04Speaker 4: with me, Kira is that true guilt is the feeling
- 19:07Speaker 4: that you get when you act outside of your own
- 19:10Speaker 4: values and you know it in your heart that you've
- 19:12Speaker 4: betrayed yourself. When was the last time that you would
- 19:16Speaker 4: say that you experienced true guilt.
- 19:21Speaker 1: I feel guilty a lot. I think that's just by nature.
- 19:25Speaker 2: Most of it's just around my kids, you know, Like
- 19:28Speaker 2: I am I like the best mom I can be am.
- 19:30Speaker 1: I giving them everything they need, like and I think.
- 19:33Speaker 2: Sometimes too with kids, like sometimes like kind of learning
- 19:37Speaker 2: things the hard way is actually they need that like
- 19:39Speaker 2: sometimes like through failure, there's a lot of growth, and
- 19:42Speaker 2: so I think that's like the hardest thing is when
- 19:44Speaker 2: you see your kids going through something and like wanting
- 19:47Speaker 2: to like solve their problems, but also knowing that this
- 19:50Speaker 2: is where like a lot of growth comes in and
- 19:52Speaker 2: I can support them and love them and show them
- 19:54Speaker 2: I'll be here unconditionally, but like they're going to have
- 19:56Speaker 2: to work through some of these things. So I think
- 19:59Speaker 2: that's where probably feel the most. There's a lot to
- 20:02Speaker 2: unpack with with guilt just in general.
- 20:04Speaker 4: Why do you think that you have like such a
- 20:07Speaker 4: propensity for gil Where do you think that that comes from?
- 20:10Speaker 2: This may sound sexist, I think partly being female. I
- 20:13Speaker 2: think I remember hearing once, like when I was in
- 20:15Speaker 2: high school that the difference between like they're talking about
- 20:19Speaker 2: a basketball team and if you had like a coach
- 20:23Speaker 2: given halftime talk to a team full of males saying, Okay,
- 20:26Speaker 2: we really need to work on passing, majority of the
- 20:29Speaker 2: men on that team would think, yeah, my teammate needs
- 20:32Speaker 2: to be better at that. And if you have that
- 20:34Speaker 2: same speech to a team of females, every female is
- 20:38Speaker 2: going to internalize saying, oh, yeah, I need to work
- 20:40Speaker 2: on that. So I think just naturally and like I
- 20:43Speaker 2: forget what study that was, I forget even where I
- 20:45Speaker 2: heard that, But I think naturally. I tend to internalize
- 20:49Speaker 2: things that way. I'm the oldest of five kids, so
- 20:52Speaker 2: I've kind of, like, you know, I talked about it.
- 20:53Speaker 2: I'm not bossy, I have leadership qualities, but so I
- 20:57Speaker 2: think that that trying to keep everyone in line in
- 20:59Speaker 2: one to be a good example, and just feeling, you know,
- 21:02Speaker 2: so proud of my brothers and sisters, wanting to help them.
- 21:05Speaker 2: Matt Centuitz Senior would always tell me to take off
- 21:08Speaker 2: my Red Cross uniform. And I think I've always just
- 21:12Speaker 2: wanted to help people, like I think it's just in
- 21:14Speaker 2: my blood, wanting to give and help and support. And
- 21:17Speaker 2: so I think learning for me how to yeah focus
- 21:20Speaker 2: a little bit, be a little more selfish. And I
- 21:22Speaker 2: talk about that word as the loaded word too, But
- 21:25Speaker 2: being able to kind of focus on myself without giving
- 21:28Speaker 2: all of myself away is just something I've had to
- 21:30Speaker 2: work on my whole life.
- 21:31Speaker 4: It's so hard, It is so hard to try to
- 21:35Speaker 4: bin back into yourself when you are someone that like
- 21:38Speaker 4: identifies as a giver and someone that likes to support.
- 21:42Speaker 4: But also what you've learned and what you speak about
- 21:45Speaker 4: so well in the book is that that oxygen mask moment,
- 21:48Speaker 4: the understanding that doing things for yourself isn't selfish. For
- 21:52Speaker 4: someone who hears this and they think, oh, man, I
- 21:55Speaker 4: feel guilty all of the time, where does someone even
- 21:58Speaker 4: begin with reclaiming this space and with letting go of
- 22:03Speaker 4: some of the guilt in your experience.
- 22:06Speaker 1: For me, it took time, and like so for me
- 22:09Speaker 1: starting to put running back in.
- 22:10Speaker 2: My life, there was guilt associated with that that I
- 22:13Speaker 2: felt guilty that I was taking twenty minutes outside of
- 22:16Speaker 2: my day doing something that was for me and not
- 22:18Speaker 2: for my family.
- 22:19Speaker 1: But then I did it, and I had, like I
- 22:21Speaker 1: called it, like a dipstick.
- 22:22Speaker 2: I'd come back and make sure my kids were still happy,
- 22:25Speaker 2: healthy and loved, and I'd come back and their world
- 22:29Speaker 2: went on and they were still happy, healthy, loved, and
- 22:33Speaker 2: I was like, okay, Like my family could sustain this.
- 22:36Speaker 1: And then I'd tried running for thirty.
- 22:37Speaker 2: Minutes and I'd come back and be like, Okay, they're happy,
- 22:40Speaker 2: healthy and loved, Like this is okay.
- 22:42Speaker 1: So it took me just time to like slowly grow
- 22:46Speaker 1: that and realize.
- 22:48Speaker 2: And then I was realizing too that I was becoming
- 22:50Speaker 2: a better version of myself for them, and like just
- 22:53Speaker 2: going out for a run and doing that, like I
- 22:56Speaker 2: could be a more present mother, I could be just
- 22:58Speaker 2: more attentive, and I felt that I had done something
- 23:01Speaker 2: for myself so I could just give more.
- 23:04Speaker 1: And then also like kind of having that.
- 23:06Speaker 2: Dipstick I think allows you to adjust that there's weekends
- 23:09Speaker 2: that I've gone away for a race and I've come
- 23:10Speaker 2: back and like they're a little distraught, and it's like, okay,
- 23:14Speaker 2: so now I need to calibrate and make sure that they.
- 23:16Speaker 1: Again are feeling happy, healthy and loved.
- 23:19Speaker 2: But I think when you can kind of make that
- 23:21Speaker 2: dipstick and check that point, I don't know, I think
- 23:23Speaker 2: that that really helped me. But then also like my kids,
- 23:28Speaker 2: realizing that kids can learn a lot from other people,
- 23:31Speaker 2: they can be loved from other people like they it
- 23:33Speaker 2: can experience life in different ways, and I don't need
- 23:36Speaker 2: to be everything to them.
- 23:37Speaker 1: So I think the little bit of the type a letting.
- 23:39Speaker 2: Go is really helpful, Easier said than done, and just
- 23:42Speaker 2: like learning to ask for help, you know, when people
- 23:45Speaker 2: like show up and help you, Like it is sometimes
- 23:48Speaker 2: hard to ask for help, but it's very rewarding, I'm sure,
- 23:51Speaker 2: because I love when people ask me for help. So
- 23:53Speaker 2: I don't know, why I'm so embarrassed to ask other
- 23:55Speaker 2: people for help. But yeah, so kind of all the
- 23:57Speaker 2: above kind of rambled on there.
- 23:59Speaker 1: A little bit.
- 24:00Speaker 4: Fine, all the above, I seriously relate to that, and
- 24:03Speaker 4: I never asked myself that question. I'm like, I love
- 24:05Speaker 4: helping people, so I'm sure that there's someone that would
- 24:07Speaker 4: love helping me. Although I've gotten better at opening up
- 24:10Speaker 4: and allowing for the help, I still have to our
- 24:14Speaker 4: conversation about guilt, like guilt being in this position where
- 24:18Speaker 4: I'm like, but I need your help.
- 24:20Speaker 2: I mean, we're capable at us women, Emily, you know,
- 24:23Speaker 2: so like our default is that we can do it
- 24:25Speaker 2: all alone. And I think when we can let go
- 24:28Speaker 2: of that a little bit and invite, and then we
- 24:30Speaker 2: can realize, like how much we can learn from other
- 24:32Speaker 2: people too. Right, Like I come in and my mom's
- 24:35Speaker 2: doing something with my kids, like a craft that I'm like,
- 24:38Speaker 2: I would have never in a million years thought of that,
- 24:39Speaker 2: but that looks like so much fun.
- 24:41Speaker 1: I'm so glad that they have this experience.
- 24:43Speaker 2: You know, And just like in life, similar things, when
- 24:45Speaker 2: people come and help you with things, You're like.
- 24:47Speaker 1: Wow, I would have never done it that way, But
- 24:48Speaker 1: I'm so glad.
- 24:49Speaker 3: I just learned that, yes, totally.
- 24:51Speaker 4: In the book you write running makes me a better
- 24:53Speaker 4: mother and being a mother makes me a better runner.
- 24:55Speaker 4: Parenthood has released me from the pressure because whether runner
- 24:58Speaker 4: hero wins or loses, it doesn't impact mom.
- 25:01Speaker 3: Kira.
- 25:02Speaker 4: Now you've realized this that when you whether you win
- 25:06Speaker 4: or lose, it doesn't impact mom.
- 25:08Speaker 3: Kira.
- 25:09Speaker 4: I want to bring us to the Olympic trials. Do
- 25:13Speaker 4: you feel like this is something that your kids have
- 25:18Speaker 4: realized too?
- 25:20Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 25:20Speaker 2: Through running, I've been able to teach my kids a
- 25:23Speaker 2: lot of different things, like hopefully I've been able to
- 25:25Speaker 2: teach them how like find a passion and go for
- 25:29Speaker 2: it and what does go for it look like? It
- 25:31Speaker 2: means like showing up every day and maybe not every
- 25:34Speaker 2: day is better, but showing up on that consistent basis.
- 25:37Speaker 1: And like doing the best you can with that day.
- 25:40Speaker 2: And then I've also shown them like how to hopefully
- 25:42Speaker 2: win gracefully and more importantly, most of life we're falling
- 25:47Speaker 2: short right by default over half of our performances, you know,
- 25:51Speaker 2: or probably subpar, and like what do you do with that?
- 25:55Speaker 2: And I think like the true winners in life or
- 25:57Speaker 2: the type that are like okay, that didn't go very well.
- 26:00Speaker 2: Let's learn our lesson, Let's move on, Let's find what
- 26:02Speaker 2: we can learn from this, and let's move on. And
- 26:05Speaker 2: so I think like failing on like a big stage
- 26:08Speaker 2: with my kids, like very invested in that race, like
- 26:11Speaker 2: obviously not how I wanted the race to go out,
- 26:13Speaker 2: but maybe even a better lesson for them to see that,
- 26:16Speaker 2: like we don't always win, Like winning is more an
- 26:20Speaker 2: exception than like a reality every time. And so how
- 26:23Speaker 2: you can handle when you lose, you know, like learn
- 26:26Speaker 2: your lesson. We can be sad about it, that's okay,
- 26:29Speaker 2: Like all feelings are valid, but give yourself a point
- 26:32Speaker 2: where you're like, Okay, now I'm going to start moving forward.
- 26:34Speaker 2: I'm going to readjust I'm going to find a new
- 26:36Speaker 2: goal and watch mom go after the next thing she
- 26:38Speaker 2: goes for, Like that didn't break me, you know, So
- 26:41Speaker 2: I hope that they can learn resiliency through that.
- 26:44Speaker 1: So yeah, I think sometimes even the.
- 26:45Speaker 2: Bad races, like they can learn more from the way,
- 26:48Speaker 2: you know, I handle myself.
- 26:49Speaker 4: We don't try hard going after a goal for it
- 26:55Speaker 4: not to go as we'd hoped. And this is certainly
- 26:58Speaker 4: something that you know a lot about. So recently in
- 27:03Speaker 4: your training, have there been moments where you've had to
- 27:07Speaker 4: kind of bring in this radical honesty and be like
- 27:09Speaker 4: this is working or this isn't working.
- 27:12Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean this.
- 27:13Speaker 2: I mean this spring, I lined up for the Boston Marathon,
- 27:17Speaker 2: and I came in super underbaked. I had maybe a
- 27:20Speaker 2: couple months of training going into it off of being
- 27:23Speaker 2: off for a lot, and my training was just trying
- 27:26Speaker 2: to turn enough that I thought maybe I can do it.
- 27:29Speaker 2: And six miles into the race, I realized the wheels
- 27:33Speaker 2: were coming off. I was already hitting a wall and
- 27:34Speaker 2: I have twenty miles to go. And I realized then
- 27:38Speaker 2: that like I wasn't at risk of hypothermia or heatstroke,
- 27:42Speaker 2: I wasn't injured, there was nothing.
- 27:44Speaker 1: I wasn't going to do my body damage by finishing.
- 27:47Speaker 2: But I knew that would be a big moment for
- 27:49Speaker 2: me after coming off of Chicago and having to drop out.
- 27:52Speaker 2: I knew I was going to finish the race, and
- 27:55Speaker 2: so I had to slow down a little bit and
- 27:57Speaker 2: I like kept it together, and that was a really
- 28:00Speaker 2: I'm really proud of myself. I mean, it was one
- 28:01Speaker 2: of the slowest marathons I've run in the last ten years.
- 28:04Speaker 2: But I was so proud that I kept going even
- 28:07Speaker 2: though it wasn't my best day ever. It probably wasn't
- 28:10Speaker 2: even the best that I could do that day, but
- 28:12Speaker 2: I was really proud of myself for pushing through in
- 28:15Speaker 2: that moment, and that was like a moment that I
- 28:18Speaker 2: should have pushed through. And then I've had some workouts
- 28:21Speaker 2: since where I've shown up just tired or mentally exhausted
- 28:26Speaker 2: or mentically done that I've started a wrap and I've
- 28:28Speaker 2: just been like, it's not here today, and I'll just
- 28:31Speaker 2: go on like an easy run. And I'm so thankful
- 28:34Speaker 2: that coach at Eystone is a very realistic person and
- 28:37Speaker 2: there's no extra emotion around that, and he also trust
- 28:41Speaker 2: us that we're all like I don't think he's ever
- 28:42Speaker 2: going to have to tell any of us and we
- 28:44Speaker 2: need to run more, go faster. He's like raining us in.
- 28:47Speaker 2: So with that, he's like, yep, good, call cool it down,
- 28:50Speaker 2: you're good and come back to fighting. You know the
- 28:53Speaker 2: next workout.
- 28:54Speaker 1: I don't know.
- 28:54Speaker 2: And it's funny because people ask me all the time too,
- 28:56Speaker 2: like I want to do a marathon, but I don't
- 28:57Speaker 2: really want to train for it, like any I'm like, well,
- 29:00Speaker 2: don't do a marathon.
- 29:02Speaker 1: Don't do it until you really really want it. But
- 29:04Speaker 1: it's okay not to want.
- 29:06Speaker 2: To do a marathon too, you know, Like it's okay
- 29:08Speaker 2: if you're a runner and you decide you don't want
- 29:10Speaker 2: to run for a while, Like I didn't want to
- 29:11Speaker 2: run for eight or nine years, you know, and I
- 29:13Speaker 2: was able to get back and do this.
- 29:14Speaker 1: So yeah, very personal, Sorry rambling again.
- 29:17Speaker 3: Oh you're never rambling for me. I find it all
- 29:19Speaker 3: so fascinating.
- 29:20Speaker 4: You're you're talking about basically that you've had so much
- 29:25Speaker 4: practice strengthening both your resiliency and your compassion muscles. It's
- 29:32Speaker 4: something that is aspirational for so many So when someone
- 29:39Speaker 4: hears you speak this way and they think, I too,
- 29:42Speaker 4: wish that I could have a bit more compassion for myself.
- 29:46Speaker 4: Aside from saying, well you just need to start, what
- 29:49Speaker 4: other practical advice do you have for that person?
- 29:52Speaker 2: It's so it's so tough, and it's something that you
- 29:54Speaker 2: need to work on and develop, and it takes time.
- 29:57Speaker 2: And I think for me, stop comparing yourself to your
- 30:03Speaker 2: best ever, and then it's a lot easier to be
- 30:05Speaker 2: compassionate for the person you are today. And like accepting
- 30:08Speaker 2: where you are today is where you are today. It
- 30:11Speaker 2: doesn't mean you're going to be there forever and you
- 30:13Speaker 2: can grow from here. But I think just showing the
- 30:16Speaker 2: person you are today some like just some grace. And
- 30:19Speaker 2: I think also like the version of you from the
- 30:22Speaker 2: past like was doing the best that he or she
- 30:24Speaker 2: could too, So I think showing like your past some
- 30:28Speaker 2: grace too, that that was the best I could do
- 30:30Speaker 2: with what I knew in the moment. And yeah, I've
- 30:31Speaker 2: done a lot of really stupid things, but you kind
- 30:34Speaker 2: of have to forgive yourself and learn from it and
- 30:36Speaker 2: just know that you're going to be better. And then
- 30:38Speaker 2: I think worrying about the future too like too much.
- 30:41Speaker 2: Like we can worry things about what we need to do,
- 30:43Speaker 2: but things out of our control we need to let
- 30:45Speaker 2: go of too. So I think it's like kind of
- 30:47Speaker 2: a combination of accepting yourself where you are, and like
- 30:50Speaker 2: I mean when I started back running and I tried
- 30:53Speaker 2: to run for three minutes and I only made it
- 30:55Speaker 2: ninety seconds, like I just like I mean, I cried
- 30:58Speaker 2: about it, so it wasn't like totally grace and I
- 31:00Speaker 2: was like, I can't believe this is where I am,
- 31:01Speaker 2: but I'm like, this is where I am. I'm a
- 31:03Speaker 2: ninety second runner today, maybe tomorrow or the day after
- 31:06Speaker 2: I can be a two minute runner.
- 31:07Speaker 1: So I think like giving yourself some time to just helps.
- 31:12Speaker 2: But yeah, and then I mean just the old advice,
- 31:13Speaker 2: you know, talk to yourself the way you would talk
- 31:15Speaker 2: to friends. You know, like, I don't know, I'm the
- 31:18Speaker 2: hard on my friends at all. I'm always building them up,
- 31:20Speaker 2: So why shouldn't I build up myself too?
- 31:22Speaker 3: A men.
- 31:23Speaker 4: As you talk about in the book, perfectionism can backfire, right,
- 31:27Speaker 4: and that is it's so much easier said than done
- 31:30Speaker 4: to say to yourself, I'm not going to be a perfectionist.
- 31:33Speaker 4: I'm going to level set my expectations. But it doesn't
- 31:35Speaker 4: mean that you don't want the best for yourself. Now,
- 31:38Speaker 4: I think in practice, wanting the best for yourself is
- 31:42Speaker 4: what we're talking about here. It is offering yourself this grace.
- 31:45Speaker 4: It is putting yourself in this position where, regardless of
- 31:49Speaker 4: the outcome, you can genuinely say I did the best
- 31:52Speaker 4: I could with what I had.
- 31:54Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 31:54Speaker 2: Absolutely, And I think too, it's funny, just as you
- 31:57Speaker 2: were saying that this like analogy came to my mind
- 31:59Speaker 2: that if we are giving one hundred percent, that is
- 32:03Speaker 2: really close to our red line, right, we can't give
- 32:05Speaker 2: any more than one hundred percent, So if we like
- 32:07Speaker 2: tilt over the one hundred percent, we're on a razor's
- 32:09Speaker 2: edge of like the most we can do in something
- 32:11Speaker 2: that's like detrimental.
- 32:13Speaker 1: So I think too, like that's perfectionism.
- 32:15Speaker 2: Right, But what if we came off that one hundred
- 32:17Speaker 2: percent and what if we were training at ninety five
- 32:19Speaker 2: or ninety eight percent, That we're not quite redlining it.
- 32:23Speaker 1: And that's not we're not being perfectionist.
- 32:25Speaker 2: Like we can call it when we need to call it,
- 32:26Speaker 2: or we can shorten the cool down, or maybe like
- 32:28Speaker 2: we give ourselves a little bit of like extra grace
- 32:31Speaker 2: on like the pace, but that's so much more sustainable
- 32:33Speaker 2: because you're not on that razor's edge. So I think
- 32:36Speaker 2: like learning that good enough is good enough to I
- 32:39Speaker 2: talk about that a lot in the book, But I
- 32:40Speaker 2: think that helps with the perfectionism that like the point
- 32:43Speaker 2: of running and most things in life is consistency, and
- 32:47Speaker 2: if you're overdoing it and you're burning out, then it's
- 32:49Speaker 2: hard to be consistent.
- 32:51Speaker 4: When would you say you truly learned what your red
- 32:56Speaker 4: line is. Because a theme and something that I was
- 32:58Speaker 4: so interested to read it about in this book is
- 33:01Speaker 4: how often you are truly like pushing yourself to the
- 33:04Speaker 4: point of I have absolutely nothing left in the tank,
- 33:07Speaker 4: the medical tents, the hospital visits and all these things
- 33:10Speaker 4: as you're chasing the balands of your potential. So can
- 33:13Speaker 4: you recall the first time you really felt what it
- 33:17Speaker 4: was like to go all in?
- 33:19Speaker 1: Oh Man?
- 33:20Speaker 2: And I think that's like the biggest joke of life too,
- 33:23Speaker 2: is that red line is constantly moving.
- 33:25Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 33:25Speaker 2: Great, So it's like it's not like I know exactly
- 33:28Speaker 2: where it is, but every day it's a little bit different.
- 33:30Speaker 2: Every year it's a little different. The older our gun,
- 33:32Speaker 2: the more finicky that redline is. But I mean, I think, like,
- 33:36Speaker 2: I mean, the first race that came to mind is Houston.
- 33:39Speaker 3: I thought you were going to say that.
- 33:40Speaker 1: That race took everything more from me.
- 33:43Speaker 2: I was surprised that I finished on pace just because
- 33:46Speaker 2: of everything that I pushed through in that race, But
- 33:49Speaker 2: that one I truly went to the barrel and found
- 33:53Speaker 2: like what I had that day, which but I think
- 33:55Speaker 2: also I was running a pace to start out that
- 33:58Speaker 2: was probably conservative to allow me to do that even
- 34:01Speaker 2: though it felt fast from the gun I was. I
- 34:04Speaker 2: was in shape to do that, which is why I could.
- 34:07Speaker 2: But oh yeah, that one empty, that one. I went
- 34:10Speaker 2: to some deep dark places in that race.
- 34:15Speaker 4: I like think about just being in the bathtub and
- 34:19Speaker 4: being like, am I Am I a human?
- 34:22Speaker 3: Still? Like what's happening here?
- 34:24Speaker 4: And I mean, we've certainly all had these moments where
- 34:27Speaker 4: we're in the pits of the darkest bits of ourselves
- 34:31Speaker 4: and we're trying to figure out how to pick ourselves
- 34:33Speaker 4: off the floor. And what I find so impressive about you,
- 34:36Speaker 4: Kira is it's like you keep getting to that edge
- 34:39Speaker 4: and you have this profound understanding that you get to
- 34:43Speaker 4: pick yourself back up, and that for so many again
- 34:47Speaker 4: is such a challenging realization. It's you could fall into
- 34:51Speaker 4: what so many refer to as this victim mindset, or
- 34:54Speaker 4: you can say, now I'm going to take this and
- 34:57Speaker 4: I'm going to go.
- 34:58Speaker 3: From A to B because I get that opportunity.
- 35:01Speaker 4: Do you feel like that is a lesson, that growth
- 35:05Speaker 4: mindset that I get to mindset that you've learned over
- 35:09Speaker 4: time as an athlete, or is that something that was
- 35:12Speaker 4: instilled in you from a young age.
- 35:13Speaker 1: I think I learned that over the time.
- 35:15Speaker 2: And that's such like an interesting question too, because I
- 35:18Speaker 2: think I actually like the robustness of that lesson. I
- 35:23Speaker 2: think happened when I wasn't running and I was living
- 35:26Speaker 2: with these what ifs and would have cut a should
- 35:28Speaker 2: have and like what if I wouldn't have quit, and
- 35:31Speaker 2: there was just a lot of like turmoil in questions,
- 35:34Speaker 2: and that to me, is far harder to live with
- 35:39Speaker 2: than going for something and falling short. So it's so easy,
- 35:43Speaker 2: Like I mean, after I go for something and fall short,
- 35:45Speaker 2: like you could still step back and be like I
- 35:47Speaker 2: had the courage to start, Like look at me, go
- 35:49Speaker 2: like that is really cool that I set out on
- 35:51Speaker 2: this goal. And maybe I'm not there yet, maybe I
- 35:54Speaker 2: can get there in the future, but that is so
- 35:57Speaker 2: much more fun than sitting there one ding what if
- 36:01Speaker 2: and that like alone. Like someone recently asked me to
- 36:04Speaker 2: defind like what winning is, and I was like, you
- 36:06Speaker 2: know what, standing on the starting line, if any race
- 36:09Speaker 2: feels like a win. That I had the courage to
- 36:11Speaker 2: like pick a race, train for.
- 36:13Speaker 1: It and make it to the starting line, that to
- 36:15Speaker 1: me is winning. You know, everything else is gravy.
- 36:18Speaker 2: So It's like even when a race doesn't go quite well, well,
- 36:20Speaker 2: I put myself out there and I went for it,
- 36:22Speaker 2: which feels like so much further ahead of where here
- 36:26Speaker 2: was ten or fifteen years ago.
- 36:28Speaker 3: How does Kiara manage disappointment?
- 36:30Speaker 1: Oh?
- 36:30Speaker 2: Man, Like I am competitive, right, so I finish and
- 36:33Speaker 2: I'm like let down, But then like I think, I
- 36:36Speaker 2: quickly try to like pivot to like Okay, what did
- 36:40Speaker 2: I learn, Like how like what can we celebrate from that?
- 36:44Speaker 1: What do I need to like level up?
- 36:46Speaker 2: And what can I put in like the failure toolbox
- 36:50Speaker 2: from this race that make sure I never get back
- 36:52Speaker 2: here again? So I think I've become like really realistic.
- 36:55Speaker 2: And I think also too, it's like I don't know
- 36:59Speaker 2: just where are you in my life in my age,
- 37:02Speaker 2: like falling short on like a time goal and a
- 37:05Speaker 2: workout or a race, like I can handle that, you know,
- 37:09Speaker 2: like my kids get sick or something's wrong like that
- 37:12Speaker 2: like is crushing, so it kind of or like you know,
- 37:15Speaker 2: just something professional, Like I don't know, I think everything
- 37:17Speaker 2: in perspective, but it helps having other things in my
- 37:21Speaker 2: life just to help keep everything in perspective and then
- 37:24Speaker 2: just knowing it's not like progress isn't linear. We've heard
- 37:26Speaker 2: this a million times, but just knowing that it's not
- 37:29Speaker 2: always gonna you know, it's not this exponential. I don't
- 37:33Speaker 2: know X Yu gos X squared drap.
- 37:35Speaker 3: Yeah, the whole thing. You know, you brought up your age.
- 37:39Speaker 4: You get asked about it way more than I think
- 37:41Speaker 4: is even appropriate. But at this point, how does that
- 37:46Speaker 4: make you feel? That it is like an inevitable point
- 37:50Speaker 4: of the conversation when we talk about your performance as
- 37:54Speaker 4: an athlete.
- 37:54Speaker 1: I'm really proud and I think I'm really proud to
- 37:59Speaker 1: be moving the bar for everybody.
- 38:01Speaker 2: And I think going for it as hard as I'm
- 38:04Speaker 2: going for it, I think is showing everybody what we're
- 38:07Speaker 2: all capable of. Like after the Track Championships this past July,
- 38:12Speaker 2: I cool down with a girl who was also in
- 38:14Speaker 2: the ten k race and she was like, Kira, I
- 38:18Speaker 2: love when you crush a race and I was like, oh, wow, yeah, thanks,
- 38:21Speaker 2: I appreciate that, and she's like, no, because I see
- 38:24Speaker 2: like every time you crush a race it adds years
- 38:28Speaker 2: to like my running longevity. It makes me feel like
- 38:32Speaker 2: I'm capable of so much more, and that my like
- 38:35Speaker 2: timeline and running just increased. So you just showed me
- 38:38Speaker 2: now that I can run for even longer and I
- 38:40Speaker 2: can improve for even longer, and how much like, yeah,
- 38:43Speaker 2: how much more I have to look forward to, which
- 38:45Speaker 2: allows me to be a lot more patient with where
- 38:47Speaker 2: I am today. So I'm really like that to me,
- 38:50Speaker 2: like that made the whole track meet. You know, I
- 38:52Speaker 2: like I ended up seventh and I broke like the
- 38:54Speaker 2: Master's American record, But that, like one little conversation meant.
- 38:58Speaker 1: More to me than any like place I would ever finish.
- 39:01Speaker 4: I think it's so special. I mean, I'm not that
- 39:03Speaker 4: far from you right now, and I still feel it's
- 39:07Speaker 4: so interesting to say the sentence, like it feels brave
- 39:11Speaker 4: to say I want to like beat my previous best time,
- 39:16Speaker 4: knowing that I'm thirty seven and not thirty one, right
- 39:21Speaker 4: but it is still much of our conversation of just
- 39:24Speaker 4: meeting yourself with where you're at, And I too, have
- 39:27Speaker 4: no ego about being realistic.
- 39:30Speaker 3: It's more like, no, this is entirely within the wheelhouse.
- 39:33Speaker 4: And how special is it that we get to feel
- 39:36Speaker 4: that way at this stage in the game as you
- 39:39Speaker 4: are moving forward right now, I know that this what
- 39:42Speaker 4: if question is a big one for you. What are
- 39:44Speaker 4: the what ifs that are kind of on the tip
- 39:47Speaker 4: of your tongue.
- 39:47Speaker 1: At the moment, I think, like, what if I can
- 39:49Speaker 1: still run faster?
- 39:51Speaker 2: What if I have a marathon PR and half marathon
- 39:54Speaker 2: PR and like a national.
- 39:56Speaker 1: Champion stip still in me?
- 39:58Speaker 2: Like what if I can run healthy for the next
- 40:00Speaker 2: three years and qualify for the next Olympic Trials and
- 40:03Speaker 2: show up as a competitor at the twenty twenty eight
- 40:06Speaker 2: Olympic Trials, Like those are all like those are all
- 40:09Speaker 2: question marks that are really fun and really exciting and
- 40:13Speaker 2: I don't know the answer to unless I go for it,
- 40:15Speaker 2: So might as well go for it.
- 40:18Speaker 4: Is it hard for you to shut out what everybody
- 40:20Speaker 4: else has to say?
- 40:21Speaker 2: I don't think so, because the running world in general
- 40:25Speaker 2: never thought I'd ever amount.
- 40:28Speaker 1: To what I amounted to.
- 40:29Speaker 2: So it's hard then to also listen when they're like,
- 40:34Speaker 2: you know, when they're like, oh, that's you know, that's
- 40:36Speaker 2: it for Kira, you know, it's like, well you didn't
- 40:38Speaker 2: actually you never were cheering for me, or you never
- 40:40Speaker 2: saw when I could break an American record either. So
- 40:42Speaker 2: I can't trust what you think, like I can trust
- 40:44Speaker 2: myself and my coach and my teammates and my support system,
- 40:47Speaker 2: like I believe in them and I.
- 40:49Speaker 1: Listen to that.
- 40:50Speaker 2: But outside of that, like it's, you know, they don't
- 40:52Speaker 2: know what I'm going through or how hard I'm working,
- 40:54Speaker 2: or what I'm going through like on the track and workouts,
- 40:57Speaker 2: so it's it's it's been easy, kind of easy to
- 41:01Speaker 2: block it out.
- 41:02Speaker 1: I guess.
- 41:03Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 41:03Speaker 4: I really appreciate how open you were in the book
- 41:07Speaker 4: talking about the coming to and understanding of what you
- 41:12Speaker 4: wanted to do with your sponsors.
- 41:14Speaker 3: Right there was an.
- 41:15Speaker 4: Opportunity that came your way that just didn't sit right
- 41:18Speaker 4: with you, and that is a great example of you
- 41:22Speaker 4: trusting your gut and going with what.
- 41:24Speaker 3: You thought was best.
- 41:26Speaker 4: Have there been moments or instances in your career where
- 41:31Speaker 4: you look back and you say, maybe I should have
- 41:33Speaker 4: gone that way.
- 41:34Speaker 2: I think I have done a pretty good job of
- 41:38Speaker 2: following my heart and picking goals that are very authentic
- 41:41Speaker 2: and that excite me. And I don't think I will
- 41:43Speaker 2: ever regret doing something that feels really like authentic and
- 41:49Speaker 2: passionate and exciting to me, Like I am totally fine
- 41:52Speaker 2: going for something and learning my lesson as long as
- 41:55Speaker 2: I'm choosing to go for it. And I've had like
- 41:57Speaker 2: people in the past that have advised me to do
- 41:59Speaker 2: different things and that have suggested to do this, and
- 42:03Speaker 2: I've been really proud of being able to be like,
- 42:05Speaker 2: you know what, I have to live with my choices,
- 42:07Speaker 2: and I have to live with the outcome, and I
- 42:09Speaker 2: have to live with training for this for months and
- 42:11Speaker 2: months and months. So I really want to make sure
- 42:13Speaker 2: it's something that I'm really excited about and I can
- 42:16Speaker 2: live with whether I like, yeah, if I hit it,
- 42:19Speaker 2: or if I don't yeah.
- 42:21Speaker 4: And I think that also is like so impressive, right,
- 42:24Speaker 4: just getting to this place where you're like, these are
- 42:26Speaker 4: my decisions to make because it is challenging not to
- 42:31Speaker 4: let all of the noise, the external noise, be something
- 42:34Speaker 4: that impacts your decision making. And I'm not saying that
- 42:36Speaker 4: there haven't been times that it's popped in a little bit,
- 42:39Speaker 4: but being able to put the blinders up and be like, Okay,
- 42:43Speaker 4: let's do an honest gut check, like what feels right
- 42:45Speaker 4: for Kiro, what feels right for Emily. That is again
- 42:49Speaker 4: that resiliency muscle in full effect well.
- 42:51Speaker 2: And I think like I've had some clear wise on
- 42:54Speaker 2: this journey, and so whenever I've been conflicted about what
- 42:57Speaker 2: to do, I resort back to my whys and that
- 43:00Speaker 2: becomes the answer.
- 43:01Speaker 3: We thought, it's pretty easy, So what are the why?
- 43:03Speaker 1: So?
- 43:03Speaker 2: I mean, for me, I still want to see how
- 43:04Speaker 2: fast I can run, So like my overall goal in
- 43:07Speaker 2: this sport is how fast can cure it run, So
- 43:11Speaker 2: picking races or picking you know, a training group, and
- 43:14Speaker 2: picking like a shoe that I want to run in,
- 43:17Speaker 2: it's all filtered, like is this going to help? Is
- 43:19Speaker 2: this going to support how fast I can run? So
- 43:22Speaker 2: that like single goals like for running, and then I
- 43:25Speaker 2: have like other like more I don't know what's it
- 43:28Speaker 2: called the smart goals that are like measurable goals you
- 43:30Speaker 2: know too.
- 43:31Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 43:31Speaker 1: But then also like I feel.
- 43:34Speaker 2: Like running for a wei has been really powerful for me,
- 43:38Speaker 2: like the we being teamed motto, the we being women,
- 43:41Speaker 2: the we being mothers, the we being people that aren't
- 43:44Speaker 2: in their twenties anymore. So I feel like that's also
- 43:47Speaker 2: been like a big y for me, is just showing
- 43:50Speaker 2: us all what we're capable of.
- 43:52Speaker 4: Yeah, it's been really powerful for me too, Kira, Just
- 43:55Speaker 4: so you know, so as you look forward, then we
- 43:58Speaker 4: obviously have talked about the goals, maybe the more smart
- 44:01Speaker 4: goals a little bit within sport. But when you think
- 44:04Speaker 4: about what else that you want for your life right now,
- 44:07Speaker 4: what goals come to mind?
- 44:08Speaker 3: What brings happiness to Kira?
- 44:10Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to be a great mom, Like I
- 44:12Speaker 2: want to be real involved with my kids, Like I
- 44:14Speaker 2: hope that my kids grow up and they're the kind
- 44:16Speaker 2: that want to like check in with me, like on
- 44:18Speaker 2: a daily basis. So I'm trying to plant those seeds
- 44:20Speaker 2: now so when they don't, like they don't have to
- 44:24Speaker 2: talk to me every day, they're going to want to
- 44:25Speaker 2: be calling me.
- 44:26Speaker 1: So that's like a big goal of mine. But just
- 44:28Speaker 1: making sure that.
- 44:28Speaker 2: They feel again like happy, healthy and loved. So that yeah,
- 44:34Speaker 2: some family goals. And then I would you know, after
- 44:36Speaker 2: like who knows how long this, Like I'll be able
- 44:39Speaker 2: to chase my fastest times ever, but I'd like to
- 44:42Speaker 2: still be involved in the sport in a way they
- 44:44Speaker 2: can help support, motivate, encourage.
- 44:47Speaker 1: Like empower other runners.
- 44:49Speaker 2: I don't quite know what that is yet, but I
- 44:51Speaker 2: got to take care of some more and furnished business
- 44:53Speaker 2: before I get there.
- 44:55Speaker 4: When you say that, Joni comes to mind, and I
- 44:58Speaker 4: think about all that she's been able to to do
- 45:01Speaker 4: for the sport of women's running, long after she stopped
- 45:04Speaker 4: running competitively. But nothing brings more joy to me than
- 45:08Speaker 4: seeing her just still out there kicking literally running races
- 45:12Speaker 4: just because it brings her joy, not because she's going
- 45:16Speaker 4: for the goals that she had, you know, twenty five
- 45:18Speaker 4: years ago.
- 45:19Speaker 1: Right.
- 45:19Speaker 2: And I'm so impressed by her too, because she's still
- 45:23Speaker 2: a competitor and it is so cool to.
- 45:26Speaker 1: See that she's a huge role model for me and inspiration.
- 45:30Speaker 3: She's inspiring us.
- 45:31Speaker 4: All I do, for a second want to go back
- 45:33Speaker 4: to this because it's just such a through line for you,
- 45:34Speaker 4: this idea of like I want to be the best
- 45:36Speaker 4: mom possible.
- 45:39Speaker 3: Do you have any reason to believe that you're not?
- 45:41Speaker 2: No, No, But I feel like I get one shot
- 45:44Speaker 2: at this, right, I get one shot to see them
- 45:47Speaker 2: grow up, and I get one shot to help them become.
- 45:50Speaker 1: The people that they're going to be proud of.
- 45:52Speaker 2: But yeah, I think also it relates back to like
- 45:54Speaker 2: that mom guilt too, you know, I think that that's
- 45:56Speaker 2: like all full circle that I like, I hope I'm
- 45:59Speaker 2: doing everything I.
- 46:00Speaker 1: Can for them.
- 46:01Speaker 4: I hear you when you talk about your running and
- 46:03Speaker 4: you talked about how you manage with disappointment, and it
- 46:07Speaker 4: seems as though you have such a solid mindset on
- 46:11Speaker 4: managing your expectations within sport, but when it comes to
- 46:15Speaker 4: your kid, you're like, I will not mess this up.
- 46:17Speaker 1: Yeah, no, this is. But I've also realized I'm far
- 46:21Speaker 1: from perfect.
- 46:22Speaker 2: And I talk about this a lot in the book
- 46:24Speaker 2: that like I have burnt meals and thrown the whole
- 46:27Speaker 2: pan into the garbage, like I am totally fine buying store,
- 46:31Speaker 2: bought Kate for someone's birthday, Like I have forgotten things,
- 46:35Speaker 2: I've dropped ball, So I am far from perfect.
- 46:38Speaker 4: Someone comes to your Instagram page, they see this rock
- 46:42Speaker 4: star athlete, someone who's still chasing as fast as she
- 46:46Speaker 4: can go and all of this new potential that's still
- 46:48Speaker 4: in there. But when you look in the mirror, what
- 46:51Speaker 4: is it that you see looking back at you?
- 46:52Speaker 2: You know, that's really funny, Like I I don't see
- 46:56Speaker 2: like Runner Cure when I look at the mirror, Like
- 46:58Speaker 2: I like to me, Kira is you know how like
- 47:02Speaker 2: Mario has a Warrio, so like Runner Cure is like
- 47:05Speaker 2: my Warrio. Okay, So I don't even want to say,
- 47:08Speaker 2: it's like.
- 47:08Speaker 1: A bad version.
- 47:09Speaker 2: It's like not evil or anything like that, but it's
- 47:11Speaker 2: like this ultra ego almost like real Kira is like
- 47:15Speaker 2: a mom that's like, you know, trying to keep track
- 47:18Speaker 2: of to do list and planning birthday parties and picking
- 47:21Speaker 2: up kids and trying to remember tonight's soccer lacrosse and
- 47:24Speaker 2: like what's for dinner. So to me, that's like real
- 47:27Speaker 2: life and it feels like kind of like dress up
- 47:31Speaker 2: in a way when I get to go put on
- 47:32Speaker 2: like a tractorsy and race people as fast as I can.
- 47:35Speaker 2: But it definitely like I don't see that version of
- 47:38Speaker 2: Kira when I when I look in the mirror.
- 47:41Speaker 3: How does Kira feel lately when she looks in the mirror, I'm.
- 47:44Speaker 2: Proud, Yeah, I feel good, Like I'm really proud of
- 47:48Speaker 2: where I am right now. I'm proud of all the
- 47:50Speaker 2: work that I've done in the last year, even if
- 47:52Speaker 2: I haven't, you know, had to race time necessarily to
- 47:55Speaker 2: show that I'm proud of the person I am, and
- 47:58Speaker 2: just I don't know the way that I treat the world,
- 48:01Speaker 2: in the way that I look at the world. So yeah,
- 48:02Speaker 2: I'm really I'm happy with who I am.
- 48:06Speaker 4: I really appreciate that sentiment? Although I might not have
- 48:08Speaker 4: a race time to show that. I think there are
- 48:10Speaker 4: a lot of people who may be a bit harder
- 48:12Speaker 4: on themselves than this when they say something like that,
- 48:15Speaker 4: feeling like they're putting in the work and time and
- 48:17Speaker 4: and time and again it's just not clicking. How they'd
- 48:20Speaker 4: hope for someone that comes to you and says, what
- 48:22Speaker 4: am I doing here? Is this even worth it anymore?
- 48:25Speaker 4: With that sentiment in mind, what is it that you
- 48:27Speaker 4: tell them?
- 48:27Speaker 1: Like are you having fun? Like? Are you enjoying this?
- 48:31Speaker 1: And not every run is going to be fun? Not
- 48:33Speaker 1: every race is going to be fun.
- 48:35Speaker 2: There's going to be a lot of days where you
- 48:36Speaker 2: don't feel like doing it, and you do it anyways,
- 48:39Speaker 2: But like, overall, are you on like the adventure of
- 48:42Speaker 2: a lifetime? Right? And if you are, then keep going
- 48:45Speaker 2: and you'll work through this and you will find another peak.
- 48:49Speaker 2: And if you're not, then let's figure out what do
- 48:52Speaker 2: we need to change about how you're structuring it, what
- 48:55Speaker 2: your goals are, how you're imported, or maybe you just
- 48:57Speaker 2: need a little like to pull back a little bit
- 48:59Speaker 2: from being so aggressive with running. But yeah, I think like, yeah,
- 49:02Speaker 2: put it through, like is this are you having the time.
- 49:05Speaker 1: Of your life?
- 49:06Speaker 4: What does fall look like for Kira with a book
- 49:09Speaker 4: coming out and beyond?
- 49:11Speaker 1: Okay, I'm really excited for this book to come out.
- 49:13Speaker 2: I am, yeah, also very nervous, but on yeah, on
- 49:16Speaker 2: the pub day on nine to nine, I'm doing an
- 49:18Speaker 2: event at in Park City at the Barnes and Noble.
- 49:22Speaker 1: And on nine ten, I'm.
- 49:23Speaker 2: Going to Chicago to do an event with the wind
- 49:26Speaker 2: Runners in Chicago, and I've heard they're going to have
- 49:29Speaker 2: Reverer floats there, so I'm like counting down the days,
- 49:32Speaker 2: Like I could also just make a rut beer float
- 49:34Speaker 2: with what I have in my kitchen right now. But
- 49:37Speaker 2: the fact that they're going to be like having a
- 49:38Speaker 2: Ruvier float party on nine ten.
- 49:41Speaker 1: I'm super excited.
- 49:42Speaker 3: But is it a cookie dough flot?
- 49:44Speaker 2: That's what I need to I need to ask because
- 49:47Speaker 2: a lot of people don't do that, and a lot
- 49:49Speaker 2: of people actually think that's gross, but I think they're
- 49:52Speaker 2: really truly messing out. And then I'll fly from Chicago
- 49:55Speaker 2: to Copenhagen to run the Copenhagen Half marathon, so that that's.
- 50:00Speaker 1: Going to be a week.
- 50:01Speaker 2: I'm so excited to like, yeah, finally my book to
- 50:04Speaker 2: go out into the world. But I also like that
- 50:06Speaker 2: I'll be traveling internationally, so when people start reading it,
- 50:09Speaker 2: I can like kind of.
- 50:10Speaker 1: Go to the dark a little bit.
- 50:11Speaker 2: You know, so we'll see, like we'll see it, and
- 50:14Speaker 2: then I can come back and be like, do people
- 50:15Speaker 2: like this? How is it being received? Is it like
- 50:18Speaker 2: are people taking from it what I set to like
- 50:22Speaker 2: share with the world. And I hope that connects.
- 50:24Speaker 3: So what does success look like for you as an author?
- 50:28Speaker 2: I think if people can read this and feel inspired,
- 50:32Speaker 2: I think that's success. Like if you can read this
- 50:35Speaker 2: and say, you know what, like that really hit me,
- 50:37Speaker 2: or I could relate to this, or I learned this
- 50:39Speaker 2: little trick, or there was someone who read it recently
- 50:42Speaker 2: and that posted like I'm going to sign up for
- 50:43Speaker 2: a marathon. Like to me, that was like the highest
- 50:46Speaker 2: compliment that they read all this and I talked about
- 50:49Speaker 2: the highs and the lows and how much a marathon
- 50:51Speaker 2: can really suck at times too, but she.
- 50:53Speaker 1: Took from the general story that she wanted.
- 50:55Speaker 2: To try to go out and do a marathon, So
- 50:57Speaker 2: that to me felt like really really good. And I
- 51:00Speaker 2: also like I hope that this isn't contained to just
- 51:03Speaker 2: like the running world. Like I hope that people look
- 51:06Speaker 2: at my book and the way that we look at
- 51:07Speaker 2: ted Lasso, like we're not all obsessed with soccer. We
- 51:12Speaker 2: liked soccer being in the story. It's fun to watch,
- 51:14Speaker 2: but it's not about soccer. And I feel like that's
- 51:17Speaker 2: like I talk about running a lot, and I say
- 51:19Speaker 2: in the proleg this isn't a book about running, and
- 51:21Speaker 2: there's a lot of running in the book, But I
- 51:24Speaker 2: think running is just the way that I've learned a
- 51:27Speaker 2: lot of these lessons, like how I've like come back
- 51:29Speaker 2: to my truest and happiest self and just just the
- 51:33Speaker 2: method I've used to chase, you know, being the best
- 51:36Speaker 2: version of Kira.
- 51:38Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so special.
- 51:39Speaker 4: And I will tell you that I really relate to
- 51:43Speaker 4: this concept of like a vulnerability hangover.
- 51:45Speaker 3: I remember when my cover story came out.
- 51:48Speaker 4: I asked a friend if we could go to yoga
- 51:50Speaker 4: and put our phones on DND and she goes, no,
- 51:53Speaker 4: I want to be in the world when it comes out.
- 51:55Speaker 3: I said, I don't.
- 51:56Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't want to be in the world at all.
- 51:59Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we'll give it some space and we'll let
- 52:02Speaker 2: it kind of Yeah, we'll see.
- 52:03Speaker 1: What the reception is. And then I've been like, I've
- 52:06Speaker 1: been so lucky that the.
- 52:07Speaker 2: People that have been supporting me and like you know,
- 52:11Speaker 2: messaged me on Instagram, like ninety nine percent of it
- 52:14Speaker 2: is so positive and a lot of them are other
- 52:17Speaker 2: women that you know, maybe put running aside and brought
- 52:21Speaker 2: it back, but can like really relate to my story.
- 52:23Speaker 2: So I find that they've been really encouraging and really
- 52:26Speaker 2: loved me and really supportive.
- 52:27Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm excited for people to start reading that.
- 52:30Speaker 3: Well, I'm so appreciative of you.
- 52:32Speaker 4: And you know how I wrap up here right now,
- 52:34Speaker 4: you have an opportunity to offer yourself a piece of advice.
- 52:37Speaker 4: Let's go back to shortly after last year, the two
- 52:41Speaker 4: places broken foot, feeling just down on our luck and
- 52:44Speaker 4: having a tough go at it. Right now, knowing what
- 52:47Speaker 4: you know, now, what advice would you give Kira a
- 52:50Speaker 4: year ago?
- 52:51Speaker 1: I would just say, a year from now, you're gonna
- 52:54Speaker 1: be kicking ass, like, hold on for the ride.
- 52:57Speaker 2: It's gonna get a little bump, b but you have
- 52:59Speaker 2: what it takes to move through it.
- 53:01Speaker 1: Everything you need is inside of you.
- 53:03Speaker 3: So beautiful, kire to motto, so grateful for you.
- 53:05Speaker 4: For those that aren't following along with you, just yet
- 53:08Speaker 4: give us the details.
- 53:09Speaker 3: How do we keep up with you? Where do we
- 53:10Speaker 3: get the book? All the things?
- 53:11Speaker 2: So probably Instagram's the best way at Kira Dematto. And
- 53:16Speaker 2: I'm also really active on Strava. And if you haven't
- 53:19Speaker 2: started using Strava, I think you should because it's such
- 53:21Speaker 2: a fun way to gamify moving your body. I don't
- 53:25Speaker 2: work for Strava. I've never been paid by Strava. This
- 53:29Speaker 2: is not a Strava sponsored ad, but I really love Estrava.
- 53:32Speaker 2: But I'm very active on Strava too, so and then yeah,
- 53:35Speaker 2: my book, you can find it. I also I mean
- 53:37Speaker 2: wherever books are sold, Amazon, Barnes and Noble. And then
- 53:40Speaker 2: also you can shop local, which I think is really cool.
- 53:42Speaker 2: And I read the audio book for it. So the
- 53:46Speaker 2: audiobook comes out in the same day on nine to nine.
- 53:49Speaker 2: And so it's my words and my voice, and I
- 53:52Speaker 2: definitely mispronounced some things. I listen to it back, I'm like,
- 53:56Speaker 2: that's probably not how you say that word, but it flows.
- 53:58Speaker 2: I get what I was trying to say. But it
- 54:01Speaker 2: was really special and I really like I didn't. I wanted,
- 54:04Speaker 2: like a professional to record it because I thought that
- 54:06Speaker 2: it would sound better. And I'm so glad that my
- 54:10Speaker 2: publisher was like, it should be your voice. It's a
- 54:13Speaker 2: memoir and the same thing like I didn't want my
- 54:15Speaker 2: picture to be on the cover of the book, and
- 54:16Speaker 2: she's like, it's a book about you, you should be
- 54:18Speaker 2: on it.
- 54:18Speaker 1: But I want you so anyway. So I'm so lucky.
- 54:21Speaker 2: Yeah for Saint Martin's Press and Sarah Canton and the
- 54:24Speaker 2: whole team over there.
- 54:24Speaker 1: They've been incredible. But yes, I'm.
- 54:26Speaker 2: Also doing the audiobook, which I think, like, I laugh
- 54:28Speaker 2: at my jokes before I tell the jokes in the book,
- 54:31Speaker 2: which is to me just kind.
- 54:32Speaker 1: Of funny, so you got to that. But but yeah,
- 54:36Speaker 1: so it's also on audiobook.
- 54:38Speaker 3: I love it.
- 54:39Speaker 4: I'm over at Emily a Baddie and at Hurdle Podcast
- 54:42Speaker 4: Another Hurdle conquered.
- 54:44Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time.