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Mission Possible - Because "Someday" Starts Today with @_lauraonamission_ · At Your Own Pace

• MikeRunsMarathons: Hello everybody and welcome back to At Your Own Pace. This is the show for runners who are showing up however they can on whatever week life is handing them. I'm Mike and Mike runs marathons, and whether you're chasing a Boston qualifier, your first 5k, or just the next mile, you're in the right place. Every Wednesday we open with a little real talk for my week on the run and then we sit down with someone whose story is going to leave you a little bit more fired up than when you press play. So lace up, settle in, and let's run this one together. I am so excited today for you to hear The story from Laura on a mission. Laura is someone that I have just found to be one of the most incredible and nicest people that I have ever had the opportunity to speak with, both on this podcast and just on social media in general. she is of the most She speaks from the heart and she really talks about how running has changed her life and made her who she is today. And it's so inspiring to see just the growth that she's made in who she is now. Our stories are somewhat similar in in a way, but what really drew me to want to interview her was her Her love of community and her love of supporting runners of every background, every experience level, body type, sexuality, gender identity, everything. Because she knows that this running community that we have all together should be as welcoming and as supportive as possible. And I'm I'm really proud of just the work that she has done and the strength that she has to push through to do these things. And funny enough, Today, July first, actually, is the launch of her new run club, which is Which is called the Mission Crew Run Club. And it's for every runner, regardless of who you are, your pace, you know, background, experience level, everything. And it has exploded in the last couple weeks. We have a run club on Strava, there's a website, we have a WhatsApp group, and it is Growing phenomenally since it was launched. so are looking for an online rub club, if you are looking for an online if you are looking for an online run everybody and will be able to help If you're looking for a run c if you're looking for an online run club that will support you in whatever goal that you have and be as helpful to your journey as possible, this is the place for you. So make sure you check them out. have an Instagram. They have an Instagram. The Instagram is Mission Crew Run Club. I'll run all run all one word. And so make sure you check them out you're looking for a place of commun if you're looking for a place of community that is welcoming and supportive of everybody who decides to lace up their shoes and hit the trail or the road or the treadmill. but Laura is a fantastic person. And I think that anybody who gets comes in contact with her, interacts with her, will immediately feel the same way because of just her energy and what she brings to the world. What what she brings to the people around her. So I'm very excited for you to hear her story. But in terms of what's been happening in my life, I ran two races over the weekend, the the New York Roadrunners Pride Run and the New York Roadrunners Achilles Foundation Hope and Possibility run. Both of them were four miles in Central Park. And I gotta tell you, I'm not sure if it's the sh new shoes that I got. I'm not sure if it's actually my training that's working or if my fitness that's still there, but I finished in fifth place in my gender for the Pride Run and fourth place for the Achilles run. Now I did do a slight walk for each one because it was about 80% humidity. Super hot. But I had had a great time and I was really proud of the finish times that I had. they they really inspired me and made me feel like I'm getting back on track and that my training is working because I have felt that it's been struggling a lot. recently, especially the last like two months. I'm also having some issues with my heart. on, but I have a history of blood pressure. I have a history of high blood pressure. medication and I've been off of medication for a while and my blood pressure has gone up. now on medication again and have discovered that it was potentially high the dosage. And so I get head rushes all of the time when I stand up. matter what I'm doing, I get regularly anyway, but this was legitimately every single time I would up. And when I would run, especially if I would was running a little bit faster, I would feel like someone was squeezing my heart and it would hurt. So got my medication lowered. Seems to be working. This was the first real big thing that I had done since the medication was lowered. So I was happy to see that it seems to work. it seems that worked, but I'm actually currently wearing a heart monitor for the next week, so just check and make sure my heart's okay. And had a stress test the other day. They found a very, very, very minor abnormality in the test. But they weren't really concerned, but I have to go back and get another one with a nechocardiogram. So that'll be fun next month. Or yeah, next month it's July now. But overall, I mean, I'm really proud of the weekend that I had and super excited to take get back out there and train. Not this week outside because it is it's hell on earth right now. So if you live in the Northeast, please, if you run outside, be careful. bring your water, bring your electrolytes, salt stick, whatever. Cause you're gonna struggle and you're gonna have issues if you don't. that's my and And my week, but but so I've got a couple announcements coming up. I am running the Tokyo Marathon. into the Tokyo I was accepted into the We Run Foundation charity, which is a charity that I absolutely love. They're based in Australia, but they advocate for a lot of the things that I really advocate for, which is inclusivity and running. They wanna get more people outside, they wanna get more people running. And to show how running can change your life in more ways than just the physical aspect. You might get healthier when you run, but the things that happen with your mind emotionally, psychologically, it it changes you. I'm I've seen it myself through the running that I've done over the the last eight years. And to work with them is is an honor. I met with them actually virtually about a month or two ago and spoke to them. And I will be advocating for them over the next several months and potentially longer because this is this is an organization that I really truly believe in. but if you are applying to the Tokyo Marathon, good luck. I hope you get in. Let me know if you get in, because I would love to meet up with you out in Tokyo, do maybe a shakeout run around the Imperial Palace. This will be my third time running Tokyo Marathon, so. I have several tips and tricks that can help you if you questions and also questions if you need any advice about what to do in Tokyo, where you go in Tokyo, because I absolutely love that city. so excited to open to I'm so excited to go back. I actually have a window up right now on my my computer screen purchasing my flight tickets, purchasing my flight tickets. So really, really, really, really excited to go back. and I have one more announcement. But I'm gonna save that for next week. Cause it's kinda big and it's it's something that's near and dear to me. So we'll see. I'll I'll let you know next week what that announcement is. But these episodes would not be possible without our sponsors. And today's sponsor is brought to you by Strava. Strava really needs no introduction. If you use Strava, you know all of the incredible social aspects of this application. You know that they purchased Rana, so you have the ability to access a number of features within Strava as a premium member, like workouts. you can see your relative effort, you can see race times. and predictions, you can see how you've been growing within your endurance, within cycling, within running. And it's a fantastic way to connect with other runners. you can make virtual run clubs, you can make your own challenges within the app. It's a it's a fantastic application that I love and I've used for I can't even remember at least at least ten, twelve years. I'm not sure I I literally do not do not remember when I signed up but it was way long ago when I was trying originally to start running and just kind of gave it up. but if you are a Strava member, whether you're currently a Strava premium member or you're thinking about it, if you use the code MIC, I K-E, at checkout, you can save 20% off of your annual subscription, which is a decent amount of money to save. So definitely use that code if you are looking to either renew or sign up for the pro the Strava premium membership. I love it. I think it's a fantastic thing to have in terms of the insights that it provides. and and the workouts and the offline mapping that it provides in terms of different routes that you can make and send directly to your watch. Phenomenal. It's been a a game changer for me. but yeah, use Mica checkout, save twenty percent. cannot recommend that enough. we're back now and you know the drill. Grab some water, find your stride and meet me in the conversation because today's guest is someone that I am so excited to introduce you to. I want to welcome in Laura. Laura, thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate it. LauraOnAMission: Yeah, great, great to be here, Mike. Thank you. MikeRunsMarathons: Of course. And it's it's wonderful to actually meet you. I I guess I don't in person, kind of, because I've I've been following you for a while. And you know, we we go back and forth on on social media all the time with Instagram and threads. but to be able to talk to you and hear about your story and to let other people be inspired by it is is something that I'm really excited about. LauraOnAMission: Yeah. Yeah, Ditto, there's something about the human connection this way. It's awesome. So thanks for having me here. MikeRunsMarathons: Yes. Course. And then for those of you that are watching the video version of this podcast, you will notice that both Laura and I are in hotel rooms. So for work. So solidarity with that. but Laura, the way that I have this setup is I have a couple buckets of questions that I want to ask you, ranging from a a bunch of different topics. And of course, we want to start all the way back at where it all started. So before you know, any of this, and your entire, you know. All of s the massive successes you've had with your running journey so far, and including the things that you have lined up for the next year with Sydney, New York, and now London. and before the mission, since you are Laura on a mission, when did running enter your life and who introduced you to it? LauraOnAMission: Yeah. So I guess we can thank my husband, blame my husband, thank my husband. I don't know. It all runs together. But he got me a Peloton bike just about five years ago for my birthday. And I immediately became obsessed. Robin Arzan Hamilton ride was my first ride ever. Still to this day I'll tell everybody that singular ride changed my life in the course of it forever. because it was the first time I believed in myself to do a hard thing in a really, really, really long time. And so I returned the favor and I got him a Peloton tread for Christmas. He had been in a car accident and the spinal surgeon said, Hey, you should walk. It's great, you know, for low impact exercise. And he I bought him the tread and he did nothing with it. And he let it sit there. And I was like, this piece of equipment is too pretty. For it to be like a his and hers type thing. So I'm gonna just try it. And I started by just walking and then I started walk-running and then entered some local 5Ks. And then six months later, I was coaching my oldest son's middle school cross-country team. MikeRunsMarathons: And it's wild. LauraOnAMission: It it is, right? Because I joked like recently online. One minute you're dressed as a unicorn running five K's, and then the next minute you're running a marathon in another country. MikeRunsMarathons: That's why s I can't even imagine the amount of stress I would be under if I went from not running or barely running to six months later being a coach for a bunch of people. Because parents of those kids are probably they could probably be a nightmare at times. LauraOnAMission: Hey, you know what? We won the state championship two years, the two years that I coached state championship. So I did okay. Did all right. MikeRunsMarathons: I mean I would say so. I mean that's a that's a humble brag right there. LauraOnAMission: Yeah, yeah. I'm pretty proud of those kids. They put a lot of work in. So that's that's how it started. MikeRunsMarathons: Is awesome. Well, wow, that's and it's funny you when you mentioned that Hamilton ride, I remember that Hamilton ride. I think the ride that impacted me the most, it may have been Christine. I think it was did she do the greatest showman ride? Or was that Robin? LauraOnAMission: Ooh, I've I think that was Robin. I ooh, now you're testing my loyalty here. I gotta check that. MikeRunsMarathons: There was no now I know what it was. There was a Broadway ride that Christine did, and the last song was this was this is this is me. And I was I was sobbing at the end of it. And my wife was like sitting on the couch because we had it in the living room because of our space, and she was just like, Why are you crying? And I was like, You don't understand. LauraOnAMission: Okay. This is me, yeah. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: man, yeah, it's and and then I got the tread too a couple of years later after we had the bike and my god, I love that thing so much. LauraOnAMission: I mean, we're both in hotels and like having to deal with hotel you might run outside, but I run on hotel treadmills just because I don't I don't feel safe running outside in places I don't know, middle of nowhere. and I my back, everything feels different after running on like a normal tread, which is terrible and to say, but it is because those things don't get maintenance and it's it's it's tough. MikeRunsMarathons: They I was actually I do run on the the treadmill every once in a while if it's too late 'cause I do not like to run outside at night. And I was running on one on Sunday actually, I think or Monday. And that thing was so squeaky, every step that I took on it, I thought it was gonna fall apart. So LauraOnAMission: I've listened real quick. I was doing intervals yesterday on the one here at this hotel and a guy came in and I had to warn him. I was like, listen, I'm I'm doing some intervals here and I'm going so fast that I think the thing is gonna like explode. So just know like if I go flying, I need you to catch me. Cause it was just shaking like an earthquake so bad. MikeRunsMarathons: That's so funny. There was a guy next to me. They had a big TV up there watching the NBA finals. And I'm pretty sure that my treadmill was just so loud for him. Then he just like eventually turned off the treadmill and left because he was like, I this is this is this is obnoxious. Why are you being so loud? man. But I I want to go back to those early runs because anybody who has run for, you know, a significant amount of time knows just what that feels like. LauraOnAMission: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Aye, aye, aye. Mm. MikeRunsMarathons: But for you, what did those early runs feel like when you were just brand new getting started? LauraOnAMission: Hard. And I say hard because for me it was the mental piece behind it. And it wasn't just like the physical heart. That was hard. But it was like the mental of like, why am I the imposter syndrome of why do I think that I can be a runner? I, this was my internal dialogue. I don't look like a runner. I don't talk like a runner. I don't even know what a 10K is. I don't know what shoes to wear, right? It was very overwhelming. And I literally at some point had to tell myself one step, one mile at a time. it was just hard. MikeRunsMarathons: I I agree with on that. It's funny you I didn't know what a 10K was. I remember I lived in New York City at the time when I started running. And when I finally decided to start running outside, which was like six to eight months after I started actually running because I would only run on the treadmill. I I remember asking my phone while I was in the middle of Central Park, being like, How many miles is a 10K? Because I wanted to make sure that I actually got it right. and and when it was like six point two something, I was I think I was at like six point one and I was like, well I guess I have to keep going now because I at least have to get a 10K in. And then I think I asked it what a fifteen K was but in my head I was like so if a five K it's three point one miles and a ten K is six point two then a fifteen K must be those combined Luckily I was right but I remember at the beginning I was like I don't understand any of this and I agree with you too. I I never thought that I look like a runner as well that's why I ran inside for so long because I was LauraOnAMission: Yeah. That's right. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: like 60 pounds heavier than I am now. And I just thought, you know, I don't have that runner's body at all. I think that people are gonna judge me, especially all those really fast people that run in Central Park or on the Upper West Side Highway and things like that. and then you you learn pretty quickly when you start running around other people that they actually don't care about what you're doing. They are only focused on themselves, which makes a lot of sense. LauraOnAMission: Yep. Yeah. That's right. That's right. MikeRunsMarathons: 'Cause I focus on that falling. That was my number one thing. LauraOnAMission: That's that's right. And you know, and I don't think I've ever shared this like out loud, aside from like my husband, but my first marathon that I ran was Grand Island, Nebraska. Shout out to the State Fair Marathon, which nearly took me out August 24th of 2024. Okay, Nebraska in August. Picture it. Okay. I still have humidity burns from where my vest stuck to me. But prior to that marathon training. I had only ever run two long runs outside. Every long run and every other run I did leading up to that was on my treadmill because I was so afraid of what I was gonna look like outside running. I had done five K's. I think I had done one 10K and I had done two half marathons at that point, right? And race day was totally different for me, but I still have this picture of me, my second half marathon, wearing what I would say is a fanny pack, a giant fanny pack to carry all my fuel. And I still look back at it and I'm like, I I had no idea what I was doing. But do you know to this day that is still my marathon PR? It was my two one and I am still trying to break that. My half marathon, not my marathon, half marathon PR. But I didn't feel like a runner. MikeRunsMarathons: Yeah. Yeah. It's it's funny you mentioned the fanny pack thing because I used to run in this little new balance little bag thing that I would wear around my waist and every time that people would see a picture and be like, and there it is again. Cause I wore it literally for every run, every race. And I think it got to a point where like either the belt ripped or the bag ripped and I had to replace it and I was just like it never felt the same. But like I I mean at least you knew to carry things with you. I never car the only thing I ever carry with me was my phone. LauraOnAMission: Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: 'Cause I didn't know anything about nutrition or anything when I started working. LauraOnAMission: Yeah. Mike, don't get it twisted. My first marathon I fueled entirely with go go squeeze applesauces. That's all I brought with me. MikeRunsMarathons: Listen, that works. I've like in the grand scheme of things, I mean you look back on it, you're like, you know what, it's carbs, it's sugar, it's everything you need. LauraOnAMission: I was missing the electrolytes though. I was missing that. so yeah, that's a whole other that's a whole other thing. I I may have, I will neither confirm nor deny that I may have stopped at an aid station at somebody's house in Nebraska and said, What do you have? And they said, What do you need? And I said, I just need to finish this race. What is it gonna take? And they brought out pickles and band-aids and a myriad of things, and I'm like chugging. Anything I could get just to get me through. MikeRunsMarathons: That is wow. One shout out to that family for hospitality because that's great. LauraOnAMission: I don't know. She was a runner. She just wasn't running that day. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: Okay. That makes sense. That makes sense. Now that it's a good thing that you you you brought up the I didn't feel like a runner thing, because I feel like that's something I hear from so many different people, no matter how long you've been running for. And but there there comes a time at least where you go from saying to yourself, I'm trying to be a runner, to saying that I am a runner. Like, when did that flip happen for you? LauraOnAMission: Yeah. I think I know it was a Peloton class and I don't remember the instructor, but an instructor said in a class, you are not the thing that you do one time. You are the thing that you do repeatedly. And it probably was Robin, because 99% of my classes are Robin. Okay. and I remember her saying that. And I remember saying to myself, literally out loud one day, I am a runner. I am a runner. And it was that repeated work over and over again. But again, take you back your journey, my journey. I hadn't had an identity. I had three children, a wife, we owned a business at the time. I had no identity. Right. And it was the first time I could say I am. Didn't mean it was the only thing I was. There's a lot of layers to me, but I could identify with that one. MikeRunsMarathons: That is That's perfect. I love that description of the I am because it reminds me so much of my own story. Cause I had at the beginning, you know, what right before I started running, I literally was like I haven't accomplished anything in my life. I don't know what if someone were to come up to me and say, What are you proud of? I'd be like, I don't know, going to college. Like I g I don't know. like being a government worker, what what my goodness, that's so cool. but once I and Once I discovered running, I realized this is like the first thing that I've discovered kind of for myself. And no one forced me into it. No one like kind of signed me up for it and was like, now you have to go. It was I bought a pair of shoes. I decided to wear my awful gym clothes and set out to go for a run. And as you pointed out, it was difficult at the beginning. I hated it and but I knew that I had to keep going because of was what benefits and it would come out of it in the long run. but yeah, to be able to say I am about something and really mean it to your core. Like it is so powerful. and people joke at me all the time, like, that's Mike. He's the runner, like all my friends or or my wife. Like whenever I go up to New York now, my I I texted my friend the other day other day and I was like, hey, I'll be up in case you guys want to get dinner. And she'll be like, LauraOnAMission: Yeah yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: Well, do you have a a race the next day? And I was like, Yes, yes, I do. And she was like, okay, so we'll go out to dinner a little bit earlier instead of, you know, they go out until like two, three, four o'clock in the morning. And I'm like, yes. I mean, now I'm even if I didn't run, I'd be like, I'm too tired, guys. Like, what are you doing? I'm old. But but I want to talk about your username because your name is Laura on a mission. LauraOnAMission: good night. Mm mm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: I want to know what this mission is and what you're running for. LauraOnAMission: Nobody's ever asked me that before. The Laura on a mission started in my Peloton journey, where I had changed my username. I think everybody Peloton, like nobody nails it the first time. Let's be honest. Okay, nobody nails it the first time. So I was like Broncos Laura, mommy Laura, you know, all these things, right? And then I remembered, why am I doing this? Well, I'm on a mission to just improve my mental health, improve my physical health. I was I I I was not in the best health. I had had two surgeries before I started exercising. I just was not well. So my mission was personal. My mission changed October 26th of this past year and is no longer about me. My mission now is to help get other people to their start lines. Whatever that looks like does not have to be a race, does not have to be anything that I'm gonna define. It could just be habit stacking. I had a someone recently who texts me, I've known her for 15 years. She texts me out of the blue and said, and I didn't even know she was paying attention to my Instagram. And she said, I just want to thank you. I am back in the pool for the first time in years, and I'm training for a triathlon. What? What? so my mission went from me. It's not about me anymore. It's not about me. I'm gonna use my story. Because I know that there's somebody out there who does not see themselves as a runner, who does not feel like a runner, who doesn't identify as anything. They don't know what they are, where they're at. They don't have an I am statement. And so I am on a mission to help get you, your neighbor, your friend, your colleague to their own start line. So that's what it means now. MikeRunsMarathons: That I'm assuming you are a fan of Christine as well. Okay. I love I love her catchphrase. It I I always try to tell people about it. And my favorite thing that she says too is hands on your back. because I I always send that to people whenever they're going through any hard times, because sometimes you can't be there for them in some way, shape, or form that you would like to be, but at least you can let them know they're not alone. LauraOnAMission: Yes, yes, yes, yes. Mm. Yeah. Mike, I I I do want to clarify because I didn't I guess I just called out this date and assumed that everybody knows and there's somebody hearing this who doesn't know my story. But I finished the Las Vegas marathon on October 26th with a 30-minute PR. I had done Chicago two weeks before. I did my first downhill on a whim, by the way, because it was going to be my qualifying marathon for the virtual, for the challenge for New York City to get me the entry. I had done the fundraising on a whim. I decided to go to Las Vegas with my friend and run it. 30 minutes, shaved off my marathon time. I was elated. Had been talking with my mom all day, texting back and forth, FaceTimed her right after the finish line. And went back to my hotel, took a shower, missed a couple calls from my mom. I had been texting her, joking around, and she hadn't responded, but then she called me and said that my dad had passed away. He was not sick, it was really out of the blue. he'd gone to take a nap and didn't wake up. That's when I realized truly that this mission had to be about somebody other than me. Because when I flew from Vegas back to Denver, where I'm where I live, then got on a plane to Tampa all within about a 17-hour span. I packed the essentials, had my husband actually pack for me when I was in Vegas and said, I don't know what I'm gonna need. Get me a black dress. I don't know. And of course, I didn't think to pack my running shoes because who's going to think about running when your dad passed away? I was in Tampa for just a few hours and I realized that I needed to cope. I don't drink. I quit that a few years ago. I don't I don't have any other outlets. I went to the store, bought a pair of running shoes, bought an outfit to run in, and that's how I survived. I needed to give my grief a place to go. So I just wanted to share that for context and why I threw out that date because that to me is when the the mission changed from me to you. MikeRunsMarathons: Yeah, and that that's very re reminiscent for me of my grandma passed away in twenty twenty-three, about a month before I ran the London Marathon. And I remember during a lot of the process of her passing and and actually I think the the day of her passing I went either outside for a run. It was during the winter. So it was either running in the cold or I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill. And I remember after she passed, I went to the gym and I ran probably the hardest 5k of my life when when I when when she passed because I was I was devastated when I lost her and I was I held her hand as she, you know, left this earth. So it was it was really emotional. But you know it it's r running takes on such a more powerful meaning when it means so much more than just PRs and finish times. And I love That you work now to inspire other people to be able to start their own journeys or get back into it if they've, you know, may not have done it for a while. and I know that you've definitely learned that from the instructors at Peloton because they are some of the most inspirational people in the entire world. My wife's leaderboard name is Make Cody Proud. So yeah, we were we were trying to figure out what her username should be, and she was like, I love Cody so much. I was like, well. LauraOnAMission: Yeah. Hundred percent. Stop it. That's amazing. MikeRunsMarathons: Why don't we see if May Cody Proud is the right number of letters? And she was like, my god, it is. she's probably gonna change it at some point because she's gonna start using the Peloton again now that I now that one, we've had our baby, and two, I just bought her a new pair of running shoes. So I was like, you have no excuse LauraOnAMission: Hey. MikeRunsMarathons: creates accountability for most people that you're trying to help. But it also that does it also in some way, shape, or form help you hold yourself accountable and push you to do better or to do more. LauraOnAMission: Mm-hmm. MikeRunsMarathons: than just trying to inspire other people. LauraOnAMission: Yes. Yes. I recently ran the Boulder Boulder. It was my third year doing it for the girl who said she could never run a 10K. And I know I shared with you, I got to meet Coach Bennett. I know. Over that. I yes, and my daughter ended up with two. Whatever. benefits of being a cute seven year old. MikeRunsMarathons: Maybe you got that right. LauraOnAMission: But I remember I was struggling. Mile three is is definitely the most difficult. If you look at even like the pros splits at mile three from the pro race, like I consistently see mile three be the the toughest face. I don't know what it is, but I remember at mile three, I was really, really struggling. I had come out so hot, my fastest right, fastest first two miles. Great job, Laura, on a six mile race. And I'm just slaying it. Mile three, I'm like, what the hell am I doing? And I remember I'm like, wait a minute. I gotta, I gotta walk, I gotta talk the walk, walk the talk, whatever the phrase is. Like I got people I'm out here saying, hey, push to be the best, best version of yourself. Am I really giving it my best? And I was struggling, struggling. And Coach Bennett told me, hey, I'll see you in mile four and a half. And if you're doing great, flip me off as you go by. Like if you're gonna PR it, flip me off. If you're struggling, come give me a hug. And I saw him, and he wasn't at four and a half. He was just like closer to five. And I had my arms out to give him a hug. And he gave me a hug. And I said, I'm struggling. I'm not gonna PR today. And he said, It's okay as long as you're having fun. And then I was like, wait a minute, I need to have fun. So I like got my life together. negative split it the way all the way back, right? And went in and and slayed it my second best 10K time ever. But in the back of my mind, I was like, I encourage people every day to show up and try to be the best version of yourself. And I wasn't doing it that day. I wasn't. So I had to check myself because again, somebody's watching, it's my seven-year-old daughter, it's my 16-year-old son, my 14-year-old son, heck my husband. It's somebody, my neighbors, like they, if you're gonna talk about it, you gotta be about it. Doesn't mean perfect. But as I share with my kids, I need a hundred percent of whatever your best is that day. If all you can give me is 80% of you, give me a hundred percent of that. MikeRunsMarathons: I love that. I've never heard that before. That's incredible. I love that quote. LauraOnAMission: Okay. Yeah. There you go. So now share it. Share with everybody you know. Because you're not always gonna be a hundred percent, right? Whatever you are, give me a hundred percent of that. MikeRunsMarathons: Also, I'm so envious of you getting a hug from Coach Bennett because he just seems like the nicest man in the entire world. LauraOnAMission: Yeah, I just great human, great human and genuinely interested in learning my story. And he bent down and he said some really kind things about me to my daughter that I will never forget. And and I hope she remembers too. So real special. MikeRunsMarathons: Amazing. Also, I just pre-ordered his signed edition of his book. So if you if you haven't done that yet and you want to sign LauraOnAMission: That's right. Thunder Road Books. No, no, I did it. I did it. I posted about it a few days ago. Thunder Road Books. Yeah, we got we got this, Mike. MikeRunsMarathons: we do, we do. Coach Bennett, you're incredible in case you're listening, just magically. If you are. Now, I want to talk about the majors because you've done, I know you've done at least Chicago. Have you done any of the other ones? So I you have three lined up at least now for the next year. You've got Sydney this this August, right? LauraOnAMission: If if you are, shout out to Coach Bennett. Yep. Not yet. Knock on with I do, yeah. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: And then New York in November, which I'll see you at. We just found out that you just got into London, which is like almost winning the lottery. Because of well, I can't even say lottery because they have a lottery. It's like having the golden ticket. There you go. And those are, I mean, I lived in Australia for a little bit when I was in college. I did study abroad there. Beautiful country. LauraOnAMission: Yes. I did. Mm-hmm. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: We'll go back there in a heartbeat. People are so nice. And Sydney is beautiful. New York, special place in my heart because it's it's I grew up there after when I went to college and lived there for half my life. And I've done it five times. London, sentimental to me because it was right after my grandma passed. And you know, it's obvious, it's a beautiful course because of just all of the history in it. LauraOnAMission: Mm-hmm. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: So how did this plan come together? LauraOnAMission: I had not shared this with you, so get ready. So I did mention that previously the Vegas race was my qualifying race. I did the New York Roadrunners like guaranteed entry with the virtual, right? By the way, that opens up. actually it opened up today. You can enter, and if you don't get the law, the lottery drawing, it the actual like marathon one fundraising one opens up, I think, the 24th. So anybody's trying to get in, look at it going that way. MikeRunsMarathons: Okay. LauraOnAMission: So, New York, the day my dad passed away, I got into New York, right? That was my guarantee entry. When I came home for the funeral, it was right around that time I found out I did not get into Sydney through the lottery. And my mom, my mom said to me, why can't you get into Australia? That is my dream trip. And in that moment I decided I was going to make it happen. And I didn't know how. I didn't know how. But I had seen an email from the We Run Foundation that said, hey, we have some spots at some of the majors. If we open one up, would you like to know? And I'm like, heck yeah, like zero chance of that happening, right? But let's let's just do it. I got the email, I applied, and I found out Christmas week that I got in. So Sydney is for my mom. New York is for my dad. And then London, I had written down on a piece of paper with the London Bridge three years ago. I wrote on it. And I'm still trying to find out what I did with that paper because I can't find it. And I know it's like buried. I moved offices recently at home. But I wrote on it London 2026. Now, London 2026 came and went. I did not get in, but actually, A fellow runner who I met, he had reached out to me and actually said, Hey, they need somebody for this year. Would you like to run? And it was like a month before. And he said, I can get you in. The fundraising target would be lower because it is last second. And I had already committed to run, I can't believe I'm saying this out loud, but my first ultra marathon. that same weekend. And I felt like it was gonna be bad karma to bail on my best friend. I was doing it for her. It was her bucket list to do an ultra. I'd never had an ultra on my list, but I committed to running it with her, and I felt like that was just asking for bad karma to bail on her to go to London. So my no came with a giant asterisk of, would you please tell them I'm really interested in next year? I'll go through the proper channels and applying through make a wish. And he said, Yeah, no guarantees, but I'm gonna let them know they're at least gonna know your name. So I applied and found out last week that I got into London. And London, when I went there 20 years ago with my mom, I was like, I fell in love with it. I said, I wanna move here one day. I loved it. And so for London, if for whatever reason, I never ever ever got into another major, which Please don't let that happen. I'm too far I'm too far down this hole now. I'm too far down. I'm knocking on the wood. London is my dream. So that's kind of how it's come together. MikeRunsMarathons: Mm. That is awesome. I I was gonna say something about my god, I was gonna say something about London. wait, actually, you mentioned the Wheat Run Foundation. And it's so funny you say that because I found out about them this year from the Tokyo Marathon, I think it was. And I looked them up and I was doing a bunch of research on them and I saw like they and I have the same like mission, ethos. So I actually reached out to them. LauraOnAMission: Mm-hmm. MikeRunsMarathons: And I was like, hey, I would love to talk with you about like working together, promoting your your organization, things like that. And they're like, Who's this American guy gonna promote our Australian organization? But I met with them actually about a month or so ago and was able to talk to the person who kind of manages their the the people that get picked for these races. And you know, knock on what I get to run with them with Sydney next year, but it was fantastic to talk to people who have the same urgency and want to fight for more inclusive running and to welcome everybody into the sport. 'cause I feel like there there are organizations, but I feel like there's not enough. LauraOnAMission: Yes. MikeRunsMarathons: We have plenty of influencers online who want to tell you that you should run a three hour marathon and a six minute mile. But I don't think we have enough people on online talking about how whether you run a five minute or fifteen minute mile, you're still a runner. And whether you finish in three hours or six and a half hours, you're still a marathon runner. but LauraOnAMission: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I but listen, Mike, in all fairness to me, when I am 75 years old, I am gonna qualify for Boston. When I am 75, as long as I don't lose any of my pacing now, I'm gonna qualify there. But do you know what? MikeRunsMarathons: Yes. LauraOnAMission: My best friend made me realize this when I crossed the finish line in Chicago. because I was devastated. Devastated because my first marathon was 534. Chicago, my goal was I just wanted to come in under five. I just wanted to come in. Just help me get. Do you know I was five hours and three seconds? I had to stop. I had to stop for the bathroom twice. Mm-hmm. Yep, I did. Twice. But, you know, but she said to me. MikeRunsMarathons: My God. LauraOnAMission: Did you know, fun fact, you and Connor Mance got the same medal? MikeRunsMarathons: Yes. LauraOnAMission: You know, every marathon, every major marathon I will more than likely run, or have run, I should say, or am scheduled to run, is through what? Charity. Same metal. And not everybody has the means to raise money for charity or and I get that. So my hope is that again, we get everybody together. We can get everybody to the start line of whatever their own journey is. Because do you know what? There should be no limits. On who we have at that start line. And every single runner, I learned this from Connor Mance and Coach Bennett two weeks ago. Every runner, pro runner, amateur runner, charity runner, influencer runner, we all have the same goosebumps at the start line. And we all have the same pride at the finish line. And we all get the same medal at the finish line. All of us. And it doesn't matter what you look like, what your background is, what you identify is, you have that feeling. And so the mission is the same no matter who you are. That's it. MikeRunsMarathons: I always think that now whenever I run a race is just like how lucky I am that I get to run on the same course as some of my heroes and that we all get to cross that same finish line. Like there's no like special finish line for the pros or first place or anything. The only thing they get is just that tape that they cross. But we all get, like as you pointed out, the same medal. We all get to cross that same line and we all get to feel that same happiness. LauraOnAMission: That's right. MikeRunsMarathons: Because there's so many professional runners who don't finish. You know, they could train for an entire year to run one marathon and they will drop out of mile 17, 18. So they still have the same fears as us. Doesn't matter how long you've been running for. So I I completely agree with you on that. And it's, you know, I'm I hope that you get to qualify for Boston when you're seventy five. You're just gonna have to keep up with the same exact training pattern that you have now for the next thirty odd years. LauraOnAMission: Right. Same thing I've seen. No. MikeRunsMarathons: And I think that you'll be totally fine. Just don't drop the mileage, don't drop the pace, don't drop the muscle mass. Just stay exactly the same way that you are right now and you'll be fine. You'll be fine. LauraOnAMission: Ha ha ha You know, you have a daughter, and I'm gonna I'm gonna flip the script a little bit on you. You have a daughter, I have a daughter. After my first marathon, we were in the hotel room, and I said to my little girl, thinking she was gonna say something prophetic. Mind you, she was she was four, almost five. And my boys had gone too, and they were a little older. And I said to her, because she saw me at mile. I think like mile 15 crying, mile 20 crying, begging for a Dr. Pepper, because I needed some sort of boost, right? She sees me crying. And I said, What did you learn from this weekend? thinking that she was gonna say something prophetic like, never give up or don't give up on your dreams. You know, she said to me, Never run a marathon. Now I laughed. I laughed because I'm like, you're so funny. And then I was pissed. Because that wasn't the goal. That wasn't what I wanted to show her. And I vowed, because I said I'd never run a marathon again, by the way. I called my mother literally at mile 25 and said, you're gonna cross the finish line with me. I think I was FaceTiming. And I said, and I'm never doing this again. If I do this again, you're gonna ground me. Send me to my room. Okay. It was awful. I'm never gonna do it again. But then I vowed about three months later after I got over it. I said, hey, I'm gonna sign up for Chicago. And I did. Because I wanted my daughter to learn a different lesson, a different message. Right. And so now her vision is a little different. And she says, you can do anything that you work hard for. Anything you put your mind to. So I'll just share that with you. So you know what? I I might do it before seventy-five, might do it at seventy-four. I don't know, but I'm gonna be there one day. I'm gonna be there one day. MikeRunsMarathons: Absolutely. I I'm I hope to see you there and I hope it's sooner rather than later because I am I'm very invested in you getting well first your six star medal but now we've got eventually the nine star medal coming up. But I'm very invested in you getting your six star medal because I want to see you get that. Now it's I know. And I was just gonna I was just gonna say so Sydney is is now the seventh world marathon major. I know that today that this is LauraOnAMission: It will be. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think. I'm committed to seven. Okay. I'm committed to seven. I'm just saying it. I know. MikeRunsMarathons: June 10th, when we're recording this, they just announced that Cape Town is now the eighth star. you know, you're gonna be part of this really early class of runners who are going to have more than six stars now, right? When they finish their, you know, their journey. what does it mean to you to be part of that? LauraOnAMission: Yeah. you're asking questions people have never asked me before. Like the why? What it means to me is that, you know, growing up, I remember my parents would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I would always tell them an attorney and then a Supreme Court justice. That was what I wanted to do. And I didn't do it. And I remember being so disappointed in myself. I had this college degree. I was successful, but I wasn't successful at things that filled my cup. And what it means to me is that my eight-year-old self and my 80-year-old self are going to be really, really proud of what I did. And it's going to it's going to complete that I am. I am a runner. I am a seven star finisher. And I am gonna do it before I turn 50. I joke about the Boston thing. but I I am gonna do it before I'm 50. I don't know how I'm gonna do it, right? But one thing I've learned in my in my life is that I've been so afraid of trying. So afraid of trying that I'm just going to say yes. Yes. Do I necessarily know how it's gonna happen? No, but I'm gonna do it, and nobody's gonna stop me. And What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take everybody who's out there watching, and I'm gonna say, you can do this too. Because I am almost 47 years old, and I have legs named Kevin and Karen who get real cranky. Okay, whenever I'm putting the miles on them. Okay. Kevin lately has been a real jerk. But I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but I'm gonna bring you with me so that you can get. confidence that you can do it too and say, why not me? That's what it means to me. That's what it means. MikeRunsMarathons: I love it You and I have very similar stories when it comes to why we do this. Because I I always think now, you know, after my my my attempt when I turned 30 is I I had a very, very fierce urgency to live. And I realized that tomorrow is not always going to be there. You and I kept telling myself with so many things that I wanted to do, I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow. And then you know, after that moment I realized that that one day those some days are gonna run out and that's just gonna be it. And I wanted to make sure that if I got to be eighty, that I could look back on my life and be like, it's it I was I would say to myself, I can't believe I did that. Not I wish I had done that. Because if if I could look back on my life and people now still yeah, I have family members who are like, I don't know why you do this. I don't know why you spend money on marathons, travel the world and do like to run them and all this stuff. And it's because I want to live a life that makes me fulfilled and that will make me realize that whatever how many years I have on this earth, like I yeah, I wasted some of them because I was a depressed person who didn't think they could accomplish anything. But once I figured out that I had strength and resilience inside of me, I realized that I needed to use it in ways that would make me feel like I was living life. LauraOnAMission: Mike, don't you think you had to go through it to get to it? To go from existing to living? MikeRunsMarathons: That's the sad thing. That's the that's like I wish that you didn't because it is it can be very painful. and there are still moments now where I look back and I go, like, like with my running, I'm like, man, if I had just like started running in my mid twenties or my early twenties, I'd probably be so much better than I at like than I would be right now. And maybe I should have done track in high school because I did kind of like to run on the track back then. LauraOnAMission: Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: And I I always ask all these what ifs and all these things. But now I'm I'm I'm like, you know what? I probably wouldn't have loved running as much as I do now if I had found it back then. And I would not be the person that I am right now if I had discovered it back then. Because those struggles, as much as they hurt, they shaped me into the person that I am today. And there might be some people that are unhappy about that. But the main thing is that the people that matter the most to me, including myself, my wife, people like that, actually are proud of me and actually like the person who come out of all of that. and and I I love what you said about your daughter because I'm hoping that the second thing you said is what she thinks when she sees me run a marathon. LauraOnAMission: Yes, yes, yes. Right? MikeRunsMarathons: Because I want her I mean, I already told my wife and I joke about it. As soon as she can walk, we're going to the track because she doesn't have a choice about running. I've already got a pair of Nike shoes that I bought from her from the store that are for like actual babies. So she's gonna wear them and we're gonna go. I just got a running stroller. So like it's all set and done. Like she doesn't have a choice. She's going I already I joke with my wife. I said she's going to be an Olympian astronaut. LauraOnAMission: Stop it. Stop it. Yes. MikeRunsMarathons: She's gonna run the Olympics either track or or the cross country or she and and then she's gonna become an astronaut and then maybe she'll become president. You never know. LauraOnAMission: Yes, and my daughter's gonna be a veterinarian. She's going to sing on the weekends. She's already shared this with me. She dances, cheers, and she's a runner. When did we stop allowing ourselves to dream bigger than the box that we fit in? When did that stop? And what if, what if, because I get sad sometimes that running, that I found running so late, but what if running found me at the right time? What if running saved your? Running saved your life. Running saved my life. I had had, like I said, two surgeries. I was not well. I was not taking care of myself. I coded after I was born with my daughter after I had my daughter. I literally coded on the table. I was not well. And I got that second chance at life and I almost burned it up. So what if, what if we have this other shot and it again, we make it now more than just about us. And there's a there's a a country song. I listen to all types of music, but there's a song called Till You Can't. And I listen to it in every chral while I'm warming up. And it's like, if you've got a chance, take it. so I just, yes. I don't necessarily know how, but yes, let's do it. Let's do it. Hey, you know what? I'm I sh I'm shooting my shot for Berlin, Berlin. If Berlin comes up and I get to do Berlin too this year, guess who's doing it? I'm doing it. Yes. Because I might not be MikeRunsMarathons: Absolutely. Yeah. Listen, I I ran with the charity last year, very last minute. So if I hear anything from them, I will let you know. So LauraOnAMission: Let me know because you know what, Mike? It's not promised that I can run this time next year. Anything can happen. MikeRunsMarathons: Exactly. That's what I I always tell there's so many people that plan out everything and then something goes wrong and all of your plans get thrown away. Especially with runners or anybody who does endurance sports because your body is your instrument. And if something happens to you you can't play the instrument and that everything gets canceled. LauraOnAMission: Yeah. Yeah. It is That's right. That's right. That's right. MikeRunsMarathons: There was there was something I was gonna say, my god, that that you said that I I really identify with, but I can't remember what it is now. LauraOnAMission: Okay, it'll come back to you. MikeRunsMarathons: Yeah. I wow. I cannot remember it. You were talking about coding on the table, running saved our lives. We found the one we were supposed to. Wow. I can't remember at all. It's like my mind just went completely blank. LauraOnAMission: Just wait till you get to be my age. It happens multiple times a day. MikeRunsMarathons: it happens so much to me now. It's ridiculous. So with with Sydney and New York, right? The these are two very, very different beasts in terms of like the the courses. Now, technically people say New York was the most difficult world marathon major just because of the elevation and the bridges and everything. I think I think Sydney is LauraOnAMission: only need to get worse if you're well. Yeah. Yeah. Sydney, you're at the chat. MikeRunsMarathons: more difficult now. What you so you have like not only that in terms of like the terrains, we have different cultures, you have different types of crowds, different weather. How are you preparing for these? LauraOnAMission: Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I have an amazing coach. shout out to Coach Shannon with the June coaching company. she is great. And I'll never forget the first workout she programmed for me. Like, I don't know, six months ago. No, gosh, we've been going together now for nine months now. And I'll never forget the first workout. She and it was a hill interval. I'm like, wow, she's really bold. Tempo hill intervals. That's what it was. It was tempo hills. And her comment was: if you're not checking your watch after the first minute, wishing it was over, you're doing it wrong. so I I got some stride pods. not everybody knows what those are, but I have stride pods now for my shoes, which ensure that I am running my easy days easy, my hard days hard. Huge help. with running hills because I have always made the mistake of burning my legs out going up hills and running too hard when in fact you actually can pull it back and still achieve the same power. and so for me knowing I've got a ton of hills in my future, I got the stride pods, invested in those. It has changed my running efficiency. and and there's just data like that I can see. So when my coach programs something I'm watching it right. And my coach asked me recently, she said, what's your what's your goal for for Sydney? And I said, well, look, I said, I I suspect that the crowds are going to carry me in New York. I already know that. Sydney is gonna be a different monster, right? Totally different. Different again, I mean, it's I they speak the same language that I do, so I'm not up against the language barrier per se, but the culture is very different. I have clients in my like work life who are from Australia and everything is different there. And yet what I am going to be prepping for is to just follow my training plan, do what my coach has asked, and trust my training. And I do a lot of cross training. So that's the plan. I'm gonna do what I'm told, trust the people smarter than me, and and just show up 100% of who I am every day. MikeRunsMarathons: Now, speaking of the marathon trainings, the marathon training that you're doing now, and then also the ones that you've run in the past, you also did something even more extraordinary, or should I say, more ultra, that many other people have not done. And what was that? LauraOnAMission: Good. That was good. so I ran a 50k ultra marathon back in April, April 25th. And have you ever like, I don't know, as an adult, I don't do dares, right? But I remember the first time I ever met my now best friend, which I only met her a year ago, and she said to me, One day I want to run an ultra marathon. And I was like, good luck with that, because I will tear you on from the sidelines, girl. And we ran Vegas together. She was there with me when my dad passed. And my way of coping was to sign up for an ultra marathon. Because why not? And I picked a looped course that was 1.4 miles of a loop, which really messes with your head because you can't count loops. Like it's not like a even one mile, right? So you're coming through and at some point you're losing your mind. Like I was Let me be careful how I say this. I never hit the wall. Fortunately, I have not in my last couple races. I feel like my fuel is dialed in. But at some point I was hallucinating. There was a man who was like in front of us who had a backpack on who I swore looked like a dog. Or that I swore looked like a dog. And I was like, look, there's the dog again. Right. Your mind plays tricks on you after seeing the same loop over and over again. My family was there. There was a tent so I could like check in. Unfortunately, the downside of a looped course with four different types of terrain. So it was wood, it was sidewalk, it was gravel, and it was grass, is that my my hips apparently never found like true stability. And it was left-handed loop. So my left IT band around mile 21 decided it was going to check out. And so that's Kevin. And so I every kind of loop around the tent I would say to my husband, biofreeze! Spray my leg down. it was it was hurting so badly, I don't think it did anything. Mentally it did, but I don't really think it did because I could barely it felt like running through mud. I couldn't lift my legs. Or my left leg anyway. And I did it. I finished it and I will say, shout out to you. I used Rally to give me messages at every mile and that saved my life. It saved my friend's life. She didn't have anybody in her ear, so I was playing the messages out loud. And people I've met along the way who I've never met in person left me messages. And that mission, Mike, that I like to remind people of is that feeling when you're on a course and you see somebody struggling, what happens when you encourage them? You get out of your own head a little bit. When you help somebody cross the line at the Boston Marathon after they have passed out, Mike, what does it do for you? Gets you out of your own head for just a minute and helps you encourage them, right? So life should be like that. And at that at that ultra, that's what happened for me. I finished it. I will say there's a huge gap between a 32 mile ultra marathon. I ended up running a little extra, and a 26 mile marathon. That gap is bigger than you might think. People are like, it's just six extra miles. Okay, go do it. You let me know how that works out for you. But I will say, ultra marathon's way better snacks. Like at one point I was like, what do you have? And they were like, we've got Gatorade and Coke and this and that. And I'm like, should I do Coca-Cola or should I do Gatorade? And they were like, why not both? And I'm like, cheers. MikeRunsMarathons: yeah. That's why I've heard that ultra marathons are basically just like slight running events with like the best food options available. LauraOnAMission: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. You you need to do it. You know what? Do it because you can say you did it forever. MikeRunsMarathons: That's like the one reason I would want to do an ultra is just so could find that much food I can eat. See, I'd want to, but like, I don't know. I have somebody else who's trying to get me to do a high rocks right now and that scares the shit out of me. LauraOnAMission: I wanna do that too. I wanna do a high rox. I wanna do a high rox. MikeRunsMarathons: I just the strength part scares me 'cause I'm not I'm not I'm weak. I'm not as strong as I think I am. LauraOnAMission: you got for anybody who spends any time with me. I just caught you. I just caught you, Mike. It's an opportunity to become stronger. You're not weak. It's just an opportunity to become stronger. MikeRunsMarathons: No. Well. Yeah. I'll talk to her and I'll see. 'Cause she reached out to me, she's like, Who can I talk to? And I was like, I have no idea. She was like, I think we should do it and I was like, my God. Well LauraOnAMission: What's the worst that what is the worst that can happen? Okay. MikeRunsMarathons: I don't finish. LauraOnAMission: Cool, you tried. MikeRunsMarathons: Yeah, that's true. That is true. See, you keep making so much sense. As I keep saying this to all these people who say all these things and I'm just like, damn, you're so correct and I hate it. LauraOnAMission: I'm gonna stay in your ear on this one though. I'm gonna stay in your ear. But you know what? Ready is a decision, not a feeling. So when you decide to be ready to do this, that is not a me thing, that's a Peloton thing. When you decide to be ready, you'll be at the start line. But you have to decide. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: See, Peloton's really wise. That and it's not that serious, boo. LauraOnAMission: But so wise. It's not that deep, boo. It's not that deep, ooh. Yeah. Same thing. MikeRunsMarathons: no, it's not that deep, boo. Sorry. I'm sorry. You know what I actually missed? This is total aside. I miss when Alex used to say, god, what was the thing he used to end with? my god. He 'cause he's my man. He's my guy. I love him. LauraOnAMission: wait, Alex Tucson? Okay, okay. I feel bad. I don't take as many Alex classes. I scrape. To scrape. See, I'm a I'm a Adrian. Like Cody on the bike. Robin running. Robin Kirsten, but Adrian. I might have a crush on Adrian too. My husband knows about it, so it's okay. Yeah. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: All right. he will kick your ass. everyone has a crush on Adrian. Like who who doesn't look at him and go, I wish either I looked like that or I was with LauraOnAMission: Yeah. Right, right, yeah. Yeah. My husband doesn't mind though. He's good with it. MikeRunsMarathons: I mean, listen, I I would feel the same exact way if my wife was like Listen. I cannot find this quote. my god, I cannot believe it ends with it's not a mindset, it's a lifestyle. And I just I cannot remember what it is now. that's gonna eat away at me. had to find it. what's No, he's not. It's not. And it's it was LauraOnAMission: why not? It's okay. No But he's not wrong. MikeRunsMarathons: Wait, wait. Hold on, I can do this. I can I'm not I can't quit now. I feel like I have to I have to figure it out. LauraOnAMission: You're too invested. You're too invested. We gotta find this we gotta figure out what it is. MikeRunsMarathons: Wait, look good, feel good, do better. Yes, that was my whole thing. I love that. it's it's actually funny. I got to meet him. I did one of his his running classes. I think like two months ago or a month ago or something like that. I was up in New York for a race and then I went there and did one. And it it was it was definitely it was an interval run. But that man LauraOnAMission: yes. Yes, yes, I I'm home. So cool. MikeRunsMarathons: was pushing us so hard and I was like, I can't let you down. So like he would tell us what the pace was and I would go the fastest and he would say what the elevation was and I would go the highest. And when it was over, he came up to me and goes, I need to see your output. And I was LauraOnAMission: Well, I think I remember seeing that post and he was like, what did you do? What are you doing? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: It was ridiculous. I was like, okay. I was like, if Alex says, you know, what what are you doing? I'm like, okay, cool. Then he likes me. Are you considering either doing another one or going further? LauraOnAMission: Right. Right. Yeah. No. I can say no further. Definitively. So here, like somebody asked me the other day if I wanted to do a Disney race. I would love to do the Disney race series. Like I love Disney after I get the after I complete my my seven stars. Okay, that that is all eyes on that because again, like I know it's gonna be more challenging as I get older, potentially, right? And so my all eyes are on that. after that, what let's see, I want to say yes to things. I want to say yes to a hierox, because strength training is so important to me. Although, like the burpees, mm-hmm, yeah. I I told my coach whenever I hired her, like, if you ever ask me to do burpees, we're done. Like this, I'm out. I'll run a marathon before I do burpees. Let's be honest. so nothing longer than a 50k. MikeRunsMarathons: Yeah, too. Yeah. Like same. LauraOnAMission: Despite what my best friend will tell you, I'm capped at that. Would I do another one of those? Yeah, probably not a looped course though, because it really wrecked my IT band. I'm still, I feel like I'm still nursing that. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: T man is the pain is the worst. That happened to me during the Philly marathon in I think twenty twenty three and I was like run limping the rest of the race. It was it was terrible. my god, it's so it's such a bad feeling. LauraOnAMission: Yeah. Our bodies are so interesting, aren't they? Like things that I never thought I would ever think about or like know. Like, you know, after doing some pretty heavy hill work recently, I'm like, my Achilles is hurting. Like I I didn't even know where my Achilles was five years ago. MikeRunsMarathons: Mm-hmm. Yeah, the only thing I knew I think when I first started running was like, I have shin splinters because they're in my shins. The pain is in my shin, so must be a shin splint. Yeah, now now I'll talk to people and they'll be like, like I'll be like, don't do this with your running or try to stay like this when like in your in your form with running or else you'll hurt this part in your quad or this part in your glute. And I'm just sitting there now, like, how in the world do I know these areas of my body now? LauraOnAMission: Right, right, right. Right. Right. MikeRunsMarathons: Like I talk about the piriformis and I'm like, I didn't even know what the piriformis was until I pulled it in twenty twenty one. LauraOnAMission: Yeah. Right. Like don't curse at me like that. Like what are you talking what kind of terminology are you talking about, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: Okay, bless you. Like what? Did you sneeze? But you so you've got three marathons coming up, right? You're you're raining but you've got two in kind of like one season. You've got one in August and then one in like I guess two ish months later we could say. LauraOnAMission: Yes, yes. Don't say that so loud because my knees don't know yet. It's gonna be a surprise. New York is gonna be a surprise for them. MikeRunsMarathons: I'm sorry, yeah. well, I'm I think they'll be really happy when they see the crowds because I think that there's like New York City crowds. But they require a different kind of discipline, right? Because you're training essentially for like almost one big marathon because you're obviously you're gonna finish Sydney, you might take a little bit of a break, but then you gotta keep training again. And I'm pretty sure that during this whole process, I mean we just talked about this, how the body is like a this crazy thing, right? What has surprised you about what LauraOnAMission: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: It's been asked of you. LauraOnAMission: Mm-hmm. So Vegas and Chicago were two weeks apart. So I do have a little bit of experience with that. I anybody who like knows my routine knows I take my recovery incredibly seriously. So like I every week do cryotherapy, negative two twenty five for three and half minutes. after I do the sauna, after I do red light, I do compression, I do all the things, right? So I spend I spend as much time and money on recovery like as if I were a pro athlete. but I feel like it has given me The fortune of being able to train in longer blocks. I also cross-trained. So I only run four days a week. that's it. I I only run four days a week. And I learned that the hard way. My first marathon. I'm gonna tell you a secret since it's just us here and nobody else is gonna hear this, right? My first marathon, I did a plan. And all I did was run the number of miles. I did all of them at the same speed because I didn't know any better. Like I didn't do a co I found a plan online and it was like four and a half miles this day, six miles this day, twelve miles this day, five days a week. And I didn't change up the speeds. So all of them were like pretty fast speeds. And I was broken before I got to the start line. Should never have shown up to the start line in Nebraska. Right. And and so for me now, I realize recovery is really important, right? So I'm doing the bike once a week, I do the row once a week, I strength train twice a week, and I walk once a week. Mondays are mental health walk days. That's all I do. Take a mental health walk. and so for me there won't be a break between Sydney and New York. I mean, I might like a week of light stuff, but I don't I don't have the time or luxury of doing that and If I'm going to take up space in a race, I am going to give it a hundred percent of who I am. Because somebody else would do anything to have a spot at that star line. I'll never forget at the Ultra, a woman went down second loop in. She was a little bit older than me. She literally went down head first, busted her eye open. We we came up on her right after it happened. Her eye was cut open. She clearly had a concussion. They took her to the hospital. MikeRunsMarathons: Mm-hmm. LauraOnAMission: We saw the blood on the bridge every single loop. She did not choose that. She chose to be there that day. So I am going to choose to give my all because there are so many people who deserve a space there who just didn't get it this year. And I want to honor them and know that I'm giving it my best. Right? That's the that's the fair thing to do. So MikeRunsMarathons: Yes, absolutely. That is that's really powerful and when you really think about it because I mean we hear it all the time online, especially come Boston Marathon time. There's so many people that wish that they were at the starting line. and that's that's one thing that I always try to do too, is I I don't take for granted the fact that I'm here. And that's one of my favorite things to do at a start line is I just like look around and I'm just like I cannot believe that I'm at this moment LauraOnAMission: Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: 'Cause you do all this you do all this training, right? You run all these miles. I mean, I don't know about you, but I do probably like ninety-five-99% of my training alone. and then you get here, all of these people who have the same goal as you getting to the finish line, and there's so many, it's tens of thousands of people. It it and it's you forget kind of it almost kind of like why you're here in the first place. LauraOnAMission: Yep. Yep. Yeah. Mm. MikeRunsMarathons: Because a lot of people think LauraOnAMission: Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: that the race is like the the whole goal, but really everything that you've done up until this moment has been the entire goal. Like people people like to think it's just twenty six point two miles. But I always tell people you have hundreds of miles before that that have led up to these twenty six point two miles. These are just the last twenty six miles of that entire training block. And it's LauraOnAMission: Yeah. It's just the finish. It's just the final the final lap, right? The final lap. And that's it. MikeRunsMarathons: Exactly. Only difference is you get a medal at the end. That's it. You know. And there's more and there's more people cheering for you. That's it. LauraOnAMission: Yes, and you get to see the signs and the supporters and at the end of the race my family is there. Right. or my friends are there or whoever it is. So yeah, I wanna I wanna like make sure that I and like every application I've done for charity, right? Like I wanna make sure they know I'm bringing dignity to like I'm carrying it with dignity. Right. Like at Chicago, I ran for Ronald McDonald House. I had a personal connection to it. Like I I I wear that weight on my back literally. because I feel I feel that other people would have given anything to have that spot. And I just I don't call it luck. I don't call it luck. because I don't I don't know that that's it. What I say is that I had this opportunity and I'm making the most of it and I'm going to Take advantage of it, right? And then at some point it's not gonna be my time anymore. It'll be somebody else's. But while it's my time, I'm gonna take it. And again, why? Must show somebody else. It's gonna be your time soon. Right? Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: Mm-hmm. And we'll get your daughter there at the starting line one day. And my daughter. LauraOnAMission: heck yeah. Heck yeah. And they might be running. I they're not, they're only seven years apart. So like it's possible they're running the same, the same races. Right? We think about our generations. No guarantee nobody on either side of my family ever ran a marathon. Like it guarantee. and so what a legacy we are starting, we are building. And it's it's MikeRunsMarathons: Mm-hmm. Yeah. LauraOnAMission: Coach Bennett, this is about running. This is not about running. It's bigger than that. It's bigger than that. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: Mm. Yes. Now in your training, right? You run several marathons, you an ultra marathon, you're currently training for three. We know that there's always a moment in some some area in the training block where doubt comes in, right? That happens at some point, whether it's the beginning, the middle, standing at the starting line. How do you talk to yourself in those moments? LauraOnAMission: Mm-hmm. I'd like to tell you that I say something prophetic to myself. I I don't. I don't have anything prophetic to say. In fact, I I shared with a group like in my work life today that I was coaching and we were talking about marathons, and they asked me the question that everybody asks How do you run marathons? One mile at a time. I take it one mile at a time. I can't run all 26 at once, right? So I put the mantras, I put the my race stats on my hand, right? And I look down at them every time I'm checking my watch, right? And it those are the mantras, but it does take me being prepared. I was talking with another runner tonight. He was asking me for advice on fueling. And I I went back to him and I said, Look, this is one area I feel really, really confident in. Let's dial you in on your fueling. Let me help you so that you have a plan. So come race day, none of this is new. So we practice it. And when the doubt sets in, what does Robin say? Doubt into determination. Pain into power. MikeRunsMarathons: Mm. LauraOnAMission: I l I feel it. I let all the feels happen. It is not uncommon for me to baw my eyes out at the end of a long run. right? Because what are we running through? What are we what got us here? It hasn't magically disappeared just because we laced up today. We still feel it. I I am suffering from imposter syndrome right now about something. Right? Do I belong here? Is this MikeRunsMarathons: yeah. LauraOnAMission: Is this space meant for me? Where is my place? Right? Because again, I don't look like a runner. I don't fit the profile of a runner. But damn, I'm a runner. Right? I'm a runner. And I'm gonna take up space and I'm gonna bring you in. Let's go. Let's run together. Let's run far. Let's run early. Let's run together. Right? Way I look at it. MikeRunsMarathons: Yeah, I like I like to think that in those moments of doubt and when I feel like I can't do something that I and I try to be nicer to myself. And I try to be like, No, no, like think about what you've done and what you've been able to accomplish. No, I'm usually really mean to myself and I'll be like, Don't be a bitch something like that. Like it's just not it's not a nice thing to hear. And I know it's not healthy, but I n I I try to and I've I've been working on being nice to myself. I've worked on it in therapy and LauraOnAMission: Don't be able to Okay. So here's what I'm gonna challenge you to. I'm gonna challenge you to this. And I'm gonna try to take my own advice on this, okay? Cause this thing, this thing that I'm waiting on, right? I'm I came up with all the reasons today why it wasn't going to work out. And then I did not come up with the reasons why it would. And then I said to myself, if I were my friend, would I be saying those things to them? Why they're not gonna get it? MikeRunsMarathons: It's taken some time. LauraOnAMission: Would you say those to you? Better not say that shit to me, Mike. absolutely not. I will come at you. Okay? I lift weights for a reason. So you don't say those to me. So you don't say them to yourself. And it's easy for me to say because I say them to myself all the time. I said it today. You're not gonna get it. You're not worthy of it. They're not gonna pick you. But what if they do? I deserve it. I've done all the things right. Right? MikeRunsMarathons: Mm-hmm. LauraOnAMission: We have be kinder to ourselves. And that's just years of trauma and the things that we've walked through. MikeRunsMarathons: No, it is it is I've been told that and I've been told if the younger version of you was in front of you, would you say that to them? And so I try I try to remind myself of that now. And it sometimes works, which is great. LauraOnAMission: Okay. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. I know you Yes, we will together and and I'll hold you accountable by hearing you talk about yourself like that. Well come through this computer screen. MikeRunsMarathons: We'll do it again. Please no. You'll find me in New York and you'll beat my ass. LauraOnAMission: I will f I know, I can't wait to meet you in New York. I cannot wait. MikeRunsMarathons: We'll have to try to find out if we'll try to have to like see if there's a way we can do a Peloton class together. Have you done a live yet? You've never done a live Peloton class? my god, it's incredible. It's really cold. It's really cold. The rooms are so cold. LauraOnAMission: I would I would die. Bucket list. I I would gather that actually. I would guess that. It looks cold. I have not yet, right? And I like to add the word yet to things because my story is not over. but yes, wouldn't that be amaz that would be so amazing. Okay, we're gonna work on that. We have homework. We have homework. MikeRunsMarathons: Yeah. Listen, all but all but like one or two classes I've done have been through standby. So I just put my name in in case they get a spot that opens and then I get an email and then I just do it. So we'll we'll definitely do it. We'll we'll we'll ch we'll start like the week before and see if there's anything that's available and then start applying and then hopefully something will will fall through. LauraOnAMission: Okay. Yeah. Okay, okay, okay. MikeRunsMarathons: Now let's let's look at your your three marathons coming up. you've got the finish line at the Opera House, you have the finish line in Central Park, and you have the finish line at Buckingham Power. LauraOnAMission: Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: Right. when you see those finish lines, right, or when you as you cross them, what do you want to feel? LauraOnAMission: I want to I don't know if this is possible what I want to feel. But I want to try to make up for all those years that I hated myself. That's what I want. Cause I've been honest about that in my journey. I didn't start doing this because I loved myself. I grew to love myself. I grew to love who I am still becoming. That I want to be able to forgive myself for the way I treated my body over the years and for the way I treated other people. I wasn't always welcoming. I was definitely career-minded about getting ahead, right? I wasn't always in inclusive in my hey, let's come along, come come along with me. Right? It was very much about being better than I'm not better than anybody. Okay. And I for years, years. But my hope is that with each finish line, I forgive myself a little bit. a little bit more. And I say, look at what you've done. Look at what you've done. And and I don't mean crossing that finish line. I mean what it's taken to get there. That's that's what I want to feel at each of those. And I do hope I do hope that I can heal a little bit too with each one of those finish lines. Chicago healed me. I have I have fuzzy feelings around Vegas. Listen, I don't Grand Island didn't heal anything. I'm still healing from Grand Island. I'm sure there's still blisters I have somewhere from Grand Island and I lost six toenails. I haven't lost any since, but I lost six toenails that race. but I want to heal. That's what I want. Find find a little bit more peace. Like myself a little bit more. That's it. MikeRunsMarathons: I mean, that's one of the reasons I love running marathons, is because every single race, even if I run the same race year after year, I learn something new about myself that I didn't know before. And that has helped me tremendously in my own confidence. Because I used to have this much, zero. I had none. I used to I hated myself. I didn't think I could accomplish anything. I didn't think that I was worthy of anything. I didn't think that I had any strength or skills or anything that could that I could just lay out on the table and say, this is what I'm proud of. This is what I know I'm I can do. And I it was just ambiguity and just fear and me constantly feeling like I was weak and useless. And LauraOnAMission: Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: After that first marathon when I did New York in twenty twenty one, I thought that it was my one and done. I was like, you know, this is just like a bucket list item. I just want to be able to prove to myself that I'm strong enough to be able to do this. And when I I mean, you've you've probably seen the pictures. They're terrible. I I look like I joke one of the pictures, I look like I'm being shot like I'm in the movie Platoon. Like it looks like I'm like literally dying at the finish line. LauraOnAMission: Yeah, yeah. I said. I can't unsee that now. So now I get to go back and look at the pictures again and like. MikeRunsMarathons: See it, that's all I could think about. And and I thought that I was I thought my feet were broken, like I couldn't walk afterwards when I finished because I didn't have I had flat I had flat feet and I didn't know. So I was running in Alpha Fly one. It was my god, it was terrible. And but then I I finished it and I was like, you know what? I'm not dead. I'm not I was in the medic tent, but I was there for like mostly like LauraOnAMission: But Are you just That's a way to find out, isn't it? MikeRunsMarathons: soreness and muscle pain and then my like the pain on my foot. I was like, nothing's broken. I'm there's people next to me who are like wrapped up in stuff and throwing up and they l are on IVs. Like I don't have any of that. I'm a lot stronger than I thought I was. And I was like, well, maybe I should enter in the lottery for Berlin. Because that's I I learned like right before New York about the Royal Marathon majors. I didn't know about them before that. And I was like, yeah, let me see if I can get into this. And that LauraOnAMission: Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: kind of kickstarted everything else, but that one marathon was the one that I was like, this I'm only gonna do this once because I this is gonna be awful. But when I finished, I was like, you know what? It may have been painful, but this person that I am on the other side and has learned so much from these four hours and twenty seven minutes or something like that that I ran because of LauraOnAMission: Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: Like, yeah, you have all these people around you that are cheering you on and supporting you, but really the only thing that's getting you to the finish line is your intrinsic strength. And if you can utilize that to push through some of the worst pain of your life, imagine what else that can do for you in other facets of it. And that's what I love about running is and I've talked about this before, is like I and It's why I became a coach. It's like I love running, right? I wouldn't be a coach if I didn't love running. I wouldn't run if I didn't love love running. But I love what running does to people outside of running. I love the way that it changes people's confidence. It makes them stronger. It makes them realize that they can accomplish so much more than they thought they were possible with. It makes them go for that job that they want. It makes them go for that dream that they didn't think they were capable of. Like sign up for more races, like all these things. Become a coach. LauraOnAMission: Right. Yes. Yes. MikeRunsMarathons: Like helping the other the like the next person, like you pointed out for yourself. That's what I love about running, is because of all of the change that comes with it outside of the running. and that's why I I love getting more people involved in it because it allows people to understand like all the people outside who look in and see runners as like these obsessive freaks who just like to go out there and hurt themselves. When you finally bring them in and they start doing it for a little bit, they realize, wait a minute. The meditative nature, the reflective nature, all these things that I get out of running, I didn't know that was possible. Now I know why people do it. And I just went on this whole tangent. But that that's why I love to run. but and I I love though how you said it: of like, I just want to love myself a little bit more. I want to forgive myself, and and that is so. LauraOnAMission: Yeah. It's amazing. It's amazing. MikeRunsMarathons: powerful because there are so many reasons that people run. You know, we we talked about them a little bit, you know, the mental health aspect, the physical aspect, the grieving. And I I really love you just pointed out one of probably my new favorite reasons for why people run, which is to forgive themselves for essentially not loving themselves when they were younger. And to realize that now that they are worthy of that. And so LauraOnAMission: Yeah. Mm. Forgive yourself to the thing. MikeRunsMarathons: You just gave me yes. Yes. Yes. So I I I just I love that. And I have no doubt. You said you don't know if you're gonna feel it. I have no doubt when you cross each of those finish lines, you're gonna feel at least a little bit of it. And if you don't, when you cross New York, I'll be there somewhere and I'll find and I will tell you how proud I am of you. LauraOnAMission: I am worthy. I am worthy. yeah. yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: But I have one last question for this section. And so this is for the person who's listening who has their own mission. Just like me. Right? They're scared to say it out loud because if they say it out loud, it becomes real. and then they have to face it. What do you want them to take from your own story? LauraOnAMission: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think this is unique what I'm gonna say. it's said a lot, but maybe it's just that I'm proof of it. It's not too late. You're not too old. You're not too much. You're not too little. If you have a chance, you take it. That is what I want for them. And by the way, I think Don't let perfection be your enemy. Because for me as a certified perfectionist, eldest daughter, all all the things, red personality, although I'm red blue. I spent so much of my life not going for it because I was afraid that I couldn't do it perfectly. And as someone who now look, I I'm on target probably, I don't know, I'm targeting like a 410 Sydney. That's like w what is probably within my reach. 410 Sydney, somewhere in that realm for New York, right? Just depending on how how the training shakes out. Like I am never going to be one of those people with incredibly fast times. But my medal is the same as your medal, is the same as everybody's medal. And at the end of the day, I want you to be so proud of what got you there and what got you through. And I'm here cheering you on too. I love to meet people whenever I connect, whenever they click follow on socials, right? I I genuinely want to know your story. That's why I do Mission Spotlight. so I can learn your story and share your story because your story deserves to be heard. You are human who deserves to have your story heard if you want it to be heard. That's it. MikeRunsMarathons: And that's actually perfect like ending point for this section so that we can move on to the next one, which is great. so this next section is what I call the hot seat. So I know that I know you have listened to this podcast before, so unfortunately you have like a heads up on what some of these questions are. But as much as you can, try to think of answers off top of your head as quick as you can, so without really thinking about them, on what you prefer. So we'll start first with trail or road. LauraOnAMission: Cool. Okay. Mm. Okay. I love this. Broad. MikeRunsMarathons: What is your favorite running C ran right now? Knew it. Same here. and I probably know this too, Miss David Goggins, but are you an early alarm or a late runner? Yep. See for me, that's a late night run for me because I sometimes don't go to bed till three AM. are you Really? my god, I still haven't had dinner. LauraOnAMission: Three AM. Okay. This has past my bedtime right now. yeah. I'm in bed at 6 30 at night. Yeah, yeah. True story. MikeRunsMarathons: I got home at six from work. That's crazy. LauraOnAMission: Yeah, no, six thirty bedtime. MikeRunsMarathons: Well, I appreciate you staying up for this. do you prefer your long run solo or with others? LauraOnAMission: Of course. With others. MikeRunsMarathons: What is your favorite post marathon meal? LauraOnAMission: Pizza. MikeRunsMarathons: if you go out for pizza in New York, I will give you some great pizza places. On your easy runs, do you prefer music, podcast, or silence? LauraOnAMission: Yes. I'll take mm music regardless of even if I'm with people. MikeRunsMarathons: Okay. Okay. Those people that don't have anything, I s sometimes question their sanity because LauraOnAMission: But look over your shoulder for those people. Just getting just MikeRunsMarathons: Exactly. You have conquered your demons, so I have not. That's why I need my fastness. What is your one piece of running gear that you can't live without and you can't say your shoes? LauraOnAMission: Right. You are stronger than me. Yes, yes, yes. my god. my god. my god. my god. Okay. So if I can I save my watch? Can I save my watch? Okay. My gar my Garmin. I only became a Garmin person back in October. So my Garmin, for sure. Can't live without it. MikeRunsMarathons: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What did you use before that? LauraOnAMission: I had an Apple Watch Ultra. But I know, but fun fact, I ran the Vegas Marathon with two watches and a whoop band. So I had the Apple Watch, but I did and I only had my garment for two days and I didn't trust that I knew how to use it yet. And I didn't want to mess up my qualifying for New York. So I ran both just for Strava tax as well. And then I had my whoop band. yeah. So just a I don't know. I told you for sections. MikeRunsMarathons: I like how you pause before you said. Yeah. listen, you probably saw my picture from the Brooklyn Half where I ran with three watches. So I mean like I still have to put that video out. It's done. I just have to put it out. I'm just trying to figure out if I want to put music on it. my god. do you have a dream race? LauraOnAMission: Yes. I appreciated that. Yeah. Well, I'm I'm gonna be doing it. London is has always been my dream race. I can't believe I'm gonna say this. I can't believe I'm gonna say this. So London, London is my dream race. Period. End of story. but dang. To To be able to run where the the Hogan family, which is my mom's maiden name, is really from in Boston. I have uncles and cousins and family galore there. It's not been one that I have emotionally been attached to until the last two years when I got to watch the race on my phone during work. Sorry, shout out to my bosses. While I'm like coaching, watching people that I personally know run through the streets where my family lives. Come on now. Come on. Right? but London, just the the the atmosphere. I don't know, like every every opportunity feels like a dream to me right now. Feels like a dream. MikeRunsMarathons: Yeah. I mean, there's it's so crazy when you think about the fact that you're running you're going to a country because you're running a marathon. Like it's just it's crazy when you think about that. My wife jokes to me, she's like, Can we please go on a vacation where we it's not revolving around running? And I was like, What's the point in that? LauraOnAMission: Like, No, no, they're runcations now, honey. That's what you married. This is what you married. You run Cation. That's how my husband, I told him, like, plant, plan around the majors, honey. Like, we know when Tokyo is, we know in Berlin it we know about Okay, like we gotta make it happen. Yeah. Yeah. So I will, I will, I will, long story short, I will say everyone is going to be a dream from here on out because it is a piece of the dream. MikeRunsMarathons: Yeah. Hmm. Well, if we look at London, if you could run that marathon with anyone, who would it be? LauraOnAMission: Yes. Well, for sure, my best friend who entered the lottery, who I am hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping she gets in. Her husband has run Boston. He's qualified like six years in a row. yeah, she's close, man. She's close. but I really would love to run London with her. And my friend Lisa, who I met through socials, don't talk to strangers, another Peloton girly who has been such a cheerleader to me. She's never run a marathon. And I would love to be there to help get her through her first marathon, right? And what a marathon that would be. So if I say I'm gonna say two, I'm gonna say two people. Yeah, yeah. Two people. MikeRunsMarathons: Yeah. All right. I love that. I love that. Now During the hard times in a marathon, which we all face, I want you to pick one quote, a mantra or a line that gets you through those tough miles when it sometimes feels impossible. LauraOnAMission: So again, another stranger who's become a friend, Jenny, who ran the Great World Race and is doing it again this year. She she put a quote on my rally. And I guess I'd heard it before. It was from Dr. King. And it was, if you can't run, and I I hope I don't mess this up, but if you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, crawl. And and I'm sure I'm missing something in that. But whatever you do, right? Don't don't quit, don't stop. And I'm not doing it justice. But I said that to myself at the half marathon that I ran two weeks after the ultra that I decided I was gonna race for some reason. I found myself saying that because I wanted to I wanted to stop. And I wouldn't allow myself to stop. The mission wasn't complete. So that's what I say. MikeRunsMarathons: I just realized you said the mission was not complete. I I just got it. I'm sorry. It's it's been a day for me. I love that though. No, it's that is such a good, good quote. And I think you got most of it right. I still remember not what the what the like official ending is of it. Now I want to jump to so I know you have three marathons coming up, but I want to jump to London next year. All right. You're you're at London, you just LauraOnAMission: Yeah, most of it. Most of it. I didn't do just Yes. Yeah. MikeRunsMarathons: Turn past Buckingham Palace, you're running down the path. You could see the finish line. You see all the bleachers. What song is blasting through your headphones as you cross that finish line? LauraOnAMission: Easy answer. I lived by One Republic. I play it every I try to time it so I'm hearing it at every finish line. Just happen just magically perfectly timed it at Boulder Boulder. as I'm coming into the stadium around the bend on the track. I lived. MikeRunsMarathons: Mm. Now why why that's all? LauraOnAMission: The pain, the heartache, all of it was proof that I lived. And I again I've shared with you, I I get sad frequently that I didn't find running sooner, but I think it found me right on time. And had I not gone through what I've been through, I don't know that it would have found me. And now I'm living. I was existing. Now I'm living. And every race, every start line where I get those goosebumps and the doubt and the my gosh, what am I doing here? Are you kidding me? Like I'm like, is this a thing? Running a Chicago marathon? I'm running Sydney. I'm running New York City. It's proof that I'm alive. And I'm not just existing. And And that hopefully somewhere along the way my living has helped somebody else come alive. MikeRunsMarathons: That's the whole point of your mission. LauraOnAMission: That's the whole point. That's the assignment. Yep. MikeRunsMarathons: Now these last two questions are questions that I like to end the podcast with because they kind of bring up like the essence of what it's about. And they're a little bit ambiguous because they're you can answer them in any way you want. But I want to start with the first one, which is what has running given you that you didn't expect when you first started? LauraOnAMission: Okay. Confidence. MikeRunsMarathons: It was fast. LauraOnAMission: Yeah. Because I didn't I thought I was confident. I thought I was confident. I truly, I truly, and I don't mean like a snotty confidence. I don't I don't mean that, but a confidence in myself. Like I tonight to to my room, right? In this very glamorous life we live of like traveling for work and you know in hotels all the time. I had a cookie. I will have you know, I absolutely had a cookie after dinner. Why is that relevant? Because five years ago, I would have shamed myself for having a cookie. For having a cookie. And I have the confidence now that I can make the choices that are allowing me to properly fuel my body and know that I did 15 miles on the bike this morning and probably haven't. Like I'm not trying to lose any weight in marathon training. I did my first go-around and it was terrible and I was broken, right? That was my goal to lose weight while I'm running a marathon. Joke's on you. Don't do it. but I had confidence tonight to go, it's okay. Like it's okay. And confidence to speak to somebody about my passion, confidence to Go down into a hotel gym by myself at three o'clock in the morning and not worry about if anybody else is gonna be looking at me when they come in or staring at me like I don't know what I'm talking about or caring about my running gait. Like if you have time for that, like you go go talk to somebody. You don't need to be up in my business about that. You worry about you. Confidence. MikeRunsMarathons: And then my last question, which is the ambiguous one, is why do you run? LauraOnAMission: Ooh. It depends on the day. I will I'll often joke that running keeps me out of prison. I say that lightly. Like, I know that could that could be kind of a heavy thing, but I say that because past life, my anger, I didn't have an outlet for my anxiety to go, for my anger, for my depression. I was on two different types of depression medication and one for panic attacks. And I didn't have an outlet. I kept it all in. Right? So running has given me an outlet. And so why do I run now? I stressed, go for a run. Anxious? Go for a run. Wake up in the morning to start my day and actually give me more energy. Go for a run. Know that the hardest thing I am going to do tomorrow when I'm traveling back home tomorrow night. The hardest thing I'm going to do is seven miles on the treadmill on a hotel treadmill that's gonna shake like an earthquake, right? And do intervals on it. Like that's the hardest thing, hopefully, you know, knock on wood, that I'm gonna deal with. And so I run for that, but I also run because it brings out the best version of me. And I have three little people and a husband at home who deserve. To get what they expect coming home, to get a consistent version of mom who's not popping off at them, who's not losing her mind, who's not blowing up and screaming at them, which was the Laura from a few years ago. I'll never forget I had applied to be an ASICs front runner. And my son, 14-year-old son, Post is still up. I never took it down even though they decided not to do anything for the US. My son commented on that post and he said, Please pick my mom. She's so much happier of a person since she started running. And I run because they I deserve better. They deserve better. And for me it's helped me find that person inside of me that was there that didn't believe, that didn't like myself. That's why I do it. That's why. MikeRunsMarathons: Laura, I I cannot thank you enough for everything that you share today. Free your your entire story is so inspirational, so motivating and and is something that is gonna push me to be a a better runner, better person in general, because I I I think that the mission that you're on to not push for PRs, not push for finish lines, but to push for growth. And the push for support and guidance is so important. And I really love your honesty and your energy. and for being exactly the guest that that this entire podcast was built for. LauraOnAMission: Thank you for, by the way, I'm I'm gonna thank you for a minute. You were one of the first followers I ever had on Instagram. And I joke that we're not that we're not followers. I think I had a hundred when you started following me. And there's a lot of influencers online who what happens is as they grow, they start to unfollow people who don't bring them anything, who don't MikeRunsMarathons: Really? LauraOnAMission: necessarily have anything to give. Right. And I want to thank you for taking a chance on me and seeing me for more than my follower account. Because I'm building community. I always joke like in my side, my corner of the internet, I want to build community. I want to learn about you and I want to support you and I want to I want to cheer for you. But you have believed in me from day one and said, gosh You know, you keep coming back, right? And that's all for me that I have ever wanted is to foster this energy of let's support each other. So the the gratitude is mine. So thank you. MikeRunsMarathons: I appreciate that. Well, I I only give back what I see from other people, and you have been nothing but supportive and and helpful to others and just an an overall beacon of light in a running community that that can sometimes be very judgmental and at times detrimental to its its own thing. So to have someone like you who celebrates runners all of the time and Who welcomes in runners of, you know, all backgrounds and experience levels, is is one of the reasons why I really, really enjoy following you and one of the reasons why I I followed you to begin with. And and I don't look at follower accounts, I look at the content of your posts and that's what stood out to me. So I I just I appreciate you for just being who you are because that's that's what inspires me. LauraOnAMission: Thank you. Thank you for supporting the mission. MikeRunsMarathons: I'll always support the mission. But you you've got so many things lined up right now. You've got two marathons in this season. maybe three if you know fingers crossed if something magic we comes up for last minute for Berlin. But you have London coming up next year, your dream race, which is gonna be absolutely incredible. Hopefully it doesn't rain for you like it did for me. But who knows, it's London. LauraOnAMission: Put it out there. I PR'd my ten K in the rain and Boulder. So yeah, and I was terrified of the rain before that, so MikeRunsMarathons: Okay. Okay, so I don't I'm I'm not gonna wish rain for you, but if it does happen I hope it makes you go faster. LauraOnAMission: No. Right with me too. MikeRunsMarathons: But I want you to know that whatever happens in Sydney or in New York or even London, I want you to know you've already shown people something very, very important, which is that putting your mission into your name is a way of telling yourself in the world that you are not playing small. And that you see this sport in general as more than just a way to Show off your medals or show off your finish time or show off your pace or show off the number of times that you've been able to run these races. It's to bring more people into the community and let them know that you can do it too. Cause that's I've had so many people ask me, How are how have you been able to do this? And I say, because so many people think that I've been in like track and stuff like that for years. I'm like, no, I was LauraOnAMission: Yes. MikeRunsMarathons: Over 200 pounds, and I decided to get into this and I never set out to run a marathon. You can too if you just decide that you want to do it. so I just really want to thank you for that. LauraOnAMission: Right. That's right. Thank you. MikeRunsMarathons: if you are not following her already, make sure you go on Instagram, threads, what have you, and give her a follow. Her name is Laura on a mission with an underscore at the beginning and the end of that statement. and make sure you also follow along with her on her journey through Sydney, through New York, and then through London. because I guarantee you that you will be inspired bit by bit as she gets to those finish lines. cheer her on, learn from her, and make sure you steal a little bit of her courage to put towards whatever your mission might look like. Laura, I LauraOnAMission: I have that tattooed on my shoulder, Mike. Courage. It's tattooed on my shoulder. MikeRunsMarathons: I have one here that says just live. So LauraOnAMission: Okay, I love that. MikeRunsMarathons: I I love that though. Courage is is such a powerful, powerful, powerful word. but I and Laura, I cannot thank you enough for for being on the show, for sharing your story. because the whole running community is in your corner throughout all of these races you're doing, and we all know that you're gonna crush it come August, November, and April of next year. LauraOnAMission: I will see you all at the finish lines in every step along the way. MikeRunsMarathons: And to everybody that's listening, I want you to name your mission, lace up, and keep showing up. One mile at a time, at your own pace. Laura, thank you again. LauraOnAMission: Thank you, Mike. MikeRunsMarathons: And that's a wrap on this episode about your own pace. I cannot thank Laura enough for being on this show and for s sharing her her story, her strength, her hope, the the the things that she has learned as a runner and the way that it has changed her life. It is so inspiring. but if there's one thing I hope that you take with you today, it's this: there's no such thing as too slow, too late, or too far behind. This sport. belongs to you exactly as you are, wherever you're starting from, at whatever pace you're running, and every mile counts, and so do you. If this episode moved you, made you think or made you want to lace up, do me a favor, just share this with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe if you haven't already, follow the show, leave a review, and come find me at Mike Runs Marathons over on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, YouTube, and Facebook. would love to hear your story if you're interested in being a guest on show. Feel free to send me an email or a message. If you're interested in being a guest on the show, feel free to send me a message on Instagram, or you can shoot me an email at Mike at micrunsmarathons.com. next time, take care of yourself. Be Until next time, take care of yourself. Be kind to the person running next to you. And keep showing up at your own pace. I'll see you on the road. Bye.