Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 125. Mirna Valerio, Runner, Speaker & Author

Transcript

125. Mirna Valerio, Runner, Speaker & Author · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There's something about it. There's something about, you know, fighting
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: back those the demons of insecurity or thinking that you
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: can't do something. There's something about crossing that finish line
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and the entire journey up to that that is just
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: so worth it. Over and over again, I learned something
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: about myself every single time.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Hey Hurdlers, Emily, here.
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  Speaker 3: You are listening to episode one five of Hurdle a Wellness,
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: a focused podcast where I sit down with inspiring individuals
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: to talk about everything from their big wins to how
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: they've gotten through some of life's toughest moments. On the show,
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: you can expect vulnerability, motivation, and candid discussions with everyone
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: from top athletes to aspiring entrepreneurs on what it really
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: takes to follow your passions. My mission is simple to
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: inspire you to be your best self, move with intention,
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: and have some fun along the way. Today I am
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: bringing you my conversation with Myrna Valerio.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: She is a runner, a.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Speaker, and an author amongst many many talents. You may
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: know her better as at the Renovator on Instagram and
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: after meeting her on set last year, I was writing
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: an article about her for Woman's Health. There is no
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: better way to sum up her vibe than overwhelming positivity.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: In the episode today, we chat about how she got
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: into this active lifestyle after a really big health scare
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: in two thousand and eight when she was driving through
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: the middle of Pennsylvania when she started to get chest
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: pains and thought she was having.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: A heart attack. She didn't have a heart attack.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: But her cardiologists basically said that it's she didn't make
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: some essential changes to her lifestyle. She wasn't going to
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: be able to watch her son grow up, and so
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  Speaker 3: she started running. She hopped on a treadmill that she
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: had in her home and slowly over time picked up
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: the distance. And I'm not just talking a mile, two miles,
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  Speaker 3: a five k Now. mRNA has done a slew of marathons,
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: a slew of ultra marathons, and it seems as though
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: she is unstoppable. We talked about what it was like
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: to start from scratch in the sport. We also chat
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: about her positive outlook and how she manages to keep that,
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: some new hobbies she's picking up, and her best advice
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  Speaker 3: for anyone who feels as.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Though they just can't.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: Sometimes, before we get into it, I do want to
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: give some love to my sponsors. Thank you so much
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: for partnering with Hurdle for this new season.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: These sponsors are how I bring you.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: This content week after week, so I highly encourage you
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: to click on over to the links in the show
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: notes and give them a look. See first up, I
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• 5:51
  Speaker 3: I do have a little bit of housekeeping here to do.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: If you have not signed up for the weekly Hurdle
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: newsletter just yet, I highly encourage you to do so
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: by clicking on over to the show notes. Also to
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: new Hurdle sessions in the queue on the Hurdle Podcast
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: event bright page. First up this week, how to find
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: your power Alone. I have so many discussions in the
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: DMS with women who are struggling whether they are attached
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: or not attached in a relationship, not in a relationship,
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: to be good just being on their own, to feel
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: comfortable spending time alone. It's something that I struggled with,
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: certainly for years, and please there are still times that
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: I struggle with it, but I have learned how to
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: manage and even enjoy and embrace solo time and fight
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: the feelings of loneliness which surely surely do seep in.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: So highly recommend checking that out with me. This week
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: also Hurdle's new token hurdle session called Handling Hurdle Moments,
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: how to show up to challenge and what is commonly
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: referred to as failure with a positive outlook and emerge
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: on the other side a more confident and ultimately happier
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: version of yourself.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: I am so so excited for this one.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: In particular, there are limited spots available, only up to
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: twenty participants, so for more details on all of that again,
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: click on over to the show notes and you can
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: find them there, of course, always on social at Emily
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: Abadi at Hurdle Podcast. And with that, let's get to hurdling.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Today.
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  Speaker 3: I am sitting down with Myrna Valerio she is an author,
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: she is a runner, she is a speaker. What other
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: accolades do we want to throw into the mix here.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a new cyclist. I am an adventurer in general.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a mom that's an adventurer, a mom of a teenager.
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  Speaker 2: I love I love that you're a new cyclist.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a new cyclist, I know, and I love seeing
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: your cycling Journey's let's wrap about this for a second.
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  Speaker 3: So you've been riding gravel, Not that I stalk you
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: or anything.
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  Speaker 1: Nah, Yeah, I've been writing gravel and it's been amazing.
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  Speaker 1: Well here in Vermont. I love in Vermont. It's about
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  Speaker 1: fifty paved roads and then the other all the other
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  Speaker 1: roads are gravel or dirt roads, and so it is
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: it's kind of imperative to have a gravel bike here,
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  Speaker 1: and so that's what I have. And it has been
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  Speaker 1: such an incredible journey. I've been having a wonderful time.
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  Speaker 1: I hired an instructor to teach me all there is
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  Speaker 1: to know about gravel bikes and just cycling in general,
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  Speaker 1: and so we've been having a great time. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: we're going out today later on and just did a
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  Speaker 1: photoshoot this morning on my bike.
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  Speaker 3: You guys, hear that miRNA is a laugher and she
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: was on ritual Congratulations on that.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: And I love what you said in your tweet about
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: the podcast.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: You said, want to hear me giggle tbh, you gotta
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: giggle when stuff gets heavy, And that's so true, right, Like,
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  Speaker 3: laughter is such a defense mechanism.
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  Speaker 1: It absolutely is. You know, laughter is really a very
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  Speaker 1: very helpful thing in our lives as humans because there's
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: there's so much darkness, and there's so much heaviness, and
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  Speaker 1: there's so many difficult times, especially now, and it is
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  Speaker 1: really healing to be able to laugh and to like
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  Speaker 1: get some of that sort of negative energy out. I
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  Speaker 1: once did a course on or like I was at
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  Speaker 1: a conference, I did workshop on laughter as a healing mechanism,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, we went through some like trauma that
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  Speaker 1: I had been through previously and used laughter to kind
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  Speaker 1: of get it out of my system. And it was
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  Speaker 1: a lot of laughter and a lot of crying at
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: the same time. But it just felt so good to
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  Speaker 1: people do that. So yeah, yeah, I don't have like
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: the specifics on it, but it you know, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I think it's definitely something that we need more of
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  Speaker 1: especially now.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and I mean you as you said, you
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  Speaker 3: guys definitely talked about some heavy stuff on that episode,
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  Speaker 3: but you're actually talking about that kind of stuff fairly often.
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  Speaker 3: You offer an introduction to anti racism workshop, Is that right?
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  Speaker 1: I do? And and boy do I have to laugh
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: a lot because that is some heavy stuff. I you know,
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  Speaker 1: I just I laugh a lot in my life because,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: you know, speaking it causes a lot of strife in
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: individual people. It has caused a lot of strife in
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: our general world community and in the last couple of months,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: and you know, over the last four hundred years, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it is it's a very touchy subject, especially when you're
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: talking about people's and how do they I identify and
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: how you know, how very often we're not able to
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: see and appreciate others, you know, world perspectives and our
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: lived experiences, you know, unless we look at our own.
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  Speaker 1: And so it's really it's really tough to talk about
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: those things. And so you know, anytime I can joke
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  Speaker 1: around or be light about something, I think it actually
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: helps to maintain the integrity of what we're talking about,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: because you know, we as humans, we go through all
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: of these different emotions and that's what we do, and
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: so I try to sort of echo that and when
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: I'm when I'm talking about these really difficult subjects.
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  Speaker 3: Has this work been something that you've been involved in
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: for some time now or is this something that's relatively
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: new for you?
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: It is, It's not new, but it was it was
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: work this when the diversity, equity and inclusion work, this works.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: It was something that I have been doing, or that
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I had been doing for around fifteen years in an
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: educational setting or in various educational settings. I was My
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: last job was as a director of equity and inclusion
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: at a school down in Georgia. I formulated curriculum, I
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: did seminars, I did workshops, I did lots of professional
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  Speaker 1: development for my fellow colleagues and administrators in the area
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: of diversity, equity inclusion. And so I very intentionally left
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: that work in twenty eighteen when I decided to go
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: road and become a professional athlete. And so as racism,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: you know, came to the forefront again and again, starting
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: with the knowledge of the murder of Ahmad Arbery and
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: then Breonna Taylor and many many others, and then with
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: the whole situation with Christian Cooper and Amy Cooper in
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  Speaker 1: Central Park. You know, I learned how to run there,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: So that just that just kind of hit me in
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  Speaker 1: my heart. And all of the other sort of subsequent
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: events and protests and stuff. I was called back into
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the work, and you know, I people reached out to me.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of people reached out to me and asked me,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of white people and asked me what is it,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: What was it that they could do? How could they
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: be better advocates or better allies? And I was not
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: willing to answer a lot of questions because there were
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: many many questions. I wasn't willing to do that for free,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: because this was something that I had done professionally. So
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: I formulated a class which sold out several times. You know.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: It was just just you know, an introduction to social justice,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: identity and anti racism, and because I wanted to give
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: people some tools and some language to start having deeper
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: conversations about these things. You know, It's not I don't
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: come in with the sort of corporate strategy approach. I am.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: I am mostly concerned with individuals and their interactions with
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: other individuals and being able to see each other's various
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: identities and the various sort of aspects of you know,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: who they are, and to be able to honor, you know,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: how they might see the world and how they experience
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: the world, and so, you know, I think once we're
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: able to do that, then we can really really tackle
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: the systemic stuff. But I think we can tackle both
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: things at the same time. But my specialty, and I
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: think where my skill lies is in the individual interactions.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: Got you okay, Well, you mentioned in this synopsis briefly
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: of leaving that last occupation to be a full time
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: athlete in twenty eighteen. But let's bring it back, maybe
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: even to the early two thousands, when if I was
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: to tell you that you would do that in twenty eighteen,
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: you would have been like, girl, what.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Are you talking about? Talk to me about the beginning
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: of your relationship with being an athlete and with even
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: just moving your body.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I was always active. I grew up in Brooklyn, and
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: I grew up in a time where we spent a
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: lot of time outside. I lived in a building with
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: a lot of my family members, a lot of cousins, aunts, uncles.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: I had younger I had a younger brother and younger
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: sister at that point, and we we were always outside.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: We were always going from park to park, going to
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: free lunch. You know, the public schools in the area.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Grew up in Bushwick and so there were lots of
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: places to eat free lunch and free breakfast, and we'd
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: just be outside all the time. And we never had
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: any money for us to participate in any organized sports.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: So when I went to high school and I went
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: to boarding school in Westchester, I went to the Master's
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: School and meet pretty amazing school, and I'm now on
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: the board. I want, I really really wanted to play
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: a sport. I didn't know which sport I wanted to play,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: but I want. I knew I wanted to be on
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the team. And so the day that sports tryouts uh
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: went on, I looked at the soccer field and they
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: looked like they were dying. So I said, I'm not
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: going to try out for that sport. And then I
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: looked at the field, hockey field, and the girls were
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: just was an all girls school at this point. The
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: girls were just hanging out. They had you know, hockey
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: sticks and balls and they were just you know, kind
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: of shooting the ship. And I said, maybe that's the
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: sport that I wanted to do. And so I went
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: down to the field hockey field. And I had seen
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: field hockey being played on my various visits to different
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: boarding schools when I was applying, uh, and it always
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: held some interest for me because I knew nothing about hockey.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: I knew something about soccer, but nothing about field hockey.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: And so I went down to the field and then uh,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: you know, we did some introductory stuff on some icebreakers
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: and then practice started. And practice started with a five
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: loop run of the field. And this is where that
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: was my first experience with like not running on the
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: streets of Brooklyn, you know, not playing you know, Mother
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: may I or playing tag. This was like I was
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: in it. I was doing a sport and that nearly
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: killed me. It was about a mile just to warm up,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: and then after that mile we stretched and then we
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: did a timed mile after that. So that was our
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: because that the mile warm up was it was mind
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: blowing to me as we had to run that much
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: to warm up to run another mile. And so I mean,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: now I understand it. I get it, Like, you know,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: I will run five miles to warm up for you know,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: a twenty mile or you know, so, but that was it.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: I was kind of even though it was really hard,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: and it was it's so difficult for me because I
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: had never run that much of my life in a
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: sustained way, I you know, and we had two and
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: a half hours of practice after that, so much. I well, yeah,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: I mean that's that's how it is. You know, when
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: you're when you're doing a team sport, you have a
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: lot of practice. And we also had some practices and
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: games on weekends. And but I loved it. I loved that.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: I loved that challenge and made my body hurt, but
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: I love the challenge of being of having to do that,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: but being on a team where people respected me. Uh,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: even though it was a bigger girl, I know, I
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: had no experience in field hockey or any team sport.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: And you know, but there was a lot of running.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: There was so much running because you can run up
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: and down the field all practice with a stick and
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the ball and the shint guards and a mouth guard
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: and and uh and grass grass. So so I decided
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: I decided, actually a day after tryouts, I got on
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the team because it was a small school and you know,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: they needed people on a team. I decided that I
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: needed to learn how to run, and I needed to
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: be better at it because there was so much of it,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: and so I got up early in the morning. Again
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: it was a boarding school, so I could get up,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: roll down the hill, run the five loops around the field,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: and then go back up the hill, take a shower,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: and go to breakfast. And I did that most days
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: of the week because again I knew that that was
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the key to being better at that sport. And so
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: I realized that that practice made me feel so good,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: not necessarily in the moment, but definitely afterwards, you know,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: because after every run, you know, just feel mostly I
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: feel amazing, even I might even though I might be tired,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: even though I might have fallen and smashed my lip
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: in like this morning, I just would feel so invigorated.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: And so I just got addicted to that feeling. And
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: so I continue playing field hockey. I got better at it.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: I was a better contributor to my team. I played
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: lacrosse later on that that same year, and I did
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: that throughout my four years in high school lacrosse and
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: field hockey. And then I would run when I was
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: on break or you know, during the week. And uh,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: and that was that was my introduction to running and
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: to just like moving my body. I never conceived of
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: running as a as anything else but getting better at
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: my sport, right and yeah, and and and it just
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: became a part of my life and I couldn't sort
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: of survive without it, and I brought it to college.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: I ran recreationally in college. I would do the fitness
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: trail just because I was so used to moving my
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: body all the time. And you know, after college, I
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: also continued running. I took a class at the Hospital
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: for Special Surgery. They had a whole like running clinic
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: that trained us for the Avon Mini Marathon. And that
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: was my first experience doing a race. And then I
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: got hooked on that. That was in the late nineties.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: And then I got married a couple of years after college,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: and I got married in two thousand and then I
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: had my son in two thousand and three, seventeen years
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: old now, and you know, and then I moved to
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Maryland after living in New York City my entire life.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: And that was when things shifted from me and I
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: had to prioritize other things and so kind of exercise
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: and running fell by the wayside and actually gained a
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: lot of weight while I was in Maryland, mostly because
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I was so stressed out. And I moved down there
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: with my boy it with just my boy, where my
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: husband stayed in New York. And I hated my job.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: I like simultaneously loved and hated my job. I loved
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: my students, I love teaching them, but like other aspects
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: of the job. And I didn't like Maryland and I
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: thought it was too far south. And I'm definitely a
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: snotty New Yorker, so I was like, this is not
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: where I'm supposed to be. But yeah, so that's you mean,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: that's kind of how that was, you know, my journey. Like,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: so I've been running since nineteen eighty nine.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: So you started running as a ninth grader, but then
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: you moved down to Maryland, you're not running as much.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: Things feel just not how they once did for you, right,
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: Like when you're incorporating activity regularly in your routine, it's
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: like one thing. But for me, like when I start
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: to lose sight of me moving my body, like I
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: start to see that kind of spiral into other areas
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: as well.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, Oh my goodness, Yes, that's so true. You
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: verbalize that so well, because that's exactly what happened. I
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: stopped running, and you know, running was a very very
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: integral part of my life, and just because it just
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: made me feel so good and I and I was
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: so used to moving my body in that way, so
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: when I couldn't do that. My kid was one and
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: a half when I moved down to Maryland, and we were,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: you know, as I said, we were it was just
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: me and him, and I didn't have any family down there,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: and had a very very stressful job. And uh, you know,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: my husband was still in New York, and so we
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: commuted every other weekend and and uh, you know, my
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: kid was always six, so I was missing a lot
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: of work, he was missing a lot of school. I
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: would be called from school all the time to go
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: pick him up. And so I left went up to
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: uh back up north to New Jersey and taught at
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: a boarding school there, where my job was equally or
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: even more strong. So but at least I was closer
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: to home and I could see my family and you know,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: they could help me a little bit. My husband, uh
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: and I, you know, we were back together again, and
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: and so so yeah, but I continued to not sort
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: of honor movement because I, again, my son was always sick,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: and so like I spent a lot of time, you know,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: making sure he was alive. And I had pneumonia a
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: couple of times, and you know, he had to be
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: rushed to the hospital and and so. And then I
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: was again always sick. And I was working at a
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: boarding school at this point, and you know, I'm on
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: duty a couple of days a week at night. I'm
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: a full time teacher, and I was on duty on
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: the weekends. I had to do trips with them and
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: activities and stuff and so that. And I was also
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: in grad school, so like the last thing on my
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: mind was, uh, was you know, going out for a
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: run and and so. But but I started having all these
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: sort of like dermatological problems and these dental problems, and
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: I had this like two year long sinus infection, and
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: I was like, there's something going on. But you know,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I just continued to work and work. I was really
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: good at my job, by the way, I was like
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: so good at my job and was doing just really
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: well professionally. But you know, then then in two thousand
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: and eight, I but a year after I got there.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: That's when I had this health scare where I thought
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: I was having a heart attack on my way up
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: to New Jersey from Maryland, where like I had a
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: weekend good teaching piano lessons and voice lessons and Spanish,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: French and other things, and yeah, I thought I was
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: having a heart attack and I had chest pains at
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: the side of the road and decided to keep driving,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: which is not the smart thing to do, but I
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: did and got home and had one of my colleagues
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: drive me to the hospital and I had to be
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: there for eight hours before they decided I wasn't having
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: a heart attack after a bunch of tests and stuff,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: and they told me I was having a panic attack.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: And I was like, I looked at them like they
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: were crazy, Like I don't like Black people don't have
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: panic attacks. When he's talking about I said this to
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: the doctor and he looked at me like.
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: Did you just say that until that point, had you
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: ever had an actual panic attack at all?
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Or no? No, no, I you know, I sort of
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: prided myself on being unflappable and and you know, living
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: without anxiety.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: And what a conversation though, right, like just this idea
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: that and I think, I mean, I would say, I
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: like to think that I'm the same way, but having
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: a conversation with yourself that like, you're actually not unflappable
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: and it's okay to have anxiety.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: And it's totally okay and normal because we're human. Yeah,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: that was It was crazy to me. I'm like, what,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: I don't even understand why this would happen to me.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: But of course, in hindsight, with all the things that
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: were going on, and I was constantly worried about my
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: kid right and about my job, that it apparently weighed
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: on me very very heavily in many different ways, in
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: physical ways and in emotional and mental ways. And so
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: that was that was the sort of wake up call
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: I got that I needed when I when I visited
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: a cardiologist after being in the er and he told me,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: you know, that was if I wanted to see my
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: son grow up. So that was it. That was that
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: was that cathartic moment, uh, that forced me to look
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: deeply within and change my lifestyle. And a lot of
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: people think that when I say change my lifestyle, that
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: I meant go on a diet. That was not what
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: it was. It was that. Uh it was I had
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: so much inflammation in my body because I was so
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: stressed that my cortisol levels were like off the charts,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: and my uh see reactive protein levels were off the charts.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: And uh you know, the cardiologist told me that I
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: needed to sleep. Uh yeah, he did want to see
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: me lose a little weight. Yeah. I knew how to
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: do that. That was, that was easy, and but I
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: needed to reprioritize my life. You needed to. I mean
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: he kept saying, you need to sleep, and you need
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: to make sure that you are getting rest and and
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: that you I don't rearrange whatever it is that you
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: need to rearrange what you need to do better if
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: you want to see your son grow up. Because you know,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: it was the stress level was so so high. And
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: again you know, I'm not I wasn't a person that
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: like emoded in like an anxious way, but like it
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: definitely was going on within me. And so you know
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: that took a toll. Anyway, So after that cardiologist visit,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: I got on my treadmill. And you know, ironically I
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: had I had the treadmill in my apartment and I
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: had purchased it about two or three months before this
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: whole incident, and I had not been on it yet.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: At the time. Why had you purchased that treadmill?
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: Because you know, I saw it on HSN and I said,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: you know, I think I need a treadmill, but maybe
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: you know, I think it was in the back of
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: my mind. I knew I needed to be doing something,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: and I knew, I I, you know, I always wanted
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: to get back into running because you know, I was
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: I lived in such a beautiful area. I lived in
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Central Jersey, and I know that people in Jersey don't
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: believe Central Jersey exists, but it does. And you know,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: it's surrounded by these hills, these beautiful country roads and stuff.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: And I just I knew that I needed to to,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: you know, get back on the wagon, so to speak.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: And uh, but I had it. But this was this
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: was that, this was that you know, cathartic moment that
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: forced me to get back on it. And I and
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: I'm so grateful that I had it in my apartment
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: and so I, you know, I got on it. And
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: it was hard. It was really tough. It was so
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: hard to not be able to run a full mile,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: which was something that I had done very easily, you know,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: but it just I just felt it was it was
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: physically painful. It was emotionally painful too to uh, you know,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: get get on that treadmill and not be able to
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: do that. But I said, you know, well, here I am.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: I know eventually that I will feel better and that
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: I will be able to run that mile again, and
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: that this will be easy for me again. But today
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: is not that day. But I got to work to
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: get there. And so that's what I did. I I
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: you know, I would run a mile or run walk
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: a mile every day, sometimes every other day, and I
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: would pair that with some exercise or some videos. It
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: was really into like Crunch videos and these like Yogaltates
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: videos and Biggest Loser videos. You know. Even though that
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: that show is so so problematic, I I watched it
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: because I wanted to see what the workouts were. I've
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: been looking back on it. It's just so damaging and
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: traumatic to those people that that participated in that. But
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: I think I think it was it was helpful to
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: me at the time, and so yeah, that's what it did.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: And uh and I started feeling better, and I took
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: a couple of weeks for me to really see some improvement,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: just kind of like in my skin. You know, I
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: did lose some weight, and but it really forced me
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: to kind of reckon with my own health and how
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: my my health was crucial to the health of my family.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: And so, yeah, I I have not stopped since that
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: was in two thousand and eight.
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: So talk to me about the Clinton country Run five
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: k in two thousand and nine.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, Oh my god, that was so long ago. Hm,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: that was Yeah, that was a country five k. It
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: was a former track star Olympic track athlete who hosted
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: this five k, and I went, and it was it
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: was very painful.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: Were you scared?
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: I know, I wasn't scared because I had done five k's before.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: I was just I was curious to see how I
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: would do and how my body would feel afterwards, because
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: I had been running at this point, I had been
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: running up to three miles and sometimes four miles on
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: my runs, and so I just I was curious. I
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: was like, what is this going to feel like? After
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: so many years, we're not doing a five k, and
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: you know, and it was it was long. It felt
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: very very long. I wish you know, it's it's very interesting,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: like you know, perspective in hindsight, right, you know. And
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: so I was like, I think, I don't even remember
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: what my time was. And but but I was like
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: at the end, I said, well, well, I got to
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: get better at this, and that's what I do. Like,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: I got to get better at this. Something is really hard, uh,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: and it's not necessarily a great experience. I wanted to
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: be a better experience. So I worked towards making it better.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: And so I think so the Clinton five k was
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: I did that that summer also. So I was just
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: part of my the process that I put myself through
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: to just get better at running and to to to
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: be the the healthier version of myself that I that
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: I once was. And so I did a lot of
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: five k's that summer. I did a lot of five k's, uh,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: a couple of ten k's uh. And I dragged my
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: friends into it with me, and uh. And then things
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: really started changing fairly, uh, fairly drastically, you know, just
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: in terms of like my energy level and how I
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: felt about myself, how I moved, you know, how I
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: was able to like wake up really early in the morning,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: run a couple of miles in a treadmill and watch
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: you know Netflix shows and early Netflix, you know, when
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: we still had the DVDs and and uh, and then
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: just do what I needed to do and like and
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: get through an entire day of teaching and then a
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: night of being on duty in the dorm and be
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: okay and not feel completely exhausted or spent at the end.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: And so and you know, I just really I dug
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: that feeling and I and I felt like myself again.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: And so I continued to do that, you know, throughout
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: my time in Jersey. And then they asked me to
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: coach because you know, hey, why not get paid to
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: run with students.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: Right right right?
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: And you know what, it was the greatest thing. It
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: was so fun. I loved almost every moment of coaching
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: cross country for many for many girls who had never
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: been on it, who had never been able to you know,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: exercise and like do something sports related without being laughed
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: at or told that they can't do it or told
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: that they're too uncoordinated. And so it was really fun
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: sort of introducing this sport to them and you know,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: seeing the growth, not just their sort of athletic growth,
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: but the the the sort of mental growth and that
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: that spiritual growth, that spiritual and religiousness. But like just
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: like you know, the knowledge of very deep knowledge of
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: self that comes with participating and running.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: And it's like so special at that age in particular,
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: Like as someone myself and you talked about your relationship
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: with sport when you were younger and that you had
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: much more relationship than I did. But as an adult
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: now that has a very serious relationship with sport, to
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: watch how that impacts teen women, it makes me feel
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: so many ways. Like I went to the Nike Cross
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: Nationals a few years ago and watched just the sportsmanship
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: and they're beautiful, beautiful relationships. And you know, I reflect
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: on that and say to myself, like I wish I
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: had I wish I had that grown that.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Oh man, it's so important, you know what. I think,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: you know, when women have deep knowledge of their bodies,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: and like you can achieve that in many ways. But
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: I think sports is like a major, major, major way,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: whether it's an individual sport or team sport, to have
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: a very very intimate connection with your body to know
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: what's going on and know what you know, what it
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: what it means to feel a certain way, uh, and
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: what it is to honor the strength and and the
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: the incredibleness that a body is. I think that sports
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: is like a really really good way to do that,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: and so and and and the confidence in your own
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: strength and confidence just in your own ability, you know,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: your mental ability, your mental acuity or physical ability or
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: your agility to the confidence that you get from that
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: is is really really important as as an educator, as
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: a as a as a coach. UH. To see that
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: growth in young girls and young women is really really incredible,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: and it definitely helps with all the other stuff that
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: that teenagers and you know teenagers are confronted with.
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: Please it helps. It helps me today.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Seriously, Like, yes, I think I'd be a different person
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: if I if I didn't have running, if I didn't
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: have some sort of sport, I think maybe I'd feel
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: differently about the fact that I'm fat. You know, just
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: this morning when I fell flat on my face. You know,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: I've been having like a lot of people, and you
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: talked about this earlier on your podcast, about a lot
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: of us, but not all of us. I've gained weight
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: during COVID and quarantine because well I'm also injured, so
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: like I haven't been able to go out running and
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: and and so so I've had some feelings about that.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: But when I fell flat on my face this morning
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: and my face immediately got numb because that's the reaction
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: that my body had to falling flat on my face,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: I was like, this is incredible. Wow, my body nuda
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: numb my face as soon as I hit the it
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: was a big log because I mean that's how it works,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: that's how the adrenaline works. And then it didn't start
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: hurting until about a minute or two into me like
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: sort of untangling myself from the ferns and the bushes.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Uh and uh wow wow, I mean, like the body
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: is an incredible machine.
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: There's like nothing like when you get back to being
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: active or whatnot after an injury and you just start
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: to feel like yourself again, and even the smallest victories,
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: it just feels like such a great opportunity to be you.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean even even you know, I'm
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: about to get meniscal surgery in a couple of weeks, right,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: and I haven't been really able to run, but I've
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: been able to hike and cycle and uh and uh,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: I was I was definitely falling into a hole of
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: despair at the beginning of this, uh, or the beginning
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: like knowing that I had more than a like a
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: minor injury. Yeah, because I wasn't able to run or
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: I'd run in my whole legal swellow and so and
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: so that was kind of out of character for my body,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: and uh, and so I was falling into a hole.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: But then, uh, I, you know, I have the fortune
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: of sharing a parking lot with an outfitter and bike shop,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: and so they hooked me up with a bike and
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: they were like, hey, you know, use it. You know,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: don't pay us, It's okay, just use it until because
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: I was going to buy a bike anyway, because I
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: couldn't really run, and and so that kind of brought
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: me out of that because it was I could see myself.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: I could feel myself falling into this dark place that
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: was unusual and it was a place that I didn't
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: really know.
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: Taking a break from today's episode to talk to you
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: again about my friends at Daily Harvest. Listen, I have
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: this thing that I cannot end the day without something sweet. Literally,
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: I have been working my way through the ice cream
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  Speaker 3: aisle over these past few months, which is why I
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: nearly screamed when I saw that Daily Harvest was launching Scoops,
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• 41:36
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  Speaker 3: because they are made with whole, nourishing, organic ingredients like
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• 41:56
  Speaker 2: It tastes so fresh.
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: I have never been a big berry scream person until
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: I tried this, and my mind was just blown. Had
• 42:05
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• 42:08
  Speaker 3: hurdle two five to get twenty five dollars off your
• 42:11
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• 42:19
  Speaker 3: That's Dailyharvest dot com.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: How do you flip the script in that case?
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: I mean, aside from obviously just this exciting opportunity to
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: get on a bike, like what is it? What's the
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: dialogue happening inside your head there?
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: Well, I had to figure out what else I could do.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: I was like, you know, I'm in this position where
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: I get paid to be active. I get paid to
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: be on trails. I get paid to you know, do
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: these athletic things. And so I didn't really have a choice,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: and so I had to figure out something else that
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: I would be able to do. So I said that
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: I could have sort of pivoted over to hiking a lot.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: And but even with hiking with my knee issue, by
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: the way, like this is the first knee issue I've
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: ever had out of like the since nineteen eighty nine,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: right right, And so I so said, you know, like
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: there's something else that I gotta do. And so what
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: hiking downhill was and still is painful because of the
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: stupid meniscus. So I can go up, I can go
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: up and up and up and up, and but like
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: coming down is pretty uncomfortable. So I had to do something.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: So I said, you know, let me, let me get
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: on a bike because I have to. I need to
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: train for endurance anyway. I just need to always be
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: trained for endurance, and so you know, and it became
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: this sort of second love, and I started feeling like
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: myself again because I could go greater distances, I can
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: feel like I really did something. But that's when I
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: really really. You know, the other day I or a
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: couple of days ago, I was doing this virtual fundraising
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: event called point the point to point run the point
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: to point race, I think, and you can either run
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: or bike, and so obviously I was on the bike
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: and I went out with the owner of the outfitter
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: here and my cycling instructor, and so we went out,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: we Max and I who was Max is my instructor.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: We were going to go out and do a flatsh
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: twenty five miles. Nothing is really flat here, but flatish,
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: you know, relatively flat. But the owner of the bike
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: shop had other ideas and took us on was super
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: super hilly where it was so hilly that I had
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: to get off and walk a couple of stretches because
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: I don't those muscles aren't quite developed yet. And so
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: but you know, we did seventeen miles and I had
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: to go back out later on that day and do
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: nine more miles so I can make twenty five and
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: or eight more miles rather And but that was the
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: first day I really I was like, this is what
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: I do this because I hated myself going up those hills.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: I was like, I gotta be better at this, this
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: is I suck so much at this. I you know,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to do some hill repeats. So I
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: felt like I was like, this is this is what
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: I do. I'm an endurance athlete. I have these conversations
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: with myself. I hate myself for even signing up for
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: doing this, but those downhills were sweet, and I was like,
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: this is this is this is it. This is what
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: I do. You know, whether it's running or or being
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: on a mountain or cycling, Now, this is what I do,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: and that's this is me. This is who I am.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: So talk to me and give me some context about
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: when you originally took this from being a five a
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: road race sort of situation to getting to the half marathon,
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: the marathon and beyond.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: So I started out training for five k's and I'm
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: just wanting to get better at those. I wanted to
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: drop my time, and I wanted to be able to
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: run longer with less walking. I wanted to feel better afterwards.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: I didn't want to feel like I couldn't run For
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: the next three days I did a five K. So
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: I kept doing a lot of them, and I eventually
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: got better at them. And my times dropped, and then
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: I just wanted more, so I'd signed up for some
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: ten k's. Ten k is not my favorite distance, by
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: the way, I don't know, it's just like you never
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: know how fast to go. I mean, I'm slow anyway,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: but like.
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: Let's clarify for the hurdlers, what you define slow.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: Is okay for me. A lot of people think that
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: a ten minute mile is slow. I think a ten
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: minute miles is fast. And I've always tried to get
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: to a ten minute mile, but I've never even as
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: a varsity athlete, you know, who practiced two and a
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: half hours a day in high school and was never
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: able to get under a ten minute mile or a
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: ten minute mile or under My fastest mile ever has
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: been ten thirty four. And again for a lot of people,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: you know, even midpackers. Uh, you know, a ten minute
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: mile is kind of standard. Uh. Not for me. I
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: you know, I hover right now. You know, when I
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: was training for the Boston Marathon in twenty eighteen, and
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: I've done a lot of miles, you know, for me,
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: a lot of miles is like forty to fifty miles
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: a week, and I was able to get my mile
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: down to eleven minutes and that was real. That's really fat.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: They're not really fast, but it's pretty fast for me. Yeah,
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: that's like my tempo pace, right, And so you know,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: as I you know, as I do when I do
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: more trail running, I get way slower and even on
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: the roads, and so I you know, it's like hover
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: anywhere between thirteen and fifteen miles of miles an hour,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: not an hour thirteen minute miles, so thirteen fourteen minute miles,
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: and you know, and you know, sometimes they're slower depending
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: because I stop a lot. I will take selfies, I will,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: and I don't stop my watch.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: I happen to have to, you know, run alone a
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: lot of the time because many people are faster, and
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: that's okay with me. I'm an introvert anyway, and I'd
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: rather be alone on my run because it's you know,
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: I don't like to talk to people running or have
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: to be social. Yeah, but sometimes I do. I mean,
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: it's slow as relative, but you know, just in terms
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: of like the average pieces of most people, it's it's
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: on the slow side.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: So speaking of.
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: Your words slow, I mean, at one point you so
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: much embraced this concept of slowness that you've created your
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: explotive coming slow as fuck trail running retreat.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I still have them.
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: When you created this, I mean, and I know the
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: answer to this question, but I'm going to throw it
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: into the world here. When you created this, did you
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: just think like there are other people that run how
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: I run, and they need to feel like they're not
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: alone in wanting to run like I run.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: No, that's absolutely why I created them. People kept asking
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: me to create a retreat, but I wanted it to
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: be a retreat for people like me who want those
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: epic vistas and they want to be on the most
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: awesome trails, and they want to run around lakes and
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: you know, and do some rock scrambling, but they don't
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: want to do it fast, or they can't do it fast,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: or or you know, they're Actually I do have some
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: faster people that join my retreats, but I'm like, I
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: warned them. I'm like, look, you know, we're not going fast,
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: and it doesn't really make any sense for you to
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: want to go fast or want to train while you're
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: at this retreat, because we're gonna stop a lot. We're
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: gonna you know, have a picnic, we're gonna take selfie,
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: We're gonna do a whole photo shoot. I'm gonna teach
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: you how to know. I'm gonna teach you how to
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: run downhill. So it's gonna be a whole thing. And
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: it's this. This is not a competitive thing if you there,
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: and there are tons of experiences for those types of runners.
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, Well I got you so off track
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: here when I asked you to define slow and then
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: talked about your retreats and never let you tell me
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: about how you got into marathoning.
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: So talk to me about the marathon.
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: So you know, again, you know, it was just a progression.
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: I after the ten k's, I said, well, you know,
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: if I can do a ten k, I'm gonna try
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: a half marathon because I just want to keep going.
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: I want to see how my body does. And so
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: my first half marathon was the Rehoboth Beach Half in Delaware,
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: and I, you know, kind of uh tricked my friend
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: into going with me. Uh, and so you know, we
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: that was her first half marathon. She had been training
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: with me that whole summer and did a bunch of
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: races with me, and she's so awesome. I wrote about
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: her in my book, and and so she was kind
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: of willing to do anything that I was that I
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: was willing to do, except the full marathon. I'm still
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: trying to convince her, but you know, I really enjoyed
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: training for the half marathon and like pushing my body,
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: Oh can I actually do ten miles?
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: Wow?
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: Oh my god. I did ten miles, Oh my on
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: my own, no, with no one telling me to do it.
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: And and so that was it was really cool. And
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: I got to be outside a lot, and uh. And
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: it really did in terms of like being a role
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: model for for my students. My students saw me going out.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: They would see me in the morning, and then I
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: would coach them in the afternoon, and they would see
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: me doing long runs on the weekend, and sometimes they
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: would ask me, Okay, can I go with you? You know?
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: And that was so cool and that, you know, that
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: kind of just motivated me to keep doing what I
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: was doing. And obviously, my my body felt great. I was,
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: you know, my my job was going well, my kid
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: was less sick. Uh. And and so I you know,
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: I loved it so much and I loved what it
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: did for me in my community that I I was.
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: I think I was open to what next, right, And
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: so a colleague of mine asked me, you know, if
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: I was interested in signing up for a full marathon.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: I said absolutely not, because that was just kind of
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: my you know, my sort of automatic response. And so
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: but you know, she said, well, you know, because you're
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: doing so many half marathons, you should probably consider a
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: full marathon. How about how about you do the Marine
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: Corps Marathon with me next year? And I said, that's
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: an awful idea, Let's sign up. And I was back.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: And that was the last year that you could actually
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: just sign up for the marathon without it being a lottery.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: And this is twenty eleven, right, this.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: Is twenty eleven. Yeah, okay, and yeah, so once I
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: signed up, I was in. You know, I was I trained.
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: You know, I just really looked forward to the long runs,
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: and I to this day that is the run that
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: I look forward to the most, is the long run
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: because I loved planning it. I love seeing you know,
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: you know, if I recover faster, if i'm you know better,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: if i'm if I could sustain a particular pace for
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: a longer time, and it's just it's always a challenge,
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: and it's always a welcome challenge. And so so I
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: learned to do that. And you know, my first eighteen miler,
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: my very very first eighteen miler, i'd done fifteen miles.
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: I'd done sixteen miles, and so the next long run
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: was an eighteen mile and I was pretty I was
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: pretty nervous about it because I didn't have anybody that
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: I knew that would that ran that long. So I
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: had to go out by myself on a trail in
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: New Jersey. And I didn't out back. I didn't have
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: enough water, I said it now, you know, I didn't
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: have enough gels, and but I had, but I had
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: some and and so I did the nine miles. And
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: after nine miles, I stopped at the side of the
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: trail and I said, oh my god, I don't I
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: don't think I can. I don't think I can do
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: the rest. But good thing. I was an out and
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: back because I had to get back to my car.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: And so as I'm standing at the side of the trail,
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: a man runs by. Well I would learn his name
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: is Ralph, and he ran by. He saw me standing
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: at the side of the trail and stopped, came back
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: and and said, hey, you're right, and like, I think.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: So he's like, what are you? What are you? What
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: are you training? What are you training for? How many
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: miles you're running? Eighteen? He's like, well, where are you now?
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: He said nine? And I guess I looked a little dazed,
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: and so he said well are you Are you all right?
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: I was like I don't know, and he said okay,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: so you know you got nine more miles ago? Uh?
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: And uh yeah? What are you training for us? In
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: the Marine Corps a marathon? He's like, oh, you know,
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: my girls are out here doing twenty two for the
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: Marine Corps. I'm like and I could not even fathom
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: that many miles. And I was like wow. He's like oh.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: He is like, you know, do you have water on me?
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I got a little bit lost.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: He said do you have a gel? I was like yeah.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: He's like, take your jail, Karen like listening to this guy,
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: I don't know. He's like, take your jeil.
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: He's like the run, you gotta get it, yeah, yeah.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: Because you got to get back to your car, right.
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, so I took the jail. He's like, drink.
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: He's like drink, I drink up and and I like
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: finished my water there and he said and he's like, well,
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: good luck, and uh, let me know, let me know
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: if you want to join us on a run. My
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: name is Ralph. We have a group. We meet every
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: week on this trail. You know, I'll see you later.
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: You know, we're on Facebook. Look us up on Facebook
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: and uh. And I was like, and that just kind
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: of like enlivened me again. And I was able to finish,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: you know, albeit with a lot of chafing now and
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: like my feet heard and and I was so proud
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: of myself for having done eighteen miles all of my own,
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: you know, with this trail whisper uh and his intervention
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: and uh. And then I became a part of his group.
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: I looked him up on Facebook and and then uh,
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: there was this whole community that opened up to me
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: then and so so I didn't know I did the
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: Marine Corps Marathon after.
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: That, and talk to me about crossing the finish line
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: at the Marine Corps Marathon.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: Holy holy crap, it was. I was in a lot
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: of pain. And the reason I was in a lot
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: of pain, I mean, obviously it was my first marathon
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: and like it's painful, right, But I also UH fractured
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: my ankle the very first week of training, Okay, on
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: a trail half marathon down in and it was the
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: North Face and Durance Challenge down in d C or
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: outside of DC rather, and uh, three miles into that
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: three and a half miles and into that, I fractured
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: my ankle. I thought it was the screen. And I
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: finished the half uh, and then my foot blew up afterwards,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: and so I, you know, I had eight weeks of
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: recovery from that and then UH, and then I had
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: to continue training for this this UH marathon. And so
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: I was, you know, I had my my foot was
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: really really hurting and my body was hurting, and you know,
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: but I that I finished and and UH when I
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: crossed that finish line after like doubting myself fun and
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: wondering why I was doing this to myself, you know,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: all those things that we think of as runners. Why
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: am I? Why am I doing this? Why did I
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: sign up for this? To cross that finish line after
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: going up the last point to uh, up to Thewjima
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: statue in Arlington and having the marines put the metal
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: over your head. That was really just another cathartic moment.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: I was like, Wow, I wow, I did this. Oh
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: my goodness, I don't believe I finished. Oh my goodness,
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: I'm never doing this again. And then the next minute,
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: I have to do this again. I have to get better.
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: I have to I want a better time. I want
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: to not heard at the end. By the way, that's
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: never happened. I still always heard at the end after
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: eleven marathons. But I keep going back because there's something
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: about it. There's something about, you know, fighting back those
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: the demons of insecurity or thinking that you can't do something.
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: There's something about crossing that finish line and the entire
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: journey up to that that is just so worth it.
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: Over and over again. I learned something about myself every
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: single time.
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: I love that. So then talk to me all but briefly.
• 58:51
  Speaker 3: I mean, you just throughout the number eleven marathons, you
• 58:54
  Speaker 3: obviously went on to run farther than twenty six point
• 58:57
  Speaker 3: two miles in one stint. So where are we at
• 58:59
  Speaker 3: from a numbers perspective when it comes to marathons and
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: ultras and all the things that you brave in the world.
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: So up to fourteen ultras anywhere from fifty K to
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: one hundred K. I've only done one one hundred.
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: K to take you to do something like that, you.
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: Know what, it was my only one. It took me
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: over a day. Oh yeah, it took me over a day.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: It was a Habilina one hundred one hundred K. I'd
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: never gone past thirty five miles and and you know,
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: one stint and so it was in a desert, and
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: I mean I was trained, but I mean it was
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: a new beast. It was an entirely, entirely new thing
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: for me. And so the first fifty k went so well,
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: you know, again, I'm slow. It took me about ten
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: hours to do the first fifty k at word then
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: maybe maybe a little less than ten hours. And then
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: and then that third loop of fifteen and a half
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: miles was you know, when it was nightfall and I
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: and I met, the lamp went out, My head lamp
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: went out. I didn't have an extra until I reached
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: the uh, the midway aid station and then and then
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: I was hallucinating and I couldn't eat, and so it
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: was really really really slow loop and uh and so
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: but the last loop was you know, the sun was
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: coming up, and I felt better. They had forced me
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: to eat and drink and have some ginger and uh
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: and broth, and so I felt fell on myself again
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: and and I finished. And that was a really, really
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: incredible thing, and that I didn't really I didn't really
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: get how spectacular it was because I was in such
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: a daze, yeah, at the end, because I was I
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: had been up for like forty hours, and so you know,
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: it was really really cool to see that my body
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: could do that, and that I could I could yep
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: that long and continue moving through the night among cacti
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: in the complete darkness, and so that was really cool.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: But like you know, the other races that I've done,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: the fifty k's and the thirty five mile ers and
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: the one sixty k that I did in the city,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: you know, they've all held challenges for me. I've tried.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: I've started many many other races that I haven't finished,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: you know, for various reasons. But so I've finished fourteen
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: ultras and then eleven marathons, both rure in marathons and
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: trail marathons.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 2: I love that. Wow, how it's standing, and I think
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: it's funny.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 3: I believe today that I liked a tweet that from
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 3: someone that said, I don't care how good of a
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 3: runner you might be, if your super experienced, if you
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 3: are a total newbies, going out and running a ten
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 3: mile is never quote unquote casual.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: It's never easy. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, sorry. I read that,
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: and I was.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 3: Like, never an easy ten milers. So I'm please your
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 3: one hundred k tackling a casual sixty two point one
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: three seven miles.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: It's a really big deal.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: You know. And what was funny was that I was
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: hungry for a month. I was hungry and thirsty for
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: an entire month, and that's what is wrong with my body.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: And then, uh so the week after, I like took
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: the week off after that whole experience, because you know,
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: it was a new thing. I didn't know if I
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: should be running or whatever. But a friend of mine
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: made me up, maybe go out and run trails the
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: following Saturday, and I was like, oh, I can run now,
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: Like I can still run. I can. You know, I'm
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: still tired, at very tired, but but my body knows
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: what to do. Uh. And so that's the beauty of
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: running and doing hard things. Your body just kind of
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: knows what to do. Sometimes your mind does not agree totally,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: your body knows what to do totally.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: So then talk to me about what is on your radar.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 3: Now, I know you mentioned you're going to have this
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 3: surgery in a few weeks, But when you've tackled so
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 3: so many races, what is it that's still on your
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 3: to do list?
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: So I actually have all these races that TCS the
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: company that's once, or the TCS New York City Marathon.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: I have all these races that I was supposed to
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: do this this year that obviously have been canceled. So
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: I have all of those races to do next year.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: So I've got the TCS New York City Marathon, I've
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: got the TCS Amsterdam Marathon to do. I have this
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: race in Sweden called the Lidinglopit thirty k to do,
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: and then I'm going to have my choice of the
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: New York City Half or London Marathon next year. So
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: so i'll be, you know, hopefully uh fully recovered from
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: this the surgery, I'll be doing those. And I got
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: an invite to go out to UTMB, so I won't
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: be doing UTMB because that's crazy.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: What is that.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: What is that UTNB is the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: over in Chamonis in France. So I will again not
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: do that over one hundred miles. Will not be doing that,
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: but hopefully I will be able to. And this really
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: depends on whether or not I'm able to still like
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: kind of like Crash Downhill, the there's a forty k
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: and it's there. It's the fun run has like seventy
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: five hundred feet vertical game a fun run. It's for
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: the volunteers and the people in the locals. So so
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: that's my hopes. I'll be doing that, and I will
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: be hosting some other retreats. I've got one uh in
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: the Azores that is connected to the Azors Trail Run
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: where I do the and then I got I will
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: be going out to the Broken Arrow Skyrace. I'll bring
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: my retreat out there as well.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: You've got nothing going on in summary.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: No, I mean like I'm not busy, not busy at all.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't really have anything that dream for
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: and I'll probably I'll probably have some bike events in
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: there too. Yeah, so I'm super excited for twenty twenty one.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: Even if you know things are canceled again. I'm excited
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: for the possibilities of, you know, kind of changing the
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: paradigm and what we do now and being outside more
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: and just you know, moving my body in that way.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: I dig that.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 3: And right now, if I look at your Instagram, you
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 3: have somewhere around one hundred and ten thousand followers, and
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 3: when they come to your page, they see exactly the
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 3: woman that you're really describing, someone that loves to be
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 3: active now, that's riding a bike a whole lot, that's
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 3: always on the trail. When you look in the mirror,
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 3: what is it that you see looking back at you.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: Well, right now I see a busted lip, but I
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: definitely see someone who really tries to exude joy, the
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: joy that is within, like the really really authentic joy
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: that I have. I'm not always joyful, but like I'm
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: mostly joyful. I actually have a lot of like a
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: lot of personal things going on right now that aren't
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: necessarily happy. But yeah, I try to stay positive in
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: every and all things.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 3: How do you find that positivity when it feels like
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 3: things are just coming at you one after the next.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: I think that having experienced a lot of positive activity
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: in my life, even though there also is a lot
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: of negativity. But having having my experience of of of
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: goodness and hope and joy is a great reminder that
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: it is out there when things are hard and when
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: things are difficult or challenging. So that's what I look to.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: That's what I look to. I look to that that
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: joy that I have experienced, that positivity that I've experienced,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: all the good things that I have had the opportunity
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: to experience, those are embedded in my They're embedded in
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: my conscious and in my in my memory. So I
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: look to those when I'm when I'm having a difficult time.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: What would you say the best piece of advice that
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 3: you've been offered has been on the run.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: Actually, just recently, my coach likes to invoke all of
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: these sort of like contemporary philosophers, Ryan Holiday being one
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: of them, and uh, he said, you know, this whole
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: bike thing is good for you. He said, you know,
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: the obstacle is the Way. Ryan Holliday has a book
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: that's called The Obstacle is the Way, And he's like,
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: I think that is what you are experiencing and what
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: you're good at, Like seeing an obstacle a potential obstacle
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: as the way forward. And so I think that's a
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: really apt piece of advice. It's an apt way of
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: thinking of things that look like they are a challenge
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: because they might be a challenge. And this thing I'm
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: experiencing now is definitely a challenge. Is a physical challenge,
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: a mental challenge, is a spiritual challenge. But this challenge
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: has shown me that I can do other things, and
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: I can do them well, and it is an oportunity
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: for me to incorporate those other things into my life
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: and uh and to experience things different ways. So so
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: I love that, you know, like seeing this obstacle as
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: a way forward. I think that's my new mantra. The
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: obstacle is the way forward.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 2: The obstacle is the way forward.
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 3: For someone who sees you out there, who thinks what
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 3: you're doing is rad but feels like they could never
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 3: do it themselves, what do you tell them?
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you have to just live with that voice that
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: says that you can't do something, and you do it anyway. Sometimes,
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: you you know, we have our the negative Nellies and
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: the negative Neds who tell us that we cannot do
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: something or we're not built to do this. Particular thing
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: and you know what, You can have that in one hand,
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: but then you can have the real you that knows
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: that you can do it. Your body knows that you
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: can do this, and your heart knows that you can
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: do this. You take that with you and then you
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: go do the thing that you need to do for yourself.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 2: I love that. That's such a good piece of advice. Okay,
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 2: so final question.
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 3: You have an opportunity right now to offer yourself one
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 3: piece of advice looking back on that hurdle moment, maybe
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 3: when you're down in Baltimore feeling not like yourself, or
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 3: perhaps right after that car ride, that big scare you had,
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 3: you're feeling unsure about how to move forward and be
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 3: there for your son as he gets older. You have
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 3: the opportunity to offer yourself one piece of advice. What
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 3: do you tell yourself?
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: Listen to your mind, your body, your heart, your spirit,
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: because they're not telling you anything you don't already know,
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: but sometimes you just need to hear it over and
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: over again and you need to listen to it. So
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: that is exactly what I needed to do then, and
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: I did, and that is why I'm able to be
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: here now, standing and happy and pretty successful.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 3: Please take a moment and leave a quick review by
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 3: clicking the link with the description to this episode.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 2: We all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 2: hear about yours.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 3: Reach out to me at Emily at hurdlet us connect
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 3: with the podcast Instagram, Twitter at Hurdle Podcast.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: miRNA, how do they keep up with you? Give me
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: the details?
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: All right? I am on Instagram as the Renovator. I
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: am on Twitter as the Renovator, Facebook Myrna Valerio Dash
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: the Renovator or fact Girl Running. I have an amazing,
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: amazing group of sixteen thousand, mostly women on Facebook called
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: fact Girl Running. You don't have to be fat to join,
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: you have to be a slow runner. All you have
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: to do is to love running or to want to
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: love running, or you can be a walker. You can
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: be anything you want. And so we have a weight loss,
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: diet talk free experience waiting for you and to support
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: you in your athletic endeavors and sometimes that. I'm also
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: on Patreon as them innovator.
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 3: Check me out all the things I have to ask
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 3: you really quick. As someone that feels super passionate about
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 3: building community, what does it mean like in your soul
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 3: in your heart when you go to that page and
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 3: you see the sixteen thousand people having important conversations because
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 3: you were the one that triggered these conversations.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, is it is so incredible Every single
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: day I open up that page to see that people
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: are engaging, I think, in healthy conversation just about athleticism,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: and it is you know that is It feels like
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: it's my way of sort of giving back and paying
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: forward all the all the goodness that I have received.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give it back to people and I
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: want them to be able to pay it for it
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: as well. And so it is. It's a really really incredible,
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: uh experience. It's an incredible sight to six thousand people's
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: sixteen thousand people A lot of people. Oh yeah, and
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: uh it is. I really really look towards like the
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: model of like the good community to to formulate the
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: communities that I do. And and I'm hoping I think
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: it's the best community on Facebook. So you should join.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 3: I appreciate you. I am at Emily a body at
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 3: Hurdle Podcast. Another Hurdle Conquered. Catch you guys next time.