Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Episode 14: Deena Kastor, Marathoner & American Record Holder
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome back to Hurdle Emily. Here, guys, I have been
- 0:06Speaker 1: on a whirlwind past few weeks. It started in London
- 0:10Speaker 1: the day after my birthday, where this episode was actually recorded,
- 0:14Speaker 1: and since then I've been back to New York for
- 0:17Speaker 1: less than twelve hours, then to Veil for the GoPro
- 0:20Speaker 1: Mountain Games, and then to Los Angeles for a week
- 0:24Speaker 1: Lessons learned. Let's see here, I actually really really loved London.
- 0:29Speaker 1: I need to get back their asap. There's such a
- 0:33Speaker 1: thing as freestyle kayaking, which is absolutely unreal to see
- 0:38Speaker 1: in person, andone else sunburns are the worst anyway. This
- 0:44Speaker 1: episode Dina Caster. She's a household name in the world
- 0:47Speaker 1: of running, a champion marathon or a New York Times
- 0:50Speaker 1: best selling author of her newer book, Let Your Mind Run.
- 0:53Speaker 1: When she arrived in China for the Beijing Olympics in
- 0:56Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, she was so so ready to
- 0:59Speaker 1: crush the competition, but three miles into her race, the
- 1:02Speaker 1: A six backed pro felt something snap in her right foot,
- 1:05Speaker 1: which caused her to fall to the ground and drop
- 1:08Speaker 1: out of the race ouch. In today's episode, she tells
- 1:12Speaker 1: me why she's so thankful for that devastating injury, and
- 1:15Speaker 1: then she shares a lot of super interesting insight into
- 1:18Speaker 1: the mental tricks and mantras that contribute to wait for it,
- 1:22Speaker 1: her outstanding five twenty mile marathon pace. I said to
- 1:28Speaker 1: her in the episode, I can barely walk from my
- 1:30Speaker 1: bed to the bathroom in five minutes and twenty seconds.
- 1:34Speaker 1: She also shares essential advice for regner runners. Definitely some
- 1:38Speaker 1: stuff I wish I knew when I was getting into
- 1:40Speaker 1: the sport. Also, I feel like it's super important just
- 1:43Speaker 1: to chat a little bit more about what I do
- 1:45Speaker 1: when I'm not over here on the pod. I've told
- 1:47Speaker 1: you guys before. In addition to being a certified trainer
- 1:50Speaker 1: and a run coach, I'm also a freelance writer and
- 1:53Speaker 1: editor for a bunch of different publications, ranging from GQ
- 1:56Speaker 1: and Shape to Pop Sugar, Well and Good Self Cosmopolitan.
- 2:00Speaker 1: Kind of if they have a wellness category, I am
- 2:03Speaker 1: likely pitching them content and so because of that, I
- 2:06Speaker 1: have really excellent relationships with a lot of different brands
- 2:09Speaker 1: and companies. So when they launch new products or have
- 2:12Speaker 1: exciting things going on, oftentimes they'll reach out to the
- 2:14Speaker 1: members of the media to put together what is commonly
- 2:18Speaker 1: referred to as a press trip, and that's just a
- 2:22Speaker 1: fun activation anywhere in the country or anywhere in the world. Really.
- 2:26Speaker 1: Last year I went to Hawaii and watched Ironman in Kona.
- 2:30Speaker 1: I have been to Hong Kong, Dublin, Ireland to run
- 2:34Speaker 1: a marathon, Germany, to check out Adidas headquarters, domestically, oh goodness, everywhere,
- 2:41Speaker 1: Nantucket to your Valley, New Mexico, Los Angeles. So many
- 2:45Speaker 1: times the list feels endless and I feel so so
- 2:49Speaker 1: blessed that this is a part of what I do.
- 2:51Speaker 1: This trip to London, where I mentioned we recorded the
- 2:54Speaker 1: podcast with Dina, was with AAIs over there. They were
- 2:58Speaker 1: conducting a science experiment where we tested out running in
- 3:02Speaker 1: the dark versus running in the light on a track.
- 3:06Speaker 1: And also we celebrated a new iteration of their fan
- 3:09Speaker 1: favorite shoe, the jail Kayano twenty five. So again, a
- 3:12Speaker 1: huge thanks to A six for this opportunity. I just
- 3:16Speaker 1: always want to make sure I am being transparent and
- 3:18Speaker 1: upfront with all of you. I think that's it. That
- 3:22Speaker 1: about sums it up. As always. Don't forget to rate
- 3:24Speaker 1: and review Hurdle in the iTunes store. Follow along with
- 3:28Speaker 1: the pod on social media. At Hurdle Podcast and shoot
- 3:31Speaker 1: me a note if you ever have any questions or
- 3:33Speaker 1: just want to say hi, Emily at Hurdle dot us.
- 3:36Speaker 1: And with that, let's get to hurdling. I'm sitting here
- 3:47Speaker 1: today with Dina Caster. She is an Olympic medalist, American
- 3:52Speaker 1: record holder for the marathon. I'm like totally fangirling over
- 3:55Speaker 1: this and also a New York Times best selling author
- 3:59Speaker 1: of her new book, let Your Mind Run, which just
- 4:01Speaker 1: came out in April.
- 4:02Speaker 2: That's outstanding, it really is, and the New York Times
- 4:05Speaker 2: giving really all authors that podium, like every athlete strives
- 4:11Speaker 2: to be on the podium of the Olympic Games. And
- 4:13Speaker 2: this is really the Olympics of writing. It's like the
- 4:16Speaker 2: adult Olympics of adult Yes.
- 4:19Speaker 1: Yes, the last time I saw you was four year
- 4:21Speaker 1: book launch in New York City. I am a little
- 4:24Speaker 1: geeking out over the fact that we're sitting in London
- 4:27Speaker 1: right now.
- 4:29Speaker 2: Yeah, we are across the pond, as they say, and
- 4:32Speaker 2: just amazing here that a six brought us to such
- 4:35Speaker 2: an amazing event.
- 4:36Speaker 3: A challenge. They're calling it.
- 4:39Speaker 2: The ASEX Blackout, which is in essence, taking over a
- 4:42Speaker 2: warehouse and making a makeshift track there with no light,
- 4:47Speaker 2: no sound. You're basically just getting on the track to
- 4:50Speaker 2: run a ten k with no outside influences. I even
- 4:53Speaker 2: got wanded to make sure that I wasn't wearing a
- 4:57Speaker 2: watch or any type of implement that could give me
- 5:01Speaker 2: any information out there. So it was really an amazing
- 5:04Speaker 2: experience to run with the freedom of not having any
- 5:09Speaker 2: sense of pace or time or distance, and even so
- 5:14Speaker 2: much that you couldn't see scenery passing you by, so
- 5:17Speaker 2: you couldn't have a perception of pace or distance or time.
- 5:21Speaker 2: It just felt like I was running in this circle
- 5:24Speaker 2: and it felt neither.
- 5:25Speaker 3: Fast nor slow. It didn't go by quickly nor slowly.
- 5:28Speaker 2: It just felt like this lovely meditation, which I think
- 5:31Speaker 2: comes back to the grounding that running can give us.
- 5:34Speaker 2: And A six is an acronym for on a masana
- 5:37Speaker 2: incorporate sauna, which is a sound mind and a sound body.
- 5:40Speaker 2: So they're just staying true to that foundation.
- 5:43Speaker 1: You say that acronym better than anyone I've ever heard
- 5:46Speaker 1: am before. aDNA is also an ASEX sponsored athlete.
- 5:51Speaker 2: I feel very privileged to have been with this company
- 5:53Speaker 2: for eighteen years, so I feel like they're family to
- 5:56Speaker 2: meet by now.
- 5:58Speaker 1: Two things. First of all, did you know that they
- 6:00Speaker 1: refer to running without a sport watch or any technology
- 6:04Speaker 1: as naked. I just used air quotes for those listening
- 6:07Speaker 1: at home running naked naked? OK. And I had worked
- 6:10Speaker 1: with an editor at Woman's Health and she asked me
- 6:12Speaker 1: if I wanted to write a story about running naked,
- 6:15Speaker 1: and I was like, I.
- 6:16Speaker 3: Don't know if I where do I go for that.
- 6:19Speaker 1: I don't know if I should do that, but it
- 6:20Speaker 1: just means sans technology, and I say I.
- 6:23Speaker 2: Could do that piece, but I'm not taking part in it.
- 6:27Speaker 1: But yeah, So I tried it, and I actually for
- 6:31Speaker 1: someone I feel like we are so connected in our
- 6:33Speaker 1: every day it was really calming. Especially I mean I
- 6:39Speaker 1: wear the Apple Watch all of the time, and to
- 6:41Speaker 1: run without the watch, not just to not be so
- 6:45Speaker 1: constantly checking my pace and my statistics, but also to
- 6:48Speaker 1: be so out of the loop with anyone who's trying
- 6:50Speaker 1: to reach me was so enjoyable.
- 6:52Speaker 2: Absolutely, And you even think, like right before I even
- 6:56Speaker 2: stepped on the track, I was immediately I was on
- 6:58Speaker 2: my phone saying I've accepted the challenge, Like you know,
- 7:01Speaker 2: getting on social media, like we are bombarded with so
- 7:04Speaker 2: much information in the day that to be on that
- 7:07Speaker 2: track for the thirty four minutes.
- 7:09Speaker 3: That I was on it, it just.
- 7:11Speaker 2: Felt so calming and so free and much like a meditation.
- 7:16Speaker 1: Speaking of meditation, do you meditate?
- 7:20Speaker 2: I would hesitate in calling my I like saying that
- 7:23Speaker 2: I meditate. But I do use the Headspace app with
- 7:26Speaker 2: my daughter every day after school. We sit in the
- 7:28Speaker 2: parking lot and just kind of reset for three minutes
- 7:32Speaker 2: or five minutes. I don't know what kind of day
- 7:34Speaker 2: she's having, so I just want to use it as
- 7:36Speaker 2: an opportunity to reset and then we can open up
- 7:38Speaker 2: and talk about it or go on to our next activity,
- 7:41Speaker 2: which is usually a craft or going to the park,
- 7:44Speaker 2: riding her bike, something really really fun and adventurous. But
- 7:48Speaker 2: I also want to make sure that she is learning
- 7:52Speaker 2: the tools to be able to reset herself.
- 7:54Speaker 1: How was that the first time you guys did that together.
- 7:56Speaker 1: Was she open to it?
- 7:58Speaker 3: She was?
- 7:59Speaker 2: I think it was. I think it was exciting for
- 8:01Speaker 2: her to try something new. I think seven year olds
- 8:03Speaker 2: are excited to try anything, and then they'll judge after
- 8:05Speaker 2: that whether they'll ever do it again. But we do
- 8:07Speaker 2: have a rule in our house that started at the
- 8:09Speaker 2: dinner table that you can only have an opinion about
- 8:12Speaker 2: something after you try it, so she had to try
- 8:16Speaker 2: the meditation app before she could form her opinion on it.
- 8:19Speaker 1: And Where's home?
- 8:20Speaker 2: Home is in Mammoth Lakes, California, to ski resort in
- 8:23Speaker 2: Central California. So we live a pretty active life up
- 8:26Speaker 2: there and have open nature and trails all around us.
- 8:30Speaker 1: And you live there with your husband Andrew obviously.
- 8:33Speaker 2: Yep, we're going on fifteen years of marriage and have
- 8:36Speaker 2: a seven year old.
- 8:37Speaker 3: So life's adventuress.
- 8:39Speaker 1: And Andrew's a coach as well. He is.
- 8:41Speaker 2: He's the coach of the Mammoth Track Club and he
- 8:44Speaker 2: has general membership professional runners and also now a youth
- 8:48Speaker 2: program that's starting this summer. And you met running, We
- 8:52Speaker 2: did through a mutual runner friend. We met that way.
- 8:56Speaker 2: He was finishing up school at Adams State University and Alamo, Colorado,
- 9:00Speaker 2: and I was training there professionally and we met and
- 9:03Speaker 2: pretty much have spent twenty four to seven together since then.
- 9:06Speaker 1: How is that having? I mean, you don't necessarily work together,
- 9:11Speaker 1: but you do. I'm to work together a lot.
- 9:15Speaker 2: So together a lot of our day and I think
- 9:18Speaker 2: it's great that we're mutually supportive. We have different ideas
- 9:21Speaker 2: on how to get things done, So I think that's
- 9:23Speaker 2: also healthy, knowing each other's strengths and being able to
- 9:27Speaker 2: rely on the other to carry through with an obligation
- 9:31Speaker 2: or an idea. And so I feel very, very fortunate
- 9:34Speaker 2: that we get to work together. It's not like we
- 9:36Speaker 2: rush home for dinner and have to catch up on
- 9:38Speaker 2: what our day was like. We share our day, which
- 9:40Speaker 2: I feel very privileged to do with the man that
- 9:42Speaker 2: I love.
- 9:42Speaker 1: That's awesome goals. I'm also sitting here thinking a little
- 9:46Speaker 1: bit more about this mindful running phenomenon. I feel like
- 9:50Speaker 1: it's everywhere right now, like every big company is talking
- 9:55Speaker 1: about running mindfully. So I'm wondering if in your practice
- 10:00Speaker 1: of running, do you not besides this time that you
- 10:02Speaker 1: spend with your daughter, do you feel like you're run
- 10:04Speaker 1: Really is that same type of meditation time. I feel like.
- 10:07Speaker 2: I've made a practice out of being mindful. But I
- 10:10Speaker 2: also have seen two sides of the coin with mindfulness.
- 10:14Speaker 2: People that roll their eyes because it seems cliche because
- 10:17Speaker 2: it's been around for a while. You see people that
- 10:19Speaker 2: are intimidated by mindfulness because they don't have the time
- 10:22Speaker 2: for it, or they don't understand it in a way
- 10:25Speaker 2: it's in its simplest form, just the art of paying attention, Like,
- 10:28Speaker 2: just pay attention. What thoughts are you serving you better?
- 10:32Speaker 2: How does this how does this idea make you feel?
- 10:34Speaker 2: Or how does this moment make you feel? And take
- 10:37Speaker 2: a deep breath and understand it in a way that's
- 10:39Speaker 2: going to benefit you more. I feel like sometimes we can.
- 10:42Speaker 2: We can I think over complicate ideas that can be
- 10:48Speaker 2: really simple to to pursue and digest.
- 10:52Speaker 1: So you've been running for thirty four years, and as
- 10:55Speaker 1: someone who likes running myself, I guess my first instinct
- 11:01Speaker 1: to ask you is not just how you got started running,
- 11:04Speaker 1: but when was the point that you realized that you
- 11:07Speaker 1: were really really good at it? Yeah?
- 11:10Speaker 2: I think I was good from the beginning, but it's
- 11:13Speaker 2: because I enjoyed it from the beginning. So I don't
- 11:15Speaker 2: know if I was good because I enjoyed it or
- 11:17Speaker 2: I enjoyed it because I was good, but it was
- 11:20Speaker 2: it was mutual, So I guess that's the that's the
- 11:23Speaker 2: beauty of it is that I that I had some
- 11:26Speaker 2: talent and something that I that I enjoyed deeply at
- 11:29Speaker 2: at its core, I wasn't engaged in any other sports,
- 11:32Speaker 2: and and and because of that, failed miserably in them.
- 11:35Speaker 2: So to be able to find a sport that I love,
- 11:38Speaker 2: I think is why why I was able to find
- 11:40Speaker 2: a talent there.
- 11:41Speaker 1: What uh what sports did you fail miserably at.
- 11:44Speaker 3: All of them? Anything that involved coordination or equipment.
- 11:49Speaker 2: I I was on the soccer team and scored a
- 11:53Speaker 2: goal for the other team because I didn't realize we
- 11:56Speaker 2: changed ways changed directions during halftime, so that was a
- 11:59Speaker 2: little embarrassing. I was on my dad's softball team. Talk
- 12:03Speaker 2: about a committed father. He's like, I'll sign up to
- 12:05Speaker 2: be coach. I'll sign up to be coaching. He spent
- 12:07Speaker 2: the whole time shaking his head, but he was the
- 12:09Speaker 2: coach of my softball team. And I would much rather
- 12:12Speaker 2: make dandelion necklaces in the outfield than catch her throw
- 12:16Speaker 2: or bat. And then I tried ice skating, which I
- 12:19Speaker 2: loved so much. My mom even hired someone to make
- 12:21Speaker 2: me like the frilly outfits with matching boot covers. But
- 12:25Speaker 2: my instructor quit on me because because I was scared
- 12:29Speaker 2: to jump up in the air to try an axle,
- 12:31Speaker 2: and she quit. And as she walked by my mom.
- 12:34Speaker 2: She said she's too skinny to be graceful anyway, which
- 12:37Speaker 2: my mom thought, Oh, no, her self esteem. We have
- 12:41Speaker 2: to get her into something. And so track was the answer,
- 12:44Speaker 2: because you don't have to try out. Everybody gets a
- 12:46Speaker 2: metal or a ribbon at the end, and so it's
- 12:48Speaker 2: always a happy story. And that first day, right before
- 12:52Speaker 2: the right before our first competition, when my dad came
- 12:55Speaker 2: home and said that they wanted me to perform on
- 12:57Speaker 2: the varsity varsity squad, my mom thought again.
- 13:00Speaker 3: Oh no, that's going to ruin her self esteem. And
- 13:03Speaker 3: my dad said, well, they.
- 13:05Speaker 2: Say she has potential, and I thought me potential And
- 13:09Speaker 2: I was second in my first race and then ended
- 13:12Speaker 2: up undefeated from there for the next few years.
- 13:15Speaker 1: And did you go to did you run in college?
- 13:17Speaker 3: I did.
- 13:17Speaker 2: I went to the University of Arkansas, And that's when
- 13:20Speaker 2: I started to struggle a little bit because I thought
- 13:23Speaker 2: my talent had run out. I didn't realize I had
- 13:25Speaker 2: any control over it. I thought it was a fixed
- 13:28Speaker 2: trait and the person with the most talent one. So
- 13:31Speaker 2: for someone with a lot of talent in the sport,
- 13:33Speaker 2: I sure didn't know a lot and it wasn't until
- 13:35Speaker 2: I had that a couple of coaches really spark my
- 13:39Speaker 2: curiosity and make me understand how much I didn't know.
- 13:42Speaker 2: That got me excited to pursue this sport in a
- 13:45Speaker 2: bigger way.
- 13:46Speaker 1: Interesting, So when you were in college, what distances were
- 13:49Speaker 1: you running?
- 13:50Speaker 2: I was running the five thousand and the ten thousand
- 13:52Speaker 2: meters on the track and also cross country.
- 13:55Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, so when does the five thousand and ten
- 13:59Speaker 1: thousands turn into the marathon?
- 14:02Speaker 3: Yeah? I thought for years.
- 14:05Speaker 2: I turned professional in nineteen ninety six, and I for
- 14:09Speaker 2: years thought anything that takes a month to recover from
- 14:12Speaker 2: or has you hobbling the next day just can't be
- 14:14Speaker 2: good for you. So I always resisted, resisted the move
- 14:19Speaker 2: up to the marathon. And it wasn't until doing this
- 14:22Speaker 2: beautiful run through a canyon while visiting my parents back
- 14:25Speaker 2: in California when I was living in Colorado that it
- 14:28Speaker 2: was eighteen miles and it was longer than I'd ever run,
- 14:30Speaker 2: and it was through this canyon to the beach and back.
- 14:34Speaker 2: And I was so intimidated by this distance and by
- 14:37Speaker 2: the slow, gradual climb back to my car, that I
- 14:41Speaker 2: went nice and slowly.
- 14:42Speaker 3: I touched the sand.
- 14:43Speaker 2: I looked back at the mountains and thought should I
- 14:45Speaker 2: call my dad to pick me up? But decided to
- 14:48Speaker 2: do it anyway. And I was so supercharged going back
- 14:51Speaker 2: up those hills, felt so energized and so capable that
- 14:55Speaker 2: I called my coach and I said I'd like to
- 14:57Speaker 2: run a marathon someday, and he said, I've been waiting
- 15:00Speaker 2: to hear those words out of your mouth for a
- 15:01Speaker 2: long time. So it was two thousand and one that
- 15:05Speaker 2: my first marathon was the New York City Marathon. It's
- 15:07Speaker 2: a good marathon, unbelievable. I went big first marathon. I
- 15:11Speaker 2: sure went big.
- 15:12Speaker 1: I love that race. I affectionately refer to my first
- 15:16Speaker 1: New York City Marathon as the best day of my life.
- 15:18Speaker 3: Oh, I just so wonderful.
- 15:20Speaker 1: I look back on that experience and everyone's out there,
- 15:22Speaker 1: and if you're wearing your name on your shirt, everyone's
- 15:25Speaker 1: cheering your name, and it's just there's nothing better. Like
- 15:29Speaker 1: when do you know hundreds of thousands of people show
- 15:32Speaker 1: up to cheer for you.
- 15:33Speaker 3: One point five million people along the course. That is insane.
- 15:38Speaker 2: Fans like it is really really amazing.
- 15:41Speaker 3: What would we do without them?
- 15:43Speaker 2: Like I always think if the course was empty if
- 15:46Speaker 2: nobody was standing at the finish line and there was
- 15:48Speaker 2: no tape to break and the fanfare to celebrate, it
- 15:51Speaker 2: wouldn't feel that amazing. It really does depend on the
- 15:54Speaker 2: volunteers and the screaming, eager spectators that are on the sidelines.
- 16:02Speaker 2: They're just insane and wonderful at the same time.
- 16:05Speaker 1: I mean, we can take a moment and pause for
- 16:09Speaker 1: Boston this year, exact opposite. Yeah of New York. I
- 16:13Speaker 1: know your experience with Boston this year at Dina got
- 16:16Speaker 1: hypothermia running.
- 16:17Speaker 3: Which has never happened to me.
- 16:19Speaker 2: I live in a ski resort where I have sometimes
- 16:22Speaker 2: run in single digit temperatures and in snowstorms. Not all
- 16:27Speaker 2: the time, but a ski resort town, and as soon
- 16:30Speaker 2: as I heard the weather report, I thought, cool, I
- 16:32Speaker 2: have an edge over everyone because I'm tough.
- 16:35Speaker 3: This is going to be amazing.
- 16:37Speaker 2: And I don't remember what it was or who or
- 16:41Speaker 2: how I ended up in the medical tent, but it
- 16:43Speaker 2: was a blackout experience I was. I remember in my final,
- 16:48Speaker 2: my final couple miles. I only made it to fourteen.
- 16:50Speaker 2: That's where the medical tent was that I was, But
- 16:52Speaker 2: I don't remember those miles. I just remember shaking uncontrollably
- 16:57Speaker 2: while I was running, and feeling like my solid legs,
- 17:02Speaker 2: like my legs were frozen themselves, just pounding the pavement.
- 17:05Speaker 2: I was already sore. It just felt so weird. And
- 17:08Speaker 2: the next day I was more sore than any marathon
- 17:10Speaker 2: I had ever run.
- 17:11Speaker 1: I mean, you've run a lot more marathons than me,
- 17:13Speaker 1: but I share that sentiment. I was sore instantly. I've
- 17:20Speaker 1: never felt like that before, not even after a long run.
- 17:23Speaker 1: Just so taxed, and my body was just so angry.
- 17:28Speaker 1: And again, though, just back to this idea of the
- 17:31Speaker 1: crowds being out there. Everyone who did show up, that
- 17:34Speaker 1: had shown up before told me that this was nothing.
- 17:37Speaker 1: No one was out there when I started. I don't
- 17:40Speaker 1: know about you. It was hailing, yes, it was awful.
- 17:43Speaker 2: Yeah, but blessed the people that were out there, oh
- 17:46Speaker 2: my gosh, because it was a driving rain coming down
- 17:49Speaker 2: sideways at times. An umbrella wouldn't have helped anybody, and
- 17:53Speaker 2: so it was amazing to me that there was even
- 17:55Speaker 2: people out on those streets at all.
- 17:58Speaker 1: Question I do want to ask what happens when you
- 18:00Speaker 1: go professional? Like, how does one become a professional runner?
- 18:05Speaker 3: I think the.
- 18:07Speaker 2: Definition is when you can finally have a paycheck, and
- 18:10Speaker 2: I think that makes you professional at something. But it
- 18:16Speaker 2: also comes with obligations for sponsors and to meet promoters,
- 18:21Speaker 2: and there's a lot of people that are involved.
- 18:24Speaker 3: It's not a solo mission.
- 18:25Speaker 2: You're representing your community, You're representing your sponsors, You're representing
- 18:32Speaker 2: the team you run on and the coaches, and so
- 18:35Speaker 2: I think the great the broader your scope of team.
- 18:39Speaker 2: There needs to be an extraordinary amount of trust that
- 18:42Speaker 2: everybody is in it for the right intentions, that everybody
- 18:47Speaker 2: is competing clean. And it's a really important standard to
- 18:53Speaker 2: live up to because I think of my Mammoth Track
- 18:56Speaker 2: Club and all the people that have come through the
- 18:58Speaker 2: Mammoth Track Club over the years. We've produced fourteen, fourteen,
- 19:01Speaker 2: fifteen Olympians on our group in our group, and it's
- 19:04Speaker 2: an extraordinary feat and to know that we've all done
- 19:07Speaker 2: it clean, I think is a testament to strong leadership
- 19:12Speaker 2: with our coaches and a no nonsense policy.
- 19:15Speaker 1: There's so much pressure I feel like being a professional athlete,
- 19:20Speaker 1: and this will kind of bring us into your hurdle
- 19:23Speaker 1: moment a little bit. You ran your first marathon in
- 19:27Speaker 1: New York and then you made it to your first
- 19:31Speaker 1: Olympics in two thousand, tell me before I guess, before
- 19:34Speaker 1: we get into the hurdle moment, talk to me about
- 19:36Speaker 1: your first Olympics experience.
- 19:38Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I mean, that's like every child's dream. I
- 19:42Speaker 2: became a runner the same year that Joe Benoit Samilson
- 19:44Speaker 2: won the first gold medal in the Olympic Games for
- 19:47Speaker 2: the marathon. And it's crazy that it was only in
- 19:50Speaker 2: nineteen eighty four that we had our first ever women's
- 19:52Speaker 2: Olympic marathon. Up until then, I think they that the
- 19:57Speaker 2: organizing committees thought women would lose their uterus if they
- 20:00Speaker 2: ran that distance. With just like yeah, you can't help
- 20:03Speaker 2: but laugh. You're like seriously, like if you can keep
- 20:05Speaker 2: all your parts, so I can't keep all ours. But
- 20:09Speaker 2: it seems extraordinary. So I think every child who sees
- 20:13Speaker 2: the Olympics growing up, if they get involved in sports,
- 20:16Speaker 2: kind of has that as their ideal to be an Olympian.
- 20:20Speaker 2: And so it was an amazing experience to have that
- 20:23Speaker 2: as one of my goals becoming a professional, to make
- 20:25Speaker 2: the Olympic team, to being in a position in the
- 20:28Speaker 2: year two thousand when the Olympics were going to be
- 20:30Speaker 2: in Sydney, I thought, you know what, I'm strong enough
- 20:33Speaker 2: to win these Olympic trials, not just make the team,
- 20:35Speaker 2: but win the Olympic trials. And so to go in
- 20:38Speaker 2: with that sort of confidence felt really felt really defining
- 20:41Speaker 2: and good to me.
- 20:42Speaker 3: And making the Olympic team.
- 20:44Speaker 2: I didn't have a great Olympics, but that one was
- 20:47Speaker 2: about participation and it was in the ten thousand meters.
- 20:50Speaker 2: And then four years later I wanted to change that
- 20:53Speaker 2: experience to being something a little more special. So that
- 20:55Speaker 2: was the Athens Olympics where I ended up earning a
- 20:59Speaker 2: bronze medal.
- 21:01Speaker 1: I like long pause because it makes me speechless just
- 21:04Speaker 1: thinking about this idea of getting onto the podium at
- 21:07Speaker 1: the Olympics.
- 21:07Speaker 3: It was the ultimate.
- 21:08Speaker 2: And you know, as I saw Mizuki Naguchi's Japanese flag
- 21:12Speaker 2: rising in the stadium next to the American flag, I
- 21:15Speaker 2: was singing the American national aca. You can't help it, Yeah, yeah,
- 21:21Speaker 2: there's just so much pride in seeing your country's flag go, climb,
- 21:24Speaker 2: climb the pole.
- 21:25Speaker 1: So that Olympics bronze medal, and.
- 21:28Speaker 3: I thought I was going to do better the next
- 21:29Speaker 3: time around.
- 21:30Speaker 1: So let's talk about the next time around you're in Beijing,
- 21:34Speaker 1: and how far out ahead of the race do you
- 21:40Speaker 1: get on the ground in Beijing.
- 21:42Speaker 2: So I got to Beijing. We were actually stationed in
- 21:46Speaker 2: the town of Doli, in a coastal town outside of
- 21:49Speaker 2: Beijing as the US track team. We're there for three
- 21:52Speaker 2: weeks ahead of the Games, and then flew into Beijing
- 21:55Speaker 2: just a couple of days before.
- 21:56Speaker 1: It's always interesting to me because they say, depending obviously
- 21:59Speaker 1: on the altitude, food of the destination, they give you
- 22:01Speaker 1: best practice advice of when you're supposed to arrive. But
- 22:04Speaker 1: I feel like, obviously with the Olympics, there's probably a
- 22:08Speaker 1: lot more things you need to be there beforehand. You
- 22:10Speaker 1: might arrive earlier for the Olympics than you would say
- 22:13Speaker 1: if you were flying into a different place for just
- 22:17Speaker 1: a race.
- 22:17Speaker 2: Weekend, right, And even for the Sydney Olympics and the
- 22:21Speaker 2: Athens Olympics, we would get there close to a month
- 22:23Speaker 2: ahead of time. And it's about adaptation and if you
- 22:27Speaker 2: can these are like the tiny tweaks that you can
- 22:29Speaker 2: do to gain a slight edge, and another slight edge
- 22:33Speaker 2: by getting your sleep, and another.
- 22:34Speaker 3: Slight edge by hydrating.
- 22:36Speaker 2: It's like all these little things that add up to
- 22:38Speaker 2: to being able to perform at your best. So getting
- 22:41Speaker 2: there a few weeks ahead, to adapt to the heat
- 22:43Speaker 2: and humidity, to to get on the time zone, and
- 22:47Speaker 2: to really get in a groove and do your your
- 22:50Speaker 2: tapering there so that you're going in confident and not sluggish.
- 22:54Speaker 1: How did you feel going into the Beijing Olympics?
- 22:57Speaker 2: Going into Beijing, ten days out in the town at
- 23:02Speaker 2: the coastal town of Dolian, I did an eighteen mile
- 23:05Speaker 2: marathon simulation run where I start off easy and get
- 23:08Speaker 2: down to marathon pace, and it was the best marathon
- 23:11Speaker 2: simulation run I had ever done in my career.
- 23:13Speaker 3: So I felt so confident going into this race.
- 23:16Speaker 1: Quick pause, what's your marathon pace?
- 23:19Speaker 2: My marathon pace is is five point twenty to five
- 23:22Speaker 2: thirty depending on the course. You know, Beijing wasn't going
- 23:25Speaker 2: to be a fast course because of the heat, then
- 23:28Speaker 2: that was going to challenge us there.
- 23:30Speaker 1: I like can't make it from my bed to like
- 23:33Speaker 1: my bathroom sink to brush my teeth.
- 23:34Speaker 3: In five minutes and twenty seconds.
- 23:37Speaker 1: I think my fastest mile I've ever run is like
- 23:39Speaker 1: a six fourteen and that's a single just a quick singal. Yeah,
- 23:43Speaker 1: but that's swift, and you know what I just aspire
- 23:46Speaker 1: to one day I have a five to fourteen marathon pace.
- 23:49Speaker 1: That's outstanding. Okay, so you feel really great.
- 23:52Speaker 2: Yes, And so you would have been in the lead
- 23:54Speaker 2: pack for the first few miles because we were probably
- 23:56Speaker 2: going six thirties this six thirty second smile.
- 24:00Speaker 3: It was just a lot of people looking around.
- 24:04Speaker 2: Nobody wanted to make a move yet it was early,
- 24:06Speaker 2: and so everybody was just kind of feeling out the
- 24:09Speaker 2: race to see who would make a move. And I
- 24:12Speaker 2: remember going going through these gardens and feeling like a
- 24:16Speaker 2: tightness on top of my foot, and the very next
- 24:19Speaker 2: step was a crack and splintering of my third metatarsal
- 24:25Speaker 2: and I could hear it pop like a popsicle stick
- 24:28Speaker 2: where kind of splinters after the pop.
- 24:30Speaker 3: It was nauseating to even think about.
- 24:34Speaker 2: Once I was on the bus, like repeating that sound
- 24:36Speaker 2: in my head, but a bus had to pick me
- 24:38Speaker 2: up because I couldn't put any weight on my foot,
- 24:41Speaker 2: and I made my way to the finish line. The
- 24:44Speaker 2: Beautiful Bird's Nest was not the way I had anticipated
- 24:47Speaker 2: entering that stadium.
- 24:49Speaker 1: I read your book, your New York Times best selling book,
- 24:54Speaker 1: let your mind round in the chapter about this, and
- 24:58Speaker 1: you're talking about how this might have happened.
- 25:01Speaker 2: Right right, So it took me a while to get there,
- 25:04Speaker 2: But as soon as when I was on the bus
- 25:06Speaker 2: and sobbing into this towel, I finally thought, you know what,
- 25:11Speaker 2: I'm going to figure out how this happened, Like this
- 25:13Speaker 2: doesn't just happen per chance, And I'm not about to
- 25:16Speaker 2: chalk it up to tour runners and athletes pushing the
- 25:19Speaker 2: limits and breaking their bodies, because I feel our bodies
- 25:22Speaker 2: are very capable and very strong.
- 25:24Speaker 3: So I really wanted to figure out why.
- 25:26Speaker 2: And as soon as I got into that mindset of
- 25:29Speaker 2: figuring out why, I already felt empowered. I already felt
- 25:32Speaker 2: like I was going to be stronger after.
- 25:36Speaker 1: So what did you start to kind of how I
- 25:38Speaker 1: guess at this point you start to kind of backtrack
- 25:41Speaker 1: and like retrace your steps to figure out what may
- 25:44Speaker 1: have been a trigger for this?
- 25:46Speaker 2: Right, I was thinking, oh, man, what did I do? Like,
- 25:48Speaker 2: what didn't I What didn't I accomplish here? That what
- 25:52Speaker 2: was the missing piece of this puzzle that would allow
- 25:55Speaker 2: me to get get an Olympic medal again?
- 25:58Speaker 3: And earlier that year I had gotten giardia in out
- 26:02Speaker 3: of drinking.
- 26:03Speaker 2: I was drinking out of a stream in Colorado, which
- 26:06Speaker 2: was a no no, but I thought it was high enough.
- 26:08Speaker 2: And I got giardia a couple of weeks later, but
- 26:10Speaker 2: I didn't know. I thought maybe I ate something weird,
- 26:13Speaker 2: and then I thought I had the flu. And by
- 26:14Speaker 2: the time I went to the doctors, I was like
- 26:17Speaker 2: a week and a half into to just not absorbing
- 26:20Speaker 2: any any of the nutrients I was eating. And so
- 26:24Speaker 2: talking with the doctors in hindsight, they said that because
- 26:29Speaker 2: I was still running, that my body, in order to
- 26:34Speaker 2: still have cardiac function, took all the nutrients from my bones,
- 26:38Speaker 2: leached all the nutrients from my bones, Like aren't our
- 26:40Speaker 2: bodies amazing that my heart took priority over everything, Like
- 26:43Speaker 2: I just still am in awe of that. And so
- 26:46Speaker 2: in order for my heart to keep pumping, it leached
- 26:48Speaker 2: the nutrients and minerals it needed from my bones and
- 26:51Speaker 2: they never got reabsorbed because I had zero vitamin D
- 26:55Speaker 2: in my body because I've gone through melanoma on three occasions,
- 26:59Speaker 2: and so the sun is not an option. I didn't
- 27:02Speaker 2: know that vitamin D was a thing then. Now it's
- 27:05Speaker 2: pretty much something in a blood profile that's very common
- 27:10Speaker 2: to when your blood is taken, it's common to search
- 27:14Speaker 2: for how much vitamin do you have because it's supposed
- 27:16Speaker 2: to decrease inflammation and be anti cancer, and so it's
- 27:21Speaker 2: an important mineral vitamin to have. And because I didn't
- 27:25Speaker 2: have vitamin D in my system but a lot of calcium,
- 27:29Speaker 2: I wasn't able to reabsorb the calcium into my bone.
- 27:32Speaker 2: So I just made it my mission to sit around
- 27:35Speaker 2: and eat a lot of foods with vitamin D in it.
- 27:37Speaker 2: And it was surprising to know what those foods were
- 27:41Speaker 2: because there wasn't a lot of research then, But it
- 27:45Speaker 2: ended up being the yolks of farm raised eggs because
- 27:48Speaker 2: the chickens are getting a lot of scent, so those
- 27:51Speaker 2: egg yolks are as orange as a per simon. They're
- 27:54Speaker 2: just beautiful and you can tell they're healthy for you
- 27:56Speaker 2: just by the looks of them, and they have a
- 27:59Speaker 2: much different look than conventional egg and herring and salmon.
- 28:04Speaker 2: Some cold water fishes that are really high in vitamin
- 28:07Speaker 2: D organic leafy greens because they have more bioavailability so
- 28:12Speaker 2: you can absorb the vitamin D more efficiently and then
- 28:15Speaker 2: fortified foods, breads and milks and orange juices that have vitamin.
- 28:19Speaker 3: D in them.
- 28:20Speaker 2: So it was a learning experience and I felt every
- 28:23Speaker 2: day that I was getting stronger, and it was interesting,
- 28:26Speaker 2: even with my foot in a cast and sitting on
- 28:28Speaker 2: the couch, I felt like I was a healthier version
- 28:31Speaker 2: of myself than right before the Olympic Games, when I
- 28:34Speaker 2: was thinking I was going to meddle.
- 28:36Speaker 1: This. Uh, it makes me think a lot because obviously,
- 28:41Speaker 1: as a professional athlete, your body is it's your money maker,
- 28:46Speaker 1: your whole identity. Yeah everything, Yes, Where are you mentally
- 28:51Speaker 1: when this happened, because you had to pretty much relearn
- 28:54Speaker 1: how to walk? Yes?
- 28:55Speaker 2: And I think because I've practiced positivity for so many
- 28:59Speaker 2: years that it was to make that transition, Even on
- 29:01Speaker 2: the bus without answers when I was heading to the
- 29:04Speaker 2: Bird's nest, I remember one minute on the bus being
- 29:08Speaker 2: so angry at my body for failing me. And then
- 29:12Speaker 2: in the hospital in the Olympic village after I got
- 29:15Speaker 2: the results of my X ray and my doctor back
- 29:19Speaker 2: home saying don't let a bedsheet touch your toe because
- 29:22Speaker 2: your foot swelled so badly it.
- 29:24Speaker 3: Pushed your bones back into place.
- 29:26Speaker 2: So here with all these splintered and feathered pieces of
- 29:29Speaker 2: my bones just squeezed back into place from inflammation.
- 29:33Speaker 3: And so whereas a couple hours earlier, I.
- 29:36Speaker 2: Was angry at my body, in this moment, I was
- 29:38Speaker 2: amazed at it for already starting the healing process. So
- 29:41Speaker 2: our bodies want to be healthy if we give it
- 29:43Speaker 2: the avenue to do so. And I was really understanding
- 29:47Speaker 2: in that moment that there's a big difference between fitness
- 29:51Speaker 2: and health.
- 29:51Speaker 3: And I was fit, but I was not healthy.
- 29:53Speaker 1: That's outrageous to have that mindset right off the bat.
- 29:58Speaker 1: I did an interview with Don Harper Nelson a couple
- 30:01Speaker 1: of years ago, and we talked about her experience in
- 30:04Speaker 1: Beijing right actually, and she fell on the hurdles and
- 30:11Speaker 1: she immediately wanted out of the stadium. She hopped a
- 30:15Speaker 1: fence with her husband, and I think they tried to
- 30:18Speaker 1: get away from the press, and she had a moment
- 30:21Speaker 1: right before they got, you know, all the way out,
- 30:24Speaker 1: and she said, you could do two things here. You
- 30:27Speaker 1: can try to leave, you can get out of here,
- 30:31Speaker 1: or you could stop, have your moment, reflect and then
- 30:35Speaker 1: go back in there and face it, because what can
- 30:38Speaker 1: happen is if you don't stop and learn from mistakes.
- 30:41Speaker 1: What their mistake. You didn't put all that effort into fail.
- 30:45Speaker 1: But if you don't stop and look at what happened
- 30:48Speaker 1: and analyze and go back to it, then what's it
- 30:51Speaker 1: going to serve you? So she affectionately talked about how
- 30:55Speaker 1: she went back in and she'd talked to the reporters
- 30:57Speaker 1: and she reflected on her race and she learned so
- 31:00Speaker 1: much from it because she was willing to confront it.
- 31:03Speaker 1: And it sounds like you were so willing right off
- 31:05Speaker 1: the bat.
- 31:06Speaker 3: Yeah, to process it.
- 31:07Speaker 2: And it's such an important part of that journey of
- 31:11Speaker 2: self improvement that we can look at disappointment, which Don
- 31:15Speaker 2: and I have both run the gamut of international experience
- 31:19Speaker 2: on disappointment, like highs and lows, disappointments and victories. But
- 31:24Speaker 2: we can process it in these hard terms like disappointment
- 31:29Speaker 2: instead of feeling like a failure in disappointment, which I
- 31:32Speaker 2: had made the mistake of doing for so many years,
- 31:35Speaker 2: to think of disappointment as a desire to be better,
- 31:38Speaker 2: That it's a feeling that comes with being totally invested
- 31:42Speaker 2: in something and wanting more and expecting more. So how
- 31:45Speaker 2: do I get more out of myself?
- 31:47Speaker 3: The next time, and that's when it becomes that's when
- 31:50Speaker 3: you evolve into more of a growth mindset instead of
- 31:53Speaker 3: this debilitating one where you're seeping in disappointment. So it's
- 31:56Speaker 3: about defining these hard emotions in a better way that
- 32:00Speaker 3: can serve us.
- 32:01Speaker 1: Do you have any consistent mantras that you repeat to
- 32:04Speaker 1: yourself when you run?
- 32:05Speaker 2: Oh, she's nodding, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think mantras are
- 32:09Speaker 2: really are really important. It's not something that I use
- 32:12Speaker 2: on a daily basis, but it definitely is there through
- 32:15Speaker 2: some of the more challenging moments of a race or
- 32:17Speaker 2: a workout. And the one that seems to work for
- 32:21Speaker 2: me so often is define yourself. Because there's so many
- 32:24Speaker 2: occasions where we think, oh, it's just one race or
- 32:28Speaker 2: someone's I remember thinking so strangely one time of you
- 32:32Speaker 2: know what, someone's going to win this race next year.
- 32:35Speaker 2: Someone won this race last year, So who really cares?
- 32:37Speaker 2: Like this, We're not like solving world problems here. It's
- 32:40Speaker 2: only a race.
- 32:41Speaker 3: It's only it's only a run through this this darn city,
- 32:44Speaker 3: you know. And I just.
- 32:45Speaker 2: Laugh at how we can rationalize giving up on our
- 32:50Speaker 2: goals and our dreams.
- 32:51Speaker 3: And so I make it. I make it a bigger picture.
- 32:54Speaker 2: I make it about making this choice is forming the
- 32:58Speaker 2: habits that I'm going to rely on for the rest
- 33:00Speaker 2: of my life. If I give up now, then I
- 33:02Speaker 2: can get into a habit of giving up. But if
- 33:04Speaker 2: I dig down and try harder, then I'm also forming
- 33:08Speaker 2: the habits to do that. So to me, I make
- 33:11Speaker 2: it about defining who I am as a human being,
- 33:14Speaker 2: and that becomes a much much harder thing to bail
- 33:16Speaker 2: out of.
- 33:17Speaker 1: Many talk about putting the pressure.
- 33:20Speaker 3: Yeah, the moment becomes very intense.
- 33:22Speaker 1: It's interesting. I mean, obviously Beijing is effectively for our
- 33:27Speaker 1: purposes your hurdle moment. Would you say that at that
- 33:30Speaker 1: time you had that same mental approach to running or
- 33:33Speaker 1: do you think that this is really thinking? Okay, each
- 33:37Speaker 1: of these situations contributes to the bigger picture. Do you
- 33:40Speaker 1: feel like that was developing for you at that time,
- 33:42Speaker 1: that kind of mono or have you been there for years?
- 33:45Speaker 2: I think it's taken time, but I had definitely been
- 33:49Speaker 2: practicing what it takes to get through a hard moment
- 33:53Speaker 2: for years before that, and whether it's practicing gratitude or
- 33:58Speaker 2: it's or keeping keeping a journal to see how you
- 34:02Speaker 2: handle handle hard times. It could be relying on friends
- 34:07Speaker 2: and family. There's just so many options to be inspired
- 34:10Speaker 2: and to keep going around us. We sometimes get caught
- 34:14Speaker 2: up in paying attention to the challenges around us, when
- 34:19Speaker 2: simultaneously there's a lot of good happening and support for us.
- 34:23Speaker 2: So it's important to give our attention to the good
- 34:26Speaker 2: stuff in order to thrive more. But I think that
- 34:31Speaker 2: all that practice certainly allowed me to sob in that
- 34:35Speaker 2: towel and get over it very quickly and move on
- 34:38Speaker 2: to growing from there. So it's I think that the
- 34:41Speaker 2: practice is very important on a daily basis, as opposed
- 34:44Speaker 2: to just relying on these tools.
- 34:46Speaker 3: When when something hits the fan, when.
- 34:50Speaker 1: You got back on your feet and you started running,
- 34:54Speaker 1: even just a little bit, talk to me about how
- 34:56Speaker 1: that felt. Yeah, it was.
- 34:58Speaker 2: It was strange to have to learned a walk again
- 35:01Speaker 2: because I was in a cast for so long, and
- 35:03Speaker 2: then a boot, and then finally only able to balance
- 35:06Speaker 2: on two legs, but I couldn't really walk around. It
- 35:09Speaker 2: was a very gradual build up to being able to run,
- 35:13Speaker 2: but learning able to walk heel, rolling off the toe,
- 35:15Speaker 2: making sure you're not favoring that middle metatarsal and creating
- 35:20Speaker 2: bad habits in your gate before before starting to run again,
- 35:24Speaker 2: and then being able to finally get on this trail
- 35:28Speaker 2: for this hike, to get on unstable surface, which seemed
- 35:32Speaker 2: so exciting.
- 35:33Speaker 1: You know, So you took a hike, yeah, before you
- 35:35Speaker 1: started to run, Yes.
- 35:36Speaker 2: And every day was every I shouldn't say every day,
- 35:38Speaker 2: because there's days where you're tired or whatever, but every
- 35:42Speaker 2: week just felt like this amazing growth, like oh.
- 35:45Speaker 3: My gosh, I'm standing on both of my feet.
- 35:47Speaker 2: Again, and I tried to celebrate and honor that as
- 35:49Speaker 2: opposed to compare myself to a to a two twenty
- 35:52Speaker 2: marathonor And so I was on this hike and it
- 35:56Speaker 2: was supposed to be two hours long, and I chose
- 35:59Speaker 2: at place I had never been so that I could explore,
- 36:02Speaker 2: which really gets me excited. And I went through this
- 36:07Speaker 2: long lake valley and I looked at my watch, and
- 36:11Speaker 2: I looked at my map, and I thought, and I
- 36:13Speaker 2: had like a real map in my hand because I
- 36:15Speaker 2: was afraid that that I wouldn't get GPS signals. And
- 36:19Speaker 2: so I went old school and I realized, like, I'm
- 36:24Speaker 2: not going to see much if I don't hustle and
- 36:26Speaker 2: get going so I just started jogging and immediately felt
- 36:30Speaker 2: this rush of endorphins and joy of like moving through
- 36:34Speaker 2: the mountains and climbing this hill, just like my breath
- 36:38Speaker 2: heaving to realize I was at twelve thousand feet and
- 36:42Speaker 2: the way back just in like this euphoric state of
- 36:46Speaker 2: being part of something that I enjoy so deeply. And
- 36:50Speaker 2: it had nothing to do with time or place, similar
- 36:53Speaker 2: to being here in London. It had nothing to do
- 36:55Speaker 2: with that. It was just the joy of moving again.
- 36:57Speaker 1: Did you ever think during your that you wouldn't run again?
- 37:03Speaker 1: I did.
- 37:04Speaker 2: I questioned it for sure. I thought maybe my foot
- 37:07Speaker 2: wouldn't heal properly. I thought maybe that much time off
- 37:12Speaker 2: would set me back years in fitness, and so I
- 37:16Speaker 2: wasn't sure. But I also felt okay with it. I
- 37:19Speaker 2: felt that I was just happy to have my health back,
- 37:22Speaker 2: happy to understand health in a different way, in a
- 37:25Speaker 2: broader way, knowing that things can be happening internally that
- 37:29Speaker 2: are totally so far under the surface we don't see
- 37:33Speaker 2: them going on, and so to pay attention to how
- 37:36Speaker 2: I feel a little more energy wise was really important.
- 37:40Speaker 3: So I feel like the upset of it all was
- 37:44Speaker 3: truly a gift.
- 37:45Speaker 1: In the end, what I want to know is what
- 37:48Speaker 1: has been some of the best advice that you have
- 37:50Speaker 1: been given in your career? Because you're giving me excellent
- 37:53Speaker 1: advice of how to stay resilient, but who gives you
- 37:57Speaker 1: the advice back?
- 37:58Speaker 2: I feel like inspiration is always around us. I think
- 38:01Speaker 2: the person that has influenced me the most has been
- 38:03Speaker 2: my first professional coach, Job Hill, and he showed me
- 38:08Speaker 2: through example that the power of all that we possess,
- 38:12Speaker 2: whether it's time, money, knowledge, food, the value of it
- 38:18Speaker 2: increases exponentially the moment it's shared. And so I feel
- 38:22Speaker 2: he lived that example, and it's become more or less
- 38:25Speaker 2: my life philosophy that if I have it, share it
- 38:29Speaker 2: because what good is it? Was my motivation in writing
- 38:32Speaker 2: Let Your Mind Run? Because what good is having all
- 38:34Speaker 2: these universal truths that running has taught me if I'm
- 38:37Speaker 2: not also sharing it with the people around me. I
- 38:39Speaker 2: share it with my teammates and my friends. But to
- 38:41Speaker 2: be able to share it in a bigger way has
- 38:43Speaker 2: been a huge reward. What's better than making a nice
- 38:48Speaker 2: meal and sharing it with others as opposed to just
- 38:51Speaker 2: sitting down and eating it yourself. So I love that
- 38:55Speaker 2: the sharing of everything that we have, and it really
- 38:57Speaker 2: makes what we have more valuable.
- 39:00Speaker 1: I feel like you probably leaned into a lot of
- 39:02Speaker 1: the people that give you inspiration after Beijing making your comeback.
- 39:06Speaker 1: Tell me what happens when you're back.
- 39:09Speaker 2: Yeah, you're back, and you're just trying to settle into
- 39:13Speaker 2: to that journey of progress. You're looking at coaches for
- 39:19Speaker 2: better advice, You're looking at your teammates for inspiration, and
- 39:23Speaker 2: really feeding off the progress day to day without comparing
- 39:26Speaker 2: who you were a year prior, or two years prior
- 39:29Speaker 2: or ten years prior.
- 39:30Speaker 3: You're just looking at.
- 39:31Speaker 2: The at the progress and the process itself, and when
- 39:34Speaker 2: you can really do that, be mindful in the moment
- 39:36Speaker 2: of that journey forward, I think you can be proud
- 39:40Speaker 2: instead of disappointed in where you are.
- 39:43Speaker 1: So you are getting back into running, You're regaining all
- 39:47Speaker 1: the strength, You're doing it successfully in a way that
- 39:51Speaker 1: you can now say, Okay, I'm not done with this yet.
- 39:55Speaker 1: That must have been empowering.
- 39:56Speaker 2: It felt it felt amazing to just feel that snap
- 39:59Speaker 2: back in your legs to do that first speed session.
- 40:02Speaker 2: I mean all those first they just lined up, my
- 40:05Speaker 2: first five miles, my first ten miles, my first speed session,
- 40:08Speaker 2: my first temple run, my first long run.
- 40:10Speaker 3: It all felt amazing.
- 40:12Speaker 1: What's a piece of advice that you'd want to give
- 40:14Speaker 1: someone who wants to tackle that first mile, that first
- 40:19Speaker 1: five mile, that first ten mile, like they want to
- 40:22Speaker 1: do it and maybe they're a little bit scared.
- 40:24Speaker 2: I would say the reward is just putting your shoes
- 40:27Speaker 2: on and doing it. I used to think that you
- 40:30Speaker 2: needed to incentivize things like that, these bold moves that
- 40:33Speaker 2: we sometimes make, like getting off the couch and running
- 40:36Speaker 2: our first mile. But the reward is just in the
- 40:38Speaker 2: process itself, and it's so empowering to question what we
- 40:44Speaker 2: can do and then go ahead and do it. It
- 40:46Speaker 2: makes it feel that much more special. So the fear
- 40:49Speaker 2: or the intimidation shouldn't stop you, but it should allow
- 40:54Speaker 2: you to know that it's going to be that much
- 40:56Speaker 2: greater once you get there.
- 40:57Speaker 1: So it's also enjoying the journey absolutely. I kept telling
- 41:01Speaker 1: myself that in Boston, you know, you get to Boston,
- 41:05Speaker 1: you get to Boston and it's the weather. There's nothing
- 41:08Speaker 1: you can do and you can't control it, and you
- 41:10Speaker 1: just have to accept it. And it's like, in the meantime,
- 41:13Speaker 1: you got to step back and realize this journey has
- 41:16Speaker 1: been so special already.
- 41:18Speaker 2: Right, Absolutely, it's special just to get to the starting
- 41:20Speaker 2: line of Boston. It's a journey in and of itself,
- 41:23Speaker 2: and people should feel that the reward is the race itself.
- 41:27Speaker 2: Even though we were met with horrific conditions, it's still
- 41:32Speaker 2: just this. The human spirit that allows you to continue
- 41:35Speaker 2: going is a real beautiful thing to acknowledge.
- 41:39Speaker 1: So at this time in twenty ten, you're running a
- 41:43Speaker 1: lot and something feels a little bit off, So what's
- 41:47Speaker 1: happening in data?
- 41:48Speaker 2: I went from working out in a really great way
- 41:51Speaker 2: to just feeling awful. And I had no idea. Oh,
- 41:55Speaker 2: I will make a long story shirt short. But I
- 41:57Speaker 2: was pregnant and ended up having a very sedentary pregnancy.
- 42:03Speaker 2: I thought maybe I could at least run a half
- 42:05Speaker 2: hour a day for the health of it, to get
- 42:07Speaker 2: out and enjoy views and exercise and fresh air, for
- 42:11Speaker 2: the health of me and the baby growing.
- 42:14Speaker 3: And I couldn't do it.
- 42:16Speaker 2: I had these debilitating side stitches that it only felt
- 42:20Speaker 2: good to sit around and hang out in the house.
- 42:23Speaker 2: So that's what I did for fresh air. I read
- 42:25Speaker 2: books on the deck and took deep nurturing breaths. But
- 42:30Speaker 2: for the most part, I did almost nothing during my
- 42:32Speaker 2: pregnancy but read books and clean the house a lot.
- 42:36Speaker 1: I got to ask, when you were pregnant, did you
- 42:39Speaker 1: go through another set of asking yourself? Am I going
- 42:42Speaker 1: to run professionally? Again?
- 42:44Speaker 3: Absolutely.
- 42:45Speaker 2: I think it's probably natural for a lot of women
- 42:48Speaker 2: to question their careers in the face of starting a family.
- 42:53Speaker 2: So I did question whether I would start running. But
- 42:56Speaker 2: I was also encouraged by my husband to not make decisions,
- 42:59Speaker 2: let it happen organically, and enjoy this time of starting
- 43:03Speaker 2: a family. And if you feel like you want to
- 43:05Speaker 2: continue when when Piper's born, then by all means, put
- 43:09Speaker 2: the shoes on and we'll make it work. But if
- 43:12Speaker 2: you want to stay at home and raise this child.
- 43:16Speaker 3: And be dedicated. He also supported that I love her name. Yeah,
- 43:20Speaker 3: Piper Bloom.
- 43:22Speaker 2: Yes, I thought my husband thought of the name, and
- 43:24Speaker 2: I thought Bloom was because she was going to be
- 43:27Speaker 2: born in the springtime. She happened to be born during
- 43:30Speaker 2: a horrific snowstorm and we almost named her Piper Storm
- 43:33Speaker 2: because of it, which also fits her name a little
- 43:36Speaker 2: better her personality a little better.
- 43:38Speaker 3: But Piper Bloom it is.
- 43:40Speaker 1: What's the bloom for?
- 43:43Speaker 3: Well?
- 43:44Speaker 2: It is the in Bloom song by Nirvana and the
- 43:47Speaker 2: first lyrics are sell your kids for food. So I
- 43:50Speaker 2: hope she's not insecure that if we ever go hungry, she'll.
- 43:53Speaker 3: Be she'll be soul, So we can put food on
- 43:55Speaker 3: the table.
- 43:56Speaker 1: Maybe you can just tell people.
- 43:58Speaker 2: Yes, she's born for the Yeah, I promised, Piper.
- 44:02Speaker 3: If you're listening, I would never sell you for food.
- 44:04Speaker 3: You're much too valuable.
- 44:06Speaker 1: So you get back into running and things are going well,
- 44:11Speaker 1: and there's another Olympic Games right on the corner, so
- 44:14Speaker 1: what do you do, Dina?
- 44:15Speaker 2: I started to get excited with the fitness that I
- 44:18Speaker 2: was gaining and decided to train for a crash course
- 44:23Speaker 2: in marathoning and entering the US Marathon trials that were
- 44:29Speaker 2: being held in Houston that year. And I remember it
- 44:34Speaker 2: being a really tough build up that there was nothing
- 44:37Speaker 2: that no other time in my life that anything but
- 44:40Speaker 2: running was competing for my attention. And here I was
- 44:43Speaker 2: trying to put in the work and knowing that I
- 44:46Speaker 2: wasn't doing everything like the stretching and the massages and
- 44:49Speaker 2: the naps and the second runs all the time, So
- 44:54Speaker 2: there was a lot I was compromising, but I was
- 44:57Speaker 2: a new mom and I was also invested in feeding
- 45:00Speaker 2: my daughter and in playing with her, and so it
- 45:05Speaker 2: was it was just an important time that I didn't
- 45:08Speaker 2: do so gracefully. And I remember running the Olympic trials tired,
- 45:13Speaker 2: and by the time the race started to hurt, I
- 45:16Speaker 2: didn't have it within me to fight for it. I
- 45:18Speaker 2: got sixth places, so I did not make the Olympic team.
- 45:21Speaker 2: And my first thought when I crossed the finish line
- 45:24Speaker 2: is that I failed as a mom and as an athlete.
- 45:26Speaker 3: And it was hard.
- 45:28Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like you're getting a little much about it.
- 45:32Speaker 1: Do you think looking back on it now, do you
- 45:36Speaker 1: feel that way?
- 45:37Speaker 3: Not at all, Not at all.
- 45:39Speaker 2: I think, oh, silly, Dina, you were so young and
- 45:42Speaker 2: naive to think that way. But I did have to.
- 45:45Speaker 2: I did have to step back and say, like, how do.
- 45:47Speaker 3: People do this? How do people manage family and careers?
- 45:51Speaker 2: And as I was, as I was suffering and in
- 45:54Speaker 2: this place of self pity, I thought, oh, come on,
- 45:58Speaker 2: people do this all the time, Like get yourself together,
- 46:00Speaker 2: Like there are very successful women and men out there
- 46:04Speaker 2: that raise families and run and have lucrative careers, and
- 46:10Speaker 2: your career and running are the same thing, so shouldn't
- 46:13Speaker 2: you have it easier? So I just had to have
- 46:15Speaker 2: this talk with myself, like you got to figure this out.
- 46:18Speaker 2: And I realized that we can have more than one hat.
- 46:21Speaker 2: And it felt so great to finally figure out that
- 46:25Speaker 2: stride of being out there and enjoying running and being
- 46:28Speaker 2: able to get to get the best out of myself
- 46:30Speaker 2: while I was running, but also get the best out
- 46:33Speaker 2: of motherhood when I was with my family.
- 46:35Speaker 1: I mean, I think there's something to be said for
- 46:37Speaker 1: this idea of women getting back into the workforce in
- 46:40Speaker 1: general after having children. Just it blows my mind to
- 46:45Speaker 1: think about performing at the same elite level while you're
- 46:50Speaker 1: missing out on sleep, you're waking up at two am,
- 46:53Speaker 1: you're running too and from who knows daycare and putting
- 46:57Speaker 1: food on the table, and all of these new factors
- 46:59Speaker 1: that you didn't have to deal with when you were
- 47:01Speaker 1: just you and your.
- 47:02Speaker 2: Husband, right and leading up to the Olympic trials, it
- 47:05Speaker 2: was time, my time running. I felt guilty being away
- 47:08Speaker 2: from Piper because she wasn't an easy child, an easy baby,
- 47:12Speaker 2: and then and then the times I was with her,
- 47:15Speaker 2: there was this understanding deep inside me that I wasn't
- 47:19Speaker 2: doing everything I needed to do to fulfill that running goal.
- 47:22Speaker 2: So there was guilt on both sides, and so I
- 47:24Speaker 2: really had to struggle with that for a while before
- 47:27Speaker 2: finding my stride.
- 47:28Speaker 1: I was going to say, like, how did that change?
- 47:30Speaker 2: It changed just by setting priorities, and that seems so simple,
- 47:33Speaker 2: But I just set priorities that health and family should
- 47:37Speaker 2: always come first, and that running in career would come second.
- 47:42Speaker 2: And I realized very quickly after that that those lines
- 47:45Speaker 2: often blur a lot, because getting out for a run
- 47:49Speaker 2: sometimes made me a better mom, allowed me to provide
- 47:51Speaker 2: for the family, and kept me healthy. So in any case,
- 47:55Speaker 2: it allowed me to justify what I needed to do
- 47:57Speaker 2: in any given moment.
- 47:58Speaker 1: Talk to me a little bit about self love, because
- 48:01Speaker 1: I feel like this what you're kind of getting at,
- 48:03Speaker 1: is this idea of self care. What do you do
- 48:05Speaker 1: aside from running and spending time with your family that
- 48:10Speaker 1: you feel like truly gives back to you and who
- 48:13Speaker 1: you are.
- 48:13Speaker 2: I think it's so important to get to a place
- 48:16Speaker 2: where you can look in the mirror and say, I
- 48:18Speaker 2: deserve this, I deserve this time, I deserve this food,
- 48:22Speaker 2: I deserve this glass of wine.
- 48:23Speaker 1: I deserve for drinking wine.
- 48:25Speaker 2: Yes, I think it's really important to get to that space,
- 48:29Speaker 2: and it's it's not always easy, but I think once
- 48:33Speaker 2: you feel that moment of self acceptance of itself is
- 48:37Speaker 2: a is such a great gift to give yourself. I
- 48:41Speaker 2: like to call it strategic joy. Traveling the world a lot.
- 48:44Speaker 2: We're sitting here in a London hotel room, traveling the
- 48:47Speaker 2: world a lot.
- 48:48Speaker 3: It is.
- 48:49Speaker 2: It is hard for me to be away from home
- 48:51Speaker 2: so much, and I try to make it home he
- 48:53Speaker 2: or I put a picture of my family up on
- 48:55Speaker 2: the nightstand, like not just on my cell phone, but
- 48:57Speaker 2: a real, real picture that sits there. I like to
- 49:01Speaker 2: go to the grocery store or a florist and get
- 49:04Speaker 2: a little potted flowers that can sit on the nightstand,
- 49:07Speaker 2: and when I leave, I give it to the housekeeping
- 49:10Speaker 2: or the front desk and pass on that love and
- 49:13Speaker 2: ask them to take.
- 49:13Speaker 3: Care of it.
- 49:15Speaker 2: In other ways, when I come in from a run,
- 49:18Speaker 2: I'll grab some lavender outside or rosemary and shove them
- 49:22Speaker 2: in my running shoes to freshen them up for the
- 49:24Speaker 2: next day. And then I feel so happy when I
- 49:26Speaker 2: put them on next to know that I just put
- 49:29Speaker 2: that tiny bit of effort in to loving my running shoes.
- 49:32Speaker 3: So there's all these little ways that.
- 49:33Speaker 2: You can like strategically add a little bit of joy
- 49:37Speaker 2: to your life because some of the responsibilities we have
- 49:39Speaker 2: are a little mundane or maybe not as glamorous as
- 49:43Speaker 2: we would like them to be, and so it's important
- 49:46Speaker 2: to spark joy in some way so we can enjoy
- 49:48Speaker 2: all aspects of who we are.
- 49:50Speaker 1: Your self care routine is so legit it makes me
- 49:55Speaker 1: want to establish some new self care practices.
- 49:57Speaker 2: Yeah, we should always be recreating them so that we
- 49:59Speaker 2: can really feel the giddiness that comes with being kind
- 50:03Speaker 2: to ourselves.
- 50:04Speaker 1: When do you feel the most yourself? Wow?
- 50:11Speaker 2: I think I feel the most myself when I'm visiting
- 50:16Speaker 2: with people I enjoy being around, whether it's weekends like
- 50:20Speaker 2: this where where I'm with like minded people and people
- 50:24Speaker 2: who challenge me. I love that because so often we're
- 50:27Speaker 2: part of social media and we're befriended by people who
- 50:31Speaker 2: think like us and have ideals like us. And I
- 50:34Speaker 2: really enjoy that aspect of being introduced to and visiting
- 50:38Speaker 2: with people that might challenge the way that I think
- 50:41Speaker 2: or try to make me understand and have compassion for
- 50:45Speaker 2: the way someone else is thinking, I'm also my I
- 50:49Speaker 2: think I'm maybe at maybe I'm getting to your answer
- 50:52Speaker 2: as I keep as I keep talking. But maybe I'm
- 50:55Speaker 2: my most happy when I'm at home after a good
- 51:00Speaker 2: long run and cooking in the kitchen with my family.
- 51:03Speaker 2: The intention of putting a great meal on the table,
- 51:06Speaker 2: nourishing them with goodness, wholesome, wholesome ingredients well put together,
- 51:12Speaker 2: is probably when I'm when I'm a little extra.
- 51:15Speaker 1: Giddy, I've got to ask, what do you cook?
- 51:17Speaker 3: Oh gosh, It depends on what on what the day is.
- 51:21Speaker 2: If it's a if it's a cold, a cold night,
- 51:24Speaker 2: I might do some filets with this gorgonzola cream sauce
- 51:29Speaker 2: on it, or with a side of gorgonzola cheese, yoki
- 51:33Speaker 2: and some type of grilled vegetable. If it's going to
- 51:36Speaker 2: be a warm summer night, I might throw together some
- 51:39Speaker 2: shrimp and mango cilantro spring rolls and serve a nice
- 51:43Speaker 2: chilled wine with it.
- 51:44Speaker 3: I mean, I think it. It just depends on depends
- 51:46Speaker 3: on the weather, my mood.
- 51:49Speaker 1: You have a lucky family. You don't want to come
- 51:52Speaker 1: over to my apartment and start cooking for me.
- 51:56Speaker 3: I certainly would do that.
- 51:58Speaker 1: We're coming to the end of our time here. So
- 52:00Speaker 1: I guess what I want to know is how do
- 52:02Speaker 1: you feel now and what do you feel is next
- 52:06Speaker 1: for you? Wow?
- 52:07Speaker 2: I think that progress is always never ending, and I
- 52:10Speaker 2: don't judge progress by what's on my watch.
- 52:12Speaker 3: I like to challenge myself and I think that's why
- 52:15Speaker 3: running has.
- 52:15Speaker 2: Become a lifestyle for me as opposed like I guess,
- 52:19Speaker 2: aside from being my profession my career, it's also a
- 52:22Speaker 2: lifestyle and so just being able to go out and
- 52:25Speaker 2: challenge myself on a daily basis has been really important
- 52:29Speaker 2: to that. You can feel pride and satisfaction at the
- 52:31Speaker 2: end of the day when you know you've given your all.
- 52:33Speaker 3: To a difficult task.
- 52:35Speaker 1: So what's next?
- 52:38Speaker 3: I don't have any races next.
- 52:40Speaker 1: How does that feel?
- 52:42Speaker 3: It feels good. I have a lot of travel coming up.
- 52:44Speaker 2: I have going to races for being advocates of the race.
- 52:51Speaker 2: I have speaking engagements coming up which will most certainly
- 52:55Speaker 2: highlight the power of positivity and performance. But I also
- 52:59Speaker 2: have teammates in my man the track club that have
- 53:01Speaker 2: high goals and I was once in their position being
- 53:03Speaker 2: impressionable and trying to break onto the national and international scene.
- 53:08Speaker 2: So I'm hoping that by training with them side by side,
- 53:11Speaker 2: I can I can give them some of the tools
- 53:13Speaker 2: to get them there.
- 53:14Speaker 1: I love that last question you can offer Dina on
- 53:21Speaker 1: the bus head in the towel crying, one piece of advice.
- 53:26Speaker 1: What do you.
- 53:27Speaker 3: Tell her there's always a stronger side ahead.
- 53:31Speaker 1: That's really special. I love it awesome, Dina, Thank you
- 53:34Speaker 1: so much for sitting down with me.
- 53:36Speaker 3: It was fun.
- 53:37Speaker 1: Please take a moment to leave a quick review by
- 53:39Speaker 1: clicking the link with the description to this episode. We
- 53:43Speaker 1: all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to hear
- 53:46Speaker 1: about yours. Reach out to me at Emily at Hurdle
- 53:49Speaker 1: dot us, connect with the podcast on Instagram and Twitter
- 53:52Speaker 1: at Hurdle Podcast Dina. Where do they find.
- 53:55Speaker 3: You dinacaster dot com.
- 53:57Speaker 2: They can they can actually connect with me in the
- 54:00Speaker 2: comments section and it'll come to my email address and
- 54:03Speaker 2: I try to answer everything that comes through.
- 54:05Speaker 1: What's your Instagram handle?
- 54:07Speaker 2: Instagram is Dina eighty fifty. Does anybody know what that means?
- 54:10Speaker 3: Out there?
- 54:11Speaker 1: What does that mean?
- 54:12Speaker 2: It is the elevation that I live, Yeah, I live
- 54:14Speaker 2: in the mountains. And then Twitter is at Dina castor.
- 54:17Speaker 1: I love that awesome. I'm at Emily a body, Another
- 54:21Speaker 1: hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time.