Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 329. The 2024 New York City Marathon, A Recap

Transcript

329. The 2024 New York City Marathon, A Recap · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: I want to hold on to this level of compassion.
0:02
Speaker 2: I want to talk to myself like I would a
0:05
Speaker 2: loved one, and I want to be proud of me
0:07
Speaker 2: no matter what happens moving forward. Hey everyone, Emily body here.
0:32
Speaker 2: You are listening to a special episode of Hurdle. This
0:36
Speaker 2: is the New York City Marathon recap episode. Oh my goodness,
0:40
Speaker 2: it feels kind of surreal as I sit here thinking
0:44
Speaker 2: about the fact that not all that long ago, I
0:48
Speaker 2: completed my fourteenth marathon. I never, ever, ever, ever, can
0:57
Speaker 2: I say, ever enough thought that I I would do
1:00
Speaker 2: this fourteen times. I know this past New York was
1:05
Speaker 2: not the last time that I will train for and
1:09
Speaker 2: run a marathon. But what I will say is that
1:13
Speaker 2: every single time, no matter what the journey looks like,
1:17
Speaker 2: each and every finish line is so rewarding. And so
1:22
Speaker 2: in this reetcap today, I'm going to talk you through
1:24
Speaker 2: all of it. I'm gonna bring you to where my
1:26
Speaker 2: mindset was when I decided to sign up for this marathon.
1:29
Speaker 2: Talk to you about how the training went, the highs,
1:32
Speaker 2: the lows, the injuries, the silly little niggols that made
1:36
Speaker 2: me worry way too much, and then logistically bring you
1:40
Speaker 2: to race day, from the gear that I wore, to
1:43
Speaker 2: the way that I felt, to the present now how
1:46
Speaker 2: I'm feeling in the aftermath, and address the question that
1:50
Speaker 2: everybody loves to ask, the moment you finish something exciting,
1:55
Speaker 2: what's next? And I'm just going to get right into it.
1:58
Speaker 2: Why did I want to run the New York City
2:00
Speaker 2: Marathon this year? New York is a special place. I've
2:03
Speaker 2: lived here for the past thirteen years. I think now
2:07
Speaker 2: I'm starting to lose count, just like I'm starting to
2:10
Speaker 2: lose count of marathons. And without a doubt, the New
2:15
Speaker 2: York City Marathon is the best day of.
2:18
Speaker 1: The year to be a New Yorker.
2:20
Speaker 2: You could be on the sideline spectating, you could be running,
2:26
Speaker 2: But if you are in one of the five boroughs
2:30
Speaker 2: on New York City Marathon Sunday, you are a lucky human.
2:36
Speaker 2: What an opportunity it is to see so many people,
2:40
Speaker 2: over fifty thousand runners make their way through the streets,
2:45
Speaker 2: all of them doing something a little bit crazy, doing
2:49
Speaker 2: something in that they are chasing their own potential. I
2:54
Speaker 2: live here in one of the most diverse cities on
2:57
Speaker 2: the planet, but I can say that without a doubt
3:01
Speaker 2: It is the only event that brings together so many
3:06
Speaker 2: people of so many different belief systems, backgrounds, gender identities, status, single, married, whatever,
3:15
Speaker 2: all the things right. We all come together on this
3:18
Speaker 2: one day simply to uplift and celebrate one another. And
3:23
Speaker 2: it is phenomenal and so like many the last few
3:28
Speaker 2: years have had their fair share of highs and lows.
3:32
Speaker 2: For me, and I've talked about this openly on the show.
3:36
Speaker 2: Between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two, I really
3:39
Speaker 2: struggled with depression, and coming into twenty twenty three and
3:45
Speaker 2: to twenty twenty four, I felt like I was finally
3:48
Speaker 2: getting my feedback under me. And earlier this year, when
3:53
Speaker 2: I finished the Abbot World Marathon Majors, I said to
3:57
Speaker 2: myself that if I was to run a fall marathon,
4:01
Speaker 2: I wanted it to truly just be a celebration. And
4:04
Speaker 2: what better place to celebrate than here in New York.
4:08
Speaker 1: And so that's where.
4:10
Speaker 2: My mindset was on why I wanted to run the
4:13
Speaker 2: New York City Marathon. I was able to acquire a
4:18
Speaker 2: BIB through New York Roadrunners. For those that may not
4:21
Speaker 2: be familiar, New York Roadrunners offers members of the media
4:25
Speaker 2: who are interested non complimentary bibs, which means that I've
4:32
Speaker 2: worked with NYRR over the past year, hosting events and
4:37
Speaker 2: in different ways. And so my media contact there who
4:42
Speaker 2: is no longer with the organization, not for any bad reason,
4:45
Speaker 2: just because he moved on. When I spoke to him
4:48
Speaker 2: about a bib for the marathon, he offered me one
4:51
Speaker 2: of these. So you get a code, you go to
4:54
Speaker 2: check out, you pay for your bib, just like everybody else.
4:57
Speaker 2: And I feel very lucky that I had the opportunity
4:59
Speaker 2: to to get in in that way. I decided that
5:04
Speaker 2: I was going to run at maybe an inopportune time.
5:09
Speaker 2: I in July of this year, took a month off
5:14
Speaker 2: of running. I was dealing with something that is called
5:17
Speaker 2: cboid syndrome, and at one point before I went to
5:21
Speaker 2: the podiatrist, I was convinced that I had some sort
5:24
Speaker 2: of a stress fracture. It ultimately was just this form
5:27
Speaker 2: of tendonitis, but the only way to really treat it
5:31
Speaker 2: is with a good amount of time off, and so
5:33
Speaker 2: I took the better part of a month, if not
5:36
Speaker 2: maybe five or six weeks off of running and was
5:39
Speaker 2: just getting back into running when I went to Paris
5:43
Speaker 2: for the Olympics.
5:45
Speaker 1: So I headed over to Paris, and.
5:47
Speaker 2: I distinctly remember my first walk run I did with
5:50
Speaker 2: a girlfriend of mine, Lauren, and we maybe ran for
5:55
Speaker 2: three minutes, walked for three minutes, and even split and
5:59
Speaker 2: that was the beginning of the training cycle. And even
6:04
Speaker 2: after that one walk run, I felt so grateful for
6:09
Speaker 2: the opportunity to move my body in the way that
6:11
Speaker 2: makes me feel really whole again, and candidly, I kind
6:15
Speaker 2: of let that excitement get the best of me.
6:17
Speaker 1: So I had already.
6:18
Speaker 2: Been emailing with NYRR at this point, and the night
6:23
Speaker 2: after I did my first walk run back, the code
6:27
Speaker 2: came through and I realized that this was a real
6:30
Speaker 2: opportunity and I said, you know what, as the kids say,
6:34
Speaker 2: I'm going to f around and find out. And so yeah,
6:38
Speaker 2: I signed up for the marathon and I put my
6:41
Speaker 2: money where my mouth is, which over the past year
6:43
Speaker 2: has proven to be the biggest way for me to
6:46
Speaker 2: stay accountable and what my goals are. And just like that,
6:51
Speaker 2: I believe at the beginning of August, you're something like August, September, October,
6:57
Speaker 2: maybe fourteen weeks out. In retrospect, it's a little bit
7:01
Speaker 2: wild fourteen weeks out from the marathon, and aside from
7:05
Speaker 2: the goal of running the marathon, at this time when
7:08
Speaker 2: I register, my only goal for November third is to
7:13
Speaker 2: have fun. The why on that, of course having fun understandable.
7:17
Speaker 2: But in twenty twenty one, last time I ran the
7:20
Speaker 2: New York City Marathon, and I didn't have fun, which
7:24
Speaker 2: after this year's experience, it feels like a.
7:26
Speaker 1: Shame on me. Moment. I know there's no point in
7:29
Speaker 1: looking at that in that way anymore.
7:32
Speaker 2: But I was so dialed into timing and my splits
7:37
Speaker 2: and my watch, and candidly by mile eight of twenty
7:40
Speaker 2: six point two I had already entirely bonked. And so
7:46
Speaker 2: to continue to run for another does some quick math
7:50
Speaker 2: twenty six point two minus eight To keep running for
7:53
Speaker 2: another eighteen miles or so when you're already having an
7:57
Speaker 2: awful time. It was so challenging for me, and so
8:02
Speaker 2: going into this year's marathon, knowing where my body was
8:06
Speaker 2: and desiring to meet myself with where I was at,
8:11
Speaker 2: I just wanted redemption.
8:13
Speaker 1: I only wanted to go out there and enjoy it.
8:16
Speaker 2: And like I said, it is the best day of
8:18
Speaker 2: the year, and I know how much fun it is
8:20
Speaker 2: to be on the sidelines. I know how much fun
8:23
Speaker 2: it is to cheer on other people, so truly, candidly, completely,
8:28
Speaker 2: my only goal was if I was gonna get in
8:31
Speaker 2: the race. I wanted to make sure that I would
8:33
Speaker 2: have just as much fun as if I was on
8:36
Speaker 2: the sidelines. So the journey back to running regularly, it's slow, right, I,
8:45
Speaker 2: as I mentioned, started those interval workouts. I would run
8:50
Speaker 2: for three minutes, walk for three minutes. Then as I
8:53
Speaker 2: started to build up volume on my foot, maybe I
8:56
Speaker 2: would run for five minutes, walk for one minute. I
8:59
Speaker 2: believe if it was about two to three weeks of
9:01
Speaker 2: the run walk approach before I was starting to slowly
9:05
Speaker 2: accrue mileage. And I am so thankful that I have
9:10
Speaker 2: good people on my team who helped me get back
9:14
Speaker 2: to running shape in a really smart way. So I
9:17
Speaker 2: have my coach and friend, Rebecca Stow, I have my
9:21
Speaker 2: PT Luke Greenberg at Motive, and then over the past
9:26
Speaker 2: year many of you have been following along with this
9:28
Speaker 2: part of my journey. I have my strength coach. His
9:31
Speaker 2: name is Brandon, and I work with him through the
9:33
Speaker 2: future app. I'm going to link special code in the
9:36
Speaker 2: show notes if you're interested in checking out the Future app.
9:39
Speaker 1: Basically, what it offers is.
9:41
Speaker 2: One on one strength training, one on one coaching, and
9:45
Speaker 2: you are working out on your own, but you have
9:49
Speaker 2: a coach who designs custom programming for you, and you
9:52
Speaker 2: interact constantly through this app. So my coach Brandon is
9:56
Speaker 2: always a message away. We talk probably three or four
9:59
Speaker 2: days a week, and for the price of I think
10:02
Speaker 2: maybe it's one twenty five a month.
10:04
Speaker 1: Don't quote me on that.
10:06
Speaker 2: The first month with the code that's in the show
10:08
Speaker 2: notes is fifty percent off, and that is dramatically less
10:11
Speaker 2: than one in person personal training session. So it feels
10:15
Speaker 2: like a really great bargain for me anyway, to get
10:17
Speaker 2: a really holistic and personalized approach to strength work that
10:23
Speaker 2: feels attainable and exciting and helps me progress. Right, That
10:27
Speaker 2: is the difference between how I feel now in my
10:29
Speaker 2: body versus when I was just training random workouts together.
10:32
Speaker 2: Is now I am doing progressive training, which means that
10:36
Speaker 2: I'm constantly building off of a benchmark of where I
10:39
Speaker 2: was the week before, the week before that, the month previously,
10:42
Speaker 2: and seeing those gains in real time. It's really fulfilling. Okay,
10:48
Speaker 2: getting off my soapbox now. So I have those three
10:50
Speaker 2: experts in my expert team, and it was really helpful
10:54
Speaker 2: to be able to bounce off ideas and think about
10:58
Speaker 2: my training plan as it should be, which is written
11:00
Speaker 2: in pencil, and knowing that at the beginning, although I
11:03
Speaker 2: might have had the goal some days to run a
11:06
Speaker 2: schedule that would be a five k on Monday, some
11:10
Speaker 2: intervals on Tuesday, off on Wednesday with strength, Thursday, run
11:14
Speaker 2: another five K, I might get to Thursday and be like, Okay,
11:18
Speaker 2: I'm listening to my body, let's tweak this a little bit.
11:21
Speaker 2: It took me the better part of a month, I
11:26
Speaker 2: would say, to really get to a point with my
11:28
Speaker 2: training schedule that I felt like I was in the
11:31
Speaker 2: groove of a training schedule. But I would be remiss
11:34
Speaker 2: if I told you that it was easy. It was
11:39
Speaker 2: not easy. It was anything but easy. I think candidly.
11:43
Speaker 2: When I got back from Paris.
11:44
Speaker 1: I tested it was negative. I might have had COVID, and.
11:48
Speaker 2: That was such like kick me when you're down moment,
11:53
Speaker 2: like running getting back into it.
11:55
Speaker 1: Feeling detrained is challenging.
11:57
Speaker 2: Clearly, as we know, running with COVID the best and
12:00
Speaker 2: not good for your body, not good for your respiratory system.
12:04
Speaker 2: And so I'm out there running the same distances that
12:08
Speaker 2: I was running months prior and looking at the heart
12:11
Speaker 2: rate data and being like, what happened after taking six
12:14
Speaker 2: weeks off?
12:15
Speaker 1: How am I this far back again?
12:19
Speaker 2: And it was frustrating, But I knew that where there's
12:24
Speaker 2: a why, there's a way. And I had such a
12:26
Speaker 2: strong why for wanting to show up on the third
12:28
Speaker 2: and have a great time and find that redemption that
12:31
Speaker 2: I stuck with it. At the goodness, I've lost all
12:36
Speaker 2: track of time. So after I start running again, it's
12:39
Speaker 2: now the end of August, and I am excited.
12:43
Speaker 1: Because I'm doing Hood to Coast for the first time.
12:46
Speaker 2: Hood to Coast is a relay race that happens out
12:49
Speaker 2: on the coast of Oregon from Mount Hood to the Coast.
12:52
Speaker 2: It was something that I did in a van of
12:56
Speaker 2: six people. Our team total was twelve people, and it
12:59
Speaker 2: was a tea that Nike had put together and an
13:01
Speaker 2: opportunity that I was so stoked on because I have
13:04
Speaker 2: wanted to run Hood to Coast forever. Because of where
13:08
Speaker 2: I was arriving at for Hood to Coast, I was
13:10
Speaker 2: so nervous. I was so nervous that I wasn't going
13:12
Speaker 2: to quote unquote run fast enough and I was going
13:15
Speaker 2: to let my team down. My legs, there were three
13:18
Speaker 2: of them. I had to run. One that was five,
13:20
Speaker 2: one that was seven, and one that was six. And
13:24
Speaker 2: my seven mile one, I believe was the first leg.
13:28
Speaker 2: I remember literally after this leg, which I'll talk about
13:31
Speaker 2: in a second, getting into the van and apologizing to
13:34
Speaker 2: my teammates and saying, I am sorry for what I
13:36
Speaker 2: said when I was anxious. I was so scared the
13:41
Speaker 2: first leg of Hood to Coast, I get out there,
13:44
Speaker 2: I'm so nervous. I run the seven miles and I
13:49
Speaker 2: do it at a sub eight minute pace, and that
13:53
Speaker 2: was the first time I had touched anything like that
13:56
Speaker 2: in so long, and I cried, and I slapped the
14:02
Speaker 2: little they give you slap bands to trade between team members,
14:05
Speaker 2: like a baton on a track, and I slapped the
14:07
Speaker 2: slap band on my teammate and friend, Tyler Joe's wrist,
14:11
Speaker 2: and I pulled off to the side and I saw
14:13
Speaker 2: my teammates and I was just so overwhelmed with pride
14:16
Speaker 2: for myself, and it reminded me of when I.
14:20
Speaker 1: Broke four hours in the marathon.
14:24
Speaker 2: I had originally had the goal to do that in
14:27
Speaker 2: the Boston Marathon in twenty eighteen, and the weather did
14:30
Speaker 2: not favor me to go after my big exciting goal,
14:33
Speaker 2: and so instead of that, I did it.
14:37
Speaker 1: In New York.
14:38
Speaker 2: And I remember moments or minutes from the finish line,
14:42
Speaker 2: as I'm running south around the curve of Central Park,
14:45
Speaker 2: about to go out of the park only to come
14:46
Speaker 2: back in and finish that final stretch. I have Siri
14:50
Speaker 2: call my dad, and my dad picks up. He's like,
14:52
Speaker 2: are you okay, And I'm like, I'm okay, yes, And
14:56
Speaker 2: it wasn't supposed to happen in Boston. He's like, what
14:59
Speaker 2: are you talking about? And like I was supposed to
15:01
Speaker 2: run sub four here in New York. And it felt
15:04
Speaker 2: like that moment, Like it felt like that moment that
15:06
Speaker 2: I was so proud of of how far I'd come
15:09
Speaker 2: and what I was capable of, And I knew that,
15:11
Speaker 2: no matter what happened over the next two and a
15:14
Speaker 2: half months, that I was capable of showing up for
15:17
Speaker 2: myself and doing a hard thing, and that the nerves
15:20
Speaker 2: are going to come and go, but what is a
15:23
Speaker 2: consistent for me will always be my will and my determination,
15:28
Speaker 2: and so yeah, I ran that first leg, I ran
15:31
Speaker 2: the second and the third, and I came home from
15:32
Speaker 2: hout to Coast and I felt finally confident of what
15:35
Speaker 2: was ahead of me in the training cycle. The training cycle,
15:40
Speaker 2: things started to kind of piece together real quick for me.
15:44
Speaker 2: I went from as I mentioned, this walk run approach
15:48
Speaker 2: to really falling into a rhythm that felt really good
15:51
Speaker 2: for me. I was running, depending on the week, four
15:55
Speaker 2: or five days a week, and I was strength training
15:58
Speaker 2: four days a week. When my mileage got up to
16:02
Speaker 2: a certain point, let's say like the three weeks of
16:06
Speaker 2: peak mileage, that's when I downgraded the strength training to
16:11
Speaker 2: be doing strength three days a week and sticking with
16:13
Speaker 2: that four to five days of running. It would be
16:16
Speaker 2: my Goldilocks week if I could also get in for
16:19
Speaker 2: hot yoga.
16:19
Speaker 1: At some point.
16:21
Speaker 2: Now I told you five days a week of running
16:24
Speaker 2: some weeks, which means that some of those days would
16:28
Speaker 2: be a double up. So I would run a five
16:30
Speaker 2: k or four miles the long way to my gym,
16:34
Speaker 2: do my strength workout, and walk home. And that could
16:37
Speaker 2: be a typical Monday or a typical Friday. And that's
16:42
Speaker 2: what worked for me, And there have been marathon training
16:45
Speaker 2: cycles in the past, where I was doing nothing that
16:49
Speaker 2: looked like that. Strength training something that is now regular
16:53
Speaker 2: in my routine that was not regular before, that wasn't
16:56
Speaker 2: something that I wanted to stop doing. And so in
17:00
Speaker 2: the past, a training cycle could be four days a
17:04
Speaker 2: week of running and that was all I was doing,
17:06
Speaker 2: maybe with one day of hot yoga, one day of plates,
17:10
Speaker 2: but otherwise, this is certainly the most involved training cycle
17:15
Speaker 2: that I have ever been a part of. And again,
17:17
Speaker 2: what works for me certainly may not work for you.
17:21
Speaker 2: And this is something that felt good and safe in
17:24
Speaker 2: my body. I again had this expert team. I felt
17:29
Speaker 2: really supported. I felt like the conversations that I have
17:33
Speaker 2: had with myself and we hear it all the time.
17:36
Speaker 2: You are the person that talks to yourself the most
17:38
Speaker 2: in any given day, they were so much kinder than
17:41
Speaker 2: they'd ever been. And it was because I truly felt
17:44
Speaker 2: like I was giving back to myself and seeing progress.
17:49
Speaker 1: And how rewarding is it when you put in the
17:52
Speaker 1: work and.
17:53
Speaker 2: You see it pay off. I was seeing it pay
17:56
Speaker 2: off constantly in so many different ways. And when I
18:00
Speaker 2: was losing weight back in college, a term that would
18:03
Speaker 2: be thrown around a lot was non scale victories. I
18:07
Speaker 2: have certainly lost some weight over the past year, and
18:11
Speaker 2: as comfortable as I feel in my body now, the
18:15
Speaker 2: biggest victories that I have experienced have been non scale victories.
18:22
Speaker 2: It is getting to a place where I talk to
18:24
Speaker 2: myself with kindness and feel good in my clothing and yeah, Anyway,
18:36
Speaker 2: the training really came together and things that used to
18:39
Speaker 2: feel hard didn't feel so hard, and I started to
18:45
Speaker 2: see myself differently instead of speaking to myself like I
18:51
Speaker 2: was speaking down.
18:53
Speaker 1: The culture was.
18:56
Speaker 2: Different, and it felt so good and I felt so
19:01
Speaker 2: And as the time went on and the training went on,
19:04
Speaker 2: I just had so much compassion for the version of
19:08
Speaker 2: myself from before, the woman who maybe wasn't so kind
19:14
Speaker 2: and wasn't so understanding. And it's not just the training
19:19
Speaker 2: that resulted in this shift. It's months and years of work,
19:25
Speaker 2: and it just felt as though finally the work was
19:29
Speaker 2: paying off in this training cycle. Finally, the life coaching sessions,
19:34
Speaker 2: the therapy sessions, the education, the people that I surround
19:39
Speaker 2: myself with, the people that I don't want to surround
19:41
Speaker 2: myself with anymore. We are a sum of the people
19:44
Speaker 2: that we spend the most of our time with and
19:46
Speaker 2: over the past year, I have just made it such
19:49
Speaker 2: a priority to make sure that the people that I
19:52
Speaker 2: surround myself with make me feel whole and make me
19:55
Speaker 2: feel seen and it doesn't feel hard, and so that
19:58
Speaker 2: all really I started to feel like it over the
20:02
Speaker 2: last few months. I feel so lucky for the people
20:05
Speaker 2: in my life. It was probably about a month and
20:08
Speaker 2: a half out, after three weeks of long runs that
20:12
Speaker 2: didn't suck, that were of a certain benchmark, I thought
20:19
Speaker 2: to myself, Holy, like, what is going on here? Why
20:23
Speaker 2: isn't this hard? Why it just started to click? And
20:26
Speaker 2: I know that sounds some kind of way, but again,
20:29
Speaker 2: like I feel the need to reiterate that I was
20:31
Speaker 2: putting in the work.
20:33
Speaker 1: I was just really working on myself.
20:37
Speaker 2: And I also feel the need to express that there
20:45
Speaker 2: are challenges that go hand in hand with being someone
20:48
Speaker 2: who is single in their mid thirties, but there are
20:50
Speaker 2: a lot of things that I don't have to deal
20:52
Speaker 2: with that someone that might have a family does, or
20:55
Speaker 2: even just a partner. Right, I don't have to worry
20:57
Speaker 2: about someone else's schedule when I'm getting up in the morning.
21:00
Speaker 2: I don't have to worry about accommodating a child, or
21:03
Speaker 2: getting lunch ready, or doing school drop off or anything
21:06
Speaker 2: like that. I also work for myself, which means that
21:09
Speaker 2: I get to set my own schedule within reason. I
21:12
Speaker 2: have the flexibility to do a long run maybe on
21:15
Speaker 2: a Thursday, if I can plan for it, whereas someone
21:17
Speaker 2: else might not have that luxury if you have to
21:20
Speaker 2: be in an office by eight thirty. There are a
21:22
Speaker 2: lot of things that were working for me, And I
21:26
Speaker 2: also think that so often I'm the person that says
21:31
Speaker 2: I have it easier because I'm by myself. But I
21:35
Speaker 2: don't want to downplay you that sometimes being by yourself
21:38
Speaker 2: is really freaking hard. To show up for yourself day
21:41
Speaker 2: in and day out and be the person that you
21:44
Speaker 2: know that you can rely on.
21:46
Speaker 1: It takes a lot of work.
21:47
Speaker 2: And that's why I say when I've been putting in
21:49
Speaker 2: the work, I've really worked on that dialogue with myself
21:53
Speaker 2: and what that looks like over the last few months.
21:56
Speaker 2: And so this training cycle coinciding with that really enabled
21:59
Speaker 2: me to do some really special and extraordinary things. So
22:03
Speaker 2: after these three weeks of long runs that were like
22:05
Speaker 2: seemingly too easy, I started to pivot from my original
22:09
Speaker 2: plan which was simply to have fun to ask myself,
22:13
Speaker 2: what is it that I'm capable of? Because I went
22:15
Speaker 2: into this marathon in the like let's have a really
22:17
Speaker 2: good time vibe thought process, and thought that I was
22:22
Speaker 2: going to fun run with a friend and we were
22:24
Speaker 2: going to stop at least in four of the five
22:27
Speaker 2: boroughs and eat a slice of pizza. And then one
22:31
Speaker 2: day her and I were sitting down having dinner and
22:34
Speaker 2: she said, we're not going to fun run this marathon anymore,
22:36
Speaker 2: are we? And I think it was a two way
22:40
Speaker 2: It was both of us coming to this understanding.
22:42
Speaker 1: I Rachel, I'm talking to you.
22:45
Speaker 2: I we didn't abandon each other, and I didn't abandon Rachel.
22:49
Speaker 2: But I don't think that she felt necessarily comfortable deciding
22:52
Speaker 2: to even fun run with me anymore because we were
22:56
Speaker 2: in such drastically different places with how our training was going.
23:00
Speaker 1: Rachel also is extraordinary.
23:02
Speaker 2: She had a baby a year and a half ago,
23:05
Speaker 2: and she ran Chicago and then was running New York.
23:08
Speaker 2: So there was just a lot of different factors that
23:11
Speaker 2: went into the decision that we made over grain bowls.
23:15
Speaker 1: One night to separate from New York.
23:18
Speaker 2: But I love the fact that we thought about doing
23:22
Speaker 2: it at all, and there is a pizza five k
23:24
Speaker 2: of sorts in Connecticut where we're from, So I think
23:27
Speaker 2: the idea now is that we just do that together.
23:29
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty five, I digress.
23:33
Speaker 2: I started to get this feeling, this thought, this idea
23:36
Speaker 2: that I could do something a little bit crazy and
23:38
Speaker 2: a little bit delusional. And in the week leading up
23:41
Speaker 2: to the marathon, when I was holistically looking at my
23:44
Speaker 2: training with my coach, I kind of said, why not me?
23:48
Speaker 2: And it brought me back to Chicago in twenty nineteen,
23:52
Speaker 2: and I remember setting my big crazy goal at that
23:54
Speaker 2: time of three point forty and being so scared to
23:58
Speaker 2: share that goal with anyone in all. Ultimately that day
24:01
Speaker 2: running a three twenty eighth eight and qualifying for Boston,
24:04
Speaker 2: and that was something that I never in my wildest
24:07
Speaker 2: dreams thought that I could be capable of, but ran
24:10
Speaker 2: that race entirely based on feel, and it was the
24:13
Speaker 2: perfect storm of things that forever changed me in the
24:17
Speaker 2: way that I believe in myself. And so when I
24:21
Speaker 2: started to feel that butterflies like I did leading up
24:23
Speaker 2: to Chicago, and I thought about that experience from twenty nineteen,
24:28
Speaker 2: I asked myself.
24:30
Speaker 1: Why not me? Why not me?
24:34
Speaker 2: What is the worst thing that can happen when you
24:36
Speaker 2: choose to believe in yourself? I'm waiting, And so I
24:42
Speaker 2: just set a kind of crazy goal to running the
24:44
Speaker 2: three thirty range that would have been something like an
24:48
Speaker 2: eight minute pace. Overall, I had done some of my
24:52
Speaker 2: long runs around there, and if we compare it to
24:57
Speaker 2: the Chicago build up from twenty nineteen, I don't believe
25:00
Speaker 2: I did any of my long runs in that range.
25:02
Speaker 1: They were all much slower. So really, when it.
25:05
Speaker 2: Came down to the day, I just believed that we're
25:08
Speaker 2: going to go out there and f around and find out.
25:11
Speaker 2: And so I set this kind of big, crazy goal
25:13
Speaker 2: to run around to three thirty. But it was the
25:16
Speaker 2: B goal, and I want to be very transparent on that.
25:20
Speaker 2: The A goal for me was to have fun. If
25:25
Speaker 2: at any point while going after the B goal, which
25:29
Speaker 2: was to like be around a certain pace, that the
25:32
Speaker 2: A goal started to slip away, then the B goal
25:35
Speaker 2: was out. And I felt really sure and firm on that,
25:39
Speaker 2: and also that I was capable of being able to
25:41
Speaker 2: do both, Like I was capable of running a certain
25:45
Speaker 2: effort or pace, and I was capable of having fun,
25:49
Speaker 2: and having fun was the why, and that was that.
25:55
Speaker 2: And it was a little scary to put out my
25:57
Speaker 2: big goal into the world and share like where I
26:01
Speaker 2: was at, but it felt so right. And I remember
26:06
Speaker 2: a long time ago that Ash Welking, who was a
26:09
Speaker 2: trainer for Tonal, said to me on the show that
26:12
Speaker 2: be careful, that the sword that you use to help
26:14
Speaker 2: others isn't the one that you fall on. And so
26:18
Speaker 2: I didn't want my vulnerability to be something that could
26:23
Speaker 2: hurt me. But I think when you know, you know,
26:26
Speaker 2: and it felt right for me to share that big,
26:28
Speaker 2: scary goal. It felt right for me to get outside
26:30
Speaker 2: of my comfort zone. And candidly, I didn't think that
26:33
Speaker 2: that was too far out of the comfort zone at all.
26:37
Speaker 2: Dakota Pompey and otherwise known formerly known as Dakota Lynworm
26:41
Speaker 2: said to me when we sat down, and I'll link
26:43
Speaker 2: this episode in the show notes, but she said to
26:44
Speaker 2: me that sometimes being delusional is exactly what you need.
26:48
Speaker 2: And I don't think I was really being that delusional
26:50
Speaker 2: at all to think that that was within my wheelhouse.
26:53
Speaker 2: And so a week leading up to the marathon, super
26:57
Speaker 2: crazy here in New York, being someone that works within well,
26:59
Speaker 2: no that works within running. I had events, and I
27:02
Speaker 2: think the best thing that I have learned in my
27:06
Speaker 2: marathoning journey, and something that really worked against me in
27:09
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, was that it's okay to say no.
27:12
Speaker 2: In fact, saying no to one thing is saying yes
27:15
Speaker 2: to something else. And that week, specifically, saying no was
27:18
Speaker 2: saying yes to myself. And so there were so many
27:21
Speaker 2: events and I did the best to see so many
27:23
Speaker 2: people in town and then also work and I did
27:27
Speaker 2: what I needed to do for myself. And I think
27:29
Speaker 2: it's challenging sometimes when you have to own your no
27:32
Speaker 2: because you feel like you're letting someone else down. But candidly,
27:36
Speaker 2: there's nothing worse than letting yourself down. And I wasn't
27:39
Speaker 2: willing to do twenty twenty one again. Of course, the
27:42
Speaker 2: two events that I hosted were both on Saturday. So
27:45
Speaker 2: I did a live show with Shalaine Flanagan on behalf
27:47
Speaker 2: of MasterCard at the Expo, and then I had a
27:50
Speaker 2: live show at the Brooks Hyperion House with Josh Kerr
27:53
Speaker 2: and Shari Hawkins, and that was at five PM. And
27:58
Speaker 2: I had an entire strategy for how the day would
28:01
Speaker 2: go and how I could minimize stress. And it involved
28:05
Speaker 2: like taking a car from one place to the other
28:07
Speaker 2: instead of the subway so I didn't have to be overstimulated.
28:10
Speaker 2: It involved planning ahead and having friends support me at
28:14
Speaker 2: my shows because their support meant a lot to me,
28:16
Speaker 2: and it helped me show up and making an effort
28:19
Speaker 2: to tell them what I needed.
28:21
Speaker 1: So often it is.
28:23
Speaker 2: I get into this place where I don't want to
28:26
Speaker 2: inconvenience anyone, but I know now that the people that
28:29
Speaker 2: care about me, asking them to help you or show
28:31
Speaker 2: up for you is anything but an inconvenience. In fact,
28:33
Speaker 2: you're allowing them to love you. And so I allowed
28:37
Speaker 2: my people, the people that I asked were not running
28:40
Speaker 2: the marathon on Sunday to show up for me at
28:43
Speaker 2: that five pm live show. And then we a few
28:47
Speaker 2: of us came back to my place and we ordered
28:49
Speaker 2: Uber Eats for dinner, and it was so lovely to
28:51
Speaker 2: like feel so seen and heard and supported by my
28:57
Speaker 2: friends and like, within the best of my ability do
29:00
Speaker 2: the things that I needed to do to show up
29:02
Speaker 2: for myself. I got to bed that night maybe by
29:06
Speaker 2: like nine fifteen, woke up.
29:07
Speaker 1: The following morning.
29:08
Speaker 2: It was a little unnerved because it was daylight saving,
29:11
Speaker 2: so I woke up at like what would have been
29:14
Speaker 2: four fifteen but was three fifteen, and was able to
29:16
Speaker 2: get back to sleep for an hour. And then at
29:19
Speaker 2: the last minute, the day before the marathon, I was
29:22
Speaker 2: originally supposed to take the Midtown bus, but I didn't
29:25
Speaker 2: have anyone that I knew that was in the Brooklyn
29:27
Speaker 2: area that was also taking the Midtown bus, and I'd
29:29
Speaker 2: never taken the Staten Island Ferry, so I made the
29:32
Speaker 2: choice to take the Staten Island Ferry. I made the
29:35
Speaker 2: biggest novice mistake and maybe of my entire marathon in career,
29:42
Speaker 2: and that was that I didn't look into anything and
29:44
Speaker 2: I brought my checked bag with me on the ferry.
29:48
Speaker 2: For those of you that may not know, there is
29:49
Speaker 2: no bag check at the actual New York City Marathon.
29:53
Speaker 2: I have run this race five times in person, one
29:56
Speaker 2: time virtually. This was my seventh time, and I didn't
29:59
Speaker 2: even I I was so busy last that week that
30:01
Speaker 2: I didn't even think to look at it. And I
30:03
Speaker 2: got there, and the funniest thing was I was writing
30:05
Speaker 2: to the race with my best friend Ashley and my
30:10
Speaker 2: friend Manny, who congratulations to Manny and his new fiance,
30:15
Speaker 2: Manny proposed at mile twenty one of the marathon. Absolutely
30:19
Speaker 2: amazing and so happy for them. Manny says to me,
30:23
Speaker 2: I'm going to the race and I'm wearing Birkenstocks, and
30:25
Speaker 2: he says, are those throwaway Birkenstocks soft flexm And I
30:29
Speaker 2: was like, no.
30:29
Speaker 1: Like they're going in my checked bag. They were not.
30:33
Speaker 1: They were not. No.
30:35
Speaker 2: I get to the area and I go to the
30:37
Speaker 2: tent and I'm like, hey, where's the checked baggage area.
30:40
Speaker 1: This woman looks at me.
30:42
Speaker 2: Like I am so foolish, which I was. Again, this
30:46
Speaker 2: is all my fault, like I just did not do
30:50
Speaker 2: the legwork. And I even volunteered at the expo and
30:53
Speaker 2: for NYRR on the day on the Thursday before the marathon,
30:58
Speaker 2: on Halloween, and I don't remember anyone saying anything about that.
31:02
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
31:03
Speaker 2: I felt like such a rookie, like I felt like
31:05
Speaker 2: I had made such a mistake, and so I get
31:10
Speaker 2: worked up, which I shouldn't be because everything in the
31:13
Speaker 2: bag is replaceable. But I had showed up to the
31:15
Speaker 2: starting line with two pairs of headphones because I am silly,
31:19
Speaker 2: and I was like, well, you're gonna run with one
31:20
Speaker 2: pair of headphones, so if you're going to take the
31:22
Speaker 2: subway home after, you might want to listen to something
31:24
Speaker 2: else and decompress a little bit, so two pairs of headphones.
31:27
Speaker 2: I brought a phone charger that just like plugs directly
31:30
Speaker 2: into your phone, So it was small, but it was
31:31
Speaker 2: still like something I brought the birkenstocks. I brought a
31:35
Speaker 2: hurdle sweatshirt, a change of leggings, and a new sports bra.
31:40
Speaker 2: And I walk into the MasterCard tent. I have a
31:44
Speaker 2: sticker on my bib. When you work with different sponsors
31:47
Speaker 2: or charities, you can get a sticker. Because I did
31:49
Speaker 2: the hosting at the expo the day before for a MasterCard,
31:52
Speaker 2: I had a master Card sticker on my bib, which
31:54
Speaker 2: enabled me to go into a tent that they had
31:56
Speaker 2: at the starting village. And it's like a little warmer
31:59
Speaker 2: in there. They had their own por to potties and
32:01
Speaker 2: some food. And I'm in the MasterCard tent and I
32:04
Speaker 2: like feel the tears and I'm like thinking to myself,
32:07
Speaker 2: control the controllable, Like this is so not a big deal,
32:09
Speaker 2: Like yes, it's a bummer, but it's okay, Like just
32:12
Speaker 2: let it go. These are just material things. You have
32:14
Speaker 2: your body, you have your heart. You're okay.
32:17
Speaker 1: I'm texting with one of the women that works at MasterCard.
32:20
Speaker 2: And I had mentioned like, I'm so foolish I came here.
32:24
Speaker 2: I just put my birk Stocks in the donation bin.
32:27
Speaker 2: Someone's gonna be really lucky. And there's if you've never
32:31
Speaker 2: run the New York City Marathon, as you can imagine,
32:33
Speaker 2: like having fifty thousand people plus volunteers in one area.
32:36
Speaker 2: It is a lot of people, and so the cell
32:39
Speaker 2: phone service is not reliable. And I hear back from
32:44
Speaker 2: her like moments before we're walking up to the start
32:47
Speaker 2: and she says, oh my god, where did you put
32:48
Speaker 2: the bag? Like I'm so sorry, I'm not there. I'm like,
32:51
Speaker 2: it's okay again, I put an d donoation bin, Like
32:53
Speaker 2: this is entirely my fault. Moments and I Am not
32:56
Speaker 2: even exaggerating. Moments before we begin, she texts me and says,
33:00
Speaker 2: we found the bag. I am going to bring it
33:05
Speaker 2: to the finish literally, my guardian angel.
33:09
Speaker 1: My guardian angel, because I it.
33:14
Speaker 2: I one of the things and like why I got
33:17
Speaker 2: emotional thinking about this was that I didn't have anyone
33:22
Speaker 2: to meet me at the finish Like I didn't plan
33:26
Speaker 2: to meet friends there.
33:28
Speaker 1: I was just like doing this as a solo mission.
33:31
Speaker 2: Like my family didn't come in for the race, and
33:34
Speaker 2: I didn't ask any of them too.
33:35
Speaker 1: Like this is also on me. But when I thought.
33:38
Speaker 2: About the fact that, like I was alone and I
33:42
Speaker 2: was going to go to the finish line and I
33:43
Speaker 2: was gonna, like have just done this thing, and like
33:46
Speaker 2: I needed to rely on myself and I had let
33:48
Speaker 2: myself down, and like I just thought about what do
33:52
Speaker 2: single people do? What do you expect them to do
33:54
Speaker 2: when they can't get their belongings? And I even think
33:56
Speaker 2: that the bag check for this race, since I've done
33:59
Speaker 2: like a little bit of trying to understand where I
34:01
Speaker 2: went wrong, I.
34:02
Speaker 1: Think it's the day before.
34:04
Speaker 2: So what if you're someone that doesn't want to run
34:06
Speaker 2: with your phone or you need keys or and you
34:09
Speaker 2: just have to It just doesn't it doesn't make sense
34:11
Speaker 2: to me. And this isn't like I'm not trying to,
34:13
Speaker 2: you know, bad mouth anyone. Again, I'm very grateful for
34:17
Speaker 2: the opportunity to even run this marathon, but as someone
34:20
Speaker 2: who was doing it on her own to then mess
34:24
Speaker 2: up and like feel in the moment, like, very this disadvantage.
34:30
Speaker 2: It sounds so silly. I know it sounds it sounds silly,
34:33
Speaker 2: but yeah. So basically I went to the start line
34:37
Speaker 2: wearing my hurdle sweatshirt. I definitely donated that, but I
34:41
Speaker 2: was like, if I'm going to donate this anyway, I
34:42
Speaker 2: might as well feel a little swaggy and excited as
34:44
Speaker 2: I roll up. And then I carried with me two
34:46
Speaker 2: pairs of air pods and the phone charger and all
34:49
Speaker 2: of my fuel fast forward. The only chafe line I
34:52
Speaker 2: had on my entire body was a little bit on
34:54
Speaker 2: my lower back because I had so much in the
34:56
Speaker 2: back pocket of my shorts that there was like a
34:59
Speaker 2: lot of movement it happening there.
35:02
Speaker 1: I get that text right before I start.
35:03
Speaker 2: I am like so happy that I'm going to at
35:06
Speaker 2: least have a change of bottoms and my shoes to
35:09
Speaker 2: go home in. And then I'm off like within minutes,
35:14
Speaker 2: and I keep telling myself like, don't go out too fast,
35:17
Speaker 2: don't go out too fast, don't go out too fast.
35:19
Speaker 1: And I'm just.
35:20
Speaker 2: Jogging and I see a hurdler on the bridge, Leah,
35:24
Speaker 2: and she is looking great, and she had also come
35:26
Speaker 2: off of a certain amount of injury this year that
35:29
Speaker 2: I was able to talk with her about, and so
35:31
Speaker 2: it was so great to see her. And the vibes
35:34
Speaker 2: are high and it's good. It's chilly, but it's good.
35:37
Speaker 2: The forecast on the race day, I think the high
35:39
Speaker 2: was maybe forty eight and sunny or fifty and sunny,
35:43
Speaker 2: so perfect, perfect marathoning weather. And I'm running along and
35:48
Speaker 2: I get off the bridge and I finally get to
35:51
Speaker 2: mile three and a half and I'm running across Fourth Avenue,
35:55
Speaker 2: which you're on for quite some time in Brooklyn, and
35:57
Speaker 2: I do text Ashley friend that I had rode the
36:01
Speaker 2: Staten Island Ferry with her boyfriend, who I know is
36:04
Speaker 2: one of the first people that I'm going to see,
36:06
Speaker 2: and I don't remember exactly where he's going to be.
36:08
Speaker 1: So I text him and I say, hey, what will
36:10
Speaker 1: your cross streets be?
36:11
Speaker 2: And I'm running and doing this because this is a
36:13
Speaker 2: normal way that I run marathons, and he tells me,
36:17
Speaker 2: and I'm like, okay, I'm going to drop some things
36:19
Speaker 2: with you. So I dropped him ultimately two AirPods cases
36:24
Speaker 2: or two headphones cases and a my phone charger.
36:29
Speaker 1: But I get to mile four, right after.
36:31
Speaker 2: I texted Ashley's boyfriend Greg, and I'm on one side
36:36
Speaker 2: of the median and I look to my right and
36:38
Speaker 2: there is Ashley and I see her little like ponytail
36:42
Speaker 2: balancing and I yell ash and she sees me, and
36:46
Speaker 2: she's so excited, and I run up to her.
36:48
Speaker 1: And little did I know, little it would have been
36:51
Speaker 1: so we should.
36:52
Speaker 2: Have planned this candidly, but I think that I didn't
36:55
Speaker 2: want to hold her back. And ash is such a
36:59
Speaker 2: remarkable ath and I didn't want to hold her back.
37:01
Speaker 2: And I wanted to run my race, she wanted to
37:03
Speaker 2: run her race. That we took the theory there together,
37:06
Speaker 2: but we were in different starting corrals, and so we
37:08
Speaker 2: just didn't plan to.
37:10
Speaker 1: Do this together.
37:12
Speaker 2: And what a gift it was to find her out
37:19
Speaker 2: of fifty thousand runners, Because I find her and we
37:24
Speaker 2: end up running almost fourteen miles of this marathon together.
37:28
Speaker 1: And when I tell you that the agle was to
37:31
Speaker 1: find the fun.
37:32
Speaker 2: What a better opportunity to have the best damn day
37:36
Speaker 2: than to go out.
37:37
Speaker 1: There and to do it with one of your best friends.
37:40
Speaker 2: And so from mile four to mile like just after sixteen,
37:46
Speaker 2: we are living our best lives. We like saw her
37:50
Speaker 2: boyfriend and their CrossFit friends and then dropped over stuff
37:55
Speaker 2: and then made our way through my neighborhood and saw
37:58
Speaker 2: two of my best friends and Holland and their husbands
38:01
Speaker 2: and their kids, and I cried, and there were confetti cannons,
38:05
Speaker 2: and then so many run crews along the way, like
38:08
Speaker 2: that is part of what makes New York so great
38:11
Speaker 2: is there are people everywhere and they are so happy.
38:19
Speaker 2: And what a true gift, considering like the state of
38:22
Speaker 2: our world to.
38:24
Speaker 1: Have that.
38:25
Speaker 2: Right, we run through Brooklyn and Fort Green and Bedford.
38:29
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Bedford was unlike anything I had ever
38:32
Speaker 2: experienced in any other time that I've run the New
38:35
Speaker 2: York City Marathon.
38:36
Speaker 1: And we see the.
38:37
Speaker 2: Motive cheerstation and the Dirty Bird cheer station, and the
38:40
Speaker 2: Brooklyn Track Club cheer station and the Bandit cheer station.
38:44
Speaker 2: I give like the best high five of my life
38:46
Speaker 2: to my friend Cecilia, and there's confetti everywhere and it
38:50
Speaker 2: is just the best. And Ash and I are working
38:53
Speaker 2: with each other and at one point she's like, I
38:55
Speaker 2: am not trying to run this fast.
38:56
Speaker 1: I'm like, I am not trying to run this fast,
38:57
Speaker 1: Like I didn't want to.
38:58
Speaker 2: Hold you back, and so we slow down a little
39:00
Speaker 2: bit and we make our way through Long Island City,
39:02
Speaker 2: starting to feel a little bit hard. And if you
39:05
Speaker 2: know anything about the New York City Marathon, you know
39:07
Speaker 2: that the Queensborough is kind of the game changer for
39:09
Speaker 2: a lot of people in that it's a big bridge
39:12
Speaker 2: that goes from Queens into Manhattan and it is one
39:15
Speaker 2: of the only quiet places on the entire marathon course,
39:18
Speaker 2: and it's just runners working through it, getting over that hill,
39:22
Speaker 2: getting over that hurdle, and when you come down to
39:25
Speaker 2: the other side, there's just this massive roar from the
39:28
Speaker 2: crowds in Manhattan. And as ash and I are coming
39:32
Speaker 2: up and over the bridge and turning onto First Avenue,
39:36
Speaker 2: we get swallowed by the eight minute pace group, the
39:42
Speaker 2: three thirty pace group. I didn't want the anxiety of
39:46
Speaker 2: running with this pace group. I wanted to focus on
39:49
Speaker 2: Plan A, even though I was on track for a
39:51
Speaker 2: Plan B for the most part, just because it didn't
39:53
Speaker 2: feel right for me. And there were so many of them,
39:58
Speaker 2: and they were all like kind of with each other
40:01
Speaker 2: and working together, and so I lost Ashley and the
40:04
Speaker 2: sea of all these people, and that was when we drifted.
40:07
Speaker 2: And so at this point I'm in what is now
40:11
Speaker 2: my old neighborhood. I lived on the Upper east Side
40:13
Speaker 2: for about ten years in a few different apartments, and
40:15
Speaker 2: I knew that some of the people that I was
40:17
Speaker 2: really excited to see were in the miles ahead. I
40:20
Speaker 2: had friends and run coaches, Lindsay and Amber, and then
40:24
Speaker 2: I knew that I would get up to Endorphins and
40:27
Speaker 2: I would get up to specifically Old Man Run Club,
40:30
Speaker 2: my run club, and see some of my favorite people,
40:33
Speaker 2: and there would be confetti there and it was so
40:36
Speaker 2: special to like lock eyes and feel so supported by
40:39
Speaker 2: so many people who didn't have to be there, but
40:41
Speaker 2: they chose to be there right and after I went
40:46
Speaker 2: by Ol Marcy and saw so many amazing humans, I
40:49
Speaker 2: kept running and it gets hard in the Bronx, and
40:52
Speaker 2: I made my way through the Bronx and then it's
40:55
Speaker 2: at Marcus Garvey Park where I see my friend Kim,
41:00
Speaker 2: who literally went to this specific corner, and she is
41:03
Speaker 2: wearing this like bright orange fleece from Nike, and she
41:08
Speaker 2: looks like, isn't there like a character in Monsters Inc.
41:11
Speaker 2: That's like a big orange monster. She looks like the
41:13
Speaker 2: big orange monster. And even though she's pint size, and
41:17
Speaker 2: Kim picks me up and for four blocks he just
41:21
Speaker 2: like jogs with me and does an inventory and asks
41:23
Speaker 2: me how I'm feeling. And she's so excited to see me,
41:25
Speaker 2: and I'm so excited to see her.
41:27
Speaker 1: She's like, she's such.
41:28
Speaker 2: A beautiful and loving and amazing human and I'm so
41:31
Speaker 2: lucky for her. And I felt a little bit rejuvenated
41:35
Speaker 2: after I saw her, and she's like, how are you feeling?
41:37
Speaker 1: And I was like, yeah, you know, it's really hard now,
41:39
Speaker 1: but I'm still having a good time. And she's like, well,
41:41
Speaker 1: you look.
41:41
Speaker 2: Great, and I just like, you know, when you need
41:44
Speaker 2: someone to validate that, like you're okay.
41:46
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm okay.
41:48
Speaker 2: But the funniest part is that Kim leaves me and
41:51
Speaker 2: I'm about to be at mile like maybe twenty three
41:54
Speaker 2: and a half before the hill up to Central Park,
41:59
Speaker 2: and I I had run this entire race up to
42:01
Speaker 2: mile twenty three and a half with a closed safety
42:04
Speaker 2: pin in my shoe. I felt it bouncing around. It
42:06
Speaker 2: was an extra from my bag check, lol, and it
42:10
Speaker 2: wasn't doing anything bad, but it was annoying, but I
42:13
Speaker 2: just didn't want to stop. And finally like I'm about
42:15
Speaker 2: to go up this hill, and I'm like, hell no, Like,
42:18
Speaker 2: if there's one thing I'm gonna do, it's not gonna
42:20
Speaker 2: I'm not finishing this thing with this thing in my shoe.
42:23
Speaker 2: So I finally pull over and stop running for the
42:25
Speaker 2: first time in twenty three miles and coincidentally pull into
42:29
Speaker 2: my friend Thomas Laredo. I don't realize that there's a
42:34
Speaker 2: huge cheer station that's about to be ahead of me,
42:36
Speaker 2: but it's right at the base of this hill, and
42:38
Speaker 2: he's like.
42:39
Speaker 1: Are you okay, And I'm like, I'm okay, but I
42:41
Speaker 1: need to get the safety pin out of my shoe.
42:43
Speaker 2: And if you've ever run a marathon, you realize that
42:46
Speaker 2: you start to lose like dexterity and like I couldn't
42:49
Speaker 2: use my hands right. And so Thomas like helps me
42:51
Speaker 2: take the sneaker off and I get this. I literally
42:54
Speaker 2: turn it upside down and put this safety pin on
42:56
Speaker 2: the ground, and then he helps me put it back
42:59
Speaker 2: on and he knows it and I get up like
43:01
Speaker 2: I'm about to go. He goes one more not he
43:04
Speaker 2: double nuts the shoe and I take off and again,
43:08
Speaker 2: little did I know that literally ten feet ahead of
43:11
Speaker 2: me is the massive ag, one cheer station and like
43:14
Speaker 2: more people that I know, and it was so special,
43:19
Speaker 2: like more confetti. My friend Sasha is holding a sign
43:22
Speaker 2: that I do not see in the moment, but it's
43:25
Speaker 2: literally says my mantra, and it says all it takes
43:27
Speaker 2: is all You've got, and it has go Emily on it,
43:30
Speaker 2: and it is so special to see that photo in retrospect.
43:33
Speaker 1: It's so special. And then I'm just like plugging away.
43:39
Speaker 2: And it really felt like between that moment and the
43:43
Speaker 2: end was when I heard the most people cheering for
43:46
Speaker 2: me that I didn't know, and just Emily Emily everywhere
43:50
Speaker 2: that I was going. And I haven't run every marathon
43:53
Speaker 2: of the past fourteen with my name on my chest,
43:56
Speaker 2: but I could not have been more proud to do
43:58
Speaker 2: that and more happy be that I did.
44:00
Speaker 1: That is such a It's definitely.
44:02
Speaker 2: A bigger thing, I think in New York than other marathons.
44:05
Speaker 2: But I would say it is the best thing you
44:08
Speaker 2: can do for yourself, that you empower people that want
44:10
Speaker 2: to show up for you to show up for you
44:13
Speaker 2: and cheer you on. And so I get into the
44:15
Speaker 2: park and one woman taps me on the shoulder. She's
44:18
Speaker 2: like Emily a body, and I'm like, hi, and we
44:20
Speaker 2: have mutual friends. Shout out Tyler, shout out Stow, and she's.
44:24
Speaker 1: Like, I'm friends with Tyler and Rebecca, and you're doing great.
44:27
Speaker 1: We're right around that three point thirty, like keep going.
44:31
Speaker 2: And then there's this other guy that I've been kind
44:32
Speaker 2: of pacing with and he's really hurting, and so I
44:35
Speaker 2: like run up behind him when he's like kind of walking,
44:38
Speaker 2: and I'm like, guy, we didn't come this far to
44:40
Speaker 2: only come this far, Like, you gotta come with. I'm
44:43
Speaker 2: you're coming with. And there was another woman that literally
44:46
Speaker 2: I ran like almost the whole marathon kind of in
44:48
Speaker 2: tandem with, and she's struggling and we're going down that
44:50
Speaker 2: last back hill before you leave Central Park and come
44:53
Speaker 2: back in, and I'm like, we ran this whole thing together, girl,
44:56
Speaker 2: you gotta come with. Like I was just all about, like,
45:00
Speaker 2: We've got to do this together. And the last thing
45:02
Speaker 2: that I was looking forward to was I knew that
45:05
Speaker 2: my friends Lauren and Sean. I mentioned Lauren at the
45:07
Speaker 2: top of this episode We're gonna be with camera crews
45:11
Speaker 2: on Central Park South, and I was so excited to
45:13
Speaker 2: see them and so pumped, so pumped, and Sean got
45:18
Speaker 2: a great photo of me, and then we gave a
45:19
Speaker 2: great high five, and then I caught Lauren out of
45:21
Speaker 2: the corner of my eye. And then I made that
45:24
Speaker 2: round into Central Park, and the man at the announcing
45:28
Speaker 2: station was like cheering me on and telling everyone to
45:31
Speaker 2: listen to hurdle, and I crossed the finish line. I
45:39
Speaker 2: was so proud of myself. I am so proud of myself.
45:42
Speaker 2: Three thirty eight thirty three. You know, it's funny, right,
45:46
Speaker 2: Like I said that I had this goal of doing
45:48
Speaker 2: three thirty, But like, not even for a second, not
45:54
Speaker 2: even for a second, did I feel like I.
45:58
Speaker 1: Had missed the mark.
46:00
Speaker 2: I had missed the goal because on November three, I
46:05
Speaker 2: entirely showed up for myself and I did something that
46:09
Speaker 2: I wanted to do so bad. I showed myself that
46:14
Speaker 2: I could find the fun, that I could allow other
46:16
Speaker 2: people to show up for me right, that they want
46:21
Speaker 2: to show up for me, they want to show up
46:23
Speaker 2: for you too. It's understandable, as someone who considers herself
46:30
Speaker 2: independent that I want to hold on right, But there
46:37
Speaker 2: is so much magic in letting go. There is so
46:42
Speaker 2: much opportunity to come together in community and to support
46:48
Speaker 2: one another, and I was so lucky and am so
46:53
Speaker 2: grateful to have been on the receiving end of that
46:56
Speaker 2: at this year's New York Period. To come full circle
47:02
Speaker 2: on the bag moment, I am still in the coughing phase,
47:06
Speaker 2: like not well. I don't even think it had been
47:10
Speaker 2: a minute since I crossed the finish line, and I
47:14
Speaker 2: get a tap on my shoulder and it is this
47:20
Speaker 2: amazing human from MasterCard with my medal and my bag,
47:24
Speaker 2: and I cried and I hugged her and I said
47:27
Speaker 2: thank you so much. And seconds later I get a
47:32
Speaker 2: text from Ashley, who finished I think in three thirty
47:36
Speaker 2: two apologies if that's wrong. I'm pretty sure right around
47:39
Speaker 2: three thirty as well. And it just says I'm waiting
47:43
Speaker 2: for you. It's not we did it, I'm waiting for you.
47:46
Speaker 2: And I look and she's the only person I share
47:48
Speaker 2: my location with and she's like right down right, you know,
47:50
Speaker 2: a five minute walk ahead of me. And I find
47:53
Speaker 2: her and we hug and I am just like so
47:56
Speaker 2: grateful for how the entire day went down.
48:00
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful for it.
48:03
Speaker 2: And you know, when I look back on this training block,
48:06
Speaker 2: there's so much that I am proud of myself for
48:09
Speaker 2: and grateful for. But I think one of the biggest
48:13
Speaker 2: growth moments also for me as a runner, is that
48:16
Speaker 2: I have the sixth World Marathon Majors posters from Tracksmith
48:20
Speaker 2: that you can get at their pop up after each
48:22
Speaker 2: marathon major. I have them hanging in my office. I
48:25
Speaker 2: have more than six posters, but I have one from
48:27
Speaker 2: each of the World Marathon Majors on display. And the
48:30
Speaker 2: last New York Marathon poster that was on display was
48:33
Speaker 2: my virtual New York Marathon, which I'd never stopped running,
48:38
Speaker 2: but it was virtual and it was only tracked by
48:40
Speaker 2: my garment, and that marathon is my fastest marathon to
48:44
Speaker 2: date in three twenty three fifty six. And when I
48:47
Speaker 2: got home with my new poster from Tracksmith, Shout Out Massimo,
48:52
Speaker 2: I sat there for a second and I thought to myself, like,
48:55
Speaker 2: do you want to cover up the fastest time on
48:57
Speaker 2: the wall? And I realized, I was like, you know what,
49:03
Speaker 2: It's never about the time for me. It wasn't even
49:07
Speaker 2: like when I started running. It wasn't about the time
49:08
Speaker 2: for me. And have I become more competitive with myself
49:11
Speaker 2: over time, for sure? But I never really aspire to
49:15
Speaker 2: be who I was five years ago. All I want
49:17
Speaker 2: to do is meet myself with where I am at
49:19
Speaker 2: right now, to be honest about where I'm at, and
49:22
Speaker 2: to chase my own potential, whatever that looks like in
49:25
Speaker 2: any stage of life. Right, I'm not trying to be
49:30
Speaker 2: my twenty nine thirty year old self. Does that mean
49:33
Speaker 2: that I'll never run like a three thirty marathon three
49:37
Speaker 2: twenty three fifty six, I don't know, but if it does,
49:40
Speaker 2: like I'm so okay with that, because it's about the journey, right,
49:46
Speaker 2: And so yeah, I'm sitting on the floor and I'm
49:48
Speaker 2: looking at these posters, and I put the new poster
49:50
Speaker 2: over the old poster, and I think to myself, like,
49:55
Speaker 2: this is a journey that I am so proud of
49:58
Speaker 2: and so happy to look at that poster every day
50:03
Speaker 2: when I walk into this studio. All it takes is
50:07
Speaker 2: all you've got, right, And I really gave this all
50:09
Speaker 2: I had this year. This really just being life. Honestly,
50:19
Speaker 2: it's not easy. It is not easy to continually show
50:24
Speaker 2: up for yourself, to show up for the people that
50:26
Speaker 2: you care about. But you are the only person who
50:29
Speaker 2: knows your intentions and knows your heart, and this year
50:33
Speaker 2: I have done it in every way possible. I've tried
50:38
Speaker 2: so hard to listen to what feels good for Emily,
50:42
Speaker 2: be a good person, and do the best I can
50:45
Speaker 2: with what I have. And so this New York symbolized
50:50
Speaker 2: so much growth for me. It symbolized a really beautiful
50:55
Speaker 2: chapter for me, and.
51:00
Speaker 1: I couldn't be prouder of what I came out with.
51:04
Speaker 2: What's next Southport, Fairfield Peakquad Roadrunners, five miler, Turkey Draw.
51:13
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going to happen in twenty twenty five.
51:15
Speaker 2: I kind of am thinking I could run the London
51:18
Speaker 2: Marathon if that somehow came together for me.
51:21
Speaker 1: I would love to run the Sydney Marathon. I have
51:25
Speaker 1: never been to Australia.
51:28
Speaker 2: I think I'm a little intimidated by this thought of
51:30
Speaker 2: going all of the way to Sydney and doing it alone.
51:35
Speaker 2: Whereas I did technically go to Tokyo alone. I went
51:39
Speaker 2: with a brand and knew other people that were going
51:42
Speaker 2: to be there, not that I wouldn't know that they're
51:43
Speaker 2: going to be people in I don't know. I'm kind
51:45
Speaker 2: of rambling now, but yeah, Sydney Marathon is definitely in
51:50
Speaker 2: my sights, But in the meantime, I'm just so grateful
51:55
Speaker 2: to be here, just happy to be nominated, and thankful
52:01
Speaker 2: for the community that empowers me and my body. I really, really,
52:12
Speaker 2: really am so proud of my body and anyone who's
52:17
Speaker 2: gone through anything, but specifically a dramatic weight loss and
52:20
Speaker 2: then a dramatic weight gain and then a dramatic weight loss.
52:24
Speaker 1: There are so many feelings and.
52:28
Speaker 2: Intricracies to that, and I have so much compassion for
52:35
Speaker 2: myself and my body and gratitude for what it is
52:38
Speaker 2: capable of. And that really is where I sit right
52:41
Speaker 2: now when I think about what's next. I just want
52:44
Speaker 2: to keep this feeling. I want to hold on to
52:48
Speaker 2: this level of compassion. I want to talk to myself
52:51
Speaker 2: like I would a loved one, and I want to
52:53
Speaker 2: be proud of me no matter what happens moving forward.
52:58
Speaker 1: That's what I want.
53:00
Speaker 2: That's what's next. Maybe three pull ups in a row also,
53:06
Speaker 2: but definitely a resounding yes to self love and compassion
53:11
Speaker 2: for my body and what it's capable of. Man New
53:16
Speaker 2: York Marathon twenty twenty four.
53:17
Speaker 1: We did it. We did it.
53:21
Speaker 2: As always, I'm always here to answer your questions. Oh
53:24
Speaker 2: my goodness, this is ending. And I didn't even talk
53:26
Speaker 2: about fueling. I feel like I've done this in a
53:29
Speaker 2: marathon recap before. Please do not take my advice. I
53:34
Speaker 2: want to start by saying that over the marathon, I
53:37
Speaker 2: had three more In gels and two bags of Sour
53:41
Speaker 2: Patch watermelons, and we're talking about finding the fun. I
53:45
Speaker 2: spoke with a friend who's a registered dietitian and we
53:48
Speaker 2: kind of did some math on the carbs. There are
53:51
Speaker 2: fifty five grams of carbs in each bag of Sour
53:54
Speaker 2: Patch watermelons. I think moret in gels have something like thirty.
53:58
Speaker 2: And so I was on the few every three miles
54:01
Speaker 2: plan and that was rotating between a Morton gel and
54:06
Speaker 2: then like four different Sara patchwatermelons, and then a Morton
54:10
Speaker 2: gel and then four different Stara patchwatermelons and so on
54:13
Speaker 2: and so forth, and I just was having fun with it. Again,
54:17
Speaker 2: it wasn't that scientific, and please do not take my advice,
54:20
Speaker 2: but it worked for me, and that's really with my
54:24
Speaker 2: nutrition clearly not my top priority. But it was good.
54:32
Speaker 2: It was so good. I'm so grateful what I was saying.
54:37
Speaker 2: If you have any questions, I'm all ears. Feel free
54:39
Speaker 2: to email me with a listener question over at Hello
54:41
Speaker 2: at hurdle dot us. Believe in yourselves and your delusion
54:44
Speaker 2: and your big dreams. It's worth chasing them because what's
54:47
Speaker 2: the worst that can happen. I'm over at Emily Body
54:51
Speaker 2: and at Hurdle Podcast. Another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys
54:56
Speaker 2: next time. Thank you, Y