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#HURDLEMOMENT: The Chicago Marathon, A Recap · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:02
Speaker 1: Well, here we are. Hey Hurdler's Emily a body here
0:07
Speaker 1: with a new Hurdle moment from Hurdle, a podcast that
0:10
Speaker 1: talks to everyone from entrepreneurs to top CEOs and athletes
0:14
Speaker 1: about how they've gotten through tough times hurdles of sorts
0:18
Speaker 1: by leaning in to wellness. Today the episode that so
0:23
Speaker 1: many of you have been asking me for since Sunday's
0:26
Speaker 1: Chicago marathon a recap. I thought a lot about writing
0:32
Speaker 1: this one down. I thought a lot about how I
0:35
Speaker 1: would structure this episode and decided that instead of overthinking it,
0:41
Speaker 1: I would just go off the cuff. So in today's episode,
0:46
Speaker 1: I'm going to be talking about a day that has
0:49
Speaker 1: forever changed my life. If you've been following along on
0:53
Speaker 1: social media where if you haven't, regardless, I'm so appreciative
0:57
Speaker 1: that you are in my little corner of the Interweay
1:00
Speaker 1: Chicago was unbelievable. I did something on Sunday that I
1:09
Speaker 1: never thought would be possible for me, and to be
1:12
Speaker 1: honest with you, wasn't even something in terms of goals
1:17
Speaker 1: that was on my radar. On Sunday, I ran twenty
1:21
Speaker 1: six point two miles through the streets of Chicago in
1:25
Speaker 1: three hours, twenty eight minutes and eight seconds. I say that,
1:31
Speaker 1: and I'm an immediate loss for words because although I
1:35
Speaker 1: know it's real, although I know it happened, trust me,
1:38
Speaker 1: my body feels like it happened. It feels surreal. I'm
1:44
Speaker 1: so grateful for the experience. I'm so thankful for the
1:49
Speaker 1: support of my friends and my family and of course
1:53
Speaker 1: from all of you. And in today's episode, I'm going
1:57
Speaker 1: to talk through what happened. How did that happened? As
2:00
Speaker 1: someone that before Sunday had a marathon personal best of
2:05
Speaker 1: three forty nine thirteen that's over a twenty one minute difference,
2:11
Speaker 1: And today I'm going to give you some insight into
2:15
Speaker 1: how that really happened, or at least you know what
2:18
Speaker 1: I've been able to piece together of it. Anyway, you
2:22
Speaker 1: guys know the drill. I've been connecting with so many
2:25
Speaker 1: of you on social media, so of course continue to
2:28
Speaker 1: reach out to me. I read all of your messages
2:30
Speaker 1: and do the best that I can to try and
2:33
Speaker 1: get back to you. It is at Emily a Body
2:35
Speaker 1: and at Hurdle podcast on Instagram, as well as Emily
2:39
Speaker 1: at Hurdle dot us over email, and lastly, before I
2:43
Speaker 1: get into it a huge thank you to all the
2:45
Speaker 1: hurdlers that came out on Friday before the marathon out
2:48
Speaker 1: in Chicago at Lululemon Lincoln Park for a little running.
2:52
Speaker 1: It blows my mind every time when I'm able to
2:54
Speaker 1: travel and congregate with a group of like minded individuals
2:57
Speaker 1: because of what I have been creating. And so I'm
3:01
Speaker 1: eternally grateful, And I guess that's just the theme of
3:04
Speaker 1: this week. Just so much gratitude to all of you
3:07
Speaker 1: and to everyone who empowers me to do what it
3:10
Speaker 1: is that I love every single day. And with the HUT,
3:16
Speaker 1: let's get to hurtling. I will always always remember October thirteenth,
3:29
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. To say that what happened in Chicago has
3:33
Speaker 1: forever changed me would be a drastic understatement. I think
3:39
Speaker 1: the best way to kind of go about the formatting
3:42
Speaker 1: of this episode is probably to talk about the week
3:45
Speaker 1: leading up to race day. First, of course, months of
3:48
Speaker 1: preparation go into a successful marathon. That means a lot
3:54
Speaker 1: of opportunity costs. That means sticking to a training schedule,
3:58
Speaker 1: It means sometimes go out there when you don't want to,
4:02
Speaker 1: and also listening to your body when it says that
4:04
Speaker 1: it's had enough for me though this marathon. The biggest
4:09
Speaker 1: difference in the lead up In the build up to
4:12
Speaker 1: race day was how I handled the week before. I've
4:17
Speaker 1: been doing a lot of listening to experts and just
4:21
Speaker 1: taking in information about what it is that stress can
4:25
Speaker 1: really do to the body, and going into the beginning
4:29
Speaker 1: of last week, I made a conscious decision to rid
4:32
Speaker 1: myself of the stressors that I did not need, of
4:36
Speaker 1: things that did not serve me. I really wanted to
4:39
Speaker 1: protect my energy, and so a majority of the week
4:43
Speaker 1: leading up to the marathon, I did spend a lot
4:46
Speaker 1: of time by myself, but I also made sure that
4:48
Speaker 1: the time that I was spending with others was truly
4:51
Speaker 1: valuable with friends, with family and so on. I didn't
4:55
Speaker 1: open myself up to interactions with individuals that would make
5:00
Speaker 1: me feel lesser than and so granted, as much as
5:03
Speaker 1: I love the social community, I wasn't spending much of
5:06
Speaker 1: my time on Instagram or other channels just because I
5:11
Speaker 1: didn't want to get into the comparison whole. I also
5:15
Speaker 1: consciously did things that made me feel good, that made
5:19
Speaker 1: me happy, and this has been a big theme in
5:21
Speaker 1: my life lately. For when I feel like I'm struggling
5:25
Speaker 1: going back to the list that I keep of what
5:27
Speaker 1: these things are. Literally, it's in a journal that I
5:29
Speaker 1: have called fifty two Lists for Happiness, and one of
5:32
Speaker 1: the things is make a list of the things that
5:34
Speaker 1: make you happy. On that list is going to dinner
5:37
Speaker 1: at my favorite restaurant. It's drinking a glass of wine
5:39
Speaker 1: on my couch. It's having deep discussions with people that
5:42
Speaker 1: matter to me, taking a walk to my favorite spot
5:45
Speaker 1: on the East River, cleaning my apartment, listening to Billie Joel,
5:49
Speaker 1: going for a jog. I mean, these are simple things
5:53
Speaker 1: that bring me joy, a lot of which don't cost anything.
5:56
Speaker 1: My time last week was divided between these things as
6:00
Speaker 1: well as the necessary things that I could do within
6:03
Speaker 1: my control to put me and my body in the
6:05
Speaker 1: best position for race day. With that said, there are
6:08
Speaker 1: a ton of different recovery techniques that I had been
6:11
Speaker 1: incorporating leading up to race Day. You can hear about
6:14
Speaker 1: a lot of those in the special episode I did
6:16
Speaker 1: on Recovery with Dan Gerdano. Those included eastam I use
6:20
Speaker 1: a power dot device. I'll link to that in the
6:23
Speaker 1: description of this episode. Also foam rolling using my thera gun,
6:28
Speaker 1: taking ice baths to reduce inflammation, also moving more throughout
6:33
Speaker 1: the day, keeping the blood flow going, I mean, and
6:35
Speaker 1: then most importantly sleep. I made sleep the biggest priority
6:40
Speaker 1: ever last week, to the point where I would almost
6:43
Speaker 1: say it ultimately made me a little bit anxious. I
6:45
Speaker 1: made it a point last week every single night to
6:48
Speaker 1: unplug by around eight forty five pm and be in
6:52
Speaker 1: my bed sleeping when possible by nine point thirty. All
6:56
Speaker 1: the recovery things, just trying to do the best that
6:58
Speaker 1: I could to to give my body some love and
7:03
Speaker 1: just do the best I could leading into race day.
7:05
Speaker 1: All right, So now wheels up to Chicago. Got into
7:08
Speaker 1: Chicago on Friday morning around eleven am. I would always
7:13
Speaker 1: recommend anyone who is traveling for a race to get
7:15
Speaker 1: there at least about forty eight hours beforehand, and definitely
7:20
Speaker 1: make sure to have at least one night's sleep in
7:23
Speaker 1: a foreign place. Before the night's sleep in a foreign place,
7:26
Speaker 1: you just want to do the best you can to
7:28
Speaker 1: set yourself up to be comfortable where you're laying your
7:30
Speaker 1: head at night. The weekend before race day was really
7:33
Speaker 1: just doing all the normal things, hitting up the expo,
7:37
Speaker 1: checking in with some friends. I went to listen to
7:40
Speaker 1: a good friend of mine give a discussion on the
7:43
Speaker 1: Nike next percent. I would be remiss if I didn't
7:45
Speaker 1: say that I was really, really nervous, but I did
7:49
Speaker 1: the best that I could just to stay positive and
7:51
Speaker 1: continue in those forty eight hours to surround myself and
7:54
Speaker 1: talk with really good people. As always my pre race tradition,
7:58
Speaker 1: by two pm the day before, I had everything I
8:00
Speaker 1: would need for Sunday laid out, from bib to pins
8:05
Speaker 1: for the bib, to sneakers, clothing, absolutely everything, So that way,
8:09
Speaker 1: when I went to dinner on Saturday night, I didn't
8:12
Speaker 1: have to come back and worry about the logistics. At
8:15
Speaker 1: that time, I was able just to unwind and get
8:17
Speaker 1: into bed and just breathe now, just to set up
8:21
Speaker 1: the scene for how I felt and where my head
8:24
Speaker 1: was that going into Sunday. When I went to the
8:27
Speaker 1: expo on Friday and wrote down what I felt was
8:30
Speaker 1: my crazy goal of three forty. I've always been really
8:34
Speaker 1: intentional about setting smart goals, and that's something that we
8:38
Speaker 1: talked about many a time on the podcast before. That
8:41
Speaker 1: means specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time down for me,
8:48
Speaker 1: A three forty marathon would have been over a nine
8:52
Speaker 1: minute personal record, and that is a big jump for
8:56
Speaker 1: someone to make. So when I wrote down that three forty,
9:00
Speaker 1: to be honest, I was very intimidated to even share
9:03
Speaker 1: that goal because it felt really crazy. It didn't necessarily
9:06
Speaker 1: feel smart, but I was ready to put myself out there,
9:10
Speaker 1: and I really thought that by sharing a three forty
9:13
Speaker 1: time goal that maybe the pressures of social media of
9:18
Speaker 1: wanting to stay accountable and really putting myself out there
9:22
Speaker 1: would work for my psyche and kind of push me harder.
9:25
Speaker 1: And that's a conversation, to be entirely candid, that I
9:28
Speaker 1: have been having a lot lately. I think it is
9:32
Speaker 1: really scary to be your open and honest self when
9:35
Speaker 1: there are so many people that are watching. I fall
9:39
Speaker 1: back on smart goals because I know that they are realistic,
9:42
Speaker 1: but I also set them in this way so that
9:46
Speaker 1: I'm not necessarily failing in front of the masses. The
9:50
Speaker 1: thing is, and I've said this so many times as well,
9:52
Speaker 1: that obviously there is a lesson in every single failure,
9:56
Speaker 1: and I understand that that doesn't mean I want the
10:00
Speaker 1: I don't know if embarrassment is the right word, but
10:02
Speaker 1: the embarrassment. In having a conversation with a good friend
10:05
Speaker 1: of mine on Saturday about this very topic. I said
10:08
Speaker 1: to him, I wonder if this scared feeling, of this
10:13
Speaker 1: lack of desire to fail publicly is what's been holding
10:17
Speaker 1: me back for really going after my crazy. And I think,
10:22
Speaker 1: as Chicago showed us, my crazy was the sub three
10:25
Speaker 1: point thirty going into the race. On Sunday, I wake
10:31
Speaker 1: up at four fifteen in the morning, which is technically
10:33
Speaker 1: five fifteen at home, which isn't all that different from
10:36
Speaker 1: my usual do some journaling. Then I go grab myself
10:40
Speaker 1: a cup of espresso, come back upstairs, and start doing
10:44
Speaker 1: all the normal things as if I'm just going out
10:46
Speaker 1: for another long run. I breathe my hair, I get dressed,
10:50
Speaker 1: I shake up my pre workout. I put the pre
10:53
Speaker 1: workout as well as a bagel with peanut butter and jelly,
10:56
Speaker 1: and some bodyguide and my spy bel into my race okay,
11:00
Speaker 1: bag and then I head out to the bus that's
11:02
Speaker 1: going to bring me to the starting line. We get
11:04
Speaker 1: to the starting line, I'm lucky enough to have access
11:08
Speaker 1: to a VIP tent. I go in there, I put
11:11
Speaker 1: on the spy belt, I apply some last minute bodyguide.
11:15
Speaker 1: I am with some friends and that really helps me
11:18
Speaker 1: kind of ease my nerves. And then we all get
11:20
Speaker 1: into the corral and kind of separate, and that's when
11:22
Speaker 1: I close my eyes, standing in the middle of all
11:24
Speaker 1: these people and just take a moment for myself. When
11:28
Speaker 1: I went into the race, my goal was to run
11:30
Speaker 1: comfortable splits between eight fifteen and eight thirty. My previous
11:35
Speaker 1: personal record the splits were around eight forty five, so
11:38
Speaker 1: I didn't want to shoot too fast, especially from the
11:41
Speaker 1: get go, as not to burn out. As I'm closing
11:44
Speaker 1: my eyes and I'm standing in the corral and I
11:45
Speaker 1: feel so much energy around me, the start actually happens,
11:49
Speaker 1: and because I'm in corral e we wait for about
11:52
Speaker 1: ten to fifteen minutes before we get the green light
11:54
Speaker 1: to move, and I'm just standing there, breathing and telling
11:58
Speaker 1: myself that whatever is going to happen that day, whatever
12:02
Speaker 1: is about to happen, that it is what is supposed
12:05
Speaker 1: to happen, and that I need to continually stay calm. Now,
12:10
Speaker 1: on the note of calm, I grabbed coffee with a
12:13
Speaker 1: girlfriend of mine. Her name's Jess Movall. She's also the
12:15
Speaker 1: coach over for Runners World and Movalld and I were
12:18
Speaker 1: talking on Thursday before I left for Chicago, and her
12:24
Speaker 1: biggest piece of advice to me was continually go back
12:27
Speaker 1: to calm. And when I left that conversation, I told her,
12:30
Speaker 1: I shot her a text and I said, I just
12:32
Speaker 1: want you to know that the words that you told
12:34
Speaker 1: me are arguably going to be the biggest game changer
12:38
Speaker 1: for me comes Sunday and left such a major impact
12:42
Speaker 1: and relevant to this situation. But just in general, I
12:45
Speaker 1: think we overlook often how awesome it is to have
12:48
Speaker 1: the opportunity to have these important conversations with other people
12:51
Speaker 1: to say something impactful. I know, I certainly don't take
12:55
Speaker 1: it for granted, especially when it comes to this podcasting platform.
12:58
Speaker 1: And so for me, me in that moment, it was
13:01
Speaker 1: just exactly what I needed to hear. So the starting
13:04
Speaker 1: end goes off and we start kicking. At the beginning,
13:07
Speaker 1: we go under a few different bridges, obviously knowing that
13:11
Speaker 1: the GPS was going to be off a little bit,
13:13
Speaker 1: and I started moving and by mile three I realized
13:16
Speaker 1: that I was maintaining a seven forty five mile and
13:20
Speaker 1: as I said, this wasn't the goal, especially not at
13:23
Speaker 1: the beginning, not for the warm up. But what I
13:25
Speaker 1: continually kept to do was check in with myself on
13:29
Speaker 1: an RPE scale, which is a rate of perceived exertion.
13:33
Speaker 1: I asked myself, okay, right now, if you were to
13:35
Speaker 1: close your eyes and keep running, how hard did you
13:38
Speaker 1: feel as though you were trying? Knowing again that we're
13:41
Speaker 1: at the beginning, that I'm not trying to tire out,
13:44
Speaker 1: that I wanted to be responsible, and when I would
13:46
Speaker 1: close my eyes, I could say without a doubt that
13:49
Speaker 1: I felt as though I was at about a six.
13:52
Speaker 1: A six is somewhere that I felt comfortable at. It
13:55
Speaker 1: was a place that I knew that I could maintain,
13:57
Speaker 1: and so I kept going based off of that feel.
14:00
Speaker 1: I feel like this is a lot of rambling about pace,
14:03
Speaker 1: but when I was running at a seven forty five,
14:05
Speaker 1: which was definitely faster than what I was aiming for,
14:07
Speaker 1: I still felt comfortable and I didn't feel like I
14:10
Speaker 1: was over exerting myself, so I went with it. I
14:13
Speaker 1: kept getting the alert from my watch at every mile,
14:17
Speaker 1: and every single mile from one to I don't know,
14:22
Speaker 1: I think mile eighteen. The timing was between a seven
14:26
Speaker 1: forty five and an eight minute mile most of them
14:30
Speaker 1: seven fifty five, seven forty five, seven forty six, seven
14:33
Speaker 1: forty five, seven forty seven, seven fifty nine, I mean
14:36
Speaker 1: all in this sweet spot. I started to realize that
14:39
Speaker 1: something was happening here. Either I was going to be
14:43
Speaker 1: able to hold this steady pace or I was going
14:46
Speaker 1: to be frustrated with myself that I had given it
14:50
Speaker 1: too much of the beginning. And I was nervous a
14:51
Speaker 1: little bit that I was going to fade. But by
14:53
Speaker 1: the time that I got to mile eighteen and I
14:58
Speaker 1: was still within this fifteen second and range every single
15:01
Speaker 1: time it clicked by this is when I knew that
15:04
Speaker 1: Sunday had the opportunity to be really special. Now. I
15:08
Speaker 1: hadn't held my phone or looked at it throughout the
15:12
Speaker 1: entire race. At this point called my dad and I
15:14
Speaker 1: was like, I need you to tell me what it
15:16
Speaker 1: says is my projected finish time? And he tells me
15:18
Speaker 1: that at mile eighteen it says my projected finish is
15:21
Speaker 1: three twenty six. I start crying immediately, obviously still running.
15:27
Speaker 1: Still crying, I said, okay, I needed that I hang
15:30
Speaker 1: up with him and I just keep going. And this
15:33
Speaker 1: is the point in the race. That completely changes everything
15:36
Speaker 1: for me, because this is the point where I stop
15:39
Speaker 1: being scared about the things that I can't control and
15:42
Speaker 1: what could happen, and I'm more decisive of creating that
15:46
Speaker 1: for myself. And so I'm running these seven forty five
15:49
Speaker 1: eight minute miles and I'm not willing to change that.
15:53
Speaker 1: Instead of thinking to myself, when am I going to
15:55
Speaker 1: hit the wall, I changed the conversation too, I'm not
15:58
Speaker 1: going to hit the wall. Also, I had done a
16:00
Speaker 1: really great job setting myself up to not hit the
16:03
Speaker 1: wall throughout this entire race. I would say I ate
16:06
Speaker 1: throughout the duration of the entire marathon at least five
16:09
Speaker 1: full packets of the Gatorade and Durance Choose. I'm a
16:13
Speaker 1: really big fan of the fruit punch flavor. I also
16:16
Speaker 1: had a quarter of a banana at one point that
16:18
Speaker 1: someone gave me from the sides because I was like,
16:20
Speaker 1: this is gonna help with muscle cramping. I drank a
16:24
Speaker 1: sip of Gatorade and Durance Formula at every single aid station,
16:28
Speaker 1: Like there was not one water station that I passed
16:31
Speaker 1: that I did not grab a cup from someone. Also
16:34
Speaker 1: a user tip for that when you're grabbing the cup,
16:37
Speaker 1: I always kind of make a little funnel with it,
16:39
Speaker 1: So squeeze it together so it's more of an oval
16:41
Speaker 1: opening instead of a circle. Pour a little bit out
16:44
Speaker 1: and then drink so it's easier to drink, it's not
16:46
Speaker 1: spilling all over yourself, and you can keep moving. Who
16:50
Speaker 1: tire just talking about this, all right? So at this
16:53
Speaker 1: point my mindset is different. I hadn't said out loud
16:57
Speaker 1: the words I'm going for a BQ, but I I
17:00
Speaker 1: started to think them, and it was really overwhelming, to
17:04
Speaker 1: be honest with you, because literally, in my wildest dreams,
17:09
Speaker 1: I never thought that I would be the kind of
17:12
Speaker 1: runner that was doing what I was doing at that time.
17:16
Speaker 1: It was one thing earlier in the summer to train
17:20
Speaker 1: for a single mile distance, to learn how to run
17:23
Speaker 1: really fast, to learn how that feels. But it's a
17:26
Speaker 1: completely different beast to be able to hold any amount
17:31
Speaker 1: of speed for twenty six point two miles. And so
17:34
Speaker 1: because this was never a goal of mine, that made
17:38
Speaker 1: what was happening just so much more surreal. And in
17:41
Speaker 1: my gut, it was like I never dreamed of even
17:44
Speaker 1: getting to a place in a marathon where eighteen miles
17:47
Speaker 1: in a BQ was a possibility, and so when it
17:50
Speaker 1: became a possibility, you better believe there was absolutely nothing
17:55
Speaker 1: that was going to happen that was going to stop
17:57
Speaker 1: me from giving it my all to go after it.
17:59
Speaker 1: At my twenty I saw a girlfriend of mine on
18:02
Speaker 1: the sidelines and it was the first time I said
18:05
Speaker 1: out loud, I'm going for the BQ, and I got
18:08
Speaker 1: an instant burst of energy, and I kept pushing forward,
18:11
Speaker 1: knowing that I had at least two more friends that
18:14
Speaker 1: would be on the sides before I got to the
18:16
Speaker 1: finish over the next six miles, and I really used
18:20
Speaker 1: those two individuals as benchmarks for pushing myself. Both of
18:24
Speaker 1: them would be after mile twenty five. But I just
18:26
Speaker 1: kept pushing forward, and again when it felt hard, when
18:29
Speaker 1: I felt like my legs were getting toward that point
18:32
Speaker 1: of hitting the wall, I just didn't let it take me.
18:36
Speaker 1: I didn't let it overcome me. I kept pushing forward,
18:40
Speaker 1: and I was so dialed in on what was happening there.
18:44
Speaker 1: I saw my friend at twenty five as well as
18:47
Speaker 1: another friend of mine that's a photographer, and he snapped
18:49
Speaker 1: a photo, and when he was running with me to
18:51
Speaker 1: grab the photo, I said to him, today's the day,
18:54
Speaker 1: I'm gonna beq. We better make this good. And after
18:57
Speaker 1: he snapped it, and I kept running and kept thinking
18:59
Speaker 1: to myself, you better not f this up, because if
19:02
Speaker 1: you do, you're gonna be embarrassed forever. Looking at that photo.
19:07
Speaker 1: I saw my best friend at mile twenty five about
19:10
Speaker 1: and she was just so excited for me, and she said,
19:13
Speaker 1: You've got this in the bag. You've got this in
19:14
Speaker 1: the bag. And I kept pushing and pushing until I
19:18
Speaker 1: got to the small hill at the end and I
19:19
Speaker 1: ran down the hill to the finish and I crossed,
19:21
Speaker 1: and I was just beside myself. I get into a
19:27
Speaker 1: loss of words every time I say it, like every
19:30
Speaker 1: time it comes out of my mouth, because so many
19:34
Speaker 1: things went into that moment, not just the fourteen weeks
19:39
Speaker 1: of training, not just to the exercises I was doing
19:43
Speaker 1: before race day on that week leading up to it,
19:45
Speaker 1: not just how I executed that race. What I realized
19:50
Speaker 1: in that moment after I crossed the finish line is that,
19:54
Speaker 1: maybe more so than ever before in my life, did
19:57
Speaker 1: I believe that I was capable. And I truly, in
20:02
Speaker 1: my gut and in my heart, I know that the
20:06
Speaker 1: way that I was talking to myself. The way that
20:08
Speaker 1: I handled that marathon from a mental perspective, that is
20:13
Speaker 1: what got me to that place. Now, I think what's
20:17
Speaker 1: really important, just to reiterate, is that a twenty one
20:22
Speaker 1: minute pr took me nine years of running. For the
20:28
Speaker 1: first seven marathons that I did, they were all within
20:31
Speaker 1: a thirteen minute span, with one outlier. I've run marathons
20:36
Speaker 1: that were three forty nine and I've run marathons that
20:38
Speaker 1: were four fourteen. And when I think about what made
20:41
Speaker 1: this one different, aside from the mental parts of it,
20:45
Speaker 1: was that this was the year that I found my
20:47
Speaker 1: fast and I believed that I could training for the mile.
20:51
Speaker 1: As I mentioned earlier, that was game changing for me
20:55
Speaker 1: because I was finding paces that the Emily who started
20:59
Speaker 1: running back into two thousand and eight she never thought
21:01
Speaker 1: were possible. And now Emily in twenty nineteen, she wasn't
21:06
Speaker 1: just capable of running a six oh seven mile, she
21:09
Speaker 1: was capable of a mile warm up around a track
21:12
Speaker 1: at eight minutes and feeling good. I keep going back
21:14
Speaker 1: to the quote that Shelaine said about Kipchogi when she
21:18
Speaker 1: was announcing the breaking two over the weekend. She said,
21:20
Speaker 1: sometimes you can't be what you can't see he's going
21:24
Speaker 1: to be an example for all future athletes. More than that,
21:27
Speaker 1: his message is to the world, what are you capable
21:29
Speaker 1: of doing? What is your best self? For me on Sunday,
21:36
Speaker 1: I knew what I was capable of, I accepted it,
21:40
Speaker 1: and I went after my best knowing that I could.
21:44
Speaker 1: I stopped worrying about what other people thought, I stopped
21:49
Speaker 1: being so concerned with what wasn't and instead I put
21:55
Speaker 1: myself out there and I went after what I deserved
21:58
Speaker 1: because I had put in the world. People run marathons
22:01
Speaker 1: and they say that the sport it changes your life,
22:04
Speaker 1: and it does. Because this is just it's evidence to
22:07
Speaker 1: me that I have the ability to go after my
22:10
Speaker 1: dreams in any sense of the word, whatever it is.
22:14
Speaker 1: You know, there are so many things and people and
22:17
Speaker 1: situations that make you feel like you are lesser than
22:21
Speaker 1: whether it is in business or in your relationships. I
22:24
Speaker 1: can fairly certainly tell you that being a woman that's
22:28
Speaker 1: single in her early thirties, I'm so tired of being
22:31
Speaker 1: made to feel like something is wrong with me. But
22:34
Speaker 1: for me, with running with Sunday, I went after something
22:41
Speaker 1: that was mine and no one could take that from me.
22:49
Speaker 1: And it's really special when you show up for yourself,
22:52
Speaker 1: you know, really really special. And so what's her streaming
23:00
Speaker 1: my face? All I want to offer you all from this,
23:06
Speaker 1: My biggest taking from this is that show up for yourself.
23:11
Speaker 1: There are going to be times when it's hard, there
23:14
Speaker 1: are going to be people that have opinions, but putting
23:18
Speaker 1: yourself out there, it's really it's special. I want you
23:29
Speaker 1: to know that I understand that these things are scary,
23:35
Speaker 1: but it takes a really awesome person to have the
23:38
Speaker 1: courage to be brave, to show up in the first place,
23:43
Speaker 1: to put it all on the line, whether it's a
23:46
Speaker 1: marathon or it's anywhere else. I want you to know
23:50
Speaker 1: that you are valuable no matter what would have happened
23:54
Speaker 1: on Sunday, whether or not I got this PR or not.
23:57
Speaker 1: This training cycle in particular showed up for myself in
24:01
Speaker 1: ways that I never have before, and for that I
24:04
Speaker 1: am eternally grateful. And so the question comes up, right,
24:09
Speaker 1: what's next? That's what you always want to know. I
24:12
Speaker 1: don't know what's next. I think that I am gonna
24:16
Speaker 1: take some time off in terms of just listening to
24:19
Speaker 1: my body and doing the things that make me feel good.
24:22
Speaker 1: I may or may not have my sights set on
24:25
Speaker 1: Tokyo in twenty twenty. I think that's going to be
24:27
Speaker 1: the most unbelievable race and opportunity. I would be remiss
24:31
Speaker 1: if I didn't say that I'd love to go over
24:33
Speaker 1: there and run myself a marathon. I never thought that
24:37
Speaker 1: a BQY is possible for me, and here we are.
24:40
Speaker 1: Will I run Boston? Well, that's probably our conversation for
24:45
Speaker 1: another day. But what I do know is that I'm
24:49
Speaker 1: proud of me, and I'm just in awe of what
24:54
Speaker 1: the human body and the right mindset can really do.
24:59
Speaker 1: And that's all for now. Thank you all of you
25:02
Speaker 1: for listening to me, for believing in me, for making
25:07
Speaker 1: me feel accepted, and giving me this platform to inspire
25:13
Speaker 1: and help in whatever way that I can. I am
25:17
Speaker 1: eternally grateful, not just for this weekend, but for all
25:21
Speaker 1: of you. Another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time.