Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 111. Aliphine Tuliamuk, Pro Runner

Transcript

111. Aliphine Tuliamuk, Pro Runner · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Don't quit, give yourself time. Pretos don't make things happen
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: is people who are persistent. Assistance is there forthing?
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hey, Hurdlers, Emily about here bringing you Episode one hundred
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: and eleven of Hurdle, a wellness focused podcast where I
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: sit down with inspiring individuals to talk about everything from
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: their big wins to how they've gotten through some of
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: life's toughest moments. On the show, you can expect vulnerability, motivation,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: and candid discussions with everyone from top athletes to aspiring
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: entrepreneurs on what it really takes to follow your passions.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: My mission is.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Simple to inspire you to be your best self, move
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: with intention, and have some fun along the way. Today
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: I am chatting with Alphine Taliamook. She is a profession
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: a runner and most recently won the Olympic Marathon trials
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: in Atlanta with a time of up to twenty seven
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: twenty three. I know It's insane, which means that she
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: will be headed to the now twenty.
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  Speaker 3: Twenty one Olympic Games.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: In today's episode A we chat about everything from her
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: upbringing in rural Kenya where she ran to and from school,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: as well as just about everywhere else and we also
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: talk about her first hearing about the United States and eventually,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: thanks to some encouragement from her uncle, to pursue an
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: athletic scholarship here. Moving here, she talks to me about
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: the difficult transition arriving in Iowa at Iowa State and
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: not knowing when she'd see her family again, then transferring
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: to Wichita State, where she had a ton of success
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: in her sport. We talked about her having a tough
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: time and she debated leaving the sport altogether and what
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: motivated her to create her Etsy store, which sells her
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: now famous beanies. Of course, she also talks to me
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: all about that big win at Atlanta, her strategy, how
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: she felt going into the day, and how she feels
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: now that the games.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Have been pushed back.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Before we get into Aliphine's story, a quick shout out
• 2:11
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• 4:44
  Speaker 2: that's Athleticgreens dot com slash Hurdle I want to thank
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Coca Oe Oe, Alophane's sponsor for connecting us. If you
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: haven't yet listened to the episode of Hurdle with Hoka's
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: president Wendy Yang, definitely give that a listen. Connect with
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: a show on social at Hurdle Podcasts and at Emily
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: A Body and of course I'm always here over email
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: at Emily at Hurdle dot us. And with that, let's
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: get to hurdling.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Today.
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  Speaker 2: I am sitting down with Alophine Taliumook. How you doing, Alphine?
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: Doing great?
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  Speaker 1: Actually, I just got done with my run and feeling fantastic.
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  Speaker 3: What was today's run?
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  Speaker 1: So today I was supposed to do eight miles in
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: the morning and four in the afternoon, but I took
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: a day of yesterday, so I ended up running eleven
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  Speaker 1: miles this morning.
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  Speaker 3: Eleven miles casual, really.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Atually, Yeah, very nice, easy. I was actually just these days,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: I just run by fields. These eleven miles felt very comfortable.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Well, before we get into what kind of running you're
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: doing these days, I think it's important for us to
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: preface how excellent of a runner you are.
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  Speaker 3: On twenty ninth in Atlanta, earlier this year, you.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Won the Olympic marathon trials with a time of two hours,
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  Speaker 2: twenty seven minutes and twenty three seconds.
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  Speaker 3: What kind of pace is that?
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  Speaker 4: That's about five thirty eight mile pace.
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  Speaker 3: And what was the pace on today's run?
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  Speaker 4: Oh gosh, I think it was like seven fifteen a
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  Speaker 4: little bit more breezy, Yes, yes, cash like I finished
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  Speaker 4: and I was like, I feel good, feel good.
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  Speaker 2: And that's what they're saying a lot of these days
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: about how you're supposed to be approaching exercises. You shouldn't
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: be getting to the point where you need to take
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: you know, four hours to lay.
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  Speaker 1: Down, definitely. I mean I think for me right now,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: I'm using this time. Did you you know, run for this,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: you know, for the love of running and enjoy the process,
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  Speaker 1: because when you're training for rays, you know, you don't
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  Speaker 1: have time to appreciate it with it. So I think
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  Speaker 1: that this is a time for all of us to
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  Speaker 1: just enjoy running, you know.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: So let's wind it back and talk about growing up.
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  Speaker 2: For you, as the listener can tell, you have a
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: bit of an accent, So where did you grow up?
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  Speaker 1: I grew up in rural Kenya and I went to
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: high school there, and so I came here in two
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: thousand and nine when I was about twenty years old.
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  Speaker 2: Talk to me about what life was like growing up,
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  Speaker 2: or you're super active.
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  Speaker 3: I know.
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  Speaker 2: I read that you ran to and from school both
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  Speaker 2: ways every day.
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  Speaker 1: I was definitely, I feel like more active than I
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: am these days. So growing up in rural Kenya, it's
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: a very high elevation, very cold. I grew up about
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  Speaker 1: ten a little bit of a ten thousand feet of elevation,
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  Speaker 1: very hilly, and like I said, it's very rural, so
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  Speaker 1: we had to work everywhere. We only have one road
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  Speaker 1: that goes one direction and back then, actually we didn't
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  Speaker 1: even have a lot of vehicles, so like the roads
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  Speaker 1: weren't even good. We walked to school basically went to
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: school really because the school was about two miles away
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  Speaker 1: and I woke up in the morning and I had
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  Speaker 1: to chose, and by the time it was time to
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  Speaker 1: go to school, I was already running less. I really
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  Speaker 1: had to run fast to school. And thinking about it
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: right now, I'm like, how did I eat and run
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  Speaker 1: to school? And then like when I was fourth grade
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  Speaker 1: to eighth grade, we would come home for lunch and
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  Speaker 1: then go back to school. Sometimes unless if you want
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  Speaker 1: two hungry, and then you could stay at school. And
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  Speaker 1: then like you know, we would have to run to
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  Speaker 1: go to the river to get water. We would run
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  Speaker 1: to go get firewood because again we didn't have electricity.
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  Speaker 1: And then you know, my parents are like farmers, so
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  Speaker 1: we have we used to actually have like two hundred
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  Speaker 1: sheep at the time when we were younger, and so
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  Speaker 1: we will all have to like we all have chose
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  Speaker 1: that we have to do, and like sometimes you know,
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  Speaker 1: it would be my duty to go get the sheep,
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  Speaker 1: and I'll have to run to the forest and bring
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  Speaker 1: the sheep home. And so I basically was running everywhere. Really,
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  Speaker 1: And did you enjoy running at the time.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, I.
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  Speaker 1: Don't know if I would say enjoy. It was just
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  Speaker 1: a part of life. I did not any day. So
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: it was just the thing that we did. However, I
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  Speaker 1: think when we were going home, especially when I was
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  Speaker 1: in like first grade, second grade, like when we're going home,
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  Speaker 1: we will race together with you know, like the at
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  Speaker 1: the kids in our village, going the same direction, and
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  Speaker 1: so that was fun. And I remember actually one of
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  Speaker 1: the first races that I did was I went to
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  Speaker 1: this neighborhood school and competed for their team, and that
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  Speaker 1: was so fun. Like I would just volunteer. I'll be like, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I can run, so I'm going to run for you.
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  Speaker 1: And that was fun and that was fun.
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  Speaker 2: So when were you turned on to the idea of
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: moving to the United States and coming here to do
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  Speaker 2: some of that running in college.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Interestingly, it's actually happened in two thousand and in eight
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: when I was in when I was senior in high school.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, it was my last semester of high school.
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  Speaker 1: And so back a little bit. In two thousand and five,
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  Speaker 1: I represented Kenya in World Cross Country Championships Juniors and
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  Speaker 1: I was ninth place there and so I got a
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  Speaker 1: lot a bit of stipend and that was really cool.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: I was able to, you know, do some shopping for
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: my mom, like buy her new utensils and stuff, and
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: I even bought her like a you know, like a couch,
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  Speaker 1: and that made me very happy, and I wanted to
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: pursue running. But I was also when I was a
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: freshman in high school, and so when I went back
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: to school, I went to a really good school where
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: like education was a priority and running basically like right away,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: it took us like a max set, and I really
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: like kind of went out of shape. And as a
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: teenage too, you know, like you're growing, your body is changing.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: By the time I graduated from high school, I was
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: like in pretty bad shape. You know. It took a
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: long time to get back my fitness to run. And
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: so as a senior in high school, one of my
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: uncles who was the person who actually encouraged me to
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: like pursue running like more seriously when I was younger,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: he came to our school and he told me, he said,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: you know, there's opportunities to go to the United States
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: of America and you know, get a scholarship and run there.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: And so he told me that if you got good grades,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: you know, you would have that opportunity, and that really
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: motivated me. So our exam usually is we have like
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: a standardized test the whole you know, like high schools
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: in Kenya will take and then the results will come
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: back after like three months. So when he talked to me,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: it was why before we started those exams, and so
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: I worked really hard to pass that test, and you know,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: once I did that, I started training again and I
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: started pursuing scholarships.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Did you know that you definitely wanted to come here.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, obviously the opportunity. You kept using that word,
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: like a really big chance to come to the United States.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: But I know you grew up in a huge family,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: one of thirty two kids, So what about the thought of,
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: you know, leaving them behind to come to this super
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: unknown place.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I didn't know anything. I hadn't even heard
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: about America actually until two thousand and eight. I remember
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: like once my uncle like you know, told me that,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: you know, you could get a scholarship. That was the
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: first time I heard about it. And in fact, I
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: remember when we were doing our exams. It was during
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: two thousand and eight elections, and I thought that was
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: super exciting, you know, hearing that President of Obama was contesting.
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: That was really cool. And so when the.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Time came, you know, once I got an I twenty
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: to go to Iowa State University, it was a great opportunity.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: You know, my family was super excited. I mean we
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: actually thought that once I got here, I was going
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: to make a lot of money and I was going
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: to be rich. So we didn't realize that I was
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: going to be a student athlete and that there's not
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: a whole lot of money to be like, there's basically
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: not money to be met as a student athlete, but
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: it was a great opportunity. However, right before I left,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: you know, my family and a few of our neighbors
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: got together and they had like a kind of like
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: a sent away party for me, and it became a
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: reality then, and we cried a lot. I realized for
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: the first time that I was leaving my family behind
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: for you know a lot time.
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: I didn't know when I was going to come back.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: I didn't know how America was like, and it was
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: incredibly hard, you know, Like I think I basically cried
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: all night and the next morning when I left, I
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: was just crying. I might have cried for two days,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: you know, like almost two days straight. And then like,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: you know, I just got here, and lucky en, I
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: mean I always did.
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: They had a few Kenyons and so I was able
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: to still eat some Kenyon food and took you know,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: like speak some Kenyon language, the Swahili, so that helped
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: a little bit.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: But I definitely missed on a lot that those first
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: couple of months.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Did you know what you wanted to study in college
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: when you got there.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: Yes, I did. I always wanted to be a nurse.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: When I was in third grade, I believed I witnessed
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: my mom go through this horrific, horrific experience. Well, like,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: you know, she gave birth to one of what would
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: have been our youngest brother, and the baby got sick,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: and you know, we don't have access to hospitals. I
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: think the closest hospital honestly is about forty months way
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: and when you walk, that's like far away. And so
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: we had like a little dispensaries that is two miles
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: away from my home, and so my mom sent me
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: to go check if the dispensary was open. I went
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: there and it was closed. I went to two other
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: dispensaries and all were close. And my brother died before
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: he could even get access to you know, medical care.
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: And that really broke my heart.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: That was the moment that I knew that I wanted
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: to pursue something in healthcare. And so when I came
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: to America, you know, the thing that I wanted to
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: do was I wanted to be a nurse.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Talk to me about what some of your first experiences
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: were like on the track with your team.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So when I got here. I still, like I said,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I still wasn't a fit enough. But you know, it
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: took a while for me to get a hang of
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: the training I thought we were doing. Like the training
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: was super long for the distance that we were running.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: I remember we used to do like eight miles steady state,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: and I thought that was really long. But we got
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: along pro well. You know, our coach was really good
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: and he had coached some really good athletes.
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: And that fall, actually because I got you in August.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: That fall, I went really well for cross country and
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: our team went to nationals and I don't remember what
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: place we got, but we did okay. I didn't do
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: particularly well. I think I was like sixty eighth at
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: the ends in the bullets, but it was okay.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: So talk to me about your first college race. Do
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: you remember that?
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: I think my first college race was actually in real
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: invitational in Minnesota, and I read really well. Actually, looking
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: back to you now, I read really really well. I
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: think I might have gone I don't know, top seven,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: at least top ten.
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: I think I went really well.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: I think my races after that one at grade, but
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: I feel like my first college race was really good,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: and I believe that our team won the title or
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: second place one of those. But I did really well
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: on my first place surprisingly, and I was fit in
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: the team. I think, yeah, we had a really good
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: team at I was did at the time, bitsysign Lisa Cole,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: who went on to be a decollated record holday in
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: the ten k and the twenty twelve Olympian, she was
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: in the team at the time, so we had a
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: really good team.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: When you're running and then you're also in classes, is
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: there anything else that you're doing at this time? I mean,
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden, your way of life is just
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: so different.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: I was talking on.
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: The phone a lot.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Actually, I think I spent a lot of time at
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: night on the phone because of the time difference, Like
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: you know, during nighttime, hey, it would be daytime in Kenya.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: So I think there were a lot of nights that
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: I spent on the phone, which is interesting because these
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: days I'm like, I don't want to talk to anyone,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: you know, like talking is like a chow.
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: Like on the phone.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: So, I mean, you get here and you're a pretty
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: stellar athlete. And it's interesting because you refer to yours
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: as someone who wasn't the best, you know, but you're
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: not the best for a lot of people. Is almost unimaginable.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: So talk to me about some of the strategies that
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: you remember implementing from those early days as a freshman
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: in college to really pick up the pace.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, so I'm going to say this, and it might
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: be a little bit weird, but so growing up and
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: you know, listening to stories of ken and athletes going
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: off a season running really well, there was a lot
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: of pride that came with that. And you know, like
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: people will go off a season and they will win
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: these races. And I always saw myself at that person.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: I had so much confidence. I was probably cocky, and
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: so I would go to races and I think it
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: was this confidence that I had on myself that always
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: propelled me even when I was not like that fit.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: I didn't care who wasn't the race. I just went
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: out there and crushed it. So for a long time
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: I had a lot of pride actually, and that really
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: honestly like made me race well. Like the strategies were, like, hey,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: I was ran in the junior cross country ten in
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: two thousand.
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: And five, I did really wild. I am pretty awesome.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm going to kick ass, and I did
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: for a long time until I got a little softer,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: a little softer. Well, as time you know, went by,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: I kind of started analyzing things more and started following
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: who was racing, and once that got into my head,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, but they are good, they ran
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: well in their last race and all that, and that
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: kind of that became my weakness a little bit.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: How do you bring the focus back to you and
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: what you're doing in college?
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: I think throughout my college career, like, at least for
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: the first half of my college career, really like I
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: didn't like analyze that mag I didn't care who wasn't
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the race. I was just very focused. And I you know,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: even though I wasn't like super fittet like not the
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: fitness that would get me an NSY double title, I
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: was still believing in myself and I got better every year,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: and that really more me and I mean in training
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: especially you know, the first couple year and a half
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: when I was in Iowa State, I mean, we had
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: some really good, high quality athletes, and so I will
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: push myself to train with them, even when they dropped me.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: I would worked very hard to stay with them, and
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: that really helped.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: And that brought you on to be a fourteen time
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: All American. And I mean you earned runner up honors
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: twice over the ten thousand meters at the NCAA Championships.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: So it's nothing you know, to hang your head about.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: Actually.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: So I ended up transferring after a year and a
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: half from Iowa State to Wichita State. And in Wichita State,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: we didn't actually have a strong team that we didn't
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: in Iowa was State. However, one of the advantages that
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: happened was I was running with the guys. I was
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: doing my workout with some of the guys, Like the
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: guys will have like eight miles stadies that I will
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: just run with them, and then those the one having
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: a good day, you know, will have to run with me.
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: And in the.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Beginning it was not fun because you know, the guys
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: didn't want to run with me. But eventually I think
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: they kind of accepted that this was okay. And I
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: think that changed a lot, because yeah, I was I
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: was doing really well and I was always running with
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: the guys, and that propelled me to new heights.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of research actually about the benefits of
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: working out with people that you perceive to be better
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: than you, and how it can be super beneficial and
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: motivating AKA for you. At that time with those male athletes,
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: it pushed you to try harder. I'm sure if you
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: and I went out, I would be killing myself.
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: I try to keep up with you.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: And that would, you know, in return, make you better
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: as long as you don't live by yourself.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. So then talk to me about what you
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: want to do upon graduating. Do you think that you're
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: going to take this running thing to the next level.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: I know you had an interest in pursuing a career
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: as a nurse.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, So when I was taking you a little bit
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: back when I was a junior in college, I really
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: wanted to pursue my nursing degree. And you know, it
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: was that time that I realized that I won't be
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: able to do both running and going to nursing school.
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: And for a moment, actually I thought about quitting running.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: I thought about going to community college, and in fact,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: I even when they checked out the community college that
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: offered a nursing program.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: And I wanted to quit running and just you.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Know, go pursuit this nursing because I felt like that
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: was my time to get my nursing degree and that
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I could always go back to professional running. And I
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: talked to my coach, you know, my college Chldren. He
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: knew this other lady who was the head of nursing
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: department in my Wichita State University and she was also
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: very interested with running, and so she he invited her
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: to come talk to me, and Dabie Kennedy came over
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: and talked to me, and you know, she told me
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: that running was something that wasn't going to be there
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: forever and that she felt like I had, you know,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: like the potential to be in the Olympics, and that
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: I could always go to nursing school. And so she
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: definitely changed my mind mind and she said I would
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: even like make sure to mentor you when you go
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: to nursing school. She I mean, she gave me a
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: lot of advices and she basically kind of became my
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Wichita State University mom. And so at that point I
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: just decided, Okay, I'm going to change my degree to
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: public health and pursue running. And so when I graduated
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: from college, I mean actually in that moment when I
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: decided that I was going to just do a public
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: health degree.
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: I decided that I.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Was going to run world away in college and that
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: I was going to pursue professional running. So when I graduated,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: I already knew that I wanted to be a pro.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: You already knew that you want to be a pro, Okay,
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: So then what does that start to look like for
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: you right after that?
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Well, for once, for when I thought that I was
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: going to graduate from college, I was going to get
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: a really good contract, I was going to run some
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: professional road racing and I was gonna kick But well
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: that didn't exactly happen. I graduated from college, and then
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: I started researching you know, like professional coaches, and I
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: thought about moving.
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: To Eugene, uh, which I'm.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Actually glad I didn't do because at the time, you know,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: you're in the say and I guided it at the
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: same time, and I thought about, you know, moving to
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Eugene to probably train with her group. I never really
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: reached out or anything, but I was because at the time,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are training in Eugene.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I can go train with her.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: And she had you know, like kicked my butt in
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Nty doubullets. But then I was like no, And then
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: I a friend of mine heron Lagat, you know, told
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: me about this coaching Santa Fe, New Mexico, who was
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: coaching Caroline Ruetic, and Caroline Ruetic at the time had
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: won New York City Marathon half marathon twice and I
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: watched one of those races, and then she went on
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: to actually win Boston Marathon in twenty and fifteen. So
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: I reached out to Ryan, this coach in Santa Fe,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: New Mexico. And Ryan actually is is a triathlete Olympian
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: from two thousand. So I reached out to Ryan, and
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: you know, Ryan was like, Okay, yeah, maybe you should
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: visit Santa Fe and trained with us for you know,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: like a couple months and see, you know what happened.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: So as soon as I graduated up, I packed my
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: bags and I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: to start a new life and sure and if it
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: actually worked out, so I stayed in New Mexico for
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: like five and a half years.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Did you do a lot of traveling at all when
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: you were in college and in the US for the
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: first time.
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: Well, I mean we traveled a lot to races.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, I asked this because going from Iowa to New Mexico,
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: they're two like very interesting and not like crazy densely
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: populated races.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean we only traveled, you know,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: whenever we had races. But other than that, I didn't
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: have a lot of traveling experience by myself.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: So you moved to New Mexico and start this new
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: training journey, Yeah, and doesn't feel a little bit intimidating
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: because it's like you either need to succeed as a
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: runner or revert back into some other sort of plan here.
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it was. It was so like interesting.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: First of all, New Mexico, Santa Fe is very dry
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: compared to you know, Kansas or like Iowa. There's not
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of trees. It's just a dry, high desert.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: And but Tim Caroline was a very strong athlete. I mean,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: she didn't win New York City have by accident. She
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: was really strong and she kicked my butter a lot,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: and I was like, geez, it's like I didn't believe
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: that there was a woman who could kick my butther
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: as much as she did. And so that really propelled
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: me to New Heights and my first professional race went really,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: really well. I ran a ten miler in Flint, Michigan,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: met my first ever five thousand dollars and that was
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: the sweetest five thousand dollars of my life. That was
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: really cool, and I thought, Wow, I actually have this.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: And then, you know, I ran a couple more races
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: that fall and actually ended up winning them and made
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: a little bit of money. So I was like, I
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: think I meant for this. And then I went to
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Kenya that winter and came back in twenty fourteen, and
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: things didn't go well. You know, there's of twenty fourteen
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: was a big struggle for me, and for the first
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: time I questioned, you know, they moved to New Mexico,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: and I thought maybe I should move back to Kansas,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: you know, and go back to my college coach because
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: things were going as I was expecting. But then I
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: kind of gave myself a chance, and you know, like
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: things did turn around eventually and I started racing well.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: And so this is twenty fourteen, twenty and fifteen, I'm
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: raising okay, you know, like I'm making a little bit
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: of money, still struggling to pay my bills. And then
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: in twenty and fifteen, I was like, I don't think
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: this running is gonna get me to where I need
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: to be. I'm not able to make enough. So I
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: got myself a job, you know, as ak giver up
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: with elderly people in their homes, and that really helped
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: because then I could pay my bills and still raise
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: and I started racing well. And in twenty sixteen, you know,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: like things really turned around for the better for me.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: You know, I started raising really really well at high level,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: and then I got my citizenship and started competing in
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: US races and you know, things definitely took off from there.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: In twenty fourteen, when things were quite a bit of
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: a struggle, what was it that helped you keep your
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: head up and keep pushing forward and keep on racing.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: I think it was just, you know, two things. One,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: I didn't really have anything else that I could do.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, I didn't have too many options. I I
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: would have had to go to school to be a nurse,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: and of course I couldn't affoord that, and so really
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: I had to like continue running and make this little money.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: And two, I had a really good training. You know,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: my coach was very good and the training was going well.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: So it was just that I needed to translate what
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: I was doing in training into racing. And you know,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: having Caroline around was very was really good because you know,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: we would push each other and you know, she encouraged me.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: You know, like even for her, there were times when
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: she struggled and you know, she encouraged me to just
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: continue pursuing, like running things, it's a long time to
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: do like yield good you know, like good results, and
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: so she just encouraged me.
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: And I think for me it was just like it's
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: this is the way that I need to go.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I think it's interesting.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: Also it's like until you see that you're capable of something,
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: or until you push yourself past a certain threshold, sometimes
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: it feels as though that threshold or that goal is unobtainable.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: So sometimes when you're going through these struggles, it's like
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: I just don't know if I can do this. I
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: just don't know if I can do this.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: But one good run, one good day, it can really
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: just change it all.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean it takes that one race,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: that one day for you, for things to change for
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: you and for you to realize that this was the
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: best decision you ever met for you know, for yourself.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: But before you get it, there's a lot of challenges.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: And I mean, I think between twenty and thirteen and
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: twenty and sixteen, I probably wanted to quit in three times.
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: Thank god I actually didn't do it.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: And I think part of that is also because I'm
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: very passionate about running, not just because it's my job,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: it's also something that I need.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: You start running better and the winds start coming in,
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: and at this point are you ranking in those sponsorships
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: that you were after.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: So I came out of college in like some of
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: twenty and fifteen, and I honestly didn't get any sponsorship
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: until twenty and seventeen.
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: So yeah, it was a struggle.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: And like finally in twenty sixteen, you know, I got
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: my citizenship and I actually went the US throughout recyc
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: IT and I won three of those national championships and
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: met a really good living finally, you know.
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: And then it was also then that you.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Know, sponsors kind of started spotting me and be like, well,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: maybe she can do it, and actually like going back again,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: like in twenty sixteen, you know, I ran the trials
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: and I was very, very fit, I actually thought I
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: was gonna make the Olympic team, but it didn't happen.
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: So I was very heart broken.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: And then I pulled my energy and you know, everything
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: that I had in the twenty that I had gotten
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: into the US Championships that followed late that summer, and
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: it led into really good success. And so in twenty seventeen,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: I finally got myself, you know, like a contract.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: Now we're in twenty seventeen and we're but we've still
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: got some time until obviously twenty twenty. And what happened
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: earlier this year, So talked to me about where you
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: were mentally. Were you dead set on going to the
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Olympics for the marathon? And talk to me about your
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: build up for the Olympic trials this year.
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah. So I debuted my first marathon in twenty and fifteen.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: It was not good, and so that was spring of
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, and then I didn't do anything else until
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: you know, Houston twenty and sixteen.
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: I ran Houston again. It went horribly wrong.
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: What does horribly wrong mean for you?
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: Well, so my debut was two thirty four.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: I was doing really well until twenty three and a
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: half miles and I fell apart so badly, gosh. And
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: then in twenty sixteen for the Houston Marathon, I just,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: you know, like I fell a part of thirteen miles
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: or the next thirteen months or the longest of my career,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: and I ran like a two thirty five, which two
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: thirty four to thirty five isn't going to get you anywhere.
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: And then that summer, I mean that.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: That fall, I ran New York City Marathon and I
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: actually ran a minute faster. I ran like two thirty three,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: and for the first time I had hope, you know,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, I think I can do this.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: I still fell apart, but I felt like it was
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: so different, Like I was very strong for like, you know,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: twenty two miles, and it was just the heels that
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: just didn't like work well for me. And I was like, Okay,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: I think I can do this. Like it gave me
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of hope. The next year, twenty and eighteen,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I was supposed to run on New York again, but
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: then I got injured, and so like things kind of
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: got difficult again for me, Like I started experiencing all
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: these sorts of injuries.
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: That I hadn't had in the past.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Of course, as a young person, I didn't take good
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: care of myself because I was always like, I don't
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: have to do this because I'm strong, I'm you know,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: I eat.
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: Well, and I have never gotten injured. I was just cocky.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: But then in two thousand and you know, eighteen, I
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: got a couple of injuries that really shook me to
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: the court.
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: What kind of injuries are we talking about here?
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: So I had had this achilles problem back in college
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: and I never took care of it, and it got
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: really bad in two thousand and I was eighteen, and
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: it fled up to the point where I can run.
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: And at the same time, I had a hamstring problem.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: So I had a hamstring on one leg, and then
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: I had a kios on the other one, and it
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: got so bad to the point where I was like, Okay,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: I don't think I can do this anymore. So I
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: took time off. But then actually early in twenty and eighteen,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: this is the fall. Earlier in the spring, I also
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: had a high needed disc on my back and that
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: was horrible. Oh that was that's really bad. And then
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: the hill from that, and I ran a couple of
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: good races and then I had the hamstring achilles problem
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: and then I held that and then of course last
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: year I had a stress fracky and then I was like,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: I am definitely broken down. But after I came back,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: you know, from my second set of injuries, I started
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: training for a marathon again, and then in the spring
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: of last year I went to Rotordam, and I mean
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: the build up went really when of course I had
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: already changed you know, training and went to Ben Rosario
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: in flaxsuth Arizona, and I thought his training was really good.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: So I went to Rotterdam and I ran six plus
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: minute PR and that was when I knew that I
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: was meant for the marathon. I mean like I was like,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: I got this, and I still thought I still had
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: a lot in me. And then you know, came back
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: and ran New York after like six strong weeks of
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: training and ran to twenty eight, which was like a
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: five plus minute PR for New York City marathon course
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: from twenty seventeen, when I was actually like I had
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: enough training and I thought I definitely had a shot.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: And the training you know after that, you know, after
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: New York, I had like four months before the trials
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: and training went excellently wild nothing. I didn't have any heats,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: I didn't miss any training. I did everything I needed
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: to do, and I knew that I was ready to
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: go on Untilbly twenty nine.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: Well, it's kind of crazy. I mean, you referenced so
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: many different injuries Achilles hamstring. It's a stress fracture. I
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: think so many people upon getting knocked down time and
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: time and time again, it's just so frustrating. I myself,
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: I am working through something right now, and so when
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: these things happen, it's it's hard, right How did you
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: manage to keep your chin up?
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: Especially with the stress fracture that happened last summer? That
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: was a hard one.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: You know, I had never had any bone injuries before,
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: and to be told that I had six to eight
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: weeks of not running that was incredibly hard.
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: And actually where was the stress fracture?
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: It was my female I'm like, I'm this person who
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: doesn't have any bone injuries and then bam, they injured
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: their big bone.
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: How we think it's running?
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like the biggest bone, one that is supposed to
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: be stronger, you know, get a stress frucktre and I'm like, yeah,
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: I mean I already knew that I was weird, but
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: I'm like, even my body knows that, and he wants
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: to be weird on me too.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: So when you get this, when you get this stress fracture,
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: what are you doing to occupy your time? Because going from,
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: as so many people can relate, going from running all
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: the time, when you hardly even realize how much time
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: you're spending on the road to not running, all of
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: a sudden, it's like the entire world is the oyster
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: that you never wanted.
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: Oh absolutely.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, so this happened actually when I was in
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: a race in Boston, the BAA ten K. I ran
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: that race, and after the race, I didn't feel anything,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: and then I was cooling down and I was like, wow,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: my fema feels really strangely. I mean a couple of
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: days before that, you know, I started feeling this thing
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: on my muscle. I thought it was a muscle and
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: I could massat it out and there was no problem.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: But after the race, I can walk, I couldn't cool down,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: and so on my way home in the flight, I
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: already tasted my coat and told him what was happening.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: I see this guy, you know, sitting on the other
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: side of the of the plan and he was like kneting,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: and I thought this was so interesting. I mean, I
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: guess for long that I hadn't seen a man croshing
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: or kneading, and like interesting. Anyways, I get home and
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: then I get my I didn't run, and then I
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: went and got an MRI while it confirmed that I
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: had a stress practice. So the first day I watched movies. No,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: I watched A Grace and Adom in marathon. I went
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: on a Grace and atom In marathon and that was
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: the long day of my life.
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: It was so long. I was like, I don't think
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: I can do this. This is on day one.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: So I came back to New Mexico and I was
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: going my partner and I were driving around and was like, hey,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: you know, let's go buy a young store, you know,
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: like I need to get some young so I could
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: break my hair because I have nothing to do, you know.
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: And my hair was very sure because I started having
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: my hair shirt.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: And then while I was there, I saw a crosher
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: hook and I'm like, maybe I can actually crosh it.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: So I got myself a couple of yarns so I
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: can croche it and that turned out to be one
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: of the best things that I could have ever done
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: for myself, because I went from wanting to crosher like like,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: you know, like a bag, a small bag, to croching beanis,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: and that summer I ended up making a lot of beanis,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: and then in the fall and winter I started selling them.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: And honestly, looking back, it was the croching that saved me.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know what I would have done without the crouching,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: you know, like I needed it more than anything else.
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: And did you teach yourself how to do that from nothing?
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: Well, I kind of knew how to croche it, but
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: not the crosheer the hat.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: So I found out on YouTube how to cross your hats,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: and I just, you know, I found one pattern that
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: looked very good and it was fast to make because
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: I don't have like I'm not somebody who is patient.
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: So I found this one pattern that I really liked
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: and I just started doing it.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: And I feel like, if I didn't have that crouching,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I would have been able to
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: go through, you know, the.
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: That injury period.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: It sent with sanity and even today, I mean I'm
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: still running, but I still you start crouching as a
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: way of coping with what is going on around the
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: world right now, honestly, of course.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: And you have actually an Etsy shop which is just
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: amazing and it has six hundred and thirty five sales
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: as we record this, which is just so impressive.
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: Oh my god.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: I know, I mean it took off like like, you know,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: last year during New York City Marathon, I actually wore
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: one of my hats, and then I started advertising more
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: and people bought a lot of it for you know,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: like Christmas present, and then this spring, and then you know,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: like and then especially after I won the trials, I mean,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: my store so loud for the first time, and I
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: came back and I met all those hats and I
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: started reopening the shop again, and then it's so so
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: this last one I sold out at two hundred and
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: seventy two.
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean it's so incredible.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: And like I think part of the thing is right now,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: like so my store, my hats are like a little
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: resiliency business because I started doing this, you know, when
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: I was going to an incredible time with injury, and
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: you know, crosching for me, it was a way to rebound,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: you know, it was my way of bouncing back, and
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: you know, it was resilience basically for me, and that's
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: how I named it, or that's how the name came about.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: And then now it's like people need some resilience more
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: than anything else. And I think that's part of the
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: reason why people just want to have, you know, a
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: piece of you know, that resilience. And it makes me
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: very happy that a whole bit that I started, you know,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: to keep myself saying, I can share with a lot
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: of people who can use that too.
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: That makes me very happy.
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: I think that's great, right because for so many of us,
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: and I believe that anyone can be an athlete, but
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: for so many people that also view themselves that way
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: as true athletes and they're going out there day in
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: and day out, it's kind of hard when you get.
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: Sidelined to think about what else is it that I
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: can do right now?
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: Right like, you just feel so helpless when you feel
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: as though your body has betrayed you. So to have
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: a hobby that is just something that's relaxing and calming
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: and can help other people, I mean, I think it's
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: pretty special.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, I mean I think it's very special and
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: that's what I encourage people to do now. And I'm like,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: if you a sidelined or if you're going through a
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: hard time, find a hobby. And if you can find
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: a hobby that you can share with other people, it's
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: even better.
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: Like it makes it.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: It makes a difference knowing that you're doing something that
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: could potentially help someone else.
• 40:46
  Speaker 4: It makes a lot of difference.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: Okay, So building into last winter, you're making a lot
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: of hats, you're sending some Christmas presents out, and you're
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: prepping for the Olympic Marathon trial. So talk to me
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: about what the phys to go build up.
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: Was like for that. Yeah, so we ran a lot
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: of miles.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: So we ran extra marathon in November and then took
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: two weeks off. We came back really in December is
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: when we started doing some build ups, and January, of course,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: it is when we had our HEAVI years of trainings
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: and you know, like I think the highest I had
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: was one hundred and twenty twenty five mile week, and
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: it wasn't a lot of those. It was probably like
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: a couple of weeks of that, but most of our
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: mileg was between one hundred and ten and one hundred
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: and twenty, which is still a lot of miles, you know,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: especially when you coupled up with going to the gym
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: for strength training twice a week. That was a lot
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: of work and a lot of really big session workout
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: long workouts, you know, like we would have like a
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: twenty miles of an alternating pace, like running a six
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: thirty and a five thirty five thirty five for twenty
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: miles hours long. We would have these workouts well, like
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: we would warm more for three miles and then do
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: like sixteen four hundreds, and after that you would do
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: a three mile tempo, and then after that you will
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: do eight times thirty seconds on, thirty seconds off, and.
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: By the end you're like, oh my god, I am
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: just like I just want.
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: To be done, and then I just tired just hearing
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: about it.
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And other times there was a time when we
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: had this work as well.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: We wonder for two miles, we run ten miles at
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: like six twenty to six twenty five pace, and then
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: we had in the next ten miles at like marathon
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: ef food which is like five thirty to five forty
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: and two male coldan and right the end you're like.
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: Oh, my god, Oh my god.
• 42:35
  Speaker 4: But then all of that, you know, like I was
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: very comfortable doing them and I got really.
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: Fit with it, which is great.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: And so when you're gearing up to head to Atlanta,
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: are you feeling confident? How are you feeling mentally?
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: So right around a month before the trials, actually, when
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant passed away, I think it kind of reminded
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: me of how short life can be. And it also
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: reminded me of the things that I was sacrificing. Like,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: for instance, you know, I hadn't seen I haven't seen
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: my family in over three years, and my partner lives
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I'm in flaxt of Arizona,
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: you know, doing my best to like make the Olympic team.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: And so I think I kind of it snapped, something
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: snapped in me, and I realized that I had everything
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: I needed. You know, the training was going really really well,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: you know, but then my mental you know, status was
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: not like I was not one hundred percent committed and
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: my confidence wasn't there.
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: And after that, I.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: Felt like I just my strength and like mental strength
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: became stronger, and you know, I really believed in myself.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: I believed that I could make the team. I believed
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: that I could win the trials, And yeah, I was
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: very by the time we went to the trials, I
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: was really ready that I was ready. Everywhere you could
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: you could think possible.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: How do you kind of developed that mental grit, because
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: it's one thing to one day have self doubt and
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: the other day to be like, I've totally got this
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: in the bag. So were you doing anything specifically to
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: kind of give yourself those mental pep talks or reading
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: anything or talking to anyone that really helped you.
• 44:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: Actually, so what I ended up doing I seek help
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: from a psychologists, a performance psychologists. So I spoke with Shannon,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: who had worked with any you student for a long time,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: and you know, she really helped me because like she
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: helped me, she helped me reach that part of myself,
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: that proud part of myself, that part of myself that
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: didn't care, who wasn't the risk, you know, I just
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: wanted to go and run and believed in myself. And
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: I think it was that help that really changed things
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: for me, because when I went to the truck, like
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: we did a lot of she one day did a
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: hypnosis for me, and basically, like you know, it was
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: just this intense visualization of the risk and I vicialized
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: everything and I felt like at the end of that station,
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: I felt like I had won the risk, except I
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: still had to do it, but I really felt like
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: I had already won the risk.
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: Had you been to Atlanta before it all to see
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: the course or how did that work out for you?
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So we went to Atlanta in November to run
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: the course, and we knew that it was hard, and
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: so we came back and because it was myself and
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: my team at Stephanie and Scott that went there at
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: the same time, and basically all of our team American
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: team actually saw the coast, and so our coach structured training.
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: So that we all, you know, could do workouts that
• 45:39
  Speaker 4: were prepare us for this, and so I felt like
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: we were very prepared.
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: Talk me through what it's like when you get feet
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: on the ground in Atlanta.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: So I get to Atlanta, I feel prepared, you know,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: like training had gone really well.
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: I was super excited.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: But one thing that I was surprised, you know, like,
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, this was one of the biggest trials effort,
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: and so We get there on Wednesday night, and on Thursday,
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: I meet my teamates to go for a run, and
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: then I come back to go get some breakfast in
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: the hospitality s with and I see people already decorating
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: their bottles, and like the mood was just so serious,
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: and I start freaking out.
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: I was like, you know, like this, this is not normal.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: And then that night I slept and I woke up
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: the next morning and you know, my code was feeling
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: a little tight, and I'm like, what's happening. I was like, Okay,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: I think it's just something small. The next morning, you know,
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: like I massaged a little bit, but then it doesn't
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: even get better. It gets a little worse, and gosh,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: like I felt like things went downhill from there. Like
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: I started feeling you know, some things on my body,
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: on my legs that I didn't have before, and I
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: seriously thought that I was injured.
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: You're having flashbacks to that what happened with your with
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: your bones after that last marathon.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and especially this on this was the same leg
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: as you know, where I had my stress fractor. It
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: was on my fema and I was like, oh, I
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: don't know what's happening. I mean this, it's impossible to
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: get another stress fractor when you're not even running much,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: but you never know, and I start freaking out. And
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: this would have been like, this was the first time
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: that I was going to race all the top us
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: women like on Decem race, and some you know a
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: lot of women had times that were better than mine.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: And so I was like, I don't know, Like, I mean,
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: training had gone well, I was feeling good, but then
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: now my body is giving up on me. And this
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: is like the biggest rast of my life so far.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: You know, I started freaking.
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: Out, started freaking out.
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: Okay, but the day comes and it's a windy, windy
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: day in Atlanta.
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: Talk to me about highs and lows of the course.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: So when two days before the race, my coach and
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: I talked and you know, we kind of looked at
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: what the weather would look like, and it looked like
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: it was going to be cooler, but it was going
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: to be windy, and you know, it didn't even seem
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: like it was gonna be that windy. And so I
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: was like, as long as the weather is not great,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: I think I have a chance of actually doing well.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: Because what I was worried about, was like, the race
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: will go off and people will just take off really
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: really fast, and it will be a race well like,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: you'll go too fast and suffer, and this is a
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: course where you don't really want that to happen. But
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: then race money comes around and it's very windy and
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: it's way cooler, and I was like, I got this,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: you know, I like this. Of course I'm feeling all this.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: You know, many injuries in me too that I'm freaking
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: out with, but in terms of the weather, I thought
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: it was great.
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: Okay, So I mean spoiler alert again. You go on
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: to win the trials that day. Talk to me about
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: how it feels to cross that line.
• 48:48
  Speaker 4: Wow, I mean res goes off. You know, I feel good,
• 48:54
  Speaker 4: and then we start very slow.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: But then by the time we come through the first loop,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: you know, I feel strong, especially on the appeals, and
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: we come around on the second loop, I still feel strong,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: and the that loop, I still feel really strong, and
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: I was.
• 49:06
  Speaker 4: Like, I think, this is you know, my day.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: And then we pull away with Molly's sidel and I
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: definitely know that I'm going to you know, like make
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: the team. And then at some point, you know, between
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: Myles twenty four and twenty five, I was like, okay,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: this is said, I'm gonna give myself the best shot
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: to win, and I pull away, And when I picked
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: my American flag with about six hundred minutes to go,
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: it felt great. It felt so surreal, and I think
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: I kind of, you know, like lost, like I was
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: not even like conscious of what was happening. And I
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: crossed the finish line and I'm still trying to figure
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: out how I felt. But I'm still lost in it,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Like it still feels surreal, it feels like it's something
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: that happened to someone else. It's really weird because it's
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: like you look forward to this day, you look forward
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: to this win, and then it happens, and then you
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: just don't know how to feel. I think my body
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: is still in shock because like, even though I prepared
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: myself to go meet the team to go win the risk,
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: I think as soon as it happened, my body just
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: went in the shop like did this really happen?
• 50:14
  Speaker 4: Like how did this happen?
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: Like it's it is interesting. And I also think that
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: one of the reasons why even though like you know,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: we pulled away with Molly and I knew that I
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: was going to make the team. I think that I
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: still was worried that well, something wild still go wrong,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: so that I didn't actually give myself enough time to
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: celebrate during the risk. Yeah, I'm still trying to figure
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: that out. But it was just amazing to cross that
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: finish line. I mean, I remember smiling so big to
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: cross staf finish line, and after today, when I talk
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: about it, I feel like I'm dreaming.
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: And at this point now the Olympics have been pushed
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: off to twenty twenty one. But did you ever think
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: that you would truly be able to represent the United
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: States on that kind of stage.
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: I believe that I could, but I didn't really know.
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: So my friend Janet Balcom two thousand and twelve Olympians,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: you know, she would come high and her husband will
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: come to my house every Friday night for dinner after
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: they came back from work at the Grand Canyon, and
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: we will talk about what it is like to be
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: an Olympian. You know, she will tell me how she
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: felt going into the opening ceremony, how it was it
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: felt like being the Olympics, and how being an Olympian
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: is something that you will always have and I just
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: will listen to them and imagine myself and imagine how
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: it feels like. But now that it is a reality
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: for me, gosh, I don't even know.
• 51:40
  Speaker 4: Again.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: It's one of those things where I'm like, I don't
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: even know how I feel, But I know one thing
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: for sure.
• 51:46
  Speaker 4: I know that I am so.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: Excited for the day when I will receive my uniform
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: from a USA Track and Field, and for the day
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: where we will actually live to go to Tokyo, and
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: for the opening ceremony and the actual risk.
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: I'm really looking forward to that.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: I think when I think about that, it makes me
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: realize that I actually am gonna like I met it,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: you know, and that I'm going to represent.
• 52:09
  Speaker 4: The USA, and I am so excited for that.
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: How does it feel for you that it's been pushed
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: back a little bit right now.
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 52:18
  Speaker 4: Immediately following the announcement, I was very disappointed. I was
• 52:22
  Speaker 4: very bummed.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: I felt like crying, but then I didn't, like I
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: can cry my I felt like my throat was very constricted.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: I had a really big lump, and I couldn't explain
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: why I was feeling that way. For a long time,
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: I think a few weeks past, and even now I'm
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: still struggling with that. But you know, I think I've
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: come to terms with it because I know that the
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: reason why the Olympics was postponed was because of something
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: that was beyond our control. And you know, the more
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: I have watched the news or listen to the news,
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: and you know, knowing that a lot of people lost
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: their lives, it's like it was the writing. Absolutely, I
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: have no doubt in my mind that postponing the Olympics
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: is the right thing to do.
• 53:10
  Speaker 4: Of course, I was still.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: Disappointed, but now though, I'm beginning to kind of worry more.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: Like I think, once I came to terms with the
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: fact that it was postponed, I saw an opportunity, you know,
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to run a fall marathon, an opportunity to
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: even probably run a spring marathon. And you know, since
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: that was only my six marathon, I was like, having
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: two more marathons under my belt before the Olympics would
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: be great. But now, as you know, time goes by
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: and I see what's happening, I'm beginning to get worried
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: again because it's like things are not getting better as
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: fast as we would have wanted it to, and there's
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: a chance that the rest of this year we're not
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: going to raise And I even read something that said,
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: you know, like, who knows, we might not even have
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: the Olympics next year, and so that freaks the hell
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: out of me.
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: Aside from your athletic pursuits, I'm sure there are things
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: that you do want to do in your personal life.
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: What do you think comes after running?
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: For me? I just celebrated my thirty first year birthday
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: the other day. You know, my partner and I have always,
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: you know, have this had this bream of wanting to
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: have a family, and actually we planned on, uh, you know,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: going to the Olympics this year and then you know,
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: possibly studying a family, and with the Olympics being postponed,
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: you know, we are left wondering what to do. And
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: it's very hard because you know, like we're not getting.
• 54:32
  Speaker 4: Any younger, and.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: Now thinking that the Olympics, you know, reading this thing
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: that the Olympics might not happen, and especially a couple
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: of days ago we saw the Berlin Marathon has been canceled,
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: and we just don't know, and then we keep hearing
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: these things, well maybe in the fall and in the winter.
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: You know, they might be a resurgence of this virus
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: and combined with the fluid, it could be really bad.
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: And we just don't know how bad it's going to
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: be and how it's going to be. And so when
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: you think about the fact that the Olympics has already
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: been postponed, and that is hard, But then now imagine
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: being told that it might not even happen and you're
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: waiting on this. You're putting your life on hold for this.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: It's like, what if you wait and then next summer
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: they say, well, we assolate the Olympics.
• 55:20
  Speaker 4: It's not going to happen.
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: It's just not possible, especially with everything else that is
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: going on, like financially, you know, we are going into
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: a place that we've probably never been and everything is
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: just going downfall. It's like, Okay, you put your life
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: on hold hoping the next summer happens. What if it
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: doesn't happen, then where do you go to? I honestly,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean at this point, I'm just lost.
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: Right, I hear you, And I think a lot of
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: people are feeling this way, whether it's their big goal
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: of going to the Olympics, and other athletes or other
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: life pursuits similar to yours, and having a family, and
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: other people that want to get married, and people that
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: are hoping to take off their careers. I mean, it's
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: just we are all truly going for a loop right
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: now and then unverseen and never before traveled place. And
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: I think, as I'm sure that you know, as you
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: spoke about, you know, helping other people and giving back,
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: that the best thing that we can do in so
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: many ways right now is just to lean on each
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: other for that source of strength.
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: So where are you getting your strength from?
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I'm getting my strength from knowing that
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of people are going through this and there
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: are people in worse situations that mind, and so I'm
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: in a better place. I get my strength, you know,
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: from my family, you know, from my partner, from my teammates.
• 56:44
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: I get my strength from crushing you know, and being
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: able to share my love for croushing with other people.
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: I just get my strength, I guess from around me.
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: Like there's a lot of things, there's a lot of
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: positives that you can still get your strength from. And
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: I also get my strength, you know, from the that
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: I can still go outside and run, and running is
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: something that I really need and I could use and
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: I'm still able to do that, and so that that
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: that holds me together.
• 57:09
  Speaker 4: Honestly, right now.
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: When you think about the best advice that you have
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: been offered in your athletic career, what would you say?
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: That's then.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: I think patients, honestly, patience and time. Like, for example,
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: right now, time is everything. We just have to wait
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: and be patient, you know, like control the things that
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: you can control. You can't really like, yes, I worry
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: about the fact that the Olympics might not happen, or
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: this fall might not happen, the races might not happen.
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: But I can only control what I can control, which
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: is still be able to go out and run and
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: you know, maintain my social distancing, you know, to make
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: sure that I don't get this virus and or give
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: it to someone else if I want like a symptomatic
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: and stuff. So I just control my attitude, control you know,
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: the things that I can control, and still go about
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: my life in terms of running and you know, talk
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: to other people and try to encourage artists.
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can totally appreciate that. Another question that I
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: love to ask here on the podcast. Obviously, when people
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: go to your social media pages, they go on over
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: to your Instagram account, they see a woman that touts
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: being the twenty twenty you as Olympic Marathon Trials champion,
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: a strong runner. When you look in the mirror, what
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: is it that you see looking back at you.
• 58:35
  Speaker 4: I see a woman who is very resilient.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: I see a woman who was able to leave a
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: family at a young age, you know, to come to
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: America to pursue this dream that she didn't even know
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: she was gonna attain. I see a woman who has
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: become so much. I see a woman who is very
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: passionate about inspiring artists, especially inspiring the next generation of
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: young athletes, you know, to believe in themselves, believe in
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: what they are doing, and to believe that they can
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: do it, you know, as long as they wanted putty bad.
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: I see a woman who wants to help a community,
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: you know. I see a woman who wants to be
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: the best athlete she can be, a woman who wants
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: in figure to be the best mom she can be,
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: a woman who in Figa wants to be the best
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: healthcare provider she can be.
• 59:22
  Speaker 4: And one day she will be yes, and I see
• 59:26
  Speaker 4: an olympian. Of course you love that.
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: I love that, all right, Eli.
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, well, when you right now, think back to
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: let's say twenty sixteen, you were going through some pretty
• 59:39
  Speaker 2: hard stuff. You were wondering if you should keep up
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: with this running thing, if maybe it was time to
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: pursue your other interests. When you look back on that time,
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: if you had one piece of advice to offer yourself
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: going through that Hurtle moment right now, what would it be.
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: I think one piece of advice that I will have
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: told myself then is don't worry about things you can control,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: you know, give yourself time. Give these time, see what happens.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: Give yourself two months, give yourself three months, and see
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: what happens. You know. And that is something that I
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: also tell to my friends, you know who maybe they're
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: going through a hard time, you know, like running is
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: not happening the way they want. I'm like, don't quit.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: Give yourself time, you know, don't be a quitter. Twitters,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: don't make things happen. You know. It's like these people
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: who are persistent, Persistence is everything.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 3: Persistence is everything.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you so so much for your time and
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: your energy and I know that we are all excited
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: to support you and however the next year and change
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: shape up.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: Yes, thank you, Elphin. Where can we find you on
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 3: social media? How can we keep up with you?
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: So? You can find me on Twitter at Alpine Tulium
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: Move it's only missing the cave for my last name.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: And on Instagram you can find me, you know at
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: Alphin to Lamuk. On Facebook it's Alphin to Liamuk.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 3: Too perfect all right, Well, I am at Emily Abadi.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 3: Another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time