Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 206. Jacky Hunt-Broersma, Ultra Runner & Amputee Who Conquered 104 Marathons In 104 Days
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Yeah, I could fail big time and it would be
- 0:03Speaker 1: like it would be partly embarrassing, but it's also you
- 0:06Speaker 1: know what, this is who I am and sometimes things
- 0:08Speaker 1: don't go your way and it's okay. Then you pick
- 0:10Speaker 1: yourself up and you try again.
- 0:26Speaker 2: What is going on? Everyone?
- 0:27Speaker 3: Emily Abadi here coming to you from the Age Studio.
- 0:31Speaker 3: You are listening to Hurdle, a wellness focused podcast. Reconnect
- 0:34Speaker 3: with everyone from your favorite athletes to top experts in
- 0:37Speaker 3: industry CEOs about their highest highs, toughest moments, and everything
- 0:42Speaker 3: in between.
- 0:43Speaker 2: We all go through hurdles in life, and my goal through.
- 0:46Speaker 3: These discussions is to empower you to better navigate yours
- 0:50Speaker 3: and move with intention so that you can stride towards
- 0:53Speaker 3: your own big potential and of course have some fun
- 0:58Speaker 3: along the way. Today, for episode two hundred and six,
- 1:04Speaker 3: I am chatting with.
- 1:06Speaker 2: Jackie Hunt Burisma.
- 1:08Speaker 3: She's an endurance athlete and amputee who recently did something
- 1:13Speaker 3: that for so many is completely unfathomable, and that is
- 1:17Speaker 3: run a hundred and four marathons in one hundred and
- 1:22Speaker 3: four days. I know, I know, absolutely amazing and if
- 1:29Speaker 3: it is confirmed by Guinness World Records, that would be
- 1:34Speaker 3: a new world record.
- 1:36Speaker 2: Now I mentioned that she is an amputee.
- 1:38Speaker 3: Back in two thousand and one, she lost her left
- 1:41Speaker 3: leg to a rare form of cancer called ing sarcoma
- 1:45Speaker 3: at only twenty six years old. Now, in today's episode,
- 1:49Speaker 3: she talks about what that was like, how she felt
- 1:53Speaker 3: one morning when a golf ball sized bulge felt on
- 1:55Speaker 3: her leg literally overnight, and a few days later she
- 1:59Speaker 3: was undergo surgery to have her leg amputated. Now, a
- 2:03Speaker 3: fun fact about Jackie is that she really only got
- 2:07Speaker 3: heavily into running about five years ago, and to do
- 2:12Speaker 3: that she had to shell out about ten thousand dollars
- 2:17Speaker 3: for a running blade, which is part of the reason
- 2:20Speaker 3: that during the marathons during the world record attempt, Jackie
- 2:25Speaker 3: was raising funds for amputee blade runners. She actually raised
- 2:29Speaker 3: more than one hundred and ninety two thousand dollars. Absolutely incredible.
- 2:34Speaker 3: I am going to link the go Fundme page in
- 2:37Speaker 3: the show notes, so if you are interested in contributing
- 2:40Speaker 3: to Jackie's cause, you can click on over there and
- 2:44Speaker 3: do so.
- 2:44Speaker 2: In today's episode, Jackie gives us.
- 2:47Speaker 3: The rundown on the how how she managed to get
- 2:50Speaker 3: up for so many consecutive days and run talking about
- 2:54Speaker 3: her why and the very well executed recovery strategy that
- 2:59Speaker 3: she followed to a tea so that she could show
- 3:03Speaker 3: up and do the best she could with what she
- 3:06Speaker 3: had day after day. We're talking epsom, salt baths, we're
- 3:09Speaker 3: talking using a massage gun, and also the importance of
- 3:14Speaker 3: good nutrition, which the insight as to what she ate
- 3:17Speaker 3: what she was fueling.
- 3:18Speaker 2: With super super interesting.
- 3:21Speaker 3: Of course, a feat like this also requires a lot
- 3:24Speaker 3: of mental gymnastics. Jackie talks to us about how she
- 3:27Speaker 3: was able to work on positive self talk to talk
- 3:30Speaker 3: herself up and how that has been a battle for
- 3:33Speaker 3: her since losing.
- 3:34Speaker 2: Her leg many years ago.
- 3:37Speaker 3: We also tackle the emotional come down of something like this,
- 3:40Speaker 3: about how going after this size of a goal is
- 3:45Speaker 3: a major life thing, it's like getting married or having
- 3:47Speaker 3: a child even and how after these big moments it
- 3:51Speaker 3: can feel some kind of way to come down. So
- 3:55Speaker 3: how she's dealing with that, what strategies and tools she has.
- 3:58Speaker 2: In her toolbox, how she's excited to have.
- 4:00Speaker 3: A little bit more time to spend with her family
- 4:03Speaker 3: and her kids again, and so much more. Jackie so
- 4:07Speaker 3: so happy, and we were able to make this happen.
- 4:09Speaker 3: We literally ran into each other in Boston and it
- 4:12Speaker 3: was so great to meet Irl and to have this
- 4:16Speaker 3: time together as well, and I am just so.
- 4:20Speaker 2: Blown away and impressed by you.
- 4:23Speaker 3: Make sure you're following along with Hurdle over on the socials.
- 4:26Speaker 3: That's at Hurdle Podcast. I am over at Emily a Body.
- 4:30Speaker 2: And if you have a second, please rate.
- 4:33Speaker 3: And review the show and make sure you're subscribed to
- 4:37Speaker 3: the weekly Hurdle newsletter.
- 4:40Speaker 2: With that, let's get to hurdling.
- 4:54Speaker 1: Today.
- 4:55Speaker 3: I am sitting down with Jackie hunt Barsma. She is
- 4:59Speaker 3: and let's call an endurance athlete because what she has
- 5:02Speaker 3: just accomplished takes a whole lot of endurance.
- 5:08Speaker 2: Do you want to tell the people what you've done, Jackie.
- 5:10Speaker 1: I've just run one hundred and four marathons in one
- 5:13Speaker 1: hundred and four days. Woohoo.
- 5:16Speaker 3: Applause coming from the Hurdle studio. I'll have to see
- 5:18Speaker 3: if I can find like an applause and be for
- 5:20Speaker 3: you to like throw into the audio here.
- 5:23Speaker 2: Congratulations, what a stellar accomplishment.
- 5:26Speaker 3: And beyond the fact that this is such an impressive
- 5:30Speaker 3: physical feat, you also did a lot of good in
- 5:33Speaker 3: the process. Raising over one hundred and ninety two thousand
- 5:38Speaker 3: dollars for amputee Blade Runners. Wow, just absolutely astounding.
- 5:45Speaker 1: I know I was, I was blown away. I'm like, yeah,
- 5:49Speaker 1: I kind of went in. I went in with a
- 5:51Speaker 1: very small little goal. I saw, you know what, if
- 5:53Speaker 1: we can help one amputee, I'm like, yeah, we'll raise
- 5:56Speaker 1: like ten thousand. That was like my, like really like
- 5:59Speaker 1: the goal I had, and I was like, any little
- 6:02Speaker 1: bit will help. But I'm so blown away with the
- 6:04Speaker 1: support and just it's just been incredible.
- 6:07Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 6:08Speaker 3: And of course I'm sure the people listening because they're listening,
- 6:12Speaker 3: they aren't perhaps privied to the information that you yourself are
- 6:16Speaker 3: an amputee. We will get into your backstory and learning
- 6:20Speaker 3: a little bit more about how you got to this point.
- 6:22Speaker 3: But talk to me about why it was so exciting
- 6:26Speaker 3: for you to be able to work with Amputee Blade Runners,
- 6:30Speaker 3: to be able to give this amount of amazing amount
- 6:34Speaker 3: of money over that organization.
- 6:36Speaker 1: They do really great work and they provide running blades
- 6:40Speaker 1: for amputees, and I kind of wanted to work with
- 6:43Speaker 1: them because running blades are really expensive. Insurance sees it
- 6:47Speaker 1: as a luxury. Weirdly in the States, which is so
- 6:50Speaker 1: dumb for me, Like, running really changed me, like thetive
- 6:55Speaker 1: perception of how I saw myself as an amputee, because
- 7:00Speaker 1: when you become an amputee, you kind of people don't
- 7:01Speaker 1: mean to, but you get put in a box and
- 7:03Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, this is kind of where you're going
- 7:05Speaker 1: to stay. They kind of limit your abilities. And I
- 7:09Speaker 1: feel like running just showed me how strong I could be,
- 7:13Speaker 1: and it gave me this whole appreciation of my body
- 7:16Speaker 1: and kind of helped me through the process of accepting
- 7:19Speaker 1: myself as who I am. And so I really find
- 7:23Speaker 1: running is such a good healing process and I think
- 7:26Speaker 1: most runners that do run find that too. It's a
- 7:28Speaker 1: good mental It really helps your mental side of it.
- 7:31Speaker 1: And so I wanted to help other amputees because a lot,
- 7:35Speaker 1: I mean, it's just pain that you can't afford it.
- 7:37Speaker 1: You just can't. Yeah, I mean, who can ford ten
- 7:40Speaker 1: thousand dollars on a running blade because that's what they cost.
- 7:43Speaker 1: So this was just my way of giving back. I
- 7:45Speaker 1: was like, if we could just help one person, that
- 7:46Speaker 1: would be fantastic.
- 7:47Speaker 3: You're not just helping one person with over one hundred
- 7:50Speaker 3: and ninety two thousand dollars. That's truly remarkable, and it's
- 7:53Speaker 3: so interesting to hear you talk about your passion for
- 7:57Speaker 3: this sport knowing that you have haven't been.
- 8:00Speaker 2: A runner for really long.
- 8:03Speaker 3: In fact, you didn't even pick up running until after
- 8:08Speaker 3: you had your leg amputated. So before we get into that,
- 8:11Speaker 3: before we get into you developing your relationship with running,
- 8:15Speaker 3: let's learn a little bit about you coming into sport period.
- 8:19Speaker 2: Were you active growing up? Not really?
- 8:22Speaker 1: I mean I used to go to the gym. I
- 8:23Speaker 1: used to go to spin class. Does that classify myself
- 8:27Speaker 1: as very active? Yeah? I went. I crushed it in
- 8:29Speaker 1: a spin class, and that's kind of what I did.
- 8:32Speaker 1: It's weird, like when you lose part of your body,
- 8:35Speaker 1: there's a part of you that kind of wants to
- 8:37Speaker 1: just desperately be normal and just show people that you
- 8:42Speaker 1: can just because you get put in this box. And
- 8:45Speaker 1: running was one of those things where it was firstly
- 8:48Speaker 1: it was really expensive, ten thousand dollars for a bread laid,
- 8:51Speaker 1: and then secondly it's like, why would you You're an amputee.
- 8:54Speaker 1: You don't need to do you don't need to do
- 8:56Speaker 1: these things. You're fine, you can just sit on the
- 8:58Speaker 1: sofa and it's I mean, I've had that told to
- 9:02Speaker 1: me too. That's like, why no one expects anything from you.
- 9:05Speaker 1: You're now an empt just accept the way your life is.
- 9:08Speaker 1: And I'm like, no, we can do better. We can
- 9:11Speaker 1: we can do it just as good as everyone else.
- 9:14Speaker 1: And it's kind of I think I kind of went
- 9:16Speaker 1: into running as my little protest of like to the world.
- 9:21Speaker 1: I'm like, no, I belong here. This is what I'm doing,
- 9:24Speaker 1: and this is kind of what I can do. But
- 9:26Speaker 1: the funny thing is going in is as a like
- 9:30Speaker 1: before I was an empute, I saw runners were crazy.
- 9:33Speaker 1: I was like, why would you want to do that?
- 9:36Speaker 1: And that's what was my thinking. So it was it
- 9:38Speaker 1: was funny that I was, in a sense just like, well, no,
- 9:42Speaker 1: I want to give it a shot and see what happens.
- 9:44Speaker 2: And yeah, here we are, here, we are you know.
- 9:47Speaker 3: I think it is funny because I feel as though
- 9:49Speaker 3: a lot of people do sit on like one side
- 9:53Speaker 3: of that solid line, like one side of the median right.
- 9:56Speaker 3: It's like you totally understand why someone may want to
- 10:00Speaker 3: go through this on the regular or you view this
- 10:04Speaker 3: sport as a complete torture method, which fun fact treadmills
- 10:09Speaker 3: originally started in an English prison as a form of torture.
- 10:14Speaker 1: So I mean, really, I did not know that. That's
- 10:16Speaker 1: so funny it did.
- 10:19Speaker 2: They did.
- 10:20Speaker 3: I wrote an article on this recently, so yeah, I know,
- 10:23Speaker 3: absolutely crazy, But I love that you found this passion
- 10:26Speaker 3: for the sport and then used it as a vehicle
- 10:29Speaker 3: to do so much good. So we've referenced, of course
- 10:32Speaker 3: by now you being an amputee, talk to us about.
- 10:36Speaker 2: What happened and how you lost your leg.
- 10:40Speaker 1: I mean, in two thousand and two, I was diagnosed
- 10:43Speaker 1: with ing socoma, and for me, it was kind of
- 10:46Speaker 1: a bit of it. It was a span of three
- 10:48Speaker 1: weeks of a massive roller coaster because what happened was
- 10:51Speaker 1: I developed a I had a lump on my leg,
- 10:53Speaker 1: and I went to the doctor and they kind of like, wow,
- 10:56Speaker 1: that's not really good. It was kind of the size
- 10:58Speaker 1: of a golf bool. It literally has I'd gone to
- 11:00Speaker 1: bed the night, woke up in the morning and this
- 11:03Speaker 1: I suddenly had this thing on my leg. It just
- 11:06Speaker 1: totally came out of the blue. It's like, oh my goodness,
- 11:09Speaker 1: what is this. So went to the doctor and they
- 11:12Speaker 1: immediately scalull of a biopsy. And the funny thing is
- 11:16Speaker 1: I still remember, and it's weird even though it was
- 11:18Speaker 1: two thousand and two, these things in your life is
- 11:21Speaker 1: like it sticks with you as if it was yesterday,
- 11:23Speaker 1: and I just I still remember all the conversations I
- 11:26Speaker 1: had and going in for for the surgery. They were like, well,
- 11:32Speaker 1: if it's good news, we won't ring, we won't phone
- 11:34Speaker 1: you back. If it's bad news, we'll phone you within
- 11:37Speaker 1: two days. I'm like, who tells someone that? And it's
- 11:39Speaker 1: like really, So you're sitting and you're watching the phone.
- 11:42Speaker 1: It's like, okay, day one's gone by, it's all good.
- 11:45Speaker 1: Day two. And then the phone of course rings and
- 11:49Speaker 1: they break you break the news and you need to
- 11:52Speaker 1: come in, but you need to bring someone with you,
- 11:55Speaker 1: and it's like, okay, this is not good news. And
- 11:58Speaker 1: the weird thing, even though part of me I knew
- 12:00Speaker 1: it wasn't good news, cancer was never in my thinking. Weirdly,
- 12:05Speaker 1: I was like, because cancer happens to someone else, it
- 12:07Speaker 1: doesn't happen to you. It's like weird how your mind works.
- 12:10Speaker 1: And of course they broke the news to me what
- 12:12Speaker 1: it was, and I automatically thought I kind of went
- 12:16Speaker 1: into survival mode. It's weird. You kind of block things
- 12:19Speaker 1: out and you just like you feel like you're not
- 12:21Speaker 1: really there. And I could hear them talking to me,
- 12:23Speaker 1: but I wasn't there, and it's just like it's like
- 12:26Speaker 1: it's like a weird, like weird feeling. And I thought, Okay, fine,
- 12:31Speaker 1: obviously the next plan is going to be chemo and
- 12:33Speaker 1: we're going to just take this on and surgery to
- 12:35Speaker 1: remove it and they will be fine. So within two days,
- 12:39Speaker 1: I was scheduled to see the specialist. Got to the
- 12:41Speaker 1: specialist and the first thing he says to me as
- 12:43Speaker 1: I walked through, is like, chemo's not going to work
- 12:47Speaker 1: for you because of the size of the tumor. The
- 12:49Speaker 1: only thing that's going to work is amputation. So I'm
- 12:51Speaker 1: like wha. And he had already scheduled an appointment for
- 12:56Speaker 1: the next week for my surgery. So it was just
- 13:00Speaker 1: this big like I had gone from having nothing to
- 13:04Speaker 1: a lump to cancer everything within three weeks. So it
- 13:07Speaker 1: kind of it was kind of one of those things
- 13:10Speaker 1: because I was I was in my twenties when it happened,
- 13:13Speaker 1: and I kind of went into a little bit of denial,
- 13:16Speaker 1: like I didn't want to accept what was happening, and
- 13:18Speaker 1: I I kind of just thought I just wanted to
- 13:20Speaker 1: be normal and went through the surgery, had my leg amputated,
- 13:24Speaker 1: and I was I was back at the office within
- 13:27Speaker 1: six weeks because I just, you know what, I'm I'm
- 13:30Speaker 1: not an emputy. I'm not going to be disabled. And
- 13:32Speaker 1: for me, that was like a massive, big sticking point.
- 13:35Speaker 1: I was like, I'm not going to be disabled. This
- 13:37Speaker 1: is I'm just going to carry on. I just keep
- 13:40Speaker 1: going and just going, and it's and it's one of
- 13:43Speaker 1: those things where it took me a long time because
- 13:45Speaker 1: I used to just I couldn't after that, I couldn't
- 13:48Speaker 1: look at myself in the mirror. I would always just
- 13:50Speaker 1: wear pants. I'm like, it was like that part of
- 13:53Speaker 1: me I thought I was really really ugly, and it
- 13:55Speaker 1: was just it was a hard thing to kind of
- 13:58Speaker 1: accept and for a long time it was like that
- 14:01Speaker 1: was my mental struggle just to kind of get through
- 14:04Speaker 1: that and kind of have acceptance even though I was
- 14:07Speaker 1: I was having this normal life and I was doing
- 14:10Speaker 1: everything everyone else was doing. No one like if you
- 14:13Speaker 1: hadn't known my story, you would't know I was an amputee.
- 14:15Speaker 1: So I just kind of got on with things and
- 14:18Speaker 1: I didn't realize that's what I was doing. Like I
- 14:22Speaker 1: just it just became my new normal and just kind
- 14:24Speaker 1: of just carried on. And then with the running. When
- 14:27Speaker 1: I started the running, I kind of then it kind
- 14:30Speaker 1: of opened things up for me and it just it
- 14:33Speaker 1: just I finally could accept my body. And now I
- 14:36Speaker 1: never wear pants. I'm always in short because I'm like,
- 14:39Speaker 1: you know what, this is my body. This body can
- 14:42Speaker 1: run one hundred miles or do crazy things. And it's
- 14:46Speaker 1: just it gave me this whole new perception of no,
- 14:49Speaker 1: this body is pretty badass, and it's just like appreciation
- 14:53Speaker 1: and it's like now I can look myself in the
- 14:54Speaker 1: mirror and go, wow, this is incredible and stuff. So
- 14:57Speaker 1: it's and that's why I'm such a big advocate for
- 15:00Speaker 1: we need to get more emputies out running, because for me,
- 15:03Speaker 1: I wish that someone had just taken me then when
- 15:06Speaker 1: I was going through all this and say, you know what,
- 15:08Speaker 1: you need to give this a try because this will
- 15:11Speaker 1: definitely help you accept who you are and just give
- 15:14Speaker 1: it a go kind of thing.
- 15:15Speaker 2: Definitely. And I mean there's so much to double click
- 15:18Speaker 2: on here.
- 15:18Speaker 3: First and foremost, when you had this bulge develop on
- 15:21Speaker 3: your leg overnight. Did you have pain that was associated
- 15:24Speaker 3: with that or any other symptoms?
- 15:26Speaker 1: Yeah? I did. I had like I had surgery there
- 15:29Speaker 1: like years before, and it was like a scar I
- 15:31Speaker 1: had on my leg, and it had always been painful,
- 15:35Speaker 1: and every time I went back to the doctors, they
- 15:37Speaker 1: would always say that, oh, no, it's just scar tissue,
- 15:39Speaker 1: there's nothing to worry about. And at the time when
- 15:43Speaker 1: they discovered this, they actually told me, They're like, you know,
- 15:45Speaker 1: what saved your life is that this was a slow
- 15:48Speaker 1: growing tumor. So I probably had it in my body
- 15:51Speaker 1: for years, but no one bothered to kind of research
- 15:55Speaker 1: a little bit further up the pain I was having.
- 15:57Speaker 1: So it's like, it's so bizarre.
- 16:00Speaker 3: I mean, what an amazing example or unfortunate example of
- 16:04Speaker 3: like the need to be your own patient advocate, right.
- 16:07Speaker 1: And that's what I always say to everyone. I'm like,
- 16:09Speaker 1: use your voice, speak up. And it's definitely been one
- 16:13Speaker 1: of the things I've really learned, and even over the years,
- 16:15Speaker 1: like becoming an mputee and getting prosthetics and stuff, because
- 16:19Speaker 1: a lot of people the questions was, how did you
- 16:21Speaker 1: do one hundred and four marathons? On a prosthetic leg,
- 16:23Speaker 1: and I get these questions from mputees because my soccer
- 16:27Speaker 1: doesn't fit well. I could never run the distance you
- 16:30Speaker 1: are running. And I'm like, you need to be an advocate.
- 16:32Speaker 1: You need to raise your voice and say no, that
- 16:34Speaker 1: doesn't fit. It's not right. I need the best I need,
- 16:38Speaker 1: and it's okay. Fight for yourself.
- 16:40Speaker 3: You talked a lot about struggling with feeling beautiful again,
- 16:45Speaker 3: which I'm sure in so many different circumstances, amputee or not,
- 16:50Speaker 3: there are so many things that can happen in our
- 16:51Speaker 3: lives that certainly make us feel that way.
- 16:54Speaker 2: Now.
- 16:55Speaker 3: You were able to find a love in running, and
- 16:58Speaker 3: I love what it did for you. But maybe that
- 17:01Speaker 3: isn't a choice or something that a lot of people
- 17:03Speaker 3: would really like to lean into. So what else can
- 17:06Speaker 3: you perhaps identify or articulate that helped you through that
- 17:11Speaker 3: not so stellar time of really stepping into your own
- 17:14Speaker 3: in your new body.
- 17:15Speaker 1: I think I think it's just accepting what has happened.
- 17:19Speaker 1: It's the whole acceptance of what and like when these
- 17:23Speaker 1: things happen, it's something they and it's hard to say
- 17:25Speaker 1: it because you can't change what's happened. So it's find
- 17:29Speaker 1: find something that you're kind of the positive side of it.
- 17:32Speaker 1: For me, that was I had survived cancer. So it's
- 17:35Speaker 1: like looking at the perspective of, well, yes, I lost
- 17:39Speaker 1: my leg, but I'm still here today. So it's kind
- 17:42Speaker 1: of finding finding that way of because it can be
- 17:45Speaker 1: hard because you can get really really dark and all
- 17:47Speaker 1: you focus on is the negative side of it. But
- 17:50Speaker 1: you need to look at the what have you gained?
- 17:53Speaker 1: Like what is the good thing of it? And yeah,
- 17:55Speaker 1: I know it sounds weird to say that, Yeah, but
- 17:58Speaker 1: you've lost your leg, but a gain life. And I'm like, here,
- 18:01Speaker 1: I wouldn't have been here if they hadn't amputated my leg.
- 18:05Speaker 2: Right, right. And so you were twenty six when this happened.
- 18:09Speaker 3: Yes, okay, twenty six years old when you had your
- 18:11Speaker 3: leg amputated. Not yet a mother, I'm sure for your
- 18:16Speaker 3: family dynamic as time went on and then you had
- 18:20Speaker 3: your children, it must have been interesting and rewarding for
- 18:24Speaker 3: you to take on new titles and to find new
- 18:27Speaker 3: sources of identity.
- 18:29Speaker 1: It was and it's and what's amazing is my kids
- 18:32Speaker 1: have grown up just know me as an emputy. They
- 18:35Speaker 1: don't know me differently, so they're so used to the
- 18:38Speaker 1: way I look at my stump and things like that,
- 18:40Speaker 1: and it's like often they're like when I'm walking outside
- 18:43Speaker 1: and people stare or point, They'll go, Mommy, why do
- 18:47Speaker 1: they always do that, It's like, it's just your leg,
- 18:49Speaker 1: there's nothing different. So for them it's just like, Oh,
- 18:52Speaker 1: that's part of my mom and it's just who she is.
- 18:54Speaker 1: So it's it's really sweet, and yeah, what.
- 18:58Speaker 3: A beautiful lesson for them, like to see all different
- 19:02Speaker 3: forms of people as beautiful. And also of note here
- 19:06Speaker 3: you did talk about going through the mental recovery, but
- 19:10Speaker 3: also the physical recovery I would assume had its fair
- 19:13Speaker 3: share of challenges.
- 19:14Speaker 2: Can you reflect on that experience with us?
- 19:17Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it is it's a tedious process when
- 19:21Speaker 1: when you have when you have your amputato, it's just
- 19:25Speaker 1: it's a lot of pain. It's like it's it's nothing
- 19:29Speaker 1: you can prepare you for the amount of pain. Even
- 19:33Speaker 1: though like, and it was great in the hospital. I
- 19:36Speaker 1: was on morphine for a while, which was fantastic because
- 19:39Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I'm not feeling anything, and then the
- 19:42Speaker 1: shock comes when they send you home because you don't
- 19:45Speaker 1: have that anymore. And it's just like you you kind
- 19:47Speaker 1: of have to deal with this incredible amount of pain
- 19:51Speaker 1: and just it can be debilitating because it's it's just
- 19:56Speaker 1: there's just I can't I can't describe it. But then
- 19:59Speaker 1: it's also the the other little things that you need
- 20:01Speaker 1: to get used to. It's like getting up in the morning.
- 20:03Speaker 1: I fell out of bed a few times because your
- 20:06Speaker 1: brain still it's the weirdest thing. Your brain still thinks
- 20:10Speaker 1: your foot is there. So when you do anything, like
- 20:13Speaker 1: you get up at night and get out of bed.
- 20:15Speaker 1: I had to swear we had to switch sides on
- 20:16Speaker 1: our bed. Like it's just a simple thing, because as
- 20:19Speaker 1: soon as I was getting out of bed, I put
- 20:21Speaker 1: my foot out and I'd fall flat on my face.
- 20:24Speaker 1: It's just it's such a like my brain took a
- 20:27Speaker 1: while to kind of realize the foot wasn't there anymore,
- 20:30Speaker 1: and then you have the whole phantom pain. Like I'd
- 20:33Speaker 1: get my big toe with itch. It's the weirdest thing,
- 20:36Speaker 1: and then you kind of like you reach down to
- 20:39Speaker 1: scratch your non existent toe. It's like in the beginning
- 20:43Speaker 1: it was like, oh my goodness, but now I laugh
- 20:45Speaker 1: about it because I'm like, this is hilarious and it's
- 20:47Speaker 1: like my husband's like, do you realize what you've just did?
- 20:49Speaker 1: I was like, well what am I doing? It's like
- 20:51Speaker 1: you just scratch your non existent toe and I was like,
- 20:53Speaker 1: oh yeah, it just kind of becomes yeah, you kind
- 20:58Speaker 1: of you have to make like And that's the other
- 21:01Speaker 1: thing I'd like say to other NPCs, like, when you
- 21:03Speaker 1: going through this, is you kind of there's a part
- 21:06Speaker 1: of it you need to accept it. But and I
- 21:08Speaker 1: always try to make it lighthearted and just kind of
- 21:10Speaker 1: see the funny. I mean, I know it's serious, but
- 21:13Speaker 1: it's laughter really helps. So it's just that's why I'm
- 21:16Speaker 1: always wearing funny shirts and stuff like that, because I
- 21:18Speaker 1: just I feel it's it's part of life, and it's
- 21:21Speaker 1: just if you can kind of find the funny side
- 21:24Speaker 1: in things sometimes it.
- 21:25Speaker 2: Also helps, Yeah, of course for sure. And for you.
- 21:30Speaker 3: Then you also mentioned and we talked about we touched
- 21:33Speaker 3: on how you only recently started running about five years ago,
- 21:38Speaker 3: the cost of the blade very a lot of money,
- 21:42Speaker 3: how far into moving in this way, like did you
- 21:45Speaker 3: buy the blade? And then you were like, well, I
- 21:47Speaker 3: spend all this money on this thing, so now it's
- 21:49Speaker 3: time to use it.
- 21:50Speaker 1: Exactly, and that's why I'm I'm pushing I'm getting my
- 21:52Speaker 1: money's money's worth out of my blade. That's why I'm
- 21:55Speaker 1: pushing these limits.
- 21:57Speaker 3: Yeah, people buy like treadmills all the time and then
- 22:00Speaker 3: don't touch them for years. I mean, I would assume
- 22:02Speaker 3: that a prosthetic is a lot, But that was.
- 22:06Speaker 1: One of those things. My husband's like, you better like
- 22:08Speaker 1: this because we're spending like ten grand on this, you
- 22:11Speaker 1: better like it. I was like, oh, yeah, no pressure there.
- 22:14Speaker 3: Now, As someone not an amputee, would you say that
- 22:18Speaker 3: the active prosthetic or is there a proper name that
- 22:21Speaker 3: I should be using for this a running blade?
- 22:24Speaker 2: It's a running prosthetic, okay?
- 22:25Speaker 3: Would you say that this is more comfortable than perhaps
- 22:28Speaker 3: your every day or it's just a different feeling.
- 22:30Speaker 1: It's a different feeling, like my every day is great.
- 22:33Speaker 1: Like the running blade is really hard to walk in,
- 22:37Speaker 1: so like it's it's just different because the walk the
- 22:40Speaker 1: walking processus has a foot on it, like a proper foot,
- 22:44Speaker 1: So it's just it's good. It's created for that. Where
- 22:47Speaker 1: it's a running blade, it's a little bit more springy
- 22:49Speaker 1: and it's made for running, so it kind of pushes you.
- 22:53Speaker 1: It kind of just helps with that momentum of your
- 22:55Speaker 1: your missing ankle, so it just kind of helps your movement.
- 22:59Speaker 1: So when you're walking in it, it's not designed for that,
- 23:02Speaker 1: so it kind of makes it a little bit more uncomfortable.
- 23:06Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 23:06Speaker 3: Wow, that's so it's so interesting because I mean, one
- 23:09Speaker 3: would think like, oh, it must be more flexible, it
- 23:11Speaker 3: must be more comfortable to use regularly, but that's well.
- 23:16Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's that's probably because it is more flexible.
- 23:19Speaker 1: It just kind of it It's weird because when you stand,
- 23:22Speaker 1: it kind of pushes your stump a little bit more forward,
- 23:25Speaker 1: if that makes sense. So it's it's definitely more flexible,
- 23:28Speaker 1: but when you're trying walk in that, it just makes
- 23:30Speaker 1: it more uncomfortable. It's weird, but it's it's yeah, it's
- 23:35Speaker 1: it's great because it's it's quite lightweight, so it just
- 23:38Speaker 1: it just makes running a lot more comfortable.
- 23:40Speaker 3: So when you started using your running prosthetic, did you
- 23:45Speaker 3: feel excited?
- 23:46Speaker 2: Did you feel dread? Did you feel like, Wow, it's
- 23:49Speaker 2: going to take me some time to get used to that.
- 23:52Speaker 1: I felt the first time I ran with it, I
- 23:55Speaker 1: felt like I was flying. It was the weirdest sensation.
- 23:57Speaker 1: But then also I was a little on us because
- 24:01Speaker 1: it's a weird thing. They the process is hilarious because
- 24:06Speaker 1: you get you get casted for this prosthetic and then
- 24:10Speaker 1: they put the foot on. When you get your final
- 24:13Speaker 1: like they give you a test socket and then they
- 24:16Speaker 1: had it to you and then they go, well there
- 24:18Speaker 1: you go off you go go run and it's like,
- 24:21Speaker 1: wait a minute, how do I do this? So you
- 24:24Speaker 1: have to figure that out because it's it's kind of
- 24:27Speaker 1: like going out if you went for a run and
- 24:29Speaker 1: you had your eyes closed. It's kind of that same feeling.
- 24:32Speaker 1: It's because you're running on something that your brain hasn't
- 24:35Speaker 1: picked up yet, so you're kind of nervous, like to
- 24:38Speaker 1: put all your weight on it. And for me, that
- 24:41Speaker 1: that's part took a long time because I had to
- 24:43Speaker 1: develop those muscles and develop a relationship between my brain
- 24:47Speaker 1: and the prosthetic just to kind of get that rhythm,
- 24:50Speaker 1: going to fix up my stride because my stride was
- 24:52Speaker 1: awful in the beginning because it just wasn't It just
- 24:55Speaker 1: didn't feel normal. It just didn't feel right, and it
- 24:58Speaker 1: was like weird. But yeah, it just takes some time
- 25:02Speaker 1: and then you kind of get used to it and
- 25:03Speaker 1: your brain kind of like picks up a little bit
- 25:05Speaker 1: and it's like, oh, okay, we can trust this, we
- 25:07Speaker 1: can trust this weird thing.
- 25:09Speaker 3: Yeah, and what about the cardiovascular side of things. I mean,
- 25:13Speaker 3: to go from not running to running in itself for
- 25:16Speaker 3: anyone prosthetic or not, amputy or not is not no.
- 25:21Speaker 1: Because my first five k I thought I was going
- 25:23Speaker 1: to die. I was like, what did I get myself into?
- 25:27Speaker 1: And then I'm thinking, oh, I sent ten thousand dollars
- 25:30Speaker 1: on this blade. I better like it. I better kind
- 25:32Speaker 1: of keep going at it.
- 25:34Speaker 2: Oh my god. So it was challenging.
- 25:37Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. It was great because it was a
- 25:39Speaker 1: great challenge and I think it Yeah, it was just
- 25:43Speaker 1: it kind of even though it was really hard, I
- 25:45Speaker 1: just felt like I was doing something I thought would
- 25:48Speaker 1: be impossible, and there's there's something with that. It just
- 25:52Speaker 1: gives you a new motivation and it just kind of
- 25:55Speaker 1: and yes, even though I've kind of gone from that
- 25:58Speaker 1: five ks two one hundred and doing this hundred, I've
- 26:01Speaker 1: had days where I'm like I don't want to run.
- 26:04Speaker 1: I hate the sport. And I mean we all go
- 26:07Speaker 1: through that because it just it gets I mean, running
- 26:09Speaker 1: is not easy. It is a tough sport to get into,
- 26:12Speaker 1: but it has so much good that you kind of
- 26:15Speaker 1: stick with that and it's just, yeah, I love it.
- 26:18Speaker 3: So then, what has been the evolution of trying to
- 26:23Speaker 3: get through the five k to actually really falling in
- 26:26Speaker 3: love with this thing and talking about it with this
- 26:29Speaker 3: fondness that you reflect on it so much with now?
- 26:32Speaker 1: I'm yeah, at some point, it just clicked. And that's
- 26:35Speaker 1: why I always I always say to anyone that kind
- 26:38Speaker 1: of wants to start running, is don't judge your run
- 26:40Speaker 1: by your first the first try, because guaranteed most runners
- 26:45Speaker 1: didn't love it from the beginning. Is kind of It's
- 26:48Speaker 1: kind of one of those things where you just a
- 26:51Speaker 1: few runs in and then suddenly somewhere it just clicks
- 26:54Speaker 1: and you're like, oh my goodness, this is just amazing.
- 26:56Speaker 1: I love the sport and you just kind of get
- 26:58Speaker 1: in and for me, it kind of clicked. And then
- 27:02Speaker 1: I just started kind of upping distances and just kind
- 27:04Speaker 1: of just pushing more boundaries, and I'm like, wow, this
- 27:07Speaker 1: is incredible. I can do really really hard things and
- 27:10Speaker 1: just like kind of just carried on with it.
- 27:13Speaker 2: Just kind of carried out carried on.
- 27:16Speaker 3: I do feel as though that app lesson is certainly
- 27:19Speaker 3: applicable to so many things.
- 27:21Speaker 1: Right.
- 27:21Speaker 3: There are so many things that we put our effort
- 27:23Speaker 3: to into one day or another, and on that one
- 27:26Speaker 3: particular day it could feel completely wonky and just not
- 27:30Speaker 3: like we are, you know, have any substance in our life.
- 27:33Speaker 3: And then the next day it just you have just
- 27:36Speaker 3: that one good moment that reminds you of what you're capable.
- 27:39Speaker 1: Of exactly exactly. And I think too often we give
- 27:42Speaker 1: up on ourselves too quickly, and it's just if we
- 27:45Speaker 1: just kept at things and just kind of tried one
- 27:48Speaker 1: more time, you surprise yourself.
- 27:51Speaker 2: Yeah, you never know what's going to happen with that
- 27:52Speaker 2: one time.
- 27:53Speaker 3: So talk to me then about your first ever marathon.
- 27:59Speaker 1: My first ever marathon was Chicago actually in twenty seventeen. Yeah,
- 28:06Speaker 1: that was that was I was quite a mess.
- 28:10Speaker 2: Divine mess, Jackie.
- 28:12Speaker 1: Oh, it was just like I couldn't wait to get
- 28:14Speaker 1: to the finish line. I was like, oh my goodness,
- 28:17Speaker 1: I need to get done now. I mean, to be honest,
- 28:20Speaker 1: go going into it, I hadn't. I hadn't really trained
- 28:23Speaker 1: them much as I should have done. Probably if I'm
- 28:26Speaker 1: totally honest with myself, but I still smile when I
- 28:29Speaker 1: think about Chicago Marathon, just because even though it was hard,
- 28:33Speaker 1: it was just the atmosphere of the crowd. It was like, Wow,
- 28:38Speaker 1: it was just incredible. It definitely is, and probably because
- 28:41Speaker 1: it was my first, it is one of my favorite
- 28:43Speaker 1: marathons that I kind of just remember and yeah, it
- 28:47Speaker 1: was just it was just an amazing experience.
- 28:50Speaker 3: And did you feel as though you were hooked from
- 28:52Speaker 3: that point on or did you think when you finished
- 28:54Speaker 3: that you may never do one again?
- 28:56Speaker 1: I probably I remember saying when I crossed the finish
- 28:59Speaker 1: line doing this again, and then ten minutes later I
- 29:02Speaker 1: was like, oh, heck, sign me up again.
- 29:06Speaker 3: And then, of course, fast forward five years and here
- 29:10Speaker 3: we are. So now let's segue into the conception of
- 29:14Speaker 3: this crazy idea.
- 29:16Speaker 2: Where were you, where were you sitting? Who were you
- 29:18Speaker 2: with when you.
- 29:19Speaker 3: Said I have this thought about this thing.
- 29:24Speaker 1: Yeah. I remember when I broke the news to my husband,
- 29:27Speaker 1: He's like, wait, what what are you going to do again?
- 29:29Speaker 1: And he rolled his eyes at me. It came kind
- 29:31Speaker 1: of put on a post through social media, as it does,
- 29:34Speaker 1: and that someone had done ninety five consecutive days, and
- 29:38Speaker 1: it was they said this, yeah, and it was just
- 29:40Speaker 1: like and I looked at that and I thought, oh,
- 29:42Speaker 1: my goodness, that looks amazing. I'm like, I wonder if
- 29:45Speaker 1: I could, as an mputee, if I'd be able to
- 29:47Speaker 1: take that on. Because I was looking at stupidly, I
- 29:51Speaker 1: was like, oh, what's going to be my next challenge,
- 29:53Speaker 1: not as if anything else I'm doing was hard enough.
- 29:55Speaker 1: I was like, oh, yeah, let's see how much more
- 29:57Speaker 1: can I push myself. And then this came up, and
- 30:00Speaker 1: I was like it would be really good. Like they
- 30:02Speaker 1: finished on ninety five and I was like, no, why
- 30:05Speaker 1: didn't you finish on one hundred? It's just five more.
- 30:10Speaker 1: I can't believe. I was like, thinking, it's only five more,
- 30:14Speaker 1: and so I kind of just like that's how it went.
- 30:19Speaker 1: And I just told my husband, oh wow, I saw
- 30:21Speaker 1: this ninety five consecutive marathons. I'm going to go after it.
- 30:25Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm going to do it. I'm going to
- 30:26Speaker 1: do one hundred and I've applied. I've applied to take
- 30:30Speaker 1: it on, so I'm going to start on this day.
- 30:32Speaker 1: I had already worked it all out and I'm like, oh, yeah,
- 30:35Speaker 1: do you mind, I'm going to do this. He's like,
- 30:37Speaker 1: wait what?
- 30:40Speaker 3: And this became your full time job, like you're not
- 30:43Speaker 3: working nine to five and then also finding time drawing
- 30:46Speaker 3: a marathon.
- 30:47Speaker 1: No, this this became my main job. I mean I
- 30:50Speaker 1: do coaching on this. I kind of do coaching and stuff.
- 30:53Speaker 1: But that kind of took a bit of a backstep
- 30:55Speaker 1: just so I could focus on this because it was
- 30:57Speaker 1: weird because you're doing them something but their normal life,
- 31:01Speaker 1: like my kids had to go to school, my kids
- 31:03Speaker 1: had to do homework, you need to cook dinner, and
- 31:06Speaker 1: and it's like everything kind of kind of blurred into
- 31:09Speaker 1: one a little bit because we had to still normal
- 31:11Speaker 1: life was still going on.
- 31:14Speaker 2: How many marathons?
- 31:15Speaker 1: Aden?
- 31:15Speaker 3: Did you have your first thought? Am I actually going
- 31:19Speaker 3: to keep doing this? I?
- 31:21Speaker 1: I yeah. I kind of had like a mixed mixed
- 31:24Speaker 1: emotions because when I started, I didn't know how far
- 31:27Speaker 1: it would get. Then I thought, you know what, I
- 31:29Speaker 1: might actually only make it to thirty because there were
- 31:32Speaker 1: so many factors I had to think about running with
- 31:34Speaker 1: a blade, like, yeah, is my stump My biggest concern was,
- 31:38Speaker 1: is my stump actually gonna hold up? Because it's because
- 31:41Speaker 1: my stump is really bony, and it's like I always
- 31:44Speaker 1: get issues with my tibia and a lot of swelling
- 31:47Speaker 1: and things like that. So there was like all these
- 31:49Speaker 1: unknown factors. Like going into it, I was like, well,
- 31:52Speaker 1: we'll see, maybe maybe my blade snaps when I get
- 31:56Speaker 1: to city, my city marathon. You just didn't know. So
- 31:59Speaker 1: when I got to when I actually got to thirty five,
- 32:03Speaker 1: I was like, oh my goodness, Okay, I'm actually maybe
- 32:07Speaker 1: gonna do this. It's kind of like, okay, I've got
- 32:10Speaker 1: this far. Now I can kind of just keep pushing
- 32:12Speaker 1: through and just kind of keep going. And then I
- 32:15Speaker 1: had like I got to fifty and I had this
- 32:18Speaker 1: whole total breakdown. I was like, you know what, And
- 32:21Speaker 1: it's weird because I actually posted about that because it
- 32:24Speaker 1: was I was tired and my brain like, it's weird.
- 32:28Speaker 1: How what I've learned with this whole process is how
- 32:31Speaker 1: powerful your mind is. And my mind started telling me
- 32:35Speaker 1: is like, you know what, fifty is a good distance.
- 32:37Speaker 1: Don't overdo it. You're fine. You like fifty, no one
- 32:42Speaker 1: will say anything fifty marathons, fifty days is fantastic. And
- 32:46Speaker 1: it's just like I had to fight through that. I'm like, no,
- 32:49Speaker 1: I'm gonna like, I'm like, physically, I feel absolutely fine.
- 32:53Speaker 1: If I quit now, I'm gonna be really really disappointed
- 32:56Speaker 1: in myself, especially because if if I haven't broken my
- 32:59Speaker 1: foot or my blade hasn't broken, I had absolutely no
- 33:04Speaker 1: excuse to keep going, to not keep going. So that's
- 33:07Speaker 1: kind of how I was like playing with my like
- 33:10Speaker 1: mind games all the time. It was it was it
- 33:12Speaker 1: was funny that I was just having to convince myself
- 33:15Speaker 1: the whole time just to keep going.
- 33:21Speaker 3: Taking a break from today's episode to give some love
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- 33:48Speaker 2: It's important.
- 33:48Speaker 3: And so that is where literally every morning I feel
- 33:53Speaker 3: so confident in my decision to shake up a bottle
- 33:57Speaker 3: of AG one from Athletic Greens. The other today, my
- 34:00Speaker 3: dad asked me how much vitamin C comes in one
- 34:04Speaker 3: serving of Athletic Greens, And let me tell.
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- 34:49Speaker 3: I get a lot of questions about what it tastes like.
- 34:51Speaker 3: I think it tastes a little sweet. It's got hints
- 34:53Speaker 3: of pineapple in there. It's not grassy like other green
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- 35:24Speaker 2: Let's get back to it.
- 35:32Speaker 3: How did you feel on day number one when you
- 35:36Speaker 3: shared your goal with the world scared? I was actually
- 35:41Speaker 3: really impressed that you stepped outside of your comfort zone
- 35:46Speaker 3: that early, Like you made the announcement and you were like,
- 35:49Speaker 3: I'm in because it could have been.
- 35:51Speaker 2: Super simple for you to just start this.
- 35:54Speaker 3: And see how it fell and then tell the world.
- 35:58Speaker 1: It's kind of the whole thing accountability, I guess a
- 36:01Speaker 1: little bit. Because you tell the world, oh, I'm doing this,
- 36:04Speaker 1: and there is a bit of a responsibility. You then
- 36:06Speaker 1: feel like, well, I've put it all out there, I
- 36:09Speaker 1: can't fail now kind of thing. But it's really really
- 36:13Speaker 1: scary to put yourself out there. But I always teach
- 36:16Speaker 1: my kids that, you know what, it's okay to fail. Fail.
- 36:20Speaker 1: A failure doesn't mean that it's the end of it.
- 36:24Speaker 1: What means is that the best thing is that you
- 36:26Speaker 1: tried and you gave it a shot. And I just
- 36:29Speaker 1: feel like that is just a lot of us. A
- 36:32Speaker 1: lot of the times people don't try things because they're
- 36:34Speaker 1: more scared of the failure than giving it a try.
- 36:37Speaker 1: And I've learned the most out of Like when I've
- 36:40Speaker 1: failed at a race and I say fail, for me,
- 36:43Speaker 1: it's never been a failure. It's always a lesson. I've
- 36:46Speaker 1: always learned something Like if I haven't had finished a race,
- 36:49Speaker 1: I've learned and I'm like, Okay, well next time, I
- 36:51Speaker 1: can do things better. And this is what So I
- 36:54Speaker 1: deliberately kind of put myself out there because yeah, I
- 36:57Speaker 1: could fail big time and it would be like it
- 37:00Speaker 1: would be partly embarrassing, but it's also you know what,
- 37:03Speaker 1: this is who I am, and sometimes things don't go
- 37:06Speaker 1: your way and it's okay, then you pick yourself up
- 37:08Speaker 1: and you try again.
- 37:09Speaker 2: I appreciate that mentality for sure.
- 37:11Speaker 3: You know, it's definitely a theme that we talk a
- 37:15Speaker 3: lot about here on Hurdle. And for you to know
- 37:19Speaker 3: that this could go so many different directions and that
- 37:22Speaker 3: whatever direction that it went in would be one that
- 37:26Speaker 3: you could learn from, that's really really valuable.
- 37:28Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely super valuable.
- 37:31Speaker 3: So you talked about getting to these like little benchmarks
- 37:34Speaker 3: along the way that kind of instilled confidence that.
- 37:37Speaker 2: You could keep going.
- 37:38Speaker 3: But I'm sure that did not mean that you didn't
- 37:41Speaker 3: face your fair share of hurdles on your journey. So
- 37:45Speaker 3: when you reflect on that period of time and you
- 37:48Speaker 3: think about those one hundred and four marathons, what would
- 37:51Speaker 3: you say were some of the biggest hurdles that you
- 37:54Speaker 3: face along the way.
- 37:55Speaker 1: I think it was it was emotional, Like I remember
- 38:00Speaker 1: at one point I kind of like some of the
- 38:03Speaker 1: runs were just hard. They were really really hard. Like
- 38:05Speaker 1: you get up and you were like your mind is
- 38:09Speaker 1: like I'm tired. My body is tight, and it's like
- 38:13Speaker 1: my muscles are all tight, and it's like, oh my goodness,
- 38:16Speaker 1: I need to run another marathon, as like how am
- 38:18Speaker 1: I going to get through this? And then you start
- 38:21Speaker 1: and things just don't feel nice. It's like this is
- 38:24Speaker 1: really hard and you're just kind of finding like the
- 38:27Speaker 1: emotions and the one particular runner it was a hard
- 38:30Speaker 1: run and it's like I would stop at mile five
- 38:32Speaker 1: and I was like I kind of sat down. I
- 38:34Speaker 1: was like I don't think I can do this, and yeah,
- 38:37Speaker 1: this is like really hard. I'm like I'm just not
- 38:39Speaker 1: because you get those runs where you go out and
- 38:41Speaker 1: you're just not feeling it. It's just like this is
- 38:44Speaker 1: just your strides off, everything's just not jelling, and it's
- 38:47Speaker 1: just like but then I kind of I've learned now,
- 38:50Speaker 1: and I think with this whole process, it's really built
- 38:53Speaker 1: mental strength. So I'm so grateful that I did go
- 38:58Speaker 1: down this journey because it's kind of one of those
- 39:00Speaker 1: things where I had to learn and say, Okay, it's okay,
- 39:03Speaker 1: just focus on the next mile. And that's what I
- 39:05Speaker 1: did with a lot of the runs when they were
- 39:07Speaker 1: really really hard. I just focus on the next mile
- 39:09Speaker 1: and then get to the mile, celebrate that mile, you know,
- 39:12Speaker 1: just like because I think a lot of the times
- 39:14Speaker 1: when we when we're doing hard things, we forget to
- 39:16Speaker 1: celebrate and we forget to like pat ourselves on the
- 39:19Speaker 1: back because you did a great job, you phenomen just
- 39:21Speaker 1: keep going. And so that's what I did, and it's
- 39:24Speaker 1: just like I just kind of just every step of
- 39:26Speaker 1: the just kind of one step at a time, just
- 39:28Speaker 1: kind of get and then before you know it, you're like, ad,
- 39:31Speaker 1: you've done the distance, and it's like heck, yeah, I
- 39:33Speaker 1: thought through that. And then it's kind of weird because
- 39:35Speaker 1: then you feel you feel really great about yourself, like
- 39:38Speaker 1: you forget about the good runs. You like, you know
- 39:41Speaker 1: what I crushed a bad run. I totally crushed the
- 39:44Speaker 1: bad run.
- 39:45Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 39:45Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 39:46Speaker 3: They always say that you learn more from your failures
- 39:48Speaker 3: and the hard times than you do from the big
- 39:51Speaker 3: moments of celebration and success.
- 39:54Speaker 2: Yeah, waking up.
- 39:55Speaker 3: Everyday groundhogs day running for something like five hours, would
- 39:59Speaker 3: you say, Yeah, was there any single marathon effort that
- 40:04Speaker 3: you literally asked yourself, am I going to be able
- 40:07Speaker 3: to finish this?
- 40:08Speaker 1: Yeah? I think it was probably well at like number
- 40:11Speaker 1: eighty or something like that. And it's weird because it's
- 40:15Speaker 1: it's like you're so close, but yet you're still so far.
- 40:19Speaker 1: And it's like because like people are like, oh, yes, eighty,
- 40:21Speaker 1: you've only got like twenty at the time, I was
- 40:23Speaker 1: only going for one hundred, You've only got like, you've
- 40:26Speaker 1: only got twenty left, And it's like, no, you do
- 40:29Speaker 1: realize how much work that is. Kind of you you
- 40:32Speaker 1: become overwhelmed with her and you're like, I'm just so
- 40:35Speaker 1: tired you you can't see stray and and so I yeah,
- 40:39Speaker 1: I had to kind of fight through those like really
- 40:42Speaker 1: really hard times just to kind of keep going. But
- 40:44Speaker 1: then you focus on the bigger picture and you're like, well,
- 40:46Speaker 1: if you quit now you're going to be so disappointed
- 40:48Speaker 1: because you you are that close, and it's like you
- 40:51Speaker 1: kind of try and change the wording and just kind
- 40:53Speaker 1: of try and change your mindset a little bit.
- 40:56Speaker 2: I remember and escapes me when this was.
- 41:00Speaker 3: But there was one day that you ran to.
- 41:04Speaker 1: Told me, remind me, yeah, that was number thirty five.
- 41:09Speaker 2: Of course it was, Yeah, it was.
- 41:12Speaker 1: It was. It was a weird thing. And it's like,
- 41:14Speaker 1: I'm who knows because the rules, the rules aren't like
- 41:19Speaker 1: totally black and white, and it's like it's open for interpretation.
- 41:23Speaker 1: And I had signed up, I was actually going to
- 41:26Speaker 1: do a race that day, and I had signed up
- 41:28Speaker 1: for a marathon, but with childcare with my kiddos and stuff,
- 41:31Speaker 1: I changed it. I changed it to the half. So
- 41:33Speaker 1: I thought, you know what, it'd be fine. I'll do
- 41:35Speaker 1: the half and then I'll come and check and make
- 41:38Speaker 1: sure my kids are okay, and then I'll do the
- 41:40Speaker 1: other half. I know it. It doesn't It definitely doesn't
- 41:43Speaker 1: say that you can't kind of split it. And that
- 41:45Speaker 1: was the first time I had ever done that. Like
- 41:47Speaker 1: I've always like gone out and just did everything a
- 41:50Speaker 1: marathon and it was just like this, I was like well,
- 41:53Speaker 1: there's nothing else I can do right now, so I'm
- 41:55Speaker 1: just going to have to do that and just hopefully
- 41:57Speaker 1: and obviously being on social media and being open, you're
- 42:02Speaker 1: always going to be open for criticism, which was fine,
- 42:06Speaker 1: and a few people kind of came back and said,
- 42:08Speaker 1: well that didn't count then, and I was like part
- 42:12Speaker 1: of me and a lot of people so then said
- 42:14Speaker 1: you shouldn't have cared because it did count, and I'm like, yeah,
- 42:16Speaker 1: but I'm not one hundred percent sure. And it's like
- 42:19Speaker 1: when you're doing something like this, if you get to
- 42:21Speaker 1: the end and then you have to submit all your
- 42:25Speaker 1: data and stuff, and then they're going to come back
- 42:27Speaker 1: and say, well, actually thirty five didn't count, so then
- 42:30Speaker 1: you'd feel bad because you'd like, oh, shoot, I should
- 42:33Speaker 1: have just so it was weird. I saw that. I'm like, right,
- 42:38Speaker 1: you know what, I'm just gonna go do another one.
- 42:40Speaker 1: And I literally went out and ran a full marathon,
- 42:44Speaker 1: and I was like part of me was broken at
- 42:46Speaker 1: the end because I literally I think I made it
- 42:48Speaker 1: within six minutes of the time, because I had to
- 42:51Speaker 1: do it before twelve because you have to do it
- 42:54Speaker 1: within the twenty four hours, so that was counting against
- 42:57Speaker 1: me too, And yeah, it was hard because I hadn't
- 43:02Speaker 1: obviously not plan nutrition for running fifty miles. I mean
- 43:06Speaker 1: because when I when I do my ultras, I the
- 43:09Speaker 1: nutrition is a little bit different, like on the day
- 43:11Speaker 1: and stuff like that, because you just obviously you need
- 43:13Speaker 1: more calories and things. Yeah, so it kind of from there,
- 43:19Speaker 1: and it's like part of me couldn't believe I had
- 43:21Speaker 1: actually done it. A lot of I'm like, I'm like,
- 43:24Speaker 1: am I some kind of freak? I don't know, because
- 43:26Speaker 1: I kind of just got on with it and got
- 43:27Speaker 1: it done, and it was I think it was just
- 43:31Speaker 1: part of like, well, now this see I've done it
- 43:34Speaker 1: and it's correct and that's it. It's done, and dust
- 43:36Speaker 1: it because I don't I kind of want to do
- 43:39Speaker 1: things correctly and as it's probably I'm a bit of
- 43:42Speaker 1: a perfectionist. So I think that's probably my damfall too,
- 43:45Speaker 1: because most people wouldn't care. And then but the hard
- 43:49Speaker 1: thing was next two days because I had to kind
- 43:52Speaker 1: of catch up on calories because I had a bit
- 43:54Speaker 1: of a deficit. So the next two runs were really
- 43:57Speaker 1: really hard. And this whole process has taught me how
- 44:00Speaker 1: amazing our bodies are because it's like my body adapted again,
- 44:03Speaker 1: and it just kind of I was like, how am
- 44:05Speaker 1: I doing this? It's just like it's just kind of
- 44:08Speaker 1: just going and it just keeps going. And that's why
- 44:10Speaker 1: I'm a very strong believer you. We're stronger than what
- 44:13Speaker 1: we think we are. It's normally our mindset hold us
- 44:15Speaker 1: back and it's just like this, Yeah and yeah.
- 44:19Speaker 2: Two follow up questions from that.
- 44:20Speaker 3: First of all, you mentioned how difficult it can be
- 44:24Speaker 3: at times to be open about your process. Now so
- 44:27Speaker 3: many people keeping up with you on social media. I
- 44:30Speaker 3: feel like anytime I look at one of your tweets,
- 44:32Speaker 3: like four thousand people have liked it.
- 44:34Speaker 2: Talk to me about that.
- 44:36Speaker 3: Talk to me about how that has been the adjustment
- 44:39Speaker 3: of opening yourself up to that criticism has been, and
- 44:43Speaker 3: how you navigate it on a daily basis.
- 44:46Speaker 2: To have so many people keeping up with you.
- 44:48Speaker 1: I try, and because it can. It's it's kind of
- 44:52Speaker 1: one of those things where you have a love hate
- 44:54Speaker 1: relationship with social media because it's it can be. It's
- 44:57Speaker 1: full of so much good and that's what I focus on,
- 45:00Speaker 1: and sometimes you kind of tend to like focus on
- 45:04Speaker 1: like the negative side of it a little bit too.
- 45:06Speaker 1: Much sometimes And what I've done with this whole one
- 45:08Speaker 1: hundred and four is I have made an effort to
- 45:13Speaker 1: focus on the really good and that's what got me
- 45:15Speaker 1: through because the support has been phenomenal. It has been
- 45:20Speaker 1: absolutely and yes, it's scary. It is so scary to
- 45:23Speaker 1: like post like because I remember the first time I
- 45:26Speaker 1: ever did a tweet, I was like, what am I doing?
- 45:28Speaker 1: What do I write? And stuff? And now I just
- 45:31Speaker 1: kind of put it out there and I'm like, it's
- 45:32Speaker 1: scary because you're like, yeah, it's someone going to come
- 45:35Speaker 1: back and criticize me or someone going to say something,
- 45:37Speaker 1: and how do you deal with that? And it's like
- 45:40Speaker 1: you just learn to deal with it and you just
- 45:42Speaker 1: ignore the bad and you just focus on the good
- 45:45Speaker 1: because there is so much good out there. And it's
- 45:48Speaker 1: just I just I can never thank people enough for
- 45:52Speaker 1: the amount of sport I go with doing this. It's
- 45:55Speaker 1: just it's been phenomenal.
- 45:57Speaker 2: It blows my mind the end of it.
- 46:00Speaker 3: As that make it a priority and take the time
- 46:04Speaker 3: out of their day to bring somebody else down who
- 46:07Speaker 3: is clearly trying to do something so good. It's not
- 46:11Speaker 3: as though you were just going after this for the record. Like,
- 46:15Speaker 3: so much good came from this effort. It's acronomical.
- 46:21Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And that's I had the conversation actually with
- 46:24Speaker 1: my husband this morning. I'm like, even if someone else
- 46:26Speaker 1: goes off to the record, for me, it wasn't about
- 46:28Speaker 1: the record ever. It was like the record was a
- 46:31Speaker 1: nice thing, but I wanted to do good. I wanted
- 46:34Speaker 1: to show people that they can be stronger than what
- 46:37Speaker 1: they think they are and just and raise money. And
- 46:40Speaker 1: it's just the whole journey. And it's like, and I
- 46:43Speaker 1: agree with you. I'm not sure why people feel the
- 46:45Speaker 1: need to bring other people down because I grew up
- 46:50Speaker 1: saying wow, my parents were really really strict and they
- 46:54Speaker 1: always said, if you don't have anything good to say,
- 46:55Speaker 1: don't say it. So I'm like, that's how I that's
- 46:58Speaker 1: my motto if if if I see something I don't
- 47:01Speaker 1: agree with and that deep another person. Really that's what
- 47:05Speaker 1: they're I'm like, you know what, if I don't have
- 47:06Speaker 1: a good thing to say, I'm not going to say anything.
- 47:09Speaker 2: What's that saying.
- 47:10Speaker 3: It's like, this isn't an airport. You don't need to
- 47:12Speaker 3: like announce your departure.
- 47:15Speaker 2: Like just leave exactly, leave me alone, leave me alone.
- 47:20Speaker 3: Well, now let's fast forward a little bit to the
- 47:24Speaker 3: big moment finishing the final marathon. Now it goes it
- 47:30Speaker 3: needs to be said that you, along your journey find
- 47:34Speaker 3: out that there is another woman that is also taking
- 47:39Speaker 3: on a similar feat Kate Jaden, who ultimately what did
- 47:44Speaker 3: she run?
- 47:44Speaker 2: She ran one hundred and one marathon run one hundred
- 47:46Speaker 2: and one. Yeah, so you're on.
- 47:49Speaker 3: Marathon eighty six when you find out that she also
- 47:52Speaker 3: did something like this, did you like literally want.
- 47:55Speaker 2: To like, how did you feel?
- 47:58Speaker 1: I kind of I was a little show because I'm like,
- 48:00Speaker 1: I didn't think anyone else would be this crazy to
- 48:03Speaker 1: take it on, and I was like, what the hell.
- 48:07Speaker 1: But on the other hand, I was like, you know what,
- 48:09Speaker 1: a woman can be so freaking strong, and I'm like,
- 48:12Speaker 1: you know what, there is something to be said with that,
- 48:14Speaker 1: and I'm like that's amazing. That just pushes me a
- 48:16Speaker 1: little bit more. And then I was like, oh, yeah,
- 48:18Speaker 1: you know, I just changed my goal. Now it's like
- 48:20Speaker 1: one hundred and two before, So.
- 48:23Speaker 2: When did you decide to go from one hundred and
- 48:24Speaker 2: two to one hundred and four.
- 48:26Speaker 1: Oh? That was like, I think like the week before
- 48:29Speaker 1: or something, because I looked at the dates, and I
- 48:32Speaker 1: was like, oh, wow, I might as well end April
- 48:34Speaker 1: with the marathon because I'm like, because my one hundred
- 48:38Speaker 1: and two was the Thursday, so I was like, you
- 48:39Speaker 1: know what, I might as well do Friday and Saturday,
- 48:41Speaker 1: and then it just round it off. Wow.
- 48:44Speaker 3: Well, I saw the beautiful video of you finishing that
- 48:48Speaker 3: final marathon, super emotional, super special.
- 48:51Speaker 2: Talk to us about how that really felt for you.
- 48:54Speaker 1: It was amazing. It was just I think part of
- 48:58Speaker 1: the journey was just because the amount of support I
- 49:01Speaker 1: had received, and also that I wasn't I honestly when
- 49:05Speaker 1: I started, I wasn't. I didn't. There was there was
- 49:07Speaker 1: part of my mind that didn't think I'd make it
- 49:10Speaker 1: this far, just because of all the factors and stuff.
- 49:13Speaker 1: So I was like, I couldn't believe I'd done it.
- 49:16Speaker 1: I think I was a little bit surprised a little bit,
- 49:18Speaker 1: And it was just it was incredible, and it was
- 49:20Speaker 1: incredible having my family there, just because for them then
- 49:24Speaker 1: this has been really hard because a lot.
- 49:27Speaker 2: Of opportunity cost for everyone involved.
- 49:29Speaker 1: Exactly, and it was it was really like our family
- 49:32Speaker 1: life just took a backstep, and it was it was hard.
- 49:35Speaker 1: It was hard. For the kids, because the kids, like,
- 49:38Speaker 1: when I finished Numb one hundred and four, my son
- 49:40Speaker 1: was like, are you finished now, Mummy, And I'm like yes,
- 49:44Speaker 1: He's like yes finally, And I mean they're they're super
- 49:48Speaker 1: happy and super proud. They tell all their friends and
- 49:51Speaker 1: school and stuff. But I think for them it was
- 49:53Speaker 1: nice to kind of have a little bit more mummy time.
- 49:56Speaker 2: Did you face criticism about that?
- 50:00Speaker 1: Actually, I know a lot of people were really supportive
- 50:03Speaker 1: about that. They were more curious how I was kind
- 50:06Speaker 1: of managing it all and stuff and I and I
- 50:09Speaker 1: must say my husband, my husband was a rock star
- 50:11Speaker 1: because he just really helped with the kids and stuff.
- 50:13Speaker 1: I think I kind of feel bad for him because
- 50:15Speaker 1: I think he was really stressed. Football buddy.
- 50:20Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, this is coming out just over a
- 50:23Speaker 3: week after you finishing your major beautiful feet.
- 50:28Speaker 2: What's life like for you now?
- 50:31Speaker 1: To be honest, I've been It's been a bit of
- 50:32Speaker 1: a rollercoaster because I've been on like so many interviews
- 50:35Speaker 1: and stuff. So I'm like, ah, it's been a little
- 50:39Speaker 1: bit overwhelming, but it's nice because I can, yeah, just
- 50:43Speaker 1: spend some time with the kidders when they get home
- 50:45Speaker 1: from school. And stuff, and it's not like, oh, mommy
- 50:48Speaker 1: needs recovery and mommy needs to do this. I need
- 50:50Speaker 1: to do this, so it's kind of they can kind
- 50:51Speaker 1: of get a little bit more focused time with me. So, yeah,
- 50:55Speaker 1: it's it's been good, but I'm itching to run again.
- 51:00Speaker 3: Well, you mentioned the R word recovery, something that I
- 51:03Speaker 3: know that we should touch on before we continue here.
- 51:06Speaker 3: I know you were big on epso celt baths. Also
- 51:08Speaker 3: making sure that you were getting sleep. What else aside
- 51:11Speaker 3: from that was a really big priority for you. Nutrition,
- 51:14Speaker 3: I'm assuming yeah.
- 51:15Speaker 1: Nutrition. I had to make sure I was eating the
- 51:17Speaker 1: right stuff to recover, which was really bad. Which was
- 51:20Speaker 1: really hard because in the beginning, I was just eating
- 51:22Speaker 1: whatever I wanted to, Like I was Pizza's, doughnuts, whatever.
- 51:25Speaker 1: I'm like, I need to kind of load up, and
- 51:28Speaker 1: it's like I was cheating it, like as if I
- 51:30Speaker 1: was doing one race. But then what I found was
- 51:32Speaker 1: that my body wasn't recovering fast enough because I wasn't
- 51:35Speaker 1: getting the nutrients that I needed. So I kind of
- 51:37Speaker 1: had to switch it up a little bit and just
- 51:40Speaker 1: make sure it was kind of a little bit more
- 51:42Speaker 1: healthy and just getting more of a balanced diet. And
- 51:47Speaker 1: then I was also making sure like I was rolling
- 51:50Speaker 1: a lot, which, to be honest, like going into this,
- 51:53Speaker 1: I was the worst with the recovery. I would never stretch,
- 51:57Speaker 1: I would never roll. I'm like, yeah, I've got a roller,
- 51:59Speaker 1: what do I do with it? I was just terrible,
- 52:02Speaker 1: and I was like with this, I'm like, wow, if
- 52:04Speaker 1: I want to get to the finish, I'm going to
- 52:06Speaker 1: have to change my attitude with it a little bit.
- 52:09Speaker 1: So I made sure like my stump, I was icing
- 52:11Speaker 1: it every night just because of the swelling I was.
- 52:14Speaker 1: I've got one of those message guns. I was using
- 52:17Speaker 1: it all the time. So I had like like a
- 52:20Speaker 1: little bit of a session like after I take a bus.
- 52:23Speaker 1: I just do all these things just to make sure
- 52:25Speaker 1: my muscles just kind of had better way of recovering, right,
- 52:30Speaker 1: all the maintenance.
- 52:31Speaker 3: Now, you did put up a post the other day
- 52:32Speaker 3: talking about this effort. By the numbers from one running
- 52:36Speaker 3: blade to two hundred boiled potatoes, one hundred peanut butter
- 52:39Speaker 3: and jelly sandwiches, giving a little bit of insight into
- 52:42Speaker 3: your diet, which, as you noted, definitely evolved over time.
- 52:46Speaker 3: I love the highlight of two hundred gummy worms, So
- 52:49Speaker 3: where did the gummy worms come into play?
- 52:51Speaker 2: And I'm also astounded by only twenty pizzas.
- 52:54Speaker 1: I know, I had a few people say, what only
- 52:57Speaker 1: twenty pizzas? And then I had some like you, actually,
- 53:00Speaker 1: you mean twenty bags of gummy worms, right, not just
- 53:03Speaker 1: like two or like two hundred bags of gummywims. I
- 53:06Speaker 1: was like, uh yeaheah, I should have changed that a
- 53:08Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah, I'm a big fan because I use
- 53:12Speaker 1: gummy worms when I do ultras. It's just good because
- 53:14Speaker 1: it gives you a quick shug of figs and stuff,
- 53:16Speaker 1: and sometimes it's just nice to choose something else that
- 53:19Speaker 1: is in gel and things like that. So yeah, it was.
- 53:22Speaker 1: It was funny the comments that I got when I
- 53:24Speaker 1: posted that.
- 53:27Speaker 2: I loved it.
- 53:28Speaker 3: I loved it, and I personally am a relatively new
- 53:31Speaker 3: gummy worm enthusiast. So I feel like now I'm going
- 53:34Speaker 3: to have to maybe start using them on my runs.
- 53:36Speaker 3: I feel like when I started running, I was like
- 53:38Speaker 3: really into like the energy choose because it did feel
- 53:40Speaker 3: like you were getting like candy.
- 53:42Speaker 2: On your way.
- 53:43Speaker 3: But over time I have switched to like element packets
- 53:47Speaker 3: and more in gels, and you know, less exciting.
- 53:51Speaker 1: Yeah, and gummy worms a little bit cheaper too than
- 53:54Speaker 1: all the gels and stuff. So I'm like, you know why,
- 53:55Speaker 1: it's a win win because it's kind of does the
- 53:57Speaker 1: same thing. So I'm like, I'll just do gummy It's.
- 54:00Speaker 2: A win win.
- 54:01Speaker 3: Well, you are in, as you mentioned, this tailwind of
- 54:05Speaker 3: post accomplishment media and whatnot. But I do want to
- 54:09Speaker 3: check in a little bit about how you're feeling emotionally.
- 54:12Speaker 3: You joked a little bit being a little anxious to run.
- 54:15Speaker 3: I would assume that accomplishing something like this is kind
- 54:19Speaker 3: of like it's momentous.
- 54:21Speaker 2: It's a life moment.
- 54:23Speaker 3: It's what some would liken too, maybe a wedding or
- 54:27Speaker 3: your graduate degree or having a child, Like it's big, right,
- 54:31Speaker 3: So do you feel as though you're on a little
- 54:34Speaker 3: bit of the come down now?
- 54:35Speaker 2: Like, how do you feel emotional?
- 54:37Speaker 1: I do. I do feel like I'm like I'm kind
- 54:40Speaker 1: of getting to the point that where I'm like, oh,
- 54:41Speaker 1: what's next, Cause it's like it's kind of like when
- 54:44Speaker 1: you've been like this has been life for like one
- 54:46Speaker 1: hundred and four days, and I've been like really open
- 54:49Speaker 1: on social media, posting every day, and it's like You're
- 54:51Speaker 1: getting like so many people interacting and stuff, and I'm like, oh,
- 54:56Speaker 1: now this is all going to die off, and it's
- 54:57Speaker 1: like what do I do next? So it's kind of
- 55:00Speaker 1: I kind of feel like part of me you kind
- 55:02Speaker 1: of get addicted to that, like that sense of accomplishment,
- 55:05Speaker 1: and it's like, yeah, now you need to kind of
- 55:07Speaker 1: fill it up with something else. What are you going
- 55:09Speaker 1: to do next? But I'm trying to be really really
- 55:11Speaker 1: careful because I again it's on the whole point of
- 55:14Speaker 1: that we often don't celebrate our accomplishments, and I feel
- 55:18Speaker 1: like with this one, I'm like, this is such a
- 55:20Speaker 1: big deal, Like it's not at all about the record.
- 55:25Speaker 1: It's it's just about the fact that I managed to
- 55:29Speaker 1: run one hundred and four marathons as an amputee and
- 55:33Speaker 1: the amount of lives that have changed and just highlighting
- 55:36Speaker 1: what amputies can do and stuff. And I feel like
- 55:39Speaker 1: that is a proud moment for me. And I'm not
- 55:41Speaker 1: trying to I hope I'm not coming across arrogant or anything.
- 55:44Speaker 1: I'm just like, this is just really important and so
- 55:47Speaker 1: I'm trying to celebrate that fact and just so it's
- 55:53Speaker 1: it is hard, it's hard because you are starting to
- 55:55Speaker 1: come down and you're like, oh, okay, now what am
- 55:57Speaker 1: I going to do? But I'm trying to be good
- 56:00Speaker 1: about it and just trying to celebrate the moments.
- 56:03Speaker 3: I've never run one hundred and four marathons in one
- 56:05Speaker 3: hundred and four days. I also like, haven't gotten married
- 56:09Speaker 3: or at a kid. But I have done things in
- 56:12Speaker 3: my life that have felt really important, so I can
- 56:14Speaker 3: sympathize with this like post big moment, and in my experience,
- 56:19Speaker 3: something that has helped me, especially when my accomplishments have
- 56:22Speaker 3: been athletic, have been kind of coming back to my
- 56:26Speaker 3: value as emily outside of being an athlete and outside
- 56:30Speaker 3: of being a runner. I mean, we hear all the
- 56:33Speaker 3: time of these stories of athletes navigating depression, especially after
- 56:38Speaker 3: these big accomplishments, maybe something like the Olympics, And so
- 56:41Speaker 3: it is really important not only that you have this
- 56:44Speaker 3: frame of mind that you do right now finding that
- 56:46Speaker 3: those small winds and the glory in your day to day,
- 56:48Speaker 3: but also thinking long term about how Jackie is going
- 56:52Speaker 3: to keep showing up for herself beyond putting on that
- 56:55Speaker 3: running prosthetic.
- 56:56Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, that is a very very bad point that
- 57:00Speaker 1: of course.
- 57:01Speaker 3: We would be we would be remiss if we didn't
- 57:03Speaker 3: highlight that you do have another race on your docket.
- 57:06Speaker 1: What are you happening at right now? Only two hundred
- 57:08Speaker 1: and forty miles. Two hundred and forty miles. Yeah, that's
- 57:12Speaker 1: in October. It's still a long way away.
- 57:14Speaker 2: It is a long way away.
- 57:15Speaker 1: No, I start. I'm going to start training for that
- 57:18Speaker 1: in two weeks time, just to get back because I
- 57:20Speaker 1: need to get back on the trails because I haven't
- 57:23Speaker 1: because this is a trail race two hundred and forty
- 57:26Speaker 1: I need to kind of and trail trail running on
- 57:28Speaker 1: a prosthetic just takes, so it's just a different style
- 57:32Speaker 1: of running. So I need to go out on the
- 57:34Speaker 1: trails and practice and just kind of get a lot
- 57:36Speaker 1: of hit more hills. Because I've been running with the marathons,
- 57:39Speaker 1: I've been running them quite flat just to get through them.
- 57:42Speaker 1: So I'm I'm excited because it would be good to
- 57:45Speaker 1: kind of get out doing the race and just being
- 57:47Speaker 1: out there and just being in the mountains again and
- 57:50Speaker 1: just yeah, I love I love being out on the
- 57:52Speaker 1: trails and that's kind of where I find a very
- 57:55Speaker 1: therapeutic too. Is just like with this whole finding myself
- 57:59Speaker 1: and just cut going out there, going for a nice
- 58:01Speaker 1: hike and just kind of just being out there. It
- 58:03Speaker 1: just really helps.
- 58:05Speaker 3: When you first got your leg amputated, you said that
- 58:08Speaker 3: you struggled to find the beauty in yourself again. You
- 58:13Speaker 3: struggle to get over that mental hurdle. Now when you
- 58:19Speaker 3: look in the mirror, what do you see looking back
- 58:22Speaker 3: at you?
- 58:23Speaker 1: I see a strong, badass woman. Can I say that
- 58:29Speaker 1: about myself.
- 58:32Speaker 2: About yourself?
- 58:33Speaker 1: Are you kidding?
- 58:35Speaker 3: And do you feel did you feel that way before
- 58:38Speaker 3: this or do you really feel as though this feat
- 58:40Speaker 3: completely changed the way that you view yourself.
- 58:43Speaker 1: I think it has. It's blown my mind away that
- 58:47Speaker 1: I was able to do it. I'm like, hell, yeah
- 58:50Speaker 1: I can. I can do really hard things. And it's
- 58:53Speaker 1: just it just puts things in a total different perspective
- 58:57Speaker 1: and just like wow. It's just looking at your body
- 59:00Speaker 1: and going wow, just wow that you can, you can
- 59:04Speaker 1: push yourself, and it's just yeah, that, yeah, that our
- 59:09Speaker 1: bodies are incredible, that we can we can do hard things.
- 59:12Speaker 3: What would you say during the one hundred and four
- 59:16Speaker 3: day period that the best piece of advice you were offered.
- 59:19Speaker 1: Was probably just take one day at a time. I
- 59:22Speaker 1: don't know. Yes, a few people I commented that they
- 59:25Speaker 1: were like, you know what, you're doing a great job.
- 59:27Speaker 1: Just take it one time, one day at a time.
- 59:29Speaker 1: And that's kind of what I focused on, because sometimes
- 59:32Speaker 1: your your goals can be overwhelming. I feel like it's
- 59:36Speaker 1: sometimes when you set really big goals, it just can
- 59:40Speaker 1: feel like, oh my goodness, I'm never going to get there.
- 59:43Speaker 1: But if you just work on it every day and
- 59:45Speaker 1: just one step at a time, you eventually get there
- 59:47Speaker 1: and you're like, oh my goodness, look at that, I've
- 59:49Speaker 1: done it.
- 59:51Speaker 2: I've done it, I've done it.
- 59:52Speaker 3: Would you say that that's the biggest lesson that you
- 59:54Speaker 3: want people to walk away from watching and learning about
- 59:57Speaker 3: your story with absolutely final question, Jackie, right now, you
- 1:00:02Speaker 3: have an opportunity to offer.
- 1:00:04Speaker 2: Yourself a piece of advice.
- 1:00:06Speaker 3: Let's go back to the Hurtle moment when you found
- 1:00:09Speaker 3: out that you were going to have to get your
- 1:00:11Speaker 3: leg amputated. You have an opportunity, with all the wisdom
- 1:00:15Speaker 3: that you have now to offer that woman had twenty
- 1:00:18Speaker 3: six a piece of advice.
- 1:00:19Speaker 2: What do you tell her?
- 1:00:21Speaker 1: I would tell her that take every day. It is
- 1:00:25Speaker 1: one step at a time, and you will be okay.
- 1:00:28Speaker 1: That's what I think. That is my biggest things will
- 1:00:32Speaker 1: be okay because I feel like I just feel like
- 1:00:36Speaker 1: when you're going through something that big is it becomes
- 1:00:39Speaker 1: really dark and it's like you sometimes you feel like
- 1:00:42Speaker 1: you're drowning. You just can't see the end, like the
- 1:00:45Speaker 1: end inside, and it's just like and especially when you
- 1:00:48Speaker 1: get diagnosed with cancer, a lot of the times, it's like,
- 1:00:51Speaker 1: I'm not going to survive this. There is a part
- 1:00:53Speaker 1: of you that thinks, oh my goodness, it's cancer. I'm
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: going to die. And it's like, no, that's not. It's
- 1:00:58Speaker 1: not necessarily a sentence. It is. There is hope, there
- 1:01:02Speaker 1: is it's gonna be okay if you just kind of
- 1:01:05Speaker 1: hold on to that.
- 1:01:07Speaker 2: So grateful for your time today, Jackie, So appreciative of
- 1:01:10Speaker 2: you sharing your.
- 1:01:11Speaker 3: Story with us. How do the hurdlers follow along with you?
- 1:01:13Speaker 3: How do they keep up with you? If they don't
- 1:01:15Speaker 3: already give us the details that you can.
- 1:01:18Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter or Instagram and that's NC runner.
- 1:01:22Speaker 2: Jackie Beautiful.
- 1:01:23Speaker 3: I'm over at Hurdle Podcast and at Emily Abadi Another
- 1:01:26Speaker 3: Hurdle Conquered.
- 1:01:28Speaker 2: Catch you guys next time.