Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Turning the Page With Chris Bennett, Nike Running Global Head Coach

Transcript

Turning the Page With Chris Bennett, Nike Running Global Head Coach · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: I think in the midst of darkness you can uncover
0:02
Speaker 1: some really beautiful things as well. You know, I mean,
0:04
Speaker 1: the stars don't come out during the day, So I
0:07
Speaker 1: think maybe we can also spend a little time at
0:09
Speaker 1: the end of the year focusing some attention on you
0:11
Speaker 1: know what we're grateful for, thankful for people and events.
0:14
Speaker 1: And again, it doesn't mean ignoring the negative. Just make
0:18
Speaker 1: sure we don't ignore the positive.
0:34
Speaker 2: What's going on?
0:34
Speaker 3: Hurdler's Emily Abadi here bringing you not just one, but
0:39
Speaker 3: five back to back special episodes of Hurdle a wellness
0:46
Speaker 3: a focused podcast where we sit down with inspiring individuals
0:50
Speaker 3: to talk about everything from their big wins to how
0:53
Speaker 3: they've gone through some of life's toughest moments, and let
0:57
Speaker 3: me tell you, twenty twenty has been filled with them.
1:01
Speaker 3: On the show, you can expect vulnerability, motivation, and candid
1:05
Speaker 3: discussions with everyone from top athletes to aspiring entrepreneurs on
1:10
Speaker 3: what it really takes to follow your passions. My mission
1:14
Speaker 3: is simple to inspire you to be your best self,
1:18
Speaker 3: move with intention, and have some fun along the way.
1:22
Speaker 3: And that mission, well, that's exactly.
1:26
Speaker 2: Why I'm here in your ear.
1:29
Speaker 3: The last week of twenty twenty to bring you some
1:33
Speaker 3: much needed motivation to jump start twenty twenty one in
1:37
Speaker 3: the new year. Listen, I get it things haven't exactly
1:42
Speaker 3: been a total breeze, but still there's a lot to
1:46
Speaker 3: be grateful for. And I personally am obscenely grateful not
1:51
Speaker 3: just for this community, but for all of the over
1:55
Speaker 3: two hundred and fifty guests that I've had the great
2:00
Speaker 3: fortune of speaking with since starting the show almost exactly
2:04
Speaker 3: to the date today, three years ago. And so to
2:08
Speaker 3: celebrate this big milestone or hurdle to end us off
2:12
Speaker 3: on twenty twenty on the right note again, I am
2:15
Speaker 3: diving into some really great conversations and I could not
2:18
Speaker 3: be more amped. As I mentioned today, kickstarting five back
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Speaker 3: to back episodes with none other than Coach Chris Bennett.
2:27
Speaker 3: He is Nike Running's global head coach and this was
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Speaker 3: his original episode, which is linked in the show notes
2:34
Speaker 3: the most listened to episode of Hurdle in twenty twenty.
2:40
Speaker 3: If this is the first time you are hearing of
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Speaker 3: Coach Bennett, I could not be more excited to introduce
2:45
Speaker 3: you to him in all of his glory.
2:48
Speaker 2: He is such a motivational.
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Speaker 3: Human, not just for runners across the globe, but just
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Speaker 3: in general, his outlook, his optimism, his realness. It's refreshing
3:01
Speaker 3: and just so so wonderful. I have to say, if
3:04
Speaker 3: you have yet to listen to Coach Bennett's First go
3:07
Speaker 3: Around on Hurdle, it is a gem my favorite thing
3:11
Speaker 3: which we.
3:12
Speaker 2: Chat about today.
3:13
Speaker 3: His analogy about moldy strawberries and being a runner and
3:18
Speaker 3: going through life. You know, every now and again, the
3:21
Speaker 3: gist of it, you encounter a moldy strawberry. But that
3:25
Speaker 3: doesn't mean that you hate strawberries altogether. It just means
3:30
Speaker 3: you got to keep going and look for the non
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Speaker 3: moldy strawberries. I know that this is a weird thing
3:35
Speaker 3: to be talking about right now, strawberries and mold in
3:38
Speaker 3: this intro, you're a little confused. Trust me again, if
3:41
Speaker 3: you haven't listened to Coach Bennett The first go Around
3:44
Speaker 3: on Hurdle, you've got to click on over to the
3:46
Speaker 3: show notes and give it a listen.
3:48
Speaker 2: In today's episode, just like all the.
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Speaker 3: Episodes this week, Coach Bennett and I are catching up
3:53
Speaker 3: about the year that was, about the hurdles that he
3:56
Speaker 3: encountered over twenty twenty. His best advice going into the
4:01
Speaker 3: new year and some helpful takeaways for us all as
4:04
Speaker 3: we approach hurdles in our day to day and manage
4:07
Speaker 3: them going forward. And I have to say none of
4:11
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4:15
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5:15
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5:18
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Speaker 3: code necessary. This week, as you are listening, please don't
5:54
Speaker 3: forget to tag Hurdle over on Instagram and is at
5:57
Speaker 3: Hurdle podcast.
5:58
Speaker 2: You can also find.
5:59
Speaker 3: Me at Emily a Body and make sure to give
6:02
Speaker 3: the guests some love. We've got some really great voices
6:06
Speaker 3: chiming in this week spoiler alert, look forward to Jess
6:11
Speaker 3: Simms from Peloton des Lyndon, Boston Marathon champion and Olympian,
6:16
Speaker 3: Sadie Lincoln, the founder of Bar three, and Rachel Drury,
6:21
Speaker 3: the founder and CEO of Daily Harvest. I'm amped, I
6:25
Speaker 3: hope you're amped. Y'all mean the world to me and
6:28
Speaker 3: I am excited to end this year on a high note.
6:31
Speaker 3: With that, let's get to Hurdling today, I am catching
6:43
Speaker 3: up with the one, the only Coach Bennett.
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Speaker 2: Coach, how are you doing today?
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Speaker 1: I'm doing I'm doing great. How are you?
6:53
Speaker 2: I'm doing well?
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Speaker 3: I'm I'm actually kind of excited because in our first
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Speaker 3: recording earlier this year, we weren't looking at each other,
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Speaker 3: and now we're looking at each other.
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Speaker 1: I know, I apologize ahead of time for what you've
7:05
Speaker 1: got to look at. You know.
7:07
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it.
7:08
Speaker 1: I've got a face for audio. I'll put it to
7:10
Speaker 1: you that way.
7:11
Speaker 3: Oh I disagree. I think this mustache needs this kind
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Speaker 3: of pr.
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Speaker 1: You know I appreciate that.
7:17
Speaker 2: Well, thanks so much for your time today.
7:19
Speaker 3: One of the most listened to episodes of Hurdle in
7:22
Speaker 3: twenty twenty, the Coach Bennett episode So Sorry.
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Speaker 1: It's more of a testament to you than me.
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Speaker 3: Tell me, how has twenty twenty been treating you? What's
7:31
Speaker 3: what's been some of the biggest changes for you this year?
7:37
Speaker 1: How has twenty twenty been treating me? Wow? I think
7:39
Speaker 1: twenty twenty has treated me like it's treated everyone else.
7:42
Speaker 1: It's with no respect to my feelings or you know,
7:47
Speaker 1: my my well being. It's twenty twenty has been a
7:50
Speaker 1: tough year and consistently tough. I mean, if you if
7:52
Speaker 1: you rewind, it was it was really January when we
7:56
Speaker 1: started to head into at least the initial discussions that
7:59
Speaker 1: there may be a pandemic. And I think one of
8:03
Speaker 1: the hardest parts has been not having a light really
8:07
Speaker 1: at the end of the tunnel. And I think that's
8:09
Speaker 1: that's if you look at really why people have great
8:12
Speaker 1: fear pretty much about anything, it's about the unknown. If
8:16
Speaker 1: you know what's going to happen, you're you're much less
8:19
Speaker 1: afraid because one you can plan and you can anticipate.
8:23
Speaker 1: It's the same thing with running. I mean, that's why
8:25
Speaker 1: people get scared on a starting line because they're not
8:27
Speaker 1: quite sure what's going to happen. And I feel like
8:30
Speaker 1: we've we've almost been stuck on a starting line for
8:33
Speaker 1: a really long time, like like how long is this race?
8:36
Speaker 1: We don't know, you know, how how hard are we
8:37
Speaker 1: going to have to run? What's the weather? I mean
8:40
Speaker 1: to not to make this all about running, but you know,
8:43
Speaker 1: there's a lot of similarities, and I think that's that's
8:47
Speaker 1: been the hardest part of twenty twenty is you'd you know,
8:52
Speaker 1: was twenty twenty going to turn into twenty twenty one,
8:54
Speaker 1: and we were just going to have twenty twenty Part two?
8:57
Speaker 1: Was it going to extend into twenty twenty two and
8:59
Speaker 1: have a you know, twenty two part three? And that's
9:02
Speaker 1: hard because you're trying to stay positive and you're trying
9:06
Speaker 1: to not let a lot of the negatives weigh you down,
9:08
Speaker 1: and you're trying to make plans and help other people
9:11
Speaker 1: and help yourself. So I think the best thing we
9:13
Speaker 1: can all do is admit when things are hard, And
9:16
Speaker 1: I think twenty twenty was a really, really brutal year.
9:21
Speaker 1: But again, I think we also have to realize that
9:23
Speaker 1: we're here saying it's a really brutal year, which means
9:25
Speaker 1: we made it. And that's a testament too. I think
9:29
Speaker 1: a lot of people's friends and support systems, and there's
9:32
Speaker 1: a lot of news about bad leaders in the world,
9:34
Speaker 1: but we've had a lot of good leaders too. We've
9:36
Speaker 1: had a lot of good leaders on a local level.
9:38
Speaker 1: So I think in the midst of darkness you can
9:40
Speaker 1: uncover some really beautiful things as well, you know, I mean,
9:43
Speaker 1: the stars don't come out during the day, so I
9:45
Speaker 1: think maybe we can also spend a little time at
9:47
Speaker 1: the end of the year, focusing some attention on you
9:50
Speaker 1: know what we're grateful for, thankful for people and events,
9:53
Speaker 1: And again that doesn't mean ignoring the negative, just make
9:56
Speaker 1: sure we don't ignore the positive.
9:58
Speaker 3: And you mentioned how a lot of good leaders for
10:01
Speaker 3: so many athletes, you being one of them. How has
10:05
Speaker 3: your role as a coach kind of maybe shifted or
10:10
Speaker 3: how has this impacted you in what you do with
10:14
Speaker 3: Nike in the past year.
10:17
Speaker 1: I think it's made me spend more time celebrating. I mean,
10:22
Speaker 1: I've always been a big proponent of celebrating the little things,
10:25
Speaker 1: but I think I've tried to really work hard to
10:29
Speaker 1: acknowledge when I see something that I think deserves a
10:35
Speaker 1: little attention. Maybe in the past I was saying we
10:37
Speaker 1: should all be celebrating little things, but I think now
10:39
Speaker 1: I'm a little bit more active and hunting out those moments.
10:45
Speaker 1: And again, I think the first time we talked, I
10:47
Speaker 1: mentioned how I started my day just really trying to
10:51
Speaker 1: react to or maybe be proactive and be in touch
10:56
Speaker 1: with as many different people as possible. That hasn't stopped,
11:00
Speaker 1: and I think I admitted it back in you know,
11:05
Speaker 1: the spring, when we spoke too. I think I think
11:08
Speaker 1: as much good as that does for other people to receive,
11:13
Speaker 1: you know, like a high five, so to speak. Man,
11:16
Speaker 1: it has it has saved me, you know, And I
11:18
Speaker 1: think there's going to be a kind of a delayed
11:22
Speaker 1: reaction to twenty twenty where we're going to look back
11:25
Speaker 1: and realize the things that saved us. And to me,
11:29
Speaker 1: the opportunity to tell somebody that they did a good
11:33
Speaker 1: job and them respond back so positively, that was that
11:39
Speaker 1: was saving me, you know, and as a person. But
11:42
Speaker 1: also I was a better dad after that because I
11:46
Speaker 1: was a little more positive. I was a better husband,
11:48
Speaker 1: you know, I was less of an asshole when I
11:51
Speaker 1: was driving down the road because of that. So I
11:53
Speaker 1: owe way more to you know, the the athletes and
11:57
Speaker 1: the people that I've connected with this year than they
11:59
Speaker 1: could ever owe me.
12:01
Speaker 2: And so do the other people on the road.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I am a Jersey driver, so you know
12:06
Speaker 1: I have I have an excuse, but people don't know
12:08
Speaker 1: that with the Oregon plates anymore. It used to be
12:10
Speaker 1: kind of excused when they would see the Jersey plates,
12:13
Speaker 1: but not anymore.
12:15
Speaker 3: So then let's talk about lessons that you've learned this year.
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Speaker 2: Specific to this year.
12:21
Speaker 3: Obviously, as a leader, you are constantly evolving, constantly trying
12:27
Speaker 3: to bring some inspiration to athletes worldwide. When you boil
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Speaker 3: it down, what have you learned in twenty twenty.
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Speaker 1: There's nothing I don't I don't think i've I've learned
12:39
Speaker 1: anything new. But I think lessons that I've learned that
12:43
Speaker 1: maybe I had put on the back burner, or you know,
12:46
Speaker 1: a lot of times you can you have to relearn
12:48
Speaker 1: things you already know. You know, there's a great there's
12:52
Speaker 1: a great moment. Really, I find coaching moments and all
12:54
Speaker 1: sorts of things. You know, like if people say what's
12:56
Speaker 1: the best book to read about coaching? I bring up
12:59
Speaker 1: a chapter from you know, Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer.
13:02
Speaker 1: I think that's there's a chapter in there about whitewashing
13:05
Speaker 1: of fences. That's basically how you coach somebody to run.
13:08
Speaker 1: But when I think at twenty twenty, oddly enough, I
13:12
Speaker 1: think of a castaway with Tom Hanks and Wilson Well,
13:18
Speaker 1: and I'm going to talk about Wilson because we had to.
13:22
Speaker 1: You know, there's a great lesson in there that he
13:24
Speaker 1: would not have survived if he didn't have Wilson. It
13:27
Speaker 1: wasn't the coconuts, like he could have survived physically, but
13:30
Speaker 1: by the time they found him, he would have been
13:34
Speaker 1: so far gone. If he had not had Wilson, then
13:36
Speaker 1: it wouldn't have mattered that he was physically alive. He
13:38
Speaker 1: would have been emotionally and spiritually dead. And I think
13:42
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, we were forced to find our Wilson's,
13:46
Speaker 1: you know, because and because we couldn't come together in groups.
13:50
Speaker 1: We were about to go through a Christmas where you're
13:52
Speaker 1: not going to be able to see your loved ones
13:53
Speaker 1: if you're actually you know, taking into account their well being.
13:58
Speaker 1: So it proved to me just how important Wilson's are,
14:03
Speaker 1: which is just human contact, you know. And it's yeah,
14:06
Speaker 1: we have shelter, and you know, the pandemic didn't take
14:10
Speaker 1: that away, and you know, we have access to food,
14:12
Speaker 1: We have all these things. But I think it made
14:14
Speaker 1: us realize just how essential human connection is. And it's
14:18
Speaker 1: whether it's our kids needing to be in school, you know,
14:21
Speaker 1: when it's safe to be in there, not just so
14:23
Speaker 1: they can learn, but so they can have connection with
14:25
Speaker 1: their peers and their friends. And it's the same with adults.
14:28
Speaker 1: So to me, I think in a way technology has
14:34
Speaker 1: saved us, but it saved us in a way that
14:37
Speaker 1: proved that technology is not the answer. It's actually just
14:41
Speaker 1: reaffirmed to us that you know that the handshakes and
14:45
Speaker 1: the high fives and the hugs. I mean, shit, I
14:47
Speaker 1: miss that stuff so much. You know, I miss sitting
14:51
Speaker 1: down next to someone while I'm waiting to pick up
14:53
Speaker 1: my Buffalo wings and having a beer and talking to
14:55
Speaker 1: a stranger, you know I have. I miss telling somebody
15:00
Speaker 1: bless you after they sneeze and not recoiling instead. You know,
15:04
Speaker 1: like these are just little silly things, but they're the
15:07
Speaker 1: reason why when we go to bed, we're not tense
15:09
Speaker 1: and scared and freaking out, which I think so much
15:12
Speaker 1: so much of us are now. And yes, a lot
15:15
Speaker 1: of it is the unknown and the tension that's out
15:17
Speaker 1: there in the world, but the human connection is what
15:19
Speaker 1: smooths all of these things out. So to me, that's
15:22
Speaker 1: the great lesson of twenty twenty is that we actually
15:25
Speaker 1: need each other.
15:26
Speaker 3: Who is one person that you've reconnected with in twenty
15:28
Speaker 3: twenty that has made you really grateful?
15:31
Speaker 1: Actually, my older brother we've talked a ton over the
15:35
Speaker 1: last year and it's not that we had been far apart.
15:38
Speaker 1: It was just like a lot of things that happened.
15:41
Speaker 1: Even the families that are very close, you move away
15:43
Speaker 1: from each other, you start talking less and less, and
15:46
Speaker 1: I think because of all the chaos and tension in
15:49
Speaker 1: the world, and you know, there actually was openings in
15:53
Speaker 1: your day where you're looking around saying, what exactly am
15:55
Speaker 1: I going to do right now? And we found ourselves
15:58
Speaker 1: talking to each other. So I think that was that
16:01
Speaker 1: was one of the gifts. I think there's a lot
16:02
Speaker 1: of gifts, you know, that I've received over twenty twenty,
16:06
Speaker 1: you know, And I think in order to make it
16:09
Speaker 1: through twenty twenty, you had to receive a lot of gifts,
16:12
Speaker 1: you know. So if people just take a little bit
16:14
Speaker 1: of time think about it, I think they're going to
16:18
Speaker 1: find more more presence lying around them than they thought.
16:21
Speaker 2: I like that takeaway.
16:22
Speaker 3: If you're going to talk about gifts aside from the
16:24
Speaker 3: relationship with your brother, you know, I'm going to poke
16:26
Speaker 3: at you and ask you in another one that you've
16:28
Speaker 3: found has been.
16:30
Speaker 1: How busy I've been over the past nine months. That
16:33
Speaker 1: was another gift. I mean, not just to keep me sane,
16:35
Speaker 1: but We talked about this on the original podcast. The
16:39
Speaker 1: constant interaction I've had with runners, whether it's people who
16:44
Speaker 1: have been running for a long time or people who
16:46
Speaker 1: just started running, has been great.
16:49
Speaker 2: Can we, for a second talk about your strawberry analogy.
16:53
Speaker 3: Can I tell you how many people reached out to
16:56
Speaker 3: me about the fact that sometimes you're going to find
16:58
Speaker 3: mouldy strawberry in your box of strawberries over the past
17:03
Speaker 3: eight minles.
17:04
Speaker 1: It's I don't I wish I could say that was
17:08
Speaker 1: some really well thought out explanation. I just remember being
17:13
Speaker 1: halfway through that being like, I really better come up
17:15
Speaker 1: with an ending here, because I don't know where I'm
17:17
Speaker 1: going with it. And the last thing I wanted to
17:19
Speaker 1: force you to do was have, you know, like two
17:21
Speaker 1: hours of editing, being like this idio idiot just talked
17:24
Speaker 1: about strawberries for fifteen minutes and it made no sense.
17:27
Speaker 2: But do you think that twenty twenty is a moldy strawberry?
17:30
Speaker 1: No? I don't, And I think you can't allow it
17:33
Speaker 1: to be a moldy strawberry because it's not. I mean,
17:36
Speaker 1: in a moldy strawberry is just disgusting. But I don't
17:38
Speaker 1: I think you know, this is one of those situations
17:40
Speaker 1: where it's more like it's it's a basket of strawberries,
17:43
Speaker 1: and maybe there were more bad ones than good ones.
17:45
Speaker 1: But this isn't just a strawberry. This is this is
17:48
Speaker 1: a whole basket of them. And yeah, there were some
17:51
Speaker 1: really shitty strawberries. I shouldn't have made it into the basket.
17:54
Speaker 1: You know, like somebody needs to be spoken to about this.
17:59
Speaker 3: If someone's saying to this episode right now and you
18:01
Speaker 3: haven't listened to Bennett's original episode of Hurdle, please pause this,
18:05
Speaker 3: come back, go check it out, and then yeah, come
18:09
Speaker 3: come back here.
18:09
Speaker 2: You'll see what we're talking about.
18:10
Speaker 1: And then and maybe pick up some strawberries. Yes, And
18:14
Speaker 1: I think that's the way that you got to look
18:16
Speaker 1: at twenty twenty. I mean, you know, I have I
18:18
Speaker 1: also have the benefit of being a total history dork,
18:24
Speaker 1: so I'm always putting things into as much context as
18:28
Speaker 1: I can or comparing it to things in the past.
18:31
Speaker 1: And you know, one of the wonderful and really sad
18:38
Speaker 1: parts of being a history geek is you realize just
18:40
Speaker 1: how hard life has been throughout human history. There have
18:46
Speaker 1: been some really, really horrible things that have gone on,
18:50
Speaker 1: and in the midst of all of it, somehow we
18:52
Speaker 1: get through it. And usually as a as a species,
18:56
Speaker 1: we're better for it, you know. And I think when
18:59
Speaker 1: when this gets written, when twenty twenty gets taught, and
19:02
Speaker 1: you have to look at it that way, when twenty
19:03
Speaker 1: twenty gets taught in twenty sixty, you know, the hope
19:06
Speaker 1: is is that there are kids sitting in a room,
19:09
Speaker 1: hopefully together, okay, and they're having class and the teacher saying,
19:15
Speaker 1: this group of people had this thrown at them, and
19:18
Speaker 1: this thrown at them, and this thrown at them, and
19:20
Speaker 1: they kept going, you know, and when the hardest parts
19:25
Speaker 1: is it's most acceptable to be a terrible person. You know,
19:30
Speaker 1: when times are great and you're a terrible person, everyone
19:32
Speaker 1: can look and go, you have no excuse to be
19:34
Speaker 1: a bad person. We people have the excuse right now
19:36
Speaker 1: to be assholes. People have the excuse right now to
19:39
Speaker 1: be really terrible people, because guess what, times are terrible.
19:43
Speaker 1: You have the excuse to be selfish, angry, scared, all
19:47
Speaker 1: of these things. And yet this is exactly the moment
19:51
Speaker 1: when if you're not those things, we get through it,
19:54
Speaker 1: and we get through it a little bit quicker so again,
19:57
Speaker 1: I think twenty twenty has been one of those things
19:58
Speaker 1: where we're so inundated with negative news and stressful things
20:05
Speaker 1: that there's almost no time to realize that there are
20:08
Speaker 1: people out there doing heroic things. And I don't mean
20:13
Speaker 1: heroic like with a cape. I mean there are people
20:16
Speaker 1: that are going through really, really terrible moments and still
20:20
Speaker 1: finding the time to be kind to the person on
20:23
Speaker 1: the street. There are healthcare workers that are doing amazing things.
20:26
Speaker 1: But you know, I think we also have to realize
20:28
Speaker 1: that someone who maybe lost somebody and is walking down
20:33
Speaker 1: the street and still is kind to someone else, that's heroic.
20:37
Speaker 1: That takes an amazing amount of strength in order to
20:40
Speaker 1: do that. And I think it takes an incredible amount
20:44
Speaker 1: of strength right now to go on a run when
20:47
Speaker 1: you have no energy to say I'm going to be
20:49
Speaker 1: better for this and I need to make sure that
20:50
Speaker 1: I've got a little peace in my life so i
20:52
Speaker 1: can get through tomorrow. All of this stuff is crazy
20:57
Speaker 1: powerful to be able to do this, and we're here.
21:00
Speaker 1: It's the end of the year, you know, And if
21:02
Speaker 1: you're sitting around saying this was a really really tough year, okay,
21:06
Speaker 1: well you're the one who got through it. You got
21:09
Speaker 1: to celebrate that.
21:10
Speaker 2: What excites you for the year to come, well, that it's.
21:14
Speaker 1: Going to be twenty twenty one and not twenty twenty.
21:17
Speaker 1: So that's slate, fresh slate. I mean, in the big picture,
21:21
Speaker 1: the vaccines and finally having a little light at the
21:24
Speaker 1: end of the tunnel. But if you kind of allow
21:26
Speaker 1: yourself to not always be thinking about, you know, the
21:30
Speaker 1: pandemic or something like that, I think what excites me
21:33
Speaker 1: is everyone taking It seems odd to say this, but
21:36
Speaker 1: the momentum from twenty twenty, because I think there's a
21:39
Speaker 1: lot of momentum that's kind of been like just bottled up.
21:43
Speaker 1: You know. It's like at a horse racing track. You
21:45
Speaker 1: see the horses kind of like in the stalls and
21:47
Speaker 1: they're just ready to rock and roll. I feel like
21:48
Speaker 1: we've been there in all of twenty twenty. Like everyone
21:51
Speaker 1: just wants to be human again. And that's what I'm
21:57
Speaker 1: probably most excited about, you know, I'm I'm looking forward
22:02
Speaker 1: to living the way that I think we're meant to live.
22:06
Speaker 1: I mean, like it sounds silly, but like I so
22:09
Speaker 1: desperately want to be at a concert singing as loud
22:12
Speaker 1: as I possibly can with twenty thousand people. I don't
22:16
Speaker 1: know like I want that. I've always wanted it, but
22:20
Speaker 1: it was never kept for me, you know, and it
22:23
Speaker 1: has been I am really really excited about running around
22:28
Speaker 1: across country met like to me like, that's in a way,
22:32
Speaker 1: we've been given this gift to say, like we know
22:35
Speaker 1: what's important, Okay, don't forget again, and most of us will,
22:40
Speaker 1: but hopefully we won't need something like this to remind
22:43
Speaker 1: us of that. So I think for me, what's most
22:45
Speaker 1: exciting is taking advantage of the gift that you know,
22:50
Speaker 1: I woke up again. That's probably what I'm most excited.
22:53
Speaker 1: And maybe we can heal if we look at this
22:55
Speaker 1: as just a US centric moment right now in the
22:59
Speaker 1: country island, and I'm really hoping that we can heal
23:04
Speaker 1: some of the self inflicted wounds we've put on ourselves.
23:08
Speaker 1: And I think twenty twenty one gives us a good
23:10
Speaker 1: chance to do that, at least I hope.
23:12
Speaker 2: I hope so too.
23:13
Speaker 3: All right, Coach winding down here, one piece of advice
23:17
Speaker 3: right now that you would offer the coach Bennett back
23:23
Speaker 3: in March.
23:25
Speaker 2: Looking at him right now.
23:27
Speaker 1: I knew back then I had to keep running. I
23:29
Speaker 1: had to keep saying, and I had to keep dancing.
23:30
Speaker 1: That was kind of I knew in order to do
23:33
Speaker 1: that that was going to keep me going. And I
23:35
Speaker 1: would have said, hold true to that, and I have.
23:37
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm there are certain outlets that I have.
23:42
Speaker 1: Running is one of them. Music is another one. Reading
23:45
Speaker 1: as another one. Like you cannot allow those things to
23:50
Speaker 1: be taken away, and they're often taken away by yourself
23:54
Speaker 1: because you just think it's, you know, there's too much
23:56
Speaker 1: going on in my life, I can't do this. And
23:58
Speaker 1: what you realize is that these outlets are what open
24:03
Speaker 1: up space in your life. So it's not that you're
24:05
Speaker 1: filling up an hour with a run and that's taking
24:08
Speaker 1: away from something else. That hour run or twenty minute
24:11
Speaker 1: run is what's going to allow you to take advantage
24:14
Speaker 1: of all of the rest of your day. And if
24:16
Speaker 1: you don't have these outlets, and that's that's at every level.
24:20
Speaker 1: I don't care if you're you're fourteen or you're you know,
24:23
Speaker 1: ninety four. You have to hold on to those things
24:28
Speaker 1: that are your great passions because without them, you do
24:30
Speaker 1: start to question why am I here? But it's those
24:33
Speaker 1: things that remind you this is exactly while I'm why
24:35
Speaker 1: I'm here, and it reminds you that you're alive and
24:37
Speaker 1: you have a purpose. And I think in times of
24:39
Speaker 1: great stress, you can convince yourself that there is no time,
24:43
Speaker 1: whether or your time isn't worthy enough to do these things,
24:47
Speaker 1: or maybe you're not worthy enough to do it, and
24:50
Speaker 1: that's exactly when you have to do it. So you
24:52
Speaker 1: have to find those reminders in your life that remind
24:54
Speaker 1: you that you're living a life. And to me, I
24:57
Speaker 1: think that's what I would have told myself in March.
25:00
Speaker 1: Don't hesitate to listen to that song, don't hesitate to
25:03
Speaker 1: sing out loud, and make sure you're running and dancing.
25:06
Speaker 1: And if you can do that, you'll find yourself on
25:09
Speaker 1: a Hurdle podcast in December talking about the year.
25:13
Speaker 3: That was, so I like that I feel compelled to
25:19
Speaker 3: at the end here kind of just open the floor
25:23
Speaker 3: for you, as someone who loves to talk anything that
25:28
Speaker 3: you want to leave the hurdlers with going in to
25:31
Speaker 3: this new year.
25:32
Speaker 1: There's always a lesson with every new year, and you
25:36
Speaker 1: mentioned it earlier. It's a clean slate and you know,
25:38
Speaker 1: we get to start over. But that's a bit of
25:40
Speaker 1: a lie because it's not It's not the flip of
25:44
Speaker 1: a calendar. It's the fact that you've decided that you're
25:46
Speaker 1: going to start over. And I think you should take
25:50
Speaker 1: that into every single day, hour and moment that you
25:53
Speaker 1: can actually flip the calendar whenever the hell you want to.
25:56
Speaker 1: You're in control a lot more than you think you are.
26:00
Speaker 1: Whenever you want to flip the calendar, flip it because
26:02
Speaker 1: it's ready to be flipped. And I think if it's
26:05
Speaker 1: something that's going to change your life, or change the moment,
26:07
Speaker 1: or change the minute you're in for the better, then
26:10
Speaker 1: you do it because guess what, if you're wrong, you
26:13
Speaker 1: can flip it again. And I would hope that after
26:16
Speaker 1: this year, people understand that there are certain things that
26:21
Speaker 1: are more important than others. This is going to sound
26:24
Speaker 1: really dark, and I don't want it to sound dark,
26:27
Speaker 1: but at some point you are going to die. And
26:29
Speaker 1: I know that always sounds tough, but you know it's
26:32
Speaker 1: not the worst reminder in the world that at some
26:35
Speaker 1: point you know this ends. You know that when we
26:37
Speaker 1: say there is no finish line, that's not totally true.
26:39
Speaker 1: There is one, but there's a lot more starting lines.
26:42
Speaker 1: And I think you got to take advantage of those,
26:43
Speaker 1: because if you do, then by the time you get
26:45
Speaker 1: to that finish line, it'll be a life well lived.
26:47
Speaker 1: It'll be a life fully lived. And I think we
26:51
Speaker 1: just have to remember that these starting lines, these flips
26:54
Speaker 1: of the calendar, they present themselves all the time. You
26:58
Speaker 1: just have to be okay or brave enough, courageous enough
27:01
Speaker 1: to actually do it. It's not easy, but it's worth it.
27:04
Speaker 1: Just be open to each day being a new flip
27:07
Speaker 1: of the calendar for you, or a new starting line
27:10
Speaker 1: that you're taking and crossing and cross them, flip them,
27:12
Speaker 1: do what you need to do.
27:14
Speaker 2: It reminds me of that saying don't judge your beginnings
27:16
Speaker 2: too harshly.
27:17
Speaker 1: No, and in fact, I mean the beginnings should be
27:21
Speaker 1: the easiest part. They're often the hardest because we put
27:24
Speaker 1: so much anticipation on it. If it doesn't seem right
27:27
Speaker 1: at first, and again, we can bring this right back
27:30
Speaker 1: to running, as I often do, but it's no different
27:34
Speaker 1: than the start of the run. You know, I compare
27:37
Speaker 1: it to like beginning a book, and then I actually
27:39
Speaker 1: will shut up. But you know, when you start a book,
27:41
Speaker 1: you know you're not thinking like, oh my gosh, this
27:43
Speaker 1: is six hundred pages. I don't know if I'm going
27:45
Speaker 1: to make it. And you don't get into the first
27:47
Speaker 1: page and go, this is really boring, or you get
27:50
Speaker 1: introduced to a character and you make judgments. You know,
27:53
Speaker 1: you read the page that you're on and that informs
27:55
Speaker 1: the next page, and you know it's there's no expectation
28:00
Speaker 1: that this has to be the greatest book I've ever read.
28:03
Speaker 1: It's just this is going to be a book, and
28:05
Speaker 1: this book's going to be an experience, and as a result,
28:07
Speaker 1: I'm going to be better for it in some way.
28:09
Speaker 1: Maybe I now know what the worst book ever is,
28:11
Speaker 1: you know, or maybe I'm now introduced to something that
28:14
Speaker 1: I never thought I was going to be interested in.
28:16
Speaker 1: Or maybe I just laughed or it filled up some time.
28:19
Speaker 1: That's exactly how a run is. That's really how a
28:21
Speaker 1: day is, too, And you can bring this into everything.
28:25
Speaker 1: It's just be in the moment. And that doesn't mean
28:27
Speaker 1: you disregard the future, and it doesn't mean you ignore
28:30
Speaker 1: the past. But what it does is it allows you
28:32
Speaker 1: to say, Okay, the past informs me, the future inspires me,
28:36
Speaker 1: but I can only live in this moment. And I
28:39
Speaker 1: think again, that may be the more concise way of
28:42
Speaker 1: explaining what I said. And it took me five minutes,
28:45
Speaker 1: and now I realized it took in me. I can't
28:48
Speaker 1: even speak, taking me fifteen seconds.
28:49
Speaker 2: So full of inspiration. You are a coach. Thanks so
28:54
Speaker 2: much for catching up with me.
28:55
Speaker 3: Thanks for giving the hurdler something to be excited about,
28:57
Speaker 3: something to get motivated to turn in the page to
29:01
Speaker 3: get into twenty twenty one.
29:02
Speaker 1: You got it. Thanks for having me. This is as always,
29:04
Speaker 1: this is a blast, and thanks for everything you do.
29:07
Speaker 2: I appreciate you.
29:08
Speaker 3: Just just again here, How do the hurdlers keep up
29:10
Speaker 3: with you? Give me your details?
29:12
Speaker 1: Oh god, this is the part that this is the.
29:14
Speaker 2: Part that always throws me off.
29:16
Speaker 1: I know, I know. I mean, I'm on Instagram as
29:20
Speaker 1: coach Bennett, which is a very unique way of describing myself.
29:24
Speaker 1: I've got I'm on Twitter as Bennett run.
29:28
Speaker 2: I love you on Twitter.
29:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll tell you that Twitter. I'm a little bit
29:32
Speaker 1: looser on Twitter, a little bit too looser. Sometimes a
29:35
Speaker 1: little bit more abrasive, but it's usually while I'm cooking dinner,
29:39
Speaker 1: so you know, I kind of just say whatever I want.
29:42
Speaker 1: If I've had an adult soda and I'm cooking dinner,
29:44
Speaker 1: you know, Suddenly two hundred and forty characters can't hold
29:48
Speaker 1: me back. And then if, yeah, if you want to
29:51
Speaker 1: go for a run, I can. I can meet you
29:53
Speaker 1: on the starting line there and the Nike Run Club
29:55
Speaker 1: app too with the guided runs.
29:58
Speaker 2: I love that.
29:58
Speaker 3: I am Emily a baddie And at Hurdle Podcast, another
30:01
Speaker 3: Hurdle Conquered.
30:03
Speaker 2: Catch you guys next time.