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Let Me Reintroduce Myself: Emily Talks Her Running Journey & The Next Chapter For Hurdle · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

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Speaker 1: I am talking about what happens to your mind and
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Speaker 1: your confidence and your life when you decide to keep
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Speaker 1: showing up for yourself, one step at a time.
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Speaker 2: What's going on everyone?
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Speaker 1: Emily A body back in your feed today with Season
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Speaker 1: twenty one of Hurdle, a podcast that features the mindset, secrets,
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Speaker 1: and true stories of the most inspiring women in sports
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Speaker 1: and wellness, empowering you to live a healthier, happier, more
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Speaker 1: motivated life and of course, conquer your own hurdles. Today
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Speaker 1: is a really special day. I'm officially kicking off season
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Speaker 1: twenty one, twenty one seasons of hard conversations, a deep
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Speaker 1: growth of incredible community. And as I looked ahead to
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Speaker 1: this chapter, I wanted to ask myself a really honest question,
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Speaker 1: and that was, what conversations do I want to be
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Speaker 1: having right now? What is the community that needs the
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Speaker 1: most love, the most tools, the most intentional space? And so,
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Speaker 1: drum roll, I decided to go all in. I decided
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Speaker 1: to go all in for season twenty one of Hurdle
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Speaker 1: on running.
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Speaker 2: I'm doing it. I'm doing it. Oh my god, I
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Speaker 2: feel like a breath of fresh air. Putting that into
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Speaker 2: the universe.
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Speaker 1: Running isn't just something that I do more often than not,
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Speaker 1: like four days a week. It is truly the lens
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Speaker 1: of which I have learned how to handle every single
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Speaker 1: hurdle that life grows at me. We aren't just talking
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Speaker 1: this season about Miles. I am talking about what happens
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Speaker 1: to your mind and your confidence and your life when
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Speaker 1: you decide to keep showing up for yourself one step
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Speaker 1: at a time. And to do that, I'm going to
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Speaker 1: be calling in some really stellar elites women within the
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Speaker 1: running space, coaches, experts, and of course, along the way,
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Speaker 1: also sharing my stories, my perspectives.
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Speaker 2: And so much of myself with all of you.
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Speaker 1: Nothing new, because I've been doing a lot of this
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Speaker 1: for the past eight plus years. There were so many
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Speaker 1: factors that went into this decision for me. A big
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Speaker 1: part of it was being on the iHeart Women's Sports Network.
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Speaker 1: Right now, I am in so many really wonderful rooms,
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Speaker 1: but even in rooms where we are talking about women's sports,
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Speaker 1: often times professional running is left behind, and I feel
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Speaker 1: it ingrained in my body that now is such an
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Speaker 1: important time to amplify women's sports stories, specifically women's running
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Speaker 1: stories in the bigger picture, and I get to be
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Speaker 1: a conduit for that, I get to be a conduit
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Speaker 1: for that. And it is also a really important time
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Speaker 1: for running right now, because around the world running is
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Speaker 1: absolutely exploding. There is a global running boom happening.
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Speaker 2: It's beautiful.
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Speaker 1: There are new run clubs popping up on every corner,
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Speaker 1: more people placing up for their first mile, major road
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Speaker 1: races selling out. But I also know that as the
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Speaker 1: score grows and as more and more people get into it,
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Speaker 1: it can feel really overwhelming. It can feel super exclusive,
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Speaker 1: and you can see things like the high tech gear
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Speaker 1: and the pacing talk and the social media clips, and
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Speaker 1: it's easy to look around at all of it and wonder,
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Speaker 1: is there a space for me? And so that's a
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Speaker 1: big part of my why for this season. My why
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Speaker 1: for this season is to answer that question with a
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Speaker 1: definitive yes, there is space for you here and transparently,
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Speaker 1: there is space for you everywhere you belong, exactly as
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Speaker 1: you are. I'm also it's not lost on me that
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Speaker 1: a majority of the people that listen to this show,
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Speaker 1: even when I'm having athletes and experts and individuals of
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Speaker 1: all different backgrounds, a lot of you share this love
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Speaker 1: for running with me. Whenever I meet a hurdler in
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Speaker 1: the wild. More often than not, you're talking to me
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Speaker 1: about what's going on in your running journey, and so
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Speaker 1: I just want to meet you where you're at.
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Speaker 2: And so this is the framing for the season.
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Speaker 1: We're going to dial in on Run, and I'm excited
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Speaker 1: to see where it takes us. I feel really aligned
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Speaker 1: in this decision. It feels right with some of the
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Speaker 1: things that I have coming up personally and professionally on deck.
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Speaker 1: I will shed a little bit of light on that
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Speaker 1: in today's episode, and I want to use today's episode
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Speaker 1: to give you some background, give you some context, talk.
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Speaker 2: A lot about why running.
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Speaker 1: Has become such a big part of my life, my
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Speaker 1: journey within Run, and then tangentially my journey within my career.
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Speaker 1: How I've come to this point of podcasting working for
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Speaker 1: myself a legacy journalist, and the different decisions and career
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Speaker 1: steps that I took that have landed me in this
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Speaker 1: very spot.
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Speaker 2: A little housekeeping.
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Speaker 1: I cannot imagine, however, completely stepping away from some of
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Speaker 1: the fun opportunities that come my way for special athlete interviews.
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Speaker 1: I am still holding out for Suber to give me
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Speaker 1: your time for the show. So what that means is
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Speaker 1: that every month, at least once or twice a month,
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Speaker 1: likely on Wednesdays, I'll pop in with special episodes featuring
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Speaker 1: voices from all across the Woman's Sports space because there
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Speaker 1: are conversations to be had, y'all. Well, I'm hoping that
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Speaker 1: this editorial strategy for this season just brings a lot
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Speaker 1: of joy to all of you, because I'm already.
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Speaker 2: I'm smiling just sitting here and thinking about it.
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Speaker 1: I really believe that I'm going to look back on
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Speaker 1: this moment and know in my gut that this was
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Speaker 1: the best decision that I could have made a little context,
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Speaker 1: just one more thing before we get into the episode,
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Speaker 1: I want to reiterate that I am a certified run
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Speaker 1: coach as well as a certified trainer and a certified
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Speaker 1: professional coach that you can like into a life coach.
6:35
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of education to make sure that
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Speaker 1: I'm having safe and productive conversations and that the information
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Speaker 1: that I'm putting out into the universe is good for.
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Speaker 2: All of you.
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Speaker 1: I know that it is a time to be a
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Speaker 1: human of the Internet, where we have all of these
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Speaker 1: different streams and people constantly shoving things down our throats.
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Speaker 1: And so I want you to know that I value
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Speaker 1: your time, I value your ear, and I promise to
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Speaker 1: do my best to make sure that I give you
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Speaker 1: the good good. Make sure you're following along with Hurdle
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Speaker 1: over on social It's over at Hurdle podcast. Also listen
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Speaker 1: to me over on iHeart Woman's Sports on the iHeartRadio
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Speaker 1: app or wherever you get your podcasts, and of course
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Speaker 1: follow me over at Emily Abadi with that, Let's get
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Speaker 1: to it.
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Speaker 2: Let's get to Hurdling season twenty one. It starts with me.
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Speaker 1: It starts with me because I want you to get
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Speaker 1: an understanding of who it is that I am at
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Speaker 1: this point in my life. In the first season of
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Speaker 1: the show, I sat down with Sarah Larson Levy. She
7:51
Speaker 1: is the founder of y seven Studio, it's a really
7:55
Speaker 1: popular chain of yoga studios and a friend of mine
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Speaker 1: now and she said, reflecting on a difficult moment that
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Speaker 1: she'd been through, that this is how it is now,
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Speaker 1: and it was different five minutes ago, and it's going
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Speaker 1: to be different five minutes from right now. But all
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Speaker 1: you can do is the best you can with what
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Speaker 1: you have. And so this is how I am now,
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Speaker 1: and I am a very different woman than I started
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Speaker 1: this journey. As for me, I am from Connecticut. I
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Speaker 1: grew up in a small town called Trumbull, and I,
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Speaker 1: like many, had a very tumultuous, I would say, relationship
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Speaker 1: with my health and well being from a young age.
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Speaker 1: For me, I in high school was really overweight. It
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Speaker 1: started when I didn't make the JV volleyball team. I
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Speaker 1: played volleyball freshman year and I absolutely loved it. And
8:50
Speaker 1: in order to make the JV team, you needed to
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Speaker 1: be able to run a mile and under ten minutes,
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Speaker 1: and I couldn't do it, and so I got booted
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Speaker 1: from the team and became part of a really unsettling
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Speaker 1: statistic that is, young women drop out of sports at
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Speaker 1: twice the rate of young men. I was completely dissuaded
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Speaker 1: from movement altogether and was sure that I would never
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Speaker 1: be a good runner, that it wasn't something that would
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Speaker 1: ever be within my wheelhouse. Now fast forward, I got
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Speaker 1: super involved in the arts and in a youth group,
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Speaker 1: and by the time I was graduating high school had
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Speaker 1: gained a significant amount of weight. Because I wasn't super active,
9:33
Speaker 1: that wasn't a focus for me during that time. My
9:35
Speaker 1: parents got separated, which I'm sure contributed to everything. And
9:39
Speaker 1: so I showed up to the University of Connecticut my
9:42
Speaker 1: freshman year, and come spring, I was really unhappy. I
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Speaker 1: really felt uncomfortable in my body. And I have told
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Speaker 1: this story before, but I was sitting at my desk
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Speaker 1: in East Campus, working on a term paper or a
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Speaker 1: final or something, and I decided that that was as
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Speaker 1: good of a time as any to step on a
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Speaker 1: scale and see what I was dealing with. And so
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Speaker 1: I pulled out this dusty scale from under my twin
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Speaker 1: extra large bunk bed and I stepped on it, and
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Speaker 1: I remember the amount of time that it took for
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Speaker 1: the scale to populate.
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Speaker 2: It felt like forever.
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Speaker 1: And a number came up on the scale and it
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Speaker 1: was two hundred and four pounds. And as someone that
10:29
Speaker 1: is like just at five four, being two hundred and
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Speaker 1: four pounds and that body felt really unhealthy. I didn't
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Speaker 1: feel confident or really safe or seen or I just
10:43
Speaker 1: it was awful. And the way that I was speaking
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Speaker 1: to myself was so awful. And I did something that
10:51
Speaker 1: was so counterintuitive. I pulled out a sweatshirt from that
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Speaker 1: freshman year of high school volleyball team and some cottons
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Speaker 1: and some old sneakers, and I ran down the three
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Speaker 1: flights of stairs out of my dorm room and sprinted
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Speaker 1: down the street for about I don't know, maybe fifteen seconds,
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Speaker 1: until I couldn't run anymore and fell over in the grass,
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Speaker 1: and like looked up at the stars above me. And
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Speaker 1: in stores Connecticut, you're really in farm country, so you
11:22
Speaker 1: could see a lot of stars. And I looked up
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Speaker 1: and I knew I needed to make a change. I
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Speaker 1: needed to make a change because I didn't want to
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Speaker 1: live that way anymore. I wanted to be happy, and
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Speaker 1: I wanted to feel better in my body. Soared by
12:01
Speaker 1: learning how to eat better, as you know when you're
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Speaker 1: a college freshman, many college freshmen eating in dining halls.
12:09
Speaker 1: I started to learn how to make better decisions of
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Speaker 1: what I was eating. I learned a lot about portion sizes,
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Speaker 1: and so over the course of about the next year
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Speaker 1: or so, I lost about thirty five pounds. And a
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Speaker 1: part of that was also integrating moving more too. So
12:29
Speaker 1: I was a frequent gym goer, a big fan of
12:33
Speaker 1: like the elliptical, turning on a movie, watching a show,
12:36
Speaker 1: whatever it was. And then I began the next phase
12:43
Speaker 1: and the next phase happened for me at an overnight camp.
12:47
Speaker 1: I grew up going to a summer camp in Madison,
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Speaker 1: Connecticut called Camp Laurel Wood, and while I was there
12:53
Speaker 1: that summer working as the programming director, I wanted to
12:56
Speaker 1: continue the progress that I had made. I was feeling
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Speaker 1: really strong in in my body, but I didn't have
13:02
Speaker 1: access to go to a big box gym because I
13:04
Speaker 1: was working at this overnight camp, and so what I
13:06
Speaker 1: could do was laced up my sneakers. And that is
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Speaker 1: something that I really want to talk about right now.
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Speaker 1: I am so so happy that I was brave enough
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Speaker 1: to be willing to be bad at something that I
13:20
Speaker 1: was already made to feel at one point in my
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Speaker 1: life that I was bad at because it prevented me
13:27
Speaker 1: from doing something that I wanted to do. So what
13:29
Speaker 1: I did was that I committed to running the exact
13:33
Speaker 1: same route every day for an entire summer.
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Speaker 2: For sixty or so days, I ran.
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Speaker 1: The funniest part about this is that I thought I
13:42
Speaker 1: was running a mile every day and that mile took
13:44
Speaker 1: me something like around fifteen minutes, and at the end
13:47
Speaker 1: of the summer, I measured the distance with my car
13:50
Speaker 1: and it was literally a half mile. How I was
13:53
Speaker 1: I could walk a half mile in fifteen minutes. I
13:56
Speaker 1: don't know what was going on, but I ran a
13:58
Speaker 1: half mile every day that somewhere, and I wasn't even
14:02
Speaker 1: mad when I figured out what my mistake had been,
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Speaker 1: because what it did was it taught me to enjoy
14:08
Speaker 1: that time with myself. It taught me to enjoy running.
14:11
Speaker 1: It taught me that I was capable. I was seeing
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Speaker 1: results that I was after, and it felt so rewarding,
14:20
Speaker 1: so rewarding in fact, that soon that half mile became
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Speaker 1: a mile, and then that mile became a five k
14:27
Speaker 1: at some point, and eventually it led me to signing
14:30
Speaker 1: up for my first half marathon, and I did that
14:34
Speaker 1: my junior year of college. I ran my first half
14:39
Speaker 1: marathon in Hartford, Connecticut, the ing Hartford Half. It's in October,
14:46
Speaker 1: and I did it in something like two hours and
14:49
Speaker 1: forty five minutes maybe, which is crazy because if I
14:55
Speaker 1: fast forward to now, my full my fastest full marathon
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Speaker 1: time is less than an hour more than that.
15:02
Speaker 2: So I've made a lot of progress.
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Speaker 1: And to say that I ran my first half marathon
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Speaker 1: my junior year, So that was two thousand and eight.
15:11
Speaker 1: I ran my first half marathon in two thousand and eight.
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Speaker 1: I ran my first full marathon in I want to say,
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Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, So I wasn't rushing anything.
15:24
Speaker 2: I fell in.
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Speaker 1: Love with running slowly and then all at once, And
15:31
Speaker 1: the journey has had so many interesting and really beautiful
15:36
Speaker 1: phases for me. The beginning of that journey was all
15:40
Speaker 1: about weight loss. I started running as a tool for
15:44
Speaker 1: weight loss, and what I learned as I was using
15:48
Speaker 1: it in that way was that not only was I
15:52
Speaker 1: so worthy of my own investment, but it made me
15:55
Speaker 1: feel valuable. It made me feel productive, and that was
15:58
Speaker 1: something that made me feel so special. And so as
16:03
Speaker 1: I continued to set more and more goals and go
16:06
Speaker 1: after more and more exciting moments, I just kept feeling
16:12
Speaker 1: as though I was unlocking different levels of my own potential.
16:16
Speaker 1: And I still geek out of it all these years later, right,
16:19
Speaker 1: I still get excited at the idea of testing myself,
16:23
Speaker 1: of trying to see what I'm capable of. And as
16:28
Speaker 1: many of you know, it truly just it rubs off
16:32
Speaker 1: on every other aspect of your life. And I'll talk
16:36
Speaker 1: about that a little bit more and just a little bit,
16:39
Speaker 1: but I ran that first half marathon in Hartford and
16:41
Speaker 1: felt so accomplished, and ran a slow more after that,
16:46
Speaker 1: and moved to New York City in two thousand and eleven.
16:51
Speaker 2: To say that I have been here for fifteen years
16:55
Speaker 2: is wild. It's wild.
16:57
Speaker 1: Moved here in twenty eleven, ran my first full marathon
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Speaker 1: in Hartford in twenty twelve, and wow, that day it
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Speaker 1: just reminded me. I mean, it changed my life forever.
17:12
Speaker 1: And I think that every marathon that I've run to
17:15
Speaker 1: an extent has done that for me in different ways.
17:17
Speaker 1: It's been something that I've remembered how capable I am
17:22
Speaker 1: of meeting the moment. And the biggest lesson that I've
17:27
Speaker 1: learned along the way is that, yes, that day in
17:30
Speaker 1: itself is so special, but it's the journey that instills
17:35
Speaker 1: in you that lesson. It's the journey that reminds you
17:39
Speaker 1: who you really are. And for me, I know how
17:42
Speaker 1: important it is now to truly be in the journey,
17:46
Speaker 1: to truly like soak it all in and to enjoy it,
17:50
Speaker 1: because if you're not enjoying the journey, then that final moment,
17:55
Speaker 1: that final race day, it's not really going to hold
17:58
Speaker 1: the same amount of meaning it's not really going to
18:01
Speaker 1: hold the same amount of weight.
18:02
Speaker 2: And I would say, if.
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Speaker 1: You're not someone that enjoys the journey, then you're doing
18:08
Speaker 1: yourself a massive disservice. It's such an opportunity cost. That
18:13
Speaker 1: term in itself I learned through running. I was sitting
18:18
Speaker 1: with a friend of mine. It was shortly before she
18:21
Speaker 1: and I were going to run the New York Marathon,
18:24
Speaker 1: which I'd run like seven or eight times now, and
18:28
Speaker 1: we're sitting on a rooftop celebrating her birthday.
18:32
Speaker 2: Early.
18:34
Speaker 1: Someone sits next to us at the barn. We're having
18:36
Speaker 1: a glass of wine, and the glass of wine is
18:37
Speaker 1: almost done, and he's like, do you want a shot?
18:41
Speaker 2: And both of us like instinctively, were like no, we're
18:43
Speaker 2: all set.
18:45
Speaker 1: And he says why and we tell him, like, we
18:47
Speaker 1: have to get up and run tomorrow.
18:48
Speaker 2: We have this marathon coming up.
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Speaker 1: He says, that's something that has a high opportunity cost.
18:55
Speaker 1: I can't make this up. And I had never heard
18:57
Speaker 1: the term before, and I said, what's that? And he says,
19:00
Speaker 1: opportunity cost is the thing that basically, if you choose
19:04
Speaker 1: to partake in a certain opportunity, you're going to have
19:07
Speaker 1: to make a lot of sacrifices to make that thing happen.
19:10
Speaker 1: So running teaches you to make those sacrifices, at least teach.
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Speaker 1: It's taught me that it's been the thing that I've
19:19
Speaker 1: come to realize has instilled so much diligence in me
19:23
Speaker 1: and so much compassion for myself and also just so
19:26
Speaker 1: many other great habits. That is something that I couldn't
19:30
Speaker 1: feel more grateful for that running and the scheduling and
19:35
Speaker 1: the diligence and the time management that it requires, it
19:39
Speaker 1: truly rubs off onto all of these aspects of my life.
19:42
Speaker 1: And so yeah, a big opportunity cost especially fifteen marathons later,
19:49
Speaker 1: I've run the Abbot World Majors and I am, like
19:53
Speaker 1: I said at this intro training for Sydney right now.
19:57
Speaker 1: And what makes me so excited about what's going to
20:02
Speaker 1: happen this season here is it's really bringing together my interests,
20:07
Speaker 1: my passion areas, and my professional interests as well. Like
20:14
Speaker 1: I said in the intro, I get so excited talking
20:17
Speaker 1: to athletes of all different backgrounds. How cool is it
20:21
Speaker 1: that I have figured out how to be able to
20:23
Speaker 1: make this a career. But this career has been winding,
20:29
Speaker 1: and it has taken me quite some time to land
20:31
Speaker 1: in this seat. As I was going on this journey
20:35
Speaker 1: of self discovery within running, I was also elevating in
20:40
Speaker 1: different ways throughout my career. So what started as me
20:44
Speaker 1: graduating from Yukon with a degree in political science and journalism.
20:49
Speaker 1: I got my first job in New York City straight
20:51
Speaker 1: out of college. After I did a summer internship, I
20:54
Speaker 1: became associate editor at this website called The Stir, which
20:58
Speaker 1: was owned by a company called cap Mom.
21:00
Speaker 2: I was at Cafe Mom.
21:02
Speaker 1: For about three and a half years and made my
21:06
Speaker 1: way up through a couple of promotions there and ultimately
21:10
Speaker 1: what got me to leave, and I was so scared
21:13
Speaker 1: to do this was an opening as a fitness editor
21:16
Speaker 1: at a publishing house called Rodale. So Rodale used to
21:19
Speaker 1: own the titles Women's Health, Men's Health, Runners World, et cetera.
21:24
Speaker 1: Now they're Hurst brands, and I was so nervous that
21:29
Speaker 1: I was going to get bored. I had a vested
21:31
Speaker 1: interest in health and wellness. I mean, I went through
21:33
Speaker 1: that big health transformation in college and lost a considerable
21:36
Speaker 1: amount of weight, and I was excited at the idea
21:40
Speaker 1: of working in a topic area that I was so
21:42
Speaker 1: passionate about, but I was also just so is this
21:46
Speaker 1: going to get old? And I sat at a bar
21:49
Speaker 1: at the time. There was this bar called Rodeo Bar.
21:52
Speaker 1: If you're a New Yorker, you know what I'm You
21:54
Speaker 1: know what I'm getting at. Rodeo Bar was like on
21:56
Speaker 1: Third Avenue in twenty seventh, not far from what's the
22:01
Speaker 1: bar that I'm thinking of Brother Jimmy's, not far from
22:04
Speaker 1: Brother Jimmy's. I sat there with my cousin and my
22:07
Speaker 1: boyfriend at the time, and we made a pro com
22:09
Speaker 1: list of like whether or not I should change jobs,
22:13
Speaker 1: and the pros outweighed the cons, and so I became
22:17
Speaker 1: a fitness editor at this website called Rodelle Wellness dot com,
22:20
Speaker 1: which eventually became fitbee dot com. And it was the
22:27
Speaker 1: best decision I could have made for my career because
22:29
Speaker 1: it opened me up to really combining like my professional
22:34
Speaker 1: life and my passions. And I feel really lucky because
22:37
Speaker 1: I know that people don't always get to do that.
22:40
Speaker 1: You know, I no shade on people that are maybe
22:46
Speaker 1: in finance. You might like finance, but I don't think
22:49
Speaker 1: anyone like wakes up in dreams of being an investment baker. Okay,
22:53
Speaker 1: I don't want to all right, I don't want to generalize,
22:55
Speaker 1: but you kind of get what I'm saying. It's really cool,
23:00
Speaker 1: really cool that I get to do what I do.
23:02
Speaker 1: And so I was a fitness editor at Rydale for
23:06
Speaker 1: about uh god, just shy of two years and I
23:09
Speaker 1: got let go for the first time.
23:10
Speaker 2: We love media.
23:12
Speaker 1: And then I emailed everyone I could in my network
23:16
Speaker 1: looking for freelance work and other job opportunities, and I
23:19
Speaker 1: emailed someone named Liz Poster, who has been un hurdle before.
23:24
Speaker 1: Liz is the former editor in chief now of Woman's
23:26
Speaker 1: Health magazine, but back then she was the deputy editor
23:29
Speaker 1: at Self magazine, and I got an email response back
23:34
Speaker 1: from her. She assigned me something for the magazine, and
23:36
Speaker 1: then after completing it, the following week, she emailed me
23:41
Speaker 1: and the subject of the email was just like fitness
23:43
Speaker 1: editor and said when can you come in? And I
24:00
Speaker 1: love telling this story. I emailed her back. I was
24:03
Speaker 1: sitting in the basement of the lou Lemon former flagship
24:07
Speaker 1: space near Union Square.
24:09
Speaker 2: I was working.
24:10
Speaker 1: They used to have a working area downstairs, and I said,
24:13
Speaker 1: I responded right away.
24:15
Speaker 2: I was like I can be there in twenty minutes.
24:17
Speaker 1: If it's okay, then I'm wearing ath leisure and if
24:19
Speaker 1: you'd rather I wear something else, I can come tomorrow
24:22
Speaker 1: at ten am.
24:23
Speaker 2: And she said, come tomorrow at ten am, and so
24:25
Speaker 2: I did.
24:25
Speaker 1: And the next day after I went in and I
24:29
Speaker 1: met with Liz and the executive editor and the editor
24:32
Speaker 1: in chief at the time, Joyce Ching. I went into
24:34
Speaker 1: Joyce's office and this was a print magazine role. All
24:39
Speaker 1: of my experience had been in digital, and so I
24:41
Speaker 1: walked into Joyce's office and I said, I want you
24:44
Speaker 1: to know that I'm going to do this job better
24:45
Speaker 1: than anybody else that walks in here. And whatever I
24:49
Speaker 1: don't know now, I will know within a month. And
24:53
Speaker 1: I knew it because I was scrappy and at the
24:55
Speaker 1: time I had to be because that was the pace
24:57
Speaker 1: of the Internet. And the next day cleaning my apartment
25:02
Speaker 1: that I was so scared of how I was going
25:03
Speaker 1: to pay for because I was unemployed in twenty six
25:07
Speaker 1: and I remember like Uptown Girl by Billy Joel was
25:11
Speaker 1: playing and a call came in from HR at Conde
25:15
Speaker 1: Nast and I got hired. I got hired, and that
25:19
Speaker 1: at the time was my dream job. It was everything
25:22
Speaker 1: I could have ever hoped for. I was doing so
25:26
Speaker 1: much cool stuff. I mean, I was writing cover stories.
25:28
Speaker 1: My name was in a magazine. There's a masshead like
25:31
Speaker 1: behind me on my desk, my first ever mass head
25:34
Speaker 1: that my name was in. Like it was everything I
25:37
Speaker 1: dreamed of doing since I was a little girl. I
25:39
Speaker 1: was on set doing fitness photo shoots and talking to
25:43
Speaker 1: Olympians and trying out new products. And I went to
25:47
Speaker 1: my first press trip, like, oh my god, I went
25:50
Speaker 1: to Santa Monica and I got a custom Nike fuel
25:52
Speaker 1: band and rose gold and that was cool.
25:56
Speaker 2: That was cool. I digress. It was my dream job
26:00
Speaker 2: until the magazine folded.
26:02
Speaker 1: The magazine folded, and once again I got let go
26:05
Speaker 1: and I went out on my own of writing freelance,
26:10
Speaker 1: writing about twenty to thirty articles a month for so
26:13
Speaker 1: many different publications from Gosh, Wall Street Journal to GQ
26:19
Speaker 1: to Marie Claire to Woman's Health, Self Shape, Pop Sugar,
26:24
Speaker 1: so many titles that aren't even around anymore. But what
26:26
Speaker 1: I was doing was really broadening my network and learning
26:30
Speaker 1: so much and talking to so many cool people and
26:32
Speaker 1: learning how to be scrappy. And a year into that journey.
26:36
Speaker 1: I got to this point where I loved storytelling, but
26:40
Speaker 1: I was so tired of having to run my ideas
26:42
Speaker 1: by everybody else.
26:43
Speaker 2: And that is where Hurdle came from.
26:45
Speaker 1: Hurdle, as many of you know, started when I was
26:49
Speaker 1: sitting on my third floor walk up couch on the
26:52
Speaker 1: Upper East Side, shortly after going through a really rough
26:55
Speaker 1: breakup and a half years ago at this point, and
27:00
Speaker 1: I looked at a friend of mine and I said,
27:02
Speaker 1: I just so badly want to get over this hurdle,
27:05
Speaker 1: and it came out of my mouth and I was like,
27:08
Speaker 1: that's it, that's it. I wanted to talk to people
27:11
Speaker 1: about how they leveraged health and wellness to get through
27:14
Speaker 1: difficult times in their lives. And that was the thing
27:18
Speaker 1: that launched me into this multi year journey that I
27:22
Speaker 1: have been on. And all of this is important context
27:26
Speaker 1: for where we are now because through a hurdle, yes,
27:30
Speaker 1: I have been able to interview so many people, but
27:33
Speaker 1: I have traveled the world.
27:35
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're new here.
27:38
Speaker 1: One of the highlights of my career was two weeks
27:41
Speaker 1: in Paris during the Olympics, recording in a special studio
27:45
Speaker 1: space facilitated by Athleta. I'm in a Hayes thinking about
27:50
Speaker 1: thinking about it all. I have hosted live shows in
27:55
Speaker 1: some phenomenal places like at the Olympic Marriage on Trials
28:01
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, and in Austin, Texas, and in Los Angeles, California,
28:07
Speaker 1: and of course here in New York in Boston. I
28:10
Speaker 1: have met so many of you all around the world.
28:13
Speaker 1: I did a hurdler meetup in Tokyo, I did ahrdler
28:17
Speaker 1: meetup in Berlin, and dozens of women came out united
28:23
Speaker 1: by the fact that we have this common interest more
28:26
Speaker 1: often than not, and that common interest is running. And
28:31
Speaker 1: that's why it brings me back to this place, to
28:35
Speaker 1: this episode. What I think is so necessary right now
28:41
Speaker 1: when it comes to telling stories within run is bringing
28:46
Speaker 1: the humanside of these elites. If that's who we're talking
28:51
Speaker 1: about on the interview. Here to light, I want to
28:55
Speaker 1: show you who it is that these people really are,
28:58
Speaker 1: what it is that they're doing outside of the run,
29:02
Speaker 1: who they are as holistic human beings, how their minds work,
29:07
Speaker 1: because that fascinates me. If I had to go back
29:11
Speaker 1: to school, I think that I would go back for
29:15
Speaker 1: sports psychology performance psychology to gain a better understanding and
29:21
Speaker 1: learn more about how the mind works. It truly, truly
29:25
Speaker 1: fascinates me. But that is neither here nor there. I
29:28
Speaker 1: am starting to ramble a little bit. But I now,
29:34
Speaker 1: as a career woman and a runner, feel like I
29:37
Speaker 1: am in this really exciting place. I feel like I
29:41
Speaker 1: have this really great positioning and opportunity to have really
29:47
Speaker 1: beautiful conversations on this platform that I've built. I am
29:53
Speaker 1: so proud of the ones that I've had thus far,
29:56
Speaker 1: ranging from alive with Slane Flanagan before she ran her
30:01
Speaker 1: sixth World major within two months in New York City,
30:07
Speaker 1: to a special conversation with Gabby Thomas in a hotel
30:11
Speaker 1: room near Central Park. I've chatted with Jess McLean in
30:15
Speaker 1: a hotel room in London, and done a few now
30:20
Speaker 1: lives with Des Linden, who you'll be hearing from again
30:23
Speaker 1: on the show soon. I am so excited to keep
30:28
Speaker 1: doing this thing that I love. I am so excited
30:34
Speaker 1: now as it intersects with my professional life. I have
30:38
Speaker 1: some exciting announcements that I can't share just yet, but
30:42
Speaker 1: I'm going to be doing some really cool traveling this
30:44
Speaker 1: fall with some really inspirational people and having some really
30:48
Speaker 1: special conversations, and that is also a really big part
30:52
Speaker 1: of the reason why I know that now is the
30:55
Speaker 1: time for me to bring you more of this specific
31:01
Speaker 1: It feels true to me, it feels true to the show,
31:04
Speaker 1: and I hope that in making this decision, I can
31:08
Speaker 1: have your support, that you'll share all of this with
31:12
Speaker 1: your friends, with people that share these interests with you.
31:16
Speaker 1: I hope that you'll let me know what you want
31:19
Speaker 1: to hear, who you want to hear from. I hope
31:22
Speaker 1: that you'll follow the show on the socials. I hope
31:24
Speaker 1: that you'll keep up with me. I have so many hopes,
31:27
Speaker 1: I have so many, so many dreams. I guess the
31:31
Speaker 1: last thing to touch on right now is kind of
31:32
Speaker 1: where I am with my own running journey, now that
31:36
Speaker 1: you know how I got here, not only as a runner,
31:40
Speaker 1: but also as the person behind this microphone. Training for
31:44
Speaker 1: the Sydney Marathon, I go back and forth oscillating between
31:47
Speaker 1: like I want to run this as hard as humanly
31:49
Speaker 1: possible and like get a like a personal best, and
31:52
Speaker 1: also understanding that this particular marathon has the most elevation
31:56
Speaker 1: gain out of any of the world major marathons, and
32:00
Speaker 1: that is very hard as someone who lives in New
32:03
Speaker 1: York City, which is basically really flat to get in
32:07
Speaker 1: that kind of training. And also for me, I'm like
32:10
Speaker 1: constantly pop in and hop in all over hosting things,
32:14
Speaker 1: and so all of that travel makes it challenging to
32:16
Speaker 1: get in some hill training as well. I go back
32:18
Speaker 1: and forth between that goal of wanting to just absolutely
32:21
Speaker 1: crush this thing and then crushing it in a different way,
32:24
Speaker 1: which is like fun maxing the marathon. I'm leaning toward
32:29
Speaker 1: fund maxing the marathon, but I'm so excited. I'm going
32:31
Speaker 1: out there as a guest of a six They sponsor
32:35
Speaker 1: the Sydney Marathon and have a really great group of
32:38
Speaker 1: girls that I know that are also going to be running,
32:40
Speaker 1: and I'm so excited to be on that side of
32:42
Speaker 1: the world with them, as well as my people at
32:46
Speaker 1: ASEX who I've known for such a long time, and
32:48
Speaker 1: then spend some time in Australia. Something that's also really
32:52
Speaker 1: important to note when I say that I didn't get
32:54
Speaker 1: here overnight is that I am such a different runner
32:58
Speaker 1: now than I was when I was younger, and I
33:00
Speaker 1: I have an appreciation for all the different facets and
33:04
Speaker 1: contributions that the sport has brought to my life at
33:07
Speaker 1: this point. For me, when I began running, I said,
33:11
Speaker 1: I used it as a tool for weight loss, and
33:13
Speaker 1: then I just did it without really the desire necessarily
33:18
Speaker 1: to get better at it. I just did it because
33:20
Speaker 1: it was something that I enjoyed. I never aspired to
33:23
Speaker 1: be someone that would run a Boston qualifying marathon time.
33:27
Speaker 2: It's just something that happened.
33:29
Speaker 1: And I believe that it happened for me not only
33:31
Speaker 1: because I was willing to put in the work, but
33:33
Speaker 1: because I enjoyed the journey. Like I talked about earlier,
33:37
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed the journey, and I think that I
33:40
Speaker 1: soaked up so much inspiration along the way. That's why
33:43
Speaker 1: these two stories for me of my career and my
33:46
Speaker 1: journey on the run have been so parallel, because as
33:50
Speaker 1: I got more dialed in on seeking different levels of
33:53
Speaker 1: my own potential, that was because I was talking to
33:56
Speaker 1: so many more people that were doing the exact same thing.
34:00
Speaker 1: And how cool is that that we have this opportunity
34:03
Speaker 1: to encourage and inspire one another, regardless of how many
34:07
Speaker 1: followers you have on social media. It wasn't until before
34:13
Speaker 1: the twenty sixteen I believe I went to the twenty
34:17
Speaker 1: sixteen Track and Field Trials in Oregon, and that was
34:24
Speaker 1: the first time I really learned about that side of
34:27
Speaker 1: the sport. I didn't have a lot of knowledge beyond
34:31
Speaker 1: like watching my brother run cross country when we were younger,
34:34
Speaker 1: of like what that looked like. And that was a
34:37
Speaker 1: spiral that then brought me to my first Nike Cross Nationals.
34:41
Speaker 1: And then I learned more about running and track and
34:45
Speaker 1: field and would watch professional marathoners and start to learn
34:48
Speaker 1: their names, and it was a whole thing. And now,
34:51
Speaker 1: like I said, I've interviewed so many of them and
34:54
Speaker 1: who there are so many more, so many more to come.
34:58
Speaker 1: Have I been rambling a little bit this episode?
35:00
Speaker 2: Absolutely? What I change a thing? No, is this going
35:03
Speaker 2: on YouTube? Yes?
35:05
Speaker 1: I am so nervous about that. I say that now
35:10
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure it's.
35:10
Speaker 2: Going on YouTube. It's going on YouTube. I'm going to
35:14
Speaker 2: work on it.
35:16
Speaker 1: But Hurdle Season twenty one, we're going all in on running,
35:21
Speaker 1: We're going all in on being our best selves, and
35:23
Speaker 1: we're doing it with grace and we're doing it together.
35:27
Speaker 1: Make sure you're following along with me over on social
35:32
Speaker 1: I'm over at Emilia Bodi and also at Hurdle Podcast.
35:35
Speaker 1: I've got some really great episodes coming up for you,
35:38
Speaker 1: and like I said before, I want to know who
35:40
Speaker 1: you want to hear from. I want to tell really
35:44
Speaker 1: great stories here, so email us hello at hurdle US,
35:50
Speaker 1: hit me up in the DMS, and I'll be talking
35:53
Speaker 1: to you soon. Another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next
35:58
Speaker 1: time you