Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 255. Sally McRae, Ultra Runner

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255. Sally McRae, Ultra Runner · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you believe that you are here for a purpose,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: going after your dreams, things that you love, it does
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  Speaker 1: make it a little bit easier because you actually believe
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  Speaker 1: that even though I can't see the finish line, even
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: though I can't see the light at the end of
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the tunnel, if I just keep going, I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: discover that.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. Ela body here,
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  Speaker 2: you are listening to episode two hundred and fifty five
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: of Hurdle, a wellness focused podcast. Reconnect with everyone from
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  Speaker 2: your favorite athletes to top experts and industry CEOs about
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  Speaker 2: their highest highs, toughest moments, and.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: Everything in between.
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  Speaker 2: We all go through hurdles in life, and my goal
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  Speaker 2: through these discussions is to empower you to better navigate
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  Speaker 2: yours and move with intentions so that you can stride
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: towards your own big potential and of course have some
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: fun along the way. For today's episode two fifty five,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: I am chatting with Sally McRae. You know her as
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: her Instagram handle perhaps over at yellow Runner. She's an
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: endurance athletes pro trail and ultra runner and also a
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: new author. Now I don't know if you notice this,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: but I typically try to spread out the sports, the modalities,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: So one week maybe it's a swimmer, the next week
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: it's a runner, the next week it's someone like Fretchen Rubin,
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: a motivational speaker and author on the show.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah you get it.
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  Speaker 2: So her book Choose Strong just came out, so on
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  Speaker 2: the heels of mel Roja's great episode last week, I'm
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: bringing back another runner.
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  Speaker 3: I am linking.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Choose Strong in the show notes for those of you
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: that don't know Sally's story, it is so so powerful.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: She has been on the show once before, so I
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: will also make sure to link that episode in there
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: as well. Sally is truly known worldwide for her mental fortitude,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: her hardcore training tactics, and an ability to push through
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: extreme discomfort.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: And that is what she's talking about in this book.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: In this book, she candidly tells the shocking and at
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: times devastating story of abuse and loss and the wild
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: resilience that laid the foundation for the athlete, the woman,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: the mother, the friend that she is today. It's such
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: a powerful memoir and we are talking about that in
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: this episode, what it was like to go through the
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: writing process and beyond that, Sally shares her ever wonderful
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: takeaways of how to show up to difficult moments, to
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: handle your hurdles and come out on the other side
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: a more optimistic and strong person. Sally also talks about
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: her recent experience running the Cocodona two fifty, which is
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: a massive ultra race that for her didn't go as
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: planned when she started to navigate a nordly injury just
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: seven minds in. She tells us about the mental fortitude
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: that went hand in hand with that experience and how
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: her past experience has enabled her to show up for
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: herself and go after her big goal. A huge thanks
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: to Sally for her time. I'm so lamped on this episode.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Trust me, it is full of goodies. Make sure you're
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: following Hurdle over at Hurdle Podcast and we're at Emily
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Abadie And with that, let's get to it.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Let's get to hurdling today. I am sitting down with
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: Sally McRae.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: You may know her by her social handle over at
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Yellow Runners. She's an endurance athlete, a total badass, and
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: a new author her book Choose Strong Hitting the Shows.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: How are we doing, Sally, I'm doing great. Thanks for
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: having me on the show.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: Is it fun to add like another word to the
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  Speaker 2: long string of multi hyphen it of things that you do.
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you that has been a dream of mine
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: since I was a little girl, So you know, it's
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  Speaker 1: very exciting.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: I just don't know what order to put it in
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: because you know, I would love just to keep writing
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  Speaker 1: and keep putting out books. So we'll see, like maybe
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: one day it'll be the only one standing.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the book itself, like I said, called Choose Strong,
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  Speaker 2: not the only thing that you're putting out into the
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: world as of late.
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  Speaker 3: Talk to me about what goes hand in hand with
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: this book for you.
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  Speaker 1: Well, there's a lot of things that are centered around
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: that phrase, too Strong. So we are definitely building up
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: a community about it. Our tagline is strong Mind, strong body,
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  Speaker 1: Strong Love, and it's about encouraging people, no matter where
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  Speaker 1: they are in their life, just to make the strongest
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  Speaker 1: choice that they can and which isn't always the easy choice.
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  Speaker 1: And I think that's where the community comes in. So
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  Speaker 1: we've been building a community online through our app and
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  Speaker 1: through our pot We have a podcast called too Strong.
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  Speaker 1: We did the Too Strong project last year, which has
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  Speaker 1: a film attached to it. We have some merchandise coming
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  Speaker 1: out then, of course with this book, but it's more
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  Speaker 1: community centered. Like when Eddie and I launched the podcast,
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  Speaker 1: Like at first he's like, you should do the Salam
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  Speaker 1: McCrae podcast. I was like, I really don't want my
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: name on it. I don't really want my name branded
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  Speaker 1: in what we're doing, Like, I want it to be
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  Speaker 1: more community minded, where people know that they can be
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  Speaker 1: a part of something great and be supported and encouraged.
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  Speaker 3: So that's really the messaging and the hope for all
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  Speaker 3: of it.
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  Speaker 2: You said, choosing strong, choosing to be the strongest you
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  Speaker 2: feel as though you can be in any given moment.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Beyond that, What does this phrase too strong mean to you?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that, you know, we they say every
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  Speaker 1: day we have what it is like tens of thousands
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  Speaker 1: decisions that we have to make right. Some of them
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  Speaker 1: are very most of them are very minimal. They're not
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: going to this massive impact on our life, you know,
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  Speaker 1: whether you have cheerios or oatmeal, Like, that's not a
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  Speaker 1: life altering decisions.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know.
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  Speaker 1: And so it's it's just tackling, you know, just the question.
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  Speaker 1: I think that I've gotten many times as a teacher,
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  Speaker 1: as a coach, you know, I've been a counselor There's
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  Speaker 1: a lot of roles that I've had that have taken
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: more of a leadership responsibility. And so often when people
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  Speaker 1: have had longer conversations with me, there's always a point
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: where someone is asking me like do you think I
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: could do this? Or what are your opinions on this?
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Or like I'm really struggling with this. And I think
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: that that many of the most important decisions in our
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: life are like points of tension or pressure or difficulty.
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  Speaker 1: We are asking ourselves like what am I supposed to do?
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  Speaker 1: And sometimes it's it's in a dark space where you
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: feel low, and you feel weak and and you feel
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: lost and you don't know what to do. And then
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  Speaker 1: sometimes it's kind of like the race that I just had,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: where I was really battling a lot of physical pain
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  Speaker 1: in my feet, and it's like do I keep going?
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  Speaker 3: Is it worth it?
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  Speaker 2: Like?
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  Speaker 3: What am I supposed to do with this pain?
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  Speaker 1: And so the phrase for me is something that I've
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: always wanted to give to myself, but just to people.
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  Speaker 1: That's really simple but also has a lot of grace
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  Speaker 1: tied to it too, And I think that's what people
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  Speaker 1: need to remember that being strong isn't about you know,
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  Speaker 1: how much you can lift to the gym. It being
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: strong isn't what you look like, which I think, especially
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: like right now with so much social media, it's easy
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: to think that as we scroll through those pictures that like, oh,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: these people are strong because they look this way, because
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: they've accomplished so much. But I really believe it's a mindset.
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  Speaker 1: It's a choice that we get to make, and when
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  Speaker 1: we hit those hard times in life, in relationships, in career,
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  Speaker 1: or even out on a race course, sometimes the strongest
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  Speaker 1: decision is the most vulnerable and uncomfortable one. It isn't
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  Speaker 1: the one that always makes us look like we're strong.
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  Speaker 3: It doesn't.
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  Speaker 1: It's not always the one that makes us look like,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we're a badass. Like sometimes you have to
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: step off the trail, Sometimes you have to say goodbye,
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes you have to say you're sorry, instead of wanting
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: to ignore or be prideful or any of that. Like,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes the strongest way to what we want to accomplish
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  Speaker 1: and to be the best that we want to be
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  Speaker 1: is a hard path.
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  Speaker 3: But I think.
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  Speaker 1: That that's also how we become you know, we become stronger. So,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I've spent a lot of years in the
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: endurance world, and I think whenever I do live events
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: or live coaching, it is most common that I interact
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: with people who say, well, I'm I'm not much of
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  Speaker 1: a rhyme, or I'm not that great, or I've never
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  Speaker 1: done that, I've never done what you've done. But and
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  Speaker 1: it's always this moment of disc counting, this moment of
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  Speaker 1: you know, I'm not as good as you, I'm not
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  Speaker 1: as strong as you. I could never do what you're doing.
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  Speaker 1: And I think that's a pretty normal way of thought.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I know I've I've been like that a lot,
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  Speaker 1: especially when I'm in a low place. I just think
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  Speaker 1: I'm just not good enough, and so I like just
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: to flip it and always find the areas where someone
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: has been so strong, Like, dude, you are awesome.
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  Speaker 3: You showed up today.
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  Speaker 1: There's a million, you know, few million people in LA
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  Speaker 1: and only eighty people showed up for the track workout
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  Speaker 1: and you're one of them. You're freaking badass, dude. It's
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: like when you say that to somebody, like their face
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  Speaker 1: lights up. It's like they realize, like, oh, yeah, like yeah,
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  Speaker 1: And I think that we as a community can encourage
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: each other in those things, like we don't always see
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: the areas where we're strong because we think it's always
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  Speaker 1: just one thing, Like you're a strong runner.
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  Speaker 3: If you're fast, you're a strong runner. If you're a pro,
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  Speaker 3: you're a strong runner. If you won, you're a strong runner.
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  Speaker 1: If you run a sub three, it's like it's just
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  Speaker 1: not true, Like you're strong because you put your shoes
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  Speaker 1: on and you tried.
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  Speaker 3: Period.
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  Speaker 2: What I'm hearing you say truly here, Sally, is that
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  Speaker 2: everyone has the ability and the opportunity to define strong
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  Speaker 2: for themselves, and that that definition may ebb and flow
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: based on a myriad of different variables throughout any given day. Right,
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  Speaker 2: And so you you mentioned the word discounting and that
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: there have been times in your life where you have
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: felt perhaps not your quote unquote strongest self. People look
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: to you today, they see you as this author of
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: this book, this community choose strong. But can you recall
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: maybe a time more recently, because we have had you
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: on the show before and we've heard your backstory. I'll
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: make sure to link to that in the show notes here,
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: But where you didn't necessarily feel like you could choose
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: strong where you maybe discounted yourself.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think on a more surfacy, not
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: as extreme level as probably my most recent race, like
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Coca doona two fifty. You know, I look at the
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: races and the opportunity that I have to make running
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: my career, you know, getting paid for it, being able
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: to travel on the world for it.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: That's like, that's such a gift.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: And when I experience discomfort and ache and pain in
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: a race, I always remind myself like I signed up
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: for this, like no one dragged me to the start line,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: and no one's forcing me to even stay in this.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: And so you know, my mindset always when I'm in
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: a race is to be very.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: Aware of that.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: But I think that what I experienced at Cocadona was,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: you know, it was a pain that I'd never had before.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: And you know, I ripped my feet up so bad,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: like one of my heels developed an ulcer on it,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: so I kind of ripped through several layers of skin.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: And it was a long race, two hundred fey miles
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: a long race, and the foot problems started around mile
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: seven and so when I got about halfway into the race,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: I did have a lot of very low points that
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever had in a race. At
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: one point, I just started crying, like I was like,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: this is so horrible. But you know, it all started
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: with just me making a mistake, so and a mistake
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: that I had to take responsibility.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: For and own up to.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: And and I had trained so hard for this race
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: that I kept telling myself, like, I'm not stepping off
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: the trail because it's worth it to me, Like stepping
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: into this discomfort, it is worth it to me. The
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: longer recovery, it is worth it to me. And I
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: know that I can handle this. It's just that I
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: don't want it. I don't like it, and it's like
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: really horrible. So I think that is you know, on
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: an athlete's level, it's like we all hit those points
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: in our career. We hit it in our training, and
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: you know, for some of us, it's like a horrific
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: injury that we weren't planning for and just the pain
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: of having to work through that, heal from it and
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: build back up from it.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's that's hard.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: And you know, but on like a on like an
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: every an every day level. I mean, I feel like
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: just as a mom, I'm always I'm always asking those questions,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: like I don't know what to do as a mom
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: in this situation, Like I don't always know like the
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: strongest answer, the strongest like decision that I can be
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: making here, So asking myself on a daily basis, like
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: what's the strongest thing that I can say to my
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: daughter in this heated moment, or what's the best decision
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: for our family? It's yeah, it's become you know, just
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: a very consistent question that I asked myself.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: This goes back to the concept of grace that you
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: briefly mentioned at the top of our conversation, This notion
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: that strength hinges on the ability to have grace with yourself. Now,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: in your two hundred and fifty mile race, you said
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: that injury starting about seven miles in, so early on,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: how were you able to define what strength looked like
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: for you, knowing that it was going to look different
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: and you envisioned Because that can be a really big
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: sticking point, is being okay with changing the plan?
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I've been in the sport now for
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: almost fifteen years, and that is something that I can
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: say has come with experience, and so I believe in
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: everything that we do, it's giving yourself grace to build.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: It's giving yourself grace to lay a foundation of understanding
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: and building knowledge and learning about setbacks and getting to
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: know your body. I think what I'm seeing more and more,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: especially in the world of ultra running, is we have
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: people super stoked about like these crazy feats and these
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: distances and oh my gosh, and it just looks so
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: badass and insane and I need to do it. And
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: so you have athletes coming in that like within their
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: first year of just getting to know endurance running, like
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: I need to run one hundred and then I need
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: to do this and this, And it's like, dude, you
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: need to graciously build, like you need to patiently like
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: learn the sport, like learn who you are and lay
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: that foundation. And you can't rush that. You can't be
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: great at something. You can't like gain wisdom and knowledge
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: by rushing things. And so I think for me, I
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: realized in the race that as soon as I was
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: experiencing that pain, so much of what was coming to
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: my mind was all the years of discomfort and pain
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: that I've had in races before were like like it
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: was almost like a calculator, like like, Okay, what is this,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: what are you going through?
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: What were all the things that you have done in
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: the past. I mean, it was amazing.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: It was like having this library in my head where
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: my brain just knew, Okay, Sally is uncomfortable. But we
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: have worked through this so many times, like for almost
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: fifteen years, and we have pushed through a lot of
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: discomfort and sometimes we've dnf'd sometimes things haven't turned out
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: the way that she wanted it to, but like, what
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: are we doing with this?
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: And so in that moment, I.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Think one of the greatest things we can do is
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: just first lean into gratitude. And so my first response
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: was like, well, I don't have a broken bone, I
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: don't have rabdo like my organs, Like this is actually
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: a problem of skin. And so then I was like,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to see Eddie for over thirty miles,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: but I did bring a blister pack with me, and
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: so it was just I just went into solution mode,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: like it's not a problem, it's just an issue that
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: needs a solution, and so we're gonna get the aid station,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: We're gonna take care of the issue, and then we're
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: just going to continue on until we can see Eddie
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: and change shoes and socks and come up with a
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: new game plan.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: And so that was basically what I did.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Every step of that race was like, well, the issue
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: is getting worse, now what are you gonna do? And
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: it was always just calculating, well, how's the rest of
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: your body?
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: Do you have broken bones?
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: No?
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: Are the organs?
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: Are we going to end up in the hospital if
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: you keep going? No?
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Like, are we foolish if we continue? No, that's not
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: what kind of injury this is. It's just I'm in
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: horrific pain. Okay, can we handle this pain?
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: Yes? We can? Right? Yeah?
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: And you know what you're talking about here is really
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: the ability to recognize what you know to be true
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: and fact versus letting your emotions overtake you in that moment, which,
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: if it did, also completely understandable. Again, as you said,
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: it was a feat that you had trained so diligently for,
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: that you had put so much time and effort into.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: And we don't do things like that.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: We don't work hard to see something that we hope
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: to quote unquote succeed at fall by the wayside. No
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: one works hard to make a mistake or for something
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: to slip up, or to get an awful blister at
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: mile seven, But these things happen, and it really is
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: how you respond to the hurdle and how you learn
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: from the hurdle that enables you to move forward in
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: a certain way and then ultimately educate yourself for the
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: next time, which again asking yourselves all of these questions,
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: how did I overcome adversity in previous that was what
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: you needed to know.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: To move forward in this particular moment. Yeah, exactly.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: You know, I always get the comments of like, oh
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: my gosh, that's so ridiculous. You didn't need to push
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: through that, because I ended up having like ten solid
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: wounds on my feet. It wasn't just like a blister.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: It was like literally my feet were ripped up and
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: I couldn't put shoes on.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: It took me three weeks for them to heal.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: So I think, you know, you're always going to have
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: people that are like, well, you aren't showing yourself grace
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: and that's just ridiculous. But I think, over and over again,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: don't I don't really see that we're living in a
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: world right now that has a problem with people pushing
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: themselves and stepping outside of their comfort zone. We have
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: a problem of giving up too easily. We have a
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: problem of not believing in ourselves, of not trying, of
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: not stepping into that discomfort zone and seeing what we're
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: made of. And pain and discomfort is very specific to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: each person, and I always remind people that, Like, I've
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: known pain on so many different levels for most of
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: my life, and so I don't always think about pain
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: the same way that other people do. And I think
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: respecting and understanding that about each other, like we show
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: grace to each other, We show grace knowing that like
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: you don't know where someone is on their journey, You
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: don't understand or always can really see why someone is
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: able to do more than you, or handle more than you,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: or do lesson you, or do handle less in you.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: It's like we're all on our journey. We're all building
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: and growing and learning. And I think you know the
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: pain that I handled out there, like I do understand.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: I see people drop out of races all the time
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: for a couple of blisters, and there is no shame
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: in that blisters are horrifically painful.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: There's so many nerves in your feet, you know.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: But I think that what I was able to endure
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: is a product of decades of enduring pain and learning
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: about my body and building up that pain tolerance. And
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: so I think grace comes in a lot of different forms,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: but the most important thing is that we, you know,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: we learned that when we give grace to ourselves, it's
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: a lot easier to show grace to other people too.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: So there are two foundational moments that I want to
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: just make sure that we queue the listener in on
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: right now. The first one is just giving some context
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: about the race that you just ran, and more specifically
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: the format of how it works for someone who may
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: be unaware of the way that a two hundred and
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: fifty mile run actually lays out.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: So let's start there.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: So two hundred mile races, it's a I want to say,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: it's not new, but probably is one of the newer
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: distances in the ultra world. And an ultra marathon is
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: any distance beyond twenty six point two miles beyond the marathon.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: So the most popular distances for a long time have
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: been fifty k, fifty mile and one hundred mile, and
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: then also hundred.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: K as well.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: The two hundred miles races started hitting the scene, I'd
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: say like twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, but really started to
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: grow in steam, I'd say like in the last like
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: three years. And when I first heard about him, I
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: was like, how, like how much running do we actually
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: do in a two inter mile race?
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: Like I had no.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Interest in doing them, and people would ask all the time,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: like you should do a two hundred mile race. And
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: now that I'm a little bit further in my career,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: one of my greatest joys is trying new things. I
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: love to diversify my adventures and challenge myself in different ways.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: And so I thought, Okay, I'm gonna do a two
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: in a mile race, and I actually signed up for
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: four of them. It's the Grand Slam of Vultures, Grand
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Slam of two in a mile races. So I have
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: four two hundred mile races this year and the first
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: one was Cocadona two fifty and the goal is to
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: get to the finish line as fast as you can.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: It's not a stage race, so stage race like you
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: have a race each day and then you sleep, hang out, barbecue,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: hang out with all the racers. You get up and
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: race again a new segment. This is pushed through. If
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: you need to sleep, you're gonna choose when and war
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: and how long to sleep. So some people are sleeping
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: on rocks and right there in the middle of the
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: trail for five minutes and they hop back up and
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: run again. There's usually a handful of sleep stations that
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: are inside aid stations. If you want to sleep there,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: you can. But the goal is really just pushing the
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: humid limits of endurance and how fast can we get
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: from point A to point B in two hundred and
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: fifty miles? And so this was my first go at it.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: It happened on May fifth in Arizona. It was basically
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: a two of Arizona point to point from Phoenix to
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: flag Staff. And it took me eighty seven hours to
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: complete it. And I probably slept maybe just under three
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: hours total, sometimes on a rock, sometimes in the back
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: of a car.
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: But yeah, the goal is to move as fast as
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: you can. Man.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: I feel as though it's so funny because like you
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: started talking and you were noting that the two hundred
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: mile races are a new thing. But it's like we
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: again two hundred and fifty like, I don't feel like
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: they should even be in the same category, because it's
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: almost as though we're saying that those fifty miles are
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: kind of irrelevant, and fifty miles is anything but irrelevant.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: Sally, right, I know it's crazy. I know.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: I hit the two hundred mile mark and I'm really
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: fifty more miles and my watch consequently was two hundred
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: and sixty two miles of the finish line, and so
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: I was like, this is like, actually like three hundred miles, Like,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: what's going on here?
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: Actually? Very rude, very rude.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: And so how does the the did you call it
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: the World Series?
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: So it's the Grand Slam of Grand Slam.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Sorry, different sport here, Okay, how does that Grand Slam
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: work then?
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: For you?
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: So the Grand Slam is completing four of these two hundreds.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: There's Cocoonona two fifteen in Arizona, the next one is
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Tahoe two hundred northern California, then Bigfoot two hundred in Washington,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: and then it ends with Moab two forty in Utah.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: None of them are two hundred miles. So Lake Tayloe
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: is like two hundred and nine, Bigfoot is two hundred
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: and six or seven, and then Moab is two forty.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: And one's Tahoe. Tahoe is in fifty three days the
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: end of July. Crazy. How does that make you feel, Sally? Yeah,
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: I'm excited. My goal for this year was to learn
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: the distance, so we launched a YouTube channel. We have
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: a series.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: There's like a fifteen episode series called Training for a
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: two hundred, and it's really just like my journey of
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: learning how to train, learning how these races work, and
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: we're going to continue to do that this year.
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: So I'm very much a rookie.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: I don't go into the races thinking like because I've
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: done hundreds, you know, my whole career, that I know
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: what I'm doing because they are run very differently. But
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: I am having a lot of fun. I love just
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: being a student of the sport. I think it's so
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: important to always be learning, and this has been a
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: really exciting way to just learn a new It's really
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: a new event.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: Ye, I mean, your excitement's contagious.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever asked this on the show before,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: But how are your feet?
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Right, my feet are good. Last week was my
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: was my first full week where I could actually put
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: on real shoes and start training again. The first two
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: weeks were were pretty bad, so I'm just so grateful
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: for them to heal. But the one wound on the
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: back of my.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Right foot, it was it was it was pretty gnarly
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: and it's I mean, this is where social media is great.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: I had doctors, nurses, like wound care nurses reach out
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: to me and say, like, you have an ulcer, like,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: here's what you need to order, here's like what you
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: need to do. Like all these people told me how
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: to treat it. So it was amazing. So I was
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: on Amazon on my way home and ordered all this
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: like special all these special products and had to had
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: like three day, three times a day. I had to
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: treat it, change out the bandages and and yeah, it's
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: you can't speed up, you know, the process of a
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: wound as much as you want to. But it did
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: teach me to be very patient, so I was still
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: able to train. I just wore really weird stuff on
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: my feet. Like so I've been training since Monday after
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: the race. The race ended on a Thursday night, no
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Thursday afternoon. I think it was took me three and
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: a half days, so but I was back training that Monday,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: but just mainly just like mobility, strength training and doing
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: the stair mill.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: I said, there were two things that I wanted to
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: note about laying the foundation. We talked about the logistics
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: of your last race. I don't want to get too
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: far into your backstory because, like I said, you've been
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: on the show and we talked about it before. But
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: I do want to just give a little bit of
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: context for those who may be new to you, so
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: that they can understand that this isn't your first rodeo
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: and that you didn't just start doing this yesterday. So
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: can you just give us, let's say, like an abridged
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: summary of when you started, when you tag your first
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: hundred and a timeline there so we can put the
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: pieces together.
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: I started running ultras in well. I started training for
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: them in two thousand and nine, ran my first one
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: in April of twenty.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: Ten with a one in three year old.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: I loved him so much that year that I piled
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: on all the races and injured myself. So I took
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: all of twenty eleven off, came back in twenty twelve.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: In twenty thirteen and tried to figure out a way
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: to make a career of it, and the end of
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, right at the beginning of twenty fourteen, was
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: contacted by Nike and signed my first pro contract.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: Okay, so, as you hear, this isn't something that you
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: just started doing. And before when you mentioned that you
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: needed to lay the foundation to get into this, I
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: was thinking about how that is clearly applicable, not just
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: here within racing in your case or in anybody else
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: who claims to be or wants to be an endurance athlete,
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: but it really is the case in everything. And you
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: saw firsthand what happened when you try to overdo it,
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: when you tried to jump into the deep end without
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: truly giving yourself what you needed to do so without
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: equipping to this level. So you've seen it both ways,
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: and you've seen how it can feel if you go
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: to extreme and then what you are capable of on
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: the inverse of that.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think when I first started, I mean I
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: loved it so much. It was like, oh my gosh,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: sports incredible. And then I had no guide. I mean,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: there was no books on there on how to train
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: for ultras. There was nothing. I mean, in two thousand
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: and nine, twenty ten, it was you were really figuring
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: it out for yourself, and looking back, like a lot
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: of the training programs or if you just copied someone,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: it was like really odd training. And so I think
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: that I just watched what people did online and it
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: just seemed like we'll race these things all the time.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: And I was like, all right, i'll do that too,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: without really giving respect to you know, that proper build.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: And so I learned my lesson, you know, right away,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: and I thought, you know, I'd been an athlete my
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: old life as a soccer player, and I understood what
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: it means to train season in, season out, how long
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: it takes to build to be the best. It's never overnight.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: But you know, even now, when I look back where
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: I was in twenty nine, twenty ten to today, social
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: media is way more rampant than what it was, and
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: I think that we can get really like stressed out.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Not even with running. I see a lot of people
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: lose steam and get frustrated because of a timetable. You know,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: they get in and they try something and they're like, dude,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: I'm struggling.
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: I'm not good at this.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: I'm not as fast or i'm not as fit or
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: I'm not seeing results, And the more you talk to them,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: you're like, dude, you've literally been in this for six months.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Like you aren't supposed to see results right away. Like
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: in fact, you as an individual, it might take you
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: a couple of years. Look at your background, like who
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: are you uniquely? Like did you play sports in high school? No?
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: I did you know? I played the violin?
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Well, you are going to be have a way different
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: foundation than someone that was a basketball player for you know,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: middle school, June, you know, in high school and is
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: now wanting to run like that. You're just you just
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: have a different you know, path, And I think it's
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: so much it's much easier when you look at where
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: you've come from and what you want to accomplish and
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: allow yourself to patiently build, knowing you know, I am
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: going to get there, but I want to lay this big, wide,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: strong foundation first and see how how much I can grow.
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: But that's hard, it's hard to communicate that, it's hard.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: To believe in that when you open up, you know,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: maybe like Instagram or TikTok, and it's like everything you
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: see is hard hitting and and everything is just like
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: strong and fast and muscular and like, you know, go go,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: go go. So you know, you don't see a it's
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: not exciting to post like a year of aerobic based training.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Nobody talks about that, Like spending a whole year aerobic
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: base training. That's so freaking boring. But it's like that's
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: like the most powerful thing you can do putting in
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: that groundwork. So yeah, I've learned my lesson many times.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, I've made every mistake in the book.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: I'm not definitely not above anything, you know, And the
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: forward to your book, I'm going to read something that
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: Nick writes. He writes, there's an unpopular opinion about heart,
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: and the truth is it's all relative. What is easy
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: for you now was hard at some point in your past.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: What is hard for you now should be easier for
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: you at some point in the future. That's growth, and
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: growth is a choice. It's never by chance. And so
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: for you now to have the opportunity to offer someone
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: a piece of advice who might be going through their
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: own version of your twenty eleven, that moment where they
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: do have to pull back, they do have to make
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: the choice that strong isn't how they vision.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: What advice do you offer them. You know, there's a
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: couple things that I like to say.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: The biggest one is just believe in yourself and realize
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: that nobody gets to be you. And I know, innately
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: that's kind of hard because you know, I talk a
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: lot just every day on social media, people send these
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: amazing messages. I get emails and and through my website
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: and people share some pretty intense stories. But you know,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: you interact with people who just don't like being themselves,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: and they it's so easy for them to list all
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: the reasons they can't do something, and it could be like,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: you know, well, you know, I'm too big, or I'm
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: too weak, I'm too petite, I'm like you know, so
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: they list all the reasons they can't do something and
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: are so good at tearing themselves down that it's hard
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: to tell somebody who has that view of themselves believe
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: in yourself. I mean, what does that even mean to
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: someone that's really struggling with even appreciating who they are uniquely?
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: And but that is like what I always lead with is, first,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: do you understand that apart from what you're seeing all
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: around you, do you know that no one else can
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: feel what you feel? And can live your life and
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: go after the things that you love for you, no
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: one can do that for you. And there's just one you,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: and there's so many things that make you unique that
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: you get to paint this masterpiece, you get to write
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: this story, You get to go on a journey that
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: you create that is full of all the things that
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: you love and that you're passionate about, regardless of what
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: people have told you in your past. You know, the
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: way it was supposed to be is that like from
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: the time you were a child, the things that set
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: your heart on fire, those natural interests that you had.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: You know, we all have different things that we're good at.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: You even you know people some people say I'm not
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: good in anything, but it's like, no, you are. And
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be a sport. But like, if
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: you believe that you are here for a purpose, like
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: going after your dreams, things that you love, it does
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: make it a little bit easier because you actually believe
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: that even though I can't see the finish line, even
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: though I can't see the light at the end of
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: the tunnel, like if I just keep going, I'm going
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: to discover that. And so I think for when people
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: are pursuing you know, let's say a five K goal
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: or getting a new job, or even like a relationship.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: It's like number first and foremost, believe in what is
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: you're doing. But two, you're not supposed to have all
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: the answers. And if you were, you would have been
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: born with a book that told you how to do everything.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: And no one has it figured out. And so even
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: the greats that you're admiring, or those people that you
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: look up to, or those heroes, they all had to
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: start where you start. They all had to be awkward
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: and fail and really miss the mark over and over again.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: And they too have those days of low self esteem
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: and disbelief and hard days, just like you do. Because
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: we're all human. And so I really tackled just the
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: mental side first. I really think that our mental perspective
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: is so much more powerful than Okay, well how fast
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: can you run a mile? And how strong are your quads?
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: And like, give me, you know, how long can you hold
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: that plank? For? I mean, anyone can build up into that.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: We can all build physical strength. I mean it's amazing
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: that even a nine year old person can build muscle
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: in the gym like we were made to be physically strong,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: but helping someone with their mental game, that's what we
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: lead with. We lead with like where is your heart pointed?
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: And how do you see yourself when you look in
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: the mirror? Do you look in the mirror and rip
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: yourself to shreds? And if you do, where that come from?
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: I guarantee it didn't start with you. You know, it
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: started with a loss or hurt or like something that
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: somebody said, or just this lie that you believed because
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: you obsessed over it on social media.
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: It was never true.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that's kind of like my messaging is always
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: kind of tackles that, you know, I always I write
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: this every now and then on social media say I'm
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: talking about running, but I'm like rarely talking about running.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Taking a break from today's EPISOD to talk to you
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: about my sponsor at Gooder. Now, for those of you
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: that are out of the loop, Gooder is my go
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  Speaker 2: the Future is Void. It's one large lens and they
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• 36:59
  Speaker 2: is Void, I often reach for their Operation Blackout style.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: It is a really clean aviator, like I said, perfect
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: for running, but also my go to when I've got
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: to pick one pair of glasses to use for fitness activities, brunch, errands, hangouts,
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: you name it. And I haven't even told you guys.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: The best part is that Gooder Sunglasses not only have
• 37:22
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• 37:25
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• 37:27
  Speaker 3: And it gets better.
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  Speaker 2: we have free shipping for you. So head on over
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• 37:51
  Speaker 2: at checkout to get free shipping today. The people coming
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: into your messages are coming there because they admire you
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: and your will and the strength that they see that
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: clearly radiates from you. How does it feel to be
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: that person for so many and talk to me about
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: the responsibility that comes with that.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I'm a big believer and too much
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: as given, much as required, Like, I don't take my
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: platform lightly. And I think that for any time we're
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: given an audience, when we're given this opportunity to connect
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: with a multitude of people, And this is just you know,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: a personal you know, belief that I have. I just
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: I think that the more that we make it about ourselves,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: the more dangerous of a position that we are putting
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: ourselves in. Because at the end of the day, I
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: am just as human as every person next to me.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: I am capable of saying and doing things that are
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: hurtful and things that are that you know that I
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: wish I could take back. I mean, I'm just as imperfect.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: There is nothing innately more superior, great about me. And
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: so I don't take my platform lightly, and I think
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: that really valuing. I really value people's time. So when
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: people take the time to write me this really long
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: email and they're pouring out their heart, and I don't
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: take that lightly.
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: It is it.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: Over like the years, especially the past couple of years,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: it's been hard, you know, because the amount of messages
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: that come in, It's like I can't always get back
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: to everybody. I can't always give, you know, a verbose response,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: and so you know, I've done my best. Like more
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: and more as we create content, I'm like, how can
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: I take the overall message or the overall reason why
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: people reach out to me and turn that into response
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: for them, turn that into content that really touches on
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: these on these points.
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: And so that's that's really where I'm I'm.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Going, you know, in these next few years, is just
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: I really want to create content, and and even just
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: the decisions I make with with racing and adventuring and
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: some of these bigger projects that I'm doing, it's well,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: what is the what's the overall like purpose of this?
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Like how can we reach people in like a greater
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: way than I don't need to highlight things about like
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: my medals or like my accomplishments because they they're so fleeting,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: and you know, but I do think it's like so
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: awesome when I go to an event and I meet
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: someone who says, you know, I finally signed up for
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: a five K I've wanted to do one for years,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: and I just I want to say thank you because
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: you know whatever this post or that video or something
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: you said that it made me think I could try.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: You know, like that's man, that that's that's a career
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: that's fulfilling, is knowing we can impact people. And kind
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: of just going back to what I had said earlier,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: it's why we wanted to build the Choose Strong community
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: and not you know, the Salem McCray community or the
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Salad Cray podcast or the Salm Cray book.
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: It was like, what is what can I do with.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: My career that when I'm gone, that it still continues,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: that there's still a lasting impact that other people carry
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: on and spread for themselves.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And what I'm hearing you say here is that
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: you know the intention behind what you're doing, and just
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: because you may not be able to within your capacity,
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: respond to every single person that reaches out to you.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: That does not mean that you don't want the world
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: for them, And so to know that and then use
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: that to inform the decisions that you make moving forward
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: is exemplary of the heart that you have and the
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: determination that you have to help others beyond your example
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: of physical greatness, but also with what you can do
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: with your heart.
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think so many of our issues, even
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: in today's world, I mean a lot of it comes
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: back to just the heart of a person, the heart
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: of an individual, which I think, unfortunately has been ignored.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: You know, we want to throw everyone into a group.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: We want to throw everyone into a mass and be like, well,
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: you belong in this group, and you belong in this
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: group because you said this, or you look like this,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: or you do this, and it's like, man, we're missing
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: out on the heart, the unique heart of the individual
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: and who people are individually. And I want to continue
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: to kind of send that message like who you are
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: uniquely is so precious and that is how we should
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: live our life as unique individuals and to graciously and
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: lovingly see each other that way too. We're in a
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: hard space right now where we don't always do that.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: You know, we have so many labels for people. Oh
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: you voted for this person, or you like this, Okay, no, cancel, done,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: You're gone. It's like whoa like that person might be
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: super awesome, or that person might encourage you. That person
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: could be your next best friend, you know, and that's
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: someone that you could need someday. And I think we
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: need each other. And I think that we each individually
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: serve a purpose in this world. And I think if
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: we forget that, it's easy to lose sight of our
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: own life. I mean, you hear a lot of people
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: that are trying to find purpose in this world and
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: in their life. And I think as a culture, people
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: are more depressed and lost and they've ever been in
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: the history of human mankind. And yeah, so we need
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: more people that are out there encouraging others and pointing
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: out like the good and each other, pointing out the
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: strength and each other and telling each other, yeah, we
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: can do this and we can be strong. And that's
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: like where our tagline came from. Strong mind, strong bodies,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: Strong love. Was like, let's let's kind of talk about that,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, a lot of compassion here now, speaking of compassion,
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: how are you going to have compassion for yourself fifty
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: three days out to Tahoe?
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: What does compassion look like towing that.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: Starting line for yet another adventure, considering what you've only
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: just recently been through.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, today, you know, doing this podcast, like, I feel
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: really good, I feel strong, and I know that that
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: is really just a direct result of how many years
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: I've been in this. So I remember the time in
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: my life when one hundred miles was like a big
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: scary distance to me. Recovering from one hundred miles was huge,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: like that took a very long time, and it was
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: just this wow, Like that distance, Well, a one hundred
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: mile race was part of my training leading up to Cocadona.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: I did it literally in the middle of a training block.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: I didn't taper for it. I didn't I didn't do
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: a long recovery for it. Went why back into training
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: the day after, and I remember celebrating that now our
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: bodies are so resilient, our bodies are so adaptable, and
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: it's incredible what we can do when we build.
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: Up to that.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: That took me ten years to be able to feel
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: that way. That wasn't just a direct result of like,
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: you know, six months of training was a long time
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: to where my body was like, yeah, one hundred miles
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: just doesn't hit the same way anymore. So as I
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: lead up into Tahoe, when I think fifty three days,
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: I'm like, dude, that's a really long time before I
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: get there. But one of the things I've expressed with
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: the community is like, I'd love to take people on
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: the ride with my learning journey, and every race I
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: do something different. So the race coming up Tahoe two hundred,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: I'm going to try different strategies. I'm going to approach
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: the race differently now that I have one under my belt,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Like I've learned a little bit, I'm going to use
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: some of that knowledge. I definitely have a lot of
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: enthusiasm for.
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: It, enthusiasm being the guiding light in this Wow. It's
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: just truly so impressive and clearly takes like a certain
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: level of resilience. We've talked so much today about the
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: power of community and how you've had this unique opportunity
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: through pursuing your passions to inspire others. When you seek
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: for inspiration beyond what you know to be true within yourself,
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: what do you look to.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of things that I look to for inspiration,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: and I think some of the more most natural ones
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: are you know, I've been a mom for a while now.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: My kids are fifteen and seventeen, and they definitely inspire
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: me while I'm racing, especially when I'm hitting low points,
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: and they are genuinely my greatest fans, and which just
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: warms my heart because a lot of times teenagers are
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: not the biggest fans of their parents, so.
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: Which is totally fine.
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's just the season, you know, like it,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: it's like that part of independence is like, yeah, I'm
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: going to be as far away from you as possible, mom.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: But my kids are like pretty amazing at encouraging me
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: and remembering me, and so when I hit those hard
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: patches in racing or training, I remember them and know
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: that they're watching, and that really inspires me to keep
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: going and show them this is what it looks like,
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: you know, moving and chasing goals and trying to get
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: the best out of ourselves. So that's a big one.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: And then you know, the second thing, and probably the first.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: All it has been so consistent my life is just faith.
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: You know, there's been some really rough times I've had
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: just life in general, but you know, holding on to
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: faith and falling into prayer each day, and that's that's
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: really been a strong foundation in my life. And when
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: I feel lost or when I feel like I just
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't know what to do. I mean,
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: I just think that is has been like the guiding
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: light in my life. And then of course community. I
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: have some amazing friends around me, an incredible husband who
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: who supports me and all my endeavors, and I do
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: feel so blessed to have that, because I know a
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: lot of people don't have people that support.
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: Them and all that they do, and so really grateful
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: for that.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: He talks so beautifully about, you know, the impact that
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: losing your mother had on you in your writing and
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: of course in our previous conversations and in your book,
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: you wrote, I choose strong because if Mama could do
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: that in the face of death, I could too, could
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: do it with the abundance of life in my chest.
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: I chose strong that day, and I've chosen strong ever since.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: It was the choice that changed everything. Now knowing that,
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: knowing that you have the capability to choose strong, and
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: that ebbs and flows and what it looks like regularly,
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: what do you do on the days when strength truly
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: does not feel like an option, And what advice do
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: you have to offer on that front.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you kind of said it right there
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: in the statement, I realized.
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: And in that book, I mean, it's.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: A two part memoir. So that's the first book and
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: it just covers four to eighteen. So the first eighteen
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: years of my life I learned at a really young age.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: It did a lot of growing up at a young age,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: and I learned that if I got so wrapped up
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: in my feelings and got so wrapped up in what
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: I was feeling in that moment, I experienced a lot
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: of scary moments.
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: I struggled with whether or not I should continue on
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: in life and if it was even worth it. It was,
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: you know, bad news and bad experience one after the
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: other for several years. It was like there was no
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: light at the end of the tunnel. And as a
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: kid and you're growing and you're looking around you and
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: you're just like, my life sucks compared to everyone else's, Like,
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: it's easy just to get so wrapped up in yourself
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: and how you are feeling and even dramatize it to
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: an extreme. And I know that I had a lot
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: of days that were like that, and now as an adult,
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: like I look back and I remember Little Sally and
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: all that I had went through and all that I
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: had overcome, and I realized that the more that I
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: focus on wanting a feeling, especially in those low moments
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: where I'm just feeling low, focusing on the feeling sometimes
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: paralyzes me. It paralyzes me because it's hard to really
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: understand that that feeling's going to end, that that feeling
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: is maybe fleeting in the moment, or even if it
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: lasts for several days, that I can then choose to
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: step out of the feeling and into just what is true.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: And that's what I reach for. I just want the
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: truth of the situation. I want the truth of my life,
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: and I have to go back to what is most
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: basic and true, and the truth is when I wake
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: up in the morning, I'm given another chance to live.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: And there have been many stories in my life and
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: you'll read that in the book where I didn't know
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: that it was going to be the worst day of
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: my life. I didn't know that that horrible thing was
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: going to happen, because some days were freaking amazing, you know,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: like I didn't know that was me the best day
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: of my life, or this amazing thing was going to happen.
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: You just don't know how life is going to be.
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: You can't change what happened the day before. You don't
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: have any control what happened the next day. But you know,
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: waking up and feeling all the feels and just staying
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: in the feelings is it's difficult. It's difficult to overcome that.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: And I realized that what was going on in my
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: mind was really powerful, and I could just choose to
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: put those feelings down and go after what I knew
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: to be true. And so it was I'm not going
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: to think about how I feel. I'm just going to
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: get out of bed. I'm not going to think about
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: all the things that are making me sad and frustrated.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: I'm going to put on my shoes and get in
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: the sunshine. I'm not going to think about you know,
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: these people are what happened to me, and like how
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: like I feel like a victim of this and it
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: just isn't fair.
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: Life isn't fair.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: But I do know there's a job waiting for me,
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to go do my job and I'm
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: going to make a paycheck, and I'm going to get
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: to soccer training and I'm going to train really hard,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: like I'm going to grab onto the things that I
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: know to be true that I can actually do instead
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: of like chase these feelings of like I just want
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: to feel better. And eventually it was just a lot
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: of years of doing that. It was a lot of
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: days of just chasing what I knew to be true
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: and what I knew to be good and whether or
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: not I could see the light at the end of
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: the tunnel.
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: I eventually was there.
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know. It's doing the best you can
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: with what you have. And I so appreciate your transparency
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: and your odd honesty. It really is refreshing to hear
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: that despite the feelings that may linger of frustration and wondering,
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: if you are worthy that if you just focus on
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: what is within your control at any given moment, then
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: there is possibility there when all possibility does feel completely lost.
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and that's definitely easier said than done. I mean,
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: I think you know to the listeners, and we've all
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: been in those moments, especially when we're alone where it's like, man,
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: it just seems dark and hopeless, and this is like
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: one frustration after the other, and I hate this and
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: I've just I think there's little things that we can do,
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: Like I've I've had those moments where I'm like, you know,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna put on my shoes and walk out
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: and breathe fresh air. And sometimes it's like I've I
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: do these things too where I'm like, Okay, I'm going
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: to interact to something. You could go to a copyouse
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: and like talk to the barista, like go and sit
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: down and like be a friend to somebody, hold the
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: door open for someone. My kids and I we do
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: this thing. I we live here in southern California. We
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: have a really big homeless community around us, and I
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: think it's really easy to be just so negative and
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: about it. But I've taught my kids, like you know,
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: there's choosing kindness and doing things that are kind for people.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: It has like the greatest impact on your heart because
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: anyone can be mean, anyone can turn to blind eye
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: and turn a cold shoulder to someone. And so we
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: and I don't really ever share this, but we try
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: to do something like once a week for someone. So
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: like last week, we saw this guy, you know, sitting
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: in the freezing cold it's about to rain, and my
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: son grabbed a blanket from our car and brought it
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: out to him. And we have this thing where I say,
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: whenever you do something for someone or you have to
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: ask their name and you tell them your name, and
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: you tell them it's so good to meet them, and
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: you know, leave them with a kind word. And so
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: that's become routine. We've done that for years, ever since
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: my kids were little. But I really believe that sometimes
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: the best way to get out of ourselves and like
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: the sadness and the darkness that we're feeling, or the
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: hopelessness or that beating each other ourselves up, is to
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: turn outward and reach out to people you know around you.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: And sometimes it's just being kind and maybe even taking
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: the bigger step of like okay, I can go and
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: like do something with such great intention now now reevaluate
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: how you feel, you know after you do that, and
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: it's really powerful. And I think that that's that's it's
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: so simple, it's so simple to be kind, but it's
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: amazing when you give kindness how it like fills your
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: heart and you're like, yeah, there's there's more going on
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: out there than what's going on inside of me.
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, putting that energy out into the world.
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: Your kids are some lucky kids to have an example
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: like you to lead that way and to show them
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: how impactful a little bit of kindness can truly be. Now,
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: why did you decide to make this a two part memoir?
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: You know, the first part of my life is something
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: that I've only shared in bits and pieces, you know,
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: as as I as I've been in the sport for
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: a long time, there's a few things that and some
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: of it is like comical to me. But like I've
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: I'm known for a couple of things, and one of
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: them is strength training as a runner.
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: I came in.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: It was very unpopular when I When I came in,
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: I had got a lot of criticism and pushed back
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: from it, but I like loved it. I'm like, yeah,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: like I'm here to stay and I got huge thighs
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: and I love to lift heavy.
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: So but it's.
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: Such a like in my mind, I'm like, it's such
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: a superficial thing. And then the other thing is like, yeah,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: like I think that, uh, you know, I get interviewed
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: a lot, and people, you know, they like to talk
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: about mindset with me as probably the number one thing
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: that that people talk about with me is like this
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: strong mindset, where does that come from? And and pushing
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: through these tough things and you've done these gnarly races
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: and and some of them have been like pretty painful.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: So it's always like this topic, and I've always wanted
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: to share the foundation of my strength and where that
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: comes from, and really share in a way that people
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: understand that it's not something special about me. It's not
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: something that's like this like I'm on another level or
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: you know, something extraordinary. It really is just was laid
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: in the foundation in me as a child. Has nothing
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: to do with lifting weights in a gym. It has
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with like my athleticism or because I'm
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: a professional athlete.
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: I wanted to break.
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: Up the book into two parts because it is such
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: a separate part of who I am and that most
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: people don't understand that. When I present the second book,
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: which is more of like me as a mom turning
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: a professional runner and like my running today, like that
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: one's going to be very heavy on the running. But
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: the two they go hand in hand, but the first
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: book needed to stand alone. It needed to stand alone
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: because it is hard hitting. I'll be honest, if anyone
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: listening is going to read my book, it is not
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: a book about running, but I do talk about running
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: in there. But I am very much talking to the
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: reader all throughout the book, but it is in a.
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: Really intense way and it's very human.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: I think it was important to me that I got
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: down on that very human raw level and help people
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: understand that. You know, I spent over you know, like
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: first fifteen years, well, first twenty years of my life
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: just battling a lot of very difficult situations in my life,
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: and I really do identify and I can understand with
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of different people for that reason. And when
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: I write even today, it's a lot of it comes
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: from that time in my life and really wanting people
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: to understand, like you can overcome so much and even
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: if you are coming from a space where you've been
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: oppressed or abused or hurt or totally lost for years
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: and years and years, there still is hope for you.
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: And I think that being an ultra runner, you talk
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: about enduring for so long, and like how long can
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: you handle this?
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: How long can you take this?
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think that there are a lot of
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: years in my life where I was like, is this
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: ever going in?
• 59:19
  Speaker 3: Is it ever going to get better?
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: And so I love making that just my message to people,
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: and that really is what that book is. It's hard
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: at times to read, but I think the overall messaging
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: is one of hope and it's one that I really
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: hope encourages people from all walks of life. That it
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: wasn't like I just had this one hard experience in
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: my life and it only lasted six months and then
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: it was over. It's like, no, it was like almost
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: two decades that I lived through and pushed through. And
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: if you would have told me when I was a
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: kid that I would be doing what I was, what
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: I'm doing today with two children and a supportive husband,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: I mean I would have it would have been I
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: would have laughed. I wouldn't have believed. And I think
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: that's why life is so beautiful. You know you're in
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: the storm, but you have no idea of the beauty
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: that awaits you on the other side of that storm.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: And I certainly didn't. I certainly didn't. I didn't believe
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: in it really crawled my way through it, and so
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: I just felt like that book had to stand alone
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: because originally the book was over five hundred pages, and
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: we went back and forth with that. I'm like, how
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: many people were to read a five hundred page book.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: Let's get started on that. But also like the two
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: seasons of my life from all the way uptime, like
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: twenty and then twenty to present, they're very different and
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: the focus is very different.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 3: So I just felt, Okay, I'm going to split the
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 3: book up.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, I mean, I think I can speak for
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: all that We're gruateful that you're sharing your story, the
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: gritty parts, the tough parts, the highs and.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 3: The lows, all of them make you who you are.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: And through the work that you do opening up and
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: getting vulnerable about your experiences, that allows others to feel
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: less alone in their difficult journeys and then also is
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: inspiring for so many to go after the things that
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: at one point, just like you, you did not feel
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: to be possible. Now writing the book, any big takeaways
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: you want.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: To share about that process with us before I start
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: to let you go. Yeah, yeah, writing the book it
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 3: took me a long time.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: I started I want to say almost twenty years ago,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: and I realized that I needed to just get to
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: a better place emotionally mentally before I told Before I
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: told those stories, and I did put the book on
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: the shelf for many years because I was fearful of
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: telling those stories. I didn't know where it fit in
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: my life or if it was even necessary to share.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 3: But as I've grown older.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: And more and traveled more and more, realize like, Wow,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: there's so many people all over the world that have
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: gone not only through similar experiences, but are looking for
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: that encouragement and hope in the darkness, I guess, and
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: out of the way that they have they themselves are in.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, you meet people that are just in rough
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: spots and you want to give them an encouraging word.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 3: And so that's what this book is. You know, Sally,
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 3: you're such a bright light.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: And the second that I shared the photo of us
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: from when I got to see you a couple of
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: weeks ago, the DMS came pouring. They were like, when's
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: Sally coming on the show? And I'm like, well, first
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: of them all. You must be a new hurdler because
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: you missed round one.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 3: But don't you worry round who's trending, it's loading.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: So I'm so grateful that you and I were finally
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: able not only to catch Black up properly, but also
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: carve some time to bring this convo to the hurdlers
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: back to the feed.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 3: I'm so excited for you in this big chapter.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: I am so nervously anxious but also excited to follow
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: you in these next three races.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 3: I can't wait to see what you do, and I'm
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 3: going to be cheering you on one hundred percent of
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 3: the way. Thank you so much, Emily really appreciate it.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: For those that for those that don't follow along with
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: you just yet, they're missing out. How do they do that?
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: How do they catch up with you? If they can
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: even try?
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: You can follow me on Instagram at yellow Runner, and
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: when you click my link tree in there you can
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: see all the other things for my podcast, YouTube and
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: my app. It's my book. It's all in there. It's
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: all in there. I'm over at Emily Body and at
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: Hurdle Podcast. Another Hurdle Conquered. Catch you guys next time.