Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 143. Becs Gentry, Peloton Instructor & Runner

Transcript

143. Becs Gentry, Peloton Instructor & Runner · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: Life is your adventure. It's not a movie, it's not
0:04
Speaker 1: a book, it's not an advert. It's something that you create.
0:08
Speaker 1: You are the only person in control of how your
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Speaker 1: story plays out, So why don't you make it the
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Speaker 1: most epic adventure you possibly can?
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Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, EMILYA Badi here bringing you Episode one forty
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Speaker 2: three of Hurdle. While this focused podcast wears it down
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Speaker 2: with inspiring individuals to talk about everything from their big
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Speaker 2: wins to how they've gotten through some of life's toughest moments.
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Speaker 3: On the show, you can expect.
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Speaker 2: Vulnerability, motivation, and candid discussions with everyone from top athletes
0:53
Speaker 2: to aspiring entrepreneurs and what it really takes to follow
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Speaker 2: your passions. My mission is simple to inspire you to
1:01
Speaker 2: be your best self, move with intention, and have some
1:05
Speaker 2: fun along the way. I am geeked out about being
1:09
Speaker 2: back in the regular Hurdle flow back to three episodes
1:13
Speaker 2: a week. I was so excited over the last two
1:17
Speaker 2: weeks to bring you some really special content with so
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Speaker 2: many all star guests to help us bring twenty twenty
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Speaker 2: two clothes on a good note and kickstart twenty twenty
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Speaker 2: one with.
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Speaker 3: Some serious energy.
1:31
Speaker 2: Now I am bringing an episode to the feed that
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Speaker 2: has been.
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Speaker 3: A long time coming.
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Speaker 2: Probably one of the most requested guests that I get
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Speaker 2: DMed about, and that guest is Bec's Gentry. Bex is
1:45
Speaker 2: a peloton tread instructor and quite the runner, with a
1:48
Speaker 2: half marathon personal best time wait for it, at one
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Speaker 2: sixteen and a marathon a full marathon in two hours
1:57
Speaker 2: and thirty seven minutes. She is super human obscenely impressive
2:02
Speaker 2: now today. As you can tell by these times, she's
2:05
Speaker 2: a stellar athlete and so so proud of the body
2:08
Speaker 2: that she's built that enables her to show up day
2:11
Speaker 2: in and day out. But she tells me in today's
2:13
Speaker 2: episode about a time in her life when she actually
2:16
Speaker 2: didn't feel.
2:16
Speaker 3: Super comfortable in her own skin.
2:19
Speaker 2: That details what it was like to start integrating more
2:22
Speaker 2: walking into her day to day and how that routine
2:25
Speaker 2: slowly developed into a running habit. She tells me about
2:29
Speaker 2: a conversation she had with her uncle that changed everything,
2:34
Speaker 2: empowering her to get out of a bad relationship and
2:36
Speaker 2: pivot into an entirely new career.
2:39
Speaker 3: She also tells me what it was like to travel
2:41
Speaker 3: the world with Nike during the early stages of Nike.
2:44
Speaker 2: Run Club and the call that had her packing her
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Speaker 2: bags and moving to New York City.
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Speaker 3: To join the team at Peloton.
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Speaker 2: She also shares her best advice for how to handle
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Speaker 2: negative self talk, something I know that we can all
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Speaker 2: be guilty of from time to time. Trust me, this
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Speaker 2: episode Mode is jam packed with goodness and I am
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Speaker 2: As you are listening today, I do not forget to
5:49
Speaker 2: tag Kurdle over on social media.
5:51
Speaker 3: It is at Curdle podcast.
5:53
Speaker 2: I am over at Emily Abody and I also recently
5:57
Speaker 2: uploaded a really special goal setting fertile session to the
6:01
Speaker 2: website to empower you to on your own time learn
6:05
Speaker 2: more about how to set smart, actionable goals for this
6:09
Speaker 2: year and beyond. The link to get in on that
6:12
Speaker 2: is in the show notes. And with that let's get
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Speaker 2: to hurdling.
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Speaker 3: Today.
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Speaker 2: I am sitting down with Beck's gentry. She is a
6:30
Speaker 2: peloton instructor, a runner extraordinaire.
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Speaker 3: How you doing, Bex?
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Speaker 1: I am very good. Thank you. What a pleasure to
6:37
Speaker 1: be here. How are you doing?
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Speaker 3: I'm doing well. I'm excited to be here with you.
6:41
Speaker 2: We were just wrapping before the audio officially started rolling.
6:45
Speaker 2: It's crazy to me that we have never crossed paths irl.
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Speaker 4: I know it's like we circle in the same places,
6:55
Speaker 4: but yeah, we probably.
6:56
Speaker 1: Have, but just been in one of those moments of
6:58
Speaker 1: distraction destruction. I know. I know.
7:02
Speaker 2: I'm also going to sit here at this entire podcast
7:04
Speaker 2: just being so envious over your accent.
7:08
Speaker 1: Dope.
7:09
Speaker 4: I know I've got to keep hold of it, though
7:11
Speaker 4: I feel myself slipping in. I think I said the
7:13
Speaker 4: word trash the other day. Even my boyfriend was like.
7:15
Speaker 3: Oooh, okay, okay, I see what you're doing with this.
7:19
Speaker 3: A's there.
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Speaker 2: Okay, So, Bex, give me a little slice, a little
7:27
Speaker 2: example of what an average week of running for you.
7:31
Speaker 2: You're a peloton tread instructor, so I would imagine you've
7:35
Speaker 2: got a fair amount of running in your regular routine.
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Speaker 1: Yes, I do, so a normal week would look like
7:44
Speaker 1: five to four to five days of recording classes. So
7:49
Speaker 1: whether that is live classes or what we call coach
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Speaker 1: the camera where we are recording content to deliver to
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Speaker 1: our members at a later date, that's five days a week.
8:02
Speaker 1: We also record audio only classes. For those of our
8:04
Speaker 1: members who tune in to run outside, we record those
8:09
Speaker 1: as well. So there's an awful lot of running going on.
8:12
Speaker 1: I'm predominantly a running instructor. I do cross over into
8:15
Speaker 1: strength for like i'd say once a week maybe, and
8:21
Speaker 1: then like every other week, I do live strength for
8:24
Speaker 1: runners classes. So the vast majority of my miles and
8:28
Speaker 1: hours at Peloton are on the tread. So there's a
8:31
Speaker 1: lot of running involved for work. But on the flip
8:36
Speaker 1: side of that, as an athlete and a marathon runner,
8:40
Speaker 1: which I just say distance runner slash runner, I do
8:44
Speaker 1: not use my Peloton teaching moments as my workouts. They
8:48
Speaker 1: are at my coaching moments and my kind of fun
8:51
Speaker 1: times for sure, And so on top of that, my
8:54
Speaker 1: training happens outside of Peloton, So whether it's on my
8:58
Speaker 1: tread at home or on the streets of New York,
9:02
Speaker 1: it's more miles.
9:05
Speaker 2: More miles I dig it. Okay, so obviously you weren't.
9:08
Speaker 2: You haven't been at this place where you've been in
9:11
Speaker 2: this physical condition that you were able to run obscene
9:15
Speaker 2: amount of miles every week, week after week. So let's
9:20
Speaker 2: dial it back and talk to me about growing up
9:23
Speaker 2: for you and what athletics used to look like from
9:27
Speaker 2: a young age.
9:29
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, first and foremost, the UK versus the
9:32
Speaker 1: US childhood when it comes to sports are really different.
9:37
Speaker 1: Like you guys are fully committed. Like everyone I speak to,
9:42
Speaker 1: what did you do in college, not just academically, but
9:46
Speaker 1: in the sports world, So everybody has their speciality. Whether
9:49
Speaker 1: you were a track, whether you were on the football team,
9:52
Speaker 1: on the WATS Proano team, I don't know. So for
9:57
Speaker 1: us in the UK, definitely the school I went to,
10:01
Speaker 1: I did fall in the category of people who were
10:03
Speaker 1: strong in academia and are on the sports fields, which
10:08
Speaker 1: was lucky, and I think because my parents both really
10:12
Speaker 1: supported the fact that exercise and being outside and being
10:18
Speaker 1: active encouraged my brain to be strong. So I ironically
10:26
Speaker 1: was actually the worst at athletics. And I know you're probably.
10:29
Speaker 3: Weren't, but what does the worst really mean?
10:33
Speaker 1: I mean, I just didn't excel at all. There were
10:36
Speaker 1: I would say seventy percent of my year at school
10:40
Speaker 1: were better than me. At athletics. The only thing I
10:43
Speaker 1: was good at when it comes to field was high
10:46
Speaker 1: jumped because I was tall for my age, so I
10:50
Speaker 1: kind of edged my way into high jump. And then
10:54
Speaker 1: my sport, my chosen sport, was tennis, and that's what
10:57
Speaker 1: I was like focused on and wanted to become a
11:00
Speaker 1: really good tennis player. But I was in every team,
11:03
Speaker 1: so netball across tennis. Obviously, we have this spot called
11:07
Speaker 1: rounders in the UK, which is like a baby's version
11:10
Speaker 1: of baseball. Netball is no bouncing basketball.
11:16
Speaker 3: Whoa.
11:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, essentially we have so many weird sports.
11:21
Speaker 3: Okay, so you thought though that you were going to
11:24
Speaker 3: go to the tennis route.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely thought I was in the tennis route.
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Speaker 1: Both of my parents were racket sports players in tennis
11:30
Speaker 1: and squash, so they fully supported that running wasn't really
11:34
Speaker 1: a thing for me. I mean, I tried my hand
11:37
Speaker 1: at cross country because I would quite like getting muddy
11:41
Speaker 1: and running itt there, but I wasn't fast. My mom
11:45
Speaker 1: used to say, I ran like with my arms and
11:47
Speaker 1: legs flailing out to the side and she just laughed
11:50
Speaker 1: when I ran. So I was never really very confident
11:53
Speaker 1: about my ability to run, know how I looked when
11:56
Speaker 1: I ran. And then I think it was sort of
12:02
Speaker 1: and progression through. I had some issues with my nees
12:05
Speaker 1: when I was growing up, but like I grew very quickly,
12:08
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I had a big growth spurt,
12:10
Speaker 1: and that meant my knee sort of started to grow inwards.
12:14
Speaker 1: And I tennis became a little bit more painful at
12:17
Speaker 1: that time, with the stop start and that you know,
12:20
Speaker 1: really quick acceleration over a teeny tiny distance and then
12:23
Speaker 1: back the other way. So I kind of dow tennis
12:27
Speaker 1: back a little bit and focused just on my school
12:30
Speaker 1: sports and things like that and study. And then I
12:33
Speaker 1: kind of came into running when I graduated university, and
12:39
Speaker 1: I had just kind of realized that through drinking and
12:44
Speaker 1: living a student life in a packed house in London,
12:49
Speaker 1: I put on more weight than I was normally comfortable with,
12:53
Speaker 1: and I just started to walk everywhere in London, and
12:57
Speaker 1: then walking kind of progressed to running, and then kind
13:01
Speaker 1: of the rest is history, I suppose.
13:03
Speaker 2: When it comes to you getting out and deciding to
13:07
Speaker 2: walk everywhere, I think this is a really great jumping
13:11
Speaker 2: off point for us, because so many people can relate
13:14
Speaker 2: with that right, relate with this idea that, oh, I'm
13:17
Speaker 2: just not feeling satisfied or happy or comfortable in my
13:20
Speaker 2: own body. I don't know where to begin. And sometimes,
13:24
Speaker 2: as I'm sure that you can agree, that first step
13:28
Speaker 2: can definitely be the hardest.
13:30
Speaker 1: Was that the case for you, Oh my gosh, one
13:32
Speaker 1: hundred percent. I used to get the bus from where
13:36
Speaker 1: I lived, which is a place called Stoke Newington in
13:39
Speaker 1: East London, and I worked at Financial Times in London Bridge,
13:43
Speaker 1: so it's a pretty fair walk and so it would
13:47
Speaker 1: take me when I first started, about an hour and
13:50
Speaker 1: a half to walk to work. So you know, it's cold,
13:54
Speaker 1: it's wet, it's rainy. I seem to remember, but you know,
13:57
Speaker 1: sometimes you only remember the tough things. But I seem
14:00
Speaker 1: to remember deciding to do this in winter when it
14:04
Speaker 1: was cold. I just remember having like this heavy coat on.
14:08
Speaker 1: And do you remember MBT shoes? Do you guys have
14:10
Speaker 1: those here?
14:11
Speaker 3: What are they?
14:12
Speaker 1: They're the shoes that were like on a rocker that
14:14
Speaker 1: supposedly helped tone your bum.
14:17
Speaker 3: Huh, Yes, we used to. I think sketchers used to
14:19
Speaker 3: make a version of those.
14:21
Speaker 1: There you go. So after like doing them in my
14:24
Speaker 1: converse or whatever I had at home at the time,
14:27
Speaker 1: I then like, after a month or so invested in
14:30
Speaker 1: these NBT shoes, I was like, well, I may as
14:32
Speaker 1: well start toning my butt if I'm going to be
14:34
Speaker 1: walking to work, and then that kind of spiral. So
14:38
Speaker 1: I think it was just a really great way of
14:42
Speaker 1: I am Historically I kind of bite off more than
14:46
Speaker 1: I can chew in many ways. So I'm not saying
14:48
Speaker 1: everybody should get out a walk for an hour and
14:50
Speaker 1: a half to wherever they work, but just taking that
14:53
Speaker 1: first initiative of okay, well I could walk a certain
14:59
Speaker 1: amount of distance and then get my friend or partner
15:02
Speaker 1: or get on public transport for the rest of the
15:04
Speaker 1: way home or vice versa. You know, there's ways of
15:07
Speaker 1: breaking stuff down, and I think it's about finding that
15:11
Speaker 1: roadblock that you've put up for comfort's sake and just
15:15
Speaker 1: chipping away at it. It's not necessarily knocking it down
15:18
Speaker 1: and getting out of the way. It's just being like, okay,
15:20
Speaker 1: well I can just take that first layer of the
15:22
Speaker 1: bricks off and then that heard was a little bit lower.
15:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
15:26
Speaker 2: So when you transition from just walking to work to
15:32
Speaker 2: maybe picking up the pace. Talk to me about the
15:35
Speaker 2: beginning of that transition.
15:37
Speaker 1: Well, it kind of came with twofold because I moved
15:42
Speaker 1: out of London down to Brighton and that's about an
15:46
Speaker 1: hour on the train from London and it was kind
15:52
Speaker 1: of the most beautiful place I'd lived in the UK
15:56
Speaker 1: outside of my home. It was by the sea, and
16:00
Speaker 1: I would go out and just see everybody was running,
16:03
Speaker 1: like whether any age people were out for a jog
16:07
Speaker 1: along the seafront, and I was like, oh, okay, I
16:09
Speaker 1: used to do this at school, Like why not give
16:11
Speaker 1: it a go again. And because I had to get
16:15
Speaker 1: the train to work, like it was impossible to run
16:17
Speaker 1: to work from Brighton, I were then in the mornings
16:21
Speaker 1: or probably evenings. Actually I think it more was I
16:24
Speaker 1: had joined a women's only gym down there, and I
16:27
Speaker 1: can't remember for the life of me when it was called.
16:29
Speaker 1: It had pink writing, very kitch, but it was a
16:32
Speaker 1: women's only gym and you went in this like circular ah.
16:37
Speaker 1: It was a circular setup of all of these different
16:40
Speaker 1: machines and it would almost like speed dating per machine,
16:47
Speaker 1: and you just rotate around it you'd have like two
16:49
Speaker 1: minutes on each machine and you'd just do as many
16:53
Speaker 1: exercises as you could, and you sort of went run
16:54
Speaker 1: that three times. It was a really bizarre idea, but
16:57
Speaker 1: it worked. And because it was women only, it was
17:01
Speaker 1: great because there was every type of woman from shy
17:04
Speaker 1: to outgoing there and everything in between. But anyway, it
17:08
Speaker 1: was like a fifteen minute run from my house and
17:11
Speaker 1: I didn't have a car at that point, as I
17:13
Speaker 1: just moved from London, so I just kind of jogged
17:16
Speaker 1: there and jogged home and I took it as a
17:18
Speaker 1: nice little warm up and then on the way home
17:20
Speaker 1: it was a cool down, and it it was just
17:24
Speaker 1: like adding these little bits of spice into my life
17:28
Speaker 1: to make what I was doing a little bit more
17:30
Speaker 1: demanding or a little bit more uncomfortable. And you know,
17:33
Speaker 1: you've done the workout, you're tired, but it's fifteen minutes
17:36
Speaker 1: max to get home. So I just kind of added
17:40
Speaker 1: that in and that's how it went, and then it
17:42
Speaker 1: just crept up from there.
17:44
Speaker 3: Crept up from there.
17:45
Speaker 2: Do you remember in the running and coming and going
17:49
Speaker 2: feeling at times like you just couldn't do it?
17:53
Speaker 1: Oh for sure, undoubtedly, Like I'm sure, there were days
17:57
Speaker 1: that I got a taxi home. There was I carried
18:03
Speaker 1: on even when I did get a car, but I
18:05
Speaker 1: do remember driving there once or twice for sure.
18:11
Speaker 2: So then when for you you're living in Brighton, you're
18:15
Speaker 2: doing this, what are you doing for work at this time?
18:18
Speaker 1: At that time I sort of left the Financial Times
18:21
Speaker 1: and was in a bit of a limbo. I took
18:25
Speaker 1: a few interviews of these random jobs in the middle
18:28
Speaker 1: of nowhere near Gatwick Airports actually, and it was just
18:34
Speaker 1: nothing felt right. So I was in limbo at that point.
18:40
Speaker 1: But then I wanted to go into pr and I
18:44
Speaker 1: was applying for jobs down in Brighton for companies that
18:49
Speaker 1: worked in Brighton and London. So it was a big
18:51
Speaker 1: life change, well not a big life but my first
18:54
Speaker 1: career sort of deviation. I was working in advertising and
18:57
Speaker 1: marketing at the Financial Times, so I sort of look
19:00
Speaker 1: quite a natural, I think, avenue off of that career
19:06
Speaker 1: into public relations.
19:08
Speaker 2: Okay, so working in public relations, it seems like you've
19:11
Speaker 2: got like your kind of jive down when it comes
19:15
Speaker 2: to starting to have more activity, more exercise in your life.
19:19
Speaker 2: At this time, are you starting to feel better about
19:23
Speaker 2: your body and more confident than when you started.
19:25
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, so much more, so much more. I
19:29
Speaker 1: joined a proper gym. I met a ton of friends
19:32
Speaker 1: through joining this real spit and sawdust gym called ZT
19:37
Speaker 1: Fitness Zero Tolerance.
19:39
Speaker 3: Fitness sounds so serious.
19:43
Speaker 1: It was super serious. It was run by an ext
19:45
Speaker 1: MMA fighter, Saul, who I ended up training with. I
19:51
Speaker 1: you know, had him as a personal trainer. He did
19:54
Speaker 1: these insane workouts in the morning at like six point
19:58
Speaker 1: thirty in the morning, really brutal circuit classes and it
20:05
Speaker 1: was just so much fun. And honestly, my main friend
20:10
Speaker 1: group in Brighton came from that gym and those classes.
20:16
Speaker 2: How does it translate or how do you get from
20:20
Speaker 2: the point where you garner the kind of confidence, because
20:23
Speaker 2: I feel like there has to be a certain amount
20:26
Speaker 2: of confidence to walk into a gym like that and
20:29
Speaker 2: feel like you belong, especially considering you know where you
20:34
Speaker 2: came from and the fact that like you had you know,
20:36
Speaker 2: just been walking, then you were running. Now you're like
20:39
Speaker 2: training with an MMA fighter, Like, how does that evolution
20:42
Speaker 2: kind of take place?
20:44
Speaker 1: I think it's always about the confidence in yourself to
20:48
Speaker 1: change and adapt to the new environments that you're in.
20:52
Speaker 1: And I think I've always applied that to every every
20:56
Speaker 1: single element of my life, whether it's traveling to a
21:00
Speaker 1: different country, coming home and being like, all right, I
21:04
Speaker 1: need to learn French because I felt silly being in France,
21:09
Speaker 1: or you know, traveling to somewhere like Thailand where I
21:12
Speaker 1: don't speak a word of the language, but I felt
21:16
Speaker 1: confident in my ability to converse and survive and thrive
21:22
Speaker 1: in the country. Didn't put me off from going. So
21:25
Speaker 1: it's not really trying and apply that to fitness of like,
21:28
Speaker 1: I have confidence in being here. I have confidence in
21:32
Speaker 1: the ability to change myself for the better. So I'm
21:35
Speaker 1: the only one who's going to be in the way
21:37
Speaker 1: of stopping that. Other people can think what they want,
21:40
Speaker 1: they can, you know, look at you in whatever way
21:43
Speaker 1: they want, but that's their downfall. My upgrade is my
21:47
Speaker 1: ability to look beyond that and just believe that I'm
21:50
Speaker 1: welcome here.
21:52
Speaker 3: You're welcome here. So speaking of being welcome here, one
21:55
Speaker 3: will give me a timeline of where we are right
21:58
Speaker 3: now in your STORYBLIC.
22:00
Speaker 1: Relationships, all these prs and pts and lifely so many letters.
22:04
Speaker 1: I left Public Relations. I was at a very low
22:08
Speaker 1: point in my life. I was in a very bad relationship.
22:16
Speaker 1: I had become obsessed with fitness. To be honest, I
22:21
Speaker 1: had an eating disorder. I was just desperately unhappy, but
22:26
Speaker 1: putting on a smiley face because that was my job.
22:31
Speaker 1: Public relations, your people facing. You put a product in
22:35
Speaker 1: front of a journalist and it can be the worst
22:38
Speaker 1: product in the world. But your job is to say
22:40
Speaker 1: it's the best product in the world and make them
22:41
Speaker 1: believe it and put it in their publication. And so
22:44
Speaker 1: I was very good at that sort of fake it
22:47
Speaker 1: till you make it. And unfortunately that sort of carried
22:49
Speaker 1: into my actual real life and I was running myself
22:57
Speaker 1: into the ground. I'm looking back, and my family would
22:59
Speaker 1: say this, you were dangerously close to being long term sick.
23:06
Speaker 1: But I went to spend Christmas in Naples with my
23:09
Speaker 1: auntie and her husband and my mom and my boyfriend
23:13
Speaker 1: at the time. He also came, and my uncle's always
23:16
Speaker 1: been a very big influence in my life and a
23:19
Speaker 1: mentor to me. I would go out and run every
23:23
Speaker 1: single day, and I you know, for those of you
23:25
Speaker 1: who have spent time in Naples, Florida in December, it's
23:28
Speaker 1: not cool. It's rather warm, it's humid, it's definitely not
23:35
Speaker 1: the kind of environment an English runner is used to.
23:40
Speaker 1: But I would go out one day around twenty miles,
23:42
Speaker 1: ended up at a farmer's market and just you know,
23:46
Speaker 1: I was doing I was using running as some sort
23:48
Speaker 1: of cover slash distraction. My uncle sat me down and
23:52
Speaker 1: he at the end of the triple towards the end
23:54
Speaker 1: of the trip, and said to me, the happiness that
23:57
Speaker 1: you have when you run, you need to share that
23:59
Speaker 1: with people, because it's the only time I've seen you
24:02
Speaker 1: happy this whole two weeks. And he sort of was like,
24:06
Speaker 1: you need to get rid of this jackass. He's no
24:08
Speaker 1: good for you, and you just find a way of sharing,
24:12
Speaker 1: sharing your love and your passion for running with the
24:15
Speaker 1: world because it would do you good and it will
24:17
Speaker 1: do other people good. And I literally wrote my resignation
24:21
Speaker 1: letter on the flight home. My boyfriend and I broke
24:24
Speaker 1: up the next day and it was just a huge
24:30
Speaker 1: tumultuous wave that hit my life. But it couldn't have
24:36
Speaker 1: been any better for me, for my career, for my health.
24:42
Speaker 1: And I went back to school. I went and did
24:44
Speaker 1: a personal training and business diploma, and I was very
24:48
Speaker 1: lucky to get a internship at a hotel gym bodyism
24:52
Speaker 1: at the Bulgari Hotel when I came straight out of
24:54
Speaker 1: personal training school and from then on I had the
24:59
Speaker 1: guy on my side. The Nike training team saw me
25:05
Speaker 1: and we're like, oh, we can take her on board
25:07
Speaker 1: as a trainer. She seems to have the bazaars we want.
25:11
Speaker 1: And that was the start of my real career taking off.
25:17
Speaker 1: My adoration for running kind of came flooding back in
25:22
Speaker 1: a very healthy way at that point because I was broke.
25:27
Speaker 1: I'd moved to London with a job that was an
25:29
Speaker 1: unpaid internship, and I again used running as a way
25:35
Speaker 1: to run to work in the morning, which was like
25:38
Speaker 1: four miles I think, yeah, four miles, And it was
25:43
Speaker 1: just there was just such a freedom to my life
25:48
Speaker 1: that I think translated into a balance of bringing fitness
25:53
Speaker 1: back to health instead of it overruling my health.
26:04
Speaker 2: Taking a break from today's episode to talk to you
26:08
Speaker 2: all again about Daily Harvest.
26:09
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26:10
Speaker 2: All of their stuff, including my personal thaves like the
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26:41
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26:48
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27:04
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27:11
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27:16
Speaker 2: also want to give some love.
27:18
Speaker 3: To my friends at Athleticgreens.
27:20
Speaker 2: You know, we are all trying to navigate this winter
27:24
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27:29
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27:32
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27:33
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27:37
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27:56
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28:03
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28:03
Speaker 3: I know that's a bold statement, but I mean it.
28:06
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28:10
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28:44
Speaker 2: How did you get away from those disorder eating habits
28:49
Speaker 2: and develop this healthier relationship, not just you know, with food,
28:54
Speaker 2: but with exercise in general.
28:56
Speaker 1: I think it was it was accepting having a big
29:01
Speaker 1: change in your life for the positive is very, very
29:04
Speaker 1: obviously different to a negative change. A positive change, I
29:07
Speaker 1: think it reverberates through your whole being that you are
29:12
Speaker 1: on a better and stronger path. And I think, whether
29:16
Speaker 1: it's consciously or subconsciously, your homeostasis becomes becomes prevalent in
29:23
Speaker 1: your day to day rather than you struggling for homeostasis
29:26
Speaker 1: within your body. And I think the fact that I
29:30
Speaker 1: wasn't trying to escape anything anymore. I wasn't trying to
29:34
Speaker 1: use two hours of running to escape my thoughts or
29:39
Speaker 1: to run off a bite of a cookie I'd had,
29:42
Speaker 1: or whatever it was. I was actually understanding more about
29:47
Speaker 1: the body through the course I was doing. I was
29:51
Speaker 1: meeting such a massive array of people from all over
29:55
Speaker 1: the world who were doing this, who are on the
29:58
Speaker 1: course that I was on, all different shapes, we were
30:01
Speaker 1: all different sizes, we were all different people, And I
30:04
Speaker 1: think it brought me back to reality of Okay, you
30:09
Speaker 1: don't need to be like skin and bones. It's not
30:13
Speaker 1: going to do any good for you. And the strong
30:15
Speaker 1: guy I was getting by. You know, these classes aren't
30:19
Speaker 1: just academically classroom style classes. You're doing workouts most of
30:25
Speaker 1: the day as well as learning from a textbook. And
30:29
Speaker 1: I was getting so strong, and I talk about this
30:32
Speaker 1: in my strength classes all the time. I still need
30:35
Speaker 1: to get back to being able to do as many
30:37
Speaker 1: push ups as I could when I was in PT
30:38
Speaker 1: school because it was so amazing to see my body
30:42
Speaker 1: get to this level of strength that I just yeah,
30:47
Speaker 1: I just couldn't believe how proud I could make myself
30:51
Speaker 1: in that.
30:52
Speaker 3: Way, which is really special.
30:54
Speaker 2: So you go to PT school and you get this
30:57
Speaker 2: job with Nike, and then how does that enable you
31:01
Speaker 2: and empower you to start doing what it was that
31:05
Speaker 2: your uncle said to you, which was you've got to
31:08
Speaker 2: share this passion of other people.
31:10
Speaker 1: The team who kind of approached me for the Nike
31:13
Speaker 1: Training Club role, they obviously knew that Nike Running Club
31:19
Speaker 1: was coming out in the future, but they couldn't share it.
31:22
Speaker 1: So they took me on board as a trainer who
31:25
Speaker 1: did runs and training very much like a kind of
31:28
Speaker 1: run boot camp sort of thing. And once we could
31:32
Speaker 1: be told about Nike Run Club being launched globally, I
31:36
Speaker 1: was one of the leads with one other guy called Cory.
31:40
Speaker 1: It was the two of us who spearheaded it. We
31:43
Speaker 1: were one of five in the world who traveled the world,
31:46
Speaker 1: created these incredible communities in I think in the end
31:51
Speaker 1: it was something like forty seven cities in the world.
31:55
Speaker 1: And it was just that was the biggest flap of
32:00
Speaker 1: a switch in my mind. Of leading runs and warm
32:03
Speaker 1: ups with a bunch of pacers who became really good friends,
32:09
Speaker 1: of organizing every single run route and pace groups to
32:14
Speaker 1: make sure that not one person was ever left out
32:16
Speaker 1: or left behind. And seeing the joys of these people
32:19
Speaker 1: coming week by week two sessions and getting stronger, getting faster,
32:24
Speaker 1: signing up to their first races, doing their tenth race.
32:28
Speaker 1: That it was really I don't know, it was a
32:34
Speaker 1: real big wow moment. To reflect on it with my
32:38
Speaker 1: uncle and I would constantly send him pictures of me
32:41
Speaker 1: at big events and doing you know, we had a
32:44
Speaker 1: run with Kevin Hart in Battersea Park and I was
32:47
Speaker 1: just looked at my colleague at one point I was like,
32:49
Speaker 1: running with Kevin Hart, this is.
32:52
Speaker 3: I was there. I was there.
32:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, we did them every It was just, you know,
32:57
Speaker 1: there's just these weird things and like I'm sitting next
32:59
Speaker 1: to Paula Radcliffe, who I had the pleasure of working
33:02
Speaker 1: with many times, and Mo Farah and all these people
33:06
Speaker 1: who are and continue to be idols and inspirations to
33:10
Speaker 1: me that you know, I just I really did have
33:14
Speaker 1: to sit down and say to my uncle, I don't
33:16
Speaker 1: know what skills or magical powers you have, and they
33:21
Speaker 1: want you to see this passion would be good for me,
33:25
Speaker 1: but also give me this opportunity to share and bring
33:29
Speaker 1: out to join other people. Was you know if you
33:32
Speaker 1: never asked me when I was little what I wanted
33:34
Speaker 1: to be, it would fluctuate. I wanted to be a
33:36
Speaker 1: lawyer one day, and then the next day I wanted
33:38
Speaker 1: to be a marine biologist. But it was never like
33:41
Speaker 1: somebody who gave back specifically to a community, do you
33:45
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Like, it wasn't that sort of role.
33:48
Speaker 1: And now I can't think of doing anything less. Like
33:50
Speaker 1: I know, my calling in life is to help other
33:52
Speaker 1: people believe that they can do anything that they put
33:57
Speaker 1: their minds to do.
33:59
Speaker 3: You believe in the power of manifestation?
34:02
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, it happens too often for me not
34:08
Speaker 1: to believe in it. I mean, it's you know, it's
34:11
Speaker 1: not a given that it's going to happen, but I honestly,
34:16
Speaker 1: it's always happened to me with my mom ever since
34:20
Speaker 1: I I left him when I was seventeen, and I've
34:21
Speaker 1: lived in so many different places around the world, and
34:25
Speaker 1: whenever I've thought about her, she tends to text me
34:30
Speaker 1: or call me, and it's almost like, I'm like, oh man,
34:32
Speaker 1: I'd really like to speak to my mom. The next
34:34
Speaker 1: thing I know, I get a text or a call,
34:35
Speaker 1: she's there. Wow. I just manifested that into reality.
34:41
Speaker 2: Okay, so we believe a manifestation because we are running
34:45
Speaker 2: literally around the world and you're doing something that you
34:50
Speaker 2: only had dreamed of. Maybe, so when you're at this
34:54
Speaker 2: high point, how do you even comprehend like where to
34:58
Speaker 2: go from there?
35:02
Speaker 1: Like right now, it's super hard to keep putting up
35:09
Speaker 1: these goals. And I mean, if you're talking racing wise,
35:14
Speaker 1: I if I kind of hone it on my my,
35:17
Speaker 1: let's call it semi professional running career.
35:21
Speaker 3: Wellait, wait, wait, let's dial it back first.
35:24
Speaker 2: Okay, So I think what we haven't touched yet is
35:27
Speaker 2: talking about just.
35:28
Speaker 3: How elite of a runner you are.
35:31
Speaker 2: So when do you get to the point where you're
35:36
Speaker 2: running fast, fast, fast, Like, let's first articulate like how
35:41
Speaker 2: fast of a runner that you are? Okay, so let's say, Bex,
35:47
Speaker 2: what is your half marathon.
35:48
Speaker 1: PR one sixteen casual?
35:53
Speaker 3: What is your marathon PR?
35:55
Speaker 1: Two thirty seven?
35:57
Speaker 3: And how fast can you run a mile?
36:00
Speaker 1: Ooh? I never really do a mile time trial, but
36:06
Speaker 1: I would guess around like five twenty five, five fifteen
36:11
Speaker 1: something like that.
36:12
Speaker 2: No big deal, okay, So just putting into context what
36:15
Speaker 2: we're dealing with here when it comes to Bex Gentry, Bex,
36:18
Speaker 2: when do you start like properly racing races in the
36:23
Speaker 2: scheme of things here.
36:25
Speaker 1: I'll let you know when it happens.
36:27
Speaker 3: Oh oh my god, you are totally already doing it.
36:29
Speaker 2: I mean, you don't go out and hammer through a
36:32
Speaker 2: one sixteen half marathon, you know, like just because you're like,
36:35
Speaker 2: you know what I'm gonna do today. I'm going to
36:37
Speaker 2: go recreationally run a half marathon. So talk to me
36:41
Speaker 2: about when like you kind of start really getting into
36:45
Speaker 2: running in this way, because it doesn't just happen overnight.
36:48
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no. I mean my first marathon time
36:51
Speaker 1: was a three point thirty and that was London Marathon
36:54
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen, So that's a gay to progression. My
36:58
Speaker 1: my marathon pr was last November New York City Marathon
37:02
Speaker 1: two thirty seven.
37:04
Speaker 3: So big differences here, very big differences.
37:08
Speaker 2: Someone hears that and their first question for you is
37:11
Speaker 2: what changed?
37:12
Speaker 3: What do you tell them?
37:14
Speaker 1: A routine? Yeah, you're a routine understanding where my strengths lie.
37:22
Speaker 1: Like you asking me what my mile time is. I
37:25
Speaker 1: know my strength is not explosive speed. It is definitely
37:29
Speaker 1: not let's go from the blocks out for one mile
37:34
Speaker 1: as fast as you can. I'm no Allison Felix. You
37:38
Speaker 1: know that's the level of runner. I am long distance.
37:44
Speaker 1: My powers lie in that mental game of endurance, also power,
37:50
Speaker 1: but in a very different way. So I think it
37:52
Speaker 1: was recognizing like, Okay, I'm not necessarily going to be
37:56
Speaker 1: the firstest five k or ten k runner, but I
38:01
Speaker 1: need to get some routine and some understanding about how
38:05
Speaker 1: to become a long distance runner.
38:08
Speaker 2: What happened between the three point thirty and the.
38:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, in all honesty, I had that time
38:19
Speaker 1: of my life. I called it the eight weeks of Crazy.
38:23
Speaker 1: I ran my first marathon. So all of this happened
38:26
Speaker 1: in eight weeks, two marathons, two ultra marathons, I turned thirty,
38:30
Speaker 1: and I got married. They were all within the same
38:34
Speaker 1: eight weeks. And the marathon's thing.
38:36
Speaker 3: Going on here, nothing go on here? Okay.
38:40
Speaker 1: Only one of the races was in the UK, in London,
38:43
Speaker 1: that was London Marathon. Everything else that I did was
38:47
Speaker 1: outside of the UK, and the ultra races were insane,
38:52
Speaker 1: like up and over mountains and volcanoes and very very
38:56
Speaker 1: tough races. And I think it's just doing those kind
39:00
Speaker 1: of back to back every other weekend something insane happened,
39:04
Speaker 1: or like weekends in a row. My body just went like, wow, okay,
39:10
Speaker 1: you're tougher than you thought, so let's let's see where
39:14
Speaker 1: we can go with this. And the two mathons I
39:17
Speaker 1: did were London and Rome Marathon, and they were so
39:20
Speaker 1: three thirty and then Rome Marathon was three twenty seven
39:23
Speaker 1: or it was vice versa, but pretty much the same
39:26
Speaker 1: finish time for both of those. And I met Blue
39:31
Speaker 1: Benadam it was early that year, February of that year,
39:34
Speaker 1: who is a very good friend, very accomplished running coach,
39:38
Speaker 1: and he was a fellow Nike running coach as well,
39:41
Speaker 1: and we'd gone for a run at like four in
39:43
Speaker 1: the morning before a big day of coaching in Germany,
39:48
Speaker 1: and I told him my marathon time, my London marathon time,
39:53
Speaker 1: and he remembered thinking, this girl is not a three
39:57
Speaker 1: point thirty marathoner because we're running at in the six
40:01
Speaker 1: minute mile paces at four in the morning and she's
40:04
Speaker 1: still having a full conversation with me. So I He
40:10
Speaker 1: and I became very good friends through Nike Coaching, and
40:15
Speaker 1: we just spent a lot of time talking about different
40:18
Speaker 1: ways of training and different ways of coaching people and
40:21
Speaker 1: trying these things out on ourselves. He is the found
40:26
Speaker 1: one of the co founders, should I say, of the
40:28
Speaker 1: Speed Project, which is a relay race, multi multi team
40:34
Speaker 1: relay race that happens from you run from Los Angeles
40:38
Speaker 1: to Las Vegas. It's three hundred and forty miles and
40:41
Speaker 1: you do it as quickly as your team possibly can. He,
40:46
Speaker 1: as I said, is one of the co founders of this,
40:48
Speaker 1: and the second year of it, he was like, Bex,
40:51
Speaker 1: do you want to join my team for this? So
40:54
Speaker 1: I've done it four times now I think something like that.
41:00
Speaker 1: Four times yeah, and three times running and once hosting,
41:06
Speaker 1: and we are still the record holders on our team.
41:10
Speaker 3: I love that.
41:11
Speaker 2: So you're running and you're getting faster and faster, and
41:14
Speaker 2: you're you're finding these new personal bests and then talk
41:19
Speaker 2: to me about then how this journey of sorts leads
41:24
Speaker 2: you to Peloton.
41:27
Speaker 1: I I think it was. It really honestly, it all
41:32
Speaker 1: stemmed from from Nike. Through Nike Training, I met Rebecca Kennedy,
41:36
Speaker 1: who was also a Nike training coach, and I mean
41:40
Speaker 1: meets then met through like a screen back in the
41:44
Speaker 1: days when you could meet people in person. But she
41:46
Speaker 1: was obviously Northern American territory. I was Europe and we
41:51
Speaker 1: I think we'd been at virtual summits together and through
41:55
Speaker 1: social media we became friends. And she reached out to
41:59
Speaker 1: me in August of twenty seventeen and just said, look,
42:04
Speaker 1: I have this really exciting project. I can't tell you
42:07
Speaker 1: much about it. It's running based. It's an opportunity you
42:12
Speaker 1: don't want to miss. Would you be willing to move
42:14
Speaker 1: to New York? Casual casuals like word okay, very long
42:22
Speaker 1: process of interviews, and I was sort of coming out
42:26
Speaker 1: to New York every month to do on camera auditions,
42:31
Speaker 1: and I just I guess I fit into the team
42:37
Speaker 1: into the cast that they wanted and very very lucky
42:40
Speaker 1: to have been offered the job in December twenty seventeen,
42:44
Speaker 1: and that started my whole life uprouting over here to
42:50
Speaker 1: the US, which was the best thing in the world
42:55
Speaker 1: for me. It sorted out again. It sort of had
42:59
Speaker 1: a trait of bad relationsip and chips of my having
43:02
Speaker 1: the strength to move countries I had the strength to
43:05
Speaker 1: and a bad marriage and restopped in every single way
43:11
Speaker 1: over here in New York.
43:19
Speaker 2: Taking a break from today's episode to give some love
43:21
Speaker 2: to my friends at Beam, a Boston based CBD company that.
43:25
Speaker 3: Is making waves in the wellness industry.
43:28
Speaker 2: Now, if there is something I know, I know, I
43:31
Speaker 2: am so certain of that we can all.
43:33
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43:36
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43:40
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43:40
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43:45
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43:50
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43:52
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44:51
Speaker 2: You've mentioned in both of these circumstances and both of
44:54
Speaker 2: the bad relationships that you referenced that at both times
44:59
Speaker 2: you were leaning into sport, maybe more so than before.
45:04
Speaker 2: Talk to me about how sport helps you get through
45:09
Speaker 2: tough times.
45:11
Speaker 1: It's cathartic for me. I have definitely learned not to
45:18
Speaker 1: abuse my body when it comes to using sport or
45:22
Speaker 1: running as a release. I've learned that the most gentle
45:27
Speaker 1: run can be the most therapeutic for me, and so
45:32
Speaker 1: the act when I'm feeling a little bit frantic in
45:35
Speaker 1: my own brain or overwhelmed or sad. The act of
45:40
Speaker 1: putting on my running kit, lacing up my trainers, and
45:44
Speaker 1: that almost literal beep on my watch of start transports
45:52
Speaker 1: me into what some people may say a selfish mode,
45:57
Speaker 1: what I would argue to my last breath as being
46:00
Speaker 1: a something that's so far from seth which I don't
46:04
Speaker 1: even think of the right word. It's a saving into
46:08
Speaker 1: my own saving mode, and it clears my mind, It
46:13
Speaker 1: focuses me, It helps me flick through the rolodex of
46:16
Speaker 1: crap that sometimes is my brain. And even if it's
46:21
Speaker 1: not a conscious thing, quite often it is. You know,
46:25
Speaker 1: you're literally going through, like almost turning the pages of
46:28
Speaker 1: your own brain. But sometimes it just you switch off,
46:32
Speaker 1: you go into a meditative state, and you come back.
46:35
Speaker 1: And either way that it happens. I feel like once
46:38
Speaker 1: I get in the shower or when I'm stretching, when
46:41
Speaker 1: I get home, I feel so much calmer. And even
46:45
Speaker 1: if nothing about my day has changed, if I know
46:48
Speaker 1: that the minute I'm dressed it's going to go back
46:50
Speaker 1: to being quite a frantic day, I just feel a
46:53
Speaker 1: little bit more prepared to handle it in a logical
46:58
Speaker 1: and correct way.
47:02
Speaker 2: Correct No, I mean I can totally identify. I think
47:08
Speaker 2: sometimes by taking that time to give back to ourselves
47:10
Speaker 2: that we can better show up for, you know, the
47:13
Speaker 2: people that we care about, our obligations, the things that
47:15
Speaker 2: are on our to do list, and so on and
47:17
Speaker 2: so forth.
47:18
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I mean I stay it in class all the time,
47:20
Speaker 1: and I've said it already to you. As an individual,
47:24
Speaker 1: you are the only person in the way of your goals.
47:30
Speaker 1: There's nobody else who's actually stopping you. People can give
47:34
Speaker 1: you all the attitude and or the opinion that they
47:37
Speaker 1: want on your goals, but if you don't go for
47:42
Speaker 1: that run because you can't be bothered, or you don't
47:45
Speaker 1: make that training session because you'd rather watch the next
47:48
Speaker 1: TV show, you're the person putting up the roadblock there,
47:53
Speaker 1: and if you can't be the person who finds a
47:57
Speaker 1: way to get through the potential roadblock. I don't know
48:03
Speaker 1: if you've listened to Matthew McConaughey's book Green Lights, but
48:06
Speaker 1: his way of explaining this of like, people think that
48:11
Speaker 1: successful people have always got green lights that always just
48:15
Speaker 1: on a free flowing road, and that they never have
48:19
Speaker 1: those amber or yellow lights. But the difference is between
48:23
Speaker 1: these people is that the person who you think always
48:28
Speaker 1: has the green light has actually taken the time to
48:30
Speaker 1: look ahead, identify the amber lights and the red lights
48:34
Speaker 1: and pick and choose either how to get around them
48:37
Speaker 1: or how to use them as a stop or a
48:40
Speaker 1: pause to their advantage.
48:42
Speaker 3: Love that, Yeah, it's just.
48:44
Speaker 1: Like wow, oh my gosh.
48:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I also use I also love your use of
48:50
Speaker 2: the word amber personally. So something that I have struggled with,
48:57
Speaker 2: and I wonder if you feel this way as well,
48:59
Speaker 2: is that as someone who wants to encourage the best
49:04
Speaker 2: for people literally, like my personal mission is helping to
49:09
Speaker 2: encourage the hurdlers to live healthier and happier lives and
49:12
Speaker 2: find motivation.
49:14
Speaker 3: I struggle sometimes with getting to this place where.
49:17
Speaker 2: I can only do so much and I can't make
49:21
Speaker 2: that person actually take the step right Like, I can
49:24
Speaker 2: provide them with inspiration, I can help provide them with
49:27
Speaker 2: the tools, but if they don't want that health for themselves,
49:30
Speaker 2: if they don't want to take that step actually, then
49:33
Speaker 2: I can't.
49:34
Speaker 3: Force it on them. Do you ever feel that way?
49:36
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, yeah, on so many different levels as well.
49:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think it's just like sometimes I hear,
49:44
Speaker 2: you know, in my DMS or in emails, it's just
49:47
Speaker 2: like the excuse making and sometimes I just want to
49:52
Speaker 2: I want to shake these people that I care about
49:54
Speaker 2: so much because I want them to get out of
49:56
Speaker 2: their own way. Like, what would you tell someone who
49:59
Speaker 2: is the person that's standing in their own way, who
50:01
Speaker 2: is the person that's you know, watching the TV show
50:05
Speaker 2: or you know, they're on the couch, they're not taking
50:08
Speaker 2: that leap of faith.
50:10
Speaker 1: I think I generally bring it back to the kind
50:15
Speaker 1: of the speculation or the reality of your goals. We
50:19
Speaker 1: can all sit back and speculate about the what ifs
50:23
Speaker 1: or perhaps or oh I should do this. And I
50:26
Speaker 1: I hate the word should. It's such a bane of
50:32
Speaker 1: my vocabulary because I think it's it's something that doesn't
50:37
Speaker 1: isn't necessary to exist. That if it's a should, it's
50:41
Speaker 1: more than likely if you've got that opportunity, it's and
50:44
Speaker 1: I can or I will or I hope to. Should
50:48
Speaker 1: is just so so annoying to me. But anyway, reverting that,
50:52
Speaker 1: I would say to that person that if you don't try,
50:56
Speaker 1: and it's so cute, you're never gonna know. So rather
51:00
Speaker 1: than just sit back and be almost that's more selfish.
51:07
Speaker 1: I think personally on your on yourself to sit back
51:12
Speaker 1: and not try and just to presume that you'll get
51:15
Speaker 1: the opportunity to do it another day. It's quite selfish.
51:20
Speaker 1: I think that getting the opportunity to wake up and
51:23
Speaker 1: give life a damn good go every single day is
51:27
Speaker 1: something that we definitely all should do and as that
51:31
Speaker 1: should again and how many of the gratitude journals, and
51:36
Speaker 1: I mean, I personally don't keep one, but I reflect
51:41
Speaker 1: on my day. My boyfriend and I were having this
51:43
Speaker 1: conversation literally the other night of He's like, do you
51:47
Speaker 1: actually like go through your day when you get into
51:50
Speaker 1: bed and like close your eyes? And I was like, yeah,
51:54
Speaker 1: I genuinely do. Every night, I kind of go through
51:56
Speaker 1: my day. I don't necessarily pinpoint out something that makes
51:59
Speaker 1: me feel grateful or made me feel great, but I
52:03
Speaker 1: just sort of do an overview of what happened, and
52:06
Speaker 1: I make sure that if there was something pretty big,
52:09
Speaker 1: it's filed in a memory bank. I don't want to
52:12
Speaker 1: forget it. And I would hate for that person who
52:15
Speaker 1: just doesn't take the opportunity to go to bed every
52:18
Speaker 1: night wishing that their day had been different, Because you're
52:24
Speaker 1: the person like you're going to end up hating yourself
52:27
Speaker 1: and that's really sad.
52:30
Speaker 2: What has been one of the biggest lessons that you
52:34
Speaker 2: have learned in your last couple years with Peloton.
52:42
Speaker 1: That real life is very different to stuff that is
52:45
Speaker 1: portrayed through a screen, whatever screen that is. And with that,
52:51
Speaker 1: comparing yourself to other people, be it on any screen,
52:55
Speaker 1: in any publication, or even on the street sitting next
52:59
Speaker 1: to your your sofa is never going to set you
53:04
Speaker 1: up for consistent positivity. I definitely yeah. I just think
53:11
Speaker 1: it's too much today, Like we live in such a
53:13
Speaker 1: world of it's almost like one upping all the time,
53:18
Speaker 1: you know, I think I'm I love social media, but
53:21
Speaker 1: I also hate it also. I think it's sometimes really
53:25
Speaker 1: manipulative and used in the wrong way, but it's also
53:29
Speaker 1: invigorating and inspiring and gives people an outlet. It allows
53:34
Speaker 1: people to feel better if they read something they you know,
53:39
Speaker 1: may pour certain people out of a terrible place. But
53:43
Speaker 1: at the same time, I think we definitely need to
53:46
Speaker 1: understand that comparing yourself to somebody on the other side
53:51
Speaker 1: of a screen who you don't know, especially in running
53:54
Speaker 1: or training, like it doesn't matter if you can't run
53:56
Speaker 1: as fast as like I don't myself to Paula Radcliffe
54:02
Speaker 1: the fact that we both run. I aspire to have
54:05
Speaker 1: a career as long as hers and as wonderfully happy
54:09
Speaker 1: as hers, alongside having a beautiful family. But I don't
54:14
Speaker 1: necessarily put myself down because I don't have a two
54:18
Speaker 1: fourteen marathon under my belt.
54:21
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, No, I totally get it.
54:23
Speaker 2: And as someone who is, you know, on the other
54:26
Speaker 2: side of the screen for so many people, so often
54:29
Speaker 2: as a peloton instructor, how are you giving back to
54:32
Speaker 2: yourself to help better show up for these people in
54:34
Speaker 2: your community.
54:36
Speaker 1: I am a real advocate for real talk. I will
54:40
Speaker 1: happily jump on my Instagram as and when I please.
54:46
Speaker 1: I have no schedule, as you probably have noticed, I'm
54:51
Speaker 1: definitely not a person who's like, all right, I post
54:53
Speaker 1: on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednday, Thursday, Fridays Essay at this time,
54:56
Speaker 1: and that may be to detriment of what people perceive
55:00
Speaker 1: to be a good following, but to be honest, I
55:03
Speaker 1: can't let it take over my life that much. I
55:07
Speaker 1: post when I have something genuine to say. I some
55:10
Speaker 1: days may post fifty Instagram stories because I'm just having
55:14
Speaker 1: a particularly interesting or what I deem to be interesting
55:17
Speaker 1: to other people's day, which, to be honest, is kind
55:21
Speaker 1: of rare in this current climate, but I definitely try
55:27
Speaker 1: to On days when I'm with family and friends, I
55:31
Speaker 1: put my phone away. I don't think the world needs
55:34
Speaker 1: to know what Austin and I are doing on a Saturday,
55:38
Speaker 1: unless it's something cute. See like we went to shop
55:41
Speaker 1: a Christmas tree down you know, something that everybody's doing,
55:44
Speaker 1: but they don't need to know that we're sitting watching
55:46
Speaker 1: Netflix and having a bottle of wine. But that's just
55:50
Speaker 1: my personal opinion. Other people love sharing every element of
55:53
Speaker 1: their life and that's very on brand for them, But
55:56
Speaker 1: for me personally, I have to give myself back private time.
56:01
Speaker 1: I don't want everybody knowing everything about me and my
56:07
Speaker 1: personal life. Whatever I give at Peloton is it's open,
56:12
Speaker 1: but behind the scenes, I really pick and choose what
56:16
Speaker 1: I share and how often my phone's in my hand.
56:21
Speaker 2: When someone goes to your Instagram page, they see Beck's Gentry,
56:25
Speaker 2: the Peloton instructor with seventy one thousand plus followers. When
56:30
Speaker 2: you look in the mirror, what is it that you
56:33
Speaker 2: see looking back at you?
56:37
Speaker 1: A tired version of the kid I've always seen.
56:43
Speaker 2: Me.
56:45
Speaker 1: I honestly, you know, I'm sure we all do this.
56:49
Speaker 1: We look in the mirrorm and we're like, wow, when
56:52
Speaker 1: did this happen? I think I still live at home
56:55
Speaker 1: with my parents in my mind, and I'm thirteen, should
56:57
Speaker 1: be going to school. But I mean it changes. There
57:02
Speaker 1: are days when I do have a bit of a
57:07
Speaker 1: low day, or you know, I'm certainly like everybody right now,
57:12
Speaker 1: I'm really missing my family. I haven't seen them in
57:15
Speaker 1: a year, and I'm not going to be able to
57:18
Speaker 1: see them for a really long time. And it's just
57:22
Speaker 1: that you get yourself a little bit down and you
57:25
Speaker 1: feel a little bit blur about everything, even though I
57:30
Speaker 1: know that I am so blessed and very very lucky,
57:34
Speaker 1: very privileged in my life, and I think sometimes I
57:38
Speaker 1: just have to look at myself in the mirror and
57:39
Speaker 1: look at myself in the eye and remind myself of
57:42
Speaker 1: that and that you know, these times will pass, and
57:48
Speaker 1: that I am a badass runner. And I finish New
57:53
Speaker 1: York City Marathon. It's the first non elite female and
57:56
Speaker 1: I can thrive in situations that I don't necessarily or
58:03
Speaker 1: I didn't necessarily think I could, So I just have
58:06
Speaker 1: to sort of bring some of those strong moments to
58:09
Speaker 1: my mind, and it helps reinforce that present, that moment
58:14
Speaker 1: of strength that I need in a moment of weakness.
58:18
Speaker 2: That first non elite female sentence. Does that ever get old?
58:23
Speaker 1: No?
58:26
Speaker 3: Definitely not.
58:27
Speaker 2: Describe to me quickly how you felt when you crossed
58:30
Speaker 2: the finish line in two thirty seven oh one.
58:34
Speaker 1: I cried someone who actually I think she's a Peloton member,
58:41
Speaker 1: or she may be a Peloton employee. I apologize if
58:45
Speaker 1: you're listening to this and I get it confused. I
58:48
Speaker 1: know that you are a wonderful person, that's for sure.
58:51
Speaker 1: She was at the finish I'm working for, working at
58:55
Speaker 1: the marathon that day, and she happened to I don't
59:01
Speaker 1: know whether she saw me coming or what, but got
59:04
Speaker 1: her phone out and recorded me literally like on the
59:08
Speaker 1: finish line coming over. And I my really good friend
59:11
Speaker 1: Matthew Mayer was on the finish line. He'd finished three
59:14
Speaker 1: minutes ahead of me, and we shared some miles together
59:18
Speaker 1: during the race. He was I hobbled towards him and
59:24
Speaker 1: just re embraced and cried, and nothing was real. I
59:31
Speaker 1: didn't know. I just remember seeing my time and thinking
59:35
Speaker 1: it was wrong. I didn't know I was the first
59:37
Speaker 1: female at that point. I'd been told since the fifth
59:41
Speaker 1: kilometer that I was leading as a non elite female,
59:46
Speaker 1: which just FYI was a very big weight on my
59:49
Speaker 1: shoulders for the remaining such a seven kilometers and no race,
59:55
Speaker 1: but yeah, it was. It was crazy. It was one
1:00:00
Speaker 1: of those moments like, I you run New York, right.
1:00:04
Speaker 3: Yes, four times? I guess five times if you count
1:00:08
Speaker 3: virtual Kay.
1:00:11
Speaker 4: You're crazy, by the way, but you know what it's
1:00:15
Speaker 4: like when you when you finish new your math and
1:00:17
Speaker 4: unless you've bought, like paid for that extra whatever it is,
1:00:21
Speaker 4: you have to go up to eighty.
1:00:24
Speaker 1: Second to exit. Now that walk is a uphill, be
1:00:31
Speaker 1: in the shade in November, and it's let's say half
1:00:38
Speaker 1: a mile to a mile. Once you do a double
1:00:41
Speaker 1: back down to Columbus Circle, it's definitely over a mile
1:00:45
Speaker 1: of oh yeah. And so Matt had paid or he'd
1:00:51
Speaker 1: been given because he's such a feminous runner the early
1:00:54
Speaker 1: exit with you know the posh poncho that people get,
1:00:57
Speaker 1: not just the tinfoil one, and he bless him, tried
1:01:01
Speaker 1: to take me through. He was like, she's just finished.
1:01:04
Speaker 1: We think she's the first female, like let her come,
1:01:06
Speaker 1: and they were like, no, no, you don't have the
1:01:08
Speaker 1: right wristband. I was like, okay, whatever, fine, So he
1:01:13
Speaker 1: kind of he was like I'll give you mine and
1:01:15
Speaker 1: gentlemanly offerings, but I kind of carried on walking and
1:01:20
Speaker 1: plodded my way up to eighty second, finally got out
1:01:24
Speaker 1: and walked my way back down to Columbus Circle. And
1:01:27
Speaker 1: this whole time I was like, wow, I may well
1:01:32
Speaker 1: have been the first female to finish, but it doesn't
1:01:35
Speaker 1: make a done of difference. I was still there with
1:01:38
Speaker 1: every other person who'd finished. We were all like grumbling
1:01:43
Speaker 1: at this like death march that we were doing to
1:01:46
Speaker 1: get back to our family and friends. And it was
1:01:50
Speaker 1: just that, to me was the most special moment of
1:01:55
Speaker 1: remembering why we go to these races, why we trained
1:01:59
Speaker 1: for weeks and months, not just a pr It is
1:02:04
Speaker 1: just to be in that incredible community and be No
1:02:10
Speaker 1: matter what your finished time is, you're all the same.
1:02:12
Speaker 1: You're all grumpy runners who have just run twenty six
1:02:15
Speaker 1: points two want to take your shoes off and sit
1:02:18
Speaker 1: down and have a beer.
1:02:21
Speaker 3: What excites you right now? Bet?
1:02:25
Speaker 1: My puppy is my main sort of excitement in my
1:02:28
Speaker 1: life right now? Who has just added snoring, so I
1:02:32
Speaker 1: apologize around snoring his head off. I'm excited by what
1:02:41
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one could bring us in racing. I think
1:02:45
Speaker 1: that there's been a lot of people who've stayed very
1:02:48
Speaker 1: fit and very healthy throughout this past year and who
1:02:52
Speaker 1: are going to be jumping at the bit to go
1:02:54
Speaker 1: for it in some races if they happen next year.
1:02:57
Speaker 1: And I'm so I'm very excited to see what culminates
1:03:02
Speaker 1: on those finish lines in certain big races.
1:03:07
Speaker 2: I love that. Okay, And so we come to the
1:03:10
Speaker 2: final question. Right now, you have an opportunity to give
1:03:16
Speaker 2: yourself a piece of advice looking back perhaps on that
1:03:21
Speaker 2: trip to Naples, Florida, on the bes going through that
1:03:24
Speaker 2: huge hurdle moment in her life, feeling like she's struggling,
1:03:28
Speaker 2: feeling unhappy in her own body. You have an opportunity,
1:03:31
Speaker 2: looking back on that now to offer her a piece
1:03:34
Speaker 2: of advice in that hurdle moment.
1:03:35
Speaker 3: What do you tell her?
1:03:39
Speaker 1: Well, my main piece of advice that I've always sort
1:03:45
Speaker 1: of stayed true to saying that I would kind of
1:03:51
Speaker 1: tell a younger self, life is your adventure. It's not
1:03:56
Speaker 1: a movie. It's not a book, it's not an advert.
1:04:00
Speaker 1: It's something that you create and it's not necessarily always
1:04:04
Speaker 1: going to have happy parts. But you are the only
1:04:08
Speaker 1: person in control of how your story plays out, So
1:04:13
Speaker 1: why don't you make it the most epic adventure you
1:04:15
Speaker 1: possibly can?
1:04:16
Speaker 2: Beautiful Banks, Let me know, how do the hurdlers keep
1:04:21
Speaker 2: up with you? How do we follow along with you?
1:04:23
Speaker 2: Give me all of the details.
1:04:25
Speaker 1: Well, you can find me on Instagram. It's at best gentry,
1:04:28
Speaker 1: super simple, or you can hop on to Peloton through
1:04:32
Speaker 1: the app, or if you have a piece of hardware,
1:04:34
Speaker 1: you can find me on Peloton in running classes, in
1:04:38
Speaker 1: strength classes, in stretching classes, and when the studio opens
1:04:45
Speaker 1: in the future, I hope to see people in real
1:04:49
Speaker 1: life running as well.
1:04:51
Speaker 2: I ar Elle, thank you so much for your time today.
1:04:54
Speaker 2: I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.
1:04:56
Speaker 1: Thank you for your time. It's been amazing to talk
1:04:59
Speaker 1: to you, and I hope that we can get some
1:05:02
Speaker 1: mild in together in the future.
1:05:04
Speaker 3: Amen.
1:05:06
Speaker 2: Amen, I'm over at Emily a Body and at Hurdle
1:05:09
Speaker 2: Podcast Another Hurdle Conquered.
1:05:12
Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time.