Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / [SOLO] 377. The 2025 Chicago Marathon Recap: Embracing The Power Of The Pivot & Chasing My Moonshot

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[SOLO] 377. The 2025 Chicago Marathon Recap: Embracing The Power Of The Pivot & Chasing My Moonshot · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

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Speaker 1: It is so wild to me that the woman who
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Speaker 1: when she started running couldn't run a single mile in
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Speaker 1: under fourteen minutes stood on that starting line on Sunday
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Speaker 1: and believed wholeheartedly and knew that she was entirely capable
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Speaker 1: of running twenty six point two at a seven forty
0:21
Speaker 1: nine piece.
0:35
Speaker 2: What's going on? Emily?
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Speaker 1: Here? You are listening to episode three hundred and seventy
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Speaker 1: seven of Hurdle a while on this focus podcast where
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Speaker 1: I talk to inspirational people about everything from their highest
0:46
Speaker 1: ties and toughest moments to essential tips on how to
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Speaker 1: live a happier, healthier, more motivated life. We all go
0:54
Speaker 1: through our fair share of hurdles, Michael, through these discussions
0:58
Speaker 1: is to empower you to better no gate yours and
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Speaker 1: move with intention so that you can stride towards your
1:04
Speaker 1: own big potential and of course have some fun along
1:09
Speaker 1: the way. She's fresh off of her fifteenth marathon, sitting
1:15
Speaker 1: back at the desk. I know last week I was like,
1:17
Speaker 1: Hurdle's going to come out on Tuesdays, This is so exciting.
1:20
Speaker 2: But I got back on a Tuesday and I knew I.
1:23
Speaker 1: Wanted to lead with this episode for the week so
1:25
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning episode, it is HI, Hello. It feels good
1:30
Speaker 1: to be sitting right now. It feels good to be home.
1:33
Speaker 1: And like I said on Sunday, I ran the Chicago
1:36
Speaker 1: Marathon for the second time, and it was my fifteenth marathon,
1:42
Speaker 1: and I feel so proud of myself for so many
1:46
Speaker 1: reasons which we will certainly discuss today. I am geeked
1:52
Speaker 1: on the accomplishment, the day itself, and the vibe surrounding
1:58
Speaker 1: the day so high, so special to be able to
2:02
Speaker 1: do something that brings me so much joy, that thing
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Speaker 1: being running, and integrate it in my day to day
2:12
Speaker 1: with so many people that I care about and that
2:14
Speaker 1: I love.
2:15
Speaker 2: To be in Chicago, so far from home, but feel.
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Speaker 1: So surrounded and inundated with community and positivity. That is,
2:26
Speaker 1: I mean, it's priceless, and it's something that if I
2:31
Speaker 1: could tell my younger self this, I certainly would.
2:36
Speaker 2: Don't do it on your own for this long. I mean.
2:40
Speaker 1: I didn't start running with other people regularly until twenty eighteen,
2:45
Speaker 1: and I started running in two thousand and eight. For
2:48
Speaker 1: the first ten years of that journey, I was.
2:52
Speaker 2: Scared to run with other people.
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Speaker 1: I was intimidated and worried that I wasn't good enough,
2:57
Speaker 1: and what opening myself up to that has done for me.
3:03
Speaker 1: The opportunity to not only meet new people, but benefit
3:07
Speaker 1: from a performance point of view, and also really just
3:12
Speaker 1: soak in so much goodness that happens when you are moving, sweating,
3:17
Speaker 1: doing hard things with others.
3:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's unrivaled. And so I digress today.
3:24
Speaker 1: The recap that you have been after I for those
3:29
Speaker 1: of you that may be a newer hurdlers, I typically
3:32
Speaker 1: record these as much as possible in a stream of consciousness.
3:37
Speaker 1: I like to give you my honest feedback on the
3:39
Speaker 1: day and where my head is at. And trust me,
3:41
Speaker 1: my head is a little bit all over the place
3:43
Speaker 1: right now, So bear with me as this episode it
3:48
Speaker 1: might slightly go off the rails.
3:50
Speaker 2: We don't know.
3:51
Speaker 1: I often hear that Chicago twenty nineteen's recap was a
3:54
Speaker 1: big entry point for a lot of people that might
3:56
Speaker 1: be still listening to the show. So if you are
3:59
Speaker 1: one of those people, I want you to know that
4:01
Speaker 1: I appreciate you for hanging with me, for motivating me to.
4:04
Speaker 2: Keep showing up.
4:05
Speaker 1: I will say that I mean, I feel like I'm
4:09
Speaker 1: always all over the place. I've just been dealing with
4:11
Speaker 1: so much offline. I will talk about.
4:14
Speaker 2: That a bit in today's conversation, but dealing with so.
4:17
Speaker 1: Much offline, and I felt so uplifted by so many
4:22
Speaker 1: of you that I ran into in Chicago who stopped
4:25
Speaker 1: me to say hello. And I want you to always
4:27
Speaker 1: do that. I want you to always come up and
4:29
Speaker 1: introduce yourself to me. And it just reminds me that
4:33
Speaker 1: there are a lot of you listening to this on
4:34
Speaker 1: the other side of this microphone. And as much as
4:38
Speaker 1: it is me in the studio creating this content and
4:44
Speaker 1: often feels like I'm throwing it into the void, I
4:47
Speaker 1: know you're there. You're there, and I'm here, and we're
4:49
Speaker 1: doing this together. And for that, I am so so grateful.
4:53
Speaker 1: I'm not going to get into too many of the
4:54
Speaker 1: teasing details, but I do feel like highlight worthy before
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Speaker 1: we get into it. I ran a three thirty fifty
5:00
Speaker 1: two on Sunday. I did not hit my AB or
5:04
Speaker 1: C goal, and saying that out loud feels really vulnerable.
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Speaker 1: But I have so much gratitude and appreciation and like,
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Speaker 1: I'm so fond of what happened this weekend for a
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Speaker 1: number of reasons, and I refuse to let not hitting
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Speaker 1: a certain time goal be the reason that I don't
5:24
Speaker 1: reflect fondly on the last sixteen weeks. And so with that,
5:29
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get into it. Make sure you're following along
5:31
Speaker 1: on social Over at Hurdle podcast. I'm over at Emily
5:34
Speaker 1: a body. Let's get it's a hurdling, all right, Let's
5:46
Speaker 1: get into it, Chicago, twenty twenty five. So for some
5:52
Speaker 1: foundational context, I started running in two thousand and eight.
5:55
Speaker 1: When I began running, I started doing it under the
6:00
Speaker 1: assumption that I would never be quote unquote good at it,
6:03
Speaker 1: and at the time that wasn't even something that I
6:06
Speaker 1: cared to be. When I started running, I did so
6:11
Speaker 1: because I wanted to lose weight. I've talked about my
6:15
Speaker 1: weight loss a number of times on the show, but
6:18
Speaker 1: I lost a dramatic amount of weight around seventy pounds
6:20
Speaker 1: in college, and running was a big part of that.
6:24
Speaker 1: I put myself out there to do this thing because
6:27
Speaker 1: I was working at an overnight camp and didn't have
6:29
Speaker 1: access to what's commonly referred to as a big box gym.
6:33
Speaker 1: And so when I previously was going to a Planet
6:38
Speaker 1: Fitness and walking on an elliptical for forty five minutes
6:41
Speaker 1: to an hour multiple times a week.
6:43
Speaker 2: That wasn't available to me anymore.
6:45
Speaker 1: I made the decision to start running, and I ran
6:47
Speaker 1: every day after lunch during our rest period we would
6:52
Speaker 1: call it.
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Speaker 2: And I found out.
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Speaker 1: That summer that not only could I run, that I
6:58
Speaker 1: could do it and I might even start to enjoy it.
7:01
Speaker 2: And that felt really magical.
7:05
Speaker 1: And so this activity that I started doing wearing Haynes,
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Speaker 1: white V necks and cotton leggings from Target and shoes
7:16
Speaker 1: that were definitely too small for me. Now fast forward,
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Speaker 1: I mean this is almost twenty years later. I am
7:24
Speaker 1: a completely different person because I decided to lease up
7:27
Speaker 1: my sneakers that summer in two thousand and eight, and
7:30
Speaker 1: I am so grateful for it. When I say that
7:34
Speaker 1: I never aspired to be good at running, I also
7:37
Speaker 1: did not expect that it would become such a cornerstone
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Speaker 1: of my life. Running has taught me so many things.
7:47
Speaker 1: Among those things the beauty of believing in yourself and
7:52
Speaker 1: working hard for something that you want, and the diligence
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Speaker 1: that goes into a training plan, and that I can
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Speaker 1: do hard things at the end of the day, and
8:03
Speaker 1: there is nothing that a finish or not hitting a
8:09
Speaker 1: certain goal can take away from the beauty that is
8:15
Speaker 1: all of those lessons for me, and I know that
8:19
Speaker 1: hard stop. This was, as I said in the intro,
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Speaker 1: my fifteenth marathon, and if you have listened to that
8:29
Speaker 1: Chicago marathon recap from twenty nineteen and twenty nineteen for context,
8:32
Speaker 1: a lot of context here.
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Speaker 2: I had the craziest day. It felt.
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Speaker 1: The marathon almost felt easy, which is never something that
8:43
Speaker 1: I would expect. I cannot pinpoint looking back on that day.
8:48
Speaker 1: I mean, it's been a second now, but any one
8:51
Speaker 1: thing that I did going into it, like in the
8:54
Speaker 1: days leading up to the marathon, that made that feel
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Speaker 1: so good. And knowing what I know now, it's almost
9:04
Speaker 1: so funny because there are things that I consciously do
9:08
Speaker 1: now to protect my energy that I like, I didn't
9:10
Speaker 1: even have those tools in the toolbox back in twenty nineteen,
9:13
Speaker 1: so to show up in twenty nineteen, and I showed
9:17
Speaker 1: up that day and I had this race goal of
9:19
Speaker 1: a three point forty, which would have been something like
9:21
Speaker 1: a twelve minute PR and that goal felt so exciting
9:25
Speaker 1: and scary, and I remember sharing that goal on social
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Speaker 1: media and being like, oh my god, I can't believe
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Speaker 1: that I just put this into the world and not
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Speaker 1: only did I surpass my goal, but I ran a
9:38
Speaker 1: three twenty eight and qualified for Boston, and that was it.
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Speaker 1: Just I'm smiling thinking of it. It was such a gift.
9:46
Speaker 1: It was such a special day for me. And yes,
9:50
Speaker 1: the time is something that I'm proud of, But what
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Speaker 1: really was just so special about that day is I
9:56
Speaker 1: stopped believing that day that I was a certain kind
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Speaker 1: of per I for so long in my running journey
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Speaker 1: didn't aspire to run any certain pace at all.
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Speaker 2: I believed that I was slow.
10:09
Speaker 1: I do want to disclaim this, As I mentioned times
10:13
Speaker 1: and paces and whatnot throughout this conversation, running a certain
10:17
Speaker 1: pace doesn't make one person better than another person. If
10:21
Speaker 1: you have a body, you're an athlete. If you go
10:24
Speaker 1: for a run, whether or not there is walking involved,
10:27
Speaker 1: you are a runner.
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Speaker 2: Period.
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Speaker 1: I when I started my running journey didn't have an
10:33
Speaker 1: aspiration to run any certain pace. All I wanted to
10:37
Speaker 1: do was run, and then, like I said, I wanted
10:39
Speaker 1: to lose weight. And it was continuously rewarding as I
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Speaker 1: did it. More that I became quote unquote better at it.
10:50
Speaker 1: I became someone who was cognizant of my pace was
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Speaker 1: understanding that there could be more out there for me
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Speaker 1: within this sport and that I could have the opportunity
11:02
Speaker 1: to test the boundaries of my potential and that excited me.
11:05
Speaker 1: But if that's not something that excites you, then, just
11:09
Speaker 1: like with any goal, it's not something that you should chase.
11:13
Speaker 1: Like the journey is the destination and gosh, I am sure.
11:16
Speaker 1: I will talk about that in a bit as well,
11:20
Speaker 1: so as we continue to set the scene here online
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Speaker 1: and offline. If you follow me on the socials, you
11:29
Speaker 1: saw that I went to Japan recently. That's quite a
11:32
Speaker 1: large trip to take when you are training for a marathon.
11:37
Speaker 1: I am also not the kind of person that's going
11:39
Speaker 1: to not properly train for the marathon. And I think
11:42
Speaker 1: that's a really interesting discussion that's happening quite regularly now.
11:46
Speaker 1: There are so many people that are bringing attention to
11:49
Speaker 1: the sport in maybe ways that are a bit controversial.
11:52
Speaker 1: I don't think that it's responsible to preach that others
11:58
Speaker 1: should make similarly bad. If you want to run a
12:01
Speaker 1: marathon without training, that is entirely your prerogative. But I
12:06
Speaker 1: do believe that by sharing stories of running marathons without training.
12:10
Speaker 1: We're almost like encouraging dangerous behavior. Okay, I'll get off
12:14
Speaker 1: of my soapbox. Now, I am not young. I mean
12:19
Speaker 1: I'm not old, but I'm thirty seven. I started running
12:21
Speaker 1: almost twenty years ago, like I said, and I know
12:24
Speaker 1: that I need to train in a certain way if
12:26
Speaker 1: I want to stave off and avoid injury.
12:30
Speaker 2: And so despite the travel.
12:32
Speaker 1: That I had on deck and what I did, I
12:39
Speaker 1: knew that I would make the time to follow and
12:42
Speaker 1: stick with the plan while I was away from home,
12:46
Speaker 1: which meant two very long runs in very warm weather.
12:50
Speaker 1: I also knew that going to the other side of
12:53
Speaker 1: the world would bring with it some implications of difficulty
12:58
Speaker 1: with sleep.
13:00
Speaker 2: I was dealing with some just like.
13:03
Speaker 1: Personal health stuff over the last couple of months, which
13:06
Speaker 1: also felt really challenging. And so between the travel and
13:11
Speaker 1: the health stuff, I just needed to when I got
13:16
Speaker 1: home have a bit of grace with myself. I got
13:20
Speaker 1: home about three weeks before Chicago, and for the first
13:27
Speaker 1: two weeks.
13:28
Speaker 2: I was sleeping.
13:29
Speaker 1: I'm not even exaggerating at least nine hours a night,
13:32
Speaker 1: but I didn't feel really strong at all in my body.
13:37
Speaker 1: I felt like I was out of rhythm, running felt
13:42
Speaker 1: really hard again. It just wasn't clicking in a way
13:47
Speaker 1: that you hope that it could click in the last
13:50
Speaker 1: few weeks workouts, etc.
13:53
Speaker 2: Before you get to a marathon. And so.
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Speaker 1: By saying all of this, I'm really just at the table,
14:00
Speaker 1: and I'm also recognizing and acknowledging that I made decisions
14:07
Speaker 1: that I needed to make and took opportunities that I
14:10
Speaker 1: wanted to take. I wanted to be able to do
14:14
Speaker 1: it all. I am not an elite athlete, and so
14:19
Speaker 1: in order for me to live my life and do
14:24
Speaker 1: what I want to do, there are going to be
14:26
Speaker 1: times where one thing's got to give. And for me
14:29
Speaker 1: during this training cycle, despite committing to doing all of
14:32
Speaker 1: the work to the best of my ability and having
14:34
Speaker 1: grace when I could, I did make the choice to
14:39
Speaker 1: really prioritize work a little bit more, and I maybe
14:44
Speaker 1: faced some repercussions from that.
14:47
Speaker 2: Maybe, but I don't even know. I don't even know.
14:50
Speaker 1: Anyway, I know that the training cycle for me was
14:54
Speaker 1: about so much more than the finish line. This has
14:57
Speaker 1: been such a season of effort, as I to call it,
15:00
Speaker 1: from traveling and trying new things and working incredibly hard
15:05
Speaker 1: I still had like the dedication and the early mornings
15:08
Speaker 1: and the commitment to show up for those long runs,
15:10
Speaker 1: and that commitment didn't just disappear because I didn't get
15:14
Speaker 1: what I wanted. So I am so grateful for what
15:18
Speaker 1: running instills in me so that I can keep showing
15:20
Speaker 1: up and I can keep doing hard things in all
15:22
Speaker 1: areas of my life. I'm trying to think about what
15:25
Speaker 1: else I need to do to set the table for
15:27
Speaker 1: the weekend. I did feel really good, I said those
15:31
Speaker 1: two weeks after Japan, we're a little rough. In that
15:34
Speaker 1: last week week and a half leading up to the marathon,
15:37
Speaker 1: I felt really good.
15:38
Speaker 2: I feel really strong.
15:41
Speaker 1: I've been on this strength training journey, and I do
15:44
Speaker 1: think that maybe let's talk a little bit about that now.
15:47
Speaker 1: It has been really interesting for me. I was at
15:53
Speaker 1: this very different place about I mean about a year ago.
15:58
Speaker 1: Like probably the leanest and the strongest that I felt
16:01
Speaker 1: in a really long time was around the end of
16:04
Speaker 1: last year beginning of this year, and my body is
16:10
Speaker 1: just like so different when I changed my goals, and
16:14
Speaker 1: that's okay. I am so happy that I made the
16:16
Speaker 1: shifts required to go after what excited me. However, I
16:20
Speaker 1: would be remiss if I didn't say, like, I don't want.
16:23
Speaker 2: To look at a carb for a second.
16:25
Speaker 1: I'm tired of carbo loading, and I'm really excited to
16:28
Speaker 1: feel strong in my body again and get back to
16:32
Speaker 1: lifting and also eat many vegetables the weekend. Okay, prep
16:36
Speaker 1: for the weekend. I checked a bag and brought and
16:40
Speaker 1: prepared everything far ahead of my flight so that I
16:46
Speaker 1: wouldn't be missing anything. So I made a list of
16:49
Speaker 1: everything I knew that I wanted to bring. I checked
16:51
Speaker 1: a bag so I could bring, like my Norma Tech
16:53
Speaker 1: boots and all of my other recovery tools.
16:56
Speaker 2: I got my.
16:59
Speaker 1: Singlet crossed from my run club, and I knew nothing
17:03
Speaker 1: new on race day and wore for the race Nike
17:07
Speaker 1: Alpha Flies, a.
17:09
Speaker 2: Pair of shorts from Target that I love.
17:11
Speaker 1: I know that we don't like to promote Target, but
17:14
Speaker 1: I have this really great pair of fun shorts that
17:16
Speaker 1: is just one of my go tos. It has four
17:19
Speaker 1: pockets and one of them has a zipper, which I
17:21
Speaker 1: think is really great. I wore a pocket sports bra
17:24
Speaker 1: that's also quite old from Nike. My run club singlet,
17:28
Speaker 1: a pair of Oakley sunglasses which have a funny story
17:32
Speaker 1: attached to them. I ordered them the week of the marathon.
17:36
Speaker 1: I tried them. A girlfriend had them, and I love
17:39
Speaker 1: the way that they looked, and they didn't get to
17:41
Speaker 1: me before I left. So what ended up happening is
17:43
Speaker 1: they arrived at my building. My door woman. We have
17:48
Speaker 1: a woman on our building doorman staff, and she helped
17:52
Speaker 1: me messenger them to a friend who is leaving for
17:55
Speaker 1: Chicago the next day. So shout out Victor for being
17:58
Speaker 1: the handoff there. But those sunglasses. I wore a Garmin
18:02
Speaker 1: four runner watch, and I think that's all you need
18:06
Speaker 1: to know. Oh also darn tough socks, but that was
18:10
Speaker 1: everything that I wore.
18:12
Speaker 2: I put my hair in a low braid.
18:14
Speaker 1: And before now I bring you into the race recap properly,
18:19
Speaker 1: let's talk about the build up. I tried to carblowd properly,
18:23
Speaker 1: probably for the first time in my life. And the
18:25
Speaker 1: way that this works is in the two to three
18:28
Speaker 1: days before the race, the goal is to gradually increase
18:32
Speaker 1: your carbohydrate intake. Okay, so you should be consuming ten
18:36
Speaker 1: to twelve grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight
18:42
Speaker 1: per day. So if I do that math, I'm looking
18:46
Speaker 1: at something like seven hundred ish grams of carbohydrates in
18:53
Speaker 1: a single day, which is that's a lot. That's a
18:55
Speaker 1: lot to take in. And so for me, I was
19:01
Speaker 1: doing things like I mean, I ate a ton, but
19:04
Speaker 1: I also drink two apple juices, which have a ton
19:07
Speaker 1: of carbs in it. The morning, I had a donut
19:10
Speaker 1: and a half a bagel. Then I had a burger
19:13
Speaker 1: for lunch with sweet potato fries. I had two apple juices.
19:19
Speaker 1: I was snacking on like gummies and pretzels throughout the day,
19:22
Speaker 1: and at night I ate a personal pizza like it
19:26
Speaker 1: was a lot of carbs. And we did what we
19:28
Speaker 1: had to do, and so that was part of the prep.
19:31
Speaker 1: I made sure I was like getting into my bed early.
19:34
Speaker 1: I got into bed the night before and two nights
19:37
Speaker 1: before at eight thirty. Okay, the build up to the race,
19:41
Speaker 1: the build up to the race. I my goal for
19:44
Speaker 1: this race was to run the race faster than I
19:47
Speaker 1: did in twenty nineteen. Like I said, I ran into
19:50
Speaker 1: three twenty eighth eight. It felt like a total miracle
19:53
Speaker 1: at the time, and since then, I have had so
19:56
Speaker 1: many conversations, I've learned so much, I've tested myself in
20:01
Speaker 1: so many different ways, and I was really confident that
20:05
Speaker 1: I could really go for this. Now. From a data POV,
20:13
Speaker 1: they often say that your projective marathon time is two
20:17
Speaker 1: times your half marathon time plus ten to fifteen minutes.
20:21
Speaker 1: So that means that I recently ran a one thirty
20:24
Speaker 1: nine half marathon and it was a very challenging hilly
20:28
Speaker 1: course in June. So I was on track to run
20:32
Speaker 1: around a three point thirty marathon, and knowing that that
20:35
Speaker 1: previous half was quite challenging, I felt very optimistic. In
20:41
Speaker 1: the weeks leading up to the race. I started to
20:44
Speaker 1: have it in my ear from some lovely friends of mine,
20:50
Speaker 1: I think you're three twenty five. I think you're at
20:52
Speaker 1: three twenty five. I'm so confident you can run three
20:55
Speaker 1: twenty five. And you know, for a while there, I
20:59
Speaker 1: kept saying, lightning doesn't strike twice, I'm not gonna be
21:02
Speaker 1: That's not what we're going for here. But then I
21:05
Speaker 1: had an important conversation that I talked about on Friday
21:08
Speaker 1: of last week in five Minute Friday, where my life
21:11
Speaker 1: coach said to me, isn't it just as likely that
21:13
Speaker 1: you could surprise yourself? Isn't it just as likely that
21:17
Speaker 1: it'll go better than you even envision and why are
21:20
Speaker 1: you the only person that is standing in your way
21:24
Speaker 1: with this? And oftentimes I can be such a rooted
21:29
Speaker 1: in reality, data focused, not open kind of person.
21:35
Speaker 2: And she said that to me, and I was like,
21:36
Speaker 2: why not me?
21:38
Speaker 1: And so I started to do what des Linden told
21:41
Speaker 1: me that she did years ago, with the understanding that
21:45
Speaker 1: does marathon is an elite marathoner and I am definitely not.
21:49
Speaker 2: But that is besides the point.
21:50
Speaker 1: Dez told me in an interview many times now that
21:54
Speaker 1: she started to live her life like she was the
21:57
Speaker 1: Boston Marathon champion. When she thought about how she would sleep,
22:00
Speaker 1: when she thought about how she would eat, when she
22:03
Speaker 1: thought about what she would do in the middle of
22:04
Speaker 1: her day or what snack she was going to have,
22:07
Speaker 1: she would literally ask herself the question, well, is this
22:09
Speaker 1: something a Boston Marathon champion would do? And so she
22:12
Speaker 1: took a lined action, which I talked about on the
22:16
Speaker 1: show from last week, to become that person. And so
22:21
Speaker 1: I decided on Wednesday of last week that I was
22:26
Speaker 1: all in that I was a three twenty five marathoner.
22:29
Speaker 1: The amount of times that I not only wrote that
22:32
Speaker 1: down but then started to ask myself the questions. I
22:36
Speaker 1: lost count and even at the expo, I have a
22:39
Speaker 1: picture of it.
22:39
Speaker 2: I took a picture of it.
22:40
Speaker 1: I wrote on this piece of paper like I am
22:43
Speaker 1: a three twenty five marathon her. And then when I
22:45
Speaker 1: went to get the Pacete bracelet, part of me wanted
22:49
Speaker 1: to reach for the three thirty and I said, absolutely not,
22:51
Speaker 1: I am a three twenty five marathon her, and so
22:54
Speaker 1: I picked up the three twenty five. Well, they actually
22:56
Speaker 1: have paste tattoos that you put on your forearm, and
23:00
Speaker 1: so I went with a three twenty five tattoo, and
23:03
Speaker 1: I fueled like a three twenty five marathoner and I
23:06
Speaker 1: was I was in. I decided that my race strategy
23:10
Speaker 1: was going to be to be a metronome. I in
23:13
Speaker 1: the past have been very good at sticking with one pace.
23:18
Speaker 1: I more than often, like more often than not, front
23:23
Speaker 1: load my races knowing that I am going to fade
23:25
Speaker 1: a little bit. That's what I did at both the
23:29
Speaker 1: Cherry Blossom and at after Dark. I ran the Nike
23:32
Speaker 1: La half in June, and that worked for me both
23:36
Speaker 1: of those times. So I decided to go out a
23:41
Speaker 1: little bit faster and I'm talking like seconds here, like
23:43
Speaker 1: a little faster than what the average pace for a
23:48
Speaker 1: three to twenty five marathoner would be, which is seven
23:51
Speaker 1: minutes and forty nine seconds, and I made the choice
23:54
Speaker 1: to run. We committed to doing the first half together
23:58
Speaker 1: with a girlfriend and who had the exact same goal
24:01
Speaker 1: as me, and so that was really nice to work
24:05
Speaker 1: together and to look for each other and navigate that
24:08
Speaker 1: first half together. It was even more fun to be
24:11
Speaker 1: with one another when we would see our friends at
24:13
Speaker 1: different places. I felt really inspired by her grit and
24:19
Speaker 1: it was good for us to check each other with
24:21
Speaker 1: the timing.
24:22
Speaker 2: Everything was pretty good. Now.
24:24
Speaker 1: There were definitely moments where we were moving a little hot,
24:27
Speaker 1: as the kids say, and so I think there are
24:29
Speaker 1: some miles in there where we like dip into like
24:32
Speaker 1: seven point thirty nine. But it felt really good, and
24:38
Speaker 1: I kept doing that thing that I did in twenty
24:40
Speaker 1: nineteen when I was like, close your eyes for a
24:43
Speaker 1: second and do a rate of Perceived exertion and RPE check,
24:47
Speaker 1: and every time I was like, you're.
24:50
Speaker 2: Okay, Like you've got this, You've got this.
24:52
Speaker 1: That's what I keep kept saying to myself, like if
24:54
Speaker 1: it was easy, everyone would do it. And that's honestly
24:57
Speaker 1: what became my mantra. Like, starting at fourteen or so,
25:04
Speaker 1: I started to feel the effort, and I said to myself,
25:10
Speaker 1: if it was easy, everyone would do it.
25:12
Speaker 2: That's what I kept saying. And so.
25:17
Speaker 1: At my favorite part of the race is, without a doubt,
25:20
Speaker 1: right after the halfway point, there's a bridge there. It's
25:23
Speaker 1: right after twenty k and or right so the bridge
25:26
Speaker 1: would be right before the half point. Technically right after
25:29
Speaker 1: twenty k there's a bridge, and so many of my
25:32
Speaker 1: friends are on the bridge, all of like my friends
25:34
Speaker 1: that are photographers, many of them are on the bridge.
25:37
Speaker 1: At the end of the bridge is my girlfriend that's
25:38
Speaker 1: going to like hand me an element bottle. And then
25:41
Speaker 1: I hang right off the bridge and there's more friends
25:44
Speaker 1: and more cheering, and like the energy is just electric there.
25:47
Speaker 1: And so I'm still like riding this high from god
25:52
Speaker 1: thirteen to seventeen. For context on the day, also the
25:58
Speaker 1: forecast I think for or this day, the high was
26:01
Speaker 1: like sixty six and it was brilliant sun and going
26:05
Speaker 1: into it that made me a little nervous because I
26:07
Speaker 1: run quite warm, and they say that you have to
26:11
Speaker 1: anticipate it feeling fifteen degrees warmer than it is. So
26:15
Speaker 1: that means if the high is sixty six or sixty eight,
26:18
Speaker 1: then we're talking that the real feel is above eighty degrees,
26:22
Speaker 1: which when you're out there for three and a half hours,
26:24
Speaker 1: that can be a little tricky. So after thirteen I'm hyped.
26:30
Speaker 1: I go from like a seven fifty mile right on
26:33
Speaker 1: pace to a seven thirty six. Then I go back
26:35
Speaker 1: and bump it up a bit seven forty six, seven
26:38
Speaker 1: fifty two, seven fifty three, And at eighteen that's when
26:43
Speaker 1: I start to feel like, holy wow, it is warm
26:46
Speaker 1: out and I'm warm, and I'm telling myself, I can
26:51
Speaker 1: do this. I can do this. It is it can
26:54
Speaker 1: be two things at once. It can be warm and
26:56
Speaker 1: I am capable of running in the heat. And I
27:00
Speaker 1: started to think about so many of these conversations that
27:03
Speaker 1: I've had with these stellar humans, and they're talking about
27:07
Speaker 1: their best performances and the point in their life when
27:11
Speaker 1: they realized that they were able to think of pain
27:16
Speaker 1: as a mindset and not as a physical state, and
27:19
Speaker 1: also push through it to a place that I mean,
27:23
Speaker 1: it's definitely not advisable for the everyday person, but I
27:26
Speaker 1: remember Jesse Diggins, the cross country skier. She told me
27:29
Speaker 1: that she learned from a young age in her career
27:33
Speaker 1: that she was capable of quote unquote blacking out and performing.
27:40
Speaker 2: So I'm like, if Jesse Diggins can do it, I
27:41
Speaker 2: can do it.
27:42
Speaker 1: And then I stay in this place where I keep
27:45
Speaker 1: saying to myself, pain is a mindset.
27:48
Speaker 2: Pain is a mindset. Pains a mindset.
27:50
Speaker 1: Running like that, my pace is for the next three
27:53
Speaker 1: miles eight oh five, eight oh six, eight oh nine,
27:56
Speaker 1: eight eleven, I'm like, Okay, it's slipping a little bit,
27:57
Speaker 1: but like, just keep telling yourself.
27:59
Speaker 2: Pain is a mind I get to mile twenty two.
28:03
Speaker 1: And the realist kicks in for me, and I am like,
28:09
Speaker 1: if I am if I continue like this, and I
28:11
Speaker 1: try to push through this pain as a mindset moment,
28:15
Speaker 1: and I'm so warm and the sun is beating down
28:18
Speaker 1: on me, and yes, like my legs are definitely starting
28:21
Speaker 1: to feel heavy. I just kept thinking, like what if
28:24
Speaker 1: you go down? And this is where I do think
28:28
Speaker 1: a little bit. The gremlin got to me. A girlfriend
28:32
Speaker 1: that was tracking me from Connecticut. Hey, Rach She called me,
28:36
Speaker 1: and I just start like bawling and I answer it
28:39
Speaker 1: like I feel the vibration on my wrist and I
28:43
Speaker 1: wore the Bow's open ear headphones, so I can't tell
28:47
Speaker 1: the headphones to pick up the call. So I consciously
28:49
Speaker 1: pick up my phone from my pocket and click answer,
28:52
Speaker 1: and I can't hear her, but I just start bawling.
28:54
Speaker 1: And I know that she knows that I am in
28:56
Speaker 1: the pain Cave because she's watching the graph like Dip
28:59
Speaker 1: at home. She's calling to like inspire me, and I'm like,
29:02
Speaker 1: I'm okay, and I just like kept repeating that, like
29:04
Speaker 1: I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay. And then when I
29:07
Speaker 1: ran the Nike After Dark Half, I was with my
29:10
Speaker 1: girlfriend Steph, who's literally like a month from giving birth
29:13
Speaker 1: right now. She was pregnant when we ran the half,
29:15
Speaker 1: and she is so speedy and so motivating. And a
29:19
Speaker 1: mile later after I got off the phone with Rachel,
29:21
Speaker 1: I was like, I need to talk to stuff. So
29:23
Speaker 1: I like, I'm running, but mind you, like, I'm still
29:26
Speaker 1: clicking away here, I'm still forward as a pace, and
29:28
Speaker 1: I call stuff. I can't even hear stuff, but I'm
29:30
Speaker 1: like Steph telling me something good, like I'm not well,
29:34
Speaker 1: I'm okay, I'm okay. So what happens ultimately is that
29:40
Speaker 1: slips a little bit more, and I go eight thirty three,
29:44
Speaker 1: eight thirty nine, eight fifty five, and then at mile
29:47
Speaker 1: twenty four I go back to you get to pains
29:51
Speaker 1: a mindset for a second there in those two miles
29:54
Speaker 1: where I'm so hot and I am overheating and it
29:56
Speaker 1: is like really starting to get to me. I go
29:59
Speaker 1: into this victim mindset for a second after I pushed
30:03
Speaker 1: so hard to hold on and I just knew it.
30:07
Speaker 1: I didn't come that far to only come that far.
30:09
Speaker 1: And it sounds cheesy, but I've been saying it for
30:11
Speaker 1: a while and I'm not going to stop saying it.
30:13
Speaker 1: I was going to get to that finish and I
30:15
Speaker 1: wanted it to be something that I could be proud of.
30:18
Speaker 1: And so basically what happened is I looked down at
30:20
Speaker 1: my watch and I was at like the forty sixth
30:23
Speaker 1: second of the minute, and I walked for fourteen seconds,
30:27
Speaker 1: and I said, in fourteen seconds, it's go time. And
30:31
Speaker 1: so I pulled over to the side, and it happened
30:33
Speaker 1: to be like on this little small uphill. The marathon
30:36
Speaker 1: is completely flat basically except for a couple of very
30:40
Speaker 1: very small.
30:41
Speaker 2: Hills, and.
30:44
Speaker 1: I took my time and then I went, and my
30:49
Speaker 1: paces went down again. I went eight twenty six, eight
30:52
Speaker 1: oh five, last half mile seven forty eight, and I
30:56
Speaker 1: am so proud of that. I kicked so hard, it
31:01
Speaker 1: felt so hard, so hard, and I finished, and I
31:09
Speaker 1: was so happy that I finished, and so proud of myself,
31:16
Speaker 1: and I was a container for both. I have so
31:21
Speaker 1: much pride, and I was also a little disappointed the
31:29
Speaker 1: day before I put out into the world on zocial
31:33
Speaker 1: that I was going to run this marathon faster six
31:36
Speaker 1: years later than I did in twenty nineteen. I firmly
31:40
Speaker 1: believed it, but there is there are things that are
31:50
Speaker 1: beyond my control, and I truly feel like I did
31:53
Speaker 1: the best I could with what I had. I have
31:56
Speaker 1: so much pride for how I handled those really difficult miles,
32:01
Speaker 1: the mental gymnastics it took to keep my body moving
32:04
Speaker 1: when I was breaking down. And I know that that
32:10
Speaker 1: tenacity and that grit and that determination that is so
32:14
Speaker 1: much more important and far bigger than the two minutes
32:19
Speaker 1: that I missed on the clock. And so I am
32:23
Speaker 1: in this place where I'm dealing with this duality, where
32:27
Speaker 1: I understand that it was a race of both, and
32:30
Speaker 1: I know that that's like a really important and beautiful
32:34
Speaker 1: metaphor for life, and going back to the strong finish,
32:37
Speaker 1: like what a gift. The hard finish is a gift.
32:42
Speaker 1: I was running so well, right on track, on for
32:46
Speaker 1: my goal, and when the heat hit and the wheels
32:50
Speaker 1: started to fall off, my biggest win wasn't the pace
32:54
Speaker 1: that I was running earlier. It was the ability to
32:57
Speaker 1: dig deep and run a fast final couple of miles
33:00
Speaker 1: after the damage was done. That comeback is what I
33:05
Speaker 1: take with me. That comeback shows me what I am
33:09
Speaker 1: truly capable of when things get tough. I laugh when
33:14
Speaker 1: I think about the things that I was saying to myself,
33:17
Speaker 1: comparing you know, the lessons and the beautiful takeaways that
33:20
Speaker 1: I've had from my conversations with so many elite athletes,
33:23
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I am not an elite athlete. I'm
33:27
Speaker 1: not an elite athlete. It's okay. I don't want to
33:29
Speaker 1: be one. I just want to push the boundaries of
33:32
Speaker 1: my own potential. And a friend said to me, when
33:36
Speaker 1: I was talking to him about you know how the
33:38
Speaker 1: heat got me, he ran as well. He said, you
33:41
Speaker 1: did it, and you inspired people along the way, and
33:44
Speaker 1: there's always so many more races, so lesson learned short memory,
33:51
Speaker 1: move on And I'm like, okay, all.
33:54
Speaker 2: Right, we move We move on.
33:55
Speaker 1: You know I can also if we want to talk
33:59
Speaker 1: about heat and adaptation, like I got really hot out there,
34:03
Speaker 1: and when my body told me no, my mind had
34:06
Speaker 1: to switch from pace goal to finish goal and that
34:08
Speaker 1: required a huge mental pivot in life, like the unexpected heat.
34:15
Speaker 1: You know, the setbacks, the hurdles, the surprises, that's what
34:18
Speaker 1: tests us. So the marathon is the ultimate lesson in
34:24
Speaker 1: adaptation and mental resilience. And I showed myself on Sunday.
34:28
Speaker 1: I reminded myself because I know this about me. I'm
34:32
Speaker 1: not going to quit when the plan fails or when
34:34
Speaker 1: things feel hard. That is not who I am. I
34:37
Speaker 1: am not a quitter. And I know why I do this.
34:42
Speaker 1: I do this because it is an opportunity to remember
34:44
Speaker 1: who the hell I am. And no matter what the
34:48
Speaker 1: outcome was, on Sunday, I got to experience that we
34:52
Speaker 1: all did. Whether you set the new American records like
34:57
Speaker 1: Connor Mans or you were the last person to across
35:00
Speaker 1: that finish line, there is so much beauty and grit
35:05
Speaker 1: and bravery and resilience, and there's just so much that
35:09
Speaker 1: goes into it, and that is why I love running,
35:13
Speaker 1: Like I feel as though for many people they hear
35:18
Speaker 1: things like this and if they don't run, then maybe
35:21
Speaker 1: you don't fully understand. But it's so much bigger than
35:26
Speaker 1: the act of running for me. And I'm not saying
35:31
Speaker 1: if you are like happily married or you have children,
35:33
Speaker 1: that you don't get to feel how.
35:35
Speaker 2: I feel about this.
35:36
Speaker 1: But running is just a reminder sometimes that I have
35:40
Speaker 1: value in a society that makes me feel like, because
35:43
Speaker 1: I am unwed and not a mother right now, that
35:45
Speaker 1: I'm doing something completely wrong and that's real, that's so real.
35:57
Speaker 1: It's just a reminder for myself, like as I like
35:59
Speaker 1: get my I act together and I just feel better
36:02
Speaker 1: in my body and I remind myself that I have
36:05
Speaker 1: value in worth exactly as I am, and that it's
36:14
Speaker 1: not something that I should have to go run a
36:16
Speaker 1: marathon to remind myself. But sometimes I do feel like
36:18
Speaker 1: these opportunities are just one big.
36:22
Speaker 2: Kick in the butt that you are so.
36:25
Speaker 1: Good, am and I am so good five minutes, two minutes, whatever,
36:31
Speaker 1: many minutes aside, I'm so good for showing up and
36:35
Speaker 1: doing it in the first place. I do want to
36:38
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the power of the pivot.
36:41
Speaker 1: Like I said, as it started to get hard, I
36:43
Speaker 1: really did have to adjust my goal and my mindset
36:46
Speaker 1: a bit mid race.
36:49
Speaker 2: And so.
36:51
Speaker 1: My big piece of advice from this marathon is that, yes,
36:55
Speaker 1: it's okay to be optimistic and step into that affirmed action,
36:59
Speaker 1: but in the moment of the pivot, it's so beautiful
37:02
Speaker 1: if you have the tenacity or maybe you can be
37:05
Speaker 1: brave enough to be brutally honest with yourself in the moment.
37:09
Speaker 2: So like around mile.
37:10
Speaker 1: Eighteen nineteen twenty, I had to stop trying to force
37:14
Speaker 1: this pace that I wanted and started running the pace
37:17
Speaker 1: that I could sustain to finish strong. If you're chasing
37:22
Speaker 1: a goal and the plan falls apart, you don't quit.
37:26
Speaker 1: You just got a pivot. You don't quit. I enunciate this,
37:31
Speaker 1: you just have to pitot. So going back to that
37:36
Speaker 1: place of both, I mean, that's still where I'm living in.
37:38
Speaker 1: I have so much to be proud of. I feel
37:43
Speaker 1: so solid, and I'm already kind of like what's next.
37:49
Speaker 1: So that's a question that's in my DMS right now.
37:51
Speaker 1: So I don't know what's next at the moment. I
37:54
Speaker 1: would like I will be at everyone's marathon in November.
37:58
Speaker 1: I'm going to be hosting and hanging out with the
37:59
Speaker 1: crew and Scottsdale. Part of me wouldn't mind running me
38:03
Speaker 1: after Dark half in London in November. I kind of
38:07
Speaker 1: have my eye on it. I'm thinking about it. I'm
38:09
Speaker 1: I'm about it with a girlfriend right now. I don't
38:13
Speaker 1: know what my next marathon will be. I don't have
38:16
Speaker 1: any desire firstpring marathon. I do really love the marathon distance,
38:20
Speaker 1: and I anticipate that I'll keep doing it, like I
38:23
Speaker 1: am not done with this yet, and not even from
38:25
Speaker 1: like I'm not done with this yet because I want
38:28
Speaker 1: like a certain goal or thing again.
38:29
Speaker 2: It's really about the journey for me and I enjoy
38:31
Speaker 2: it so much.
38:32
Speaker 1: But I believe that I could be talked into Sydney
38:37
Speaker 1: next year. I've never been to Australia and that could
38:40
Speaker 1: be a really fun thing for me. But no big
38:44
Speaker 1: goal race or thing on the radar right now, and
38:48
Speaker 1: I'm very much okay with that. But don't be surprised
38:51
Speaker 1: if you see me in London in November. I do
38:56
Speaker 1: want to go back to the socials because I did
38:58
Speaker 1: put up a questions box, and there's some that are
39:00
Speaker 1: still coming in and I wanted to answer them if
39:04
Speaker 1: I can.
39:05
Speaker 2: What was your fueling strategy for the race? Okay? Good one.
39:08
Speaker 1: I did a gel every five k ish and then
39:12
Speaker 1: just hydrated as much as possible. When I hit like
39:15
Speaker 1: that rough patch and got so hot at mile twenty,
39:19
Speaker 1: I decided that I or twenty two.
39:22
Speaker 2: I've lost all concept of what happened in this marathon.
39:26
Speaker 1: I had an Element packet in my pocket and I
39:29
Speaker 1: ripped it open and just like poured half of it
39:32
Speaker 1: into my mouth because I felt like I was like
39:34
Speaker 1: losing all the fluid in my body.
39:36
Speaker 2: I don't think that.
39:38
Speaker 1: I don't know what that did, but it felt good
39:40
Speaker 1: when I did it, So maybe testing salt packets is
39:43
Speaker 1: in my future. But I did drink two bottles of
39:46
Speaker 1: Element on the course in addition to the Gatorade. Basically
39:49
Speaker 1: at every single water station, someone asks me congrats on
39:56
Speaker 1: the race, curious what the hours after the race looked like.
39:58
Speaker 2: For your recovery. I remember once I asked does Lund
40:01
Speaker 2: in this?
40:01
Speaker 1: I think it was in our marathon prep episode last year,
40:04
Speaker 1: and she like totally went into like pr spokes mode
40:08
Speaker 1: and she said like.
40:09
Speaker 2: You know, if you can walk a little bit, or
40:12
Speaker 2: like get in an ice bath.
40:13
Speaker 1: And I looked at her like I stared at her
40:15
Speaker 1: blank and I was like, do you get in an
40:16
Speaker 1: ice bath after a marathon?
40:17
Speaker 2: She goes absolutely not. I'm like, okay, So I'm with
40:20
Speaker 2: Dez on this.
40:21
Speaker 1: I am more like, let's celebrate the accomplishment, but my
40:23
Speaker 1: recovery after it was more like about emotional recovery. I
40:27
Speaker 1: was inundated on my phone and I needed to just
40:29
Speaker 1: absorb what had happened. So I got back to my
40:33
Speaker 1: I biked back to my hotel because that was the
40:35
Speaker 1: easiest way to get around, and I took a shower
40:40
Speaker 1: and like took an hour and just had some me time,
40:43
Speaker 1: called my mom, processed a bit, and then went to
40:47
Speaker 1: go meet my run club at a bar where I
40:51
Speaker 1: had some sippies and some bites, and then I had
40:54
Speaker 1: the most lovely meal with three of my friends afterward
40:58
Speaker 1: at this little like French brasserie.
41:01
Speaker 2: I'm totally saying that wrong. Maybe I don't know a
41:05
Speaker 2: most wonderful meal there.
41:07
Speaker 1: And then I went back to my hotel and got
41:11
Speaker 1: my act together and then went to the three Run
41:14
Speaker 1: two that's a Run club in Chicago. They have a
41:16
Speaker 1: big after party every year, and so I went to
41:18
Speaker 1: their after party. But in the since the day of
41:20
Speaker 1: celebrations that we did the damn thing, I've used my
41:24
Speaker 1: Normatech boots more like downtime. I like laid in bed
41:28
Speaker 1: until ten am the day after the marathon, that is
41:31
Speaker 1: like very unlike me, but slowly moved in like walked
41:35
Speaker 1: around a bit to get in some movement and try
41:37
Speaker 1: to flush what's going on in my legs. I got
41:39
Speaker 1: a massage on Monday, lots of hydration and just commemorating
41:45
Speaker 1: it with good friends. I went to get my first
41:48
Speaker 1: slice of deep dish ever at Pea Quads, and then
41:51
Speaker 1: at night had a burger at Auschival, which was so good,
41:55
Speaker 1: so good, And I actually stayed in Chicago when NEXTRA day,
41:59
Speaker 1: which I don't tip it do after a marathon, and
42:01
Speaker 1: I think that was really good for me before flying.
42:05
Speaker 1: Other questions here, did you follow a group or go
42:09
Speaker 1: on it on your own? So, like I said, I
42:10
Speaker 1: ran with my friend. Her name's Amani. We tried to
42:13
Speaker 1: find a three twenty five group but like could not
42:15
Speaker 1: find a sign or get to a sign within our corral,
42:18
Speaker 1: and so when we went out, it really just became
42:20
Speaker 1: on us to keep each other honest with the pace
42:22
Speaker 1: that we are running. I think that could have helped
42:25
Speaker 1: me if we I believe we both agree on that.
42:28
Speaker 1: It could have been nice to be with the pace group,
42:30
Speaker 1: but I have never run with one before, and I
42:32
Speaker 1: was down for it to either be just her and
42:34
Speaker 1: I or with the pace group. And that's just kind
42:37
Speaker 1: of how it shook out. What did you think about
42:39
Speaker 1: when the going got tough? So, I mean I talked
42:41
Speaker 1: a lot about this, embracing the pivot, understanding that you
42:45
Speaker 1: might need to switch from a pace goal to a
42:46
Speaker 1: finished goal, really having a good ability to zoom out
42:50
Speaker 1: and think of this as a season of effort like
42:52
Speaker 1: I spoke about before, which I think is so important.
42:56
Speaker 1: I'm also really going back to those mantras that I
42:59
Speaker 1: would saying if it was if it was easy, everybody
43:01
Speaker 1: would do it, keep pushing and forward forward as possible.
43:08
Speaker 1: Like I just kept going to those in my head.
43:12
Speaker 1: Anything you do differently, Nah, I did the best I
43:15
Speaker 1: could with what I have. I'm proud of the training,
43:17
Speaker 1: I'm proud of the effort. I'm proud of all of it.
43:20
Speaker 1: I believe that the universe is conspiring in your favor
43:23
Speaker 1: at all times, and so sometimes that's a hard word
43:26
Speaker 1: pill to swallow when it doesn't go as you had hoped.
43:28
Speaker 1: But I know that I am better for what happened
43:31
Speaker 1: on Sunday, And often what I know to be true
43:35
Speaker 1: is that these difficult moments are bigger teachers than our
43:38
Speaker 1: highest ones, and so as beautiful as it could have
43:41
Speaker 1: been to get three twenty five or sub three twenty
43:43
Speaker 1: eight oh eight or sub three thirty the A, B,
43:45
Speaker 1: and C goals, I'm good.
43:48
Speaker 2: I really am good. I mean that whole wholeheartedly.
43:52
Speaker 1: Pre race dinner in Chicago, I had a personal pizza
43:55
Speaker 1: from my hotel. Will I be doing Sydney, I would
43:59
Speaker 1: love to. Let's talk talk about it. Running watch recommendations.
44:02
Speaker 1: I ran with a Garmin Forerunner. There's a new Apple
44:05
Speaker 1: Watch Ultra. While speaking, I've been doing this for too long.
44:08
Speaker 1: It's time for me to wrap this. There's a new
44:10
Speaker 1: Apple Watch Ultra that I'm very excited about. But I
44:12
Speaker 1: wear a Garmin Forerunner and my last watch was the
44:16
Speaker 1: Garman Epics, and I loved my Epics. Someone asks, what
44:22
Speaker 1: was your first marathon time? And how has your relationship
44:24
Speaker 1: with the times changed over the years, there have been
44:26
Speaker 1: times in my life.
44:27
Speaker 2: I will say this as well.
44:28
Speaker 1: I have not always been someone that's trying to run
44:32
Speaker 1: a faster time at every marathon. In fact, there was
44:35
Speaker 1: like a three year period where I was really struggling
44:37
Speaker 1: with planter fasciitis. If you've been here for a minute,
44:39
Speaker 1: if you know, you know, I have just wanted to
44:42
Speaker 1: finish marathons, and that has been the only goal, especially
44:45
Speaker 1: with a lot of the international marathons in Tokyo. Like
44:48
Speaker 1: I had never been to Japan. I was there strictly
44:50
Speaker 1: for vibes. Like strictly, I was out until like two
44:54
Speaker 1: or three in the morning three days before the marathon,
44:56
Speaker 1: and that.
44:56
Speaker 2: Was by choice.
44:58
Speaker 1: I was going there to like really embrace the entire experience,
45:02
Speaker 1: Whereas you know, I went into Chicago with a specific goal.
45:06
Speaker 2: So I think that.
45:09
Speaker 1: What's hard right now with the way that some folks
45:12
Speaker 1: talk is if it's not a pr then like it's
45:15
Speaker 1: not it's not enough or it's not good enough. Like
45:17
Speaker 1: you get to decide what this means to you, what
45:20
Speaker 1: it is that you want, and don't set your goals
45:22
Speaker 1: based on what other people make you feel like you
45:26
Speaker 1: should do. I'm sitting here saying that as like so
45:28
Speaker 1: many people told me the go three twenty five, I
45:30
Speaker 1: don't regret going for it. I don't regret going for
45:32
Speaker 1: the moonshot goal of anything, Like hell yeah, and how
45:36
Speaker 1: special is it? I keep coming back to this. This
45:38
Speaker 1: was like really hitting me the night before the marathon.
45:41
Speaker 1: It is insane to me that I had every reason
45:45
Speaker 1: to believe that I was capable of running twenty six
45:50
Speaker 1: point two miles at a seven forty nine piece Like
45:53
Speaker 1: that in itself is the biggest win. That is wild
45:57
Speaker 1: to me, as someone who when she started running not
46:00
Speaker 1: run a single mile faster than fifteen minutes. To show
46:04
Speaker 1: up on Sunday and have the tenacity and grit to
46:06
Speaker 1: say I can do twenty six point two of these
46:09
Speaker 1: miles at seven forty nine, that, in itself, I couldn't
46:16
Speaker 1: ask for anything more. Like, I am so proud of
46:20
Speaker 1: me for that. That is the essence of hard work.
46:23
Speaker 1: That is the essence of the opportunity cost that has
46:25
Speaker 1: gone in over years here to get.
46:30
Speaker 2: To this place. And I'm I'm just I'm really proud
46:32
Speaker 2: of that. I'm really really proud of that.
46:36
Speaker 1: Oh man, I think I've answered most of the questions here,
46:41
Speaker 1: and I've been yapping your ear off for a minute
46:44
Speaker 1: now to everyone near and far who supported me on
46:47
Speaker 1: this particular journey. I don't have the words to tell
46:50
Speaker 1: you how much it means to me, but yeah, so
46:53
Speaker 1: much love and support on the course and from the
46:55
Speaker 1: hurdle community. And I saw so many of you on
46:57
Speaker 1: the streets that came up to me, and I will
47:00
Speaker 1: say that, Uh, you know, someone said something to me
47:03
Speaker 1: really valuable this morning. He said, well, he asked, He said,
47:06
Speaker 1: do you ever do live events or stuff at moments
47:08
Speaker 1: like this, because he was with me when one of
47:10
Speaker 1: the girls came up to introduce herself and I was like, actually,
47:13
Speaker 1: like I usually do, but this weekend I didn't, and
47:16
Speaker 1: he like kind of challenged that. I said to him,
47:18
Speaker 1: like I wanted to conserve my energy, like there can
47:21
Speaker 1: be like a lot that goes into moments like this,
47:23
Speaker 1: and he said, but isn't there.
47:25
Speaker 2: A lot that you gain from it? And that is
47:28
Speaker 2: so true.
47:29
Speaker 1: And something I'm working on personally is really just getting
47:32
Speaker 1: to this place where like I allow and enable people
47:35
Speaker 1: to show up for me more. And so I do
47:37
Speaker 1: want to say genuinely like thank you to all of you,
47:40
Speaker 1: and I needed to hear what he had to say.
47:42
Speaker 1: I needed that reframe because I do know that I
47:45
Speaker 1: am better like with all of you.
47:48
Speaker 2: I am.
47:49
Speaker 1: It's so special to me and it fills up my
47:51
Speaker 1: cup and so to look at it as an energy
47:53
Speaker 1: drain when I know that it is an energy faucet.
47:56
Speaker 1: It's just like setting up the right set of circumstances
47:59
Speaker 1: so that it's good for all of us. So I
48:01
Speaker 1: promise you there's good stuff coming from New York. Do
48:04
Speaker 1: you not worry if you're coming to town. We're gonna
48:07
Speaker 1: We're gonna hang out. We're gonna have a good time.
48:09
Speaker 1: I don't know if I rambled enough in this episode,
48:11
Speaker 1: but it took you fifty two minutes to get here.
48:15
Speaker 1: So thank you, Chicago. You're wonderful. I'm happy to be home.
48:19
Speaker 1: Your girl is gonna Maybe I told myself I was
48:23
Speaker 1: gonna have any wine this week now that I'm back home,
48:26
Speaker 1: but maybe just one more glass of wine and have
48:30
Speaker 1: some salt bath and a little Netflix movie on my
48:33
Speaker 1: iPad and call it a day. Chicago, You're so special.
48:37
Speaker 1: Thanks for reminding me who the hell I am. And
48:39
Speaker 1: to all of you, just keep doing what you're doing.
48:42
Speaker 1: We all got goals to chase, things to do, and
48:45
Speaker 1: each other to support along the way. Another hurdle conquered.
48:49
Speaker 1: Catch you guys next time