Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 186. Emma Coburn, 3X Olympian & Pro Runner

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186. Emma Coburn, 3X Olympian & Pro Runner · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What can I control right now while I'm hurting terribly
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: in this workout or this race. I can control getting
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: through this rep. I can control, like my effort in
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: this rep is going to be solid and then I'll
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: tackle that next step. Or in bigger life things, it's
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: like what can I control now? And if I don't
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: have control of it, like find a way to exist
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: peacefully in it and preserve like some sanity and happiness through.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: That Season eight premiere? What is going on?
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: Everyone?
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: Emily A body here coming to you live from the
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: AG studio. You are listening to Hurdle, a whileless focused
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: podcast where I connect with everyone from your favorite athletes
• 0:57
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• 1:01
  Speaker 4: toughest moments, and everything in between. We all go through
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: hurdles in life, and my goal through these discussions is
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: to empower you to better navigate yours and move with
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: intention so that you can stride towards your own big
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: potential and of course have some fun along the way.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: All right, some fast facts about the show. If you
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: are new to Hurdle. First of all, welcome you are
• 1:24
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  Speaker 4: hundred and eighty six as of today numbered episodes in
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  Speaker 4: this feed, there are a total of I cannot believe
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  Speaker 4: I'm saying this, four hundred and seventeen in the collection.
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  Speaker 4: hurdle moments, and these are think of them as snackable
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• 2:01
  Speaker 4: will be greeted with a five minute Friday, which is
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: basically me reflecting on stuff that's going on in my
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: life and answering listener questions.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: A quick hit to take you into the weekend.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: As for me, Emily Body, I'm a thirty three year
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: old journalist and wellness expert bring you this content from
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: my Brooklyn studio. Born and raising Connecticut, I have lived
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: in New York for eleven years now. Crazy to me
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: that that's even the thing and relevant to the show.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: I went through a major weight loss transformation in college,
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: which you can hear all about as well as a
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: lot more on my backstory in episode one, which I
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: will link in the show notes. Through that journey, I
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: learned to love running, and I'm now a ten time
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: marathon or a UEESCA certified run coach, certified personal trainer,
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: and I also hold a Level one Precision Nutrition certification. Now,
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: while I am not actively using many of those certifications
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: in terms of working one on one with clients, I
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: do use all the education that I learned in getting
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: those SERTs to better inform my conversations with the experts
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: that I have here on the show.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: All Right, Okay, enough about me.
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: We are here for episode one eighty six, the season
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  Speaker 4: eight premiere, and.
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  Speaker 2: I am chatting with Emma Coburn.
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  Speaker 4: She is an Olympian, a world champion in the steeplechase,
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: and we had the chance to catch up when she
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: was in town recently over NYC Marathon weekend. In today's episode,
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: we talk about the fact she didn't truly love running
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: at first and what changed her attitude toward the sport.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: She also talks to me about the impact that team
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: has had on her life, and we unpack what it's
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: like to train with all of her best friends over
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: on Team Boss in Colorado, plus what it's like to
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: be married to your coach, and we get into a
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: lot of tough stuff as well. Now, despite being favorited
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: to come back home with a medal this year in
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: the Olympics, Emma came up short and we.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Talk about the why.
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: We kind of unpack that, and we talk about how
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  Speaker 4: she navigated the emotions of that, and there were certainly
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: many and on the topic of hard stuff and emotional things,
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: Emma talks to me about how her and her family
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: have been doing since her mom was diagnosed with cancer
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: in December twenty nineteen.
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  Speaker 2: Emma's a light.
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  Speaker 4: She's honestly a woman after my own heart, with her
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  Speaker 4: optimistic nobs attitude, making the conscious choice every day to
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: wake up and choose joy even when things feel hard,
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: and take ownership over her circumstance. I really really appreciate
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: that about her. Thanksam for opening up to me. I
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: know that you being open and honest with all of us,
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: all of the Hurdlers.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: It's going to help a lot of people.
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: Make sure you are following along with the show over
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: on social media. It's at Hurdle Podcast, So welcome on
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: to Nicole, who is now going to be helping me
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: over on that front, and I'm over on social as well.
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: I'm over at Emily a Body. We also have a
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: weekly Hurdle newsletter which I would love for you to
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: subscribe to.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: You can do that by clicking on over to.
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: The show notes. And if you have a question for me,
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: I am all ears. I would love to hear it.
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: You can ask it of me by again heading over
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: to the show notes and leaving me a voice message.
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: I could answer it in an upcoming episode. I can't
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: believe we're here. It's been a fun time a long time.
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: It feels like it's happened in a blink of an eye,
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: and that I've also been doing this forever, So thank
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: you all of you for encouraging me to show up,
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: to work hard, and to keep going. The last thing
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: I want to throw into the mix here, I am
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: hosting two goal setting workshops in December to talk about
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: your big hopes and dreams forear twenty twenty two and beyond.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: I would love to see you there for more details
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: on all of that. Again, you know where to find
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: it in the show notes. With that, let's get to
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: hurtling today, I am sitting down with Emma Coburn. She is,
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: Oh my god, I feel like she needs no introduction.
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  Speaker 4: An Olympian, an Olympic bronze medalist, champion steeplechaser.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: How you doing.
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  Speaker 1: I'm great, happy to be chatting in your very beautiful
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: podcast studio. It's like, I'm just like looking over your
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: shoulder out the window. It's so gorgeous, admiring the.
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: New York views here. Well, I couldn't be happier to
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  Speaker 4: have you here in person. And honestly, this is like,
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: this was the purpose of getting this space, and now
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: I'm finally being able to use it for what it
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: was intended for, to like have guests and interview IRL,
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: and I'm just like holding on to these moments.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: It's great. I'm very happy we're here together.
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  Speaker 4: I don't know if you will recall this, but I
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: had a laugh to myself because we were both in
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  Speaker 4: Chicago for the marathon and you were on a bike
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  Speaker 4: and I saw you go by me and I was
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  Speaker 4: just like, Emma, and then I was like, she has
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  Speaker 4: no clue who you are.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: I was in Chicago cheering for my teammate Emma Bates.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Another Emma and was riding around Chicago on an e
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  Speaker 1: by like a maniac. So I don't recall anything other
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: than cheering for her, and because yeah, I was just
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: a freak. I was breaking traffic laws, I was being
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  Speaker 1: reckless and just obsessed with the mission of cheering for
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  Speaker 1: my friends.
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  Speaker 3: So I don't remember that.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: But I don't remember much from the day other than
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  Speaker 1: just like being a maniac.
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  Speaker 4: I probably would have blacked out like in that moment
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: seeing how amazing her performance was as well, but I
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: was also just there to cheer that weekend, and I
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  Speaker 4: one hundred percent lost my voice.
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  Speaker 1: Cheering for marathons is so much fun, and it's more
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  Speaker 1: fun than running.
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  Speaker 3: Well I've never run one, but.
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  Speaker 1: I can only assume, but it's so great to just
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: see you witness someone's work for months and months and
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  Speaker 1: then to see it not sometimes it pays off and
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  Speaker 1: they do really great, but even if it's a bad
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: day for them, like just see their effort.
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  Speaker 3: It's so cool.
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  Speaker 1: And then I also love watching the people that are
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  Speaker 1: running four or five six hours out there just grinding
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  Speaker 1: for themselves, and that's so cool too.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: I was standing. We started.
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  Speaker 4: We started early on, Like I want to say, the
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: ten k and then we ended up moving to the
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  Speaker 4: forty k point. And if you want to see like
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: the entire range of human emotion, go stand at the
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: forty k of a marathon. I think that's like mile
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: twenty four and a half. We saw this one man
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  Speaker 4: just fall over and start crawling for like one hundred yards.
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  Speaker 4: He didn't want anybody's help, he just wanted to keep
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  Speaker 4: going forward.
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  Speaker 2: He was like.
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  Speaker 4: Completely broken and oh my god, just insanity.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Insanity.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. I watch those moments and I'm like, good for you.
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  Speaker 1: I see your effort. I applaud you, but I don't
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  Speaker 1: want that to be me, Like you're not making the
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  Speaker 1: marathon look fun.
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  Speaker 4: You're like, this is why I still haven't done. Yeah,
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  Speaker 4: do you ever think you'll do something like that?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, never say never, But it's not on my
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: bucket list of a thing that I am desperate to
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: have in my career. But you know, eventually I'll phase
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: out of the track and we'll see what happens after that,
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  Speaker 1: but for the foreseeable future, now staying on the track.
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: So I know that you didn't initially gravitate toward running
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  Speaker 4: at all, So talk to me about your experience from
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  Speaker 4: the get go.
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  Speaker 2: When it came to lacing up and getting out there.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I hated running.
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  Speaker 1: I only signed up for track because my siblings did,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: my older siblings and we had a role that you
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: just had to do sports year round, and so that
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: was the track was the only spring sport my school offered.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: So in middle school, my brother signed up, so my
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: sister signed up, and I signed up. And I didn't
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: love it. As we all know, running is hard, and
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: the combination of like the physical pain and like enduring
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: that for several minutes, it was hard. So I didn't
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: love that. And then also as I got better and
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: was winning races, I didn't love that pressure that I
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: was putting on myself and that expectation. And then transitioning
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: basically not until like the end of my junior year
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: of high school, I really still was terrified of it.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Like I cried on the starting line of the state
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: cross country meet my junior year because it was so
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: overwhelming the stress. And then in high school I met
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: my husband, Joe, who's my coach now, and he loved
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: running and he thought it was so cool and he
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: loved working hard and loved the opportunities that it would
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: give him and would just kind of call me out
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: when I was like overthinking it and be like, well,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: why did you get so stress? It's not a big deal, Like,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: it's just running. You do it every day and if
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: you don't do well, it's not a big deal. And
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: he really started like convincing me that running was cool
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: and that it's worth the pain and effort. And thank
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: god because then I ended up running in college and
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: you know, the rest is kind of history for me.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: But really didn't.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Love it at all, really didn't love it.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: I met a boy who thought it was cool and
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: I had a crush on him.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: So it, you know.
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: Worked out when you stuck with it when you were younger,
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: and like you were called crying on that starting line,
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: what was it that kept you going back to it
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: besides that you were good at it, Like there must
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: have been something that you enjoyed besides just winning races.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: When I was young, it truly was that I liked
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: winning races and that I had like made a promise
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: to my parents and my teammates that I would be
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: there and participate and show up, and so like, when
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: I give my word that I'm going to do something
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: that like matters like if we make a dinner plan
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: and then you cancel on me, I'm like, oh what
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: like that? That was our plan we we had, We
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: promised each other we would do that. And so just
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: the commitment I had to like the team and the
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: coaching and the my parents of like, this is what
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: you know. I'm on the track team, so I have
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: to go to practice every day. That was really why
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: I did it, but zero to do with my own
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: personal love of it. Yeah, And then as I got older,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: and especially once I got to college, I the summer
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: before college was the first time that I remember going
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: on runs and being happy and recognizing for the first time.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: Like, wow, this is actually like nice.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Going on a five mile run on a trail in
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Paradise in Colorado is like.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: Pretty cool and it's so beautiful and look what my
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: body can do.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: That was right before college that I first had those
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: moments of feeling really in my own space, happy on run.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: And then that grew and grew over time.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: But even when I was a freshman, I remember my
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: dad just said, okay, give it six months, and if
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: you hate running in college, like you can, You're okay,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: you can quit. We're all going to be okay with that.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: So even like going into college, I was like, okay,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: just give it six months, we'll see what happens. And luckily,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: you know, I love the team, I love the coaches,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I loved the competitive environment, and.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: I stuck with it.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I was late to the love of truly
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: you know, running in itself.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: I'll never forget.
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: I went to Nike Cross Nationals a few years ago,
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: and I wasn't really an athlete in high school myself.
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: I had dabbled in volleyball, but then wasn't fast enough
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: to make the volleyball team the second year, which in retrospect, like,
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: why are we deciding whether or not people can make
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: a volleyball team by running a mile on under ten minutes?
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: I'm unsure, But I wasn't super involved in sport. But
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: I remember when I went to Nike Cross Nationals, like
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: how beautiful it was to see the relationships literally just
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: solidified in sweat, these young women coming into their own
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: and really supporting one another. For you, did you make
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: good friends right off the bat in running? Because I know,
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: I mean not to skip forward too much, but right
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: now you have such a stellar squad surrounding you, so
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: many of these relationships that you've garnered through becoming a
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: runner and making it a part of your every day.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I have always been very reliant on the people around
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: me to create a good environment for happiness and success.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: So for most of my life that was, like my parents.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: I was really really shy as a kid, so didn't
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: like like making friends until I was, you know, probably
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: middle school.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: So like as a little kid, like.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: My parents were my people, and then my siblings and
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: my friends, my boyfriend and yeah, college teammates, and.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: Like whoever your tribe is.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: So that's so kind of overused as saying, but it's true,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: like whoever your tribe is really can change your life.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: And so I've always relied so heavily and been really
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: intentional about creating a group of people around me and
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: selecting the people that I choose to hang out with
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: who make me the best version of myself. So in
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: college cross country, I loved the team. I love both
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: the guys and the girls. We were super close. I
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: love that camaraderie you get when you're training for you know,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: across country race together and racing together, so that that
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: team environment, it makes the work and the hard stuff
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: about running so much easier. It's like you're sharing your
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: burden with everyone and you're you're in the painful, grinding
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: moments of a workout together and it's less lonely and
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: you don't feel sorry for yourself because everyone's doing it together.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: So yeah, team is super important and it's definitely a
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: big part of what keeps me constantly fueled.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: And happy in the sport.
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, those people, And I mean, what's that saying you're
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: a sum of the like eight people or whatnot that
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: you surround yourself with. It's interesting to me hearing that
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: you were shy when you were younger. I feel like
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: there are probably people listening to this right now that
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: definitely feel a bit introverted and may want to get
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: more involved in community or reach out to new friends,
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: especially via sport, and don't exactly know the right way
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: to go about it.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Do you have any advice.
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: For them on how to maybe step out of that
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: comfort zone a little bit?
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I definitely.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: My shyness went away because a boy I had a
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: crush on in fifth grade liked the class clown girl
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, he likes her, and she's
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: goofy and loud, Okay, I should be like that. And
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: then immediately I was like, wait, this is so much
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: more fun being social and having friends and not being
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: scared and also like realizing for the first time, like
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: no one cares what you do, as in like all
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: of the my shyness and insecurity and whatever it is
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: that makes you feel more intimidated by like reaching out
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: to people and being outgoing, like that's all just your
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: own stuff that you're seeing. No one cares everyone. If
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: you're happy and you're kind to people, like people will
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: give that back to you. So my transition to you know,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: from being not shy to outgoing was because I had
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: a crush on someone who was, you know, liked outgoing people.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: So I can't really give great advice in that regard,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: but I do think to your point is a great
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: unifier and joining a run club or you know, going
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: to a running store and talking to the people that
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: work there about like, oh, hey, like I'm just getting
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: into running, do you have any advice? And like making
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: connections in that space. I think that is where we
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: find a lot of common ground and a lot of
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: like a deep bond that you can form with people.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Going on a hard run with someone, you'll learn so
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: much more about them than like going to seven dinners.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: You know, like you really connect on a deeper level.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: So sport, I think is such a great way to
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: really get out of your shell a little bit.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: I feel like like three or four years ago, the
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: term like sweat working came to be, and it was
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: like everyone, especially I mean living here in New York.
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: It was like everyone started going to boutique fitness classes
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: for like work events. It was like, oh, instead of
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: going to happy hour, let's all go to a spin
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: class or let's all go to this hit studio. And
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: it was like really fun, and it still can be
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: very fun, but it got to be like exhaust a
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: lot of working out, a lot of working out, just
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: trying to like you know, because exactly you break down
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: that like comfort immediately when you're like put in this
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: like semi vulnerable position with somebody else, whether or not
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: you're chasing like your max potential, you're doing something that
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: definitely puts you in a different light than they probably
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: see you when you have the opportunity be like a
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: little bit more buttoned up.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: And running specifically really like breaks breaks those barriers down.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: It makes you very vulnerable. Like my teammates see me
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: at my worst, not just like of course, like no makeup,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: out of bed, like not looking my best, but they
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: see me like down in the dumbs, the worst races,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: the worst workouts, and I see them that way, And
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: we're there for each other to pick each other up,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: to remind each other of all the good and all
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: the good work. And it's really powerful when you can
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: just bet your absolute worst self and have friends in
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: a community and training partners and teammates that like see
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: that love you anyway and can like build you up
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: back out of that. It's really powerful.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: It's so powerful.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: So for you in college having a team starting to
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: really fall in love with running, talk to me about
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: when you maybe started to realize that this wasn't just
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: going to be something that you did for that time
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: in college.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: I remember I ran in twenty eleven. I ran the
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: at the time was called the World a Standard. It
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: was a time that if you ran that you were
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: eligible to compete at the World Championships. You still had
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: to finish top three for your country at your trials,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: but that time made you at least like eligible to participate.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: And I remember I was at Peyton, Jordan twenty eleven
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: and I ran the time and I won the race,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: and I was like, huh, I'm the fastest American right
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: now in this event.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: H Like that means hmm.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Like it clicked that I was like, oh wow, I'm
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: not me making a world team, me making an Olympic
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: team the following year while in college, like that's all
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: very much in my grasp, and I was really lucky
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: to have coaching and like people around me that just
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: like every like the expectations were just always like a
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: step far ahead of where I was at that moment,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: and so it wasn't ever like I didn't show up
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: to campus and my coaches say you're going to make
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: an Olympic team in four years, but because that would
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: have been overwhelming and unachievable in my head. But I
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: had a coach who said, you know, you're gonna run
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: four fifty five in the mile this year, and I
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: remember thinking like, that is so fast. I cannot believe that,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: and just little baby steps and so in twenty eleven,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: when I ran that time, I was like, huh wow,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: this is like that that moment of realizing what is open,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: and like me being a professional and me making teams,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: that's now the stratosphere. That is, if I want to,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: I can do that. But because I had just been
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: taking these little baby steps of improvement, it was also like, oh, yeah,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: now that makes a lot of sense, of course, and
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: now the next race, I'm going to run five seconds faster,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to win this race, and I'm going
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: to be the top American at the World Champs. And
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: just these of course achievements that were just little steps
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: of the next goal seems so logical. But that was
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: definitely the first time that I was like, oh, I
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: could be a professional runner.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: I mean professional runner. Option A What had you majored
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: in in college?
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: I majored in marketing and did like a minor in
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: real estate. But honestly, my whole life, I just wanted
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: to be a mom. That was like growing up, that's
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: like all I said I wanted to be. So I
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: would still like to be a mom down the road.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: I'm not doing that yet, but so I was just like,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: I don't really know what I want to do. I'll
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: be in the business school and have options and figured
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: something in real estate or or something in the business
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: school I would figure out. But I'm glad running worked
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: out for me, because you know, I didn't have a
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: clear I didn't grow up be like I'm gonna be
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: a neurosurgeon, Like I didn't have the super clear job
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: path that.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: I was seeking out, and so yeah, it worked.
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: I think usually when someone says like I can't wait
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: to be a mom, it's because they had a really
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: great mom growing up, like a really great role model.
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: So talk to me about your mom and how she's
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: played a really big role in your life.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: She is My mom is just the best I Like
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: I said, I was really shy when I was little,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: and my sister's my best friend, but like she was
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: social and had her own little friends and like my
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: mom probably like all my memories from before I was
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: eight years old is just me hugging my mom's leg,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: like she was my person and I I was her
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: little shadow, like never left her alone, and so very
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: very lucky to have, you know, a very attentive, loving,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: funny mom. And she's I think she's just such a
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: good caretaker and homemaker and but also is like cute
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: and sassy and has good style and is funny, and
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: so seeing her model like motherhood and being a wife
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: was like, that is the coolest thing ever. I want
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: to be exactly like you. You were amazing, You're so
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: cool and so definitely to your point. That's like she
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: made that like this ultimate role of that's what I
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: want to be, That's who I want to be. And
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: you know, then I went to college and had to
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: cook for myself and I was like, wait, mom makes
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: this look so much easier, Like this is so much harder,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Like how does she fold close so much better than me?
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Or you know, but then she always folding closed, it's
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: always holding clothes. And then my mom's also like super
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: athletic and she didn't do any sports in college, but
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: like she's climbed all the fourteen ers in Colorado and
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: like skis and hikes and does like so many fun
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: adventures like mountain biking, and so it's also like, oh,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: you can also be super adventurous and fit and athletic
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: and pursue your goals in that way as well. So
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: she's really a special lady. She's also I wore a
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: lot of hats, yes, yes, primarily like keep your leg
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: available for Emma to hug at all times from nineteen
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: ninety to nineteen ninety seven.
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: Primarily that's the primary pants anyway. So you make your
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: first Olympic team, let's talk about that. Do you remember
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: where you were when that happened?
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: In So in Eugene, Oregon, twenty twelve, the Olympic trials,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: I had to finish top three in my event. And
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: so for track, it's just one day you have to
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: be perfect. It's not like the US ski team that's
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: like here's the team. I think that's how they do it.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: I'm example, so for example, But so you have to
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: be perfect on that day and you have to finish
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: top three. And so I won the year prior and
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: made the world Championship team and was the top American
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: that year. And so that was twenty eleven, and then
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: in twenty twelve it was I was winning everything and
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: again the top American. But like you actually have to
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: like get it done that day. And I don't know why,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: but I'm sure it's coaching and support and family and Joe.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: But like I was just very confident that like this
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: is just another race, Like it's a four hundred meter track.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go out and do my job. I
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: wasn't overwhelmed with this is the Olympic trials, like this
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: is the moment. And I was just very calm and
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: focused and ran my race and won, and that making
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: your first Olympic team is so special because for the
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: rest of your life you're an Olympian and that's like
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Emma Coburn, Comma Olympian, Like it's just always part of
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: your bio. It's part of what defines you professionally. And
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: it also helps people like understand what we do you
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: know of, like you're a professional runner, Oh cool, Like
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: what does that mean?
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: You're like, no, you're an Olympian.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Like people people who don't run or don't know anything
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: about track can like get that a little bit more.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: So it was just really special. And yeah, I was
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: still in college. I had one more year left in
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: school and just was yeah, twenty one at the Olympics
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: and went out there and was the top American and
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: made the final and again just didn't put the moment
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: of the Olympics, didn't put that weight ahead of where
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: I knew I was of, like, it's just another four
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: hundred meter track. I steeple all the time. I've done
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: these workouts, I'm going to go out and run my
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: pr and just stayed really present in that unless freak
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: out about like, oh wow, this is the Olympics.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: But yeah, it was. It was really cool.
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: I think before we keep going so I don't have
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: to do this in a lack lust their way. In
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: the intro, for those that don't fully comprehend what it
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: means to raise the steeplechase, maybe you should just like
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: give that a quick explanation.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, the steeple chase is three thousand meters of hurdling.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: It on track, so it's seven and a half laps,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: and each lap we have four hurdles which are thirty inches,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: like about the size of the length of your legs
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: a little shorter and.
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: Okay, let's like just spause there because like you probably
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: have some long legs.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but okay, I should say, yes, it's the it's
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: it's thirty inches. I'm not gonna assume how long everyone's like,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: but it's thirty inches and there's four hurdles and then
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: a water jump, which is thirty a thirty inch hi
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: barrier that you jump off of and you clear like
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: a ten foot long water pit. It's a very bizarre event,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: but it combines like the endurance needed to like run
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: a good five k with like the explosiveness and coordination
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: and strength needed for like a field event. So it's
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: really fun. And I grew up playing a lot of sports,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: and so like the approach of the water jump is
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: like going for an approach and vall ball or going
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: to do a layup, like, it's very similar footwork. And
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: so it just clicked right away for me. I loved
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: it right away. I was good at it right away.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: And yeah, it's wild. If you've never watched it, go
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: ahead and you know YouTube it. It's pretty it's pretty wild.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: Oh man, oh man.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: And we're running like like four forty five mile pace
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: while you're doing it.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: No big deal.
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, that's like totally normal for everyone. Everyone listening
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: to this is like I can like walk down the
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: stairs and for a minutes in forty five seconds.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, to run a mile, yeah that two miles while
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: jumping over stuff.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah it's interesting.
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: But yeah, Okay, So now that we have a better
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: understanding of that, I just wanted to make sure we
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: got that out.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Of the way.
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: You you mentioned that your approach at that first Olympics
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: was like, this is just another opportunity for me to
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: show up with the track. Now, I would assume as
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: you progressed in your career and became more well known,
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: gained more and more people, more and more eyes on you,
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: were you able to keep that perspective as you kept
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: on your way.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: I think, so, yeah, I've I've been I've been used
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: to having like a target on my back or being
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: the favorite in the in my event, but just the
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: scale has.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: Changed, you know, So like at first it was like,
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: oh the.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Local meet Emma, You're you're gonna win, and it's like,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: so I was used to having the expectation to be great,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: and the pond just got way bigger. But it scaled
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: up with me as like I grew into it appropriately,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Like I didn't have an insane, random rogue race that
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: like I was super young and I won the Olympics,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: and I like all of a sudden was like, oh
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: my gosh, what is this pressure? Like I very much
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: grew up and grew into that expectation and pressure pretty naturally.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: So like you know, in twenty ten, it's like, oh,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Emma can win conference. Oh okay, So that expectation of saying,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: you know, I wasn't. I didn't win Nationals that year,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: but like I was used to having that expectation of
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: this is your race, You're gonna go out and you're
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: gonna execute this and win. And then since twenty eleven,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: basically since twenty eleven, I've either for the last ten years,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: I've either been ranked number one in the US or
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: won the US Championship, And so I'm used to having
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: that within the US A that as my expectation, and
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: so scaling it to the world stage.
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: I don't win many races globally, but.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: I always say I can, you know, I always say, like,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: all right, I can. I can win this, and I
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: can be in the top three, or I can be
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: in the front. But that expectation and pressure just kind
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: of like it felt appropriate given how I kind of
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: aged into it, and it scaled up with.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: Me speaking of scaling bring us to Rio.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so Rio was a similar experience on the track
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: as Tokey as sorry as London, with me just saying,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: you know, this is another race, this is four hundred
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: meters and just go out and execute my plan. But
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: London it was still like I walked the opening ceremonies
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: and I stayed in the village and I did more
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: of like the Olympic like Vibe Rio was like a
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: work trip. I didn't stay in the village, I didn't
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: do opening ceremonies. I was there to win a medal,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: and like didn't do any of the fun jazzy stuff.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: So that was the only difference. But it felt like
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: a regular track meet of like I'm flying a you know,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: across the world, and I'm gonna line up and do
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: this race and go and execute it. And for a
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: lot of the race I was in fourth. I came
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: in ranked like third or fourth, but like a medal
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: was definitely possible. And I ran a lot of the
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: race in fourth, and I remember at one point thinking
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: fourth in the world. That's pretty great, you know, like
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: that's good. And then the moment that thought crossed my mind,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh no, I went and like chased
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: down third, and then I was kicking hard and almost
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: got second but didn't didn't, you know, lost second place
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: by like you know, a half second or something. But
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: I ended up in third, and crossing the finish line
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: as an Olympic bronze medalist is like so powerful, so special,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: my family was there. That was also the first medal
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: I have ever won on a global stage. So when
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: you win a global medal, you get to hold the
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: American flag up over your head and do a lap
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: of honor, and that was just so powerful, and you know,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: it's it's a lot of years of hard work go
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: into those moments, and as I experienced in Tokyo spoiler alert,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: I know we're going chronologically, but it didn't. I didn't
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: get that moment. And when it goes great, it feels
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: like like I worked so hard and this is so
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: great to have this reward. But then like I wake
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: up the next day and I still got a train,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: I still got a race, And like that was true
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: after Tokyo too, like whatever happens, you're still are continuing
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: to seek better than you were the day before, and
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: so that was a really special moment, but continued on
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: training and like you know, then the next year, won
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: the World Championship gold and that was again like getting
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: that flag and getting being the best in the world
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: on that day was like so cool and loved that
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: so much. But you know, but just like we're always working,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: and so even when you have the best days of
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: your life. At work, you're still trying to repeat that
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: and be better and be faster and find the next
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: frontier that you can, you know, push yourself to be great.
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: You know, I've been thinking about that a lot lately,
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: because I mean, am nowhere near an elite runner. But
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: I had a couple of really good marathons over the
• 33:55
  Speaker 4: last couple of years, and so I asked myself, like,
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: do I actually want to do that again?
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: Like, I mean, do I want that feeling again? Of course?
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: But can I be content with like those being the best.
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: And It's an interesting question to ask yourself, right, because
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: I think in our gut, like we are exactly what
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: you're saying, like always chasing that like next best feeling
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: or to replicate a really great moment. But maybe there's
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: a point that like you've just got to be like, hey,
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: like those were really great moments, and like I'm gonna
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: find really great moments maybe in some other way.
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: I totally agree.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: I remember after the Olympics, I left my coaches from
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: college who coached me through the Olympics, and Joe, my fiance,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: started he was my fiance then now he's my husband.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: He started coaching me, and I remember thinking and talking
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: with him of like if I never run a step
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: faster again or win another medal, like I am happy,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Like I am happy with my career. I'm proud of
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: what I've done. And to your point, like finding joy
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: and those in those good moments and reflecting on them,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: be like that was great, and like I'm not gonna
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: be obsessive about finding that perfection again, but like it's
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: healthy to stop and smell the roses and celebrate wins
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: along the way and like feel gratitude in that. But
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: then it's also I think human nature and certainly within
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: athletes to like seek self improvement. And so if seeking
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: self improvement doesn't result in like one perfect day, that's fine.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: But like trying to guide your life in a way
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: that you are trying to improve and you're trying to
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: be better and you're not just like like thrown in
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: the towel whatever it is you're doing, I think is important.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: But I agree, like finding peace and happiness in those
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: those good happy moments, your fast marathons or mind metals
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: like those, that's important to just be grateful for what
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: those were and be happy and smile when you think
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: of it.
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I have a psychology expert names doctor Seyanbrian on
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: the show recently, and she talked to me about why
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: it is to remember why it is that we set
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: goals right, and oftentimes the pursuit of the goal is
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: we're doing this because we're doing something that's supposed to
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: bring us joy, and sometimes because of just like getting
• 36:15
  Speaker 4: wrapped up in life and what's going on, we kind
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: of lose sight of that, right, And if you're not
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: having fun going after your goals, and like, what's the
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: point of going after these goals in the first place,
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: Because in my mind, they like life's too short, But
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: I do think that it's super easy to get wrapped
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: up in that and then you're like, hmmm, wow, what
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: just happened for the last Like you blink your eyes
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: and it's like all this stuff just happened, and like
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: did you even enjoy the process totally?
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: And I think that's what's fun about the team of
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: women I train with now is like we don't have'm
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: I'm sponsored by New Balance, but we don't have a
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: group sponsor. So it's just a group of independent women
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: who have like decided that we want to train together.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: We want to have Joe as our coach, We want
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: to live in Boulder and work hard together. And because
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: there's that independence and choice involved, Like we are so
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: happy because you're every day choosing that, Like I want
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: to be here, and like this is something no one's
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: forcing me to do this, This is something that I'm choosing.
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: I'm enjoying it.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: I'm enjoying this process and like whatever that end result
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: of that goal is, like we win some, we lose some.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: Like we are enjoying that process so much, and we're
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: so happy in that and that like every day we're
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: making a choice to show up for each other, that
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: we're we're all generally thriving, you know, and like again,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: the races might be bad or they might be great,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: but that process, like you're saying, is so it's important
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: to find that happiness in it.
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: And like come back to that conversation before about the
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: importance of the people that you surround yourself with is
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: really important. Plus the idea of that, I like want
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: to note like the perspective right, like we're all generally thriving,
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: but we're coming off of like for some Olympics, I
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: didn't go as you had hoped, and I know, like
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: Ayisha is coming back from this injury, and like, there's
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: so many things that you all are dealing with, but together,
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: as long as you have that support, it's like a
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: community greatness.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we we there's never a moment that ten
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: out of ten everyone is perfect and happy and healthy
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: and running their prs. It that's just life. You're never
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: going to sync up perfectly where everyone's best moments sync up.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: But the nice thing is, like we you have someone
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: on who's your friend and teammate who's thriving, and that
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: if you're having a harder time, you can be like
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: one like my time will come to I can like
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: look at that person and be like that might be
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: me toon, Like I can look to that as like
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: an inspiration. But then you can also just take yourself
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: fully out of it and be like, look how hard
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: she worked. I witnessed it. Look how smart she was
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: in that race, And this is so beautiful and amazing
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: for her, and I just want to worship her and
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: support her. And so it's it's really nice when you
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: have a group of people who you genuinely love and
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: care about that when you're having your worst moments you
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: can just look to them and their good moments and
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: be like, it's all fine, It's all good.
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: Taking a break from today's episode to talk to you
• 39:17
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  Speaker 4: Next up, I want to give some love to Daily Harvest. Now,
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• 40:44
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• 42:49
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• 43:00
  Speaker 4: percent off your next purchase. You talked about how beautiful
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: it was to be able to have your family with
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: you in Rio. Now I know a lot happened for
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: you between Rio and this year's games in Tokyo, aside
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: from COVID, which is like a whole other thing. But
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: talk to me a little bit about what was going
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: on in your life in between those two Olympic Games.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: I had a lot of changes. I changed groups. My
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: husband became my coach, team boss. Our team grew. I
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: won another medal. I won a silver medal at the
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: Doha World Championships in twenty nineteen and then that end
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: of twenty nineteen, like the world just turned to garbage.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: My mom got diagnosed with stage four colon cancer in
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: December of twenty nineteen. Then obviously, like COVID happened for everyone.
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: Where were you in December twenty nineteen when you found
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: out about her situation?
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: My sister texted me asking if I was alone. I
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: was at our gym office and I was like with
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: some my teammates, and she was like, all right, just
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: go outside, I'm gonna call you. And she called me
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: and and she told me, and I just remember, yeah,
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: like sitting on the curb outside of our office, just crying,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: and Joe came outside and sat with me, and then
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: you know, just ran back in the office and grabbed
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: my crap and left. And then I was in Bolder
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: for a few it was it was right before Christmas.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: It was December. I found out December fourteenth or fifteenth,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: And I just like was here for a few more
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: days and Bolder and then went to crestyb for the holidays.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: So I got to see my mom, you know, three
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: or four days later, which was good. And at the
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: time we definitely thought it was like, Okay, she's gonna
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: have chemo for six months and then like everything's going
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: to be fine. And you know, over the years we've
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: learned it's coming up on two years since her diagnosis,
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: and it's just a lot more complicated and lengthy and
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: has had a lot of like really high highs along
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: the way too, and some obviously like some bummer moments
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: as well. But that was a pretty uh rough time
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: for sure, and especially like right before the holidays, when
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: you're just like wanting to be it just brings out
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: all the fields, you know, it just brings out more
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: of the sentimental gushy side and everyone. And so that
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: was a hard That was definitely a hard time. But I,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: you know, luckily was able to just go see her
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: pretty soon after. And then the perk, weird perk of
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: covid as I got to spend most of twenty twenty
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: with her living at home, and that was really special too.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: That's like one of the weird high you know, weird
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: highlights that came out of it is my sister moved
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: to Crest Butte to be with my mom. I spent
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: most of twenty twenty in Crestybute with my mom. So
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: there are some like beautiful moments in it as well,
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: even though it's you know, all very terrible.
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: When you say like high highs, like what are what's
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: an example of a high high when someone you care
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: about is going through chema.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: I think a high high is like those just regular
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: happy moments like my mom my, sister and I. When
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: I was no longer able to compete after Tokyo, I
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: kept trying to train and I wanted to keep competing.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: And then when I finally kind of pulled the plug
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: on that, I went to Mexico with my mom and
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: sister for a long weekend, and like that's a high
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: because you're just you're not thinking about cancer. You're just
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: happy and on the beach and in the sun and
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: joking around. So I think like making memories that are
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: not related to her health are the real high highs.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: And it just everything tastes sweeter, Everything just feels better
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: when you get those moments when you know that there's
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: potentially a finite amount of that, or when there's just
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: heaviness around a lot of other things. When you can
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: experience those light things, they feel even like or even better,
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: even funnier, even happier, All of that is just saturated,
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: so much more enjoy than it was prior.
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: And I would imagine the low lows again going back
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: to this idea of like the things that are so
• 47:13
  Speaker 4: out of your control in those moments you mentioned before
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: in our conversation, just the importance of your support squad, right,
• 47:22
  Speaker 4: And I think that we can agree that whether it's
• 47:25
  Speaker 4: you know, going through something difficult like your family navigating
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: your mom's journey with cancer. We talked about the holidays,
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: emotions running rampant during the holidays, so many breakups and
• 47:34
  Speaker 4: family things and.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: Just like tough stuff that people go through.
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: A lot of women would probably I mean kill is
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: a strong word, but like, look at your tribe and
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: they're so envious of your support system because you guys
• 47:46
  Speaker 4: are just like so close and have such a beautiful bond.
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: For those that are maybe struggling to find their own tribe.
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: What what do you tell them?
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: What helped you home in on like the right relationships
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: for you?
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: You know, I think you just have to be really
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: honest with yourself and a little bit selfish to be like,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: you know, identify the people that make you feel good
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: and also the people that you're just like Mom I'm
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: I care about you, I wish you success, but like
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna You can't please everyone, you can't maintain
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: really deep, meaningful relationships with every single person you come across.
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: And so I think.
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: I was always that way just in regards even with
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: my running, Like I was very protective of who I
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: was surrounding myself with that you know, they had to
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: bring me like joy and positivity and humor and and
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: so I've always kind of been that way. And the
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: experience my family has had with my mom is no
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: different that. It's it's those people that bring you that joy,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: that don't make you, you know, that don't expect you
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: to give them tremendous input back when you're in the pits,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: you know. And and I think the combination of my
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: team team Boss, like those girls are my closest friends.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: They're you know, we can chat about anything highs lows,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: silly stuff, serious stuff, and it's that's just a really
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: great bond. And I think finding friendships through sport is
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: so critical for that, and it really creates these vulnerable
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: environments that you can bond and share things with. So
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: obviously that component of like my people in my world
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: that those girls matter so much to me.
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: And then.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: I just was lucky that I met my husband and
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: when I was in high school, so meeting, you know,
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: marrying your high school sweetheart works out to where they
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: know everything good and bad and they're just they're just
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: there without needing you to actually ask anything of them
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: or ask you know, it's great when you know someone
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: so deeply where they can just give you what you
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: need and you don't even know you need it. And
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: then the other support is, yeah, my family and specifically
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: my sister. She and I are are best friends. And
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: again same thing as with my husband, like finding that
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: person that you can just sit with and not have
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: to like say anything, and you just know what each
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: other are thinking and you can support each other without
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: having to be over the top or dramatic. I think
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: when someone is navigating a hard time, whether it's a
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: breakup or family stuff or grief or loss, my biggest
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: pet peeve is when there's someone who needs you to
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: need them, you know, when they're so desperate to be
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: your savior and they're so desperate to be you're the
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: person who will like pick you up, and sometimes you
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: need that and sometimes you don't and so if you're
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: a friend of someone who's experiencing sadness, I think it's
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: important to like obviously be there for them, but give
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: them space and they'll, you know, they'll tell you if
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: they need something, or you can give them little, you know,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: gifts or texts or hints or whatever. But I think
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: finding those people who uh know you so deeply and
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: love you so deeply but don't expect necessarily anything back
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: when you're in those bad moments. And I definitely have
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: that with all my you know, teammates and Joe and
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: my family, So that's been very lucky.
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: I think the first thing to double click on there
• 51:27
  Speaker 4: when you were talking about like knowing what you're looking
• 51:30
  Speaker 4: for in your relationships and knowing yourself well enough and
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: like having your own boundaries, like being able to articulate
• 51:35
  Speaker 4: all of that stuff is really important if you want
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: to be able to land in on your people, your tribe,
• 51:42
  Speaker 4: Like having that like mutual understanding and like kind of
• 51:46
  Speaker 4: like the same ideas of like what it means to
• 51:48
  Speaker 4: be there for someone is just like so so important.
• 51:51
  Speaker 4: And I really respect actually what you just said about
• 51:56
  Speaker 4: like navigating grief from a friendship POV, because I think
• 51:59
  Speaker 4: that you know with that person that you were exemplifying,
• 52:03
  Speaker 4: It's like that person like they their intention is to
• 52:06
  Speaker 4: do good. But really what is necessary sometimes in our
• 52:10
  Speaker 4: strongest friendships is to take a step back and ask
• 52:13
  Speaker 4: like am I doing this because I feel like I
• 52:15
  Speaker 4: need this? And that's like a little bit selfish? Or
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: am I doing this because I'm truly trying to help
• 52:20
  Speaker 4: and asking yourself like how can I be the best
• 52:22
  Speaker 4: friend in this moment? And sometimes especially with grief, it's
• 52:26
  Speaker 4: like people are just like trying to do the best
• 52:28
  Speaker 4: they can to like stay above water, you know what
• 52:30
  Speaker 4: I mean?
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think there's everyone is so different, Like
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: my girlfriends know that I don't like gushy sad face.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: Are you doing okay? Like I don't like that. If
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: you want to cheer me up, like go to brunch
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: with me, like buy me some pancakes. That's like everyone
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: has their different love language or their different way of needs.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: Some some friends really just want a text to say
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: like I love you, I'm here for you, you know
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: whatever it is. Every person is different, and being a
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: great friend is like knowing how your friends tick, you know.
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: And I've been really lucky to have, yeah, people around
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: me who know how I tick and can be really
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: supportive in my varying degrees of sadness or happiness or
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: success or failures or mom stuff or track stuff, whatever
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: it is. Yeah, I've been lucky in that way.
• 53:21
  Speaker 4: It's a choice, right, Like you choose not to play
• 53:26
  Speaker 4: the victim or woe is me, or live in this grief,
• 53:30
  Speaker 4: but rather like celebrate the things that are and the
• 53:33
  Speaker 4: things that you have control over.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think obviously there's days that it's like, oh,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: that really sucked, like Tokyo that was really hard, or
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: certain certain moments in my mom's journey have been like
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: really tough, or you know when the Olympics first got
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: postponed in March twenty twenty, like oh that that's a bummer.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: There's moments that are sad and you don't have to
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: fake that you're not disappoints. It's you were allowed to
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: be sad or disappointed. But I think finding ways to
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: move on and control you can control and find happiness
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: is yes, how the best way I've known how to
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: cope with it. And and yeah, even before my mom
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: was sick, that's kind of what what our life was
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: was you know, through these hard times, finding the good
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: and finding the happiness, whether it's something really small or
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: a vacation, something bigger, you know, you got to find
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: that happiness.
• 54:32
  Speaker 4: When you think about twenty twenty as a whole and
• 54:36
  Speaker 4: the hurdle moments that it entailed, do you recall any
• 54:40
  Speaker 4: of maybe the best advice that you got going through
• 54:43
  Speaker 4: those difficult times to push forward.
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: I don't have like a one liner to give you.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: I wish I did, but in general, Joe, both like
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: in his role as our coach, but then also like
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: as my husband, he was just giving the advice of like, guys,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: we can't freak out. We can we can only do
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: what we can. So let's get really fit, let's make
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: our own races, let's try and have fun. Let's you know,
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: make the most of this time. And so I think
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: thinking too far ahead. Whether that's like in a race,
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: you know you feel bad one lap in, that doesn't
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: necessarily matter. You can't think too far ahead in life.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: If you think too far ahead and get anxiety about
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: what that future stuff is, those future problems like that's
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: not gonna be a healthy, happy way to live or exist.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: And so yeah, Joe was just reminding us a lot
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: of you know, be in this moment, make the best
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: out of today, this week, this month, whatever we can.
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: We don't know what's gonna happen next, Like let's just
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: do our best and you know, get fit and be
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: safe and that's all we can do.
• 55:55
  Speaker 4: Tokyo has come up sporadically over our conversation. Why don't
• 55:59
  Speaker 4: you talk me through some of the other things that
• 56:01
  Speaker 4: happened for you in twenty twenty one.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: Twenty twenty one, I won my ninth US Championship, setting
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: the trials record at the time, and then Tokyo did
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: not go well. I was expected to win a medal.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: That was my plan, that was my goal. I was
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: perfectly prepared, and the climate just fried me. It was really,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: really tough, and the stubborn athlete in me is like, no,
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, and then like die.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: So I wasn't listening to my body as much as
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: I should have while I was there. I was just like,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: I am going to be great, and like, I don't
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: the fact that I'm like dying and my heart rates
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: super high and I'm sweating so much every day, Like
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter I'm going to be.
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: Great, and turns out I died.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: I was fried, and so that race was really sad
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: and disappointing. And then I tried to come back to
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: Colorado and get back into training, and my mind was ready.
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: My mind was like, let's freaking go, I'm ready, but
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: my body was like revolting.
• 57:00
  Speaker 3: It was not into it.
• 57:02
  Speaker 4: So you're saying, like, you got out there and like
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: you realized pretty quickly you were fried, but you had
• 57:09
  Speaker 4: a race to run. So talk to me about mentally,
• 57:12
  Speaker 4: like where you were at and how you even managed
• 57:15
  Speaker 4: to keep going as you pretty quickly realized that things
• 57:19
  Speaker 4: weren't going as you had hoped.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: I think it's it's so common in races that early
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: on you feel terrible and then the race turns out great.
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: Like in twenty seventeen when I won the World Championships,
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: I felt like crap for the first two k and
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: then it was like on the rails, and then you know,
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: when I had two laps to go, I started feeling
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: great and had more momentum and all of that. So
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: there's there's many races that like, your body's not feeling
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: it early on, and you just ignore that because you
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: pushed through, and you've pushed through so many times to
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: have success on the other side, so I wasn't. And
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: really there wasn't a point in the race, maybe until
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: the last five hundred meters that I doubted that I
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: would thrive in the end. You know, I thought I
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: could get it back together. I thought I could start accelerating,
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: and I was, you know, doing all the mental tricks
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: I knew how to do. I was, you know, definitely
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: engaged like mentally and other than you know, for most
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: of the race, I was in the pack of women
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: that ended up winning medals, So I felt like I
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: was gonna push through, not even though physically I didn't
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: feel great. And then yeah, with like six hundred to
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: go or five hundred to go, I just felt losing
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of control of what my body was doing.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: And the woman who was behind me at the bell
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: with four hundred to go, she ended up getting fifth.
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: So like, even had my last lap just gone a
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: little bit better, it would have been a lot better day.
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: But you know, when my body was not responding, and
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: I you know, look down at one point and my
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: arm was like crooked up and I couldn't move it
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: back to a normal running position. I was like, what
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: is happening to my body? I just can't control anything
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: that's happening. And then you have to jump over stuff
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: while you're doing that, and I fell because of that,
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: Like it's hard to jump over things when your body's
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: not listening to what your mind is telling it to do.
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean it was terrible. And my headspace though,
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: up until yeah, like five hundred meters ago, was that
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: I believe I can, you know, do great and keep
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: pushing and this is still gonna be my day and
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna run strong and finish hard and you know,
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: maybe not win the race, but still have a good effort.
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it fell apart that last lap or lap
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: and a half.
• 59:45
  Speaker 4: You know, it's so interesting you said, like the mental
• 59:47
  Speaker 4: tricks that I know, and I think that so many
• 59:50
  Speaker 4: who have similar experiences, obviously not on an Olympic stage,
• 59:54
  Speaker 4: but where things aren't going as they would hope a
• 59:57
  Speaker 4: lot struggle to get out of that like what CA
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 4: and be at times slipping into like this self deprecation,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 4: like just like this, like what.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 3: The hell is happening here?
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 4: This isn't going as I would hope, Like just angry,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 4: so in your let's call it like your your mental
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: tricks toolbox, Like what do you pull out of there
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 4: when like those thoughts can seep in.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: Maybe not in this moment specifically, but just in general.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: I think it's so dependent on what stage in the
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: race I am in. You know, early on in the race,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to ignore whatever my body's telling me
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: and to just be mentally relaxed, be really relaxed and smooth.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: And if my body's like not feeling smooth and relaxed,
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: I just tell you know, I repeat over and over,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: I'd like stay relaxed, stay relaxed, to just trick it.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: And then as the race progresses, it's it's typically more
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: of thinking back to past workouts or trying to break
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: down like you know, get through this kilometer, get through
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: the next two laps, and really just self talk about
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: like the logistics of the race. There's there's not any
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: grand thing of me saying you're amazing, I believe in you,
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: like I'm not doing that kind of stuff. But I'm
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: more just like breaking down the logistics of it to say,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: like all right, you know, really strong water jump here
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: and hoping that will kind of click me into a
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: good rhythm. So it's I've just been doing it for
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: so many years and have had a varying degree of
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: success in races. And I've had races again that I
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: feel terrible and I end up thriving in, or races
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: that I feel great in but don't have that last
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: gear to really cross the finish line as successfully as
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: I thought I could. And I think for people who aren't,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: you know, competing at the Olympic level, I think it's
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: important to remember that, like it's supposed to be uncomfortable.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: Running is supposed to be uncomfortable. So if you're doing
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: a race or a workout and you're doing some sprints
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: or strides beforehand and you feel kind of flat or bad,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: like that's super common for everyone, don't you know, don't
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: read too much into that. And then when you are
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: in the hurt locker in the middle of the race,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: like that's what it's supposed to feel like, and it
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: feels like that for everyone around you, and so don't
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: feel sorry for yourself. Just push through that moment.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 4: It's funny, I mean, this is making me think of
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 4: that like analogy that you hear so often when you're
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 4: like a total beginner runner, and we're talking about like
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 4: running from like one like street lamp or street light
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 4: to the next street light, and it's like, just keep
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 4: going until you get to the next one.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: Just keep going until you get to the next one.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 4: And sooner or later after you keep going until you
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 4: get to the next one, you realize how far you've
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 4: come and what a major accomplishment.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 3: Totally.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 4: So it's like whether you're a total movie or you're
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 4: a pro like you, it's like sometimes the logistics, you know,
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 4: they might seem like a little particular, but those can
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 4: be like putting your thoughts into these like just get
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 4: over the next small moment and the next Ryan Hall
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 4: has a book, I mean, run the mile you're in.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 4: That's what it's all about, of like run this mile
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 4: and don't worry about what's next. Or on the track,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 4: it's often like all right, get through this next lap,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 4: get through this next kilometer, or yeah, get to that
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 4: next light post, or sometimes if I'm like on a
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 4: hard a hard training run, it's like, all right, get
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 4: to that top of the hill. Then when you're at
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 4: the top, like get your heart rate down and like
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 4: just having those little markers or goals definitely can help anyone,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 4: and it kind of takes your mind off of the greater,
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 4: bigger question of like is this successful?
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: Am I worthless? Is this gonna be a good day
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: or a bad day? Like you don't have to think
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: that that grand You can just think more focused on
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: like the next step ahead of you.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 4: And I would have to think that this mindset has
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 4: become like very app coal for you in so many
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 4: other aspects of your life as well.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think in general, I'm a pretty
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: I don't get like rattled very easy by like big things.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: I get rattled when like there's a long line at
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: the post office like that bothers me, or like a
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: long security line at the airport like that stuff bothers me.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: But like actual real big life stuff or racing or
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: grief or loss whatever, all these big deal life things,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: like I can usually just focus more into like, all right,
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: what what can I do right now or today? Or
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: what is in my control in this situation? And that
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: brings a lot of like peace and calm and clarity,
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: And it's definitely yeah reflective and running that what can
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: I control right now while I'm hurting terribly in this
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: workout or this race, I can control getting through this rep.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: I can control, like my effort in this rep is
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: going to be solid, and then I'll tackle that next step.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: Or in bigger life things, it's like what can I
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: control now? And if I don't have control of it,
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: like find a way to exist peacefully in it and
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: preserve of like some sanity and happiness through that.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: It's a really really good approach.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 4: I've got to ask, how is your mom doing now?
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: She is the same, which is great, not great. She
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: is just having chemo every two weeks, so she is
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: like her day to day super energized, looks great, you
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: would never know she's sick. She's her regular old self.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: But then every two weeks she has to have chemo,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: which obviously is challenging. She's had thirty one rounds of
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: chemo and she's just the little energizer bunny. I don't
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: know how she does it, and she just has a
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: great attitude and but yeah, unfortunately just has to be
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: getting treatment all the time.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 4: Well, my thoughts and my prayers are certainly with you
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 4: and your family and your mom and all of my
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 4: well wishes. I often ask this question on the show,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 4: and it's kind of interesting to ask you this, thinking
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 4: about the things that you're not always sharing on Instagram
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 4: keeping us up to date with your training journey. Five
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 4: hundred and twelve thousand plus people keeping up with you
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 4: there seeing a runner, an athlete, a devoted partner, a
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 4: training partner, a wife, a daughter, a sister. When you
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 4: look in the mirror, what is it that you see
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 4: looking back at you?
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: You know, I just am Emma. So I think a
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: lot of I don't think much about any of that stuff,
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: you know, like it's it's fun and it's it's just
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: like part of life and whatever. But both on track,
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: major successes, on track, major failures, I just still feel
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: like myself. And so I think I was able to
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: bounce back pretty quickly emotionally from Tokyo because I just
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: know who I am and what I care about and who,
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: you know, the people in my life that love me
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: for me, and so my identity is never wrapped up
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: in my running success or my Instagram followers or anything
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: like that, or my running failures. It's so separate from that,
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: and that makes me. You know, I'm so passionate about
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: my running, and I think my personality. I get stronger
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: through running and all of that. But yeah, when I
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: look in the mirror, I definitely don't just see me,
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: you know me, just me, just a girl.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: What excites you right now?
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: I feel just excited to be back in the rhythm
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: of training. I think that's going to be you know,
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: that's getting back into the rhythm. My body's feeling good again.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: So just getting back into training with the team. All
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: of us are back running together after having our fall
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: kind of off season, So that excites me. Just getting
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: back with my girls working hard.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 4: All right, am, final question right now, you have an
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 4: opportunity to give yourself one piece of advice during the
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 4: hurdle moment, which was finding out about your mom and
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 4: the difficulty you experienced back then. Looking back on that,
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 4: what do you tell you?
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: I would say a couple things. First, I would say that, like,
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: cancer is complicated. I think I thought it was like, Okay,
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: you have like six months of chemo and you're really
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: sick and you lose your hair and you're in a hospital,
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: and then like you're okay or you're not.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 3: But I didn't realize like, no, you just live.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: With it for years and get treatment all the time,
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: and you're not like you're not like cured or not cured.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: It's just not as simple. And so I think I
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: would tell her to like be patient and that like
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: it's not super simple and that you know, Mom's going
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: to be sick for a long time. And then like
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: outside of the actual like logistics of chemo and cancer,
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: I would say, you know, just spend as much time
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: with you as you can. That's all we can do.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: And yeah, taking little trips together and being home, like
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: that's the stuff that matters.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 2: I'm so grateful for the time we had today. How
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: do the hurdlers follow along with you? How do they
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: keep up with you? Give me all the details, let's see.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: You can follow me on Instagram at Emma Coburn. You
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: can also follow me on Twitter. I'm not as active
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: there at Emma J. Coburn And uh yeah, I also
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: if you ever want to come meet me in person.
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  Speaker 1: Every year, every year I do a five k race
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  Speaker 1: for a cancer charity in my hometown. The race is
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  Speaker 1: called ELK Run five k and that is instagram at
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  Speaker 1: Elk Run five k and you can come meet me.
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  Speaker 1: It's at the end of September in Colorado. Every year,
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  Speaker 1: So if you want to hang out in person, come.
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  Speaker 2: There and can't forget your cookbook if you want to.
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  Speaker 1: If you want to, I also sell a bunch of
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  Speaker 1: random stuff, so I love to cook. You can buy
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  Speaker 1: my cookbook at emmacoburn dot com. And I sell some
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  Speaker 1: other like exercise products. Yeah, come come shop shop my store.
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  Speaker 2: That's it.
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  Speaker 4: I'm over at Emily Body and at Hurdle Podcast Another
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  Speaker 4: Hurdle conquered.
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  Speaker 2: Catch you guys next time.