Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / SPECIAL EPISODE: The Berlin Marathon, A Recap

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SPECIAL EPISODE: The Berlin Marathon, A Recap · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: The journey here is the destination. The journey to Berlin
0:04
Speaker 1: was the destination for me learning how to prioritize my
0:07
Speaker 1: own health and well being, how to set boundaries, how
0:09
Speaker 1: to listen to my body, how to invest in my
0:12
Speaker 1: body so that my body could show up for me.
0:14
Speaker 1: The journey is the destination, and that is exactly what
0:17
Speaker 1: happened for me over the last three months.
0:35
Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, Emily A Badi here. You are listening to.
0:38
Speaker 1: A very special episode of Hurdle, a wellness focused podcast.
0:43
Speaker 1: Reconnect with everyone from your favorite athletes to top experts
0:46
Speaker 1: and industry CEOs about their highest hies, toughest moments, and
0:50
Speaker 1: everything in between. We all go through hurdles in life,
0:54
Speaker 1: and my goal through these discussions is to empower you
0:57
Speaker 1: to better navigate yours and move with intentions so that
1:00
Speaker 1: you can stride towards your own big potential and of
1:03
Speaker 1: course have some fun along the way. When I say
1:08
Speaker 1: it special episode, it's because this has been a long
1:12
Speaker 1: time coming. Berlin Marathon recap Babe. To this day, if
1:17
Speaker 1: someone comes up to me and they tell me that
1:19
Speaker 1: a specific episode is their favorite, it's nine times out
1:22
Speaker 1: of ten. The Chicago Marathon recap episode and A that
1:29
Speaker 1: makes my heart warm and fuzzy. But b I think
1:32
Speaker 1: it's because it was just so unfiltered and on my part,
1:37
Speaker 1: so unexpected what happened that day. For those of you
1:41
Speaker 1: that are unfamiliar, I'm going to link that episode in
1:43
Speaker 1: the show notes. I highly encourage you to go check
1:46
Speaker 1: it out. Not you don't need to be a fan
1:48
Speaker 1: of running. You just need to be a fan of
1:51
Speaker 1: going after a crazy dream and seeing it through.
1:53
Speaker 2: I digress.
1:55
Speaker 1: So I'm excited to be laying here in this bed
2:00
Speaker 1: now in Florence, Italy. I'm about to log off as
2:03
Speaker 1: soon as I get this up for y'all, but in
2:06
Speaker 1: the meantime, I wanted to make sure that I sat
2:09
Speaker 1: down with his microphone asap.
2:12
Speaker 2: And this is the first time I've.
2:14
Speaker 1: Had some solo time really since crossing that finish line
2:18
Speaker 1: in Berlin. I ran the Berlin Marathon on Sunday, September
2:25
Speaker 1: twenty fourth, in three hours, fifty eight minutes and forty
2:31
Speaker 1: three seconds, and I could not be prouder for so
2:36
Speaker 1: many reasons that I will get to in this episode.
2:39
Speaker 1: I'm going to break down what it was like for
2:41
Speaker 1: me in the training and the build up to this marathon,
2:44
Speaker 1: many of you well versed in the fact that I've
2:47
Speaker 1: been dealing with planter fasciitis and had a really different
2:50
Speaker 1: marathon build up than I've had previously.
2:53
Speaker 2: I'm also going to talk about the kind of the.
2:56
Speaker 1: Things that preceded the race, my decision to pace a
2:59
Speaker 1: friend of mine and what that looked like for us,
3:02
Speaker 1: and everything about the day itself, how I felt before, during, after,
3:09
Speaker 1: how I'm feeling now, the ever lovely question when you
3:12
Speaker 1: accomplish something of what's next, A lot of really great
3:15
Speaker 1: things to get to in this episode, the moral of
3:19
Speaker 1: the story. I think the through line here that I
3:22
Speaker 1: just want to make sure that I start this off with,
3:26
Speaker 1: so you know what's coming is that if you put
3:28
Speaker 1: your mind to it, and you really dedicate time to
3:31
Speaker 1: your body, if you really invest in your body, if
3:34
Speaker 1: you show up for your body, your body's going.
3:36
Speaker 2: To show up for you in return.
3:37
Speaker 1: And so I am feeling really just over the moon,
3:41
Speaker 1: grateful and excited about this goal that at one point
3:47
Speaker 1: felt really really really impossible to be candid. So yeah,
3:55
Speaker 1: as always, if you have more questions for me, you
3:57
Speaker 1: want to know anything else, I'm all ears you can
3:58
Speaker 1: leave me a voice message, ask me a question. The
4:01
Speaker 1: link to do that is in the show notes. And
4:04
Speaker 1: with that, let's get to it. Let's get to hurdling
4:14
Speaker 1: Berlin Marathon. I'm literally lying here on my back with
4:19
Speaker 1: the microphone looking up at the ceiling of this hotel room.
4:23
Speaker 2: I'm still in Europe, like I.
4:24
Speaker 1: Said, and I am still feeling like I am on
4:29
Speaker 1: cloud nine. I knew, I've known for a long time
4:35
Speaker 1: that I want to run all of the World Marathon Majors.
4:39
Speaker 1: For those of you that are out of the loop,
4:40
Speaker 1: the World Marathon Majors are six different races around the
4:45
Speaker 1: world that comprise, I would argue the biggest marathons that
4:49
Speaker 1: there are. This is Chicago, New York, Boston, London, Berlin,
4:56
Speaker 1: and Tokyo. I have now run all of those except Tokyo,
5:00
Speaker 1: and I'm really hoping to cross that one off at
5:02
Speaker 1: the top of next year. But Berlin has been on
5:05
Speaker 1: my list for a really long time, and I wanted
5:09
Speaker 1: to get it done this year. When I set out
5:14
Speaker 1: on this journey, when I set that as a goal
5:17
Speaker 1: for myself, I was certainly on the injured list, and
5:22
Speaker 1: it was shortly after London in I believe October two
5:26
Speaker 1: thousand and twenty two. So after London, I was dealing
5:31
Speaker 1: with planter fasciitis and it was really gnarly.
5:33
Speaker 2: In January of this year.
5:35
Speaker 1: I took off a considerable amount of time from running
5:38
Speaker 1: and really attacked the planter full force. So that meant
5:43
Speaker 1: seeing all the experts. I went to a p diatrist
5:45
Speaker 1: and did red light laser therapy, which I've talked about
5:48
Speaker 1: on the show. I was going to physical therapy twice
5:52
Speaker 1: a week. I was going to see an acupuncturist that
5:54
Speaker 1: morning side, and I'll link that episode that I recorded
5:57
Speaker 1: with my guy Teddy from my acupuncture practice. And I
6:02
Speaker 1: was really investing in myself, not just time wise, which
6:06
Speaker 1: got all these appointments it felt like they dominated my weeks,
6:10
Speaker 1: but also monetarily.
6:12
Speaker 2: This was all things.
6:15
Speaker 1: These were all services that I was paying for, and
6:19
Speaker 1: so to add this line to my budget in a
6:24
Speaker 1: way that I had never really done so before, it
6:29
Speaker 1: was uh yeah, it was difficult to be candid, but
6:33
Speaker 1: I knew and I know how much it means for
6:36
Speaker 1: me to be able to move regularly, and especially with
6:39
Speaker 1: something like planter fasci itis, it's such a nightmare to
6:43
Speaker 1: deal with every day right you wake up. In the
6:45
Speaker 1: second you wake up, you're reminded that something is wrong
6:48
Speaker 1: with you when you put your foot or your feet
6:50
Speaker 1: depending on what you're dealing with on the ground. And
6:53
Speaker 1: every single morning I would wake up and I'd be
6:55
Speaker 1: limping for the first five minutes and it was drastically uncomfortable.
6:58
Speaker 1: And then if I went for a run, you know,
7:00
Speaker 1: maybe the first five ten minutes wouldn't feel okay, but
7:03
Speaker 1: then as time went on, it would feel quasi normal.
7:06
Speaker 1: But I just never felt like myself. I was always
7:08
Speaker 1: dealing with some sort of pain. And so I can
7:12
Speaker 1: say that after January of twenty twenty three, I experienced
7:17
Speaker 1: about a fifty to sixty percent reduction in pain. And
7:21
Speaker 1: what that looked like for me was that the symptoms
7:24
Speaker 1: wouldn't persist as long or they would shift completely. So
7:27
Speaker 1: whereas I used to wake up in the morning and
7:29
Speaker 1: have pain walking around the apartment for the better part
7:32
Speaker 1: of say ten minutes, I would maybe walk for five
7:36
Speaker 1: to six steps, and then my foot felt pretty normal.
7:41
Speaker 1: As my days would go on, Typically what I would
7:43
Speaker 1: experience is the more that I was on my feet,
7:46
Speaker 1: the more uncomfortable I would be, and so as I
7:49
Speaker 1: did all of these treatments, I found that not as
7:51
Speaker 1: much to be the case. And then as for running,
7:54
Speaker 1: I began to slowly be able to run for longer
7:57
Speaker 1: without drastic amounts of pain. Now that doesn't that even
8:01
Speaker 1: to this day, like at the end of this marathon,
8:03
Speaker 1: I was limping a little bit, but it was nothing,
8:07
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing like it was at the beginning of this
8:11
Speaker 1: training cycle. And I actually would say that most people
8:14
Speaker 1: are a little limpy after they finished a marathon. Anyway,
8:19
Speaker 1: as I continue to go on and tell a little
8:21
Speaker 1: bit about my experience, I do want to caution that
8:23
Speaker 1: this is my experience in mine only if you are
8:26
Speaker 1: dealing with something like plantrofasciatis or another injury, I would
8:29
Speaker 1: encourage you to speak one on one with some sort
8:31
Speaker 1: of an expert so that they can diagnose what you
8:33
Speaker 1: have going on and know that my experience is likely
8:37
Speaker 1: going to be different than yours.
8:39
Speaker 2: Okay, now that we've got that caveat out of the way, So.
8:44
Speaker 1: In February and March of this year, I started to
8:47
Speaker 1: be able to integrate a little bit more regular movement
8:50
Speaker 1: into the routine. Instead of going every week twice a
8:55
Speaker 1: week to pt I downgraded to go once a week
8:57
Speaker 1: to PT, I stopped going to the past for the
9:00
Speaker 1: laser treatments, and I started going to acupuncture about once
9:04
Speaker 1: a month instead of every other week. The training cycle
9:07
Speaker 1: for the marathon officially started in I want to say
9:12
Speaker 1: around my birthday, so June, the beginning of June, and
9:16
Speaker 1: as that ramped up, there were some things that I
9:19
Speaker 1: knew were going to be a little bit different.
9:22
Speaker 2: First and foremost, me and my PT Luke.
9:25
Speaker 1: Luke and I had an understanding that I would probably
9:28
Speaker 1: have to do some of my endurance efforts on the bike.
9:33
Speaker 2: I love cycling. I picked it up during the pandemic.
9:35
Speaker 1: I also have a peloton at home, and so the
9:37
Speaker 1: idea was in order to put less load on my
9:42
Speaker 1: foot but encourage an increase volume systematically and strategically, I
9:48
Speaker 1: would add mileage on the bike instead of doing crazy
9:52
Speaker 1: amounts of mileage on the road on foot. And when
9:57
Speaker 1: I tell you that that isn't what we had to
9:59
Speaker 1: do do at all, I I'm so, I feel so
10:05
Speaker 1: truly lucky and so truly blessed in that there was
10:09
Speaker 1: I would say the first like two to three long
10:12
Speaker 1: runs of the training cycle, when I really started to
10:14
Speaker 1: get into it, and we were getting over eight, ten,
10:17
Speaker 1: twelve miles.
10:18
Speaker 2: For those runs.
10:20
Speaker 1: I would run that mileage and then I would come
10:22
Speaker 1: home and do like thirty minutes extra on the bike,
10:25
Speaker 1: because at that point there were individuals that were also
10:28
Speaker 1: training that were looking at a mileage about closer to
10:30
Speaker 1: fourteen fifteen, sixteen miles and I just wasn't there yet
10:34
Speaker 1: from a recovery perspective.
10:37
Speaker 2: But after the first three to four weeks of training.
10:40
Speaker 1: I really was ramping up in my mileage close to
10:44
Speaker 1: someone who wasn't dealing with this kind of an injury.
10:47
Speaker 1: We made the plan that I would be running four
10:49
Speaker 1: days a week, a base run, an interval run, another
10:53
Speaker 1: base run, and a long run. The intervals for a
10:56
Speaker 1: chunk of my training were never longer than three to
10:59
Speaker 1: four minutes, and again we were just systematically me and
11:02
Speaker 1: Luke figuring out a program that felt best for me
11:05
Speaker 1: and my body. I didn't work with another coach this
11:08
Speaker 1: time around, although I'm always so lucky and fortunate to
11:11
Speaker 1: have the guidance of my dear friend Nike Running and
11:14
Speaker 1: Endorphins coach Rebecca Stow, And it feels like just yesterday,
11:18
Speaker 1: like I know, I'm already talking about the training plan.
11:20
Speaker 1: And the fun thing about these recaps is I don't
11:23
Speaker 1: really edit them like crazy, so you're really getting a
11:25
Speaker 1: stream of consciousness here. But I remember clear as day,
11:29
Speaker 1: as though it was yesterday, the first time I got
11:32
Speaker 1: to run on the treadmill for two minutes on one
11:35
Speaker 1: minute off. And I remember going to the Super Bowl
11:37
Speaker 1: in February and I went with my good friend Kim
11:40
Speaker 1: who was training for the Tokyo Marathon, and I ran
11:43
Speaker 1: with her for two minutes on one minute off. And
11:46
Speaker 1: to fast forward from February where I was running for
11:50
Speaker 1: two minutes at a time to them being able to
11:52
Speaker 1: run this marathon shy of four hours in September, it
11:57
Speaker 1: truly feels like I'm so so proud of myself, and
12:02
Speaker 1: that is large in part because I listen to my body.
12:05
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to think about the other things that
12:09
Speaker 1: I want to highlight before I talk to you about
12:11
Speaker 1: the prep for this week. Specifically, I would say that
12:14
Speaker 1: the biggest thing I want to run home is that
12:17
Speaker 1: I had a reasonable expectation that, although I wouldn't be
12:20
Speaker 1: pain free gearing up for this marathon, the goal was
12:24
Speaker 1: to stay at the same level while increasing load, Right,
12:28
Speaker 1: so I wanted to week over week, never increase the
12:31
Speaker 1: load more than ten percent. So what that means is,
12:34
Speaker 1: if you have one week where you are running twenty
12:37
Speaker 1: miles total throughout the entire week, then next week your
12:41
Speaker 1: total mileage shouldn't exceed over twenty two miles, adding ten
12:45
Speaker 1: percent to additional miles.
12:47
Speaker 2: If that next that following.
12:49
Speaker 1: Week, the load should be no more than let's say
12:53
Speaker 1: twenty four to twenty five miles, so every week adding
12:56
Speaker 1: ten percent, And if you looked at my graph on Strava,
12:59
Speaker 1: you literally would see like a perfect, a perfect diagonal aligned.
13:03
Speaker 1: Because I was really strict about making sure that I
13:05
Speaker 1: wasn't doing too much, and in doing that, I was
13:10
Speaker 1: able to accomplish the goal. I was able to maintain
13:14
Speaker 1: a you know what felt like expected level of discomfort
13:18
Speaker 1: and if ever something like truly truly hurt me, then.
13:22
Speaker 2: It was Nope, this isn't happening. We're going to stop
13:24
Speaker 2: this now.
13:25
Speaker 1: But there were times where I would just experience muscular discomfort.
13:29
Speaker 1: There are so many muscles in my foot that were
13:31
Speaker 1: cranky throughout this process, and that was something that I
13:35
Speaker 1: had to get on board with. If I wanted to
13:37
Speaker 1: go after this goal of running the marathon. What were
13:40
Speaker 1: the hardest parts of my training? I would say the
13:42
Speaker 1: hardest parts of my training for this particular race were
13:47
Speaker 1: there was a couple of things. One, I really missed
13:49
Speaker 1: my friends. Over the last few years, I really got
13:55
Speaker 1: immersed in the running community in New York and because
13:57
Speaker 1: of just how I felt training this time around. This
14:01
Speaker 1: is certainly a personal thing, but it made me feel
14:05
Speaker 1: better to do this on my own, which was a
14:08
Speaker 1: little bit of a bummer because I'm sitting here and
14:10
Speaker 1: I'm like, I missed my friends, but running with my
14:12
Speaker 1: friends just didn't feel the same for me, and that
14:15
Speaker 1: they have their own goals, right and bless them, they
14:19
Speaker 1: are running at a different pace than me, and so
14:21
Speaker 1: it was challenging to have to pull back and you know,
14:25
Speaker 1: miss out on some of my long run saturdays that I.
14:28
Speaker 2: Used to look forward to so much. That was a
14:30
Speaker 2: really big bummer. I would say.
14:31
Speaker 1: The other really challenging thing that goes hand in hand
14:34
Speaker 1: with that is the fact that I wasn't able to
14:36
Speaker 1: run like I used to run. I had to let
14:38
Speaker 1: go of the version of myself that I was knowing
14:41
Speaker 1: and having appreciation for that person, but also recognizing that, like,
14:45
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with the fact that I'm in a
14:48
Speaker 1: different place now. And so through letting go of the
14:51
Speaker 1: past version of myself and expecting myself to run a
14:54
Speaker 1: certain way, I was able to be more present and
14:56
Speaker 1: be where my feet are and actually learn to have
14:59
Speaker 1: fun and find joy again instead of being in constant
15:02
Speaker 1: comparison mode. But I say that knowing that that didn't
15:06
Speaker 1: make it easy. It was extremely difficult, extremely extremely difficult
15:11
Speaker 1: to get to a place where I could truly enjoy this.
15:15
Speaker 1: And I remember distinctly that I was on a long run,
15:17
Speaker 1: maybe like a sixteen or eighteen miler, and it was
15:20
Speaker 1: a really hot day, as all long runs typically fall on,
15:24
Speaker 1: because that's just the beauty of training for a fall marathon,
15:27
Speaker 1: and I thought to myself, like, I am not having fun.
15:32
Speaker 1: And I really checked myself after that run. I really
15:36
Speaker 1: had a moment where I was like, if you don't
15:38
Speaker 1: rejigger your approach, if you don't analyze your mindset, if
15:41
Speaker 1: you don't take a step back, then you're going to
15:45
Speaker 1: get angry at yourself. And that is not the point
15:48
Speaker 1: of this entire process. Because I firmly believe and this
15:52
Speaker 1: is one of, if not the biggest takeaway is that
15:55
Speaker 1: the journey here is the destination. The journey to Berlin
15:59
Speaker 1: was a destination for me learning how to prioritize my
16:03
Speaker 1: own health and well being, how to set boundaries, how
16:05
Speaker 1: to listen to my body, how to invest in my
16:07
Speaker 1: body so that my body could show up for me.
16:10
Speaker 1: The journey is the destination, and that is exactly what
16:13
Speaker 1: happened for me over the last three months. I also
16:17
Speaker 1: do feel like it's important to talk a little bit
16:19
Speaker 1: about the training.
16:20
Speaker 2: Outside of the fact that I was able to handle.
16:22
Speaker 1: The load, I didn't feel like I had any maybe
16:27
Speaker 1: two out of got the handful that you do. I
16:30
Speaker 1: felt as though I didn't really have any excellent long runs,
16:34
Speaker 1: and that was really really disheartening, as I really wanted
16:38
Speaker 1: a little bit of a confidence boost, and I also
16:42
Speaker 1: feel like it will help me as I move forward
16:44
Speaker 1: in my life. Not to say that I truly plan
16:47
Speaker 1: on running many marathons after I finished the World Majors,
16:51
Speaker 1: but this was probably the first marathon training cycle out
16:54
Speaker 1: of any marathon training cycle, where I felt this way.
16:57
Speaker 1: I felt as though I always had like one or
17:00
Speaker 1: two long runs that reminded me who the hell I
17:03
Speaker 1: am and that I am capable.
17:04
Speaker 2: But this year the heat didn't let up.
17:06
Speaker 1: The travel schedule was nuts, and it was really disheartening
17:11
Speaker 1: at points. Okay, getting prepared for race day, traveling for
17:14
Speaker 1: an international marathon can be a little bit sticky. There's
17:17
Speaker 1: a lot of things that you've to take into consideration.
17:19
Speaker 1: I've done it a couple of times now. I've run
17:22
Speaker 1: the Dublin Marathon. I also previously ran the London Marathon,
17:26
Speaker 1: so that meant that I had a good idea of
17:28
Speaker 1: what I knew I needed to do to gear up
17:30
Speaker 1: to go abroad to tackle this big goal. One. A
17:34
Speaker 1: packing list is absolutely necessary. I made that about a
17:37
Speaker 1: week before I headed out, and then that way I
17:39
Speaker 1: was able to get the things that were on that
17:41
Speaker 1: list that maybe I didn't have just yet, so things
17:43
Speaker 1: like try Slide or my gift to go packs that
17:47
Speaker 1: I love to make my peanut butter and jelly sandwich with.
17:51
Speaker 1: On race day, I bring my Norma tech boots, I
17:53
Speaker 1: bring a hyper Voltic go So that packing list makes
17:57
Speaker 1: it really easy and takes a lot of the anxiety
18:00
Speaker 1: out of packing and making sure you're not messing things up. Now,
18:03
Speaker 1: of course that doesn't mean that I didn't have anxiety
18:05
Speaker 1: about the fact that I might have forgotten my garment
18:08
Speaker 1: on the counter when I was headed to the airport,
18:10
Speaker 1: but not so ft everything was a ohkay. Other things
18:16
Speaker 1: I did in preparation for this. I will note that
18:19
Speaker 1: I was traveling a ton for work. So not only
18:22
Speaker 1: is it like a huge investment of time and energy
18:24
Speaker 1: and finances that I've had to make over the last
18:29
Speaker 1: three months, but making that investment consciously while also being
18:32
Speaker 1: on the road for work definitely had its challenges, making
18:35
Speaker 1: and prioritizing training when my schedule was not completely my own.
18:39
Speaker 1: Also when I got certain places, like when I got
18:42
Speaker 1: to San Francisco, I was hosting a panel for San
18:44
Speaker 1: Francisco Marathon, working in collaboration with Puma, and instead of
18:47
Speaker 1: going sight seeing the day that I got there, I
18:50
Speaker 1: haven't been around San Francisco since pre pandemic, I went
18:53
Speaker 1: and got a massage and went to a sauna. Controlling
18:55
Speaker 1: the controllables, I had to make certain sacrifices in favor
18:59
Speaker 1: of going after this goal of running my fifth marathon major.
19:04
Speaker 1: I've talked about it on the show before. It's all
19:06
Speaker 1: about opportunity, costs and this had a big one for me.
19:09
Speaker 1: So the packing is done for Berlin, we get over there.
19:13
Speaker 1: I have work in Italy the days proceeding getting to Berlin,
19:17
Speaker 1: so I'm in Italy from Tuesday morning to Thursday morning,
19:20
Speaker 1: and then I fly to Berlin on Thursday morning. And
19:23
Speaker 1: I would say that I really appreciated the amount of
19:26
Speaker 1: time that I had before the race to kind of
19:29
Speaker 1: just relax, put my feet up, do the things I
19:33
Speaker 1: need to do, and not stress out. Just like your
19:35
Speaker 1: body deals with stress physical stress, emotional stress can also
19:41
Speaker 1: be something that can be really taxing on your central
19:43
Speaker 1: nervous system, and that is the last thing that you
19:46
Speaker 1: want to be dealing with in the days leading up
19:48
Speaker 1: to the marathon.
19:49
Speaker 2: So for me, I.
19:50
Speaker 1: Really try to minimize the things, the people, the energy drains,
19:54
Speaker 1: the moments that I can avoid that are going to
19:56
Speaker 1: make me feel stressed as much as possible in the
20:00
Speaker 1: days leading up to going after this big goal. Right,
20:02
Speaker 1: we've already endured so much opportunity costs. The last thing
20:05
Speaker 1: I need to do is deal with stress that I
20:07
Speaker 1: otherwise could have avoided. And so I was able to
20:11
Speaker 1: get my BIB and hang out with some friends and
20:14
Speaker 1: I went to go walk around the Jewish Museum in Berlin,
20:19
Speaker 1: and I had the Hurdler meetup, which, oh my gosh,
20:22
Speaker 1: the fact that like twenty six different women from all
20:26
Speaker 1: around the world, including like different areas of Germany came
20:30
Speaker 1: to spend time together on such a big weekend and
20:34
Speaker 1: again like we are in Germany, the fact that there
20:36
Speaker 1: were twenty six individuals that wanted to do that, Yeah,
20:40
Speaker 1: that completely blows.
20:41
Speaker 2: My mind and made me.
20:43
Speaker 1: I still like I stutter when I think about that,
20:46
Speaker 1: because it makes me feel so excited for what's to
20:49
Speaker 1: come and what's already happened. And yeah, I'm I was
20:53
Speaker 1: just such a fan of every single one of you
20:55
Speaker 1: that showed up that day.
20:56
Speaker 2: So thank you for inspiring me, and you had such
20:59
Speaker 2: nice things to say to me.
21:00
Speaker 1: But truly, I feel as though I can't do it
21:03
Speaker 1: justice to tell you how much you all mean to me,
21:06
Speaker 1: both you listening to this right now and then also
21:08
Speaker 1: you that were there that day.
21:11
Speaker 2: And so we had the Hurdler meetup and it was
21:12
Speaker 2: so special.
21:13
Speaker 1: And then that night I went to dinner with my
21:15
Speaker 1: friend Alex, who I was staying with, and we got
21:19
Speaker 1: into bed.
21:19
Speaker 2: I'm not even exaggerating.
21:20
Speaker 1: Probably at like nine fifteen the night before, I was
21:23
Speaker 1: asleep by nine point thirty. On race day morning, I
21:26
Speaker 1: woke up, I was like so excited. I was up
21:28
Speaker 1: at five, like I could not sleep anymore. But the
21:31
Speaker 1: two nights previous to that, I slept more than eight
21:34
Speaker 1: and a half hours. And I would say to anyone
21:35
Speaker 1: who is an anxious person the night before a race,
21:38
Speaker 1: the most important thing you can do is rest as
21:41
Speaker 1: much as possible in the day's leading up and prioritize
21:43
Speaker 1: your sleep in the days leading up. So I knew
21:45
Speaker 1: that I had one evening that I got ten hours
21:48
Speaker 1: of sleep, another evening where I got eight and a
21:51
Speaker 1: half hours of sleep, and so I had felt I
21:54
Speaker 1: felt really good about what I had going into the
21:58
Speaker 1: night before the marathon, and I still seven hours the
22:01
Speaker 1: night before the marathon. Woke up marathon morning, had everything
22:04
Speaker 1: laid out already, including my timing chip laced in my shoe.
22:07
Speaker 1: Talk about anxiety. They give you the timing chip separate
22:10
Speaker 1: from your bib, so you need to make sure you
22:13
Speaker 1: put it on your shoe and if you forget it,
22:14
Speaker 1: you're out of luck. So timing shoe timing chip was
22:18
Speaker 1: on my shoe bib.
22:20
Speaker 2: On clothes on. This is the rundown of what I wore.
22:23
Speaker 1: I wore Lululemon Traintime short six inch with pockets. I
22:27
Speaker 1: wore the Lululemon they had like a mesh back top
22:31
Speaker 1: a few years ago that I had customized with the
22:34
Speaker 1: words another Hurdle Conquered. I'm working to make those. They
22:37
Speaker 1: will likely not be available at all this marathon season,
22:41
Speaker 1: but they will be out probably early next year, or
22:45
Speaker 1: maybe even for Christmas if we're lucky. I wore an
22:49
Speaker 1: underarmor mid bral bandit running race weight socks, the Sockeny
22:55
Speaker 1: and Dorphin Elite shoe, and I wore my hair in
23:00
Speaker 1: braided pigtails French braided pigtails, Gooder sunglasses. I used U
23:07
Speaker 1: can Edge Energy in strawberry banana and I drank Element
23:11
Speaker 1: two of them before the race, two bottles that I
23:15
Speaker 1: mixed up and brought myself. And I think that is
23:19
Speaker 1: everything the race itself. Okay, so let's talk about the
23:22
Speaker 1: race plan. The race plan was that I the week
23:26
Speaker 1: before was thinking about what would be smart for me,
23:28
Speaker 1: and I talked a little bit about one of the
23:30
Speaker 1: most challenging parts of this whole training cycle being that
23:34
Speaker 1: I needed to stop comparing myself now to the person
23:36
Speaker 1: that I was, and I knew that I could confidently
23:40
Speaker 1: with the training that I did, run a four hour marathon.
23:44
Speaker 1: For context, my previous personal best marathon is a three
23:49
Speaker 1: twenty three fifty six that was a virtual in New York.
23:53
Speaker 1: My previous like in person IRL marathon my PR was
23:58
Speaker 1: a three twenty eight oho eight from Chicago twenty nineteen.
24:02
Speaker 1: And so I knew that I could confidently run a
24:05
Speaker 1: four hour marathon. And I had a friend from my
24:09
Speaker 1: run club here in the city, Old Man Run Club
24:12
Speaker 1: Shout Out, and my friend Janine wanted to break four
24:15
Speaker 1: for the first time, and for her that would be
24:17
Speaker 1: almost a sixteen minute PR. And so I reached out
24:20
Speaker 1: to her and I was like, hey, I was like
24:22
Speaker 1: completely up to you, but I wanted to see if
24:25
Speaker 1: you wanted to kind of go at this together on Sunday.
24:29
Speaker 2: I really feel like I could help you out.
24:31
Speaker 1: We could be there for each other, even if it's
24:33
Speaker 1: like running next to each other with headphones in whatever
24:36
Speaker 1: you want.
24:37
Speaker 2: I would love to do this together. And she was like,
24:40
Speaker 2: you know what, let's do it.
24:41
Speaker 1: And we had like many conversations kind of sussing out
24:45
Speaker 1: like different situations and what could happen and what that
24:48
Speaker 1: might look like for this arrangement that we were setting up.
24:50
Speaker 1: But all things considered, I felt like that was a
24:54
Speaker 1: really smart decision for me because I knew that it
24:56
Speaker 1: wasn't going to have me chasing or feeling as though
24:59
Speaker 1: I was to do something that like, it's not where
25:01
Speaker 1: I am right now. I think that if I didn't
25:04
Speaker 1: have Janine, we went out in our first like sixteen
25:07
Speaker 1: miles or so, were between like eight forty, with the
25:11
Speaker 1: exception of our first one, which was like eight thirty
25:13
Speaker 1: because it was exciting, but like between eight forty and
25:15
Speaker 1: nine oh five. And I think that if I didn't
25:18
Speaker 1: have Jeanine, I probably would have been trending like down
25:21
Speaker 1: to like eight oh five to eight thirty, and that
25:25
Speaker 1: just I think I would have burned out a little bit,
25:27
Speaker 1: and I think I would have just put way too
25:29
Speaker 1: much pressure on myself. And so, yeah, we got to
25:33
Speaker 1: the starting village. I will say this, I didn't think
25:37
Speaker 1: the porta potty situation in Berlin was ideal at all.
25:40
Speaker 1: There were a lot of really long lines and it
25:42
Speaker 1: was really frustrating and anxiety inducing, and the corrals were
25:46
Speaker 1: packed like there were plenty of people that couldn't even
25:48
Speaker 1: fit in the corral before we started, and we had
25:51
Speaker 1: to wait for the race to get going to get
25:53
Speaker 1: into place. So if you were planning to run Berlin,
25:56
Speaker 1: I would say, definitely try to pee asap when you
25:59
Speaker 1: get there, and then know that there are also port
26:01
Speaker 1: potties in the corrals, and then beyond that, don't freak
26:05
Speaker 1: out if you don't fit in the corral. They will
26:06
Speaker 1: let you in before letting the next corral go. So
26:10
Speaker 1: we're in the corral and we start off and it's exciting,
26:14
Speaker 1: right like we're running a marathon.
26:17
Speaker 2: We're out there and.
26:19
Speaker 1: I will I will point out a few highlights from
26:22
Speaker 1: the race. The first like fifteen sixteen miles, Like I said,
26:26
Speaker 1: I believe they were between like eight forty and nine
26:28
Speaker 1: oh five pace. We kept hitting the sweet spot between
26:31
Speaker 1: like eight forty and eight fifty five. And I would
26:34
Speaker 1: look at Janine and I would say the last two
26:37
Speaker 1: numbers like forty seven or fifty when we'd cross another mile,
26:40
Speaker 1: and I'd ask her to give me an rpe, a
26:42
Speaker 1: way to perceived exertion. So for her she'd be like,
26:46
Speaker 1: I'm at a six, I'm at a six she kept
26:48
Speaker 1: being at a six, and I was like, are you
26:49
Speaker 1: okay with this pace? Because we were clearly running faster
26:53
Speaker 1: than you needed to run if you wanted to run
26:55
Speaker 1: sub four. Sub four I believe is nine oh seven
26:57
Speaker 1: pace for twenty six point two miles. We felt good
27:01
Speaker 1: and she kept saying a six, so we kept cruising
27:04
Speaker 1: at this pace. Now, mind you, before I go on,
27:07
Speaker 1: you should note that I've never run with someone else
27:10
Speaker 1: for an entire marathon, and I've never paced someone for
27:13
Speaker 1: a marathon, so.
27:14
Speaker 2: This was definitely new for me.
27:15
Speaker 1: Like I was a little anxious over it, but again
27:17
Speaker 1: like I was confident in my ability and what I
27:19
Speaker 1: could do, so I just was doing the best I
27:22
Speaker 1: could with what I had. And when we get to
27:25
Speaker 1: the nine kilometer mark, which is just shy of six miles,
27:29
Speaker 1: we decided to do a gratitude at the top of
27:31
Speaker 1: every kilometer, So at every single kilometer marker, one of
27:35
Speaker 1: us would go first, and a lot of them were
27:37
Speaker 1: things like my family, my friends, my partner, my sneakers,
27:42
Speaker 1: good food, my health, so many things like we had
27:46
Speaker 1: some really great conversations during this run, and other things
27:49
Speaker 1: were like a little bit less expected. I shared a
27:51
Speaker 1: little something on Instagram the other day about someone that
27:53
Speaker 1: was in my DMS after I went through my horrific
27:58
Speaker 1: twenty mile run for the marathon, in which I decided
28:01
Speaker 1: to go out and try to do it on a
28:02
Speaker 1: ninety six degree day because of my travel schedule, which
28:06
Speaker 1: wasn't my most brilliant moment, and I got a DM
28:08
Speaker 1: from someone who said, like taunting me, well, maybe Berlin
28:12
Speaker 1: isn't such a good idea, and I I, in the
28:17
Speaker 1: words of Cocoa Goth, this man was just adding fuel
28:20
Speaker 1: gas to my fire. And I am, as I said,
28:26
Speaker 1: someone who really safeguards or energy tries to always, but
28:30
Speaker 1: especially leading up to a marathon, like something that I've
28:32
Speaker 1: worked so hard for, and so I don't block people often,
28:35
Speaker 1: but I blocked this man and then he followed me
28:36
Speaker 1: on Strava and then I blocked him there and so
28:38
Speaker 1: I gave him a mile during the marathon. I was like,
28:40
Speaker 1: thank you for the gas, thank you for fueling my fire,
28:43
Speaker 1: and thank you for reminding me the beauty of boundaries.
28:45
Speaker 1: And it's just one of those things that it's all
28:47
Speaker 1: about perspective, right, Like I could have let him get
28:49
Speaker 1: to me, and I refuse to let him get to me,
28:51
Speaker 1: because I valued my energy, my space, and my mental
28:54
Speaker 1: health way too much to cave to that kind of
28:56
Speaker 1: conversation or that dialogue. So I gave him a kilometer,
29:00
Speaker 1: and then I gave the last ten kilometers to my body.
29:03
Speaker 1: I felt just so grateful, honestly, like so truly thankful
29:09
Speaker 1: that I was able to show up to that starting
29:12
Speaker 1: line period and considering that, you know, again that one
29:17
Speaker 1: minute on, two minutes off, I was doing that this year,
29:21
Speaker 1: and then I was able to tow the starting line
29:23
Speaker 1: and cross the finish line of a full marathon. I
29:28
Speaker 1: just it's hard to come to words or like really
29:31
Speaker 1: articulate what that really means to me, because I just
29:34
Speaker 1: I'm overwhelmed with gratitude. So those last ten k where
29:38
Speaker 1: every one of them, they were all for my body
29:41
Speaker 1: and what I was able to do that day. Talking
29:45
Speaker 1: about the specifics about the race, I would say we
29:47
Speaker 1: started to hit some hiccups, like on the back end,
29:50
Speaker 1: as a lot of individuals do during a marathon. You're
29:53
Speaker 1: out there for a long time. The water stations in
29:55
Speaker 1: Berlin got really chaotic after twenty and there was a
29:59
Speaker 1: lot of water on the ground. We were jumping through puddles.
30:02
Speaker 1: My friend that I was pacing, shout out to Jeanie
30:04
Speaker 1: and Jeanine like to do a walk through the water
30:07
Speaker 1: stations because the cups that they were using were really
30:09
Speaker 1: hard to like bend and sip out of while you
30:12
Speaker 1: were running. So this way, if we slowed it down,
30:15
Speaker 1: we could drink the water out of the cup, make
30:16
Speaker 1: sure we got in that hydration because that was super important,
30:19
Speaker 1: and then like get back to going. But I was
30:21
Speaker 1: determined to keep the pace, so I would start to
30:24
Speaker 1: try to drink it regardless and keep moving and then
30:27
Speaker 1: have her catch up to me, and I'd hold my
30:29
Speaker 1: right fist out and she'd fist bump me when.
30:31
Speaker 2: She got to me, and then we'd keep going.
30:34
Speaker 1: Another strategy that we use during the marathon was if
30:36
Speaker 1: we were ever like really ahead of pace and I
30:38
Speaker 1: knew we had more time left to go in the mile,
30:41
Speaker 1: so to speak, I would have us jog until we
30:44
Speaker 1: hit the next mile. So say, if we were running
30:47
Speaker 1: and we were on something like eight forty pace and
30:50
Speaker 1: we could be running eight fifty five, I'd get to
30:53
Speaker 1: like point ninety six in the mile, and I had
30:55
Speaker 1: this tracking on my garment on my left wrist, and
30:57
Speaker 1: then I'd say jog and we'd jog it out out
31:00
Speaker 1: for the rest of that mile, and then when it
31:03
Speaker 1: started again, we'd go back to running pace. And that
31:05
Speaker 1: was something that we actually both really enjoyed and kind
31:08
Speaker 1: of like had a little reprieve in the midst of
31:11
Speaker 1: everything that specifically that idea of run the mile that
31:16
Speaker 1: you're in was really really, really, really really pertinent for
31:20
Speaker 1: me this marathon. I've never gone into a marathon with
31:23
Speaker 1: that mantra, but it's so relevant to I mean, especially
31:28
Speaker 1: this entire training start, like this entire training cycle and
31:31
Speaker 1: what I've been going through personally. Not much of that,
31:35
Speaker 1: I guess I've talked about on the show, but yeah, it's, uh,
31:41
Speaker 1: you have to meet yourself with where you are and
31:45
Speaker 1: you know, whatever happened already, Like, I can't change what's happened.
31:50
Speaker 1: I can't change the past, but I can do my
31:53
Speaker 1: best and do the best with what I have going forward.
31:58
Speaker 1: And I again, like, I'm not who I was at
32:01
Speaker 1: this time last year. I'm not who I was this
32:03
Speaker 1: time five years ago. I'm not the same Emily that
32:06
Speaker 1: ran a three twenty eighth eight in Chicago in twenty nineteen.
32:09
Speaker 1: I'm an entirely different woman right now, and that woman
32:13
Speaker 1: still has value. I have moments where I've felt so
32:18
Speaker 1: frustrated with my body this year, and when I think
32:22
Speaker 1: about what happened in Berlin, I really do feel I
32:28
Speaker 1: feel like I shouldn't have been so hard on myself.
32:32
Speaker 1: It's not lost on me that we are the people
32:34
Speaker 1: that we speak to the most in any given day.
32:36
Speaker 1: And I will be the first to admit that my
32:38
Speaker 1: dialogue this year has been not the nicest. And it's
32:42
Speaker 1: something that I'm working on, and I'm speaking with a
32:45
Speaker 1: life coach, and I'm working with some other experts, and
32:49
Speaker 1: I'm trying to wrangle all of these demons that I
32:55
Speaker 1: feel like I've been fighting for a multitude of reasons.
32:57
Speaker 1: And in that process, yes, I am reminded to stay
33:02
Speaker 1: in the mile that I am in, and I am
33:05
Speaker 1: reminded that if you break it up into little doables,
33:09
Speaker 1: it feels a lot less overwhelming, right. And so to
33:13
Speaker 1: be in that marathon and to pace Janine and have
33:16
Speaker 1: the setting on my watch that was like clicking by
33:18
Speaker 1: one mile out a tie, one mile at a time,
33:20
Speaker 1: one mile at a time, it I obviously had like
33:23
Speaker 1: the mile markers or the kilometer markers on the course.
33:25
Speaker 1: But it wasn't until we got to seventeen point eight
33:28
Speaker 1: that I remember changing the setting on my watch to
33:30
Speaker 1: see and double check, like how far we had gone total,
33:34
Speaker 1: to see how much progress we had made. And I
33:36
Speaker 1: was blown away by how much progress we had made.
33:39
Speaker 1: And I think there's a really beautiful analogy there, right,
33:41
Speaker 1: this idea that if you're just so much more dialed
33:45
Speaker 1: in on the little moments, and you're embracing that gratitude,
33:48
Speaker 1: and you are where your feet are and you're being present,
33:51
Speaker 1: then it just feels so much more damn doable. And
33:56
Speaker 1: that truly is exactly what happened out there on Sunday.
33:59
Speaker 1: I felt so much more capable, and I can say
34:02
Speaker 1: confidently that like we never hit the proverbial wall.
34:05
Speaker 2: Something. Also want to make sure I touch on marathon nutrition.
34:08
Speaker 1: I consume six you can edge gels during my race,
34:13
Speaker 1: all six of them. I was taking one roughly every
34:17
Speaker 1: like six k or so. And if I forgot the
34:20
Speaker 1: last time that I took one, which you should be
34:21
Speaker 1: able to do basic math, and I should.
34:23
Speaker 2: Have been able to do mesic math.
34:25
Speaker 1: But obviously, when you're running a marathon, your head's not
34:27
Speaker 1: always screwed on completely the normal right way, and so
34:31
Speaker 1: I would just take one again. There was one aid
34:34
Speaker 1: station on the course where they had more in gels,
34:36
Speaker 1: which I have had before, and I took two of
34:39
Speaker 1: those just to have with me in case I felt
34:41
Speaker 1: as though I needed something else, but I stuck to
34:43
Speaker 1: the six you can't edge that I brought with me.
34:46
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put a link in the show notes where
34:48
Speaker 1: you can get a free sample back. All you have
34:50
Speaker 1: to do is pay shipping. They are a sponsor on
34:52
Speaker 1: the show, and so definitely definitely take advantage of that. Otherwise,
34:57
Speaker 1: at every aid station, I try to drink either water
35:01
Speaker 1: or the more than one sixty drink mix was on
35:03
Speaker 1: the course that was like their electrolyte option. They also
35:06
Speaker 1: did serve tea on the course, which was absolutely ludicrous.
35:09
Speaker 1: I accidentally grabbed a cup at one point and I
35:11
Speaker 1: was like, what is this and they were like, it's tea.
35:13
Speaker 1: It wasn't warm tea, it wasn't cold tea. It was
35:16
Speaker 1: like room temperature tea.
35:18
Speaker 2: I have no idea. I have no idea, but no.
35:21
Speaker 2: I basically drank drink mix.
35:24
Speaker 1: At every station had those six gels and I never
35:29
Speaker 1: really felt as though I hit the wall. I felt
35:32
Speaker 1: really confident and how my body felt, my stomach didn't hurt.
35:36
Speaker 2: All was good.
35:37
Speaker 1: I remember, with like five miles left, I looked at
35:39
Speaker 1: Jeanine and I was starting to do math in my head,
35:41
Speaker 1: which isn't necessarily my strongest suit, and I said to her,
35:44
Speaker 1: if you can run a ten minute mile for the
35:46
Speaker 1: next six miles, like we've got this in the bag.
35:48
Speaker 2: And she was like, we can do this.
35:50
Speaker 1: And I looked at her and I said we can
35:51
Speaker 1: do this, and we fist bumped and then we kept on.
35:53
Speaker 2: Kept keeping on. We kept on keeping on, and yeah,
35:59
Speaker 2: I mean.
35:59
Speaker 1: We got toward the end and again like it did
36:01
Speaker 1: feel like we were racing the clock because we were
36:03
Speaker 1: cutting it close. Like I said, the time for us
36:06
Speaker 1: was around three point fifty eight, forty three and forty
36:09
Speaker 1: four respectively, and so those last two to two point
36:15
Speaker 1: two three miles we were booking it. I think the
36:18
Speaker 1: last two were eight thirty and eight minutes maybe, And
36:21
Speaker 1: the funniest part truly was that we get to Bradenburg Gate,
36:25
Speaker 1: which is like this big monument that's like right by
36:27
Speaker 1: the finish, and I think the last like point one
36:30
Speaker 1: is right after the gate or something like that. And
36:33
Speaker 1: we get through the gate and I look around and
36:35
Speaker 1: I've lost Janine and I don't see her anywhere. And
36:37
Speaker 1: in my head, I was like, oh no, we did
36:39
Speaker 1: not come this far to only come this far. So
36:41
Speaker 1: I'm looking all around me for Jeanine. I do not
36:43
Speaker 1: see her. I literally stop, like I stop running and
36:46
Speaker 1: I'm steering for her. I think like maybe she faded.
36:48
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm panicking. There were runners running by me.
36:52
Speaker 1: I give it like probably that long, like six seconds
37:02
Speaker 1: of time, and I'm like, I guess I have to
37:04
Speaker 1: keep running, and so I start sprinting for the finish
37:07
Speaker 1: to try to make up the time that I just
37:08
Speaker 1: spent standing there. I sprint and find Janine who had
37:11
Speaker 1: passed me, and we crossed the finish line together. And
37:16
Speaker 1: we crossed that finish line absolutely exhausted and just like
37:22
Speaker 1: collapsed into one another's arms and we're crying, and it
37:26
Speaker 1: is just like, I swear, as amazing as it felt
37:29
Speaker 1: for me and like so special to cross off this
37:32
Speaker 1: goal and to do this and to show myself like
37:35
Speaker 1: I can and what happens, and I invest in myself
37:37
Speaker 1: and in my body. There is something so special about
37:40
Speaker 1: seeing someone that you care about do the same, and
37:43
Speaker 1: to see her in that moment like it made me
37:45
Speaker 1: think of of the you know, the milestones that I
37:48
Speaker 1: had been through, and when I qualified for Boston and
37:52
Speaker 1: in that Chicago, my previous PR I think was something
37:56
Speaker 1: like three forty seven, and I ran up three twenty
37:58
Speaker 1: eight or three forty nine, I don't even remember.
38:01
Speaker 2: But it was something like that.
38:02
Speaker 1: It was almost it was twenty minutes that I cut off,
38:05
Speaker 1: and that was something that I never thought possible. And
38:07
Speaker 1: Janine said to me so many times that day when
38:10
Speaker 1: we were celebrating, she said, I never thought I'd run
38:12
Speaker 1: a marathon, so for I never did. I never, never,
38:15
Speaker 1: never thought it was possible. And so to her, I say,
38:19
Speaker 1: look at what happens when you trust your training, when
38:22
Speaker 1: you trust yourself, and when you just go for it,
38:24
Speaker 1: when you stop believing whatever narrative it is that you're
38:28
Speaker 1: telling yourself and trust your gut, like such amazing, amazing,
38:32
Speaker 1: beautiful things can happen.
38:33
Speaker 2: And I'm so proud of you.
38:35
Speaker 1: I know you're listening to this right now, and I'm
38:36
Speaker 1: so proud of Eugenie, and I'm so honored that we
38:38
Speaker 1: were able to do that together, and I'm so grateful
38:42
Speaker 1: for OMRC for introducing us, and yeah, just I wouldn't
38:45
Speaker 1: have changed a single thing about that run. I really
38:48
Speaker 1: wouldn't have. I feel now. I'm I think, three days
38:52
Speaker 1: out after the marathon, I feel better in my body
38:55
Speaker 1: than I think I've ever felt after a marathon. I
38:59
Speaker 1: am not I will say the only casualty. I have
39:03
Speaker 1: some gnarly chafing, and I think it's just because how
39:06
Speaker 1: salty I was on that day. But it's not cute,
39:11
Speaker 1: and it's ring lines from the top of my shorts
39:14
Speaker 1: and the bottom of my sportspra there like literally circles
39:17
Speaker 1: around my body and it is slightly unnerving. But I've
39:21
Speaker 1: been putting neosporin on that. I feel really I don't
39:26
Speaker 1: know how many times I can say this on one episode,
39:28
Speaker 1: I feel really grateful. I think there are some things
39:30
Speaker 1: that I'm still kind of working on and like I'm
39:33
Speaker 1: working through and maybe I'll talk about them in depth
39:35
Speaker 1: a little more at some point. But like I said,
39:38
Speaker 1: like I've just had such a difficult relationship with my
39:40
Speaker 1: body over the past two years, and that is large
39:42
Speaker 1: in part because of it changing a little bit as
39:47
Speaker 1: a result of different medications that I've been on. And
39:50
Speaker 1: I was reminded on Sunday that not only do I
39:54
Speaker 1: need to be kinder to myself, but that we are amazing,
39:57
Speaker 1: and I am amazing, and I am capable so many
40:00
Speaker 1: ways to do so many things. And when you do
40:07
Speaker 1: something like run a marathon, you know, it's not about running.
40:12
Speaker 2: It's that reminder. It's that reminder that we are great.
40:14
Speaker 1: It's this reminder that there is so much that is
40:20
Speaker 1: out there for us if we just believe in our
40:22
Speaker 1: own potential.
40:24
Speaker 2: And yeah, I feel really really good about that.
40:30
Speaker 1: We went out and we celebrated in Berlin after the marathon,
40:33
Speaker 1: and I was with some good friends and Janine and
40:35
Speaker 1: her husband and my friend Alex, and then we went
40:37
Speaker 1: to a party at the Berlin Braves and it was
40:41
Speaker 1: just so much fun. I am really looking forward to
40:44
Speaker 1: unplugging now, and I am also really really looking forward
40:53
Speaker 1: to finding a little bit more of the joy in
40:57
Speaker 1: running as I move forward, not being so hard on
40:59
Speaker 1: my self and building on this progress. Like I said,
41:02
Speaker 1: I mean, my goal is to run all six world
41:04
Speaker 1: marathon majors. I'm hoping to check off Tokyo from the
41:07
Speaker 1: list early next year. So that means I have a
41:10
Speaker 1: little bit of a reprieve for a few months right
41:12
Speaker 1: now until we get back to it. And I want
41:13
Speaker 1: to make sure that I continue this forward momentum, that
41:16
Speaker 1: I continue to take care of my body, that I'm
41:21
Speaker 1: being kind to myself. I really had to trust my
41:24
Speaker 1: gut and trust myself and put in the work this
41:27
Speaker 1: time around. And not to say that training for other
41:29
Speaker 1: marathons like I didn't have to put in the work,
41:31
Speaker 1: but this was just a different kind of work. It
41:33
Speaker 1: looked different than it ever had before, and I had
41:37
Speaker 1: to trust it and I had to trust myself, and
41:40
Speaker 1: at times that felt really challenging and it was hard
41:44
Speaker 1: that it looked really different. But just because it looks
41:48
Speaker 1: different doesn't mean that it's not working. And I'm sitting
41:52
Speaker 1: here three days after running my twelve marathon, and I
41:55
Speaker 1: can tell you that it worked.
41:58
Speaker 2: And now we've got some more hurdles to conquer.
42:02
Speaker 1: Like I said, if you've got more questions, I'm all
42:04
Speaker 1: here is I'd love to answer them in an upcoming episode,
42:06
Speaker 1: So leave.
42:07
Speaker 2: Me a voice message. Lilling to do.
42:08
Speaker 1: That is in the show notes. And if for some
42:11
Speaker 1: reason that's acting a little wonky for you. You can
42:13
Speaker 1: always email us your voice memo over at Hello at
42:17
Speaker 1: hurdle dot u s. That's it for this week, another
42:21
Speaker 1: hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time.