Extraordinary Strides
Running Through Challenges: Lessons from Nick and Julie's Marathon Tales
Why do bad runs or bad running weather conditions happen to good people? Join us as we welcome the official royal couple of the Extraordinary League, Nick and Julie, who share their triumphs and tribulations in preparing for Grandma's Marathon. We'll explore how embracing the tough runs, leaning into the running community, and finding joy in the journey can transform your running experience.
Ever wondered about the logistics of marathon day and the benefits of race bib mailing? We dive into the seamless organization of Grandma's Marathon, from the efficient bus transportation to the starting line to the warm Midwest hospitality that makes each runner feel welcome. Nick and Julie compare these experiences with other major race events, including Run Disney, offering valuable insights for seasoned and aspiring marathon runners. We also touch on the fun and functionality of race expos, where you can snag high-quality gear and discounted running shoes.
Facing the challenge of a marathon head-on, Nick and Julie recount their race day, navigating picturesque routes and unpredictable weather. They discuss their future running goals, the importance of maintaining a balanced lifestyle, and offer advice on handling DNFs (Did Not Finish) and transitioning between training cycles.
Celebrate the camaraderie and resilience of the running community as Nick and Julie inspire us with their determination and heartwarming stories from Grandma's Marathon and beyond. Join us for an episode filled with humor, practical tips, and a love for the journey that makes running such an extraordinary pursuit.
Have questions or want to chat? Send me a text!
Join the newsletter list for updates, special offers, and exclusive behind-the-scenes content.
Join fellow pod and running enthusiasts at The Stride Collective community on Facebook or follow us on Instagram.
Why do bad runs or bad running weather conditions happen to good people? Join us as we welcome the official royal couple of the Extraordinary League, Nick and Julie, who share their triumphs and tribulations in preparing for Grandma's Marathon. We'll explore how embracing the tough runs, leaning into the running community, and finding joy in the journey can transform your running experience.
Ever wondered about the logistics of marathon day and the benefits of race bib mailing? We dive into the seamless organization of Grandma's Marathon, from the efficient bus transportation to the starting line to the warm Midwest hospitality that makes each runner feel welcome. Nick and Julie compare these experiences with other major race events, including Run Disney, offering valuable insights for seasoned and aspiring marathon runners. We also touch on the fun and functionality of race expos, where you can snag high-quality gear and discounted running shoes.
Facing the challenge of a marathon head-on, Nick and Julie recount their race day, navigating picturesque routes and unpredictable weather. They discuss their future running goals, the importance of maintaining a balanced lifestyle, and offer advice on handling DNFs (Did Not Finish) and transitioning between training cycles.
Celebrate the camaraderie and resilience of the running community as Nick and Julie inspire us with their determination and heartwarming stories from Grandma's Marathon and beyond. Join us for an episode filled with humor, practical tips, and a love for the journey that makes running such an extraordinary pursuit.
Have questions or want to chat? Send me a text!
Join the newsletter list for updates, special offers, and exclusive behind-the-scenes content.
Join fellow pod and running enthusiasts at The Stride Collective community on Facebook or follow us on Instagram.
Hey rock stars, welcome to Extraordinary Strides. I am Coach Christine, and I am thrilled to have you here Joining me today. On this podcast, I have the official royal couple of the Extraordinary League. Nick and Julie will be with us, sharing all about their journey to Grandma's Marathon and their race weekend experience. So if you've ever been curious about Grandma's, this podcast is the episode for you.
Speaker 1:I can tell you that I definitely want to sign up after listening to them, but I'll let you decide if it's something that maybe you want to put onto your run agenda in your future plans. But before I have them join us, I want to get into why good runs happen to good people. You know what I'm talking about, right? Everything is rocking and rolling, and maybe you are just on the cusp of spring and then summer hits, and then it feels like every single run is a slog fest. Or maybe your training was perfect and come race weekend, you just don't exactly get what you were hoping for. Well, especially this time of year, there is no doubt that bad runs tend to happen. It's difficult, it puts a lot of mental drain on us as runners, and there's those days, though, when you just lace up your shoes and you think that it's going to be a fantastic run, you head out the door within minutes. You question every single life decision that led you to this point. I don't mean like I'm speaking from personal experience or anything like that, but truly, again, it happens and I promise you it's not a personal attack. It doesn't mean that you've lost all your fitness. It does not mean that the world is against you and that running hates you, because really what happens is that those bad runs are just as important as those good runs. Those bad races are just as important as those really good races. It builds character, resilience and they teach us valuable lessons about ourselves and what we need to tweak, to continue improving or to continue progressing along on our journey.
Speaker 1:First of all, I'm going to encourage you if you have a bad run or race, don't try to fix everything right away. It's not in my nature to say that or to even do that. I want to fix it, like what went wrong and how can I fix it? But just embrace those feels First. Just think about the fact that, yeah, it didn't feel great. Let yourself feel disappointed, frustrated, even angry. Picture your emotions as the characters from Inside Out, maybe even Inside Out.
Speaker 1:2. Joy is trying to stay positive, but of course we know the sadness needs to be able to feel those feels Anger. Well, anger is ready to blow a fuse. Fear is freaking out, disgust and maybe even a little ennui, because we're so bored of all of this. It's just so hard that we're thinking I'm just going to give this all up. What's the point anyway? Even embarrassment can come into play, but that's okay. We're learning that we should experience and fully lean into those emotions. That doesn't mean we need to let them take completely over and allow them to spiral us into a full despair. So that says's where setting a timer on it. That's right, my friends, whether you decide to give yourself 15 minutes an hour, 24 hours, whatever it is.
Speaker 1:My one big word of advice for this, though, is that that time limit has to be at its completion before you lace up for your next run. You can't take what happened in your last run into today or the next one. It's very important. But another way of doing this is to lean into our community, and we know running can be a solitary sport, and we love being able to get out on our own, clear our thoughts, maybe run away from everybody else and not have to hear or listen to anyone's questions or demands or needs during our time alone with running. But just like you want to share all those wonderful highs, those PRs, those amazing training runs, it is imperative that you also share those lows with your running community, because your running friends get it. I mean, they've been there, they've run that. Quite literally, they have the same tales to tell. Your coach also comes in clutch right around here. I promise you your coach really does want to hear both your highs and lows from your training runs.
Speaker 1:By sharing and connecting with other individuals that get it and share a different perspective or have a new, fresh perspective to give you, or maybe just to add in a little commiserations of their bad runs or two, it's going to help you realize you are not alone and those bad runs become less of a burden and more of a shared experience and then blip in the whole training journey that you are on, which brings us to the power of perspective, because sometimes a bad run is just that it's a bad run. But if you find yourself in a rut, consistently having bad run after bad run after bad run, well then I'm going to tell you it may be time to take a little bit of a step back and make those tweaks, or figure out what exactly is driving all of these runs to not be enjoyable, because that's exactly what we want out of our running journey. Yes, we're gonna have hard runs, we're gonna have difficult runs, we're gonna be challenged. That's why we love it, but it shouldn't be a source of stress for every run. So when you have that perspective of oh okay, is it a bad run out of 10?, then you just know maybe you didn't sleep well, you didn't hydrate well, you didn't fuel well. But is it time after time again, is it a specific style of run or a specific running route, or maybe even the day of the week? And this is where sharing in with your coach and your community can help you to, kind of like a detective, figure it out.
Speaker 1:But let's say that it is an entire season. That is really when you are going to need to potentially look at either taking off that specific kind of pressure or goal that you may have during that training season, or look at other ways to find enjoyment in movement. Now, I'm not advocating that you break it off and divorce yourself from running forever, but maybe this is a great time to have some flirtations with other cross-training activities. Maybe it's a great time to take a full rest week or a cutback week. Or you get out for a walk or you meet some friends for more of a social time. All of these things are cues as to what's going on in our lives and really helping that to translate to having a better perspective for our runs. And if it is something specific that you've been able to hone in that maybe it's the Saturday long run after Friday you work late every single week then potentially it's a really good opportunity for you to learn from that low and moving forward, looking how you can make some adjustments in your schedule and also looking at the fact that you may need to be prioritizing more rest and recovery.
Speaker 1:It's possible that your bad runs are truly telling you your body needs a break. Don't underestimate the power of rest and recovery. Taking even just a weekend or a couple of runs off. Give yourself permission to take it easy or again making those runs a little lighter, listening to your body and prioritizing that self-care is paramount. However, we know there's gonna be times where you are well aware that you've tweaked everything, you have rested, you've recovered and maybe you're just being hard on yourself, or it's an opportunity for you to be a little tougher on yourself, meaning building that mental strength, fortitude, resiliency and adaptability.
Speaker 1:And I think this is where it gets really hard, right, because we have to learn how to listen to our body but also shut down the naysayer in our mind. But that's what these bad runs are teaching us to do. You want to be resilient, but pushing through the naysayer of your mind that tells you to stop when you're uncomfortable is definitely one of those tools that you can utilize in multiple aspects of your life. Now, this isn't where I'm telling you to not stop if you're in pain or if you're having severe issues, but to really learn how to balance when you have to be giving yourself a lot of self-care and a lot of grace with when you need to be a little bit more resilient and figuring out how to push through. And one of the ways that I feel that is best to figure out how to push through is to really reset my mindset by finding the joy in the hard and finding the joy and the gratitude in the difficult, and I'm not alone in this, I'm not unique to this. That's what running is all about.
Speaker 1:Right, it's truly a journey of ups and downs where we learn to celebrate the good but also find joy in overcoming the challenges, look back at not one run that was bad and really say that I didn't learn quite a bit from it Learned that I can be resilient after failure. I can be resilient when I want to stop and know that I have it in me to continue pushing forward. And there is joy in the hard work and in the discipline and in the structure of training towards our races. So with that, please don't think that I'm exempt. I've had my fair share of bad runs and races, and you will too. My dear, and that's probably the most beautiful thing that I could ever wish for you is for you to live such a long, beautiful life with your relationship with running that you have some ups and downs and learn how to be resilient through it all.
Speaker 1:Now, friend, this feels like the perfect time to say if you are still missing out on your running community, that gets you and gets the ups and downs. Please do join the Stride Collective. Of course, we have that link in episode notes and I promise you there you can share without judgment and a whole lot of love in a sprinkler or two of some pixie dust. That this is what it's all about now. I promised you a race report and I am absolutely going to deliver on that. I want you to welcome on in Julie and Nick. Nick recently completed his first marathon at Mankato and not long after, julie signed them both up for Grandma's Marathon Weekend. This was Julie's first marathon attempt and she made it to mile 11 under some extreme weather conditions, while Nick finished the marathon. They're here to share their journey and their training, their preparation, the race report from the expo race weekend. But, more importantly, what I love is that they're here to share the highs and lows of their running journey. So let's give them a warm welcome and bring on Julie and Nick.
Speaker 3:Hey, how are?
Speaker 1:you doing. I'm good, I'm so excited for you guys. I was not excited for your weather report that you had that weekend and I feel like I tried all of the like, all of the things I placed in order for good weather, but you know it got delayed, so I'm so sorry. You guys did end up having great weather the day after the race, right, that's true.
Speaker 3:So the funny thing is I've never seen Nick pack so much ever, like he prepared for every kind of weather is it gonna rain, is it gonna snow, is it gonna be so hot?
Speaker 1:he had a suitcase bigger than mine, which I've never seen before so, nick, were you a little concerned about the weather, is that, and you wanted to feel prepared or I was very concerned about the weather, just kind of a getting a weather recap.
Speaker 2:Um, the week before, in general in Minnesota it been very, very wet and some pretty strong storms. Where we're actually right now there's a flood warning, things like that. But the week before the race there was a tornado in Duluth. There were massive lines of storms going through at all times of the day. They were predicting a severe storm line going through it right about the start of the race and then it kind of changed to being very cold. The start of the race was still lots of rain and it was kind of difficult to gauge. So I kind of had to prepare for all weather types for the race.
Speaker 1:And Julie, what are you thinking when you're hearing all of this going?
Speaker 3:down. So I mean, we grew up in the Midwest, so if you don't like the weather, you just wait five minutes. So I wish we would have just waited until Sunday and had the race.
Speaker 1:would have been gorgeous, so there were a lot of concerns that it would be canceled. Were you guys thinking that was the case?
Speaker 2:I think as the time of the race got closer I think the concern went less. But they posted a day or two before the race that at 3 am on Saturday they would put a word on social media to say if the race was on or not. And woke up at three in the morning and they said it was on. So we went.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I felt like the race kept us very well informed about that kind of weather situation, so I don't think we were ever in the dark as to are we going to have it, are we not? They were right on top of it.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm going to go ahead and rewind a little bit and, for the folks that are joining us, maybe for the first time, let us know a little bit about you and your running journey, how you got started and what took you to grandma's. So I'm going to start with you, julie.
Speaker 3:So I am just a Disney princess who has to have a day job, so I was looking for kind of exercise type things going on in like 2019, 2020. And I stumbled upon the Disney princess races and so I had done those and then that kind of started the journey of more miles and more miles, and more miles and eventually led me, led me to you. Of course, we had met through a run, our running journey as well and in terms of like app and training and things like that and then really, as we kept going, I caught the running bug and you sent me that. So this is love cinderella song and you weren't wrong, so we signed up. I have a a reputation, as probably many of your listeners know, of just kind of signing us up for things. I have been pinky promise sworn to never do that again after this weekend, so maybe that won't happen anymore.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I think that sometimes us runners have a short memory, but we'll get back to that, because I am super curious to find out more. Nick, how about you and your running journey?
Speaker 2:I grew up playing sports and so sports is just part of running, was just part of playing sports and I actually honestly hated running. It was the worst part of playing soccer and all that. But I did it because I had to, and then I was in the military. I had to run because you had to, because I had to. And then I was in the military, I had to run because you had to.
Speaker 2:And then right about 2019, 2020, we were just talking with a group of friends. We were like, hey, let's do a race or something like that. So I reluctantly said, let's okay, I'll do the 10K and that'll be my limit and everything like that. I've done some 5 and 10Ks in the past and the day comes by and Julie's like, well, no more 10K. So I signed up for the half marathon. So I was kind of thrust into it. But I really enjoyed my first 4A into half marathon and I've done the princess half marathons ever since and we've done a couple of half marathons and, as she mentioned, mankato last year was my first marathon and then this was my second.
Speaker 1:So how does it feel being a two-time marathon finisher? Do we see it happening for a three-peat?
Speaker 2:Ask me again later.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's still too fresh. It's still too fresh.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to completely say no, but definitely nothing in the near future.
Speaker 1:Okay, I want to hear more about maybe like the differences between the two marathons for you specifically, but before we get to that, let's talk a little bit more about maybe leading up to this race for both of you. First, I should say to folks, you guys are incredibly busy and you have a lot of other passions and hobbies outside of just running, and your work is very demanding. So tell me a little bit about your training journey leading up to Grandma's.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, my job is one of those where you're like, am I going to be here until 11 pm or am I going to get to go home and eat dinner with Nick? So it's just kind of. I guess my favorite thing that we do is exercise confetti, just like sprinkling things around so you can get your movement in, get activity. I don't always push the button on my watch to record it, but I feel like these are the things that kind of keep me motivated and keep me going. And plus, I love tap dance. So in the middle of all of these training sessions we did a tap recital, which was real fun too. So I feel like just time on my feet, and those kinds of things were my focus for the training cycle.
Speaker 1:Right, right, and you definitely have a lot of time on your feet from your job and then with tap dancing and then the exercise confetti, so you have very little rest in between. And I'm curious, nick, it's pretty similar for you as well, correct? Maybe not the tap dancing?
Speaker 2:No, not tap dancing. No, I feel like I did more of a traditional type training run run three to four times a week, one longer training run, one or two easier runs and kind of a speed run here. So I kept pretty well to that and then it worked very well for me for that first one in Mankato and then I think it worked pretty well here for that second one as well.
Speaker 1:Do you feel like they were similar? Did they feel different for you this time around?
Speaker 2:I think, based on how busy we've been recently, I may not have gotten the full effect of the training this time, but I definitely agree that it was. I felt very well prepared for it. I just think just for my schedule I didn't get the full benefit of how I could have done it.
Speaker 1:Okay. So this is where I'm gonna have to caveat and let folks know that everyone's always their harshest critic and, of course, he's not giving himself enough credit in regards to balancing it out with everything that's going on. So, yes did great, you both did phenomenal, and that's what's beautiful about training. Everybody's journey is going to look very different, and I love that you guys are here to kind of explain the differences of your journeys. Okay so, we're starting to get closer to grandma's and life is lifing. What are we feeling? Maybe the couple of weeks going into it and we see it's on the horizon.
Speaker 3:So grandma's has this really neat thing and I think, kind of transfer bib distances, if you feel like maybe you can't train or you know there's some sort of injury or something like that, and so the trick is is that it has to be something that's available. So a lot of the times I was thinking while I was training that I might not be able to do the full marathon, but I think that having that be something that was new and different was something that kind of kept me going for continuing to have Ron and do the exercise confetti. Just like Nick said, we've been participating in half marathons and 10K distances and I think that the marathon was the thing that kind of the distance kept me kind of more on track in that way, excited Gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 1:What about you, nick? Are you feeling a couple weeks out? Are you feeling good about it? This is before we officially have like a real weather, like we know not to start looking this close into what the weather is going to look like, but are you already starting to have concerns about the weather training, any of those typical kind of thoughts going in through your mind?
Speaker 2:No, actually at that point I didn't have much concern about the weather. I know we were having some storms going through and I didn't expect anything major in Duluth and actually I think I made a comment to you about three, four weeks before the marathon. I felt like if I ran a full out half marathon right now I'd probably PR. I felt that good about some of the training going on here. Some of the longer runs I was kind of iffy about but I felt the training went very well for the majority of the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would concur. So that's always good. Okay, so we're feeling a little confident, a little excited, all the typical butterflies that we all have going into race days. That's why we do it partly. But now we're actually coming up to packing up the car. You guys drove up there, right? Yes, okay, so tell me all about, like, the drive up, what is the discussion, what are the thoughts there, and then actually arriving to Duluth and kind of taking in the whole, because the entire city comes out for this race, does it not?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, this is a big event. This is like expect 10 to 20,000 people in addition to all the other residents in Duluth. This is a huge event for them I kind of like. So all of our races that we had kind of done before for the most part, especially because they're at Disney, you know you have to pack your suitcase and everything has to be checked and so you're always worried like triple and double and quadruple checking Do I have this, do I have that?
Speaker 3:So a lot of it was they had a racing shop. We checked and we had. They had a racing shop in Duluth and downtown. We knew that if we had forgotten anything we could drive to the store and get something. So in terms of Nick overpacking, I mean that was not exaggerating, that's hilarious to me, but because we got to drive and we actually. So there's a lot of people in Minnesota who do this race and they said you know, you're probably not going to want to get stuck in that Friday traffic. And they were right. So we took Thursday and we went up there and we kind of took the day Friday and just kind of took it easy and it was nice.
Speaker 2:Did the run on town, did the expo dinners and kind of got ready.
Speaker 1:So for folks that are considering this or maybe they haven't considered it but are starting to look into it, maybe looking at the website tell us about the expo and how it's organized, what your experience was, maybe how it compares to some of the other expos you've experienced.
Speaker 2:So what I want to compare it to is probably the Disney one, okay, because it's probably comparable in size, but I think it was very well organized. Actually, I preferred this one as compared to the Disney one. It was all in two arena-style buildings, so similar to Disney, you pick up the bib in one arena and you load it out of the Expo Hall. I think the big pickup was really good.
Speaker 2:Actually, there was something that we did kind of split here so you could pick up your bib at the facility or they can send you everything in the mail, and Julie did everything in the mail, which was the bib, the gear bag, all the tickets and information you needed to do. So you didn't even have to go to the expo if you really didn't want to. You can just get your mail packet and then show up at the starting line and then to go into the expo. I picked up my packet there, walked around and saw the exhibitors and I think that it was much more structured towards runners. But there was a lot of merch there, a lot of local organizations as well. But I think that it was very well set up and very well organized for the size of the event.
Speaker 1:I have a couple of things I want to clarify on that. So with the race bib mail that's something that I see a lot more races offering that what would you guys say that your experience was on it? It sounds like it was. Although you went to the expo, it sounds like it just made things much more convenient.
Speaker 3:It really did. So I've not that I just signed us up for races, but there may have been another race that I had signed us up for that offered the option, but it was a cash option, so you kind of had to pay that extra money to do it. I think that if this is something where you're like I could have an extra day of work or they could mail it to me and I could skip the expo and just show up on race day. It was so convenient and I was not sure because when I saw what included was included with NixPacket, they sent every single thing to me that was included. So if my experience is that I get everything that I need and I don't have to worry about going to the expo, paying for parking, going in just to get my bib, because that's all that I need, and then going back to my race hotel, I would say that it was a great experience just to have it mailed.
Speaker 1:Awesome, okay, so that's a good tip for the future, that I think it might even be worth it for the extra dollars, just so you can, like you said, maybe work an extra day or not have to stress about it. I want to touch on the fact that, nick, you mentioned that there were a lot of runners and it was geared towards runners, and I assume that you're kind of comparing it to like run Disney, where it is sometimes more of a Disney enthusiast who's doing it for fun, who maybe are doing their walkers. There's a lot of race walkers that are signing up for bigger distances now as well.
Speaker 2:I think it was very well accepted by everyone.
Speaker 1:Awesome, I love to hear that.
Speaker 2:I think the crowd of racers is a little bit different than the Disney racers, but I think everyone was very well accepted In general. I think anyone that runs outside in Minnesota is very well accepted here, regardless of race or anything like that. So I think it's kind of just general for the Minnesota area.
Speaker 3:I think what was really neat is they at this race. So you know, disney doesn't need to advertise itself, people will pay the extra for whatever. But at this race we did actually have a couple of extra races that people who might be interested in doing an additional race or be trained in the training cycle maybe do another race, and so they had a lot of walker friendly races at the expo that they could talk you through like race courses.
Speaker 3:They actually had some training for like run Minnesota, which is like a training program that they kind of bring you through. So I think, depending on your where you are at in the journey, I think that they kind of bring you through. So, I think, depending on where you are at in the journey, I think that they kind of brought things for everybody. So people who weren't really sure what equipment they might've needed, there were a lot of experts there to guide you through. Hey, maybe you wanna try this in your next training cycle. Or hey, this half is really amazing and a lot of people PR and they BQ and do all these things. So I think, yeah, like Nick said, it's geared to everybody.
Speaker 1:Okay good. So we have a welcoming vibe and maybe a little bit of that really like wonderful Midwest hospitality that they're kind of known for, so a lot of friendliness. Let's talk about this gear, because I'm hearing that this expo sounds ginormous. Was there gear that you hadn't seen before, or products that you hadn't? Or maybe you've been curious because you've seen it online that you got to have your hands on it for a little bit?
Speaker 2:There were a lot of very running specific shops here and I'm under the rule in general that don't try anything new on race day. Unfortunately, I was not prepared for one type of weather and I had to get a new type of. This company had a specific type of jacket where it was a rain jacket. It was weatherproof. You can remove the sleeves in the jacket and make it more of a vest and things like that, and I ended up buying it and actually it saved me because that's what I wore during the event. I did have another waterproof jacket but I wasn't as comfortable in it as this one, so it did help. But in general, I think that there were a couple of shops from Minnesota, a couple of shops from Wisconsin, which is very, very close to the area, and they had pretty much anything running that you would request. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So one thing I bought a pair of shoes and they're on the Saucony website. They are $225 at the expo. I got them for less than 200.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness yeah.
Speaker 3:So and they're Okay, right there, people should go. So even if you're in the area and you're looking for some running shoes, they had them in the back towards the bibs, Just saying I feel like that's like runner's math, of like financial, like let's pay for a race and run 26 miles so that we can get $25 off our shoes.
Speaker 3:Shoes, right that is. That's totally a runner's math thing. It's probably just a Julie math thing in general. But the other thing that I saw, that was really neat. So there's a running shop in town, so let's say you couldn't find it at the expo and you were really like there was a. Ok, I'm going to say it wrong, Martin Moritan, you know the goo, the goo packet. Yep, you said it correctly. Perfect, With a name like Zach Weijer, who knows. So the race packets. Someone had not brought theirs and they couldn't contact with the actual race company that was closest to the downtown and someone drove it to their hotel.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is definitely Midwest hospitality. I can't even fathom that in a lot of other settings. That's incredible.
Speaker 3:Isn't that cool, yeah. So they posted on the website and said hey, if you want to give this race company some business, they're really awesome.
Speaker 1:So I love that. That is so wonderful. Ok, I'm curious at this point are we feeling more confident that the race is not going to be canceled? Are we still on the 50-50 as to what's going to happen? I mean again, the communication was great, but what are we thinking at this point for ourselves?
Speaker 2:I think by Friday afternoon it was pretty evident that unless something massively changed in the next few hours that it was probably going to go on. So at was pretty evident that unless something massively changed in the next few hours that it was probably going to go on. So at this point, which went into preparation mode for getting up for the next morning?
Speaker 1:yeah, okay, so let's talk about that. So what are you thinking? As you're heading to bed and again, I assume you unpacked your car with all the stuff that you had and you're laying things out what are you thinking for the next morning as to what is your primary thoughts, your goals, your feelings about it?
Speaker 2:I think I put out my first outfit selection, just kind of make sure everything was good. I was trying to carry as little as possible but as I kept thinking as the conditions changed, I realized it probably was not the best option at that point. So I wanted to go without like a hydration bag backpack, but I ended up going with it and then kind of just carrying a couple other things and we talked earlier that week about things to help with more equipment involved running extra socks and some Ziploc bags and things like that for everything, and so I ended up packing all that and it took a little bit more weight on. But I feel like I had to prepare for every option until basically getting to the start line.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you're ready. You may have again a couple of extra layers, or maybe a couple of extra things that are new to you because of the situation which, for the record, friends, although of course we're always going to say, try nothing new on race day, there's always going to be exceptions to the rule, and this is definitely one of them. I mean, there's a lot of folks that travel for big destination races and weather can be vastly different than what you trained in. So I love that you were prepared in that way. What are you thinking, miss Julie, the night before, in the morning of so you?
Speaker 3:know, I think very similarly, we kind of laid out our flat runners to make sure that we had all the things.
Speaker 3:So I think the thing that worried me is I don't do a lot of wet training, like I don't run out in the rain on purpose. So I think for me it was a lot of like so if I needed a different layer or if I need another pair of socks or whatever, just like Nick said. So kind of planning for that. And then you know, I think that the other part of of my race preparation is just kind of the nerves and anxiety in terms of you know, am I going to finish? And you know, if something happens, you know how do we see each other at the end of the race, so all of those things kind of go through my head. So just kind of managing that and finding a way to calm my mind down. And we ended up going to bed a lot earlier than we usually do at Disney, which was kind of a neat thing as well, because there's no haunted mansion or fireworks to distract us.
Speaker 1:Were you actually able to sleep that night?
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, not as well, but yeah, I guess I got a little bit of a kick.
Speaker 3:I mean, I read my Kindle reader until I couldn't read anymore and fell asleep pretty easy.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay. So I'm curious. We wake up in the morning. We were set, we've got those extra layers on. We're trying to stay as dry as possible in the starting corrals let's talk about that. Do they have starting corrals? Do we have to be in the corral? Do you get to self seed? All these questions, my friends.
Speaker 2:Yes, they do have corrals, but before that, so they actually are very organized with buses to the start line. So the start line for the marathon was actually in a little town called Two Harbors. They found a little dealership right out there along the route and that was kind of the start hub. But around town there were six or seven different bus pickups. There was one about a mile from our hotel that we went to and they started picking up the people for the half marathon, I believe like 4, 4.30. And then for the marathon was 6, 5.30, 6, 5.36.
Speaker 2:And the buses kept going. It was from the Duluth Transportation, some school buses near it, so it kept going. So you have to go on a bus. There was no private parking at the facility, just mostly for volunteers. So the bus was very good at the facility, just for mostly for volunteers. So the bus was very good. We actually had a situation where a bus had a check engine light in the middle of the route to the race so they took us all off and there was a bus two minutes behind that picked us up. So we got in pretty, pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nothing like a bit of pre-race hitchhiking to start the day I was going to say, oh my gosh, I think I would have been so anxious in that moment, but I love that you guys kept your cool and that they did have such a great organization level. I'm curious here when we talk about this, I want folks to know that Grandma's is a point-to-point type race, so that's why you're hearing so much discussion around the buses. Because you're going to start in one city, you're going to finish in the other city and the buses are needed to be truly on point. So you usually bust quite a ways away for your point to point usually. So I would say your bus was what? Maybe a 30 minute trip.
Speaker 3:Yeah, at least I would say yeah. We were probably on the bus for about 30, 35 minutes to go to the starting corral there.
Speaker 1:So similar to run Disney, except that you're not stopping at several different locations and your bus drivers didn't seem to get lost.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's a really neat thing too, because you know Nick mentioned that you have like seven different stops, but each stop has its own bus, so you're not stopping at the mall and then stopping at the dealership, and then stopping at the next point, and then the next point and getting to the end You're picked up at the mall and you can just go straight there. So that's kind of nice too, and everyone had a seat. We're not like standing and like smushing on. They had enough buses. Everyone sat for the 30 minute ride.
Speaker 1:So I love that there was no smushing on. I mean seriously, like we're already nervous enough, we don't need to necessarily cram ourselves in that point. So great conversation about the buses. We get off the bus, we get to the start line, or how does that work? How are we walking a lot to get to the start line?
Speaker 2:Maybe about a quarter or third of a mile to start line.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they estimated a third of the mile but I have to say like we got off the bus and maybe walked past a line of porta potties and we were there, it didn't feel very long at all.
Speaker 1:I mean, your guys are making me want to sign up so, like great bus transportation, I don't have to walk that much to the start line. I have a friendly individual who's going to bring me my bib when I forget it. I mean, come on, yeah, no.
Speaker 3:And I mean so the course itself, which I'm sure we'll kind of get into as well, but, like all, the entire race weekend was just so well planned so it didn't feel like I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 3:Their social media game was on point. They sent us emails even throughout the training season. So of course we have a fantastic coach. But they had if you didn't, they had coaches that were sending us emails, you know, every week, every other week, about like wellness, meditation and caffeine and running, and so they really tried to pay attention to like what people would want and think about. Like they kind of thought in their heads what a, what a runner would maybe want. I think that the really thing about the corrals because obviously this is a big deal in our run Disney races, because this is what we're comparing it to I kind of sat by corral B, I was given corral C and I kind of sat and waited by corral B for Nick to come out of the port-a-potty, which is a whole nother situation, but no one said like, oh, your bib says C, you have to move along. You know you can't be here.
Speaker 1:It was just basically a guide for people to sign up and self, but they weren't super stringent about it, no no, no, not for the crowd.
Speaker 2:So they actually had multiple different starts. They actually had an elite pack. There were Olympians there and I think this was a big Boston qualifying event. So they had an elite men's group that went off, a women's group that went off, and then there was basically one massive start. You just started wherever you were in the crowd. It wasn't like in Disney where they hold every so often and they start you again here. Just the gun went off and you basically just went. Yeah, everyone kind of moved forward.
Speaker 1:So it was kind of a roll through Okay, which is, yeah, everyone kind of moved forward. So it was kind of a roll through Okay, which is incredible for me to even fathom, considering how big this race is. It sounds like everybody really was fully adult and complied and stayed safe. Okay, so how long are you in your corral? And then we'll get into the course. But how long are you guys are in the corral maybe.
Speaker 2:We weren't in very long. We got there. Julie got her spot. I tried to find a very short Porta John line, which was difficult to find, so she actually started the race by the time I got out and I just met her up in the beginning of the race after we started. Basically.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it seemed very relaxed. So you know, with the Run Disney everyone kind of smooshes. I don't know there's a lot of smooshing at Run Disney. There's a lot of bus smooshing and corral smooshing, so there wasn't a lot of that. People just kind of waited for people to go and you know, oh no, it's OK, you go ahead. And there wasn't a lot of pushing and shoving and trying to get to the front and people will get behind you and things there that. So you could start and Nick just kind of caught up after. So it was good.
Speaker 1:Is it possible that it's because we don't have I'm not hearing an overwhelming fear of balloon ladies that are going to come and attack us and throw us off the course, or actually the bike, the cyclists, the sweepers? Is that part of why we don't feel smooshing going on?
Speaker 3:So it's very funny. So the course itself is basically just a paved road and the paved road kind of goes through the downtown at the end, but for the most part it's a long paved road where people's houses are on and so there's a lot of court. There's like a lot of the marshals and things the race marshals that go along. So I was hearing the race marshals talk as they're going and there's like, yeah, there's one guy behind the pacer trucks, but he does this every year. I couldn't help but laugh. So they know like people do this. So long. There's one guy behind the pacer trots, but he does this every year. I couldn't help but laugh. So they know like people do this. So long there's a guy who's like I do this for 30 years, so I just know where I have to be at a certain time. They don't really close it, it seems. You know there are a lot of people who are quote behind the pace of the course, but they're like, yeah, he does this every year.
Speaker 1:It's fine. Yeah, okay, well, that's good. So again, for folks that are a little bit more concerned about finishing time, it feels like this is a more relaxed vibe, so it takes a little bit of that pressure off.
Speaker 3:I feel like, yes, and I think maybe that's why our half marathon is so popular. So they say that you know they want you to be done in the 14 mile minute per mile pace. But I think that that's so. Everyone is kind of scooched over for the elite marathon runners to come through. But I don't think they really swept anybody from the half marathon who wanted to continue.
Speaker 1:Okay so that was kind of nice. So do they have the marathon and the half marathon starting at the same place, or we have the half marathon starting at the 13.1? And then it finished it. You guys all finished together. Okay, so they're starting at the 13.1 and then it finished, you guys all finished together. Okay, so they're starting at the midway point for the marathon route and they have their own separate start line and they start before or after. They start before. They start before, okay, yeah, I think they start about an hour before.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, so there's a lot of again. We're hearing some incredible organization and a lot of tips for folks that are maybe considering doing this, and it sounds to me like if you are going with people and you're signing up for different distances, it needs to be taken into account too that that first race morning you're probably not going to be together because you're going to two completely different locations, right, okay? So when does the weather start to turn?
Speaker 2:So we were in line to get on the buses at the mall there and it started to sprinkle. It was probably 50 and sprinkling and people had ponchos on and their rain gear and things like that and it was kind of on and off. When we got to the start line, I think it subsided just a little bit and actually got up to about upper fifties with no rain and then about an hour after the starts when it kind of got miserable.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm sorry that it got miserable, my friends, but let's talk a little bit about that at this point. Are you talking to each other about how miserable you are? Misery does low company or are you guys just trying to be as positive and upbeat for each other?
Speaker 3:I mean, I think so for me. I like I said I don't, I didn't really do a lot of wet weather training and I was just really feeling it. I mean it was kind of cold and things like that. And I was just really feeling it. It was kind of cold and things like that and unfortunately I have obligations on Monday that people would be really mad at me if I called in.
Speaker 3:So I think for me I was like you know, nick, you trained, you do your race and you run, and for me I was just like well, I'll get as far as I can get and without coming down with a cold or you know, feeling like I have a cough, and it was about mile 11 for me. So I think that the the scenic piece of the race was so gorgeous I mean the waves and the color and the lake and they had different historic markers along the way and it was just really beautiful. So I think that was easy to keep in your mind is what a gorgeous race this is. I think the hard thing was like my fingers are feeling like they're not maybe there and I can't push the buttons on my phone it's easy to change the songs and my feet are rubbing a little more in my shoe than I would have expected, so that was something to work through.
Speaker 1:You are a Disney princess, though, because I love how you're silver lining the fact that, like you're worried, your fingers are going into hypothermia at any point. You're going to freeze them off. Okay, disney princess, I got you, so there was some beauty to see around you but still also making a really wise choice of not pushing past to the point where you could have potentially had some issues down the road. Nick, what are you thinking at this point, when you hear that you are going to continue on in this not so fun conditions? Are you thinking do I really want to do this? Do I want to?
Speaker 2:I knew that one way or the other I was going to continue. It just kind of, at that point it's mind over matter. I know physically I was going to, I was able to do it regardless, but it's just kind of thinking do I really really want to do this? And and I thought back to myself, well, the training done and as far as I've come and actually we've come through a lot of training together but I felt like I almost obligated myself to finish. So I knew that I had to push on and so I did as much as I could to get me past that. And after we separated about mile nine or so, I was doing really good and even though the weather was really, really bad, the scenic atmosphere was really good and it's like superiors on the left and you can start seeing downtown. And then the weather got really really bad and about mile 19,. There was a big hill About mile 19, 19, 20. Lemon drop hill, A big hill, and I was like I don't want to do this anymore.
Speaker 1:So at this point, are you thinking I am still going to do it. Even though I don't want to, I'm going to push through. Are you thinking I hate this and I am never running again?
Speaker 2:I was thinking to myself I hate this, but if I can physically do it, I'm going to finish. So that was my thought process. I got you.
Speaker 1:So how are you guys feeling at this point where you're no longer together? Are you staying in communication? Do you know, like, where you're going to meet up at the end? What are the thoughts here?
Speaker 3:So for me. So I ended up, of course, kind of not completing, but they have really great aid stations all along the way and they had a system for people who you know under trained there were. So there were literal grandmas there. They would announce them at the finish line, which was really neat. So I mean they had octogenarians running this race, which is fantastic. So of course they're planning ahead for you know who's finishing and who needs a little bit of extra ride to the finish line. So you know, getting on the buses and all of that was very organized as well. So they have a race tracker, which was really nice.
Speaker 2:I could tell where Nick was, even if he wasn't texting me, and then I was able to text him. So signal wise we were good that way. For the most part, communication signal is okay if you're got, if you need to have wi-fi for any kind of live banding or anything like that, for podcasts or serious, if that's something you do, that that may not have been the greatest, but but at least texting was available.
Speaker 3:Texting was good, and so the bus that kind of scooped me up at around mile 11 drove us to the finish line about maybe, maybe like a half mile to three quarters of a mile from the finish line.
Speaker 3:So you know if you could either get back on the bus to wherever your car was or you could walk to the finish line and, you know, wait for your party. So people who were kind of not physically capable of getting over to the bag gear check at the finish line, they would just go get your bag for you. So I was able to walk over there. I showed them my bib, they let me in and grab my bag gear. But I was also able to sit at the finish line and just cheer people on, which I think was my favorite part of the race, besides getting to start with Nick, getting to like cheer people. How cool they were that they were finishing a marathon. I may have, may not, found a photographer that was taking pictures of people as they were sort of ending the race and I sort of made a few people ugly cry and it was like the best.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love you Again, disney princess. Okay, at no point. Are you a little sad? Are you so joyful of being able to cheer on others that that kind of takes away from any kind of sadness Cause? The time that I did not finish a race, I still stand by. That was the best decision that I could have made for myself at that race Like, and I had no regrets. I was actually happy as I could be by making that decision. But I'm curious how you felt.
Speaker 3:I think same. I think that of course, you're always disappointed that you couldn't finish what you set out to do in the first place. You know, when you sign up you have no intentions of not finishing the race. That's why you sign up. But I think being able to cheer on all the people that had accomplished their goal, I mean that that felt really good. So, like you said, I knew I made the right decision.
Speaker 3:I knew I had to go to work on Monday and be a hundred percent, you know, and I didn't really leave myself a bunch of time to. You know, usually when we do the Disney races, we're like it's fine, we'll just finish out the week. We usually take the week off afterwards and recover, and we really just didn't do that this time. I mean, nick's incredible. He went right to work on Monday. I was hobbling around, but that was fine too. But I think that everyone there was so encouraging, like even the people on the bus were like this is great, we're gonna do this again next year. You know the weather got us this year, but it's okay, we'll come back. And there was another guy who's like this is my second attempt at this. He's like the 80 year old grandpa beat me last year. I tried to get him this year, still didn't win. So it was good, the vibe there was really good.
Speaker 1:So I have to ask are you thinking that you'd want to go back with all the folks that were on the bus.
Speaker 3:I mean, I'd rather not ride the bus, if that's what you're asking.
Speaker 1:I know no, but would you want to, do you take on their opinion where? Ok, I want to come back here specifically to this race and tackle it again.
Speaker 3:I mean, obviously it's always hard to tell about Midwest weather, but I think that this was a great race and I can understand why, just with the mentality of all the people who were cheering you on. I mean, they have a troll mile. I don't know if you want to comment about that, but I mean they just have so much fun and cool people around you that it's hard not to try to do your best. And you know, qualify for Boston, I suppose, if that's what you're after.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I'm curious about that. I'm going to get them back to that. But I want to ask Nick, how are you feeling when you start to know? When do you know? I mean, you knew from the get go. It sounds like your mindset was there, but when do you know? Like I am almost to this finish line, I can't wait. And how are you feeling?
Speaker 2:I think the point was after we separated from Julie, I read earlier in the week you had to get past, I think, mile 19 by a certain time, or else I'd kind of make do more of the sidewalk. So that was. My goal is to get to mile 19. And I pretty much knew that I'd get the mile 19. As long as I, you know, able to be upright, I should be okay. And so that was my first goal was to get the mile 19 afterwards. And then after that I felt like, regardless, as long as nothing major happened, that I could make it so after mile 19,. That was good. The one kind of fallback with that was about mile 22 or 23. I just have to stop at a portage on it. I was praying and hoping that I could stand back up to finish the race. But I did it and I got through it.
Speaker 1:So good for you, my friend, good for you. Ok. So you guys, you see him crossing the finish line. You're cheering him on, yes.
Speaker 3:What are you thinking? I don't know. He amazes me. I think the thing that I observed when he was crossing the finish line is his running form looks as good when he starts threes as when he ends threes. Like you, you couldn't tell if he was just starting or he was finishing a long, 26.2 marathon. So I think that Nick is very determined and he sets his goals and he just goes for it and I think that that's amazing. And you know, I got to cheer on people that I didn't know and you know, to tell them how cool it was and how proud I was of them. And then I got to see him, and I do know, him, that was even cooler.
Speaker 3:Were there tears.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, or I don't know, because it's so cold, can you have tears? That might be dangerous at this point, little frozen icicles hanging down my sheets, okay, Well, congratulations again, nicholas. I love so much Julie that you have such positivity about the weekend. I'm curious then, what's next for you guys? What are you thinking?
Speaker 3:I mean, princess is my thing, like the Disney races. We're actually signed up to do some wine and dine the wine and dine weekend. We did not do the half marathon, but we're going to do some wine and dine the wine and dine weekend. We did not do the half marathon, but we're gonna do the five and 10k. And then I took an entire day off to do this disney registration for princess day. So that is a national holiday in our household.
Speaker 1:We will be there, okay good, so we'll be seeing you there. And nick, what about you? What are you thinking? And I'm gonna caveat that while you're gonna answer this again, I have to stress that both of them have a lot of passions. You guys are what I would term is called the well-lived runner. So it's not that you live to run, you live to like have running as part of this really big balanced life. So Nick is into hockey, as we heard, julie's into dance. They have other hobbies and passions and running kind of fits into those different puzzle pieces. So I'm kind of curious, given that, what you're thinking as your next steps.
Speaker 2:As Julie said, we're going to do wine and dine and hopefully the princess and if we don't get in, the princess because recently, like Disney, has had some debacles. We have had some plan B discussions about where to go if we can't get in. But the plan is to do probably another two half marathons next year or so. There also is a very local circuit called the Stillwater Circuit which is about an hour from us and they're very well organized. They do halves and 10Ks and things like that. So I think we'll do one of those maybe this year and then a couple more next year.
Speaker 3:So at least that's my plan going forward those maybe this year and then a couple more next year. So at least that's my plan going forward. I think that if you have any runners on your podcast who are into destination races, like a racecation I know caitlin does these things minnesota highly, highly recommend like not in the winter. Do not plan winter races in minnesota. Do they even have winter races in Minnesota? Oh, yes, yes, they do, they do. So here's a fun thing. So let's say you really wanted to do this grandma marathon thing but you didn't sign up or you couldn't get in. So they have something called the inline race where if you want to run the exact same race, you can ski it like roller ski or skate it like roller skate or inline skating or you can run it. So if you're really into like cross-country skating, then you can do that. So it's in September in Duluth.
Speaker 1:Okay. So, guys, for anybody who's listening and you couldn't see her face it sounds like September is not the time that we should maybe make our way up there, at least not as native Floridians, anyway Winter light.
Speaker 3:No, no, no Okay.
Speaker 2:But I must say in defense of that though, when we did the Mankato races last year, it was end of October and the weather was much better in Mankato than it was in Duluth in middle of June. It was gorgeous.
Speaker 3:It was in Duluth in middle of June. It was gorgeous, it was really nice.
Speaker 1:So there you go. You just have to again have Julie make the plans for us, and maybe that's how you can get a little bit of your fix of signing folks up for things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you tell me what you like, I'll find you a race we can have. You sign other folks up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it Okay.
Speaker 1:So let's talk a little bit about that. You have officially pinky promised no more marathons or no more races that you're going to sign up, aside from the already discussed princess.
Speaker 2:Definitely no more marathons at this point. I would reconsider it, but it would have to take a little bit of debate before I do that again.
Speaker 3:I mean, I don't know. Koli, you've heard of this Hawaii marathon, haven't you? Yes, are you guys thinking about it, doesn't it sound amazing? There's a luau at the end.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, but we could also do like Stitch's luau here at Walt Disney World after doing a 10K, so we can make our own.
Speaker 3:Right man, you pick your poison.
Speaker 1:But the Hawaii marathon. You guys are definitely welcome back to give us the race report in Hawaii whenever you officially hit the switch on that one. All right, my friends, what word of advice, caution or wisdom would you leave with somebody? And I'm going to ask from different perspectives. I'm going to ask you, julie, from the perspective of somebody who was concerned about pacing what would you give to somebody who maybe is more of that party pace and they're just kind of worried? Maybe they've been chased by the balloon ladies before?
Speaker 3:The PTSD is hard to shake down but it's different and especially the more you get away from the Disney races and do more community races, there's a lot of people who party, pace and do a great job with it and really enjoy the race for what it is. There was a lady I ran into who had an affirmation every mile she went through and she was walking. I had ladies who did it for their 60th birthday and they were walking right next to me. So I think it's something that kind of promotes a camaraderie. You know, towards the end, you know you're focused on other people around you too and just enjoying the scenery and the people for what they are. And I was really worried. I know, coach, you and I had talked a lot about like well, what if they don't have buses to get back and do I have to knock on someone's door and borrow their phone and rely on some Minnesota kindness? But I feel like in these bigger races, from what I've experienced, they have something for you.
Speaker 1:They've got to take care of you. I do know someone who ended up hitching a ride back on a truck with one of her loved ones that was supporting and cheering her on because she was done, she was ready to be done. So I gotcha, yeah, okay. So basically do it for the camaraderie, the community and the enjoyment of movement. That's what I'm hearing.
Speaker 3:Very cool.
Speaker 1:Nick, what are your words of caution and advice or wisdom for someone who is maybe signing up for something that they weren't a hundred% sure that they wanted to do, or that it's tackling another big training cycle after finishing another training cycle, like because you came off of one marathon training cycle, had a little bit of recovery and then went right into another one? What would you give as advice for folks in that situation?
Speaker 2:I guess if it was more specifically geared towards this race here or in general.
Speaker 1:In general.
Speaker 2:I think that the transition was actually relatively easy because I had already finished the marathon. I wanted to let my body rest a little bit more and kind of go back into it. So it's kind of like riding a bike, except you're not doing it years in between. So the training and kind of the preparedness and everything like that is fresh in your mind, so you kind of understand, prepared this and everything like that it's fresh in your mind, so you kind of understand a little bit more. And then, in terms of the running, you can tell a little bit sooner if there's something that's a little bit off or you haven't changed anything or you know how your body's feeling, because you've recently just gone through that. So you can listen to your body a little bit more and understand yourself a little bit better. Going for that second one in quick succession Right, I love that.
Speaker 1:I think that's basically what I'm hearing you say is like you're already prepared. Give yourself a little bit of a rest and just get right back into it with that same structure. So I'm digging it All right. My friends, I think these are some incredible official reports and for the record, friends, that you guys didn't know, they had notes like they took this very seriously. So, reporting from straight from Duluth, right for you all, we know exactly where to go for grandma's information. So, of course, reach out if you have any questions. Thank you guys, so much for joining us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks, thanks for having us, thanks everyone.
Speaker 1:I love them so much, truly, I look forward to chatting with them and so glad they were willing to come on and share their journey with us all. So let's talk about DNFs, because clearly that was part of the story in that segment and it does happen. It is a harsh reality that you may train hard, you could be mentally prepared, line up at the start, only to face the unexpected, like they had with weather conditions or just a bad race day. Maybe you're just sick under the weather or potentially even under trained. So I'm going to share a little bit about my DNF that you heard me reference in that segment and truly it was the best decision I could have made for that race.
Speaker 1:I signed up for a trail race in the Rockies while living in Florida, with virtually no elevation changes. I knew the minute that I lined up to that start line, actually even getting to the start line that I had bitten off more than I could chew. Now, mind you again, I'm a Floridian and I think the biggest mountains I have seen are the Smokies and I at that time hadn't really had any understanding of trail running in that kind of an area or elevation changes or rocky terrain and clearly between mile one and mile two, when most of my other runners that were out on the field were utilizing poles and they were practically climbing on all fours to get up the elevation, I started to question my sanity. I was barely hanging on. I had no trekking poles, no trail running shoes. I haven't trained at any elevation besides bridge, causeway repeats. So truly I was completely out of my element and after my second or third slip I decided this is ridiculous. What am I doing here? So I called it and generally I'm incredibly hard on myself and I never, ever thought that I would have a DNF on my history or my record. But guess what, I survived and I learned quite a bit. So I decided to just kind of shake it off.
Speaker 1:I employed a lot of those tactics that I mentioned about shaking off a bad run and I'm going to share a few more things that you can utilize for shaking off the reality if you experience a DNF. Because now, in the scheme of things, of doing what over 200 races and running thousands of miles that one race and that one DNF do not define me or my running journey. And, my friend, if you ever have a DNF, I guarantee it will not define you or your identity as a runner either. So, first of all, embrace the disappointment. As you heard Julie mentioned, she was disappointed.
Speaker 1:It's natural to feel that frustration, embarrassment, or just figuring that you don't want anyone in the world to know that you DNF'd after a bad race. So allow yourself to feel those emotions, but, as I mentioned before, you got to put a time limit on it. You can't wallow in those feelings forever. You can't give up this entire process of running just because you had one DNF. A lot of folks like to define success as being able to complete whatever we set out to complete, and I do believe that there is some truth to that. However, I feel that defining success is showing that resiliency of bouncing back when maybe you've been kicked down a little bit or a couple of pegs or two. So having that resiliency and bringing yourself back up so that you can get going in the next direction, which you do that by reflecting instead of dwelling in those emotions.
Speaker 1:This is when you would process and reflect what happened. What went wrong? Was it the weather? Was my nutrition? Was it my training? I told you already. I could tell you 100% what went wrong before I actually towed up to that start line.
Speaker 1:So in my case, with trail running in Florida, it didn't prepare me at all, but you can tweak and just kind of see what exactly is going on here. Maybe that gives you the opportunity to tackle that same goal again with a completely different way or a different approach. Or maybe it's time to set some new goals, because maybe you're aiming for redemption or you adjust your training to address the issues that you face. Again, as you heard Julie mention, after this specific race that she had, she's decided she's going to refocus her goals on shorter distances and improving her speed, especially during a busy career season of where she's at in her life. That pivot, that positivity allows her to continue showing resiliency and moving forward as a runner.
Speaker 1:So, my friend, I'm going to ask you if this is a relationship that you plan on having with yourself in terms of your health, embracing running as your main jam, then please allow for those highs we want to celebrate them every single time you have one but also those lows to coexist so that you can be the well-rounded and resilient runner that truly does achieve that lifelong pursuit of the extraordinary.
Speaker 1:With that said, friends, I would love if you would continue to lean into our community, and I wanna again ask you to join in on the Stride Collective and don't just kind of join and be a creeper in terms of not posting anything. Truly jump on in and let us welcome you and support you and encourage you along the way. I want to thank again Nick and Julia for sharing their amazing marathon journey with us and that race report. Don't forget to check out all the fun events that we have coming up, because we've got some great meetups, including the shamrock in 2025, where there's all sorts of distances. I'll be giving you more information about that. You can find it for now, though, in the stride collective. Until next time, my friends, I'm going to ask you to keep running, keep shining and keep making those strides extraordinary.