August 19, 2025 • 46 mins
What happens when three strangers meet by chance and forge an unbreakable bond through sweat, tears, and hundreds of miles? Cindy Meyer- "The Pit Bull", Momo Beauchamp- "The Jack Russell", and Terry Clavel- "The Poodle", share their extraordinary journey of friendship and athletic achievement that began in their 50s.
Their story begins with a serendipitous meeting when Cindy's cycling group failed to show up, leading her to join Terry's training group for Ironman Canada. Later, they met Momo during a swim at La Jolla Shores, forming what would become a life-changing sisterhood. Together, they've completed an astonishing 11 full Ironman competitions – each involving a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and 26.2-mile marathon run.
Each woman brings her unique strength and background to their friendship. Terry, a former bodybuilding champion who won Miss San Diego in 1982 and competed in powerlifting, spent her career teaching physically handicapped students. Cindy transformed from smoker to endurance athlete after swimming with her son. Momo, the eternal optimist whom they call "the Jack Russell" (to Cindy's "pit bull"), completed Ironman Utah despite suffering hypothermia during the swim portion.
Beyond Ironman, these women have tackled extraordinary challenges together: swimming from San Pedro to Catalina Island in a midnight relay without wetsuits, cycling 638 miles from San Francisco to San Diego in seven days while raising $10,000 for charity, and conquering the infamous Tough Mudder obstacle course.
What makes their story truly special isn't just the physical feats, but how they support each other through life's challenges. When one doesn't feel like training, the others provide accountability. They've been there for each other through heart surgery, bereavement, and everything in between.
Their message is clear: life doesn't end at 50 – sometimes, that's exactly when the most exciting chapter begins. Ready to find your own "chosen family" and discover what's possible when you have the right people by your side?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to Real People, Real Life.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Let's introduce the people first.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
All right.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
And you are.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I'm Cindy Meyer, my dog is behind me, and that is
Hamilton.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Hamilton.
He heard his name.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
And he's a service dog.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
And I'm Momo Beauchamp and this is Wyatt, and
he's not a service animal, buthe is out of it.
He's got a little leg problemgoing on Poor guy.
Speaker 5 (00:40):
And I'm Terry Clavel, and this is my furry child,
gigi.
Hi, gigi, hi, gigi, hi, terryHi.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
So you guys have an interesting life and some things
in common and you guys are allbest friends.
How did you guys all meet?
Because you guys were runners.
Are you still runners?
Do you still compete?
Oh, I'm kicking ass.
Oh, you look like it, I'mkicking ass.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
So you look like it, I'm kicking ass.
So how did we get so?
I was training for IronmanCanada in 05.
And one of the bike riders upthere we were the group was
meeting.
I was fundraising for ChallengeAthlete Foundation, and so we
were meeting up in Solana Beach,encinitas, and then Cindy
(01:27):
happened to be in the same spotmeeting some other people for a
bike ride not connected withthis group, and her people
didn't show whom she did notknow, and so we just started
talking.
She asked could she join us?
Sure, come on up.
And so we've been friends sincethen.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
And that was for an Ironman.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
I was training for Ironman Canada oh so just to
train that day.
Were you a smoker at the time.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
No, I was not a smoker At the time.
Yeah, exactly, not left-handedcigarettes, just right-handed
cigarettes.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
So that's how Cyn and I met.
And then the following yearCindy convinced me to do Iron
man 06 with her and I was like,oh hell, no.
But I said okay, okay, okay.
Anyway, we were doing a swimout at La Jolla Shores, a
training, and Mo was with teamand training, she was with that
group and they just happenedbecause everybody's kind of
connected.
And that's how we met Mo,because she, because she, joined
(02:22):
our group or we joined yourgroup.
However, that played out andwe've all been friends since
then, great friends.
It just developed intosisterhood.
It's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
And to interject, I just want to mention that when
we met up she was a littlestandoffish because she didn't
understand why I was being sonice to her.
She thought I was coming on toher.
I think.
Well, hey, right.
Speaker 5 (02:44):
It was just different .
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I've never had people be so friendly and so helpful
at this cycle.
Okay.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
It was very different and that's our story, and you
showed up.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
You were the third person to show up.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
I was the third person.
This is our personality.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
You do have a great bright thank you so?
You got the microphone, let'stalk to you for a minute.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
So you spent your entire career in the military
yes, I was uh active duty forsix years and then spent the
rest of my, my whole career for48 years, working for the
military, for the navy that'sand you.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
You got in to boot camp at the tail end of the
Vietnam War.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Did you end up going there?
Speaker 4 (03:32):
No, no, I was a corpsman but I never went to
Vietnam but I did see a lot ofthe damage that was done with
our troops that came home.
A lot of my friends went overto Vietnam and some of them
didn't come back and so it wasvery difficult and it was so
(03:52):
different being in the Navy orin the military during the
Vietnam War than it is todayJust very different.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yeah, the military in general has changed
dramatically from back then tonow the way people view the
soldiers.
After you got out, you went andgot your degree in counseling
and marriage and family therapycorrect.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Yeah, I did.
I'm licensed in the state ofCalifornia, so I went and got my
bachelor's, then I got mymaster's, and how I did it was
it was all on a whim.
Somebody said why don't youjust go get your counseling
lesson, or you know yourcounseling degree and then your
license?
And I said, ok, I'll do that.
Yeah, not knowing what I wasgetting myself into.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Well, and what I found interesting is, instead of
going into private practice or,you know, chasing the dollars
suppose you know with such agreat degree you went back to
the military and served anotheras a civilian contractor another
18 years or so.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
So 38 years as civil service and then another 10
years as a contractor, so 48altogether, and that's including
my six years of active dutytime.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
And acting as a counselor for these military
folks who potentially have seenaction and PTSD and all of these
things that you see them cominghome with.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Yeah, and all of these things that you see them
coming home with.
Yeah, I actually held manydifferent jobs in the military,
meaning as a civilian, and doingtherapy was just a very small
part of it, but it was reallyabout psychological health and
teaching people how to doself-care, which a lot of people
(05:43):
don't know how to do self-care.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
No, and I mean from what I hear and hopefully it's
gotten better, but there seemsto be lacking that help for our
military that returns home andyou see high levels of
depression, high levels of PTSD.
Family, they just can'tre-acclimate.
(06:05):
Hopefully we'll see somechanges in that.
I don't know A lot of suicide.
You see that in law enforcementtoo as well.
I mean these people see some ofthe, they see the dark side of
humanity and while we sleep homein our beds.
It a real sacrifice and I don't.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
I don't think too many people take the time to
actually think about that, whatthese people are doing out there
I I think that in the militarythat there are a lot of services
available for for the servicemember okay, and a lot of times
what happens is it's they don't.
They just can't get the help.
That they need one is becausethey don't.
(06:47):
They don't want to get the helpbecause it may be to be too
hard, because maybe they aredealing with depression.
So you know, as we all know,being depressed it's a lot of
energy.
I mean even to get out of bedand brush your teeth.
So I think that there's just alot of factors that people don't
really think about when servicemembers, families, whoever it
(07:10):
is, veterans are trying to getthe help they need.
I think the programs now, oh mygosh, I think there's so many
wonderful programs.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
That's really good to hear.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
Yeah, and I've seen a lot of success stories with the
programs that are out there andI used to do a cooking class
for our Wounded Warriors andthey loved it, and yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Cooking is such a great therapy.
I love cooking.
Me and my wife love to cook, soit's one of our joys in life to
just experiment and do things.
But we all have to eat, youknow, and so it amazes me how
many people don't know how tocook.
I don't know how to cook.
It's like man you're missingout on.
I mean, when do you go toMcDonald's every day?
(07:51):
I don't know.
So the whole athletic thing.
Let's jump over to Terry.
Let's do, terry, and I believe,terry, that you were a
bodybuilder right.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
Back in the day.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Back in the day.
That's the other thing.
I'm like okay, I got threeathletes here, I better behave
myself.
So I grew up in the 80s and inthe 70s with Mr Universe Arnold
Schwarzenegger, and we would getthe magazines and very few
(08:29):
women were in it at that time.
I mean, we would go to theshows and it'd be all these
built-up muscular men.
Then the women started gettinginto it.
And is that what you did, whereyou would get up there and
you'd flex, and how did you doin that?
Did you ever compete?
Speaker 5 (08:47):
I did, I did.
I was Miss San Diego not forbeauty 1982, I won Miss San
Diego bodybuilding and then Iwon North County.
Well, we're from Sonoma County.
I got Miss Sonoma County thatsame year and then the following
year I went something and Iactually started doing
(09:07):
powerlifting, because back inthe day women's bodybuilding did
not exist, but powerlifting did.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Okay, and that's where they just lift a bar up
over their head right, that'sOlympic lifting.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
Powerlifting is squat , bench and deadlift.
So those are the three liftsfor Olympic Powerlifting.
I mean, that's powerlifting.
Olympic is snatch and clean andjerk.
I did powerlifting and how Iknew about that.
I was a PE major and we were inthe gym.
One of the courses wasweightlifting and I fell in love
with it.
And so then I realized, oh, inSan Diego there's not very many
(09:40):
powerlifting meets and I got todo a men's meet in the old MCRD.
I guess it's still there, huh.
So that's where women could doit with the men.
And I qualified for thenational powerlifting in 1983.
Yeah, I went back to Chicagobecause I qualified for it and
then women's bodybuilding comein.
(10:03):
So I thought, oh, that'd begreat, partly powerlifting
bodybuilding, but I'm notgenetically gifted with a
symmetrical body.
I had to work really, reallyhard, so anyway, so that led to
that and a lot of other.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
That's exciting.
Can we find pictures of itonline?
Speaker 5 (10:18):
I don't.
It was way back in the day.
I don't think it would beonline.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Let's see if we will.
We Back in the day, I don'tthink it would be online.
Let's see if we well, we'regoing to ask for some media that
we can put up on the video.
So you were in the educationworld as a physical education
instructor, teacher.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
I started at a physically handicapped Okay,
Because when I got my degree, myteaching degree 1976 was my
degree.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
What were you like eight years old?
Speaker 5 (10:49):
Yeah, no, this is younger.
And they changed the law inCalifornia from four years of
high school PE to two years so Iknew I wasn't going to get
hired.
So I didn't pursue thecredentialing.
And then, 94-142, the SPED-EdLaw went through, special
education went through,requiring that they have special
(11:10):
ed for all students.
So that's why I got myphysically handicapped and
severely handicapped credentials, because I knew they were
hiring.
So in 1979, that's how I got myfoot in the door at San Diego
City School teaching physicallyhandicapped, and I had three and
five-year-olds.
And what does that?
Speaker 3 (11:24):
entail.
What does that look like as faras?
What was your responsibilitiesto these kids?
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Teaching physically handicapped.
Well, I had the three andfive-year-olds, so there was a
lot of mobility.
Physical agility, againappropriate for three and
five-year-olds.
Physical agility, againappropriate for three and five
years.
And they vary from being like aquadriplegic to maybe a
cerebral palsy, maybe what theycall hemiplegic.
Did I say that right,hemiplegic?
(11:56):
Yeah, so, anyway.
So they might be mildlyinvolved or really physically
involved, but alsointellectually, language,
feeding.
So we work on basic skills likebathrooming, feeding, gross
motor activities, fine motoractivities.
Did those kind of things withthe three and five-year-olds,
basically.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So I want to get your opinion on something they're
saying.
40 to 50% of adolescents andchildren are in the overweight
and or obese category now.
You know it could be a bunch offactors.
One of the things when we growup is, you know, once we ate
(12:36):
breakfast, especially at some,you were outside, right, just
outside, on your bikes all daylong.
You know we couldn't gainweight.
We, you know we wanted to beoutside.
I don't know that.
I mean we would eat at fastfood restaurants.
We'd eat ice cream every week.
(12:57):
You know my parents.
My mom specifically, would cookhome meals every day.
My mom specifically would cookhome meals every day.
But what do you think some ofthe major factors are in this
epidemic?
It's like an epidemic.
It's almost scary.
When you drive by like a school, you look and you're like man.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
Yeah, that's complex too because there's so many
aspects to it.
So you had the TV.
That was the beginning right.
So you had the uh, the um tv.
That was the beginning right.
So you had that, that was um.
And then you have nowadays issocial media all these devices,
and in society you have allthese issues, you know, with
grabbing kids and all theseother things that are going on.
(13:39):
Did that have macday?
Who knows I?
It wasn't the media attentionthat there was so much social
media where it brought that muchattention.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Yeah, we get information from around the
world instantly now, versus yougot your newspaper.
We talked about this.
It's like our.
Our only source of news was thenewspaper in the morning, the
five o'clock local news, andthen there was the national
world news for half an hour atnight.
So, yeah, that was all youwould get, and so you know.
(14:12):
Now it's.
You know everything immediately, and then you have to ask is it
true?
That's the other thing, becauseeverybody has access to put
their opinions out there.
It's kind of crazy.
Okay, so out of the three,who's the leader?
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Okay, it depends what it is.
What's a leader?
I mean, we all have strengths,yeah, and so we complement each
other.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
When it comes to running, when it comes to these
triathlons oh, tri Running, thetriathlons and these Ironmen
Because how many?
Let's hand it over to you themic.
This is fun, we're doing mic,we're sharing the mic with the
talking stick.
Okay, so, Cindy, what I meanbetween the three of you, how
(14:57):
many Ironmans have you guys done?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
All of us.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Oh, she's done five, I did three, eleven and you did
total 16, 17, 18, 19.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
No Five and three is eight and three is eleven.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Oh gotcha, total, Total, 11.
So who's the motivator when itcomes to training for these,
because this is something thattakes a significant amount of
discipline and training.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I think I would lean towards Terry, because she's had
the training with herbodybuilding, so when she makes
her mind up, we basically followsuit.
But Momo is our cheerleader.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I can see that.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
She motivates us.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
So you complement each other very well, yes, yeah.
And thus these achievements.
A friend of ours is Paul Knape.
He's been on the podcast before.
He's going to be on thisTuesday.
He speaks so highly of you guys.
You got to meet these ladies.
They got to meet.
They're incredible.
Just listening to Paul and whathe has gone through from being
(16:07):
a little bit heavy and nottaking care of himself.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
He said he was overweight.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Oh yeah, and we go into that and we even show some
before and after pictures on thepodcast on.
Tuesday.
So, everyone tune in on that,but the amount of discipline
required.
Now Paul just finished hisfirst Ironman brand, which was
not the there's different levels.
He was explaining.
Explain to the audience whatthe full Iron man is all about.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Okay, so it's three things.
It's swim, bike and run, inthat order, because by the time
you get to the end you don'twant to swim and drown.
But swimming is 2.2, correct,2.4.
The bike is 112.
And it's a marathon run, so26.2, right, yeah, so it's a
(17:00):
total of 140.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Total yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I just can't even imagine.
I did 10Ks and that was hardenough for me when I was in high
school.
The bike is last or middle, nomiddle, so you get off this bike
after 100 and something miles.
Yep.
Cool the bike is last or middle, no middle, so you get off this
bike after 100 and somethingmiles.
Yep and then you got to go runa marathon, correct, I mean,
what's your brain telling youand your body at that point, why
am I doing this.
Am I stupid?
(17:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Am I going to make it ?
I came in like three minutesbefore cutoff time.
Which one was that?
That was the one in Canada.
It was in Canada, yeah, or wasit finally?
No, it was Canada.
I think it was Canada, justbarely made it.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Barely made it.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Barely made it and that's all I care about.
I just want to finish.
I don't care if I'm first,whatever, I just don't want to
be disqualified.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
So what I think is kind of crazy is that I talk to
people like this and they'relike why am I doing?
You know, this is especiallythe first one.
They just want to finish andthen they're done.
Their body is maxed out andthen the next day they're on the
computer or in the magazineslooking for the next race.
What is that?
Addiction it is.
(18:12):
Yes, those chemicals in thebrain are firing the dopamine
and all of those things goingoff.
Yeah it, they call it therunner's high, exactly, or
whatever.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
But we've experienced that, yep what a great uh
motivator.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
But I do find that interesting.
So when paul was on, he justfinished running a marathon and
then three weeks later he didthat ironman and you know it has
to do with the training, though, beforehand.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
If you don't have the training beforehand, you will
suffer.
The next day you will not beable to walk, and it was really
weird after we were done withour races.
We're looking at people thatare walking.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
They can't hardly walk and we're walking like, yes
, you know, no problem I foundinteresting about the ironman or
these triathlon events is thereare three separate sports that
require very specific trainingfor each of them.
One of the things Paul wastalking about is he actually was
(19:08):
never thought about triathlonsuntil he broke his foot.
Yep Broke his foot, you know, itseems to be common in this
world and the doctor said, hey,excuse me, you're not going to
be able to run for, you know,whatever 12 weeks or as long as
(19:28):
it was.
And so he decided, well, I'mgoing to go swim just to keep my
cardio going.
And he realized the very firsttime he went swimming that, oh
my gosh, I am not in swimmingshape.
He was breath, he was.
You know, it's a completelydifferent training regimen.
How do you guys balance that?
How do you get the swimming in,running in the biking in?
(19:55):
I mean, that's a huge timecommitment.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Oh, it is, and my husband suffered for that.
We had a swim coach, we had abike coach, we had a run coach.
We had Leslie.
He's a phenomenal athlete, veryfamous.
She just did.
What's that movie?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Oh, all quiet on the Western front.
All quiet on the Western front.
She just did what's that movie?
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Oh, All Quiet on the Western Front.
All Quiet on the Western Front.
She was the director on that.
And then we have Steve who doesour bike.
He does spin, he gives itfreely, he does charges for it.
Then we have a swim coach andhe's taught my son when he was
younger and we've been doing themaster swim there for years.
We haven't been doing it lately, but yeah and that's at like
(20:36):
the that's at the.
Uh, it was at the cajon and justswimming pool, but then you
guys would go train in the oceantoo, right.
Well, we were also training forthe uh channel the channel, the
channel swim to Catalina.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Yes, okay, let's talk about that.
Did you guys actually do that?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Terry and I did a relay of six girls, correct?
I meant six people, yeah, sixpeople.
So we did a relay and you startat midnight and you cannot wear
a wetsuit, otherwise it willnot go down in the books.
So we start at midnight.
(21:21):
You cannot wear a wetsuit,otherwise it will not go down in
the books.
So we start at midnight and thewater is completely black and
you go for an hour.
Was it an hour?
Everybody did an hour until yougot to.
You start from where's that?
San pedro island, san pedroisland.
And then you swim to have asuggestion to catalina yeah,
yeah, wow.
And how many miles is that 24,26 To Catalina, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Wow, and how many miles is that?
Speaker 1 (21:36):
24.
26.
Something like that, or 24.
Something like that.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
So, 10 times what you would do in a Ironman.
Yeah, basically, and you do aone-hour leg, or how many legs
are each person in the relayhave to do?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I did three, but it depends on how fast the next
person is.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
And then where do you go when you're?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
You're on a boat, there's a boat watching you the
whole way, and then you have akayak on the side of you and you
can't touch it.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Can't touch the kayak or it's just.
And did you make it?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, we made the relay.
I did try to do it solo, but uh, the current was really bad no
I was.
I went five miles, they said itwould have taken me 35 hours to
get to the other side, with allthe the current and the current
yeah so not, if we're notafraid of sea creatures got
jellyfish oh yeah, without awetsuit on.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
So you got stung up.
Yep, right, yeah, wow.
Hey, momo, let's get back toyou.
So are you ever sad?
Speaker 4 (22:49):
you know, it's funny, not really just always above
the personality.
I just like whatever, justenjoying yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
I love it.
I love it.
So you did three triathlons.
Were they the full Ironmans aswell?
That's crazy, and you probablyjust finished and signed up for
the next one, right?
Oh this was so much fun.
I had so much fun, or was yourbrain going?
Why did I sign up for this?
Speaker 4 (23:14):
Okay so my last long-distance triathlon full
Ironman was Ironman Utah, whichwas—.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
We're just going to call it the Iron Woman going
forward because— we like that.
These are the Iron Women righthere.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
So it was in St George, utah, and I had— First
time, yeah, first time there.
It Utah and I had.
First time there.
Yeah, first time there.
It was inaugural and the waterwas so cold.
I was going to say that's 50,some odd degrees, and we were
allowed to wear booties andneoprene hoodies, which you're
not allowed to wear in Ironman,unless the water temperature
(23:52):
drops below a certain level.
Okay, so they, let us do that.
So many people on the shorebefore they got in the water.
Dnf did not finish.
They automatically said I'm notgetting in the water, so they
didn't get in the water.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
They didn't even start the race because the swim
is first.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
Yeah.
So I'm in the water and I gethypothermia in the water and I
got really sick in the water.
So I go to the the one of theguys who was on his surfboard
and I said don't touch me, Idon't want to get disqualified,
all I want to do is just hanghere for a minute Cause I'm not
feeling well.
So I get, I get it and hewatches me.
He goes alongside of me, I getinto the to the end, to the end
(24:31):
of the swim, and they get me outof the water and I bit my
tongue because I couldn't feelanything and I bit my tongue and
had this big gash in my tongue.
They stuck a sock in my mouth.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
That was just so appropriate for me and it was
like are you sure they did that?
Because you had a?
Yeah, oh my god, bloodeverywhere and I go into the
dressing tent right and theladies were helping me and I'm
trying to talk to him with thissock in my mouth, oh my God,
blood everywhere.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
And I go into the dressing tent right and the
ladies were helping me and I'mtrying to talk to them with this
sock in my mouth.
It did not look great, butanyway, I got on the bike and
for the first 30 miles I justthrew up, threw up, just threw
up.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
You literally finished.
You've got a sock in your mouth, you've got hypothermia and you
still had the mentality.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
Absolutely, and it was a group.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Some part of your brain must have been saying no,
stupid.
Yeah, no.
But we're must've been sayingno, let's, I can quit, I, I,
I've, I'm bleeding, I can't talk, I can justify quit, cause you
get that little voice.
You know when things getdifficult.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Yeah, but then I think, but I think about that
and I go and I will not havebragging rights for the rest of
my life.
So I'm getting my ass on mybike and I'm going to do this,
so it was a grueling race.
In fact, they stopped it.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
They didn't do I did, they didn't do it right yeah,
you told us that after that racethey did not have one the next
year because it was so hard.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
It wasn't just me, it was like everybody was saying,
oh my god, this is really hard.
The run was hard.
I hooked up with this guygentleman had a phone, believe
it or not.
He was calling his wife, youknow.
Hey, how's it?
What's our time?
The guy had didn't even train.
He was an older guy in my agegroup.
He was a wonderful man.
He held my hand the entire wayand we ran, we ran the full 26.
(26:16):
It's like he pulled me up thehill, pulled me down the hill,
pulled me up the hill, I wasgoing to say St George is
mountaineering right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I finished three minutes tospare.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Really From the cutoff 16 hours.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
What was it?
16 hours is the cutoff.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
And there was a cutoff for each.
Each swim, bike and run.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Yeah, you don't make this time, so you think you're
out.
Yeah, you can't do the next leg.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Yeah, yeah, but I made it.
I was so excited I didn't careif I made it.
I took the whole time, butthree minutes I had.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Wow, 16 hours of putting your body through hell.
She's being very modest.
Speaker 5 (26:58):
Hand over it, let's do pass the talking stick, Mo's
being very modest, because thatwas one of the most difficult
Ironmans around and I think thepercentage of DNF at Ironman
generally is about 10%-ish and Ithink it was what 20, 30 or
something.
It was huge.
And then I think you alsoplayed in your age group on that
(27:18):
one.
She was one of the few peoplethat actually finished.
Right, and she's a kick-asscyclist and runner and sins are
swimmer and I'm the caboose.
But these ladies are superstrong on the event.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Let me talk about Terry.
The last Ironman that Terry didwas Ironman Madison, wisconsin.
No, she is so even right.
Oh, yes, I mean it's so lovelyto watch her because I get a
little tip from her.
It's like, don't go out all outin the first hour.
She just kind of goes along,she just does it, and it's so
(27:59):
lovely to see because she givesme good tips.
You know, but me I'm like I'myou got all your adrenaline oh
my god, it's, it's really bad.
Like I'm gonna, I'm gonna huntyou down well, there's a,
there's a skill to that.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
you know it's, it's.
You know, in golf, these guyswill study the course and
they'll understand how it plays.
And this it's not just hittingthe ball, it's not just getting
out there swimming, running.
You have to pace yourself, youhave to know how you feel, what
(28:32):
your body is telling you, Iguess.
And it's 16 hours.
So here's the big questionwho's got the best Iron Woman
time?
You do.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
I don't know, maybe.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
What are you guys' best times?
Well, it depends on the race.
Yeah, that's an interestingthing about it, right?
Because it's not on a track.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
It depends on the race, the terrain, the weather,
all of that, you know, all ofthat comes into play.
So yeah, so that would be hardfor me to give you my best time.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Have you guys all ran an Ironman?
Ironwoman, we're trying to callit the same race.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
We did not do St George, you did that.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
In fact, your first two were Did we even do an
Ironman with you?
I don't think we've ever donean Ironman together.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
All three of us.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Yeah, together we have, they have, but I haven't.
So I've done Ironman Coeurd'Alene twice and my first time
I did that was 14 hours and 28minutes.
I felt I did pretty good onthat one.
However, I think what really isimportant is about our ages,
because I started doing reallylong distance racing when I was
(29:42):
50, maybe 50.
How old were you guys?
my first iron man was 50, so 50years old, so no such thing as
over the hill for you guys, at50 it's it's up the hill it's up
the hill, but but I think it's,you know, for me I think it was
camaraderie that reallymotivated me, because we knew
(30:05):
exactly what we, what we neededto do to get to that finish line
.
Like we would call each otherokay, meet here at a certain
time, we're going to go out.
I mean, we would go out andtrain six, seven, eight hours on
weekends.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
You'd have to.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Yeah, we have to, and these guys are fabulous in the
water.
Don't let them coop.
I kid you, it's the shortest.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
I know that's a bummer.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
But I have a water anxiety.
That's very bad.
I mean it's to the point whereI just you know.
But I have to calm myself.
But if I'm behind these guys Ifeel like I'm safe.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
So I hurry my butt along the shark will get us.
Yeah, yeah.
So, cindy, yeah, exactly, howdo you?
I'm going to run faster, so thebear gets you, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
Cindy.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
So when I was reading your bio, I I thought was
really cool and reallyinteresting fact because I was
told to talk with you guysspecifically about this training
and all these iron man racesyou guys have done and the
bodybuilding, all these amazingthings.
But turns out you were a smokerfor a long period of your I
mean, when did you start smoking?
Speaker 1 (31:17):
oh gosh, I don't know .
I'm so old right now I can'teven remember.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Back when they handed them out.
The PE coach would hand themout and say these are good for
your lungs.
I mean, you know that's what mygrandmother told us, that story
your first cigarette she gotwas in PE class.
Wow, they said it's good foryour lungs.
That's crazy, yeah, yeah.
So she said that.
That's how you know seven outof 10 doctors choose this brand
(31:42):
of cigarettes.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
It's like the crazy.
Wow, that's weird.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
So you smoked and then you started going to swim
with your son, right yeah, andyou were still smoking at the
time.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
And you were starting to swim.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
I started to swim and the swim coach is the same swim
coach I have today.
He's my master swim coach.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Hey, this is Kevin Kevin yeah, hey, kevin, he's
great.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
He's great, very bohemian, wonderful guy, and
then he started having the kidsdo triathlon.
So that's kind of where I gotthe little bug right there
triathlon.
So that's kind of where I gotthe little bug right there.
But yeah, I kept saying why amI swimming and smoking?
Does this make sense?
No, so I finally quit, and Iused to quit a lot yeah, a lot
of people cycle cycle, myhusband.
My husband asked me are yousmoking?
(32:28):
I'll go no, which I wasn't,because I wasn't smoking at the
moment.
He asked me did he smoke?
Speaker 3 (32:34):
no, no he went.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
I did not lie to him.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I did.
I quit five minutes ago and I'mgoing to start back up in 30
minutes.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Oh yeah, I didn't lie to him.
I was not smoking at the time.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Hey, I quit drinking last night, so the that's.
I've heard.
I don't't smoke, but I've heardit's one of the hardest things
yeah, it's pretty hard and youknow there's a physical
addiction there's a, you know,chemical addiction, all sorts of
(33:09):
things, psychological.
Again, speaking to you guys ofyour willpower, you made up your
mind, you did it yesterday.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
No, I'm kidding yeah no it just didn't make sense it
didn't.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
No, it doesn't.
You know, um, there's a famouspodcaster out there.
I won't mention his name, butyou know he was like yeah, I
take such good care of my bodyand I'm always working out.
He says and then I, then I'lljust, you know, on the weekends
I'll drink with my buddies hedoesn't drink a lot, but then I
feel sick, for, you know, youknow it's like what am I?
Why am I doing this when I'mworking out?
(33:48):
And then, you know, and I'mgetting too old for this
nonsense type thing, and so he'slike I've decided to quit, it's
not going to do, it was funwhile it lasted.
Yeah, so what I?
What I think is really neat isseeing the friendship.
You know, you guys, you canjust see you guys get along well
.
You compliment each other.
Different personalities, Iwon't go.
(34:12):
Well, you explain her.
How do you explain Cindy'spersonality?
We'll have each of you explain.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
Pitbull.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Yeah, I can see you don't want to cross her, I get
that feeling In a loving way.
Yes, but you're not going totake advantage of Cindy.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
No.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
No, no, you're not going to Never Go ahead.
All right, Cindy, your turn.
Let's talk about Momo here.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
How do we describe your good?
Speaker 3 (34:40):
friend momo.
This we describe ourselves asdogs.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Oh, that's right, yes , right, yeah, so I'm the pit
bull.
This is a jack russell.
She used to be the labrador andwe said no, no, you're a poodle
.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
He's definitely a poodle yeah, elegant,
sophisticated, you're all overthe place.
You're like that squirrel andyou're just, you're on guard.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
You're on guard.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
I remember something about your bio I wanted to ask
you about, because it's justsomething that's been gone, but
CB radios.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
So we had them.
When we were kids, we had thehandheld and, of course, all the
dads had them in their trucks.
You were Dr Pepper, I was.
I was Night Ranger.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
And I didn't even know the group.
I just liked this Night Ranger.
That was mine.
I liked that, yeah, but how didyou come up with Dr Pepper?
Speaker 1 (35:32):
I was going out with Dr Death.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Yeah, that is another story supposedly a stuntman.
Uh, never could prove that hewas.
He would always come home withband-aids on him and I said,
well, he's dr pepper, I'll bedone.
I mean, he's dr death, I'll bedr pepper.
That's the reason but you met.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
And you met, though, on the CB radio.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
And let me see if I remember I forgot his handle.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Oh, he was Watchtower .
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Watchtower, that's a good one too.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Yeah, it was a group I think it was a group.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
Yeah, anybody out there?
This is Watchtower.
Is that Dr Pepper out there?
The one that looks like LittleOrphan Annie?
That Watch Tower?
Speaker 1 (36:19):
that Dr Pepper out there, the one that looks like
Little Orphan.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Annie, that's me.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
Yeah, that's funny I didn't even know that Did you.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Yeah, when he met you , you reminded him of Little
Orphan Annie.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Yeah, because my hair was like big.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it was like an afro.
I have black eyes and that'swhat he said.
I look like Little Orphan.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Annie, but you spent years getting to know each other
.
You took it real slow, didn'tyou, before you married this guy
.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
No.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Eight months.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Eight months.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Eight months.
Hey, listen, you guys weremarried for 48 years, Blissful
years.
The whole time Before thepodcast, we said love him every
day.
Sometimes we don't like you,though.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
That's just the way life is, but you know that's
fantastic.
That didn't happen much anymore, so congratulations on that,
thank you.
Fortunately we lost him lastyear.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
But you got your friends supporting you.
You got your dogs.
And your sons, my sons havebeen wonderful, and your
grandsons and my grandson yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:18):
And your sons.
My sons have been wonderful,and your grandsons, my grandson,
yeah, and your sons are one'sin law enforcement, yes, and the
other is a first respondercorrect.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Or the water emergencies, like if the fire
hydrant gets knocked over by adrunk driver or whatever.
He has a crew, go out and takecare of it.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
And you guys all tight and proud of them.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Oh yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
That's awesome.
That's fantastic.
You did something right.
You were a good pit bull mom.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
They were scared of me when I was a little girl.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Oh, don't cross mom and dad.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
No, dad was easy.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
It takes strong parents to raise good adults.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yeah, you never know though.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
With my son.
People go oh, he's such a greatson he's, he's well behaved.
What was the secret?
I'm like I was consistent,that's about all, but really I
don't know, I can't write a bookabout it.
We and and I only you know Ihave a son with my first
practice, wife, your firstpractice wife?
Speaker 4 (38:20):
Yeah, I've never heard of her.
Most probably she's the realone.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Well, I had to practice for a couple years
before I actually had to learnhow to be a good husband.
Good job, I learned, I learnedand.
But you know, there was divorceand all these things.
But I had one son.
I don't know what I did Right,but just being consistent, and
(38:47):
it's difficult, you know,especially today.
I don't, I don't, I'm glad, I'mlike you guys have the
grandkids now.
I don't know what I.
You know, we didn't have allthe social she didn't have.
You know, he didn't have thesocial media and all that
nonsense and where they're beingbombarded and that's a whole
nother podcast on what that'sgoing to look like in another 10
years.
(39:07):
But well, guys, this has beenfun and you guys are just I'm
going to come out and hang outhere all the time.
Well, good, you're welcome,we're fun, I'll be the third son
, we'll all just hang out andyour yard is absolutely gorgeous
.
Thank you, hopefully we cancatch some of this on there, and
it's beautiful.
You guys are sweet, thank you,and very inspirational.
(39:31):
Thank you.
See everybody out there whenyou turn 50, that's just the
beginning and you can quitsmoking too.
It's a decision.
These things in life requirehard work, failure.
Get back up.
You can't be scared to fail,and you got to be able to have a
(39:52):
louder voice than that lazyvoice in the head, because it's
always there, it creeps up.
Oh, it's raining today.
Don't have to go train train orit's a little cold.
Oh the water.
You know what a that's the easyway out and you, and what
separates the successful peoplefrom those that just meander
through life and never goes.
(40:13):
Controlling that voice, thatnegative voice, to say no, I
going to do it, setting goals,sticking to them.
You guys have done a fantasticjob.
Maybe I'll go and after doingPaul's interview and yours, paul
, keeps going.
You've got to put in the miles,ryan, and I'm like I used to
run.
Speaker 4 (40:34):
I think one of the things actually with everything
that we do is it's like we havea set of values that we live by,
and I think, as friends, thatcomes out as we care about each
other, we respect each other andwe make decisions about our
(40:56):
health and well-being, and ifone person is down, we're there
to shore up the other person.
So I think that in a lot ofways, that's really it.
And one last thing I want tosay is that we had an epic ride
from San Francisco to San Diegoon our bikes, which was epic.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
You rode bicycles from San.
Francisco to San Diego yes, 400miles 638.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
But that was probably one of my greatest, greatest,
greatest memories.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
Did you guys go on the one along the coast?
Oh, what a beautiful ride weraised money $10,000.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
$10,000, yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
And how many legs?
Was it Seven?
Days Seven days, so almost 100miles a day.
Yeah, and then in the morningdo it again, and then the next
day do it again.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
Yeah, and the next day do it again.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
Yeah, it was wonderful, that was a beautiful
ride and Coming out of goingfrom San Francisco, I mean
that's all mountains and Hillsall through Santa Cruz and
through Monterey, gorgeous, buton a bike that's, that's tough.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
It's tough.
It was, it was tough.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
And you guys did it together.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Yeah, we also did the Tough Mudder.
Oh, God oh take this that wasmy.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
Do you know what a Tough Mudder is that's the one
at Pendleton right, Is that?
Speaker 1 (42:19):
at Camp Pendleton.
That's the.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
Mud Run.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
The Tough Mudder is an obstacle course and I can't
remember the distance, but itwas the most fun I've ever had
in a race.
Really you go underwater intunnels, you go into a freezing
cold pool.
You go what else?
Electricity you have to gothrough electricity.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
How is this a military event?
This is just something thatthat's.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Have you heard of Spartan race?
I have kind of the same thing.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
Yeah, our kid, our grandkid, just did the Spartan
race up in Big Bear.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yeah, it's the same thing for the kids.
Him and his dad.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Him and his dad just did the eight-year-old, and what
level.
And then I think he did theactual adult one.
So he ran the one with hislittle.
I don't know if he actually ranside-by-side with them I'll
have to ask him but yeah, theyjust did that like two weekends
ago.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Spartan Race yeah, out of all the races I've done,
that was the most fun I've everhad.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
Well, I walked a mile in 1.4 miles the other day.
Seriously, I did.
It's right on my watch, you cancheck it out.
All right, we'll finish withyou.
You are here, actually.
Let's see, we got yourpersonality.
Well, we got the dogpersonality.
You know what?
What do you think overall aboutthe friendship and what it
(43:38):
means to you in your life andwhere you're at now?
Speaker 5 (43:42):
Oh well, it's my chosen family, so these are my
chosen sisters.
Yeah, it's been gosh.
I don't even know where tobegin with that.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
I gotcha.
Speaker 5 (43:58):
Yeah, I mean, it's just this friendship.
We have this bond, the supportsystem we're talking about.
So, whatever we're goingthrough, good and bad, we're
there for each other.
Huh, Teach me how to hug.
Speaker 4 (44:12):
Hug oh.
Speaker 5 (44:15):
Yeah, that's what I mean.
I was raised by a very waspyfamily.
Um, wasp, you know the waspthere no hung, no affection.
You don't show that ordemonstrate that.
Pdas yeah, so any who, yeah,but no, but they, they've been
very good, yeah, and then wejust have complimented each
other and, like I said, we havestrengths and they just help
(44:35):
each other in that.
And yeah, we in the end, in theend we were talking about the
training, like and it's cold andwhen it's being determined, but
also there's days where youdon't feel like getting out of
bed and this is where we holdeach other accountable and okay,
you can get through this.
There was times where Cindy wasjust dragging her.
You know what We'd say okay, wejust come back and work
together.
And there's been times with meand then with Mo the same thing
(44:56):
she had heart surgery.
That was the only time ever inmy entire life I passed her on
the bike going ever, because shewas right before her heart
surgery.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
Before the heart surgery.
Yeah, why not?
Speaker 5 (45:07):
And it's like I passed Mo, I passed Mo, I was
all proud of myself.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
I love the competition.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
She had heart surgery a week or two later, and that
was the first and last time Iever lost her.
But yeah, so I guess that wouldbe.
I'm describe it yeah, always,yeah, whenever we need.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
One of the things I always think in life actually
and you mentioned this Mo beforeis you know as you get as you
go through life, your circle offriends tend to get smaller and
smaller, especially when youhave goals and achieve them.
But to get to your post-50s,later in life, to have a group
(45:49):
of friends to finish the racewith is just an.
It's an achievement in itself.
It requires you know, putyourself out there, requires you
to listen, to be honest witheach other.
Ups and downs.
It's like any relationship, amarriage, anything you know
(46:09):
every day's not great To havethose people you can count on.
I'm glad to see it and I cansee it in you guys.
It's awesome.
Well, thank you so much.
Appreciate it Great.
Appreciate it Great, thank you.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
You've been listening to Real People, Real Life.
Our passion is to have realconversations with real people
who've made it.
Real people who've made it whodid it on their own terms.
We'll be back soon, but in themeantime, catch us on Twitter or
X at RPRL Podcast and onYouTube at Real People Real Life
(46:44):
Podcast.
Welcome to Real People, Real Life.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Let's introduce the people first.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
All right.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
And you are.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I'm Cindy Meyer, my dog is behind me, and that is
Hamilton.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Hamilton.
He heard his name.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
And he's a service dog.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
And I'm Momo Beauchamp and this is Wyatt, and
he's not a service animal, buthe is out of it.
He's got a little leg problemgoing on Poor guy.
Speaker 5 (00:40):
And I'm Terry Clavel, and this is my furry child,
gigi.
Hi, gigi, hi, gigi, hi, terryHi.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
So you guys have an interesting life and some things
in common and you guys are allbest friends.
How did you guys all meet?
Because you guys were runners.
Are you still runners?
Do you still compete?
Oh, I'm kicking ass.
Oh, you look like it, I'mkicking ass.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
So you look like it, I'm kicking ass.
So how did we get so?
I was training for IronmanCanada in 05.
And one of the bike riders upthere we were the group was
meeting.
I was fundraising for ChallengeAthlete Foundation, and so we
were meeting up in Solana Beach,encinitas, and then Cindy
(01:27):
happened to be in the same spotmeeting some other people for a
bike ride not connected withthis group, and her people
didn't show whom she did notknow, and so we just started
talking.
She asked could she join us?
Sure, come on up.
And so we've been friends sincethen.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
And that was for an Ironman.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
I was training for Ironman Canada oh so just to
train that day.
Were you a smoker at the time.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
No, I was not a smoker At the time.
Yeah, exactly, not left-handedcigarettes, just right-handed
cigarettes.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
So that's how Cyn and I met.
And then the following yearCindy convinced me to do Iron
man 06 with her and I was like,oh hell, no.
But I said okay, okay, okay.
Anyway, we were doing a swimout at La Jolla Shores, a
training, and Mo was with teamand training, she was with that
group and they just happenedbecause everybody's kind of
connected.
And that's how we met Mo,because she, because she, joined
(02:22):
our group or we joined yourgroup.
However, that played out andwe've all been friends since
then, great friends.
It just developed intosisterhood.
It's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
And to interject, I just want to mention that when
we met up she was a littlestandoffish because she didn't
understand why I was being sonice to her.
She thought I was coming on toher.
I think.
Well, hey, right.
Speaker 5 (02:44):
It was just different .
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I've never had people be so friendly and so helpful
at this cycle.
Okay.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
It was very different and that's our story, and you
showed up.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
You were the third person to show up.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
I was the third person.
This is our personality.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
You do have a great bright thank you so?
You got the microphone, let'stalk to you for a minute.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
So you spent your entire career in the military
yes, I was uh active duty forsix years and then spent the
rest of my, my whole career for48 years, working for the
military, for the navy that'sand you.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
You got in to boot camp at the tail end of the
Vietnam War.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Did you end up going there?
Speaker 4 (03:32):
No, no, I was a corpsman but I never went to
Vietnam but I did see a lot ofthe damage that was done with
our troops that came home.
A lot of my friends went overto Vietnam and some of them
didn't come back and so it wasvery difficult and it was so
(03:52):
different being in the Navy orin the military during the
Vietnam War than it is todayJust very different.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yeah, the military in general has changed
dramatically from back then tonow the way people view the
soldiers.
After you got out, you went andgot your degree in counseling
and marriage and family therapycorrect.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Yeah, I did.
I'm licensed in the state ofCalifornia, so I went and got my
bachelor's, then I got mymaster's, and how I did it was
it was all on a whim.
Somebody said why don't youjust go get your counseling
lesson, or you know yourcounseling degree and then your
license?
And I said, ok, I'll do that.
Yeah, not knowing what I wasgetting myself into.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Well, and what I found interesting is, instead of
going into private practice or,you know, chasing the dollars
suppose you know with such agreat degree you went back to
the military and served anotheras a civilian contractor another
18 years or so.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
So 38 years as civil service and then another 10
years as a contractor, so 48altogether, and that's including
my six years of active dutytime.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
And acting as a counselor for these military
folks who potentially have seenaction and PTSD and all of these
things that you see them cominghome with.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Yeah, and all of these things that you see them
coming home with.
Yeah, I actually held manydifferent jobs in the military,
meaning as a civilian, and doingtherapy was just a very small
part of it, but it was reallyabout psychological health and
teaching people how to doself-care, which a lot of people
(05:43):
don't know how to do self-care.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
No, and I mean from what I hear and hopefully it's
gotten better, but there seemsto be lacking that help for our
military that returns home andyou see high levels of
depression, high levels of PTSD.
Family, they just can'tre-acclimate.
(06:05):
Hopefully we'll see somechanges in that.
I don't know A lot of suicide.
You see that in law enforcementtoo as well.
I mean these people see some ofthe, they see the dark side of
humanity and while we sleep homein our beds.
It a real sacrifice and I don't.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
I don't think too many people take the time to
actually think about that, whatthese people are doing out there
I I think that in the militarythat there are a lot of services
available for for the servicemember okay, and a lot of times
what happens is it's they don't.
They just can't get the help.
That they need one is becausethey don't.
(06:47):
They don't want to get the helpbecause it may be to be too
hard, because maybe they aredealing with depression.
So you know, as we all know,being depressed it's a lot of
energy.
I mean even to get out of bedand brush your teeth.
So I think that there's just alot of factors that people don't
really think about when servicemembers, families, whoever it
(07:10):
is, veterans are trying to getthe help they need.
I think the programs now, oh mygosh, I think there's so many
wonderful programs.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
That's really good to hear.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
Yeah, and I've seen a lot of success stories with the
programs that are out there andI used to do a cooking class
for our Wounded Warriors andthey loved it, and yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Cooking is such a great therapy.
I love cooking.
Me and my wife love to cook, soit's one of our joys in life to
just experiment and do things.
But we all have to eat, youknow, and so it amazes me how
many people don't know how tocook.
I don't know how to cook.
It's like man you're missingout on.
I mean, when do you go toMcDonald's every day?
(07:51):
I don't know.
So the whole athletic thing.
Let's jump over to Terry.
Let's do, terry, and I believe,terry, that you were a
bodybuilder right.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
Back in the day.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Back in the day.
That's the other thing.
I'm like okay, I got threeathletes here, I better behave
myself.
So I grew up in the 80s and inthe 70s with Mr Universe Arnold
Schwarzenegger, and we would getthe magazines and very few
(08:29):
women were in it at that time.
I mean, we would go to theshows and it'd be all these
built-up muscular men.
Then the women started gettinginto it.
And is that what you did, whereyou would get up there and
you'd flex, and how did you doin that?
Did you ever compete?
Speaker 5 (08:47):
I did, I did.
I was Miss San Diego not forbeauty 1982, I won Miss San
Diego bodybuilding and then Iwon North County.
Well, we're from Sonoma County.
I got Miss Sonoma County thatsame year and then the following
year I went something and Iactually started doing
(09:07):
powerlifting, because back inthe day women's bodybuilding did
not exist, but powerlifting did.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Okay, and that's where they just lift a bar up
over their head right, that'sOlympic lifting.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
Powerlifting is squat , bench and deadlift.
So those are the three liftsfor Olympic Powerlifting.
I mean, that's powerlifting.
Olympic is snatch and clean andjerk.
I did powerlifting and how Iknew about that.
I was a PE major and we were inthe gym.
One of the courses wasweightlifting and I fell in love
with it.
And so then I realized, oh, inSan Diego there's not very many
(09:40):
powerlifting meets and I got todo a men's meet in the old MCRD.
I guess it's still there, huh.
So that's where women could doit with the men.
And I qualified for thenational powerlifting in 1983.
Yeah, I went back to Chicagobecause I qualified for it and
then women's bodybuilding comein.
(10:03):
So I thought, oh, that'd begreat, partly powerlifting
bodybuilding, but I'm notgenetically gifted with a
symmetrical body.
I had to work really, reallyhard, so anyway, so that led to
that and a lot of other.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
That's exciting.
Can we find pictures of itonline?
Speaker 5 (10:18):
I don't.
It was way back in the day.
I don't think it would beonline.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Let's see if we will.
We Back in the day, I don'tthink it would be online.
Let's see if we well, we'regoing to ask for some media that
we can put up on the video.
So you were in the educationworld as a physical education
instructor, teacher.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
I started at a physically handicapped Okay,
Because when I got my degree, myteaching degree 1976 was my
degree.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
What were you like eight years old?
Speaker 5 (10:49):
Yeah, no, this is younger.
And they changed the law inCalifornia from four years of
high school PE to two years so Iknew I wasn't going to get
hired.
So I didn't pursue thecredentialing.
And then, 94-142, the SPED-EdLaw went through, special
education went through,requiring that they have special
(11:10):
ed for all students.
So that's why I got myphysically handicapped and
severely handicapped credentials, because I knew they were
hiring.
So in 1979, that's how I got myfoot in the door at San Diego
City School teaching physicallyhandicapped, and I had three and
five-year-olds.
And what does that?
Speaker 3 (11:24):
entail.
What does that look like as faras?
What was your responsibilitiesto these kids?
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Teaching physically handicapped.
Well, I had the three andfive-year-olds, so there was a
lot of mobility.
Physical agility, againappropriate for three and
five-year-olds.
Physical agility, againappropriate for three and five
years.
And they vary from being like aquadriplegic to maybe a
cerebral palsy, maybe what theycall hemiplegic.
Did I say that right,hemiplegic?
(11:56):
Yeah, so, anyway.
So they might be mildlyinvolved or really physically
involved, but alsointellectually, language,
feeding.
So we work on basic skills likebathrooming, feeding, gross
motor activities, fine motoractivities.
Did those kind of things withthe three and five-year-olds,
basically.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So I want to get your opinion on something they're
saying.
40 to 50% of adolescents andchildren are in the overweight
and or obese category now.
You know it could be a bunch offactors.
One of the things when we growup is, you know, once we ate
(12:36):
breakfast, especially at some,you were outside, right, just
outside, on your bikes all daylong.
You know we couldn't gainweight.
We, you know we wanted to beoutside.
I don't know that.
I mean we would eat at fastfood restaurants.
We'd eat ice cream every week.
(12:57):
You know my parents.
My mom specifically, would cookhome meals every day.
My mom specifically would cookhome meals every day.
But what do you think some ofthe major factors are in this
epidemic?
It's like an epidemic.
It's almost scary.
When you drive by like a school, you look and you're like man.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
Yeah, that's complex too because there's so many
aspects to it.
So you had the TV.
That was the beginning right.
So you had the uh, the um tv.
That was the beginning right.
So you had that, that was um.
And then you have nowadays issocial media all these devices,
and in society you have allthese issues, you know, with
grabbing kids and all theseother things that are going on.
(13:39):
Did that have macday?
Who knows I?
It wasn't the media attentionthat there was so much social
media where it brought that muchattention.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Yeah, we get information from around the
world instantly now, versus yougot your newspaper.
We talked about this.
It's like our.
Our only source of news was thenewspaper in the morning, the
five o'clock local news, andthen there was the national
world news for half an hour atnight.
So, yeah, that was all youwould get, and so you know.
(14:12):
Now it's.
You know everything immediately, and then you have to ask is it
true?
That's the other thing, becauseeverybody has access to put
their opinions out there.
It's kind of crazy.
Okay, so out of the three,who's the leader?
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Okay, it depends what it is.
What's a leader?
I mean, we all have strengths,yeah, and so we complement each
other.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
When it comes to running, when it comes to these
triathlons oh, tri Running, thetriathlons and these Ironmen
Because how many?
Let's hand it over to you themic.
This is fun, we're doing mic,we're sharing the mic with the
talking stick.
Okay, so, Cindy, what I meanbetween the three of you, how
(14:57):
many Ironmans have you guys done?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
All of us.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Oh, she's done five, I did three, eleven and you did
total 16, 17, 18, 19.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
No Five and three is eight and three is eleven.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Oh gotcha, total, Total, 11.
So who's the motivator when itcomes to training for these,
because this is something thattakes a significant amount of
discipline and training.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I think I would lean towards Terry, because she's had
the training with herbodybuilding, so when she makes
her mind up, we basically followsuit.
But Momo is our cheerleader.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I can see that.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
She motivates us.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
So you complement each other very well, yes, yeah.
And thus these achievements.
A friend of ours is Paul Knape.
He's been on the podcast before.
He's going to be on thisTuesday.
He speaks so highly of you guys.
You got to meet these ladies.
They got to meet.
They're incredible.
Just listening to Paul and whathe has gone through from being
(16:07):
a little bit heavy and nottaking care of himself.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
He said he was overweight.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Oh yeah, and we go into that and we even show some
before and after pictures on thepodcast on.
Tuesday.
So, everyone tune in on that,but the amount of discipline
required.
Now Paul just finished hisfirst Ironman brand, which was
not the there's different levels.
He was explaining.
Explain to the audience whatthe full Iron man is all about.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Okay, so it's three things.
It's swim, bike and run, inthat order, because by the time
you get to the end you don'twant to swim and drown.
But swimming is 2.2, correct,2.4.
The bike is 112.
And it's a marathon run, so26.2, right, yeah, so it's a
(17:00):
total of 140.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Total yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I just can't even imagine.
I did 10Ks and that was hardenough for me when I was in high
school.
The bike is last or middle, nomiddle, so you get off this bike
after 100 and something miles.
Yep.
Cool the bike is last or middle, no middle, so you get off this
bike after 100 and somethingmiles.
Yep and then you got to go runa marathon, correct, I mean,
what's your brain telling youand your body at that point, why
am I doing this.
Am I stupid?
(17:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Am I going to make it ?
I came in like three minutesbefore cutoff time.
Which one was that?
That was the one in Canada.
It was in Canada, yeah, or wasit finally?
No, it was Canada.
I think it was Canada, justbarely made it.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Barely made it.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Barely made it and that's all I care about.
I just want to finish.
I don't care if I'm first,whatever, I just don't want to
be disqualified.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
So what I think is kind of crazy is that I talk to
people like this and they'relike why am I doing?
You know, this is especiallythe first one.
They just want to finish andthen they're done.
Their body is maxed out andthen the next day they're on the
computer or in the magazineslooking for the next race.
What is that?
Addiction it is.
(18:12):
Yes, those chemicals in thebrain are firing the dopamine
and all of those things goingoff.
Yeah it, they call it therunner's high, exactly, or
whatever.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
But we've experienced that, yep what a great uh
motivator.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
But I do find that interesting.
So when paul was on, he justfinished running a marathon and
then three weeks later he didthat ironman and you know it has
to do with the training, though, beforehand.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
If you don't have the training beforehand, you will
suffer.
The next day you will not beable to walk, and it was really
weird after we were done withour races.
We're looking at people thatare walking.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
They can't hardly walk and we're walking like, yes
, you know, no problem I foundinteresting about the ironman or
these triathlon events is thereare three separate sports that
require very specific trainingfor each of them.
One of the things Paul wastalking about is he actually was
(19:08):
never thought about triathlonsuntil he broke his foot.
Yep Broke his foot, you know, itseems to be common in this
world and the doctor said, hey,excuse me, you're not going to
be able to run for, you know,whatever 12 weeks or as long as
(19:28):
it was.
And so he decided, well, I'mgoing to go swim just to keep my
cardio going.
And he realized the very firsttime he went swimming that, oh
my gosh, I am not in swimmingshape.
He was breath, he was.
You know, it's a completelydifferent training regimen.
How do you guys balance that?
How do you get the swimming in,running in the biking in?
(19:55):
I mean, that's a huge timecommitment.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Oh, it is, and my husband suffered for that.
We had a swim coach, we had abike coach, we had a run coach.
We had Leslie.
He's a phenomenal athlete, veryfamous.
She just did.
What's that movie?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Oh, all quiet on the Western front.
All quiet on the Western front.
She just did what's that movie?
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Oh, All Quiet on the Western Front.
All Quiet on the Western Front.
She was the director on that.
And then we have Steve who doesour bike.
He does spin, he gives itfreely, he does charges for it.
Then we have a swim coach andhe's taught my son when he was
younger and we've been doing themaster swim there for years.
We haven't been doing it lately, but yeah and that's at like
(20:36):
the that's at the.
Uh, it was at the cajon and justswimming pool, but then you
guys would go train in the oceantoo, right.
Well, we were also training forthe uh channel the channel, the
channel swim to Catalina.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Yes, okay, let's talk about that.
Did you guys actually do that?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Terry and I did a relay of six girls, correct?
I meant six people, yeah, sixpeople.
So we did a relay and you startat midnight and you cannot wear
a wetsuit, otherwise it willnot go down in the books.
So we start at midnight.
(21:21):
You cannot wear a wetsuit,otherwise it will not go down in
the books.
So we start at midnight and thewater is completely black and
you go for an hour.
Was it an hour?
Everybody did an hour until yougot to.
You start from where's that?
San pedro island, san pedroisland.
And then you swim to have asuggestion to catalina yeah,
yeah, wow.
And how many miles is that 24,26 To Catalina, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Wow, and how many miles is that?
Speaker 1 (21:36):
24.
26.
Something like that, or 24.
Something like that.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
So, 10 times what you would do in a Ironman.
Yeah, basically, and you do aone-hour leg, or how many legs
are each person in the relayhave to do?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I did three, but it depends on how fast the next
person is.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
And then where do you go when you're?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
You're on a boat, there's a boat watching you the
whole way, and then you have akayak on the side of you and you
can't touch it.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Can't touch the kayak or it's just.
And did you make it?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, we made the relay.
I did try to do it solo, but uh, the current was really bad no
I was.
I went five miles, they said itwould have taken me 35 hours to
get to the other side, with allthe the current and the current
yeah so not, if we're notafraid of sea creatures got
jellyfish oh yeah, without awetsuit on.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
So you got stung up.
Yep, right, yeah, wow.
Hey, momo, let's get back toyou.
So are you ever sad?
Speaker 4 (22:49):
you know, it's funny, not really just always above
the personality.
I just like whatever, justenjoying yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
I love it.
I love it.
So you did three triathlons.
Were they the full Ironmans aswell?
That's crazy, and you probablyjust finished and signed up for
the next one, right?
Oh this was so much fun.
I had so much fun, or was yourbrain going?
Why did I sign up for this?
Speaker 4 (23:14):
Okay so my last long-distance triathlon full
Ironman was Ironman Utah, whichwas—.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
We're just going to call it the Iron Woman going
forward because— we like that.
These are the Iron Women righthere.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
So it was in St George, utah, and I had— First
time, yeah, first time there.
It Utah and I had.
First time there.
Yeah, first time there.
It was inaugural and the waterwas so cold.
I was going to say that's 50,some odd degrees, and we were
allowed to wear booties andneoprene hoodies, which you're
not allowed to wear in Ironman,unless the water temperature
(23:52):
drops below a certain level.
Okay, so they, let us do that.
So many people on the shorebefore they got in the water.
Dnf did not finish.
They automatically said I'm notgetting in the water, so they
didn't get in the water.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
They didn't even start the race because the swim
is first.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
Yeah.
So I'm in the water and I gethypothermia in the water and I
got really sick in the water.
So I go to the the one of theguys who was on his surfboard
and I said don't touch me, Idon't want to get disqualified,
all I want to do is just hanghere for a minute Cause I'm not
feeling well.
So I get, I get it and hewatches me.
He goes alongside of me, I getinto the to the end, to the end
(24:31):
of the swim, and they get me outof the water and I bit my
tongue because I couldn't feelanything and I bit my tongue and
had this big gash in my tongue.
They stuck a sock in my mouth.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
That was just so appropriate for me and it was
like are you sure they did that?
Because you had a?
Yeah, oh my god, bloodeverywhere and I go into the
dressing tent right and theladies were helping me and I'm
trying to talk to him with thissock in my mouth, oh my God,
blood everywhere.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
And I go into the dressing tent right and the
ladies were helping me and I'mtrying to talk to them with this
sock in my mouth.
It did not look great, butanyway, I got on the bike and
for the first 30 miles I justthrew up, threw up, just threw
up.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
You literally finished.
You've got a sock in your mouth, you've got hypothermia and you
still had the mentality.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
Absolutely, and it was a group.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Some part of your brain must have been saying no,
stupid.
Yeah, no.
But we're must've been sayingno, let's, I can quit, I, I,
I've, I'm bleeding, I can't talk, I can justify quit, cause you
get that little voice.
You know when things getdifficult.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Yeah, but then I think, but I think about that
and I go and I will not havebragging rights for the rest of
my life.
So I'm getting my ass on mybike and I'm going to do this,
so it was a grueling race.
In fact, they stopped it.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
They didn't do I did, they didn't do it right yeah,
you told us that after that racethey did not have one the next
year because it was so hard.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
It wasn't just me, it was like everybody was saying,
oh my god, this is really hard.
The run was hard.
I hooked up with this guygentleman had a phone, believe
it or not.
He was calling his wife, youknow.
Hey, how's it?
What's our time?
The guy had didn't even train.
He was an older guy in my agegroup.
He was a wonderful man.
He held my hand the entire wayand we ran, we ran the full 26.
(26:16):
It's like he pulled me up thehill, pulled me down the hill,
pulled me up the hill, I wasgoing to say St George is
mountaineering right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I finished three minutes tospare.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Really From the cutoff 16 hours.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
What was it?
16 hours is the cutoff.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
And there was a cutoff for each.
Each swim, bike and run.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Yeah, you don't make this time, so you think you're
out.
Yeah, you can't do the next leg.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Yeah, yeah, but I made it.
I was so excited I didn't careif I made it.
I took the whole time, butthree minutes I had.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Wow, 16 hours of putting your body through hell.
She's being very modest.
Speaker 5 (26:58):
Hand over it, let's do pass the talking stick, Mo's
being very modest, because thatwas one of the most difficult
Ironmans around and I think thepercentage of DNF at Ironman
generally is about 10%-ish and Ithink it was what 20, 30 or
something.
It was huge.
And then I think you alsoplayed in your age group on that
(27:18):
one.
She was one of the few peoplethat actually finished.
Right, and she's a kick-asscyclist and runner and sins are
swimmer and I'm the caboose.
But these ladies are superstrong on the event.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Let me talk about Terry.
The last Ironman that Terry didwas Ironman Madison, wisconsin.
No, she is so even right.
Oh, yes, I mean it's so lovelyto watch her because I get a
little tip from her.
It's like, don't go out all outin the first hour.
She just kind of goes along,she just does it, and it's so
(27:59):
lovely to see because she givesme good tips.
You know, but me I'm like I'myou got all your adrenaline oh
my god, it's, it's really bad.
Like I'm gonna, I'm gonna huntyou down well, there's a,
there's a skill to that.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
you know it's, it's.
You know, in golf, these guyswill study the course and
they'll understand how it plays.
And this it's not just hittingthe ball, it's not just getting
out there swimming, running.
You have to pace yourself, youhave to know how you feel, what
(28:32):
your body is telling you, Iguess.
And it's 16 hours.
So here's the big questionwho's got the best Iron Woman
time?
You do.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
I don't know, maybe.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
What are you guys' best times?
Well, it depends on the race.
Yeah, that's an interestingthing about it, right?
Because it's not on a track.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
It depends on the race, the terrain, the weather,
all of that, you know, all ofthat comes into play.
So yeah, so that would be hardfor me to give you my best time.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Have you guys all ran an Ironman?
Ironwoman, we're trying to callit the same race.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
We did not do St George, you did that.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
In fact, your first two were Did we even do an
Ironman with you?
I don't think we've ever donean Ironman together.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
All three of us.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Yeah, together we have, they have, but I haven't.
So I've done Ironman Coeurd'Alene twice and my first time
I did that was 14 hours and 28minutes.
I felt I did pretty good onthat one.
However, I think what really isimportant is about our ages,
because I started doing reallylong distance racing when I was
(29:42):
50, maybe 50.
How old were you guys?
my first iron man was 50, so 50years old, so no such thing as
over the hill for you guys, at50 it's it's up the hill it's up
the hill, but but I think it's,you know, for me I think it was
camaraderie that reallymotivated me, because we knew
(30:05):
exactly what we, what we neededto do to get to that finish line
.
Like we would call each otherokay, meet here at a certain
time, we're going to go out.
I mean, we would go out andtrain six, seven, eight hours on
weekends.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
You'd have to.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Yeah, we have to, and these guys are fabulous in the
water.
Don't let them coop.
I kid you, it's the shortest.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
I know that's a bummer.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
But I have a water anxiety.
That's very bad.
I mean it's to the point whereI just you know.
But I have to calm myself.
But if I'm behind these guys Ifeel like I'm safe.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
So I hurry my butt along the shark will get us.
Yeah, yeah.
So, cindy, yeah, exactly, howdo you?
I'm going to run faster, so thebear gets you, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
Cindy.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
So when I was reading your bio, I I thought was
really cool and reallyinteresting fact because I was
told to talk with you guysspecifically about this training
and all these iron man racesyou guys have done and the
bodybuilding, all these amazingthings.
But turns out you were a smokerfor a long period of your I
mean, when did you start smoking?
Speaker 1 (31:17):
oh gosh, I don't know .
I'm so old right now I can'teven remember.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Back when they handed them out.
The PE coach would hand themout and say these are good for
your lungs.
I mean, you know that's what mygrandmother told us, that story
your first cigarette she gotwas in PE class.
Wow, they said it's good foryour lungs.
That's crazy, yeah, yeah.
So she said that.
That's how you know seven outof 10 doctors choose this brand
(31:42):
of cigarettes.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
It's like the crazy.
Wow, that's weird.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
So you smoked and then you started going to swim
with your son, right yeah, andyou were still smoking at the
time.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
And you were starting to swim.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
I started to swim and the swim coach is the same swim
coach I have today.
He's my master swim coach.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Hey, this is Kevin Kevin yeah, hey, kevin, he's
great.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
He's great, very bohemian, wonderful guy, and
then he started having the kidsdo triathlon.
So that's kind of where I gotthe little bug right there
triathlon.
So that's kind of where I gotthe little bug right there.
But yeah, I kept saying why amI swimming and smoking?
Does this make sense?
No, so I finally quit, and Iused to quit a lot yeah, a lot
of people cycle cycle, myhusband.
My husband asked me are yousmoking?
(32:28):
I'll go no, which I wasn't,because I wasn't smoking at the
moment.
He asked me did he smoke?
Speaker 3 (32:34):
no, no he went.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
I did not lie to him.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I did.
I quit five minutes ago and I'mgoing to start back up in 30
minutes.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Oh yeah, I didn't lie to him.
I was not smoking at the time.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Hey, I quit drinking last night, so the that's.
I've heard.
I don't't smoke, but I've heardit's one of the hardest things
yeah, it's pretty hard and youknow there's a physical
addiction there's a, you know,chemical addiction, all sorts of
(33:09):
things, psychological.
Again, speaking to you guys ofyour willpower, you made up your
mind, you did it yesterday.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
No, I'm kidding yeah no it just didn't make sense it
didn't.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
No, it doesn't.
You know, um, there's a famouspodcaster out there.
I won't mention his name, butyou know he was like yeah, I
take such good care of my bodyand I'm always working out.
He says and then I, then I'lljust, you know, on the weekends
I'll drink with my buddies hedoesn't drink a lot, but then I
feel sick, for, you know, youknow it's like what am I?
Why am I doing this when I'mworking out?
(33:48):
And then, you know, and I'mgetting too old for this
nonsense type thing, and so he'slike I've decided to quit, it's
not going to do, it was funwhile it lasted.
Yeah, so what I?
What I think is really neat isseeing the friendship.
You know, you guys, you canjust see you guys get along well
.
You compliment each other.
Different personalities, Iwon't go.
(34:12):
Well, you explain her.
How do you explain Cindy'spersonality?
We'll have each of you explain.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
Pitbull.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Yeah, I can see you don't want to cross her, I get
that feeling In a loving way.
Yes, but you're not going totake advantage of Cindy.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
No.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
No, no, you're not going to Never Go ahead.
All right, Cindy, your turn.
Let's talk about Momo here.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
How do we describe your good?
Speaker 3 (34:40):
friend momo.
This we describe ourselves asdogs.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Oh, that's right, yes , right, yeah, so I'm the pit
bull.
This is a jack russell.
She used to be the labrador andwe said no, no, you're a poodle
.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
He's definitely a poodle yeah, elegant,
sophisticated, you're all overthe place.
You're like that squirrel andyou're just, you're on guard.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
You're on guard.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
I remember something about your bio I wanted to ask
you about, because it's justsomething that's been gone, but
CB radios.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
So we had them.
When we were kids, we had thehandheld and, of course, all the
dads had them in their trucks.
You were Dr Pepper, I was.
I was Night Ranger.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
And I didn't even know the group.
I just liked this Night Ranger.
That was mine.
I liked that, yeah, but how didyou come up with Dr Pepper?
Speaker 1 (35:32):
I was going out with Dr Death.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Yeah, that is another story supposedly a stuntman.
Uh, never could prove that hewas.
He would always come home withband-aids on him and I said,
well, he's dr pepper, I'll bedone.
I mean, he's dr death, I'll bedr pepper.
That's the reason but you met.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
And you met, though, on the CB radio.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
And let me see if I remember I forgot his handle.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Oh, he was Watchtower .
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Watchtower, that's a good one too.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Yeah, it was a group I think it was a group.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
Yeah, anybody out there?
This is Watchtower.
Is that Dr Pepper out there?
The one that looks like LittleOrphan Annie?
That Watch Tower?
Speaker 1 (36:19):
that Dr Pepper out there, the one that looks like
Little Orphan.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Annie, that's me.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
Yeah, that's funny I didn't even know that Did you.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Yeah, when he met you , you reminded him of Little
Orphan Annie.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Yeah, because my hair was like big.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it was like an afro.
I have black eyes and that'swhat he said.
I look like Little Orphan.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Annie, but you spent years getting to know each other
.
You took it real slow, didn'tyou, before you married this guy
.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
No.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Eight months.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Eight months.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Eight months.
Hey, listen, you guys weremarried for 48 years, Blissful
years.
The whole time Before thepodcast, we said love him every
day.
Sometimes we don't like you,though.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
That's just the way life is, but you know that's
fantastic.
That didn't happen much anymore, so congratulations on that,
thank you.
Fortunately we lost him lastyear.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
But you got your friends supporting you.
You got your dogs.
And your sons, my sons havebeen wonderful, and your
grandsons and my grandson yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:18):
And your sons.
My sons have been wonderful,and your grandsons, my grandson,
yeah, and your sons are one'sin law enforcement, yes, and the
other is a first respondercorrect.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Or the water emergencies, like if the fire
hydrant gets knocked over by adrunk driver or whatever.
He has a crew, go out and takecare of it.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
And you guys all tight and proud of them.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Oh yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
That's awesome.
That's fantastic.
You did something right.
You were a good pit bull mom.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
They were scared of me when I was a little girl.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Oh, don't cross mom and dad.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
No, dad was easy.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
It takes strong parents to raise good adults.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yeah, you never know though.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
With my son.
People go oh, he's such a greatson he's, he's well behaved.
What was the secret?
I'm like I was consistent,that's about all, but really I
don't know, I can't write a bookabout it.
We and and I only you know Ihave a son with my first
practice, wife, your firstpractice wife?
Speaker 4 (38:20):
Yeah, I've never heard of her.
Most probably she's the realone.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Well, I had to practice for a couple years
before I actually had to learnhow to be a good husband.
Good job, I learned, I learnedand.
But you know, there was divorceand all these things.
But I had one son.
I don't know what I did Right,but just being consistent, and
(38:47):
it's difficult, you know,especially today.
I don't, I don't, I'm glad, I'mlike you guys have the
grandkids now.
I don't know what I.
You know, we didn't have allthe social she didn't have.
You know, he didn't have thesocial media and all that
nonsense and where they're beingbombarded and that's a whole
nother podcast on what that'sgoing to look like in another 10
years.
(39:07):
But well, guys, this has beenfun and you guys are just I'm
going to come out and hang outhere all the time.
Well, good, you're welcome,we're fun, I'll be the third son
, we'll all just hang out andyour yard is absolutely gorgeous
.
Thank you, hopefully we cancatch some of this on there, and
it's beautiful.
You guys are sweet, thank you,and very inspirational.
(39:31):
Thank you.
See everybody out there whenyou turn 50, that's just the
beginning and you can quitsmoking too.
It's a decision.
These things in life requirehard work, failure.
Get back up.
You can't be scared to fail,and you got to be able to have a
(39:52):
louder voice than that lazyvoice in the head, because it's
always there, it creeps up.
Oh, it's raining today.
Don't have to go train train orit's a little cold.
Oh the water.
You know what a that's the easyway out and you, and what
separates the successful peoplefrom those that just meander
through life and never goes.
(40:13):
Controlling that voice, thatnegative voice, to say no, I
going to do it, setting goals,sticking to them.
You guys have done a fantasticjob.
Maybe I'll go and after doingPaul's interview and yours, paul
, keeps going.
You've got to put in the miles,ryan, and I'm like I used to
run.
Speaker 4 (40:34):
I think one of the things actually with everything
that we do is it's like we havea set of values that we live by,
and I think, as friends, thatcomes out as we care about each
other, we respect each other andwe make decisions about our
(40:56):
health and well-being, and ifone person is down, we're there
to shore up the other person.
So I think that in a lot ofways, that's really it.
And one last thing I want tosay is that we had an epic ride
from San Francisco to San Diegoon our bikes, which was epic.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
You rode bicycles from San.
Francisco to San Diego yes, 400miles 638.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
But that was probably one of my greatest, greatest,
greatest memories.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
Did you guys go on the one along the coast?
Oh, what a beautiful ride weraised money $10,000.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
$10,000, yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
And how many legs?
Was it Seven?
Days Seven days, so almost 100miles a day.
Yeah, and then in the morningdo it again, and then the next
day do it again.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
Yeah, and the next day do it again.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
Yeah, it was wonderful, that was a beautiful
ride and Coming out of goingfrom San Francisco, I mean
that's all mountains and Hillsall through Santa Cruz and
through Monterey, gorgeous, buton a bike that's, that's tough.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
It's tough.
It was, it was tough.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
And you guys did it together.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Yeah, we also did the Tough Mudder.
Oh, God oh take this that wasmy.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
Do you know what a Tough Mudder is that's the one
at Pendleton right, Is that?
Speaker 1 (42:19):
at Camp Pendleton.
That's the.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
Mud Run.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
The Tough Mudder is an obstacle course and I can't
remember the distance, but itwas the most fun I've ever had
in a race.
Really you go underwater intunnels, you go into a freezing
cold pool.
You go what else?
Electricity you have to gothrough electricity.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
How is this a military event?
This is just something thatthat's.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Have you heard of Spartan race?
I have kind of the same thing.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
Yeah, our kid, our grandkid, just did the Spartan
race up in Big Bear.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yeah, it's the same thing for the kids.
Him and his dad.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Him and his dad just did the eight-year-old, and what
level.
And then I think he did theactual adult one.
So he ran the one with hislittle.
I don't know if he actually ranside-by-side with them I'll
have to ask him but yeah, theyjust did that like two weekends
ago.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Spartan Race yeah, out of all the races I've done,
that was the most fun I've everhad.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
Well, I walked a mile in 1.4 miles the other day.
Seriously, I did.
It's right on my watch, you cancheck it out.
All right, we'll finish withyou.
You are here, actually.
Let's see, we got yourpersonality.
Well, we got the dogpersonality.
You know what?
What do you think overall aboutthe friendship and what it
(43:38):
means to you in your life andwhere you're at now?
Speaker 5 (43:42):
Oh well, it's my chosen family, so these are my
chosen sisters.
Yeah, it's been gosh.
I don't even know where tobegin with that.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
I gotcha.
Speaker 5 (43:58):
Yeah, I mean, it's just this friendship.
We have this bond, the supportsystem we're talking about.
So, whatever we're goingthrough, good and bad, we're
there for each other.
Huh, Teach me how to hug.
Speaker 4 (44:12):
Hug oh.
Speaker 5 (44:15):
Yeah, that's what I mean.
I was raised by a very waspyfamily.
Um, wasp, you know the waspthere no hung, no affection.
You don't show that ordemonstrate that.
Pdas yeah, so any who, yeah,but no, but they, they've been
very good, yeah, and then wejust have complimented each
other and, like I said, we havestrengths and they just help
(44:35):
each other in that.
And yeah, we in the end, in theend we were talking about the
training, like and it's cold andwhen it's being determined, but
also there's days where youdon't feel like getting out of
bed and this is where we holdeach other accountable and okay,
you can get through this.
There was times where Cindy wasjust dragging her.
You know what We'd say okay, wejust come back and work
together.
And there's been times with meand then with Mo the same thing
(44:56):
she had heart surgery.
That was the only time ever inmy entire life I passed her on
the bike going ever, because shewas right before her heart
surgery.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
Before the heart surgery.
Yeah, why not?
Speaker 5 (45:07):
And it's like I passed Mo, I passed Mo, I was
all proud of myself.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
I love the competition.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
She had heart surgery a week or two later, and that
was the first and last time Iever lost her.
But yeah, so I guess that wouldbe.
I'm describe it yeah, always,yeah, whenever we need.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
One of the things I always think in life actually
and you mentioned this Mo beforeis you know as you get as you
go through life, your circle offriends tend to get smaller and
smaller, especially when youhave goals and achieve them.
But to get to your post-50s,later in life, to have a group
(45:49):
of friends to finish the racewith is just an.
It's an achievement in itself.
It requires you know, putyourself out there, requires you
to listen, to be honest witheach other.
Ups and downs.
It's like any relationship, amarriage, anything you know
(46:09):
every day's not great To havethose people you can count on.
I'm glad to see it and I cansee it in you guys.
It's awesome.
Well, thank you so much.
Appreciate it Great.
Appreciate it Great, thank you.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
You've been listening to Real People, Real Life.
Our passion is to have realconversations with real people
who've made it.
Real people who've made it whodid it on their own terms.
We'll be back soon, but in themeantime, catch us on Twitter or
X at RPRL Podcast and onYouTube at Real People Real Life
(46:44):
Podcast.
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