2+ hr. Spring(time) across the pond to London Marathon with Kristen Gordon & Stephanie Diaz

Episode Transcript
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Shelby Schmidt (00:03):
Hey friends, Coach Shelby and coach Christine
welcoming you in and letting youknow it's time for brunch,
whether it's always open table,a hot cup of coffee and endless
running funds to keep you movingand grooving. So lace up those
shoes, put a smile on your facebe happy. It's not a to am
Disney wake up and let's logsome miles. Gonna start off with

(00:25):
our stretches here. gonna standup nice and tall. Put your hands
on your hips to give them alittle shake, shimmy sway. And
let's get in some leg swingsgoing to do side to side or a
lateral leg swing in three, two.
And one if you need to put yourhands on a chair, your running
buddy or maybe the wall in frontof you that is a Okay, taking
your right leg swinging itacross your body. Feeling that

(00:49):
lateral movement if you have anytight spots, maybe linger there
for a second before you let thatmomentum, bring it back the
other way. Going to get a couplemore on in here and switch to
the left side here. Again, doingthe same motion on the other
side. Maybe the sides a littlebit tighter. Maybe it's a little
looser, either way a breatheinto it. And yeah, first of

(01:12):
Sasson to it shake those hipsfeel good because this is gonna
be a great one. Gonna go aheadand bring it on up and out to
our side stretches in three,two, and one taking your right
arm up above. I'm going to reachover to your left side. I'm
doing this as I'm explaining it,it feels so good. Feeling your

(01:36):
rib cage really open up, help tostretch out those side muscles.
Maybe help with any of thosesides stitches if you are prone
to them. But we're going to goahead and nice and slowly own
Ravel come back to center. Ilike to do a little shoulder
roll or two to reset myself andwork my left arm up putting the
air within like I just don'tcare and reach all the way over

(01:59):
to my right side. Again,repeating feeling that ribcage
area open up feeling that sidebody really stretch out. If you
are prone to side stitches or oryou're not feeling like you're
getting that full body stretch.
Go ahead and take a really bigbreath, hold it for a second,

(02:20):
release it and then again shakeout into our last stretch those
forward lunges in three, two,and one I like putting my hands
in front of me kind of puttingmy right hand over my left fist,
making sure to keep my elbowstucked in. When to lunge forward

(02:41):
starting on that right leg,bending that back knee, making
sure that we are putting thepressure into our heel in that
front foot having a nice strongbase, bringing it back to center
repeating on the other side,making sure that while this is a
stretch, we are not lunging toofar to where you are feeling
like you're overextendingyourself is like a rubber band

(03:03):
just giving a little stretch butnot too much that snaps back
right in place. Get a couplemore on in here taking that beat
big deep breath reallyconnecting with our body. And as
you will get the whole theme ofthis episode we get to do this.
We don't have to do this. Sowith that, shake it out. Taylor

(03:25):
Swift it out maybe if you'refeeling it, no, she had some
great concert. And let's goahead and get into our walk and
warm up in theory to lung coachChristine. I feel like I am
channeling the Disney fireworksall over again. Today

Christine Hetzel (03:41):
you are a coach and today we've got so
much into this episode. I'm noteven sure how we're fitting it
all in. But friends we are quitechuffed to be sharing some
amazing guests with us today atthe brunch table. So we're going
to introduce a chief tuftsversus Chase tough to means
crowd and a little bit of a UKslang. So that's a hint hint for

(04:04):
what we're going to be talkingabout today. While taking the
Mickey for us may mean runDisneywhich we will definitely be
talking about today. Taking theMickey over in the UK for London
Marathon weekend actually meansto tease someone quite a bit. So
friends in that newsletter youshould have seen your kind of

(04:25):
little play for the day. Andwe'd love to have you share some
of your favorite slanginterpretations from maybe what
you hear over in London marathonor what you want to hear if
you're going to be participatingin the marathon in the future.
Or maybe you just want to justdo your own runDisney speak we
are going to have the officialrunDisney recap with of course

(04:47):
coach shall be her very veryfirst official friend Disney we
can experience because you'veyou've joined me in the past
you've joined our brunch crewand our athletes for a Expo de
but this was your first fullrunning the distance experience.

Now I feel like I have to be hip and use all my
my good slang. It was on fleekno calf. I like how your face
was like What are you saying?

No without even translate to in like in
London? I don't think they sayon fleek. Do they?

Do you don't know cat means? Do you ever know
what it means? And in AmericanEnglish? Yeah,

I do. Oh, yeah, of course you have learned
not lying at all about theexperiences that we had at run
Disney, we are definitely goingto bring you guys 100% of the
truth here. We'll be talkingturkey but not taking any
Mickey. And just a few moreminutes as we roll into this
really mega packed, Uber longrun. So we can't wait to get

(05:50):
into the renter's aspects. Wealso can't wait. Later on, we
have a welcome pups upon pondand experience a little bit of
London with our later guests aswell. And I think that there was
a really good as you mentioned,Coach during the warm up,
overall theme that permeated theentire conversations that we had

(06:11):
with everyone for this run wasagain, bring it back and we say
it often. But there's a reason.
And it's really reconnectingwith your joy, and running. And
I think you've had an extra pepin your step. You've had a lot
of record reconnection to yourjoy and love of running, you
want to share that looks like acouple of minutes before we
bring on our first guest.

I've missed it.
I really have. And it's hard. Ithink when you want to feel that
love, you want to feel that joy,you want to feel that
connection. And there's justsomething missing. And I'm very
lucky, I have the communitybehind me. I have my coaching
knowledge, I have your coachingknowledge, which I definitely

(06:55):
take advantage of. But for me,it was that x portion that had
to come from me as the runnerand really connecting back with
that, and you'll hear more aboutit in this episode. But I will
have a little side spoiler thatit was super fetch, because I

(07:16):
think that she was British,right?

I don't I don't think so. I don't think
Well, I

thought that was the light in them. Okay, they
may have just misquoted a moviemark this day down. But yeah,
it's it's very humbling to feelconnected with my running again.
And that's the best way I candescribe it. And I'm just very,
very thankful it feels likecoming home again, of just being

(07:46):
happy in that run.

Does it feel like runnings become again where
Bob's your uncle? What Yeah, Idon't know. That's definitely I
saying from the UK, it basicallymeans effortless, or emphasizing
how something feels easier oryou can

achieve it by um, I don't know my friend. So I
have a lot of uncles but none ofthem are named Bob.

Bob's your uncle means you did that
effortlessly. It feels veryeasy. Friends, if you're from
the UK,

like you made these

would not make these up. But I do feel like now
I need to have this. This entireepisode, checked and edited by
my friend from the UK, she didpop in to our brunch crew to
bring some of her Britishknowledge. But aside from that,
let's get right to business.
Let's go into our very firstendurance blog friends. Let's be

(08:38):
tall, proud, being quite chuffedof our effort that we're going
to bring in in three, two andone. Hey, friends as we pull
into this endurance block, weare so excited. You know her you
love her. You've had her here onthe podcast before, but this
time we get to chit chat alittle bit more with her. We're
gonna welcome on and KristenGordon, she's a long serving

(09:00):
board member of gaudir CentralFlorida, one of our absolute
favorite nonprofits. She is whatI consider the soulmate
extraordinaire, she's a fellowrunDisney enthusiast maybe that
might be a little not sufficientof a title, but more importantly
than anything else. She is CoachShelby's brand newest bestie
from his past previous runDisney weekend. Welcome on. And

(09:23):
Kristen is

Stephanie Diaz (09:25):
thanks for having me again. It's so good to
be here and maybe just adding alittle bit of background about
myself. So I am obviously one alifelong Disney fan. So I've
been going since I was a littlegirl and being able to live in
the backyard of Disney has likebeen a dream come true for me
for forever. In terms of mybackground with Girls on the

(09:47):
Run, so I actually got connectedto Girls on the Run through my
day job. We are a sponsor ofGirls on the Run nationally.
We've been a sponsor of Girls onthe Run nationally. And I was
asked In the area to take on ourvolunteer opportunities at the
five K's. And that expanded intobeing able to join the board and

(10:08):
really get more ingrained and inbuilding out the strategy here
in Central Florida. And now I'mboth a board member and a three
to four times soulmate. Now I'vekeep losing track of where we
are, and really just beingengaged and generating funds to
be able to have programs thatserve all these girls in our
counties here in CentralFlorida. And I really wanted to

(10:31):
start by saying, and I'll say itprobably a few times during
today's show, thank you to allof our soulmates. It was so
incredible this is by far thishas been my favorite. And not
just because I got a new bestieand coach Shelby runDisney
weekend. I personally have neverhad a runDisney weekend where I

(10:55):
wasn't running by myself, Ididn't really know people. And
when people have said runDisneyreally is a community. I have
seen it, but I never felt it.
And this was the first time Ireally felt it. And so thank you
to the soulmates who were outthere. It was so great to meet
so many of you. And before theraces during the races, I saw
people on the course and we'recheering them on, after the

(11:17):
races at our meetups. It wasjust so much fun. And I can't,
we can't do it without you guys.
And certainly thank you to bothcoach Christine and coach Shelby
for making all of that happen.
It was truly incredible.

It was so much fun. And I love how like this
was your best one. It's likethis is my first one. So I feel
like I set the bar so high. Idon't like oh man, I already
started telling Christine like,Okay, I'm like, I knew I would
like it. But I didn't think Iwas going to feel so at home
because it really is like It'sthe epitome of what I love about

(11:55):
the running community.
Everybody's so fun. And youreally do bond extra special at
those early wake ups because youknow, everybody like you see the
personality because no one'sfaking anything at 234 AM. And
not only I got a new bestie anew but I also got to see coach
Christine grumpy for the firsttime and it was hilarious. I've

(12:16):
warned

people that I have a grumble Lena and she
usually comes out early in themorning. But I don't think that
anyone has had an opportunity toreally interact with her because
I usually kind of keep her underwraps. But this time after that
third early wake up call shedefinitely came out to to run
the race. And I don't think thatactually she went away until
like after the entire race. Butwhat did not or what helped me

(12:40):
get past the rumble. Lena was agreat Christmas Spectacular
soulmates, seeing them come out.
And the joy and pride that theyhad in representing Girls on the
Run Central Florida knowing howtransformational is that's what
really made those miles extraextra magical. So we were so
excited to meet a few of youguys. We can't wait to meet more
and more of you. There'sdefinitely no no doubt on that.

(13:01):
I will say this real quick andwe'll talk a little bit more
about it. Because we want torecap of course coach Shelby's
first run Disney. If you've beenon the fence with either a
runDisney race or doing it forfundraising, especially through
Girls on the Run center, Floridadon't really hold back. It is
one of those experiences thatwill absolutely change your
life. And I think that havingthat little extra magic of

(13:24):
fundraising for such anincredible organization is
really what does it

Yeah, I would totally

agree. I would agree. And I think when it comes
to being especially a beginnerrunner, there's nothing like
being in a place where everyonejust feels so encouraging and
you know, runDisney racesexactly, we're gonna find that
it's fun. There's no pressure Imean, we can talk about the
balloon ladies all you want towe can talk about the people who

(13:52):
are dressed in costume isballoon ladies, freaking
everyone out and earlierChorale. But in reality, if
you're gonna do a run for thefirst time, and you really want
to just fun encouraging,inclusive environment, I can't
stress enough and obviously, ascoach Christine said, we would
love to have you as a soul mate.
And, you know, I know as much aswe're here to promote soulmates

(14:14):
doing it for any charitablecause in the Central Florida
area or nationally who is ableto participate in this? I mean,
every great cause deserves greatfolks behind them. So not just
to plug soulmates, but just ingeneral, I think we all
appreciate anyone giving towhatever cause speaks to their
heart.

Absolutely, absolutely. Everybody was

so that was as early as you would think
everybody was a new build thatyou would think that everybody
like you know that new runnermagic that everybody has because
they're so excited. Even meetingthe soulmates meeting other
runners everybody had thatsparkle, that magic and maybe it
was just the water at Disney.
I'm not sure what they put intoit. But either away, it was

(14:58):
just, it was electric. I'mgetting goosebumps. And I'm, I'm
having to wear my springtimesurprise little Jersey because
you know, good karma. But itreally, I just it. Like you said
you got to do it at least onceyou're gonna do it more than
once. But if you're, if you'rereally on the fence, just just
pull the plug and do it.

I actually have an email that you guys can
reach out to if you'reconsidering pulling the plug.
Well, we'll talk about that in alittle bit. I do want to
actually ask coach Shelby, whendid it feel to you as your first
run Disney Experience? We'vetalked at nauseam about run
Disney. You know my love for it.
You've gotten a chance to meetsoulmates virtually you got a
chance to chat with Kristin. Iknow you're excited about it,

(15:42):
but when did it feel magical toyou?

In all honesty, I think it was the 10k and I've
shared my love for 10 K's ingeneral because I really that's
my my cherry spot of a distance.
Because it's it's a little bitlonger, but it's not so long
that you're praying for it to beover like pristine did at 10
miler not to throw some shade.

(16:08):
But it was that 10k I felt it.
And I said I remember finishingit's like this is where I'm
supposed to be. This is this ishome. And I've shared on other
episodes that I decided toforego my spot in the New York
City Marathon to do wine anddine. And it was a gamble.
Because I hadn't done arunDisney race, I was sure I was

(16:31):
gonna like it. And I rememberturning to you in the car and
saying, I am so thrilled with mydecision. If I would have gotten
done with this weekend, I hadnot made the decision to do wine
and dine, I would have regrettedit because this is what my
running needs. This is what mysoul needs, what my heart needs.
And I left this week and feelinglike a new runner. And if it was

(16:55):
like the last few pieces of thepuzzle just kind of clicked and
solidified. Yeah, that's a longwinded way of saying 10k Has my
heart that's gonna

be a common theme in today's entire episode,
friends is while you're rollingthrough there is really sparking
that joy. You've heard us say itad nauseam before but we cannot
express sufficiently how thatmakes such a huge difference. So
now I want to ask Kristen, tellus more about your actual like,
how did you come to running? Wasit through run Disney? Or were
you an avid runner in school?
And then kind of rekindle Howdid that happen? Yeah,

that's a really fun question. So we both

came to running a little later in life,

I will say say and we'll get we'll I'll cut to
the chase. They're saying it wasalso a later in life type thing
for me. Growing up. I played alot of sports. But I was always
like, on the attack side, right.
So when you're training inattack, you're not doing
distance running, we actuallyused to in college, we would do
a fundraiser, which was a funrun. And because I lived in

(18:02):
northeastern Pennsylvania, thefun run was usually just running
around your gym, like the gym,like the school gym might be
three school gym for an hour. Aslike our distance run, it was
boring. We got to create our ownlittle paths through the gym,
but bass fish ran for 60 minutesas a fundraiser for our spring
break trip. And that was reallythe most endurance running I

(18:25):
would ever do. Becauseeverything was sprinting. For
me. When I think about myrunning journey. I mean, I think
for me, I just started doing itas a way to sort of get some
mental clarity. You know, Ithink people a lot of times,
treat running as something theyhave to do, and not something

(18:47):
that they get to do. Andrealize, but it's just something
that like, we're able to doevery day. It's like the easiest
way walking and running and justgetting out and being with
yourself has become for me justsuch a, like a like a soul
satisfying experience andtreating that as real me time.

(19:07):
So for me, it's like it's puretherapy. Right? It makes me feel
good. I get to think I get tolisten to what I want to listen
to. But you know, it probably isall really happened over the
last two to three years. More sothan anything else for me too.
So I wouldn't cop to being adistance runner. I'm still you

(19:30):
know, I think Coach Shelby samewith you. I think 10k is like
probably the perfect distance.
It's not too far but it's nottoo short. And we've got to see
Oh no, I'm not gonna go therebecause I know we're going to
talk about the 10k but we got tosee someone some something
really special that I my innerteenage boy band loving heart,

(19:55):
freaked out about a little bitbut

I know I know which By the way, my
introduction to that specificwas through coaching Girls on
the Run, I had no clue aboutthat entire character or
characters I should say, until Iwent and coached the local club
or a local middle school. Andthey basically told me that I

(20:19):
had homework that night, and Ihad to go home and watch the
specific Pixar theme. So let'sroll it back. Friends, you guys
probably heard us talking aboutit a little bit last episode.
For the long run. We werelooking forward to this specific
springtime surprise run Disneyweekend was Pixar themes, which
I think that for everybody onthis specific call right here.

(20:40):
And now we were super stokedabout it. Because I feel like
you've got some favorites,Kristen at Pixar. I know
Coachella, you do. And I am allabout the Pixar shorts. They are
just everything I could everwant and more.

But here's like what's gonna make me cry. I baby
to watch too. And I'm like,great. Now I miss my kid. And I
miss my husband. Thanks,Christina

is so adorable. And they're perfect
for like my little attentionspan. But let's take it back
because we are very privilegedto have Kristen with us. Because
not only is she passionate aboutGirls on the Run, not only she's
passionate about soulmates andfundraising, but she really
knows her Disney whenever I haveany kind of like confusion like
What's this? I know, I can counton Kristen, let me know all
about what it is and fill me upon a history on it. So she also

(21:24):
knows run Disney. What are someof your takeaways? Kristen, with
the expo and Coachella I'm goingto ask you to since you've
experienced Expo before, butthis was your first time as an
actual participant. Yeah.

So I know that when we did the live last week,
one of the things that I wasinterested in checking out was
the virtual queue, I'm gonna saymuch easier to get on a virtual
queue for the expo than for Tronor guardians was great, a lot
less stress, I actually was ableto get in pretty early because
of that. Still a bit of amadhouse in there. But I would

(21:58):
say if you are really interestedin the merchandise, I can't
stress enough, get in thereearly. And I'm really taking the
time. But I would say that justin general to the expo, it's
gonna be what you make of itright? You may just be there to
pick up your bid and leave. Andthat's all you have time for.
And that's great. But I thinkfor me, the expo is all about

(22:19):
what you want to get out of it.
I personally ended up somehowbeing there for four hours. I
don't know how it happened. ButI looked down and was like, Oh,
I've been here for four hours.
And I just had such a great timemeeting people and checking out
all of the vendors. And justspending time getting to know
everyone a little bit more so.
And obviously shopping. did runrunDisney runDisney does a lot

(22:43):
with a wallet too. But in a goodway.

It does. It does.

I met Kristin in the actual merch area. And she
has all these shirts. Like I'mgetting some my friend. I'm
like, Aha, I'm like, where'sthis thread? She did. I have a
friend though, in fulldisclosure, who was actually
very lovely. And I got to meether many times over this
weekend. But yeah, it sucks.

And I'm very, very, very, I want to say right
now for the record. I'm veryproud of both Shelby for wearing
that spirit jersey, like alreadygetting some miles out of that
thing. You know, it didn't takea lot of convincing to buy it.
But it took a little bit fromChristina.

Yeah, it's super comfy, too. I thought about
that, as I was putting it on.
I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm like,I'm happy with my life decisions
right now.

So I'm gonna ask you about that. In a second
coach, I'll be like, what wasyour takeaway from the expo of
your life decision? I think Iknow the answer. But I do want
to go back to that virtual queuefor just a moment. Now we don't
know for a fact that the virtualqueue is going to stay on
forever because it wasintroduced post pandemic. But
what we have come across is thatit's been here for I think the

(23:56):
last two to three runDisneyweekend events. And while there
was a lot of scuttle button, itseemed very confusing. I think
people are starting to comearound. The one small takeaway
tip that I think I can speak toat this point is that it does
appear to have a geofencing ofsome sort. And if you're closest
to the ESPN Expo location, youseem to be able to get into that

(24:20):
virtual queue a little bit witha boarding call a little bit
earlier. I don't know that for afact. I don't know that Ron
Disney is willing to tell usthat. It just seems like based
off of what we're hearing fromeveryone who's been in it who
all goes in at the same time toget into it. But the location
does seem to play a bit of afactor. It's it's my hypothesis,
and I'm sticking to it as longstory short, so if getting, if

(24:42):
it's, if it's important for youto get into that Expo virtual
queue ASAP, I would suggesttrying to be a little bit closer
to actually ESPN. If not do whatwe did and make a day of it.
They've got Jeffrey's coffeethere. They've got ESPN grill a
tons of food the officialweekend beer of the day. race
weekend all the different funnot to mention some great

(25:03):
vendors. So Coach Shelby, tellus what would you suggest for
maybe a runDisney newbie or arunDisney person who hasn't
really fully leaned into theexpo, what is one of your
takeaways is something thateverybody should experience?

Oh, I think even if you're not interested in
purchasing the merch, still goand look at all of it. And just
kind of let yourself beenthralled because I don't know
if new runDisney ears know thisor not. But in where the main
merch is, there's also the photoopportunities to take the

(25:39):
pictures with the numbers. And Iknow one of the soulmates was
super excited to be able to gether she does every time she goes
to the expo. And it's airconditioning, which is also very
good.

Climate control, I'm

in control. And I did I restrained myself, I
bought two things at the mercharea. But it's one of those
where if you're going to goexperience it, especially if
you're going to make a day ofit. And again, like Kristin
pointed out, if you just havetime to get your bib, get that
done, make sure you're set. ButI'm actually a big fan in

(26:18):
general in Disney of notnecessarily doing parks and
doing all the extracurriculars.
So I would go into that samemindset when you do the expo and
experience all theextracurriculars and just let
yourself kind of relax and notfeel like you always have to be
on the go. And again, grab acoffee and just stroll around a

(26:38):
little bit because again, it'sso much fun. You'll see all the
influencers, you'll see peoplethat you haven't seen before
people are still dressed up evenat the expo, which I did not go
on that level this time around

this time around, but I can already tell
that wine and dine weekend it'scalling to Yeah. Yeah, I agree.
I definitely think there is alot to be said. Now, again, with
anyone who's tackling a biggerdistance over the weekend, if
maybe you do need to rest ofyour feet. It's also something
taken consideration of gettinginto the expo a little bit
earlier and planning for somedowntime afterwards, as is

(27:13):
always important. But Expo was alot of fun. We had a little bit
of a breather came home, restedup and then woke up at the crack
of dawn the next morning for the5k which was cars themed. So do
you guys want to tell us alittle bit about what your
takeaway was for the 5k andmaybe expand on those costumes?

(27:34):
Kristen, I feel like you've beenpracticing your entire life with
this particular costume.

So my favorite I think we've talked about this on
my favorite Pixar film and oneof my favorite films just of all
time is up. And so I'll I'llshout out to my my coworker and
dear friend Mandy, who was myrunning buddy all weekend. Mandy
is about six feet tall, and I'mabout five feet tall. And so we

(27:59):
tried to play to that as much aspossible this weekend. And my my
inner rustle needed to come outmy Wilderness Explorer need to
come out this weekend. And so,you know, I dressed as Russell
and Mandy dresses, our favoritebird friend Kevin. And we just
had a great time. But I think myfavorite part of the 5k honestly

(28:22):
was yalls costumes because shoutout to Shelby I mean that's my
if I had to take away from therocking at all that I need to
contract out some work to Shelbyfor the run.

And who does it for their first run Disney
weekend out of the like gatelike the first run Disney we can
usually you're still trying tofigure out like where to go.

Oh, hi shelving got to understand that now.

I should have slowed played this a lot better.
But I will say with Mandy'sfeathers on top of her head as
Kevin, that was the lighthousein the crowd of people. Like
anytime we would lose you. It'slike okay, just look up, like
where are the feathers? But thenyou'd have realized how many
people are dressed as Kevin. Buther she had distinct feathers.
So it really it worked out?
Well. Even a shorty like me likeI could actually look Kristen in

(29:09):
the eye. It's really nice to useChristine, I have to look up.

I think my favorite quote of that specific
race morning was can you get apicture of my tail? Because
again, it's all things that youwould only hear in runDisney
where it would be appropriatebecause so many people had such
great, wonderful costumes. AndMandy went all out with her
Kevin costume. It must have beena lot

of a lot of volume to that tail, that's for
sure. It was good, though.

Gave us like cheap.

Backing in COVID times when you had the social
distancing markers at Disney.
She was just forever everyonearound her. She had six feet
around her at all times becauseof her adversary.

It was absolutely wonderful. So Coach
Shelby, I think it's onlyappropriate that You tell
everyone all about the costumesand maybe give us a little bit
of information as to how youconstruct them over the weeks
leading up to it.

I constructed them on a wish and a prayer. And
I'm pretty sure I infiltrated mynostrils with spray paint
accidentally. Which fun factapparently got carded for spray
paint now did not know that.
Thankfully, even though I lookabout 16 I am of legal age to
buy spray paint. But shots myhusband he got me these boxes

(30:28):
and I made of Mater andLightning McQueen for us. And it
was down to the wire of addinglittle different touches. And I
remember I asked Christina Mike,who do you want to be? And she
goes, Listen, you're making themyou get to decide. And then the
they held up for the most partbecause this was all cardboard

(30:50):
and paper. Even though we didhave our working lights and the
morning of we had a catastropheand Mater's nose headlight fell
off. But it was so much fun,especially because the 5k if
you've not done res designbefore the five K's pretty much
a walk. There are some peoplewho definitely do run it. And

(31:11):
that's totally good. But I wouldsay for the 5k go out with your
costumes, whatever you think youcan't run in, use them that day.
But it was so fun. Because eventhough there's an overlap of
people dressing up as the samecharacter, seeing the different
applications is perfect. Andeven Kristen and Mandy got to

(31:33):
actually see Kevin, on theactual course. And I'm pretty
sure Kristen, you might havedied a little inside.

A lot inside. It was it was the one we definitely
needed to have a photo up andran into, you know, a car roll
or two on the on the coursemaking sure he didn't need
assistance to borrow. We haven'thad a great time. It was a
really Yeah, the I think, as wewere talking about earlier, the
challenge is the five day forcesjust it's so short it. The nice

(32:05):
thing about it is for the 5kit's all really just Epcot
focused. And so yeah, it was inthe morning, at five o'clock,
six o'clock in the morning, gamewith the monster Darren see
World Showcase lit up, it's justit's stunning. That's like, to
me always, the best takeawayfrom the five guy is just

(32:26):
looking around and taking it allin. I know I talked about
running being therapy earlier.
But like just being able to likekind of be in a moment of kind
of awe and wonder. And just likehow lucky we are to get to do
this kind of stuff is justpretty cool.

And it's really pretty, like you got to actually
even though you're doing therace and everything, and the
crowds can still be a little bitit's nothing compared to being
there during regular Disneyhours. And you really do get to
appreciate how awesome it is.
And I'm not like an architect bytrade or, or anything. But I was

(33:04):
geeking out and like, Wow, thatreally does look like X, Y and Z
area.

So, a couple takeaways for 5k. I agree, Coach
Shelby, this is a bigger costumeday, because it is a shorter
distance. It's an untimed event.
So take your time, have fun,take advantage of all of those
wonderful photo stops, andcharacter stops and really just
enjoy doing exactly what Kristinwould did, which was have fun
with the characters, you engagewith them quite a bit, they

(33:35):
usually are very well ready toreceive any questions or kind of
play along and have a lot offun. And I personally love the
cultural representatives beingback at Epcot because I miss
them so much during COVID. Buthaving them out there during the
race did feel extraordinaryspecial. Another reminder and
takeaways at the 5k is probablywhen you're going to feel your

(33:57):
sprite liest or at least it wasfor me. So just taking that into
consideration of measuring goesdownhill fast measuring your
inner your energy stores don'tnecessarily take the rest of the
day for our day to go out and doall of the things because if
you're doing a challenge, or youstill have a few more races for
the weekend, it definitelyevolves which brings us to our

(34:18):
10k The following day, both ofyour favorite distance and it's
spectacular with this themeMonsters, Inc. I mean, we're all
huge fans who doesn't loveMonsters, Inc. So what are your
takeaways for the 10k It's asecond early wake up might be
feeling a little bit readiermore ready to run. What do you
guys thinking there?

I mean, say it with the everyone for town.

Okay, so I will say that I was shocked to
see them and I don't know if100% Put it together. It's from
turning red. And if you guyshave wincing turning red,
absolutely adorable. I thinkthat you either need to be a pre
adolescent, for really hearkenback to your days of pre

(35:09):
adolescence for that movie toreally resonate with you. But
that was the particular moviethat I was given homework from
the Girls on the Run. And theytold me all about how great it
was. And so I came home thatvery same night because I take
my homework seriously when itcomes to our girls. I mean, talk
about the best homework ever. Soyes, for town blew my mind that
they had thought that throughand how and you kind of called

(35:31):
it Kristin, you willed it intoexistence,

I like to think I did it for everyone. While we
were getting ready to go out onthe 10th floor, you know, you
know, you're coming in, theywere in Canada, you're coming
around that corner, Ispecifically remember hearing in
sync, and then sync song. Andjust thinking like in sync was
such a, it was such a formativepart of my teenage journey. And

(35:59):
I was just getting down to that.
And then when I looked up andsaw that they had 14 on there. I
mean, my mind was blown. I wasso excited about that. Because
thinking about Pixar themeweakened, right? There are some
pretty obvious places that theycan go with that. And this is, I
would say slightly obscurereference. You know, they were a

(36:20):
big part of turning red, butthey were not the main
character. They were more of aside character. And obviously,
if you've seen turning red, youunderstand their significance in
the movie to the main character,but my gosh, I think my I was my
like I said, my inner teenageboyband loving heart was just a

(36:41):
flutter. At that point.

I was just singing along right.

And I think I had heard I think I was so just
gobsmacked from seeing them thatI wasn't listening anymore. But
I had heard some folks sayingthat they were singing some of
the songs from the movie andputting running words into it
and things like that.

They did. They did because when I first when we
first ran up on them, they weresinging a song from the movie.
And evidently the one that alsothe girls like to use as their
celebration, dance after thetraining that we did throw that
because they were obsessed withturning red. And of course the
internet lost its ever lovingmind. And I think that like
every runDisney account, orevery influencer populated at

(37:29):
all weekend long because it was,as you said, very unique of an
experience. And kudos to therunDisney architects and
geniuses that helped thishappen, because I think that was
so much fun. Now, Coach Shelby,you also willed into existence,
your favorite character we'resitting around, we're kind of
chillaxing I'm like, so yeah,let's play it tomorrow. Who are

(37:51):
you willing to wait? In thoselines? For no matter what. And
who was it coach Shelby?

It was Frozone for me Incredibles because my
husband and I quote, the part inthe first movie, where he's
looking for his super suit, andhe's arguing with his wife, and
she'll say I'm the greatest goodthat you're ever gonna get. And
so I quoted it back to him.
Because I don't think for the 5kwe stopped for any pictures. I
think I was so overwhelmed. AndI just miss

Well, we were in boxes. Like we were quite
literally like, we were in a piein size boxes. So that may have
been harder. But also I thinkfor the 5k the entire Epcot is
like a big photo passphotographer, because I feel
like every single country hadsome really great opportunities.
But yeah, I think we're stilltaking it into the 5k. So you

(38:47):
were super excited when you sawand you willed into existence
for his own. You had your owndialogue conversation? And was
that what clinched it for youright then in there? Or was it a
different part of the 10k thatmade it magical for you? Ah,

well, I will say you losing your wig in the first
10th of a mile was I'm nevergonna let you look at that. And
it was so nice. And I was like,Oh, you lost you were you're
like I did. Okay, and you'rejust like, do you watch her and
backward? You're like, No, Ihave one trajectory like we're
just going oh, yeah. But nowthat you say that I think maybe

(39:24):
soaking in and actually stoppingfor a character stop kind of
solidified how different of anexperience it is from a right
now now looking in hindsight,that probably had a lot to do
with it, of just feeling part ofversus just an observer of the
race. So very deep andphilosophical.

I love that and I think that that is one of
the very unique experiences ofrun Disney. I also love the
dichotomy and I mentioned overthe weekend of being on stage
and seeing like the forwardfacing what we usually see when
you go about the theme parks,but getting to running behind
and seeing kind of the nittygritty of what it takes to put
everything together on thefront. So I love that aspect of

(40:09):
it. The 10k course is just areally great course as well. So
realize you

actually aren't supposed to take pictures or
film in the back area. I saw onInstagram, somebody got yelled
at for it. And I'm like, Oh,that is not adequate than I
would have known. So FYI, if youdon't want to go to runners
jail, don't don't do things inthe backlog. It's funny

that you say that because there's I know that
I'm a little bit different whenit comes to rules. But the rules
that I do observe greatly areanything that has to do with
Disney because I would beabsolutely mortified. If my
annual pass got pulled or Iwasn't able to run Disney again,
it would absolutely break myheart. So follow the rules.
Friends, there are quite a bitof little like tiny fine print

(40:52):
in the run Disney website thatwe're happy to help point you
to. But in the meantime, knowingthat for the most part, it is
pretty casual, just kind of usethe typical runner etiquette and
then being a bit more cautiousof not destroying the magic for
people that may be out there andnot quite so prevalently into
the back part of things like Iam so I think that's what it

(41:14):
comes down to is don't doanything that would help that
would destroy the magic ofDisney for other people,
especially for kiddos that areexperiencing it. So we get
through the 10k Now it's tooearly wake ups and we have a
great soulmate experience. Weget to meet some more soulmates
that day. We go home and go tobed get ready for the 10 miler

(41:35):
which is one of my favoritedistances, themed toys. I love
the 10 miler absolutely love the10 miler, do I like a 10 miler
at three o'clock in the morning?
Absolutely not. But that'sneither here nor there. So I
have my parents with grumbleLena, you guys have Toy Story.
Tell me about your race morningat the 10 miler.

Well, I'm gonna give a shout out to my husband
who stitched my bow piece offthe night before he stayed up
until 1am fastening lace on do aNike topple I went to bed and he
did a great job of shout outsuch a key first for doing that
for me. Again, just like somereally, you know, we didn't talk

(42:15):
about what the 10 here I'm gonnago back to this real quick. Some
of the costumes that people hadfor the 10k for monsters and
convulsive University. They hada whole Uzma kappa alumni go
thing going on. So good.

That was probably my favorite.

I think that was Christine's one regret is not
asked me if she could play golfwith them.

I am actually I think my biggest regret was I
never thought of leaning intolike a sequel, like creating
your own universe almost likeyour own Fandom of beyond the
movie experience because that'swhat they essentially did. It
was by far and there were somephenomenal costumes. But that
one was probably my favoritebecause it was so realistic as

(43:02):
to what what you would seehappen in a fraternity or
sorority down the road.

I just kept yelling, we're okay. Some people
got really into it. And then ittook everybody else a couple of
seconds to get the reference.
And I'm like, No, you're reallyokay. Like, it's fine.

I want to talk about that with the 10 mother to
coach but I do want to firstgive a shout out to Chris as
well because it was so good.
Christina. I thought you hadpurchased it that way. So that's
maybe between coach Shelby andChris we've got like we can do
their marketing. Just let themgo out there and do the
creations.

Shelby and Chris are the other end the modes of
our Yes.

That's the nicest thing anybody's ever said
to me.

You guys are just crafty as all get out and
we appreciate it. I have not acraft my body so I definitely
appreciate it. But yeah, no, sosorry to go off of the 10 miler,
but 10 miler was, for me prettychallenging. It was very, very
humid. And as a matter of fact,it was the only race of the

(44:08):
weekend we had a yellow flag onthe course for to start out just
with increased heat, humidityexpectations, and really just
making sure stay hydrated andfueled appropriately. You know,
for me, big tip for me, I wouldsay anytime I was stopping in a
bed tent, bathroom, trying totake a paper towel and try to

(44:30):
get the sweat off of me as muchas possible. Karissa Galloway
kept mentioning that when it'shumid, your sweat can evaporate
stay hot. So just a tip foranyone just go to the med tech
and ask for big towels and tryto get her off do the best that
you can to let your let yourbody cool off a little bit there
but the course was good. Again,10k still has my heart from a

(44:53):
course perspective. But the 10miler was fun because we got to
run through Hollywood studiosand And from a Pixar and
specifically a Toy Story theme10 miler being able to run
through Andy's backyard made thephoto ops pretty incredible.
From the Cudi bathroom, to thegiant, Woody statue out front to

(45:18):
Slinky Dog and alien swirlingsaucers so many good photo
opportunities for anyone dressedup in a Toy Story costume, so
and not to mention, I will say Isuccessfully got my jump shot,
heading towards Tower of Terrorand got off the ground and got a
good one. So shout out to thatDisney PhotoPass photographer

(45:40):
for catching me midairthankfully, and not hurting
myself in the process. But

oh, we need to see that if you can, if you can
send us that because I want tosee because coach Shelby
definitely knocked her runDisney jump shot again right out
of the first weekend out of thegate. So we're gonna have some
words about that coach Shelby,this is a particular race it for
me, I've always known that threeearly wake ups in a row would
not be my best showing of youknow, just that really upbeat

(46:07):
individual that I pride myselfon being after 7am. So this was
definitely a bat friendlyreminder. I am generally
hesitant to have coffee on theserace mornings because I miss my
tummy doesn't know what to do.
It's usually just like, Why areyou awake and human being when
you should be asleep? So I'm,I'm a bit more conservative with
any kind of caffeine. Andevidently, my personality is

(46:28):
99.9% Caffeine related. Soabsolutely, a little bit
grumpier, but you coach Shelby,I think he was saying, for the
entire first mile. Are you sureI did. And you all,

I was terrified of the 10 Beyeler because I, I
was very honest, I did not getproper training runs to prepare
for the 10 mile or so it was theone I was dreading because I'm
like, if I hit the wall, it'sgonna be this run. And I will

(47:05):
report I'm happy to say I feltamazing. After all of these
runs, and I my probably myfavorite portion of the 10 miler
was we were in our corrals, andwe were waiting, you know,
they're doing the staggeredstart, and two rows behind us,

(47:25):
they take the really prettyrunDisney tape, and they're
stretching it out. And I'mfreaking out. I'm like,
Christine, we could do the tape,we could do it. And I'm like,
let's go back. And she's like,Yeah, and I looked at her dead
serious. And I go, you know,you're gonna regret this when
you're awake.

So much it did. Now, we are going to report
that we did not fall backbecause mainly from
consideration of the otherrunners that were already handed
the tape and may have beenexcited. But Coach, I do want to
touch a little bit on it. Ifyou're okay with us getting into
it. I think that when you hearyellow flag conditions, like
Kristin mentioned, you hearhumidity that you may not be

(48:09):
used to or maybe the trainingcycle didn't go according to how
you wanted it to be. I feel thatyou did probably what we would
have preach our entire times onthe podcast, or we're talking to
our athletes, which was to bemore conservative with your race
strategy. So do you want to talka little bit about that? Because
I feel like that may have been agame changer in terms of helping

(48:31):
you feel strong for the entire10 miles that in all the
character stops? And the same?
Yeah.

That's a really good point. So you and I had
actually had conversationbecause I we do we collectively
go over everything. It makes usbetter coaches just to have kind
of that Think Tank. And I hadstarted really focusing on doing
a strong run, walk, knowing thatto try to run the full way. I

(48:59):
was not prepared for that it washad a really high chance of
injury. And it was somethingthat I wasn't willing to to put
myself in harm's way for.
Because I had said on theprevious episode, I wanted to PR
and fun. So you and I talked andI had been using a 230 ratio two
minute run 32nd Walk and feltgood. And as you and I were

(49:21):
looking at the weekend and kindof going through all of it. It
wasn't voting well to do the230. And that was one of those
times where we always tell ourathletes kind of taking that
that mindset of what you thoughtit was going to be kind of
letting go of that ego a littlebit and realizing Okay, I have
to run smart I have to run towhere I'm going to put myself in

(49:46):
the best position. So at yoursuggestion, you would said let's
do a 60 3060 run 30 Walk andgiving ourselves the game And
where if that still didn't feelso great, we would switch to a
3030 and even ratio. And ithonestly made the weekend I had

(50:07):
not run three days in a rowbefore like that. I had not been
up to peak training to get to a10 miler. And I credit that
whole heartedly to how good Ifelt after to wear even that
Monday after running three dayshaving that really wakeups I

(50:28):
wanted to go for a run. And eveneven a couple of days out, I
went for a run still did the runwalk ratio, I feel great. I
mean, genuinely, yeah, you havesoreness, but even walking
around the next day, I remembertelling you know, it, I feel
scarily Good. Well, little scarefloor as quote there.

That's so funny. So I think that you,
Kristen, and Mandy, also, wereyou in your run, buddy, Mandy,
we're utilizing run walk aswell. And you too, pulled back a
bit more conservative on thoserun walk intervals, and maybe
even extended the walks ifneeded during the run Disney
weekend, especially with again,those yellow flag conditions. Is
that right? salutely.

I mean, I think it was almost a necessity at a
certain point this weekend. AndI agree, I think you do
absolutely need to let your egogo in those situations, I know
all of us want to be doing thebest that we can. And sometimes
we have to recognize that thebest we can isn't going to be a
PR every time in time. But ifyou're peering and fun, I love

(51:40):
that quote, that's awesome. Butif you're peering and son, you
know, like, hopefully at the endof all of this, you are
finishing these races feelinggood, like the last thing you
want, you know, they were sayingat the beginning of the race to
like they want to see everyonefinish. Right. That's what he
Yeah. And you I agree with youlike setting up your strategy to

(52:03):
make sure that you just get donesafely. And, and whatnot. Is is
key. And I think to your pointshall be I said on Monday when
people were checking in to seehow it went. Besides my besides
my heels. Well, we can talkabout that or not talk about
that at any point in time. But Ifelt great. I mean, like my legs

(52:27):
felt great. I, you know, was Icould have gone for a run if I
was hurtin on the hill.

But I do want to talk about your heels, is it
because of the amount of time onyour feet that you spend? It's
because that's something that Iwould like to kind of draw
attention to, I think thatpeople should consider the fact
that it's not just the runDisneydistance. So being a bit more
conservative on those race days.
It's not that any of us just did10 miles, I think we all clocked
in probably over 40,000 stepsover the course of just that

(52:55):
Sunday, and the amount of timeyou have on your feet. But is
that what happened for you forstudying that. And I

would also just be conscious of like also
understanding how much trainingyou need before a race. Right? I
know there are programs outthere that are meant to help you
get conditioned. At a certainpoint. I think I was conditioned
enough. And I overtrained and Ithink it started well before
this race weekend. And havingthose races back to back to back
just didn't help so. So I thinkthat's another thing I would

(53:25):
just say is like you're going toknow, to some degree when you
feel ready. And I probablyshould have stopped when I said
I can do 10 miles. And I didn'tand that's on me. That's why I
just agree with like letting theego go a little bit and just
knowing what's best for you.

Well, with that said, friends, we're gonna
go ahead and bring yourattention and awareness back to
your maybe checking in withyourself, is it time for you to
switch into something that's abit more conservative for this
long run? Do you need to pullback the pace if you've been
picking it up a little bit andeasing back into your
conversation? But I also want tocheck in with both Kristen and
coach Shelby, maybe some of yourfavorite form tips that came to

(54:04):
mind over that race weekend thatyou'd like to employ in your
long runs as well. Yeah, for me,Chris, and I'll go with you. For
me I

was gonna say I think like the big thing is
especially going out the gateand even when I'm in the middle
of a run when he zone out orwhen you're really like excited
to get out. They're just reallylike relaxing. I know they you
know, like, even just ingeneral, working and stuff like
we need to let go of ourshoulders a little bit unclench,

(54:31):
like relax the breathing alittle bit to not have that
panicky breath. So for me,relaxing and my favorite thing.
When they tell you to like holdup. I don't know who runs around
with potato chips in theirfingers. They say to have like a
potato chip.

We had a runner who actually did do that how you

continue to have a paid trip to your fingers when
you're out there but you know,like, yeah, I

would definitely eat it.

There's no way that it's or anything like that.
Just try to stay loose the bestthat you can and that usually
helps with everything else.

Good. And Coach I'll be I'll have you give
me some of your favorites too.

I will say especially coming off of this
weekend, for those who are doingthe run, walk, I can't stress
enough paying attention to yourtransitions. Whether you're
experienced with run, walk ornot, it's so easy to let those
transitions hurt by pushing offtoo hard in your run, and not

(55:33):
kind of coasting yourself up andlikewise, coasting yourself down
in the walk. You almost have toreally picture that car of like
pressing on the gas and slightlygetting into that incline of the
run. And then when you'repulling back into that walk, I
almost pictured my bodycompressing and shrinking back

(55:56):
down. So that that way I let mymomentum take me back versus
forcing my legs to stop turningover.

Is that a Lightning McQueen car that
you're pressing up? Or is that atomayto?

I am pressing up as Lightning McQueen and I'm
pulling back is made or grownthat hook let it I had my back,
which was a great space, likebarrier, I will say, and I'm
like, oh, sorry. I'm like, justdon't mind my hook and somebody
got too close. They were comingfor a tow.

Well, friends with that said this is our
official springtime surprise.
This is the end of this specificrunDisney season. But of course
we are looking forward to thenext season. Because we want to
announce our officialpartnership with gaudir CFL
girls with a run of CentralFlorida where we are going to be
tackling some of the trainingprograms, I should say all the

(56:50):
training programs for thesoulmates. So we are looking
very much forward to againcontinuing to support the
soulmates because the soulmatesmake everything for Girls on the
Run possible, or a majority ofit possible. They really, truly
change lives. So we cannot thankthem enough. We look forward to
supporting them every step ofthe way, both training and on

(57:10):
runDisney. So we're lookingforward to those weekly premium
workout podcasts, the monthlyworkshops, helping with
fundraising workshops andsupport encouragement, because
that's the ultimate at the endof the day. The most important
part that I think is a takeawayfrom Girls on the Run is just
encouraging to empower. And, ofcourse supporting on those

(57:30):
runDisney race weekend events.
As of this very moment. Wine andDine weekend and marathon
weekend are pretty much thosebibs for our Girls on the Run of
Central Florida are spoken for.
But we're going to ask you ifyou guys are interested in
either of those weekend's toreach out to Elizabeth and I'm
going to have her email actuallyin our episode notes. Because

(57:51):
she'll add you to the goto CFLwaitlist in case anything comes
up and a bit becomes available.
And if you're consideringsnagging a spot for Princess
because we are all I thinkyou're super excited about
Princess 2024. If you'reconsidering snagging a spot,
don't wait until theregistration process that can

(58:12):
drive you absolutely muddy. Goahead and snag your spot with a
fundraising bib, especially forthose really hard to come across
the five K's. I mean, all of theprincess weekend ones are really
really hard to get to be honest,it's I think they're one of
their biggest weekend's. So Iwould suggest taking minimizing
the pressure and go ahead andgrab your bib. But if you're

(58:34):
also looking at springtimesurprise, the waitlist has
already been started to go aheadagain, reach out to Elizabeth
make sure you add your name toit. It's as you could tell from
our recap, one of the most funraces of the entire season. But
ultimately, what makes it themost fun is as Kristen started
this off and kick this off isthe community and I think that
that's really what we're lookingforward to mostly in the

(58:55):
partnership is making sure thatsoulmates feel that extra dose
of magic that they bring to thetable for every girl in the run
participant. I also Kristen wantto ask you a little bit more
about some other wonderful waysthat people can support Girls on
the Run of Central Floridabecause we've got season and 5k
coming up. There's there's justso many different opportunities.
So you want to speak to that alittle bit. Absolutely

we do our season ending 5k is actually going to
be in conjunction with a trackshack event. So if you're local
in the Central Florida area,we'd love to have you out either
as a volunteer or if you evenare planning to do the run on a
5k Saturday May 20. In it'sactually an early evening race I

(59:38):
believe, which is different thanour five K's a lot of times
we're out there very early likethese runDisney races getting
set up and ready to go. So it'llbe nice to have a little bit of
a reprieve from a setupperspective. But I would also
say you know, check come checkus out at the 5k I think the
greatest thing about our programis you know week talk about it a

(01:00:00):
lot. But seeing the girls inaction, and really seeing them
celebrating what they'velearned, the confidence they've
built, the community they'vebuilt, I feel a lot of
similarities with what we'retalking about here with the
runDisney community, as wellwith what we're trying to build
with soulmates, you know,raising each other up, building

(01:00:23):
that sense of camaraderie, andjust really building confidence
in each other. I see that a lotwith our programming, too. And
so I'm really excited about thispartnership as well, I think
it's gonna be so cool to seewhat we can build together. And
please come out to the 5k andsee what it's all about. I
guarantee you, when you see thefaces of these girls and their

(01:00:44):
faces, their grace iscontagious. I mean, that's how I
fell for that place,volunteering and an event and
just really feeling incrediblytied to the mission right off
the bat. The other thing I wouldsay too, is So Christina
mentioned Elizabeth, in theepisode too, but this is also

(01:01:07):
our program

Shelby Schmidt (01:01:10):
director and

Stephanie Diaz (01:01:12):
live in Florida.
Honestly, if you're listening tothis from far and wide, getting
comfortable in whatever way thatis, or we or our society. You
don't necessarily have to go toschool, traditional programs in
life are fromany other place, environment

(01:01:46):
where they're programmed andwhatever that looks like to you,
and is what it looks like. Youdon't have to necessarily just
to run this program is theumbrella part of our fundraising
program soulmates just I thinkmaterializes most of us here

(01:02:09):
through our runDisney races. Butif you are doing a an Ironman,
or if you are doing a spin aTHON, or if you're doing if
you're playing you know, doinghopscotch for an hour or riding
a Disney ride for you know, theentire time of park is open, you
can do and sign up to fundraiseas a soulmate in any of those

(01:02:33):
capacities. And you will bewelcomed with open arms into our
family. So for more information,reach out to Elizabeth, you'll
work with me and obviouslyChristina and Shelby through the
process. And we are lookingforward to that.

I'm so excited.
Not only are we very pro runningpro girls, pro women, but on a
personal note as a mom to it'sone of the most rewarding things
to see that next generation andgrowing up with the love of
running and the love of movementand using it so, so
cathartically. So just learningto love the movement and not

(01:03:16):
again, like you had said beforeChristen something we get to do
not something we have to do. Andbeing able to be part of that,
whether by fundraising by usCoaching By supporting just on
the races day itself. It'sleaving a really big impact for
not only filling our cup, butraising a whole other generation

(01:03:39):
of girls to be stronger, be moreconfident and to really own the
space that they're taking up inthe world and being an active
participant in it.

Christine Hetzel (01:03:50):
I love that so much and I feel so strongly
connected to Girls on the Run.
I'm also going to say reallyquickly on the soulmates if you
are at all wanting to fundraisebut you already secured your bid
for the runDisney season that'scoming up, or bibs for the
weekend. You do not have tosecure your bib to become a
soulmate just as Kristenmentioned spin a THON, maybe

(01:04:11):
want to do a crafting sessionwith Coach Shelby whatever the
case may be. But if you wantedto go ahead and participate in
the soulmate season, and join inon the TFB training that we're
going to be doing and all thespecial exclusive events and
support that we're going to belending for soulmates you can do
so you could still fundraiseseparately of having the bib.
And again Elizabeth can provideyou that information that is

(01:04:32):
going to be in your episodenotes. And if at all you guys
have any questions are alwayswelcome to reach out to coach
Shelby myself, and we'll makesure to point you in the right
direction as well. But beyondthat, Kristin We really do you
want to know if your team'ssweet or team savory?

Gosh, this feels like I know.

It won't affect our bestie friendship. I promise
you I can I can help I'veordered my heart.

Um, God, I really feel this is gonna be the
cop out of all cop outs but Ireally feel very strongly about
both camps. It typing Okay, holdon. We have savory and we have
sweet can I be like sour? Can Ilike be the third grade for a
brunch?

What would you have? It was brunch. It would be
sour.

Well, that's gonna sound weird. I'm like, I
love like briny. Things like,artists,

though. Like a pickles and

olives and stuff like that.

Okay,

I like she's savory. She just doesn't want to
break your heart. I'm

sorry. It's okay. When

I talked about brunch. The last time I was on,
I do, like a good avocado toast.
So I think I've ended up more,but I mean, I could.

I could, okay,

I could. I don't some french toast and pancakes
and stuff, too.

We'll get you some pickled pancakes. That way
you can have the best of bothworlds. I just

need to find the right thing that resonates
with your childhood. Yeah, ofcourse. That's what brunch is
all about. But I feel like maybeit's a whoopie pie. Since you
said you grew up is that notsomething that's really like
specific to Pennsylvania likewhoopie pies and like, Amish
country.

We do love.
Whoopie Pies like an taky Oreo,right. So talked about being a
little Oreo sandwich here today.
So yeah, I like I said, I love.

Yeah. Well, of course, we all love brunch at
the end of the day, and we loveGirls on the Run. So Kristin,
thank you so much for joining usfor giving us this recap. I feel
like it was incredibly detailedand love getting both of your
perspectives today. So friends,if you have any questions reach
out to us. If you want to keepin touch with Kristin. Maybe you

(01:06:45):
want to have your ownconversation with her during
soulmates because she's going tobe joining us now exclusive
live. So with that said, thankyou again, so much, Kristen, for
joining us. And friends, it isabout that halfway point of
today's long brunch. So let's goahead and pull it back into a
walker pace change in three,two, and one.

I seriously do love Kristin, and I don't think
I'll ever look at Russell fromup the same ever again. She's
infiltrated every time I seeanything to do with up, I
immediately hear her Are you inneed of assistance, it was just
the inflection she puts into it.

She's so good.
And she really is absolutely oneof the I knew first of all that
you guys were going to bebesties I had no doubt on that.
And I feel very secure in ourrelationships. So I was okay
with sharing the love so that wecan keep expanding it because
that's the thing with therunning community is all about,
I love to not only shepassionate about Girls on the
Run, and when she passionate,quite much we could see she

(01:07:46):
loves herself some Disney. But Ilove how she really just
embraced and leaned in to havingsuch a phenomenal
transformational experience withleaning into that community at
runDisney. And that's reallywhat it's all about. So whether
you are at runDisney, or likeour next guests that we're
bringing on who actually was asoulmate herself. She's not

(01:08:07):
fundraising for Girls on the Runfor this particular London
Marathon weekend. But she isabsolutely making her steps
extra magical as she fundraisefor another nonprofit that's
near and dear to her heart andhelped her reconnect with her
joy. So we are super excited towelcome to the brunch table, a
fellow coach, a fellowpodcaster. And just somebody who

(01:08:29):
really speaks to our heartbecause we both had an
opportunity to meet with her andgo on her podcast. And I think
the hardest part of ourconversation with Stephanie is
actually bring it to an endbecause there's just so much to
talk about. Wouldn't you agree?

Oh, yeah. She's She's a great, great addition to
the brunch table. And I'm soexcited. Because I now I kind of
want to run London. Yeah, we

should. We'll friends. We'll talk. We'll talk
all about that here as we bringand welcome Stephanie on in and
three, two, and one.

All right, everybody, as we settle into
your party pays here, a littleParty in the USA paces. I like
to call it we are welcoming in aspecial guest to the brunch
table. Stephanie Diaz, her coachChristina and I have both had
the pleasure of speaking to. Andnow we're having her here
because we didn't want the partyto stop. We wanted to pull up
that coffee. She is a fellowFloridian. And she is getting

(01:09:31):
ready to go and run the LondonMarathon. So Stephanie, welcome
on and we are so excited to haveyou today.

Thank you so much for having me. I truly
cannot think of a better thingto do during taper week. I have
been looking forward to beinghere because I'm like, wait,
okay, I can talk about runningeven if I'm not running. This
will be my opportunity to kindof take a break from going a
little bit crazy. And I don'tknow if you've all ever heard
this term called paranoia. Haveyou heard that term before?

No, Christine's like, Yes, I'm like, No, but I
love it. I learned

about this in my charity group, we have a
whatsapp chat. And the fitnesscoach for our group sent us a
video. And he's like, I know theparanoia setting in and I'm
like, Wait, what is Marin Moya?
And I guess over here we call itthe tape are crazies, but over
there, it's paranoia. It's thecombination of Marathon and
paranoia. And I'm like, Yep, Ihave been feeling that worried
about traveling, thinking of allthe things that not that they'll

(01:10:28):
go wrong, but maybe we'll go assoon as possible. So I'm like,
Oh, the paranoia needs to chill.
So I'm glad that I'm here incompany of other runners, and
that I can take a little bit ofa break from the chatter that's
going on in my brain as Ithreatened to travel to London.

So before we unpack your carry on, we got to
roll it back. So you are arunner, you're a mom, you're a
coach, you're all the things,but let's bring it down to when
you started, and how you gotinto running. And then we'll
we'll fill all the ads and adsand how you got to this point.
Yes. So I was not an athleticperson. And I would go to the

(01:11:12):
gym and jump on a treadmill,because that was what was
available, I would do 30minutes, and then I would hop
off and none of that I was justlike, Okay, well, here's

the gym, let me go do that. Then I became a
mother. And I am a mother of twogirls. And once that fully
settled that I'm a mother of twogirls, I started thinking a lot
about what I could do as theirmother to prep them for all of
society's expectations andmessaging. And for some reason,

(01:11:42):
running was the thing that cameto me because I could pop them
in a stroller I could do thatwhenever I wanted, I was a stay
at home mom with littlesquirrels. And I figured that if
they saw me being active, thenthey would grow up seeing active
as a lifestyle and notnecessarily being active as
something they did to loseweight or to fit into a dress or

(01:12:05):
because they have this big eventcoming up, I really wanted to
combat that. And again, Ithought that if they saw me
living it, then they would justknow it and do it themselves.
Somewhere along the line. I fellin love with running and the
process of running, I was ableto link up very, very early on
with Galloway run group here inMiami. I'm In Miami, Florida.

(01:12:28):
And that was just such a gamechanger for me I was partnered
up with with incredible peopleto run, I had never ran any
distance beyond 30 minutes,whatever you could do in 30
minutes on a treadmill. That wasall I could do. I did a couch to
5k program that I met up withthis group. And it was just
there's something so specialthat happens when you spend

(01:12:52):
hours running next to someoneand you it's instant best
friends, I don't know, there'sit's just magic. It's just magic
to share those miles in the darknext to each other your
breathing and sharing all bitsof life and get for me I was
very fortunate that two of myinitial running mentors,

(01:13:13):
whenever I would tell them, Oh,I don't think I can do this. I
have two young kids, I don'tthink it's possible. They both
challenged me on that. So I'mrealizing now that I'm a big fan
of tough love. And that reallypropels me to see myself
differently. And I had these twowomen that one of them said, My
sister has kids and she'srunning now. So like, don't let

(01:13:34):
that limit you. And then theother woman said, I have kids
and I'm doing this. So you needto do it too. And I feel like
that was the beginning offorever for me now. I just view
myself this the runner identityhas become such a big part of

(01:13:55):
me. And now everything I do andhow I run is very much so with
how can I keep doing this? Howcan I keep building community?
How can I use running toexperience the world a little
bit differently. And to meetpeople again, it's the I don't
know, there's just something sospecial that happens when it's
five o'clock in the morning andyou're running with people. And

(01:14:16):
it's the sweat, it's totally thesweat, it bonds you like if you
can stink that bad next tosomebody else, you're gonna be
friends for life. It's actually

a little bit of brain chemicals that are
released, but shall we will goand Corson would swear because a
little bit of that is probablythe pheromones that are
released. But actually, there isI'm sure Stephanie you've read
Born to Run. Their latestupdated version of it, which is
more of a training plan has anentire chapter dedicated to
this. And so I'm so passionateabout people running with others

(01:14:45):
because of it. Quite literallyscience shows that we our heart
rate gets lowered our bloodpressure gets lower. We're able
to run faster and longer withminimal aches and pains when we
run with others. So it isabsolutely super Rational. And
hence, I think why all three ofus are so much on the same page
of this can change your life, itis not just an a way to, you

(01:15:09):
know, stay fit or trim or tolook at any of those things.
It's quite literally the mosttransformational. So
congratulations on having thatopportunity. But also, you
didn't just stop there, youdidn't just become an avid
runner, your mission is to maybeencourage a whole new generation
of runners along the way wouldthat be? Like, correct for me to

(01:15:32):
say that?

Yeah, and I feel like, definitely want to
encourage runners. And I'mincredibly passionate, which I
know both of you are as well offiguring out the ways in which
we can make the writingcommunity more accessible and
more inclusive to other people.
So this is very much so tied. Imean, it's it's walked alongside
me as a runner, the idea ofbeing more than just the run

(01:15:57):
itself, or being more than anyof the pieces that we drive. And
that's where that's where I'm atright now, where I'm like, Wait,
how am I caught? And I think,maybe to kind of go back where I
find that with myself. And I'mreally curious if this is the
same for you all, where I'mconstantly redefining my

(01:16:19):
relationship with running. Sothe reason why I started with
running was because I wanted tobe a role model for my
daughters. And part of that isstill there, but it has evolved.
And it continues to evolve. Andthe runner I am today is she
still has the memories of therunner, I was back in 2012. But
she's still very different. Andeven then when I look at 2012 to

(01:16:42):
2023. Now I feel like there havebeen so many different
iterations. And this entiretime, it's been being honest
with myself and asking myself,okay, so why am I doing this?
Why am I doing this? Why am Ishowing up? Why am I continuing
to do the hard thing that isrunning because I am one of

(01:17:04):
those people that I always tellpeople, it doesn't get easier?
What changes is your perceptionof the effort. So running is
hard, it is hard work. But whatchanges is how we perceive that
hard work, how we perceiveourselves doing that hard

work.

But I think a lot of that comes back to how
much are we talking aboutrunning and the realities of
running and the differenttrajectories that we can all
take as runners right when Istarted running. And I feel like
I started before Instagrambecame this big behemoth that it
is I started running and I wasjust so curious as to what I

(01:17:45):
could do. I mean, I had no cluewhat a runner's high was, and
then I experienced it. And I waslike, Oh my gosh, is this so
funny feels like. And over thecourse of time, I thought that
to be a runner. And this is kindof where I'm at right now, right
where to be a runner meant Ialways had to be progressing. I

(01:18:06):
always had to be getting faster,and paces, paces, paces paces.
So I went from being an off ofwhat I could accomplish to
thinking that what added valueto me as a runner was being able
to run fast. And I did that. AndI honestly, I burnt out as a
runner, and really feltheartbroken by running because I

(01:18:32):
felt like I was giving so muchto running. But it wasn't
returning back to me with thedesired finish times. And it had
to, I had to step away fromthat. And honestly, I've spared
this for anyone who's listening.
I feel like I've spent like thelast four years, really
dissecting what that means. Andtrying to reconnect with that

(01:18:55):
new runner, who was justimpressed with my ability to
show up and trying,

right. There's so many good things out of that.
And I can relate because I tothe past couple of years kind of
gone through that. Thatprogression, if you will, of
where am I going? What am Idoing? What type of runner am I

(01:19:25):
settling into? And I think it'ssomething a lot of runners can
relate to because like we said,we're not the same people we
were when we started running inany way, shape or form. And it's
kind of like our why it's everchanging. And I think accepting
that it's always good to changeis the first step and allowing

(01:19:46):
yourself to really live runningas a lifestyle. And as a part of
you versus the ultimate end allbe all definition

Absolutely.
And I think what I love so muchto Stephanie, about your mission
of helping these sports becomemore inclusive is that you also
help it to be. First of all, Iknow you've mentored other
coaches, you are there for yourathletes. But I also love how
you really put an emphasis onbalance with your yoga spaces

(01:20:21):
and your real big emphasis,which I think is something that
I haven't necessarily seen quiteas much. But I even love your go
to, which is run yoga and rest.
And I love how you put so muchbalance into the way that you
approach your running and howyou work, I assume with your

(01:20:42):
athletes as well, or yourgroups. So tell us a little bit
more about that. How did youcome to your yoga aspect of your
life, were you a yogi beforerunner or a yogi after a runner?

Alright, so this is a fun story. So I actually
found yoga because I was injuredfrom running and I couldn't run.
So again, when I first startedrunning in 2012, and I met up
with the group. Y'all don't dothis, I learn from my mistakes.
But I fell in love with theprocess of reading. So I found a

(01:21:14):
group that was so incredible. Ihad signed up for three half
marathons within six weeks ofeach other before I had even ran
a half marathon. Okay, so y'alldo not do this. But I just loved
the process of training with myrunning group. And I thought, oh
my god, it all runs feel likethis. And I think that happens

(01:21:36):
to a lot of us when we're new tothe sport. It feels hard, but
then it feels good. It's thisweird sensation. So I had these
three races, I ran them all, noproblem, that third half
marathon, I ran it. And then Itried to go for a run a few days
later. And I couldn't because itband syndrome, it hit me so

(01:22:00):
hard. I couldn't even run ablock. And it was so
disorienting for myself becauseI had just ran these three half
marathons I had been training Ihad felt really good. And then
afterwards, I learned Oh,there's there's a thing called
to overuse injuries. There's athing called doing too much too
soon. So I had to take about sixweeks off of running. And during

(01:22:26):
that time, I had fallen so inlove with moving my body that I
didn't know what to do withmyself. And this was in the day
when and it's still popular. Butyou know, Groupon and all those
websites, there were a bunch ofyoga studios on there. And I
remember texting my aunt andasking her Hey, have you ever

(01:22:47):
tried yoga, there's a group onfor this studio. I think it was
$39 for one month unlimited. Andshe told me, I don't really like
yoga, but I recommend you try ittwice. And then she explained to
me you try it once to see if youlike it, you do it a second time
to confirm that initialimpression. Best advice I've

(01:23:09):
ever been given. I always try topass that advice on to people.
So I bought the pass. And I toldmyself all right, a drop in is
20 bucks. So if I can just go totwo classes, I won't have paid
my group on off, I just need tocommit to two classes. I went to
the first class, it was an8:30pm class I'll never forget

this is an 8 (01:23:30):
30pm class because I went after putting my kids to
bed. My husband was home. So Iwas able to go to a class which
I was not able to do during theday.

Solidarity there. So yeah.

It was a dark class. There was music. It was
hot is it was a power vinyasaclass, got here in Miami,
Florida. When I finished that Ihad no clue what just happened.
But I had that same exhilarationlike that physical exhilaration
of running of, you know, whenyou're like breathing fast,

(01:24:07):
you're like, I don't know what'shappening. It felt like a speed
workout, right? When you're likein that speed interval, you have
no clue what's happening. Youfeel like a wild horse trying to
tame your pace. That's thatfirst yoga class belt. And when
I finished, I said, Oh, thisthere's something here. There's

(01:24:27):
something here because itbrought up that same level of
physical exertion, that samelevel of having to be present,
and of not letting the outsideworld come in which again,
that's what I experienced when Iwas running. Because when you're
running it's you really can'tthink about too much outside of
the running particularly as anew runner. So that is what I

(01:24:50):
did for those six weeks that Icouldn't run. And then once I
started running, I incorporatedmore yoga. We moved to Chicago
for a year in was 2014 to 2015is when we moved to Chicago. And
that's where I say I truly fellin love with running. And I fell
in love with yoga. Chicago'sjust has such an incredible

(01:25:10):
running community. And there'sjust so much there's, there's so
many different events thathappen in the city. It's just,
it's incredible. And yoga, therewas very different than yoga in
Miami. And all of a sudden, Irealized, oh, people teach yoga
differently. People practiceyoga differently, they focus on
different things. So when wemoved back to Miami, my husband

(01:25:31):
had a month off of work. And Ithought, hey, he's got a month
off, he can be with the kids.
Let me take advantage and find ayoga teacher training and see if
there's one that fits withinthat schedule. And very
serendipitously, there was one,and I did my teacher training,
which is funny, because I did myteacher training. And as soon as

(01:25:51):
I finished, I went to Berlin, torun the marathon. And then once
I came back, that's when Ireally dove into teaching yoga.
But I would say I and I alwayssay running is my first love,
yoga is a very close second. AndI feel that there are two
movement modalities that verymuch so complement each other

(01:26:14):
when implemented in a way thatallows runners in particular to
explore full range of motionbecause as runners we move so
linearly, and yoga is anopportunity to move laterally to
add a little more flow to thebody that we don't necessarily

(01:26:38):
get when we're writing. Sothat's the story of yoga and
running and how those two cametogether.

And all of your Yogi wisdom of try things
twice.

That is a really good rule of thumb, though. It's
kinda like the first mile, likethe first mile might lie. So
just go for the second mile,just in case. But I love how you
talk about the community inyoga, the community and running,
and you really do live andbreathe that mindset. Because

(01:27:11):
even on your podcast, which wewere lucky to be guests on for
runners roundtable, you, youopened up that community to
other female coaches. And it'ssomething that we all talked
about, we're very passionateabout continuing to support one
another and make sure that thosestrong female voices get heard.
So I do want to talk about thattoo, about your love for

(01:27:36):
coaching your love for thecommunity. And you had talked
about how we want to all open upour sport more and make sure
that the sport really isinclusive in all the regards,
and kind of where you're goingwith that and how it's tying
into your identity as a runner.
And as a coach now.

Oh, yeah, there's a lot there.

I know, it's a super easy question. Just you
know, a light, like brunchquestion. That's,

that one's just, you know, it's just, it's so
light. Um, so I think I alwayscome back to the importance of
conversation and the importanceof communication. Because a lot
of it, I can notice somethingpristine, you can notice
something shall be you cannotice something. But if we're
not sharing what we're noticing,it's really not going to extend

(01:28:30):
beyond us. So I find thatoftentimes, we need to reach out
to people open up thatvulnerability in order for that
vulnerability to expand so thatpeople can so that people can
realize, Wait, I'm not in thisexperience by myself. So as I
try to pick apart that question,in general, for me, it's always

(01:28:51):
been very important to amplifyTango voices. Because we've got
a lot of wisdom and we know alot. So even when I was doing
season two runners roundtable. Imean, every podcast episode that
I have, if you go back and youlook, it's always with females,
it's always women's voices thatI want to hear that I want to

(01:29:12):
speak to. And it's nothingagainst men. There's nothing
wrong with that. It's more justthey've had the mic for long
enough. So let us let us youknow, come up here and speak a
little bit because I think thatthere is this perception that
women are constantly competingagainst one another. And that's

(01:29:32):
part of what I'm trying to do isshow that no, we're not we
actually we want to worktogether and when we work
together and when wecollaborate, again, that message
gets expanded and more ears arereached more people see
themselves in whatever it isthat we're talking about. So
this idea that women competeagainst one another. To me, it's

(01:29:55):
more where was that planted andwho planted At right, like, I
honestly think it's not innatein the US, it's very much so
society and the culture thatthat says we need to compete
with one another. So that'ssomething that's really
important to me of realizingthat we all have a very unique

(01:30:16):
voice, we all experience theworld in our experience of the
world differently. And there'sspace for all of that, right,
we've got a planet of 8.1billion people, there are enough
people for you, there's enoughpeople for be. And I really,
really do believe, and this goeswith coaching. And with the yoga

(01:30:38):
teaching, as well as that, thereis a coach for every athlete,
and there's an athlete for everycoach, there's a teacher for
every student, and there's astudent for every teacher. Now,
it might take us a while to findeach other. But we will
eventually eventually. Andagain, it comes back to that how
deeply are we talking to oneanother? How deeply are we

(01:31:00):
amplifying one another? That tome is, is again, how we grow,
that's part of how we grow thesport of running is by saying,
Hey, we're all here. And we canall take up space. And it's
beautiful, because we're alldifferent. And we all have
something wonderful to offer theworld. And if my message isn't

(01:31:21):
for you, that's totally fine.
Totally by, there's someone elseout there for you. And if my
message is for you, then that'sawesome. Let's keep talking. So
I think, trying to think of allthe different questions you
asked there. But I tend to dothat. Like okay, so what is it
I'm like, so first, it's veryimportant for me to amplify the

(01:31:42):
voices of women. Because, again,there is that that is a unique
experience that we all have. Andeven, I always look to my
bookshelf, in particular withthe running books. And I believe
I've mentioned this with both ofy'all, right, where it's like,
it's all wonderful, thesebookshelves are great. But when
it comes to the majority of thebooks that are written about

(01:32:05):
running, and training plans andwhatnot, they're written by men.
And that's fine and dandy, butwe're women and women have very,
very different experiences intheir bodies. And we just need,
we need something different. Wecan't. I feel like we're always

(01:32:26):
in a rush. Not we I just meanlike the collective the
enterprise to make things easy,and to make things streamlined.
And when we do that, we don'tsee the magic of the individual.
And we don't create anopportunity to celebrate how
individual we are. I mean, Ithink of I'll use myself as an

(01:32:48):
example here, right? So when Iwas training, when I first
started training, I was trainingby myself, and it was my first
few marathons, I use the Hansonsmarathon method. That's what I
use. And I was doing it, I wastrying to do it. And again, I
just burnt out because one Ilive in a lot. Yeah, I was
trying to do all the mileage,trying to hit the paces trying

(01:33:10):
to do the workout here in Miamiwith having two young kids and
all these life stressors thatthe book just doesn't capture.
It doesn't capture any of that.
So after a 20, the 2017 Chicagomarathon, I had a really bad

(01:33:31):
experience. And after thatexperience, I was like I need a
coach, I need a coach I needsomeone that's going to help me
and for me it was really reallyimportant that it be a female
coach because I wanted someoneto understand again my
experience as a woman, myexperience as a menstruating
woman and half that impacts mytraining, how that may impact my

(01:33:52):
ability to rest and recover howme being a mother because God I
don't want to cause anycontroversy here but my
experience as a mother is verydifferent than my husband's
experience as a father right soI

know controversy we talk about this
all

the time I know same I will go on the record be
like same it's vastly differentthere's no shade with it just
from your experience myexperience is just facts. It is
what it is

I was like I don't want people coming coming
at you all with with somethingthat but

but we got this deal must be of an issue we're
always willing to.

I'm willing to talk about it too. But that was
something that was reallyimportant to me where I'm like
no no, I need someone who'swalked through this life as a
woman and who understands thatthe demands on me and the
expectations on me are going tobe different than they might be
on a man and it's something assimple which I've gotten really
really really heavy into issafety on the road right? For us

(01:34:50):
women safety on the run looksvery different than a man i i
tell my husband this all thetime that you know when I leave
the house if I say it silentprayer that I make it back
seats. And because I don't knowwhat's going to happen out
there, I want to make it at homeback home to my husband to my
kids. And I go through momentsof feeling very angry that

(01:35:14):
that's the case because I'mlike, Oh, if he walks out the
door, he doesn't have to worryabout that. And then I go
through moments of feeling veryempowered by it. Because I feel
like every time I go out for arun, I'm standing up to the
people who try to scare me fromrunning. And that every run is
proof that us women can go outand we can do it. I had a few

(01:35:36):
weeks ago, or months ago, I hadposted something about safety on
the run. And someone respondedwith a comment of this is why
only go out during the daytime?
Something like I don't know whypeople why women run before when
it's dark, something along thoselines. And I'm like, How do I
respond to this in a in a verykind of way. But my response

(01:35:59):
was, essentially, not all of ushave that option, right? Like,
not all of us have the option oflet me go in the middle of the
day to do my ride, or let mewait until the sun is up to do
my ride. Not all of us have thatoption, I have a husband, I have
a support system for my childrenare older. And yet I still do my
runs early in the morning,because that's when it makes

(01:36:22):
sense for my life and myschedule. So there's so much
privilege that comes intorunning that we don't even
realize it. And I think a lot ofthe conversations that I try to
have, or if not a lot of thethought processes that I have
are that both and mindatmentality of weekend both

(01:36:43):
celebrate running and howincredible running is. And we
can also see where things canimprove so that running is
safer, and a better experiencefor everyone who wants to try it
out.

We love that so much. We're big proponents of
it here. So we're gonna takethis as an opportunity, because
you mentioned being safe on therun. And form check for everyone
out there that it is partly todo with making sure that we're
being very aware of oursurroundings are keeping my head
up. And as we learned in one ofour previous episodes with
Nicole, smell of girls fightback, it's really important that

(01:37:23):
as you're rolling through there,that maybe you keep your head up
high, not just from a forumstandpoint, but to be able to
look others in the eye as you'rerolling through this run.
Because we learned that we haveto take up our own space, and
you have every right to take upyour space while you're out
there friends. So Stephanie, yousaid so much that I don't know

(01:37:43):
how we could even I feel likewe're gonna have to have a multi
part Stephanie conversationbecause you talked a little bit
ago when Coach, I'll be askedyou the multi part question you
did. You did touch on,culturally, women are seen as
competitors, or that's somethingthat we maybe have innately. Do
you feel that you have adifferent perspective. From a

(01:38:04):
cultural perspective, being froma more matriarchal society being
Hispanic, I know that you workvery much at a lot like
elevating the voices of maybesocieties or cultures that
aren't represented quite asmuch.

Ooh, that is such a complex question. Because
I and I love this saying becauseit applies to everything where
it's like Latinas, that Hispanicidentity, it's not a monolith.
And it's so different foreveryone. So my own personal. My
own personal story is that for avery long time, I viewed the

(01:38:44):
women in my family as verypowerful, incredibly powerful.
And you would hear my dad wouldtalk about his mother and his
grandmother, and he, he spokeabout them as if they were just
massive life, horses. So I wouldhear about the elders in my
family and think, Okay, thoseare in Spanish, right. And when

(01:39:08):
I will have to do that, likethat is a tough woman and not
like physically tough, but like,to her heart tough. And then I
have also this contrastingexperience of my parents are
divorced. And when my motherremarried, she entered into a
very, very traditional Marchesa,like, very masculine dominated

(01:39:35):
relationship. So I grew up Ifeel like with very, very mixed
messages, on the one hand, Iwould hear stories of strength
on my father's side of thewomen. And then on the other
hand, I was experiencing verymuch so in my own house, my
mother deferring to her husband,and like, I would add an example

(01:39:57):
would be, I remember asking mymother whines for money for
something for school. And mymother growing up was the
breadwinner. She's the one thatworked the job. Our insurance
was for her, like through her.
So she was the breadwinner inour household. And her response
to me was, I have to ask myhusband, I'll let you know if I
can give you the money. And thatto me was very, very, again,

(01:40:20):
very strange. Her husband neverwent into the kitchen, never
cooked, never cleaned afterhimself. So I had both of these
messages. And both on both sidesof my family, it's Colombian. So
that's why I say there, it's nota monolith, because both sides
of the family were Colombian.

(01:40:40):
And yet they were communicatingvery different experiences to
me. So the answer to thatquestion is, I don't know. I
would say the answer to thatquestion is, I don't know. But I
would see in my own life, theway I received those experiences

(01:41:00):
was, you know, I love myhusband, everyone, I love my
husband. But it was very much soI didn't want to fall into the
role that my mother fell into.
Now, don't get me wrong, westill have very gendered roles
in my household, I am themother, the pandemic has given
me the gift of not cooking,which is great. That was

(01:41:22):
wonderful. During the pandemic,my husband's like, oh, cook. So
now he does the majority of thecooking I made because once a
week, which is great. But I amstill called, I call it the
available parent. So I'm theparent that if any of the kids
get sick, or if they need to goto school, or they need to get
taken out, or they need to go tothe doctor, or the dentist, or
whatever it is, it's on mebecause I have a flexible

(01:41:44):
schedule. And even I laugh at myhusband all the time. And I tell
him like, this was last week, Itold him, I'm like, I want to be
you. Because you don't check theschool emails, you have no clue
what's happening. So I'm like,so I'm a little bit jealous of
you. But at the same time, Ifeel like such a badass because
you trust me so completely, thatyou don't even check any of that

(01:42:08):
stuff. Like he is just socomfortable and so confident in
my ability to take care of ourchildren. So I'm like, again,
it's mixed, where I'm like, Oh,I wish my brain had a break like
you did. But

the burden of competence you've like exceeded
all expectations of competence.
So it's kind of like, well, ofcourse, why not let her do it.
Let's just defer to her. Shealready knows what's going on.

I feel like you were listening into the
conversation that coachChristina and I have this
weekend because I swear to you,I have the same thing. I'm like,
I wish I could just turn off fora second. But at the same time,
I'm like, it's almost like asuperpower. Because it's like,
I've got this on lock. Like Imight cry a little bit in my
coffee. But I've got this likeDon't get it twisted.

Absolutely.
Absolutely. Where I'm like, youknow, again, like I told him
that I'm like, I'm jealous ofyou. But at the same time like
you married a good one. I don'tdon't like props to you for
recognizing it. Like it'samazing. But you're welcome.

Yeah, every morning, wake up and say You're

welcome.

I always tell we're in the process of a big
home repair, renovation remodel.
It's been a three year longjourney. And I always joke I'm
like, I want a statue. I want astatue of me at the front of the
house. So that when people comethey can you know, bow down and
and bless me for doingeverything that I've done. So

yeah, tell him we will sign that petition. We
support that endeavor. And likeif all I'm thinking about is
like when Maribel the end ofincognito gets to put the final
door knob. I'm like, You need adoor now. At least if you don't
get the statue you need thedoorknob

totally Dorna.
Even with like maybe my initialsin it, I don't know something
something Yeah, that ever wentsomething like say yes, yes, the
queen is here. Let us pay ourrespects. That is truly how I
feel. And I think it's, it'spart of that. And so kind of
going back to like the story ofmy family life. And my my family
of origin life was thatrealization of I don't want to

(01:44:11):
be like my mom. And there'snothing wrong with it. I've had
many years to kind of go throughtherapy and work through it. But
she did the best that she shecould with what she had. But I
never want it to feel thatsubservient to my husband. So
again, even though we may havegendered roles, I never wanted
it to be like, oh, I need tocheck in with my husband for

(01:44:34):
everything that I do. Andthankfully, my husband is not
like that. But I think that'spart of where even into my
parenting and where that hasbeen reflected. And even now,
where that is reflected in a lotof the work that I do in terms
of focusing on empowering womento see themselves as more more
than the mother more than theworker more than the woman that

(01:44:57):
they are they are a person. Andso yeah, so culturally, I would
say it's really confusing forme.

economy because there isn't I agree
there is not a monolith. Butthere is definitely a dichotomy,
that scene where the althoughit's a very matriarchal society
and a lot of kowtow into a will,as in the medina that there's
still a little bit more of thatmisogynistic aspect as well. I'm
fascinated and can't wait to seehow that continues to unravel,
though, because I see women likeyourself, and our peers that are

(01:45:32):
really working on changing thatfor the younger generation. And
I think it's kind of taking thebest of both worlds as we move
forward. So it's exciting. Whichbrings us to even

mentioned it, I got a one last thing I gotta
mention it too, because you hadmentioned your influences when
you got into running aboutsaying, Don't limit yourself.
And I thought that was a reallyempowering way to put it. And
you really are living that. Andinstead of it being like the Oh,
push past your shoes is like noempowering it and saying don't

(01:46:02):
limit yourself. So I just wantto draw that parable. And now
I'll let you talk, Christybecause I have a queen of
interrupting. I'm like, Oh,wait, wait one more thing? Well,
because

there was so there's just so much good stuff
here like and that's again, whywhen we both had the opportunity
to speak to you at runnersroundtable, I think we both
walked away with feeling like wehad embarked on a conversation
with somebody who was a fastfriend, just because so much
relatable aspects ofconversations of how we feel why
this is so much more than justputting one foot in front of the

(01:46:31):
other very, very simple at itscore of running. But it quite
literally gives you and it wasgives me goosebumps to think
about, but it's like your shoesunlock the magic of your
potential within. It's likealways coming back to that.
Which leads us to the nextreally big excitement. So
friends, we have Stephanie withus, right on the cusp of her

(01:46:53):
going out to the largest annualfundraising event in the planet,
otherwise known as LondonMarathon. But the reason why I
think London is so special, moreso than maybe quite a few of the
other marathons is because thisis one of the races that prides
itself on it being available foreveryone, as long as you're

(01:47:15):
willing to make your miles alittle bit extra magical, a
little bit extra more special byreally focusing on charity
fundraising at the same time. Soit sounds like you did that? Do
you want to talk a little bitabout how this training cycle
may have been different? Knowingthat it is such a big
fundraising aspect as well.

Okay, so I'm gonna be honest with you all and
tell you that I didn't know itwas the biggest fundraising day.
I had no clue. I had no clue Iwas I ran the 2021 Chicago
marathon. And when I finished Isaid never again, I don't want
to run another marathon again.
And I feel so bad for my family,I really, really do feel bad for
them because I finished thatrace. And I'm like, Don't ever

(01:47:55):
let me do that. Again. If I sayI'm gonna do that, take my
credit card away. I mean, itdoesn't matter. I have my credit
card number memorized or reallyeven. So I'm finished. And I was
like, never again, I don't wantto do that again. And the more I
kind of sat with it, I think Ieven had a dream. I don't even

(01:48:16):
know it's been it's a journeyagain, like I hope if you take
anything away from anything Isay it's this understanding that
running is a journey, and thatwho you become as a runner
constantly, you are constantlyin a state of becoming. And so I
ran, I ran that race said Inever wanted to do it again.
Fast forward to 2022. And Ithought, there's something

(01:48:38):
missing for me. When I firststarted running. I loved the
challenge of a marathon. Even ifit's often it was hard, and it
hurt. I continued to do it. So2015 i So 2014, I ran my first
marathon in 2015. I did threemarathons and 150 K in 2016. It
was two marathons. So I hadthese periods of time where I

(01:49:02):
was doing it a lot. And Ithought, Wait, where did that
person go? Weird? Did thatperson go? And that was my
pondering last year of how can Ifall back in love with the
process of running a marathon?
Because I did it before and itwas there. So what within me has
changed? And how can I reconnectto whatever it is that was

(01:49:25):
changed? Or how can I find whatI lost. And I had a friend who
was getting her six star andTokyo as well. She was just so
excited. She was sharing so muchand I thought Wait, I think I
want to do that. I think I wantto do that if I'm gonna get back
into marathoning it has to besomething that's really really
special. Because it has to behas to be more than me. That was

(01:49:50):
just like if I'm going to dothis, I know that I can't do it
for myself. Because if I do itfor myself I'm gonna get caught
up in numbers and in PRs and allof this other stopped, which for
some people, it's verymotivating. I don't want to take
that away from anyone. But forme, that's what led me to feel
burnt out by running andheartbroken by running. And I
did not want to return to thatspace. So I entered the lottery

(01:50:13):
did not get selected through thelottery. And I had about 24
hours to fake. How badly do Iwant this. And if I really want
this goal, and if I really wantto do this, I've got to
fundraise for a charity. Do Iwant it bad enough to fundraise
for a charity? Because I don'tknow if your listeners know
this. But when you'refundraising for a charity,

(01:50:36):
you're doing twice the work.
You're training for a race. Andyou're trying to fundraise.
Which

fundraising is hard.

Oh, it's so hard. It is so hard. So much
work. I feel like I'm a nap orlike a mosquito all the time
telling people Hey, fundraise.
I'm donating, please come on,give me give me give me. And so
I had 24 hours of that. I sentmy coach, a text message of this
is what I'm thinking aboutdoing? What do you think she
responded with the most excitedtext message that I was like, I

(01:51:08):
have to do this now. Like ifshe's excited, and she believes
there's something there for me,let me start believing in that
too. So I went the route oflooking at all the charities, I
picked a charitableorganization, rays of sunshine.
And the way I picked them was soserendipitous because I had

(01:51:28):
decided if I'm going to runLondon, I need a theme. I need a
word for London. And for me thatword was joy. Because I wanted
it to be that every run, I hadsparked joy in me, not the
entire time. But I at leastwanted to feel some kind of joy
at some point.

You're still a human.

Like, I'm like I just need even if it's just
like, just like a second whereI'm like, Okay, I'm doing this.
So that was what I had decided,like joy is going to be what's
going to carry me through thistraining cycle. As soon as I
went to the rays of sunshine,their whole thing, it's a sun,
it's about brighten the days,and the lives of children. I'm

(01:52:09):
like, what doesn't get morejoyful than that? Like, it's
literally a son, and it'syellow. And it's joyful, and
it's happy. So I applied, theyinterviewed me. And then I was
asked to be on their team. Andagain, it wasn't until later
that I realized this is thelargest fundraising day. And
they kept seeing that messagingof, Hey, your miles being more,

(01:52:34):
because they're going to rippleout beyond to you. And that is
something that I took into mytraining where, first of all, I
told me that I told myself, Icould not complain about
running. Because in previousmarathon cycles, there's always
a point where I'm like, this ishard. Why am I doing this? And I
told myself, nope, if you'remaking this choice, to do this,

(01:52:57):
you got to commit to it, and youjust got to own it, own it, do
it be done with it. And that wasthe journey of this training
cycle. So this training cyclefor me was the fastest feeling
training cycle ever. I'm in thisspace of feeling like I'm ready,
but also feeling like I didn'thave enough time, even though I

(01:53:17):
know I had enough time. But itjust moved by so quickly. And I
think the reason why it moves byso quickly is because I brought
so much more intention andawareness to each of the runs.
But beyond that, I told myselfor promised myself or challenged

(01:53:40):
myself to not hold on to theruns. So do the run, do my best.
Let it go. Because that'ssomething that I feel like has
happened to me before. And Iknow it can happen to I'm sure
we've all experienced it withour athletes where they have one
workout, it doesn't go to plan,and then they somehow think that

(01:54:01):
they're a bad runner, or they'renot good enough for that
training has gone to crap. Andit's like no, actually like, you
gave it your best. That's whatyou had in yourself that day.
And I realized too, that if Iwas actually able to step back
on those days where I had quoteunquote, bad runs, that was
probably a day where a childwoke up in the middle of the

(01:54:24):
night. I did not eat as much asI should have eaten the day
before. I did not fuel how Ishould have fueled I didn't
drink as much as I should havedrank. Or I was stressed out
with my house. I was stressedout trying to figure out fifth
grade math, like there's allthese things that kind of come

(01:54:44):
into it. So that was that waspart of it. So for me it was the
training went by really quick.
And my focus on the train duringthis training cycle is very
different from other trainingcycles in that I My main main
goal was to fall in love withthe process of training for a

(01:55:06):
marathon. So every run I wentinto, it was very much so that
reminder of I'm choosing to dothis. And because I'm choosing
to do this, I get to do this.
Nothing is a sacrifice. I'm notsacrificing anything, when this
is the choice that I'm making.
So I would say it's, it's been abig, I've been working on just

(01:55:27):
mentally shifting

from the act of accountability, the act of the
act of really being present ofowning, active ownership. That's
what I was trying to say. Yeah.

So I'm curious, do you feel like you're
successful? Bringing back joy tomarathon training?

Oh, yeah, listen, I had a run. So I had
told my coach, and y'all, Idon't want to plug this, but I'm
totally gonna plug this, ifyou're listening to this, get a
coach, get a coach, get a coach,because coaches are so
important. And they are yourbiggest cheerleaders. And my
coach understands me better thanthat, my family that I spend the

(01:56:10):
majority of my time with, whenit comes to running big. My
family just thinks I'm outthere. And they, they're like,
Wait, we're on a roller coaster,we have no clue what we're
doing. But we're here for theright type of thing. Whereas my
coach is like, all right, she'sthe conductor of this ride. We
cut through all of it, all ofit, all of it. So early on, I'll
give this example early on inthe training process. I told her

(01:56:31):
I want to run a 22. I want to doa 22 mile long run. And she
said, Are you sure? And I'mlike, at this moment? I am, I am
fully aware. Yeah. So I waslike, I'm gonna be honest. And I
told her, I'm like, I am fullyaware that a 22 mile run for me
physiologically will have nobenefit, because it's gonna take
so long to do it.
Physiologically, I know it willhave zero benefit. But this run

(01:56:53):
and this training cycle, for mehas been about my mental state
with it. And if I can finish a22 mile run in Miami, Florida,
still smiling and saying, Ican't wait to do this marathon,
I have won this entire trainingcycle. So I do this 22 mile run,

(01:57:14):
which I started at 4am. BecauseI knew it was just gonna take me
a really long time to do itstarted off early, I read with
friends throughout differentparts of it. I would say at my
own 19 of that run, I wanted tostop. I was like, I'm done. I

(01:57:34):
can just walk this, I can justwalk this. And in my mind, I
said no, I'm gonna say this inSpanish. But in Spanish, I kept
telling myself get their mindthat like Who told you who told
you to? And it was one of thosethings and like you said, active
ownership, it was very much sothat's get their mind. I was
like, Who told you to ask forthis? Who told you to do this?

(01:57:55):
Who told you to tell your coach,you wanted to do this? And in my
mind, I was like, wait, I did.
Like I told myself to do this. Iasked for this. So whether
you've got to take walk breaks,whether you're going to stop and
think about stopping for good.
You're gonna keep going. Andwhen I finished that run, I

(01:58:18):
mean, I must have I must havelooked so unhinged. Because I
smiling so big. Because I'mlike, I did it. I did it. And I
think this is something we alltalk about, within ourselves
with each other with ourathletes. Running is so mental.
And if you can come to thatspace of meeting your biggest

(01:58:41):
inner critic that tells youyou're not enough, you have to
stop. You're not strong enoughto keep going if you can meet
that critic, and continue going.
That's it. Like to me that thatany training cycle, any run is a
complete success. Because ittrickles to every

part of your life. That's where the magic
happens. Absolutely. Yeah,

yeah, exactly.
That is where the magic is justpushing

because like you said that it goes from
there's that phrase, I thinkit's on a t shirt. I run this
body. It's I run my mind. And somany times our mind is playing
tricks against us, especially inthose later miles. So I love
that you brought it back to I'min charge. And I can keep moving
forward. So that's that is.
That's like mic drop momentright here friends. So hopefully

(01:59:29):
you all are continuing to moveforward and putting a smile on
your face because if you sawStephanie's joy, if some people
call it a ninja, that's okay. Aslong as you're gonna go train
for

a marathon like that's how well like I know
you're not trying to sell it,but that's how well you sold it.
It's like, alright, whatmarathon am I doing now? Let's
let's, let's have some activeownership and let's really just
dig in deep and I love

that and you know, even when you said the
word like, Christine, when youstarted talking about London
marathon, I was like I'm gonnacry like I'm just gonna, I'm
just gonna cry all day. SinceI'm going to anytime I feel like
that's going to be those twowords together are going to make
me cry getting on the flight,I'm gonna cry getting there, I'm
gonna cry because it really is.
I just, I cannot. I don't thinkI can fully communicate who you

(02:00:16):
become when you're training fora marathon. And for some of
y'all, it might just be a halfmarathon, right? Like, whatever,
whatever you think your limit istraining for that and meeting
all those points of doubt. Butstill showing up and trying,

(02:00:38):
like you've said, like, that iswhere the magic happens. Because
out there when you're running.
And it's the same thing withyoga, I always tell people with
yoga, right, we're like, you'rethe one that's doing the work.
It's not me, it's not the personnext to you, it's you. And even

(02:00:59):
something I'm going into Londonwith this awareness that even
though there's 1000s 10s of1000s of people that will be
running as well. Even when I'msurrounded by people, it's still
going to be this conversationthat I have with myself, as to
my belief in my ability to keepmoving forward. And I say this

(02:01:22):
to for myself, where it's like,I never doubt that I'm going to
finish. I know that physically,I can do it. What I question is
the negotiations I'm going tohave to make with myself in
order to get it done.

Yeah, absolutely. What I love about
what you're saying is that,while yes, I 100% agree that
reading and our love of readingis an evolution. Sometimes
there's not as much love in it.
But what I feel like what I'mhearing you say is that this
training cycle was aboutreclaiming and reclaiming sense
of self, sons of selfconfidence, self love, self
appreciation, self awareness.
And I think that if we thinkabout stripping it back, though,

(02:01:59):
we've evolved, it's also goingto a simpler time in life where
we actually did believe inourselves before we were
bombarded with negativity. Soagain, every time we talk to
you, I feel like I get chills,because it's just such a
phenomenal conversation.
Friends, if you want to hearmore of Stephanie, and you want
to hear more about London, we'regonna definitely send you on
over to the runners roundtablepodcast. And she's got a bonus

(02:02:20):
episode all about that preLondon Marathon questions
answered. But we also inviteyou, as you're rolling through
this, send her some love on herInstagram, because she is going
to, you're likely going to belistening to this as she's
preparing to embark on her26.22. I was I had that point
too, too, all the time. So youwant to to to, it could be I see

(02:02:42):
her. We want to send her a wholelot of love. So much so that she
feels like all throughout thatmarathon. And we'll add this
into Episode notes. But it's atthe cookie runner, which I feel
like, let's go ahead and markthis right here. And now you
have an invitation to come back.
Because we want to probablyspend an hour on that Instagram

(02:03:03):
handle that we may not have timeright now. But friend, I want to
thank you so much Stephanie,truly for for not just injecting
joy into this conversation, butinjecting joy into the world
around you. So we appreciatehaving you here with us.

Oh, thank you for having me. And running is
awesome. And it's, I've saidthis before. And I just want to
I want these to be my last wordshere on this podcast that we're
all just one connection awayfrom falling in love with this
sport. And here, I'm just sograteful that I got to spend

(02:03:40):
some time with two of myconnections that have inspired
me to keep showing up becausethat's what we do for each
other. We inspire one another tokeep showing up in our
authenticity in our truth in ourjoy. And in the reality of this
sport. That's beautiful. Butit's I always think of Brene

(02:04:00):
Brown, beautiful, right whereit's like brutal and beautiful.
So thank you for having me andfor just being two more sparks
that make this sport sowonderful. All right, well,
while

you might not have tackled 26.2 on this run,
it is time to pull it on down.
So let's bring it to our walkand warm warm up to the warm
down in three, two. And one. Istill think I'm catching up on
sleep.

I can't imagine why I can't imagine why
but for three nights in a row.

I actually napped and that was
groundbreaking. So I respectStephanie with the jetlag that's
about to occur and if you arelike us and still recovering
from the runDisney weekendbasically no matter what let's
get some hydration let's take anap let's just you know snuggle
with our running shoes and havea good cold cool down here are

(02:04:55):
with

our trainers as they would say in the UK
which isn't meaning smuggle withtheir actual code. trainers like
that's what they call theirrunning shoes. I'm on HR

nightmare.

I'm on fire here, folks with the UK slang.
I'm just going to keep it goingall the way through. But I don't
want to annoy our guests, so Ididn't bring it to the table
there. I'm just keeping it foryou coach Shelby. However
Friends, we want to thank you somuch for joining us for this
incredible recap weekend. As youguys can tell, we were very
excited to bring it to the tablebecause it was quite magical

(02:05:26):
weekend and we were so excitedto share the news. Joining in as
the official training partnerfor Girls on the Run of Central
Florida soulmate program. Again,reach out to that link with
Elizabeth to find out more,especially if you want to be in
our training groups, which wehave some more exciting
announcements about that. We'rejust we're gonna put a pause on

(02:05:48):
the excitement for one episode.
So just stay tuned friends signup for our newsletter for not on
it already. Because trust me,you're gonna want to hear about
these details coming on up. Andwe're also including all the
myriad of ways to catch up toStephanie. Maybe if you want to
track rat London if you want tosend her some cheering and
supporting on her Instagram.
We'll include that in episodenotes. You saw it in the

(02:06:08):
newsletter as well. Of course,if you're already signed up, you
could join us on the Facebookgroup community page so you
could talk to your fellowrunners, whether they're across
the pond in your backyard or yetto become your future bestie
because there's so many greatways to stay in contact. I want
to ask you though, coach, with afew minutes left during this
cooldown. What was your mostfavorite standout memory of the

(02:06:34):
entire run Disney weekend? Yes,you can only pick one I'm going
to be I'm going to be meanbecause I have a little rumbling
of vibe still.

Okay, if I had to choose which you were making
me do, I'm still salty with you.
You fed me too well, and Ididn't get a try the official
fake plastic cheese ofrunDisney. UK, but I'll let it
go on a couple of years. My beststandout moment was us after a
day of FOMO which is fear ofmissing out in case anybody

(02:07:04):
doesn't know of getting ourpicture with Wally. We got Wally
picture. And as we're walkingaway he does the Wow. And we
both screamed and shrieked likelittle children and it was the
purest moment of the entireweekend. And if there's one
thing I will remember it's justour faces looking at each other

(02:07:26):
like to just happen.

Yeah, it was absolutely incredible. i We
didn't bring that up during ourrecap because oh my gosh, there
was just so much but that was abig takeaway too, is that those
race morning lines for thecharacters if it's a theme
character of that specific race,those lines can get super long.
So we found that it was probablybest to go to the other race day

(02:07:50):
character so basically like thecars day, that was the perfect
opportunity to go meet theMonsters Inc or the other
characters that weren'tnecessarily on theme. Now. I
think though on the final dayboth you and I decided that they
were going to get our we'regonna get our photos with every
opportunity possible. So I thinkthat was the day that we stood
in the longer lines and we werewilling to do it because they do

(02:08:13):
go by quick. And we realizedthat that's really what it's
about is capturing thosememories.

Even though I had to push you to leave me at a
certain point I'm likeChristine, Phil, love that is
all Disney. Please go and Ithink I left you at the Tower of
Terror because I was not nearone of the runDisney approved
restrooms and I did not want touse a porta potty. And I'm a
scaredy cat so I did not want toadd some extra hydration to the

(02:08:42):
Run Disney course and yes I justwent there people

well that's okay. I mean there's that's
that's that's possible to happenfriends. So with that said,
hopefully you've made it back tohome so you can participate in
your own loo break. I'm I can'tstop now that I started the UK
slaying I cannot stop. I loveit. But friends, we want to
thank you so much. It was anabsolutely fabulous workout.
Hopefully you feel that extrapep in your step you got a

(02:09:07):
little bit of extra Joy hearingfrom our wonderful guests with
Stephanie and Kristen, and ofcourse hearing a little bit
about the magical miles that weparticipated in. But we want you
to give yourself that high five,give yourself that pat in the
back. Make sure that you'rerehydrating your refueling with
your brunch, tastic favoriteswhile you're recovering,
resetting for your next run. Wewould love if you take the time

(02:09:28):
to head on over to wherever youlisten to us via Apple Spotify.
Maybe you're checking out ourYouTube, go ahead and subscribe
and rate time for brunch.
Because we want you to keepsharing so we can grow this
community. Because as you heard,the common theme was how
important it is to reallyembrace and lean into your
community, be it virtual or inperson. We want to make sure we
continue growing and allowingpeople to come in and feel

(02:09:49):
welcomed. That's reallyimportant to us. So we're going
to see you again. When it's timefor branch we're going to be
serving up more miles with

you Aside of smiles

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