September 5, 2025 • 42 mins
What does it take to run 189 marathons across all seven continents and every U.S. state? Meet Sheilagh Galinsky, who at 80 years young, shares her extraordinary athletic journey that began at age 45 when a friend's marathon medal sparked her curiosity.
Sheila takes us through her remarkable running adventures—from navigating glaciers and battling katabatic winds in Antarctica to running past alligators in South Carolina and experiencing the historic route from Marathon to Athens. Her story isn't just about endurance; it's about discovering passion later in life and refusing to let age dictate limitations. Despite being a physical therapist until age 73, Sheilagh maintained her training regimen throughout her career and beyond.
The conversation travels beyond marathons into her triathlon experiences, including completing two Ironman competitions and the notorious Alcatraz Triathlon where participants jump from boats into frigid waters and face 400 sand stairs after swimming and cycling. Sheilagh's matter-of-fact recounting of these extreme physical challenges reveals her extraordinary mental fortitude and love for athletic pursuits.
What resonates most powerfully is Sheilagh's simple yet profound wisdom: "Exercise is the best medicine you can do." She emphasizes finding physical activities you genuinely enjoy to ensure lifelong commitment. As she approaches her 190th marathon, she's adjusting her approach—running a bit slower to increase endurance and extend her running career.
Ready for inspiration to fuel your fitness journey? Listen now and discover how age truly is just a number when pursuing your passions. Whether you're a seasoned athlete or contemplating your first 5K, Sheilagh's story proves it's never too late to lace up those running shoes and chase your dreams.
Hydrapatch.com code OTNH10
You can reach out to us at:
https://coffeycrewcoaching.com
email: Carla@coffeycrewcoaching.com
FB @ Over the Next Hill Fitness Group
IG @coffeycrewcoaching.com
and Buy Me a Coffee
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Carlau
https://hydra-patch.com/discount/OTNH20
https://hydra-patch.com/discount/OTNHBOGO?redirect=%2Fproducts%2Fhydrapatch%C2%AE
https://rnwy.life code: OTNH15
https://jambar.com code: CARLA20
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello and welcome back to Over the Next Hill
Fitness Podcast.
I'm Carla Coffey, your coachand host for today's program, as
usual.
Just to let you know, if youneed a coach a running or
fitness coach I'm available.
I have some online spotsdefinitely available and a few
in-home if you're local to theMadison Wisconsin area and a few
(00:21):
in-home if you're local to theMadison Wisconsin area.
Today's program is alsosponsored by Hydra Patch.
If you have not yet tried HydraPatch, there is a link in the
show notes so that you can tryit.
I really love it in the summer.
It is really a good product.
It's kind of like a nicotinepatch, but it gives you
(00:46):
electrolytes through your skin.
You still have to drink thewater, but then you don't have
to have that taste of all the.
You know the things that we putin our water.
So if you want to try that andgive that a try, there's some
other links in there.
You can also buy me a cup ofcoffee and help support the
program and lots of things youcan do, but if nothing else,
please share, follow and ratethe program Five stars, please.
(01:09):
I really appreciate that.
It means a lot to me when youdo that.
There's also a button in theshow notes where you can send me
a text.
I, however, cannot text youback through that button, so if
you would like me to answer you,please send me an email or a
text number so I can do so.
If you have questions thatyou'd like answered about
(01:31):
running or fitness, I'd be happyto answer those for you.
If you'd like to be on the show, that's a great place to let me
know that you want to tell yourstory.
You want the world to hear it,or at least a few of my
listeners anyways.
So thanks for all that.
Today we're going to be talkingto Sheila Galinsky.
You guys, I didn't get on theprogram.
She told me this afterwards.
(01:51):
She was third in the Athensmarathon in her age group and in
San Diego she beat all the menin her age group.
And she didn't say it in thepodcast.
I said I'm saying it in yourintroduction.
So there you go.
So you guys are going to loveher story and I will see you at
the end.
Hi, sheila, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, it's so great to have you here.
It was great to have met you.
I was very intrigued talking toyou the little bit I did I
mostly talked to your sister andso I really wanted to hear your
fitness story, your runningjourney and all the things, all
things, sheila.
So tell us how you got startedand why you got started with
(02:35):
running.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Okay, well, I don't know how long we have, but you
know, as a child I was in thatera that we just were outside
all day, so we just ran aroundand did things like that.
And then, as I got older, Iplayed tennis.
And then we moved and I playedtennis and swam.
And I was working one day andone of my friends walked in with
(02:56):
a medal from the LA Marathonand she said anyone can do it.
You know, people were walking,anybody can do it, and
everyone's going.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and Anyonecould do it.
(03:19):
You know people were walking,anybody can do it and everyone's
going, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And she said, in the stadium,the college, the local college
there, and as I walked in,they're going oh, here's our
wearer.
And I went, wow, and the oneman that had done the double,
had done the full marathon, ranpast me and I thought, oh God,
(03:49):
marathon ran past me.
And I thought, oh God, so, um.
So then the second race I didwas in Culver city and, um, I
was with a number of otherpeople and when we got to the
finish at under five hours, thefinish line was gone.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
So that was my first official marathon.
Yeah, it was gone.
There were no medals, there wasnothing.
I guess they felt we were tooslow.
So the next one I did was LAand I love LA because everybody
can do it.
You know, they don't care howlong it takes.
And I finished.
I was race walking and theyactually have proctors on the
(04:23):
course.
You have to walk properly.
Oh, so I finished and then Iwent back to the group, the race
walking group, and they saidaren't you Sheila?
And I said yeah, and they said,well, you won your age.
And I said, oh, I don't knowabout that.
And they said yes, yes,time-wise.
So I said okay, and they said,well, we're going to take the
medal away from the first placewinner and give it to you.
(04:46):
So I said, you know, don't dothat.
But they said they have to.
So I got a gold medal, wow.
After that I started runningbecause I felt that the walking
was too slow.
So I started walking and I hadfriends that did a lot of them,
(05:07):
and so I have a friend that'sdone hundreds of them, really,
and it's nice to have a group,yeah, and then I got involved
with traveling with it, becausemy husband didn't really like to
travel, so I would go withmarathon tours and things like
that.
So I did a lot of races andjust did more and more.
(05:29):
And how?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
long ago did you start all this.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I was 45.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, because when I was younger, in the early 70s,
nike started and Gym Fix and Ithought, oh, I'll try that.
So I got a pair of Nikes and Iran and I thought, god, I'll
never do this again.
I didn't like it.
But starting with the walkingand the race walking really got
(05:55):
me into the running and then Ihad new friends.
So then we started to dotriathlons and I did a couple of
Ironmen yeah, half Ironmen so,um.
So then you're recycling andyou were swimming.
So that was really good for you, as far as not the pounding all
the time.
Right, your fitness was there,but you still, um were able to
(06:19):
to run pretty well.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
So it was good cross training really.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yes, it's good cross training.
Yeah, it really is so.
So I've done a lot of them nowI've I've done a marathon every
state.
I've done one on everycontinent yeah, antarctica, I
would never do again no, tell meabout antarctica, why not?
it was beautiful and it was along trip because we went first
(06:45):
into Argentina and we were inBuenos Aires and then went to
Ushuaia, which is very, verysnowy, and then the end of the
world, you know, tierra delMundo, and then we got on a boat
and went over and we wouldtravel to different areas on a
(07:09):
boat.
It was a small boat.
There were about 120 people onit, which was really nice
because it didn't take you longto get on and off and we didn't
run any.
You know that whole week wedidn't do much, but we did run a
little bit on the boat.
But then you've got, uh, whenthe door is open, you know
there's a stand about this big.
You've got to jump over.
(07:30):
So we, a day or so before therace, we did a 10k there, um, so
then they took two groups overbecause their boats weren't.
We didn't have enough boats totake everybody at one time, so
not everybody started, but wewent to.
There were four or fivedifferent science stations.
We started with, I think, chileand we went to the Russian, the
(07:54):
Chinese, uruguay, and you startout with a half and then you
come back to your start.
Your shoes, which are, are justsoaked and frozen.
You can change and warm up andchange your clothes if you need
to, if you're really wet.
But the winds, the katamaticwinds, were really something.
(08:16):
And you start out up a glacierand then you go the second time
and the glacier is kind ofmelted a little bit from the sun
and your feet go in.
If you've ever walked in a lotof snow and by that time you're
pretty tired.
That was really difficult, butit was a wonderful experience
though.
All together I loved it.
(08:36):
We saw lots of animals andAntarctica is so beautiful the
different colors of the icebergsit's just amazing.
So I really like that.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So when you did the continents, did you do the seven
races in seven days?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Or did you do it?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
separately Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I don't think they did them at that time.
I did oh Lord.
It was like 99.
I did the first one.
I did Antarctica at 99.
So that's a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
That's a better way to do it, though.
I mean, if I was going to dothat, I wouldn't want to just
rush through that.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
No, because we visited where we went, which was
we went to.
When I did Paris, you know wespent a week in Paris.
When I did Dublin, we spenttime there.
And the last international onewas Greece, and that was a
wonderful race.
You know, you start out attheir new Olympic village where
(09:37):
they've got the auditorium ornot the auditorium but the field
and then you run back to theold track that's made out of
marble, very small.
Yeah, it was really.
I really enjoyed that.
Yeah, it was wonderful.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
So so let's start with your states.
Which state would you say wasyour favorite marathon, or which
couple?
Those are my favorites for yourstates, you feel.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You know, I really like LA Really.
I've done like 28 or somethinglike that of them, yeah, yeah,
and you don't have to qualify,you don't have to be in a
lottery, anybody can do it,which I like, and it's a big
(10:28):
city and there's a lot of hellablue about it, a lot of
supporters and things like that.
Other ones were interesting fordifferent reasons.
Now, when I did Kiowa Island,we had alligators out there.
You could see them in the pondswith their eyes sticking up and
they ran out of water.
We did laps and they ran out ofwater, which they must know.
(10:49):
How many people are there whenit's warm?
Because it was warm.
I don't remember what time ofyear we did it, but it was warm.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And where is that?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Kiowa Island I'm trying to think where that is.
I don't know, I don't thinkwhen I even did it.
Keowah Island oh, it's inCharleston, south Carolina.
They take you out on the island.
The average person can't go,but if you go on a race you can.
(11:18):
And a lot of the internationalones too, were interesting, as I
say, because you were able tospend time, like in Beijing,
spend time visiting.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Of those ones which would be your favorite.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
We know not.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Antarctica, although beautiful.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yes, probably Paris.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, yeah, because of the Arc de Triomphe.
But you're running oncobblestone, oh, and the next
day your feet are really beat up.
Yeah, yeah, and I think theyeven had some carpet.
It's like New York City whenyou go over one of the bridges,
there's a small, because it'swire or metal, and there's a
(12:03):
small carpet, but there are toomany people to go on it Right so
have you done the seven majorsas well.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I think it was probably maybe five back then.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I've done.
What is it?
Chicago, new York, boston?
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Tokyo no, not Tokyo London no.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
London, london, berlin, london, paris, dublin,
have you done Berlin as well.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
That's one of them.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
No, no, and those were never in the original group
.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Okay, no, no.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
And those were never in the original group.
Okay yeah, and a lot of themnow have time limits.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Which makes a difference too as you age.
Sure, yeah, yeah, you knowyou're going to be slower,
because when we were in Beijing,one of the guys there was a
four and a half or five hourlimit and they took a bus
because you were on some oftheir freeways.
They took a bus and pickedeverybody up and one of the men
we found out later had somedementia.
(13:05):
He didn't get on the bus and wecouldn't find him.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
We had to drive around for quite a while to try
to find him.
Yeah, oh, wow, so Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I know.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
So you know, I like the Marine Corps because you're
going through past theSmithsonian and the White House
and there's no cars, there's nopeople out there.
That was really nice too.
I like to see a lot of peoplelike to be in the woods, and
(13:35):
I've done a lot of those, but Ilike more of the buildings and
things.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, so you're more of a road runner than a trail
runner.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Exactly.
Yeah, I find I have a slightperceptual problem and, like
some of them, the trail runningit's cold in the morning, so
your eyes water and you know theleaves are kind of frozen over.
So your eyes water and you knowthe leaves are kind of frozen
over, and then you come back andit's mushy as or as you go on
if you're.
It gets mushy and it's it'sharder.
So, yeah, I'm not much of atrail runner, especially going.
(14:08):
I did Griffith Park and you'rein sand and you could hear
people sliding down behind youand you're like, oh my god,
they're gonna knock us down.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
So yeah, I don't do a lot of trail myself um, but it
is significantly harder, I thinkso yeah yeah, it's like I
understand, like I do like someof our dirt paths around here,
just when I'm doing a long run,just to kind of be off of the
cement you know, but it's not,it's not really a trail run, you
(14:42):
know, because it's just a pathright, it's not over tree roots
and whatever.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Um, but yeah, I struggle in the woods yeah, now,
sometimes I like to run on ourtrails here, but they're,
they're blacktop, but usuallythere's a little bit on the side
.
You can run too and I like that.
Yeah, yeah, and you're right,it's good to get a different
feel for your feet and yourknees and everything.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
When you're off, yeah .
Speaker 1 (15:07):
So throughout your running career have you had many
injuries.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
No.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Really.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
The only real injury I had was in Palos Verdes, who
you've heard has landslides.
The road was broken and I ranon it and I tore my fascia.
I didn't have fasciitis, it wasa torn fascia.
It took six or eight weeksbefore I could walk and start to
run again, but no, I reallyhaven't.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Oh good for you.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I've got a knee that has had a tumor and has had
surgery and it's shorter thanthe other one, but really
haven't had a problem.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
That's great, mm-hmm.
So when I met you, were youwrapping up another set of your
50 states.
Are you getting started?
Speaker 2 (15:55):
No, no, no, I've done that.
Yeah, I did that a long timeago.
No, the only reason I'm 180, Iwas 188.
So now I'm 189 marathon.
So, and you like to kind ofround it, my sister said I know,
I know we're going to doanother one, um, but I don't
know if I'd ever make 200.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Sure you will.
It's only 10, well, 11 more.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yeah, yeah, I could, I could.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah, because I'm running again now today.
I took it easy last week butwalked, still walked, but ran
today.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Do you have another marathon on the books?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
No, I don't, and it would be.
I'm not familiar.
You know, I haven't lived inthe States for almost seven
years, so I'm not real familiarand especially I've never lived
here with the area.
As far as what would be close,I'd like to go someplace
relatively close because I'm notgoing to do a lot of traveling
(16:52):
on my own.
When I was with the group itwas okay and a lot of us would
do them together, Like we wentto Arizona together, went to New
York a number of times together, and that that makes it much
more fun.
That's why I was so glad mysister decided she would do the
half.
Yeah, yeah.
And she said you must, youmust've, I must've held you back
(17:15):
because you did faster on thesecond half and I said no, not
really, you know, it's morepleasant.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Tell her you were going for the negative split.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, that's right.
That's right, that's whatyou're always looking for.
And then they gave her thewrong time.
They said it was 3.23, which isbetter than what she did.
When I did the pavo inWisconsin or maybe it's Michigan
a number of years ago, shewalked it with my brothers and
she said it was hard to keep upwith them and they did like a
(17:46):
325.
So she said I'm not tellingthem, 323 is their personal best
.
There you go.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
So where did you live prior before coming back to the
States?
Costa Rica, oh wow.
And why were you there?
Just for funsies?
Speaker 2 (18:03):
No, no, we lived there.
I retired at 73 only because myhusband wanted to move
somewhere.
He thought California.
We were in California over 40years.
He felt that we needed to gosomeplace, that he would feel
more comfortable in with thepolitical situation.
So we looked at all the statesand we couldn't decide together
(18:26):
which one we wanted.
So he decided well, let's lookout of the country.
So we tried Costa Rica.
I really liked it.
I worked at an animal rescue.
Costa Rica I really liked it.
I worked at an animal rescue.
I worked at a senior centerwith exercises and doing some
Zumba with them, and at thecultural center doing exercises
(18:48):
too.
So I really enjoyed Costa Rica.
But then he became ill and wehad to come back here and he's
passed away.
He passed away after we gotback a very short time, after
like two months.
So and I don't yeah, I, I don'tthink I would move back on my
own.
I have friends there, but Ihave family here, sure yeah,
(19:08):
yeah and I'm yeah, and I'm 80,I'd like to stay close.
My children are here, mybrothers and sisters, so I'll
stay here, and we and we didlive on Guam for four years too-
oh my.
Yeah, he was in the service.
That was interesting.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Did you do any races while you were there?
Did they have races?
Speaker 2 (19:28):
No, no, at that time, that was well before I started,
okay, but they do have amarathon now, but it's got to be
hotter than Hades, right, butit's got to be hotter than Hades
, and humidity, yeah, I can't sodo any of your children run.
My son has walked a marathon andI walked one with him.
(19:49):
It's one of the LAs.
Um, my daughter, no, she has adisease, she couldn't do that
type of thing.
Um, and he's just notinterested.
And my husband, you know, wewere married for 57 years, we
were together for 60 years andhe never would exercise in his
life, never, never.
You know, I was a physicaltherapist and I'd say, well, you
(20:11):
know, that might be better,your back might be better if you
did this or that Doesn't matter.
No, and do you?
Speaker 1 (20:19):
have grandchildren.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I have two boys, two grandchildren.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Okay, yeah.
And are they interested inrunning any marathons with you
or habs or anything?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
They have done when they were younger.
They have done some, and thenthey did some in school.
Now the elder is not and theyounger one is playing hockey
and football.
Yeah, so he's still in highschool.
And the younger one is playinghockey and football yeah, so
he's still in high school.
And the other one is out ofhigh school, but he's not
interested anymore.
He did play basketball and theyplayed soccer, football, wow,
(20:49):
but a lot of kids are like that,and then he may develop
something later on too.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah, a lot of us come to running a little later
in life.
I did too in my late 40s.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yeah, unless you were on a track team or something.
But where we grew up innorthern Wisconsin, on Lake
Superior, there was no sportsfor girls and there was no gym.
There was absolutely nothing.
So you know, if you're notintroduced to it it makes it.
But we were outside.
So I said we did a lot of, youknow, running around.
(21:21):
We're the type that go out inthe morning and you didn't come
back until dinner time.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Right yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Which kids don't do now?
Speaker 1 (21:27):
No, they don't.
No, it's something you know.
I kind of get it.
So, along with your running,did you do strength training to
kind of offset some of theteardown?
Oh, yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I would go in.
In California we had a group wedid TRX in weights, yeah, yeah,
and we do it at least twice aweek, yeah, and then I would run
other days.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
And do you continue that training?
Speaker 2 (22:03):
no-transcript.
So yeah, it's important for usas we age absolutely bone wise,
muscle wise, yeah, mental.
It's.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
The best medicine you can do is exercise absolutely
yeah, yeah, it sounds like youkeep that same schedule, though,
that you did when you wereyounger I try to.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah, it gets a lot easier to sit around more when
you get older absolutely I don,I don't, I don't, I don't have
as much to do.
You know, I was working upuntil we retired and then I was
like, what am I going to do?
So then you had to go thatwasn't until you were 73.
Yeah so yeah.
I really liked it, but I knew Iwas getting weaker.
(22:44):
You know, if you're a physicaltherapist you can't do
everything at 73.
You could at 25 or 30 or 40.
So I knew I was coming to theend.
So yeah and I didn't want to bejust someone that did paperwork
that I I wouldn't want to do.
It was a perfect um occupationbecause you know you were, you
(23:09):
did things.
You were kind of a, a detective, trying to figure out you know
what's wrong with this patient,how can you help them.
And you were active with it andyou knew if you didn't like
them, you didn't have them long,which is something else.
It's not like working withpeople every day and you don't
like half of them but yeah, soI've had a good life.
(23:32):
Yeah, yeah and um.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
So now we just need to find you another race to do,
sounds like yes, I really do.
I know it's been over a weeknow, so yeah yeah, time to get
back out there and pound thatpavement and this is the time of
the year you want the fall orthe spring, right?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Because I was amazed, we moved here in September and
it was nice for a couple ofmonths and then you couldn't go
outside.
Yeah, it was horrible.
But I'm in a small apartmentand we have a gym downstairs
which is warm in the winter andcool in the summer.
But you know, running on atreadmill is really boring.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
It is indeed.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
If you've never done any distance.
Yeah, To prepare for a marathon, that would be horrible.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, during COVID, some friends and I in the
wintertime I think it was justafter the pandemic kind of was
lightened up, but we it was justso rotten outside and we did a
half marathon on on ourtreadmills and just kind of kept
, like you know, texting backand forth and it was miserable.
(24:39):
But knowing that you weresuffering with friends, it kind
of helped you get through it,you know, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, I did some shorter ones Cause I come back
to california occasionally Ihave a friend there that I stay
with and we did where you run onyour own and you just keep
track of your time and then theydecide who wins, I guess in
each category.
But at least it was somethingto do, right?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, it's that treadmill.
I mean.
I know it serves a purpose, butI didn't do it every day I used
to be able to, but not now.
Not once I ever ran outside.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, I think that's true.
I think that once you've beenoutside or you've been on it too
long that you just don't wantto do it.
It's much easier outside Thingschange.
You can, I don't want to do it.
It's much easier outside Thingschange.
I don't know if you listen tomusic.
I listen to books now and itkeeps you busy.
We're inside, even if you havea book or music inside on a
(25:39):
treadmill, it's not the same.
It's much more difficult.
It really is.
It's hotter too.
It's hotter yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Yeah, to me I could be listening to the same exact
thing, but that you know thatmile, that many of the miles
seen on a treadmill go so muchslower.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
And they do, they do yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I have to cover up the time because that's even
worse.
You know, it's like I don'teven want to see how long I've
been here and you think well,I've been doing this at least an
hour, right?
Oh, it's been 10 minutes.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Right, exactly, that's the problem.
You look at it and you go oh,but if you know the distance and
we used to run on PCH and wehad the distances marked, so you
knew there were six miles,there was 10 miles and that was
really nice, yeah, really niceyeah, and you could plan exactly
what you wanted to do, you know, depending on how close you're
getting to a race.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah Now have you done any ultras or anything like
that, Any 50 Ks?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
No, no, well we we.
One time I think they made usrun too far, but I've never
knowingly done one.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Nothing on purpose, no that's right.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
No, that's right.
Yeah, no.
And they always say when youget older that that's what you
want to do.
Someone at mainly marathons wastelling me that, but I've never
felt that I needed to.
Yeah, have you run ultras.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
I have, yeah, I've run a couple.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Have you yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
And how do they?
Do you like them I do, are they?
Better.
Well, I really like probably myfavorite distance is the
marathon distance, but I've donetwo 100s and I've done a 50 and
a 50K.
I like the 50 mile and I reallylike the 100 mile.
(27:18):
The only thing yeah, the onlything I don't like about the 100
mile is I am such a chicken torun in the dark that I need to
find people that will comethrough the night with me, and
that's kind of a burden for them, you know.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
But it's such an irrational fear I can't.
I can't get out.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Are you on hills or something?
Are you on a road?
Is it dangerous?
No, Well, like I've done oneroad 100 and I've done one trail
100.
You know, I don't want to be inthe woods in the dark by myself
.
No, no I didn't want to be onthese country roads in the dark
by myself well, that's whathappened to me when I did, uh,
(28:00):
ironman Canada.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
You um, finish your your bike and you start out.
It's 13.1 miles out around thelake and there's no lights or
anything out there, and so theygive you these little glow
sticks which really the cars cansee you, but that's not gonna
help, right, um, and I wasrunning with a woman and I think
we were coming back, and wefound someone on the ground oh
(28:22):
no and we tried to talk to himand I didn't know if he didn't
know English.
He was awake, His eyes were open, he was breathing, but he
didn't want to get up and hewouldn't talk to us.
So I stayed with him and sheran and it's pitch dark.
I thought, you know we can'tleave him in the road here
(28:43):
because someone will run overhim.
So I don't know why they, butyou know it's a 17 hour thing,
so you eventually have to get inthe dark yeah, Cause in Florida
it was the same thing.
Or you come up to a great bigbright light and you can't run
because you can't see there's somuch glare?
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah, yeah.
And so how many Ironmans didyou do?
The Ironman distance, thewhatever.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
I finished two.
The third one, I tore a rotatorcuff and the swim was really,
you know it was, and I'm not agood swimmer, that's my worst
thing and so I didn't get out ofthe water.
It was like a minute late outof the water and so, and I was
foolish, because I'm afraid,because I was older, um and um,
(29:35):
you know, it's a mass start andthere's like 2 000 people, and
so you think, okay, I'm going toget out in the water because
they usually have kayaks whereyou start, I'm going to get in
the water so that they don't runover me.
Well then, they swam over mebecause the kayaks get out of
the way and you know 2 000people come and, oh man, you get
bumped and banged.
Yeah, because the smallertriathlons usually do you by age
(29:59):
.
Yeah, and that's much easier,much, much better yeah or like
that I've done um I've been to.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I've done one.
Um, I've been to, I've done oneIronman.
Um, which one did you do?
I did the one here in Wisconsin.
Oh, okay, yeah, and I had tolearn to swim to do it, and I
don't like swimming, and so I'mone and done that was like a
bucket list thing.
But but I wanted to cheer onsome friends and they did it by
(30:28):
um, you got to kind of seatyourself based on what your swim
time was, so that was kind ofgood, because then you can go in
with people that are swimmingat your ability and not people
running over you, Right.
Ideally that's, you know,ideally, but yeah, during my
Ironman swim.
So they did that with your time.
(30:50):
But the fast people kind ofcaught us.
Oh sure, because it was twoloops.
And this guy I'm assuming itwas a guy, because he felt so
strong he must have beenfinishing a stroke he put his
hand right in the middle of myback and pushed me under and
pushed off of me and kept going.
That is when you're not astrong swimmer, that's so
terrifying.
And I come up and I swam for mylife and I got a PR on that
(31:15):
swim.
I was just I got to get out ofhere, and I swam as fast and as
hard as I could.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
I came out of one.
I don't know if it was Malibuor where it was, but I had a
split lip and in the cold waterit doesn't bleed, oh yeah.
And then you get out and itbleeds.
Do you get kicked?
Yeah, you get kicked.
The one that really wasdifficult was the Alcatraz
Triathlon.
You did that.
You know you have to jump off aboat and I thought I don't want
(31:47):
all these people jumping on me.
So I got out there firstBecause again they had.
You can't go off the island.
They take you out in a boat.
And then they've got the kayaksout there and the horn whistles
and everybody jumps off theboat and I thought I'm going to
have a heart attack.
I know I will when I get thatcold water.
And people were everywhere andwhat they announced is if you
(32:07):
look off the bow of the boat andyou are going that way and you
see the Koi Tower way over toyour left, swim to the Koi Tower
, because they said the currentis just going to take you to
China and they have littledinghies out there that grab
people that are heading out andapparently they don't penalize
(32:31):
people.
They'll get them going again orthey might even take them to
the shore and then let them off,which I thought was right but
anyhow.
But that was really tough, thatwas really cold.
But you know, that's the reasonI started doing triathlons.
I watched one on TV and thisguy comes up and said, this big
(32:52):
brown thing bumped into me and Ithought wow.
And then, watching it, Ithought I couldn't do that.
But the run was really.
It's like 400 sand stairs up,400 sand stairs up.
Oh, there's a rope there whichhelps you.
But after you have to run tothe water and get in and no, you
(33:16):
jump in.
You run from the swim in yourbare feet to your bike because
they want your core temperatureto come up, because if the water
is so cold they're afraidyou'll have hypothermia.
So you have to run like twomiles before you can get your
bike.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Holy crap.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
And then you're on your bike, a couple of laps and
then the sandblad.
Oh, I can remember that thatsounds so interesting.
But it was interesting.
I didn't want a lot of them,you just do one, oh.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
God, it sounds terrible.
Yeah, wow, a lot of them, youjust do one.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Oh God that sounds terrible.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Yeah, wow.
So what race do you think wasthe hardest thing you've ever
done?
Was it Ironman?
Was it a certain marathon?
Speaker 2 (33:59):
What do you think?
No, I would say, it wasprobably Antarctica.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Because we're on glaciers, we're on rocks, the
wind, the cold, and then yourfeet would get wet from all the
snow and the ice.
Yeah, that was really tough andyou didn't have.
What they did is.
They took bottles and theythrew them in a pile someplace,
and so then you had to digthrough and find your bottle if
(34:26):
you wanted anything to drink.
So that was probably thetoughest.
Wow and I'm sure it's probablychanged there are more and more
people doing it.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
How many people?
Were doing it that year whenyou did it.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Well, there were halves and wholes, so I don't
know exactly how many did it,but there were about 120 on the
board.
Yeah, you mentioned that andthey were all racers.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
They weren't just spectators.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
There was, I think, one woman that was there with
her son.
There might have been a couple,but not many.
Most of them weren't because itwas a lot of money to go.
Yeah, I bet, so, yeah, sopeople, most of them were racers
.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
So, where did you stay?
Was there a hotel you stayed,or what?
At antarctica?
Oh no, you're on the boat.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Oh, you just stay on the boat, gotcha, and we had, we
had botanists, and because thenthey would take us to an area
and we would get out and theywould say now this was an old
whaling area and you see'd seethe animals.
They'd take us in the boats andyou could see the sea lions and
the little penguins oh, we'reso cute.
We would see different types ofpenguins and, as I said, they
(35:40):
would have biologists there, youknow, talking about what type
of bird we're going to see andall that type of thing, and it
was very interesting.
And it was very interesting andit was really rough.
Then you go across the DrakePassage, which is, I guess, the
roughest water in the world,because you have the Atlantic,
the Pacific and the SouthernOceans, that mix, oh yeah, and
(36:04):
there were people that fell down.
You slept in a box so youdidn't fall out, and you could
hear your luggage going wham,wham, wham back and forth in the
locker.
And they served you food in abox too.
You had your plate inside a boxso it didn't slide off the
table, but you know you'd sitthere and you'd go, eh.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Oh, yeah, oh.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
I bet you people were getting so seasick.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah, wow, oh yeah, I bet you people were getting so
seasick.
Yeah, well, it's not like beingon a you know these ocean, um,
these huge cruise ships, becausethey're so big, you know
there's really not a lot ofmotion with it, but you get a
small boat it was an old russian, uh, science boat.
Um, yeah, it was interesting.
I love all that stuff.
It was very interesting.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
That's so amazing.
So if you could tell theaudience any words of wisdom.
If there's something that Ihaven't asked you that you'd
like to tell them, let's getthis.
Get that out.
Asked you that you'd like totell them, let's get that out
there.
What would you like to?
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Are you talking specifically about runners?
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Whatever Triathletes old women like us?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Well, as I say, I think that exercise is the best
medicine you can do, and peopleneed to find the type of
exercise they like so theycontinue it, whether it's
walking, cycling, swimming,tennis.
You know people need to dosomething physically and you
don't have to follow everybodyelse.
(37:41):
If you don't like running oryou don't like swimming, find
something you do like and uh.
But I think running for me isthe best exercise for me as far
as cardiology and and uh bonedensity, muscle strength, things
(38:01):
like that.
So I like running and it'sgoing to be hard if I have to
stop, I think I just I'm justtrying to learn to run a little
bit slower so I increase myendurance for it and to be able
to continue.
Sometimes we have to justcontinue like the Indian that
(38:25):
was 114, that just died, 100years old.
It was like what?
Four and a half hours orsomething like that.
It was amazing.
Yeah, I'd be lucky to get fourand a half again.
Well, yes, yes, yes.
Well, you know, bostonQualifier at 80 is five hours
and 50 minutes.
So when I was at this one, Ithought that's not so bad.
(38:47):
I'm not so bad because I knew Iwouldn't do Boston Qualifier
there, yeah.
So, yeah, just find some kindof a passion with some type of
exercise.
Yeah, you need to keep movinggreat wisdom.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Great wisdom, it's really serving you well.
I would never have believedthat you were 80, you said
Except for the wrinkles.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
That's why I like COVID's masks.
Nobody knows, but I was outsideso much and we were kids there
was no sunblock.
Yeah, we were just outside allthe time, so it is what it is.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Absolutely, yeah Well , thank you so much, sheila, for
being on the show.
I've thoroughly enjoyed yourstory and I will look forward to
seeing you around here inMadison.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Okay, good.
Well, will your husband do therace again next year?
I don't know.
Maybe he he said it was one,and done, but he's been talking
like maybe he'll do another.
Oh you, you, you.
Always, after it's over, youalways say that and then you're
like I could do better.
I could do better next time.
Yeah, all right.
Well, thank you for being sokind.
I was nervous about this, youdid great, we'll talk again okay
, thanks but okay okay, okay,bye-bye all right.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Thanks for listening in.
I really appreciate your time.
I hope you enjoyed Sheila'sstory.
Quite an inspiration and she'slocal to me.
She only lives like two miles.
She's been here for about ayear, I guess.
So yeah, she's two miles awayand we'll probably maybe go for
a walk or a run or have a coffeetogether, so that's exciting.
(40:26):
Thanks again for listening.
Please share and rate theprogram and we'll see you next
time.
Hello and welcome back to Over the Next Hill
Fitness Podcast.
I'm Carla Coffey, your coachand host for today's program, as
usual.
Just to let you know, if youneed a coach a running or
fitness coach I'm available.
I have some online spotsdefinitely available and a few
in-home if you're local to theMadison Wisconsin area and a few
(00:21):
in-home if you're local to theMadison Wisconsin area.
Today's program is alsosponsored by Hydra Patch.
If you have not yet tried HydraPatch, there is a link in the
show notes so that you can tryit.
I really love it in the summer.
It is really a good product.
It's kind of like a nicotinepatch, but it gives you
(00:46):
electrolytes through your skin.
You still have to drink thewater, but then you don't have
to have that taste of all the.
You know the things that we putin our water.
So if you want to try that andgive that a try, there's some
other links in there.
You can also buy me a cup ofcoffee and help support the
program and lots of things youcan do, but if nothing else,
please share, follow and ratethe program Five stars, please.
(01:09):
I really appreciate that.
It means a lot to me when youdo that.
There's also a button in theshow notes where you can send me
a text.
I, however, cannot text youback through that button, so if
you would like me to answer you,please send me an email or a
text number so I can do so.
If you have questions thatyou'd like answered about
(01:31):
running or fitness, I'd be happyto answer those for you.
If you'd like to be on the show, that's a great place to let me
know that you want to tell yourstory.
You want the world to hear it,or at least a few of my
listeners anyways.
So thanks for all that.
Today we're going to be talkingto Sheila Galinsky.
You guys, I didn't get on theprogram.
She told me this afterwards.
(01:51):
She was third in the Athensmarathon in her age group and in
San Diego she beat all the menin her age group.
And she didn't say it in thepodcast.
I said I'm saying it in yourintroduction.
So there you go.
So you guys are going to loveher story and I will see you at
the end.
Hi, sheila, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, it's so great to have you here.
It was great to have met you.
I was very intrigued talking toyou the little bit I did I
mostly talked to your sister andso I really wanted to hear your
fitness story, your runningjourney and all the things, all
things, sheila.
So tell us how you got startedand why you got started with
(02:35):
running.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Okay, well, I don't know how long we have, but you
know, as a child I was in thatera that we just were outside
all day, so we just ran aroundand did things like that.
And then, as I got older, Iplayed tennis.
And then we moved and I playedtennis and swam.
And I was working one day andone of my friends walked in with
(02:56):
a medal from the LA Marathonand she said anyone can do it.
You know, people were walking,anybody can do it, and
everyone's going.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and Anyonecould do it.
(03:19):
You know people were walking,anybody can do it and everyone's
going, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And she said, in the stadium,the college, the local college
there, and as I walked in,they're going oh, here's our
wearer.
And I went, wow, and the oneman that had done the double,
had done the full marathon, ranpast me and I thought, oh God,
(03:49):
marathon ran past me.
And I thought, oh God, so, um.
So then the second race I didwas in Culver city and, um, I
was with a number of otherpeople and when we got to the
finish at under five hours, thefinish line was gone.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
So that was my first official marathon.
Yeah, it was gone.
There were no medals, there wasnothing.
I guess they felt we were tooslow.
So the next one I did was LAand I love LA because everybody
can do it.
You know, they don't care howlong it takes.
And I finished.
I was race walking and theyactually have proctors on the
(04:23):
course.
You have to walk properly.
Oh, so I finished and then Iwent back to the group, the race
walking group, and they saidaren't you Sheila?
And I said yeah, and they said,well, you won your age.
And I said, oh, I don't knowabout that.
And they said yes, yes,time-wise.
So I said okay, and they said,well, we're going to take the
medal away from the first placewinner and give it to you.
(04:46):
So I said, you know, don't dothat.
But they said they have to.
So I got a gold medal, wow.
After that I started runningbecause I felt that the walking
was too slow.
So I started walking and I hadfriends that did a lot of them,
(05:07):
and so I have a friend that'sdone hundreds of them, really,
and it's nice to have a group,yeah, and then I got involved
with traveling with it, becausemy husband didn't really like to
travel, so I would go withmarathon tours and things like
that.
So I did a lot of races andjust did more and more.
(05:29):
And how?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
long ago did you start all this.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I was 45.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, because when I was younger, in the early 70s,
nike started and Gym Fix and Ithought, oh, I'll try that.
So I got a pair of Nikes and Iran and I thought, god, I'll
never do this again.
I didn't like it.
But starting with the walkingand the race walking really got
(05:55):
me into the running and then Ihad new friends.
So then we started to dotriathlons and I did a couple of
Ironmen yeah, half Ironmen so,um.
So then you're recycling andyou were swimming.
So that was really good for you, as far as not the pounding all
the time.
Right, your fitness was there,but you still, um were able to
(06:19):
to run pretty well.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
So it was good cross training really.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yes, it's good cross training.
Yeah, it really is so.
So I've done a lot of them nowI've I've done a marathon every
state.
I've done one on everycontinent yeah, antarctica, I
would never do again no, tell meabout antarctica, why not?
it was beautiful and it was along trip because we went first
(06:45):
into Argentina and we were inBuenos Aires and then went to
Ushuaia, which is very, verysnowy, and then the end of the
world, you know, tierra delMundo, and then we got on a boat
and went over and we wouldtravel to different areas on a
(07:09):
boat.
It was a small boat.
There were about 120 people onit, which was really nice
because it didn't take you longto get on and off and we didn't
run any.
You know that whole week wedidn't do much, but we did run a
little bit on the boat.
But then you've got, uh, whenthe door is open, you know
there's a stand about this big.
You've got to jump over.
(07:30):
So we, a day or so before therace, we did a 10k there, um, so
then they took two groups overbecause their boats weren't.
We didn't have enough boats totake everybody at one time, so
not everybody started, but wewent to.
There were four or fivedifferent science stations.
We started with, I think, chileand we went to the Russian, the
(07:54):
Chinese, uruguay, and you startout with a half and then you
come back to your start.
Your shoes, which are, are justsoaked and frozen.
You can change and warm up andchange your clothes if you need
to, if you're really wet.
But the winds, the katamaticwinds, were really something.
(08:16):
And you start out up a glacierand then you go the second time
and the glacier is kind ofmelted a little bit from the sun
and your feet go in.
If you've ever walked in a lotof snow and by that time you're
pretty tired.
That was really difficult, butit was a wonderful experience
though.
All together I loved it.
(08:36):
We saw lots of animals andAntarctica is so beautiful the
different colors of the icebergsit's just amazing.
So I really like that.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So when you did the continents, did you do the seven
races in seven days?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Or did you do it?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
separately Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I don't think they did them at that time.
I did oh Lord.
It was like 99.
I did the first one.
I did Antarctica at 99.
So that's a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
That's a better way to do it, though.
I mean, if I was going to dothat, I wouldn't want to just
rush through that.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
No, because we visited where we went, which was
we went to.
When I did Paris, you know wespent a week in Paris.
When I did Dublin, we spenttime there.
And the last international onewas Greece, and that was a
wonderful race.
You know, you start out attheir new Olympic village where
(09:37):
they've got the auditorium ornot the auditorium but the field
and then you run back to theold track that's made out of
marble, very small.
Yeah, it was really.
I really enjoyed that.
Yeah, it was wonderful.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
So so let's start with your states.
Which state would you say wasyour favorite marathon, or which
couple?
Those are my favorites for yourstates, you feel.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You know, I really like LA Really.
I've done like 28 or somethinglike that of them, yeah, yeah,
and you don't have to qualify,you don't have to be in a
lottery, anybody can do it,which I like, and it's a big
(10:28):
city and there's a lot of hellablue about it, a lot of
supporters and things like that.
Other ones were interesting fordifferent reasons.
Now, when I did Kiowa Island,we had alligators out there.
You could see them in the pondswith their eyes sticking up and
they ran out of water.
We did laps and they ran out ofwater, which they must know.
(10:49):
How many people are there whenit's warm?
Because it was warm.
I don't remember what time ofyear we did it, but it was warm.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And where is that?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Kiowa Island I'm trying to think where that is.
I don't know, I don't thinkwhen I even did it.
Keowah Island oh, it's inCharleston, south Carolina.
They take you out on the island.
The average person can't go,but if you go on a race you can.
(11:18):
And a lot of the internationalones too, were interesting, as I
say, because you were able tospend time, like in Beijing,
spend time visiting.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Of those ones which would be your favorite.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
We know not.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Antarctica, although beautiful.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yes, probably Paris.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, yeah, because of the Arc de Triomphe.
But you're running oncobblestone, oh, and the next
day your feet are really beat up.
Yeah, yeah, and I think theyeven had some carpet.
It's like New York City whenyou go over one of the bridges,
there's a small, because it'swire or metal, and there's a
(12:03):
small carpet, but there are toomany people to go on it Right so
have you done the seven majorsas well.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I think it was probably maybe five back then.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I've done.
What is it?
Chicago, new York, boston?
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Tokyo no, not Tokyo London no.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
London, london, berlin, london, paris, dublin,
have you done Berlin as well.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
That's one of them.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
No, no, and those were never in the original group
.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Okay, no, no.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
And those were never in the original group.
Okay yeah, and a lot of themnow have time limits.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Which makes a difference too as you age.
Sure, yeah, yeah, you knowyou're going to be slower,
because when we were in Beijing,one of the guys there was a
four and a half or five hourlimit and they took a bus
because you were on some oftheir freeways.
They took a bus and pickedeverybody up and one of the men
we found out later had somedementia.
(13:05):
He didn't get on the bus and wecouldn't find him.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
We had to drive around for quite a while to try
to find him.
Yeah, oh, wow, so Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I know.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
So you know, I like the Marine Corps because you're
going through past theSmithsonian and the White House
and there's no cars, there's nopeople out there.
That was really nice too.
I like to see a lot of peoplelike to be in the woods, and
(13:35):
I've done a lot of those, but Ilike more of the buildings and
things.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, so you're more of a road runner than a trail
runner.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Exactly.
Yeah, I find I have a slightperceptual problem and, like
some of them, the trail runningit's cold in the morning, so
your eyes water and you know theleaves are kind of frozen over.
So your eyes water and you knowthe leaves are kind of frozen
over, and then you come back andit's mushy as or as you go on
if you're.
It gets mushy and it's it'sharder.
So, yeah, I'm not much of atrail runner, especially going.
(14:08):
I did Griffith Park and you'rein sand and you could hear
people sliding down behind youand you're like, oh my god,
they're gonna knock us down.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
So yeah, I don't do a lot of trail myself um, but it
is significantly harder, I thinkso yeah yeah, it's like I
understand, like I do like someof our dirt paths around here,
just when I'm doing a long run,just to kind of be off of the
cement you know, but it's not,it's not really a trail run, you
(14:42):
know, because it's just a pathright, it's not over tree roots
and whatever.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Um, but yeah, I struggle in the woods yeah, now,
sometimes I like to run on ourtrails here, but they're,
they're blacktop, but usuallythere's a little bit on the side
.
You can run too and I like that.
Yeah, yeah, and you're right,it's good to get a different
feel for your feet and yourknees and everything.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
When you're off, yeah .
Speaker 1 (15:07):
So throughout your running career have you had many
injuries.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
No.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Really.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
The only real injury I had was in Palos Verdes, who
you've heard has landslides.
The road was broken and I ranon it and I tore my fascia.
I didn't have fasciitis, it wasa torn fascia.
It took six or eight weeksbefore I could walk and start to
run again, but no, I reallyhaven't.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Oh good for you.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I've got a knee that has had a tumor and has had
surgery and it's shorter thanthe other one, but really
haven't had a problem.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
That's great, mm-hmm.
So when I met you, were youwrapping up another set of your
50 states.
Are you getting started?
Speaker 2 (15:55):
No, no, no, I've done that.
Yeah, I did that a long timeago.
No, the only reason I'm 180, Iwas 188.
So now I'm 189 marathon.
So, and you like to kind ofround it, my sister said I know,
I know we're going to doanother one, um, but I don't
know if I'd ever make 200.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Sure you will.
It's only 10, well, 11 more.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yeah, yeah, I could, I could.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah, because I'm running again now today.
I took it easy last week butwalked, still walked, but ran
today.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Do you have another marathon on the books?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
No, I don't, and it would be.
I'm not familiar.
You know, I haven't lived inthe States for almost seven
years, so I'm not real familiarand especially I've never lived
here with the area.
As far as what would be close,I'd like to go someplace
relatively close because I'm notgoing to do a lot of traveling
(16:52):
on my own.
When I was with the group itwas okay and a lot of us would
do them together, Like we wentto Arizona together, went to New
York a number of times together, and that that makes it much
more fun.
That's why I was so glad mysister decided she would do the
half.
Yeah, yeah.
And she said you must, youmust've, I must've held you back
(17:15):
because you did faster on thesecond half and I said no, not
really, you know, it's morepleasant.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Tell her you were going for the negative split.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, that's right.
That's right, that's whatyou're always looking for.
And then they gave her thewrong time.
They said it was 3.23, which isbetter than what she did.
When I did the pavo inWisconsin or maybe it's Michigan
a number of years ago, shewalked it with my brothers and
she said it was hard to keep upwith them and they did like a
(17:46):
325.
So she said I'm not tellingthem, 323 is their personal best
.
There you go.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
So where did you live prior before coming back to the
States?
Costa Rica, oh wow.
And why were you there?
Just for funsies?
Speaker 2 (18:03):
No, no, we lived there.
I retired at 73 only because myhusband wanted to move
somewhere.
He thought California.
We were in California over 40years.
He felt that we needed to gosomeplace, that he would feel
more comfortable in with thepolitical situation.
So we looked at all the statesand we couldn't decide together
(18:26):
which one we wanted.
So he decided well, let's lookout of the country.
So we tried Costa Rica.
I really liked it.
I worked at an animal rescue.
Costa Rica I really liked it.
I worked at an animal rescue.
I worked at a senior centerwith exercises and doing some
Zumba with them, and at thecultural center doing exercises
(18:48):
too.
So I really enjoyed Costa Rica.
But then he became ill and wehad to come back here and he's
passed away.
He passed away after we gotback a very short time, after
like two months.
So and I don't yeah, I, I don'tthink I would move back on my
own.
I have friends there, but Ihave family here, sure yeah,
(19:08):
yeah and I'm yeah, and I'm 80,I'd like to stay close.
My children are here, mybrothers and sisters, so I'll
stay here, and we and we didlive on Guam for four years too-
oh my.
Yeah, he was in the service.
That was interesting.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Did you do any races while you were there?
Did they have races?
Speaker 2 (19:28):
No, no, at that time, that was well before I started,
okay, but they do have amarathon now, but it's got to be
hotter than Hades, right, butit's got to be hotter than Hades
, and humidity, yeah, I can't sodo any of your children run.
My son has walked a marathon andI walked one with him.
(19:49):
It's one of the LAs.
Um, my daughter, no, she has adisease, she couldn't do that
type of thing.
Um, and he's just notinterested.
And my husband, you know, wewere married for 57 years, we
were together for 60 years andhe never would exercise in his
life, never, never.
You know, I was a physicaltherapist and I'd say, well, you
(20:11):
know, that might be better,your back might be better if you
did this or that Doesn't matter.
No, and do you?
Speaker 1 (20:19):
have grandchildren.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I have two boys, two grandchildren.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Okay, yeah.
And are they interested inrunning any marathons with you
or habs or anything?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
They have done when they were younger.
They have done some, and thenthey did some in school.
Now the elder is not and theyounger one is playing hockey
and football.
Yeah, so he's still in highschool.
And the younger one is playinghockey and football yeah, so
he's still in high school.
And the other one is out ofhigh school, but he's not
interested anymore.
He did play basketball and theyplayed soccer, football, wow,
(20:49):
but a lot of kids are like that,and then he may develop
something later on too.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah, a lot of us come to running a little later
in life.
I did too in my late 40s.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yeah, unless you were on a track team or something.
But where we grew up innorthern Wisconsin, on Lake
Superior, there was no sportsfor girls and there was no gym.
There was absolutely nothing.
So you know, if you're notintroduced to it it makes it.
But we were outside.
So I said we did a lot of, youknow, running around.
(21:21):
We're the type that go out inthe morning and you didn't come
back until dinner time.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Right yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Which kids don't do now?
Speaker 1 (21:27):
No, they don't.
No, it's something you know.
I kind of get it.
So, along with your running,did you do strength training to
kind of offset some of theteardown?
Oh, yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I would go in.
In California we had a group wedid TRX in weights, yeah, yeah,
and we do it at least twice aweek, yeah, and then I would run
other days.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
And do you continue that training?
Speaker 2 (22:03):
no-transcript.
So yeah, it's important for usas we age absolutely bone wise,
muscle wise, yeah, mental.
It's.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
The best medicine you can do is exercise absolutely
yeah, yeah, it sounds like youkeep that same schedule, though,
that you did when you wereyounger I try to.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah, it gets a lot easier to sit around more when
you get older absolutely I don,I don't, I don't, I don't have
as much to do.
You know, I was working upuntil we retired and then I was
like, what am I going to do?
So then you had to go thatwasn't until you were 73.
Yeah so yeah.
I really liked it, but I knew Iwas getting weaker.
(22:44):
You know, if you're a physicaltherapist you can't do
everything at 73.
You could at 25 or 30 or 40.
So I knew I was coming to theend.
So yeah and I didn't want to bejust someone that did paperwork
that I I wouldn't want to do.
It was a perfect um occupationbecause you know you were, you
(23:09):
did things.
You were kind of a, a detective, trying to figure out you know
what's wrong with this patient,how can you help them.
And you were active with it andyou knew if you didn't like
them, you didn't have them long,which is something else.
It's not like working withpeople every day and you don't
like half of them but yeah, soI've had a good life.
(23:32):
Yeah, yeah and um.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
So now we just need to find you another race to do,
sounds like yes, I really do.
I know it's been over a weeknow, so yeah yeah, time to get
back out there and pound thatpavement and this is the time of
the year you want the fall orthe spring, right?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Because I was amazed, we moved here in September and
it was nice for a couple ofmonths and then you couldn't go
outside.
Yeah, it was horrible.
But I'm in a small apartmentand we have a gym downstairs
which is warm in the winter andcool in the summer.
But you know, running on atreadmill is really boring.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
It is indeed.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
If you've never done any distance.
Yeah, To prepare for a marathon, that would be horrible.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, during COVID, some friends and I in the
wintertime I think it was justafter the pandemic kind of was
lightened up, but we it was justso rotten outside and we did a
half marathon on on ourtreadmills and just kind of kept
, like you know, texting backand forth and it was miserable.
(24:39):
But knowing that you weresuffering with friends, it kind
of helped you get through it,you know, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, I did some shorter ones Cause I come back
to california occasionally Ihave a friend there that I stay
with and we did where you run onyour own and you just keep
track of your time and then theydecide who wins, I guess in
each category.
But at least it was somethingto do, right?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, it's that treadmill.
I mean.
I know it serves a purpose, butI didn't do it every day I used
to be able to, but not now.
Not once I ever ran outside.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, I think that's true.
I think that once you've beenoutside or you've been on it too
long that you just don't wantto do it.
It's much easier outside Thingschange.
You can, I don't want to do it.
It's much easier outside Thingschange.
I don't know if you listen tomusic.
I listen to books now and itkeeps you busy.
We're inside, even if you havea book or music inside on a
(25:39):
treadmill, it's not the same.
It's much more difficult.
It really is.
It's hotter too.
It's hotter yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Yeah, to me I could be listening to the same exact
thing, but that you know thatmile, that many of the miles
seen on a treadmill go so muchslower.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
And they do, they do yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I have to cover up the time because that's even
worse.
You know, it's like I don'teven want to see how long I've
been here and you think well,I've been doing this at least an
hour, right?
Oh, it's been 10 minutes.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Right, exactly, that's the problem.
You look at it and you go oh,but if you know the distance and
we used to run on PCH and wehad the distances marked, so you
knew there were six miles,there was 10 miles and that was
really nice, yeah, really niceyeah, and you could plan exactly
what you wanted to do, you know, depending on how close you're
getting to a race.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah Now have you done any ultras or anything like
that, Any 50 Ks?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
No, no, well we we.
One time I think they made usrun too far, but I've never
knowingly done one.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Nothing on purpose, no that's right.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
No, that's right.
Yeah, no.
And they always say when youget older that that's what you
want to do.
Someone at mainly marathons wastelling me that, but I've never
felt that I needed to.
Yeah, have you run ultras.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
I have, yeah, I've run a couple.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Have you yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
And how do they?
Do you like them I do, are they?
Better.
Well, I really like probably myfavorite distance is the
marathon distance, but I've donetwo 100s and I've done a 50 and
a 50K.
I like the 50 mile and I reallylike the 100 mile.
(27:18):
The only thing yeah, the onlything I don't like about the 100
mile is I am such a chicken torun in the dark that I need to
find people that will comethrough the night with me, and
that's kind of a burden for them, you know.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
But it's such an irrational fear I can't.
I can't get out.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Are you on hills or something?
Are you on a road?
Is it dangerous?
No, Well, like I've done oneroad 100 and I've done one trail
100.
You know, I don't want to be inthe woods in the dark by myself
.
No, no I didn't want to be onthese country roads in the dark
by myself well, that's whathappened to me when I did, uh,
(28:00):
ironman Canada.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
You um, finish your your bike and you start out.
It's 13.1 miles out around thelake and there's no lights or
anything out there, and so theygive you these little glow
sticks which really the cars cansee you, but that's not gonna
help, right, um, and I wasrunning with a woman and I think
we were coming back, and wefound someone on the ground oh
(28:22):
no and we tried to talk to himand I didn't know if he didn't
know English.
He was awake, His eyes were open, he was breathing, but he
didn't want to get up and hewouldn't talk to us.
So I stayed with him and sheran and it's pitch dark.
I thought, you know we can'tleave him in the road here
(28:43):
because someone will run overhim.
So I don't know why they, butyou know it's a 17 hour thing,
so you eventually have to get inthe dark yeah, Cause in Florida
it was the same thing.
Or you come up to a great bigbright light and you can't run
because you can't see there's somuch glare?
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah, yeah.
And so how many Ironmans didyou do?
The Ironman distance, thewhatever.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
I finished two.
The third one, I tore a rotatorcuff and the swim was really,
you know it was, and I'm not agood swimmer, that's my worst
thing and so I didn't get out ofthe water.
It was like a minute late outof the water and so, and I was
foolish, because I'm afraid,because I was older, um and um,
(29:35):
you know, it's a mass start andthere's like 2 000 people, and
so you think, okay, I'm going toget out in the water because
they usually have kayaks whereyou start, I'm going to get in
the water so that they don't runover me.
Well then, they swam over mebecause the kayaks get out of
the way and you know 2 000people come and, oh man, you get
bumped and banged.
Yeah, because the smallertriathlons usually do you by age
(29:59):
.
Yeah, and that's much easier,much, much better yeah or like
that I've done um I've been to.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I've done one.
Um, I've been to, I've done oneIronman.
Um, which one did you do?
I did the one here in Wisconsin.
Oh, okay, yeah, and I had tolearn to swim to do it, and I
don't like swimming, and so I'mone and done that was like a
bucket list thing.
But but I wanted to cheer onsome friends and they did it by
(30:28):
um, you got to kind of seatyourself based on what your swim
time was, so that was kind ofgood, because then you can go in
with people that are swimmingat your ability and not people
running over you, Right.
Ideally that's, you know,ideally, but yeah, during my
Ironman swim.
So they did that with your time.
(30:50):
But the fast people kind ofcaught us.
Oh sure, because it was twoloops.
And this guy I'm assuming itwas a guy, because he felt so
strong he must have beenfinishing a stroke he put his
hand right in the middle of myback and pushed me under and
pushed off of me and kept going.
That is when you're not astrong swimmer, that's so
terrifying.
And I come up and I swam for mylife and I got a PR on that
(31:15):
swim.
I was just I got to get out ofhere, and I swam as fast and as
hard as I could.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
I came out of one.
I don't know if it was Malibuor where it was, but I had a
split lip and in the cold waterit doesn't bleed, oh yeah.
And then you get out and itbleeds.
Do you get kicked?
Yeah, you get kicked.
The one that really wasdifficult was the Alcatraz
Triathlon.
You did that.
You know you have to jump off aboat and I thought I don't want
(31:47):
all these people jumping on me.
So I got out there firstBecause again they had.
You can't go off the island.
They take you out in a boat.
And then they've got the kayaksout there and the horn whistles
and everybody jumps off theboat and I thought I'm going to
have a heart attack.
I know I will when I get thatcold water.
And people were everywhere andwhat they announced is if you
(32:07):
look off the bow of the boat andyou are going that way and you
see the Koi Tower way over toyour left, swim to the Koi Tower
, because they said the currentis just going to take you to
China and they have littledinghies out there that grab
people that are heading out andapparently they don't penalize
(32:31):
people.
They'll get them going again orthey might even take them to
the shore and then let them off,which I thought was right but
anyhow.
But that was really tough, thatwas really cold.
But you know, that's the reasonI started doing triathlons.
I watched one on TV and thisguy comes up and said, this big
(32:52):
brown thing bumped into me and Ithought wow.
And then, watching it, Ithought I couldn't do that.
But the run was really.
It's like 400 sand stairs up,400 sand stairs up.
Oh, there's a rope there whichhelps you.
But after you have to run tothe water and get in and no, you
(33:16):
jump in.
You run from the swim in yourbare feet to your bike because
they want your core temperatureto come up, because if the water
is so cold they're afraidyou'll have hypothermia.
So you have to run like twomiles before you can get your
bike.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Holy crap.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
And then you're on your bike, a couple of laps and
then the sandblad.
Oh, I can remember that thatsounds so interesting.
But it was interesting.
I didn't want a lot of them,you just do one, oh.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
God, it sounds terrible.
Yeah, wow, a lot of them, youjust do one.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Oh God that sounds terrible.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Yeah, wow.
So what race do you think wasthe hardest thing you've ever
done?
Was it Ironman?
Was it a certain marathon?
Speaker 2 (33:59):
What do you think?
No, I would say, it wasprobably Antarctica.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Because we're on glaciers, we're on rocks, the
wind, the cold, and then yourfeet would get wet from all the
snow and the ice.
Yeah, that was really tough andyou didn't have.
What they did is.
They took bottles and theythrew them in a pile someplace,
and so then you had to digthrough and find your bottle if
(34:26):
you wanted anything to drink.
So that was probably thetoughest.
Wow and I'm sure it's probablychanged there are more and more
people doing it.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
How many people?
Were doing it that year whenyou did it.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Well, there were halves and wholes, so I don't
know exactly how many did it,but there were about 120 on the
board.
Yeah, you mentioned that andthey were all racers.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
They weren't just spectators.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
There was, I think, one woman that was there with
her son.
There might have been a couple,but not many.
Most of them weren't because itwas a lot of money to go.
Yeah, I bet, so, yeah, sopeople, most of them were racers
.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
So, where did you stay?
Was there a hotel you stayed,or what?
At antarctica?
Oh no, you're on the boat.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Oh, you just stay on the boat, gotcha, and we had, we
had botanists, and because thenthey would take us to an area
and we would get out and theywould say now this was an old
whaling area and you see'd seethe animals.
They'd take us in the boats andyou could see the sea lions and
the little penguins oh, we'reso cute.
We would see different types ofpenguins and, as I said, they
(35:40):
would have biologists there, youknow, talking about what type
of bird we're going to see andall that type of thing, and it
was very interesting.
And it was very interesting andit was really rough.
Then you go across the DrakePassage, which is, I guess, the
roughest water in the world,because you have the Atlantic,
the Pacific and the SouthernOceans, that mix, oh yeah, and
(36:04):
there were people that fell down.
You slept in a box so youdidn't fall out, and you could
hear your luggage going wham,wham, wham back and forth in the
locker.
And they served you food in abox too.
You had your plate inside a boxso it didn't slide off the
table, but you know you'd sitthere and you'd go, eh.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Oh, yeah, oh.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
I bet you people were getting so seasick.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah, wow, oh yeah, I bet you people were getting so
seasick.
Yeah, well, it's not like beingon a you know these ocean, um,
these huge cruise ships, becausethey're so big, you know
there's really not a lot ofmotion with it, but you get a
small boat it was an old russian, uh, science boat.
Um, yeah, it was interesting.
I love all that stuff.
It was very interesting.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
That's so amazing.
So if you could tell theaudience any words of wisdom.
If there's something that Ihaven't asked you that you'd
like to tell them, let's getthis.
Get that out.
Asked you that you'd like totell them, let's get that out
there.
What would you like to?
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Are you talking specifically about runners?
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Whatever Triathletes old women like us?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Well, as I say, I think that exercise is the best
medicine you can do, and peopleneed to find the type of
exercise they like so theycontinue it, whether it's
walking, cycling, swimming,tennis.
You know people need to dosomething physically and you
don't have to follow everybodyelse.
(37:41):
If you don't like running oryou don't like swimming, find
something you do like and uh.
But I think running for me isthe best exercise for me as far
as cardiology and and uh bonedensity, muscle strength, things
(38:01):
like that.
So I like running and it'sgoing to be hard if I have to
stop, I think I just I'm justtrying to learn to run a little
bit slower so I increase myendurance for it and to be able
to continue.
Sometimes we have to justcontinue like the Indian that
(38:25):
was 114, that just died, 100years old.
It was like what?
Four and a half hours orsomething like that.
It was amazing.
Yeah, I'd be lucky to get fourand a half again.
Well, yes, yes, yes.
Well, you know, bostonQualifier at 80 is five hours
and 50 minutes.
So when I was at this one, Ithought that's not so bad.
(38:47):
I'm not so bad because I knew Iwouldn't do Boston Qualifier
there, yeah.
So, yeah, just find some kindof a passion with some type of
exercise.
Yeah, you need to keep movinggreat wisdom.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Great wisdom, it's really serving you well.
I would never have believedthat you were 80, you said
Except for the wrinkles.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
That's why I like COVID's masks.
Nobody knows, but I was outsideso much and we were kids there
was no sunblock.
Yeah, we were just outside allthe time, so it is what it is.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Absolutely, yeah Well , thank you so much, sheila, for
being on the show.
I've thoroughly enjoyed yourstory and I will look forward to
seeing you around here inMadison.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Okay, good.
Well, will your husband do therace again next year?
I don't know.
Maybe he he said it was one,and done, but he's been talking
like maybe he'll do another.
Oh you, you, you.
Always, after it's over, youalways say that and then you're
like I could do better.
I could do better next time.
Yeah, all right.
Well, thank you for being sokind.
I was nervous about this, youdid great, we'll talk again okay
, thanks but okay okay, okay,bye-bye all right.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Thanks for listening in.
I really appreciate your time.
I hope you enjoyed Sheila'sstory.
Quite an inspiration and she'slocal to me.
She only lives like two miles.
She's been here for about ayear, I guess.
So yeah, she's two miles awayand we'll probably maybe go for
a walk or a run or have a coffeetogether, so that's exciting.
(40:26):
Thanks again for listening.
Please share and rate theprogram and we'll see you next
time.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.