Runner Stories: Lisa Watkins (Behind the Bib)

Happy New Years everyone! 2026 is going to start off with a very special guest! This week on Second Wind, we hand the mic to Lisa Watkins, host of Behind the Bib, whose mantra is simple: do it scared, then do it again. From a first solo half during lockdown to building a fiercely welcoming run community, Lisa shares how showing up—imperfect and honest—can change your running and your life. She lets us peek at a live-wire moment moderating a conversation with a certain legendary mastermind of sufferfests, plus a pacing story that turned nerves into someone else’s breakthrough. We talk tribe over times, vibes over splits, and why a good laugh (and the right friends) can carry you farther than any gel. If you’ve ever wondered whether you “belong” in this sport, Lisa’s answer is a resounding yes—and the way she gets there might surprise you. Come for the stories, stay for the spark to register for the thing that scares you a little.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hello, everyone, greetings and salutations.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome back to another episode of the Back of the
Pack Podcast, second one.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
I'm your host, Kyle Walker.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Thank you so much for tuning in joining us this
week on our fun filled holiday adventures of interviewing runners
from around the country. A woman who needs no introduction.
This is Lisa from the Behind a Bib podcast. I
have co hosted for her, she has co hosted for me.
We have intermingled all over the place, and now she
joins us live.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Lisa, how the heck are you?

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Readings and salutations.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Kyle, how you doing down there in Huntsville. I hear
it's a little chili down there right now.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Got a little chili. I would like to give your
weather back to you. Thank you so much for the
for the offer. One day was good for us. So
you can have twenty four degrees back and I will
take my fifty degree winter anytime.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah. Fine, yeah, we'll work on that. Maybe not so
much so.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
For those of you don't know, Lisa does the Behind
the Bib podcast again. She has co hosted here before
when I was out of town and a race. So
make sure you check out Behind the Bib on all
your social media and podcast listening platforms. Lisa, where is
a good place for people to follow you? What's like
your biggest platform, what's your biggest social media account?

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Where should they go? Point them in the right direction, Put.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
In in the right direction. I'm on Facebook, I'm on YouTube,
I'm on Instagram, and I'm on TikTok. I do the
TikTok thing. So run talk so behind the BIB, Behind
the Bid podcast on Facebook, Behind the Podcast on Instagram,
on TikTok as well and YouTube, because dang, those numbers
are sad. So that would be really cool if people

(01:49):
went out there and hit the little follow and like button.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Boy, let me let me ditto that. Please subscribe to
both of our shows because check.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
That, brof. Well, tell everyone about behind bi for those
who have not heard of you.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Okay, So I started a little podcast down here in Huntsville,
Alabama in January of this year because I had a
friend and mentor who said, just hit record. Dang it.
Because I had been listening to him and he was
kind enough to sit down with me and tell me
all the things about podcasting. I thought, you know, what
my community needed was something like that. We didn't have anything,

(02:26):
and so I started behind the BIB in January of
this year, and I go do races around the Southeast.
I talk about the races, and I talked to race directors,
I talked to run club directors, I talked to runners.
I talk about educational things for runners in terms of,

(02:46):
you know, how to prepare for night running, how to
prepare for cold running, how to do all the things.
So I started that in January of this year and
it's going pretty well and I'm pretty I'm pretty happy
with what has has turned out. You know, I didn't
know what to expect. I was very unsure. I was
a little scared, to be honest with you. But that's

(03:08):
my motto is to do it scared and unprepared. That's
what I do. But yeah, behind the BIB has been
a lot of fun. I've gotten to talk to a
lot of people, and as you know, this running community
is just fantastic. And so I do it all from

(03:28):
the perspective of somebody like me, which is somebody at
the back of the pack. So I'll never most most
I'll say almost never stand on the podium or get
an age group or ward or anything like that. That's
not what it's about. For me. So I do all
these things and talk to all these people from the
perspective of somebody that looks like them, that runs like them,

(03:52):
that is not going to stand on a podium, so
that they know what they can expect and they can
have a feeling of belonging like they can belong too.
And that's the whole purpose behind it.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Absolutely, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
So before we go to our questions, I want you
to tell everyone because I thought this was the coolest thing.
We go to the Barclays and you got to meet
laz You got to meet laz this year?

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Correct?

Speaker 3 (04:17):
I did I tell.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Everyone about meeting him?

Speaker 3 (04:20):
This is Lazarus jumping all the way to the last question, Kyle,
the Victory Lap question. That's okay, folks, that's.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Not going to that one first, because I really want
to hear about this.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Okay, seriously, you know we can talk about victory Lap. Well, yeah,
do it now, okay, because you never know, right, it's
like eating eating dessert first, because you know, okay, So yeah,
one of my I think one of my biggest things
this year was I did not just get to meet

(04:55):
Laz Lake and Jared Beasley. Oh I'm gonna make some
noise here because I'm gonna dump some stuff off the books.
But I got to interview them, so we hosted a night.
I'm gonna hold it up to the camera.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
There it is The Endurance Artist zooming.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
In hard on this Yes, zoom zooming in hard.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Look there it looks so mean.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
I know he is. I was so stink and scared too.
There we go. Look at that automatic zoom. Screwed it
up at first, but then it fixed it and it's
still backwards anyway. I held up the book called The
Endurance Artist that's by Jared Beasley, but I got to
interview him at Monta Sano State Park Lodge that it's

(05:38):
a local state park here and Fleet Feet, who have
established a pretty good relationship with throughout this whole process,
reached out to me and said, hey, would you consider
helping us with this night this evening at Monta Sano.
We're bringing Jared Beesley in who is from the area,

(05:59):
and he's bring in lass with him, and we need
somebody to moderate the Holy Evening. And you know, they
had been listening to the podcast and they've been on
the podcast and things like that, and I replied, I
would give my left Kidney to do that. I replied back,
I meant I would very much appreciate the opportunity to

(06:21):
help you out.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
With your make it a business, like make a business
Nike exactly.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
And so I did. And so, just like I stated earlier,
I do things scared and unprepared. And that's exactly how
I went into that evening. Is I was so scared
the whole time, Like leading up to it, my heart
was just pounding. I was like, I have absolutely no business.
I've never run an Ultra. There's no way in my

(06:48):
life I would be able to do the Barclays. It
was just, oh my gosh, it was crazy. But I
was like, well, you know, put your money where your
mouth is, Lisa, and do it. Scared, I did, And
I showed up and set up the sound system, you know,
the recording and live and the I brought my own

(07:09):
sound guy to you know, make it seem like a
real boy, right, And it was fabulous, and we spent
the evening. It was supposed to be maybe forty five minutes.
We talked for an hour and a half. Nice and
people were just enthralled and oh my gosh, the guy

(07:30):
is he is a literal genius. And so if you
read this book, it's incredible the way that Jared wrote
it and the way that Jared actually got his press
pass to go to the Barclays because Laz he's just
he really is a genius. And he sends you a
math problem and it's it's not an easy one either,

(07:55):
and he's like, and that's all he did. He just
sent him a math problem. Who has a really smart wife?
Give it to his wife, and then he sent it
back to Laz and then Las the only thing he
responded back was did you have your wife do this?

Speaker 1 (08:13):
So it's it's not a math Bromin's an honesty test?

Speaker 4 (08:15):
Is it?

Speaker 3 (08:15):
It really still literally was. And but through this series
of like he had to go do one of the
backyards and then uh he did Little's backyard to Ultra,
and then he covered Bigs and then he covered then
he covered the Barclays. And I don't think he was
there the year that Jasmine Paris actually finished was the

(08:37):
first woman to finish the Barcleys. I think he was
there the year before when she everybody DNF Sparkleys, Yeah,
and like there's very few that actually ever finish it.
But the whole evening. I don't want to say it
was it was magical because I was terrified, so but
it was incredible and I met so many people that night.

(09:01):
But I did the dumbest of dumbat what's gonna I
was like, I can't remember if you could do that
or not? Yes you can, Okay, So I did the
dumbest of dumbast things that night. I went. So my
plan was to I bought one book for myself and
then I wanted to give out two on the podcast

(09:22):
right that have been signed by both Laz and Jared,
And then in the whole series, like everybody was getting pictures,
and we got pictures with us at the end, and
I had given my stack of books to Jared and
so Jared would sign and then Laz would sign. Well,
they pulled us off to take pictures, and so you know,

(09:43):
we stood over there and my books were in front
of Laz and so I never actually saw him sign them.
And so we pack everything up and I get the
books in the car and I get home and I
get out the book like a little toddler coming home
from the book fair at the other morning. Look what
I got, right, And then I opened the book and

(10:04):
I didn't get Laz's signature. I only got Jared's and
I thought, oh my god, I can't believe. It's one
of the dumbest things. I've done a lot of dumb
crap in my life, and that's one of the dumbest
things I've ever It's on the list if I had
to list out the dumb stuff I've done in my life,
it's definitely on that list.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
We are unofficial slogan here we make the mistakes, so
you don't have to. You've just adopted that you made
the mistake. So that now next person that meets Lads,
have him signed a couple of books and send one.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
To Lisa truth, you know.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
And he doesn't live that far from here, so I
think we might take a little road trip. And Okay,
another super cool thing I wish I would have wore
the shirt. I'll send you a picture of the shirt.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
Actually, you have the shirt you sent me in the shirt.

Speaker 3 (10:53):
Yep, you know the design that's on that shirt. You
will not believe what's happening with it.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
What's a I'm.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Gonna make you guess. No, I'm kidding. So his wife,
who's like all the business and the social and everything.
His wife reached out to us and said, can I
have can I buy the design from you? And so
now the design that I had made for those shirts
is going to be the official Las merchandise design.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
And I hope you charged a pretty penny for that.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Oh no, no, no, no, it's not mine, it's not
my face. Oh, I just had an artist do it,
and so I gave her the artist's name, and then
she worked with the artist and it really is enough
payment to know that that is my like, that is
my brain child walking around on that. And she had
the artist do another design where the one that I

(11:48):
have looks like I'm promoting cigarettes because it's the one
of him lighting the cigarettes. And I realized that later.
I was like, I think people believe that I'm just
promoting smoking.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
A little bit.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
It's fine, he's only a little bit. And so she
had the artist do another one of him blowing the
conk shell, which is the warning. It's the warning bill, right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
You had sixty minutes when you hear that before the
race starts.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Before the before the cigarette is lit.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
So so now, yeah, that that design on that shirt
is going to be like his official merchandise design.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
So that's awesome, it is, Yeah, that is so cool.
I think he is.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
He's one of those running enigmas like I would. I
would love to meet the guy. And I'm sure what
I picture in my mind. He's probably one eighty completely
of what's in my head, like just the way he
acts or talks or speaks or does anything, like you
expect this horribly gruff, mean individual.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
I bet he probably is not that.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Yeah, he's not horribly gruff and mean, he just looks
that way. But he's not a teddy bear either. Yeah,
so he's too he's too like maniacally brilliant to be that.
I mean, his nickname is the Leonardo da Vinci of
pain like that, and it's I mean, it's appropriate. The stickers.

(13:11):
I wish I could show you the sticker without messing
up my whole thing. The stickers that came out with
the book is like failure has to hurt in big
red letters.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
I like that. I like that.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
And then there's another one that's like one more, which
just talks about for the backyard at Altrige, just one more,
one more, you know, one more lap and but yeah,
he's not a teddy bear. But he's not as he
wasn't as scary as I thought he was going to be.
But he did walk in and he didn't have the
flannel shirt on, and I was like, okay, oh flannel share.

(13:47):
But then he got cold and so he went and
got it out of the car.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
There it is. There you go. See he finally got there.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
Yeah. Yeah. So in terms of that being my victory lap,
it's not my official victory lap. I've got a real one,
but that was that's got to be, you know, that's
got to be a strong second place.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
For the year as a podcast host, an influencer in
social media presence, maybe that's your victory lap.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
Maybe you know, I'm gonna save the answer to that one. Ok.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, all right, Well let's let's dive right in with
our first real question then on the list your origin story.
So how did you first get into running? Not podcasting?

Speaker 3 (14:24):
Running running? Oh this is not running. It's so weird.
I am not interesting at all, And that's why I
host a podcast and I asked these questions of other
people because my story is not nearly as interesting as
other people's are. Uh. Let's see, I started running when
I was in elementary school, However, I will caveat that

(14:47):
that I did not really get into distance running until much, much,
much much later in life.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
The story for most of us.

Speaker 3 (14:56):
Yeah right, So elementary school and then high school track.
I did the things, except I was short distance. And
so who's the who's the dwarf guy and lord of
the rings ghimiy gimli. Yeah, yeah, I'm lost on long
distances or dwarves or are lost on cross country or

(15:16):
something like that, something like that. Yeah, that's me. I
was lost on cross country. So I ran short distances
and I was very like, I was super great, but
I was okay at it, right. I was a solid
B plus short distance runner, and so I did the
whole short distance running thing, went to college, did the stuff,

(15:40):
got out, had the kids, and I was like, dang,
I probably should do something. And so I started running
with the kids here and there and just never real
consistent until like everybody else, five years ago, when the
pandemic shut down the world. And then I thought, I'm
gonna lose my freaking mind if I don't do something,

(16:01):
and I almost did. I shaved my head. I shave you.
The Lisa that you see looking right here is not
that I'll send you a picture.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
So you went full Britney Spears, melt down.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
My head off, I died my like I'm mostly gray anyway,
but like, I dyed my hair all white and I
shaved off half of my head. I was losing my
dang mind. And so yeah, it was pretty intense. It
was a little bit a little bit so so that's
when I really started getting consistent though, and I ran

(16:40):
my first half marathon. I joined a group of ladies
led by Kelly KK Roberts out of New York City.
If you've ever heard of her, she started the Badass
Lady Gang out of New York. And the whole spiel
is that there's you know, forward as a pace, which
was a novel to me at the time. I had

(17:01):
never heard this, that you're a runner at no matter
size you are, no matter what pace you are. And
I thought, well, dang, that's pretty cool because I we've
never met in person, but I am five nine on
a short day, okay, and so I am a tall
person and I am not a then wavelike runner that

(17:21):
you always saw represented in media and you know, run
talk and Instagram and all these influencers and everything and
even walking in into run stores and all that stuff, right,
you just didn't see yourself represented.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
But then I still don't. Not in a run store.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
No, not in a run store. It is, and I wish, boy,
if we could change that, Kyle right right, So that's
really how I found my first tribe of people of
folks that were like you. You didn't quite fit the
mold that you had created in your head of what

(18:00):
runners looked like. And that was my first experience, in
my first foray into that pool. And I really liked
the pool. And that's when I really started drinking the
kool aid.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
It gets us all eventually. So what was your very
first race? Give them a shout out if that race
even still exists.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
Well, it was virtual because the whole dang world had
shut is shut down. And so I ran my first
half marathon by myself. Ooh yeah, yeah, I ran my
first half marathon by myself on like on the streets
out here and just me and my earbuds actually not
earbuds at that time. I don't even think I had

(18:40):
shocks at that time because I didn't have the things right, and.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
Shocks are a game changer. Feel free to sponsor our
podcast shocks, but we love it.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
Hashtag shots right shots pay us Yeah true stated So, yeah,
my first it was I can't remember which half marathon was,
to be honest with you, it might have been one
of Kelly's actually that she had done a virtual half
marathon that said, you know, hey, let's let's do this

(19:11):
because all of the races had shut down. The whole
world had shut down. And you know, my family was
going through the transitions as well, and had some family
members that were seriously struggling with substance abuse and dependency,
and so I was losing my mind. And so that's

(19:32):
the that's my origin story of how I really got
into running and how I got consistent. And so through
that first half marathon, I started running along one of
our greenways here and I had run into a friend
and I had noticed I saw her several times. It
was like, hey, you know, we kind of talk each time.

(19:53):
And that began the reconnection and the building of what
I call like my t vibe now here in Huntsville.
My run buddies. You hear me talk about them all
the time, the run buddies. That was how I met
the run buddies, and and now we kind of do
all the things together. So we all just sit around
mixing kool aid together and right, and go signing up

(20:18):
to do all these races.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, we've we've all got those people. Hey, I've got
a bad idea, come with me and do it.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
We'll go sounds great. Yeah, the Taco Bell Ultra next year.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Indeed, right, I actually saw someone do a version of
that this past weekend. I don't think it was quite
an ultra, but another state had a kind of a
taco bell thing, and like, this thing is catching on,
it's catching on.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
There was one in DC that I saw, and I thought,
that seems like a bad decision.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
By the time it's a it's a hugely bad decision.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
And of course, talking to Cody friend of the show,
of course when we do it. The extra challenge is
the Diablo Challenge and the Baja Blast Challenge. Well, clearly
we have to do that as well, because we're not
going to not do all the things.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
Really, the Baha Blast, Like, what's the difference between a
Baja blast and in gel with caffeine in it? It's
really not much because it's sugar in caffeine.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
Right, I don't know, I just I'm picturing a brain
freeze as you're trying to chug that Baja blast so
you can get moving on to the next thing.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
I'm just gonna put it in my pack. I'm gonna
put it in my hydration pack.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
I'm just I don't know if that's allowed. We're gonna
have to check the bylaws of this race to see
if you can score the baja.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
I says you have to drink it, not straight down
in one gulp.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, well good, because that's not gonna happen. Yeah, my
brain hurts thinking about it. Of course, my brain hurts
most of the time.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Anyway.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
Okay, let's go to the next one. A run that
changed you? So tell us about a race or run
that completely changed how you see yourself as a runner.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
Oh, reference the previous half marathon that I talked about.
That the first one that I did by myself, and
I was getting into that group, the Badass Lady Gang
out of New York City. Actually they're all over the place,
there's chapters all over the place now. But it was
started by Kelly who is in New York City. And

(22:15):
so I will say that that is the first one
because it was the first time I had ever done
a distance of that magnitude. So I had done five
k's and I had done ten k's, and I had
always had this inkling just in the back of my
mind that I would love to run a marathon one day.
But then I thought, oh, you know, you get older

(22:36):
and you do the things, and you're like, that's just
not going to happen. But I always wanted to, right,
And so I would say that that first half marathon
of doing that distance and then doing it by myself,
and doing it without course support, without aid support, without
people cheering you on, or a finish line, the hype

(23:00):
or the things that get you pumped, or I didn't
even know what a gel was at that point, Holy crap.
I just put a hydration pack on, and I like,
you know, I didn't know all of the things, but
I did that. And that was my first experience of persevering,
like past the point of just being tired, right, of

(23:23):
setting a goal and proving to myself that I could
complete it. And so that I think was the very
first spark of change, of not just change of like
how I ran, but changed how I walked around in
the world, like you can do hard things running and

(23:47):
that's the whole point, right, you can do hard things running,
and that just translates directly over into life is you
can do hard things in life too, And so it
couldn't have came at a better time time because the
stuff that happened after that was intense, right.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
Right, Okay, and all right, let's go on to what
was your toughest day? And I guess your biggest lesson?
So what's been your hardest running day? And then what
did teach you?

Speaker 1 (24:16):
And I know, I mean, of course clearly that first
one running a virtual solo half marathon, Like, yeah, I've
never done that, so I can't even think of it,
but I can I can only imagine how hard that
would be. But what's another one? What's a what's a
really what's a tough day?

Speaker 2 (24:30):
Maybe like a race it didn't go your way or
just you know, everything went to went to crap out
on the course.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
I don't know what's a tough day?

Speaker 3 (24:36):
And what did I think you should say that?

Speaker 1 (24:38):
Kyle?

Speaker 3 (24:38):
Huh?

Speaker 1 (24:39):
I love those softballs?

Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yeah, look at that segue. So I've got I've got
two stories for you, and I'll make them short because
I know we have to edit down. Uh, So story
number one is actually this year and we had we
had had a couple of warm days and we knew
that we were training for the every Woman's Marathon again,

(25:02):
which by the way, thank you for guests hosting for me.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
For sure. That was fun.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
Yeah, it was great. So every Woman's Marathon. We're starting
to get into the longer training runs and so this
was our first thirteen mile run right to get ready
for the marathon. And the I think the thing that
I learned from this is to not take your experience
for granted because or not over have not be over

(25:31):
Let me let me phrase it differently, don't be overconfident
with your experience because you're humbled very fast. And on
this day I was very much humbled because we went
out and I was like, oh, I'll be fine. This
is how stupid I was. It's just thirteen miles. I
all know one like I only need one refill of

(25:54):
my I only need one hydration whatever, and I don't
need this or whatever. It only take this long, and
so we'll be okay. We get out there and it
hits oh eighty five degrees and we're in Alabama. It's
ninety eight percent humidity. Every day of the year except
maybe one day in October, right, And so we get
out there and it is so stink and humid and

(26:16):
it is so hot, and I thought I have done
messed up because we get four miles in and I
have suck down probably three quarters of every drop of
water that I have on me, and I look at
run Buddy, and I was like, this is going to
end badly because I don't have like I don't have

(26:40):
the things. I do not have enough water with me.
And when we go it's not like I live in
an urban area. We go and we go like we
run miles and miles and miles and there's not a
convenience store. There's none of that stuff. Right, You're just
running along a road like I would I could easily
hop into like a a convenience store or whatever and

(27:01):
just fill it up with gatorade, but we don't. That's
not where we're running. Okay, Yeah, you carry pepper spray
because there's dogs that run after you. Like, that's the
kind of areas that were running in, or at least
that day we were.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
So I go out and I do not have enough water,
and so we try to at least get ten miles,
we come back by near the car and I have
to borrow like some aid from the running buddy, right,
and then we continue on past the car and try
to get some more miles in, and then it literally

(27:37):
takes me twice as long as any other thirteen miles
has ever taken me. And I don't normally talk about
pace or anything like that because that's not the point.
The point was that I was overconfident in my ability.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah. Well, and you use the word that takes off
the great race director in the sky, just.

Speaker 4 (27:58):
Just I yeah, yeah, I'll show you just thirteen miles, right,
que like sun baking you alive.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
And so that's right, Yeah, that was a mistake. So
that was one of the runs that kind of taught me. Okay,
calm down, kiddo, Right, yeah, calm down, you need you
still have stuff to learn. And so I definitely learned
on that run, even though it was not a race,
it was just a it was just a training run. Right.

(28:32):
The other one literally went to shit. So let me
tell you this story. So what I work at, so
the we have NASA and Marshall Space Flight Center out here,
we have the FBI, we have Redstone Arsenal. We have
all these big facilities out here. One of the great
things about driving through that gate out there is that

(28:52):
they have a wonderful greenway, and the greenway it just
goes miles and miles miles and miles. And so again
last year, we were doing one of the training runs
for Every Woman's Marathon. And always pack, you know, you
pack everything on you because again no AID, it's not
an urban area, and so you have your your pack
on you. And I usually pack all kinds of stuff

(29:13):
between pepper spray for dogs and not bears, in gels
and salts and ibuprofen and you know, all the things, right,
So I've potted all that stuff in the vest. I
always pack a couple of wet ones as well. And
so we're running and I'm trying out some new gels

(29:35):
on the training run and I thought, h not loving
how that one's sitting. Go a couple of more miles,
and it's like, we really should probably, And again it's
it's on a Saturday or Sunday. There's no buildings open
the government. It's the government, so there's absolutely no buildings open,
and we're miles miles from any kind of convenience story

(29:58):
or anything like that, and I'm like, oh God, and
it's me and the two running buddies always talk about
me and the two running buddies. And I was like,
I think my building might be open, or one of
the buildings might be open on the weekends. Oh dear god,
I hope nobody from there listens to this now that
I've halfway through this story. So we run over toward

(30:20):
the buildings. It's another couple of miles, right, and at
this point, I am dang near desperate. I am like
squatting in the ditch beside the road, y'all just look
both ways for me, right desperate because the GI tract
has just ramped up into overdrive. And I thought, you
know you're doing the reird the weird run. You think

(30:45):
it's clinched up.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Yeah, I know that run well. I know that run well.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
So I'm doing the weird run at this point, and
I thought, I'm not making it to the building. So
there's this, Oh dear God, I really do hope they
don't listen to this. So there's this like walking path
between these two buildings that people go out and walk
on their ledge break on and I don't make it
to the building. I have to go in the woods

(31:14):
right there by the walking path and running buddies. And
it's not woods, woods, right, it's not. I've got clearance
from every like, surely nobody can ever see me hear woods.
I had no choice. I had absolutely no choice. So
I had to go take care of all of the

(31:34):
things in the middle of the woods beside my work.
It was fantastic.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
It's what I think of you workplace.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
Oh my gosh, I they you know, they still talk
about that. And so that was another incident of me
being a little overconfident in my abilities. And oh, I've
known my body. I know how these jails will affect me.
I know blah blah blah. No man, on that day,

(32:07):
I didn't say just thirteen miles, but I think it
was still yeah, I think it was still handed to me.
So I was not over I try not to be
over confident in my preparations. Now, let's say.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
It's tough, though.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
It like to be real honest, Sometimes when you've been
running long enough, you do I wouldn't say get cocky,
but you you think you have everything figured out, and
you know, you get a little confidence in you and
I got this, no problem, and then you get that.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
Curveball that really teaches you. You don't know squat.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
You don't know squat. Yeah, you might just be left
doing it in the field.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
You might be squatting somewhere along the side of the road.
And that was me as I told the story in
August at the Ottawa Half Marathon, where if you did
not come up to that portage on I was looking
for the spot in the ditch in which I was
going to be decorating.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
So yeah, I've been there, done that. I understand completely.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
It's so bad. It's terrible.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
All right.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
Well, once we get off this shitty subject, on to
the next let's go to your why.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
So why right now?

Speaker 3 (33:15):
Not?

Speaker 1 (33:15):
We know why you started? You went Britney Spears during
the Rona.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
We got that was crazy.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Why do you run?

Speaker 3 (33:21):
Now?

Speaker 1 (33:22):
Why do you still keep going?

Speaker 3 (33:26):
It's funny. I think my stories coming toos, but I'll
try to be quick. So first off, I was in
high school and I lost my mom. We're gonna take
a dark turn here for a second. So I lost
my mom when I was in high school. Actually I
was right after I graduated, and she had had a

(33:47):
long series of of heart attacks, very poor health decisions,
didn't exercise, good old Southern diet of biscuits and gravy
and catain and die coke and bacon and all those
great things for your heart and your arteries and stuff
like that. So I'm not blaming that, but I'm saying

(34:09):
that it didn't help the situation. And so I lost
my mom really early, and I spent a lot of
time in high school in ers, in emergency rooms and
in hospitals. I spent a lot of time, and especially
my senior year, I can't I can't remember how many
days I missed, but it was a lot, and I
had to go before board and blah blah blah and say, well,

(34:31):
you know, dummies, you all know the reason. And so
I had to do that. And so that's a big
part of it is that I lost my mom what
I felt like was way too early in my life
for sure. And then recently, you know, we've had to
move my mother in law in who is struggling with

(34:55):
her progressing dementia. And the more that I read about
it and the more I I learn about it, just
being physically active lowers your likelihood of developing dementia by
twenty percent, no knning, just being physically active, just out there,
having the aerobic capacity exercising twenty freaking percent. If I

(35:19):
gave you a twenty percent likelihood that you're going to
win the Kansas City the lottery is Kansas. Does Missouri
have a lottery? Uh?

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Yeah, yeah, I think there's a Kansas lottery and a
Missouri lottery in Kansas Missouri.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
Okay, well Alabama, don't but not bitter about that, no
at If I gave you a twenty percent chance of
winning that lottery, you'll be like, heck, yeah, I'm going
to go buy some tickets.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
Yeah, I'm in on that.

Speaker 3 (35:44):
Yeah. So twenty percent likelihood of a twenty percent less
likelihood of developing dementia just by being active, right right,
And so really, honestly, every time I go out there now,
it is so that I can hang around and see,
you know, see my all of my kids get married,

(36:04):
if that's what they choose to do, see them, you know,
copy and paste their DNA, if that's what they choose
to do. See if like I want to be able
to get down on the ground and you know, play
with grandkids and dogs, and I want to be able
to travel and get up and down out of airplane
seats and walk through the airport and haul my luggage

(36:25):
and every other thing that I need to haul and
not feel exhausted at the end of the day. And
I keep doing it. That's really the why is because
I want to keep showing up for my family and
for my friends, because I think that they deserve it. Awesome, Yeah,

(36:46):
that's one hundred percent why.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
Well, I would say that's a good one. That's probably
a good why.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
Yeah, yeah, well, thank you.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
All right, Well, let's see people powers our next one
who's had a big impact.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
On your running journey. Time to drop some names, and
I think you got two running buddies.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
You better yes, exactly right? Uh, quit it, okay, y'all.
I did not go over my stupid answers with Kyle
before we even got on here, but apparently he knows them.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
What I know.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
I know a couple of things because I've seen a
couple of things or whatever that enginece commercial is.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
Yeah right, I know a couple of things. Honest to god,
that is. That is the names. So Christy and Michelle
are running buddies. Christy is the ultra girl. She does
fifty k's fifty milers. Looking at her first hundred milers,
she's still trying to get me to do the forty
miles strolling gym here, which is also a LAS race

(37:43):
by the way down here in Tennessee. And so Christy
and Michelle. I met Christy through Michelle. Michelle had been
running with Christy before, and I had known Michelle beforehand.
Bet Michelle's more my pace, right, So if there's a
schnauzer on the trail or on the road, we definitely
stop and take pictures with any schnauzer. I don't care

(38:05):
if it's big or little. That's the requirement. Also, if
there's a porta pot, she is the porta pot queen.
And so we have like mapped out downtown where all
the construction facilities are so that we can run from
porta pot to porta pot all the way downtown. So
Michelle is one hundred percent one of the best people alive,

(38:29):
and so is Christy. And just running with them it's
so fun because Christy she is a very competitive runner,
but not competitive like with us. You know, she's competitive
with herself or used to be. Michelle is the vibe
she is over hundred. She skirts in on two wheels.

(38:51):
She doesn't know. She knows probably probably what race we're doing,
but she does not know what time it starts. She
most like doesn't have her bib, but she one thousand
percent has the music, has the vibes, has the jails
or not the jails, but the snacks and the fun.
She really does. She brings all of that lighthearted, beautiful

(39:15):
element of just I mean, you spend a crap ton
of time with these people when you're training for these
big races and stuff, you better dang well like them, right,
And Christy and Michelle are that for me? Now? When
Michelle and I are running, Christy will you know, she'll

(39:35):
stay with us a little bit, and then Christy will
run up ahead and then run back and then run
around us, and then she'll run up ahead again and
then go back.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
People one of those.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
Yeah and so, and then we just keep going. But
you know they are down for I'm like, hey, y'all
want to drive ten hours of Conway, South Carolina and
go to this race called the Halloween Hustle because their
medals are stupid cool. And they're like, yeah, that sounds great,
let's do that. And so they are those kind of people,

(40:08):
and yeah, they're just fantastic. They're always down for anything,
and they're the best and worst kinds of running buddies
because they don't say no to any race. They were like, yes, ultra, yeah,
why not.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
Yeah, I have a stake, Fine, let's go. We'll all
share a hotel.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
Room exactly exactly. And that's what ends up ends up happening.
We just go out and we have a good time.
And I really I know I joke about it, but
I really am grateful for their presence and because you know,
on days that are really hard, and as long as
it doesn't happen on the same day, like when they

(40:48):
don't want to show up or when I don't want it,
as long as those days don't go inside, it's great
because otherwise I'm like, no, you know, let's go, ladies.
I'm going to use the term ladies, but that's not
really the term use. It's like, let's go, ladies. Yes,
time to hit the road. And so that's what we do.
And so they're my people. There's lots of other people

(41:09):
too that are wonderful, but yeah, they're kind of my
rider dies and they're pretty awesome and I'm very blessed
to have them in my life.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
Nice, very nice, all right, Next one, weird, wild and wonderful.
What is the strangest or funniest thing you have seen?
I guess either on a training run or.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
At a race.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
Okay, this one is real short. There was a we
live close to this. People out west don't call these
mountains their hills whatever. You know, they're not quite three
thousand and four thousand feet tall. Anyway, there's a road
that goes over them here. It's called Cecil Ashbourne, and
there's a there's kind of a running path alongside it.

(41:51):
I don't personally love to do it because I don't
think it's super safe, but whatever. Anyway, alongside Cecil Ashbourne
or one of the training runs, there was a deer
that had been hit right on the side of the road.
And it's just you see rod kill all the time
if you run the roads enough, right, Except this one
had a get Well Soon balloon tied to it.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Okay, so someone out there has a very morbid sense
of humor.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
Someone had gone and gotten one of the get well
Soon balloons and traveled back up the mountain, backup ce
Slashburne and tied a get well soon balloon to the
deer on.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
The side of the road to the dead deer.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
Wow, well soon, I'll send you a picture of it.
It's pretty I.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
Mean, yeah, that would probably be the winner in my
book as well if I had seen something like that,
because that is just utterly ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
It's just like, is that a balloon?

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Here's hoping that guy is already on this come back?

Speaker 3 (42:53):
Now? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (42:54):
Right, probably not, I guess. Speaking of comebacks, we'll go
to the next question. Can comebacks?

Speaker 2 (43:01):
Have you ever had to stop running due to injury
or burnout? And then how did you get past it
and return?

Speaker 3 (43:06):
Yeah, it's self imposed. It seems like all of these
stories are just self imposed stupidity. There's a theme here,
isn't there.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
It's just been there, done that got the teachers right, it's.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
Just self imposed stupidity. Every fall. You know, when we
started running our fall marathons back in what it was
twenty twenty one was my first marathon. So in the
fall we we've done what four I've done three full
marathons since then, right, and so not near the number
that somebody else I know has done. But I plan

(43:39):
on trying real hard to get there.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
I'm only a fourteen, so you're not too far behind.

Speaker 3 (43:45):
Okay, ten Okay, I can do ten all right. So
we had every every fall when we complete that big distance,
you know, we're like, ah, great, we've done it, and
then just train just falls off a cliff like tanks
done every dang time, even though it's like, we're not

(44:05):
going to do that this year. Well, and that's what it's.
That's what I mean by being self imposed, is that, Yeah,
it's just stupidity that I just let my training, I
let my consistency, I just let it all fall right
off a cliff. And then I wonder why in January
my feet feel like absolute concrete blocks. Right, I get
out there again and start training for the next thing.

(44:28):
And so this year, this year, unlike all those other times,
I'm not going to let that happen. I've set different
scary goals for twenty twenty six, okay, because so I'm
intentionally doing that so that I don't let the training
fall completely back the marathon slide, you know how like

(44:52):
in this summer, the kids go home for the summer
and they call it the summer slide. Yeap as they
forget everything. Yeah, I'm not going to do that this time.
So my setbacks are one hundred percent due to self
imposed stupidity and just not keeping going. And I haven't
really been injured yet fingers.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
Crossed, but knock on wood on that one.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
Yeah, nothing real bad, nothing more than like a little
tweak here, and do some physical therapy, do some strength training,
you know, take some ibuprofen for a few days and
it kind of resolves itself. Still, so thankfully I haven't
had any of the setbacks like that. It's just ones
that I have imposed upon myself.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
This year, which we all do that.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
Yeah, so what what are you training for in twenty
twenty six?

Speaker 1 (45:39):
You got anything big? Especially in the early parts.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
Oh so I'm still trying and toying with the idea
of having a spring marathon, which I haven't done before. Okay,
I haven't done a spring marathon, and I'm I'm thinking
about that. There's a really cool one in Missus Zippy
that I've been eyeballing and it does such great work

(46:03):
for their community, and I'm like, dang, could I do that?
And then but the real one is called the Crazies.
And if you haven't heard me talk about it or
seen this guy, Jerry Clifton comment on my stuff. This
guy is so funny. But he does the Rainsfell Freedom Run,
which is here in Alabama, and then he also does

(46:26):
this run called the Craziest Trifecta. Okay, that's in March.
And the Craziest trifecta is three half marathons over three days.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
Whoa geez.

Speaker 3 (46:37):
So it's not exactly an ultra in that it doesn't
occur like the consecutively consecutive, Like, it's not concurrently. You
don't have like twenty four or forty eight or however
many hours to do it. It's just three half marathons
over three days. And here's the kicker. Listen to this.
You don't know the course until you show up up

(47:00):
for the race. So and it's not really a race.
It's an unsanctioned race. It could be thirty five hundred
feet of elevation gain, you don't know. So you go,
you do one half marathon, You show up, you know
where to meet, and then they tell you the course
on day one, and then day two you go to

(47:21):
the second meeting location and then he tells you the
course then and then on day three he tells you
the third meeting location and you go do that course.
And so in the spring, that is what one of
the races that I'm committing to doing is called the
Craziest Trifecta, and it's a great.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
I want everyone to look right here, Cody, look right
here in my eyes. Cody.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
No, no, Cody, No, that's a bad Cody.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
No, I'm not doing that anyway. I'm sorry, continue on.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
I just going to make something abundantly clear to a
guy who's going to text me, dude, what's this craziest thing?

Speaker 3 (48:00):
Call that sounds stupid cool?

Speaker 1 (48:02):
Oh yeah, I know, he stupid.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
Cool And I'm excited. Yeah, I'm gonna commit to doing it.
And Jerry, the work that he does in that community
really honestly is fantastic. They go and you know, dig
wells and African all kinds of crazy stuff, crazy, but
don't with this like with the things that they do,
and it really is wonderful. He's on his like twenty

(48:23):
five hundred or something like that day streak of running.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Oh jeez, he's one of those.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
Oh yeah, he's one of those. And he has his
great voice too, because he gives away one hundred dollars
bills at his Rainsville Freedom Run, and he's like crisp
one hundred dollar bill, that's what he sounds like.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
I like it. I like it.

Speaker 3 (48:44):
He is fantastic to listen to. I have the best
time talking to him. So in the springtime, Yeah, that's
what I'm looking to do is the craziest trifecta. And
in preparation for that, I'm thinking, you know, twenty six
miles is only two thirds of that.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
That's right, that's right. Now. Are you looking at that
that Saint Patrick's Day themed one? Yes, yes, I can't
think of the name off.

Speaker 3 (49:06):
The run the Rainbows.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
Yeah, the Rainbow Run.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
Yeah, yeah, now that one that actually looks super cool.
And I know we have a listener who's big with
that race. Yeah, yeah, that I do. I have thought
about maybe doing that one myself, but March for me
is Tokyo, so it'll have to be the next year.
But yeah, no, I know the one you're talking about,
and definitely for a good cause.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
Sounds like it is in Mississippi.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Yeah, yeah, right, And every year a kid designs the metal,
so the medals is one of the designs. One of
the patients came up with so very cool.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
They were at the Rocket City Expo. And then the
metal did you see that? Every year the design of
the metal is then added to the ribbon the lanyard
that holds. Oh so it has all the past designs
on it as well.

Speaker 1 (49:59):
Oh that's the No, I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (50:01):
Yeah, can you not do that?

Speaker 1 (50:03):
Raise o kidding? Yeah, like that that would be a
good one.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
Okay, right, that's what I was thinking.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
Okay, that's a good one.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
All right, let's see here we've kind of covered this,
but I'll let you you speak on it just to
hear more if you want. But community, So, what does
the Huntsville running community mean to you?

Speaker 1 (50:20):
Here's your cancer? Shout them out.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
Let them hear you, shout them out. Oh my gosh, Yeah,
it is really cool. I do think we have one
of the best running communities in the country, just because
not just because of how big it is, but because
of how active it is. And our Fleet Feet is
one of the number ones in the country. Like hand,
it really is. Our fleet Feet does. It's incredible what

(50:43):
they do. And they have two stores here and we
have several running stores. We have like a few others
like Running Lane, and Saturn Sports and stuff like that.
But honestly, Fleet Feet has won awards for how much
they do and they do a fantastic job. So, uh,
we have lots of run clubs here. We have the
Pub Run, which is regularly over two hundred people. Over

(51:06):
two hundred people that are showing up on Wednesday night.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
Oh wow.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
And and it's oh for just a group run, just
for a group run.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
Oh wow.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
That's great, incredible, It's incredible. And we have another another
group that has started they started last year called the
Rocket City Runners, and that's led by a great guy.
His name is David Whitehead, and he just he is
doing fantastic things in the community. And he's got like
collaborations with Nike and Hibbitt and he's bringing all like,

(51:37):
he's bringing some really cool stuff in and this really young,
vibrant energy to the run club and we just have
a lot of activity going on. But and that's a
big part of community. But I personally, I feel like
the community that I really depend on are those smaller

(51:58):
you know, those small circles within the community, right the
people that show up with you when you're ugly crying
on the corner because of X y Z or whatever,
and you've got snot running down your nose and they're like, no, no, girl,
you look awesome. And you know, it's that community, Like

(52:20):
they're still showing up for you, and you're showing up
for them. If it's through the tears, if it's through
the laughter, if it's through the heartache, if it's through
the hard times, they just keep showing up for you
and you keep showing up for them. And that's what
I think this run community is really about. It's not

(52:42):
for me anyway. It's great to go out run and
try to pr and all that stuff. That's great. But
if that's all you're doing, you're just like surface level,
you're just surface level tapping it. That's a very tip
of the iceberg. It's that other stuff that is really
what it's about. Oh yeah, it's the people. It's the community.

(53:05):
It's the showing up for one another. It's keeping each
other accountable. It's you know, knowing when the excuses or
just excuses and when the reasons really need right, you know, grace,
And that's what it's really about. Yeah, that's the community
to me.

Speaker 1 (53:24):
I like it all right. Well, we we started with
the Victory Lab but do you have a running victory
lap that you want to throw out there right quick?

Speaker 3 (53:32):
How could you do that to me? I know, I
know it is a running victory lap, but it's not
the one that you think it's going to be. Okay,
So are you on the edge of your seat?

Speaker 1 (53:42):
I am?

Speaker 2 (53:43):
I am breathless with anticipation. Oh good, which is not
good for a guy who has to talk.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
Condition not too.

Speaker 3 (53:53):
Okay? All right, sorry, that was good. So in March
of this year, it was shortly after I started the podcast,
Actually it was shortly after that. In March of this year,
I signed up to pace this run called Run the Cove.
It's a local run, and I thought, this is fantastic.
They have a three hour thirty minute cut off for

(54:15):
a half marathon, and I'm like, that is wonderful. Everybody,
go do this half. If you've ever wanted to do
a half marathon, go do this one. Because it's a
three and a half hour you know. Anyway, it was
really generous cutoff, and I thought it's just not done
a whole lot. And I thought, let's go support them
do things and they'll keep doing it right right. So
I signed up to pace this half marathon and the

(54:37):
three thirty mark, right, so it's not it's not the sweeper,
but it's the three thirty one. And I get out
there and me and my friend Aj, another running buddy,
is out there, and we've got the three thirty signs
and you know, you kind of hold them up so
that folks know that you're pacing the three thirty or whatever.

(54:57):
And a lady comes up to me and she's like, hey,
you the three thirty pacer. And I was like, yeah,
I'm Lisa, blah blah blah, you know, because I'm such
an introvert, and yeah, I'm happy to be here. No no, no,
no da. And so I introduced myself to her and
I was like, yeah, you can totally run with us,
and you know, we're gonna walk this much and run
this much and we're gonna finish right around three thirty
and we're gonna have a great time. And she said okay,

(55:20):
and she looks at me and she said, you know,
at the at the very end, we let her go
ahead of us, right, We let her go ahead of
us to have her picture, you know, by herself. And
so we're back, we're not in her picture. And she
crosses the finish line and we go up and she
gets her banana and her chocolate milk or whatever, and
we come up and she she pulls me aside after

(55:42):
the race, and she was like, I almost didn't get
out of my car this morning. I almost didn't get out.
I was so scared and so worried. And this is
not even the full story that I almost backed out
and I didn't. I wasn't going to do it. Thank
you for making this fun. This sounds this was amazing.
We talked about Skittles versus Eminems and what movies and

(56:06):
blah blah blah. So we just talked the whole time Skittles. Skittles. Right,
there's a reason our friends.

Speaker 1 (56:14):
So absolutely skittles.

Speaker 3 (56:16):
I know we don't like Eminem's people, So okay, so Skittles.
So fast forward until I don't know, six six seven
months later and I'm I'm on this thing with the podcast,
and I'm on my soapbox about no matter your pace,
no matter your size, no matter your ability level, your
financial level, blah blah blah blah, no matter the things,

(56:36):
you are a runner. I don't care if you run walk,
I don't care if you do anything. You know, if
you show up, if you tow the line, you do
the things, you're a runner, right, And then she commented
back to me or she sent me a DM and
this is, honest to god, what I consider my biggest running,
my biggest running when not if I don't know, if

(56:56):
it's my whole career, it's not just this year. She said,
I feel like I belong now, And I was like that,
right there, there you go, that right there is the
entire reason that I'm doing the things that I'm doing.

(57:16):
If I feel if I can somehow affect the change
for one person to experience this thing that you and
I have experienced and hundreds of other people can experience
as well, if I can somehow help more people get
that feeling that I belong here too, And I might walk,

(57:39):
I might take you know, I might do intervals. I'm
a bigger runner, I'm a slower runner, I'm an any runner.
I feel like I belong and that I hands down
is my biggest win of this year.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Nice, I like it. I like it? All right. Well,
let's say, since we're closing up here, advice to new runners.
You gotta to new runners?

Speaker 3 (58:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (58:01):
Good, your podcast host.

Speaker 3 (58:02):
Yeah, right. If I didn't have an opinion, I would
be bad.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
All right.

Speaker 3 (58:08):
I tell it to my kids, I tell it to
myself when I need to hear it. I would tell
it to you, but you don't need it. And that
is to do it scared. Yeah, sometimes you just have
to do it scared. If you wait until you're ready,
you're never going to do it. If you wait until
you're ready to do your first five k, to do
your first ten k, to do your first half marathon

(58:28):
or marathon, or stupid Taco Bell ultra or crazy strithecta
coding uh huh coding, No, then then you're never going
to do it right. So you've got to do it scared.
If you feel like you're ready, it's to you can't.
You can't wait till you're ready. You got to do
it scared. And a lot of it's uncomfortable. But if

(58:51):
you're not uncomfortable some of the time, you're not growing right,
and so you got to be a little uncomfortable every
now and then.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
And so that's sure. Do it. I like it. I
like it all right.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
And then the bonus question, I'm ambushing everyone with all
time favorite race. Oh it can be the metal was
the coolest, The experience was the coolest. Of course was
the best. My performance was the best. Whatever you classify.
You know, everyone knows. For me, it's New York and
my time sucked in New York. But I've gone over it.

(59:23):
Why I like her, You're all time dave a writ
race and don't be like some of the other people
who tried to difflect.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
Well they were these two.

Speaker 3 (59:32):
No one, I gotta pick one race. Yeah, the Savannah
edition of the every Woman's Marathon, the one last year.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
So that would have been the twenty twenty four and the.

Speaker 3 (59:44):
Twenty twenty four, not the one this year. They've got
things to fix if they do it in Scottsdale. If
you listen to Hillary, if they do it in Scottsdale,
they've got some stuff that they got to fix next time.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (59:55):
Savannah was epic, everything from the expo to the recovery
boots for every runner, to the stretching for the runners.
But the best thing was the runner to runner support
that were like just how we were doing the cake
the course when we're running out and backs and you're

(01:00:19):
passing each other and everybody's giving high fives. Whoo you've
got it, go, go go, and they're doing all these things.
The vibe the whole time was incredible, and then you've
got the neighborhood support and Savannah is so stink and
beautiful anyway, and it was funny running buddy. Michelle is like, gosh,
I wish we had time to go explore the city.

(01:00:39):
And I look at her and I was like, we're
running twenty six miles through the city.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
You're gonna see most of it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
We're going to do that. So anyway, so the city
was absolutely beautiful. It was great weather the whole time,
the vibe between the runners, the energy, everything was great.
And let me tell you this was so epic. I'm
gonna hold it up this no, hang.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
Here it is the camera.

Speaker 3 (01:01:09):
Yeah, the camera is shifting. I'm gonna turn I'm gonna
turn that off. Okay, let me zoom back.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
Do you see those two signatures? Okay? Signature number one
is from Katherine Switzer.

Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:01:23):
And so Catherine Switzer, the first female runner of the
Boston Marathon, who bandited. They tried to they tried to
drag her off. Yeah, she signed my bib along with
up here in the top corner is Alison to sears okay,
and she started the Harlem Run Club up in uh

(01:01:44):
In in New York, And so that kind of sealed
the deal for me as I crossed the finish line
of the every Woman's Marathon with Katherine Switzer's signature and
Alison's this year's signature on my bib, and so that
will hands down go down in the history books for
me as my top favorite race. I hope I can

(01:02:04):
top it. I hope something better than that happens, but
if it doesn't, that's dang stinking awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Just by that is that is pretty freaking cool. I
did find it funny. I'll part on this one. I
don't know if it was a TikTok or a picture
you posted from this year is every Woman's Marathon, but
right in front of you and not that you would
know is Alexandra from Kansas City, one of our running
buddies who was I knew she was out there doing
that race, and you did a TikTok or a picture.
I'm like, oh, look, there's Alexander right there.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
That's suck.

Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
Well, Alexandra needs to say hey to me, because yeah,
did you see my finish line pick from this year.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
Oh I don't think I did.

Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
Oh yeah, I need to send you that because in
the whole list of dumb ass things that I've done,
at the finish line, I turn around and look at
my run buddy and.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
Say, yeah, oh, so you're looking backwards.

Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
Not looking backwards. My whole entire body is turned around.
Like it's not just my head that's turned. I physically
turned all the way around. It was great. It was great.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
One, that's fantastic. That's perfect right there. Well, you make
the mistakes so you don't have you don't have to.

Speaker 3 (01:03:14):
Let's say it all together, kids, that's right. Hey, awesome. Uh.
You know, we were supposed to go to Golf Coasts,
right and you're supposed to do a collab down there.
And before we get off here, I had something made
for you and I was going to give it to
you down there, but yeah, okay, let me move this.

(01:03:35):
I was going to give it to you down there,
but I didn't get to. Now I have to show
you on the camera, and it's gonna be backwards. But
I want I want you to see if we can
do this without the camera going crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
Oh look at that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:50):
So I had Tokyo BIBB made. It's so cool with
your back of the Pack Tokyo logo.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
Oh, you're gonna have to send those to me because
I will wear those in Tokyo.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
I got you enough for all of your friends to
wear too.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
Look at you.

Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
Yeah, so you have your own back of the Pack
bitboard Tokyo, the Tokyo edition, heck Tokyo edition of big
boards for you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
So that's super cool.

Speaker 3 (01:04:23):
Yeah. And at Golf Coast so I had to show
you on here. I'm sorry I couldn't do it in person.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
That's all right.

Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
Well we're gonna we're gonna go tear a rocket city
next year. It sounds like, so that's gonna be a
lot of fun, do it all right? Well, Lisa, thank
you so very much for coming on the podcast with us. Uh,
this was this was fun since again we always talk
at each other, never to each other.

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
True statement.

Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
Yeah, we finally got it done. So that is gonna
do it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:46):
For this week's episode of the Back of the Pack Podcast,
second one, I'm your Scott Walker is my pleasure. As always,
Thank you to our guest Lisa. Everyone have a safe
week of training. We will see you next week.

Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
Papa racterina arrist

Speaker 4 (01:05:07):
Minter