January 9, 2026 • 34 mins
We sit down with runner and American Heart Association advocate Molly McGuire from Muncie, IN, and her story grabs us from the first mile. We open on maternal heart health as Molly explains preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome, the warning signs people miss, and why quick action saves lives. We dig into how grief and survival reshaped her outlook, then pivot to the run: the 50-states quest (45 down), pacing in Indiana, and the Honolulu marathon that made her believe she could go the distance. We laugh about costume runners and Converse-at-the-parade blister mistakes, then get real about New York’s tough day and the 12-week grind back from a wrecked gait. We talk origin stories, the first half that taught her the power of good shoes, and the community she’s built coast to coast—even when the local scene didn’t fit. We celebrate a 100-pound weight-loss journey, labs turning around, and choosing a few miles over a few drinks on stressful days. We shout out the partners and best friends who make these trips possible, and why “your only competition is yourself” might be the best newbie advice we’ve heard. We wrap with Molly’s A-number-one race pick (Key West in January), plus practical takeaways: know the red flags, check your BP, and speak up for the people you love. It’s heart health, hard lessons, and the joy of showing up—Second Wind style.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hello, everyone, greetings and salutations. Welcome back to another episode
of the Back of the Back Podcast, second one. I'm
Reel Skyle Walker. Thank you so much for tuning in.
Joining us in the series this week is a fellow
friend of mine from the heart issue world. Everyone, this
is Mollie. And Molly comes to us and did you
say out of Indiana, Monsey Indiana area? Out of Munsey,
(00:35):
Indiana And Molly is a runner, but we share a
little heart history, and so she has an amazing story
to kind of tell you before we dive into our
questions that we've been asking Laura the guests. Molly's going
to tell you about some of her heart issues. And
a lot of you either have probably know someone that
has been affected like this or you never know could
(00:56):
happen to you kind of a thing. So Molly can
tell us a little bit about your heart health history
and why I see on the corner there you got
the American Heart Association. You got something hanging on your
wall from them. You're big with them. I'm big with them.
So tell everyone kind of your story if you would.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, my story started out with the American Heart Association.
It actually started out when I was trying to get
a bid for the Chicago Marathon. Oh, I realized I
didn't make the lottery and I'm sure I'm not gonna
make the time. So I was trying to find a charity,
and so I went with the American Heart Association because
(01:35):
my mom has had a bout replacement, has a pacemaker.
My dad died of sleep backing at the associated heart disease.
So I thought, Okay, I'm going to do it for them.
But then as I got into it and I was
raising funds, they had a call out for go Red
for Women for their twenty twenty five national campaign, and
(01:56):
I was like reading through it and one of the
things that showed was a high blood pressure are doing pregnancy,
which is known as pre aclamsia, and then it untreated
goes into help syndrome. And so I was like, oh
my gosh, am I considered a survivor because I never
felt like I was a heart survivor at that time.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
And so I ended up.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Reaching out to them via email and they're like, yes,
this is one of our new pillars that we really
want to focus on, is maternal heart health and how
preeclamsy and high blood pressure during pregnancy can affect you
later in life, so you've got to take extra precaution
after you've had a diagnosis during pregnancy of high blood pressure.
And I was like okay, and so I ended up
(02:36):
doing their little interview their application process. Then they had
an interview process, and then they reached out to us
and they said, we're down to twenty five women, we're
going to have twelve, and we want you to do
a second interview. And then it was at the second
interview that they really didn't have and they already new
picked their top twelve and I was one of them.
And so I got to be one of the women
(02:57):
who got to go to the you know, the red
dress campaign in New York City and got our photos
taken and got to be on their camp campaign and
posters and all their advertisements and things for the go
Red for women.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Oh that is super cool. So tell everyone about the
And if I say it wrong, correct me. What preclamsiah?
What is? What is this? How does it affect things?
Go into that a little bit if you would.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, pre clamsia. I did not know what preclamsy was
until I was diagnosed. Is also known back in the
day as toxemia. And so when I started to feel
really ill, I started to swell really bad. I started
to have terrible headaches. I'm like talking about the worst
headaches you could possibly have in your life. And then
(03:46):
I started vomiting uncontrollably. There was all kinds of issues
that I started having, and every time I called the doctor,
they said, no, you're in your third trimester. There are
thirty other women are in this office and they all
have the flu. You have the flu because it can
mimic symptoms of the flu, but a lot of times
(04:06):
it also shows up in your urine as protein in
your urine. But I didn't have that initially, and I
didn't have the high blood pressure initially, so.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Everybody's different.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
But what it came down to is I did have
preoclampsia that went untreated and became the help syndrome, and
by that time I was at stroke level. And the
doctor said he was surprised that I wasn't in his
office having a seizure at that moment, because it was
that dire of a situation and the only treatment is
removal of the placina. So a lot of times if
(04:40):
it's caught early, a woman can have a C section
or have an induction, and as soon as baby's taken
out and placina's taken out, you start to get better.
There's also some form of preeclampsia where it shows up
after and that's even more rare. But the Helps syndrome
(05:00):
is considered a rare variant of the preaclansia and it
doesn't happen very often. But once it does, you're in
bad trouble.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
So okay, well, oh well yeah, tell us about the
healthy sorry, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
The Help syndrome is the it stands for homolysis, which
is the breakdown of your red blood cells and then
your liver platelet.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
You have.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
A low platelet count, so your blood stops clotting, and
then you also I had my kidneys and my livers
started to also shut down. H I'm trying to think
how to I tell everybody like I knew something was
really bad is when I went to the bathroom and
my year and was a color of Jack Daniels like,
(05:48):
oh yeah, yeah, and I but by that time, you're
so ill that you can't make good decisions for yourself
because as your organs are shutting down, so are You're
just making process is slowed down, eventually your brain will
shut down. And by the time that I got so ill,
I couldn't make a decisions for myself. So that's why
(06:10):
I always try to stress to other folks that if
you have somebody in your family who is pregnant and
you start to see that they're swelling, they've got a
terrible headache, they're vomiting, that you know it's not the flu,
that you immediately send them to.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
The hospital to be evaluated, because.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Again, they're not going to be able to make good
decisions for themselves, and they're going to have to rely
on you. Yea. But because mine went untreated for so long,
by the time that I was seen by a second
physician because my first doctor, I actually went to the
doctor's office that morning and I was sent home with
the flu, told to prop my legs up, told to
(06:52):
drink water into rest. The next morning, I had a
mandatory gestational diabetes, which is also a sign that a
lot of women with create clamcy and help syndrome also
have justestational diabetes. And so I went to that mandatory
training even though I felt awful, because I knew I
had to do it, and it was at that they
(07:12):
showed ten signs and symptoms and that you immediately need
to call your doctor for if you have and I
had all ten of them, or one of them was
lack of fetal movement, and I was like, I haven't
felt my baby moving days. But they say because I'm bigger,
because I was bigger at that time, and the baby's
bigger and you're a third trimester.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
The baby's just not going to move a lot. And
I learned that's not true.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
They immediately put me on a fetal doppler, and at
that point in time, the woman was like, I just can't.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Find these hiding babies. These babies like to hide.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
And I'm thinking to myself, I am thirty three weeks,
almost thirty four weeks, and this.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Baby is not hiding.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And then immediately they got the fetal medicine specialists came
and they didn't even give me enough time to even
pull up my pants. They had me on an ultrasound
tape ball and he was like, your baby doesn't have
a heartbeat, okay, which at that point in time, I
just needed somebody to confirm what I already knew so
that I could get the help that I needed, but
(08:11):
I didn't realize how close I was because as soon
as they sent me upstairs, they were like, she's going
to need a sea section. But by that time a
platelet count was too low. They couldn't do a sea section,
they couldn't do an epidural. When they came in, he
was like, I'm gonna have you sign this paperwork for
an epidural, and I was like, what's this paperwork? And
(08:32):
he's like, well, if we if we puncture you and
we can't stop your bleeding, then you could pass away.
And I was like, well, that doesn't seem like a
good thing to sign. So I didn't sign the paperwork.
And yeah, so I was like a natural birth went
through all that, but it was really not only the
emotional not the physical toll on the but the mental
(08:56):
and emotional tool. It was just it was one of
the worst experience of my life. And I'm willing to
share it. And I've even talked my ex about sharing
I say, our story, because he went through it too,
like sure almost he almost lost me, he did lose
his son, and it's just really a story that we
want to share in hopes that somebody out there could
(09:19):
hear it and then if it could applies, hopefully it
doesn't apply to their pregnancy situation or their loved ones
pregnancy situation, but they get the treatment that they need timely.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So well, oh, sorry, no, I've got just a hair
of a lag. So I apologize if I talk talk
over you there, but I want you to just real
quickly tell if a listener is pregnant, or if they
know someone who's pregnant, what do they need to look for,
like right now, what do they need to look for
(09:53):
for this condition? Give the list.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
It would be the swelling, the headaches, the definit when
you're urine changes to a darker collar. You can have
right quadrant pain, which is when your liver starts as well.
I didn't realize what that pain was, and that would
that also causes vomiting, because vomiting during your third trimester
(10:17):
and even your second try, mister, is not normal. Now
you're first for morning sickness, yes, but vomiting during pregnancy
isn't normal. But it was really Oh. I also had
blurred vision because the headaches and the blood pressure. A
lot of times you don't monitor your blood pressure, but
if you are pregnant, get one of those BP cuffs
(10:37):
for twenty five dollars at CBS or wherever and monitor
your own blood pressure because I ended up doing that
my subsequent pregnancies, and I did end up starting to
develop preeclampsia during my third pregnancy, but because I was
able to catch my VP rising. I had my specialist
at that time who was seeing me every week. And
(10:57):
as soon as I walked in here there and I
totally what was going on. He ran a blood test
and he said, do you know what we're having today?
And I said, we're having a baby, right, and he
did it was an emergency c section.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Oh jeez, Okay, Well, yeah, I it seems so important.
I really want people to like hammer this in their
head just so you don't have to go through that.
They don't have to go through the experience that you
had to go through, because that's awful. It does kind
of segue though, into our first actual running question origin story.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah, well, I had run in track.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I had run track in high school, so I ran
the sixteen hundred and the thirty two hundred.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
I was not great.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
I didn't know what I didn't know about running, and
I didn't have the best coaches at the time. I mean,
it's high school, and so I'd always enjoyed running, but
I didn't know enough about running to make it enjoyable
because I had chin splints and things and side my
side ached. Now I know why all that calls, But
it wasn't until I had a who was starting to
(12:01):
do the Fifty States and she was traveling a lot.
She's like, hey, you want to travel with me? And
I was like sure, and she's like, well, I'm gonna
be doing the half marathon, maybe you should do the
five k, And so I was like, okay, I can
do a five k. And then the next thing I know,
I'm doing a five K, I'm doing ten k, I'm
doing a half marathon. And then she's like, hey, let's
(12:22):
do a marathon. And I was like, okay, let's do
a marathon. And so it escalated very quickly, just within
the last few years. Actually, I learned about your podcast
for her because you were actually I think maybe you
were in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Yeah, yeah, yep, done the expo a couple of years now,
and she was.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Like, we got to go find this guy.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I listened to his podcasts and I was like, okay,
let's go find this guy.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
And so that's how I learned about your show.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Right now, I'm just it seems like if you follow
me on Facebook, so you know like every weekend, I'm someplace.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Oh yeah, yeah, no, I understand that completely. Okay, let's
see here, let's go to the next one. A run
that changed you tell us about a race or run
that completely changed how you see yourself as a runner.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
It would probably be the first half marathon that I did.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
With my friend Melissa. It was we went to New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
And at that point in time, I didn't have appropriate
running shoes. I had like a parent slide on Adidas,
but what were my sweatpants? I didn't Yeah, I didn't
have good sucks. And I think that at that point
in time that changed me because I realized I was
(13:50):
going to have to make some major changes if I
wanted to continue to do this because I didn't know
again what I didn't know about running, even though my
husband had told me, you've got to take care of
your feet, You've got to have good shoes, and I
was like, I'm not paying two.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Hundred dollars for a pair of shoes. Yeah, and then.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, and then the first time I did buy a
pair of really good shoes. I was like, they were
life changing. And then when it came to the if
the shoes are good, then maybe I should try the socks,
and if the socks are good, maybe I should try
the compression shorts, and it just it morphed into I've
got all kinds of stuff that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah, we've had people who talk about, you know, a
particularly hard run that changed them, or a running buddy
to change them. But Nope, it was the shoes. I
like that it was a ship.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah, it was a shoes. They were an awful pair
of shoes. And I don't even want to like even say.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Oh my gosh, yeah it was. It was bad. I
had some major blisters.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, I bet that was not a comfortable half marathon.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
No, but I did finish, and I think it was
the since it wasn't the first half marathon I had done.
I'd done the Indy five hundred a few times before
I was pregnant, before I had kids.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
I was young.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I was probably in my early twenties when I did
those and I didn't even train form, but I finished
them and that was enough for me just to say
I did it and I never really looked back at
and thought about doing it again.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
But it was just different like that.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
That one was different because then at that point in time,
I realized, I want to get better at this because
I want to continue to go on these trips with her.
And by that time, I was already meeting people as
I did the runs, and so I wanted to continue
to meet new people and travel and I wanted to
get better.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah. No, it's a lot of fun. And then don't
worry about the not training in your twenties. Twenty year
olds can do that, like I can just go do
a half marathon without training. I hate them. I hate
them all. Wait, did I say that too loud? Maybe
my nineteen year old also.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
I also think because one of those I did an Indy,
I immediately came back and I took the physical agility
test for the Munsie Fire Department because at that point
in time, I thought I wanted to be a full
time firefighter.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Right right in your twenties. You can do that.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
In your twenties, you can do that.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, well some people could. I don't even think I
could in my twenties. Let's talk about your toughest day.
So what was the toughest day you've had as a runner?
And then what did you learn from that particularly tough day.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Well, the toughest day as a runner would have been
the New York City Marathon.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Oh what year did you do that? Oh?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Did I do it last year? I don't know. I
have to look at my bib on the walk. I
can't remember. I think I did it last year. And
I think I did Chicago last year back to back. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Oh and no note for everyone, she's at work. She
has her bibs up at work. All right, y'all's game
is slack. And if you got them in a binder,
that's her office. Just letting everyone know. Okay again, toughest day.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
The toughest day is was the New York because the
day before I'm a registered member of the Miami tri Oklahoma,
so I got invited to the Preyed of Nations and
open ceremony for New York City, and so I was
going to carry the flag there.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
But I walked all the way from my.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Hotel to Central Park for the pardue wearing my Converse
tennis shoes, which I love Converse, I wear them all
the time. But it was not good to walk far,
walk in the paryu, and then walk back. So by
the time I got back to the hotel, I had
another blister on my foot, like the size of a
fifty cent piece. And I had the New York City
(17:35):
Marathon the next day.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Uh huh, So whether or not it's gonna hurt, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
So I drained it. I went to CBS, I packed it.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I did everything I could, and at first I thought,
oh my gosh, maybe I don't do this race. But
I did it, and I ran on that foot, but
my gate was off so bad that by the time
that I got done, I felt like I.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Had made the worst mistake of my life. Yeah, back hurt,
my hip hurt.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
And then I spent like the next twelve weeks taking medication,
going to the chiropractor, like all kinds of stuff because
I had messed up my hip.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, that doesn't surprise me at all. In New York
is not an easy marathon.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
No, I don't think I would do it again. I
really liked Chicago a lot better.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Like it's flat, it's a lot of flatter. Yeah yeah,
all right, so well too, right, let's go to your wine.
Why are you still running? You picked it up years ago.
You did it in track, but why do you continue
to do so now?
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Well, I initially started doing it for my health because
I had high blood pressure.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Not high blood pressure. I've never had high blood pressure.
I'd had high cholesterol. I was pre diabetic. I weighed
one hundred I think I've I've lost one hundred pounds,
so I've Yeah, I was in bad shape physically, and
I knew I was in bad shape that I knew
(19:05):
I was a person. I was an active person in
a body that wouldn't allow me to do it. So
I had imprison myself in a body that wasn't allowing
me to do the things that I wanted to do,
not only for myself but also for my kids. And
it was as I started running and doing being more active,
because I started out my first runs heavy and it
(19:28):
just started coming off. And then I realized. My doctor
was like, your your all, your labs are you know gray,
everything's going, your heart sounds great, everything, And I was
just kind of like, if I continue to do this,
I can continue to eat what I want to eat
now in moderation, but yeah, yeah, I can continue to eat,
(19:52):
you know, and that's what I want to do. Because
I couldn't control it. It's like food was an addiction. Yeah,
still is an addiction, but I also found that it's
also replaced some of my bad habits because I would
say I had a very stressful career working in child
protective services, and yeah, I did that.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
For a decade. Imagine that put a lot of weight
on me.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
It was kind of like I was always under stress,
couldn't lose weight. Now I work with Folk Rehab, which
is vocational rehabilitation, helping people with disabilities find and maintain employment.
But it's also stress isn't there like it used to be,
So it helps them my mental and emotional because the
(20:40):
other day somebody said, after we did have a stressful day,
They're like, you should go home and have a couple
of drinks, And I said, now I felt like going
to the gym and running a couple of miles.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
So that's the most healthier way to deal with it.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
But when I worked child protective services, it would have
been the unhealthy way to deal with it because it
would have been easier to to a bar, have a
couple of drinks, then go to the gym and run
a couple of miles.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Right, I get more out.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Of running the couple miles because of mentally, emotionally and
then physically, I feel.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Well, yeah, it's much a much better decision. Absolutely. So
on our next one here is it's our people power.
So what what? Who is someone or a couple someones
that have had the biggest impact on your running journey?
Do you have some people? Give him a shout out
right here?
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Yeah? I was thinking Melissa Glynn. She is my bff.
She ran with me and track in high school.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Then she moved out to the Maryland area, so she's
out there, but we're still besties and she still invites
me on trips and she's the one that got me started,
and she's the one that has all the great suggestions,
including your podcast. And then of course I have to
give a shout out to my husband because he allows
me to do all this, because all right, he stays
(21:58):
at home, takes care of the house, takes care you know,
my cats and the dog, and then allows me just
to run around the count I fly away almost every
other weekend. And he's okay with it because he also
knows going into our relationship that I had already started
this and it was kind of like if you want
to be with me, you have to also be okay
(22:20):
with this because this is who I am now and
this is what I want to do. And then he's
also he was He ran track and cross country, but
due to an accident, he no longer can.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
So he lifts. He lifts, He.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Goes to the gym, and he's at the gym when
I'm there sometimes, but yeah, he's He buys me my
jan Z creatine and tells me to try this.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
And hopefully, hopefully he gets you some decent running shoes
things like that.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Oh he buys more shoes than me and he doesn't
even run.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
You got to look good at the gym. Come on,
that's how it works, all right. Weird, well, wild and wonderful.
What is the strangest or funniest thing you've experienced on
a run? He can to be training run or a race.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
You know, I was trying to think, and I don't
know something. Some person's funny might not be what they
consider funny.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yeah, well this is your episode to who cares what
they think?
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Yeah, I'm trying to think. I haven't.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I mean, I really get into the people who wear
the different costumes and stuff and There's this guy in
Missoula and he had a little wire coming off of
his hat that had a beer can in front of him,
and he ran the entire way with his beer can
like he was. Yeah, I just love when people dress
(23:37):
up and they have fun with the run and they
are not taking themselves serious and taking anything else.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Like it's the people who are too serious.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Now, if I was making money and I was I
can win, yeah, maybe I would be taking it serious
like this, I have money on this, but I don't
so I sometimes I'll dress up too. I wore a
shoe cost toume one time, addressed up like a leprechaun
one time for Shamrock run, Like I try to always
have my nails, my ear rings somehow matching the run.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Like.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
I'm just there for the fun.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Absolutely, No, I love it. That's that's what we're That's
what we're there for. Because yeah, we're not threatening the podium,
that's that's for sure, at least I'm not. That's a thing.
Uh let's see here. How about setbacks and comebacks. Have
you ever had to stop due to either injury, burnout,
or life and then what was the return?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Like, well, the I did have the setback when I
had the foot injury in New York that then caused
the other injuries. That wasn't a big big setback because
at that point in time, I needed to rest, like
I had training and I had I needed to rest.
(24:50):
I have trouble during the winter, like this time of
the year, just because getting out and running in Indiana,
like it's cold. It's like today it's raining, but now
when I leave it's maybe supposed to be ice. Like
it's changing all the time, and I don't have any
safe place to run in my area. We have a
lot of dogs and so I've had encounters with dogs.
(25:13):
So I do most of my long runs, like even
seventeen mile long run on the treadmill.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
So, yeah, my set back I'm start nine.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I can already feel it, like because I don't have
very many racist schedule for January and February, I'm gonna
start having that setback coming.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah. It just means means March is gonna suck when
you get back at it.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Yeah, I'm about to ease my way into it.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
And if you all are wondering why we're kind of
trying to fly through these a it's late where she's
at and be now it's gonna be ice outside, so
I'm not trying to keep her in her office late.
But tell us about the running community, especially like in
months of Indiana. What is your running community?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Up?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Like up like up there? Words are fun and then
you know what does the community mean to you?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Well, the running community. I don't have much to do
with the running community here in Muncie. I see some
things on Facebook, but I haven't really met any. Bulk
State University is here, so they look like they might
be a younger crowd and not a milli mom like me.
But I am starting to do more in Indiana because
(26:24):
I've done a lot of my races, you know, across
the United States. So I did sign up for a
handful of Indiana races, and I have been doing some
pacing for Beast pacing for some of the Indianapolis races
that they have, and I know I'm gonna there's one
coming up I forget what it's called now, the Time
Travel Half.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
I'll be doing that one. Sound yeah, a body's race.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So I'm just kind of like, I don't know what
that's gonna be like in January, but I'll be there
then also signed up to pace some of the Indiana races,
and I think it's the same pace team that does
like the Monumental and things like that. So I'm trying
to slowly get myself into the Indiana running community. And
(27:10):
I've been a member of the running community in the Hanover,
Pennsylvania area, but that's only because my friend Melissa is
part of that group, and so I know all those
folks and I've traveled to meet them. And then there
are so many of the fifty State people that I
have met and we continue to see each other. I
just last weekend saw somebody that I met when I
was in.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Oh Gouish.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Where was I? I was outside of Saint Louis. It's
the is it Saint Charles?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Saint Charles, Yeah, Charles north of Saint Louis Ya, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
The mo cow Bell. I met her at cow Bell
and then.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
I also met up with another woman a few times
that does a lot of Disney races, and then we
met at Shamrock and then the next thing we know,
we're at one and we'll waukee together. And then we
recently were in Rehobeth Beach together, and so it's kind
of like I've made this community for myself of just
(28:06):
like minded women that we get along.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
And yeah, now are you a member of the fifty States?
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Yes, I am, Yeah, you have all fifty. No, I know,
I'm a member of the Run Group. Okay, and I've
got forty five done.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Oh, you're almost there.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Okah, I'm almost there. And so I think I've got Alaska, left, Idaho, Nebraska, Wyoming,
and then my fiftiest date will be Kansas.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Hey, well, let us know when you're in Kansas, will
be there.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Yeah, it's going to be like the Prairie fire fall
Prairie Fire.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Oh, so you're going to go down to Wichita, which
is not nearly as cool as us here in Kansas City,
but it's not bad. I guess.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Well, the reason I picked that one is that's where
the meetup is next year for the everybody's meeting up
for the awards and convention for the fifty Staters.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Okay, And they decided to go to Wichita. Weird yep.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
I don't know how they picked it, but that was
not gonna be my fifty estate. But I was like, well,
if everybody's already going to be there, might as well.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Yeah, fiftieth, Well, there you go. And uh, let's see
for Nebraska. You know we we are good buddies with
the good life HAVESI if you need it and fall,
if you need the spring, you go with the Lincoln
Half Marathon. But both of those, Yeah, it's a it's
a great, great race, great race.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
And I signed up for the Vacation Race for Grand
Teton for Wyoming, Okay, And Idaho is gonna I always
say it wrong.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
It's the cord. I don't know how to say it.
I always say it wrong.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I know nothing of Idaho races.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeap.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
And then what hell? Oh Alaska? I think I'm just
gonna do whatever one is in August. I think that
might be their mayors.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Yeah, the mayors is it's their biggest one by far. Yeah,
so I don't blame me on that one. Okay. So
let's see. How about victory Lap. What accomplishment, big or
small are you most proud of in your running journey?
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I think when I finished the Honolulu Marathon, I mean
it was not an impressive time by all, by anything,
but I just never knew one that I could do one.
And that was my friend. Again, Melissa was like, let's
go to Honolulu. Because they don't have a time.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Limit, that's right.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
And then they just had it like last weekend and
the one woman took like fifteen hours, almost fifteen hours.
So I was like, I don't I didn't know what
it was going to be like. So that was a
big accomplishment. And then afterwards I was like, I think.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
I can do it again.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
And again and again and again.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
And I can get faster.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
And I've just got faster every time, which is great.
I think I've done four full marathons, so Honolulu, Chicago,
New York, and Marine Corps. Oh, and I had to
do in order to get in New York. I did
the virtual Yeah, so that I yeah, because that was
guarantee to entery the next year of food at the virtual.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
So will you count the virtual when you did the
virtual New York? What were you on? Roller blades, bicycle,
slow moving car.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
I actually went to Ocean City, Maryland.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
They had a marathon during that time, so I went
because I was like, I need to be someplace that
has road support, that has ems just in case, right,
might as well go someplace and have all the I
flew in to see my friend in Baltimore and we
drove to Ocean City and I completed.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
The nice, nice, well, good job out of you on
that one. And then you got to go to New
York and you got to do it with a blister.
Even better, even better or worse, depending on how you
want to look at it. All right, so let's see
our last one year. What advice do you have to
new runners? There's got to be a tip or trick
you've learned along the way. What would you want to
(31:59):
share with a new I just.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Share with newbies that your only competition is yourself. So
if you're a speed demon, you're a speed demon. But
if you're back to packer, you know, like me, then
that's okay. Like, your only competition is yourself. So because
my kids would always come ask me, Mom, did you win?
And I say absolutely.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
I always win every race i'm in because the only
competition is myself.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
That's right, that's right. I like it all right. And
then O our sneak attack question that you're not prepared
for you. We're not giving this an advance. You're a
number one all time favorite race. You don't have to
have a good reason, it's just what sticks out. This
was my a number one favorite race ever.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
I would always do the Key West half marathon in
January every year if I could.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Half marathon in January. Okay, yeah, would you like so much?
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Well, one that it's warm, and it's it's it's a
place to get away through like Indiana. We can now
have direct flights to Key West from Indianapolis.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
So yeah, And it's.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
It's warm, it's there's there's drinks, there's there's beach, there's sand,
there's water, there's sun, there's there's all the things.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
There's no snow.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
I love the little.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Chickens that run around. They're they're protected there. I liked
I love cats, absolutely loved cats. So Himingway's house has
cats and you get to go on a tour and
you can pet the cats if they'll let you in.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Yeah, it's just a good time. It's just a good
place to go hang out with friends.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
I like it and I've never been to Key West.
I would like to though. I think it'd be a
lot of fun. So all right, well, I hope we
can get you home before the roads get bad. But
I want to thank you very much for coming on
the podcast. So everyone, this has been another episode of
the Back of the Back podcast second one, I mean
Scott Walker. Thank you very very much Molly for joining us.
(34:01):
Everyone have a safe week of training and we will
see you next week
Hello, everyone, greetings and salutations. Welcome back to another episode
of the Back of the Back Podcast, second one. I'm
Reel Skyle Walker. Thank you so much for tuning in.
Joining us in the series this week is a fellow
friend of mine from the heart issue world. Everyone, this
is Mollie. And Molly comes to us and did you
say out of Indiana, Monsey Indiana area? Out of Munsey,
(00:35):
Indiana And Molly is a runner, but we share a
little heart history, and so she has an amazing story
to kind of tell you before we dive into our
questions that we've been asking Laura the guests. Molly's going
to tell you about some of her heart issues. And
a lot of you either have probably know someone that
has been affected like this or you never know could
(00:56):
happen to you kind of a thing. So Molly can
tell us a little bit about your heart health history
and why I see on the corner there you got
the American Heart Association. You got something hanging on your
wall from them. You're big with them. I'm big with them.
So tell everyone kind of your story if you would.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, my story started out with the American Heart Association.
It actually started out when I was trying to get
a bid for the Chicago Marathon. Oh, I realized I
didn't make the lottery and I'm sure I'm not gonna
make the time. So I was trying to find a charity,
and so I went with the American Heart Association because
(01:35):
my mom has had a bout replacement, has a pacemaker.
My dad died of sleep backing at the associated heart disease.
So I thought, Okay, I'm going to do it for them.
But then as I got into it and I was
raising funds, they had a call out for go Red
for Women for their twenty twenty five national campaign, and
(01:56):
I was like reading through it and one of the
things that showed was a high blood pressure are doing pregnancy,
which is known as pre aclamsia, and then it untreated
goes into help syndrome. And so I was like, oh
my gosh, am I considered a survivor because I never
felt like I was a heart survivor at that time.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
And so I ended up.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Reaching out to them via email and they're like, yes,
this is one of our new pillars that we really
want to focus on, is maternal heart health and how
preeclamsy and high blood pressure during pregnancy can affect you
later in life, so you've got to take extra precaution
after you've had a diagnosis during pregnancy of high blood pressure.
And I was like okay, and so I ended up
(02:36):
doing their little interview their application process. Then they had
an interview process, and then they reached out to us
and they said, we're down to twenty five women, we're
going to have twelve, and we want you to do
a second interview. And then it was at the second
interview that they really didn't have and they already new
picked their top twelve and I was one of them.
And so I got to be one of the women
(02:57):
who got to go to the you know, the red
dress campaign in New York City and got our photos
taken and got to be on their camp campaign and
posters and all their advertisements and things for the go
Red for women.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Oh that is super cool. So tell everyone about the
And if I say it wrong, correct me. What preclamsiah?
What is? What is this? How does it affect things?
Go into that a little bit if you would.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, pre clamsia. I did not know what preclamsy was
until I was diagnosed. Is also known back in the
day as toxemia. And so when I started to feel
really ill, I started to swell really bad. I started
to have terrible headaches. I'm like talking about the worst
headaches you could possibly have in your life. And then
(03:46):
I started vomiting uncontrollably. There was all kinds of issues
that I started having, and every time I called the doctor,
they said, no, you're in your third trimester. There are
thirty other women are in this office and they all
have the flu. You have the flu because it can
mimic symptoms of the flu, but a lot of times
(04:06):
it also shows up in your urine as protein in
your urine. But I didn't have that initially, and I
didn't have the high blood pressure initially, so.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Everybody's different.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
But what it came down to is I did have
preoclampsia that went untreated and became the help syndrome, and
by that time I was at stroke level. And the
doctor said he was surprised that I wasn't in his
office having a seizure at that moment, because it was
that dire of a situation and the only treatment is
removal of the placina. So a lot of times if
(04:40):
it's caught early, a woman can have a C section
or have an induction, and as soon as baby's taken
out and placina's taken out, you start to get better.
There's also some form of preeclampsia where it shows up
after and that's even more rare. But the Helps syndrome
(05:00):
is considered a rare variant of the preaclansia and it
doesn't happen very often. But once it does, you're in
bad trouble.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
So okay, well, oh well yeah, tell us about the
healthy sorry, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
The Help syndrome is the it stands for homolysis, which
is the breakdown of your red blood cells and then
your liver platelet.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
You have.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
A low platelet count, so your blood stops clotting, and
then you also I had my kidneys and my livers
started to also shut down. H I'm trying to think
how to I tell everybody like I knew something was
really bad is when I went to the bathroom and
my year and was a color of Jack Daniels like,
(05:48):
oh yeah, yeah, and I but by that time, you're
so ill that you can't make good decisions for yourself
because as your organs are shutting down, so are You're
just making process is slowed down, eventually your brain will
shut down. And by the time that I got so ill,
I couldn't make a decisions for myself. So that's why
(06:10):
I always try to stress to other folks that if
you have somebody in your family who is pregnant and
you start to see that they're swelling, they've got a
terrible headache, they're vomiting, that you know it's not the flu,
that you immediately send them to.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
The hospital to be evaluated, because.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Again, they're not going to be able to make good
decisions for themselves, and they're going to have to rely
on you. Yea. But because mine went untreated for so long,
by the time that I was seen by a second
physician because my first doctor, I actually went to the
doctor's office that morning and I was sent home with
the flu, told to prop my legs up, told to
(06:52):
drink water into rest. The next morning, I had a
mandatory gestational diabetes, which is also a sign that a
lot of women with create clamcy and help syndrome also
have justestational diabetes. And so I went to that mandatory
training even though I felt awful, because I knew I
had to do it, and it was at that they
(07:12):
showed ten signs and symptoms and that you immediately need
to call your doctor for if you have and I
had all ten of them, or one of them was
lack of fetal movement, and I was like, I haven't
felt my baby moving days. But they say because I'm bigger,
because I was bigger at that time, and the baby's
bigger and you're a third trimester.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
The baby's just not going to move a lot. And
I learned that's not true.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
They immediately put me on a fetal doppler, and at
that point in time, the woman was like, I just can't.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Find these hiding babies. These babies like to hide.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
And I'm thinking to myself, I am thirty three weeks,
almost thirty four weeks, and this.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Baby is not hiding.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And then immediately they got the fetal medicine specialists came
and they didn't even give me enough time to even
pull up my pants. They had me on an ultrasound
tape ball and he was like, your baby doesn't have
a heartbeat, okay, which at that point in time, I
just needed somebody to confirm what I already knew so
that I could get the help that I needed, but
(08:11):
I didn't realize how close I was because as soon
as they sent me upstairs, they were like, she's going
to need a sea section. But by that time a
platelet count was too low. They couldn't do a sea section,
they couldn't do an epidural. When they came in, he
was like, I'm gonna have you sign this paperwork for
an epidural, and I was like, what's this paperwork? And
(08:32):
he's like, well, if we if we puncture you and
we can't stop your bleeding, then you could pass away.
And I was like, well, that doesn't seem like a
good thing to sign. So I didn't sign the paperwork.
And yeah, so I was like a natural birth went
through all that, but it was really not only the
emotional not the physical toll on the but the mental
(08:56):
and emotional tool. It was just it was one of
the worst experience of my life. And I'm willing to
share it. And I've even talked my ex about sharing
I say, our story, because he went through it too,
like sure almost he almost lost me, he did lose
his son, and it's just really a story that we
want to share in hopes that somebody out there could
(09:19):
hear it and then if it could applies, hopefully it
doesn't apply to their pregnancy situation or their loved ones
pregnancy situation, but they get the treatment that they need timely.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So well, oh, sorry, no, I've got just a hair
of a lag. So I apologize if I talk talk
over you there, but I want you to just real
quickly tell if a listener is pregnant, or if they
know someone who's pregnant, what do they need to look for,
like right now, what do they need to look for
(09:53):
for this condition? Give the list.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
It would be the swelling, the headaches, the definit when
you're urine changes to a darker collar. You can have
right quadrant pain, which is when your liver starts as well.
I didn't realize what that pain was, and that would
that also causes vomiting, because vomiting during your third trimester
(10:17):
and even your second try, mister, is not normal. Now
you're first for morning sickness, yes, but vomiting during pregnancy
isn't normal. But it was really Oh. I also had
blurred vision because the headaches and the blood pressure. A
lot of times you don't monitor your blood pressure, but
if you are pregnant, get one of those BP cuffs
(10:37):
for twenty five dollars at CBS or wherever and monitor
your own blood pressure because I ended up doing that
my subsequent pregnancies, and I did end up starting to
develop preeclampsia during my third pregnancy, but because I was
able to catch my VP rising. I had my specialist
at that time who was seeing me every week. And
(10:57):
as soon as I walked in here there and I
totally what was going on. He ran a blood test
and he said, do you know what we're having today?
And I said, we're having a baby, right, and he
did it was an emergency c section.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Oh jeez, Okay, Well, yeah, I it seems so important.
I really want people to like hammer this in their
head just so you don't have to go through that.
They don't have to go through the experience that you
had to go through, because that's awful. It does kind
of segue though, into our first actual running question origin story.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah, well, I had run in track.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I had run track in high school, so I ran
the sixteen hundred and the thirty two hundred.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
I was not great.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
I didn't know what I didn't know about running, and
I didn't have the best coaches at the time. I mean,
it's high school, and so I'd always enjoyed running, but
I didn't know enough about running to make it enjoyable
because I had chin splints and things and side my
side ached. Now I know why all that calls, But
it wasn't until I had a who was starting to
(12:01):
do the Fifty States and she was traveling a lot.
She's like, hey, you want to travel with me? And
I was like sure, and she's like, well, I'm gonna
be doing the half marathon, maybe you should do the
five k, And so I was like, okay, I can
do a five k. And then the next thing I know,
I'm doing a five K, I'm doing ten k, I'm
doing a half marathon. And then she's like, hey, let's
(12:22):
do a marathon. And I was like, okay, let's do
a marathon. And so it escalated very quickly, just within
the last few years. Actually, I learned about your podcast
for her because you were actually I think maybe you
were in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Yeah, yeah, yep, done the expo a couple of years now,
and she was.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Like, we got to go find this guy.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I listened to his podcasts and I was like, okay,
let's go find this guy.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
And so that's how I learned about your show.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Right now, I'm just it seems like if you follow
me on Facebook, so you know like every weekend, I'm someplace.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Oh yeah, yeah, no, I understand that completely. Okay, let's
see here, let's go to the next one. A run
that changed you tell us about a race or run
that completely changed how you see yourself as a runner.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
It would probably be the first half marathon that I did.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
With my friend Melissa. It was we went to New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
And at that point in time, I didn't have appropriate
running shoes. I had like a parent slide on Adidas,
but what were my sweatpants? I didn't Yeah, I didn't
have good sucks. And I think that at that point
in time that changed me because I realized I was
(13:50):
going to have to make some major changes if I
wanted to continue to do this because I didn't know
again what I didn't know about running, even though my
husband had told me, you've got to take care of
your feet, You've got to have good shoes, and I
was like, I'm not paying two.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Hundred dollars for a pair of shoes. Yeah, and then.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, and then the first time I did buy a
pair of really good shoes. I was like, they were
life changing. And then when it came to the if
the shoes are good, then maybe I should try the socks,
and if the socks are good, maybe I should try
the compression shorts, and it just it morphed into I've
got all kinds of stuff that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah, we've had people who talk about, you know, a
particularly hard run that changed them, or a running buddy
to change them. But Nope, it was the shoes. I
like that it was a ship.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah, it was a shoes. They were an awful pair
of shoes. And I don't even want to like even say.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Oh my gosh, yeah it was. It was bad. I
had some major blisters.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, I bet that was not a comfortable half marathon.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
No, but I did finish, and I think it was
the since it wasn't the first half marathon I had done.
I'd done the Indy five hundred a few times before
I was pregnant, before I had kids.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
I was young.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I was probably in my early twenties when I did
those and I didn't even train form, but I finished
them and that was enough for me just to say
I did it and I never really looked back at
and thought about doing it again.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
But it was just different like that.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
That one was different because then at that point in time,
I realized, I want to get better at this because
I want to continue to go on these trips with her.
And by that time, I was already meeting people as
I did the runs, and so I wanted to continue
to meet new people and travel and I wanted to
get better.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah. No, it's a lot of fun. And then don't
worry about the not training in your twenties. Twenty year
olds can do that, like I can just go do
a half marathon without training. I hate them. I hate
them all. Wait, did I say that too loud? Maybe
my nineteen year old also.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
I also think because one of those I did an Indy,
I immediately came back and I took the physical agility
test for the Munsie Fire Department because at that point
in time, I thought I wanted to be a full
time firefighter.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Right right in your twenties. You can do that.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
In your twenties, you can do that.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, well some people could. I don't even think I
could in my twenties. Let's talk about your toughest day.
So what was the toughest day you've had as a runner?
And then what did you learn from that particularly tough day.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Well, the toughest day as a runner would have been
the New York City Marathon.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Oh what year did you do that? Oh?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Did I do it last year? I don't know. I
have to look at my bib on the walk. I
can't remember. I think I did it last year. And
I think I did Chicago last year back to back. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Oh and no note for everyone, she's at work. She
has her bibs up at work. All right, y'all's game
is slack. And if you got them in a binder,
that's her office. Just letting everyone know. Okay again, toughest day.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
The toughest day is was the New York because the
day before I'm a registered member of the Miami tri Oklahoma,
so I got invited to the Preyed of Nations and
open ceremony for New York City, and so I was
going to carry the flag there.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
But I walked all the way from my.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Hotel to Central Park for the pardue wearing my Converse
tennis shoes, which I love Converse, I wear them all
the time. But it was not good to walk far,
walk in the paryu, and then walk back. So by
the time I got back to the hotel, I had
another blister on my foot, like the size of a
fifty cent piece. And I had the New York City
(17:35):
Marathon the next day.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Uh huh, So whether or not it's gonna hurt, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
So I drained it. I went to CBS, I packed it.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I did everything I could, and at first I thought,
oh my gosh, maybe I don't do this race. But
I did it, and I ran on that foot, but
my gate was off so bad that by the time
that I got done, I felt like I.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Had made the worst mistake of my life. Yeah, back hurt,
my hip hurt.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
And then I spent like the next twelve weeks taking medication,
going to the chiropractor, like all kinds of stuff because
I had messed up my hip.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, that doesn't surprise me at all. In New York
is not an easy marathon.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
No, I don't think I would do it again. I
really liked Chicago a lot better.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Like it's flat, it's a lot of flatter. Yeah yeah,
all right, so well too, right, let's go to your wine.
Why are you still running? You picked it up years ago.
You did it in track, but why do you continue
to do so now?
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Well, I initially started doing it for my health because
I had high blood pressure.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Not high blood pressure. I've never had high blood pressure.
I'd had high cholesterol. I was pre diabetic. I weighed
one hundred I think I've I've lost one hundred pounds,
so I've Yeah, I was in bad shape physically, and
I knew I was in bad shape that I knew
(19:05):
I was a person. I was an active person in
a body that wouldn't allow me to do it. So
I had imprison myself in a body that wasn't allowing
me to do the things that I wanted to do,
not only for myself but also for my kids. And
it was as I started running and doing being more active,
because I started out my first runs heavy and it
(19:28):
just started coming off. And then I realized. My doctor
was like, your your all, your labs are you know gray,
everything's going, your heart sounds great, everything, And I was
just kind of like, if I continue to do this,
I can continue to eat what I want to eat
now in moderation, but yeah, yeah, I can continue to eat,
(19:52):
you know, and that's what I want to do. Because
I couldn't control it. It's like food was an addiction. Yeah,
still is an addiction, but I also found that it's
also replaced some of my bad habits because I would
say I had a very stressful career working in child
protective services, and yeah, I did that.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
For a decade. Imagine that put a lot of weight
on me.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
It was kind of like I was always under stress,
couldn't lose weight. Now I work with Folk Rehab, which
is vocational rehabilitation, helping people with disabilities find and maintain employment.
But it's also stress isn't there like it used to be,
So it helps them my mental and emotional because the
(20:40):
other day somebody said, after we did have a stressful day,
They're like, you should go home and have a couple
of drinks, And I said, now I felt like going
to the gym and running a couple of miles.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
So that's the most healthier way to deal with it.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
But when I worked child protective services, it would have
been the unhealthy way to deal with it because it
would have been easier to to a bar, have a
couple of drinks, then go to the gym and run
a couple of miles.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Right, I get more out.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Of running the couple miles because of mentally, emotionally and
then physically, I feel.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Well, yeah, it's much a much better decision. Absolutely. So
on our next one here is it's our people power.
So what what? Who is someone or a couple someones
that have had the biggest impact on your running journey?
Do you have some people? Give him a shout out
right here?
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Yeah? I was thinking Melissa Glynn. She is my bff.
She ran with me and track in high school.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Then she moved out to the Maryland area, so she's
out there, but we're still besties and she still invites
me on trips and she's the one that got me started,
and she's the one that has all the great suggestions,
including your podcast. And then of course I have to
give a shout out to my husband because he allows
me to do all this, because all right, he stays
(21:58):
at home, takes care of the house, takes care you know,
my cats and the dog, and then allows me just
to run around the count I fly away almost every
other weekend. And he's okay with it because he also
knows going into our relationship that I had already started
this and it was kind of like if you want
to be with me, you have to also be okay
(22:20):
with this because this is who I am now and
this is what I want to do. And then he's
also he was He ran track and cross country, but
due to an accident, he no longer can.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
So he lifts. He lifts, He.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Goes to the gym, and he's at the gym when
I'm there sometimes, but yeah, he's He buys me my
jan Z creatine and tells me to try this.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
And hopefully, hopefully he gets you some decent running shoes
things like that.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Oh he buys more shoes than me and he doesn't
even run.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
You got to look good at the gym. Come on,
that's how it works, all right. Weird, well, wild and wonderful.
What is the strangest or funniest thing you've experienced on
a run? He can to be training run or a race.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
You know, I was trying to think, and I don't
know something. Some person's funny might not be what they
consider funny.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yeah, well this is your episode to who cares what
they think?
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Yeah, I'm trying to think. I haven't.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I mean, I really get into the people who wear
the different costumes and stuff and There's this guy in
Missoula and he had a little wire coming off of
his hat that had a beer can in front of him,
and he ran the entire way with his beer can
like he was. Yeah, I just love when people dress
(23:37):
up and they have fun with the run and they
are not taking themselves serious and taking anything else.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Like it's the people who are too serious.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Now, if I was making money and I was I
can win, yeah, maybe I would be taking it serious
like this, I have money on this, but I don't
so I sometimes I'll dress up too. I wore a
shoe cost toume one time, addressed up like a leprechaun
one time for Shamrock run, Like I try to always
have my nails, my ear rings somehow matching the run.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Like.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
I'm just there for the fun.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Absolutely, No, I love it. That's that's what we're That's
what we're there for. Because yeah, we're not threatening the podium,
that's that's for sure, at least I'm not. That's a thing.
Uh let's see here. How about setbacks and comebacks. Have
you ever had to stop due to either injury, burnout,
or life and then what was the return?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Like, well, the I did have the setback when I
had the foot injury in New York that then caused
the other injuries. That wasn't a big big setback because
at that point in time, I needed to rest, like
I had training and I had I needed to rest.
(24:50):
I have trouble during the winter, like this time of
the year, just because getting out and running in Indiana,
like it's cold. It's like today it's raining, but now
when I leave it's maybe supposed to be ice. Like
it's changing all the time, and I don't have any
safe place to run in my area. We have a
lot of dogs and so I've had encounters with dogs.
(25:13):
So I do most of my long runs, like even
seventeen mile long run on the treadmill.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
So, yeah, my set back I'm start nine.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I can already feel it, like because I don't have
very many racist schedule for January and February, I'm gonna
start having that setback coming.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah. It just means means March is gonna suck when
you get back at it.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Yeah, I'm about to ease my way into it.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
And if you all are wondering why we're kind of
trying to fly through these a it's late where she's
at and be now it's gonna be ice outside, so
I'm not trying to keep her in her office late.
But tell us about the running community, especially like in
months of Indiana. What is your running community?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Up?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Like up like up there? Words are fun and then
you know what does the community mean to you?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Well, the running community. I don't have much to do
with the running community here in Muncie. I see some
things on Facebook, but I haven't really met any. Bulk
State University is here, so they look like they might
be a younger crowd and not a milli mom like me.
But I am starting to do more in Indiana because
(26:24):
I've done a lot of my races, you know, across
the United States. So I did sign up for a
handful of Indiana races, and I have been doing some
pacing for Beast pacing for some of the Indianapolis races
that they have, and I know I'm gonna there's one
coming up I forget what it's called now, the Time
Travel Half.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
I'll be doing that one. Sound yeah, a body's race.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So I'm just kind of like, I don't know what
that's gonna be like in January, but I'll be there
then also signed up to pace some of the Indiana races,
and I think it's the same pace team that does
like the Monumental and things like that. So I'm trying
to slowly get myself into the Indiana running community. And
(27:10):
I've been a member of the running community in the Hanover,
Pennsylvania area, but that's only because my friend Melissa is
part of that group, and so I know all those
folks and I've traveled to meet them. And then there
are so many of the fifty State people that I
have met and we continue to see each other. I
just last weekend saw somebody that I met when I
was in.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Oh Gouish.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Where was I? I was outside of Saint Louis. It's
the is it Saint Charles?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Saint Charles, Yeah, Charles north of Saint Louis Ya, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
The mo cow Bell. I met her at cow Bell
and then.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
I also met up with another woman a few times
that does a lot of Disney races, and then we
met at Shamrock and then the next thing we know,
we're at one and we'll waukee together. And then we
recently were in Rehobeth Beach together, and so it's kind
of like I've made this community for myself of just
(28:06):
like minded women that we get along.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
And yeah, now are you a member of the fifty States?
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Yes, I am, Yeah, you have all fifty. No, I know,
I'm a member of the Run Group. Okay, and I've
got forty five done.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Oh, you're almost there.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Okah, I'm almost there. And so I think I've got Alaska, left, Idaho, Nebraska, Wyoming,
and then my fiftiest date will be Kansas.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Hey, well, let us know when you're in Kansas, will
be there.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Yeah, it's going to be like the Prairie fire fall
Prairie Fire.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Oh, so you're going to go down to Wichita, which
is not nearly as cool as us here in Kansas City,
but it's not bad. I guess.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Well, the reason I picked that one is that's where
the meetup is next year for the everybody's meeting up
for the awards and convention for the fifty Staters.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Okay, And they decided to go to Wichita. Weird yep.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
I don't know how they picked it, but that was
not gonna be my fifty estate. But I was like, well,
if everybody's already going to be there, might as well.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Yeah, fiftieth, Well, there you go. And uh, let's see
for Nebraska. You know we we are good buddies with
the good life HAVESI if you need it and fall,
if you need the spring, you go with the Lincoln
Half Marathon. But both of those, Yeah, it's a it's
a great, great race, great race.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
And I signed up for the Vacation Race for Grand
Teton for Wyoming, Okay, And Idaho is gonna I always
say it wrong.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
It's the cord. I don't know how to say it.
I always say it wrong.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I know nothing of Idaho races.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeap.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
And then what hell? Oh Alaska? I think I'm just
gonna do whatever one is in August. I think that
might be their mayors.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Yeah, the mayors is it's their biggest one by far. Yeah,
so I don't blame me on that one. Okay. So
let's see. How about victory Lap. What accomplishment, big or
small are you most proud of in your running journey?
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I think when I finished the Honolulu Marathon, I mean
it was not an impressive time by all, by anything,
but I just never knew one that I could do one.
And that was my friend. Again, Melissa was like, let's
go to Honolulu. Because they don't have a time.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Limit, that's right.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
And then they just had it like last weekend and
the one woman took like fifteen hours, almost fifteen hours.
So I was like, I don't I didn't know what
it was going to be like. So that was a
big accomplishment. And then afterwards I was like, I think.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
I can do it again.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
And again and again and again.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
And I can get faster.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
And I've just got faster every time, which is great.
I think I've done four full marathons, so Honolulu, Chicago,
New York, and Marine Corps. Oh, and I had to
do in order to get in New York. I did
the virtual Yeah, so that I yeah, because that was
guarantee to entery the next year of food at the virtual.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
So will you count the virtual when you did the
virtual New York? What were you on? Roller blades, bicycle,
slow moving car.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
I actually went to Ocean City, Maryland.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
They had a marathon during that time, so I went
because I was like, I need to be someplace that
has road support, that has ems just in case, right,
might as well go someplace and have all the I
flew in to see my friend in Baltimore and we
drove to Ocean City and I completed.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
The nice, nice, well, good job out of you on
that one. And then you got to go to New
York and you got to do it with a blister.
Even better, even better or worse, depending on how you
want to look at it. All right, so let's see
our last one year. What advice do you have to
new runners? There's got to be a tip or trick
you've learned along the way. What would you want to
(31:59):
share with a new I just.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Share with newbies that your only competition is yourself. So
if you're a speed demon, you're a speed demon. But
if you're back to packer, you know, like me, then
that's okay. Like, your only competition is yourself. So because
my kids would always come ask me, Mom, did you win?
And I say absolutely.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
I always win every race i'm in because the only
competition is myself.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
That's right, that's right. I like it all right. And
then O our sneak attack question that you're not prepared
for you. We're not giving this an advance. You're a
number one all time favorite race. You don't have to
have a good reason, it's just what sticks out. This
was my a number one favorite race ever.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
I would always do the Key West half marathon in
January every year if I could.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Half marathon in January. Okay, yeah, would you like so much?
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Well, one that it's warm, and it's it's it's a
place to get away through like Indiana. We can now
have direct flights to Key West from Indianapolis.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
So yeah, And it's.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
It's warm, it's there's there's drinks, there's there's beach, there's sand,
there's water, there's sun, there's there's all the things.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
There's no snow.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
I love the little.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Chickens that run around. They're they're protected there. I liked
I love cats, absolutely loved cats. So Himingway's house has
cats and you get to go on a tour and
you can pet the cats if they'll let you in.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Yeah, it's just a good time. It's just a good
place to go hang out with friends.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
I like it and I've never been to Key West.
I would like to though. I think it'd be a
lot of fun. So all right, well, I hope we
can get you home before the roads get bad. But
I want to thank you very much for coming on
the podcast. So everyone, this has been another episode of
the Back of the Back podcast second one, I mean
Scott Walker. Thank you very very much Molly for joining us.
(34:01):
Everyone have a safe week of training and we will
see you next week
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