February 27, 2024 • 49 mins
We are back from the Rock N Roll Las Vegas half marathon weekend! It was a great weekend to be sure. We cover the race, have on the course videos and we made a new friend! Come meet Running Influencer Hillary Burgess. You know her as running_up_that_hillary on IG. Hear her story live from the Vegas Expo!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:12):
Hello, everyone, greetings and salutations. Welcome back to another episode of the
Back of the Back podcast. I'myour host, Kyle Walker. Thank you
for tuning in. As you cansee, we are back in studio.
We have made it back safe andsound from our Las Vegas weekend, and
boy, what a weekend it was. So as you guys all know,
we went out to Las Vegas,we did the Rock and Roll half Marathon
(00:34):
weekend. It wasn't just a halfmarathon for some of us, as we
did the remixed challenge and had afive k and a half marathon just right
off the bat. It was agreat weekend. But before we dive into
it, I do want to handleone thing, and I'm sorry this kind
of kills the mood. First,I want to thank profusely the ladies who
(00:55):
joined us last week for the Women'sSafety podcast. A huge thing thank you
to Karen who took over as hostof this. I thought she was awesome.
She has her own podcast and Ineed to get that information out so
you guys can follow her. Butshe did a great job and then our
panel was spectacular as well, andso a huge thank you to all the
ladies who were a part of theepisode last week. Now again, unfortunately,
(01:21):
before we can get into the funof Vegas, that women's safety episode,
it actually hit a little too closeto home last week, as right
after it aired, there was anotherfemale runner who was killed in Georgia.
And I can't sit here and pretendlike I have the answers. I don't
have the answers. I don't knowwhat else we can do. Honestly,
(01:45):
it sounds like she did everything.She did everything right, familiar route during
the daytime, told her friends andfamily where she was going and how she
was getting there and when she wasgoing to be back, had things set
up in place. And yet stillthis terrible thing happens again. Like I
said, this was down in Georgia, twenty two year old runner who was
on a college campus. It's ridiculous. This is pardon my French earmuffs,
(02:07):
kids, this is bullshit. Idon't I just I couldn't freaking believe it
that as soon as we do thisepisode, something like this happens. So
look, all I can say is, if you need the female work,
if you need the female perspective,and you do, you know, share
last week's episode, because that waswomen talking about women's safety and running okay,
(02:27):
which is something I can't completely speakto, which is why I had
them do it. Get the wordout, Get the word out about safety,
about awareness. Guys, I don'tknow what else we can do other
than continue to be hopefully, youknow, just partners in this fight to
make the running world safe for absolutelyeveryone. We're just past the four year
(02:53):
mark of Ahmad Aubrey, the blackrunner who was killed for running while black.
Now we've got women being killed forrunning while women. I mean,
this is bra gosh, dar ridiculous. And trust me, if you have
better solutions than I do, pleaseshare them because I'm all ears, and
we will put them out on thispodcast. But everyone, just our running
(03:14):
community is so great and so strong. We need to be greater and we
need to be stronger to make surethat running is safe for absolutely fricking everybody
like it should be. And soI don't want to dampen the mood and
I don't want to kill the spiritof everything because you know, of course
a Vegas weekend is super fun,but unfortunately, when reality bites you square
in the ass, it has tobe addressed. Okay, We've said this
(03:37):
before, Like evil has to becalled evil. This was evil, and
so it had to be addressed.Ladies, whatever we can do, like
honestly, we will keep getting safetytips out and issues out there as best
as we can. But I mean, for goodness sake, it was I
talk about terrible timing just I mean, it's never good timing for something like
(03:57):
this. Don't get me wrong,but wow, as and as we get
that episode out, a bad thinghappens. It's like, dang it,
you know, let's just let's continueto get the word out. So anyway,
let me let me try. Notthat there's a good transition, but
let me try and transition away fromthis. We're gonna go back to the
Las Vegas weekend. So we wentout on Thursday, flew out to Vegas,
and first off on the Vegas front, I want to thank so many
(04:19):
of my friends who came along forthe trip. You're going to see some
videos of them. You'll see picturesposted on the Facebook and Instagram page for
the Back of the Pack podcast.But to all my friends and family who
came out and supported me during thisrace and just the event in Las Vegas
as a whole, thank you allso very much. You made it a
very memorable half marathon. So weflew out on Thursday, super great,
(04:41):
went to the expo on Friday,at least I did, and I picked
up my stuff and I got towalk around the expo and I got to
see all that, and that wasgreat. So what we're gonna do come
in up here in just a minute. Okay. So if you are only
listening to this as a podcast,okay, you're not watching the video on
the YouTube channel on the Facebook page, let me first warn you there's going
(05:02):
to be there's videos I took,but there's not a lot of audio to
it. Either I wasn't talking orI was just trying to get the ambiance
of the place. I was outof the situation. So just know that
if you are listening to this withoutany video, there's gonna be some parts
that sound a little weird or alittle like I don't know what's going on,
and I'm sorry. As much asI love everyone who listens to the
(05:24):
podcast, and I do because numbersare always great, this might be an
episode where you want to follow itup by watching it on YouTube. The
YouTube channel, of course, needsmore subscribers. Hint, hint, wink
wink, and so you'll you'll wantto see some of the videos that we
took and that we've inserted into thisepisode. So went back to the expo
(05:44):
on what would it be, Saturday, and we're gonna bring you an interview
that we did with a big timerunning influencer. And so she is out
of Texas, and I'm not goingto tell you her story because she's going
to tell you her story. Butto Hillary, it was great rate to
meet you. It was awesome sittingout and talking with you. Because she
was still trying to get to theexpo and get her stuff. I didn't
(06:05):
want to keep her all day.So like we recorded like seventeen minutes of
conversation, but I think we talkedfor like an hour. So you get
runners together, you guys, youjust talk. You guys know how this
goes. But we're gonna have thatinterview coming up here in just a minute,
and then we're just gonna have alot of the sights and the sounds
from Las Vegas. We went anddid the five K Saturday evening. So
the five K was, like Isaid, Saturday evening and it was on
(06:28):
Fremont Street. And if you're notfamiliar with Vegas, You're like, Okay,
what is Fremont Street. So thereis the strip that everyone knows about.
That's where the big Arganstown hotels are. That's where all the cool sits
and everything are. Fremont Street is. You can just think of it as
old Vegas. It is the olderhotels, it is the older entertainment venues
(06:51):
and so well, the Fremont Streetexperience is pretty cool. It is a
very different feel than the strip.So the five K was Saturday night.
It was a great five k.The y you'll see videos of it.
The starting I guess party was amazing, Like they have this huge stage set
up in DJs and photo booths,and they had places rica play corn hole.
(07:15):
They had bars set up everywhere ifyou wanted to get yourself a drink
before the race. And I mighthave enjoyed a mic ultra before the race
we were doing the five k.You know, it's fine, but the
five K was great. It wasa lot of fun, huge crowd as
there was both days did the fiveK. And what I regret the most
about the five K because I didn'tsee this until after the fact. There
(07:36):
was actually a tattoo artist set upalong the path and you could have gotten
yourself a tattoo while doing the fivek? How did I miss this?
Would I have done it? Iabsolutely would have. But the five k
around the Fremont Street area flat asa pancake. Great course, I was
really I set out to try andPR this five k just because I thought,
(07:57):
Hey, that would be kind ofcool to pr in Vegas. We'll
just say I got a PR foura five k in the battle. I
did not get my new personal recordthere. I was looking pretty good after
the first mile, looking like therewas still a shot after the second mile,
but with about half a mile left, I just kind of faded off
and finished with a decent time forme, but it certainly was no record.
(08:20):
But really, the big show wasthe following day, Sunday night,
running the half marathon along the LasVegas Strip. Wow. I really think
this was probably the biggest half marathonI've ever done. And when I say
biggest, I mean the most people. It was jam packed with people.
That was nut I thought. Aswe kind of got there, and you
(08:43):
guys probably saw online I posted avideo kind of coming down an escalator showing
the starting line area and there werea lot of people, but it did
not do justice to just the sheeramount of people who actually started jamming in
corrals to try and run that race. But again, we're gonna have videos
of it, videos that I tookalong the course, and I want you
guys to just kind of see andexperience what you can. I highly recommend
this race. If you're a fanof Las Vegas, you should definitely do
(09:05):
this race. If you're a fanof gigantic events of half marathons that people
just treat it as a party,then this is for you. It is
absolutely for you. And they haverunners of every single solitary skill set.
I think this is a race wherea lot of non racers will go because
(09:26):
hey, maybe I've always wanted todo a half marathon and oh my goodness,
I love Vegas. Well, holyheck, I can do them both
at the same time. I cango to Vegas and I can do a
half marathon. Maybe it's my firstone ever, maybe it's my second.
Who knows. But there was peopleof all skill levels, which was great,
people of all ability levels, whichis great. And you guys know,
I am here for it, fromthe front of the pack to the
(09:48):
back of the pack. I'm herefor it. If you are a big
fan of runners etiquette, maybe notthe race for you, because again,
I love it and I love seeingpeople out there, and I want everyone
to enjoy it and to run theirrace and to do their thing. But
runners etiquette was not first and foremostin a lot of people's minds out there.
(10:09):
And whoa, we've all fibbed alittle bit on where we should start
in a race. There are somepeople who fibbed a lot. We have
all made the mistake on the courseof stopping in front of someone and maybe
not signaling you were gonna stop,or you know, you're just like,
oh man, I got to bringit to a walk and someone was a
little too close behind you. Maybethere was a close call. There's a
(10:33):
lot of that out there. There'sa lot of I'm running, I'm running
and running, Hey, where's mybuddy? Let me stop directly here turn
one point eighty and just stare behindwhile all these people are running towards me.
Again, not a big place forrunners etiquette. But when you have
a race this big that draws thismany people, you just got to expect
(10:54):
that stuff. And so while Ididn't go into that race really expecting it,
or it wasn't in the you knowor front of my mind. I
learned quickly. I learned quickly thatthis is not the race for runners etiquette,
that people are going to do allthe little tiny things that annoy us
a lot, but ultimately didn't matter. No. Now, this course,
(11:16):
I wanted to PR again because Ithought a Las Vegas half marathon, if
I could PR that, which isflat as a pancake, that would be
cool. I started off really wellfirst five miles, was probably PR pace.
Right at the halfway point, naturecalled dag nab it and that doesn't
normally happen to me during a raise, but it did during this one.
(11:37):
So the time spent off course inone of the Porto pole throne rooms,
shall we say, that killed it. That killed any chance for a PR
because by the time I got backout there, if you've stopped the middle
of a half marathon, especially aroundthe middle way point, and had to
use the restroom, your legs aren'texactly thrilled when you start back up again,
(11:58):
like your rhythm is gone, yourtiming is gone on your pace and
everything is just kind of eh.And so you know, I spent the
rest of the race again ran adecent race. It wasn't terrible, but
took a lot of videos, tooka lot of pictures just thanks to try
and mark the occasion because the prdream was already shattered. So I thought,
you know what, I'll try andhave a little fun with it.
But here, let me just showyou guys the medals real quick, since
(12:20):
I got them to sit right here. So here's the five K Metal.
If you're watching the screen, lookdirectly, come on camera, zoom a
little bit, and it doesn't wantto zoom on the five K there's a
little five K Metal. No bigdeal. They do mark the date,
which I like in that, youknow, rock and roll five K.
Next up we have the half MarathonMetal. It's of course bigger. There
(12:43):
you go, Las Vegas Half MarathonMetal thirteen point one. And if you
did both, like I said earlier, it's the Remix challenge, so you
get your remix medal. And hereit is right here, little metal with
the headphones. And then it's aspinner metal. See if I can make
it spin here and spin there wego. So it was super fun.
If you've ever wanted to do therock and roll Las Vegas Half Marathon I
(13:05):
recommend it. I think you should. I think it's a really good time.
It was great that friends and familycame with me, and so we
just had a blast. Now,with all that being said, let's go
ahead and start rolling some of thesevideos. I think we're just going to
jump right into the interview with Hillaryso that we can get it right here
and kind of at the starting almostmidpoint now because I've been rambling of the
(13:26):
episode. But let's talk to Hillaryand then we'll bring you some of the
sites and sound from the half marathonand five K So please enjoy. All
right, everybody, thank you forjoining Edis. We're here in Las Vegas.
We have a very special guest rightnow. This is Hillary, and
I hope I see our lastening,right Purgas, Great Hillary Purgas. That's
how I know her. You allknow her, and I know a lot
of you already do as running upthe Hillary on Instagram. Okay, so
(13:50):
first, how did you come upwith that name? Because it cracked me
up the first time I saw it. I honestly that the song was kind
of trending from Stranger Things, andthat's when I when I made the when
I made the account, so that'swhere I got it. I know the
song's been around for like thirty fiveyears, but I wasn't familiar with it
until until watching it on on StrangerThings. Stranger Things. Okay, we'll
(14:13):
see you never know where inspirational strike. I can't talk today apparently, So
please tell everyone about you. Alot of the people who follow the podcast
also follow you. I see wehave a lot of mutual follows. So
how did you get into this crazyrunning world? Because you are. You're
a big time running influencer. NowI'm going to call you names. You're
running influencer. Tell everyone how yougot started with us. That's so funny
(14:35):
the term. Uh yeah, SoI actually started as a kid. I
am. I'm the daughter of amarathoner. I grew up watching my dad
run marathons, train for marathons.We would drop him off for his training
runs. He would come back atsome point we would we would go stand
on the side of the road andmy mom could always tell my dad's gate
(15:00):
when when he's he's running. Andso for the for the you know,
the ten seconds, we have ourposter boards and me and my siblings and
my mom, and that was thatwas my first foray into it, and
then uh, when I was insecond grade, we had ah, there's
a local little festival in my hometownof Gilbert, Arizona called gilbert As and
(15:22):
you know, like every little townhas something like that, where hey,
here's our heritage, all this stuff. Let's run a five k. And
so there was a five k,and so my dad asked me if I
wanted to sign up, and Isaid, yeah, let's do it,
and and I did, and thenit kind of it kind of just went
from there. It went from hfive ks throughout the rest of elementary school
(15:43):
once I got to junior high school, and in high school, I did
cross country and track. When Iwas in college, that's when I started
with half marathons. And I didalmost exclusively half marathons for about ten years
before I ran and my first marathon. I ran my first marathon when I
was thirty and I'm fixing to runmy fifth next Sunday. Okay, what
(16:10):
was your first marathon? My firstmarathon was San Antonio Rock and Roll,
San Antonio Rock and Roll, andyour next one is also in San Antonio,
also in Santonio where I live.So I live in Santonio, Texas,
and my next one will be theAlamo Marathon. Okay, so not
many people have me beat on runningexperience. But you've been running for how
long now? It'll be twenty fiveyears in November, twenty five years,
(16:30):
So that's collecting a lot of experiences, shall we say. And you've got
a lot of races coming up thisyear. But I want to go back
to last year. So you ranBoston. I did just the same one
that I did. One of thethings that I've seen posted about you was
how great you were at fundraising.So tell everyone about your Boston fundraising,
kind of your reason why, andthen how you went about it. Yeah,
(16:52):
so it was kind of a crazyexperience, just all all around.
So backing up a little bit,my daughter and I don't use real names
on social media, so we callher Cadence and they starting miles over.
So Cadence was born with a heartcondition in March of twenty one, and
(17:14):
it's called a vascular ring. Sobasically her a order wrapped around her esophagus
and made it nearly impossible for herto eat. Her to eat. We
ended up a few hospitalizations, shewas in the necku and then we went
home and then we went back,and then we went home, and then
we went back, and eventually shegot her diagnosis and they put in a
(17:37):
G tube to make it so thatshe could actually be eating, and she
could she could gain enough weight tosafely have the correct surgery. And then
she had her heart surgery in Juneof twenty two when she was fifteen months
old, and it was like nightand day, like she wasn't walking,
she was fifteen months old, Shedidn't have teeth, she wasn't walking,
(18:00):
obviously, she wasn't having solid food, and all of this was within a
month of having her her surgery.It was just she caught up on on
everything, like her body just snappedinto place and she's she'll be three at
the end of March, and she'sshe's thriving, and it was it's it's
a different kind of of heart condition. You know, a lot of a
(18:21):
lot of heart conditions are lifelong,lifelong things. And so I I definitely
it was not lost on on meor my husband or any of our family.
How lucky we got off with herand and her prognosis long term and
everything, and so that that thatalready, you know, was was I
(18:45):
wanted to find a cause that wasthat would benefit kids either in similar situations
or with with less positive prognosis.And I was actually trying to get in
for for Boston twenty four. Okay, I I met somebody on Instagram,
(19:07):
my friends Scott, and we've we'vegotten to be good friends over the over
the last year, throughout this whole, this whole crazy social media journey.
So look came up to He's thethe usual suspect, but it's with Ka
somewhere in there. But so Ireached out to him because he was running
for a charity and I just askedhim, I'm like, hey, how
(19:27):
how did how did you get involvedwith this? Like what do I do
so that in thirteen months? Becausethis was last March in thirteen months,
so I can do this as well. And he said, you know,
most important thing have a personal tieto charity, Like like that's gonna be
(19:48):
not just for getting accepted with acharity, but like fundraising and the passion
behind it and all of that,and so that's I. I. It
was a Google search and then Ifound the Joseph Middlemis Big Heart Foundation and
they're a Boston area family. Theirtheir oldest son had a heart conditioned cardiomyopathy
(20:10):
and he he passed away at theage of six, and his parents started
the foundation in his honor. Andsince they're in the Boston area, they
they were at some point partnered withthe Boston Marathon. They're one of the
charities for that. I found themand I was like, this is this
is who I want to be runningfor. This is who I want to
be raising funds for. They hada submission form on their on their website
(20:36):
that they never took down for peopleapplying for the twenty twenty three and so
I had this idea. I'm like, oh, if I submit it now,
I'll get a head start for twentytwenty four. And that's what I
wrote in my application. I'm like, hey, I'm sure y'all are like,
like, we're a month from themarathon. I'm sure y'all have this
figured out, Like, but justkeep me in mind for next year.
Let me know how I can supporty'all this year this year from two thousand
(20:57):
miles away or however that is.And I got emails back and they were
they were super nice. I connectedwith Susan at Charity Teams and and she's
like, oh, yeah, thiswould be a great fit. We'll definitely
keep in touch. I asked howI can help, but there wasn't a
whole lot I do. I endedup donating to one of their runners and
(21:19):
that was that was all. Andthen a day later I get a call
from Susan and I don't know exactlyhow, but but she had they had
given three extra bibs and two wereaccounted for, and she asked, hey,
do you think you could raise themoney and get yourself to Boston in
at at that point, I thinkit was thirty two days, and I
(21:42):
was like, oh, I,uh like how much? And it was
eighty five hundred. Yeah, so, uh so they gave me a little
bit under what it was supposed tobe ten thousand, but since it was
thirty two days, you know,only eighty five hundred, I said,
yeah, let's do it. AndI think part of what, uh what
(22:06):
worked in my favor was the urgencybecause it was, you know, it's
people. When I told people whatwas going on, it wasn't like,
oh, yeah, I'll donate atsome point in the next seven month oll
for sure, it was like,hey, you need to do this right
now. Is immediately going I'm goingto go do this like tomorrow and uh
so it was pretty much all Idid, uh for for twenty two days.
(22:32):
Talk to every person I've ever met. A lot of stuff was on
social media and people I hadn't met, right and uh, just little by
little it was, uh and itwas definitely a group effort. I my
my largest, my largest donation,my grandma donated three hundred dollars. Grandma,
yeah, so she was that wasthat was a big help. But
(22:53):
there was no one donation that wasyou know, took care of a big
chunk of it. Ended up havingover over two hundred individual people donate anywhere
from the three hundred my grandma didthat to five dollars for raffle tickets and
everything was you know, it wasit was just a lot of stuff.
But I think what really made thedifference was uh, telling my daughter's story
(23:18):
y and and having the personal connectionand having you know, this is why
I'm doing this. This is youknow, it's not just a chance to
run Boston and and it's and notthat any of the charities are are bad,
like like they're all they're all greater. They wouldn't be you know,
they wouldn't wouldn't have their spot there. But I think it definitely worked in
(23:41):
my favor, having the having thepersonal connection, having a reason and and
that that was a that was abig thing to it. So it ended
up taking twenty two days and thenthat's when I hit my yeah yeah,
and then I had had another weekand a half, uh to to get
myself to Boston and run. Makesure you're a marathon ready, traveling ready.
(24:03):
Yeah. Oh jeez, Okay,well I mean what so would you
say that your biggest piece of advicethough, for anyone who is trying to
get a charity BIB is to findthe charity that speaks to them. Definitely,
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Iwould. I mean, you you
can definitely go the route of justgoing and anyone who will take you and
everything, but I think it's amore rewarding experience overall, a more authentic
(24:25):
fundraising experience. And uh and Ithink also, you know, when you're
doing the application and everything, seeingthat there is this you know, you
have your your mom, your yourchild, your you know, your friend,
whoever it is who's been affected bywhatever the charity is like it,
it just makes it makes a bigdifference. Yeah, just let it be
known. That it's important to you. So what is next for you?
(24:48):
I know that you like myself forchasing the six stars? Am so all
right? What's coming up next foryou? Next for me will be uh,
Berlin and New York City, Soboth of those will be this fall.
Which one are you more excited for? Oh? I can't, I
can't use, I can't choose myuh So, my best friend's getting married
in Portugal, wow, a weekbefore Berlin. And so that's how I'm
(25:11):
making it to Berlin. Okay,you guys, I did not have any
plans to go to Europe anytime Soon'sit's a big, big venture. But
I mean, how can you alreadybe in Portugal on September twenty first and
not stay a week? And youknow, yeah, that's funny. So
for me missus Back of the Packpodcast, she has friends who are getting
(25:33):
married in Scotland the week before Berlin. Really, so we are going We're
you are Texas to Portugal to Berlin. We are Kansas to Scotland to Berlin,
all within that week. So that'sfunny how that works out exactly.
That's so London and Tokyo. Idon't have any any immediate plans for those
they're on the list. Yeah,I don't know how I'm going to get
(25:53):
either of those. No, butbut yeah, that's how Merlin came about.
I like it. And then NewYork City. It was ten years
ago that I was supposed to originallyrun New York City, and I didn't
even realize how much of a bigdeal the lottery was. I just signed
up and then I got an emailthat said, I got in. I'm
going to go to crazy. Ohay, I'm gonna run the New York City
(26:15):
Marathon, right. And I trainedfor a while, and I started getting
sick and I ended up being pregnantwith my with my my oldest miles and
so for the last like six weeksbefore the marathon, I couldn't finish any
of my runs. I didn't Ididn't go past like fourteen miles. We
still made it to New York City. I went to the expo. Like
(26:37):
everything. I was not sure upuntil pretty much we got home from the
expo and I'm like, I can't, I can't do it. This is
not gonna this is not going tobe something good, Like I do not
feel good. I was, Iwas, I think nine weeks along at
the time. So I was justprime morning sickness like it was. It
was, it was miserable just tolike exist. I cannot imagine dragging myself
(27:00):
all through twenty six point two miles, and especially for something so that's supposed
to be such an enjoyable experience.It's not something that is like, oh,
I want to slock myself through thisand just to say I did it
like I want yeah, yeah,And so I don it miles yeah yeah,
I And so I decided I waslike, Okay, ten years later,
(27:21):
that's what I'm gonna do. Andso I'm doing both of the races
for Team for Kids. Okay outof out of New York City. They
they do a lot for for NewYork City area youth. And you know,
as as someone who ran as aas a child, like it has
shaped every single part of my lifeyea, And so I think it's a
(27:42):
it's an awesome, awesome organization.Doesn't have quite the same sort of personal
impact as as as Team Bick Heartdid, but it's uh, it's a
it's an awesome cause. And soI'm excited to be to be running for
them. And that's how I guaranteedentry for for both of the races,
because there we go. I didn'twant to chance it. And then because
(28:04):
I don't know next time we'll bein Europe, right and I we got
to get it when you can.That's one hundred percentury. And then the
ten year, the ten year anniversaryfor my my my DNS at at at
New York City was the contributing factorfor for me picking this year. Now,
that's that's perfect. And you guysknow how I feel about New York.
(28:25):
Love that marathon, so much fun, energy of the city top notch.
But now we are here in Vegas. Are you excited for the Vegas
Half Marathon tomorrow? I'm very excited. So they're already starting to close down
some of the street. I seethey're putting the barricades up. We've got
the whole strip to ourselves tomorrow.Go on all the way down, turn
around, come all the way backup. So I don't know, I'm
(28:45):
excited about it. I'm excited.I've so my first my first half marathon
and my first full marathon were boththe San Antonio Rock and Roll Okay,
and at the at the expo,the big the big posters, everything is
on is on the biggest one,like that's like the premiere event for for
the Rock and Roll series, andso I've always wanted to do it.
(29:07):
There's a lot of people from fromthe running community in San Antonio who's lyre
out to do it. It's it'salways been one of those like top of
of my bucket lists. I justhad to had to make it happen and
nice, and here it is.Here we are. We're about a day
away. So you've got to godo your expo stuff. Yeah, you
haven't even gotten your package. She'stalking to us before getting her packet.
That's just that's insane. But okay, tell everyone how they can follow you.
(29:30):
Sure, Yeah, I'm on Instagram. Uh it's I have underscores between
each of the words. So it'srunning up that Hillary underscores under under each
word. And so a combination ofof some serious inspiration running posts, a
lot of self deprecation and attempts atattempts at humor. You guys wouldn't know
(29:51):
anything about that watching this podcast,and you're self deprecating humor. We don't
do that here. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the
time, because I know you've gotplaces to go. And people say things
to so appreciate it. Thank youvery much. All right, thanks God.
(30:23):
Hey everybody. We're here at theResort World. So this is where
Pack of Pickup is for the racesthis weekend here in Las Vegas. So
I've never been in this place before. Very cool from the outside. They've
got a nice little video board.We're down at one of the ends of
the strip here. Let me flipthis around if I can't. No,
I can't. I can't flip itaround. What do I know about technology?
Wait? Either? Which way?Are re alliency down there? Yeah,
(30:45):
we're all the way at the endhere, but that's where Pack of
Pickup is, So that's where we'regonna go. We'll bring you more from
inside. I ain't check it outeveryone. I found a sphere, you
know. I thought it was alot bigger when this showld to turn the
Super Bowl. I guess I waswrong. Yeah, I'm totally kidding.
I actually have a really good viewof the sphere for my hotel room.
(31:07):
But we found this inside the Packof Pickup hotel. It's a little mini
sphere, So I thought that waskind of cool. Anyway, we're continuing
on whoa. It just changed.Wow, that's pretty cool. Anyway,
onward, we go to pack apick up. All right, they've been
been. We're gonna go into thextgoon now, huh As We've got of
people here in Las Vegas. Ifyou are let's listening to this podcast,
(31:29):
you're probably not gonna hear a wholelot. I'll see if I can talk
a little bit long. I'm goingthrough here, you're gonna see a lot.
If you're watching us on the YouTube. Your canel boy Hotty is isle,
Yeah, health and sitting this expo, this league. Here we go,
the Rock and Roll Running Series,Lost Vegas. Yeah, yeah,
(31:53):
it's sure. What the XGO isgonna look like? Here here's the map
of it. That's the running wintergo through registration, start up, the
shirt, pick up, all theinformation center, oh, merchandise, every
go. There's an important part,right, all right, let's go.
Let's see Do Do Do Jue.There you go. We care about the
(32:19):
blade, right, So tonight we'regonna be on Breemont Street doing the five
cab. Then you see bottom redcorner there there's the half marathon Metal and
then because we're doing both the races, we'll have the remixed challenge. That's
Wenna right here upon completion of aworktime. You guys noticed this race benefits
Saint Jude. We were just downthere in Memphis for the Memphis Marathon back
(32:44):
in December to benefit Saint Jude's.That's awesome. We're gonna go outside some
nice outside. It's like the weatherin Vegas is really good or something.
I know that's shocking, right,hm, go through the beer garden right
here, the inner Oh I wantthere goes walking over the baby. Yeah,
(33:15):
some one of those people this iswalking with their self on enough.
Feel sorry for the folks in frontof them. Just like a stocking number
and you're gonna do it. Ohyeah, play that music year ago?
Were strip at night? Baby?How cool is this? Right? This
(33:36):
is the funcast and this is nowthis now I want to care in the
Las Vegas focus. Baby, thinkI'm not the only person with their SLF
on out there. Go run thestrip at night. You know it's Vegas.
So if you find out, ifyou don't hear from Hillary that this
is the biggest rock and rold eventof the year, so cal a marathon,
(34:01):
the babe one is Las Vegas,even though it doesn't have a bowl.
You can believe that, no ballor the rock and roll Las Vegas
a Marathas. Yeah, I gota little freemas. It's still registered and
so desired. I don't think I'mgoing to They've got enough of my money.
(34:25):
Syral's alliance with Bibbs. It's Bibswith the packets focus but kind of
DJing in a weekends. All right, listen here YouTube. I don't want
(35:02):
any static from you guys. Itis not my fault. They're playing licensed
to music. Michael Jackson would bequite okay with this, all right,
So this is where you pick upyour shirts. I've been through all this.
I'm just now showing you guys.I'd try and fight our way through
here. Use me. They ain'tcare about her any We got try and
(35:30):
fight a do so. The bigline, am I right? Is for
all the people who are getting theirdrinking wristband for after the race. Ask
me how I know I've done thatline. So after you get out,
get jump with the T shirt area. You get to go through another low
tip, more advertising strip at nine, into the information center, and more
(35:52):
places to take pictures. See there'sthirteen point line. The line everyone is
in to take a picture with thethirteen point one nice big selfie wall right
there. People throwing off their bits. Gotta love it. Pretty cool.
(36:21):
More detail music trust me. Registrationis already opened for twenty twenty five.
They would really like everyone to comeback and then check it out. How
many race ex clothes? Do youknow? I actually have a bar in
it? Yeah, they've got severalhere, several bars. Next stop,
(36:44):
merchandise, baby, So something reallyfun about this. As I've learned this
first section here of all the rockand roll marathon, so merchandise stuff,
this is all done by what lulu la man if I'm saying that right.
(37:07):
So what we can do, becauseI know this to be true,
is walk past all of it becauseI am not paying eighty eight dollars for
this Hary T shirt in front ofus. Yes, this is an eighty
eight dollars T shirt. This podcastdoes not make that much money. So
as we get through the lu lulamn and this is back to the back
(37:30):
podcast had to teach me how tosay that right, hopefully, I'm so
all right. I thought it wasLululemon or lou I don't know what I
thought it was. We get tocome around here. This is the more
let's say, the more standard stuff. Oh wait a minute, no we're
not No, it's not here.This is still the expensive Lulu stuff ever
ago, it's this side. Sothis is what's really cool about this.
(37:52):
They have hoodies and T shirts,like, this is the five K one.
Everyone has their name on the who'sdoing this race? And yes I
did find myself and I'm not gonnado it again just to show you,
but I thought that was kind ofthe cool thing. Everyone's name is on
the back, so you can doit on a hoodie or on a T
shirt. They got the five k'sand then here's ten k ones. That's
(38:17):
the ten k women and ten kmen on this side. And they're all
separated by last names and what not. But a really cool idea. I
thought, boy, you'd hate tobuy one that didn't have your name on
it, though, right, moremergency. Here's here they are. Here's
(38:37):
the half marathon ones with all thefolks names. And then of course you
got hoodies as well, to belike, here's the men's but if the
men's A through K on these hoodiesor the thirteen point one seven, the
little thing seeing there's the shirts.I thought that was interesting. It certainly
(38:59):
cause people interested. I did buythe T shirt, the green one with
that gentleman's holding. That's what Ihave because my name's on the back of
it. I don't think I couldget a hoodie with my name on though.
I think those are gone. Let'ssee it now. I'm just curious.
There's a kids section if you feelso inclined. Just the rock and
roll running stuffs. No lookles,they've got plenty, but seniors. The
(39:21):
men's hoodies for the A three K, so that would be me, advisor.
Nice little mugs there. Coffee anybody, we've been love coffee, all
right. So with that, I'mgonna turn this off for a moment.
(39:44):
Since i'm here, I'm gonna dosome more shopping. We'll be right back
any We're back with part two ofmerchandising on Jing Dans mon Jin Dynzy.
So we're out of the retail area. There's sink Cube, I've all the
books. There's sink Fude. Therethey are here at the XB while freeze.
(40:05):
We're going down all the venders nowhopefully the baby. Oh my goodness,
this is a massive humanity. Youknow what, everyone, I'm gonna
turn those part off and try andget the heck out of here because this
is nuts. So listen to thestart line of five k framework Street very
soon here so everybody else's cards less. Also several Bunny Brown for this game.
(41:34):
Boy, we thought maybe there wasgonna fifteen thousand people that wears.
We thought. I'm wrong. Themost fun we can have on a Sunday
night, am I right? Arethanks to Luga Movement who was giving us
some amazing here's for yoga this morning, but shot for good back about's come
(42:01):
to a stop. We'll hit meup at the start line. Two days
leading up to this, works outof this things good as ever. Just
everyone running through today walk the pastin the ground, New York, New
York. Here on the right there'sthe start Las Vegas going the next cure
(42:27):
leaders coming up on the left.Right if we're gonna hit another roll and
then we're gonna be here and timeto start now? Has anyone done this
before? Well, dumb racers,I'm dumb bakers. This is something different.
That's the fire. It's going downstands. I gonn's to see out
(42:52):
with people lining at the top nowand they apper passes a pretty far right
there we go, all right,way back at the start. I'm not
(43:19):
sure. Just gonna so much funon this, the things I do for
you all, love you. AllRight, we're about to start, let's
go about it. Sure, ifhe even takes it in close, I
(44:12):
think that might be him. Yeah, right over there, we'll see.
I am right, he's on thatyet. Oh, I see him on
the head seeing the shirts. Bringhere something right there. You gotta bury
(44:32):
his hands. Oh my god,that is so cool. I don't even
know the guy. I love him. Shot your shot station at mile mark
or four and a half shot shot. Hey, everybody, we're five miles
(45:08):
in to the Vegas half Marathon.We're about halfway down the strip right now.
So I just wanted to pop induring the race. You know what's
funny is I'm actually gonna take atake a second here in about two minutes
to make sure I get my effectmy plight checked in for tomorrow. So
that's the kind of thing that wedo here on a half oathon. Right,
(45:30):
all right, we'll be back forthe finish line because we already ran
past it. Trust me, youdon't want to miss it. Be back
a little bit. Run everybody,else's running act. All right everyone,
As you see, we're down atthe end of the strip. So if
you know it's in the Vegas Strivesphere here, that's the end of the
last BIGA strip. They're coming upto man markers seven. Seem not too
(45:52):
bad. Six more months ago,we're over halfway. I thought you want
to see this very pretty signed hvery pretty. You know, my many
trips to Vegas, I've actually neverbeen down this spot. So we'll pitch
you some player there again. Soyeah, there we go, mile marker
seven. Six miles to go.We'll be back for probably closer to the
(46:15):
finish flying, if not the penishflying completely. Get back in a bit,
all right, everyone, we've gotabout two and a half miles loft.
But because it can see every nowhang him back to the Vegas strip.
So were in two and a halfmiles to within the line in the
front plazio with the fountains, niggantakes some time. H Not gonna be
(46:39):
a pr by any means, butit's gonna be respectable, right So,
even with the stuff and the recordstuff from time to time. But but
you guys are enjoy seeing this anyway. Here we go. We'll see if
Lats Vegas. Thanks to me foryou. Now, hey back to the
strip. We'll see you back atthe Finnish Flying He everybody, one last
(47:00):
video from Las Vegas. We arecoming out to the finish line here in
a second, so I'll turn thecamera around when you go down the chute.
I'm sorry for this extreme close up. I don't have a microphone.
One five five five station. Allright, I see it belies you thing
(47:21):
to find this. Let's finish thisup. Oh thirteen, alright, Glorie
(47:57):
picture. Yeah, my bes keycoming through the finished nine good John nothin?
Are you turning that on? Hemoves from me to the socks.
(48:24):
He just can't get enough. Thisold world is just too much fun out
there to guys with the arms alwaysr His friends were dying
Hello, everyone, greetings and salutations. Welcome back to another episode of the
Back of the Back podcast. I'myour host, Kyle Walker. Thank you
for tuning in. As you cansee, we are back in studio.
We have made it back safe andsound from our Las Vegas weekend, and
boy, what a weekend it was. So as you guys all know,
we went out to Las Vegas,we did the Rock and Roll half Marathon
(00:34):
weekend. It wasn't just a halfmarathon for some of us, as we
did the remixed challenge and had afive k and a half marathon just right
off the bat. It was agreat weekend. But before we dive into
it, I do want to handleone thing, and I'm sorry this kind
of kills the mood. First,I want to thank profusely the ladies who
(00:55):
joined us last week for the Women'sSafety podcast. A huge thing thank you
to Karen who took over as hostof this. I thought she was awesome.
She has her own podcast and Ineed to get that information out so
you guys can follow her. Butshe did a great job and then our
panel was spectacular as well, andso a huge thank you to all the
ladies who were a part of theepisode last week. Now again, unfortunately,
(01:21):
before we can get into the funof Vegas, that women's safety episode,
it actually hit a little too closeto home last week, as right
after it aired, there was anotherfemale runner who was killed in Georgia.
And I can't sit here and pretendlike I have the answers. I don't
have the answers. I don't knowwhat else we can do. Honestly,
(01:45):
it sounds like she did everything.She did everything right, familiar route during
the daytime, told her friends andfamily where she was going and how she
was getting there and when she wasgoing to be back, had things set
up in place. And yet stillthis terrible thing happens again. Like I
said, this was down in Georgia, twenty two year old runner who was
on a college campus. It's ridiculous. This is pardon my French earmuffs,
(02:07):
kids, this is bullshit. Idon't I just I couldn't freaking believe it
that as soon as we do thisepisode, something like this happens. So
look, all I can say is, if you need the female work,
if you need the female perspective,and you do, you know, share
last week's episode, because that waswomen talking about women's safety and running okay,
(02:27):
which is something I can't completely speakto, which is why I had
them do it. Get the wordout, Get the word out about safety,
about awareness. Guys, I don'tknow what else we can do other
than continue to be hopefully, youknow, just partners in this fight to
make the running world safe for absolutelyeveryone. We're just past the four year
(02:53):
mark of Ahmad Aubrey, the blackrunner who was killed for running while black.
Now we've got women being killed forrunning while women. I mean,
this is bra gosh, dar ridiculous. And trust me, if you have
better solutions than I do, pleaseshare them because I'm all ears, and
we will put them out on thispodcast. But everyone, just our running
(03:14):
community is so great and so strong. We need to be greater and we
need to be stronger to make surethat running is safe for absolutely fricking everybody
like it should be. And soI don't want to dampen the mood and
I don't want to kill the spiritof everything because you know, of course
a Vegas weekend is super fun,but unfortunately, when reality bites you square
in the ass, it has tobe addressed. Okay, We've said this
(03:37):
before, Like evil has to becalled evil. This was evil, and
so it had to be addressed.Ladies, whatever we can do, like
honestly, we will keep getting safetytips out and issues out there as best
as we can. But I mean, for goodness sake, it was I
talk about terrible timing just I mean, it's never good timing for something like
(03:57):
this. Don't get me wrong,but wow, as and as we get
that episode out, a bad thinghappens. It's like, dang it,
you know, let's just let's continueto get the word out. So anyway,
let me let me try. Notthat there's a good transition, but
let me try and transition away fromthis. We're gonna go back to the
Las Vegas weekend. So we wentout on Thursday, flew out to Vegas,
and first off on the Vegas front, I want to thank so many
(04:19):
of my friends who came along forthe trip. You're going to see some
videos of them. You'll see picturesposted on the Facebook and Instagram page for
the Back of the Pack podcast.But to all my friends and family who
came out and supported me during thisrace and just the event in Las Vegas
as a whole, thank you allso very much. You made it a
very memorable half marathon. So weflew out on Thursday, super great,
(04:41):
went to the expo on Friday,at least I did, and I picked
up my stuff and I got towalk around the expo and I got to
see all that, and that wasgreat. So what we're gonna do come
in up here in just a minute. Okay. So if you are only
listening to this as a podcast,okay, you're not watching the video on
the YouTube channel on the Facebook page, let me first warn you there's going
(05:02):
to be there's videos I took,but there's not a lot of audio to
it. Either I wasn't talking orI was just trying to get the ambiance
of the place. I was outof the situation. So just know that
if you are listening to this withoutany video, there's gonna be some parts
that sound a little weird or alittle like I don't know what's going on,
and I'm sorry. As much asI love everyone who listens to the
(05:24):
podcast, and I do because numbersare always great, this might be an
episode where you want to follow itup by watching it on YouTube. The
YouTube channel, of course, needsmore subscribers. Hint, hint, wink
wink, and so you'll you'll wantto see some of the videos that we
took and that we've inserted into thisepisode. So went back to the expo
(05:44):
on what would it be, Saturday, and we're gonna bring you an interview
that we did with a big timerunning influencer. And so she is out
of Texas, and I'm not goingto tell you her story because she's going
to tell you her story. Butto Hillary, it was great rate to
meet you. It was awesome sittingout and talking with you. Because she
was still trying to get to theexpo and get her stuff. I didn't
(06:05):
want to keep her all day.So like we recorded like seventeen minutes of
conversation, but I think we talkedfor like an hour. So you get
runners together, you guys, youjust talk. You guys know how this
goes. But we're gonna have thatinterview coming up here in just a minute,
and then we're just gonna have alot of the sights and the sounds
from Las Vegas. We went anddid the five K Saturday evening. So
the five K was, like Isaid, Saturday evening and it was on
(06:28):
Fremont Street. And if you're notfamiliar with Vegas, You're like, Okay,
what is Fremont Street. So thereis the strip that everyone knows about.
That's where the big Arganstown hotels are. That's where all the cool sits
and everything are. Fremont Street is. You can just think of it as
old Vegas. It is the olderhotels, it is the older entertainment venues
(06:51):
and so well, the Fremont Streetexperience is pretty cool. It is a
very different feel than the strip.So the five K was Saturday night.
It was a great five k.The y you'll see videos of it.
The starting I guess party was amazing, Like they have this huge stage set
up in DJs and photo booths,and they had places rica play corn hole.
(07:15):
They had bars set up everywhere ifyou wanted to get yourself a drink
before the race. And I mighthave enjoyed a mic ultra before the race
we were doing the five k.You know, it's fine, but the
five K was great. It wasa lot of fun, huge crowd as
there was both days did the fiveK. And what I regret the most
about the five K because I didn'tsee this until after the fact. There
(07:36):
was actually a tattoo artist set upalong the path and you could have gotten
yourself a tattoo while doing the fivek? How did I miss this?
Would I have done it? Iabsolutely would have. But the five k
around the Fremont Street area flat asa pancake. Great course, I was
really I set out to try andPR this five k just because I thought,
(07:57):
Hey, that would be kind ofcool to pr in Vegas. We'll
just say I got a PR foura five k in the battle. I
did not get my new personal recordthere. I was looking pretty good after
the first mile, looking like therewas still a shot after the second mile,
but with about half a mile left, I just kind of faded off
and finished with a decent time forme, but it certainly was no record.
(08:20):
But really, the big show wasthe following day, Sunday night,
running the half marathon along the LasVegas Strip. Wow. I really think
this was probably the biggest half marathonI've ever done. And when I say
biggest, I mean the most people. It was jam packed with people.
That was nut I thought. Aswe kind of got there, and you
(08:43):
guys probably saw online I posted avideo kind of coming down an escalator showing
the starting line area and there werea lot of people, but it did
not do justice to just the sheeramount of people who actually started jamming in
corrals to try and run that race. But again, we're gonna have videos
of it, videos that I tookalong the course, and I want you
guys to just kind of see andexperience what you can. I highly recommend
this race. If you're a fanof Las Vegas, you should definitely do
(09:05):
this race. If you're a fanof gigantic events of half marathons that people
just treat it as a party,then this is for you. It is
absolutely for you. And they haverunners of every single solitary skill set.
I think this is a race wherea lot of non racers will go because
(09:26):
hey, maybe I've always wanted todo a half marathon and oh my goodness,
I love Vegas. Well, holyheck, I can do them both
at the same time. I cango to Vegas and I can do a
half marathon. Maybe it's my firstone ever, maybe it's my second.
Who knows. But there was peopleof all skill levels, which was great,
people of all ability levels, whichis great. And you guys know,
I am here for it, fromthe front of the pack to the
(09:48):
back of the pack. I'm herefor it. If you are a big
fan of runners etiquette, maybe notthe race for you, because again,
I love it and I love seeingpeople out there, and I want everyone
to enjoy it and to run theirrace and to do their thing. But
runners etiquette was not first and foremostin a lot of people's minds out there.
(10:09):
And whoa, we've all fibbed alittle bit on where we should start
in a race. There are somepeople who fibbed a lot. We have
all made the mistake on the courseof stopping in front of someone and maybe
not signaling you were gonna stop,or you know, you're just like,
oh man, I got to bringit to a walk and someone was a
little too close behind you. Maybethere was a close call. There's a
(10:33):
lot of that out there. There'sa lot of I'm running, I'm running
and running, Hey, where's mybuddy? Let me stop directly here turn
one point eighty and just stare behindwhile all these people are running towards me.
Again, not a big place forrunners etiquette. But when you have
a race this big that draws thismany people, you just got to expect
(10:54):
that stuff. And so while Ididn't go into that race really expecting it,
or it wasn't in the you knowor front of my mind. I
learned quickly. I learned quickly thatthis is not the race for runners etiquette,
that people are going to do allthe little tiny things that annoy us
a lot, but ultimately didn't matter. No. Now, this course,
(11:16):
I wanted to PR again because Ithought a Las Vegas half marathon, if
I could PR that, which isflat as a pancake, that would be
cool. I started off really wellfirst five miles, was probably PR pace.
Right at the halfway point, naturecalled dag nab it and that doesn't
normally happen to me during a raise, but it did during this one.
(11:37):
So the time spent off course inone of the Porto pole throne rooms,
shall we say, that killed it. That killed any chance for a PR
because by the time I got backout there, if you've stopped the middle
of a half marathon, especially aroundthe middle way point, and had to
use the restroom, your legs aren'texactly thrilled when you start back up again,
(11:58):
like your rhythm is gone, yourtiming is gone on your pace and
everything is just kind of eh.And so you know, I spent the
rest of the race again ran adecent race. It wasn't terrible, but
took a lot of videos, tooka lot of pictures just thanks to try
and mark the occasion because the prdream was already shattered. So I thought,
you know what, I'll try andhave a little fun with it.
But here, let me just showyou guys the medals real quick, since
(12:20):
I got them to sit right here. So here's the five K Metal.
If you're watching the screen, lookdirectly, come on camera, zoom a
little bit, and it doesn't wantto zoom on the five K there's a
little five K Metal. No bigdeal. They do mark the date,
which I like in that, youknow, rock and roll five K.
Next up we have the half MarathonMetal. It's of course bigger. There
(12:43):
you go, Las Vegas Half MarathonMetal thirteen point one. And if you
did both, like I said earlier, it's the Remix challenge, so you
get your remix medal. And hereit is right here, little metal with
the headphones. And then it's aspinner metal. See if I can make
it spin here and spin there wego. So it was super fun.
If you've ever wanted to do therock and roll Las Vegas Half Marathon I
(13:05):
recommend it. I think you should. I think it's a really good time.
It was great that friends and familycame with me, and so we
just had a blast. Now,with all that being said, let's go
ahead and start rolling some of thesevideos. I think we're just going to
jump right into the interview with Hillaryso that we can get it right here
and kind of at the starting almostmidpoint now because I've been rambling of the
(13:26):
episode. But let's talk to Hillaryand then we'll bring you some of the
sites and sound from the half marathonand five K So please enjoy. All
right, everybody, thank you forjoining Edis. We're here in Las Vegas.
We have a very special guest rightnow. This is Hillary, and
I hope I see our lastening,right Purgas, Great Hillary Purgas. That's
how I know her. You allknow her, and I know a lot
of you already do as running upthe Hillary on Instagram. Okay, so
(13:50):
first, how did you come upwith that name? Because it cracked me
up the first time I saw it. I honestly that the song was kind
of trending from Stranger Things, andthat's when I when I made the when
I made the account, so that'swhere I got it. I know the
song's been around for like thirty fiveyears, but I wasn't familiar with it
until until watching it on on StrangerThings. Stranger Things. Okay, we'll
(14:13):
see you never know where inspirational strike. I can't talk today apparently, So
please tell everyone about you. Alot of the people who follow the podcast
also follow you. I see wehave a lot of mutual follows. So
how did you get into this crazyrunning world? Because you are. You're
a big time running influencer. NowI'm going to call you names. You're
running influencer. Tell everyone how yougot started with us. That's so funny
(14:35):
the term. Uh yeah, SoI actually started as a kid. I
am. I'm the daughter of amarathoner. I grew up watching my dad
run marathons, train for marathons.We would drop him off for his training
runs. He would come back atsome point we would we would go stand
on the side of the road andmy mom could always tell my dad's gate
(15:00):
when when he's he's running. Andso for the for the you know,
the ten seconds, we have ourposter boards and me and my siblings and
my mom, and that was thatwas my first foray into it, and
then uh, when I was insecond grade, we had ah, there's
a local little festival in my hometownof Gilbert, Arizona called gilbert As and
(15:22):
you know, like every little townhas something like that, where hey,
here's our heritage, all this stuff. Let's run a five k. And
so there was a five k,and so my dad asked me if I
wanted to sign up, and Isaid, yeah, let's do it,
and and I did, and thenit kind of it kind of just went
from there. It went from hfive ks throughout the rest of elementary school
(15:43):
once I got to junior high school, and in high school, I did
cross country and track. When Iwas in college, that's when I started
with half marathons. And I didalmost exclusively half marathons for about ten years
before I ran and my first marathon. I ran my first marathon when I
was thirty and I'm fixing to runmy fifth next Sunday. Okay, what
(16:10):
was your first marathon? My firstmarathon was San Antonio Rock and Roll,
San Antonio Rock and Roll, andyour next one is also in San Antonio,
also in Santonio where I live.So I live in Santonio, Texas,
and my next one will be theAlamo Marathon. Okay, so not
many people have me beat on runningexperience. But you've been running for how
long now? It'll be twenty fiveyears in November, twenty five years,
(16:30):
So that's collecting a lot of experiences, shall we say. And you've got
a lot of races coming up thisyear. But I want to go back
to last year. So you ranBoston. I did just the same one
that I did. One of thethings that I've seen posted about you was
how great you were at fundraising.So tell everyone about your Boston fundraising,
kind of your reason why, andthen how you went about it. Yeah,
(16:52):
so it was kind of a crazyexperience, just all all around.
So backing up a little bit,my daughter and I don't use real names
on social media, so we callher Cadence and they starting miles over.
So Cadence was born with a heartcondition in March of twenty one, and
(17:14):
it's called a vascular ring. Sobasically her a order wrapped around her esophagus
and made it nearly impossible for herto eat. Her to eat. We
ended up a few hospitalizations, shewas in the necku and then we went
home and then we went back,and then we went home, and then
we went back, and eventually shegot her diagnosis and they put in a
(17:37):
G tube to make it so thatshe could actually be eating, and she
could she could gain enough weight tosafely have the correct surgery. And then
she had her heart surgery in Juneof twenty two when she was fifteen months
old, and it was like nightand day, like she wasn't walking,
she was fifteen months old, Shedidn't have teeth, she wasn't walking,
(18:00):
obviously, she wasn't having solid food, and all of this was within a
month of having her her surgery.It was just she caught up on on
everything, like her body just snappedinto place and she's she'll be three at
the end of March, and she'sshe's thriving, and it was it's it's
a different kind of of heart condition. You know, a lot of a
(18:21):
lot of heart conditions are lifelong,lifelong things. And so I I definitely
it was not lost on on meor my husband or any of our family.
How lucky we got off with herand and her prognosis long term and
everything, and so that that thatalready, you know, was was I
(18:45):
wanted to find a cause that wasthat would benefit kids either in similar situations
or with with less positive prognosis.And I was actually trying to get in
for for Boston twenty four. Okay, I I met somebody on Instagram,
(19:07):
my friends Scott, and we've we'vegotten to be good friends over the over
the last year, throughout this whole, this whole crazy social media journey.
So look came up to He's thethe usual suspect, but it's with Ka
somewhere in there. But so Ireached out to him because he was running
for a charity and I just askedhim, I'm like, hey, how
(19:27):
how did how did you get involvedwith this? Like what do I do
so that in thirteen months? Becausethis was last March in thirteen months,
so I can do this as well. And he said, you know,
most important thing have a personal tieto charity, Like like that's gonna be
(19:48):
not just for getting accepted with acharity, but like fundraising and the passion
behind it and all of that,and so that's I. I. It
was a Google search and then Ifound the Joseph Middlemis Big Heart Foundation and
they're a Boston area family. Theirtheir oldest son had a heart conditioned cardiomyopathy
(20:10):
and he he passed away at theage of six, and his parents started
the foundation in his honor. Andsince they're in the Boston area, they
they were at some point partnered withthe Boston Marathon. They're one of the
charities for that. I found themand I was like, this is this
is who I want to be runningfor. This is who I want to
be raising funds for. They hada submission form on their on their website
(20:36):
that they never took down for peopleapplying for the twenty twenty three and so
I had this idea. I'm like, oh, if I submit it now,
I'll get a head start for twentytwenty four. And that's what I
wrote in my application. I'm like, hey, I'm sure y'all are like,
like, we're a month from themarathon. I'm sure y'all have this
figured out, Like, but justkeep me in mind for next year.
Let me know how I can supporty'all this year this year from two thousand
(20:57):
miles away or however that is.And I got emails back and they were
they were super nice. I connectedwith Susan at Charity Teams and and she's
like, oh, yeah, thiswould be a great fit. We'll definitely
keep in touch. I asked howI can help, but there wasn't a
whole lot I do. I endedup donating to one of their runners and
(21:19):
that was that was all. Andthen a day later I get a call
from Susan and I don't know exactlyhow, but but she had they had
given three extra bibs and two wereaccounted for, and she asked, hey,
do you think you could raise themoney and get yourself to Boston in
at at that point, I thinkit was thirty two days, and I
(21:42):
was like, oh, I,uh like how much? And it was
eighty five hundred. Yeah, so, uh so they gave me a little
bit under what it was supposed tobe ten thousand, but since it was
thirty two days, you know,only eighty five hundred, I said,
yeah, let's do it. AndI think part of what, uh what
(22:06):
worked in my favor was the urgencybecause it was, you know, it's
people. When I told people whatwas going on, it wasn't like,
oh, yeah, I'll donate atsome point in the next seven month oll
for sure, it was like,hey, you need to do this right
now. Is immediately going I'm goingto go do this like tomorrow and uh
so it was pretty much all Idid, uh for for twenty two days.
(22:32):
Talk to every person I've ever met. A lot of stuff was on
social media and people I hadn't met, right and uh, just little by
little it was, uh and itwas definitely a group effort. I my
my largest, my largest donation,my grandma donated three hundred dollars. Grandma,
yeah, so she was that wasthat was a big help. But
(22:53):
there was no one donation that wasyou know, took care of a big
chunk of it. Ended up havingover over two hundred individual people donate anywhere
from the three hundred my grandma didthat to five dollars for raffle tickets and
everything was you know, it wasit was just a lot of stuff.
But I think what really made thedifference was uh, telling my daughter's story
(23:18):
y and and having the personal connectionand having you know, this is why
I'm doing this. This is youknow, it's not just a chance to
run Boston and and it's and notthat any of the charities are are bad,
like like they're all they're all greater. They wouldn't be you know,
they wouldn't wouldn't have their spot there. But I think it definitely worked in
(23:41):
my favor, having the having thepersonal connection, having a reason and and
that that was a that was abig thing to it. So it ended
up taking twenty two days and thenthat's when I hit my yeah yeah,
and then I had had another weekand a half, uh to to get
myself to Boston and run. Makesure you're a marathon ready, traveling ready.
(24:03):
Yeah. Oh jeez, Okay,well I mean what so would you
say that your biggest piece of advicethough, for anyone who is trying to
get a charity BIB is to findthe charity that speaks to them. Definitely,
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Iwould. I mean, you you
can definitely go the route of justgoing and anyone who will take you and
everything, but I think it's amore rewarding experience overall, a more authentic
(24:25):
fundraising experience. And uh and Ithink also, you know, when you're
doing the application and everything, seeingthat there is this you know, you
have your your mom, your yourchild, your you know, your friend,
whoever it is who's been affected bywhatever the charity is like it,
it just makes it makes a bigdifference. Yeah, just let it be
known. That it's important to you. So what is next for you?
(24:48):
I know that you like myself forchasing the six stars? Am so all
right? What's coming up next foryou? Next for me will be uh,
Berlin and New York City, Soboth of those will be this fall.
Which one are you more excited for? Oh? I can't, I
can't use, I can't choose myuh So, my best friend's getting married
in Portugal, wow, a weekbefore Berlin. And so that's how I'm
(25:11):
making it to Berlin. Okay,you guys, I did not have any
plans to go to Europe anytime Soon'sit's a big, big venture. But
I mean, how can you alreadybe in Portugal on September twenty first and
not stay a week? And youknow, yeah, that's funny. So
for me missus Back of the Packpodcast, she has friends who are getting
(25:33):
married in Scotland the week before Berlin. Really, so we are going We're
you are Texas to Portugal to Berlin. We are Kansas to Scotland to Berlin,
all within that week. So that'sfunny how that works out exactly.
That's so London and Tokyo. Idon't have any any immediate plans for those
they're on the list. Yeah,I don't know how I'm going to get
(25:53):
either of those. No, butbut yeah, that's how Merlin came about.
I like it. And then NewYork City. It was ten years
ago that I was supposed to originallyrun New York City, and I didn't
even realize how much of a bigdeal the lottery was. I just signed
up and then I got an emailthat said, I got in. I'm
going to go to crazy. Ohay, I'm gonna run the New York City
(26:15):
Marathon, right. And I trainedfor a while, and I started getting
sick and I ended up being pregnantwith my with my my oldest miles and
so for the last like six weeksbefore the marathon, I couldn't finish any
of my runs. I didn't Ididn't go past like fourteen miles. We
still made it to New York City. I went to the expo. Like
(26:37):
everything. I was not sure upuntil pretty much we got home from the
expo and I'm like, I can't, I can't do it. This is
not gonna this is not going tobe something good, Like I do not
feel good. I was, Iwas, I think nine weeks along at
the time. So I was justprime morning sickness like it was. It
was, it was miserable just tolike exist. I cannot imagine dragging myself
(27:00):
all through twenty six point two miles, and especially for something so that's supposed
to be such an enjoyable experience.It's not something that is like, oh,
I want to slock myself through thisand just to say I did it
like I want yeah, yeah,And so I don it miles yeah yeah,
I And so I decided I waslike, Okay, ten years later,
(27:21):
that's what I'm gonna do. Andso I'm doing both of the races
for Team for Kids. Okay outof out of New York City. They
they do a lot for for NewYork City area youth. And you know,
as as someone who ran as aas a child, like it has
shaped every single part of my lifeyea, And so I think it's a
(27:42):
it's an awesome, awesome organization.Doesn't have quite the same sort of personal
impact as as as Team Bick Heartdid, but it's uh, it's a
it's an awesome cause. And soI'm excited to be to be running for
them. And that's how I guaranteedentry for for both of the races,
because there we go. I didn'twant to chance it. And then because
(28:04):
I don't know next time we'll bein Europe, right and I we got
to get it when you can.That's one hundred percentury. And then the
ten year, the ten year anniversaryfor my my my DNS at at at
New York City was the contributing factorfor for me picking this year. Now,
that's that's perfect. And you guysknow how I feel about New York.
(28:25):
Love that marathon, so much fun, energy of the city top notch.
But now we are here in Vegas. Are you excited for the Vegas
Half Marathon tomorrow? I'm very excited. So they're already starting to close down
some of the street. I seethey're putting the barricades up. We've got
the whole strip to ourselves tomorrow.Go on all the way down, turn
around, come all the way backup. So I don't know, I'm
(28:45):
excited about it. I'm excited.I've so my first my first half marathon
and my first full marathon were boththe San Antonio Rock and Roll Okay,
and at the at the expo,the big the big posters, everything is
on is on the biggest one,like that's like the premiere event for for
the Rock and Roll series, andso I've always wanted to do it.
(29:07):
There's a lot of people from fromthe running community in San Antonio who's lyre
out to do it. It's it'salways been one of those like top of
of my bucket lists. I justhad to had to make it happen and
nice, and here it is.Here we are. We're about a day
away. So you've got to godo your expo stuff. Yeah, you
haven't even gotten your package. She'stalking to us before getting her packet.
That's just that's insane. But okay, tell everyone how they can follow you.
(29:30):
Sure, Yeah, I'm on Instagram. Uh it's I have underscores between
each of the words. So it'srunning up that Hillary underscores under under each
word. And so a combination ofof some serious inspiration running posts, a
lot of self deprecation and attempts atattempts at humor. You guys wouldn't know
(29:51):
anything about that watching this podcast,and you're self deprecating humor. We don't
do that here. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the
time, because I know you've gotplaces to go. And people say things
to so appreciate it. Thank youvery much. All right, thanks God.
(30:23):
Hey everybody. We're here at theResort World. So this is where
Pack of Pickup is for the racesthis weekend here in Las Vegas. So
I've never been in this place before. Very cool from the outside. They've
got a nice little video board.We're down at one of the ends of
the strip here. Let me flipthis around if I can't. No,
I can't. I can't flip itaround. What do I know about technology?
Wait? Either? Which way?Are re alliency down there? Yeah,
(30:45):
we're all the way at the endhere, but that's where Pack of
Pickup is, So that's where we'regonna go. We'll bring you more from
inside. I ain't check it outeveryone. I found a sphere, you
know. I thought it was alot bigger when this showld to turn the
Super Bowl. I guess I waswrong. Yeah, I'm totally kidding.
I actually have a really good viewof the sphere for my hotel room.
(31:07):
But we found this inside the Packof Pickup hotel. It's a little mini
sphere, So I thought that waskind of cool. Anyway, we're continuing
on whoa. It just changed.Wow, that's pretty cool. Anyway,
onward, we go to pack apick up. All right, they've been
been. We're gonna go into thextgoon now, huh As We've got of
people here in Las Vegas. Ifyou are let's listening to this podcast,
(31:29):
you're probably not gonna hear a wholelot. I'll see if I can talk
a little bit long. I'm goingthrough here, you're gonna see a lot.
If you're watching us on the YouTube. Your canel boy Hotty is isle,
Yeah, health and sitting this expo, this league. Here we go,
the Rock and Roll Running Series,Lost Vegas. Yeah, yeah,
(31:53):
it's sure. What the XGO isgonna look like? Here here's the map
of it. That's the running wintergo through registration, start up, the
shirt, pick up, all theinformation center, oh, merchandise, every
go. There's an important part,right, all right, let's go.
Let's see Do Do Do Jue.There you go. We care about the
(32:19):
blade, right, So tonight we'regonna be on Breemont Street doing the five
cab. Then you see bottom redcorner there there's the half marathon Metal and
then because we're doing both the races, we'll have the remixed challenge. That's
Wenna right here upon completion of aworktime. You guys noticed this race benefits
Saint Jude. We were just downthere in Memphis for the Memphis Marathon back
(32:44):
in December to benefit Saint Jude's.That's awesome. We're gonna go outside some
nice outside. It's like the weatherin Vegas is really good or something.
I know that's shocking, right,hm, go through the beer garden right
here, the inner Oh I wantthere goes walking over the baby. Yeah,
(33:15):
some one of those people this iswalking with their self on enough.
Feel sorry for the folks in frontof them. Just like a stocking number
and you're gonna do it. Ohyeah, play that music year ago?
Were strip at night? Baby?How cool is this? Right? This
(33:36):
is the funcast and this is nowthis now I want to care in the
Las Vegas focus. Baby, thinkI'm not the only person with their SLF
on out there. Go run thestrip at night. You know it's Vegas.
So if you find out, ifyou don't hear from Hillary that this
is the biggest rock and rold eventof the year, so cal a marathon,
(34:01):
the babe one is Las Vegas,even though it doesn't have a bowl.
You can believe that, no ballor the rock and roll Las Vegas
a Marathas. Yeah, I gota little freemas. It's still registered and
so desired. I don't think I'mgoing to They've got enough of my money.
(34:25):
Syral's alliance with Bibbs. It's Bibswith the packets focus but kind of
DJing in a weekends. All right, listen here YouTube. I don't want
(35:02):
any static from you guys. Itis not my fault. They're playing licensed
to music. Michael Jackson would bequite okay with this, all right,
So this is where you pick upyour shirts. I've been through all this.
I'm just now showing you guys.I'd try and fight our way through
here. Use me. They ain'tcare about her any We got try and
(35:30):
fight a do so. The bigline, am I right? Is for
all the people who are getting theirdrinking wristband for after the race. Ask
me how I know I've done thatline. So after you get out,
get jump with the T shirt area. You get to go through another low
tip, more advertising strip at nine, into the information center, and more
(35:52):
places to take pictures. See there'sthirteen point line. The line everyone is
in to take a picture with thethirteen point one nice big selfie wall right
there. People throwing off their bits. Gotta love it. Pretty cool.
(36:21):
More detail music trust me. Registrationis already opened for twenty twenty five.
They would really like everyone to comeback and then check it out. How
many race ex clothes? Do youknow? I actually have a bar in
it? Yeah, they've got severalhere, several bars. Next stop,
(36:44):
merchandise, baby, So something reallyfun about this. As I've learned this
first section here of all the rockand roll marathon, so merchandise stuff,
this is all done by what lulu la man if I'm saying that right.
(37:07):
So what we can do, becauseI know this to be true,
is walk past all of it becauseI am not paying eighty eight dollars for
this Hary T shirt in front ofus. Yes, this is an eighty
eight dollars T shirt. This podcastdoes not make that much money. So
as we get through the lu lulamn and this is back to the back
(37:30):
podcast had to teach me how tosay that right, hopefully, I'm so
all right. I thought it wasLululemon or lou I don't know what I
thought it was. We get tocome around here. This is the more
let's say, the more standard stuff. Oh wait a minute, no we're
not No, it's not here.This is still the expensive Lulu stuff ever
ago, it's this side. Sothis is what's really cool about this.
(37:52):
They have hoodies and T shirts,like, this is the five K one.
Everyone has their name on the who'sdoing this race? And yes I
did find myself and I'm not gonnado it again just to show you,
but I thought that was kind ofthe cool thing. Everyone's name is on
the back, so you can doit on a hoodie or on a T
shirt. They got the five k'sand then here's ten k ones. That's
(38:17):
the ten k women and ten kmen on this side. And they're all
separated by last names and what not. But a really cool idea. I
thought, boy, you'd hate tobuy one that didn't have your name on
it, though, right, moremergency. Here's here they are. Here's
(38:37):
the half marathon ones with all thefolks names. And then of course you
got hoodies as well, to belike, here's the men's but if the
men's A through K on these hoodiesor the thirteen point one seven, the
little thing seeing there's the shirts.I thought that was interesting. It certainly
(38:59):
cause people interested. I did buythe T shirt, the green one with
that gentleman's holding. That's what Ihave because my name's on the back of
it. I don't think I couldget a hoodie with my name on though.
I think those are gone. Let'ssee it now. I'm just curious.
There's a kids section if you feelso inclined. Just the rock and
roll running stuffs. No lookles,they've got plenty, but seniors. The
(39:21):
men's hoodies for the A three K, so that would be me, advisor.
Nice little mugs there. Coffee anybody, we've been love coffee, all
right. So with that, I'mgonna turn this off for a moment.
(39:44):
Since i'm here, I'm gonna dosome more shopping. We'll be right back
any We're back with part two ofmerchandising on Jing Dans mon Jin Dynzy.
So we're out of the retail area. There's sink Cube, I've all the
books. There's sink Fude. Therethey are here at the XB while freeze.
(40:05):
We're going down all the venders nowhopefully the baby. Oh my goodness,
this is a massive humanity. Youknow what, everyone, I'm gonna
turn those part off and try andget the heck out of here because this
is nuts. So listen to thestart line of five k framework Street very
soon here so everybody else's cards less. Also several Bunny Brown for this game.
(41:34):
Boy, we thought maybe there wasgonna fifteen thousand people that wears.
We thought. I'm wrong. Themost fun we can have on a Sunday
night, am I right? Arethanks to Luga Movement who was giving us
some amazing here's for yoga this morning, but shot for good back about's come
(42:01):
to a stop. We'll hit meup at the start line. Two days
leading up to this, works outof this things good as ever. Just
everyone running through today walk the pastin the ground, New York, New
York. Here on the right there'sthe start Las Vegas going the next cure
(42:27):
leaders coming up on the left.Right if we're gonna hit another roll and
then we're gonna be here and timeto start now? Has anyone done this
before? Well, dumb racers,I'm dumb bakers. This is something different.
That's the fire. It's going downstands. I gonn's to see out
(42:52):
with people lining at the top nowand they apper passes a pretty far right
there we go, all right,way back at the start. I'm not
(43:19):
sure. Just gonna so much funon this, the things I do for
you all, love you. AllRight, we're about to start, let's
go about it. Sure, ifhe even takes it in close, I
(44:12):
think that might be him. Yeah, right over there, we'll see.
I am right, he's on thatyet. Oh, I see him on
the head seeing the shirts. Bringhere something right there. You gotta bury
(44:32):
his hands. Oh my god,that is so cool. I don't even
know the guy. I love him. Shot your shot station at mile mark
or four and a half shot shot. Hey, everybody, we're five miles
(45:08):
in to the Vegas half Marathon.We're about halfway down the strip right now.
So I just wanted to pop induring the race. You know what's
funny is I'm actually gonna take atake a second here in about two minutes
to make sure I get my effectmy plight checked in for tomorrow. So
that's the kind of thing that wedo here on a half oathon. Right,
(45:30):
all right, we'll be back forthe finish line because we already ran
past it. Trust me, youdon't want to miss it. Be back
a little bit. Run everybody,else's running act. All right everyone,
As you see, we're down atthe end of the strip. So if
you know it's in the Vegas Strivesphere here, that's the end of the
last BIGA strip. They're coming upto man markers seven. Seem not too
(45:52):
bad. Six more months ago,we're over halfway. I thought you want
to see this very pretty signed hvery pretty. You know, my many
trips to Vegas, I've actually neverbeen down this spot. So we'll pitch
you some player there again. Soyeah, there we go, mile marker
seven. Six miles to go.We'll be back for probably closer to the
(46:15):
finish flying, if not the penishflying completely. Get back in a bit,
all right, everyone, we've gotabout two and a half miles loft.
But because it can see every nowhang him back to the Vegas strip.
So were in two and a halfmiles to within the line in the
front plazio with the fountains, niggantakes some time. H Not gonna be
(46:39):
a pr by any means, butit's gonna be respectable, right So,
even with the stuff and the recordstuff from time to time. But but
you guys are enjoy seeing this anyway. Here we go. We'll see if
Lats Vegas. Thanks to me foryou. Now, hey back to the
strip. We'll see you back atthe Finnish Flying He everybody, one last
(47:00):
video from Las Vegas. We arecoming out to the finish line here in
a second, so I'll turn thecamera around when you go down the chute.
I'm sorry for this extreme close up. I don't have a microphone.
One five five five station. Allright, I see it belies you thing
(47:21):
to find this. Let's finish thisup. Oh thirteen, alright, Glorie
(47:57):
picture. Yeah, my bes keycoming through the finished nine good John nothin?
Are you turning that on? Hemoves from me to the socks.
(48:24):
He just can't get enough. Thisold world is just too much fun out
there to guys with the arms alwaysr His friends were dying
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com