Aired March 10, 2024:The LA Marathon is Sunday March 17th. SO many incredible people running for so many reasons. This will be the 11th marathon of 29 that Summer Willis is running. She’s a mom and a wife, an athlete, and the Founder of https://strengththroughstrides.org/, a female athletic empowerment nonprofit that supports strong women overcoming trauma. Summer was 19 years old and a college sophomore in Austin, Texas when she was sexually assaulted at a party that prompted her to run for her life. Now age 29, she will run 29 marathons to help others who have been sexually assaulted though her non-profit Strength through Strides.
She will run the NYC Marathon carrying a 45lb mattress the entire 26.2 miles. In LA, she is trying to break the record for 'most outfit changes while running a marathon' and will change into various outfits from the Barbie movie on Sunday 3/17! While in LA she will tour the UCLA Rape Treatment Center and will donate proceeds from her participation in the Marathon to them. Before taking on these challenges, Summer had never run a single mile before. Strength Through Strides is an empowerment and support program focusing on helping women overcome trauma and hardships. STS does this through coaching and holistic retreats focusing on health and wellness, goal setting, mindset coaching, and community support.
She will run the NYC Marathon carrying a 45lb mattress the entire 26.2 miles. In LA, she is trying to break the record for 'most outfit changes while running a marathon' and will change into various outfits from the Barbie movie on Sunday 3/17! While in LA she will tour the UCLA Rape Treatment Center and will donate proceeds from her participation in the Marathon to them. Before taking on these challenges, Summer had never run a single mile before. Strength Through Strides is an empowerment and support program focusing on helping women overcome trauma and hardships. STS does this through coaching and holistic retreats focusing on health and wellness, goal setting, mindset coaching, and community support.
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(00:00):
We put nonprofits and charities and thespotlight. Hi, there s is a
fox and this is the iHeart SoCal Show. All right, So it's
one week away from today, thousandsof people take it over the streets of
Los Angeles for the LA Marathon,happening this year next Sunday on March seventeenth,
Saint Patti's Day. All these peoplerunning for so many reasons, including
(00:21):
my guest today, Summer Willis.She's a mom, she's a wife,
she's an athlete. She's the founderof Strength through Strides. That's who she's
running for. She has a powerfulstory to share, and she's running for
her female Athletic Empowerment nonprofit that supportsstrong women overcoming trauma. And Summer,
Oh my gosh, but is thisright? So you just turned twenty nine,
(00:42):
and in honor of training twenty nineyears old, you're running twenty nine
marathons this year. I am runningtwenty nine, right, Oh my gosh.
I must be, because when Istarted this, I couldn't run a
single mile and I gave birth fourmonths before, and so yes, I
(01:03):
must be. Even just a completeone marathon, it's not a lot of
people's bucket. It's just to completeone. It's a very transformative experience.
I won't say I conquered, butI will say I've survived a couple of
full LA marathons. I've done betterwith the half marathons I finished for charity.
But my gosh, doing twenty nineand one year. So you're doing
(01:23):
the LA Marathon next Sunday? Whatnumber is that? How many have you
done so far? Yes? SoLA is going to be my eleventh marathon.
Okay, so yes, we startedthe journey. So a lot of
people say why twenty nine? Well, before I turned twenty nine, I
(01:45):
kind of had a moment where Iwas ready to be the mother I wanted
to be the wife. I wantedto be the person I wanted to be,
And so I said, when Iturned twenty nine, I'm going to
run twenty nine marathons and I'm goingto try to raise two hundred and ninety
thousand dollars and do twenty nine podcast. So it was the year of twenty
(02:05):
nine doing big things before before thirty. Wow. And then how does your
the hubby and your kids think aboutthis? Like, mar look at our
mom, she's a rock star?Like is it more? Mom? Where
are you is she out there running? She ever coming home? Though?
How does the family feel about it? So the first thing my husband said
was, I know you didn't justsay twenty nine because I think most people
(02:30):
would start with, you know,one marathon, but yeah, I decided
to start with the twenty nine.And you know, it's really transformed our
family, I think for the best. Because my my Alfred and I have
smoothies ever morning, which I neverdid before. Shed always wants to play
taite he's my three year old,or or running and then he just wears
(02:53):
my medals around every single day.Oh sure. And yeah, and then
the little one going running on thejogging stroller. I have a one year
old as well, and so it'sjust kind of transformed our family to we
were kind of uh, I don'tknow. I was unhealthy, sick often
(03:13):
and kind of enough funk. Andnow it feels like we're the healthy family
that goes on runs together on Sundays, are doing sick thing. Yeah,
you're out there running, you know, you're getting physically fit, You're taking
care of your body. It's sohealthy. Get that that body movement,
that blood pump and your heart pumping. To set a goal for yourself.
Kind of gets you to commit toLike you said, you did a pretty
(03:35):
pretty uh pretty big amitment. Butjust to when you have to sign up
for a marathon, you're you're lockedin, You've paid a registration fee,
and you have people caun on you, especially you you're raising money for a
cause, you have people all eyesare on you. So it kind of
helps you realize you can't flake.There's no going back. We're the I'm
not gonna suddenly not show up andlet these people down. I gotta do
(03:55):
it exactly. Yeah. And Idon't know if i'd wrecked mended, but
the first thing I did before Icould even run a mile was tell the
world that I was running twenty nineers. Shoot, I should have just
said one. Yeah, just everyone'son my accountability, buddy, and kind
of on the way on the journey. I've just been chronicling my runs and
(04:16):
it's so funny because I never thoughtof myself as a runner. I didn't
work out for ten years, andnow people are like, hey, I
went on a run or I signedup for my first five k or half
marathon and thought of you. Andit still makes me laugh because I still
you know, I'm trying to getused to my identity as a new runner,
right right, Well, look likeI said, it's good for you.
Physical activity is so good, plusthe endorphins. Right when you're out
(04:40):
there running all that thinking time,you know, kind of processing life kind
of time. At twenty six pointtwo miles, you got a lot of
time to think about stuff. Andit's a great way to see some of
these cities. So what cities haveyou done already? Have done? No?
You said, LA will be youreleventh marathon. What cities have you
done already? Yeah? So theway I calendar worked out my first marathon
(05:02):
was actually my first three marathons.It was called the Tahoe Triple where you
run three marathons in three days andit hurts so badly, but part of
it's still my favorite because I hadno idea if I could do one marathon
and I had to do three andthree days. And I guess when you
(05:24):
sign up for these marathons, it'ssomething beautiful because you're pushing yourself to where
you don't know if you can go. But then when you've finished, it's
like, I'm so much stronger thanI thought I was. And then what
else could I do after this,because a lot of people are like,
I'll only do one marathon, andthen you realize, I did a marathon,
(05:44):
What what's the next step. Sothat's been fun and kind of inspired
these next challenges I'm doing, LikeI just finished the I was the first
woman to ever run a marathon witha mattress in Control Park. This past
weekend, I signed up for thehardest one hundred miler this summer. And
then we're doing a seven marathons inseven days on seven continents challenge. So
(06:09):
it's like, if I can dothis, what else is there? And
I love that. It's a lot. So let's talk about you also carrying
this mattress and why you're running,why you're doing twenty nine marathons in a
year summer. You want to shareyour story, I would love to share
my story. So whenever I wasa sophomore in college, I was nineteen
(06:30):
years old, I was a victimof sexual assaults by someone that I considered
a friend. And that kind ofwas the big before or after. Before
I felt pretty innocent and naive andreally happy, go lucky, And for
years after that, I was sad. I was depressed, diagnosed with PTSD
(06:55):
and I just really lost myself.And so what I found to finally feel
like I recovered was helping people.I worked with female genital mutilation victims in
Tanzania, I joined the Peace Corpsand met my husband. Wrote a paper
(07:15):
about sexual assault in the way governmentand private programs helped victims childhood victims of
sexual assault in South America. Soby learning more about what happened to me
and helping others, I really feltlike I found myself again and maybe a
little bit some healing right, ormaybe started the healing process a little bit.
(07:38):
Yeah, it did, but itdidn't really. The trauma was still
there because this past year, whenI was twenty eight years old, we
lost six family members in about fourmonths, and I just stopped answering my
phone because I kept on waiting toget a call that someone else that I
loved had passed. And when readingThe Body Keeps Score, which is a
(08:01):
great read, I realized that trauma, it doesn't go away. So this
trauma that happened to me a decadeago is still living in there. And
some of my reactions to this thisdeath was actually a result of a decade
ago my sexual assault and so Irealized that these me finding my strength at
(08:22):
twenty nine should be for a mission. So these marathons with a mission would
help other women and other survivors,and more broadly, just helping people realize
that ordinary people can be extraordinary,because you can have those people that say
I'll never run a marathon, right, I could never do it. But
(08:43):
my goal for this year is tohelp everyone because we all go through our
different traumas, but realize the strengthis in you, the resilience is in
you. We just have to helpfind it. And so all the donations,
the two hundred and ninety thousand dollarsthat were raising is going to survivors
of sexual assault. We have amazingclinicians that will offer free counseling to women
(09:07):
across the United States. All theyhave to do is apply on our website
online and then we're offering. WhatI'm most excited about is this innovative strategy
to offer retreats to survivors. Sothere are four days they're going to be
offered in California and Texas and Virginia. And it's kind of what I learned
getting out of your normal rut andreally thinking about both what happened to you,
(09:33):
the trauma that you survive from,but also all the hope and all
the joy. And usually the storytold around sexual assault is the story of
defeat, of sickness, of sadness. But our story is one of hope.
It's one of resilience. It's tellingeveryone who survives something hard that there
(09:54):
is joy and there is happiness aheadof us. So really excited to working
on this project. Well, andsounds like to look strength in numbers.
Probably where you go you meet incrediblewomen and people, but also through your
website strength throughstrides dot org. Throughyour website, you're kind of building this
big support group, you know,this big support system of people who can
(10:18):
hopefully be there for each other andhelp each other through these life traumas,
whether they've gone through what you've gonethrough, like you said, or just
coming together to find ways to copebetter with trauma in our lives find knowing
that they're not alone. Right,I mean, building this group of people,
this network of people, this networkof strength and hope has got to
feel like a beautiful thing too,right, it does. And I also
(10:41):
think that's how we're a little different. And I literally learned this lesson while
I was running, because this year, at first listen to be like,
oh, summer's turning into David Gogginstype figure. I'm going to learn how
to be strong by myself. Runningseems like a very ice like a by
yourself sort of thing. But thenI started running, and when I would
(11:05):
get tired, when I would feelweak, it was the people with their
signs or cheering us on along thesidelines. It was the volunteerers offering us
water. It was the women andthe men running beside me, struggling but
all trying to become better. Sothat's what these retreats are based off of,
and are not individual counseling but communitycounseling. It's you're not alone,
(11:28):
You're in a group, and we'reall going through something hard, right,
but we can get stronger together.Yes, And then back to the mattress.
You carrying this heavy bed mattress forthe runs. I know it's going
to you know, get some moreattention, hopefully rally more people around your
causual organizations strength through strides, Butcarrying a heavy mattress while running the marathon?
(11:50):
Is that for all the marathons?No, that sounds really hard I'm
just or RW York in New York. Yeah. So this past weekend on
Friday, International Women's Day, Iwas the first woman ever to carry a
(12:11):
mattress for a whole marathon. Wow, and it was forty five pounds as
a twin mattress. But I reallywanted to show the world that I want
to carry. It's both about me. I want to carry the weight of
sexual assaults on my back to createchange, to do something new to help
other survivors. And it also representskind of the weight that survivors have on
(12:35):
their back. After this happens toyou, it changed you forever. And
so I think that was a reallygreat symbol. Yeah, that was a
biggie and very powerful statement indeed.But you're doing something different in conjunction with
your run, you know, forthe LA Marathon next weekend. Yeah.
So we're making this like a pamperparty Barbie marathon. So we have a
(13:01):
booth at the expo, come seeus, and we're having massus. We're
having nail painters only pink with glitter, and also some tasty treats pink juice,
and all of this is really toshow the hope aspect of what Strength
Through Strides is doing and New Yorkwas kind of the grueling, the hard
(13:24):
part. This is the beautiful partwhere the community's coming together and we're having
fun and where we're showing how resilientand strong women are. So we have
an awesome woman Massus who's given mepermission to share a story. But she's
both blind and she's a victim ofsexual assault, and I'm really proud to
(13:46):
have her as part of our team. And we're also going to the UCLA
Rape Treatment Center to share our messageand to meet other survivors. And we're
also going to the Oak Center wherewe'll be hosting our retreats. And it's
such a beautiful oasis run by oneof my heroes, Bob Goff. So
(14:07):
love to do in California while I'mthere. Yeah, next week when you're
here, to run your eleventh marathonof twenty nine total for the year,
running to raise money, running,to raise raise awareness for your organization,
Strength through Strides, the Big ElliMarathon next Sunday on Saint Patty's Day Sunday,
bringing people together at your event atthe Laxpo on Friday and Saturday,
(14:30):
and then of course and hopes thatpeople will are hearing this and will support
your organization. People coming together tosupport those who have experienced a big trauma,
significant traumatic experience in their life andcoming together to find ways to cope
with it and heal from it andfind a way to still thrive in this
life. The gift of life,this life we've been given. Yeah,
(14:50):
and I think it's the same forall of us. I mean, the
beauty of the podcast I'm doing isis twenty nine stories of resilience because we
don't just speak to survivors of sexualassault. There was a woman who overcame
a bone cancer. There is someonewho sister was pregnant and literally got murdered.
(15:13):
There's someone who's the Navy seal whowas paralyzed. In all of their
stories, the common factor is just, yeah, this really really hard thing
happened to me. But you knowwhat, I'm going to find the beauty
in life and turn this bad intogood. And I'm getting goosebumps thinking about
(15:33):
it. But what the Navy feelsaid is if I could go back to
that day and be thankful for itthe day I was paralyzed, I would
because if that didn't happen, Iwould have never known my wife, I
would have never known my kids.I would have never had this house or
had this understanding that I do.And that gave me chills because I don't
know if I'm at that level yet, but it's just like people are amazingly
(15:56):
resilient and I'm so lucky to behearing all these stories about turning the bad
into good. Oh I love that. God Bless you, Summer. Thank
you for that. And again forpeople who are looking to support you and
running the LA Marathon. You're eleventhof twenty nine total marathons for the year.
On your journey, you carry themattress to set a record for the
(16:18):
New York Marathon last week, aforty five pound bedroom mattress. Aren't you
doing something extra special? Kind ofcrazy for the LA Marathon to set a
record. And I'm going for theworld record for the most costume changes.
Oh a little silly, but I'mgoing to be sporting a couple of different
outfits from the movie Barbie. Andthen the final mile, I'll be in
(16:41):
heels and a ball gown with asash that says walk a mile in our
heels. So wanted to do somethingbig in La. No Barbie was literally
shot in La So yeah, itwould be really fun. I'm most excited
about the Cowboy outfit. So statinga record for the most changed outfits while
running a marathon. Wow, yeah, that's the world record. So oh
(17:06):
my gosh. Yeah, we're doingfive outfit changes in total with different outfits
from the Barbey movie. Okay,so, anybody who worked on the barbiemovie
in Los Angeles, we have apretty big audience in southern California. Anybody
who worked on the Barbie movie,you must be on the watch for summer.
Willis in the ELLI Marathon next Sundaywearing a whole bunch of very popular
(17:29):
outfits from the movie while doing themarathon and going for a world record of
the most outfit changes doing a marathon, and of course all raising money for
Strength to Stride. Dot org isa website, but for your incredible organization
and you know, drawing attention tosuch an important cause. But like you
said, just to rally people aroundthis love and this strength and this hope,
(17:51):
and it's a great way to getattention. And like you said,
just spring awareness and God please don'tfollow those heels. I'll be like watching
going summer be careful. Maybe canyou do like a two inchield? Can
you do a two inch heield?So we'll say yeah, I literally haven't
worn heels in about a decade,so maybe either, but will be okay,
Yeah, I haven't since knee surgeryeither. But oh my gosh,
(18:12):
Now if people want to follow yourjourney summer, where can we going?
Want to donate to your team andthen learn more about the Laxpo event that
you're doing marathon weekend next weekend?Is everything on your website or your Instagram?
How do we find it? Yeah, everything is on the website strengthrough
Strides dot org. We have event. We have all the information you could
(18:33):
need, and I would love foryou to follow us on Instagram. That's
where we're really documenting stories as werace, and that's just at Strength through
Strides and then we have a docuseries and that's on YouTube Strength through Strides
as well. I think the episodesare absolutely beautiful and they're five minutes each
but really show the heart of whatwe're doing this year. Oh my gosh,
(18:56):
you're a hard work good lady.God God bless you for all that
you're doing. And your sweet familythey're going through all the crazy with you,
but like you said, it's transformyour family in a healthy and it's
such a healthy way and hopefully transformingyou know all these people that you're touching
and meeting and getting together with andyou know that are kind of rallying around
your organization. So hats off toyour girl. Will be watching on the
(19:19):
seventeenth at the ELI Marathon. Summerwillis woo woo no Summer go Yeah,
and again all the information on herwebsite at Strength Throughstrides dot org. Thank
you so much again and it waswonderful to talk to you and thank you
for sharing the story. It trulydoes mean a lot to me.
We put nonprofits and charities and thespotlight. Hi, there s is a
fox and this is the iHeart SoCal Show. All right, So it's
one week away from today, thousandsof people take it over the streets of
Los Angeles for the LA Marathon,happening this year next Sunday on March seventeenth,
Saint Patti's Day. All these peoplerunning for so many reasons, including
(00:21):
my guest today, Summer Willis.She's a mom, she's a wife,
she's an athlete. She's the founderof Strength through Strides. That's who she's
running for. She has a powerfulstory to share, and she's running for
her female Athletic Empowerment nonprofit that supportsstrong women overcoming trauma. And Summer,
Oh my gosh, but is thisright? So you just turned twenty nine,
(00:42):
and in honor of training twenty nineyears old, you're running twenty nine
marathons this year. I am runningtwenty nine, right, Oh my gosh.
I must be, because when Istarted this, I couldn't run a
single mile and I gave birth fourmonths before, and so yes, I
(01:03):
must be. Even just a completeone marathon, it's not a lot of
people's bucket. It's just to completeone. It's a very transformative experience.
I won't say I conquered, butI will say I've survived a couple of
full LA marathons. I've done betterwith the half marathons I finished for charity.
But my gosh, doing twenty nineand one year. So you're doing
(01:23):
the LA Marathon next Sunday? Whatnumber is that? How many have you
done so far? Yes? SoLA is going to be my eleventh marathon.
Okay, so yes, we startedthe journey. So a lot of
people say why twenty nine? Well, before I turned twenty nine, I
(01:45):
kind of had a moment where Iwas ready to be the mother I wanted
to be the wife. I wantedto be the person I wanted to be,
And so I said, when Iturned twenty nine, I'm going to
run twenty nine marathons and I'm goingto try to raise two hundred and ninety
thousand dollars and do twenty nine podcast. So it was the year of twenty
(02:05):
nine doing big things before before thirty. Wow. And then how does your
the hubby and your kids think aboutthis? Like, mar look at our
mom, she's a rock star?Like is it more? Mom? Where
are you is she out there running? She ever coming home? Though?
How does the family feel about it? So the first thing my husband said
was, I know you didn't justsay twenty nine because I think most people
(02:30):
would start with, you know,one marathon, but yeah, I decided
to start with the twenty nine.And you know, it's really transformed our
family, I think for the best. Because my my Alfred and I have
smoothies ever morning, which I neverdid before. Shed always wants to play
taite he's my three year old,or or running and then he just wears
(02:53):
my medals around every single day.Oh sure. And yeah, and then
the little one going running on thejogging stroller. I have a one year
old as well, and so it'sjust kind of transformed our family to we
were kind of uh, I don'tknow. I was unhealthy, sick often
(03:13):
and kind of enough funk. Andnow it feels like we're the healthy family
that goes on runs together on Sundays, are doing sick thing. Yeah,
you're out there running, you know, you're getting physically fit, You're taking
care of your body. It's sohealthy. Get that that body movement,
that blood pump and your heart pumping. To set a goal for yourself.
Kind of gets you to commit toLike you said, you did a pretty
(03:35):
pretty uh pretty big amitment. Butjust to when you have to sign up
for a marathon, you're you're lockedin, You've paid a registration fee,
and you have people caun on you, especially you you're raising money for a
cause, you have people all eyesare on you. So it kind of
helps you realize you can't flake.There's no going back. We're the I'm
not gonna suddenly not show up andlet these people down. I gotta do
(03:55):
it exactly. Yeah. And Idon't know if i'd wrecked mended, but
the first thing I did before Icould even run a mile was tell the
world that I was running twenty nineers. Shoot, I should have just
said one. Yeah, just everyone'son my accountability, buddy, and kind
of on the way on the journey. I've just been chronicling my runs and
(04:16):
it's so funny because I never thoughtof myself as a runner. I didn't
work out for ten years, andnow people are like, hey, I
went on a run or I signedup for my first five k or half
marathon and thought of you. Andit still makes me laugh because I still
you know, I'm trying to getused to my identity as a new runner,
right right, Well, look likeI said, it's good for you.
Physical activity is so good, plusthe endorphins. Right when you're out
(04:40):
there running all that thinking time,you know, kind of processing life kind
of time. At twenty six pointtwo miles, you got a lot of
time to think about stuff. Andit's a great way to see some of
these cities. So what cities haveyou done already? Have done? No?
You said, LA will be youreleventh marathon. What cities have you
done already? Yeah? So theway I calendar worked out my first marathon
(05:02):
was actually my first three marathons.It was called the Tahoe Triple where you
run three marathons in three days andit hurts so badly, but part of
it's still my favorite because I hadno idea if I could do one marathon
and I had to do three andthree days. And I guess when you
(05:24):
sign up for these marathons, it'ssomething beautiful because you're pushing yourself to where
you don't know if you can go. But then when you've finished, it's
like, I'm so much stronger thanI thought I was. And then what
else could I do after this,because a lot of people are like,
I'll only do one marathon, andthen you realize, I did a marathon,
(05:44):
What what's the next step. Sothat's been fun and kind of inspired
these next challenges I'm doing, LikeI just finished the I was the first
woman to ever run a marathon witha mattress in Control Park. This past
weekend, I signed up for thehardest one hundred miler this summer. And
then we're doing a seven marathons inseven days on seven continents challenge. So
(06:09):
it's like, if I can dothis, what else is there? And
I love that. It's a lot. So let's talk about you also carrying
this mattress and why you're running,why you're doing twenty nine marathons in a
year summer. You want to shareyour story, I would love to share
my story. So whenever I wasa sophomore in college, I was nineteen
(06:30):
years old, I was a victimof sexual assaults by someone that I considered
a friend. And that kind ofwas the big before or after. Before
I felt pretty innocent and naive andreally happy, go lucky, And for
years after that, I was sad. I was depressed, diagnosed with PTSD
(06:55):
and I just really lost myself.And so what I found to finally feel
like I recovered was helping people.I worked with female genital mutilation victims in
Tanzania, I joined the Peace Corpsand met my husband. Wrote a paper
(07:15):
about sexual assault in the way governmentand private programs helped victims childhood victims of
sexual assault in South America. Soby learning more about what happened to me
and helping others, I really feltlike I found myself again and maybe a
little bit some healing right, ormaybe started the healing process a little bit.
(07:38):
Yeah, it did, but itdidn't really. The trauma was still
there because this past year, whenI was twenty eight years old, we
lost six family members in about fourmonths, and I just stopped answering my
phone because I kept on waiting toget a call that someone else that I
loved had passed. And when readingThe Body Keeps Score, which is a
(08:01):
great read, I realized that trauma, it doesn't go away. So this
trauma that happened to me a decadeago is still living in there. And
some of my reactions to this thisdeath was actually a result of a decade
ago my sexual assault and so Irealized that these me finding my strength at
(08:22):
twenty nine should be for a mission. So these marathons with a mission would
help other women and other survivors,and more broadly, just helping people realize
that ordinary people can be extraordinary,because you can have those people that say
I'll never run a marathon, right, I could never do it. But
(08:43):
my goal for this year is tohelp everyone because we all go through our
different traumas, but realize the strengthis in you, the resilience is in
you. We just have to helpfind it. And so all the donations,
the two hundred and ninety thousand dollarsthat were raising is going to survivors
of sexual assault. We have amazingclinicians that will offer free counseling to women
(09:07):
across the United States. All theyhave to do is apply on our website
online and then we're offering. WhatI'm most excited about is this innovative strategy
to offer retreats to survivors. Sothere are four days they're going to be
offered in California and Texas and Virginia. And it's kind of what I learned
getting out of your normal rut andreally thinking about both what happened to you,
(09:33):
the trauma that you survive from,but also all the hope and all
the joy. And usually the storytold around sexual assault is the story of
defeat, of sickness, of sadness. But our story is one of hope.
It's one of resilience. It's tellingeveryone who survives something hard that there
(09:54):
is joy and there is happiness aheadof us. So really excited to working
on this project. Well, andsounds like to look strength in numbers.
Probably where you go you meet incrediblewomen and people, but also through your
website strength throughstrides dot org. Throughyour website, you're kind of building this
big support group, you know,this big support system of people who can
(10:18):
hopefully be there for each other andhelp each other through these life traumas,
whether they've gone through what you've gonethrough, like you said, or just
coming together to find ways to copebetter with trauma in our lives find knowing
that they're not alone. Right,I mean, building this group of people,
this network of people, this networkof strength and hope has got to
feel like a beautiful thing too,right, it does. And I also
(10:41):
think that's how we're a little different. And I literally learned this lesson while
I was running, because this year, at first listen to be like,
oh, summer's turning into David Gogginstype figure. I'm going to learn how
to be strong by myself. Runningseems like a very ice like a by
yourself sort of thing. But thenI started running, and when I would
(11:05):
get tired, when I would feelweak, it was the people with their
signs or cheering us on along thesidelines. It was the volunteerers offering us
water. It was the women andthe men running beside me, struggling but
all trying to become better. Sothat's what these retreats are based off of,
and are not individual counseling but communitycounseling. It's you're not alone,
(11:28):
You're in a group, and we'reall going through something hard, right,
but we can get stronger together.Yes, And then back to the mattress.
You carrying this heavy bed mattress forthe runs. I know it's going
to you know, get some moreattention, hopefully rally more people around your
causual organizations strength through strides, Butcarrying a heavy mattress while running the marathon?
(11:50):
Is that for all the marathons?No, that sounds really hard I'm
just or RW York in New York. Yeah. So this past weekend on
Friday, International Women's Day, Iwas the first woman ever to carry a
(12:11):
mattress for a whole marathon. Wow, and it was forty five pounds as
a twin mattress. But I reallywanted to show the world that I want
to carry. It's both about me. I want to carry the weight of
sexual assaults on my back to createchange, to do something new to help
other survivors. And it also representskind of the weight that survivors have on
(12:35):
their back. After this happens toyou, it changed you forever. And
so I think that was a reallygreat symbol. Yeah, that was a
biggie and very powerful statement indeed.But you're doing something different in conjunction with
your run, you know, forthe LA Marathon next weekend. Yeah.
So we're making this like a pamperparty Barbie marathon. So we have a
(13:01):
booth at the expo, come seeus, and we're having massus. We're
having nail painters only pink with glitter, and also some tasty treats pink juice,
and all of this is really toshow the hope aspect of what Strength
Through Strides is doing and New Yorkwas kind of the grueling, the hard
(13:24):
part. This is the beautiful partwhere the community's coming together and we're having
fun and where we're showing how resilientand strong women are. So we have
an awesome woman Massus who's given mepermission to share a story. But she's
both blind and she's a victim ofsexual assault, and I'm really proud to
(13:46):
have her as part of our team. And we're also going to the UCLA
Rape Treatment Center to share our messageand to meet other survivors. And we're
also going to the Oak Center wherewe'll be hosting our retreats. And it's
such a beautiful oasis run by oneof my heroes, Bob Goff. So
(14:07):
love to do in California while I'mthere. Yeah, next week when you're
here, to run your eleventh marathonof twenty nine total for the year,
running to raise money, running,to raise raise awareness for your organization,
Strength through Strides, the Big ElliMarathon next Sunday on Saint Patty's Day Sunday,
bringing people together at your event atthe Laxpo on Friday and Saturday,
(14:30):
and then of course and hopes thatpeople will are hearing this and will support
your organization. People coming together tosupport those who have experienced a big trauma,
significant traumatic experience in their life andcoming together to find ways to cope
with it and heal from it andfind a way to still thrive in this
life. The gift of life,this life we've been given. Yeah,
(14:50):
and I think it's the same forall of us. I mean, the
beauty of the podcast I'm doing isis twenty nine stories of resilience because we
don't just speak to survivors of sexualassault. There was a woman who overcame
a bone cancer. There is someonewho sister was pregnant and literally got murdered.
(15:13):
There's someone who's the Navy seal whowas paralyzed. In all of their
stories, the common factor is just, yeah, this really really hard thing
happened to me. But you knowwhat, I'm going to find the beauty
in life and turn this bad intogood. And I'm getting goosebumps thinking about
(15:33):
it. But what the Navy feelsaid is if I could go back to
that day and be thankful for itthe day I was paralyzed, I would
because if that didn't happen, Iwould have never known my wife, I
would have never known my kids.I would have never had this house or
had this understanding that I do.And that gave me chills because I don't
know if I'm at that level yet, but it's just like people are amazingly
(15:56):
resilient and I'm so lucky to behearing all these stories about turning the bad
into good. Oh I love that. God Bless you, Summer. Thank
you for that. And again forpeople who are looking to support you and
running the LA Marathon. You're eleventhof twenty nine total marathons for the year.
On your journey, you carry themattress to set a record for the
(16:18):
New York Marathon last week, aforty five pound bedroom mattress. Aren't you
doing something extra special? Kind ofcrazy for the LA Marathon to set a
record. And I'm going for theworld record for the most costume changes.
Oh a little silly, but I'mgoing to be sporting a couple of different
outfits from the movie Barbie. Andthen the final mile, I'll be in
(16:41):
heels and a ball gown with asash that says walk a mile in our
heels. So wanted to do somethingbig in La. No Barbie was literally
shot in La So yeah, itwould be really fun. I'm most excited
about the Cowboy outfit. So statinga record for the most changed outfits while
running a marathon. Wow, yeah, that's the world record. So oh
(17:06):
my gosh. Yeah, we're doingfive outfit changes in total with different outfits
from the Barbey movie. Okay,so, anybody who worked on the barbiemovie
in Los Angeles, we have apretty big audience in southern California. Anybody
who worked on the Barbie movie,you must be on the watch for summer.
Willis in the ELLI Marathon next Sundaywearing a whole bunch of very popular
(17:29):
outfits from the movie while doing themarathon and going for a world record of
the most outfit changes doing a marathon, and of course all raising money for
Strength to Stride. Dot org isa website, but for your incredible organization
and you know, drawing attention tosuch an important cause. But like you
said, just to rally people aroundthis love and this strength and this hope,
(17:51):
and it's a great way to getattention. And like you said,
just spring awareness and God please don'tfollow those heels. I'll be like watching
going summer be careful. Maybe canyou do like a two inchield? Can
you do a two inch heield?So we'll say yeah, I literally haven't
worn heels in about a decade,so maybe either, but will be okay,
Yeah, I haven't since knee surgeryeither. But oh my gosh,
(18:12):
Now if people want to follow yourjourney summer, where can we going?
Want to donate to your team andthen learn more about the Laxpo event that
you're doing marathon weekend next weekend?Is everything on your website or your Instagram?
How do we find it? Yeah, everything is on the website strengthrough
Strides dot org. We have event. We have all the information you could
(18:33):
need, and I would love foryou to follow us on Instagram. That's
where we're really documenting stories as werace, and that's just at Strength through
Strides and then we have a docuseries and that's on YouTube Strength through Strides
as well. I think the episodesare absolutely beautiful and they're five minutes each
but really show the heart of whatwe're doing this year. Oh my gosh,
(18:56):
you're a hard work good lady.God God bless you for all that
you're doing. And your sweet familythey're going through all the crazy with you,
but like you said, it's transformyour family in a healthy and it's
such a healthy way and hopefully transformingyou know all these people that you're touching
and meeting and getting together with andyou know that are kind of rallying around
your organization. So hats off toyour girl. Will be watching on the
(19:19):
seventeenth at the ELI Marathon. Summerwillis woo woo no Summer go Yeah,
and again all the information on herwebsite at Strength Throughstrides dot org. Thank
you so much again and it waswonderful to talk to you and thank you
for sharing the story. It trulydoes mean a lot to me.
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