0:00

Hey , my friend , is the thought of aging keeping

0:02

you from becoming active or even getting

0:04

back into running ? Well , today you'll

0:06

hear an inspiring conversation where

0:09

our guest talks about an amazing comeback

0:11

in his 60s after not running

0:13

for 20 years . He also shares

0:15

tips that you should know as you begin

0:17

or resume your running journey . Hope

0:19

you enjoy .

0:21

Welcome to Inspire to Run Podcast

0:23

. Here you will find inspiration

0:25

, whether you are looking to take control

0:27

of your health and fitness or you are a seasoned

0:30

runner looking for community and

0:32

some extra motivation . You will

0:34

hear inspiring stories from amazing

0:36

runners , along with helpful tips from

0:38

fitness experts . Now here's

0:41

your host , richard .

0:42

Connor . Hi

0:45

, my friend , welcome to Inspire to Run Podcast

0:47

. Today we have the pleasure of sitting down with Barry

0:50

Karch , who is an avid runner

0:52

, and he participated in

0:54

as many 20 races a year

0:56

, ranging from one mile to marathons

0:59

and everything in between . He even qualified

1:01

and ran the Boston Marathon . But

1:04

after five years of intense training and running

1:06

, he got burned out and stopped racing

1:08

for 20 years . Through

1:10

some ups and downs , barry started racing again

1:12

with great results and feels rejuvenated

1:14

, like he found a part of himself that

1:16

was missing for 20 years . Barry

1:18

created the Running for your Life podcast

1:21

to share his joy of running and to encourage

1:23

others to take control of their health and

1:25

that it's never too late to get started running

1:27

. His goal is to have his listeners join

1:30

him in outrunning father time

1:32

. Welcome to the show , barry .

1:34

Hi Richard , how are you doing today ?

1:36

I'm good . I'm good , it's a great day . Here

1:38

in Connecticut I'm enjoying the last few days

1:41

of summer . I'm feeling good

1:43

about myself today .

1:44

Awesome . Glad to hear it .

1:46

Yeah , and excited to have you on the show . I'm

1:49

so excited that we met just not too long ago

1:51

. I love that you have a running

1:53

podcast and I love how you're sharing your story

1:55

about your running journey and the stories

1:57

of others , very similar to what we're doing here

1:59

. It's just so cool to meet a

2:02

fellow podcaster . We're

2:04

in this space and helping others , so

2:06

super cool to have you here .

2:08

Yeah , exactly , we have a few similarities

2:10

. I think we both started our podcast

2:13

to inspire other people to get into

2:15

running , and I think we both had stop

2:17

and start careers in running too .

2:19

Yeah , yeah , for sure , for sure . So

2:22

let's talk about that , let's learn a little bit

2:24

about you , how you started running in the first

2:26

place , why you stopped , what led

2:28

you to stop , and then we'll take

2:30

it from there .

2:32

Okay , well

2:34

, I had never done any

2:36

sports when I was younger . I didn't do anything

2:38

in high school . I

2:40

would play pickup basketball every

2:43

now and then for fun . I

2:45

like sports , but I never

2:47

did anything and I never ran . And

2:50

then one day of

2:52

all places , I love pizza

2:55

I used to go to a pizza parlor

2:57

on the corner and I

2:59

got to know one of the owners . He

3:01

was about my age , actually

3:04

, it's probably one of the owner's sons . Actually he was around my

3:06

age and we got to talk a lot every

3:08

time I was in there and he was a runner

3:10

, he liked to run and I

3:13

guess he just encouraged me to run and so

3:15

I started running with him . And that's kind of how I got

3:17

into it from a pizza parlor of all places

3:19

and we just started

3:21

running , we started training together and we

3:23

started doing races from there . So

3:26

that's kind of how it all started and that

3:28

was in my late 30s . That's when I got

3:30

started and running .

3:32

I love that , and you know one of the things I

3:35

really enjoyed about having these conversations

3:37

. I feel like I've been a student of how

3:39

folks started with running , and you

3:41

know one of the things I've learned it's either been internally

3:43

driven , either it's , you know , something

3:46

they needed to make a change in their life

3:48

, or spent external right

3:50

. Just like you said , there was a friend that brought

3:52

you in into running , which also

3:54

happened . So I love to hear these stories about

3:56

how folks start .

3:58

Yeah , yeah . So we started running pretty

4:00

hard . We trained a lot . They got

4:02

to be a group of us it wasn't just me and him , it was

4:04

probably Close to ten other people

4:07

and we would . We would push

4:09

ourselves real hard . We did a lot

4:11

of races . We would meet , I think , about five

4:13

thirty am in the mornings and

4:15

we would . We would get after it , and

4:17

after a while he brought up the idea of

4:19

running a marathon , which I

4:21

never really thought about , although I

4:24

did find that I could run a pretty long distance

4:26

Without getting too

4:28

terribly tired . So that became

4:30

a goal of mine to try

4:32

to run a marathon , and so we

4:34

ended up doing that together to . That was

4:36

how I got to my first

4:39

marathon .

4:40

That's incredible , and I want

4:42

to talk about the marathon in a moment , but I left to just

4:44

go back for a minute . Were you ever one

4:47

that said all I'm not a runner , I

4:49

don't run , or had you been thinking about

4:51

it ? You really just needed a little bit of a push to

4:53

get into it .

4:55

You know , I never thought that

4:57

I wasn't a runner when

4:59

I was in , when

5:01

I was in college , I would

5:04

go out for a little jog every now

5:06

and then on my own , and it was just a slow

5:08

jog . I wasn't trying to Run

5:11

a certain distance or certain time , I was just running

5:13

, just to run . So I would do that

5:15

occasionally . So it's not like I never , never ran

5:18

, but it had been still . That was in my early

5:20

twenty , so it's still been a long time since I did that

5:22

, but I felt like I could

5:24

run . I wasn't like , I didn't think I could do it .

5:27

Okay , okay , good , good to know . So

5:30

. So nice sort of running at these five thirty

5:32

am calls to run , which I think is

5:34

incredible . I'm not in that camp

5:36

, but I'm glad you are . That

5:39

that works for you , that's cool . So tell me

5:41

a little bit about you know the journey of

5:43

getting up to the marathon , so you

5:45

know . For me personally , I never

5:47

thought I could run really long distance , anything more than

5:49

a five K . I've been approaching it very

5:51

conservatively and very gradually . Sounds

5:54

like you just went out there like , yeah , I could do

5:56

A marathon and pretty short order

5:59

. So tell me a little bit about that .

6:01

What we gradually built up to it . My

6:03

friend kind of wrote out the training program

6:05

, so we weren't following any professional

6:08

program at the time , but

6:10

we would gradually build up to longer

6:12

and longer runs and

6:14

I think we maxed out around twenty

6:16

ish miles on our long run . But

6:19

we would . We would go early , we would

6:21

start five five thirty am

6:23

and get it in for a couple

6:25

of hours and it almost felt like a second job

6:28

really doing that and then get

6:30

home showering , getting dressed and going to

6:32

our regular job . But

6:35

it was a . It was a

6:37

long process and you

6:40

have to be careful on it , because sometimes

6:42

you can get beat up on the training and then when

6:44

you get to the starting line of the marathon you're not at your best

6:46

, as you'd like to be . So you have to be very careful

6:49

you don't beat yourself up just getting there . But

6:51

that's how we did it and we

6:53

ended up . Well , I ended up doing eight marathons

6:56

. So I kept doing

6:58

them and doing it with the pretty much the same group of guys

7:00

and we , as I mentioned

7:02

, we train super hard . We were always

7:05

pushing each other and it

7:07

finally got to the point where I

7:09

stopped enjoying it . It

7:12

just lost all the joy of running . It

7:14

got to be too much like work . It was

7:17

just we didn't ever have easy

7:19

runs . We would always . I'm not saying I'm

7:21

the greatest runner in the world , but we push ourselves

7:23

to the limit of our ability , of what we could

7:25

do . So they were always uncomfortable runs and

7:28

I was trying to figure

7:30

out how I was going to tell my friend that I didn't

7:32

want to train or run with him anymore . I

7:34

was trying to get up the courage to tell him

7:36

that when one morning

7:38

he said I got some

7:41

news for you and like what he

7:43

like , I move it out of town and

7:45

so I never had to tell him that

7:48

I was burned out and didn't want to do it anymore

7:50

because he ended up moving and that was kind of the

7:52

end of a phase one of my running career and that

7:54

was it for races for 20 years .

7:57

Wow , wow , well , you know . So

7:59

thank you for sharing that , and I know that's got

8:01

to be hard . You know , if you're especially training

8:05

for marathons , that I can only imagine right

8:07

now even thinking about it , if I do my first

8:09

marathon next year . How

8:11

deep into that rabbit hole do I want to go , because

8:14

I can foresee it being very hard , training

8:16

a lot of long days on top of everything

8:18

else and I don't want to get to that point where

8:21

I'm burned out and don't enjoy

8:23

it . And , interestingly enough , we actually recently had

8:25

this topic on the show on

8:27

the Instagram Live about , like , how

8:29

to notice the signs of burnout and then how

8:31

to avoid it . So it's really interesting

8:34

to kind of hear your story about . You know

8:36

what kind of led you down that road and

8:39

do you think , like if

8:41

you did training for different

8:43

types of races , if it wasn't a marathon

8:45

, do you think you would have stayed with it or you

8:47

felt like you probably already passed the point of no

8:49

return ?

8:51

I think I passed the point of no return from the way we

8:53

were training . But looking back on

8:55

it , as I look at marathon

8:58

plans now , that , as I said I

9:00

was just doing , my friend was making it up . But

9:02

if we , I look at professional marathon training

9:04

plans now and they do include easy

9:07

days , easy runs , so

9:09

you really aren't supposed to be killing

9:11

yourself every day like we were doing . So

9:14

I think if you follow a plan like that

9:16

, then , richard , you'll be okay . You

9:19

won't worry about getting burned out or killing yourself

9:21

. So you just got to learn to take

9:24

it easy on some of the days that you're supposed to do

9:26

and just have a nice easy , fun run , and

9:29

I think you'll do . You'll do fine if you incorporate that

9:31

in your plan .

9:33

Okay , that's really good to know and

9:35

to kind of pinpoint , you know

9:38

, some elements of it that made it not

9:40

enjoyable for you and made a hard you know hard

9:42

on you physically , I assume , as well . So

9:44

that's good to know that you know a different training

9:46

plan might have had a different outcome . So

9:51

so let's talk a little bit about , let's fast forward . I

9:53

think it was 20 years now . So

9:57

you went through the burnout phase . Your friend moved out of

9:59

town , you didn't run , so like

10:01

what happens during that 20 years , Well

10:05

, I

10:07

didn't race .

10:08

I don't want to say I didn't run because I still I

10:12

don't know if you call run I was doing like slower

10:14

jogs . It was more like a slow jog

10:16

. I would still do that regularly

10:18

, but I didn't go more than three miles

10:21

and it was much

10:23

, much slower and I was getting slower and slower

10:25

and slower all the time . So I

10:28

did that . But the real problem was I

10:30

kept eating like a marathoner . So

10:32

I would eat . I would still eat a lot . I

10:34

have a horrible sweet tooth . I

10:37

would eat ice cream , chocolate , cookies

10:39

, you name it . I love all that stuff . And

10:41

so the pound started to gradually

10:44

doesn't all happen at once , but over 20 years

10:46

they start adding up and adding up and

10:48

adding up and next thing , you know , I'm

10:50

carrying 35 . I'm carrying 35 more pounds

10:52

than I did when I was running marathons .

10:57

And then , when did that ? Like when did you

10:59

? You just wake up one day and when did you notice , was

11:01

it like a doctor's visit or

11:03

like when did it hit you ?

11:06

Not any one time . Every

11:09

time I visited the doctor I weighed more than the time before

11:11

and it kept going up and up

11:13

. When I ran

11:16

, I was around 150

11:18

ish in weight . I'm

11:21

not a real big guy , so I was around 150

11:24

ish . But then I go to the doctors

11:26

and then all of a sudden I'm in the 160s and

11:29

then after a while I'm in the 170s . Next

11:31

time I go home in the 180s and then

11:33

I'm pushing 190 . And so

11:35

it's like whoa , you know , it's really getting up there

11:37

. But I never . I was always kidding

11:40

myself that I still look good . I wouldn't

11:42

admit that . You know , I had

11:44

a bit of a belly . I still try to

11:46

convince myself I look good , I'm in good shape . Still , I

11:49

had trouble facing reality there

11:52

. And then I kept

11:54

asking myself all the time when are

11:56

you going to do something about this weight ? But I

11:58

was never motivated enough . I just I

12:00

was enjoying what I was eating and enjoyed

12:03

the food , I guess more than the weight , and didn't really care . And

12:06

then finally I got

12:08

into my 60s and

12:11

I said to myself you know what it's

12:13

now or never If you want

12:15

to live a long and healthy life . I

12:18

got to do something now or it's going to be too late

12:20

because I'm

12:22

already in my 60s . So I finally

12:24

finally got motivated after 20 years

12:27

. I changed my diet entirely

12:29

and I

12:32

lost to . It was gradual again A

12:35

couple , two , three , four pounds every week

12:37

that would come off and

12:40

before you know it I got back into

12:42

the 150s and I got pretty dog on

12:44

close to my weight where I was running

12:46

marathons at . So that

12:49

really changed my whole life . I

12:51

felt so much better about myself

12:53

just from taking off all

12:56

the pounds . But even

12:58

so , even with that done , I still wasn't

13:00

planning on racing . That thought never occurred

13:02

to me . And then one day my

13:05

wife said to me are you thinking

13:08

about racing anymore ? You know

13:10

, after I took off all that weight and I was like , well , I never really

13:12

thought about it , I guess I could , and

13:15

because I hadn't trained for anything and

13:17

I registered for a 5k and

13:20

I really didn't do much training for it . But

13:23

I just figured , okay , I'll just show up and see what I can

13:25

do . And I

13:27

tell you one good thing about being older . There's

13:30

a few good things about being older , not that many . But

13:32

one good thing about being older is you have a lot less competition

13:35

at the races yes

13:38

, people in your age group , right . So I

13:41

showed up there . I did the

13:43

best I could . It wasn't what I used

13:45

to run 20 years ago , but

13:47

I managed to get first place in

13:50

my age group . So

13:52

I was pretty excited about that . Like wow

13:54

, where'd that come from ? So that kind

13:56

of got me hooked again , like maybe I can be

13:58

competitive at running . So

14:00

that's kind of the story

14:02

in a nutshell .

14:04

That's awesome , yeah , that's motivation

14:06

to keep going and that's

14:08

great that your wife is supportive Very

14:11

Of your running and races

14:13

and I know that's not easy , right . So

14:17

that's and is your wife a runner as well , or

14:19

she just knows how passionate you are about it ?

14:21

She knew how passionate I was . She's not a runner

14:23

, but she does exercise a lot

14:25

. She does hill workouts

14:27

on the treadmill at the gym . She lifts weights

14:30

. She does a little bit of running on the treadmill now

14:32

, but she's not a runner or a

14:34

racer or anything like that at all .

14:36

Oh , that's fantastic . And still to be so supportive

14:38

, encouraging you to do that , that's

14:40

awesome . And I love

14:42

your story about how you got back into it

14:44

Because , like you said , you went through those

14:46

periods of times where you wanted to change but

14:50

you maybe didn't have the motivation to make that change

14:52

. And it's something that I've been studying a lot as well

14:54

Like what is there that

14:56

one thing that finally motivates

14:59

someone to make that change ? So

15:01

I recently read a book how to Change by Katie

15:03

Milkman and was really

15:05

fascinating All the research and

15:08

studies that she did and one of the principles

15:10

that she talked about was around fresh start

15:12

. So you mentioned this a little bit

15:14

like you're in your 60s . So

15:17

for you felt like a milestone . And

15:19

now you're thinking about , like when are you going to do

15:21

this ? And for others there might be

15:24

new year's resolution or your birthday

15:26

or the change in season . Is

15:29

that fresh start for you ? Like okay , like

15:31

you just said , it's now or never . Like now I'm going to take this

15:33

opportunity to do it . So it's really

15:35

, as I'm listening to your story , I'm wondering if it's

15:38

a little bit of that for it to take a milestone

15:40

like that , for you to say I want to make a change now

15:42

.

15:43

I think it is . I think fresh start is a very

15:46

good analogy there

15:48

, cause I feel like a fresh , different

15:50

runner and I don't

15:52

compare myself at all . I was worried about

15:54

this initially , but I do not compare myself at all

15:56

to myself in my first

15:58

phase of running , cause I'm a I'm

16:01

much older now and I

16:03

feel like a new , different person , different

16:05

runner . But whatever I do now

16:07

, I enjoy it so much more than

16:09

when I was younger , cause I think I took

16:12

it for granted when I was younger that I can

16:14

run . Now I don't . I

16:16

just anything I can do I'm thrilled

16:18

about . I'm just totally

16:20

happy I'm out there doing

16:22

it . I have a lot of gratitude for it

16:24

. I know a lot of people , especially

16:27

as they get older , aren't able

16:29

to run even if they wanted

16:31

to , because of health issues or whatever . So

16:34

I'm just very thankful for the ability

16:36

to do it and , as

16:39

I said , I enjoy every bit of

16:41

it and I and now I just want to keep pushing

16:45

and pushing myself to see what

16:47

I'm capable of . I would say it's a

16:49

midlife crisis , but I'm a little bit past midlife

16:51

, I guess by now , but it's

16:54

my way of , I guess , of fighting off father time and trying

16:56

to prove to myself in my mind hey , I'm not

16:58

old , I'm not old yet , I can still do this

17:00

. So I just recently did a

17:02

half marathon this

17:04

past December , my first half marathon in 20 years

17:07

and thoroughly

17:09

enjoyed it . I did train for that , ended

17:11

up in the top 10% of my age group on that one

17:13

, so I did pretty well on that

17:15

. And then two

17:18

weeks ago I took on maybe

17:21

the biggest challenge of my life and

17:23

it's a little bit outside running , but it was a mountain

17:25

hiking event called

17:28

29029 . I don't know if you've ever

17:30

heard of it yeah , I don't think

17:32

it's that widely known really yet but

17:34

where the number comes from , that's the height

17:36

of Mount Everest 29,029

17:39

feet . The goal is to

17:41

achieve the equivalent vertical ascent of Mount

17:43

Everest and you have 36 hours to do

17:45

so , and so it's

17:47

held in five different locations across the country throughout

17:49

the year . The one I did was in Snowbase

17:52

in Utah and that mountain required

17:54

13 ascent , so we would hike

17:56

up the mountain , we take the gondola

17:58

down , we only have to hike up . So

18:00

I hike up , gondola down , repeat

18:03

13 times , and that

18:06

would achieve the equivalent ascent of Mount Everest

18:08

, and it took also 30 miles of hiking

18:11

to do so , but I was able

18:13

to do that . I

18:15

trained super hard and

18:17

I was very , very determined

18:20

to accomplish it and

18:22

that was one of my proudest moments . I'm proud to say

18:24

only 58% of the people finished that thing . But

18:28

and you know , I just as I said

18:30

, I'm just thrilled at anything I can do now , which is my way of fighting

18:32

off either time .

18:34

I love that . Congratulations , first

18:36

on the half marathon and second

18:38

on the hike . You know what , now that

18:40

you're talking through it , I'm like wait a minute . We actually

18:42

did talk about this when we met just a few

18:44

months ago , so it's great to hear that you

18:46

did it and congratulations .

18:48

I did it . Yeah , yeah it was . It was fun

18:50

, especially now that it's over . Yeah

18:52

, yeah , yeah .

18:53

That's the best part , right . Well , I'm sure

18:55

it was the experience and the journey to get there

18:57

too , yeah . No for sure . So

18:59

you know you mentioned it a few times you know

19:01

being in your 60s and not

19:04

running for a long time and how things have changed

19:06

. So you know what would you say

19:08

is different now in terms

19:10

of how you're training or how you're approaching your training

19:12

versus maybe before or

19:15

earlier in your life , and you know what advice

19:17

would you give for folks .

19:19

I have so much more determination now and

19:22

, I think , a much stronger mindset than when I

19:24

was young , because I

19:26

really want it . I really you

19:28

have to have a big why . I don't know that . I had a big why

19:31

before I was doing it to because

19:33

my friends were doing it and well

19:35

, I wanted to accomplish it and

19:38

see if I could do it . But I was doing it

19:40

more to go along with them . Now

19:42

I'm doing it more for

19:45

my health and longevity

19:47

, hopefully . So I

19:50

have the big why that gets me out of bed every

19:52

day . I'm super motivated , as

19:54

I mentioned , and I just am

19:56

thankful and appreciative

19:58

of everything I'm able to do , whatever it is , how big or

20:01

how small , I just thankful I'm

20:03

able to do it . So those are some

20:05

of the biggest differences between now and

20:07

then running . Strangely enough , I

20:09

find that I'm a little more durable

20:11

now than I used to be then

20:13

, which doesn't make any sense whatsoever , because

20:16

I used to not be able to run back to back at all

20:18

. Back in those days it would take me a while

20:20

for my legs to my muscles to recover

20:22

, but now I can do more . I

20:25

can do more back to back runs

20:27

and I recover a lot quicker . I don't

20:29

know why , but that's another strange difference

20:32

.

20:32

Yeah , I mean it could be a little

20:34

bit to your training , right ? I think you said your training

20:37

is a little bit more balanced now

20:39

versus before , so it could have something to do with

20:41

it .

20:41

Probably does .

20:43

Oh , that's really great to hear and I appreciate you sharing

20:45

that you know . One of the questions

20:47

I like to ask the guests on the show is

20:50

what would you say is the biggest

20:52

obstacle in your running journey

20:54

and how'd you overcome it ?

20:56

Good question . Let me think the biggest obstacle

20:58

in my running journey probably

21:00

the biggest obstacle

21:03

before was

21:06

just little nagging injuries

21:08

. I never got seriously hurt . I've

21:11

been very fortunate I never had a serious injury . But

21:13

my ankles

21:16

would ache , my feet would ache . Oftentimes

21:19

when I got into races , as I alluded to

21:21

before , I wasn't at my best , especially

21:23

at marathons . I would get beat up in the training and

21:26

when race day came I would be hurt

21:29

a little more than I would like to be . So

21:31

I think it's overcoming the little nagging

21:33

injuries and just listening to your

21:35

body . I used

21:37

to have a hard time taking

21:39

time off . I didn't like to miss any

21:42

workouts . I still have

21:44

a hard time , but I will do it now . I'll do

21:46

it a little bit more now If I need to

21:48

. I realize that

21:50

missing a few workouts I'll

21:52

be better off coming back

21:54

a week later and I won't

21:57

lose any fitness . But if I did , I would regain it real quickly

21:59

and be better off for it . So I think that's

22:01

one of the things I've learned .

22:04

Yeah , yeah for sure . I mean definitely

22:06

want to stick to your plan , but you got to give

22:08

your body the rest that it needs and address

22:11

issues early and not just kind of run

22:13

through them or just kind of keep

22:15

going . Sometimes it's going to end up worse

22:17

for you so good that it never turned into any

22:19

major injuries . But that's good advice

22:22

for folks that might be at that point

22:24

where they're like , yeah , I'm feeling

22:26

a little more sore than I should

22:28

be after these workouts , where I'm starting

22:30

, I'm getting to the start line and I'm not feeling my

22:32

best . That's some good advice for those folks

22:34

.

22:36

Yep absolutely .

22:38

Cool , all right . So

22:40

what I'd love to know is what's

22:42

next for you , what keeps you

22:44

motivated , what keeps you moving , and

22:47

what are you looking forward to in the future

22:49

?

22:50

Okay . Well , I came across

22:52

this concept this year

22:55

of having a misogi

22:57

, and what a misogi

22:59

is is a

23:01

year defining event

23:03

, something that excites

23:05

you and scares you at the same time , and

23:08

so for me , it was the 29029 event

23:10

, and that's an event I'll never forget and

23:12

like when you look back in the future , I can say , oh , 2023

23:15

was the year I ever

23:17

stood . So I'm looking

23:20

for misogies every year , and

23:23

what I'm going to do

23:25

next is I'm just

23:27

started training for my first

23:29

marathon in

23:32

20 years , so I'm

23:34

looking forward to doing that , and

23:37

I think I

23:39

haven't decided on the MSOGY for next year . I'm

23:41

debating on a couple of things , but

23:44

at least to wrap up , this year I'm

23:46

gonna run my first marathon

23:48

. That still scares

23:51

me , because I know I don't wanna scare you , richard

23:53

. I know how hard it is to

23:55

do it and I

23:58

wanna see how it is now compared to how it used to

24:00

be .

24:02

Yeah , well , that's awesome and I'm gonna be

24:04

following your journey , and , especially

24:06

as I'm looking to do my first one . I'm not there

24:08

yet . There's other things I wanted to accomplish

24:10

first , but

24:12

, yeah , it's something that scares me

24:14

and you know , but I'm looking forward

24:16

to taking on the challenge . So I love that concept of

24:19

looking forward to that one big thing that scares

24:21

you and getting after it each year . So that's

24:24

really cool .

24:25

Yep , that makes life exciting . It's those

24:28

experiences you look back on and remember .

24:31

For sure , for sure . All right , so you

24:33

know your fellow podcaster . We started this conversation

24:36

talking about you being a fellow podcaster . You

24:38

have a wonderful podcast

24:40

, great story . You bring on great gas . So

24:42

you know , tell us a little bit about your podcast , why

24:44

did you start it and the types of

24:46

guests you bring on and who it's for .

24:49

Well , I never expected to be running and racing

24:51

again . I never thought I would be here . If you asked me a year

24:53

ago I would think no way . So

24:56

I'm here . I'm kind of surprised to be

24:58

here and , you know , back fit

25:00

again and running , and I just rediscovered

25:03

such joy in doing it that I want

25:05

to share the joy with other people and encourage

25:07

other people to get fit and run

25:09

, and that it's not too late Even if you are

25:11

later in life , you can still do it

25:13

. So that's the purpose of the show

25:16

, it's . I target

25:18

basically runners 40s , 50s

25:20

and 60s , although of course , anyone's welcome to listen

25:22

to it and I try to inspire . I

25:25

provide inspiring stories of people that

25:28

will help encourage other people to

25:30

get out there and get fit and run , and they can

25:32

do it too .

25:34

Love it , love it . That's awesome and

25:37

you know , tell us a little bit about how

25:39

our listeners can find you

25:41

and find your podcast .

25:43

Well , the best place to find

25:46

I can be found on Instagram under

25:48

it's

25:51

Barry underscore S underscore

25:54

Karch . I had to

25:56

do it that way . I don't know . For some reason Barry

25:58

Karch wasn't available . I don't think there's another one out

26:00

there , but I had to do it that way . So

26:02

that's on Instagram or just

26:05

the podcast running for your life . It's available

26:07

. Anywhere you listen to podcasts , it's on all the major

26:09

podcast players .

26:10

Love it , love it All right . So I'll put that information

26:12

in the show notes to make it easy for

26:15

our listeners to find you and follow you

26:17

online . Barry , I really appreciate

26:19

you sharing your journey with us . I mean really insightful

26:22

to hear you know how you started

26:24

your journey about burnout , but

26:26

coming back in and why and how

26:28

, and some advice for others who

26:30

you know in the same age groups as

26:32

to how they can get back in and

26:34

things to look out for some watch outs as

26:37

to when they resume their running journey

26:39

or even get into it for the first time . So really

26:42

appreciate you sharing your story and then your incredible

26:44

accomplishments . So

26:46

with your hiking and now

26:49

with your marathon , so we'll be watching

26:51

you closely as you embark

26:53

on that journey .

26:54

Well , thanks , Richard . Thanks for having me . It's

26:56

been such a pleasure to be on your podcast

26:59

.

27:00

Yeah , yeah , for sure . So

27:02

thanks again , barry . Like I said , I'll put

27:04

this information in show notes . So with that , have

27:06

a great day , thank you .

27:10

That's it for this episode of Inspire

27:12

to Run Podcast . We hope you are

27:14

inspired to take control of your health and

27:16

fitness and take it to the next level . Be

27:18

sure to click the subscribe button to join our community

27:21

and also please rate and review . Thanks

27:23

for listening .