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off.

1:16

Hey, hey, welcome to

1:18

the MTA Podcast, where it's

1:20

all about inspiring and equipping you to run a

1:22

marathon and change your life. I'm

1:25

Trevor.

1:25

And I'm Angie. In this episode,

1:27

we speak with Academy member JJ Stark-Modlin,

1:30

who recently qualified for Boston at her

1:32

27th marathon. Once upon a time, she

1:35

hated running and was even advised that

1:37

because of her injuries, she'd never be able to run

1:39

a full marathon. We know you're going to enjoy her

1:41

story. And just a heads up, as an Academy

1:43

member, you get access to all of our training plans, courses,

1:46

resources, and more. Find out how to join

1:48

when you visit MarathonTrainingAcademy.com.

1:52

Well, the Berlin Marathon

1:54

just wrapped up at the time of this recording.

1:57

I wish I could have been there. We ran Berlin back

1:59

in 20...

1:59

2016 and loved it Angie quick

2:02

wrap-up what went down this year

2:04

at the Berlin Marathon Well, Elliott Kipchoge

2:06

won for the fifth time with a time of 202 42 He

2:10

pretty much dominated from the start of the race

2:13

with just one runner sticking with him So

2:15

it was kind of the Elliott show again But

2:18

even more exciting the first-place woman

2:20

ran a new world record Tiggus

2:23

a safe from Ethiopia finished with a

2:25

time of two hours 11 minutes and 53 seconds

2:28

More than two minutes faster than Brigid cosguys

2:31

record. All

2:31

right, so new world record there and

2:34

also just yesterday The Boston

2:36

Marathon announced its cutoff for 2024

2:40

yes,

2:40

there is a record number of 33,000 applicants for the 2024 Boston

2:42

Marathon and As

2:46

expected there was a pretty significant

2:49

cutoff time You had to run five

2:51

minutes 29 seconds under your

2:53

qualifying time to be accepted

2:55

into the race next year So

2:58

definitely very disappointing for

3:00

those who work so hard for a qualifying time

3:03

But congratulations to everyone who did make

3:05

it in with that cutoff time

3:08

We definitely be an exciting race next year. Yeah,

3:10

it's a pretty brutal cutoff time. It's

3:12

not the worst I think one year it was like

3:15

seven minutes or something

3:16

Yeah It was

3:17

but even so man if you're working

3:19

hard and qualified for Boston and then you can't

3:21

get in because the cutoff It always sucks,

3:23

especially since it followed two years where everyone

3:26

with a qualifying time got in So yeah,

3:28

it does feel kind of like a little bit of a punch

3:31

in the gut

3:31

Yeah We're actually speaking with someone today

3:33

on the podcast who qualified for Boston

3:36

recently But didn't make the cutoff

3:38

and we talked to her before the cutoff was announced But

3:41

she kind of assumed that she wouldn't get in because she only had a couple

3:43

minutes to spare But has a really good attitude

3:45

about it, you know, not gonna give up. It's gonna keep

3:48

pursuing that goal She knows she has what it

3:50

takes. In fact, she's dropped her marathon

3:52

506 at her first marathon to

3:55

a three thirty two forty five and

3:57

we're really excited to have JJ tell her story Before

4:00

we do that, I'd like to give some quick shout outs to

4:02

folks in our community. So Angie, what

4:04

do you got for us?

4:04

Yeah, congrats to MTA member Matthew

4:07

Lippert, who recently completed a winning

4:09

streak of 1,000 days. That's super

4:11

impressive. And I also want

4:13

to say shout out to my Aunt Virginia. She posted

4:16

recently on social media. She says, I

4:18

keep amazing myself. I just finished

4:20

a 10K three years ago. I couldn't

4:23

run at all. Now I've done so much

4:25

more than just being able to run. At 72

4:27

years old, I've gotten healthier by losing 95 pounds

4:31

and completely changing myself from the inside

4:33

out. I'm happier than I ever thought possible.

4:36

That's great.

4:37

She had me build her a couch to 5K

4:39

plan a few months ago, and she successfully

4:42

completed her 5K, has moved on to

4:44

the 10K distance, and I'm just so proud

4:46

of her.

4:47

And it feels like it just came out of nowhere. Years

4:49

ago, do we ever expect that she'd be doing this? No.

4:52

And that's the thing. We never know

4:54

when people are going to decide it's time

4:56

to change

4:57

something in their life. That's right.

4:59

We're hoping it happens before you're 70, but

5:01

if you're already 70, you can still get in on the

5:04

fun.

5:04

Definitely.

5:06

We also heard from Randy, who's an MTA member.

5:08

He said, Cottonwood Rebel Marathon complete

5:10

with a personal best by 15 minutes

5:12

despite severe leg cramps in the last

5:14

six miles. It's a

5:16

brutal thing to have happen in the last few miles

5:19

of a marathon. So, really impressive

5:21

he was still able to run a 15

5:23

minute PR.

5:24

We also like to say congrats to Stephanie,

5:27

a client of ours, who finished her first

5:29

50K, and she actually finished third overall.

5:32

That's right. She said this, I finished

5:34

third female overall and somewhere in the

5:36

top 10 overall in my first 50K,

5:39

the Run the Red Desert 50K. I

5:41

made good on my New Year's resolution to run an

5:43

ultra this year and got an award. Thanks

5:46

to Coach Nicole at Marathon Training Academy

5:48

for pairing me with Coach Kerry, who

5:50

I began working with in May after a stress

5:53

fracture and severely inflamed tendons.

5:55

She got me on track with an excellent training

5:58

regimen and on the other side of the injury

6:00

free. Thanks to all the awesome organizations

6:03

that make this race happen and awareness around

6:05

preserving and promoting public lands.

6:08

This last message comes from Emily

6:11

and she says, hello Angie and Trevor.

6:13

I wanted to share a message of thanks for your podcasts

6:16

and inspiration. It's always been on

6:18

my bucket list to run a marathon but life

6:20

has always managed to get in the way. At 36 I'm

6:23

originally from the UK but have lived in New York

6:26

and I'm now settled in Sydney, Australia with

6:28

two young children and I work full-time. I figured

6:31

it was now or never so I signed up for

6:33

the Sydney Marathon. As I set

6:35

off for a run one day I realized I had no idea

6:37

what I was doing and no strategy to my

6:39

training so I just typed marathon beginner

6:42

into Google Podcast and up you popped. I

6:44

started listening and was so interested in the

6:47

real-life stories, tales from athletes

6:49

and race roundups that the kilometers melted

6:51

away. I then downloaded your five

6:53

hour 30 minute training plan and got

6:55

a really good idea about pace, heart rate

6:58

and strategy.

6:59

After hearing Trevor's lazy guide to running a

7:01

marathon I felt like I could totally do this.

7:04

My aim was to finish strong and smiling.

7:07

Training went great and with my baseline and

7:09

continued strength training I really felt

7:11

this helped me not get injured. As race

7:13

day approached the winter weather departed and

7:15

it was 31 degrees Celsius or 88 degrees

7:18

Fahrenheit. At about 15 kilometers

7:20

the heat really got to me and my energy was totally

7:23

sapped. Having listened to the episode

7:25

on nutrition with the Metpro coach I

7:27

knew I needed to up everything carbs,

7:29

electrolytes, energy and with people

7:31

dropping like flies around me I became

7:33

concerned about heat stroke and I started to walk.

7:36

After seeing some friends around the halfway point

7:38

I asked them to bring me Gatorade and I started

7:40

to get back to it. Although I'd taken

7:43

electrolytes and water at each aid station

7:45

I clearly needed more. At 30 K

7:47

I got my head into the game and sailed through

7:49

the final 30 to 42 K really enjoying

7:52

every step. I finished with the sprint

7:54

and smiling in five hours and 20 minutes.

7:57

I am delighted with my results. A

7:59

younger me might have given up when I started walking.

8:02

But listening to everyone's stories on the pod,

8:04

you realize the race you get isn't

8:06

the one that you might have trained for, but ultimately

8:09

only you can control the result. Right

8:11

after I finished, I was planning the next race,

8:14

perhaps somewhere a little cooler. I want

8:16

to shout out to all the women who think a full marathon

8:18

isn't for them. Women of the world, you

8:20

can do a full marathon and more. I

8:23

promise you if I can, honestly anyone

8:25

can. Thanks team and thanks to the

8:27

community. She says best

8:29

Emily and then she put in bold letters,

8:32

you have what it takes to run a marathon and change your

8:34

life.

8:34

Love it. Well you're

8:37

living proof Emily. Thank you for sending that

8:39

report in. Huge congrats on finishing

8:41

your first marathon there at the Sydney Marathon

8:43

in Australia. She mentions how

8:46

she enjoyed hearing stories from our community. These

8:48

are our favorite type of episodes to

8:50

do. We're gonna hear from a longtime

8:53

community member, JJ Stark-Modlin.

8:56

She recently posted in our little group

8:58

there for members about her long

9:01

journey to qualifying for the Boston Marathon.

9:03

It took her 27 marathons

9:05

and about 10 years. She's been working with

9:07

Coach Steven for the last, I don't know,

9:10

five years or so. She posted, I want

9:12

everyone to know that sometimes it takes 27 marathons

9:14

in years and years to reach a goal and that just

9:16

because it's tough doesn't mean that you should stop

9:18

trying. We love endurance running because

9:21

it's hard so don't let the difficulty stop

9:23

you from putting in the work.

9:24

Yeah it was fantastic to be able to speak

9:26

with JJ. She originally

9:29

worked with me for about a year back

9:31

in 2016. Like she said, been working

9:33

with Coach Steve for the last few years. She

9:35

is an attorney and she lives with her husband

9:38

in Chico, California.

9:39

So here's our conversation with

9:41

JJ Stark-Modlin.

10:01

All right, we're on the podcast now with

10:03

JJ Stark-Modlin. Joining us from Chico,

10:06

California, JJ, welcome to the MTA

10:08

podcast. Good to be here. Finally

10:10

nice to see you in person. I don't think we've ever met. I

10:13

know. We've interacted over the

10:15

years. I mean, JJ and I worked together,

10:17

but I think this is the first time we're having

10:19

a face-to-face. So it's really great

10:21

to meet you officially. Absolutely.

10:25

It's great to meet you guys officially too. And I've

10:27

listened to you for

10:27

years and years before. I even started

10:30

with coaching through MTA. And

10:32

so this is a really cool experience and I'm just grateful

10:35

that you guys wanted to hear my story.

10:38

Oh, we are really excited to have you

10:40

share your story. Over the weekend, when

10:42

you posted about your race there at

10:44

Revel, we just had huge smiles on our face and

10:46

this is what we live for. So

10:48

let's go back to the beginning of how you got interested

10:51

in running marathons in the first place.

10:53

So I would say before I got interested in,

10:55

per se, running marathons even, I had to

10:58

first get interested in running because

11:00

I hated running.

11:02

So I was a competitive artistic

11:04

roller skater starting from when I was about

11:07

six years old, competing

11:09

nationally and internationally all the way

11:11

up through law school. I

11:14

actually took the bar exam and left for the national

11:16

championships the next day.

11:18

What is artistic

11:20

roller skating involved?

11:22

I would say think like the ice skaters with

11:24

double axles and the spins

11:26

and all that kind of stuff. The only difference

11:29

is we do it on wheels and they do it on ice and

11:31

blades. They're sort of two peas

11:33

to the pod. Roller skating is not in the Olympics,

11:36

but it's sort of the summer version of

11:38

ice skating. We have local

11:41

competitions, national competitions, world

11:43

championships.

11:44

They're in the Pan Am Games. They're

11:46

in the World Games. It's a big four in

11:48

lots of different countries, just not in the Olympics

11:51

yet. I started when I was

11:53

about six years old with a little church

11:55

event where they took a skating and my mom's like,

11:57

if you're going to do anything, you're going to do it properly.

12:00

She got me the lessons. I just

12:02

fell in love. I did pairskating

12:05

for a period of time. I love

12:07

competing

12:08

and training and

12:10

trying to get the best out of myself and

12:13

doing, in essence, everything I can to the best of

12:15

my ability and knowing that there's always more

12:18

and it doesn't matter what kind of setbacks

12:21

you achieve or run into,

12:23

but like, it doesn't mean you stop. And

12:25

so that was sort of my mindset. All

12:28

of my youth athletics, I did it through

12:30

high school. I did it through college

12:32

and I'd be at the skating rink, you know, six

12:35

hours a day, seven hours a day,

12:37

six to seven days a week on top of going

12:39

to school and all that kind of stuff.

12:42

And it formulated a lot of

12:44

who I am as a person, but once

12:47

I graduated from law school, I

12:49

realized I couldn't work the number

12:51

of hours that I would be working as a, I'm

12:53

a deputy

12:54

district attorney, so

12:55

I couldn't work the number of hours I'd be working as

12:57

a prosecutor and be able to

13:00

push myself the way I would want to push myself

13:02

in my sport. And I realized that

13:05

at this point in time, it was sort of a, I'd

13:07

almost been doing it for about 20 years. I didn't

13:09

get paid, but I consider it retirement because I don't

13:11

consider myself a quitter, but I

13:14

couldn't

13:14

keep doing it at a world-class

13:16

level and an elite level and doing

13:19

the career that I was called to be doing.

13:21

And I realized it was time to move

13:23

on to sort of the next chapter of my life. And

13:26

my

13:26

mom was a PE coach and was very

13:28

much like, you can't just sit on your butt, you

13:30

gotta do something. You should try running.

13:33

It's not about speed, just gotta go slow

13:36

and easy. And like, I remember the

13:38

first time I really sort of tried running,

13:41

we were in a parking lot down at the

13:43

beach and she was like, just run

13:45

the parking lot slowly. Not sprint,

13:48

just run.

13:49

And when you get tired, you can walk. And

13:52

I was like, oh, I mean, this still sucks, but

13:54

it's not as bad as it could be, right?

13:56

Yeah,

13:58

a lot of times people make it harder.

13:59

than it needs to be in the beginning. They think

14:02

they have to really push the pace hard. It's

14:04

not true.

14:05

Yeah. I did Air Force ROTC

14:07

in college until I had herniated two

14:09

discs in my back and had to drop out from it, skating

14:12

injury. So with that, it was always pushing

14:14

the pace and having to stay up and

14:16

it was just

14:17

awesome. And so I then

14:19

started Googling how to start running.

14:22

And I found some couch

14:25

to 5K, 30-sister run, 30-sick at

14:27

walk thing. And I was like, oh,

14:29

I can do this. And oh my God, there's races.

14:32

This can also be fun and competitive. Yeah.

14:35

I know you're really into Disney stuff. So

14:38

did you kind of discover the Disney races and

14:40

be like, oh my goodness. My

14:42

cousin had emailed me about the Tinkerbell

14:44

half marathon and was like, oh my God, there's a Tinkerbell

14:47

half marathon. We have to do this. And I was like, I'm

14:49

not a rudder.

14:51

But she went down and did that the

14:53

inaugural year they had Tinkerbell. And

14:55

we went and cheered her on. And I was like, oh my God,

14:58

this is because I just started like run walking

15:00

at that point in time. I was like, this

15:02

is so cool. And you still get to wear the costumes because

15:04

part of that skating is you get to wear the pretty outfit.

15:07

And I'm also super obsessed with Disney.

15:09

And so like it combined all of my obsessions

15:12

into one thing.

15:13

So you finished a half marathon

15:15

or two, got the bug and then decided

15:18

at some point you want to take on the marathon.

15:21

So I'd always heard about the marathon

15:23

and I talked to my parents about like,

15:26

I want to do the marathon. And my dad's like, there

15:28

was no way with how bad your knees

15:30

are that you're ever going to be able to

15:32

like, I think a half marathon is your

15:34

maybe your distance. You're not going to be able to run

15:36

a marathon. So for example, when I started

15:38

law school from skating injuries,

15:41

I started law school on crutches for my torn

15:43

meniscus and my two broken hands. So

15:46

and I had full ankle reconstructive

15:48

surgery in 2010. And

15:52

so when I started running, I was still

15:54

having kneecap tracking problems and

15:56

all of my massive amount of skating

15:58

injuries over time.

15:59

that people are like, I don't think you're gonna

16:02

be able to do it, you're just gonna wreck your body. And I was like, well,

16:04

my goal is to be the bionic woman by 60. So whatever.

16:06

Well, on

16:08

your way. I

16:10

know when we first started working

16:12

together, you had pretty significant history

16:14

of injury.

16:15

And then you described yourself as accident problems.

16:18

You know, I remember like there would be some

16:19

goal races that you would have, and then you'd sprain

16:22

your ankle, step in a hole, things happen while

16:24

you're running, you know, you trip on a curb or like whatever.

16:26

But I always appreciated how that

16:28

mindset would kick in, you know, there would be a setback,

16:31

it would be disappointing, it would be kind of like back

16:33

to the drawing board a little bit, but you never really

16:35

gave up on that focus and you know,

16:37

positive mindset. So I think that is really,

16:40

you know, been one thing that has helped

16:42

your trajectory to get to where you are today,

16:44

obviously.

16:45

Yes, definitely. I am accident

16:47

problem. But sometimes accidents just happen

16:50

to me. I did have a tree branch

16:52

fall on me during a run through the

16:54

park once and got a concussion. Oh,

16:56

man. But it makes a great story

16:59

afterwards.

17:00

Like you can't you can't let it get you down, you

17:02

just got to smile and laugh about it and just

17:04

keep on trucking. So that's right. So

17:06

in spite of being recommended not to

17:09

run a full marathon, you decided that you would sign up

17:11

for one anyway.

17:12

Yes. So I a large

17:15

part signed up for running

17:17

my first marathon because of the 2013 Boston

17:20

marathon. I had always

17:22

heard about Boston. I knew it was

17:25

like the everyday person's Olympics.

17:27

I was watching it on because I finally

17:29

was into super into running and getting

17:31

all the things and watching all the races and you could

17:33

watch them on TV. And 2013 was when

17:36

the bombing happened.

17:38

And I was so inspired

17:40

by everybody that persevered in

17:42

that race and all the stories that came out of it that

17:44

I was like, I want to find a marathon. It's not

17:46

going to be Boston, but I'm going to sign up for a marathon.

17:49

And I wanted

17:50

to do my part

17:52

to show that I'm not afraid and

17:55

that I support my people and

17:58

I can screw up my knee running a marathon. Did

18:01

you also at that point

18:03

have a desire to run Boston

18:05

itself? Yeah, I was like,

18:08

I'm gonna be there. I was like, maybe I could be

18:10

there for you know, 2013. And that

18:12

was definitely not the case.

18:14

But it was at that moment in time that I was

18:16

like, I'm going to run Boston.

18:18

That became one

18:20

of my big life goals

18:23

and has been on my trajectory ever

18:25

since it wasn't just running a marathon. I

18:27

knew it was going to take some time

18:29

to get there because I was not a fast

18:31

half marathoner, let alone going

18:33

the distance for a marathon. But I was

18:36

going to run Boston and I didn't care how long it

18:38

takes me to get there. The older you get the slower you have

18:40

to be. So like, it'll be fine. Eventually

18:43

your speed and your age will coincide to

18:45

this perfect moment. I'll

18:48

have to live to be like 100. I

18:51

think that's the great thing about running.

18:52

It's like, you know, you're only as old as

18:54

you feel for one thing, but also that

18:56

it's exciting to get older, to like get in

18:58

a new age group. So like, when,

19:01

when? Yeah. So what was your first marathon

19:03

and how did that go for you?

19:05

So my first was a SIM

19:08

in Sacramento, the California International

19:10

Marathon. It was the one of

19:12

the coldest experiences of my life. It's

19:15

in December. California is not that cold

19:17

in December.

19:18

It was 12 degrees at the start line.

19:20

Oh, wow. It was one of those races.

19:22

It's I don't know if you guys have ever run SIM, but

19:24

it's a net downhill. With rolling

19:27

hills for the big first 20 miles

19:29

of it, all of the age stations, a bunch

19:31

of them were on the downhill portion.

19:34

And so how we like toss water

19:36

and it spills, it was black ice

19:38

at all the age stations. That

19:40

is nuts. Like a skating rink. And

19:43

you see some people hit it and just start sliding

19:46

down the hill.

19:46

I was trucking

19:48

along and then I think I hit mile

19:51

like 1920, you know, I didn't per say

19:53

hit the quote unquote wall, but

19:55

I wrote mile mile 20. I was like, Oh my

19:57

God, my feet have never hurt so much in my.

19:59

entire life.

20:01

I had been training a lot on

20:04

we have a flat dirt trail that runs

20:06

through our park. And so I was always running when

20:08

I do my long runs on this dirt trail and running

20:10

on a dirt trail and then running a marathon

20:12

on asphalt does not help

20:15

at all. Not the same thing. No,

20:19

every step was like excruciating pain. So

20:21

I finally finished because you're not gonna quit. But

20:24

it was five hours, six minutes, and I think it

20:26

was like 57 seconds.

20:28

And I was

20:30

so happy. I was ecstatic.

20:32

All right, what are we gonna do the next one?

20:35

Even with your feet hurting so bad, you

20:37

were still like, okay, this is happening

20:39

again. I didn't rush out and

20:41

sign up for a next marathon. I think I signed up

20:43

for another half marathon type of a thing. I

20:45

didn't do my next full marathon till I did

20:47

Honolulu the following December,

20:49

but I wanted to get

20:51

trained up more and you know, keep going

20:53

and recover and build my feet up more

20:56

because I felt like

20:56

I needed to build the endurance

20:58

on my feet more to be able to tackle the

21:00

marathon distance better. And

21:02

I see you picked a warmer climate for your

21:05

second marathon. Yes, yes,

21:07

I did. So what motivated you

21:09

to go out and find us basically?

21:12

How did you find us back then?

21:14

So I was trying to find out everything

21:16

I could about running in the running

21:18

world. And podcasts were

21:20

a thing right then I was like, there's gotta be

21:22

a running podcast. And so I

21:25

just searched

21:25

running podcasts, and you guys are the very first

21:28

ones that popped up.

21:29

I was like, yes, and I followed you and I was like, Oh

21:31

my god, and they're really smart too. I'm

21:34

entertaining. This is great. Because like, you never know, right?

21:37

I want to cover like a

21:38

podcast. But I just

21:41

I loved you guys from the very

21:42

beginning. It was very much you guys

21:45

bring us in and you're educational

21:47

and you're entertaining. And I get the

21:49

view that you really genuinely care about your listeners

21:52

and really want to pour into

21:54

your audience and give

21:56

them the best of yourselves. And I just absolutely

21:58

love that about the two of you. guys.

22:00

And so I started listening to the podcast

22:02

religiously. And

22:05

I

22:05

eventually was like, Hmm, I

22:07

should join that training Academy that they have.

22:10

Because this whole randomly finding online

22:13

training programs on my own isn't working

22:15

very well. My next five

22:17

marathons after my first marathon were actually

22:20

slower,

22:20

with my slowest marathon ever being like five

22:23

and a half hours and 37 minutes,

22:24

something like that.

22:27

So I was like, All right, let's I'm gonna

22:29

join because like you can join the group and get access

22:31

to your training plan. And

22:33

so that's what I did.

22:34

As I joined the group, I started working on

22:36

your training plan, and

22:39

gradually started improving

22:41

my marathon time bit by bit. Ultimately,

22:43

I signed up to for

22:46

coaching to

22:46

work with Angie as a coach. I

22:49

think that was right around 2016 2015.

22:53

Yeah, I was looking back at

22:55

our emails. And I think it was end

22:57

of March 2016. And then we worked

22:59

together to like May of 2017, when

23:02

we moved and I took a sabbatical. So I remember

23:04

you were like working on a to break four hours at

23:06

that point in time. So you had made some good progress.

23:09

But really kind of getting to that under four hour mark

23:11

was your big goal at that point in time.

23:13

Yeah, did you hit a PR while you're

23:16

working with Angie? I think I remember a post or something

23:18

like that in the in the group.

23:19

Yeah, she got me to I think was 409

23:22

at the Eugene marathon.

23:24

And then we did I think

23:27

we had another marathon. Oh, no, I broke my

23:29

ankle. I tripped on a rock. Oh, man,

23:32

fractured my talus bone completely through.

23:35

Yeah, that was a tough injury.

23:37

So it just goes to show I just want to pause

23:39

here for a second and show folks that JJ

23:42

has this desire and this this goal

23:44

to run the Boston Marathon. So

23:46

your first marathon, you're probably still

23:48

a good hour and a half away from your BQ time.

23:51

So you start running more marathons. Some

23:53

marathons are probably just gonna be for fun. Others

23:56

you're maybe trying to improve your time,

23:58

but life happens and And you

24:00

start getting faster, things are clicking, and then boom, you

24:02

break your ankle.

24:03

Yup, that's kind of how it goes.

24:05

But you didn't give up. You

24:08

didn't give up.

24:08

Absolutely not. It's just an opportunity

24:11

to get back out there and retrain

24:14

and see what you need to do better and

24:17

change things up. And you know, you can cross

24:19

train when you're injured. So like you don't have to

24:21

completely lose all of your fitness. Although

24:23

sometimes we definitely do lose a lot of fitness when

24:26

we're doing that. I think after

24:28

that was when

24:28

I was training for Mount Charleston,

24:31

Las Vegas, and Angie, you were originally going to run that and

24:34

then... Yes, I did. I did. Yeah,

24:36

I pulled out of that one. So yeah, we were going to be able to meet

24:38

up. But yeah, just the fact that you

24:41

came back from so many different setbacks, it was

24:43

really just admirable that you never

24:45

gave up on that goal because a lot of people would have concluded

24:47

I've had so many injuries. I have

24:49

this discomfort. I've had setbacks like running

24:51

is not for me. And then you started

24:54

working with Coach Steve in 2017.

24:56

Yes, I love him. He's absolutely

24:59

fabulous. He's

25:02

that perfect amount of... I

25:04

don't know if you personality wise pair us up with

25:06

our coaches. But to me, at least it felt like you

25:08

did because like you gave me somebody that was ideally

25:11

works with my type of personality

25:14

really, really well. Yeah, when I was transferring

25:17

my clients to that point

25:17

in time, I was like, JJ is going to be a great

25:20

fit with Coach Steve. I think this is going to

25:22

be a good match. How would you describe

25:24

your personality?

25:26

I am very much... I

25:28

don't let things hold me back.

25:31

And I am sort of willing to do anything

25:33

that you told me to do. But like, I'm going to

25:35

do the training run and I may want to do more than what

25:38

you're telling me to do. And I just I don't

25:40

have a good sense of... Do

25:42

you guys remember when you did the podcast about the

25:44

five... The

25:46

four tendencies, right? Gretchen Rubin,

25:49

you're an upholder. Yeah.

25:52

And like, I know I'm paying him, right?

25:55

But like, I don't want to disappoint him. I

25:57

want my coach to be proud of me and I don't want to

25:59

disappoint him.

25:59

and I'm gonna do my best for him because

26:02

he's my coach. And I want him to know

26:04

that the effort and time and interest

26:06

that he's putting into me that I'm reciprocating

26:08

him and I'm always giving him 100%. Throughout

26:11

this journey I've had with running, I actually went

26:13

and got a coaching certificate through

26:16

United's Endurance Force, just so I could like learn

26:18

more about it and all the things. And I was like, I

26:20

could never coach myself.

26:22

I 100%

26:24

believe that it

26:26

doesn't matter what your knowledge is, you need

26:28

somebody that's an external force that is able

26:30

to fully unbiased evaluate

26:33

what you should be doing in the moment and

26:35

that you should always have that

26:37

person that can like judge you and be like, no,

26:40

you can do more or like let's take

26:42

a week back. I very

26:44

much need that in my life.

26:46

Yeah, I think that takes great self knowledge because I

26:48

think most people cannot coach themselves

26:50

well. Either they do too much and

26:52

they don't hold themselves back when they need to or

26:54

they don't push themselves hard enough. And like finding

26:56

that balance, it's really hard without

26:59

an outside eye looking in and

27:01

knows your personality and can

27:03

evaluate things and provide that specific

27:06

plan to ultimately get you

27:08

where you wanna be.

27:09

Well, I mean, like look at the professional runners. You know

27:12

that they know all the things about

27:13

running. Almost all of them still

27:15

have coaches. Having a

27:17

good coach and like MTA provides,

27:19

you are an amazing coach and like Coach

27:21

Steve is a love and peace to us. Having

27:24

that

27:24

person that you can connect with and drive

27:26

you and hold you back when you need to and

27:29

pushes you to do all the things is just,

27:32

it's the best. I can't recommend you guys

27:34

as coaching coach them enough.

27:35

Oh, thank you. That's very kind.

27:38

And you know, I think that it is helpful even to have a

27:40

coach through those injuries and those setbacks

27:42

because it can get really disillusioning,

27:45

you know, like trying to cross train through an

27:47

injury and know how to appropriately build

27:49

back up safely. A lot of people get re-hurt

27:51

during that time. So I think it's really

27:53

wise to have someone who knows you and can really

27:56

help you through the ups and downs because running,

27:58

training for... marathons and especially

28:01

trying to Boston qualify

28:03

is definitely sometimes like a one step forward

28:05

two steps back process at what it feels like Yeah

28:08

Yeah We were just

28:10

thinking about your story JJ and

28:13

how similar it is to Angie story with qualifying

28:15

for Boston because it was like 25 marathons I

28:18

think it took yeah you Angie and seven

28:20

plus years. Mm-hmm Yeah so there's

28:23

people who can qualify at their first marathon

28:25

or maybe at their second and we definitely

28:27

admire those people but we have met a Lot

28:30

of folks it's a multi-year endeavor

28:32

And I think I'm biased towards the people who it

28:34

really takes them a long time because I ran

28:36

that road myself You know, we're gonna be happy

28:38

for anyone who qualifies for sure But ultimately

28:41

when you run Boston, it's going to mean

28:43

so much more to you. I mean, it's just gonna

28:45

be gonna be so amazing Yeah,

28:48

for sure. So coach

28:49

Steve has actually coached me through 18 marathons

28:52

I counted up my medals and my office

28:54

the other day I Personally believe everybody

28:56

should do a marathon once in their life and I'm trying to convince

28:58

my husband of that has not worked yet

29:00

But

29:04

I find in the marathon you learn something

29:06

about who you are as a person every single

29:08

time and at the end of the day Even

29:10

if I don't do a faster marathon

29:13

or PR or have a good day I've

29:16

learned something about who I am and what

29:18

I made up and that

29:19

And that has extreme

29:21

value to me and makes it worth

29:24

all the pain and English of getting

29:26

to where you are to find out more of what you're

29:28

made of Mmm, and at

29:30

the end of the day like I ran a marathon. I

29:32

ran a marathon five hours or not like I ran a marathon

29:35

It's great. Yeah,

29:37

quick break to thank our sponsor AG one.

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31:00

for running in traffic. Another benefit

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is it lessens ear fatigue, so

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it's better for your long-term hearing. Our

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kids still walk around with their in-the-ear earbuds

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and sometimes they're so loud. I'm like, I can

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31:47

Use the code mta20. Let's do

31:50

this before we talk about Revel,

31:53

the one that you BQed at recently. Do

31:55

you have a race that you'd recommend that you really

31:57

enjoyed?

31:58

Yes, but I'm going

32:00

to give you my second recommendation

32:02

because my first recommendation is biased.

32:05

I love the Disney World Marathon. I have run

32:07

it six times. It is by far my favorite

32:09

race. I am also obsessed with

32:11

Disney.

32:13

So taking that out of the mindset,

32:15

Fargo. And

32:17

I ran Fargo

32:18

because Angie talked about a racing cap

32:20

with Fargo. Yep, I

32:22

like Fargo too. I love Fargo.

32:24

Fargo was my PR for the longest

32:27

time. I am a big fan

32:29

of a big city race and Fargo

32:31

feels like a big city race. But

32:33

it's not this I ran it

32:36

in 2019. And it was pouring

32:38

rain. And everybody in town

32:40

had their little rain tents out with their

32:42

barbecues and the crowds were like three

32:44

deep as they were like screaming for us

32:47

during this race. And it was

32:49

flat. I am also a cold weather

32:51

girl and it was like 45 degrees and

32:53

raining. It was spectacular. I

32:57

like that we started indoors in

33:00

the Thunderdome thing. They

33:02

also do an amazing medical tent. I can

33:04

make places by their medical tents at the finish

33:06

line

33:08

frequently. Frequent flyer.

33:11

Yes. Oh, wow. So

33:13

they do a great medical tent at the finish

33:16

line, which is also inside because

33:18

it's a football stadium. They have access

33:20

to the showers in the stadium afterwards,

33:23

you could shower before you get in your car.

33:25

It's got all the

33:26

things. That

33:28

was a 333 27 in Fargo.

33:31

And I we thought we were

33:33

going to go better

33:33

in Berlin, which I ran that

33:36

September. And I tore

33:38

my hamstring going into Berlin. And

33:41

so Berlin was like a four hour marathon.

33:43

And then it's been one uphill

33:45

battle after another. It took

33:48

me a long time to fully rehab. My

33:51

hamstring issues, which they turned out

33:53

actually was my back screwing

33:55

with my hamstring because it was a combined

33:57

injury thing. And then as I

34:00

was finally getting back from that was when the COVID

34:02

pandemic hit. And I got

34:04

COVID really, really bad

34:06

in 2020 when I tore my other

34:08

hamstring and was

34:10

off running for probably

34:13

two months with COVID because

34:15

I couldn't breathe at all. And coach

34:17

Steve brought me back from that. I was back

34:19

down

34:19

to once we started running, I was doing like an 11 minute mile

34:22

with my speed work.

34:23

We crawled and kicked and

34:26

pulled our way back. Wow.

34:29

And that taken what,

34:31

two years to get back to where I was in 2019 from

34:33

that. And so it's

34:35

just sort of been one, like you said, one step forward,

34:37

two steps back type of a thing. They

34:40

also put on 30 pounds in that timeframe.

34:42

Cause you know, apparently I stress eat as

34:44

a lot of us

34:45

do. COVID was not kind

34:47

to the waistline. Which

34:50

I finally, cause I tried working with a couple

34:52

different nutritionists and none

34:54

of them really worked well with me with my

34:57

running and like what I needed to do with her

34:59

as energy wise.

35:00

Um, one of them had me on such a low

35:03

amount of food that I was like frequently blocking

35:05

out in the middle of my run. And

35:08

my, my husband would like pick me up on the asphalt

35:10

type of a thing. And

35:12

so it just, it wasn't good. And so I was

35:15

trying to figure

35:15

out the fueling on my own and I was like, I could

35:17

get a textbook and learn about this. No, I can't

35:20

do nutrition stuff. No.

35:21

So

35:22

I finally

35:24

did the plunge and I contacted

35:26

Metpro and started

35:28

working with them in May of this

35:30

past year.

35:32

May of 2023. Yeah.

35:34

Okay. So how did that go?

35:36

It's going amazing. They still have

35:38

that, uh, thing that where you're like, I

35:40

learned about you from MTA and you

35:42

get seven months for the price of six months.

35:44

Nice. That's

35:47

awesome. I know it's not cheap. Yeah.

35:49

No. It is

35:51

an investment, but it's completely

35:53

worth it. It's I'm actually down 30 pounds

35:56

now. Whoa. That

35:58

is amazing. Congrats.

35:59

And I still got 10 more

36:02

to go to get

36:02

back to where I was in 2019. But

36:04

our goal is I'm working with coach

36:07

Jesse from Metpro. And our goal

36:09

is not fat loss or weight

36:12

loss per se. We're trying to

36:14

get into the body

36:17

fat percentage of what she think I

36:19

can do because she knows my goal is

36:21

marathoning.

36:22

So we are training me

36:24

better how to fuel myself, not

36:27

just during a race, because I got that

36:29

down during my life

36:31

of what my body needs

36:33

to be able to perform at

36:35

it

36:36

absolute best. As I was

36:38

telling coach Stephen about it in our different email

36:40

communications or whatever that I started working with in nutritionist,

36:42

he was like, so like in the nutritionist is like supporting

36:44

the running. And I was like, guys, make this massive,

36:47

huge difference.

36:48

So it's a team, right? It's an absolute

36:51

team effort. Running is an individual

36:54

sport, but it is a team effort.

36:56

Yes. Yeah. Exactly. Well said.

36:58

And I'm really sort of

37:00

bringing in all of these different pieces at

37:02

one point in time and coming

37:04

together to make me at least

37:07

injury prone as possible. The

37:10

strongest

37:10

version of yourself, right? Exactly.

37:13

I rehab my Achilles tendonitis that I had

37:15

in April. Like we're doing good.

37:18

Just want to jump in here real quick and say, we can't

37:20

recommend Metpro enough. So cool

37:22

to hear, you know, JJ mentioned how she's able

37:24

to lose 30 pounds and it's just awesome

37:26

to hear about another person in our community who's

37:28

gotten results by working with nutritionist

37:30

from Metpro. Yes. The nutrition coaches over

37:33

at Metpro are

37:33

fantastic. I've worked with several of

37:35

them and they know their stuff. They are

37:37

truly caring individuals who

37:40

will help personalize this plan to

37:42

make it work for your life because we

37:44

all know as runners that we need energy

37:47

for our our running and our strength

37:50

training, whatever we're doing, but we also need energy for

37:52

daily life. And that is

37:54

one of the things that sets Metpro apart, making

37:56

sure that you're well fueled and you

37:58

have that energy while.

37:59

achieving your goals.

38:01

Yeah, as you heard JJ talk about,

38:03

I mean the fact that MetPro was able to help

38:06

her lose the weight and not starve,

38:08

you know, to actually be able to fuel for

38:10

a marathon. To do those two things

38:12

at the same time is not very easy. There's a

38:15

strategy involved and so that's what they can

38:17

help you with. You can actually talk to one of their

38:19

coaches for free. See if it's a good fit for

38:21

you. Go to metpro.co slash mta.

38:24

Tell them that we sent you. So

38:28

your goal going into Rebel Big Cottonwood

38:30

wasn't necessarily to run a BQ,

38:33

was it? I think I saw Coach Steve had posted

38:35

in our group. Talk about like what the

38:37

goal for this race was and like how your preparation

38:40

went. So he knows

38:43

my goal is always in every single marathon

38:45

to run a BQ.

38:46

He also knows that like I ran a 420

38:49

at the Walt Disney World Marathon as

38:52

part of the Dopey Challenge in January.

38:54

Which considering I stopped

38:56

at like 35 photo stops and rode a

38:58

roller coaster. Yeah, that's

39:00

really fast.

39:01

And it was, you know, day

39:03

four of racing in a row. Like that was sort of

39:05

like my best race of the year.

39:07

In

39:08

April I did the New Jersey Marathon

39:10

because we had gone back to New Jersey because my mom

39:12

had died last year and we were gonna be

39:15

burying her in New Jersey. So my

39:18

mom would have wanted me to run a marathon because I

39:20

also want to do 50 states. I did

39:23

the Jersey City Marathon which was

39:25

an emotional roller coaster because I didn't,

39:27

we didn't have time to do a course drive-thru

39:30

beforehand. And

39:31

I didn't realize that I think

39:33

mile 15

39:34

or 10 or so, it was like a double

39:36

loop course, was running through this

39:38

massive cemetery. Oh

39:40

no.

39:41

And I

39:43

am just balling. I've never cried in

39:45

a marathon in my life. And I am balling

39:48

as I'm running through this cemetery. And

39:51

we thought maybe I could get under four hours for

39:53

it and it was not happening that day.

39:55

And it just was

39:58

one of those,

39:59

like the, you know how

39:59

the mental side of our running plays such

40:02

an important role in how

40:04

we do physically. I don't know if you guys have ever read the book

40:06

by Dina Castor, Let Your Mind Run. Oh,

40:08

it's a great one. Yeah. Yeah. Coach,

40:10

Steve

40:11

turned me on to that book. I love it. But

40:13

it's very much like our mental state

40:15

that we're in super well-fected physically

40:18

and what we're able to do on that day.

40:20

And I just was going

40:22

to finish it come hell or high water. Like

40:25

because there's no quitting. I wasn't going to

40:27

finish it. I ended up walking a bunch of it. And

40:29

I think that when I finished in like 430, and

40:31

I was just so glad that I finished

40:33

it. Because every part of my being, especially with a

40:35

double loop course after we hit the cemetery,

40:38

we came right past the finish line.

40:40

And I saw my husband

40:42

and I'm falling. And I'm like, I don't want to do this.

40:45

And he was like, you don't have to do this. And I was

40:47

like, well, of course I have to do this. He

40:51

said the right thing. You're like, no, I've got to

40:53

do this. I don't want to do it. And he's

40:55

like, I know you don't want to do it. You don't have to. But

40:57

I'm doing it. I'm doing I got to go. I got to run. And

41:01

I had this complete mental shift in

41:04

that race. And I was like, I don't have

41:06

to do this. I get to do this. And I'm doing

41:08

the thing I love.

41:09

And I am honoring my mother by doing the

41:11

thing I love. Yeah, so

41:14

that was the 430. And that was in April. I

41:16

ran the Provo

41:18

marathon in June

41:20

with a friend that I'd actually met at the

41:22

Disney World Marathon that past year, we ended up on

41:24

the bus together and became friends.

41:27

I like met up in Provo

41:30

and I was really hoping she wasn't a serial killer. She seemed

41:32

normal. That's runners are pretty

41:34

normal. Like

41:37

we met on a bus once I decided to stay in a hotel

41:39

room together. It was so much fun. Like

41:41

the running community is so absolutely

41:43

amazing. And

41:43

the people runners are actually really

41:46

some of the best down to earth people, you know, we're

41:49

great friends now we're

41:50

going to do multiple races together. But

41:53

I sprayed my ankle two weeks before that

41:55

race, training

41:56

for it. And so

41:58

I ran that one I think in like 445 and

42:01

then we're training for big Cottonwood.

42:03

I had to run over an hour faster

42:05

than my prior marathon to qualify for Boston.

42:08

Like, and I was like, could we be cute? And he's like, we're just going to

42:10

run our best. And I was like, okay, but could we be cute?

42:12

One piece

42:15

of advice that you shared is he told you, let

42:17

the race come to you.

42:18

Yeah. So his whole

42:21

mindset is very much we're going

42:23

to do our best in this race. And you're just going to let,

42:25

let the race come to you as that happens,

42:27

happens. And to

42:29

run within your sense.

42:31

And we actually talked on the phone

42:33

on packet pickup day at big Cottonwood. I

42:36

was like,

42:36

so do you think I, what kind of cutoff do

42:38

you think I would need to be cute? And he was like, we're

42:40

not talking about that. He's

42:44

like, if we start talking BQ, you're going to spiral.

42:47

And Hey, he knew that about me

42:49

completely. I was like, are we going

42:52

to run this like Fargo then? And just, he's like, yeah,

42:54

you're just going to run within yourself and

42:57

we'll see what happens.

42:58

Like I do not want you thinking Boston whatsoever

43:01

on this race. I just want you. And he'd

43:03

like seen my time, my mile times

43:05

in my speed work out had been

43:07

significantly dropping. I

43:10

was running temple runs between like

43:12

seven 20 to seven 45 pace. And

43:15

he'd also been having me do downhill 800

43:18

meter repeats. Instead

43:20

of doing like long runs downhill. We,

43:22

I have this

43:23

one hill that's about three

43:25

quarters of a mile long, but the

43:27

bottom quarter is very flat on a downhill.

43:30

So we were starting at the top and doing half mile repeats.

43:33

I talked to my dad into picking me up at the bottom

43:35

for my, cause I got a two minute recovery. So

43:37

he picked me up in the truck at the bottom, drive me up to the top,

43:39

which is my two minutes that I get back and run

43:42

back down and

43:44

do them faster than FED's

43:46

K-Pace. So he was having me go as

43:48

fast as I could downhill to try to kill

43:51

my quads

43:52

as to build them up as much as possible.

43:55

And I think we were doing originally around

43:57

like a six 30 pace on those.

43:59

And by the last couple of months, I

44:02

managed to, I was like, I feel like I could do sub six. And

44:04

he was like,

44:05

it's okay. And I was like, I feel like I

44:07

should be able to go faster. And he's like, it's okay.

44:09

And then the last

44:11

couple of months of that work, I think we did

44:13

that workout maybe three or four times. I'd

44:15

actually hit sub six minute miles

44:18

on a couple of them. I was like,

44:19

I knew it. Bombing

44:21

the downhill. Pretty smart

44:24

to train that way. Since you're going to be doing a downhill

44:26

marathon.

44:27

You work on that leg turnover and not

44:29

breaking because that's a huge thing that

44:31

can really take a toll on your legs. So yeah,

44:34

he gave me a full email being like, this is the

44:36

form for downhill running and like focus

44:38

on doing that form. And so I really

44:41

like learned how to do the form really,

44:43

really well. He also had me doing

44:45

a lot of, so like you think downhill

44:48

running, you could do quad workouts, right? But

44:50

doing your squats, like weighted squats, normally

44:52

you go down low and like you push up fast. This

44:55

you go down as slow as you possibly

44:57

can because you're building up

45:00

the muscle under the tension, which is a similar tension

45:02

to what you're going to be getting, um, during the

45:04

race. Wow.

45:05

So on race day, revel

45:07

big cottonwood. At what point in the race

45:09

did you know that a BQ was within

45:12

reach?

45:13

I run with my Garmin, right? Cause I'm

45:15

obsessed with data and I was

45:18

watching the miles clock by and click

45:20

off and I was like, Oh, that's a seven 30. That's

45:23

a seven 45. Don't focus on

45:25

the time. Don't focus on the time JJ, right within

45:28

yourself. And I was really focusing

45:30

on that aspect of the running. And I

45:32

also had this

45:34

song stuck in my head the

45:36

entire race. I don't know if you

45:38

guys have heard it. It's called counted all joy. Um,

45:42

it's a, it's a Christian song, but it's talking about counting

45:44

all joy. When I go through troubles

45:47

and it's talking about counting up my blessings, counting

45:49

them one by one.

45:50

And I spent that entire

45:52

marathon with those chunks of

45:54

that song looped in my head, going

45:57

counting it all joy. Like

45:59

I'm going to be struggling.

45:59

of counting it all joy and don't look

46:02

at your watch. Just count your blessings, stop checking

46:04

your

46:04

watch. And I was around mile like 18, 19, 20, somewhere

46:07

in there. And

46:13

I looked down at my watch and I was like, I

46:15

could do this.

46:17

Like this might be it. Okay,

46:18

don't push the pace. So push the

46:20

pace. And

46:24

I

46:25

kept in that mindset and I think it

46:27

was probably about mile 20, 21. And

46:30

I realized that everybody around

46:32

me was walking. At this point in time, it

46:35

was so it's Salt Lake City. So there's no air there.

46:37

Even when you get down the hill,

46:39

there's no air. Still elevation.

46:41

It's like four or 5,000 feet. I

46:44

live at like 200 feet. And even

46:46

though I heat trained because our summers are like 110, there's

46:49

still no air in Salt Lake City.

46:51

And I think it was 85 degrees

46:53

at this point in time. And there was no shade on the

46:55

course either. And the aid stations were giving

46:57

us very, very minimal

46:59

water.

47:00

Like the cups were literally maybe like

47:02

too swell as the water. I had

47:05

it and I look around and everybody's

47:08

walking and I'm going, don't push the pace.

47:10

Like

47:11

it's okay, you can walk. Everybody's walking like stay

47:13

within yourself. Let it come to you.

47:15

I'm like, we're at mile 21.

47:16

This is the time to push

47:18

the pace. What are you doing?

47:20

Like my mind was so on

47:22

this, stay within yourself. Let it

47:24

come to you. Don't push the pace.

47:27

Don't break. Just keep a high turnover.

47:30

Then I'm like, oh my God. Like

47:32

I'm doing this.

47:34

Do I have to run a 330 or a 335? I

47:37

can't do the math on the 335. It's

47:39

clearly a 330. I don't remember how old

47:41

I am. Math is

47:43

hard in the marathon.

47:44

Yeah, at mile 21.

47:46

Exactly. Like the 330 pace

47:48

group passes me. And I was like, oh,

47:51

okay, I'm fine. I have to run a 335. Like

47:53

it's fine. Just keep up the pace.

47:56

And I was trying to then do the math in my head of how fast

47:58

I'd been going.

47:58

And I had my watch tell me.

47:59

me like how much time had elapsed

48:02

on the race and I was like why are you

48:04

walking just run I'm like okay

48:07

time

48:07

wise I think if I keep under a 10 minute

48:10

mile I'm gonna make it I'm

48:12

gonna make it but in the back of my head I'm

48:14

still worried about I still got

48:16

four miles to do and it is really

48:19

hot and I feel really dehydrated

48:21

like I want to push

48:23

but I also know I got four miles to

48:25

do so

48:25

I just tried to keep going and

48:28

keep going and I think if I was longer

48:30

I could keep running I'd be okay

48:32

I didn't have to tempo it type

48:35

of a thing

48:36

and then the 335 pace group passed me

48:39

crap

48:43

I'm not making it and then I remembered

48:45

that the lines of the porta potty were so long

48:48

at the start line I was in the

48:50

bathroom when I started the race and so

48:52

I started the race over two minutes late

48:55

maybe I'm okay and then I was like I'm gonna

48:57

be so proud of this race regardless

49:00

if this is another Fargo or we miss it

49:02

by a few minutes it doesn't matter because

49:04

I've erased marathon in November and I'm marathoned

49:07

in January

49:08

nobody expects me to be Q this I

49:11

am going to give everything I can

49:13

I know coach Steve is going to be proud

49:15

of me regardless

49:17

I'm almost an hour faster than my last

49:19

marathon like it's gonna be great regardless

49:23

Wow so even in the last four

49:25

or five miles you had to keep telling yourself

49:27

just to kind of let go of the outcome just

49:29

do your best but not be

49:32

crushed if you didn't

49:34

get your bq time

49:35

exactly because I

49:37

run because I love to run and

49:39

regardless of whether or not I qualified for Boston

49:42

at Revel that wasn't my last marathon

49:44

and I know I'm gonna make it one day I don't know

49:46

if you guys saw how many people applied for Boston

49:48

this year yeah it's over 33,000 I know

49:50

that I will

49:53

probably not actually get to run Boston this year

49:55

thank goodness Revel was perfectly timed where

49:58

also lets me apply for 2025

49:59

But it's all a journey.

50:01

Yeah, exactly.

50:02

It's not an end goal. And

50:05

even when I finally get to run Boston,

50:08

I'm still on this journey. And I'm still going to see

50:10

what I can get out of myself. So I

50:12

mean, I those sort of my mindset also within

50:14

the race. And it's one of those things I've learned over 27

50:16

marathons, right? Is to not

50:19

be crushed within myself. If

50:21

I don't qualify for Boston, because

50:23

I definitely have been super question that.

50:26

But if I know I gave everything I had

50:28

in that day, in that moment, that's all I

50:30

can ask of myself.

50:31

Did you know when

50:33

you crossed the finish line, did you know that you qualified

50:35

or? I didn't know I qualified.

50:39

So one of the spectators or

50:41

people tells Mile Six is right up at the intersection,

50:43

right? So I come up to the intersection and it's

50:45

a left turn. And it is the deepest

50:48

uphill of the course.

50:50

Right at Mile 26.

50:51

Right at Mile 26. And I

50:54

am booking it up this hill, right? And

50:56

as I'm coming around and we were ended

50:58

in this parking lot and it was like this U-turn. And

51:01

part of the problems at this point in

51:03

time in the race that I was having was they

51:05

had combined the marathon and the half marathon course

51:07

met up, right? And we're with the half

51:09

marathoners, which I get on them. I'm

51:12

so proud of them. These people are struggling getting

51:14

through their half marathon times. These

51:16

are the people that you're like so proud of, like they're walking

51:18

their last chunk of their half marathon. These are your final finishers. These

51:21

people are rock stars.

51:23

They are also walking the end of their half

51:25

marathon and I'm trying to swerve around them. They're

51:28

all in the way. Yeah.

51:29

And I come in and

51:31

it's this U-turn and I see this half marathoner

51:33

who's walking kind of wide the U-turn,

51:35

right? And so I cut in on

51:38

the inside

51:38

of her. And as she does

51:40

this,

51:40

she cuts the guardrail. Oh, no.

51:43

And we almost collide. I miss her

51:46

by inches

51:47

as I am dead sprinting to get as much

51:49

time. Wow. As

51:52

I could for my – because I thought I had it. I

51:54

thought I'd made Boston. And every

51:56

second counts, right, to get to that

51:58

cutoff. And so I am –

52:00

As hard as I can

52:02

in, I hear my dad scream

52:04

my name

52:05

and I cross the finish line and I see the clock

52:08

says 336 on the finish line.

52:10

And you needed a sub 335.

52:13

Correct. And I was like, I think

52:16

I did it. Pause my watch. And

52:18

I next thing I know some person

52:20

is asking me, are you okay? And

52:23

my eyes roll in the back of my head. And

52:25

then I'm being drugged by two medical personnel

52:27

to the medical time. Oh, man.

52:29

They

52:32

start covering me in ice blankets and

52:34

put ice on my head. Once I'm like

52:36

cognizant of what's going on, I look at my watch and I'm like,

52:38

it says 332.

52:40

I think I did it. Maybe I did it.

52:42

Maybe I did it. I don't know. And

52:45

like my brain is still wibbly wobbly with blacking out and not thinking

52:47

very, very well with the combination

52:49

of like dehydration and heat exhaustion.

52:51

And sprinting up a hill. I'm

52:54

sprinting up a hill. So

52:57

I get out and like there's this

52:59

photo of me. It's one of my favorite photos from the race

53:01

actually of I'm leaving the medical tent with my

53:03

ice bag and I'm trying to find the

53:05

metal because I still haven't gotten my metal yet.

53:08

And the photographer sort of like shoved the camera

53:10

in my face and I like halfway glare at him.

53:12

And I'm also like that I'm dead, but I can't figure out if

53:15

I qualify for Boston. But I really

53:17

bad it like it's just such a real moment

53:19

looking at how I was feeling. It's not me smiling

53:22

at the end of a race or anything like that. It's

53:24

not a good photo, but I love it. It's

53:27

so perfect of how I felt in the

53:29

moment. A lot of complex emotions

53:31

there. I don't think I saw that

53:33

one.

53:33

I did not send that one to you guys. Well,

53:37

one thing I love about Rebel is they you know, you can go and

53:40

check your time and you can get that little print out

53:42

and everything and so they can tell you right away,

53:44

you know, where you placed all that good stuff.

53:46

So they don't keep you in suspense if you can find the

53:49

appropriate location. And the photos are free,

53:51

which is cool.

53:52

That's one of my favorite parts of them. So I

53:54

get through the food part and I get they

53:56

print out this print out that has my race results

53:58

on it that tells me.

53:59

And at the bottom it says, you qualified

54:02

for Boston.

54:08

After 10 years too.

54:11

Amazing.

54:12

And my dad finds me and it's

54:14

like, cause my husband wasn't able to get the time

54:16

off work to come because it's a Saturday race. So we had to

54:18

leave on Thursday. And he's like, Andrew wants you

54:20

to FaceTime him. And so we FaceTime

54:23

him and Andrew pulls out this shirt that

54:25

he bought for me back in 2017

54:27

because he thought I was going to qualify at Mount

54:29

Charleston. That's his Boston

54:32

qualifier on it. And he has kept it

54:34

in the package with the tags on it since 2017.

54:36

And he pulls it

54:38

out and goes, I'm so glad you lost weight. Cause

54:40

it'll fit you now.

54:41

But

54:46

he believed in you

54:46

so much that he back then he was. Yeah.

54:49

I burst out crying. Like I like ugly

54:51

cried. Like I, I never

54:53

really cried at the end of a marathon before.

54:56

And so like we, you know, get me

54:58

to the car and all that kind of stuff. And,

55:00

uh, coach Steve had told me that I could call him

55:02

at the end of the race. So like, you want me to call you or

55:04

just normally I text him at the end of a race and let him know how it

55:06

went. Um, he's like, call me. And I was like, call

55:09

him. And as I called him, he's like,

55:10

I was just checking your results. Oh my

55:12

God. You actually did it. We did it. Oh

55:14

my God. We did it. And like he's

55:16

screaming and I'm screaming. Like

55:18

we did it. We finally did it.

55:21

Oh my God. It was amazing. What

55:23

a moment. So it was just,

55:25

it was one of those like perfect moments. He was like, I

55:27

was screaming in my front yard. Like, cause

55:29

I

55:29

just happened to check your time. It was like, we did it.

55:32

I was like, I can't believe we did

55:33

it. If we can only just bottle up that

55:36

joy and export it to everyone

55:38

else, that'd be awesome. But you have to work for that

55:40

to get that level of joy. You have to really work hard for

55:43

it. So yeah, so

55:45

you'll get a kick out of this. My husband's like, so like,

55:47

you're just going to run for fun now. Right? I was like,

55:50

no. Do

55:53

you know me at all? I

55:56

got a race in November. I got to try to get a better

55:58

qualifying time for Boston.

55:59

I am

56:03

doing the White River Run for

56:05

Kenya Marathon in Arkansas because

56:08

my cousin wants to go visit

56:10

his aunt and uncle back there and I'm like, we're not going

56:12

to Arkansas unless I'm running a marathon because

56:15

I'm trying to hit all 50 states. Gotta take advantage

56:17

when I can. Exactly. How

56:20

many states have you done so far? I

56:22

tend to repeat marathons. So

56:25

I have Hawaii, California,

56:28

Oregon, Utah, Nevada,

56:29

Florida, New Jersey,

56:32

Tennessee, Illinois, North

56:35

Dakota. Yum. And

56:37

Arizona. Okay, just 39 to go. Like

56:41

it doesn't help that of my 27 marathons, I've done

56:43

Disney six times. So like

56:44

the heart once with the heart one. Right.

56:49

Well, we are so proud of you JJ and

56:51

all the hard work riding the roller

56:54

coaster of the ups and downs and the injuries and

56:56

the comebacks. And thank you for sharing your

56:58

story with us. I mean, everyone should take

57:00

away a lot from this conversation. Even

57:02

if it takes 10 years, don't give up on your dream.

57:05

And you know, it's all the better when you finally reach

57:07

it. Yes.

57:08

Oh,

57:09

yeah. Exactly. Well, we've been

57:11

excited to follow your journey and I know you have many exciting

57:14

races ahead of you and definitely can't wait

57:16

till you eventually do get to run Boston.

57:18

Hopefully we'll see you at a race someday. Absolutely.

57:21

That'd be fantastic.

57:41

Well, I hope you enjoyed the conversation. Big thanks

57:43

to JJ for sharing her story. I

57:45

just love her, her grit and her tenacity.

57:48

Maybe someday her and I can go roller skating. I

57:52

still want to roller skate the Berlin marathon. Yeah,

57:55

that's what we should do. You should be down for that. If

57:57

you've never heard of it, folks, this is a legit thing. Day

58:00

before the Berlin Marathon, there's a rollerblade

58:03

marathon. One problem is there's really nowhere

58:05

to practice around here. There's so many hills.

58:07

Just go to the local roller rink and

58:10

do 20 miles worth of laps.

58:13

Well, seriously, we are very proud of JJ. And

58:17

if this kind of sparked your curiosity

58:20

about working with a coach, you can head over to our website

58:23

and click on coaching, find all the information

58:26

about getting an MTA coach

58:28

and to set up a consultation call to see

58:30

if it's a good fit for you.

58:31

Yeah, that's right. You can talk with our head

58:33

coach, Nicole. That's MarathonTrainingAcademy.com. You

58:36

can also find us on social media

58:39

at Marathon Academy. Until next time, remember,

58:41

you have what it takes to run a marathon and change

58:43

your life.