#136 | Champion's Mindset | Getting Through the Tough Parts

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1:02focused on elevating your routine. Give your skin the love it deserves this season. Right now, eye restore is running their spring savings, and with code Strong at-i-restore.com, you can unlock an exclusive discount on the Illumina face mask. That's code Strong STRONG at-i-restore.com. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Start the year feeling refreshed, confident, and glowing. Hello and welcome to another episode very happy that we get to join you in whatever it is that you're doing. I'm waving hello to everyone that is watching us, saying a special greeting to our youth listeners. Eddie and I both are cheering for you in whatever goals you are working toward, and as always Ed, we always hope that we get to meet these kiddos one day, whether in an event, a race,

2:04in our travels, know that we are cheering you on. Eddie, we have a lot of people that have just started their run. We are really in the thick of racing season now. I always feel like once March hits, people are now in this group of training. The new year celebration, and just even the idea of, oh, it's a new year is behind us. We are looking at spring in just a couple of weeks. We're going to see the first day of spring, daylight savings time, and there's a lot of big goals, you know, as far as our community goes, our community is made up of vast majority as runners. We still definitely have a lot of people that don't run, and we love that. Our podcast is not just for people that run, but we do have a massive community that is training day in and day out for these goals, whether it's their first 5K, first half marathon. We have some people doing their first 200, and some people have gotten into Western states

3:05after years and years of being in the lottery. We know some people have gotten into UTMB, have Alina, just dream races that are sitting on these schedules. I think I just want to put my coaches cap on, because I know a lot of people probably push play on this episode, because I will be talking about the Champions mindset, which my new is a mindset that says nothing to do with being a professional athlete. I shouldn't say nothing to do, but you don't need to be a pro athlete, a career athlete, in order to adopt this. Obviously, because that's why you're interviewing me about this topic. Exactly. That's why I'm here. Exactly. Yes. You don't need to be a pro. I have to have the right guest on for. You've got to be Elise. All right. A Champions mindset is something that we can carry into our relationships, into our careers. But most specifically today, we're going to be just talking about in training and in racing. And this is through and through the number one topic that I am asked about, that people

4:07ask me to speak, why people pick up my book. I love talking about the mindset, because I believe that our minds are the strongest muscle that we have, that what your mind believes to be true most often is how your body follows, how your life follows. Your mind is what helps get you through some of the toughest stages and seasons in life and also in races. You know, I love hearing stories of people who have done something so simply in their mind. It's a shift, a change in perspective, it's picking up their eyes instead of keeping them downcast. And what I mean by that is staying low or choosing to be positive in your thinking, how that changes everything. So we have said this before, it's very easy to start our day and think of negative.

5:10This is why the news is so popular. You know, people are drawn, we always say like the nightly news is like the worst news, because it's just all the negative stuff at night, right? It's the local car crashes, it's the break ins, but that's the stuff that people watch. When we think of tabloids and magazines and newspapers, it's the scandals. You know, it's the surprising, shocking news. And so we are in a world that is filled with that, but we ourselves can be our worst critics. We ourselves can be very quick to analyze what we don't have, what isn't going our way, what we don't like, instead of shifting and looking at all the positives, all the blessings, what we do have, what the opportunities are. And so, you know, I've seen this reflected in my life over and over again, both in my career, and in my personal life, that the power of my mind, when I choose to focus on the things that are going to help move me forward, that are going to help me stay positive, it's changed my life.

6:13So, yeah, I love to talk about this subject. I can talk about it from so many different angles. I mean, I feel like this could be a 50-chapter book on just a champion's mindset. And the cool thing is, you do not need to have a special talent, and you don't need to be this, you know, super smart or best in your class type status in order to adopt these things and implement them into your training and in life. So, we're going to get after that today. Ed, we've had a full, a full past couple days together. Yesterday, in particular, I decided to take you on every moment of my day, and we left the house around six o'clock and we did not get home to almost four. And it was, I really love that, because I don't get to do that with you all the time. I think if you ever come with me for every inch of my day, it's when we're traveling, it's for events

7:14and racing. And then, when we spend a lot of time at home working together, there's that part, but I took you on a training day. And so, you were with me when I did my strength training in the morning, when I did my workout, my recovery, eating, meetings in the car. And so, I'm really excited because we are going to be launching Run Farlet Heavy Season 2 on March 20th. And our day, yesterday, a day in the life is one of the episodes. But I would love to hear what you thought of yesterday. It was, it was a full day. It was a full day of you training, and that exhausted me. So, yeah, and I didn't even train. So, no, it was, it was cool to, you played a big part, though. To get a glimpse, I mean, I already know like what you do, and I've, I've known, obviously, what you do every day with training stuff, but yeah, to be, be there like while you're doing it,

8:14to film it all, as you're, you know, training, as you're strength training, running, you know, yeah, it's a, a close and personal, and it just, I don't know, it's a good, I open here about the hard work that you put in training, and then, meanwhile, you're balancing everything out to managing other things, you know, throughout the day, throughout, you know, your time that you have to the next appointment, or to the next, you know, training session. So, yeah, it's good, it's good to, good to be with you. I was listening to a podcast this morning, as I was, I was running, I had a longer run today, and so I listened to a couple podcasts. I usually, I, Tidr, miss for me, sometimes I, I don't listen to anything. If I'm running along the coast, a lot of times I'm like, doing a workout, or it's just a really easy recovery, so I listen to music, podcast. But, today, I was out pretty early on the trails. I knew there wouldn't be very many, if, you know,

9:16very new people out there at all. So, I've been trying to listen through, like, just the speaker on my phone, because I don't always like headphones. I'm not like the biggest fan of, of Bluetooth. I have, you know, invested more in the wired stuff. But if I, I know, I'm going to be out there for a while, and it's really early, I'm not going to see a lot of people. I'll just, I'll just like put my phone in my pack and listen to it on speaker. And that way I can like, still hear like what's around me. And then if I do get around people, you know, turn it down. I'll turn it down. Yeah, because I mean, I know personally, I don't, I don't want to listen to other people's like boom box. That's like why I'm on the trail is to get away from all that. But I was listening to podcasts this morning. One, like, I really wanted to. I was, I was waiting for these episodes. One of them was my buddy, our, our friend Andy Glaze, on campaigns podcast.

10:17So I listened to that. But I was, I, and then that one finished and I was listening to a professional athlete talk about his day. And it just took me back to when our kids were little. And how those opportunities for me to be a professional trial runner, they just weren't there like in their entirety as a full time. Most of us when we were getting signed in 2013 and 14, there wasn't the contracts that allowed us to run completely full time. And if you did have a contract that was full time, a lot of times it was like perfect for you. But like we have a family and like all the things and then living in Southern California. So I've never lived that life where I only just run. And so I was listening to this guy talk about it. And I was like, it's so amazing how far our sport has come. And I loved that because I know that trail is something that Mackenzie wants

11:19to transition to. And it like makes my heart so happy knowing that she actually will have an opportunity if she ever wants to. And if it's something that she's good at, that one day she could just do that for a time, just like the track and road athletes. So it was crazy because he was just talking about how between recovery supplements, you know, all the supplement workouts that you do as far as like mobility and stretching and then strange. And yeah, on top of the runs, he's like, yeah, it's about 40 hours a week. And I was like, crazy. I was doing all that. Yeah. I was doing two a days and strength training. And I remember the being I was strength training five days a week every single morning and still trying to recover and then working at times upwards of two jobs and raising two kids. And I was like, I don't think I slept. No, you didn't. I don't think I slept. But all of this has to do with with the mindset that I know we'll talk about

12:21in a little bit. But as I was listening to this this gentleman speak, I was one again, I was like so excited just hearing hearing the opportunities, you know, that are out there. I'm like, it's amazing, trail runners can can live that life. It's so far from what I ever knew. But it's like it does excite me for our future because there's a lot of kids, youth that are looking at trail now and have like heroes in trail. And that's super cool. But I do remember thinking back how I really did struggle at moments mentally with all of that. Like, should I be doing this? Should not be doing this? This is too much. It's just exhausting. It's just so many seasons where it just would have been easier to quit on the dream and to give up or to feel overwhelmed and feel like it was too much. And yeah, so we're going to dive in a little bit into to that mindset where when you want to quit, what is it that helps you keep going? Yeah, yeah. I had a chance, as you know, to go watch McKinsey race

13:27this past weekend up in Pocatello, Idaho. It's such a cool, cool little town. And really like, yeah, I've never been like we talked about last podcast. I've never been. You've never been, but cool little town bummed I didn't get to stay there a little longer and experience it. But I think when you're talking about mindset, I know McKinsey, some McKinsey has had an injury, a couple of injuries, you know, these kind of going in and out of injuries for the past year or two. And yeah, it's been been a struggle to be healthy, to perform out of her best. And even to perform these workouts that she's supposed to do to perform her best at a race. But so she's been limited even in indoor and kind of getting a couple good workouts and then she'll you know, something will bother her and she can't work out and she's got a cross train, whatever. But anyways, like we were talking about, she was able to go and race the mile and the 3K on the

14:31indoor track this past weekend. And she wasn't really expecting to do that a couple weeks ago. She wasn't, yeah, kind of, it wasn't on the radar because she was not working out. She wasn't able to. So honestly, as a dad, I loved watching. It loved seeing her, obviously, and it was awesome. But I think in terms of like mindset stuff, you know, she ran the mile and she, I mean, to us, it was an amazing time. I don't think like was super thrilled with it and didn't didn't love it. Right. She didn't really talk to me about it. She didn't tell me that she had a bad race or but I can tell the way she would describe it that it was kind of like not her favorite race and she was not happy with it without saying it. But she bounced back because two hours later she had to run the 3K. So she really didn't have time to to moat or to kind of get in her head.

15:38And I point this out just because, you know, talking about mindset, I felt like she really had one of those champion mindsets in between those two races where some people at that point could have been like, I'm off today, right? I have a bad day. I ran the mile. It wasn't great. I'm probably going to have a crappy 3K in two hours, right? But she kind of bounced back and she realized, you know what, that was that was a race and it's over with and there's nothing I can do about it. Now I can move forward and get ready and stretch and train for this next one in the next two hours. And she went out there and had a great race, right? So I think she's I've seen her mature. I know you have to in that regard where the mental game is, you know, it's an important piece of any athlete, obviously, so we're going to be talking about. But it was neat to see her mature and not kind of get in her head and really put it aside and put it in the past and then,

16:45all right, let's move on to the next one and go out and do our best again. So I thought that was really cool. I loved, I mean, again, I would have been stoked if she got 10 minutes in the mile and quit during her 3K. I would have been still proud of her, but it was good to good to see that and but also good just to get out there and watch her. Because that's our girl, you know. Anyways, all right. So she was happy that you were out there too. Yeah, of course she better. Yeah. Did you see the drama speaking of running? Did you see the drama of the half marathon? Oh my gosh, yes. That was crazy. The women's half marathon race where the top three women were let off course by the pace car. Yeah, by the pace car. Jess McLean leading the race two miles left and she went the wrong way. Yeah, and there's the two other

17:45girls that were with her. Two other girls went with their two. Yeah, she ended up getting ninth and the other girls got like 11th and 13th or something like that. Super sad. I mean, when I first heard it, I'm like, all right, how's that, how's that happen, right? Like how in the world, at a world championship race, does that happen? So obviously, since I saw that come out, there's been some other details coming out where there was a police officer that got hit. Did you hear about that? No. Oh yeah, there was a police officer that got hit by a car and so there was an intersection that was like not attended to. And so somehow the pace car, media car, like was drawn to that because of that situation and the girls just kind of followed that car. But I was reading the Jess's post and she says she was, I was making my way into what I thought was the final mile of the USTA of half marathon championships when I followed a police escort motorcycle,

18:48the official lead vehicle and a media motorcycle, off course, 4,000 meters. I had to come to a stop, make a tight and complete U-turn and run back on the course as a national championship title and a world team spot slipped away. So and then there's like a picture of her like doing this U-turn, which was crazy. And then she says, I'm going to try my hardest to walk away from this weekend remembering the joy I felt and in those moments where I thought I was on my way to becoming a national champion and finally making team USA outright. But there's has been sent and then she missed out on $20,000 to win. And you know, yeah. But the Atlanta track club where it was taking place in Atlanta have stepped up and they gave her the $20,000 and they gave the other two girls the other prize money that was going to be second and third. So and I did read today, might as well read that part with the US track and field posted today on their Instagram about it. And they said in an effort,

19:54yeah. Because their original post was terrible. Yeah. In an effort to be as transparent as possible, we want to provide another update on our effective efforts to provide resolution to the athletes impacted by the incident at the USATF half marathon championships. First, we applaud and thank the Atlanta track club for their decision to pay prize money to the impacted athletes. Atlanta track club has been an excellent partner of USA track and field and their management of this unfortunate series of events has been handled quickly and professionally. We spoken directly to all the athletes involved and we are grateful for their patience and professionalism despite their understandable anger and disappointment. We are working diligently to address the impact this will have on selection to team USA for the 2026 World Athletic Road running championships. This is a complex process, but it remains one that we want to navigate quickly and provide closure as soon as possible. So it sounds like they're really trying their best to to eradicate the issue and kind of make it right.

20:54But anyways, it's a sad thing for us, you know. Yeah. I mean, I think about when Jim Wumsley, his famous going off course, literally just a few miles from the Western States finish line, you know, the most prestigious iconic 100 mile race in the world to become a Western States champion is just you are cemented for all time in ultra running history is one of the greats. Yeah. And the heartbreak when he realized that he was off course is devastating. And that is common in Trellen Ultra. I mean, I've gotten lost. I remember when I raced in China, I was told to go to the complete opposite way by everyone in the eight station. They pointed down the wrong road. And then like literally a mile down the road, a truck came after me and said, you need to go back

21:54the other way. And what that feels like when you either you're making a mistake or someone is telling you to go the wrong way, it is hard to not want to immediately place blank. And it's you think about race directors and all the stress that they deal with every detail needs to play perfectly, especially when there's prize money, media, all eyes are watching. And, you know, whether it's you don't have enough water at the eight stations, the markings are off or, you know, the crowds are out of control and blocking, you know, the the course. There's been a lot of hiccups that we've seen both on the road and in trail. And I think, you know, I know for me and for other trail runners, like one of the things that that we have is, especially doing the longer races is, you know, we download the course map onto our GPS watch.

22:55We run with our phones. But I'll tell you what, we're not moving at five minute pace. So, you know, these athletes, obviously, they're doing the best they can knowing the course. It's on the road. I mean, road is known for a very easy to follow route. But when you put your whole trust in the lead pack car and this this pace car, why would you why would you not follow it? Yeah, you know, it's if someone is saying this is what you follow, this is how you get to the finish line. And it doesn't lead you there. Yeah, it's a little different from you just kind of not paying attention to the course markers and you just kind of wandered off into the forest by yourself. You know, it's it has been difficult to to watch it. I will say I think just as a fellow career athlete knowing that these women made sacrifices for months. And then you think about the years that they trained

23:57in order to be at this level, to dream of being on a national team. I mean, this is not this is not just some local small 5K where yeah, you could win and win 100 bucks, but it doesn't impact your life. I mean, this impacts their lives. Yeah. And you know, I love hearing that they got that prize money. But I will say I win on all the top three. I win on all their accounts. Yeah. And class act. Yeah. All of them. Yeah. All of them were so mature and patient. And you know, what they had to say was was it was pretty impressive. Yeah. Gracious. They were when a lot of people online weren't. Yeah. So yeah, I saw the girl that actually did win because those girls went off forest. And even she was like, I don't feel like the champion. Like I don't feel like because I didn't have a great race. And that's hard for them too. Because you know, there's always for all athletes, we always say, Hey, like, you know, you're not the champion until you cross the

25:00finish line first, right? And so you feel for those women too. Yeah. Because they're, you know, gold silver bronze. And they can't even feel like that they can enjoy their hard work. And and who knows what would have happened in those last two months anything can happen in a race. Anything can happen. You can suddenly cramp up with a half mile to go and get past by four people. And we have seen this at McKenzie's cross country. Yeah. Means where girls are leading the entire time. And the last 200 meters like the girls that are in, you know, the top three top four. And you see, you know, you see one of them just completely cramp up. Yeah. And then they're crawling to the finish line. You're like, Oh my gosh, now they're like an 18th place. Like that's crazy. So you can see why it's so difficult because it's the race wasn't over when it happened. There were still two miles left. And I don't know, such a tricky, sticky thing. But I know a lot of the people, a lot of people in the community have been following it. You know, I was talking to my

26:05buddy Jeff Cunningham, a really well known coach about it too. And it is, you just want to see, see it done right. So yeah, I mean, it's unfortunate about why it happened because there was a, you know, emergency or situation. Yeah, that's devastating. I did not know about that. Is he okay? I don't know. I don't know the details of that. But I knew I know that that's why they kind of course corrected and went the other way, but I'm bummed because I had so many sarcastic kind of what ifs and whys. And I know I can't really do those because it was an actual, it was a legit, serious thing. Yeah. So, um, but yeah, anyways, yeah, let's move on. I think before we actually get into the main topics out of the mindset, champions mindset, I want to highlight a few of our two strong listeners who have embodied strong mind, strong body and strong love. Okay. So if you are new to listening to our podcast, we like to highlight those of you that listen,

27:10whether you are training for something, if it's a life thing, whatever, if you've emailed us, you've sent us a message on Instagram or posted in our Facebook group or the Strava group, we see all of that. And so sometimes it's fun. It's fun to highlight what you guys are doing, and it brings inspiration to us, but also to you guys that are out there listening to, you know, others that are doing the same thing that you are. So the first one I have today is the strong body. And this is Will Temple in the two strong Strava group. Will said, he had the two strong pod in his ears the entire time during his long run. And he said, this is all caps, an absurd amount of PRs. Got to thank Sally and Eddie for doing it with me. And he had a 15 mile run and all through the streets of Massachusetts. And he got a bunch of PRs because he's listening to us. So how many

28:10times do people listen to us and set PRs? Countless. Countless. I've lost track. We have gotten too many so many times. It makes me so happy. It is. Yeah, that's kind of funny. They know we're cheering for them. Yeah, maybe that's where we're very aware of our runners that listen and run. So well done. You got a couple cheerleaders in your ear the whole time. So maybe that is it. So this is your reminder to eat and drink. If you haven't in a while, take some sips. Coach Sally in the house. All right, Will, well done, buddy. We see you and well done, Will. Props to the PR. Yeah, that's exciting. Strong body. All right, strong mind. We have Kaccia. Kaccia Livingston. She is also in the Chew Strong. That's like a cranium. Yeah, Chew Strong Strava group. And she said very unexpectedly, ran a three and a half minute half marathon PR at the Ventura marathon last Sunday. Oh, nice. Local. Well, kind of more from us. We are often capable of more than we think and underestimate ourselves. That's

29:13why I find it helpful to sometimes run a PR or bust in quotes. Race. I usually hardly tell anyone I'm running. So I don't put extra pressure on myself. This approach has let me let me to my two fastest half marathons. I might even try it from my next marathon. So I thought that was pretty cool. So I thought that was a little strong mind trick, right? Like, you know what? I'm just going to go out and have fun PR or bust. I'm just going to go and let it rip. Yeah. And there you go. You got a little PR out of it. So that's a little mind trick. I like that. So I do like that too. It is interesting. The people that make it a point that this idea that I'm not going to tell anyone my goal. And then those there's people who are like, I have to tell people my goal. Yeah. That they're motivated by too. Yeah. There's there's that I want to I want to go give my best but not have the pressure of feeling like if I fail that I have to answer to anybody.

30:16Or sometimes it's just it's just too much that you that's all you're thinking about. And then you lose sight of pacing because you're putting all this pressure on yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love I've heard both of those tactics either make your goal known or you keep your goal close to your heart because it's so precious. And you just show up and just and just crank. So yeah. So thank you for the strong mind tip. Yeah. Ventura too. Yeah. Up the road. All right. Last one. This is from a this is an email that I will not share the name because I was you know just because we don't it's not public information. It's not anything. It's actually a great email and I'm sure that they would be okay with me sharing. That's just a rule. Yeah. Just a rule. Or we have. All right. Yeah. This one says, Hey Sally, I hope you and your family are doing well.

31:17My husband and I have been listening to you and Eddie for over a year now. He actually has been listening for much longer and he kept telling me how I love listening to Eddie and Sally. I should really give it a try and so glad I did. We have four kids, two girls, 11 and 8 and then two boys or six and three. So the time right now is wild for sure, but we're seizing the moments. And it wasn't until I had our oldest that I really began to enjoy running for longer distances. And truthfully, it all started because my youngest would only nap in the stroller if I was moving. So what started out as a necessarily as necessary for quite time turned into love. And in one of your podcasts, you talked about how to make your workouts work for you and that even if it takes several smaller runs in one day to reach your goal, that's okay. And then she says because of this and yeah, she basically fell in love with running. And she goes, as I'm writing this, I'm starting to tear up because I really do appreciate you sharing that way of thinking.

32:17It's helped me believe that I don't have to give up or choose between being a mom and being present versus my love for running. So that was pretty cool. And then this last part says, my husband, who was part of the two strong Strava group loves the kudo function, by the way, has also developed a love for running specifically for trails. In fact, he just ran his first 50k. We have just signed up to run a 50k trail run together in November, which will be my first. So I got strong love here, strong love for her kids, love for her family, love for running. And then I love their running a 50k together. And I love how her husband turned us on, turned her on to the podcast, which kind of cool. It's a beautiful story. Thank you so much for sharing that if you are listening right now. I know it'll encourage a lot of our families who listen, who are doing the same thing. I think I had shared earlier about meeting a gentleman in

33:19Chattanooga, who had just, I mean, he just had a newborn. And so his wife was at home a little, I mean, it was the baby's like a couple months old, but also had a year and a half year old. And he shared kind of the same story. He's like, man, when I, when I heard you talk about that, it changed everything for me. Like I was, I've been able to race and feel like I'm present, feel like I can, you know, get the training in, but also be there for my family. And it's, again, so much of this goes back to mindset. It's, it's choosing to see your life as valuable at all times for the unique season that you're in. And when we're given the gift of children, those unique sweet little babies are uniquely hours. You know, there's no, like we were, we were given the children that we have for a reason, picked to be their parents for a reason. And I think there's no greater, greater gift, really. I know in my life than raising kids,

34:22but I think it's easy. I hear this from moms, especially that sometimes you just feel like you lose yourself. And, you know, I have a really just deep compassion for moms that are in that because it leads to some sadness. It leads to loss. And then, and then a lot of days where you just don't really feel motivated to do anything for yourself. And a lot of times young moms and just even as our kids are growing up, like our own health takes a big hit because we just feel like, well, I'm a mom now and that just means that 24 or 7 I'm doing something for everyone else except me. And yeah, it's really easy to forget that our life is still precious. Taking care of ourselves is invaluable. Yeah, and I know there's a lot of people that ride in, there's a lot of guilt that comes with that. So much guilt. Yeah, especially for, you know, for the moms. But there's a lot, I mean, I get a lot of men that that ride into, which I very much respect and I very much appreciate.

35:24It makes me so happy when men ride in because I've always wanted our podcast and just my social platforms to be very open to, you know, parenting. If you get the great gift of being able to do it with your partner, it, I mean, obviously it's, it really does help. You really see how the the family unit is, you just feel stronger together and you can carry the weight. But not everyone has that opportunity. We have a lot of single parents and it's hard. So I do think of, you know, the single dads and the, in the single moms, it's, it's exponentially hard and there is that guilt there. And so, yeah, it's something I always want to keep talking about. But I think at the end of the day, when we can just remember that whatever title that we take on throughout our lives, because the title's changed all the time. I mean, there's a time when your title was youth pastor and then your title was fifth grade teacher. And it's just continued, has continued to change throughout

36:29the years. But, but you haven't. Right. Like you've always been Eddie. And, and that isn't giving way to the fact that, yeah, we all grow. We grow as people. Our, our character is refined. And, you know, we go through our highs and lows and all those seasons. But the thing that doesn't change is that your, your life is valuable. And we're given one body and this, this one opportunity in our life throughout our whole life where we get to take care of it and make it strong and healthy. But also remembering that the unique gifts and desires and the goals and dreams that we have buried inside, they're there for a reason. And once we become parents, it doesn't mean that you just throw them in the trash. In fact, now you have an audience. And now you get to teach your children what it is to commit, to be disciplined, to be consistent, to go after a big goal, to have fun. I mean, I think

37:31about that my early years when I was getting on the trails, I just brought the kids with me all the time. What would I get good training in now? Wasn't good training, but now look at them. You know, and I look back on those, there's some of my fondest memories of my life. And, yeah, I just, I think hearing that story, I remember you had me actually read that. It was, it really blessed my heart because I think if we can get away from the rigidness of structured training all the time, I think there's a season for that. I know it plays to my career, but it's not everyone is running as a career. And I don't think that you need to be high level front of the pack to call yourself a runner either or to call yourself in shape and fit in an athlete. If you have a body, you're an athlete. Yeah. And you should be able to move it in and go after goals. But when you throw away a rigid

38:34schedule and instead say, I'm going to create a schedule that just works for this season that I'm in for this life that I've been given, the joy that comes with that, the relief, the release of feeling burdened. It's time and time again, the messages that we get have been pretty incredible. So, yeah, thank you for everyone that has shared those with us because it's really, it's really blessed me. I know when I first started, it wasn't easy. I cried a lot when my kids were babies because I, I wanted the rigid, structured schedule and to train when I wanted to train and to get all the miles in at one time. And I think being a coach was the hardest thing because I know there's certain training benefits that you want and things that you're trying to assimilate in training and the stimulus, all the different things that that go with very specific

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42:51has to do, and I saw up close and personally yesterday, as you were talking about earlier where I got to go and spend the day with you through your training. And yesterday morning, you started off, like you said, 6.30, we left 6am to start your session at 7. And you really had no energy. And you were kind of, I don't know, you were tired. And you know, after the session, even you were saying how all the things that you did today were generally like those exercises were usually things that you can do, no problem. But yesterday, it was just, it was difficult for you. It was really hard, even the easy stuff. So the question obviously plays right into that. And the question that came into you was, do you ever have days when the training feels like a struggle from start to finish? So obviously, that's fresh on your mind because of yesterday.

43:51So the answer obviously is yes. But how do you push through that? How do you get to the finish knowing that minute one was a struggle and it's going to be a struggle? Right. I want to talk about this from two different perspectives because my career in child running, it didn't start professionally. So I, you know, I was a mom running a business and there was no pressure from brands, there was no expectations from anyone at all in regards to my performances or what races I should be doing. I didn't have a coach. We couldn't afford one. I remember at that time too, I mean, I could afford to buy clearance shoes one to two times a year. All my clothes were from clearance rack and thrift stores. It just wasn't something that I, I mean, it was not something I was investing a lot of money in, but I cared a lot about it. And I was trying to figure out a way to be good at it. But I think when I look back on that, when you don't have

44:54the pressures that say for, you know, when you, when you have a job, like when you were a teacher, there's a principle with expectations you had to, on Monday morning, you had to show that principle, here's my full week of lesson plans, whether you wanted to or not, it had to be done. That was your salary. That was the livelihood in which like we, your entire family depended on, your, your children, your wife, like that was, you had very strong motivations to make sure that regardless if you wanted to, you didn't let feelings get in the way, that was your job. And so you had to get it done. And I think it's now, as I'm a professional athlete, it is a little bit easier to be motivated to train, to set goals because there's so many things attached to it. And so I actually like to discuss a little bit more the many years of my life, both as a soccer player and as a runner, when I didn't have those pressures, when it was simply just goals

45:58period that were personal to me. And so, you know, they've evolved, but I think just as being a human, regardless of where we are in our life, both as a professional and as an amateur, I still experience all the same emotions. I have days that I get out of bed and I'm sore and I'm tired. Or I just simply don't want to go train. You know, I want to have a slow morning and get a cup of coffee and just stroll along the beach. I want to just get up and go straight into work. Like I love the work that I do. I love writing. I love creating fitness plans. And, and so it's really easy to put off goals. So, you know, using yesterday as an example, I will say yesterday was just a really hard day for me. Mentally, physically, I just was not locked in. And I think that there's what's so important that we need to recognize first is why. Is it, is it really just because you're

47:01tired? Or are there other factors that you that are actually weighing you down? And I think this is also very, very important that self awareness and noticing patterns about ourselves personally is a game changer. Because then you start to pick up on, oh my gosh, you know what? I usually do this when these things happen in my life. I usually do this when it's, or I usually always respond to this when the weather's like this or when my boss is like this or my spouse is like this or like. And, and if you can pick up on those patterns, then you'll be better equipped with how to respond. Because what I've learned is that regardless of how I feel and regardless of what is going on around me, which many times are factors that I cannot control, I can still always control my reaction. And if I can get really good at responding consistently, regardless of the circumstance,

48:05I'm going to be that much more successful. So I think that mindset and overcoming hard times if first starts with honesty, if first starts with, why do you feel the way you do? And how often do you feel this way? And if there is a pattern of a specific factor that is affecting that, how often is that factor in your life? And what can, you know, what can you do about it or maybe can you not do about it? I've said this before many times in the podcast. Something is better than nothing, done is better than perfect. You and I have talked at great lengths about, you know, the coffee trick, coffee or tea trick. It's a psychological game that you play with yourself. It has nothing to do with how you, you're going to perform that day. You have, you don't know how you're going to perform because right when, when you are at a place where you've already decided, I'm too tired, I'm going to do it later, that like, you can't predict how you would have performed. You've already decided

49:05that you're not going to. So what's the thing that's going to get you to perform? Something you like. And so I think that that just shows like how powerful our minds are. So for me, um, yesterday, I genuinely was, uh, just very low. Like I didn't have good sleep. Um, my body was very tired. Um, a lot of outward stresses just in my everyday life. And I just felt like, gosh, I could just use this day off. But I did what I had said earlier. I kind of looked at, okay, let's take a look at like what all of these factors are. If I stay home and I do nothing, what is that going to change as far as how I feel? I'll probably still feel the same way. I'll probably still feel a bit low and not great. What if I show up to strength training with coach Newman and we modify the workout? And I think this is something that athletes don't always understand.

50:10And also that they don't graciously allow themselves to do. And so, um, I used to teach this, uh, when I coached online, um, and athletes sometimes would contact me the night before and they're like, hey, I see I have like a 10 mile tempo run tomorrow. And my boss is, boss is breathing on my neck. My son has a flu. I like getting up at 5 a.m. is the last thing I want to do. And instead of saying like, yeah, just brush it off to the next day, I, I know how much that goal means to that athlete. But when we are in a place where life feels heavy, our goals are usually the first thing to go. And we can minimize them immediately. Like actually in the grand scheme of things like this half marathon is in that big deal. I'm just going to do another season. But the problem with that is I've talked away too many athletes that do that do that consistently. That pretty soon the pattern of their running dreams and running goals is always dictated by these other factors that are happening in

51:17their life. And so I try to always come across it in a very gracious way. Instead of saying, dude, I, I feel you, let's just move the workout to Wednesday. I first like to ask the question like, okay, totally get that. Let's not get up at 5 a.m. Can you get up at 6 a.m. and strength training for 30 minutes? What can you do? What can you do to get yourself out the door? Because I know that regardless of what crazy day that that person is having with their boss and their kid, they're kid not feeling good. Maybe they can't get out for that run. Maybe they are mentally not feeling good. I know they will always feel better if they train. I know that it is going to be a mental release. It's going to be a personal time for them to work out some stress. If children are involved, it's like, yeah, you can literally like do this strength workout next to the crib. You know, while you're checking in on them, 30 minutes sounds like doable to this person.

52:23And what this person needs is to know that they accomplished something today. Because right now, their boss is breathing down their neck and their kid is sick and they just feel like everything feels heavy. What can this person accomplish? And so as a coach, you always, and it's unique, right? I mean, customized coaching is very different from a plan that you just download online, where coaches and paying attention to your everyday life. And I always really got to know my athletes, their life, how they tick, what motivated and what didn't motivate them. And I think it's so important to understand that we are all so unique. And that isn't without compassion. So, yeah, there are some days where you're like, all right, don't worry about it. We will move it to a Wednesday. But I always want to remind the person that, hey, there is something that you can do because I know how, like you hired me because this goal meant so much to you. And you accomplishing it for four months from now, I know how much that means to you. I know how much the

53:23training impacts your everyday life, your health, your total well-being, your mental health, how you show up for your family. This isn't just about setting a PR in the half marathon. This is about you getting through each and every day without your stress levels going through the roof with feeling like you accomplished something and just getting stronger. So, I think the, you know, this is something that I've worked on obviously for decades now. But there's, I've come to terms with myself where there's very little, very few factors that I ever let completely take away or change what I set out to do as it pertains to my goals. And, you know, we talked about this last week when I said, hey, every day, you're going to have things that are urgent and then you're going to have things that are important. And then you just have the things that are your responsibilities, your daily responsibilities that you're expected to do. So, whether you're a college athlete, whether you are a parent, you know, your entry-level career that

54:27you just started, that's really stressful. I mean, we all have, it's part of being a human, daily responsibilities. But we cannot ever forget that there's also very precious, unique things about us that make our life full. And working on those dreams and those goals outside of the responsibilities, those are important. And so, yeah, the discussion last week was about what are the top three things that are important to you each and every day that need to be done. This has nothing to do with the timeframe in which you have to do it. In fact, I posted a reel the other day that was just, and the speaker came through on this reel as we all have 24 hours in a day. Yeah. And what he is saying in the reel is that it's only the top 20% that accomplish the most, that are the most successful in a graduating class or in a business or in a school or community or whatever. And what it comes down to is managing time. It's just they just manage their time better. This has nothing to do with opportunities and social status and money and things like that.

55:31It's just the reality is that every human, we all have 24 hours. And what we, how we choose to use that is up to us. However, in different seasons of my life, I've had way more time to work on goals than other. And I had this someone responded on it and was like really upset about, you know, the speaker on this reel. You know, this is, this just isn't true. And not everyone has the same opportunities. And I was like, first of all, you didn't listen to what he was saying. This wasn't about everyone has the same opportunities. That's wild. Not like I know that very well. Yeah. Growing up, I did not have a lot of the same opportunities in my peers. And I think it's so important that we understand how easy it is to make excuses. We, we tend to do this with our goals. And we're not motivated. We're just like, well, it's just not my day. And I'm not feeling good and I'm overwhelmed. And I'm stressed. But the thing is, if we always live our life like that, we always make decisions to cancel stuff because we're overwhelmed and we're stressed. It's just not

56:33your day and you're not feeling it. Then you might train or work on your goals maybe twice a week once a week. And so what's important is that the duration should not be the main factor. If you want to work towards something, what can you do? So when you are in the middle of a race, and let's say you're at mile 20 of a marathon, and you are, you are in pain. And we all know this as like the last 10 K of a marathon is hard. When you're on the road, you've been pound on the road for 20 miles. Your legs are tired. Your lungs are probably tired. Miles 20. I want to be done. Yeah. I'm done when I saw you. I want to be. And then I saw you at 22. And it's just you're incredibly uncomfortable. Yeah. I know a lot of people that are listening can relate to this. It is. Marathons are incredibly hard. But why why should you keep going? And I think that this is a question that every human has to ask themselves. The truth is that we are most closely connected

57:41in our discomfort and in our pain. It is something that is shared with all humans. We all understand that. Now many will say also that pain is relative. So some people might feel differently in certain situations and react differently to different things. I know we've talked about my feet in the 200s many times where some people were like, I drop out of races for one blister. And I understand that. And I have great compassion for that. Like they hurt so bad. But I'm also a lifelong career athlete where yeah, maybe 15 years ago, I probably would have done the same thing. Or I just feel things differently, right? And I think that it's so important that we have compassion on ourselves and people around us in the way in which we work through hard moments. And in this case, when talking about mindset, when we just want to quit, you know, whenever I'm in a race and I see

58:41someone that's like in an AIDS station with their head in their hands and they're just like, dude, this is everything is con wrong. Like I really feel for athletes that are in that. I have been there so many times. I've had my very fair share of DNFs. And I think this is why I'm so passionate about this topic because you have to instead of focus on everything that's going wrong, you have to discipline yourself and ask yourself, but what is going right? What can I do now? I've been throwing up for the last hour. My IT bands are screaming at me. I still have 48 miles to go in this 100. What can you do? And start to go through all the options that you have to get yourself out of that AIDS station, to get yourself to that finish line. When you're in a marathon,

59:42it's the same thing. Would it help if you just slowed down and told yourself, I'm going to walk to the next AIDS station. I'm going to let my stomach settle. I'm going to catch my breath. I'm going to sip on my electrolytes. I want that metal so bad. I trained for five months. I am here now. I started this race with every intention to finish. I knew that there was going to be low points. I knew this wasn't going to be easy. Allow yourself to talk to yourself as if you're a coach, as if you're a parent, talking to a loving parent, talking to their child, as if you are talking to a child, what are the things that you would say in order to help them keep moving? I always have to address this because I know some people that maybe haven't gone through these things or just have certain sensitivities. This is not without compassion. This is not

1:00:43chasing pain as a way to stay rough and tough and keep pushing through. I don't care if you're to be as sticking out of your leg. No, it isn't. What I always like to draw attention to is that we are so much stronger and resilient than we ever give ourselves credit for, or that we might ever experience because we quit too early. We quit too early. As soon as it's uncomfortable and we do live in a society that loves to cater to comfort, that loves to tell you, hey, as soon as it's hard, you got to go find a different path. You got to tap out. As soon as this person makes you feel uncomfortable, just don't talk to him anymore. Don't work through it. Don't talk through it. Don't have any more conversations. As soon as it's difficult, as it's challenging, you must know that you are not built for it. No, that's a lie. Working through things is where strength is built. Walking through this storm, I've said this before, a warrior is not built a

1:01:45warrior by sitting around on the couch playing video games. They go into battle. That's where you find out what you're made of. The thing is, you yourself uniquely, you are strong, you are powerful, you have great things ahead for you. I think that any person that is able to achieve something every time that they achieve something, they show themselves what they are capable of doing. This is that part in the middle of a race. This is that part when you wake up in the morning, where you need to understand that even if your calves are sore or if you're just not feeling it or you're stressed out, it isn't so much about focusing on like, oh my gosh, what's the workout? How long is it going to be? It's going to be so hard. But instead, get yourself out of bed and say, what can I do? How am I going to show up today? Because I'll say this, too, even as a coach,

1:02:48it's like, hey, if you're not recovering well, you're doing a recovery run today. We're not doing hill repeats. I've done that for years for athletes. Let me know how you recover from that because I want you to be strong training. And if we need two days of recovery instead of one, then we're going to do that. But I don't want you to not do anything. I always want you to feel like you've done something to work toward your goal. And whether that's a mobility workout or a three-mile easy run or you're hitting a hard on the hills, every day you're doing something because every day matters, every day is your chance. And I want athletes to know that they can stand at the start line and feel proud of themselves. That man, getting to the start line is hard. It really is. If you have like a four-month, six-month training program, getting to the start line is not easy. Whether you're back at the pack, front of the pack, it's hard for everybody to consistently show up and do something in the midst of living a real life, even as professionals. You're walking a fine line of,

1:03:54I might get injured, I might get sick. This might not work out. I might over train. And then people that have children and busy jobs. I mean, there's always factors and variables in real life emergencies and tragedies that pop up in all of these things. But I'll tell you what, how you do one thing is how you do everything. And as you know, Eddie, I love using running as a parallel to life. And if people can understand that when you show up for yourself in a gentler goal, I think running goals are their gentle goals. Your kids aren't not going to be able to eat whether or not you run a half marathon, right? But if you lose your job and you're having a hard time finding another job, that's a whole other, that's real life right there. That's where you really feel the pressure. But the cool thing is that you get to use your fitness and running goals as a way to practice that consistency, as a way to train your brain, as a way to stay disciplined and committed. And so,

1:04:57yeah, I think that, you know, your training is a great way to practice those things. It's not it's not a place that you want to routinely set aside. And I think this is probably most common. And I've had seasons, especially when the kids were little where it was like that. And then I decided, okay, I haven't got in three workouts this week that I had planned to do. And then I was like, you know what? Instead of like stressing out about trying to get my workout done at 8 a.m., I'm just going to put the kids in the stroller and do a walk jog. And it was amazing what started to happen when I was like, I'm getting movement. And it's not the eight miles I wanted to do, but I did like three miles, like pushing the stroller and then playing on the playground. And you'd come home from work. And I would do three miles around the neighborhood before starting dinner. And I would go to bed at night. And I think I did six miles today. Where is before I wouldn't have done anything? Because if I can't get the eight miles in, then I'm not getting it in. And if I'm not getting the eight miles in, then I'm a loser. Then I'm not committed. Then I'm

1:06:00not built for this. This isn't the season for me. Like, I can't do this. It's too hard. And all of that is mental. All of that is just focusing on the wrong thing, on being our own worst critic, on thinking that there's only one way to do something. And so, you know, mind sets huge when I just flip that perspective and ask myself, but what can I do in this situation? I might not be able to do the eight miles, but what can I do? Okay, I can run two, two, three mile runs. I can do that. Well, then what else can I do? And I actually started to get better at just managing my time. You know, that's where the 4 a.m. started to come in. And that became my time as a young mom, where I was like, wow, no one needs me between four and six a.m. This is incredible. And the work and the effort and output I was able to do in those first two hours of the day. I mean, it changed my life. But again, that was our unique family life. And, and so I think I want to encourage

1:07:05listeners before you quit, before you throw yourself under the bus and criticize yourself and talk down to yourself, which we so wonderfully do. I mean, we are our worst critics. Ask yourself, what can I do? And, and then go from there. All right. So those are great mental tips to when you're struggling or you don't want to get out the door or you just, you're not feeling it. Those are, those are awesome. But now I'm going to switch gears a little bit and you kind of alluded to it already. But I've had the privilege of being your crew chief for quite a few races now. And, and you're wonderful at it. I don't know about that. But, well, I keep asking you to come back. So I've seen you up close and personal at some of the races that have really kicked your butt. You know, that really been rough. And, you know, I'm thinking of bad water 135 with the one you won, which was amazing. But that was a struggle, right? That was, that was rough. You couldn't keep

1:08:05food down and go into the bathroom all the time. And it was just miserable. And yeah, it was tough. And then there was Tahoe 200. You were struggling big time. And Western states in 24, you know, you walked half the race pretty much, right? And just kind of push through. So think about those races, I guess, specifically. And in terms of mindset, like, how do you overcome those tough situations to finish? And I know you kind of alluded to it in just a few minutes ago. But, you know, share some of those tricks and tips. I know you, you, you would always say, and I think you just mentioned it, but you would always say, I'm either going to suffer and struggle as I'm sitting down here in this aid station or I'm going to struggle walking, you know, towards my, the finish line, right? So either way, I'm going to struggle. Might as well be moving towards the towards the finish line. So I guess that that would be one little tip, but offer some more

1:09:08mindset tips for people that are in that situation during race and they're struggling. They're like, I don't know how I'm going to finish. Yeah. And I want these to be tangible and practical. So typically what happens just mentally when I start to reach a low is, well, let me back up a little bit. Before I go into any race, I put together my mental toolbox, which I think is so powerful. You can also think of it as like a security blanket. As, you know, when, when a child is like anxious or afraid or overwhelmed, like they have their blanket. Oh, like that monkey. Have you seen that online recently? Oh, yeah, there's this whole thing where he's called Punch the Monkey, where I guess his mom like abandoned him supposedly and he's like left alone, but he gets like bullied and by the other monkeys and he like runs away from them and goes and gets like this, basically this big stuffed animal that's like bigger than him that he thinks is his mom and he

1:10:11just like cuddles with it and snuggles with it. It's pretty cute. Anyways, sorry, I just thought of that, but that's the idea, right? You have something that you can come back to and yeah. So you allow yourself, you first have to be honest before every race, whether you're in the best shape of your life and you're like this, I'm gonna crush this. I've trained on the course. I think I can get the course record. Maybe it's you've had a great training cycle and you're like, I know I can get to the finish line. Like everything points to the fact that I'm not gonna have trouble with cutoffs. Like I want to, I just want to finish this race. This is a big deal to me. We all have different goals before we go in, but what is common for all of us, all, you know, two, three, four hundred people that are on start lines of trail and ultra and I'm gonna speak more specifically to that even right now is that there are multiple low points. There is discomfort for all of us, whether it's

1:11:14just discomfort of running really fast up the side of a mountain or the discomfort of like being out there longer than anyone. We all have these different experiences that are challenging that are really difficult. For those of you that are training for your first road race, whether it's like the first time that you're gonna line up for a 5K or for a marathon, there's a lot of already before people go in, I hear it all the time, I'm nervous, I'm doubtful, I'm afraid of what I'm gonna feel like people do actually feel intimidated by the discomfort because they've never felt it before. So having a, gosh, it's 16 years now that I've been running trails, but you know, I ran roads for a few years before that too. I think what has helped me the most is before you get to the start line that you acknowledge and respect that there will be hard moments and to ride alongside that that you will not be afraid because it is, it's normal.

1:12:21And that doesn't touch on the fact that like, hey, like if you have a rabdo, obviously like that's different or you like ripped your hamstring, like those are different. You need to go in a medical tent and get off the course, but I'm talking more just, you know, it's, you know, it's stomachs not feeling good, your muscles don't feel good, you're overwhelmed by the cold or like by the heat or just maybe your pace, you're really frustrated with your pace and it's just, gosh, I didn't think it would be this hard and so uncomfortable and like, I don't like this. And if you know that before you go into the race, you acknowledge that when it arrives, you can be the boss of it. Be the boss of pain. Be the boss of challenges. There are no problems in racing. There's just situations that require solutions and you are the boss of those solutions. And when you look at your race that way, you look at yourself that way, you feel empowered and you feel like you're

1:13:25in charge. So a lot of times people spiral because they just feel like everything's out of control and they can't change the situation that they're in. But I flip it and I'm like, well, you can absolutely be in control of all the solutions that you can offer yourself. And so it's like the way that we communicate with ourselves, the way we think about these things is, is, is where the power comes from. When you give pain power, you're going to spiral out of control and probably end up with the DNF because you let it overpower you. If you see it is just part of getting to the finish line, then you're not afraid of it because you're like, well, everyone goes through this. Everyone experiences this. And I know if I have this situation that I have A, B and C to deal with and if I have the unfortunate situation of this, well, yeah, it might, it might be income to all the way to get to the finish line. But that's why I'm here to get to the finish line. And again, I'm not speaking to destroying yourself and ending up at the hospital on the edge of death. I'm just talking about the everyday things that we all go through. Countless times I hear from

1:14:30people who will have a DNF and they're so upset about it. They're so upset because they're like, I literally let my mind get the best of me. I'm like, yeah, we all do. We all let our minds get the best of us at different seasons in our life on and off the trail. So the races that you had brought up, they're all really unique because they were all different physical things that I was going through. And I think on one hand, it was experience having just been in the sport for so long and there really isn't a lot of things that I haven't been through or felt in the sport yet where there was a time in the beginning that I would drop out for those things. So then as I worked through my career, I started to understand what all of these things were, whether it was stomach, whether it was intestinal, it was blisters, dizziness, sleepiness. I then started to put together my toolbox of how to deal with each of these things, the solutions in order to help me

1:15:31through. And so I think that has been one of the most powerful things. It's having that experience. Being willing to sit in it and work through it. I choose every time to, I'm going to endure this. I'm going to be in it. I'm going to see how well I can work through this. And I've proven to myself, wow, I'm stronger than I thought it was. I can endure way more than I thought I could. I don't think that I'm uniquely special in that either. I think all humans are like that. I really do. And I know that we have listeners who don't feel that way. And we have listeners who have maybe always felt like, no, I'm mentally weak. Or they just feel like so intimidated and fearful of that. Like there's just no way I could see myself working through that. We'll see yourself doing it. Envision it. Envision yourself powerful and strong. If you only envision yourself as weak. And I think a lot of times this comes from messaging that

1:16:35maybe somebody else told them. It's it's unkind words. Or even, you know, our deepest most connected relationships that maybe had gone sour. Or where people had hurt us in our life. We don't understand how those actually do have a really strong connection when we go through hard things on the trail or in a road race. We start to say things to ourselves that reflect painful seasons in our life. And instead, we need to understand that though we got through, we all have, we have all gotten through 100% of the hardest days of our life. And here we are. And we have to applaud that. We got to celebrate that. We have to look back and like, how can I grow? How can I be better? What did I learn? Instead of they were right. Instead of, yeah, this is just the way I am. And I'll never grow. I'll never get better. I just wasn't made for that. I'm weak. I can't. You get to tell yourself today's a new day to try. When you're in the middle

1:17:41of a race, I know Tahoe 200. I actually, I think that anger is a form of passion. I think anger, you can't actually twist it to your advantage. I mean, anger without, you know, doing something terrible. I mean, there's two sides of anger. There's anger. And then you do bad things and you hurt people and you make bad choices. But then there's the anger that just shows that you really care about something. And you're upset because you devoted so much of your time. You're upset because you really believed that it was going to go another way. And now it's not. But in that passion, use it as energy and say, I'm going to do what I can now. And I think that the Tahoe 200 was just that. I was so sick. And I was angry about that because I don't, I don't normally get sick in my life. And I, I didn't realize that I was getting progressively sick in, in that race. And that, I was upset about not being able to eat. I don't think I ate. I think it was, we came out to like

1:18:41almost 24 hours in that race. It was just little sips of soda and ginger ale. And I was moving so slow. And I think I didn't want to write the same story that I had written at Kokodona. And I've said this people before too, what's the story that you want to tell? And I just told myself that. I'm like, I want to tell a different story. I want to tell the story where I chased down the third place girl. And I'm freaking got on the podium. That's the story I want to tell. I want to tell the story that was even though my physical body was giving up, I believed that I could perform better. I believed that I could have the race that I trained for for all those months. This wasn't just a casually showing up for this race. I sacrificed. I dedicated. I committed. And now I'm just going to be crawling to the finish line. That's not what I want. What can I do to change this? And I think that all of us have the opportunity to do that. It's just flipping the perspective and

1:19:43looking for ways in which to make the situation better. And I think that's what I'm going to end with there is I want all of our listeners to understand that there is not a part of the way that I think that makes me any better or more unique from the next person. It's not a special talent. I guess is what I'm trying to say. It's a choice. And you know, it's the very root of two strong. You can choose to have a strong mindset. You can choose to take the stronger route. And you can keep going a lot further than you ever thought was possible if you believe that. So I hope that everyone that is training for a race. I hope that everyone that is maybe even the middle of race right now that you remember that. Don't discount yourself before you quit. Ask yourself, but what can I do? And sometimes the the transition is not what you want it to be. The result might not what you want it to be. But you will accomplish what you set out to do. And maybe that's just what you need to have that breakthrough or to continue on to greater things.

1:20:45Yeah. All right. So I'll some good stuff. Yes. And grateful for your mind. Because you're helping all of us be stronger. So yeah, take us out. Thank you to everyone listening. We are cheering for you. We love you. We appreciate you. We hope you keep choosing strong and all you do.