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Mile Repeat 4 - Stacy Klontz was Doing Great and then Life Happened

Stacy grew up playing sports and being active, then life happened...
Many years ago before Stacy found running
After too many years of not focusing on herself, Stacy renewed her love of running in 2009 at the age of 45 - and went back to college that year as well. She started with a couple 5Ks, and then ran her first half marathon in June 2010, and her second half marathon just two weeks later. Today she has almost 50 half marathons, one full marathon, and many shorter distances under her belt. Stacy is planning to run her 55th Half on her 55th birthday in November. She loves the challenge of the distance and runs to improve herself.
Today as she plans her 55th Half Marathon - with FRIENDS!
She loves the camaraderie of the running community, so many fabulous friends and adventures. Stacy also shares her adventures with her husband of 26 years and is a proud Navy Mom to their 19-year-old Sailor son. She is a Physical Therapist Assistant with a BS in Nutrition. Stacy does her best to help herself and others lead more healthy, active lives.
Contact and follow Stacy here:
https://www.facebook.com/stacy.klontz
https://www.Instagram.com/stacyk.believes

103 - Gwen Jorgensen Gold Medal Mama

Gwen Jorgensen seems to have realized the true value of happiness – and she has set a path in life toward achieving it – happiness not success that is. The reason I say this is not because of what she says in the interview but how she lights up whenever she talks about anything that is bigger than herself, specifically her journey into motherhood. Gwen is an Olympic gold medalist in the sport of triathlon. She won 17 ITU World cup titles and a gold medal all in the span of 6 short years as a professional triathlete. After the Olympics she entered the New York Marathon for fun and finished in 14th place with a time of 2:41. After that she got pregnant and had a baby, right around the time she declared that she was going after another Olympic spot, this time in the marathon! She sets her goals high and then tells the world so she can’t hide behind anything.
Even though we covered some incredible topics today, I am having a little interviewer’s remorse because I wanted to cover more. Like the fact that Gwen chose to give up a wildly successful triathlon career, right after she won a gold medal! And that she is now training for the 2020 Olympic marathon with the Bowerman Track Club and women like Shalane Flanagan. But the truth is that this chapter of her life is still being written, and many of you didn’t know what got her to this point in the first place. So I will be happy with what we did cover and look forward to talking to her again in the future – hopefully after the 2020 Olympic Marathon.
Today we talk about:
Growing up in theMidwest
Violin: How she became very successful even though she didn’t like it
Swimming vs running: Hard work vs talent
Goals: process based & technique based
Running form goals
Exceeding the demands of competition in training
Nontraditional family roles
Active pregnancy when you are an elite athlete
Stanley’s birth & Gwen's physical recovery
My only wish is that we could have talked longer! I want to know if she already has an inkling of which new sport she’ll go after in 2021! But for now, I'll take it! I loved chatting about her background. I can just envision Gwen as a little girl, working so hard and pushing her perfectionist mentality to the edge. Clearly she’s talented but it takes more than talent to be the best in the world. Hard work and mental toughness round it out and Gwen’s got it all.
How to find & follow Gwen! All photos by Talbot Cox. Check him out too!

102 - Maria Thomas and her life as a puddle

I met Maria Thomas (of My Life as a Puddle) at the Truthteller Tour in Boulder earlier this year. We were both featured speakers sharing truths about ourselves that were not easy to share. It was an emotional night where the power of sharing painful truths was both liberating and an intense connector to others that we didn’t even know. After the event, Maria realized how sharing her story with others could help so many people, so she reached out and here we are. Maria’s story starts with her early diagnosis of hyperhidrosis but it turns into so much more as she has navigated this journey called life, sometimes with courage and sometimes in fear.
We recorded in the Skirt Sports Boulder store, after hours, surrounded by skirts, bras, successes, failures, the past and the future. It was like a glimpse into the deep guts of one world while we literally talked about the guts of another woman’s world.
Today we talk about:
Hyperhidrosis: Uncontrollable excessive sweating that started for her when she was as young as 6
Marriage: Divorce, Cheating & Forgiveness
Faith
Gut health / Brain health connection
What it feels like to want to kill yourself
Her path to a healthy mind & healthy body
Some great reads: No Grain, No Pain by Dr. Peter Osborne and Grain Brain & The Grain Brain Whole Life Plan both by Dr. David Perlmutter
And so much more
I think about what Maria is able to share today and it makes me so proud. And grateful. Grateful that Maria gave herself a wakeup call. Grateful that she is so willing to be open about very difficult topics that many people are too embarrassed to mention. There are so many life situations and so many nuggets in this episode. I’d love to hear your favorites. If you want to connect with Maria be sure to contact her through her website mylifeasapuddle.com – I love her tagline “creating hyperhidrosis hope and awareness one drop at a time.” And I’ll leave you by repeating her final nugget “you have a choice every day whether you are going to rise above or stay below. And just take that one next step to become a better person whatever that might look like for you.”
More ways to connect with Maria
https://www.instagram.com/mylifeasapuddle/
https://www.facebook.com/mylifeasapuddle/
https://twitter.com/MyLifeAsAPuddle

Mile Repeat 3 - Sandy Stiner "If the Bone Ain't Showin, You Gotta Keep Going"

Meet Sandy Stiner - long-time runner who after many years finds fulfillment and happiness through moving her body forward. She's a retired police officer, Army veteran, wife, and dog mom to Kirby and Zuzu the Border Collies. She works part time at Hansons Running Shop in Michigan and a Trek bicycle store. Sandy loves to run marathons and ultras. She's finished 78 races of marathon distance or longer, including 100 mile races. Sandy is currently working on finishing a marathon in every state, She predicts she will be done in March of 2019.
Find, follow & support her here. Sandy rocks!
IG/Twitter: @kirbyandzuzu
Her blog: TheUltraFreak.blogspot.com
Youtube: Kirby and Zuzu the Border Collies

101 - Katy Blakemore Evans is Not Your Typical Triathlete

I have known Katy Blakemore (now Evans) since she was 15 or 16 years old; a distance swimmer on the Longmont Redtails Swim Team where I was a coach before I started racing professionally. Katy was the hardest-working kid on the team, she was incredibly talented, and while she wasn’t the best swimmer in the world, she managed to will her way into walking on to Stanford’s Swim Team. I knew from the early days that she would probably become a triathlete someday. She just somehow had the mental fortitude to be great in a sport that requires so much sacrifice plus she was also a really strong runner :)
I recently volunteered at the Boulder Ironman. I don’t even keep track of what pros are racing anymore, I was there to support my nonprofit Running Start, so when the leaders started running by, I almost missed Katy until I heard her voice calling for ice. MY Katy Blakemore was in 3rd place at the time, and running stronger than anyone ahead of or behind her. She finished the day in 2nd place, just a couple minutes behind the winner; she was gaining with each stride. In today's episode we talk about how truly amazing and disappointing it is to finish that close to 1st. It’s rare that I get to interview someone I’ve known from adolescence through to major life milestones as an adult. I really enjoyed catching up with Katy and learning how she moved through her life using sport and family as a foundation for many of the decisions she made.
Today we talk about:
Swimming
Growing up in a household with two very loving (and in love) parents
Stanford: How she got onto the team and what she brought to the team
Legendary coach Richard Quick, "I believe in believing in belief."
Delayed gratification & the Training to Glory ratio
The Peace Corps in Guatamala: Why we do what we do
Her dad Kit's early death due to cancer
Being a school teacher - Scaffolding is a thing I'd never heard of!
Katy's path to triathlon stardom
Getting married & becoming a mama & racing like a rockstar less than a year later!
And so much more!
After I interviewed Katy, Tim said, “I heard you two laughing in there. It sounded like a fun one.” He couldn't be more right! If you gain anything from this episode, it would be Katy’s final nugget. So beautiful in it’s simplicity: "Do your best. Have fun." Katy is brilliant, charismatic, thoughtful, and practical. I’m so proud of the path she has chosen to take in this world. Please be sure to follow her on Facebook and cheer her along. Because I kind of think that “when Katy wins, we all win!”

100th Episode - The Best of the Best

You know when you love something so much that you don’t realize how much time has gone by? That’s exactly how I feel about this podcast. I wasn’t sure what would happen when I started. I just reached out to some amazing people to see if they’d come on my show and they did. My first episode was a short explanation of the podcast. The general preface was that I would interview visionaries and people making change in the world in the hopes that it would inspire others and bring us all closer together. I imagined people would listen during their weekend 5k’s, so I planned the podcast around the average time it takes to run a 5k which is 36:38. As you glance through my 100 episodes you’ll see that I end up getting closer to a 10k every time. I just can’t cut the interviews short when every single person has so much to offer.
For the 100th episode I decided to do a montage of 10 of my most powerful interviews. I have to start by saying that EVERY SINGLE GUEST on the show has been my favorite. It was very hard for me to choose 10 episodes to feature. They are not necessarily in my top-10 most listened but instead I chose episodes that cover a range of topics from a variety of people. Today you will hear a short snippet from each of these episodes with an explanation for why I chose them. Many of you are just getting started with Run This World and doing crazy marathon sessions listening to my incredible guests. This is a great episode to forward to any friend who isn’t sure where to start!
Episode 6 - Erin Carson on training for life
Episode 24 - Kara Burns From Prison to 26.2
Episode 37 – Emily Harvey Amputee Athlete on Rocking Your Differences
Episode 41 - Siri Lindley World Champion Person on Getting Out of Your Head and Into Your Heart
Episode 50 - Colleen Cannon on Chickens, Watermelons and Why Women Will Save the Earth
Episode  67 - Janelle Smiley Faced Her Fears & Came To Life
Episode 68 - Thirteen Years Ago Erika McDonald had Two Months to Live
Episode 70 - Mark Mikel on Loss, Grief and Becoming Whole Again
Episode 87 - Kara Goucher Redefines Herself
Episode 97 - Mirna & Latoya Uncensored
It’s a wrap. The first 100 episodes are in the bag and properly commemorated! I’m so proud of this podcast and all of the incredible guests that have so beautifully put themselves out there – openly, honestly and with such vulnerability - to give all of you even a tiny glimpse of a new way to look at this world. Because in the end, we are not alone and that’s the point. All right then, you know what time it is. It’s time to get out there and Run This World! Have a great workout and I’ll see you next week.

Mile Repeat 2 - Kriss S Started Running at 40 and Finally Found Herself

Welcome to Mile Repeats! These are short-form vignettes about people's lives capped with a nugget of inspiration that we can all learn from.
Kriss S has been running for 10 years. Running completely changed her life. She has completed 62 half marathons to date and 4 fulls; the half is by far her favorite! Kriss also dabbles with yoga, totally a novice, and enjoys taking yoga classes weekly. Running is her social hour! She can be found running the streets, trails and the track. Kriss is also an ambassador for Skirt Sports for the past three years and cannot say enough wonderful things about the women she has met all because of a skirt!
Be sure to check out Kriss' blog and follow her on Instagram at @pinkbetsy.

99 - Dyenna McConnell's Long Effed Up Road to Happiness

Meet Dyenna McConnell. I’ve known Dye for a few years. She is a Skirt Sports ambassador with a passion for helping others find health and happiness. On the outside, she is a beautiful, strong, healthy woman who is a natural athlete with a seemingly happy career, a new marriage, and a loving relationship with her children. But as you will hear in this episode, nothing is exactly as it seems. Dye has endured life experiences that most of us will never be able to understand or relate to. She has overcome horrible abuse and neglect and today has created a life path that has so much potential for happiness.
Dye, like all of us, is very much still on her journey of healing and seeking her purpose. She has not fully processed her experiences. Part of her hope is that as she does, she can help others who have been hurt and need to know that they too can survive.
Today’s episode is tough at times. If children are listening with you, you may want to pre-listen to this conversation. We discuss serious topics including sexual abuse of a child and suicide. But ultimately Dye shows us that no matter how difficult our pasts, our futures can still be beautiful.
Today we talk about:
Growing up a victim of sexual abuse
The foster system
Abandonment issues
Teenage pregnancy
Giving up a child for adoption - and the shame she still feels about it
Pumping milk in the bathroom stalls in high school
Smoking, Drinking & Drugs
Turning your life around
Coping by not coping
Fitness as a part of the recovery puzzle
And more
This is a deep episode. Very tough in many ways. My biggest fear is that my daughter will be hurt in the ways that Dye was hurt as a little girl. I personally struggled when Dye said that she still copes by not coping. But I also understand it because Dye didn’t have anyone in her life who had her back. She was all alone through everything. But now she’s not. She’s coming out the other side and it’s like watching a beautiful butterfly emerge slowly. As she says, the most important thing you can do is share your story. You may not know the people you can help. You can find Dye on her blog Run Eat Tri Yoga and please follow her on Facebook and Instagram!
That’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed this episode and get ready to tune in soon to my next Mile Repeat mini pod. I’m experimenting with that new format and so far so good! All right then you know what time it is. It’s time to get out there and run this world. Have a great workout and I’ll see you next week.

Mile Repeat 1 - Kaeli Lamont Pelvic Floor Specialist

Welcome to my first ever Mile Repeat interview! Mile Repeats are short-form vignettes about people's lives capped with a nugget of inspiration that we can all learn from.
Meet Kaeli Lamont, a distance runner of 4 years who enjoys sharing her joy and love of running and how it has truly changed her life by coaching and mentoring new and returning runners. She loves seeing people meet their goals! She's a self proclaimed music junkie, Crazy cat lady, lover of the outdoors and she's always up for a good time with great friends. She is also a women’s health/pelvic floor physical therapist assistant who is passionate about being an advocate for improving the quality of life and health for all women, everywhere.

98 - The Yogi Triathletes Got Rid of 95% of Their Stuff to Live More Vibrant Lives

Meet my old friends Jessica and BJ Gumkowski, the Yogi Triathletes. I first met them many years ago; in fact, Jessica was one of our very first Skirt Sports ambassadors back in 2005ish. At that time, they were a young married couple pursuing a life of triathlon, in the hyper-competitive town of Boulder, measuring their happiness by their successes on the race course and in the workplace. At some point along the way, an ad for tiny homes on BJ's computer screen sparked an "a-ha moment" which ultimately led to a completely new life for them.
They quit their jobs, gave away 95% of their stuff and decided to embrace a minimalist lifestyle. Today they have completed rebuilt their lives to be based around mindfulness, meditation and helping others. Their Yogi Triathlete Movement is spreading quickly, with a focus on training the whole athlete, inside and out, mind/body/soul. As they say, before there was mindfulness in coaching, there was Jessica and BJ! 
Today we share the mic and essentially interview each other in a dual conversation that hits on so many fun and interesting topics such as:
Letting go of our identities when defined by what we do
Going from bitch to your best
Sober living
Anxiety and depression
White light pantsuits
A difference between men & women; men internalize
Ironman Wisconsin
Having (or not having) a child: Acceptance both ways
The Divine Schedule Maker
Going minimal and erasing "Decision fatigue"
True happiness 
This is such an awesome conversation. One of my biggest regrets is not asking Jessica more about her past life. And also not having them give me a guided meditation! I hope you enjoy - and PLEASE CHECK OUT THEIR PODCAST! For more of the YT's, they have some incredible episodes I'm sure you will enjoy. All right then, you know what time it is. It's time to get out there and Run This World. Have a great workout and I'll see you next week!