Episode 21: Nicole Dobransky - Little by Little

Episodes

Aug 25

Listener note: This episode includes brief discussion of disordered eating.

It took Nicole Dobransky ten years, a finish-line collapse 26 seconds short, and three kids to qualify for Boston. Her secret is simple: she doesn't give up.

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About this episode

Nicole Dobransky is a mom of three, a marathoner, an Ironman and a soon-to-be ultramarathoner from San Diego. She left a career in accounting to build Team Run the World, her team of runners in BODi (formerly Beachbody), where she is a top 25 partner. Her blog started as a travel journal from a four-month backpacking trip through Southeast Asia.

We talk about how P90X changed her relationship with food and fitness, her ten-year chase for a Boston qualifier, including collapsing near the finish of the California International Marathon and missing by 26 seconds, and finally qualifying at Revel Big Bear at 38. We also cover running after a daughter and then twins, her month-long home exchange in Luxembourg, where I studied abroad, and her plans for a 50K, a Grand Canyon rim to rim and a podcast.

In this episode, we discuss

Leaving a CPA job after 18 months to backpack Southeast Asia and starting a blog
Growing up hating the mile and seeing running as a way to burn calories
How doing P90X with her husband Mike changed her relationship with food
Breaking two hours in the half and running a 4:02 first marathon
Going from no triathlons to an Ironman in one year
Her first Boston qualifying attempt, a DNF and a likely panic attack in Eugene
Collapsing in the finish chute at CIM and missing a BQ by 26 seconds
Running through her first pregnancy and returning with P90X and pelvic floor rehab
Becoming a Beachbody coach on maternity leave and building Team Run the World
Twins, a layoff and going all in on her business
Shifting from tying her worth to times to enjoying the process
Qualifying for Boston at Revel Big Bear with better fueling and mental strategies
Trading homes with a family in Luxembourg for a month
Her mantra "little by little, little becomes a lot" and her song pick
Training for her first 50K, a Grand Canyon rim to rim and launching a podcast

Chapters

Intro
From accountant to backpacker and blogger
Becoming a runner
P90X and a new relationship with food
First marathon and an Ironman in a year
Chasing Boston: the near misses
Collapsing at CIM
Pregnancy and postpartum running
Building a Beachbody business
Twins and going all in
Finally qualifying at Revel Big Bear
Home exchange in Luxembourg
Mantra and song
Next up: 50K, rim to rim and a podcast

Where to find Nicole

Instagram: @fitnessfatale

Mentioned in this episode

Races: Boston Marathon, California International Marathon, Revel Big Bear Marathon, Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon, Surf City Marathon, Eugene Marathon, OC Marathon, Phoenix Marathon, New York City Marathon, Mountains 2 Beach Marathon, La Jolla Half Marathon, Catalina Island 50K, Ironman, Grand Canyon Rim to Rim, Carmel Marathon
Organizations and charities: BODi (Beachbody), Team Run the World, Active Network, People Like Us home exchange, Oiselle, Miami University
Other: P90X, 21 Day Fix, Shakeology, Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon by Brad Hudson, "Dog Days Are Over" by Florence + the Machine

Previous guests mentioned

Margaret Weniger (Episode 7)

Related episodes

Frequently asked

How long did it take Nicole Dobransky to qualify for the Boston Marathon?

It took Nicole Dobransky about ten years to qualify for Boston; she finally ran 3:37:30 at Revel Big Bear at age 38 to qualify for the 2024 Boston Marathon.

What happened to Nicole Dobransky at the California International Marathon?

Nicole Dobransky was on pace for a Boston qualifier at CIM when her legs gave out near the finish; her husband and a volunteer helped her walk across in 3:35:26, missing her BQ by 26 seconds.

What is Team Run the World?

Team Run the World is Nicole Dobransky's team of runners who combine BODi (formerly Beachbody) workout programs with run training, and she is a top 25 partner in the company.

Support this show

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically, so it may contain errors.

Welcome to Finish Lines and Milestones with Ally Brettnacher. Incredible stories and tales of triumphs with everyday people achieving their goals and fitness. This podcast brought to you by Athlete Bouquets. Celebrate finish lines and milestones of the people that you love by visiting Athlete Bouquets Calm. Hello and welcome to episode 21. This is Allie Bretnaker. And first of all, before I say anything else, I've got to thank my friend Margaret for this introduction to Nicole Dubronski. Margaret was actually episode seven of this podcast and she offered to introduce me to Nicole because she used to work with her husband. Mike and I already followed Nicole on Instagram.

She is at Fitness Fatale FATALE. And so I was super thrilled to have an opportunity to meet Nicole. She is so inspiring. Mama 3 marathoner, Iron Man, soon to be ultra marathoner. She has three kids. She has a very successful business team. Run the World is her team in the World of Body, which used to be known as Beach Body. She's a top 25 partner and there are hundreds of thousands of partners worldwide. So we talked about how Nicole got into running in the 1st place, how she is a natural born documenter and started a blog that was a travel blog at 1st and then became a fitness and running blog that she's had for years.

And we talked about how it took her ten years to qualify for Boston, which she will be running next year at the age of 40. So that's 2024. And we talked about some of her race stories. There was super close call in qualifying for Boston in there, which was just heartbreaking for her. We talked about what it was like to get back into running after having her first daughter and then having twins. We talked about how she shifted from caring just about times and having her worth caught up in times and shifting to just really enjoying the experience and running itself. Which I certainly related to.

And then towards the end we talked about how she recently lived in Europe for a month with her whole family, her kids, and her mom and I actually studied abroad in Luxembourg where she lived. And so I get to kind of think about that, which was forever ago. So fun to look through some of my old, old memories there. And we talked about where she's going next. So she is going to become an ultra marathoner next year. Alongside her husband, she is getting ready to celebrate her 10th wedding anniversary by hiking the Grand Canyon and she is going to start her very own podcast. I'm so excited to have you listen to this conversation with Nicole.

Well, welcome Nicole. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. I'm excited. Me too. I was just saying to you, I feel like I've known you for a long time because I've followed you on Instagram for a long time. And after I started this podcast, my friend Margaret Weniger told me that I needed to have you on. And so here we are. I said, well I already kind of know her cuz I follow her on Instagram. But I forget the connection. Did your husbands work together? Was that the connection? Yeah, yeah, the. I think she was the one that worked with Mike, but I'm not 100% sure.

But we went to her a camp. They used to host these camps for a Trothlon and I remember hanging out with her there. And yeah, they worked at Active Network together, which is like the online registration platform, and they have this amazing triathlon community. I should know off the top of my head now. I'm a bad friend. She's one. She's episode maybe 9. She's in there somewhere. I interviewed her and we talked about her time out out West in California and all the triathlons. I am so inspired by you, Nicole. One of the things that I'm really excited to talk to you about selfishly is that it took you 10 years to qualify for Boston.

I think that's so cool. But before we start just talking about all things running, I want to get to know you a little bit more. And like I said, I felt like I could just read about you for hours because you've had this amazing blog for years and years. So how did that all start? Tell me a little bit about you. Yeah, pretty much my whole life is documented online. So if you I love writing. Even when I was a kid, I just loved writing. I wanted to be an author and a magazine editor. And then I became an accountant, which I don't know how that happened.

But, you know, you start to have those limiting beliefs that you can't do something in a competitive field. And, you know, I went to college and I was a communication major originally. And then they, you know, took an accounting class for my minor and they were like, yeah, you should be an accountant. They literally sent me a letter home saying like you should be an accountant because you got an A in your accounting class. And some of my friends were doing it just seemed like the best, like easiest career path for me because I was really good at it very naturally, but didn't end up actually loving it very much.

So after I graduated, I got my CPA license, worked at a big firm and was pretty miserable there for I only work. I only lasted 18 months and I quit my job. And then I backpacked through Southeast Asia for four months and that's when I started blogging was for my blog, my East Asia trip, and I was just telling my friend about it because I'm just a natural documentary of life, of my life. I was actually the historian of my story. And so I would just share on this blog. I'd go to the Internet cafe and I'd have to plug in my, like my my camera to upload my good things.

And then I would write in the Internet cafe. And then I started blogging that way. And I didn't really care who who read it. But then when I came back, I went, ended up going back to accounting because it was the recession in 2008 or 2009, and that was the easiest job to get. And then that's when I met my husband. I had done so I in terms of running, I was the girl who hated running, growing, you know, at the track, the mile. And I couldn't pass the that presidential fitness test and I could do even a pull up, but I couldn't run the mile fast enough to get the Excellence Award.

And I'm an achiever type A like. And I was like, I really bothered me that I couldn't run. So I joined the track team actually in 7th grade because there was a cute boy that I wanted to impress in the track. But still, I got better at running. So that's where I learned, like, OK, if you practice at it, you'll get better. But I still didn't like it. So I did like high jump and like the long jump. I don't think I did any running events, to be honest. So to me, running was just a form exercise. And then in college, I gained the freshman 15 and I'd always struggled with my weight.

My mom is. I'm an only child with a single mom and I like starting in 6th grade, I started going home after school by myself and I would just eat junk food and watch TV and the weight started to come on. And my mom also is overweight and so we just got into unhealthy routine. And so I just always kind of struggled my weight. And that's what I saw from my family members, that that was just what we did in our family. Everyone gained weight when they were older. And I kind of thought it was my destiny. And so I struggled with that. It would, you know, go up and down depending on if I was in swim season or if I was in.

I did field hockey at one point, but I really never associated with like a lifestyle. I always thought it was like I'd have to diet to be thin or fit or. And then I wasn't naturally an athlete. I always kind of, like just kind of struggled and like I didn't really fully understand how in control I really am over my fitness destiny or over over my athletic capabilities. I kind of thought of it as like I'm Born This Way. I'm not that good at this. I tend to gain weight. Like, I just didn't think of myself as someone who is an athlete. But then in college, after I gained those freshman 15, I worked really hard to lose the freshman 15.

And I discovered that the treadmill said that running burned the most calories. So that's really why I started running. And then that kind of went in now and then it wasn't until after college, my boyfriend and I college boyfriend, I broke up and I was like, I'm going to do a half marathon. And so and honestly back then also it was still related to, like running is the best form of exercise. So I'm going to run. But when I trained for the race, I really enjoyed the process of training for it and having the schedule and checking it off and getting better at it. And when I finished the race, I felt really proud of myself.

But I was honestly, like, that's probably it. Just do that one, got one race and then I'm good. I'm going to go back to partying. I was definitely a single now, and I was in this phase. That's around the time I went. I shortly after that was when I went to that Southeast Asia. And so I kind of like, I'm not really a runner. But then after I got back from my trip, I met my husband and he inspired me because he had just done his first Ironman, which I didn't even know what an Ironman. I barely knew what it was. I was horrified when they, he said that he like would work out twice in one day, like he'd swim and run and I was like, what is crazy to me.

So he really inspired me to do my next, my second-half marathon. And then I started getting addicted to like improving my time. That was really like I very much like again, goal setting and getting better at things. And since I didn't love my career, I feel like I really channeled that into running. And that is when I started my blog, my run, my fitness blog, which I did for pretty much for for fun at 1st and we I so the the going into the next phase my my one of my good friends, the friend that I have trained with to for our second-half marathon, her and her boyfriend did the the beach buddy program P90X and we saw them go through it and we're kind of like I don't know.

But then they got so ripped at the end of the 90 days that me and my now husband Mike were like we want to do it too. So we did P90X and that's when a coworker of mine suggested I blog about it. So I started my blog to document the journey, which sounds crazy, of doing P90X and training for a marathon at the same time. So not only was I going to, I went from this person who doesn't really like running, who like inconsistently. I would always, I would say I was always a consistent exerciser. I was like elliptical. All of that because I wanted to burn off calories and get makeup yo-yo.

But really it was when we did this program, P90X and we went all in with it. That's when, like my life pretty much changed. Because I again, I'm Taipei. I watched all the the transformations on where we Googled and watched all these people's pictures. And I was like, I'm doing it. Like we got the program and I like, I went all in. I made an Excel spreadsheet with like the nutrition plan we did every single workout. I also ran with it only three days a week, but I would run and do PNDX. So I created the blog to kind of document the experience. Again, like I like to document everything I'm doing and I didn't really care if anyone read it, but I just.

I was like I figured someone might Google it and find information that was valid, valuable about how I could find those. So that was the beginning of the blog. But the funny part about the the blog was I just did a free WordPress account and so I had no idea what to call it and I didn't know anything about marketing or anything. So originally I called my blog. I don't even know where I came up with the femme fatal thing. I was like powerful woman. It was like so long ago. It was femme fatale conquering a marathon with p90x.wordpress.com my website. That's awesome. And I like, which is at the time I had no idea that this is the worst website name that you could ever come up with.

And like who's going to remember, have us put that into their into the browser. But I did it and I just started documenting everything we did. And even in the first four weeks, like the first four weeks I lost £8.00. We did every single workout. I could tell I was getting stronger and like we really went all in, like we didn't even drink alcohol, which at the time I was 25. That was like, yeah, so yeah, we went on in after the 90 days, I had like completely transformed my body. I was so much more fit and I the cool thing was I had just done it.

The biggest for me. The biggest thing was not I could do like pull ups now and I could do like 30 push ups in a row and I was so fit and I felt so good in my skin and but the two biggest aha moments were I had just done 1/2 marathon in January and I had broken two hours. That was a big milestone for me. And then in April, after I finished P90X, I shaved 5 1/2 minutes off my time on the craziest, hilliest course in all of San Diego. Like this really hard rate. And I felt so good and I totally crushed it and I literally ran three days a week.

But I did PIDX, so that was when the power of like okay, nutrition and strength training really do better. And I know I'm a I was a newer runner. Now I know as I'm more experienced runner that obviously I was in the beginning of being a runner where it is easier to PR, but I had really struggled to break 2 hours. Like it took me a few tries to even do that and so to go from that to this next level was amazing. But I think the most of at the time I don't realize this, but the biggest value of that program for me, ironically it being a diet or a nutrition program actually changed my life because I was, I shared I was a yo-yo Dieter.

I had struggled my weight. I had this identity that I was never meant to be an athlete, never meant to be thin, never meant to be, which, you know, and it really was important to me at the time to that I wanted to be thin, but I thought that would require too much sacrifice. Now I've come a long way and I know that that it doesn't matter about being thin anymore, but at the time, when I was young, you know, my 20s, it really did. So for me, that program changed everything because on the plan that I was on, I was eating. I was eating plenty of food.

I was eating over 2000 calories, but I was losing weight. I was feeling amazing. I didn't feel the need to like binge on the weekend because I wasn't restricting so much or even throughout the day Before that I was eating like a tiny yogurt for breakfast and then like wondering why I'm starving by lunch and why and I was addicted to sugar. So it helped me overcome just honestly disordered eating habits and really get me into this idea of like I'm fueling my body for for my lifestyle and it's helping me run faster and it's helping me feel good. And I stopped thinking about food as I'm eating this because of how it's going to make me look.

And I started to think I'm eating this because of how it makes me feel and how it fits in because I want to and I actually enjoy vegetables. It just I think the 90 days in particular really takes you beyond the short term. Like this is a diet that I'm getting on to lose weight into. Like this was became our whole lifestyle. So from there we ran the first. I ran my first marathon and and ran in 402, which was a great time for my first marathon. And then a month later, I had never done a triathlon in my life and my husband had done one and he convinced me and my friend that I mentioned and her boyfriend who had done Canadian X, all of us to do an Ironman.

So we trained, we went for. I went from never having done a triathlon to doing an Ironman in one year and all of this. My gosh, all of this. From the inspiration of like, I think that the program just truly, like showed me this new side of myself and it felt like anything was possible. And back then, I had a job in accounting that felt very easy to me. Like I had time to work out in the morning and at night and it was like our lifestyle. Me and my boyfriend, we were both doing it together. We were just like we had my one of my best friends doing it with her boyfriend and we just love this lifestyle.

That was really conducive to it. Yeah. Do you think you could have done it alone? How nice to have a partner who is in that same mindset and the had the same willingness to do it. Was there ever a time where one had to drag the other along or somebody wanted to quit, or you both like Nope. We're all in. This is amazing. I know there was definitely a few rough moments where I didn't want to work. I definitely think it helped to work out together, especially honestly going back to P90X when we would, we would did it at 5:30 AM and I was not a morning workout person back then.

And I remember I would snooze and he would get up and we'd have to move the Ottoman. We're in such a tiny apartment and he'd have to move the Ottoman into the kitchen so that we'd have space to work out and like if he hadn't done that. I definitely think having a partner and accountability partner helps with everything. So yeah, that was pre kids when life was a little bit less complicated. But yeah, after I did the Iron Man then of course we said pretty much after I did the first marathon was when me and my best friend Asia decided we're going to try to qualify for Boston.

But first we got to do this Iron Man, we're going to try to qualify for Boston. And if I had up to this point, I had achieved everything I wanted. Like it came so not easily, but like, you know, I try to break 2 hours. It took me a few tries, but I did it, then I and then it progress just seemed to like just keep going. So I was like of course, like if we ran a three, a four hour marathon, then we ran a 350 on our second try and hit our goal. Yeah, that's amazing. And we ran the whole thing together. her and I both together, both run, both of them.

So we just had this great, like we were in the same pace. We were like, obviously now we'll just qualify for Boston. It'll be like, and I was in the blogging world at this point reading other people's blogs and stuff. And so I read other people's experiences. I remember there's one girl and it took her like 4 attempts and I was like, it might take, it might take like a year or two. I remember saying to Asia, like it could take us a year or two to qualify for Boston, but it'll be okay. Like we'll just, you know, we'll keep trying. And so the first time we attempted to do it, she qualified for Boston and I didn't.

I actually Dnf'd because I got in my head and I think I had a panic. I've never had a panic attack in my life, but I think I had a panic attack during the marathon because I put so much pressure on myself to do it. And I had like announced it to everyone and like told everyone I was going to do it. And then she had Asia, had hired a run coach and I had hired a run coach and we had different run coaches, so we had different strategies going into the race. And so it stressed me out that hers was different than mine. And in my I feel like I've come, I've come so far in the mindset side of racing and just in life and myself acceptance.

But I definitely have a very, you know, a personality where I hold myself just super high standards. And yeah, I really struggled with that through running for a while and missing this goal. And then I was really happy for her. But I was also like now it was more pressure to like get it done so we could do it together. And she did it. So now I got a yeah, which marathons were these up until this point, by the way? All in California, yeah. So I did rock'n'roll. San Diego was my first and I did, we did Surf City full for the 2nd and then the third one we actually flew to Eugene OR that was another things.

We all flew up there and I was part of the Wazelle team and or no, it wasn't yet. I wanted to be part of the Wazelle team and there was a bunch of them there and they're having like an after party and it was just like a lot of like me trying to fit in and thinking that my worth was wrapped around like. Qualifying for Boston like that made me like a legit runner. So I think I was still focused so much on that about proving myself then. And so when I did, I DNF. Then we went to the after party and it was like, okay, I'm going to sign up for another race.

Part of the reason I DNF or I decided to pull out was because I thought, well, I don't want to like do the whole race and have to recover. So I was like, I'll just do another one. So I did, and the only race that was open was the next weekend at the OC Marathon and I ran a 340. At the time, my time was 335. And so I finished that one. And I remember being disappointed, but also just being really happy because it was still a PR and I was like proud of myself, but still disappointed. And then I got married that year. We got married that year, and then I hired a different coach the next year.

Again, like bouncing around thinking it's like a new strategy and you like this new coach will help me. And she was really into like heart rate training. So we trained. I trained for the Phoenix Marathon. I I sprained my I've. I've never had an overuse injury, knock on wood, but I sprained my ankle during the training for that one. And then it just wasn't my day on top of the pool running and like not being able to fully train again mindset wise, I gave up on that one in the middle of the race, basically like at mile 13, I was like, oh, too far behind pace.

Like I'm out. Like, I basically mentally gave up for that one. So that one was probably the most disappointing. And like, I don't know, just kind of like when you finish a race and you're like, man, I didn't give that my all and like it was my fault. Like, I like, I. That one just felt, because that actually happened to me last night when I did a speed where I just rejoined my group after our trip for the speed workout and I kind of mentally gave up because I was like, yeah, I just got back like I'm it's fine if I just like run this last one easy and and at the end you're like, I should have just given it my all.

Like I think there's no worse feeling than it's not about failing. It's about like you knowing that you didn't give it your. All right. Yeah. So that was how the Eugene or the Phoenix one went where it was just kind of, yeah, that sucked. Well, and it's like that fear of oh, if I give it my all and then I still fail, then that sucks even worse. Almost, right? Cuz you're like, well, yeah, if I can say, oh, I didn't try. Well then you're like okay, so no big deal. But if you said I gave it absolutely everything I had and I still couldn't do it, and that's just something you put on yourself, cuz obviously nobody else really cares.

Yeah, well that's the trick your brain plays on you when you're in the moment. So like, now I know a lot more about psychology and your mindset, cuz I've done a lot of work on it for both my business and for running. But when we're in like a situation that's high stress, like a fighter, you're basically your brain kicks in and you're in fight or flight and it immediately gives you all these ideas of like justifications of why you should get out of pain, doesn't want you to be in pain. So part of being great marathoner is practicing being in pain and pushing through because I think, like, there's no worse feeling for me than knowing I didn't give it my all.

Like I'd rather I'd rather give it my all and not achieve it, which was my next attempt. So my next attempt was California International Marathon, same year as Phoenix. Phoenix was in March and then December was CIM and that one I heard the run coach and I trained myself, so I trained myself using Brad Hudson has a book called Run. I think it's just called run Faster from like the whatever to the marathon And I use that book to run a half marathon PR in June. Never been 140, oh three or something like tried to break 140 and barely missed it. And then I felt really confident after the 1:40 and I was like, I can do CIM.

It's a great course. Like faster course it's it's only a marathon. Like only. I mean they only do marathon not 1/2. So it's just like the environment is really set up for the marathon and you know it's colder weather. All the races that had been a part of this were in like the 60s and 70s and I was like this is it, CIM is it, It's happening. And so I trained really hard and I think one of the the biggest keys for that race for me, for training for the runners out there is the long run with the segment at race pace or like around race pace.

So like every other week the training plan had you doing This is only for I don't want like a beginner runner to come out to listen to this and be like I need to do this like you really. It does take some experience with the marathon before you want to do those long runs with pace work. But for me, again with the mental side, having that being able to do an 18 miler with like 14 at just over race pace was so confidence boosting and just the grind of being in it. And this time, since Asia had done Boston, my best friend, I actually trained alone.

My husband trained too, for sin, but not together. So it was just a lot of like grinding and getting those long runs in. So I went into that race feeling stronger and better than I ever have for a marathon and then I was on again. My time back then was 335. This was before they changed the times to 3:30, right? So it was like, I mean at one point the 30, the 35 and under was 340. Then they moved it to 3:35. So that's when I was doing it. But now it's 3:30. But anyways then it was 335 and I was on track the whole time.

I was ahead of pace even. I think I would have finished till like 332. But, and I was so strong, I remember catching up to the Pacers at like mile 21 and then being like, wow, you look great and like keep, you know, keep going. I felt so good until like probably mile 24. And then I was just like pushing through the pain cave. And I was just so proud of myself for not giving up mentally and for doing it. And I kept, I kept going. It was really, really painful. Like my dad was there and he got pictures of me running and I look like a zombie, like horrible.

Like I look like I almost felt like a tunnel was like, he like I was in a tunnel. I was, but I was like, I'm doing it. I'm not giving up. And then when you went into the finisher shoot to finish, there was 2 corrals. There was a men's finish and a women's finish and I don't know why there's two. But when I made the turn, it was like you were running and then you had to make a U-turn and it was like you're either U turning really hard or you're U turning bigger to get into the one. Anyways, I kind of, like wasn't sure where to go so I kind of stutter stuffed.

And then this girl in front of or like this girl in front of me didn't know really know where to go either. And so I just, I don't know, remember exactly how it happened but I could see the finish line ahead. But it was far enough that it was like fairly far. And I I don't know if it was that Stutterstepper like my husband like says he's like, you looked like you were trying to Sprint it in but you had just run a marathon And I just, my legs fell from under me and I collapsed and it was like this surreal moment of like, OK, because then I was like, I'll just get up and then I'll finish because it was like 332 on the clock.

I was like, I'm going to do it 332. Oh my gosh. Oh, I couldn't get up. And then this poor woman behind me tried to help me and she couldn't either. And then she was like, stay, should I go? And then I was like, like there, my dad got pictures of it. So if you, you look at my race report, you can see this horrible picture or I mean, they're very emotional pictures of me being like what's happening to my legs, like I've never even heard of this. But then I found out afterwards all these people were like, that happened to me too. And I was amazed.

I didn't even know it was a thing. So then meanwhile, my dad's taking pictures of me as time collapsed and my husband, a volunteer, and my husband came out and they helped me get to my feet and they helped me walk across the finish line in three, 3526. I missed in my 26 seconds. You give your husband a hard time. Like, man, come on, you couldn't have dragged me like just a little faster running out there. But I was like, I think I have to cross on my feet for it to count. So I think, I don't know. So that was, that was like a mix of, like, wow, I really left it all out there to, like, just so disappointed.

So I went to the medical tent. I've never been in the medical tent, but it was like, I was not feeling well. They couldn't really figure out what happened because I wasn't like like, I don't feel like it was a fueling issue. But I think sometimes it's like a mental, like your brain is like we're done. We see the end like you're just. Going to shut off your legs now. Sorry. Yeah. Wow people, for it to happen, it usually happen. It doesn't always happen at the very end, but it usually happens towards the end. So obviously it's crash. This year at the Carmel Marathon where I live in Indiana, there was a young woman.

She was going for an OTQ and she fell. But she got back up and had enough time. I was like, thank goodness cuz that for a while we didn't know whether or not she missed her time because of her fall, but thankfully she had enough of a buffer. But yeah, I couldn't believe it. All of a sudden you're like, oh shit, she just fell down. Like, yeah, yeah, I can't believe that happened to you and that close to qualify. Oh my gosh, yeah, it was really, it was really my family was thinking of, my dad had come out. We're all going to be like, you know, you want to celebrate afterwards.

So it was really, yeah, it was really, really a tough, tough subject, you know? And I was like, should I try again? But we had, you know, me, I'm the planner. You already know this. Now I had planned to get pregnant with my first baby. So I was like, we basically my husband and I, we went on this amazing trip to New Zealand and it was amazing, like, which was perfect. It was right after the race, although my legs had never been so sore. Or or. Yeah, I was wondering how soon after you were able to walk. Were you able to walk later that day?

The guy could be the medical tent. I walked from the medical tent once. They get everything. And yeah, I was able to walk. So. And it's just like, I don't know, to be honest. It'd be fascinating to know. Maybe someone will know. You can message me if you listen to this and you know. And, you know, somebody, Yeah. But yeah, so I had like on the plane to New Zealand, I remember we were like, should we sign up for Surf City because we had done, we had done well, we both did well at SURFS. He also was trying to boss to qualify and he also missed it.

So we're like maybe we should do Surf City, which now I know that's like way too close. It was going to be like 2 months between attempts. So when you go all out effort, there's no way I would have been ready. But while we were in New Zealand, we both decided we're like we're just going to start a family. And it naively I was like all these women come back from pregnancy and they just are so fast. So like, obviously that's going to be me. Yeah, I'll just try to qualify Robust and like after I have a baby. So I had my daughter and we're very fortunate that that whole I got pregnant right away and we had her by October of the next year.

And and honestly for that pregnancy, in retrospect, it was perfect. Like everything went very well. I had a really hard time with breastfeeding. My daughter had a lip and a tongue tie and then we caught it really late. So she was like starving. And we thought she was like, you know, you're like Googling, like all the force, whatever the seas are, we're like, she's just has gas. She just. Has this, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Remember that? So that was really stressful, but. Were you able to run during your pregnancy? Like what was fitness like during your first pregnancy? So the first pregnancy I I ran and I hyped.

I I think I stopped running around 32 weeks with her with Sienna. And I actually did a lot of like workout classes because I got this like membership where you could like bounce, not class. It used to. It was called something. It went out of business. But I did a lot of like yoga and I actually didn't do a lot of the beach body programs then, even though leading up to SIM and everything I was doing like P90X3 and I was still incorporating those. But I was mostly doing classes before classes and running. And then I think I did A and then I found a prenatal yoga class.

And I did that until, like literally the day, I think the day before I gave birth, I did the prenatal yoga, which was very easy. But yeah, it felt good. And then, yeah, I had her and I didn't. I, in retrospect, I obviously rushed. I rushed back into it. I did some pelvic floor rehab and then I did P90X again because it seemed like this is a great way to go back into it. So I had to modify. I Remember Me and Mike did it and like you know, she'd start, baby would start crying and I have to like stop and breastfeed or keep doing it again later.

But we did P90X. I got great results again and that was when a friend told me about 21 day fixed and approached me about becoming a coach for Beach Body. And I had actually done it back after I did P90X because I had my blog and I was like, I'll just put up links like I didn't know how to build the business. I was just like, I'll just put links on my blog and I had people always asking me because I had such great results. I was actually in the infomercial for P90X, the original my original results. Yeah. Oh, that's really cool. When you googled P90X results, female or I think just results period.

I was like the top search, but I didn't know how to leverage any of that back then. And so how was your blog up until this point too? Because like, how? And still even to this day, I don't really know a lot about how you can tell like your readership and visibility and all all of that. Like, what was that, like, kind of threw out these marathons you were doing? And yeah, so I I got really into the running, the running Blogger, the environment for many years. So I was like, I basically documented my training. I was like weekly recap. There was like this whole community of us, bloggers, running bloggers.

And we would read each other's blogs and comment on each other's blogs. And I loved it because you would get to really like get to know people more I think even on Instagram now. And I documented all my training and and my life. And then when I was pregnant, I documented my whole pregnancy too. So I have like the weekly updates with the like, I just enjoy I guess documenting and writing. So I have like all my pregnancy on there. And for me, it's just a nice outlet. And so I would say it was like more of a journal. I wasn't actively trying to like promote or get any new like views and stuff as much back then.

I was just trying to. Don't make any money like advertising, anything like that. No, I never did advertisement. I had a few, you know, like partnership stuff, but I didn't ever really want to do any paid partnerships where I wouldn't actually use the product. So it's something that I would and still is, still now I still is the same thing. I don't do a lot of partner like ambassador or influencer things because I want to make sure it's something that I genuinely like. And now, so now that I am like a body partner, we're called now, but a Beachbuddy coach, I've been for seven years.

I'm already, you know, selling something as part of that job. So I don't want to keep, like, bombarding everyone with all these. Other Yeah. I sell everything here. What do you want? Yeah, but yeah, so it was. Then when after I did P90X, after I had my daughter and then my friend was like, I'm doing this 21 day fixing and it's the same thing as Beachbuddy, but it's shorter, workouts are only 20-30 minutes and it comes to nutrition. I was like, she's like, I think I'm going to become a coach. And I was like kind of FOMO and I was on my maternity leave and I was kind of bored because I was, I wasn't bored necessarily.

I just wanted something to do besides just being home with with my baby. And my friend was doing it. I was like, I honestly barely thought about starting the business. I was just like, sure, I'll do it. And then my old boss who had bought Shakeology from me before, which is like our main nutritional product, she reached out was like, are you still selling that? Because I want to buy some. And I was like, you know what I think it looks sounds like I should start this business. I just started at kind of how to win. But again, like I've never, I literally, I always used to say I'm like I would never be in sales.

I would still wouldn't say that that's like our main job. But because I don't like to repeat myself and I don't want to sell something and like that I don't that I don't love. But it's like, as I've shared literally this like P90X changed my life. And it was, it felt like it was like this lifestyle where people were asking me about it and it all seemed to work together. So as soon as I started doing it, and this time when I was a coach, because like I said, I briefly did it before we had like team calls where people would talk about, you know, I would they would, they would teach us how to how to market on social media and they would teach us, you know, how to have conversations with people or how to follow up or anything, they would teach us stuff.

And I had this community of other women doing it too. And I I started finding myself once I went back after maternity leave to my full time job. I was now in corporate finance and I just found myself like loving doing all the work that came with with my beach body business. So I was like listening to trainings in the car and like when my pump breaks, I'd go in and like you know, do my social media post or send invites and just basically doing both. And I already had my blog, which like I said, felt it really kind of worked because I was already blogging and I was already doing social media anyways, which is part of what market.

And it kind of just all worked together. And then I remember I created my first blog post called. It was like combining 21 day fix with running. It was just like the schedule that I would do. And I remember with the several months in, I used to look at my stats a lot more on my blog. And then I noticed I'm like, huh, that blog post has like a lot of views. My number one blog post was always my P90X results. And then even though I had blogged about running for all this time, it's still the number one result. The number one blog view was my Peanut Next results and then now my next blog view was this 21 day fix and running results.

And I was like there's something there with like this. But in the beginning, I was honestly really afraid to go all in with my niche of runners because I was a new mom and I was attracting new moms and I didn't want them to feel like they had to be a runner and do 21 day fix and do all these things. And so in the beginning I just helped whoever I could. So like friends, family members, people from high school would come out of nowhere because I had such amazing results. Everyone was like I want to do what you do. And you know, I'm always been a very, I'm very like diligent person.

I'm a good communicator. I get back to people. These little nuances that like make you good at corporate also really help you in a business because people want people that are reliable and they want to work with people to go up consistently and they want to work with people who to have a vested interest in them. And I would run these accountability groups and I got really excited about helping other women get change their lives the way that I did. And you know I got some good momentum in the first from from the beginning, but then we had to make this or not. We didn't make decision, but I, me and my husband both were really, really not liking the lifestyle of us both working fulltime outside the home with a baby in daycare who was constantly getting sick.

We actually, my husband has not done a race 1/2 marathon or a full marathon since CIM. When that year, partially because we were going to do La Jolla half marathon after we had Sienna and she brought home some like gnarly stomach bug. And I remember I got it, it was like the worst ever. I got it. And then. Yeah, we're like, should we just pick up our bibs Anyways, we went and picked up the bibs. I was starting to feel better. And then we, I remember we went to the start where we're going to, like we went to the race and we were sitting in the parking lot and Mike's like, I feel sick too now.

And I was like, we should just go home. And knowing me like I'm like the girl that like always does everything. So like the fact that both of us. Were like were like we're calling it. That's so hard, baby. She didn't even get sick. Ironic, I know. I'm glad she did it. But it was funny. Not funny, but like, it went through the whole daycare and we're so sick and she's just like, not sick at all. I'm immune. Look at me. Oh my gosh. Yeah, daycare germs are the worst. Yeah. So after doing that and just like I, I accept my I give. I have very high standards for my own work and I'm and I found in my accounting career I was constantly like setting new career aspirations and feeling like I want to work towards those.

But then my heart was never in it. I never wanted to go. I always got good performance reviews. I always was good at my job. I always got my work done. But I never had the urge to go above and beyond. And with Beach Body in my business, I was getting rewarded. I would make more money, but I was also getting publicly recognized for doing well and starting to like make momentum. And I started seeing all these other, you know, listening to calls where other coaches were saying like they made this their full time, real time job essentially, but had flexibility and freedom. And I was like doing my research and I was a little bit skeptical.

I'm like I don't know about this like this totally not. You know I kind of had this conflicting of like do I want to leave this like career world, this professional world where I'm respected for my title and to go into like network marketing that like has At the time I don't even think I realized that they had a negative connotation but just like this unriskier thing. And but I was like I love it. And at the time we just like did the math and I was like if we don't have to pay for daycare, if I can make this much money with this. If we can scrape pennies and do everything and not go on vacation, I will want to be a stay at home mom and do my business.

And Mike was like, I'm in because he hated he hated the lifestyle too of us being thick and gone and never seeing each other and stressed out all the time. So yeah, I was actually surprised when I quit my job, how many people were like, it's such a great, like you should like not you should, but like, they're like, enjoy this time with your baby. And I'm so glad I did it because in those early days with Sienna, like when it was just her, it was like, and I had some friends who were stay at your mom's, which was really nice. I think that was probably a big reason too, because on my maturity leave I got to hang out with them and I was like can.

I go back. We just had so many, like, I had those moments with her that now that I I had no idea I was going to have twins. But knowing that I had that time where it was just this me and this one year old and we got to go on during the mornings, we would go out and spend time with friends or go for runs together. Or I would take her to the, you know, the zoo or we had all these memberships and we would go all around. And then I would come back and I would work on my business just for a little bit.

And then we'd have time in the afternoon and I could make dinner and time for my husband to be home. And I was like, OK, it's worth it. But then my, our landlord, we were renting, raised our rent by $400.00. And then my husband. And then we were like, yeah, we were looking around, the rents had all gone up. So we decided to buy a house. And again, we like, took our, you know, it was a big my income didn't count. So it was like a big deal for us to buy this house. And then right after we bought the house, I thought I was pregnant with twins.

And then when I was seven months pregnant with twins, my husband got laid off. So it was like this time of was we went from like, okay. We're like we're making this work, this lifestyle work. We're scraping by like, now we're obviously when we bought the house, our mortgage went up from our rent, but we were like, at least we own it. And then all this uncertainty with him getting laid off and his, he had this unique job where it wasn't like he could just easily go get something else. And I mean the cost of having twins we had like a high deductible plan was a lot of money.

So that was an extremely stressful period after we had the OR when I was to when I had them And he he had started doing some consulting on the side and my business was growing. But it wasn't to the point where I was able to support the entire family and I had those, like should I go back to work? Like I know I could make 6 figures in accounting and I could be miserable, not liking what I do and never see my babies, but but will I have to do it? And I had that thought and I was like, no, I'm. I've seen people through this business take it to the next level and achieve, you know, so many things.

And I don't know why I'm letting my own basically limiting beliefs hold me back. And so I went all in and one of the big things with me with going all in was two things. Working on my mindset, but also working on my niche. So I went all in with the running niche with runners who want to do beach body programs. I found that there's a lot of people out there, actually, who were already doing programs that wanted to know how to do with running. They wanted a community or there's a lot of runners out there who they want to do string training, but they don't really know what to do.

And I find that once I was a mom, it did not make sense for me to go out and go to a workout class anymore because I'm already, if I'm going to leave the house, I'm going to run, I'm not going to also try to make it to a class. And I found that classes aren't very effective. I personally don't think there's effective with your use of your time. So really combining those two things and then documenting my journey from postpartum twins and then just really leaning into finding other women who want to do the business too so that that I could mentor them and getting better at my business skills.

And I really focus on leadership skills. So yeah over that next year and a half after the twins my business completely took off and then I was able to get to between yeah by the time they were a year and a half I was already making a full time income and then it's just keep it's gone up from there So now it's like I've never gone back to a county So I had full time career to be in this industry and and I actually love it So yeah I think you had said when we were talking earlier about so I need I then I founded my team called team run the world the team of runners who do body programs and we go for rate we like go for runs when we get together at our annual conference and just an amazing group of women and yeah I love working with them I love what we do and.

And how does that work? So is it? Do you now you have this team and all of these women are also coaches, so you've kind of helped them become coaches? Or do you still do one off coaching yourself? How does that look for you now? So basically what I do is we run, so we run virtual accountability groups as body partners or we're club partners, coaches. So we have like I I work with people who aren't as into running too. So I usually have two different like accountability groups. One is for like we have a training club, so I have a run coach on my team.

We create training schedules where they get the run plan with like speed work, long runs, all of that mixed in with the beach body programs and then all recognize people for their races every week and all that. And then I have more of my, like, people who want nutrition support. Like we have our protocol program that we're going to be launching or doing this fall, That's like a nutrition program. So I have that. And then I also help other women become coaches or partners, like a new or an onboarding system that helps them start their business. And people come in for all different reasons. So again, when I came on, I was like, it'd be nice to make some extra money.

I'm kind of bored. There's some people who come in there like, no, I want to get to your level and I want this to be my full time job. And then there's people who are like, I just want to like refer some people to you. It's really like all different levels of of commitment levels and some people really love it just for the community to have a community of women who are driven and are interested in personal growth. And yeah it's so I basically am like onboarding them, training them but they're business owners so it's not like I'm their boss so I'm their lead, I'm a leader and then helping them grow.

I do like what you know we'll do group mentorships or what I'll do one-on-one calls or I'll like give them tips and look at their social media and help them but it's not like I'm their boss necessarily. So basically the way that the income your my income is a reflection part in part of not just my own commissions that I'm from my personal sales, but also if my team is producing and doing well then I earn more money. Gotcha. It's like both. Yeah, makes sense. And you are a top 25 partner, which? How many, How many are there? It's, I don't know. There's like all these numbers that get thrown around, but there's definitely multiple 100,000 body partners, which is just like.

Holy crap, congratulations. What a huge accomplishment. That's really cool. And is your team. Are they all over the country or primarily in in your area? Actually, yeah, because I've met so many people through my blog. Again, a lot of people find that. Okay, that makes sense. And then on Instagram so I don't and in the beginning I was really scared to invite people I actually knew. So I don't have a local people on my team. I was more comfortable just being like oh we don't really know each other like here you should join me. So now I've. But yes they're all over. We are in Canada to UK and France for I don't have anyone in France, but I did learn some French recently.

OK. Well, that's a good segue. But I also want to know about your Boston that when you actually qualified and your Boston experience. So how much time do we have? How much, how much more time do you have? I don't want to make the I like. I listen to podcasts all the time and I'm like, I don't want it to be too long because no one. Listens to it. It's actually not true. I well and somebody recently told me to just embrace, like don't cut off the conversation, right. Just embrace the longer conversations. Because I do feel like. There's so much more to talk to you about, so don't worry about that.

I just want to be mindful of your time and schedule. So, yeah, no, yeah, I go back to the the Boston qualifying, so. Yeah, I don't know about that. I tried to qualify one more time. Or I ran the New York Marathon because I got into the lottery. And so I made that my, like, comeback marathon. I totally blew it up because I had no idea how to pace it. It was actually the most miserable marathon ever. But it was such a cool experience. What year? What year was that? It was 20. She was born in 20/15/2016. Okay, that was after your first before the twins.

Then yes, before the twins. And then I did mountains to beach six months later when Sienna was like 1 1/2 one year, nine years I did mountains to beach. And going into the training I was like I had joined the local run club that I'm still a part of. And going into it I was like, I don't know. But then I started to feel confident like I could qualify for Boston. But that race didn't end up being everyone went 340. So it was still good, but it wasn't wasn't my day. And then again, then I was just had decided I would get pregnant again. So then I got pregnant that summer and then we found out I was twins.

And then I would say my come back to running was much slower after the 20s for many reasons obviously. I actually was very surprised. One of the when I found out I was pregnant with twins, I was like, oh, my life's over. Like, I don't. It's over. It does sound terrifying, yeah. Yeah. So I had no idea what to expect in terms of a return to fitness with that at all. But same with me. And I was active the whole time. I think I ran until like 29 weeks with them and then I was able to I I made it to 39 weeks. So I was very lucky to have a healthy delivery and everything too.

So, but mainly it was like a time constraint. Like I have three kids. Two babies. One's 2 years old so I really relied on the beach buddy programs during my postpartum and less running. But I still ran but just not nearly as much. So the comeback after the twins was slower and then I feel like I was starting to get my mojo back and then the pandemic happened and then. But honestly, yeah. So I'm it's it's just been since having the twins. I feel like it's my pacing or my pace and my speed has not come back as quickly as I ever imagined. But I I also feel like I have fallen.

I'm going to have like a transformation with my running and I think it's a large part because of my business and all the personal development I've done. So like I said back then, my first attempts, I was so like putting my worth in my times. I was putting making it about so many external factors rather than like the joy of actually running and training. And I think I've become a lot more selfaccepting. I've started to like enjoy the journey a lot more and be more appreciative for what it is and the community and feel. I just feel differently about it. So this last year I finally decided I was going to try to qualify again for Boston.

But with the point of like if it doesn't happen, it's Okay. Like I don't. I was like, I know I'm done with kids. So I was like it's okay. And I also knew I was going into a new age group. So I'm at the time I qualified, I was only 38. But the way that it works is like the age that you are on Boston Marathon day. So I'm I qualified for the 2024 race and I turned early in December. Anyways, I was 38 in November when I qualified at Revel Big Bear, but I got to use the 40 year old time. So I didn't know that was a thing.

Yes, so. That could help me. So trick. OK, I knew that. So as you're getting close to the next deck or like five year frame, you go look at the calendar and say, OK, how old will I be on the day of the Boston Marathon? That's what matters. And I knew Revel Big Bear was a downhill fast. Yes, I love Revel is still my half PR. I did Big Cottonwood. But anyway. The downhill I know this, like there's there. It's its own challenges with the downhill racing. But I'm like, I'm very strong. I do so much strength training. I was like, I actually run. Uphills are my nemesis.

But I was like, I think I'm actually a pretty good downhill runner and I was like, I'm just going to give it a mile. So I read you. I was back with my run club because during the pandemic I we didn't really, you know, I I tried a different coach and I loved her, but I missed it in person. Yeah, my coach does like the hardest speed workouts and I just love being in community with the other people that do it. And then I love my long I'm a social runner. I want to I want to chat for 2 1/2 hours and run. So I I joined my run club and my coach helps, helps.

But I'm also a nerd and I've like researched everything. So one of the things, a few of the things I think made a big difference this time to finally qualify number one was the mental side. So the mental training. So for example, during Revel Big Bear, the first part is like rolling and you're at elevation, so you know, it's slower. So I had mentally prepared for where I would be at the halfway point, but then I had to go to the bathroom. This has definitely been a post kids thing where I have to go. I never used to have to go to the bathroom during races until I had kids.

So I had to go to the bathroom and it was urgent enough. It was like, it's just like I have to go. And then there was a line. And so I lost like 2 minutes going to the bathroom at the halfway point and the old Nicole would have come out of the porta potty and been like, never mind, but this. But now I was like, no, there's £13.00 to go and the fastest miles are ahead of you and you just need to try. So luckily with this course, the fastest miles are right around that point where I was and it was like, since you're going downhill, it was literally like someone's pushing your back downhill.

So I was like, even if I slow and I had the thought, I'm like, even if I slow down, it's still going to hurt because my body started to hurt from the downhill. My back was hurting because it was pretty. This was like the steepest part of the downhill. But I was making up time and so I was looking at my watch and I'm like, I'm making up time. And so I just, I really, I worked on so many mental techniques at one point I listened to a pot. I I have so many more mental strategies now that I was able to implement. Whereas before I would have maybe given up and then fueling, I carbo loaded more than I've ever carbiloaded before.

Like I thought I used to carbiload, but this I really carbiloaded and then I really practice fueling a lot during my long run. So like I used to do like one gel every 40 minutes, but now I was doing basically 2 1/2 an hour, so making sure I was like just topped off. So when I got to mile 20 the marathon, I felt better than I did at like mile 14. And I was like, I feel good. And then I just kept clicking off like 8 minute miles and I was like, what is happening? I feel good, but you don't want to get too optimistic.

It was just like dream finish to a race. Like I was like, I kept like there wasn't very many people at the races aren't very big and they're not very scenic either. But I was just like, Oh my God, I still I'm like just keep going. I just kept like focusing on it and then like at mile 25, I had one mile to go. And I'm doing the math and I'm like, if I'm going to do it, I like. I finally knew I was going to do it. It was like the best feeling ever. But then it was so funny. As soon as I thought I'm going to do it with, my body started feeling.

Heavy do not do that to me. It's like you do not do that And the friends had run the half and it was so amazing because as I was running and one of them stayed kind of farther back and I just yelled at her I'm I was like so happy she got a video of me And then I saw my other friend she and I was waving her hand and I crossed the finish line and I was just like I was I was so emotional. I was like crying and I finished photo. I didn't even get a good photo because I'm like I was just like I did it.

I finally did it. So it was a 33730, which is again my BQ for my new age bracket. Still out of PR but I did it finally qualified, robust and hopefully it's enough to get in because there's gonna, I don't know there might be a cut or a cut off, but it felt so good and I was like, it just built my confidence and I was like, I'm back, I can do this like yes, like you just can't give up on the goals. And I like, I've just been sharing with a lot on social media lately where it's like being excellent or getting having success.

It has so much almost everything to do with your willingness to never give up and just be consistent and pay less to do with luck or or privilege or I mean, there's privilege involved too but you know, with the resources but your skill. Like I feel like we all tend to think like, oh, I'm not good enough or I'm not skilled enough or like I always have the thought. I know I'm not genetically gifted as a runner. Like I know, like I know this. However, I don't give up on my on my goals is my superpower. Yeah, because I don't give up. I just keep going.

And that's quite the superpower, too, do you think? I mean coming back when you're hard on yourself and, like, worrying about your worth being tied up in your times? For me, it changed and shifted after I gave birth to two girls. I was like, okay, I don't want them to ever look at me and feel, you know, there's all those memes now you see. Or like just quotes about like, you know, don't. Look in the mirror and tear yourself down, especially in front of your kids. And I think about that a lot. Just, you know, wanting to be a role model for them and show them that, hey, it's not about this, it's more about the journey and all that.

Do you think that being a mom to girls makes that different for you? Yeah, I think being a mom in general, though, is just like having the perspective that you want to tell your kids that they can, that they're worthy, no matter. What they do right. And I always tell my kids that usually, like, if they, you know, are in trouble or they feel like I don't want them to feel shame. But you can see when they do, right. They're like ashamed that they did something. And I always say, mommy still loves you no matter what. Just remember that. Like even if you're no matter, I said I tell them, like no matter what you do, I will still love you.

And like, just giving them that reassurance, because, yeah, I mean so much of and I've psychoanalyzed myself enough to know, like. Kind of where my achievement oriented personality came from. I do think part of it is just genetic, like we're born like cheers and but then there's also like your childhood where you're being rewarded. I was very heavily rewarded for accolades and to get, you know, my dad's attention for my parents were divorced, like I said. So I was like, that was his thing was like rewarding me for my achievements. And so then you're like, look at your own kids and you're like, what? Was it a good thing?

Or was it a bad thing? Like, oh man, right, you. Just don't know. Like, I feel like you just got to do your best as I'm figure out. Yeah. And just hope it works out. Okay. We're all doing our best, Okay. So now we have to talk about your recent travels to Luxembourg, because this whole thing, everybody is so cool. I actually never knew this was this. You could do this. So Nicole just went to Europe with her family and did a house swap. Is that the right term or like house sharing? So basically you switch places with the family. How did you find out that that was even something to do?

I knew about it vaguely. How did I know about it? All I know is I was researching which home exchange. I guess I had the, OK, two years ago we went to Costa Rica for a month and we did an Airbnb. But we had the idea of renting out our house because we live near the beach and like we had seen like a neighbor how much they listed there for. And so we were kind of interested in that. And I think that's where the idea kind of started, was like, we leave, we rented out because my sisterinlaw used to Airbnb her route, like their house when they just went camping for the weekend and we'd make money off of it.

So she's very entrepreneurial. So we were like, OK, how can we make this work? And then? The Costa Rica that what it was a good amount of money to rent the house but the flights were so cheap for that one. But then for this Europe was like for summer the flights were so expensive that I was like okay how can we make this more affordable so that we're not spending like $30,000 on this vacation. So I went to found this exchange called People Like Us and if you're interested you can join your Facebook group for free so you can kind of like interact with the.

Community and check it out. I think they can have a free trial. So I went on Instagram and I said, has anyone ever done people like us? I'm kind of, you know, Oh yeah, now I'm going backtrack. But I asked on Instagram if anyone had used it because two years ago we went to Costa Rica. I had said I think we want to keep traveling every month. And a couple people actually reached out to me and said I don't know if you'd want to exchange houses. But we live it here and so that's I think that was all like those ideas kind of came together was like people putting it in my ear.

And then this woman reached out to me on Instagram and said we live in Luxembourg, would you want to exchange with us? My husband's been wanting to go to San Diego and they are American, but they live in Luxembourg and so, so that Luxembourg on my radar at all. We were. We had to go. To Portugal. But after I had done a lot of research with my mom, coming with us didn't seem very friendly for her and. So once we once she suggested Luxembourg, I did research and it's like this amazing small country that's accessible to so many other countries within 30 to 45 minutes even.

And there's just like miles of running trails and paths and like just really cool. And I was like, I've never been there and I'm kind of like love the idea of going to as many countries as possible. And so we had a Zoom call with them, and they seemed just so much like us. And really cool. And they have two kids, so it'd be nice because you can exchange and then you, our kids had toys at their house that they were so excited. Everything's set up for you. I mean, when you go to an Airbnb, they don't have, they don't have a lot of that you want.

Like, yeah, it's harder. You know and but Airbnb is definitely better with kids than hotels. But so it just worked out like we you have to be a certain personality to exchange your house. For sure. I am not like I I value exercise. I value travel. I value experiences. I'm not. We we don't, We have not redone our house since we've had kids. Like this room is the one in my office that I've like, put any effort into. There is the house with Mike's furniture from like before I met him. We have the same couch. I really want to get rid of the couch, but it's like destroy everything.

So I don't. Hear as much about someone. One of my best friends was like I would never let someone stay in my house and it's just personality. So you have to be the whole home exchange thing is like based on trust. So like you have to just trust with a family and take care of your house how you would want them to take care of it. And then you kind of work out an individual agreement with like cleaning and and like. Expectations. And then if it's not a good fit, you don't do the exchange. So, but there's no money exchange between anyone. Like, yeah, we even borrowed, we borrowed each other's cars, which was really nice.

That's another, like, I don't know at least. I mean, I think a car rental is a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. Or more. Yeah. And we. Needed the car for like groceries In Coaster. We didn't have a car and I had to carry all the groceries on my back on a bike. God, that sounds tough, but at least you're strong, so. Yeah, you're like This is why I trained I guess. I had to eat. I had to literally go to the grocery store every but. It was great, but. Yeah, but yeah, I just love traveling. That's my that's so cool. Now that my husband, like, we, both work for ourselves, so we can, you know, work from anywhere, which is a huge luxury and something that.

I'm like, I can ever give up, like, right? Well, that's why it's so intriguing because my husband works for a technology company. He works from home. He could work anywhere. I could work anywhere because, well, I mean, I could, I guess, if I didn't want to, like, ship anything. But nobody really cares enough to like, especially in the summer when it's super slow, there's no real races happening. I could totally get away with it. But like I mentioned you on Instagram, I actually studied abroad in Luxembourg. And I so Miami of Ohio where I went to undergrad has a campus there and I actually had to look up where it was because I forgot because it was not in Lux City.

It was in differdonge was the name of the and it's like a 40 minute train ride. So I lived in Luxembourg City and then I took a train every day to school 40 minute train and then came back And my mom I asked my mom before this I was like do you have the address of the place I lived? Because I can't. You'd think like for you know a semester of getting off a train and walking somewhere you would remember like where. But I haven't. I've it's terrible memory. So she sent me emails from when I studied abroad is what she sent me. So I went into this rabbit hole this morning of like reading these emails I sent to my mother and they are hilarious.

I mean, I was like telling her how to get a screen name on a Oli was talking to her about how our place had Internet and nobody else had Internet at their host family's home. So we, my roommate and I were the only ones who, like, got to get on the Internet when we weren't at school, which was a huge deal. And just all these things. Like, I was reading about how I would update her on all my travels and, you know, I just, I got to go to Germany last winter for like a short trip, and I just get that itch, especially now that the pandemic is behind us.

Like, I just want to go. So how cool that you did that with your family, especially how how do the girls, how was that with the girls? What do they think about that experience? They liked I think my oldest that's almost eight. It like will enjoy it and in it honestly they would, I always say like they would have rather they want to go to Costa Rica again. So because we had a pool there, yeah, they weren't. Fair enough. It's like for them. I'd rather go there, but I I mean, I think we're adults. We get to choose where we get to go. And I like the value of them.

My kids are, I mean admittedly spoiled and like, privileged. And they've had parents who dote on them because I, you know, I've been home this whole time and I have been jokes like they need to like, toughen up. So I think it was a good experience than to live somewhere else or it's different your other languages and to realize like not everyone. Lives the way that we live. And you know since my mom came the kids, they spent a lot of time like going to the local parks and going like they went to we took them to Paris. We took them to Lake Como and which is amazing and I took them on some day trips and we went to the city and did stuff.

But like, since we were there for a month, we like kind of. We really live there and my husband had to work more than I did. But. They they enjoyed it. They love the parks are great in Europe, they're way better. So they love the parks. They love this like indoor indoor water or pools are way bigger thing there, like any. I'm in California, we don't have indoor or anything, Everything's out. So they love this indoor pool that I took them to. They liked playing with the different toys. But I don't know if I said like would you guys want to go back? They'd be like, no, we don't want to go back.

That's funny, but. We thought it was going to. It wasn't that great of weather when we were there. It rains kind of more than which I ran. In the rain it was fine, but it wasn't as much of the sunny weather that we kind of thought it would be for like going to you know, there was like a pool that was like near the the the river that in wine country that was an outdoor pool and I should imagine us going there, but it never was good enough weather to go. So they kind of. Didn't get the swimming. They're just obsessed with swimming. They wanted to see.

That's fair enough. Yeah. Kids. Yeah. I also, in my emails to my mom, I forgot to mention this because it's more relevant. I used to run. I would run. I was like, so I got my first run in and I ran for an hour before I got on the train to school. And like it was. I remember the cobblestone, like having to run on cobblestone there. I don't know. I don't know, probably still like that. But yeah, I and I was like, please bring me balance bars. I don't know if you ever had a balance bar, if you know what that is, but my mom used to like survive on those.

And so clearly so did I at one point. And so I was like, please bring me balance bars, which is such a weird thing. I had an unhealthy relationship with food and exercise in college, which now reading back through the the emails, it was like one of the first things I mentioned and I'm like, geez, like OK, yeah. I think my mom sent me cereal. Smart start cereal now that I Oh yeah. Oh my God, I bet my my mom used. Yep, totally. Yeah. And I talked about putting protein powder in my cereal milk. Oh my God, I was so crazy. So at least we're behind.

We're beyond that now, but just looking back at some of that. So thank you for allowing me to go back down that rabbit hole and remember some of my time there and inspire me and hopefully people listening that there's an opportunity to do that if your circumstances allow, Certainly. But that's such a cool idea. I feel like I could do it. I don't care about my. I mean, you know, whatever. It's so I would really, especially just having kids. It's like these experiences you want to build for them and our my youngest is 2. So we're slowly getting out of that stage where it's like tough still to go places because she's just so small.

But it we're, you know, she's independent too and we're starting to starting to see the light we went to. Costa Rica. The twins were three and Sienna was 5. And then I feel like that was a good age and we did like swimming lessons leading up right before it. And then they were good. They actually knew how to swim, which I'm glad to watch them, but but still it's like such. A being there with them. But it is like that was a better age, I think. But even then we must like the kids mostly stayed at the house and went to the beach and then we went and it was very cool.

That's what I like about the home. That's what I think about the home exchange with younger kids is. First of all, you don't have to do a month. You can do. I mean, it's whatever time you want, one week, two weeks. You can also exchange within the United States. So we're looking at Bend OR next year. I'd love to go there. Like within the United States. It's not like you have to go. It might be easier to find an exchange within the United States, honestly, than it is to go. You can do it anywhere, but I think it's cool because there's less pressure to like, go out and do everything because you know that your accommodations are free.

I think when you're paying. I do think the lodging is a little bit more affordable there, but I have three kids and in Europe it's almost impossible. You can't stay in A1 room with kids. The only thing you can do is get a family suite, otherwise you have to get 2 rooms. So it's like, at least in the United States there's two queen rooms which you can squish into, but in Europe they don't have queen beds. It's like, right, I don't. Have two Queens in a room, ever. That would be a family suite. So I think that having the home exchange, it takes the pressure off like we have to go.

Get the maximum out of every single day because we're paying so much and it just allows you to, like, relax a little bit. Yeah, yeah, that's so cool. OK, well, I have a couple of end of the podcast questions and I'm going to tie in a couple of things that I wanted to ask you about as we as we tackle these. OK, so the first one is what is your favorite running mantra or song? I've recently put together a playlist for the podcast. So little pressure there we got to pick a song. The song is Florence and the Machine. How does it go? It says like run fast.

Yeah, the dog days are over. I have that on what? Is it? It's funny because I wrote the mantra down. You told me in advance about this. So my mantra that I use for business and for running is little by little. Little becomes a lot. It's just the the mantra that. Yeah, it's actually not about one big thing. It's about showing up consistently, every day. My mantra used to be pain is temporary. Pride is forever. But that was old Nicole. That's so good. I like relate to that so much his temporary prides forever. Just get through this pain so that you can be happy. Yes, right.

So you can be proud of your time because that's what matters the most. It's like, thank God you, I hope you didn't get a tattoo of that if you did it before and then your next finish line or milestone. So I know this because I follow you on Instagram that you're getting ready to do your first ultra, which is so cool. We're doing the Clean Island 50K and where is that? Is that in California? Yeah, it's a little island off of like Orange County. And it's like, it's awesome because you feel like you're in another world when you go there because there's like, they don't have cars.

It's just golf carts. Well, they do have cars, but there's people who are driving around in golf carts and it's like this tiny little island, but the actual the Avalon is a tiny town. But then the actual island, there's a 50 miler that you don't even repeat Barely any really. It's a huge island. Buffalo out there and beautiful views. So I have a bunch of people. I've recruited a lot of people from my run club to do it with me and my husband's doing it. And again for a while I know. I read that you're like, I don't know how I was going to go for him, but he's doing it, but.

We're training to do the Grand Canyon rim to rim, and that was the other thing I was going to ask you about. So that's gotten him. And I think being in Luxembourg and having my mom there, we went through a bunch of runs together and heights. So he's getting into it, back into it now. I mean, I keep on another tangent with fatherhood for him. He put more of his life on hold for being a parent. I think with the financial responsibility felt so heavy that he just couldn't even do those things anymore. He got into mountain biking too, which, but yeah, so this is like his for.

He's getting back and he's feeling good about where we're at with. Finances and everything now. And he can like, relax kind of start to, yeah, that's cool. That speaks a lot. That says a lot about who he is. That's pretty cool. And you said, and I think it cut. It might have cut out when you said, I know that you're doing it for your 10th wedding anniversary, but that's you're doing rim to rim in the Grand Canyon for your 10th wedding anniversary, which is so funny because then I'm like, oh gosh, I so my husband turns 40 next year and we celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary next year.

There is no way in hell that we're doing anything related to running for our 10th wedding anniversary. But in my dreams, like we would, I would somehow recruit him to do something like that. But yeah, no way, no chance. We're probably going to. Go Hawaii or hiking is better for us to do together, Yeah, yeah. So rim to rim, is that a hike? Are you going to hike that versus run at? OK, yeah, it's a hike. It's 24 miles. One day, but it's and down into the Canyon and out. But it's a hike so it'll take us the whole day. Almost, but it'll be. That's so cool.

Well, I can't wait to follow along on Instagram and your blog for that. And then the next milestone too. I actually don't know if you wanted me to publicly say this so I can cut it out if. If not, but you are. We talked about how you might be starting a or you are starting a podcast yourself. I'm going to start a podcast. I'm going to do it. So one of the things I learned on my trip this summer is that I have invested a lot of time and energy on my body business to get it my systems in place and get it streamlined and to work on my development and my leadership and training.

And I've I've built out all these trainings for my team and I also. I will continue to mentor and do that. But I also realized. I have now that my kids are all in school. They just started kindergarten. I was like, I have a little bit more time and I've been thinking about it first. I saw something recently. I was like, if you keep thinking about it, you just need to do it. Thinking about creating a podcast and a business coaching business for specifically women in the running space. So anyone who has a business. Related to running, run coaches would probably be my main focus, but I also like your business where you have something that is related to running, but really helping those people who already have somewhat of an established business kind of take it to that next level and increase their income.

So creating, I mean, I have experience with all different kinds of marketing like helping with their marketing, helping them with their mindset and their and even other strategies or other offers that they could do to increase their income. That's what I'm really. I'm really excited about it. It's like very early on, but yeah, that's going to be it. I'm excited. It's a big milestone. I'm excited. I will listen for sure. Yeah. OKOK Oh, man, this has been so much fun. Nicole, thank you so much for taking the time. And it's been nice to actually get a chance to meet you too, because I feel like certainly somebody like yourself who got is really good at documenting.

I feel like I knew you before, but now it's just been such a pleasure. So thank you. Good luck. And your Ultra. When is the ultra? In January, January. Okay, okay. And then RIM to RIM is in a month that you're doing that. You said okay. Awesome. Well, good luck with both of those things and Boston next year. Oh my gosh. I'll just just know that I'll be cheering for you. Amazing. All right. Well, thank you everybody for listening. And as always, happy running. Yay.

Ally Brettnacher