Episode 22: Jamicka Edwards - Running Away from Running

Episodes

Sep 1

Jamicka Edwards used to hide in her car to skip Army PT runs. Now she's a marathoner who ran 42 miles on her 42nd birthday and is chasing the World Majors.

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About this episode

Jamicka Edwards is a single mom of three boys, a disabled Army veteran, a run coach, and a marathoner whose energy is contagious. She hated running so much in the Army that she would hide in her car during PT, then set one goal after her divorce: to run a half marathon. That first half was in San Diego in 2016, and she has not stopped since.

We talk about her untrained first Chicago Marathon in 2017, where she walked the second half with a stranger who became a lifelong friend, and how that day led her into Sigma Gamma Rho. She tells me about running 42 miles on the Monon Trail in a snowstorm for her 42nd birthday, racing 40 times the year she turned 40, and heading to Berlin and New York. We also break down what a race really costs and why Jeremiah 29:11 is tattooed on her back.

In this episode, we discuss

Moving from the Chicago suburbs to Savannah, Illinois at age 10
Backing out of the Marine Corps and joining the Army instead
Hiding in her car to skip Army PT runs
Setting one goal after her divorce: run a half marathon
Her oldest son telling her to go run while he watched his little brother
Everything a race weekend really costs, from shoes and socks to watches and fuel
Her first half marathon in San Diego in 2016
Running the 2017 Chicago Marathon untrained and finishing alongside a new friend
Meeting Black Chicago Runners and later joining Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority
Running a virtual Marine Corps 50K in 2020
Running 42 miles on the Monon Trail in a snowstorm for her 42nd birthday
Running 40 races the year she turned 40 and how she budgeted for it
Living with back, knee, and hip pain as a disabled veteran
Chasing the World Marathon Majors with Berlin and New York ahead
Why Jeremiah 29:11 and the words You Matter are on her back

Chapters

00:00 · Intro
03:00 · How we connected and the Indy Mini
06:00 · Growing up in Chicago and Savannah, Illinois
10:00 · The Marine Corps, college, and the Army
12:00 · One goal: a half marathon
15:00 · Running away from running in the Army
20:00 · What it really costs to run a race
32:00 · First half marathon in San Diego
35:00 · An untrained first Chicago Marathon
43:00 · Sigma Gamma Rho and the friendships running built
46:00 · 42 miles for her 42nd birthday
56:00 · Recovery and running as a disabled veteran
1:00:00 · 40 races at 40
1:10:00 · Chasing the World Majors: Berlin, New York, Boston
1:22:00 · Jeremiah 29:11
1:32:00 · Running songs and next finish line

Mentioned in this episode

Races: Indy Mini Marathon, Chicago Marathon, Marine Corps Marathon, Marine Corps 50K, Berlin Marathon, New York City Marathon, Boston Marathon, Detroit Free Press Marathon, Rock 'n' Roll Chicago, She Power, Indy Women's Half Marathon
Organizations and charities: U.S. Army, Black Girls Run, Black Chicago Runners, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., Fleet Feet, FCCLA (Future Homemakers of America), Business Professionals of America
Other: Fabletics, Brooks 3 Pocket sports bra, SPIbelt, Garmin Forerunner, Shokz, Run with Hal, Monon Trail, Jeremiah 29:11

Previous guests mentioned

Related episodes

Frequently asked

Who ran 42 miles for their 42nd birthday on the Monon Trail?

Jamicka Edwards, an Army veteran and single mom of three, ran 42 miles on the Monon Trail in Indiana for her 42nd birthday, finishing in Carmel late at night after running through snow and single-digit temperatures.

Did Jamicka Edwards run 40 races in one year?

Yes. Jamicka Edwards ran 40 races in the year she turned 40, planning and paying for most of them early and using military discounts and travel vouchers to afford it.

What was Jamicka Edwards' first marathon?

Jamicka Edwards ran her first marathon, the 2017 Chicago Marathon, without training and walked the second half alongside a woman she met that morning, who became a lifelong friend.

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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 in fitness. This podcast brought to you by Athlete Bouquets. Celebrate finish lines and milestones of the people that you love by visiting athlete bouquets.com.

Hello and welcome to episode 22. Before I talk about today's guest, I just wanted to take a second to say thank you for listening. When I started this six months or so ago, however long, 22 weeks is, I knew some people I knew would listen like my mother, hi mom. But I didn't really, I don't know. I didn't really think about what it would mean to have strangers start to listen and tell me about what they think of the podcast.

So I got an email from Becky Riley this week. Thank you, Becky, for taking the time to reach out. You know, she is. Coach by my last guest, Nicole De Bronski, who's in California, and Becky's local to Indianapolis, to Westfield, actually like really close to where I am. And she took the time to tell me what the podcast has meant to her, what she thinks about it anyway, and I just really appreciated that.

So if you're listening and we don't know each other, we've never exchanged a message, please feel free to reach out on Instagram or email. I'm at Athlete Bouquets, and then just athlete bouquets@gmail.com. And also while you're at it, or instead do one or the other, I don't wanna give you too much work, but if you could rate or review the podcast, that would be awesome.

I had somebody recently give me one star on Apple. I'm not really sure what that's about. There's no context. So thank you to the troll who did that. So if you could, uh, rate a review wherever you listen, that would be appreciated as well. And a special thank you to Jamie who introduced me to today's guest, Jamica Edwards. Jamica is just incredible. Oh my gosh. Her energy, her light is contagious. So if you take this on a run, just know it's gonna get you through. I speak from experience. I actually listened to this recording on my long run today, which is a Wednesday. We recorded last night after my kids were in bed sort of, and she is a single mother of three.

She is an army veteran. She is a marathoner. She's about to do Berlin and New York. But we talk about kind of how she got into running. We talk about what it takes to do a race, and we kind of joke about it, but it's true. It takes a lot, all the gear, and especially if you're traveling. We talk about how she ran 42 miles on her 42nd birthday.

She did 40 races the year she turned 40. Her goals for the future are just insane. They inspire the hell out of me. And so I certainly hope that they inspire you and I really hope you enjoy this conversation with Jamica. Alright, Shameika's here. I'm here. We made it. It's 8:30 PM and we are making it out.

I didn't tell you this because I wanted to tell you why we were recording. So I am listening to my 2-year-old like scream bloody murder. My husband thankfully just got home, but I'm thinking about how you are a single mom of three boys and I'm like, I barely can keep it together for two days while my husband's gone.

Yeah, and you did it all alone for girl. Years and years and years and years for like nine, 10, let's see, hold on. 13, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 7, 8 years after divorce. Mm-hmm. That's just, yeah, all God. Incredible. God incredible. All God. Yeah. I definitely need some of his help during that. I'm sure. Well, I was trying to remember how you and I first got connected.

Oh, it's Jamie, I think, I don't know how you are friends with if or how you and Jamie's connection is, but it's Jamie who lives in Illinois. Jamie is a runner. Okay. She ran her first marathon in 2021. Thank you to Jamie for connecting us, because otherwise yeah, we wouldn't have met. So Yeah. And I, yeah, that's, isn't that, that's, that's amazing all in itself.

Yeah, it really is. Sometimes you, you're connected to people and you know, for whatever reason, like our rules would just collide and yeah, it was all meant to be. And who knows? With all the races you've done, we've probably like run by each other at some point. My goodness. Um, well we were at the Indy Mini together at the same time, but we did meet, oh, we were?

Yes, that's right. I forgot about that. Stayed at the um Oh, at the Bottleworks. Yes. Yeah. Yes, yes. Yep. Oh, well, I'm bummed I missed you. Do you come every year for that? I will be now that I moved away, so I have done it five, well I think that was my fifth year and they was like, Jamica, let us know if you wanna come back.

And I said, I'll just make this my for real annual trip, the only race that I'll do in Indianapolis. So, yeah, one of my favorite. It is my, it's my top favorite race in Indianapolis and probably, I really do love it. Top favorite half. Yeah. It's so fun. Yeah, so much fun. I've done it, oh, I can't remember. It was the 13th or 14th time this year that I've done it.

Where do you live? So I'm up in Carmel in the suburbs of Indianapolis. Girl, I coulda saw you. I was there a couple weeks ago. Oh, don't tell me that, man. Okay, well next time, yes, next time you are around this area, I'll let you know. Please let me know. I would love to meet you and run with you, whatever. Oh, that would be so fun.

Well, I'm so appreciative of your time and I am so excited to get to know you better. I was doing research and I'm just like, just in awe. I don't know how we're gonna fit this into about an hour of a conversation, but we're going to do our best not to speak for three hours, because I know you need sleep.

Oh, yeah. I would love to just start out with getting to know you, kind of your background, and just kind of start from the beginning and then we'll talk all about your running journey and everything else. Okay, so I'm gonna, 'cause I can talk, so I'll try to Perfect. Um, make it bulleted kind of, sort of short.

So from the beginning I grew up, well my mo my mother and father were, they were married for a period of time and we lived in the south suburbs of Chicago when I was younger. And then they got divorced when I was 10. And we moved to a small, we went from basically suburb of Chicago to a country town called Savannah, Illinois. So, um, when we moved there, I was going into fifth grade and it was a culture shock though. We would go to Savannah in the summertime to visit My great aunt, she's, she passed away. When we moved there, we were there for maybe a year, not even a year. And she passed away from cancer. It spread really quick, so that was kind of sad.

But going to school, there was, like I said, a culture shock. We went from predominantly black school to a predominantly white school and, you know, was, it was challenging, but I eventually made friends and I still have, um, close friends from fifth grade, sixth grade that I'm still friends with to this day.

Wow. Um, yeah, and I hope that they will watch this. So I don't wanna forget anybody, but I'm gonna say Carrie, Brianne, Kelly, Jamie. Jamie didn't graduate. Jamie graduated the year after me. But Jamie, I got Tim, I got Jim, I got, uh, let me see, I said Carrie. Brianne Sorrow, Brianne Otti. These are maiden names.

Amanda, Natalie. There's, there's a, there's a lot of 'em. Thankfully because of Facebook, I reconnected with a lot of 'em, maybe 15 years ago. But some of 'em, I, I've never lost touch with Jamie. That's my girl. I, we saw each other for the first time after like, I think 17, 16, 17 years, um, just two years ago. And it was so, so amazing.

Um, she's in my book that I published. But anyways, so I said all that to say I have friendships from where I thought I, I didn't know what was gonna happen moving to Savannah, Illinois, but so many great things came from living there. Um, did you have siblings too? Yeah, so I have two siblings, have two sisters.

Uh, older sister, um, she's five years older than me, and then I have, I'm in the middle and then I have a younger sister. Who is four years younger than me. Um, okay. You're the middle. I'm the oldest. I'm the oldest of three girls. Okay. So that's funny. So you're middle, are you a good big sister? You know, I, I've had my moments of being good, but man, okay.

Sometimes, sometimes not surely. I don't know. Okay. That's, that's, that's not, I was the Guinea pig being real for my parents. Like, I kind of did all the, I was not the best role model. Like there's been ebbs and flows of being a role model is what I was kind of getting at. Okay. Like, I wasn't the best teenager.

I definitely learned some not to dos from my older sister. Yeah. So when she listens, she'll know what I'm talking about. Yeah. But I also, I learned from her just professionally and in her growth doing things that she did in high school. Um, I was inspired to do some of those same things as well. So, but, and then me being a big sister, I don't know, and little sister, I don't know.

Uh. I guess she would probably say what you said, like maybe I wasn't, haven't been always the best big sister, but I definitely spoiled her. I've spoiled her. Whenever I see her, I spoil her. So, look, we got this on recording. So when I die, this is record. Yeah. Whatever she says in my funeral. No, this is, this is the truth.

This is, this is the truth. Yeah. But yes, so I have two. So my mom end up being a single mother, taking care of the three of us. It was almost kind of the same stage as me, but she, you know, did the best that she knew to do. And we had a good community, um, in Savannah where, you know, teachers that were became family, church became family.

So that was Savannah. And then after I graduated, I thought I would go into the Marine Corps, but I chickened out. Because I can't swim. And I found out that you had to jump in a pool 10 feet deep with a rifle. And I said, no, not doing it. So when the recruiter came to pick me up to ship out, I did not answer the door.

So it's still, wow. It's still on my, my military record. But I wanted to join the Marine Corps to be in the band, to play in Washington, DC for the president, because when I was in high school, I came to visit DC twice. Once was for a conference, for organization. It used to be called Future Homies of America.

But, um, a second time yeah, was for band. And I, I just wanted to be in the band here, but, so that didn't happen. I went to college for, I went, I went to actually a college in Miami, was there for a semester. I had too much fun, knew I wasn't gonna make it, so I left. I didn't have to have anybody tell me to leave.

And then I went to a college in Iowa, was there for a year, and then I joined the Army and that's where I met my kids' father. And I was stationed in Washington state. I hated it because of the rain, the dre, this, all that. But after three years of being there, I grew to enjoy it, not love it yet, enjoy it. We went to Germany for a couple years and we chose to come back to Washington State because we had built connections and I had a job and loved it.

And I never actually saw myself leaving Washington State, but life, life is life. So I was in Washington State for about 14 years, but I'll just say 12 years post-military is when I set one goal. To run a half marathon. Um, I was newly divorced and I just wanted to check it off. It wasn't, um, I didn't plan on running for my life.

And did you have all your kids at this point then? Yes. So I had, Absalon is my youngest who, he was I think three or four, let's see, 12. He was four when I first, when I set that goal. So it was just Wow. And I, and so he was young and I was divorced, um, single mom, but my oldest son who was uh, 13 when I would go out for a training run because I found some plan online and I just said I was gonna do this.

I didn't have a run coach. I didn't know anything about running clothes. I didn't know anything about running shoes. Uh, we can talk more about that later. Mm-hmm. My oldest son would say on the weekends, like Mom, he knew I had to get up at five o'clock or five 30 in the morning and on the weekends he would say, mom, just go.

I got, I got him. Like he would take care of his little brother so I could go run. So really? Yeah. My sons, they have been huge in support and encouragement through, I'll say most of my running journey while 'cause, and I'll say most, because now they two older ones don't live with me anymore. But I could not have done the things that I've done without my sons.

Hmm. So That's incredible. Mom, I got this. You go run. Yes man. Yep. That's really special. And going back to for the, the Army, so you said the Marine Corps you thought about because of the band, but what made you wanna join the Army? Well, so here's a funny thing. When I came back, well when I was in college in Iowa, I had a roommate and things were.

Getting interesting. And school was kind of interesting. I was working two jobs while I was in school, so it was just a lot happening. And I knew that if you were in the military, just, you know, you got guaranteed money, benefits, a place to live, food, all that. And I told myself, whoever, whichever recruiter I talked to first at in the mall, that's where I was going.

And this black man in the Army uniform, he was like, Hey, how you doing? I was like, Hey, what's up? And then he didn't have to convince me like I was probably his easiest recruit 'cause I was just ready to go. Yeah. But with the army I have had, so a couple of 'em I passed away, but five uncles who were in the Army and a grandfather who was in the army.

So it really made sense that I joined the army. Wow. Well, thank you for your service. No problem. I mean, wow. Yeah, I'm, I'm grateful that I chose that, that I chose the army. That's what was supposed to happen. So did you, so you set the goal to run the half like way after you were in the military, during your time in the Army, did you run for anything?

No, because I just picture the army like this. I am not, I don't have any real military connections. Oh, okay. So, so yeah, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to the military, frankly. Yeah, no, it's okay. Um, everybody who doesn't know, know me and only knows me through the run journey, just, and if they find out I was in the military, if they know that I'm a veteran, they assume.

I love running because of the art, right? That's what I, no. Yeah, yeah. No, no. So let me tell you how lazy I was, and when I do the motivational speaking, and I'm very transparent with students because we gotta, we have to be real with them. No, sugarcoating, just tell the truth, tell your story because it matters.

So I would just jog real slow whenever it came to running. Now, pushups and sit-ups, I love that. I did that. I knocked them out. I, I usually would max out on the sit-ups. We, there was a, some requirement and I wanna say it was a hundred, I think 102 minutes, or 80 and two minutes. That was easy. Pushups, I, I know I met the requirement and that was pretty easy.

You, you just adapt and learn how to do pushups. But running. I ran so slow and I didn't care. I didn't wanna run. I remember in high school there's a, um, guy, oh, Missy, I forgot to mention her. So Missy, her real name is Michelle, but we called her Missy Zen. Her brother, um, Chad, he was in cross country in high school, so I remember he would go run all the time 'cause they lived across from us.

And he would always go run on the weekends, run. I was like, why are you always running? Like, aren't you tired? Why are you running two miles? Why are you running three miles? And so back to the army, like I just, I, we had to run two miles and I was so slow, like 25, 30 minutes for two miles, which now that I'm a runner and actually my pace is like kind of equivalent to that some on some days it's, it's interesting, but I was just so slow.

30 minutes, you know, 40 minutes, whatever. And when I. So we didn't have PT tests often, but just regular runs. I would figure out ways to get out of it. I would, um, make up an excuse like, I'm cramping, I'm on my cycle. Oh yeah. Mm-hmm. It's too heavy. I can't run. And what, why, why would a male wanna try to Right.

Believe you. You know? Yeah. Yeah. So just whatever. There was a time, and I share this often. We used to go run around this airfield and we, at the time, you could drive up your car, like on the outer perimeter of the airfield, and then we would just run around the airfield. Now you can't drive, it's a street and everything, but, um, it was dark.

'cause you know, we did PT 5, 5 30 in the morning and I would start out running with everybody, but towards the back. And I, I wasn't the only one who did this either. But once everybody took off, we went to our cars and waited until we heard people starting up their car to leave. Because I hated running.

That is so funny. Well, that's why you said literally you're like literally running away from running. I ran away from running from running for so many years. And now just think about how much money you're spending to go to Berlin here in a few days. Girl, I'm so, I, I need to, and I haven't, I need to say, Hey, if anybody would like to send a donation, a, a token, a blessing.

I'm more than that. So maybe if this comes out before Berlin, um, it will, it will. So, yeah. So if anybody wants to, you can cash at me. Jamica 97 J-A-M-I-C-K-A 97. Kasha. Yeah. Hell yeah. Uh, Zelle. Find out my phone number. Ask me. Let me know if you, oh God. It is, it's, it's getting real, real. I can't even, yeah, I can't even imagine.

I've never done an international race, but I've spent enough just going around the United States, which I'm sure you have as well. So, um, the in be many, yeah. Right. Yeah, because, so let's talk about that for a moment. Okay. Because people who watch us run think that all we do is just wake up, show up for the run, and then that's it.

They don't realize it's a whole process to get to it. So can we walk through what it, what it takes for a race? Yeah. Okay. Oh, I'd like that. And then if I miss anything, you, you go ahead and interject. Okay. Okay. I'm in. So, so we both, let's say, you know, we're we in May, may, this is May Indy Mini. And now that I don't live there and, and you, you know, may do a staycation, we're gonna say, so we're gonna stay downtown because we wanna be close to the expo.

Mm-hmm. We wanna be close to the start and finish so that we can do what we need to do and get back, shower, check, take a nap, go out to eat, whatever. So, in a weekend of a race, you wanna show up a Friday evening because you wanna get to the expo, you know, maybe Saturday morning or that Friday evening. And when you go to the expo, bling bling bling, you see, oh, I might need a new pair of shoes.

Oh wait, but I think I might need some new socks. Because the socks that I have, if in case it rains and I'm running the 5K and the half marathon, I need to change. So Okay. Socks, running socks, $14. Oh God. Easily sometimes. And you must wear running socks. Yeah. Amen to that. Or you will get a blister. Yeah. I don't know how you, I don't know how people don't, so, yeah, me either.

So running socks are a must, a good pair of running shoes. Mm-hmm. Unless you get them on clearance. And even clearance might be about a hundred dollars, but you're looking at anywhere from 150 to 200 to two 50 depending on the brand that your foot is now comfortable with. So yeah, I miss, I miss my discount at fleet fee.

I was working there for a while. I missed that. Okay. Because yeah, running shoes are no joke. So expensive. No joke. So, and then you got the running outfit. Now me, this is my, this is what I wanna say. My bread and butter. I'm not fast, but I'm going to be cute. So I, I always have a new, cute running outfit. I used to wear tuts all the time.

Now I, I haven't, I haven't, um, in some years, but Fab Lus gets the majority of my money. Oh, okay. And I have hooked some other people to Fab Lus as well. The reason why I love Fab Lus so much is because whether I want a plain, cute outfit or some type of, um, design, the fit is always right. It sucks in my jiggles when I got it.

It helps hold in the compression and my thighs. So I don't need any, uh, and my calves, especially if I'm wearing pants, it is, I feel like it's just built in. Um, it's just the, the way that it's made, the fit is great and I can wash the clothes over and over and over again. And it's, it's not messed up, so, but Okay.

FTIC outfit, because I am a VIP member, I usually try to get girl, yeah. I try to get, uh, and I get to use my military discount. I would just say an outfit could be about 60 to $70, but if you weren't VIP, it's easily a hundred more than a hundred dollars. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Or a sports bra and shorts or sports bra and pants, capris, whatever.

Okay. So sweatbands, I don't often wear sweatbands, but I do wear a hat, especially if I know it's going to rain. So a good quality running hat, unless you got it from a race for free could be about 25, $30 maybe. Yeah, that sounds right. Okay, so then we wanna talk about what are we gonna do with our phones, because majority of us run with our phones for our music, for safety, for whatever.

So I have a little running belt that I, that I run with. This last one I got, it's nothing fancy. I actually, I wish I had a better one, but I, my budget is not there right now. Mm-hmm. But this one was like 25, 20 $5. And let's see. So we got the running belt, the outfit, shoes, I gotta plug. So my new, I have this new favorite sports bra from Brooks and it's like, oh, I forget the official name, but it's the three pocket something.

And so it has a phone pocket in the back, which a lot of them do now, like in the shoulder blade area. Oh yeah. Which I think some people are like, well, how the heck isn't that weird that it's there? How do I reach it? I don't know. I've gotten used to it, frankly, and then I've never used, it's just kind of, it is kind of awkward.

Yeah, no, but you get in, but you can get it and then you put it back in and it's fine and, and then it has two pockets under your armpits for. For actual fuel, which I haven't used yet, but I know a friend of mine, Amanda, who listens to this, I think, Hey, Amanda puts some, like, puts goo under her arm. Like, so it's got all this storage.

That's smart. Which is nice. Or you could probably use that for, um, a key fob Yes, exactly. Yeah. Or something. What, what's the name of this? This board? Oh, it's, it's like if you Google Brooks three pocket, I bet it'll pocket three. Pocket. Yeah. Okay. But it's their three pocket. So I have three pa, three of those now because.

I would always wait till it was clean or like I'd wanna wash it. So I'm like, why am I doing this? I just need to get another one. Yeah. But yeah, I, I do like the spy belts. Or spy belts, however, that's what I have. Yeah. Okay. I have it like, probably way too many of those. I only have one, that's my problem. I, well, I'll need to get more.

They've got like waterproof. They've got extra large for like the big ass phone that I have now and yeah, for sure. Yeah. Okay, so we've got the running belt hat, clothes. Yeah, the watch. Oh, the watch. Yep, the watch. So I thankfully was gifted my first and only Garmin. I have not gotten a new, I thought I was gonna buy a new one a couple years ago, and then I was like, Nope, that's not in my budget.

But. I know that the garment that I have, it is the, it's a old, old, it's a old one, but it, it works. So if the person who gave me the gift, listen to me, trust me, I'm still 100% grateful. 2019 and it's 2023. Yeah, it is still kicking. I did have to send it in, but they replaced it. So it is a A 2 35. Oh, okay. Is that a four runner?

Four runner, yeah. Garner four 30. I had runner for a long time. Yeah. Yep. So it does what I needed to do. Mm-hmm. Which is simple as my, my run walk, heart rate. Which is pretty accurate, and I love that it tracks my sleep. Those are the most important factors for me. Mm-hmm. It stay charged pretty decent because I don't use the other features on it, so I don't get text messages on it.

I don't get emails. Right. I don't get all those alerts. I just keep all that off. But, so the watch, I don't know today, but let's just say it values at $250. Yeah. For a watch, it's important. If you are going to, now, everyone can run without a watch. You, it is not necessary. But if you want to track your pace and know where you are, where you stand, when you are competing against yourself, not people, right?

Yeah. Not every people you, yeah. To improve, to see if you've had a bad day. See what you need to improve on, to see if you had a great day. See what your personal. Best has been, it's important to have some type of tracking device. Mm-hmm. So people use garments, people use Fitbit, people use Apple Watch. Some people, I think use, you can use a Samsung watch, I believe.

I'm not sure. I don't Kross now that people, a lot of runners use, which I've never tried one, but now I use a running coach too. I use my Garmin. She actually, I didn't even know you could create workouts to put onto Oh yes. A watch. Yes. Because I, you know, that's been huge now, you know, having workouts where it just buzzes and it tells you.

What to do. I never even knew I had had a Garmin for as long as I can remember, and I never knew it did that. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's how I trained. That's game changer. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And you can send your runs to people so it to be more safe. I have a live track on, and I learned that like a couple of years in, actually it was after COVID because stuff started happening.

Things were happening to runners. Mm-hmm. Because every, but there were more people running than before on trails and you know, different things happen and so. I learned from another runner that I could send, use the live track. So every time I go run, it automatically turns on and one of my sons will know where I'm at.

So if anything were to happen to me, they, I have the actual map and they can, you know, figure that out. Yeah. Or I stop running, which my son used to do this all the time. If I stop running, because most of the time I ran into somebody and I start talking, that's a whole nother story. Uh, I just love strangers and, and, and people that I know and he'll see that my watch pause for like 15, 20 minutes. So he'll call me and ask me if I'm okay. Make sure. You know, I'm good. So that feature is so useful for so many reasons. So I don't know, I wasn't adding that up, but let but, and then head, don't forget, headphones. You got your shocks, headphones. Do you wear shocks? Oh my gosh. Shocks. I love that. And the ones that I had to replace recently, I don't like them.

And I think I'm past the 30 day mark. I don't think I'm gonna be able to use those in Germany. So just in case I'm placed on somebody's heart, I need some new shocks. Yeah, there we go. Be a blessing. 'cause those, those costs, um, a hundred dollars. Yeah. At least, right? Well, yeah, I guess the, like I got the basic one.

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, I can't remember how much I spent on the ones I, I bought mine before I worked at the running store or 200. Yeah, they're expensive. Something like that. So headphones and then nutrition. So you talked about Oh yeah. Fuel. Mm-hmm. Oh. Um, and there's just different things you need.

Like I don't have to take. Thankfully salt tablets. So I don't know what those run, but the gel and the goo. Mm-hmm. And waffle. Just anything you need to eat you, because, so this is another thing that people don't know. You have to eat when you run. You have to eat and drink. Now, I used to never eat anything and I barely drank water on like a half marathon course 'cause I just didn't wanna stop.

Yeah. And I was always hungry, but over time and wisdom and getting my coach certification and having a run coach. I, I used to tell people like, don't follow, don't do what I do. But now, as, um, someone that I know, if people are watching and they're like, okay, Jamica, how are you a run coach and you're not following this?

So I, I make a, a point to wake up early, before a long run and before races, and I will have a bagel with peanut butter. Mm-hmm. I used to think that it might like, make me verb Yeah. In my mouth because it, because sometimes that, that would happen, but it doesn't anymore. Yeah. So I'll have that or a banana and I drink coffee before I run a race.

Oh yeah. Now it doesn't help me to have a bowel movement. I just love cooking. What? Oh. So for me, it's like the magic of pooping. I need to have, I usually drink two cups, is what I need. Dang. I know. It's, it's early. That's how you up before you run. Earlier than I need, probably normal people. Well, 'cause usually I don't run in the mornings because now my lifestyle, my schedule is a little more flexible.

So I'm running kind of whenever Oh, okay. Yeah. In the morning. So a race day, I'll get up extra early and like pace nervously around my kitchen drinking coffee. Yeah. We, I wanna do a race together. It'd be, it'd be so, it's so fun. My fav, one of my favorite things to do on the face of the earth is travel to a race.

Okay. So coming here to DC come do the cherry blossoms with me. So I need, that's on my list. I actually have family in Alexandria, so I've run the Marine Corps marathon. Okay. And when was that? What year did you run that one? Oh God. Um, was it the all year? 2013? Me. Oh no. You've been running away for a long time.

Mm, yeah. I, I've been running for my first marathon was 10. 10, 10. Super easy to remember. Chicago. Yeah. What isn't that special? I'm like, oh, I know how long I've been running marathons. Amazing. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Wow. So when was your, when was your first half? My first half was, yeah, when did March 16th, 2016. 2016 in San Diego.

So I lived in Washington State at the time, and I was following this couple, they're now divorced, but they were training to run a half marathon, and they inspired me. I knew that I wanted to run a half marathon a couple years before that, but when they put that out that they were going to be doing what they were doing in Hawaii, I knew I couldn't go to Hawaii as I, I just, I was a broke single mom and.

I just knew that wasn't in my, my budget, but I had a travel voucher and I was able to, I looked up San Diego. I had never been to San Diego. I've been to California, but never San Diego, and they had a half marathon around the same time. So I was looking for a half marathon the same time as this couple that was training.

I don't think they, yeah, they never even ran a half marathon. They didn't finish training, but I did. So I'm thankful to them, but. It sparked in me to say, put this on 2015 and 2016, this was my goal. And so, mm-hmm. March 16th, I ran that and it was a lady that I met who now was my friend and Black girls run.

I told her I was going to run my first half marathon in California. She's a flight attendant, so she was like, oh, I wanna come with you and to run it. So when I first started training, I was running a slower pace, but you know, when you start training, your pace increases, which is great. So I end up running faster than her.

So when we got there at the start, she was like, Jamica, you can go ahead, do what you're gonna do. Don't worry about me, and we'll just meet up at the finish. But I was just so blessed that she was there with me. Mm-hmm. And then another friend of mine, Brandy, she lived in California at the time, so she drove up from.

For Irwin, the army base to be with us that weekend. And so she was our chauffeur and it was just a great memory to have in a great place. So I've always said since I was in high school, you have to go somewhere you've never been to do something you've never done. Mm-hmm. And I've followed that model in a lot of different things in my life.

So that's, that was my first half. And then my first full, which came a year and a half later. Okay. Which was not supposed to happen because my same friend Angela, who went to California with me, said on March 17th, so Jamica, when you gotta run a marathon, I was like, never, I don't need to run a marathon.

I'm not running. Who wants to run for 5, 4, 5, 6, 7 hours? I'm, I don't need, I'm never running a marathon. And so she always will say, I remember when you said so. Right? So 2016, after that first half, I drank the Kool-Aid. I ate the, the drug, whatever we wanna call it, and I wanted to run another one. I didn't think that I would, but I was looking for another race, and I think I ended up doing maybe seven that year.

But I connected with some people and I, I heard about Chicago Marathon, though I lived there. And what visited there? I never even, that was like far from my mind. I didn't know there was a marathon. I, I didn't even, I, I didn't know, I didn't know what a marathon was. And a lot of people don't still know what marathons are.

So when we, you know, the, the joke you tell somebody you're gonna do a 5K, they say, oh, so how was your five? How was your 5K marathon? Right. Or you say you have a a half marathon race. Oh, how was your marathon? Yeah. Right. And then I didn't run marathon. Like, yeah, it's so different. But, um, I heard people talking about it in, in 2017 or the end of 2016, I started seeing pictures of people who did Chicago Marathon.

And I was like, Ooh, I don't know. And then I said, God, if I enter this lottery and I get in, I think you, if I get in, then that means you want me to run it, but if I don't get in, then I'm not supposed to do it. My first time I got in, I remember waking up. First of all, I saw the money come outta my bank account.

I got alerted. I was like, WWW because. Right. The Chicago marathon is $250. Well, it might be 200, but I always get pictures, so, oh yeah. So I added that to the package. Mm-hmm. But that 250, so I was like, oh shoot, I gotta do it. And I lived in Washington State at the time, but what I told myself was, I'm going to go run this race in the city where I have good and not so good memories to go and conquer something that I've never done.

And to it to now have a, a great memory of something major that I'm able to accomplish something that no one in my family has ever done. So that's, that was the, my motivation behind gonna Chicago. But I never trained, I never had time to train. I worked a job and all I did was work overtime. My two, my two older sons were in football, so it was football, football, football, football.

Get to their practice. I never wanted to miss a game that year. I never, I did not miss a game except for the weekend of the marathon, but I promised myself that I would do it. So I just said, you know what? It can't be that hard. And then, you know, some people will say, oh, you're gonna hit a wall. You're gonna hit a wall.

I've never hit a wall in any marathon. I've ran, and I've never trained for a marathon and I've ran four marathons. One ultra, so 32.6 or 31.6, and I ran 42 miles in a day. And I've never trained for any of those races, but I have a mindset. I know it is not, but my mind is like, I'm like, what? Excuse me. I know.

Any question? What's your question? Excuse me. Well, how did you do that? How are you alive? I don't know. That first year I'm gonna credit and I hope she hears this. Um, but I, I talk about her all the time. So her name is L'Oreal Marshall, a at Chicago Marathon. I don't know if you've ever saw, but at the Hilton Hotel, there is a large group, there are many groups who stay there and there are many groups who meet up.

But there is a large group called Black Chicago Runners. Black Chicago runners will do a meetup about five 30 in the morning. First of all, five 30 is so dang on. Earlier when this lady, so my friend Maria told me to come, I said, five 30 for what? And she was like, to meet people and to take a picture. And I was like, Ugh, okay.

But I went. And because I needed to meet her face to face. Um, we had trained virtually. We met virtually and we trained virtually for our first half marathons. And we both got into the Chicago marathon, so I needed to meet her. Well, meeting her, I met all these black runners I didn't even know existed. I, I was just so, like, because, you know, it's not a lot of black runners.

Mm-hmm. And it's, it's like a hidden community. It's becoming more and more noticeable. There are a lot more black runners out that, you know, and we, every runner comes in all shapes and sizes. So we are changing the narrative of what a runner looks like, the cultures, everything. So in, in, uh, October, 2017. I met at the Hilton Hotel.

We, I met a whole lot of people, but L'Oreal, we were talking and so we didn't know each other. And she said that she trained for the marathon. And I was like, so what are you gonna do? What's your, what's your half marathon pace? Because I knew, I heard the, whatever your marathon pace is, it should be like two or three minutes, um, slower than your half marathon pace.

Mm-hmm. A mile. And so she said, I think she said 12, or 12 or 13, I think. So I was like, oh, shoot, I can do that. Because at the time I was about a 10 minute pace regular. Mm-hmm. So she said she was doing intervals and I was like, okay, I've never done that, but I'll, I'll run with you. I was like, I'll start with you and we'll just start and finish together.

Didn't know each other. We all we knew was first name. That's so cool. And this is October, 2017. So then I see she has this pen on, she's a member of a sorority, and I was like, oh, I have some friends in Washington State that are members of the sorority. I was like, maybe I was like, one day I'm gonna join.

I've, you know, been thinking about it, but you know, I haven't. Then she sees another person. She knows Mimi. Mimi has a, the same pen. And so I'm like, oh, hey. So I'm meeting her and I'm like, oh, two people that are members of this sorority that I wanna become a part of one day. So L'Oreal and I started running.

Mimi was faster, so she took off when, you know, she ran, I saw her at the end. But um, in seven hours and 10 minutes, we learned each other's life. And it was so amazing. She had friends, 'cause she's from, she lived in Chicago, so her parents met her at several different spots. She had friends meeting her at several different places.

And I was just so blown away by that. I never seen that before. I never witnessed that before. And I was just like, wow, all these people. But because they were there for her, they would always check on me and I was fine. I just, I felt like it was just like, it wasn't, I don't know, it was so weird. It was just like, just running like, okay, here I am.

I'm just doing it. Having fun. Like I would stop, there was music playing. I would go dance 'cause that's what I do and races. So even the marathon, I wasn't thinking about time. I didn't care. Um. I, I, I just wanted to say I finished. So at the half marathon point, her knee started hurting her and she was like, you can leave me.

It's okay. And I was like, no. What am I was like, I don't have anywhere to go. We all need streets. Like, where are we gonna go? What am I gonna do? I said, it's fine, I'm not leaving you. And so we walked the other half and there were times where she was hurting. And I remember two of her friends, one was a member of the same sorority and one was a member of the other sorority.

You know, they were hugging her. And I think she mighta. She, she might have cried then, maybe a little bit, but I know she was hurting and so they wanted to keep going. But I said, I'm not leaving her. I got her. Don't worry, I'm, I will stay with. 'cause I felt great. I wasn't hurting or anything. And I was like, I'll stay with her.

We are gonna keep going. We, I'm, when she finishes, we were finished together. So they found her, you know, at the finish line we finished and I cried. She cried in her, you know, our separate moments because of her accomplishment. My accomplishment. But we did it. And so that was 2017. So 2020 is when I joined the sorority.

So from 2017, you know, we were connected and we stayed connected and we're still connected to this day. And I ended up being the fitness and wellness. Liaison for at a regional office, but she knew and I was served under her. So she's basically in the sorority world. They call it Syntactics, but she's the president of the region.

And I served under her in my leadership role, but she knew I was capable of doing it because she got to know me outside of the sorority and she knew my motivation, my inspiration with fitness, and she knew that she knew I was gonna bring it. And I, I, I'm gonna pat myself on the back. Look on the back. I did and more, and I know I shocked a lot of people because I was a new member.

And new members aren't usually regional officers or we'll plan a national event. And I was blessed to be a part of our national, um, 100 year celebration, our centennial. And I planned our 5K for that event that drew women from all over the world, not just the US from other countries as well. So what's, what's the name of the sorority?

Oh, Sigma Gamma Row Sorority Incorporated. Yes. But I, all that came from my first marathon that I never trained for, that I could have easily said I didn't train. I'm gonna defer. I quit. I'm not gonna do it. But I did it and I met so many people. I have made lifelong friendships, I've had seasonal friendships.

Some people, you know, leave your life and that's okay. But it has been. I never, the running a marathon, they say, you know what changes your life? And sometimes people think it's the change your life because you said you did it. It's the change your life because you realized you could run that distance.

But it's the friendships, it's the, the training throughout. And even though I didn't follow a training plan, I still, you know, I was running races and still meeting people, but it is just so much more that it opened up the door to just a running world that I never really knew existed. Oh, I love running so much.

I love runners so much too. Like the community. Oh my gosh, I, we could go on and on about that. I, I really wanna make sure we have time to talk about your 42 for your 42nd birthday, because that's nuts and so cool. And I watched that video by the way, which I'll have to include. I'll include that in the show notes of this episode.

But this video. That was made about this day where you decided to run 42 miles for your 42nd birthday. So how, why 42 years old did you decide to do that? Okay, so one of my close friends, Sarah, and she, yes, Sarah's just, just, she listens to all my ideas and she's a, she's, she's, people say that I'm like their hype man.

She's my hype woman for real. Like, I have a couple of them, but she's one, one of the three when I came to Chicago. So the pandemic happened, races shut down. A lot of people were, you know, down runners, down, depressed, all this, all these things. But I had signed up for the Marine Corps 50 k to run it in. I know, 'cause I'm crazy because I ran the Marine Corps marathon in 2019.

Oh God, I love that. So a couple people convinced me, Nikki's, one of 'em, I hope she listened, um, encouraged me, uh, to run the 50 K the next year. So I signed up for that. So. November, 2020. We know it didn't happen, but I ran it Virtually People were running Chicago Marathon virtually, and New York Marathon virtually.

So I drove from Indianapolis. 'cause at the time I was living there to Chicago to run with the run with a few other runners. I just never told anybody I was actually doing the Ultra. I I, I didn't want anybody asking me like 50 million questions either. So when I ran the one guy who I said I, you know, de dedicated to run with, when he finished, I said, okay, well I gotta go keep running.

And he was like, what? And then everybody was like, what, what are you doing? I was like, oh, I got 10 more, 10 more miles to do. So I, I can't even tell you. I felt so great. It was weird. Like, I literally, they said, Jamica, why are you sprinting? Like, because when I was running with him, we were going maybe like.

We started out like 11 minute pace, then a 12 minute pace and a 13 minute pace. But through the pandemic, I walked a lot and I ran. But my walking helped me to run faster, which is crazy. People don't realize you walk, you run slow to run faster. Yes, yes. Even to that. Yeah. It's, it's for real. It's a real thing.

So those of you who run slow do not feel bad about it at all. Don't compare your pace to anybody else. You worry about you. But, um, it works. And if you run fast and if you run fast every run, you're doing it wrong. You're doing it wrong, you're gonna burn out. You're gonna injure yourself. Yes. You're gonna hate running.

Who wants to wake up to say, oh my God, I hate running, I gotta go run. Not me. No, no, not me. When I feel like that, then I'm never going to be a runner again. It needs to be fun, enjoyable, my therapy, all that. Yes. But when I was, after I finished that ultra. Came in, I was, you know, tired, but I was like, okay, so I just ran 31 miles, 31.6 miles in a day, or 31.2, whatever it is, 31.2.

I was like, um, what am I gonna do for my birthday? Um, okay, so the world's probably still gonna be shut down 'cause everything is just so iffy because it's, it going into 2021. Mm-hmm. I, I think I text Sarah. No, I called her. I was like, Sarah, Sarah, I'm gonna run, I'm gonna run 42 miles for my 40, 42nd birthday.

She was like, okay, sis, I'm coming. That was it. I said, because I feel great. I, 'cause I drove from Chicago back to Indianapolis after running 31.2 miles. Wow. That's nuts. I was driving, I was thinking about the beggars pizza that me and my kids was gonna eat. I ate a couple slices on the way, but yeah, I was, was like, I.

I wanna do this. And I was like, why, why can't I do this? And then I'm like, I know friends who run a hundred miles in a day. So 42 can't be that hard. Like, so now my birthday being in February in the dead of the winter in Indiana, in Indiana, I was like, uh, but I'm gonna do it because, because I used to hate the cold when I grew up in Illinois.

I did not like the snow. I didn't like being out in the cold. And even as I became a runner and I moved from Washington State back to the Midwest, that first year, 2018, I ran outside like maybe once or twice in the winter. Mm. But a guy I know, he was like, uh, you gonna have to become a, a winter warrior now.

I thought all runners ran out in, outside in the cold. And I found out these people punk out. And then it was only like, uh, just a few, you know, a good handful of people, but. I learned that if you have the right items, the clothing, yes. Like you're not gonna, the gear gonna get sick. You're not, you know, like all those, um, myths and, you know, the things that they say is not always, it is not true.

Just layer up and, you know, be wise. Don't go out and know negative, negative anything. So when I did the 42, I put it out there, I think it might've been in December, I think it might've been in December. I think I put it out there early and I was like, if anybody wants to come, let me know. And at first, like no one really said anything and then one person said, um, they would come, but that didn't end up, but that's fine.

But Sarah said she was coming. And then Jason, my, I call him my unofficial run coach. Mm-hmm. He's the one who recorded it. Okay. Yeah. He, he was there and then I had, I'm gonna say a posse of people, other people from Chicago that drove and spent the whole day and that evening, and when I finished, as late as I finished, they drove back to Chicago.

Chicago. Wow. But I'm so forever grateful for them. So I wanna say Sherry, Cindy, Jason, Sarah Lorenzo ran the 42 miles with me for the most part because he finished before me. 'cause, uh, a, after a while I was running too slow for him. But, um, and Star, so they all. Star. Star lives in Chicago. Lorenzo lives in Chicago.

Jason lives in India and near Chicago. Sarah's in Chicago. And Cindy, Cindy came for, for my to be my support, like for sure everybody was my support, but she made sure that I was eating. She brought my sons to a certain point 'cause they weren't out there all day. Um, and then I had a, a CNA who lives in Indianapolis.

She was the tour guy for the Chicago people to help them get around the roundabouts and help them to the next spot because I ran the entire monan trail from Sheridan to downtown back up and finished in Carmel. So it was, it was amazing. And even though there was a snowstorm and it was, um, slippery, we slid a lot.

I never fell. That was all God. But like I slid a lot. I can't only, I can like picture the monan in the, in that time of year. It's like, it can be tough. It was. And the, and they didn't clear the trail. I thought Car was gonna have they stuff together. Great. And Karma was horrible. Ugh. Usually we do girl.

Until I got into Broad Ripple, then it was, you know, clear. But Kana wanted to make sure that I finished well. She drove around while I was running to get me some yak tracks so I could stop slipping. And she said she had to go to three stores until she found them. So I had 'em to finish out the night, which was the most important.

'cause everything froze up again. Yeah, it was, mm, it was, I think. Seven or 10 degrees. When I started, geez, it got up to 20 degrees throughout the day and then it came down to three, like four, three or four degrees when I finished. But when I finished now, there were people who met me along the way, and I don't wanna forget people's names, but my line sisters and sorority sisters were at the finish waiting for me.

I had predicted to be finished a lot earlier, and so I had a dinner reservation for us and everything, but I finished maybe like an hour and a half later. I was so tired. My legs were not so tired, but my body was, oh man, I can't even imagine the, the last 10 miles, Sarah, Jennifer, and Star were with me. Now, Jennifer and Sarah were talking, and I was just like.

I'm so tired, wanna go sleep, I just wanna go to sleep. And I'm just listening to them laughing and talking. And then eventually they were like, Jamica you. I was like, I need coffee, I need coffee, I need coffee. So they made a call. So when I got to, I had three miles left. Oh, one of my friends Kana, I think Kana got the coffee.

And so when I got there, when you saw the video of me dancing in the car, that was the last three miles, that coffee pumped me up, woke me up and I was ready to finish and I did it and people asked me would I do it again? Abso freaking lly. It was the time of my life because of the people that were there.

And I'm so forever grateful for all the support I had. It was so amazing. Oh yeah. And what did you do? So your dinner reservation didn't pan out and you were so tired. So did you do anything at all right afterwards to celebrate? Or did you celebrate the next day or anything? Like eat a whole pizza or No?

You know, I'm thinking. Yeah, so basically, um. It started snowing when we were finished trying to get to the car. So I thought I would be really, really sore. And I had, I prepared myself to have my pajamas downstairs so I wouldn't have to go up the stairs to my bathroom. Oh, that's a problem. But yeah, but I was able to walk up the stairs, so at one o'clock, uh, I think, no.

Was it? It probably was just about one o'clock in the morning. I finished at 10 48. But like I said, we finished in caramel. So then I'm hugging everybody taking pictures and all that and saying goodbye. So by the time we got to my house, it was probably 1230. So one o'clock in the morning. I knew it was going to be important for me to have an Epsom salt bath, so that way when I woke up, I would have some relief.

Yeah. And I'm glad that I did that. I, I sat in a tub for about 30 minutes and just really, I don't know, I didn't cry, but I just really like cried out to God saying, thank you for mm-hmm. My body, because I have back issues. My, I have knee issues, I have hip issues, but most people would never know that, 'cause I don't complain.

I always say, if an amputee can run faster than me, then my disability is not going to define me. So I am a army. Uh, I am a disabled army veteran, but I love running. So I listen to my body and even though I run all these races, I'm not running them going full speed ahead. Many times I walk, I remember one of my friends, he was running with me and he didn't know, 'cause I never vocalized my pain, but I was like, Dustin, I gotta slow down.

And he was like, okay. But he just slowed down a little bit. I was like, Dustin, I, I'm hurting. And I said, I, I know I, and I, and I don't want people to feel bad for me either, right? So that's when he realized, oh, okay. But we, and then we picked it back up. But I listen to my body. I don't care about what anybody else is doing.

All I focus on is Jamica, because I wanna be able to run when I'm 80, 85 years old. Oh. Yeah. I mean, being able to run 40 plus miles is incredible, but being able to do it at 42, yeah. I mean, that's so awesome. I think about that. I'm 37 and, and you know, I, I'm, I can feel it, right? It's not as easy as it once was, but I'm also feeling stronger than ever.

It's kind of this weird balance of like, yes, no, I know that feeling. I feel really strong, but I also feel older. Like, how does this work? Yes. But I, I'm like, you, I wanna be able to run for as long as I possibly can. Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. Care myself. I gotta, um, yeah. You know, I go to the chiropractor, I go to phy, I have physical therapy.

I, yeah. Get my massages. And when I can't run, like sometimes, sometimes the pain is so my sons know, they, they all know, um, and they wa they've experienced it, but there's sometimes where I cannot walk. And you know, I have to call off of work or like I'm walking and I'm hunched over. Like, because the pain is so bad I can't straighten up my back.

So in those times, I'm not running, I'm not doing anything because I not gonna injure myself. And I'll tell you, my oldest son, when I first told him I was gonna run 42, he didn't want me to do it because he knows about the pain that I experienced. And he was like, are you sure you're gonna be okay? And I was like, yeah.

And then when it got closer he was like, mom, are you sure about that? And I said, I promise I'm, if I, if I have to stop, I'll stop. I won't, I won't keep going. 'cause you know runners are stubborn too. They are. Yeah. We are for sure. Gosh. Yeah. Your recovery regimen makes me think. And like the care of your body regimen takes me back to how we were talking about adding up all the expenses.

Yes. Add, then you start to just add that stuff in there. 'cause I think about that. I try to do massages like monthly, but every other month. 'cause I'm like, this is, its so much to do all of these things. And now we just have this new plunge place, like cold plunge place that just opened in Carmel. Oh. And I'm so intrigued by that.

But you're like, I can't, it's like $200 a month or something insane. I'm like, who? Who is doing that? Oh wow. Yeah. So anyway. Yeah, I know we're past, I I wanna be mindful of your time since you were at a conference. Oh, I'm good girl. You got energy now? Okay, good. Okay. 'cause I'm like, how, I wanted to ask you too, about the 40 races you set out to run in a year.

Was that something that you set at the beginning of a year and you're like, I'm gonna run 40 races this year. Was that when you were 40 or was that a different year? Yes, so I, um, since I was in high school, I mentioned it before, but this organization, future Homemakers of America, home Economics Related Occupations, which is now called Family Career and Community Leaders of America.

In that organization, I was also in Business Professions of America, and I was a state officer for both organizations simultaneously. First black state president of FHA Hero. I was a first vice president, I think, uh, I forgot what the title was for BPA, but in FHAI learned so much on how to be a leader, organizational skills, goal setting.

All those things have stayed with me since I was 18 and I'm 44 now, so every year I have always set at least one. I've never made a vision board. I'm gonna do it one day, but I've always set a personal goal. Or several and it now with running, I'll try to, you know, they, the goal, I might only be running related, but it's always some type of goal I have for myself.

Every year at the end of the year for that following year, I will make sure I set not a New Year's resolution, but a actual goal and I follow through with it. So when I was 39, which is weird to say that, but I guess I was 39, I said I wanted to run 40 races in the year, in my 40th year of living. And a lot of people were so intrigued and was trying to figure out how I was gonna do it.

But I'm gonna tell you, when we talk about expenses, I can't do this anymore. 'cause, uh, my, my, um, income has increased. So, and I, and, and my children have left. So I have not, I can't claim, so my taxes, I don't, um, it's not owing, instead of getting money back. But for that year. Because I planned it so early and I knew what I was gonna do, and I, um, had started looking at races, you know, towards the end of the year before of what I was gonna do in that 40th year.

I paid for races early and then when I get my income taxes, I paid for my races and I did that for a few years. I would pay for my races. So I would try to plan ahead for a lot of races. Mm-hmm. Most of 'em were already paid for throughout the year by February. And then ask about military discounts. A lot of races will give you free races or half off or 10% off.

So building relationships, emailing the, the race directors, there's so many ways in saving money and running races. So I was looking at what races I wanted to do and then thinking about travel. So I had, you know, some people that I would stay with, um, room with. So we would split the hotel costs and that was great.

But I say, you know, when I turned 40, I wanna run these races and. It was incredible. And that's when I felt my strongest, I was my fastest. And I, so I wasn't training because I ran races almost every weekend. Yeah. And I, somebody like, do you have a race every weekend? And there was a couple of weekends that I had a break, but I, I pretty much ran a race every weekend and some I was flying, um, I had a lot of points and I got vouchers.

So Southwest is my favorite airline. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care what anybody says. Yeah. Because if I'm flying on my own, if I, and I don't have somewhere to go or be, and as soon as they say before they can get it all the way out of their mouth, da da da da da, we're over. So volunteering. Oh yeah.

You're like, I'm at the thing and I'm getting my 500 or a thousand dollars voucher. That's gonna help me get to my other races. And pretty much that's how I were, how I was able to do it, because I didn't make a lot of money. But God, the favor of God is real. I'm just gonna say that. Yeah. That's, people think I got a lot of money, but Yeah.

So I, I did that and, but the, but the beautiful thing is when I finished, a friend of mine helped get me back to Seattle for just a couple of days because that's where I fell in love with running in Washington state. Hmm. And I wanted to take all the medals that I earned to go and capture it in Washington state where I ran my first race and where I fell in love with running.

And that must be one of the pictures you sent me. Yes. So cool. Yes. Oh. So all those nos were earned in one year. That's so what, I mean, we obviously can't talk about every single race we'd be here forever. What are maybe a couple of highlights from that year, like your favorite ones from that year? Uh, Chicago Marathon, because it was, yeah, it was my fastest and I was shooting for a sub five, but my hips started hurting at some point, so I started walking a lot and when I realized I wasn't gonna make five, I just had more fun.

Yeah. Because I saw more DJs and I was like, bump this. But I was still so happy because despite the fact that I walked, I finished in five hours and 14 minutes and 37 seconds. So that is my pr that is what, not this year when I do these two marathons I have coming up. But prayerfully 2024, I will. Be close to that or better.

This year has been my recovery, my comeback year, but I'm still nowhere. I'm still not at that pace where I was that year. Mm-hmm. But, so Chicago was a highlight for sure. Detroit, I did the free press that year. That was my first time doing that one. I was supposed to do it again. I deferred it. I haven't done it again yet, but that was a highlight.

I'm trying to think what, what did I do that year? Um, did you document it somewhere? Like, oh, yeah. I used to have, and I, I wish I could have thought to bring it up right now. So every year I write a, well, pa pre COVID, I would have a year, I would have my races written down for the year and I, you know, have it, um, electronic and also a printed copy.

And then on the printed copy I would just write or either or, you know, write the time that I finished or write the day that I did or, you know, whatever. But I'm trying to think. I know, um. I went somewhere. Oh, well no, this wasn't a race. It wasn't a race. No. I ran in the sand in Jamaica and I counted that as a, like a, a 0.42.

Yeah, there you go. Um, but I think, you know, I did Chicago or rock and roll, um, Chicago. That was another really good race. I had a, it was a, it was an amazing year. I just felt like I had PR in my halftime. But now, well, 2021, I finally beat that time. But my PR was she power. Do you run She power. Okay. I don't And I feel so, 'cause I didn't know about it. Oh, what I know. Well this year I finally like caught it, but it was like the day before something else I was on. Yeah, I know. I promise I will. I've run the women's half before. The women's half is okay. Yeah. They just changed it. It's in caramel now for the first time this year, running this year all. So then you won't have to run in, um, um, potholes.

Right. Or the pouring rain. The, the only time, or it was like one year, it was black flagged and like, I just was running. I was like, I'm still gonna run 13 miles. No, just to rock downtown. But she power. I will tell you the three years I did it, two of the three years, it was pouring down. It was lightning.

But we didn't care. We didn't care. We was like, we went, we about to do this thing. Yeah. It doesn't matter. They're not cancel this race. Yeah, I know. I was like, I'm just gonna do it. Whatever. So, okay. Yeah. I, so I am doing the women's, but I've not done she power. If they do again, is it, it's, what time of year is that?

June. It's in June. June, okay. I forget why I didn't do it. Yeah, so part of my struggle too is I wanna do all these races and like I, my husband would be like, I just can imagine trying to be like, Hey Zach, I wanna run 40 races for my 40th birthday. He would be like, um, I'm telling you, you can do it. Because if I can do it, I won't say anybody can.

There's a way to do it financially without struggling. There is a way, but it takes planning. It really does take a lot of planning, a lot of logistics. So I did some, like back to back races. So if the race had a half marathon and a 5K, I did that and I counted that. Right. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, there's there's ways there.

It's, it's not impossible and it does not have to break you for real. Yeah, yeah. Well, and for us it's more, we have little kids, like our kids. I have a 2-year-old and a 6-year-old, and so it's like, you know, if I'm not here, it's just, it's a lot still. Yeah. So like as the girls get older, it'll become more and more easy for me to sneak away for races, but it's not as easy as I wish it was.

But anyway. Um, gosh. And so now you're gonna go to Berlin. How did Berlin come about? Are you chasing, are you chasing the six now? Now I am. Now I am. But how about when I ran Chicago Marathon? I'll never forget, I didn't even know what I was getting myself into. I thought I was just running a marathon in Chicago.

You thought you home to say I went home, but it wasn't until, even though I went to the expo, it still went over my head. I didn't know what that I, I didn't even pay attention to that. I was so excited about when I went to the expo, you know, I'm like, oh, it's a lot of people. Oh God, it's a lot of people.

Whoa. It's a lot of people. Like it was a lot of people. So pre pandemic, 50,000 people from 150 countries running in one place. Mm-hmm. That was just like I, I didn't know the facts. I just knew I saw a lot of people and I was like, all this, this is all this for a race. Wait, I'm so confused. And I ran the 5K the day before, even though I didn't train.

Even though I didn't know what I was getting into. I just wanted to run. I was just running. Wow. So. Um, so I missed the, all that stuff with the expo, with, with World Majors. Mm-hmm. I did not. I, I, I probably heard the word, but I didn't know what it meant. But I took the train in that morning for the marathon and there was a guy I met, um, he was from Germany actually, because I like, when I talk to people, if I can hear their accent because I live in Germany.

I know. So he started talking. I was like, where are you from? He is like, Germany. I was like, where? And I forgot the city. He said, but I told him I lived in Baumberg. And so then we were talking, and so he gave me, he said, so is this your first? And I was like, yes. So he gave me tips for running this first time, and I still appreciate him and I have shared those tips out to others.

One, he said, I want you to think about, you know, all the people that have mean something to you in your life for every mile run for them. And that last mile you run for you. Ooh. He took me up and I was like, okay. Because I'm like going in like not even knowing. So even though I ran with Lori that whole time, that last mile was for me.

And that's when we kind of did a little split. I, I split away from her so that she could have her moment and I could have my moment. Mm-hmm. So when you see our finished picture, we're like apart, but some of the pictures were kind of together. Yeah. But I wanted it to be staggered so that, because I was her first.

So he gave me that tip and he said, don't worry about a wall. He said, people talk about a wall. You race is your race and your experience will be your experience. That doesn't have to happen to you because it happens to other people. And he was right. Because for real, it is never happened for me. I just.

Like, I'm at, you know, 21, 22 and there's usually another DJ or something, and I don't even, I wasn't really even eating or like needing something or like, you know, whatever. I'm just having fun because for me it's fun. Yeah. And then the third thing he said, decide if you're going to run the majors and if you are how you're going to do it.

And I said, what's the majors? Yeah, I, I mean, totally fair question. I was like, BA baseball majors. He was, was like, he said, you do realize you're running a world major marathon that many people will never be able to say they did. I said, no. Oh. And so when I, I remember not that day, but you know, later on I started doing more research and was like, oh, okay, I might be able to do that.

But it wasn't, it wasn't a goal yet. So 2018, I ran Chicago again, and I still didn't train, but I shaved off an hour. I finished it in six hours. Six? Six. Yeah. Six hours, six something. Six hours. And then 2019 is when I decided I ran it again and I decided I wanted to now go after all the stars. Mm-hmm. And so, and then I met a lady, there's a couple other runners who inspired me to really wanna do that.

They had just finished. And then a lady, Shannon, she ran a marathon on all seven continents, so. Oh, that's cool. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. My, my overall goal, and actually she's going for her second round right now. Um, okay. I need to introduce her to my friend Christie, who's been on this podcast, who now that she just got her sixth star Oh.

This year. And so now she wants to Christie, now she wants to do the seven continents. So she needs to meet your friends. Yes. Because I'm like, how the hell do you do that? Girl, but the, they've done these tours, which I, when I'm ready to go beyond world major locations to get the other continents. So my goal is to run on every continent Oh my gosh.

And the six world majors, and to run a hundred miles. Well, so 50 miles is my next large goal. Mm-hmm. I hope, I'm hoping 2024, my body will be, um, up to it. And then I do wanna run a hundred at least once. And the hundred race I'm gonna do, um, is gonna be in Florida. A runner that I met, she from Michigan, but she ran it in Florida and she told me that you start basically in Miami and you go to Key West so your support can like, leapfrog you with you and it's not you going, you know, loops and loops and loops.

Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, cool, huh, I can do that. So when I'm ready to do my a hundred, that's where I'll do that in maybe 20, 25. But I mean, I'll come down there and I'll have like a margarita and I'll just watch you go by. Yes, I'll go next. Be in the car, be my support. Yes. But so Berlin came up because I kept applying.

I applied for New York twice. I didn't get in. And then last year I didn't apply at all. I knew, um, I was moving, so I didn't worry about it. But when I applied for Germany, that was a different timeframe. So I applied, I got in Germany, but then I moved, so I was supposed to run Germany last year. Okay. But my, the transition with the job, and I wa I wasn't running at all and I was like, I am not going out of the country.

Untrained like, yeah, the us that's one thing, but I'm not going outta the country. I wanna, I wanna train for a marathon. So this year, that was my plan. My friend Ada gave, she uses run with Hal, so I downloaded it. Yep. So, just because Jason, I was gonna ask him for a plan, but I know he was busy starting his business.

And even though I'm a run coach, I could have, you know, gave my own self a plan, but I needed that accountability of just something I could just click on, look, click on do, click on and do. Mm-hmm. But again, life and work. And so I haven't. Truly follow the plan, but I know I'm gonna finish and at this point, like it doesn't matter what the time is, hopefully I'll finish in six hours or less, but I'm going to finish because I'm going to finish.

You're gonna finish the Berlin Marathon? That's so, yeah. I'm gonna finish and amazing. And the, and the fact that I'm going, like, I ran away from running and I am running an international marathon, and I'm so excited about it. I, I didn't get a chance to get excited like I really wanted to, honestly, until just this past Saturday when I ran in 90 degrees, 13.1 miles and it, it was hot, but it wasn't, um, I don't know.

It was, it was weird. It, it was hot, but it was the, it was still like, I think I'm just so. I'm just so proud of myself that I wanna do this and like, it doesn't matter what happens. Um, it's just, it's just, it's something that people, how many people will be able to say they ran a marathon in Berlin besides those who are Americans who live here, I should say, right?

Mm-hmm. Besides those who are chasing the world major stars. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Not a lot. Not a lot. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm excited. And then New York girl. Whew. That's gonna be, I'm, I already got my outfit. You know, people like are gonna go to a, um, you know, a special occasion event and they'll have their, I got my run outfit as long as, wait, are you doing New York this year?

I'm doing New York. What? This year? I missed that. How did I miss that? Okay. Geez. No, but yeah. Yeah. Okay. And I haven't really said much on ig. Maybe that's why, but on Facebook. Okay. I'm not as, I've talked a little bit, but not, but still not a lot. 'cause I'm trying to focus on Germany. Yeah. Focus on the next one.

Yeah. New York. I did it, but yeah, two stars in one year. Yeah. There you go. Two stars in a year. And then my next goal is to run Boston next year. Okay, so I have not found the fundraising avenue yet because I will not Boston qualify. So those of you are not familiar to get to Boston. You either have to run super dupe fast, I'm just gonna say that Boston qualify.

Yeah. Yep. Or um, get a charity fundraiser. And they are selective in who they choose for these charities and the fact that yes, some people may say you're crazy to raise 7,500 up to $10,000 to just run 26.2 miles. But it's, the impact is one you make doing your personal goal, but the impact that money goes towards so many other ways that 26.2 miles is priceless.

Yeah. For what you will be able to accomplish by being able to raise the money to be able to go, how will I get that money? What I am trusting is believing that all the people who I have supported. Even if they don't support me back, that God is gonna honor what I've done for others and other people will pour into me.

Mm-hmm. To be able to knock that out. And I'm claiming to have that raised in a week whenever I get the fundraiser, when I post it. 'cause I'm not thinking about stressing, I'm not going to mm-hmm. Text people, beg people. Yeah. Whatever. I'm just gonna post it and be like, Hey, this is what I'm doing. This is why will you support me?

And if you can't support me financially, pray for me. Share it. Or Yeah. Or just, or share it. Yeah. Yeah. But, but just know that I'm like, I think, and I just wanna publicly say this, it is a pet peeve of mine for people who don't talk to you, who watch what you do. And when they need money, they're DMing you.

Mm-hmm. Like, no, how about, where were you when I did this? Or. What have you done for other people? Like you reap what you sow. Yeah. And when you reap what you sow, what you sow into somebody else is going to get reaped from another source or some other way. But don't come to me or don't go to people asking for money when you need it.

Because if you had a relationship with that person, they would already know what you're doing and they're going to wanna pour into you. Yeah. More than what you would even ask for anyways. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, yeah. Yeah. Well we've talked, we've talked about God a lot, like mentioned we haven't like talked about God.

Yes. And so I think this would be a nice time to talk about the Bible verse that you always include in your post, which is Jeremiah 29 11, and what is that verse? And then what does it, what does it mean to you? So I wanna make sure that I, even though I know it, I just wanna make sure I say it correctly.

So, when I got divorced in 2014, definitely went to a kind of a dark place, and I was very discouraged. It was a lot of things that come, that comes from getting divorced. And I had gained weight, I lost my job, uh, for 11 months I was unemployed and, you know, trying to take care of three kids. It was, it was hard.

And, and my oldest, I, I, I tell, I would tell him, and I even reminded him just, you know, this past year, I was like, you were my rock. There were times where I would just cry not knowing what to do. And I think I was at church and I heard the scripture. And the scripture is. It's a promise from God. So Jeremiah 29 11 for, I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.

Plans for now. This version, I'm, I'm gonna read you, I'm gonna read you a different version. I know I actually Googled it before this and they were like five. There were so many versions. I was like, I'm gonna ask Jamica what her is this, this is the version that I go by so far. I know the plans I have towards you says the Lord.

Plans to prosper you, not to harm you and plans to give you a hope and a future. What I think about what God can and will do for us, it's a matter of trusting that he has us, that he's never left us. We endure a lot of things. Like there's a song we, I sang growing up, weep in may endure for a night, but Joy comes in the morning.

Sometimes that morning feels like forever, but for God, it is not like his time is his time. Mm-hmm. And when we go through and we have to endure those, those moments, it is shaping us to become a better person because of we can go through that, then we can go through the next thing. But if we say we trust him, and we're still doubting, we're not trusting him, but he says his thoughts towards us is not to harm us.

He's gonna prosper us. And it's not even the money, financial, it's the prosper that we are rich in him. That we will not have to look for anything that we will not go without. And I will tell you, I plan on making a post. Actually, I need to do it tonight before I close my eyes. Um, I have a friend who I met through somebody else during that time, I didn't share a lot, even with my family, what I was enduring, but when I was in my small two bedroom apartment with three sons, one bathroom, so that's three wieners that I gotta share bathroom with.

I just have to be clear, transparent so people know. 'cause it's real. Yeah, just, yeah. Um, where I did not complain, that was our home. And I didn't have a bed. I had this mattress that I slept on and my, my youngest son shared a room with me, a baby. So imagine if, imagine you and your, uh, 6-year-old. Sharing a room.

Just you, you and your 6-year-old. But he was three. He was three. Three. From three to six we shared a room, we shared a bedroom. So you didn't sleep ever because I feel like I could not sleep after a while. Um, I had to create a routine. It took about a year. And that routine was, we started praying. And when we pray, that meant he had to go to sleep.

And to this day, he is 12. He, we pray before he goes to sleep. Mm-hmm. If I am in another country, I'm on WhatsApp with whoever has him. And we pray. But when we pray, he sleeps instantly. And I'll never forget the first night I did that and he went to sleep. I went to the bathroom and cried. And I was like, God, I thank you.

Because he wouldn't, he would just always get up, come out of the room, get up, come out of the room. And I was just trying to have like, you know, some little time, but. After a while it was, like I said, he was probably four four at that time. But we prayed and we still pray every night to this day, unless he's falling asleep.

But I will say out of 365 days, 360 days, we pray every night before he goes to sleep and, and then he goes to sleep. There's no getting up trying to get some food, anything. Like I never had to experience that. 'cause he knows that means it's time to go to bed, no more talking anything but that scripture, when things looked bleak and there were several times that it did, I was reminded God would never harm me.

It is going to be okay. He's going to prosper me. We will not go without. And so this friend that I was bringing up and I talked about not having a bed one day, we met for, I don't, I think it was just for coffee and I. I don't even know why I brought it up, but come to find out, she had a whole bedroom set she blessed me with.

Hmm. She blessed me with the, the bed, the, uh, she even went and bought a box spring. So I had a, it was the first time I had a pillow top mattress, and I slept so good. Oh my God. It was so good. And, and so she blessed me with, you know, the bedding, the nice stand, the dresser, and I'm just forever for grateful for her.

There's so many things she's done, but I talked about you reap what you sew. She blessed me with that. When I moved from, and I lived in Washington state, when I moved to Indiana, I left Indiana with a small U-Haul trailer. Not a truck, but a trailer that I pulled on my car. So that bedroom set couldn't fit.

Neither could I, I mean, we, we basically left with nothing, but we, we started with nothing and we had to leave a lot of things. And so we started over again. But I knew that God had us because his plans was not to harm us, but to prosper us. So I was able to bless my neighbor, who I found out did not have a bedroom set.

So I gave her what my friend gave me. She was grateful. Wow. But, so that was December, 2017. So I got the bedroom set in, I think it was, let's just say early 2015. But December, 2017, I gave it away. When I moved to Indiana, I didn't have any furniture, but this organization called the Mustard Seed, blessed us with like, just basic things.

So we had a, a mattress and um, rails. So I didn't have a headboard, footboard, none of that. Mm-hmm. Furniture, none of that, but. When I was blessed to buy my first home in 2019, the couple I purchased my home from said, Hey, do you need a bedroom suite? They blessed me. Stop it with what I gave away and more.

So, Monique, bless me. I bless my neighbor. The people I bought the home blessed me again. Yeah, what goes around comes around. Mm. People use that in a negative way. But when you are a positive, optimistic, motivational, inspirational, always helping people, never looking for anything in return, doing whatever you can, sowing, sowing, sowing, sowing, it's gonna come back.

Jeremiah 29 and 11, it comes back in ways You cannot imagine that you can't even put a price tag on, so prosper. It's not about money, it's about the favor of God in your life. Mm-hmm. So that's why that scripture is important to me. That is why it is my favorite scripture. That is why it is tattooed on my back with you.

Matter. I was, I was gonna say, you matter. You have a tattoo when I'm running. Oh, that's cool. When I'm running and I'm in a, a tank top and people can see it, it's there. If it is code, I have hoodies embroidered. It was a comp, it's a company in um, Indiana, and so they br embroidered two hoodies for me that I ran in my 42 miles and it has jam runs 42.

Oh, love it back. It says you matter in the scripture. I have ran many of races in the last two years where people will say, I was trailing you, you kept me, you kept me going. Yeah. So I try to have you matter on my bib when I can so people know and you matter is on my back. But the scripture, when people see that they know.

Yeah. They, they, they, it is I, and I thank God that to be that instrument. That's why it's not important for me to run fast. It's just important for me to run, to inspire people, to have fun, to encourage people on the trail, to just be that smile, be a light because it doesn't, life is serious enough as it is.

It's dark enough as it is. There needs to be more people just willing to be like, Hey, girl, hey. Or even to like this, this older guy I met on the trail on Saturday who is running Paris, I think he said it's a 10 miler on the same day that I'll be running Berlin, but just out there like talking and I was, my legs was tired, but I started running when he, we were talking and we, you know, ran for a mile.

Uhhuh, okay, well I'm gonna go finish. But that's, that's what I enjoy about running. Now everyone has their goals and running and that's great, but for me, that's what I do when I run. Ugh, man, I love this all so much. I'm not gonna be able to sleep tonight jam. I'm just gonna be like, so, I'm so excited. I have a long run tomorrow, so That's so good.

I might just listen to this again, because a lot of times, you know, living it, I, I listen back to these actually, and it's so great. I feel like I get just as much out of it the second time. So I'm gonna ask you the end of the podcast questions. Okay. So we kind of already covered them really, because we just talked about mantra, which I feel like you matter is such a important mantra.

You matter is my Yes. But are there, are there any songs, oh my gosh, that you listen to that like are really like your running songs, like the songs that get you going or that inspire you while you're running? You know, I listen to so, so many songs, I don't have a song. I would just say it just depends on my, on my mood.

Um. One thing I'll say, this is, this is kind of funny. So sometimes there are songs that I love and if they play on, I lis I use Amazon Music. Okay. I have music saved and then like I can do a my soundtrack, which is based on music that I listen to. So then other, that genres of those type of songs will come up.

Mm-hmm. And sometimes I'm not ready for the explicit and I don't know, and I'm like, oh shoot, I can't, like I can't listen to it. Like sometimes it's too much or. But I, I don't have a specific song or songs that like really motivate me like to go, but this is what I will tell you. I plan on having this pulled up.

I'll just name off some songs from my, my like list that I listened to right now, and I just added a couple lately. But, so I have, I can go from like, um, Spanish music, um, like Pit Bull and mm-hmm. Um, daddy Yankee and, uh, oh, love Daddy Yankee. But the, um, here I'll just go to reggaeton to gospel. So I have, it takes two, that's by Raw Bass.

That is one of my favorite songs, but it's a remix with Fatman Scoop. Okay. So, you know, Fatman Scoop, Kling can, so like, that's because I run and then when I'm like on beat, like it's just either that'll, it depends on like. What my pace is in that moment. But, so that's, you know, that's one song I got, um, pond to Replay by Rihanna.

So I'll listen to some Rihanna, I look good. And that's by Charlie. Boy, that's a newer song, but that's on my playlist. This one I'm not gonna tell you because I'm gonna do a reel to it real soon. Okay. Real, real soon. Real, real soon. Real soon. So I'm gonna make sure I tag you, me. But this one tell me, just popped up from me doing the soundtrack thing.

And I love this song. This is, um, this song will definitely play. I'm gonna have it somehow in my Berlin running list several times. Oh, because of the words. Okay, so, um, just fine. There's a remix, uh, Mary j Blige remix with Lil Wayne in it. Seka, that's like a line dance. So like, if it's line dance, songs like Seka, um, Cupid Shuffle, songs like that, uh, the Wobble, even though I dance, you know, like, but hearing it, it'll just put me in a different type of mood.

God made a way. Uh, let me see what else. It's, it's, it's just so many Ja, um, burner Boy. There's quite a few songs from Burner Boy on here. Uh, Dougie Fresh, depending on the song. It's, you know, a couple different songs, but Beyonce, some songs. Some songs. It just depends on, you know, the words. Um, I have like some oldies in here, like, um, I'm Good By Black.

Do you know that song? It's called I'm Good. Maybe by black. Black. It's a girl, it's a girl group who were produced by Missy Elliott, and I have Missy Elliott too. Okay. But it's code, it's if you, okay. So, um, maybe I'm trying to, I I don't, I'm just, I don't know it off the top of my head. That's okay. But I'm gonna write it down and look it up and see if I remember it.

Yeah. So Sierra, yeah, it's, it's a lot, it's a lot of different music. So I don't really have a song, but just really like upbeat dance music. Yeah. Because that's, that's what keeps me going. And then sometimes there's a couple of, um, like slow worship songs that will come on, but they're further in my run.

Further in my list. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want it to slow me down. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? Uhhuh For sure. For sure. So that's. That's how I get going. Oh, and then we already know what your next finish line or milestone is. 'cause you're heading to Berlin. What's the day, what's the countdown right now?

How many days it is? Uh, 25 days and a wake up. We might 24 days on the makeup. Yeah. Well just know Jamica, that I will be cheering you on from here, but I appreciate and for New York too, and for everything else that you are going after, I've just, gosh, this has been such a wonderful time, and thank you.

Thank you, thank you. Oh my gosh. You're just so incredible and there's so much we didn't even talk about that hopefully we can talk about in person when I get to meet you at some point. Yes, yes. If anything, it'll be the mini marathon. Like at least we have that for sure, but Yep, because you're gonna run it for sure.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. I sign up every year like the, I sign up when they open the, the registration. Yeah, the lower cost. Okay. Mm-hmm. So, okay. Yep. Yep. Well, thank you. Thank you for the honor of choosing me, for wanting to know more about me, for listening to me. Sometimes we just need a boost. Hmm. And you know, people would think you got it together.

People think, you know, you're always positive, you're, you know, always, you know, whatever. But you seeking out me means a whole lot. And I will never forget it. I knew the date was coming. I told you I thought I missed the date. It's like, I wouldn't let you miss this 'cause I had so much going on and I'm in this conference this week.

But you were, I mean, even on the weekend when I was running, I thought about you. I think about you a lot and sometimes I see your posts, but sometimes I don't. I, Instagram is weird. It is weird because I feel like I'll see, I'll see you running or see you like do a funny video and then I don't see you anymore for like two or three weeks or something.

But then also, I'm not on it all the time either. So I'll won't post something. Like I'll get in a good rhythm like a couple times a week and then. Yeah, Sarah, like, where's Jamica? Yeah, but you, when I read, knowing what you wanted to talk about just reminded me. 'cause like I said, you just do just, just like when I do things for people, I don't keep track of it.

People could ask me how many medals I have. I don't know. How many races have I ran? I don't know. 'cause I just do. But to see it in your research, your research on me, I really have done a lot. And um, I just never, I never, ever, um, envisioned my life being a long distance runner. And you know, now, like I don't care what anybody thinks, but I will tell you there are some years that people made fun of me running and uh, they would make fun of my me jumping and my goofy pitchers and all that.

But, um, I am who I am. Yeah. And I'll never change who I am. I love the way that I run and I love the people that God has brought in my life, all because of running and it's friendships, sister, that are beyond the pavement. But because I put my foot on the pavement, those experience have happened. And I'm gonna show you something real quick.

Um, okay. So Chicago Marathon, because you get it, they have a, so Chicago Marathon and Marathon photos, they have Oh yeah. Kind of blurred out. They have used me, let me see how I make, okay. They have used me as advertisement for the last five years. Wow. I think last year was the first year that I didn't, there wasn't a plaque made, but they will put me on a plaque and they'll use some made up name and some made up time.

And, and then if I'm not there, I have a friend or friends who will tag me and say, Jamica, you were at the booth. Yeah. Or, and they'll wait for me. 'cause I've built relationships with marathon photos. Oh. And they'll say, we thought you were gonna come. And when I moved last year, well actually yeah, it was last year.

Yeah. Sorry. They, they didn't use me last year. But, but I just feel so honored and so blessed that I don't look like, like people will say, you know, you don't look like you run. Well, what does a runner look like? Oh yeah. So because I have, in my world, in my life, I feel like changed the narrative of what a runner would look like.

I love when somebody just assumes that when I say I run, they're like, oh, so but you don't run marathons, do you? And I was like, um, yes, I have. Like put your foot in your mouth. Yeah. God, people are like the worst sometimes. Yeah. But, and then not only that, like just thinking about, I mean, you know the news story, so I don't brag about what I've done, but when the opportunity presents itself, I don't dim my light anymore.

Mm-hmm. Because I am who I am and people are drawn to who I am because I'm real, because I'm transparent, because they can feel it. It is genuine. You know, I don't have to pretend to be somebody I'm not. I don't have to feel like I need to compete against anybody else. My run on Saturday, 15 minute mile average.

Now some of those minutes were 11 minutes, some were 12, but it was 90 degrees. But I don't care. Well, who cares? And it doesn't even matter. I did it. Yeah, yeah. You know, so. Anyways. I just appreciate you reminding me of who I am and what I've done. Thank you. And being interested to know more. Thank you. My pleasure.

Thank you. Oh yeah, really? How am I supposed to go to sleep? Gosh. Well, I hope a lot of people listen to this on a run too, because seriously, like your energy is contagious. It really is. It's been like, thank you, man. I really appreciate it, Jamica, and I'm so honored to meet you and I can't wait until we finally meet at some point.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you everybody. I'm so glad we are connected. Yes, we are. Well, thank you everybody who's listened, and I hope everyone has a good weekend. This will come out this Friday, so happy running everybody. Thank you. Have a great.

Ally Brettnacher