Episode 24: Tara Sabo - Forward Is a Pace

Episodes

Sep 15

Tara Sabo hated the mile test in gym class. Power walking intervals turned her into a runner with more than 20 half marathons, one Chicago Marathon and one very memorable DNF.

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About this episode

Tara Sabo lives in the beach town of St. Joseph, Michigan, where she works as a personal trainer, group fitness instructor, copywriter and social media manager while raising two busy kids. She never ran in school, started with power walking intervals around 2006, and ran her first big race at the 2009 Chicago Half Marathon a month before her wedding. Ten years later she ran the 2019 Chicago Marathon for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

We talk about kids and sports, getting certified through the American Council on Exercise and the Road Runners Club of America, and why slowing down and honoring rest days helped her get faster. Tara also explains what it's like to push an athlete through races with My Team Triumph, tells the story of her one and only DNF at the She Runs Grand Rapids Half Marathon, and shares why she's trying to run for fun again.

In this episode, we discuss

Running together at sunrise in St. Joseph, Michigan
Kids and sports: cross country, dance, travel baseball and seeing a commitment through
Going from cheerleader and gym-class mile hater to runner through power walking intervals
Her first Garmin and running the 2009 Chicago Half Marathon during wedding planning
Getting personal training and group fitness certifications through the American Council on Exercise
Ten years at a St. Joseph gym, from personal trainer to fitness director
What the Road Runners Club of America coaching certification involves
Running the 2019 Chicago Marathon for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
Hiring a coach and learning that slow is fast
Running in the rain and getting caught in a thunderstorm
Pushing an 18-year-old athlete in a chariot with My Team Triumph
Captains and angels, and why it's a different ability, not a disability
Her one and only DNF: a fall, a dislocated finger and an ambulance ride at She Runs Grand Rapids
The "first place, ambulance division" medal from her college friends
Disney races, the Dumbo Double Dare and learning to run for fun

Chapters

Intro
Running in St. Joe and how we met
Kids, sports and commitments
From power walking to running
Fitness and run coach certifications
Half marathons and the 2019 Chicago Marathon
Slow is fast: why a coach helps
Running in the rain
Is one marathon enough?
My Team Triumph
Favorite distance: the half marathon
The She Runs Grand Rapids DNF
Disney races and running for fun
Mantra and song

Where to find Tara

Instagram: @adailydoseoffit

Mentioned in this episode

Races: Chicago Half Marathon, Chicago Marathon, She Runs Grand Rapids Half Marathon, Big House 5K, OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon, CNO Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, Disney Wine & Dine, Dumbo Double Dare, Dopey Challenge, Boston Marathon, Berlin Marathon
Organizations and charities: My Team Triumph, Ainsley's Angels, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, American Council on Exercise, Road Runners Club of America, Saint Mary's College
Other: Run Coach Jamie, Momentum bracelets, "Run" by Lucy Spraggan, Garmin Forerunner

Previous guests mentioned

Related episodes

Frequently asked

What is My Team Triumph?

My Team Triumph is a ride-along program that lets kids and adults with different abilities experience distance races. Tara Sabo helps push an 18-year-old athlete with cerebral palsy in a running chariot through 5Ks and half marathons with the St. Joseph, Michigan chapter.

What happened to Tara Sabo at the She Runs Grand Rapids Half Marathon?

Around mile 7 of the She Runs Grand Rapids Half Marathon, Tara Sabo caught her toe and fell, dislocating a finger and briefly blacking out, which led to her only DNF and a trip to the ER. The race later mailed her a finisher medal.

What does "forward is a pace" mean?

"Forward is a pace" is Tara Sabo's race mantra: no matter how slow you're going, moving forward still gets you to the finish line. She wears it on a bracelet.

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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 and fitness. This podcast brought to you by Athlete Bouquets. Celebrate finish lines and milestones of the people that you love by visiting athletebouquets.com. What's up? It's episode 24. I was trying to be a little bit more enthusiastic and it felt weird. My best friend Alyssa, who was episode #2, gave me a hard time for the transition of my friend Rachel, who is on the radio in Grand Rapids, MI and does the intro to this podcast. Sounds just so amazing. And then I come on and I'm like, hey, so what's up?

That's my best radio voice. So Speaking of Grand Rapids in Michigan, my guest today, Tara, is from the state of Michigan. She lives in a lovely beach town. Called Saint Joe and if you've never been, you've got to go. We talked about that a little bit. This episode covers kids and sports. We talked about that actually at the beginning and then again at the end and running with our kids. Great topic there. We talked about how Tara started running through walking, which I found very interesting. I actually did not know that before this we talked about. Fitness and running certifications, How running slower and Really honoring rest days helps you get faster, which feels counterintuitive, but it is so true.

We talk about running in the rain, we talk about the future of Tara's running, how she's thinking about what's next for her, and I share my thoughts on the same topic. We talk about My Team Triumph, which is an organization that Tara races with and it's so incredibly cool and inspiring. We talk about her favorite race, Distance. We have a story about her one and only DNF, which is insane. You'll have to listen to hear that. And we talk about the novel idea of running for fun, which both of us are attempting to do. And as competitive women, it can be really hard, just as competitive people right to.

Really enjoy running because after all, that is the whole point, right? And nobody really cares except for you. So I am really glad that we got to do this because Tara has been on my list from day one. So I hope you all really enjoy this conversation. All right, Tara, we're here, We're doing this. Finally, yay, I'm excited. I think I told you this, but you were on my list from the get go and so I'm glad we're happy to be here. This is fun. Yeah, it's going to be really fun. So we met 1st through Megan. Yes. Yes. How long? That was a while ago.

Years now we've been from. Yeah, it was at one of the indie races, right? I can't remember which one though. I think monumental. I think it was monumental because I think I was working at the Expo that year and you ordered a mug or a bouquet or something and I had it with me and then for myself. Which is very appropriate. And then we just got to see each other again this summer when I was up in Michigan. You live in Saint Joe, Michigan. Anybody from the Midwest who's been there knows how amazing of a place it is. It is fun. Yes, we have a good little town here.

Yeah, and a great place to run. I really enjoyed running, especially by that beach which is so nice and such a cute downtown. We have some golf trails that you can get onto and couple of beaches you can actually add to your route, so it's fun to have that to run alongside. Yeah, for sure. So yeah, I was with my family in New Buffalo for the week and then you got me to get my ass out of bed, come up and we got to watch the sunrise and it was just felt so good to get up, be with you, get it done and it just was awesome.

So thank you so much again for that. Thanks for coming to run with me. Absolutely. All right. So I would love to just start out getting to know you a little bit better, you know where you're from, kiddos, anything you want to share kind of right off the bat. And then we'll talk about all things running Okay. Well, yeah, as you said, I live in Saint Joe, Michigan. Little beach town up here Southwest Michigan. I I am a personal trainer and group fitness instructor. That is one career path of mine. The other one is copywriting and social media management. So dual path keeps me very busy.

I have two kids. Hannah is 11, Evan is 9. They are both super involved in all things sports and dance. Hannah is a dancer. She dances 3 nights a week. And we added cross country this year too, which is crazy. I never ran in school at all. Like, hated running in school. So for her to kind of jump on this so soon is really exciting and she loves it. And she's doing it because her friends are doing it, which is great. I mean, that's part of why running is so awesome. So she had her first meet this past weekend, Super hilly course, but she got it done.

So that was really fun to see. And then Evan is playing football first year for tackle football, so we're busy with that. And he also plays baseball. So travel baseball starts here this weekend actually. So we are all over the place, which is one of the reasons why I need to run so much. Kind of get rid of that crazy but. Because you're already running around everywhere else, this is my opportunity to run now. For real, yeah. So for the travel, Travel, baseball. Wait, you said baseball, right? So yeah, that just within the state of Michigan or do you guys go around the Midwest? Well, so this is his first year doing it.

He's on a nine year team. So yes, basically in Michigan we won't go any further than like an hour away. But there are I think a few tournaments Indiana in Indiana that we might travel to which are also close to the border. So kind of a really easy intro to travel ball because I know that can get super crazy and intense, but. Yeah, I know. Well, that's I've heard, I've heard a lot about the world of, well, just sports in general. You know, I have a kindergartener, so we really haven't done a ton in that world yet. And so I'm always curious to hear about, yeah, how that works and then how, which we'll talk about.

I'm sure like how you then kind of fit it All in all the sports, all the things. But do you run with Hannah then? Does she or does she have practice like every day for cross country? So she does. She does. She only practices on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays because she has to shoot to dance right away on Wednesdays and Thursdays. So she practices with her team. Every once in a while I can get her to come out with me, but we've done a few races together here and there. We, we picked some fun ones to do that don't require a lot of intense, you know, training.

We are actually headed down to Disney World in November. We're going to run a 5K with my mom, my sister and my niece. So be fun and exciting for her to do, which I'm. I can't wait. It's going to be so. Fun that is so fun. So at her age for cross country, what's the distance for their races? 2 miles. 2 miles OK yeah. I think they occasionally go up to three at practice just to, you know, build the ability to run that too easily. But her coach is super chill and they everybody, everybody participates. Nobody sits on the bench. Everybody does what they can.

If they have to miss, if they can't do whatever it's, it's okay, which is great. That's yeah, thank goodness, because I worry about that as my kids get older, right? It's like okay. It's all supposed to be fun. And in this area Carmel IN can be a little intense when it comes to some of that stuff. So I mean, we kind of take that approach with the kids and their after selectivities. If they want to do it, we'll make it happen. If it gets to where they're overbooked, they're stressing about it. It's not fun. We're done. We'll just be cool. Like there's no pressure from us to do anything.

I always tell my kids, I'll tell you if it's available. If you say yes, I'll sign you up. If you walk away, fine. Yeah. And well, this is interesting because there's this balance too, of like, OK, sure, if you don't want to do it, but we committed to something, so we need to see it through. But then there's this fine line, right? Because we did that a little bit with gymnastics, because we signed her up when she was 5. And that was like she was like way behind. Because all these other kids, at least at this, this place we went and this group, they had all been doing it clearly since they could walk.

And so then all of a sudden she felt, I could just tell she felt selfconscious. She felt like she was behind. And so she didn't want to do it anymore. And I said, listen, you can stop, but we have to, you know, finish what we paid for and then you can, you know, try something different. So yeah, yeah, we're definitely running into that with Evan right now with football. So baseball is his like big love. Like he is all in with that. No hesitation whatsoever, ever. Football's different and you know, it's coached differently and the kids are not his usual baseball kids. And so he's struggled a little bit to stay in it.

And we've had kind of had that come, had that conversation with him. We've committed to this team. This team needs you. He, you know, he needs to do this, that or the other thing. Let's just get to practice. And it's OK if you're bored. We still have to go and we just have to, you know, embrace what's in front of us and get in. And if you never want to play again after the season, we don't have to do it. But this is the commitment so. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, so you didn't run at all in school. So then how did you end up in the world of running and fitness?

So I I I was a cheerleader all through school. I never. I hated running the mile tests in gym class, the worst day of the school. And then in college I sort of, I was still cheering a little bit at Saint Mary's small, all girls school. We started a cheerleading club, but it wasn't enough. I needed more physical activity. And so that's when I found the, you know, the gym that's on campus. And I started getting into the workouts that were available to me and kind of learning a little bit more about all of that. And I was doing a lot of power walking. Power walking was my cardio when I wasn't lifting weights.

Fast forward a little bit, I was in the real world still power walking and I was realizing that it kind of like wasn't enough. And so I started to do this isn't like 2006. I started to do intervals with my power walking and that's how it all started. So. Funny. Yeah. And I don't know if I knew that. Yeah, eventually I was like, OK, I can do this 32nd, you know, interval. And then I was like, all right, I can do this one minute interval and suddenly that, you know, The Walking time was decreasing and then the rest is history, right? Yeah. Did I? Did I tell you?

My mom went to Saint Mary's, by the way she did. About that, yeah. How do we not? Yeah. So she went to Saint Mary's. Yeah, that's my connection to Megan is through St. Mary's. Oh my gosh. Cool Together. And so, yeah, I didn't realize. She went to Saint Mary's. Oh, that's so funny. Yeah, well, my mom listens to this. So she'll be happy to hear some alone guy. Yeah, she went. She started at IU and then my dad was at Notre Dame. And so, you know, I don't know if that she'll admit that she went there to be closer to him. It was more like I U was so big and she wanted, I think, a smaller environment.

And so, yeah, she ended up at Saint Mary's. I actually went to tennis camp there when I was younger, but anyway, oh cool. Yeah, so fun. Really good camps there. Yeah, that's. Awesome okay now I lost my train of thought completely. Oh yeah. And then the intervals. So did you with the interval stuff? Did you just do that all yourself? Did you just kind of make it up as you were going or did you research, you know, figure out what it should look like? I just kind of put 1 foot in front of the other. I didn't know what I was doing. I just knew that I had to go forward, right.

So I just kind of listened to my body and like you know, had a whatever watch I had probably wasn't the one running watch. I just watched the, you know, secondhand whatever. And I just did it. And then I found myself running for these larger chunks of time and it kind of got to a point where I was like, all right, what am I going to do with this? And I remember buying my first Garmin. I don't even. It was a forerunner. It was like teal blue, Tiffany blue. I was so proud of it. And I started like timing myself. And I don't know. I think I must have just realized that that I could actually do this.

And I that was the thing. Now I wasn't walking, I was running and I was looking at races and doing some 5K S here and there. But it was never like I never really took it seriously. And what I mean by that, I just ran because it was fun. Like I wasn't trained. I wasn't, you know, I didn't have these big races on the calendar. I think I ran my first big race. It was the Chicago Half Marathon in 2009. It was in like September, I think, and I was getting married in October. So like, I think that race training for that race was like, all right, I'm in wedding planning mode.

I need something else to like eliminate the stress. I want to be healthy at my wedding. And so I took that on and I think that race is kind of what kick started me into like running races, you know, so. And does your husband run at all? He does, but he but he just runs. He needs to get out and move and so he'll go out and run. He's not really like, he doesn't like races or anything like that. There's a couple of races that every once in a while will do as a family. We love going up to Ann Arbor and Ann Arbor and doing the big house 5K, big fans up here.

So you do that as a family? Yeah. We actually, we just signed up for a. Paint some sort of paint race this weekend I got roped into. So I mean as a family and I was kind of like, I have, yeah, I have 1/2 marathon on Saturday and it's Saturday afternoon as this other race and I was kind of like, hey honey, how do you feel about more running for the weekend? But yeah, Zach, I roped him into running the Chicago Marathon with me before we got married because I think he was, you know, he's still trying. That's, you know what I mean? But we ended up running together for a while before we got married.

And then now he's kind of the same. He'll go out and run occasionally, just if he needs to move, and then he'll do like the mini every year without training, you know, Typical dude. So at what point then did you end up becoming certified for being an instructor? And what does that process look like? I actually know. I know nothing about that. Well, I so for fitness through the American Council of Exercise I have my personal training and my group fit. I in 2008 I was living in Grand Rapids, didn't really have a huge circle of friends and so I was working all day and then I'd go to the gym at night and then I'd have time to kind of twiddle my thumbs.

So I realized that I really love fitness and I started to look into getting certified and just thinking it could be like, you know, like a hobby. Like I could maybe do this on the side and earn a couple bucks. And so I went the American Council of Exercise route and there's there's so many ways you can get certified. You can go to school for it. I did not probably would have if I had thought about it earlier, but still got certified, self studied, learned everything I could and then just jumped in, started off small, a couple clients here and there at a gym actually up here in Saint Joe.

So I ended up when we got married, moving to Saint Joe, took that job at the gym. I ended up being there for like 10 years, worked my way up from personal trainer to fitness director, which was a lot of fun. And then in that whole process, in order to keep your certifications, you have to do continuing education, so at 1:00. Point I needed to do something and that's when I did Rd. Runners Club of America, got my running coaching certification. I never did it to really coach other people. It was kind of a it's kind of a selfish choice. I wanted to learn more.

I wanted to absorb more information about running because it was such a huge part of my life. I wanted to do it better. I want, and I wanted to be able to talk about it too, with my clients and the people at the gym and just my community. So I did the certification with Rd. Runners Club of America and just absorbed all that information and kind of it. It really opened me up to some of the things that I was not necessarily doing wrong but could do better in my own training. So I was able to apply some of those concepts and kind of shift some things and it really, I don't know, it was fun to do that certification.

First and foremost, it's. Like, how long? How long? OK, yeah. Two days. Two days on site. Lots of group work, lots of, you know, book, lecture type, type situation, yeah. Interesting. And so it's two days on site and that's it. And then you have continuing education for that as well. So for that one, if you do your level one, you can eventually do level 2 and then they have other modules that you can do it as well once you're certified, just working with that certification kind of keeps you in it, keeps you educated. They, I don't believe they acquire any continuing Ed, but if you're in the industry 9 times out of 10, you're going to do it anyway, so.

Right. Because you just want to know. Yeah. You just want to know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so with the gym. You got certified before you ended up working there. Do they require do gyms like that? They require certifications for anybody who's like teaching group fitness or who any of their personal trainers. Yeah, So every gym's going to operate a little differently. But typically they have a list of go to certifications that they prefer and that they look for in anybody who wants to apply. If you're coming at it from a like from a college standpoint, if you went to school for it, they may not require the certification.

They should just be safe. But again, I mean gym does it differently. But yeah, it was, it was, I think they were. It was a good thing that I was coming to it already prepared because you do get people who say, oh I've been doing fitness forever, I want to do this. I know all about it. Can I do it? And it's like, well you're not certified and it's a liability thing too, you know, for the gym. If they have someone who's not certified to train these people or teach these people and something goes wrong, it can be I can backfire. Yeah, yeah. And so for the run coaching, is that is that expensive?

I honestly cannot remember how much I paid. But if you think about it, like whatever chunk you pay upfront, if you really dive into it and you want to coach, you're going to even add that. Up Sure. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I did it years ago, so I'm sure by now it's different, but. Yeah, I'm sure, right. And a lot of it's probably. You could probably do it virtually now, right? Yeah, exactly. And when you compare it to the cost of like going to college or like you know, spending four years on a certification, essentially it's really. Yeah, no, I was trying to I I don't know, I should just Google it and see if it was like hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars.

I guess it might not be 100. Yeah, gotcha. I don't remember. Yeah, it's a while ago. No. So, OK, so you did before you got married. You did that half marathon in Chicago. And then what else? I want to hear some more race stories since then. So what kind of happened after that half, you know, that kind of like that set me off. I was like, I love this. I love the finish line feel, I love training for something. And I I think I've done probably over 20 half marathons between 2009. And now then I have one marathon, one marathon under my belt. And I always said that, like, never, like that distance, just never appealed to me.

And then I the more I thought about it, I was like, no, I I need to try this. I need to try at least one, right? I did Chicago in 2019 and I chose that one one. It's Chicago. I love Chicago. I've been to Chicago forever. And it's such a great race. And everybody was like, if you're going to do one, do that one. It's great. But also, it was 10 years after Chicago Half Marathon, my first half marathon. So it was kind of like a okay 10 years later, doubling the distance. Let's do this. And I ran it for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. We had a family friend who passed away from CF, so tacking that on to however many months of training sort of made it bigger than me, and it gave me something to focus on while I was slogging all those miles.

So it was, it was a really humbling experience. Did the race go how I wanted it to? Not necessarily, but I wouldn't change it for the world. It was. I mean, it was just unbelievable. You've run Chicago, right? You know what? It's. Like, yeah, Chicago's the one I've done the most, although I feel like so the first year I did it was 10/10/10. That was my first marathon, which is kind of. It's nice because then I can remember how long I've been running marathons anyway. But I've done Chicago four times, and all of those times were before they had a lottery. So it's been a while since I've done Chicago, but I think it's only gotten better in terms of like bigger and, you know, even more support.

But I absolutely loved Chicago, for sure. Yeah, so good. So at that point you were certified, certified run coach. So you used all that in your training? I actually don't. I think I was certified at that point. I was because I ran it in 2019. So yes, I was. I think I had just gotten certified like in the process of training. So I was already in training and I then got certified and was able to kind of apply some of that, yeah. That makes sense. Did you train with anyone else or any groups at all there? I mean there's there's people in the area that would, you know, pick up some runs with me, but I pretty much went at it so low.

Yeah, I've been the same essentially for pretty much all of my marathons. Not really on purpose, just because it just fit better. Because I could just do it, I guess. I don't know. I feel like sometimes I love running with people. And I think it reminds you why running is so great. It kind of brings you back to that whole Why am I doing this? Am I doing this because I need to hit a pace, or am I doing it because I love it? Right, but when you're training for something, you have to do specific workouts. It can be sometimes hard to coordinate if that person is not near your pace.

Or have the time when you need to get out there and do it so that gets back into the whole, like shuffling to get your runs in. Yeah, right. I know. Yeah. At least now especially, right. It's funny, I don't know why I didn't train with groups. Back when I did, because obviously, like 2010 was way before I had kids, way before I even met my husband. And so yeah, it's. I don't know why I didn't. I just, I guess I because I didn't really train properly anyway. I would just go out and run the distance as fast as I could. I think, you know, right.

It was just like okay. I need to run this many miles. That's it. I never did any really real cross training. I never did any. Yeah, certainly. No speed work. It was just all like, okay, how fast can I run today? Yeah, my whole race pace. Here's the mileage I have to do. How do I get it done? Yeah, gosh, thinking back to that and thinking of where I am now, it's just like, yes, if anybody listening doesn't have any sort of education or training help, it really does make such a huge difference. Yeah, I think, I think the hardest thing to learn as a runner is that you don't always have to bust out your race day pace for every single run.

Like that's not what's going to make your race go better. You don't have to just race pace every single time you go out and run. You really have to honor those rest days and give your body a chance to just put in the volume versus this, you know? And I think that was one of the hardest things for me to learn even after I got that coaching certification, because it's one thing to read it on a piece of paper and it's one thing to actually put it in practice and trust that it's the right thing, right? Yeah, totally. I actually hired a running coach probably about a year ago.

Her name is Jamie at Run Coach Jamie on Instagram. She's. OK, I probably follow her as a result of you, I bet. Yeah, I I kind of got to a point with my running where I was like this Something needs to change. And I don't have the bandwidth to really sit down and figure out my own training plan. I want somebody else to take what I'm doing and spit me out a plan that can help me. And so I hired her and I've been working with her and she has really, really drilled in these like, slow shakeout runs, which have made such a difference, you know, And to anyone out there that's thinking about hiring a running coach, do it.

Just do it. Amen to that. So I mean, it makes such a difference and it takes that off your plate. You literally just look at your watch. Here's what I have to do today and you go and. I love it too. It's so worth it. Absolutely, Yeah. And I, my coach gave me kind of the mantra of like slow is fast. So it's just like you have to go slow to get faster, right? And it's it was hard for me at first. I would have to make myself slow down, but now I really relish and enjoy my easy runs. It's nice. There's no pressure. You just get to just run and it and it's supposed to feel easy and no matter what, like, yeah, it doesn't matter at all.

The pace you go, so great. Yeah. And then you, you know, then you have to work hard, which I have to do today. So yeah. Yeah. I just looked at my garment and I'm like, oh, track workout, OK, yeah. Yeah, I can't even remember what I didn't. I knew it was like, yeah, it's a quality session. So I'm like, I know there's some speed in there and it's supposed to rain today. So I'm debating on what that's going to look like, if I'm going to just go in the rain or if I'm going to go on my treadmill. But I need to get outside because it's race week for me.

Probably. It'd be nice to just get outside. So we'll see. My daughter had to run in the rain. It's been raining up here the past two days. She had to run in the rain. Yesterday after school, she got like, my feet are soaking wet. My shoes are so wet. And I'm like, look at you. I know. Right. Yeah, I actually. There's something about running in the rain that I really enjoy because it just makes me feel like a badass, you know? You're just like, so cleansing. In the rain, Yeah. Couple weeks ago, I got caught in the rain. I it was kind of like spitting all day and I'm like, all right, here's an hour window.

I literally got just far enough away from my house. I was running from my house to the baseball fields because my son had practice. I was like, all right, I'll just run that way and meet up with everybody. Literally got probably 10 minutes away from my house, too far away to turn around. And I was like, all right, I'm just gonna run. It's great. This is great Rain, probably halfway there, Thunder lightning pelting, all this rain is pelting in my face. And I'm like, OK, this is when it gets to be not fun. So I'm like speeding up just so I can get to the field and find shelter.

And I called my husband. I'm like, I'm scared. There's too much lightning come pick me up. I can't do this anymore so but got in some miles so it's all good. Name is good. Yeah. Were you wearing a hat? No. See, that's the worst. It's like, at least if you're you feel like you can see if you have a hat on. But if you're not wearing a hat, you're just like, that's tricky, yeah? Yeah, this weekend's weather looks good, thankfully, and and cooler, which is good. Yes, it's that time of year. It is, yeah. So. So why are you one and done? You think, or you just?

So after the marathon you're just like, OK, I did it. Now, I don't really know if I ever want to do that again or I I say I'm one and done and I it's funny because I feel like I'm in this. It looks like a weird transition period with my running. Right now I have 1/2 marathon on the calendar for January and I ran 1/2 marathon in April. And even before that half marathon it got to those, got even those like 6-7, eight mile runs. I was like, I just don't want to have to go out and do this distance, you know? So I feel like I'm kind of at a point where I need to figure out what's next.

You know what I mean? Like, do I really want to continue pushing myself? Do I really want to continue, like, shooting for these paces? Or do I just want to, like, pull back a little bit and run for fun again? So right now that half marathon in January is the main goal. And then we'll see. I mean, I say one and done, but I said I never was going to ever run a marathon, right? And I ran a marathon. So that's kind of how we runners are. Right? Though we say, oh, we're going to do this, we're not going to do that. And then fork over the money in two seconds.

It's like never again. Oh, look, a race. Yeah, that's a cute medal. Sure. OK, I don't know. I feel like in our bubble of Instagram especially, it's like all you're seeing, at least what I see is like it's a lot of marathon stuff, especially around this time of year. And it's like, you know, I think people maybe feel some sort of pressure to be like, well, I need to do that to prove that I'm a runner, but you don't. Right. And if you don't enjoy it and it's not something that you want to do, it's like, yeah, I mean I truly love the half marathon distance.

I was talking to my coach about it yesterday, actually about I have 4:00 this fall. And so like, which ones am I going to race? And then she was asking about next year. She's like, what are you going to do next year? And I was like, I don't know. You know, do I want to do a full. Do I want to do something else? I I really So you. And I'm thinking about that too. It's like what do I? What do I want to do? You know, having younger kids too, it's kind of like, it's really hard. And I think that's my whole thing with the marathon.

It was, I'm so glad I did it. But when I think about doing another one, it suddenly becomes more than just here's another race I signed up for. It is OK, My life's going to change. Here's another job. Yes, yes, this is a lifestyle change. And I just don't know, like mentally and physically, if I've got the interest in doing that again, it's just a big chunk. Whereas I can look at the half marathon and say, oh, I can, I've done that before. I know I can do it. You know, it's not as much of A commitment. It's still a bigger chunk of miles, so you feel like you're taking on a challenge, but.

Yeah, I don't know either. I do. I know that I'll continue. I want to keep doing marathons. I do know that I do love the distance. But it's like within reason and kind of maybe different season. But I I don't know the Boston, I have the Boston bug a little bit, which I haven't talked a lot about because I feel like it's so scary to think about having to push myself enough to get fast enough for that, which, you know, I'm getting close to the, you know, the 40 mark in terms of my age. So it's like, OK, well, that seems like a decent, yeah, you know, as I get more of a buffer to try.

But who knows? I don't know. I don't know. I was going to ask you about my teen Triumph because I think when we were down at the Monumental, you were running with them. Which tell tell us what that is and what that's like and how you kind of got involved there. So my team, Triumph is a ride along program, which essentially means that we take kids and adults with different abilities and we give them the opportunity to experience distance running. I typically run with a girl who's 18, She has cerebral palsy. She can't run, right. So we put her in what we call they're Chariots, which they're running strollers for, not kids.

Obviously they're a little bit bigger, different so that the adults can fit in there, but we push her, we push her through the entire 13.1, through the 5K, through the whatever race, and it's just it's an incredible experience. It is. If you've never pushed someone through a race, it's something you should experience at least once, because it totally changes your why. You're not out there for a PR, you're not out there for a medal. You're out there to give this person an experience that they will never have on their own. And it's just so joyful and literally every time I do it, I am like in tears when I cross the finish line that I run with.

We often pull her out, like right before the finish line and we, you know, walk her across and everybody's cheering. She's smiling, she gets her medal and it's it's awesome. How did you find them? So we have a small chapter here in Saint Joe and I basically met them through the running community and become really good friends with a lot of the people who do it. And they are actually taking Joe, the girl that I typically run with down to Walt Disney World and they're doing the dopey challenge with her this January, so. That's so cool. Gonna take her through all four distances and get her a sweet set of medals and I'm really excited to see how so.

That's so cool. I mean, in 18, that's not a kid. That's an adult you're pushing, which is no small feat. I mean, I think about stroller running is hard. Yeah, she's she's funny. She, you know, she she'll fall asleep in the middle of the race and the chariot that she rides in, we have music on. So we'll turn the music up and wake her up and joke around with her. It's just so fun. And everybody, like when you're pushing these kids and adults through the race, everybody on the sidelines is like, yeah, go, go, go joke or whatever. Yeah, that's really neat, yeah. And how does the logistics of that during the race, do you how how big is your team that pushes her?

Do you have like two or three people? Does it depend on the distance? For a 5K, you might be able to go out solo, but typically they like to have at least two runners, one pushing, one on the side towards the front. So they can kind of like, hey, run around your left, you know, help navigate that. But typically they get an early start, so we start for the bigger races with the wheelchair athletes, local races, they usually give us like a 5 minute head start because if we're if we're starting at the back of the pack, we have to navigate walkers, right? We can get up front and they can see us and they can navigate us.

So that early start can be kind of fun sometimes too at the bigger race. But yeah, I ran that race in Indy, a Mini that was the race that oh God, I'm going to forget her name. But she ended up setting a record. She won the half. What was her name? Do you remember? No, this is bad. Yeah. I don't remember. I think she. Anyway, she set a huge record and I remember seeing her fly right by us, Just truck it. And this year, this past year in the fall. OK, yeah. The Monumental. Monumental. Yes, the Monumental. What was her name? Jennifer, she was the full.

I don't know. I'm bad. I'm really bad anyway, it's really cool to get. Up front because you can see these crazy fast athletes just right by you. Yeah, that's special. So I noticed something I want to point out, which is that you didn't call it a wheelchair, right? Yep. It's not a wheelchair. It's literally, it's a running stroller. You know, like you pushed your kids in. We, they call them Chariots. The athletes are captains and the runners are angels. So we captains, they always win. They always beat us. Yeah. So does Joe? Does she is her everyday in a wheelchair then no she she she can walk.

She can walk. She has a Walker. I think she also has like a motorized scooter that she has at school, but yeah. Well, I think that's an important distinction because I just assumed with, you know, oh, you start with the wheelchair. So that's just like they're in a wheelchair, I guess. I never really thought about it much. Well, and we always say instead of saying they're they're kids and adults with disabilities, it's not a disability, it's a different ability. You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's negative, right. And there's nothing negative about that. You're just you have different. Abilities or different? Yeah, yeah, I really like that distinction.

I am hoping to next year for the indie mini run with Ainsley's Angels. They are, they're. Yeah, so a friend of mine who's on this podcast, Christy, she did it this year for the first time. And I know some other people have done it. And when I worked at the running store, a gentleman came in and he was like one of the captain or no, not captain. Wait, Angel. So I don't know what they call you. Yeah. He was one of the people pushing and he was like, you got to cut, you know, he's telling me all about it. And so I just, I think that it's important.

To do things like that to give other people the experience that you take for really take for granted. You know I you've probably seen me say you know you get to do this like that's something I always drill into my brain. It's like I can and so and I get to not like I have to go. You know it's like hey you can. So we'll see. I'll report back. I'm hoping to do that with with her and. I love it, maybe some other recruit, some others because the the Indy mini is really crowded. So it's a great race, but it's a hard race to try to go out and PR.

So I think it's it would be a really good opportunity to do something like that. So yeah, we shall see. Yeah, you'll love. It will be an awesome experience. So what is your what's your favorite race distance, then? So you do, what do you do primarily. So typically what I've been doing is spring half, fall half and then peppering in five K's and 10 K's. I think the half marathon is probably my favorite distance, although right now I kind of have a love, hate relationship with it. But I feel like it's the kind of distance. Like I said, you can jump into it and feel like you're taking on this huge challenge, but it's not going to necessarily overtake your life.

It's very trainable and there's just so many good half marathons out there, you know, There's so good races out there. But yeah, there is. It's fun. It's fun. Yeah, I need to come. I need to come up to Michigan and do one. Michigan is not colored in on my map. Yeah, so I, which I can't believe really. Well, you know I've been to Michigan a lot. You can help me redeem the She Runs Grand Rapids Half Marathon oh. Gosh, yes, we have to talk about that. I almost forgot. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So tell us about that. Oh my gosh. Well, my one and only DNF, my one and only finish in the ambulance in the ER.

It was an experience. So she runs Grand Rapids Half Marathon is an incredible race. They have a 5K and 10K distance as well. Grand Rapids is a wonderful city to run. It's very accessible and this is an all women's race, so there's that aspect of it too. But this was going to be my spring race, end of April, yeah. And I fell hard, literally flat on my face. There's a part of the course mile like six, 7:00-ish where you're running through the woods a little bit and there's nothing back there, right? You're just on this path, the nature path, which was beautiful. And I remember thinking to myself, if somebody gets hurt back here, like, that's not good.

Like, that's what you mean, like, right. And so I mind you, I was going into this race. I should back up a minute. So I was going into this race like kind of just like, okay, I just need to get this over with. I'm not into the training. I'm not into the distance today. Like, I'm just not feeling it. Let's just get this over with. So I'm coming out of mile seven out of this wooded area. And I finally see, like the aid station, there's people caught my toe on. I don't know if it was like a root or a crack in the path, but I went vertical and it was one of those like slow motion.

Holy mother of you know what, this is not going to end well. I landed on my left hand, popped my knuckle on my middle finger and then his the. Pain, like, broke your finger, like, popped, like the dislocated it. I heard that. I didn't know what the heck happened. And then my right cheek hit the cement and I was out, like, blacked out. And I remember waking up in the grass. I have no idea how I got from the path to the grass. I'm just laying there, and there's a woman next to me. She's holding my wrist clearly, keeping track of my pulse. Right. And she, I remember looking at her like, are you a medical professional?

And she was like, yes. And I was like, all right, I'm good. I'm in the right hand right now. And I saw my finger. And I'm not kidding you. It was bent at a very unnatural angle. And I just was like, I'm going to put this over here. I'm not going to look at it. And then I heard her in her phone say something about a hematoma on my cheek. And so I just kind of laid there like I'm having any pain. I'm probably in shock, but like, I'm not nauseous. I'm not dizzy. I'm just clearly hurt. Yeah. And she called my she she eventually called my husband.

I pulled out my phone, gave her my phone, called my husband. She's like, we have Tara, she's she hurt her finger. She needs to go to the hospital. My husband's like, what the what the hell? She And she's like, no, no, no, no. We need to take her in. And so then he gets to the hospital. He sees my face and like my face. Like it was huge. Like I had like a fricking apple on my cheek when. You say hematoma and I pictured just like, that's like a blood blister, right? Like, so it's just, yeah, so blood collecting under my skin And it was.

Just a massive bump. So Long story short, my finger was cleanly dislocated. They popped it back into place. They did all kinds of xrays on my head. Nothing was fractured, nothing was wrong with my brain. Thank God I just hit it hard so. They thought you like, didn't. I don't know. I guess I it could have been so much worse than it was, right? I could have had hand to head injuries. I could have had a concussion. Like broken your nose. Like, I think you've fallen like, like straight on your face. I think they were mostly concerned that I fractured my yeah. You call that?

But to this day, I look back on that like, Oh my God, I can't. What did your kid? How did your kids react? Oh, my daughter wouldn't look at me for a week. Yeah, I feel like that would be really tough. It was, yeah. My brotherinlaw lives in Grand Rapids, so they were with him. Jason was kind of just walking around downtown Grand Rapids, just, you know, getting some fresh air. So luckily they were taken care of and he was with me at the ER. But it was I got I got back to my brother in the last place and my kids were like in tears.

They would look at me and my son just kept asking all these questions and 10 minutes later I was old news and. Right. And they're like asking you for a snack or whatever. I'm like, dude, come on. Like, come on, Mommy's face is literally broken like you. Ask your dad. Exactly, exactly. That is such a that is such a like. Yeah, It's a perfect tale of being a mom, right? Yeah, exactly. And luckily I was, you know, I was OK to the where I could, you know. Be a mom. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. I had to walk around for a couple weeks with my middle finger in a, you know, splint, which was.

Oh, that's funny too. So you just are giving everybody the middle finger and we're right in the middle of baseball season. So I had this big black eye and like felt like I had to explain it and like. My husband didn't hit me. This is from from me. I also was like, please tell them it happened. Yeah, right. I know, I'm sure, I'm sure. Which is also like they'd be like what? Like, how do you do that? You know, like running is a safe sport. Yeah, and so didn't she Power? Did they offer they sent you a medal or they offered to send you a medal?

They I I actually emailed them and I was like hey, if I if you can, great. If not, I kind of wanted it just to remember this whole experience by when, you know, fail of 1/2 marathon. But they did. They sent it. They were so great about it. And they actually, they were like, we're so glad you reached out. We wanted an update from you and I had posted about it on social media and I had all these women like, Oh my God, we saw you fall. We were so worried about you. Like, it looks so bad and I'm like, no, I just tripped. I'm good, you know.

Yeah. Oh yeah, I'm not. Well, to your point too, like not knowing how you got from the path to the grass. Like, I can imagine people be like, Oh yeah, we dragged you. Like, I took your body. How did I did? Still, I'd be curious about, like, how the heck right? And I have no idea. Like how long I was blacked out, how long I was unconscious. No clue. No clue. But I knew that I when I woke up, I knew that I was OK because I could tell that like I was coherent. Right. You could you all my cognitive whatevers were firing, you know?

So I'm like, I'm OK. I have to be OK and my finger is, you know. But you're not like that's my finger versus like a whole arm or you probably move your legs at that point. And I remember being in the ambulance and they were, you know, doing all their tests, asking other questions. And they were like, so how many, how many quarters does it take to make $1.50? And I was like, I don't know, I use my debit card and they're like, you're fine, you're yeah, keep tracking jokes like, Oh no. Well, also like, that's a lot of math for like I just run a half marathon like and I was like I'm like halfway or you know, I don't know, I use my debit card.

But yeah, like. You're fine, right? Like, OK, yeah, It's too much math. Too much math We were talking about. I was with my coach yesterday. As I mentioned, she's running Berlin. And so we were talking about kilometers and miles and like how? You're not used to that, like trying to do math on the fly ever while you're running. Like the whole concept of running math, which I do even for any distance, right, where you're like okay, I have, you know, what percentage am I done or what you know? But you start getting into it and you can't. I mean, I can barely, Yeah. I just don't think about anything besides just running.

Almost like, don't stop running. That's all we What does my watch say? Okay. I'm good, yeah. Okay, That's fine. And well, I forgot about that whole ordeal, man. Yeah, it's funny because I had my college reunion that this past summer and my girlfriends had a medal made for me, and it's his first place ambulance division. She runs Grand Rapids. No, it is the funniest thing. And they gave it to me and she was like, I'm so sorry the little velvet case broke. And I'm like, no, it's perfect because that is just the epitome of what that whole experience was for me. Like, yeah, first place from something, Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, somewhat related my sisters. When I turned 30, I'm the oldest of three girls. They got me, my sister made me a first place medal and on the back it said like in the race to 30. It was kind of funny cuz they know how much. Yeah, it's like how competitive I am. And the first place to 30. Yay. But yeah, that would be the whole idea of a DNF. So I've run just over or no, this will be my 51st half marathon on Saturday and so and I've, I've finished every single one. And I've actually, knock on wood, not had a close call where it was like, can I?

Of course. I think, oh, can I do this right. But, you know I haven't been injured. So it's just kind of one of those things where I feel like it's a numbers game at some point, you would think. I don't know. But so hopefully I'm gonna try not to trip this weekend. That would be pretty bad. Yeah, it's funny because after almost immediately after the race, I was like, crap, You know, I was 7 miles into this and when I look at my watch, I was actually doing really well. Like, I probably would have either come close or maybe gotten that PR. I don't know, Like, it was actually a really good race.

And I immediately was like, okay. What can I sign up for? What's the closest half marathon? And I can go back and do it. And then the more I thought about it, I was like, why? Why am I going to go back out there right away and do it? Like, what do I really need? Who do I really need to prove this to? Because if it's just myself, do I? I mean, I know I can do it because I really need to get back out there just because I fell and run another one so quick. So I didn't end up signing up for another one.

I just said I'm not going to do this. It's summer and I've kind of been in. I haven't really started training for my half half in January yet. That's going to kick in here in about a month. So I just have been spending all summer just, you know, we're finding some pacework and just kind of having fun with it. My coach hasn't really been giving me too much to do in terms of like, really intense workouts, which has been done. So yeah, I feel like I'm kind of like I'm kind of in that weird phase where I don't really know what I want my running to be.

Right, Yeah, right. Yeah, so. Yeah and at some point yeah there's there's only you can only as you get older too there's only so you can only go fast and do you know do so much and so yeah I don't I don't know and I'm so I'm I'm running Dumbo in January so. Yeah, let's talk about that. Yeah. So I'm doing the 10K and the half marathon and Disney Half marathon is so different. I don't feel the pressure to like PR or run some cases because there's just so much going on and you stop every once in a while and see characters and stuff. So I feel like even though I'm heading into another half marathon, it's a different type of training cycle.

Like, I just need to make sure I can essentially get the distance. I don't know, Like, I feel like this might just be like, I'm going to do this fun run, and then that might just be like it for a while. Like, I don't really know if I'm going to feel the pressure to sign up for something else. Or I might just run because I love it, you know? Gosh, what a novel idea. Hey, I say that now and I know as soon as I cross that finish line, I feel like, OK, I can do this. So that's. Like? But it's such a profound thing.

Really like run because you love it? Yeah, that's the whole That is the entire point really. It is. And it's hard. It is hard. It's so hard for me. I was telling somebody this yesterday, like I'm planning one of my four half marathons I'm doing. I'm planning on running with my friend who's going to be the 210 pacer. And 2:10 for me is pretty slow. And so it'll be completely for fun. And I'm like, OK, but if I say that that's what I'm going to do, then I make myself do that. But it seems, and everyone's like good luck with that, you know? Yeah, true, because it is really hard.

It's really hard to just be like okay. No, this is really, I'm not racing. I'm just having fun and I'm going to enjoy it and take pictures and meet people or like do whatever. But I don't know the idea that is starting to grow on me, really. I feel like if this is kind of the mentality I have right now, I feel like if I can have pockets where I can be competitive with running and follow those pockets with just fun running to a point, you know, I feel like that makes me appreciate what I can do as a runner. And I feel like it also takes off some of the pressure.

Like I don't always have to be on. I don't have to go out at every race and when my age group or PR or whatever it is like I can just go out and run for fun. And I feel like that's something, well, I feel like a lot of people look at running and say, oh, I can never be a runner because I can't run fast. I'll never win a race, so why should I do? That's not really like, bottom line. Running is just running. And if you want to run, do it. Like, who cares if you can't win your age group or you can't PR?

Nobody. Hey, just go out and run because it's fun. Get the medal. You know, be around other people who are just out there hunting pavement. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like for me right now, finding that balance will be good. Like doing, like you said, having the pockets of competitiveness and also fun. Yeah, that's so well said. So and so this, the Dumbo is, they haven't done it in a few years, right. Right. It's been a while. And then, you know, with everything with COVID and stuff, it pushed it out even further. But yeah, it's bad. It's. In it's in California. California I honestly so Disney races can be.

They are really hard to get into and I honestly did not think that I would get into it and then I got into it and I was like oh holy crap okay, I'm doing this so it'll be fun. It'll I'm, I'm honestly just going to go out there and have a little me weekend and spend 3 days with me, myself and I run some races and that sounds. Really nice. Do you have, are you a costume girl? You know what I am. Yeah, to an extent. Like there are people who run these Disney races who go all out. I tend to fall somewhere in the middle, you know.

I I have bought a few things that I could probably rewear. Not in costume mode, you know what I mean? So just people takes on characters. So I had a good feel like that would. Be so fun? Yeah. I haven't quite figured out what I'm doing for that one, but the one in November. So it's the 5K is an Alice in Wonderland theme. So they're gonna dress up as Alice, they are gonna be Tweedledee and Tweedledum, my niece is gonna be the cat and my mom's gonna be the queen of hearts. So we all we're we're like all right let's pigs so. Yeah, and what is that weekend called?

The one in November, it's. The wine and dine. That's right. I you know, I'm getting there. I'm starting to be a little bit more proficient in my Disney running speak. I guess you could say that's going to be super fun. Cool, man. Well, one day I'm excited to have that day where my daughter can hopefully wants to run with me. Like I said, we're doing one this weekend, but it's like a it's a 3K which is almost 2 miles trying to explain it to her. Just trying to get her excited about it, frankly, like do you want to do this and be a little further than the other race we did, which she's only done a mile so far and so we'll see how it goes.

It's a walk run and we'll probably have our two year old too, so yeah. It should be interesting. You just have to pick the races that capture their attention. With my kids, anytime they would run with me, it was typically at a race that, like just looking at it was super fun. Whether we're running through Ann Arbor and the big house or like a taller run or, you know, or I I know that they're going to get a medal at the end. If they're not going to get a medal at the end, like they're kind of just like, what the heck, you know? Yeah, I know we haven't what, But yeah, I always tried to pick races when they were littler that kind of were just super fun so that they could appreciate running for fun versus point A to point B.

Yeah, Okay. So end of podcast questions for you. We talked a little bit about your next finish lines, next milestones, but what about a mantra for you or songs? So mantra I've always in every race ended up saying forward is a pace because no matter what you're running, you can be running the slowest pace ever. You're still going to get that finish line. So it whenever I'm struggling, whenever I feel like my pacing plan is out the door, I just have myself forward as a pace 1 foot in front of the other go after it. Then I have I have a bracelet that says it, so I always wear it.

Yeah, I love. Is that what's that company that makes that momentum. Momentum. Yeah, I think I found out about them through you. I have a bracelet that says you get to do this because that I had made. Yeah, yeah. So forward is the case. And then one song that I really love that I put on my running playlist. It's called. It's literally called Run by Lucy Spragan, I think is her name. I found it randomly on Spotify, just shuffling through songs. But you need to listen to it. Look it up all about. I'm gonna run, run, run. Bye bye. Problems. Run till the road meets the sea.

Oh yeah, that sounds perfect. Yeah, it's so perfect. And it just like if you look at it from a running perspective, I'm sure there's some deeper meaning as to why she wrote it. But if you look at it from a running perspective, it is. I'm gonna run cuz I can. I'm gonna run because I buy problems, you know? Yeah, that's so good. I'm gonna have. I will definitely look it up and it's fast pace and it actually has a really good like beat to it that kind of you can match your feet to it, you know, So it kind. Of Yeah, that's always a bonus when the song you likes actually, like, has a good cadence.

Yeah, for sure. For sure. Oh, well, this was so much fun. Tara, thank you. I'm glad we finally got to do this. And I'm hoping that I'm hoping that maybe my family starts coming to New Buffalo every summer, so that I can at least know that I'll see you and get to run with you once a year for sure. We'll have to get you back down to Indy at some point, too. You know, whenever you want. It's always fun to run in Indy, yeah. Yeah, for sure. All right. Well, enjoy the rest of your afternoon and. Yeah. Thank you everybody who is listening. And also if you want to follow Tara on Instagram, it's at a daily dose of fit.

So I I wanted to talk about that. We didn't even talk about how you do all this great content. So go. Follow Tara because she has a lot of great educational like tips and stuff, which I always find helpful. So appreciate that. All right, Well, thanks everybody. Thanks, Tara. Happy running? Yep, you too.

Ally Brettnacher