Episode 40: Rose Scovel - From Anti Athlete to Ironrose
Rose Scovel spent her childhood dodging field day. After a type 2 diabetes diagnosis at 32, she became an Ironman, swam 8.2 miles around Mackinac Island, and has run 92 half marathons.
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About this episode
Rose Scovel of Indianapolis calls herself a former anti athlete. She was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at 32, walked 20 minutes on a treadmill that same day, and has since finished 92 half marathons, 11 marathons, Ironman Louisville in 2018 for the 10th anniversary of her diagnosis, and the 8.2-mile Mackinac Island Swim. She is a lifetime Monumental ambassador and a longtime member of Matt Ebersole's PBT team.
We talk about the walnut that fractured her tibia in September 2023, learning to swim because her parents can't, her 300 swim miles in 2023, and the solo Ironman she attempted during the pandemic. Rose is honest about imposter syndrome, training with much faster teammates, nearly quitting her coach, and why consistency is her superpower.
In this episode, we discuss
- How Rose's public post about Athlete Bouquets meant so much to me early on
- Volunteering 16 hours at the Monumental Expo on crutches after a tibia fracture
- Rolling on a walnut during an easy PBT run and fracturing her tibia
- Learning to swim because neither of her parents can, and Girl Scout camp open water
- Her first triathlon at Go Girl at Eagle Creek and swimming in the downtown canal
- Being an anti athlete until a type 2 diabetes diagnosis at age 32
- Her first race, Run Like Hell on the downtown canal, and a race every month after
- Tracking data and hitting 300 swim miles in 2023
- Training for and swimming the 8.2-mile Mackinac Island Swim in 57-degree water
- Ironman Louisville in 2018 for the 10th anniversary of her diabetes diagnosis
- Attempting a solo Ironman during the pandemic with friends staffing aid stations
- How she came to hire Matt Ebersole and train with PBT
- Imposter syndrome and training alongside athletes chasing Olympic Trials standards
- Why consistency is her superpower and her "because I can" motivation
- Her goal of running her 100th half marathon at Monumental
Chapters
- 00:00 · Intro
- 03:00 · How I first heard of Rose
- 05:00 · Volunteering at Monumental while injured
- 10:00 · The walnut injury
- 13:00 · Learning to swim
- 16:00 · First triathlon and swimming in the canal
- 19:30 · Type 2 diabetes diagnosis
- 24:30 · First race and first half marathon
- 27:30 · Data, spreadsheets and 300 swim miles
- 36:30 · The Mackinac Island Swim
- 51:30 · Ironman Louisville and the solo Ironman
- 1:01:30 · Training with the fast people at PBT
- 1:11:30 · Consistency is her superpower
- 1:17:00 · Mantras and the Ironman finish line
- 1:19:30 · Next milestone: 100th half marathon
Where to find Rose
- Instagram: Rose Hamel Scovel
Mentioned in this episode
- Races: Monumental Marathon, Carmel Marathon, Mackinac Island Swim, Mackinac Bridge Swim, Swim to the Moon, Go Girl Triathlon, Eagle Creek Sprint Triathlon Series, Tri Indy, Ironman Louisville, Ironman Wisconsin, Ironman 70.3 Puerto Rico, Run Like Hell, Indianapolis Mini-Marathon, Detroit Half Marathon, Grand Rapids Half Marathon, Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon
- Organizations and charities: Personal Best Training (PBT), Indy Runners, Monon Community Center, YMCA, USA Triathlon
- Other: Mike Reilly, the voice of Ironman, TrainingPeaks, Counting Crows "Rain King", Threads, Eagle Creek Park
Previous guests mentioned
- Trena Roudebush (Episode 31)
- Matt Ebersole (Episode 89)
- Kate Broshears (Episode 120)
- Bob Roudebush (Episode 146)
Related episodes
- Episode 46: Jay Druba - The Carmel Marathon Is Not in California
- Episode 159: Jessica & JJ Jones - The Joneses Never Settle
- Episode 56: Vince Auten - Becoming Invinceable
- Episode 26: Brandy Ramirez - Never Quit
Frequently asked
Who is Rose Scovel?
Rose Scovel is an Indianapolis triathlete and runner who began exercising after a type 2 diabetes diagnosis at 32 and has since completed Ironman Louisville, the Mackinac Island Swim, 92 half marathons and 11 marathons.
How far is the Mackinac Island Swim?
Rose Scovel explains that the full Mackinac Island Swim is 8.2 miles around the island, with a 7-mile option and relays, and she swam the full distance in 2023 in water around 57 degrees.
Why did Rose Scovel do Ironman Louisville?
Rose Scovel trained for three years to finish Ironman Louisville in 2018, marking the 10th anniversary of her type 2 diabetes diagnosis.
How did Rose Scovel get into running?
Rose Scovel started walking on a treadmill the day she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, then her college roommate convinced her to walk a Halloween 5K called Run Like Hell, and she committed to a race every month after that.
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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.
Ally Brettnacher: Hello and welcome to episode 40. This is Ally Brettnacher, and I can't believe it's almost February. It's gonna be February next week, or maybe it already is when you're listening to this. The Olympic trials in Orlando are next week. My coach and a few other athletes are heading down for the trials and I'm super jealous.
Wish I was going, but. I am headed to Cancun, Mexico with seven other couples and cannot wait. I just need some sun and some warmth in my life and some adult time. This year has been off to a weird start with I had surgery and recovered just on my nose to help with breathing. Nothing super serious. And we've had sick kids, we've had weather, so I'm just ready to take a break and then hopefully just get back in a rhythm.
I'm also about a month out from my first race of the year, which will be the Rock and Roll Vegas half Marathon. So if anyone listening is heading out for that, let me know. I will be running with my dad and I cannot wait. I also get to see you two at the sphere the night before. I'm super excited, so February's gonna be a very fun month for me.
And for this week's episode, I finally got to meet somebody whose name I've known for a long time in person, rose Scoville. Rose is incredibly inspiring. At the end of the episode, I call her out for being just that, and she's so humble. But during this episode, we talk about the story of how I first heard her name, her most recent injury that she's working through, thanks to walnuts in Indiana.
How she learned to swim because her parents can't swim. How her college roommate is the one who got her into running. We talk about her type two diabetes diagnosis, her hate for treadmills, the data that she loves to look through at the end of every year or month. The Mackinac Island swim, which was in incredible, it's eight mile swim.
I can't even fathom this. We talk about how she attempted a solo Iron Man for the 10th anniversary of her diabetes diagnosis, and we briefly mentioned several other Iron Man races that she has completed. We talk about how she joined PBT, which is a local team. I'm sure there are runners outside of Indianapolis as well, but it stands for Personal Best Training run by Matt Ebersol.
And we talk about how Rose runs with the really fast people. And how, how that works for her. And we also talk about just where she gets her motivation. It's insane what she's been able to, to conquer. And in short, her answer is that consistency is her superpower. And I really loved that. So I hope that you really love this episode with Rose Scoville.
Hello and welcome to Finish Lines and Milestones. I am finally here meeting Rose Scoville for the first time. I'm so excited.
Rose Scovel: Hi, Ellie. I'm excited to meet you too. It's been like eons. It seems that we've floated in the same circles but haven't actually met each other.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, and I wanted to tell you this story because.
I don't know if you know how much you mean to me when I have seen your, your name sent to me by my friend Kate Brochures, when I was very early on in athlete bouquets. She sent me from, I, I think it was, maybe it was a PBT Facebook group, maybe it was Indie runners. But she sent me a screenshot from a comment that you made about athlete bouquets.
Uh, you had gotten something for your husband and you told people about it.
Rose Scovel: Yeah, I did.
Ally Brettnacher: And that was so nice and I'll never, ever forget it, so
Rose Scovel: Oh my gosh. I totally didn't know that. I didn't even know that You really knew who I was Yeah. Or anything about me.
Ally Brettnacher: Well, I, I did because of that, and I just thought it was one of the first times somebody, you know, I didn't know personally place an order and shared with people about it.
And I'm like, okay, cool.
Rose Scovel: I tend to. Share things and support people that I think are offering good products and trying to make it. And if I'm unhappy with something, I don't say much about it or I don't, at least not publicly, but if I love something, I go ahead and share it and talk about it.
Ally Brettnacher: Well, thank you for that.
Rose Scovel: You're welcome. And I have ordered several things since then.
Ally Brettnacher: Yes, you have. So thank you. Thank you. So you and I almost met at the Monumental Expo, and I'm so bummed I missed you there.
Rose Scovel: Yeah, I was, I was working, um, actually the corral change. Okay. Or wave change. Um, okay. Set up because one, the monumental staff kind of trust me because I've been around for a long time and I'm a lifetime ambassador for monumental.
And, um, I was so injured that this is the first time since 2009 that I was not going to be able to run at all. So I threw myself into 16 hours of volunteer shifts over three days and was working pretty, uh, it was sporadic at first and then pretty hardcore effort, um, constant flow of people at wave change.
Ally Brettnacher: Wow. I feel like that could be harder than actually running
Rose Scovel: In some ways. It was, um, they made sure I had a chair and staff or other volunteers were running and getting me things because I was still on crutches and in a leg of mobilizer, so I couldn't get round super well. But, um, I, I was able to tell people, even people I know, like, Hey, you know, you, you don't really meet the standard to move up even though you think you might run faster than that.
And, and I understand I probably irritated some people, but I was doing my job.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, that would be tricky. Like, Hey, sorry, you're not good enough.
Rose Scovel: Yeah. Yeah. And it was especially hard because there were people who wanted to bump up into the elite corral.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm.
Rose Scovel: And. Elite was way, way full. And Matt Ebersol had even created a sub elite field. Yeah. And we, we had a little bit of room for that, but even if someone said that they were gonna run something, I needed Matt's permission to move them up into that. And then they still had to work through a couple of things because I didn't just have wave change stickers to put you in the sub elite corral.
So that was a whole, whole experience. It was great. It was great. I went trade it since I couldn't run. And then on race day I was in the awards tent.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Nice.
Rose Scovel: Most of the morning.
Ally Brettnacher: Nice. And so you've run every year since 2009.
Rose Scovel: I missed the first year because I had literally started running or learned about races two weeks before that.
Wow. And it wasn't on my radar yet. And I didn't know what I didn't know.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: And, uh, so I didn't do that. Uh, 2009 I attempted my first marathon idfd, but I loved the race. Um, came back. I've run the half in the full many times. Uh, there was one other year that I was injured, but I was recovered enough that I could do the 5K.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: So I had one year that I did the 5K, but other than that, I've done the half or the full every year.
Ally Brettnacher: Wow. And what. What happened at the DNF for your first one?
Rose Scovel: Oh, I wasn't connected to any groups yet. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how to manage anything really. And I had done one 20 miler and I really just was way outta my league and wasn't feeling good at 15 and just, I knew my day was over.
Ally Brettnacher: Wow.
Rose Scovel: That was my first DNF, it wasn't my last. And I, I suspect that even my last one won't be my last, but you know, it happens and you move on and,
Ally Brettnacher: yep.
Rose Scovel: I monumental is also my pr so
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. It's kind of funny how that works, right?
Rose Scovel: It's all over the place.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So. Wow, that's really cool that you've run that many times.
We're getting ready to launch a like legacy program for monumental, so I'm gonna tease that now. I don't know if I'm allowed to even say that, but you're gonna be, you're gonna be up there in terms of like how many times people have participated in our
Rose Scovel: events.
Ally Brettnacher: Right?
Rose Scovel: I'm not a streaker in the sense that I didn't run it in 2008, so I haven't, yeah, and then I didn't run in 2023 because you.
The brace and the crutches.
Ally Brettnacher: Right. That would, yeah.
Rose Scovel: Yeah. Problematic. Seriously problematic. But um, I only have one race I'm actually a streaker for, and that's caramel.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay, great. What are you gonna do? Are you gonna be able to participate this year in April?
Rose Scovel: Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. I will cross the finish line in the caramel half.
Expectations around time are not high right now.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. What injury have you been dealing with?
Rose Scovel: So the third week in September, I was running with PBT on a normal Tuesday. I had been planning to do run 3, 1 7 later that week. So I was only doing an easy run and in the first third of a mile of my run, I rolled on a walnut, hyperextended my knee, and fractured my tibia.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh, you should see my face right now. I'm just like, what a walnut. God, those walnuts are horrible.
Rose Scovel: Oh, and they were very, very firm in late September this year.
Ally Brettnacher: So for anybody who's not like Indiana local or doesn't know what a walnut looks like, they're like the size of a tennis ball and they're, yeah, they're hard.
Rose Scovel: They're place, they're of early in the season and then they soften as
Ally Brettnacher: time goes on. They get all kind
Rose Scovel: of mushy goes on, they get mushy on, and then you just squish on them and stuff. But when they are very firm, they roll.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh man, I'm so sorry. And you fractured your tibia. Which one's? The tibia.
Rose Scovel: It's the bigger of the two bones in your lower, lower.
Ally Brettnacher: Lower. Got it.
Rose Scovel: So I shoved it up
Ally Brettnacher: so painful.
Rose Scovel: It, it was very, very not comfortable. Um, and also there was some soft tissue damage around the knee in the process, but I did not fracture my patella. Um, I did not tear my meniscus. I did not, you know, any of a number of bad things that happened. It was all compression injuries.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: And nothing that required surgery. Just time and immobilization.
Ally Brettnacher: Just time and immobilization the hardest thing for an athlete at least.
Rose Scovel: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. But you are a swimmer.
Rose Scovel: Yeah. I, I was able to get back into the pool four weeks after injury. Um, only pulling and only pushing off the wall with my opposite leg.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: But I could kind of swim. I did the strength training, upper body strength training the whole time, and I probably could have gotten back in the pool a little earlier. The concern that the sports stocks had was about getting in and out of the pool safely.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. With one, with one leg.
Rose Scovel: With one leg. Um, and so that was where they had some trepidation and, um.
I had told myself that I was gonna wait until I reached my swim goal for the year to get my Mackin Island swim tattoo. But since I was out of the pool anyway, I used that out of pool time to get my tattoo and let it heal before I got back in.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. We gotta talk about that because that is on my list of things to ask you about.
But have you first, have you been a swimmer your entire life or?
Rose Scovel: So I took swim lessons as a kid because neither of my parents can swim.
Ally Brettnacher: Really?
Rose Scovel: My mom nearly drowned in a rip current.
Ally Brettnacher: That's
Rose Scovel: terrifying. Um,
Ally Brettnacher: where
Rose Scovel: trying to swim, probably the Detroit River or Lake St. Clair.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh.
Rose Scovel: Um, I grew up in metro Detroit, as did my parents.
And so I don't, I don't know the specifics. I just know she doesn't swim and she, she'll get in the pool now to water walk or whatever, but she will not put. Go in above like her armpits.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, yeah.
Rose Scovel: Um, my dad, I think, could swim, but he wasn't able to swim the mile that they needed to make Eagle Scout. And that was why he didn't make Eagle Scout.
So they were convinced that all four of us were gonna take swim lessons and learn.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: And so we learned to swim in the high school pool, taking swim lessons. And I went up through all of 'em. I even took the lifeguard training even though I never, never guarded. And the other thing was I went to Girl Scout Camp from probably the time I was nine or 10 until I was 16.
Or more. And, uh, we had open water swimming. There we were, we had a lake at the camp and we went canoeing and swimming and all the things. And so I was used to swimming in open water. My grandparents lived on one side of a lake that wasn't really swimmable, but my great aunt and uncle lived on the other side of the lake, which had been dredged and was swimable.
And we would occasionally go over there and swim in the lake there. So I kind of had some swim experience. And in college first year, I did do some swimming at the rock pool and had an unfortunate experience with a male faculty member watching from the catwalk above the pool. Decided that was creepy and stopped swimming.
That sucks. Yeah. Yeah. It was just uncomfortable enough that I was not Okay. Especially when he mentioned it in class later in the week that he had been watching
Ally Brettnacher: like out, like to you one-on-one or like to the class?
Rose Scovel: Well, like to me, but in the class that's so like weird. It was, it was just weird.
Ally Brettnacher: Hey, I saw you swimming.
Rose Scovel: Yeah. An 18-year-old me was not okay with it.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Ugh.
Rose Scovel: And stopped swimming for a long time and it wasn't until, um, I actually started getting active that my college roommate who had gotten me into my first running event said, you know, hey, if we can get you back in the pool, you can do a triathlon. And I said, game on.
Ally Brettnacher: Game on.
Rose Scovel: Game on.
Ally Brettnacher: And what distance was your first triathlon?
Rose Scovel: It was Sprint. It was Go Girl at Eagle Creek.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh. It was, I had never done. That one, unless they rebranded it. No, no. The one I did was with was with, it was coed. I did one a long time
Rose Scovel: ago. Okay, so there's the Eagle Creek Sprint series. Yeah, that's what I, that's coed and then there's Go Girl, which is women only.
Unfortunately, go Girl is not gonna happen in 2024.
It's
Ally Brettnacher: not.
Rose Scovel: I just confirmed that with the race director.
Ally Brettnacher: Bummer.
Rose Scovel: And I understand the situation. I don't love it. They're hoping to be able to come back in 2025 with a different venue. Um, and, and honestly, go Girl is a lot of. People, especially a lot of women, a lot of women of color, first triathlon.
And it's actually a really tough course for your first one because the bike course is hilly and challenging and technical.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: And the start of the run course is uphill too. And so, uh, a different venue might be nice, but there's very few practical venues in the city.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: Um, tri Indy is great. Tri Indy has a sprint distance.
It is, um, both, all genders. The swim is in the downtown canal and that, that creeps some people out.
Ally Brettnacher: Ooh. Yeah.
Rose Scovel: I will say it's not the grossest water I've swam in.
Ally Brettnacher: Right. Yeah. Probably not. You know, about lakes and stuff. It's like, well,
Rose Scovel: yeah. And everybody's definition of gross is slightly different, so
Ally Brettnacher: that's, that's fair.
That's so interesting to think. I didn't actually know that. Okay. They did any events swimming in the canal,
Rose Scovel: uh, there until just now. Uh, there there's a few. Okay. Tri Andy has a sprint in Olympic and is usually in late July, early August. And so that, there's that event. And then for a while there was something called the Poseidon Swim Challenge, which is, I think it was the full length of the canal.
So right at a swim mile.
Ally Brettnacher: I was gonna say how long, I didn't
Rose Scovel: know how
Ally Brettnacher: long the canal was. Um,
Rose Scovel: yeah. So Tri Indy starts the Olympic, which is a 1500 meter swim, starts at the Walnut Bridge.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: At where the Indianapolis Memorial is. The USS Indianapolis Memorial.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, right. Okay.
Rose Scovel: The Orange Bridge. And that's 1500 and it.
The canal only goes up to just south of 10th Street. Mm-hmm. So it's not that much longer. I, I don't know if that event happens all the time, like I haven't done it. I know people who have, and I occasionally see marketing for it, but don't know a lot about it.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Interesting.
Rose Scovel: But those are the only times you're allowed to swim in the canal to
Ally Brettnacher: swimming now.
Yeah.
Rose Scovel: Unless
Ally Brettnacher: you've had
Rose Scovel: too much to drink, can't go swim in the canal
Ally Brettnacher: and it's not allowed.
Rose Scovel: Yeah. If you fall in the, the IMPD is not thrilled with that.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Right. No. So was your first race experience a triathlon then, or No. Okay. So how did your college roommate get you into, into running?
Rose Scovel: So. I was the person who was always trying to get out of field day in, in elementary school and didn't do active things on the playground and tried so hard not to do anything active for a really long time.
Took gymnastics for my gym, credit in college, like I was just not being an anti athlete was actually my, kind of my brand. And then, uh, when I was 32, I was diagnosed with type two diabetes and started walking on a treadmill that day, 20 minutes, which was about all I could handle and it wasn't fast.
Ally Brettnacher: How did you, how did that diagnosis come about?
Rose Scovel: So, because, um. I am clinically obese and my family has a very broad history of type two diabetes. Uh, my blood sugar was being checked annually, okay, at my physical anyway. And the, um, at my regular appointment, it was high and my fasting glucose was high. And at the time the protocol was still a two hour glucose tolerance test rather than, um, just checking your hemoglobin A1C, which is now the for diagnosis.
And so I got called in for a two hour fasting glucose tolerance test. I have rarely been that sick in my entire life after that test. 'cause basically they make you drink pure sugar. Right. I was gonna
Ally Brettnacher: ask 'cause
Rose Scovel: I can teach you the pregnancy. They test before thing test and they test you after. I understand.
It's very similar to the pregnancy one. Okay. I've never done that one, but I've done the one for diagnosis and uh, ended up, they called me. I still remember it was seven 30 in the morning. I had just gotten out of the shower. I was getting ready for work and I got a call from the nurse practitioner that said, Hey, you have diabetes.
You need to come in and meet with your doctor this morning. And my reaction was just like, fuck, I don't have time for this. Which had been my reaction to getting, being called in for the two hour test too. And,
Ally Brettnacher: and on a voicemail,
Rose Scovel: it wasn't voicemail, it was a real call. Oh,
Ally Brettnacher: it was a real call. Okay.
Rose Scovel: It was a real call, but still like a random unsolicited call to my home line.
This is how awesome it was. Um, yeah. At seven 30 in the morning while I'm getting ready to go to work. Right. Um, I. All of a sudden I was like scrambling to be able to go in, see the doctor. I found out I had to do full two, two full days of diabetes training at the hospital over a period of weeks. And I was like, do you know how much PTO this is gonna cost me?
And I don't have a lot. This is a giant pain in my ass.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: But I did all the things and started walking on the treadmill that day. That
Ally Brettnacher: day.
Rose Scovel: And uh,
Ally Brettnacher: like at a gym, like, were you like, okay, I'm gonna go to a gym,
Rose Scovel: I'm
Ally Brettnacher: gonna
Rose Scovel: walk. Funny thing, we actually owned a treadmill.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh right.
Rose Scovel: We did. We had bought it when the local big box, uh.
Sporting goods store had gone out of business. I don't know if you remember Gallions. I was
Ally Brettnacher: gonna guess was local. I was like, I know it's Gallions.
Rose Scovel: When Gallions went out of business, we went and we were like, Hey, we should, we should own a treadmill. I, I don't know why, but hey, we should own a treadmill. So we bought one and we stored shit on it.
Just,
Ally Brettnacher: yeah, like a close hanger
Rose Scovel: in. It was like the storage piano I grew up with. Nobody played, but we had one and we, it was near the door that we came in and we just dumped stuff on it. Well, the treadmill kind of had the same fate, started walking on it. And I don't own a treadmill anymore. I hate treadmills.
I will not run on a treadmill. Um. Coach understands we have this conversation frequently and uh, it's all good. Uh, last time I even tried was, uh, when I was training for Puerto Rico, 70.3, and I was trying to do some warmer running because that race is in March and it was cold here. And so I'm like training in 12 degrees and about to go race in 80 degrees.
So I was trying, I was not successful at the, at the treadmill running just now about four miles. And I was like, Nope, nope, nope, nope. Not doing this. But anyway, back to my first race. So then we were at a party and. My college roommate was there and she, she had moved back to town and, uh, she was like, Hey, do this, this race with me on Halloween.
So Don Carr used to have a race called Run like Hell.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, fun.
Rose Scovel: Yeah. And it was down on the downtown Canal. It was that three Mile Loop course that everybody used for a long time on the Downtown Canal. And, um, it was a costume race and walker friendly and all this. And I'm like, but I am walking, not running.
She's like, people are gonna be in costumes, they're gonna be dressed as refrigerators, like refrigerators and whatever.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: You, you can totally do this. And I'm like. I can't do three miles. And she's like, yes you can. So I did. She ran it, came back and then walked the thrust in with me. And then we went out afterwards and had, you know, beer and french fries and stuff.
And I was like, huh, this race thing is kind of cool. Kind
Ally Brettnacher: of fun.
Rose Scovel: And then I kind of decided that in order to keep myself moving and consistent, which is what I needed to manage my disease, that I would do a race every month. And I started progressing up in distance. And then around Christmas, my, uh, some friends from high school challenged me to help fundraise at the mini marathon.
Because that's how one of them paid his salary at the time, is he had to fundraise his own salary. And the mini was one of the things that he did for that
Ally Brettnacher: fundraise. Your own salary, does that still exist today?
Rose Scovel: Uh, yeah. In the nonprofit space.
Ally Brettnacher: Really?
Rose Scovel: Yeah. And so that seems
Ally Brettnacher: crazy.
Rose Scovel: Yeah, it's tough. And he, he does, he is made a career of it for many, many years now.
He doesn't really like running, but he would do this one thing, right?
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: His wife's a big runner and he had been our, our, I think, quarterback in high school. Our team was terrible and he, he knows it, but, uh, we, uh, and then he threw in the kicker, which was one of my friends from Girl Scouts. Who I'd known since middle school was gonna do it.
And I was like, well, if she can do it, I can do it. So that's the story of how I got to my first half marathon, which is my favorite distance. It wasn't that day, but it got to be.
Ally Brettnacher: Got to be. But you didn't DNF that one?
Rose Scovel: I did not D enough. 3 17 0 9, I think.
Ally Brettnacher: I think that's great. If I can picture my spreadsheet in my mind.
Rose Scovel: Right. There is a spreadsheet.
Ally Brettnacher: Which one? Yes, I know you told me that. And I was like, oh good. Yes,
Rose Scovel: yes. Oh, she's
Ally Brettnacher: one
Rose Scovel: of those
Ally Brettnacher: spreadsheets. She's one of those. Because I am too. And I so appreciate it because for people who don't keep track of that stuff or don't care to, I'm like.
Rose Scovel: What? What
Ally Brettnacher: you don't understand.
How
Rose Scovel: you don't understand. Well, and and the data part of it. I come by honestly, because early in my career, a lot of demographic and economic data analysis and storytelling around that
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: Was what I. Was really good at, and, and got stuck on as a young professional. And, uh, so I, I come by tracking that stuff and looking at it pretty honestly, which occasionally, uh, leads to some fun things.
My swim coach doesn't use a watch and he likes to be like, you, you really, really like your watch, don't you? And I'm like, 'cause I like data.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, yeah. I need the information
Rose Scovel: data.
Ally Brettnacher: Give me all the data.
Rose Scovel: It's like that episode of, uh, Futurama with the guys who are scrounging for data.
Ally Brettnacher: Ah, I don't, I. I don't know if
Rose Scovel: that, my husband watches terrible adult C cartoons, so
Ally Brettnacher: does mine actually.
Rose Scovel: And, uh, that's one of them. And so I have secondhand exposure to it.
Ally Brettnacher: You're like, I just have to Yeah. My husband watches like BoJack Horseman and like random stuff that I'm like,
Rose Scovel: okay. Oh yeah. Futurama American dad.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: That kind of, yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Humor or, yeah. Yeah. I just don't get, I'm like, okay,
Rose Scovel: eh, um, occasionally South Park and the Simpsons still and um, I'm so uncool that South Park is how I learned a lot of like pop culture stuff.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh yeah. I mean, well,
Rose Scovel: I didn't know Guitar Hero was a thing until I saw it on, on South Park, on Simpson, on South Park or on South Park. Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's
Rose Scovel: funny. And I was like, oh. Then I was at a party and they were doing it, and I'm like, wait, that's real.
Ally Brettnacher: That's a real thing. They just make it up on tv.
Rose Scovel: Right.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, that's so wild.
Rose Scovel: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: That's so wild. Um, so back to data. I say data. Yeah. I, you know, I'm one of those tomato. Tomato. But you recently shared because we're at, you know, we're at the beginning of the year, so at the end of the, the year you kind of share your metrics for, you know, run, bike, swim over the course of the year.
Last year you swam 300 miles, which blows my mind because I've not swam that far, like in my whole entire life combined, which. Side note, I recently had a septoplasty to help me breathe better.
Rose Scovel: Right.
Ally Brettnacher: Which I'm convinced is the reason I've never been able to swim well because I couldn't breathe and I didn't really know that.
I just thought I couldn't get it or I was not in shape enough to do it anyway. So 300 miles of swimming in a year is just mind boggling to me. But what I really liked was that you, you keep track of that. You look at it. And so tell me a little bit about that and how you look at all this data you're
Rose Scovel: collecting.
Right. So I have posted my workouts pretty consistently over the past 15 and a half years. And in the beginning it was accountability for me.
: Mm-hmm.
Rose Scovel: And really the past 10 years I've been coached and I haven't needed to do the social posting thing for accountability every time I go to. Stop doing it.
Someone says, please keep doing it. It's inspired me to start doing or to at least think about doing something active. Yeah. And I've gotten to a place where if one person finds something active that they can be passionate about, especially if they're over 40, that. It, it's worth it for me to post. Did I post the good, bad and the ugly?
Mm-hmm. Now, over the past six months, I have not been as good about posting the bad and the ugly, uh, but, uh, some of that self preservation on some level. Yeah. But I, I also got in the habit of posting month date and year to date every month that, that stopped when I got injured. So from September through now, I have not, not posted, but I did still post my end of the year stats at the end of 2023.
Um, and again, it's just kind couple of things. Show people that, hey, if Rose can do this, I can do something and normalize some distances. Then even for me, many of my friends and teammates are runners and only run
Ally Brettnacher: right.
Rose Scovel: They bike or swim if they're injured, but otherwise they, they only run and so they post huge numbers 2000, 2,500, 3000 miles a year and I'm more in the thousand to 1200 miles most years.
But overall balance is much larger than that.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.
Rose Scovel: And so even for myself showing that I'm still doing the work, it's just the work of a triathlete looks different than the work of a single sport athlete.
Ally Brettnacher: Absolutely. Yeah. Rose Scovel: So yeah, I hit 300 miles for the first time in 2023 and I threw myself a little party for it.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, good.
Rose Scovel: As you and I had custom cookies made. Oh, I
Ally Brettnacher: did
Rose Scovel: see a picture of that. Treat protein. Those are so cool. And, uh, got got. Did that for myself. So there's a endurance swim challenge, I think started in 2020 when we were all just trying to find something to replace racing.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: And it's a, it's run by a coach in Florida who's a master swimming coach as well as a USA triathlon coach.
And she has a daughter who has a disability and competes in the Paralympics. And she, so she started this thing and it's like, I don't know, 40 bucks a year or whatever to enter and you pick your own distance or you can have a team of people working towards a bigger distance. And if you complete the challenge and there's competitions and stuff.
You earn your t-shirt at the end of the year. So the first year I did it, I did 200 miles and I swam two 50. The second year I did it, I registered for 200 again, and 200 is about where I got, and then I decided to bump it up to 300. 'cause I knew I was registered for the Mackin Island Swim Uhhuh, or I was planning on, I was hoping to get into the Mackin Island swim, which I did.
And so I was like three, 300 shouldn't be that big of a deal. And honestly, I was super on track, not worried about it at all until I got injured and I had that four weeks outta the pool. Then I had to do a little bit of creative math to make sure that I could get to 300 by the end of the year, and I did on December 29th.
: Wow.
Rose Scovel: So that was good. And then this year she created for 2024 a new challenge that is a multi-sport endurance challenge. Hmm. So there's still the swim challenge, but there's also a multi-sport one for those of us who are multi-sport athletes.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: And I, the, there's two distances offered 2,503 and 5,000 combined.
Swim, bike.
Ally Brettnacher: Right.
Rose Scovel: Run walk.
Ally Brettnacher: Wow.
Rose Scovel: And your walk has to be intentional walking for exercise. Okay. And recorded. It's not just like your steps down steps for
Ally Brettnacher: the day. Yeah, yeah.
Rose Scovel: Or anything. And, uh, I went, beg and signed up for the 5,000.
Ally Brettnacher: Cool. Go Rose. Wow. Okay.
Rose Scovel: And then I got RSV. Right. And so, um, January, it's not looking like a good indicator month, but hopefully past past this I'll be able to be back into,
Ally Brettnacher: geez. Rose Scovel: Yeah. Normal distances.
Ally Brettnacher: Wow. Yeah. RSV, we were chatting about that before we recorded. That's just rough. What a rough start to the year. And I, as I mentioned, I had a procedure at the beginning of the year, so I felt, you know, obviously that was self-induced. Right, right. A choice. But still, it's like, okay. And then we had sick kids and it just, it's hard.
It feels like, especially for, you know, when you set a goal out there at the beginning of the year, and then you're like, great, now I feel like I'm already,
Rose Scovel: I'm already a little
Ally Brettnacher: behind. I'm already a little behind.
Rose Scovel: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: But if you can swim 300 miles in a year after Yeah. Getting injured and figuring that out.
Yeah, you got 5,000.
Rose Scovel: I got 5,000.
Ally Brettnacher: You got 5,000, no problem.
Rose Scovel: And my longest swim, my longest planned swim this year is 10 K.
Ally Brettnacher: 10 k. So, which still again blows, blows my mind. So tell me about the Mackinac Island swim. For anybody who doesn't know Mackinac Island, it's up in northern Michigan.
Rose Scovel: Right? It's
Ally Brettnacher: how far?
It's like 10 miles around. I've run around the island.
Rose Scovel: It's 8.2 miles around
Ally Brettnacher: 8.2 I've run
Rose Scovel: and
Ally Brettnacher: so Beautiful up
Rose Scovel: there. Yeah, it's great. I hadn't stayed on the island since high school.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: Uh, but my, my family is from the east side of the state and my grandparents lived in the, on the east side of the upper peninsula.
Uh, my family's a Michigan Pioneer family, so we were in Michigan prior to statehood and yeah. Whoa.
Ally Brettnacher: That's cool to know.
Rose Scovel: And, uh. So my greatgrandfather at one point owned all of island number eight in the islands. Um,
Ally Brettnacher: I don't even know, it's like
Rose Scovel: in Lake Harron.
Ally Brettnacher: That's so cool.
Rose Scovel: And, uh, kind of between the bridge and Drummond Island.
And uh, he built the bridge that connected island number eight to Hill Island so that you could get there without a boat and whatever. And I found out a couple years ago that um, someone I know his in-laws. Still live on Island eight. So all the sudden I started getting this idea about maybe I could swim around Island eight.
I figured out it was around 10 K and it was like, but like I don't know that water. I don't know what the depths are off of that. I don't know what the currents are. I don't know what the temperatures are. I don't know what kind of permits and support I would need. Like there were just a lot of questions on top of the fact that the way that the bridge is built, you can't swim under the bridge.
: Hmm.
Rose Scovel: So there was a logistics challenge, but in the course of looking at things, I stumbled across this Mackin Island swim, which had only been going on for three years. Again, another thing. Born out of COVID.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Oh.
Rose Scovel: And uh, there, there's been for a long time the Mackinac Bridge swim where you swim from St.
GNAs to
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: Mackinac City under the bridge, but there hadn't been an island swim. And John Voss from West Michigan got an idea and it was like a group of friends the first year and then they turned it into a real thing and I swam it in the fourth year. So 2023, um, there's a registration cap. 'cause they have to be able to keep track of all the swimmers.
Yeah. And whatever. So that's where I was not sure about getting into it. Mm-hmm. Um, 'cause it can sell out pretty quick. But I got in how many, uh, 454 started this year.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: Whether that was. Part of a relay team or the seven mile or the full 8.2 miles.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Oh, 'cause there's a relay. That makes
Rose Scovel: sense. Yeah.
There is a relay and so, and there's support kayakers and boats. And John has all the Coast Guard permission and like communications and all the. Things in place. Wow. Um, so that makes the logistics of it for swimmers somewhat easier. Now, I still had, I decided to go with a personal kayaker and my friend who I met professionally, but we've become personal friends and she had been my primary kayaker for when I was doing open water swimming here since the pandemic.
Uh, she's also from Michigan. And I went out with her and I said, so Jen, there's this thing called the Mackin Island swim. I didn't even have to say the rest of it. She was like, I'm in.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, what a good friend.
Rose Scovel: So she trained with me almost every Monday during open water swim season. She did a lot of power yoga and stuff in the season, in kayaking season
Ally Brettnacher: is no joke.
Rose Scovel: She was a collegiate rower.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, well.
Rose Scovel: So that's, but we were in college more than a hot second ago, but she, she enjoys kayaking a lot.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: And so we did that. She came up to Michigan with me for a four day weekend to Holland where I rented a friend's house
Ally Brettnacher: that Holland
Rose Scovel: and we alternated swims, did two a day swims and alternated between Lake Macaw and Lake Michigan.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: To getting cold water training and big water training and all that. And then, uh, she and I and our husbands went up to Mackinac for four days for the event. And, uh, we did a shakeout, uh, in Mackinac City. The day before. And then,
Ally Brettnacher: and how do you do that for swimming?
Rose Scovel: Uh, so the hotel we stayed at, she actually had stayed at this hotel before.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: But it has kind of a private beach area that it shares with another hotel.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: And so we just did a loop in that little harbor area. Okay. Probably mile and a half shakeout, just practicing getting in the water wetsuit on. Wow.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. '
Rose Scovel: cause by August the water here was so warm that it was hard to do wetsuit swims.
But going up there, it let me practice in the wetsuit again and all of the things.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Wow.
Rose Scovel: So that was, that was really good. Yeah. I don't always get to do shakeout swims, but I appreciate it when I can because like, I. And when I raced in San Juan, it was in March. I hadn't been in open water since October.
I hadn't been in salt water in three years. So the fact that the hotel had a private beach there
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: Where I could practice swim was fantastic.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's interesting. I just didn't even know, I mean, makes sense. Same thing for running. Right. Do a little shake out. Do a little shake, little shake out, shake out, swim.
And so how was the event itself for you?
Rose Scovel: It was good. So the water was the coldest it had been for the event in the four years of it happening. Okay. It was around 57 degrees when we got in.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh.
Rose Scovel: And um. For the full 8.2 miles, you actually go south to the break wall first, and then come back up around the island and then to the other break wall.
And then what's
Ally Brettnacher: a break wall
Rose Scovel: separates the harbor.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, okay.
Rose Scovel: Because that's where the shuttles are coming in and all of the boats, so we couldn't cross the harbor. So to get the full distance we had to do little loops at the beginning and the end. Okay. But um, yeah, I was one of the last people in the water.
'cause I knew I'd be slow and I didn't wanna be getting hit and kicked and feeling like I had to push hard at the beginning. Yeah. 'cause it was gonna be a long day. Um, didn't stop until, well, I stopped for feedings. So part of having feedings. I had to train Yeah. How to eat while I was swimming and like you stop and tread water and take on wow.
Nutrition the same as you would, um, in a run or a bike event, whatever you get. Water and nutrition and Yeah. Electrolytes and all the things. Um, and then keep going. But we, our only like big stop was at British Landing because that's where there's a restroom for the kayakers.
: Mm.
Rose Scovel: And so we stopped and Jen also had to let, let some water out of the kayak.
'cause she had taken on some water and she was sitting in cold water and decided to like let some of that out.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: And I saw my husband while I was sitting on the beach, and actually I had decided to put on, um, booties and fins at that point.
: Hmm.
Rose Scovel: Um, I couldn't, this wasn't a sanctioned like international rules event.
Right. It's a, it's an event not a race. And so we were able to use whatever equipment we wanted. And so I had not started with booties because I, I don't love the swimming with booties.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: But since I was putting on fins. The fins can rub the top of the skin off the top of your toes. Oh
Ally Brettnacher: yeah. I've sc I'm a scuba diver.
Yeah. So I've experienced that.
Rose Scovel: Yeah. Yeah. So I, I experienced that and learned like, if you're gonna wear fins and open water, you gotta boot. Put the booties on.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: But my feet were freezing anyway, so I was happy to have the booties. Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Probably couldn't feel anything
Rose Scovel: because it was really gold.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: And there was an Iron Man finisher who was volunteering at that tent and he helped me get my booties and my fins on so that I didn't cramp or anything.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, yeah.
Rose Scovel: Got back in, went around. Um, my husband was doing his bike ride doing loops around the island and going up and whatever. So he would periodically where there was a place to watch for us where he thought I'd be at about that point, he would stop and wave.
That's nice. And whatever. That's nice. Which was nice once we got around the north end of the island, couple of things. We did stop for a moment because I wanted to tell John's story about the last time I had been. In that spot on the island, uh, which was a personal religious thing for me, but I, in the moment, I wanted to share that with her.
So I did and then kept going. Once we came around the top end of the island, the sun came out, the water got into the low sixties and we had the current behind us instead of fighting us. It was glorious.
Ally Brettnacher: It sounds really nice. It's like running downhill.
Rose Scovel: But the thing about about swimming around Mackinac is.
It's not long distance of putting your face into gray, green, brown water and not seeing anything. It's crystal clear and you can see all the way to the bottom. And we're only in about five feet of water.
Ally Brettnacher: Cool.
Rose Scovel: So you get to see all the underground geology and,
Ally Brettnacher: and you're married to a
Rose Scovel: geologist. Married to a geologist.
That's cool. So extra, extra bonus points there. Yeah. So kept like going around and just fascinated at stuff. I was stopping more often at this point. Yeah. 'cause I was getting tired. Um, at one point we discussed putting on paddles, which can give you more power in your stroke.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: And Jen, so
Ally Brettnacher: those are on your hands.
Rose Scovel: On your hands. Got it. And Jen was very good because we had worked with my swim coach and talked through all of this stuff. She was like, are you just tired? Or, because she didn't want me to screw up my shoulder. And I was like, yeah, like I'll be fine and if it starts to pull at my shoulder, I'll take them off.
: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: So I wore them for maybe an hour and then decided that they were pulling too much and took them off. And I did keep the fins on until the finish and we, we were so excited when we saw the one point where Jen knew the wastewater treatment plant was, 'cause she knew how close we were to mission point at that
Ally Brettnacher: point.
Rose Scovel: Um, the only thing is because of those loops at the beginning and the end, at the end, you actually have to pass mission point, which is where the finish is. That's hard. Go and come back. And I just kept making jokes. Like there was a, a turn buoy that was like kind of up in the trees and I was like, can I turn out that one?
She's like, no.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah,
Rose Scovel: no, not yet. Finish this now stop it.
Ally Brettnacher: We're doing this.
Rose Scovel: So, um, and then. At the finish, uh, my sister and her partner, my husband and Jen's husband were all up on the beach and um, it was great. The volunteers were amazing at helping you get out, um, and get up because like it's a rocky beach finish.
Yeah. So there's mats and stuff so that you can, but you also, you haven't been vertical in a very long time at this point. Right point. You
Ally Brettnacher: might as well, like I can picture you like slithering up, like crawling up.
Rose Scovel: Well, I had to first stop and get the fins off 'cause I was like, I'm not even gonna try to get vertical with these fins on.
No. And then one of the, I don't know if it was one of John's kids or somebody else's kid came down and I handed them my fin and said, see the guy up in the bike kit? Can you take these to him? Yeah. And he's like, sure. And he scampered up there and then other people helped me outta the water and made sure I got my metal and all of that.
So. It was just, and my sister shot video Oh, that's, which we later sent to my mom is proof of life and it terrifies my mom when I swim all the time.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Well, I can imagine, given what she's gone through,
Rose Scovel: especially Right. And, and swimming in Lake Huron, or even when I swim in Lake Michigan, just gives her the free willies.
Yeah. Um, and I don't even think she thought about it when I did San Juan that it was an ocean swim.
Ally Brettnacher: Right.
Rose Scovel: Or that I've swam in the ocean in San Diego. Like,
Ally Brettnacher: yeah,
Rose Scovel: she just, blah, blah, blah. I doesn't wanna think about it.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, I can imagine. So.
Rose Scovel: Um, but no, it was, it was a fantastic experience. I highly recommend it if you want to do long distance swimming.
This is the most friendly, supportive, non-time pressured event that you can imagine. And prior to that. My only other swim only event had been the 5K at Swim to the Moon a couple of years ago. Oh,
Ally Brettnacher: is that in Indy?
Rose Scovel: No, that's up in the Pickney area of Michigan. Okay.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I don't know that area.
Rose Scovel: Yeah, it's west of Detroit.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: And, uh, west of Ann Arbor. And it's a gray area. There's five connected lakes. The 5K only swims down.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: The 10 K goes up and down. And I'll be doing that in this year.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay, cool.
Rose Scovel: The, this year, because it's their 15th anniversary, they've added a 15 k
Ally Brettnacher: Woo.
Rose Scovel: I'm not doing that. Okay. My swim coach said he was doing Swim to the Moon and I said The 15 K?
Yeah. And he's like, no, the 5K and the 10 K, because they've separated them into separate days now.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh,
Rose Scovel: he's doing both, but he is not doing the
Ally Brettnacher: 15
Rose Scovel: K. 15
Ally Brettnacher: K, okay. Well, a good way to
Rose Scovel: do
Ally Brettnacher: that, I
Rose Scovel: guess. But he's done 20 Ks in the Florida Keys, so like he can
Ally Brettnacher: Wow. That's incredible.
Rose Scovel: That's why I hired him as my swim coach once I decided I was doing Mackinac.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So I asked Trina.
Rose Scovel: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: Who has been on this podcast recently? Uh, Rowa Bush. Row Bush, is that right? Yes. I always second guessing. Well, '
Rose Scovel: cause we all just call her Mr.
Ally Brettnacher: Rowdy.
Rose Scovel: Rowdy.
Ally Brettnacher: Rowdy. Yeah. Yeah.
Rose Scovel: Rowdy. Yeah. 'cause we rowdy Bob.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: As her husband
Ally Brettnacher: Uhhuh. So I texted her today and I was like, Hey, I get to interview Rose today.
What should I ask her? So she, she had had a question for you.
Rose Scovel: Oh, I'm sure she did.
Ally Brettnacher: Uhhuh and I
Rose Scovel: tri, I told her Trina Trina's my partner in crime, she's part of the Department of Bad Ideas. She's been my, uh, ride or die buddy. She travels with me sometimes, so I'm not, not surprised that there's a question.
Ally Brettnacher: There's a question and I'm gonna read it verbatim 'cause it's great. She said, what the hell? Possessed you to attempt a solo Iron Man distance. Try what the hell possessed you.
Rose Scovel: Yeah. She was involved in this one too. So in
Ally Brettnacher: 20 and when? Okay, I was gonna say, and when was this?
Rose Scovel: Yes.
Ally Brettnacher: So,
Rose Scovel: yeah, so in need to back up a little bit.
Before that, in 2018, I finished Ironman Louisville, which was a dream come true. Uh, three years in the making. When, when I first decided I wanted to do a full Ironman coach told me in no uncertain terms that I had a time problem because I couldn't make the time limits. I swore a lot, I cried a lot. I called Trina, we swore and cried a lot together.
And then I got my shit together and figured out that, oh, and I almost fired Matt. 'cause I was like, he doesn't believe in me. Um, but I then got my shit together and. I texted Matt and said, so what if, 'cause I originally wanted to do it for my 40th birthday, okay. In 2016. And he said, and I said, what if I spent the next three years training really, really hard, doing more half iron distance?
'cause I had only done one half iron at that point and really focused on this. Do you think I can do it in 2018 for the 10th anniversary of my diabetes diagnosis? And he said, yes. And I think that has as much or more meaning than for your 40th birthday.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: So I proceeded to train my ass off for three years.
And as part of that we did. What later became known as Iron Rose, which was not a, not a full distance. This was maybe two miles in the pool. Jill and Stro, uh, pulled while I swam, and then I did that at the Monan Center.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: And then 80 miles of 20 mile bike loops. Uh, Trina ran or rode one loop with me, which biking is not Trina's favorite thing.
So props to her for doing that.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: And then a couple different people ran, I think we made 16 or 18 miles with me and a bunch of people joined me for the last half mile. Um, at the monan to finish at the Monan are, and then we went out to for Mexican. But then, okay. So I finished Ironman, Louisville in 2018 and then.
I was supposed to do Wisconsin in 2020. It was canceled.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh
Rose Scovel: uh, well postponed to 2021. So in 2020 we decided, I'm trained for an Iron Man. Let's do a solo iron man. Okay. I can make this work. I love planning logistics. This is fantastic.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh.
Rose Scovel: So the swim was at my coworker, friend's house where I had been swimming all that year 'cause needed access to water.
And Jen, who is the kayaker that did Mackinac with me and Trina, both kayaked for me, our executive director actually came out and cheered at the start and had a poster and everything. And I did four loops of the lake, which was 2.4 miles, got out changed. Remember, nobody's still going indoors in anybody's houses and stuff.
So I like changed outside at my car.
Ally Brettnacher: Right.
Rose Scovel: Um, no access to a bathroom or anything changed. Got on my bike and took off from there. Trina took my car back to my house so that it wasn't just hanging out there. Right. And, and I didn't need it there anymore. Yeah. And I took off and rode kind of up and then got into Northern Hamilton County to 296th Street and was gonna go straight across.
And I had done parts of this ride before, so straight across 296th Street at the top of the county. And, uh, I had coworkers and friends meeting me at different locations to refill my water bottles and any nutrition or anything like that. So my first water stop was in Atlanta. And met a coworker and got some bottle fills and whatnot, continued on.
It was not gonna be a fast day because there was a West Wind and I was riding directly into it and it was, it was not fun. And this is, I am alone at this point for a long, long stretch. At one point coached us a drive by, which is cool. I keep going. And at my second stop in Lebanon, coach was there. My friends were there with water stop.
I don't know if you know Matt's wife, Rebecca Bond?
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.
Rose Scovel: Okay. So she works for STR ZIP here in town and she's a cyclist, she's an Ironman tri-athlete, four time Iron Man, tri and a great runner, Boston Runner, all that. So. She was originally gonna meet me on town and hundred 51st he dropped her off early and she rode in with me the rest of the way.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, that's nice.
Rose Scovel: Because I was struggling.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah,
Rose Scovel: we all knew it. So my friend had, who had done the Atlanta water stop, also did 150 first in town. And then we rode into my house, finished that up, transitioned at the house, which was good. And then another teammate friend was there to start the run with me and people were scheduled to pick me up at different places.
I was doing a three and a half loop and, and people had laid out nutrition for me and water.
Ally Brettnacher: That's so cool.
Rose Scovel: So it was so cool. I got to the first of my eight stations. Took a gel and promptly threw it up in front of Margie Snyder's kids. Um, and they were like, did she just puke? And Margie's like, she'll be fine.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, it's fine. It's normal
Rose Scovel: and it's fine. It's normal. Um, and Margie and her husband are both pharmacists and everything, so, uh, it was funny. Anyway, she continued with me around 10 miles. I was really not feeling well and I had been breathing in crop dust. 'cause this was like October, right? Ed breathing, breathing in crop dust the whole time on the bike.
And so I was not breathing well. Uh, Margie still thought I was okay, but I let a lot of things get in my head and like, felt bad about the people who were gonna be waiting longer than we thought.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm.
Rose Scovel: Should I finish it? And. All the things. And so I decided to stop at the Jordan Y, which was mile 12.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: So I didn't make it all the way through, uh, solo Iron Man, but well, well over half.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh yeah.
Rose Scovel: Yeah. Like, like almost a hundred miles of it.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: And so there's, there's thoughts that I might try it again someday, but Oh,
Ally Brettnacher: geez. Yeah, that's, I mean,
Rose Scovel: it was, it was the spirit of the pandemic and what
Ally Brettnacher: people right doing. Yeah. You're like, I gotta do something.
Rose Scovel: I preserved my caramel streak by doing the marathon, not on the marathon course on the day of it.
Lots of PBT people were doing it.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: But because I'm slower than the rest of the team, I was out there for a couple hours by myself, but I ran 26.2 miles solo.
Ally Brettnacher: Gosh. Yeah. I mean, I did the, I did the virtual Indie Mini that year. Just 'cause, you know, it's like, okay,
Rose Scovel: right.
Ally Brettnacher: Gotta do it. This is what we're doing.
Think we're doing this. And it was great. I kind of did the same thing in terms of like planning out, you know, obviously my route, telling my friends, you know, hopefully I would be there at this time. They had stuff for me, kind of a deal. And it was, it was, it was great. It was the only time I, I, that was the only virtual race I did though.
I, I, it was really hard. It's hard
Rose Scovel: for, for my virtual Carmel, I had actually. Laid out stuff at different locations. That's smart. And put notes on it. That said, uh, long run in process, don't move.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh yeah. Like this isn't trash. Yeah.
Rose Scovel: Right. Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: I thought you were gonna say, you put like motivational stuff
Rose Scovel: on.
No, no. Be smart too. It was, this isn't trash. Don't steal my water. I'm really gonna need it.
Ally Brettnacher: I'm gonna come back and get this.
Rose Scovel: Yeah. And I did a solo half iron distance duathlon. Um, I did a solo half distance try. And I tried for a second one and it got cut short by lightning. That was just way too close for comfort.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Well, smart. Your mom would've been real mad
Rose Scovel: actually. I think Matt was super nervous about that
Ally Brettnacher: one. Yeah. So I wanna talk about something you just said, which was like being slower than the team, because I think it's just incredible that you're like, I'm training with all of these air quotes really fast people,
Rose Scovel: right?
Ally Brettnacher: And I wanna hear more about how you, how you started with them. Like and, and how you continue to like be part of this crew. And it's just, it's great. A lot of people would be like, no, no way. I couldn't do that. I'm not
Rose Scovel: good enough. So the origin story of that is gonna make me sound like the world's biggest bitch.
And that's fine because I kinda was so, but it works out in the end.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay, I'm now, I'm excited to hear
Rose Scovel: this. Okay. So I was on the Indie runners board at the time, I was the race team captain.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: And, uh, we had a board meeting and we were talking about teaming with this Matt Ebersol guy to do speed work sessions during our spring training program leading up to the mid.
And the club was gonna subsidize it 50% for the people who wanted to participate. And this is me being like, can he work with slow runners? Can he improve them? Is he willing to work with people because we're not gonna subsidize something that. School excludes half of the club.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: That that's not okay.
And, and Matt was there and he totally talked about being, being able to work with people of all paces and that he was willing to do that. And I wasn't sure how much of it was talk.
Ally Brettnacher: Right. You know?
Rose Scovel: Yeah. And, and marketing and how much of it was real.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: And so I decided to put my money where my big mouth was and hired him for private coaching and we didn't start till after the mini, but yeah, he was fabulous with me.
That was six weeks before my first half Ironman.
Ally Brettnacher: Which was what, what year was this now?
Rose Scovel: Uh, 24.
Ally Brettnacher: 14. Okay.
Rose Scovel: Yeah. Um,
Ally Brettnacher: so 10, 10 years
Rose Scovel: this year. Yeah. So we're coming up on 10 years.
Ally Brettnacher: Wow.
Rose Scovel: Um, and he was just great. Through everything. I've had some really fantastic years. I was the fastest, fittest, best I've ever been across all three disciplines in 2018.
Uh, granted I was working with sport dieticians and a sports psychologist and everybody on the planet to make Iron Man happy or happen finish. Yeah. And happy because you know, you had to Yeah. Um, and, and not, and poorly.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: So, uh, and, and it doesn't mean it's all been smooth sailing. A little more than a year ago, I was getting back to semi-decent half marathon racing.
And felt a lot of pressure going into the third of three races. We, we weren't going for back to pr, but we were trying to get closer.
: Mm.
Rose Scovel: And I had run two 30 at, or just up two 30 at Fort Bend, just sub two 30 or just sub 2 25 at, or maybe I don't, I'm not remembering the races correctly. Oh, at Grand Rapids?
Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: Which I had gone down to the half from the full for that. And then there was all this pressure to run sub two 20 at monumental. I freaked the fuck out and couldn't handle it. Probably combined with some other stuff going on.
: Mm-hmm.
Rose Scovel: And. Told Matt, emailed Matt that I was quitting and it wasn't him, it was me.
I couldn't handle the pressure and all of this, and it took us a while to sort back out and come back from that. But it's been good since then. And he's been great working through this injury with me and trying to figure out what, what I've branded Rose 3.0 looks like. And so, yeah, but, but it, it was intimidating at first.
Like I think the first year and a half, I probably didn't show up for team workouts. I did them as was in training peaks for me, but I didn't. Go do them with a team.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: And then I started going and meeting people and found out that I got pushed. Just being around the fast people pushes you to at least try your very best.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: And, uh, did that for all, you know, and, and I've been a staple on Tuesdays and Saturdays for a long time, and I'm there unless I am very sick, very injured, um, traveling or racing. And even when I was injured, I would go out and support the team.
Ally Brettnacher: Wow.
Rose Scovel: Most of the time standing around on crutches. And so the team's been very good for me.
Sometimes it's been mentally hard, like Yeah. I, I had to work through a lot of stuff with my sports psychologist. I had to work. Just through a lot of imposter syndrome and, and not feeling like I was a real runner and or a real athlete and all of that. And, uh, really found out that the team is incredibly supportive and in ways I never imagined.
And that includes the people in their twenties who are super fit and super fast and going for ot, qs.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Olympic trials. Qualifying
Rose Scovel: times.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Wow.
Rose Scovel: And there's, there's a few of them. Some make it
Ally Brettnacher: crazy
Rose Scovel: and so, you know, I'm there to support them, but they're there to support me just as much.
Ally Brettnacher: You know, it's, it's so interesting you talking about like imposter syndrome or like paces in general.
Like, you know, if you run, you're a runner, but it's hard when you. You know, when you're around people, you're thinking, gosh, you're comparing yourself to other people.
Rose Scovel: Right.
Ally Brettnacher: They intimidate me rose, you know?
Rose Scovel: Yeah. And, and it's like, it's hard when you're at Eagle Creek and, you know, people are running twenties and you're running 14 and you finish at about the same time.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, yeah.
Rose Scovel: Um, like a 20 for me. And, and Matt does believe in multiple twenties leading up to a marathon. Yeah. And having several of them not putting all your eggs in one basket.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.
Rose Scovel: And uh, when I run a 20, that's a time commitment.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: My fastest 20 is like three hours, 45 minutes.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: And we won't talk about my slowest twenties.
So, um, it's, it's a big, big chunk of time. And, uh, but honestly that's another place where Matt has really showed up well for me, is he doesn't just disappear. Um, he may leave for a bit. And then he'll come back when he knows when he expects me to finish or whatever. And there was one time we were doing a team favorite per twenties where we run from the Eagle Creek Southgate up to Zionsville.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: And back. It's a hilly route. Ooh. And it's an out and back for 20.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: With very few exit strategy points. And I had just gotten back into the park and Matt saw me and he was like, and I, and I was on the struggle bus, but I only had the two miles back to the gate left. And uh, he was like, do you wanna ride?
And I'm like, no, I'm, I'm doing this. I was like, okay. So, and I finished and he was down there and, you know.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: Supported me the same as any of the other athletes. That's so
Ally Brettnacher: great. And
Rose Scovel: so that, that's an important part of me being able to train with the team because if I wasn't getting the support or if I felt like I was getting cheated out something, it, it wouldn't be worth it.
Ally Brettnacher: Right.
Rose Scovel: But I get so much more back from the team that it makes it worthwhile. And Matt's also my, um, cycling coach.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: So,
Ally Brettnacher: yeah. You know what? I've actually never met Matt. I think I have like, and like, hey. Hello. Um, but not, not met really, but he's on my list to have
Rose Scovel: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: On this podcast.
Rose Scovel: Yeah. And he is been on like Jesse Davis' podcast.
I'm sure he has Jesse Blake and a couple other people. He's fantastic. And you're on the board for monumental? Yeah, he's the elite and, uh, PACE team coordinator. Yeah. Just. Give him a shout.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, no, I Absolute will. It's
fantastic.
Ally Brettnacher: So what I really wanna know is where you get your motivation and determination, because holy shit rose, we don't have, we don't have enough time to talk about all of the things that you have done.
We've, you just gloss over. Like, I could go digging in on all, you know, oh, first Ironman, let's like, talk about that whole thing. Oh, you had this other, you half Ironman and, and you have had, you've run 92. Half marathons, 11 marathons. Plus you've done a 20 5K, 30 k. Obviously all that's all running stuff.
Rose Scovel: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: But I'm just so incredibly impressed by all that you've done.
Rose Scovel: Well, thank you.
Ally Brettnacher: Don't gimme that. Look, you, you're like, you've done, I have this totally sheepish look
Rose Scovel: on
Ally Brettnacher: you. You're just incredible Rose. Really. I mean, it's, it's really inspiring.
Rose Scovel: So consistency is my superpower. Um, and just doing it day after day even, um, when I'm on vacation, when I'm sick, when I'm tired, when I'm working a lot and I am getting more balanced about like, okay, I'm working a 12 hour day because of whatever.
: Mm-hmm.
Rose Scovel: Um, which doesn't happen that often anymore. But when I was a consultant, it did a lot and I used to travel with my bike trainer and all of that kind of stuff. Wow. And we made jokes about my Y passport 'cause I swam at so many different YMCAs. But, um, you know, consistency is really it. Um, at one point it was about the diabetes, and I would say, so I've been doing this 15 and a half years, I would say probably about eight years ago it became about something else.
And really it had to become about something else to be able to do what I do. Because if it's just about managing the disease, I would run three miles a day. Or ride an hour or swim 30 minutes mm-hmm. And call it good.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: And in fact, at the diabetes center at one point they were like, can't you just do like Zumba or something?
'cause like it, we were trying to figure out my meds with my endurance training and it got complicated.
Ally Brettnacher: Interesting.
Rose Scovel: And so, and I was like, no, shut up. Like I was a bump on a log for my entire life and I'm finally doing something. Don't like, screw up what I love.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: And so I kind of ended up blowing them off and whatnot.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: And started working with sport dieticians and, uh, whatnot. But really, um, it's. Just kind of who I am. People will tell me, even outside of sport, even people who only know me professionally or only know me at church will will say, you don't do anything half-assed, do you? And that's kind of been my entire life.
Also, as soon as someone tells me I can't do something, that's the thing I want to do.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
Rose Scovel: So I do it.
Ally Brettnacher: So when you say like at that, that point where it changed not from being about the disease to being about something else, was it about just you're like, this is a part of me now. This is who I am, this is why I continue to do it, or what was the why then at that point?
Rose Scovel: And it didn't happen like in one moment of Revelation or anything like that. It kind of, um, it kind of just came over time. And then last, or a little over a year ago when I, I lost my shit at Matt. Um, I had lost my why or I couldn't remember what it was. Um, and also diabetes is a totally shitty DI disease and it can be managed well for a long time and then get worse as you age.
Yeah. Like no fault of your own. So I'm back on medication after having been off for five years and all of this stuff. Yeah. And it's just being older.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: Um, and the progression of the disease, that's hard to sort through too.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.
Rose Scovel: But in the end, it always comes back to, because I can,
Ally Brettnacher: yeah. I like that so much.
That's what I mean. That's a, that's my jam. It's like I want, and I also, I can, and I also wanna prove to myself that I can Yeah. Or to anybody who thinks that I can't.
Rose Scovel: And it's,
Ally Brettnacher: which is usually to myself,
Rose Scovel: it's proving to myself. And then, um, I'm not gonna lie, part of Ironman was a giant FU to every gym teacher I had from the beginning of time.
Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Heck yeah.
Rose Scovel: And just kinda like to all the haters.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Rose Scovel: I
Ally Brettnacher: mean,
Rose Scovel: and honestly, I lived on that high for like nine or 10 months
Ally Brettnacher: as you, as you should have. As you should have. Okay. I'm gonna ask you the end of the podcast questions now. Yes. 'cause my stomach is starting to growl so loud. I'm afraid it's gonna get picked
Rose Scovel: up.
It, it's lunchtime
Ally Brettnacher: on the microphone. Um, so you kind of already answered the first question, which is your mantra or song, right.
Rose Scovel: So I don't, I have different mantras at different times. A lot of my visualization and mantra when I was training for Ironman was just visualizing the finish line. Mm-hmm. And if you don't know when you cross an Ironman finish line, the announcers who are all very good and Mike Riley has never called me across.
And now he's retired, but he is the voice of Ironman
Ally Brettnacher: ah,
Rose Scovel: um, idea enough to Wisconsin. So he did not call me in his final year. But nevertheless, what every announcer says when you cross is your name, where you're from, and calls you an iron man. And so in my head, I just kept rolling Rose Skove from Indianapolis, Indiana.
You are an Iron man. Okay. Wow. And kept that going and, and it, it gives you chills. And when I'm in Louisville still and I'm on fourth Street, I can still see and feel the finish line and hear the words. And I actually did hear it, which is somewhat amazing because an Ironman finish line is so loud. Just so incredibly loud.
But, so I, my, I don't have one consistent mantra. Mm-hmm. That was for a season, but it moves on. I don't have a particular song. I don't listen to music while I train.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: Well, occasionally long just distance swims IU in the pool. Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Rose Scovel: I use music, but other than that I don't. But I had one o uh, Olympic distance race swim where I was.
I don't know what my deal was, but all of a sudden, like Rain King became the thing in my head, like, I belong in the presence of the Queen. I belong anywhere but in between and just used that to get me through that race.
Ally Brettnacher: That's good. That's good. And next finish line or milestone. I know that's kind of Well, you're working towards
Rose Scovel: it.
I'm working. Getting
Ally Brettnacher: closer
Rose Scovel: towards stuff. So the next big milestone is my hundredth half marathon.
Ally Brettnacher: Right. Ugh.
Rose Scovel: And full intention was for it to be at Monumental at in 2024 this year.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.
Rose Scovel: Had been planned for a long time. I had key races at Key Points leading up to it. I want the hundredth to be here. I want it to be at Monumental, which is one of my favorite races.
I'm a lifetime ambassador for monumental. I want it to be there and it will be. But I had to defer both Detroit and monumental last year to this year. And then I, because of the injury and now we're still seeing how my season's gonna unfold. So whether it's in 24 or 25, there will be a hundredth half million done and it will be at monumental.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh. And we will have custom cookies waiting for you at the finish line.
Rose Scovel: That would be fantastic.
Ally Brettnacher: That's so cool. Well, this has been, it's been so nice to again, finally get to meet you and get to know you better again. You just, you inspire the hell outta me. So thank you.
Rose Scovel: Well, thank you.
Ally Brettnacher: And I know a lot of people who follow you online who listen to this. So, so thank you.
Rose Scovel: Yeah. And my Instagram is an open account, so if anybody wants to follow along there, that's super awesome. I'm also on Threads.
Ally Brettnacher: Ah, yes. Threads.
Rose Scovel: I left the Dead Bird app and
Ally Brettnacher: Dead Bird.
Rose Scovel: I, I don't have like a personality page on Facebook. It's just my normal.
Ally Brettnacher: And your Instagram, is it Rose Scoville?
Rose Scovel: It's Rose dot and hamel dot scoville now.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Uh, well, well thank you. I appreciate your time.
Rose Scovel: Thank
Ally Brettnacher: you. And yeah, I'll, that you do for our running community and inspiring everybody. So thank you to everybody who has listened to this episode and happy running,
Rose Scovel: happy running
Ally Brettnacher: and swimming and biking.
