Episode 47: Nate Spangle - Run Like You're Going Somewhere

Episodes

Mar 15

Nate Spangle went from his first 5-mile run to the Indy Mini, the Monumental Marathon, and IRONMAN Texas in about a year, and he did it because his friends kept showing up.

Listen on Apple Podcasts · Listen on Spotify

About this episode

Nate Spangle grew up in Bourbon, Indiana, came to Indianapolis through the Orr Fellowship, and now works in startups and coaches varsity wrestling at Bishop Chatard. He ran his first race at the Indy Mini in May 2022, ran the Monumental Marathon that fall, and finished IRONMAN Texas after teaching himself to swim in four months. We recorded this one in the podcast studio at 16 Tech in downtown Indy.

We talk about how community carried him from one mile to an IRONMAN, his habit of not believing running myths until they prove him wrong, and the ultra and 100-mile dreams on his list. Nate also opens up about losing his mom to breast cancer when he was in college, why every pair of his running shoes has a pink ribbon, and his plan to run a marathon outside the Goshen cancer center where she was treated.

In this episode, we discuss

Why runners are the crazy crowd and why Indiana is more than corn
His first 5-mile run at an entrepreneur's run club in California
Joining the New Shoe Day run club in Broad Ripple
Running the Indy Mini as his very first race after reading Can't Hurt Me
Not believing in fueling until an 18-mile training run on the Monon
Bleeding through a white shirt at a cold, windy Monumental Marathon
Signing up for IRONMAN Texas with friends and teaching himself to swim in four months
Coming back to break 4 hours at Monumental
Plans for the Full Mo, the Indiana Trail 50, and someday a 100-miler
Growing up in Bourbon, Indiana and wrestling, football, and a hurdle mishap
What the Orr Fellowship is and how it changed his life
Coaching Bishop Chatard wrestling to its first state qualifier since 2014
Losing his mom to breast cancer and the pink ribbon on his running shoes
Running a marathon at the Goshen cancer center with Michael Hartnagel
His mantra, Big Booty Mixes, a bucket list text thread, and a dad joke

Chapters

Intro
The crazy crowd and his first 5-mile run
Showing up for Michael Hartnagel
New Shoe Day and a first race at the Indy Mini
A humbling first Monumental Marathon
Four months to IRONMAN Texas
Ultras and 100-mile dreams
Growing up in Bourbon, Indiana
The Orr Fellowship and startups
Coaching wrestling at Bishop Chatard
His mom's cancer battle
Optimism and accountability
Mantra, music, and next finish line
Bucket list and dad jokes

Where to find Nate

Instagram: @natespangle

Mentioned in this episode

Races: Indy Mini Marathon, Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, IRONMAN Texas, Full Mo, Indiana Trail 100, Leadville 100, Run Rabbit Run, Flying Pig Marathon, Carmel Marathon, Sam Costa Half Marathon
Organizations and charities: New Shoe Day, Orr Fellowship, 16 Tech, Bishop Chatard High School, Ancilla College, DePauw University, Sigstr
Other: Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins, Big Booty Mixes, 24 Hours of Lemons, Monon Trail, GU Energy Gel

Previous guests mentioned

Related episodes

Frequently asked

How fast did Nate Spangle go from his first race to an IRONMAN?

Nate Spangle ran his first race, the Indy Mini, in May 2022, ran the Monumental Marathon that fall, and finished IRONMAN Texas after about four months of training and teaching himself to swim.

What is Nate Spangle's running mantra?

Nate Spangle tells himself to run like you're going somewhere, a mantra that changed how he runs and even how he walks.

Why does Nate Spangle have pink ribbons on his running shoes?

Nate Spangle lost his mom to breast cancer while he was in college, and the pink ribbon on each pair of shoes reminds him that whatever he is doing on a run is not that hard compared to what she went through.

Support this show

Transcript

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

Welcome to Finish Lines and Milestones with Ally Brettnacher. Incredible stories and tales of triumphs with everyday people achieving their goals and fitness. This podcast brought to you by Athlete Bouquets. Celebrate finish lines and milestones of the people that you love by visiting athletebouquets.com. Hello and welcome to episode #47. This is Allie and it's been a pretty good week. As I record this. Our three-year old, almost 3 year old is still not sleeping. So if you have any advice for me on getting toddlers to to go to sleep that would be great. But in other news, I've had a good week of training, I had a great weekend last weekend.

My husband and I had two nights in a row where we went out, which is like unheard of. And at this event in Carmel I got to meet a another PBT runner and I also met this woman who came up to me, Sarah, who said hey, I just want you to know that I love following you on Instagram and I about lost my mind. It was so sweet. So Sarah, I don't know if you listen to the podcast, but if you do, please tell me your last name because I want to be friends for real. Anyway, this episode was recorded in a really fancy studio.

I say at the end. I don't think I ever got used to it the whole time, but it was really fun. So thank you to Nate Spangle, our guest of this week who had me downtown Indianapolis at a place called 16 Tech. That area, there's a Co working space that has this incredible podcast and video studio. So you'll be seeing some video of this episode that looks pretty legit. Pretty legit. So during this conversation, Nate and I talk about Indiana. We talk about how there's more than corn here, and for any non locals who are sick of hearing it, buckle up. You got to come here and we talk about how runners are crazy.

He calls us the crazy crowd or crazy crew. Love that. We talk a lot about the community and how that helped him go from one mile to 5 miles to half marathon to full marathon to Ironman. The latter 3 happened all within the course of a year. He shares how he doesn't believe in myths until they prove him wrong. Couple funny stories there. His current end goal and why he is choosing to be patient, whereas he wasn't patient getting to the full Iron Man. He's going to be patient on this goal, or so he says. We talk about his upgrade bringing. He was born in a small town in Indiana.

We have a shared experience of a program called the Ore Fellowship, so we talk about that. He is a wrestling coach, which we discuss. And we talked about a really important part of his life, which was his mom's cancer battle and how after seeing her go through all of that, you know, running just isn't hard and he just is all about showing up for people. When he says he's going to do it, he'll do it, even if that means finishing a long run at 11:00 PM. We talk a little bit about his bucket list at the end of this, and I feel like we as a community should help hold him to it.

Don't you think? Maybe get involved in some of them, which sound ridiculous and so incredibly fun, And Speaking of incredibly fun, it was just so much fun to record with Nate. So I know you're going to love this conversation. Thank you for having me here. Of course, thank you for having me here on your show. Absolutely, Nate. Spangle, everyone. What do people call you? Spangle. Spangle. Spangle, spangy. Bunch of different, A bunch of different, A bunch of different nicknames there. I like that spangy. That's funny it. Was like my middle school, like Xbox Live name. It was like Spangy Double O 7 and I It was just great.

It was great. It's perfect. Yeah, absolutely. Gosh, so you and I just met in person. When was that? A month ago. Month or two ago, yeah. Yes. But I've known of you for quite a while. You and I share a passion for Indiana in general. Come. On So I apologize to people who are not local listening to this because I swear for the past few episodes it's been like all about Indiana local stuff. But now it's just my secret mission to get everybody who's not local just to come here then. Come hang out in the Hoosier state. It's got going on. There's more than corn in Indiana.

Indiana Beach. What a what a place. What a place did you see, I saw, oh gosh, who was it? Like Iowa and Indiana women's basketball. There was a sign that said our corn is better than your corn. Yes, I did see that. That was great. I loved every. Oh, I'm here for that. And I'm here for Caitlin Clark to become like a a convert to the Hoosiers from the Hawkeyes to the Hoosiers. Yeah, yes, for sure. So you you host a podcast? I do. So I, as I said, I think we were actually recording, but you are now on the other side of the microphone which you've been before.

I have. I've been a guest. I I know how to be a guest on the show. Cool. It's Have you ever been on a running podcast? Though I have not cool. I'm like, I'm, I'm at this point, I'm not gonna say new to the running community, but like I'm on the the early end of that career. Yeah. So how the heck did you start running and then become an Iron Man? This is going to be crazy. People are going to be like, you are nuts, Nate, you're crazy. I mean, well, that's like the whole point, right? I I feel like I got drawn into the running crowd because it is like the crazy crew, like the crazy crowd, whatever you want to call it, where it's like you talk about the things that you're doing, then usually someone is like, that's crazy.

And I'm like, yes, yes, it is. I'm nuts. Yeah. So I started running. The first time I ever ran over two or three miles was back 2019-2020. Somewhere on there, maybe maybe 2020 and like early 2020 before Pandemic, maybe. That January I went out to California and there was this entrepreneur that I really wanted to meet and he hosts a run club on every Saturday morning and he was like, come out to run club. You get to hang out with us. And I was like, shit dude, I'm not a runner, but but I really wanted to meet this guy and hang out with him. He was like an e-commerce guy.

His name is Dee and I showed up at the Run Club and they're like great. We got a three mile option and a five mile option and I was like 5 miles. You serious? You're. Like which one are you doing? That's the one. Yeah, literally. I I found a crew and they're like, Oh yeah, we're gonna go 5 today. And I was like, me too. I do this all the time. I've never done it once. And do you? At least have running shoes Like what shoes did you wear? Like some old Nike shoes like, some like, I'm not like no runner gear. Like, I still like have limited runner gear.

I just kind of like put on maybe. I was like a wrestler in high school, so I just like put on like old sweatshirts and like kind of look like Rocky while I'm going. And and I ran the five miles. I thought luckily it was a super slow pace, so I was like, OK, this is fine. And we were chatting and as a typically chatty person, it's like maybe about mile three. I stopped talking and I like could feel myself like, oh, I'm just listening and like taking all this in and between like huffs and puffs, I go, that's cool man, and made it to the end.

And not only would I meet a lot of cool people there, like it was an awesome, like networking and a community building experience. But then at the end I was like, dude, this running thing is kind of cool. Like, this is pretty fun. 5 miles you do. Yeah, I did 5 miles for the first like from one mile to 5 miles just because I was in like the right community. And that's gonna be a common thread. You're gonna you're gonna see this like common thread of like if it was just me. I'm not one of those people that's like. I will say I'm self motivated in a lot of things, but it's like I don't need to get up and like if it's just me, I don't know if I'm gonna go run 10 miles in the morning just because like to prove to myself necessarily.

But if I have the community aspect, like I know you've had a few people who didn't like. I run with new shoe day. I have my own like track Thursday group that meets on. Thursday mornings. And it's like if I have, if I have the, the boys there, if I have like a crew there, I'm like, I'm, I'm gonna be there, I'm gonna show up, we're gonna do the workout and we're gonna like go through this, like suffering that is running or Iron Man training, whatever it is, together. Yeah, wow. I love that. I love. Well, you know, I love Community and I love building community and it's amazing to me how well it is amazing.

And it's not the same time, just knowing you for the short time I have, how easily Community comes to you, like, and how you're not afraid to just show up and be be part of Community. You just, you know, gave the example with the Run Club in San Francisco. But I know you showed up for a previous guest, Michael Hartnagel, and just you're like, well, yeah, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna show up and run, you know, I don't know him, but might as well. Dude, that one was crazy. Like, that was one where I was like, I don't usually, like, not gonna win, but I don't usually get a ton of, like, social anxiety about just, like, showing up places.

And that was the one where I was like, I don't know anybody here. I, like, sent a few DMS, but I don't think it's him, 'cause he's like running across the state right now. But my buddies had sent me some of his Instagram videos and instantly I was hooked. Like, like within the 1st 10 seconds of his mission, I was like, Oh yeah, I got to do this. But I tracked him backwards. So I thought he was coming from Illinois to Ohio. So I thought he was coming like, you know, West to east. So I was like, oh, come right through Indy. I saw he was in Brownsburg.

I was like, oh, he'll be in Indy tomorrow morning. I'll wake up and go. Turns out he was already passed me. So I woke up Saturday morning and I was like, look at this little tracker. And he's like out by, oh gosh, like on the way to Putnam County, like out out in the middle of like a Heritage Lake area. It was just like an hour from me. And I'm like, well, I said I was going to go, I got to go. So I just like drove out there and parked my car at this gas station and just started running towards them. And I just like come up on this group of like 5 or 6 people and I'm just like, hey, can I run with you?

And they're like, Oh my gosh, who are you? And I was like, I saw you on Instagram, I'd love to run. So I carried him for running with, ran with them for like, you know, four or five miles. And then realized that I was four or five miles away from my car and had to go back to my car. Yeah, it was, it was great. It was an experience. That's really cool. And it's like you're in the middle of nowhere, so it's not like you can go and then just catch an Uber back to your car. No, you're like you could. Have hitchhiked. Yeah, that could have been fun.

Made for a really interesting story. Yeah. So I just love. I just love that about you, how you're not afraid to show up for people and how that's gotten you to be from one mile to 5 miles to half, marathon to marathon to Iron Man. Nuts. Yeah, that was a fun. That was a fun year. That was a really fun. We gotta talk about how the heck all that happened. Like, how did you end up running the first hat? Like take us through that whole journey. Yeah, so I had started the first like official run club also that I joined consistently. I showed up at New Shoe Day on a Wednesday, which is this like local non profit here in Indy that helps provide shoes for for like Central IN youth that you know need shoes have the whole new Shoe day experience.

But they also have a run club on Wednesday mornings in Broad Ripple. And I saw a couple of my friends. One in particular, Jake Landgraf, was there. He was posting this like 5:30 every Wednesday, was like up and running. And I was like, dude, those guys are crazy. Count, count me in. Like, count me in. I love that. So I started showing up, showing up, showing up like, you know, once a month, like every now and again popping in. And then finally, I don't know what, like was Someone was like, you should just run the mini. It's really fun. It's like, yeah. And I was like, OK, sure seems hard.

I'll do it. So I, like, went more consistently. And then I ran the mini that would have been May of 22. So May of 22 ran my first. My first ever race was the Mini. And I just, like, love it. Oh, Before I ran that, I also listened to the audio book of Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins and I thought that I was invincible. I was like. OK, I'm like that one. You Don't Know Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins. No, I'll write it down. Oh my gosh, what? It's like the. I've never even heard of it. I know I've heard of Dave Goggins, but.

You've never heard of it. It's an insane book. It changed my life. And, like, it is very polarizing. He has like some. He's just like a personality on the Internet. But like, I latched onto a few things in there that have just like wake up and do difficult things. Identify like what you're not good at, where you're being lazy and like, fix that. OK? And I was like, juiced up, ready to run through and like, went out, smoked my first or first half marathon crazy. Like I I like think I look back at my time and I'm just like, how the heck did I do that?

Yeah, So wait, what does smoked mean to you? I mean, I was like 130. Yeah, that's one 1:30. No, maybe like in the one thirties 135. Does that give you a double medal? Did you get another medal? No. What does that mean? That I've never done it, just for the record, but I have a couple of friends who get the double medals. It means you're in the top 500 of the participants of the MINI. Oh, you get another medal. Oh, I might have to. OK I'm I'm signed up this year maybe I'll. Yeah, I see. I believe they still do it. Certainly they'd have a ride on their hands if they didn't.

And they were like, yeah. Like for like never running a race. I had literally never been on the starting line and I was just like, my heart rate was like insane. And like I went back and looked at it and I was like redlining for like half of it. But I just like loved it. I was like, I can't halfway through I saw like a guy a little bit out ahead of me because I originally put myself like way back and I just like started cooking. I was like I'm passing. I was going to say, yeah, where did you start because you hadn't been seated?

I think I put myself in like the 99 minute mile time. At least you still knew to kind of do that, so you weren't what? I started the first mile and I was so pissed. I was like back with like the moms in the strollers. Yeah, and like, granted, moms in strollers, you're totally welcome in the media. I love that. But I'm trying to like, haul some ass and. You get that at the Mini though. People lie and say there are 9 minute miles when they're not just because they don't want to have to start in the back because there's so many people. Yeah. Which becomes a nightmare because then you're like bobbing and weaving through all these people who are walking.

I was in like the the the median like in that first mile and I was so bit. I was trying not to break an ankle. Yep, yeah, Yep, absolutely. So I I like, was way faster than I thought I was going to be. Like I think my goals are to break 2 hours and I was like, so I was like let's say one 35136. Let's break 2 hours 130, yeah? Which is awesome. It was super fun. And then from that moment I was like, OK, I'm hooked. I love this. So went on. That was May signed up for Monumental in the fall and was just like, dude, I just did it.

I did a mini, like, let's just do the, let's just full send it and signed up for the full. And that's where I like, was humbled very quickly. I didn't believe in nutrition at the time. I thought nutrition was a joke. I was like, no, come on, what would you need food for on a run? Like, so stupid. Like, I look back and I was like in 20 in 2022, I was a moron. I'm still kind of a moron, but I was like a huge moron then and didn't believe in nutrition. And I was like, in my training runs, like at the 18 mile training run, I thought I was going to, like, pass out and die on the Monon.

And then after I called my friends that are in Yushida and I was just like, dude, why do I feel so terrible? Like usually I feel good and like, is it like, you know, miles like 12 through 14, pretty hard. You like start to, like, feel, you know, terrible? And I'm like, yeah, why does that happen? Like, 'cause you need to eat. And then after that I started and then I felt like a whole new man. So I did that Grand Monumental in that fall, and it was terrible weather. Yeah, I did the full for the Yeah, we, I remember we messaged about this, I think.

OK, yeah. Well, because, yeah, you got a bouquet for the bindi. I forgot about it. I did get a bouquet for that was where I first like kind of like got to experience what you were doing there. Yeah. So then, yeah, we had messaged about the full, because it was the first time I was doing the monumental full and the first time you were ever doing a full. And yeah, the weather was horrible. And OK, so there's like a common theme here as well. So there's a community. And like that I don't believe miss until they prove me wrong. So there's a hilarious picture that we'll have to use in some B roll.

I didn't believe that. Like, your nipples would actually bleed. And I wore a white shirt. And at my old pen, I looked down and I looked like Andy Bernard from The Office True story. We'll show that picture. It'll be great. It was horrible. And I'm like bleeding in my white wrestling T-shirt or like long sleeve shirt and I'm just like today sucks. And then on the back half I think like somewhere over there near Riverside Park. I like totally bonk out and it's just like adding insult to injury. I'm bleed. I'm like running with my arms up tight like this so people can't see my nipples.

It's it was because it. Was pretty like you could have taken your shirt off, but it was chilly. It was frigid. Yeah, it was chilly. It was not snowing, but it was like raining. It was so, so windy that when I remember turning on Meridian to head back towards the finish, my feet, like when I was picking my feet up, I could feel them blowing, like I feel it moving. I'm like. It was. It was a horrible comical. Comical, yeah, so did that. And I think I finished that. Like my goal was 4 hours and I was like four O 5 or something like that.

And I was like well OK, so running is not always as easy as I thought it was cool. And so then I like still went to some new shoe day stuff was like running a little bit and it was at the end of December. One of my buddies was a common theme. A buddy is always prompting me to do something. One of my buddies, Bryce, he had gotten into tries and he had just done his first full Iron Man. He actually won his age group in Waco, smaller Iron Man, but one is a droop in Waco and is he's phenomenally fast and was like, dude, we should all do an Iron Man.

And I was like, bro, I don't know how to swim and that doesn't sound fun. But my other buddy Andrew is like a farmer. He's like legitimately, like drives a tractor in a combine, Like he's a farmer. He's like, man, I want to do something crazy in 2023. Like, I'm in on this iron, man. And I was like, well dude, if you're in, then I gotta be in. So like, we signed up and we originally said how long do we think we need for this? Like some people were like, you need years, you need, like, you need to be like you have. Do you know how to like, I literally don't know how to swim.

Like I only swim at the beach. OK, so you don't know how to swim like properly, or you don't know how to. Keep your No, I can keep. I can like, like keep myself above water and play like Marco Polo or like pool basketball, but like, I've never, like, swam a lap. Yeah, yeah, yeah, OK. But still, at least you knew how to like, yeah, stay above water. Yeah, roughly Ish. Yeah. So to put in perspective, like I had done one Sprint try before this. Like before we signed a primary, it was a Sprint try. It was at Culver, like Lake Max. And I was like, top 30 is 200 people.

I was like top 30 in the run. It's like top 50 in the bike and I was 176 out of the water 'cause my doggy paddled like and just tried to like I was. The same, same. So, like, like, I know how to keep myself up, but I did not know how to, like, actually swim and breathe. And like I'd be efficient about. It yeah, it was crazy. So then December comes, we're like hey, let's do an Iron Man and we're like well the next ones that are kind of like available that are like in our like there's a general wheelhouse was it was either Tulsa in May or Iron Man Texas in April.

And Tulsa ended up having like 5000 feet of elevation. We like we're doing all of our bikes in the winter in Indiana. Like we had to do training like we had to do the trainer. So we were like let's end up going, let's send it, let's send four months, we're going to Iron Man Texas. So we signed up $1000 down or whatever it is to get into an Ironman and now I'm off riding the trainer. And that was the first time I would say, because those guys are built up in Northern Indiana, like in my hometown. And I was down here. So like, I had to teach myself how to swim.

And it's like I had to like watch YouTube videos and like be in the pool at the JCC at 6:00, like 3 mornings a week. And that was like the one time where it was like, I had like the virtual community. But I was like, waking up to go do this because I was like, if I don't learn how to swim, like I'm gonna have to be rescued. Yeah, you're gonna not make it. Out of there. Turns out wetsuits are amazing. But we went through that whole training process and that was like legit. It was so fun. Like I think my first day I actually came home from the bar from New Year's Eve and I wanted to be the first one to get a ride in on in the new Year.

So came up from the bar had a couple of drinks, you know, having a good time and jumped on my bike trainer till I get my Strava. So I I would log the first ride of the new year to like, wait, we're officially training. I ended like 30 minutes, like the slowest pace ever as I was like scrolling TikTok or something and and then we were off and we did it. And we trained for four months. My buddy went from, he had never, like, really done anything. He went from like, combine tractor harvest season to Iron Man in four months. That's that's wild. I I mean, I can't.

I just really can't imagine that. How old are you guys? I just turned 27. That's right, it was your was your birthday yesterday? Sunday, Sunday. Happy belated birthday. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate. It 27. That was my number, my soccer number, my like bus in high school, that's my number. So it's gonna be a good year for you, Nate. Gonna be a good. Year How do you top going like the Mini Monumental Texas? How do you top that? I don't know but. We're working on it. So I mean that was one where it's like there's like the old, I don't know I read so many books and whatever whatever about like musogi, like the Japanese art of like doing something in one day that affects your other 364.

Do you know that? So that was, that was how my Iron Man, Texas was and it was like some of them talk about like the post Iron Man Blues. I did not have post. Like I have not been on a bike since. I've not been in the water since like I made it through that. Like the. I mean the the bike ride in Texas, it's like on a most of it's on a toll road and it's just like straight up and down and like I was six hours or whatever, like, so bored, just like, but you got to keep going. I'm like talking to myself because there's no one to talk to you and I'm very, very talkative.

So I'm like literally having conversations with myself. Like, I think I'm going crazy. But we made it to the end. It was fun. And so then we kind of chilled. And my next thing after that was like, I wanted to be monumental. And I was like, dude, I'm not going to let it beat me again. So we ran it this past year. It was awesome weather, perfect. It was like so easy to fly broke. 4 hours felt really good there. Crushed 4 hours. Yeah, Humbly, yes. Yeah. I think I was like 3039 or whatever. So it felt really good, felt really strong. And that's what gave me the crazy idea that the next thing is like, I was like, I gotta get into Ultra.

So Ultra's what's what's coming in 2024. I'm signed up for, I run the FOMO and I'm dabbling literally. This morning was the first time I said it out loud of like I'm dabbling and signing up for the IT50. I have. I have two friends that did it last year. They did the 100. Is High Holt one of your friends? No. Oh, OK. One guy from New Shoe Day, he did the 100. Oh, OK yeah, No two of my girlfriends. So I have Ashley Haynes, who's on the monumental board with me. Nice. She did the 100 and she's doing, and I think she's going back this year, but I can't remember which one she's doing.

She might be doing the 50 this year. And then Lindsay Welty also was there. Yeah, and they both had never met and they didn't meet at the race, but then they met after. Anyway, I digress. OK, so the IT50I think maybe When is that? What time of year? October. OK, yeah, the weather was really bad for them. Great. Sign me up. No, but like in your track record, right? Monumental was bad. But then it was perfect. So this year? Maybe it'll be, it'll be perfect. It'll be perfect. Sign me up for like the just like the difficult things. Yeah. I just love a little bit of the like you put yourself out there.

Like, there was a moment during during Texas, like during Iron Man where it's like, I'm out there in the middle of like this lake and there's not really like a safety guard anywhere close to me. And I'm just kind of like, one, what the heck am I doing here? And two, it's like, well, I better keep swimming cause like no one's going to save me. Like, you gotta just keep going. So and that's like kind of like that. I don't know. It's like that's just a fun feeling, to have a crazy feeling. About you feeling. Yeah. Like, wow. If I stop swimming, I'm gonna die.

It's great. Yeah. It's like. Better. That's motivation for sure, man. Okay the full Mel. That'll be that'll. Be and we have some guys doing that one too. Again, there's the buddies, the buddies come in. It's like we have like 5 or 6 guys that are going to do it. We're going to be a chill pace and just have some fun. You say that and we'll see. We'll see if I want to do the full Mel at some point because I love the Monon so much. It's where, you know I've spent so many hours training and I just, I'm, I'm weird in that I like the just like straight and go, Oh yeah, because then you don't have to think, you just run.

So I'm weird. I like my treadmill, like same thing. You just like you set it and forget it and you just do it. You're crazy for that one. Yeah, you know. But now my treadmill has like I can watch Netflix on a big screen Madrid. So anyway, so that's how I get all my like, trashy TV and. Oh, there you go. Well, so then it's a counterbalance, right? It's like I'm doing something productive and I'm being destructive. Like that's great. Yeah, exactly. So up until this point, you mentioned you did not the nutrition thing. You didn't believe. What about coaching? Have you do you have a coach?

Have you ever thought about that? You're looking at me like I'm nuts. I am a coach, but not for running. I'm a high school wrestling coach. I believe in coaching. I think coaching is super smart. I think just given I live like a crazier lifestyle where it's like I fit in runs whenever I can and it's not always necessarily planned. I rely heavily on the team at like new Shude. So I just like ask them all the questions in a part of a community and I'm just like hey, I don't know about this, this or this. The other things I just kind of figure out on my own from just like a little bit of research or like I trust like people that will go and do the research and then like hey, on this run, give me a TLDR of like what I need to know about this.

So I do not have a coach. I mean I'm sure that would probably, I mean that definitely would help. But yeah, I just haven't like, I don't know. I don't think of myself as like that caliber of athlete that would like. I'm not trying to like qualify for Boston, you know, like. Well, still I like it. Makes me laugh. Because thinking about like, oh, I don't need fuel. I remember, like, the way that I used to train was just like, every run I would go on, it would be about mileage for me. I'd be like, OK, but now you're doing track stuff, so you're kind of ahead of the curve there, pun intended.

But I would just go out. I'd be like, OK, I'm going to run 4 miles and I'm just going to run it as fast as I feel like I can today. And that's how I trained until 20/21 when I started working with my coach. And then she just tells me all the types of workouts to do. I keep doing this and it's like, oh, it's really loud. Just bang the. Drum just bang the drum. But, but she just taught me. She just tells me what to do and I do it, which I like, but maybe at some point you'll you'll do that. But I feel like you are still relatively early on and you've done pretty freaking well.

So I can't really, you know, especially if you're not trying to qualify for Boston right. That's part of what I'm trying to do is get faster and work on my speed And someone like tell me, teach me. Which is a whole another ball game. Like like what I do is like fun and recreational and I just, it's like I'm more seeking the like bucket list type stuff. It's like I just want to say like when you say something that you've done, I'd be like dude, that's crazy. Like the end goal. Like I've I've vocalized this. It's like the end goal is maybe not the end goal but like the current like future horizon goals like run 100 miles, like 100 mile races, like in my future hold me to this, people of the world hold me to this.

I'm going to run 100 mile race and like not. I don't care about time. I don't care about whatever. It's like. So just do that this year. What are you? What are you doing 54? Because. So I had a conversation with Morelli. Do you know Nick's Morelli? OK, Nick's Morelli. He's done a lot of ultras and he talked about like the 100 is like such an insane like thing. Like it's an insane experience. He's like you could do the IT 100 like, I like. He's like you could do it like you could train for it and finish it. He's like that would be epic. It'll be it'll be really cool.

But what if you trained and like the first one that you did was like a mountain in color like Leadville or like run Rabbit Run or like something that's like an epic, epic 100 mile race. Especially if you're like if you're not, you're going to do like multiple of them. I don't know. But it's like so he's kind of got me convinced like hey, plan this out a little bit more, try to get into one of these like insane races so that like the first like 100 mile, it's like not nothing as IT 100 it's awesome. But there are just like some more epic style races that like, there's the potential to get into one of those.

And like the first time you cross the finish line is like, it's just crazy. It's like epic. It's like, yeah, my first ever 100 mile race was Leadville. Like, I'm not saying I'm doing Leadville, but like something like that Some people would be like you're crazy and that's stupid and it'll never work. Very possible. But he totally like, we got lunch one day and he convinced me. He's like, yeah, dude, you could do that, but but what if? And you're like. That makes for a better story. I'm. I'm. I'm all about the story. You are. I'm all about the. Story. Yeah. The content. The storytelling.

Mm hmm. Mm hmm. OK. Yeah. And the the IT 100 or in the 50 there that's Fort Wayne area or is it in Fort Wayne? It's not in Fort Wayne. It's Chain of Lakes. I think it's oh gosh, is that just outside? Like kind of in the Kendallville area, Like NE of Fort. No, Northwest of Fort Wayne. OK Oh my God. Noble County. If anyone, if anyone's, a county buff, Noble County. OK, yeah, there you have it. OK, full MO IT50. That's a neat, like I just can't. I just my mind like the progression of your athleticism is just like. Blowing my mind. It'll be fun.

And I have. I finally got Casey and Carly both to commit to being on this podcast. They are great. And I know Casey's done Leadville. Three times. Three times, of course. Finished twice. Please double click into that when you talk to him. He's a beast. He's a beast, OK? And Carly is also like, super unfortunate though she ran a BQ time, but like with the whatever it's called, the minute thing, like didn't, but it was at the Flying Pig when it was like a monsoon. Yeah. No, I and. She had, like, just had a kid not that long ago. And she's just like, wait, she's so badass.

Yeah, she's gonna she. No, she will be there. Oh yeah, yeah. So I wanna hear a little bit more. I definitely wanna talk about content and some of that stuff at some point, but I wanna rewind and talk about a little bit more about your upbringing, the whole wrestling thing. And I I mentioned your profile picture wanting to learn more about that. So take us back, small town guy Indiana. Like up until up until now. Yeah, So I grew up in a small town in northern Indiana. Bourbon. Bourbon, yes. No distilleries there yet. It's on my bucket list. So I grew up, got in a blue collar family, you know, like dad worked in the factory, all that fun stuff was like just drawn into sports.

So I played football my whole life. I was on the wrestling team my whole life. I did run track in like middle school and I was, I was on the track team but I was terrible. I didn't run. I was like the utility guy, like plug and play. Like I wanted to be a sprinter. But I was like chubby and not fast at the time. I ended up running like the 300 hurdles and getting last true story in one time I ran the 100m hurdles and I hit a hurdle and fell and I tried to write like tucked and rolled and got back up and then went to jump the next one.

I didn't have enough speed. I had to stop, turn around, go back to the freeze hurdle and then get enough speed. The whole stadium like clap for me as I finished at like like 20 seconds after everyone else. That was in middle school, 8th grade. Don't. Somebody have a video of that? Because I don't think so. I hope that it was great, but it was like one of those. It was one of those ones that were if it had Instagram or TikTok been around at the time and something got that, it would have been like viral. Yeah, you'd been on Show Warning America. Joey Kid like face plants after hurdle, then gets up and.

Turns like turns or doesn't just like go around it or something to be like F it like I'm just gonna go around this one you like run back. Yes. And then like get up enough speed to like make it over it. So did all that. And then I ended up, I was on the football team at Nepal. So I say on the football team because I did not play. I was like a on the JV team. There's like a D3 JV football team at the. I was on that team but stood on the sidelines and that was out of my senior year. I was kind of like, OK, I'm never going to play.

Like, I'm just high school football in northern Indiana, a lot different than high school football. And like the big metropolitan Indianapolis, there were some really good players. So. And how big is it? How many students at? DePaul, like 2400. So yeah, even like my high school was like 67 kids graduating class. So like super small, so being good there and good not there do different things. But that was when I started getting into content was like, I had my I did like all the football teams hype videos and like video production kind of stuff my senior year. And that was kind of my first dip into content and all that fun stuff.

And then yeah, then I joined OR Fellowship and came to Indianapolis and have been rocking and rolling ever since. Here. I don't know if I've ever. Well, I probably talked about the OR fellowship in my intro episode back in the day, but for people. Most people, I would imagine, have no idea what the heck that means. Probably not, Yeah. So do you? Do you want that? Except for my mother. Yeah. There you go. Well, it's a two year entrepreneurship or two year fellowship program here in Indianapolis. You get paired at like a high potential, I think that's what they call it, high potential company. You get executive level mentorship, you get a bunch of friends.

It's like the awesome, it's like the most, I mean the greatest like post grad process, 'cause it's like 2 years of like meeting new people, getting mentorship and working at a cool explosive company. Mm hmm. Yeah. My experience was like the office. Oh swear. Did you fall in love with your husband? Well, actually funny enough, he was hired to replace me. So we met in like at that time, but we didn't actually work directly together, which is probably a good thing, frankly. But it was the company that I ended up working for was 25 years old, sold printers. The name had Canon in it, but we sold HP printers.

Yeah, it was. It was I I don't know. I mean I don't know if my friend John Jones listens to this and if he does, John, you know it's true. But you know, it was a great experience in that I have friends from there that I still talk to today and I also met my husband through it. So and his sister was own orfellow. Oh, there, you. Go So it's all like, you know, that's part of it. It's this big network now because it's been going on for years and years that there's this whole network of alumni and it's been, yeah, literally life changing. I always has.

It literally changed my life. Like it. There's like a few moments that have, like been like moments of like that have changed my life. And like my time in or fellowship is one of those. Did you know anybody older than you in the fellowship? Like a couple people. So I went to the Paws. So like it's like has a pretty good history with the paw and like getting alumni and fellows plugged in. So yeah, I I got recruited by his name was Cody Cody Campbell. He was like 2-2 years older than me and he said this would be perfect for you and I trusted him and the rest is history.

There you go, there you go. And now look at you and. Now. Now look at you, you've, I mean you've started more than one company. You've started. Yes, well, I really like that you've started and failed because people don't really like to talk about that. You know, I mean there's like some people, it's like, oh, this thing fails. It's like going to be devastating, but it's like, you know, I'll figure it out like nothing that is going to like bankrupt me or like whatever. And it's again, if I did like, I'd figure out how to make it from there. So it's very similar of like running.

It's like, do you want to just like live this mundane rundown like same old, same old. That's like the path is short. Like that's why corporate America, like I thought it first was so great for me, so stable, so whatever. But I was like, no, like joining startups, like working in entrepreneurship, that kind of thing, where it's like you can on a chart your own path is like what I pursued. Because it's like you get to fail and then you get to learn from that and you get to like, you know, iterate and move on. And I I love it. I think it's so fun.

Well and one of my favorite things to say is that nobody cares cause at the end of the day. They don't. They don't. They care about themselves. They don't care about what you're doing. Absolutely. I got it. So and then yeah, I mean, that's just like such a good mantra as I talk about that with the wrestlers. So I'm at the varsity coach at Bishop Start High school. I've been there for Four Seasons now as the head coach. And I like, say in like a graceful way to high school kids, 'cause I do care. I really do care about them. Like, but like when when they want to come in and be like, well, coach, like my dog ate my homework and yada yada and it's like dude, nobody cares like figure out a figure out a way to win.

Like figure out a way to like put in the work. Like no one wants to hear like the you know those people. Like there's like a those people that are just like nothing's ever going their way. Like yada, yada, yada yada yada yada yada yada yada. And like grant life's not fair. Like, dude, life's not fair. You're totally right. But like the more you like sit and complain about how much life's not fair, then like you're not doing yourself any favor. It's like, figure it out, iterate. Test something new. If it works, do more of that. If it doesn't work, come back, iterate again. Find something new.

Like, no one. Like the excuses aren't doing anything except like, watering down people's opinion of you. Yeah, yeah, I love the people that are just like, well, yeah, it's like you find out afterwards is like all these, like hardships or struggles or like things that they've done, like challenges that they face. And the afterwards are, Oh yeah, like we had, we had a few hiccups, but like, we made it through and it's like a few hiccups like like those people just like, wow. Me that you would just never know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so tell me about your profile picture then, as it relates to Chittard Wrestling.

Yes, so my profile picture on Instagram, which I've I've dabbled in like OK, is it time to to change it out? How can you change? I know, 'cause it's it's like right up my alley. So when I took over the program in 2020, we hadn't had a state qualifier in the rest looks like. So to put it in perspective, like wrestling is unclassed, so like 1A to 5A6A whatever. Like everyone's in the same thing. So 16 kids per weight class make it to the state tournament. There's 14 weight classes, like 224 kids get to be in the state finals for wrestling at all levels. So it's a very, like very very difficult thing to do.

Shazard hadn't had a state qualifier since 2014. This was six years later and that was our our big first schools. Like we took over this program. How do we get a kid there and that picture is taken. Tommy Hannon dog, absolute beast came out for one year. He came out for his senior year. He had wrestled in middle school but did not wrestle in high school till the senior year. Freak athlete like Allstate, football player like all American rugby player that can miss him to come out and give wrestling one more try on 30 practices. He ended up qualifying for state being one of the top 16 wrestlers in his weight class and that was the moment like when he won the match.

Till I get him there, I was like overwhelmed with like holy cow, this is freaking sex. And like such a special. His mom was like in the in the stands with her camera and captured that one and it was it was awesome. It was like one of those moments that like I look back on. It's like unforgettable, like an unforgettable coaching moment, life moment. Yeah, yeah. So I like, maybe you could put your Iron Man photo, you know? But maybe that maybe that Leadville 100 finish line for all. Topic maybe I don't. I did just something special about the just about like I love coaching.

Like I working in startups, entrepreneurship, running all the different things like coaching is the hobby that I would never give up like. It's like I don't even know if you call it hobby like it takes a it's way more than a hobby amount of time. But it's like it gives me so much like I think like even though I'm like giving you know it's like you're pouring into to these wrestlers. It like is so rewarding. It's like I put like 10 hours in and I get like 100 hours of value back out of, just like we're making an impact. It's amazing. So much fun. The community, it just hard's amazing.

Like I could go on and on and on about. Just like how much I love coaching. Well, I think it's really cool that the thing that you're most one of the things you're most proud of doesn't necessarily have to do with you, but the success of someone else. I think that says a lot about who you are as a human being. For what it's worth, thank you. You're welcome. I mean it's it's just, it's just awesome. Like I was actually talking. So I just had my birthday and people were asking about like, what are you most excited for about about year 27, right. And I was thinking they're like, man, we have some, we have a really good senior class coming in for wrestling.

And I like started like hosting track, not hosting. Like there's a group of us that come together and we do track Thursdays. And I like, did this whole big thing where it's like, tell me your goals, like what do you want to accomplish this year in 2024, guys? And they have this whole spreadsheet now. And it's like, I freaking love like when someone tells you. They're going to do something and you like, hold them accountable for it. Like if they're like someone if like a wrestler says I want to make it a state, great. This is what you have to do. And if you don't do all these things, like that's just like table stakes to even have the opportunity.

If you're not going to do like those things, like you're not going to get your outcome. Like one of my buddies said, he wanted to like get below 200 lbs And he's probably like 2:15. I was like, great, What are you doing? And like, I'm holding and I'll text him and be like, how's it going? He's like, oh, I'm like stalling out at 207, great. Figure out a way to get below that. And I just think that that's like so awesome to like see people achieve their goals and like, hold them accountable to like be better, like in like a friendly, like fun way. But like, I think that's just, that's just very, very, I just get so much like energy from that because then they're holding me accountable and it like, helps me achieve my goals, right?

There's a power of community there. That thread makes it makes another appearance. Yeah, carefully. You might be a run coach after. Oh. Oh, OK. I wanted to ask you. I wanted to ask you about your mom. Yes. Do you talk about that a lot? To the right people to be. Not even the right people to be able to ask. If you ask, I'll talk about it. This was like the moment that changed my life, truthfully. Oh, gosh, OK. I'll give you the back story, right. So I grew up like my junior and Senior High School. It was like me and my mom, we like, lived together in the small town.

You know, she was working. I was going to school. She had just gotten done. She had like had breast cancer, but like had rang the bell, was in remission, All that fun stuff. After my senior year we moved in with my grandma like in the next town over. So it was like my at the time like 85 year old grandma, my mom and me and I was like getting ready to go to college. That was an interesting summer. Let me. Just. I was gonna only imagine. Yeah, well, we can pause there at that part. It was an interesting summer. And I was like, I wouldn't say I was like a great, I wasn't a bad person, but I wasn't like a good person all the time, you know?

Like, I was just like a teenage kid, you know? Like, I was just an idiot. I'd probably like to, like, drink a lot. And like, even though I wasn't supposed to be doing that and I was like, didn't care about the right thing. And looking back now, I probably didn't care about the right things. And I go to college. I have a great freshman year, like join the fraternity, like, do it all. And I'm just, like, having so much fun. Like, what I thought would be fun. And it still is fun. Don't get me wrong, I love a good time. Like, don't tempt me. But then my sophomore year, I go back to school and in the fall, I remember getting a call from my mom and she's a little bit upset as what's going on.

And she told me that her breast cancer had come back and that had like spread to her lungs and that we were going to go through treatment and do all this stuff. And granted that she's at home with my, at that time, like 86 year old grandma, it's like grandma was like on her last leg. And then like swips in switches into mom mode and like starts taking care of my mom. And so through through a couple events and things I ended up transferring home at a semester. So I went to Ancilla College in Plymouth IN Donaldson go Chargers And I basically this is basically summarizes like my mom in a in a nutshell was we're in a doctor's appointment.

This was still before I had like transferred. And they're like, well, just in case, like, are there any things that you want to see before, like, your time on this earth expires? See, my son graduate from college and they're like, great, What grade is he in? And she's like, well, he's a sophomore, so he's got a little bit of time. And I was like, OK, I can kind of see, like, OK, they're starting to like, you know, whatever she says, is there anything else you want to see? And she's like, well, I'd really love to see my son get married. Oh, Mom and. And the nurse looks.

Me straight in the eyes and says Oh my gosh, when's the wedding? And I looked at her and I just go, Oh, no, I don't have a girlfriend. Like, I'm not engaged, I'm not even dating anyone. And the nurse's jaw just dropped and I was like, OK, so not going to be able to make that one happen in like a decent time frame. So I ended up transferring up to Ancilla, transferring all my credits. And I finished my associate's degree in one semester. So I got to walk and have my associate's degree. Unfortunately during that time, her cancer had spread to her brain. And April of the year, I graduated in May and in April she passed away and I ended up losing my one of my best friends.

And that was like kind of the moment where like stuff gets kind of put into perspective for you of like, I don't know like, I like to have a good time, but it's like, is that what my world's gonna be about? And is that what I mean? Like make the center, like priority of like just be like the life of the party and yadda yadda. And then granted, I'm. I still like to be live party. But like there's just so much more. And like and it really put in perspective like the the finite scarce resource of time for me and like watching that battle just like I wouldn't wish it upon like my worst enemy.

It's like crazy. But it also, like, gave me this like, spirit of dude, if she can go through that. My mom was not like an athlete, was not like she. She was just like a farm girl from Bremen IN and like, what she went through with like, the treatments suck. The disease sucks. Like, everything about it sucks. And if she could do all those like difficult things, like, I kind of, like revert to that. And all all my running shoes have like a little pink ribbon on them. And it's like, it's like a reminder. It's like every time it gets hard, it's like, look down.

And I'm just like, yeah, this isn't hard, this. Isn't hard. Like, it is hard, but it's not that hard. Like if she can do all the stuff that she did, like I'll be fine. And and it was like too like one of those like life changing moments where I was like dude, what's the kind of person that I really want to be. And it definitely took me a long time from there to like figure all that out and like the vehicle and the avenue of like how to be a good version of me. And here we are almost seven years later 24. So April will be the seven-year anniversary of of when my mom passed away.

And I'm actually, I haven't, we haven't released this yet, but we've found that I'm going up to Goshen. So she got all her treatments in Goshen at Goshen Cancer Center. I was hoping this is going to be the next. One and Michael and I. Are going to go up there and we're going to crush a marathon outside of that Cancer Center and kind of like honor my mom and her experience and his dad and everything that he's doing there. And I'm going to invite all the hometown friends, all the indie friends, like come up and we're going to make this thing a big thing. What date is that going to be?

April 20th? April 20th? TBD time. Dates don't. Or dates. Lockdown time still up in the air, but we're gonna be up in Goshen and we're gonna be crushing a marathon at the Cancer Center up there. That's so cool. Yeah, I mentioned. Earlier, how I loved how you just showed up for Michael. And at first I didn't realize the connection there, that you had lost your mom. And then he's somebody who had literally, like, just lost his dad. Yeah. And if you haven't listened to that episode yet, go listen to I I can't remember which number it is. But Michael Hartnagle, he is just, you know, he's incredible in what he's doing to raise money for people battling cancer and like and it's the money is.

Super important that funds and everything but like the idea of positivity like his whole thing on like spread positive like oh I I never get the word right. Metastasize. Metastasize. Like metastasize. I had to practice. Yes, metastasize. Positivity. Right. Yeah. Because it's like it spreads, right. And it spreads to places that you don't expect it to go to. And all of a sudden this like positive energy, just like, is so important. Like, I remember. And I'm like a perpetual optimist. And I think that was like, whether you're religious or not, like, I believe that God gave me that power because he knew that, like, my mom was going to be going through this.

And I would just be like, super, like, even if it was like we're going to like the work getting radiation, getting chemo, whatever it is, like, we're going to find like a scoop of ice cream on the way home that's going to like make it positive. And we're going to find, like, the little wins in this, like, huge war against cancer. It's like the little wins add up, like keeping your morale up, like wrestling. And like, I was like a leader on my wrestling team as a freshman. I was horrible. I got beat so many times. I think I won like three matches. But I was like, I've always had this, like, unbreakable spirit of optimism of like, even when it's the hardest thing.

Like, it takes a lot, a lot, a lot to give up. Like a lot. And it's like, even when things are down, it's like, like our high school football team bad. We won six games in four years. I remember we walked into halftime down 66 to 0, 66 to 0 at halftime. What kind of pep I was like, we're not out of this, boys. Crazier things have happened. We can do that. Did we do it? No. But they put the freshman team in and we got a first down. True story. So just. Like this like. This never ending optimism is just like what I want to like play I don't know just build off of and it's like it's just powerful.

So as soon as I've like seen this evolution one when I first met Michael and like saw what he's doing, I was like got to be a part of that. Then like, more of this, like, spread positivity. I was like, dude, yes, you're crushing it. That's so right. Yeah, yeah. Now I have two. Sweatshirts. One is metastasize love and the other one's stay positive. I think either that or that one's metastasize positivity. I can't remember, but they are amazing. And that, yeah, the concept behind that goes back to how you're talking about people that just complain all the time. It's like so easy to be the complainer and I feel like it takes a different strength and if you don't know who the complainer is.

In your friend group? Oh God, you're probably yeah, yeah. So if you don't know. Like, Oh yeah, the other person who? Complaints. It's like, is that me? Is that me? Yeah, I have AI had now. I have a a better peloton bike than I had, but on my other bike I need to make myself a new sticker. It said work harder, it's not chemo and I would it. Was on my like what? Where my water would be and I would look at it and be like, yeah, if I think this is hard and I don't know what chemo's like, but I know it sucks, yeah, like I can just.

I I hope to never have to experience that. Like, obviously that would be ideal. But it's like watching someone close to go through that, it's like, dude, this shit's not hard. Yeah, like when I talk about running, when I talk about fitness, someone's like, you're out in the water, whatever you're doing, it's work. You got like 10 more emails to send. It's like you're like dreading and you don't. It's like this shit's not hard. Yeah, like really put, like I put put stuff in perspective for me of just like the optimistic attitude, the the like scale of what hard really is. It's like and and a lot of people like, talk about in work, it's like we're not curing cancer.

It's like you're probably not like unless you're like a research scientist or whatever, it's like you're probably not curing cancer. So it's like just breathe, figure out, iterate, make it happen. Yeah, I. I worked at Sigstar. Do you know? Oh, I love Dan Hanrahan. We when we sold. Software that would make everyone's e-mail signature the same, right? And you think about that in the grander scheme of life, right? And you're like, wow, like we aren't curing cancer. But we we would always tie it back to we always used to say we got mouths to feed like every. And and the meeting behind that was like, literally, everyone is just trying to make their way in the world, you know, serve their family or whatever it is to them that that means.

And you know at the end of the day, a lot of it was more around just being around people that you wanna surround yourself with. And I said at one point during my time there, we could be selling tires and it wouldn't matter because of the people that were there. So yeah, so true. It's like when. You're running when you're doing anything, like if you like, are intimidated by running or like maybe like, it's like, I don't know if I want to do like 1/2 marathon, like go out and run a half marathon with your friends or like with a group, like go train for Iron Man.

Like, with a group. Yeah, because it's so easy. Like on the mornings where like, they wouldn't like my friends, literally. They if they didn't see Estrava, like, logged in the morning, they would like be on my stuff. Like, hey, you didn't swim this morning. Like, you got to get your butt to the pool. And it's like, are you going to let your friends out? Like, that's another big thing for me. It's like to the best of my ability, if I say that I'm going to do something, I try my absolute hardest to do it. Like, I believe like one day at the end of your time, it's like all you're going to have left is your word and like your reputation and like that matters.

So it's like if you say I'm going to hit my long run on Friday, it's like sometimes life happens. Like I I've finished long runs at 11:00 PM at night. Like, not ideal, but it's like I if my, I literally remember, like, I was about to, like lay down for bed and my friend called me. He was like, you said you were going to run today. You owe us 10 miles. And it was 930. And I literally before he got off the call, I had my shoes on and I was like, all right, cool. I'm doing. That was Iron Man. That was the four month Iron Man training.

It was like he kept me accountable and was like tracking my location as I ran up and down the Mon on at 9:30 to 11:30 or whatever it was. It was, it sucked. But it was like and then I woke up in the morning and I was like, wow, can't stop now. I gotta go get in the pool. Let's go. Yeah. Oh gosh. Yeah, I It's so nice to have those friends in your life for this season of life for me. And I know everyone has their different seasons and what they're able to do, 'cause I know, like we talked about, Carly's a badass, like has a young kid at home, like still making things happen, still getting up at 5:30.

And for me, like, this is not that season of life for me, but I still get things done on my own. But I just as a small business owner that's like. Growing as a mom and all these like podcast hosts, you don't have the time to do all these things. Well, it's just one of those things where. Figuring out how to how and what to prioritize just as life goes on. It's always shifting and you're always trying to figure out you know how to how to do everything you want to do, which is so hard. Oh my, the prioritization. It's like, I wish they were unlimited hours in a day.

I would do everything I literally would like. I would start businesses. I would be on Broadway or Hollywood or all these. I would try to do everything. And it's like, you just can't. I think about that because I like. I have an artistic side too, outside of just the creative designing side. Like I would paint, like I have all these hobbies that I would totally, yeah, sign me up for to try everything to figure out, you know what I like the most? Like I would train, I would train like all the time. For like, like long, long marathons, I would do push ups. I would bench press, I would do everything.

But he can't. Yeah, you just can't. You can't. All right. How much time do we have by the way? I didn't ask. We're we're we're at 5 minutes roughly. How much do we have left? Oh, we have a while. I see a lot on the page. Well it's I had. I had these are. My notes to make sure that I didn't like completely miss. I always, there's always something that I miss on, oh, I mean that's just like nature podcast. It is I, you know. OK, well I last time totally forgot to ask the end of the podcast questions, 'cause we were in a time crunch and I just totally spaced it, so I'm not going to do that.

OK, well, we have the podcast questions. OK. And I'm going to ask you another. Question. So you get a bonus 10. OK, I'm interested. All right. So. Favorite running Mont or song? Yes. OK, I have a mantra. When I'm running that like change the way, change running for me and I just like tell myself in my head like run like you're going somewhere. So and I like put it in kind of it's like some like before when I just like went out to run a mile. It's like you pick up your legs and it's like oh like blah blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like it's like miserable you're running to no place you know.

But if like when I like, not even focus, but I like run like you're going somewhere and I'm like driving forward. I just like feel better like my like, I really like that. My like, I don't. Want to say like swagger? Because that's so douchey to say, but like, like the, like, feeling of like, oh, I'm going somewhere. Like I'm trying to get somewhere. That's why I don't like running on a treadmill, because it's like, I'm like running to nowhere. Like, there's no goal here. The goal is just like, do your time until you get out of it, until you get out of, like, running jail.

And it's like, for me, it's like when I'm outside, it's like, dude, I might go 5 miles. I might go 4 miles. I'm like, I have like a desired distance. But it's like the only way it's going to get here any closer is if I run like I'm going somewhere. And that's like, I changed the way I walked the guy Now, like I used to, kind of like now I like, I haul the mail. I can't walk slow. Oh. I'm like going somewhere and it's like frustrating, not frustrating. But it's like, I'm like walk where you're going somewhere. Like I got places to be. I got things to do, like there are things that are more.

And that's how I know. Like slow down, smell the red. No. Yeah, I I go places like I got somewhere to go. Like I got. I want to run like I like I'm going somewhere. I'm picturing you behind the wheel of a car now. You're driving. That is the one time I try to like, not. Be like an aggressive driver, right, 'cause I was like, I throw in some nice country music and I'm in a good mood. But when I'm on my feet and I can go, I'm like, let's freaking go places. See, when I'm like, I have to remind. Myself that you know it's like you don't just chill out doesn't it's gonna think you know save you 3 seconds.

If this person's a little slow. I have to tone it. I have to tone it down. That's fair. I get it from my dad. So thanks, dad. All right. And then do you listen to music while you run? Yes. I listen to. Music or depending on like long slow runs. I might do like an audiobook or a podcast. But if I'm like trying to get somewhere, I'm all about the big booty mixes. Do you know these? No, it's like an hour long. Mashup. By two friends it's an hour long of like just match all the songs together and like, is it like girl talk? Do you know what girl talk is?

It's like the new age. OK, Right. The yeah, I'm the. Old age person, Yeah. Like I don't carry around. My CD player to play that like I listened on my Airpods. My iPhone. My God, my. Yeah, no. My daughter brought home a library book that ACD in it and she's like, look at this mom, It's like Rainbow, what is? It I'm like, oh. God. All right. That's how it feels to feel old. All right. And then what is your next finish line? We know the full MO milestone. Oh, I'm running the mini. I'm running the Mini. OK. You'll be at the Mini. I'm at the Mini, OK?

So I'm gonna do that but. It's like fun group. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we say that now, right? But it's like, that one's fun. But like, my next one that I'm like, actually training for is the full MO. OK, all right. Are you doing? Sam Costa or Carmel? Nope. No. OK, Yeah, I'm gonna. I think I'm gonna do both of those. I register for Carmel now. There we go. Sam Cost. I've never ever done so. I haven't either. But I've heard good things. Yeah. So have I. So we'll see. I think I'm going. To wait until I see the weather forecast. Is that bad? But I was like, you know, just if I'm going to do it, I don't want it to be like absolute hell.

So. And then okay and then 100 miles. Oh gosh, I have two more questions. Yeah, well I was going to ask what else is on your bucket list because I find that interesting. Do you have a documented bucket list or is it just something you're like? I know these things, it's a text thread with my best friend. Andrew, OK, The farmer. We just like, have like so many different. Things that we want to like, do we? We've tossed around the idea, Oh my gosh, I can't even what it's called. There's like a cross country skiing race up in Wisconsin. That's like a international there's a I'm picturing you on cross country skis.

I mean, we're figuring that out. We also want to do like a motorcycle race across like a desert, like an enduro, like 500 miles on a motor, like, have you ever, have you ever? I've ridden A Dura, right? Yeah, absolutely. That works like or like or. Like a rally car, like whatever. Like we want to do some, like not just fitness stuff, just like crazy stuff that when we look back it's like wow, we did that or maybe I'd climb a mountain or something. The other one that we would do, there's like this, There's like this series called Lem Lemons. Like it's not lemons, but it's lemons and it's a 24 hour race and your car has to be $5000 or less.

So you get like a like a beat up, like whatever Pontiac and you have to race it for 24 hours. I'll round like a track. Like it's like the Le Mans 24 hour race, but it's like for shitty cars. That's cool. Then we talked about doing something like that stuff is crazy, OK? And then? My my last question for you is gonna be what is your favorite dad joke? Oh. That is an excellent question. Oh my gosh Dad joke. It's tough to like to force that. So the the latest one I've been pulling out in the dating scene, 'cause we're still on that. We're still on the dating the dating path.

But I I got it from my buddy. My buddy takes. I was like dude, I need a good I give you a good like, pick up line. Dad, joke like that really encapsulates who I am. And so you go knock knock. Who's there? When, Where? When we're who. Friday at the bar, you and. Me, oh Lord, there it. Is there it is. I don't know how you. End stronger than that. I mean, they're obviously good to. Say yes, right? Okay. Wow. Disclaimer. Disclaimer no. One said. Yes. I mean, I have no idea. Why? Why? That's green. That can count encapsulates who I am. Oh my gosh.

Yeah, I. My husband is like the king of dead. He loves. He have a good one, loves that jokes. Oh gosh. There's like, why isn't Cinderella good at soccer? She runs away from the ball. What did the thesaurus have for breakfast? A synonym role. I mean, they just like, those are great. Yeah. I don't know. Gosh, like the circus fire. Where was the circus fire or like, I don't know, I forget there's something about tents, like, Jesus, they are really bad. OK, one. One more I have a good one of What do you what do you call a cow with two legs? Ground beef? No.

Two legs. Oh oh shoot, I thought you were. Gonna say no legs, 'cause I know that 1-2 legs. 1/4 pounder. I don't know. Lean beef? Oh, what do? You call a cat with no legs? Yeah, ground bee. Ground bee. What do you call a cat with one? Leg. Steak. OK, Yeah. I mean, I love. I say I'm front row every show for my husband. I've heard all of his jokes like a bazillion times. I should be a little rattle off. Way more about that Wooden was dealer Thunder? Absolutely, Yeah. Let him have his thing, Yeah. Like you got the podcast? Let him have let him have his jokes.

Well, thank you so much for doing this thing and for bringing me to your fancy studio. Welcome. I don't know that I ever really got used to being in the fancy studio, to be honest, but it takes a couple times, yeah, yeah. Put some hours in. Yeah. But now it's like a home for me. Yeah. Amazing. Thank you. So. Much you're doing. Great stuff. I'm a huge, huge, huge, huge fan of what you're doing at athletic case. I think that that was one thing that hooked me in. So I got one of those right before my first ever race and I was like, this is so cool.

Like, what are all these things and what is this nutrition? What's this? Gu? What's a Gu? Oh my gosh, they're probably still sitting in your. Closet or no, I daft those things are. Precious these days? Yeah, very expensive. That should be a question that you asked about favorite flavor. That tells a lot about something salted. Watermelon or salted caramel? I'm a salty. I'm a triberry. Yeah, I could. Do that triberry one of. My friends, the guy who? Does Ironman Bryce? Bryce feels into this? You're a psycho for liking the chocolate explosion. It's his favorite. He only eats the chocolate. I think it's chocolate explosion. Gross.

Yeah, there's there's one called. You're gross, Bryce. There's one called nude that's like, not flavored. I've never tried it, but there's not. There's nothing like that first feeling on your. First, where you, like, squirt way too much of it into your mouth and you, like, throw up a little bit and you're like, oh gosh, yeah, well, I'm on a Maple syrup kick. Now Boyd, my other friend Boyd. Loves the Maple syrup. It's so freaking good. Don't. Knock it till you try it. And they have a chart that says how it's better than goose. I was like, I'll try it and it tastes great. All right.

There we go. Cool. All right. Well, happy running, everyone. Thanks for listening. And thank you, Nate. Bye, Clap. Boom. Boom. All right. And you heard he. Was single, right? So. He's at Nate Spangle. SPANGLE on Instagram. And if you like this podcast, please share, rate, review. You know the drill. All right. Bye.

Ally Brettnacher