Episode 53: Carly Stewart - This Is So Much Easier Than Parenting

Episodes

Apr 26

Listener note: This episode includes discussion of pregnancy loss and disordered eating.

Carly Stewart ran the Indy Mini in sixth grade with her dad, swore off marathons until she was 'boring,' and now chases PRs and Boston as a mom of two.

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About this episode

Carly Stewart grew up in Carmel, ran the Indy Mini in sixth grade alongside her dad Tom, who went on to run 14 marathons, and ran cross country for Carmel High School. After an undertrained 3:45 at the 2012 Chicago Marathon she said she wouldn't run another marathon until she was boring and old. Then came motherhood, the Tecumseh 50K in 2020, and a Boston qualifier at the 2023 Monumental Marathon.

We talk about walking to the hospital in labor, finding her people at New Shoe Day's Wednesday morning runs, and running Monumental weeks after a miscarriage, which gave her the mantra behind this episode's title. She also shares the big adventures she and her husband Tom have taken, from Everest Base Camp to Kilimanjaro to a 48-mile Grand Canyon rim to rim to rim, plus her hope of running Boston with her dad in 2025.

In this episode, we discuss

Growing up in Carmel after moving seven times before age four
Running a 5:42 mile and the Indy Mini in sixth grade with her dad
How that first Mini turned her dad into a 14-time marathoner
Winning the soccer tryout two-mile and switching to cross country
Running the Little 50 at Indiana University
Meeting her husband Tom and running an undertrained Chicago Marathon in 2012
Leaving a high-pressure consulting job in 2018
Walking to the hospital in Chicago when her water broke
Signing up for the Tecumseh 50K when COVID canceled her half Ironman
Finding community at New Shoe Day's Wednesday morning runs
Running the Monumental Marathon after a miscarriage and missing a BQ by 40 seconds
Body image, disordered eating, and raising kids with a healthy mindset
Everest Base Camp, a helicopter rescue, Kilimanjaro, Patagonia, and Grand Canyon rim to rim to rim
The Flying Pig Marathon in a downpour nine months after her second baby
Qualifying for Boston at Monumental and hoping to run it with her dad in 2025

Chapters

Intro
How we met
Growing up in Carmel and playing soccer
A sixth-grade mile and Indy Mini with Dad
Choosing cross country over soccer
College, the Little 50, and meeting Tom
An undertrained 2012 Chicago Marathon
Triathlons and leaving consulting
Becoming a mom and walking to the hospital
Tecumseh 50K and New Shoe Day
Miscarriage and the Monumental Marathon
Body image and disordered eating
Adventures with Tom
Flying Pig and qualifying for Boston
Running with Dad, mantra, and the Mini

Where to find Carly

Instagram: @carlyhstewart

Mentioned in this episode

Races: OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon, Chicago Marathon, CNO Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, Tecumseh Trail Marathon 50K, Flying Pig Marathon, Boston Marathon, Carmel Marathon, Illinois Marathon, Monumental Mile, Little 50 (Indiana University), Ironman 70.3 Muncie, Teton Crest Trail, Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim
Organizations and charities: New Shoe Day, Ainsley's Angels, Carmel High School cross country, Indiana University
Other: Good for a Girl by Lauren Fleshman, Keira D'Amato, Everest Base Camp, Mount Kilimanjaro, Patagonia, Machu Picchu, 180° South (documentary), RAIN ride across Indiana

Previous guests mentioned

Related episodes

Frequently asked

Who is Carly Stewart?

Carly Stewart is a Carmel, Indiana runner and mom of two who handles social media for the nonprofit New Shoe Day and qualified for the Boston Marathon at the 2023 Monumental Marathon.

What does 'this is so much easier than parenting' mean to Carly Stewart?

Carly Stewart uses 'this is so much easier than parenting' as her mantra when races get hard, a mindset that grew out of running the Monumental Marathon and realizing what she was capable of as a mom.

What adventures has Carly Stewart done with her husband?

Carly Stewart and her husband Tom have trekked toward Everest Base Camp, summited Kilimanjaro, hiked in Patagonia and Machu Picchu, run the Grand Canyon rim to rim to rim, and run the Teton Crest Trail.

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Transcript

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

Welcome to Finish Lines and Milestones with Ali Bretnocker. Incredible stories and tales of triumphs with everyday people achieving their goals in fitness. This podcast brought to you by Athlete Bokehs. Celebrate Finish Lines and Milestones are the people that you love by visiting athletebokehs .com. Hello and welcome to Episode 53. This is Ali Bretnocker and it's just about the month of May here in Indianapolis and I'm getting ready to run my 16th Indianapolis mini marathon, which was my first race back in 2007. I skipped it in 2011 and I don't know why. And then again in 2021, during the pandemic, I did run it virtually in 2020.

But for those of you who aren't local, Indy during the month of May is big because of the Indianapolis 500, which takes place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Indy mini has part of the race where you run around the track, which is two and a half miles. It's a really cool experience, especially the first time you do it. This year, I am going to be pushing with Ainsley's Angels. So I, along with my friend Ashley, her knee permitting, will be pushing somebody and giving them the experience of a half marathon. And I'm just so, so excited and honored to be able to do that.

I'm really looking forward to it. I'm also kind of nervous because I haven't pushed a stroller in a long time. So the idea of pushing seems a little intimidating, but we are out there to have so much fun. So hopefully we have good weather, fingers crossed all around. And my guest this week, Carly Stewart, will also be out there running. My friend, Jamika Edwards, who was on this podcast, who is fresh off of Boston, is coming in town for the mini. So hopefully I will finally get a chance to meet her in person. And during this episode, I namedrop a ton of previous guests. So while I didn't set out for this podcast to necessarily be Indianapolis, like Carmel, Indiana focused a ton of my guests are local, some of them are not.

But I hope that for those of you who aren't local to Indie, that this gets you to come to our amazing city. So I'm really excited for this month of May. I'm so excited for my 16th mini experience. And again, my guest this week is Carly Stewart. She is hopefully going to run a PR at the mini in about one hour and 34 minutes. I told her to look out for me because she will probably fly by me at some point during the race. But during this episode, Carly and I talk about how she grew up here in Carmel with amazing supportive parents playing sports.

They moved seven times before she was four, which is crazy to think about. She ran her first half marathon in sixth grade, which is crazy. And how she got into cross country, the fact that she has so many toms, like men with a name Tom in her life, kind of hard to keep track, to be honest, how she signed up for her first marathon, how she waited a long time to run her next one. And she was going to do that when she was quote, boring, which I guess we are now. And what it's like to be a stay at home mom, how she walked to the hospital when she had her first kid, which is wild and a great story, how she signed up for her first 50 K and ended up running it really during the pandemic in 2020.

We talk about new shoe day, which if you listened to episode 51, a couple episodes ago, Casey Krause is the founder of new shoe day. So definitely go listen to that. And the other episodes that are mentioned, I also want to note that I did, I should have said this earlier, but the mini marathon Carly said was run on Friday. And that is true from the years 1977 to 1992. It was actually run on Friday before, right before the ND 500. So fun fact for you there. And you got to miss school, I guess. So that's why she did it in sixth grade, spoiler alert.

We also, I should provide a warning somewhat. We talk about pregnancy loss, which Carly unfortunately has, has suffered herself. We also talk about disordered eating. Then we talk about the adventures she's gone on with her husband, Tom, Everest base camp, summoning Kilimanjaro, rim to rim to rim in the grand canyon, a hike in or a run really in the grand Tetons. Like this is nuts, almost sounds made up as I just rattle that off, but all things she has done, Patagonia, like these, they are crazy, but in a good way. We also talk about her, I think what was almost her most recent marathon, which was the flying pig she ran in the monsoon nine months after having her second baby.

And then how her and her dad, Tom, both have qualified for Boston and hope to run together in 2025, which would be such a cool experience, one that I hope to do with my own dad. But I really, really hope that you enjoy this conversation with Carly as much as I did. Let's do it. All right. Hello, Carly. Hi, Ali. Carly Stewart. I'm so excited to be here. Yeah. Yeah. And you're a little nervous, which is so fun. I know. I didn't think I'd be nervous. I like to talk and I like to talk to people, but yeah, you know, first podcast. I can't believe it's your first podcast.

You're so amazing. Yeah, yeah, no, whatever people are gonna listen, they're gonna know. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Of course. Who introduced us Nate? Nate. Yep. Nate introduced us. He said that you guys got coffee and he kept saying Casey and Carly, Casey and Carly. You're like, who's Carly? Yeah. And then we got coffee and it was just so fun. I feel like it's so much in common too. Similar type of things. Well, I remember meeting you for the first time actually at the monumental mile. Yes. I don't know, two years ago or whatever. Yep. You were one of the first people who ever who like, were like, Oh, are you athlete bouquets on Instagram?

And I was like, Oh, somebody, somebody follows me on Instagram. I definitely knew you and I knew lots about you. So how much do I tell Ali that I know? But yeah, I've been following what you do and it's been really cool. And then it's been really great to get to meet you, the person, the person behind the bouquet. Yeah. I just, so thank you for supporting me from afar. And now we get to be friends, which is amazing. When we got coffee, like you said, we have so much in common. I feel like you meet people and this is not a knock on people I've met that I haven't become friends with, but it's just like you meet someone and you're like, Yeah, we're friends now.

Totally. You can just sit and have these conversations. Yeah, there's just something. Yeah, there's just something there. I felt that too. Thanks. Good. Well, I, and what's even more crazy is that you were friends with my best friend's husband in college. Yes, actually in high school. So we've been friends since high school. I know like such a small world. I grew up here and then moved to Chicago, but coming back, I, you know, it's like constantly it's like, you know, someone like, you know, not even six degrees of separation. It's like, Oh, of course, I know this person's that person, but it's so cool. And it's like very intertwined.

Well, and it makes sense why I would like you because I like Austin. And so it's like, okay, if you were friends with him, well, no wonder I like you. That makes sense. So yeah, so you are originally from here. Where'd you go to high school again? So I grew up here. I went to Carmel. So moved here when I was like four. So I went to all Carmel schools all the time. I grew up here. Where'd you move from when you were four? So I was born in New Orleans. Oh, yes. My, probably told me this. No, probably not. I don't know. So my parents both went to IU.

My dad was a geology major. He was in oil and gas. So they were in New Orleans for like seven years, had me not best place. They're not like where they wanted to raise their family. My dad is from Indianapolis. My mom's from the region. Like I was head of Chicago. So moved a few other places and then landed here. We moved seven times before I was four. And then my parents still live in the house that they moved into when I was four. Whoa. Yeah. So like different, like bounce around to like training for my dad's job and those sorts of things. But yeah, that had to be so hard for them.

Yeah, I know now you have young kids. Yes. Seven times before you were four, all the stuff. I can't imagine. No, I'm like, we'd be moved into our house about four years ago now. And I'm like, we're never leaving. I am not, not moving anything again. Yeah. Well, my husband occasionally be like, Hey, like, what if we did that? I'm like, no, I have no interest. We have wonderful neighbors. We're great location. Like our kids schools are literally like within a mile, both of them. And I'm like, I'm not, this is perfect. Yeah. Yes. So yeah, not planning to do that. Well, I was actually born in Colorado.

Okay. And then moved here when I was around four. So there's just something to the list that we have in common. Yes. Totally. And so Carmel growing up in Carmel schools, were you able to play sports? Yeah. So from like a really young age, like super into sports, super big tomboy played all the sports that grew up with a bunch of boy neighbors always wanted to show that I could do what they did. So I played a lot of soccer, played basketball, played soccer, but soccer was like my passion, played, you know, Carmel dad's club soccer, my dad and mom both coached us. My mom was commissioner of soccer.

They were both super, super involved. And then ultimately played travel soccer, and then did ultimately get into running as well. So what travel soccer routine were you on? I played for Carmel United. Okay. So yeah, I mean, it was my brother and sister played too. It was our life, you know, and I loved it. You know, now with kids, you like, think about that and you're like, Oh my goodness, they gave up all their weekends. But like, yeah, we only did it because me, my brother and sister loved it. My parents like never pushed us to do anything we didn't want to do. Right. So yeah, it was awesome.

Well, maybe we played against each other. Oh, yeah, I was on the Westfield Lightning. Okay. Yeah, so probably, probably. Internet crazy. Yeah, it's wild. We'll probably find a picture that we're both in. Oh my gosh, my parents have our pictures from like Carmel dad's club. And we like recently found a photo from when we were like, you know, you six and it's someone I know now is in the photo. I should look at my old photos because I went to smokey row elementary. Yeah. Yeah, that Casey went there, I think. What? Okay, I think you guys are maybe like a year or two. Maybe I'm gonna have to, I don't know if there's your books anywhere.

Probably my mom gave them back to me and they're like somewhere in the basement. Yeah. Yeah, so funny. Such a small world. Yeah. And I love the story about how you first kind of got into running, at least like running, how we look at like races. Yeah. Yeah. So I loved running for soccer. I played center mid. I just like ran everywhere. That's what I like to do. But never like thought of running as a sport. So two things that kind of like sparked an interest in running initially. So did track and field in sixth grade at Clay Junior High. Just wanted to do like a school sport, but I did not want to have to miss soccer practice.

So I was like a long jumper. I'll do long jump. I can like be a part of the team, but like I can still make it to travel soccer practice. I did the high jump at one point. I don't think I could jump like at all. Absolutely not. I would break an ankle for sure. But I had a friend who ran the mile in two mile and one day she like didn't want to run the mile. So I ran for her and I must have done well enough that I got to running county. So I got to run the mile in county in sixth grade.

And it's still my mile PR. What was it? I ran a 542. Okay. I don't think I ever ran the mile again. I just was like too nervous to like try to run it again. I ultimately look at the book ran cross country, but never timed the mile again. But I have this like goal in the back of my head. I'm like, maybe the summer. I like probably will not walk for weeks after, but you know, chase. Hey, you got to come come to the Monty Mail mile. You know, I think that might be a good environment. It would be. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So did that.

But he was like that one and done. I'm good. I'm going to go back to soccer. But that same year in sixth grade, I had two friends and one of the friends, her parents were big runners. And they always ran the mini marathon. And it used to be on a Friday. I'm pretty sure I need to fact check myself, but it used to be on a Friday. And if you were in sixth grade, if you did the mini, you got to miss school. I feel like I've heard that. Yeah. So, you know, I was like a big nerd, like love school. So I don't know why that was like exciting to me, but it was.

And so we signed up for the mini me and these two friends and my dad was not a runner. And so he said, I'll do it too. And I like still can vividly remember the first run I went on with my dad. We probably went like two or three miles and we came, I came back and I said to my mom, I thought dad was going to die. Like he was like breathing so hard. I'm like, he's never going to make it for the really cool thing. So he goes on, he runs the mini. I don't know what time he did, but we, me and my friends ran walk it.

It was like a cool experience. But my dad, it completely sparked a love of running. He's now done like 14 marathons. He's done Boston two times. He did a 50 mile effort. It's 50th birthday. He has a running group that like they still meet every Saturday. He's 64. They're in their sixties, almost 70. So it's just been a really, really cool thing that my dad and I got to share that started, you know, back in 2002 or 2000, I think, or 2000. Yeah. So it was pretty cool. So did he go on to do the mini every year? They did it a lot of years.

I don't know if he's done it every single year, but they've definitely done it. They meeting his running group a bunch of times. I know a number of them are doing it this year. He just ran Carmel, which I'm sure I'll talk about it some way. So he's not doing the mini, but I, yeah, so I'm doing it this year. Oh, you are. I am. I'm doing the mini this year. I'm excited. Oh, good. Yeah. Yeah. We'll have to talk, we'll talk more about that for sure. So you did the mini sixth grade. Yeah. That's crazy actually. It is. We'll get back now. You know, I like wouldn't, you know, we ran, walked it, ran, walked it.

I don't really think we did like extensive training. So I mean, I definitely wouldn't encourage anyone to do that. And honestly, I think I ended up running cross country in high school, but I think doing a team sport before, I think was so beneficial for me, because I wasn't burned out of running. Like by the time I got into running, I started running cross country my sophomore year, I like loved running and I wasn't, you know, sick of it. My legs weren't broken down. I mean, maybe they are now from the running bed, but yeah, I think there's something to be said for like getting to do team sports and you still like develop that love of running.

And then maybe that comes later on. Yeah. What's so funny is that when I played soccer, I was the opposite. I hated running, although I was left mid. So I ran a lot, but I didn't mind running like during the game. Yeah. But when we had to do like a mile warm up or whatever conditioning stuff, I hated the like jogging running. I would do sprints. That's fine. But I didn't find my love of running too much later. So, but now I look back and I'm like, Oh, I wonder how, you know, how I would have been if I would have tried cross country or done something else.

And so I do hope that my daughters will find a love of running, but also in their own way. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. How did you end up joining cross country? Yeah. So my freshman year of high school was going to try out for the soccer team. And they're part of tryouts is you have to do this two mile run for time. And I think I feel like maybe you have to run it in 16 minutes. It's like 14 or 16 minutes and you run around the soccer fields. So that whole summer, I like committed myself to training for this. Not that I didn't think I could get it, but I just it was a tangible thing to train for.

So training all summer, honestly, till this day, like one of the most nervous I ever was, my dad and I went out and did a two mile time trial by myself at the clay track. This is like insight into how weird I was when I was younger, but he timed me before I did the two mile thing. And I like woke up so nervous. That's so funny. So at tryouts, you go out, you run these laps for to do the two mile and they put the freshman and the seniors together. And so we take off, I take off and people are yelling at me, freshman, this is multiple laps, you're gonna, you're gonna slow down.

And I ended up winning. I'd beat all the seniors and all the freshmen. And someone's like, does the cross country coach know about you? And I'm still in the mindset of like, I like running, but as a part of soccer. Yeah. So played soccer got, which I loved it, got a chance to be on the roster for the state team that year. It was like really cool experience. Did not play in it. I still sit on the bench and watch them. And then I that year had a class with a couple girls, met them, they all ran cross country. When they found out I actually liked running, they're like, why aren't you doing cross country?

And then they took me to the locker room for the Carmel cross country team. It sounds weird, but soccer didn't really have their own locker room. We practiced offsite. Yeah. We walk into the Carmel cross country locker room and it's just like steeped with history. It just like has this cool feeling. And it's just team income, rotary, and there's all the posters on the wall. And I just like loved it. And I was like, I'm in and these girls are now some of them are still my best friends. And so they're like, you got to come out for the team. And I was like, I, you know, I could play soccer, but I think I could be better at cross country.

So I did give up. So I gave up high school soccer. I played another year or two of travel soccer. Okay. So I was very committed to not running circles. So I would run cross country and I refused to run track. So I would condition on my own in the winter and stuff. But I said, I want to do running as I love running. And I don't think running around circles is fun. Yeah, that's good for you. Yeah. So did cross country and then ultimately stop travel soccer too. But did cross country sophomore, junior and senior year of high school. So yeah. Well, and for anybody who's not local, Carmel is very competitive.

I mean, maybe even more so now, but still even, even then it was still a very big school, you know, to play sports, you had to be pretty good, especially to get recruited like, Hey, come on the team. I feel, yeah, I, you know, I think about that a lot with my kids now, you know, it's like that balance of you don't want to put your kids in sports too early. You don't want to push things on them. But also like, I had such a wonderful experience being a part of sports teams. And I think from what I've heard from you, same thing. And it's like, I want them to have that experience if they want it.

And I know there are ways outside of high school sports to do that. But I do feel super fortunate that I had those opportunities and like the chance to be on those teams. Cross country is a no cut sport, or at least it was, which was really cool though. Because even though we had like a giant team and people of all levels, it was just like really special team experience. I didn't know that no cut sports existed. Yeah, I don't know. At least when I was there, I think every season, there was one no cut sport. So I think football was a no cut sport cross country, at least, you know, 20 years ago.

Right. Was a no cut sport. I don't know. I don't know how it goes now. But yeah, it was awesome. It was an awesome experience. Is this year your 20? I graduated in 2006. So I was 04. Okay. So this is not crazy. That's crazy. I don't know if we're doing anything. I didn't go to my, I haven't gone to any mainly because they didn't schedule stuff very well. So okay, so I was a class officer. But I long story, but did not get involved in the 10 year one. And we were a year delayed. And same thing. It got planned Memorial Day weekend, which is like Indy five.

And we always throw a big Indy five party. Yeah. So maybe 20 years. I have some ideas, but I also like, I got a lot going on in my life. I don't know. I want to commit to like planning a, I mean, I graduated with 1000 people. Right. So there's a lot of opinions. Oh, and all that too. Yeah, I want no part in that. Yeah. And I see a lot of the people, you know, it'd be wonderful. But now with social media and all of that, you see people and the people that I was close with, you know, I still talk to you all the time and the reconnected with a lot of people being back.

So I know I go back and forth. Like it's nice. I mean, I see the people I want to see kind of thing, right? Yeah. But it's also there's, there's, you know, I only, it was 250, I think ish for Westfield back then again, like 20 years ago. So it's like, it's big now, much bigger. So it's crazy. Yeah. Well, what a cool experience for you throughout high school. And then what, how did then call it? Were you a collegiate athlete? I guess I was. I wasn't. You know, I like, I struggled with some injuries. I like was always rolling my ankle, all those things.

And then I also kind of went through, which I think it's like being talked about more now. If anyone hasn't read Lauren Fleschman's Good for a Girl book, so good. I like recommend that book to everyone. But if you have daughters, if you're a female, just, I think, you know, females like go through this like up and down for running, you know, like you go through puberty and all of that. And like you kind of slow down and you don't like know why. I still did pretty well, but just between that and injuries and all of that. And I also like wanted a, a well rounded college experience.

I wanted to be able to party party. I know, I get it. And academics are really big to me too. So, you know, I don't think that was ever on my mind necessarily. I don't even know that it would have been an option, but I do sometimes look back and you're like, things were different. Like how fast, you know, how fast could I have gone if I didn't get injured or I did things differently, you know? So yeah. So yeah, in college, went to college was not a college athlete went to IU. I would like, I ran there just like for fun. I was in a sorority.

And they do little 500 as big as IU, but I didn't want to commit to that because our team was very serious and very good. So for anybody who doesn't know what little five or little 500 is at IU. Little 500 is a bike race. It's like based off of the Indy 500, but it's around this cinder track. And they ride, I'm going to get it wrong. But I think it's like 500 miles. A lot of miles. But I was in theta and our team was amazing. I have really good friends on it, but they were really, really dedicated. And again, I wanted to party some in college.

So I didn't want to do that. But during that week, there's little 50, which is a running race and not a lot of people know about it. So I think it's 50 laps around the track. A team of four, it's a relay. So two years, I did little 50. And then my senior year, I coached our little 50 team. So running continued to be like a part of my life. I did intramural basketball, intramural soccer, kind of just like. Basketball, where'd that come from? I played a little bit of basketball in like junior high. I played the only all girls in your mariel team in Carmel High School.

We played against all the guys' teams. And we beat one of them one time. That's the best thing ever. So I just always been into like all the sports and just doing that. I played basketball one year too. I think I scored two baskets. I'm not good. Yeah, it was not my sport. I played because of my friends play. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, did that and kind of always was doing running, but not, you know, competitively in college. Yeah. Did you meet Tom in college? I didn't. So my husband is named Tom and my dad is named Tom. Oh, and my father -in -law is named Tom.

And then the best man in our wedding was also named Tom. So at our wedding, you just said Tom and someone turned around. Yeah. So Tom, my husband. No, husband Tom. No, so I met him in Chicago. So after IU, I went to work for a consulting firm in Chicago. Tom actually worked for the same consulting firm. We did completely different things. He runs their computer hacking practice now. He had a cool job and I did compliance consulting for banks. Not quite as exciting. But there was a happy hour and I went with some friends and I met him at that and it ended up being his birthday.

And yeah, that's how I met. Interesting. Compliance consulting for banks. So did you know of Baker Hill, the company here? You know what? I don't, you were in, I don't think I did. I just, it was random. That's my parents' company. Oh, okay. Yeah. My mom started. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. Software company that did, they did like credit score, not scores, but like they would help banks assess risk for loaning people money. So I did risk and compliance consulting. I ended up more on the compliance side. I did anti -money laundering compliance. I was out in New York. More compliance than risk. See, I don't know all these things.

Yeah. Yeah. Nerd. You nerd. Sorry. Sorry. No, it's okay. At some point I thought that that was going to be my path and I was going to be like doing that. But yeah, no, I probably do. I've like, you know, well, it's a long time ago. We're at that point in our life too, where you just like kind of like block things out of your, you know, like you just have to drop things that you know. Oh, I have the I like don't remember anything. I sometimes think, I mean, I do have a good memory, but like, as I was thinking through things for this, I'm like, man, there's a lot of stuff I forgot.

So yeah, it's funny how memories work. Yeah. Because there's certain things I remember that are so weird that I have these vivid memories of. And then there's other stuff that I like couldn't tell you the names of any of my elementary school teachers probably. Oh, absolutely not. My parents feel like, wait, you don't remember like your second grade teacher? I'm like, no, no, I don't. And then there's some people who like, yeah, I mean, no, I like remember all that. Right. I don't, I anyway. Yeah. So you met Tom through work. Did you how did you meet him then? We were at a happy hour.

Okay. Yeah, the work at series in Chicago, if anyone is Chicago, it was like the bottom of the board of trade and say poured heavy drinks. Is it so as I think it probably does it was like, all the like the traders would come down at like four and go there and it was like carpet. It was like kind of gross. It was inside free popcorn, but like free pop. So you're like, right? Right. Exactly. And we, you know, 24 and like, you know, drinks were inexpensive. They were, it was fun. So that's funny. Yeah. For any non IU people, killer rises is a very, very famous bar at IU.

Yes. And they give free popcorn. I remember eating that quite a bit when I would go visit. And now you think about it and you're like, that is so gross. But you would have, you know, it sustained you then. Right. But you needed something to eat. More of those. Yeah. So yeah, so you met Tom and you started date, like dating right away and just yeah, yeah. Yes. Yes. So that kind of ties into running too. So when I got to Chicago, I, you know, would run randomly. I did a couple of half marathons and right before I met Tom, a friend of mine and I, I'm sure we probably, it was like a Friday night, we probably had some drinks and we're like, we're going to sign up for the Chicago marathon.

So we signed up for the Chicago marathon. She proceeded to never do the Chicago marathon. I love her, but she did not do the Chicago marathon. So I, she paid for it. I think she paid for it and everything. And she's like an amazing, she now lives out in California. She's an amazing runner. She would have like, just absolutely crushed it, but did not do it. So I signed up, you know, get my training plan offline. I'm all ready to go. And shortly after that, I meet Tom and we had like a super, super fun summer, summer 2012 in Chicago, tons of friends, lots of beach days, just a ton of fun, not a lot of wanting to do training on Saturdays and Sundays, you know, new guy you've met, like go into the beach or go into brunch or whatever.

So I did much more fun than doing training. I'm a morning person, even if I've been out late, but I wanted to spend time with them. So I think I did one 14 mile run, maybe. And my dad is, you know, at this point has done lots of marathons and is like, you are not going to make it. And I'm like, dad, it's fine. It's going to be okay. So Chicago marathon 2012 got really lucky good weather, like cold in the morning. I remember if I did it in 2012, I don't know. I have like, I, you know, I, I hearing about your spreadsheet. I'm like, I need to make a spreadsheet.

My dad has a spreadsheet. How do you not have a spreadsheet as a nerd? I know. And now it's like, you know, I'm like trying to find things and I'm like, yeah, and some of them are on athletes. I know, I looked at your athlete. I couldn't figure it out. Yeah. And then like, I don't know. But so it was cold, good for me since I was under -trained. Yeah. So went out and the first half of that race was so fun. I mean, you like Chicago's just like people everywhere. I, my parents were up there. I saw friends. I had my music going. I tried to look last night.

I don't know what I went through the first half in, but it was way too fast. And then mile 19, you know, hit, hit the wall, did some walk running, but then finished running. My parents were at mile 25 in Eminem songcom came on, which one I think it was lose control or lose myself. Thank you. Yeah. And I was like, I got this. So finished the marathon because I was 25 and because I ran a first, fast first half, I still managed like a 345. I hate myself. I'm like, it's not. It's like, not. It's like, I do look back talking on all these things.

And, you know, I think at different times in our life, things happen for a reason, but I'm like, what if I had trained, you did all these things like what could I have done? But I think the cool thing now is like, those are still possibilities for us and are like late 30s and 40s. 1000%. Which I knew. Yeah, I know. I like thought that was definitely my fastest running ever. But I finished that race. And I was like, I am not doing a marathon till I'm boring and like I'm old. I'm boring and old. I'm like, I'm not an or until I have people to train with, you know, I look at my dad's running group and I was like, that's awesome.

Like you guys get up and do that. Like I didn't have people. And at that time in my life, that like wasn't my priority on Saturdays and Sundays. Right. And how old was your dad when he started running? Do you know? So he was, okay, my dad is 64. He's probably 40. He was at 40. Yeah. Okay. So yeah. So you think about it and you're like, okay. Yeah. I'm like, later. I'll do that later. Yeah. I'll run marathons later. Like that's, that's not for me right now. But yeah, so that kind of ties into Tom. We had, you know, he ended up meeting us at the finish line.

So that was really fun. And he got to be there for that. And one of the second third times you met my parents. So that was pretty cool. That's fun. Yeah. So yeah, took a break from marathons then, got into some triathlons. So we did triathlons in Chicago and, and you're gonna say that like Casey, where you're like, Oh, I just did some triathlons. And really, they were like iron man and like he won stuff. I'm not Casey. I did have, I did some Olympic triathlons. I did, I did do one half iron man. Tom went on to do it. It was cool. I mean, I, yeah, I think not downplayed it.

It took work. It's like, wow. Yeah. But I did not, I did not qualify for any world champ. And I should say too, we're talking about Casey Krause who founded new shoe day and he was episode a couple ago. Yeah. So like 51. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, Casey is very humble. And so are you by the way. So keep going. Thanks. But Tom, so my husband did do one iron man. Okay. Also poor timing of signing up. So he had signed up and then I got pregnant. And so his iron man ended up being about six weeks after we had our first. No. So his like giant block of training was like when we had a newborn to a six, perfect eight week old, but it was really cool to be able to have Jack who's our oldest at that.

And you know, like have be like, dad did all this, you know, like he pushed through all this, like not even like the results, which he did phenomenal, but like the training that went into that and the dedication. Yeah. So like leading up to that while you're doing triathlons and Chicago, did you do a lot of that training together? Yeah, we did some of that training together. We would go out for bikes and runs. And I was traveling a lot for work at this point. I worked in consulting. I worked a billion hours, just like my mom used to say, if they told you to run through a wall, like to get something done, like I would run through the wall, which is great in some aspects of life, but and had led me like it, it got to me to where I was, you know, like I had had a lot of success in school and all of that.

And probably because of that mentality, but like at some point that's just like not good for you, your mental health, my physical health. So all of that to say, like I was traveling a lot for work, I was like working all the time. And so we would train together some, but a lot of times it was off different times too. I'd be getting up really early to train and such. But then I did. So in 2018, I left that job. I was company was phenomenal. You know, the people there were great. They weren't like necessarily, it was a lot of self -induced me like pushing myself to do this.

And I just, I hit a wall and I was like, it was like taking a toll on my like actual physical health. And I was like, I can't do this anymore. This is not sustainable. Like this is not going to work. And Tom was luckily so supportive. It was like, I still feel like one of the scariest things I walked in. I actually had a performance review, ironically, like the mid -year performance review. And I'm sure the poor guy sitting there was like, oh, this is going to be easy. It's Harley, you know, you're doing fine. I'm quitting. And he's like, what? And I was like, I'm quitting.

And he was so kind. I'm like, so grateful that he ended up being the person and he had gone through some stuff and he was like, take the weekend. I came back on Monday and I'm like, I'm still done. And so yeah, I left that. And then that did let us align our schedules a little more to train. When was that in conjunction with like becoming a mom? Like what? Yeah, that was before that. Before. Sorry, Ally. I'm like, I'm jumping over the make sure that I, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was in 2018. So we did not have Jack or oldest yet. So I left my job in 2018 without another job without another job.

Yeah. Which, you know, so like I another thing we have in common, like this is yeah, I mean, it was like, like, it's crazy to leave without another job. Like, I think both of us, you're just like, you're like, I pride myself on like being the best and doing really good work and like all these things and a lot of my identity is tied up into this. Yes. But I just like knew, I mean, like I had a breakdown, honestly. Like, I like had a breakdown. I was like, I just have to do this. So I left that job and was like going to take some time to figure out what I wanted to do next, ended up working on some like startup piece, like working with some other people on some startup ideas.

We have my husband and I own rental properties. So worked on that, did a whole bunch of kind of different things started building out some things around real estate. And then we got pregnant in so I left in April of 2018 and we got pregnant in September of 2018. Okay. And you know, I think at that point I knew like, I will I have this opportunity to like work on a bunch of different things, but also be home with my kids and my mom stayed home with us. And my husband always used to joke when I was working he's like, you can't leave like you work 80 hours a week, like you're never going to be able to do that.

And I was like, I'm going to be dedicated to my kids, you know, in whatever form that was, whether that was a working mom or a stay at home mom. But we just I decided that like that made the most sense. I kind of throw myself like 100 % into whatever I do. And so I think that like for me at this stage of life or when they were young, it would have been really hard to balance. Right. Like balance isn't a real thing, but it would have been hard to balance that. And so, you know, we had Jack in June of 2019. And I've been home with the boys since doing a lot of random stuff, random random random other things.

I'm not very good at sitting still or not doing stuff. But you know, my main my main job is is them right now. So yeah. So yes. Yeah, we bounce from what did you I train with triathlons with with Tom to that. But yeah, but yeah, no, that's all like part of the journey and the story. Like I just think about because I didn't leave work until 20 after the pandemic is when I was like, I'm done. Yeah, I finally got burnt out. But there were times before that that I probably should have. Frankly, like in my husband and I would have the same conversation.

He's like, you're not happy. What are you doing? I'm like, well, I can't just like what are you not like, I'm not going to work. I'm not I am not built to be a stay at home mom. Although looking back now, I probably could have figured it out kind of like you have where, you know, you get involved in other things to continue to like fill that side of you up. Yeah. But I was afraid that being a stay at home mom meant that like that's all I was going to do. Yeah. And I know I think that like we all I won't lie like early on having kids, you know, you you do feel that sometimes even like and that's part of why I found a lot of different things.

I was like, I don't nothing that there's nothing wrong with being a stay at home mom. Period. Yeah. But I needed like other parts of my identity. I needed to talk to other adults. I needed to like feel like I was involved in different things. So I think it's been, as we said again, like a good balance. I mean, days are crazy. You know, I am involved with new shoot a which I'm sure we'll talk about at some point. But Charlie our youngest who's going to be two in August is like, you know, my co pilot on a lot of our weekly board meeting calls.

So I'm very grateful for you know, all the people I do things with like understanding that, you know, my kids are my kids are going to be on those sometimes they're going to be at things I'm going to be doing things when I have a couple minutes here or there. So yeah, how's Jack? So Jack will be five in June. Okay. And then Charlie will be two in August. Okay. So yeah, I was like, I could do the math with it. No, no, sorry. Can't do it. No math need. Yeah. And so he'll be in kindergarten. So he's a summer birthday. So he'll do he's going to do one more year.

But he's in five days a week right now. He'll do five days a week next year as well. And then he'll be in kindergarten, like a year from this August. And then Charlie will start school in August. So I will have like two days a week where they're both in school, like four hours a day. I'm sure that time is going to be gone instantly. I'm already have like a list. I'm like, Oh, I'm gonna do my runs then. Oh, no, I'm going to do new shoot a stuff that I'm going to do this then. Yeah, yeah, it will be gone. But it'll be it'll still you'll have that that time will be yeah, will be great.

Yes. So tell me about running alongside becoming a mom. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess like to take it back up. So we did try I did triathlons again, like didn't want to get into get into marathons for a while, but did did the triathlons and then did half marathons here or there. And then after I had Jack, I did do the monumental half marathon in November of 2019. I was like, Okay, something to train for after I had him. So that was that was fun and great to do. And would you run that in? I don't actually remember. I don't remember that one. But you know, like running just always been a part of my life.

And with with Jack, I ran through the pregnancy. But you know, first pregnancy, I think you like don't know. And I was like, definitely did it. But not as much. I did like bike the morning I went into labor and then we walked to the hospital. So we lived in Chicago when I had him. And we were like a mile from Northwestern and we kind of had joked about it. But my water broke. And I wasn't really having contractions yet. And we're like, well, it would actually take longer to get the car and drive there. Plus like how good of a story is it if we there's a picture of me on Michigan Avenue and my water is broken and I'm walking to the hospital.

Yeah, so walk to the hospital. Yeah. And then Charlie, I did run more of more of like I ran the day before I had Charlie. So but yes, yeah, so I had run the half marathon after Jack. And then I was supposed to do a half Ironman like July when Jack would have been one. But that was COVID. And it was a couple of putting off canceling it. And then like a couple weeks before the Muncie Ironman here, they canceled it. And it was like, it was kind of crushing, you know, you're like, it was this thing I was looking forward to. And I had been training for it.

Now, also probably grateful I had not I don't like to swim had not been in the pool. So like, it probably saved me from hating that. Yeah, from drowning, from drowning, you know, not making it well. So they canceled that. And then I was like, I need something to train for like, and I also at this time had realized like trying to do the swim bike run with a kid was just hard, you know, and running was still my passion. It like was fine at swimming, but didn't love it. You know, same with biking, but I still loved the running. And so looking around for like what might not get canceled that fall.

And the Tecumseh 50k, which is in Southern Indiana, it pops up and it's a small race. It's in Indiana. I'm like, I think this is going to happen. So I sign up for this 50k. My mom is like, Carly, you roll your ankles in cross country, like how are you going to run a trail 50k? I'm like, it's fine. You know, we're like watching videos and they're like, no, but I'm like, we're I'm doing I need something. So signed up for that. And it happened. And that weight was what we were with this. And so this is October of 2020. So it had to have been like one of the few things that happened in 2020.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, I think we all had masks at the start, but then you're on the trails and it was super spread out. And you know, yeah, looking back, looking back, it was probably fair, you know, Indiana was a little wax and sometimes good, sometimes bad on that stuff. But yeah, so did that with Jack and then, you know, got and did a couple more. So a lot of the new shoot a people did that as well. Oh man, I'm gonna take it to a lot of teams. Oh, no, briefly what new shoot a is. Yeah. So new shoot a is a local nonprofit.

We give new shoes to youth in need across Indiana to empower them to thrive. So go back and listen to Casey's episode. It's really amazing. The origin story was out of one thousand one city and they ran across the city and just so cool. And I actually had joined for the last day of one thousand one city. So Casey and I went to high school together. I think he said this on his episode, but we have the same birthday. We're in the same grade. And not like really good friends in high school, but you know, knew each other. And then a good friend of Tom and Blake had done a lot of the Blake Weaver had done a lot of the runs with Casey and them.

And he's like, you ought to come out for the last day. So we came out for the last day of one thousand one city. So cool. And then kind of followed along what they were doing. So in the fall of that time, they kind of were like, it was more run club just kind of here, there they were meeting. So a bunch of them did the 50k though. So still following along. And I think about this time they started the Wednesday morning run. Okay. So January of 2021. Both my boys, I'm a morning person, both my boys are a morning person at this point. And only a Jack, Jack was up every morning at like five AM.

And I'm a morning person. So I'm like happy to be the one to get up with them. But I was like, I need some morning to start with adults. That is like, not adult conversation. I don't mind being up at five AM, but like I want one morning where five AM is my time. So I'm like, I'm going to go down to one of these new shoe day runs. I'm going to go one time. I'm never going to go again. I'm just going to see what it's about. So that was like, I don't know, January 17th, 2021. I think I've been at pretty much every single Wednesday, like unless I'm sick or out of town for the last three years.

So I was hooked. Just like the community, I think we were talking before about being a new mom and like having things outside of your kid. And we had moved at this point, obviously, or had moved back from Chicago to here. And I grew up here, but it's just different. Most of my good high school friends aren't here, you know, making friends when you're an adult, and then you have a young kid and the pandemic. And just like all of those things, I like needed something to feel a part of. And I got that with new shoe day. So I like immediately was hooked the people, the conversations on Wednesday mornings, it's incredible and it still is.

I will come. I will. I know. We're early. It's early, but it is great. You like, the people there are so inspiring. And just like great conversations, so fun, so much laughing. And you're at 630, you've run six and a half miles and you're like, have a coffee and you're headed home. Yeah. It's not, I used to, yeah, it used to be my jam. Especially when I lived in Broderpull, I would meet with a few of my girlfriends at 530. I think we did Wednesdays, ironically enough. So we took over your Wednesday. Yeah. My friend, Sue Scott, Sue Young now, my former roommate who I think listens to this, Sue would be one of those crew and we would, she was responsible for it.

She mapped out this like loop that she used to do. And so we, we just did that loop every Wednesday morning and it was so great. Yeah. Cause you'd be like, okay, but that was before, that was before kids. Right. I know. Yeah. I mean, I get it. It's, I can do it though. So I, it's where it all fits it, you know, like stages of life. Yeah. I mean, my husband goes to the gym at 7am. He's a class that he goes to at 7am. So it'd be like, I just have to be like, Hey, I want to do this like at some point.

Right. I know. It's handoffs and all that. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's challenging. Well, and I don't, and I don't know if you're comfortable talking about this. So you'll have to tell me if you don't want to talk about it, but between, was it between your boys or after Charlie was born that you suffered a miscarriage? Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm definitely happy to talk about it. So it was between my boys. So started running. So did the 50K in October, 2020, then did some, like did a trail half marathon, running with new shoot day all the time, and then come fall of 2021. Okay. So that summer, you know, tried to get pregnant and it didn't, we were very fortunate.

It didn't take us a long time, but like not immediately. And so I was like, you know what, I'm going to sign up for the monumental marathon. If I'm pregnant, you know, well, do it really slow. So it signed up for the monumental marathon, got pregnant, and then we found out we went in at like eight weeks and for the scan and they're like, uh, like things are like a little small, but come back in two weeks. And then like five days later, actually, we were about to leave for a week to go to my sister -in -law's wedding and a trip with my family and just had some bleeding and went in and found out we had had a miscarriage.

And I'm like, honestly, I'm grateful for the timing of that, you know, like to have gone with our whole families for two weeks and have to be like, we think we're pregnant, but we don't know. And I just felt like, I felt like something was off. And it also then got, you know, so hard. It's just like, it's really hard to explain, you know, like the feeling of that, but to get to then spend the next week with my family and my husband's family, that was like really great to have that time. Did they, did they find a heartbeat at eight weeks? So it was like really, really like, damn, I think, or like, they thought they heard one.

It was looking back, I think they probably knew, but it wasn't definitive enough. And then, you know, I think they, I remember then going with Charlie and like getting the ultrasound picture again, and then like, I think I have the ultrasound picture from the miscarriage. I'm like, well, that, that doesn't look right. And I think maybe they just thought maybe I was off on my, you know, they're like, Oh, you're only six weeks pregnant. And so like, yeah, so I had the miscarriage and then the monumental marathon was a couple of weeks later. And I was like, you know what, I'm, I'm going to do this, like running is running was like an escape for me, right?

Like once I went through that and like, I could go for runs, that's like where I clear my head. It's like something I can just let my thoughts out. So I went into the marathon, like no, no idea, obviously, like, no goals, no idea what's going to happen. And, you know, the whole time I was running, when it would get hard, it was like, nothing is harder. This is not harder mentally or physically, I had to take medicine for it. And it was the most painful thing to kind of like, pass the, you know, just like, yeah, the baby. Yeah, it's like, and it was, it was like the most painful thing literally of my entire life.

And so as I was running, I'm like, nothing is more painful mentally or physically than that. So like, what, push a little harder, like, that's nothing. And so I finished that race, obviously, you know, like all different emotions, like, like proud of finishing, like, you know, I had a post on Instagram that I was like, I would much rather have been running slower, like with a baby here, like, you know, with my baby. But I, I ran a 335 40. And I like say that the seconds because the Boston qualifying time was 335, I stopped to go to the bathroom. And I was like, Oh, but I'm like, well, that was like not at all, you know, like I say this all of like, in looking back, like that was, I didn't care at all.

I'm like, I'm just like proud of myself for doing this and like working through the emotions of the miscarriage. But that year there was no cut off. So I'm like, Oh, if I had run 40 seconds faster, I like would have qualified. But you know what, I really think that like I took from that marathon. So that was actually only my second ever marathon. Yeah, since you did Chicago. Yeah. In 2012. Now I'm boring and I have a kid. So you deemed yourself boring and signed up for the race. I had people to run with, you know, I was sharing a lot of trail miles with them too.

And so in that race, I realized I'm like, okay, I did this like not on a lot of training after a really traumatic thing on training, but like a different kind of training. Like what are we capable of? And I really think like mom's strength too. I mean, like woman's strength, but like and mom's strength, like I'm like, I can do a lot of stuff. Like having a kid is hard, raising a kid is hard. Like, you know, when I'm out there running, you know, that race, it was like nothing is harder than like just going through this miscarriage. But like going forward a lot of times it's like, this is so much easier than parenting.

Like, yeah, I can do that. Some days I'm like, I must be like running, just running somewhere than like doing all the things that the kids need. It's easier. You're like on your own. You're thinking about just all you have to think about is running. Absolutely. Yeah, I get it. So I think that like kind of sparked this thing in me of like, okay, like what can I do? You know, like I'm in this point in my life where I, I still don't like train tons, like, you know, I got to fit it in with two kids, but like I am eating right, I didn't always treat my body right growing up.

So, you know, like I've passed all of that. I'm like very fortunate that I feel like I put that behind me. Like I know the importance of nutrition. I'm dedicated to some training, not doing only 14 miles before that. Like what can I do in looking around to all these other women, both, you know, like you Valley and other people, like, but also like professional women, like we all do this, even though, you know, Kira Damato, the American record holder, she's 37 and has a job and two kids. I'm like, oh, if she can do that, you know, like trickle down an hour. Right. Like why not us?

You know, I have this, I have a, on my Garmin watch, I have one of those like road ID bands. And everyone's like, Oh, is it a health thing? I'm like, no, it's just kind of inspirational quote. I read it. But it says, What if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly? So it's kind of like, yeah, like maybe I won't be able to achieve all of these goals, but like, let's see. I'm like, who cares? I can too. If you don't try it. No one cares. No one cares if I don't. And like, maybe I can. And you know, I said before, like, Oh, what if I had like trained harder, been smarter, eight right in my twenties, but like, I don't know.

I think late thirties for women, like, yeah, where we're at. I was too. Yeah. And I look back. Yeah, I just probably wouldn't, I wasn't in the right mindset for any of that. No, it just wasn't. I hadn't grown up enough to really do something. Well, and I think, yeah, Oh, absolutely. You know, like priorities and also like when I think about it, so much of it is mental, right? As like, you hit these points in the race. And like, in my twenties, I had gone through things, you know, like I had eating disorders, probably, or like I did when I was younger and I got past that.

And I like, I was like, proud of myself for being through that. And like, so I had things to pull on. Yeah. But like, not the life experience we have now to like, right, physically and mentally push through these things. Like, yeah, it's like 80 % mental or more. Right. Yeah. Well, inside, no, I had the same disorder to eating and call. I never was diagnosed with an eating disorder, but probably because I didn't raise my hand to be like, I need, like, I didn't get to the point where I was like, visibly, I hit it really well. And I wasn't like stick that I just, yeah, I just kind of balanced it in a way where it was super unhealthy, but nobody really knew except for me.

Yeah. So yeah, I, I struggled with bulimia in college. And like, I mean, I'm sure, I'm sure plenty of people knew and like, plenty of people tried to help. I think I hit it from a lot of people. And plenty of people definitely did try to help. And honestly, you know, I think you have to be in the right space. And like, you have to decide too that you're ready to like be better. And I'm so grateful to my husband. I think there was something like when we met, he like, I needed to find, he helped me find the confidence in myself to be like, you're great the way you are, you know, like, and like, I like love you for who you are.

And no one else didn't. I mean, like, I have the most supportive parents, I have the best friends, you know, it's a, it's all, it's a mental illness. It's a, it's a thing in our head. And whether it's disordered eating or, you know, eating disorder, you know, all those things. It's, and I wish so much of like, I have two boys and they can struggle with that too. But like, for girls growing up, I just want to like, help them realize like, you don't have to do this to yourself. And there's all sorts of spectrums of it. And it's all just damaging to all of us.

Yeah. Yeah, I recently got a chance to be a guest on Renee Sager's podcast. Renee, I can't remember episode she was, but people should go listen to that episode. But yeah, she just had me on and I talked a lot about that, like about how I think about, you know, body image and stuff as it relates to my girls, because I want to set a really good example. And I don't want them to have to go through what I went through. But I also know the reality of how, you know, especially society now, it's almost worse because everything's in your face and you're comparing everything you see on the internet, which is all essentially fake in a sense, right?

So anyway, yeah. No, it's hard. It's like, yeah, how do you, how do you protect them from that? And I don't know if you can, but you can be there as like a great role model and talk to that. And again, you know, but none of this to say is I didn't have that. It was just, it was a thing, you know, it just, it was so, so, but all of that to say, like I wasn't in a place at 25, I just like didn't understand all these things. And, and now, you know, it's like, oh, I'm like carb load. Oh yeah. Give me more food, you know, like all the nutrition on the, I mean, my first marathon, I think I, I maybe had like one, like one, two, I like didn't drink water.

I like didn't have anything. Now I'm like harping on, you know, all the, all the things. All the things. I know, I, I feel like when I first started running marathons, I started in 2010. I didn't, I wonder if I had gels or anything. I don't even know. Like I would think I wore a cotton t -shirt, you know, for sure. Like, for sure. You know, you just, you don't know any better. And now, yeah, I mean, we're older and wiser now. Yeah, we are, we are, we are so wise. We are so wise. We know everything. Yeah. Yeah. I know. We'll probably look back in like 10 years and be like, geez, you are not wise.

Yeah. But I feel like, you know, I think it's all, all the, all the things that have happened in our life, like God has to hear, you know, it's like, we had to learn lessons and now we're here where we are. So, yeah. But yeah. So I'm trying to think after that. Well, when did I want to ask you about the adventures that you and Tom have gone on together? Yeah. There's a lot of those, which are so cool. Yeah. So kind of back like in that break from like run the marathon, kind of doing triathlons, but Tom and I have always bonded over like just doing big life adventures, like let's go see the world, let's do challenging things, let's do hard things, right?

So that started probably like a year into dating. Yeah. He didn't run the Chicago marathon with you. I know. Well, you know what? He used to be really anti -marathons. He's like, they're bad for you. And he's doing a 50 -mile -er this weekend actually with Casey and some of the new shoot day guys. Of course. Or in two weeks, I know. So I'm like, Tom, remember those marathons were bad for you? Yeah. So that probably was in my head too. Right. Right. Like marathons aren't good for you. But in 2012, we actually both, he took a three -month sabbatical from work. Our company was like offering a sabbatical.

Wow. I took a one -month sabbatical. I was like, I'm a senior consultant. I can't take three months. He was a couple years older. And we went to Nepal and we did the Everest Base Camp hike. Oh my God. I mean, I can't believe for like nine months into dating. And I'm like, yeah, let's go for a month to Nepal. What? Yeah. We went, we, things got, um, cool. Yeah. It was, it was, that was an adventure. So, we did the Everest Base Camp hike. Well, we attempted it. A couple days in, Tom, like drank bad water or ate something bad and was like so sick on day two.

But he kept going because I felt really good. And so for like five days, like cannot keep anything down any direction. Yeah. He honestly was like, this is when I knew like, I can marry you. Like, you know, like you took care of me. You were there for me. Like we like went through, you know, when you're going through something that hard together, like physically and then add like this like kind of scary sickness. Yeah. And this like, the mystery of dating, like that time where you're like, yes, not, you're not in front of each other. And now it's like all of it in these little tiny huts on the Himalayas, you know, yeah, really saw everything.

So we were two days from, from Base Camp and he like couldn't walk. And I was like, Tom, we got to call it. And we had luckily bought like $60 American Express travel insurance, which I literally think they canceled after what happened to us because it was so cheap. We called, they like somehow called down to like our hotel owner and they like had a helicopter come and get us. So this helicopter comes. First of all, the guys like leave your bags and like, this is everything for a month in Nepal. And he's like, leave your bags. I heard you wanted to see Everest and you're not going to make it.

So he flies the helicopter to the face of Everest flies it as high as he can till the propellers like can't go anymore. So that's why he wanted us to leave our bags. So we were, it was like right there. And then Tom's on like the brink of death. He's on the brink of death. And then we go back to get our bags. But this guy was like an ex Swiss army pilot. So he's flying through the Himalayas like reading a newspaper. And like, I'm like, we're going to die. We're going to die. And so I'm gripping. I'm like, I don't care if you're sick.

I'm gripping Tom's hand. Like, we're not going to make this. Are the doors open? Like I picture their doors being open. They might have been. I mean, it was that whole, it's crazy. I've been in helicopters and yeah, it is. It makes my hands hurt. Yeah. And I mean, like planes in the Himalayas are. So we survived Tom went to the hospital, the hospital in Nepal. Yeah. Air quotes hospital. That's also where he thought he was going to die. But we made it and we ended up staying for a couple more weeks because like we had a few more weeks there and like he made it through.

So yeah, that was the first of our adventures. And it kind of was just like a yearly thing. Well, and then also before you leave that time, I, so I didn't know how strenuous and difficult just getting to Everest Base Camp is. So actually when I worked at a startup here in town, we had a couple opportunities where we would do lunch and learns on like random crazy stuff people did. And one of the women that I worked with did an Everest Base Camp and she got there and she explained how it worked. And I was like, what? In my mind, I just picture, Oh, you take a flight, you get off and you're at Everest Base Camp because I know nothing about how to summit Everest.

Right. And so tell before we leave that adventure, like what that is supposed to be like. Oh man. Yeah. So you fly into the most dangerous airport in the world, like literally you like fly and they have like 20 feet of runway before you run into a mountain. So I like getting through that part was like the most terrifying part for me. And then you land and then you it's like an eight day hike and you're like, they have these huts, but they're actually like colder because they're like made of mud. So you're not sleeping in tents, but so it's like eight days and you know, you're at 15 plus thousand feet the whole time.

So yeah, it was pretty wild. It was it was did you go? How did you stumble across the opportunity to go? Did you seek that out? Was there like something to work that like Tom had had like so he had watched the documentary 180 degrees south, which is actually about Patagonia, which we have gone to to highly recommend 180 degrees south, but he just got really inspired of like, what are the really cool bucket list adventure things? You know, like what you go on these things and you have like a different perspective and you have time without, you know, phones weren't even as big as they are now, but you have time without your phone and like, yeah, you're just out there experiencing it.

And so I think he had talked about it, maybe with a friend and then it worked out to do this and I was like, sign me up. Yeah. So yeah, that was wild. And then we proceeded to do a couple more. So we did Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and kind of flip flop, which is in Africa, which is in Africa. It's the highest freestanding mountain. So actually the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro is higher than the base camp of Everest. So base camp of Everest, because like if you summit Everest, it's 29 ,000, but we were only going to like base camp, which is where people who are going to summit like stay there for a while to acclimate and then climb higher and climb back down.

So that's like 18 ,000 something. The summit of Kilimanjaro, you can actually get to the top like walking without, you know, you can walk to the top of Everest, but you need all the gear and it's hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yeah. Kilimanjaro, you can like summit easier. Yeah, air quotes again. It's like 19 ,000 feet. So again, like seven day hike. This one we were sleeping in tents. And this time I get sick on like day two, but kept going not as bad as Tom's, but the when you summit Kilimanjaro, the night you summit, you wake up at midnight and you walk up this just straight up for six hours basically to see sunrise.

And we had like porters who like carry some of your bags and that normally like to summit, you carry your own like little day pack and they're like, Carly, you're not even going to make it with your day pack. So they like gave my day pack to the porter and I would literally walk like 10 feet and fall over and like walk 10 steps and fall over and walk 10 steps and fall over and like, we made it up and we made it to the top and we got to see sunrise at the top of Kilimanjaro and it was incredible. Like again, I think like as you go through these things and you're like, I did that.

Like nothing else is that hard. You know, like other things are harder though differently, you know, it's mentally hard. But I just think like same with running, you do all these things and they they make all different parts of your life. Not easier, but like, I mean, in some ways, yeah, you're like, I did that, I can do this. Yeah. And they're good. I mean, they're good stories, you know, like, I roll down actually. So you kind of do it's like, you come down and it's like sandy, I think, or maybe you remember wrong, but you just like, almost slide down and like me, our guide in our porter like had me and we like lost Tom at one point because like they were helping me slide down because you hike up in like seven days and go down in two.

So it's wild. So yeah, that was that was wild. So we did these, you know, we did a lot of these pre -kits, you know, Everest, Kilimanjaro were like, let's check off. We did Machu Picchu, before they had in Peru, yeah, South America. And then Patagonia is my favorite place. That's in that's also Chile and Argentina. We did the mainly the we did both sides, but the Chilean side, but we're like, let's check these things off, you know, like before we have kids, we're not going to be able to take kids for a bit. And some people do to some of these, but, you know, we'll do and I will do Europe and those things with kids.

So once we had kids, we didn't really want to lose that, but needed to be smaller scale. Yeah, so try not to die. Right. I know. You have a different, I will say. So the first one we did after we had Jack actually was rim to rim to rim in the Grand Canyon. So that was before Tecumseh. No, that was after Tecumseh, but before the monument told me I thought after I missed carriage. Yeah. And same sort of thing. We were like, what's something that we can do that can't get canceled? You know, I mean, they had to open national parks at this point. So we're like, so Tom and I and Blake Weaver, who I mentioned before, were like, let's do the Grand Canyon.

So rim to rim to rim, you run down into the canyon, you run across the canyon floor, you run up the canyon, come back down, run across the floor and go up. So it's like, depending the route you take, it's 45 to 50. I think ours was 48 miles, 10 ,000 feet of elevation gain, 10 ,000 feet of elevation loss. And that I will say, like, as I was going down, we started when it's dark. I'm like, okay, Tom, don't fall off. I can't fall off. You know, I didn't want to fall off without care. It's fine if you fall off. Sorry, Blake. You're the sector official.

Yeah, you just make sure we don't fall. Okay. So that that was incredible. I what time of, sorry, what time of year is that? We went May. So we went May. So there's like water turned on at certain points, but it doesn't turn on. All of it doesn't turn on. So we did the first week in May that it was on. What do you mean? Water. So they have like water, okay, like actual water. They have like water spickets. Okay. So because you're doing this like self supported, I mean, I had like a running vest, but like all of our food, any layers, like everything is in your vest, all the water.

So, you know, if the water is not on, you're carrying more water or you're just like counting on not needing as much water, right? Downside of waiting till the water was on was it was hot. Like the floor of the canyon was 120 degrees. The the ranger like was like, you guys need to get in the river. We had like grown men, strong grown men last week, like puking on the side over here because you just heat exhaustion. And this was before they turned on in May. It was this hot? It was this hot. So that like those people, yeah, were before they because they didn't have the water.

We had the water, but it had gotten, no, yeah, it had gotten super hot. So that was incredible, though. Anyone who, I mean, I would recommend rim to rim to rim, but even just to go like a mile or two down into the canyon, like they say 1 % of the people that go to the Grand Canyon go down into it. Yeah. And so like, it's just, it's like you're on the moon. I mean, you go through all these different landscapes. And again, like it was one of those things I had some challenges, like my heart rate real early on had spiked. I couldn't stomach anything.

So Tom ate like 50 uncrustables during it. And I ate like one. I like could not eat food almost the whole time. But like, and you know, I struggled and Blake struggled some and you know, but you kind of worked as a team and we made it. I wish people could see my facial expressions during these stories because I'm just like, what the hell? We're all weird. We're all weird. You're amazing. Thank you, Allie. So I, so one of the times I've been in a helicopter was over the Grand Canyon, which is so cool. Except like the next week and a helicopter crashed after and like, yeah.

Thank God, not the week before because I've been like, I'm good. I'm not getting on that helicopter. But it was amazing. And then when was this? It was when I was pregnant with Sydney, we were supposed to go to the Cayman Islands, but this was when Zika was. And so my mom, like I told my mom that I was pregnant with her first grandchild and her response was something like, sorry, mom, I'm telling the story. She was like, Oh, well, then can we still go to the Cayman? Isn't there like sure her brain went into like fix it mode, like in planning mode, because so much goes into planning family trips.

So like, thank you, mom. I'm so sorry, but not sorry because I gave you a baby. But yeah, so we pivoted and went to Arizona. And so we ended up going to the Grand Canyon and we're like, we like tiptoed down in and this is in January. And so like, there are people with the full on like crampons. Is that what they're called? Yeah, going to and like we're, and I'm like, I don't like this at all. I'm gonna like, we can't go much further. We probably went 400 yards down, right? I mean, and it's incredible. But yeah, you just, and I think my mom, when they were, my parents were younger, went down, like on a donkey.

Okay. Yeah. Anyway, so I, I don't know, I couldn't, I don't think I could get Zach to do it. My husband, I wonder if I could get some crazy ladies to do it with. Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, and I also now like, like kids, I'm like, my kids are going nowhere near the edge of anything like that, you know, and I'm not putting a kid on my back and trying to like, we saw someone with a kid on. Yeah, there's always somebody who's crazier. I know, I'm like, yeah, this isn't hard. You have a kid on your back. I don't know if they did the whole thing, but still.

But geez. So yeah, that's been cool. And then the latest one we did, the Chetan Crest Trail out in the Grand Chetans out in Jackson. So it's like 36 miles. So beautiful. There are grizzly bears there, I think. Okay. And so poor Tom had to hear me like the whole time say, Hey, bear, bear, hey, bear, bear. Because I was like terrified, speaking of wanting to come home to your children, you know, like, right. I don't want to get eaten by it. I like being a mom that got eaten by a crusader. Yeah. Did you like wear bells? Because that's what we used to do in Montana.

We'd have like bells attached to everything. I don't, I think Tom was like, if we're running with bells, I like, like, yeah, we may not like come home married from this trip that we went on. But instead you're like, Hey, bear, bear, yeah. I can never hear, Hey, bear, bear, again. And then we got in like a hail storm and a lightning storm. And it was just, but they, you know, they all wants to come out the other side. You're like, when was that? That was last July. Okay. So that was our last one that we went on. So yeah, now we're, now we're trying to figure out what's next.

Yeah. And this year's your tenure? It is our tenure. Because it's mine too. And Casey's. I know. 10 years. And I listened to your guys podcast and we're kind of in the same boat of like, so what are we going to do? You know, young kids, one of our, you know, not in daycare full time, my parents are amazing. They live here. They're so helpful. Thank you, Lolly and Pop. I know you're going to be listening. One of my kids is with my dad right now. Yeah. Thanks, father Tom. Dad Tom. One dad, my dad Tom. But I know all the things. But so we're, and then my best friend's getting married in Spain next year.

So we're in Spain. So she lives in Madrid. Gresham, I'm sorry if you listen to Alba set day, I think it's like a little, her husband, she lives in Spain and her husband's from Spain. And then we're going to do like a beach town actor. So big trip next year. We're talking about this year, you know, like maybe Napa, maybe a run adventure, you know, yeah, same thing. But we're very much, you know, like, let's do something like adventurous and then have a couple of days to like, to chill. Yeah. So yeah, cool. Yeah, I need to get on it. I'm like getting really frustrated because I'm like, I want to have something like later in the year.

And then I also, I had lunch with my run coach yesterday. And so she's, you know, like, what are you going to do this fall? And I'm like, I want to do a marathon, but I don't know, like if we're going to go on a trip, like I can't have like a Hawaiian vacation for 10 days, like before I run a marathon. Like, so how's that going to work? And I don't know. Anyway, first world I know, as I'm saying that I'm like, okay, Ali, let's rain it in and bring in perspective. So yeah. Oh my gosh, those are, I mean, that's crazy. And then there's some other, well, you ran the Flying Pig marathon in that month soon.

I did. It was wild. So that was my first marathon after Charlie, so my youngest. So he was about nine months old and I was, you know, running is like for my mental, you know, it's like, it's like, I, my time. And so I was, I feel like I was pretty smart about coming back and no, I made sure I went to help the floor, PT, all those things like, don't, don't do too much. Well, it's just, you know, everyone has, every mom has a different experience coming back. Absolutely. And I would be very lucky that you're able to do that. That's amazing. Yeah. So did Flying Pig.

It was a monsoon. I mean, I'm grateful that they ran it, but like, like three miles in, it just opened up. And at mile five, it's raining so hard. Like, I can't see, I'm pretty sure a biker came by and said their races canceled. And at this point, I'm like, well, I don't want to run, I get to mile seven and it's hilly. And here in Indiana, there's no hills. So no hill training. And I got like a side stitch. I'm like, I hope maybe, maybe they did call it, you know, maybe I'll get to mile 13 and they'll, they'll have called it. But they did it.

And, and same thing, you know, I'm like, okay, I'm out here. Like I took time away from my family to train for this. Tom came with me. He's like yelling his head out all over the course. And so I did it. And I ran a three, three 33, which was a Boston qualifying time. But I knew, I kind of knew then I'm like, a minute and a half is not going to get me into Boston. And I wasn't like, I had no expectation again for that race, you know, like nine months after our baby, right, I had gotten sick, I had, I had had like a little skin cancer taken off my face.

So I went through a whole mental health anxiety crisis, like during training. And it's just like, I'm, I made it here. Like, I'm grateful for what my body did. I'm grateful to be able to push myself. I'm grateful like for all these things, like just happy on the day. But did register for Boston in September, did not get in because you needed five and a half minutes. So then I'm like, okay, let's go. And so, all right, we got this. So I signed up for the monumental marathon this past November. And, and did, did quality like, well, I have eight and a half minutes. So I'm hoping I'm hoping hell of a buffer.

We'll see though. So my dad, I got a shout out. So my dad just after I qualified. So my dad has done Boston twice, but not since I think 2010 is the last one. My dad also did the rain ride like ride across Indiana, gosh, like 12 years ago now, and fell and shattered his hip. They, he was in a wheelchair and all these things because he couldn't walk on it. And they're like, you're never going to run again. And he's like, what happens if I run? And they said, you might need a hip replacement. He's like, great, I might need one anyway. So my dad had gotten back into running.

He's run, I think a couple of marathon since, but when I like got enough that we think I will have qualified, I think my dad just was like, I want to do one more and I want to do it with you. So he was training for Carmel. He got sick and, you know, it like took him a long time to recover from it, but he was feeling better. Tom and I were giving him tips. He's taken gels probably for the first time too, even though he's been running for 20 years, you know, he runs in his cotton hoodie still. Yeah, my dad doesn't take any nutrition either.

No, no. Yeah. And so he ran Carmel and I was actually out of town at my future sister -in -law's bachelor party, but he ran Carmel. And I, I like don't think I realized like how much it was going to mean to both of us. It's like not about the time or the qualifying, but it's like about like sharing this together. It's like a thing that we've shared for 20 plus years and like we can talk about. And so he qualified by like, he ran a 358 something, so he's got six and a half minutes. And they sent me the video of him and I like teared up, honestly.

You can just like see the joy in his face. But he's like real nervous that he's going to be like right on the border. So he may be signing up for like, there's a last chance marathon in September. Yeah. He's like, I don't want to miss this by like 10 seconds. So we'll see. But yeah, shout out to Trina. Trina was the pacer and he ran with the principle. Also has been on this podcast. Okay, then I totally, he had a team new shoot a shirt on. I saw Trina and I was on the microphone at this point. I wish I would have known that your dad was running with Trina.

You should have told me. I know. Sorry. Tom, new shoot a. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you Trina for, for he was with them a bunch that he like separated some, but he was a bunch. So yeah, so hopefully fingers crossed 2025. We'll get to do that and you know, share that. Yeah, I'm so jealous of that. My dad has done Boston, I think twice, two or, I don't know, yeah, two or three times. He was there the year of the bombing. Oh my gosh. Yeah, he's crazy. And he, he is, he has an itch to do one more. He just turned 68. Okay. So, you know, we're at this place where I'm 37.

So I turned 38 this year. And so I'm almost 40 and he's almost 70. And so it's like, okay. But he has like, he has definitely prioritized golf over running. And so he'll run like once a week to train for stuff. Yeah. So it's like, I don't know, but I would, I mean, I would love to be able to have that experience to go together. I think you guys are going to do it. Well, and if not Boston, like we'll do, I want to do, like if he's going to do one more marathon in his life, I want to be there for that. Yeah. Yeah.

And that totally agree. And that was, that's just like, if it's not Boston, same thing for us. Like I think it would be great to do something together. You know, we got that a little bit with the mini. So I ran the mini pregnant with Charlie, which was like 22 years after my dad and I first did it together. So I got to, we didn't run it. So he was going to run it with me. He actually was going to run it with me. And then I was like, dad, you go and he goes, you know, this might be the last time I can ever beat you because you're pregnant.

So I was like, you go ahead. You know, I'm hopefully still on the upward. He's not, you know, it's funny looking back, like when my dad was, was doing, you know, putting in all the work and effort to qualify for Boston, like he was, yeah, he was beating me as fast as me. Yeah. And I remember when he got his first BQ was in Illinois, that marathon in Champaign, and it was the worst weather ever. It was rainy and we're like laughing at the start line, like we paid to do this. This is hilarious. And I was doing the half. He was doing the full and he crushed it, like absolutely crushed it.

But yeah, you're just like, now we don't really run together anymore because I am now working so hard on my speed and he's getting older and not prioritizing running. So it's kind of a bummer. But, but now with my daughter, Sydney, who's six and a half, she's learned to ride a bike. And so down in Florida, we've done like a bike run with Papa. And that's so fun. So Jack just learned to ride a bike last summer. And I haven't quite gone out like on a run, run with him. I've like pushed the stroller and he's fast enough though that you're like, oh my goodness, buddy, I needed to like put my running shoes on.

So I'm so excited for that. Well, Tariq, he's, I mean, he's young to be on a bike. He's so funny. He's real little too. And so people would like look at him last summer, you know, he's four and they're like, what is going on? It gave everyone a big smile on the monad. Like constantly. That's so cool. He probably was wearing a Batman costume too. He's always in costume. So yeah, that's so special. I love that. Oh my gosh. I know. So great. Yeah. And, and then we touched on the fact that you guys have Stuart Ventures, you talked about real estate, which I think is really cool again for you to be able to, you know, be focused on your kids, but be doing such amazing things for New Shoot Day and the community.

And by the way, Carly runs the New Shoot Day social media. So if you interact with New Shoot Day, you are interacting with Carly. So thank you. Yeah. So do that. To blame me or to my no, yeah. No, no, follow us. You know, I could think how you mentioned earlier coming out. I mean, the one thing I would say about New Shoot Day is like, come out. It's like such great people, like no matter, like I think people get scared, you know, and I get scared to go to new things, like just come like we would love to have you there. Like whatever pace, whatever you want to do, we have so many different ways to get involved.

I know I could go talk on to that forever, but go listen to Casey's episode. He will tell you all the things. Amazing. Yeah. So good. Oh my gosh. I don't even know how long we've been talking about. I could talk to him all day. Like I'm like, okay, sorry, dad, Tom, you're watching. You're watching Charlie. Yeah. And you're, yeah. Thank you so much for doing this. For having me on, Allie. This was fun. Of course. It was so much fun. It was, like I said, I could keep talking to you. Yeah. Like we do this all day. Oh, yeah. But you know, we got to be moms.

I got to go on volunteering at the library at my kid's school after this. So yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. So fun. Well, thank you everybody who has listened. And I need to ask you the end of the podcast questions. Yes. Okay. See, I get so excited. I know. I'm like, it's the end, but I almost forgot. I did that once with J. Drupal from Carmel and he was so kind and like recorded them after the fact because I was like, ah, I forgot. Okay. Yeah. What's your favorite running song or mantra? Yeah. So song. I listen to music all the time or podcast, but for races, music.

I spend like a lot of time making the playlist. I love there's this on SoundCloud. There's like a summer country 2023 mix. So it's like country, but like, like, idiot. Like it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mixed it. And it's like an hour long. And if that thing comes on, I'm thinking about for the mini. So I guess that will get to the next question. But I'm doing the mini. And I'm like, I just need to throw that and a few other songs on. And it's just like, let's go SoundCloud. I don't understand. So SoundCloud is like, my husband and I were kind of into EDM for a while.

Okay. Music and that kind of music. And so it's like people put mixes up. It took a whole process to figure out how I could get that on to like my Spotify playlist. But I got it on my Spotify playlist now. Interesting. Well, yeah, should I put that on the finish lines of Milestone's playlist? It comes on. It's like an hour long, like screw the rest of the music. Well, and who was it? Nate Spangle, again, who has been on this podcast, who introduced us, who's involved in New Shoot Day. He told me about these like big booty mixes, which made me die laughing when I, because I'd never heard of it.

And I was like, of course this bro would be like 27 year old, like the big booty mixes. And you're like, okay, that sounds, but I'm sure I would love it. I still have it listened to them, but I'm sure if it's like girl talk, if you know girl talk, like I like. Yes, I'm going to all send you this one. I actually sent it to Nate. So I was like, the first song is Morgan Wallen last night. Nate was very into that song for a while. And I was like, Nate, this is like a better version of that. And then add 55 minutes of just like upbeat.

I need to do like a speed workout. Okay. Yeah, I definitely want that. Yeah. Do you have a mantra? Kind of what I was saying before, just like, this is easier than parenting. Oh, thank you for naming the podcast episode. This is easier than parenting. Yeah. I mean, I had different times, different races, different things, but I really think that's the one. This is easier than parenting. So good. And then you're running the mini, which is so exciting. I am. I am running the mini. I'm kind of, you know, I'm putting it out there. I'm like chasing PRs right now. You know, I'm like, yeah, let it out there.

Good for you. Let's go for it. Let's see. What's your half PR? So I think it's 138. Yeah, you need a spreadsheet. I know I need a spreadsheet. I'm taking, I'm going for my own PRs and I'm, I took down my dad's marathon PR. I'm coming for my husband's marathon PR. No, Tom, Tom's amazing. I, he ran like a 440 mile in high school, like all these things. Okay. He's incredible, but I'm still coming for everyone's PR. I sound really cocky. Are you going to run around a 130? No, like I'm trying maybe like 134, 135. I don't know. I don't have a coach. I like hodgepodge my own training plans together.

So like, I'm always like, I don't know. Let's just go for it and see and maybe I'll blow up. But like, why not? I may fly. I may fly. Why? Somebody asked me, my friend Ashley Haynes, another podcast guest, asked me if I knew anybody targeting a 130 at the mini because she has a friend who wants to run around that time. I don't think I'm quite ready for a 130. But that sounds really scary. I ran like two miles at the pace for like 134 and I was like, oh, but I'm a game day racer. I'm like, that's also, that's also like, that's the mental thing.

You have to be like, no, that's not how this works. That's not real. I've been telling my dad this for like weeks before Carmel was like yourself. You're like, Oh my goodness. How will I ever? Yeah, but I'm in the same mode. I'm trying to like pick off my PRs again and again and like see, see what I can do. Like I want to see how fast I can get before I'm on the other side. Right? I mean, that's not super far away. Right? Like it's realistic. Like we have that some point we're not going to get faster. Yeah. Right. So let's do it now.

Well, and the other thing is again, I was talking about running coach Rachel about this yesterday. It was like, we have young kids. Right. Yeah. A lot of a lot of the people in the community like are on the other side where their kids are self sufficient. They sleep in and they can go do their long run and come back and, you know, before anyone needs them. And I'm like, what's that like? Right. And that is not super, super far away, but I have to remind myself of that when I'm like really into like chasing all the goals. Yeah. Yes. Who I am to you are.

Right. Exactly. Yeah. You got to balance. Cool. Well, I'll see you out there. You will run past me at one point because I am pushing for Ainsley's Angels. I'm so excited for you. So I just got these tank tops I bought. They told me not to put like, they'll tell you a week in advance like which, like who you're pushing. And I want to put like it on my shirt too because when I cheer for people who are pushing, it's sometimes hard to see like who's the team. Like there's sometimes a flag and then it's on the actual like chair itself or a stroller. I forget what the proper term is, but I'm going to like deck out our shirts and I'm running with my friend Ashley and I'm really nervous actually because I've never pushed like I haven't pushed a stroller in a long time and then add on like it could be like an adult sized person.

You're like, okay, but I'm so excited. I can't wait to see you. So I can't wait to see you. Because you guys start in front, right? Yeah. Well, we lead off the race which I'm like that's a really cool experience I've never had. So cool. But I am, yeah, I'm so excited about that. So yay, I'll see you there. Yes. It's going to be so fun. Yeah. Hurray. It's so soon. So yeah. Terrifyingly soon. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We've got to get after it. All right. Okay. Yeah. Also now thanks for listening everybody because now I've asked the right questions and we are good and thank you and happy running.

Happy running. Yay. Bye.

Ally Brettnacher