195 | Hanna Knuuttunen | New York City Marathon

In this lively episode of the On the Runs podcast, the hosts reflect on their recent marathon experience in New York City, sharing humorous pre-race moments, the unique start of the race, and the joy of running through the city with friends and family. They discuss the challenges faced during the marathon, memorable moments on the course, and the significance of the medal received. The conversation wraps up with reflections on the marathon experience and future running plans, highlighting the camaraderie and excitement of the event.

During the Tros Eric, Six Star Erika and Tara celebrate the Manchester City Marathon and reflect on their experiences. They discuss the excitement of race day, the joy of running with friends.

Chapters

00:00 LIVE Intro from the Manchester Marathon
07:00 Hanna Banana
13:05 Training Journey and Community Engagement
16:04 Strava and Running Stats
19:09 Race Weekend Preparations
22:06 Family and Friends Support
24:58 Running in New York City
27:58 Favorite Running Routes
31:06 Conclusion and Future Plans
31:42 Exploring the New York Marathon Course
33:52 Race Day Preparations and Nerves
35:42 The Journey to the Start Line
39:29 Vibes and Anticipation at the Start Village
40:13 Pre-Race Challenges and Humor
47:08 Favorite Moments During the Race
52:01 Advice and Reflections on Running
54:57 Future Marathon Plans and Aspirations
55:09 Future Marathon Plans
56:39 Reflections on Marathon Challenges
59:16 Memorable Moments on the Course
01:01:35 The Significance of the Medal
01:03:00 Plans for Future Marathons
01:07:07 The Finish Line Experience
01:09:27 Looking Ahead to More Races

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Don't Fear The Code Brown and Don't Forget To Stretch!

Transcript

Eric (00:05)
What's up, everybody? Welcome to episode 195 of the On the Runs podcast. We are live from the Manchester City Marathon. Six-star Erica just got back. I Tara Pterodactyl. And it is wicked awesome here. doing our third ever live show. But before we talk about this, before we talk about Erica's day already, I must say hello to my amazing kick-star, rock star of a co-host, Six-Star Erica. What's up?

You just came running in here. I had a fire lit under my ass. I had to get up here from Boston as soon as I could just so I could make it for the meat of this race. Like I'm so excited. I actually made it. She's so excited. Like this race and this thing is such a big deal. She left to be a half marathon like cross the finish line. What?

You get right on the subway, the T and she was like, she just kept running. Yeah, I him today, by the way. The beard. Yes, yes. He was he was full for us today. But yeah, I actually parked at Rachel's house. She lived like two minutes away from the Franklin Park. And so we went to her house and then I just drove all the way home. But Boston traffic, you guys know, not not the most fun. Always. How was how was the race? It was really good. It turned out to be a very warm day. I overdressed.

But as many hills as there were Rachel and I crushed it. She got me to a 154 today. Damn. Amazing. Now Tara, you just ran the half marathon here. How was your race? My race was awesome. I did not have a PR, but I knew with this course, with how hilly it was, that it wasn't going to be a PR course. But my main goal, I a time in mind and I crushed it and I just felt strong. ran the whole way and that was like huge.

Proud of you, girls! Give her the bim-bim-bam-bam! Bim-bim-bam-bam! That's a lot of noise I hope you guys can hear as well because the speakers are loud. The cheering is insane here in Manchester. good crowd support! It's been a great day so far. It a little wet and rainy when I woke up this morning, but I think by the time the race started, Tara, you could be our judge. How was the weather? So this is like perfect weather. I would pick this every day, dial it up for every single race I've ever run. I loved it. It was like...

It was sprinkling a little bit and it warm like you said. But when we got here, the rain stopped. It was one of those like you definitely needed a sweatshirt or a cover to keep you warm before the race started. But it was actually the stable was in a very convenient place because my friend Jen and I we just tossed our sweatshirts here. Perfect. Didn't have to lose a sweatshirt. Yup, nice. And we took off and I had on shorts and a tank top and some arm sleeves. And it was like, it was perfect. I loved it. was great in there.

Speaking of medals, Eric just pulled his out of his bag. I have mine from today. If you go in that bag, the Yeti Trail Runners bag, in the zipper portion, there's two. They should be magnetized together. Wait, did you bring the whole thing? No, I messed up. So this was a distance medley. We finished the distance medley, which consisted of the 5K back in April, the 10K back in June, and then the half marathon today.

got the, yeah, Eric's gonna show the camera, but. Very cool. They magnet together. It's pretty cool. I saw that on social media yesterday and I was like, ooh, that's super cool. It's pretty interesting, yeah. So I still think, obviously, yours today is badass. Look at that thing. So you should see, this is for the half. You should see the full. The full one's bigger than this. Oh, Let's have a competition here. Size matters. Let's see who's is bigger. Is this bringing you back to high school, Eric? So weird. Are we talking just that?

for this too. everything. that's so you have the medley and the medley is the 5k to 10k to half. So eventually you're going to put the others on it. So that's like a magnet. Yeah, that's really cool. I have I have New York City here. have New York City. There we go. here. Do you want to wait? Are you going to treat it like the Stanley Cup? Are you going to? I've read it twice. I can touch it. I can touch it.

⁓ this is beautiful. right. This is the Manchester half. So initial views is the Manchester half is bigger than the Boston or the New York. Yes, it is. And by the way, this is just the half. The actual Manchester Marathon medal is much larger than this. It's the same exact design and shape. nice. So yeah, there's the New York. Yeah. You like that elevation chart? really, really like that. I give it to you. It is a very nice medal. I also like this part. Yes.

Yeah, like Millennium Running has the elegant, which is sponsored Millennium Running in the date on the back, which is huge. Right. They do that for these. You know what, though? For the Boston half medal, actually all of the medals for the distance medal this year, not my favorite. They're too colored. don't know. I think ever since Bank of America took over, the medals have been walled. Honestly, if it was more like this, I don't know. thought the last Boston Marathon medal was pretty epic. This year's was good.

I ran it in 2023, which was the last year of John Hancock. That is beautiful though. This is a beautiful looking metal. I love just the colors are sharp. It's straight to the point with the unicorn. Like that's a sharp looking metal. You know, it's funny though. I saw last year's Distance Medley, this one big metal and it was more like this metal itself and I didn't like it. And then I saw that this was all like gold.

even know how to describe it. It's shining. He likes shining here. So this year I'm very happy with it. Not that it would have made or ranked right, like, you know, my race. How many years have you done the Distance Medley? Honestly, only two. And the last time I did it was 2019, I think. So it's been quite a few years. I've never done it before. I've only done the 5K and the Marathon. Gotcha. Only the Marathon.

Not a big deal. I think it's it. It's worth doing at least once. They're different courses. Very fast if you can get in the right corral. I mean, they're fun. They're just fun. Nice. Well, we got a really cool guest for today's episode. We're going to let you guys go and hear that episode soon because of all this cool, loud noise. And on Thursday, hopefully you'll get to hear all our interviews with the race winners, with some really cool, awesome people from the New Hampshire.

in the Lenin running community. But Erica, we have a wicked awesome guest on today's episode. Excellent. Are you going to tell me who it is? You know who it is. We already talked to her. It's my sister, Hannah. Oh, God. You can't really blame me. I've been up for like nine hours already. Hannah Banana, we got you on the podcast. Finally. I'm so excited. So this is the last little one of New York. I mean, we'll have more New York runners, but this is how you get to hear Hannah's.

Hannah's version of the New York City Marathon. So enjoy Hannah and we'll be back after for the end and the end cap of the Manchester City Marathon. This is a lot of fun. I love this.

KNUTE (07:12)
Our next guest on the pod is a local celebrity from Sandown, New Hampshire, who spent many years of her younger life traveling back and forth from home to hockey rinks, supporting her big brothers while they failed to live to their NHL dreams. She almost won a Tony for her groundbreaking performance as Scuttle in The Little Mermaid, and she just completed her first marathon in the TCS New York City Marathon. We're wicked excited to finally have her on the podcast for her first guest appearance, Hanna Banana.

Welcome to the on the runs podcast. What's up?

Hanna Knuuttunen (07:46)
Let's go!

Erika (07:48)
She's here, she's here, we finally got Hanna you guys. It's about freaking time.

Hanna Knuuttunen (07:53)
It's gonna

be so fun.

KNUTE (07:55)
Do you remember in the marathon, there was actually a sign that said, Go Hanna Banana?

Hanna Knuuttunen (08:01)
like in our group?

KNUTE (08:03)
Well, there was a sign that we ran by. There were so many Hanna signs, but there was one that said, Go Hanna Banana. And you're like, that's me!

Hanna Knuuttunen (08:11)
my gosh, I honestly don't even, I don't remember that. I remember like people dressed as bananas. don't remember. I don't know if they had a sign that said Hanna Banana. I think I just went, I'm Hanna Banana.

KNUTE (08:14)
So you only read the Hanna part. They were dressed as bananas.

Erika (08:18)
you

KNUTE (08:22)
Okay, you what it was? You're right.

I think they actually yelled, go Hanna Banana, because they saw your name on your shirt. Okay, that was it.

Hanna Knuuttunen (08:30)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, I think that's what it was. Yeah.

Erika (08:34)
saw

somebody like one of your family members had assigned this at hand a banana. Okay, so at least there was some something out there.

Hanna Knuuttunen (08:38)
Yes, Alex did have a Hanna

banana. Yeah, that was a good one too. Yeah, they did. They did because they were handing out bananas in a banana suit.

KNUTE (08:42)
That was it then. Okay, that's the sign I saw. But yes, somebody said go hand a banana. I was like, that's funny.

Erika (08:44)
you

KNUTE (08:50)
One of the people we saw too, by the way, on the subway, I think it was Amanda. Amanda goes, oh my God, your sister, because she's from the city, must be so popular because she saw so many Hanna signs. Remember Amanda from the subway? I got that message because I have already talked to all of them. We've all done our congrats and stuff. So yeah. But how are you feeling? It's a few days what it is. This is Thursday night. So we're four days after the marathon. Everybody's already heard your story. You came on for the tro. We don't need to do...

Erika (08:50)
That's cute.

Hanna Knuuttunen (09:07)
Nice.

Yeah.

KNUTE (09:19)
the typical, so where are you from? What did you do growing up? But like the marathon talk.

Erika (09:21)
you

Hanna Knuuttunen (09:22)
Right, right, right. This is Marathon Talk.

Erika (09:25)
I think you

covered it in the intro, by the way. We know that she was scuttle. She almost won a Tony for it. Stand down, celebrity.

Hanna Knuuttunen (09:28)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

KNUTE (09:30)
Yeah. Which you never, you,

right, but last time you were on the pod, we did tease, like, maybe you'll reenact your scenes, your lines, and we didn't do that. Maybe we could do it at the end of this one. We'll see. We'll see. Anyways, how you feeling? It's been four days.

Hanna Knuuttunen (09:42)
We'll see, we'll see.

I feel great. I feel really, really good. You know, the day after on Monday, I felt a little sore in my legs, but that's to be expected. And it was not anything, you know, super bad or painful. I was able to get up, walk around. Eric and I and our family, we went, we got breakfast bagels in the morning. Like, so I was feeling okay, just a little sore, a little tired. By Tuesday, I honestly felt totally fine. I woke up, I did a

low impact ride on the peloton, a nice stretch, and I was ready to go. And like, I haven't felt any residual soreness since then. Wednesday, I went and did my first run as an official marathoner. I just went out, ran a little 5K. It felt awesome. So yeah, I'm feeling good. I mean, I'm still feeling pumped. So physically feeling good, emotionally pumped.

KNUTE (10:33)
jealous.

Yes.

Erika (10:38)
You're going to have that feeling for a long time and it's all, it's going to, it's going to turn into the, well, what do I do next kind of thing? But I think we're going to talk about that a little bit later. I'm Well, I thought, I thought she was going to do it next year too. The nine plus one. Am I wrong? So it's on deck. is on deck. I'm like, am I spoiling something? no.

Hanna Knuuttunen (10:40)
Yes.

for sure, for sure.

KNUTE (10:48)
Are we?

yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay, okay. I'm sworn to some secrecy. But,

Hanna Knuuttunen (10:54)
yes, yes, you are correct. You are correct.

KNUTE (11:01)
we can announce that on another pod. So, everybody knows you did the nine plus one, but let's talk about your training. Where'd you find a training plan and how did your training go? Like, were you an early morning runner? Were you running at night? Did you do group runs with the NYRR? Like, how'd your training go?

Hanna Knuuttunen (11:07)
Mm-hmm.

My training went really well. did a 20 week training program that may not be recommended, but that I just found online and tailored to fit my schedule a little bit. am doing, like Erica mentioned, the 9 plus 1 program again this year, 2025 for the 2026 marathon. So I had a few races throughout the summer. So I would find ways if I had a 12 mile training run race.

12 miles this weekend, how do I move my other long runs around to fit into this schedule? So that's what I did. Most of the time I was running on my own. I woke up during the week 5.30 in the mornings. I tried to be on the road by 6 to get my runs in so that I have time to then get ready and go to work after. I'm also just, I find myself to be a person. If I need a workout after work, might not happen. So I try to get it done in the morning.

Erika (11:51)
Mmm.

Okay.

Hanna Knuuttunen (12:15)
Most of it was solo, which was nice. I enjoy going on a nice solo run, but I did start during my training period experimenting with running with other human beings. Yes, before this training, had never once in my life ran with anybody else and I just jumped in cold turkey. There's a Woodside Sunnyside Run Club, which is the neighborhood I live in, Queens.

Erika (12:28)
All right.

Hanna Knuuttunen (12:42)
And I saw on their Instagram, they're like, we're doing this 10 mile run Saturday morning. And I was like, I need to do 10 miles. And I just showed up and I was like, can I join? They're like, yeah, come along. And so my very first run was 10 miles with a bunch of strangers and it was great. Yeah.

Erika (12:57)
I love that. What's your

take? you find somebody that you were able to actually run with and maybe do a little bit of chatting, take your mind off of things?

Hanna Knuuttunen (13:03)
Yes, yes, for sure.

It really, was immediately like, I get it. I understand why people do this and run with people. one just makes it fly by, goes by so much quicker. But it's more fun, you you get to chit chat. And because I was with a group of people and I was following their route, I ran into places that I had never run before, which is exciting as well. ⁓ And so I met some ⁓ many nice people from that group, but I met a few girls.

Erika (13:15)
Definitely.

Nice.

Hanna Knuuttunen (13:32)
that live in the neighborhood who I've since done a few training runs with. One of them being my 20 mile run, which was great because I was supposed to do that one weekend and then I got super sick, couldn't do it, was really feeling worried that I wouldn't be able to fit it in. I missed my 20 miler and then these girls reached out, they were doing one a different weekend. I was like, I'm tagging along and it made it so much better. Yes, yes, yeah.

Erika (13:57)
Sold.

KNUTE (13:58)
Yeah, that's cool. That's cool.

I'm glad you're doing that and finding the running community because that actually, feel like stick helps you stay around longer. Right? ⁓ I am more of a solo runner myself because of my own schedule, but man, I love when I run with anybody, one person or 50. I love it.

Erika (14:02)
Mm-hmm.

Hanna Knuuttunen (14:03)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Erika (14:08)
Definitely.

Hanna Knuuttunen (14:18)
I got a

training run in with my brother Eric. We got a training run in together, our first time ever running together before the marathon. Mm-hmm. Yep.

Erika (14:19)
Seriously.

KNUTE (14:20)
Yeah.

Erika (14:25)
That's right. You were in New Hampshire, weren't you? And, ⁓

Eric messed with my car. Well,

Hanna Knuuttunen (14:31)
Yeah.

KNUTE (14:31)
That's right,

That was Hanna. That was Hanna Banana.

Hanna Knuuttunen (14:34)
No, no,

no, that was you. was you. have that. We have that on video. We have that on video. Keep going, Eric.

Erika (14:35)
think it was Hanna. No, no, no, no.

KNUTE (14:38)
I don't know. I don't know. I gave into

the peer pressure from Hanna Banana. She encouraged it. Yeah.

Erika (14:43)
Sure you did.

Hanna Knuuttunen (14:45)
Yeah,

but no training. It went well and I feel very proud of how well it went because I really had a super crazy summer. I was traveling all over the place. It seemed like every weekend I was somewhere new. ⁓ I counted how many flights I had during my four months of training and I had 14 different flights. So like I really was like all over the place, but it was cool because every time I was traveling I was running in a

Erika (15:07)
Wow.

Hanna Knuuttunen (15:14)
super cool new spot and kind of exploring a new country or a new city with my runs. And I Eric, you know, always talks about wanting to grow his heat map on Strava. So I'm like, all right, let's, you know, add some heat. I love Strava. I do.

Erika (15:19)
That's so cool.

Destroy the heat!

KNUTE (15:27)
And now you're addicted to Strava. You're like everything. You haven't

heard the episode yet with my recap, but my experience watching you was basically seeing me 10 years ago, like being addicted to Strava, being like super into the race, the map, the course, showing everybody else, saying how much fun you're going to have spectating. So you're really into that same phase now of Strava. You're like, you're dissecting it all. And I'm just like, build the heat map, build the heat map.

Hanna Knuuttunen (15:46)
Yeah.

Yeah, no, I enjoy Strava. I'm definitely a fan. And by the way, Eric, think I'm still waiting on a kudos from you for my marathon post.

KNUTE (16:00)
I'm gonna do that right now.

Erika (16:02)
I don't even think I've been on it. I'm gonna give

you, I gotta give kudos where kudos are due. Come on.

KNUTE (16:06)
I'm actually gonna pull it

up because I want to read some stats, not like they're important at all, because they're not, because we partied so hard.

Hanna Knuuttunen (16:13)
We partied really hard. We really partied, yes. Yeah.

Erika (16:14)
You guys did it right. That is the way. That is a true victory lap. When you are

having fun, soaking in all the sights, just taking in the vibes. That is the true way to do it.

Hanna Knuuttunen (16:24)
I, yeah,

like Erica, I truly was smiling the entire time. The entire time I had a smile on my face. And like, I was, I felt like I was pumping up the spectators, you know? Like I'd be going by them and I'd be like, let's go, like make some noise. I was, yes.

Erika (16:30)
That is the way.

Yes.

They appreciate it as much as

the runners do, but when you can hype up a crowd, that just tells so much about your personality and how much fun you actually are having. I think that's so, good.

Hanna Knuuttunen (16:53)
Yes, such,

such a blast. I also wore both Eric and I did. We had our names on our shirts, which I debated for a while. You know, I've heard pros and cons. Super fun to hear people cheer your name, but then people also talk it might be hard because you're looking for somebody and then it's a random person and you can't find your family because you keep hearing people yelling your name, whatever. But I decided to do it and I loved it. I was like, yes, every time someone cheered my name.

Erika (17:14)
Right. Yep.

celebrity status.

KNUTE (17:22)
It was

great. Can I rant for a second? This is a total off topic, but I'm logging into Strava and this has been a problem lately. I want to rant. The freaking... If I sign in with my username and password, that should be enough. I just had to then go to my email and get a six digit code and I had to double verify that it was me.

Hanna Knuuttunen (17:24)
Alright. Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Erika (17:34)
you

Why, do they make you like verify? ⁓

Hanna Knuuttunen (17:47)
that's weird.

KNUTE (17:49)
Facebook's insane with this two-step or you know, whatever Everything I can't just type in a password anymore and get to anything and I just had to do it for Strava and it was counting down the seconds like I had 60 seconds to type the code in and I had to go to the email get the code I had eight seconds left when I typed it in. Why can't we just have? Right everything now. What's the point of having a password now? It should just be like type in your email and then you're gonna get a code to that email. That's what it should be

Hanna Knuuttunen (18:09)
That is annoying.

Erika (18:09)
man.

KNUTE (18:19)
why type a password and then have to go to your email and get a code. Hanna ran 3.1 today. I know, it's so stupid and frustrating. And I can rant because it's the two of you. I wouldn't do this to like, you know, not maybe I would.

Erika (18:23)
Two-factor authentication.

Hanna Knuuttunen (18:27)
Wednesday but yeah.

Erika (18:33)
Well, hey, I just creeped on both your Stravas

and both of you have logged technically in ultra because Hanna had like 26.8, Eric has 27. Count it.

Hanna Knuuttunen (18:41)
I know. Yes.

KNUTE (18:45)
So Hanna, real quick, this route you did today, that is, you just walk outside your house and you go do that route.

Hanna Knuuttunen (18:47)
Ultramarathoner.

That is correct, but don't tell any creepers that.

KNUTE (18:55)
That's cool. You ran a 8,

or not a 8, a 948 today, 5K. 30 minute 5K, way to go.

Erika (19:00)
Feelin' good.

Hanna Knuuttunen (19:00)
Yeah.

Yeah, I was feeling good. I was feeling good.

KNUTE (19:04)
Way to go. Let's look at some

stats here. So Hanna runs an average of three times a week, averaging, this is last four weeks actually, averaging 25.5 miles. You average a total of four and a half hours of running. You've done 1,300 feet of elevation. You're freaking rock star. Yeah. Well, they say New York's hilly, but as I said, hot take, New York City is not hilly.

Erika (19:25)
dang, that's up there for elevation. Yeah, that's impressive.

KNUTE (19:33)
All right, here's the kudos, Hanna. I'm giving you a kudos right now. There you go. I'll make a comment later. What an epic day. What an epic day. let's talk about the whole weekend. From your perspective, how'd it go? What were you looking forward to? Were you nervous? Were you excited? Like, were you taking... Yeah, you had to host a family. an extended family.

Erika (19:34)
Depends where you go.

Hanna Knuuttunen (19:37)
Yes, give me the kudos. Yes, nice. It was.

Yeah.

Erika (19:51)
Yeah, you had to host your brother too. Yeah. ⁓ added. That's

Hanna Knuuttunen (19:55)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. The weekend was truly perfect. It was everything that I wanted for my first marathon weekend. Like, it was incredible. That being said, I would not change a thing, but there are things that I know I will do differently in the future. But the weekend was so fun. We had so many people, you know,

Erika (19:58)
a lot.

Mm.

Hanna Knuuttunen (20:21)
My parents came in from New Hampshire. Our brother Alex flew in from California. My mother-in-law Dee, my sister-in-law Christina, and her husband Colby, they came in from New Hampshire. I had a bunch of friends in the city that came out and were on the course at multiple spots cheering us on. It was so much fun, but it was super busy because we had so many people here that were here to support us. But also, this is not their home. This is my home. So I needed to host, which was...

something I loved doing and it was so much fun, but it was a Like the Saturday before the marathon, I walked 25,000 steps, which is not something that I would ideally do the day before my first marathon. And again, everything worked out fine, so it's all good, but ⁓ it was a crazy weekend. And we were fitting in things that were super fun, like...

Erika (20:54)
Mm-hmm.

huh. ⁓

Hanna Knuuttunen (21:16)
Saturday morning, Eric, Alex and I got to go to his Zdeno Char, a meet and greet, which was awesome. But at the same time, it's just like on a day that I would maybe want to spend more time prioritizing rest, we're prioritizing the party.

Erika (21:30)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Trust me, I do the same thing. And I've done my fair share of this shit, but I never learn. just, especially like doing a fun one, like New York City comes out, the whole city is in it. And there's parties everywhere you look. There's like the stores and the meet and greets and stuff. The ShakeOut runs. It's everywhere. Yep. It's hard to stay off your feet and relax and rest and...

KNUTE (21:31)
The experience. Yeah.

Hanna Knuuttunen (21:32)
The experience. Yeah. ⁓

Hahaha

Yes, yes, yes, yeah. Yes, it's like the whole city's in it, not just on Sunday, like the whole week.

KNUTE (21:56)
Yeah. Take advantage of it on these.

Hanna Knuuttunen (21:58)
It is. It is.

KNUTE (21:59)
You can run on a marathon competitively like for time, somewhere else, another time. Like take advantage of all these pop-ups and meet and greets and all that in live podcasts, live shows. Like that's, I do love what the Boston Run Show tries to do because it's basically a race expo, not around a race. And so you can buy things and try things. And it's like nothing new on race day. You don't have to worry about that stuff. Like, I have a race in 24 hours.

Hanna Knuuttunen (22:04)
Right, for sure.

Erika (22:04)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Yeah.

KNUTE (22:26)
So

I like their concept of it, but again, the expo is just like the Boston Run Show Expo. Bigger on a space aspect, smaller on a vendor aspect, I'll say that. But that's the advantage to doing a run show, not around a race where you do a world major marathon, you take it all in and you don't worry about it affecting your race day unless like it's that important to you. Yeah. I like that you took it all in.

Hanna Knuuttunen (22:52)
Which for me,

yes. that was my goal for the marathon was just finish however you finish and have fun. And that extends for the whole weekend. Like Eric and I, Erica, we spent three hours, if not more, at the expo. Because I was like, let's go here, let's go here. Let's take this picture, let's take this picture. We were having fun. We were really doing it.

KNUTE (23:15)
The old Eric would have done that too.

Erika (23:16)
Honestly,

I think you guys did it right. Whenever I usually go to an expo, I know he's in the next room, Brandon is not a runner. He's usually with me on these trips. I know he just doesn't want to be there the way I want to be there. I'm so happy you took the pictures. You waited in the lines. You looked at everything. That's how you got to do it, especially for your first one. At least you know what to expect for the future. You can do whatever you want next time.

KNUTE (23:17)
Yeah.

Hanna Knuuttunen (23:31)
Right, right.

Yes.

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, ⁓ it was.

KNUTE (23:45)
It was a blast.

I'm glad we did it. And I was never like, I never wanted to be like, hey, let's get going. We've seen this enough, you know? No, I don't want to wait in line. I didn't want to be like the old me would have been, the old me would have been just like Hanna. The new me is like, I don't need to wait in that line. We'll just take a couple of pictures and make it look special. But no, I wanted it to be special for Hanna, for Hanna Banana. So.

Erika (23:53)
Yeah.

Mm.

Hanna Knuuttunen (24:08)
And it was. He did a good job.

KNUTE (24:10)
And I will say though, like on Saturday, I kind of felt like I was getting rushed around a bit because mom and dad were coming into town.

Erika (24:11)
For the two of you, yeah.

did you have like certain times you had to be somewhere like to pick them up? And so, okay, I see how that can be a little bit stressful. Didn't get to do exactly like everything you wanted to do or just hurried. ⁓

Hanna Knuuttunen (24:23)
Yes, yep. Yep.

KNUTE (24:30)
Well, I mean,

we maxed out every second we could with Zidane Ochara. you know, we did go back to the expo. I guess mom and dad, that wasn't their fault. It was the chowder thing. But we did go back to the expo Saturday for the team photo. And maybe I would have liked to have gone and looked at a t-shirt or a hoodie again. But I had plenty of time to on Friday, so no excuses.

Erika (24:34)
I don't blame you. Yeah.

Mm.

Hanna Knuuttunen (24:51)
Yeah, like I said, we were there at like three plus hours for sure.

KNUTE (24:54)
Yeah. Let's talk

Erika (24:54)
Yeah

KNUTE (24:55)
about some of the staff that was there. Like the one taking our photo around, there was the, like a box that looked like a picture frame, but we even sat in the box and she's telling us what to do. And some of the staff there was pretty cool and really creative. Yeah.

Hanna Knuuttunen (25:05)
yeah.

yeah, she was a creative director for sure. She

was like, sit, stand, back to back, put a hand up, put a finger up. We're like, okay.

Erika (25:12)
nice.

Ha ha.

KNUTE (25:17)
You were picky about who you'd give your phone to for a picture too.

Hanna Knuuttunen (25:21)
Sometimes they're putting these old men in the volunteer spots to take photos and sorry, they're just not gonna do it. They're just not gonna do it how it's meant to be done. He was like holding it horizontal. I was like, come on.

KNUTE (25:29)
It's not just old men. Old ladies too? Old

Erika (25:30)
Truth hurts.

KNUTE (25:32)
ladies aren't good too? Why does it gotta be old men?

Hanna Knuuttunen (25:34)
Well, there's just, sorry to old men, stereotypically the worst. In terms of taking photos.

Erika (25:40)
You just got to make sure that people are going to be technologically inclined. You got to take the verticals and the horizontal. Get it all.

Hanna Knuuttunen (25:44)
Exactly, Yeah, so if it

KNUTE (25:45)
I'm with you.

Hanna Knuuttunen (25:48)
was, you know, like an old man volunteer who I'm sure was very sweet and was doing a great job versus like a 20 year old girl. Yes, exactly. I'll give it to the 20 year old girl if she doesn't mind, you know.

Erika (25:53)
gonna end up with like a finger in the picture like, ⁓ what's that in the corner?

smart.

KNUTE (26:03)
What about Saturday night do you remember? Let's talk about like after we ate just talk about the... Yeah.

Erika (26:08)
Well, I heard you guys had a nice dinner at your house, right Hanna?

Hanna Knuuttunen (26:11)
Yeah, so we hosted everybody, our family, know, my parents, my brother, my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law. ⁓ Yes, it was a full house.

Erika (26:20)
So it was a full house.

KNUTE (26:21)
And Erica,

that house is as big as your spare bedroom.

Hanna Knuuttunen (26:25)
Yes, like it was a full house. It was a full one bedroom New York City apartment. It's a perfect space for two people, but for 10, or I think we had eight people, we had nine. We had nine people. That's a lot for my adorable little one bedroom New York City apartment. But we had a great time. Mike cooked a bunch of pasta. We had meatballs, chicken cutlets, garlic bread, salad, like.

Erika (26:31)
Gotcha.

wow.

Sounds

amazing.

Hanna Knuuttunen (26:54)
some dessert stuff. had a lot of really, really good food to carboload and it was really nice to have everyone there. At one point we all sat on the couch and we watched a YouTube video of like a POV of the New York City course and I was telling everyone like, I'm okay in this area, you know, it's a, what'd you say? What, got it all set up? It was fun. Yeah, I was. I wanted them.

KNUTE (27:08)
did that for you.

I did that for you. made sure that happened. Well, you were showing them the map and I

was showing mom and dad the video of the Casey Neistat where Roberto got run over. And then I was like, well, why don't I just put on the course? No, I will. But I was like, you're so excited showing them the map. I'm like, I'll just play. It was like a seven minute video of the course. So, and like fast forward. It was pretty cool.

Hanna Knuuttunen (27:23)
Yeah.

Erika (27:25)
You were supposed to send that to me.

Hanna Knuuttunen (27:36)
Yeah,

just, know, nobody is from New York. Some have visited an occasional time, but they don't know what the course is. They don't know what to expect. I mean, for me, like going into something, even just as a spectator, if I know like what the course is and what the runners are going through, it just makes it more meaningful to me. ⁓ So yeah, I wanted to give them kind of a lowdown of we start, you know, in Staten Island and

Erika (27:54)
Mm.

Hanna Knuuttunen (27:59)
we go over the Verrazano Bridge, it's the highest incline of the race, and then this street in Brooklyn's gonna be like this, and then it gets really quiet on the bridge. I wanted to give them all the low down, so that was fun. ⁓ Yes, yeah, no, I did. mean, the Pulaski Bridge, which is the half marathon point of this course, is very close to my apartment, so I run that all the time. Same with the Queensborough Bridge. Anytime I run in Manhattan, which now with my longer runs is pretty...

KNUTE (28:10)
Did you go run parts of the course, like in prep? Yeah.

Hanna Knuuttunen (28:29)
frequently, I have to run on the Queensborough bridge. So both those bridges, I've already run Pulaski probably 30 times, Queensborough at least like, you know, 20 plus times.

KNUTE (28:39)
And you didn't

Erika (28:40)
Mm-hmm.

KNUTE (28:40)
want to

run up McIntyre with me, but you run up those bridges, no problem.

Hanna Knuuttunen (28:44)
Because, because that was supposed to be a low mileage Saturday and I already did two extra running with you. You know, I didn't want to overdo it. Exactly. I don't want to overdo it.

Erika (28:52)
Don't make her deviate.

KNUTE (28:54)
She just, no, you

told me long ago, like, I'll run with you one day in New Hampshire, but I'm not running up McIntyre.

Hanna Knuuttunen (29:01)
yeah, that's probably true. I probably did say that.

Erika (29:04)
She's got the British. She doesn't need McIntyre.

Hanna Knuuttunen (29:06)
Exactly,

exactly. Sometimes I just need a flat, you know, flat little course.

KNUTE (29:11)
Did you hear that? New York's flat. nevermind. You're talking about Londonderry. Yeah. Yeah. Yup.

Erika (29:11)
The rail trail. ⁓ yeah.

Hanna Knuuttunen (29:13)
No, I'm talking about the rail trails.

Just talking about the rail trails. But yeah, so.

KNUTE (29:21)
So did you think

in your mind that New York's hilly, just to talk about flat and hills, do you think it's hilly?

Hanna Knuuttunen (29:26)
I do not think New York is hilly, I do, I think people think it's flat, which it's not. I don't think it's super hilly, but we have the big bridges and lots of streets when you're running, you know, in New York, half the time you're running on one block for miles and miles, and it just is like super low, but consistent incline. Yeah.

Erika (29:44)
Mm.

KNUTE (29:49)
That's easy. Like that,

all day long I can do. Right, it's the hills with the quick pitchers and stuff that make it hard when it's hill.

Erika (29:53)
It's like the set it and forget it, like a 2 % or running up fifth av in the back half.

Hanna Knuuttunen (29:53)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

But in my specific neighborhood, which is not a part of the course, my neighborhood does get hilly. So every time I run into Manhattan, and then when I'm coming back and running back to my apartment, I always have one huge hill that I need to do at the end of my run, which sucks. But yes. Yeah. So New York as a whole, no, it's not hilly, but it's not flat. And we've got plenty of bridges.

Erika (30:16)
Wow. They always leave it for the end. It figures, right?

Central Park's pretty has some hills, all right.

KNUTE (30:27)
And you like running in New York.

Hanna Knuuttunen (30:29)
Central Park definitely, yeah,

it does have some hills. does Prospect Park, which is in Brooklyn. But yeah, no, I love running in New York. I really do.

KNUTE (30:37)
What are some of your favorite

places in New York to run?

Hanna Knuuttunen (30:40)
Central Park, obviously, is just awesome. Roosevelt Island is the small residential island in the East River between Manhattan and Queens. it's, you can, you can, I just run there. You can like run over a little bridge to get there and then it's like a perfect four mile loop around the island. So that's nice and it's all water and there's, you know, some cool.

KNUTE (30:52)
and you take a tram to get there.

Erika (30:56)
Nice.

KNUTE (30:58)
Okay.

Hanna Knuuttunen (31:05)
green areas and sculptures all over the place. It's just nice and quiet but with gorgeous views of the Manhattan skyline. But yeah, I love Central Park and I just, I run through the streets. I run these streets. I really do.

Erika (31:18)
You do. Was

there a certain part of the course that you were most looking forward to running when you got there eventually on Sunday? Like your favorite neighborhood. Yeah. I know we talked about Central Park being one of your favorites, like neighborhood-wise, borough-wise.

Hanna Knuuttunen (31:26)
Hmmmm

I was,

well, I think I was excited to run the very small portion in Queens just because it's my borough. And it's kind of, do run those streets a decent amount. But it's also where I would always spectate. That would always be like my first spectator spot was in Queens. So I was excited, like there's this man that always every year is out there with a big welcome to Queens sign. And I was excited to see him, you know, as we ran by. So I think Queens.

I was excited to run through 4th Ave in Brooklyn and 1st Ave in Manhattan just because I had been hearing that the crowd support there was crazy and so loud. So was just excited to experience those areas as well. And they turned out.

Erika (32:18)
Excellent.

KNUTE (32:20)
So,

do you not enter Queens until you hit the Pulaski Bridge? So that is a really small section and that's where we saw Mom and Dad, right? Okay. Yeah, that is really much of Brooklyn and

Erika (32:21)
Mm-hmm.

Hanna Knuuttunen (32:25)
Correct, once you're over the Pulaski Bridge, you're in Queens. It's the shortest, yep, that's where we saw them for the first time.

Erika (32:34)
At what mile point is that?

Hanna Knuuttunen (32:36)
You get into Queens at like,

Erika (32:37)
Is Pulaski at 13?

Hanna Knuuttunen (32:39)
yeah, yeah. So it's like you're in Queens at probably like 13.4 or something.

Erika (32:44)
⁓

gotcha.

KNUTE (32:45)
All right, well, let's go to race day. You got an extra hour of sleep. How did you sleep? It took you a few minutes to get to sleep. Remember we ate again. You were, you were nerve. You were like, you had so much like amped up nerves.

Hanna Knuuttunen (32:49)
Mm-hmm. Which was nice.

Yes, like 930.

Erika (32:56)
Hahaha

Hanna Knuuttunen (33:02)
Yes, I really did. yeah, going back to Saturday night, once the whole family once everyone went back to their hotels and it was just myself, Eric and Mike, my husband here at the apartment. I got I was very anxious because it had been such a busy day. I was overwhelmed. We had been hosting. had been getting people to their hotels, picking them up for their bus, making sure it was settled, prepping for his giant dinner. I didn't have any time to just like sit and relax and breathe.

or stretch. So I got, I was getting anxious for sure. Like I had, I was definitely having a moment the night before. ⁓ but I think all that anxiety somehow knocked me out and I actually slept, which was incredible. I was prepared to have no sleep that night. You know, people always talk about you might be so excited. You won't sleep. That's how I was before my first half marathon didn't sleep at all, but

I did, and it was incredible. I woke up and I was like, wow, I just, I did that. Like I think I got eight hours. That's nuts. Yeah. Yes. But I truly, I credit that to my low key anxiety attack that I had before. I think it knocked me out.

Erika (34:05)
That is unheard of and I'm very proud of you for actually getting a good amount of sleep.

Yeah, your body was like, can finally relax now. The day is over. There's no more excitement until tomorrow. ⁓

Hanna Knuuttunen (34:21)
Yes, yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And

so I woke up, you know, it was daylight saving. So we got an extra hour, which love that. And I woke up pumped, like ready to go. I was I was ready from the second we woke up. was like, all right, I'm not nervous anymore. Like it's go time. There's nothing to it but to do it now. So let's go.

Erika (34:32)
Yep.

I

Yup.

We did hear a little from Eric about the long ass journey you guys had to the start line.

KNUTE (34:45)
Yeah.

Hanna Knuuttunen (34:52)
You know, it was long, I guess. Yeah, but it was fun. Just time-wise, exactly. Yes.

Erika (34:56)
time-wise, but you had like different segments, right? Like you had the train

and then what was after the train? The ferry, the ferry, the ferry. Another, some multiple trains.

Hanna Knuuttunen (35:03)
Then we have the fairy. ⁓

KNUTE (35:04)
another train.

Hanna Knuuttunen (35:08)
But we met people, every part of this commute to Staten Island, we met, was her name Amanda Eric, who was running for her son? Yep.

KNUTE (35:17)
Amanda was the first one. Remember, you

saved everyone from getting on the wrong subway.

Hanna Knuuttunen (35:22)
Yes, I did. was like, ⁓ none of you are from here and you're all going to get on the wrong train. was like, that's not what you want. Come on back. Yeah. And then we all got on the right train. God bless. Made it on time.

Erika (35:22)
⁓ excellent.

You're a good person. Save their day.

KNUTE (35:35)
So we got to chat

with Amanda for that entire subway ride. You really got to chat with her. And then we made our way to the ferry and that's, well, eventually we met Morgan and Rachel, that's where, that was so cool. Like outside, remember it was like a party, the EDM music was blasting. And then you kind of like, we probably cut 500 people, not cutting, but like you knew where to go to get through some gate. Cause the way there were,

Hanna Knuuttunen (35:43)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

KNUTE (36:03)
filling the ferry area, we got in the right call to corral, and then they weren't letting some other people in until the rest of us got through the doors to the ferry.

Erika (36:12)
That's just being smart.

Hanna Knuuttunen (36:13)
Yeah.

The ferry was awesome though. Like I truly, I don't know Erica if you've only done the bus or if you've done the ferry, but I, I would recommend the ferry. I, and I never done the bus so I cannot speak to that, but it was so fun. Granted, would it be as fun if it was like a really nasty cold rainy day? Probably not. We lucked out. We had a gorgeous, gorgeous day, but

Erika (36:20)
Just a bus,

Hanna Knuuttunen (36:37)
For me, like that got me in the zone. I was like, we're in New York, baby. Like, look at the skyline, Statue of Liberty, like gorgeous day, we're outside. Like, ⁓ it felt good on the ferry.

Erika (36:50)
think you guys picked the right choice with the ferry. So I have done the bus twice and it just starts your day off so much earlier. So I think I was on a bus at like 5.15, even with the extra hour of sleep and it's just so early and you get to see some things. It's cool with the sunrise, but you don't get to see the Statue of Liberty. You don't get to...

Hanna Knuuttunen (36:58)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. It's so early.

KNUTE (37:11)
Does the bus go

Hanna Knuuttunen (37:11)
Yeah.

KNUTE (37:12)
over the same bridge you run over? I didn't think so.

Hanna Knuuttunen (37:14)
No.

Erika (37:15)
It's

a long journey because you got to go around. don't know exactly the route, but different.

KNUTE (37:19)
Right.

Hanna Knuuttunen (37:19)
Right.

KNUTE (37:22)
Not only that, remember the last

bus, at least this year, was 6.15 in the morning.

Hanna Knuuttunen (37:27)
6.30.

Oh yeah, 6.15, yeah. like, know, Eric and I, yeah, yeah. So I, you know, I would, it also depends on your wave. If your wave one or two, maybe that makes more sense. You're already having to get up so early. But Eric and I didn't start till 11.30. You know, like we had time. We had plenty of time.

KNUTE (37:30)
Hanna and I left her apartment at 645. Yeah.

Erika (37:30)
early.

Yeah.

Hmmmm

yeah.

KNUTE (37:50)
Yeah, I would say wave probably three, four and five, definitely four and five because those girls on the bus with us were wave four. Like you got plenty of time, right? The bus ride took longer than I thought. The whole thing took longer than I thought because I was expecting to be at the Village for three hours, but we were actually only there for an hour and 10 minutes until we went to our corrals.

Hanna Knuuttunen (37:58)
Yeah, and they were fine. They had plenty of time.

I do think the bus ride once we arrived in Staten Island that brought us from the ferry to the Sartre Village, I do think it took longer. We seemed to be stuck in traffic. It took about 45 minutes when it probably, I think, should have taken 15 to 20.

KNUTE (38:25)
Okay.

Alright.

Hanna Knuuttunen (38:32)
But we met friends, we were chit chatting, you know, it was all good. I ate a bagel.

KNUTE (38:35)
It was fun.

Yeah. Yeah. It was a lot of fun.

Erika (38:37)
Perfect.

eating your bagels, you're getting ready, and you get to line up in your corrals. Are you getting nervous at this point? Do you have all the energy? Are you dancing to the music? How is the vibe in the corrals getting ready for this?

Hanna Knuuttunen (38:45)
Mm-hmm.

The vibe was good.

The vibe was good. I was having fun, Eric. I think you were having fun. Like it wasn't nervous energy. The only... Yes, I had a few friends that ⁓ I bumped into at Start Village, which was great. So, you know, Eric got to meet them and we were a little group, you know, walking to the corrals, getting ready to go to the start line. So we were having fun. We were eating nerds gummy clusters. There was a beach ball flying around. It was good vibes. Yeah, so...

KNUTE (39:00)
You met a lot of friends too.

Erika (39:03)
Very cool.

Perfect.

KNUTE (39:18)
Tell

them about your code brown.

Hanna Knuuttunen (39:23)
Well, technically there's two. know which one you're talking about, not real cold bronze, but so I had my water bottle in my mouth and I like was holding it, you know, with my teeth, because I was doing something with the beach ball. I don't know what happened, but somehow the, you know, little thing you squeeze the top of the water bottle to get the water to come out. The water bottle detached from that and fell onto the ground and water was going everywhere. And I was like, crap, like my water bottle.

Erika (39:44)
huh.

Hanna Knuuttunen (39:50)
broke right before this marathon. Like what am I going to do? Yes, yes, this is my running, my running water bottle. So the top comes off. Water's going everywhere. I'm like, no, where is it? Like I can't find it. It's broken. And then I realized the top is still in my teeth. Like I'm still holding it. And I was somehow able to like squeeze it back on and it worked. So thank goodness. But I was very nervous for a second because I was like.

Erika (39:52)
Oh, so this is the one you were gonna use to run with, right? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh no. Oh no.

KNUTE (39:55)
handheld.

Erika (40:05)
you

Hanna Knuuttunen (40:17)
My water bottle that I'm running with this entire race is now busted. Luckily not.

KNUTE (40:18)
I

Right, it's right as we're

Erika (40:21)
⁓ no.

KNUTE (40:22)
about to walk out. Was it the beach ball that hit you or did it just break? I thought the beach ball hit you. Yeah.

Hanna Knuuttunen (40:24)
Yeah, truly. It was something to do with the beach ball. We blamed the beach. Yes, I think it

Erika (40:25)
you

Hanna Knuuttunen (40:32)
was the beach ball hit me and it made me move and bottle detached. But it all worked out. And the second, yeah, it was cute. It was fun. People, was a good community there. Everybody was having a good time. And then the second, Code Brown, was a...

Erika (40:34)
⁓ no.

KNUTE (40:36)
Right. The beach ball thing was fun.

Hanna Knuuttunen (40:49)
you know, right before we were truly about to start, like we see the bridge, you know, we're like, basically on the course, I was like, I actually really have to pee again, like crap. We're so close. We are so close. I'm like, oh my God, no, I have to pee or I will have to stop. And luckily there were like a few, it was a fenced off area, but there were like these three porta potties that I looked at the security guard. was like, can I go? And he's like, sure, if you can cross that fence. So I had to like,

KNUTE (40:59)
We're like 20 feet from the starting line.

Hanna Knuuttunen (41:18)
Contort my body to like fit through this hole in a fence and then I ran to the bathroom, but it was amazing I was so glad that I got that. Yeah, it was worth it. It was worth it

Erika (41:23)
my God. Worth it.

KNUTE (41:27)
It was just like

the ones at Boston, Eric. Those white ones and big... yes, yes, yes.

Erika (41:32)
actually saw the video. But

Hanna Knuuttunen (41:35)
yeah,

there's a video of me running back, yes. Yes, yes.

Erika (41:35)
it's like, it's like on an angle and you had to like, like contort yourself in there.

KNUTE (41:38)
Yes, but you know what's funny is she started a trend.

Hanna Knuuttunen (41:43)
Yo, yeah,

people started doing that after me. When people saw me go through, people were like, you fit. I was like, I made it, like, go.

Erika (41:46)
Sorry.

KNUTE (41:49)
The staff was like, what did we do? ⁓

What surprised me was right after that we walked 20 feet and then apparently that was the start. Like it was a rolling start and I kind of thought we were going to like stand, have a national anthem, hear the canon. Like we heard a canon 10, 15 minutes before and I thought, okay, those were the first couple of corrals and they're gonna fill us. But it was kind of just like the slow pace lap, really slow.

Hanna Knuuttunen (42:01)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (42:01)
⁓

Hanna Knuuttunen (42:18)
Mm-hmm.

KNUTE (42:19)
going through like even remember we went like through through like a little bit of the forest or something like 10 feet worth and went backwards around some stuff and then we went onto the street it was like a hundred yards or so until we just started running I was like hold on my watch

Erika (42:25)
The forest. Yep.

Hanna Knuuttunen (42:32)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (42:32)
So you guys didn't get like the

New York, New York music treatment. no.

Hanna Knuuttunen (42:36)
We did not hear that, no.

Yeah, which that was a bummer. ⁓ I noticed after. Yes, we did. People, know, music along the chorus, bands and stuff. But yeah, at that exact moment, we did not hear it. Because we started, think, according to like my Strava time, at like 1138 or something, and our chorale started 37, there you go. And our chorale started at 1130. So I'm sure it played, you know, from 11...

KNUTE (42:41)
We heard it later on the course though, from someone else playing it.

Erika (42:44)
Good, good.

Mm.

KNUTE (42:58)
37. I'm looking at it.

Erika (43:04)
Okay.

Hanna Knuuttunen (43:05)
30 to 1132 when we were still super far back. But it's okay. We were still vibing.

Erika (43:07)
Yeah, gotcha.

But hey, you guys are off. The race has started. Tell me about, especially Eric, getting to run on top of the bridge. I'm so happy you guys actually got to run together. That makes me very happy. There was some nerves with Eric. He had a different color, and he was going to be underneath the bridge and different corrals. Well, same wave, but. Yeah.

KNUTE (43:12)
Yeah.

Hanna Knuuttunen (43:16)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it was awesome.

Right.

KNUTE (43:34)
I wasn't even gonna go. I was like, what's the point of going now? Yeah.

Hanna Knuuttunen (43:35)
Yeah, if I'm on the bottom of the bridge. Yeah,

no, Eric was able to go back because I was in a further back corral. So he was able to join me, whereas I could have not joined him. I could not have moved up. So he came back. So he started with me and therefore got to go on the top of the Verrazano Bridge, which is just real. I mean, I hear the bottom is great as well. I've I've truly heard that many times, but. Yeah.

Erika (43:47)
Right, right, right.

I do have an experience on both the top and the bottom.

you'd like, so I think Eric was mentioning how you could hear the people from underneath just yelling and hooting and hollering and stuff. That is part of the fun, but you do get to see all of the cool things up top. Much better.

Hanna Knuuttunen (44:06)
Yelling. Yes. Yes.

It was gorgeous

views. There was a helicopter that, you know, went right down and it was kind of like runner level with us on the bridge, you know, super close. It was really cool.

KNUTE (44:21)
It was like right with us. Yeah.

Erika (44:23)
How cool.

KNUTE (44:23)
I got a video and it was

on the other side.

Hanna Knuuttunen (44:26)
Yeah, you see the views of Manhattan, know, downtown. So it was definitely cool. we got some, Eric, we got some great photos on that bridge.

Erika (44:30)
Mm-hmm.

KNUTE (44:36)
Yeah. What I, my takeaway was like, I saw so many people stopping even like a hundred feet in and they just standing on the median in the middle of the roads, taking pictures. Like everyone was just like, in the zone of this is going to be fun. We don't care about our time. We're going to take all the photos and because I bet you I could run New York city a hundred more times.

Hanna Knuuttunen (44:44)
Yes.

Yeah, yeah, like we are getting started to have a party.

KNUTE (45:06)
We won't get weather like that again.

Hanna Knuuttunen (45:09)
Yeah, the weather was perfect. that, okay, so on that point, at the start of the race, everybody was either vibing, we're gonna have fun, this is a party, or the only other option was people were like, shit, why did I wear a long sleeve t-shirt? It is so hot right now, because the sun was just beating down. I heard multiple people being like, what are we gonna do? Once we got off the Verrazano Bridge in Brooklyn, I saw people,

KNUTE (45:25)
Ha ha ha ha.

Erika (45:30)
Mmm.

Hanna Knuuttunen (45:38)
like taking their layers off, having to unpin their bibs and like repin it onto like different layers because they just realized, like, it's November, but it's hot and sunny.

Erika (45:42)
Alone. Yeah.

KNUTE (45:50)
Yeah. It was nice. I don't remember seeing people shed in layers, but...

Erika (45:51)
Wow, you guys did luck out.

KNUTE (45:57)
I do remember seeing all the clothing donation areas, like, just so overpacked. Like, probably more than they expected. They say it's the biggest day for, like, the Salvation Army or something, right? Yeah.

Hanna Knuuttunen (46:01)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (46:04)
Mm-hmm.

Hanna Knuuttunen (46:09)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Erika (46:10)
Makes

sense. 59,000 people. That's insane. If everybody's donating something.

Hanna Knuuttunen (46:17)
huge.

KNUTE (46:18)
So Hanna, what are some of your favorite parts? We don't need to do a mile by mile breakdown, but what were some of your favorite parts? We know you looked forward to running through Queens, but you had a lot of friends on the course.

Hanna Knuuttunen (46:30)
Yeah, I looked forward to seeing all my friends and family along the course. That was definitely my favorite part, getting to like stop and hug them and get all teary-eyed and thankful for their support. And it was just, that was my favorite part. ⁓ But there were, yeah, cool parts of the city that I was excited to experience. was honestly excited to do the Queensborough Bridge because it's a bridge that I've run.

you know, many times before this, but this is just a brand new experience. And I was excited to hear like the silence and the pitter patter of feet and the breaths and then going on to first to have, and you know, then hearing the craziness of the cheering. So that I was excited for. I was excited for the Bronx. People always say the energy in the Bronx is just like so huge and it really was like they brought it. Harlem too. loved running. I loved the whole thing. What am I, who am I kidding?

I loved the whole thing. I enjoyed every single second. I really, really did.

KNUTE (47:32)
One of my favorite parts was right after 4th Ave, we're running, right after we saw Ali and I think Rose was after Ali, because remember we had to go Ali then jet right back to the right side of the road to see another friend. ⁓ We made a quick left and then a quick right and we were on a street called Lafayette Ave. And Lafayette Ave was insane. Just insane, that was mile eight.

Hanna Knuuttunen (47:44)
Yes. Yep.

Mm-hmm. I think it was Lafayette. Yep, Lafayette. Was nuts. Yes, it was nuts. Yes.

It was during Lafayette Ave was a moment where I was like, how, like physically, how do people run this course for a PR? Because it is so packed. Spectators are filling on the street. I'm like, you just have to slow down. There is not room.

to move, like for people that are really trying to fly, I'm like, it's gotta be difficult. Like you had to force yourself to slow down just to stay upright, because it was so packed. It was epic. Yeah, it was epic.

KNUTE (48:28)
Yeah. But it was so amazing. I think

the PR people are like the first two waves. Yeah. Yeah. Did you, did you...

Hanna Knuuttunen (48:35)
For sure, for sure. And people

aren't out and about as strong at 9 a.m. as they are at noon.

KNUTE (48:42)
Right.

That stretch was insane. And then I think first Av in Manhattan was like, just like that, but a little more spread out because that stretch of Lafayette, yeah, right. ⁓ I noticed, I said when I talked to Erica and Ali G last week was, I feel like we did so much passing. We almost never got past. We started off obviously slow.

Hanna Knuuttunen (48:51)
Just because it's, yeah, first half is huge.

KNUTE (49:09)
and then we were just passing people the entire time. Did you feel the same way?

Hanna Knuuttunen (49:14)
Not that I noticed. I did not. It's very possible, I, yeah, not that I noticed. But I'm glad you feel that way.

KNUTE (49:16)
I think we just kept passing people.

Well,

I felt that way and I felt like we were fast, but...

Erika (49:26)
Hanna had different priorities. She was just

looking at all the stuff on the side, not the people in front.

Hanna Knuuttunen (49:30)
I was like, yeah, your sign's so funny, give me a high

KNUTE (49:32)
Yeah.

Hanna Knuuttunen (49:33)
five. Yeah, you screamed my name.

KNUTE (49:35)
Well, you, you felt okay. So I felt that way. But the other thing is you continuously, maybe not the whole time, but for like a third of it, you kept telling me one thing.

Hanna Knuuttunen (49:47)
Slow down. Slow down. Slow down, Eric. Stop going so fast. Which to his credit, he wasn't. He had already slowed down for me. But his slowing down for me is my usual pace, you know?

KNUTE (50:03)
I remember one time

I was like, running at 1040. Can't go any slower.

Hanna Knuuttunen (50:06)
And I'm like, that's

what I run like on a good day. And it's mile four. Like I'm trying to not, you know, overdo it super early. So yes, to his credit, he was already running pretty slow. But I just, as I said, my only goal of this marathon was to cross the finish line and have fun and feel good. You know, I didn't want to cross the finish line feeling like I'm on my final breath because I pushed it so hard. That wasn't my purpose.

Erika (50:13)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Hanna Knuuttunen (50:35)
⁓ but yeah, I was telling them to slow down a little bit, but, but yeah, whatever.

Erika (50:38)
you

That's like a prime example. I know Eric, he's trained super well, but the crowds, you can't help but just get excited. If you're not focused, you can just take off and it's just, carry you.

Hanna Knuuttunen (50:50)
Yes.

Yeah, yes,

for sure, 100%. And I think that's why I was saying it, because I was very focused on like, do not do that, you know, you want to feel good. Force yourself Hanna to go slow.

Erika (51:07)
Yep.

KNUTE (51:12)
same thing?

Hanna Knuuttunen (51:13)
⁓

Zidane Ochara, when we met him the day before, I asked him, you know, it's my first marathon. Do you have an advice? And his advice was go slow. He's like, you're going to feel like it's way too slow. It's not. That's how slow you need to be going.

KNUTE (51:25)
Yeah.

Erika (51:26)
Pinksy gave you marathon advice. my God. Incredible. ⁓ God, goals.

KNUTE (51:27)
All right. Yeah, it was pretty great. It was pretty great. We'll get them on the pod one day. Guys, if you have a connection with the big Z, help us out. Help a brother out. All right, I put out an AMA, ask me anything, and we'll get to the finish after this, but I wanna actually do the AMA here. And if I did this right, Erica would ask the two of us, but she doesn't have them in front of her, so I'm just gonna, we have

Hanna Knuuttunen (51:29)
I know, isn't that wild?

Mm-hmm.

Erika (51:37)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yes I do!

KNUTE (51:53)
you do? Ask away.

Erika (51:55)
Yeah, they're the same ones

from the things. All right. is this going to, so this could be either and slash both of you. Okay. Did either of you do anything new on race day besides glitter?

KNUTE (52:01)
Yeah, asking us.

Hanna Knuuttunen (52:08)
Yeah, the glitter. No, I don't think so. well, no. I had a banana on the course, which technically I've never done, but it's fine. No, I didn't do anything new. Yeah, you did have a new shirt.

KNUTE (52:09)
The glitter.

Erika (52:09)
you

Did Trichy right?

KNUTE (52:19)
My backline shirt was new.

Erika (52:22)
Any chafing?

KNUTE (52:22)
you did the Firefly.

Hanna Knuuttunen (52:24)
⁓ that is true. Eric let me use his fireflies before the race, which I think helped. They felt good. Mm-hmm. But besides that, no.

Erika (52:31)
OK. All right.

This question, this could be interesting. What will it take to get Alex to run a race with you two?

Hanna Knuuttunen (52:42)
⁓ for it to be in the forest somewhere in the middle of nowhere. That's what it'll take. Yeah. If it was, he would do it. If it was, he would do it.

Erika (52:45)
On a trail. Boo. Alex, come to the roadside. Usually it's

KNUTE (52:47)
Yeah. Yeah, trail.

Erika (52:53)
me trying to pressure people to, well not pressure, but encourage people to try the ultra side of things. But now we're like, nah, nah, dial it back. Come to the roadside. ⁓ I guess this could be for both of you, but can we start calling you one star Eric? We can have ⁓ a one star.

Hanna Knuuttunen (52:59)
Right. Yeah.

LOL.

Erika (53:15)
Knuten ins.

Hanna Knuuttunen (53:17)
That's so funny.

KNUTE (53:18)
I don't need a nickname to get by in life. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. And I love, I guess I didn't really give you the nickname, Six Star Erica, but I brought it to life.

Erika (53:22)
Well, you're already new anyways, so you're fine. got Hanna Banana and we got Newt, so we don't need to add the one star.

Hanna Knuuttunen (53:22)
that's true. You already got your nickname. Yes.

Erika (53:34)
changed it on the, Peloton once I did hit my sixth star, but then it was immediately like ruined when the seventh star came out and I'm just going to forever be six star Erica. I may have other stars later on in the future, but I'm just always going to be six star. So that's fine. yeah.

KNUTE (53:46)
Yes, yes. I think I was the one who got, who like talked you

Hanna Knuuttunen (53:49)
Embrace it, yeah.

KNUTE (53:51)
into changing your Instagram or like I had to do something and then you're like, okay. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm not one star, Eric. I'll be no stars until I'm six, okay? That's what I'm thinking. I don't know. You guys, I don't get to pick my own nicknames, so.

Erika (53:54)
You pressured me for the Instagram thing, that's for sure. I think I changed it on Peloton first, a little bit.

Hanna Knuuttunen (53:58)
Bullied is the right word, bullied.

Erika (54:03)
All right.

Sure, sure. All right, are you two planning on doing another marathon together? Perhaps Chicago, another New York? I know Hanna's thinking of New York again. Are you gonna go back, Eric? Or would you do another one together at any point?

Hanna Knuuttunen (54:19)
So

I am doing New York in 2026. Eric does not think he's doing that one because it's the day after Halloween. He's got precious, precious young cherubs that he wants to take trick-or-treating. Yeah.

Erika (54:27)
⁓

KNUTE (54:30)
I'm not going to miss trick-or-treating two years in a row, but 2027

New York is on November 6th. So I even asked Hanna the Eridae, do you think it's possible for me to do 9 plus 1 next year? Because there's virtual options.

Erika (54:37)
Well shit.

Ooh, that counts. Very cool.

KNUTE (54:47)
Mm-hmm.

Hanna Knuuttunen (54:47)
Yeah, they do have a few virtual races throughout the year that count towards nine plus one. Yeah.

KNUTE (54:50)
We gotta research that so I can maybe do 27.

Erika (54:53)
That's cool.

KNUTE (54:54)
Absolutely, I would run with her again, ⁓ especially if it's a new marathon. If I run New York next, I don't think I'll be picky about top or bottom bridge, and I'm definitely gonna put a faster time in to get an earlier wave. And I might.

Hanna Knuuttunen (54:59)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (55:10)
Well, sometimes you have

to put in another, like you have to have a time so they can give you the correct corral.

KNUTE (55:16)
Right, well I think

I can get that time too. And I put in my time from last year's Manchester, which was very slow. ⁓

Erika (55:21)
Mm-hmm.

Come run cheap with me. You're to come run cheap. That one's easy. Well, not easy. It's all relative. ⁓

KNUTE (55:26)
Maybe, maybe. So, I mean, if I could just keep the icing on the cake. But I do

want to run it in an earlier wave, I think, and I'm still gonna party. I'm not gonna go for PR. I'm still gonna party, but I think I'm gonna run, I'm gonna run harder, faster. Yeah. Yeah. And by then Hanna will be like a nine minute marathoner.

Erika (55:34)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Gotcha.

Hanna Knuuttunen (55:41)
Yep, yep,

yep.

Maybe a 10.

KNUTE (55:50)
Okay.

What's next?

Erika (55:53)
All right,

what was the hardest part of the marathon for you guys? Well, that one doesn't have to do with Hanna. She did not get a weird sunburn on her head from sparkles, OK? We don't need to know that. What was the hardest part of the marathon for you guys?

KNUTE (55:55)
you skipped one actually.

you

Hanna Knuuttunen (56:02)
No I did not. No I did not. I'm covered.

KNUTE (56:02)
It would have been cool.

What was the question?

What was the new question?

Hanna Knuuttunen (56:13)
I... I...

KNUTE (56:15)
I don't remember. I don't-

Erika (56:16)
Was it the running?

Was it just the running in general? You just wanted to party? See everything?

Hanna Knuuttunen (56:20)
I don't know if it's because

we took it easy and we took it slow and we were just out there having fun. really, because I've been asked this before, and I don't mean to be like, oh, it was so easy, but I didn't find anything like the Queensborough Bridge, I didn't find super hard. I didn't hit the wall at mile 22. I was just truly.

enjoying the entire time and felt good the entire time. So I never like noticed anything that was like making me, you know, be like, ah, this is so tough. Like just power through like I never had to, you know, pump myself up mentally to get through anything. Yeah. Yeah.

Erika (56:54)
Mm.

Well, that's good. It just means that you trained right, you fueled right, you did all

that you could to make the marathon the best.

Hanna Knuuttunen (57:05)
So what the hardest part honestly might have been once we exited the park at the end and having to walk and meet our family like that final 27th mile that might have been the hardest.

KNUTE (57:12)
True. You were walking.

Erika (57:13)
I get that.

KNUTE (57:15)
by the way, she's a true New Yorker. It's not just then, but you walk so freaking fast in that city and you're just like, and I'm like.

Erika (57:18)
you

Hanna Knuuttunen (57:21)
Eric walks so

slow. like, can you keep up? I can't keep up with him running, but he can't keep up with me walking. He can't.

Erika (57:29)
Fair trade.

KNUTE (57:31)
I don't remember anything being hard besides maybe the four bathroom breaks I made. Three of them were super quick. The first one though, the hard part was finding one without a line. And so I think I was like, I'm going to try to go pee here. there's a big line. my God, there's two porta potties, there's no line. There is zip tied clothes. so those were, having to go pee on fourth ave was hard because I couldn't find them without like a super long line.

Hanna Knuuttunen (57:40)
long.

Erika (57:42)
Right.

Hanna Knuuttunen (57:56)
Yeah.

KNUTE (58:00)
And so one time I did stop and I want to say it was four minutes. And I told him I felt bad because you waited. I said, just walk, go super slow. I talked about it last week. I know I got to spread my legs and really run for a bit. ⁓ But yeah, that was maybe the hardest part was having to go pee and just like saying, no, let's keep running to the next porta potty. And as you got further along the course, there were like no lines at any porta potty. So.

Hanna Knuuttunen (58:00)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (58:00)
Right.

Mm-hmm. That's like a mental thing. ⁓

Good, good. All right, what was your favorite thing that you saw on the course? It could be a sign or your friends or your family, just something cool. What was it?

Hanna Knuuttunen (58:35)
my friends and family throughout the chorus, but I would say probably specifically at like mile 23, which is the last time we saw our people. And at that point it was like all of our family, multiple of my friends had joined. So it was a big crew and this was on fifth half right before you entered the park. the spectators there were, you know, very loud and excited and

Erika (58:47)
Mm-hmm.

awesome.

Hanna Knuuttunen (59:02)
when they saw us with our family, know, the other spectators, see our names, they start cheering. So we felt like we had like the whole avenue. So my favorite thing was seeing friends and family specifically at 23.

Erika (59:13)
Beautiful.

KNUTE (59:13)
Yeah, I want

to say the same like seeing Maurice too and Jeanine and Michael as well, pod fam, but to kind of go differently, I think I answered that question differently last week. Going on social media the days after, seeing some people, finding them on there, just like it pops up on your feed algorithm, knows I love New York. I see some people that I remember seeing in the village or seeing, so you know who was right next to me in the village?

Hanna Knuuttunen (59:16)
Yeah.

Erika (59:16)
⁓

awesome.

Hanna Knuuttunen (59:35)
Yes.

Erika (59:39)
Who?

KNUTE (59:39)
the king of chemo from the great world race. I didn't know it until after because I'm watching him put weights on and he basically ran slash walked with 25 pound weights, one in front, one in back. He was right next to us and I'm like, look at this guy, but he had a fresh haircut. He didn't look like what he looked like a year ago. And then there was this one girl, Hanna, do you remember her? She was Asian with pink and green hair.

Erika (59:43)
wow.

Wow.

⁓

KNUTE (1:00:10)
and she's wearing a pink top, think running around us for like five miles. And she pops up on Instagram, her and her friends like do so many reels and they have like 2 million followers. I'm like, holy shit, maybe it was 260K something like that was like 2.6 or whatever. Right. And I'm like, we were running. And so now I'm looking at all their Instagram stuff to see are we in their videos? So that was kind of neat, like post race, seeing those people on social media that

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:00:22)
⁓ nice.

A lot, a lot of followers.

Erika (1:00:36)
Mm-hmm.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:00:36)
Yeah.

KNUTE (1:00:40)
I remember seeing whether it was running before or after.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:00:41)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Agreed.

Erika (1:00:45)
All right, I'm gonna try to skip a couple of these, but, so this one's more for Hanna, we know how Eric feels, but did the medal live up to your expectations? it's gorgeous.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:00:54)
Yes, yes, yes. I

KNUTE (1:00:59)
Erica,

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:00:59)
love this metal so much.

KNUTE (1:01:00)
since we're all holding up world major medals, Erica, do you have yours to hold up too? So we can...

Erika (1:01:04)
You know what

I got? Hold on a second.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:01:08)
The sixth time!

KNUTE (1:01:09)
⁓ the six star.

Erika (1:01:11)
This is the coins that they give you for the majors. Hold on, I think I can hold on to this one. So it's not

KNUTE (1:01:13)
⁓ wait, do the coins go in the six star metal?

Erika (1:01:17)
exactly the six star medal, but it's like a kind of a replica. That's the closest thing I have. So these all pop out.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:01:21)
That's super cool. That's super cool. Yes.

KNUTE (1:01:21)
Very cool. Very cool.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:01:25)
This medal lived up to every expectation. I kid you not when they did the reveal of the medal on social media a few weeks before the marathon, it made, I shed a tear. I truly shed a tear. Like I was like, I'm gonna have that. Like this is beautiful. I just think it's so special. you know, it's the elevation of the chorus. So it's like.

Erika (1:01:34)
Yeah. ⁓

That is such a nice

touch.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:01:48)
Such a thoughtful touch. And I just, I love it that it's just so classic, you know, just the gold. It's simple, but it's meaningful. I love it. I am obsessed with this metal. I really am.

Erika (1:01:56)
Mm-hmm.

I'm so happy.

KNUTE (1:02:00)
Same. It's

Erika (1:02:00)
I'm so happy for you guys.

KNUTE (1:02:01)
the coolest medal I ever got.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:02:03)
I love it.

Erika (1:02:04)
I mean, I think we covered most of the other questions for the most part. ⁓

KNUTE (1:02:10)
I mean, we know, okay,

so would you do it again? Of course. Another 26.2 in the books. Are you gonna go for 31? So a 50K one day. Did you love it? Yeah. How?

Erika (1:02:13)
⁓ huh. Yup.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:02:13)
Duh. Yes.

Erika (1:02:16)
Did you love it? Yup. That's how amazing and

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:02:18)
Yes, loved it.

Erika (1:02:21)
cool was it to run with your sister.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:02:23)
That was my question. How amazing

KNUTE (1:02:26)
It was,

⁓ it was pretty freaking awesome. ⁓ How would you rank New York City versus Boston versus Chicago? I guess you're gonna have to run Chicago and Boston.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:02:26)
was it, Eric?

Erika (1:02:29)
Mm-hmm.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:02:35)
Me? Yeah,

I simply can't because I've never ran either of them nor have I spectated either. So I have no experience with either.

KNUTE (1:02:44)
I'm gonna be honest,

Erika (1:02:44)
Mm-hmm.

KNUTE (1:02:46)
I don't know how another marathon can beat this marathon.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:02:49)
So that is my thought. New York is my city. Don't get me wrong, Boston's.

Erika (1:02:55)
It's hard to beat it when it's your city. You live there. You have heart there. Yeah.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:02:57)
Yeah, New York is my city. Like New York is my home. I

love it. I love the course. The spectators like New York really, really brings the energy. So yes, for me, I'm like, how could anything possibly top this? But I'm excited to try and see if things can top it, you know? I'm entering all the lotteries for the other world majors. So, know, wait. Hey, Thai man.

KNUTE (1:03:22)
Say man, say hi. Say hi. Hi.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:03:26)
Hi, Thai Man.

So yeah, I'm entering the world major lotteries, you know, waiting right now to hear back from, think like Chicago and Berlin. So who knows? Maybe I'll get into one of those. Got New York again next year. Yes. Yes. So definitely going to keep doing it. And like I said, well, New York was iconic. Can't imagine things can top it, but I'm excited to give it all a try.

Erika (1:03:35)
Love it. Fingers crossed for you.

I'm so happy to hear it.

KNUTE (1:03:52)
All right, before we end this, let's talk about the finish line. Let's talk about Central Park. The only hill I really remember being hilly part like something was a downhill in Central Park. And after we saw Aranazar, we had about a mile to go. Talk about that last mile.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:04:09)
I was feeling good. I was feeling good. It was gorgeous out. Like the sun was going down, but it wasn't dark. We had kind of beautiful golden hour. Like, did you? Yeah. Yeah. But I was feeling good. Like I was obviously feeling tired. We had just run 25.2 ish miles, but I was like, let's finish this out strong. That last strip along Central Park South, the spectators were awesome.

KNUTE (1:04:18)
I did lift my glasses up though. Yeah.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:04:37)
You turn into Columbus Circle into the park and they have a band on a stage right there. And then you're going down, you have all of the flags of all the countries on either side of you. And just the energy of the runners is amazing. And ⁓ it was... I did? At you? Yes, because you kept running away. Because you kept running away from me. And that's, Erica, why we're ultra marathoners. Because Eric never ran straight.

KNUTE (1:04:52)
You did some yelling though. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Erika (1:04:58)
But to slow down.

Mm-hmm.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:05:06)
He was going left, he was going right, he was cutting across the course all time. I'm like, Eric, we need to cross this finish line together. Stop moving, just stay with me.

Erika (1:05:10)
It makes a lot of sense now.

KNUTE (1:05:16)
Do you

think I was really going to purposely like cross it without you?

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:05:20)
No, I

didn't think you were purposely going to do it. Of course not. Of course not. But I was just like, stop, stop moving. Just stay with me.

KNUTE (1:05:29)
I was trying to find a gap. So, well, no, I was trying to find a gap where no one would be around us, so no one would be in our way on the photos. Also, also, you have an eye for photographers. You know where they are, and when you see them, you position yourself for them. You have the classic, you're always like, yes! I like to do the point, and I'm like...

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:05:31)
He was trying to get extra mileage is what he was trying to do. He was trying to get extra mileage in.

Yeah.

Erika (1:05:39)
That's always tough to do.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:05:43)
yeah.

Mm-hmm.

It's actually, need to get, I know, I

need to get a new face because I'm like, in every single photo, my mouth is wide open up. like, let's go. But I paid for, yes, yes, I loved it. Like, true, looking at the photos, I'm like, you can tell I had a good time. You can tell I had fun. But yeah, I paid for the photo package, so I was like, I gotta find those photographers. I gotta get my money's worth.

Erika (1:05:55)
She's got that, do that. The peace signs.

KNUTE (1:06:03)
But it's so cool because you love this.

Erika (1:06:04)
just shows how much joy is flowing through you. Mm-hmm. Yep. I love it.

yes, it worth

KNUTE (1:06:18)
Yeah, it was

an epic day. It was such an epic day.

Erika (1:06:19)
every penny. Were any tears shed at the end? Were you just so proud? And I love it.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:06:21)
Epic. Epic.

Yes, yes.

Eric didn't see it. Eric didn't see it, unfortunately. But after they put the medal on my head, I got teary-eyed. And I was like, my god. And one of the volunteers was like, you did it. Good job.

Erika (1:06:38)
You did it.

I did, I did it. ⁓ we are so, proud of you, Hanna. You are a marathoner. Welcome to the world. The wonderful world of marathoning. ⁓

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:06:43)
so much. Yeah, I definitely got teary-eyed.

⁓ I couldn't have done it without the support of On The Runs.

KNUTE (1:06:54)
Now,

I do hope you do the other world majors and I can't wait to hear about it, but I also think like it'll be very interesting one day when you do a much smaller marathon.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:07:05)
Mmm, that honestly, it'll be different. It'll be tough. That'll be when I'm like, feeling like a legit runner that can like maybe go for speed, you know?

Erika (1:07:06)
⁓ the difference.

Gotcha. Yep. Yep. You got to pick the small ones where you can focus a little bit more.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:07:23)
Exactly, exactly.

Erika (1:07:24)
Definitely. Yep.

Yep. That's why the cheap marathon, I'm going to plug that one, cheap marathon from Millennium Running ⁓ in April is the one that I usually go for to try to run fast because there's not a lot of spectators. It's on a rail trail. It's very flat except for that one hill. yeah, yeah, it's good to work on speed.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:07:36)
Okay.

KNUTE (1:07:36)
And it's on a rail trail.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:07:40)
Nice flat. Love that.

KNUTE (1:07:43)
Well, you

need to come home and- are you gonna be home for Thanksgiving?

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:07:49)
T.B.D.

KNUTE (1:07:50)
Do a turkey trot with us.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:07:53)
if I come home.

Erika (1:07:53)
you got to tell

me which one to sign up for. OK. All right. I'll sign up. Cool.

KNUTE (1:07:54)
We're doing Manchester, the Millennium One. All

right. Awesome. Well, I am super pumped the way everything turned out. The whole week, except for me for getting the power supply to my normal tech boots, like the whole week was pretty great. Your hospitality was amazing. I am excited for the day you get to do a marathon that's not New York where you don't live in New York and you can just go and stay right down near the finish line, near the Expo.

Erika (1:08:06)
I'm proud of you both.

KNUTE (1:08:22)
take in things and not have to worry about hosting people like your brother, your family, and your in-laws and all that. But it is also your city and I think it's really cool that you're gonna shoot to do it every year. I think that's the plan, right? Every year.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:08:37)
Not necessarily every year, but I will definitely do it more. As we know, I'm doing it next year. I do not know if in 2026 I'm going to aim to do the 9 plus 1 for 27 TBD. I would maybe spend that time trying to do other majors or other marathons or races other places. But it will definitely be something I do more than just one more time, I think, for sure. Yes. Yes.

Erika (1:08:48)
Mm.

And that's a beautiful thing. Hanna, I'm so happy

for you. You, you crushed it. You did it the right way. That was your victory lap and you, you made the most of it.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:09:06)
Thanks guys!

It really was.

It really was. It felt like a victory for sure.

and it was a great day.

KNUTE (1:09:16)
It was great. It was so much fun. I'm so happy I did it. So, it was amazing. Yeah. Yeah, that was the best part. Like, it was super fun. So, we'll do more especially because you're just gonna get faster.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:09:21)
Me too. And I'm happy we did it together.

That's the hope.

Erika (1:09:34)
Keep running with Eric and you have no choice because he's going to keep running and you're going be, stop, slow down, slow down. ⁓

KNUTE (1:09:37)
The run we did in London Dairy was like your fastest

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:09:38)
For sure, for sure.

KNUTE (1:09:41)
run ever.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:09:42)
Yeah, for a run of that mileage, like we did nine miles, it was definitely.

KNUTE (1:09:48)
Okay.

All right. Well, hey, we do gotta wrap this up, but you are an official guest now with the podcast. And we have two final questions. Now, I hope you listen to this podcast and you know what they are. So why don't you give us what your song's gonna be for Erica and then who your plus one's gonna be for the pasta dinner?

Erika (1:09:55)
You sure are.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:09:55)
Yes,

official pod fam.

every single episode.

you

Erika (1:10:11)
Like I don't even need to ask the question, she knows. Give us something good.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:10:11)
Okay. my gosh. Okay. So I do have

songs. I kind of think they may have been used. In fact, I know one has been used, but I'm giving it regardless. But first, Eric, I think this may have been one of your original songs, but Rain On Me by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande. So good. So if that's not on the podcast, that can be my song. Okay, because that song is so, so good. The other one.

KNUTE (1:10:26)
it's a great song. It's a great song.

Erika (1:10:27)
Yep.

I'll double check.

KNUTE (1:10:32)
I don't think it is.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:10:37)
somebody used it, but it's Yaya by Beyonce. like always have that try to be the song that I, it was, was Kelly Roberts. And she also gave Dancing Through Life from Wicked, the movie soundtrack, which is also one of mine. And I remember listening to the episode and being like, damn it, she took Yaya and then Dancing Through Life. Damn it, she took Dancing Through Life. But anyways, we can have rain on me. Yes.

Erika (1:10:40)
feel like that was Kelly Roberts.

KNUTE (1:10:47)
Yeah, she broke rules.

Erika (1:10:49)
We let her break rolls. I'm letting her break rolls.

Well, either way, those are your songs now too.

KNUTE (1:11:02)
And

then who you taking to the pasta dinner? Remember the new rules. Anyone alive or dead, but not an alive family member.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:11:09)
Yeah, no, I got it. And I know my answer already and kind of based on what I was just saying for my songs. Cynthia Erivo, the world-class actress, singer, performer, superstar who plays Elphaba in the new Wicked movie. ⁓ She's incredible and she's a huge runner. She runs all the time. You know, she talks about how before these big days on set for Wicked, she would just go out and she'd be running 13 miles. I saw her in the color purple on Broadway a few years ago. She ran the Brooklyn half.

Erika (1:11:17)
Ooooo

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:11:39)
one morning and then perform two shows that day. She's just an incredible person that I love. Like I love her artistry and she's a great runner. And so I would just love to hear about how she merges the two.

Erika (1:11:49)
Excellent choice.

By the way, did-

KNUTE (1:11:53)
to have to

try to get her on the podcast.

Erika (1:11:55)
That would be really cool.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:11:56)
Good luck.

Erika (1:11:57)
I know she's kind of a hot commodity, but did you guys hear it? There was somebody from Broadway who did that this year and did like two shows.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:11:59)
Good luck.

KNUTE (1:12:03)
Yes. His name, I forget his name, but-

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:12:04)
Yes, who? Fiero.

Justin Linz, I think. Yeah, he's Fiero on Broadway.

KNUTE (1:12:08)
Yeah, he was on set the pace. Yeah, he

Erika (1:12:09)
Crazy, right? Beautiful.

KNUTE (1:12:12)
finished

slower than what he thought he was going to. So he kind of had to actually rush to the show. He thought he would have time to go home and eat and shower. And I don't think he got to go home. He might have had the shower option like at work, but he thought he would have easily an hour plus to go home and he did not. Yep.

Erika (1:12:28)
Yep, yep. Super cool though.

Cut it

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:12:34)
Yeah,

Erika (1:12:34)
close.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:12:34)
but he still did that. That's not an easy feat.

Erika (1:12:34)
Absolutely. But excellent choice with Cynthia. think she's amazing. Like she just gives me goosebumps when she sings. So beautiful.

KNUTE (1:12:36)
You still did that.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:12:41)
Yes. my gosh. She's

the best vocalist alive right now.

KNUTE (1:12:46)
Amazing. Well,

hey, I'm proud of you. I think it was amazing. I think you're on your own next year. I don't think I'm coming. I don't think Mom and Dad or Alex are coming. ⁓

Erika (1:12:51)
Proud of you both.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:12:57)
That's all good. That's all good.

Erika (1:12:57)
She's got

a very good support system out there, so she will not be alone.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:13:01)
Yes, yes.

KNUTE (1:13:01)
Yeah.

This was a lot of fun guys. I really hope you enjoyed it. We finally, finally had her on the podcast. Hanna Banana on the On The Runs podcast. That was wicked awesome.

Erika (1:13:07)
Yay, Hanna!

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:13:09)
Thanks.

Eric (1:13:19)
Oh, love you so much. think you are absolutely amazing. And I give you a lot of credit for everything that you had to put up with this weekend. What? I was amazing. Lots of stuff going on. Not very relaxing, but she had a wonderful, wonderful race. And I'm so happy that she got to run it with you. Like, that's such a cool experience. Just wait till she gets to run one when she's not hosting nine people in her tiny New York City apartment. She needs to be able to have a zen moment, know? Yeah.

Terri, what do you think of the episode? ⁓ I loved it. But I'm a huge Hannah fan. Hannah Vanana fan. I think Hannah is the cutest thing on the Earth. She's just very bubbly. She's always having a good time.

I love her. I'm huge fan. Yeah, it's super cool seeing the running journey. I don't know if she mentioned it when she did the throws in the past or in the episode, but Alex and I would always be like, oh, once you hit 30, you're going to start running. And she's like, no, not. I'm not. Is that what happened with your brother? He hit 30 and was like, yep, it's time. Kind of both of us when we took the next step. OK. So you know, and she's done exactly that, not because of us, because of New York City Marathon. Yeah. That was really awesome. That's amazing motivation to get started.

New York City Marathon is just so big and fun and vibrant and it brings all, like the entire city together, including the boroughs, not the bureaus. my god, the bureaus. The bureaus. The bureaus. The bureaus. You were calling them bureaus. Whatever. I had to give you a little chip for Whatever. It was like the fourth turn.

whatever you call the pop-tart. Whatever. The best, best. perp turd. Let's talk about Millennium Running for a second because Erica just signed up for the next Millennium Running race. Yeah. Yeah. We're grouting, baby. Erica is What did I say that And she's dressing up as a turkey. Oh, okay. We're doing the turkey challenge. I'm like, which one? I don't even remember. I am so tired, you guys. It's been a long day. The 5K.

The five we're gonna be there and if weather permitting Hannah might be there actually ⁓ weather permitting Adaline will be there. Okay. Yeah, so it'd be fun fun run. What is her like? Rain rain rain rain Yeah, think over it. Yeah, right. So can't pick the weather on race day. No, no, no, but but

I can sign her up on race day when I know it's not raining. Save yourself 45 bucks if she doesn't want to do it. So we'll be at the Turkey Trot in Manchester. It happens right down the street from where we are at the baseball field. That's a wicked fun race. It's awesome because I actually have not done that one yet. Well, I said this earlier because you typically like to just drive two minutes from your house to the natural I it's very convenient. So Tara gets it this time. I actually rocked this one.

because it's right off the rail trail and it's a mile from my house. That's your warm up. My warm up? then I run the 5k and then I run a mile. You know, if I am by myself, no Adaline, I could.

run to this one too. I ran to the one that we did a couple weeks ago. Yeah, I ran to that one too. The race for the fall. What did you guys overachieve in? I know, that ended up just seven miles. And then you ran off and ran home and didn't like hang out with me after. I know, and I ended up at podiums that day too. Yeah. place in my age group. Not a Pays to be an old lady. You know what else? We made Erica mad. And when I say we, it wasn't me, it was us. We made her mad that You kind of hammered

But she took it out on me not just me and you we posted and said look how you can do content ⁓

You're back. didn't take you long. All right. We got somebody cool. We're going to have to talk to them, but we need to wrap up this episode. So real quick, this was a lot of fun. The New York series was a lot of fun. road to the five boroughs was a lot of fun on the allergy show. New York was awesome. Again, I don't know how many races can talk. It was first class, just like these millennium ones. But we got to wrap this up because we have some more cool people to talk to for.

the Manchester City Marathon that's gonna drop in just a couple days guys, so enjoy. But Erica, you need to take us home and end this New York series. I'm so bad that I didn't get here any earlier, but I'm so happy I get to join you guys now. But thank you for listening. You know we love you. Don't fear the code brown. Never trust a fart. And don't forget to stretch!

KNUTE (1:18:45)
Alright, Tommy, say hi and bye.

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:18:48)
Hi, Mr. Tom.

KNUTE (1:18:49)
Wait, I gotta hit stop. It's Tommy, his name's not Tom. ⁓

Erika (1:18:52)
you

Hanna Knuuttunen (1:18:54)
is Mr. Tom to me.

Erika (1:18:56)
you