196 | LIVE from the Manchester City Marathon | Millennium Running

LIVE from the Millennium Running Manchester City Marathon in Manchester, New Hampshire!

This LIVE episode revolves around the experiences of various runners at the Manchester City Marathon, sharing personal stories, insights into their training, and the community aspect of running. The guests include the winners, the official charity "Swim with a mission" and Millennium Runners who all discuss their motivations, challenges faced during races, and the importance of charity in the running community. They also touch on future goals and aspirations in their running journeys. This conversation explores the journey of marathon runners, highlighting the importance of community support, mental health, and family involvement in the running experience. The speakers share their personal stories of training, winning races, and the challenges they face, while also reflecting on the joy of participating in running events and the significance of future goals. The discussion also touches on the memorable experiences from a live show and the excitement of upcoming races.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Manchester City Marathon
04:17 Matthew Baron | Men's Half Marathon Winner
18:55 Michael Bauer
31:51 Mary Klene | Women's Half Marathon Winner
42:56 Phil Taub | Swim with a Mission
56:25 Casey Ellis | Men's Marathon Winner
01:09:08 Mackenzie Hall | Women's Marathon Winner
01:21:45 Melissa Cummings
01:36:53 Poncho Story | Michael Bauer
01:42:03 Bridget Cantone
01:58:29 Tracey Eastman
02:11:36 Nicole and Daniel
02:21:39 Outro
02:26:54 Bloopers

Takeaways

Michael is a die-hard fan of the podcast.
Mackenzie just ran a marathon and is tired.
The poncho story highlights the tradition of marathon gear.
Phil from Swim with a Mission emphasizes community involvement.
Bridget shares her experience as a new mom and runner.
The importance of training and preparation for races is discussed.
The guests reflect on their personal journeys in running.
Charity events play a significant role in the running community.
Future goals include running in all 50 states.
The camaraderie among runners is a recurring theme.  Winning a marathon is a unique experience that requires mental strength.
Community support plays a crucial role in mental health for runners.
Training for marathons involves strategic planning and adjustments.
Family involvement can enhance the running experience.
The running community is known for its supportive nature.
Future goals in running can motivate and inspire individuals.
Participating in running events fosters a sense of belonging.
Live shows can create a vibrant atmosphere for sharing experiences.
Training challenges can be overcome with the right mindset.
Celebrating achievements in running is important for personal growth.

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

Transcript

Eric (00:54)
What's up, everybody, and welcome to episode 196. I had to think about the number there of the On the Runs podcast. We are live from the Manchester City Marathon, and my kick-ass Rockstar Vercoe host is not here, so I got another kick-ass Rockstar Vercoe host, Terra Pterodactyl. What's up? Hey, guys.

I'm super happy with how did. 850 feet of elevation over 13.1 miles. So but I crushed it. I'm super happy with how I did. Did you run with Jen or did you run like did you like crush?

No,

we ran the whole thing together. That's like the best part about Jen and I. You two run together all the time. Yeah, we literally run the same paces and if we want to go fast we can go fast and we're the same So you work off each other. Yeah, we each other. You push. No one's holding anyone back. No, there's definitely been times where I'm like, Jen, go. I am not feeling it today, just go. And she has left me. Right. But today was the day that we were both feeling it and we ran the whole thing together. And you've only done the relay before, so did you ever run any sections of the course?

that you're in today in the relay. I've only done the first four. I think it's five miles maybe. I haven't run the rest of it. I've always either the first leg or the last leg. That's right because you're doing like a four person relay. All right. All right. And was it it hilly? my god it was brutal. It was brutal. Yeah especially mile is it 11 because you go to hillside elementary all the way up Dairyfield Park. Yes. And then you cross the street and you go up the road. That's Highland. And then you go down. But then the last mile. yeah. All downhill.

Yeah, but that you when you go down highly and you take a right on handover. Yeah. yeah That's such a steep part of highland and you're like, how am I gonna make the turn? Yeah, right. My last so mile 13 was an 853 I think and I was like, woohoo. Let's go feeling it feeling it. How'd Jen do? Awesome. So I gotta give Jen major props. She she got kovat a week ago Okay, so she was down and out like literally in bed for three days felt terrible major sinus issues lungs she

on Thursday because she works at the Elliott. Had a positive, like wasn't negative, sorry, negative COVID test. to go back to work Friday. She ran the Spartan race yesterday and then it runs 13.1 today. And she's a mom of three. Those tests are funny when they come in positive or negative. You're like, wait, is positive good? No, it's bad. Is negative good? no, negative is good. It's messed up sometimes. So this is going to be so much fun. We've already talked to, I've already talked to a few people when you were running. I talked to the men's winner. I talked to

We're gonna try to get Michael back, because you just got here. We're gonna hear his little story about a, his, The poncho. The poncho, yes. poncho. And then we're gonna hopefully get the women's winner on soon and a few others. I saw Sammy Sulea. I just saw Lara walking around. We have a lot of amazing people here, and it's gonna be a lot of fun. So live from the Manchester City Marathon, Tara Taradactyl and me. It's gonna be a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (04:18)
What's up everybody I'm here with Mike Matt. Matt Baron. See I'm so bad with names you're gonna learn a lot about me like those M's get confusing but you just won the half marathon in the Manchester Marathon half marathon 5k relay. How you feeling? I just heard you talking to Andy over there you said like he got you right as you finished. ⁓

Speaker 1 (04:38)
Yeah, I got

a couple of swigs of water and then I was pulled over.

Speaker 2 (04:43)
Where are from by the way? Are you a local? Are New England guy?

Speaker 1 (04:46)
I'm living in Somerville right now. Been in Somerville, Cambridge for about 10, 11 years.

Speaker 2 (04:51)
Amazing. I heard I'm a I'm a we're New Hampshire based, but I'm a big Boston guy and I love the whole summer really. know that. So I heard Andy talking to you and he asked you why do you pick this race is your first Manchester event like Manchester half marathon. What was the reason? One thing I heard you was it worked in your training, but also the weather was ideal. So when did you decide to come here?

Speaker 1 (05:13)
When did I decide to come here? I decided to come here, I signed up probably just about a month ago, maybe a month and a half, so six weeks or

Speaker 2 (05:21)
So you looked at that 30 day forecast. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Speaker 1 (05:23)
That's forecast, yeah.

Sure.

So I'm 34 years old. Like I said, I've been in Boston area for about 10, 11 years. And I'm actually mostly a track guy. So usually 5K, 10K on the roads is about where I top out. Yeah. This is actually my ⁓ second half marathon that ever done. Yeah, I've been lucky. You know, the two half marathons that I did, actually I took home the W in both of them.

Speaker 2 (05:56)
Oh,

undefeated. 100 % win. Not only did you win this one, like you had a sizable lead, like were you running with anyone at any point? This is also a very, very hilly half marathon.

Speaker 1 (05:59)
I should quit while I'm ahead.

Yeah. No, I was pretty much in no man's land the entire time. There was a guy who was clearly running the marathon. He had a bib on and he was just kind of gone. Like I saw him in the lead bike for maybe the first five, five and a half, six miles. And then I'd never saw him again. He was way out there and I was all alone.

Speaker 2 (06:30)
All alone. Does that mess with your head or do you like that? Do like running? You do track. So a lot of the track you're always around people. Like, this something you're not used to?

Speaker 1 (06:39)
I

mean, so like the long kind of steady efforts, you my long training runs, I'm running them alone. Like, so I think I'm kind of used to like grinding by myself. Right. But yeah, you know, when it's when you're really trying to spin the wheels and you're really trying to go fast, it's nice to have like bodies around you. Yeah. Because you can like make moves and respond to moves. But these long grinds, mean, I think I'm used to training alone. And so, you know, being able to run it alone, it's like it's not it's not great because you don't have a training partner. You don't have like someone to kind of key off of. Right. I'm used to it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:09)
You have a coach I'm sure. you have a new coach now that you're doing longer distance or is your same coach from track and everything?

Speaker 1 (07:15)
Same coach

and actually as I was telling Andy over there, I'm getting ready for indoor track season. this was just, this is a long steady grind effort to kind of keep the endurance up and get ready for indoor track.

Speaker 2 (07:27)
Do you got goals outside of indoor track season, like to do these longer events, endurance races, we'll call it, like half marathon, is that even endurance for you? How long, was this like an hour 20?

Speaker 1 (07:36)
Yeah, says it's an hour, 74, I think is what they said. Okay. the line. Funny you call it an endurance event. My wife runs ultra marathons. Not a big deal. So yeah, she was warming up with me, walking around with me from the car. And she goes like, oh, you should have told me that you were like when you decided on running this half because I would have signed up. And I was like, why? She goes like, oh, just jump into a half marathon. It's fine. Yeah. It's like, Lisa, you run 100 milers. Like, is this?

Speaker 2 (08:04)
like a 5K for her. You know, my co-host who's not here right now, she's running the BAA half marathon. That's like her 5K, because she does 100 milers too. She finishes, like she's done now in the last, it's funny, she always finished in the golden hour until this year. Now she's finishing with hours to spare. Now she has like six or seven buckles under her belt. It's a pretty wild sport to see them doing hundreds when you and I are out here doing halves or fulls, you know, or track for you. Like, do you train with her? Is it different?

trainings ⁓ for 100 milers, you're doing a lot of track. Do you not get to train with her? Do you guys get to bounce off her?

Speaker 1 (08:40)
We run

together, we have two dogs who are really good running dogs, and so we'll take them running in the trails and stuff, even up in the whites. And so we'll get to do weekends together, take the dogs out. But no, twice a week I'm on the track grinding the oval. And she's really supportive, she cheers me on. But then I'm there to freeze and shiver in the car waiting for her to come into an aid station. So it's a give and take.

Speaker 2 (09:08)
Let's talk a little bit about track. It's not an area I'm familiar with. ran high school, middle school track, right? But, you know, I'm almost I'm just trying not to get lapped in the 1600, right? When everyone's coming down, I'm trying to start my fourth lap on time. What do you specialize in track?

Speaker 1 (09:25)
I

am mostly a miler, but on the track I run 800 to 5K. Coach has me aiming for 3K indoors this year. But yeah, I'm mid-distance.

Speaker 2 (09:39)
You're also 34. Yes. Like you're not a high school or college kid. you're, are you do, you must be doing this professionally on some type of a professional level. Or do you have a normal nine to five and you just run track for.

Speaker 1 (09:50)
I have a normal 9 to 5 and I run track for fun. ⁓

Speaker 2 (09:52)
That is

awesome. That is so awesome because that's like the rest of us. We have a normal nine to five. We do this for fun and we run for fun. So that's incredible. I want to tell you a quick story. One time I was leading a 5k, very small 5k, right? And I could imagine you being in the same scenario on track. So I was running in a pack of like five and I was the first one the entire time. I felt like I started pacing this race and I was like, if I'm going to win, I got second, by the way.

gotta slow the pace down to save some energy. So when you're doing track, if you're in the front or if you're in the back, what's your strategy? If you're leading, are you trying to like control the pace? If you're in the back, are you trying to just work off the guy in front of you? What's your game plan?

Speaker 1 (10:35)
I actually

like in a mile, like there's just kind of you don't have time to really try to control the race. It's really like you got to be on top of it the whole way. Yeah. But in like a 5K on the track, you can kind of like, oh, I'm going to I'm going to like take this lap. I'm going to try to slow it down. I'm going to take this lap. I'm going try to get in front of people. But no, like if you're out in front in a mile, it's like you better be really confident. Right. So if I'm in a mile, I actually like to hang out in like third, fifth and just kind of think like, OK, can

I pick off a guy this lap? Or can I pick off a guy this 200? But no, you have time in a 5k. You don't have time in a mile.

Speaker 2 (11:13)
Coming off the final turn in a mile, or any track event really, would you rather be in the lead or second?

Speaker 1 (11:19)
I'd much rather be second. Every Myler trusts their kick. And so you could talk to anybody who's a Myler and be like, oh, yeah, I can kick somebody down in the last 150. But I think I have a pretty good kick. But I've got guys in the last 150 of an 800. So I'm pretty confident in myself, but I'm sure there's plenty of guys who have much better kicks than I do.

Speaker 2 (11:46)
Alright, so if you're leading now, you're not in second place, you believe in your kick there. If you're leading, what are you doing? Are you peeking behind you? Are you just getting on the straightaway and just kicking straight and never gonna go wide shoulders, arms or anything? You must stay in your lane, I'm sure. You can't block.

Speaker 1 (12:04)
Yeah, you can't block.

I've been in the front, and you just kind of swing out to the lane line between one and two. But no, it's not... I'm not trying to peek over my shoulder. I have a pretty good sense of footsteps behind me. And so it's just like, know, eyes across the finish line. Listening? Yeah. Yeah, like listening, then just like eyes across the finish line and get there as fast as you can.

Speaker 2 (12:28)
Yeah, yeah, it's I don't know if you can tell I got the Earnhardt hat on. Three's there somewhere. I'm a big, racing guy. And they always ask that question, you know, coming off the final turn at Daytona or something. Do you want to be first or second? And it's fun because first can block. But you see these videos and races and stuff running where someone's blocking. You're just like, ⁓ you know, just just go straight for it. So I like that you do have strategy. You kind of hug that line and make him work a little bit. Yeah. Well, that's got to be so cool.

Tell us what's next on the docket for you. We know you got indoor track, but do you have more of these races planned with you and your coach? Half marathons? Are you thinking marathon one day? What's the dream here for Matt?

Speaker 1 (13:10)
No, no marathons are in my future. I can shake your hand right now and promise you that no marathons are in my

Speaker 2 (13:16)
mean

if you get this pretty cool jacket when you do a marathon right here. Not interested. Not interested in the jacket. Are you into like the medals or the memorabilia, the stuff you get for winning by the way?

Speaker 1 (13:29)
And you get like this

nice kind of black, you first get the finisher metal.

Speaker 2 (13:33)
Do

you hang that in your house or somewhere? Do you have it on the wall? Hi. In your podcast studio that you'll have one day? You know, not a big deal. won the Manchester Marathon half marathon.

Speaker 1 (13:43)
No, it's all in service. A lot of folks will say you just kind of stack bricks and then you build it up that way. I love to remember things, but it's not like, I need all the memorabilia from it. It lives up here. Funny you say in your podcast studio, but when I was in college, I had a radio show. way. ⁓

Speaker 2 (14:08)
Was it a talk

show?

Speaker 1 (14:09)
It was

a talk show, did like technology.

Speaker 2 (14:11)
You

know what's funny is sometimes people come over here and I'm like that guy really knows how to talk into a microphone and that's you right away I was like I don't even have to tell you what to do. Yeah, so yeah your experience. That's so cool All right. I got two more questions one. I'm gonna ask you for a fun story I'm gonna let you think about that, but the second one I'll ask first is how can people find you? you on social media? Do you produce content? Are you like in a running series for your track if they want if they follow any indoor track series?

Speaker 1 (14:39)
I really try to stay off social media. I'm not a content creator in any shape or form. I like to keep as low a profile as possible. ⁓ I'm sure if you tried hard enough you could find me on Strava, but I do not go on Strava. And you said for a fun story.

Speaker 2 (15:00)
Yeah,

a little bit of what we are worthy on the runs podcast. Typically, there's a running poop emoji with her logo. Okay, so we love a story called a code Brown now code Brown isn't like an actual code Brown it could be so we had someone who did college track and her shoe came flying off and she had to make that decision like what I do so she finished the race with one shoe. Do you have any stories like that where something happens to you in any of your running career here and it's like it could have messed with you, but you persevered or maybe like something totally went wrong.

and how did you overcome it?

Speaker 1 (15:31)
The one thing I kind of jump to share, it's not necessarily a code brown, it's not, you know, nothing crazy, but actually last fall my wife kind of dragged me into a trail race. So it was a 17-mile trail race, and this is my second half marathon.

Speaker 2 (15:50)
because he got a marathon.

Speaker 1 (15:52)
No.

So, you know, like 17 miles is over my head. Right. And it was this nice loop course. So you always kind of came back to the same aid station in the start-finish area. And it three laps. And the first lap I go out and I just kind of find myself out in front. It's like, okay, well, I won the first lap, in air quotes. Let's see if I can do it for the second lap. I am all alone the second lap. I'm like, okay, can we do the third lap? Third lap. And we get to kind of the

It was an aid station all the way out in the third lap. And I come through it and I come back down and I'm like, oh, I see a guy coming back up. I'm like, that's not the guy who I saw behind me on the way up. So he's somewhere back there. So we're coming down and there's these two hikers coming up and they're clapping for me. And then the clapping doesn't stop as I get past them. And I'm like, oh no.

So there's a guy who I didn't see at the top of the aid station. He's right there. And I think we're down to like the last 800 or so. And I can like, I can hear him. I can kind of see him out the back. And I'm wearing a running vest because it's a long trail race. got water bottles. And so I'm like, I felt like I was in the last 100 meters of a mile, you at end of these 17 miles. both water bottles, like I'm pumping because I'm trying to get to that line. Both water bottles just like,

fly out of this vest and I'm like ⁓ no I don't like I don't know the rules about like can I let them fall on the ground is that littering?

And so I'm holding on to both of them. They're like a third full, so they're flopping around. And I'm pumping as fast as I can in these two floppy water bottles in my hand. just like, god. He finishes, I think, six seconds back. And I was really lucky to hold him off. But I just was like, I don't know. All my gear's going everywhere.

Speaker 2 (17:57)
He's going to protest that you threw a bottle each one cost him three and a half seconds and he should get the victory paycheck. Well, this is cool. Listen, man, I'm so pumped. You talk very well into a microphone. I believe that you will run a marathon.

Speaker 1 (18:12)
I promise

you

Speaker 2 (18:13)
And I think, know, find us weird love. We love all to runners. We'd love to chat with your wife one day. Hear about some of these hundred milers because those are where you get some of the best. Oh, yeah. Stories. The code Brown. Even aid station stories. We looked at the two of you on and since you're local, you're both in mass down the road, not even that far. So no, this is super cool. Thanks for jumping on. Go grab a jacket. Maybe they go blankets. I feel bad. I'm like, OK, you know, we've been talking here for 14 minutes. You know, a little cold. I was like, you want my jacket? This is so fun, Matt.

Thank you so much. Congratulations on the win. Good luck this winter track season. hope it's warmer inside the track. Thanks so much. Awesome. Have a great day.

Eric (18:57)
Manchester Marathon and I'm still waiting for my amazing kick-ass rock star of a co-host, but I do have a friend of mine here We have Michael Bauer Michael Bauer tell me a little bit about yourself. You're you're a die-hard fan of the pod You're a patreon you have a sign for me last week in the York City Marathon Tell us a little bit about who you are where you're from. So my name is Blake Fowler. I'm from Long Island, New York basically rates basically half about an hour from the city so

Yeah, I I was coming here as well. what made you come here? Honestly, I try to do like a half marathon at every state. OK, so New Hampshire is a repeat state, but I had it every weekend available. I love what the Millennium running does. And yeah, so he wants me to come down there. So I want to know a little bit about that. Then how do you learn about Millennium running? And you said what Millennium running does. So first race I did Millennium running was last year, the Eastern States. Half marathon 20 miles. I did that too. Yeah.

This is before I knew who you were. And I was like, a race me. I just kind of ran down the coast and had fun and I gave you so awesome that day. Like everything from, you know, when they saw from New York, they're like, mean, like, welcome to New Hampshire and everything like that. ⁓ Here's the liquor store. Stop right off the highway. yeah. They just are amazing. So I kind of had this one on my radar. I needed a couple more half barathons or some stuff I was doing and it worked out nice.

All

right, tell me about your your crew the people at mile 14 yesterday or last week at the New York City Marathon Is that your run group because you're like, it's not an official Yeah, so we I'm part of two big run groups on Long Island. The one I was with is a Selfie Hill Warriors They're not like registered with New York Roadrunners. We go there every single year as long as I've been running they've been going there Yeah, it's a good spot we mostly drive in I took the train in for the day because I had some other plans after

Drive kind of plan Drive to about like a block or two down and walk Okay, think Boston max is out at 50. So you're yeah Yeah, I mean that's the thing like there's so many people cuz like again, it's a local

race

for me so it's a local big one I should say. Right it's a small local race. like this is this is like the equivalent of like some of the other ones I got home on island. Right right right all right um so that crew what was the name of your run group? Seldon Hills Warriors. Seldon Hills Warriors and how did you find them? So I started running in 2016 the following year I had a couple races I started seeing all these people wearing the same you know the singlets and everything right and they started talking about the hills on the next day.

I'm

actually happy to the end the race. I'm going to introduce you to Lou. He's the guy who basically founded the group back 15 years ago now, I want to say. yeah, it's just like he comes in and like, just come down and run a 10K. At that point, I'm like, I have not run more than four miles. And this thing is... Well, you only got two more to go. yeah. And this thing is ill. Right. there's a road called the Seven Sisters. That's the first two miles.

of what we run. And it gets worse. How to compare to the course you just ran. So you did the half marathon. And from what I know, I've run this more than once. is Manchester is Hills. You hear me talking about it. I train on these hills. This was nothing compared to Selden. OK. OK. I will be honest with you. Like you definitely had worse at New York City last week. New York City is not hilly. Hot tape. You had it harder going up Fifth Avenue.

23 miles into your race last week. Then this race today? No, no. this day was easier than that 23rd mile. Okay, okay. I don't remember, like, being hard in New York. What I do remember was the downhill in Central Park. So right before that downhill, you got to go up that road right before you get there. I think you hit like mile 23, then you go off Fifth Avenue. Yeah. That was hard as heck for me last year. Okay. It just was maybe kind of gradual for me.

Like the bridges where I feel like some of the hills here have quicker pitches and then they flatten out then a pitch and then it's not just like a continuous climb. So if you were to run the marathon here, the second half, the third quarter basically, the rail trail out is that gradual climb and you don't know it and then you turn around and you go back down and it's like downhill and you're flying. Yeah, you should run the marathon here one day. I mean, I got some big marathon goals.

New York, The 10-year anniversary the day I started running Okay, so what would be doing that one in my I want to earn Boston yeah, I want to I Looked at I should not say this publicly. I looked at the qualifying time

yesterday because someone posted it and I was like you know what when I turn 45 it's a 315 yeah if there was no buffer worry I think I could get it in four years five years I'm aging myself already I mean listen I don't know that that's a long shot I think the 30 minute time gap between the men's and the women's is a little much but at the same time it should be hard yeah I mean it's it's supposed to be hard I get that I based on my five came a half hour I know it's just a matter

Putting

together on right right right so let's hear a little more about yourself You're doing trying to get every state what stage do you have left or what's on deck? I've got about 17 done. Okay. I will be getting number 18 next weekend going to North Carolina Marathon weekend terror who's supposed to be here right now is gonna be there Oh, well, I to come back around so you need to go to the US National Whitewater rafting Center and just grab lunch or something do some people watching You must know I used to live in Charlotte

Stories yeah, yes, so no go there check it out go to uptown Charlotte check out some of the restaurants They call uptown because it's nice They think downtown seems you know down on the city or whatever. No, then there's some areas that Weren't there when I lived there, and then I've gone visited and one was called no dot and ODA I think like North Davidson Charlotte area that was some cool cool bars and stuff in there everything so my favorite bars gone I can't remember the name

It

pops up on Facebook and not Duckworth Duckworth is my favorite restaurant. But anyways, yeah, I know I love Charlotte. And then next month I'll be doing my A-Race half trying to get under 130. OK. And that'll be in Tucson, Arizona. Pretty fast. Oh, is that the marathon project? you're doing like a marathon project. There's another one. I know about that. I know people do the marathon project. Yeah. And here comes oil from Salem. You got tar taradactyl here.

So this is Tara Tara Dactyl. Hey Tara, I know you got no headphones. We're talking to the mic here. You're going to Charlotte next week to run the half. Yeah. So is he. Are you? I really am. That's so awesome.

talking about the turn to the half in every state. Yeah, same here. Yeah, I gotta ask Oregon I have not done Oregon. Okay, Erica done Oregon. I think she did rebel, right? Yeah, she did and she fell and she bloodied up her knees Yeah, cuz I would say Oregon I will recommend Eugene to anybody anytime anywhere where the track and field and everything. Yes, so I actually end on paper feel Manchester and if you pay VI

You get to warm up running laps with track. Which was the coolest experience. Pay the VIP. Get the VIP bathrooms. the VIP. Oh yeah, you actually get indoor bathrooms. You know the bathrooms in New York are pretty great. I will say they have so many of them. Well they do it right. It's first class just like Millennium. exactly. then like, I had the benefit of being wave one last year. I did have that many issues. Did you see? Okay, let's talk a little bit more.

Did you see the picture I was on the ferry so I got the boat picture? Yeah, the Nike sign I saw it I think I because of you. Yes, I admit that I the ferry was amazing. It was so sick I did the bosses right like I also made the mistake of taking like the one of very first buses last year. Yeah, I say it takes 90 minutes your VIP Just like I took one of the first buses. Yeah, and they say it takes 90 minutes. I was here in 35. Yeah, that was

Hey, let's hang around real quick. want to know that's not gonna work the way you want to work I'm gonna set you up in a minute. So Tara just finished the half marathon with Jenny here Erica We don't know what her deal is. She's running the BA half. She's running Valley G. can understand it. Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, so I wanted to one thing though How you did not know about us at the 20 mile at Eastern States last year? Yeah, I want to hear this story How do you find us because not only have you found us and become diehard and you've made me a sign but you're also

of our patrons. So I actually found out about you. I was roughly a year ago. I did the next six. I said it was twenty twenty four. Yeah. So rather a year ago, I know like a bunch of people because of athletic brewing, you know, everything. And one of the ambassadors, I don't know if she still is or not, but was I'm Sammy Sammy. She's running her first half right now since having a baby. Oh, no kidding. Here she go and come by it little bit. Yeah. So yeah. So when she was on the pod, that's I found out about you.

November yeah, and then I obviously there's one thing from there like that you guys have definitely know like sir Vernon Yes, mr. 305 305 no more Like he just changes Instagram handle back to that like yeah smart move Yeah, he and like and that's thing. It's just like I just gave it a listen cuz I'm starting trying to find podcasts and you guys just fit the bill. Yes Nice, I love having you here. It's actually only been about a year because Sammy was November last year. Yeah and

She did know it at the time, but I'm pretty sure she was pregnant at the time. mean, I guess it was I could see it was pretty early on maybe but like I got some I can't speak to like yeah No, I'm just take doing the math, you know the weeks and everything I will certainly say one thing about more than anything else when I say it to all my friends everything I know you ran that marathon with hand and everything no matter what time anything you did I was a your marathon is more impressive than mine and I hate PR blasters in New York Why is that? Because you have three kids you got the

I always say, you have all that stuff on top of your running and you find like, like your coach, you drove your coach nuts, to keep taking long run days, but you're still finding the time to pull it off. She didn't change it. just said, listen, I'm going to do this on Wednesday. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I'm taking your schedule. moving the days a little bit myself. Yeah. like, to me, and this to anybody, I don't care what your time is, what your speed is, what your anything is.

You're doing all that and still putting the work in the training done. You're more impressive than anything else like ever Well, just wait until next year if I get in Chicago, I'm gonna go sub four, ⁓ Chicago is the course to do it at yeah, I I'm gonna run with Erica and she's gonna help me under under four. yeah, she ran under four. You'll be fine Yeah, exactly. So well when I'm really in the zone training She's the one trying to keep up with me. But the last couple years since she hired KJ game changer

⁓ gosh, yeah, the right coach makes everything happen. I can say that from experience. I've had my coaches for five years. I had to relearn how to run because I did not understand this slow down to run fast concept. no, like it's great. like I said, you guys are a great community. I know that. And that's why I'm so happy. I'm happy to have you here. Listen, let's set Tera up real quick. Yeah, by all means. And then let's bring you back for one more minute and you give us

the story about the poncho. Oh, yes. Yeah, it's a good one. All right. The good one. All right. We'll be back guys.

Eric (31:52)
don't be nervous. We are live on YouTube.

Now we got the winner of the women's half marathon and apparently she's a local legend according to my now co-hostess here, Tara Taradactyl. Yeah guys, it's not me. We got Mary Kenny here. Mary, what's up? Hey! How are you doing today? Now you told me that you've seen us before other races. You've been around, you're kind of a bit of a local legend. Yeah, she's a big deal. She's got a Millennium Running Run Club member too. Oh right, so you're of the whole thing. Tell us a little bit about

⁓

yourself. I'm addicted to running but that's okay. She's really good at it too. So how did the race go today? This can't be your first Manchester half then? No, I've run the Manchester Marathon for years before Millennium. It's like the hometown race so you have to run it every year. ⁓

only ran the fall marathon, so I just did the half. You did Harford, right? Yeah, and you did really good at Harford. Yeah, good for me. Another BQ, right? Yeah. Another. You act like it's just nothing, not a big deal. Well, okay, so I've run this marathon twice. There's some people, my co-host, six-star Erica, who's like, I'll never run it again because it's super hilly, it's super hard. Why do you keep coming back? Well, I didn't run the marathon.

I just ran the half. The half is easier. Oh, really? Well, you only have to do half of it. I already ran a marathon. marathon I picked was a pancake, so that was easier. Yeah. Well, I always thought the first half for this is the hard hilly part. Yeah, I guess it's a little hilly, but... You know what? I like you because everyone's like, is hilly, this is hard, and I'm like, it's not that bad. And I think hills are fair because you get the reward of the downhill. Yeah. So I like it. I embrace the

the hills or embrace the sun. So I'm looking at my Strava and 863 feet of elevation for the house. For the house. I that's... So there's some hills. Yeah, that's a lot. Just a little. Just a little. I had the bike guy with me for the race and I...

Sorry, yeah, there's some hillies like you're looking strong like the hills are coming. Well, let's talk about that then Are you used to that having a bike guy with you because you're leading well, they do that for this for this race Okay, what's those conversations like you're talking to them? You're like, hey, I talked to him the whole time. I'm like, sorry I'm crazy. I'm gonna talk to you the whole time

I did that once in college, I rode the bike. But I was always way ahead, I felt like I couldn't be with that runner in the lead. But that sounds pretty cool. What did you guys talk about? Everything, yeah. He said he used to do ultras, he's a little bit older. So he's like, well, I'm like, so you're gonna say that's gonna happen to me soon, I'm gonna break down? He's like, I can't run anymore. I'm like, ⁓ no!

That can't happen. But I still have like 10 years. He's a little older, so 10 good years maybe, hopefully. No, you've got more than you You've got more. can do this forever. Listen, you might not win everything. no. You might slow down.

Are you part of like the whole point system Millennium has a point system. There's also other point systems out there. Like what is your goal this year with running? ⁓ For the point for the Millennium point series. Are you going for it? I mean right now I'm in the lead. So we'll see. And how many do you run all of the Millennium? I missed a couple. I didn't do the New England half because it was one week after my marathon. So I was like give myself a break and then I so much FOMO. was like I'm never skipping another race again.

was so sad. What's next then? The turkey chat and then... we'll be there. We're just gonna run She'll be in the lead. We'll be chasing her. I don't know. Sometimes there's some young kids that show up and you're like, no!

Well, what's your training like then? you training like, do you come here hoping to win or you just come here hoping to run and have fun and see what happens? Yeah, exactly. You never know. She's just super talented. She's very humble. But she's so talented that like most of the time she shows up and she's going to win because she's that good. Yeah. But the most important thing is having fun. If you're not having fun, what's the point? Where do you run around here? Do you live in Manchester? Yeah, I do. Do you run like the Gostown rail trails? Do you run the streets?

Do hill workouts? Do the track workouts?

Usually, yesterday I met my friends at Livingston and we did like a nine mile loop just around. Like I live up near SNHU, so we go up around there. Do you prefer roads over treadmill? Yeah, I like roads. So something about us is we love a good story. And sometimes we love a story about something that goes wrong. You've done a lot of these races. Has anything ever gone wrong that you've had to like figure it out, persevere, you know, make a big

Come back. Did you lose a shoe in a race before? Are you ever tripled or an alligator? Like it could be anything here. Or a bathroom issue. Bathroom issue. wasn't trying to make you like get that personal one. mean, I've never had to stop. Like always during our runs, I'm like, there's supportive bodies, there's supportive bodies. And I'm always nervous. Like during a marathon, like three hours or whatever, you're going to have to go to the bathroom. But never had to go during a race, which is good. I did lose a shoe at Chai County in Junior High.

I'll never forget that. Did you keep going or did go back to the shift? I can't remember. I think I stopped and put it back on. And she still won. No, no, not back then. Man, I have the bathroom breaks all the time, even if it's number one. Like, I'm like, oh, she's the good news. party's green. Take advantage. But I'm also, I'm not running with the guy on the bike in front of me. Sure, It takes her as long to run a full marathon as my half, so. Right. So will you be running?

the Boston Marathon this year? Yes. All right, and you qualified, of course, so how many Boston's have you run? I've ten. Ten in a row? No, because I've three babies, so not a big deal. I've had three babies too, but you know. All right, so let's talk about this then. Have you run any other world majors?

Chicago, New York, Tokyo, no. I just love Boston. Yeah. It's so easy too. it's convenient. How many marathons have you run altogether? I think 34 marathons. Oh my, wow. That's incredible. Again, again, Mary's out here just giving us like all these facts, not a big deal. She's just a local fun runner. Yeah.

This is cool. So you'll be at the Turkey Trot. When does this points thing end? think at the end of the year, I think you will light up the night. So there's like the Turkey Trot, the Stand Up Shuffle, and then you'll light up the Do you have a comfortable lead? What? Do you have a comfortable points lead? What do mean? Are you the lead by like a lot? Or in second place? No, I think if I don't skip any more races, as long as I do the races, I should be okay.

I'm hoping there's a cash prize. Do you get a big one before? Like happy Gilmore. What happens when you ⁓ win?

You get an award at end of the year. Yes, you do get like a little award and there's a big like they have a little banquet little ceremony thing with all the millennium people. Yeah, right. It's fun. Now I'm gonna ask a question and don't be offended. How old are you? Forty-two. Okay, so you're a master. Yeah. So do you in Boston, do you like to do, do you place in the master? I don't think so. I think you do. I feel like she does. I feel like you're fast enough to place You could do the rural. I've just done a little faster this year. So we'll see. Yeah, so hey everybody listen.

You're

never getting older and she's getting faster when did you start? Okay, okay, I you were hinting like you just started no no no no no I'm just saying cuz she's like I'm getting older That was hard for right yeah, so 251 at Hartford so not bad it took me a long time to get here What was your first marathon time?

What was that like? Was that a good day, bad day? Mary's a pro. Mary's a pro. We're gonna see her in LA in 28. I feel like I always joke, I was like, I'm gonna beat you for Boston when I'm 80.

I looked at it the other day. I shouldn't continue to say this publicly, but in five years, it would be a 315 and you could do that. You can just start training with Mary. I'm going to start training with you. I live in Manchester. I live up the hill. You know what my easy run is? Two miles from my house up to the top of McIntyre. I love that. That's my easy run. That's hard. I love it. It's so good. Well, this is amazing. Congratulations on the big dub. This is super cool. I can't wait to see more because we're going to be at more.

She goes, I've seen you out of the races recently. I'm like, ⁓ come by, talk. how was your cool down, by the way? Because I was setting up and you had to like, I need to cool down. Yeah, we went up on the, we went up hand over and sheared on the people who were coming down to finish. Nice. Amazing. Well, I'm so happy you did come by because Barry comes over after he goes, did you talk to Mary? And I go, no, she's cooling down. I hope she comes back. And you came back. This is cool. Worked out really great. Well, congratulations. An amazing run for you. What was your time, by the way? Not that I care about it.

I don't even know!

I'll have to look it up. Not great, because it's a slope. It's a hard course. Well, what is like not great? Like So like I ran 121 at Newberry Point two weeks ago, but this course was probably a couple minutes slower. Did you win Newberry Court? No, it was a New England Grand Prix. There were so many fast people. Do you like that? Do embrace that? OK. I liked it. There were so many people to run with. Yeah. I'm a too fast, I think. And do you talk to them like you talk to the guy on the bike? Yeah, I made a new friend at the Newberry

He had a world-wide jersey. I talked to him the whole race and then I found out he works in my district. He came up to me on recess duty a couple days ago and showed me the picture and I like, oh God, Amazing, amazing. Well, this is awesome. Thank you so much for coming on. I hope to see you at the other races because I expect more Winner Circle podcast clips right here. You coming on after getting the big dubs. Thanks for having Amazing guys. Mary Keene. Clenny. Clenny.

It's hard with all the music. It's hard and you're like right over there and then we did it without headphones with all right. Mary? 20. On the On the Runs podcast. That was wicked awesome.

Eric (43:01)
All right, we're back at the Manchester City Marathon. Tara Tara Acto just went and grabbed an amazing guest because I actually heard Jamie talking about them earlier. But we have Phil from Swim with a Mission, which is a wicked cool event up in Newfoundland Lake in Bristol, New Hampshire. Phil, how are doing? I'm doing great. It's great to be with you guys. Yeah. So Erica loves swimming. I've been trying to get her to do a triathlon forever. And I love triathlons. I enjoy swimming. But swim with a Mission is like a 10K swim, think.

Maybe it's a different variations. Tell us a little bit about Swim with a Mission. Yeah, so every July we bring up about 40 Navy SEALs, mostly from Virginia Beach, from Florida, from California. They bring their families and we get a ton of people together for an amazing weekend. The weekend highlight is the swim across Newfound Lake. Newfound Lake is the cleanest lake in the Northeast. And so we attract swimmers from all over the US. They come from Europe, they come from Australia, all over.

And we do some real swimming. There's a 10K swim, so that's a real swim. There's a 5K swim. There's a relay swim where you can get together, the 10K together. And then recently, because we realized the Navy SEALs may be drown proof, but they really can't swim. So we added a 1K. We have a 1K. So once all the real swimmers go out, then all the SEALs will put on their fins, and they'll do a 1K, also with their canines. We have some amazing canines that have seen combat that, you know,

but like semi-retirement, come as well. And it's just an amazing event every single year. that is just incredible.

Thank you. work your way up to it. But it's part of a larger weekend. The day before, we play paintball with the Navy SEALs. That's actually way more intimidating than swimming with the Navy SEALs. I can only imagine. Is playing paintball with the Navy SEALs. And in that same weekend, we do a big gala. We get about 800 people together. And we pay tribute to our Gold Star families, especially the Navy SEAL families from New Hampshire. We've lost a lot of our folks here from New Hampshire in the war on terror.

Unfortunately, we want to make sure those families know we haven't forgotten. So this year, they weekend raised $2.7 million for charity. it's amazing. Not a big deal. So I didn't realize I knew that you guys were the charity for the race today, but I went and picked up my bib yesterday at Millennium and I have a gentleman's name on my bib ⁓ and he is one of the ones that we've lost. And that got me a little emotional. And of course I went down a deep rabbit hole and I looked him up online and I found

everything about him. ran with my bracelet today in his honor. I read somewhere is it 96 New Hampshire? Yeah, So since the war on terror started, which is really when we were attacked on 9-11 and the Twin Towers came down, New Hampshire and now statistics look a lot like every other state in America, you know, given our size, our population is about a million four. We've lost 96 of our own down range in places like

Iraq and Afghanistan and we have a wall of honor on our website We also have it here at the race physically and when you go down you see a lot of 21 years old 20 years old 19 years old These are these are mostly men that you know went to high school around where we're sitting here today in Manchester, London Dairy and Bedford and they became Marines in Parris Island or they went to Fort Bragg or Camp Lejeune and they were killed in action and you know, it's easy to forget right

We're more than 20 years into the war, but when you meet their families, you just know like they never recover. They never get over losing a son, a brother. I mean, it is just so hard for them. The other thing we also like to point out is in that same period of time on the war and terror that we lost 96 of our own here in New Hampshire, more than 900 have come home safely, but have taken their own lives.

because they can't help with their PTSD, with their traumatic brain injuries, and all the other issues that unfortunately too many of our veterans are struggling with. So that's kind of the whole point of Swim with a Mission. My wife and I started in 2017 as a way to just put on amazing events like today, right? Run with a Mission, get a lot of great people together, and let's not forget, let's raise money to help our veterans. Unfortunately,

There's just too many veterans that need our help. And so there's something everybody can do. For us, it was starting a charity. Today you ran and you have the bracelet and you looked it up and you tell other people about it. Every little thing makes a veteran better. Right? That's what it's all about. you a veteran yourself? I am not a veteran. Okay, so how did you get into this? Tell me that story. So back in 2016, my wife and I moved to New Hampshire now 30 years ago.

And we just got involved in the community. You know, when you have young kids, you're like very focused on education or, you know, dogs and cats or there's lots of things going on in your life, right? And we helped a lot of charities, but we kept thinking about like, we're not doing anything for veterans. we, in 2016, we really started going after it we started going to VFW halls and American legions and we started meeting veterans that were not getting the help they need at the VA and other places.

and we just couldn't understand it. And then as we started to dig in more, we realized, wow, it's like a third of our veterans are not getting the help they need. I mean, that's just unacceptable. And so we weren't quite sure what to do, but I'm a swimmer. I have a big swimming group. do a lot of triathlons. My running days are over, unfortunately, except for a few triathlons. But we figured, like, let's just do a swim event, an open water swim event. And we thought maybe we'll raise like $25,000 and we'll give it to

veterans in the Lakes region in New Hampshire. And right before that, because this is the way the universe works, right before we started, we happened to be in Florida, my wife and I, we met a group of Navy SEALs. And I had never met a Navy SEAL. I didn't know anything about the Navy SEALs. But we met this group of Navy SEALs that were parachuting into a charity event. And we invited them to come to New Hampshire. And they said, yeah, we'll come. And then I came back and I told everybody in the Lakes region, the Navy

Navy SEALs are coming, I actually didn't know if they were actually really gonna come. Like if you ask me, hey, will you come to this thing next Saturday night? I'd like, yeah, but that doesn't mean like I'm actually coming. But it turns out if a Navy SEAL says yes, they're coming, turns out that's actually what they mean. And so they showed up, and because they showed up, 1,500 people showed up to our first swim, and we raised $450,000. Instead of $25,000, we raised $450,000.

the first year in 2017. incredible. That's the first year of the charity. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. So then we realized, like, okay, this is important. We've really got to dig in. And what we do every year is, like, we just gave away close to $3 million and to 31 different organizations. What we do is we collect a lot of data from many, many organizations, and they tell us how many veterans are helping, how much it costs, and it paints a picture.

Like

right now, there are hundreds of veterans waiting for service dogs, for example. And a service dog saves a life, right? So this year, a lot of money went to make sure we clear those waiting lists, because unfortunately, if these guys wait too long, they're going to take their own lives. Right? So we need to rush to get those. So some years, maybe it's right? Or it's we need more recreational retreats or art therapy. Just whatever the greatest need is at that time, right?

And that's what we do every year. We go and see where the needs are in the communities, and we just try to address them as quickly. And then it's like, every time you help somebody, you get a little more fired up. Like, we gotta do more of this. Now what's your involvement here? You're here, you're at other events outside of just the swim. Are you a partner with Millennium Running? Are you a sponsor? Or do you have people here running that you're supporting? What's the deal here? So we're very lucky with Run with a Mission in that we are the

the beneficiary today, Swim with a Mission and the Veterans of the Beneficiary. The part we love the best is we don't have to organize this one. We organize a lot of events. We just show up with a bunch of Navy SEALs and we help inspire everybody with the bracelets and put the names on the bids and talk about it. But really it's Millennium. You know, the Millennium crew is amazing. They do a great job. We first met them when we started our swim after a few years of doing the swim. were looking for a group to

take over running the logistics of the swim and Millennium really hadn't done much in swimming. They're known for their running races. Yeah, and of course they did an amazing job. So we started partnering with them about seven years ago and then a couple years ago they came to us and said hey we'd love to take this you know Manchester Marathon. It's around Veterans Day make a more patriotic let's really make it about our veterans and we'd love for you to be the

and like how awesome is that? So coming up on Tuesday is Veterans Day. So shout out to everyone who has ever served our country. Thank you. And the is the ultimate sacrifice. We appreciate you. Where can others find you? What events will you be out? Do you do the social media content stuff? I know I see it every year around the swim in July. I've actually I are there a different version? I know you got the one came to 10 K. Right. I've done Iron Man, but that is not even half the tent.

There is a 5k so there's no excuses. But hey, you could do a 2 mile swim you could do a 3.1. But for those who don't know or are listening or are interested, where do they find you? First of all go to our website swam.org. There's a ton of information about our swim events, paintball, we have ride with a mission, know sometimes we have fish with a mission. We're actually just starting an amazing program called commission with

Mission, which is not an athletic event. you have a company that has a big sales force, each salesperson can take like a dollar of each commission check and donate it to veterans so they can tell their customers they're supporting veterans. it's not, we're getting outside of some of the sporting events, but everything's at swam.org and please follow us on social media. There's a ton of videos, a lot of fun stuff with the Navy SEALs. We also have an event called Green Beret with a Mission.

You get to do a three hour, like a tough mudder with obstacle course as a team with the Green Berets. So it's not just all about the Navy SEALs. Wow. That's awesome. Well, thanks so much for what you do, especially that it's a, I love that it's New Hampshire based local and Newfound Lake is beautiful. You said it's the cleanest lake in the Northeast. I actually thought it was the cleanest lake in the country. It's close. It's in the top 10. And one of the deepest. That's exactly right. It's 190 feet deep.

So it keeps it clean. I learned something today. Yeah, me too. But I have to say also just thank you for filling the need that the community had with this with this organization. I think that's such an amazing cause. And if anybody wants to donate or participate, make sure to go to the website. go do a swim. And then maybe that will be the start to Erica's trip on journey. So I put on the floaties. I did learn yesterday when I was picking up my bit at Millennium, I spoke to a nice woman from your organization and she said that they're hoping for 2027 to get this.

for Boston. So potentially if you wanted to run Boston you can hop on with these guys and raise some money. Thank you for raising us because that is something new that we've started. We already got five bids for London already. We're gonna have them for Chicago, New York. I don't think we're gonna get Boston but we'll also get Berlin which I know is a very popular one. And you guys have Philadelphia too right? We have Philadelphia as well so contact us at swam.org

if you want to get a charity bid to do one of these races. How awesome is that? That's so cool because that was started here in New Hampshire. Yes. And you are going worldwide. to London, baby. We're going worldwide. That is so awesome. Phil, thank you so much for coming on, sharing us with everything about Swim with a Mission. And now we know it's Run with a Mission and we know it could be one day maybe tennis or hockey. You got it. Yeah, you could do it all. So this is a lot of fun, guys. I really hope you enjoyed that. Phil from Run and Swim.

with the mission on the on the run podcast.

Eric (56:25)
Amazing. What's up, man? Take a seat. Here's some headphones right here. Not a big deal. Just the winner of the Manchester Marathon.

All right, now we got the winner of the Manchester City Marathon. We got Casey Ellis on the on runs podcast. What's up, Casey? How you feeling, man? How the leg? I you sit down a little tender. Pretty sore, pretty tight. Took a second, took a second. You know, you just ran twenty six point two and like two twenty one or something like not a big deal. I think it was two.

228. Is it the 20s? Yeah. You're sick with 221? Yeah. Sick with 221. Where are you from, Casey? Tell us a little bit about yourself. I'm from Toaunna, Pennsylvania. It's a small town in Northeastern PA. Northeastern PA. Oh, wow. And you drove all the way up here just for this? Yeah. Awesome. What was the reason to come to New Hampshire? The best state in the world, but what was the reason to come here? So I just was looking up marathons in the Northeast, found this one. looked like a challenging course, which I thought was pretty cool.

like the whole fallen heroes aspect of it. Right. And also just I've never done a race for New Hampshire. So are you working on the 50 states then or not really? I mean, maybe one day if I close, I'll do it. Yeah. If just if there's a new state, I can race it all. One one thing you said to me was you looked at the course and you're looking for a challenging course. So you saw it was a challenging course. So does that like get you excited to like, OK, I do you excel on a challenging hilly course? Usually like during hilly where I live. So usually I run.

Right on hills just something different than like just a flat fast race, right? Right, and then you got the reward of the downhill. Yeah, you got a mix of everything and that's what I love Yeah, I love it. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how what the elevation game was on the pole, but I ran the half Yeah, so you gotta be well over a thousand. Yeah, it was a thousand something I can't yeah, was gonna say well you probably are on Strava So your your strip drop and tells you all that data, but that's amazing. So when did you get out here? Did you preview the course? Do you like check things?

out,

you drive it, did you run the rail trail a little bit, what was your game plan of attack all week? So I just got, after work on Friday, my parents and I drove off to like New York, then Joe's rest away, got in yesterday, just kind of ran around a little bit, didn't really get on a toddler course but saw a little bit of it, knew it was challenging. Right, so you work normal nine to five job then? Yeah, I'm a high school health and PE teacher. Oh, well that's actually a fun job. You the medal in tomorrow? gonna wear that tomorrow?

Not a big deal. But do you teach sports at the high school then? Do you do track and field, cross-country? Yes, help coach cross-country and the head track and field coach. So I'm sure the cross-country kids probably love it. Yeah, it's Yeah, where to practice? Even though you're probably done with practice, right? We finished, we had our state meet last Saturday. okay, awesome. And this is Pennsylvania? Yeah, Pennsylvania, yep. So I find what's cool about this is that you travel so far for this race and you come here. you, and you've never been here?

here before. So what was your first take on the course? And you're out there running where you were, I'm sure, expecting the hills, because the elevation profile. But walk us through the course. What was your game plan here of attack? So my game plan was just kind of try to go out relaxed the first half, because I knew the second half was a slightly less hillier. Yeah. So I tried doing that. It worked for the most part. Those last few miles, I definitely started to feel the hills from the first half, though. Started to slow down quite a bit.

Just

hold on. Do you ever run by right here? If you do in the marathon, you take a left like that guy is taking right now in the green. Yeah. And you're like, the finish line's right there. Why did I sign up for the half? Definitely. What did you think about the difference? So I ran the half and we ran into the baseball stadium. So you're running on the warning track on the dirt. And then we had a little bit of Livingston Park. We ran on like the trails. What is your take on like the road versus the trails and like the different terrain? Do you like that or would you prefer it to be all road?

So if it was like a race where I'm trying to go for time I'd definitely for all roads just because you go faster But I knew I wasn't gonna run a super fast time here. Anyways, so kind of getting that mix. It's pretty neat. I like that. Yeah Doesn't beat up your leg as much thing on a trail too. So that's kind of nice Yeah, you gotta kind of I mean for me the over by Livingston Park You kind of had to like watch your feet because they've got the roots in the rocks and it was you a little up and down So it was interesting. Yeah mixes it up a bit. Yeah, we just had the winner of the females race that the half

And she was talking about how she sparked up a conversation with the guy on the bike who's leading. So did you have a guy on a bike in front of you? Do you ever like engage in a conversation or were you was anyone ever near you second place at any point? But what I could tell second place was never really that close to me. I don't know for sure, though. The guy on the bike, he definitely helped make it more fun. Yeah. Because basically every time I went by a group of people, would like shout, you know, the marathon, get them hyped up, get them cheering.

When when they're cheering for you and they're saying your name or whatever you giving them like a fist bump or like a thumbs up or like a head I tried to like smile. Yeah. Yeah, you're like in the zone. All right. Yeah, like I read on like Elliot Kachogi He says something he always tries to smile during his races He does it tries to trick like your brain to thinking it's not as bad as it is Yeah, try doing that and you gotta I mean your arms are like a swing, know, it's gonna be it's all calculated Yeah, so like in the minute you take it and you're giving a thumbs up, right?

Do you look at guys like Elliott and other big big runners in this world and you look up to them or you take advice that they gave or something? Yeah, I just tried to like read their training see what they do obviously I'm product we'll do exactly what you could choke he does cuz maybe we are different levels, but Like just saying like what he does see like if I could find any of that that would work for me But that my training that kind of stuff right right do you have a coach? Do you do you work with the yes? I work with the Run CCG. don't hear his

seen

them on Instagram or anything or their road CCG for their post high school. Right. So I like working with them because like when I coach the kids, yeah, like if they like something goes wrong, like in training or whatever, like I can tell like like take a step back. Like, you know, it's not that big of a deal. But it's myself. I kind of struggle to do that. So I need somebody else to do that for me. Yes. So I kind of like having a coach there to help me out. Now, something I find cool is right behind Tara, Tara Dactyl here with the video camera's mom. Mom's here.

I think you said dad's here too. They drove you. So are they always driving you around doing all these things and a big part of the team? typically. Yeah. Yeah. They helped me everywhere. My dad helped me. He's one of the books, hotels, all that stuff. that's cool. he pays too. Yeah. Yeah. He's getting those Marriott points and he's like, one day you're going to take us around the world. So we're going to run the majors or something big. What is the goal here? Like you look very you look like you're just out of high school, by the way. So what's the goal? Do you have more marathons?

going on ultras? we going, is there like a point system or a professional level? So ultimate goal is to try to get into some flat fast marathon and try to get the trial standard. trials. The Olympic trials. We're going for LA 28 here. Yeah, so that's the big one. see. They lowered the standard down from last cycle, I was hoping they either keep it the same. is the cutoff right now? 216. 216. What's your fastest marathon? So I'll leave a random one.

one

before. And that was a grandma's. Oh, I'm running that next year. But that's a really nice one. I did not feel enough for it, though, and I felt a fire. I I ran was 225 with you. OK, but you ran this one in two twenty eight, you said. Yeah, I think I with all the hills say without the hills and this is on me. at the one point of the course, flagger didn't realize I was in the lead and he pointed me the wrong way. So I more than a marathon.

Geez. But again, that's on me. should have known. an ultra marathoner. OK. marathoner here. Well, then, all right. Second ever. Were you expecting like to win? Looking at previous times, I knew I could win. Yeah. But you never know who's going to show up. also, like the marathon, you don't know. Like I could have just completely fallen apart and end up running really slow. You don't know. Everything's got to fall into line. Yeah. Right. Mom and dad, what were you thinking? Were you thinking the big W here? Yeah. Mom knew you had it.

had. This is super cool. I have one more question. So you ran a time of 228, which I have to assume is like a Boston qualifier.

So that's good. I don't I know you live in Pennsylvania like the Boston Marathon I'm sure it's as big as it is here in New England Like would you if would you want to run the Boston Marathon? I'd like you eventually yeah, cuz I think you qualify Yeah, I think you got the buffer too. Yeah, it just be I Again looking at cuz the main goal is still the trials and balls. Not really. Yeah the place you try to do that It is definitely like a bucket list course trying for that. Well again, you're young you got plenty of time

Put it down as a training run. Mom and dad will pay for all the logistics. They'll get you there. We're always at mile 19.2, cheering. It's a little cheer section. Yeah, have all this. So my last question is this. I love a good story. Now you have a very short running career here because you graduated high school yesterday. But we love, we call it a code ground story. Now code ground story is more of a crap moment. For track and field people, we've had people tell us how they've tripped over

hurdles or how they lost a shoe. Ultra runners told us how they tripped over an alligator's tail once. Do you have a code Brown story, an crap moment in a race that you had to, you know, fueling in the grandma's marathon. Do you have a story about that where things went wrong, but also where you overcame it? So nothing as exciting as tripping over alligator. But Susie Chan from Peloton, that was her story.

I ran a half last spring up like around where I live. And it was raining before it and the socks I was wearing like two or three miles and slid down. So I had the heel of my shoe rubbing against my heel the whole time. Right. So then I finished and like took off my shoe in the back of my shoe was just like what? mean, got through it and managed to break the course record, which was my goal, but it was definitely a very painful.

Not a big deal. I actually, my first ever marathon was this one back in 2018. And I tripped and I did not know it until after how I bled up my toe and I took the shoe off. was blood all inside everything. Yeah. Yeah, battle wounds. That was my first. I was on the rail trail part. I'm by myself. No one's around me. I felt like I was winning because no one was around me. Just no bike guy. And I was just kind of like just enjoying the view. And then I hit a route. So this course is neat because it's unique with the hills.

the terrain and everything. I don't think you get this anywhere else. I'm happy you came here to a Millennium Race and did this. I hope you come back tomorrow. It's not far drive from Pennsylvania. Like we said, mom and dad will drive you. Yeah, for sure. Well, this was awesome. Congratulations on the big Let's that medal. Let's do comparison. So he's the full. Oh, there is a difference. It's a little bit bigger. So we have we have here show right here to the computer or to the camera there. The big size difference again. World major worthy size.

And no big deal. He got himself a... Is this a coin? A first place coin. And then do you get like a check or anything? Like did you win money? ⁓ I think otherwise it's a cash prize by any game. They need to do the big checks. Yeah, big check. Yeah, to go more style. That's what they gotta do. And then you gotta take it to the bank and ask them to cash it. Yeah, for fun. For the content, if anyone wants to follow you, where do they find you? Are you on Instagram? Are on social media? I mean, I'm on Instagram.

Do

do running content on there? is just like, yeah, you're a school teacher. can do that. Yeah, school teacher. I probably post on there about once a year. So yeah, I probably have the most exciting person to follow on Instagram. Last thing, let's shout out the team you coach, the cross-country kids, the team you coach. Tawanda area, just my school district. Pennsylvania. Yeah, Pennsylvania. Coach cross-country and track player. Amazing. Amazing. Well, thank you so much. Congratulations on the dub, man. Enjoy. Enjoy New Hampshire. Go get something. I would say go get a victory beer. I don't

You're not So let mom and dad go enjoy one. Awesome, man. Thank you so much.

Eric (1:09:08)
Tara just ran off, but I have the winner of the women's marathon, the women's champion here. We have Mackenzie Hall on the On the Runs podcast. What's up, Mackenzie? I'm tired. You're tired? Well, what do you do? You just run a marathon? Something like that. Something like that. Hey, I'll tell you what. From someone who just ran a marathon one week ago today, you'll feel better soon. It'll take a couple days. I think you're going to recover better than me. But hey, tell us a little bit about yourself, Mackenzie. you from, we just talked to the men's winner. He's from PA. Where are from? I'm from Wisconsin. No way.

Hey,

where in Wisconsin, do you live there currently? I do not, I live here in Manchester. I moved here about three years ago. Okay, let's talk a little bit about that then. Wisconsin, are you from Madison? Are you from like, I know there's a town called like Appleton or something, I've been there. Closer to Madison, about 40 minutes away in a small town called Dodgeville. All right, all right. I used to travel the country quite a bit for work and I've been to Wisconsin a times. Love it, beautiful area. Great cheese curds. Yeah, well I'm allergic to cheese, but Elk Hark Lake is where I went a couple times. okay. ⁓

Beautiful area. So let's talk a little bit about this. We got Tara coming over here. Here she's coming. You live here now. You've been here three years. So you kind of knew what you were getting into with the Hills. Yes, yes, for sure. I knew what I was signing up for. Now Tara, this is Mackenzie. Mackenzie, I don't know if you know who Tara is, but Tara and I, we're all locals. We all live here in Manchester. This is cool. We're going to become a tripod now. We're going to become running buddies. And Mackenzie is going to help us win marathons because she just won the Manchester City Marathon. Yes, let's go.

Tell us a little bit about your day. Yeah, it was crazy. I really didn't know what to expect. My longest run this month was nine miles. Training had not been going super well. And I was on the fence about even doing the race until about a week ago. But I just put myself in it. yeah. What was the reason for crossing that fence and doing the race?

think I'm stubborn. I think that's the biggest thing. we can all relate to that. I'm a very stubborn person and I just kind of set my mind to something and I have to see it through. Right. Well I know sometimes people like to look at the weather too, the 10-day forecast and they decide, all right, I'm going to do this race or I'm not because of the weather. Does that play a role for you? ⁓ no.

I, you know, as long as it wasn't freezing rain, I kind of knew I was going to do this race. I think this is ideal weather. I really do. Honestly, it felt really great when I saw the forecast this morning and there was like hardly any wind and no rain. I knew it was going to be a pretty good day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty epic. So tell us about the course. You obviously know about it. Do you like hills? Do you embrace hills? Are you like, ah, it's hilly. You know, I don't like this. What's your take on

I

love hills, yeah. I'm super used to it. Back home in Wisconsin, it's kind of the same terrain. And I like that the first half was a lot hillier than the second. Because then the second half out on the rail trail, you can just get rolling and just click off the miles. So you're from Wisconsin. I might have missed that. Yes. Yes. Oh, awesome. Cool. Are you trying to do the marathon in all 50 states? Well, she lives here now. Oh, you do? Yeah. I do. I do. Yeah. OK, I missed that part. Sorry. I'm actually going to Wisconsin next year.

to

run the Challenge. Oh, OK. Where's that at? Michigan and Wisconsin. So Erica has done that. Yeah, I think it's Madison. And then you go to Kalamazoo, Michigan the next day. So you run two marathons in two days. And they call it the Mittens Challenge. Yeah. Earn your mittens. OK. Yeah. OK. So you're a glutton for punishment. Yeah. Well, I'm only doing the half, though. I'm doing backpack halves, not fulls. Yeah, you're missing Erica here, who's glutton for punishment, doing 100-milers. And she does, like, a marathon the next day as her easy run. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. So you live here now.

you come here for work? Did you come here for the running scene, the running community? What did you come to Manchester for? Yeah, I moved out here a few years ago. ⁓ I was into, like, elite triathlon.

years but my heart just wasn't in it and now I run full time. have my own coaching business ⁓ and I've just I've always loved running. Shout out the coaching business like do you coach locally nationally how big is your roster? ⁓ We just started in the summer I started coaching some people so it's still pretty small but I'm just looking to help anyone entry level beginners to elites and I think I have a lot of knowledge in the sport.

And

you said you do this full time. Like running is your thing. Coaching, running races, like expand on that. Yeah, I mean, I do work full time and I just I run in my free time, I've ran since I was 12 years old. It's just always been a passion of mine. Yeah. What we love here, something we love is a good running story. And the reason we're in the On the Runs podcast is because crap happens sometimes, right? And crap could be just any crap.

moment

it can scale from losing your shoe in a race and deciding to run without a shoe or from tripping over the tail of an alligator you've been running since you were a little kid you love it there's got to be a one or two stories there where something went wrong and then you figured it out and you overcame it oh boy yeah there definitely is I think

One that comes to mind is in the end of September, I did my first 50K and that was out in Vermont. And I definitely was under-salted during my run and that was the first time I ever experienced cramps running. I had never had a muscle cramp ever. And I remember coming into an aid station at about like 20 miles and I was just begging for salt, any salt tabs anyone had. was rough.

I her. Honestly, at that point, that was what I needed. But, you know, just popped a couple of tabs and got back out there. Right. Right. No, I think we've all had that. And the salt thing is kind of interesting because Hannah, someone we know, my sister, just got into running the last couple of years and did her first marathon. the game changed for her and all that that long distance training was figuring out the right amount of salt to take in and sodium and the right amount of fueling. How did you figure that out? Like, is this

Obviously,

we're always figuring it out every day. But like, do you have it down to a science sometimes when you run a marathon like this one? Yeah, it definitely is a science. You have to really plan it out ahead of time. I did a hundred grams of carbs an hour for this race. I had all my gels stuffed into my bra. I had my hand held. So for everyone hating on the handhelds, I highly recommend it. I mean, she won. Yeah. Yeah. She's doing something right. Do you do you go one hand held or two? I did one and then I had at least one.

gel

in my other hand to balance it out. I just, always have my hands full. I don't think it's a nuisance. That's where I was going. I have a hard time running with something in one hand and nothing in the other. It needs to be balanced out or else I'm like leaning too much to my left or something. It's weird. The mind games it plays, right? We're constantly putting the water in there, moving it hand to hand. I switch. If you're with one, do you switch? You go left and right. I do to even it up. I always keep it in my right hand, my bottle, and then the gels are always in my left. I can't switch it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah a weird running thing I do is if I scuff like my left foot on something and don't have a good step I have to then scuff my right like it's just weird running forks. We do Let's talk about this race a little bit because we've been very lucky to have the winner of that the half for the men's and women's and now the the full from the men's and women's and something that the winner of the half for the women's told me was that You know, she was out there by herself. She sparked up a conversation with the dude on the bike who is pacing her and everything what goes

on

I don't even know have you won a marathon before and what goes on when you're leading in your head are you talking to the guy on the bike are you looking back to see how big of a lead you are? No I've never won so this was all foreign to me. This is the first? Yes yes.

Were you like, did I go the wrong way? Why am I by myself? There was one point where I was I kind of felt like I made a wrong turn and I looked back and no one was like waving their arms. I figured I must be going the right way. But it it kind of just felt like another training run, especially out on the rail trail. That's where I run most days. So it just it felt very comfortable to me, I think. And then also the out and back part of the course was really nice just to see everyone that was like in their own race and they were cheering for

So

that I would cheer back to them and like all the other women that were so uplifting and I just like that just made it really special. think that people go out of their way. You know, like we're all in our heads just doing our own thing. That was just really special. Right. That's a great thing about the running community is I think everybody is cheering for everybody. Yeah. I've never had a bad. when you get to cheer back too and you don't have the pressure of second place behind you. So this is all new to you. Like what's happened since you crossed the finish line? I'm sure everyone's grabbing your.

attention.

Barry brings you here. I'm sure Andy or somebody has you over there for a post race interview or something like this is all new. What have you been experiencing the last 15 minutes? Yeah, it's just crazy. I've I've never like broken the tape before. I've never like been interviewed after a race. It's just it was really special. This is a really special day. you were you scared of the tape like like if I'm to actually break it, do I grab it? What do do with my hands?

hands up, so I didn't know what to do. I figured someone would grab it or something. Were you emotional at all? Because I feel like I would cry. I was just I was just so happy. I yeah, coming into this, I did not expect to win or run the time that I did. So I was just so happy. What was the time? Let's celebrate it. I think it was 250 something. I honestly don't even know. So that's a BQ Boston qualifier. What are we thinking? I I'm just in shock. Yeah. Yeah. So what are you?

going

to do tonight to celebrate? What does your posterity celebration look like? I'll celebrate with my boyfriend Jay. We'll probably go out to dinner somewhere because I'm definitely not cooking tonight. Jay better be buying. Yeah. You're buying. He's buying and flying. Maybe a foot massage. some Normatec boots. What would that dinner be in your mind? I could go for like a burger right now and a milkshake. sounds so good. Burger and milkshake. So you're going to be going to the back room and the pariton back room then.

⁓

Get one of those milkshakes. Yes. ⁓ That's a good one, especially for the milkshake. And are you going to go to work tomorrow? Are you going to kick your feet up? You're like, want a marathon. Not a big deal. I work at Merrimack Valley Physical Therapy. ⁓ That's nice. Let's where can everyone find you like you're coaching? Are you on social media? Like where can they find you and follow you? And if they want to hire you as a coach, because obviously

Obviously

you know how to win marathons now. Where do they find you? Yeah, our coaching business is GetMomentumCoaching.com. ⁓ My Instagram is just Mackenzie Hall and we also have our coaching Instagram, GetMomentumCoaching. So yeah. Where you say are, we, is this you and Jay or you and somebody else? It's me my dad. You your dad? Who's your dad? My dad, Rodney. Is he here too or is he back home in Wisconsin? He's not. They're actually out in Arizona.

So we're nationwide here. Go momentum. Go momentum running. Nationwide. So anyone listening, you don't need to be in New Hampshire to be a part of this. You could be all over the country. America's hat. That's probably the best part about being a running coach. And Eric, you know this. You have a running coach. But you don't really need to meet with them every day. It's all virtual. You can load the runs right into an app. Yeah, absolutely. So you could literally coach anybody, even not in the US.

Yeah,

absolutely. Yeah, yeah. You can stay connected. That's fun. You're going to enjoy it. So guys, check her out. Amazing. Her first ever win gets to win in here. We're not going to... It's your hometown now. My new hometown. Your new hometown. Gets to win the Manchester City Marathon. We got Mackenzie Hall. No relation to Sarah Hall, but she just is badass. So that was awesome. Congratulations, Mackenzie. Thank you so much. Yes, let's go.

Eric (1:21:45)
All right, I'm wicked excited for this one. She did not run today, but she is at every Millennium running race. And she also accomplished something pretty bad ass last week. have Melissa Cummings finally on the On the Runs podcast. What's up, Melissa? How goes it? it's great. It's great. It's a little colder today than it was last week in New York City or at Hamster Wheel. But man, this is great running weather. But I didn't run. Yeah. How is it for a spectator? it's always great. Yeah.

you want to run or walk or just do something. Right. But my feet were like, don't. My trainer also was like, don't. You just did something pretty epic. And we'll get to that in a second. But you are at every Millennium event. So that's really another reason to have you on here. Because you're at all the run club things. You're at all the races. You're here. You're cheering. You know everybody. Like, you know probably so many people running today. And you come here for them, right? I do. Yeah. I do. Because...

Why not? Right. if she's not running, she's on the sidelines. You're always here. And it doesn't matter if it's a 5K or a marathon. She's here. Yes. I always look forward to seeing you out there. I know you're going to be here. Well, like people need encouragement no matter the case. Right. It helps. Now, what's what? How long have you been doing this? I say doing this like where are you from originally? Are you from here? Are you how long have you been involved with Millennium Running? What's your what's the give me the Melissa Millennium Running New Hampshire story here?

That's a bit of loaded question. I'm a military child, so I was born here. Okay. At Pease Air Force Base, when it was still an Air Force Base. And we moved when I was a year and a half. I happened to come back to New England as an adult for a job, and that's how I ended up back up here. chance. By chance. Completely by chance. Right, right. Yeah. Then what, not to age or get years and stuff, but how did you find the Millennium community? So...

A little sassy story. In 2018, I would say, I hit my heaviest weight and my mental health totally tanked. I sat in a dressing room at Kohl's and cried trying on clothes. And so I had some friends who run and they're like, come do a race. I'm like, I don't run. And they're like, you don't have to run. You can walk. Right. And so I just started walking trick or trot in 2018. Were you like, I just paid to go for a walk?

I did. And it was a struggle. Like my first I was walking like 23, 24 minute miles. So it's trick or trot. It's a three day. Right. Most of the race is done. And I'm still doing a mile. And so then I saw people with this great jacket and I was like, I want a jacket. Where can I buy it? And they're like, you have to do all these races. I'm like, I feel like I could just buy it. Is it the Millennium Club jacket?

I was like, I feel like I could just buy it and it'd be easier. And they're like, no, you have to do these. I'm like, you gotta earn it. I know. I want to, I want a jacket. It's so stupid, it's so like, it's so addicting. When's the next one? Essentially you are buying it. lot more money. And you have to just show up to the event. is like $600. Right, this is the most expensive.

It's like an honor badge. It's a badge of honor. Yes, yes. And then you get to go out and have fun with friends. Yeah. Did you dress up for that trick or trot? Were you something, like, costume-wise? No, I wore, like, a random pair of, like, non-running leggings, because I had no idea, and a tutu, because I was much bigger, and I was like, need to cover up some of this bottom half. And, just a shirt with a pumpkin. No idea what I'm doing.

think we all have that, like our first ever race, you're like, I wore the completely wrong shoes, I wore these pants that fell down the whole time. I showed up. Exactly. But you get there, and you learn from Or the person like Erin Azar who showed up to a turkey trot thinking everyone was going to be dressed as a turkey. right. Missed the memo on that one. So 2018 is when you started, who are these friends by the way? I don't know if they're really friends. No, they are friends. They actually were coworkers, they were not part of Millennium anything.

just ladies who happen to run and we're like, well, you can do this. And I was like, you're a bunch of liars. here, bad influences. need new friends. I have worse influence friends now. Just so we know. So eventually, though, you do make new friends here, like Mel, Tracy and Eric. Erica, who helped you last week at the hamster wheel, she did some pacing laps with you. Like you've met the community and the people here at all these events and you're like wicked tight with them now.

Okay, we are allowed to be honest on this. Yes. Here's the thing, I'm a black woman in New Hampshire with color for hair. Everybody knows. Beautiful. Everybody knows.

social media. mean, the hair helps a lot. Yeah, I spotted you from a mile away today and I was like, that's gotta be Melissa. You do have fabulous hair, by the way. love your hair. Exactly. That's how it works. Not as nice as mine. I mean. Yeah. So, so tell us a little bit about last weekend. So let's actually backtrack to a year ago. Yeah. Yeah. Because you were there that last year, Hamster Wheel 2024. Yeah. And at that point, what was the most you've ever run? A half marathon.

Okay, and what was the goal last year? I wanted to get a marathon, which technically is 28 because it's a four-mile loop. So yeah, I wanted to get a marathon.

And who talked you into this? Who was like, it at Hamster Wheel, do it with us. So I have an amazing ultra running friend, Laura Condor. That's Noah's. That's Noah's mom. but she is an ultra runner. And a year before that, I had gone to be her support crew and she had been saying, you know, you can get a marathon. You just got to do it in a way that's good for you. And I'm like, there's no way that's good for me. don't. Have you seen me? When?

Very slow-paced into I don't I don't know that I want to do that She's like you can do this and so I went to support her and she's like you see you could do it The people that don't know hamster wheel is an ultra marathon and it's a four mile loop and you sign up for six twelve 24 or 30 correct and You can do as many loops as you can. So right and also I will say I've done one Ultra and it is like stress free. It's

It's

so different than running on a road or signing up for like a half marathon because you can do one four mile loop and then you can sit down and eat a hamburger if you wanted. Right, take a nap. And go back out, yeah. And then come back, take a nap and then go. Like it's no pressure because you don't care about your time, you just care about the miles. distance that you want to do. Exactly. Whatever you want to do. Right. And last year I think I was there when you hit that distance. I hit that distance. And then you did more. I hit the 28 miles and there was some tears and I was

like

it's cold, I need food, because I didn't know how to train for an ultra, I didn't know how to eat for an ultra, so I'm like living off gels when I didn't need to. And I went and took a nap and it was like two o'clock in the morning and Eric Eastman and Tracy Eastman were like, we're back, we brought heat for you and we're like, yay. And I'm sitting there and they're like, one more lap and you'll be an ultra marathoner. And I'm like, it's not gonna be pretty. They're like, I didn't have to.

are the new friends we we're the type that... Yeah, bad influences. And so I did another lap at two in the morning and became an ultra marathoner. Yes! You went from half-marathoner, 13.1, to being the longest distance to an ultra marathoner. Yeah. That's pretty impressive. And then this year, what'd do? Because I... It was hard for me to follow. I was running a little race out of state. You were running a little... Right. Little race out of state. How'd this past week end go? But wait, hold on. You also just over... Like, had a surgery, right?

I did. So, had surgery and is coming back from having a surgery. I think that is also a mention. talk about growth things, I...

discovered in April that I had a large cantaloupe-sized fibroid in my uterus and it was bleeding me to death. I was bleeding profusely for weeks to the point where I was in need of blood transfusions. So the end of May, May 30th, they did a full, they did a hysterectomy on me and somewhere in my mind was like, oh, fine. I still have hamstring wheel. It's November, it's so far away. But I had to recover.

from

losing all my blood and surgery and body parts. A major reproductive organ. No big deal. Five months and one day later, I'm all right, lining up for hamster wheel to do this race. Again, a common phrase I like to say, not a big deal after that. No big deal. A major surgery. It was a pretty big deal last week. tell me, how did go? Did you more or less, Erica ran?

with

you? Was she fine? Was she annoying? she. Erica annoying? She was. She was amazing. I had it was a hard race for me. Last year, I mean, you were there. I was smiling. I was just popping along this year. Like, I don't know. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. I felt good, but I was really anxious. Then at mile twenty three, I was like, I got blisters and they were bad.

I saw that picture. Oh yeah. Was that Dave? Dave my photographer. That was my foot. god, that was bad. thing was Dave made a post of like 20 photos. he grew up picking that I go like picture 15, that's the photo. That was my foot. was my bloodline. Exactly, I know the time. That was one of four that I ended up with. And like he took the photo what, right before someone popped it? Rob. Yeah, he was Sparrow No D.

I

there to, yeah, because I still had, when we finally did that, I think I had like 12 miles left and I was like, I just gotta, I gotta get some relief. Anything to get through these 12, yeah. And it did it, right? 23 miles, I had a blister on each foot, one of them being that blood blister that was forming. Beautiful. And I just kept, well, it wasn't fast, I think at most I was doing like 23 minute mile.

trekking poles, my brain just kind of shut down and I just kept moving. ⁓

just kept moving in a circle. Forward is a pace. Yeah, so going into this event last year, you wanted the marathon. You got the Ultra 32. Your goal going into this race was how many miles? 48. Because I'm 48 years old. Okay, so that's like almost... you're not. I am. I know, right? She looks good. Thank you. So that's like a huge, like, upper since last year. I walked away last year feeling great and I

like

this year I'm not gonna walk away feeling great, it's fine. And then again these running friends that we let convince us to do things, somebody was like, well the magnets you buy, the next race milestone is actually 50. And I was like, you jerk, it's a four mile loop, can't, if I do 50 I've gotta get back one way. I can't just stop, right?

Right, so 52 became this background number that I was determined to hit. And you did. And I did. And you know what that deserves? One of these. That's awesome. How much time did you have to spare? Was it like cutting it close or were you good? It was like an hour and a half. Oh, okay. You had about an hour and a half.

What's your next Millennium race? Probably Turkey Trial. wanted to do this, but again, sometimes we have to sit down. A week after, probably soon. We'll be there. You're signed up. Erica's already signed up. That's actually the hardest part sometimes is to get Erica to sign up to do a race here. Like, drive up the highway. She just wants us to go to her local mean, are you signed up? That's a very long time after New York. I feel like you're more than ready to run

I will sign up tonight. The question is, will my daughter sign up? We will sign her up when we know the weather. And we're going to be trotting too. We're not racing that. We're going to have No, none of the end of year races are for racing. This is all for fun. Right. Are you going to dress up like a turkey too? I never know. We're not doing that? That'll be a lot of fun. That's the ⁓ baseball stadium one. I have run that race every single year since its inception.

Guaranteed entry. I mean John. Yeah guaranteed entry I did it I didn't run it in 2020 and it rained the whole time. I was so missed. was like what am I doing? I questioned all my life choices. It wasn't that cold out there. I've run it the year that it was um we had just gotten a little snow it was like so bad and the wind was blowing the tents were blowing over it was like seven degrees out. Nobody's paying us to run. Why are we doing this?

Like you said, I could buy that jacket, but now I have to pay four times as much and I have to do this event. I don't want to add up every century fees. That's how much my jacket costs me. No, we shouldn't do It'll make you cry. You'll cry. But again, it's a badge of honor. You wear it around proud. It's like Eric's New York City marathon jacket. I won't wear this often, but I said I'll wear it today. I even have my medal in the back to show off to I am wearing a hamster wheel. Yes, amazing. And it's green printed on the back with

my

name and my. Oh, love that. That's so cool. congratulations. Thank you. Thank you for coming on the podcast. Oh, thank you. Yes, it was a lot of fun. Thanks for finally coming on. We know I know we talked about it, but it was last year Hampshire when you go, Eric, I can finally come on the podcast. I a marathon. I told her that this year we finished and she's giving me a hug and I go, you can tell Eric. I'll finally. Yes, yes, because I have been asking you for a couple of years now. A couple of years. Yeah.

Anyways, this is cool. So much fun. These millennium running events are awesome. I love seeing your face here. Every one of them. is amazing, guys. That was Melissa Cummings on the Other Rounds podcast. We're going to have to give her real episode for her one day because she's that incredible, guys. That was wicked awesome.

Eric (1:36:55)
All right, Michael's back because Michael has a story and I was like, can you hold off on this story for Tara to get the headphones set up and everything? All right.

So I just ran New York as we all know not a big deal. It's a little race in this town called New York. Never heard of it. Yeah, not a big deal at all. You've run two, so you're wearing the blue poncho. I have an orange poncho. What's the poncho story? So this poncho is from 2022 and earlier. OK, so they're always blue? They were always blue for as long as I remember. And apparently this side they were in the switch color. So the orange one in 2023. I. Smart move, by the way.

I only ran the marathon in 2024. So how'd you get a blue poncho?

They decided to give these, they had a bunch extra I guess, they decided to give these out to the people who finish the Fred LeBeau half marathon in January 2023. So you didn't actually get the poncho for running the New York City Marathon, you got it for running the Fred LeBeau half marathon. Yeah, and I did not know that this was happening, not me, my coaches, we all did not know it was happening. So we're all taking pictures afterwards, we're all wearing the ponchos like this, and my friends are like,

How did you get that? Don't you ever wear that again? did not earn Does it say finisher on the back? Yeah, this is like the exact same one you have just in blue. It's almost like the people that go to TJ Maxx and buy those marathon jackets. Well, yeah, kind of. Or people who buy them on Facebook Marketplace. Oh my god. New York City Medals. I shared the one the other day of like last four Boston Marathons. bucks off for I will die the hill. If you do that, you should never be allowed to run the

or any world major ever again. Well, there's some amazing places where you can donate medals and they go to kids. There's this awesome race in Mexico. yeah. It's funny. Some kid will get, you know, a little Chicago marathon medal and then some kid will get some epic New York City or Ironman World Championship medal, right? Not a big deal. Not a big deal. But, you know, you can totally donate medals if it's not your thing. They're selling them. I get selling a poncho, though. Yeah. Because I saw somebody on the New York

Facebook page, share that she made this poncho into a jacket, but it took two ponchos for the material to make it into a jacket. And it is a beautiful jacket. yeah, maybe you could sell it and someone's gonna buy it and you're somebody who's actually like to get the guaranteed entry, because you've won so many New York City marathons, but you if you run 15 of them, you get guaranteed entry the rest of your life. Right. If you have that many, I could see selling an older poncho. 14 more to go. Yeah, same here. But like I could see that being a thing where you may you could sell some, but like the next

No, I'm sorry. Yeah, no donate it. Yeah, don't need so many medals like it. Yeah Yeah, there's plenty of that stuff out there. So cool You two really didn't get to be introduced earlier, but Tara Tara Dactyl Michael Bauer Michael Barrett You will be running in Charlotte next week. We are expect amazing content. Oh You could log into the on the runs and go live. Yeah, I I believe that's all her

Yes, but this is awesome again. Thank you for coming to New Hampshire. absolutely Thank you for doing a Millennium running race I hope you do this yearly make this a yearly because you've done this is not his first Millennium He's been doing Millennium races since before he's ever run ⁓ Before he ever heard of our podcast really yeah, so I did the long island. Yeah, so I did the Eastern States last year okay, and I told him I found out about about a year ago when the Sammy's Julio's episode

Yeah, so Sammy's Julia's right over here. Where are you? Sammy's Julia's right over there. She's just poking back took a picture and That's that's how Michael Bauer found us. Oh, yeah, and the reach is amazing athletic brew and bastard I mean You know mr. 305. I know mr. 305 and all the Vernon. Yeah, I need a button for mr. 305 like we're gonna make him his own sound people. It's like darling

But anyways, all right, this is awesome. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you. Let me be on. Yeah. When you do look at future Millennium Races, hit me up before I'll tell you which ones we'll be at. Yeah. I mean, I think next year's schedule is kind of lined up. I might be a little tough to get up there. excuses. Well, I'm kind of running in Europe next year. No big deal. No big deal. Europe main? ⁓ Europe main? No, I actually, so like I did my own fundraising thing. I'm going to be going to do two of the two

perhaps in Europe back-to-back games, Prague and Berlin. Prague's gotta be sick. I can imagine Prague's be sick. Alright, I'll give my friend David Potsnacker a call, ask him what to do in Prague for you. Alright, well this is amazing. Michael, thank you so much. absolutely, thanks so much. I'll see you next weekend. Definitely.

Eric (1:42:06)
and we are continuing the tradition of getting someone from the Millennium staff at every live recording of a Millennium race. Now we have someone very special because she also just had a baby. And we're so excited. have Bridget Cantone on the podcast.

How you doing? You know what? I'm tired. I got up earlier than probably most today. You know, had to pump some milk for the baby before going off to work. He's only two and a half months old. I've already ran my first race with him in the running stroller. Was that the trick or trot? Yes. How'd that go? You know what? The hardest part was not tripping other people with the running stroller. And like yelling at people, I'm coming.

I'm

coming and I'm trying to like not run people over. I like you guys should get like the little bells on it. You know what? I'll have the husband attach a bell so I can ring. can just ding ding at people. Yeah, because you can't do an air horn. It's too loud at the baby. It's a bit much. His name is Jameson, right? Yes. Did you dress him up?

He was wearing Captain America and I wore Wonder Woman. It's cute. It's what I had. I love it. It's good theme. His first Halloween. Yeah. And this is my first day back at work after being home for the baby. one. It's just an awesome ring. Yeah. Two and a half months. Like, was quick. But you love it. Yeah. And it's not like you're back at your fault because you actually have a nine to five. You're a school teacher. Yes, I teach fifth grade.

in

Hollis Brookline, New Hampshire. Are you back to school? No, I'm taking the whole year off and going back in the fall. I mean, this is the job I've been at the longest working from Millennium Running. I've been with them for 10 years. I actually helped them open the running retail store. You were the first retail store employee, I think, right? Yes. The owner, John Mortimer, calls me an OG. An OG. That's probably nice though. Like, I know motherhood.

I'm not a mom, but it's a lot. Well, you're a mom to fur babies. Oh, yes. Yes. I know. Shout out to Jack and Arnold. But like I've from a lot of moms, I've heard like going back to work or like doing something for yourself and getting not getting away, but you know, like, yes, getting having your time and it's nice. Yeah, I get very stir crazy. Like yesterday, I literally put the baby in the running stroller and was like, we are running to Hannaford Pharmacy to pick up my prescription because it's too nice out.

to take the car, so we're going for it. It's actually kind of the nice part about living here. So I grew up in a small town, and if it was within the 20-minute drive, it was close. I live here now, and it's nice that I could walk just a few minutes, and I'm at a CVS, I'm at a convenience store. Yep. A five-minute ride or less than that to Hannaford's. Yeah. The convenience is really nice, and it's a nice day. My daughter did, my daughter's nine. She asked us this summer, like, could she walk to the store?

And the answer was an absolute no, you cannot go without us. You want to go? But not alone. Yes, she's like I'll be fine. Like no, no, no, no, no, it's It's funny because we were at the Mohican Sun yesterday for cheerleading comp We brought the boys to this place called kids quest and we thought we've got to go in but no it's a park and no

I are allowed. Whoa. And they have staff there. It's like daycare. Where you're like, bye. I was so nervous. I was so nervous. I looked and I said, see those two doors that say emergency exit only? There's somebody watching them. My boys are the two who will go out there. And thankfully, two other girls who are on the cheer team, ⁓ much younger, more close to the boys age, a little older, I was like, you want to go? I'll pay for you. I'll pay for you. Go. And I felt a little better. But those moments happened when

where your kids leave you for the first time and you're like, can't stop, you don't know what to do with yourself either after. It's so funny. It's like, what do we do? I just know how difficult it is for you having two of the same white And they're monsters. go in opposite directions. But Bridget, you just shared with me a photo. So is this your first time without him for last two and a half months? Actually, when he was only two weeks old, I had to leave him to go to a

bachelorette party actually. And it wasn't that wild. It was at Tuscan Village in Salem, New Hampshire. And I was like, well, gotta go. And ⁓ left him at home with dad and I was like, all right, figure it out dad. Here we go. ⁓ And that was interesting. So I was only like two weeks old postpartum and I had a C-section. like getting in and out of, out of the car that we were traveling in, was like, ⁓ God.

But my husband sent me a picture this morning and the baby had his mouth wide open and I was like, oh cute is he smiling or yawning? And the only response was the word screaming. So I was like, all right, they're having a great morning together. I love it. Just try not to rub it in that you're having fun at work. Yeah. Because I think you do have a lot of fun at work. Yeah, it's definitely like working in a industry.

that you can relate to is definitely great because I don't have to grade or do report cards here. yeah, I mean, my boss is like one of the best bosses there is. He's always like, how's it going? Do you need anything? Do you need, you know, thank you for showing up. You've been pumping his tires since the day we met at Bonfire. Yes. Yes. You've been pumping his tires. We were like 30 episodes in and you've been pumping his tires. Tell us a little bit more about

what your role is. Let's start with, spare no details, but how did you even get in this role? Well, so I joined the Running Club, the Millennium Running Club back, I don't know, maybe in 2013 when I moved back home.

I moved back home. ran really low level D3 in college for a college that is now shut down, is sad. school? Green Mountain College in Vermont. Okay, I thought you said dream. Green Mountain College. Shout out the GMC Eagles. Rest in peace that college is shut down. But I moved back home and I was like, who do I run with now? Like I don't have a team. I don't have people.

the club and then when they were opening the store I interviewed and they're like we don't want to just hire you because you're in the club but they ended you know they hired me and helped them open the store and I've been with them for 10 years now so and that probably works out perfect because you are a school teacher so you work full time in the summer I guess yeah full time in the summer nights weekends yeah what are you doing today now you you have pop-up merch tents yeah

Do you you run those do you manage them like everyone who wants to come here? can pretty much get you bring the store to the race base. Yeah So when we have races we have store tents and you can purchase We take card which is nice so people can get whatever they want. We've got ⁓ All sorts of gear we've nutrition ⁓ yes, gooder gooder sunglasses we got Boko hats ⁓

So we just started carrying Skeeter brand hats and ear bands not too long ago. ⁓

We have the magnets and stickers and hats and sweatshirts from this event. then whatever we don't sell you can buy at the store in Bedford or online. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty incredible. You know, as we continue to do this, we're learning tricks to the trade. How do we stay neat and organized? How do we make this look better? It looks like crap compared to New Rapport today, but it looks so much better than it did at the 10-mile-er. You must have this down to a sign.

Everything I see Millennium does is down to a science. It's fast. It's efficient. It's fluent. The same with the store. Like you pack up a lot of the store and bring it here and then you pack up and bring it back. And you're probably not wasting much time and energy because you've got it figured out. Yeah, it's a lot of it's definitely very planned of like this is the specific stuff we're going to bring. This is stuff we're not going to bring. And we have like these little bins that we pack stuff into so we can just pop it out onto the tables.

pack it back up when we're ready to go. The packing and unpacking goes great. The technology, not so much. That could be a code Brown story. That's why let him do all this stuff. I don't touch anything electronic. You always finger across that technology, like, please work with us today. Yeah, especially when you got that $500 sale and you're like, oh

The card reader's not working. Yeah, exactly. And you're trying to reconnect to Wi-Fi over and over again. But you got to roll with the punches and just kind of make, you know, figure out some tricks and hope it works. You got really cool staff. Something I noticed that's been a lot of fun lately. And I guess you've been away for a little bit of it because you're, you know, had a baby. Yeah, I guess so. Not a big deal. But the social media content game from the running lately. No, it's like been top notch in a lot of it comes from the

store. Yes. Yeah. Are you ready when you get back in the store full time now that you're working to be all over social media? mean, that's a lot of pressure. Got to be in front of the camera. You guys are like the models too when you have new product coming. You guys are like the sweatshirts, the shirts. We have a social media content creator now, and she comes in and we come up with some ideas. like a lot of them have been Brandon's ideas.

hysterical in the skeleton costume. don't know if you saw those leading up to Halloween and he was making like terrible dad jokes. That's my kind of thing. Yes, like skeleton costume and he's like, I've been dying to get in here and buy some new shoes. My feet are sore to the bone. ⁓

Yeah, but yeah, I guess I'm ready back in the day with the beginnings of social media We would try on the outfits and like try and post them, but we didn't really know what we're doing We're not content creators And so you did way back in the Instagram. You might see some of me wearing some outfits Okay, maybe if they're still lingering on

love it and the thing is when I think John posted on his own Facebook about it or maybe it was on the Millennium page and like Eric attacked me five people liked it I see who does it now. I'm like, I'm so glad they didn't hire me I didn't even write but I'm like the person doing it now is crushing it. There's one one I thought could have been lived what I would have done differently. I thought this wasn't funny more so they had the one where the trust fall. Yes, that was funny. John was supposed to catch it. He goes

You can't trust anyone. I don't remember who fell. Yes, it was Mackenzie. Mackenzie. Yes. I felt like everybody in the store should just be like, my God, start running to Mackenzie. And then you hear someone in the back go, can somebody, is anyone a doctor? And John's just focused on the shoes and the six. I was like, that would have been awesome. Yes, you can't trust anybody with your two fitting process. I thought it was great. And you seem to be doing now more of the trends. Yeah.

talking about doing it one day. What's the one now where you're back to back in the song and we're like, we'll do it one day. He sends me stuff all the time. was like, yeah.

She knows we're not gonna do it. We who you hired. My social media bar is just very low. ⁓ Well, this was fun. Are you and Jamison gonna be at the Turkey Trap? You know what? I have to watch the weather forecast. We talked about this earlier. That was my daughter. daughter needs a certain weather pattern to I think that.

If the weather's cooperating, I think yes. Yeah. Love that. It'll be awesome. My daughter is more, I don't want her to have the bad experience. So I'm the one making the decision. And if it's raining. You don't want to taint her memories of road races. Right. And she already had the 5K experience and it was insane. mean, road races are always rainbows and butterflies, right? Yes. Yes. If you learn what I learned, you know, no one, no one has the book on how to

When you're a parent, you're learning every day, right? And you're figuring it out. You don't have this down to a science on day one. And when I take my kids skiing now, it's more about, I do have to be a little picky. They need to be warm. Yeah. All right? You got to get them the right That's how I would do it. Yeah. You them the right gear, and then they just have, you can be out there all day having fun. And it's like 20 degrees and you don't even know it. And it's the same here with the running and all that. So what you do with the community and Millennium and whatever,

like you've been pumping Millennium's tires for years with me. And I remember talking to John one of the first times about it and how you were doing that. So I appreciate everything you've done for us. You probably don't even know it, but you've done a lot. Oh, thank you. mean, I guess like, I don't know. I just love the company. I've been with them for a long time. I also coach the running club workouts, too. So yeah, when Coach Jen isn't there, we get Coach Bridget. Yes. With people in the shape. Yes. Well, this was amazing.

I'm sure you got to go back to work. I know I guess I should but this so much fun. Thanks for coming on It's great to see you here and I love seeing you and Sammy Sulea. Yeah, doing everything together Mommy baby yoga. Yeah, we've done some mommy and baby walks and runs and yeah Awesome you guys both being first time mom experience a lot of this together I actually met like proudly over a decade ago

through the running club and we reconnected and our baby's similar in age and we're both like haha I have no idea what I'm doing as a mom but we know how to be active so let's figure it out together. Jameson and Parker are going to be best friends for life. Yeah they're just hanging out. yeah it's going to be fun you're doing an amazing job as a mom and you guys do an amazing job here at Millennium. You know what we're all just figuring it out day at a time right? right that's right. Life in general.

Ladies, anything else for Bridget before we send her back to work? Thank you for stopping by. I'm glad you could take a couple of minutes and relax. I left my co-worker Sarah over there. Oh my God, you have a line of like 30 people right now. The Millennium Merch tent is just insane. And she's looking at us like, oh my God, when are you going to be Sarah's getting her slams. Sorry, Sarah. was a lot of fun. Thank you so much. Thanks again.

While we're doing this, you just wave to somebody who you wave to. Should we get Tracy over? Here, to Tracy. Richard might have just done it for us.

Tracy. Erica's going to go get Tracy. How are you doing there, Tara? I'm good. I'm cold. Yeah, it is a cold. You know, it would have been great if could have continued the Millennium running on the runs races or just epic weather. It is still pretty epic running weather. It's just not warm for us. ⁓ they caught the microphone. my God. So I'm really excited to have you here. So we have have Tracy Eastman on.

I need to give her the...

Yes. let me go back into my memory here. We met around the Shamrock Half Marathon when Erica and I were handing out stickers. Yeah, stickers. I have stickers too. Right. And that's same day we met Tara, Tara, I went separately. Same day. Yes. But you knew us because of Sarah Hallett. Yes. And you and Sarah and Mike Linsen and Eric and all of them were a part of the Millennium Running Club. That's how we met.

These are our OG. She's our OG. That's exactly right. I am your OG. And I was super pumped up about the podcast immediately because you guys are really great at just talking like naturally and it goes with the flow. It's very nice. And we edit a little bit to it sound better. That was so you want to take a wild guess, even though I just said it, but we'll see who is listening. You want to take a guess what episode number that was.

Five? Twelve. Twelve. was gonna, yeah. Five was good. So five is, no, here's why five's in your head. Because five is really number one for me. Was that our new shoes? Yes. yeah, yeah. Five was really number one. So if you think about it, five, twelve would have been seven, right? Yeah. So, but that's when we found it. Right there, actually. there at the Thirsty Moose. across the street. man. Bring it back. Even though I know you, and Erica and Tara, Dackel. chance to hang out with Tracy way more than you have.

She's seen my worst. I have. I have seen you at your worst. Tell us a little bit about yourself though, because there's a lot of people here listening who don't know who you are. So...

Tracy Eastman. So I'm originally from Massachusetts. I lived in Jackery for 20 something years. And then I got a divorce and decided to start running to get myself through that divorce. And every mile I did, it was just like a weight off my shoulders. So then I joined Millennium Running Club. It was January. I joined Millennium Running Club out of Milford. I live in Jackery.

Spring comes along and it's not in Milford, it's in Manchester. So I joined a Run Club an hour away from my house. But at that point I had already met a ton of people that I loved running with that built me up. I felt great about my life again. It got me through all of the hard, bad times. So I joined Run Club. I could barely run a 5K. I did couch the 5K all on my own. And then...

you know, a few months in, was like, I gotta try this half marathon thing. So I do a half marathon and now I'm excited about maybe I could do a marathon. So a year later, I did a marathon, one and done. And since then, I've done a million 5Ks, a million half marathons, all the different things. And it's just such a stress relief. And obviously with the crowds and the support and the hype, it's amazing. And we see Eric, we'll talk about Eric in a second, but we always see him on his bike.

supporting everybody else too and doing the laps and you're not just at all you're not just at these events you're at hamster wheel you're somewhere every weekend supporting somebody but if you're not running you're supporting you're doing the support crew with erik because didn't you run with her last year hamster wheel last year hamster wheel we were there to support i did 25 miles in support i wasn't trained for that basically ran a marathon in support i just went out and walked and whoever needed

Somebody there we're like, let's go walk with so and so let's go be with so and so and Right, but I was like just weeping I couldn't control my emotions Sheila was like just go with her she needs support. I'm like, okay, she doesn't

Everybody gets that way. She's going to be fine. So I have a very soft spot for Tracy because she did save me from being a mess ⁓ and got me. did finish Sunday, which is why I was there this year. Tracy was there this year being more support system. Like that's what the running community is. We support everybody. So give back when you can. Exactly. Tracy's the best. Tracy and Eric always show up with beer. Yes, we sure do. We beer. sure do. When I ran hamster wheel, I was done and you guys.

Eric open the coolers like you want one I was like, yeah, that's nice to be on the other side. Exactly. That's exactly right. We got to actually enjoy a beer together this time. Yeah. One other one other mention I want to before we go past hamster wheel. Yeah. You did that 25 miles so easily and well because you got loose and warmed up. Remember? Remember who warmed you up? Your daughter was a drill sergeant. And if she's going to warm anybody up like she really did her job. So

The only reason I did so well is because her and I didn't hurt at all. Yeah, she did a good job. Yeah

She was doing some gymnastics stuff. You are not doing that right, she would say. I cannot do that. So you mentioned one and done marathon. What marathon was that? Manchester City. This one. This one. This is so hard. 2018. That's the year I did it. You did? Yeah. Oh, nice. Yes. I was five hours and 29 minutes. That's awesome. That's crazy. I just looked it up. Wow. The other day I was like, OK. This is a hard course. This is a very hard I did it in 2016 and I haven't done it since.

It's a tough one. So I don't know if I ever want to do one because of the time it takes to train. I don't have that time. And by the end of it, you're like, this is a full time job. I'm slow runner. So if I'm going to go do a 20 mile run, I'm going to be out there for five hours. like that just, wore on my kids. It wore on myself and my job and my life. And I don't necessarily want to take the time to do that now. Maybe someday I'll still do it. But the half marathon is a good goal. ⁓

It's a perfect distance when you have to manage everything else in life. I've always said since I've got, well, I did this one half marathon randomly in Lake Placid. I was there for a wedding. you know, when you go to the hotel, remember you talking about that. And I was like, you know what? That was awesome. And if I can just always stay in half marathon shape where you can do one at any point you want. Yeah. That's an amazing like mark to set. then really, if you want it, I am put up to a marathon after that. It's a little more icing on the cake.

a little more work and effort. You just did it. You did your marathon last weekend. I had to do my long runs on Wednesdays. That's how I made it work. I had to really change my training plan up from, cause I did this marathon last year. Right. I remember I cheered you win. Right. And it was, it was awful. Not the race, but the training because I just couldn't get in. Like, I think I had a 12 mile long run and then 20. And especially with little kids, like how do you find the time and the balance of all of that? You just got to leave work a little early on a Wednesday and you got to run from like two to six.

or something. Which is hard. Yeah. When you have a life, a balance of kids and family and running, it takes a toll sometimes if you're trying to do those long distance training. It's more fun though when you get to do it with somebody else. Yeah. And you get to do it with the Millennium Running crew that you've been a part of for how long? Since 2017. So eight years. And that was when you lived in Jackery. so you already knew people in the Millennium Running club or you met them here and that's what happened them here.

I met them, so somebody in Jackley that was part of my kid's elementary school was a parent that was there, was like, yeah, I sometimes run with a millennium. I'm gonna join and go do the winter runs at the Dome. And I was like, that sounds great. Was that Justin D. Flamari? Justin D. Flamari finishing the marathon? So then I met Eric, who is now my husband. And great name. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Spells it right. And he did a marathon the year I met him.

And then that inspired me to do a marathon. Were you like swooned by him? You're like, wow, look at that guy. I'm going go get that. need to do a couple series. And you two can, you know, open up the couple series. You can set the standard. Well, that's what you had Erica. What's Erica's husband's Clint. Clint. Yeah. Yeah. They are. They are a power couple too. Yeah. And so for Eric, he had knee surgery a couple of years later and has since

Kind of done the shorter distances so he'll always support anybody for a long run on his bike. Yes And so he's the sharp one. He carries a backpack. He takes everybody's clothes that they want to shed during a race It's been really nice. So during my marathon training, I was lucky that he was hurt and he got to come on all of my Was this the spark was this like what we together at that point, okay? Yes, so the spark was he asked me if I wanted to join his Tough Mudder

And I said sure he goes well do you know anything about Tough Mudder? I'm like no Okay, well, that's pretty awesome. You're just gonna join And so from there we trained a lot we did a lot together just for he was helping me do all the things He helped me set up a dating profile online. Oh trying to help me date He set the standards just to be around his location Eric you're the only guy who keeps popping up on my dating profile every time I swipe right at your face

I wish that was true. But he did. He was trying to just be a great friend. so I was wholeheartedly myself with him because I wasn't interested. He's not in my league and we're not going to ever date. He was just a good friend. Not in your league? did you think he was out of your league? He wasn't somebody I would date. Oh, OK. Got you. Hey, sometimes that's how it happens. I'm glad you brought up your horizon. You end up with somebody that you never thought that you'd be And it wasn't because of anything except that, like, I thought he was

was a lot older. He wasn't a lot older, but I thought he was a lot older than me. I just didn't think I was like somebody he would date or that I would want to date. And then we were together all the time. And then he was like, you know, we should date. Netflix and chill. Yeah, you cancel your dating profile. You're just wasting money now. I canceled it within a week. I was like, no, thank you. I'm not out for that. If I didn't meet somebody naturally, it was not meant to be. Well, you did. You did. thing is, you already did. You just didn't know it. Yes, exactly.

Yeah, I love I love you because you've been a support in us since that day We met right there at the first yes, and I've been listening to podcast since I am NOT caught up to date though It's all right behind. It's all right. I've been listening to audiobooks and I have a goal to do two a month So I'm like every time I get a chance to listen to my audiobook it takes away from the podcast which really sucks ⁓

just going to it'll be fun because you'll be binge listening one day. So when I go for a long run, I love to listen to the podcast because you have long podcast. Yeah. And it keeps you motivated because everybody on your podcast is like excited and happy to be here and talking about inspiring things. It just gets you motivated. It's amazing. love it. I love it. We want you to feel like you're there. Yeah, exactly. So that's the goal. Well, you're a huge supporter. Thank you so much for everything you do.

And I can't wait to see up more of the Turkey Trot in a couple weeks. Yeah, Turkey Trot in a couple weeks and then I might be retired until May. That's fine. Do you ski? Wait, do you ski? What's up? Do you go skiing? I do. A little bit. Let's go. Yeah. Let's go. I'm not a good skier. It's okay. If ever want to apres ski, call me. I'm a very sucky skier. I'm very slow. I had a knee injury on skiing a few years ago, so it scares me. But we are going to Finland skiing this year. I'm Finnish! You are?

A Tracy sandwich. exactly. Well, this is a network on each side. Yeah. This was amazing. Thank you so much for jumping on right there. That was fun. Thank you for having me. you've done has been great. Yeah. Yeah. Huge supporter since day one. Since day one. High five Tracy Eastman on the Other Ends podcast. out. Let's do it.

Throw headphones on throw headphones on you throw headphones on I definitely want Daniel definitely definitely Daniel here Daniel do those ones You want to stay with me? stay with ⁓

Territory back on I like this new title though. It's a running

Terri Terri Doctor and I are back. Well, I should say Daniel and I are back now with Nicole and Terry because Daniel is the new co-host. Really, Daniel, I want to talk to you first for a second. How you doing, buddy? How you feeling? I'm feeling good, actually. You just did the relay marathon. Yes. Did you do the first half for the second? I did the first half. Oh, that is she did that on purpose. I did not. She knew. selected this because he didn't want to wait because he would be too anxious. I offered several times to take the first Nobody told me there was

She was probably telling me, whatever you want, it's gonna be fine. And she like, I know he's gonna take first and this is gonna work out in my favor. Justine and I were just telling him, he's gotta learn on his own.

That's how you learn. Anyways, you, you, you were not a runner before you met this crazy lady, right? That is correct. Yeah. And now look at you. see you, I'm at like up at eight in the morning with the boys taking a little park and I see you doing laps around Livingston now. You've turned into something else and it's been a lot of fun to see. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. It's been a lot of fun and a good journey so far. Was this your plan?

Was the whole time? What? Was this your plan the whole time? What? Find a guy and instead of fix him, you're like, I'm going to turn him into a runner. a I had a wife. You know what's really funny? Somebody yesterday, ⁓ we met with a friend of mine and she's like, you're engaged. But I thought you were already married because you posted about your wife. I was like.

was so confused, I was like, yes. Should we keep that on the down low? Nick might be listening to you. Nick is aware. Yeah, yeah, true. So you two did the relay. Is this your first relay together? You've run together, but have you? No, we did reach the beach together. Oh, yeah, that's an epic relay race. So how do you like doing this together all the time? I love it. Yeah? Yeah.

What was the daylight then for you? How was, okay, we'll start with you, Daniel, because you obviously did the first half not knowing about the hills. Nobody told me. Were you, you? It's not true. How did it go? Like, was it too early? Was it too cold? Was it perfect? No, it went well. ⁓

I have Raynards, so I immediately do this thing that's peeling in my fingers and toes. So that's not great, but then those come back eventually. And then how was your day? It was okay. I had to wait for him. So I was very cold. I... Well, that's your fault because you let him go first. when I saw you, hadn't even ran. No. Okay. All right.

I was over at like right before six and I was like just cheer so I saw a ton of people like Mike Martinez Ryan severance like all of those like type of people and I was like yeah I saw Tara I was able to see a ton of people I love the spectating part of it it actually is one of the best parts I enjoy too like when you do the big race you're out there by yourself sometimes like unlike New York where you're with everyone but when I ran this last year the second half was so lonely yeah and you're by yourself that's because the rail trail sucks

It's so long. It's like six miles out of the road trip. and straight, and you could be running really fast, but you don't feel it because it just feels like you're doing the same thing over and over and over. You had the better time at the first half. N-T-P-Rs. Way to go. Here you go.

158. that your first sub too? That's awesome. first one was a two hour. Oh, wow. Awesome. for you. So Daniel, you met Nicole, when you started dating and everything and you're like getting serious, when did she be getting the whole thing like, hey, we're going to start running together? I didn't do that. She claims she didn't. She kind of I didn't because I had Justine to run with. I was fine. She's like, you're to start running.

We're done But there was a Saturday she's like I'm gonna run do you want to try taking my bike out? And so I was riding the bike and I was like something's wrong with my leg I kept waiting, he's like go, go, go, and I was like alright. I gotta check the tires, the tires are long. air pressure is a little low. And so I couldn't even bike.

while she was running. I was like, it was a warm, how out of shape I was. I was like, right, we've got to start this slow. And so I just started. It's been a fun journey to watch. I'm going to use that word journey for you there. It's been a fun journey to watch and see you progress because you both post about it and share about it. And now you're just running under sub two hour half marathons. No problem. You're crushing five K's. You're at all the running events with her and with her wife doing it all. been kind of fun to watch the journey.

It's been great. So what's going on with you? What's next for you, Nicole?

We're going to Disney in a couple weeks. know this, the kids don't know. kids don't know. kids don't listen to the podcast. They don't listen. They don't listen. We'll have to edit this out. The kids don't listen I'm so excited because I was talking to you the other day about it. You're we're staying at... You're staying at... Orleans. But the Riverside Park. used to be called Dixie Landings. Right? I've been at that place a few times. the French Quarter Park's very nice. Riverside's very nice.

have so much fun. What we doing a week at Disney? Did we get the Hopper Pass? No! ⁓

That's okay. You don't really need it. Magic Kingdom two days in a row. Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and then we're going to Universal. We're gonna be down there for Thanksgiving. No Epcot? No Epcot. Oh, guys. It's an adult. Rookie mistake. is not a rookie. I am not a rookie. Epcot at nighttime. It would be. have three children. Oh, it'd be amazing. Well, no. Take the kids. It's amazing. You gotta go to all the halls.

I'm a little bit of a Disney nerd. So a couple other questions. Are you going to do a character dinner or character meal? We are, yep. Clutch. Nice. Do know which one? We're doing story book with the evil queen Snow White. And then we're doing breakfast in Animal Kingdom. ⁓ that's going to... ⁓ We did a meal at Animal Kingdom. It was so fun. Yeah. Yeah. My favorite we didn't do this year, but my favorite from the past is breakfast at the Polynesian. It's like a Hawaiian breakfast. ⁓ yes. Jackson did that the last time he went. so Jackson is a Disney pro.

He's been once with his dad. Yeah, okay days. Well, it's fun Disney is seriously the happiest place on earth I love going and we're gonna go again and probably I told Ashley the other day Around the time the boys turned seven. So we got about we got about two and a half more years. His parents used to tell him he was going and then they bring him to Santa's You remember six gun ⁓ city ⁓

Yeah, that's amazing. It's just so sad when I drive by it now it's abandoned. You didn't go? I don't know what that is. my God. Is it just me? Sometimes you go to fun towns. What? How have I not heard of this? Sixth City was a home school. What's happening here? It was amazing. But anyways, hey, congratulations on... Also, congratulations to you on New York City. That medal is freaking amazing.

This is the elevation class or something. If you look at it like this, that's that's the start. So that's the like that's the course. ⁓

That's so cool. That's a world major worthy medal. 100%. Yes. You did so awesome. It was so much fun. And I felt so great. And a big, big part of it was the training and it's just adjusting like do my long runs on Wednesdays. But I got my long runs in this year and those five, five out of seven weeks in a row there were clutch. Yeah. Like what a difference. So compared to last year, because last year we

I struggled with the long run you did I couldn't get the long run in yeah, and I got two and I got like a 12 and a 20 Yeah, but the boys were younger right like you were just trying to figure it out. had to adjust I had to do it on on Wednesday afternoons. I could never get it on a weekend So I just told you to rearrange it however you want. Yeah, exactly. I looked at the week and I said, okay I'm doing the month your week would start on a Monday. I'm like I'm starting that week on Thursday I figured it out. It was a blast, but I would not have

been able to figure out my own. That's for sure. So last note, we had so much fun at that live show, but I want to know what did you think of the live show? thought it was great. It was an awesome time. Yeah, you were in the audience. It was really good to see you. Yeah. Yeah. And as the audience, we could hear everything.

you as her example all the time. She did, yes. And you too, Eric. Yeah. Of what not to do. Yeah. Yeah. Well, this was awesome. Have a great day. Thank you. the rest of it. Another, will you be at the Turkey Trock? We're going to be in Disney. that's right. Thank you for listening, ⁓ Well, have fun at Disney. I'm super excited and jealous. And I love you guys both. So thank you so much for doing this. Thank you. Thank Amazing. Tara, I think we got to finish this up. Yeah. You guys are good if you want to go and mingle with us.

and drink more beer. we gotta finish this up because I got to go. It is 2 o' so I got four minutes. I wanna thank you for coming here. What a song right now. I love this song. This song is amazing. It's fitting to end the day with it. Thanks for coming and co-hosting with me. Yeah, I'm always, I love this. thank you guys for this. a blast. I'm glad you had a great day. We had so much fun. Unfortunately, now we're two for three with you on the runs coming to Millennium Race and bringing epic weather.

because I am cold. Listen, yeah, this is perfect for running. It is not the best for podcasting. No, it's not for sitting around. Yeah, I am cold. I'm shaking sometimes. But oh, man, the crew's awesome. We've kept the theme of getting someone from Millennium and everyone. But the guy Phil from Swim is a Mission, he was incredible. That was awesome. Yeah, great gig. Yeah. I need you here for all of them. Erica, grab the microphone. We're wrapping this up here. Put your headset back on. We're wrapping it up. Episode 196.

The Millennium Run Club Crew! needs to remember that she is working though. But it worked out because we had the Power Couple. I was very happy to give up my mic for Daniel. Yes, we had the Power Couple. So hey, I should thank you two. I can't keep giving her crap, but you jetted over here after the BAA half marathon. You're damn right I did. I mean, this is so fun. And I'm sad I couldn't get here sooner, but I'm very glad that I at least get to see some of final finishers. Like, the Grits.

that you are seeing out here is just phenomenal. So I'm so happy to see it. This is amazing. We got a great spot. So thank you to John and thank you to the entire Millennium team. This was so much fun. I think this is our last one of the year. We got to do three this year. Which is awesome. We didn't know we were doing this at all like four months ago. I mean, this is kind of our thing now.

I'm much more calm. I don't get nervous anymore because it's just so much fun. Yeah. The atmosphere is incredible. This was great. So we'll be at more of these next year. The weather will be epic like like it has to be other two for us. The weather will also be epic for the runners. We will we will do this in the cold for the runners to have a great weather. So I'm going to need a couple of beers. We're going to some space heaters maybe. Yeah, I like that. Well, those are things we should invest in. A space heater would be a bit great now for me.

This was so much fun again. Thank you guys. I really hope you enjoyed this week that we got to do these this year It was such a cool experience for us, and we're gonna do a lot more We're gonna make sure the speakers not facing the microphones because it was earlier and I had Darren move it nice so Guys amazing what a year. I know it's not our last episode of the year We have a great guest next week that Erica and I are gonna get to record in person with tomorrow at the Tuscan village How cool is that and then we got some more we we actually have some people we are

recorded with back in the summer who just we haven't been able to drop their episodes yet. So thank you everybody for being very patient. It's going to be an amazing November. December will be some of the awesome best of the Christmas special. And then twenty twenty six is going to be freaking awesome. Epic. Epic. But if you guys are looking for a turkey trot, come join us at the Fisher Cats 5K. We'll be there. Can't wait. So, Erica, you need to take us home here. I got to say congratulations to everybody who raised at the Manchester City Marathon today.

whether you're relaying half marathons, wasn't there five kicks? I think you guys are amazing. Congratulations. So thank you guys for listening. We know we love you. And I just want to say thank you to all of our veterans, Veterans Days on Tuesday, November 11th. And the people that ran today, we ran for you guys and Swim With a Mission. Check them out. Right. It's nice that you mentioned that because we already recorded the TROs for Tuesday's episode, which is actually Veterans Day. And we forgot to add that to that. So, you know, thank you to all the veterans on Veterans

November 11th and have a great great weekend because right now when you're listening it is Friday Eve and there's no better day than Friday Eve because tomorrow is Friday guys then it's the weekend the weather is going to be amazing go out there have some fun runs whatever you're doing I'll be in Charlotte North Carolina. Follow Tara on all social media platforms because she's going to she's going to crush it with the media. Yes. All right Erica for the officially take us home. Thank you guys for listening. You know we love you.

Don't fear the code brown! And don't forget to stretch!

One, two, three. All right, cool. That hurt. My hands are

Eric (2:27:00)
we go. All right, we're back with another fun, amazing friend here. What's up? What's up?

Okay, he won a race. won. You're the marathon winner. Alright, come back. ⁓

Eric (2:27:21)
is Hannah's song. ⁓ you don't know that because her episode hasn't dropped yet. You don't! I gotta go find a bathroom. ⁓