204 | Liz Boyd | Stroke Survivor to Boston Marathon Finish Line

In this episode, Liz Boyd (11:23) shares her inspiring journey of recovery after suffering a stroke, detailing the physical and emotional challenges she faced. Liz candidly discusses the unexpected losses she experienced, including muscle mass, vision, and hearing, and how these changes affected her mental health. She emphasizes the importance of self-compassion during the recovery process, highlighting the struggle of transitioning from an overachiever to someone who had to relearn basic skills. Liz also opens up about the sensory overload she experienced in everyday situations, such as dining out, which led to panic attacks. 

As the conversation progresses, Liz reveals her newfound purpose in life: to raise awareness about stroke recovery and support others facing similar challenges. She recounts her incredible achievement of running the Boston Marathon just two years after her stroke, illustrating her determination and resilience. Liz's story serves as a powerful reminder of the strength of the human spirit and the importance of kindness and understanding in our interactions with others, as everyone has their own struggles and stories to tell.

During the Tros, Eric and Six Star Erika catch up as Erika preps for her trip to Myrtle Beach for another Ultra, the Patriots are back in the AFC Championship game, and Eric gives his initial review of his new fruit phone, which just happens to be his first ever iPhone.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Weekend Recap
11:23 Introducing Liz Boyd and Her Inspiring Journey
15:10 Liz's Nursing Career and Passion for Healthcare
20:59 The Impact of Community and Connections
24:00 The Stroke: A Life-Changing Event
40:57 The Journey to the Hospital
46:25 Understanding the Medical Procedures
53:39 The Last Ditch Effort: Mechanical Thrombectomy
55:18 The Last Ditch Effort
56:25 The Journey of Recovery
58:07 Relearning Life Skills
01:07:09 Mental Health and Emotional Recovery
01:15:47 The Road to the Boston Marathon
01:22:59 The Marathon Experience: Overcoming Challenges
01:26:40 The Role of Family in Personal Growth
01:29:35 Hot Takes for 2026: Shifting Social Media Narratives
01:36:36 The Influence of a Strong Father Figure
01:37:57 Future Aspirations and Running Goals
01:42:42 The Outro

Takeaways

I lost my muscle mass, vision, and hearing.
It's okay to not be okay.
We all have a story; you just don't know what others are going through.
My purpose is to shed light and provide support.
We need more real and unfiltered stories in social media.

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Threads
Email us at OnTheRunsPod@gmail.com

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

Transcript

Liz Boyd (00:00)
they don't explain to you that when you are discharged and then you get back home, even though that is your goal, is to get home how life is never going to be the same. And my life will never be the same.

Erika (00:06)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (01:09)
What's up everybody and welcome to episode 204 of the On the Runs podcast and what an incredible weekend. Patriots are back in the AFC

The weatherman was wrong once again as we got dumped on with snow and everyone's running stories was absolutely incredible in the beautiful winter wonderland. We got an amazing guest on today's episode. But before we get to any of that, I must say hello to my kick-ass Rock Server co-host who is packing her bags to head down south before it gets cold.

Six star Erica, what's up?

Erika (01:42)
Hey, oh, happy Monday, almost Tuesday. I am ready for this Monday to be over. And yeah, looking forward to the trip down to South Carolina. Although the weatherman is like cursed or something because it is going to be just as cold down there. Actually, it's going to be cold up here, but it's not going to be warm down there. I'm so bad. So sad.

Eric (01:47)
Yeah.

Really?

Really? Yeah, okay, okay, so it's gonna be like single

digits this weekend. You at least, you're gonna be above freezing, I hope.

Erika (02:08)
Well, yeah.

Barely. It's going to be a really cold race for Terra and I.

Eric (02:12)
Wow.

Perfect

running weather that you're prepared for like think everyone down there is training in warm weather. It's gonna be freezing to them You're gonna be so used to this

Erika (02:19)
It was gonna be 60!

Yeah, we have an advantage

But I wanted some nice weather, you guys. This snow, as pretty as it is. I'm so done with it. I'm so over it. What did we get? We got something like six inches, eight inches, a ridiculous amount of snow this weekend.

Eric (02:41)
Well,

I love it. Remember last winter? I was begging for it. Begging. We never got any. So I get it this year. It's my year, my winter. I've already been skiing like 14 times. Had an incredible weekend. It's been incredible. Like the kids, let me tell you, we skied with like our friends and everything. It was so much fun with all the kids getting along. They never wanted to quit. My buddy Eric, great name by the way, spells it correctly with a C. He goes...

Erika (02:45)
⁓ it's perfect pow pow snow for you.

Mm-hmm. Holy shit.

Shut up.

Eric (03:09)
They will never forget this. We keep this up. We're skiing all the time. He goes, they will never forget this. They want to ride the lift alone without their parents. So there's the riding lift without adults. And we're just enjoying it. And we're ripping all day with the kids on the mountain. And we're skiing the entire mountain. It was great. It was so great.

Erika (03:11)
Aww.

Mmm. Yep.

that for you. I do appreciate it for people who do the outside sports and honestly going for a run in it this weekend with the roads not being super great. Like the traction wasn't terrible. I only slipped like twice. No falls though. No falls.

Eric (03:43)
No falls.

Terror I saw was running with like the, ⁓ what do you call those? Like spikes. Yeah, spikes.

Erika (03:49)
like nano spikes. Yeah. I

don't actually have those. need to, I need to invest in a pair, but I was using my, my Mount to coast hybrid shoes and those had just enough traction, just enough tread to keep me upright. And I guess in my defense, when I slipped, it was going down a hill.

Eric (04:06)
Okay, cool. So I

checked the weather here. I'm looking at the weather. All right, so here in Manchester, New Hampshire, the high for Saturday is six degrees. We're going to get a heat wave on Sunday. It's going to be 13, 13 degrees on Sunday.

Erika (04:10)
Mm-hmm. It's gonna be real cold.

So bad.

Isn't there more snow coming on on Sunday?

Eric (04:24)
In fact, Saturday is sunny, no clouds. Sunday is a little cloudy. No snow. We got snow Monday night and snow Wednesday. So it's going to be really sunny, cold, but sunny. Myrtle beach, the weather for Saturday, 42 degrees in snow. The weather, the weather for Sunday, 38 degrees in snow. my God. It's going to snow. It says

Erika (04:29)
Mm.

They can't handle it down there either. Mm-hmm.

you

Eric (04:53)
Heavy snowstorm.

Erika (04:55)
Heavy snowstorm.

Eric (04:57)
This is Google weather you just type in Myrtle Beach weather on Google You're getting you're gonna. There's gonna be a snowstorm where you're gonna be in Myrtle Beach

Erika (05:01)
Aw man, the race to-

The race

director was like, so this can change. Yeah, no kidding. This can change really fast. Like it's a complex storm. Of course it's complex. You can't pinpoint that crap. But he was like, just make sure to wear a hat and bring some gloves. I'm like, this is all you have for us?

Eric (05:08)
WAH WAH WAH

Now, I think there's many listeners

here who make the trip every year down south to Florida, Clearwater, because Millennium is hosting the Clearwater race this coming weekend too. The weather down there, is much better than Myrtle Beach. Saturday is sunny and 79, and Sunday looks like cloudy with some rain, 74 degrees. Nice. Nice.

Erika (05:31)
⁓ mm-hmm. Tell me that's better weather.

Mm-hmm.

Ooh, that's warm though.

take the Sunday weather over the Saturday weather, even though

I love the heat. that's if you're doing like, well, actually, do they do the marathon on the Sunday? And they have an ultra too. They have a 50k. Yeah, I don't know. Saturday is a little warm, especially if you're not used to it up here.

Eric (05:55)
It's a whole like festival. Yeah, it's a whole festival. I would love to be a part of it. I was talking like we

should we should podcast down there next year. So John, like, can we make that happen? Darren, DJ Darren Roy, he's heading down there to DJ from the beach. He's so excited. Yeah. So the Patriots, they won. They're back in the AFC Championship game. know, City of Champions over here. to be beautiful, sunny, 41

Erika (06:10)
Damn, how fun is that? If we want to save the date, I'm in.

They hate us because they ain't us.

Eric (06:22)
And let me ask you this, did you watch any football?

Erika (06:24)
Did I watch football? I had to. That was just on TV. That was it.

Eric (06:25)
You had to, you were forced. I did not. I didn't watch

the Patriots, but I paid attention. I tuned in, I checked the score, I wanted to know what was going on. And I saw a tiny bit of the end of the

Erika (06:35)
Okay.

Eric (06:38)
But I tuned into that Buffalo Bills Denver

Erika (06:38)
⁓ it was so sloppy,

Eric (06:41)
But I tuned into that Buffalo Bills Denver game.

Erika (06:41)
it was so sloppy,

Eric (06:45)
I was felt so bad for the Buffalo Bills.

What a losing organization. Like, you know, they lost four Super Bowls in a row.

Erika (06:53)
Oof.

I did not know that and I feel bad. ⁓

Eric (06:58)
And now, now they're good again and they keep losing in the divisional round of the playoffs.

And they're so good.

Erika (07:06)
I did see that Josh Allen cried and I was like, aw, you poor dude. I felt bad for him.

Eric (07:12)
And I'm not going to ask you your opinion on the officiating, but you know, it could be debated. However, did you hear what happened to the Denver quarterback? I know this is a running podcast guys and we never talk football, but we're talking about this for a sec.

Erika (07:16)
the hell do I know about officiating?

So yes, ⁓ I didn't find this out until after the game because I had no idea it actually happened. Like Brandon found out, so what's his name? Bo Nix actually broke a bone in his ankle and I was like, where? I had no idea that happened during the game whatsoever. Yeah, yeah, I had no clue. I didn't see it.

Eric (07:41)
Happened right at the end in overtime. It happened on the play

when he made that big throw and there was a debate like was it pass interference? That was the play and it got them down the field enough to kick the winning field goal. So he broke it on the second or third to last play. Like his last throw, the next play he just down the ball in the center and it's like he knew. So here's my question though, question of the week.

Erika (07:48)
Mm-hmm.

shit.

Sure, sure,

Eric (08:08)
Should the Patriots automatically win the AFC Championship game? Do they have any excuses? The quarterback, the starting quarterback of the best team in the AFC is out. Like if they lose, if they lose, is that a failure? Like if they lost to Bo Nix, a healthy Bo Nix, like that's not a failure. But if they lose, like shame on it, like what do you think?

Erika (08:27)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

I mean, it's setting

them up kind of well, but honestly, I did not watch much of the other football. I don't know how the Broncos do anyways, how their defense is. I was not really paying attention. Yeah. But you got, how's their defense?

Eric (08:43)
They're like the best team in the league, but now they lost their star quarterback. And I'm telling you, Sports Talk Radio in Boston is all going to be like, this is an automatic win. You must win if you don't

win. Like, shame on you.

Erika (08:54)
Yeah. I mean, I'm hoping they win because we need some redemption we've had after having the dynasty for that long. Like we need it back.

Eric (09:03)
We barely

had any years of failure. We had like three bad seasons. And now we're on top again. And the rest of the world is like, ugh. I know! And the Bruins have won. ⁓ gotta be careful. Last time I did this, we went on a losing streak. We've won six in a row. We're on a roll right now. We're playing with that piss and vinegar type of hockey as Cam Neely called it.

Erika (09:08)
Yeah, yeah, and then it went, meow. They're mad at us again. It's good news, right?

Knock on

Eric (09:28)
And congrats by the way to Big Z Zdeno Chara got his number lifted to the rafters. So open invitation to come on the pod. Cause I want people, I know your story, Big Z. I want people to hear your story. Yes. The whole story. ⁓

Erika (09:28)
yeah.

Yeah

He earned it.

I'd love to hear it though. So yes, that would be very interesting to get him to talk on the pod. I

want to hear about his running journey. That's what I want to know.

Eric (09:48)
You need to know about the

journey before it, even the hockey journey. Like this is his dad was an Olympian and the way he had to move away from home and he was not a good hockey player. I mean, picture it like, like a baby giraffe on ice skates, you know, cause he's really tall, like, right?

Erika (09:52)
Mm-hmm. It led up to it, so we gotta know. We gotta know.

Really?

That's adorable!

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Eric (10:09)
So

congrats to Big Z, ⁓ big game changer of the Bruins culture. That's it for Sports Talk on this podcast. wait.

Erika (10:18)
Let me

just say, I love how you put up that picture of you with your siblings and Big Z, and then my dad goes and comments on it, like, what was he kneeling? Like he was sitting in a chair. Oh, man.

Eric (10:26)
Yeah.

So yeah, New York City,

the only thing we really wanted to do was for the marathon was go see Zdeno Chara We heard he was going to be at the New Balance house, which apparently used to be Heidi Klum's house. And there is a pool on the second floor. And apparently no one ever went in the pool. I heard this on another story or something like there was this pool and they had to pay for a lifeguard, but nobody ever went swimming in the pool.

Erika (10:36)
Mm-hmm.

That's interesting.

So they had like a full-time lifeguard for nothing. Wow.

Eric (10:54)
Yeah. But we went

to see Zedano Charo there and it was super cool. And I said to him, what I always said I say if I run into a Bruin from the 2011 team, instead of being like, yo, come on the podcast. I just said, I'm a big fan. I love what you did to the culture of this team and thank you for the 2011 Stanley Cup. Thank you. So that's enough of sports talk on this running podcast. And I think

Erika (11:08)
Mm-hmm.

For the 2011? Yep.

Well done.

Running

is a sport.

Eric (11:23)
It's

the right time to get to our incredible guest and we can catch up after that. We have a lot to catch up on, but our guest is so incredible. And we met her speaking of Boston at the Boston Marathon last year on the Expo Day Saturday. And I was just blown away by her quick story. And I told her, stop and tell me later on the podcast. And I didn't tell you anything. So all this was like new to you.

Erika (11:27)
Perfect, perfect.

Mm-hmm.

It was an absolutely bonkers story. So this week on the pod, we have Liz Boyd and she had this just absolutely insane journey coming back from having a stroke and she's just so young and I could not believe.

what she had to tell me. You guys are going to be absolutely riveted by her story. I really hope you enjoy it, but my God, it is a little bit heavy.

Eric (12:13)
Yeah, it's heavy at points. It's serious at points.

And there's a lot of like language, lingo that you might not understand. And don't worry, don't worry. I had her dumb it down. I said, talk to me like I'm a fifth grader. And she did amazing. She's like, I got you. So

Erika (12:28)
Mm-hmm. Thank you for that. I needed it.

Eric (12:31)
Liz was incredible. Guys, please don't forget before we get to it.

Follow and share this podcast on Instagram, subscribe to that YouTube channel. If you love this, if you love Liz's story after you hear it, share it, spread it. ⁓ Absolutely incredible. Thank you so much Liz for doing this. Guys, enjoy Liz Boyd on the On The Runs podcast and we'll see you on the other side.

Eric (12:55)
next guest on the pod over the past couple years went from the ICU to the Boston Marathon finish line after suffering a near fatal stroke in 2023. She's a rock star from Providence who gives everything she's got for others as she's a nurse and an advocate for championing survivors and caregivers. She's had a second chance at life and we can't wait to hear her story after we met her at the Boston Marathon last year. Liz Boyd, welcome to the On the Runs podcast. What's up?

Liz Boyd (13:20)
Hi, guys. I am so happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Erika (13:25)
We are so happy to have you Liz and what an intro.

I'm going to be the first one to swear. holy shit. I know you've got a story like that is intense and we can't wait to hear all about it, but we just have to give you a warm welcome and we are so thankful that you're here.

Liz Boyd (13:42)
Thank you. Thank you very much, honestly. I'm very, very happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me on the show.

Erika (13:47)
Our pleasure.

Eric (13:47)
You know, when we started

this podcast, we didn't know where it was going to go, but we kind of, we don't get stories like this all the time. You hear about them, but then when we got to meet you, let's talk about the time we met actually. We met on Saturday before the boss marathon. You were, you were glowing. If you remember you had this huge white smile. You're just beautiful, ready to go. You had your bag. You just walked out of the expo. You're so excited. And you were with our friend Candice and that's how I met from Candice. Tell us a little bit.

Liz Boyd (13:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yes.

Eric (14:16)
How did you and Candice connect earlier this year?

Liz Boyd (14:20)
So Candice and I have a mutual friend, Jen Smith. Shout out, Jen. She's amazing. She's awesome. She's a beast. She's a warrior. So Jen connected Candice and I. ⁓ Turns out that Candice and I live right down the road from each other. So she was like, I feel like you guys would just hit it off, be awesome friends. You're both similar personalities. And

Erika (14:26)
Je-

Liz Boyd (14:46)
You guys can train together, hang out. It was just, we just hit it off. was great. So she ⁓ honestly guided me through her and Jen ⁓ through training for Boston. So it was just, it was awesome. Yeah. We were standing right there on the sidewalk. I just got my bib. was on cloud nine. So pumped, so excited. The energy was vibing and so yeah.

Erika (15:12)
That makes me so happy that Jen made that introduction between you and Candace, because Candace is one of the sweetest people that I know. But how did you get to know Jen? Because that's an excellent connection, too.

Liz Boyd (15:23)
Yes, I was very fortunate. my previous job, Jen and I worked together. So yeah, so we worked in the same unit, both in healthcare. So we worked together every day. ⁓ And so that's how we got to know each other.

Erika (15:29)
⁓ awesome.

Beautiful.

Eric (15:41)
You're a nurse.

What kind of nurse are you? There's so many different nurses out there. Nurses are some of the heroes among us, right? So what kind of nurse are you and how do you get in that field?

Erika (15:45)
Mm.

Liz Boyd (15:51)
I work in the operating room. So I started in level one trauma centers and now I'm kind of in the outpatient setting, so more fast paced cases, but I still am able to make a huge impact on the patients even though I see them for a small amount of time. So, Yeah.

Erika (15:53)
Mmm.

That's incredible. She started in the pit, man. She was in pit.

Eric (16:13)
I was gonna, that was my next question. Are you into

like ER? One of my favorite TV shows of all time is ER. Do you like, have you seen The Pit? Is like Grey's Anatomy just a drama series and all the medical stuff is bogus? Like what's your opinion here on medical TV?

Liz Boyd (16:23)
Ha ha ha ha!

Erika (16:28)
Yeah

Liz Boyd (16:29)
Oh my goodness. The medical TV. I actually really love watching it because I like to see what kind of monitors they're using. know, sometimes they have a patient hooked up to a monitor and the beeping just doesn't, nothing correlates or sometimes they're supposed to have an oxygen, you know, a nasal cannula on or a face mask on and it just, nothing makes sense. Sometimes they, yeah, they, they make up like,

Erika (16:55)
that would be so fun.

Liz Boyd (16:58)
the way they use supplies, not the way you're supposed to. So it's interesting to kind of get that take on that.

Erika (17:01)
wow.

Eric (17:04)
That's fun.

Erika (17:05)
I feel like that's the equivalent

of when I read a book and then I go see the movie and I love to pick it apart and find out what's wrong with it. But I still love watching movies and that's really fun too.

Liz Boyd (17:13)
Yes. Yes. Yeah, I'm always

like, didn't they consult with some sort of a health care provider or someone when they were making the show? but yeah, no, I was an adrenaline junkie. I like, I loved the trauma and everything in the operating room, but now life has changed a little bit. So I'm looking more for, you know, a little bit of a

Erika (17:20)
They should? They should. Yep.

Liz Boyd (17:36)
calmer environment if that's even possible in the operating room, a little different. No.

Erika (17:38)
Hmm.

Eric (17:40)
Is that possible in life? I mean, I guess

if you're, you're, you know, just no kids hanging out, not running, not doing anything, you just work nine to five, jump on the couch, but come on, that's not us.

Erika (17:43)
you

Liz Boyd (17:45)
you

Yeah, no,

Erika (17:54)
I feel like that's a dig at me.

Liz Boyd (17:54)
no, it's not. ⁓ my God. ⁓

Eric (17:57)
No, you go running into 100 milers!

Erika (17:59)
OK, OK, I have the nine to five with the

relatively low stress drop, but.

Liz Boyd (18:03)
Aw. Wait, the job's

Eric (18:05)
She has little

fur cats at home she to take care of. She has a crazy life.

Liz Boyd (18:05)
so...

Erika (18:08)
Yeah.

Liz Boyd (18:09)
Yeah, I too have fur babies. ⁓ You might hear her kind of crying in the background here. She's my cat. I do not have a child, but she is my first child.

Erika (18:12)
Hmm.

Feel free to

Eric (18:18)
Well.

Erika (18:18)
have her make an appearance because we love that.

Liz Boyd (18:20)
She might. She loves to be

in the thick of it. She likes to be in the action.

Eric (18:24)
Love it.

Love it. One thing we tried to do here and will continue to do is ⁓ there'll be time, something will come up. We'll try to like, so The Pit is that TV show. We try to be a little multiverse and not just talk running. And so we all got into The Pit. We all watched it. We tried to recap it. I'm a big Noah Wiley fan because of ER. So I love ER and I love The Pit. And it's funny to go back and watch old shows and see what life was like back then. know, flip phones or even before flip phones or pay phones, but.

Liz Boyd (18:38)
Yeah.

Mm. ⁓ I know.

Eric (18:53)
I'm big into that, not like the drama series like The Grey's Anatomy and all those. Netflix does a good job though. There's a series called The Surgeon's Cut. I only found it because of something my kids had when they were still in the womb and so they had a series on it. It's like a documentary thing on the surgeries. It was so cool and I've always been really into that field but I couldn't, I could handle it, you know, like I can do blood and all that.

Liz Boyd (19:04)
Okay.

Ha! Aww.

Erika (19:11)
⁓

Liz Boyd (19:13)
Okay.

Eric (19:20)
But remembering all the words and trying to say those things, if you know me, that's not happening.

Liz Boyd (19:20)
Yeah.

⁓

I think you can do it. think if you're really passionate about something, then, you know, it of becomes second nature.

Eric (19:34)
Well, let's stick to what I'm passionate about then and that's podcasting and getting to know people like you. So tell us a little bit about yourself. You're from Providence originally. Where are you now? We know you're a nurse, but like, were you a runner before or did this Boston Marathon thing just kind of spark up as like, I'm a fucking rock star and I can do this.

Liz Boyd (19:41)
Yes.

⁓ man. So I am originally from Providence and ⁓ my husband is from Harrisville, otherwise known as like excuse me, Burrville. So if you've heard of Fosda Glosta, you know, it's usually closed in the winter time, at least it used to be when we were kids a lot because of the snow. So he brought me out to Burrville. So now I live in Burrville with him and my dad's still only a half hour away, you know, not too bad. He's still in Providence.

with running, I got into running when I was in nursing school. So I was working two jobs and going to school full time and I needed something kind of like an outlet. ⁓ and I was, I was, ⁓ I was broke. was a broke, broke ass bitch. Sorry. So I, so I couldn't really afford the gym, right? So like, was like, you know, I, I, I got to do something. I got to get, I need a little release. So running was my thing. So that's when I got into running was.

Erika (20:33)
Mm.

Liz Boyd (20:52)
when I was in nursing school.

Erika (20:53)
I

think that's the perfect way to do it. The roads are for free. You just got to pay for a pair of shoes and then you're good to go.

Liz Boyd (20:55)
Yep.

Yes, yes. Yep. That's exactly it. So it was kind of like just let your feet hit the pavement and kind of go from there.

Erika (21:07)
Were you doing any races? Go ahead, Eric. So when you first picked up running, were you doing any races or were you just strictly doing it for fun whenever you could squeeze it in?

Eric (21:08)
Now nursing's... You.

Liz Boyd (21:11)
Okay.

⁓

I started with, um, I made it a goal to do a half marathon. So that was, I did five K's here and there. And then I wanted, of course, like, you know, we all kind of, I'm a perfectionist. So, um, so I kind of went to, to go, to have the goal to do a half marathon. And that was at the time I was living in Pennsylvania. So that was in Lehigh Valley. So I can't remember the half marathon.

but I did it all on my own, the training on my own. And then moved back home in 2017. And then I ran two half marathons in Rhode Island. So I did the Nara Gansett half, if you're familiar with Nara Gansett, and then also the Bristol 4th of July half marathon. Yeah. It's so nice. Yes.

Erika (22:08)
Very nice. Bristol is one of my favorite places in Rhode Island. I go ⁓ to Colt State Park for the Anchor Down Ultra

in August. the time of year is probably not as pleasant. Well, that's 4th of July. I mean, you're getting the heat, but at least you have the patrioticness. Maybe some fireworks in there. That's really fun.

Liz Boyd (22:18)
yeah.

So you totally get it. It's rough.

Yes!

Yeah, thanks. Yeah, no, it's always awesome. But of course, like the humidity is super rough. You can cut it with a knife.

Eric (22:36)
Even being so

close to the coast right there, the ocean, the humidity is still crazy.

Liz Boyd (22:40)
Yes.

it's, it's awful. I've done the blessing of the fleets. ⁓ that's a 10 mile race in Narragansett. That's always in July. And that's, that's, ⁓ that's a toss up right there because it's the, it's the weather's rough.

Erika (22:58)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (22:58)
Do you do a lot of running in the Rhode Island community because Jason has his own company there that puts on Anchor Down, but he also does like 12 races a year. I wonder if you do any of his. I'm trying to think of the name of it, Erica.

Liz Boyd (23:06)
Okay.

Erika (23:09)
True North

is his running company. And I know he does.

Eric (23:12)
That's right. So they put on half marathons

Liz Boyd (23:12)
Okay, I'll have to look into that.

Eric (23:14)
and five K's other, other mini ultras, Anchor Down's the big one. That's the big one. And that's where we met Candice.

Erika (23:18)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (23:19)
Anchor down.

Okay. ⁓ awesome. ⁓ I'll definitely have to look into that. ⁓ If he's a part of, they call it the road races as a play on Rhode Island's like R-H-O-D-E. ⁓ So that's their clever little way of like attributing that to Rhode Island's races. So I don't know if he's a part of the road races, but I'll have to look into it.

Erika (23:29)
⁓

I'm not sure if he is, but I do love me some of the road races too. I actually ran the full marathon for Narragansett and it was like the hilliest thing I've, it was ridiculous.

Liz Boyd (23:47)
Yeah.

No. What? Isn't it super hilly? ⁓

my God. It is so hilly when I did the half on the 12th mile. ⁓ my gosh. ⁓ man. ⁓ yeah. Nope. Not for me. You can have them Eric. For the both of us. ⁓ man.

Eric (24:00)
Sounds good to me.

Erika (24:02)
He can have them.

Eric (24:08)
I love Hills. Some of the races they

do, I'm on his website right now, the Narragaset Summer Nights 5K, Narragaset Summer Running Festival, and that's in Easton. There's the Narragaset Oktoberfest 5-Miler, and then the Colt State Park Half Marathon, along with Anchor Down Ultra. So shout out to Jason and True North Running Company.

Liz Boyd (24:15)
Yep.

Yeah.

That's awesome. I'll have to look that up. I'm excited now. I love new opportunities.

Eric (24:37)
Yeah, they're awesome. They really are. And he has a great head of hair like me. So he's a beautiful, beautiful dude. At what point did you meet Jen here? Like, I'm guessing you didn't meet her in Lee Valley. You met her at work somewhere, one of these nursing areas, hospitals, places that you were at. At what point did you meet her and did you realize you both like to run?

Liz Boyd (24:41)
Hahaha!

I met her in 2022 in a hospital in Massachusetts. So yeah, so that's where we met in the operating room there, in a hospital en masse. And then I would just hear her talking about her races. would hear this fantastic human being just kind of talking about these goals that she's crushing.

and doing it with a smile on her face and just, my gosh, she's just completely unstoppable. So we just kind of gravitated towards each other and yeah.

Erika (25:36)
Did any of Jen's races kind of plant a seed in your head that like, hey, maybe someday I want to go do a marathon or whatever cool shit she's doing?

Liz Boyd (25:43)
⁓

my gosh. I never thought that I could do a marathon. I'm going to be honest with you. It was always my dream and my goal to run Boston someday. So when I started like back in nursing school, that was like my end game, my end goal at some point in my life on my bucket list. So yeah, so it was really Jen that

Erika (25:57)
Mmm.

Check.

Liz Boyd (26:11)
She was pivotal. She was the complete reason actually why I was able to run Boston.

Eric (26:17)
Yes, well, I wanna lead up to that. So let's get to the story here. No, it's perfect, it's perfect, but don't wanna bury the lead. Boston was the best, it's amazing. I can't wait to hear the whole story here. But there's this two-year period. So if you met Jen in 22, about sometime between then and 2023, you got engaged

Liz Boyd (26:20)
I'm sorry. ⁓ Sorry.

Erika (26:21)
Yeah.

Liz Boyd (26:26)
Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Eric (26:37)
And then shortly after that, you had a near life threatening stroke.

Liz Boyd (26:42)
I did, So in April, 2023, I had a massive stroke. It's an ischemic hemorrhagic stroke. There are all different types of strokes. is more on the rear side. I, of am unique and I was lucky, unlucky to have an ischemic hemorrhagic. So that's a clot.

that causes a large bleed. So

Erika (27:11)
my gosh, when you think of strokes,

I mean, I tend to think of people who are a little bit more advanced in age. So it happening to somebody so young, is that part of what makes it so unique is that you were so young when it happened?

Liz Boyd (27:19)
Yeah.

You know, honestly guys, I wish I could tell you that ⁓ I am unique in that sense in terms of my age. However, I would have to say since my stroke, I have met a number of young survivors. So I think it's honestly a common misconception that strokes can only happen to, ⁓ you know, the, older population, but we're starting to see it more and more prevalent in

Erika (27:31)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (27:52)
the younger populations right now, unfortunately.

Eric (27:57)
Can this be random? Does it have to have like family history? Like what's the history of strokes that we're learning? I'm sure we're learning more and more every day and every year.

Liz Boyd (27:57)
So.

Yeah.

That's a great question. ⁓ Honestly, in my case, some of it was like a genetic that and I was on a certain medication that provoked me to have ⁓ like a sort of clotting issue that I didn't know about. ⁓ So I was on birth control ⁓ for endometriosis. So a lot of women are on birth control. It is.

Erika (28:22)
Mm-hmm.

That's so common. Absolutely.

Liz Boyd (28:35)
And what's actually really sad is the fact that we don't test women to see if they have genetic clotting mutations. It's as simple as just having just a simple blood test. that probably would have saved a lot of ⁓ all of this or prevented a lot of this from happening. sort of like preventative medicine is really something that I think, you know, we all could benefit from moving forward in life.

Erika (28:47)
wow.

right.

Mm-hmm,

absolutely.

Liz Boyd (29:03)
and especially

women's health too, because we tend to be, not to like get on my soap box here, but like we tend to be brushed off a little more. know, like it's always attributed to stress, anxiety, just a migraine, just a really bad headache when, you know, there's symptoms like underneath that are very serious and very real. So, so yeah.

Eric (29:09)
Get on it.

Erika (29:26)
Mm-hmm. Was a headache one

of your symptoms, or is that a common symptom of having a stroke? I have no idea.

Liz Boyd (29:34)
Yes. ⁓ So I had ⁓ deemed to be like the worst headache of my life. So yeah, it was, it was crushing. The best way I can describe it is, ⁓ do you remember that trend where people were putting rubber bands around watermelons to see when they exploded? That was my, that was my, that was my head.

Erika (29:40)
wow.

my god. Yes. ⁓ no.

Eric (29:54)
Yes!

That's a great description though.

Liz Boyd (30:00)
That's the best way I can explain it because it's really just, did you just picture, do you just picture it? And that's literally and honestly guys, like that's what happened to my brain. It did unfortunately explode and then like your skull, you know, encompasses your brain and then your brain swells and then it has nowhere to go. So, and.

Erika (30:02)
You said it and I was like, I am appalled. I'm like, yep, yep.

Eric (30:08)
All

Erika (30:13)
⁓ no!

Eric (30:23)
Was this the day

of the stroke?

Liz Boyd (30:25)
So I had the worst headaches leading up to the day of the stroke. So my stroke was actually on April 4th, 2023, 44. And I had headaches leading up to that day. And then the day of my stroke is when I had my seizure and stroke. So yeah, so my whole right side of my body went down. I was home alone.

Erika (30:48)
wow.

Liz Boyd (30:54)
It was probably one of the most terrifying moments of my life and it will be the most terrifying moment of my life, I hope. ⁓ And ⁓ yeah, so at that moment I knew I was having a stroke. So ⁓ they use the acronym FAST, so it's facial droop, aphasia, which is trouble speaking, slurred speech, ⁓ off balance, stuff like that.

Erika (30:59)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (31:23)
At that moment,

I was like, shit, it's happening. ⁓

Erika (31:27)
That is so scary,

but it kind of is good that you are a nurse and you recognize those symptoms. Because if that were to happen to me, I'm not sure if I would recognize it as much as you would. I mean, of course, you see in the medical shows, if somebody has the drooping face. But that would be the only thing I would think of. Maybe not even the slurred speech. So I mean,

Liz Boyd (31:50)
Yeah.

Erika (31:54)
What happened? What happened? Did you, were you able to like get to a phone or like, did your fiance come home or?

Liz Boyd (32:00)
Yeah, so

Eric (32:00)
Well, actually,

and I want to just add to that, like with you being a nurse and knowing those signs that Eric and I wouldn't know, were you able to take action before it was too late? Because you're home alone. Like if I was falling on the floor and can't move, I don't know like what I would.

Liz Boyd (32:02)
yeah, yeah, yeah.

Erika (32:04)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Liz Boyd (32:16)
Yeah,

luckily I had my phone right at my side at that point. So I just sat down on my couch. I just made a sandwich. And that's when like this whole weird, crazy rolling sensation happened. And I've never had a seizure before. like that point, I didn't know what was happening. It almost felt like ⁓ outer body. was terrifying. It was terrifying. Like it's almost like. ⁓

Erika (32:32)
Mm-hmm.

wow.

Liz Boyd (32:45)
Did you ever get a pedicure, Eric? Okay, all right, all right, Eric, I know you know what's up. So the massage chair that you sit in, that rolling sensation, that's what it started with. And then my whole, it was bizarre and it was so, so scary. And before I knew it, my whole body was shaking and then my whole right side went down. So thankfully my phone was right near me. I was able to call. ⁓

Eric (32:47)
Yes, I love it.

Erika (32:48)
⁓ I'm like, I

have.

Eric (32:57)
yeah.

Erika (32:59)
That's so bizarre.

Liz Boyd (33:15)
Mike, who just became my fiance three weeks prior, four weeks prior, to just be like, Hey, I'm, I don't know what's happening right now. I'm pretty sure I'm having a stroke. I can't feel my right side. Um, so at that point he called 911 and I couldn't move. I was stuck on the chase lounge, like chase part, chase chair of the couch. What is that section? Like the chase.

Erika (33:42)
I don't know how to pronounce it. It's French. I know what you mean.

Liz Boyd (33:44)
Yeah, yeah, so

I was stuck and I could only look to my right and I was just waiting to hear the sirens and you know, hear those footsteps on my front porch, you know.

Eric (34:01)
Is there

a reason you called Mike first? And like, I'm not judging because none of us have ever been in this situation. But like, do you think Mike can get the info to 911 quicker than you could in the current state you're in? Is that why? Or just because Mike's awesome?

Liz Boyd (34:04)
Yeah, that's a good question.

Hmm.

Honestly,

so I'm going to say Mike's awesome. but he had that, he's pretty awesome. Shout out to Michael George Boyd, but no one has ever asked me that. So thank you for asking me that. I think it was just in one of those moments where I panicked, I was so scared and he's, he's like kind of like my safe space.

Erika (34:23)
That's a given.

Liz Boyd (34:45)
And I feel like it was just sort of like my subconscious that was just like call like alert, alert, call Mike. I never even thought like, you know, would it be faster if I just called 911 or maybe I was just afraid to, to me. I think it was a combination of things to be honest.

Erika (35:03)
can understand that. He's your person. You know that he can help. So I mean, I totally understand that. I can't say what I would do in that situation. I mean, I might call my boyfriend and just like you said, he's your safe space and nothing bad can happen when you're with your safe space.

Liz Boyd (35:05)
Yeah. Yep. Yeah.

Yeah.

Right?

Eric (35:26)
See, I would call my mom because I'd be like, I don't know what this is. Do you know what this is? Because she kind of works in the same field. So, I mean, she's a PT, but she would know. I'd be like, hey, this weird thing is happening. What is it? Like, I don't even think.

Liz Boyd (35:28)
Aww. Aww, I love that. Yeah.

Erika (35:29)
I'm not an adult! I need an adult!

So I would call Eric's mom.

Liz Boyd (35:42)
Yeah.

What's her name? Let's give her a shout out too. Janice. What's up Janice?

Eric (35:45)
Janice. Yeah, of course. She's one of the

best, the best. But no, I was curious because I feel like, ⁓ I don't know, I'm surprised I'm the first one to ask you that question too. But I thought the answer would have been like, you know, maybe the house location or Mike knows your history and can answer the questions that need to be answered on the phone where if you call 911, like if at some point you just, I know if somebody calls 911,

Liz Boyd (35:56)
Yeah, you are.

Yeah.

Eric (36:13)
And no one says anything on the other line. They still send help, but that help is usually a cop car, not an ambulance and fire and everybody else. So Mike can actually give some history.

Liz Boyd (36:18)
Yeah, no, like a wellness check type thing.

Erika (36:23)
Mmm.

Liz Boyd (36:24)
And honestly, like that's a really good point too, because leading up until this point, he had been there with me, you know, through all of those visits and just being literally at my bedside, you know, through it all. So yeah, I mean, throw that in there too with the reasoning for sure. Yeah, he's.

Erika (36:39)
Mm.

Shout out Mike. He's a real one.

Liz Boyd (36:48)
He really is. He really is. He's, I would say he's a saint, but I don't want his head to get, you Yeah. Yeah. No rubber bands. No rubber bands.

Eric (36:54)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll just keep it watermelon size right now. Yeah. So what were the

next things that happened? You get rushed to the hospital, I'm sure. Is this like ⁓ everything's happening super fast? Are they slowing things down, evaluating? Like, I don't know what happens when someone has a stroke right away. I think Teddy Bruski had strokes, right? Yes.

Erika (37:14)
Mm.

Liz Boyd (37:16)
He did, he

did. ⁓ The name sounded familiar, obviously, growing up in New England, because he did play for the Pats. When I was training for the marathon, came across other people along the way that are training, and they had asked, like, is she on Teddy's team? Is she on Teddy's team?

Erika (37:27)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (37:38)
Who is Teddy? What is going on right now? Who's Teddy and how can it be a part of his team? I don't know what's happening. So it was really after, after the marathon and everything that I started doing a deep dive into Teddy's team and just seeing, you know, what his stance is and his cause. And honestly, it's amazing. So, ⁓ shout out to Teddy and Teddy's team. But yeah.

Erika (38:03)
fact, when I did Boston

back in 2018, I was running with the charity teams as well. And I got to give him a high five because he showed up to one of the long runs and I was like, so I only recognize him because my, my dad, well, everybody was stopping to take pictures. So I just went, woo, and gave him a high five and just kept running. So, but my dad was a big pats fan too.

Liz Boyd (38:12)
⁓ Wow, that's really cool.

⁓ man.

Yes, yes. my gosh. Yeah, no, he did. So he had a stroke. I actually think he had a couple of them, to be honest with you. So, I know.

Eric (38:32)
Yeah, two, two for sure.

And every stroke is different, but like what were the next couple things that happened to you? You get to the hospital, what's going on? they like taking needles or probing your head? Are we super in a hurry here or just like trying to calm down, figure out what's going on? How do we help Liz and save her life?

Erika (38:38)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (38:38)
Yeah.

Now.

Yeah.

Yeah. ⁓ so going back to the moment where I, where Mike ended up calling nine one one, you know, they showed up and I was really excited to and relieved to have help. ⁓ cause I was, you know, home by myself, absolutely terrified. And, I am going to say this. ⁓ so the EMTs came in, it was two gentlemen.

Erika (39:07)
Mmm.

Liz Boyd (39:20)
and the first gentleman, who is the most seasoned gentleman, grabbed my face, told me to calm down, and that I was having a panic attack.

Erika (39:30)
Are you kidding me?

Liz Boyd (39:32)
No, I'm not. I am not kidding you. In the meantime, Mike is on the phone the whole time. At that point, I had dropped the phone because I couldn't feel my right side. And...

Erika (39:42)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (39:43)
So the paramedics are in the house,

Mike is on his way.

Liz Boyd (39:46)
Mike was going to figure out where I was going to be taken to and then he was going to be on his way. But he could hear this conversation because the phone was on the floor the whole time. And so the paramedic was like, calm down, you're having a panic attack because here's a young lady on the couch having a massive stroke. And he thinks I'm having a panic attack, which once again goes back to my point of

Eric (39:51)
Okay.

Erika (39:52)
Gotcha.

Liz Boyd (40:13)
not all strokes are the same, not all strokes are the older population, not all of us women are having panic attacks. We can be dramatic, but I was not. ⁓ yes, yes. It really is bullshit, isn't it?

Erika (40:16)
Mm-hmm.

I am so mad.

It's such bullshit.

Eric (40:27)
We're smiling, but

there's anger behind that smile. Yeah.

Erika (40:29)
Angst! ⁓

Liz Boyd (40:31)
God,

sometimes I smile just so I don't cry. You know what I mean? it's, but my, and again, and like, it's just my purpose and all of this. And I'm sure we'll get to that at some point, but it's like, I will screen this from the rooftops is don't judge, don't judge. And especially in healthcare now, it's really sad. Sometimes you see people that are really jaded. And so he got there. They took me to a local hospital.

Erika (40:34)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (40:57)
They rushed me right into CAT scan basically just like you would see in the movies, just like you would see in ER. ⁓ It would be like the pit except on fire. And they cut me right into CAT scan. However, this EMT on the way there in the ambulance when I couldn't move my right side, I tried to lift my right leg and it felt like, you know, like the sandbags that they use for like ⁓ floods.

Erika (41:04)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (41:26)
like waiting for the floods to come in. It felt like I had those on my right side of my body. I tried so hard to lift up my right leg in that ambulance. So here he is, I was 38 at the time. God, I wish I was 38 again. And he's like, I have a 38 year old female having a panic attack. And I was like, Jesus Christ. And I was like, I don't even know how I didn't say asshole, but I was like, sir. I was like, sir.

Eric (41:26)
Yes.

Erika (41:27)
Yeah,

yeah.

no.

Ha ha ha!

Liz Boyd (41:56)
If you say I'm having a panic attack one more time, I am having a stroke. I'm having a...

Erika (42:00)
I'm gonna use my left hand and

smack you in the face.

Liz Boyd (42:04)
backhand them and my gosh, just so ridiculous. And we got there. They, don't know, I don't know what changed from the panic attack to she having a stroke. ⁓ Maybe the fact that I couldn't get off the stretcher and that I wasn't bullshitting them. And then ⁓ they got me into CAT scan and that's when they saw the massive hemorrhage. So the hemorrhage was literally ⁓ this big.

Erika (42:15)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (42:33)
Whoa, that's like the size of a melon if I'm comparing, like it's on video, so.

Liz Boyd (42:37)
Yeah, just like picture like basically the whole right side of your head was the size. It was. So at that point, the whole entire room burst into a flurry of people. It was like 30 people coming at me from all different directions. And I'm now I'm like on the stretcher and I'm like, shit. And I was like,

Eric (42:41)
It's like the size of your brain.

Erika (42:44)
Holy shit.

Now you'll have the

panic attack because everybody's like freaking out over you.

Liz Boyd (43:04)
Yup, and I was like, what did my scan show? And they were like, you have a huge subarachnoid hemorrhage. I was like, and I literally, that's when I started losing it. And I was like, I knew it. I knew there was something wrong with me. ⁓ At that point, they decided to life flight me to ⁓ an amazing hospital in Boston. And ⁓ that hospital.

Eric (43:26)
What, were you? Like,

was this Providence or?

Liz Boyd (43:30)
This was ⁓ a community hospital in Massachusetts.

Eric (43:33)
Okay, now I want you to talk to me like a fifth grader. Explain to me what a hemorrhage is. I know what it is, but I want you to explain it like if I'm a fifth grader so I really get an understanding here.

Liz Boyd (43:37)
Okay, sure.

okay. Sure.

I got you. I got you. Okay. So I'll even explain what caused the hemorrhage. So the hemorrhage was caused by a stroke. So excuse me, not a stroke, a clot. All right. So picture it, you're driving on the highway, right? And then all of a sudden you hit traffic. You're at a gridlock standstill. All the cars come up behind you.

and everyone crashes into one another causing this ripple effect. All the cars sometimes have to end up being pushed out. That's the blood being pushed out of the space. So the hemorrhage is essentially a massive bleed. That's what a hemorrhage is. Now, correct.

Erika (44:14)
Mmm.

So it burst your vessels because there's just a

blockage and it has nowhere to go.

Liz Boyd (44:35)
That's correct. Nowhere but out. And I will also say that blood in the brain do not mix. The brain does not like blood on it. It irritates it.

Eric (44:36)
That was a great description.

Erika (44:38)
I love the visuals. I get them.

Eric (44:45)
Okay.

Erika (44:48)
Hmm.

Eric (44:49)
Have you ever

heard of twin to twin transfusion syndrome? So my twins had that and I have a fifth grade description. tell everybody and they're like, that makes so much sense. So I appreciate you sharing that with me like that.

Liz Boyd (44:54)
I sure, I sure have. We ⁓ yeah. Aww.

Well, yeah. ⁓

of course. No, mean, of course. Yeah, mean, it's, I am familiar with the twin to twin ⁓ procedure. They did them at Hasbro in Providence. So I worked for a Level 1 Trauma Center in Providence and they did them in the pediatric operating room there. So it's a-

Erika (45:09)
I appreciate Eric asking the question.

Eric (45:30)
We had ours

done at CHOP in Philadelphia, actually. Yep, twice. We went twice. Yep. Yep. They sent us to Philly. I was like, why aren't we going to Boston? I'll edit this out. But yeah, we spent five weeks down there. Twin to twin. And that's the Surgeons Cut on Netflix. Episode one is on all the in the womb surgeries. It was incredible.

Liz Boyd (45:34)
Okay. Oh my goodness. Did you have to go down to Philly for that? Wow.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Erika (45:52)
I gotta watch that, it's fascinating.

Liz Boyd (45:53)
It really is

fascinating and incredible. And it's medical innovation, not to cut you guys off, but it's just really incredible, like the direction that healthcare is going in. my gosh. Yeah.

Erika (46:03)
Absolutely.

Eric (46:03)
Right. If it happened when we were born, we would have had no chance. Like the first TTTT

TTS surgery ever was in 1989. So we would have had no chance. So.

Liz Boyd (46:14)
Yeah, no,

Erika (46:14)
Wow.

Liz Boyd (46:15)
84 baby hair, 84. No, oh, 84, 85, 86. I love that.

Erika (46:17)
86. Are you an 85, Eric? Yep. Got the gamut.

Eric (46:18)
⁓ Yep. Look at us. Look at us.

All right, let me, ⁓

you answer the question. I'm gonna just do this. And Erica, you can say thanks, Eric, for asking again. ⁓ No, no, no. ⁓ That was an amazing description. I really appreciate that. So you go from this hospital, this community hospital to get med flighted to Boston, which is one of the best places in the world for hospitals, medical and everything. What was next?

Erika (46:34)
Do you want me to say that?

Liz Boyd (46:36)
Bye.

Yes.

I, so I am really claustrophobic. So I remember telling the ⁓ medical team, my life flight team that I'm really claustrophobic. They were wonderful. They gave me Ativan, hell of a drug. ⁓ made me feel great, relaxed for that flight. ⁓ I got there, you land on top of the roof. So I was life flighted to Brigham and Women's or, ⁓ Mass Dermal Brigham, Brigham and Women's.

And brought me to interventional radiology. their initial thought was that I had an arterial bleed where you can actually have two different causes. So not to get even more complicated, but the more common type of this is from a more common type of a hemorrhage. that big bleed is caused from your arteries.

Erika (47:44)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (47:44)
But me

being me, ⁓ very unique, just ask Michael. I've given him a run for his money. He's still here, thank God. I told him I will chase him and hunt him down because I can run after just super unique. I had actually a Venus clot and it was a Venus whole situation with that.

Erika (47:48)
Unique.

Liz Boyd (48:11)
I got there and they have to kind of reorient you. And so they ask you these questions over and over again. What's your name? What's the date? What time is it? Do you know where you are? And at that point, ⁓ they got, I got there and they were like, you know, what's your name? like, you know, Elizabeth, ⁓ I was Elizabeth Aquino at the time. And you know, how old are you? ⁓ What day is it? And what time is it?

Erika (48:22)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (48:40)
And I think I said at that point, because I'm fresh. And I said, how the F would I know that? And my dad apparently was like there in the background and he was like, yep, that's my daughter. Like that's, that's Elizabeth. That's, that's the spicy girl that I brought up as a single dad. And so, yeah. So, but at that point.

Erika (48:47)
⁓ That's gotta be a good sign though. They're like, all right, she's fine.

Liz Boyd (49:07)
⁓ they rushed me to interventional radiology where they kind of do a set of, ⁓ exactly how it's, you picture it, interventional, ⁓ procedure to kind of see what's going on with the brain. So they fish up a catheter through your groin and it goes all the way up into your brain. And they take some imaging to kind of see what is the cause of the bleed. And then that's when they discovered that it wasn't just a bleed.

which can sometimes happen. It's another ⁓ percentage of this called an AVM, otherwise known as an ulterior venous malformation, where sometimes people have like little clumps ⁓ of blood vessels that end up bursting at some point. So they thought it was that, but it wasn't. And it ended up being the clot that caused the hemorrhage. So it was much more complicated than they had ⁓ initially anticipated.

Unfortunately, it was not an easy fix. spent 14 days in the ICU. It was really touch and go there for a while. ⁓ My brain continued to swell. And ⁓ again, getting back to that watermelon rubber band kind of analogy, the pressure started building and getting worse and worse. So the brain has nowhere to go because you have your skull flat.

Erika (50:06)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (50:34)
And so what ends up happening is it's called your brain ends up, your brain stem. So, okay, so here's your brain. Here's your brain stem. Your brain stem controls your movement, also can control your breathing, can control everything. like, it controls your whole body, really. And what ends up happening is your brain ends up shifting.

and it's called herniation. And when your brain herniates, when your brain shifts, it causes your brainstem to herniate. And if your brainstem herniates, then that equals brain death.

Erika (51:05)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ no. So this was a big problem with like, this was a big concern of theirs when you were in the ICU. what kind of, like, I don't even know. How do you fix that problem? What did they have to do for you?

Liz Boyd (51:27)
Yeah.

Yeah, so it was very delicate, a very delicate balance of situations. 20 plus providers that Michael was fielding that were coming in, like different parts of the care team, because you have like your basic neurology team, and then you have the surgery team and the critical care team. So they were trying to manage the clot, because the clot was the reason why it caused the bleed, that traffic jam, right?

Erika (51:43)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Liz Boyd (52:04)
So they're trying to figure out what type of medication can we put her on? You might've heard of this called heparin. So heparin is an anti-coagulant, ⁓ like an amplified ginormous version of aspirin, right? Cause you think of blood thinners. So that's going to bust up the clot. However, my situation and me being unique, this was a very stubborn clot and also very, very large.

Erika (52:13)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Okay.

Liz Boyd (52:34)
it ran from the back of my head to the front, which is why it caused that ginormous bleed. So unfortunately, their plans of ⁓ different sort of medication interventions and therapies was not working. And so the swelling was getting worse and worse, which is sometimes where you see people end up having what's called a craniotomy. So they'll have the bone flap taken off.

Erika (52:39)
Wow.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (53:03)
to let the brain decompress from the swelling and then hope that helps. However, that only solves one piece of the puzzle. Like you said, it's very complicated. So they were going to do a craniotomy. They brought me to the elevator, also like a TV show. So there's your hype, there's your adrenaline, except this is my real life. So they got me to the elevator and then my neurosurgeon, I guess, was like, it's too risky, turn around.

Erika (53:14)
Yep.

Yeah.

Liz Boyd (53:32)
brought me back to the ICU room. I was there on the ICU for another 10 days.

they then decided for what was a last ditch effort to save my life. So a craniotomy was not going to save my life. The heparin was not going to save my life. What was going to save my life was a really rare procedure called a mechanical thrombectomy, otherwise known as a venous thrombectomy. So

Erika (53:52)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (54:03)
Only a handful of surgeons in the entire country and world can do this procedure. And I so happened to be life flighted to Brigham where this neurosurgeon, Dr. Patel ⁓ can do this procedure. And so he was like, okay, I think I'm going to have to try this. This is literally my last ditch effort where they went in through my groin and they fish up a catheter into the back of my head.

Erika (54:23)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (54:32)
and

try to retrieve the clot and bust it up. like, it's almost like, you know, the claw machine to get the stuffed animals. Except you're not going down. Like you're kind of like, I'm trying my best here. I got the watermelon, the rubber band, but I'm trying, you know what I mean? So like, just so like people can relate to it. Yeah. So the clot of course was so large that he was only able to take pieces of the clot.

Erika (54:35)
⁓ wow.

my god, yes. The visuals are killing me. Yep, yep. But I can absolutely, I can picture it, yeah.

Liz Boyd (55:01)
and then instill a little like drill, like picture like an oil drill, and instill heparin into the remnants of the clot and hope and pray that that would bust up the rest of the clot to provide that relief.

Erika (55:06)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (55:06)
Mm-hmm.

Hope and pray.

Erika (55:21)
Did he have to go in multiple times to do that or do you really only get one shot and you get what you get and then just hope that?

Liz Boyd (55:22)
Hope and pray.

one shot, like Eminem, eight mile, you only get one shot. ⁓ He literally said this was the last ditch effort to save your life. And at that point, I was slipping further and further into a coma and I was really, there is, I'm not gonna like get all like crazy and extraterrestrial on you, like whatever, but there is another side.

Erika (55:32)
Alright, right.

Eric (55:56)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (55:56)
I am going

to tell you that there's something else going on. And I was very much there. And it was really crazy. I had a very outer body experience. And yeah, was just, it was wild, but he saved my life. Dr. Patel. Yeah. Yes. ⁓ yeah. ⁓

Erika (55:59)
Okay.

What a ⁓ ride.

Eric (56:08)
That's something. I wanna shout out Dr. Patel here. And we're gonna do it for anyone watching on YouTube. We're gonna shout him out here. Here's a picture of you and him. You look amazing. This looks like it's quite a bit after, ⁓ because you share the story

Erika (56:10)
What a ride.

Eric (56:25)
here on Instagram. that's.

Liz Boyd (56:26)
Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, that

was June 2023. that was May. That was two months after. Yep, that's Dr. Patel. Yep. Go for it. I love that. Hi, poor people. Yeah, so that was me. So that's Michael, his hand. That's me.

Erika (56:32)
Two months-ish after?

Eric (56:37)
Incredible. Do you mind if I share some photos here? Like we have four people on YouTube who watch, but like here's a video actually.

Erika (56:43)
you

Yeah.

Eric (56:48)
If,

Liz Boyd (56:56)
⁓ I couldn't move my left side of my body. So you know how I said my right side of my body was completely paralyzed when I got to the hospital, it shifted to the left side being completely paralyzed. And so I couldn't move my left side. ⁓ it was after Dr. Patel did the venous thrombectomy that I was able to move my left side again. So that was Mike. He was like, give me a pound. And then of course me and my spicy self, I was like, you got to do the little, you know,

Eric (57:05)
interesting.

Erika (57:06)
wow.

Liz Boyd (57:25)
and yeah, explode. And this is Spalding. ⁓ man.

Erika (57:25)
Yeah, explode. ⁓

Eric (57:33)
So is this all like in that

two month period or is this after June? After.

Liz Boyd (57:38)
That was,

so Spaulding was May. So I was, I spent 14 days on the ICU, nine days in a step down, or 12 days in a step down, I'm sorry. And then I spent 14 days at Spaulding where I learned how to walk again, talk again, match colors. Like I had to match colors of UNO cards. I struggled with that. I had to learn how to tie my shoes again. ⁓

And then walking again, I remember, ⁓ man, this moment, yeah. Hot mess express, girl. my God. I was crazy. It's the brain is such a powerful organ. It does not get enough credit that it deserves because really it's the powerhouse of us, like of us as human beings. Like something as simple as a task is feeding yourself. I remember trying to

Eric (58:16)
it though.

Liz Boyd (58:37)
get my thoughts to connect to my body and just being like, okay, put the fork up to your mouth, Liz. Like, close your mouth, chew, swallow, do all of that. This was exhausting. Brushing my fur baby, my other fur baby, Chloe. Yeah, my gosh, my arms, because I lost all of my muscle mass because I was paralyzed and I was bedridden for two weeks.

Eric (58:52)
You're done.

Erika (58:59)
Mm.

Liz Boyd (59:05)
It's incredible how much I atrophied in that moment. Mike said that he touched my legs at one point and they felt like bags of water. Um, yeah.

Eric (59:13)
I'm replaying this video right here. Watch the fist bump

Erika (59:13)
wow.

Eric (59:15)
and then wait, wait for it, wait for it.

Liz Boyd (59:21)
⁓ man. And you hear. ⁓ thanks, guys. It's, finisher. This is, yeah, that was my god, if guys if I had to make one more peanut butter jelly sandwich, I was gonna lose my mind even though I already lost my mind at that point. But these are like, they but shout out to Sarah, she was my OT and she she could feel she navigated my frustration very, very well. And that's another thing that's really hard because I was 38.

Eric (59:22)
That was awesome. Liz, you're incredible.

Erika (59:37)
Aww.

Liz Boyd (59:51)
And I was like, what the F just happened to me? Like I'm literally a toddler all over again, where I was like, you know, my God, I, you know, a fully able-bodied person. It's very frustrating.

Erika (59:54)
Right.

Eric (1:00:03)
Question.

question about your eyes because in a lot of these videos and pictures your eyes are not looking at the camera you're almost looking like you're just looking through something

Liz Boyd (1:00:09)
Yes, crossed. No.

They were crossed.

I had really bad, ⁓ they call it neostigmas, neostagmas. So, my eyes had a really hard time focusing. So they were crossed for a very, very long time and that was from the hemorrhage. And so the deficits that I have now are actually what's called a left field cut.

So I have invisible deficits. have hidden deficits. So ⁓ I can't see. I'm blind out of the left side of both eyes.

Eric (1:00:49)
Currently today. Wow.

Erika (1:00:49)
wow.

Liz Boyd (1:00:50)
currently today. Yeah.

So, ⁓ it's kind of, I would say gravitated towards the ⁓ quadrants of the eyes now, whereas in the very, very beginning, I could not see left side, like totally. it's permanent. It's a permanent deficit. So if it has not improved by now, then this is how I live for the rest of my life. ⁓ I'm also really hard of hearing.

Erika (1:01:02)
Okay.

Okay.

Liz Boyd (1:01:19)
So I will get hearing. Yeah, yeah, a little bit, a little bit, right? It's kind of like, you know, we're at home, huh, what? But it's, yeah, it's been an interesting recovery because it's, I don't look like I had a stroke, right? And the deficits are hidden. So I kind of struggle with that, with the here and now and trying to find my place in the present right now.

Eric (1:01:20)
Use that to your advantage.

Liz Boyd (1:01:47)
and while also trying to still heal. I still have a huge hole in my brain that's permanent. You wouldn't know that. So that the blood that was on the brain causes a huge scar because the brain doesn't regenerate. So yeah, it can rewire. It can rewire itself. ⁓

Erika (1:02:05)
wow. Liz, Yep. But just not

like actually make more math.

Liz Boyd (1:02:15)
Yeah, no, see, you know girl, you got it.

Erika (1:02:18)
It's the doctor shows, it's the

doctor shows. ⁓

Eric (1:02:19)
Yeah, I need

the fifth grade explanation. She gets the ⁓ college graduate explanation. She's fine.

Liz Boyd (1:02:23)
you

Erika (1:02:24)
I did actually, I

took some anatomy classes. I have a biology degree, so I had to take random ones, but I do not know anything. I am not qualified for any medical advice whatsoever. So I can just randomly follow along with some things. But Liz, your story, oh my gosh. I think you are so strong for what you've had to go through and I understand your frustrations.

Liz Boyd (1:02:37)
You got this.

Erika (1:02:52)
just your whole life was flipped upside down and you just had to like, like you said, ⁓ Eric, what did you say? A life threatening like event and you just have near fatal. Like, yeah.

Eric (1:03:02)
Near fatal. Yeah. I mean near fatal a couple of times.

Liz Boyd (1:03:04)
Neera Fradal? Yeah. I mean, a

couple of times. mean, the first thing when I met Dr. Patel in the office there, he said to me, he walked in and he goes, did you see the light? And I was like, and so was Mike, because at, you know, at that point, it's like, we all knew, I guess, that I was close to death. But he was like, no, really, he's like, did you see the light? Do you, do you even realize how close to death you were?

Erika (1:03:20)
How do you know that?

Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (1:03:33)
Like what

we did was the last ditch effort. So like shout out to him. Yeah.

Eric (1:03:38)
what point did he

come into play? Because this happened on April 4th. And a lot of things happen. Does he come in on April 4th? is he like a couple weeks later, days later? Like at what point does he get involved?

Liz Boyd (1:03:44)
Yeah.

So that's a really great question. like, unfortunately, I'm...

Eric (1:03:56)
She keeps saying that. I ask great questions. You know what that deserves? That deserves one of these.

Erika (1:03:59)
It's gonna go to his my god,

it's gonna go to his head

Eric (1:04:05)
My head's as big as a watermelon!

Liz Boyd (1:04:06)
Wait,

my gosh. You and Mike, you're going to have like the big process. Mike would be able to answer that question better than me, only because I was completely incapacitated. ⁓ I can say that ⁓ I was admitted on April 4th. April.

Erika (1:04:08)
Too soon!

Eric (1:04:11)
I love Mike already.

Okay.

We'll actually time out here for a second. You were admitted on April 4th to the ICU.

Liz Boyd (1:04:29)
I want to say, want to, yeah.

will life light it on that day, like the stroke and everything. So everything happened on that day. Yeah, April 4th.

Eric (1:04:41)
Okay,

so 14 days later, you got out of the ICU. Do you know what day that was? 14 days. If you're counting the fourth, the 14th day was Marathon Monday.

Liz Boyd (1:04:45)
But I went to this step down.

Mm-hmm.

You're gonna make me cry.

Eric (1:04:58)
I'm not lying. I'm looking at the calendar right now for April 2023. If you were admitted on the 4th, the 14 day was Monday, April 17th.

Erika (1:04:59)
He would figure that out.

Liz Boyd (1:05:03)
my god.

my God. So, so many things about Boston are so special to me. Okay, I was not expecting to get ⁓ for Clempt. Yeah, my therapist says that too. She gets really angry when I hold it in. ⁓ the 10-miler that I did in Narragansett, the blessing of the fleets, my bib number. So, I ran a 10-mile race after my stroke.

Erika (1:05:19)
Let it out, girl. Let it out.

Liz Boyd (1:05:39)
If you want to call it running, I crossed the finish line. I yogged with a soft J across that finish line. Thank you. Thank you. Right. ⁓ my bib number guys was six one seven, six one seven. And I, that was like foreshadowing I feel like, and just the fact that I was life-lighted to Boston, Boston saved my life. And it's just such a special city to me for so many reasons.

Erika (1:05:43)
Yeah, you moved. Perfect.

the Boston area code.

Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (1:06:08)
And there's, it's just so many weird cosmic, crazy cosmic connections that you just put together that it was kind of, it's just like this weird path. It's wild. It's wild.

Erika (1:06:09)
Absolutely.

So Liz,

you kind of answered, well, sort of answered one of my questions. But after such a harrowing experience, what does this do to your mental health? And I know you did mention that you have a therapist. But what was going through your head when you had to go through rehab and it just, things weren't the same anymore.

Liz Boyd (1:06:33)
Yeah.

Erica, now it's my turn to say to you, thank you for asking me that. And that's a great question. ⁓ because honestly, with stroke recovery, they focus a lot on the physical and cognitive rehabilitation. But unfortunately, the emotional downfall is something that's kind of put on the back burner. So I think we need a little more help with that moving forward. And I hope

Erika (1:06:56)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (1:07:10)
that eventually maybe someday I can shine some more light on that because there are a number of young stroke survivors that like me suffer with tremendous PTSD. And also ⁓ there's like this whole grieving process that they don't share with you when you're in rehab. And then when you get discharged, you focus so much on the physical rehab. I got to walk again, you know.

Erika (1:07:22)
Mm.

Right.

Liz Boyd (1:07:37)
I got to get up those stairs. I got to match these colors. I have to make this shape. I need to tie my shoes. I need to brush my hair. But

don't explain to you that when you are discharged and then you get back home, even though that is your goal, is to get home how life is never going to be the same. And my life will never be the same.

Erika (1:07:52)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (1:08:01)
I lost.

my muscle mass, I lost my vision, I lost my hearing, I lost hair. They also don't tell you that your hair falls out and clumps. That really, that really sucked. I wanted to shave my head, like full blown. bless her Britney Spears style, minus the extensions. But I like, I was very close to shaving my head because I was like, what's the point of this? Like, what's the point of having like a strain, a strand of hair? And so but

Erika (1:08:11)
no!

Liz Boyd (1:08:33)
Where was I going with this? My mental health. It really went into the shitter. Not gonna lie. ⁓ Because I couldn't do the things that I used to be able to do. They also don't tell you about the sensory overload. They don't tell you about being in a restaurant and the background noise. It's magnified. So like imagine being in like a fishbowl and all that noise is echoing around you.

Erika (1:08:39)
Mm-hmm.

my gosh.

Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (1:09:02)
Something

as simple as plates clinking together, silverware clinking, glassware, overwhelming, overwhelming, to the point where I had to leave restaurants. And Mike and I tried to go out for his birthday a few months after, and we had to leave the restaurant because I was like having a full, I would have full blown panic attacks. ⁓ So it's just been hard.

Erika (1:09:07)
Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (1:09:28)
⁓ was, it was hard because again, I was an overachiever growing up super type a, ⁓ so to have to literally start all over again was very, very frustrating. And, ⁓ it's hard to take a step back when you want to take many steps forward. So you have to like, kind of remind yourself to give yourself grace in the process, but it's much easier.

Erika (1:09:39)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (1:09:57)
So then done. Really is.

Erika (1:09:59)
I have to thank

you for bringing light to that because that honestly is something that I don't think about and I don't know if everybody does think about the other side of rehab and trying to just deal with the new you. And it may not be what you were hoping for or like it may not happen as fast as you were hoping. Like I totally understand the...

Liz Boyd (1:10:12)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Erika (1:10:26)
the frustration behind it, but I applaud you for seeking the help that you need and for just trying to help. And especially, I know this is what you're striving for now is to just bring more awareness to it and help other survivors.

Liz Boyd (1:10:32)
yeah, I'm very open about it. Yeah, you know, it doesn't have to

Yes.

Yeah, we're all, we're literally all in the same boat. Every single one of us, the young and high functioning, like stroke population. I had a number of ⁓ survivors reach out to me, bring them, did an article on me and I was very honored by that. And that kind of opened the door to have people connect with me. And I'm really, really happy and proud of at least that.

Erika (1:10:50)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (1:11:09)
I can find some purpose in all of this and provide support because there's not enough of it. So, so yeah.

Erika (1:11:12)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:11:20)
You mentioned it earlier, we'll get to the purpose of all this, like of going through everything, and you just mentioned it again, like so have you found a new purpose?

Liz Boyd (1:11:24)
Yeah.

Yeah, I have. ⁓

I would say that the purpose in all of this is it's kind of like two pronged. like.

When I was at Spalding, had someone say, I had a provider say to me, you are a very unlucky, lucky person. So I am unlucky because this happened to me. I am lucky to be alive. I'm lucky to have the second chance at life. So I think my purpose in all of this is again, to shed light and be able to provide that support, to let people know that it's okay to not be okay. You know, ⁓

to also kind of remind people, not even people that have suffered strokes, just all of us, all of us in society right now, you know, we're always in a rush. We always get to get to the next thing, the next best thing. You know, we could be cashing out somewhere like, you know, ⁓ in line and the person in front of us is taking a little longer than usual to put their debit card in the machine, right? And we get frustrated like, what's this guy's problem? You know what I mean?

Erika (1:12:30)
Mm.

Yeah.

Liz Boyd (1:12:48)
Like, but like, yeah. Yes.

Erika (1:12:49)
I'm guilty of that with people like driving slow. like, it's go like you're going 30. The speed limit is 30, but you should be going faster. Like there really is no hurry.

Liz Boyd (1:12:57)
Yes.

No, right. And it's just sort of like, if we just like take a step back and reflect that we all are going through something, you know, we all have a story. ⁓ You just don't know. In being in line at Starbucks, you don't know what that person in front of you is going through, what that person behind you is going through, right? So I think that's, I know that that's what my purpose is in all of this is to, yeah, to support and be here.

Erika (1:13:07)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:13:15)
Yeah.

You know, someone shared this

photo on their story recently. I actually think it might've been Hilary Kupish, who's a friend of the pod. And the story is of this one person walking across the street, and there's all these other people walking around the street, and each one had this tag over it, like anxiety, stress, suicidal thoughts, ⁓ divorce, breakup, all these things, and all these people have all...

Liz Boyd (1:13:47)
Yes.

Yep.

Eric (1:13:57)
I think that person was one of them too. And it was kind of a sign like we're all going through something, but you don't know what everyone's going through. So just kind of respecting, God, we had someone say like her hot take for 2026 was just be kinder. You don't know what everyone's going through.

Liz Boyd (1:14:02)
We are. Yeah.

Yes.

Erika (1:14:17)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (1:14:18)
I love that and we need more of that, know, especially right now. ⁓

I'll share my hot take with you later. When you ask me when you not now, not now.

Eric (1:14:28)
Well, okay, yes. I was gonna go wait.

Erika (1:14:32)
can't wait to hear it now. No, no, not now, but I can't wait to hear it.

Liz Boyd (1:14:35)
It's not the crazy, it's not the crazy, no, but, no,

no, no, but like it's kind of along the lines of that. It's just back to basics. Like I feel like in humankind, it's just, sometimes we just so get caught, so, me, we get caught up in what's next instead of being present. And that's another thing too, is being present.

Erika (1:14:40)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:14:42)
Yeah.

Well, let's get.

Well, let's get to what happened a few years later because I don't know if you knew this. We're not a medical podcast. We're, we're, we're running podcasts. We love the medical shows. So we met again, if we, if we go into the future now, we met on Saturday before the Boston marathon. We had no clue any of this before, right? You kind of quickly told us, as I said, you were glowing. You just got out of the expo. I mean, it's been two years.

Erika (1:15:00)
Absolutely.

Liz Boyd (1:15:03)
Yeah.

Yeah, no, you're not. Yes, yes.

Erika (1:15:08)
We just like medical shows and stories.

Liz Boyd (1:15:16)
Yeah. Yes.

Yeah.

Thank

Eric (1:15:28)
Since you got out of the, the ICU on marathon Monday and you're about to run the boss marathon, which you said earlier in this podcast, you never thought you'd be able to run a marathon, let alone after a stroke. So what led to this? What were some of those milestones along the way that led to the boss marathon?

Liz Boyd (1:15:40)
Yeah.

do you me to start with the connection? I guess, like how I even got to get to the Boston Marathon. Like, okay. Jen Smith, is the reason, and she is really, she was the impetus and how, and that connection, the liaison with how I got to the Boston Marathon. Jen and I were at work. she approached me.

Eric (1:15:53)
Yeah.

Erika (1:15:54)
to know.

Liz Boyd (1:16:11)
And she was like, hey, knowing, you know, she knows my whole story. Like she knew I was out and that I had my stroke and that, you know, I was just kind of trying to get back into a normal life again and regaining my strength, working on all of that. And she just kind of said to me, she's like, hey, you know, this organization that I ran for last year, they have an extra bib. I can't run it because I am doing another

Marathon, I think she was doing London. So, right. So she was like, I'm doing London so I'm not able to do Boston this year. Would you?

Eric (1:16:43)
Which was the next week, yeah.

Erika (1:16:43)
⁓

Eric (1:16:50)
I just want to go Jen, because I know she's listening. You could have done both. No excuses.

Two marathons in six days. I expect better of you.

Liz Boyd (1:16:59)
Come on Jen, step it up.

Eric (1:17:01)
Yeah. Liz is doing this after a stroke. You could have done two marathons

Erika (1:17:04)
No comment.

Eric (1:17:05)
in a week.

Erika (1:17:05)
No comment.

Liz Boyd (1:17:07)
You know what though?

I would not put it beside her. She would be on two, you know, sides of the world being able to do that. I would not put it past Jen Smith. If anyone's going to do it, it's going to be her. She did. So she made that connection. was ⁓ the friends of Hopkinson. Shout out to them because they believed in me and ⁓ they were the charity that I ran for for Boston. So they had to discuss it amongst their group, their community.

Eric (1:17:16)
But I am happy she gave you the bib here.

Liz Boyd (1:17:36)
⁓ and they do a vote and they heard about my story. and they chose me and I am so extremely honored, ⁓ by that I got to meet all of them. I got to thank them in person. and just express my, my gosh, just excitement and disbelief that they, you know, chose me. I, I'll never forget when I got the text from Jen, she was like,

you're going to be getting a call very soon. And it was like nine o'clock at night. I'm in bed. I think it was like, it was later on too. So it was like, ⁓ mid November, actually, actually around this time last year, because I only did 16 weeks of training and yeah, I know. Yeah, I know. And like, listen, like as runners were crazy and someone said to me, you're crazy. And she's like, stay crazy.

Erika (1:18:22)
Yeah, yep. No pressure.

Liz Boyd (1:18:33)
So now that that's gonna be, I want a bracelet that says stay crazy because isn't that awesome? Like that's gonna be my new motto and stay crazy. so yeah, so Jen texted me, she's like, you're gonna be getting a call really soon. And I was like, my God. And I'm like jumping on mic. was like, Mike, Mike, Mike, I think I'm gonna get, I think I'm gonna be able to run the Boston Marathon. my God. I think this charity is gonna choose me. And so I got the phone call from Dorothy. She calls me from friends at Hockington. She's like, you know, Elizabeth.

Erika (1:18:36)
Love it. Stay crazy.

Liz Boyd (1:19:02)
you know, it was between you and another gentleman. Sorry, other gentlemen. And ⁓ I'm not though. And so she's like, and so, yeah, so I, they, you know, set the goal for me to raise money, to raise the funds. ⁓ Everyone was extremely, extremely generous with supporting this charity

my bucket list goal of running the Boston Marathon. So I was able to exceed the limit and raise money for friends of of Hopkinson. And I crossed that Boston Marathon finish line and it was a wild experience. Boston is a beast of a course, not a fan of the hills. ⁓

Erika (1:19:41)
you

you

Liz Boyd (1:19:58)
It was just as, ⁓ I want to say treacherous because that's kind of like a really strong adjective to use, but it was grueling. It was grueling. Yeah. Yes. It was, it was grueling. I did, ⁓ pretty well the first half, like half meaning like 13 miles, cause they're always like, that's not half. Like.

Erika (1:20:08)
Grilling's a great word for it, yes. Let's stick with that one.

Liz Boyd (1:20:25)
It's, think it's, they consider like the 19th mile of the half, getting past close to heartbreak, the Hills, the Newton Hills. Yep. I did really well in the scream tunnel. That gave me like an extra with energy, seeing all the ladies. That's where Mike was. Can't blame them. With my mother-in-law and a few of our friends.

Erika (1:20:29)
Ah, the hills. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (1:20:51)
And yeah, it was, yeah, heartbreak kill.

Erika (1:20:55)
It was

everything you hoped it would be though.

Liz Boyd (1:20:59)
It was, I actually have a really funny story to tell, unless like, I know like obviously this is called On The Runs, right?

Erika (1:21:06)
Do

it, do it, do it. Yeah.

Eric (1:21:06)
⁓ you can share all the stories.

Liz Boyd (1:21:09)
Do want spirit fingers?

Eric (1:21:11)
Yes.

Liz Boyd (1:21:11)
Okay. So I have like an on the runs, perfect like story for this. Cause I was physically accosted by my bowels and mile, mile 18, I think. So I made it past mile 16. And then all of a sudden, like all the gels and electrolytes really started hitting me. And I was like, oh shit.

Erika (1:21:36)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (1:21:39)
No pun intended. This isn't going to be good. So I like making it to like this porta potty. And there were like these three older gentlemen sitting there just hanging out in front of the porta potty. I thought I could use the other porta potties on the other side. No, no, those are for the volunteers. Okay, sorry, I'll go f myself then. So like, I'm just gonna go to this these guys.

Eric (1:22:05)
You should pull the stroke cards. I had a stroke.

Liz Boyd (1:22:08)
Well, I did have stroke survivor on the back of my shirt, but they really didn't care. So I go into this lose my soul. And I look to my left.

I look to my right.

I'm like, I am two seconds away from opening up that door because I have no shame in my game and everyone has seen everything is just anatomy. I really don't care at this point. I'm going to open the door and say, hey guys, you're sitting in front of the porta potty. Can you like refill the toilet paper? But no, I opted not to do that. Instead, I looked at to my right again and I saw what looks like to be a clean Ziploc bag.

And that's what I use.

Eric (1:23:02)
like nothing inside, just a Ziploc

Liz Boyd (1:23:04)
Empty, nothing inside, just a

Erika (1:23:06)
Sometimes

you gotta do what you gotta do.

Liz Boyd (1:23:07)
ziplock bag. Okay. And then I hopped right back into the race chafing and all and hobbled my way up Heartbreak Hill. Then I was like, wow, the hills don't stop. The hills don't stop at all. And.

Eric (1:23:10)
⁓ That's a code brown story

Erika (1:23:27)
you

Liz Boyd (1:23:33)
I didn't know if you wanted me to like get this far into the like into the race situation if you want me to like keep going with it or like, but no. I mean like I obviously I wanted to finish strong. So I listened to my body and I held back as much as I could because I did not know offense to get against people that crawl across finish lines, more power to you. I will carry you across the finish line. I will be there for you, but I did not want to crawl.

Eric (1:23:39)
we love it. Spare all details.

Yeah.

Erika (1:23:48)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (1:24:01)
I wanted to run across that finish line. And so what is it? Right on Hereford, left on Boylston. I put all of those, I put all those stickies around my house because I believe in that power of the positivity and affirmation, like on my mirrors, on my steering wheel, on the door, on whatever. So I was like, where is Hereford? Where is Boylston? Where is it?

Erika (1:24:02)
Yes.

Eric (1:24:10)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (1:24:28)
I ran across that finish line and I got hyped up at the end because like it took me I think five hours and 42 minutes to cross that finish line so of course like the crowd kind of fizzles out and you know it's just like a little you know like really the people that are there so I was getting people hyped up ⁓ okay all right

Eric (1:24:40)
Sure.

Erika (1:24:43)
fantastic for your first marathon!

Eric (1:24:44)
Yeah. I'm gonna play a video.

I'm gonna play video,

this is a good one, right here. Look at this. There's no audio, but look at your smile, look at your excitement.

Liz Boyd (1:24:52)
Yep. Yep. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, I

lost it. I can't guys I Kim Kardashian ugly cried. Getting this medal. I was so excited. I it was just like it was just such an incredible moment. And actually at the finish line. There was this this group on Instagram that I became

⁓ close with and they really open up the light to the young and high functioning stroke surviving population. Their name of the organization is Shine a Light on Stroke. And it was founded by two occupational therapists, Bridget and Bridget. And one of the Bridgets was there at the finish line. And I got to meet her in person and she was the one that captured these moments. Like, ⁓

Erika (1:25:43)
wow.

Liz Boyd (1:25:50)
of me crossing the finish line, getting the medal. And it was just, it was so surreal. It was awesome. I'm so, guys, I'm so glad that they didn't get a picture of me eating the banana because there's nothing more awkward than running and eating banana. Is there really like no other way to eat bananas? It doesn't look awkward. But it's just, yeah, it's, no,

Erika (1:25:55)
What a special day.

Eric (1:26:09)
You... You are incredible.

⁓ insane. What a day. Your smile there. Like it's, it's even

the fact we, we figured it out. was two years after the day you got out of the ICU marathon one day, ⁓ and the six one seven, all of it. And you thought you could never run a marathon before a stroke, but after a stroke, you crushed a marathon.

Liz Boyd (1:26:24)
That's wild.

God.

Erika (1:26:35)
What a journey.

Liz Boyd (1:26:36)
Thanks.

Erika (1:26:37)
⁓ my gosh. You are so strong for everything that you've had to deal with. I applaud you, my friend. I applaud you.

Liz Boyd (1:26:41)
Thanks guys. Appreciate you.

Eric (1:26:44)
It's incredible. I'm so happy we met.

Liz Boyd (1:26:45)
I appreciate you. I'm so happy we met and like thank you for thinking of me again. Like, you know, I really appreciate it. Thank you for letting me share my story. Thank you for having me on your show. I'm just so happy. Thank you.

Eric (1:27:02)
Well,

I wanted you since the day we met you to come on. Took some time, but you're not off the hook. We are not done. We got a couple big questions and then maybe a couple follow-ups. So we're gonna start with our two questions we ask everybody at the end of every episode and then usually a few more, but I'm gonna give Eric the opportunity to go first with her usual question that she's asked for the past 15 years. And well, that's an exaggeration, but.

Liz Boyd (1:27:10)
okay. Okay, let's do it. ⁓

Erika (1:27:26)
15 years.

I'll make it last 15 years now just to spite you. But Liz, we have ourselves an awesome Spotify playlist and we like to invite our guests to add something to it. So is there a song that that speaks to you or motivates you that you would like to add to the list?

Eric (1:27:32)
feels that long.

Liz Boyd (1:27:44)
Mmm.

Yes. ⁓ Rolling Stones. think it's the Take Shelter song.

Eric (1:27:56)
Mmm.

Erika (1:27:57)
Excellent.

Eric (1:27:59)
Was there a song like, like your nurse, is there a song you play right before to get pumped up like you and all the nurses and stuff or like before and before an operation, maybe they play something to get every, you know, I don't know. that a thing?

Liz Boyd (1:27:59)
That gets me going.

Mm-hmm.

It is a thing. ⁓ I actually work with a really cool general surgeon and he plays a lot of 90s hip hop. So I'm a big fan of Notorious B.I.G. ⁓ actually on my wrist. I won't tell you what this means, but because I tell people it's my grandmother's initials, it isn't, but it's F.B.G.M. Maybe you can figure it out.

Erika (1:28:21)
yes.

BGM? Okay, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna noodle on that.

Liz Boyd (1:28:40)
Mm-hmm.

So

he plays a lot of biggie. So that kind of gets us like hyped up and in the mood. So yeah. And it's in a lot of my pictures when I'm in the hospital, like in the ICU. ⁓ So it's just, it's so funny because it's just who I am. And it's just, yeah.

Erika (1:28:48)
do know what that means. I know what that means. know what that means.

That's amazing.

you

Okay, I like you even more now just because of that. And I feel like Tara pterodactyl, if you haven't met her yet, she would absolutely love you too.

Liz Boyd (1:29:04)
Stop.

Alright, Terroterrodactyl. tumbled. Terroterrodactyl. Terroterrodactyl.

Eric (1:29:17)
That's because I can't pronounce names and I have to call her Terra Teradactyl because I know she's

Terra not Tara because Terra like a Teradactyl.

Erika (1:29:24)
Yes, yes.

Liz Boyd (1:29:25)
Tara,

Erika (1:29:28)
Hey.

Eric (1:29:29)
All right, my big question for

2026 that I'm asking everybody, I change mine up every year, but this is a good one and I think this is gonna be a lot of fun. What is your hot take for 2026?

Liz Boyd (1:29:36)
Okay.

my hot take for 2026. All right, no offense against the fitness influencers, like the trendy, like everyone needs to be perfect. And I think we're going to see a shift in social media from like the perfectionism to the raw and real, like this is my comeback story.

and show the unfiltered versions of everyone's lives. That's my take.

Eric (1:30:17)
I like that. Yeah.

Erika (1:30:17)
I love that so much more because that's one of the reasons

why I don't want to post on social media so much because there is that pressure that you have to be perfect. And hello, that ain't me. That's not me at all. So I like being real. I like unfiltered. That is the way to go. That is absolutely the way to go.

Liz Boyd (1:30:25)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. No. Yeah.

Yeah.

Eric (1:30:41)
You know, I hear the stories all the time, like New York, it happened again. They let all the influencers go first and then they got the videos of the pros passing them. That was back in November because I ran New York. I remember seeing it all. the normal, oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Making my head a little bigger. I see the benefit in all these major races doing that, but I also feel like they should try, like if you, all right, you got the influencers and the influencers are actually, they're really going to help.

Liz Boyd (1:30:49)
Yeah, guys, congratulations. New York, shit. Yes. Yes.

and

Eric (1:31:08)
grow your game as far as the Boss Marathon, the New York Marathon. They're big enough, but it's also not new. They've been, like Kelly Roberts did in like 2009, right? She was one of them. I do think there's a chance, considering with your hot take, to highlight these stories, these comeback stories, and not just make them a story on a podcast or a newsletter, but like you run with them too. And...

Liz Boyd (1:31:11)
Respect it. Respect it.

Eric (1:31:35)
you start with them too and your story is, look at this girl, just had a stroke two years ago and she's now running a marathon. And have those people highlighted as well, just like the, the influencers do a good job getting the content, right? And they help promote the races.

Liz Boyd (1:31:35)
I'd love that.

Mm-hmm.

They do. The content. Content. Yep.

Erika (1:31:51)
Mm-hmm. But it's like glorified

content. Like, you want to be like, wow, I almost shit my pants. Like, ⁓ no, my shoe came untied. And I don't know. Like, you got to show really what happens, not just the pretty pieces. ⁓

Liz Boyd (1:31:56)
it is. Yeah. Yeah.

Eric (1:31:58)
Yeah.

Liz Boyd (1:32:07)
I

really loved ⁓ when they had you in Athletes Village in Boston and people are like getting crazy warming up and stuff like that and like having their snacks. Someone brought a roll of toilet paper and had that toilet paper sit in there. I was like, genius! Why didn't I think of that? That's amazing. That's the content that I would, no, I'm just kidding. No, I'm not kidding. No, I'm not kidding. I would show that. That's important. ⁓ But no, I'm hoping. I'm hoping that's the shift.

Eric (1:32:23)
Yeah.

No it is.

Erika (1:32:30)
That's

important stuff.

Eric (1:32:33)
That what?

And what, like at the Boston Marathon, if the BAA is listening or NYRR, you don't just highlight the inflatures. Like when you, you can almost pre-prep this, but let's just say you're running the race and you're one of the first ones. They get a quick clip of you running or it's already a pre-recorded one and be like running today and bib, can't, 28512, 29512, you know, is Liz and Liz just had a stroke. She's running for this and like,

Liz Boyd (1:32:37)
like kind of similar.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:33:06)
Pump the tires for the comeback story.

Liz Boyd (1:33:09)
Yes, it's the comeback story. I've always rooted for the underdog. I'm really hoping. I'm just hoping for more, more real, more, more real, more reality because social media is certainly everyone's highlight reels. But I feel like as a society, I have faith that we're going to start to pull back and start to peel back those layers and get to really like what's underneath and what matters most.

Eric (1:33:13)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Erika (1:33:20)
Amen

to that.

Absolutely. to kind of add to that, love that more, even people who are prevalent on social media are starting to focus more on strong bodies as opposed to thin bodies. So I love that shift. That's already happening and I want to see that keep going.

Eric (1:33:38)
I love it.

Liz Boyd (1:33:45)
Yeah.

Yes.

Yes,

me too. Me too. I'm here for it. I'm here for it. Yep.

Erika (1:33:58)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:34:02)
One more note, as you're talking this whole time, I take little side notes. I'm like Googling how the heck do they take a camera from someone's groin and bring it up to their head? And I'm like, wow, the technology. But the one note I actually wrote down that I like to say the word pump the tires, but talk for a moment about your dad. You mentioned your dad raised you as a single dad.

Liz Boyd (1:34:10)
Yeah.

Erika (1:34:11)
Apologies, bonkers.

Liz Boyd (1:34:23)
⁓ yeah. ⁓ So my dad, yeah. ⁓

Eric (1:34:26)
Which you don't hear about enough. You always hear about these strong

single moms, but you don't hear enough about strong single dads or men's mental health or what men are going through. And I don't think we've had someone on before who says, my dad raised me.

Liz Boyd (1:34:36)
Yeah.

⁓

My dad is Mr. Mom. My mom passed away when I was eight years old ⁓ to lung cancer. She was 41. So I actually just outlived her. ⁓ Non-smoker and no offense against no smokers that get lung cancer. It's a really crappy, horrendous disease. ⁓ So she passed away within three months of her diagnosis. And my dad had to raise me since I was eight years old. ⁓ I grew up dancing.

Erika (1:35:00)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (1:35:09)
⁓ so he was literally Mr. Mom. He knew the difference between a leotard and tights. in the moments that he didn't know how to put my hair in a bun, he would ask the teachers for help. And it's kind of like those little moments. He is still my biggest cheerleader. ⁓ my God, if you follow him on social media, like everything's Elizabeth Elizabeth. He like, you meet him in person. Everyone knows my whole life story. So in he is, ⁓ his name is Tom.

Erika (1:35:25)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Boyd (1:35:37)
So shout out Tom McQueen-O, he's awesome. ⁓ And he has definitely molded me into the strong woman that I am today. I would not be the woman that I am without my dad and without his support. So yeah, he's pretty awesome. And that's actually the whole reason why I wanted to get into nursing, which kind of goes back to your question from the beginning of our interview.

Erika (1:35:39)
Hell yeah, Tom. Girl dads.

Aw, that's beautiful.

Liz Boyd (1:36:07)
wasn't sure if I could share it or not. yeah, Tom's pretty awesome. He's pretty cool. He is. He's the man, the myth, the legend. And ⁓ Michael, they're my number ones. I am an only child. Just me and my dad. Yep. I am. I'll always will be. And I can ask him for anything and he will be there in a heartbeat. So yeah, he still drops off Gatorade.

Eric (1:36:12)
Tom and Mike both.

Are you an only child?

Erika (1:36:20)
you

Eric (1:36:22)
So it's just you and your dad.

Dad and his girl.

Erika (1:36:33)
Good. Another safe space.

Eric (1:36:36)
Was

Liz Boyd (1:36:37)
another safe space. Yeah.

Eric (1:36:37)
he, in one of the videos I saw, like someone has video of you getting rolled into the hospital, the helicopter and everything, who was taking the video? ⁓ He's even that awesome because in some of the worst times, in the scariest times, he goes, I need this content for the comeback story.

Liz Boyd (1:36:44)
He took, that was my dad. That was my dad.

Erika (1:36:50)
Don't you dare say content, my God.

Liz Boyd (1:36:50)
Yeah.

So Eric, it is so awesome that you say that. It is so awesome that you say that because often misunderstood there for a little bit. So like a lot of people were like, how could your dad, you know, be taking those videos of you and those pictures? Wasn't he grieving? Wasn't he scared? Wasn't he whatever? No, it was because he said to me, he goes, Elizabeth, I knew that you were going to make a comeback.

Erika (1:36:59)
You

Liz Boyd (1:37:24)
I knew that you were going to be okay. I knew you were going to move again. So yes. Yeah.

Eric (1:37:29)
And that's the hot take.

2026 is the year of the comeback. Love it. This was one of my favorite guest segments ever. And we barely talked about running. The story, I mean, we've had what? Close to 200 now. This was incredible. Like, just, it never stops. Just everyone has this story and man, I'm so lucky and I'm so happy that Candice introduced us. What a mo-

Liz Boyd (1:37:33)
Here are the come back. ⁓

Uh-uh, stop it. Aww.

Erika (1:37:42)
I agree.

Liz Boyd (1:37:48)
Wow.

⁓ thanks guys.

Erika (1:37:58)
same.

Liz Boyd (1:37:58)
Thank you,

Candice. Seriously, awesome.

Eric (1:37:59)
Like what a moment being in the same spot at the same time in Boston with thousands

of people. Yeah.

Liz Boyd (1:38:06)
Really, the streets

were, yes, lined, lined with people. It was wild. Yeah.

Eric (1:38:10)
Yeah, it was an incredible day. It was an incredible weekend. I can't wait for Boston this year. What

is the future for you, Liz? Are we still running? Are we gonna go Ted's team? Are we gonna go World Majors? Are we gonna go seven marathons, seven days, seven continents?

Liz Boyd (1:38:24)
Ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Erika (1:38:27)
Marathons,

5Ks are great. nothing's good. Everything is great. Fun runs.

Liz Boyd (1:38:31)
Yes. ⁓ Yeah.

Eric (1:38:31)
Run clubs. Anchor down

ultra.

Liz Boyd (1:38:36)
Yeah, you know what? I have to write down. What was it, the North?

Eric (1:38:39)
TrueNorth running company.

Liz Boyd (1:38:41)
Through North Running. I'm writing it down with my feather pen because I'm bringing Clueless back. Running Company. I signed up for a run for the spring. My goal is to either do Chicago or New York. That's my goal. I would love, love, love. New York looks fantastic. If you can give me any tips or tricks to tell me about New York because that's definitely...

Erika (1:38:47)
Yes!

Eric (1:38:47)
Yes.

It's

Just my

tip and trick is take it all in, don't go for time, run hills, but it's not that hilly. So don't listen to the crap everyone says about New York being hilly, but train on some hills and just take it all in. If you're in one of the later waves, take the ferry. Yeah. We'll talk when you get into New York.

Liz Boyd (1:39:12)
⁓ yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, all right.

Erika (1:39:26)
And

if you get into Chicago.

Liz Boyd (1:39:28)
Well, that's the thing.

I got to, I know I put my hat in the ring for Chicago. I doubt it's going to happen. I feel like my luck kind of ran out, but no, I'm just kidding. Uh, thanks. So that's, that's my goal. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to, don't know. I mean, it would be really cool to kind of unlock doors to the future and be able to travel because now I can. And so like, I want to take advantage of that. I'm having that second chance of life. Right. So.

Erika (1:39:35)
Fingers crossed for you.

That's

awesome.

Liz Boyd (1:39:52)
Who knows Teddy's team. I'm looking into how I can, cause I think he does New York and Chicago with his teams. I think they don't just do Boston. So I have to figure that out. So a hundred percent. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks. Yes.

Erika (1:40:01)
Hmm.

Eric (1:40:04)
When it happens, you let us know, especially like Teddy's team and stuff. You let us know.

Erika (1:40:07)
to share any tips and meetups if we happen to be there. think that would be

Eric (1:40:12)
We'll

pump the tires for your fundraising events.

Erika (1:40:12)
super fun.

Liz Boyd (1:40:15)
I love that. I'm supposed to do Philly next year. I was supposed to do it this year for ⁓ a foundation called We Run With You. ⁓ The founder, her name is Kathy and she survived ⁓ an AVM, a hemorrhage. So she started this foundation to raise money for stroke and research on stroke. So I'm supposed to be running it next year. I had a few health issues. Yeah.

Erika (1:40:25)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:40:40)
2026 so this year really we're talking in the

future Yeah, how

Erika (1:40:42)
So hard to do that.

Liz Boyd (1:40:43)
We are, we are.

Eric (1:40:45)
this

was so incredible. Erica, you got have anything else for Liz before we let her go

Liz Boyd (1:40:50)
You too. Seriously.

Erika (1:40:50)
Liz, I really am just so impressed by your progress and your want to just spread the word and awareness and make sure people get taken care of and even in your job. I think that's so amazing and I am very thankful that we got to have this conversation.

Liz Boyd (1:41:02)
Thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you guys. Thank you both so much. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Eric (1:41:13)
If you are not running in the Boston Marathon this year, we will be at mile 19.2. We have a cheer section. We'll talk. We want you, we want you and Candace and Jen to be there. I know Candace and Jen love to volunteer, but just one year girls come to mile 19.2 and cheer with us. It is an, it is an epic, right next to the Johnny Kelly statue. It's an epic time.

Liz Boyd (1:41:17)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (1:41:19)
I'm hanging out.

Liz Boyd (1:41:21)
Okay. yeah, that's right.

They do. They do.

Erika (1:41:31)
Hehehehehe.

Liz Boyd (1:41:35)
19.2.

Okay,

Eric (1:41:40)
and we would love

Liz Boyd (1:41:41)
okay.

Eric (1:41:41)
to have, it gets bigger and bigger every year. And I won't let Erica actually run the marathon until this is so big that it just sticks around all the time. I said, we have to build up 19.2, so.

Liz Boyd (1:41:44)
I love that.

Well,

Erika (1:41:54)
You just better hope I don't

qualify. So by some means. ⁓ great. Well, that's never good.

Eric (1:41:57)
I'll let you do it when you qualify. But I'm not letting you get

Liz Boyd (1:42:00)
That's incredible.

Eric (1:42:00)
a media bib until 19.2 is legit.

Liz Boyd (1:42:02)
That's incredible.

Erika (1:42:02)
Ha

Liz Boyd (1:42:04)
19.2. I wrote it down. Perfect. Yes. Thank you guys.

Eric (1:42:07)
Awesome. We'll talk, but this was incredible. What a story.

What a comeback. Like, and I think we realized here on the pod that it was two years to the day of Baratheon Monday. like, I don't know if we pieced those together before. Oh my God. It's so incredible. So incredible. Guys, I really hope you enjoyed this. I know it was a long one, but it was a good one. It was a great one. This was incredible guys. Liz Boyd, the incredible Liz Boyd.

Liz Boyd (1:42:14)
Thank you.

I look again every time you say it I get the chills. I get the chills. It's just wild I Really did it was awesome. Thank you guys

Erika (1:42:23)
Goosebumps.

Eric (1:42:36)
on the On The Runs podcast. That was wicked awesome.

Liz Boyd (1:42:40)
Thank you.

Erika (1:42:45)
Liz, my gosh, this was such an incredible guest appearance. am just in awe of you. You are just so strong coming back from such a heavy medical diagnosis and just living life and being strong. And we are so proud of you for everything that you're doing. So just keep going. Keep moving. Keep doing your thing.

Eric (1:43:06)
Right,

and still doing. Like I think she wants to be an advocate for at least like, this is what I think I remember. For the story I posted last night, the teaser reel. Like nobody prepares you, your goal is to go home, but nobody prepares you for that your life will never be the same.

Erika (1:43:09)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, how the changes affect you. that's such a, like mentally too, it's heavy.

Eric (1:43:26)
Right. they're right. And she works

in that field as a nurse and she, she knows these things and she's, she's these things every day and wants to help prepare everyone better for life. And I think that's awesome. Like we probably really fail at that. We not me and Erica, we're awesome. We're incredible. Not Liz. She's incredible, but no, in general, like, yeah, sometimes hospitals might just be like,

Erika (1:43:44)
as a whole.

Eric (1:43:51)
Nope, you're a business transaction. Let's get you out of here. You know, you're taking up a bed, you're taking up space, you know. How are you going to prepare for life after that hospital? And I could be totally wrong. Maybe hospitals aren't like that, but that's definitely what they make it sound like an ER in the pit. Okay. It's a business. So Liz is incredible. She's doing great things. I can't wait to watch the rest of her journey. How about those connections with like the day she left the NICU?

Erika (1:43:56)
Mm-hmm. ⁓

Exactly.

Mm-hmm, right.

Eric (1:44:18)
was two years or three years to the date of the Boston Marathon when she ran it last year in 2025? You would never know. When I met her on the Saturday, Candice was the one who introduced me. I would never have thought she had a stroke in the last couple of years and that she went through all that recovery, we'll call it, but like the pictures, the eyes, the movement, the hand, the... Remember the fist bump and then making it blow up? You know what it reminded me of?

Erika (1:44:25)
Wow.

Me either.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:44:48)
Have you ever seen Zootopia? so Zootopia has this one character. His name is Flash. And he's a possum. Is it a possum? Really slow animal, right? A possum, yeah. A sloth! He's a sloth!

Erika (1:44:50)
No, I haven't.

Okay.

Okay.

Sloth?

Wait, is he the DMV guy? I think I know who you're talking about. Okay.

Eric (1:45:06)
Yes! He's the DMV guy.

And he's, in fact, if you got Disney +, they have these shorts for all the amazing shows, all the movies, they have these shorts, and there's this one for Zootopia, and they're all hilarious, but there's this one where the girl is waiting tables, I forget what animal she was, but she's waiting tables and she's serving the sloth.

Flash and his fiance that he's, or girlfriend that he's gonna propose to. It's hilarious because she's the only waitress. Everyone's yelling at her to hurry up and the sloth's like, let me look at the menu. I'll have that. Can you please take a picture? You know, I'm doing it like at ultra speed compared to Flash. But what a name, what a movie. kids movies, guys, kids movies.

Erika (1:45:30)
Mm-hmm.

But they're so small.

Aww.

I guess, yeah.

Eric (1:45:58)
I love the adult humor in kids movies. So that's what it reminded me of her doing like the fist bump in the video and then all of sudden slowly.

Erika (1:46:08)
Mm-hmm. Just building back the strength. That's the best you can do. Yep.

Eric (1:46:10)
I know, she was incredible. Thank you so much for

sharing that story. It was so good.

Erika (1:46:16)
Yep. and I have to say, I know I said it on the podcast, but I loved her hot take. It is like just what we were looking for. Yep. Just be real. Be real on Instagram. I don't want to see just the glorified stuff. Just be yourself. Be real.

Eric (1:46:25)
It's a good question. Right? I, it's a good ques- I gotta spin

it better, I think. And then I realized, ⁓ Ali G, the Ali G show's coming back in February, she's already pre-recording things, she's doing the same question. I'm like, you copycat? And then I'm like, it's okay. It's gonna be the year of the hot take. So, and everyone, you know what everyone's doing too? They're all doing the song. Don't even get me started here. Everybody...

Erika (1:46:39)
Mm-hmm.

is she? No. Uh-huh. Going to get so many different opinions.

Eric (1:46:54)
On any podcast now that I listen to, who's starting a new one, their last question is like, what's a song to add? I'm like, ⁓

Erika (1:47:03)
Hey, I've been doing that for years now. I'm keeping it. ⁓ keeping it. You can't shame me out of it,

Eric (1:47:05)
UGH

I digress. ⁓

man. But no, it's gonna be the year of the hot take. That's what it's gonna be. The year of the hot take and absolute growth here.

Erika (1:47:15)
Mm-hmm.

Oh, oh, Liz, I also did figure out what your tattoo means. It took me a while. Do you remember?

Eric (1:47:21)
⁓

Can

you share it on the pod?

Erika (1:47:26)
I think so. you leave it in the editing? It says FBGM. And you guys can figure it out. It's like a biggie. It's a biggie quote from one of his songs. I'll tell you.

Eric (1:47:30)
No. Why don't-

Okay, yeah, tell me.

so much going on!

Okay. You're going to fill me in later or are you going to leave

the anticipation here?

Erika (1:47:46)
I'll tell you. I think it means fuck bitches get money. She can correct me if I'm wrong. Badass.

Eric (1:47:50)
Fuck bitches, get money. I like that.

yeah, we're figuring that out. ⁓ man, that was great. So a couple programming updates for the die-hards who still listen. I know that was a long episode, but you're get two episodes this week. Two. So Erica's packing and getting ready to go down south. We sent out the questionnaire.

Erika (1:47:58)
⁓ funny.

worth it. ⁓

Eric (1:48:14)
a week ago or so. said, we're gonna talk about it. So we're gonna talk about the entire thing later this week on its own episode. we're gonna see how tough and thick our skin is because it was totally anonymous and you guys told us how you really felt. So ⁓ we're gonna really see how tough Erica is because they were harsh. Harsh on six star. And. Right.

Erika (1:48:32)
no. I'll try not to cry on the pod, you guys.

Eric (1:48:39)
Then next week because of Erica's travels and she's probably gonna get stuck in a snowstorm, we have an episode of The Recrap that's dropping on Tuesday and Erica and I'll be back on Thursday or Friday next week to talk about Myrtle Beach in the snowstorm that you're gonna get when you're down there.

Erika (1:48:56)
I'm you guys. I can deal with 40 but.

Eric (1:48:59)
But you're gonna do a great job getting not just

content like on your fancy camera. You're gonna make some story posts. Couple them,

Erika (1:49:04)
Mm-hmm. Can

I just tell you, Tara and I are so excited to just go down there and fuck around and have fun. We are like, we have a separate chat going on, and we are just like, man, we should totally do this. it would be cool if we did this. We're going to deliver.

Eric (1:49:17)
Well...

Nice. I'm so excited. I'm so excited to see what you do and deliver. You did. You did. I was like the password. I don't know if I changed it. So.

Erika (1:49:26)
And I logged into the on the runs account.

think you did, but it didn't make me type it in, so I might have already been logged in somehow, but I just haven't tried in while.

Eric (1:49:37)
Well, well,

I've had some pain in the butts like trying to log in and get everything again and right I got a new phone. I got an iPhone.

Erika (1:49:43)
⁓ Because you got a new phone.

Mm-hmm. Defector. Mm-hmm. He defected.

Eric (1:49:50)
I'm going to rephrase that actually. I got a fruit phone and I'm going

to give a solid review. We'll talk about it later. I will also give it a solid like run here. We'll talk about it after a week and we'll talk about it after like 90 days. But so far it's okay, but it's not great. It's not as great as a Samsung Galaxy.

Erika (1:50:12)
Okay, so it's

It's not living up to what you're already used to.

Eric (1:50:18)
It's

not living up to what I'm used

Erika (1:50:20)
You got to let me know what the real differences are between them, because I know that they do have the whole different operating system. I just, yeah.

Eric (1:50:28)
my god, it's so weird. So a couple things like

instantly, you know on the bottom of your Android phone you have those three buttons? Like you don't have that here.

Erika (1:50:35)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ so wait, what are we looking at? We have like the back button, the home screen, like a home button and then like a tabs button, right? Yeah. You don't have that?

Eric (1:50:41)
The right. Exactly. So the tabs kind of,

it kind of has a tabs feature, but it's like, it's almost like a cheat code. You gotta know the cheat code to open it up. And even like iPhone diehards can't do it every time. But the back button is what I'm missing because if I want to go back on anything, I have to go to the top left or sometimes the top right, but usually the top left of an app and go back.

Erika (1:50:58)
no.

Mm.

Eric (1:51:10)
My thumb can't reach it. So I need two hands. The other thing is, you know, on your Android, when you got your apps on your home screen and you just swipe up and when you swipe up, you have every app on your phone. You don't have that on an iPhone, a fruit phone. Every app is on your pages. Now you can move them. I don't...

Erika (1:51:11)
Hmm.

⁓ no.

Mm-hmm.

Yep. Yeah.

Really?

Can you put them in a folder together? I have a certain folder for all of my running apps, like Strava and Garmin and whatever else.

Eric (1:51:45)
called the App Library and

they have folders called suggestions, recently added, social utilities. So it does, I got to swipe all the way to the right and I'm assuming I can create more. So this is the initial review is it's confusing and definitely different. And I think if, I think after having it for a week, if an iPhone user switched to Android and gave the Android a true test,

Erika (1:51:52)
Okay.

you

huh.

Eric (1:52:13)
they would never go back to an iPhone.

Erika (1:52:16)
This is why we stick to it.

Eric (1:52:17)
But there's a couple things I'm liking. I'm trying everything. I'm having my notifications

on, which I never do. I am trying Siri. I'm saying, hey, Siri, my phone's gonna act now. But I never did that. Now Google and Samsung, they have those features. I never used them. And I'm trying it because I want to give an honest review. And I do like, I've tried Apple Maps. I don't mind it. It's pretty good. Google Maps is great. Waze, by the way, is always drunk, so don't use Waze. And...

Erika (1:52:24)
Mmm.

Yup.

You

Eric (1:52:46)
So I'm going to give it an honest take. And right now it's a great phone and I'm not going to complain. I said great. my God. I said great. It's a good phone and I'm not going to complain because I don't pay for it. So it's a work phone. I only have a work phone. So ⁓ that's my take. That's my fruit phone take and we'll talk in a couple of weeks. I have a feeling I like FaceTime too.

Erika (1:52:55)
It was free. That's why it was great. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Gotcha.

first, the first, first go of it, right?

Eric (1:53:12)
Which again, Google and Samsung have it, but I actually do feel like the fruit phone, like that, it's superior to the others. The FaceTime feature. But you can only FaceTime other Apple users! That's what I think is stupid, that they don't allow you to FaceTime a Samsung person! That's stupid!

Erika (1:53:22)
Hmm.

See, I guess it's good for people.

guess it's good if you actually want to see somebody you're talking to. I'm not a FaceTime person at all. ⁓

Eric (1:53:38)
And can I... Let me clear up one thing here. Here's why I've

never liked Apple. Is I got the iPod, the second one, right? And then Casey Neistat makes some video about when the battery died, he wanted a new battery, and iPhone says, we'll give you a new battery, or Apple, for $300. Or you can buy a brand new iPod for $260. And he's like...

Erika (1:53:46)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:54:06)
Why is it battery more than the iPod? Right? So they're just trying to always like they're putting in cheap products into their products. So you buy new ones quicker. That's one philosophy of mine. And that was an old philosophy. So things might have changed. The second thing was when the iPhone first came out, they made exclusive to just 18T people and I was Verizon. So I was a little butthurt about that.

Erika (1:54:09)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

⁓

so if things were different, you may have ended up with an iPhone.

Eric (1:54:37)
Why

only AT &T at the time? Like don't you want to sell more? Just like why can you only FaceTime other fruit phone users? Why like why do they then had to download an app to FaceTime me on my Samsung or my Google? So I'll give it an honest take and so far it's good and every phone is going to have those things.

Erika (1:54:41)
I don't know.

Okay.

You said great the

first time and now it's only good. You already downgraded it. Sure, sure, sure.

Eric (1:55:03)
I accidentally said great. meant like, it's a nice phone. It presents well as a nice picture. It's

a little small, but honestly, work won't buy you the big one. And actually, it's the perfect size. I don't need the big one, but the screen I noticed sometimes is I was watching The Pit the other day on it and the screen seemed, it seemed like it was just bigger on my old phone. Even though they're the same size, the phone's the same size, but the actual screen layout that's showing you the video.

Erika (1:55:13)
Uh-huh.

Cause it probably was.

⁓ so it doesn't go like all the way to the edges? Like mine, mine goes like all the way like, ⁓

Eric (1:55:36)
Not every app. Yes. And that might

have meant, like, some of these things might have been I'm figuring it out, right? So the silliest thing that happened too was, you know, when you take a screenshot on your phone, it just goes right to a folder called screenshots, right? This one, I take a screenshot, and I'm gonna do it just for, you know, ⁓ research purposes. I'm gonna do it right now. Screenshot. Okay.

Erika (1:55:45)
Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Are the buttons the same to do a screenshot or is it something different?

Eric (1:56:04)
Now

for me to actually save this screenshot on our old phones, the screenshot would have been saved right then when I hit the button. And then I can edit it. This brings me to the editing and a check mark. But when you hit the check mark, you have to then choose, again, maybe, maybe I am just learning and once you do it a couple times, it becomes simple.

Erika (1:56:13)
Mm-hmm.

So it doesn't save it?

Eric (1:56:32)
But I have to tell it where I want it to go. Save to photos or save to files, put it in quick notes, copy and delete or delete screen. Like I took a screenshot. It just go right to the screenshot folder and then I edit it later. Like, so I took some screenshots over the weekend of some drama, some tea that I saw someone is nothing that you would know, but or anyone here would know, but some tea we'll call it. And then when I went to show Ashley,

Erika (1:56:32)
think you need to go to YouTube University.

⁓

⁓ perfect.

Eric (1:57:00)
screenshots weren't there because I didn't properly save it because apparently you have to click more buttons.

Erika (1:57:06)
think you need to just go to YouTube University, learn how to use all the features of your new phone, and yeah, see what happens.

Eric (1:57:12)
having it allow me, it's saying like,

know, do this, do that. I'm trying to take full advantage to understand because, you know, the last couple, I'm sure the last couple years I'm just used to what I'm used to and I didn't take full advantage of some of the new features Google or Samsung presented, right? I was just, yeah. So I'm gonna give you guys an honest review. We'll call it maybe, so the end of February because we're gonna do one like solo episode every month as an extra and we're gonna talk about that.

Erika (1:57:29)
I mean, that's true. Yeah.

Eric (1:57:41)
on our next episode for the questionnaire because this episode is going long.

Erika (1:57:45)
you

Eric (1:57:47)
And some people said it's a little too long on the questionnaire.

Erika (1:57:50)
We can cut it short and then talk more about it Yeah, it's not short.

Eric (1:57:52)
Let's cut it short. Guys, have an incredible week.

We'll be back in a couple of days to talk about how you really feel about us. And I hope Erica has some thick skin.

Erika (1:58:03)
We will see about that, but don't hold against me if I cry. Thank you guys for being such good sports and putting up with our bullshit, but thank you for listening. You know we love you.

Eric (1:58:06)
Take us home, Erica.

Don't

fear the code brown.

Erika (1:58:17)
and don't forget to stretch.

Eric (1:58:18)
you

What an incredible weekend we had. The Patriots are back in the AFC Super Bowl.

Erika (1:59:16)
Close.

Eric (1:59:19)
Maybe.

Erika (1:59:21)
Mmm.

Eric (1:59:21)
We got an amazing guest on today's episode and Erica is packing to head out down. ⁓ my God, I really suck.

Erika (1:59:30)
It's one of those days man. The Monday is Monday ever

Eric (1:59:31)
Here we go.

What's up everybody? Welcome to episode 204 of the On the Runs podcast and what an incredible weekend we all just had. The Patriots are back in the AFC Super Bowl. The champion, my god.

Erika (1:59:50)
Take a deep breath and don't look at me. Look at your whatever screen.

Eric (1:59:56)
What's up, everybody?

Erika (1:59:58)
you got to give it more than that.

So she can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it means fuck bitches get money.

Eric (2:00:05)
Alright, that's

Erika (2:00:10)
Yeah, I don't know if that works, but we'll keep it.