The Champion Within
This is a series with fascinating and inspiring people, and what it takes to be the best you can at whatever your endeavours may be.
We will learn from others as to how they have handled themselves in their own pursuits, and so that we can apply to ourselves.
We’ll talk about the necessary support and how important it is, to have the best and appropriate systems around us, so that we can be the best possible. We’ll discuss aspects of ourselves that we can all develop.
This is a show with inspiring people, including musicians, artists, athletes, medical specialists, business entrepreneurs and more…in the pursuit of excellence.
I’m Jason Agosta, a health professional and former athlete, and I'm fascinated in people’s stories, my own involves developing certain attributes over time, but also things that were not done well or were significantly missing.
Join me on The Champion Within in discovering that everybody has a story, and everybody has a message.
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The Champion Within
Ep.17 Kate Smyth: Coeliac, Health Issues, Naturopathy and an Olympic Marathon
Have you ever felt like you're constantly battling your own body? Our guest, Kate Smyth, can relate. As a marathoner and naturopath, she's no stranger to physical challenges, but it was her diagnosis of coeliac disease that truly put her determination to the test. Kate didn't let her condition derail her dreams; instead she transformed it into her strength, learning the right balance of nutrition and exercise to improve her performance even further. Join us as Kate candidly shares her inspiring journey, showcasing the power of perseverance and resilience.
Imagine training for the Olympics, the zenith of any athlete's career, while dealing with coeliac disease? That's exactly what Kate did. She didn't merely compete but climbed her way up to the top. In our conversation, we uncover how a healthful approach to nutrition and the power of a supportive team played a vital role in her success. Hear about her incredible journey from overcoming setbacks to running in the Beijing Olympics.
Kate's story is a testament to the importance of passion, personal evolution and the art of balancing one's athletic pursuits with life's mundane realities. Discover how Kate faced the unique challenges of being a female athlete and how she's now channeling her experiences to help others through her practice - The Athlete Sanctuary. This episode is a celebration of not just athletics, but of community, balance, grit and the sheer joy of chasing one's goals. Tune in, get inspired and let the champion within you take flight!
Athletesanctuary.com.au
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coeliacaustralia.org.au
Hi there everyone. Thanks for tuning in to the Champion Within show, where we speak to others with inspiring stories. I'm Jason Agosta and my next guest is Kate Smyth, a marathoner, naturopath, coach and mentor. I've known Kate for a long time now and she has a remarkable history of determination and just an absolute inspiration. In 2006, kate ran a seventh place finish at the Chicago Marathon, which she gained her entry into the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, a marathon where she is remembered for her courageous finish, where she's staggered across the line, coming in seventh place but collapsing with his growth, diagnosed Asiliac and battling continual fatigue. Her story at this stage, which you will hear, is incredibly interesting and indicative of her determined approach in handling herself.
Speaker 1:Kate went on to run a 228 marathon in Japan in 2008 at the age of 35. Kate then went on to run the marathon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She believes there isn't just one way to better health and endurance running performance. She educates and empowers female athletes of all sporting interests to make the most of themselves through a holistic and balanced approach. Kate continues to run, she coaches others, she practices as a naturopath and focuses on sports nutrition in assisting many others who just want to be better with their health and lifestyle. It's such a pleasure to have Kate Smythe on the Champion Week, so I'm assuming that, from your athletic background and the problems that you had yourself dietary wise, that's what's led you into managing the female athlete and going down the naturopathy pathway.
Speaker 2:If I talk a little bit about that journey, I guess initially it was quite traditional in an endurance athlete context in that it was high carbohydrate, lots of pasta, lots of other foods that were really sort of encouraged in endurance training to pool yourself. And, unbeknown to me, I guess I was going down a path that caused a lot of inflammation through the choice of the foods that I was injecting and it wasn't really until I came to a sort of a head of feeling horrendous.
Speaker 1:In what way? What do you mean? Horrendous.
Speaker 2:I was just exhausted. It was like I was just pushing tyres up a hill every day and it was beyond the normal exhaustion that you get from marathon training. It wasn't that general fatigue that you get, or the sore muscles or the just feeling flat, it was just total exhaustion. And no matter what I put into my body, I just couldn't get another gear. It was like I was stuck in first gear over revving and not going anywhere fast at all.
Speaker 1:So go back. When was this, though? Was this prior to? Well, you ran Beijing, which is 208, you ran Melbourne Commonwealth Games 206. So this is well before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this was in 2007. And at this point in time I've run Tom games. And then I was on an altitude training camp in Canberra at the AIS. I was in a block. We went in for the first block, which was three weeks, and we came back for a repeat block.
Speaker 2:And it was at that point. I knew something wasn't quite right, but I really couldn't. I just thought I was, you know, tired, yeah. So I went to training and put it down to the altitude and other, you know, just that stage of the program. But the sports scientist came to me one morning and just said have you been drinking? I haven't drunk for I don't know six years, maybe longer, at that point in time, like I hadn't touched a drop. And they said well, your liver enzymes are like really high and you're very unwell. We can't work out what's going on, but you need to basically go home and get well, because what we're doing at the moment is not, you know, it's not working for you. And so I had to leave the program and go back to Melbourne and try and sort out what was actually going on in my body.
Speaker 1:So this is in between Commonwealth Games and Beijing in 2008. So you ran two 2006 Commonwealth Games and the previous marathons like under this yeah.
Speaker 2:Heavy diet. But now I know what I then discovered, which was basically the wash up of that, was that I went to an integrated doctor who was also a naturopath and he did a lot of additional functional testing and at that time things like celiac disease and things it wasn't a thing Like it just wasn't really widely diagnosed or understood. So it was probably easily missed as something just related to my running and I was constantly anemic at this point in time as well and it was just put down to where you were a female distance runner.
Speaker 1:This is just what happened. Yeah, and it's so common right, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So he ran a lot of additional tests and it came back that I was a celiac and I which is the gluten intolerance. Well, it's beyond that. It's an autoimmune condition where you actually have an autoimmune reaction every time you ingest gluten. And I had a gluten-containing diet because I ate all the common foods that distance runners eat. You know, the past doesn't seem to have mentioned. Yeah, and I was fueling myself, basically completely the wrong way.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's the flow-on effect. The flow-on effect from that was that I had really high levels of inflammation in my body. I'd also developed this liver that wasn't happy either, and I'd had a bit of a combination of events. So I had a death bulge which required some anti-inflammatory medication. That irritated my liver even further. On top of that, I developed Because my liver wasn't happy. I wasn't processing all my macronutrients or detoxifying, which led to insulin resistance. So I was just pre-diabetic, even though I had an A1 Whole Foods diet which, looking at it, looked pretty good. You'd look at that. Moat Sports Nutritionist would look at that and go I am Well, that's what you should eat. But, unbeknown to me, I wasn't eating the right thing. So I was diagnosed at that point and I had a lot of other things going on with my body which meant I kind of had to stop completely and go in an opposite direction in terms of how to fuel myself, how to nourish myself. I literally had three months off running.
Speaker 1:Did you work this out yourself or do you have assistance?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was the integrative GP that I worked with closely and he actually initially this sounds pretty extreme, but it really helped me was that I was in such a catabolic state, which means you're dissolving your own muscle tissue and your immune system is basically just struggling to keep up. So my immune system would constantly crash with illnesses constantly. He put me on sensory deprivation for 48 hours, which you're not familiar with, a measure where you basically have no sensory load whatsoever. So you're in a darkened room. You're sleeping most of that time. I got up to eat and go to the bathroom, but apart from that I had no social interaction, no phones, no TV, no reading, no light. But coming out of that it just meant I really allowed my whole nervous system to shut down and reboot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, settle, right back. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So, even though that wasn't a long-term solution, it kind of stopped me. Enough for me to go, my brain would calm down enough and my whole nervous system to go. Okay, what do I need to do next? And that was all about just rebuilding myself from a cellular level out again, which was a lot of that was nutrition. You know. It was just going back to the most basic whole foods diet without actually anything that was processed. I had nothing out of a packet for three months.
Speaker 1:So can I ask you at this stage, while you're going down that road of trying to work out this autoimmune problem and dietary issues, what sort of mileage were you doing?
Speaker 2:Well, at that point I was doing zero. I was told no running.
Speaker 1:But just prior to or while you were pushing it. You must have been because you had obviously Beijing on the radar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was only over the next year, until the end of April to qualify.
Speaker 1:So prior to that in post, what sort of mileage? What were you doing?
Speaker 2:I generally sat around between 160 and 180.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it'd be very easy to say that I'm tired, I'm anemic because of all of that Totally yeah. But that was kind of you know just what we do.
Speaker 2:What we do, yeah, and you know that would involve lots of mileage, but also the cross training and strength training and all the extras that you have to do when you're you know when you're really aiming for that level. And I had a really narrow window you know I'm really narrow window that was closing rapidly. So to be told that I couldn't run, just you know, I had to let go, I had to surrender to everything, I had to really just go. You know this isn't working for me. I have to listen, I have to really open up to doing things differently and I didn't have a choice, basically.
Speaker 1:It's part of being a great athlete, though, isn't it Opening up and, you know, letting it in, taking on the new things?
Speaker 2:We can so often focus on the outcome or that goal and we can self-sabotage ourselves. You know, along the way, and I was so blinkered, you know, I was just so focused on achieving that dream that I was pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing and you know I was on a cliff and I threw myself off, basically.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because.
Speaker 2:I was so desperate. That's what I wanted.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you know, the universe said no, that's not the way to do it.
Speaker 1:And so what happened after that? Moving on from that time, when you reset yourself, reset myself.
Speaker 2:I went on a Getwell holiday because I was supposed to be racing in Germany and I couldn't get my money back from the flights and everything. So I went okay, I'll still go to Europe and went on a Getwell holiday and in doing so I just started to gently run you know, just jogging literally. And after that three weeks of just gently returning to running, I came back to Australia and I was like I feel so good, like I feel really rejuvenated, and that's when I started to sort of slowly build up again, and this was sort of December.
Speaker 1:You would have had about nine months before Beijing.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, Because I oh, till Beijing, yes, but till qualification. I only had four, maybe five At the most, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I had to do things differently, and so I came back with a different approach and the mileage and the way that we integrated. That had to be with caution and certainly with a lot more balance, a lot more balance. And I chose Nagano as the race where I wanted to qualify and I didn't overrace leading into that. You know I didn't do all the preparatory 10 and halves. I think I only raced twice in that whole build up and I had. I think the closing window was two weeks after that race, so I had one shot left, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's where you ran your PB.
Speaker 2:That's when I ran my PB.
Speaker 1:It was all worth it, huh.
Speaker 2:It was so worth it.
Speaker 1:So to 28 marathon. Then you took off on the road to Beijing.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Beautiful yeah. So those changes you made dietary wise to fuel you, to refuel yourself in a in a different way. That has obviously set your whole lifestyle up and what you're doing in consulting to other women athletes now.
Speaker 2:Well, it certainly made me realize that we've got to adapt any kind of nutrition to the individual. We can't take a blanket cookie cutter approach to anything and you know there are a lot of other things in in the health world that goes sort of missed a lot, I find. Certainly working with athletes now I find the anemia is often still blamed as part of just being an athlete. But there's a lot of underlying factors that can be contributing to that, whether that be poor gut health and absorption, a lot of stress, a lot of inflammation, a lot of things that can can really contribute to that anemic state. And you know there's athletes that will. They've got such constitutional strength I'd call it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where they can override some of those signals and early warning signs so easily because they have focused on the goal. You know they're really pushing on because they want to make the team, they want to get selected. You know they want to get that PB and they're so desperate for that but they forget to listen sometimes and that's, you know. That's where I sort of felt for me personally that that holistic approach for me worked very well, because it wasn't as simple as take this pill, you'll get better tomorrow. It was like it was all encompassing. I had to totally reprogram myself, not just from a nutritional perspective, but in those three months that I was, you know, only able to walk and do lots of sleeping Like I had that and that every afternoon compulsory I did a minimum 10 hours sleep at night time and then a good half an hour to an hour every afternoon. So I was really restoring that and allowing my body to recover. But then there are other things, like I probably hadn't done enough psychological sports, like you know, work done enough meditation and visualization.
Speaker 1:I hadn't really lent into, you know, that whole performance coaching space and what you're saying is the support around you was minimal compared to what is available now and what you do.
Speaker 2:I had to try. I just fumbled my way through.
Speaker 1:I wasn't.
Speaker 2:You know, I wasn't a sponsored or supported athlete as such you know, within an, within an institute setting normally.
Speaker 1:You know.
Speaker 2:so I had to find people who could come into my team and gel with those in other people already in my team. But that really worked with more of a holistic approach, because I found if one person one Prachy say came in and debated or questioned what I was doing or another practitioner's work, it totally unraveled me, it really confused me and it made me question not only their ethics but also, oh you know, have I got a solid team around me?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I needed a lot of, you know, collaboration between people and people who are open to doing things a bit differently.
Speaker 1:We've spoken about this a lot on the show, about the support behind the athlete, and everybody has to be on the same trip. It takes months to set that up, though it doesn't just happen.
Speaker 1:I think it's at least six to 12 months to get it right if you keep pursuing and pushing it. But everyone has to be on the having the same goal of is get the lead athlete to the start line, and it can't happen if there's differences, and you know, I suppose, the lack of commitment from one person, or differences in opinion, or everybody has to be at the table at the same time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd have to. I whole heartedly agree with that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it doesn't happen enough though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I think once you find that core team, you can often find the others through that core team. You know that they'll link you up, sometimes, well, most of the time. Yeah, no, you're right. Yeah, so you can form that team around yourself. But it does take time and sometimes you've got to go through you know four or five of the same practitioners of the same modality before you find that you know massage therapist, who just knows your body and works the way that you love you know to be treated, for example. You know it does take time and often you sort of you go down that path thinking you've got it all covered, I don't need to find, as I did. Oh goodness, I've missed such an important part of this team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Which was really the, you know, the emotional, the spiritual, the psychological, yeah, and so in many ways and I think a lot of athletes have this opportunity even when we've got those major setbacks like challenges with injury or illness, we can always lean on that psychological or mental part to work. You know, to have a time out maybe from our physical training, but we've still got great valuable work to do mentally in that time. So that's just what I focused on when I had all that downtime.
Speaker 1:But going through that period of time without the support things weren't going that well nutritionally you have. And then you came out of that phase into Beijing with like nine months to go when you started running. There's not much time to set everything up and have it in place and grow from that. So you managed to squeeze a lot in and a lot of massive changes within yourself. Would you now say that you, despite the deficiencies, just really dug deep to get the most out of yourself?
Speaker 2:I think I definitely wasn't the most talented athlete, and but what I did have was a bit of a dogged determination and courage to try lots and lots of new things.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think there was this innate, what I call in athletes mongrel, Is that it? Mongrel. Are you telling me that I think you've either got that mongrel where you're not willing to give up, or you're happy to let things go quite easily and I just, I don't know, I don't know where I've. Maybe I can thank my parents for that mongrel. I don't know, but I came into this world with lots of mongrel.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:When I set my mind to something, I just I always said to myself look, I just don't want to die wondering, I don't want to leave stones unturned and then, at the end of that time, going what if I? You know, maybe you know, I just wanted to really exhaust everything I could within my reach and timeframe and you know, knowledge, you know. Back then I just wanted to give it a really red hot go and the outcome didn't matter to me. It was all about the evolution of an athlete, because I was just running around the block when I started. I was just a fun runner, so anything beyond that was an absolute bonus for me.
Speaker 2:Like it was just like, yeah, you know, that was another step in the right direction, towards where I really want to go.
Speaker 1:Well, you did start quite late too, I know that. But clearly you know when you've got there's a bit of a deficit with lots of different things, that determined, mongrel, as you put it, that it's a great lesson for people where things aren't perfect and it's not a perfect world. Things don't go that well. You're squeezing things in a short timeframe but at the end of the day it's up to you to be disciplined and determined.
Speaker 2:I think that's quite a message.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're really hungry, desperate, and there's not enough of that. That's the separating factor. I've said this before between so many runners or athletes, there's always someone who's more desperate. You have to be the most desperate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you can really absolutely want it, I think you've got it. You've got to love what you do Like. You've got to really love it. So I never felt. You know how in some athletic circles they say there's so many sacrifices you have to make and you know all that sort of line. I never felt I was sacrificing, never Not once You're starting to it, yeah.
Speaker 2:I just loved what I did. So with such, I saw it as an opportunity, like at every turn okay, that's another setback and this is an opportunity to work out another way of doing things. This is okay. This isn't quite working. What else can I? What else can I be doing? You know who else could help me, and it was just that constant yearning to know more about my body, more about what was available, you know, to actually help the human body and mine to reach its, you know, full potential.
Speaker 2:It was always just about working out that puzzle for myself, never about competition, never about snatching somebody else. Yeah, it was always like oh, how do I get a little bit more out of myself?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that's where it starts from, though, isn't it? But this passion you have like, even from back then and now, and, as you say, the determined mongrel, that passion and the fascination with the whole health regime, you clearly are passing that on through your practice of the athlete sanctuary to all these running women and everyone else that comes in as well, and that's what obviously fires you up.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Now that I'm the other side of my career, I think the pure joy I get and the I guess if I really step back, I learned all those really challenging lessons so that I can now help others, you know, really achieve their goals and I probably get a lot more satisfaction and joy out of being in that position that I ever did, out of being the one that I myself, I can really have a different perspective and help them to avoid some of the pitfalls I made, definitely, but also help them to embrace all that it is to be a female athlete. Don't turn your back on it, don't train on a tone. There is a masculine model that is very go, go, go, go, go, go, go like 100%, all the time.
Speaker 2:As a female, that is not the way we designed. We go with a rhythm, whether that be moods, hormones, energy. So why aren't we listening to our bodies a bit more and embracing all that we need? And as women also, we tend to take on so many things in our lives and we forget the impact of that. You know, honest as athletes, as humans, as mothers, as you know, whatever roles we play in life. You know a lot of the women I support. You know they're running businesses. They're also training like mad women. They're juggling families with kids, they're supporting partners and they're probably doing a PhD or something else on the side. You know, just go whoa. You know, when do you sleep? A lot of them say I don't.
Speaker 1:I say okay, maybe we need a bit of balance here. I was just going to say we're talking about balance, which we always talk about in the show as well, but they'll eventually find out. But this is what obviously, clearly what you're passing on with your sort of endurance running program, because I know you do a fair bit of coaching as well.
Speaker 2:And I love doing that differently, you know differently in that we're very mindful of resting enough, we're very mindful of listening to the body, we're very mindful of embracing you know, embracing different ways of doing things, but not getting caught up in comparison, not getting caught up in the data and I know the data is just something that you know people are so caught up in terms of what did my garment say?
Speaker 2:You know what did this? You know I go. That's great. That's. That's one tiny piece of the puzzle, but let's talk about how did you feel? What was your breathing like? You know how did you recover? How are you the day after that session? You know where was your mind in the middle of those reps. You know what were you, what were you actually focused on in that moment? Because I think if we constantly focused on outcome, we forget about the process, we forget about what, why are we actually doing this and what?
Speaker 1:do we love about it? So you're touching on being intuitive, being a good listener to yourself, you know, and developing spirit and a competitive spirit the right way. So from the inside out, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you've got to love what you do, so stay in love with it. You know it's like any kind of relationship You've got to work on it constantly. Don't just pommel yourself. You gotta burn out, Guaranteed.
Speaker 1:So if just go back a little bit to the dietary issues you're talking about, you know lots of different factors from the Celiac issue and the problem of auto immune responses, but one of the big ones is anemia. Yeah, and there's so many women training for an event or just training just you know day to day, who are anemic and have these problems of being iron deficient. You know digestive problems, hormonal issues, bone health issues. Yeah, that clearly is a fairly big part of what you're doing with, again, athletes.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, across all ages. You know, I've seen in 14 year old basketballers, I see it in, you know, incredible AFL professional players, you know, or the women's league, sorry, and you know so it's not just in one sport, it's across, you know, across the board and, as I mentioned, it goes sort of under the radar of all.
Speaker 2:That's part of being an athlete all the time. Or it can go for maybe six or eight months and just label it as fatigue and then not really identified early on, and then it takes months and months, you know, to recover properly and to get that. You know, hemoglobin blackup to where you want it to be, or the ferritin just general storage if it's, you know, if it's iron deficiency. So, and I find the just supplementing or just having an iron infusion is potentially a good patch if an athlete's under some kind of really tight timeframe, but often it may not actually result in underlying problem. If there's absorption issues, if there's other gut related microbiome imbalances, then we find ourselves in a similar position.
Speaker 1:Yes, Okay, so that was my next question. There's clearly other issues behind it that set that off.
Speaker 2:Often Often, I mean, there's so many different factors we can't just say click up, because you know a lot of athletes are also unaware of just how much iron they really need. You know, they think having even red mediatives, they think having two bits of staple weight will be sufficient. But if they've got high volume and they've got regular cycles and potentially you know other things going on, then you know you can't keep up. You just physically can't keep up. If that's, you know, they may have very limited fruit intake. They may, you know, be also having their yogurt with their, or something you know, a lot of Sanya and calling that a good iron source. Well, it doesn't like that.
Speaker 1:But you having calcium with iron, which kind of competes with absorption, Okay, are we talking about something similar to what or relevant to guys?
Speaker 2:Definitely. Sorry, I shouldn't say it's just it will. It definitely isn't just for you know, it's more common in women but definitely men do definitely get iron deficiency and B12 deficiency and it's more prevalent if that individual is more stressed because their hydrochloric acid will be suppressed when, when they're under, you know, an overload of stress hormone. That's just a natural down regulation that happens. There will also be utilizing more if they were just a high volume athlete. So you know, similar factors, similar factors for males and females. It's just with females, if you've got a regular cycle, will you? You know you've also got that loss, so you can still have the same gut issues or poor absorption or just simply not having enough in in the daily nutrition. That is, you know, iron rich and with all the cofactors that you need for absorption.
Speaker 1:So here's one for you. What are the most simple things that anyone listening can do to avoid going down that pathway?
Speaker 2:If we go back to food as medicine, that's always the basis that I prefer, you know, to start on.
Speaker 2:And if you look at, I guess three key things will be to look after your gut health, so really making sure you're having a variety of foods, you're having lots and lots of color on your plate, so you're having a simple way of thinking of this is a good rainbow of whole foods on your plate, all different colors, so you're getting lots and lots of different nutrients, lots of fiber, and you're rotating that, so you're getting all different exposure on a regular basis like daily basis.
Speaker 2:The other part of that so lots of fiber, lots of nutrient dense food, rather than energy dense food that is dead. You know packet food. It looks good in terms of the macro profile, potentially, but in terms of that other micronutrients that you really need, they're often very, very depleted or, you know, not much additional nutritional value. The other thing would be to just really understand where you get iron in the different forms of iron, because things like heme iron from red meat, for example, or other meat sources, is so much more bioavailable to all of us than non-heat, which is in plant-based iron-rich foods. So vegetarians, vegans or even mostly plant-based athletes that are having limited red meat can find themselves actually, when they add up, you know, do a bit of a stocktake of how much iron they're having. They can actually be really behind their nutritional demands.
Speaker 1:What are they going to do to increase that then, if they're way behind and they're plant-based?
Speaker 2:So, depending on where they're at in terms of their ferritin, for example. So some vegetarians and vegans need to constantly supplement, Others just need to really focus on, like the known high volume. They'll need to really focus on those cofactors, like, especially, vitamin C and bioflavonoids. So that would be in beautiful foods like your citrus, your kiwi, you know your tropical fruits, and just being very mindful of having them, you know, on a daily basis. Berries are another easy one for all of us to include, you know, in our nutrition. And the combination if people are sort of pescatarian or choose to go that way, that combination of a plant-based iron rich foods and non-heal, along with some meats, say, if they won't eat red meat but they will eat chicken and fish, for example, then that combination is still a great combination and a great way to absorb and access the iron from a more biomevailable perspective.
Speaker 2:So you know everyone has their dietary preferences and I never say you have to do this or you have to do that. It's just it's much harder to keep those iron stores up if you're training high volume and you're not having pomegranate at all Like it's challenging. So every bite, every bite counts. So you basically have to have iron rich foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right Now. That was one question. I'm going to hit you with a few more as we finish off here in the next few minutes. The most inspiring person for you over your running time and even now.
Speaker 2:Ah, that's such a huge, huge question Wow.
Speaker 1:Someone you looked up to or sort of idolized a little bit. Come back to that.
Speaker 2:I've had multiple. You know, as a little girl I used to watch Zola Bud and you'll love Zola Bud. She was the 1500 meter South African who run Barefoot.
Speaker 1:Barefoot, our language yeah.
Speaker 2:So I used to mimic Zola Bud and run around the block Barefoot until I did that on a 36 degree day on the adult and came back with blood blisters that were like massive, so I only did it once, but I liked. Her natural running style, like she was. Just she had heaps of mongrel, that girl.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally yeah. I did meet her a few years after that. Yeah, but that would have made you super strong. I can pass it on to listeners you do that barefoot for a period of time. You're becoming stronger, definitely. Don't worry about what you hear out there. The best event you competed in.
Speaker 2:The best event that I competed in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you had a few really good runs, but which one stands out?
Speaker 2:You know, I had one run out of the 17. I think that I finished that. That felt like I was running on silk, where everything clicked into place and felt effortless. And that was when I raced in Japan, when I was really healthy, and that it's not a high profile, you know, race, so to speak, in comparison to the majors. It's not London, it's no New York, but Nagano goes through beautiful country, japanese countryside, where you see orchards that are in blossom and you, you know small little narrow streets, and it was just probably my favorite because it reminded me of home, like I'm a country girl, I like open space, and you know, just, it was beautiful. It was beautiful and effortless and it was just one race my entire career, where everything came together mentally and physically. Yeah, one One out of them.
Speaker 1:Well, those moments are unforgettable. That is the spirit of running you've just described. Yeah, let's go back to number one then, when we said you went back to that first question about inspiring athletes or inspiring- I had so many wonderful females who really took me under their wing and helped me during my career.
Speaker 2:You know some of the Australian all time greats, like Cara McCann and.
Speaker 2:Jackie Fairweather, for example, were really, really good to me. Christian Stanton, you know they were all in that in that I guess that patch that were ahead of me another five or 10 years down the track from where I was. But I also saw a lot of inspiration from women internationally and one of them would have to be Deena Kester. She was based at Mammoth Lakes in the US at the time when I met her and I met her in Chicago when, when I did my first Chicago marathon, and the standout, I guess, moment with my connection with with Deena was probably when she turned around to me at the start line. She could have turned around to anyone, but she turned around to me and shook my hand and I was in the B B start. I wasn't even the A start.
Speaker 2:She came to me and shook my hand and said I hope you have a brilliant race today. You know, just enjoy Chicago. She didn't know anything about me personally, but she knew I was an Australian out of my depths, stepping into an elite field. She'd done her research on everyone that was in the field. But the lesson I learned from Deena was that don't see everyone around you as competitors. See them as companions in the race that help you to be the best that you can be. She went on to win that race and she went on to set an American record and then race in the Olympics.
Speaker 2:So I kind of took that lesson on, you know, flowing on and hit it in other races, and I felt it really kept me calm. You know, it wasn't a threatening environment anymore. It was like actually, we're all here together because we love out running and let's support each other. So on any given moment, any given day, we can all just get the best out of ourselves. Despite the weather, you know, despite the wind, let's just actually enjoy this journey and this race together, because it's over so quickly. That's a great message, though isn't it?
Speaker 1:you're seeing people as companions and it's sort of, if you think about the Australian girls at that moment, we're just seeing that on the track with the middle distance girls, I mean. Clearly they're all such tigers on the white line against each other and everyone, but they still are moving as a group.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're moving really fast, for like with their times as a group, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what happens, does it? You can run along with your companions and someone can do that to the start line, but it's all going to get back to you and those things or as attributes you mentioned earlier about being desperate or really determined when you need to be- yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:You're still going to have that your context within yourself and what you want to get out of it. But I find also that team mentality no matter how you sort of structure it, whether it's a running buddy that you're running with or competitors in a race if you have that, we're all in that together mentality versus me versus everybody else.
Speaker 2:You do stay far more relaxed, I find, and you can stay focused on your goals for that race. You know you can control that monkey mind a lot more. You can also in a lot of race environments, I find, even in a country when you're racing for a team, you can lift, you can find something else, you know, in the back blocks to do that. Well, I can't, I can't, I can't give up now, you know I can't let the team down. So you know, even though it's an individual sport, it doesn't have to be that way.
Speaker 1:You don't have to see it that way is this what you're conveying to the group of women you're coaching?
Speaker 2:I'm coaching, like I love learning from them every time. You know, we do something, we raise, we go on camps, whatever it is, but also they then also help each other and support each other, regardless of their level, regardless of who wins or yeah, doesn't really matter if they're giving their best. You know it's that we instead of me.
Speaker 1:Sure, they have spoken to me about your determined mongrel attitude deep within yourself and you have to get that out because it was kept in for a long time. You went off and ran a 60 K ultra and I want to know what's next. I really let's not just go into 10 K or half, it's going to 60 the context around that was actually not to race the 60.
Speaker 2:Find my joy and my life, and doing it just purely from a place of let's just try and finish, let's just try and finish and see what's again, what's what's just possible. So for me, whatever's next doesn't really matter to me. I haven't even, you know, thought, right, I've got to do another event. It'll come to me, I know something will light my fire and I know, yeah, hell, yes, I'll do that. But right now I'm really happy with just, you know, being content with keeping fit, keeping active. You know, healthy, healthy, great.
Speaker 1:And helping. That's what you're doing. Of course, yeah, that's good you're clearly getting off on that and you're so you can tell. You're so fascinated with what you do and you've got this incredible passion and I'm sure that fire will be lit not too far down the track to do some other event, but you're probably setting that up for a lot of other people as well. It's amazing, fantastic messages.
Speaker 2:So for anyone listening, I really appreciate it Love to love to help more people, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, there'll be plenty and, as you said, there's a lot of things that just get washed over, and thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2:Lovely to catch up with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, super special. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:All right, thank you.
Speaker 1:The show is called the Myth, operates as the athlete sanctuary. More details and links in the show notes where you can get details for Kate and the practice. You can also follow and support this show. And once again, thanks for listening to the Champion Within. I'm Jason Agosta and speak to you soon.
