Episode 28: Running is a Metaphor for Life

Dr. Michelle Quirk is a Board certified pediatrician, a runner, and an RRCA certified running coach. She is the founder of Mindful Marathon, where she coaches busy professionals to hit their running goals. 

She shares her journey with running and her approach to running, as well as the importance of starting wherever you are and honoring your own needs.

Follow Dr. Quirk here -

• Website: mindful-marathon.com
• Podcast: Mindful Marathon
• YouTube: @mindfulmarathon
• Instagram: @mindful.marathon
• Email: michelle@mindful-marathon.com

Transcript

0:08

Welcome to the PurposefulMD Podcast. As a physician, you've sacrificed so much of your life for other people. Your patients, your family, your friends, and your colleagues. What would it feel like to spend time doing what you enjoy, and to live without guilt? I'm your host, Dr. Laura Suttin, a family physician, certified coach and business owner. If you're a medical professional on a journey towards your most purposeful life, a life with more time and energy, and ultimately more joy, then this is the podcast for you. Welcome to the PurposefulMD Podcast. So excited to have our guest today, Dr. Michelle Quirk. Um, Dr. Quirk and I met, gosh, probably two or three years ago at the ACE Conference in San Antonio, and I've gotten connected in other, um, other areas, other, um, conferences, and other groups, and just enjoy each other's company. Enjoy talking about running and I worked with her for a little while before I was sidelined with some injuries. So, um, so happy to have you and to talk to you. So tell us, yeah, tell us a little bit about you. Well, thank you for having me, um, that's right, I was trying to think back to when we met and that's already been a couple of years. Yeah. Yeah, so I'm a pediatrician, um, in Philadelphia and then I am a run coach and I started coaching about five years ago and founded Mindful Marathon, which is my run coaching business. And, yeah I could talk about running all day long, but, um, but tell me what, what would be most helpful for your audience? Yeah. I mean, let's talk about, let's talk about, I want to talk about running for sure. I want to talk about how you got into it. I know a little bit about your story, but love our listeners to hear it. And then also, um, I know in our world, we talk and we work with a lot of physicians who are doing other things outside of medicine and I think you know, medicine is fulfilling in a lot of ways. And then our other hats are very fulfilling too. So I'd love to hear, um, kind of how you balance that and how it's evolved for you over time. So yeah, all of those things, wherever you would like to start. Yeah. Well, maybe I'll start with running in general. So I was not always a runner and I, I kind of started and stopped a lot of times, but I got more consistent with it after my residency. So I think some time opened up, first of all, after that, but, um, I went through a fairly tough time, like new job, newly married, moved to a new place. My dad was diagnosed with lung cancer and had like quite a, a quick slope downward and ended up passing away like a couple of months after diagnosis. And that all happened like right, you know, right after residency was over and during that time, um, and you know, in your first clinical job, and I think I was definitely burned out, although I didn't have that word back then, but I really thought something was wrong with me, and like, I should be doing all of these things, um, and adapting well to this change now that I'm done with training. And yet I was very, very unhappy and very tired all the time. Um, and I just did not know what way was up. And so I had sort of, um, a moment like talking to a patient and their family in the ER one night, like I was telling them, you know, encouraging exercise, and healthy habits, and good nutrition, and all of those things, and I just had this moment, like in the back of my mind, like, you know, you're telling them this, but you're not doing any of these things for yourself. And I like went home, got some sleep, and then the next day I dug some sneakers out of my closet, decided I was like going to go around the block and give running another go. Um, but try it differently. So I, I went slowly. I said five minutes is okay, if that's all I can do. I was just a little bit more, um, I had a lot more grace with myself when I started over that time, and I think that was really why I stuck with it, cause I allowed myself the time, um, and realized that it didn't have to be all or nothing, I didn't have to do, you know, three miles or 30 minutes and, and be huffing and puffing and feeling terrible, that I could go about it a different way. So I kept going out there because I liked how I felt and that was sort of, that was the gateway. Like I, you know, signed up for a 5K, got my husband to do it, slowly worked my way up to higher mileage, um, and yeah, eventually I ran a marathon and I thought I was like the least likely person to ever run a marathon, and so if I can do it, anyone can do it Anyway, a lot lot happened between then, but that was the beginning. Yeah. Thank you for sharing. I love that. And I'm so sorry for the loss of your dad. Awe, thanks. Yeah. But you know what? He's with me on the run a lot. Oh, I love that. I love that. It certainly is. Yeah. I, and I love, I love what you said and you've brought this into so many of your speaking presentations that you've done and your podcast, and we'll talk about that too. And just talking with you about, you know, your, what I see you post on, on social media a lot is run the mile you're in. And so I want to hear a little bit more about that. And I just love how you framed that. Okay, I want to run. And so it's not about trying to run as fast as I can, or as much as I can, but enjoying the process, enjoying being out there and honoring where you are, honoring your body, honoring your needs. And so I just, I love that approach and I think, you know, when I was working with you, that was so helpful for me because I was feeling so like, oh, I'm not as fast as I want to be or I'm not as fast as I was a few years ago. And, you know, I can't, well, I could have changed that maybe, but I, it would have taken a lot more. A lot more time and energy than I had to devote to it. And it's really just about enjoying the process because if we, we don't love it, you know, like we were talking the other day, we're not, none of us are professional runners. So if we're not enjoying it, then why do it? So talk a little bit more about that, that run the mile that you're in. Yeah. Yeah. I think, um, what I, what kept me going back out there was the, the feeling, I think that my mind was going blank. Like I had all of these other things going on and work was hard, um, things with my dad, that was really hard. And there was no blank space in the day, except when I was sleeping, I guess, but, but no other blank space, and so that was my time. All I was focusing on was just walking and running and the, the foot, the footsteps, and how, you know, how I was feeling in that moment. And I think that was like the beginning of my journey into mindfulness and, and what that ended up meaning. But that was what kept me going out there. And I was able to, yeah, I set, you know, small goals for myself, like try to go out for a little bit longer, try to go a little bit further, try to go a little bit faster. But, previously, like, I would just go out and try to run as fast as I could for 30 minutes and then come back with everything hurting, and red in the face, and, and then I would quit for months at a time, because it didn't feel good. So the combination of things, how I felt while I was out there, and then also that I wasn't sore, you know, I wasn't working so, so hard that I couldn't go out the next day. So I think that was, that was an important thing that got me started and kept me going. Um, and you're right, so run the mile you're in. I love that mantra, whether you are a beginner or you are an experienced marathoner, but, sometimes, at the beginning of, of any, anything new that you try, um, yeah, the mind is, is a funny thing, and for us who maybe tend toward, like, the Type A Perfectionist type, um, we, we think we have to have all of the answers, and we have to get it right. Um, and that there is only one way to do things, but if you focus on where you are, um, and that mile that's immediately in front of you, things just seem a lot less daunting. So a marathon, you know, even right now, if I think, you know, I'm not trained up to do a marathon right now, that seems really far away and very overwhelming. But if you focus on, hey, today I'm running three miles, you know, and then tomorrow I'm I'm swimming or whatever it is. But if we keep the focus on the moment that we're in and set small, um, goals along the way, we call it like A Goal, B Goal, C Goal. And so you don't have to run the marathon tomorrow. Like that might be six months, a year, five years down the road, but, but eventually we'll get there. So, it's a nice way to keep the focus on the present, um, and yeah, like I said, dip your toe into mindfulness, um, and start there. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I've heard you speak on this as well, but how running the, the, that same approach to running also applies to life. Right, um, I mean I, if we think back when we were maybe in high school or undergrad and we knew we wanted to be physicians, it felt like this far off goal, but it's step by step. First, you have to get into college, and then you have to get your prereqs, and then you have to take the MCAT, and all these different steps, we don't just go from like 18 years old to attending physician. We have to go all, do all these steps in between. And if we, If we focus on the end goal, then it can be really daunting. But if we just, okay, what's the next step for me to get there, then it's, it's manageable. It's doable. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, one thing we were talking about before when, uh, you had wanted to know about the, the journey and how I kind of balance things. Um, I, I like to think that I still don't, I definitely don't have it figured out and I'm not sure it's balanced, but it's better than it was. And, and I think when I started the run coach business, um, part of me thought that I had to, it had to be one or the other. Like I was either going to continue in clinical medicine as a pediatrician or I was going to give that all up and, only become a coach. And I think I struggled with that for a while, because I didn't know if I wanted to do that, and, and totally give up practicing medicine. And certainly when I was burned out, I thought that I did, but once I found some balance, uh, I realized like I can actually do both things, um, and that, that can be me, like that can be fine. So if anybody's out there like thinking it has to be one or the other, you can, you can do multiple things and it's fine. Yeah. You make the rules. Yeah. That's so cool. And you know, I feel like the time that we've known each other that you've moved a little bit more into, into what you would consider balance and that's doable for you. Um, and I think you know, that's, that's important because you want to be fulfilled and fully present in whatever you're doing, whether that's with your family or whether that's running or coaching or seeing patients or all the other awesome things that you do. So, yeah. Yeah. But yeah, you don't have to pick one or the other, I think. Right. Right. Yeah, and I feel like, I mean, and again, I know we're in this world of physicians that are also in addition to their practice is doing amazing, cool things. But I hear that a lot, and you probably hear that a lot too, from the physicians that you work with about, well, I, I can't do anything else because I, you know, I can't take time from my clinical practice or this kind of feeling stuck. Um, and your, I mean, your mission is working with busy professionals, right? And so you're, you're helping them to take that journey and to maybe start a new habit or kind of build up those, the, that running habit or, or increase their mileage or train for a race or whatever that looks like. So how do you, how do you start with somebody who is maybe their first timer, they wanted to run for a 5K or they're a little bit more experienced and they want to do a longer distance race? Where do you start? Yeah, I think, um, starting, starting where you are, so whatever that is, if you are coming from the couch, if you are a regular walker, if maybe, I've worked with people who were, um, runners or even competitive runners, like in high school and college, and then, you know, um, marriage, children, careers, like just kind of put it aside for, I don't know, 10 years, 15 years and then want to find their way back. So I think working with where you are, um, and for a lot of those people who were runners in the past, a lot of that is, is definitely mindset because sometimes we're not as fast as we were when we were younger. So that's a whole, a whole other, uh, podcast, perhaps. But, um, but yeah, starting wherever you are. And if it is the couch, like, that's okay, too. I think expectations for, you know, just how much time you want to devote to this, like, in an ideal world, how many minutes a day do you want to walk or run? How many days a week do you want to do that? And, what if you have a race goal, like if it is a 5K, give yourself enough time to train for that. So that can be a couple of months. That could be six months, depending on where you're starting from. But just knowing that you don't have to rush the process. But of course, if you have like Thanksgiving's coming up, we have lots of turkey trots. So, you know, maybe you want to run a turkey trot next year. Um, but start, start thinking about that now, maybe for next year, um, and work toward that, but we can pretty much start with any parameters. I, I like to say like, you give me the variables and we'll work with what we can pretty much. I can write a training plan with almost anything. Now, if you want to run a marathon and only want to run one day a week, then probably not. But aside from that, we can work with almost anything. Yeah. I love that, that, and I think that's so, um, so special what you said about you ask the person, how much time do you have to devote rather than like, okay, well, you want to run a 5K, here's how much you need to do, but it's, what are your goals? And then how much time do you have? And kind of working within that, again, like you said, if somebody is only running once a week, they probably aren't going to run a marathon on that training, but, but really working within the, their busy lives and their schedule and whatever's going on with them at that, at that stage in life. Yeah, and we try to work in other sports too, like I have lots of people who like their Pelaton Bike or they're triathletes and they like swimming as well. And so we try to balance in the cross training and you don't have to just all of a sudden become only a runner. So yeah, we tracks. Yeah. Yeah. So you mentioned the mindset and I mean, we talk about that a lot on this podcast. So I, I would like to get into that a little bit. So say a little bit about how you kind of how you bring that into your coaching. Yeah, I think, um, so as you know, I have this questionnaire that I, that I give to, um, all of my runners. And a lot of these questions are in there. So part of it is, um, part of it is for the training and like all of the variables. And then part of it is, um, you know, where, where do you see yourself now? Where, where do you want to get to? And sometimes people don't know, and that's okay too, or they've never thought about these questions before. So, a lot of the coaching that I do, um, our dear friend Erin Wiseman, shout out to her. She always says that my tagline should be, it's not about the running. And I always laugh and tell her that I'm not sure anyone will sign up if that is the tagline. But she's right though, because the coaching calls are really never about the running. Um, it's about balancing all of the other things and going through rough patches. And, how do we navigate that? How do we navigate the negative self talk that comes up if maybe we're not, not able to do a run one day, something comes up and we have to skip it? What happens if we have a speed workout, but we're not able to hit the paces? And does that kind of derail us for the rest of the day? And we feel bad about running, which is really not, not what we want to do. So a lot of the mindset comes in on the, on the coaching calls, um, and really trying to focus on the wins and what we can learn from maybe the other things that, that previously might have gotten us down. Yeah. I love that you talk about celebrating the wins. That is something that we just, we as, as physicians, as busy people, we just don't do that enough. And, and the more that we can prime our brains to look for those wins, then we can start to see that, oh, maybe these other things weren't, weren't really, they don't really matter that much, but hey, this is look at how far I've come. Look what I've been able to do. Maybe I hit a new distance that I've never hit before. Maybe I hit, maybe I've run three times this week and I've never done that before. Just whatever those, whatever those wins are, um, celebrating those and taking the, you know, the not so good, the not so good stuff that comes up throughout any training cycle or, or running journey is, yeah, that's, that's going to happen. I mean, um, I know we've talked about, um, professional runners that we both admire and they, they have all had their setbacks. Um, I mean, I, I think we've probably, we've talked about the books, right? We've read like Kara Goucher and Des Linden and, um, Dina Caster. I mean, I've read, I've read their books and they all had setbacks. It just, it just happens. It's just a part of life. And so we can't dwell on them. We use them as data. Okay, is there something we need to adjust? Um, at least that's how, that's how I think of it now when I'm encountered setbacks in any aspect of life is, um, what can I learn from this and how can I move this forward and not dwell on it? Yeah, yeah, I love all of the, uh, the professional, uh, runner books because, you know, you read it and you just think like, well, their, their mindset is, even though there's no way I would ever be as fast as they are. And run the amount of mileage that they run, but their, their mindset hurdles are the same as mine and the same as many of us, which is very funny, but it just shows us how much we are very similar. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they just have bigger problems because they're on a bigger stage, right. Um, they're, the pressure is more, they're getting paid for this. They're getting paid to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they have, and they have access to tools and resources that, that we just don't have, because we're not doing it professionally, but, um, yeah. I really loved, uh, Des Linden's book and how it was written almost by the mile of the Boston Marathon. Like I really, I loved that approach and she was kind of going fo, forward in, in the moment of the race and then looking back on things in opposite chapters. So anyway, it's a great book. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely recommend. Neither of us have any affiliation with Desmond. We just really admire her. But yes, I mean, I remember thinking about you when I was reading that book because it, she talks about her, her journey at the beginning and, and like each mile has a kind of a different, a different theme. Um, and especially since I've never run a full marathon. Um, but what I know from people like you that have, and, um, my sister-in-law has run Boston and just the, the mental fatigue and the mental, uh, challenges I imagine. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's just a far way to go. I mean, it's a far way to drive. Um, let alone run. So. Exactly, exactly, I don't want to drive 26 miles. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's, but it's absolutely worth it. I think, you know, in the right season of life, um, it's not, not always right at this moment, but, but yeah, it's, it's there if anybody wants to. Yeah. It's an option. It's an option. Are you training for anything right now? Um, actually, no, no, I'm in my own little season of rest here. Um, we do have a turkey trot on the calendar for Thanksgiving, uh, 5K with, uh, my family. Um, but that will be for fun, not, not racing. Yeah, but I just finished, a couple of weeks ago, I ran a challenge with, um, my niece in Disney World, so we did like a 10K and then a half marathon. So, I took some time off after that to rest and I'm running, you know, I'm running a few times a week, easy miles, but nothing on the calendar yet, but I'm sure something will materialize for spring. Yeah. Congrats on that challenge. Oh, thanks. That's awesome. So it was the 10K and then the half marathon the next day. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, mhmm, they have these fun like themes and in November they do this called the Wine and Dine Challenge. But, uh, I have no affiliation with Run Disney either, but they're a lot, they're really fun. Yeah. We've talked about them before too. Um, you know, you love to, to run in the Disney parks and so, yeah. Yeah. But it was really fun getting to run it with my niece and that was her first 10K and her first half marathon, so she, you know, she trained for it and, and undertook quite a challenge for her first one. So, but she's definitely hooked. And how old is she? She's 14. Oh, awesome. Yeah. Soon to be 15, but yeah, that's so cool. Yeah. Um, so where are you, what's next for you and your coaching and your practice and your life? Ah, that's a great question. I think I would like to, I would like to do more coaching, um, over time and a little bit less doctoring. So I'm a part time pediatrician right now. I would just like to kind of slowly maybe decrease the, the time at the office and increase coaching time. So we'll, we'll see where it goes. I haven't ah set any sort of time limit on that, but this year ahead will be 2025, but I'm planning to have, um, I have a group program for beginners called Ready, Set, Run. So we'll do that like the first part of the year. Um, and then I have a Movement Retreat in September. So next September, 2025, um, that's already on the calendar. So there's definitely things that are already set in motion, but we'll see, you know, we'll see where it goes as the year gets going. Yeah. And you started your own podcast not too long ago. I know that was a big milestone for you. So congrats. Uh, thank you. Yes, yes. I had the, uh, the YouTube channel for quite a while and various, um, friends and fans and my husband really, they were really pushing for the, for the podcast, uh, for a long time. So we're about, I don't know, I think 12 episodes in now. Um, so yes, have a listen, the Mindful Marathon Podcast, but if you prefer YouTube, all the interviews are over there too. Yeah. We'll link to both of those. So, awesome. Well where can people find you if they want to reach out to you and learn more about you or work with you? Yeah, probably, uh, the best place is on the website. It's mindful-maraton.com and there's a hyphen between mindful and marathon. And on social media I mostly hang out on Instagram, um, and it's at Mindful.Marathon, but you can find all the links on the website too. Yeah. Awesome. Anything else you'd like to share, Michelle? Um, I think we'll just leave, leave it on a positive note that it's okay wherever you are starting from. And currently, if you're listening from the couch, that is a okay too, but just lace up the sneakers and get started like that is how I started 12 years ago. And here we are. I love it. I love it. Yes. Thank you so much for being on. So great to talk to you. Yeah, thank you so much for having me and thank you for your podcast. I know it's helping a lot of ah, busy women physicians out there. While I am a physician, the information presented in this podcast is for educational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult with your own healthcare provider before making any significant changes to your lifestyle or routine. By listening to this podcast, you are not creating a physician patient relationship. Thank you for listening to The Purposeful MD Podcast. If you like what you hear, please rate and review the show. Please also visit my website, www.thepurposefulmd.com for free downloads or to discuss working with me as your coach.