Martha We Have A Problem....

#394 - Our lives are never a nice straight line. It will take lots of turns, lots of uphills and downhills. There will be surprising U-turns and sharp corners. I found myself in one of these when I lost my job this past June. Things haven't been going so well. So, my running hasn't been the best. I talk about it this week and how not everything in our lives is going to be rainbows and lollipops all the time. But, we can get through it. I also talk about what keeps me smiling, so it's not a completely negative show. And I bring up a topic that's been on my mind lately as well. 

Transcript

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We runners love the outdoors. Many of us also love history. If you love both, then check out Hidden West, a YouTube channel all about the people, places, and events that make the American West an incredible place. Welcome to Martha Runs the World, a podcast with a new take on running, fitness, and all things health oriented. I'm Martha Hughes, your host, and each week I present a new topic that is of interest to all runners. Hi and welcome to episode 394 of Martha Runs the World. I hope you are having a great week. Mine is better than it was when I started, so that's good. I've talked briefly before about me getting laid off my job last month. Well, it's August, so month and a half ago. I'm still looking for another job. I have not found one. Unemployment has not started yet, but I was able to finally apply to unemployment, which was one of the stressors. I was waiting for a form from my previous employer, who was very slow getting it to me, so I finally got that. But I'm in this limbo position and I'm stalled and waiting and waiting, and I'm not a patient person. I hate waiting. So it's caused a lot of stress and tension in my life. Let me tell you one thing. When I get a lot of stress and tension, I get insomnia. So it's like every other day or every other night, I don't sleep well. So it's like I'm very happy if every other night I get a good night's sleep. So that's something, I guess. And I'm not gonna whine the whole time. I'm just going to just tell you a little bit about what's going on in my life. Just to let you know, um, not every day is gonna be wonderful. And this podcast isn't one of those running podcasts where, hey, life is beautiful all the time. Yay, we we love things, everything. You know, no, sometimes things are not gonna be great. Most of the time they are. Most of the time things are wonderful, but sometimes they're just not, and we can't pretend that they are. Or I won't pretend that they are. I'm a little bit more real than that. I will always be optimistic. I know that it's gonna be better. I know I'm gonna find a terrific position, and and things are gonna work out. But for right now, it's just a little tough. That's all. And I have other like I said, I have other things I want to talk about. It the episode is a little shorter than usual, so I apologize for that. Um, but we'll get to the normal length next week. Not every moment in our lives is gonna be great. Sometimes we're gonna have days, weeks, and sometimes months where things don't go well. It's all part of the roller coaster of life. We can be optimistic about things, we can hope for the best, but we can't deny that sometimes things are gonna suck. And that's just how it is. That's life. And during those rough times, our emotional well-being may be feeling down, and running may not be the best it has been in our lives. Sticking to a regular running schedule is hard and sometimes doesn't happen. Right now, I have not been running as much as I want to. I haven't stopped running, but and I'm still running, but I don't get to go out as often as I would like. I'm trying to this week I I promise myself that I'm gonna go out more. And I'm gonna get myself out of the doldrums and into more a more leap forward, as they say. Um you know, I have the time, I don't have the money, so but I have the time. And I know what you're saying, running isn't about motivation, it's about going out and doing it even if you don't feel like it. And that's true. But when you feel down, and it it's not depression for me because it's a temporary thing, I don't think it's gonna last when things get better, but feeling down isn't a real easy thing to get over. Especially it's been a month and a half, so it's like, well, okay. Yeah, it's it's been kind of hard. And then I feel worse that I haven't gone out to run. But I do get walks, and if I'm not running, I do go out and walk. I I'm not sedentary all the time. Um, so that's that. And I am starting, starting, starting this weekend to work on my um starting this weekend to work on my diet because uh I have not been eating as good as I should, and that is helping a lot. I've already lost a couple pounds, so that's gonna help out a lot. So just getting back into the swing of things, getting over my feeling bad and getting through that negativity, I think, is gonna really help me. I really think it's gonna help. Um oh, I don't want to sound like a like a hippie or anything, but getting through that and is gonna create more positivity as I go forward and really help myself. Now, I am of retirement age, but the problem is that I don't have the money to retire right now. If I could retire, I would instantly, instantly, but my goal and my dream is to move out of the Bay Area and out of California, and I can't afford that yet, because I when I move out of state, I need to buy a c a vehicle, an SUV or a truck, and I don't have the money to do that. I don't have the money to move and to buy a vehicle, and I want to do I need to do both to move. I could retire now and stay in this apartment forever and never move, but my soul would die. It really would. If I have to stay here the rest of my life, I do I just it's not a very nice neighborhood. It's just in a very a very expensive city, it's um not getting better as far as as far as um being crowded, and it's just not where I want to live. So I just have to work a little bit more, a little few more months, and by next year, maybe if I get a job rather quickly, maybe six, nine, twelve months, I'll be able to move. But I do have faith that I will find a good job and be able to save money and also continue to run and run regularly. So I'm not gonna whine anymore. But that's just what's going on with me. I just wanted to share that with you. Um, so if you're going through a tough time, keep moving. Even if it's slow, keep going. Even if you take one step backwards for every two step forwards, at least you're moving forwards. Life happens. Sometimes it's not all positive, but we can do this. We can do this thing called life. All right, just a few things in the running news. Badwater 135 was held last week and it broke records. Max Joliff, I think his name is pronounced, of Costa Mesa, California, got a new record of 20 hours, 53 minutes, and 41 seconds, while the female winner, Carmen Maria Perez of Spain, also got a new women's record of 21 hours five minutes and thirty-two seconds. She was not far behind Max. She was on his tail, really. I mean, she was what, 10 minutes, 15 minutes behind him? That is not much. And apparently she led a lot of the race for many hours. I didn't have the chance to watch it. I was busy. She did really well. And congratulations to everyone who finishes that incredible, incredible race. I'm in awe of everyone. And that includes a past guest and friend of the show, Gerald Tabios. This was his tenth time running Bad Water. Ten. He's run it ten times. So way to go, Gerald. You rock. So when things aren't going great for me, and I know it happens, what I like to do is I like to watch videos and see pictures and stuff of people who are doing great running. It actually lifts me up and makes me feel better. I love looking at the success of runners to inspire me, to pick up my heart, to just make me feel better. And the fact that Bad Water took place last week is a perfect example of that. I also have a couple other things here. Noah Lyles, who's one of my favorite sprinters, he keeps getting faster in the hundred. His last effort up to this recording was 9.76 seconds. He may catch you sane. Who knows? May. And another record, Josh Kerr of Great Britain has set a new record in the mile. And I hope you take a moment to watch this race to look it up on YouTube in the London Diamond League. He truly made history. At three minutes forty-two seconds and sixty-six tenth seconds, he smashed the current record of three minutes forty-three thirteen held by Hisham El Giraz since 1999. This was one of the hardest records to break because it was one of the longest records. He did an incredible job, and if you watch him run, he runs this race in perfect form. It is just the absolute perfect form a runner can run. Yarud Nagusi of the US came in second with a time of 3.45.669, which is something definitely to be proud of achieving. Yared is a great runner and he has nothing but blue skies ahead of him. I love this stuff, and that really, really inspires me. But it's not just the elite runners who inspire me. It's the posts from all my friends and contacts and social media. They make me smile. I'm happy to watch every video and picture they post and every medal they show. They all give me a smile. And I wasn't able to watch, to go and watch the San Francisco Marathon, and because of how TV is these days, you can't watch it on streaming video anymore live. So, and I don't have a TV, so I haven't had a TV in over 12 years. So, and that kind of sucks about races now, is that if you can find a stream, that's great, but if you can't, you can't watch it. But when I went out later, um, this happened what, not a couple weeks ago. Anyway, I was able to see everyone coming home with medals, so that was really cool. That was really inspiring. So, and that's a hard race. And anyone who runs the San Francisco Marathon, that is one tough race. So that was awesome. That keeps on inspiring me, and every time I see all my friends and and contacts um doing amazing things, that makes me feel a lot better. It really does. It gives me a smile. I love it. Now, there's one other thing I want to cover, and it's not it's not necessarily running related, it can be, but um, because they're in running and it's not but it's not the most positive thing, but I do want to cover it. Okay, I myself am a content creator for social media, for YouTube. Between here and Hidden West, I make videos and look to add, and I also am always looking to add more views and subscribers, but I'm not an influencer, I don't go out and film myself, I don't go out and do wild things just for social media. I don't know how you feel about these people who just go out and do things just for social media, just to get clicks, just to get views, just to get subscribers, all that stuff. But they irritate the heck out of me. And they are in running, and we see them in running. They're not really interested in running, they're not interested in doing anything amazing, they're just interested in showing off. And you see them, you don't see them so much in trail racing, but you see them in road running a lot. A lot. They're very annoying, but you also see them in hiking, they're a big part of hiking because it isn't as hard to hike as it is to trail run. That that's just the truth. Almost anyone can go out and hike, but not anyone can trail run. They're pretty sleazy. That's part of the brand, is to be sleazy, unfortunately. And unfortunately, social media companies don't make it any better for people. They don't they put quantity over quality, which is really sad, but they do. And there are more and more of them in the outdoors. They seem to think they can go anywhere and just do incredible things for the gram, unquote unquote, without training for them, without knowing anything about it, without the experience, without the brains. And this makes me incredibly angry if I'm honest about it. But sometimes karma has a way of catching up with them, and unfortunately karma can be very harsh. I watch a couple YouTube channels to talk about the dark side that happens to some of these influencers that you might be interested in. Outdoor Disasters is one, is a YouTube channel, and The Last Hike by Joshua. They both are very good and worthwhile watching if you want to see what goes on and what some of these influencers have done and why um what happens to them afterwards. Like there was this one couple who was doing Angel's Landing in Zion, and they didn't think people in front of them were going fast enough, and so they would like push people out of the way to move in front of them instead of being patient and taking their time. Because if someone's in front of you is slower and and it's a really narrow trail, then you just have to wait for them. You wait until they get done, and then you go, because there's no way for you to get around them. But they would push people out of the way, and they push people out of the way till they fall down. They were so anxious to look so badass and so tough and so, ooh, we can do this so quickly, that they slip, they both slipped and they fell. So they fell off the cliff. I mean, this is what happens to certain people. And this is what happens in real life. And I have to admit, in all honesty, it's horrific and satisfying all at the same time. I feel bad for everyone there around them, let's put it that way. I feel bad for anyone who had to put up with them. Watch a couple of the videos and you'll see what I mean. Outdoor disasters isn't specifically about influence. He has a lot of stories about people that unfortunately things happen to in outdoors, and some of the things are their own fault, and some of them are not. Some things things just happen and they have to deal with them. The Last Hike by Joshua seems to be more about arrogant social media types who think they know everything, even without experience or training, and then what happens to them. That is more what his show is geared towards. But they're both really, really fascinating and interesting shows to watch. You watch a couple other shows, and you'll see what I mean. So that is the show today. I know it's a little short, and um I do apologize for the length of not being long as usual, but it's been that kind of a week. You understand, and so we'll get back to normal next week, as I always do. And um now I'm gonna go for a run because it's a beautiful day and I want to enjoy it. And you guys have a wonderful, wonderful week. And I know mine is just gonna get better. All right, so on that note, cyber shoelaces and go for a run.