the morning shakeout podcast

"I grew up with faith and I do think that my life has a purpose—and maybe it's not what I thought it was going to be, but I think that it does help me at some junctures with this disease. This isn't how I would have chosen my life to turn out at all but maybe this is my way of fulfilling my life's purpose and trying to raise awareness for these rare diseases that really do actually need it. I woul...

"I'm not trying to build some empire where I need to be liked by as many people as possible. I just want to be myself and be myself publicly—until I don't anymore, then I'll just shut down all my social media accounts."Stoked to welcome Lauren Fleshman to the podcast this week! Fleshman, who turns 37 on Wednesday, is a retired professional athlete who still maintains sponsorships with Oiselle and...

"To me that's faith. To me that's faith in running. So I think runners understand faith because a lot of times we don't really see something and it might even take years, but then it's like 'Whoa! Where did that come from?' But it was actually because you stuck with it—something in you believed."Really excited to have Mario Mendoza join me on the podcast this week! Mendoza, a 32-year-old from Bend...

"My goal isn't to garner more media attention or to shock the world or to even top Boston. My goal is to keep the love of the sport, to stay healthy, and to continue chipping away at times because ultimately I think [that] kind of like Des Linden has shown the world, if you are able to stay healthy and train consistently for a long period of time, that's where you get really good."Stoked to have S...

"When you have things that are out of your control, that are weighing on you and really causing you angst on a daily basis, your running is not going to be what you want it to be. It can be a great escape, it can be a place you go to find calmness and peace in your heart and your mind, but you're not going to perform at all what you're capable of performing."Thrilled to welcome Kara Goucher to the...

"And then at that same point, I was running and I found out that running was just the best vehicle and the best way and medium to know a place—and eventually, also [to] get to know yourself."Really enjoyed sitting down with Mauricio Díaz this week for a conversation that had nothing to do with training, racing, or current issues that exist within the sport. Instead, we talked about running as it r...

"I think that if you maintain good relationships with people, if you act in a way that is helpful to others, that is kind, that is giving, and you just hold yourself to a high standard, then opportunities will appear before you—and [when they do], just say yes."Super excited to welcome YiOu Wang to the podcast this week! YiOu is the reigning U.S. 50K trail champion, two-time winner of the Lake Son...

"My first run ever, I remember just having the feeling of so much joy. I said, "Wow, how come I've never experienced this before in the pool? This is so cool." And it was more about just the fact that I had this feeling of being competitive that never really clicked in swimming." And the rest, as they say, is history. It's a huge honor to have Magdalena Boulet as my guest on the podcast this week....

"I have faith in myself that on my best day if someone is not having their best day, I might be able to get 'em. And that's enough to allow me to show up to a start line with some confidence and rest assured that I'm going to give my best and put my best effort out there. And if that puts me in last place, so be it, but I definitely show up feeling and knowing that on my best day I can compete wit...

"I really believe that running is such a great way to challenge us and to add that difficulty to our life in a very controlled way so that we can deal with challenge and adversity. And I love that. I love getting to the crux of a workout. I go out hard in races and workouts because I want to suffer early on so I can find ways to get through it. And to me it’s always been a game—just this playful p...

"And I thought, "My god, I'll never get to that level." And if someone at that level can't make a go of it in the sport, and you want to make a go of it in the sport, you're going to have to do a lot more than win races, or just race. You're going to have to figure out other revenue streams to make a go of it, especially if you want to commit your life to this, which I really did."It was a treat t...

"I’ve never been a person to think that just because someone has a better PR than me that they’re going to beat me. I think that it’s important to have belief in yourself and your capabilities. You have to believe that you’re going to do something great before it actually happens."Thrilled to have Kellyn Taylor join me on the podcast this week. The 31-year-old mom, who trains in Flagstaff, Ariz.,...

"I see it more as the type of runner, athlete, or individual who is looking for that experience and something that might change you a little bit. And that doesn't necessarily mean it can't be super competitive as well. For me, what racing the Sun Chasers in Death Valley taught me is that those experiences can be happening at the same time—it could be the rawest form of competition but at the same...

"What is a runner? To define it today, that's a question we have to ask. There are a lot of people out there who say, 'I'm not a runner' but they probably run 3 or 4 days a week, they might run 25 miles a week, but they also might do other things. The day of that loneliness of the long-distance runner, the guy in short shorts out there pounding the miles and training for a marathon—while we saw th...

"[Putting pressure on myself] is one thing that I found that I did a lot of and I think most runners tend to feel this huge expectation of having to perform. Whereas now, having a daughter, I can say to myself: "You know what? At the end of the day, if I don't run well today, she's not going to care whatsoever. If I run a world record, she doesn't really care; to her, me crossing the finish line i...

"I don't wanna just be someone who qualified for the Olympic Trials once and made a semifinal or whatever. I want to be someone who's name is in contention for teams. And that's my goal these last three years and I'm going to be doing everything I can to get there. But I want to be known as someone who basically made running cool again."Stoked to welcome sub-4:00 miler Brandon Hudgins to the podca...

“When I’m dealing with pressure from racing and stuff, I just tell myself, 'This is an opportunity of a lifetime.' When I was growing up, or I started running, I never thought that I would be the person that I am today. I never thought that I would be living in America, that I would be an independent woman doing my own thing. I have an opportunity that not a lot of people have—like not even my rol...

“For a lot of these races, at least for me, the key limiting factor to success is oftentimes how excited I am to bury myself. And I’ve just found that when I emphasize the rest, and lean on my experience, that I can get as fit as I’m gonna get in six, eight weeks of training and there’s really no need for me to continue to bang my head against the wall for 12 or 16 weeks, even for the most importa...

"I think a degree of paranoia is a good thing—again, whether it's running or business, it keeps you on your toes. Julie and I literally couldn't work out why this magazine that we were imagining didn't exist. Because we didn't think that we could possibly have come up with something that no one else had thought of, so we just assumed that the reason it didn't exist is that people had sort of tried...

Super excited to welcome New York City-based runner, writer, and coach Knox Robinson, along with Tracksmith co-founder and CEO, Matt Taylor, to the podcast. This episode was recorded a few days before the 2018 Boston Marathon at Tracksmith’s Trackhouse. We covered a wide range of topics in these two separate conversations, which I’m releasing as one episode, centered around the idea of running cul...

"I'm a normal person. I think I'm an example that, even though I'm not an elite athlete at all, that you can still love this sport, and be just as dedicated, and just as much of a running nerd as an elite athlete. It might sound silly to some, and it might sound offensive to some that are elites, but when I think of someone like Molly Huddle or Shalane Flanagan, I don't think that they are any mor...

"Nothing changes. We do learn from our mistakes but as a person, hopefully, my teammates from high school or college would still say the same thing [about me]. And that’s my goal. The demands on my time change, and we evolve, and have learning experiences, but the person I am hopefully hasn’t changed."It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome Meb Keflezighi to the podcast. The recently retired 42-ye...

"When I was 31, that was when I was in rehab. I had a career in the dark belly of alcoholism and at 31 I got sober in a treatment center in Oregon for 100 days, so I think if I had to characterize myself at 31, I was very confused. I was really unsure about who I was and what I wanted to do with myself. I was a pretty broken individual at that point of my life. And up to that point I thought I had...

“Running is all relative, you know? Everyone has their own goals and is trying to accomplish their own thing, whether it’s to break 4 in the mile, or to qualify for Boston, or just to simply finish their first marathon. Those runners gave me more support than I’ve ever gotten in my life. Having 30 people show up to a random hill workout on a Wednesday night and ask me about my training and what I’...

“It’s addicting to have a great performance. You always want another one. That’s why I considered stopping after New York because it was like, ‘How can I top this?’ And then only thing that can top this or be on the same level, is winning in Boston because of what the people and the city mean to me. There’s just as much fire but I definitely feel at peace, which is actually a good thing. I feel ve...