The Running for Real Podcast

Hope Virgo embodies true Running for Real spirit. She demonstrates the courage of speaking the truth and being honest with oneself, especially through challenges. Hope has written two books sharing about recovery from eating disorders, mental health campaigner helping young people and employers, and is an advocate for people with eating disorders. In this episode, Hope shares with Tina her story o...

Alya Alghamdi is a track and field athlete from Saudi Arabia. Growing up in a place where girls couldn't participate in sports, she never imagined she would be on the way to try and represent her country in the Olympics as a female runner.    In this episode, Alya shares about fleeing her country and going into hiding in Europe because she didn't want to conform to the cultural traditions of arran...

Dave Hollis says whenever a change is introduced into your life, it shakes your identity. In this episode, Dave and Tina backtrack elements of Dave's life that led him to unearth nuggets of wisdom about navigating change, hard times, narrating your own story, and a methodology of setting goals and getting after them.    What makes Dave special is he traces lessons of life back to his own chapters...

Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses Daniel is someone making waves at the intersection of sport and advocacy. She's a fourth-generation Lower Brule Sioux Tribe runner doing her heart's work in using running to amplify voices and representation of Black, Brown, Asian, Muslim, Two-Spirit, Immigrant, LGBTQ, and people with disabilities. Jordan believes transformational change comes from the inters...

For Damian Hall, life is about striving for progress, not perfection. As a record-breaking ultra-marathoner, Damian is also a father, coach, journalist, and author. He's set seven FKTs   (fastest  known times), most recently setting the record in the UK's Pennine Way. In this episode, Damian shares about his journey to becoming a Carbon-Negative Runner and why it's important to him as a way to tak...

Samantha Gash is an authentic storyteller, world-class athlete, social entrepreneur, and mother. To her, running is the mechanism that helps her contribute to causes larger than herself. Driven by social impact, she's helped raise over 1.3 million dollars for causes including women empowerment and child access to education.   In this conversation, Samantha and Tina unpack the deep wisdom she's lea...

For Daryl Murphy, running is a vehicle for justice. Having been a runner throughout his teens, Daryl ran for several years at Ohio State University until the structure of the college sports system disenchanted him from running.   Then, years later at the start of 2020, Daryl's coworker asked him to do a 5K with him. This was a catalyst for him to get back into running. Soon enough, Daryl ran a vir...

Importance of Female Role Models Jacob grew up surrounded by three strong sisters and mother. From a young age, he saw them as role models of strength and courage. Today, as a father to four daughters, Jacob says he knows he's not someone his daughters can aspire to be because they'll always see him as a man, as their father. He shares he's constantly looking for strong women to point to because h...

Often our most important training days as runners are the ones when we do nothing. Our recovery days are crucial, and without them, the hard work we put it wouldn't result in much. When our muscles are allowed to heal properly, they can repair themselves and grow stronger. A continual pounding doesn't allow for that. With all the stress-related and emotionally-heavy issues we have been faced with...

Getting Down to the Core As someone who was accustomed to training for race after race and sticking to rigid schedules, Des says 2020 has helped her slow down and enjoy the time she spends running. She says it's allowed her to think about what it would be like to go from thinking of the sport where performance is top-of-mind, to getting the point where she's a life-long runner for the love of the...

Rich Roll is a fountain of wisdom, a cultural figure in the podcast world, an icon in endurance sports, and a champion for plant-based lifestyles. Although in college he'd been one of the top swimmers in the country and later a lawyer, his life became interrupted by alcoholism. So it wasn't until his 40's that Rich retook the reigns of his life and started exploring veganism and endurance sports. ...

Mark "Mace" Macy and his son, Travis competed in the Worlds Toughest Race. Except their story goes deeper to make it more motivating, powerful, and inspiring than any other competitor in the race. Mace was diagnosed with Alzheimers a few years ago, and Eco Challenge Fiji was potentially his last race. Being a legendary adventure racer who had competed in many Worlds Toughest Race events before, Ma...

"It's hard to be what you can't see." That's the idea that has inspired Sabrina Pace-Humphrey's to make a change in the trail running community. As a child, you had dreams and goals based on the people you saw, but if none of them looked like you, it was hard to imagine yourself doing it. Young black runners haven't had enough idols to look to, and in the trail running community? They've been none...

Who do I want to be when I grow up? Emma Roca. I have had the opportunity to speak to and learn from a lot of women, but Emma is someone who is the absolute definition of a strong woman. Emma from Team Summit, who represented Spain in the World's Toughest Race: Eco Challenge Fiji has accomplished a lot. She has a PhD in biochemistry, owns three businesses, is a professional firefighter, world clas...

By now we know that the planet needs saving. There are millions of tons of human-made garbage floating in the sea, forests being burned and otherwise destroyed, and gases rising into the atmosphere multiplying the negative natural disaster effects. It's not exactly a pretty picture. There is a lot of work to do if we want to minimize the damaging effects of climate change. It can seem overwhelming...

Tashi and Nungshi Malik are changing the world by inspiring young girls and women all around the world. Having received the highest award for women in India, the Nari Shakti Puraskar, in 2020, they are on a mission to show Indian women and girls that they can do anything they dream of. It was a pure joy to talk to Nungshi and Tashi on the podcast for the latest World's Toughest Race episode. They...

The modern woman is often faced with more than ever before. She is expected to take care of all the "traditional" motherly demands that come with raising children and maintaining a home, but she is also often expected to have a career, be involved in the community, and overall be perfect. Dr. Libby Weaver is helping to change the feeling of non-stop demands on our lives. Her book entitled "Rushing...

Coree Woltering is an openly gay, black man who is unapologetically real and fights for what matters to him. He wears bright, dazzling speedos to compete in, and is one of the best ultra-endurance runners in the country, yet what he wants to raise awareness for the most is something you might not expect; midwest (American) athletes being overlooked by brands when they are equally capable of repres...

How have the interactions with others influenced your life? This is an impossible question to answer. Even for someone that feels extremely introverted, anti-social, and loves the idea of off-the-grid, your life is shaped by the people that have been in it. This is not a bad thing really, it's just how our species functions. There are pros and cons that come with the natural tendencies of human na...

James Lawrence, AKA The Iron Cowboy, does not shy away from a challenge. Running 50 ironmans (140.6 miles) in 50 days in 50 different states (yep, you read that correctly), is not exactly for the faint of heart. I know what you are thinking (I was thinking the same thing),  He must be incredibly talented, resilient, strong.  But actually, James genuinely believes he is genetically average. He just...

Today is about getting started. Action. It can be the most difficult, and yet the simplest part of any goal. Physically, it makes sense. If you think of a bowling ball, it has no problem smashing those pins down once you get it rolling. The most impressive event of a bowling ball's existence is actually not all that difficult. The more impressive part is probably the person that gets it started.  ...

Imagine covering 671km (416 miles) in just over 5 days by trekking, biking, rafting, climbing, paddle boarding, swimming, rappelling, and crossing oceans by boat. Exhausted already? Me too. But that is what Team New Zeland did to win the World's Toughest Race: Eco Challenge Fiji. Today, we are kicking off this series with one half of Team New Zeland, Nathan Fa'avae, and Sophie Hart. Not only are t...

Some issues pervade all businesses, industries, and individuals. In 2020 alone we have seen a handful of them. The far-reaching effects of Covid-19 has changed everyday life for every individual around the world. Social injustices have affected millions of people directly or indirectly in the United States and elsewhere. Addressing these issues isn't easy, but to initiate change and progress it's...

Running is a challenge. It's physically painful and mentally exhausting. It seems like such a natural way to move our bodies, but at the same time it can feel so absurd when there's no need for us to travel in that way anymore. Like most of us, you've been in the middle of a training session or race and thought "Why am I doing this?" And when we aren't telling ourselves how hard running is, our fr...

The global pandemic has a lot of us out running. New runners and those re-familiarizing themselves with running are joining the throng of runners. It is fantastic to see. It's one of the few exercises where no gym is required and social distancing is easy to maintain. Whether you've gotten back into running over the past few months or just started running this week, it's a good time to remind your...