Ep #19: 5K Training Series Part Four – The Low-Down on Virtual Races

Welcome to The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. If you’re a woman who is midlife and plus sized and you want to start running but don’t know how, or if it’s even possible, you’re in the right place. Using proven strategies and real-life experience, certified running and life coach Jill Angie shares how you can learn to run in the body you have right now.

You are listening to episode number 19 of The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. I’m your host, Jill Angie, and this episode is the fourth and final one in our 5K training series. Today’s topic is virtual 5Ks, and you can check out parts one, two, and three at episodes 14, 16, and 17 respectively.

Also, this week on Ask the Curvy Coach, I’m going to respond to some comments and emails I’ve gotten recently about the podcast and my message, and how I think you can apply my thought process to your own life. And then, of course, there’s going to be my latest obsession, which is a book this week. So I want you to stay tuned to hear which one it is.

So whether you’re a brand-new runner, an experienced pro, or maybe even just thinking about it because all your nutty friends are running, you are in the right place.

Okay, so if you follow me on social media, you know I post a lot about my thoughts. My thoughts on running, on body image, on how important it is for people that don’t fit the typical runner’s profile to get out there and be seen so that we can pave the way for everyone else who wants to run to get out there and do it themselves.

Basically, lead by example. And you also know that I definitely don’t censor myself that much, and I mean, I have opinions, people. Sometimes there’s profanity. Sometimes it’s in my social media posts, in my emails, obviously, right here on this podcast.

And to start with, there are people who aren’t really a fan of that, and they make sure to tell me. I get emails sometimes or Facebook messages that say like, “Hey, I love your message, I love your podcast, but you’re losing fans because you swear so much.” I usually kind of laugh a little bit when I get those because I know that the people that really love to follow my podcast are actually drawn to the swearing. It’s kind of strange.

But anyway, I also don’t censor my photos and I don’t mean I put a lot of nudity out there. I just mean that I don’t spend 20 minutes finding the perfect pose and you know, taking the perfect angle. I take a shot, maybe a couple if it’s a windy day or my eyes are closed or something because I just want to like, post my real life, I guess.

And I think it’s like, super important for us not to be always so perfectly curated because that’s not real life. And so that’s a big message of mine. I’m all about not worrying about the little things and part of that is because I actually used to be the person that was always behind the camera because I didn’t want people to see that I was fat.

I don’t know what I thought. Like, obviously I’m fat. I’m not sure how that was confusing to me that if I wasn’t – if people didn’t see me in pictures that they wouldn’t – you know, that they wouldn’t know. But I guess my thought process is what if my friends from high school see me and are just like, horrified at how I let myself go, or like, the mean girls that used to bully me in high school. What if they saw how fat I got. And spoiler alert, one of them got really fat too.

Or what about my college friends, right? I just hated the thought that people on Facebook would see pictures of me looking fat and they would think terrible things and so I used to just be behind the camera and then one day I just – I realized it was such a waste of my brain. Like, spending that energy being worried about people on the internet, and honestly, people I haven’t seen in years and years and years, and the only reason I’m connected to them is because they sent me a Facebook friend request and I had to remember like, “Do I even know this person? Oh yeah, I went to high school with them.”

So spending that energy being worried about people on the internet and their opinion, fuck that shit, right? Took a while for me, but I am 100% over it. So anyway, I promise I’m coming ‘round to a point here. So anyway, now I’m all about just putting my real life out there. I don’t censor my language, I don’t censor my photos, I don’t censor my body, right?

And recently I was in this amazing photo shoot in Brooklyn with my good friend Kara Loewentheil, who’s also a life coach and by the way, you need to go check her out. Her podcast is called Unf*ck Your Brain, and the word fuck is spelled with an asterisk instead of a U so that it actually gets picked up by search engines. Go check out her podcast, you’re going to love it.

But anyway, we did this photo shoot, and of course I had one of my favorite dresses on, and then I got this huge run in my stocking and the dress, you know, was above the knee so there really wasn’t much I could do about it. And I thought, I’m just going to change my whole outfit. But then I was talking it over with the photographer and we decided just fuck it, let’s just keep shooting.

And we had fun doing it, and like, almost just said like, who cares if there’s a run in my stocking. And so there’s this one picture where I’m in this gorgeous sort of plum colored sweater dress from Universal Standard that I’m obsessed with, and I’m standing against this beautiful green background, this green door, and I had this enormous run in my stocking. It’s like, right down the front of my leg. My neck is at a really weird angle, so I have like a triple chin, and I’m standing there like, laughing and I’m not trying to pose at all so my body just looks sort of lumpy and you know, basically it just looks like my body.

It’s basically just the real me that everybody sees in person. There’s no special effects. And it’s funny because when I first saw that picture I thought to myself, “Oh well, I guess there’s one that I can’t use because it really doesn’t look very perfect or professional.” And then I said again, “Fuck that shit.” It’s a gorgeous dress. I love my smile in that picture, and it captured just this really funny moment between myself and the photographer where we were laughing and I can’t even remember what we were talking about but we were having a blast.

So I said, “Screw it, I’m going to post it.” So I did and I actually wrote a whole post with it on my Facebook page about how life is short and let’s just agree to post those pictures that aren’t perfect because do we really want to wake up in 20 years and realize that we haven’t been visible in our own lives. We held back our whole lives because we have a double chin or a run in our stocking or something like that.

And you know, it was really heartfelt because I – coming from somebody like – if you look at my Facebook profile from roughly 2008 to about 2011, like, there are pictures of a lot of things, but there are very few pictures of me because I was that person. And I feel like I was living my life then and I don’t really have much of a record of it because I was afraid to get in front of the camera.

So I posted that picture and then you know what? This is the best. Someone messaged me. Somebody from high school, as a matter of fact, ironically. They messaged me about that photo to tell me that I really need to be more careful about the pictures I post because it looked like there was a big run in my stocking and it wasn’t a very professional image if I’m trying to build my brand.

And I swear, I started laughing so hard I almost peed myself. Because first of all, she was so earnest in telling me this and I get it. I like – honestly, I appreciate that people out are looking out for me and they just want me to be successful and I get that this sincerity and this sentiment behind it was very, very real and very well meant.

But I realized like, this is – it’s so important for me to just get this message out there because you know, just like the person who was worried that I’d be losing listeners and followers because of my swearing, she also truly believed she’s doing me a favor, although part of it is I think she just doesn’t like to hear swearing and wants me to stop so she can listen to my podcast.

But like, someone who’s pointing out your flaws, you know, has a belief system that of course you need to hide your flaws from the world. Like, why on earth would you ever want to show people that you’re a real human being? And so, in all of this, I mean, there’s a lot to unpack, and again, if you follow me on social media, especially on Instagram, you can find me there at @notyouraveragerunner, you know that I just – I cannot stop ranting about how fucked up we’ve all gotten about body image thanks to the media and the fitness industry and all that stuff.

So to bring it all back home, my main message for today, just to address you know, the folks that have reached out to me and said, “Hey, you know, I think you need to do things differently,” I get it, we all have opinions, and I’m not everyone’s cup of tea. I’m loud, I have opinions, I’m not afraid to like, get in people’s face and just say like, “Hey, this is what’s really real.”

And not everybody’s going to get what I’m doing, and that’s perfectly fine, right? I might not resonate with them or they might have no body image issues and they might just be like, “What? I don’t get it. Why do people need to be told to post pictures of themselves?” They might not get it. And that is totally okay. Not everyone has to like me, not everyone has to agree with me. Not everyone needs to think I’m amazing, although obviously they would be completely wrong is they don’t think that.

But for real, like, I don’t expect to be everyone’s cup of tea or everyone’s can of LaCroix. Not everybody needs to think that. But here is the most important thing that if I’m not my authentic self, putting myself out there without trying to smooth out the rough edges or trying to look perfect all the time, or if I’m like, always trying to be someone that I think everyone will like, then nobody gets to know the real me.

And then the people who really need my message, who really need my help won’t find me because I’ll be so busy trying to be somebody that everybody will like, that I’m just going to end up being this kind of generic person that, you know, nobody’s really sure, like, “Does that make sense to me or not?”

So I mean, that authenticity, that un-censoring of yourself of your life is so important. Like, think about Beyoncé, right? Whether you like her music or you don’t, she doesn’t care. She’s just – she’s fine. She’s just doing her thing, which is to create her music and entertainment that makes her feel amazing, you know, she’s got this well of creativity bubbling up from inside her, and she’s got a message to spread to the world.

And I mean, she does it through her music, she does it through her actions, she does it through basically the person that she is, and she does it authentically and in a way that personally, it gives me goosebumps, but some people don’t like it, and that’s totally cool. We’re all allowed to have different opinions.

But if Beyoncé tried to please everybody, you know what would happen? Her real fans would lose interest, her music wouldn’t be as amazing because it wouldn’t be as authentic, and we would all be missing out. Those of us that – you know, that follow her and are fans of hers, we would be missing out because she’s trying to please everybody.

So – and I know I keep saying I’m going to bring this home but I am literally bringing it home right now. So the reason I’m telling you all of this is because the same thing applies to you. When you hide yourself, not wanting to speak up and tell people that you’re a runner, maybe because you think you’ll be judged or because you know – well, it’s pretty much because we all think we’re being judged. Let’s just leave it there.

But when you are afraid to speak up and tell people you’re a runner, because of that, you’re denying that person the opportunity to understand that runners come in all shapes and sizes, right? And that person might really need to see and hear that you’re doing – that you’re running. That person might really need to – a person might not. They might not really care, and that’s totally fine, but you’re denying them the opportunity to decide for themselves, and to see how amazing you are, right?

They might not get it, and that’s fine, and they don’t need to. But I’m begging you, please own it. That is how change happens, that’s – to me, that’s what being a rebel runner is all about. It’s like, putting yourself out there and being proud and unashamed of who you are. It’s about being real, not presenting a façade of what you think other people are going to accept and approve of, right?

It’s about learning to run, learning to love yourself, and being the most badass version of yourself ever. That’s what a rebel runner is. It’s about treating yourself like the motherfucking queen of your life in running, and in everywhere else. Not about how fast or far you run, whether or not you take walk breaks, what you look like in running tights has nothing to do with that. It’s all about an attitude, a mindset, a framework of things that you do, ways that you show up for yourself that can elevate you to a whole new level. That’s what authenticity brings, that’s what being a rebel runner is all about.

Okay, that is enough ranting for this week. I’m kind of cracking up at myself because I swear to god, a switch flipped in me when I turned 50 last year and I am unable to keep my mouth shut and stop speaking my mind anymore. I just love it. I spent so much of my life keeping my opinions quiet, like I was censoring my photos because I was afraid people might disagree or think badly of me, and I just don’t care anymore.

And I know there are plenty of you out there that need to hear that today. So anyway, if you have a Curvy Coach question that you want to get answered, or if you have a comment or something you’d like me to discuss on the podcast, all you have to do is email me at podcast@notyouraveragerunner.com. I’m going to pick one each week and discuss.

Alrighty, this week – we’re going to get on to the main topic. This week, we’re going to talk about virtual races. Now, we just finished three episodes on running your first 5K, and what I realized was there might be a lot of you that don’t have a lot of 5K races locally or you know, maybe you’re listening to this in the winter and you live somewhere that’s been under snow for a few months of the year, and you don’t want to wait until it gets warmer to do your first race.

Or maybe you’re not quite ready to do an in-person race and you want to ease into it. So there’s a ton of reasons for – that a virtual 5K could be part of your arsenal, and I want to talk about that as an option that you might not have really given a lot of thought to.

So the basics of how it works for the majority of virtual races is that you go to the website for the race, you register and pay, and then at a time when it is convenient for you – sometimes they tell you it has to be a certain day, but you can still do it whenever you want to on that day. Anyway, at a time that’s convenient for you, you go out and you run five kilometers. And that’s – I mean, that’s for a virtual 5K. If you’re running a virtual race of a different distance, then obviously you would run that distance.

Then after you run, you submit your time and you get a pretty medal. It’s generally how it works. Sometimes you register and they send the medal to you right away without you entering your time, and that’s kind of on the honor system. I know a ton of you actually that take that very seriously.

In fact, one of my Run Your Best Life clients did a virtual race last week and in the middle of the race she was tired and cranky, she’d had – actually, she’d had a hard race the week before, and so she really just kind of wanted to quit. But she kept thinking about the medal that was on her table, her dining room table at home, and how she wasn’t allowing herself to open it and even touch it until she finished the race.

And so, when she kind of thought to herself, “If I don’t finish this 5K, then I’ll really be cheating myself out of that medal,” and that actually kept her going to complete it. So I love how seriously people take this because you know, yes, it’s virtual, but it’s still a symbol of your accomplishment. And of course her medal was stunningly gorgeous. It was from the Zombies, Run! Virtual 5K, and she posted a picture in the Facebook group afterwards and we are all completely jealous. And yeah, it was awesome.

So that’s kind of like – like, a virtual 5K is what you make of it. So what I’ve done is I compiled a list for you of all the reasons that a virtual race is a great idea. I have some thoughts about how you can get the most out of your experience, and then I also have a couple race sites that you can check out to find a virtual race that works for you.

So first of all, virtual races are super convenient. You can run them whenever and wherever you want. In your neighborhood, on a treadmill, in the woods. You don’t have to worry about parking or getting to the start line on time. You can literally run laps around your backyard is that’s how you want to do it.

They also provide you with some beautiful, beautiful bling. So a lot of in-person 5Ks are actually really small. And you know, maybe 100 people or 200 people. And if they’re benefitting a charity, they might have a really small budget because they want as much of the entrance fees as possible to be donated.

So here’s the thing though, an in-person race is actually pretty expensive to organize and put on, and most people I don’t think realize this. Because there’s so much that goes into it. You have to get permits, you have to pay people to close off the roads and manage traffic. You have to pay somebody to measure out the race course, you have to rent start and finish line equipment. You have to buy Gatorade and water and bananas, and then there’s the cost of the t-shirts and if you have to hire somebody to come and time the race, there’s that too.

I mean, just kind of goes on and on. And medals are an additional expense, and often there just is not the budget for that if the race director wants to keep the entry fees low and still be able to donate a fair amount to the charity. So the beauty of the virtual race is it has really very few of those big expenses of an in-person race. I mean, there are still some expenses that the organizer of the virtual race does have to contend with, but they’re a lot smaller than for an in-person race, which means that, you know, you are always going to get a medal with a virtual race.

In fact, that’s probably one of the points of the virtual race is one of the big draws of them is some of them are just the most amazing medals that you’ve ever seen. There’s one out there that I kind of missed the boat on because I didn’t find out about it until it was too late, but it was a Star Wars race and it was like, this 3D model of the millennium falcon and I was like – and it lit up. I was like, “Oh, I wanted that so badly.”

But anyway, you can get some really amazing medals and most of them are often way better than you might get at a local 5K because again, the organizer is going to be able to put a lot more money into the bling than they would if it was an in-person race.

Okay, so let’s talk about pacing. I cannot think of a single virtual race I’ve seen that has had any kind of a time limit and you can take as long as you want to finish that run. And if you choose to walk the whole thing, that is totally cool. And I think for a lot of new runners, you know, there’s a little bit of a concern or a little worry that – even if there isn’t a time limit, there’s this whole like, “Oh, I might come in last,” and we’ll talk about that on another podcast. But a virtual race is a great way for you to get a race, get a medal, and not have to be concerned about whether or not you are going to make the cut off, okay?

Next is confidence. So if you are not quite ready for an in-person race because again, you’re concerned about being last or you know, maybe you are a little embarrassed that you’re slower than some of the other runners, and you all know how I feel about that. It’s your race, your pace, and I want you to be proud of getting out there. Not comparing yourself to others.

But I get it. There’s still some of you that are working on your mindset around this which is completely normal. But yeah, I mean, there’s also this like, “Hey, I might feel out of place, or there might be a cutoff and I might not make it.” So the virtual race is a great option for that to – you know, if you’re somebody who said, “I’m going to run a race every month this year,” and I have a lot of clients who do that, a virtual race is a great way to sort of get yourself started on that.

And speaking of that, a lot of my clients do set a goal for themselves to just keep themselves, you know, sort of inspired to continue training, to run a race a month. And then winter comes and suddenly there aren’t any races around, so a virtual race is a great way to keep on track with that goal.

And to just really – you know, if you’ve – sometimes people get really excited when they first start running, and they do their first race and oh my gosh, like, I’m going to – you know, I’ve got a medal, and then they go and they buy a medal rack to hang up and then the medal rack sits there empty because they haven’t done any other races. So a virtual race is a great way to start building a little bit of, you know, things to hang up on your wall, on your medal rack.

Now, we talked two weeks ago on episode 17 about how important it is to do a dress rehearsal before your in-person 5K. So for your first 5K, you know, doing that – taking maybe a week before, doing a 3.1-mile run wearing the clothes, the race gear that you’re planning to wear on race day, using the same nutrition and hydration strategy, maybe the same time of day, ideally you’d want to be running on the same type of terrain too.

For example, if your race is going to be hilly, make sure you choose a hilly route for your 5K dress rehearsal. A virtual race is a great way to do that dress rehearsal and get a medal. And I just think it’s like, a super fun way to sort of say, “Okay, like, if this was race day, this is exactly what I would be doing,” and then kind of knowing that you get to have the medal at the end of it.

And some virtual races are not just a discreet 5K or 10K distance. They’re actually an ongoing challenge, and I’m seeing quite a few of them that are like, get – accumulate 100 miles in a month or something like that, that you know, you keep track of all your mileage and then when you get to that goal, you get a medal for that. So I think it’s like, not necessarily a race, it’s more like a challenge, but it’s a variation on that and it’s like another fun way to keep yourself motivated.

Now, the other thing I love about virtual races is that most of them benefit a charity. So you know, if you are looking to support a charity, if there’s, you know, something out there that you’re super passionate about, you can actually search for that charity and for a virtual race, and find an event that will benefit that. So then you kind of get to run your race, get a medal, and kind of donate to the charity at the same time.

And then there’s another way that you can run a virtual race that is kind of interesting. A lot of in-person runs have a virtual option. So – and I think I first heard about this with maybe Indianapolis half marathon where they have this really, really pretty medal. And I know a few of my clients live several hours away from Indy and like, they could have driven in for that half marathon but it was kind of – there was a lot involved.

And then they realized, oh my gosh, there’s a virtual option. So they could run the half marathon in their hometown, on the day that everybody else was running it and still get the medal. And oh my gosh, the medal was so pretty. It was like, teal, had a little dragonfly on it. I was actually quite tempted to do it myself.

So those are some of like, the different options that you have for doing your virtual race and some of the reasons you might want to consider it. And there’s also – you know, one thing that I love to do and I did this with a bunch of – so several years ago, I organized a series of virtual races and what we did with that is some folks that were local to me that signed up, I actually set up a race course for them.

Now, it was on a – it wasn’t like a big clearing traffic kind of thing. We found a path or a running path and I measured out a three-mile route on that and so we got together, they all started at the same time, and then they did – it was sort of an out and back on the – I think it was on the Chester Valley trail.

Anyway, they did their out and back, and then when they got back, I was there to put the race medal over their head and give them a bottle of water and a banana. We had a lot of fun with it. So you can actually do that. If you have a bunch of friends that have signed up for your race with you, like, actually set up a race course and have somebody like, create a little finish line tape for you and really have fun with it.

So those were some things that you know, might be an incentive to run a race. Now, I do want to give you – I mean, just like with any race that you sign up for in person, there’s still going to be some things to consider with a virtual. So when you do sign up for it, determine if there’s a race window. In other words, can you run it whenever you want, literally whenever you want, or do you have to do it within a certain month or week or day.

Sometimes, you know, there are some constraints around that. Do you have to submit results to get your medal mailed to you? Now, some of them, they will send you the medal ahead of time, some of them you have to submit the results to get the medal. So you need to know that ahead of time if you, you know, sign up and just expect your medal to show up, but of course it needs to be – you know, they’re not going to send it unless you put results in. Just like you don’t get a medal if you don’t show up on race day for an in-person race, some virtual races work the same way.

So you need to know that and how are you going to submit the results. Is it a screenshot of a GPS, do you need to use a certain app, can you just go to the website and enter your distance and your time? So make sure you know that before you do your run or you’re going to have to do it over again.

And when do you need to submit your results, right? Is it the same day that you ran? Is it within a week of the end of the race period? Like, that’s all important stuff to know and these are just logistics. It’s nothing you can’t deal with, but knowing it ahead of time is going to make things a lot easier when it comes to getting your medal in the mail.

So that’s sort of my two cents. Actually, it’s probably more like 50 cents on virtual races. And I looked up – I thought I’d share with you a few of my favorite sites, but honestly, you can just Google virtual race and then whatever you’re into. Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Avengers, kittens, puppies, your favorite charity.

Just Google virtual race and then one of those terms and you’re going to come up with a bunch of options. But a great starting point I think – there’s three sites that I think are amazing. The first one is Full Medal Runs, and that’s medal with a D. Not metal with a T. So fullmedalruns.com, great one, lots of selections.

Willrunforbling.com is another one that has a lot of options. And then one of my absolute favorites, goneforarun.com because they have an option for doing the race live through their app, which is super fun. So those are three that I recommend. And yeah, I hope you’ll give a virtual race a try, and if you do, make sure that you post about it in the Facebook community, and let us know how it went.

So next week, our main topic is going to be about something that I know a lot of you can relate to, and that is how to stop quitting. And I also have a really big announcement to make next week so you’re going to want to make sure that you tune in to episode 20.

Let’s talk real quick about what I’m obsessed with now because oh my god, I can’t even. This book is so freaking good. So what I started doing this month in the Run Your Best Life coaching group is we’re actually doing book club. And so what that means is we’re picking books that are related to either running or athleticism or you know, working on body image and building habits, all kinds of good stuff.

So we’re picking a book every month and this is our first month, and the book we picked is called The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion. So of course, we picked a book with profanity on the cover as our first.

But I mean, seriously, this book is amazing. It’s all about how to manage your brain, your thoughts, your inner mean girl voices, all that crap that you think to yourself about how hard running is or how you’re not really a runner because you take walk breaks or you’re slow, or you’re feeling fat, worrying about what other people think. Like, all of that stuff, thinking, “Oh, other people are better than me at running.”

Like, thinking all of those things is completely normal. And this book kind of helps break it down, why we think that way and what to do about it so that you can sort of get out of your own way. Like, manage through all that stuff so you can do your race, have an amazing time. But more importantly, start feeling like an athlete.

Really, the book is all about claiming your identity as an athlete. So the book really helps you recognize the negative patterns that you’ve kind of gotten into and start really embracing the inner athlete, and my favorite quote from the entire book – and it actually occurs right at the beginning – my favorite one is this. “Athletic identity is all about thinking and feeling like an athlete. It has nothing to do with how fast you are, how much racing you do, or how much you train.”

So I’m going to read that again. “Your athletic identity is all about thinking and feeling like an athlete. It has nothing to do with how fast you are, how much racing you do, or how much you train.” Oh my god. In just two sentences, the authors of this book have summed up the essence of what I teach, right? You get to decide whether you’re a runner or not. You get to decide whether you’re an athlete. There is no definition out there. It is all up to you.

So guess what. In Run Your Best Life this month, we are not just going to read this book and discuss it. We are going to study it, we are going to apply it, and we are going to rewrite our stories about ourselves. And I mean, I just think that’s so powerful and that’s really what coaching is all about.

I mean, coaching, yes, is about making you a better runner, a stronger runner, and whatever kind of runner you want to be. But it’s also about finding that inner athlete and sometimes it takes a little more than just a few mantras, few like, saying nice things to yourself. Like sometimes we have to really dig in and deliberately rewrite the stories we want to tell about ourselves.

Okay, another thing I love about this book is that it’s written in real, funny, and relatable language. And I’m not referring just to the swearing, but there is plenty of that, which of course makes me happy. But it is written as if you’re just having coffee with the authors, right? It’s – rather than it’s being all technical and confusing and psychology type language, it’s just written in a way that’s super easy to understand.

So you get some of the brain science for sure so that you can understand why you do what you do, but it is written so easily and with very fun illustrations too, that you’re laughing while you’re learning lessons. And there are several fun exercises throughout each chapter. A lot of them are writing exercises, but they help you apply the concepts, and we’re actually going to be doing some of them together in Run Your Best Life this month.

So all in all, this is an amazingly body positive book about athleticism that I think every single one of my listeners should go buy and read immediately. All of you, just go to the show notes right now, right this minute and order it. Then join Run Your Best Life so that you can join in the weekly Facebook group workshops.

They started on May 6th, so just a few days ago, but we will be doing them right through the first week in June because I want to make sure that we really take our time with this book and really dig in deep. So you can join all the fun of that over at www.runyourbestlife.com. And head over to the show notes where you can grab a copy of the book and all that good stuff.

So that is it for this week, my friends. Everything I mentioned in this episode can be found at www.notyouraveragerunner.com/19, including a link to grab the book, and join Run Your Best Life. I keep reminding you because it’s – I think – actually, here’s what I think. I’m going to digress a little bit during the closing words here.

I think that coaching is just so life changing for runners like you because you come to this sport, brand new, thinking, “Gosh, I’m really not sure what to do or where to get started,” and there’s so much in this podcast and so much in my books that I think are amazing, and you can totally become a runner with all of that, but what coaching does is it really helps you take those bits and bites of pieces of information and really integrate it and apply it in a way that takes you to the whole next level.

And so I keep talking about Run Your Best Life because I really want you to be aware of that opportunity and know how amazing and helpful it can be for you. So that’s that. And as always, if you’re brand new to running or thinking about getting started, and you’re listening to this podcast, you can always head over to notyouraveragerunner.com/start to get my free jumpstart program. And that will get you up and running in no time.

That’s all for this week, my friends. I look forward to talking to you next week about how to stop quitting. Until then, happy running.

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. If you liked what you heard and want more, head over to www.notyouraveragerunner.com to download your free one-week jumpstart plan and get started running today.