Ep #174: Conquering 2020 Goals with Bethany Shields

Welcome to the Not Your Average Runner Podcast. If you’re a woman who had never felt athletic, but you still dream about becoming a runner, you are in the right place. I’m Jill Angie, a certified running and life coach and I teach women how to start running, feel confident and change their lives. And now I want to help you.

Jill Angie: Hey Rebels, so I am here with a super fun guest this week, Bethany Shields. She is a runner, a nutrition coach, a goal getter. She’s had a busy year and she’s been super successful with her goals despite the pandemic. And so I thought she would be a great person, she’s also one of our Not Your Average Runner ambassadors and I thought she’d be a great person to bring on the podcast to have her talk about like how she’s accomplished all of this stuff in the middle of a fucking pandemic. So Bethany, welcome so much to the show.

Bethany Shields: Thank you so much for having me, Jill.

Jill Angie: I’m very excited to talk today. And I think like just kind of as an icebreaker, you and I both have something really funny in common this year. We both had COVID weddings.

Bethany Shields: We had.

Jill Angie: So the whole world knows about how my wedding happened because I talk about it constantly, but let’s hear about your experience because we’re in a similar situation.

Bethany Shields: Yeah, we had to shift our plans. We had planned to get married October 2nd and we didn’t have like a ton of people that we were planning on having, but it was still too many for New York State anyway. So we decided because people were traveling from all over, we had some elderly family members who would be joining us that it would be best to postpone until next year.

Bethany Shields: So we were able to do a courthouse ceremony this year with just like our immediate family came and we just had like a little courthouse, some photos, little dinner. It’s very nice.

Jill Angie: I love it. And I remember seeing your photos online and they just looked adorable.

Bethany Shields: Thanks.

Jill Angie: Now, are you going to do a big celebration on your anniversary next year?

Bethany Shields: So we’re planning to just do what we were going to do this year next year, so we really get to weddings. I’m definitely not complaining about that. And I get to wear my real dress next year.

Jill Angie: Yeah, that’s so awesome. Same, we’re doing exactly the same thing and it’s kind of funny, because I know you’re from upstate New York and our original wedding plan was actually in well, Western New York, we’re getting married in the Finger Lakes and we’re literally like, we re-booked the same photographer, the same venue, the same caterer, everything. So yeah, it’s a bonus wedding that’s the way I look at it.

Bethany Shields: It is, and it was nice like all of our vendors were available for the same day. So it’s like, we don’t have to worry about having two different days to remember.

Jill Angie: So awesome, so awesome. Well, I’m glad that you got to have a wedding this year because I know when I realized we were going to have to cancel ours, I was just like heartbroken and then I was like, “But wait, two weddings.” And then it was all okay.

Jill Angie: Okay, so we just have so much in common. I just love this. Okay, so what I’d really like to do though is have you kind of talk about your story, how you came to be a runner? I know you’ve used the terms hate, hate relationship with running, but obviously given all you’ve accomplished this year like that, I’m assuming that that has changed.

Jill Angie: So I’d love for you to tell our listeners what started you running? What has your experience been like, and just tell us a little bit about your journey.

Bethany Shields: Sure. Yeah, I definitely started out with a hate, hate relationship that is true. I’m 43 years old, I live upstate New York and I work in special education as a teaching assistant at a school for children with autism spectrum disorder. I’m also a music educator and I have degrees in classical voice, music, history and musicology.

Bethany Shields: And I used to run my own studio, teaching piano and voice lessons. I lost over 125 pounds, regained some of that, but you know COVID-

Jill Angie: Thanks COVID.

Bethany Shields: Yeah, and after my grandfather died in 2016, I moved back to upstate New York, I was living in Cincinnati at the time, and I moved back to upstate New York and the home that I was born in and I met my future husband a week later. So my life is like a Hallmark movie but it’s just way cooler.

So how I got started with running, I began running as part of a health and fitness journey that I started in 2016, and I’d been obese ever since I was a kid, I was never athletic, I hated sports, as a child I didn’t think my body was capable of doing any of those things. So at the beginning of 2016, I decided I was going to drastically change my lifestyle. So I could be healthier by the time I was 40, I was just tired of like being a passenger in my life and not being an active participant.

So I decided to go crazy with this and I embarked on a plant-based whole foods way of eating, cut out sugar, caffeine, alcohol, meat, dairy, refined carbohydrates. So pretty much everything that everybody loves. I was a hardcore Coke Zero and Starbucks addict. And when I wasn’t on the caffeine train, I was either whining down or enjoying cocktails with friends. So yeah, I was really grad school I think embedded a lot of these beautiful habits into my life. So it was either caffeine or alcohol.

And like going this extreme route was pretty crazy, but it was what I was ready for at the time, and I don’t necessarily recommend that for anybody else, but it was what I needed, and it worked for me. And once I had more energy, I began losing weight and I started strength training and then I use the Couch to 5K app to get started with trying to run.

When I first started running like let’s just say like when I first was moving my body, because I had been sedentary for a very long time and was way out of shape. I was not comfortable with the idea of running at that size, and I did not realize that that was something that you could even do because I don’t think I saw any chubby people running.

And I was just like, “I’m going to walk first because that’s enough of a workout for me at this size right now,” if I’m huffing and puffing to go half a mile, that’s good enough. So I started walking and I did like a mile then two miles, three miles, I feel like once I hit around three miles of walking regularly, that’s when I was like, “All right, it’s time to like go back to a gym, start strength training with some weights.” And that’s when I was like, “Hmm, I think I like dabble into this running business and see if I don’t die.”

Jill Angie: You’re setting the bar very high for yourself, right? Don’t die, that’s it.

Bethany Shields: I know. Right, so I was like, “I’m going to attempt this.” So I did Couch to 5K, and the first few weeks were not so bad, I think when I got to the three-minute interval it was difficult. But I managed through that when I got to like the week with like the five-minute interval is where I really started to struggle.

And even as I like, and I would like for Pete repeat that several times to try to improve, it just took me a really long time. So I did manage through that, but I didn’t obviously finish in the time allotted that they want you to finish running your three miles.

Jill Angie: Just like 30 minutes, right?

Bethany Shields: Right. Which is where like someone who’s very fit could run that, but not where I was at that point. So once I got myself up to about half an hour, 45 minutes of running, because after a while I stopped using the app and I was like I’m just going to do the distance and finish this however long it takes and I were trying to like time out how it was going to go. And I did my first Turkey trot, was my first 5K and I didn’t finish last, so that was very exciting to me because I thought for sure I was going to come in last place, but there were a lot of walkers.

Jill Angie: Thanks walkers.

Bethany Shields: I scored. Yeah, thanks walkers, making me shine. So yeah, after that I was like, “Oh, this is actually like really fun. There’s like a lot of people, everyone gets together. Some people are walking, some people are running. Some people do a little bit of both,” and I’m like, “I kind of really enjoy this.”

So I feel like every year after that I did like two, three and then like four runs, and I didn’t realize that like aside from doing the Couch to 5K thing, maybe this is something that you would need to train for. No idea. I just thought people ran fitness and people run, but yeah, no, training is the thing.

Jill Angie: That’s so awesome.

Bethany Shields: I guess like Couch to 5K is technically the training program but after you’ve done it a few times, you’re like, “Oh yeah, I can do that again.” But I would attempt to do it again without actually doing the program, and that’s where I would be like, “Hmm, this doesn’t feel as good as last time.” So because of my lack of training and following the plan and that fact that, that plan, I don’t think was well-suited to where I was in my journey.

I really disliked running aside from like getting together with groups of people and doing the race. It was hard like I never felt like I was improving. And I think like probably if I had thought, “Oh, maybe I need to train, if I did this three, four times a week, I would be really good at it.” But I didn’t realize that that was a thing that we do.

So yeah, I really didn’t like it, I didn’t feel like I was improving. And part of that I think was that I didn’t figure out that sprinting isn’t a sustainable running pace. And yeah, like that took me about like four years, I think, into running to figure out that it’s not just like run as fast as you can or walk, run until you die or walk. Like you could actually run a pace that you could sustain. No idea.

So I learned that, it just took me a really long time. And I think some of the other things I learned were more mental components, like I figured out that my run could be better if I stopped comparing myself to every single person that ran past me, I could be happier while I was running, if I took compliments from other people without analyzing the crap out of every single one.

Jill Angie: Without arguing with them like, “Oh, you did great. No, no, I didn’t.”

Bethany Shields: Right. No, I’m way slow today and I can’t breathe and I’m sweating, right yeah. Exactly, so that’s like how I came into running and really like it wasn’t just like, “Oh, I did a 5K and I loved it so much, I kept going. No, I did a 5K for like three years and struggled and then I found Jill.”

Jill Angie: Well. And so let’s talk about how you shifted from struggling with 5K to where you are now, which is regularly running half marathons.

Bethany Shields: Yeah, so I think what happened was last year, I think it was like in springtime I decided to start working with a personal trainer again, because I had been out of… I mean, I was still working out, but I was not doing it regularly, it was not consistent about exercise, I would go to the gym, but I wouldn’t be consistent. So I wanted someone to keep me accountable to that because that’s what I initially did when I first started working out and losing weight.

And I’m like, “Ooh, that worked the first time, let’s go back to being consistent and doing this every single day.” So my trainer, Matt, who is awesome, he gave me like… The first few weeks were not so bad, but then he was like, “Ooh, you’re strong. We’re going to load this up.” And I loved it. And then I’m like, “You know what, this is fun. I should get back into running again too.”

So I told him that I wanted to do a 5K again, but this time I wanted to run the whole thing and not die, or maybe die just a little bit and revive myself at the end. It was an interval plan at the beginning, but it was more distance space rather than timed intervals. So that’s kind of how I got to that point and I was able to do that in October, but around like the time that I started my running training with him which I feel like was, maybe August or something is also the same time that I encountered your podcast which I feel like fueled me to get back into running again.

So when I did that and I actually ran my first mile all the way through, I was like, “Whoa, this is amazing. I’ve never done this before,” I just thought about those times in high school where you have to run that mile in ice.

Jill Angie: I was never able to do it. That is so bad.

Bethany Shields: Yeah, no, I was terrible, I was always dying within three seconds and always the last person. So I was like, “Oh my gosh, that’s like the best feeling ever, I’m totally going to do this.” And I just like, “I was very consistent with my training for that,” and I was like lifting three days a week, running three days a week, and did my race. It was awesome and so fun. And then I was just like, “Oh, this is what I’m supposed to do, I really like this.”

Jill Angie: Awesome. So you got to the point where you were like running is actually a thing that works for me, I don’t hate it, I’m finding a lot of joy in it. So what made you decide to start going farther than 5Ks?

Bethany Shields: So I really feel like this was just circumstantial that it happened, but I did that 5K and I had signed up for like, there was one of the women who I teach with, she’s also a runner and she does 5K, she’s super-fast but she’s great. And she had signed up to do like this Christmas cookie run and I’m like, “Oh, that sounds super fun.”

But there was also like a Turkey trot before that, so we were going to do like the Thanksgiving race and the Christmas race together, but the Thanksgiving race was a five-miler. So I was like, “Oh, I think I’m going to have to start training for that.” So that’s where I was like, I’m going to use the intervals that I learned from you instead of like just trying to do five miles full out. I can get those like extra two miles by just adding on some walk breaks and it will be okay.

And I actually had a really bad case of bronchitis like right before Thanksgiving last year, but I was still able to… I was not fun, I had an inhaler, but I did it. And I did intervals the whole five miles, and it was not bad. So we did the Christmas 5K and that was fun, but after that I was like, “Oh, if I can do five miles, I can start slowly adding on mileage.”

And then there was like a series with a running club here that does like, they call it like the Freeze Series 10K because it’s cold as hell in January up here and snowy and icy. So they did like one every Saturday, do a 10K every Saturday and it was like, “Well, if I can do five miles, I can probably do 6.2, just do the intervals and try that out.” So I did that and I’m like, “Well, if I can do that, I can go a little bit further.

Jill Angie: I don’t know, it’s the cookie.

Bethany Shields: Cookie, yeah, exactly. So those 10Ks were at the beginning of 2020 but like in December I decided I was going to plan out a whole race calendar for 2020, because I’m like, if I can do a 10K then I can like start building a little bit more distance because that’s halfway to a half marathon almost. So why not? Because all these other people do it, I’m like, “What’s the worst thing that’s going to happen, not going to finish, going to fail, going to hate it so much then I never do it again.” All right, sign me up.

Jill Angie: At this point you’re like, “Clearly I’m not going to die.” So there’s bring it, there’s nothing worse than that.

Bethany Shields: So I’m like, sign me up, take all my money and like the worst thing that’s going to happen is that I suck and fail at it and then have to tell everyone that like, “Oh yeah, I didn’t do that thing, I signed up to it.”

Jill Angie: Let’s take a moment because I think a lot of people avoid signing up for things or setting goals and so forth for that exact reason because in their mind saying that they failed is like catastrophic. So why is it not catastrophic to you? Because it’s not catastrophic to me, I’m like, “I don’t know, I failed, I’ll try again.”

Bethany Shields: It used to be catastrophic to me, I think graduate school made me like a crazy person. I mean, I feel like I’ve always had the perfectionist tendency, but with running like with any fitness there is no perfect here like I cannot deliver any sort of perfection in that realm like it’s just not possible.

All I can do is try to improve, so with that I was like, if I try it then I tried it. And if I failed and I failed, but at least I failed and I like got to whatever mileage along the way, or I did these things along the way and I was like attempting to improve myself.

Jill Angie: I mean, the other thing I’m noticing as we’re talking about your journey is that with running, you kept surprising yourself going, “Wait, I can do this. Wait, I can do that.” And so you’ve approached a lot of your running goals with like the only expectation is that literally I just want to live through this. And I think when that’s your expectation, right?

Then it really doesn’t matter what the outcome is, you’re like, “Oh I could finish 13 miles, maybe I don’t make it the first try.” But like, “Hey, that’s a hell of a lot farther than I’ve ever gone before.” So I just love how you approach it, you’re like constantly like, “Huh, I wonder what’s going to happen if I do this.” Rather than, this is what I have to do like it’s a totally different mindset and it’s led you to do some pretty incredible things.

Bethany Shields: Yeah, and I think that it is all surprising to me because it’s something that I was never able to even consider doing before, like even as a kid, I would never be like, “Oh, I’m going to run a race someday. Hell no.”

Jill Angie: Yeah, right.

Bethany Shields: Unless there’s a serial killer behind me with a knife, like never, never, never.

Jill Angie: I think for a lot of us who were like that. Honestly, I did sports in high school, I was so bad at it. I was the person on the team that’s just like, “Oh, do we really have to practice again?” And so I could never run the mile, like I just was really bad at it. And when I started kind of running and so forth as an adult, I remember like finishing my first triathlon, I was like looking around like, “Did that just happen? Did I just do that?”

I just started crying because I was like, “What is happening? Who is this person?” And I just remember thinking like, “I want more of that and I’m never going to beat myself up for not being good enough because I’ve just exceeded all of my own expectations.” So far exceeded my own expectations that I just feel like everything I accomplished from here on out is just icing on the cake.

Bethany Shields: Right.

Jill Angie: Yeah, so fun.

Bethany Shields: Yeah, honestly, I feel like I was when I did my first half marathon, which was in October, I was like mile 10, my headphones died and I’m like, “Oh boy, I’ve never done farther than 10 miles before and this is where my headphones are going to die. Great.” I’m like, “And this is also where my body feels like it’s going to die mile 11. Thank you.” What is going to happen? I’m like, “Well I could call it now and just limp home.” And that’s an option, right?

Jill Angie: Always an option.

Bethany Shields: Or I can just suck it up, listen to the birds and try to hustle my tush home. Those are your options here. So I’m like, “Yeah, I’m just going to go ahead and finish this out because why not?”

Jill Angie: Well, and let’s talk about your year, because I know like your half marathon in October, you had so many plans for 2020 and January happened and then COVID hit. And I mean, we were all just like watching the races, cancel. So what had you signed up for and then what did you end up doing on your own?

Bethany Shields: Oh gosh, so for my race calendar for the year, the big things that I had planned were two half marathons were on… Let me just dig back here. So after I did my first 10K I did a quarter marathon in February in Syracuse right after that, which is like not much more distance it’s like around the same, just a little more, but that was actually part of a half marathon, it was a half marathon and a quarter. And I had winter trained for that.

Jill Angie: Oh yeah.

Bethany Shields: Which yeah, I built polar bear skin. That was great. And I decided that I will not be winter training again this year because I loved it so much, like I actually didn’t dislike it. I enjoy running in the snow in the cold when I want to. When it’s something that’s on the calendar, I am less inclined to enjoy that, and I know that about myself now, I didn’t know that about myself last year.

So that was like a big thing because none of my races were part of a half before, so seeing those people come… Because it was like out in back, but the half was out in back twice. So seeing those people come back again, I was like, “Oh wow.” I’m like, “Maybe I’m doing this.” I’m like, “Yeah. I feel like I can do this for sure.” So I was all like pumped up after that race, my time was good for me, and I felt really good about it.

After that, I don’t think I had anything that I was signed up for in March, but I had a knee injury happen in March because I was continuing on with my training for my half and I got runner’s knee. literally like the weekend before COVID.

Jill Angie: Oh my gosh.

Bethany Shields: So I got to go to physical therapy in the middle of COVID five times.

Jill Angie: Yeah.

Bethany Shields: But there was time for it, look at that. So keeping it positive. But my big races that I had I think originally were April, May, I think May was the first half I was doing bridge run in May and there was a half scheduled in June that I was signed up for, which was the one in Ithaca which was the gorgeous half marathon, which was like half trail, half road. I was like that was going to be something different and exciting. That one canceled outright but it took them like a long time, they deferred at first and then they decided they were going to cancel.

So when that one officially canceled, I decided to go ahead and sign up for the Pig in October.

Jill Angie: Flying Pig.

Bethany Shields: Yeah, Flying Pig in Cincinnati, whenever that was originally supposed to go on, I forget to be now but-

Jill Angie: Well, it was supposed to be in May and then it got deferred to October, and then again, it was just like…

Bethany Shields: Yeah, and then it went virtual. So everything just got like deferred, deferred and moved. And I had some smaller races in there, but I did a lot of virtual races to do for my training run. So but like big ones were the half-marathons this year. And yeah, so runner’s knee happened, COVID happened. I began teaching online and working from home, so that was totally different, yeah, a lot of things, a lot of disruptions were happening. And oh, and this summer like also while I was trading for like these, this would have been the third time I got sick over the summer with a viral infection that had me down for like an entire month and I’ve never been sick for that long ever.

And so restarted that training a second time, or a third time, or however many times at this point. So I felt like the amount of training I’ve tripled at that point and I was always back to like seven or eight miles when I would start up again. So that was very frustrating but at the same time I was grateful that I had that much more trading and I felt ready and I was glad when the half finally happened, and I could just be like, “Ooh, this is done now. Success.

Jill Angie: Well, so I have a couple questions about this year, because first of all, you had quite a few circumstances happen that for sure I think like the average person would have said, “Ah, fuck it. I’m just not meant to be a runner.” or gotten into like, “Oh, this isn’t fair.” And I’m curious how you kept moving forward even though like it just seems like the hits just kept coming.

Bethany Shields: Right, so I feel like, I don’t know my personality when I set a goal to do something, I am pretty determined to do it. If something does like impact that negatively then you obviously have the opportunity to weigh it out and be like, “Is this worth it? Should I work it?” Always come back to Missy Elliott and ask yourself that question.

Jill Angie: I love that.

Bethany Shields: So in my case, I’m like, what’s going to happen if I stop my training? I’m not going to run and I’m not going to continue working towards my health. So that’s not doing me any good and now like with COVID and having the opportunity to work from home, I didn’t have a commute, I didn’t have the opportunity to go to the gym anymore and I was doing all my strength training from home. So it’s nice outside it’s spring and summer go run.

Bethany Shields: That was kind of a no brainer for me. And during my rehab for my knee I was just doing all this strength training at home. So when I could get out and walk and get out and run and enjoy the outdoors, I’m like, “Yes, please,” every opportunity to be outside, I’m going to pick that.

So for me, continuing to train and work toward the races was really like a non-option, like I signed up for it if it was virtual, I’m just going to do it. The thing that was like maybe like a little scary, or I don’t want to say scary, but maybe intimidating for me is that the fact that the course is like unsupported and I would have to bring all my stuff with me and just have my hydration pack and all my…

Jill Angie: Wait, so you did the actual course?

Bethany Shields: No, I’m being…

Jill Angie: Oh, you just made your own course, right?

Bethany Shields: I made a course.

Jill Angie: Yeah, okay, that makes sense.

Bethany Shields: Which was great because there was a bathroom along the way if I needed it and I wasn’t like so far from home, and my husband works from home. So if I ever had an issue, like he could come deliver me from the pit of despair but that was unnecessary.

Jill Angie: So what was it like running your first half marathon by yourself?

Bethany Shields: In many ways it was weird because I really enjoy the energy of being around all those people and like, you get all like pumped up before you go, but it’s just like another training run in some ways. And the familiarity like I had done my long run, training run on the same route so many times.

And I was also using that sometimes for my short run too, just like the shorter version of it, that it was like so familiar that it wasn’t even like an option to think like, “Oh, this is scary. This is something I haven’t done before.” Because a lot of times when you go to a new race, you’re not familiar with the course at all and you’re like I tend to get a little bit like, “Oh, what if I don’t know where to turn or something like that, or if I just wander around for a hundred miles and never finish?” But we’re doing it so many times you’re very familiar in that, that in and of itself like not a big deal, you’ve already done this.

Jill Angie: I’m just going to do my 10-mile training run and then a little extra 5K.

Bethany Shields: Right, that’s just like a little extra and then a loop and then you’re home.

Jill Angie: Yeah, exactly. I love that. So I’ve got a few like fast action questions I want to throw at you.

Bethany Shields: Okay, let’s go.

Jill Angie: So this is like a speed round. All right, what has your biggest challenge been as a runner?

Bethany Shields: Okay, biggest challenge, I think probably like my knee injury I think was the biggest challenge because I’ve never been athletic before and I never have had an injury. So here I found something that I really love to do and it’s like benefiting my health, it’s benefiting my mental health and then it’s COVID, and I probably could have really used that extra time running to process through all of those thoughts that are going on.

And just like as a way to be outside and deal with everything that’s happening and all the changes that are going on in our world, but that was taken away. And I’m like, oh, I understand why some famous athletes, if they get injured and they’re sideline for a really long time, like how they could be really sad or like turned to alcohol or any of the things that happen in sports. And I’m like, “I get it now, I didn’t understand it before,” because it was just like just, oh, you hurt your knee, big deal.

Jill Angie: Right, but it’s like running is for sure a stress reliever and a coping mechanism for a lot of people.

Bethany Shields: Yeah. So it’s like, if you take that coping mechanism away, what are you going to do?

Jill Angie: Yeah. But you handled it beautifully, I mean and I think…

Bethany Shields: Yeah, I’m going to sign up to be a nutrition coach and do my certification that’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to give myself a task.

Jill Angie: I love that, I love that so much. Okay, so next question, what has been your proudest accomplishment as a runner?

Bethany Shields: I think finishing my first half was the proudest.

Jill Angie: Yay.

Bethany Shields: Because I never gone that far and I was like, “Holy crap, I just ran 13 miles,” and that for me it’s something amazing but something I never even thought was possible because I never considered it before.

Jill Angie: Yeah, so you blew your own mind a little bit.

Bethany Shields: Yeah.

Jill Angie: That’s super fun.

Bethany Shields: Yeah.

Jill Angie: Okay, and so this question, what is a wild and crazy goal you have that you haven’t told anybody else about?

Bethany Shields: I don’t know if I haven’t told anyone. Well, maybe like people who are really close to me know this, like my husband knows this. I don’t know if anybody else knows it, but eventually I want to run a marathon.

Jill Angie: Yay.

Bethany Shields: So I think I don’t have a total timeframe on this because COVID, who knows what’s happening? But I know I’m for sure getting married next fall regardless of whatever the COVID circumstances, second wedding is happening. So I feel like I would like that marathon to be in the fall so that I have ample time for training and I feel that doing it next year might be a little crazy. And I would like to work on getting my pace down before attempting that because I feel like my long runs are really long and I would like to shorten them up a little bit.

Bethany Shields: So I’m thinking most likely 2022 for that but that’s my big crazy,

Jill Angie: I love this. I love this ginormous goal. And then like, as we’re wrapping up a little bit, what is the advice that you would give to somebody who’s just starting out as a runner and maybe somebody who has a belief like, “Oh, I’m way too fat to be a runner?”

Bethany Shields: I would say you’re not too fat to be a runner, that was something that I didn’t realize when I started because I thought for sure like, honestly, when I first started, I didn’t even want to go to the gym because I was so hyper conscious of what I was projecting everyone thought, when in fact, everyone’s just doing their own thing when they’re at the gym.

But I feel like probably just go do it and start with like super tiny intervals just to see, even like five seconds just to see and walk, like walk a lot, do five seconds of running. Do a minute of walking, five seconds of running, and then you can work it in and just like, I think my biggest advice would be like, “Don’t go balls out with the speed, you don’t have to run as fast as you can.” But I literally, it took me so long to figure that out, I had two switches, crazy fast and walking.

And sometimes I still have to remember, like you’re not a cartoon character running away, you don’t have to be that fast.

Jill Angie: I love that.

Bethany Shields: In reality, it probably isn’t that fast but for me, well, I mean, it feels like that.

Jill Angie: You had two effort levels basically like all-out effort and walking.

Bethany Shields: Exactly.

Jill Angie: And yeah, right, and there’s a million of them in between. Okay, and so the last question, I guess, I want to ask you is, you’ve been a member of Run Your Best Life for over a year, you’ve been through the Rebel Runner Roadmap. I mean, if there’s somebody out there who’s kind of considering going through the Rebel Runner Roadmap, because the next one is coming up in January. I think it opens on January 7th.

Like what kind of advice would you give somebody who’s thinking like, “I don’t know if a running class is the right choice for me, I don’t know if I’m enough of it “athlete to work with a coach”, what kind of advice would you give to that person?

Bethany Shields: Okay, well, I would definitely say that was probably myself when I was considering joining because I was not an athlete, I was not even what I would remotely consider a runner at that point, even though I was running. And now I know that if you run, you’re actually a runner, but no, I think like the things that I found to be the most appealing about joining the group and what spoke to me was like, “First of all, you’re part of like a tribe of people that are going through the same thing and understand you.”

In the concept of the thought work that we do in our group was mind-blowing to me because I’m like, “Oh, running, isn’t really mental,” but then I’m like, “Ah, you spend your entire run worrying about what everybody thinks about your body and you can’t take a compliment from anybody because you’re breaking that down during your run.” So like a good hour of your time is consumed by this nonsense and your inner mean girl talking back at you the whole way.

So like the fact that you could work on that and make it better was like, “What? I didn’t even know that was possible.” And that honestly like for me, that was like the game-changing part of Run Your Best Life and the Rebel Runner Roadmap is just like learning to understand the model and how to apply it to everything.

It’s not just running, I mean, it works amazing for your running but it’s so applicable to any obstacle or circumstance that you come up with in your everyday life, and it just like helps you handle life so much better. And because of that now, I don’t like consumed on my run by worrying about something’s probably jiggling. But I’m not spending an hour and a half worrying about anything that’s moving around while I’m running.

Something’s going to be moving, that’s just what it is. And if other people have thoughts about something that’s moving, that’s on them.

Jill Angie: Right, they can look away.

Bethany Shields: I’ve got other things to think about.

Jill Angie: Exactly.

Bethany Shields: You’re trying to like finish my workout, but also like if someone… If you’re at a race or something and people are like flying by you, you’re like at the halfway point and they’ve already turned around, this is a thought that I used to have all the time. And they’re like, “Oh, way to go, keep it up, just keep going. You’ve got this.” And I’m like get angry at them for giving me a compliment because like, “Oh yeah, you’re already almost back at the finish line and I’m still huffing and puffing way over here.”

Of course, you think I’ve got this, but now I know like most of those people are actually being genuine and all of the crap that I’m projecting on it is just my thoughts and insecurities about my own self. So yeah, I think like those two things if you have a strong inner critic or difficulty accepting compliments from other people, that’s something that we work on a lot and you can use the model to work on for yourself and also just like body image, things, all that stuff.

And really if you are considering joining the group, just do it because it’s literally the best investment I made in myself ever. I cannot scream it from the rooftops enough, like I love this group. And yeah, Rebel Runners unite because it’s great and my whole relationship with running has changed, my relationship with myself has changed, my mental health is better, like everything’s better.

Jill Angie: I love that. And I think you said something about community at Rebel Runners unite and so forth, and I think it’s so important when you’re doing something that’s outside of your comfort zone which for a lot of people, running is way outside their comfort zone. It’s important to surround yourself with other people who understand what you’re struggling with, who are maybe like a little bit farther down the path and can hold out their hand and say, “Hey, come with me, like I got you.”

And I think that is one thing that the Rebel Runner Roadmap does offer is like really safe supportive space in which to stretch outside your comfort zone.

Bethany Shields: Totally. And I think also it provides like so many amazing examples of like, holy crap, all of these things are possible because look at all these women who are out there kicking butt every single day, and just like running ultras because they want to. What? Amazing.

Jill Angie: Yeah, it’s so fun. And I think like for me, because sometimes if I’m like mentally struggling, I’m just down on myself or whatever, I’d be like, “Oh, I need to go into that Facebook group and see what everybody’s doing.” Because what you’ll see it’s not, I mean, the women in that group are all shapes and sizes and ages and speeds and abilities, like we’ve got some women we do. Actually, I think Sierra’s podcast was just a couple of weeks ago who’s doing a hundred-mile race. And that’s see somebody like you doing something like that, to just see someone that you feel connected to doing something that bold and that audacious, it starts the wheels turning. And you’re like, “Well, maybe that’s something I could do.”

And then like once you open the possibility in your brain, there’s like, you can’t, you can’t just close the door on that once it’s out.

Bethany Shields: It’s unfortunate because sometimes you want to, you’re like, “Ooh, that goal is really barfing you in, maybe.”

Jill Angie: I know. I can’t take it back.

Bethany Shields: Say that for another time.

Jill Angie: I said it on a podcast.

Bethany Shields: Right here.

Jill Angie: Well, thank you so much for joining me here today, Bethany. Is there anything else that you want to add sad that we didn’t talk about today that you’re like, “People need to know this about me?”

Bethany Shields: No, I feel like we covered pretty much everything. Thank you for having me so much. And I feel like one of the things I might want to talk about quickly is if you’re new to running, and this isn’t so much an issue now because people really still aren’t at the gym as much. But I was always super afraid of running on the treadmill. I’m like, I will run outside every single day and I will never get on a treadmill, and don’t be afraid of the treadmill, it’s really not that scary.

Jill Angie: It’s really not.

Bethany Shields: It’s not going to eat you and spit you across the gym and I was always very worried about like self-conscientious and worried about people like looking at me and being close to me while I’m running slowly or whatever, but really, it’s not a big deal.

Jill Angie: Yes. And I’ll tell you what, like when I used to go to the gym and do a lot of treadmill running many years ago, you see some really weird people at the gym and I’m pretty sure… There was this one dude, he would just put the collar of his shirt in his mouth and he would run with his shirt in his mouth. I was like, “I don’t understand what’s happening here.” And it wasn’t like he just did it one day, like over and over. And this was before COVID. So he definitely wasn’t like trying to cover his face.

He just would like chew on the collar like the neck of his shirt while he was running. There was another dude that would get on the treadmill. He would set it to like maximum incline and maximum pace, and then he would just hold on. And he would like, it looked like a cartoon, he was just flying off the back of that treadmill like a flag.

Bethany Shields: Oh my gosh.

Jill Angie: I just saw the weirdest shit. So trust me, if you’re like just trotting away on the treadmill doing like three and a half miles an hour, nobody’s looking at you.

Bethany Shields: Nobody cares.

Jill Angie: They’re looking at the shirt-biter…

Bethany Shields: Exactly.

Jill Angie: … they’re looking at the dude. Who’s like microseconds away from flying off the turf. That’s what they’re looking at, so you’re safe.

Bethany Shields: I used to work at a gym in between undergrad and grad school and I kid you not, I was the morning person. So they’re super early, like 5:00 open, and there was this older gentleman, I mean, I don’t really know if he was a gentleman, but he was the older man. He would get on it backwards, he would get on the treadmill backwards and run. And I’m like, “This isn’t safe. Someone’s going to get hurt here.” But he did it every morning, so A plus for him, with your unconventional running.

Jill Angie: Oh my gosh. See, yeah. So those are the people that other people are staring at, if you’re not doing those things, you’re good, you’re good to go. So thank you so much for joining me today, Bethany, it’s been a pleasure and I cannot wait to see those marathon finish line pictures.

Bethany Shields: Thank you, Jill.

Jill Angie: So fun.

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Oh, and one last thing, if you enjoyed listening to this episode, you have to check out the Rebel Runner Roadmap. It’s a 30-day online program that will teach you exactly how to start running, stick with it, and become the runner you’ve always wanted to be. Head on over to rebelrunnerroadmap.com to join. I’d love to be a part of your journey.