Ep #139: Building Your Runner Identity with NYAR Ambassador Elle Dee

Elle Dee: There’s no shortcut to the breakthrough. I think you sign up for the goal that you want and what this really is about is showing yourself the resilience to do this every day, or to do something towards your goal.

Welcome to The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. If you’re a woman who has 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: Hey rebels. So I have a very, very special guest with me today. She is a woman that I’ve known for probably two years so far. And she’s been a member of the Run Your Best Life group. She’s one of our Not Your Average Runner ambassadors and she is kind of a badass.

And so I’m super excited to be chatting with her today on the podcast so that you can find out just how awesome she is too. So Elle Dee, I would just love to welcome you to the show. Thank you for joining me today.

Elle Dee: Well thank you for having me. Your super sweet introduction. Thank you.

Jill: You’re just one of my favorites, I got to say. First of all, let’s talk about your name because you go by a couple different names. So you can kind of tell everybody your info and maybe talk a little bit about who you are, how long you’ve been running, and how you got started running. Tell us all the basic information.

Elle Dee: Okay, well, my name is Elle Dee. That’s my social media name. It’s an abbreviation of my real name, which is Lajuana Davis. And I am a teacher. I’m a professor at a small Southern school. And I came to – how did I come to running I guess is one of the questions that you might have. I am 54, so I came to running very late. I never ran in school; I never ran in high school or college. The only time that I ran was during those old presidential one-mile tests that they made people of a certain age do back in the day.

Jill: The presidential fitness test or something. It was awful.

Elle Dee: Yes. And I was not great at it and so…

Jill: Same.

Elle Dee: I never was interested in running except that I would see runners and just be amazed. As a matter of fact, when the Olympics came to Atlanta – I’m originally from Atlanta. When the Olympics came to Atlanta, I went to all the track and field events. I actually bought tickets and went and even to this day, I’m like, why did I go to those events?

And I guess I was just amazed at what people could do with their bodies, how fast they were rolling through and just their stamina and their ability to move like that. And I thought to myself, “Wow, I’d love to be able to do that.”

Jill: I absolutely love that. I had no idea that you’d been to see the Olympics. And when were they in Atlanta? Was that the 90s?

Elle Dee: That’s a good question. It was either the 90s or the early aughties, but it was way back. No, 96. That’s what it was.

Jill: That’s stuck in my head. Wow, so that was 24 years ago. Even 24 years ago you were kind of like, gosh, running looks kind of amazing and look how awesome these people are.

Elle Dee: Yeah. Always, always amazed me. Even to see people just running down the street. I would think to myself, “How do they do that?” Because I was getting out of breath just walking around. So I was kind of amazed. I was as unathletic as you could imagine someone being.

Jill: So when did you actually start running?

Elle Dee: I would say originally, I started signing up for little running apps and things in 2012. And I would start the running app, keep trying to do it, and then it was always around week two or three or four, you would get – the app would say now run 10 minutes with a one-minute interval walk, and then run 10 minutes more.

I was like, wait a minute. I just went from a 2:30 to 2:1 to 10:1. And I would end up failing, not doing well, and sometimes I would even feel hurt and so I would stop for a while. But then I joined a local running coaching center in 2013. But I kept getting injured.

And now that I look back at that experience, which I thought was a good experience for me, I think back to the people that they had there and the kind of values that they had, and they were really going for sort of an elite level runner. I actually asked my coach once, “What do I do if I get injured?” And she said to me quite honestly, “I’ve never been injured so I don’t know.”

And it was – and she really hadn’t been. I mean, she was a person who was – she’s not a professional but she’s just under professional elite. She’s a person that can win and does win local races around here. So I think maybe people like me kind of puzzled her. She was like, what are you doing? What are you here for?

Jill: But I think that’s pretty common. A lot of times when you tell somebody you’re a runner, they think that oh, runners are sprinters and if you’re a runner, you have to be running an eight-minute mile or six-minute mile. And runners really – there’s a whole spectrum of them, but not everybody really understands that. Even elite running coaches don’t always realize, oh wait, there’s actually slow runners out there.

Elle Dee: And to be fair to them, I think that they had some vision that that could exist, but I don’t think that’s what they were targeting, and I don’t think they knew that. But at any rate, I kept getting injured. Then in 2016 I had ankle surgery, both ankles, and I just said to myself, “Well, maybe this is something that I’m just not good at.”

And there’s a lot of things in the world I’m just not good at, so maybe this is one of them and I just need to quit running. But then something just kept bothering me about it. So I ended up signing up for the Dallas Marathon. But I realized that I was too injured to really run it. So instead, I’ve learned that the RRCA, the Road Runners Certification course was going to be held at the Dallas Marathon, during that same time, or in conjunction with it.

So I just went on to Dallas anyway and took and passed the RRCA certification course to learn more about running mechanics and training. I was thinking, “Well, if I learn more, maybe I’ll stop getting injured, I’ll stop doing things wrong.” And I’m not official by the way anymore because I haven’t done the recertification because I wasn’t planning to coach anybody.

But suddenly, I found myself wanting to try again. So after I rehabilitated, after rehabilitation, I got back out there and started looking around for coaching that would gradually build me up to a strength level that I could really get to some of the things that I wanted to do, rather than maybe pushing it too far too soon and end up getting injured.

Jill: Okay. So did you do the Dallas Marathon or no?

Elle Dee: No.

Jill: You went and you got certified as a coach instead and took a coaching class.

Elle Dee: Went on home.

Jill: I love that. So that was four, five years ago. Is that right? So let’s kind of fast forward because last year you did the Marine Corps Marathon.

Elle Dee: That’s right. I started running again. I was cycling at first and doing both of them but one of the things that I liked about running is that I didn’t need other people to be willing to go out with me to ride. And it’s true. In some places, you can’t cycle without other people on the roads. But it is safer, at least for somebody who’s a little slower, to have other people there, just so that cars will see, there’s this group here, as opposed to just one person.

But I didn’t need any agreement or anybody’s permission or anybody’s – I didn’t need a group to go running. So I started building up again on my own and then I found the podcast. And I listened to the podcast for a while before I joined Run Your Best Life. And I can’t remember back how far I was listening to the podcast before I joined the coaching, the actual coaching group.

But I was kind of following along with a lot of the inspirational things and I remember back in the early podcast, there was just a lot of inspirational stories from different people that just sounded a lot like me. I was like oh wow, this could have been me. They’re a lot more spectacular than I was, but they at least were in the arena of where I was. And it made it possible in my mind that I could get back and try to run again.

Jill: I love that. So you basically were like, you saw other people that weren’t elite athletes that were successful and said hey, if they can do it, maybe this is a thing I could do.

Elle Dee: Yes, absolutely.

Jill: I love that.

Elle Dee: It gives you the feeling of I’m in a community, even though I was running by myself. And running by yourself, at first, it was kind of like, I would love to have friends. Sometimes I would pass by other people, they’re always in groups, but I just wasn’t fast enough for the groups here. I just wasn’t enough.

So I had to run by myself for a while and people – I did have people who started running with me who were sort of in my age range and skill level, but they eventually stopped running. So I was the last person left out of this little group.

Jill: And I think that’s so interesting that you said that you still feel like you’re part of a community but it’s online now. Like your running community is sort of online, and how does that work for you?

Elle Dee: It was just fascinating because one of the early podcasts I listened to was the one with Julie Fountain, who I ended up being at Ragnar with, with you guys. But before that, I was listening to these folks who had jobs and their whole lives center around running, but they came out of injury or they came out of – some folks even came out of illness and continued running.

And I sort of felt like, wow, I am like these people and this is a really supportive thing. So I joined the online community both first, the podcast community, and then of course Run Your Best Life. And just to see the people on there, it was just extremely inspirational to see them on there posting about their journey and anything that was coming up for them in terms of their feelings about running and their joys and their successes.

Jill: Yeah. I love that. Because it really goes to show that you don’t need – a community can be anything. It doesn’t have to be in person. And I think one of the things I love about an online community is there’s always somebody online somewhere. Three o clock in the morning, you could post something, and there will be somebody like, replying.

So it’s kind of fun because you can’t text your friends at three o clock in the morning and say hey, this is what I’m thinking. They get kind of annoyed. But you can do it with an online community. So what I would love to know, because you’ve been running – I’ve known you for a couple years and I know some of the super fun exploits that you’ve gotten yourself into.

Like we went through Ragnar together and I saw you really rock that out. Saw you do the marathon. I keep wanting to say the Philly Marathon. The Marine Corps Marathon last year. I saw you cross the finish line in Savannah as well.

So talk to me about some of your favorite running stories, and preferably one that I don’t already know because you’ve got so many. But I have a feeling you have lots of other running stories. Actually, it can be one that I know but give me some flavor of how you roll as a runner and share some stories that you’ve got that you think would be interesting to folks.

Elle Dee: One of the things that I really like about running is that it lets me travel. I love to go places, but I’m not a person who likes to go somewhere and just kind of sit. I like to have something to do once I get there. And there’s a lot of places in the world that are like that. But if you’re going by yourself and you end up running a race, you don’t feel like, oh, I’m just here by myself because you’re usually around 10,000 other people.

And so that’s always been super fun for me to travel, see some other part of the United States or maybe knock on wood, one day, some other part of the world, and to be able to run with other people. It’s almost like being in The Canterbury Tales. You’re meeting people along the way of this journey that you’re all traveling. Obviously, it’s not a pilgrimage. I suppose in some ways it almost is.

Jill: It kind of is.

Elle Dee: But it really is. You meet all these interesting people, even in the context of a race. I find all of the races fun. One of the funnest things that I ended up doing was there was a – one year at a Little Rock marathon had a, what I call an off year, which is they had a scheduled time and had to change it. And I can’t remember what the circumstances were, but unfortunately, the change came back to back with a marathon that I was planning to run, which was the local hometown marathon here in Birmingham, Alabama.

But I went on to it anyway because the Little Rock marathon gives you an early start opportunity and gives you a lot of grace in terms of when you can finish. So I took that opportunity and that really was just a party. The whole way through. The people were coming out onto the streets in sofa, sitting out in the middle of the streets on sofas and everything else. Handing out all kinds of food and beverages of all various kinds.

It was a lot of fun to do that. It was just a lot of fun to do something with a community, a huge group of people. People are usually extraordinarily nice. So I really liked that and it’s not as hyper competitive sometimes as even cycling events, which I do find sometimes get into that kind of different energy. Running events seem to have a different energy than the cycling events.

But then again, I’m never at the front of the line. So I don’t know what it’s like to be an elite runner, or even someone who’s tried to get some big PR. So it might be different for them. But for me, it’s a big part. I enjoy it.

Jill: I love that. And that’s – I think because when you’re cycling, you’ve got to be paying attention to not banging into other cyclists and so forth, but running is just a little more casual I think. And so the attitude sort of reflects that at races, or at certain races. So I love that.

So what is your – let’s talk about some of your favorite races. When you think back over all the races you’ve done in your life, what’s one that stands out to you as just a really amazing experience? Is it the Little Rock? Or is a different one?

Elle Dee: I think probably it would be a cross between the hometown one – the one where I live, the Mercedes Marathon in Birmingham is just a milestone because it says to me I’ve lived another year and every year that I’ve lived in this town, I run this race. The first year that I participated in the Mercedes Marathon, I wore a giant puffy coat because I had no idea what I was doing.

And I believe I wore a sweatsuit, like sweatpants and suit top. Literally, I was dressed like I was going to a sauna or something, with a giant puffy coat. Of course, I had to come out of the giant puffy coat when we got to mile two or whatever, sweating like a pig. And I wasn’t running running either. I was just doing a little 30 seconds and then I would walk for five minutes and then 30 seconds. So I look back and laugh at that. Hopefully there are no pictures.

Jill: I bet there are if you dug far enough.

Elle Dee: Oh my goodness. But every year I’ve done it. I’ve had the blessing to do it. So I’m glad to be able to do it every year, to be able to say this is the milestone of the year. But of course, the one that I think that was still the most impactful to me is Marine Corps because of the different things that the race means and signifies to the folks out there.

And I think I was telling you when I ran that race about the blue mile, where they have the pictures of all the fallen service men and women of that year. And they’re just so young looking, so vibrant, and I was just so moved to see that. So on both sides. That’s how many people we’re talking about.

But it wasn’t all sad. It was also a lot of great energy at the Marine Corps Marathon too, and they have an ultra now, which I am not signed up for, but I am amazed that people are running an ultra out there.

Jill: Well, so let’s talk about goal races then. What is your ultimate race that you would just absolutely love to do?

Elle Dee: One of the things that I do to inspire myself is watch the people running these trail races on YouTube. So right now, I’m watching Unbreakable because they’ve just made it available for free and that is the race, The Western States 100. So I watch all of the – sometimes they livestream those races too.

So I often watch the livestreams of the London Marathon or the Berlin Marathon. Like I said, I’m just kind of amazed at the racing, the strategy the people employ, the number of people that come together to help the runners get to the finish line. And I just think, I would love to be a part of a big race like that.

And I had signed up for a big race like that this year – it won’t happen. It doesn’t look like it’s going to happen this year, but I was just thinking about it this morning on my run. I was excited to think, “That means I have a little bit more time to get stronger, to get my climbing legs under me, and to become a better climber so I can participate in some of these races that I see.”

Jill: Well, and you have a big trail race coming up this summer. The Broken Arrow?

Elle Dee: Yes, that’s right. And that has been canceled actually. They just sent the thing out. It’s been canceled.

Jill: Not delayed? Just canceled outright?

Elle Dee: Yeah. I think they’re going to cancel it. They didn’t say postponed. They said we can’t do it. And I think that’s because they have so many – I think once they canceled Western States, which is also in Squaw Valley, I think that Broken Arrow had to go down too. So that’s not happening but that was a lot of climbing for somebody like me who’s from the east and I don’t have ready access to big mountains. So that gives me time to get these new poles that I’ve just purchased and learn how to use them.

Jill: I love this. Think back to when you first started running. Could you have imagined where you are now? Could you have ever pictured that?

Elle Dee: No. I would not even have thought – I think the biggest thing for me through this whole process and why Run Your Best Life and Not Your Average Runner has been different for me has really been the middle part of it. I would not even have imagined or even thought about doing something like that. I would just have been looking at the movies on YouTube and watching everybody else do the runs that they’re doing out there and thinking wow, that’s amazing.

It just wouldn’t have occurred to me, oh, you can be part of that too, or you can be part of something like that. And now I think that my mental space is changing. I’m still working on it, but it’s changing a lot in terms of what I think is possible for me, what I think is doable, and what my identity is as a runner.

Jill: I kind of love that. Because I did want to ask you how have you changed because of running. So what is the shift? The before and after of where you’re at mentally. You said what I think I’m capable of. Can you say a little bit more about that?

Elle Dee: My identity before always was I’m not good at sports. I was the kid that was standing in the school yard and getting hit in the face with a football and ending up at the school nurse. I’m that kid. And we all knew her. And I’ve always been that person. My identity was I’m clumsy, I don’t know what I’m doing.

And then I think being infused with all of these runners on the page who are just getting out there and doing it every day, suddenly, it became within reach. I suddenly became part of that movement to do this. And I just wanted to try harder because I saw all these other people trying harder and building their identity.

And then the podcast and I think your Facebook coaching and your actual online coaching started building in me the shift to the runner identity, which is – this is something that you and Jen talk about in a podcast. I can’t remember which one it was, but a podcast some time ago. Might have even been a year or more, which was treat running at some point, like you treat the things that are part of your life.

You end up doing it and you don’t even think about it anymore. You don’t even think about I’ve got to take a shower. You don’t even think about I’ve got to brush my teeth. It’s just part of who you are. And one day, it hasn’t been – a few months ago, I just woke up and I realized that this was now part of my identity.

I get up, I brush my teeth, I get whatever I’m going to get to go running and then I go run. I don’t think about it. I don’t ponder do I feel like it. I don’t have those kind of conversations any much anymore as I used to. Because I always used to have a lot of foot dragging and conversations about do I feel like it and is this the right day to do this and suddenly, those things, more and more are going away. I suspect that is because I now think of myself as somebody who does this.

Jill: I think that’s exactly it. And so I know that there’s a lot of people listening that are thinking, “Okay, but I’m at the place of I’m still arguing with myself to get out the door, or I still am kind of criticizing my running and I have all the thoughts about how I’m doing it wrong.” Because that’s where all of us start out. So what advice would you give to that person that is not really in that place of identifying as a runner yet but really, really wants to.

Elle Dee: I think that there’s no shortcut to the breakthrough. I think you sign up for the goal that you want and what this really is about is showing yourself the resilience to do this every day, or to do something towards your goal every day. I don’t mean run every day, but I mean something towards your goal.

Either convincing yourself on your off days that yes, I’m going to do this run this week, or getting the right gear, or doing your strength training, whatever it is. I think that some of the things that have really helped me is kind of infusing myself, almost in every way with something that helps me towards my goal. The things I look at on social media, I want to make sure that they are focused on the things that I want to be or want to get to.

If I’m on some part of social media that is kind of tearing that down or not in support of that, well then I got to get off of that. The things, the entertainment that I look for, the things that I read are kind of focusing on what is it that can help me build this mental muscle to do what it is that I want to do.

And I’m going to tell you, I am the world’s biggest skeptic. I am the world’s biggest naysayer. I am always the person that says I can’t do this. I remember when I trained for my first marathon, I was worried about my running partner because I told her, I let her know, “When we get to mile 17, I’m going to start complaining, and I’m going to be wanting a pizza. So if we can find a pizza place, we’re going to have to pick it up because that will convince me not to go in there and order a pizza while we’re on this run.”

So all of those things, but somehow, some way, you’ve got to kind of say to yourself, “It’s going to be hard. I’m going to say a lot of negative things to myself at the beginning and you know what, the harder it is sometimes, the stronger that you can get.” So just try to stay in there for the breakthrough. I think it’s just like anything else. When we think about regular athletes, that’s exactly what they’re doing. They are setting up their lives, pointing towards every goal that they want to get to.

Jill: I love that. There’s no shortcut to the breakthrough. I love that you said that because it’s true. There are no shortcuts. You just got to go through it. There really aren’t for anybody. You just got to go through it and it’s worth it though. I love that so much.

Okay, so let’s see. We talked about best advice for a newbie. We’re opening up the Rebel Runner Roadmap course, which is a 30-day online course for brand new runners. We’re opening that up, I think it’s open already actually. And you’ve gone through the course, and then after you go through the course, of course, you can join Run Your Best Life, which is the coaching program that you’re in right now.

But do you have any advice for somebody who’s thinking about, I don’t know if this Rebel Runner Roadmap thing is for me, what’s it all about, do you have any advice for that person who’s kind of unsure if it’s the right thing for them?

Elle Dee: I do. And here’s what I think. Because I’ve actually been in a regular running club program. So I was in a program where they were training athletes to become runners. The piece that I think the Rebel Roadmap really gives you, the Rebel Runner Roadmap gives you is the right around service on the middle part.

I think that sports athletes have sports psychologists for a reason. And that is because when you put big stress on the body by running or strength training or whatever, your mind has to be part of that too because if your mind isn’t running with you, then as you talk about, your toddler brain will take you off somewhere where you’ll stop running altogether, or you won’t do the other things that you need to try to keep yourself on the pavement.

And so for me, the middle part of this is so important. To not just your and Jen’s direct coaching, but also the advice and hearing all the other rebels’ wisdom in the coaching calls is always just an incredible experience to be part of a community, to be part of the mind work, and to get all the normal things that you would get in a running coaching experience, which is form and fundamentals, strength and cross training, motivational stuff. But you also get obviously this mind work, and that’s really probably the biggest part for me this time, and I think it’s the time that’s really different than the other attempts that I’ve had to try to run.

Jill: Yeah, because that’s it. You said it. You nailed it. You said if your mind isn’t on board, you’re going to struggle to stay a runner. And so that is something for sure with the Rebel Runner Roadmap, we teach you how to run, we teach you how to do safely, but we also help you get your brain in the right space to keep you doing it for life if you want to. Super fun.

Elle Dee: Yeah. And for those people who are sort of down on themselves, and like I said, I’ve had a lot of times in my life when I was a bit down on myself, comparing myself to other people, and I’m around a lot of great people. Both at work and in these different clubs. People out here are crushing it.

And I was thinking, I’m not really that kind of person who is crushing it like that. Once you get around a community and you start talking to people, you’re like, oh, well, I’m part of this thing and these people accept me and they see me as a runner. And so once other people start sort of confirming for you that you’re a runner, suddenly, you’re like, oh okay, of course I am. I’ve never called myself a runner. For years I just said, “Oh, I’m just somebody who runs. I’m not really a runner.”

Jill: Isn’t that fascinating? And how many marathons have you completed?

Elle Dee: Five.

Jill: You’re like, I’m not really a runner. I’m just somebody who runs. Right? The mind is so – minds are amazing. Brains are amazing when they do that to us.

Elle Dee: Yeah. It really helps you stop the comparison. You can read all day long, comparison is the thief of joy. But of course, it is hard to put into practice if someone isn’t drilling it into you. And that’s one of the things that I sort of like about Run Your Best Life is you get a lot of opportunities to have that drilled into you.

Jill: And you’ve become such a strong leader in that space, in that group because I think you’ve had this transformation where now you see yourself as a runner. That’s your identity. So you’re now kind of paying it forward and helping other people see themselves. Doesn’t that feel good to recognize like, oh, I’ve made this transformation and now I can help other people do it too?

Elle Dee: It does. And it just keeps you in mind of – it keeps you in a growth mindset. It keeps you striving, keep you moving, and just keeps you thinking about how can I continue to stay in this and to kind of proceed. Because of course, one of the things that people my age will say to me is, “What are you doing running? You’re going to ruin your knees. You’re going to do all these terrible things to yourself.” And its fun to be around people who are showing every day through their lives that no, you can do something different if you want to.

Jill: Yeah, that’s it. You can do something different if you want to. You don’t have to just follow the herd. You can create your own path. And you’ve 100% done that. I just love watching you excel at running and set amazing goals for yourself. I still remember being on the Ragnar team last September and we had people that had gotten injured, fallen and hurt themselves, and you’re like, oh, no problem, I’ll run their miles.

So you ended up running I think it was over 30 miles within a 36-hour period in the woods. And you just did it with a smile on your face and you’re like, of course, I’m just going to go run some more miles. You’re like, I’m training for a marathon, I need this. I was just…

Elle Dee: Ragnar was amazing. It really was. That probably gave me the closest experience to all of these races that I watch about in the movies like Western States and the different races that they run out in the west. These 36-hour races. That probably gave me the closest experience to those, so I was just amazed to be part of that. And just a strong couple of teams that we took up there. Now we’re going with four teams. It’s incredible.

Jill: I know. I can’t believe we have four teams going this year. It’s going to be so much freaking fun. All the sweat and dirt and sleeplessness and it was all 100% worth it because it was just such a great experience.

Elle Dee: It really was. And I’ve got to say about Ragnar trail that the things that I was worried about, not one of them happened. It was a near perfect experience. I mean, other than things that might have happened to other people, for me though, it was nearly the perfect experience. I mean, I was never hungry, I was never cold, I always had somewhere that I could go to the restroom. The running was great. It was just a fantastic experience and the people were wonderful.

Jill: Yeah. We had a great team. We had so much fun. I’m really excited to go back this year. And I’m glad it’s not until September so we have a really good chance of it not getting canceled. Like now everything is sort of in jeopardy, but I think we’ll be okay. Alright, well, thank you so much for joining me today. It’s just been a pleasure to kind of catch up and talk about what’s going on with you with running.

What I want to offer our listeners is if you are interested in following Elle Dee’s journey, seeing what she’s up to, how can people get in touch with you? What’s the best way for people to know what your running adventures are?

Elle Dee: Well, of course I am on the page, both the Not Your Average Runner official podcast page, but I’m also on the Run Your Best Life page. And I have an Instagram and once I start doing something of note, I’m going to actually start posting again on Instagram. I was like, well, I’m in the house, I don’t know if I have anything Instagrammable happening in this house. I don’t cook food that is Instagrammable.

Jill: Me neither.

Elle Dee: But I am on Instagram at @followtheshiny.

Jill: Followtheshiny.

Elle Dee: Yes, which is one of my personal mottos.

Jill: I love that. It’s not about the movie The Shining? Because that’s one of my favorite movies.

Elle Dee: Follow the shiny.

Jill: I got you. Follow the shiny. Oh, I love that. That’s beautiful. Okay, so Instagram @followtheshiny. And if you join the Rebel Runner Roadmap, it’s open right now. Keep forgetting – we’re recording this now but it’s going to be open next week. If you join the Rebel Runner Roadmap and then progress forward into Run Your Best Life, of course, you can connect with Elle Dee in our Run Your Best Life coaching program. So one final question I have for you then. What is something that you want people to know about you that we did not talk about today?

Elle Dee: I was thinking about what is – because we’re all in here, we have time to think about ourselves, right? And I just want to say to folks, and this is something that I’m working on believing about myself as well, I was re-reading Toni Morrison’s Beloved and one of the things that is the center quote of that is, “You are your best thing.”

And so I just want people to remember that and hold that in their lives. A lot of life today is social media and how people look at you and how you appear to others and what you’re looking at other people doing. And I think you just have to kind of recenter and say you are your best product. You are your best thing and let that be your guide through all this.

Jill: I could not love that more. And I think that is the perfect ending to this interview. So thank you so much for being your best thing. And sharing it with everybody here on the show and it’s been my honor to speak with you for the past 40 minutes or so. Thank you so much.

Elle Dee: Thank you.

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.