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Speaker 2: Thank you New York. Today we're reminded of the power
Speaker 2: of community and the power of coming together. Athletes, on
Speaker 2: your mark.
Speaker 3: The first woman to finish for the second straight year
Speaker 3: here in the New York City Marathon is Miki Gorman,
Speaker 3: a smiling Miki Gorman, and why not. 2: 29:30 the time for Gorman.
Speaker 4: Look at the emotion of Shalane Flanagan as she comes
Speaker 4: to the line.
Speaker 5: Pointing to his chest, pointing to the USA he so
Speaker 5: proudly wears across his chest. A great day for Matt Kapowski.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Hey everybody, it's Rob Simmelkjaer and welcome to a
Rob Simmelkjaer: special episode of Set the Pace, the official podcast of
Rob Simmelkjaer: New York road runners presented by Peloton, and of course
Rob Simmelkjaer: it is Marathon Week here in New York City. We
Rob Simmelkjaer: are so excited. We are so busy. We are all
Rob Simmelkjaer: running around as we know you are getting ready for
Rob Simmelkjaer: the big day on Sunday, the 2024 TCS New York City
Rob Simmelkjaer: Marathon. Because it's such a special time, we're going to
Rob Simmelkjaer: actually release Set the Pace in three different parts today.
Rob Simmelkjaer: First up on this mini episode, you're going to hear
Rob Simmelkjaer: the great Meb Keflezighi with this week's member moment. A
Rob Simmelkjaer: few weeks ago, Meb was able to catch up with
Rob Simmelkjaer: Courtney Knights, a member of our 2024 team, Inspire. Feeling
Rob Simmelkjaer: that motherhood was overtaking her identity, Courtney decided to reclaim
Rob Simmelkjaer: her sense of self by signing up for the TCS
Rob Simmelkjaer: New York City Marathon. At the same time, having discovered
Rob Simmelkjaer: that she carries the BRCA2 gene, Courtney has chosen to
Rob Simmelkjaer: undergo a prophylactic surgery shortly after the race in order
Rob Simmelkjaer: to reduce her cancer risk and to use her run
Rob Simmelkjaer: to raise money for the Susan G. Coleman Foundation for
Rob Simmelkjaer: breast cancer. By confronting these life hurdles and turning them
Rob Simmelkjaer: into an opportunity to create good, Courtney is showing her
Rob Simmelkjaer: young sons and all of us that we can face
Rob Simmelkjaer: tough decisions head on and step- by- step we can
Rob Simmelkjaer: meet challenging goals. Following this interview with Courtney, Meb will
Rob Simmelkjaer: be back with today's Meb Minute, which features his final
Rob Simmelkjaer: words of wisdom for all you marathoners out there who
Rob Simmelkjaer: are just days away from heading to the starting line
Rob Simmelkjaer: on Staten Island. Then you can check your feed later
Rob Simmelkjaer: on in the day for not one but two interviews
Rob Simmelkjaer: which we're going to record later today from the citizen
Rob Simmelkjaer: stage at the TCS New York City Marathon Expo, presented
Rob Simmelkjaer: by New Balance. We're going to have both the legendary
Rob Simmelkjaer: chairman of the New York Rooters Board of Directors, George
Rob Simmelkjaer: Hirsch, and five- Time Olympic medalist, three- time gold medalist
Rob Simmelkjaer: in Paris and the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon
Rob Simmelkjaer: Grand Marshal, my friend, Gabby Thomas. Can't wait to have
Rob Simmelkjaer: Gabby joining us here on Set the Pace. Not every
Rob Simmelkjaer: day you get a gold medalist on Set the Pace.
Rob Simmelkjaer: But for now, let's get on with today's member moment
Rob Simmelkjaer: featuring team inspires Courtney Knights on this mini episode of
Rob Simmelkjaer: Set The Pace. Meb, take it Away.
Meb Keflezighi: Thanks Rob. Courtney, welcome to the Set the Pace podcast.
Meb Keflezighi: How are you doing today?
Courtney Knights: Good. It's so nice to be here with you. Thanks
Courtney Knights: for having me, Meb.
Meb Keflezighi: Nice to meet you. After having your two boys, you
Meb Keflezighi: felt you were losing your identity to motherhood. How has
Meb Keflezighi: training for the marathon helped you to redefine yourself and
Meb Keflezighi: what have you learned about yourself through this journey into running?
Courtney Knights: Yeah, so I have two little boys. They're two and
Courtney Knights: five years old, and parenthood is a really magical thing,
Courtney Knights: but it can be all encompassing. Working full time, being
Courtney Knights: there for my boys, I was really struggling to make
Courtney Knights: time for myself. Before I had kids I exercised a
Courtney Knights: lot. Thinking of myself as an athletic person was a
Courtney Knights: big part of my identity, although I was a very
Courtney Knights: casual runner, I have to admit. But my husband kept
Courtney Knights: encouraging me to refine that part of myself, and so
Courtney Knights: my running journey really started about six months ago when
Courtney Knights: I received an email from New York Road Runners saying
Courtney Knights: that I had not been selected in the drawing for
Courtney Knights: the 2024 New York City Marathon. I'd entered the lottery
Courtney Knights: a few times before. Every year after watching the marathon
Courtney Knights: it's really inspiring, but when I'd gotten that email about
Courtney Knights: the lottery, I felt a lot of relief because I'm
Courtney Knights: not really a runner. I'm like, how was I going
Courtney Knights: to run the marathon? But this year I felt something
Courtney Knights: new. I felt disappointment and I thought, well, if I
Courtney Knights: really want to run the marathon let's find a way
Courtney Knights: to do it. I think the disappointment stemmed from realizing
Courtney Knights: that what I needed to do to make time for
Courtney Knights: myself and to find myself was to do something really
Courtney Knights: hard, to really challenge myself, to find the courage to
Courtney Knights: do a hard thing. There was also this little voice
Courtney Knights: in the back of my head, and that was the
Courtney Knights: voice of my son, Teddy, who last year when we
Courtney Knights: were watching my friend Jamie run had asked me, mom,
Courtney Knights: why aren't you running the marathon? So I went out,
Courtney Knights: I laced up some old running shoes and I ran
Courtney Knights: a mile and it felt okay. It didn't feel great,
Courtney Knights: but I was like, let's do this. Let's find a
Courtney Knights: way to run the marathon. I researched charity partners, I
Courtney Knights: applied to a few, and I was really fortunate to
Courtney Knights: be selected to be part of Team Komen, to raise
Courtney Knights: money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Training for the
Courtney Knights: Marathon has really given me my sense of self back.
Courtney Knights: I've made new friends, I've strengthened friendships, and I've learned
Courtney Knights: I can do hard things. When I run, I visualize
Courtney Knights: seeing my family around Mile 25 in Central Park and
Courtney Knights: seeing how proud they are of me, and that gives
Courtney Knights: me a huge sense of pride in myself already.
Meb Keflezighi: Well Courtney, parenthood is hard, but motherhood it extremely, extremely
Meb Keflezighi: difficult, and marathon hopefully will heal that pain. Not that
Meb Keflezighi: it is easy. You discovered you inherited BRCA2 genes. You
Meb Keflezighi: must have been pivotal moment in your life. Can you
Meb Keflezighi: share with us how the knowledge has shaped your decision
Meb Keflezighi: and what it means for you to take control of
Meb Keflezighi: your own health?
Courtney Knights: Yeah, so finding out I had a BRCA2 mutation was
Courtney Knights: really hard, but it wasn't a big surprise. My grandmother
Courtney Knights: was diagnosed with breast cancer at 34 and she lost
Courtney Knights: her battle to breast cancer at 38 years old, and
Courtney Knights: so I knew there was a high likelihood that she
Courtney Knights: had had the BRCA2 mutation and that I had inherited
Courtney Knights: that. It's scary to face information like that, but it's
Courtney Knights: also really empowering. I have a great team of doctors,
Courtney Knights: I have choices, and I thought for a long time
Courtney Knights: I was just going to go down the surveillance route,
Courtney Knights: which is a lot of mammograms, MRIs, ultrasounds, blood work,
Courtney Knights: but there's also a lot of anxiety with that. I
Courtney Knights: have predicted 85% lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, and
Courtney Knights: so now that I'm a mom, I really felt like
Courtney Knights: I needed to do whatever I could so that I
Courtney Knights: never had to tell my kids I have cancer, I
Courtney Knights: never had to miss a day of their life because
Courtney Knights: of cancer. I have to believe that my grandmother, if
Courtney Knights: she had the information that I have now, would have
Courtney Knights: made the same choice to have spent just one more
Courtney Knights: day with my dad, so I'm going to do whatever
Courtney Knights: it takes to be in control of my health.
Meb Keflezighi: Well, thank you for being inspiring and hopefully other women's
Meb Keflezighi: will take your lead in doing mammograms and things like
Meb Keflezighi: that to protect themselves. But how does running on behalf
Meb Keflezighi: of Susan G. Komen in honor of your grandmother connect
Meb Keflezighi: you to her legacy and what does you hope to achieve
Meb Keflezighi: through the fundraising efforts?
Courtney Knights: Yeah, so I'm really honored to be running on behalf
Courtney Knights: of Susan G. Komen. One in eight women and also
Courtney Knights: men are affected by breast cancer in their lifetime and
Courtney Knights: they're working really hard to change that. I never knew
Courtney Knights: my grandmother Carol, but I'm named for her. She was
Courtney Knights: immensely important to my dad. 37 was her last full
Courtney Knights: year of life and it feels really fitting to me
Courtney Knights: to be taking back control of our genetics at 37
Courtney Knights: and to be running for Susan G. Komen in her
Courtney Knights: honor. I've raised over $ 11,000 so far and I'm really
Courtney Knights: grateful to everyone who's donated and joined me in the mission
Courtney Knights: to find a cure for breast cancer.
Meb Keflezighi: I'm a father of three daughters and my cousin had
Meb Keflezighi: breast cancer. She succeeded it.
Courtney Knights: Sorry.
Meb Keflezighi: But my cousin who's a male passed away of breast
Meb Keflezighi: cancer and in Eritrea which unfortunately has no medical attention
Meb Keflezighi: there. So your work is taken into depth and educating
Meb Keflezighi: people to be the best version. Especially in the U.
Meb Keflezighi: S. you have those knowledge to prolong it or protect
Meb Keflezighi: it and things like that. But early awareness is very
Meb Keflezighi: important so congratulations on being a spokesperson and I'm pretty
Meb Keflezighi: sure your little boys inspire you. As Teddy said, when
Meb Keflezighi: you're running the marathon at the TCS New York City Marathon 2024, those words are going
Meb Keflezighi: to come out, the proud I going to feel. Hey, my
Meb Keflezighi: son initiated this, hey mom, why aren't you running? Can
Meb Keflezighi: you give us the little bit of what you might
Meb Keflezighi: be feeling going through the challenges of that running for
Meb Keflezighi: a cause, but also the words of your son?
Courtney Knights: Yeah, my boys really inspire me. The whole running community
Courtney Knights: really inspires me and running has given me a really
Courtney Knights: organic way to tell my story. I'm usually a very
Courtney Knights: private person. I don't like to talk about my health.
Courtney Knights: Most people, I think until I started fundraising, didn't know
Courtney Knights: that I had a BRCA mutation in my life, that I
Courtney Knights: was doing all this monitoring and going through this decision.
Courtney Knights: It's been a difficult decision- making process and journey, but
Courtney Knights: having my kids see me put the hard work in
Courtney Knights: to train for the marathon and make these decisions means
Courtney Knights: a lot to me. I'm having my first surgery shortly
Courtney Knights: after running the marathon, four days later, and instead of
Courtney Knights: ruminating on that surgery, I mean I think about it
Courtney Knights: a lot because I'm talking about my fundraising, but I
Courtney Knights: don't have that anxiety around it. I know that I'll
Courtney Knights: be okay because I'll have just cross the finish line
Courtney Knights: for the marathon and that gives me a lot of
Courtney Knights: strength realizing that.
Meb Keflezighi: You have a very strong home base with your boys
Meb Keflezighi: and husband to help you and support you, but they're
Meb Keflezighi: going to be 50, 000 plus people encouraging you to be
Meb Keflezighi: able to come to the finish line as you look
Meb Keflezighi: at the glass as half full instead of half empty,
Meb Keflezighi: to be able to celebrate you and what you are
Meb Keflezighi: doing is an example for others. We appreciate you coming
Meb Keflezighi: and sharing the story because it takes a village to
Meb Keflezighi: raise a child, but also takes somebody individual who wants
Meb Keflezighi: to be able to educate others, so we are just
Meb Keflezighi: grateful for you to be a member of Moment and be able
Meb Keflezighi: to be on the Set the Pace podcast.
Courtney Knights: Thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity to share my story.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Now it's time for our final Meb Minute of this
Rob Simmelkjaer: 16 week marathon training block. Meb, take it away.
Meb Keflezighi: Final week, rest, hydrate, and relax. In the final weeks
Meb Keflezighi: before the marathon, I'll focus on resting and staying hydrated,
Meb Keflezighi: light workouts and relaxation help me feel fresh and ready.
Meb Keflezighi: Trust in your training, stay relaxed and prepare to give
Meb Keflezighi: your very best on race day. This is important. You
Meb Keflezighi: are almost getting to the starting line and you've done
Meb Keflezighi: all the work and you're having fun, and this is
Meb Keflezighi: where you need to just relax, enjoy the friendship, enjoy
Meb Keflezighi: the camaraderie that running has, especially when you're running the
Meb Keflezighi: TCS New York City Marathon because the United Nations is
Meb Keflezighi: there where people come from all walks of life. I
Meb Keflezighi: always tell people, run to win. It doesn't necessarily mean
Meb Keflezighi: to win a foot race, but it does mean to
Meb Keflezighi: make the effort to win in whatever situation you face.
Meb Keflezighi: It means to get the best out of yourself. Now
Meb Keflezighi: you are there. You are going to run to win.
Meb Keflezighi: You're going to get the best out of yourself. Trust
Meb Keflezighi: in the training, have fun, and guess what, you're going
Meb Keflezighi: to go through the five boroughs from Staten Island all
Meb Keflezighi: the way to Central Park in 26. 2 on your
Meb Keflezighi: feet, which is a magical place as some people refer
Meb Keflezighi: to it as the biggest block party. Have fun among the 50
Meb Keflezighi: plus thousand people that are with you, in front of
Meb Keflezighi: you, behind you, on the side of you. It's time
Meb Keflezighi: to enjoy the journey. Wish you all the best.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Thanks everybody for joining us for this special edition of
Rob Simmelkjaer: Set The Pace. There's more to come today so you
Rob Simmelkjaer: can come back, check in your feed, and we'll have
Rob Simmelkjaer: George Hirsch and then Gabby Thomas in separate episodes coming
Rob Simmelkjaer: up, dropping later on this Thursday before the 2024 TCS New
Rob Simmelkjaer: York City Marathon. We'll see you all down the road
Rob Simmelkjaer: and everybody out there getting ready we wish you the
Rob Simmelkjaer: best of luck. See you at the starting line.