Speaker 1: Pushkin.
Speaker 2: This summer, Pushkin is going to the Olympics. We'll be
Speaker 2: sharing inspiring new athlete stories across our entire network, including
Speaker 2: the latest sports science from What's Your Problem, some amazing
Speaker 2: swimmer stories on slight change of plans, a cautionary Tales
Speaker 2: tale about how women had to fight to run the marathon,
Speaker 2: and an epic season of revisionist history on why America
Speaker 2: participated in Hitler's Olympics. Here on the Happiness Lab, I'll
Speaker 2: talk to the coaches who coached the team USA coaches,
Speaker 2: and I'll hear from an athlete who fell back in
Speaker 2: love with a sport that she'd grown to hate just
Speaker 2: in time to head to the Olympics.
Speaker 1: Be sure to check it out.
Speaker 3: Good morning, Good morning, hey Georgia, nice to meet you.
Speaker 2: I love interviewing elite athletes, but they're often tricky to schedule,
Speaker 2: which means a podcast host needs to grab any opportunities
Speaker 2: she can to chat with them.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for taking the time for this same.
Speaker 3: Problem, thanks to waking up Eadie to do it.
Speaker 2: To talk to Georgia, I had to get up at
Speaker 2: the butt crack of dawn. It's like it's pretty out.
Speaker 2: The sun's out already here in Boston, so it's all good.
Speaker 2: Great your East case. That makes me feel a little
Speaker 2: bit better of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, if it was california'd be a little rough.
Speaker 2: But I was pretty excited to set my alarm for
Speaker 2: this interview because Georgia has an inspiring story to share.
Speaker 2: Until recently, Georgia was a cybersecurity expert. She ran competitively
Speaker 2: as a teen, but had a falling out with her
Speaker 2: sport and hung up her sneakers. Then a few years ago,
Speaker 2: she decided to try out a few amateur races just
Speaker 2: for fun and learned that she was one of the
Speaker 2: fastest women on Earth.
Speaker 3: Hi, my name is Georgia bell.
Speaker 4: I am from London and was working about have taken
Speaker 4: the summer off to be a professional happy named for
Speaker 4: the Olympic Games in Paris.
Speaker 2: I really loved the idea of like, I'm taking the
Speaker 2: summer off, Oh what are you gonna do? You're you
Speaker 2: gonna like travel to France or something like, No, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna run in the Olympics.
Speaker 1: It's just just what I do.
Speaker 3: Fingers cross.
Speaker 4: Yeah, fingers cross was the intro okay, because I know, yeah,
Speaker 4: brush people are quite bad at doing their intros. My
Speaker 4: mom's like, you need to pick yourself up more. You're
Speaker 4: British champion, your world finalists, so if you want me
Speaker 4: to do it again, I can do it with a
Speaker 4: bit more pizazz.
Speaker 1: You did it great.
Speaker 2: But I think that's another lesson for all of us, right,
Speaker 2: is that, like, you know, we all have to kind
Speaker 2: of to our own horn a little bit too. And
Speaker 2: Georgia Bell has a lot to do her horn about.
Speaker 2: After her return to elite racing at age thirty, she's
Speaker 2: begun winning both national and international medals. She's also landed
Speaker 2: a sponsorship deal with Nike. And what makes all this
Speaker 2: even more incredible is that Georgia spent the last five
Speaker 2: years sitting in front of a computer, not outrunning day
Speaker 2: after day, year after year, like the runners she's now beating.
Speaker 2: But George's talent didn't totally come out of nowhere. As
Speaker 2: a teen, she was pretty much the best runner in
Speaker 2: the UK.
Speaker 4: I was English Schools champion when I was kind of fourteen.
Speaker 4: At that point, you call really did too much training.
Speaker 4: A lot of it is down to okay, this, this
Speaker 4: kid is kind of good at this.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it was something that.
Speaker 4: I kind of knew from a young age was something
Speaker 4: that I had a little bit of talent for. And yeah,
Speaker 4: it was exciting to be at that level at that
Speaker 4: age for sure.
Speaker 2: And so talk about those early days because in the
Speaker 2: US right now, kids in sports sometimes feel like they're
Speaker 2: doing it out of pressure to their parents or that
Speaker 2: kind of thing. You know, was yours from pressure? Did
Speaker 2: you really like it? What was your relationship with it?
Speaker 4: Early on, I beat all of the boys in the races,
Speaker 4: and one of the parents just spoke to my parents
Speaker 4: and said, you should really get her down to a
Speaker 4: local running club. And from there I just started going Tuesdays, Thursday,
Speaker 4: Saturdays down to my local club. So started running from
Speaker 4: a really young age. I think the first race I
Speaker 4: ever did properly on a track I was aged eleven,
Speaker 4: and just continue to compete from there. Really, I really
Speaker 4: liked it. It was really fun, It was really social,
Speaker 4: you know, it was an opportunity for me to see
Speaker 4: my friends. I was good at it, which I think helped.
Speaker 4: You know, kids always feel they want to do things
Speaker 4: that they're good at, so that really helped. So, especially
Speaker 4: in the early days, I was just really enjoying training
Speaker 4: and racing and just getting to do it as a
Speaker 4: very social activity while also I guess at the same time,
Speaker 4: not that I would have had awareness of this when
Speaker 4: I was younger, but getting all those endorphins and things
Speaker 4: that are good that come with exercise.
Speaker 2: What happened when you went to UNI? Did you kind
Speaker 2: of continue when you started college?
Speaker 4: Yes, so I continued to compete, and I think what
Speaker 4: happened was either I got worse or everybody else caught up,
Speaker 4: but I just wasn't having the same results that I'd
Speaker 4: had as a very successful youngster. Still managed to get
Speaker 4: a scholarship to go to university in the US, which is,
Speaker 4: you know, it was a really big achievement, and went
Speaker 4: over there to the US, to berkeleyn California, to compete
Speaker 4: on a track scholarship, but never ran faster than I
Speaker 4: did in the UK. And I think that's really the
Speaker 4: point where the pressure started to come in. Obviously, you're
Speaker 4: a little bit of a business deal if you know
Speaker 4: you're being supported financially to go over there and perform.
Speaker 4: And I think that was probably the point where it
Speaker 4: went from being something that I really loved did for fun,
Speaker 4: but actually this kind of new element of pressure added in,
Speaker 4: had a bit of an impact on my performance and
Speaker 4: probably emotionally as well. The training is very different these
Speaker 4: big scholarship programs in the US. They just have huge
Speaker 4: roster of athletes and it's kind of a general training
Speaker 4: program that you kind of fit into and you sink
Speaker 4: or swim.
Speaker 3: For me, I sunk.
Speaker 4: I guess when I did that out in the US,
Speaker 4: And you know, it really worked well for.
Speaker 3: Some people, but it didn't work so well for me.
Speaker 1: I mean, what was that like?
Speaker 2: That must have been so stressful to kind of feel
Speaker 2: that pressure you're far away from home, Like, how did
Speaker 2: you handle it?
Speaker 4: While I was really loving the whole experience of going
Speaker 4: to a university in the US, and I still to
Speaker 4: this day, I think it is an incredible thing to
Speaker 4: experience from a running perspective.
Speaker 3: But I just wasn't as good as I was in
Speaker 3: the UK.
Speaker 4: I was perpetually injured in and out of boots because
Speaker 4: I had stress fractures, and so that just translated to
Speaker 4: not running as well on the track and not running
Speaker 4: as fast, and you know, that was obviously difficult to
Speaker 4: deal with. You know, there's an expectation on you. You
Speaker 4: expect certain amount from yourself, but also your team the
Speaker 4: scholarship team, you know, everyone like that, there's an expectation
Speaker 4: on you. So yeah, I was definitely a difficult time.
Speaker 4: And you just have to keep showing up kind of
Speaker 4: week and week out, even if you're not fit, because
Speaker 4: it's your responsibility, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a tough time in lots of ways.
Speaker 2: I imagine I'm also also been kind of a hit
Speaker 2: to your identity as well. I mean, I work with
Speaker 2: college students really closely at Yale, and I think it's
Speaker 2: hard for them to think of themselves as like, I'm
Speaker 2: a person who runs, I'm a person who rows, crew
Speaker 2: like I'm a runner, I'm a crew member.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: Did you have to kind of update your identity to
Speaker 2: deal with these changes?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was difficult because I was used to being
Speaker 4: from such a young age. I was used to being
Speaker 4: kind of the girl that's good at running, and then
Speaker 4: you kind of go through a period where you're not
Speaker 4: so good at running, but everyone sees you that way.
Speaker 4: So yeah, it was definitely a bit of a strange
Speaker 4: piece for my identity. Also, when I just stopped running
Speaker 4: all the the once I graduated college, that was strange
Speaker 4: time as well, because again I'd gone my whole life
Speaker 4: being the runner, and then all of a sudden I
Speaker 4: wasn't running. So yeah, there were definitely periods of time
Speaker 4: where this sport that was so combined with my identity. Yeah,
Speaker 4: has some strange experiences coming to terms with who I
Speaker 4: was without that. So how did you make that decision
Speaker 4: to stop altogether? That must have been kind of extreme. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it was in a way, I guess. I had finished
Speaker 4: my collegiate career and I had graduated from Berkeley, and
Speaker 4: I just wasn't running so well. I'd been doing it
Speaker 4: for kind of the best part of twenty years, so
Speaker 4: I just thought I really wasn't enjoying it anymore as
Speaker 4: the bottom line, not only when my performance is not
Speaker 4: good enough to sign professionally, but I also was just
Speaker 4: really looking forward to finishing running. It had gone from
Speaker 4: being something that I really loved and looked forward to
Speaker 4: racing and training to I just cannot wait to be
Speaker 4: done with this. I just took a complete break after college,
Speaker 4: went into the working world, lived in San Francisco, and
Speaker 4: it was actually really good period for me because it
Speaker 4: was a chance to kind of do all the things
Speaker 4: that you say no to you so much, you know,
Speaker 4: even things like going for dinner, going away with friends,
Speaker 4: just things you cannot do when you are an athlete.
Speaker 3: It's a full lifestyle choice.
Speaker 2: I'm just curious, though, because I think, you know, so
Speaker 2: many people go through the kind of thing that you
Speaker 2: went through, maybe not with running, but with something else.
Speaker 2: You know, this job that you totally love now you
Speaker 2: hate it, or maybe this volunteer activity that you were
Speaker 2: into is now putting all this pressure on you. I'm
Speaker 2: kind of curious just like how you navigated that transition
Speaker 2: and the sort of emotions that came up from that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was hard.
Speaker 4: I mean, on the one hand, I think people can
Speaker 4: just continue doing things because it's been habit for so long,
Speaker 4: and it's tough because I do think there is real
Speaker 4: value in just showing up to things that you don't
Speaker 4: want to do. That's what builds discipline, and then if
Speaker 4: you do enough of those days over a period of time,
Speaker 4: that's what makes the difference. So in running, you keep
Speaker 4: showing up, that's when you become fit. You know, shop
Speaker 4: on the days you want to show up, on the
Speaker 4: days you don't want to show up, and then after
Speaker 4: a couple of years, you know, you you become really
Speaker 4: good appy, and I think that can translate into other jobs.
Speaker 4: You know, you keep showing up for your job and
Speaker 4: you get better at it and then suddenly you like it.
Speaker 4: But I think, yeah, it had just been such a
Speaker 4: long period and I just I'd thought about it for
Speaker 4: a while and yeah, I just kind of sat down
Speaker 4: with myself, talked to my friends and family and just
Speaker 4: decided that for me, at that point in my life,
Speaker 4: it was really time for a break.
Speaker 3: So it's not an easy decision.
Speaker 4: I'm sure other people going through that it would be
Speaker 4: a tough decision. But I think ultimately, if you're not
Speaker 4: enjoying it and haven't been enjoying it for a while,
Speaker 4: then you need to make some changes to make sure
Speaker 4: that you can be happy.
Speaker 1: And so how long was the break and how did
Speaker 1: you come back from it?
Speaker 3: I think I didn't go.
Speaker 4: For a run for probably like a year, like a
Speaker 4: full break. I gained a little bit of weight, but
Speaker 4: just kind of completely stopped for a while, and then
Speaker 4: I really got back into it over COVID. So obviously
Speaker 4: during that period of time, I was back living in
Speaker 4: London at this point and there was just nothing else
Speaker 4: to you know, everything was shut down and pretty much
Speaker 4: the only time you were allowed to leave the house
Speaker 4: was when you were exercising. I obviously took the opportunity
Speaker 4: on to get out of the house, and then I
Speaker 4: just found that I was really enjoying that release of
Speaker 4: just going for a run. And then suddenly I started
Speaker 4: adding things into my run instead of just going for
Speaker 4: a small job and realized that I was liking that
Speaker 4: competitive element to it again.
Speaker 2: You know, what was it like when you first put
Speaker 2: the running shoes back on, Like were they the same
Speaker 2: ones that you had at Berkeley? Like, you know, just
Speaker 2: kind of curious what that moment felt like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, Like it was shoes that have literally been
Speaker 4: gathering dust, had them in touch for so long. And Yeah,
Speaker 4: originally I like the why of getting out of the
Speaker 4: house was I just need to get out of this house,
Speaker 4: you know, like we've just been cooped up here all day.
Speaker 4: And then suddenly it was a part of the day
Speaker 4: that I was just so looking forward to. Yeah, I
Speaker 4: guess it just felt really natural again, just running felt
Speaker 4: like myself again. That's still how I feel about running today.
Speaker 4: You know, when I have training or a workout is
Speaker 4: still the best part of the day, The part that
Speaker 4: I look forward to the most, and I think everything
Speaker 4: had just been so intensified in COVID that, yeah, it
Speaker 4: was probably even more heightened when I put the running
Speaker 4: shoes on and got out of the house because it
Speaker 4: was just such strange times that we were living in.
Speaker 4: But it was definitely just like a realization that this
Speaker 4: is something that I feel like I'm I meant to do,
Speaker 4: I really love And yeah, it was a bit emotional
Speaker 4: just coming back to that point. And then after lockdown
Speaker 4: subsided a little bit. I'd gained some fitness over that
Speaker 4: period and entered what we have of you here in
Speaker 4: the UK was just quite big board park run. Every
Speaker 4: park on a Saturday just hosts these five k runs
Speaker 4: and it's just a really measurable way of seeing your fitness.
Speaker 4: So I hopped into one of those ran a pretty
Speaker 4: fast five k. I think I did a sixteen minute
Speaker 4: five k, and then after that that made me think, Okay,
Speaker 4: I'm actually in pretty good shape. Maybe it's time to
Speaker 4: get back on the track after five years off, and
Speaker 4: that kind of us at the who'll come back?
Speaker 2: Let's put George's park run performance into perspective, shall we
Speaker 2: running five thousand meters in sixteen minutes, puts Georgia about
Speaker 2: ninety seconds behind the British record and just two minutes
Speaker 2: behind the fastest woman on the planet for an amateur
Speaker 2: race in her local park. George's time was pretty amazing,
Speaker 2: But how did she take the next step to make
Speaker 2: the steep climb back to the pinnacle of her sport.
Speaker 2: We'll hear how when the Happiness Lab returns in a moment.
Speaker 2: After years as a gifted runner in school, Georgia Bell
Speaker 2: fell out of love with the sport. She just couldn't
Speaker 2: see a life for herself as a professional athlete. But
Speaker 2: the COVID lockdown her back and her running shoes and
Speaker 2: she began clocking some pretty impressive times. But there's a
Speaker 2: big difference between a park run and the Olympics. Running
Speaker 2: may seem like an individual pursuit, but it's really a
Speaker 2: team sport. As a teen, Georgia trained with renowned coach
Speaker 2: Trevor Painter. If she was going to become a serious
Speaker 2: contender again, she'd need his help.
Speaker 4: I was just going for runs and training on my own,
Speaker 4: which you know is not so fun. But I decided
Speaker 4: at that point, okay, I've run a decent time I'm
Speaker 4: actually going to get in touch with my old coach
Speaker 4: who I was working with before I went over to
Speaker 4: the US on a scholarship. And so I got back
Speaker 4: in contact with him and said, look, no we haven't
Speaker 4: spoken for years, but I've kind of run these times
Speaker 4: on my own. Do you think it would be worth
Speaker 4: us working together again and see what we can achieve?
Speaker 4: And I know that Trevor had always said, you know,
Speaker 4: I was the one that got away. He really didn't
Speaker 4: want me to go to the US. He really thought,
Speaker 4: stay in the UK. I can train you to be
Speaker 4: an incredible athlete. He has got incredible athletes. You know.
Speaker 4: Keey Hodgkinson is one of his who is hopefully going
Speaker 4: for gold this summer. She got an Olympic silver medal
Speaker 4: when she was just nineteen, So there's a lot of
Speaker 4: pedigree in the group and his training. And yeah, we've
Speaker 4: been working together now for two years and it's just
Speaker 4: going so well. It's great to be part of a
Speaker 4: community and you know, getting that guidance. Yeah, I just
Speaker 4: felt very lucky that I was able to kind of
Speaker 4: go back to him after all those years away, and
Speaker 4: he said, yeah, let's give it a go and see
Speaker 4: what we can do.
Speaker 2: He must be thrilled to get you back, like it
Speaker 2: must be like such a cool thing for him to
Speaker 2: have the one that got away at coming back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 4: I think it's been great for the whole group because there's,
Speaker 4: you know, so many athletes that are doing well at
Speaker 4: different times in their life. You know, I'm definitely one
Speaker 4: of the more mature athletes in the group. A lot
Speaker 4: of people just think of like sixteen year old phenom
Speaker 4: runners that go straight into professional contracts and then the Olympics,
Speaker 4: whereas I'm an example of doing it another way around
Speaker 4: but still hopefully getting to that point. Yeah, he's just
Speaker 4: been a fantastic coach, emotional support and guidance, and yeah,
Speaker 4: I have full trust in him, and I think that's
Speaker 4: one of the things that has led to a lot
Speaker 4: of the success as well.
Speaker 2: And it seems like now you have a slightly different
Speaker 2: relationship to running than you did when you left Berkeley.
Speaker 2: What does it feel like now when you engage in it.
Speaker 4: Even though I am on a professional contract now, like
Speaker 4: I am a Nike athlete since earlier this year, So
Speaker 4: in a way you would think, Okay is kind of
Speaker 4: pressured there as well. But it doesn't feel like that,
Speaker 4: like I'm much more mature. I think I'm making a
Speaker 4: lot more decisions over my body and racing and training
Speaker 4: that I just felt like I didn't really have before.
Speaker 4: And that means that I just feel a lot more
Speaker 4: in control and enjoying it. So I'm just so grateful
Speaker 4: for having a second shot with running that I think
Speaker 4: it's just translating really nicely into races. I'm just happy
Speaker 4: to be here seizing every opportunity. So yeah, I'm just
Speaker 4: loving it at the moment.
Speaker 2: It seems like you're less injury prone as well. I mean,
Speaker 2: it seems like there's a kind of different model of
Speaker 2: training where it's not like push push push, but trying
Speaker 2: to maybe is taking in more rest and sort of
Speaker 2: taking more breaks.
Speaker 1: Is that right too?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I probably do about half the amount of
Speaker 4: running that I was doing in the US and the USA.
Speaker 4: I was on fifty five sixty miles a week. Here,
Speaker 4: I'm running about thirty. But I'll do a lot more
Speaker 4: on the bike to make sure I'm getting that work
Speaker 4: without any impact. And yeah, take a recovery day at
Speaker 4: least once a week, and then just some hard track
Speaker 4: sessions to make sure that we're fitting her fee to compete, which.
Speaker 1: I think is its own message.
Speaker 2: I think when we're trying to push ourselves to something,
Speaker 2: whether it's as an athlete or at work, or just
Speaker 2: you know, with some sort of new personal habit that
Speaker 2: we're trying to develop, we can sometimes want to push, push, push,
Speaker 2: and like do it in this extreme way. But sometimes
Speaker 2: engaging in a little bit of self compassion and taking
Speaker 2: that rest can actually mean the difference between being able
Speaker 2: to do it long term and like just some short
Speaker 2: blip of whatever we're trying.
Speaker 3: To do exactly.
Speaker 4: And I think for me, knowing what it feels like
Speaker 4: to be constantly injured and trying to come back to fitness,
Speaker 4: I never want to be in that situation again. So
Speaker 4: I'm much better at kind of listening to my body.
Speaker 4: I'm very quick to kind of share information with my
Speaker 4: coach if I'm feeling any kind of concerns, whereas in
Speaker 4: the past perhaps I wouldn't do that. I would just
Speaker 4: keep it to myself and it would translate into a
Speaker 4: bigger problem. And so yeah, I'm just much more mature
Speaker 4: in terms of looking after myself and making sure that
Speaker 4: I am maybe doing less miles, but that means that
Speaker 4: I can consistently build a year and year in year
Speaker 4: rather than taking breaks out because I'm injured, and that's
Speaker 4: resulting in, you know, some good performances on the track.
Speaker 2: I mean, it seems like you're embodying a couple of
Speaker 2: the happiness principles that we talk about on the podcast.
Speaker 2: I mean, one of them is just this idea of
Speaker 2: kind of mindfulness or being present. And they hear you
Speaker 2: talk about running now, it seems different than the way
Speaker 2: you talked about it at Berkeley, where it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: it is this pressure thing and I'm worried about the scholarship.
Speaker 1: It seems like you're able to just be present now.
Speaker 1: Is that really kind of what's going on in your
Speaker 1: runs these days?
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. I mean being present.
Speaker 4: There's nothing that you could get as close to that
Speaker 4: as is with race day because you know, you haven't
Speaker 4: got any distractions around you and on your phone, there's
Speaker 4: no screens and you just are so in the moment for.
Speaker 3: That period of time.
Speaker 4: So my race is about four minutes long, and I
Speaker 4: just love the feeling that you have where you're just
Speaker 4: so present, You're running off instinct, you're reacting to the
Speaker 4: crowd things around you, and yeah, it's just for me,
Speaker 4: it's the closest thing to just feeling alive when you
Speaker 4: have that race day moment, and yeah, you're just so there,
Speaker 4: You're so present, and it's just something really special.
Speaker 1: I think I love that.
Speaker 2: Another one of the kind of happiness principles you've embodied
Speaker 2: kind of comes with that. When you got your Nike scholarship,
Speaker 2: which is it. My understanding is that you were kind
Speaker 2: of doing these part grunds and getting faster and faster,
Speaker 2: but you were also like working full time, right, Is
Speaker 2: that right?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I was, so, I've only I've gone on a
Speaker 4: sabicycle over the summer period when I started running again competitively,
Speaker 4: I was working full time and I have been until
Speaker 4: quite recently. So in a way it was good because
Speaker 4: it took off all the pressure financially, you know, I
Speaker 4: wasn't relying on running for that in a way that
Speaker 4: perhaps in the past I might have been, or how
Speaker 4: other athletes might be. But definitely from a timing standpoint,
Speaker 4: I did not have a lot of time. I was
Speaker 4: pretty much just waking up early to train for for
Speaker 4: work and then training after work. So there were really
Speaker 4: long days and it was really tough, and so yeah,
Speaker 4: since the beginning of May, I've been on just full
Speaker 4: running mode and it is amazing. I'm just very happy
Speaker 4: to have time back in my life to recover, train
Speaker 4: and not be rushing around. But yeah, I was a
Speaker 4: big juggling act at the beginning of this year. I
Speaker 4: was at World Championships in March, taking zoom calls.
Speaker 3: Between my heat and my final.
Speaker 4: Not an ideal scenario for performing well, but luckily, luckily
Speaker 4: it went well. But yeah, no, I'm very happy to
Speaker 4: be having some time back in my life right now.
Speaker 1: And that's so nicely fits with everything we know from
Speaker 1: the science.
Speaker 2: You know, researchers talk a lot about this phenomena of
Speaker 2: time famine, where you're kind of feeling like you're starving
Speaker 2: for time, and that's like a huge hit on your
Speaker 2: happiness and a huge hit on your performance. And so
Speaker 2: it's so nice to see that you embraced, embrace the
Speaker 2: kind of time affluence, which is the opposite where you
Speaker 2: kind of really had some free time.
Speaker 4: My life when I had that kind of time famine
Speaker 4: was just I was always just rushing, like rushing to
Speaker 4: get to the track, to train, rushing to get back
Speaker 4: to be on my next zoom brushing in the five
Speaker 4: minutes I had between calls to make a protein shake,
Speaker 4: so I could not be starving while I sit there
Speaker 4: between my next kind of block of calls, And that
Speaker 4: kind of took me away from being in the moment,
Speaker 4: you say, for lots of those things, because I'm always
Speaker 4: thinking about the next thing that I have to do
Speaker 4: and stay on top of, and so kind of removing
Speaker 4: that whole time pressure has just meant that I can
Speaker 4: enjoy those aspects of the day, my training and recovery
Speaker 4: and all those things that you need to do to
Speaker 4: be a top athlete.
Speaker 2: I bet not everybody at your cybersecurity firm is like
Speaker 2: taking off time to like go to Olympics this summer. So, like,
Speaker 2: how have people reacted like you do? You are people
Speaker 2: like shocked that you're kind of at this level now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 4: I mean I think once I started running well, which
Speaker 4: has only been since the beginning of this year, really
Speaker 4: where I've been in that elite territory. So it's gone
Speaker 4: from being Oh, Georgia kind of does some running on
Speaker 4: the weekend. She used to be a good runner when
Speaker 4: she's younger, to like Okay, George is a British champion,
Speaker 4: she's a Nike athlete. Now she's trying to go to
Speaker 4: the Olympics this summer, so.
Speaker 3: It's been a big switch up.
Speaker 4: Work have been really supportive, but yeah, as you say,
Speaker 4: they were very surprised. I kind of told them, turn
Speaker 4: on BBC. I'm going to be racing in World Championships now,
Speaker 4: I'm taking a couple of days of anual leave to
Speaker 4: do it. And then I think they kind of realized,
Speaker 4: you know, how good an opportunity this is, especially ahead
Speaker 4: of the Olympics in Paris. So yeah, people have been
Speaker 4: incredibly surprised, especially because it's just kind of started as
Speaker 4: doing some part runs and has now escalated into this
Speaker 4: world athlete situation. But everyone is really happy, I think,
Speaker 4: and excited by the story. Like I've got lots of
Speaker 4: messages from people, both people I know and also just
Speaker 4: kind of strangers who are following the story on social
Speaker 4: media just being like, I just heard your story. It
Speaker 4: just inspired me to get back into my local kind
Speaker 4: of football club or boxing, or you just inspired me
Speaker 4: to go for a run.
Speaker 3: Just hearing the story.
Speaker 4: I think people can kind of relate to it because
Speaker 4: when you get into the working world. When you start adulting,
Speaker 4: you kind of just give up on your passions or
Speaker 4: things you used to do quite easily. But actually, this
Speaker 4: is kind of a situation where you continue to do that,
Speaker 4: and actually, if you keep showing up, if you can
Speaker 4: get to these kind of exciting opportunities.
Speaker 2: That's what I love about Georgia, As she explained, so
Speaker 2: many of us fall into adulting, we give up on
Speaker 2: the hopes and dreams we had growing up. Georgia was
Speaker 2: able to rediscover her childlike joy for running, and that's
Speaker 2: taken her right to the Olympics. But Georgia knows that
Speaker 2: real life is not a movie. To compete at this level,
Speaker 2: Georgia realizes she'll have to face the same doubts and
Speaker 2: fears that have ruined many an athlete's career. So how's
Speaker 2: she handling all that? Well, she'll share what she's learned
Speaker 2: when the Happiness Lab returns from the break. Fifteen hundred
Speaker 2: meter champion Georgia Bell loved running as a kid, but
Speaker 2: competing under pressure as a young adult became less enjoyable.
Speaker 1: Over time, she came.
Speaker 2: To dread her meats, But at age thirty, Georgia has
Speaker 2: returned to her sport with glee. She says that changing
Speaker 2: the way she thinks about the stressful parts of competition
Speaker 2: has made all the difference.
Speaker 4: The way how I used to see races, I would
Speaker 4: get really nervous for races. I would feel like this
Speaker 4: big expectation and I'd always be thinking about the things
Speaker 4: that could kind of go wrong and just let doubt
Speaker 4: creep into your head, which inevitably, if you have that
Speaker 4: in a race, it's going to impact your performance. Whereas
Speaker 4: now I just genuinely go into races so excited. I
Speaker 4: always think, you know, I could be in an office
Speaker 4: right now doing a zoom call, but I'm said, I'm
Speaker 4: in Oregon at Nike HQ going into this massive race
Speaker 4: with huge athletes, Like how cool is that? Instead of thinking,
Speaker 4: oh my gosh, this is completely overwhelming, feel really out
Speaker 4: of my depth, and so yeah, I genuinely, as I say,
Speaker 4: I just love that feeling of being in the moment racing.
Speaker 3: Look forward to it so much.
Speaker 4: As soon as I finished my last race last week,
Speaker 4: I was onto my coaches, like, when's my next one?
Speaker 4: I think I've bought a two week break, now can
Speaker 4: we get another one in?
Speaker 3: Before I know.
Speaker 4: Within athletes, you know, life, it's not something you can
Speaker 4: do forever. And I think in a way, just having
Speaker 4: that kind of time limit on it just makes me
Speaker 4: appreciate it so much more in a way that I
Speaker 4: just wasn't mature enough to do when I was in
Speaker 4: my young twenties, because you know, you think the world
Speaker 4: is your oyster then, and in any ways it is.
Speaker 4: But it's almost like getting a little bit older and
Speaker 4: just seeing, actually, you know, this is really special, this
Speaker 4: really unique.
Speaker 3: Go for it in every race that you've got.
Speaker 4: And yeah, luckily for me that's translating really nicely into
Speaker 4: how the results are turning out in races because I
Speaker 4: just take advantage of every opportunity and go for it.
Speaker 2: And I think that gratitude is so important, and I
Speaker 2: think it does come from maybe not age so much
Speaker 2: or wisdom so much, but really this ability to like
Speaker 2: recognize like this isn't permanent, right, you know, the ancients
Speaker 2: talked about this phenomenon of negative visualization, right where it's like,
Speaker 2: what if I'm injured and I can't run anymore. What
Speaker 2: if I'm you know, way too old to run at
Speaker 2: the same pace or to participate in races and it
Speaker 2: seems like you kind of have that negative visualization almost
Speaker 2: on the stand. You're not thinking like, oh, I'm so nervous.
Speaker 2: You're thinking, you know, how many more of.
Speaker 1: These do I have? Like, you know, I'm so grateful.
Speaker 1: It's so cool.
Speaker 4: So you do that, yeah, exactly, And I just I
Speaker 4: always smile on the start line and in the room
Speaker 4: before we go onto the race, which people probably look
Speaker 4: at me and think I'm crazy, but I think it's
Speaker 4: just a good habit. It's kind of like tricks your
Speaker 4: body into reminding yourself that, like, you are going to
Speaker 4: have fun this, it's gonna hurt, but like, this is
Speaker 4: a really cool opportunity. So when the camera comes around,
Speaker 4: you'll see that. You know, some people are super serious
Speaker 4: and in the zone, but I will always be there
Speaker 4: smiling and waving. So I'm just thinking, how cool is this?
Speaker 1: That's awesome, It's so funny.
Speaker 2: I've started working out with my old trainer again, not
Speaker 2: nearly at the level that you're working out, but he
Speaker 2: always in the middle of like you know, squats or
Speaker 2: something will be like and remember to smile, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: I don't want.
Speaker 1: To smile, Like my legs hurt.
Speaker 2: I hate this, but now Olympic athletes are to do this,
Speaker 2: so I'm gonna I'm going to find I think it
Speaker 2: does help.
Speaker 4: It kind of tricks you your your mind and your
Speaker 4: body just a little bit. And especially people say if
Speaker 4: you're doing a long race like a marathon or things
Speaker 4: like that, you know, if you see friends and family
Speaker 4: throughout the race, like it's good to smile and just
Speaker 4: like take a moment. And people do say there is
Speaker 4: a real connect between the mind and the bob when you
Speaker 4: do that, like if you're feeling really tired, it does
Speaker 4: a view kind of boost that you might not have
Speaker 4: had before.
Speaker 2: And so I'm curious about how you're kind of dealing
Speaker 2: with the competitive parts now, right, I'm sort of curious
Speaker 2: how you're thinking about your comeback and sort of what
Speaker 2: it means.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, there is obviously a lot of pressure.
Speaker 4: Team USA and TGB are probably the hardest teams in
Speaker 4: the world to make.
Speaker 3: There are just so many.
Speaker 4: Good athletes, and you have to run the Olympic qualifying time,
Speaker 4: which is basically the Olympics saying you're fast enough to come.
Speaker 4: So I've done that, so i know I'm good now,
Speaker 4: which is awesome, But I think I just look at
Speaker 4: it as if you told me this time last year
Speaker 4: that I would go to the Olympics, there's no way
Speaker 4: I would have believed you. So I just feel like
Speaker 4: even to be at this point, I just feel like
Speaker 4: this is something so special and I'm just really grateful
Speaker 4: for the opportunity, which is how I deal with the pressure.
Speaker 4: I think I'll know I've kind of given it everything,
Speaker 4: especially with taking the break off work this summer. I'd
Speaker 4: really given it everything to make it to such a
Speaker 4: special opportunity.
Speaker 2: When you talk about enjoying your racist so much, it
Speaker 2: seems like you're kind of prioritizing fun in a different way,
Speaker 2: And I'm curious, is that something that your coaching staff
Speaker 2: has really emphasized, Like do they want you to also
Speaker 2: be enjoying this and have fun too.
Speaker 4: They adjust to me a little bit. So every athlete
Speaker 4: is individual, and running is such an individual spot that
Speaker 4: they kind of work with what they see their individual
Speaker 4: athletes works for them, And I think, yeah, they notice
Speaker 4: for me that when I am having fun and in
Speaker 4: a good mood, that's when I'll run my best. And
Speaker 4: so my coach will always say to me before a race,
Speaker 4: like go out there and have some fun. And I
Speaker 4: think that does work for me for me because I've
Speaker 4: had that kind of break from corporate life and even
Speaker 4: if you like your job, it is a bit mundane,
Speaker 4: you know, the commute, the day to day zoom calls like.
Speaker 4: And so for me, I'm like, this is so awesome.
Speaker 4: I'm going to have some fun out there. And yeah,
Speaker 4: that's that's what I see fun as being. Now, you know,
Speaker 4: it's not going out with friends, it's not things like
Speaker 4: going on holiday. For me is and that's what I
Speaker 4: look forward to the most. So that's why I see
Speaker 4: it as being the most fun.
Speaker 2: That's so interesting because I feel like so many people
Speaker 2: with the same situation if they could let that competitiveness
Speaker 2: come in or a certain kind of fear, like you know,
Speaker 2: how do you fight off those kinds of things.
Speaker 3: Don't get me wrong, like I have that competitiveness.
Speaker 4: I do want to win, but I just think it's
Speaker 4: it should be hard and it will be. And I
Speaker 4: think racing is fun when you don't know what's going
Speaker 4: to happen. So the thing about the distance that I do,
Speaker 4: you know, fifteen hundred meters just under a mile, is
Speaker 4: it's it does have tactics in it, so it's kind
Speaker 4: of like a game of chess. So ahead of that race,
Speaker 4: I'm going to be studying, you know, what other people
Speaker 4: have done in other races and when I can make
Speaker 4: a move and based off my strength. And I think
Speaker 4: it's fun and adds pressure to it, you know, when
Speaker 4: there's a championship on the line, a European medal, that
Speaker 4: if you take a risk and it pays off, like
Speaker 4: it's the best feeling, but you have to put yourself
Speaker 4: in those kind of dangerous or tricky situations in the
Speaker 4: race to get the reward. If you just play it safe,
Speaker 4: not gonna win. And so that's what I find exciting
Speaker 4: about it, And yeah, people watching the race will also
Speaker 4: be like this is awesome. And when people when you
Speaker 4: watch races and people take risks like that and it
Speaker 4: pays off, like it's just the best feeling for the athlete,
Speaker 4: but also amazing just for the sport and the atmosphere
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 2: It seems like even with taking these risks, you're kind
Speaker 2: of just like shoving the fear away because I imagine if
Speaker 2: you're kind of doing something novel that that could be
Speaker 2: kind of scary and things like what's your relationship to fear?
Speaker 2: Is that something you've also kind of pushed to the side.
Speaker 4: I'm pushing into the side a lot at the moment,
Speaker 4: and you know, don't get me wrong, Like I'll see
Speaker 4: people compete and be like, oh, that's you know, they're
Speaker 4: gonna be really tricky to come up against, or just
Speaker 4: understanding that the race is gonna hurt, like you're gonna
Speaker 4: put yourself in pain.
Speaker 3: I will train for it. I will do the work.
Speaker 4: And it's almost like that's the tough part of the
Speaker 4: training day in day out, the missing time with family, friends, weddings,
Speaker 4: all that stuff that you have to do, and then
Speaker 4: the racing is the time where you get to have fun,
Speaker 4: you get to actually showcase, and you need those pressure
Speaker 4: environments to get the good results, and it's exciting to
Speaker 4: see what can come out of that. There will always be,
Speaker 4: you know, fear and doubt naturally, but as long as
Speaker 4: you can kind of overcome them, and I just think
Speaker 4: I fill my head with more positive thoughts and exciting
Speaker 4: thoughts and just over time, I've got really good at
Speaker 4: pushing away the fear, and especially in the race, I
Speaker 4: go into races just with positivity and I hope I
Speaker 4: can continue to do that. It might be a bit
Speaker 4: of naivety as well, because I'm kind of new back
Speaker 4: into the spot, but I hope that I keep that
Speaker 4: naivete because it just means you go for it in races,
Speaker 4: whereas you could get overwhelmed with some of the big
Speaker 4: names and things like that, but I don't, And I
Speaker 4: just like how that translates into racing.
Speaker 2: It's so lovely how you've been able to kind of
Speaker 2: re embrace the beginner's mindset. It's just a reminder to
Speaker 2: all of us that even if we're used to something,
Speaker 2: we can kind of get back to the mindset when
Speaker 2: we had when we first started something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. It's like when you learn to ski or something.
Speaker 4: When you're a child, you'll do it better, but when
Speaker 4: you're an adult you can think of all the things
Speaker 4: that could go wrong, and you could be a bit
Speaker 4: more scared. But actually, you know, embracing that kind of
Speaker 4: young mindset and going for it, like you'll learn more quickly,
Speaker 4: you'll enjoy it more. And yeah, I've been taking that
Speaker 4: into races.
Speaker 2: There's such an interesting moral to your story, right, which
Speaker 2: is like, you know you were this runner at Berkeley,
Speaker 2: feeling like you're you know, kind of losing your time,
Speaker 2: and that was it, and now you've really had such
Speaker 2: an amazing turnaround, maybe even one that that runner back
Speaker 2: at Berkeley couldn't have imagined. If you were able to
Speaker 2: kind of tell her something or kind of go back
Speaker 2: and give advice in some time machine, what would that
Speaker 2: be for her?
Speaker 4: I think I would have just said to her, you know,
Speaker 4: make sure that you're happy first. This doesn't mean this
Speaker 4: is all or nothing situation. There are opportunities in the
Speaker 4: future for you to come back and get into running
Speaker 4: when you're ready, when it feels right. I wish I've
Speaker 4: had known more stories of people who have these comebacks,
Speaker 4: and hopefully you know, if someone's hearing this, he's going
Speaker 4: through a tough time or who used to have a
Speaker 4: real passion for something and was good at it and
Speaker 4: it's kind of just died out. Like I wish I
Speaker 4: had known that there are opportunities to come back. And yeah,
Speaker 4: there are just a lot of amazing stories. In the
Speaker 4: moment with me. On the one hand, you kind of
Speaker 4: went into the working world, just got back into doing
Speaker 4: something for passion and fun, kept showing up and as
Speaker 4: now in this position to go to the Olympics this summer.
Speaker 4: But there are other stories like Ellie Saint Purier, who
Speaker 4: is an American runner who is now running faster than
Speaker 4: she ever did after having her baby last year. You know,
Speaker 4: if you told her before that she's going to be
Speaker 4: running even better after she has a baby, like she
Speaker 4: probably wouldn't have thought that's the case. Now that I'm
Speaker 4: aware of kind of my situation and my story, you
Speaker 4: keep hearing others that are similar about having this kind
Speaker 4: of break and then coming back stronger. So that's what
Speaker 4: I would just say to my younger self and to
Speaker 4: anyone else.
Speaker 3: You know, not everyone's path is linear. There are all
Speaker 3: these different scenarios of how you can get to the
Speaker 3: same spot, And I think key is just getting back
Speaker 3: into something and doing it for happiness, and then if
Speaker 3: you keep showing up, then the results will come naturally.
Speaker 2: I for one, can't wait to see Georgia's smile beaming
Speaker 2: the Olympic start line. It's so inspiring to see the
Speaker 2: joy she brings to running. But Georgia also has a
Speaker 2: lot of happiness tips for non athletes. She's taught me
Speaker 2: about the importance of giving myself grace and time and
Speaker 2: having the confidence to take risks and doing stuff merely
Speaker 2: for the enjoyment that comes from living in the moment.
Speaker 2: I wish Georgia and Team GB well, but my heart
Speaker 2: this Olympics will still be with my countrymen and women
Speaker 2: from Team USA, partly because I know some of them
Speaker 2: are benefiting from the lessons they've heard on this very show.
Speaker 1: This is such a special occasion for me.
Speaker 2: I have been a big fan, and it resonated so
Speaker 2: much with me that we were sharing episodes of the
Speaker 2: Happiness Lab with the coaches we were working with. So
Speaker 2: join me to hear how happiness Science helps the coaches
Speaker 2: who coach the Team USA coaches. All that next time
Speaker 2: on the Happiness Lab with me, Doctor Laurie Santos