Speaker 1: Hey that folks.
Speaker 2: It is Sunday, August thirty first, and picture this Amy
Speaker 2: and TJ sitting in a hotel room and Stockholm, Sweden,
Speaker 2: in white robes, a cup of coffee in robox, hand,
Speaker 2: a metal around my neck.
Speaker 1: Now with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
Speaker 1: I just described to you the exact scene. And there's
Speaker 1: a reason we are sitting like this looking like this.
Speaker 1: There's a metal, a cup of coffee, and two folks
Speaker 1: in robes because we just actually did something robes we
Speaker 1: should maybe be a little more proud of and not
Speaker 1: just say all, wait, runner, it's no big deal. We
Speaker 1: just completed the Stockholm half marathon yesterday.
Speaker 3: You know, it is pretty cool. And I was it's
Speaker 3: one of those things where I think, whatever you do
Speaker 3: in life, sometimes you have to remind yourself when you're
Speaker 3: doing it that it's actually pretty cool that you're doing it,
Speaker 3: especially when it's a struggle. But I was actively thinking
Speaker 3: about that yesterday. I was like, I'm in Sweden and
Speaker 3: I'm running a half marathon right now, that's a kind
Speaker 3: of awesome and random. Yes, everyone has been asking questions
Speaker 3: and are puzzled when they say, oh, you're running a
Speaker 3: half marathon where and then just casually drop Stockholm and we'll.
Speaker 1: Explain that's a very good reason why we end up
Speaker 1: in random places. But as we sit here, Rodes is
Speaker 1: doing great, great, great, great physically, how are you feeling?
Speaker 1: You had to tell there's always something.
Speaker 3: I actually, for the first time, there's nothing. I am
Speaker 3: fine head to toe.
Speaker 1: And we say this. Marathons are the ones that do
Speaker 1: us in at least physically. We're not usually too bad
Speaker 1: off after a half marathon. We've been doing this a
Speaker 1: while and that's great, and we're blessed to have that.
Speaker 1: This was a tougher half marat the toughest half marathon
Speaker 1: for me because I've been injured, and we'll get into
Speaker 1: the aftermath of that, which was ugly and nasty and
Speaker 1: involved the toilet. We'll explain that. But my feet are
Speaker 1: actually killing me. But we made it through. But we
Speaker 1: the rose. This was one that we set a goal
Speaker 1: in May of doing this random and it was random
Speaker 1: because you and I these days, as much as we travel,
Speaker 1: we don't travel by ourselves as much anymore.
Speaker 3: No, we usually have at least one daughter tagging along,
Speaker 3: sometimes all three, and then sometimes some of their friends
Speaker 3: come with them as well, so we usually have a
Speaker 3: gaggle of teens and young adults with us.
Speaker 1: So this was an opportunity where we were looking at
Speaker 1: the schedule earlier this year and we were like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're going here with Ava, We're going here with Sabine,
Speaker 1: and Lisa is going to roll here and then we're
Speaker 1: going to see anal. So we're planning all these things
Speaker 1: and we realized, ah, we haven't done a lot for ourselves.
Speaker 1: We look up for something to do and this was random.
Speaker 1: We get into a you can explain as best and
Speaker 1: however you want to how we get into these moods
Speaker 1: where I say, babe, just book it. I'll go wherever
Speaker 1: you want to go. And we were having one of
Speaker 1: those days.
Speaker 3: Look your look and I have I've admired this in you,
Speaker 3: and I've it's attractive to me. You have. I've joked
Speaker 3: about it. But you do have some OCD and it's
Speaker 3: a serious disorder for some, but you're low on the spectrum,
Speaker 3: but you have it enough where you like things a
Speaker 3: certain way, and so sometimes when you get in these
Speaker 3: more relaxed moods, you're like, you know what I'm not
Speaker 3: I'm not going to say, just book it, just wherever
Speaker 3: you want to go, let's just go. So I kind
Speaker 3: of wait for these moods that I'm like, all right,
Speaker 3: I pull out the computer and I just start looking
Speaker 3: at playing tickets where.
Speaker 1: We ended up because of that.
Speaker 3: Oh it's rome me really, And then the next day
Speaker 3: I will say, you know, I actually booked that that trip,
Speaker 3: and you're like, did you? I was like, no, Like,
Speaker 3: the tickets are booked. I found the hotel because sometimes
Speaker 3: also with we like to do airbnbs or hotels, but
Speaker 3: you just painstaking all the choices, all the options, and
Speaker 3: so you kind of almost you have to get into
Speaker 3: this mood where you're just like ropes picket and so
Speaker 3: then I feel free to go ahead and do it
Speaker 3: because otherwise there's so much overthinking going on about well
Speaker 3: this place is that, and that place is this, from
Speaker 3: the location to the hotel to what airline we're traveling on.
Speaker 3: It's just sometimes it's overwhelming. So I wait for you
Speaker 3: to get into these moods and then I just book it.
Speaker 1: Now, this is what you have to know about this one, folks.
Speaker 1: I was in that mindset. But we were both looking
Speaker 1: around for things, and I gave you option. I think
Speaker 1: we were actually getting frustrated with being unable to find
Speaker 1: something that timing didn't work out. I sent you probably
Speaker 1: no more than three, but maybe two real options, and
Speaker 1: one of them and this was, Hey, we were looking
Speaker 1: for a half marathon of something to do. It happens
Speaker 1: to be one on the weekend that we can get away,
Speaker 1: and it happens to be in Stockholm.
Speaker 3: Right. So I was laughing because the places we've gone
Speaker 3: have been well, very white, and we were talking about
Speaker 3: maybe going to a place that had more diversity, just
Speaker 3: some you know, black folks, some black folks. And then
Speaker 3: when one of your options was Stockholm, I started laughing.
Speaker 1: Why it's a diverse country.
Speaker 3: Everyone looks like me.
Speaker 1: It's so funny, so weird. Look my whole life career.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm used to being around and being the
Speaker 1: only black guy. I'm not that's in a room, not
Speaker 1: usually being the only black guy in a country in
Speaker 1: a seventeen block area. As we walk around and we
Speaker 1: talked about, look, that's fine. I am twenty five thousand,
Speaker 1: ran this half marathon yesterday. I can remember the four
Speaker 1: black people I saw, and if you put them in
Speaker 1: a lineup, I could pick them out.
Speaker 3: I actually could too.
Speaker 1: The two brothers that were running together, that was one sister.
Speaker 3: With them a lot for the whole time. I feel
Speaker 3: like I was in between them half the time I
Speaker 3: was running.
Speaker 1: I couldn't figure them out how they were running. But
Speaker 1: then there was a sister that looked like Amanda Gorman
Speaker 1: to me. She had the long brands. Yeah, and then
Speaker 1: there was another system. Yeah, that's all. I remember.
Speaker 3: You just nailed all four who I saw twenty five
Speaker 3: thousand people and me, right, so you gave me. I
Speaker 3: forgot what the other options were. But when you said
Speaker 3: half marathon, that was the hook. And I have been struggling.
Speaker 3: I think if anyone has been listening to this podcast,
Speaker 3: they know that I the last my last couple of
Speaker 3: marathons have been really, really tough and have actually really
Speaker 3: shaken my confidence as a runner because I just felt
Speaker 3: like I couldn't trust my body. I didn't know what
Speaker 3: it was going to do. I just have been I've
Speaker 3: had major issues with my stomach. I just could not
Speaker 3: stop vomiting. It was just and it's so wretching that
Speaker 3: it doesn't stop for like the rest of the day,
Speaker 3: like it to the point where I don't want to
Speaker 3: run another marathon. I just felt so terrible, and even
Speaker 3: the half marathon thing like long runs, I just I
Speaker 3: was nervous. I just I was shaken. So for me,
Speaker 3: the opportunity to try and reclaim my confidence, I wanted to.
Speaker 3: I wanted to do it. So that's what sold me
Speaker 3: on Stockholm.
Speaker 1: And then we always look at for somewhere to go,
Speaker 1: something new, something neither of us have ever been to,
Speaker 1: So Stockholm made sense. And yes, half marathon, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to get ready for the New York City Marathon in November,
Speaker 1: so this all made perfect, perfect sense. Now we get here,
Speaker 1: here's one thing, we haven't stopped working. By the way, folks,
Speaker 1: have you all been keeping up? We have been. Yes,
Speaker 1: we have been putting out the same schedule the podcast
Speaker 1: the whole time we're here, which happens to be six
Speaker 1: hours ahead of New York, which has called some frustrations.
Speaker 3: Right, so it's nice because we actually get to sleep in,
Speaker 3: but then we did not account for the fact that
Speaker 3: we would be having to work all throughout the day,
Speaker 3: where normally you would want to be sightseeing and going
Speaker 3: around and looking at stuff. So what we've done is
Speaker 3: we go out for a couple hours, then we come
Speaker 3: back and work. Then we go out for a couple hours,
Speaker 3: can we come back and work. So the first day
Speaker 3: where we actually we got ahead of ourselves. We tape
Speaker 3: some podcasts ahead of time so we could have a
Speaker 3: nice weekend, and then we realized the first free day
Speaker 3: we had, well, we just casually ran a half marathon.
Speaker 1: That was our free day.
Speaker 3: It's our free day where we had already recorded some
Speaker 3: podcasts so we didn't have to work on Saturday. But
Speaker 3: then we worked our bodies for two hours straight.
Speaker 1: And while Robes has been struggling with your stomach that
Speaker 1: you've talked about those well documented incidents, my issue has
Speaker 1: been my foot. First the achilles, which I finally got better,
Speaker 1: and then I had a foot sprain that hit me
Speaker 1: last year. Was it August?
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you were overcompensating for your achilles, But that
Speaker 3: was August, right, yeah?
Speaker 1: So yes, Okay, So you all remember that I ended
Speaker 1: up in an ambulance at the end of the Chicago Marathon.
Speaker 1: That was one year ago this month as well.
Speaker 3: No, that was early October was the Chicago's early.
Speaker 1: So that injury, which is almost a full year ago
Speaker 1: now is the same issue giving me a problem here?
Speaker 1: And this is a race, and we got going, and
Speaker 1: we will take it in chronological order of the day
Speaker 1: when we the race, first of all, wasn't until three
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, which is bizarre any runner listening has
Speaker 1: done a race, Like what the hell I was?
Speaker 3: I was spiraling about what to eat and maybe more importantly,
Speaker 3: what not to eat, because yes, all those stomach issues
Speaker 3: I just talked about, like that's a huge concern for
Speaker 3: any run, and so I just thought, what is one?
Speaker 3: I know me and I need food, So there's no
Speaker 3: way I could just fast all day and then run
Speaker 3: a half marathon. But normally when you wake up and
Speaker 3: you run a half marathon, which is what I've always done,
Speaker 3: I'll take a banana and some peanut butter and that
Speaker 3: gets me through and you know, maybe some little gummies
Speaker 3: along the way. But I was like, what am I
Speaker 3: supposed to eat or not eat? You didn't really eat
Speaker 3: anything yesterday.
Speaker 1: No, I wasn't a big I wasn't. I don't do
Speaker 1: that even in the morning, no matter.
Speaker 3: When you have boundless energy. I don't understand.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that. I just don't like stuff
Speaker 1: on my stomach when I'm running like that. I didn't
Speaker 1: stop at all for water station yesterday during the race.
Speaker 1: I don't think you stop.
Speaker 3: I stopped at one and I just I literally just
Speaker 3: took a small sweag. Look what I have to say.
Speaker 3: The weather not perfect for you for summer vacation, but
Speaker 3: perfect for running. It was mid sixties overcast, so I
Speaker 3: couldn't have asked for better weather. That has a huge
Speaker 3: impact on my physical being, and so it's true for
Speaker 3: just about any runners. So that was ideal conditions.
Speaker 1: That was an adjustment for folks like us because you
Speaker 1: actually have to go to bed so early the night
Speaker 1: before usually because you're getting up at three four am
Speaker 1: to try to maybe travel over to get to an area.
Speaker 1: So for us to not have to be somewhere until three,
Speaker 1: we happen to have a place where staying a hotel.
Speaker 1: Literally we could walk out the door, make a left,
Speaker 1: and within five minutes we were at our starting corral.
Speaker 3: It was remarks, that was beautiful.
Speaker 1: Now you found this out. The reason they started so late,
Speaker 1: I kind of applaud them for it. It makes sense.
Speaker 3: They don't want to disrupt the city. So the fact
Speaker 3: is if they when they do it later. They truncate
Speaker 3: the amount of time they allow runners to run, so
Speaker 3: basically and they were like clockwork. I mean when they
Speaker 3: say the start time was for each corral, basically you
Speaker 3: get a corral number or a corral letter. It was
Speaker 3: right on time. And and so I think the first
Speaker 3: gral was at three thirty. We ended up running at
Speaker 3: three fifty and at seven pm it's done. It's over.
Speaker 3: If you have not finished the race, bye, too bad,
Speaker 3: you just are a non finisher. And so they keep
Speaker 3: it really truncated, and in the afternoon they can just
Speaker 3: keep it into a small amount of disruptions for the
Speaker 3: rest of the city. And that's how they did it.
Speaker 3: When you start out early, people linger, it goes on it.
Speaker 3: It's very disruptive to the traffic flow.
Speaker 1: And this isn't a New York city, right that spread
Speaker 1: out the way we are that has all of the
Speaker 1: public trends that we have where people can still get around. Hell,
Speaker 1: every Saturday in August they shut down what fittety streets?
Speaker 3: Yeah it's Park Avenue.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they shut it down, and the city functions just fine.
Speaker 1: Here it's a little different. Two and a half million people.
Speaker 1: You got a few main arteries where this race is running.
Speaker 1: You shut those down, the city's going to shut down, right,
Speaker 1: So I thought that was all. I didn't think about that.
Speaker 1: We were thinking, well they do that. They have a.
Speaker 3: Verious The Scandinavians are efficient, they really are. And you
Speaker 3: really get a sense of the culture. And when you
Speaker 3: see even how people run in the race, you get
Speaker 3: a sense of how different cities and different cultures are.
Speaker 3: So it was kind of interesting running. And by the way,
Speaker 3: when we went to go get our bibs the day before,
Speaker 3: which is what runners do, you go and you get
Speaker 3: your your number and your packet so that you're official
Speaker 3: for the race we had. This was the second day
Speaker 3: and almost at the end of the day and the
Speaker 3: guy who was giving me my bib said, Wow, you're
Speaker 3: the first American I've met today. How did you guys?
Speaker 3: Why are you guys coming all the way here to
Speaker 3: run this race? So we this was a very local race.
Speaker 3: I did not see one other America. Did you see
Speaker 3: another American there? No, So you really get a sense
Speaker 3: of the culture and the people who you're running with,
Speaker 3: and it's a very different experience. It was a different
Speaker 3: experience we had.
Speaker 1: The one the only American reference saw was a guy
Speaker 1: who had a tag on the back of his shirt
Speaker 1: that said fuck Trump. Yes, even but that could have
Speaker 1: been from anywhere. Yes, that was I don't know why,
Speaker 1: and I'm saying because against the President, I'm saying something
Speaker 1: about that made it feel like home. As crazy as
Speaker 1: that's not, I was like, Oh, I'm used to seeing
Speaker 1: that sentiment. That's okay.
Speaker 3: But what was really interesting is that when you run
Speaker 3: American races, and granted we're running races in New York
Speaker 3: and Chicago, where you've got serious runners who are really
Speaker 3: caring about their about pring getting a personal record, and
Speaker 3: I was like thinking, hey, I'm feeling pretty good. And
Speaker 3: the moment I started off, I was like, I'm feeling
Speaker 3: really good. I could maybe best my best. The problem was,
Speaker 3: it's a very different experience running here in Sweden. It
Speaker 3: seemed as though nobody was out to run fast, no
Speaker 3: one was out to beat any record or to make
Speaker 3: it to the finish line. It a certain so everyone
Speaker 3: was slow and casual, and it was tight and it
Speaker 3: was narrow, and I bet you, I think the best
Speaker 3: way for me to describe this I ran it about
Speaker 3: eighty percent of what I could have run, and that
Speaker 3: was frustrating to me as the competitive American that I am.
Speaker 3: I wanted and I could not get past people period.
Speaker 3: For almost the entirety of the race. There were a
Speaker 3: couple stretches where it opened up. Did you see me
Speaker 3: the one time? I opened my arms like a like
Speaker 3: an eagle because I was like, oh.
Speaker 1: Finally I had to hit that lady in the face.
Speaker 3: I did well. She came around. I was like, maybe
Speaker 3: I shouldn't have done it.
Speaker 1: She came around what she was running, having.
Speaker 3: Real space for her. Then I realized I won't do
Speaker 3: that again. But I was just so excited to actually
Speaker 3: be in my actual gait, to be running at the
Speaker 3: pace I wanted to be running at. It was a
Speaker 3: short little sprint over the bridge, but I was so
Speaker 3: happy to be running. I felt like I was holding
Speaker 3: back the entire run.
Speaker 1: So our excitement about this race was the fact that
Speaker 1: we got a tour of Stockholm the way most people can't,
Speaker 1: because we literally ran thirteen miles around the city. So
Speaker 1: we were very excited about that. It was I will
Speaker 1: say this might be the most polite race I've ever run,
Speaker 1: in that the people around were not pushing and shoving
Speaker 1: and being asses like we have often seen in raising.
Speaker 3: Nobody cared about their time, and I guess.
Speaker 1: We ran most of our races in New York, but
Speaker 1: it was that part of the experience I liked. This
Speaker 1: might be a close second or competitor for first of
Speaker 1: the worst runs I've ever had and experiences I've ever
Speaker 1: had running, and that had to do not with necessarily
Speaker 1: the people the temperature, but it had to do with
Speaker 1: the course in particular. And even though we finished, the
Speaker 1: weather was great, the people were great and had a
Speaker 1: great experience. Why in God's name did I spend so
Speaker 1: much of my evening at the toilet?
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Speaker 3: twenty percent off and free shipping. Welcome back to this
Speaker 3: half marathon edition of Amy and TJ, coming to you
Speaker 3: from Stockholm, Sweden, where we just completed. Do you have
Speaker 3: account of how many half marathons you've done?
Speaker 1: Some seven eight nine?
Speaker 3: Maybe I actually don't have account I mean official half marathons,
Speaker 3: because when you're training for every marathon that we've run,
Speaker 3: you run at least I don't know, the equip run
Speaker 3: at least two, and then you do beyond it. So
Speaker 3: I have absolutely lost count.
Speaker 1: I think that's right. I should know because of the
Speaker 1: metal count we have at the house, But I think
Speaker 1: seven eight or nine.
Speaker 3: We do keep all of our medals displayed, so we
Speaker 3: should go back and count because I really don't know
Speaker 3: how many half marathons I've run.
Speaker 1: We'll go through all this and not keep your metal
Speaker 1: We have them displayed, folks. Yes, they are up on
Speaker 1: the wall.
Speaker 3: We bought as I packed. Nikki is the one who
Speaker 3: showed me this very cool, my friend Nikki, who also
Speaker 3: is a runner, how you can put a metal rod
Speaker 3: up on your wall and just display your medals. My
Speaker 3: daughters came in and made fun of me, like really, mom,
Speaker 3: are you like eight years old with your gymnastics medals?
Speaker 3: And I said to them, you run a half marathon,
Speaker 3: you run a marathon, and then you tell me what
Speaker 3: you want to do with those medals.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I got tattoos to commemorate because I ain't
Speaker 1: ever gonna forget and stop reminding y'all, but I ran
Speaker 1: a marathon. At some point, you talked about bid pick up. Now,
Speaker 1: this is something we kind of were grading or judging
Speaker 1: Stockholm half Marathon by New York City half marathon and
Speaker 1: marathon standards, and there were some things we saw is
Speaker 1: that hey, New York can learn from this, like hey,
Speaker 1: Stockholm can learn from New York. One thing we loved
Speaker 1: they put the names on the bibs. Everybody's first name
Speaker 1: was on their bib. Now, they don't do this for
Speaker 1: the marathon. They don't do it for the half either,
Speaker 1: right now, No.
Speaker 3: You so, I know that you can get them printed
Speaker 3: out for the for the like put it on your back.
Speaker 3: But the fact that everyone's bib looked the same and
Speaker 3: everyone had their first name, what it made it seem
Speaker 3: for me was just intimate and communal. I felt like
Speaker 3: I knew the people I was running with. When you
Speaker 3: see someone's name and you put it to their face,
Speaker 3: you feel like you know them, you're with friends. It
Speaker 3: created a much different atmosphere.
Speaker 1: And the only things I've understood that people have said
Speaker 1: to me in Swedish this week was TJ when they
Speaker 1: said my name. You know, I'm saying. When we were running,
Speaker 1: I hear them and then they say my name. I
Speaker 1: know they're rooting for me. That's the only to hear
Speaker 1: someone from Stockholm yell out my name to it was Lo.
Speaker 3: It was Lou, you had Lou on your eye.
Speaker 1: But to hear that as you're going to your point
Speaker 1: of it being personal, that was very cool. The thing
Speaker 1: that they absolutely got wrong was the bip pick up
Speaker 1: situation that you mentioned. There was a line that's longer
Speaker 1: than you can imagine that we actually left and came
Speaker 1: back later and it was gone. But there was some
Speaker 1: kind of a mishap, if you will, to where they
Speaker 1: tell everybody come between opening and three o'clock because after
Speaker 1: that it's going to be busy. Well, when they tell
Speaker 1: everybody that, everybody showed up at the time they told
Speaker 1: them to, which made it a ridiculous line and amount
Speaker 1: of time. That was a I don't know how they
Speaker 1: messed up.
Speaker 3: Well, well, the funny thing was I didn't look at
Speaker 3: the directive. So it was open from eleven to eight,
Speaker 3: and they said after three pm it gets really busy,
Speaker 3: so try to get here before then. So we got
Speaker 3: there at noon, not knowing I hadn't read that it
Speaker 3: was hours long. The line. We got there at what
Speaker 3: four five, and there was no one there, and that's
Speaker 3: when the guy said, you're the first American I've seen.
Speaker 3: But I said, when did it stop getting busy? Because
Speaker 3: the line was insane, because it stopped getting busy around
Speaker 3: three pm. And then I went back and looked and
Speaker 3: laughed and said, they actually created that backlog because they
Speaker 3: told people a very finite window and everybody went and
Speaker 3: did exactly as they were told.
Speaker 1: I guess that's a little inside baseball, but the way
Speaker 1: these things are set up. Usually have these big expo
Speaker 1: centers where you know shoe companies and sock company. Company
Speaker 1: related to running has these booth set up you can
Speaker 1: go in and buy stuff. Usually you can just go
Speaker 1: into that and then go get your bib when you
Speaker 1: feel like it in the correct line. This time you
Speaker 1: had to get your bib before you go into the expo.
Speaker 1: I've never seen one set up like that. It was awful.
Speaker 1: Didn't appreciate it. Nice self out Stockholm. You know what
Speaker 1: you're doing. Don't listen to us. This was the first race,
Speaker 1: certainly half marathon. I have never seen this many people
Speaker 1: walking so early in a race.
Speaker 3: Again, I just think this was It's a different vibe
Speaker 3: here and I think it was more casual and I
Speaker 3: appreciate the fact that people have different running skill sets,
Speaker 3: but I was frustrated because it was narrow and if
Speaker 3: you were somebody who wanted to run and who had
Speaker 3: trained to run the whole race, which is what I
Speaker 3: would think you normally would do when you say you're
Speaker 3: going to run a half marathon, when people start walking
Speaker 3: at two miles and more and more and more, and
Speaker 3: by the time we were at ten miles. I mean
Speaker 3: I was flying past everyone. It was very obvious that
Speaker 3: there wasn't a lot of seriousness or training for a
Speaker 3: lot of people. And that's okay, but I just wish
Speaker 3: there was a designated area for people who wanted to walk,
Speaker 3: because it makes it really hard when you're a runner.
Speaker 1: You're going walk two miles. In two miles now, people
Speaker 1: have injuries. Sometimes you just stretch it out totally again,
Speaker 1: and we have seen that, and we know what that
Speaker 1: looks like.
Speaker 3: And we've been that. Not in two miles, no, but yes,
Speaker 3: but twenty two miles.
Speaker 1: If that was your issue. At two miles, people just
Speaker 1: don't move over, get out the way. They still think
Speaker 1: this is an experience for them as a walker. In
Speaker 1: the middle of the race, there was a couple of
Speaker 1: women just walking almost casually, as if it was just
Speaker 1: a hanging out and a walk in the park. So
Speaker 1: some of that was obviously difficult for folks who have
Speaker 1: flown thousands of miles and train for months to come
Speaker 1: here and do this thing. I get that that was
Speaker 1: a problem. The bottlenecks killed me. The bottlenecks and folks,
Speaker 1: if you've seen these right look in New York you're
Speaker 1: talking three, four or five like wide wide lanes sometimes
Speaker 1: that you get to run through pretty good legs of
Speaker 1: the race. That's in New York. Here you have that
Speaker 1: in short spurts, and then it goes down literally to
Speaker 1: almost a running path through a park, to where now
Speaker 1: you have twenty four thousand people on a wide lane
Speaker 1: have to shrink down to this two or three person
Speaker 1: wide thing and try to get through for a guy
Speaker 1: that's injured and for a person that needs to be
Speaker 1: in stride to not be in such pain. This was
Speaker 1: an awful run for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And there were a lot of twists and turns
Speaker 3: which were actually beautiful and cool, and there were a
Speaker 3: lot of hills that I wasn't expecting that were actually
Speaker 3: really I thought, gorgeous. But to your point, it's those bottlenecks.
Speaker 3: I mean, if you can envision in basically a a
Speaker 3: bike lane with two lanes coming and going, it got
Speaker 3: that narrow. It was I was like, how is this possible?
Speaker 3: It was almost like I felt like we were on
Speaker 3: a running path in Central Park, except for we're in
Speaker 3: the middle of a major race with tens of thousands
Speaker 3: of people. It was wild to me that it got
Speaker 3: that I almost there were times where I almost had
Speaker 3: to stop running because it was so it got backed up.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and I just that was again, you don't
Speaker 3: come here. You come here for the experience, for the culture,
Speaker 3: but you don't come here for a pr because you're
Speaker 3: not going to get it.
Speaker 1: And even on some of those bottlenecks you just mentioned
Speaker 1: those walkers that we just mentioned, we're still on those,
Speaker 1: so now you have people walking taking up lanes that
Speaker 1: you don't even have anymore. That was so so frustrating,
Speaker 1: it was killer. It was. And then of course the
Speaker 1: one lady, and this was I don't know sometimes what
Speaker 1: people are thinking or they're not and whatever experience they're having,
Speaker 1: but we're running pretty tight together. And the only space
Speaker 1: sometimes you have between you and the person in front
Speaker 1: of you is just whatever your stride length is, so
Speaker 1: whatever as far as you could put your foot to
Speaker 1: not kick the other person as you're running sometimes is
Speaker 1: the best you can do. And somebody's behind you, so
Speaker 1: you all cramped together. And that was a young lady.
Speaker 1: What mile was it, baby?
Speaker 3: She It was like around mile nine, eight or nine.
Speaker 1: She stopped cold in front of me. Imagine driving forty
Speaker 1: miles an hour behind somebody half a car link and
Speaker 1: they just stop and just throwing the brakes. She stopped.
Speaker 1: She didn't slow, she didn't look around, she just stopped running.
Speaker 1: And to keep from running over her, I had to
Speaker 1: adjust in a very awkward way with my feet once again,
Speaker 1: ended up probably what fifteen feet off the course, off
Speaker 1: in the.
Speaker 3: Grass, screaming from my air pods. And I was and
Speaker 3: I turned around and I saw you flying off the course,
Speaker 3: and I was like, oh my god, what just happened?
Speaker 1: So this is all for me. You come all this way,
Speaker 1: and you do all this training, and I'm already have
Speaker 1: a bad foot, and something like that happened. I was
Speaker 1: furious at that woman. She doesn't no, obviously, but those
Speaker 1: things added up. If this was a training run, I
Speaker 1: told you, I probably would have stopped at mile seven
Speaker 1: to eight, certainly.
Speaker 3: Nine, and said, yeah, when that happened, for sure.
Speaker 1: Can't go any farther. I'm done. I would have, but
Speaker 1: because of this, and who knows what damage I do
Speaker 1: to my foot now. But here we are. We finished,
Speaker 1: got to the end. I think after was at the
Speaker 1: New York Marathon. You immediately went to the right, put
Speaker 1: your head down because you were abut to start puking,
Speaker 1: so which I did, comes over and starts talking to
Speaker 1: you and wants to say how are you doing and
Speaker 1: all this. It's the last thing you want. And at
Speaker 1: that time it was an older guy, and I'll say, hey, man,
Speaker 1: we got it. Just step off, yep, I got her.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be okay. Stop talking. There was a woman
Speaker 1: that came over to me and was trying to help
Speaker 1: the volunteer and I looked at you. I said, handle this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you were I mean, you were in significant
Speaker 3: pain and you just needed a beat. And I was like,
Speaker 3: he's fine, he's injured. Does he need a wheelchair? Does he?
Speaker 3: I was like, no, he does not. He will be
Speaker 3: all right. We just need a second, please just a second.
Speaker 3: Just please give him some space.
Speaker 1: I love, and I've done that to you several times.
Speaker 1: I look at you in certain situations, you know, either
Speaker 1: handle it not well, or I pissed or I'm about
Speaker 1: to get Please just take care of this. But we
Speaker 1: make it out of there very slowly. I can barely really,
Speaker 1: I could barely walk it that you. Yeah, Well, we
Speaker 1: get up to it and I can't calm down. I
Speaker 1: can't get to go down. I got total shakes, chills,
Speaker 1: My stomach is jecked and nothing's in it. By the way,
Speaker 1: I started drinking a little water. But this was very
Speaker 1: familiar to you and very familiar to me because we
Speaker 1: all just went through this recently. But you go through
Speaker 1: this all the time.
Speaker 3: I do, and I know that feeling of just that
Speaker 3: unbelievable nausea when you've your body is in trauma. Your
Speaker 3: body has been taxed for whether whether it's an injury
Speaker 3: or whether it was just putting itself through so much
Speaker 3: with the run itself you were. I know that's exactly
Speaker 3: how I felt at mile twenty two all the way
Speaker 3: until we like I puked at a final time at
Speaker 3: the Fulton subway station. So I know, your body just
Speaker 3: has to get it out, and so sure enough, you
Speaker 3: had to get it out.
Speaker 1: And that's what we were again. It was fresh on
Speaker 1: our minds, and I felt confident about what was wrong
Speaker 1: because I was in an ambulance with a nurse who
Speaker 1: was explaining it to me in Chicago. He said, your
Speaker 1: body is in trauma. It is trying to fight it off.
Speaker 1: That's why you have the fever. It's fighting That's why
Speaker 1: you have the chills, and that's why you feel like
Speaker 1: you got a puke. But that's she was saying. That's
Speaker 1: a good thing.
Speaker 3: It's a good sign because your body is healing it
Speaker 3: your body.
Speaker 1: Is reacting and healing. And sure enough, on the back
Speaker 1: of that ambulance, I was up chucking, and sure enough
Speaker 1: in here because we were getting dressed and getting ready.
Speaker 3: For we had dinner at eight fau.
Speaker 1: I said, Babs, give me a few momentutes, just give
Speaker 1: me a few moments, and I was I wanted to
Speaker 1: be in fetal position and not walking around.
Speaker 3: It was awful, I know.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't even the feeling anymore. It was the
Speaker 1: stomach that hadn't settled down from the trauma and the
Speaker 1: whole thing going on.
Speaker 3: And I told you the way you felt, I was like,
Speaker 3: that is why I am so afraid to run another marathon,
Speaker 3: because it is the worst feeling in the world. But yes,
Speaker 3: I know that that you know. And we always have
Speaker 3: said this. We wish we remembered her name, the kind
Speaker 3: woman in the ambulance and ch But saying that to
Speaker 3: you is such a reassurance because you actually feel like
Speaker 3: you're gonna die and you're like okay, this is my
Speaker 3: body healing itself. This is my body is supposed to do.
Speaker 3: And it just makes you feel better in the moment,
Speaker 3: knowing you're gonna be okay, and this is the path
Speaker 3: to get out of it. You have to puke.
Speaker 1: So this was we finished the race at what time? Baby?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 2: Six?
Speaker 1: Around six? So? And I remember this particular because the
Speaker 1: dinner reservation was for eight. And I yelled in and said, babe,
Speaker 1: what because we have you had? You were sitting there,
Speaker 1: sitting dressed, waiting.
Speaker 3: I think rose in my hand.
Speaker 1: Now, I think you had your personal on yours. You
Speaker 1: were ready to go. So she's waiting on me. And
Speaker 1: I yelled out, what time is it? And you told
Speaker 1: me it was seven forty eight and the reservation was
Speaker 1: around the corner, so that wasn't any issue. And I said, babe,
Speaker 1: let me have these last seven minutes. So I was
Speaker 1: thinking it was going to be seven fifty five.
Speaker 3: You said, I'll be out and seven to fifty five ready.
Speaker 1: To go, all right? And then I walked in here
Speaker 1: to say that to you, and I remember that the
Speaker 1: time had changed by one minute and it was now
Speaker 1: seven forty nine. I said, oh, now, I only got
Speaker 1: six minutes to get this worked out. And I go
Speaker 1: back to the back and I'm just waiting. I think
Speaker 1: I was actually posting something on Instagram. I was just waiting,
Speaker 1: and sure enough the moment came, and I mean everything
Speaker 1: came out.
Speaker 3: You felt so much better.
Speaker 1: Well the first thing I said when I came out, well, baby,
Speaker 1: I certainly feel better.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you had a sparkle back in your eye.
Speaker 1: The freshman teeth twenty two times. And we went out
Speaker 1: to dinner and have good night last night. But that's
Speaker 1: our experience here. But really, baby, I think we do.
Speaker 1: We don't appreciate enough, but we get to do the
Speaker 1: fact that we got to come here, the fact that
Speaker 1: we're healthy enough, the ages we are to run. I
Speaker 1: have marathon and the whole experience to do it with you,
Speaker 1: working with you and being in a relationship with everything
Speaker 1: happened this week, So it's cool, and I do I
Speaker 1: think we skipped over sometimes how blessed we are. Did
Speaker 1: I just have things, would be able to do things.
Speaker 1: The guy yesterday will chair Yah did the half marathon
Speaker 1: and we talked about those hills. They weren't huge hills.
Speaker 1: You're running up huge inclines, but still slight Inclind, I
Speaker 1: would feel. But it was a guy in a wheelchair
Speaker 1: doing this thing. And the time I passed him was
Speaker 1: on a hill.
Speaker 3: Same and everybody on that.
Speaker 1: Hill gave him a round of applause as we were
Speaker 1: running by him. That was just that's fucking.
Speaker 3: Awesome, it really and it's just it's a testament to
Speaker 3: the human spirit. You see people struggling, even those folks walking,
Speaker 3: they were out there doing something, trying to do something
Speaker 3: maybe they had never done before. And that's really cool.
Speaker 1: So appreciate the experience. Always appreciate you all coming along
Speaker 1: with us for the literal or figurative morning runs Mondays
Speaker 1: through Friday. But I always appreciated folks for by Yeah you
Speaker 1: don't stand out here, you blend.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just like everyone else. Yes, we all look alike.
Speaker 3: Don't wet blondes around him.
Speaker 1: But folks for my blonde blue Roebuck TJ. Holmes will
Speaker 1: see also
Speaker 3: That token