RED Episode 318 How Loss, Community, And Small Wins Keep Us Moving

RED Episode 316-  The Struggle Bus

SHOUTOUTS 

Thanks to Cheri Whitt who recorded a Runcation Recap with us last week, and we will release that in an upcoming episode.  There are so many nuggets of wisdom in that chat, and we can’t wait to share it with you all!  

If you want a shout out for you or someone else you love on the show,  email us at info@runeatdrink.net or call us and leave a message at 941-677-2733.

RUNNING, EATING, AND DRINKING ON THE STRUGGLE BUS

Ever been on the struggle bus as far as training for upcoming races?  Aimee is on the struggle bus right now and there is not that much time left until her next race.  She has let life get in the way of training, eating to train, and hydrating to train, too. Have you ever done that?  How have you overcome that?  Please let us know and share possible ways to get off that bus!

THAT’S A WRAP!

Please give us feedback about the topics from today’s show, so we can share them on upcoming shows! Email us at info@runeatdrink.net or call us and leave a message at 941-677-2733.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome Back And Context
• 4:00 Shout Outs And Race Congrats
• 6:10 Community Support Through Grief
• 8:20 How To Share Your Recaps
• 9:55 Gear, Goals, And Miles For Moffitt
• 12:05 Physical And Emotional Setbacks
• 14:25 Why Getting Out Feels So Hard
• 17:10 Big Call For Listener Stories
• 19:20 Food, Hydration, And Meal Help

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:06

Hi, I'm Jeff Galloway, and you are listening to the Run Eat Drink Podcast. Welcome to the Run Eat Drink Podcast. We feature destination races from across the country. And after the race, we take you on a tour of the best local food and beverage to celebrate. So whether you are an elite runner or a back-of-the-clocker like us, you'll know the best place to accomplish, explore, and indulge on your next run. Hey, welcome to episode 318 of the Run Eat Drink Podcast. I'm your host, Amy. And it's been a minute. It's been a minute. And I think the last show that we shared was an excellent second half of a fantastic interview with Sherry Witt, Witt syndrome, and all those nuggets of wisdom and just stories and things that can make you laugh and go, maybe I need to re-evaluate the way that I'm doing my run walk run, or maybe I need to reevaluate the way that I'm doing X, Y, or Z in my training program or my life in general. But it's been a minute since then. And so that I want to kick off the show by saying it probably won't be a super long episode because I need your help on Cation Nation. And I certainly hope that we get some help. And uh and I'll let you know a little bit about that as we go into our episode 318. And uh we're gonna kick it off with shout-outs. That's right, shout outs. First of all, again, thank you to Sherry Witt, who gave us a great run cation recap. Really, it was just a pacer's guide to run, walk, run, really, in the last two episodes. And there were so many things that were so valuable in those that we just really appreciate her being so generous with her time and uh giving us so many wonderful things to share with the Run Cation Nation. And uh, congratulations on the New York City Marathon, too. We hope to have you back to recap that and uh hope you got some good pizza with some New York, some good New York pizza. Not that Chicago doesn't have good pizza, people. I'm just saying, just putting it out there, not to start the pizza wars again, okay? I also want to say congratulations to everyone who ran the wine and dine 2025 wine and dine weekend, the half marathon weekend. I was registered for the 5K and the 10K and wanted to go, but really couldn't do it. You all looked amazing in all of the social media. There was definite FOMO on my end. I missed having a chance to meet up with my coach and America's coach, Jeff Galloway, who was a character stop and at the finish, from what I understand. And uh it looked amazing. It looks like a wonderful, oh, it looks like people had a wonderful time, celebrated the way that you should around the world showcase. And so, congratulations to everyone who ran, walked, whined, and dined. And if you want to recap that for us, really get in touch. And we would be happy to set up some time to talk with you about that amazing race weekend or any race weekend that anybody wants to recap, by the way. We also want to shout out the entire Rencation Nation, everybody who listens to our show. Uh, all of you have been so supportive over the last six weeks. We haven't had a show out in a while because my mother's been ill and she uh recently and passed away on November 4th, 10 months to the day that my father passed away. So it's been really hard to do much of anything, to be honest with you. I don't know if anybody has experienced that phenomenon around grief, but hence the topic of the show today. We really want to say thank you for hanging on and for uh listening, even though we've been spotty here with episodes here and there for for the last six weeks. So thank you, Runcation Nation. You have no idea what you mean to us, and you just listen to the show, and we appreciate it so much, like we always say, some of the nicest people you've never met or your online community of runners, and then you meet some of them along the way in a 5k, a 10k, a half marathon, and a full marathon, an ultra, whatever, and they become you the best of friends for one mile, two miles, crossing the finish line, or or you exchange numbers and it becomes a lifelong friendship. So we just really appreciate everybody out there in the Rencation Nation. And we've had those kinds of experiences with many of you, and we can't wait to accomplish, explore, and indulge with you again really soon. So if you want a shout out for you or for someone else you love on the show, any friend, family member, any kind of accomplishment that you want to highlight or shout out, feel free to email us at info at runeatdrink.net. That's info at runeatdrink.net. Just you can type it in there, or you can attach an audio file that we can play for you and make your Run Cation Nation famous, or you can do it the old-fashioned way and give us a call and leave us a message at 941-677-2733. That's 941-677-2733. And that is also the way that you can reach out to us and let us know that you would like to participate in the show by giving us a Runcation recap. You've been to New York City Marathon, which happened recently. Tell us about it. Come on the show. You've been to Wine and Dine 2025, tell us about it. Help us prepare for next year. Let us know whether we should enter the lottery for a certain race, or we've definitely got to run a certain race for the majestic views, for the incredible water stop volunteers for the fantastic bling, as Dana would say, if he were here, he's very bling driven, or the t-shirt. It's amazing because of the t-shirt that you earn when you run this race, or the runcationing afterwards. The exploring and indulging part is why you've got to see this part of the country and run this race. Let us know because we really need that. And uh, so again, it's info at runnydrink.net or 941-677-2733. And now let's talk running. Let me tell you, I need new shoes. And uh I I run in Brooks, and so I'm gonna get some new shoes to motivate me to get back into the running run walk for my upcoming race because I have the 20th anniversary of the Miles for Moffitt coming up on, I believe it's the 22nd of November, and it's on a Saturday, it's on that weekend, the 22nd, 23rd, I can't remember which. And it's in Tampa, and I'm running that to celebrate the life of my father, and I guess you could say also to celebrate my mother who was with him. We've had incredible amounts of loss this last, I don't know, 10 months, I could say, and uh it's been really emotional and really difficult to maintain a training regimen. And I just want to know, out there in the Run Cation nation, have you encountered certain times in your life, certain events in your running life or in your life that have affected your running life, have impacted your running life, that you an injury, for example, because we've had plenty of those in this family, let me tell you, that's why Dana's not here recording with me, and that's why he's not running with me in the races, that he just cannot get rid of that Achilles injury, no matter what he does. He can't do it, and it's frustrating for him, and it's frustrating for me because if you do things together as a couple, and then all of a sudden your sidekick can't be there, that is an emotional hit, also. So uh in this running segment, we're talking about struggles that are physical, but also struggles that are emotional. Emotional, like on Halloween, we lost our baby girl Danny, who she's been a mascot of the show for so many years for the last almost decade of podcasts that we've had. And she was just a precious guiding light, and we lost her. And the minute we lost her, I felt, wow, do I really want to get up and go run? Even though I know it would be the best thing for me. It would be the best thing for me to get out in the sunshine and to put one foot in front of the other and to run out some of those feelings of anger or feelings of sadness or feelings of depression. They that they often keep us from the physical activity, but they are the reason we should do it. I I posted a video over on TikTok today about, or was it yesterday? I think it was yesterday's. It's all running together. The days are all running together for me. I think it was yesterday's video where I was talking about when we need to run when we feel like doing it the least. When we least feel like running, that's when we need to get out there and do it the most. So what I am asking for in this show is a little bit of help from the Runcation Nation. Have there been physical struggles that you have pushed through? And how have you pushed through them? Or emotional struggles that have led you to maybe be on the couch too much and not out on the pavement so much. Please let us know what your struggles were and how you overcame them, or are you still trying to push through them now, like very much like I am? Please let us know at info at runeatdrink.net, or leave us a message at 941-677-2733. Any emotional or physical struggles that you've had with running and how you've overcome them or how you're working through them, or how it just sucks right now. It just sucks right now, and I don't know if I'm gonna get out of it. I don't know if I'm gonna get back to running again, and it just sucks. It is this is a big call to action episode, if you will, because I'm struggling with running, eating, and drinking and staying hydrated enough, drinking enough water, eating the right things that I need to eat. I just want to eat all the junk that makes that is just that makes you feel good in the moment. And it's it's a struggle. It's a struggle to overcome injury and overcome emotional challenges at the same time. And I gotta tell you, do I call it overcoming? Here's the question Do I call it overcoming my struggles just by getting out of bed in the morning? Because sometimes I feel like that's a win. Sometimes I feel like that is the victory. And it is something so small or feels so small to me. But is it is that a big victory or is it not? And what are the kinds of things that you struggle with? I I'm struggling with just putting whatever whatever I want in my mouth to eat dinner and whatever it's and so I'm considering to bring a meal service on to just support me. And so all I have to do is nuke something in the microwave for two minutes and then it's there, and I don't have to worry about cooking something or having a big to-do in the kitchen or needing to go shop in the grocery store. Or so if anybody has tried a meal service and has one to recommend or would pass that along and what the challenges have been, what the successes have been, that that is something that we're thinking about doing so that we can just focus on maybe getting back out there instead of worrying about where the next meal is gonna come from. Is it gonna come from going to the grocery store and picking up all that? Doing the me, what is it, Miseon Plus? Mise on plus, and and and getting the kitchen a mess, and then you have to clean up the kitchen and it's a never-ending cycle. You're always cleaning. Yeah. To if and it it's just it's a struggle to even want to cook anything or get in there, and the challenge is also how do I keep getting my water in? How do I get that hydration in, even I don't feel like doing it? I don't feel like eating, I don't feel like drinking the proper hydration so that I can get supported and get back out there. It's just a really struggle bus moment for me as far as training for the next race. And the next race is there, it is there, and it should be something that motivates me so highly to get out there and get those miles done. Why? Why am I not out there getting those miles done? How can I push through all of that grief and sadness and struggle and really get back to doing what I know when I started again? It will benefit me in so many ways. Emotionally, physically, mentally. Run walk running has been a savior in times of stress for me. If I will just accept that and get out there without any recommendations, any stories, any any feedback that you can give us, please do that at info at runny drink.net or call us and leave us a message at 941-677-2733. We're looking for any stories of overcoming obstacles. Basically. And getting back out there to your run walk run. So with that, next week, we will get back to more running, eating, and drinking and share your stories of overcoming, your stories of struggle, your stories of hopefully if you give them to us. And uh so stay tuned for that. We can make you run Cation Nation famous people. Just do it, just do it. There are many ways that you all have supported us in the past. We encourage you as we get back going with these episodes to give us a share on social media, share with your friends and tag us, or give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to let us know that we should still put out this content. And these are all free ways that you can support the show and let us know that we should keep going with it. And we just love you all and appreciate your support. So that's a wrap. Thank you for joining us on your long run, your commute to work, or around the house, wherever you are. I'm your host, Amy. Stay safe and well, and we will accomplish, explore, and indulge with you really soon.