Amy Harris and "Lizzy", Nashville - Achilles International

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Nashville - Amy and Lizzie

   Amy: [00:00:01] seeing him cross the finish line and just how excited he was and seeing his parents face how excited they were to see him accomplished this and that. He did it really on his own with other folks that supported him. And, it was just, one of the many nice stories from that marathon.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:00:22] welcome to the, I run because podcast, we will have a reason why we run. Each person has a unique purpose to answer their why. Your why moves you your why get you across the finish line and your why can motivate others. I run because seeks to inspire others by exploring the why of athletes who run for charitable organizations and causes.

I'm your host Joe Bouchard, and I have my lovely assistant guide in life and cohost my wife Christine. Hello. I'm this season of Iram because we are highlighting the running club Achilles international. A running club that partners guides with runners have different abilities to compete in mainstream running events.

While Achilles focuses on running, the truth is running as simply a tool for accomplishing their main objective to bring hope, inspiration, and the joys of achievement to all. I'm excited today to have our guests. They are from Achilles, Nashville, and we have Amy and her daughter, Lizzie.  Amy runs the chapter for Achilles Nashville.

I believe she's been doing it for about eight years now. So, welcome Amy and Lizzie, how you doing today?

Amy: [00:01:29] Great. Thank you so much for having us today.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:01:34] Awesome. We're so excited that you're able to join us. , so Amy, I'm going to jp right into it cause I know being a chapter leader requires a lot of work and a lot of dedication. So if you could take me through the evolution of when you started being the chapter leader for Achilles Nashville, and, and take me through to where you guys are today.

Amy: [00:01:54] , absolutely. Our chapter in Nashville began almost exactly eight years ago. Our birthday is coming up on April 18th and our chapter was actually founded by two ladies, Sarah Hart, and Melanie , who ran the chapter for a few years and built it up in the community. we started practicing at McCade park community center, which is a local community area that has a lovely green way attached to it.

Sarah and Melanie ran the club for a few years and then Lizzie and I, my daughter Lizzie and I were an athlete and a guy. Then the chapter for a few years, and then began taking over some of the leadership positions a few years after that, I started as the. Or we started as co-directors, co assistant directors and then moved into executive director and assistant director of the chapter about four years ago.

So we've been active in the chapter since its early beginnings and early on when Achilles Nashville started, we had one athlete at the very beginning, a blind, a blind athlete here in Nashville. And the chapter has grown over the years to be one of the larger chapters in the country.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:03:18] Wow, that's great. So you guys started as you and Lizzie started as a guide, an athlete, and then, if you will made your, made your way through the ranks, and now we're running , , the chapter your yourselves. That's awesome.  between, , you and Lizzie, , , , who's the runner in the family.

 Amy: [00:03:31] Oh,  mom, my mom totally go out, h? Well, I did. I had been running for years. running has always been my passion and my background is in special education, early childhood, special education. So I taught in both. early education or late childhood. I've taught at university level and that's always been my passion, my two passions.

So Lizzy took up running after we had been at the flying, I guess the flying pig marathon and Cincinnati, Ohio in 2012 when I was running that race, Lizzie had come up with me just to hang out and watch and. During that race, we encountered several, , Kelly's act weights. And at that point in time, even with my background in special education, we had not heard of Achilles.

So of course, at that race, we were super interested in, you know, all the athletes we were seeing who were running with guys who had disabilities. And so when we were driving home from Cincinnati was he made a comment that. She wished we had a, an Achilles here in Nashville. And I said, yeah. I said, me too.

That would be so awesome, but I don't think we have it. I'm pretty connected with the, , education and the services for people with disabilities and had, just had not heard of it. Well then we checked when we got home and found that our area here, I had just started a chapter really just weeks before that.

So we got on. Got involved early on with the Kelly's and have just seen it grow over the years.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:05:16] Sarah, your story sounds like it mirrors my story to the T. I'm also a special educator and I was the runner first, and as I went through the New York city marathon, I saw all the yellow shirts, and then I said to my husband, I want to be part of this, but there was nothing here in New Jersey, and just out of.

Just pure chance. I, I was looking through Facebook and I saw New Jersey opened up a chapter and I think I went maybe their second week and we too had one athlete and a two guide. So our stories are very similar.

Amy: [00:05:47] That's amazing. Yeah. That's how it starts. It just starts kind of at the grassroots level and builds up and. Our first athlete. That was Emma Kelly's. She has a very interesting story, and she's still actively involved. So you started running eight years ago. She still runs at the same pace. , she was great, but she has, she was in her mid thirties and had always dreamed of running a marathon. I've always wanted to run a marathon, and she literally went. Lost her vision literally overnight. And one of the first things that came to her mind was that she would never be able to run a marathon. And it was just a couple of years after she lost her vision that Achilles Nashville started here and she was the first blind athlete to join.

And she has since run New York twice. She's run several half-marathons, probably 15 half-marathons. And, .

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:06:43] It's a wonder Achilles is a wonderful service for all. It's amazing how many people,  They see the cosmic yellow shirts and like what are they about? What, what do they do? And they start asking, asking questions. When you start to find out what Achilles actually does, you can't help but get drawn in and, and want to participate and want to volunteer and want to be part of Achilles.

Well, that's like our organization. We started with two or three guides and now how many guides do we have now? We have more guides than we have athletes in New Jersey,  which is great. Yeah, no,

Amy: [00:07:17] Well, it's better to be that way than the other way, I think.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:07:20] definitely. Definitely. Lizzie. So why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? So you have, you have cerebral palsy and you are, you are an athlete. , do you, I'll ask you this one and I'm, I'm gonna put you on the spot, Lizzie. Okay.  do you have a favorite guide?

Amy: [00:07:42] Take cute old, ,

I joined. I wouldn't even taller Ang. I wouldn't go after Oh yeah, I want a, by the way, I had gone, well, I walk everywhere.

, I work out and so. I joined

Okay.

, and then I wouldn't need to do

at that point. When can we, yeah, I will. Hey, I got you.  I really dig a

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:08:58] Did you say? Ultra marathon. Whoa. Wait,  did you just say you did an ultra marathon.

Amy: [00:09:03] I do too.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:09:06] God bless you. Holy smokes.

Amy: [00:09:10] Mmm. I don't have your favorite guy, guy, guy. Yeah. We love it and we kill it. Can we let them?

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:09:25] That's great, Lindsay. Yeah. You know, I think so many of us when we were in college, , you were blessed to just, just gain the, , the freshman 15. I think I, I might've gained the freshman 30 when I was in college, the Corona right now as we, , have this particular, well, speaking of this time, are you able to get out as often as you were before? Cause I know Nashville had the, Tornado and now of course, with the, , the shutdown of everything, are you still able to get out and run?

Amy: [00:09:53] I get out not quite as much. I get out a lot. I work in healthcare, so I'm out for work five days a week. And oftentimes after work, I'll stop by the Greenway where we usually have our practices and I will run on the green way, or I take, we have a Foxhound dogs. I take our dog to, to run a few days a week, especially on weekends.

, mostly around our house now.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:10:20] Yeah. They shut down our, , Achilles New Jersey meets in a park in, it's, it's a great park. It connects four or five towns, so I believe it's. Seven out, seven back, Joe, am I correct? Six or seven? It's a great park, but they just shut that down. So, , the other day I went for a run and it was through the neighborhood, which is okay, but I prefer to be in the park.

Amy: [00:10:39] Yeah. Our Greenways are still open here. The parks are close, but the Greenways are open and. That helps, but I'm going to go out biking today. Took the dog for a walk or for the short run this morning. So I'm going to go out for a little bike ride here in a little bit and do what you can, right. Lizzie is trying to get more on her Walker, even though her hand cycles here, it's hard to ride her neighborhood. , but she's getting out on her Walker more. We have, My mom. Her grandmother lives in a building next door. We live in a condo in Nashville and my mother, her grandmother lives in a skilled nursing center. That's right on the other side of the Lake from where we are. It's a very small, like, so we walk over there a lot.

We used to walk over there almost every day, the feeder, but now we're just walking over a couple of times a week to take things to her because we can't go in. So Lizzie's been using her Walker a little bit more than Walker.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:11:40] Yeah, it might. That was going to be my question, Lizzie. When you do compete, it's a, how do you compete with your Walker or the hand cycle.

Amy: [00:11:47] Go,

yo. , I do my.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:12:05] yeah. That was the five K that she referred to. That takes. That took three hours.

Amy: [00:12:11] Yeah, that's genuine. Yeah. Whereas I think it took more like four.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:12:15] Well, I want to go back to , , this ultra marathon because Lizzie, I have to tell you, I did, , this year I did an ultra marathon in New York city, , shortly after the, , the New York city marathon, and it was in central park, and I think we had to do nine laps or something around central park.

Amy: [00:12:31] Oh God,

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:12:32] It was quite possibly the worst experience I've ever had. I was, it tested me mentally, physically. I came home and I was ready to sleep on the floor. You came home? I did. I don't think you'd be showered you to say it. I walked into the house. I went on my hands and knees and I fell asleep right on the floor.

So Lizzy, , two part question. So what ultra marathon did you do? And. What inspiration did you get or did you use to, to get you through the finish line? Because that's  such an accomplishment. So I applaud you for that.

Amy: [00:13:08] I did Oklahoma.

Well, ,

cable. And that's what got me a clue. We like, we dyed it new yet,

get like a poor need,

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:13:35] And how long did that take? Lizzie.

Amy: [00:13:38] , about eight hours. Mmm.  I up for one in Copa.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:13:47] What are you, what you didn't learn your lesson? You sign up for another one, Lizzie. 

Oh my God. I swore after I did mine and after I woke up out of my coma on the floor with just a puddle of drool next to me, I swore I didn't care the size of the metal. I don't care the shirt. I don't care what swag they gave away.

I was never going to do an ultra marathon ever again.

God bless you.

Amy: [00:14:15] well, do you do Oklahoma? Kayla? Like, I don't know.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:14:26] That's great. Good for you. That's awesome. That's awesome. , to think you started this just by wanting to lose your freshman 15, and here you are doing an ultra marathon. It's amazing.

Amy: [00:14:37] So when Lizzie does, , in her hand cycle, she has on the back of her hand cycle too long. Tethers and her guides are actually running guides. So she has a lot of good company on the course as well. So she's not kind of out there by herself. And her guides for her with the tethers really help on the downhills more than anything because sometimes, yeah, it's really, they just clear a path to keep the other people safe so that when he goes, you know, down the Hill, because of her fine motor skills, we always want to make sure that.

She can turn or brake fast enough. And so she has running guides that go with her to keep her safe, to make sure other people are safe and to help clear a path because she does end up with the, the group of Brunner, she's not so fast on the hand cycle that she's ahead, like you see in a lot of the racist.

So she's generally right in the pack of, of runners, which is right where she wants to 

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:15:41] And you mentioned the good company and I, I believe, , that's it for me now. Now I was a solo runner and I just, I crave the company when I run. Yeah. My wife's, she started out just always like, like she said, he was always a solo runner. Never, you know, I'd say, Hey, let's go for a run. She's not, I don't want to go run with you.

And ever since she joined Achilles, now that's it. She always likes, she hates running alone. She wants to find someone to go to go run with there. So as long as you have good guides, whether they'd be running in life, it just makes things so much better. 

Amy: [00:16:12] I don't think she has that caring spirit

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:16:15] That's great. , so I want to shift gears here just for a second because, , , my, my favorite guide, my wife, , , mentioned on it.

So unfortunately, Nashville had a, , a pretty, , horrific tragedy tragedy that, that happened. , I believe it was, , , March, March 3rd, you had the tornado that came, came through, , unexpectedly. And, . Unfortunately, quite a few people, , lost their lives to it. And I know that there were just a tremendous amount of damage.

So if you could just, , tell me a little bit about how that impacted, and I'm glad you're safe. I know we had talked about this. , but  how that impacted your ability to, to run and really what that did to the climate in, , Nashville.

 Amy: [00:16:57] Yes. So our group meets on Wednesdays and Saturdays. So the tornado came through really the  day before we would have had a practice and we struggled with, should we have a practice? There's so much going on. , we. Tried to figure out if there was something we could do that Wednesday as a group that would be helpful for the community.

But it was really kind of too soon. So we did meet as a group that day after, we typically go out to dinner on the first Wednesday of the month, and we did op that night to not go out. It just didn't really seem fitting to go out and celebrate and have margarita is when other people were suffering and whatever.

So. That Wednesday night, we had decided that we would just put out that for our Saturday run, that anyone that wanted to run could run and we would have guides ready to run with them. We would do our pairings for athletes and guides. Anyone else could come and help out with kind of tornado relief. We had one athlete whose uncle, one of our young athletes, his uncle lost his home.

And they had asked if we might have some folks that could help, whatever that involved. So we went to practice Saturday morning, and we usually have a smaller group on Saturdays. On Wednesday nights. We usually have anywhere from 30 to 40 people on Saturdays. That's more like 15 or 20 depending on, you know, who's training for something.

Well, we have the biggest Saturday group we've ever had and everyone came ready to work. 

So that's really of the spirit here. And we all went down to help, what we thought was going to be helping our young athletes. , uncle, , we ended up going down to his house and Tennessee has such a great volunteer spirit that.

Really, his house was all done. Everything they needed to do there. It wasn't, you know, I mean, it was just, his stuff was moved down. He couldn't live in it, but we ended up going and helping, doing some roofing, taking off some tarps that people had kind of slapped up just in the immediate, Mmm. Immediacy of the situation.

They had  just slapped tarps on roofs to try to keep out the rain. But. That Saturday, they had some roofing experts who came to supervise how tarps were put on home. So we were ripping off old tarps while they were putting them on properly.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:19:31] You know, Amy, we touch upon, , running, but I don't think a lot of people realize the, . The social piece of Achilles. And I think you, you mentioned a beautifully how everybody pitched in and came together. How are you keeping your, , athletes involved in the social aspect of Achilles? Cause I know our New Jersey folks, , you know, they're reaching out, we're reaching out to them, they're reaching out to us.

, there are, athletes are definitely missing. , the group runs, the camaraderie that just the social piece,  with the Corona virus going on and everything being shut down, , how are you guys still keeping that social component together?

Amy: [00:20:06] We are doing zoom calls regularly and those are, those are really fun. We tapped into some of our Nashville musicians who have entertained us on some of the zoom calls.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:20:19] That's a great idea. Whoa. Wait

a second. Wait. I need to hear more about that. That's awesome. Tell me about that.

Amy: [00:20:26] it's super fun. We connect every Wednesday, and of course we have several aspiring and very talented musicians, very accomplished musicians in our group. So at the end of the calls, we've tried to get one of our musical talents to kind of close the zoom call with one of their 

songs. And so that's. 

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:20:47] We are going to steal your idea because that's an amazing thing to 

do. 

Amy: [00:20:51] You're welcome to New York. We have several of the New York folks that join our calls every week too. So we're doing different things on zoom this week. We happen to have a well known running physical therapist in town who's going to do more of a kind of training and educational piece for us. And those are some of the things that we had found on in doing a survey monkey.

This past year were, you know, what would you like to see? What can we do better? And one of the things that had come up with some trainings, so trainings around physical therapy and other, you know, stretching and some of those kinds of things. So we're doing some of that. I'm using this time wisely. The Achilles.

New York has connected all of the Achilles athletes and guides to the free access to the real abilities film festival. So we've encouraged our folks to participate in that, and we're going by, we've done some, we call them drive by where we take them baked goods over. Let our folks know that we're dropping them on their front porch and then getting in our car and talking to him as they go out to get their baked goods,

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:22:00] Amy, you are just giving me   because, , you know, I have a, , , young man that I run with and, , he's autistic and he is . Does not like FaceTime. His mother says it just, he , , I could text them, I could  , he does not like the, zoom or, so you just gave me a great idea to include him because he has not enjoyed our zoom meetings for some reason.

It's just something that he doesn't like being a part of, but just to go by his house and peep and wave to him one on one. I never even thought of that as being something to do , include him.

thank you. 

Amy: [00:22:29] You're welcome. Yeah, it's been, you know, for us it's nice just to kind of lay eyes, have people, and I think just that little gesture means a lot to people that you would go out of your way. And we either make them something or take them something or just to drive by to check on them.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:22:46] You just gave me  what I'm going to do after this, , interview. Absolutely. That, that is such a great idea. Cause I think the big things for this, Amy, is Anne Yeah. Lizzie, you're, you're probably feeling the same thing is just that I missed  the social component. , maybe I'm just going stir crazy looking at my wife all the time and I just need the need to go out and look as somebody else.

But, you know, we do the zoom calls with Achilles New Jersey and, , no, bringing some professionals and that's does a great idea. , a question. , I know we have, Joe and I together have a just. Real fast. There was something that happened in one of the New York city runs where they didn't have enough metals, and the only way to get our athletes through was to keep telling him, don't forget there's going to be a metal. And then when he finished, there was no metal and we were scrambling and we ended up going to the medical tent to keep him away from the hoopla of all the people that were upset about the metal.

, the lack of metals. And while  we were in the medical tent, we met, . A nurse that had one in her back pocket. And long story short,  we were able to get him a medal. , and, and that to me is something that stays with me as far as guiding just his face and like the D sharp panic that Joe and I had to make sure he was given a medal.

Do you have any stories that you could share that just stick out, that make you smile? Or  when you think of Achilles, , this one story stands out.

Amy: [00:24:07] Oh my gosh, I have a million, but, , I guess maybe one of the more recent ones, we do a travel trip every year with our group. We sponsor our athletes at a certain amount every year to do races and everything. And then we encourage our athletes to do one of our travel trips every year so that we can go as a group.

And it just builds more of the kind of fellowship and comradery. So last year we took 40 people to West Palm beach to the West Palm beach marathon. And when you mentioned your run with the, . A person, an athlete who has autism. One of the folks we took with us was a young athlete, 17 years old, who just started running with us last year, and he's a young man with autism, so he went in, his parents went along as well.

And he had never run in a road race. So this was his really first, I mean, he had run in the small view, small local ones, but he had never run in a big race that you know, competitively. So he joined the relay team there, and we had run out of 'em. Kind of relay team members. So we had asked West Palm beach if they had some folks that they could recommend if they said they would put him on that on a team.

We have a guide that met with them that was a familiar guide. So it ends up that he was on a relay team and just as it turned out, the other members of this team or folks who work with students with autism and the local high school there. And it was just such a wonderful pairing, such a wonderful team to gather.

, and seeing him cross the finish line and just how excited he was and seeing his parents face how excited they were to see him accomplished this and that. He did it really on his own with other folks that supported him. And, , it was just, you know, it was a beautiful day and just a nice. One of the many nice stories from that marathon.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:26:12] Heartwarming. That's great. That's why we, I, that's why I do . . So selfishly, , love that you, , you take the chapter and you guys do  , , I'm just throwing it out there. You know, I know new tough to compete with, , West Palm beach, but if you  , do races up here and, , in the Northeast, 

Amy: [00:26:29] Okay. Well we do try to go somewhere. , we don't always, but it's generally our goal to go somewhere where there is another Kelly's chapter, because for us, the family, the partnerships, the, you know, meeting other Achilles folks is just, , it's a huge advantage to all of our team.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:26:50] , , guys also run, . The, the hope and possibility race, and that's the Achilles' signature race. , if I'm not mistaken, I think you have some exciting news about a new sponsorship , that you might have

Amy: [00:27:04] cool.  We do. We're excited this year, our race will be on September 12th and you hope will be our title sponsor. So we're super excited to have them on board and even more so, we were excited to have them when they, when they came aboard, but I think just recently. They have been so big in our community in terms of tornado support offering folks who were hit by the tornado free storage.

And then again, you know, a few weeks after that offering all the students, we have so many universities here offering the students free storage when they had to move out of their dorm so quickly. So just really proud of the work that they're doing in the community and proud that they are going to be a part of a big part of our race year. 

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:27:56] do you 

want to, , you want to give a quick plug for your hope and possibility race?

Amy: [00:28:00] Okay. Yes, absolutely. So our hope and possibility race is how gun the Dominican campus and covers goes. A part of it is on the Dominican campus, which is a few of the Catholic schools in the area, and it goes on to three miles of our five mile race, goes onto the Richland Creek Greenway, which is our typical course every week.

So it's going to be on September 12th this year, and it is for runners of all abilities. And we would love to have folks come,

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:28:32] Now, Lizzie, you're going to run that race or you're going to do it in a Walker or the hand cycle.

Amy: [00:28:35] Oh Hmm.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:28:42] I have, , just a, a few more questions before we wrap up here. And, this one, one's a, one's for you, Amy, and one's, one's for you. Lizzie. And that's, The essential question that we're looking to answer with regard to this podcast, and that is why do you run.

 Amy: [00:28:56] I used to say I ran for fitness and to be. So or just to have time to think and reflect. I think now I run, I found more of a passion in running because it combines my love for running with my love for working with people with disabilities or people of all abilities. And so it's, it's become more of that for me.

I get a lot more pleasure in running, guiding than I do in running by myself anymore.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:29:29] I agree. Yeah. It's almost a transformation that you go through that when you start running for yourself and for fitness, and then as you start running for others and helping others, it really is a transformation. And, . I know that they say the guides get so much more out of this then our athletes and I, and I, I believe it's true.

You, we, we just get so much more. The social connection, you, you, you get the sense of, of accomplishment. It's a, it's a wonderful feeling. I don't even know my pace anymore. Whenever they tell me to go, I go, okay. And I just run with somebody. I don't, I can't remember the last time I even had a, , I don't think I remember the last time I even ran for myself.

And what about you, Lizzie? Why do you run? And we know it's because you wanted to stretch shed that freshman 15.

Amy: [00:30:15] , I out, I gag and I will always like you get older, you. Mmm. Right. And I think, yeah, we might call you, bro. You it, I will do it.  April you.

Oh, you got,

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:30:56] So we get wiser with age. Lizzie, we don't know. How old are 

you? You're not an old lady yet. 

Amy: [00:31:06] I hope I'm not either, and I hope that there's a long haul for her to go. I tried to be a good model for my kids as well.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:31:16] that's great. I tried to as well, but my, , eldest is still laying in bed upstairs, so I don't know if I'm rubbing off on him.

Amy: [00:31:23] I did go make sure Lizzie was up in time for this.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:31:29] So we have a, we have another segment of, of the show and it's called our finish line questions and series of just a few questions , Christine's gonna hit 'em with you and we're going to learn just some, some really quick facts  about you guys.  Okay. Ready? Finish line question nber one.

What is your favorite race?

Amy: [00:31:52] I have two. One is the Geist half marathon in Indianapolis. And my brother lives on that Lake, and that's just a beautiful Lake you can use real quick. These are quick, sorry. Okay.

The Island. Oh, a new one.

Yeah.  

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:32:19] , how about favorite distance?

Amy: [00:32:21] Half marathon for me. Oh, I like, I like conga. I like them.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:32:29] Oh dear God, Lizzie. Oh, you must have amazing guides. Yes. , dream race. If there's one race that you could do, what would be your dream race?

Amy: [00:32:39] Oh. Yeah.

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:32:47] Yeah, that's on my list

too, but the half. 

Amy: [00:32:50] I still want to run the Ram to Ram at the grand Canyon, and I want to do the, at my dream race, I guess would be the San Francisco. Women's half just because I'd like to think that I can still run up all those Hills.

 Joe and Chrsitine: [00:33:08] And last question, favorite song that motivates you while you're exercising or running.

she's 26. Christine. Yeah. My wife and I, we're, we're, , we're in our mid forties. I mean, we're not listening to the young kid music.

Amy: [00:33:26] So I honestly don't listen to music when I run. I never have.

Nope. I mean, if a guy has something on that's turned on, I don't mind any of it, but I've never personally listened use headphones or anything

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:33:41] It's funny. When I first started running, I was teaching with that a self contained preschool and I had, 12 or 15 babies crying all day. And then I, I would come home and I didn't want to listen to anything. I just wanted to have silence. And then like, as life went on, I started including some music, but ever since guiding, obviously we don't use a music as well.

Amy: [00:34:02] I do like the star that the New York marathon note and may play the New York song. I love that. Yeah. That just

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:34:11] yeah. Okay. Are you going to be there for the 50th anniversary this

Amy: [00:34:16] No, we won't be there this year. We're doing 'actually, we're going to Alabama to rocket city marathon this year. We're doing a road trip.  

Joe and Chrsitine: [00:34:25] Nice. All right. Listen, I would like to thank, Amy and Lizzie for joining us from Achilles Nashville. We were excited  to hear about their stories and we're excited to hear about why they run. So check us out on our next podcast and thank you again. Thanks, Amy. Thanks, Lizzie. Happy running Amy and listening.

Joe: [00:34:43] let's kick it over to our local running celeb Hellah Sidibe, who will have a challenge for you to join along.

Hellah: [00:34:50] Welcome back, my beautiful people. We are at week three of our progression for running, and I'm going to add another 10 minutes. Again,were going for 30 minutes, so this time, the 30 minutes, don't focus on the amount of distance that you cover within 30 minutes. It's all about covering 30 minutes of actual running.

, take your time with it. , I recommend you to run slow. , there's a saying with all the elites run slow to run faster. So you're building your muscular strength, your skeletal strength in your, , aerobic fitness. And we'll keep pushing through this week. And then the following week at week four, then we'll start focusing on the amount of distance we need to cover.

Keep pushing. You're doing well, you got this. And for those who are new, if you haven't listened to the first episode, go check it out and you'll know what this is all about to help you reach your running goals. I'll see you guys at week four. Take care. 

Joe: [00:35:41] thanks everyone for listening. We really hope you enjoyed those amazing stories. They are truly inspiring people. We get to talk to here and are forever grateful. Make sure to share this episode with your friends via social networks. We need these athletes and guides stories to get out there.

Joe Borchard: [00:35:58] So until next time, I'm Joe 

Christine Borchard: [00:36:00] and 

I'm Christine. Thank you for listening.