Finish Lines & Milestones: Episode 108: Brendan Kelly - "I'll never run a marathon"

Finish Lines & Milestones: Episode 108: Brendan Kelly - "I'll never run a marathon"

Here's how you can enjoy this episode:
- Spotify (watch or listen)
- YouTube (watch or listen)
- Apple Podcasts 
- Amazon Music 

Guest: Brendan Kelly @runinindy

Show Notes: 

Brendan Kelly ran in college but then took nearly 10 years off of running and vowed to never run a marathon. Spoiler alert: he ran a marathon, BQ'd, and let's be honest - he will probably run an ultramarathon at some point too.

During this episode, sponsored by Previnex and Pure Fuel, we talk about:

  • Wearing race medals after a race - has anyone slept in theirs?
  • The mixed emotions that come with a 14 minute PR where you qualify for Boston but don’t know if you got enough of a buffer to actually get in
  • Training for the Carmel Marathon (Indiana) only to have it canceled the morning of the race due to weather
  • Last Chance BQ and Glass City - his two marathons
  • How his dad is the one who got him into running and was the coach at his rival school in middle school
  • Being part of his high school drum line that won state and got third in the nation
  • Running cross country in college
  • His “retirement” from running after college from June 2014 to April of 2023
  • Nutrition and nerdy running stuff
  • Digging into his Glass City Marathon

Sponsor Details:

Episode Transcript:

 

[00:00:00] This is a Sandy Boy Productions podcast. 

Ally Brettnacher: hello and welcome to Finish Lines and Milestones. I'm your host, Allie Brett Knocker. If you run, you are a runner and every runner has a story. And every Friday I tell one of those stories. This week's episode is brought to you by predex, clinically effective supplements that promote longevity, performance, and everyday health. Lately, I have been on a big smoothie kick with using their NFI plus protein powder, Which is a vegan option with high quality ingredients, tastes great. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll see the Berry, Berry good smoothie that my daughter Sydnee and I have crafted. The smoothie then itself isn't vegan, but you get the idea. She loves helping me make them. She can do it by herself now, and it's a great way for me to sneak some extra [00:01:00] protein into her diet since she is a very picky eater.

So I also take their gut and greens. Which I would highly recommend if you're taking a greens today, it's a great replacement. Only high quality ingredients, not nearly as expensive as what you're using now, probably. And then I take several of their other supplements too. So if you're interested in trying Previnex, head to their website.

PREVINEX.COM. And you can use Code ALLY15 for 15% off your first order. That's Previnex.com. ALLY15. Okay, now let's get into what's going on this week. It is December. If you've never heard that phrase or term I should say, it is referring to May as being a mom of an elementary school kid.

It seems like everything happens all at once and so that's why they call it May summer. It's kind of like December when you're doing all the holiday stuff, you're wrapping everything up. It feels like that at the end of the school year. So this is my second May, December and I'm feeling [00:02:00] it, and we're almost there.

My kid is almost done with school. We are Carmel schools, so it's next Thursday, I think is our last day or Wednesday. I don't even know see. So all the things are happening, but I'm really excited for summer and summer running, even though I've already complained about the heat. Sorry, not sorry. It's hard.

I was excited to start complaining about summer running. And here we are. So this episode that I recorded was recorded the week of the Indie Mini. So that was a crazy week, and all the crazy things kept happening to me and Brendan and I, my guest, we joked about that. So my phone dies at about, I don't know, a little over an hour in. So the video, if you are watching, will only go for a little over an hour, and then it's just a black screen.

So you know that's how it goes. But there is video for the first hour. And I also wanted to point out a couple things before I forget. If you are local to Indy or wanna come in town for an amazing race, , 

we have the [00:03:00] indie half at Fort Ben, which is on October 4th this year. So it's great if you're ramping up for training for a later fall marathon or you just wanna run a beautiful fall. Half or 10K the prices will go up on May 19th, which is this coming Monday. Also, my sister's birthday. Happy Birthday Morgan.

And so you wanna go ahead and register so that you don't have to wait until the price is the highest. We joke about that in this episode. So a few things that. Brendan forgot to mention that. I'm gonna mention now because we have to include them, are that. ever since he's been coached by Mark Geier, who has also been on this podcast, he has PRD every single race that he's run.

So there's a race here called a Polar Bear, which was a 5K and a five mile race. He ran a 1656, which is a. Under five 30 minute mile. And then the five mile race he ran 28 26, 5 41 Pace, and he got third in his age group. It's just crazy. Then he went to Sam Costa and got paced by Chris Galloway, who's been on this [00:04:00] podcast.

He finished with a 1 18 58 and won his age group also. This is key. He beat his dad's half marathon pr, so that led us into the Glass City

marathon, because Carmel was the race that Brendan was supposed to run. So we talk about how that was canceled and how Glass City in Ohio became his plan B. He ended up with a PR 14 minute pr, two hours, 51 minutes, 11 seconds. And he got a buffer of a bq but decided, and this he did not know until in between recording is that he is going to run the Last Chance BQ in Grand Rapids in September to hopefully better that buffer.

Because if you're not familiar with how the Boston qualifying stuff works, there's typically like you qualify, but. Then there's so many people that wanna do it, that they have a buffer to then weed even more people out. So just because you qualify doesn't mean you get to run, which is super annoying for people like Brendan.

But I know he is gonna get there. I have no doubts. So we talk about how he ran in [00:05:00] college and took 10 years off of running, like what brought him back and his journey over the last few years. So I hope you enjoy this conversation With Brendan Kelly.

And we're live. 

Brendan Kelly: Finally, 

Ally Brettnacher: finally. We got it. We're recording on the Monday after. You just crushed a marathon. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. , I'm feeling it. 

Ally Brettnacher: You are not wearing your medal. I gave you shit for the 

Brendan Kelly: I know, I know. I, I, I thought about it yesterday, but I was like, I don't wanna be that person to show up with just a medal and wearing it around.

Why? I don't know. I was weird. Yesterday I was wearing it and we stopped at a rest stop and I still had it on and I'm like, people are probably gonna look at me weird, but, and they'll just be like, wow. I wonder what that guy won. That is true. Shoot, I didn't think about that. Right. But yeah, I know. I I could have slept in it.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: I didn't, 

Ally Brettnacher: I've never slept in a race medal. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. I don't, there's no way. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I, I mean, I probably could, 

Brendan Kelly: but I just never thought about it actually. Yeah. I don't, I don't know if I would denounce that to people if I ever did, but Right. I guess, guess no one will know if I [00:06:00] really did it not 

Ally Brettnacher: well, and you're in good company here, Brendan, because everybody who is on, or who listens to this is a crazy runner too.

That is. So, it's like I grit. I'm sure somebody's listening who has slept in their race mail. Probably. Probably. You should announce yourself. You should tell us. Yeah, please. Yeah. How did that go? So you're standing, that's good. Yes. And you got a 14 minute pr. 

Brendan Kelly: yeah, I did. that was just, crazy.

I have mixed emotions and I don't know why, I should be ecstatic about it. 

And everyone I talk to, I. Thanks. I should be very happy. when you hear that, everyone's like, that's so great. And like they'll ask you how your race was and I should be like, oh, amazing. Yeah, and I'm still unsure.

I think the reason why is mostly because of the bq. Like I gotta bq, but it's only a three minute 49 second buffer with the new time change, which none of us know about what the buffer will be. So annoying. and I think that's why I wanted sub two 50. I think [00:07:00] five minutes in my mind was like, if it's more than five minutes, then it's not meant to be Right.

Ally Brettnacher: And then you're just like, okay, well then fine. Yeah, 

Brendan Kelly: I see you later Boston. I'm going to Chicago. 

Ally Brettnacher: Right. 

Brendan Kelly: Type 

Ally Brettnacher: of thing. Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: So I think that's where my whole mindset was. And I think, and I can go in depth of the race itself, but I think there's a, would've, could've, should've. I know always in that race, natural, that happened to possibly get me that minute slower than what I wanted.

IMG_8934: Mm-hmm. 

Brendan Kelly: So I should be very happy. I am very happy. I mean, I am, I did get a BQ second marathon ever and I also qualified for Chicago. So, I mean, it's not like nothing happened type of thing. So, 

Ally Brettnacher: but you want more? 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. You're runner. 

Ally Brettnacher: I don't want, I don't, yeah. Why are we weird? I don't know. 'cause it's normal.

You just want to, 

Brendan Kelly: like, everyone texted me after, congratulated me asking me how I am, blah, blah, blah. And I didn't use the right [00:08:00] choice of words, but, um, I basically said, marathons suck. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: which I think we all say, 

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. And then we did it 

Brendan Kelly: again. But I, I don't, I don't know why after my first marathon, Sean and my wife, I told her, I was like, I'm never doing this again.

And she was happy. 

Ally Brettnacher: She's like, good. 

Brendan Kelly: She's like, yes, thank you. Goodness. Like, I can have you back. Um, yeah. But yeah, we, I don't know why we just go for more. I guess we like to suffer ourselves. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yes. Yeah. Unfortunately. Unfortunately. So I wanna go in depth on Glass City, but before we do that Yep. I wanna talk about Carmel.

IMG_8934: Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: Carmel. Carmel. So for anybody who does not know somehow the Carmel Marathon in Carmel, Indiana Yep. Was canceled because of thunderstorms. Yeah. So take us through that morning, 

Brendan Kelly: oh my gosh. so I've only had one marathon block under my belt prior to Carmel, 

Ally Brettnacher: and which one was that 

Brendan Kelly: Last Chance?

BQ in 2024. Okay. That was my first marathon ever. was last chance [00:09:00] in, I. September. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. And that's in Michigan? 

Brendan Kelly: This one was in Illinois. Illinois, yeah. Okay. Geneva, Illinois. there is the one in Michigan as well. Okay. and so I had the best block of my life going into Carmel and I started posting more about it, social media.

Had more friends in the running community, like not becoming more popular, but more known I guess. Yeah. Um, and so I had a lot of people like following me through this whole thing and it was great. Carmel was gonna be my race. and the morning came, I was completely ready. I was about to leave my house 'cause I was gonna go meet at Rob's, which he lives like five minutes from me.

And his wife Jordan was gonna drive us and that's when my phone blew up.

I

see the email, I just saw text messages and I'm like. Like, it wasn't even like Carmel's canceled. It was just like, I'm so sorry. Or Yeah. Like a WTF or whatever. Yeah. Like what is, what, what's going on? And then I saw the email.

Um, [00:10:00] and another background for me is I used to run in high school track, and then cross country one year in high school 

IMG_8934: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: As well as in college. So I'm used to races back in my day and if we had any sort of storms or anything, it was more so a delay. Right. and so I think that's what first initially got me probably a lot of other people.

Absolutely. and I know, I know, I know Jay, I raced against Jay Uba and No, you did not in college. Yep. 

Ally Brettnacher: What? That's so cool. 

Brendan Kelly: He was faster than me, unfortunately. I knew Jay, so I. I know in their mindset, obviously they tried to do everything they could. 

IMG_8934: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: And, and I know as Jay himself, like obviously this wasn't the decision they wanted, I just didn't understand why there was not a delay at first.

But then talking to like Chris Galloway, who has the race director under his belt. Mm-hmm. And like other people, obviously there's so much that goes behind the scenes in terms of like road closures, working with the city and the police and volunteers. Yeah. [00:11:00] So mentally I was not in the right space once I got that email.

And so immediately everyone was in like a fight or flight type of thing where it was like, okay, I'm gonna go run a long run or get my frustration out. And I went back and laid in my bed and went back to sleep. Wow. Uh, that's impressive and sad, I guess. Yeah, I know. I was, so, I went back and laid in bed.

I shouldn't say I fell asleep right away. It was more so I was on my phone talking with Mark Geier, who's my coach. Yeah. Talking with Rob and Chris Galloway and Caleb Chamber, like all these people, , trying to figure out what to do. People reaching out, giving me like race suggestions. And Mark actually is the one that sent me Glass City.

Yeah. so I started to dive into that stuff, and get some races in like in my head. Yeah. Before, but I didn't want to pull the plug 'cause I still had hope for car. I knew it being Easter weekend that it wasn't gonna 

Ally Brettnacher: happen. People are like, just do it tomorrow. And I'm like, you guys notice those comments?

Brendan Kelly: Oh my gosh. Guys, 

Ally Brettnacher: come [00:12:00] on. Tell I get 

Brendan Kelly: the frustration from people out of town. Like, oh, oh, it looks so bad. Yeah. I mean, unfortunately. That's, I guess part of it. I, I've never had to deal with it me, but I would, I would not be happy. However, it's not gonna happen on Easter and I knew it had a very slim chance of happening the following weekend, but I didn't want to pull the plug on a race because of that slim chance of it being the following weekend.

Yeah. I didn't want to sign up for a race and then car will send out an email and be like, Hey, we're racing cool. Now I'm out. Like 200 more bucks. Exactly. Yeah. I don't wanna bite, I don't wanna bite that, that registration fee. Yeah. So I went back to sleep, woke up

and

reassessed, and I think that was the best decision knowing my outcome now.

Mm-hmm. I looked at Glass City Marathon, I looked at Derby in Louisville as well as Champaign, Illinois. 

IMG_8934: Mm-hmm. 

Brendan Kelly: , I knew of people racing in those. , And so those were the ones that stuck out. But then when you look at. The course map, elevation, weather, and just the timing of things. [00:13:00] Glass City was probably the best.

And same with like competition. 

IMG_8934: Mm-hmm. Um, 

Brendan Kelly: champagne had competition, well, they all had competition. I think Glass City had the most competition. I didn't want to sign up for a race. Not saying I'd be like top five or top 10 or whatever into the other races, but I wanted a race where I had people.

cause I didn't want to just be by myself. Mm-hmm. No one wants to be by himself in marathons. Right. 

Ally Brettnacher: And did you and Rob, like, how did you communicate during this time? Like, oh man. And this is Rob Jackson. I don't think we've said his last name yet. Yeah, no. So 

Brendan Kelly: Rob 

Ally Brettnacher: Jackson, for 

Brendan Kelly: those who know Rob Think, yeah.

man, Rob was so adamant about not racing. once Carmel got canceled, like at all Correct. He was just going into the mindset of, okay, I guess I'm doing Indie Mini 'cause he's in the elite field. Yes, he is. And so he's still doing in mini even after, now that I know. I was thinking about 

Ally Brettnacher: that this morning actually.

I was like, he's crazy. Yeah. He's, I, I mean he's 

Brendan Kelly: doing it. I mean he'll still crush it. Yeah. Um, that as he does, but he's doing it because he is in the elite field. which I don't blame him at all. [00:14:00] I would do the same if I was fast like him. But, I told him what my game plan was for him to go through another week of just that mental battle.

And for him, it takes a lot more out of him I think. I don't know if it's just 'cause he's more experienced, has all those blocks. Me, it was just like,

I,

I, I have to do something like caramel was my race. Mm-hmm. and I wasn't gonna let that go to waste, especially since I am not available to race any gu.

IMG_8934: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: so I had nothing left, yeah. So I woke up. Ended up working out to do Glass City, which was on a Sunday and was able to talk to my sister. 'cause I had my nephew's birthday party on Sunday, and it's in Toledo, which is three, three hours away, I think. 

Ally Brettnacher: Is that northern Ohio? 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. I don't know.

Yeah, 

Brendan Kelly: it's 

Ally Brettnacher: Is it where the, oh no, that's Sandusky or Cedar Park? It's close. Okay. It's 

Brendan Kelly: close to there. It's, it's west of Sandusky. Okay. So not as far as Cedar Point. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: but yeah, it was three hour drive and so I had to figure out all these logistics of how I can make it back to my [00:15:00] nephew's birthday party because, not necessarily for just me, but my dad was going with me to this race.

Yeah. My dad's my, I mean, my dad's my number one supporter through and through and I'll go, we'll talk more about my dad later on , but, uh, he wanted to go with me and so I had to talk to my sister about. If she can delay my nephew's birthday party or at least push it back, I should say. Yeah. Yeah.

And she, thankfully for her, she was able to, I mean, if not, I would've been pivoting to Derby or champagne, more than likely. Yeah. But it all worked out for the better. And yeah. So I think all in all, back to the Carmel Marathon weekend, it wasn't what we all wanted. However, I know those who went out and ran like Rob Jackson that went out and ran and he said it was absolutely miserable.

Mm-hmm. Like it was like 11 o'clock I think when he went and ran and it was so humid and hot and we wouldn't have just had the day that we all hoped for. Right. And like, I don't think people realized, and I, I'm one of them, how bad. The storms actually were until like Carmel posted the saying that 

Ally Brettnacher: video.[00:16:00] 

The 

Brendan Kelly: video, yeah. There's just like the, the barricades being blown across the street. Yeah. And then they said their finish line. 

Ally Brettnacher: I know their thing got broke. Yeah, you're like, 

Brendan Kelly: or bent or whatever. Whoa. Yeah. where I live out in like Fort, which is, I don't know even know the direction of Fishers, east of Fishers, I think.

Okay. it's basically a small town. I think they have two stoplights now. Oh yeah. It's crazy exciting. It's like edge of fishers. Okay. Um, so we were fine out there. We didn't have anything going. I mean, we had like some winds, but, it, we all had the alert. Did your phone go off did my 

Ally Brettnacher: phone go off? I can't remember. Yeah, it was such a blur. My phone went 

Brendan Kelly: off and then I think that's when everything blew up on my phone. It was like the, that national 

Ally Brettnacher: like weather service alert. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: So, yeah, I'll probably keep going off track so many times.

Ally Brettnacher: No, it's, that's how it goes. 

Brendan Kelly: It's, so with that being said, it was for the better. Mm-hmm. Um, I had the race of my life at Glass City and Carmel probably would've been really good as well, [00:17:00] but probably wouldn't have been as best. I mean, we never know, but, probably wouldn't have been what I wanted. And it's not like in a marathon you can just go and sign up for one the next Well, I can't go and sign up for one the next weekend.

Yeah. Some people do with the 

Ally Brettnacher: goals that you have, you know, it's like, yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. That whole marathon block, especially if I were to race caramel and it happened on that day. It did. And I, if I say I ran like a 2 55, like yeah, that would've been still another great pr, but that wouldn't have got me in Boston.

Yeah. Like for sure. Unless they had one of those years where everybody gets in. But more than likely that wouldn't have happened. Yeah. So I'm glad all in all it did. Right. So me too. Yeah. I'm really 

Ally Brettnacher: glad 

Brendan Kelly: that you had a great race. Thank you. Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: And I know that there's still, you feel that like, okay, like what if and like yes, there's some left on the table and That's so normal.

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. I had all the what ifs, like from the finish line. Rob was, oh, I mean, I'll have to show you some pictures later, but Rob was like jumping on the barricade cause we got to [00:18:00] finish on the football field. I saw that. Which was cool. That's really cool. And so he is literally like in the air, like hands on the top of the rail, leaning over.

Like I told him, he's, he's like a crazy fan that's like gonna break the barricade to, to see Yeah. He's gonna like fall 

Ally Brettnacher: over the top. Yeah. The cheer you on. 

Brendan Kelly: and so, and shout out to Rob by the way. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, and so with that all like, it was just, not a great feeling.

when I

know what I could have done if I didn't stop for the bathroom at 21.

Oh.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh.

Brendan Kelly: But going into my wrist. Okay. I didn't have stomach issues. I don't know what it was. My stomach was just weird starting at mile 10. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: And that obviously is not good. You still have 16, 20 miles. Yeah. You're like, great. And 

Ally Brettnacher: that's all you're thinking.

Great. Yes. Like, what's gonna happen. 

Brendan Kelly: Right. I actually stopped twice in this marathon. 

Ally Brettnacher: You did not? 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. And it's, they weren't like long stops. The first stop, I had a piece so bad, it was like bad. And I mean, I, I never have to do that when I, when I, like never in a race. Like [00:19:00] normally it's good, but this was like, okay, I, next quarter I see I just gotta go pee.

and thankfully it was only mile eight or nine or something, so it was early on. A 32nd pissed off. Nothing crazy. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: Caught back up, to this group I was in, but yeah, mile 21, eventually I was just like, I got to. 'cause if I don't, I don't want to be that person where it's just, yeah, 

Ally Brettnacher: it's, you don't want to be the guy who pooped himself.

Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: No, nothing. Nothing ever. Nothing is nothing ever happened. I was in and out in like a minute and so that's where the what if could've, should've, would've type of thing popped in my head. 'cause I was like, if I didn't stop, I mean, you don't know. 

Ally Brettnacher: You just don't know. Yeah. So 

Brendan Kelly: that's, that minute could've been the best thing.

It could have been the worst thing, but it was I guess the safe thing. Yeah. But yeah, no, I still, I still pretty, so 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I know it's still gotta be happy. I, what I did is I, I tracked like at the end I like, was like, oh, I gotta see how these guys are doing. 

IMG_8934: Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: And so then I text your coach, mark Geier.

And I was like, what is, what does Brendan want? What's the time? Because I'm sure I asked you already and then I forgot, I think I put it in notes [00:20:00] app somewhere for caramel like that. I was like, okay, what are the goals here? And, and he was like, okay, you know, bq And then the A plus was the sub two 50. Yes.

And, and so then I just immediately responded with, ugh, because I saw that there was like one minute and 11 seconds off of that. Yep. And, and I knew that it was such a thing to celebrate, like your time and your PR and all that, but I also totally got that you would be there, you'd be like, yeah, that one minute and 11 seconds would haunt you because it just will 

Brendan Kelly: For sure.

And it'll haunt me more. So if that buffer is four plus minutes. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. But, but they already moved the times. Yes. So you're, you know, hopeful that maybe there's not, either not one or it would 

Brendan Kelly: be limited. A lot of people I've talked to, Guyer included and Rob. Mm-hmm. And my dad, and even. Um, I don't know if you know of, but another guy named Jeff Cunningham.

Mm-hmm. He is the coach. I know. Yeah, I know that name of Bat. City Track Club. Okay. BPN type coach, all that stuff. Okay. Um, I've talked to him [00:21:00] even. Wait, what is BPN? Uh, that's Bear Bear Performance. Performance. Okay. Yep. from Nick Bear. And that's the supplements I take. Okay. for races and all that stuff.

But I've talked to Jeff here and there quite a bit and he even told me that he thinks that I should be good. Not saying that's obviously. 

IMG_8934: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: But I mean, all these people are like, there's, there's no way 2 52 at your age has that, like all these people to get into the bus. But I guess we'll find out whenever that time.

I don't know when. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I I was gonna ask you when they announced that isn't after I forget. 

Brendan Kelly: well wait, it would be.

would be

If last chances in September, I think it would be September, right? It'd be right around there. Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: That's what I was thinking. Yeah. And then I was like, is that right?

Because I haven't been in that position yet where I've Right. BQ or gone for a bq. Okay. Which I will at some point. Yeah. Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: Well you keep having all these crazy runners on your podcast. You don't have to. 

Ally Brettnacher: It's like the motivation is there For sure. It's just a matter of deciding if it's something I really, really want.

If 

Brendan Kelly: you wanna [00:22:00] torture yourself. Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: If I really want to go through that pain. 

Brendan Kelly: Because even the people I knew that ran Boston know that I was trying to qualify. Yeah. And after Boston this year, outside of my dad, they're like, I'm never racing that race again. Because the See, I think I 

Ally Brettnacher: would never race it.

I think that I'm comfortable saying that. Yeah. getting there is just, is the finish line. Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: Right. For me, that's what my dad ended up doing this year. Yeah. He did Boston. 'cause he's only done Boston twice. Okay. He did Boston back, like around my age. I'm 33. Okay. I think actually we just talked about it.

That's when he ran Boston. When, when he was. 33 or qualified when he was three. That's cool. Which is weird. and so this year he qualified again at Last Chance bq. We both did that together. 

IMG_8934: Aw. 

Brendan Kelly: Dagger in the heart. He qualified. Super easy for him. He may not say it was easy. Yeah. last chance BQ is made for you basically to be, it's like one of the best races outside the winter.

Is it 

Ally Brettnacher: a loop course? 

Brendan Kelly: Unfortunately. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: Um, however, they treat [00:23:00] everyone as if you're an elite athlete. Mm-hmm. You get bottle service, it's like a four mile loop or something or so. so you do it multiple times, but there's only like 300 people. So it's not crazy busy, not crazy packed. Weather was perfect.

The day was great.

for me, I just hit that 10 K type wall. dealt with quad, really bad quadrant, like stop 10 times to walk. if I ran a few more steps, it would just lock up. So. It wasn't meant for me, but my dad ended up b cuing, and he's 65. That's amazing. And his whole story is just, I mean, that's why I'm doing what I am.

IMG_8934: Mm-hmm. 

Brendan Kelly: and so he enjoyed Boston this year. Like he was FaceTiming us through college. He was FaceTiming us up, heartbreak, he had the time of his life, videoing himself at the finish line, all this stuff. it was, it was amazing to see. That's so cool. Yeah. So I'm, I'm proud of, I'm proud of Bob's.

Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: Uh, yeah. My dream would be to go to Boston with my dad, but he's done it. I can't remember. Sorry dad. I don't forget how many times. Like two or three. [00:24:00] Okay. Yeah. 

IMG_8934: Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: And I would just love to be able to share that experience Right. With him. Like Carly Stewart, I don't know if you know Carly, but she got to go, she went with her dad this year.

That's awesome. And it was just so cool. Like what a great experience. Right. To share your love of running. Yes. That likely Yeah. Comes from your dad, but also then share it with your dad. 

Brendan Kelly: That's what got me into running to begin with, was my dad. Uh, he was a middle school cross country coach. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: And sixth grade, we're tearing off a little bit of subject, but, sixth grade all of a sudden there was cross country practice and I just, I think I had a phone then.

I don't know if I had a, I mean, probably one of those

like

like little razor or Yeah, like a Nokia slide. Yeah. just texted him, told him that he needed to pick me up after practice and that kind of just, that's where it all started. he coached at my rival middle school and Oh, that's interesting. Oh, yeah.

Huh. 

Ally Brettnacher: Why, how could, so he coached, but you had to go to a different school because of where he lived? 

Brendan Kelly: Correct. 

Ally Brettnacher: That's so interesting. Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: He was a middle school teacher, and he [00:25:00] coached as at Fall Creek, valley Middle School, and I went to Belzer Middle School. And I was in, so where is that? 

Ally Brettnacher: Is that 

Brendan Kelly: Lawrence?

Indiana. 

Ally Brettnacher: Lawrence, yep. Okay. So it's over by kind of where you live now-Ish. Ish. Not really. Yeah, ish. Um, it's still in this area. It's 

Brendan Kelly: like if you know where like cathedral? 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: I mean around that area. Okay. but not private. Yeah, like cathedral. But, I went to Belzer and I was in number two runner and every time I raced against my dad, which we raced against each other a lot, I would go past him.

He'd of course be like, good job, Brandon. Like keep going, blah, blah, blah, all this stuff. Mm-hmm. And then his runners would be not far behind me and I would like, I'm still in the distance where I would hear him tell his runners to go get me and beat me. Like they, they, he's like, you cannot, like you gotta go catch my son every time.

He was my number one supporter. but he also had a job to do and still coached his athletes. So that, was fun to have that competition against him. 'cause

'cause

back in the day. Belzer had never beaten my dad in cross country, like 13.

Oh.[00:26:00] 

Oh. Until I ran and then we beat them. It's 

Ally Brettnacher: like a movie. I know, 

Brendan Kelly: right? It was, it's like a movie.

That's great. I'm like, sorry dad. But no, it, I think he liked it. Of course he, he, he loved it. But then of course for his own team, yeah, he didn't. But, um, that's where it all started. So I did cross country and track in middle school. was a mid distance guy, consider my mid myself mid distance. I think I was like all county.

My eighth grade. I don't, I don't, that was so long ago. I don't really remember what to do. But,

freshman year in high school, I went to Lawrence Central High School and I didn't do cross country. I did track though all four years. I didn't do cross country because my mom and my two older sisters and even my dad, we were all in performing arts.

So. They all played instruments. I I was in the drum line, so I actually played the drums. Cool. and so that took effect in the fall, which is why I didn't do cross country. 

IMG_8934: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: And honestly, I, I loved it. It was great. the drums as a, as a high school team boy, like that, of course, [00:27:00] that's, you want to play drums or whatever, or play sports, but, I played the drums and as a marching band, we were one of the best in the state.

We got, we won state and we got third in the nation. and so I probably wouldn't have done it if we weren't good as a whole. And after my junior year, going into my senior year, I think I had a light bulb moment where I'm like, I'm not gonna do anything with drumming. Like, I don't see myself drumming after this.

Ally Brettnacher: Right. 

Brendan Kelly: And so. I also hated going to track season out of shape compared to all the distance runners because they had cross country. So they were already basically in shape from cross country going into track. And I was just starting from ground zero. Mm-hmm.

And so

senior year I was like, I'll do cross country.

And my dad happened to be the assistant coach at my high school. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. So 

Brendan Kelly: he got to, there 

Ally Brettnacher: we go. He got to I know, right. Full circle now. 

Brendan Kelly: And so he got to coach me and that was probably one of my highlights. I had no, I didn't know what [00:28:00] 5K times were for me. Like I didn't have any of that under my belt.

No experience other than just running an 800 and a mile on track. Mm-hmm. And a four by four. So I ended up breaking 17 minutes my second 5K race. And going into the season, I think my goal was to like break 1730. Just Wow. And, and, and I remember clear as day after I, I, I'll backtrack, my first race I ran 1704 at Bur Buff, and I was ecstatic.

That's amazing. I jumped on my dad's back. Like I had, that's one of those things that I was engraved in my mind forever. Poor memory. Yes. Yes, exactly. and so I ended up pring only at a 1654, the next race in Brown County. And then I got hit with bronchitis and that took me out almost the entire rest of my season.

Like I didn't get back until probably I think like sectionals. That's crazy. Um, and at that point we were basically already done, so I wanted more, as we said at the beginning. Yeah. And I looked at smaller schools [00:29:00] to continue my running and I actually went to Hanover College in southern Indiana, which is a division three school private school.

And I ran cross country and track there. To continue on. 

Ally Brettnacher: And what city is Hanover in? 

Brendan Kelly: It's technically in Hanover, Indiana, but it's Oh, Madison. Okay. So if you know Madison, it is right off the Ohio River. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: probably about 45 minutes north of Louisville. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Is it hilly down there then? 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. Yeah.

Actually, the campus, campus was, oh my gosh. Campus was beautiful. they say it was like the Harvard of the Midwest is what they call 

Ally Brettnacher: it. Yeah, that's what we called Miami of Ohio 

Brendan Kelly: too. Oh, shoot. Okay. Yeah. Well, maybe not, so I don't know. I mean, we had 

Ally Brettnacher: no 

Brendan Kelly: river, 

Ally Brettnacher: so maybe everyone 

Brendan Kelly: did. Yeah. Um, but no, we, our campus overlooked the Ohio River like we were on top of a hill.

That's cool. And overlooked. but yeah, we, we had a, our cross country course there was pretty hilly rolling hills and stuff, but we hosted nationals and everything like that for D three. 

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. 

Brendan Kelly: so yeah, that was a fun [00:30:00] experience. going into that and the whole college decision for me was between Manchester.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm. 

that's where my sister went. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. Mm-hmm. I said, my dad's from up there, so I knew I needed to look at small schools. Yeah. If I wanted to run, competitively I mean you could do clubs I guess, but it was between Manchester and Hanover. And Hanover offered me more scholarships, which obviously is always a good thing.

but Manchester had a better cross country team than Hanover. So I could go to Manchester, so be like a small fish in like a big pond for their cross country team and maybe make varsity, I don't know. Or I could go to Hanover and be like, kind of like the top dog and hopefully change things. So of course as a teenager, boy, that's what I wanted to do.

Yeah. and it was for the better. let's see, freshman year I was number one runner for us. In cross country. And also I was part of the four by 400 school record at Hanover. I don't know if it still stands. I was gonna ask, that was my next question. Is 

Ally Brettnacher: it still there? I assume not. How do you not know this?

Brendan Kelly: Honestly, [00:31:00] I, I don't think it still stands as we got faster like sophomore, junior, senior year and stuff like that. I don't think it still stands to this day, but my 1000 meter, I'm not the record holder, but I am number three on a thousand meter at Hanover still. That's cool. So hopefully it stays out okay.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: So yeah, a lot I could go. Wow, that is fun. Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: Well, oh yeah, I didn't realize that you ran in college. Yeah. And How many people at Hanover College? Oh, like what was the size? 

Brendan Kelly: It was s overall, poof.

It was small. Very small. Like my largest class size is a liberal arts college. Mm-hmm. so you had to take all sorts of different classes freshman and sophomore year before you really dove into like your major. Yeah, yeah. Um, my largest class was probably like biology or chemistry. 'cause I was a is gonna be a mouthful.

I was a kinesiology and integrated physiology major. Ooh. But you crushed it. 

Ally Brettnacher: I, yeah. Like you could say it, I, oh yeah. Ikin kinesiology and physiology major. [00:32:00] I may not have crushed college. Well, 

Brendan Kelly: but I could say what my major is. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, 

Brendan Kelly: there you go. Um, so with that, I took like science classes and health classes.

So biology or chemistry was probably my largest. And it was maybe like 20, 30 people. Yeah. Like the professor. You had to be in attendance, which was good thing probably for me. 'cause if I went to a large school, like IU or something. Yeah. Me as a student probably would've just been like. I'm not going to class today.

Yeah. Like Right. They're not gonna know if I'm there or not. Mm-hmm. Hanover did not like, we had attendance and professors lived on campus there. Like, you see 'em, they eat with you guys. Like it was just a small knit. Mm-hmm. So it was very small. It was smaller than my high school. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: I think we had like,

I

had like 700, 600 maybe in my graduating class in high school, so.

Okay. That's big compared to, yeah. Lauren Spencer was pretty big and then, and then Hanover is not so, okay. Wow. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. Now did you meet 

Ally Brettnacher: your wife in college? [00:33:00] 

Brendan Kelly: You want the long story or the short? 

Ally Brettnacher: You got time. 

Brendan Kelly: Alright, so Yes. Yes. I did meet her in college. However, my wife is from, North Carolina.

Oh, okay. Born in South Carolina. Raised in North Carolina, and she still has family in North Carolina. And so she had a friend, this was pre-meeting me. She had a friend that lived in Indiana and North Carolina. not at the same time, but she either lived in Indiana and then moved to North Carolina or vice versa.

Okay. Had family somewhere, but

her

friend ended up going to Hanover College. I was still in high school though, so I didn't know any of this until I met her, obviously. But they all came up. They all as in like my wife and her friends came up to visit this friend at Hanover College and Shauna, my wife ended up meeting a boy, not me.

Oh. At Hanover College. And she dated this guy. Fast forward, they dated long distance or whatever. 'cause she went to [00:34:00] school at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and he was at Hanover. Fast forward, I'm at Hanover now. I'm friends with this guy at Hanover. We had a summer job together where we worked like concert security and stuff, at like, what is it now called?

Ru and Oh, you did? That's 

Ally Brettnacher: wild. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah, that was, that was a fun job. That was like free concerts, some good stories too. Oh gosh. So many stories. Wow. So friends with this guy, he asked me to hang out with him and like his sister's friends, and Shauna was one of them. And so I don't, I forget, I think we went bowling and then I think we went to like circle, center mall or something.

and I told him, I thought, I thought, I was like, she's pretty cute. Like you. Why aren't you talking to her? You like, you like to him? 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: Well they were broken up at this time. I didn't know that any of this. And he was like, well, that's my ex. And I'm like, oh, she still liked him and she came to visit him and she was friends with like his sister and all that stuff.

Yeah. However, he gave me the green [00:35:00] light and said that he was like, I mean, if you want, like you can Talk to her, whatever. So of course I did. And she was so gung-ho over him still. Yeah. She was like, I'm not, and she also told herself, she's like, I'm not dating an Indiana boy ever again, blah, blah, blah.

I was very persistent talking to her. And then we started talking and dating and all of a sudden I had to ask my parents if this girl that I've been talking to from North Carolina could come stay with us during the summer. Very weird. Very weird. 'cause this is like, I'm pretty sure, I don't know if dating apps were a thing back then.

I mean, probably not. Well, or maybe like 

Ally Brettnacher: online 

Brendan Kelly: websites. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You didn't have like Tinder or whatever those things are. So I mean, my parents, they were like, sure. and they loved, they loved her. She, 

Ally Brettnacher: so did she like sleep in your guest room, I'm assuming, or like, did they let her sleep with you?

Brendan Kelly: She slept in the guest room. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. There were air clothes. Sorry dad, 

Brendan Kelly: she slept in the guest room. There was times she may [00:36:00] have came into the other room. Oh, 

Ally Brettnacher: I can't imagine that. And then before people 

Brendan Kelly: woke up,

up,

would happen to go to the other room. 

Ally Brettnacher: Is your mom gonna listen to this? 

Brendan Kelly: Hopefully not. Yeah. I mean she might know now.

I don't, I don't know if I heard 

Ally Brettnacher: mean they are you kidding? They knew. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah,

Probably so, you

probably so, you know, they know everything. Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: Parents know. 

Brendan Kelly: they really liked Shauna 'cause I had a crazy high school ex all this stuff. Oh, 

Ally Brettnacher: fun. 

Brendan Kelly: Um, I think we've all had some of that, but, um, oh yeah.

But yeah, Shauna was definitely very good for me, and my sisters loved her, like, and so we did long distance relationship dating that's so hard all through college. And then she basically said if I proposed she would move here, which I'm sure she's full. Well, she's not regretting the proposal.

She's regretting fully moving here though. She does not like Indiana. Oh 

Ally Brettnacher: man. 

Brendan Kelly: Especially more so our, our winter cold months. 

Ally Brettnacher: That's totally, that's fair. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: I mean, I've lived here my whole life, so Same. Yeah. I don't know any different. 

Brendan Kelly: [00:37:00] Right. She, she grew up like two hours from Myrtle Beach, so Right. Okay.

They could just go on a Friday night and stay the weekend at Myrtle Beach or whatever, and like, that's what she did. She was just go to, she was a beach person. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: So she's always about the summer stuff. 

Ally Brettnacher: Indiana Beach. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah, I know, right. I've never been there. 

Ally Brettnacher: I think it's, 

Brendan Kelly: I think we went as a kid, but, um, yeah.

Couldn't tell you anything about it. Right. I don't know if it, I mean, you might have like. Tightness and all that. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. It doesn't sound like a, I don't know. Sorry. People who love Indian Beach. Yeah. Yikes. I don't know if anyone does. I have no idea. No clue. So anyway, that's that's hard for her to adjust to.

Yes. Like her first winter hair had to be Oh 

Brendan Kelly: yeah. She, we brutal. So I was still in college. I proposed to her. Oh, you were in college? Yeah. I had, I think I had a semester. It was my senior year. I had a semester left, I believe if I get, if I have this right. she graduated in December of 2013, I think it was.

Yikes. [00:38:00] Sorry, Shauna. If I don't remember exactly the date I proposed. Um, oh, I, I don't remember the date I got 

Ally Brettnacher: engaged. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: See, I, I know the wedding date, but that's good. That's, that's, and do you know your son's birthdays? 

Brendan Kelly: Yes. That's good. I know. Don't ask me anybody else's. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay, that's fine. But yeah, my husband, anyway, little I digress.

But you know something I gotta quiz my husband about sometimes. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. There's days where we wake up and it's like, she'd be like, you know, you know what today is? And I'm like, oh gosh. So you, what month is it? You go through the checklist? Yeah. Oh, birthdays. Oh, shit. No. Yeah. All this stuff. Yeah. So, she knows all that, but, uh, I proposed at her graduation, I don't believe she had any idea.

I was stressed to the max. This was the first time my family was physically meeting her family. Oh 

Ally Brettnacher: boy. 

Brendan Kelly: And you didn't wanna 

Ally Brettnacher: make sure that went okay before you I know, right? I know. It's, 

Brendan Kelly: I guess I didn't really plan that, but, uh, no, it was great. I was stressed to the max. I'm a planner and so. I'm over here like, oh, we're gonna have my sister take [00:39:00] pictures of us before.

'cause it's gonna be crazy after, like, let my parents meet your parents. All this stuff. 

IMG_8934: Mm-hmm. 

Brendan Kelly: and then when my sister takes pictures, like I had like a picture frame, wrapped and it had pictures of me that was already previously taken that had like, me holding a sign that says like, will you marry me?

That's really cute. In a collage. Very thoughtful. Get outta here. 

Ally Brettnacher: That's really sweet. 

Brendan Kelly: And we put it in her campus center at like the sec, like, we had it all planned out. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: She didn't understand it. She was not budging. we fought the night before and that's air quotes there too. I was like, we need to get there at like, like two hours, three hours before you really need to get, she's like, why?

Like, I don't need to be lined up at this time. And I'm like, well, we gotta get pictures. My family's meeting your family, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, we just gotta do it. That's 

Ally Brettnacher: so funny. 

Brendan Kelly: So it all worked out. Yeah. So I, she's 

Ally Brettnacher: like, okay, man, 

Brendan Kelly: I'm pretty SI don't, I really don't know if I even said words to her when I proposed other than, well, you married me.

It was more of just like, uh, well, yes. Word vomit. Yeah. So, yeah. then I graduated [00:40:00] the following semester here, and then we moved to Fishers, Indiana in an apartment. Okay. And she's a teacher, still is first grade. God bless her. Yeah. Oh my gosh. 

Ally Brettnacher: I have a first grader. Yeah. Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: So, you know, I know.

I don't know how she, no, I don't know 

Ally Brettnacher: because I, yeah, I, there's no way I could never be a 

Brendan Kelly: teacher. she's great at what she does. It's her calling and her living, but, I was a personal trainer right outside of college. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Yeah. 'cause the kinesiology is the study of fitness. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. Your body. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Brendan Kelly: Your body. The movement. Yeah. Um, so yes, I was a personal trainer, but we never saw each other. I worked like split shift. She worked, obviously she was a teacher, so she worked school hours. 

IMG_8934: Mm-hmm. 

Brendan Kelly: and her moving here, that just didn't work. Like, that wasn't okay. Like she moved away from her family to live with me, but yet, she had my family, but it's still not the same.

Yeah, the same. Totally. So I changed jobs and did this marketing job. that was quote unquote, not a pyramid scheme. [00:41:00] It definitely was a pyramid scheme. 

Ally Brettnacher: Tell me you were selling knives. 

Brendan Kelly: Tell me we were not Cutco

or,

or, or any of kind. Yeah, yeah. However, we were like those people in like, Costco's Yeah. Had like, the bamboo pillows.

Okay. And like all sorts of, just nonsense. It, I will say I didn't like the job, however, I learned a lot I bet about just business and just sales and marketing in general. 

IMG_8934: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Brendan Kelly: and everything happens for a reason. but. again, I was away all the time and I worked crazy hours and I just wanted something more settling.

And my mom is the only one that had like a corporate job in my family. 

IMG_8934: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: Everyone else was teachers. 

IMG_8934: Mm-hmm. 

Brendan Kelly: Or my sister who's a pa. and so my mom told me to get in the corporate world, and I don't even know how we got on all this, by the way, but, uh, basically Donna, we were talking about Yeah, yeah, 

IMG_8934: yeah.

Brendan Kelly: Basically right now. Sorry. 

Ally Brettnacher: no, 

Brendan Kelly: it all led to where I am now. I'm a financial analyst. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: I work from home. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: Which is nice. I went through the whole corporate world, worked [00:42:00] my way up. I'm a financial analyst at LabCorp as my primary, and then I also trained somewhat on the side, like personal training.

Okay. So 

Ally Brettnacher: I didn't know that. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. That's cool. Yeah, not a lot of people know that. it's just something I've always loved doing. And even myself, like I like lifting and stuff myself. That's actually what I did outside college. when I consider myself retired from running. Yeah. I was tired of just being that little, like skinny runner, no muscles type of thing.

And I want, I mean, and you're in your twenties, in your male, so I wanted to lift and I got into lifting and all that stuff. Not like heavily or bigger. Yeah. I didn't get crazy, but got into that and so yeah, that's where I am. 

Ally Brettnacher: So let's talk about your retirement from running, because that's an interesting topic as well.

Yes. Because you just, right after college, were you just burnt out and you're like, oh my gosh, yes. I'm not doing this ever again. 

Brendan Kelly: Yes. I, I got rid of everything, like all my running stuff. I told myself I would not run again. College just [00:43:00] completely I mean we were D three so it's not like we were doing crazy, but like we still had crazy training schedule.

when you're at a D three school and you're a, they, they say you're a student athlete. cause academics come first. Mm-hmm. And then athletics. So at D three, like obviously if you're doing a sport, you're doing it because you want to do it, you're not getting paid money to do it or anything like that.

and so we still had crazy schedule and it was still a hard commitment. but my body was just burnt from running. and I just was like, you know, I'm not doing this anymore. like, if I did ever run, fast forward now, I obviously am, but it wouldn't have been much like, it wouldn't have been serious running.

Yeah. And so, yeah, I got rid of all my running stuff, running shoes, running clothes, and considered myself retired. What'd 

Ally Brettnacher: your dad think about that? 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know. I don't know if him and I ever really talked about that at that point. My dad, he

retired [00:44:00] actually from teaching.

Okay. it was either teaching or coaching, one of the two. But he retired my senior year of college because, or stopped coaching one of those two again. But because he wanted to focus on my senior year and be there for me at races and stuff, my dad made it to every race, almost my entire life.

Which is crazy. 

Ally Brettnacher: That is crazy because, well, he lives here. Yeah. Right. And so he drove down to Hanover, which is what, three hours? 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah, it was like two, two and a half. Yeah. Two and a half. 

Ally Brettnacher: And, 

Brendan Kelly: and I mean, a lot of our schools were Midwest like that we competed at. so he would still go to those. Oh, right.

Those ones, geez. Yeah. So it wasn't just at Hanover, the only one, I don't, in college, he didn't go, he went to, didn't go to two because one year. Elsie made it to state, which happened to be the same day as our conference. Okay. So didn't make it to, I was like, Elsie. Yeah. Sorry. I, I'm with you. he didn't make it to that, but I still had my mom and my sisters.

and then we also got the race in Disney in college. So Cool. He [00:45:00] didn't go that one. That was, that was fun. I didn't know that. That could be a thing. Yeah, there was a race at the ESPN, sports worlds, whatever area. Fun. So that was fun. but yeah, like I said, he's my number one supporter. He will be, if he can be at my race, he'll be at my race.

Yeah, yeah. Almost regardless of where it's at. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Do your sisters run at all? 

Brendan Kelly: No. No, 

Ally Brettnacher: they 

Brendan Kelly: don't. they did run in middle school. They didn't run in high school 'cause they were also, in the marching band. Yeah. But yeah, they didn't do, they weren't really sports oriented. but yeah, I don't, it was just me and my dad.

That's just something. Unfortunately for my family, they have to hear us talk about running. 

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, it's me and my, my dad are the ones that do it in our family, and everyone really hates it. Yeah. Sorry mom. 

Brendan Kelly: I know, 

Ally Brettnacher: right? Well, and I'm in trouble because my dad and I signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon. Oh, yeah, yeah.

For this, this year. Okay. It's the 50th anniversary. Oh, that's awesome. And so I'd started kind of noodling on it and I was like, you know, I just really, we have family out there. My, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. Okay. [00:46:00] So my husband's sister and our nieces and nephew live out there. That's, and so I've done it before.

I did it with my dad years ago. Okay. And so I'm like, we should do it. And I told my dad, he goes, Ooh, I could, I could probably do that one. He's 69. Okay. And, uh, wants to do quotes one more. You know how that goes. Yeah. One more marathon. My mom is just like, good lord. I, I joked that we should tell him at the same time. 'cause it'd be funny. Oh, it's not funny at all. I'm just thinking light of it didn't, but yeah, my husband's words were, and he doesn't listen to us, but he's like, I am not furious, but I'm not happy. Okay. And I was like, okay, you're not furious. Like, we're win.

That's a win. That's a w. Um, but my mom, my dad threw me under the bus and told my mom it was my idea, which it was. Oh. And I was like, thanks a lot, dad. 

Brendan Kelly: He couldn't did 

Ally Brettnacher: that, huh? Yeah. No, that's awesome though. Yeah. It's, it's amazing. That's DC right? Uh, yeah. Is that dc? Mm-hmm. Okay. Mm-hmm. Highly recommend that race.

I heard that is a very fun and also fast. It's, it's hilly. 

Brendan Kelly: Is it? Mm-hmm. Okay. But you go through like, [00:47:00] not through, but you go by the monumental Oh yeah. Monuments. All the, 

Ally Brettnacher: all the monuments. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. And I'm doing it with Ains Angels. Oh yeah. So I'm pushing somebody.

Brendan Kelly: Okay, 

Ally Brettnacher: but you've done that before? Not for a full marathon. Oh. But for the, in the mini that you've done it. Mm-hmm. 

Brendan Kelly: Because 

Ally Brettnacher: is that what you're doing this Saturday? Saturday. And this will come after the mini, so that's what I did. Yay. Um, I will have survived, I hope. so anyway, I digress. but yeah, so my dad and I share that love too.

It's just so special. Yes. Um, and my mom is actually the one who was the original runner in our family. Oh, okay. She did the mini every year. She was all about it. My dad started doing it too, and then she had hip issues and so she doesn't run anymore, but she's still very active. And so it certainly been my inspiration too.

IMG_8934: Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: but before we move on to why you came out of retirement. Yes. 

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Ally Brettnacher: before we move on to why you came out of retirement. Yes. When did you run against Jay [00:49:00] Duba? 

Brendan Kelly: in college. In college. He, I don't know if we were the same year. 

Ally Brettnacher: Um, did you know that he plays the drums too? 

Brendan Kelly: No, I don't think 

Ally Brettnacher: so. You know how I found that out during the mini last year? Oh. I run it and I look over at the band that's playing, and there's Jay.

He's playing all the drums, and I was like. No. Well, hey Jay, 

Brendan Kelly: just nonchalant, like, just nonchalant. 

Ally Brettnacher: I'm like, why don't, nobody knows that. Like there, there's the race director for Carmel just out there. That's crazy. Playing the 

Brendan Kelly: drums. Yeah. I didn't even know he was the race director. until I signed up for Carmel.

It was actually at Monumental Expo. 

Ally Brettnacher: Oh yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: He was at the booth and I mean, Carmel was always on my mind. and then I went up to it, signed up, me and my dad were talking to him, and then I was like, you went to Franklin? He went to Franklin College. Oh, okay. And they were in the same, they were our rivals.

He went to the same, conferences as us. That's so crazy. And so that's how we kind of just hit that all off. Yeah. And so, yeah, I don't really remember how fast or I think [00:50:00] he was more of a distance runner than I was in terms of like track. 

IMG_8934: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. Yeah, we raced all through college. I think he might have been a year ahead of me though.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Okay. That's so funny. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah, 

Ally Brettnacher: that's wild. I always say Indianapolis is a small big town. 'cause it's not huge. Right. But it is. I mean, we have more than a million people, right? Oh yeah. And so it's big enough and then Yeah, but the connections are how make connections.

There's so many connections. It's crazy. It's fun. Most definitely. Yeah. Well, that's really cool. Yeah. And he plays the drums too, so that's awesome. You guys should do something with the, but I haven't touched the drumstick 

Brendan Kelly: in forever, but, uh, okay. 

Ally Brettnacher: But you, uh, you know, it's like riding a bike, right? Yeah, sure.

Totally. so then you come out of retirement. Yep. So how long were you retired from running and what made you decide that you were ready to run again? 

Brendan Kelly: I graduated in June of 2014 And didn't touch a pair of running shoes or any sort of running equipment until.

April of 2023. Yeah. So almost 10 years. Yeah, just under [00:51:00] 10 years. And it all started because I was lifting, I was going to the gym every morning, lifting, and then for my warmups, I would just start kind of just getting the heart rate up. So I would just kind of run or sprint a little here and there for like a minute, two minutes and walk a little and then do it again.

IMG_8934: Mm-hmm. 

Brendan Kelly: And then it just started progressing. Like those minute, two minutes started getting longer and then all of a sudden I had a crazy idea where I'm just, I think it was like a Saturday morning. I'm like, I wonder what I can do in a 5K. Like, can I even run a whole 5K? Which is bizarre for me to think about.

' cause everything I do and did compared myself to 20-year-old me. That's hard. Yeah. That's a whole nother, I'm like, to unpack this. Yeah. Right. I mean I ran the 5K at like. think it was like 26 minutes on the treadmill. But it, it wasn't like I wasn't going like all out and I was just like, oh, that wasn't actually as bad as I thought.

IMG_8934: Hmm. 

Brendan Kelly: And so I started to run more often. and then I started to run with my dad. 'cause my [00:52:00] dad, I guess I should also say part of it was because my dad came out of quote unquote, I guess retirement from running. He had a lot of health issues, where he got like heart surgery. Oh, because he, yeah, he had like algorithm, or algorithm had like, I don't, like 

Ally Brettnacher: he could make that up.

Sure, sure. The algorithm of the heart. No. Yeah. He had 

Brendan Kelly: like, his heartbeat just wasn't normal. and I, he got heart surgery done. And honestly that was probably like the best thing for him, because he, he couldn't do a whole lot of activity with his heart issues. And then he had the surgery done, all went well.

Of course. And he got back into running. Wow. And he's, he's crushing it. So that was part of the whole green light for me. I'm like, if he can do it, I can do it.

So I

started getting into running again and in 2023 I only did five Ks. I told, I've always told myself, I will never do a mini Joe tell, I would never do a marathon.

You're right. Yeah. [00:53:00] I'm struck out basically on 

Ally Brettnacher: my that. Yeah. Never say never. Exactly. Right. Good. So we're gonna do an ultra, let's hear you say it. 

Brendan Kelly: I will not do an ultra. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Guys, can't wait to hear you on when you run the full mo or something. 

Brendan Kelly: Oh, okay. Okay. I've thought about it. See, I have thought about Take it back.

Yeah. I've thought about the full mo. I won't, I won't lie on that. But I don't know if I'd ever race a full mo. I, like this year I planning on at least going and helping. Okay. Like pacing some people. Okay. That fine. Not obviously for the whole thing, but like, part of Fisher's running club, which is what I am, part of 

Ally Brettnacher: I got to go last year when they had the aid station Yeah.

At the Monan Center. Yes. It was a blast. That's where I'm 

Brendan Kelly: planning. I, I mean if all works out, I want to try to do it. and Pace Pedro. Okay. Who, is around the same time as, as me and running stuff, but he's more of an ultra. Okay. Like he just did a last man standing Saturday. Oh, Saturday to Sunday. Cool.

I don't know which one it was, but it was here in Indiana [00:54:00] somewhere. 

Ally Brettnacher: Grinding on the grid. I think so. I saw a post about it. And I'm sorry, Trina, I think her husband Bob does that. Bob bu Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. I need to have him on this podcast. I've never, I don't think I've ever met Bob. Actually. I 

Brendan Kelly: don't know of them.

but I think Bob got second. Okay. Correct me if I'm wrong. I don't know. Go everybody who did that. 'cause I mean, yeah, like, I mean, Jeff Walker. who won Prairie On Fire. Okay. Last year he was in it. I think he got fourth or something. Okay. But I mean, they, like the winter went 130 something. It's just a whole nother beast.

It's really interesting to me. It's, oh dude, I went to Prayer on Fire this past year. I, me too. Um, after, it was actually after Last Chance bq, my dad and I drove down, drove back from Illinois, and we stopped at Prairie on Fire. 'cause I was like, well we know people running in it. why not get out and support them?

And I mean, for us it's probably best to walk around a little bit after marathon anyways. And so that atmosphere is crazy. It was so [00:55:00] cool. I would never want to do a last man thing. I will say that. I will, that one. I will say, sorry. I still don't 

Ally Brettnacher: believe you. 

Brendan Kelly: No, they, oh my gosh. But you know, 

Ally Brettnacher: it's okay.

You can say that I'm too 

Brendan Kelly: competitive. I'm too, I'm so competitive. Like I would have, I would, I mean that's probably what everybody says in terms of last minute. I would go out till something's broken probably. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. are you competitive with yourself and others? Is it more yourself? Like, I think it's more myself.

Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: I'm learning it's more myself now. but I'm also getting, I'm, I'm getting smarter, my training in methods, so maybe I'm I'm still competitive, but not like as I used to be. Yeah. but just in sports in general, like I've always been that way. Yeah. Um, so just the atmosphere at last, at Pray On Fire was just out of this world.

I went that night and then I came back that next morning 'cause the guy I was training with for my marathon was Dan Stubbs. Okay. and he was doing Prairie. He got, sorry, Dan, I think he got fourth. Okay. But he, he hit [00:56:00] 108. 108 mile. Yeah. Something, something over a hundred, something crazy. And I mean, Chris Galloway was out there, all that stuff.

So I went back the next morning with my boys. I took them out there and we went and cheered on Dan. and it was crazy to see the difference between the night where there's like tents everywhere. People like still a lot of people. And in the morning there was like four people. It was like Ghost Town.

There was like four or five people left. Yeah. And you could just, it was, I, I don't know how to, 

IMG_8934: yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: So, yeah. back into my running, I guess. Yeah. I told myself I would never do halfs or fulls, only did five Ks. 'cause I was only a mid distance runner. Like at that point in time in my life, the furthest distance I've ever raced was eight K, which is five miles.

Okay. And that's what we did in college. And so I only did five Ks and then I trained only by myself during these five. Like it was my own training plan, ran by myself, didn't really know anybody. I did probably most of my runs on the nickel plate trail or in my neighborhood. And I would always see Fishers run club on Go play trail.

And

[00:57:00] so Light Bulb moment came out, I'm like, why don't I just connect with them, join them or whatever. Like, why am I doing this by myself and join the Run Club? And next thing I know, I signed up for any mini That's 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah. Next thing you know, you're right. 

Brendan Kelly: That's how it all happens, right? Here we 

Ally Brettnacher: are.

Now you're on a running podcast. Yes. You know. Yes. I, 

Brendan Kelly: it, it all, it all it's all great. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: and so I did, I signed up for any mini and the Myer series. I did the three mile, but then I had a crazy weird knee injury. I don't know what it was. I went to Ortho Andy. All this stuff, like they couldn't figure it out.

They said structurally everything was fine. it just so happened to to be where I did a hill workout, first Hill workout in a while with Rob Jackson. He will not take the blame for this, by the way. However, I happened to do hill workout with him. And next thing I know, I can't really put much pressure on my left leg the next day.

so I tried everything under the sun to figure out [00:58:00] what's going on, heal it, all this stuff, and even took I think like two weeks off, like just doing nothing. Missed a six mile race of the series and that would've been my furthest race ever. 

Ally Brettnacher: Where they do 3, 6, 10, right? Correct. Two miler series, correct.

Brendan Kelly: Yep. And they do it every, like each month leading up to Yeah. The Indie mini. Yeah. And so I guess I should backtrack. I did the three mile, I can't remember what time I got or anything, but it was me and another guy got second. Um, so that was a good huge mental boost, right? for me. And I, I wanted to do a six mile but dealt with that knee injury.

and I, I took two, two weeks of just doing nothing. I think we went as a family. We went to Disney and I mean, obviously a lot of walking. Yeah. We're, we're a Disney family too, by the way. Okay. So. We did a lot of walking, no issues, no nothing. I thought that'd be great. Came back and I was like, okay, I can run again.

I started running and like two miles into the run, I felt my knee again. And I'm like, uh, at this point it is what it is. Like I've tried taking time off, I've tried recovering, doing all [00:59:00] this stuff. Yeah. And so I just was like, well, I'm just gonna run. Like it'll go away. It did. I don't really, somehow it eventually, oh God, eventually went away.

Ally Brettnacher: I did not expect you to say that. I 

Brendan Kelly: know, I, I didn't either, honestly, but it was to the point where I was just like so frustrated where like doing nothing didn't help. 

IMG_8934: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: It felt fine doing nothing, but then I go run and I feel it again. So, I, I still don't know really what it was, but I ended up doing the 10 mile.

I was able to do that and that was another huge win for me furthest distance race ever for me by double. Right. and. That helped me get my gears in check for any many mentally. I don't remember what, I think I ran like 1 0 3 or 1 0 5 for the 10 mile. and that was two weeks coming off of my knees.

Like my knee stuff was months long. Yeah. So then I did any mini and

that was

again, all trained just my own training. What year was this now? I lost time. The years, yeah, sorry. [01:00:00] 2024. Okay. So last year. So last year. That was my first mini and oh my gosh. It was fun, 

IMG_8934: but I 

Brendan Kelly: learned the hard way. Yeah. Yeah. I learned the hard way.

Everyone told me the race starts at the track, basically like Yeah. Don't go until you hit the track or after the track, I should say. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: Right. I know. Like, don't do it on the track either. 'cause the track is long. Yeah. Oh my gosh. The track. Everyone thinks it's so, it is a very fun race, don't get me wrong.

Oh yeah. I can't obviously talk, but I, I won't, I wouldn't talk bad about it. Yeah. But it was a very fun race, but man, that track, holy smokes. It's like running on a cast iron skillet

Ally Brettnacher: yeah.

from two and a half miles. Yeah. Gosh. That's the long, 

Brendan Kelly: and the thing is like those stretches are so long. You see people that are like, they're probably finished like 20 minutes ahead of you, but they're like, right.

But you can still see 'em 

IMG_8934: uhhuh. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. But yeah. I, I died. 

IMG_8934: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: I don't suggest people doing that at all. Yeah. Po [01:01:00] definitely positive split. That was, I mean that was miserable. I ran 1 27. My goal I think was either 1 25 or faster, or to beat my dad's time. I'm very Chris Galloway, like where mm-hmm. Chris wanted to beat his dad's time.

IMG_8934: Mm-hmm. 

Brendan Kelly: Mm-hmm. So I'm the same way. 

IMG_8934: That's fun. 

Brendan Kelly: I wanna beat my dad's times. His was 1 21 high back in his day. and so I ran 1 27 and.

1 21 high.

Yeah. So, okay. That was, I had a lot, I had a lot of work cut out for me and, I wanted more. Mm-hmm. I wasn't done, so that led us to signing up for the marathon and that's when I got a coach and it was actually Matt Ebersol.

Oh, you started 

Ally Brettnacher: Matt? 

Brendan Kelly: Great. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. PVT. Yes. I wasn't like 

Brendan Kelly: part of PVT, but I didn't get the full on, like private one-on-one with him. I, I, I did like the monumental type training that he does, but he like, still gave me, not personalized workouts, but my own workouts as Yeah. Yeah. So he trained me for my [01:02:00] first marathon.

Okay. and that was great. Like Matt, I mean, obviously anybody that has PBT on, you know, is they work hard. Yeah. Like, Matt's a great coach. Mm-hmm. Learned a bunch from him and even to this day, like I trained with Rob a bunch and learned a buzz from that. So. Yeah. Yeah, I don't even know where I was technically from.

Oh yeah. 'cause you're 

Ally Brettnacher: gonna talk about Mark. Yes. Aren't you? Yeah. How you found Mark Geier. 

Brendan Kelly: Good old Geier. 

Ally Brettnacher: He's like the king of Fisher's run club. I, I feel like old, old man, Geier old man.

Did he tell you?

He tell you, 

Brendan Kelly: he used to scare me. I remember you. Mm-hmm. That I don't think that was the first podcast. I list interview.

I think Sarah Farney was the first one for you guys. Okay. Yeah. and then I started just going down your whole Rabbit Hole podcast. There's a rabbit hole there now. Yeah. So, yeah. Oh, oh, my guy, he,

He,

he was part of Fisher's Run club when I joined, and started just running with him and like, I knew of him from like Strava and Right.

The community and, uh, started talking to him more. And then he started training some people just like, uh, Rachel [01:03:00] Ebe and like, obviously Michelle and mm-hmm. Luke and like these smaller people. Michelle's his 

Ally Brettnacher: wife for people who did not know 

Brendan Kelly: this. Yes. Um, it was just like, just a. Close knit of them. I think he only was trained like four or five people.

and they were all fishers run club people. And so I asked, I had asked him after my marathon if he could write me a plan for what was my X-rays? Monumental Half, half? Yeah. Okay. and so ever since then, he's been my coach and he has had me on a PR streak. It, it was great. Um, I mean, yeah, he's just great at what he does.

Like, it just works for me as a runner. Like everyone has their own ways and training and what works for them and what he does for me works for me the best. and yeah, I've prd, I think I've prd every single race since he's coached me. 

Ally Brettnacher: That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. And not really surprising. How's that? 'cause I can, well, because I can tell you're like so hungry for those prs.

Yeah. But then I also know that Mark is. [01:04:00] You know, similar. 

Brendan Kelly: Yes. Very. Mm-hmm. I think that's what helps a lot is we're pretty like-minded. and it's not something, he's not like pushing me, like, he's not like a pushing coach where it's, you 

Ally Brettnacher: suck, run fast. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. Right. He'll be like, oh no. It's like, he's very encouraging.

Yeah. But he's not like a laid back coach either, where he is just like, do what you want. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. It's like, or like, 

Brendan Kelly: good job. It's like, I can talk to him about anything and everything. Yeah. which is awesome. And so we've built a good relationship off that and being able to run with your coach too is also very fun.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I, I can relate to that. My coach is Rachel Senders. Rachel, and her and I run, she's definitely faster than me, but like we can match up for easy runs or parts of workouts and it's. Most, it's really nice to have that 

Brendan Kelly: right? That, yeah. I can't run with Guyer on workouts Race 

Ally Brettnacher: day, he'll run with me 

Brendan Kelly: Right.

On my workouts. And same like same thing with Rob. Yeah. Like Rob and 

Ally Brettnacher: I trained all the time together. Yeah. That's so fun. So Fisher's Running Club and so you joined [01:05:00] last year in 2024, Fisher's Running Club and then you did the monumental half last year. Correct. And then Zionsville, then Zionsville Half.

Yeah. I remember cheering in that cold spitting, whatever that was. That was great, right? Yeah. Super gone. Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: I went from running my first half, which was Indian Mini to then doing my first marathon in September. Right. That same year. And then I, and then I was like, I, well I knew I was doing monumental half.

IMG_8934: Mm-hmm. 

Brendan Kelly: Um, and that was I think almost like a month after my marathon. 

IMG_8934: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: It wasn't a lot of time, but 

Ally Brettnacher: Was that the October year? 

Brendan Kelly: Yes. Yeah, I think so. I'm pretty sure there 

Ally Brettnacher: was like one year we had to have in October 

Brendan Kelly: and so, so monumental was great. That was a. That was a 1 22 low, 1 22. Okay. Coming for you dab.

Yeah. Right. So I was knocking on the door. Yeah. And the thing is, my watch clicked right in front of like the, the tents. Yep. Where all the 

Ally Brettnacher: run clubs are. Like, you're like a less than a half a mile to go. Yeah. Like probably 800 meters at that point. Right. You have like 

Brendan Kelly: one more right turn. Yeah. And then you [01:06:00] have your finish and then you're there.

My watch clicked for halfway at that point, and I was technically faster than my dad, 

Ally Brettnacher: but 

Brendan Kelly: it, it won't, it is, it doesn't count. It doesn't, so you 

Ally Brettnacher: gotta have that official result. Right. 

Brendan Kelly: So, uh, I knew I was there. Yeah. Um, and then so that was my zionsville where I'm like, I gotta do something else. Uh, I gotta get it.

Well, Zionsville, I

Ray

Zionsville and it just was, I still prd. I don't know if I was 1 22 low again or whatever. It was just a few seconds faster than monumental. But from the very get go. I don't know if I was battling a sickness or what, but it just, something wasn't right. I knew at mile three it was hard.

Yeah. That sucks. And it, and it, it hurt because I had everything for me. I had Guyer pacing me, Rob Jackson pacing me. we had a group, you had 

Ally Brettnacher: me cheering for you. I know. 

Brendan Kelly: Yes. You were out there in the cold rain. Yeah. Oh my gosh. that was, it was still fun. I, that was a blast being able to run with them.

It wasn't what I wanted. So of course I was disappointed. [01:07:00] Yeah. but yeah, that ended up being the end of 20, 24 season for me after Zionsville. So I ended up with three halves and one full. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Amazing. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. That was fun. And now I want more. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

of

Of course you do. 

Brendan Kelly: I know, right? 

Ally Brettnacher: So then we talked a little bit about the car bill already. Correct. And we talked a little bit about glassy. We didn't really go through the whole race though.

No. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. No, we didn't. 

Ally Brettnacher: And then as part of this, what I would like is to do the, the nerdy running stuff. 

Brendan Kelly: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Like 

Ally Brettnacher: the, what do you use? Nutrition, you know, nutrition. Supplements, like you mentioned. 

Brendan Kelly: Yep. 

Ally Brettnacher: race day, like routines or like, things like that I would love to hear about. Okay. For Glass City.

So, 

Brendan Kelly: yeah. so glass, so what I use nutrition wise, and I've used it since, since my first marathon, okay. Is the BPN, the Bear Performance Nutrition, they have go gels. and for me, I, I'm, I, I, I don't know much about the gels. I haven't tried a lot of [01:08:00] 'em. I, I think I've only tried like Goo and Honey Stinger leading up to my halves.

and I mean they were fine, but there's so many out there now. Oh my God. It's overwhelming. And, and obviously like everyone has their, say everyone's gut's different. Everyone has their say in what they use. But go gels just worked for me. the texture was great. Like it tastes like applesauce, like texture, like okay, it's not thick or sounds like gooey.

Like goo is, yeah. Right, right. Yeah. so it just worked for me and so I stuck with it. 'cause I mean, if it's not broken, yeah. Whatever. Right. So 

Ally Brettnacher: clearly it's something's working.

So,

Brendan Kelly: So yeah, I do go gels. and they also have caffeinated gels C Okay. So I alternate those. Mm-hmm. When I'm running a marathon, and usually what I've been doing is I'll take a regular one, like 10 minutes before the race.

and I'll go through my race routine too, but 10 minutes before my race and then I'll take one at mile six And then alternate. So I'll do a regular at six, then caffeine at 10, regular at 14, caffeine at [01:09:00] 18, and then possibly one at 22. depending on obviously how the gut feels.

Mm-hmm. Usually don't skip out on the one, but Glass City, I happen to. Kind of skipped one. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: I just spaced him out a little bit more. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: Uh, I think I was like at mile 15 and then mile 21 and then that was it for there. Just 'cause I didn't wanna risk anything with how I was feeling. Yeah. So usually that's it.

I'll start at six and go every four miles up to 22 for Joes alternating him. And then I also take their electrolytes. Okay. Um, which it tastes just like Gatorade. Yeah. And then I, they also have a thing called G one M, which is go one more. And that's a carb electrolyte mix. And I'll take that. I'll take one for breakfast in the morning.

usually I'll have a, my race mornings I'll have a go bar, which is also BPN everything right now at the beginning. And something you'll learn about me is like, the, the running nerdy stuff for me is like, I'm brand oriented. So if I'm racing in Asics, I'm wearing, my trainers are Asics, [01:10:00] everything's asics.

Maybe not my gear technically. Yeah. But everything's usually gotta be one brand. 

IMG_8934: Mm. 

Brendan Kelly: And so that happened to work with BPNI like all their stuff. So I'll do a BPN go bar in the morning, which is still really tasting really good. Helps with carbs, for morning of, and I'll also have a banana, banana's, a staple for me.

and then I have two scoops of a G one M, which is like 40 grams of carbs, and a bunch of other stuff. Okay. And I'll, I'll drink that two hours before. Okay. While I get ready for the race. And of course, pre-race though, I have to get my flat picture. Gotta lay out the flat runner. I love a good flat runner.

Gotta lay that out. People are so creative on those. 

Ally Brettnacher: I've started trying, I try to get, creative. Who's did I see that did like the stop motion? That was awesome. Was it, I forget who it was. Was it Dan Brinker? Was it where it was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: No, totally was. He didn't just do that. I 

Ally Brettnacher: think he just did it.

I saw it and I was like, I love this. That I think did, did it for car. Yeah. Which, which, yeah, whatever. But [01:11:00] yeah, it's awesome. Why don't you go, Dan? Yeah. We love your creativity, Dan. That was really cool. I'm gonna copy it. Yeah. And I'll, I'll Good. I can revert back to this recording to remember who to get to who it was.

Yeah. Yes. Thank you. I do remember seeing that with his shoes moving. Right. 

Brendan Kelly: That was really creative. so yeah, I get flat picture, but, I guess I'm just completely going backwards. Pre-race, I always carload Thursdays two days before race. Yeah. Okay. So if my wrist is Saturday, Thursday is heavy carb day, and I'm at like, that's so hard.

I'm at like 8, 850 grams of carbs on 

Ally Brettnacher: Thursday. I don't, I can't, my brain right now is just like all of a sudden be like, okay, so how many poptarts is that? Yeah. Like a million, right? 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. It's, it's a lot. Yeah. But also for me, like, I'm not a. I'm not like picky eater, like I'll eat kind of whatever. It's not a big deal for me.

but obviously I'm not gonna be eating like Taco Bell right. The night before a workout or any, like, I'm still smart with my stuff. but I'm not obviously a clean eater by any means. But I love enjoying eating my boy [01:12:00] snacks. Mm-hmm. Like shoot, you have kids and you get the best snacks ever. Oh 

IMG_8934: yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: So I do heavy carb on Thursday.

It's always spaghetti.

For dinner. Like that's just a staple, like spaghetti 

Ally Brettnacher: noodles. Like you have to have the spaghetti noodles. Yes. 

Brendan Kelly: Spaghetti. Yeah. Like, 

Ally Brettnacher: not just as a blanket term for pasta. It's like, no, I have spaghetti. No, gotta have 

Brendan Kelly: spaghetti. Spaghetti. where do you 

Ally Brettnacher: get your spaghetti?

Brendan Kelly: I mean, just any grocery store, honestly. Oh, so you just make it? I do, yeah. I'll do, I won't do, I mean, well. Unless I'm traveling, I guess. So you have to Not too often. Do I have to do that, that I, I've never actually had to travel two days before race. But I will say at Class City, the night before we went to BJ's Brew House, 'cause we were trying to find something that we could all kind of eat.

Mm-hmm. Something And I did have spaghetti, that night, which I usually don't the night before race. Oh, okay. Usually the night before race is something more light. Okay. since I've already had all my heavy carbs in, could be, well I had stomach [01:13:00] issues. Dunno. Oh, I did think about that. 

Ally Brettnacher: Well, you're never eating spaghetti the night before a rice again.

I know, right? Yeah. Yeah. 'cause 

Brendan Kelly: usually I'll have my spaghetti at home Thursday evening. Okay. And then I'll have it, it for leftovers for lunch. and I mean, I'm having like fruit snacks in between like Yeah. Stuffing fruit snacks and homemade rice crispy treats. The apple sauce, like the go go.

The pouches. Yeah. Yeah. The electrolyte pouches. Like those are so easy to just get so many carbs in on that. and I don't know, I'm missing, I mean, Pop-Tarts you already mentioned, I'm missing some more stuff that were staples for me. I like bagels, all the, I like eat a lot. Yes. I like bagels. Bagels.

Bagels are a good thing for me too. so that's usually like my carb load leading up to races two days before and then I cut it in half Friday. Yeah. And I start heavy as in like, my mornings are heavy. Lunch is a little, and then dinner's more light. Mm-hmm. But yeah, going into race morning for Glass City, we wake up, at 4 4 15.

[01:14:00] Which is, 

Ally Brettnacher: that's early. 

Brendan Kelly: It's early. And it's also kind of a good thing 'cause Rob and I are used to that. We always wake up, we're always up at like 4, 4 30, anywhere between four and four 30. 'cause we're out running by like five. It's not what we want to do. Right. For you gotta get it in. Yeah. So, so it's not nothing, it's not anything outta the ordinary for us.

So get up, get my go bar, my banana, my G one m get race ready. And that's just putting my single, all that stuff on. And we already had my dad, I already said I'm a planner. My dad is a planner. Night before he was out driving, like while I was at, still at the hotel, he was out driving, around road closures, trying to figure out where he could park his car, where he can meet us out in the course.

All this stuff. Like, he had everything and he had it all written down on paper. Like it was like, MapQuest. That's really cool. And I'm like, he, that's just how he is. [01:15:00] So, um, we had everything, we were parked at the school that was only like. A quarter of a mile from the start, um, which not a lot of people knew about.

Went to the start. Rob and I did a little warmup. cause that's just a, I mean, even for marathon, I'll warm up for like 10 minutes maybe. Nothing crazy. Just maybe just a little jog with a few starters here and there. Yeah. Obviously bathrooms gotta be a staple. You gotta get every, get it all out.

You gotta try. Yeah. no matter what. Yeah. And then, yeah, then it's just go up to the corral and pray. Everything works out. I was 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. And do you listen to music while you run? I'm, 

Brendan Kelly: I don't. No. Okay. I'm very more hyped up when I first wake. Not when I first wake up, I should say.

But I'm more amped. But then once I start getting closer to that starting line, I'm more straight faced, like focused type. that's just how I've always, I mean, since college and everything, like, I've just always been. That zone type of thing. Yeah. Yeah. but yeah, nothing very particular for me. yeah, no, then it [01:16:00] was just ready to, to get the race going and, and thankfully, I guess part of, if we wanna dive into the, the Glass City race is something that I guess leading up to Glass City was, my mentality was not there due to the whole caramel stuff.

Yeah. I actually saw your post that you shared for Whitney. Mm-hmm. 

Ally Brettnacher: Whitney Miller. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. And so she's a, I, I might butcher it. Sports and Performance Coach or something. 

Ally Brettnacher: That sounds good to me. Sorry, Whitney. I don't know the exact, and I was trying to remember, she just recently changed the name, but she's trained with Transcend.

Brendan Kelly: Yes. And so I saw her thing where she was offering those who signed up for Carmel, like a 30 minute consultation just to. Talk, mentally talk, talk about whatever you want, basically. Yeah. And so I was like, well, I might as well, I have a race coming up. Maybe there's things that can help clear the air in my mental state for this race.

And I met with her on Friday. 

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. 

Brendan Kelly: And, it was great. it was great for me. I, I don't know if she [01:17:00] thought it was necessarily worth it, 'cause she was like, everything you've said to me has checked all my boxes. Like, you're ready. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: I think it was just me trying to clear the air. 'cause going into Carmel, I had Chris Galloway and add and, they were gonna run the full with me.

Oh. Or at least try to, 

Ally Brettnacher: I didn't think about that. We were 

Brendan Kelly: all like, yeah. Right. So it was almost the same group. We had Sam Costa, which I didn't even go into detail on that, but we had a really good group at Sam Costa. And so I was just gonna turn my brain off for like 20 miles, which is, you can't ask for anything better and just use them to pull me along.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm. 

Brendan Kelly: And so Carmel canceled. And then that's where I got worried. 'cause I was like, I have no one in Glass City to run with. They didn't have Pacers at that time. 

Ally Brettnacher: They didn't. Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: They had like a three hour pacer. However, the night before when we were at BJ's Geier, my coach had tagged me on a Strava post from a guy named Charlie, and I don't remember his last name, but guy named Charlie.

He's working Man's track club. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: He lives in [01:18:00] Michigan and he's a one 20, or he's a 2 25 marathoner. So he's He's crazy fast. Yeah. yeah. And so he actually was, he's, he was pacing the elite woman and the two 50 area. So Guyer had told me to connect with him and I connected with Charlie and that was the greatest thing.

I just, we were like, we were no faster and no slower. We were no faster than I think 6 25 on our mile splits and no slower than 6 32. And 6 29 was hard dial in. Yeah. Yeah. It was. He was great. Wow. But then, yeah, I had to make that bathroom stop at mile 21 and that that sucked. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: Because then I was by 

Ally Brettnacher: myself.

Right. And then the mental demons come out. Yes. Which is, that's kind of the time in the race where they come and they're telling you can't do it. Like as if the 

Brendan Kelly: last 10 K is not hard enough. Right. It's 

Ally Brettnacher: the hard Yeah. That's sucks. So, 

Brendan Kelly: yeah. but I mean, yeah. I guess nerdy stuff is just, I'm just a BPN, uh, nutrition side of things.

Ally Brettnacher: Do you, are you like an official [01:19:00] ambassador? Do you have I'm not. Well, you should be. 

Brendan Kelly: I would love that. Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: You hear that. 

Brendan Kelly: I would love that. And I've, even with that, like I've contemplated going and racing the Austin Marathon because they are like the prime sponsor of that race. Oh, they are?

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: The course may not be the greatest 'cause apparently it's very hilly. There's a 

Ally Brettnacher: big ass hill. I did the half while pregnant. Did you? 

Brendan Kelly: Oh gosh. Yeah. Yeah. That was 

Ally Brettnacher: hard. 

Brendan Kelly: I could not even, I could not even imagine. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy. 

Brendan Kelly: So, yeah, um, I would love, love to do that. But no, there's just brands and stuff that I've.

Either have supported or contacted, and it's not necessarily like me just putting my name out there for whatever. Yeah. It's usually stuff that I can relate to, whether that's their like motto or their gear or mm-hmm. If it's just something I'm using, like, right, like NOx gear. if you're a runner and you're an early morning runner or a night runner, there's those no gear vests that light up.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think I've seen those. I say those things are amazing. it's just a, a very lightweight [01:20:00] vest that just lights up. Yeah. Um, front and back. And you could even have a chest clip, light flashlight there. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: And so I, fun story too is I was approached by Larry, uh oh, Larry K. Who's now Annex.

He, him and I met at the Miler series. 

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, you did? He's the best. 

Brendan Kelly: He's awesome. Love Larry. He has helped me so much just with connections and just talking to me and like providing me with Oh, 

Ally Brettnacher: that's so great.

Everything great. Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: he actually approached me to possibly start up a run club at Fleet Feet when he was there in Fishers. And so I've jumped on that in a heartbeat. And we started a run club and Fishers at, , fleet Feet when he was there. And, , it started in the winter time and that's when I reached out to Knox Gear, seeing if they had any like discount codes or mm-hmm.

Promos for groups. ' cause we're running in the, in the darkest time. And they told me to apply. For ambassador. And so I started that and them ambassador for [01:21:00] that. , And I mean, like, I feel like if you're a runner, like I said, if you're a runner in the morning or the evening, you more than likely will see somebody with a NOx gear tracer vest on.

And it's 

Ally Brettnacher: probably what I should have gotten for my Ragnar. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. I figured I bought like an Amazon, 

Ally Brettnacher: who knows, like headlamp. Yeah. And my headlamp that I used for my Ragnar was like very, very old. Okay. And I realized very fast that it really didn't light anything up. So this is good. Yeah, it was great.

I'll say, yeah. So I need, need some of that for my next 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. I'll say, uh, I got you. Uh, I'll get you a link. Yeah, there we go. But no, it's just a, trying to just put myself out there. and I, I'm not like a huge social media person. Like I, I'm on it, but I don't really post a whole lot about me. I'll post pictures and stuff with other people.

Like, I'm just not, I don't know. It's hard. Yeah. I don't like, 

Ally Brettnacher: like I'm saying that I am like trying and it's, you do a great job. Thank you. It's, [01:22:00] I, it's a creative outlet for me and I love it. And I'm just finally getting more comfortable just to do what I want and not, and just not think about what other people are gonna think about it.

Judged. Yeah. It's like, well, yeah, no matter what you do, somebody's gonna judge it. Right. So like, just do it. Who cares? 

Brendan Kelly: And I feel like it's, I mean, social media's always been there, but I feel like it's exploded. It really, I mean, 

Ally Brettnacher: especially with running, exploding so much too. There's just so much there. 

Brendan Kelly: Yes.

Ally Brettnacher: And I feed so much off of, like, I get such inspiration from people like you and Rob and Mark, and just all the people. Right. and I also really love Yeah. The nerdy side of like, finding new products to try. Yeah. Or like, yeah. Sharing products that I try, that I do like, and it's, it's kind, it's fun. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah.

It's really fun. Like I had before you even posted, which I don't know if you, you might be ambassador, the the maple, the, oh, the syrup. I saw that prior to like, I think even seeing your stuff. Yeah. Because I had thought about it. Yeah. And I was trying to figure out what goo or what gels to take. 'cause I was like, I mean, syrup 

Ally Brettnacher: tastes 

Brendan Kelly: good.

Ally Brettnacher: It's so good. So I use [01:23:00] Anderson's Pure Fuel for people. There's a couple of different brands. Yep. But Anderson's I found in North Dakota at a race. Okay. They had a booth and I was like, you know, maybe I should try this. And I didn't try it at that race I was, 'cause I know better. But I took it home and then I tried it on training run and I was like surprised at how good it ta I mean, syrup does taste good, but I'm like, am I gonna like it while I'm running?

Right. 

Brendan Kelly: Like, like you gonna smack your lips together a shot of maple syrup. And it 

Ally Brettnacher: is, it's good. I love it. Yes. So yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. It's great. It's, it's, they, like we've said before, there's so much out there for people. Yeah. It's crazy. 

Ally Brettnacher: Absolutely crazy. Yeah. This has been so much fun. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. A Gary, I mean, 

Ally Brettnacher: I could nerd out forever.

Brendan Kelly: know, I could too. Yeah. I, I'm honestly surprised of how much I've talked. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. It, it happens. You're like, oh. And we were 

Brendan Kelly: like, I don't, I, I literally was telling Rob and Guyer coming in to this. I'm like, I have nothing to talk about. Right. Compared to them. Compared like they have, I only got two marathons, but I mean, I've obviously have college and all that stuff, so Yeah, 

Ally Brettnacher: absolutely.

Brendan Kelly: But yeah, 

Ally Brettnacher: and I can't wait to [01:24:00] see what happens now. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: So let's do the end of the podcast stuff. 

Brendan Kelly: Okay. 

Ally Brettnacher: I know we have to. All right. so I just asked you this kind of, but about the music while running. Yes. But what is your favorite running song and or mantra? And so if you don't run with music, it can be your like song you want to hear at the start line.

Yeah. Kind of a deal. 

Brendan Kelly: so since Rob and I train together. Him and I have lately been traveling together to races. It's just work. Like, like I said, we live five minutes from together and we do the same races together, all that stuff. and his wife usually will drive us, and we call her our manager.

She is, 

Ally Brettnacher: she is so good at her 

Brendan Kelly: job. She does great. And so, uh, we will listen to swag Surfing by fly, F-L-I-L-F-L-Y. I have no idea what that means. There's a little waving version too. Okay. I know who that is. It's a, it's like a, I don't know when it came out. It's an older song, but it was just like a, it's just a bop It's just an automatic, like you can't.

Get yourself grooving without it. So if I were to choose one, that would be, that would be one. [01:25:00] But my mantra I struggled with when you sent me that, I'm like, I don't have, I don't have one, but I've had friends reach out to me and they've seen stuff and, , actually had the, they made this bracelet and it says results or excuses, I guess I've posted without, wow.

Without me even noticing. I guess I've posted or shared stories about just results or excuses in general without I think me even noticing. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: but once I made that, I'm like, you're actually right. Like it says what it is. Like I, I'm not one to make excuses. I'll think about 'em. Yeah. I'll say, I'll say 'em, of course, but I'm not like, like with Glass City, I'm not like, oh.

Bathroom was why I didn't do that. Like of course, it could be the what if, but yeah. I'm not gonna make that excuse, especially if I have a bad day. If I have a bad day, I have a bad day. Right. Like, it is what it is. We all have it. it's not, it's like a put up or shut up type of thing. Right? Yeah. So, yeah, 

Ally Brettnacher: no, I get it.

I get it. I like it. 

Brendan Kelly: So I think, I think that's, I guess my [01:26:00] mantra. 

Ally Brettnacher: There you go. 

Brendan Kelly: Didn't even, didn't even know I had one. But now you, I guess I do now, now 

Ally Brettnacher: you do 

Brendan Kelly: gotta stick to it now. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Results or ex or excuses, it's a, that's really good. Yeah. Well, it's almost like work so hard that your results can like, almost overcome any excuse, right?

Oh, yeah. Too, because there are are things that happen course, undoubtedly, that you can look at and say, uh, they're gonna, it's, you know, 

Brendan Kelly: yeah. It's, it's gonna, I say they're gonna be there, it'll happen. Mm-hmm. But it's how you afterwards, it's how you handle yourself. Like if you go and you sign up for a race in Arizona or Florida in the middle of summer.

you should mentally prepare yourself knowing it's gonna be hot. Right. You gotta prepare for that. Go do the work. Like, don't use that necessarily as an like, you know, the weather's gonna be bad or hot or whatever. But I, me personally, I wanna use that as my excuse for why I ran bad. Yeah. Or like if you're gonna be running in the cold, right.

Like in the winter months type of, I don't know. Yeah. It's stuff like that. Or like 

Ally Brettnacher: the stuff like you're don't run, I don't train in like pouring rain. Right. Right. Yep. And then you get [01:27:00] to a race and it's pouring rain and it's like, well you gotta just, you've gotta be ready for that. Yeah. Whether it's, hey, do some training in that.

Right. Or then you just gotta suck it up. 

Brendan Kelly: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, man. Yeah. Like then there's the full circle of the pouring rain of the poor car. I know. It just sucks so bad. 

Brendan Kelly: Always gonna come back. Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. And then that's your next finish line or milestone. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: Shauna's birthday is the day of the Indie Mini.

Brendan Kelly: That is correct. 

Ally Brettnacher: And you made the correct decision to celebrate her. 

Brendan Kelly: Yes. Instead of running, I would say. I did the in mini last year and her birthday was the following day. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: And she actually took the boy, that was the first time that my boys have got to see me race. That's so cool. I love it so much.

And so I got to see them out there and that was awesome. they usually don't go to my races. which is not, I don't, I don't necessarily see it a bad thing for me. It takes so much stress off me because I, I'm a planner like I've said. Mm-hmm. So I would be the one trying to help Shauna, like, Hey, park here, go here, do here.

Yeah. Yeah. And instead of her, [01:28:00] Hey, figure it out yourself. Yeah. Like, I got a raise. Yeah. and so it's less stress for me and I know it's a lot less stress for her so much. Like I'm already, I mean like I'm already busy as is like I run in the morning, at 5:00 AM every morning. 'cause I gotta be done by 6, 6 15.

' cause then I go home. I get both my boys up, get 'em both ready for school, get 'em breakfast. She takes my oldest to school with her and I drop my youngest off. Mm-hmm. and so, wow. Like, like obviously I don't want to do that. Like I would love to just wake up at six, whatever and just go run. But it helps her out.

'cause then she just focuses on getting herself ready without having to wake up even earlier and Right. Yeah. It's just, that's a good partner. It's just a whole, it's a whole tag team thing. It is. And it's 

Ally Brettnacher: never perfect, but 

Brendan Kelly: Right. 

Ally Brettnacher: We're all trying, man. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. So I guess, finish lines and milestones, is that what you're saying?

Yeah. So 

Ally Brettnacher: your next finish line is not the mini. So what are you doing next? 

Brendan Kelly: That's a great question, I believe, 

Ally Brettnacher: [01:29:00] which is the rudest question after, like, literally the day after you ran a marathon, but it's just one of the questions. Okay. Well what's 

Brendan Kelly: crazy is people have already talked to me about. Marathon yesterday.

They're like, so you're gonna do another marathon? I'm like, I know you're not asking me this already. You're like, 

Ally Brettnacher: come on man. I will 

Brendan Kelly: do one. I, I mean, I'm gonna do monumental. 

Ally Brettnacher: Well, we know the answer. Are you gonna do another marathon? That's a dumb question. Of course you are. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah, I know. I'm gonna do another one, monumentals, my next marathon.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: I haven't signed up for it, but I know I'm gonna do it. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: when 

Ally Brettnacher: do our prices go up? I, I should know that, but I don't off the top of my head. 

Brendan Kelly: I'm so bad at that. But you should 

Ally Brettnacher: pay attention. 

Brendan Kelly: I'm really bad at that. I'll, I'll, I'm just like, I'm not gonna pay for it and then it increases and I'm like, I probably should.

Yeah. I just wanted, 

Ally Brettnacher: I just wanted to wait until it was full price. Right. Exactly. 

Brendan Kelly: Why not? Last time I paid for a race, it got canceled, which was caramel. Oh. That was me being prepared. I know, but no, that has nothing to do with that. I know. It sucks. Nothing to do with that. Yeah. I think I am, like, guy had said this is gonna be the summer of speed, so I'm [01:30:00] not sure if I'm gonna do it or not, but I have an opportunity to race Hyde Park in Cincinnati. Okay. Thursday. Yeah. Okay. And it's an elite 5K. You have to Interesting. You have to run a, you have to run sub 17 to get in the elite race. It technically would be my first elite race if I ever did it. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Brendan Kelly: it just gonna depend on the scheduling of things because we also have a Disney trip in June that we're going on. Okay. And, uh, yeah, that's a lot already Uhhuh, financially 

Ally Brettnacher: Uhhuh. 

Brendan Kelly: but I, I think for the first time now I'm gonna do the monumental mile. 

Ally Brettnacher: That's terrifying. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. I've never raced it. I said that yes and no 

Ally Brettnacher: to somebody recently.

Who was it? Oh yeah. Maray, who was just on my podcast. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I was like, I can't, so scary. 

Brendan Kelly: I, I've always wanted to do it because I've been a. Faster mid-distance type person. Right. I just have never been able to, because it also happens to fall on the same weekend as my youngest birthday. 

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Yeah.

That's so hard when that stuff. 

Brendan Kelly: So [01:31:00] I've never been able to do it, but with us going to Disney, prior to, we're celebrating his birthday then. Yeah. and that kind of opens up the weekend, or at least we can celebrate his himself like on Sunday. Right. 'cause his birthday, I think it might be Monday. Okay.

Okay. 

Ally Brettnacher: yeah, it's on the 

Brendan Kelly: 23rd or whatever, so I think I'm actually gonna be able to finally do the mile. The mile. 

Ally Brettnacher: That's cool. I would also highly recommend the community mile, because that's what I do every year. 

Brendan Kelly: Yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: So I take my, my husband and my two girls. Yeah. Yeah. I remember you talking about that.

We, we do that together, which is nice because the races are all at different times. So I can't remember where like the men's race falls in the schedule of things. Right? Yep. But you could do both. And so if you wanted to incorporate your family and celebrate your son and be like, you wanna run a mile, you know, do 

Brendan Kelly: that, he so would.

There because I mean, he, like my dad just told me yesterday, if he, my three-year-old doesn't end up being either a runner or a wrestler. It would surprise the heck out of us because Yeah. Wrestler, he plays soccer right now. Okay. He's a beast. And I, [01:32:00] I mean, maybe not at soccer, but he, all he does is run.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. 

Brendan Kelly: He runs up and down the field nonstop. That's so cute. And, so yeah. And he's a typical second child. Yeah. He's just crazy. Which is why it led Dave wrestling. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: But no, summer of speed, 

Ally Brettnacher: summer of speed. So 

Brendan Kelly: I got mile coming up. I might do the eight hour relay, and I'm gonna try, if Guyer hears this, hopefully I can, I'm gonna try and be on the Fisher's Run club, the competitive team.

Oh, 

Ally Brettnacher: cool. 

Brendan Kelly: Ooh. Which I, I, I, I don't, 

Ally Brettnacher: that's competitive. I see them. Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: I don't know if I've, I don't know if I know or. I guess they've won like maybe like four years. And I, they've won a bunch. Fishers Run Cup has won it almost like every year. So that's a lot of pressure. but I, I would do it if like if I'm a lead enough on our team.

Yeah, yeah. I know. So yeah, we'll see. that's something that I would love to do. And then of course probably some five Ks here and there and some halves, [01:33:00] but, but the big, big one will be monumental and then figure out if I'm a bq. If not, I'm doing Chicago. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Chicago's amazing. 

Brendan Kelly: That's what I've, I've, I say, uh, 

Ally Brettnacher: amazing.

And 

Brendan Kelly: that could be one that like, family can go like, right, we can make a trip out of it. Trip out of it, and do the museums. Mm-hmm. I mean, I may not want to be moving much. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. 

Brendan Kelly: But, but. I mean, if it's a family trip, I, I'll for sure do it. 

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah. That'd be cool. 

Brendan Kelly: So yeah. 

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, well thank you so much, Brendan, for doing this.

Of course. 

Brendan Kelly: Thank you. Thank you. 

Ally Brettnacher: And thanks to everybody who's listened. Yes, yes. I love it. Yeah. And happy running, 

Brendan Kelly: right? Yay. Perfect. 

If you enjoyed this episode of Finish Lines and Milestones from Sandy Boy Productions, please share rate review. I say that at the end every time, but make sure you've done it. 'cause if you haven't, it really means a lot. It's so helpful. And if you don't already follow me on Instagram. I'm 

@allytbrett_runs

@allytbrett_runs. 

Alright, have a [01:34:00] good week. See you next time. 

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