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Guest: Amy Haas @raceacrossthestates
Show Notes:
Amy Haas and I met thanks to the internet and her incredible content. She has a community of nearly 150K on Instagram and is a strength and running coach through Run With AIM .
During this episode, sponsored by Previnex and Cure Hydration, we talk about:
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The race she’s gearing up for this weekend
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Running a half marathon in every single state and now going after all of the national parks (63!)
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The PowerPoint her mom and husband made for her after this giant achievement
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How she met her husband, Jared, and why he started running for this amazing adventure on their honeymoon
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What got her into running
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Siblings and growing up playing sports How we both went to undergrad in Ohio
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What made her sign up for her first half marathon
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The progression of a 2+ hour half marathon to winning races
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Her crazy race stories like the time she had to go to the ER for stitches 48 hours before a race in Hawaii or the one where she set out to run her fastest marathon but ran her slowest instead
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What it feels like to break the tape (a feeling the majority of us won’t ever get to experience)
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How life as an influencer started, her “inventory room”, and her side of the “Advil story”
Sponsor Details:
- Previnex - Use code ALLYB for 15% off your first order
- Cure Hydration - Use code ALLYB for 20% off your first order
Episode Transcript:
[00:00:00] This is a Sandy Boy Productions podcast.
Welcome to Finish Lines and Milestones, a podcast for everyday runners. I'm your host, Ali Brett Knocker, and if you run, you are a runner. Every runner has a story. Join me every Friday as I share these stories and we celebrate finish lines and milestones together. Before I get into this week's episode, I wanted to mention our sponsor this week is Previnex Pren.
X creates clinically effective supplements that promote longevity, performance, and everyday health. If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you've heard me talk about Previnex. I've been using several of their products for months now, and the one I wanna highlight today is their Gut and Greens Superfood blend.
if you are already taking another green, you should definitely compare it to Previnex because it's probably more expensive [00:01:00] and filled with more junk. Previnex has only the essentials and is a lot less expensive than other greens on the market, especially for the quality of what we're talking about.
And then if you're not in the camp where you already take a green and you're like, why would I do that, Allie? Well, there are a few reasons that greens are great to incorporate in your daily routine, and one would be for digestive health, right? Regularity, especially for runners is important, if you know what I mean.
and then also natural energy benefits. That's the one that I really notice the most, and as a mom of two young kids who's training for a marathon, I need. All the energy I can get, and I've said this before, but I find myself not craving coffee as much. I really do credit the giving me more of the natural energy.
And then for immunity and everyday health, which you know, again, young kids, I'm always trying not to be sick. So anything I can do to better help my immune system, I am so up for it.
So if you are interested in trying Previnex, you [00:02:00] can go to Previnex.com, that is P-R-E-V-I-N-E x.com, and you can use code Allie, B-A-L-O-Y-B for 15% off your first order. Thank you so much, Previnex for supporting this podcast. And now for today's episode, I'm really excited to introduce you to Amy Haas.
You may already know her or follow her on the internet. She is @raceacrossthestates on Instagram and elsewhere. She has the run with AIM community and Business where she's a run coach and helps women set goals, meet their goals, especially related to running. And I was drawn to Amy initially because I've seen some of her content where she's had this.
Amazing progression of speed over time and it, she just shows that hard work and persistence and consistency really pays off. And she has so many crazy stories because she completed running a half marathon in all 50 states. And so we share some of those stories. During this episode. She is now [00:03:00] working to tackle all the national parks, and so as I recorded this with her, mid-July, about a month ago, She was getting ready to tackle the Cuyahoga National Park in Ohio, which was her seventh park, and there are 63 national parks, but she's giving herself time to do that and explore all of them, but so cool. Her journeys are. Amazing. And then we also talk about what it's like to be a running influencer.
So I hate that word. I know others do too. But she really has this, built this community over a, almost 150,000 followers, specifically on Instagram. And so I was curious to hear what that's like. And I don't know if you remember this or if you were. You know, saw it at all. But there was a debacle with Advil involved and Amy was swept up in that.
And so we talk about that and her side. And I just remember feeling so bad for her, just trying to, do your thing and make a business outta something you love. And then people take it the wrong way and it gets blown outta proportion. And here we are. But Amy is so lovely and I know that you're just gonna [00:04:00] really enjoy this conversation with Amy.
Ha.
Ally: Amy Haas, welcome.
Amy: Thank
Ally: is,
Amy: having me.
this is wild to me because I have like, I'm sure a lot of people you talk to have watched a lot of your content on the internet, and I've heard you on podcasts before and now I get to talk to you. It's really fun for me, so thank you so much. Yeah, I tried to do as many as I can.
I feel like
way
Ally: a fun point
Amy: get your story
Ally: story out there, but I'm excited to chat. Yeah, so like I said, I don't know how the heck we're gonna fit all that I wanna ask you and talk to you about, into this next hour or so, but we're gonna try as hard as we can. I wanted to start with the fact that it is a race week for you.
It's
Amy: It is.
Ally: tell the people what race you're gearing up for this weekend.
Amy: Yeah,
Ally: Yeah.
Amy: actually have a close race. Usually I feel like I'm traveling really far away, but this one is actually in Ohio, so that will be exciting. We're
Ally: We're gonna Cuyahoga National Park,
Amy: it's
Ally: just a trail race, 10 mile trail race. So
Amy: [00:05:00] little
Ally: little bit shorter than my typical half marathon,
Amy: but we're
Ally: we're really excited. We're trying to
Amy: all the
Ally: all the national parks at point
Amy: real timeline on
Ally: on. But
Amy: it's fun to knock another one out.
Ally: yeah, it'll be number seven, right?
Amy: Yeah.
Ally: Yeah.
Amy: it'll be
Ally: Be number seven. That's wild. How many national parks are there?
There's
Amy: There's
Ally: 63. 63. That is so many. I should know how many we have in Indiana, but I do not know
Amy: I
Ally: many are in Ohio. I think
Amy: I think only
Ally: only one. Okay, so you'll check that box,
Amy: Mm-hmm. But then
Ally: but then Alaska has like seven. Oh, okay. That'll be interesting. So you'll just move to Alaska for a year and it'll be fine.
Amy: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
Ally: Yeah. Some states have like a few, like Seattle has,
Amy: within driving distance of each other, so that'll be a fun one to, to hit. But
Ally: Ohio
Amy: just
Ally: has.
Amy: one, so we're getting it done. Now
Ally: And remind me, Amy, what city in Ohio are you in?
Amy: I'm in
Ally: I'm in Columbus. Okay. That's, that's what I thought. And you're originally from Wisconsin? Yep. Okay. [00:06:00] Wisconsin. Awesome. I have not done a race in Wisconsin and my sister lives in Milwaukee, so I just, I need to just go do it.
Amy: Yeah.
Ally: Yeah. Milwaukee's a good, a good spot.
Amy: Madison,
Ally: Milwaukee,
Amy: all are
Ally: all are good. Good spots. We have a lot of Phoenix
Amy: spots too,
Ally: too, I feel like, for racing because it's on the water. Mm-hmm.
Amy: there's
Ally: There's lots of good places there. Yeah. And Columbus was Columbus, Ohio your very first ever Marathon?
Amy: It
Ally: Marathon? It actually,
Amy: it was
Ally: it was my first marathon. It was not my first half marathon.
Okay. First
Amy: first half
Ally: half marathon when I went through
Amy: states
Ally: with Chicago.
Amy: Chicago
Ally: Half Marathon. And which one? Because there's a couple, right?
Amy: Yeah.
Ally: Yeah, it was in, I wanna say it was like September.
Amy: but I'm
Ally: I'm not sure which one that is.
Amy: big. It
Ally: Okay. It was, it was
Amy: huge.
Ally: huge. There were a lot of people, I just remember being such a crazy big event,
Amy: like so
Ally: so much
Amy: that
Ally: that I just got
Amy: completely
Ally: drawn into this space.
Yeah. How could you not be hooked after that? Mm-hmm.
Amy: Mm-hmm.
Ally: Yeah. Dangerous. And now here we are, you've run a [00:07:00] half marathon in every single state
Amy: Yep.
Ally: now you're just ticking off national parks. And man, it's so fun. I love talking about running, which is why I started this podcast. So I had more of an outlet to talk about it with people who care as much as I do.
I'm assuming with doing all the national parks over time, you'll end up then hitting all 50 states again. Is that fair? Yeah. Yeah. A lot of um, I wanna say there's at least one,
Amy: state, but I'm not a hundred percent positive.
Ally: they're kind of scattered.
Amy: so many out west, which
Ally: Great. Because I,
Amy: all the out West states.
and
Ally: There's like a lot in the really pretty spots that I would like to repeat anyway.
Amy: it's a
Ally: Mm-hmm.
Amy: to go
Ally: Go back because
Amy: when I
Ally: when I did the 50 states,
Amy: I
Ally: I wasn't as like thorough in my planning as I'm now. I was
Amy: young
Ally: 20, like I
Amy: signing up for
Ally: up,
Amy: races,
Ally: wasn't
Amy: really
Ally: really looking into them, wasn't really seeing,
Amy: you know,
Ally: you know, whether they were
Amy: fun
Ally: fun location or whether there were things to do. It was just kind like a free for all.
Yeah.[00:08:00]
Amy: some of the
Ally: Some of the races I feel like I didn't see the best
Amy: parts of
Ally: of
Amy: states or like the. The most like areas. So
Ally: Yeah. I don't think,
Amy: go
Ally: go back and actually
Amy: see
Ally: see some of like the best. I can only imagine. I have been to every state, but I've not run in every state. So I've visited them all. So I did my 50th half marathon in my 50th state. So not states overall, but I had done 50 total. Uh, and I did that in North Dakota, which is save the best for laughs.
They literally have a club that you can be a part of when you save it for last, which was funny. So
Amy: That's
Ally: yeah. Yeah. Hilarious. Who would've thought, but also like, yeah, who goes to North Dakota? No offense. Um, it was a great race. I did the Fargo one. Um, I did not. Yeah, it was really nice. So, so you've done mostly half marathons?
Correct. What do you have a spreadsheet for? How you keep track of all these races? You do, Amy, because I feel like I would need one. I have one I
Amy: finished my
Ally: my last date.
Amy: put together like this [00:09:00] presentation, if you
Ally: If you'll,
Amy: of
Ally: of all of dates in the order,
Amy: with
Ally: my finished time,
Amy: everything.
Ally: Um, so.
Amy: my husband
Ally: My husband did a lot of research back into like all of,
Amy: my race times and
Ally: and everything to really gather all of that information
Amy: and I
Ally: and I wish I had it somewhere that was like,
Amy: you know,
Ally: I was like, you need to do a video podcast, just like PowerPoint style like this.
Okay.
Amy: Because it's really, really
Ally: Really, really interesting for so many reasons.
Amy: back and
Ally: and look at those. Yeah,
Amy: things. Like
Ally: like there's so many variables when it comes to running that it's really fun to go back and be like,
Amy: oh, you
Ally: oh, you can see this trend
Amy: getting
Ally: faster. Mm-hmm.
Amy: All
Ally: All the spike and
Amy: and all these things and like here you can see
Ally: where
Amy: was headed for a PR, but then had foot stitches and here you can like, so like there's a lot of just nuances to running that I
Ally: that.
Amy: you could capture in something like that.
Ally: Yeah, I'm so glad that I have a spreadsheet, but what I haven't done is what you've [00:10:00] described, whereas like capturing some of the nuances or stories from those. Definitely it's documented now that I'm using Instagram a lot more for that. But you know, I'm like, man, I have no idea what that year was like.
Like I can see the time and I know that I did it, but like I cannot even tell you what I wore or anything else. So
Amy: Instagram was
Ally: was definitely helpful in that, um,
Amy: in kind
Ally: kind of collecting all of those memories and all of those moments
Amy: the
Ally: Yeah.
Amy: stood out
Ally: out to me for me today, so,
Amy: yeah.
Ally: yeah. Yeah. That's so freaking cool that your mom and your husband helped her do that for you.
That's really special. I love that so much.
Amy: Everybody
Ally: loved sitting down for an hour
Amy: watching
Ally: watching, Hey, I would love it. Yeah. My husband would be like, no, thanks. I'm good. Because he, he's a one and done marathoner, so yeah. What is your husband's name? Amy?
Amy: Jared,
Ally: Jared, Jared. Okay, I'm so jealous that you guys run together.
It's so amazing. I at least got my husband to do one. So there's that
Amy: that's an accomplishment. When
Ally: accomplishment.
Amy: it?
Ally: We [00:11:00] did it when we were dating, so he was still quote unquote trying, you know,
Amy: That's hilarious.
Ally: but it worked because then I was like, well this guy, this guy has to be the one, like we're, he'd never run more than a few miles, and then he started training.
Well, there's so much I wanna know about you, kind of where you're from and upbringing to, but let's just talk about you and Jared for a second.
Amy: Okay.
Ally: How did you guys meet and how did you end up roping him into being your running buddy?
Amy: So we
Ally: So we met online, um, oh, that's fun.
Amy: a lot of bad dates, but somehow found him, it was ironic because we matched on one of the dating apps, um, while
Ally: While I was away at a race like I had,
Amy: left for the race and we matched and like,
Ally: like, oh, whatcha doing this weekend? I'm like, oh, I have a race,
Amy: And I
Ally: I had the race and everything.
Amy: was in Tulsa. And he
Ally: He's like, oh, did you win?
Amy: And I'm
Ally: I'm like, yeah,
Amy: did.
Ally: is so perfect. Because little did he know like that, that's [00:12:00] like, yeah. Did you win? Actually, yeah, I did. He's like, okay, I'm interested.
Amy: I was
Ally: I was.
Amy: by you. And I was like, oh, you don't have to be.
Ally: but
Amy: yeah, we
Ally: yeah, we,
Amy: and then. when did he start running? Let's see. He started running
Ally: because
Amy: for
Ally: our honeymoon,
Amy: I
Ally: I decided I wanted to go on a global adventure
Amy: vacation races, which is
Ally: You
Amy: you go to a
Ally: to a country, you run every day on different trails. They kind of guide you through the best areas.
Amy: And the one
Ally: One that I wanted to go on specific
Amy: in
Ally: in Croatia, and it was.
Amy: on a yacht
Ally: And you got get off and
Amy: run on the
Ally: on different islands.
Amy: And
Ally: And when I showed him it, he was like,
Amy: will run
Ally: I'll run for that.
Amy: is like,
Ally: Like that is something I do. So
Amy: for. So
Ally: that is what rope
Amy: And
Ally: And
Amy: he
Ally: he enjoyed it a lot. So he's been
Amy: to
Ally: run for his own enjoyment now. But
Amy: I make
Ally: I make his running plans so it works out well. Oh, that's so nice. I think you just gave me the idea for my, what I wanna do next year for my 40th birthday. [00:13:00] Like
Amy: awesome. I would
Ally: I would highly recommend.
Amy: global adventures.
Ally: They're
Amy: so much fun.
Ally: so much fun. Yeah. So while we're on the topic of vacation races, I, I thought that they were just doing it like around the majors or like big races. I didn't realize they did almost like a running tour kind of a thing. That's really cool. They're really, really cool because they're all inclusive too, so like,
the chef makes you like cultural dishes.
Oh my gosh.
Amy: you're visiting. The
Ally: The guide, the tour guides that are with you are from the country. So like.
Amy: they
Ally: They know exactly where they're going, what they're doing, what to show you the best trails, everything. So
Amy: you're
Ally: you're really, really like immersed in this experience, but
Amy: it's
Ally: it's amazing. Okay. Yeah. Sign me up for that.
Amy: Yeah,
Ally: that sounds awesome.
I have yet to do an international race, but I will at some point. Have you done a race abroad or,
Amy: I
Ally: okay. I did not. Ooh, okay. Well that's gotta be on the list for you. I'm sure
Amy: indeed the
Ally: majors are on the list. Yeah.
Amy: [00:14:00] So that
Ally: that includes
Amy: Tokyo will be
Ally: Very hard to get into Yeah.
Amy: of
Ally: Than that.
Amy: think, I think it's doable.
Ally: Yeah, for sure. Especially like you said with the national parks, you're not setting a hard timeline for yourself.
You're just like, let's do it. Because you see all these people, especially on the internet, who are like doing all the majors in a year, and you're like, what?
Amy: it's
Ally: How? How?
Amy: It's, it's crazy. Like running has just evolved so
Ally: So much from when I
Amy: first
Ally: got like on Instagram or started running.
Amy: it is
Ally: It's just gotten so crazy. So crazy. Okay, so that's perfect segue. Thank you. You are a professional. tell us a little bit about how you got into the sport. Like you grew up in Wisconsin, where you athletic as a kid? Do you have siblings?
Tell us more about that.
Amy: I do
Ally: I do have siblings
Amy: and
Ally: and I was
Amy: athletic as a child. Uh, sports were
Ally: like
Amy: definitely
Ally: my, my thing. Um, I was very, very energetic, very
Amy: Loud
Ally: and just like [00:15:00] never stopped. Uh, so my mom got me into running the way of like calming me down and mm-hmm.
Amy: that energy.
Ally: that.
Amy: And
Ally: from the very beginning I loved it. Like I,
Amy: I
Ally: I was winning races as like a little kid.
I just like, loved the competition aspect of it. I loved like pushing myself really hard.
Amy: I
Ally: I even went to state, like as a kid, went to
Madison and like ran
Amy: track and
Ally: and had like a coach and stuff, but Wow. How old were you do you think,
Amy: I,
Ally: you went to state? Looking first or second grade. Okay. That is a kid.
'cause I have one of those. Yeah.
Amy: young. And,
Ally: eventually I
Amy: transitioned to soccer just
Ally: just because all the friends were doing it and I didn't wanna do a solo sport like by myself. I didn't really like
Amy: That it
Ally: that it was a solo thing and that all the pressure was on me. Mm-hmm
Amy: thing. So transitioned to
Ally: to soccer all the way through college. And then that's when my cousin asked me to do a half marathon, so I
Amy: jumped
Ally: jumped right back
Amy: running.
Ally: running.
[00:16:00] Yeah. That's so interesting. So you played in college soccer.
Amy: Yeah,
Ally: Yeah. Oh,
Amy: play like,
Ally: okay.
Amy: like
Ally: Still.
Amy: or anything.
Ally: Yeah. That's fun. And so you have siblings. How many siblings and where do you fall in the birth order? So I have
Amy: siblings. I have
Ally: three siblings. I
Amy: siblings and one younger sibling. So I'm
Ally: Okay. Right in the middle. All right. Yeah, I mean it's helpful to have older siblings I've found with sports and stuff 'cause they can kind of bring you along.
Were they all ki, were you guys all kind of similar in that you were pretty active?
Amy: So my
Ally: my older sister and my mom, sister are
Amy: at
Ally: at all there.
Amy: of like the
Ally: Interesting.
Amy: and the
Ally: Riding
Amy: and
Ally: all that. My brother,
Amy: is
Ally: he's my older brother, he is very athletic as well. And we're both very
Amy: athletic and
Ally: and very like business oriented. Like, we're both like have that same
Amy: mindset, I
Ally: I guess.
Um,
Amy: think
Ally: I think we're both achieve based. Yeah.
Amy: like we both
Ally: We really, really like personal.
Amy: achievements. So.
He [00:17:00] definitely
Ally: was
Amy: inspiration for me
Ally: for me growing up.
Amy: every
Ally: Every day he would wanna race me and he would
Amy: whoop my
Ally: my
Amy: every
Ally: every day because he was like eight years older than me. So
Amy: like I
Ally: like I
Amy: little kid trying
Ally: trying to keep up now I
Amy: absolutely
Ally: demolish him.
Amy: a, anything longer than like a sprint.
Ally: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I'm thank you to him for training you to beat the boys because one of my favorite pieces of content that you share is whenever you're like, yeah, these guys just underestimate me. And then I win. And it's so fun. I love that.
Amy: all the girls
Ally: All the girls. Mm.
like, I just love when women can like, can
Amy: and just
Ally: just show that we're
Amy: are not
Ally: not afraid to
Amy: like put
Ally: put ourselves out there to do that.
Yeah. Yeah. And then, so where'd you go to college? Ohio somewhere?
Amy: Yeah,
Ally: Yeah, I went to Ohio University.
Amy: went
Ally: right. Ohio State.
Amy: the
Ally: Ohio State,
Amy: I
Ally: yes.
Amy: the lesser, the lesser one. Just, just So you just Ohio University?
Ally: just the OU one. They have the big [00:18:00] Halloween party, right.
Amy: I
Ally: So they're known for,
Amy: school.
Ally: okay. I went there my freshman year of college for Halloween.
Amy: Nice.
Ally: I don't remember much of that other than the fact that I was like a black angel, which I don't know. I can visualize the pictures, but not much else. But I went to Miami of Ohio, so I went to undergrad in Ohio as well.
Um, j Crew U as they liked to call it.
Amy: Yes. I actually had a scholarship there and I turned it down because for some reason in my mind I was like, I am not fancy enough for this college. Like.
Ally: I could talk to you about that for the next hour because I was not at all, I did not join a sorority while I was there. I felt outta shape or outta shape outta place for quiet and outta shape, frankly, for a while. And then I finally found my place there and really enjoyed it. But yeah, it was, yeah, it was scary.
That
Amy: did because that
Ally: was definitely my,
Amy: with going there. I was
Ally: I was like.
Amy: wanna be in a sorority, so
Ally: So what do,
Amy: Like, do I, I just
Ally: just didn't go there,
Amy: guess.
Ally: right? I know. Yeah. I was like, I, nobody in my family had ever been Greek, so I [00:19:00] knew nothing. And it's like one of the biggest Greek schools and yeah, so you can, you can go to college and not be in a sorority. So, Okay. So let's go back to your cousin and why you ended up doing your first half marathon. So you, you mentioned that your cousin asked you to do it, um, but can you tell the story about why you did that race? Yeah, so
Amy: her
Ally: brother, my husband
Amy: Scotty, had
Ally: passed away when we were all young, um,
Amy: from
Ally: from cancer 12,
Amy: only 12.
Ally: my God,
Amy: I
Ally: I,
Amy: really young. I was like five or
Ally: or six
Amy: she was a little
Ally: older,
Amy: So
Ally: like she's
Amy: quite a
Ally: a older
Amy: me, like five or, or like eight or
Ally: or nine years.
Amy: So
Ally: she asked me to race in memory of him, um, together. And so
Amy: I
Ally: agreed to, even though I didn't really wanna race, I,
Amy: you know,
Ally: you know, the sentiment of it was important to me, meaningful to me. So I was like, okay, one half,
Amy: I will
Ally: I will do whatever deal.
Amy: a big deal. My
Ally: My mom got
Amy: these
Ally: a [00:20:00] Philippine,
Amy: to tie in our shoe laces. So
Ally: Aw,
Amy: time I ran, you know, it was
Ally: that was something that I was like thinking about, but
Amy: definitely lit a
Ally: lit a fire under me to be like, okay, I can do this one race.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I love your mom. Every time you mention her it's like she's the sweetest. and my mom is too. Hi mom. She listens. so after that first one, that's so cool that you got to do that in honor of somebody and it got you started. So then do you have a total number of half marathons that you have done up until now?
Amy: I
Ally: I
Amy: honestly
Ally: don't,
Amy: but I would imagine, I know I've
Ally: I repeated
Amy: a few
Ally: states two times and I've done a few in Ohio here and here. So I would say it's gotta be close to like 65. Okay. Yeah. That's around how many I've done, but I did a lot of 'em were just, were local ones that I would do every single year. So that adds up pretty quick. Um, I actually did.
Amy: I
Ally: I did,
Amy: did the
Ally: I did.
Amy: local one usually,
Ally: And
Amy: the
Ally: the past two years I got the same exact time down to [00:21:00] the second. Oh, that's weird
Amy: Isn't
Ally: isn't that so crazy? Yeah.
Amy: oh, that looks familiar. And then
Ally: And then I looked at my
Amy: time and I was like,
Ally: like, wait,
Amy: that
Ally: that is so
Amy: crazy.
Ally: Yeah. Because you couldn't even, I mean, getting in even in the same, I Yeah. That's really wild.
Amy: I
Ally: is a fun fact.
Amy: it is a
Ally: Uh, yeah.
and when in that. Timeline, did you first break the tape? Because one of the things that I find so inspiring about you, Amy, is that, you know, you started, like a lot of people do, like call it around like two hours and, and then you've made your way to breaking tape, which is incredible. So
Amy: Yeah,
Ally: was that process like?
Because obviously it didn't happen right away.
Amy: no,
Ally: No, no.
Amy: yeah,
Ally: Yeah. The
Amy: the
Ally: progression like the actual progress that I made is super interesting
Amy: yeah, I
Ally: yeah, it started around two hours
Amy: and like
Ally: and like I wasn't doing anything to like really train or like, you know, I was just,
Amy: I
Ally: I kind of was trained for the race and then not trained again.
Amy: I was
Ally: I was pretty inconsistent [00:22:00] when I first started, so I did
Amy: one half
Ally: half marathon a year for those first few years
Amy: I
Ally: when I.
Amy: took me like 10 years to do the states, for those first three years, I was doing one per year. Like it was like not, it was a slow burn for for the, for a little bit. And I didn't make that much
Ally: Much progress for a while
Amy: And then
Ally: and then I gotta stage four, which is with Anna. Mm-hmm. I decided,
Amy: hey, I
Ally: hey, I think I'm actually gonna try to
Amy: all the states. that's when
Ally: when progress started happening a lot faster because I started
Amy: a little
Ally: a little bit more frequently and like training
Amy: round
Ally: instead of just training for like one race, like for 16 weeks.
Amy: to it.
Ally: Mm-hmm.
Amy: I started
Ally: started running more,
Amy: consistently,
I
Ally: I noticed my pace going down and like getting faster,
Amy: but
Ally: but then
Amy: I
Ally: I hit
Amy: very
Ally: big like block around like 1 45 and I just could not,
Amy: it. It took me, wanna
Ally: I wanna say like 10 or 15
Amy: where I
Ally: where I just floated around between [00:23:00] like
Amy: one
Ally: 50
Amy: and
Ally: and like one 40 and I just like couldn't really like get out that like,
Amy: and
Ally: and then all of sudden like.
Amy: years
Ally: later, all of a sudden I just like went way down. I took like five or six minutes off of my time, like
Amy: one
Ally: one race and it was just because of those years of
Amy: training
Ally: leading up to it. But
Amy: it all
Ally: it all kind of like came at once and
Amy: that
Ally: that was really interesting to me.
Amy: really,
Ally: Yeah.
Amy: really shows that all
Ally: all that you're doing is paying
Amy: even if you can't really see it right now.
Ally: Right. I tell myself that a lot,
Amy: Yeah.
Ally: a lot. I so hard to trust that, but mm-hmm. Such a good example for me because
Amy: all of a
Ally: all of a sudden
Amy: just like, and it wasn't just that
Ally: that
Amy: it was like the
Ally: like the next three race, I took time off, like boom, boom, boom
Amy: and
Ally: and ended up going sub one 30 within like the next few years. So.
Amy: like happened pretty fast.
Once I
Ally: I got through that like block. Mm-hmm. Well, and running, as you know, [00:24:00] is so mental, so it's probably partly a mental block. 'cause then once you did that, you're like, oh, your brain is like, oh, I can actually do that. Yeah.
Amy: And it took a lot of me reminding
Ally: Remind myself
Amy: like
Ally: that like not every race had to be
Amy: and like a
Ally: Yes.
Amy: I did had tough courses, or they were in locations that I wasn't used to running, or they had weather that I wasn't used to experiencing, or I was going straight from where the
Ally: Tempera was like 40 in Ohio somewhere where it was 80.
Amy: And so
Ally: So yeah, all conditions where I wasn't really thinking about it at the time. Looking back,
Amy: well, of
Ally: well of course I wasn't gonna
Amy: that
Ally: be that rate, but it was great training. Like yeah. Yeah. I've finally realized that myself, like in the last few years. you don't have to try to be your fastest every time.
I mean, I've done so many. It's like just do it for fun, which is so hard because I'm super competitive, not necessarily with other people. More so with myself. Right. [00:25:00] So, Um, I would, we'll have to talk more about that 'cause I would love you to give some advice on, on that topic. 'cause I could talk about that for a while too.
But I want to dig into some of the stories within your 50 states because you're so nice in sharing your content. You highlight some of them and I'm like, okay, good. I'm just gonna use this list and we're gonna talk about these.
Amy: Yeah.
Ally: Probably my favorite one is Hawaii because that's, you mentioned stitches earlier, so please tell us the story of Hawaii.
Amy. It's ridiculous
Amy: my God. It's like, it's still frustrating to this day, so going into Hawaii, you have to realize that I had been working towards a sub one 20 for
Ally: for
Amy: Two
Ally: years at this point, and in February, so I was gonna Hawaii in April, in February, I got a one 20.
Amy: So I only
Ally: I only needed 30
Amy: Right?
Like I'm setting
Ally: setting
Amy: for this because going into
Ally: into
Amy: I am
Ally: i
Amy: like peak condition, right? I, I
Ally: I that
Amy: it's
Ally: I,
Amy: sight. I
Ally: I only need 30 seconds off.
Amy: am
Ally: I'm like trading my [00:26:00] butt off. I am ready, I'm gonna take paper and seriously,
Amy: I am
Ally: I'm gonna
Amy: control
Ally: everything I can going into this.
Amy: And then we get there and my husband is like, he's like, it's four 20, would you like to take a gummy and go snorkeling? Like would
Ally: Yeah, obviously.
Amy: like, duh.
Ally: Duh.
Amy: of course we should do that. we
Ally: Oh my God.
Amy: and.
Ally: And I like feel something
Amy: and I'm
Ally: my foot like,
Amy: I just cut my foot and he is like, oh, it's
Ally: like, oh, it's probably not that bad,
Amy: it actually
Ally: actually hurts.
Amy: We should get out. Like this doesn't feel quite right. So we get out and
Ally: Get out,
Amy: like nonstop gushing blood and we're both looking at it like, this is a problem. So we tried to
Ally: try to go the door
Amy: and like
Ally: and like handle it.
Amy: with
Ally: Oh my God. We got like,
Amy: even
Ally: can't tried like, uh,
Amy: like
Ally: like glue. We tried to like glue it back
Amy: it just
Ally: and it just like would not hold.
Amy: just
Ally: [00:27:00] God.
Amy: bleeding. So
Ally: So eventually we did have to go into.
Amy: the ER and
Ally: And
Amy: stitches and this
Ally: and this was 48 hours before the race. And
Amy: this
Ally: this girl is looking at me like I'm crazy as I'm asking to add an extra stitch because I have a half marathon.
Yeah. You're like, no, really get it, really get it good.
Amy: She is
Ally: She's like, that's not happening. I'm like, that is
Amy: So like
Ally: like whatever we need to do.
Amy: But the
Ally: the next day, like I couldn't really even walk on it. So I'm like, I dunno if this is gonna happen. We,
Amy: like bib pickup and
Ally: and I'm,
Amy: I'm just like
Ally: yeah, that's
Amy: because we came
Ally: all this way.
Amy: so ready for this race and yep, I did
Ally: I did end up raising it
Amy: and
Ally: and
Amy: stitches
Ally: just held up. It was very painful and like I paid for it for weeks because you know
Amy: changes, you change
Ally: everything.
Amy: form to compensate for that pain. And I knew that going into it. I
Ally: I knew it.
Amy: I was [00:28:00] gonna do it, but
Ally: But also I was gonna pay for it and I did. And
Amy: it's all
Ally: so crazy.
Amy: It is.
It is fine.
Ally: Well, looking back, you have like one of the best stories ever. Like never have I ever run a marathon after I got high and cut my foot on the coral in the ocean and then still did it.
Amy: moral
Ally: Moral of the story is, you're going to Hawaii.
Amy: water shoes
Ally: Yeah. Oh my god.
Amy: that's it.
Ally: Yeah. That's wild. That is. Oh my gosh. Okay. And then Jared proposed to you the night before one of your races? Mm-hmm.
Amy: Mm-hmm.
Ally: What year? What year was that? When did you guys get engaged?
Amy: oh, it's 2025. It would've
Ally: It would've been 23. Okay. Yeah.
Amy: Yeah. Yeah, because it was October and that sweet boy, he, he
Ally: He like
Amy: Told
Ally: told me we were picking out outfits for like a friend's wedding and so we went and like got these outfits and
Amy: tried everything
Ally: everything on. And then it turns out
Amy: propose to me and them.
So he was like,
Ally: like as we were getting ready, he's like, let's go up to the roof and like [00:29:00] take a picture really quick. Like he looked so pretty and I'm like, okay.
Amy: And
Ally: And up there was like all these roses and stuff.
Amy: to me. So it was very
Ally: Ooh.
Amy: And I had a race the next
Ally: The next day slammed a brunch with all of our friends and family afterwards.
Amy: very, it was very sweet.
Ally: Okay. Like your mom and Jared. Really?
Amy: Really, really
Ally: That's pretty amazing. Okay. And so what race was that that you did the next day? Columbus. Okay. Because of co Of course. Yeah. That makes sense.
Okay. And then, ooh, the well was this New York. This was New York Marathon, so diverting from half marathons. You had been fighting for a sub three hour marathon.
Amy: Oh my
Ally: Oh my God. Going into New York. And then that was hell, it looked like, um,
Amy: terrible.
Ally: Yeah. So you go try to run your fastest marathon and you end up running your slowest marathon.
Amy: Yeah. Yeah. So I
Ally: I ran,
Amy: marathon in Columbus, and then
Ally: then I ran my second one in Boston.
Amy: it
Ally: It absolutely [00:30:00] destroyed me.
Amy: was
Ally: Very unwell. Um,
Amy: just say
Ally: just say that.
Amy: And
Ally: And then I went
Amy: New York hoping for a
Ally: for a,
Amy: I had
Ally: I
Amy: training really
Ally: really hard for it. I
Amy: had
Ally: had like an 18 mile race, like as one of my peak weeks where I,
Amy: was
Ally: it was very clear that I could do up
Amy: three.
Like I just,
Ally: mm. I just, I just needed to
Amy: To train.
Ally: train.
Right. And
Amy: for
Ally: for whatever reason that day I went out way too fast. Those hills
Amy: me up
Ally: up
Amy: me out.
Ally: mountain. And I will say.
Amy: Jared played a role in this one as
Ally: as well.
Amy: He was like,
Ally: He was like,
Amy: let's
Ally: walk to this Italian restaurant.
Amy: only
Ally: only like,
Amy: like
Ally: he like got it mixed up, which
Amy: it was.
And he had made us reservations. We
Ally: We ended up walking like five miles
Amy: this
Ally: plane,
Amy: the day, like the
Ally: like the night before
Amy: And
Ally: race. And I'm like, just every step I'm like, oh my gosh, this is gonna be bad tomorrow.
And it was, it was
Amy: so
Ally: so hard. And I have actually never had a race like that where I've stopped on the course [00:31:00] and like
Amy: literally
Ally: walked or even like mm-hmm.
Amy: Right.
Ally: And like I was crying. I.
Amy: The
Ally: The only thing keeping me going was I knew my family was waiting in Central Park for me, and
Amy: like,
Ally: just really wanted to get there.
But when I got there, at this point, I,
Amy: I'm
Ally: I'm not even walking in front of aid station. I'm walking behind them because I'm moving. So
Amy: that I'm like,
Ally: I'm like, oh, I can't just parked.
Amy: of this aid station.
Ally: What? Oh my gosh. That's crazy.
Like my back hurts. So that everything was breaking down because like my
Amy: was
Ally: was breaking down. Everything was breaking down.
Amy: I
Ally: I definitely under fueled, which
Amy: I
Ally: I learned my lesson immediately and
changed everything about it the next time. Mm. But um,
Amy: yeah,
Ally: yeah, that was a nice, oh yeah. New York, I didn't, I did that in 2018 and I, it is, I didn't know I'd been to New York and I was like, I've run in Central Park, it's flat. I had no idea until the day before.
Somebody's like, oh, there's a lot of hills in [00:32:00] Central Park. I knew there were the bridges, right? So I trained a little bit for elevation, but yeah, that was, it's a rough, rough go those last few miles.
Amy: hard
Ally: Hard race, like
Amy: I feel
Ally: I feel like
Amy: 13 miles and it just gets so
Ally: so
Amy: hard. Like I just, such like
Ally: like a
Amy: race
Ally: too, that I feel like it's so easy to go to fast and then you're just like paying for it.
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great one to have done. Like I'm definitely glad that I did it. You're probably like, I wish I could redo the first time I did that.
Amy: I, I just like, the thing I'll say about the majors is like,
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Now back to the show.
Amy: the thing I'll say about the majors is like,
I wish. We all would stop trying to PR at them because like that's not what they're meant for. Like they're meant as the celebration because you PRD your last one, not because you need to PR this one. And it would just be so much more enjoyable because I feel like there's so much expect expectation and like
Ally: Like people are tracking each other and
Amy: you
Ally: you know, when you set those lofty goals on those challenging courses,
Amy: you're
Ally: you're setting yourself up for, right? And then you don't enjoy it as much, which sucks 'cause it's such a magical experience. You're like, well I wish I would've just ran that for fun.
Amy: because been a lot better.
Ally: Yeah. Well it always, it just blows my mind. People go to Boston and then try to requalify for Boston. At Boston.
Amy: Yeah.
Ally: I'm just trying to get my ass [00:35:00] to Boston. And then that is my finish line. Like, when I get there, I will do, I don't know, I'll just go, just do it. You know?
Amy: Yeah,
Ally: Boston was another hard one for me.
I ended up in
Amy: the med
Ally: med
Amy: and it
Ally: was,
Amy: a whole disaster.
Ally: yeah. For anyone who hasn't been in a med tent, I have. But tell people what that's like.
Amy: Well,
Ally: Well, they tried to give the stop
Amy: 18. They were
Ally: they were like, come on, come on, come on.
Amy: You don't look well. Like, come sit down. I'm like, no, no, no. Like, I'm gonna keep
Ally: I'm good,
Amy: And I'm like, at this point I'm like, people are screaming my name and I have videos of me like
Ally: like looking over and like not actually looking at people, but I'm just like,
like so out it,
Amy: yeah, I
Ally: I crossed the line and
Amy: Vomited
Ally: everywhere. Got hoisted into the Med 10 out.
Amy: passed out. They
Ally: They put things around both my ankles, they were bleeding, they with
Amy: have any
Ally: water because what had happened was I had like taken in too much water and not enough fuel or [00:36:00] electrolytes and so they were really worried about, I think it's called like
Amy: or
Ally: or something, what
Amy: where like
Ally: your brain can swell and stuff because you've taken in too much water, not, not like sodium to balance it.
So
Amy: another note for fueling correctly, but they like put an IV in me and everything and. I just have to tell this 'cause it's so
Ally: So funny. When I left the med test, they forgot to take the IP outta me and I found my husband and gave him a hug. And he like, heck.
Amy: And
Ally: And he, you still have an
Amy: have an IV in you? My
Ally: lip?
Amy: purple. I have
Ally: I have an,
Amy: IV in me. I have that, like that gown thing over
Ally: yeah.
Amy: He's like, what
Ally: What is up?
Amy: you
Ally: You look like a ghost walking around. You're like, just a casual, just an everyday Monday, man. I'm here. What do you mean?
That's wild. So did you go back to have him take it out or did you just take it out yourself?
Amy: I
Ally: I went back. I would've too, 'cause I would've been like, am I gonna like bleed to death if I do this wrong?
Amy: Yeah. It's so gross.
Ally: Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's wild. [00:37:00] Well, and what I always, well, not always, I don't know if I've ever shared it on this podcast, but in med tense, they take, don't take your temperature like in your mouth.
So you probably don't have remember that
Amy: No, I don't, I do
Ally: I like, I like barely remember, because somebody else told me this and I was like, oh, yeah. You know, I think in New York I have this vague memory now of, uh, that, so
Amy: hilarious.
Ally: Oh, that's an, that's wild too. and then, okay, gosh, you've run with Dez That's so cool. In Mississippi of all places.
Amy: yeah,
Ally: So
Amy: for
Ally: for some reason,
Amy: there were a few other like really famous runners, and I can't remember who they were, I know that she was there. 'cause I was like, holy
Ally: holy crap, this is crazy. But
Amy: they
Ally: they had all come, I think it was part of like, some kind of PR thing, but, um,
Amy: were
Ally: they were all there and it was super cool because you could see them all warming up like they.
Amy: bus and everything.
Ally: And since I was in the starting corral, I was like [00:38:00] right behind them, like right as we started. So like, I gotta watch them take off, they gotta
Amy: before
Ally: everybody.
Mm-hmm.
Amy: sense. And
Ally: And then we took off,
Amy: I couldn't see them as I was racing because they were just like so far ahead.
Ally: but
Amy: I
Ally: I finished
Amy: With
Ally: with enough time to like, as they were cooling down, there were only
Amy: few people who had
Ally: who had finished. And so like
Amy: just
Ally: just hanging out there and I'm just like walking up like.
Amy: oh, we
Ally: We just happen to be in this recovery 10.
Amy: same time. Like, would you like
Ally: Hello? Yeah. Would we like to? Yeah. That's so crazy. I have not ever met Des and I hoped to meet her at some point.
I loved her book. I just think her whole like demeanor and vibe and outlook is just great. So I'm jealous of that experience. and then there's a couple stories about breaking tape I wanted to cover. One was, well, first of all, the first time you ever broke the tape. So as somebody, and I, I bet a lot of people listening have never had that experience.
So [00:39:00] could you just talk about what that feels like, especially when it's your first time you're like, is this real life?
Amy: Yeah,
Ally: Yeah. Little Rock was the first race that like, had a,
Amy: had
Ally: had this special, like
Amy: was
Ally: it was bigger race.
Amy: So it like kind of made like, just was the
Ally: the first
Amy: that
Ally: like,
Amy: really was like, holy
Ally: holy crap.
Amy: believe I won this. this is like, it
Ally: Like, it wasn't like a hundred people, it was like thousands of people.
Crazy.
Amy: and
Ally: I'll say, when I first started,
Amy: I'm
Ally: I'm somebody who like
Amy: always underestimates
Ally: myself very much. Like I didn't even wanna be in the A corral. Like, I was like, mom, I'm not fast enough for that. Like,
Amy: she's like,
Ally: like, you need to start up there like, otherwise you always get stuck behind people and then you're frustrated to just start where you need to start.
And
Amy: that
Ally: that made me nervous I
Amy: didn't. I wanna
Ally: wanna put expectations on myself. I hate kind
Amy: kinds of
Ally: expectations. And so we took off and we're running and all of a sudden this biker pulled up next to me and he is like,
Amy: in
Ally: in his walk, he like, I'm with the [00:40:00] first woman. I'm like, I,
Amy: so.
I'm like, there's somebody, there's
Ally: there's
Amy: be
Ally: be something else.
Amy: I
Ally: I literally.
Amy: go check. He's like biking up. He comes back, he's like, Nope. Like you're the first girl. And that was a
Ally: A little nerveracking because I had to hold it like whole time.
Amy: that was in the
Ally: The first,
Amy: So I'm
Ally: no,
Amy: like, what the heck is
Ally: oh,
Amy: I'm like asking the biker like, is anybody behind me? And he's like, I'm not allowed to
Ally: to tell why? Why is he not, that's Wow. Okay. You make me turn around. Yeah.
Amy: Yeah, but he was super nice. He
Ally: That's so cool.
Amy: filmed the
Ally: filmed the whole
Amy: on his
Ally: thing on his little Velcro.
Amy: wearing, and so he
Ally: He sent me all these videos after and was like,
Amy: a
Ally: here's a video of,
Amy: to your
Ally: here's
Amy: and like,
Ally: a video of you
Amy: of you like
Ally: like getting
Amy: on by all these
Ally: these other women. I'm like this, so
Amy: nice of
Ally: what an angel
Amy: yeah, the feeling of
Ally: into
Amy: finish
Ally: finish line and like
Amy: the
Ally: the finishing shoot just like all the people,
Amy: and there
Ally: and there were cameras behind the line of like the [00:41:00] local newspaper and stuff, and just like
Amy: it's such a moment of
Ally: of just utter like. Disbelief of
Amy: is
Ally: is happening. You just feel like you're like literally floating, like you're just like
Amy: in a
Ally: in a different Like Yeah.
It, it's hard to explain. It's like on your wedding day or something like Yeah. Feeling
Amy: like,
Ally: like,
Amy: existing. Like
Ally: yeah. Or when you have a gummy on four 20, it's kind of the same.
Amy: You're
Ally: Like, like, I'm here and just watching my life for, from somebody else.
Amy: Yeah. It is
Ally: It's a, it's a crazy. And did you think like, one of the first things that comes to my mind, I've actually held the tape.
Okay. Because I'm on the, I'm on the board of directors for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, which you have to come do sometime. But yeah. So I've held the tape, not for the marathon, but for one of our other events. And I just remember being so nervous, like holding it,
Amy: Mm-hmm.
Ally: I'm like, you don't wanna get it too low.
Like, especially when the first female comes, you've gotta make sure like. The guys get, don't mess it up. So anyway, like were you thinking, what do I do with my hands? That's like one of the first things that would come to my mind because you can't just like run through it [00:42:00] like you normally would.
You have to put your hands up. So like, do you remember thinking that I, I have always put my hands up.
can you imagine I didn't
Amy: a
Ally: photographer,
Amy: I'm usually just like
Ally: so I'm just like looking at them and like,
Amy: or
Ally: or whatever. Yeah, yeah.
Amy: Yeah, I definitely have on state 50 when I knew that I had won and like it was like such a big moment and like there was just like so much going on.
I was like, what do I
Ally: What
Amy: What do I do?
Ally: do, what do I like? Turn around and wave.
Amy: Like what do I do right now? What am
Ally: Yeah.
Amy: Because there's
Ally: Like you almost wanna stop time. You're like, well, I just want this moment last longer. Yeah.
Amy: like slow
Ally: Slow down and walk through the tape. Or like, yeah, right. Or, yeah. That's just so cool. Okay. And then my favorite story is when you had to redo a picture.
Amy: Yeah,
Ally: Yeah. That,
Amy: where was
Ally: is so funny to me.
Amy: Yeah. So the 10 k and the half marathon
Ally: Marathon has started
Amy: like
Ally: like
Amy: time and they didn't expect a half marathoner yet. [00:43:00] And so like I run through and like nobody says anything. My mom is cheering. She's like, what? You won? Like, like so
Ally: so excited.
Amy: And
Ally: And finally like the people who are like over by the
Amy: line are like
Ally: line,
Amy: at my mom, looking at me
Ally: obviously
Amy: how fast I came
Ally: running.
Amy: and they like walk over and they're like. Did you
Ally: Did you?
Amy: marathon? I'm like, yes. And they were
Ally: They were like, shoot, shoot. That's
Amy: Like
Ally: so embarrassing for them.
Amy: were runner. Like we need, we need a
Ally: We need a picture. You.
Amy: Like, could you come back and like do this again? And at this time I had already like taken off my, like I had taken
Ally: Oh, no. And
Amy: had like put it aside or whatever, like I
Ally: remember, like, I've done.
Amy: And then they made me redo it. And I was
Ally: That's,
Amy: fine.
Ally: that's so ridiculous. That's so, yeah. That's so funny to me. Well, and as race organizers, they were probably mortified. but it's like, come on guys, like you have one job. Yeah. It's like you have one job, like, and you have walkie talkies everywhere. Like [00:44:00] somebody should know.
Amy: Yeah. It
Ally: Yeah. Oh man. Okay. I think I've covered most. I know I haven't. You finally got your sub three at every woman's.
Amy: I
Ally: Marathon. And that was last year, right? Mm-hmm.
Amy: Mm-hmm.
Ally: Yeah. So amazing. Um, and you've done a sub one 20 half and that was the one in Rhode Island where it was your 50th state, you win, and it's your, I mean, how did you, how do you celebrate that?
Amy: We
Ally: we actually had a, a vacation home for a week after that.
Amy: it was like, it was, it was quite the celebration
Ally: Did you wear your medal the entire week? Because I probably would've,
Amy: for a lot of time
Ally: every time you leave the house, you're like, I must put my medal on.
Amy: yeah. I mean
Ally: I mean, that
Amy: was
Ally: was very much,
Amy: Amy Center.
Ally: yeah. That's so cool.
Amy: own show.
Ally: That's really fun. That's so well deserved too.
After like, all the hard work for all of those things, like the time is great, but like 50 states, that takes, like you said, a lot of years, a lot of planning. And did you ever officially join like the half, um, what is it called, [00:45:00] like 50 states club or anything like that? No. I
Amy: I didn't
Ally: didn't even know that was a thing until Oh, that's funny.
Pretty relevant to my journey. And then I was like, oh
Amy: there's people who do this.
Ally: yeah, I guess this is a thing. Yeah, it's a whole subculture, which I'm not super familiar with. I just had a woman on who's done it and is about to do it for a second time and it's just like wild. This like, people are nuts. Um,
Amy: is,
Ally: you included man. Okay. So I also really wanna get into being an influencer because I find that so fascinating as somebody who is trying really hard.
It is so hard. And, so let's talk about that journey. 'cause I really wanna hear about how you, you mentioned getting on Instagram when you kind of first started running to document your journey, but just kind of walk us through that. Now you're at 144,000 followers. It's just How many is too many too, because I feel like at some point it's like, starts to get scary, but Okay.
Tell us the story. How did you start? Yeah,
Amy: I,
Ally: I, [00:46:00] I started it
Amy: when I
Ally: I started,
Amy: and like I
Ally: didn't do anything,
Amy: outside of honestly, I swear I just like posted every state. Like I,
Ally: like,
Amy: in a
Ally: while I was like posting this case
Amy: because I did
Ally: I did it
Amy: was more of like a way for me to
Ally: to reverse
like all the periods of time, like everything like that. Mm-hmm.
Amy: so
Ally: So I started
Amy: with
Ally: with that intention
Amy: and
Ally: and then started posting like a few more in between, maybe some training stuff,
Amy: some like runs,
Ally: whatever.
Amy: And
Ally: I noticed people kind of started to follow or ask me questions and stuff about the states because they were intrigued.
Or like people from certain states you are like, oh my gosh, I live there. It's crazy.
Amy: And
Ally: I really loved that because I was like, oh my like this is fun. Like I talk to these
Amy: people
Ally: and
Amy: lot
Ally: lot of like, women were messaging me, like questions about running and stuff. So
Amy: I
Ally: I started putting
Amy: a
Ally: a little bit more time into it and actually like following other people and building it.
Amy: And
Ally: And it picked up pretty slowly at first where it was very,[00:47:00]
Amy: hard.
Ally: um,
Amy: and it
Ally: and it wasn't until I started making
Amy: a
Ally: a priority, like actually posting every day or
Amy: your
Ally: mm-hmm. Content that, that things started
Amy: kind of
Ally: of progressing. And it, like, I will say if you're somebody's
Amy: trying
Ally: trying to start Instagram, it takes up, you really
Amy: posts
Ally: like, to like
Amy: all of
Ally: all sudden break through like slump of
Amy: Where
Ally: you're.
Amy: and then like you get to a new plateau because you go
Ally: Go viral or whatever, you have to be really good posts and then you get to like a new level of normal, but it's always much. Mm.
Amy: feel
Ally: I feel like it's always,
Amy: it's a
Ally: it's a tough game. Yeah. What, what was your, do you remember what your first viral post was about?
Amy: I
Ally: I don't, honestly, but I wanna say like
Amy: there were
Ally: there were a lot of women centered things
Amy: on that
Ally: that I feel like went really viral.
Like whether it was like about cat calling and like, like
Amy: issues that
Ally: mm-hmm.
Amy: that
Ally: That were more like,
Amy: nobody wants to
Ally: wants to talk about these. And I think I would like post about them
Amy: were like,
Ally: and like, [00:48:00] oh,
Amy: okay, like
Ally: like
Amy: we're
Ally: we're gonna talk about this. We're gonna jump in, we're gonna like, have our voices heard. Mm-hmm.
Amy: And
Ally: And those posts
Amy: went,
Ally: went.
And this was
Amy: a lot less
Ally: when? Yeah. What year would this have been?
Amy: This
Ally: This was.
Amy: I wanna say this was like 20 15, 20 16. it
Ally: it was like a while. It was a while because When did you ru when did you, what year did you run the Indiana race?
Amy: 2016,
Ally: probably. Okay. 2016. And is that, can we say your Instagram was started in Indiana? Did you start it like, at that race?
Amy: It
Ally: was
Amy: it was
Ally: around then because that's when I like actually like
Amy: documenting
Ally: everything.
Amy: like
Ally: Put time into it and stuff. That's cool.
Amy: yeah, I will
Ally: I would say
Amy: different back then. The
Ally: algorithm.
Amy: a lot differently. it
Ally: It works.
Amy: it's
Ally: It's a lot smarter now.
I'm like, does anybody know how it works now? Tell me.
Amy: all the time.
Ally: I know,
Amy: hard.
Ally: crazy. Yeah. But
Amy: of fun, especially
Ally: fun, especially if you,
Amy: just keep your
Ally: your head straight.
Amy: remember that, know, [00:49:00] not
Ally: Not everybody gonna love everything.
Amy: fine.
Ally: Yeah. Let them. Right. Have you, are you into Mel Robbins at all?
Amy: I did
Ally: I did read that though. I did too. I really, I, you know, regardless of what people think about Mel Robbins and whatever, but I just, that book, you have to read it. It's so,
Amy: That's a good one.
Ally: it's so good because you're just like, yeah, no matter what I do,
Amy: Yeah,
Ally: people are not gonna like it. It's so weird that that's not so obvious.
Yeah.
Amy: yeah, and it did get, it did
Ally: It did start getting crazy,
Amy: the Instagram when people started
Ally: started like recognizing me, like places
Amy: at
Ally: at,
Amy: or
Ally: or
Amy: I will
Ally: I'll say in Idaho, Jared, and I got off the plane and like, usually the first thing we'll do is stop at the grocery store, like stock up on like bagels, whatever.
Amy: that's like clean, but like easy
Ally: Easy carbs. Yeah. So we're at the grocery store. I look like
Amy: Death, like I am like, like
Ally: I'm like, like just like my hair. Everything's like not, not well.
Amy: I'm
Ally: And I'm walking through this
Amy: store
Ally: store and get to check out and this girl's like, are you Amy? And I'm like,
Amy: are
Ally: you kidding?[00:50:00]
Amy: somebody. And she
Ally: She
Amy: a
Ally: for a picture. And I'm like.
Amy: shoot.
Like, good
Ally: You are like, great, this is gonna be on the internet.
Amy: Yeah.
Ally: That's gotta be hard. 'cause I, I tell you what, my daycare attire when I drop my kids off places, like I look homeless most of the time and that's, you know, I guess hopefully not too offensive, but it's like, yeah, that's gotta be hard 'cause you're out and about and
Amy: and
Ally: Yeah.
Not actually the most extroverted person, like, I,
Amy: I
definitely can
Ally: can
Amy: extroverted in certain situations. And
Ally: Situation. Like,
Amy: the
Ally: the reason I do so many podcasts is because I'm
Amy: pretty,
Ally: like, it's actually pretty hard for me to like,
Amy: speak
Ally: openly. Like this
Amy: so people
Ally: people come up to me, I'm actually pretty coy. Like, I'm like actually pretty shy, so
Amy: It's
Ally: it's actually
Amy: crazy to me because I feel like
Ally: I,
Amy: not exactly what people expect because I'm just like, oh,
Ally: hi. Yeah,
Amy: why are,
Ally: that's.
I am so awkward. I, there's people like, because I, you know, in the local running community, [00:51:00] people listen to this podcast and so they know me and I don't know them, and then they say something and it's like the best because I'm like, that's so cool that people actually listen to my podcast.
Amy: yeah,
Ally: you're like, oh my gosh, this is kind of like really weird too at the same time.
Um, well, and I wish you really bad.
Amy: know who somebody
Ally: Yes.
Amy: know who I am because they'll like
Ally: Like, say hi. I'm like,
Amy: what
Ally: what is your
Amy: handle? And they'll
Ally: right?
Amy: and I don't recognize it. I'm like, don't know why I just asked that because now I still don't know who you are.
Ally: Yeah. That's funny. I mean, Amy, I have like 3000 followers. Okay. And I still have that problem. And it's so funny to me to think that you could try to keep track. And I think it's helped me understand, with other people, it's like, yeah, you are gonna have no memory. Like if I came up to you at an event, shoot, we've had an hour long conversation.
You still won't know because we've never met in real life. And I would not be offended because it's just how it works. And I have a horrible memory anyway, so. do you remember like the first brand that approached you or did you start approaching [00:52:00] brands? Because I feel like influencers, I don't know when that really became a thing, but like right when you started, it really wasn't quite yet.
Right. Wasn't really, A lot of brands back then were doing a lot of gifting.
Amy: like,
Ally: Mm.
I
Amy: actually reached
Ally: reached out a,
Amy: for prizes for, because that's
Ally: mm-hmm.
Amy: when I
Ally: Started
Amy: the Run with Aim
Ally: group and
Amy: with Aim group started ultimately out of a need for me to make more
Ally: money
Amy: couldn't
Ally: couldn't afford to do the,
Amy: And so
Ally: and so I,
Amy: and I was
Ally: I was doing Uber Eats to supplement my income and
Amy: just, this is just not
Ally: working, like I'm working all the time. I was doing Uber,
Amy: I was
Ally: I was dog
Amy: I
Ally: I was like nannying. I was doing all kinds of like, random jobs and finally crazy of
Amy: none of these
Ally: these things are things I actually wanna be doing.
Right.
Amy: don't I just put some thought
Ally: Like something
Amy: actually
Ally: I actually wanna offer.
Amy: and like.
Ally: Actually take a step here. So I started thinking about starting a running group. It was when COVID hit. So I'm like,
Amy: people
Ally: people want an online space, they need [00:53:00] something.
Amy: So I
Ally: So I started that and I started reaching out to brands to like ask for prizes
Amy: And
Ally: and that's where I established a lot relationships.
Like I asked
Amy: way
Ally: way back
Amy: I
Ally: and I
Amy: work
Ally: work with.
Amy: six years later.
Ally: That's amazing.
Amy: now in a paid space, but
Ally: Back then.
Amy: them sending me some products. So
Ally: So
Amy: a lot of those relationships started a long time ago and have evolved a little bit.
But back
Ally: then it was a lot
Amy: me reaching
Ally: out
Amy: and now
Ally: now it's a little
Amy: them reaching out
Ally: reaching out, right? Absolutely. 'cause now you've built yourself a platform. this is so interesting because like at what point, this is so awkward when they're like giving you free stuff and now you understand your value and you're like, I. Hey, like even having you on this podcast feels like cheating because I'm not paying you to be on my podcast, but as a result of having somebody like you on my podcast, it'll be more visible.
So how do you navigate those kinds of situations where brands are like, here, I'll give you this free stuff and you'll post about it, right? And you're [00:54:00] like, no, no, that's not how this works.
Amy: Yeah,
Ally: it work? Tell people,
Amy: a canned message that I just plug in and I'm like, thank
Ally: thank you so much.
Amy: if you would like my rates, please email me.
Ally: There we go.
Amy: I've actually sent that to a few friends who like are at that like space where they're like, do I just keep saying yes or and I'm like, just send this message, put
Ally: Yeah,
Amy: and send it because we
Ally: we have entire room
Amy: am not even gonna freaking lie. It's
Ally: called our inventory
Amy: and it's upstairs and it is where we will hopefully have a baby someday. But
Ally: but right now it.
Amy: A room full of totes, full of products that need to just give away to other
Ally: Other people because like,
Amy: don't, I'm not
Ally: I'm not gonna use,
Amy: like, there, there's
Ally: there's so much of it. Yeah.
Amy: I
Ally: You can't
Amy: can't possibly a
Ally: A brand, I'll be like, yeah, send me,
Amy: sure
Ally: sure. You can send me,
Amy: X and they'll send me
Ally: send 2020.
Amy: year's worth of this. Like,
Ally: Yeah. Yeah. So,
Amy: [00:55:00] so, but they
Ally: but they do it in hopes that I would continue it.
Amy: using it. And
Ally: Right. So like what happens?
Amy: you just end up with all this stuff, and I
Ally: I dunno if you know this, like I actually have a fulltime job outside of it.
Amy: where
Ally: I do.
Amy: am an influencer and affiliate manager. And I've had a few influencers who I have like booked for projects or whatever, or like asked if we could gift them stuff. And they're like. Out of like respect for the environment. no
Ally: Right.
Amy: I'm
Ally: I started thinking about that.
Amy: That is such a good, I'm stealing that and like incorporating that because you're
Ally: You're so right,
Amy: need to
Ally: need to like stop sending
Amy: these things that
Ally: that like
Amy: our nos
Ally: because
Amy: we're just wasting stuff.
Ally: Yeah.
Amy: like not, not
Ally: not good. Well thank you for letting me send you a bouquet for every women's marathon
Amy: Yes. I
Ally: because it's one of those things where I'm like, you know, I'm a really small business. To me it's like brands that are, have the money that expect you to do things for free.
That's what really grinds my gears for people like you. Not necessarily for me. 'cause I'm trying to make my way and prove that I can. That[00:56:00]
Amy: I use the
Ally: was so sweet. I use bug all the time. I saw you use it. I was like, oh my God, I made that so fun.
Amy: mug because it's bigger
Ally: Bigger than all.
Amy: mugs.
Ally: should see how many I have in my cabinet. It's embarrassing.
Yeah, they barely fit. I can't believe I only have a short amount of time with you. I don't know. I'm so sad that I can't just ask you a million things. I wanna hear your side of this, of the Advil stuff because, because the reason I wanna talk about it is 'cause I want people to better understand what.
It's like to be in the position you are in, because imagine that big of a brand wants to work with you. Like that's a dream. And then it turns into like this nightmare of people being like really mean.
Amy: that was
Ally: I was actually so insane,
Amy: because right,
Ally: right? As Bill reaches out and I'm like,
Amy: holy
Ally: shit. Like Advil, like fricking like
Amy: name,
Ally: name like product just reached out to me.
Like one of the like huge,
Amy: right?
Ally: So
Amy: I
Ally: I didn't even really think twice. I was like, I use,
Amy: sometimes. I don't
Ally: [00:57:00] I don't use it like every day. I mean, I'm not like popping
Amy: before I
Ally: before I go up.
Amy: like, hasn't
Ally: Butt had an Advil, like yeah, that, that was my,
Amy: I didn't
Ally: I didn't even think about it in terms of anything except for like,
Amy: Oh,
Ally: oh, this will be easy.
Amy: Like
Ally: Yeah,
Amy: has
Ally: everybody uses Advil. Yeah.
Amy: This a pretty, everybody in the, like us
Ally: has adv.
Amy: in their closet.
So
Ally: Yes.
Amy: there's a billion contexts that I could create content for this with. And then, you know,
Ally: Know, they send you a brief and the
Amy: is
Ally: checked so strenuously because they're a medical
Amy: So
Ally: Yeah,
Amy: it's very
Ally: specific.
Amy: you
Ally: You can
Amy: say
Ally: say what you can't, couldn't even take
Amy: on screen of like
Ally: like all
Amy: Like there's
Ally: there's rules,
Amy: follow,
Ally: right? Yeah.
Amy: So
Ally: So all of that happens. I follow all the rules. Creating content be really, really hard in that way because you have,
Amy: you have
Ally: you have to use
Amy: Like,
Ally: like, you can't like be like,
Amy: and
Ally: and here all the disclaimers.
Amy: Like, do not take like, [00:58:00] you're certainly not gonna do that in a reel.
Like it's a short form video,
Ally: Yeah.
Amy: So I didn't think, none of that even crossed my mind until the content came out. And then when people were like really
Ally: Really kind of drilling
Amy: me
Ally: me.
Amy: obviously at that point I paused and was like, one, I
Ally: I hate the fact that people are assuming I thought of this before this happened like
Amy: no
Ally: no part
Amy: like,
Ally: like, yeah,
Amy: I
Ally: I should assume that people are gonna think that I'm, that'd be great. Yeah.
Amy: take this
Ally: This every day
Amy: to
Ally: to like,
Amy: Like the things that
Ally: oh my God,
Amy: you think
Ally: you influencer sit there and think like,
Amy: okay,
Ally: if Bobby Jones says this,
Amy: this,
Ally: like
Amy: I
Ally: I need to account for that in my content before I even know.
Yeah,
Amy: to
Ally: no.
Amy: Like
Ally: Like
Amy: all
Ally: all of that was
Amy: was what
Ally: what it was. But
Amy: I will
Ally: say
Amy: at
Ally: at the end of the,
Amy: I did
Ally: I did understand the concerns
Amy: people
Ally: people had and [00:59:00] so
Amy: I opted to
Ally: IED to take it down.
Amy: was
Ally: Yeah. Like
Amy: that
Ally: that was my bad.
Amy: maybe not thinking of the context, but also like not really because
Ally: No,
Amy: have possibly thought of all those contexts,
Ally: but.
Amy: at the end
Ally: At end of the day, I was like, that's just not worth it. Yeah. It's so intense what you went through. Like, and I think most people just can't even understand how and, and
Amy: like that, that
Ally: That day,
Amy: the
Ally: the next day when like people,
Amy: when it was
Ally: like
Amy: starting Like everybody was
Ally: was making content about it and like,
Amy: like you
Ally: like, you know, people are DMing you like, oh, I didn't mean about you.
And I'm like, no,
Amy: nope, When you bring
Ally: bring it up.
Amy: you
Ally: Yeah,
Amy: who is
Ally: yeah, yeah.
Amy: sorry if you're attacking somebody else, like that's not fair either. And if you don't think I wanna be attacked, why would I support you attacking somebody else? Like that's just ridiculous. So my issue with the whole
Ally: thing
Amy: more so people jumping on the bandwagon just to be a part of the conversation and not [01:00:00] taking into account how painful it is to have to
Ally: everybody.
Amy: about you when you sign on to social media.
Like
Ally: Right in something that was like a dream opportunity. Like this is a household name to your point. It's like
Amy: it just
Ally: it got taken so outta context.
Amy: that
Ally: Yeah.
Amy: it was
Ally: It was really hard for me to understand how
Amy: I.
Ally: outta context
Amy: It got taken and there were so many people
Ally: in the space messaging, like
Amy: is absurd. Like this is getting
Ally: Yeah. Yeah. They're like, people are just, I don't, yeah. And, and people see one thing that somebody said, it just amplifies it and it's like an absolute nightmare. Okay. I, there's so many other things I wanna talk to you about. 'cause Bitch Sticks is a local company and you, work with them and I just love them so much.
Emily and, and Kelly. Ugh. They're just lovely people. Great product. I'll talk about that more outside of this interview. Gosh, you've got like 35 codes live right now with all the brands you work with. I love that you're also working [01:01:00] with, you know, perhaps people a little bit bigger than me, right. To figure out how to navigate the space.
That's such a need. I would love to talk to you more about that for other stuff that I do, but, um, I have to ask you the end of the podcast questions 'cause you have a meeting and I don't wanna be the person that's like, just babbling on while you're like, I have to go, Allie, shut up. Oh. So I'll ask you them and we can make it quick.
So, favorite money running mantra and or song?
Amy: the mantra I've always used
Ally: ever since I started
Amy: was that like she believed she could, so she did. It's just so simple and so like
Ally: mm-hmm.
Amy: you just think you can just go do it, stop. thinking about it, stop planning it, just like go do
Ally: Mm-hmm. Do you listen to music when you run? Nope.
Amy: Not
Ally: And not anymore. I used to too and now I've kind of dabbled in the not listening. It's kind of fun. and then your next finish line is obviously this weekend in Ohio. I forget how to say the name of the park. Kaya Cuyahoga. [01:02:00] Um, it looks like it's by a ski resort.
I did, I did some looking 'cause I was like, this looks a little hilly.
Amy: Yeah,
Ally: was like, huh. Yeah. So, and then obviously I just, I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you, like I have all the warm vibes for you becoming a mom. That's been a really hard journey for you. I've not personally been through it, but obviously no people affected by that.
And so just know that I'm praying for you and Jared and I can't wait until you share that good news. I will be so excited for you guys.
Amy: We're
Ally: Yeah.
Amy: positive. It is. It is very, very hard. But, hopefully we'll be worth it.
Ally: Yes, it will be for sure. Well, thank you for doing this, Amy.
Amy: Yeah.
Ally: appreciate your time so much, and thank you to everybody who's listened and happy running.
If you enjoyed this episode of Finish Lines and Milestones from Sandy Boy Productions. Please be kind and share with your friends. Gimme a rating or review that really helps spread the news about this show. And if you like this show, you may like other shows that are in the Sandy Boy Productions Network.
Of course, the [01:03:00] original. I'll have another with Lindsay Hein podcast with Lindsay Hein. Then there's also my show. Then two more related to Running Miles with Moms podcast, which is hosted by four moms. And then the Trail Network, all things trail and ultra running. so give those a listen as well.
And I can't wait to see you next week. And if you don't already, you can follow me on Instagram. I'm Ally, A-L-L-Y-T, Brett, B-R-E-T-T, alle t Brett Runs. See you next week.