Finish Lines & Milestones: Episode 129: Paige Foote - Send Noogs! 🍉🍋🍏

Finish Lines & Milestones: Episode 129: Paige Foote - Send Noogs! 🍉🍋🍏

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Guest: Paige Foote @paigefooteforward of @noogsofficial

Show Notes:

Paige Foote⁠ is the fearless Co-Founder of ⁠Noogs⁠, an incredible energy chew brand you need to try! (her Co-Founder is her husband, Ben) Paige is also a marathoner, dietician, and dog mom. 

During this episode, sponsored by ⁠Previnex⁠ and ⁠Noogs⁠ (unofficially), we talk about:

Episode Transcript:

 

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

 

Ally Brettnacher (2): Welcome to Finish Lines and Milestones, a podcast for everyday runners. I'm your host, Ally Brettnacher, and if you run, you're a runner and every runner has a story. Join me each week as we celebrate these stories and we cross finish lines and celebrate big milestones together.

This week's episode is brought to you by our friends at Previnex. provides clinically effective supplements that promote longevity, performance, and everyday health. The product that I use most from Previnex is their gut and green super foods, and I'm embarrassed to admit I forgot to bring it on my trip.

I'm currently in Montreal for fall break and I miss it so much. It provides natural energy, which I find my body craves, and it helps with immunity [00:01:00] and again, everyday health. So if you are looking to try a green or you wanna replace what you already use, you can use Code Ally 15 a LLY 15 for 15% off your first order, and that's at Previnex.com P-R-E-V-I-N-E x.com.

They are also proud partners of the live event that's coming up at the CNO Financial Indianapolis Monumental Marathon on November 8th. My friend Lindsay Hein, who is the founder of Sandy Boy Productions, she will be interviewing the one and only Emily and Emily uses Previn X if you didn't know that already. So if it's good enough for Emily Infeld, my goodness.

So if you're local to Indianapolis, make sure you go get your tickets. We've already sold 20, we only have a hundred available. So that was the first day. I'm a little nervous, so we probably will sell out. So those are linked in the show notes. But thank you so much to Previnex for supporting this upcoming event and for supporting my podcast.

And now for this week, it is [00:02:00] Chicago Marathon Weekend. If you're listening to this, when it comes out, Chicago's near and dear to my heart. It was my very first marathon, so the day that this comes out, 10, 10 marks, 15 years since I ran my very first marathon. So I ran on 10, 10, 10, which makes it very easy for me to remember.

And I've since done Chicago three other times. And I love the race, so if you're getting ready to run, I hope you enjoy it. It is a fantastic environment, super flat and fast, but just enjoy it.

And for this week's episode, my guest is Paige Foote. She is one of the co-founders of Noogs, that's N-O-O-G-S. N an energy chew that you're gonna have to try. It does taste like Sour Patch kids. I was told this by Nicole Lynn of Bar below average running when I first encountered Noogs, and I did not believe her.

And I was mistaken. They're delicious. They are sold on Amazon. So go check those out. Or if you wanna go to their website, you can use code Allie, B-A-L-L-Y-B [00:03:00] 15 for 15% off. They have three amazing flavors. And there might be more coming soon. So make sure you go follow Noogs Official on any channel and stay tuned for their future.

You're gonna want to after you listen to this episode. So I reached out to Paige after I found Noogs, and I had to hear the story. She actually co-founded the business with her husband Ben, and they now run it. Together, pun intended, I guess, but you will see if you follow their branding. They're just such a fun brand and their product is delicious and high quality.

So what more could you ask for? This episode is just unofficially sponsored by Noogs, if you can't tell already. But this story is so much fun and Paige is such a delight. She created this product when she couldn't find a fuel she really loved, and she did that after she had done her first marathon, which was a virtual New York City marathon.

That's a crazy story. And then she was training for the in-person New York City [00:04:00] Marathon, and that's when Noogs was born. So we talk about her own personal running journey. We talk about the races she's done. Her husband Ben, is also a veteran. So we talk about his military service, how they , found their way into this business, and then really how Paige found running for enjoyment versus for punishment, which I feel like a lot of us might have started in youth sports where running was not fun.

So I know you're really going to love getting a chance to meet Paige Foot. Enjoy.

Paige Foote: Isn't it awesome?

Ally Brettnacher: It is perfect. It is the most on brand.

Paige Foote: Do you, do you have a hydro jug?

Ally Brettnacher: I have a Stanley.

Paige Foote: Okay. Have you, heard of these?

Ally Brettnacher: I don't know, maybe.

Paige Foote: getting ready to talk about this, I swear. But the reason I made the switch, obviously the, like the color rail, how could I pass this

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: but the straw, you can bend it and then throw it in like your bags.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I need that because I hate my Stanley if I'm being honest. 'cause I love it. 'cause it keeps my water. But if I take it anywhere, if it like falls over, I'm so annoyed. So I can't [00:05:00] believe the colors on that. Did you get to make it or did you literally just find those colors together?

Paige Foote: I just found it.

Ally Brettnacher: It's meant to be.

Paige Foote: You

Ally Brettnacher: Meant to be. Yeah. It'd be so fun. Yeah. I, I'm obsessed, I'm obsessed with your brand, obviously. That's how this got started. I, I met Nicole Lynn from Below average running in Vegas in February, and she was handing out samples of Noogs, and she was like, oh, these taste just like, you know, sour candy. I'm like, okay.

And then she handed 'em out and I, I think I ate the whole thing on our like three mile run because I just loved them so much. And I was like, well, it's just a sample, you know, I'm gonna just keep snacking on these, but they're delicious. And I just started following along with your brand and then realized that you co-founded it with your husband.

And I'm like, okay, I've gotta meet Paige. I've gotta meet Paige. I've gotta hear the story. And we have to be friends because I just love everything about what you're doing.

Paige Foote: Thank you so much. That's so nice of you [00:06:00] saying still so surreal every time. Like anybody has nice things to say about Noogs. I can't believe it. I can't believe like I'm podcasting right now. This is so cool.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, it's uh, right. And this started in, you officially launched the brand in 23, but after a long time, it took for like what probably felt like forever for you to fine tune everything and get it out there.

Paige Foote: Oh

Ally Brettnacher: Oh yeah,

Paige Foote: I always tell people who are interested in like, CPG products or consumer packaged goods is whatever time you're estimating it's gonna take to do something, multiply it by six because oh my gosh, at least you'll, you'll improve your patience though. It's, I feel like that's a strength that I've improved on.

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. There you go. And we could all use more of that, that's for sure. before we dig in and talk all things Noogs 'cause, 'cause we will, I wanna get to know you of as the human behind this brand first. So currently you live in Virginia Beach, but where are, where are you from?

Paige Foote: So I

Ally Brettnacher: Charlotte.

Paige Foote: in [00:07:00] Charlottesville, Virginia,

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, you live in Charlottesville.

Paige Foote: more central.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, okay.

Paige Foote: yeah. And which has been great because we get a lot of support from the UVA community, university of Virginia. husband actually just graduated with his MBA from there. but yeah, before that, my husband and I are actually both from Salem, Oregon,

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Paige Foote: coast. Yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: And how did you meet Ben?

Paige Foote: we met in high school. Uh, we're high school sweethearts, so tomorrow is actually our nine year wedding anniversary.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh.

Paige Foote: we've been together, um, as a couple for almost 15 years. You like 15 years in October, so,

Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh. As if I couldn't love you guys more. Your high school sweethearts. Of course. Of course you are. So you and your jumpsuits. I'm dying. Okay, so we'll get there. Okay. So you mean in high school, are you in high school? What's your life like? Are you an athlete? How do you have siblings? What's your family like?

Paige Foote: Yeah. [00:08:00] In high school, I was a soccer player and I was also a choir kid. I was actually choir president my senior year of high school,

Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh.

Paige Foote: fine. The part of my, my, like high school experience, I would do it over again if I could.

Ally Brettnacher: My kid has her first choir practice today for the Indianapolis Children's Choir. Not even kidding. So she's really excited about that.

Paige Foote: Does she know, is she like an alto soprano, or?

Ally Brettnacher: Um.

Paige Foote: they doing that

Ally Brettnacher: I don't know yet. I think she'll be more of a soprano if I had to guess. Just knowing me, like if she gets anything from me. I was in the church choir growing up, but I was never, I wouldn't classify myself as a choir kid, but I'll, you know, I like singing karaoke, you know?

Paige Foote: Oh, what's your go-to karaoke song?

Ally Brettnacher: cowboy, take me Away or Hold on by Wilson Phillips,

Paige Foote: Oh, those are good.

Ally Brettnacher: what about you?

Paige Foote: the me away one.

Ally Brettnacher: It's a good one.

Paige Foote: you know, it's funny, like, so yeah, definitely choir kid. I don't do a lot of [00:09:00] karaoke. Like, I don't think I, okay. Actually I take that back. did, there was a Taylor Swift karaoke night at like one of the local bars here. so I did, I did do a Taylor Swift song, but that was such a like. Insane experience because I, I think I was like, not even 30 at the time, but I felt so old,

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, yeah.

Paige Foote: out there who, who's considering doing karaoke at a bar that's really close to a university campus? Just prepared to feel like ancient if you do that.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: There was a great

Ally Brettnacher: Oh,

Paige Foote: the Taylor Swift United us all and we had a great time.

Ally Brettnacher: which song did you sing? I feel like Taylor Swift songs are hard to sing.

Paige Foote: We're, yeah, we, I did it with two friends. We did like a little trio of, I think it was like, you belong with me.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, perfect.

Paige Foote: remember like so out of breath because, you know, jumping around and I'm a marathoner and I can't even like sing this songs all straight through.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh,

Paige Foote: fun.

Ally Brettnacher: oh, that's so funny. Okay, so choir, kid [00:10:00] soccer. Yeah, so that's right. Running as a Punishment. That's how I started as well. Okay.

Paige Foote: best for many of us. Yeah. Just.

Ally Brettnacher: And did you and Ben go to the same college?

Paige Foote: So, no, we went to the same high school and then we did long distance, for quite a few years. Then went to school in

Ally Brettnacher: I.

Paige Foote: and I went to school in California.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

Paige Foote: our first year of marriage was actually long, kind of long distance. Like he was in Los Angeles and I was, finishing up school in San Diego.

So I would come up on the weekends, but first year of marriage was, was a little bit long distance too.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. That's wild.

Paige Foote: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: I be like, I know if we have kids someday, um, if they ever are like, oh yeah, like I'm gonna marry my high school boyfriend and we're gonna go to separate colleges. I just wanna be like, listen, this doesn't happen for everyone.

This is a very rare instance, but it just happened to work out for us, so

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Oh my gosh. Right? Yeah. What an anomaly. 'cause high school even I just think about that when I meet people who met their significant other in [00:11:00] high school, and I'm like, wow, that's, that's so cool. My parents actually are high school sweethearts, so I guess, you know,

Paige Foote: Really?

Ally Brettnacher: out there. Yeah. Yep.

Paige Foote: did they tell

Ally Brettnacher: Uh.

Paige Foote: thing when you, when you were dating in high school?

Ally Brettnacher: Well, that's for a whole nother podcast.

But I was not, I didn't date much in high school. I was a rebel and, yeah, no, no, not marriage material, that's for sure. And that makes me sound pretty bad, but that's not what I meant. so, okay. Did you have siblings growing up? Do you have siblings?

Paige Foote: Yes, I do actually. I have a younger sister and we're, eight and a half years apart.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Oh my gosh. Wow. So is she into running at all?

Paige Foote: She's not, and you know, it's funny, she actually just moved in with us this summer. It was kind of this, um, unexpected thing where she, she just graduated from college

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Paige Foote: we travel a lot with Noogs. And like going to different events and stuff like that. And so we talked about after she graduated, we're like, Hey, you should come and like watch our house for us for a month. We've got some travel coming up. you know, you can watch our dog. [00:12:00] And she stayed with us and we're like, yeah, this is great.

Like, you should, you should look for jobs here. And we, we have a lot of travel coming up. Like you can have the house a lot to yourself. You can, you know, some money to like use for rent later on because, you know, it's so expensive these days. And it's been so much fun. I haven't lived under the same roof as far since high school.

And so it's been,

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

Paige Foote: Like, you know, just hanging out again.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Wow. Because are your parents still back in Salem, Oregon. On the west coast.

Paige Foote: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, they were probably like, well, thanks a lot for stealing her, moving her all the way across, or was she already out of home 'cause of college? Was she in a different state already? Ready.

Paige Foote: She went to school in Washington, so she was like. Three, four hours away?

Ally Brettnacher: Okay, so not too bad. Okay. All right, so you have one younger sister, eight and a half years. Do you remember.

Paige Foote: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Learning that you were gonna be a big sister. 'cause eight and a half is pretty old. You might remember that.

Paige Foote: Yeah, I do. Yeah. I remember a lot of it. And I remember my mom, you know, telling me I was gonna be a [00:13:00] big sister, and I remember, I don't remember this part, but she tells me that my response was, oh, well I want, I want a big sister. Like, I don't wanna be the big sister. Why, why don't I get a big sister? but I, I definitely like stepped up to the plate and, and took that role pretty seriously though. So I,

Ally Brettnacher: That's so cool.

Paige Foote: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, my oldest daughter's eight right now and I have a 4-year-old and they, they would love to have a baby and I'm like, sorry guys. yeah, we're, we're just two for a lot of reasons, but yeah, it's like,

Paige Foote: Mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: how fun. How fun. Uh, and that had to be kind of hard too as an eight and a half year old.

'cause you're like, I'm the only child. Like now I have to share my parents. Or did you, do you remember caring about that at all?

Paige Foote: I don't, I don't think that was an issue. I think I was just really excited to help my mom. like I remember, this past weekend we were traveling and there was a family friend who had their like newborn baby. And I remember like turning to my sister and being like, I remember doing like changing your diapers when you were this age, you know?

Ally Brettnacher: [00:14:00] yeah. That's so cool.

Paige Foote: my mom, she loves to tell this story. I was like, in second grade, maybe going to third grade when she was born. And I was so excited, like you know, being a big sister and like, I was learning about pregnancy and watching my mom read, you know, what to expect when expecting. And I just thought the whole thing was so cool.

And I like, came to my mom one day and I was like, I'm gonna do a project called My Fetus. She's like, I'm so excited. You're

Ally Brettnacher: Well.

Paige Foote: this. Maybe we should change the title a little bit.

Ally Brettnacher: That is really funny. Yeah. Your mom's like, uh, that's not gonna work very well.

Paige Foote: Yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: That's so cute. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Well, I love that your sister lives with you now and your dog's official name is Daisy. Is that correct? Because I feel like there's a lot of names I've seen Chicken Nugget now, obviously noogs, and it is noogs, plural.

Correct. It's not just s, plural.

Paige Foote: So her nickname is just [00:15:00] noog um, because me, her name's Daisy, but she looks like a chicken nugget. And so as many you know, dog names Evolve, started calling her, oh, you just love chicken Nugget. You just a chicken nugget. And then that turned into Nugget, which evolved into N and then somehow turned into no. So when we're like, oh yeah, what should the, the name of our energy chew company be like, oh, noog is fine. Like, let's use that word. And so we just made it plural. 'cause there's like, you know, you're eating noons,

Ally Brettnacher: I love it. I love it.

Paige Foote: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Well, I asked that too 'cause my, my cousin has a dog named Noodles, plural, which I just find it's kind of confusing 'cause you're like, well, shouldn't she just be a noodle? 'cause she's, but you know, waffles, there's dog, all kinds of crazy dog names these days. What kind of dog is she? And how old is she?

Paige Foote: She is a miniature goldendoodle and she just turned five in May. She's a, she's a pandemic pup.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh yeah. There we go.

Paige Foote: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Aw, so sweet. Yeah, we have an old man, Doug. He's [00:16:00] laying well, you can kind of see him. No, he blends in with the carpet. but he's 11 and he's a, he's a standard golden doodle, but he's the runt of his litter, so he's not that big. But, so much fun. I love doodles so much. They're the best.

Yeah.

Paige Foote: She's, she's a really good sidekick and she definitely comes to, um, a lot of expos with us too. When we stay in Airbnbs.

Ally Brettnacher: I love that. I love that. Yep. Yep. It's perfect. Well, I'm sure people now recognize her.

Paige Foote: yeah. I wish she could come to the expo halls. we haven't had the opportunity to bring her there yet, but

Ally Brettnacher: Aw,

Paige Foote: hopefully See,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. I'm sure there's hoops to jump through for that. I'm sure if she's not like a service dog or whatever. Rules. Mm.

Paige Foote: boo.

Ally Brettnacher: Boo. You said something about Doug.

Paige Foote: I was just saying that's a great name.

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. Thank you.

Paige Foote: It makes me think of, um, Doug from up the

Ally Brettnacher: It's exactly where we got it. Yep.

Paige Foote: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

Paige Foote: Great. You guys have great taste.

Ally Brettnacher: Thank you. Yep. We have also fun [00:17:00] fact, not that you asked, but our mailman's name is Doug and so is our bus driver. So we have a dog named Doug, a mailman named Doug, and a bus driver named Doug. So it's, it's very special in our life. I don't know, it's so weird.

Paige Foote: you feel like his personality matches the dog from Pixar,

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Oh my gosh. I mean, you know, the energy of a Goldendoodle knows no bounds. He's 11, but you would not know. People who meet him are like, what? He's 11. How is that possible? So I'm hoping he lives forever.

Paige Foote: Does he have, have a fascination with squirrels,

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, yeah, we live, yeah, exactly. We, when we first had him, we lived in a place with a lot more trees than we have now, and it was constant, constant battle. Yeah. well, I wanted to get to know more about Ben too, because he's a veteran, which is, I mean, you guys are just so cool. So. He went to school. Did you know earlier on in your relationship that serving in the military was something that Ben wanted to do and like that he aspired to do?

Paige Foote: [00:18:00] Yeah. Yeah. went to school and he was in the ROTC program,

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Paige Foote: when you, when you graduate with that, you become an officer in the military. so he was, he joined the Air Force after that. And, it was always the plan that he was gonna join the military.

He is definitely influenced by his family. what's really cool is both his mom and dad were in the Army.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

Paige Foote: they were in, for over 20 years, each of them. And his mom is so cool. She's so badass. She's like, she's one of the first, oh, I'm gonna totally break something to this. Um, his, his parents are, are older.

They had him when they were in their forties,

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

Paige Foote: in the military. In like the seventies and she was like one of the first military female officers to like male and female. I can't remember, but like she, she was definitely a, like a trailblazer in many

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: with

Ally Brettnacher: Ugh,

Paige Foote: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: that's so cool. And is your family like a military family at all?

Paige Foote: Yeah. My dad was in the Navy. So what's

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Paige Foote: you were talking about [00:19:00] living in Virginia Beach. I was actually born in Virginia Beach

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Okay. I was like, where did I get that? I don't know where I got that, but, yeah. that's, maybe, that's, maybe you said that, and I just took that to mean that that's where you are now in Virginia and I got confused. I don't know, but. That's, that's really cool. I ask that because I find it so fascinating.

I've interviewed a, a couple of, I think both were women on this podcast that are, you know, that have been home while their husband is deployed. And, you know, just thinking about how difficult that would be, and for you and Ben, like you said, your, I mean, your first year of marriage was apart. Like you guys figured that out.

was he ever, did, was he ever deployed for the Air Force?

Paige Foote: No, thankfully not. And to be honest, he did, he had a very comfortable job, which we're like super thankful for. He was,

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: He was, , in acquisitions.

So it was kind of more like the businessy side and the program management side. Um, but what is kind of cool about his experience is he ended up, joining the Space Force,

Ally Brettnacher: Oh

Paige Foote: [00:20:00] 21 or 2022, I think. which is really fun to tell people because they don't believe him sometimes, that it's a real branch of service.

Ally Brettnacher: yeah, it doesn't sound real. So no offense Ben.

Paige Foote: we, we give him so much flack for it. It's, it's really funny. but yeah, it's funny because he actually was, was basically doing a Space Force job before the Space Force existed. because at the time in Los Angeles, the LA Air Force base where we were first stationed, was they did a lot of stuff with like satellites, right? Um, and so basically what like the Space Force does now. And I don't, I don't think the, the Air Force base is even an Air Force base anymore. I'm pretty sure it's the, it's a Space Force base. so he was doing basically a space force job in the Air Force and then we moved to Charlottesville.

That's where we were stationed next. And, um, he joined the Space Force, but like was doing an Air Force job.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh, it's so wild.

Paige Foote: flops. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. And like meanwhile, is he getting his MBA as well? [00:21:00] Like where, how does that fit in?

Paige Foote: Yeah, so he, uh, he searched for like seven years and then left and then, started his MBA program.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. Geez. So was, was entrepreneurship something that you grew up with? Like did you or Ben, like did you both aspire to someday do your own thing? Or did it truly kind of just happen by accident because there was something that, you know, you couldn't find and just made, what was, what was that journey to becoming an entrepreneur like I.

Paige Foote: I think, for Ben, it's definitely always something he thought about. He, even though he did the ROTC program and like knew he was gonna get outta college and join the military, his major was entrepreneurship. Um, so that was always something in the back of his mind. And even while he was in the military, like he started an entrepreneurship club. At the Air Force base where him and a bunch of like his coworkers and fellow servicemen would meet up and talk about ideas and stuff. so for him, that was always something he was thinking about. [00:22:00] Even when he was a little boy, he like tells stories of starting like a fan business on the playground.

Like they'd make paper fans and,

Ally Brettnacher: Perfect.

Paige Foote: charge people a dollar for them. So yeah, he's always been a little, a little entrepreneur. And then I don't think I even knew what the word entrepreneur meant like I met then. Um, but I think that I've always had the spirit in me, maybe, you know, like leadership, like I was choir president, like we talked about, and I've always like been, very interested and maybe this is like the big sister in me too, right?

But like, you know, taking ownership of things or like doing these projects and, and having a vision and, and seeing it come to fruition. so I don't think at the time I, I knew what, what that meant, but yeah, I, I think for both of us there was, there was a spirit at least within

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, it was just waiting. It was waiting for the right thing. Did you, I think I saw somewhere that, that you had started an app before Noogs. Is that true? [00:23:00] And or did And it has been dabbled in anything else. 'cause I know, you know, a lot of times it's not your first thing that's successful, so.

Paige Foote: totally. Yeah. Um, the app we started was, the idea partially came from like, Hey, we're in the military. We might be moving around a lot. Like, who knows what getting a job will be like wherever we go next. So like, let's kind of have something that we can do on the side to our income in case something like that happens. and it was Ben's idea to start the app because he's like, Hey, you're a dietician. You give, you know, great nutrition advice. I think at the time I was. Yeah, I was also a personal trainer.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh wow.

Paige Foote: then, because I, I wanted to become a personal trainer because I was like, getting really into lifting and I was like, oh, this, this would be cool to get my certification, just so I like, just because I'm curious mostly, like I wanna

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: then ended up getting that certification. But what's really interesting is if you become a personal trainer, you can take the [00:24:00] exam without ever having to step in a gym. you can just go sit for the exam. And so I was like, well, I, have all the, the textbook knowledge in my brain now that I've passed the exam, but I want some like, real world application. I ended up working at Equinox in Los Angeles to, yeah, it's very fancy. So many, so many interesting stories from working in that

Ally Brettnacher: Oh yeah. We are gonna need some of those too.

Paige Foote: Um, I'll give you a quick one right now. I

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Paige Foote: back from, Nickelodeon brother, cso, Drake, and Josh.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Okay.

Paige Foote: so I, you know, handed him a couple of, scented towels a few times.

but yeah. But back to the, the personal training. Yeah. So basically I had experience in nutrition, I had experience in, you know, helping people with exercise. And sometimes it's like, oh, what if you make an app where you can give people, nutrition and like fitness content in one place. and then somewhere along there I ended up getting my Running Coach certification because [00:25:00] same thing, I was like, oh, I'm interested in running. I wanna like learn how to be a better runner. And then, we were like, yeah, you know, we can now we can put some training plans in there. And ended up, up like not working out for a couple reasons, right.

Like a lot of your first couple of businesses do. But I think it's a great example. Of like, you know, looking back where I am now, there's so many things I took from that experience that I apply to running Noogs.

Ally Brettnacher: Right?

Paige Foote: it's also like such a, that I try to, you know, tell people like my younger sister, like you just follow things that you're interested in.

Right? Like

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

Paige Foote: when I graduated college, I thought I was going to be a dietician that worked in a hospital and I never thought I would be slinging energy tubes that taste like sour candy at,

Ally Brettnacher: wearing a neon jumpsuit.

Paige Foote: yes. At, at the, the, the World.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: yeah. And it, and like, you know, looking back I can see it's like, okay, I was curious about this and so I pursued this and then that led me to take this next step here and, and then, so I always tell young people like, it's [00:26:00] okay if you don't know what you wanna do fresh out of college. It's okay if you like have this plan and it doesn't work out and you need to pivot. Like, you just never know where life's gonna take you. I'm sure you never thought that you'd be doing a podcast cast

Ally Brettnacher: No, no, absolutely not. Yeah, it's, it's interesting because I think that there's a lot of people out there who. Or like, I'm a teacher, I've been a teacher for 15 years. That's what I knew I wanted to be a teacher from the moment I was born. And you're like, okay, that's not me. I had no idea what I wanted to do.

And so, kind of similar now anyways, following something that I'm really passionate about and seeing where it takes me. And I'm lucky to be able to do that 'cause my husband has a very good job. But yeah, it's, it's so much fun. so what year was that, that you had the app?

Paige Foote: Oh gosh. Pre, pre COVID

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Paige Foote: 18, 19 maybe.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, I was trying to think of the landscape at the time, right, because you think now you've got Runa and Strava together and like all the things, like the idea was great, that technology though. I've actually [00:27:00] worked in mobile app technology for a number of years, ironically, and it's so hard.

Paige Foote: Mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: It like, seems like it should be so easy, but it's really, really difficult, Right.

As you know now having been through it. so at what point did you get into the running side of things? Like where you were like, oh, I wanna be a personal trainer. Oh, I should be a run coach. I like running because you mentioned, you know, being a soccer player, running was punishment. So at what point in your life did you find running again as more of an enjoyment thing instead of punishment?

Paige Foote: So, um, I, yeah, in high school, really didn't enjoy running. It was, it was punishment for soccer and I was like the worst runner on my team.

So a lot of, you know, and embarrassment associated with that.

Ally Brettnacher: Yep.

Paige Foote: And I used the word trauma lightly. It was just, just

Ally Brettnacher: I get it. Yeah.

Paige Foote: and then when I went to college, running became less painful and more enjoyable for me because, um, like I mentioned earlier, I [00:28:00] went to school in California, really lucky to go to a campus that was just right on the, the coast.

And so would, you know, um, go for runs after class or sometimes in the morning, as just a way to kind of move again because I, I wasn't on the soccer team anymore, so I was like, oh, I gotta kind of find a way to stay active. so I'd go for runs and I realized that it was so much more than, you know, staying physically fit.

It was like such a nice stress relief for me. And orphans were so wonderful and it's, it's hard not to feel them when you're, you know, running along the Pacific Coast in San Diego. so yeah, that was when I was like, oh wow, this is really nice. running isn't so bad after all. But then I really, you know, started considering considering myself a quote unquote runner and like starting to train for races and things like that after I got married. And, moved to Los Angeles with Ben because, you know, I graduated college, excuse me, I was gonna start my dietetic [00:29:00] internship because I'm also a dietician. I don't know if I'm

Ally Brettnacher: Yep.

Paige Foote: Uh,

Ally Brettnacher: Yep.

Paige Foote: yeah, my dietetic internship in the fall. And so that summer I had a lot of free time and so I just started running more and I was like, wow, this is so great. Oh wow. I'm like doing, more than a 5K, like, let's kind of see how far I can go. And then I also didn't have a lot of friends at the time either, in this, in this like, you know, new City and we started going to this church and we were like kind of starting to getting to know people there. And I think I mentioned some. Like one point that I was like, en enjoying running more, and one of the girls that went there was like, oh, hey, we do this, this like fundraiser, where if you raise money for a charity, the Los Air Los Angeles Marathon has a, like a special half marathon that's only for charity runners.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, I didn't know that.

Paige Foote: yeah.

And I think they still do it. I like checked recently. It might only be a marathon now, but at the time, yeah, you could do literally just like at the 13.1 mile mark, they had a [00:30:00] special little finish line for charity runners.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

Paige Foote: yeah, so she invited me to do that and I really liked that it, we were given a training program, like just like, you know, a piece of paper and then, you could do your workouts on your own throughout the week.

But then on Saturdays there was a, a group long run and it was from. Other people, like other churches in the area. So it was kind of like a big group of people. And I liked that we would start and end in one place. and then, know, every week you'd like go a little bit further or wherever your tank plan was, but you'd always end it back at the same place. And it was so nice because, you know, people would hang out before and after and you could talk and meet people. And it was just such a great way for me to like, you know, feel less isolated in this new city.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

Paige Foote: and so when it ended I was really bummed and I was like, wow. Like I, I wanna keep doing this. I, you know, just ran my first half marathon, like, let's see what's next.

And oh wow, this was a great way for me to meet people, let

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

Paige Foote: look at clubs in my [00:31:00] area. and so, you know, joined a running club and then the rest is history. I never

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: running since then.

Ally Brettnacher: And then you were hooked.

Paige Foote: Yeah, yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. What was the running club that you joined?

Paige Foote: Oh, it was called, south Bay Runner's Club. So if anyone listening is in the Los Angeles area, specifically the South Bay, definitely recommend that one. And I always tell people that one was really special because I feel like they were ahead of their time. ' cause this, this is like 2018, 2019, somewhere around there. and the fact that they were truly welcoming for all types of runners,

Ally Brettnacher: Hmm.

Paige Foote: particularly their Tuesday track nights, they would have different tiers of like the workouts that you could do.

Like, you know, people who are qualifying for Boston all the way down to like, this is our run our walking program, or our run walk program. Um, and it was all on a track too, so like nobody was getting dropped. We were starting the workouts together, ending them together. You just felt like you were a part of a team. And I just, I am still in their [00:32:00] Facebook group, even though I haven't lived in Los Angeles since 2020.

Ally Brettnacher: That's so funny.

Paige Foote: Yeah. they're

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: great.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I, I love that so much. And that's part of the reason I was so drawn to Nicole too, again, from bar, which is below average running

Paige Foote: mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: ' cause I just thought, wow, you're right. Like a lot of run clubs don't do that. Or it's like, you know, a running club that just likes to party.

Right. Or, you know, it's, there's just so many different kinds of running clubs and I've actually personally never been part of a running club, which is kind of weird when I tell people that. They're like, how? but I totally, I totally get. The, the idea that going to one that includes everybody and like, makes everybody feel welcome, there's just something really, really special about that.

Paige Foote: Mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: that's really cool. Is there a running club in Charlottesville that you're a part of now?

Um.

Paige Foote: the running club that I, it's, it's not technically a running club, but it's kind of a similar. You know, place to find community is our [00:33:00] local running store. The owner he's, basically the heart and soul of running in Charlottesville. his name's Mark, and if you, if you're from the area, you know, ragged Mountain, it's like right on the, it's right by the university.

So everybody goes there to get their shoes. but yeah, he, he is just so passionate about what he does and he coaches like, a track program that runs, runs throughout the year. But then also does, various training programs throughout the year too. So the one that I participated in was a half marathon and marathon summer training program, which is actually kind of a similar idea where you get a, program that you follow throughout the week on your own, but then I think it was Saturdays or Sundays, that's when you would meet with a group of people to do your long runs.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: I'm actually, I'm not doing the program this year, but I'm still on the email list. So I get his emails that he sends out to people. And

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

Paige Foote: funny, he's so old school. He will send out emails, but then when he sends out workouts instead of like, you know, typing it up or [00:34:00] putting it in an online program, it's just a screen or like a picture, an iPhone photo of him, of a handwritten workout that he sends

Ally Brettnacher: That's the best.

Paige Foote: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: That's so great. I love that.

Paige Foote: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, mark, that's great. that's nice that you've got somebody like him in your community. I don't know anything about Charlottesville, like how big it is. I don't know where it, I'll google where it is after this, 'cause I don't know. You said it was more centralized

Paige Foote: Mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: in Virginia.

Okay. And it's, and it's by the university. That's what you said earlier. okay. I remember what I wanted to ask you that I didn't ask you before, and that was about studying to be a dietician. Like what drew you to that?

Paige Foote: oh, wow. This is a, such a good question. so I didn't know what a dietician was until my senior year of high school, which I think is so different now. 'cause everybody knows what a dietician is, especially thanks to social media. Right. Um, or maybe just 'cause I'm in that world, I see

Ally Brettnacher: Or maybe they think they do because I, yeah, I don't know that I truly understand. Exactly. So, Yeah.

Paige Foote: Oh, [00:35:00] okay. No, sorry to assume. yeah, so I didn't know what a dietician was until my senior year of high school. And, at the time I knew that I was really interested in science and healthcare, but I didn't want to, you know, be a doctor. I didn't wanna be a nurse. that's kind of like all I knew for career, right?

Like I, now, now I know there's like a whole world, like you can go into so many different specialties. but like, you know, I was like, okay, like what's something that I could do that's maybe like related to healthcare? I'm also a soccer player, so, I was kind of interested in sports nutrition. I think like Pinterest was kind of a thing then too.

So I was like on Pinterest and I was seeing, you know, stuff about nutrition on there. So I was like, oh, this nutrition stuff's kind of cool. my aunt had a friend who was a dietician at a children's hospital up in Portland, Oregon. And I actually just recently had the opportunity to tour that hospital, because my school did like a, a fundraiser for the children's hospital.

[00:36:00] So as part of that unit, you gotta go tour and see, I'm like, wow, this place is so cool. Like, I really like this environment. it'd be cool for me to find a space to work here somehow, but I don't know in what capacity. my aunt was like, oh, hey, I know, one of my friends a dietician at this hospital and she would be more than happy to meet with you and just talk about what she does. And so we met for coffee and you know, she's telling me how she gets to help. Kids like, you know, get healthy, treat disease, things like that, and, you know, change lives. And, I thought that was so cool. And thankfully the school I was looking at at the time had a dietetics programs because not all, um, universities do, or they didn't at the time. And so I, you know, toured the school, learned more about the program, and I was like, okay, well I, I think I can see myself doing something like this. and then, yeah, started taking classes in the, the following fall.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. And now just think like, it's so crazy how that weaves into what you're doing now,

Paige Foote: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: I mean, I didn't realize that you were a [00:37:00] dietician until I did a little bit more digging and I was like, oh, well that's really cool too, to say like, obviously, obviously you don't get a product to where yours is today without just like throwing it together anyway.

But I think having that dietetics background had to be super beneficial when you were working to create Noogs.

Paige Foote: Totally. and what's actually kind of funny is this type of career wasn't something I learned about in school. There's very traditional career paths for dieticians, right? Like you can work, in the clinical system, right? You can work for hospitals or you can work for school districts. You can work in food service settings. you can work in like, or we, we did some food science classes, which I think is kind of most related to, what I do now. but even things like sports, sports performance, that was the, the field I was in actually before nus, started. There wasn't a lot of, like, I didn't take any like, you know, sports nutrition classes or like, you know, making your own sports nutrition product, things like [00:38:00] that. so what what was cool actually is, a couple months ago I got to speak at my old university and speak to the food science class and tell them what it was like developing a product and, you know, being a business

Ally Brettnacher: Wow,

Paige Foote: like that. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: that's so incredible. To be able to give them that gift of like, Hey, this is another option for you that you didn't understand was even possible when you were in their shoes. That's cool.

Paige Foote: yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: That's really cool. So before we, before we dig in on Noogs more, 'cause I just want the whole story,

Paige Foote: Sure.

Ally Brettnacher: I wanna hear about your first marathon.

Which I just recently listened to on the My first Marathon podcast, and it was so good. So, I can't believe that what happened to you for your first marathon. So will you tell people, like when you decided you were ready to tackle a full marathon and then the process, like leading up to it, and then tell us about your first marathon.

Paige Foote: Sure. And you're talking about the virtual marathon, right?

Ally Brettnacher: Yep. That's so crazy.

Paige Foote: Yeah. Okay. So, um, [00:39:00] you know, I talked about running my first half marathon and, you know, finding a, a running club after that and being hooked. but I didn't run my first marathon until a couple years later in 2020. and I, you know, was one of those runners that was like, oh, I'm never gonna do a marathon.

I cannot imagine, you know, I just did 13.1 miles. I can't imagine running any more than that. but I think as like time progressed and I listened to like more stories of people running marathons and I saw more people in my running club do, and I was like, okay, maybe, maybe this is something I could do. and then I was a really big fan of the Allie on the Run podcast at the time, and you still,

Ally Brettnacher: Me too.

Paige Foote: to her podcast Yeah, she's awesome. if you ever listen to her podcast, she is, she is like a huge spokesperson for the New York City Marathon. and she just made it sound like the best experience ever. And so I was like, oh, not knowing any really anything about the marathon. I was like, I'll put my name in the, in the lottery and, and we'll, we'll see what happens. and yeah, I [00:40:00] actually out I got accepted weekend. I finished my first run Disney Marathon, which was the Princess half in February of 2020. got that email. I was literally in Epcot after the race and it was such a surreal moment. I have my friend took a picture of me, like, you know, just at the email and being so excited and I remember. Calling my family telling I was gonna run a marathon. but yes, this was, this was February, 2020, and so we all know what happened a few weeks later. and I think I started training or, you know, I'm not like officially training, but just like, okay, I'm maintaining my baseline until things really ramp up. you know, we're, we're going through 2020, obviously we're in lockdown, but I had all the time in the world to train, so I was working really hard, you know, with like my workouts and with running. And then, some point they announced, you know, New York Roadrunners announced that the marathon was gonna be canceled and, or not canceled, but like, it wasn't gonna happen this year, which was a really big bummer. they [00:41:00] did give us an option to do a virtual marathon though. and yeah, had nothing better to do. First of all, I was like, okay, I'm gonna do the dang thing. And, continued training for it. decided, yeah, the, the marathon was, um, or the virtual marathon you could do within a window, right? Like, was like late October. If you're like mid-November, I think you could pick any day to run it. So I was like, okay, I'm, I think I picked like the original date it was supposed to be on to run, like, okay, this is my date. and yeah, training was, was pretty straightforward. Didn't have a lot of ups and downs, um, except there was this one instance which, um, made me decide not to do my marathon along, like kind of just like out in public, I guess, or along the beach. most of my runs and long runs I did, along the strand.

And if you're in Los Angeles or you've been, you might be familiar with it, it's basically this like paved path, that goes right along the coast and it's so beautiful. You can just look to. Look to the side and see the ocean, and it's, it's pretty [00:42:00] flat. Um, and so I do a lot of runs there, yeah, it's, it's a, it's a public area.

There's a lot of people hanging out at the beach. at some parts you're also on like a cycling path. and so I was out for one of my long runs leading up to the race, and, my butt got smacked by a pack of cyclists. And this, this isn't like, you know, like, it was basically like really immature guys on bikes.

It wasn't like cyclists people do for the sport. it really caught me off guard. They, it wasn't like a dental smack either. It like, was really painful. it caught me off guard. Like I, started crying.

I was really embarrassed because there was a lot of people, and it, and it kind of sounds silly, like talking about it, like,

Ally Brettnacher: No, it makes me really mad, actually. Really mad,

Paige Foote: I was like, oh, this makes my butt. But it, it was way more traumatic than that.

Ally Brettnacher: right?

Paige Foote: so yeah, like that made me reconsider where I wanted to do the actual virtual marathon because I was like, okay, something like this happens again. like I just don't [00:43:00] wanna be caught off guard like that.

Like

Ally Brettnacher: Right.

Paige Foote: the rest of my run. Like, I, I think I, think I finished it, but yeah, just, just awful. I didn't wanna remember my first race that way.

Ally Brettnacher: .

Did it leave a mark?

they go so fast and if they're like cruising pretty quick and then. I just feel like you were assaulted. I mean, that's assault and it people might be like, oh, come on. Like, it's just a little whatever. But it's, it's not, that's such a violation of your space, especially when you're in that long run zone.

Like that is your place. And so it pisses me off. So I'm sorry you had to go through that.

Paige Foote: I know, and

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah,

Paige Foote: sorry for any other woman who's had, or any other person I should say that's had a

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. Yeah.

Paige Foote: so decided, okay, where, where should I run my race? Like what are my options?

Ally Brettnacher (2): Quick break to tell you about my upcoming live podcast event. I'm co-hosting with Lindsay Hein, host of the All. Have another podcast with Lindsay Hein. It'll be in celebration of the CNO Financial Indianapolis Monumental Marathon on November 8th From four 30 to [00:44:00] 6:30 PM and again, our guest of honor is the Emily Infield National Champion and US Olympian. If you are local to Indianapolis or running the race, be sure to check out the show notes and get your tickets. And thank you so much to our sponsors. The Bottleworks Hotel Athletic Annex Foot Levelers athlete bouquets and Private cannot wait to celebrate with everyone.

Now back to the show.

Paige Foote: Like what are my options? Had been doing a couple of runs leading up to this at the, the Air Force base, which has like a, it's kinda like a rubberized track that goes around all of the buildings just kinda like goes around, the base and, it's like it's, that's why it's there.

It's there for people to run on. And so I was like, okay, I've done this. I've run on this track at like 10:00 PM at night before, because I know it was a safe place. There's security guards. yeah, I felt safe. I know there wasn't gonna be a lot of people around. I know it's open on the weekends, so I think I'm gonna do my race there. And so I also liked that, there [00:45:00] were bathrooms that I could access, close to the track too, right?

Ally Brettnacher: Yep.

Paige Foote: something you might not think

Ally Brettnacher: Key.

Paige Foote: planning for 26 miles. so yeah, I, I knew that there was gonna be bathrooms. I liked that I could also, put all of my stuff in one area too, right?

Like I could put my hydration and my fuel and like, I think I brought like, what's the massage sticks like?

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: know. Like bandaid, bandaids for

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: things like that. I could just have my own little aid station. so yeah, I put it all, or I decided to do the track because I knew I could have everything I need and it was gonna be safe. what's funny though, and what people think is kind of crazy now is that it was a half mile loop. And so that

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: the, the, the drawback ride is, okay, instead of running along a beautiful beach, I'm going to run on an Air Force base and just do a half mile loop, 52 plus, something like that. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: yeah, so of crazy, but we were all doing crazy things to, to stay sane, uh,

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: that time. And, what I, what I liked [00:46:00] about that or what I really appreciate New York Roadrunners did is they made an app, for you to like, use while you were doing the race to kind of like help you track, make sure you're doing the full 26.2 miles. And then I also appreciated that the app had, would play you sounds from the race that you would be hearing if you were actually running, you know, through the streets of New York. So like at the start line, they'd be like, oh, okay, this is what you would be hearing. Like this is the music we'd play. I think there's a pin that goes off that they would play. and it wasn't like throughout the entire race, I think it was kind of like every 5K you would just like play something, you know, through your little headphones. Um, but it was just nice and it's a small thing, but it real, I really appreciated how it just, like made it feel more real, you know?

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Well, especially for your first one, like the idea that your first ever 26.2 was virtual is insane because running that distance is so hard, so mentally challenging and physically challenging, and you ran it on a half [00:47:00] a mile track. Did you have people join you at all? Like, or was Ben out there? What?

What did that look like?

Paige Foote: Yeah. So the challenge with that is I, there were definitely people in my life at the time who would've loved to come out and cheer. but obviously social distancing was still a real

Ally Brettnacher: Oh,

Paige Foote: the time, even though I would've been outside. But, I think that was one thing people were cautious of. And then. It was an Air Force base. And so, you know, you can't just like walk onto a base, you have to have military ID or, you know, I think you have to like be a guest or whatever. it was really Ben that could come on and come in and cheer me on at the time. And he didn't stay for the whole time. I didn't want him to be there for the full like, you know,

Ally Brettnacher: right.

Paige Foote: I was running.

but he was there, like, he dropped me off and then he, picked me up and he actually did bring Daisy,

Ally Brettnacher: Aw,

Paige Foote: the base too to when, when I finished, which was really special.

Ally Brettnacher: that is so nice. Get some kisses. I'm sure, because you're so sweaty.

Paige Foote: Oh, she, yeah. She definitely likes to lick the salt off my

Ally Brettnacher: Uhhuh. Yep. Yep. [00:48:00] So during that marathon you fueled with gummy candy is one of your fuels and like grew to like that as a way to fuel yourself during a race. How did you start doing that and why?

Paige Foote: Yeah. Um, like during that time I. Tried a lot of different options out there for fueling and just, didn't love what was available, either from like a taste or texture perspective. I, I really struggled with gels particularly. you know, and having like a sports performance background, I knew that I needed simple carbohydrates to keep me going.

That's what was gonna be in those gels. but I also knew that I could get nutrition from, from gummy candy. Obviously it was missing electrolytes, but I knew that it was gonna be a, of glucose. and so, and obviously it tasted really good too.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: yeah, I got like the, the Halloween pack size packets of like sour patch kids and Swedish Fish and Sour patch watermelons, [00:49:00] fruit snacks were even thrown in there a few times, I think. And I'm like, okay, this is, this is working for me. I'll have to get my electrolytes from somewhere else. But yeah, I'm just gonna use this as my fuel instead.

Ally Brettnacher: That's so amazing and I think it's a really popular thing even. Yeah. Now, like you see the nerds clusters

Paige Foote: Mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: those are so good. I don't know how people would, I've not tried to carry them on me for a run because I feel like they would fall apart, kind of the outside. but I've definitely had some pre and post run before, so I could totally see too, like where it's something to look forward to as well.

you talk about the little things that make a difference like that. It's those little things like, okay, in the next, after this next lap, I can, I'm gonna treat myself to a little watermelon or whatever. So, yeah. Yeah. And it, so at what point, well, I mean, I don't wanna get too far ahead of us, but it was after, was it during your training cycle for the 2021 New York City marathon that you were like, okay, now I really need to make something that [00:50:00] I, that I like.

Paige Foote: right. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Paige Foote: I did that, you know, finished the virtual race. Thankfully the, um, actual New York Sea Marathon was rescheduled the following year, and I actually gotta do that one. but yeah, leading up to that race is when the idea came to me, like, Hey, I know there's a lot of, I know I like running with sour gummy candy.

I know there's other runners out there who also enjoy it. I know that the issue with the candy is that it's very, I think it's stuck to your teeth and it also doesn't have electrolytes, so you're having to get that from somewhere else. I think I could make this a thing like, you know, sour or sports nutrition that's designed to taste like sour gummy candy. And so obviously Ben being the entrepreneurial one, I went to him and I was like, I have this idea. I wonder if we could make it work. And he loves this kind of stuff, like brainstorming, like you ever, I mean, obviously you have your own business, but like anyone in general, if you come up to him with an idea, he's like, let's do it.

This is awesome. So he's like, yeah, like let's, let's make this a thing. And I [00:51:00] remember attempting to make in my kitchen that involved jello or gelatin and then like electrolyte powders and sour candy. It just was a disaster. cause gummies are actually very hard to make. Like they're so tasty and delicious and an easy thing to eat.

You wouldn't think about like how much science actually goes into, you know, getting them to set and

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

Paige Foote: that. so I quickly realized that I wasn't gonna be able to just whip a recipe up in the kitchen with at least the, the, the knowledge and skills that I had. And so, um, us both being from Oregon found out about this food innovation program through Oregon State University. so basically if you have an idea for food or like a food product that you wanna elevate in some way, they're a great resource. So for us it was like, you know, start from square one, product development, but if you're someone that like, you know, sells jams at a farmer's market and you wanna take it to the next level, maybe sell in stores or things [00:52:00] like that, they'll help you get there.

And they do everything from like, product development to like marketing, marketing even. so they were so great to work with and I definitely recommend them to anybody that is interested in starting their own food product. but yeah, they helped us with the, the formulation then that took, you know, talking about, or going back early in our conversation, we talk about how long things take.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: us over a year and a half, um, going back and forth because we were still in Virginia at the time.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

Paige Foote: was, you know, um, virtual meetings. It was them making iterations of the product, mailing it to us,

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

Paige Foote: it, emailing them, feedback, and back and forth until, you know, we finally nailed down the formulation.

Ally Brettnacher: Do you remember the moment you tasted the product where you're like, this is it. This is what I pictured.

Paige Foote: Yes. and it's so funny because I was a little worried there for the first couple of months, I'm not gonna

Ally Brettnacher: Right? You're like, okay, nevermind. I guess this isn't gonna work.

Paige Foote: the first iteration not great. I was like, this [00:53:00] is, this tastes nowhere near, a sour patch

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: or a question. and not to, not to like shame them or anything, but, yeah, I definitely took a couple tries to like really nail it down.

And Ben and I are so picky when it comes to, to flavors and things like that. Like we wanted it to be perfect. yeah, I remember like it took a couple of months. We even like six months even. but then like when it finally was like, oh my gosh, just actually taste like sour candy,

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: that was the coolest moment.

Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, right. You're like, oh my gosh, we finally have something here. Yeah, that's okay. And so then this program that you went through at Oregon State, so they do all the marketing, so did they, did you work with them when you're like, Hey, here's our idea of what we would like to call this product.

Here's like, did they take you through the packaging and all of that? Like how did that all come together too?

Paige Foote: Yeah. And actually, oh, now I'm like really digging deep into the archives of my brain. I [00:54:00] think we might've like done most of that ourselves. Um, but I remember when we first started working with them, they gave us like a, a PowerPoint presentation of, of what it could look like. Um, and then, oh, here, like here's inspiration for like, what your brand could be.

And um, but in terms of like coming up with the name nubs and the color scheme and the jumpsuits and all that kind of stuff, that was,

Ally Brettnacher: So,

Paige Foote: that was definitely like. that I, I like, decided to do together, but I just remember it like it was an option if we wanted it, which was

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. That's cool. And did you, pay for the food, like the product development itself? Like how does that work? Or did you get a grant through the program that then helped fund that? No, you pay.

Paige Foote: uh, put all our savings into making this a thing.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Okay. There you go.

Paige Foote: Yep.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. That's.

Paige Foote: we're, we're young. Like, we know that, like we [00:55:00] don't have kids. Like we, this is something that we really wanna make a reality. Like we're, we're betting on ourselves and if it doesn't work out, like, we both we're working full-time jobs, so we're like, we can hopefully go back into our careers, but if not, that'd be so cool if it, if it did work out.

And it, and it did, thankfully so,

Ally Brettnacher: I didn't hear you. So you both full-time in Noogs now? A hundred percent.

Paige Foote: Yes.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow, that's so fun. Oh my gosh. Okay, so then, yeah, well, yeah. And okay. No, I wanna talk about the jumpsuits first because I don't wanna forget to talk about the jumpsuits just on their own because people who know me who are listening to this know that I love branding.

So you can like see, so like I have my athlete bouquets business too, that's like edible arrangements, but for runners. And so I am like obsessed with anything that's my brand color. Just like we were talking about your water bottle. All about the colors and like just, I, I love it so much. Love it. Like if I go into a store and there's like stuff in my brand colors, I'm in trouble, like [00:56:00] you are clearly as well.

so all that's to say like, how did you find the jumpsuits because they're perfect.

Paige Foote: I'm so glad you asked. so, okay. To set the scene. This was June of 2023. We were getting ready to debut ns. selling Noogs yet, but we were gonna introduce it to the public at the Fancy Food Show in New York City, which is like, you know, a convention where food products from all over the world come and, it's a great time. another great thing with the Oregon State Food Innovation Program is they will give you a very discounted rate, be at the show, to have a booth,

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. Okay.

Paige Foote: there's a, a little section, it's kinda like the incubator section of the expo, where there's different programs like the food innovation program for different universities and whatever.

And so they're all there with their, you know, their people who have their little food products. And you, you have your little booth, it's not as grand [00:57:00] as some of the other ones, but hey, you're at the show and you're getting people from like. Foods or Target to come over and try your product. So it, it was a really great opportunity and I think we had to pay like one fifth of the fee that it normally

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: get Oregon State.

So that was really cool. and so the issue is that we found a manufacturer, a very small manufacturer to help us make our product. but their facility was like, something happened to where like we didn't have all the samples that we wanted to bring with us to this show. Like we only had 200, and mind you, this is a three day, I think it was three day event with like thousands of people coming in. Um, and then, so yeah, didn't have a lot of samples to bring with us. And by samples I mean individual gummies, 200 individual gummies, not

Ally Brettnacher: That's crazy.

Paige Foote: and then we also, Had planned to have these like marketing materials, like, you know, signs and, um, like our boxes here, like we were gonna have on the table. [00:58:00] Um, all of that was like delayed. So we were showing up to this huge show with like, just ourselves 200 samples in a dream. and we were considering not coming because we're just like, we're gonna look so stupid, right? we were meeting with the other people from the Oregon State program in like a, you know, like a Zoom meeting or whatever, and we were talking to them about our concerns. Um, and one of the guys was like, Hey, you know, you're a really fun brand. Because at the time we even then we knew we wanted to be like, you know, fun and, exciting and all that. He's like, but you should get some like neon jumpsuits and, and have that be your, like, you know, fishing Lord to get people to come, come to your booth. And so like, yeah, that's a great idea. We went on Amazon and we found the jumpsuits. Like people always ask us where we get our jumpsuits from. We're like, they're just, they're just from Amazon. You can go play some right now too. so yeah, got the, the jumpsuits wore them to the show and they were actually, it was like the best thing that could have happened to us because [00:59:00] all these people were coming up to our booth and all we wanted to know about was the jumpsuits.

Then we also got a tell about the moves, and they loved that too. And yeah, like we were like, you know, pan out gummies individually, and then we started getting lower on supplies. We started cutting them in half hand those out individually, and towards the end we were cutting them into quarters and passing out little teeny tiny bites of nigs for people to try.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. You're like, please. I'm so sorry.

Paige Foote: Yeah. but like I'm so glad it worked out how it did and like, looking back, what I would tell myself was like, it's okay. Like you were brand new business. People aren't coming to the incubator section looking for people at the top of their game. Right. They know

Ally Brettnacher: Yes.

Paige Foote: are just coming out, we're all gonna make mistakes.

And I would definitely still tell myself to go 'cause I'm so glad we did.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Okay. So how many of the jumpsuits do you own?

Paige Foote: Um, okay. Probably three or four each.

Ally Brettnacher: Well.

Paige Foote: people when they ask about the jumpsuits, 'cause I'm like, yeah, [01:00:00] hey, you can buy some too. They're on Amazon, right? Is they're definitely, you could tell they're an Amazon product, not the highest quality. they, you know, we'll, we'll get like, rips in the seams and stuff. And so, , we're always kind of like replacing them as, as they fall apart. 'cause we'll wear those things for hours at a time. Right.

Ally Brettnacher: absolutely.

Paige Foote: yeah. And

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Next

Paige Foote: order some more for the upcoming,

Ally Brettnacher: there. This fall season. Yeah, you do. that's so great. I know. And like what happens if they ever, Stop making those. You're have to like chase down the random company that makes 'em like, Hey, please. Yeah. I'm sure you'll find somebody else at that point that will like, make you custom ones.

Paige Foote: Well, and, and the thing is, eventually, we'll, we'll need to make like nice custom BES branded once anyway. So

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: that'll be a sign to do it when time

Ally Brettnacher: And then eventually you'll be selling them at the booth as well with your branding on it.

Paige Foote: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. and I could picture like mantra running mantras, like all up the sleeves of it. And that leads to my next question, which is, have you run in a jumpsuit?[01:01:00]

Paige Foote: Oh, I have not,

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. You have to do a race in a jumpsuit that says Noogs on it.

You have to do it.

Paige Foote: should, you're right.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. How have you not? It'd be kind of miserable.

Paige Foote: Yeah. maybe like a 5K or a

Ally Brettnacher: Great.

Paige Foote: K. Yeah. We, the thing is, is like we don't do a lot of races now. Like we go to so many races, and by

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: but by like time tables around, we are like. I feel like I've already ran three marathons just from, you know, being on my feet all day at those.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh man. Yeah, I've, been in that same boat and I have a really hard time giving up the actual running of the race. So I then I still do it and it's not great. It's really hard to do all the things and like setting up and preparing for an expo and then be setting up and then doing it is, is like three marathons.

It's so hard.

Paige Foote: really is.

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. So, okay. So I just love the jumpsuits so much. I had to dig in a little bit more there because it's, yeah. What a brilliant idea. They're so fun. I think it represents your [01:02:00] brand so well.

Paige Foote: Mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: you should just give them to people. Be like, Hey, we'll give you this jumpsuit. If you run in it, we'll give you, we'll give you each flavor of Noogs.

You can have a box of each flavor. You just have to run your race in our jumpsuit.

Paige Foote: That's not a bad idea. If they, if they have like noms across the back.

Ally Brettnacher: I mean, a hundred percent do it. Do it. yeah. I'm like, Ben, where I could brainstorm all day. All day. Love it so much. I think again, that's kind of what drew me to you guys. okay, so then after the food show. So like what was the outcome of the, of the show itself? Did you get, were you expecting to get orders?

Were you just like, we just need to get this in front of people to start conversations.

Paige Foote: Yeah, it was mostly that because I don't think we were, we weren't selling them at the time,

Ally Brettnacher: Right, right. Yeah. So,

Paige Foote: yeah, it was like, here's what we're making. it was great networking, like we met so many other entrepreneurs. through that we did get some contacts, that were kind of more like, when you're bigger, reach out to us, you know?

Ally Brettnacher: yeah.

Paige Foote: [01:03:00] but I think what was, it was just, the biggest part for us was just meeting other entrepreneurs and there's people that were like still friends with to this day and it's, it's cool to cheer each other on, you know? I think

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So fun.

Paige Foote: big practice too. Like it was, it was the first time we were, you know, forced to like stand up and talk to a bunch of strangers about what we were doing, which is our,

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah,

Paige Foote: job now, right?

Ally Brettnacher: exactly. Yeah, totally, totally. Oh man. Okay, so then let's fast forward to when, you are after the show and then you're ready to start selling. 'cause we, I realize our time, I wanna be respectful of yours. Um, and I still have other things I wanna ask you. So, um, so at what point did you launch and like, what did the launch look like?

Was it just you sold on your website initially or what happened?

Paige Foote: Oh yeah. So, it was very climatic at first because we're like, okay, these are mine. Go on our website, invite them. and I think, you know, we got a couple sales from like friends and family.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, totally.

Paige Foote: was a couple things that I feel like were really our turning point. [01:04:00] Dragon and Mountain, the local running store here.

Um. We to be very brave and we were very scared, but we, we, you know, did it anyway. And we, we went into their store with our, our boxes of noobs and we're like, hi, we're a local city area. And Ben was a student at the time. You know, Ben's a UVA student. we have this product, you guys wanna try it? And so in your store.

And they were so nice, like case scenario, like the best, these are the people you want to like, be selling your, your product in, your first store. so they agreed to start selling this locally. And

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

Paige Foote: um, another bike store in town also agreed. And so, you know, we had in some retail locations, was really exciting. and then two other really big things happened for us. The first is that we got on Amazon, right?

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: that two day shipping. and then the same time I made a TikTok. quote unquote. It wasn't even a video. It's kind of like, a carousel on TikTok, right? Where you can scroll pictures and [01:05:00] it was just telling our story, you know, like who we were, talking about me training for New York City, wanting somebody that tasted like Sour Gum candy, but that was more made for performance. that is like what really helped us explode it. I, I see it was a viral video, quote unquote. It, it got like a couple hundred thousand views, I think. but that was enough for us to sell out on Amazon. And then it kept happening, like, I think as the video continued to get more views and as like word continued to spread, we just kept selling out. so that is what made us realize, okay, we need to scale up our manufacturing. We need to go to a much larger manufacturer. We can make way more money and so we made that transition in early 2024. Actually for most of 2024, we, we were sold out. Like we finished selling out what inventory we had, and then we transitioned to the new manufacturer. So like from January, February, I think maybe, I think it was maybe March, actually, 2024 through, November of last year, we weren't selling Noogs. And people were like, wait, when are you gonna have [01:06:00] new back in stock? And we're like, what? It's taking much

Ally Brettnacher: That would be so hard. Yeah. You're like, ah,

Paige Foote: I know because we, again, like, we thought it was gonna be like a month, maybe three months max. but yeah, we had to like, make our formula work for our manufacturer's, manufacturer's equipment. so that took a little bit of back and forth,

Ally Brettnacher: oh boy.

Paige Foote: okay, sample, try it. What do you think? but I'm, I'm really glad we, took the time. We were picky. We made sure everything was perfect. We also, during that time, did like, developed two new flavors.

So instead of just having watermelon, which is what we initially started with. We also added like the wicked apple, the lemon zinger. And what was really nice too is because we were, a manufacturer that was, could make Noogs in a much larger capacity, the cost went down to make them. And so instead of only having one serving, like we were doing before, we could do two servings per bag, but the price didn't change that much.

So we're like, okay, this is great. When we launch again, we can, you know, add more value. We're gonna have two new flavors. And so yeah, we launched in November of last [01:07:00] year with all three flavors, all these like little updates. And ever since then it was just kind of been like we hit the ground running and it's been nonstop.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh. Like I just wanna like jump and scream and cheer for you. It's so amazing. It's so amazing. I'm so, I'm such a big fan of the product too. Otherwise, I wouldn't have reached out to you obviously, but how did you end up getting in touch with Barr and Nicole?

Paige Foote: Okay. So yeah, launched Relaunched in November. had or went to the Dallas Marathon in December of that year. and bar run club had like a huge, or like kinda like, you know, like a, a group run where people from all over all their chapters

Ally Brettnacher: Mm. Mm-hmm.

Paige Foote: came run and they were so nice. Like, I had followed

Ally Brettnacher: They're the best.

Paige Foote: Like, I was like, oh my gosh, a celebrity is talking to me right now. And she's so nice and encouraging yeah, we, we love, we love them. Like they, were one of like the first people that like, just really championed us and cheer us on from the beginning

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

Paige Foote: continue to support us today.

[01:08:00] And there's been so many instances like that. Like, I, I literally have goosebumps right now, like, I can't believe. That I'm here and like, seeing how far Noogs has come in the last year and like the kind of people we've been able to fuel and like, just seeing, like will send me messages that are like, you know, oh, like I used Noogs for my first marathon, or like my first half marathon.

Or like, I prd and like, makes me emotional. it's, it's so surreal and Oh yeah. It's the coolest thing.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, well, I mean, I'm gonna continue to cheer you guys on and be a champion here too, so, hopefully I can help in some way as you continue this crazy journey that is so exciting. outside of New York, what other races have you done, by the way, as an aside?

Paige Foote: Yeah. So New York twice, technically

Ally Brettnacher: Yep.

Paige Foote: I've done Chicago, I've done, gene marathon. Which is fun, you know, being from Oregon and then Richmond Marathon a couple times too

Ally Brettnacher: Yep.

Paige Foote: is one of my favorite [01:09:00] races. Speaking of, if you ever wanna come learn more about Charlottesville, it's only an hour away from Richmond, so you can that race in the fall and make a pit stop in Charlottesville.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah, I would. Oh my gosh.

Paige Foote: on the, in October, right?

Ally Brettnacher: yes, Marine Corps marathon. I cannot wait, but I'm also really nervous, so, I could talk to you for so long. I'm gonna ask you the end of the podcast questions, but in that conversation, I want people to find out, like where they can come, where they'll see you this fall. Like what's coming up next for you guys, and all that too.

And so, okay. My two questions I ask everybody on this podcast. The first one is, what is your favorite running mantra and or song?

Paige Foote: Can I answer Both? Do

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, and or so? Yep. You get both. Mm-hmm.

Paige Foote: Um, running Mantra, it's always been this and will probably be forever, is every mile is a gift. I just feel so lucky and, happy every time I'm out [01:10:00] there running, even if it sucks, right? Like, it's just, I have to remind myself like, someday I won't be able to run.

Right?

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

Paige Foote: continue to run for the rest of my life, but in the meantime I just gotta, you know, take every mile as a gift. and then my favorite song, pump Up Song to listen to is, um, one of them is definitely the, is called Yorktown, I think from Hamilton. Are you,

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Paige Foote: Hamilton?

Ally Brettnacher: I wish I was, I I'm not, I like musicals though. And if Nicole, since this, she's gonna be mad. I think I told her that when I, I, that I'm not Hamilton, but it's because I've only watched the movie. I need to see Hamilton live and then I think that'll switch me over. So anyway, no.

Paige Foote: Yeah. Well, they've got this song, it's about the Battle of Yorktown and it so much harder than it needs to, like, got like insane, like, you know, the orchestra and then they're like dropping a couple F bombs and it's just, ah, like I get so fired up listening to it. and then,

Ally Brettnacher: It's perfect.

Paige Foote: really cool about that song is I've been listening to all songs since my first marathon, [01:11:00] right? Which was over five years ago. and I got to see it New York City before my first real New York City marathon.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Paige Foote: you know, that was really special.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. Yes, that's really special.

Paige Foote: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: okay. And then the next question is, what's your next finish line or milestone? So obviously we can talk about milestones as it relates to Noogs and finish lines too, as it relates to Noogs. 'cause I want people to be able to come meet you if they're gonna be at races that you're gonna be at this fall, et cetera.

So next finish line and milestone for you personally, and then also for Noogs.

Paige Foote: Yeah. okay, so we're going to a couple different expos this fall and say much point yet, but we are pronouncing new flavors. so hopefully we will be sampling those at some of these expos. and so I think that's like definitely the, the new flavors is a finish line in itself. Being able to like finally share those with everybody. There's one particular flavor that [01:12:00] a lot of people have been requesting and so I'm very excited for them to try, it then. but yeah, so these are theos we're going to this fall. I can't guarantee that we'll have the, new flavors out for of these. Hopefully, At least one, for example, we'll be able to, but okay, here's the list.

coming up. We have the Disneyland, Halloween half marathon in California. then yes, I'm so excited.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Paige Foote: is, it was just put on by run Disney, like Disney's running events program is they have the Halloween half in the beginning of September

Ally Brettnacher: Oh right.

Paige Foote: have that, wine and dine half marathon weekend in October.

At the end of October, right before Halloween. And so why is the one, like right before Halloween, not their Halloween race? I don't understand.

Ally Brettnacher: Interesting.

Paige Foote: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: is weird. Maybe 'cause they don't wanna compete with real Halloween. They're like, we, we don't wanna compete with it. I don't know. That's weird. People would want to do Disney. [01:13:00] Yeah, right. I'm with you. Yeah. Yeah.

Paige Foote: I haven't, I haven't done wine and dine yet, so maybe, maybe I'll like understand when I go there. But I do love Halloween, so I'm just really excited to like, be doing two races basically. You know, one's around Halloween time, one is an actual Halloween dedicated race, so that'll be fun. and then, okay, so that's September, what's happening in October?

Oh, wine and Dine, like I mentioned, November. We're doing a lot of stuff with the Richmond Marathon. We're sponsors for that race.

Ally Brettnacher: Yay.

Paige Foote: fan of that race. so that will be really fun. we're also going to be partnering with j and a Racing. We won't, we won't be at these expos, but we are on course nutrition for some of their fall races. Um, so definitely go check out their website. And then, after Richmond December, we're doing the Marathon again, so hopefully we'll see Bar Run Club again. I think that carries us through the end of the year. I feel like I might be missing some, of course, you know, follow us on our, our socials and sign up for our email newsletter so you can stay up to date with where [01:14:00] news is going and when the new flavor's stopping.

Of course.

Ally Brettnacher: Yes. And follow them on social because your branding and your content's great. So it's Noogs Official is your social media handle. And then, I've gotta get you to come to Indianapolis. 'cause I'm on the board for the monumental marathon in November.

It's usually the weekend around New York. This year we're what, right before New York, I think. or right after one of the two. And then, and then for Richmond, Lindsay Hein, I don't know if you know Lindsay or have listened to her podcast before, but I'm now part of her like podcast family with Sandy Boy Productions and she is the mc at that event.

So she'll be there. So you've gotta meet her. So I'm excited to connect you guys. but this has been so fun. So much fun. Oh my gosh. I like, I just, yeah.

Paige Foote: you

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, this is great. And I can't wait to meet you in person at some point. I was, when I was doing my research, I was looking to see, maybe they're gonna be at Marine Corps, maybe they're gonna be at Marine Corps, so I could meet them, but someday we will meet in person somewhere.

yeah, and I can't wait to see the new flavors. [01:15:00] This will come out in at least a month or so. So we'll get, be getting closer to when the new flavors will be available when this comes out at least. So it won't be so far away. Yeah.

Paige Foote: yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Uh, well thank you for doing this page, and thank you for creating such an awesome product.

And thanks to everybody who's listened and happy running.

Paige Foote: I'll be running. Thank you so much. This was so fun.

Ally Brettnacher (2): If you enjoyed this episode of Finish Lines and Milestones from Sandy Boy Productions, please let everyone know a share rating and review would go a long way. Good luck again to everybody running the Chicago Marathon, and I will see you again next week.

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