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Guest: Liz Hernandez @horizon.running
Show Notes:
Liz Hernandez and I met through Instagram and she was living in Indiana when we recorded this episode. She's now in the Tulsa, OK area.
During this episode, sponsored by Foot Levelers, Amazfit and Previnex, we talk about:
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Growing up in Lafayette and a little bit about her family
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Being bilingual in English and Spanish
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Not being an athlete growing up, but instead being a “mathlete”
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How she got into running when her and her husband were trying to get pregnant
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Recovering from hypothalamic amenorrhea
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The first races she did in California
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Running a half marathon while 31 weeks pregnant with her second son (and later she talks about running a marathon at 5 weeks pregnant)
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Why she got certified as a running coach and ended up coaching middle school cross country
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Homeschooling so she can raise her sons to be bilingual
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Races she’s done - Carmel Marathon, CNO Financial Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, the 500 Festival Indy Mini
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Her garage gym setup
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Doing rim to rim in the Grand Canyon with her husband in 2020
Her advice to women for postpartum and pregnancy
One of the Reels Liz helped me with 😂
Sponsor Details:
- Foot Levelers: Visit their website to find a provider near you
- Amazfit - Use code ALLYB for 10% off your order
Previnex - Use code ALLY15 for 15% off your first order
Episode Transcript:
FLAMS - Liz Hernandez
[00:00:00] This is a Sandy Boy Productions podcast.
Ally Brettnacher: 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 I share these stories and we celebrate finish lines and milestones together.
This week's episode is brought to you by foot Levelers. Foot levelers has been in the custom orthotic space for over 70 years, and what you need to know about foot levelers is that it's not one size fits all. This product is molded and customized to your foot so that the product you get is as unique as your running stride. It is not just one arch support, but three. And this provides you with full body support.
So when everything in your body is aligned, it [00:01:00] reduces stress on your knees, your hips, and your spine, which is obviously good for us runners who are always trying to prevent injury or for anybody who's dealing with back pain. And this isn't just for running. If you're on your feet all day for work, this is a great option for that as well.
So if you're interested in learning more about Foot Levelers, you can go to foot levelers.com to find a provider near you. Thank you foot levelers for supporting this podcast. So in case you're new here, I just ran the Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October, and then I'm based in Indianapolis and ran the CNO Financial Indianapolis monumental half marathon. And those were my races for the year, and now the year is over for me and I'm finding myself in somewhat of a post marathon blues slump, and the weather in the Midwest is not helping.
At this moment. I'm tempted to sign up for a Turkey trot, which my husband and I haven't done one since before kids, which if you know me, I guess is surprising given how much I love running. But hopefully gonna do one [00:02:00] this year with the girls would be so much fun. And I also found out that the February race that I do with my dad in Vegas, he's unable to do it this year.
And so I was so excited for that being my next race, but now gonna have to adjust those plans and find a new race for us to do together in the spring. And hopefully we'll be back to Vegas in 2027. but I know I'm not alone. So if you're in the post marathon slump too. We're in it together,
And for this week's episode, I have my friend Liz Hernandez, who is @horizon.running on Instagram, which is how we originally met each other. She was. Local to Indiana until she recently moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma this month with her husband who is in the Army Reserves and their two boys, and she's actually signed up for her first race there already for this weekend.
She'll be running the Route 66 marathon as a relay with get this. Ainsley's Angels. I was so excited to talk to Liz about Ainsley's Angels a little bit towards the end of this [00:03:00] episode and was thrilled when she told me she signed up to run with them this weekend. So good luck, Liz, and I can't wait to hear all about it.
And for anybody listening who is interested in Ainsley's Angels obviously reach out to me, let me know. But you should also think about the Indie Mini this year in Indianapolis. It is the 50th running and we are recruiting for 50 teams.
And if you're not familiar, Ainsley's Angels is where you lend your legs to push somebody during the race who cannot run. So just putting that bug in your ear right up front. So Liz and I got to sit down and I learned all about her personal running journey, how she ended up becoming a running coach and also has furthered her education on the pregnancy and postpartum side of things.
She's raising her boys to be bilingual, which I found really fascinating. So I hope you really enjoy my conversation with Liz Hernandez.
welcome Liz Hernandez.
Liz Hernandez: Yay.
Ally Brettnacher: How Benvenido AMI podcast. How do you see podcasts in Spanish?
Liz Hernandez: I don't know. Podcast.
Ally Brettnacher: Podcast. So then I said it right? [00:04:00] Benvenido AMI podcast.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: It's so good to have you. Thanks for driving in.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. I'm excited to be here
Ally Brettnacher: and bringing the whole fa. Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Yep. They get to enjoy the wonders of Carmel, Indiana.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. This magical library and bubble that is, yeah. Carmel.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Whenever anyone comes here for the first time, it's like, this is the most caramel thing.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: How nice our library is,
Liz Hernandez: other than the roundabouts
Ally Brettnacher: and that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you're in Carmel when
Liz Hernandez: mm-hmm. Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So you came in from Lafayette. Mm-hmm. How long have you lived in Lafayette?
Liz Hernandez: Um, I grew up in Lafayette, all my life.
And then I moved out to California for college. I lived six years out there, and then back in 2021 we moved back right before I had my first son. And it's been to
Ally Brettnacher: be close to family.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah,
Ally Brettnacher: yeah,
Liz Hernandez: yeah. My parents still live there.
Ally Brettnacher: Nice.
Liz Hernandez: Lafayette has been good to us.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I do love Lafayette. my husband's family's from there, and so he also went to Purdue and West Lafayette.
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: And so I've spent [00:05:00] quite a bit of time there too.
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: But his parents now live here, but, , but it's a great place.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Not so far from here.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. I like it. It's, it's grown a lot as, as I grew up. I mean, everybody says that, but it just keeps on expanding and expanding and expanding. But I, I like that it still has some like, small town vibes.
Mm-hmm. But there's plenty of enough stuff to do.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah. And so tell me about your boys. How old are your boys?
Liz Hernandez: my older boy is four years old and then the little guy is 15 months.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh.
Liz Hernandez: Wild times.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. You're in the thick of it.
Liz Hernandez: Fun times.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: What are, your girls are a little bit older than that, right?
Ally Brettnacher: Yes. I have eight and then four, eight. So I got the four is been. Tough.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. All the emotions
Ally Brettnacher: to say the least. especially, I don't know what it is with second borns, but you're experiencing that now with your 15 month old, but second borns are crazy.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: So it's been a fun ride, but wild to be sure.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: And what are their names?
Liz Hernandez: [00:06:00] Zacharias and Toby.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I love their names.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: And what's your husband's name?
Liz Hernandez: Eleo.
Ally Brettnacher: Eleo?
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm. Good.
Ally Brettnacher: I was gonna ask you to say it. Good job. 'cause I've read it, but I was like, Ooh, I'm gonna butcher. How do people usually say it?
Liz Hernandez: Uh, like eio, EIO, but
Ally Brettnacher: yeah, all the above.
Liz Hernandez: El
Ally Brettnacher: El,
Liz Hernandez: it's Spanish for Elisha.
Ally Brettnacher: The
Liz Hernandez: Spanish version of that
Ally Brettnacher: I hear, I like your span, your Spanish. When you say Spanish. So, so Spanish. I, um, I should have checked. I'm on 200 plus Duolingo, so I took some Spanish in college. I wish I would've stuck with it.
Liz Hernandez: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a great way to just connect with so many more people.
Ally Brettnacher: Right.
It's crazy. And it makes me feel, yeah. So disconnected in some cases where you're like, man, I just wish I could speak Spanish. Mm-hmm. Be so nice so I can, I've got some Spanglish to be sure I can understand and read. Okay. But speaking is the hardest part for me.
Liz Hernandez: Mm.
Ally Brettnacher: So you studied Spanish in college, right?
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I was always [00:07:00] interested in Spanish, like I studied it. There was like a Spanish club in elementary school and I was interested then.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh, that's really cool.
Liz Hernandez: Oh yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: I wish my kids' school had a Spanish club.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah, yeah. Earliest exposure is better,
Ally Brettnacher: right?
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. And they're all through junior high.
All the classes I could take in high school. And then my original plan in college was a double major in Spanish and Christian ministry. And then I realized a double major was. Insanity.
Ally Brettnacher: I can imagine.
Liz Hernandez: I had, you know, lots of twists and turns and I ended up just having a, a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish.
Ally Brettnacher: Wow.
Liz Hernandez: But
Ally Brettnacher: yeah. Okay. So you were from Lafayette originally? Mm-hmm. And do you have siblings?
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: Where do you fall? Yeah, in the bird.
Liz Hernandez: I'm the middle child.
Ally Brettnacher: Middle child. Mm-hmm. There we go. Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Yep.
Ally Brettnacher: And so how many of you
Liz Hernandez: we're three?
Ally Brettnacher: Three? Yeah. Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I'm the oldest of three girls.
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: So do you have brothers, sisters?
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Each, my, my older brother lives here in Indianapolis.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. [00:08:00] He's the other runner of us do.
Ally Brettnacher: There you go. Okay.
Liz Hernandez: My younger sibling is a, is a hiker?
Ally Brettnacher: Hiker still? Still great?
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Yeah,
Ally Brettnacher: yeah, yeah. See then you could just fit right in and Well, you did, you did. We'll get to the Grand Canyon.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: We'll get there. I feel like I'm all over the place already. okay. So you grew up in Lafayette. Did you play sports as a kid at all? No.
Liz Hernandez: No, not at, well, I mean, I, I tried a couple sports, but I always like to say I was not an athlete in high school. I was a mathlete because Yes,
Ally Brettnacher: I heard you. I
Liz Hernandez: heard you.
I truly was.
Ally Brettnacher: Yes. That's
Liz Hernandez: so funny. Like in, um, it was seventh and eighth grade, there was this math counts competition, and I think they still do it.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: It was at Purdue that they had it
Ally Brettnacher: math counts. Okay, tell
Liz Hernandez: me more. Yeah, it's like a math athlete competition. And I actually still know the, teacher that, she's not a teacher anymore, but she was our coach and oh my
Ally Brettnacher: gosh,
Liz Hernandez: we would, we would go to her classroom and like practice math after school.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, that's so funny. It
Liz Hernandez: was the fifth, so I was a athlete.
Ally Brettnacher: That's, so I wish I would've been one. I mean [00:09:00] basically majored in math, I did business statistics. Mm-hmm. They called it decision sciences at Miami of Ohio. And so I've always loved math. My oldest really is enjoying math quite a bit.
, But I love that math athlete. Versus athlete. That's great.
Liz Hernandez: I have a working theory Okay. About runners and math that No, I think there's a connection. I was asking some of my like cross country runners, like, Hey, what do you think about math? Did you like it? Does it excite you?
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
I,
Liz Hernandez: I think there's a connection
Ally Brettnacher: between runners liking
Liz Hernandez: math between runners and liking math.
Yeah. 'cause running it has a lot of math in it. It
Ally Brettnacher: does. You know, it does. And running math is probably the hardest kind. Oh yeah. At least in my opinion. 'cause I am like, ha, you know, you're tired and you're trying to mm-hmm. Calculate paces and distance in your mind. Mm-hmm. And maybe that is why you're like, Ooh, I like this challenge of math and running math.
That's too funny. So then, what made you wanna go to school in California?
Liz Hernandez: I knew I wanted to go to a Christian university.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: And I had like a couple options. Uh,
Ally Brettnacher: are [00:10:00] there any in there? Probably. There are some in Indiana for, to
Liz Hernandez: be sure. But yeah, I think the closest, I don't know, something, something in me was I should have gone to Purdue.
'cause my dad used to work at Purdue, but I didn't. I think there was something they in me that wanted to go far. No, none of us did. Oh
Ally Brettnacher: my gosh.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Oh well.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh well.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. But yeah, I think the closest university I've even looked at was like Chicago.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Which would've been three hours
away.
Ally Brettnacher: Right, right.
Liz Hernandez: But, you know, I visited a couple universities and I liked one all the way on the West coast.
But, you know, it was a wonderful, it was a wonderful time out there. I, I think now too about like, oh, well I didn't really understand about student loans back then.
Ally Brettnacher: Right.
Liz Hernandez: Maybe I would've made a different decision. Right.
Ally Brettnacher: It's looking pretty good if we get some kind
Liz Hernandez: of Yeah. But. The ultimately, I, I met my husband because of moving out there.
So it was all, it was all in God's plan and God's timing. Yes. We figured it out. [00:11:00]
Ally Brettnacher: And so, Eliseo, how did you meet?
Liz Hernandez: We met through our church. Okay. Um, like I moved out there, I wanted to find a church. and I found this really interesting one where it was bilingual.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, that's cool. Yeah. '
Liz Hernandez: cause I wanted to get involved in that.
And it just so happened that he was transferring to the same school the next semester. Ah. And so we had known each other maybe a month or so, and he, he finds me on Facebook and say, oh, I want, I wanna go out to lunch and ask you some questions about the school. We go out to lunch. Do you think he asks questions about the school?
Yeah. No.
Ally Brettnacher: No conversations
about
Ally Brettnacher: that. Yeah. I'd be happy to help answer questions about my school. That's great. And so it was just from then on.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: That's amazing.
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: And so how long have you been married?
Liz Hernandez: Eight years.
Ally Brettnacher: Eight years? Mm-hmm. Wow. Two kids. So you were married for four years before?
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: and so he's in the military? Mm-hmm. What branch of the military?
He's
Liz Hernandez: in the Army Reserve.
Ally Brettnacher: Army Reserve?
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. What does that mean?
Liz Hernandez: so the Army [00:12:00] Reserve, they, they're kind of saying, they'll say, oh, one week in a month, and then two weeks in the summer.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Which is kind of in the books, what their commitment is.
'cause they're not working full time, like the active duty military.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm. But
Liz Hernandez: in reality it's not, it's not just that. Especially if you're in any terms of like leadership, extra trainings come up, you know, responding to stuff during the week, extra days here and there. That's what reserves life is that,
Ally Brettnacher: that's so interesting.
Does he have like. Quote unquote, normal job alongside that.
Liz Hernandez: Uh, yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: That's
Liz Hernandez: crazy. Yeah. At one point he had I think four or five jobs including the military. Wow. It's been our, our life the past couple of years.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: And you became a runner in your early twenties, so was that after you met Eliseo in school that you became, what time would that be?
Or that's like right after you [00:13:00] graduated from college?
Liz Hernandez: Yeah, it was, yeah. I guess it would've been the summer after I graduated from college. I had gained a lot of weight. I mean, I was never super light growing up. And then I gained a lot of weight through college. Mm-hmm. And another thing is we had trouble getting pregnant.
I was ready
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: To have kids and. I think there was something in me, in me that thought maybe it might was my weight that was affecting it. and so I went on this whole fitness journey.
Ally Brettnacher: Wow.
Liz Hernandez: Was eating keto, which is a whole other story and messed to my hormones.
Ally Brettnacher: Ugh.
Liz Hernandez: But also I started like the, it was specifically the, the Nun to Run program where you're doing like two minutes walking, one minute running.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Okay.
Liz Hernandez: And I still remember the trail out by our apartment there in California that I ran so many times on. And I remember like, oh wow. This time I got to a further point before I turned around and I [00:14:00] just slowly went from a walker to a runner.
Ally Brettnacher: Did Ellie Sayo ever run with you? Did you guys ever run together?
Liz Hernandez: Occasionally we would, and occasionally we do. But. We mostly do our own kind of thing.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: I feel that
Liz Hernandez: the longest they have to run for their, their, uh, PT test is two miles. Mm. So,
Ally Brettnacher: so everything you picture about like two miles military, like Yeah. Running, you're like, okay. No, it's, it's two miles.
Yeah, yeah,
Liz Hernandez: yeah.
I think they have, I think their, their pace even to like, like their pace even to, to get a good score on it, it's like, nah, easy, easy, fine.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So it's not even like they have to like sprint for two miles because Oh, that
Liz Hernandez: would be really
Ally Brettnacher: hard. But it's just like, you need to complete it in like a
Liz Hernandez: reasonable amount of time.
Yeah. Reasonable time. Okay. Yeah. I think you can even pass it with like, if you sped walk or, or walk, run. Yeah. Like 18, 18 minutes or something for two miles.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Is
Liz Hernandez: still doable.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's not so bad. So it took you a long time to get pregnant. I'm sorry. You went through that. I, as I asked the question when I was like, oh, you've been married for four years.
[00:15:00] Part of me was like, that pro, that probably means
Liz Hernandez: mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: That, that you had some trouble. So it, was it really that whole four years that you were trying to get pregnant then, or?
Liz Hernandez: No, it was more like, the timing is kind of hard to calculate because I know for sure it was over a year that we had been actively trying, but like calendar wise, it was probably between like a year and a half and two years.
Just 'cause there were like trainings that he was gone for like multiple months out of that.
Ally Brettnacher: Right. So that doesn't, so
Liz Hernandez: it's not like we were trying at that point.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: It was like, this month is a bust. Okay.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, that's really, that's hard too. Gosh.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. And it's weird to explain.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: But you know, the way it worked out actually was I had a doctor's appointment finally with the like.
I think it was probably a nurse, nurse practitioner to say like, Hey, I wanna get some blood work done, figure out what's happening with my fertility. 'cause they want you to have been trying for a long time over a year first.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: [00:16:00] Especially with how young I was. and it just so happened that that month was the month that I got pregnant.
Ally Brettnacher: Wow.
Liz Hernandez: So I don't know.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. God works in mysterious ways. You're just like, okay. Yeah. Well then I guess, yeah, it's fine.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: I mean perhaps though get, I mean you were getting healthy and that had to help.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Well part of it too, and I put this on my, like accomplishments. One of my accomplishments that I count for myself is that I recovered from hypothalamic Amenia.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I wasn't gonna try to pronounce
Liz Hernandez: that. Yeah. So that is when you lose your period because for one, for one reason or another, you've stretched your body out too much.
Ally Brettnacher: Interesting. And so you recovered from that. W at when like dur, that was like during, so it was
Liz Hernandez: before I got pregnant.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: So obviously weird.
Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: And I was kinda like, well, maybe, yeah. Or maybe not. Maybe after you had a kid then you're like, didn't, that would be weird too. I mean, both.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Yeah. It was. yeah, with the eating, eating, keto, like I dropped way too much weight. Too [00:17:00] fast.
Ally Brettnacher: What is keto? Will you remind me? I
Liz Hernandez: forget? Yeah. Keto where you don't eat carbs, basically.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, okay. That sucks. Yeah,
Liz Hernandez: yeah, yeah. And it's a ridiculous, now one I think of like,
Ally Brettnacher: right. Especially when you're a runner, you're like, wait a minute. I know
Liz Hernandez: at like my first half marathon, I was like, I'm, I'm only going to drink water in these little salt pills and, and now
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Like all the grams of carbs.
Ally Brettnacher: Yes. Yes. Right. I know. And then just when you think you've had enough carbs, eat more carbs. Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: I'm like, well, maybe more would help me more. Let's try it. Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Wow. Wow. Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. But I, I really messed my health up back then, to be honest. Yeah. Yeah. yeah. Eat, eat carbs. Like they talk about, how's it called the red s relative energy deficient in sport, that can affect both males and females, but historically it's more obvious in women.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Because we lose our period. that's the same thing if runners run too much and donate enough Yeah. Lose your period and you mess up your health and your bone density. Right. And all the things.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah. I recently went and [00:18:00] saw a dietician, Jackie Dyke. She's on this podcast a while ago. Um, Olympic trials qualifier, like such a badass, and I realized during our conversation that for so long, I, you know, as a, as a woman, as a female, you're like taught like carbs are bad, like eat protein.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. All a sudden I feel like it was almost like a therapy session. I was like, you know what? I feel like in my trying to fuel as a marathon, or I'm still too focused on. Eating lean protein and you know, stuff like that. Mm-hmm. And it's like, no, you've gotta really fuel your body.
Liz Hernandez: I like that.
That is so hard to get away from.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Because even, even sometimes I'm like, Ooh, that's putting all the butter on my to. Right. It's like, no, but I know I need that for my hormones.
Ally Brettnacher: Right, right, right. But for so long you're like, oh, butter is bad. And it's like, no, like it's, I mean, yeah, like don't eat like all the butter all the time.
Don't need to stink of butter
Liz Hernandez: if like a
Ally Brettnacher: toddler do, but using natural, like normal or not natural, you know what I mean? But like, butter is fine. So anyway, it's just interesting to [00:19:00] think about that. And you know, I can relate with how you were like, you know, try really hard to be the picture of, of health.
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: When in reality,
Liz Hernandez: yeah. And it's like outside I was looking that, well, not completely. 'cause when it was really bad, I was like, my hair was thinning and everything.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: outside it was looking good, but inside just the hormones were way messed up.
Ally Brettnacher: So before you had your son, your first son.
Were you doing races? Had you done like half marathons, marathons? Like at what point did racing come into your life?
Liz Hernandez: Well, it was a bit of a weird time because my first, like I got started running, I did this, my fir I guess my first race was a Tough Mudder.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh really?
Liz Hernandez: With my husband.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, that's kind
Liz Hernandez: of fun.
Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: And what, and remind me what a Tough
Liz Hernandez: Mudder is. Tough Mudder is where it has obviously the mud and the obstacles.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Is it the one with like the barbed wire and the fire or is that
Liz Hernandez: spark? This one didn't have fire.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay, that's good.
Liz Hernandez: Um, [00:20:00]
Ally Brettnacher: I don't remember barbed wire.
Liz Hernandez: I don't know. I just remember there was this really hard obstacle at the end where you have to like run up this curve and I did not give up that.
We tried a lot, but I just didn't have, I probably, who knows if now I'd have the upper body strength to do that, but like
Ally Brettnacher: Right.
Liz Hernandez: It's hard.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I've never done an obstacle type race. I don't, I don't know if that's my
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Jam. But
Liz Hernandez: that's pretty
Ally Brettnacher: fun. But
Liz Hernandez: that was very memorable. Yeah. It was very memorable.
Yeah. And I guess technically it was a 5K, but you just stop and start so
Ally Brettnacher: much. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Liz Hernandez: And then my first half marathon was, well for one, it was March of 2020.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh yeah. Great timing.
Liz Hernandez: And we were in California.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Also, it was the week of my birthday and my, this turns into a sad story, but my mom was planning to come and visit me in California.
'cause my husband was gone on a training for like, like four month training.
Ally Brettnacher: Geez.
Liz Hernandez: So I was all alone with my cats in California and [00:21:00] my mom couldn't come anymore, but I still had this race. Originally a friend was gonna do it with me, but then she canceled. But I still drove out and did it. And it was because, you know, budget wise.
A, it was a cheap half marathon, and it was like three times a four mile loop.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: But you know what, that is my first half marathon and I did it, and I still have the little spinner metal.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, that's so great.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: How far did you have to drive? Do you remember?
Liz Hernandez: I don't, everything is different in California, like here in, in India where like, Ooh, 20, 30 minutes.
That's a long time.
Ally Brettnacher: Right.
Liz Hernandez: I could've driven 40 minutes. I don't know. Yeah. That's not that long
Ally Brettnacher: over
Liz Hernandez: there in California,
Ally Brettnacher: right? Yeah, totally. and your friend bailed on you too, and you're like, all right, well, I guess I'm just doing it.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Do you remember how that felt? Like the finish
Liz Hernandez: line?
Yeah. It felt really good. Yeah. I was amazed by myself. I mean, I finished by myself. They were, they were handing out like water afterward. It's so different from like a. big [00:22:00] race atmosphere. 'cause there's nobody cheering you on.
Ally Brettnacher: Right.
Liz Hernandez: There's no big deal at the finish.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. And you're doing the loop.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: That's so
Ally Brettnacher: interesting.
Liz Hernandez: It was very different than once we moved here. It would've been like 2022. Yeah. 'cause my Okay. 'cause my son was not quite one. It was my first time doing the Andie Mini.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Loved that.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Loved it.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Because it's, you get all the crowd. Yeah. Way different. There's that, that one guy in the transformer suit.
Yeah. Yeah. I love that guy. I mean, the racetrack, there's all this stuff. Yeah. It's so fun.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. How, how so how old would you have been when you completed your first half?
Liz Hernandez: Um, uh, see, you're making me do math, I guess 20, come on
Ally Brettnacher: math.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. I guess 23. 2024.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. And then, okay, so you did that.
When did you run a marathon or a half marathon when you were 31 weeks pregnant?
Liz Hernandez: That was [00:23:00] when I was pregnant with my second son. So that would've been 20
Ally Brettnacher: with your second. That's even more impressive.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Frankly, because ignorance is bliss. I ran two half marathons when I was pregnant with my first,
Liz Hernandez: yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: And then when I was pregnant with my second, I did not run any marathons.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: See, my experience was different. 'cause with my first son, I think because of all the fertility issues, I was so concerned.
Ally Brettnacher: That's true. You don't wanna mess anything up somehow. Well,
Liz Hernandez: and we were prepare, preparing for a cross country move.
Right. So there was
Ally Brettnacher: that not a great time to
Liz Hernandez: train. Like I ran a couple times with him, but I didn't really do much.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Okay.
Liz Hernandez: And my second side, I just knew a lot more.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm.
Liz Hernandez: I kept going with strength training throughout, which served me so much better postpartum.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Kept running to
Ally Brettnacher: get into that a little.
Liz Hernandez: Kept running a lot more. Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, yeah. And okay, so when would it have been? Okay, so when did you have, uh, this is math again. When did you have your first son? Was it still COVID times then?
Liz Hernandez: Um, it was like near.
Ally Brettnacher: And you had him here, right? You had moved
Liz Hernandez: here? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I [00:24:00] had him in Lafayette.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: that was 2021.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: So it was like sort of still COVID times.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, I had my second in April of 2021 and it was still like you had to wear a mask
Liz Hernandez: in
Ally Brettnacher: the
Liz Hernandez: hospital. Yeah, I guess my husband had to wear a mask, which when there were other people around.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah. Which is fine. Fine. Yeah. It's better than what a lot of moms went through during like COVID, COVID times.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: And then at what point then did you decide run coaching was interesting?
Liz Hernandez: Mm. I think like my personality has always been, but I wanna learn about stuff.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Like I would, you know, go to the library with my son and then like, eventually I learned where the running section was and I had it memorized.
I'm like, oh, let me see what books seem interesting here lately. I do not have time for reading. That's been a while. That was with one kid,
Ally Brettnacher: right? Right.
Liz Hernandez: That there was time for recreational reading.
Ally Brettnacher: Right, right.
Liz Hernandez: but yeah, that would've been like, let's see, one, two summer, like a year and a half ago.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: That I talked with my husband, I was like, okay, [00:25:00] the RRCA run coach thing is coming up. What if I, what if I do this?
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: and we didn't know, you know, if it would actually lead to an actual business and coaching or not.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Spoiler. It hasn't really,
Ally Brettnacher: yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Um,
Ally Brettnacher: it's hard,
Liz Hernandez: but it's been really, it's been really interesting.
Like I really enjoyed all the learning of it.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.
Liz Hernandez: it served me in my, in my own running for sure.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: It's served me, I mean, I would like to coach other people eventually, but like this year I got to coach middle school, cross country.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.
Liz Hernandez: That's become a sweet spot for me. Like, I wonder if that might be more the direction I go in the future.
Yeah. I don't know.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's, that's pretty cool. So girls, I assume cross country or boys?
Liz Hernandez: Both.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Both. So it's a, my husband was working at this, small Christian, they call it a micro school, school alive in Lafayette. And this was like this year we decided, okay, they're gonna try two [00:26:00] sports.
They're gonna try cross country and wrestling. Just because they had connections They knew I could do cross country.
Ally Brettnacher: Right.
Liz Hernandez: And they had a guy that can do wrestling. and we ended up combining with another school in the area that didn't have a cross country coach this year. and it was so much fun.
Ally Brettnacher: That would be fun.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. I, I kind of love middle schoolers. There's definitely things not to love. Yeah. About them. Challenges.
Ally Brettnacher: I'm terrified.
Liz Hernandez: But it's like, it's such a distinct, it's such a distinct like, time in your life, I think. Right?
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: And they're fun. I don't know if I would enjoy high school, cross country as much.
' cause from what I see, they just seem so much more serious about it. True.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: These kids, you know, it was just, I said, all right, let's go do our skip skips.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.
Liz Hernandez: Let's go do, let's, yeah. It was just, it was fun.
Ally Brettnacher: So how many kids on the team.
Liz Hernandez: We were small.
Ally Brettnacher: I was say, so you have micro school combined with another school is probably still not
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: That big of a team.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah, I think we were around 13,
Ally Brettnacher: which is probably even more fun because then you get a chance to really build relationships with the kids.
Liz Hernandez: [00:27:00] Yeah. It would've been a lot harder if if it were more people to mam manage.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so what do the races look like for that?
Like all at the same location? Do you travel like just at different schools around close by.
Liz Hernandez: That was a little intense. The racing season we had, let's see, there maybe like four or five of them were closer to us, closer to Lafayette, you know, 20 minutes or less.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.
Liz Hernandez: But then we had one that was at Indiana Wesleyan.
Where's that? Which it Yeah, I know we were driving. Yeah, I've
heard
Ally Brettnacher: of it, but I don't know where
Liz Hernandez: it's, and you're like going through the corn fields and the GPS says you're five minutes away. How can we be five minutes away from anything? There's nothing
Ally Brettnacher: here.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Yeah. I, it's like an hour and a half, an hour and 40 away from Lafayette.
Ally Brettnacher: Geez.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: It's intense. For a middle school, cross country meeting,
Liz Hernandez: that one was very intense. There were a lot of runners there. I mean, they had high school and middle school.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: And no, they didn't have fifth graders. But yeah, that one was intense. There were a lot of [00:28:00] runners. It was a big deal.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: And there they say there's these like coach meet meetings beforehand, but most of what the coach meetings are, I tell like, make sure your runners put their shoe tags on.
Right, right. And make sure they give them back.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Girls, we're gonna charge you money.
Ally Brettnacher: And you're like, okay,
Liz Hernandez: yeah,
Ally Brettnacher: I can handle that.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
And. You, you've used the like hair glitter too, right?
Ally Brettnacher: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Not so much the middle school girls, but the high school girls, they really know how to, how to dress well for a race. They don't have their matching outfit.
Ally Brettnacher: That's so fun. I am still not great at that, but I love watching what people put together for race day. Yeah,
Liz Hernandez: they look so cute.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's so
fun.
Liz Hernandez: They're like little braids and the hair ribbons and
Ally Brettnacher: the hairs are, your braids are amazing for anybody. Oh, thank you. Who's actually like watching the video? Your braids look awesome. You should have seen the really sad braids I did on my 4-year-old today. I'm getting better, but she like, rarely lets me do it.
So when she does, I like try really hard to practice and eventually they'll be better. I wanna talk to you about homeschooling.
Liz Hernandez: [00:29:00] Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: New boys. I find this so fascinating.
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Now back to the show.
I wanna talk to you about homeschooling.
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: New boys. I find this so fascinating.
Liz Hernandez: Okay.
Ally Brettnacher: one of my [00:32:00] best friends, she has four children and she homeschools them.
Liz Hernandez: Oh yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: And she just made that decision too recently. So it's kind of like a newer endeavor for her. Mm-hmm. Her oldest is, I think 11. so anyway, what made you decide to do homeschooling and what has that journey been like for you?
I mean, I don't even know. It's a whole subculture.
Liz Hernandez: Oh yeah. It is. I mean, I'm not an expert by any means. You're more more
Ally Brettnacher: expert than me and probably,
Liz Hernandez: I mean, he's only four, but
Ally Brettnacher: still,
Liz Hernandez: I mean, I have a, I have a lot of friends that do homeschooling. My best friend was homeschooled growing up.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
how did you meet her?
Through like, sports and
Liz Hernandez: through church.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Church, of course. Yes.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
yeah. originally, so my bachelor's in Spanish and out in California, before I got pregnant, I was starting to work on a teaching credential out there.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: either to do like dual immersion or be a Spanish teacher.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: But then I got pregnant and we moved out here and I said, nah, not worth it. Yeah. so we decided we want to do [00:33:00] homeschool in part so that I can raise him bilingually.
Ally Brettnacher: Makes sense.
Liz Hernandez: And the law here in Indiana around homeschooling is vague enough that it's available. Okay. To like do it bilingually. 'cause they say instruction needs to be in English, but they don't say a hundred percent of it needs to be in English.
Ally Brettnacher: Hmm.
Liz Hernandez: And I'll tell you, he has picked up English perfectly fine. Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah. That's so interesting. well, 'cause there's like the international school here, there's some schools here that I know of that will do some of that. Mm-hmm. But yeah, I mean otherwise it's just, obviously you get a little span, like we were talking about earlier.
Liz Hernandez: You
Ally Brettnacher: get a little Spanish here and there, but that's not gonna actually
Liz Hernandez: help them. They
Ally Brettnacher: don't,
Liz Hernandez: they don't do it like in intensely.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.
Liz Hernandez: Until you're in, you know, junior high, high school I mean, you can still learn. Certainly I'm proof of that. Yeah. But it's just different. So, like, for example, from everything that I know and some really close friends that one of them, her [00:34:00] expertise is in teaching English as a second language.
Mm-hmm. And she used to be a Spanish teacher. It's ideal if you could teach them to read in Spanish first, because Spanish is a lot more phonetically simple than English.
Ally Brettnacher: That is probably fair.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Interesting.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. And it's so cool to watch him, like even though he is four, he's been interested in reading.
So we're doing some of that already.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: And he'll, he'll try to like, translate those skills into English, and then I'm like, oh buddy, I'm sorry that word doesn't read the same way because there's, it's this exception in English.
Ally Brettnacher: We're like going through with my 8-year-old right now. Right. Obviously she can read now, but it's like they're going through all the kind of the trick words and, and you're like, man, I'm English ridiculous.
Not born to be a teacher. It's like, I don't, I don't know. This is. But obviously the teachers know how to help the kids understand. Yeah. But there's like so many nuances. You're like,
Liz Hernandez: mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: Well, just when you think you got it.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: This word is completely the opposite.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. For
Ally Brettnacher: no reason at all, really.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: [00:35:00] I like the freedom of it too, that we can, you know, we can create at our own schedule, we can focus on, I mean, obviously we do need to cover, you know, the main disciplines, but it doesn't take all that much time and you can focus on the stuff that you want to do. Mm-hmm. I have big dreams one day of, like, my husband is from El Salvador.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Oh, yeah. I forgot to ask you where he is
Liz Hernandez: from. He's from El Salvador. we still have, he still has family in El Salvador.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: His dad even still has a house in El Salvador. So I have dreams of like, oh man. We're not tied to, you know, a preschool schedule or anything. I could just take him to El Salvador for a month.
Ally Brettnacher: You could,
Liz Hernandez: yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Or I have a friend who in the next year or so, she's gonna be going to Honduras for as a mission. I'm like, well, once you're established, let's go visit hon. Yeah,
Ally Brettnacher: yeah, yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Why
Ally Brettnacher: not?
Liz Hernandez: Yeah,
Ally Brettnacher: why not? Where is El Salvador?
Liz Hernandez: It's in Central America. Central. [00:36:00] It's the smallest
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Country. Like you can drive all the way across it in less than a day.
Ally Brettnacher: Is it like Indiana? Small?
Liz Hernandez: That's a good question.
Ally Brettnacher: I wonder. Hmm.
Liz Hernandez: I don't know. Maybe it's, it's very tiny. They call it the, um, the, the, the Thumb of America.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh, that's funny.
Liz Hernandez: Because it's the smallest country in the Central America. Right. In the little, I don't know what that's called, the like.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah. The
Liz Hernandez: connection.
Ally Brettnacher: I see what you're saying. Yes.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. And have you, have you been yet ever?
Liz Hernandez: Yeah, we went, we went twice.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Once for our honeymoon.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: And then once the, like the Christmas after that. Christmas to New Year.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Which is really fun. Very, very different style of celebration than what I grew up with, but, but fun.
Ally Brettnacher: How is it different?
Liz Hernandez: It's just, I mean, my family is like, we would stay in, like play Mad Libs, watch the ball, drop on the tv, the fire, and over there it's like, oh yeah, we're all gonna stay up. We're gonna eat five [00:37:00] dinners, we're gonna go visit all of our friends and family. We're gonna do fireworks. It's just,
Ally Brettnacher: yeah.
Different. That's, that is so different. So different. Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Which our kids would not be involved at all of that if we went to visit.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: I mean, fireworks alone, that's. But
Ally Brettnacher: yeah,
Liz Hernandez: it's
Ally Brettnacher: fun. It's, it's a lot, a lot different than just hanging out and playing board games by the fire and,
Liz Hernandez: yes.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Yes. Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm. and I think this is so interesting when you mention like, people when they look at you, they might not know that you can speak Spanish. I also feel like that's like a secret, like such a secret. Oh yeah. A weapon. It's fun. Fun. Do you have any good stories?
Liz Hernandez: well, I kind of love that. So I, well now it's in the past, I, I led a Spanish group at our Bible study for three years and it was wonderful.
But the reason why I even got started in that is I was calling to, or I got called to register by kids for the, the children's program and she's, the lady said, [00:38:00] Hmm, Elizabeth Hernandez, you know, your English sounds really good, but would you be interested in our Spanish speaking group? She had no idea, but that was exactly where I needed to be.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah,
Liz Hernandez: yeah, yeah. I, I love it as far as like, people being in public and not knowing that I speak Spanish, probably not, because usually I'm with my kids and I'm, you know, I'm actually, I, yeah,
Ally Brettnacher: yeah. And they're like, oh, okay.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Yeah. So
Ally Brettnacher: do you primarily speak to them in Spanish?
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: That's so interesting.
That's so cool.
Liz Hernandez: it's, it's cool to watch them learn,
Ally Brettnacher: right? Right. Yeah. And so here, like at the library, would they go find where the Spanish section is to go read books?
Liz Hernandez: we go to the Librarian Lafayette a lot.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: and they have a pretty good Spanish dissection there. And my 4-year-old, he knows where that is.
And, but lately, lately, like I'll ask him, what kind of books do you want? And he'll say. You know, whatever.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Liz Hernandez: And sometimes we'll get books from the Spanish, but I'll ask [00:39:00] them, do you want books in Spanish or English? And we get both.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: It's, you know, it's whatever.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh man. So do you think you'll homeschool them for as long as you can?
Liz Hernandez: I think that's the plan right now. It may change. It's hard. Yeah. You know, we might want to have more, you know, greater opportunities as they get older.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.
Liz Hernandez: I have big dreams. I used to think of me, oh, we're gonna do like great books, education, read all the, all the great books, but we'll see.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh,
Liz Hernandez: okay.
We can be flexible with it.
Ally Brettnacher: What does that mean? Great books? Like, oh,
Liz Hernandez: like, like reading, you know, like soles and philosophy and, dang Shakespeare.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Dang.
Liz Hernandez: It's kind of a ditz, but
Ally Brettnacher: yeah. This, yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Why not?
Ally Brettnacher: Like, I'm like, I don't know if I've read any of it. Right. If you think about that and you're like, man, So now back, back to running. I could talk to you about some of that stuff forever. Back to the running side. So how many, what other kind, what other races have you done? You've done monumental.
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: Indie, many we talked, we touched on.
Liz Hernandez: [00:40:00] Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: obviously there's, these are local races to mm-hmm. To indie. Um, what other races have you done?
Liz Hernandez: Yeah, I guess I've only ever raced in that one in California and then races in Indiana.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Gotta, gotta work on expanding my number of states.
Ally Brettnacher: Your horizons. Get
Liz Hernandez: my horizons.
Ally Brettnacher: See what I, yeah,
Liz Hernandez: yeah. We're, I guess I haven't mentioned yet, but, 'cause I'm moving to basically the Tulsa, Oklahoma area.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: For the Army in a month.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh.
Liz Hernandez: Leaving behind Indiana, which is why I reached out to you.
Ally Brettnacher: Yes. Like, well.
Liz Hernandez: Might as well have the chance to talk in person.
Ally Brettnacher: I'm so glad you did. Right. Versus being like, Hey, I used to be indie, but I'd, you know, it's so much better getting a chance to sit
Liz Hernandez: down. Yeah, yeah,
Ally Brettnacher: yeah.
Liz Hernandez: I said in the car I may be the, the most, the most normal runner you've had on this podcast.
Ally Brettnacher: Most what?
Liz Hernandez: Most normal runner.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I don't know what is normal though, man.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah,
Ally Brettnacher: because for you, I mean, from where I sit, it's like, Yeah. The things that you're [00:41:00] experiencing, like as an, as an army wife, as somebody who's bilingual raising her kids that way.
you're also not just a running coach, but we haven't touched on the fact that you're also postpartum and pregnancy certified. Mm-hmm. Which is so interesting. and we touched on the fact that you ran it 31 weeks pregnant too, by the way. Let's go back to that. And that was the Indie mini?
Liz Hernandez: Yeah, that was the Indie Mini.
So I've done that twice. And I'm not done with it. My, so my, my older brother, the one that's also a runner.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: We have talked about that. We, you helped inspire us. We want to do the, the
Ally Brettnacher: Ainsley's angels.
Liz Hernandez: Yes. Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay, great.
Liz Hernandez: And I mean like the Indie mini would be ideal for it 'cause it's a half and you know, he's local to it at least.
Oh,
Ally Brettnacher: it's so fun. It's the best.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah,
Ally Brettnacher: the best.
Liz Hernandez: It was actually after that one that we did, the 31 that I did at 31 weeks, he did it as well. Finished way ahead of me. But whatever. Well,
Ally Brettnacher: yeah. I mean
Liz Hernandez: he had a lot less.
Ally Brettnacher: Right.
Liz Hernandez: And we were like, you know what, in the future we, we gotta try doing [00:42:00] that.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. You really, it, it is the best.
I mean, for me to talk about it probably then it's gonna happen. It's What's your brother's name? John. John. Okay. John. We're holding you to it.
Liz Hernandez: You hear it,
Ally Brettnacher: Sean? We're gonna do it. Yeah. I mean, next year's the 50th anniversary, so that's gonna be big. Yeah. Um, but yeah, yeah. Depending on how frequently you decide to
Liz Hernandez: mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: Visit home could be a good excuse. Yeah. And it's around, is it? Around? It's before Mother's Day, but
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: You know,
Liz Hernandez: it's doable.
Ally Brettnacher: It's doable.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: And I've, and then you've done monumental as your full marathon?
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Yeah. I've done, so my first full was Caramel Marathon, which not, I mean, it was my first marathon.
Didn't go great. I think mostly due to, we had like, family visiting the day before.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh yeah.
Liz Hernandez: You know, I probably made some food choices that weren't great. I pooped in my pants. Oh. You
Ally Brettnacher: know, sorry.
Liz Hernandez: Um, it's
Ally Brettnacher: a rite of passage.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah, it is.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: But it still went pretty good. [00:43:00] actually on that race I was getting, like, I started walking at one point.
I got, I was ready to throw in the towel and my brother John, he came 'cause it's just like on the Monon trail, most of it.
Ally Brettnacher: Right.
Liz Hernandez: And he came and he, he walked and ran a couple miles with me. It was like, it was so sweet.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That helps.
Liz Hernandez: It saved my race.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's so great.
Liz Hernandez: We get along so much better than we did as kids.
Ally Brettnacher: What year would this, would this have been,
Liz Hernandez: that would've been like 20, 22 maybe.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Maybe 20, 23. Yeah. 'cause it was the same year. I did that in the spring and then I did monumental in the fall.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. It's a full
Liz Hernandez: monumental. Yeah. The full,
Ally Brettnacher: yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Okay. And when I did monumental in the fall, that's when it was, I was five weeks pregnant when I ran it.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Right.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh. And so did you know that you were pregnant?
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Okay. I knew and I like asked the, the men, I was like, this would be fine. Right. I like, yeah. I mean,
Ally Brettnacher: I [00:44:00] mean,
Liz Hernandez: yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. If you can,
Liz Hernandez: I didn't, maybe I would've like pushed a little harder at some points if I hadn't known that. Yeah.
But, and I do think it did affect me a little bit, like with just with the hormonal changes. Oh gosh. I can,
Ally Brettnacher: yes, yes, absolutely.
Liz Hernandez: Because the baby's still small at that point, but it's still, it's still affecting your, all your body systems.
Ally Brettnacher: Yes, absolutely. It's still like pulling from everything, like to grow a human, so,
Liz Hernandez: yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. okay. And so how, alright, so you're five weeks pregnant, and then how old would your oldest have been then? Like two. Two
Liz Hernandez: would've been two. Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. How did you train for a marathon? With a 2-year-old too. I mean, like in your gr let's talk about your garage as well, because for anybody who will go now and perhaps follow you on Instagram, they'll see your set up, which now you're gonna have to recreate entirely in Oklahoma.
Oh,
Liz Hernandez: no. I'm excited to recreate the garage gym will be. Yeah. I said this time we're going the, the horse stall mats. We're gonna, well, maybe we'll find a bigger mirror. Right now we have like, it's a, it's from my parents' old closet [00:45:00] doors, but it works. It's a mirror. Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: I don't even have a mirror. It's so sad, actually.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I need one. I tried to tell my husband I wanted a whole wall to be mirrors and I didn't win that yet, but we'll see.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah,
Ally Brettnacher: so you get to recreate.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: And you've got, I mean, you've got a gym, I mean, you've got all this equipment to weightlift and everything
Liz Hernandez: there. Yeah, we, and we've actually moved that equipment cross country, so we got
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: It would've been in, yeah, I guess in 2020 when we. I purchased like the power cage, which is one of those setups where you can put your, your barbell and you can do squats. Mm-hmm. And it, you know, it catches the bar if you
Ally Brettnacher: ah,
Liz Hernandez: to fill out, you can bench press in there, do all the things you can do, pull up on it.
Not that I can, but I could. Yeah. If you wanted
Ally Brettnacher: to.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. In theory,
Ally Brettnacher: yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Um, we have that, we have, you know, a bazillion rubber bands. we have, dumbbells up to 50 pounds. those kind of, we, I, I, a [00:46:00] couple years ago I made this investment of like one day. I would love one of those, those pulley setups.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: But we just don't have the funds for that right
Ally Brettnacher: now. Pull it like a Bowflex type of machine or what are
Liz Hernandez: you talking about? Yeah. Where like you can put the weight and you can have it, you know, pull low or pull high. Okay. You can adjust it like at Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like at a gym.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: we don't have the money for that.
Right. So I, I found this like option on Amazon. Mm-hmm. Where you can just attach it and you gotta, you gotta set up the pull yourself. You gotta use your own free wits on it. But it like, kind of works for some things.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah. There you go.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: So your moved to Tulsa area, is it because of your husband?
Is it because of the army reserves?
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: So he That's interesting that they could still move you, move you
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: In the reserves.
Liz Hernandez: So it's, it's a change. So he's, he's been, it'll be 13 years this November that he's been in the, the reserves.
Ally Brettnacher: Wow.
Liz Hernandez: Started in the Marine reserves and then he switched to the Army 'cause they have more money to pay for your education.
Ally Brettnacher: There you go.
Liz Hernandez: Good call.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: and I mean, like I said, [00:47:00] there was a point where he had like four or five jobs. We were really struggling, and he decided to apply for this program that's called a GR.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: where basically you're working like full-time, like you're active duty, but you're still working for the Army Reserves.
But I mean, you're, you're like full-time, like, like after active duty, so you're getting paid full-time and you're, but also you get moved every couple of years.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: So that's gonna be our life now.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Adventure
Ally Brettnacher: every couple years, man.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: But that is kind of fun. I mean, as a runner.
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: Like as somebody who has built community.
Right. We didn't even talk about Miles with moms. Right. Is it my miles? Moms and Miles.
Liz Hernandez: Moms and Miles,
Ally Brettnacher: sorry, moms and Miles like building community.
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: Now you have a chance to find community and build it wherever you go.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Which could be, could be fun.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Adventure.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. We'll, we'll learn. We will adapt.[00:48:00]
It's gonna be really different being far from family.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. But
Liz Hernandez: we'll figure it out.
Ally Brettnacher: Do you have a church there already, like somewhere, you know, that you'll
Liz Hernandez: um, not really. We've looked at a couple options
Ally Brettnacher: because it seems like that's been a big part of mm-hmm. Your community is finding church.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Yeah.
We really love, we, we go to a Spanish speaking church here.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: And we're gonna miss them.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. In Oklahoma. Will there be that opportunity?
Liz Hernandez: You know, how
Ally Brettnacher: ignorant do I, I'm like, it's close to
Liz Hernandez: Texas. No, I had the same exact question. Yeah. I had the same exact question. Yeah. It seems like there, there are a lot of Hispanic people.
it, I mean like, I looked on Google Maps and there are several Spanish speaking churches, so,
Ally Brettnacher: okay. Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Well, we'll, we'll figure out something. Maybe there's not as much. Good options for food is.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Well, I guess we see that too.
Liz Hernandez: Did you know that we have good Salvadorian food here in Indianapolis? Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: I don't even know what Salvadorian food is. Oh,
Liz Hernandez: well,
Ally Brettnacher: I finally [00:49:00] know missing now I know what, like APAs are now, like Venezuelan food a little bit. thanks to Encanto, which is funny. The movie, um, arepas I'd never heard of or had. And now we have in the garage, downtown Garage Food Hall has a mm-hmm.
Venezuelan restaurant. So I've tried them there. I'm like, okay. But yeah, I don't even know. What is Salvadorian?
Liz Hernandez: Uh, the most famous Salvadoran food, it's called a Posa.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: And so it's, it's kind of hard to describe, but imagine like a quesadilla, but like the dough part goes all the way around the filling.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: So the filling inside it's cheese. Sometimes cheese with beans. You make me
so
Ally Brettnacher: hungry.
Liz Hernandez: Sometimes cheese with pork.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Yeah. Sign me up.
Liz Hernandez: I know, right?
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: And you eat it with like a, a nons spicy tomato salsa.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: And like this cole slaw type of salad thing.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: You eat it with your hands.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. So you're gonna have to tell me where to send people.
Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: I'll have to ask my husband because he's the one that [00:50:00] remembers the ones that are good.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yes, please give us that. Yes. Okay, let's talk about your Grand Canyon experience and when that happened and like why
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Why you did that.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Sometimes I kind of forget about that 'cause that was before kids,
Ally Brettnacher: right? But
Liz Hernandez: we have this like, I'm really glad that I did this, you know, back when I had time for crafty sort of things. But I have a frame. Like some picture, I have this big map of the Grand Canyon and what my husband and I did, this would've been, I guess it was also in 2020.
We did a lot that year, I guess.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: we hiked down into the bottom of the Grand Canyon and all the way back up in one day. Wow. granted like, you know, early five in the morning and then when we got back up it was very dark outside.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: It's not advisable to, they tell you don't do this in one day.
Don't try.
Ally Brettnacher: I mean this, this,
Liz Hernandez: I don't know why we, but it gets hot as you go into the [00:51:00] canyon 'cause of the like rock walls making it an oven. And there was one point that my husband remembers being like, oh my goodness, I'm starting to feel not good. We need to find water. But we survived
Ally Brettnacher: What adventure?
Yeah. I mean, rim to rim in one day.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: That's pretty amazing.
Liz Hernandez: And it is, it is such a beautiful place.
Ally Brettnacher: I've, I have been, have not been in the canyon, been kind of up and around and like flown over it. but I've not gone down. It. We've tried a little bit, but it was like the time of year. It was like January.
So there was like ice on. I'm like, with my kids and I was like, don't mess with that. We're not going any further. I do not wanna have my kid fall into the Grand Canyon. Thank you very much. Or me.
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: yeah. Well that's a really, that's a really cool adventure.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. It's so amazing.
Liz Hernandez: I'd like to like hike more and things like that still, but don't know.
We still have to figure out how to do that with kids.
Ally Brettnacher: Right, right. It's, I mean, yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. And my husband, to be honest, he said, I don't really wanna hike. 'cause I do that sometimes with the Army, like. He gets [00:52:00] enough of that.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah. Fair, fair enough.
Liz Hernandez: I know. Okay. Yeah,
Ally Brettnacher: yeah. okay. Before I ask you the end of the podcast questions too, I wanna ask, you know, because you have the education of being a coach mm-hmm.
And the pregnancy postpartum stuff, I would love to hear a little bit of advice that you have specifically to women who are listening, who are maybe like, I mean, currently having children
Liz Hernandez: mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: Postpartum, like even, years away from being postpartum. Like, how do you, are you still having kids?
Sorry, this is like a million questions. I, I
Liz Hernandez: know, right?
Ally Brettnacher: I don't know. I would just love to take this opportunity to ask you mm-hmm. Because you have that education and expertise mm-hmm. About what you would, what you would say to those, those women.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Yeah. I, I love to talk pelvic floor.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. I, it was, I, yeah, it was during the pregnancy with my second child.
No. Okay. So it was after the first pregnancy that I figured out like, oh, pelvic floor therapy is a thing and it's [00:53:00] helpful.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: but then I really deep dived during that second pregnancy learning like a lot more, and specifically how to adapt your exercise during pregnancy and in postpartum. And it, it definitely helped with the recovery.
the second postpartum, I mean, there's still factors that you can't control.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: but man, such a help.
Ally Brettnacher: And so is that, what does that look like? Like do you just incorporate that into your strength training and like your routine there? Or is it like something,
separate?
Liz Hernandez: Yeah, I mean, it can, it can encompass a lot of things.
I mean, some of, some of it can just be like mindful of, your form. Mm-hmm. Like How is it that they call it like the running form if you're doing too much of a, like a lean back or straight up Right. That actually puts more pressure down into your pelvic floor. Like if you're, if you're squeezing your butt too much Yeah.
That puts more pressure into your pelvic floor. It's gonna make you more likely to pee your pants. We have accidents and we don't, we, we don't, we need all [00:54:00] the help we can with that, right? Oh
Ally Brettnacher: yeah. Yeah, we do.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah,
Ally Brettnacher: because Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: But if you think of the like tits over toes kind of, form reminder that helps with getting the
Ally Brettnacher: I've never heard that.
Liz Hernandez: Oh well,
Ally Brettnacher: right.
Liz Hernandez: Tits over toes.
Ally Brettnacher: That's great.
Liz Hernandez: That's from, I
Ally Brettnacher: remember that.
Liz Hernandez: That's from Brianna Battles. Okay. She's the like pregnancy, athleticism, pelvic floor, all that stuff.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Okay. Um, yeah, that kind of forward lean it, that helps with, yeah. Not putting as much pressure on your pelvic floor.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: So other things you can do, like, going into kind of like a child's pose kind of deal. Especially after exercise, because yeah, when you're running and you're exercising, that's putting more, more force, more tension into your pelvic floor. And we don't always give it a chance to relax afterwards.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, yeah.
Liz Hernandez: yeah. And there's things to do with strength training too, because if you're, if your pelvic floor is having issues, other areas can compensate.
But sometimes a lot that goes into like, Hey, you need to consult with a [00:55:00] pelvic floor therapist.
Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.
Liz Hernandez: find a good one. I guess that would be my, yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Right. Like
Liz Hernandez: somebody
Ally Brettnacher: who knows.
Liz Hernandez: But there's also so many different things that people don't realize, can be related to that. 'cause your, your pelvic floor can encompass like everything from, you know, ribs all the way down to like your butt, your hips.
'cause it all, it all connects
Ally Brettnacher: Right, right.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: It's ama it's like a whole, it can even affect like stuff in your foot. I, I learned about this recently, or maybe it was on one of the podcasts I listened to, but even like plantar sitis
Ally Brettnacher: mm-hmm.
Liz Hernandez: Can have a link to your pelvic floor. 'cause the fascia is all connected.
Ally Brettnacher: I've, I would would've
Liz Hernandez: thought,
Ally Brettnacher: I know my massage therapist actually, she was like massaging my feet and she was like, okay, let me ask you a personal question. She's like, do you have trouble like going to the bathroom, like number two? And I was like, I do. And she's like, I tell you what, she's like, some of that tightness in your feet can lead to problem.
I'm like, what?
Liz Hernandez: [00:56:00] It's wild.
Ally Brettnacher: It's wild.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: So anyway, like I was like, I learned that, so I totally. Can see that for sure and feel
Liz Hernandez: connected.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Alright. Well, if people want more guidance or resources, they can find you. Horizon running.
Liz Hernandez: Mm-hmm.
Ally Brettnacher: now I'm gonna ask you the end of the podcast questions so you can get back to your family.
so the first question is, what is your favorite running mantra and or song? And then will you say the mantra in Spanish as well, please?
Liz Hernandez: Okay. Well, I don't have a mantra, but I've thought a lot about the song question.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Well let's hit us with the song then.
Liz Hernandez: So with the two kids, we do not in every season, but we do quite a bit of stroller running, get the good old double bob out.
Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.
Liz Hernandez: Um,
Ally Brettnacher: is that what you pulled outta the fridge?
Liz Hernandez: I I had to do the single bob.
Ally Brettnacher: You did the single bob outta the fridge.
Liz Hernandez: You know, only a single bob.
Ally Brettnacher: You haven't seen that video? I will link it,
Liz Hernandez: yeah. Still good. But because I don't listen to a whole lot of music when I'm running.
Ally Brettnacher: [00:57:00] Mm.
Liz Hernandez: more podcasts, but when I'm with the kids often I have this whole playlist just for me with the kids.
Ally Brettnacher: That's amazing.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah, it's, it's all the like weird fun kids song. So my contribution for one of the ones that always makes me happy when we're at Chicken Banana.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay.
Liz Hernandez: Put that on your playlist, Allie. Chicken Banana. Banana Chicken. Banana Fit
Ally Brettnacher: my, yeah, my kid loves that song, but
Liz Hernandez: like, I even put it one day when I was doing a like speed work on the treadmill.
Nobody likes that.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: And you're like, I'm gonna get through this. I on my Las brain, so chicken banana.
Ally Brettnacher: You really did.
Liz Hernandez: I did.
Ally Brettnacher: That's insane. That's amazing. I don't think, I don't know that I could do that to that song.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: I don't know. That's special talent.
Liz Hernandez: I don't know.
Ally Brettnacher: Although I feel like doing all that you've done on the treadmill, which I've done long runs on the treadmill too.
But you've done a lot on the treadmill, I feel like Takes a special
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Mental strength to go along with it, especially speed work. I feel like easy runs on the treadmill, like turn on something, on the tv, [00:58:00] whatever. But like speed work on the treadmill's really tough.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. I
Ally Brettnacher: don't have a TV by my treadmill.
Yeah. That's, that's even crazier. Maybe, maybe in Oklahoma. Maybe
Liz Hernandez: I've, I've said let's just put our TV in the garage.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Just for, I mean, we'll just put it out there.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Put a couch for the kids.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Or I mean, TVs, TVs have gotten so cheap now too.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: So you just need a little, just a little something and you could watch like whatever it is your boys like to watch.
I don't know.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: That might be worse than chicken banana, I don't know's. So crazy.
Liz Hernandez: Oh yes.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Yeah. On the playlist, people will be like, what in the world is this? Yes. Okay. And the next finish line or milestone, obviously a huge milestone moving to Oklahoma.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Yeah. That's our next milestone. Moving you getting our house sold here in Indiana. Big change. Originally I was going to run, I mean, before we learned of the move, I was going to run the Dallas marathon.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. '
Liz Hernandez: cause we have family in Dallas. Mm. [00:59:00] And we're going to visit them for Christmas anyway. Is that in
Ally Brettnacher: January or
Liz Hernandez: December? In December.
Ally Brettnacher: December, okay. Yeah.
Liz Hernandez: that's not gonna happen. Maybe I can do like a half and I think even a half is optimistic with everything this next month holds. It's
a,
Ally Brettnacher: it's a lot to get through.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. But even if that doesn't happen, I saw at the, the Tulsa Zoo, it seems like in the spring they have one of those like Zoo five Ks.
Ally Brettnacher: Dude, I've heard of that only one other time who talked to me about that. I forget,
Liz Hernandez: was that on your podcast?
Ally Brettnacher: It was,
Liz Hernandez: yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Somebody was. I'm like, what do you mean zoo? Five
Liz Hernandez: days?
I know. And then I was looking up just like, where do they have that?
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah,
Liz Hernandez: yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. So Tulsa has one
Liz Hernandez: apparently. I mean, they haven't the date for for 2026 yet, but like, Hey, that's,
Ally Brettnacher: that sounds fun.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. That would be enjoyable.
Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Uh, I'm also gonna have to introduce you to my friend Nathan Lamb, who lives in Tulsa.
He's a big runner. He's actually coming in town for the monumental, so,
Liz Hernandez: oh,
Ally Brettnacher: what's your move date?
Liz Hernandez: November 10.
Ally Brettnacher: Okay. So it's up, right? Yeah, right after monumental. Okay.
Liz Hernandez: [01:00:00] Yeah,
Ally Brettnacher: man. Well, I'm so glad that we got to sit down and do this before you leave. And yeah, thank you so much for coming here.
Liz Hernandez: It was my pleasure.
Ally Brettnacher: Oh
Liz Hernandez: yeah.
Ally Brettnacher: And thank you to everybody who's listened and happy running. How do we say that? Felice? Corian. Corian.
Liz Hernandez: Yeah. Yeah. Fel happy.
Ally Brettnacher: Ah, perfect. Thank you. All right. We did it. Yay.
if you enjoyed this episode of Finish Lines and Milestones from Sandy Boy Productions, please share rate review. Send me a note. I got a lovely email from a woman named Joan this week who ran her first and last marathon at the Every woman's marathon in Arizona. Thank you so much, Joan.
Ally Brettnacher: It literally made my week. I appreciate it so much. So thank you to everybody for listening, and I really hope I get to see you again next week. Bye.