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Guest: Hallie Patel @halliegpatel

Show Notes:

Hallie Patel ⁠and I met via Instagram. She's local to the Indianapolis area, where I'm from, so we got to sit down in-person for this interview.

During this episode, sponsored by ⁠Foot Levelers⁠, we talk about:

• Our marathon medals you have to watch the video to see

• The New York City Marathon - Hallie’s first marathon ever in 2025

• Why she decided to run her first marathon

• Her first half marathon at the 500 Festival Indy Mini

• How getting cut from the high school volleyball team is what got her into running (and how she ended up meeting her husband, Suketu)

• Their videography business and quitting corporate America to follow their dreams

• Their podcast, ⁠Half Past Chai⁠

• The biggest challenge she had to overcome in her multicultural marriage

• Goals heading into the LA Marathon in March

• Fueling and race day outfits 

  Sponsor Details:

  - ⁠Foot Levelers ⁠- Visit their website to find a provider near you

  Welcome ⁠The Mother Runners⁠ podcast to the ⁠SandyBoy Productions⁠ podcast network!

Episode Transcript

FLAMS - Hallie Patel

[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. They're not one size fits all. They're customed to your feet with a scan or a mold that makes it so that you get the support that is as unique as your stride. It is three arch support, so not just one like you might have seen from other orthotics.

They support all three arches of the foot creating a stable foundation. For your entire body. So obviously that is important for runners because it helps create proper alignment that will reduce the stress on [00:01:00] your knees, hips and spine. It is great for runners who are trying to avoid injury and also for anybody who is dealing with back pain from daily life.

There are options for every shoe and lifestyle. So whether you're logging miles or you're on your feet all day at work, foot Levelers has orthotics that fit all kinds of shoes, not just running shoes. They're trusted by healthcare providers worldwide and by millions of patients. So if you are interested in learning more about Foot Levelers, you can go to their website, foot levelers.com and find a provider near you.

All right. Happy New Year to kick off this week. I've got a really fun conversation coming your way, but you can tell if you listen to this podcast. I'm still a little bit under the weather sounding not so great. Uh, it was a weird holiday because I was sick. Members of my family are sick, and now I'm in sunny Florida, which is a better place to be sick than Indiana, where it's currently 12 degrees, but it is still brutal.

I'm ready to feel normal. And, you know, get after it. And so we shall see. I'm hoping to rest up while I am on vacation, so I hope all of you were [00:02:00] able to stay healthy over the holidays. And this week's episode is with Halle Patel. Halle is also from the Indianapolis area. I originally found her via Instagram and saw that she ran.

Last year's New York City Marathon. It was her very first marathon. So we talk all about that adventure. I invited her to a celebration event we had after the Indie monumental marathon. And so I got to meet her in person and then we grabbed coffee and then we got to sit down and have this conversation.

So Halle is certainly now a friend of mine She's also in the creator space. Her and her husband, Suketu actually quit their corporate America jobs. So I related a lot to that, and I think you're just gonna be so inspired and entertained by Miss Halle Patel.

Enjoy.

Halle Patel. Yes. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. This is only the second time you've been on a podcast that is not your own.

Yes. And it is a little scary.

HALLIE PATEL: The mood in here is great. However, the lights were turned off, they were dimmed. We've just got the studio lights on us. It's [00:03:00] great. But , you really kind of realize that you're not in control. It's a little scary. Yeah. When I have my own podcast, I'm fully in control and I can say and cut out and do whatever I want.

Mm-hmm. But you're kind of at the mercy of somebody. Yeah. Thanks for trusting me. Yeah. No,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. I fully trust you. Yeah. I'm super excited to be here. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. And why don't we just get right off the bat, get the medals out, and just show the people that look at that. That's gonna make a nice sound.

Ooh. That way people might actually watch the video.

HALLIE PATEL: Look at these

Ally Brettnacher: bad boys. Oh, get yours up here

HALLIE PATEL: too. Are you kidding me?

Ally Brettnacher: Yours

HALLIE PATEL: is a

Ally Brettnacher: weapon. I just make so much noise.

HALLIE PATEL: Yours

Ally Brettnacher: is open weapon. It opens. So Halle, first time marathoner at the New York City Marathon this year. We're gonna talk a lot about that today.

Mm-hmm. And then I ran the Marine Corps marathon just like a week before. Just like a week before. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was literally the weekend before that.

HALLIE PATEL: Oh

Ally Brettnacher: my gosh. Yeah. Guys, please watch the video. Uh, you can look at the medals. It's so shiny. The New York City medal this year is very shiny.

HALLIE PATEL: I don't know why it's so different than years past, because even the one that you did, was it [00:04:00] 2022?

2028. 18, 20 0, 20 18. Yeah, that one. I mean, it's like not, it's just not as shiny. So

Ally Brettnacher: I don't, I mean, it's, it's really not happy. Yeah. It's bling bling. Yeah. And we were joking about how the elevation profiles on the side of the metal. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Look at this. That. Pretty cool.

HALLIE PATEL: Oh, it's so cool. And I've got my jacket on, you know?

Yeah. As you should. As you should. Funny enough, I've only worn this one other time because I don't want, like, anything to happen to it. Oh, that's, that is funny, right? I just, because I'm like, oh gosh, if I wash it, it's not gonna be the same. And Yeah, please don't spill your

Ally Brettnacher: coffee on it. Great. I'd cry. Yeah.

Then the podcast would be over. Yeah, that'd be really great. Yeah. so, okay. Yeah. November was your first marathon and since then you've already signed up to run, or you've committed to running next year. You're not sure exactly how you're running next year, right? So did you figure it out already? It's official.

I'm

HALLIE PATEL: running

Ally Brettnacher: LA in March. That's right. La. In March will be your next marathon. I know I was gonna get already to next fall. Yeah. But we can, we'll talk about that in a second then. Yeah. Because first you're gonna [00:05:00] do LA

HALLIE PATEL: I am very different from New York. Very different vibes. obviously starting off with New York is my first, I think we've talked about this.

I'm ruined for everything. Yeah. You ruined all the marathons. Yeah. Nothing will ever compare to that. And I think that's a fair thing to say because if you've ever been to the New York Marathon, if you've ever run it Spectated, whatever it is, a 26.2 mile long block party.

Ally Brettnacher: It's insane. Beautiful.

Insane. Yeah. You've run it. Yeah, it's, and I spectated the year after I ran it and it's so fun. Did I don't know what was more fun. Yeah. Spectating is also an absolute blast.

HALLIE PATEL: Well, I was gonna ask, did you get FOMO spectating?

Ally Brettnacher: Yes. Mm-hmm. But I don't know, like I did, but also it was so much fun that I didn't care as much.

Yeah. And I had pretzels that Matt James took from my bag. So that was the highlight of that year. Yeah. And Tyler Cameron, I, anyway, I stopped what Tyler Cameron was with Matt James running and uh, so I got to see them that year. So that was fun. So many

HALLIE PATEL: famous people run that one. Yeah, I mean, really like nowadays everybody's running marathons, right?

Yeah. So a lot of famous people are running all kinds [00:06:00] of marathons. But New York, you see some people, so I remember when I was sitting in the start village, I saw the pros start just from afar and I just didn't even feel like I belonged there.

Ally Brettnacher: It was such a surreal experience and, okay, so when you ran, did you run on top or at the bottom of the Verano bridge at the bottom.

Me too. I was so pissed. I did not know that that was a thing.

HALLIE PATEL: Me either. Me either. So, PSA,

Ally Brettnacher: if you're running New York and you don't know this, there is, you get designated as either you running on the top or the bottom. Yeah. I thought everybody got to run on the top.

HALLIE PATEL: I did too. And I was, that was my plan. I had my content in my head.

You're like, this is gonna be

Ally Brettnacher: so beautiful.

HALLIE PATEL: Right. And then I, I mean. You know, like you start, when you're on the bottom, you're, it's not like you're starting in the bottom of the bridge, so you're like super closed off or anything. You're still starting and there are tons of people around and the energy's great, but when you do run through the Verno, you see the Statue of Liberty and

Ally Brettnacher: everything through the holes of the bridge, right?

Like, don't really, I don't even remember really looking or seeing stuff because I was so concerned. I didn't wanna be on the outside. [00:07:00] People said, don't go on the outside. You're gonna get peed on what? 'cause people, when they start, I don't know, they pee. Do they not use the bathrooms before? I don't know.

But that was a piece of advice I was given. So I was not about to get too close to the edge of the bridge and get peed on in the first mile of the race. So,

HALLIE PATEL: okay. Actually this is funny that you say that. I, this was, I wanna say like 17, 18, 19 miles in. I remember running close to the outside. We were going over into the Bronx, okay.

And there's a bridge as you go into the Bronx and you go up a little bit. I remember looking to my left and somebody had like fully pooped on. Oh no. They like, am I allowed to cuss on you? Yes. Yeah. They like fully shit on the side, like explosive. And I'm like, oh my God.

Ally Brettnacher: So you just saw the, the shit. Yeah.

Not, not the person pooping. No. Yeah. It was just there. That would be alarming to have to have that in your brain. Yeah. You just, but still, you still man's a rough day. You experienced lots

HALLIE PATEL: of things at the marathon. Mm-hmm. I mean, you're, you're a different person after you run your first marathon, I would say.

And [00:08:00] that was such a life changing experience for me. And I am so beyond fortunate that that was my first one. Yeah. In New York. The

Ally Brettnacher: biggest marathon in the world.

HALLIE PATEL: Oh,

Ally Brettnacher: I know. I'm ruined. Yeah. It was so magical. And your race itself also seemed to go really well. Oh, it, it did, it did. Honestly,

HALLIE PATEL: I wasn't sure what to expect because with your first marathon, you are like, okay, yeah, I think I had four goals.

I had to go A, B, C, and D. Like I was a little bit psycho about it. And so I'm like, okay, as long as I hit one of these, I'm fine. And then, you know, like that was my mentality in the weeks leading up to it. And I was, I was feeling pretty anxious even the night before. I was pretty anxious about it. And then the morning of the race comes and I have no anxiety, no nerves, stomach felt great.

I slept like a full eight hours with the time change. Amazing. Had great pasta and food. My parents were there, like, I was a little nervous the night before, but then I woke up at 3:00 AM 'cause I wanted to give myself tons of time, like tons of time. My bus, I think [00:09:00] left at 5:00 AM Okay. So I had to get from fi d to Midtown.

Uh, I had two. I woke up and I had about two hours to get ready, but it went shockingly well. I think I told you when we first met up for coffee, that I actually found a friend who ironically was running it. Her wave started like 30 minutes before mine. But up until that point, I had thought I was gonna be by myself.

So maybe, maybe it was probably because I was with her that it just was so distracting to me. Mm-hmm. And we were just having fun, catching up and talking, and I tell people who she is. Yeah. Tracy Hunter. Because a lot of people who are listening to

Ally Brettnacher: this will know Tracy,

HALLIE PATEL: Indiana

Ally Brettnacher: runner girl. Yes. Yes. And she's been on this podcast, I can't remember her episode number, but amazing.

Go back and listen to her. 'cause Yeah, she's amazing. She's

HALLIE PATEL: done so many races. She's such a seasoned runner. Yes. Seasoned. Uh, she is, she's so experienced. And it was so nice. I, I've been following her on Instagram for a while and I saw that like, you know, oh, she obviously lives in Indiana. Like that's awesome, I'm gonna follow her.

Mm-hmm. And then she posted that she was running the New York [00:10:00] Marathon. I'm like, no way. There's no way. I knew a couple other people that were running it, but their la their waves started way later. Right. And if you're

Ally Brettnacher: in different waves, like Yeah. It's

HALLIE PATEL: just not, not the, you're not gonna run into each other.

I mean, it's too big. Yeah. Like 60,000 people running. There's no way. So I, I slid up on her dms and like, I don't think she'd followed me back at that time, which is fine. And I was just wanna make that very clear, like she has a big following. Yeah. A lot. She's got a large following. Yeah. And so I just was like, Hey, not to be creepy, but like, saw you running the New York Marathon, wanna hang out.

And she responded and she was like, oh my gosh, no way. Yes. Like, that's awesome. She was going there by herself pretty much to like run. So I don't think she had anyone to run with. And I think she'd also been struggling with an injury, so she's like, I'm just gonna, you know, like, go and have a good time.

Yeah. I'm like, yeah, hell yeah. That's awesome. So. We get there the morning of we're texting each other and I have all these questions. So that was probably the only anxiety inducing part was I was like, do I need my id? Do I need, are they gonna not let me on the bus? And she's like, no, you're fine. [00:11:00] Like, they'll let, yeah, it's good.

And my fear is like, oh my God, I'm not gonna be able to get on the bus. They're not like, because in the emails, I'm sure you remember this, they're so strict, very serious. And they're like, you have to get there by 5:00 AM or else you're not going to the Staten Island. Yeah. You won't get

Ally Brettnacher: to race and Yeah.

You're, so, you're, they put the fear of God in you, so you get there on time.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. Which, yeah, and fair enough, like her bus was her, she wasn't even the 5:00 AM bus. She was five 30 and they didn't even check, you know what I mean? Oh yeah. So it's like they just, I get why they do it, but me being so excited to run it, I'm like, oh my God, I'm not gonna make it.

Oh, I was stressed out for that, which is silly. But yeah, and we met up at the bus and we met in person for the first time and CK two, my husband. He had come with me. The trains were running slow that morning, so I was a little stressed out by that. Oh. Just 'cause there's so many people and there were delays.

Yeah. And like, it was crazy. So finally got to my bus, met up with Tracy, we got on, it took about an hour to get to Staten Island and we were just talking the whole time. And you know, like she's run it, [00:12:00] I can't remember how many times. A few other times. Yeah. And she's like, okay, do you know this is gonna happen like mile 15 at Queensboro Bridge?

Like get ready for it. And I'm like, girl, I have been studying this course. I'm ready. I'm obsessed. Do you have any questions, Tracy? Because do you Yeah, it's funny 'cause you have a Peloton. Yes. So you know that

Ally Brettnacher: you can run parts of the New York City course. Its so cool. I mean, what's, when I did it, they didn't have any of that.

Mm-hmm. And not only that, like none of nobody from Peloton. Even Spectated at the race when I did it, which now I'm so jealous because I'm like, I could have hugged all my favorite instructors. I know Becks. Oh my gosh. Are you kidding? Yeah, I know. Yeah. But that's so cool. Yeah. Now that you can run the course.

Yeah. So because of that, I knew so much of it. Oh my gosh, that's so nice. Which, you know, you just become obsessed with it. Yeah.

HALLIE PATEL: Like

Ally Brettnacher: the next

HALLIE PATEL: marathon you're running, you're like, oh my gosh. Did it,

Ally Brettnacher: like with the Hills, did it scare you a little bit at all? Because I feel like the adrenaline you have on race day, running up a hill is way different than like you're on a treadmill running a hill.

Yeah, definitely. Oh my goodness.

HALLIE PATEL: So obviously we live in Indiana and the central part of India, it's pretty flat. Yes. Unless you [00:13:00] go down south to Bloomington or wherever, but mm-hmm. I don't live there. So Yeah, I was worried just because my gosh, I don't have a lot of training on those, but.

Ironically enough, my husband and I did a road trip in September and we're in Virginia, in Lynchburg area, which is like Hill City. So I was able to get some good workouts in really doing Rolling Hills there. I found the steepest hill that I could run up and I would sprint up it and then go down. And then go up and go down.

Yeah. So I would say between that and then quite a few other runs, I got Good Hill experience. That's good. Because I was expecting it.

Ally Brettnacher: Yes. Everyone

HALLIE PATEL: always talks about queensboro, how hard it is. Yes. And I wanted to be prepped for that, even though my legs were exhausted by the end of the race. Yeah. But you know, I knew what to expect, so it was good.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I didn't study the course. I knew there were hills. That's about it. And I didn't know that Central Park was hilly, I think until the weekend of somebody mentioned to me, oh yeah. And like, just make sure you save your legs for the hills in Central Park. And I was like, ha. What? Yeah, Uhhuh. So I was glad that I knew that, but it [00:14:00] about killed me.

It was so hard. Mm-hmm. Those last hills. Yeah. Oh, people

HALLIE PATEL: always talk about hitting the wall when question for you and your marathons. When do you hit the wall, if at all. So

Ally Brettnacher: yeah, it, it's varied. Like the last, I didn't at Marine Corps, actually like the whole first, first like 13 miles was the wall though.

Like I wasn't feeling great. So anyway, so I don't know that I was struggling with what felt like the wall for a lot of the race, but I don't know. It's usually around mile 20 because that's what everyone says. And so I feel like mentally you just feel like that's what's happening. If you're hurting at mile 20, you're like, oh, this is the wall.

Yeah,

HALLIE PATEL: I hit the wall at. Mile 23. Okay. At that going steady uphill as you get into Central Park on First Ave. Yeah. Or is it, I don't know, first or fifth, whatever it's called. You should know, know You studied man. I know. I put the numbers for whatever reason. Yeah, I should know. I really should. I think it is First Ave.

When you're about to go past Columbus circle [00:15:00] into the park. Oh my God. What did it feel like for you? I just, I physically felt like I couldn't go any faster. I was peaked out at my mile times at that point. Weirdly enough, during my marathon training, I thought I was strength training enough. I was not, and I found out at that exact moment, because I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but like this part in your knees, it just, it was very painful for me.

That was probably the, I won't say the worst pain, but some of the worst pain I felt in my life, honestly, like in my knees. Just, I, yeah, maybe the shoes I was wearing, I don't know, but. I trying to go uphill study. It's like a mile and a half incline. Like you're just

Ally Brettnacher: going up, you're just going up. It's still, it's really hard.

HALLIE PATEL: Oh, it is. That at that stage, at the race. I know. And I feel like that's where I, I fueled really well during the race. I paced myself really well up until that point. Everyone always says the real race starts at mile 20. That is true. Yeah. I understand that now. But getting to mile 23, I'm like, gosh, yeah, I can't go any [00:16:00] faster.

And Su K two had seen me at that point in the race, and I was smiling the whole time. And then at that point I'm like, I'm never doing this again. Now here I'm doing

Ally Brettnacher: it again until March. Yeah. But I'll do it again. okay. Su Suke two Spectated. He was a professional spectator. Yeah. because New York City is, that's, that's a lot.

Yeah. With, it's the largest marathon in the world. There's millions of people spectating. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's incredible watching how many times he got to see you three times, is that right? Yeah. That's crazy. Eight 16 and 2324. Yeah. Amazing. Did he give you any fuel? Did you do any of that?

HALLIE PATEL: No. No.

Ally Brettnacher: He just wave, smile, and wave.

Did you hug? Yeah. No. I can't remember. I've watched your video. Oh my gosh. If I would've stopped and hugged, I saw a lot of people do that. Yeah. I would not have been still going.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. It's

Ally Brettnacher: hard to get Yeah. Going again.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. That's what all my friends who have run, I, I asked my friends who have run marathons, so many questions and I was like, what's the one piece of advice that you would give to somebody running their first marathon?

And they all said, don't stop. Just don't even stop. [00:17:00] Interesting. Yeah. Like I, this is a miracle for me. I didn't have to go to the bathroom at all. Yeah. which I was scared I would. Right. I peed everything out. And I'm just thinking about this side of the road again. I know you're like, oh my gosh, you gotta be going through some serious stuff to be able to pull your pants down and Well, it's either

Ally Brettnacher: that or you're doing it in your pants, so like, yeah.

Oh, that's true. That happened to a. A girl at Monumental. Oh, I did not see it firsthand, but she also has a podcast and I heard her talk about it and I was like, oh my gosh. But she was like, I'm not sacrificing anytime. Yeah. I'm just gonna do it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean that, I think,

HALLIE PATEL: you know, it's one thing to sacrifice time.

I, I had a very loose time goal going into it because I really just wanted to have fun. And what, what was that? My, so my four goals, my goal A was three 20, goal B was 3 25. Goal C was like three 30. And then Goal D was 3 35 and beyond. Okay. And so I hit Goal C, which I think I was really happy about that.

Yeah. I ran 3 34, which I was honestly shocked by. I took the [00:18:00] first three miles as a warmup and like chilled out because I saw people sprinting up the bridge. I'm like, guys, what are you doing? Yeah. Where are you going? Got 25 miles left. Yeah. Where you go. Yeah, I'll catch you in a little bit. 'cause you're gonna be tired from that.

But, um, yeah, I just, you know, I hit my time goal. I was really happy. I didn't wanna stop because I felt like my legs would just not Right. You

Ally Brettnacher: don't stopping, you can cramp or, yeah. And definitely no shade to people who choose. Walking or choose to stop. Exactly. Yeah. But yeah, I really, for my first marathons as well, I remember thinking like, I just wanna run the whole thing.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. Because if you stop, you know, like, and this is what I experienced with long runs too. So I knew that I shouldn't stop. You just lose your momentum. Yeah. Which I was really grateful to have so many people support me on my running journey and do my long runs with me, because those runs can get lonely.

Oh yeah. Yes. Oh, it was so nice to have people that would run with me, but because of that, I knew like, okay, there'd be different points where I'd stop to meet up with this person and I just, it didn't feel like it, you know? It was [00:19:00] a really great, fun run after that. Like my legs would be tired. Mm-hmm. Just mentally, the momentum's not there.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: So what made you decide to run your first marathon? That's a great question. I was one of those people

HALLIE PATEL: that. Thought marathoners were crazy for a long time. I thought that I'll never do that. Yeah. Crazy people. I'll never do that. Yeah. What are they running from? Oh, I, I love New York City, like K two I, our end goal is to move there just because there's, there's so much, especially in the field that we're in right now.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

HALLIE PATEL: It's a great place to live and to create and do all of that stuff. And there are so many fitness people out there and it's so motivating. Oh my gosh. People, it's the city that never sleeps. People are always in all the clubs.

Ally Brettnacher: There's like a million clubs

HALLIE PATEL: to run

Ally Brettnacher: clubs a club for anything. I

HALLIE PATEL: know.

Yeah. It's so, there's so much going on all the time. Uh, literally the city that never sleeps. But what inspired me to do a marathon is I saw my brother and his wife, they ran the Carmel Marathon as their [00:20:00] first marathon. Okay. What year did they do that? 2023. Okay. And I was there, I was spectating and I'll never forget.

When Kirsten, my sister-in-law, crossed the finish line. I mean, I saw her, you know, finish and then I met down with her a little bit and she burst into tears. Yeah. And I'm like, how does a race have that effect on people? Like, I know she just did this amazing, hard thing, but it just kind of planted that seed for me of like, oh my gosh, I wanna feel something like that.

I saw how hard she worked, how much work her and my brother put in to be able to do this, because doing a marathon, getting to that point is a marathon of everything that you put into it. Yeah. Getting to the start line is, yeah. The hardest part. Really? Yeah. And I'm like, gosh, that's, and that was two years ago, and by the end of 2023 I was like, okay.

I went to New York City for the first time in 2023. Oh, September. So like four months after. For your first time? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay. Why did you go Just for fun? Yeah. Like a fun trip. Yeah. So we, every year, St. K and I, we got married in [00:21:00] September. We like to take a little bit of an anniversary. And so we were like, oh, what are we gonna do this year?

Well, let's go to New York City. We've never been, people always say it's dangerous and blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Like, let's just go. 'cause I've never been like, what could be so great about it? And I went and I fell in love with it so fast. I mean, I remember the day we got there, just like both of us were in complete awe of the city seeing things in real life.

You've obviously been right? Yes. Like seeing the Empire State Building. Mm-hmm. Seeing the Statue of Liberty, like going to ti, going to Times Square is like not great, but you have to see it at least one time, right? Yeah. And so that year I was like, there's a world major here. If I'm gonna run a marathon, I want New York City to be my first marathon.

So at the end of 2023, I made that my goal, and then I started learning about how many marathons there were. Okay. How the heck do you even train for one? And is this something I want to get into? Because I feel like if I'm gonna do one, I'm probably gonna get into more. [00:22:00]

Ally Brettnacher: Here we are. Like knowing myself.

Yeah. This is probably gonna be something I'll just, yeah. As you run. How 60? How many? Um, nine full marathons. 65 half marathons. So many. Yeah. I have a spreadsheet. Yeah, that's, I wanna look at that. You should have a spreadsheet. Yeah. Start now. Yeah. I need yours for inspo. Do you have a template? I do. Well, it's pretty, it's pretty basic, but Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. It's the best. Yeah.

HALLIE PATEL: But yeah, I mean, I fell in love with New York City and then realized just how hard it is to get into the marathon. So spent about a year kinda learning, oh my gosh, how the heck do I even get into this? And ironically enough, at the end of 2023 is really when I started my running journey back up again, because I kind of been on and off with it for the last 11 years now.

And really started getting consistent in October, November of 2023. And then I signed up again for my second half ever in October of 2024. Okay. Yeah. And then what, what was your first half marathon? The Indie Mini. That's right. It was, but I love the Indie Mini, and I'm actually doing it [00:23:00] in May, which we've talked about.

Excellent. I'm super excited. But the first time that me and my husband and my friend did it, it was 50 degrees and raining. That's right. Yeah. So it was that's, that

Ally Brettnacher: was a rough year to have it be your first. I know

HALLIE PATEL: it. But it was fun. I had so much fun after that. I just, I don't know. I think because I ran in high school, I was an athlete, I played volleyball and then I got cut from volleyball and then I started running a lot more.

So that's kind of where it began. We can get more into that. Why'd you get cut from volleyball? I don't remember you telling me that. So the school that I went to was very political in sports, like every sport, like soccer, football, basketball, volleyball, and. Yeah, there were a lot of things happening on the Avon team.

I went to Avon High School. There were a lot of things happening, A lot of girls that would be recruited or whatever, and basically boot out the girls that grew up in Avon. Oh, that's right. Yeah. I think you did tell me this when we got copied. It's so stupid. So you just

Ally Brettnacher: got, they were just like, sorry, you played, and then they, the next year, literally, they were just like, sorry, there's not a spot.

HALLIE PATEL: Oh yeah, I played so little backstory. I [00:24:00] started playing volleyball in sixth grade and I'd played club volleyball. So that was like, seven, eight months outta the year, let's say seven. Six, seven months outta the year. Okay. Six, seven. Thanks for that. Oh, ew. I ate that. I just did that. Cool. Me too. Yeah.

Seven to six months. Yeah. Um, so then that was in sixth grade. Sixth grade I played club volleyball, which was travel. And then seventh grade, eighth grade, ninth grade, 10th grade I played club travel and school volleyball. So it was all year. Oh my gosh. And for someone to put that much time and effort into something to then go through an entire summer of tryouts and conditioning, I'll never forget it.

The coach pulls me over and he's, we're all just scrimmaging, right? Like we're all just playing volleyball and this is the day that we're all gonna find out if we made the team or not. Because at Avon on the freshman team, you had to be a freshman. And then for junior varsity you could only be a sophomore.

If you were a junior or a senior, you had to be on varsity or else you got cut. Okay. So like there was only one option, and I kind of knew going into [00:25:00] it like, okay, I see what's going on. Like I'm not gonna get picked. It's not happening. He doesn't like me. The coaches didn't really like me. I wasn't super great friends with people like it just the signs weren't aligning, the stars weren't aligning, rather, and I'll never forget, I got called over as all the other girls are playing.

And it's like the coach and then like two or three other coaches sitting next to him and I sat down and he was like, you know, I'm just really sorry. I just don't have a spot for you on my team. And I said, okay. And I got up and I left. And it, you could tell who got cut and who made the team because if they made the team, they'd keep playing.

Whereas like I grabbed my stuff and I left. Gosh, for me to put all that time and effort years into it and all the money also that goes into traveling. And what did your parents say? They weren't surprised because they knew what the environment was like. Okay. Yeah. And also it got to a point where I just didn't even have any love for the game anymore, sadly.

So it's like it takes the fun out of it, you know? Yeah. Well, [00:26:00] especially that, yeah. But man, but silver lining. But it ended up being the best thing that's ever happened to me, because I remember that night I came home and my brother, who is a seasoned runner as well, he, ran track and cross country in high school and then went on to be a collegiate runner.

He was like, you know what? Why don't you, I'm really close with the guys cross country and track coach. Why don't you become a manager that way you can, you know, like stay in shape and you can run and like just, you know, meet people. And I was like, okay, I don't know anybody and manage the guys team. That sounds so weird.

It's such an odd concept.

Ally Brettnacher: It is kind of, it does sound kind of weird. Yeah. Yeah.

HALLIE PATEL: And by that time it was August, so like cross country races were starting and within the first week that I was there. I started managing the team. Like I would just run by myself. Like I'd go run like 2, 3, 4 miles, like around the high school, whatever.

And could you not join the women's team or, so I could. I could have. I could have. It just was too late in the season. Okay. And I didn't, I honestly did, I never ran cross country. I didn't really [00:27:00] want to run cross country. Gotcha. Because even then, to me there wasn't really appeal to it. Yeah. I did track previously.

and that was really about it. I was like, I don't wanna run farther than a few miles. Yeah. I think that's crazy. And then within a week of me doing that on the guy's team, there's this guy that comes up to me and I kind of knew who he was. 'cause he made this really viral video for Avon High School, which is called Avon High School.

Lift up. Go look it up.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, I've never seen it.

HALLIE PATEL: Oh my gosh. We need to watch it after this. Okay. And this guy comes up to me and he was like, Hey, aren't you that weird girl from track? And I'm looking at him like, what? Why would you say that to somebody? That's so kind of, that's mean. Yeah. Why would you say that?

I don't even know who you are and you're insulting me. And he just starts laughing. He is like, ha ha, I'm just kidding. Oh, my name's Tu and he's my husband now. I love that

Ally Brettnacher: story so much.

HALLIE PATEL: That guy that I met and we became very fast friends, fell in love, started dating. So we've been dating since 2015 and then got married in [00:28:00] 2021, so, oh my gosh.

Okay. So what year was that in high school? Remind me. That year was 2015. Okay. So I got cut from the volleyball team and then a few weeks later in 20 15th of August. And you were a junior? Yes. Okay. And he was a senior. Okay. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: High school sweethearts. I know.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. It's so, aren't you that

Ally Brettnacher: weird track girl?

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. Yeah. Like hello? It's so the audacity to come up and say that to somebody and. Weirdly enough, I, I don't even know if I've said this out loud before. This is odd, but you know when, you know right? Like yeah. If you meet somebody, like I'm sure with your husband probably, like

Ally Brettnacher: you had that moment of realization, you're like, oh my gosh.

Yeah. When he agreed to run the Chicago marathon with me, I was like, he's a keeper. Yeah, that's it. Like wife me up, married. That's actually huge though. But really not like, I'm like joking somewhat. 'cause I knew before that, but like, yeah. Then you're like, okay, that's still a deal. Guy's never run more than three miles in his life.

And he is like, sure, I'll run a marathon. Oh, it's he. So we were young, you know? Oh my gosh. Yeah.

HALLIE PATEL: I remember after having that [00:29:00] interaction with him, we obviously talked more after he insulted me and called me super weird. But we had this conversation and he walked away and I just remember he had this just lasting impression on me and I knew he was gonna be special in my life.

He, I was thinking in my head, could this guy, is this guy boyfriend material? Maybe like, I was even thinking. About marriage in that same sentence. That's so

Ally Brettnacher: crazy. It is

HALLIE PATEL: crazy. I don't know, he just, the way he made me laugh and made me feel, and he was so warm and sweet and wonderful and yeah. Yeah. I don't know.

It just, you know, people are gonna have a lasting impression on you and be someone special in your life, and I just knew that about him. Gosh.

Ally Brettnacher: So cool.

HALLIE PATEL: So one of the best things that's ever happened to me, best story, because I met my husband out of it. Yeah. So, forget volleyball.

Ally Brettnacher: You coach, you know coach?

Who's Scott McQueen? Yeah. Boo Scott. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks a lot. Mm-hmm. But you did, you did help in some way. Yeah. So thank you. So there's that. I'm happy and I'm married. And now you [00:30:00] both work together. We do. Which is so crazy too. And you worked at the same company before.

HALLIE PATEL: And we went to the same college. We worked at the same jobs in college.

Like we've, we've done a lot together. That's just, okay. And where did you go to undergrad? IEPY, which is now, that's right. IUI. I'm gonna still call I-E-P-Y-I-U. Yeah, that's right because that. It's like mom and dad split up with I. It's weird and produ weird. It's very odd. So yeah, IEPY, but yeah. And then what did you study in college?

I studied data science, which is very off brand for me. I feel like, especially with what I'm doing now. Oh my

Ally Brettnacher: gosh. It like complete 180. I think I told you I studied decision sciences. What we called it was like business statistics. Like math? Yeah. Was yours more, was it math related? Yeah. it was partly, yeah, math statistics.

Yeah. Yeah. So similar programming. So yeah. I do nothing. Yeah. Programming. Yeah. Look at us. Oh,

HALLIE PATEL: we're such

Ally Brettnacher: nerds, weirdos,

HALLIE PATEL: but hey, we're living out our dreams now. Yeah. And that's great. And we're running marathons and look at, at our marathon [00:31:00] medals. Yeah. If you guys haven't seen them already. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Just gonna

HALLIE PATEL: clang

Ally Brettnacher: it around here.

HALLIE PATEL: I'll just put it

Ally Brettnacher: on my lap for everybody's sake. Yeah. This thing is crazy. It,

HALLIE PATEL: It,

oh gosh. Don't you just look at it and you feel so accomplished. Yeah. Ugh. Yeah. Look at that thing. I mean, this is a weapon. It it,

Ally Brettnacher: I don't, you know, it really is. So you could throw that at somebody and like, really cause some damage, whereas that, I mean, yeah, that would hurt.

But it's not gonna like impale you I know. Like this metal.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. How the heck are you gonna frame that? I don't

Ally Brettnacher: know. Actually, you know what? I think my other one from Marine Corps that's framed, I popped out the glass and just had it. You, so you can't really tell. Yeah. Anyway, so, okay. So you study data science?

Yeah. Did Tu have the same major too? Or what did he do? So he did computer

HALLIE PATEL: engineering. Okay.

and he's obviously not doing anything related to that now. Yeah. Even when he graduated and got a job, where we worked at a biotech company, he was not doing anything computer engineering. He actually got into a management development program to be like a leader or a [00:32:00] manager at the company

Ally Brettnacher: we worked at.

That's so, that's so cool. Well, it just goes to show again, like kind of what kind of person he is. Mm-hmm. and then you were, you know, slave and away in corporate America, but you also had, when did you start your videography and photography business?

HALLIE PATEL: 2017. Yeah. So it's just been brewing on the side, you know.

So you had that all through college? Yeah. It was really just a way to pay through college and to make a little extra money. So we started that back then. So K two's been making videos since. He was a child. I mean, like, he's one of those kids that you give him a video camera and he's obsessed with it and he's like picking it apart.

And he's like, how do you do this? And blah, blah blah. So he's always been obsessed with the crafts of video. And then, you know, like we both took photography classes in high school. We'd always be the people that took photos of people like, oh, you need grad photos here, here we are. Yeah. Wow. And it would just be for fun.

Right? Like, not making money off of it. Like, we just had a great time and we learned so much from it. And then all of our dates after we started dating would be [00:33:00] photography walks. Like we'd go to a park and just take pictures of each other much to what we do now. Like, we do that all the time. It's, it's

Ally Brettnacher: so,

HALLIE PATEL: it's nice for especially the world you're in now.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Not

HALLIE PATEL: much has changed in that way. but we first started that in 2017, so KT had his first wedding for video. 'cause I only do photo. He does video. Like, we make a very good team. Yeah. I, I can't do video. I just am not, I don't have that vision. I have a photography. I, yeah, yeah. But that's about it.

So to that point, he did his first wedding in, I wanna say August of 2017. And then it just kind of snowballed. I wanna say that because of word of mouth from that wedding, he got like 11 weddings from that. Well, was it an an Indian wedding? No. Oh. 'cause I was gonna say there's probably like 400 people there.

We act, funny enough, we've not done a full Indian wedding. Okay. But we have two next year.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. Which is like a lot. Yeah. Because they're two days. Yeah. And we're like, oh

Ally Brettnacher: my God, it's just us two. That is a lot. Yeah. Yeah. How are, okay anyway, yeah, that is the two more marathons added. I know, right? To the calendar.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. So yeah, [00:34:00] we have just been doing that and then just growing it on the side more than weddings. Right. Like obviously we started with weddings and those are our bread and butter. Like that's just always gonna be there. And we love doing them and capturing someone's love story. Mm-hmm. Especially on the most important day.

You know, it's a ton of fun. But we've done so many other things with that. We've gone flown out to startups. We have traveled to go do proposals in different places, like on beaches. I mean, it's just been so much, so fun. That's cool. I didn't know that as two creative people, it's like your dream to get to kind of play around with something like that.

Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: So I think it's so interesting that that's, it's such a big part of your life. Do you ever take like a detox where you're like, okay, we just need to like not do any, 'cause it's. Even for me who's been doing it for like a short amount of time, it's just like, you always feel like I can't shut my brain off.

Oh yeah. When I think about content, it's just like everywhere. It's all the time. Yeah. I can't sleep at night. Yeah, me either. I have, I have so many ideas and then I'll forget and I get really annoyed with myself. I was like, I should just write them down while I'm thinking of it. But that's

HALLIE PATEL: what, yeah, that's what I [00:35:00] do.

I'll find myself reaching for a nightstand and I'm like, all right, open my notes app. Let me type this out 'cause I won't remember in the morning. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, especially, so just for some context, what su and I have done is quit our full-time jobs. We actually, it's been about five months now.

Which is so crazy because you're so programmed to work and to, to go to school and to Yes. Do the normal thing. Yep. And when you get out of it, someone described it to me this way, the best way to describe it is that you're homesick from school and that everybody else is just going,

Ally Brettnacher: why do you feel that way?

I love that analogy. 'cause it does, you're like always homesick from school. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that weird? It is weird. It really kinda makes sense. Yes, yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I wanted to also talk about how I loved this video that you guys made the other day about practicing for the holidays. Like, this is what we do for work.

Because I can relate to that so much. I get so tired of because people just, it's automatic. Yeah. Oh, like how's work? Like Yeah. Like that's the first thing I wanna talk about. Yeah. Well for me now it's like really fun to talk about. Yeah. But like before it's, [00:36:00] it's like, why are we defined by what we do for work?

I know. It's so annoying. Oh, it is. Yeah. So I loved that video. 'cause you were practicing. Do, do you remember what you said?

HALLIE PATEL: Oh gosh. I, we had to write it down. We did it probably 15 times and I just got more and more frustrated with each take. 'cause one of us would mess up and I'm like, oh gosh, like this should take two seconds.

We do this all the time. Yeah. Like, no, we don't have kids yet. Because when you get married, you know, people ask, when are your kids, when you have kids, kids when you having, oh, you have one? When are you gonna have a second? It's like when you get engaged, when you get married. I mean, you know, like people can be curious.

Ally Brettnacher: People just don't, yeah. People just don't know what to say, so they just ask the robotic what they're supposed to ask.

HALLIE PATEL: I know. Like,

Ally Brettnacher: let's go deeper than that. Let's just actually, let's just go world deep real fast to just make everybody uncomfortable. But I think it makes, makes it more meaningful. It does.

It's just annoying. How, yeah. Oh yeah. How's work going? Yeah. How are, how are you actually? Yeah. Like how's your day to day? How's your work? What do you, yeah, it's like, but also,

HALLIE PATEL: yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: I dunno. I like the question like, oh, what are you excited about right now?

HALLIE PATEL: I love that. 'cause

Ally Brettnacher: it could be related to work.

HALLIE PATEL: Mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: [00:37:00] It could be anything else. Mm-hmm. And it's just like, let somebody talk about something that's good.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: I don't know.

HALLIE PATEL: Oh, I love that. That reminds me, I watch a podcast. Uh, it's called Good Hang with Amy Puller. Love that. Do she, there was one episode that she did with Adam Scott from Severance of Multiple Things.

It's great. Did you watch Parks

Ally Brettnacher: and Rec? I didn't. I know. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh my God. Especially being from Indiana. I know, I know. I, I've seen like bits, but yeah, I don't, I didn't,

HALLIE PATEL: I know I should. Okay, so Ben Wyatt from the show, his name's Adam Scott in real life, but he was on one of her episodes and it was a great episode 'cause they were love interests in the show and it just was really special to see them reconnect.

But one of the questions that she asked him was, what are you laughing at right now? Like, what's making you laugh?

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, I like that one too. Like something you're

HALLIE PATEL: watching or like

Ally Brettnacher: just a joke or what is making me laugh? Yeah. Any, anything on TikTok that I watch probably. Yeah. Like I sit in bed at night and watch just, I'm like, I'm just gonna watch a few tiktoks.

And then it's like spiral 45 minutes later, but I'm like laughing my ass off most of the time. Yeah. Oh yeah. So it's great.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah, no, so I mean, yeah. Mm-hmm. To your point, I love questions like that. Yeah. Yeah. Like what's making you laugh [00:38:00] right now? Or like what's making you happy or like what's one good thing going on in your life?

Mm-hmm. I love that. Mm-hmm. I think more people need to do

Ally Brettnacher: that. Yeah. Agreed. So tell people a little bit about your podcast. Yes.

HALLIE PATEL: And how, how long has your podcast been around? Oh my goodness. We've been doing our podcast, it'll be almost three years, which is so crazy. Wow. We started in January, late January of 2023.

And tell people about the name and where that came from. Okay. So the podcast is called Half Pass Chai. I am White, my husband is Indian. That's the whole basis of our show. and really it all started when Tu started making tiktoks and people saw him as an Indian man, me as a white girl. We're married.

How do you make that work? Don't you have family complications? Like you guys are two completely different cultures. Which is funny because you would think like the concept of multicultural couples, it's not new, right? But people can't really fathom sometimes if they're in a certain situation where their parents don't allow something and they're like, what?

How are you doing this? Like, did you guys not have any problems? Or like, what [00:39:00] problems did you overcome to get here? Yeah, like did your parents have a problem with her that she's not Indian? Like you guys aren't the same way now you're gonna need to answer all those questions too. Yeah.

Yeah.

So we started posting just fun stuff on TikTok, and ironically enough, the first clip that went viral of CICS with like in, gosh, I think it would've been 2021 or early 2022.

It was a process of us building our house. I don't know if I've shown you that. Oh, I didn't know you built your house. Yeah. So it was like each step of how it's gone along the way. And like, oh, just compiling clips of like, we'd walk towards the door and like every time it'd be a little bit more built and a little bit Oh, that's good.

That's pretty fun. It is really cool. That'll be really cool to look back on. I know. Yeah. So that's super fun. and from there people like, you know, it obviously went viral. People started noticing his TikTok and they're like, oh my gosh. Like, you guys have such a funny dynamic together. Ironically enough, I kind of don't wanna say this, but I'm going to say it.

We love streaming on Fortnite. Like Twitch on Twitch playing Fortnite, US two. Cool. Yeah, I know. I didn't even know how [00:40:00] to do that. So like, I have a pc, I have a, a gaming computer, and we play games on there, whether it be Fortnite or like other games. Oh, I wouldn't have pictured this. Yeah, I know. I It's fascinating.

Most people. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. We're learning

HALLIE PATEL: a lot.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Um, and people just really liked our dynamic together. And so do you, when you do that on Twitch mm-hmm. People are watching you play? Yeah. They can't see, can they see your face? Yes. Okay. And they can hear us. Can hear you. Mm-hmm. And so do you like, are you like a.

Uh, competitive. Are you on a team when you're on? We're on a team. I don't know anything about the game. So team.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. Yeah. No, we're on a team. and like, we're just funny. And that's honestly just how we interact with each other. It's funny because in our podcast people will be like, oh, is this an act? Is this scripted?

No. Right. This is literally just us sitting in our house. Yeah. Like, I guess we're just goofy. I don't know. That's always kind of been how we are. He's the funniest person I've ever met, and I think we just compliment each other really well in that way. Um, so that's kind of where the basis started is we had a discord because of that Twitch stream and people would be like, you should start a podcast.

You guys are funny. And we're like, oh my God. Everybody has a podcast though. Like, that's so [00:41:00] cringey. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's how we started. And somebody who had been watching this for a long time was like, oh, why don't you incorporate something with chai? Or like, people love to have chai at 4:00 PM Like, that's a thing.

Like either you have it in the morning or like it's a 4:00 PM kind of thing. Like, okay, in India you have naps. You wake up at 4:00 PM like you have chai. I didn't even know

Ally Brettnacher: chai was Indian. Yeah. Asian and then you say it d differently too. That is, which really throws me off because I'm like, is it chai or c cha?

And then I'm like, I don't know. So chai

HALLIE PATEL: means tea. Okay. So like whenever people say chai tea, like they're saying tt basically.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm. So

HALLIE PATEL: when you say chai, like that is assumed to mean tea. So that's the very, very like good way of saying it. In what language? Hindu or So, yeah, like in ndi. Yeah. It's like, yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Is Hindu not, I don't even God. So,

HALLIE PATEL: so sorry. Hinduism is the religion. So like, it like I'm Christian. Like Kutu is, yeah, IHIN know that. Okay. And Hindu is the language. It is the language. I know. It is confusing. Well, there you [00:42:00] go. There we go. I'm worried. Yes, I know. No, my gosh, no. Literally it took me so long to learn things like, well that right.

Oh my God. but yeah, so we say, I, I just say half past Hai because it, that's really how you say it, but cha like CHA is how Gujarati people say it. If you think of like India as a country, Gujarat is a state, and that's where my husband is from. Okay. And so, like the Gujarati way of saying chai is cha.

Okay. It's just very confusing. So it's like a very niche waves, right? Yeah. Because not everybody

Ally Brettnacher: says it that way. Yeah. Okay.

HALLIE PATEL: Okay. Yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: it's funny, but yeah, it throws me off.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah, no, for sure. And the basis of our podcast is a lot about relationship stuff, you know, like how we had to jump through some hoops to make our relationship work because we are different cultures, we're different religions.

Some people weren't super accepting of that. And, you know, learning to love people regardless of their opinions. And then also just general life stuff. talking about marathons and things that we do, and hoping to relate to people in a way that we can share some of our experiences and [00:43:00] hope that it gives them comfort and that they find relatability in that.

Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Well, yeah, and like finance stuff too. Oh my goodness. Like how you're able to quit your jobs. Like what? And it's not like. Yeah. I mean, you had to work really hard and plan for that. Yes. Wasn't just like, oh, let's just, we're done. I know. Especially for both of us to do it at the same time. Right. Yeah.

But that had been

HALLIE PATEL: so hard. Like who would get to go first? That'd be tough. Yeah. So actually, funny enough, it was supposed to be me. I was supposed to quit in April, and then I'd been telling Tu for months like, Hey, we're both best at this together. Let's do this together. I'm ready to, you know, go all in.

And him being the very finance oriented guy that he is, he's like, no, I don't think I'm ready. I don't think I'm like, tu, we're gonna do this. We're getting older. Yeah. Like, we're not old now, but you know, like, let's, you know, we have the time and we don't have kids right now. Like, it's the best time for us to try this out.

Yeah. And if it fails, it fails. But at least we'll know that we've tried. And so because we had talked to some friends and really figured more things out financially, then we were able to save up a little bit [00:44:00] more, get both of our bonuses, which was kind of nice. Yeah. Um, get bye. I know. Yeah. Bye-bye. and then we actually both ended up putting our notice in and late May.

We gave about six weeks notice, which is so kind of us. It really is. I know. Yeah. So we gave about six weeks notice and then we both were done July 15th. It was our last day. Wow. Leaving, I mean, we always drove to work together and so we drove there day Oh my gosh. Turned in our stuff and then left together and we were like, oh my God, what did we just do?

That's so it was the most surreal

Ally Brettnacher: feeling. Yeah. Yeah. But also knowing it's like, well, it's always gonna be there. Yeah. That's, that's what I tell myself. It's, it's like there's always gonna be corporate America's not going anywhere. Mm-hmm. There's jobs.

jobs.

so why not do something that you love Yeah. With the person that you love?

Exactly. That's so amazing to be able to do. and so what was, I mean, we could talk about it all day because you have a podcast that covers a lot of these topics, but maybe just briefly touch [00:45:00] on maybe the hardest hurdle or like what you had to overcome in your relationship when it comes to that like hurdle.

Like maybe, okay. It's like one specific person in the family had the hardest time. Mm. If you're willing to share that.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. to be honest, I mean, really his parents had a harder time. They moved here when they were in their late thirties. Oh my gosh. And I mean, imagine coming to a country where you don't speak English.

And this was different. I mean, they, so K two moved here. It was 2000, like October of 2000. So he was just about three. Okay. He was a baby. He has three older sisters. So he was born in India? Yes. Okay. Yeah. So he lived there and was born there, and then moved here when he was three. Wow. Okay. Which is, I mean, so crazy that mm-hmm.

Like if you ever see those memes or it's like all this, and we still found each other, the fact that him and his family moved here to Indiana of all places. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We went to Avon High School. Like it's crazy. That is,

Ally Brettnacher: that is pretty cool.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. So they moved here when they were in their thirties.

They put in paperwork to come here [00:46:00] when their first daughter was born, and it took 14 years to get here. Wow. So they waited all that time. Then finally we're like, all right, you can, you know, come to the US and your citizenship is approved, blah, blah, blah. So it took that long. Wow. So, which is so crazy to think about.

And so I've talked about this in one podcast episode we did before, but. For a long time I was hurt and very angry that they weren't super accepting of me. And you're like, I

Ally Brettnacher: love you so much. Like you. Yeah. Like is that enough? Yeah. Like

HALLIE PATEL: for most relationships it is. Yeah. And it really took me honestly to mature and for my frontal lobe to develop when I was a little bit older, to understand where they were coming from and all that they had known growing up, and that they spent still over half their life in a different country where things are vastly different.

Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

HALLIE PATEL: And so really until I'd gone there, which I've been two times now, I'm going for a third in February and I'm so excited.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh, that's so exciting.

HALLIE PATEL: It took me that long to understand their frame of reference around the subject and that [00:47:00] traditionally, yeah, like if you're Indian, like you marry another Indian person, you're like within the South Asian community, you marry someone of that community.

It's crazy to me that so many people are at into our show that they, even, their parents even have a problem, like if they're South Indian and they're dating a North Indian that they're like, that's not allowed. Oh. Which is like, you wouldn't think. You wouldn't think that, but we found that out through doing the podcast.

Yeah. That's really interesting. Yeah, and it's like, oh, if they have a problem with that, they would've a problem with me. Right. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Then it would be a big issue.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah.

Yeah. And so we actually hid because of that. His parents were like, yeah, like, I'm like, we'll leave you and go to India if you're with a white girl, which they knew was me.

They'd kind of met me before. And, but they like, we didn't know each other, you know? Yeah. It wasn't you. Yeah. Yeah. It's like they had an image of me from like pictures they've seen. It's like you don't really know somebody if you've like seen pictures of them. Right? Yeah. Right. And so he was like, all right.

And we'd been dating for just about a year, or I think he was like 10 months or something like that. I still remember it. But we broke up over text. He was like, I just can't do this [00:48:00] anymore. Like my parents said blah, blah, blah. Like I wanna make them happy and like I live with them and realistically like, this is how it has to be.

And I was like, okay. Like whatever. We broke up, we were broken up for quite a few months, which is crazy. So we are technically still high school sweethearts 'cause we ended up getting back here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. We don't count that little breakup here. No. Wouldn't either. We both had some things to think through and some maturing to do and really, yeah.

Obviously just a lot to think about there. And so it did take some time, but we are, we got back together stronger and we were like, you know, this is how it's gonna be. It's gonna be different. Yeah. If we get back together again, like, I have these expectations. You have these expectations. I want to know your family and I want them to love me.

Yeah. And things are gonna change.

Marker

Ally Brettnacher: Quick break in the show to let you know if you didn't know this already. I'm part of a podcast network called Sandy Boy Productions. It was founded by Lindsay Heine of I'll Have another with Lindsay Hein podcast. Which has over 650 episodes, and her latest episode features the latest show that is in her network called the Mother Runners.

It is hosted by Whitney Hines, who's a mom of two Lifelong [00:49:00] runner vdot, certified running coach for Moms who run and a founder of the resource the mother runners.com. So if you're looking for new shows to listen to in the new year, there's all have another, there's the Mother Runners, there's also the Trail Network podcast.

Illuminate podcast inspired souls. So go to Sandy Boy productions.com to check out all the shows that are in this amazing network that I'm so lucky to be a part of. and again, congratulations to Whitney and the Mother Runners podcast for joining the team. Now back to the show.

HALLIE PATEL: You have these expectations. I want to know your family and I want them to love me.

Yeah. And things are gonna change.

And so. Once that started happening, we still kind of kept it a secret for a little bit of a time. Like we kept our relationship secret for about three years total, which is kind of crazy. That's kind of

Ally Brettnacher: crazy. Like considering. Yeah. Anyway.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And again, it's all because of their frame of reference because they hadn't experienced that before.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Right.

HALLIE PATEL: Like you come to a different country, you again with like just, I think about [00:50:00] how overwhelming that would be. Like not even at my age, like 10 years from now, if I were to just go jump ship and live in a different country with my family. Like it's just, that's crazy. Yeah. I can't huge respect to people that do that because I could never How strong you have to be.

And it like I just, I have a huge amount of respect for that. Yeah. And I was getting so frustrated, like, oh, why don't they accept me? Why don't they accept me? It's because they grew up in a different country or traditionally. I mean, there are not many white people in India, so like they just didn't really know a lot of American people in general.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah,

HALLIE PATEL: yeah. And so they just wanted to keep it within the culture because that's all they'd experienced. Right. And they'd had the people before them had experienced that and the people before them. And so like it is scary to do something different, but when you start to open your mind up a little bit and realize, oh well, that's okay.

And the second that we started to get to know each other, I'd come over for dinners. We just clicked so fast. So it was just really miscommunication and not fully knowing each other. Yeah. And not really being able to understand different perspectives from both of our [00:51:00] sides.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah.

HALLIE PATEL: And it took a lot of maturing on my side to be able to realize that, because being young and immature, you can't grasp that.

Right.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, totally.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. So that was a big part of, that was the biggest hurdle in our relationship for sure. And now we made a podcast out of it and help a lot of people. Right.

Ally Brettnacher: That's because it's helpful for them to know they're not alone. Yeah. And the other people have experienced and what they've experienced.

And then I'm sure you share some of those examples and stories.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah, for sure.

Ally Brettnacher: So yeah,

HALLIE PATEL: and it, I mean, again, like I wish that we would've had something like that when we were going through that experience, you know? But like it 2016, like that wasn't super popular. If you've ever watched the movie The Big Sick that basically describes it, I hate that movie because it feels never real.

Ally Brettnacher: Never. Okay. So you're like, this is too much trauma. I cannot watch this. Yeah. Literally. So definitely go give that a watch if you ever kinda wanna see if you're interested in like, feeling the way that you felt. Yes. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Well, and now, okay, back, I'm gonna go back to the running side of things.

so you ran the Indie [00:52:00] Mini I did. As your first half marathon. What was your second half, did you say? Columbus, Ohio. Okay. We didn't talk about that. Mm-hmm. So Columbus, Ohio, which I've never done that race, but I've heard amazing things. My friend Eileen, that was her. That's a very special marathon for her.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: but tell people a little bit about that experience.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. So there's a half and a full. I did the half, that was my second half marathon after I had mentioned that I got really back into running in late 2023 and I signed up for one, honestly, because I just wanted to be more consistent with running.

I saw how fun it is again, I got my first Brooks, which I'm not wearing 'em now, but I fell in love with these shoes that I had, the Brooks glycerin, stealth fit. I love them so much. They were so comfy and they were cute, and like if you look good, you run good. Like that's just my mentality around it.

Yeah. So I really got into running again because I wanted to be consistent and I knew by signing up for a race I would be consistent because that's just the mentality. It makes you do it.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Like you have to, did Su Ktu run? He ran the Indie Mini, so did he. Run the [00:53:00] Columbus half as well. He did? Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. So the Indie Mini we

HALLIE PATEL: ran together, oh my gosh, I'll never forget that experience. It was raining. He had granola bars in his pocket. We didn't know how to feel like we didn't know anything. The knowledge back then, even in 2019, compared to how it is on social media now. Right. There's so much that I've learned from that.

Yes. And so he did end up running the Columbus half with me. We made a weekend out of it. We just stayed in Columbus, Ohio, which Columbus is a cute city. It is, yeah. It's just fun and especially, it's a very good course for the half you go through like the German village and it's just, it was a beautiful time of year.

I'm sure obviously with your marathon too, like any fall race, it's just gonna be pretty and colorful and Yes. Yeah. If the weather's good, then yeah. Yeah, it's great. Yeah. And the weather usually for that time is like really, really good. So it was peak half marathon season, but it was so much fun. I had a great experience, you know, we trained.

For it. I started maybe training a little bit too early and got kind of burnt out on it because I was just having so much fun. I [00:54:00] mean, I was falling in love with running and it was so much fun. I mean, I would just go out on runs regardless of how cold it was and just go and push myself and go on this trail, and it was just such a magical entry back into running that that's really where my love for it.

Kickstarted again after kinda losing it after quite a few years.

Ally Brettnacher: And then, and then why didn't TU run the New York City Marathon then? So you'd done your like races together? Yeah. So I mean, I know now. Now things are different. Yeah, things are different. But why didn't he do it last year or this year? Gosh, what year is it?

I know. Yeah. Just like a month ago. Mm-hmm. Oh my gosh. That's even

HALLIE PATEL: crazier to think about. Yeah, that is weird. Oh my goodness. So the longest he's ever run is a half marathon, like that distance. He's never run more than 13.1 and. Honestly, he's not much of a distance guy, which is funny given what I'm about to say in a minute.

But he had always claimed like, I don't wanna run any longer than 13.1, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, sure. Mm-hmm. He, he's very fast. I always [00:55:00] describe us too, as like, I am more the longer distance person. He's very fast. Like he hadn't been training at all this year. He kicked my butt in a mile trial that we did.

Oh. And like, like, okay dude, if you actually, if you half-assed this and you put actual training,

Ally Brettnacher: okay. Tell us what time, tell us the times he

HALLIE PATEL: ran. Like five 40. Yeah. Okay. I ran 5 59, which is my, I I know. I was like, yeah,

yeah,

I never done one before. that was like a mile. I either, I

Ally Brettnacher: am too

HALLIE PATEL: scared. It's such a weird, like, race, I don't know.

Yeah. Yeah. It's terrifying. Yeah. And I think also I get, runner's cough really bad. I also am a little asthmatic, so Oh, interesting. Like starting off sprinting and just

Ally Brettnacher: staying that way and like just doing that. It's hell for me. That's why I don't like, I don't like five Ks to race them. Yeah. I do not like it.

10 K good. Even half marathon

HALLIE PATEL: like Right. Great. Because you know, you get time to build up to it. Yeah. Yeah. The half marathon's my favorite I think. Yeah. It's great. But, so K two in high school, I think he ran like a 4 58. Okay. Which, like, he wasn't even, he's so funny. [00:56:00] He's a, he's a natural athlete, so if he were to just pick up and actually put effort into something, like, he'd be very good.

Um, just because that's how he's built. Yeah. Like he's very, he's just very fast. He's got really long legs. So I think that's also part of it. But he was always one of those people that was disgusted by marathons and he's like, I'm never gonna do it. It's too long. And now everybody, Hey, he's running New York City 2026 for team, for kids.

Which is crazy. And you're coaching him? I am, yes. Uh, also a big part of it was that I fundraise for New York City. New York City's super hard to get into. Yeah. And there was just no, like, he signed up for the lottery but didn't get selected. Mm-hmm. He would've done it if he would've been picked, but he also was like, oh, I don't really wanna run it that bad.

But then after seeing how much fun our weekend was, and by watching me doing it, mm. He's like, okay,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. Well, now I wanna go to that. I get it. I get it now. Yeah. And then, do you have a bib for New York yet? I don't. Okay. I gotta get one. Are you okay? That's what I was thinking about before when I forgot that you were running la.

Yeah. [00:57:00] And so, yeah. Yeah. It's hard.

HALLIE PATEL: It, oh, it's so hard. I mean, I think I was telling you on our run last week that there was a stat that said like, oh, it's harder to get into the New York City Marathon than Princeton or something. Yeah. I'm like, okay.

Ally Brettnacher: You're like, surely that can't be the case, but there's no way.

Right. It's like, how many people, I don't know. People that even apply to Princeton though. Mm-hmm. Who get in. That's not the right metric to choose. Yeah. 'cause it's like you have to think about everybody else who couldn't even apply. Yeah. To Princeton. I know. I don't know how you compare that. Anyway, it's hard

HALLIE PATEL: though.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, it is.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. So I don't have a bib. I need to figure it out. I'm really hoping and praying that I can fundraise. I fundraise for therapists be on borders, which it was so rewarding and I'm so happy that I did. I really hope that they like get in because charities also have to apply to be charity partners, which is like so stressful.

Yeah. So if they get in, I'm really hoping that maybe I can do that for them again. Like I wanna raise the money for them. They're a great cause. And so I hope that that's my way in. Otherwise, I have so many friends running it next [00:58:00] year, 14 for kids. I would get such bad fomo and I would cry for a long time.

Yeah. Because I wanna do it. Yeah. The whole point of me being CJ's marathon coach is that we run it together. Right. So you can like, yeah. Do it too. Mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: You'll, you'll figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. Got plenty of time too. That's the good news.

HALLIE PATEL: I know. Yeah. And I'll, you know, like stay in shape for it. Like, oh, I'm gonna train for it regardless.

We'll start our training in July, which summer training is

Ally Brettnacher: Ugh. Yeah. Yeah. No winter training. I've never done a spring marathon. Yeah. Okay. All my marathons I've ever done have been in the fall, so. Yeah. Yeah. How do, how do you like it? Well, you know, I like it because the race day temperatures are usually low.

Mm-hmm. I'm not a great hot weather runner. Same. So training in the summer is hard, but then come race day, the temps are low. I feel great. Yeah. Whereas spring races, you flip that and it might be really hot on race day. Mm-hmm. But you have to suffer through the cold, but then your body's not. Ready for the heat?

I don't know. I just don't know.

HALLIE PATEL: I know

Ally Brettnacher: it's [00:59:00] so

HALLIE PATEL: hard because if you think about it, you know, marathon training's like anywhere from three to four months. Yeah. And it's so long that you go through a certain season and then you're like, oh gosh. Like I know for both of us, the weather was perfect for our fall races this year.

Yes. Oh my gosh. Thank,

Ally Brettnacher: thank the Lord. I really needed good weather, but the summer, oh my God. Yeah. Are you like a super early morning runner? No, not this season of life. Mm-hmm. I used to be when I had to be. Now with the flexibility, I will pick and choose when to run. Mm-hmm. Now, in the summer though, when it is, it gets really hot, then I'll try to run as early as I can.

Mm-hmm. It's so hard. But even then, it's usually not until after the kids are outta the house and that's like 8, 8, 8 30 and could be really hot in the summer.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. It could be 75 and like 90% humidity by that time. Right. And you're like, cool, I

Ally Brettnacher: guess this is what we're doing. Or I run on my treadmill. Yeah.

'cause I love my, I love my Peloton treadmill. I know. That's so

HALLIE PATEL: nice that you have that mm-hmm. In your space. Mm-hmm. It is. It's a game changer. And for days that, I mean, it's like too icy, too windy. Yeah. For now. At least in the winter, it's nice [01:00:00] to have that for sure. It's such a good treadmill. Oh my gosh. I

Ally Brettnacher: wish I had one.

It's fun. It's really nice. Yeah. okay. And so how are you, how are you coaching? How are you putting together a plan? So I guess you still have time for that,

HALLIE PATEL: but

Ally Brettnacher: I'm curious.

HALLIE PATEL: So my brother is the person who wrote my New York City training plan, which it helps. Okay. He's written training plans for lots of people, for all kinds of phrases.

Is he a certified coach? Uh, he coaches track and cross country, so he's not like officially certified. Certified is, but yeah, he's done quite a few marathons and he's like, yeah, I know what I'm doing. I'm like, okay, I trust you. I trust you. Yeah, for sure. I would do help a girl out. I up.

know.

Uh, so he's been great and he's really, you know, acted as my coach.

Yeah. Wow. And him and his wife who. Oh my gosh. Yeah. She What's your, what's your maiden name? Martin. Okay. What's your

Ally Brettnacher: brother's name then? Presley. Presley Martin. Okay.

HALLIE PATEL: Presley Martin. Martin, yeah. He coaches at Marian University. Okay, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah. So he coaches, he loves it. It's his true passion in life.

He loves coaching, you know, like college students. 'cause that was him. Mm-hmm. And so now he's kind of giving that back to everybody [01:01:00] who is in once in his shoes. But, between him and his wife, Kirsten, they are so huge in my running. 'cause they both ran in college and they're both really freaking good.

Yeah. Like my brother is an 800 indoor champion. Like Okay. Yeah. Which is like crazy. Yeah. Our 800 meter national champion, which is so crazy. Geez. Yeah. So I'm hoping like, ooh, maybe I'm gonna peak. Did he ever, did he ever go pro? No. No. He just ran collegiately. Did he wanna go pro? No. No.

Mm-hmm. I don't think so. Yeah, I know. But he could have, honestly, he's so good. Him and his wife. Well, maybe he needs to

Ally Brettnacher: come on this

HALLIE PATEL: podcast. I know. Yes. I'll have to tell him. Oh my gosh. 'cause he, he actually ran LA Okay. He's, that's nice. He's helping me a little bit with that. Yeah. So I'm running LA through Team Endorphins and I'm using the app to coach.

But like any other things that come up, like Presley's run la like he knows what it's like. Yeah. So he's gonna be a huge help in that for me. And then Kirsten, she, oh my gosh. From a woman's perspective, fueling [01:02:00] and strength training and how this is helpful. So she's running Boston. Okay. Which is so

Ally Brettnacher: cool.

Are you gonna go cheer her on? I hope I can. That would be so fun. I really wanna get out there and spectate. Yeah. If you go,

HALLIE PATEL: we're all thinking about going, oh man,

Ally Brettnacher: who do I, I know a lot of people going, somebody well just go. Yeah, I wanna

HALLIE PATEL: go. I know, I do too. I've never been to Boston. And how cool would it be to go during marathon time?

It would be, it would be incredible to be during fun time. Yeah. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: All

HALLIE PATEL: right. So planting a

Ally Brettnacher: seed. I'll think about that. Yeah, I know. I really wanna go. It's just all the things that I want to do. It's so hard. I know I wanna do 'em all, but, you know, the young kids and, yeah. Life. Life. okay, so you'll start training now.

Are you starting, what's, so it's December and so, I mean, technically you didn't, wouldn't have had to start yet, but have you started putting in the miles? I did,

HALLIE PATEL: yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: I

HALLIE PATEL: am in my third week now. Okay. Of training. And I've been using, obviously the Endorphins app, but kind of loosely adding in some of my New York training because it just was, it worked really well for me.

Yeah. And so [01:03:00] I was talking to my brother yesterday and he's like, Hey, soa, you want me to adjust some of that for you? I think threshold training earlier on and more of it would be good. And I was like. Sure. I trust you. Yeah. I'm just gonna, you know, like work on that and, you can kind of move around stuff in the app.

'cause it's an AI coaching app, right? Yeah, yeah. And like I have a community of people that I can talk to and like, it's really great. Um, so if you haven't tried Endorphins, it's a great app to help get you started with training for a race. and so I'm really excited to just kind of dive more into that because I've been doing some speed workouts and they've been going well, which post marathon I took three weeks off.

Yeah, I was gonna say you haven't had a lot, a lot of time off. I know. Yeah, I know. Yeah. It might sound crazy and it kind of is, but you know, like, you know, after you finish a marathon, you just feel kind of

Ally Brettnacher: empty inside. Yeah. It's it's literally like post marathon blues. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like you're like, now what?

Yeah, exactly. Now what? This huge accomplishment and then now, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I don't blame you for getting another race right back on the calendar. Yeah. You go from doing

HALLIE PATEL: something, from changing the impossible to possible by doing a [01:04:00] marathon. Yeah. And then you're like, done. And then take a a week. I was good with a week off mentally.

After a week I was like, alright, I'm good. Yeah. Like this. I need this rest. Yeah. I know I need it. My body needs it. I'm tired. I need to be eating. I need to be doing all these things. And then week two came around, I was like, mm. What am I doing? I'm not doing anything right now. It's kind of boring. I'm just focusing on work.

I'm not getting up super, super early to go work out right now. Yeah. Yeah. It was just weird. You

Ally Brettnacher: feel very uh, very empty inside. Yeah. You're like, I haven't done anything. I haven't accomplished anything. Yeah. I haven't, like every, you run like more than 10, like, you know, a really long run. Yeah. So you're like, well, what have I done this week?

I know. And it's like just normal running. Yeah. I haven't done

HALLIE PATEL: anything. Yeah. What's going on? I need to actually have a challenge that I can, you know, see and like mm-hmm. Work towards it and. Yeah, that's why I just, you know, I was wanting to sign up for something really bad. I knew I had the Indie Mini coming up in May, but my gosh, that's like six months

Ally Brettnacher: away.[01:05:00]

Yeah, right. I know. So, and I, I looked into doing LA as a half, they do have a charity half. Oh no. Wait, so you can raise money and they have a half marathon. Yeah. That's the only way you can do it, which I think is really cool. Yeah. but we're not gonna do that. I'm gonna do a different race in Florida in February.

My gosh would be fun. But I'm sad not to be doing Vegas this year. 'cause I usually do that with my dad. But now we're gonna do a race in Florida, which I cannot complain about, but it'll probably be so hot. It probably will be. I don't know how, how that's gonna work. But February, I feel like it'll be pretty good.

It'll be, it'll be warmer than I'd like. Can you imagine? Like right now I'm running in like 20 degrees and then it's gonna be like 80 degrees. Oh gosh. Yeah. I think the race starts really early, like six 30. Oh, wow. So, you know, I think it'll be fine. Yeah. Plus I'm not trying to PR so it'll just be fun.

It'll be a new state that I can color in on the map.

HALLIE PATEL: Yes. Yeah. Oh my

Ally Brettnacher: gosh. So your dad is doing this one with you? Yes. Oh my gosh. How fun. Well, like with like, we'll be on the same race course, but we don't run together. We used to.

HALLIE PATEL: Mm-hmm. Yeah. But [01:06:00] still having that experience. Oh, it's

Ally Brettnacher: so fun to share the experience.

HALLIE PATEL: Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. So what are your goals for la? Have you made your goals yet?

HALLIE PATEL: You

Ally Brettnacher: know, honestly,

HALLIE PATEL: I'm kind of approaching it with the same mindset that I did in New York. I don't really know what to expect and anything in my mind is good. I just wanna go and have fun. Mm-hmm. You know, I'll, I'll loosely have my goals or maybe I'll be psycho about it. Like, I head goal A, B, C, and D. I love that.

But I think, I don't know, freshly coming off of marathon training, my body's been responding well. So I'm happy about that. I'm sleeping a ton. Yeah, that's great. Like I slept nine hours today, maybe even. No, actually just kidding. I think I slept like almost 10 hours.

Ally Brettnacher: That's

HALLIE PATEL: amazing. Yes. Funny enough, I did my workout.

I don't know if you saw my story. I did my workout like late as hell last night. Oh no, I did see it. It was so dark. I, yeah. Yeah, that's crazy. So I definitely need the sleep. and yeah, I'm just kind of approaching it. I just wanna have fun, you know? I'm just thankful that my body even allows me to do this, that I Right.

Am healthy enough that I can. Yeah. And that's really the biggest [01:07:00] achievement of all is being able to do it. Yeah. And so I'm not gonna be upset if I don't hit a certain time. Obviously, I'd love to run faster if I can.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

HALLIE PATEL: But you know, I can't control that. I can't control how I feel. You know, especially, this is another big thing I forgot to mention.

We're getting back from India on March 1st. So I'll be there for Halle two weeks. I know

what

not. Okay, so we already had the India trip planned, right? And then figured out I was doing la I'm like, well, I can't say no yolo.

Ally Brettnacher: Well, yeah, you can't say no, but that does, that should change like goal stuff because Oh, for that will be interesting.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. So, but basically in India where Suke two's from, it's a very rural area. So like I'm running on dirt and my lungs don't love that. So I'm just gonna take it really, really, really easy gonna, it's basically gonna be like three, well, I guess I'm tapering anyways, so it'll be fine. That's true. Yeah. But with the time difference, we get back a week [01:08:00] before the marathons.

That's good. We get back on the first, we get back on March 1st, and then we leave on the sixth for the marathon. So I'll be there like a full almost two days before. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: So, gosh, but I'm just thinking, anyway, I don't need to stress you out. I, I'm like, okay, so like, are you gonna do all your podcast work while you're in India because like how we'll have backlog?

Yeah, that's good. Oh my gosh, it's so hard to prepare for that. Oh. At least. At least for me, I'm trying to do it for the holidays and I already am like, will I be able to do that? I think so.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. But I hope it's so hard, especially like in this space, you know, things come up too, and you try and be prepared.

Like, we're going to New York in a couple days and we have to, we're recording something after I leave here today, which I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna be yapping a bunch today. But I'm happy about it. It's fine. It's just like, yeah, you do have to do so much prep work to go and prepare for trips and stuff.

Yeah. But yeah, so two weeks. Yeah. Which, I mean like, honestly, that's nothing. Right? We're gonna be gone for a week and a half in LA because we're gonna do podcasting stuff while we're there. That's awesome. In LA and in San Francisco. I'm like, oh my gosh. But it's all after the [01:09:00] marathon, so. Okay. Make sure that was, that's good job.

Ally Brettnacher: I know. Because if you'd have done that to yourself, you'd be like, okay, well we're just gonna jog.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. And you know, again, back with my LA strategy, because of the traveling and the time difference and the, I'm gonna prep as best I can before we go to India to, you know, really hit my training goals.

Mm-hmm. And just feel good. I'm just gonna go have fun, you know? Yeah. It's just a cool experience and again, I'm just thankful that I'm healthy enough and my body can do that kind of thing. Yeah. And I don't want to push it to the extreme. Yeah. Just go and have a good time. I'll probably vlog the entire time.

I'll be like, come run the LA Marathon, my one

Ally Brettnacher: mile, two mile three. I can't wait. I'll be, I'll be here for it. Yeah. Um, yeah. I don't know how actually I can do that. I've done that for a half marathon, still very hard, and I'm not good at it, but I don't know how people do that for a full marathon. There were definitely some miles that I missed.

I mean, I would hope so. I mean, I can barely remember where I am. Yeah. In the last miles of a marathon. What am I doing? Yeah. Like, what is happening to my body. [01:10:00] Mm-hmm. But yeah, I mean, yeah, the guy that I ran Marine Corps with, he did it the, like the whole time he would, he did updates and I was just so impressed.

But he, he was the guy that did the government shutdown where he ran every day during the government shutdown. And so, oh my gosh. Was that guy. So it was just a casual, casual 26.2 for him too. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Yeah. Right. Nothing about 26.2 is casual. I know. Well for him he was just like hanging out, making videos, barely sweating.

I like, I'm dying. Yeah. It was cold, but I was. Still sweating. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So I have a lot of respect for people who can get out

HALLIE PATEL: their camera and do it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I won't lie, I almost dropped my phone a few times. Oh. And I've just gotten my 17. Same phone as you.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

HALLIE PATEL: And I'm like, oh my God, I'm gonna drop it and I'm gonna have to go back and pick it up and Oh my God.

So you're like, Nope, can't stop. My phone is gone now. I know. That was the most anxiety inducing part of the whole race. Like I said, I was chilling, I was having a great time. Yeah. I was smiling the entire time. In fact, one of the times that I forgot to say, I was looking back at my footage at that, [01:11:00] the mile one, mile two video that I made, and I, at mile eight, I completely forgot to say a mile late.

I'm just like, hello? I'm like, ah, I'm having such a good time. And I completely forgot to say it. And you can just tell there's like not a thought in my head. Yeah. You're

Ally Brettnacher: just like, I'm here. I am. Yeah. It's so great. Yeah. Oh, I love it. Oh, man. And okay, so we've talked about fueling a couple times. What do you use, what's your favorite for gels?

Yeah. Goo tane. Okay. I love 'em. What is the

HALLIE PATEL: tane? They're just like more, more sodium, more carbs, more blah, blah, blah. Okay. Flavor. So there's like goo Ooh, okay. So I had a rotation of ones that I used. I switched between caffeinated and non-caffeinated. Yeah. So like I'll do one or the other every single time.

I think I took, I wanna say six, during the marathon. I think I had seven and I was pretty hungry by the end of it, so I was like, dang, I should have taken that other one. Honestly, I didn't think I needed it, but I should have taken it should have just doubled up. Mm-hmm. Okay. Grabbing water and Gatorade at water stations is so freaking

Ally Brettnacher: hard.

Nobody [01:12:00] prepared me for that. Yeah. You know what, there is an art to that. There is making eye contact with the volunteer. Yeah. Like letting them know like, I'm taking the cup that you have right there. Yeah. That is gonna be mine. Mm-hmm. Right. Or if like, but then if somebody else cuts in front of you and grabs the cup, you're gonna get, and you're like, my whole life is ruined.

Now I have to think about, I have to make eye contact with this next guy. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It's, there's an art and then there's cups everywhere. You don't wanna slip and fall and it's, it's,

HALLIE PATEL: oh, and people are throwing stuff, especially if you're grabbing stuff. I mean, I got so much stuff thrown on me.

Oh yeah. Like, like cool, whatever. Yeah. Like we're in the marathon, you know, it's fine, whatever. I expected that. But as those is

Ally Brettnacher: not poop, then Yeah,

HALLIE PATEL: I know. Yeah. Right. As long as it's not a mile 18 on the bridge. Um, but I do use gu rock tain, and I love, so I think I started out with blueberry pomegranate, not my favorite.

Oh. I got the ones outta the way that I didn't love. So I do that one and I do one that I love, like the lemonade. My favorite is the cherry limeade. Okay. It's elite. Ooh. When I say it's good, it's really good. I'm

Ally Brettnacher: interested. It's very good. I'm a salted watermelon goo girl. [01:13:00] Oh, salted caramel.

HALLIE PATEL: Oh, okay. You like the sweet one?

Yeah. Okay. How buts, it's got salt in it, so then it ta

Ally Brettnacher: it has a salty taste too, so it's not like, I mean, the salted caramel tastes like caramel. It's pretty sweet.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: and because then I also do maple syrup. I really like, oh

HALLIE PATEL: my God. It's so funny that you say that because I have a friend and he literally just had a bag of maple syrup and he'd like squeeze it into his mouth.

Yeah. I mean,

Ally Brettnacher: it's literally if you put 'em side by side Yeah. It's like the company I use, they have the chart. They're like, it's actually, it can be better in some ways, but Yeah. So that's nice. 'cause it's easy. It's like thinner, it goes down really fast. Mm-hmm. And then I also really like nos, which are like the sour candy ones.

Oh yes. Like, they're really good.

HALLIE PATEL: Okay. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: So you, would you, do you prefer more of the gel or the actual chew? I, I prefer the gel. Okay. Same. I like the least amount of work possible. Same. And even chewing feels like a lot of work when you're. Yeah. But I use them a lot on the treadmill because I'll lose count of the number of strides I've done.

Yeah. Yep. That's right. So I need to, and so it's the perfect way to do [01:14:00] that. Yeah. Or like sometimes on long runs I'll, I'll use 'em. But yeah, during a race, I think it's hard for me to, oh, it is. Get like, pick one out, like anything. It's so funny how things are like, I couldn't possibly do that, like runner's math.

Like your brain just can't. Mm-hmm. It can't, you're just like, okay, just put one foot in front of the

HALLIE PATEL: other. That's why you put that why I really don't know how people

Ally Brettnacher: get their phone. I'm like, I can't do anything right now at all. Do you

HALLIE PATEL: have a belt or like

Ally Brettnacher: a vest or anything that you wear during races?

Um, yes, I use a spy belt. Oh, see, yeah. I love my spy belt. I love my spy belt. usually during training runs I can shove enough in my pockets, but like for the race, I like to have it. I have it everywhere. Are you kinda like a psycho about the outfits that you wear? 'cause I am, I'm not, I am not super, I don't know.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I have, I have my uniform. It's not, it's not as cute. I feel like as it could be. But it's functional seeing

HALLIE PATEL: seniors. Oh, stop it. Yeah. gosh, I love my outfit so much that I worked for New York. I was very strategic about it. Funny enough, the black top that I got from Go, I got it from going, going on.

Have you heard of that? No. It was like four bucks. I'm [01:15:00] like, hell yeah. Yeah, yeah. So it's like basically Dick's Sporting Goods Warehouse were like, if things don't sell. Yeah. There's one in Avon that I've always gone to. Wait, you go there in person? Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: It You need to go, I need to do that.

You can do some damage. Yeah. These pants. Yeah. Dick's Sporting Goods. Hell yeah. This shirt. Dick's. This is Khalia. Oh my God. Outfit. Yeah. Love it. Love it. I have a going, going, gone. Yeah. I've never heard of that in my life.

HALLIE PATEL: There are a few ones. Uh, I don't know if in Indiana they're, I think they are all around the us.

I could be mistaken. Okay. But the one that I go to is an Avon and I got my top, it was 3 97. I'm like, yes.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, that's wild. I know. And now you're like, okay, now I can buy my $200 pair of shoes. Yes. I know. I can justify. Like

HALLIE PATEL: girl math. Yeah, girl math. That's really

Ally Brettnacher: great.

HALLIE PATEL: And then my friend actually cut out my name and felt letters like two days before, before we left Super.

Because you know, like I, I, Tracy had her name. She's like, oh, I paid a little extra to get my name on my bid. It was like this big. And she's like, are you kidding me?

Ally Brettnacher: [01:16:00] Nobody can read that. Yeah. That's a girl that I know, has a business called Pen and Pastes. Mm-hmm. And she makes bib kits where you can, it's like big enough to where you put these big letters.

Oh, no way. Yeah. They're smart. It's so smart. Either. Either that or Yeah, you put it on my New York pictures. Our, I bought um, name tags at CVS and I used one name tag per letter and then I put back Aing tape over it. That's amazing. Functional. It worked. And aren't you glad that you did?

HALLIE PATEL: Yes, because everyone's scream, especially if anyone out there is running New York plea or any marathon erase that matter.

Really

Ally Brettnacher: put your name on your shirt, you will not regret it. Right. It's so nice and as a spectator. Yeah. So fun to be able to cheer people for people by name. Yeah. Because you're right. Like even at Monumental, the names on the bibs are small. So small. I cannot see that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So definitely

HALLIE PATEL: put your name on your shirt.

Yes. But to the point of functional outfits, I had shorts that I'd already got. They were from Target. Okay. They're great. They're like the flow. They had a little bit of flow on the outside. Yeah. But they're like spandex shorts on the inside. So they had pockets on both sides. Yeah. So I was able to [01:17:00] put all my gels in both pockets.

Mm-hmm. This is funny. I wish I would've brought this. I just now thought about this at the New York Marathon. They're like partnered with Dunking. Oh yeah. They're dunking New York City Marathon hats, beanies. Oh. And I was like, I can't not grab one. I shoved it in my pocket and I ran with it the entire race.

Ally Brettnacher: That's funny. And

HALLIE PATEL: it's in my house right now. That's great. It's amazing. It's like orange. I'm surprised you didn't

Ally Brettnacher: like, probably couldn't think of it at the time I to give it to que too like here.

HALLIE PATEL: I know. And it was just like in my, by the time I pulled it out, it was like drenched in sweat. I'm like, yeah, we're gonna wash this bad boy.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, I, I had arm sleeves on at the start of New York. Mm-hmm. And then pulled 'em off. So I like carried those the whole time. I had wired headphones, I'm pretty sure. How did you do that? I'm pretty sure I had wired headphones, if I'm thinking of the picture correctly. Which is funny to think it was 28, 18.

HALLIE PATEL: Like such a different time. Yeah. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: I didn't

HALLIE PATEL: even look to music and nothing. Yeah. I now

Ally Brettnacher: have gotten to the point where I don't need to use music. It used to be like a crutch where I was like, I have to have music uhhuh. It gets me pumped up. But then you just kind of realize your brain zones out. It doesn't really [01:18:00] know.

Yeah. And there's so, especially in New York, there's so many people cheering for you, it doesn't matter.

HALLIE PATEL: And how has your running journey changed since not listening to music?

Ally Brettnacher: I feel like it is better. Mm-hmm. It really is. You can, you're so much more in tune with your body and your 'cause you have to listen to your breathing.

Mm-hmm. Which for me can sometimes be really annoying. I'm like, damn, but, but the birds like running on the monan trail. I sound like such an old lady, but, oh my gosh. The birds. Yeah. You posted a video of that. Listen, I remember that. Yeah. It was so great. Like just listening to the birds and like hearing what's going on and not to mention like being safer.

Yeah. Like I know that the, you know, the shocks headphones are helpful 'cause you can hear, but still. Yeah. So, yeah, and

HALLIE PATEL: definitely I, 'cause I started doing that too and I even had my headphones in my spy belt, like in case I needed 'em. That's, I mean just in case. Yeah. Right. But like I didn't need 'em. You're in New York.

And that was the first time that I really realized, wow, I actually don't. Need music to get through my runs. Yeah, it was so much better. I feel like I experienced it so much more. I'm so thankful I didn't use [01:19:00] headphones. Yeah. I had somebody tell me that like, at least for the first six don't, don't put anything in like, yeah, okay.

I'll probably just like start with 'em in whatever I had. I'm glad I had them with me because in the Start Village, you know, like it was kind of a way for me to zone out and just like really like, okay, listen to my favorite songs and like get Zen before the race. Yeah. But I again was like so calm going into it.

Like literally no anxiety, no nerves, no stress, which is so, so jealous of that off brand. For me, that's like

the

exact opposite. That's like not how I operate though. Like I'm a very. Anxious person. I was just so ready. You were so prepared. Oh, I wanted to experience it all so bad. Yeah. So no music for me and it's, I don't listen to music anymore and it's great.

Yeah. And I'm just kind of alone with my thoughts. Sometimes they suck, but

Ally Brettnacher: Right. You know, it's good. It makes you stronger. Right. It totally, it really helps your mental game. For sure. It does. I do like, I'll listen to podcasts and audio books now sometimes. Mm-hmm. Just if I'm like doing long runs and I really want to, then I will.

But I don't need it anymore. Yeah. Like I used to, so, yeah, because

HALLIE PATEL: it is like a crutch.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah,

HALLIE PATEL: yeah, yeah. I had someone tell me that like, oh, [01:20:00] the second that you stop listening to music on your runs, you become a stronger runner. And I'm like, yeah, yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Well, don't do, I noticed a theme when I started this podcast.

I would ask, 'cause I ask, at the end of the podcast, I ask what your favorite song is. And a lot of people would say, oh, I don't run with music. And so no way enough people said that, that I was like, maybe I should try that. And so I did. And so now I'm like, okay, my gosh. There you go. Wow. So if you're listening and you're like, I could never do that.

It's like the same thing as saying you could never run a marathon. Yeah. Like, yes, you can just try, give it a try. Yeah.

HALLIE PATEL: You

Ally Brettnacher: just have

HALLIE PATEL: to be willing to try it. Yeah. Because Atu, for example, is like, oh, like we went on a run, on Saturday with Frank and he joined, which by the way, he just like ran 10 miles no problem with us.

And we're like, what the hell? Cool. Okay. You just like superhuman whatever he seems to be. Yeah, I know. He's crazy. And he was like, do I bring my headphones? And I was like, no, we're gonna talk the whole time. Hello. Yeah. Especially when you wrote

Ally Brettnacher: Silly Frank.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: no,

HALLIE PATEL: Silly Frank. So silly. Yeah. But yeah, I mean like the second that you start to realize, [01:21:00] oh, I actually don't need these, I like to, you know, kind of be with my thoughts and see what's around me and really be observant.

Mm-hmm. Then

it's a game changer. Yeah.

it's a game changer. Yeah. It's nice.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. I am gonna ask you the end of the podcast questions now. Alright. Please. Okay. First one, what is your favorite mantra and or song when you like maybe your pump up song?

HALLIE PATEL: Mm.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh my goodness.

HALLIE PATEL: My Spotify

Ally Brettnacher: rap

HALLIE PATEL: just came in and I was so embarrassed by it.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh.

Mine was all K-pop demon hunters. Oh, really? I mean, my kids just ruin it.

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. Okay. I've heard that movie

Ally Brettnacher: is like super popular. I've not seen it. Um, it's an excellent movie. Yeah, it really is. Mm. The music is phenomenal, obviously. I mean,

HALLIE PATEL: yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

HALLIE PATEL: Okay. I have, I can give you both. I have my favorite song that I listen to every time and it, for months, it's gotten me out the door to go to the Monon to run.

It's called Jungle by Fred Again. It's like, ain't No Love the Jungle. It's like, do, it's like really hype. It takes like, it's like a minute and a half build, but it's like, it's really, really hype. Okay. So if anybody listens to Fred again that and Victory Lap, victory Lap [01:22:00] Five. Those are also really good hype songs.

and then my mantra, I guess just whenever things get hard in a run, like, okay, one foot in front of the other, you know how to do that. That's as simple as it is. May, you know, it's simple concept, but it's not easy to do, just

Ally Brettnacher: do it. Mm-hmm. Focus on that. I love that. Yeah. I, one of my favorite spectating signs I've ever seen is left foot, right foot.

Yes. Because I'm like, yeah, okay. That's like the only thing I think then. Yeah. It's like easy. Then there

HALLIE PATEL: we go. One of my favorite signs that I saw at New York, which I saw some like that as well, but going on the last bridge to crossover from the Bronx to Manhattan, it was like last damn bridge. Oh, that's good.

And apparently that lady's there every year. I'm like, hell yeah. You're like,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. Okay. It's a nice reminder

HALLIE PATEL: last damn bridge.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, that's good. Um, okay. And then next one is, next finish line or milestone, which we've already discussed at length. Yes. will be at la

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. LA's coming up. I started training.

I'm in my third week of training after having three weeks off strength training for at least an hour three times a [01:23:00] week doing physical therapy because my left three times

Ally Brettnacher: a week. I know that is a lot. It's very off for me. I do, I do one a week and you're right. Like it. I mean, I could do more for sure.

HALLIE PATEL: And like I realized that I wasn't doing enough. Yeah. Honestly. And like, gosh, I, it also helps because CK two lifts four times a week for like a few hours. I'm like, okay, geez. If he's gonna be there, I might as well be there inspiring. I can, I could do

Ally Brettnacher: like a little bit

HALLIE PATEL: of that. Do plenty. Yeah. I know. Well, and again, I don't, I, that, that pain that I told you about a mile 23 mm-hmm.

I don't ever wanna feel that again. Yeah. That's

Ally Brettnacher: a good point. We're

HALLIE PATEL: gonna work that. That's good

Ally Brettnacher: motivation. You're like, I do not want that. Again,

HALLIE PATEL: I

Ally Brettnacher: don't wanna be questioning if I'm dying or not. Yeah. If my legs are gonna like split open while I'm running. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I'm sure it felt, yeah. Not great.

Yeah. Um, and then milestones, like for the podcast, almost three years. Do you celebrate the podcast birthday or like, do you count the number of episodes? Yeah, so we have done 132 episodes. Okay. So about the same as you. I know that's true. I was like, I'm like 1 [01:24:00] 36 this week. Maybe. That's amazing. I don't know.

Yeah. Huge. Congrats. Yeah. Thank you. You too. Massive. It's not Easy's insane. It's so much. That's so much time of me talking to you. I'm like wow. And you have a guest guest like every time. Yeah. Every time. How have God? Except for I've done two, I did two race recaps. Two. Yeah. That's it. That's it. That's it by yourself.

That's it. And then that's, and the first one, so like maybe three.

HALLIE PATEL: Oh my

Ally Brettnacher: gosh. Yeah, it's

HALLIE PATEL: massive respect. It's a lot. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, you too. You put so much time. I mean, like, we're not even at your house right now. Like, you have to come somewhere. We film everything in our house, so it's like kind of weird.

How nice. That's nice. It's, I do some remote and

Ally Brettnacher: those are, it's nice 'cause it's easy. Just

HALLIE PATEL: go in

Ally Brettnacher: my office, but

HALLIE PATEL: Yeah. Yeah. But like, you have to make such an effort to plan these things. Mm-hmm. Like, you sent me a whole like, vision of like, everything that is gonna go on. It's like, there's, so people don't always realize how much work goes into that.

So if you see Allie, please tell her that you appreciate the work that puts into everything. Or, uh,

Ally Brettnacher: just leave a rating and review. Yeah. S

HALLIE PATEL: like and subscribe. Like, subscribe, give this podcast five stars. I know, [01:25:00] God.

Ally Brettnacher: It's like, oh, I hate it, but I love it. Yeah. But it's like, please. Yeah. It's so much fun. I'm so glad that we got to do this.

I know. Thank much you. So it did gimme an excuse to wash my, I did. I don't always wash and do my hair. Yeah. But I knew you were gonna wash your hair and so I was like, well, I should probably wash my hair. And you did. And you followed

HALLIE PATEL: through on that. And I did not. I did wash my hair. I ran before this, and then I'm like, well, I have to, we're traveling again, so I had to switch up my long run to be tomorrow.

Mm-hmm. Tomorrow I'm gonna wash my hair after my long run. Yeah, there you go. That makes sense. Because it's just gonna be all sweaty and it's like, I just wanna wash it then. Yeah. So it looks

Ally Brettnacher: great. I was

HALLIE PATEL: gonna tell you that. Thank you. It looks

Ally Brettnacher: very voluminous, very soft. Oh, I appreciate it. All right. Well thank you everybody who has listened and perhaps watched Yes.

Seen the medals. Yep. And uh, and happy running. Yes. Thank you so much for having me. You. This was so much fun. We

HALLIE PATEL: did it.

Ally Brettnacher: Yay.

HALLIE PATEL: Yay.

Ally Brettnacher: If you enjoyed this episode of Finish Lines and Milestones from Sandy Board Productions, please share, rate and review. It's a new year. I wanna get off to a great start. So if you wouldn't mind, please add to that momentum. [01:26:00] Just go to your favorite app. Wherever you're listening to this now, just rate review.

It's so easy if you haven't done so yet. It just makes such a big difference. And also for this month, I am launching a new series. As part of the podcast with my coach Rachel Senders. So make sure you subscribe to the show so you can see when that first episode drops. I think hopefully next week. So that's gonna be, more of a laid back conversation between me and my coach just to catch up on my own personal running journey and others who are part of a team.

Rachel, Michelle running. So if you're interested in that, be sure to check that out, and I will talk to you soon. Thanks for listening.