Finish Lines & Milestones: Episode 149: Carly Trulock-Quinn - Big Goals & $150K for Blood Cancer United

Finish Lines & Milestones: Episode 149: Carly Trulock-Quinn - Big Goals & $150K for Blood Cancer United

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Guest: Carly Trulock-Quinn @carlytrulock⁠

Show Notes:

Carly Trulock-Quinn⁠ and I met through the Indy running community. Since I've been inspired by her, I know others will be too. 

During this episode, sponsored by ⁠Relay Active⁠, ⁠Amazfit⁠, and ⁠Cure⁠, we talk about:

  • The club she's part of - ⁠Fishers Running Club ⁠- Carly sits on the board

  • The friends she’s made through running that she now can’t imagine life without

  • Finding running through her parents and her grandfather

  • How she decided to run in college 

  • Her high school injuries and being diagnosed with REDS

  • More about how the Fishers Running Club shows up for each other

  • The ⁠Prairie on Fire⁠ backyard ultramarathon  

  • Fitting running into her busy lifestyle 

  • Avoiding burnout from running

  • Mental health: how running is running and therapy is therapy

  • The ⁠Tunnel Marathon⁠ she ran in Washington state

Sponsor Details:

Previous Guests Mentioned:

Other Links:

This is a⁠ SandyBoy Productions⁠ podcast.

Follow me on ⁠Instagram⁠.

Episode Transcript

[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 Brett knocker, 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 Relay Active. Relay Active is a woman's active wear brand, sorry, guys, made for running, I've been buying Relay Active for years. It is a woman owned business. They give 1% of proceeds back to animal rescue, So I cannot say enough good things about this brand. Quickly, I wanna give you my favorite products. I love the Rachel Pocket shorts. They have a longer inseam, which I need, and great pockets. There is the Kella Pocket crop top, which is a little longer than a sports bra. It has a phone pocket that [00:01:00] holds your phone in just perfectly.

And then the Cleo Pocket bra. A also has the phone pocket. I don't buy brass without phone pockets these days. So, and then I am the proud new owner of some long sleeve items, which are perfect for the weird in-between season that we are all experiencing right now where you don't really know what to wear. So I'm super excited to try those out.

I literally got them today in the mail as I record this.

And all of these are super buttery, soft, so comfortable to wear, again, made for running. So if you wanna check out Relay Active, you can go to relay active.com and you can use Code MILESTONES for 15% off your order. That's code MILESTONES at relayactive.com. Thank you so much Relay Active for supporting this podcast. Okay. And then before I get to this week's guest, it's race week for me. I'm running the Fort Myers Half Marathon down in Fort Myers, Florida. I'm very excited to escape the cold for a few days and have my first race of the year.

So look for a race recap on [00:02:00] that. You can follow me on Instagram. I'm @allytbrett_ runs where I will surely be posting plenty of content from my experience this weekend so stay tuned to hear about that And I wanted you guys to be the first to know that the tickets for the Indy Mini event. So we have an event the night before the Indy Mini here in Indianapolis. That is a live podcast with Lindsay Hein. We have posted the tickets for that already, so if you go to the link in my bio of Instagram, or you go to the show notes here, you can grab your ticket for that.

We will probably sell out again this year. Likely sooner rather than later. So I'm telling you now so you can get your tickets, and if you're not local, you need to come to Indianapolis sometime if you haven't. Picked up on that already, So this week's guest is Carly Trulock Quinn, and Carly is a member of the Fisher's Running Club.

She is on their board, and I have known Carly for a while now as part of the running community, and I'm just in awe of her and I got to know her during this [00:03:00] episode. We talk a lot about the injuries. That she's dealt with over the years and where that stems from and some important topics, especially as it relates to women runners, but not just women.

And we talk about mental health, We talk about how she fits running into her busy lifestyle and how she avoids burnout from running, which is something that she's experienced and I think a lot of us have experienced. and then we end talking about a huge, huge campaign that she is launching.

So if you listen to this, the day it comes out on Friday, February 27th, then it will have just launched yesterday on February 26th. It goes all the way through March 8th, and she is raising $150,000 For the Blood Cancer United Organization. And so if you're familiar with LLS Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, they rebranded to incorporate all blood cancers, which they always have, but the name just makes it more clear.

So let's all make sure that we support Carly, and even if you don't wanna give monetary gifts, figure out a way to share or [00:04:00] support her. In this journey, which is amazing. So proud of you, Carly. Alright, well without further ado, meet Carly Trulock Quinn.

And your last name is just Tru Lock?

Carly Trulock: Uh, Tru Lock Quinn.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. That's right.

Carly Trulock: So it's a kind of a silly story. My maiden name's Tru Lock. My legal name is Tru Lock. married name is Quinn. We got married during COVID when the courts were shut down and we got married in Jamaica.

So, oh, they weren't doing like non-essential court proceedings, during COVID. And then because of that, we like missed our window to do it for free the easy way. So now I have to petition to change my name. Um, that was also when I was changing jobs and I wanted people in my industry to remember who I was and not see a new name, new email, new company.

Right. so in my, my work signature, it's hyphenated on LinkedIn, it's hyphenated on Facebook. It's just Quinn. On Instagram. It's both.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. I was gonna say, I, now that you say it, I've definitely, Seen that.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. It's, I mean eventually, but I'm like,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. It's such a pain. That's so interesting.

When, so wait, what year did you get married? [00:05:00] 2021. Yeah. Yeah. What a wild time to get married. It.

Carly Trulock: it was, it was insane.

Ally Brettnacher: Was that a backup plan getting married in Jamaica or was that always your plan?

Carly Trulock: That was the plan. We had a reception in Indianapolis. Okay. Um, a couple weeks after. Now the Jamaica wedding was initially supposed to be 60 people, and it ended up being about between 35 and 40.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. People were probably still weird about going places or,

Carly Trulock: yes. Jamaica got hit pretty hard with COVID in general. Yeah. Um, and so they were on a red travel advisory, but the tourism industry was still open with just restrictions.

Ally Brettnacher: Uh.

Carly Trulock: I mean.

CARLY T: they're

Ally Brettnacher: It's

Carly Trulock: of necessary. I

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. For their economy. Yeah.

Carly Trulock: so we had a, we had a great experience and they had nurses on site that did the COVID testing for us right before we left. Yeah. so

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. Had you ever been to Jamaica before that? We had

Carly Trulock: not.

That was our first time. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: That's so cool.

Carly Trulock: Yeah, it was. It's beautiful. Highly, highly recommend.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I've never been,

Carly Trulock: it's worth it to go a little bit further from the [00:06:00] airports, um, we got married in N Grill on the, the, the seven mile beach. And it's gorgeous. It's, it's absolutely beautiful.

Ally Brettnacher: We should stop talking about it since it's February.

Yeah. Here in Indiana probably. Although I get to go to Florida next weekend, so.

Oh, that's nice. I was in Florida

last weekend, the weekend before. Okay. Two weekends ago. For Michelle's birthday.

Oh yeah. Michelle Guyer's. Birthday. She turned 40. Yes.

three, nine plus one. Three,

nine plus one. Yeah.

I'm, I'm also, I am in the same boat. Yeah. Oh,

Carly Trulock: Oh, exciting. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: July. So I gotta figure out what we're gonna do for that. But yeah, that looked like an awesome celebration.

Carly Trulock: Drinking around the world in Epcot was so much fun.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh. I can only imagine.

Carly Trulock: It was so much fun.

Ally Brettnacher: That's awesome. Well, happy belated birthday, Michelle.

Yes. 39 forever. Yes. Oh gosh. So you, so we mentioned Michelle, she's, mark Guyer's wife. Yes. Mark Guyer has been on this podcast. Yes. Michelle needs to be on this

Carly Trulock: She does need to be on this podcast.

Ally Brettnacher: you are all part of the Fisher's Running Club.

Carly Trulock: We are.

Ally Brettnacher: And I would, I, it might make some people mad, [00:07:00] but Fisher's Running Club is probably my favorite.

I, I just feel like, because. It's just this really, really tight knit group and the support that you all show each other is just outstanding. And that's not to say like Carmel and Indy Runners and Zionsville Westfield that they don't have Yeah. Community too. But I just, you guys are on another level.

Carly Trulock: I will accept that.

I'm on the board of frc, so I'll

Ally Brettnacher: you go. I only accept that. Oh yeah.

Carly Trulock: Uh, it's incredible. I mean, I, I talk about it all the time. My people at work probably think I'm nuts, for a multitude of reasons. But you said it, I mean, it's the best community. I have made so many of my closest friends. It's crazy to think that five years ago I didn't know most of them.

Right. and now they're some of the most important people in my life. Yeah. I, I mean, I've met amazing friends through the club. My coach, you know, Sara Farney is somebody that I've grown super close to, both, you know, within running and outside of running, I mean, Michelle Guyer, Rachel Ebeyer, and I mean, I've gotten really [00:08:00] close with them over the past year, and these friendships are just.

I don't know. It sounds so corny, but it's, they're incredible. Like, I can't imagine my life without these people now. So. Well,

Ally Brettnacher: and you think about the experiences you've had with them.

Oh yeah. Every, anybody listening who has experienced endurance efforts of some kind with people,

Carly Trulock: Yes.

Ally Brettnacher: you go through a lot. And doing that with somebody certainly is a way to build a different level of relationship.

Carly Trulock: I agreed. Especially some of those longer races or training cycles. there's so much time when you're out running and it's, well, if you run with me if you run with Sara Farney, we've actually been told it's like running with, your own personal podcast because Sara and I don't stop talking

Ally Brettnacher: Oh. Oh, that's nice. I would appreciate that. 'cause sometimes I just wanna zone out and just be, and so being able to listen to somebody have a conversation would be great.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. Sara and I don't stop talking, so you're always welcome to write that.

Ally Brettnacher: I just, I feel like Fishers, sadly, from Carmel is in another state.

Carly Trulock: It, there's not an easy way to get to Fishers [00:09:00] or Carmel, especially like, depending on where you live. 'cause I technically live in Fort Mill, but I'm not super far from Fisher's but it's so funny because I found Fisher's Run Club through Carmel Marathon.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. The irony there. Yeah. That's funny. Yeah. Yeah. So

Carly Trulock: I was already like, way outta my way and I remember saying, can I still join? I don't actually live in Fisher. They're like, we don't care. Yeah. We've got lots of people from all over. Yeah. And the rest is history.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. And it's really not that far.

No. From here it's not, it's just kind of a mess to get over there. Mm-hmm. But Yeah. So you've been running for a long time

Carly Trulock: Yes.

Ally Brettnacher: Since you were 10, is that right? And I love that you put in the notes that your mom also was a runner because, similar to you, my dad and I have a really special relationship when it comes to running.

Mm-hmm. But my mom was the one who started it actually in our family.

Carly Trulock: Oh really? Yes. That's crazy. And so

Ally Brettnacher: I do like to give her credit where it's due. She doesn't run anymore. She has hip issues. but my dad is still running at 69.

Carly Trulock: That's amazing. Yeah. So, oh, I've seen you got, you've done some race? Yes. You

Ally Brettnacher: A race together mm-hmm.

In the last

Carly Trulock: last year, right? Mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Yep. Yep. So, it's amazing to have [00:10:00] parents who kinda model that for you and not just parents. You, was it your grandma or your grandpa?

Carly Trulock: My grandfather. Yeah. So cool. It's running is definitely in the family. so my dad ran in high school, ran for a little bit in college and he played other sports too.

And he got into other things as he got older. But he, that was something that him and I really connected with because he. Did cross country in track and field and you know, he was always the parent, like sprinting across the cross country courses, like with a stopwatch that he brought, like he was, he gave, that's horrible.

Everybody splits. It was awesome. Yeah. Um, and then my mom did not start running until she was an adult, so she did not have the, the school experience, but then she found it and really fell in love with it as an adult. My mom also does not run anymore. she actually has a type of dystonia, which before Kara Goucher, I don't feel like people really knew what that was.

Ally Brettnacher: actually know what that is. So you might

Carly Trulock: Yeah, it's, it briefly, it's a neurological movement disorder. It's in the same family as Parkinson's, but it's, still [00:11:00] definitely affects quality of life, but it's not something that's going to like, kill you. It's, it's not as severe, from like a degeneration standpoint.

Okay. But Kara Goucher talks about on her podcast too. um. we don't know a ton of about it. 'cause it's rare. Yeah. But, that unfortunately did stop her from running. But she still, oh my gosh. She works out like a fiend.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. And she, that's how my mom is.

Carly Trulock: still, she loves F 45.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, your mom does S four.

My husband is very int 45.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. They have one in Muncie now, which is where my family is from. And so she still does that. And then her dad, my grandfather,

Ally Brettnacher: ran

Carly Trulock: on and off for a large portion of his life and they did the, and it used to be the Muncie and Durathon. Okay. but now it's Ironman. But they did like the team relay with biking and running and for some reason swimming wasn't involved that with that one.

But, they ran the Indy mini together, um,

Ally Brettnacher: oh, at least

Carly Trulock: once. So definitely a family affair. Yeah. And then my, I am an aunt to, 10 nieces and nephews. What? Yes.

Ally Brettnacher: That's a [00:12:00] lot. oh wait, how many do I, okay. Well, yeah, but 10 still, it's a lot. How many siblings do you have?

Carly Trulock: So, funny part, none of them come from

my yours.

It's all your husband's. My brother, I only have one sibling, full sibling. and his name's Wilson. He does not have any kids. So seven of them come from my husband's side and three come from my, I call her my stepsister, so my parents divorced when I was six.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Carly Trulock: Seven. And my mom is remarried.

I have got an awesome stepdad and it's just Wilson and I on that side, but then my dad's has a partner, girlfriend, but partner's more appropriate. They've been together since for a

Ally Brettnacher: time.

I don't know,

Carly Trulock: a year or two after my parents divorced, so, yeah. and she had three children before who are a little bit older than I am.

And one of her daughters, Natalie has three. Kids. And so I have twin nieces Aw. Who are three and a half. Wow. And a one and a half year old nephew on their side. And they're the cutest, sweetest little things. [00:13:00] I love being an aunt. It's like one of my favorite things in this

Ally Brettnacher: world.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. So between them and my husband's side, lots of kids.

I love it. And I have two nieces and a nephew on my husband's side that all run cross country and track and field.

Ally Brettnacher: That is so fun.

I

Carly Trulock: love it. I have to remind myself like, okay, there are other sports, they can do other things. 'cause I get so excited.

Ally Brettnacher: it. I'm like that way as a mom a little bit. Oh

Carly Trulock: Well, yeah, I know one day that's gonna be hard for me.

Ally Brettnacher: But Right.

Carly Trulock: it's really cool because one of my nieces runs at the same high school that I went to and has the same

Ally Brettnacher: coach.

That is so crazy.

Carly Trulock: And I love that because that coach, his name's Coach Turner, Really helped inspire my lifelong love of running.

he's an incredible coach in person and I just can't say enough good things about him. so when Callie started running for like, on his team, I, I was so excited. So I get to go watch her and my old coach in action and, then I have a niece and nephew that run at Mount Vernon.

Ally Brettnacher: so, okay.

Wow, that's so fun.

Carly Trulock: I love it. It's so much fun. And there, and I've [00:14:00] got nephews that plays golf. I've got three nieces in Ohio that, there's swimming, there's soccer. I'm probably gonna leave out a sport,

Ally Brettnacher: but

Carly Trulock: I, yeah, they're all very active. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, that's, so that is, how fun is that? So what about your husband?

Does he run? What does he do? No. Does he? Yeah. He's like, you, you probably run enough for the both of you. That's how it is in my relationship.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. He is, he is not a runner. golf is his main. Thing. he played golf in school. Uh, he also played baseball and football when he was younger, but he stayed with golf.

and he was an assistant pro for a while before we met. He, he's really good. Yeah. I mean, he,

Ally Brettnacher: I

Carly Trulock: know if he would still call himself a scratch golfer, if not, he's pretty much there,

Ally Brettnacher: pretty close.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. I just know when tournament season like comes around, he's always getting like, Hey, do you wanna be on my team? And that works really well for us because I don't know that much about golf,

CARLY T: And

Ally Brettnacher: Golf. I'm like,

Carly Trulock: and I'm like, good job. Yeah. Yeah. So we, we do very different things, but, I'm sure, I think he feels about my [00:15:00] running the way I feel about his golf. It's like supportive. I don't get it, but

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. That's

Carly Trulock: good.

You're good at it and I'm happy

Ally Brettnacher: for you.

Right. At least you both have that, have your thing and then Yeah. Yeah. I, my husband and I ran a marathon together once. Oh wow. Mm-hmm.

That's awesome.

We started training together while we were dating. I had already run a marathon at that point, and I was getting ready to train for it, and I asked him if he wanted to do it with me

and

he said yes.

And then when we were training together, I'm like, this guy's the one, like he, I mean, that's awesome. The fact that he had only ever run three miles and then wanna do that, but now, now no more. No, he does the mini sometimes, but he stopped kind of training for it, which at an older age makes it really hard and not as pleasant.

Yeah.

Carly Trulock: running is not a forgiving sport or activity or hobby, but it's amazing. And I understand it's not for everybody. I mean, there's lots of things that I, I don't, I can't fat, like the pickleball phase. I'm all, I'm, I'm, I'm supportive of people who enjoy that. Just not my thing. I'll run around the.

Ally Brettnacher: the

Carly Trulock: Neighborhood and [00:16:00] wait for you to be done. Yeah. So we can go like grab a margarita or something. But other,

Ally Brettnacher: I love, I would love to be really into pickleball. I played tennis, I love ping pong, so it's a great like, kind of combination, but with how much I love running, I'm so terrified of spraining an ankle. Yeah. I'm too competitive to like not go all in.

Mm-hmm. And so I don't, I don't really play very much 'cause I wanna run.

Carly Trulock: I totally get that. It's, it's hard to balance those things, especially with the sport that's so like dynamic where you're, you know, back and

Ally Brettnacher: forth Right.

Carly Trulock: doing things that like, our stability muscles in running.

Right. Maybe if we all did a little bit better with our strength training Right. It would be stronger, but they're not

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. And mobility. What's that? Yeah. Yeah.

You are better than I am. You've done some of the challenges on social media that I've done and it's, I don't know how people do that stuff.

Carly Trulock: I, I always think it's fun to try. Um, but I'm, I'm painfully aware as I get older that, it's gonna start to go away if I don't really. Yeah. Become intentional about it. I do try, pretty hard to stay with my [00:17:00] mobility stuff. I'm not as good at strength training, but with some of my old injuries, I

Ally Brettnacher: have to

Carly Trulock: stay on top of some of that mobility, so I do try.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I, I need to be better. But how did you decide to run in college?

Carly Trulock: So, I had an amazing couple seasons in high school. it would've been an amazing couple years had I not gotten a pretty intense injury mm-hmm. As a junior. And I felt just devastated when I

Ally Brettnacher: missed these

Carly Trulock: seasons and could see the clock ticking.

And I just felt like I hadn't reached my potential.

Ally Brettnacher: What was your injury?

Carly Trulock: I cracked my sacrum.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm.

was,

that's, is that your, that's like your tailbone.

It's right

Carly Trulock: above the coccyx.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. I don't even know what that is either.

Carly Trulock: The coy

Ally Brettnacher: is tailbone. Okay. Oh, yeah. I'm like, okay.

Carly Trulock: right above that.

ouch. Yeah. So that is not a bone that you should be able to fracture from stress, reaction, or overuse. that should be, you know, a relatively protected area, unless you fall or in a car crash or something. Okay. That's typically when you would [00:18:00] do that? Mine, I remember it very clearly. I was on an out and back training run, and when my teammate and I turned around a couple steps in, I felt a pop.

And it hurt, not debilitating, but I was like, whew. That,

Ally Brettnacher: did you take a weird step or was it just literally you were just, just a pop.

That's so crazy.

and

Carly Trulock: the whole way back I was like,

Ally Brettnacher: this

Carly Trulock: not going away.

Ally Brettnacher: I,

Carly Trulock: You know, but I had to get back.

Ally Brettnacher: Yorktown

Carly Trulock: you're running out into a farm and back. Literally.

Yeah. So it was like, better keep going. And at that point I had had two fracture, I had had a fracture my freshman year and my sophomore year and my ankles.

Ally Brettnacher: And geez,

Carly Trulock: I had had a talk with my coach about like staying healthy and how I had, you know, he, he was awesome. He was like, you have potential, but we've gotta keep you healthy.

If you wanna reach these goals and you wanna be a leader, you've gotta stay healthy. And so I am dreading, dreading telling him, not because I thought he'd be mad at me, I just,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah.

But[00:19:00]

Carly Trulock: we had just had all these conversations and these big talks. I was just really excited. I was getting stronger as a runner and. yeah. So it took us months to figure out what I'd actually hurt, because it kind of pinched a nerve and I was getting shooting pain wrapped around my hip. Oh. And also intense pain in my lower back and X-rays didn't show anything.

Ally Brettnacher: How?

Carly Trulock: Well, part of it's 'cause we weren't x-raying the right part.

Oh. Um, and that's not something you would look for because I didn't fall, I didn't,

Ally Brettnacher: I didn't Yeah, that's right. So it wasn't typical for anybody to be like, oh, we should check this. 'cause it could be that.

And most,

Carly Trulock: most doctors at that point thought I just pulled something or I was out of alignment.

Um, but even trying to put me back into alignment with a broken sacrum was very painful. Oh,

Ally Brettnacher: That sounds awful.

Carly Trulock: It, it really was. And I, this was during track season and I remember being in a relay and

trying to run the 800. Crying

at

like in, in the middle towards the end. And that [00:20:00] wasn't me. That's not, I don't,

Ally Brettnacher: I

Carly Trulock: cry with in races.

I mean, as an adult I've definitely am more emotional with some of my bigger goals, but not for the same reason. Like, that was not something that I, I normally did. And, I don't remember how we got to the point where we just, we told central Indiana orthopedics like, there's something else is wrong. And it's, it's a whole,

Ally Brettnacher: it's a whole

Carly Trulock: fiasco with how we ended up finding out we were supposed to do a dye injection, MRI, in the ball and socket joint of my hip, which I'll spare the details.

It's not a fun process.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

Carly Trulock: and that was kind of a hectic ordeal 'cause you have to be put on medication to, to have that injection and to like Valium and things. And I was a kid and it was too much. And it was, it was a not a fun time. And, The dye went all around that region of my pelvis and lit up those breaks in my sacrum.

And it's crazy. Wow. When you have a sacrum fracture with no blunt force trauma, because you will get [00:21:00] doctors and nurses and people coming in

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, who are like, just like fascinated by it,

Carly Trulock: Who are worried about you.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, oh. They're

Carly Trulock: Hey, will everybody leave the room? Did somebody push downstairs? Oh, okay.

Did you, were you in a secret car crash? Didn't tell mom and dad. Like, I was like, oh no, I, I mean, I

had no

Ally Brettnacher: That makes, I mean, that makes sense. Okay.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. And now as an adult, I, I am thankful that they asked those

Ally Brettnacher: Of course. Because what if Yeah. It's

Carly Trulock: like,

you're insane. My parents are

Ally Brettnacher: fine. Yeah. Like what? Yeah.

Carly Trulock: but that started like a cascade of tests because I should not have been able to Yeah.

To do that, to

break that bone. And ultimately I got diagnosed with. osteoporosis level, bone density in my pelvis and then osteopenia everywhere else. Okay. And that made them kind of keep going and keep looking at things. And so we started looking at my hormone and endocrine work and my vitamin defic, like for vitamin deficiencies and

Ally Brettnacher: was not

Carly Trulock: fun.

Ally Brettnacher: which year was this?

Carly Trulock: was a junior. Junior. Okay. And so I, all [00:22:00] I knew is I lost my track season. I was in pain. that's when you start looking at running in college and I was having these doctors try to figure out what was wrong with me. and it's crazy to me that none of them for a while were able to tell me about, at the time we called it the female athlete triad,

Ally Brettnacher: and

Carly Trulock: now it's, reds or relative energy deficiency in sports.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Carly Trulock: And that's what it was. I, had low bone density. I was experiencing amenorrhea, which is the loss of menses. oh

Ally Brettnacher: oh yeah. Okay. So no period.

Carly Trulock: No. Period. Dunno what that means.

Ally Brettnacher: guys who are listening are like, what?

Carly Trulock: no periods.

but that was unfortunately normal for high cardio Oh, right. Runners at the time.

It shouldn't be, it's not normal, but it was normalized. Yeah. And I was little, I mean, I've never been a, a big person, but I was very small at that point in my life. And I wouldn't have told you I had an eating disorder. I wouldn't have thought I had one.

Ally Brettnacher: I [00:23:00]

Carly Trulock: had some disordered eating. Yeah. at that point.

But it, it was never, I don't know it, there's no rationalizing it. I I was not eating enough calories. Yeah. and. I mean, I went into this kind of like full overhaul of trying to figure out what was going on, getting me, back to a healthier level. I, I specifically remember my coach kind of finding out about the, who's a man, you know, who's not somebody that

Ally Brettnacher: you know

Carly Trulock: most, most girls are not gonna wanna talk to their male coach about these things.

But he was a teacher, he is a dad, you know, he, he was a great coach, great guy. And I just remember him at the end of one practice being like, Greek yogurt or cottage cheese. And I was like, what? And he's like, pick one and we're gonna start eating that after practice every day. And he's like, we gotta get your calcium up.

We gotta get these up. It was never a conversation about like weight or body image, but it, it was always a,

Ally Brettnacher: you need

Carly Trulock: the calcium, you need the

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Or we

Carly Trulock: or you need fuel. Yeah.

And. So I remember going home and telling my parents like, I need to buy Greek yogurt. And

Ally Brettnacher: that's the one you picked. Do [00:24:00] you like cottage cheese?

Absolutely not. I was gonna say, if you don't, that mean no. Yeah.

Carly Trulock: And so I, I did get back to a healthier, state going into my senior year. but during all of that, you know, I, I don't wanna spend the entire podcast on this, but it, it's, it was a really long process. I, I was told by a few doctors that I should just stop running.

I was told by a few doctors that I could keep running, but I would probably need, hip replacements by the time I was 30, I'm 30 have my normal hips. Thank you. And so I was also di diagnosed with osteoarthritis. At the time it was juvenile arthritis. 'cause I was under the age of maybe 18 or 20 or whatever.

and. I had done some damage to my

Ally Brettnacher: reproductive

Carly Trulock: because of the low estrogen levels.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh.

Carly Trulock: And so there, you know, there are these physicians, most of which were male telling me, like, I remember one, I was 17 being like, you might not be able to have kids. And like, my jaw dropping. and my dad was in the room.

He was like, you can't tell, you don't,

Ally Brettnacher: that's

not, uh, [00:25:00] hello.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. And, and luckily I, I've had further conversations with physicians, who are a little bit more familiar with sex hormones and reds and female runners. And hopefully that's not an issue in the future when, when I, you know, choose to pursue that part of life.

But. It was a lot, it was very heavy.

Ally Brettnacher: yeah, when you're 17, you're, hey, you shouldn't run and you might not have children ever. Yeah. So just sit with that.

Carly Trulock: And those were two huge parts of my identity at that point. Obviously I was too young to have that, but like, I don't, I've always known I wanted to be a mom.

Like that's always been something I've wanted to, to be. Um, so having that and then having running be most of my young identity at that point was just heartbreaking. I mean, I really struggled with that. so I was so happy to come back healthy my senior year, be able to run. I still remember conversations with doctors being like, we really don't want you to run in college.

It was this, kind of like back and forth between them and my family and like, well, [00:26:00] what if we look at a Division III school? Like I, because I thought I wanted to go to Butler.

I'm like,

maybe I don't need to have the, the job, the sport job. You know, maybe, maybe I don't need to pursue it. Because I was like, maybe I.

I might not be able to handle that mileage.

Mm-hmm. And so I had talked with the DePauw team and the DePauw coach, and it felt like, a good fit for me. And I was just excited. I felt like I've left my high school running with a lot of untapped potential. I had ran the mile one time under five 30, just barely.

And I thought I could go faster. I had ran one 5K around 1935, and I thought I could go faster, and if I stayed healthy. Mm-hmm. And so I decided to pursue college running. That did not last very long because I got injured immediately. The training was too much mileage.

Ally Brettnacher: it,

Carly Trulock: was just too much on my body.

And I actually found out last year. From x-rays from something different that I did have multiple healed stress fractures in my shins from college running. We just never [00:27:00] pursued. the x-rays at that time, so that, yeah. So I'd say that long-winded, but very important story for, for where I'm at with running now is, um,

Ally Brettnacher: I

Carly Trulock: a very different perspective on running and I know what it feels like

Ally Brettnacher: to

Carly Trulock: think and to be told that it might be taken away from me.

Ally Brettnacher: so I'm

Carly Trulock: very intentional with my training, very careful and also very careful to not make it my whole identity. Yeah. Because between that and, you know, friends and family members who have loved running and made it their identity or had it be such a big part of their identity and have it taken away.

Ally Brettnacher: Right.

I,

Carly Trulock: I'm very. Intentional about keeping goals and things spread out and, and understanding that this can't be a hundred percent of my life for a multitude of

Ally Brettnacher: reasons. Mm-hmm.

Carly Trulock: But that injury and cascade of things that happened after and those health issues have taught me lessons that I don't wish on anybody.

And especially somebody that age. I look at my nieces now who are that age and I [00:28:00] can't imagine them experiencing that. But things have gotten better. But that's one of the reasons I'm very intentional about the way I talk about running, the way I talk about fueling,

Ally Brettnacher: the

Carly Trulock: way that I show up in the club and the running community and the way I like, we talk about bodies and, and speeds and, and mileage and food and 'cause

Ally Brettnacher: reds

Carly Trulock: isn't just something that impacts college athletes or professional athletes.

It impacts. Mostly women, but some men and people of all ages.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. So back in high school when you had those fractures in your ankles, that's all tied. I mean, I'm assuming that's all kind of tied together more

or

Carly Trulock: probably, yeah. The first one was, a break, like a fracture from falling.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Carly Trulock: Okay. Um, my foot went under a tree root and my body went over Oh yeah.

At a cross country camp actually.

Ally Brettnacher: Great. Yeah. I

Carly Trulock: 14. not a great start, so that one less so, but then the next year that same spot fractured, so it probably just didn't heal all the way.

Ally Brettnacher: [00:29:00] Yeah.

Carly Trulock: but I've not,

Ally Brettnacher: I don't know if that's wood, but I know maybe the legs are,

Carly Trulock: there. I've managed to stay healthy, but I'm also training a lot different

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. What happened, you know, after you had to give up. The collegiate sport mm-hmm. Of running. How did you treat running the rest of your college life? Did you still like, run for fitness or did you kind of just give it up?

Carly Trulock: I, I still ran for fitness. I stayed on the treadmill most of the time, because, because of my old sacrum injury, I deal with a lot of alignment issues and so the treadmill, well, people, you know, have strong opinions about it.

It, it's flat and it's even, yeah. And it was the safest way for me to,

Ally Brettnacher: get

Carly Trulock: in without worrying about,

Ally Brettnacher: you know,

Carly Trulock: hurting my myself. And so I stayed with running on and off through college and even a little bit after. And then I did Orange Theory for several [00:30:00] years in my, early to mid twenties.

Ally Brettnacher: Was that in Fisher's area?

Carly Trulock: Mm-hmm. That was right after we moved here. And

Ally Brettnacher: I love that.

Carly Trulock: I realized that with strength, strength training and cross training, I was getting faster again and feeling strong. And I started to wonder

Ally Brettnacher: maybe I

Carly Trulock: can try running outside. I mean, they were wrong about other things, which in general is not my way of thinking about, you know, we should listen to the experts, we should listen to our doctors.

but I did consult two of my doctors. I sought out a coach who was, was very, comfortable with lower mileage training, which is Coach Farney. And I was like,

Ally Brettnacher: try

Carly Trulock: it. Why not? If I get hurt, I've learned my lesson.

Ally Brettnacher: been there before too. It's like, yeah.

Carly Trulock: And so that's kind of how I, got back into it was after, you several years at Orange Theory and. Only looking forward to the treadmill part and looking, looking forward to the benchmarks at [00:31:00] Orange area that were

Ally Brettnacher: Or

Carly Trulock: specific to the treadmill. Yeah. I was having so much fun and I just was like, God, I miss this. And so I thought we might as well try it again. We'll just be safe and intentional. And we were, I mean, my first marathon build was 21 weeks.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Carly Trulock: you know, a lot longer than the traditional one. Mm-hmm. And started out with four days a week of running and very low mileage. I mean, it was a slow ramp up, on purpose. Yeah. To, to make sure that I was giving my body ample time to get used to this again.

Ally Brettnacher: Do you take supplements every day that help

Carly Trulock: I take, I try to get as much of it from whole food as I can. Yeah. Um, and then I'll supplement with vitamin D and calcium and then I take glucosamine and chondroitin, which are good for

Ally Brettnacher: joint

health.

Carly Trulock: I try not to depend too much on supplements just because they're not studied.

Ally Brettnacher: and they

Carly Trulock: go through any approvals or,

Ally Brettnacher: and so

Carly Trulock: I'll supplement ones that after I've talked to my doctor [00:32:00] about them.

But I try really hard to get everything from whole food. I still eat a lot of Greek yogurt.

Ally Brettnacher: What

kind of flavor are we talking?

Strawberry banana. Okay.

Nice. Any toppings?

Carly Trulock: granola chia seeds. Oh yeah. And sometimes flax seed mill.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Because

fiber's also important.

Mm-hmm.

CARLY T: Mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: That it is.

Carly Trulock: stuff. So

Ally Brettnacher: did you find the club through Orange Theory?

Carly Trulock: I had heard of run clubs in the area. I knew that Orangetheory showed up big at Carmel, and I had done the five KA couple times, and I thought, what if I try to run the 10 K? And if that goes well, maybe I will try really training outside for like a half marathon. And so I went to the expo, and I was talking, with friends at the Orange Theory booth, and a couple of the guys from FRC kind of came up behind me and, you know, said hi to the people at Orange Theory.

They knew. And they're like, well, if you're here, you might as well just join a run club. And it was the easiest sell in the world. I was like,

CARLY T: okay,[00:33:00]

Ally Brettnacher: okay, sounds great.

Carly Trulock: followed him back. And then I did end up saying, let me see how tomorrow goes. But if it goes well and I feel good, I'm, I'm there. And I did, the 10 K the next day.

Felt great. I was super excited. so excited that I forgot to go to the tent and like introduce myself and say hi. I just went back to the car, signed up on my phone.

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

Carly Trulock: Joined the Facebook page and then it was perfect timing because normally the new member expo that we do is before Carmel.

And that year, for whatever reason, it was a week or two after Carmel. So I got to go to this event,

where Orange Theory was gonna be there. So I was like, okay, at least I'll have friends, I'll know a couple people. Yes. that's where I met Sara Farney and immediately was like,

Ally Brettnacher: I

Carly Trulock: want you to be my coach.

And at the time Tracy Brook too. and we started working together and,

Ally Brettnacher: and oh my gosh, like how it's, you know, gone.

That's played out.

Yeah.

Has been. So let's talk about that. What year was that? 10 K.

Carly Trulock: That was, let's see, it's [00:34:00] 2026. I think that was 2023.

CARLY T: 23,

Carly Trulock: I don't know, 22 or 23.

Ally Brettnacher: Fair enough.

Carly Trulock: I have to think about it in terms of like

Ally Brettnacher: I

Carly Trulock: the 10 K and the next year I did the half.

Ally Brettnacher: it's like, well if you did the 5K twice, like if you factor in the, like the COVID factor is probably You

Carly Trulock: I, I did the 5K during COVID there. I actually have a

Ally Brettnacher: picture Oh.

Carly Trulock: of myself finishing with the COVID mask on and the 5K because it was so cold that year.

They made you have them in the starting corrals, but told you could take it down once you got out. It was so cold that I ended up putting mine back up because the air was just

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah,

Carly Trulock: frigid.

and So I

finish. It's such a funny race finish photo.

Ally Brettnacher: That is really funny

Carly Trulock: actually. Um, so I have this

Hilarious. Like I'm fully straight out finishing a 5K.

I've got these, this neon team orange theory shirt on over my cold gear, with a three ply surgical mask on. Perfect. I remember people being like, you don't have to do that. I'm like, I'm freezing. This is my neck gator

Ally Brettnacher: right now. Yeah.

right. I should have worn a neck gator, but now

Carly Trulock: yeah.

This is

filtering the air for [00:35:00] me right now.

Yeah. Um, keeping it warmer. So I did do a 5K at Carmel during COVID.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's funny. Gosh, crazy times. Okay, so you do the 10 K feel good, you join the club, you have Coach Farney, and then was the next year when you did your first half marathon or did you end up doing that in the fall?

Carly Trulock: No, I went full, I hope, can I say this?

I went full balls to the wall that first year. Yeah, you can say that. I, um,

Ally Brettnacher: I

Carly Trulock: signed up for monumental Full.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh yeah.

Carly Trulock: And decided I would do my first official half marathons and I'd ran the distance of half marathons before I'd just never done one like. As

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. When would you, when did you run the distance?

Carly Trulock: as challenges on Saturdays in high school.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

Carly Trulock: For fun.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Carly Trulock: And then I

Ally Brettnacher: think

is that normal in like high school running?

Carly Trulock: is now. I wasn't then, I was unofficial. We had, a couple distance, like, or a couple routes that were almost 13. I [00:36:00] think we, the one that I'm thinking of was 10 and then we added on,

Ally Brettnacher: I think, Interesting.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. but no, that was not the full, I don't even think that was a team sanctioned practice. It was a Saturday and off season and Okay. A group of us thought, why not?

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carly Trulock: Um, and so yeah, I signed up, I did eight hour dream relay that summer. I did geist. Half my first official half marathon was geist half.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Carly Trulock: And it went amazing. I ran it with Sara the whole time. I really didn't know what to expect, and I think I ran at 1 30, 7 30 for my first half, and I was, didn't know what that meant.

Mm-hmm.

Um, at the time, like I, I was excited about the time looking at the splits, but I didn't anticipate, or I didn't, I didn't anticipate running that fast.

Ally Brettnacher: yeah.

Um, yeah. Right. Yeah. 'cause pe people listening are like, oh, for your first half marathon. That is,

Carly Trulock: well, I, I mean, I may have gotten a little too excited after that because I did end up getting [00:37:00] kind of hurt. Mm. Not from guys I don't think. This was, um, a little bit further into training before monumental. it was an alignment based issue with me.

It wasn't any break, it wasn't anything I, you know, got that worked out. But I did run my first marathon with some, some twinges

Ally Brettnacher: of

Carly Trulock: things going

on.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, yeah.

Carly Trulock: But it made me kind of reality check step back and. And say like, you don't need to focus hardcore on a time for your first marathon. Yeah. Which I was still telling myself I wanted to.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, it's hard not to do that.

Carly Trulock: It's so hard, especially coming from competitive

Ally Brettnacher: running for so long. Right. Absolutely.

Carly Trulock: I, I'm competitive. I wanted that bq. and I remember like doing the math and extrapolating from my geist halftime and I'm like, I can do this. And then I started hurting in my knee and I was like, well, maybe, yeah, maybe not.

And I, my first one was a three, 3 46 I think.

Ally Brettnacher: Three. Okay.

Carly Trulock: I think, yeah. Something around there.

Ally Brettnacher: Did you run that with Sara

Carly Trulock: No, she started with me 'cause she did the half that year. Okay. Um, so [00:38:00] what, until that

Ally Brettnacher: miles split? Yeah, seven miles they split.

Carly Trulock: yeah. So I ran, I ran it for that part.

And then, on my own from like an in race. Perspective, but, folks from FRC, you know, back and forth and pick me, uh, pick me up at, around the art museum. Yep. And then God, there's nothing like coming around that final turn Yes. At monumental

Ally Brettnacher: and

seeing, right. And seeing all the clubs lined up in those tents

Carly Trulock: and it was just nothing like it.

the pictures of me there, I'm dead

Ally Brettnacher: on my

first marathon.

Carly Trulock: but I am like eyes closed crying. I mean, I was

Ally Brettnacher: just Yeah.

Carly Trulock: Very emotional.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. 'cause now those are like all your people too. And I mean, it's just, yeah.

Carly Trulock: I couldn't believe it. I mean, how big, that's something that I, I will never get over with this club no matter how many races I do with the team or the club.

the way that everybody shows up for each other is just unique. Mm-hmm. And, and,

Ally Brettnacher: and,

Carly Trulock: and so genuine, I mean,

Ally Brettnacher: it's, right.

Carly Trulock: so genuine. It, it's crazy. and it's crazy how quickly. You

Ally Brettnacher: Uh,[00:39:00]

Carly Trulock: come to, you know, I, you know, six months ago I barely knew these people and now we're, you know, diehard, screaming for each other at these races.

Yeah. and I just think about how crazy it is to

Ally Brettnacher: see

Carly Trulock: you get really close with, with your people, with your club, how much their PRS and their wins feel like yours. Yes. I mean, Prairie on Fire this year, I, you know, there are lots of people that I, I knew and cared about that were running it, but there was this core group of women in FRC who we did it together to mostly together and had been planning like the campsite for months and, and it was Sara Farney, Tammy Marti, Michelle Geier, and Angela Kumar and I, and All of them accomplished insane things that day. And I cried for all of them. I didn't, I don't even think I cried my, like when I finished for

Ally Brettnacher: like

mine. But

Carly Trulock: I, you know, we have Michelle who's never ran an ultra, never ran further than a marathon.

Ally Brettnacher: And how old's her baby?

Carly Trulock: Like

at this [00:40:00] point? Penny was September, March to September.

Was that four months, five

Ally Brettnacher: months,

months. I mean, less than a year old is

Carly Trulock: Less than a year old.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. You're like, okay.

Carly Trulock: And running her first ultra marathon. Yeah. And then decides not to stop at a 50 k and go an extra yard or two.

Ally Brettnacher: Geez.

Carly Trulock: Geez. I, I mean like, just incredible. Like already in awe of women, but holy cow.

And then you've got my coach, Tammy Renty and Angela, who are all gonna go hit a hundred. and then you have Tammy who's like, I'm not stopping at a hundred and goes 108, although I think she'll call it.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carly Trulock: Or was it a hundred? I don't know. I know that it was, she came like really close to the next mile, but she won't let you say the next one.

I can't, but I think it's 108. Yeah. and then, seeing Gracie Bell, I, who I don't know personally also be there, come out and win the women's race with her infant there. Right. And it's

Ally Brettnacher: unbelievable.

Carly Trulock: And so like, I just, I'm always in awe.

CARLY T: it.[00:41:00]

Ally Brettnacher: I

Carly Trulock: guys, you're cool too, I guess, but of

Ally Brettnacher: good job guys, but

Carly Trulock: specifically the women that I surround myself with, guys, you're cool too.

Yeah. but I, I just tears so frequently that day and then the next day into Sunday. I mean, it was just. But I can't say enough good things about prayer on fire. Yeah. I highly recommend the race and no, I'm not paid to say that. No, I'm not sponsored. I just, it's a great

Ally Brettnacher: race

Yeah.

For people. I've definitely talked about it on this podcast quite a bit, but for people who may not have heard the episodes where we've talked about it, it's a backyard ultra marathon.

Carly Trulock: Yes,

Ally Brettnacher: It's, So

if you wanna explain just the setup of

Carly Trulock: Yeah. Uh, it, it's unique. I love the format. So a Backyard Ultra, it started with LA of the famous Barclay Marathon, which is the craziest, in my opinion, the craziest ultra ever.

He came up with the Backyard Ultra, format, which is every hour on the hour, you run a 4.168 mile [00:42:00] loop. And the reason for that obscure number is because in 24 hours you will run a hundred miles. And it's crazy because it's, there's just. Nothing else like it. You know, every hour you have to go run this and you can run eight minute pace.

Don't recommend that

Ally Brettnacher: most

Carly Trulock: Or you can run 12 minute pace and then the rest of that hour when you get back to camp is yours. The only rule is you have to hit the start line at the next hour. and that's the rule. Like those are the rules. And so you get a lot of wiggle room in how you plan for that

Ally Brettnacher: free

Carly Trulock: How you plan for pacing and for the Prairie On Fire race in Noblesville. Koteewi, there's a day loop and a night loop because the day loop has some uneven terrain. Mm-hmm. And it's not, as accessible or safe at night just because footing and things. and so we had planned stop points. There's walking breaks that you take, you walk the hills when you can, you walk the weird gravel parts [00:43:00] just to save your, your ankles and your, your feet, and then you get back and it's, what are you gonna do with your, I think we tended to average anywhere between 11 and 14 minutes.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Wow. Which seems both long and short at the same time. Exactly.

Carly Trulock: it's the wild west when you're back at camp for that amount of time because you need to prioritize a set of things and rest, you know, you want your heart rate to come down.

Mm-hmm. Um,

you need calories, you need fluids, you need electrolytes.

You probably need to change your socks. You probably need to change your shoes. At least every, you know, so many yards is what they're called. One loop is a yard. you might need to use the bathroom. You might need two. Close your eyes, put your feet. You might need to change clothes. there's, there's lots of different things you might need to scrape out your legs.

There's just so many different things. And so we all had slightly different systems.

Ally Brettnacher: But

Carly Trulock: ran my furthest distance there. That's my distance pr, which the a hundred k or roughly 62 miles.

[00:44:00] And

I don't know if I would've been able to achieve that last year

Ally Brettnacher: Hmm.

Carly Trulock: in a different format '

Ally Brettnacher: cause

Carly Trulock: I'm mentally pretty strong.

But I get blisters and my stomach is my biggest enemy in race, on race day. Yeah. No matter what. And so getting to stop eat when I'm not moving, when I, my heart rate is down. and change. I changed my socks almost every lap and did blister balm almost every lap. And I, that's the longest I've ever ran by a pretty decent margin.

And no blist. It's the only race I've ever not gotten in blisters, which is

Ally Brettnacher: Well, that's pretty amazing. What's your go-to blister B bomb.

Carly Trulock: Oh my gosh. actually I don't use an official blister bal anymore. I use a and D ointment.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Yeah, I was gonna say, or like, I have jars of like Vaseline that I've used too.

Carly Trulock: I have definitely used Vaseline. I, um, a friend of mine who's,

Ally Brettnacher: I

Carly Trulock: she's in FRC, she might be an official member, I actually don't know, or Julie Gehart, who's a [00:45:00] very established ultra runner in the fisher's community and just a sweet, sweet human. Like I had talked with her before, just after running in.

I, I literally met her from running into her on a path in Fishers, I think, after an FRC run and got to know her and she's like, oh, you need this A and d ointment. I'm gonna send you the link. This is the best thing. And she's a hundred percent right. Best thing is it comes in jars and.

Ally Brettnacher: like. Like,

Carly Trulock: Drugstore packets.

oh yeah. So I can

take packets and put them in my

Ally Brettnacher: Yes.

Carly Trulock: it also works for chafing and things. Mm-hmm. So it's, it's my go-to ever since Julie

Ally Brettnacher: it. Yeah. Okay. That's good to know. I'll definitely link that so that people can go A

Carly Trulock: and d ointment.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Well, and I remember I watched the film, that John made. Mm-hmm. John Kuh and, um, he Which one? What,

Carly Trulock: which one? Which

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, which film? I know. Good call the one for this, this last year. Oh. Um, for the, the first four.

Yeah.

And then, what was the other one called? Like Finding Ultra or, or something like

Carly Trulock: Finding Chasing a hundred? Chasing

Ally Brettnacher: or No. Oh, was it. He [00:46:00] has two other ones. I don't know. Anyway, I'll find those and link 'em too. But they're just really great documentaries for anybody who might not even know any of the people in the videos. Yeah, it's, it's awesome to see and like get a better sense of the format or whatever, but I just think about Tammy, who I'm interviewing soon.

Oh yeah. Um, and Angela, who I'm interviewing soon too. But I just think about Tammy and her blister issues. You're like, she's probably listening. Like, um,

Carly Trulock: and she never gets, I mean, she'll say in the, if you watch the video, but she, she never gets blisters. So that, that was really, I hated that for her. Yeah.

And, and that it's not fun when you're the victim of that. But that is one of the things that like, I hate to love and love to hate about ultras is you control what you can. You, you need to do that. You can't go in without a

Ally Brettnacher: plan. Yeah.

Carly Trulock: you have to have some flexibility or like mentally knowing that things are gonna happen that have never happened before.

Even if you're trying nothing new on race day. I mean, like, Tammy was methodical about hers and like, I just was like, of all the things of all the people for this to

Ally Brettnacher: happen

to her. Ugh. Yeah. Um,

Carly Trulock: you, and like, I hate it, [00:47:00] but it keeps,

ultras

interesting. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. yeah. I'm so intrigued.

Carly Trulock: I love it. I'm doing it again

Ally Brettnacher: this

time. I know. I, TJ Daley who runs the Meshingomesia Track Club, who does Prairie on Fire and then the full Mo.

Carly Trulock: Mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: He's been in my ear a little bit about You should do it. You can do it. Just tell me. And so I can't believe

Carly Trulock: you've not done it yet.

Ally Brettnacher: I can't either.

It's partially just, you know, the young kids and kind of situation and season of life that I'm in, more so than physical. 'cause I'm probably in the darn near like, best shape of my life in these past years. And so,

Carly Trulock: and ultra training requires time. Yeah. I mean, it is, it is hard. It, I mean, it is a time

Ally Brettnacher: consuming,

Well, and you have like a nine to five job, so how does that work into your life schedule?

Marker

Ally Brettnacher: Quick break in the show to tell you about a couple other organizations that support this podcast. First up is Amazfit. Amazfit is a global, smart wearable brand that designs smart watches, fitness trackers, and health technology for active lifestyles like ours. I have the Balance two watch. It has replaced my Apple Watch and my [00:48:00] Garmin watch. It does everything that I need, tracks my runs, tracks my sleep, and the battery life lasts 21 days, which is absolutely amazing. And the price point is just right, 2 99 for the Balance two, which compared to other watches with the same functionality.

It is half the price or even less than half. So if you are looking to upgrade your watch, check out Amazfit A-M-A-Z-F-I-T, and you can use code Thank you Amazfit for supporting this podcast. And then welcome back to the podcast. Cure. Cure is a plant-based hydrating electrolyte drink mix with no added sugar. It's a delicious, natural, and convenient way to keep you hydrated without the artificial stuff. They also have a kids' version that was created in partnership with pediatricians. So if you're looking for something to give your kids that doesn't have a bunch of junk in it, look no further.

So they have adult flavors like watermelon berry, pomegranate [00:49:00] And they have really fun kids flavors like pink lemonade or fruit punch. I have given this to my kids during this season of the year where they've been sick on and off and they need more hydration than just water. I've given it to them in replacement for sugary lemonade. It is perfect for travel as well. I ha I stick some cure packets in almost every bag I carry, just so that I have them on hand staying hydrated isn't just about water. You also need electrolytes. That is why Cure exists. It's clean, tastes great, and my family loves it. You can grab Cure on Amazon or find a store near you at curehydration.com/allyb

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Well, and you have like a nine to five job, so how does that work into your life schedule?

Carly Trulock: Yeah. Life's busy. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Um, Yeah. And

travel. You travel.

Carly Trulock: I do travel. I life is busy. I have, because of my, you know, college experience with running and, and, needing the treadmill. For [00:50:00] stability. Mm-hmm. I've had a, a different relationship with the treadmill, kind of like you

Ally Brettnacher: I love my, yeah. I love my treadmill so much.

Carly Trulock: I, it's not my favorite. I'd rather be outside, but between that and then I, you know, I've been followed a few times on runs, so,

Ally Brettnacher: mm. That makes me so mad.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. I've, I same, I could go off and have, and friends that are listening or watching have heard my rants. Yeah. It's, it's awful. Yeah.

Um,

and so I, the treadmill has provided me with the only path to running in several seasons of my life.

Yeah. and so I, I am, I'm very thankful,

for that. And so while it's not fun to run while I'm traveling for work, that the treadmill,

no, the gym treadmill, it's not fun. It's not exciting. I am a.

Ally Brettnacher: well, especially you don't know what you're gonna get sometimes at some hotels have the worst treadmills. Yeah. But,

Carly Trulock: and you know, when I'm traveling to visit customers or clients, the timing isn't quite as, as rigid. But I go to a lot of conferences, which I, I [00:51:00] love that part of my job. Genuinely. Like I'm a huge nerd. I, I love to go and, and hear about, the, the newest parts of the most common conferences I go to are neuroscience.

Yeah. And, um, but those are long days. I mean, those are, I might have a time change, I might not, but I am probably expected to be there between seven 30 and eight. And the conference will go till between four and six. And then you have a happy hour after where you

Ally Brettnacher: you talk with your clients

Carly Trulock: and then you have dinner and then

Ally Brettnacher: marathon.

Carly Trulock: It is a marathon. And that's multiple days.

Ally Brettnacher: and so

Carly Trulock: I've had to learn to be flexible, with my expectations of myself. But also staying committed. I'm very intentional with the way that I, like, look at my training and look at my life. cause I know there's lots of like, running influencers and, and things out there that'll be like, you have to be all in all the time.

You have to be all in all the time. Yeah. First off, think about how many things you've lost or would've lost if you gave up. 'cause you couldn't be a hundred percent all in. Yeah. so I, I don't like that [00:52:00] mindset, if it works for you, great, but that's not for me. And I can't give a hundred percent to running in a hundred percent to work and a hundred percent to family and a hundred percent to like my volunteer cap.

Whatever I'm doing, I just can't. I have, I'm only one person. And so understanding that there's going to be ebbs and flows.

Ally Brettnacher: mm-hmm.

Carly Trulock: Trying to stay on track. And I, I do a pretty good job of, staying on my schedule when I travel, but there are times where Sara gets a text early and I'm like, Hey, that seven miles turned to five.

I'll see if I can make it up tomorrow. If not, I'm gonna be a few miles down.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carly Trulock: Nobody didn't, yeah. PR didn't be Q because they missed two or three miles. Right. Extra or missed some targets Yeah. On their workouts

Ally Brettnacher: even just missed like one long run. It's fine. I mean, a lot of times people get sick during a training cycle.

Yeah. Or you know, or you've got like a little tweak or something that you just need to rest for a second and it's like, it'll be fine. Most of that is mental.

Carly Trulock: Agreed. And I, I know like my coach says this and I fully agree it's better to go into something undertrained than overtrained.

CARLY T: [00:53:00] Yeah, that's,

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, that's that's a good point.

Carly Trulock: and you know, some people might not agree,

Ally Brettnacher: because you

Carly Trulock: can grid out a lot, but you can't make your body go when it's so burn out that it

Ally Brettnacher: can That's true. Yeah. Remove,

Carly Trulock: so I, I.

Err on this side of caution, but I also have a different history than a lot of people do. And so I'm, I'm not a death before DNF person.

Ally Brettnacher: I've never heard that.

Carly Trulock: Oh, yeah. Death

Ally Brettnacher: before. I've heard like er, or like PR or er before

Carly Trulock: er, PR person

Ally Brettnacher: right? Yeah.

Carly Trulock: Um, which is funny 'cause I'm, I am a, what I would say a gritty person when I'm running, like I'm very intense. I don't like to call a workout. I, yeah. I beat myself up mentally Yep.

When I miss a pace. But, again, the fourth perspective from having it dangled in front of me that I might not be able to run anymore, right. Is like, no one race is worth a life altering injury for me.


Carly Trulock: Mm-hmm. Um, so there's growth, you know.

Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Well, it's interesting. I feel like

some people,

the minds like sometimes tough love and like some of those types of mantras work for me in certain scenarios, but there's [00:54:00] usually scenarios where I know that it's not like I'm not actually going to send myself to the ER or I'm not going to be injured, but just sometimes I go there in like darker moments to be like, get to get myself through it.

Carly Trulock: I, I mean I am, I'm more grit than fru, I would say when it comes to like my, you know, my mantras and how, like what I tell myself, but I am also realistic.

and I, I don't know. I try and focus it on like a lot of what we're feeling. The doubt and the pain cave and all of that is mental. I mean, of course the physical pain is real, but I can't tell you how many times. I've been in a race and been like, oh my God, can I hold this pace any longer?

It's rarely because I can be like, well, my quads are just giving it all they got. Yeah. It is the whole body, the mind, the self-talk. I'm just like, just do it. Just shut up and run.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Just shut up and

Carly Trulock: shut

up and run.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. If only like, you could actually switch your brain. I need to practice more mental strength for [00:55:00] sure. Because the more I've learned about it or talked about it, the more you really realize how it's such a real thing.

Carly Trulock: It is. It very much is. I've, I, um, will do it with my routes sometimes, and intentionally pick a route that I don't wanna do that day or

Ally Brettnacher: no. Yeah. That has like a hill on it or something and you're like, oh, I don't wanna,

Carly Trulock: and I love hills. I'm okay. I, but not for like a speed workout day. Right.

But there are times where like last weekend I picked a hilly route for my speed long run. and. I told Sara I was gonna do it and she's like, yikes, I like it. Let's go.

Ally Brettnacher: And

Carly Trulock: course I am picture

that dropping

f-bombs in like my Siri voice to

Ally Brettnacher: text. Oh.

Carly Trulock: like, text coach Sara, fucking hate this.

And I'm like,

Ally Brettnacher: oh, that's

Carly Trulock: because I can't hit my paces 'cause I'm on hard terrain. But

Ally Brettnacher: I

Carly Trulock: really close,

Ally Brettnacher: which is,

Carly Trulock: and I'm like, okay, I could have done that on the nickel plate.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I could

Carly Trulock: have done that on a flat surface, but I didn't. And I don't do [00:56:00] that every time. but

Ally Brettnacher: those

Carly Trulock: the moments I call on in a tough moment in the

Ally Brettnacher: race.

Mm-hmm.

Carly Trulock: I'm struggling to hit a pace and it's like, Hey, you're doing this on a flat surface right now, like at monumental or

Ally Brettnacher: something. Right.

Carly Trulock: remember when you did this on Brook Schools hill or on, on a hill in HP or something? And those are the moments I. I will focus on, 'cause it gives me data in my head where I'm like, I've done this before.

I can do this

Ally Brettnacher: again. Yes.

What is hp,

Carly Trulock: uh, sorry, Hamilton proper.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Well I was like Holiday Park that doesn't track with

Carly Trulock: pictures. Well, there's Heritage Park, Holland Park, Hamilton Proper. Sorry. Hamilton

Ally Brettnacher: Proper.

Okay. Okay. Yeah, you said that. I was like, okay. Yeah. Well that this whole topic has kind of been along this topic that I wanted to talk to you about, which was burnout and it just feels like you've been given not a gift by any means, from what you've been through, but it seems like dealing with what you've dealt with has helped mm-hmm. Prevent you from just running yourself into the ground and burning out.

Do you agree with that?

Carly Trulock: I think it's given me, a leg up in some [00:57:00] ways. from like a mental perspective, but I would say I am still a burnout risk and have experienced that. I did at the end of last year. and then like looking back on my year, I did

Ally Brettnacher: two

Carly Trulock: marathons, one of which was a hundred K. I did a full marathon. I ran three half marathons, or raced three half marathons, one of which was a big PR effort. I did the eight hour cup team. I did some of the 3 1 7 races. And so some of those aren't all allowed efforts, but I, I was competing a lot.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, that is a lot. What marathon did you do last year?

Carly Trulock: I did Tunnel.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, that's right. I wanna talk about that. 'cause I've never heard of that. Yes, I love

Carly Trulock: it. It's a great one. Even though I did not

Ally Brettnacher: have a great experience,

Carly Trulock: was not the race at the course, it was just not my day. but it, I, I had a big year.

I had, I tried to cram a little bit too much in.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's amazing.

Carly Trulock: and I didn't go into last year thinking I wanna pr at all of these. Like, I, I wasn't laboring under any delusion that I was gonna be able

Ally Brettnacher: to pull

that Right.

Carly Trulock: but after Prairie, I had [00:58:00] dropped my monumental down to the half

Ally Brettnacher: and thought

it'd be

Carly Trulock: really cool if I could PR again, like use all of this fitness that I've gained this year.

And I think that's the, trap that so many of us fall

Ally Brettnacher: into.

And we've, we've

Carly Trulock: got this great base, we've done all these things this year. Don't waste it.

Ally Brettnacher: Not

Carly Trulock: when the opposite is, look at all you did this year. Maybe it's time for a break.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Like, hey, let's, let's button up this year. Let's save it for next year.

Or like Yeah.

Carly Trulock: And I should have after Prairie. Yeah. Um, I learned that lesson and, so I tried and I could tell, and I still took, seven or eight days off after Prairie,

Ally Brettnacher: and

that's good.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. And I, I am a big You have to take time off. Yes. I should have probably taken more, although the funny thing is with the, the setup of Prairie, I wasn't sore after the heart.

Like my body was beat up and my stomach was destroyed. but my legs felt fine after two or three days

because you're running at an, easier pace and Yes, that's true. Yeah. If you're taking walk breaks, I was scraping constantly, you know, it's not [00:59:00] like running an all out effort. Yeah. It wasn't at like a lactate threshold or anything.

Yeah. but still mental burnout and then just overall that's just, just a lot of mileage and

Ally Brettnacher: I knew.

Carly Trulock: Before mile one in monumental half this past year that that was a mistake. And I'm not normally one to count your, like, don't count yourself out that early in a race. Yeah. But this was different.

I was like, okay. And I didn't have an awful race by any stretch. I I was still went a 1 39, 1 38. I mean, I, I held on because I'm competitive and I wanted to prove to myself that I could still push through a, a tough effort. but

after that I was like, it's time for some time off. and I was talking with some people on a, a club run a couple weeks ago and I said, I think the hard part about taking time off with running is we're always so worried about losing fitness,

Ally Brettnacher: but.

Carly Trulock: this is kind of a hot take.

Not everybody agrees with me on this and that's okay. but I.

CARLY T: I,

Carly Trulock: Your end of year [01:00:00] break or end of season break? I don't mean after like one race. I mean after, my year last year, if you don't lose a little bit of fitness in your break, your break wasn't long enough.

it'll come back.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah,

Carly Trulock: it will come back.

But if you feel like after your break you are fresh and ready to go, you probably didn't take long enough break. You should feel like you've lost some things. your body needs a break.

Ally Brettnacher: How long was your break?

Carly Trulock: I took, I think in the three weeks after monumental half. I ran once or twice and there were like five Ks.

And then after that I ran twice a week. Okay. On and off. and no schedule like Sara, like I hire Sara I'm just like, can I? Like a lawyer. I'm like, can I keep you on retainer for

a year

and just do

Ally Brettnacher: and just do whatever? Yeah. And

Carly Trulock: was like, I don't want any expectations from, for the end of the year, I wanna start fresh.

Mm-hmm.

You know, and the holidays are a lot. I I also traveled a lot for work after monumental last year, I think I was out west twice in Boston [01:01:00] once and like a five week

period. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: that's a lot.

Carly Trulock: And so I did a lot of walking and I definitely felt it. I lost fitness. that's okay.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That

Carly Trulock: That is okay. Yeah. and I know I'll be stronger for it.

I mean, if, if the elites who, it's their whole job

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Right. Take time off. That's such a good point.

Carly Trulock: I should at least be doing that.

Ally Brettnacher: Right? Yeah, that's, that's a great point. I also think having a coach during those times can be helpful to just say, Hey, make me. Mm-hmm. And take this

Carly Trulock: in check.

Know that you

Ally Brettnacher: give me a test. Yeah. Like, know that I'll be in trouble. 'cause I like am a rule follower, so I don't wanna, you know,

Carly Trulock: it's also a good time to kind of going back to where I said I'm very intentional about running not being my entire identity, even though it is a huge part, to remind myself there are other things, especially for the time of year, like I got, back into baking and stuff and I love to bake and it's the holidays and I love to read.

So I read more and just did more things at home. Thi other things that give me joy [01:02:00] that I was like, this is a good reminder that, you should not put all your eggs in one

basket.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Well, you like looking at me and saying that and I'm like thinking, yeah. You know, most of my personality is running, but yeah.

If anything, I need less hobbies. I

Carly Trulock: gonna say, I would not say that. Your whole personality. Yeah. I mean like

a lot of, a

lot of what I do,

a lot of what you do is fueled by running, but you are not somebody, I would say your whole personality is

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Well thanks. 'cause sometimes I'm like, yeah.

I mean, if I wasn't able to run or, you know, what would that look like for me? And Yeah. Hopefully I don't ever have to answer that question, but

Carly Trulock: yeah, I, I think that you're, you're more spread out than you give yourself credit for. cause you know, running is, still a massive part of my life.

I'm sure that's probably one of the first identifiers that would pop into a lot of people's heads that I Yeah. in my life it this Oh yeah. She's a runner. Mm-hmm. Um, and I am, and I love, I love that part of my identity. Yeah. Like I do, I, but I have,

CARLY T: I

Ally Brettnacher: I don't know

Carly Trulock: the whole like.

running

is your whole life or you know, one of my least favorite sayings [01:03:00] is running is my therapy.

Running is therapy.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh yeah.

Carly Trulock: Running is running and therapy is therapy. Yes. we should not equate the two. Yeah. Can be a tool in your toolkit. Love it. But it is not therapy. It is not the whole thing.

Ally Brettnacher: Um,

agreed. Um, a hundred percent.

Carly Trulock: And you know, like, and if I ever get to that point, 'cause there are definitely times where I'm like, I need to go on a run.

and that's okay. But if I feel like I'm doing all time, I'm like, whoa. Like, not to sound corny, but what are we running from? What are we running from?

Yeah. Do

we need to sit down and talk? Do we need, you know, do I

Ally Brettnacher: I need, mm-hmm.

Carly Trulock: do, do need to go see some friends? Do I need to, you know, just go to bed? Like, what, what do I need?

Because this is not, it can't be everything.

Ally Brettnacher: No. I think people who say running is their therapy have never been to therapy.

Carly Trulock: I would think so

Ally Brettnacher: because it's like, no, There's, it's not like a one way thing. Yeah. Like there's, it's a, yeah. It's very different. It's a tool in the toolkit for sure.

Yeah. And it's definitely a big

Carly Trulock: be therapeutic.

Ally Brettnacher: That's, yeah.

Carly Trulock: But it's, it's not therapy. Yeah. Um, and it shouldn't be, and I say that as somebody with, you know, clinical diagnosed [01:04:00] anxiety. I, yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. I,

Carly Trulock: I'm very open about mental health. I think that having a well-balanced diet and it's, I think it's empirical, it's evidence.

Yeah. And science, you, you know, having a well-balanced diet, having an active lifestyle definitely helps with mental health, but it's not gonna fix everything. Yeah. you know, therapy is real. Having a support system is real. Medication is real. Yeah. and I'm all for it. Yeah. And so it's, I'm, I'm very cautious, especially, you know, my nieces are now older, not older.

They're just, you know, they're finishing high school age, but,

Ally Brettnacher: very

Carly Trulock: intentional about the way that I talk about. Running and mental health mm-hmm. And the things that go in it for all runners, particularly female runners, but all runners, body image, food. Yeah. All the things that go into it cause I know as much as I put out that I am, you everybody's a runner.

Every, you know, all of that. There are still days where I'll look in the mirror and not like what I see and are not,

Ally Brettnacher: not

Yeah. Same.

Carly Trulock: and I think owning

Ally Brettnacher: that

Carly Trulock: you can be body positive and you can [01:05:00] think all that, but sometimes the demons are gonna creep through. Yeah. it needs to still be part of the conversation.

Mm-hmm. Because, you know, I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that I like every day, like, wake up and I'm like, I love

Ally Brettnacher: what

I

say

because

Carly Trulock: that is not the case. but practicing, what we say and being more intentional Is very important to me for the next generation of runners. Mm-hmm.

Because life's too short to hate yourself

Ally Brettnacher: Right. Well, and we've just been like this, you could have a whole nother podcast about this, but like, you as a female, especially, like, and even men, I mean, you've been preconditioned to like, when you look at a photo of yourself Oh yeah. Like the things that you look and fixate on first are insane Yeah.

To think about. And I've seen some pictures like that on the internet where people are like, imagine like the brainwashing that has to happen for you to look at this picture and see this. Yeah. And you're like, that's so true. And it's terrifying for me, especially like having kids, because I never wanna say anything negative about myself in front of my kids or like look at a picture and be like, oh, that's not a good one.

Let's take, you know, it's just like, no.

Carly Trulock: [01:06:00] I a hundred percent agree. I am, I'm so intentional. I try to be, I, I mean, I'm

Ally Brettnacher: No, oh yeah. And believe me, yeah, me.

Carly Trulock: but I. I try so hard not to act a certain way around food or I will call this out and if you've been around me, you've heard me call people out on this, food is not to be earned.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

You

Carly Trulock: not earn that ice cream cone. You did not. Food is not to be earned. and food can have like one serving or one meal or whatever's whole value could be, it made you happy 'cause you wanted it. It not everything

Ally Brettnacher: has to Yeah. Has to be nutritious.

Carly Trulock: to Yeah. To be nutritious has to be nutritious. Oh my god. Leaf protein out of

Ally Brettnacher: my

Carly Trulock: cupcakes or cookies.

Like, I don't, or

Ally Brettnacher: coffee. Now I'm just like, gosh, everything has protein in

Carly Trulock: it.

Just, Lord, let me just have some things. And, so I, I'm very, I don't know, I see so many things, on social media and, whether it's, Famous runners or, or just runners with like this big following or, just, our normal people where [01:07:00] it's like a constant body check, what I eat in a day.

Ally Brettnacher: Right.

Carly Trulock: Every and, and I, you know, I'm conscious I don't, everybody deserves to have their own platform and do what they wanna do. And, but I, I'm cautious of that because it just draws so much attention to the things that mm-hmm. Don't matter

Ally Brettnacher: as

Carly Trulock: much. Right. Yeah. Um, and, and things that I don't wanna model for my,

Ally Brettnacher: you

Carly Trulock: know, I think about my twin nieces who are three and a half and I'm like, oh my God, you know, they've not experienced, somebody, you know, being at the pool and being like, oh, I feel so fat.

And I'm like, oh my God.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

First

Carly Trulock: all, fat's not bad. Like,

Ally Brettnacher: right.

Carly Trulock: I mean, I've even tried and it's so funny 'cause if my nieces watch this, they're gonna be like, you're nuts, for this part.

But when they were younger, my mother-in-law has a pool and I

Ally Brettnacher: remember

Carly Trulock: over there and swimming we're all in swimsuits and they were both like, the, the two that were there [01:08:00] were both around, like, you know, that, that age, like that middle school, late middle school, early high school age and

Ally Brettnacher: I remember

Carly Trulock: we were grilling burgers.

And

Ally Brettnacher: I'm like,

Carly Trulock: looking at Tony and I was like, he's like, what? I'm like, I'm gonna be annoying for a second. And he was like, okay. And

Ally Brettnacher: I

Carly Trulock: like, I'm gonna eat a burger and I'm gonna be like, I've like been swimming so hard and like trying to say things out loud that I wish I would've heard. My dad used be like, I'm so excited to have this burger.

And I was, but like almost out doing the negative self-talk in my own head.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Right.

Carly Trulock: And then in my own head, I'm like, we're not gonna sit here and flex our stomach and suck in. Or like,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah,

Carly Trulock: belly is a space and it's gonna get bigger when I put things in it and we

are just gonna be okay with it.

And it sounds like it's so much, it's so crazy to think that we think about these

Ally Brettnacher: things. Yes, it is.

Carly Trulock: But I remember being at pool parties at their age with my parents' friends and looking at some of the older girls and being like, I wish my body looked like that. I wish I did this. Maybe I shouldn't eat that.

And it's crazy to think about how much of that can be [01:09:00] perpetuated accidentally in the running world. Mm-hmm. and it's so crazy. And I just, you know, we're not gonna fix everything overnight and, and we Some of it is what it is, but I think talking about it, being honest about it,

Ally Brettnacher: you know,

Carly Trulock: giving space to the feelings, then moving on and focusing on other things that are more important is the best way to normalize calling

it out.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. Yeah.

Carly Trulock: So I, yeah, I, that's, that's my

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I mean, it's like, we could talk about that forever. Um, okay. I wanna talk briefly about, is it called Tunnel Vision? Was that the name of it? What's it called? Tunnel. Why am I thinking Tunnel Vision? It's not that.

Carly Trulock: No. 'cause you're, you're right, it's, it's confusing.

There's three different tunnel races. Um, it's the same course and there's tunnel vision. Oh, so tunnel light and light at the end of the tunnel.

Ally Brettnacher: where is this?

Carly Trulock: It's out in Snoqualmie Pass area of Washington State.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, cool.

Carly Trulock: yeah, so a few people in FRC have done the race, which is how I, came to learn, come to learn about it.

Michelle got her BQ there, Michelle Guyer. Wow. Dan Kerf [01:10:00] has run.

Ally Brettnacher: it.

Carly Trulock: Treg Harris has run it. I might be forgetting somebody,

Ally Brettnacher: but

so many people I still need to meet too. I'm like,

Carly Trulock: Yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: sorry. No,

Carly Trulock: No, no, it's good. Um, but it's beautiful. You start up in the mountains, and you run down a trail and it's not quite like the Revel ones where it's like a whole mile down

Ally Brettnacher: or

something.

Yeah, I've done one of those as it was my PR for a long time. I'm sure. I mean,

Carly Trulock: mean, but still, like, that's hard in its own way, but

Ally Brettnacher: sure. But it's like really helpful.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. Well, this, this one, before Boston did their, the, um,

Ally Brettnacher: the changes they made for elevation

Carly Trulock: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: yeah, yeah.

Carly Trulock: It's, it's just over that, normally was, so I think the cutoff's like 1500 feet.

Of elevation loss, and I think this one was like 17. Okay. And this year they've taken it down. and so now it's like,

Ally Brettnacher: I was gonna say, they probably had to find a way to to switch that up so they could, so

Carly Trulock: weren't going to Oh. Um, at least not this year. And then all of the, when we were getting all the snow, they were getting rain and there were like landslides.

Oh.

CARLY T: Oh.

Carly Trulock: Um,

Ally Brettnacher: Oh. Um, and trail,

Carly Trulock: like, so trails were destroyed. Oh no. [01:11:00] and they think that they'll get them, you know, you know, put back or whatever, but that was the perfect opportunity for them to change a little bit.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So part

Carly Trulock: the course is the same now part of it's different. but yeah, you start up in the mountains, it's beautiful.

I like to listen to music while I run races. I don't always listen to music while I'm training, but, I didn't listen to music for the first half and just looked around. I mean, you pass waterfalls, mountains, cliffs, beautiful. Just gorgeous stuff you can't see around here. Yeah. and all you hear is that it's like half packed trail, some gravel.

so I didn't wear like my full race shoes. and had like little like trail, they call 'em like shoe gators.

Ally Brettnacher: in the

Carly Trulock: net gator to prevent rocks from getting in your socks.

Ally Brettnacher: Um,

Carly Trulock: but

you, I just, you just hear the crunch. Mm-hmm. And birds and waterfall. So if you, you are somebody that needs a lot of crowd support's, probably not your race.

You also, like if you do have family or friends that go [01:12:00] out there, you,

Ally Brettnacher: they don't, they aren't gonna, you're

Carly Trulock: not really gonna see 'em, because you can't get to the trail on any vehicle. they give them the race directors like a pass for that one day to like. Get water out to some stops. Okay. But otherwise, no.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. That's really cool.

Carly Trulock: it's gorgeous race. I, unfortunately, it was just a not my day. I was on track for a three 19 for the first 15 miles and feeling great. I mean, I was happy. I was, I was just

Ally Brettnacher: I

Carly Trulock: like, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna BQ with enough B leeway. Oh,

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, right. Yep.

Carly Trulock: and then around mile 15, 15 and a half, my stomach started to turn a little bit, which is, has been a problem for me in the past.

No matter how hard I train with my nutrition race days, race day, and unfortunately

Ally Brettnacher: the temperature

Carly Trulock: was climbing, it climbed. From low to high that day, it was a 40

Ally Brettnacher: increase.

Oh, that's so hard.

Carly Trulock: I,

it [01:13:00] wasn't that much from like the start of the race to the end, but it w it was a 25, 30.

Ally Brettnacher: That's a lot. I mean even 10 degree difference is you can feel for sure.

And

Carly Trulock: sure. And it, I was starting to feel the sun was coming out. we're also a little bit closer to the city now,

Ally Brettnacher: less

than out. Mm-hmm.

Carly Trulock: so that just feel, you have a little bit less tree protection, which makes it cooler up north. And

Ally Brettnacher: yeah,

Carly Trulock: I was starting to feel my stomach turn. and I even remember, I voice texted

Ally Brettnacher: Rachel

Carly Trulock: and Michelle and coach Sara and told them all stomach's starting to turn.

And I get, I'm getting this really nice, like quick tidbits of advice in my ear. AirPods. Like, take a second walk, let it settle. Sips of water, little ones, whatever. Then it gets worse. Then I puke. Aw. Then my stomach, I have a picture. I will not be linking

Ally Brettnacher: it,

Carly Trulock: but, of, if you see me in person, I will show you.

I'm just not sending it

Ally Brettnacher: out. Yeah.

Carly Trulock: my belly is distended. that was like in mile 21. I was so bloated, it didn't matter that I was puking and other things were happening that I will spare everybody details on. Just awful. [01:14:00] And it got, I, I kept trying, like, I would have like a, a slower mile and I was like, let's just try, try one more time.

It's like, as soon as I went back down at a pace, my stomach was just like, we're not doing it.

we're not doing it.

Ally Brettnacher: frustrating. So

Carly Trulock: went from being on pace for three 19 for the first 15 miles to running like a three 40. Okay.

Ally Brettnacher: which

Carly Trulock: not a bad marathon time by any stretch, but I went from the highest high to the lowest low.

Right? Very quickly. Yeah. In a race. And I, I was, I was devastated. I mean, I, I was so sad. I was in so much pain. I was determined to finish the race because it, I wasn't at an injury risk. I was just very uncomfortable. And it's not an easy race to DNF. You have to Oh, make it to an aid station and wait for a gator to come pick

Ally Brettnacher: up.

Oh yeah.

Carly Trulock: might be sitting there for an hour or two because they can't do it when there's runners in the course.

Ally Brettnacher: Right? Yeah. Um,

Carly Trulock: so, you know, and they tell you, they're very open. Like, Hey, if you get injured, like we will get to you. but if you're just DN Fing, like you're gonna [01:15:00] be sitting there for a minute.

Ally Brettnacher: Um,

CARLY T: Okay.

Carly Trulock: and so that, that was my tunnel experience.

Ally Brettnacher: there a tunnel? Yes. Sorry. I'm assuming it's like

the

Carly Trulock: important thing. I just

Ally Brettnacher: completely lost over it.

Carly Trulock: it's right at the start. Okay. so the new course is a little different from what I've read, but when I did it, you start just not even a half mile before an old train tunnel through the

Ally Brettnacher: mountains.

Okay.

Carly Trulock: And you run through it and I think it's

Ally Brettnacher: two miles.

Oh wow. In

Carly Trulock: a tunnel. And for the first, like third ish, you can't even see the light at the end of tunnel. It is pitch black and it is kind of like, a subtle V

shaped, like a think like a country road where the rain will run off. Yeah. it's tight because the race just started.

Yeah. and there's like puddles lining,

Ally Brettnacher: the

Carly Trulock: side, and it's not even, and it's dark. You have to have a headlamp.

Ally Brettnacher: a headlamp. Wow. Okay. I was gonna ask that. Yep.

Carly Trulock: they, they enforce having a headlamp and then there's a drop bucket. You like put, there's, they have an extra [01:16:00] thing on their bibs that you affixed your headlamp

Ally Brettnacher: and

Carly Trulock: you drop it at the end and then they'll bring 'em back to

Ally Brettnacher: you.

Oh, that's smart. 'cause that would be kind of annoying to have to have it a hundred the whole time.

Carly Trulock: and your GPS kind of gets funky in there.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, sure. Oh, that's wild.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. So I, I was very careful when I got out to make sure it was matching up with the mile markers and it mine corrected itself pretty quickly.

but yeah, you're in a tunnel. That's honestly my least favorite part. I'm a little claustrophobic.

Ally Brettnacher: It's a lot. That'd be really bad to have towards the end. I would really not like that.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. And luckily it's right at the beginning, right? You get it over with, people start to spread out. I stuck with a PACE group when I was in the tunnel.

I actually ended up passing the PACE group because I kept getting clipped and elbowed and

Ally Brettnacher: things. Yeah. And.

Carly Trulock: It just was stressing me out. So I went around and Yeah. Yeah. Did it, it's a cool experience. I mean, it, it's not my favorite part of the race. Yeah. But it was, it was a cool experience. And then you come out to this gorgeous wilderness and there's a waterfall not far, and the mountains, I mean, it's just so gorgeous that you immediately, you're over whatever, [01:17:00] uncomfortableness, you felt's in the tunnel.

Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: tunnel. Yeah. That's really cool.

Carly Trulock: So I actually, decided last night, I'm doing it again.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, okay. Redemption. I redemption. Yeah.

Carly Trulock: I'm gonna do it again. so I talked with Coach last night and decided that would be my marathon again

Ally Brettnacher: year. Okay. What time of year is that?

Carly Trulock: So there's three different ones.

I'm gonna do the one in June.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Carly Trulock: great. So

I am, that's gonna be my marathon. And because if nothing, like it was not my race, that was not a great day. The course was beautiful and I wanna do it again where I'm not hating everything for the second half.

Ally Brettnacher: That seems fair.

Carly Trulock: and I, I really liked it out there, so I'm gonna do it again.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, that's really cool.

Again. Well, that answers already answers one of the, and the podcast questions. So, end of the podcast questions. Yes. And we're gonna talk about your upcoming campaign because that's very important.

Carly Trulock: Oh yeah. Thank you. Yep. Thank you.

Ally Brettnacher: Well not let, let us forget about that and I will talk about it at the beginning. Thank you. Um, but okay, so end of the podcast questions. What [01:18:00] is your favorite running mantra and or song? Ooh.

Carly Trulock: Song is easy. it's called Do It by

Ally Brettnacher: Mico and KC Camp.

Okay. I don't know this song. It's,

Carly Trulock: You've probably heard it, like mixed into things. Okay. It's, I think it's like early two

Ally Brettnacher: thousands.

Carly Trulock: Oh, I like it. Um, I love it. It's such a great pump up song and, mantras. I have lots that I use, but, a lot of what I will say is I get to do this.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

I love that one.

I

Carly Trulock: get to do this. and when I start to feel like really heavy mentally, it's

Ally Brettnacher: just get

Carly Trulock: to the next mile.

Mm-hmm.

Over and over. Yeah. Um,

Ally Brettnacher: and

Carly Trulock: if I really getting desperate, it is, do you really wanna go to bed tonight? Disappointed with the choice you made right now.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Right.

Carly Trulock: do you really wanna go to bed disappointed or do you wanna leave it all out there?

Ally Brettnacher: Right. Yeah, that's, that's a good one

Carly Trulock: And, and accept how it ends.

Yeah. cause you can't be mad at yourself if you leave it all out there.

Ally Brettnacher: Right. You're like, that just wasn't, wasn't my day. Yep. Yeah.

so yeah,

[01:19:00] Okay. Those are good. And then the next one is, what is your next finish line and or milestone

Carly Trulock: running wise? My next finish line will probably, my next big one will be tunnel.

I'm also throwing out the idea of tr going for a hundred miles at Prairie this year. is in

Ally Brettnacher: September. Yep.

Carly Trulock: I, my caveat with that is it's weather dependent.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. That's fair.

Carly Trulock: My stomach and heart rate, I'm not, do not cooperate with hot weather. I, I, yeah, that's really hard. I'm not a hot weather runner and we've gotten very fortunate the last two years with Prairie weather.

Yeah. So if we get another great weather day, I'm, I'm going for a hundred. If we don't, then I will listen to my body and have a fun day.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. There you go. Are you doing Carmel or the Mini or any, are you signed up for any other local races?

Carly Trulock: I'm not right now. I will probably do. Half at Carmel and I'll probably go do the half in Cleveland too.

Okay. 'cause I Have friends running. Okay.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay

Carly Trulock: my friend Sara Huntley is gonna run her first full there. so super [01:20:00] excited

Ally Brettnacher: for

her. That's really

exciting.

Carly Trulock: really exciting. And, um, so I have some other friends going, to race various distances or just to go make the trips. I think I'll probably do Cleveland half in May, as like a final tuneup before,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah.

Before tunnel.

Carly Trulock: So

Ally Brettnacher: Cool. Oh, I can't wait to cheer you on. And then huge milestone that you're seeking this year with this campaign that you're about to start and raise $150,000.

I hope

so. So let's talk about that.

Carly Trulock: yeah, I, I am really excited for this campaign.

I am honored to say I've been nominated for the Blood Cancer United's Visionary of the Year campaign for 2026. if you're familiar, it used to be called LLS or Leukemia Lymphoma Society. Okay.

Ally Brettnacher: is the same. Yes. I did not realize that. I'm glad you said that.

Carly Trulock: Yes, it is the same. They just, switched it to, new name Blood Cancers United 'cause it's more than just leukemia and Lymphoma.

Ally Brettnacher: Ah.

Carly Trulock: it's all blood cancers. It always has been. The name was just a little bit misleading, so they decided to update it. so I, I'm so excited, nervous, but I, I'm a very passionate, purpose driven type of person, and so this [01:21:00] challenge, seems perfect. I was so excited to be nominated.

so the 10 week campaign starts February 26th and goes through May.

Seventh, fifth, But, it's 10 weeks. And during that time, myself and my team will try to raise as much money as possible for Blood Cancer United. I picked the insane goal of $150,000, which, that's a huge number. And, I picked that for one main reason. if I get to $150,000 in my campaign, I get, not one, but two research grants that I get to name after friends or family. I have lost two very important people in my life to blood cancer, both of which were multiple myeloma, blood cancer. So my dad's sister, my aunt Becky, succumbed to her cancer just a few years ago.

and my mom's dad, who.

also battled multiple myeloma, blood cancer, and he passed away when I was, in elementary school. So I decided I'm not gonna pick, I don't want to name one research grant. I [01:22:00] want to name

Ally Brettnacher: one for each of them.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. each of them.

Oh, yeah,

that's a great point.

which

means I have to hit $150,000 and so, you know, it, I've been asked so far you what happens if you don't. Right. and which is a real possibility. It's a, it is a huge goal. Yeah. this is a shoot for the moon goal, and so I will flip a coin.

Ally Brettnacher: There you go.

Carly Trulock: like, I am not gonna pick. Yeah. I will flip a coin and it's kind of like the goals we make in running, what's the worst that's gonna happen with a big goal?

You miss, but you still

Ally Brettnacher: you're gonna raise a

ton of money. Yeah. I it's, you know, or you miss, but you still ran a marathon. Mm-hmm. Um, so for this, it's, oh darn, I only wrote I only raised a hundred grand.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Even

Carly Trulock: if it was 50 grand. It's, it's, it's so much, it's a ton of money for a, a really important cause.

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. That's just incredible. And for anybody listening. Maybe don't ask what happens if you don't

hit the goal.

Um, and, and if you've asked her that, I mean, that's fine, but it's not the nicest thing to ask when somebody puts a big goal out there. just saying just a word of words of advice.

Carly Trulock: That's a good point. It didn't, if [01:23:00] you did and you're watching this, it didn't

Ally Brettnacher: hurt

my

face. Right. It's, but it's

Carly Trulock: it's also like,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. 'cause in their mind they're like, wow, that's insane.

Like, yeah. But yeah, you, yeah. Let's just support.

Well,

Carly Trulock: and I'm, I'm a very much, I'm a heart of my sleeve person and I, I totally respect, not everybody likes to put their goals out there.

I don't necessarily put all of my goals out there, but I, I'm not shy about it because for this one especially, I'm like,

there's a very specific reason why I'm, why I'm going for $150,000 and, I'm gonna do everything in my power to hit it. so if you're watching, if you're listening and you feel compelled, Please reach out. We are looking for partners and donors and, anybody who wants to be, involved in this incredible campaign because the stuff that

Ally Brettnacher: the

Carly Trulock: go toward are, it's not just research, although it is a lot of cancer research. it's also helping families and caretakers and, all the things that come with the very scary reality of families and individuals living with cancer.

Yeah. And [01:24:00] so I'm excited for a new challenge, something outside of running. and I hope we can pull it off. I'm really excited.

Ally Brettnacher: Well, I'm here to

Carly Trulock: help.

Thank you. Yeah. I thank you for giving me some space to

Ally Brettnacher: about it. Yeah, well, absolutely. I'm so excited. Yeah,

it's incredible. if you're

Carly Trulock: friends with me on social media, you're gonna see a lot of that for 10 weeks,

Ally Brettnacher: So just reshare it. Like, there's also, I think Well in the running world, you know, there's a lot of people raising money for charity running in particular.

Mm-hmm. You know, but there are so many other ways you can help that aren't monetary. Yeah. Like if you see her share age, just reshare it, reshare it. Like that's a huge way to help That doesn't cost anything.

Carly Trulock: Yeah. There's, and there, I'm gonna probably be like putting out some events and things, or if, you wanna show up and take part, it would be, you know, a very low, if any, financial commitment. Right. But just, just a way to get the word out there. it's something that's very near and dear to me.

And it's crazy since I have announced being a part of this campaign, how many people have reached out to me and been like,

Ally Brettnacher: I

Carly Trulock: been touched by this type of blood ca like my family or a [01:25:00] friend or, it's just so prevalent. And especially with, the industry that I work in, I, I see the science side of it a lot and so I.

I was really excited by the prospect to getting this side of

Ally Brettnacher: it,

Mm-hmm. Um,

Carly Trulock: which is, you know, the fundraising part, funding the grants that I get to read the papers on a year later. Yeah. Or five

Ally Brettnacher: years

later. Right.

Carly Trulock: Right.

And so I, I am really excited to be a part of this side of the, picture. And hope we can do some

Ally Brettnacher: good.

Yeah. Let's go. So excited. Oh, thank you Carly, for doing this. It was so much fun. So, so much fun to get to know you. Better.

Carly Trulock: Yes.

I thank you for asking me and for having

Ally Brettnacher: me

on

here. Absolutely. And thank you to everybody who has listened. Yes. Or maybe watched. Or watched. Yeah. Yeah. And happy running.

Thank you.

Yay.

Carly Trulock: Yay.

Ally Brettnacher: If you enjoyed this episode of Finish Lines and Milestones from Sandy Boy Productions, please share rate review. It means a lot. It helps other people find the show, and I would really love to have other people find the show. Thank you so much to Relay Active, Amazfit and Cure for sponsoring this [01:26:00] podcast, and if you can believe it.

Next week's episode Marks 150 episodes of the podcast. So first Wednesday of next week, we'll be catching up with my coach, Rachel Sinders, who will be fresh off of the Tokyo Marathon. So you'll have to look for that catching up with Coach episode. Make sure you're subscribed to the show so you can see when it drops.

And then, yeah, my 150th episode is featuring Rob. Perez, if you don't already follow Rob on Instagram or TikTok, you should. He and I got to run the Marine Corps marathon together last October, and so I tell the whole story about how that came together and really get to know Rob a lot better. he's an absolutely amazing human being.

Everybody needs to know and support Rob. So I will see you next week. Thanks for listening.

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