Finish Lines & Milestones: Episode 171: Carolyn Coffin - Inspired Soles

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Guest: Carolyn Coffin @carolyn.c.coffin

Show Notes:

Carolyn Coffin and I met through the SandyBoy Productions podcast network — she hosts the Inspired Soles podcast and just celebrated her 300th episode.

During this episode, sponsored by Kila and Huug, we talk about:

• [01:32] Learning to embrace milestones without ever feeling like she "knows what she's doing"
• [06:00] Life in Winnipeg, Manitoba
• [13:00] Growing up "dabbling" in running and hating a childhood 5K her parents made her run every spring
• [15:00] The wild story of how her mom found out she was having twins from an X-ray days before Carolyn and her twin brother arrived
• [24:00] Her brutal, untrained 4:17 debut at the 2000 Marine Corps Marathon — and why it sent her underground on marathons for 15 years
• [28:00] Getting coached by her brother in her 30s and dropping from a 48-minute 10K to sub-40 almost overnight
• [30:00] Her path from physiotherapy to health coaching to becoming a run coach, and why that background still shapes how she coaches today
• [37:00] Meeting her Inspired Soles co-host Kim Sankey and building the podcast from a list of just 50 potential guests
• [49:00] Coming back in 2015 to run a 3:21 PR at the Vermont City Marathon
• [51:00] Turning 42 and launching "42 at 42" — the ongoing quest to run her fastest-ever marathon at her current age
• [52:00] Raising money for a 2020 Chicago Marathon that got cancelled at the last second
• [54:00] Getting pulled off the course at the halfway point of the 2022 Manitoba Marathon because of extreme heat
• [59:00] A near-perfectly paced 3:23 at CIM that reignited her belief a sub-3:21 was still possible
• [60:00] Hiring a two-time Canadian Olympic marathoner as her coach
• [63:00] The 2024 Chicago Marathon bathroom emergency that cost her a PR by about three minutes
• [65:00] Winning the Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas 10K outright — and wearing the finish tape out on the town that night
• [70:00] Discovering The Marathon Project — the pandemic-born race in Arizona — and DNF'ing it despite a great training block
• [81:00] Coaching 15 women toward a sub-1:40 half marathon and a client chasing a sub-44 10K this September
• [82:00] Her rhythm and fight mantras, including the one she saves for the finish: "it's go time"

Previous Guests Mentioned

• Whitney Heins - Episode 163
• Lindsey Hein - Episode 100

Sponsor Details

• Kila - Use ALLYB for $50 off your first order
• Huug - Use ALLYB for 15% off your order (combinable with buy 3, get 1 free)

Other Links

• Follow me on Instagram @allytbrett_runs
• Subscribe to Finish Lines & Milestones weekly newsletter

This is a SandyBoy Productions podcast.

Episode Transcript:

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

Carolyn Coffin: And so what was I thinking? I was thinking, "I am channeling my inner Keira D'Amato," and I was like, hands up and like, I am milking this moment for all it's worth 'cause it's probably never gonna happen again.

Ally Brettnacher: Welcome to Finish Lines and Milestones, a podcast for everyday runners. I'm your host, Ally Brettnacher, and if you run, you're a runner, and every runner has a story. Join me each week as I share these stories and we celebrate finish lines and milestones together. This week's episode is brought to you by Killa and Hug.

More on them in a moment, but first, I wanna introduce this week's guest, who also has a running podcast, and also in the Sandy Boy Productions podcast network. That's how we met. Carolyn Coffin hosts the Inspired Souls podcast. She is Canadian. She currently lives in Winnipeg, Canada, and she just celebrated 300 episodes.

So if you like my podcast, you'll love Carolyn's podcast, too. Same idea, wants to tell stories of runners and inspire you. She also has on pro runners, and [00:01:00] I think you're gonna love her. She has been chasing a sub 3:21:00 marathon for over a decade, and her persistence is so inspiring. It keeps slipping through her fingers because COVID.

Chicago was canceled. Then she ran Manitoba Marathon, but got pulled off the course halfway through because of the heat, and then 2024 Chicago was going great until the bathroom messed it all up. So I know a lot of you will relate to these struggles and she opens up about her first marathon and why then it took her 15 years to run another one.

We also talk about her highlights where once she broke the tape at Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas, the 10K, and you guys know I love that race, so that was fun to talk about. And she is also a running coach now. So I know you're gonna really enjoy meeting Carolyn Coffin Oh, and if you're new here, I don't always sound like this. I am struggling currently, so all right, enjoy this conversation

Hooray. Welcome, Carolyn. I'm so happy you're here.

Carolyn Coffin: Yes, thank you so much for having me. It's so nice to see you and connect.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, [00:02:00] and congratulations on 300 podcast episodes.

Thank you very much. Yes, it's... I never know whether we celebrate these milestones or what, but it's, it's kind of a big deal, so yeah, I was- I, oh

my gosh.

Carolyn Coffin: And it, and n- not so much about the celebrating, but just almost, like, about the reflecting, like- Mm-hmm ... what have I learned and what have... Like, you know, there's just a lot of things that happen in six years almost of- Mm-hmm ... podcasting, so yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, so you kind of feel like you know what you're doing now?

Carolyn Coffin: Never. Never feel like you know what you're doing. 'Cause I don't. No. How many are you at right now?

Ally Brettnacher: Um, I am gonna be at 170 this week.

Carolyn Coffin: Okay,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. So I'm inching up on 200, which is, yeah, like the reflecting thing. I'm like, "Don't go back and listen to episode one." Mm,

Carolyn Coffin: yes, definitely

Ally Brettnacher: don't do that. 'Cause it was, the audio was really bad.

Um- Mm-hmm ... so yeah, it's crazy.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah, we've learned one or two things, that's for sure.

Ally Brettnacher: Well, perfect. Well, I'm so excited for people to meet you today. Um, we're both in the same podcast network.

Carolyn Coffin: Yes.

Ally Brettnacher: Thanks, Lindsay.

Carolyn Coffin: Shout-out to [00:03:00] Sandy Boy Productions network.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, so one of my first questions for you was, are you gonna come to Monumental-

Carolyn Coffin: I know

in November? I know. This is a bit... Okay, am I invited? That's my question back to you.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, can I peer pressure you? Like, please come.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah, I really, really wanted to come last year. I saw that you and Lindsay did the, uh, you guys had a, like a, a live show, didn't you? Or a party. Yeah, with Emily Erdel. It was- Yeah, yeah, yeah

Ally Brettnacher: amazing.

Carolyn Coffin: I was, like, having major FOMO. And then it's really funny because Indy, if I'm gonna do another marathon, that is the marathon. Like, there, for so many reasons, that's the marathon for me. Um, and this year, unfortunately, maybe we'll get into this in the talk- Mm-hmm. ... but I am not feeling a marathon this fall.

It's, it's not happening. So then I'm like, "Well, would I go if I wasn't running a marathon?" And then I'm like, "Ooh, they have a half. Like, maybe I could be- Mm ... up for a half." But then I'm like, "Is it sold out?" So, so many questions. No. But- [00:04:00] It is- ... I honestly think even if it was sold out and I couldn't run, I think I would still be willing, if there was, uh, a spot for me on the Sandy Boy team at Indy this year, I'd be so down

Ally Brettnacher: for that.

I mean, it is reserved for you. Yes. So Whitney Hinds is coming too. She's running the marathon. And she, funny enough, I don't know if you saw, was struggling to find the motivation to con- like, keep up on her training for the marathon. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I feel that. So I feel what you're saying, like, not really feeling a marathon.

Carolyn Coffin: Feel that deeply. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I'm, I'm pushing it off. It's funny, this fall I'll turn 49. Oh my gosh, me too. And yeah, I'm not feeling it. And I s- and I know exactly why I think. Like, I'm a one marathon a year kinda girly. Mm, mm-hmm. And I did a late... And I prefer to do it in the fall, so I did it very late fall last year, like almost Christmastime, for the Marathon Project.

Mm. And that was gonna be, like, the one I go for, and then we had Boston lined up, which I don't normally do a spring marathon, 'cause I'm just, we live in a really cold place, and the [00:05:00] winter training is, is not my favorite. Yeah. And, but th- but I was gonna crush it at, at Marathon Project, and then I was gonna jog Boston as, like, a fun thing.

And I didn't crush it at Marathon Project, so I didn't, like, really train super hard for Boston. But I still felt like I had to kinda Train a lot, even just to, even just to jog it, I felt like I had to- I mean- ... put in the training ... still... It was like six straight months of winter running, and I think I'm not recovered.

This is- Yeah ... August, middle of August, and I do not feel like I'm out of the hole that that put me in. So-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Carolyn Coffin: as much as I would love to run a fall marathon this year, I don't think it's happening. So my- I've really broadened my horizons, and I'm looking at kind of a 15-month, like how am I gonna, what am I gonna do in the next 15 months to get me ready to run a marathon when I'm 50?

Which I turn- Oh ... 50 in October, and then Indy would be early November, so it's kind of still the perfect one. Yay. [00:06:00]

Ally Brettnacher: It would be a great celebration. Mm-hmm. That's for sure. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: So that's the, that's the long-term planning at the moment.

Ally Brettnacher: Don't you feel like now you have to long-term plan? Because the races are all- Me too

even Monumental now, like selling out earlier than ever. Drives me nuts, 'cause I'm not as good of a planner.

Carolyn Coffin: I hear you on that one, and it's such a good point. I never really thought about that, but I'm like, "Why are we planning so far in advance?" But you almost- Yeah ... do have to with the races selling out.

Right. That was never so much of a thing before. But- Mm-hmm ... uh, like I've been r- in running, and you have too, for, for a long, long time, so we've seen some of these changes. And yeah, the explosion in running since, I would say- Easy ... the pandemic is- Mm-hmm ... is still in full force.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Which is so exciting- Mm

but also- Yeah ... frustrating, a little, 'cause you're like, "Well, I just wanna be able to like sign up for Chicago without the lottery." Like, I remember those days, as I'm sure you do- Yeah ... too. It's

Carolyn Coffin: crazy. Absolutely. Even Boston, not even that long ago, it's like you could just sign up for it. It's, it's, uh- Yeah, it's

Ally Brettnacher: absolutely

Carolyn Coffin: wild

changed a lot. [00:07:00] But as you say, it's ultimately a good thing for the running community as a whole, I think. But, you know, long-range planning is hard when- Mm ... you never know what's gonna happen. Your life can change so much. You can get injured. Like, so many things- Yeah ... can happen if you're looking out even six months.

Um, but anyway, deferral- Yeah ... deferral policies are also coming into play and, uh- Right.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Carolyn Coffin: so that's, that's good.

Ally Brettnacher: A lot to think about. Well, people might have noticed it in the way you say out, but you are from Canada.

Carolyn Coffin: I don't even realize some of the things that I say, but I podcast quite a bit with, uh, Dr.

Dwayne Scotti from the Healthy Runner podcast, and he is always calling me out for my Canadianisms.

Ally Brettnacher: Well, I love Canadians. And so- Thank you ... that's where you're from. Tell us about the area of Canada you're from in Winnipeg, which is Manitoba, correct?

Carolyn Coffin: Correct. Yeah. Good job. Yeah. We're, uh- I looked at a

Ally Brettnacher: map today.

Carolyn Coffin: Good job. Well, funny, fun fact about Winnipeg, we are pretty [00:08:00] much right in the center of Canada, right mid, mid, um, Canada. So I've lived, funny enough, all over. I was not born in Winnipeg. I was born in Ontario, which is the next province o- over to the east. Uh, so I was born there, spent a lot of my life there, and then I married a military guy, and we began our life still in Ontario, but then we, uh, moved out to the west coast, so Vancouver Island.

So we lived on Vancouver Island for two years right before coming back to Winnipeg in 2018. So we've been- Okay ... in Winnipeg since 2018, and I was mentioning, yeah, the winters are very harsh and, and very long. Not uncommon to get snow in September. Usually doesn't last, but for sure by October- Yeah ... and certainly November, it's here to stay.

And not uncommon to get the odd snowstorm in May as well. So- Right. Oh my gosh ... it's a long, long winter. Very, very cold. And, uh, the summers are very, very hot. So p- Mm ... that surprises people. Like, so [00:09:00] the temperatures swing. We do Celsius here, but it can be in the minus 40s. There was one, the first summer, or the first winter that we lived here in 20- 19, I guess, 'cause we moved in the summer of 2018.

We were the coldest place on Earth one day. It was something with a wind chill of minus 50. Those

Ally Brettnacher: days were nuts.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's, it... But we do get very, very hot and humid in the summertime, so we can go- Gosh, your

Ally Brettnacher: wardrobe.

Carolyn Coffin: Mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: Your running wardrobe must be just like, well, for any weather.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. It, it's, seriously takes, like, 50 minutes to get dressed to go for a winter run.

Mm-hmm. And then you come home, and it's like that entire outfit is in the washing machine- Yep ... type of thing. So it's a, it's quite a bit of laundry if you're gonna commit to the outdoor running in the winter. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Which I do. Um, I mean, there's, there's... You can't really avoid the treadmill if you wanna do any sort of quality, like, training for Boston last winter.

Right. If there was a workout, it's just unsafe to do outside. But... [00:10:00] Outside.

Ally Brettnacher: Outside. I love it. It's, I love it.

Carolyn Coffin: Um, but, uh, yeah, so I, I get out whenever I can for the easy runs and whatnot. But the- Yeah ... the quality stuff generally has to be done on the treadmill. Or indoors. Like, we are lucky enough to have access to a pretty world-class, uh, indoor track here, uh, which is only about 20- That's really nice

at the university. Yeah, like a banked indoor track. It's quite good. Whoa. So, uh, so we take advantage of that too in the wintertime.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, absolutely. Tell us about what the running community and culture is like where you live in Winnipeg.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. Um, it is vibrant, I would say. I would d- definitely use that word.

There are a lot of people, lot of runners here. I mean, we're a population of about three-quarters of a million, so-

Ally Brettnacher: Okay ...

Carolyn Coffin: big, vibrant running community. Um, it, it's a, it's a decent sized city, but it's also pretty compact, so-

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm ...

Carolyn Coffin: you know, there's [00:11:00] different running groups that'll meet up. And, and certainly out of the running stores around here, they've got group runs, and, uh, people just meet up on their own.

So I would say that, yeah, the, if you wanna do, you know, road running, if you wanna do trail running, even track running, like I mentioned, there is a group for you. So it's pretty easy to get plugged into the running scene here. And that's, being a military family, that's something that we're pretty good at.

Like, we'll just move to a new place, know nobody, and just hook in with the running community and then, you know- Six months later, we have our best friends of our whole life type of thing, so- Yeah ... we feel really lucky about that.

Ally Brettnacher: Is there one club that you tend to run with, or are you more solo in your training?

Carolyn Coffin: So I coach as well, and so I meet up with my clients whenever I can. And right now I'm coaching a group of women to break 1:40 in the half marathon this September. So it's a 12-week training [00:12:00] plan- Ooh ... that I put together with the owner of one of our running store, w- running specialty stores here- Yeah ... in town.

So there's a lot of getting together around that. And so I would say, yeah, we would meet out of her store called, uh, Big Sky Run Co. And, uh, yeah, so that's probably my, my biggest built-in, uh, community at the moment, but it, it, it shifts. Like in the wintertime, then it's the indoor track groups, and yeah.

Mm-hmm. So I, I- That's really cool ... rarely have to run alone if I- ... I don't want to.

Ally Brettnacher: That's, yeah, that's kinda how it is here. It sounds like... I mean, Indy, Indianapolis, Indiana, where I am, is, I don't know, we're a little over a million people. Mm-hmm. So I always say it's a small big town- Mm-hmm ... especially in the running community.

Mm-hmm. So I think you could relate to that a lot, it sounds like.

Carolyn Coffin: Very much, yep. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Which is great. Okay, now I wanna go back and, and find out how you found the sport of running.

Carolyn Coffin: Oh, interesting question. So- Yeah ... tell us ... um- I grew up da- [00:13:00] I would call it dabbling in running. So, um, my dad was on the board of directors of the local YMCA in our very small hometown of Brockville, Ontario, like 20,000 people.

And every spring they put on a road race, a five-kilometer road race, that he and my mom would, like, make my brothers and I do, and I hated it. Like- Yeah. ... hated it so much. Like, we didn't train for it. And, and a 5K is sort of like a marathon to a kid. We were maybe- Right ... seven or eight years old at the time, and I feel like that scarred me, particularly because...

So it didn't feel good. I always finished it. But there I had this older brother. He was- I have a twin brother and an older brother. So my older brother was a year older, and he pretty much won the thing from the beginning. So I think I formed some very unhelpful beliefs at that time- Mm-hmm ... that running is not for me, I'm not good at it.

My brother's good at it. [00:14:00] And, and so I remained active and athletic in, in different sports, gymnastics, volleyball, uh, racket sports I was big into. Um, we lived along the St. Lawrence River, so there was sailing and rowing and al- so I was very, very active, but just not so much with running. And that was, that probab- I would continue to do the odd local road race, particularly that one.

For some reason, I must be a glutton- ... for punishment. Yeah. But I was like, "Oh, I'll do it again, and I'll do it again," even after my parents didn't make us do it anymore. I chose to do it. And I got a little bit better, but I never loved it. It wasn't until I was in my 30s that I actually asked this same brother, who went on to be quite a good runner, like 2:21 marathoner, like pretty good.

Right. And I said to him, this is after I had kids and everything, and I, and I was kind of always around, like, the 22-minute 5K, like 48-minute 10K, kind of [00:15:00] just off of my general fitness. And I said, "Do you ever think I could break 20, or break 45 minutes in the 10K?" I said to my brother. And he was like, "Yeah Because I really wasn't training, so he, he probably- Yeah

with his background is like, "You could do this, and ju- just make these small little changes." So I got him to coach me, and it was so fun when he started to coach me because I was a blank slate. I was very coachable, but I knew nothing about running. I was like, "Oh, he would get me to do easy runs." I'm like, "Oh, I don't have to go out and hammer every run?"

Like-

Ally Brettnacher: I know ... it was such- That's so wild when you learn that. Yeah ...

Carolyn Coffin: such a light bulb moment for me. I was never doing long runs. He was like, "Okay, yeah, this long run." And he's like, "Okay, we're gonna do some workouts." I'm like, "Oh, so I'm going to the gym?" He's like, "No, like, yes, but also workouts." Like- Yeah ... I'm like, "What's a workout?"

Like, I- Yeah ... it was appalling- Mm-hmm ... how little I knew- Mm-hmm ... about running. And so it was... And this was around maybe 2011, 2012.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Carolyn Coffin: And it just became so [00:16:00] fun after that because of course you put a little structure and get a little bit of, of good guidance, and my times just kept coming down and down and down.

And so yeah, broke 40, 45 minutes in that first race that I- Wow ... had asked him to do, but then broke 44 and 43 and eventually- Amazing ... broke 40 in the 10K and-

Ally Brettnacher: Wow ...

Carolyn Coffin: um, expanded out to the 5K and the half marathon and, and everything too. Yeah. So yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh, so your older brother is only one year older than you guys?

Mm-hmm. So you're like triplets basically?

Carolyn Coffin: Basically, yeah. So a funny story about that is that he, uh, my mom didn't know that she was pregnant with twins at all. Oh. Yeah. So we lived- What? ... in a small town. They didn't, they didn't- That's insane ... they would've had to send her out of town for an ultrasound. Okay.

And they would only do that with people if, apparently, if they were having complications with their pregnancy, which she wasn't. So her only complaint was that her pants wouldn't stay up when she was, like, four... We were overdue, too, my [00:17:00] brother and I.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow, you don't hear that very much with twins.

Carolyn Coffin: No. Neither of those things.

So she was over 40 weeks. She goes into the doctor. She's like, "My pants will not stay up. I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine." So the doctor sends her for an X-ray An X-ray, 'cause that's all

Ally Brettnacher: our town- Not supposed to get those while you're pregnant, people. Just so you know, the radiation, yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: And so in this X-ray, there's just limbs everywhere in the X-ray, and they're like, "Oh, you're actually pregnant with twins."

So then she was worried that something was gonna be wrong with one of us, 'cause she'd had no prenatal care as a, a twin mom. Geez. So she's very, very worried, and then we were born, I think, a day or two later, and we were both fully... Like, I was 7,8 and my brother was- Geez ... 8, 8,6 or something. Like w- two full-sized babies.

Holy

Ally Brettnacher: cow, your mom. She had no idea what

Carolyn Coffin: her pants were for. Yeah, and then she had three kids under 20 months. I guess my brother's- Yeah ... just a little over, a, almost a year and a half or so- Wow ... older. Yeah, so-

Ally Brettnacher: That is wild ...

Carolyn Coffin: busy times. [00:18:00] Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Is your mom still living?

Carolyn Coffin: Yep.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, my gosh.

Carolyn Coffin: She is. I just talked to her- I would love to hear a tell that story

this morning.

Ally Brettnacher: Man.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah, I should have her on the podcast to talk about it. That's a fun fact about me that not a lot of people know. I mention it occasionally, but- Yeah ... uh, yeah- That's- ... twin brothers ...

Ally Brettnacher: that's nuts. I pictured her, like, literally having you and then being like, "Okay, now for the next one," and her being like, "Excuse me."

Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. It was, it was pretty much almost that. But

Ally Brettnacher: I mean, it really was- A couple days ... because it was only a couple days before. Yeah. And then you're like- Can you imagine? ... you have to buy all the... Like, okay, now I need more stuff and-

Carolyn Coffin: I know ...

Ally Brettnacher: what?

Carolyn Coffin: I know.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, wow. And your dad- Yeah ... I'm assuming your dad w- was working and- Yeah

I mean, that's gotta be-

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. That's a fun fact.

Carolyn Coffin: She loves telling the story, so-

Ally Brettnacher: I bet ...

Carolyn Coffin: yeah, we should have her on someday.

Ally Brettnacher: You should. It'd be so fun. Random-

Carolyn Coffin: A little

Ally Brettnacher: Mother's Day special ...

Carolyn Coffin: we're going to interrupt our regular schedule, regularly scheduled programming to talk about- Inter- she's gonna

Ally Brettnacher: be my cheerleader

my birth. Yeah, and, and my birth. So does your twin brother, does he run?

Carolyn Coffin: Not [00:19:00] really- Okay ... which is the int- he, he does, and he can and occ- but he's more of a outdoorsy guy. Like, he'd be the type- Okay ... to go on really long walks or hikes or outdoor camping or, he's extremely active, but not, uh, not so much a runner.

The frustrating thing is that occasionally he will jump in the odd race. I can remember even back in 2017 when we were living on the West Coast, um, my older brother came out to visit, and my younger brother and I both lived there at the time, and so we all went in this 10K road race, and I think he ran, like, 44 minutes.

Like, he wasn't even- Right. You're like- ... that far behind me, and I'm like- So

Ally Brettnacher: annoyed. ...

Carolyn Coffin: that's so annoying. You don't even train, and you can just... So I think there's probably some- Family genetics involved in our, uh, in, in the family for- Yeah ... gives us a propensity for long distance or endurance- Mm-hmm ... events.

Mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, I think it's so interesting that you found running again later in life after becoming a mom. What was [00:20:00] it like prioritizing yourself and getting training done, especially when your kids were young?

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah, it's funny. It, it, in some ways, it, it's hard as, you know, you might imagine, and then in other ways, it was actually so easy back then because my brother became, my older brother became the coach of our little club back in Belleville, Ontario, and we would train at the track a lot of the time.

And so we would just bring the kids. We'd bring a whole bunch of sand toys. We'd stick them in the long jump, triple jump pit- Oh my gosh, amazing ... and just let them, like, play around, and we're just running around, and the kids got very used to that. I had this other friend in the group. Her kids were the same ages approximately, and she would bring them.

So to them- Mm ... it was also a fun time. You know, they got to play with their friends, be outside. My brother was kind of keeping an eye on them as, as were we, obviously, but he was kind of doubling as the coach/babysitter type of thing. Yeah. And it was... So it was hard sometimes to [00:21:00] get to those practices. Like, that was its own little marathon in and of itself.

Mm-hmm. But for the most part, once we got there, everybody was having the time of their life.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's such a good idea. I'm sure there's gotta be some clubs here that do that, but-

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah ...

Ally Brettnacher: I don't know. Yeah, I would love to find that, where you just like, you could hire a babysitter too and just everybody bring their kids, pile them all in the middle- Yep.

Yep, yep ... and be like, "Don't come on the track." Yeah, track is- The track is... Let's play the track is lava.

Carolyn Coffin: Yes.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah,

Carolyn Coffin: so- Oh my gosh. And then actually, when we lived in Belleville too, my parents, where I grew up, was about an hour and a half away and on the way to Ottawa, which was, is our nation's capital and where we would go to race a lot of the time.

And so it was ki- that also was a bit of the perfect marriage. My parents were far enough away that they couldn't babysit, like, for an hour here and there, but close enough that they could babysit for the weekend. Yeah, that's nice. And that, that was their preference. So they [00:22:00] were like, "Okay, bring the kids.

Drop them off in Brockville. We'll look after them for the weekend while you go to Ottawa and race." Yeah. And then so we'd just kind of drop them off on the way, pick them up on the way back, and it- Again, was everybody was, um, having the time of their life. Yeah. So it kind of, you know, there... It's just every stage has its own different challenges- Mm-hmm

but I would say for the most part it was pretty awesome.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. And your husband runs some too, right?

Carolyn Coffin: He does. Yeah. Yeah. So he was in this club back in the day, and he's still running. He's still running very well these days, like 2:36 in the marathon at 45, so.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, you guys are, you guys are speedy. Yeah.

Especially, yeah, for 40. It's like that's fast, you know, to the average person in general, and then you put the age into it and you're like, "Holy cow."

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So the kids have been around it a lot. Funny enough, a lot of us ask, you know, "Are they, are they runners?" Right. Of course. "Have they picked it up?"

And it's like, "Not really."

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. How old are your kids?

Carolyn Coffin: They're 16 and 18. Okay. They're both about to have birthdays, so almost 17 and 19. Okay. Um, and that's okay. Honestly, [00:23:00] that's, that's more than fine with us. Like, we've exposed them to running. They can, as I'm a testament, like, you can pick it up later in life.

I mean, it'll always be there. I didn't like it.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. I didn't like it when I was young. Same. So, um, we're, we're just, like, awesome. They're active in other ways. Like, our daughter's into volleyball, and our son... Actually, our son is still doing a little bit of track here and there. So we're- If they wanna pick it up, they can pick it up later on.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's totally fine. What, uh, what age in Canada do you go to university?

Carolyn Coffin: Uh, 18. Is it the

Ally Brettnacher: same? Usually.

Carolyn Coffin: Okay. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: So, like, similar.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah, so our son just finished first year university, so I guess technically he was 17 when he went, uh- Okay ... 'cause he's an October baby also, so yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Nice. Okay, and then tell us about your first ever marathon.

Carolyn Coffin: Oh, gosh. Um, the first ever marathon was a bit of a disaster,

Ally Brettnacher: as- As they, as they are sometimes ...

Carolyn Coffin: as they sometimes are. Yeah. This was, uh, uh, back in university. Again, I was still in my [00:24:00] dabbling with running phase, so I could bang out a 5K and a 10K, not, with not too much trouble. But this is when my brother was doing his, like, 220 ones.

Like, it was very- Oh, geez ... he was kind of the runner of the family. And I, I don't know what kind of... I must have followed some Runner's World plan, and it was a disaster, and I would decide to skip, like, the long runs a lot of the time, so I think I did- Oh my God ... maybe one 16-mile run before the, before the race.

Ally Brettnacher: I mean, ignorance is bliss sometimes, but-

Carolyn Coffin: Oh, boy ...

Ally Brettnacher: man, that had to be painful.

Carolyn Coffin: It was the Marine Corps Marathon in the year 2000. That's right, and I did see that

Ally Brettnacher: that was your first one.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Amazing.

Carolyn Coffin: And again, just no idea what I was doing, no respect for the distance. Uh, I think I f- I went through halfway in under two hours, which felt fine.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, great.

Carolyn Coffin: And then finished in 4:17, which is a- Yeah ... pretty, pretty large, [00:25:00] sizable positive split that did not feel good. I was humbled to my very core.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

Carolyn Coffin: Um, further cemented the belief I'm not good at this, like, I don't like this at all, and kind of shelfed it for 15 years.

Ally Brettnacher: 15 years in between, wow.

Mm-hmm. That is interesting. Well, and I'm sure people listening too who are, like, I don't know, quote, unquote, "There's no such thing as a normal runner," but, like, have pace they would, like, kill for a marathon time of 4:18, right? Yeah,

Carolyn Coffin: yeah, yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Um, and so it's just interesting that because, almost because your brother is so fast, you're just like, "Ugh, well- Well, he-

you know, compared to him, it seems like, yeah, that's a huge difference.

Carolyn Coffin: That was his first marathon as well, and, uh- Oh ... he came sixth place- Jesus Christ ... or fourth place or something like that on the day. There, it was the 25th anniversary of it, so there was- Oh, that's cool ... they let in 25,000 people. Yeah, I just did the 50th.

I was probably, like-

Ally Brettnacher: That's

Carolyn Coffin: so

Ally Brettnacher: funny.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I probably was, like, back of the pack for sure, or middle [00:26:00] pack.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: And my brother comes sixth and runs a 2:30 in his debut, so-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Compared to that, you're like, "Oh gosh, yeah, I really suck." Mm-hmm. I mean, for me, my first marathon was almost five hours.

Mm-hmm. Just shy of five. So I think that's-

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: But it is all relative, and so when you're comparing yourself or you're in that scenario, you're like, "Yeah."

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: I mean, can't even get close to what he's doing. And

Carolyn Coffin: it's not, it's not even so much the time as just when you execute like that, where you kind of go out, like, too fast- Where you...

Yeah ... and then you die. Yeah. It's just such a suffer-fest.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Right. Well, and Marine Corps, for people who don't know, it's in DC and it's a little hilly. I mean, it's not insane, but it's... I mean, it's got some hills there. Well, I, I- Whereas... Oh, in Winnipeg, by the way, or where you were at the time East, you were on the West Coast of Canada at the time?

Carolyn Coffin: Uh, yeah. Well, we lived in Ontario at the time when I did Marine Corps. Okay. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: And is that hillier then? I, I don't know the- It's a

Carolyn Coffin: little bit hillier.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. So at least you had a little bit of that going in.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. And actually, it's funny, um, I'm gonna have to [00:27:00] fact-check this, but I think Marine Corps changed their course recently.

So if you ran it recently, I think it's not what it was in 2000, 'cause it was pretty- Okay ... flat. The whole thing was pretty flat. Yeah. And there was just a little hill at the end, uh, to finish, which was-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ... like,

Carolyn Coffin: not even really a hill. At Iwo Jima-

Ally Brettnacher: Yes ... was it

Carolyn Coffin: still

Ally Brettnacher: that, like- Iwo

Carolyn Coffin: Jima, mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: But it was very flat, I, I recall. So I

Ally Brettnacher: think

Carolyn Coffin: I- Yeah, interesting ... I remember my brother saying that they changed it. 'Cause that was on my shortlist. I was looking at, like, Indy and, like, for fall marathons. Yeah. I was like, "Oh, maybe I'll go back to do Marine Corps," 'cause that's where it all began type of thing.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: And, um, and he said, "Yeah, well, it's not, it's not what it was in 2000." Right, it's

Ally Brettnacher: not somewhere you would go for a PR.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Like, he- Yeah ... he's saying because of this

Ally Brettnacher: course change. Right, because of the change. Yeah, I'll have to... I, I'm curious what it used to be then.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: But yeah. That's, that's crazy then.

And then you're like 15 years-

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah ...

Ally Brettnacher: you're

Carolyn Coffin: like, "No thanks." 15 years, but it was in that time, 'cause... So [00:28:00] 2000 was the first marathon. 2015 was my second one, and, like I said, it was around 2011, 2012 that I'd started to get some guidance from my brother. So I felt- Yeah ... like by 2015, I'd kind of found my way a little bit around, um, training, and then the 5K and the 10K and the half marathon were all improving.

So I f- I felt ready to tackle it again.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: And, and actually thought, like, "I could probably run an hour faster," like, because of the training type of thing. Right. And it was close. It was, like, 3:21, so from a 4:17 to a 3:20. Yes. So it was very- So

Ally Brettnacher: wild ...

Carolyn Coffin: close, but not, not quite. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. You've gotta make those...

You know, you see those posts where people are like, "Look, my first marathon was this- ... and then it was this," and you just pretend like, "And it was so easy." Yes. And it's like, no, it was over a decade of learning how to train.

Carolyn Coffin: Exactly. And that's- Yeah ... like, those posts sometimes, they just crack me up because- Right

yeah, I could technically almost make that post as like, "Just do what I [00:29:00] do. Hire me. I'll get you an hour fa-" It's like, come on, there's so much nuance and there's so much context- Yeah ... that-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Carolyn Coffin: needs to be understood about how- Mm-hmm ... somebody could take an hour off their time.

Ally Brettnacher: Right. I mean, in today's world it just feels like everybody wants results so quickly.

Right. And it's like, that's just not- That's

Carolyn Coffin: not how it

Ally Brettnacher: works ... not how it is at all. Sadly,

Carolyn Coffin: but...

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So at the time in, like, 2011, 2012 when your brother was coaching you, was he coaching, like, other athletes- Yeah ... like, as a run coach? Because I feel like I didn't even know run coaching was a thing until, like, around COVID.

Carolyn Coffin: I know. Hardly at all, right? Um, he was, he was a run coach. He had some athletes. I, I was one of his athletes, and then I knew a lot of people in that local area, and then he moved to that local area. So I kinda said, "Hey, like, you're coaching me. I have all these people. Like, do you wanna start a run club?" And that's kinda how- So cool

it happened. So then he started coaching the whole run club, and there was all kinds of ages and, um, abilities and everything in the run club. Yeah. He's a very good running coach, and [00:30:00] he's now the coach of a, a community college cross country team.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's cool.

Carolyn Coffin: Mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: Nice. Yeah. So- Okay, and so and who do you coach with today?

Who's your coach?

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah, so I am coaching with... Or I, I've taken a little pause because of s- some of the stuff that I'm dealing with. Yeah. But my coach is a Canadian Olympian in the marathon two times, in 2012 and 2016. His name's Reid Coolset. Wow.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Carolyn Coffin: Um, so like a 210 guy from- Sheesh ... from back in the day.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Um, phenomenal coach as well. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, that's nice. And what part, where does he live in Canada?

Carolyn Coffin: He lives in Hamilton, Ontario. Okay. Which is actually where I, um, went to school for my first degree in kinesiology, was in, at McMaster University in Hamilton. So- Right ... but I didn't meet him there. He just happens to live there.

It's so funny. He lives on the street that I lived on when I was in second- That is so fu- ... third and fourth year ... that is

Ally Brettnacher: really

Carolyn Coffin: funny. Like, just random.

Ally Brettnacher: Small- Yeah ... small world.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: And so at what point did you become [00:31:00] a coach? I mean- Yeah ... 'cause you have that background, right? Kinesiology. Yes. Um, and, and what got you interested in that too?

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. That's actually a funny story. So I d- I did educational background in kinesiology from McMaster, and then I went straight in- Will you tell people

Ally Brettnacher: what that is in case they don't

Carolyn Coffin: know? Yeah, it's just- Yeah ... I always explain it as the study of the human body.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Pretty much. Yeah. So a g- good stepping stone.

A lot of my classmates went on to do occupational therapy, physiotherapy- Mm-hmm ... uh, became a teacher or something like that. So I went on to do physiotherapy at Queen's University directly after, so 2000 to 2003.

Ally Brettnacher: So what's the difference between physio and physical?

Carolyn Coffin: Nothing It's

Ally Brettnacher: the same?

Carolyn Coffin: Nothing Or is it just a different word?

It's just that we say That's funny ... it's another one of our Canadianisms. We say physiotherapy in- Oh, and that's- ... Canada. I think the UK says that, Australia Okay,

Ally Brettnacher: interesting. I didn't know that. Mm-hmm. I feel dumb, but also, you know, I don't know.

Carolyn Coffin: No.

Ally Brettnacher: There's all kinds of different things, so

Carolyn Coffin: No, it's exactly the same.

Okay, gotcha. It's funny, I did one of my [00:32:00] placements, my physio placements I did d- down in DC, 'cause I had a cousin- Oh, you did? ... who- Oh, cool ... worked at the Veterans Hospital in Washington DC, and she lived in Arlington. So I went down there- Yeah ... lived with her, worked at, uh, at the hospital there. And, uh, she, the, everybody used to make fun of me.

They're like, "Physio, physio?"

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, they're like, "What?"

Carolyn Coffin: It's PT, it's PT. And I'm like, "I know, but-" At least it's still

Ally Brettnacher: PT, yeah ...

Carolyn Coffin: in PT, like in Canada, PT could be like a personal trainer, p- it could be a physiotherapist. I'm like, "Okay, we say p- physio." But

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: So nothing. That's

Ally Brettnacher: funny.

Carolyn Coffin: There's no

Ally Brettnacher: difference. Okay.

Well, now I know. Yeah. Fun, fun fact. Okay, so you studied that. Did you become a coach while you were studying that?

Carolyn Coffin: No. No. So I had that educational background. I worked as a physio till about 2013, I think. Okay. And then that's when our, uh, military life started to take us here and there and everywhere. We had a bit of stability, like the first 12 years of my husband's career we were stationed in the same spot.

We [00:33:00] had our kids there. Whoa. That was highly unusual.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: And we knew that after 2013, it, there was a very high likelihood that we would just get moved and moved and moved. Right. And so I thought, "Oh, that's gonna be a real drag when I'm, you know, trying to build a practice-" Live there for two years Oh, gosh

build the practice, move again- Ooh ... that type of thing. Yeah, absolutely. So at that time I was really getting a little bit more interested in kind of preventative health stuff, so I became a health coach at the time. So more like preventing, like I worked in clinics and hospitals a lot in my career as a- Okay

as a physio, and I would, especially in the hospital, was just always appalled, like people have the longest hist- you know, past medical history of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, mobility problems- Mm ... uh, obesity, all the things. And I was like, "All of these things are preventable with-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Carolyn Coffin: diet and [00:34:00] lifestyle practices."

And so that's really what the health coaching credential that I took was in, is like people know this, but there's a real difference between knowing it and doing it.

Ally Brettnacher: Figuring out how to do it and execute it, yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. So the health coach's role is more like really helping people implement on some of the things that they already know they should be doing or shouldn't be doing-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah

Carolyn Coffin: or whatever. Makes sense. So it was a lot of psychology, which I found kind of fascinating. Like habit formation- Yeah ... even personally, right? Like sometimes I'm just like- Right ... "How many times a day do I pick up my phone?" Like that's just a habit, right? I know. Tell me about it. And it can be changed. Mm-hmm.

And, and some of the tools that I learned in that health coaching course are, are really applicable there. Yeah. So I wanted a, a business that I could do from anywhere, right? As we started to do- Mm-hmm ... all of this moving around. And so that came in very handy. I transitioned fully to become a health coach.

And so I would have... When I did, I was doing that for years and years, and I would have these clients come to me. There'd be this [00:35:00] one camp over here that was like, "I want to drop 50 pounds. You know, I don't feel good. I've got, I've got diabetes, heart disease," whatever. Mm-hmm. And then I'd get this other group of people that were like, "Can you help me, um, take f- 30 seconds off my 5K?"

Whenever I would go to make a social media post, I'm like, "Who am I even talking to?" Like, these are very different- Oh ... groups of people. Right,

Ally Brettnacher: right.

Carolyn Coffin: Right? And so I, around 2020, I had to kind of make a choice. I was like, "It's too confusing. Like, I have to just pick a lane here." And I was like- Yeah ... "I really love working with athletes."

And so that's when I became, I, I got credentialed in health c- or run coaching at that time. Yeah. And sort of went fully down the run coaching road. And what's interesting is that- I didn't just forget everything I knew about health coaching or physiotherapy the- Right ... second I became a running coach. It still very much comes into play with the people that I work with for, for running.

So it's kind of like the perfect little marriage of- It

Ally Brettnacher: really is. Mm-hmm. I mean, because certainly not every run coach [00:36:00] is gonna have that wealth of knowledge too.

Carolyn Coffin: No.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: No, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I love what I do now. And, and then the podcasting piece also started in 2020, so I-

Ally Brettnacher: Okay, yeah ...

Carolyn Coffin: my whole entire, uh, personality and identity became, uh, running as of- Same

2020.

Ally Brettnacher: Same. So we're... You're in good company. So okay, and forgive me, I should know this. What is the name of your coaching business? Is it also- Oh- ... Inspired Soles, or is it Carolyn

Carolyn Coffin: Coffin? Yes, it's all, it's all under- Okay. It's all under the- It used to be Carolyn Coffin Coaching- Okay ... and then I, uh, e- actually just earlier this year, like, put it all under the- All together

same umbrella.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, I'm struggling with that same thing of, like, all these things I'm doing. Mm-hmm. And it's like, okay, it just needs to be one thing.

Carolyn Coffin: Yes. And that's why the Inspired Soles, like that name is just so perfect. Like, it can be- Yeah ... the podcast, but it can be the run coaching, and it's-

Ally Brettnacher: As well.

Yeah. Yeah. It makes perfect sense. Yeah, and for anybody who isn't smart, Soles is spelled like the shoe, you know?

Carolyn Coffin: Yes.

Ally Brettnacher: It's so cute. So- It's

Carolyn Coffin: fun when the light bulb goes off for people about that one. It's

Ally Brettnacher: they're like, "Oh, yeah, duh." Yeah. Yeah. So with Inspired Soles and the podcast side of it, 300 episodes now.

So yeah, it's been [00:37:00] six years that you've been doing this. What, what got you to start and, like, do the first episode?

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. Well, it was meeting my co-host. So for the first 200 episodes- Ooh, you had a co-host ... I had a co-host. Her name is Kim Sankey. She... When we moved to Winnipeg, so 2018, I got introduced to her through a, a mutual friend.

It was actually my sister-in-law. She said to us both, like, "Do you know the other one?" type of thing, like- Yeah ... we had so many similarities. She was a military spouse. Her husband was in the air- Air Force. Oh, geez. Oh, wow. They live in Winnipeg, but prior to that, they lived in, on the West Coast on Vancouver Island.

Geez. Same city as us. We're runners. Just so, so many things. And I'm like, "No, I don't know her, but I'd love to know her." So we got set up on a coffee date by this mutual friend of ours, and within... And what actually was happening is she wanted to hire me to work at the physio clinic that she worked at.

That's funny. Um, but I had, at that point, had, like, sort of, I'm slowly transitioning out [00:38:00] of physio. Mm-hmm. I'm like, "No, I don't wanna do that. I wanna do more running stuff." And I was like, "I kinda wanna start a running podcast." And she's like, "Oh my God, I wanna start a running podcast." So-

Ally Brettnacher: Stop. That's

Carolyn Coffin: awesome

we left that meeting Being like, "All right, we're meeting regularly." So we'd have these little, um, you know, every two weeks we'd meet, and we worked our way through this podcast called How to Start a Podcast. It was just like a eight, eight episode- Oh ... series called- I

Ally Brettnacher: probably should've listened to that.

Carolyn Coffin: It was so helpful.

Yeah. As somebody who's, like, coachable, likes to follow a recipe and a plan, I was like- Okay ... check, check, check, check, check. Here, here's the microphone I'm supposed to get, here's what I'm supposed to do. It was so good. And, uh, yeah, so we started and, and we thought, "Okay, she's a trail runner, I'm a road runner, and somewhat a track runner."

We could have, like, endless amounts of guests. And it truly is- I

Ally Brettnacher: mean, yeah ...

Carolyn Coffin: there, there was just, we started with, like, maybe a list of 50 people. Like, oh, maybe we'll reach out to [00:39:00] these people or whatever. But between her and I, we knew a lot of people.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: And so we started it, and just people's stories I find are just incredibly fascinating, very much like your show.

Like, I just- Yeah ... cannot get enough of hearing about how people get introduced to running. Mm-hmm. 'Cause there's, like, the one narrative, like my brother from a young age, track clubs- Yep ... do it at university. Boom, you're almost an Olympian. And then there's like 1,000 other ways that people find running that is- Right

that are just as if not even more interesting, I think.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Agreed. Absolutely agree. Yeah. I know. You just see people running down the street, I'm like, "I wonder what their story is. Like, why are they running today? Do they do races?" Like, 'cause not everybody who runs, like, does races- I know ... which is mind-blowing for me because obviously, like, the world I'm in and you're in, but-

Carolyn Coffin: Yes

Ally Brettnacher: yeah, it is really interesting.

Carolyn Coffin: And that's something that I am reminded of as a coach, I, I think even more so is that I'm very careful not to project, like, [00:40:00] what I get out of running or like about running onto- Yeah ... the person that comes to see me. I'm like, it's more... It's, it's like I'm doing a podcast with every person- Right

that comes to me. I'm like, tell me, like I just wanna know what lights you up. I just wanna know what you- Mm-hmm ... get out of it so that we can make sure we're staying true to that and we're not trying to turn everybody into a cookie cutter version of-

Ally Brettnacher: Right,

Carolyn Coffin: right.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. That's, that's really important.

Mm-hmm. So what does your roster typically look like? Is there a certain number of people you like to have at any given time? Yeah. Does it fluctuate?

Carolyn Coffin: I really like... Okay, so the thing I like the most about coaching is the relationship part of it. Yeah. It's like I wanna, like I am on your team. Like- Mm-hmm ... I am invested.

And- Yeah. ... again, when you tell me what it is that you want and why you want it, and everything seems in alignment there, I'm like, "Awesome." Like, "Let's go on a ride, and I'm like riding shotgun with you," type of thing. And so- Yeah ... as you can imagine, that kind of approach, uh, like I, I d- can't have 50 people.

Like on... And I hear- Yeah ... about coaches [00:41:00] that have that many people. Yeah. And I'm like- Yeah ... how? Like, I, I'm, I'm in communication with my people quite a bit, you know? Yeah. And as you can imagine too, like life changes, and it's the summer right now, and every- Mm ... like busy and people are, you know, getting sick or they're on vacation, or there's quite a bit that needs to, quite a bit of communication that needs to happen to make sure that the program is working for that person.

Right. So-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Carolyn Coffin: I'm typically around, like, 25 people. Yeah. I feel like if I get higher, much higher than that, I feel quite overwhelmed.

Ally Brettnacher: Right. Well, I think, no offense to coaches that take on a larger roster- Mm ... but it's just different. Mm-hmm. You can only provide a certain quality and level of support-

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah

Ally Brettnacher: and then, 'cause you're literally, like, spreading yourself across those athletes.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Um, so yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: And the other- That makes sense ... the other thing is that, like, most of those messages don't come in, like, Monday to Friday during business hours, right? It's like- Right ... evenings and weekends- Right ... and, like, that's when S-H-I-T is hitting the [00:42:00] fan, uh, right?

So-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Carolyn Coffin: um, it- it's, you feel a little bit like you're always on if- Yeah ... especially if you, if the roster gets a little bit too big. Yeah. That's just how I've experienced it. Right. And I, it's not that running coaching's the only thing I do. Obviously, the podcast takes up- Right ... a lot of time. Which is

Ally Brettnacher: also a ton of work.

Mm-hmm.

Carolyn Coffin: Mm-hmm.

Ally Brettnacher: So what happened at 200 episodes?

Marker

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so what happened at 200 episodes?

Carolyn Coffin: Oh, yeah. It became difficult because my co-host was a, like I said, she's running trail and ultra-marathons. She was a single mom. I think she had two or three- She's a super mom ... jobs. Wow. She is- And, like, she had Monday- Yeah ... night to record, and there w- we c- by 200 episodes, there was quite a few, like, professional runners and people that we were interviewing, and they're like, we'd offer them the Monday night, and they're like, "Do you have anything in the day?"

You know? Right. And I'd be like, "No." And so it, from a scheduling point of view, it just became a little bit challenging. And actually, I prefer the day, too. Like, just with the way that my life is, I sort of- Right, yeah ... have my set little business hours, and- Right ... the kids would be at school, [00:45:00] and- Mm ... it was just easier for me then.

And so we just sort of decided to, to part ways there. Yeah. So I kinda took it over. But- Yeah ... like, we- I'm still in touch with her. She's an amazing person, and I couldn't have gotten to where... I w- I don't think I ever would've had the guts to start it on my own, so I'm forever kind of indebted to her for, you know, those meetings way back in 2019- Yeah

and

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. Yeah. And then how did you find Sandy Boy?

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. Like, how did you get into the network? Well, I mean, I'm a huge fan. Like, I bet I probably listen to- Right, same. That's how- ... like, everybody Yeah. And actually, over the years, so I remember specifically when my run coaching business was growing. For the first couple, few years, I was doing it on a Google spreadsheet.

Like, that's how I would deliver the training plans- Yeah ... to people. It worked fine, actually, and people would just write in their comments and everything. It kind of- Yeah ... it was almost like this little living document, and people would have to, okay, my... I didn't have access to their data, right? They would almost have to, like, input it, which- [00:46:00]

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm

Carolyn Coffin: in a way, as inconvenient as it was for them, they probably were a little more in touch with everything, rather than it being- Right ... automatically uploaded to- Yeah ... wherever. But anyway, there became a point where I'm like, "I need a, a platform to deliver- Yeah ... these training plans." And so I was looking into Final Surge and TrainingPeaks and Vdot.

Mm-hmm. And I remember that Lindsay had done a series with... and, and the sponsor was Vdot. And I was like, "I always use Vdot to help find out people's training paces and, and things anyway." So I'm like, "I'm already using that one," so it's really speaking to me. So I reached out to her, and I said, like, "What do you think of Vdot?"

And she answered me, and I was like, "What?" Like, that's so cool. Uh, and so I did end up going with Vdot and using her discount code and, and that kind of thing. And so then when I heard, maybe it was maybe a year or so after that, and I heard she was, you know, growing her network or that she even had a network, I was like- Yeah[00:47:00]

yeah, like my, my show gets, ha- is a, has a very loyal following, I think. But I'm like, "If I wanted to take it to the next level and be exposed to a different audience and everything, I, I think that's probably the next step, is joining a network." So I reached out to her, and again, she re- she replied right away.

I just couldn't believe- Yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: I know ...

Carolyn Coffin: the responsiveness.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah, she's

Carolyn Coffin: amazing. And she and Emma got on the phone with me- Mm-hmm ... like right away, and I was like, "Wow, this is awesome." I love being part of the network. Everybody brings something different to, to the network- Right ... which I love.

Ally Brettnacher: That's what's so fun about it, too, is like so many different people.

Well, and Rory Linkletter's in our network now, and I, I am just like

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: I was

Carolyn Coffin: like, I'm, I was just on a business- What am I

Ally Brettnacher: doing on a

Carolyn Coffin: Zoom? ... a business meeting with Rory Linkletter.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Like, didn't even know how to re- how to function like a human being. Um, yeah. So it's really fun to have a community of people who, you know, can help and who care, and- Yeah

you know, it's just, it's so much fun. So you definitely have to come to Monumental no matter what. I, [00:48:00] yeah. You just have to. You just have

Carolyn Coffin: to. I'm so there. I'm so there- You have to come ... if I'm invited.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, please. Please, please. Yeah. That would be so fun if, and 'cause, yeah, with Whitney, it'd be all of us, like- I know.

Carolyn Coffin: I

Ally Brettnacher: know ... it'd be really cool. We could do some really fun stuff. But anyway, so I wanna talk a little bit more about you're chasing, I don't know, or are you still chasing the, what is it? For the bank. 3, sub 3:21 is your

Carolyn Coffin: goal? Yeah, yeah, 3:21. So again, I'm fascinated with everyone else's running stories. I love hearing, like, the, you know, how, how somebody got fascinated with it, and then their progression.

And my progression is just really funny. It's just, like, I ran untrained a 4:17, hated it. Took 15 years off, ran almost an hour faster, and, and f- I have not been able to get faster at the marathon since then. And again, I, it, probably part of it is I haven't put the time and the dedication into it, 'cause I ran the 3:21, which got me into Boston, in [00:49:00] 2016.

So I ran the 3:21 in 2015.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Carolyn Coffin: Ran Boston in 2016. Where

Ally Brettnacher: did you qual... Sorry, where was the one, your PR?

Carolyn Coffin: Um, Vermont City Marathon.

Ally Brettnacher: Vermont City. Okay. Yes,

Carolyn Coffin: yeah, which is in- Is that

Ally Brettnacher: in Vermont?

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. That sounds like a dumb question, but- Burlington. Okay, right Nope, Burlington, Vermont. Okay. Yeah, it was gorgeous.

Like- All right, yeah ... great race. Highly recommend. Um, I actually, fun fact, was, um, the first leg of a, a family relay team. So o- in in my marathon, like, I ran the first leg and then passed off to, to somebody- Oh ... like my sister-in-law, and then, uh, she passed off to my husband, who passed off to my brother. And anyway, um, that mustn't have been the order, 'cause my brother actually did two different legs and ended up catching me at the end of- Oh

my marathon and ran with me for a little bit of that when I was in the pain cave. So.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, okay, so you are all running the full marathon distance- Yes ... but operating as a team within that. A

Carolyn Coffin: team of five.

Ally Brettnacher: That's really interesting.

Carolyn Coffin: Cool. Yeah, yeah. So that was 2015, Vermont City Marathon, great race. Yeah. [00:50:00] Uh, got me into Boston, ran Boston, and thought that this trajectory would carry on.

Yeah. No respect for the Boston Marathon. It was like I was a beginner all over again. Thought I could run, like, 3:15 that day and just crashed and burned and ran a 3:35. And then kind of- Said, "No, maybe the marathon really isn't for me," and took quite a bit of time off. That was when we moved out to the West Coast in 2016.

Right. And out there, I would say most people that we knew out there were into, like, shorter distance road races, and there was this really fun series that, a series of eight races over the winter, 'cause those winters are very mild, uh, on the West Coast. Oh. Uh, not like here. Like- Interesting ... very, very cold here.

It was very moderate. And so their big racing season was from January to March, early April, and there was eight races every other week all through the winter that you [00:51:00] participated, like, for yourself, but also for your club against other clubs and stuff. And it was so fun. That's so fun. So I, I kind of went back to the shorter distances then, and didn't really start getting enamored with the idea of another marathon till about 2020 when I turned 42, and I thought, "Ooh, 42 at 42," 'cause again, Canadian.

Yeah. So that's the distance of the marathon. I was like, "Ooh, I should run another marathon while I'm 42." So, uh, that's when I started, "Oh, could I run a marathon, my best marathon ever at my age?" You know- Great ... at 42. Yeah. And so that has probably captured my attention fully f- since then, since 2020. Yeah. And it's been lots of swings and lots of misses i- for all different reasons.

Some-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Carolyn Coffin: some not, I would say not my fault, like, uh, the pandemic, for starters.

Ally Brettnacher: Right. I know I had that on my list. It's like Chicago, in parentheses COVID.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Boo, yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah, so that was the one, and I [00:52:00] had, I hired a coach, and I- Mm ... felt like I trained really well. I felt like I was fit, and it was... Chicago was hanging on.

Like, I don't know if you remember in the pandemic, in March, like, they canceled Boston, and-

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm ...

Carolyn Coffin: all of them started dropping, London. And, and then, um, Chicago was like, "Nope, we're still happening," 'cause it wasn't until October. Right. I

Ally Brettnacher: think we were all in denial.

Carolyn Coffin: All in denial. And so I was like, "Okay, well, I'll just keep training, keep training."

Training. Oh. I felt fit. You know, so you'd go through the whole training, and then it was at the very end that they're like, "Actually, no." And so then our local race- Ugh ... which is normally in June, so it had gotten canceled, they changed to the day that Chicago was supposed to be, and they said, "Well, we're gonna do it that day."

And I was like, "Oh, well, this is perfect. I'll just keep training." Right. "It won't be Chicago, but it'll d- even be easier 'cause it's right here."

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: And then at the very last second, they canceled. And so in order to have gotten into Chicago, 'cause I didn't have a [00:53:00] qualifier 'cause I hadn't run a marathon for years, I got in through Kathryn Switzer's 261 Fearless charity.

Oh, yeah. I've had a guest that ran for those. So I'd raised-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Carolyn Coffin: all this money to, to- Mm-hmm ... run the 2020 Chicago Marathon. So I thought there is just absolutely no way I would've done it as a virtual. I just would've been like, "No." I admire and respect people that can do a virtual marathon and have goals- Never done it

and have like-

Ally Brettnacher: No ...

Carolyn Coffin: I was just like, "I would never do this in a million years, but all these people donated, and I feel like I- Mm-hmm ... should."

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: So I set out myself with my husband on the bike that day- Gosh ... not changing my goals. Like, I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I'm like, "Absolutely-" You're just hopeful

"I've done this for the-" It's like that

Ally Brettnacher: wishful thinking, for sure. Yeah. You're like, "Well, yeah, sure."

Carolyn Coffin: Crashed and burned. DNF'd at 20 miles. Oh my gosh. And I was like, "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh." Felt so bad [00:54:00] about it. Went out two weeks later, jogged it in, I think, 3:39 or something like that. But this is all pandemic.

Then as you know, nothing really happened in the... for a while then. Right. Yeah. Until 2022. So 2022, got back on the horse, enrolled the coach again, "Okay, let's go," and felt super, super fit. Trained for the Manitoba Marathon, which is our local race here, in June. Train, train, train. Training went amazing. I was so excited, s- felt so fit.

And we're looking at the weather forecast the week of to help inform the choices on race day, and it was just getting hotter and hotter. And remember I said, like, it gets very cold here in the winter. It gets very hot in the summer. Yeah. Ugh. So again, I only know Celsius, but it was star- it was mid 30 degrees Celsius, so this is over 100 degrees, um, early in the week, and it just kept getting hotter and hotter and hotter.

Oh, no. That it was gonna be mid 40 degrees Celsius. I don't [00:55:00] even know what that is in Fahrenheit. That's so hot. It's like 115 degrees or something- That's,

Ally Brettnacher: that's just wild. Yeah ...

Carolyn Coffin: during the race. And I was like, I was watching all these videos from the 2019 World Championship Marathon in Doha- Right ... where they started, where it was gonna be super hot, too.

They started it at midnight, and I was like, "How did, how much did this heat slow down, like, the Olympic-level- Right. Yeah ... women?" 15 to 20 minutes. A- and so you can really extrapolate, and it would actually be probably be even more for-

Ally Brettnacher: For a

Carolyn Coffin: nor- ... me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I set out... I, again, I did think I was fit to do a sub 3:20 that day, but I paced it off of a 3:30, 3:35, and I was feeling amazing at halfway when they just pulled everybody off the course and said, "The race is over.

It's too hot."

Ally Brettnacher: Carolyn. Ugh. I was like, "

Carolyn Coffin: Oh, no." Um, and then, but yet by then it's, you know, it's [00:56:00] June. It's, that race always happens on Father's Day. Yeah. There's nothing I can pivot to the next week. Right. Like, the season is done. It's over. Yeah. Ugh. So I pulled out, pulled back and did some track and, and whatnot through the summer and refocused on CIM that year.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Um, so that fall I turned 45, so now my little project at 42 at 42, now I'm 45. Yeah. And, um-

Ally Brettnacher: Hey, wait, pau- pause for a second before because I wanna talk about the Manitoba. Like, what was that like getting... How did they pull you off the course?

Carolyn Coffin: They just, like-

Ally Brettnacher: How did you react? Like, did you just- Oh, my gosh

start crying? I mean, I just don't even know in that moment.

Carolyn Coffin: I, uh, they, they physically blocked us at, uh, like I was coming up to the halfway mark that was turning onto one of our big highways that was closed down. And it was just all the volunteers were kind of, like, standing in front of you, like, "Nope, the race- Wow

is over." Wow. And so everyone was getting stopped there. So I, uh, the people that were accumulating as- Yeah ... we got stopped, like, I knew a [00:57:00] lot of them, and we were all like, "Oh my God. Like, so it's just done? Like, we're just... This

Ally Brettnacher: is it?"

Carolyn Coffin: Do they put you on

Ally Brettnacher: a bus? Like, how do you get- Well,

Carolyn Coffin: that's wh- ... to where you're

Ally Brettnacher: supposed to go?

Carolyn Coffin: So I'm like, h- where... So our race also has a relay. So they're like, "Yeah, you have to go back to the last relay exchange zone and get the bus from there," which was actually ma- probably a mile.

Ally Brettnacher: Oof.

Carolyn Coffin: And then we just ran into somebody that we knew, and they, they had a car, so they said, "Hey, hop in with us."

That's nice. But we couldn't have been any further away from the finish line. It was the halfway point of the marathon. Right. Which-

Ally Brettnacher: That's nuts.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. So we get driven back to the start-finish line, which is in our, um, actually our CFL, um, like, Winnipeg Blue Bombers. I'm not sure if you know, um, the CFL very much.

Oh, I don't know. No. Yeah, it's in our b- their big stadium. Like, it's a very cool finish. I don't even know what that stands

Ally Brettnacher: for.

Carolyn Coffin: Oh, it's, uh, our football team.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, yeah, okay.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. So, um, the, the stadium is, like, pretty cool, and you finish by going down into the stadium. That is cool. Yeah. Much like at Fargo kind of.

Ally Brettnacher: [00:58:00] Right, I know we need to talk about Fargo.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. So, um, I go to the finish line, and I see some people coming in, including my husband. And I'm like, "Wait, so we could have finished?" Like, I'm so, so confused. It was like a gong show of a day. Um, so yeah, I guess there were some people that just chose to keep on running even though they were being told to b- come off the course.

Yeah. And so not t- not a lot of people finished, but some people did decide to finish. So there's just a lot of feelings, uh, around that day, I would say. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Like, let's not talk about it anymore. Yeah. That's such a hard thing to go through.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah, so I'm like, "Okay, maybe the marathon gods are against me or something."

Yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: I don't know.

Carolyn Coffin: Like, I'm like- It's unlucky ... I've gotten myself fit, like, a few times now, and- Yeah ... I'm getting older, and- It's

Ally Brettnacher: so frustrating ...

Carolyn Coffin: maybe I should change the goal. But I also felt still capable.

Ally Brettnacher: Right. [00:59:00] So.

Carolyn Coffin: So we regrouped for CIM and went to- Okay ... CIM that year, and I actually ran a, a very good, for me, race at CIM.

Uh, one little s- short pee break, uh, bathroom stop. But, like, perfectly pan- like, I think my first half and second half split were 12 seconds apart. That's

Ally Brettnacher: incredible

Carolyn Coffin: pacing. Like, just real, real- Yeah ... locked in.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Um, but it was 3:23:12, so I was like- Okay ... "Ah." So that reignited a belief. Like, I don't think I'm- Okay

delusional. Like, I think this is still- Right ... kind of possible. And then that's when I hired the Olympian. I was like, "Okay, 2024 is my, or 2023 is my year." So I trained with him all through 2023, and targeted the, uh, Toronto Waterfront Marathon at the end- Mm ... in October of 2023. And again, real fit, training went really well.

He wanted me to do a 10K a couple weeks before Toronto Waterfront. I did the 10K. It was, [01:00:00] um, it exceeded my expectations for fitness. I won the race. Uh, I was excited and happy, and on my cool down, I couldn't even walk. I had this hip thing that just came out of nowhere that I didn't feel in the race, but the race finished on grass, and I think probably that finishing kick on grass, it just tweaked my hip somehow, and I was like, "Oh, no.

What is this?" Just couldn't even, couldn't even hardly m- walk, uh- That's... Oh my gosh ... for those two weeks. And I was like, "Oh, no." Like, and so I wanted to rule out that it was any, like a fracture of any kind, so I had it imaged, and the doctor was like, "I don't think it's a fracture." 'Cause I wouldn't, I wouldn't have started Toronto Waterfront if it was, 'cause I'm not here to Like, I like to be a bit of a role model for, like, training smart and, you know, like I think that would be- Right.

No, it's hard. You're also a human, but yeah. Yeah. You know,

Ally Brettnacher: like, I don't wanna show the example that's like, "Yeah, it doesn't matter if you're injured, just push on through."

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. So when it was ruled out- Yeah ... [01:01:00] I don't think it's a fracture, I was like, "Okay, I'll start. I'll see what happens." But it hadn't been going well, so I did end up having to pull out of that one around 17 miles or something.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: So I was like, "Oh." Man. And so then it was, like, rehab and run walking for most of the, the rest of 2023 and the beginning of 2024. I came back really smart, I thought. Like, did a whole season of pacing other people who are a little bit slower than I am. I think that's... Yeah. Good. So, like, just kinda eased into it.

Mm-hmm. Okay, yep, check, check, check. Green lights, everything. And then I targeted Chicago of 2024. Training went great. Like, this is such a repetitive story, but training went so super, super great. I felt very fit, and I've never run a better race than that. Everything just felt easy. Do you know Jeff Cunningham?

Ally Brettnacher: Yes.

Carolyn Coffin: Okay, Jeff Cunning- I know who he is. Yeah. He had, um, he had released this episode with Peter Bromka shortly before. [01:02:00] Mm-hmm. I just

Ally Brettnacher: listened to your episode with Peter, or half- I'm halfway through it, I should say.

Carolyn Coffin: Okay.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: And Jeff was just talking about, like, how to pace and, like, the, the marathon gods will rain down on you with the fury of a thousand fire-breathing dragons if you go out too fast and everything.

So I just had- Yeah ... him in my head, and I was like, "Oh my God, this feels so easy. This feels so easy." Like, 18 miles felt so easy. 19, I'm like, "Oh my God- Yeah ... I cannot wait to get to 20 miles and just unleash, 'cause I feel so good." And then all of a sudden I had, like, this bathroom emergency that if I had've been able to find a porta potty, I would've gone in there, I would've gotten out of there, like, one minute later and it would've been fine.

I could not find a freaking bathroom to save my life for-

Ally Brettnacher: Oh ...

Carolyn Coffin: four kilometers. Two and a half miles of running like, "Oh my God," just scanning for a bathroom. Contemplating like- The worst

Ally Brettnacher: feeling ...

Carolyn Coffin: what about that alleyway? [01:03:00] Like, what if I just like, you know- Yeah, 100% ... squatted at the side of the... Oh my God, it was- Oh my

Ally Brettnacher: God

Carolyn Coffin: awful. And then by the time I found one it was, like, not a one-minute stop anymore, so you can- Ugh ... read between the lines here. Ugh. So anyway, and then, so that was a good, like, three minutes, and, uh, I ended up finishing in 3:24:11. So sad. I hate it. I hate it for you. I'm so annoyed. I'm like, that would've been a

Ally Brettnacher: 3:21 day.

Stop

Carolyn Coffin: it. Yeah. And this whole thing would've been over. So again, I, I'm just... I don't know if I should keep trying for this, 'cause it's, it seems so doable, but- Yeah ... all the stars have to align in every way- Mm-hmm ... to make it happen, and that's actually part of the... I think it's part of the what pulls us back into marathon running in a way.

It's like there's so many pieces of the puzzle to get right. Right And they all have to kind of come together, not perfectly, but, like, for the [01:04:00] most part, most of the major ones have to be working in your favor on- Yeah ... race day. Yeah. And some of it you can control and some of it you can't. Right. And it's quite fun and frustrating all at the same time.

Ally Brettnacher: Miserable and magical, the Taylor Swi- Swift lyric- Mm ... that just always reminded me of running. I'm like- Yes ... that's exactly how I describe the marathon. It is, like, miserable, but when it, when it's magic, it's just, like, the most magic- Yeah ... when it can happen in the right way. Um, in 2022 you did Fargo. Did you run the half-marathon there?

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah, so I actually didn't. So I, that was the year that I had started working at one of our local running stores, and I was coaching- Oh, okay ... a whole bunch of people, and it was kind of that first out of the pandemic race. And so I actually went there in more of a coaching capacity that year, and I was running all over the course cheering on all the people that I had trained for that.

That's

Ally Brettnacher: cool. So- Did you run, so you ran the marathon?

Carolyn Coffin: No, I didn't run e- anything. Anything? Nope, not in 2022.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. Okay. I was there just cheering.

Ally Brettnacher: Just cheering. Yeah. So you cheered for me and you didn't even [01:05:00] know.

Carolyn Coffin: I didn't even know. I wish I knew. Yeah. I wish I knew.

Ally Brettnacher: Isn't that so funny? I was like, wow, I was there in 2022.

That's the year I did the half there.

Carolyn Coffin: You did the half? Okay.

Ally Brettnacher: And then you've also done the Rock 'n' Roll Vegas.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. So that was also- 'Cause

Ally Brettnacher: I was there in 2022 also.

Carolyn Coffin: Get out. Did you do the half?

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Okay. Yeah. That was so much fun. Um, my husband and I did that. My brother, actually, the, the runner brother that I have, he paced me, and we did- Oh, fun

the 10K- Okay ... that year. And that was still COVID-y, right? Do you remember how- Yeah, right. It was closed ... the start was- Yeah ... they let off, like, f- five people at a time or something. Yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah, yeah, yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah, so I actually won the 10K. 'Cause nobody does the 10K. I didn't know this. Like, I love the 10K and the 5K probably even more.

Like, those are my real- Oh my gosh, those scare me ... like sweet spot. Yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Um, so I'm like, "Oh, I wanna g- uh, like, we'll go to Vegas." My brother's partner, Jen, she's not really a runner, but she's [01:06:00] like, "If I ever was gonna do a race, it would be the- Right ... Rock 'n' Roll." And- It's really cool ... so she signed up for that, and then me, my husband, and my brother, who was pacing me, signed up for the 10K, and they all just start together, and then they, they veer off.

But-

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm,

Carolyn Coffin: mm-hmm ... um, I didn't realize that hardly anybody does the 10K. The half is the real, like, main event there. Yeah. And my sister-in-law had so much fun at that, uh- Yeah ... 'cause it's, like, along the Strip, and it gets dark- Right, you go all the way

Ally Brettnacher: down into old Vegas, and it- Mm-hmm ... yeah, the lights, and it's just, ugh.

Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. But my brother was pacing me, which I really like, because when I have someone I trust with me, getting the mo- 'Cause most, most of the time when I race, I'm like, I get a lot of satisfaction out of a very well-executed race, leaving it all out there. So like- Yeah ... a little negative split- Mm ... getting faster at the end, pouring it all out.

So I said, "I can pace myself for the first bit, but, like, I need you at the end to make sure I don't give up on myself" type of thing. Yeah. So he was an, he was a [01:07:00] rock star. We did a whole episode about him as my pacer on that race. That's cool. But we come around, like, I don't know if you remember how the 10K finished, but, um, you're coming down the Strip, and you just- Mm

pretty much do, like, a 180, and up the other side. Right. It's

Ally Brettnacher: like that Japanese U-turn. Yeah. Like, and you do one at the beginning too.

Carolyn Coffin: I wish I knew about that. Yes. Me too.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Yes. And the finish line kinda just comes up on you. Like, you round this little bend, and, like, there it is.

Ally Brettnacher: Well, for the 10K. For the- For the-

half, it's, like, forever. Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: And, um, we round the bend, and there's, like, a tape. Like a- Yeah ... they're holding out a tape. And I'm like, "What is this?" Like, "What is happening?" Like, it still didn't occur to me- That's so cool ... that I won it.

Ally Brettnacher: That's

Carolyn Coffin: so fun. And so that's the one and only, like, tape that I'll probably ever break in, in my whole life.

Ally Brettnacher: Which is, like, how cool is it that you've broke, you can say you've broken- Yeah ... it not, that is not a small race. I don't care if you think that not everybody did it. It's still a huge production, and Rock 'n' Roll is a very large, well- Yeah ... you know, well-known- Yeah ... brand and, of race series. Yeah. What did you get for [01:08:00] winning?

Did they have a cash prize?

Carolyn Coffin: No, no, no, no. Okay. There was nothing. I didn't get anything. Just, I... But they, they gave me the tape, so I, like, went out that night- Oh ... like, with the tape- I would wear it ... wrapped around my...

Ally Brettnacher: Oh. Yeah. Did you actually do that?

Carolyn Coffin: Yes.

Ally Brettnacher: I love you. That is... Yep.

Carolyn Coffin: It was so fun.

Ally Brettnacher: You're my kind of people, Carolyn.

Yeah. I mean, I knew you were, but, like, that just levels it up, because my dad and I do that race together. It's kind of like his- Aw ... he loves Vegas, and so his cousin and his cousin's kids come out. We all do it. And, um, so we always wear our medals after and go to the craps tables, and people are always like- They don't even know what it i- or like what running...

Like, they're just so confused by the medal. Yeah. But it's so fun to wear. It's so- So I love that you wore the tape. That's so cool.

Carolyn Coffin: No, I totally did because I'm like, I know enough about run- like, I follow professional running. I interview, like, Olympians and stuff on my podcast. I'm like, "This is not a good time for a 10K," and somehow I won, and I'm like, "I am owning the heck out of this," you know?

Oh,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: So it was- That's so cool ... it was very funny.

Ally Brettnacher: Do you still have the [01:09:00] tape?

Carolyn Coffin: I still have the tape. It's-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, I was like, "Why isn't it right behind you on the wall?" It's right

Carolyn Coffin: over there. Like, just- Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: That's so fun. That's really cool. So you didn't even get, like, a cool, like, a plate or like a

Carolyn Coffin: cup? No, I didn't.

No, but it, it was okay. In

Ally Brettnacher: the actual world. No. No, that's,

Carolyn Coffin: that, I mean- The, the good people did the half-marathon. That's what it was.

Ally Brettnacher: Stop it.

Carolyn Coffin: I- I r- won it in, like, 42 minutes. Like, it wasn't even that fast, but.

Ally Brettnacher: Whatever. That's, I mean, that's in... I mean, for, for me and my normal self, I'm like, "Jeez, that's fast."

And that's so cool that you won. Wow. What were your thoughts? Like, obviously you're like, "Okay, I follow the sport. I'm gonna throw my hands up in the air." Oh, that's- "I know what to do."

Carolyn Coffin: Well, so, and we talked about this in the recap episode about, uh, when my brother, we interviewed him about pacing me and just- Yeah

the role of a pacer and stuff like that. So cool. But it-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Love

Carolyn Coffin: it ... so this was February 2022. January 2022, my brother had been at Houston the day that Keira D'Amato set the then new American record- Yeah, that's really exciting ... in the marathon. And so what was I thinking? I was thinking, "I am channeling my inner Keira D'Amato," and I was [01:10:00] like, hands up and like, I am milking this moment for all it's worth 'cause it's probably never gonna happen again.

That's exactly my thoughts. As soon as I realized, "Oh, I think I maybe am winning this race," like, when that finally clicked, I was like, "I gotta have a good photo after that." So.

Ally Brettnacher: Did you get a good photo?

Carolyn Coffin: Yes.

Ally Brettnacher: Yes. Good. Because sometimes, I don't know, you never know. You think you're making this po- you're like, "I'm so strong."

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: And you just look like a... I'm like, "Oh, I have 8,000 chins" and- Yeah ... like, what am I doing with my arm? Or- No.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. That was good I got, I got a good photo. I think it's in one of the ones that I sent you, so maybe you can use it to promote

Ally Brettnacher: the- Oh, good. Oh, I haven't looked at those yet. So I will. I'm gonna be like, "Look at this."

You know? The everyday runner who won a race, you know? Yeah. I've interviewed a few people who have, you know? And, uh, I've done some age group stuff, which is-

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah ...

Ally Brettnacher: but outright winning- It's thrilling ... at over 40.

Carolyn Coffin: Yes.

Ally Brettnacher: Like-

Carolyn Coffin: Yes ...

Ally Brettnacher: that is, that's so badass. Yeah. That's so cool. Oh my gosh. I, we could talk forever and ever.

I, um- I also wanna hear more about, we didn't really talk much about The Marathon Project. You mentioned it [01:11:00] earlier. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But we didn't really talk about what that is or what that experience was like. Yeah. So I wanna make sure that we talk about that.

Carolyn Coffin: For sure. Yeah. The Marathon Project is this kind of a new, um, not, not new.

So Ben Rosario started The Marathon Project as an opportunity in the pandemic. Uh- Okay ... it was him and Josh Cox, because nobody had, like, elite, ah, level people were not getting any opportunities to qualify for the Olympics in the pandemic. So they put on this really pandemic-safe race, and people from Mexico and Canada and the US and, and elsewhere came for it, and it was in Arizona A pancake flat course, like a l- a loop.

Like, it was just kind of like a, not a exciting course, but a flat and potentially fast course. Sarah Hall, I think, ran 2:20 on the course. We had one of our, um, Olympians, uh, Natasha Wodak, go and do it, and she ran, I think, 2:26. Qualified for the Olympics that day. So there [01:12:00] was a, there was a proof of concept, but it was only ever meant to just be that one day in the pandemic.

Right. I think October-

Ally Brettnacher: Wow ...

Carolyn Coffin: December or something of 2020. And then he-- so when he finished, he used to be the coach of Northern Arizona Elite, and when he stepped back from that, he's like, "I need another thing." So he wanted to bring this race back, yes, for the elites again, but also for kind of competitive amateur people.

Ally Brettnacher: Right, your everyday runners chasing OTQs in particular, like the Olympic

Carolyn Coffin: qualifying time. Chasing OTQs, but even like BQs, like, there- Okay ... he just put some qualifying times, like I think for women it was if you'd run 3:30 or faster, you could be part of the race. So-

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. That's cool ...

Carolyn Coffin: like huh. So my husband and I looked at this, we're like, "That would be fun in like December, and it would still line up with training here."

Like, it is hard here to do, say, a September or October, 'cause then you're doing most of your training over the summer, and it is very hot.

Ally Brettnacher: [01:13:00] Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: But that's why I like the November, 'cause then a lot of your training happens in September, October when it

Ally Brettnacher: breaks. I've only, I've only done, yeah, I've only done fall stuff

Carolyn Coffin: for that

Ally Brettnacher: reason.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we thought, okay, December, so a lot of it, like there might be some snow by late November, but for the most part training would be great. Let's do it, you know? Like, let's try to really run our fastest times, 'cause we're both still trying, trying for that. And so we signed up for that, and actually went down to, um, it was in Chandler, Arizona, at this, uh, resort.

It's called the Wild Horse Pass, and there's just a beautiful resort, hotel, pool, all of it. Amazing. We brought the kids down. We did a whole training camp. Like, we went all in on this project. Um, again, training went super great. Uh, but the race day for me was not good. Like, I have never experienced a race where I just felt like [01:14:00] absolute hot garbage from step number one of the race.

Oh. I just was like, "What is this?" Like, "Maybe I should..." And, and- That sucks ... they had pacers. That was another unique thing about this race. Not that pacers are unique per se, like we're used to pacers in a race. Yeah. But like my husband at a 2:40 to 2:35, like they had pacers for those. Like he had a pacer for 2:40.

And-

Ally Brettnacher: What's the ty- what's typically, I should know this, the fastest pacer like in like a-

Carolyn Coffin: I think three hours ... normal race? Okay. Like I don't think- And

Ally Brettnacher: like anything under that ...

Carolyn Coffin: you typically see pacers faster than three hours- I was trying to remember what we do here monumental ... in just like your big city mar- marathon.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Because it, because it's hard to find somebody probably. Sure,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. Yeah. That's probably true.

Carolyn Coffin: But- Yeah ... 3:20 for sure I'm used to having a pacer, but they had-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Carolyn Coffin: they had them for every five-minute increment from like-

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Wow ...

Carolyn Coffin: 2:20 to, to 3:30.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

Carolyn Coffin: Which was super cool. Nice. Yeah. And so my coach had said to me, [01:15:00] like I, I thought that I for sure...

Like, my main goal was, again, to personal best, which is 3:21 high, and I thought the best way for me to do that is to start kind of there, like right at that 3:21 to 3:22 and just hang there. And then maybe if I feel good at the end- You have it. Yeah ... like pick it up. But there wasn't gonna be a pacer for that, and he's like, "I think you're better to run with a pacer."

I said, "Do you think I should go kind of between the 3:20 and the 3:25?" And he's like, "Psychologically, that's hard to feel like you're, you're in the group, but you're not really in the group." Yeah. "It's easier to run with other people." And, and that all makes a lot of sense to me, so I st- and plus I felt actually fitter than 3:20.

Like, I, I had just run a 1:34 half. Like, it was, everything was kind of- Yeah ... pointing to like 3:17, 3:18. So I thought even the 3:20 should feel pretty relaxed till at least halfway. Or till it doesn't. Yeah, until it doesn't. Like, I, I'm not that delusional. I [01:16:00] know there's gonna be a point where it's hard and, but I just want that point to be- Yeah

appropriate.

Ally Brettnacher: Right.

Carolyn Coffin: And, uh, no, it just felt so hard from the very start, and I'm like, but he's, he said it's easier to run with the group. And I'm like, 'cause part of me was like, maybe I'll feel better if I just back off like five seconds a mile or, or something like that. Yeah, yeah. Like, it... When you're on those edges it can just be, a little bit of a back off can make a big difference.

Mm-hmm. But I didn't really wanna do that, so I was like, "No, maybe it'll get better. Maybe this is just a rough patch." And I just hung in there and hung in there, and it just never got better. And I cr- I crossed through halfway around like 1:41. Like, I was even falling off by halfway. Mm. And I'm like, "There is not a single chance I could do this again."

And it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. Worse. And it was like I didn't... Like, the whole point of this project was to come here and like go for it. Yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Which again, if you're clear ab- And this is kind of back to the coaching. Like, that was the point of this training block [01:17:00] and everything.

Like, I wasn't there to see if I could finish a marathon. I know I can finish a marathon. Um, so I, I actually chose to DNF that one when it was just really going south, and I still don't know what happened that day honestly.

Ally Brettnacher: Um- It, it's like you feel like maybe like a couple days later you find out you had COVID or something like that, you know?

Yeah. Like you hear about that happening. Nothing

Carolyn Coffin: like

Ally Brettnacher: that.

Carolyn Coffin: Nothing like that.

Ally Brettnacher: I- Well, some days it's just not your day. But that's so frustrating when you can't pinpoint it and be like, "Mm, I had a sinus infection, so..."

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah, yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Exactly. So it's been a bit of a mystery. I've, I haven't felt good since then.

Mm. I don't feel good- Mm ... running. I think as much as I don't wanna just be like, "I think it's perimenopause. I think it's perimenopause." I think

Ally Brettnacher: everything is perimenopause. Yeah. God, help us all.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah. And, and the thing is, I've been running long enough that I know, like, how it should feel. I- And I, and-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah

Carolyn Coffin: I've told you enough stories of days I've felt super great and amazing and, like, I know that, I know what running can feel like. Yeah. I'm not afraid of the hard [01:18:00] work. But when it just feels wrong- Mm-hmm ... and everything is feeling wrong. Easy runs, easy runs are the worst right now. I, I feel so tired and heavy and, like, flat on easy runs.

Oh, hard. And it's just been... So it's been pretty much since then, since December. Which was, that was

Ally Brettnacher: last

Carolyn Coffin: year? December- Yeah ... 2025.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: So I'd say for the past eight months. It's,

Ally Brettnacher: ugh, I'm sorry you've been dealing with

Carolyn Coffin: that. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: It's so, I mean, it's hard when your brain wants it, and mentally you're strong enough.

Mm-hmm. And, like, physically, you know, like, you know you can be, and then you-

Carolyn Coffin: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Ugh. So it's... I, I'm... It's under investigation. I'm- Mm ... like, learning and studying and talking to a lot of people and trying to figure it out. I haven't given up, but, um, sometimes running journeys are not linear, and-

Ally Brettnacher: Right

Carolyn Coffin: you know, this is still remnants of my 42 at 42, and now I'm about to turn 49. Yeah. So it's like, do I just ride off into the sunset and never... Like, if I [01:19:00] die with a 220- 3:21 marathon personal best versus a 3:20- ... or a 3:19- ... like, does anything change? So there's that part, but I'm like, "I wanna get... I wanna let it go on, on my terms and not feel like I'm just giving up."

Ally Brettnacher: I, yeah, I under- I can appreciate that. So- And you're like, "And if I do a sub 3:21, it better be on my headstone."

Carolyn Coffin: Ex- exactly. Okay. Top of the headstone.

Ally Brettnacher: That is so funny. "Here lies a 3:19

Carolyn Coffin: marathoner." Yes. Oh, my God, it's so funny. And, and I just have to laugh about it 'cause it's, it's, uh, it matters to me for- Yeah

whatever reason, and it doesn't matter to anybody else. Nobody loves me more or less if I run faster or slower. Right. And it's not that. It's just, I think it's fun to have personal projects that light you up, and-

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm ...

Carolyn Coffin: I keep asking myself, "Is this one still lighting me up?" And I think it is. Like, it's- Yeah

it's [01:20:00] frustrating, but I think that little dip in the story, like, you know, when you take up running, everything's just, like, improves and improves- Right. ... and it's so easy. Yeah, yeah. Right? Yeah. You know, I look back at my story like, "Oh yeah, those first few years," you know?

Ally Brettnacher: Right.

Carolyn Coffin: It's not like I wasn't working hard, but everything was just coming so easily.

Right. So you kept thinking, "Oh, it's just gonna continue like this." But if you've been running long enough, and I've talked to 300 and some people on the podcast- Right ... like, everybody has a setback or something from time to time if they've been- Yeah ... running long enough. 1,000%. And it's the people that, that stay in it and, uh, figure it out and learn and, and could never think that they've figured it all out.

I just- Yeah ... never will think that.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, me neither. Yeah. Yeah, I think, too, again, back to, like, you know, the internet and what you see on the internet, there's so many new people to the sport. Mm-hmm. And so I do think that for... It can look like everybody's setting PRs all the time- Mm-hmm ... at every race, and it's like, well- You know, a lot of those people [01:21:00] potentially are just starting.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: And so-

Carolyn Coffin: Newbie gains.

Ally Brettnacher: You know, newbie gains are so fun, but- So fun ... you can't compare yourself to somebody who just start- started their journey. Or- Yeah ... you know, you can't compare yourself to anyone, frankly, because like you said, it's all different-

Carolyn Coffin: No ... for everybody. And you can't hardly, i- in my case, I don't even feel like I can compare myself to myself, like, six or eight months ago- Yeah

'cause-

Ally Brettnacher: Also

Carolyn Coffin: true ... things have all changed a lot then, so.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Carolyn Coffin: Anyway, as long as it's still Net positive fun, then- Yeah ... I will c- I'll stick with it and- Yeah ... maybe I'll have a story to tell someday.

Ally Brettnacher: Hey, and no matter what you do, right? It's like-

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Um, okay, I have to end- ask you the end of the podcast questions now.

Carolyn Coffin: Oh, get it. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: I can't believe it's, I can't believe we've been talking this long. Um, time flies. So I have two end of the podcast questions I ask everybody. And so the first one is, what is your next finish line and/or- Mm ... milestone?

Carolyn Coffin: Yes. My next finish line, so I'm do- I mentioned I'm doing a little bit of pacing [01:22:00] this fall, so- Mm-hmm

I've got my ladies, there's 15 of them that I'm going to be pacing to hopefully a sub 1:40 half-marathon on September 27th. And in the lead up, one of those people I'm, is my personal client that I am, uh, she wants to go 44-something in the 10K on September 13th. Nice. So I've got two September races- Oh, that's so fun

coming up that I have a little, little bit of a pacing job, which is my favorite. Like, I love- It's really fun ... love, love helping people have their days.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, what are both of those races?

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah, they're both local to Winnipeg. Okay. So the first one, the 10K, is called the Winnipeg 10 in 10, which, because they have a 10 mile and a 10K.

Oh,

Ally Brettnacher: that's cool.

Carolyn Coffin: Uh, so that's a fun one. Um, longstanding event here. And then the other one's called the Fort Garry Rotary Half Marathon.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay, nice. Well, I hope those go well for you and- Thank you ... your athletes. That's so fun. Um, and then next question is, what's your favorite running [01:23:00] song and- Ooh ... or mantra?

Do you listen to music when you run?

Carolyn Coffin: I don't. I'm, I, uh, never even have a phone when I run, if you can believe- Oh ... that. Yeah. Uh, when I run a race. Yeah. Okay. That's fair. So when I train, I will, uh, very often be listening to podcasts, so podcast host through and through. And- Yeah ... I'm not listening to my own podcast-

but I love to listen to other, other podcasts while I'm running, so that's usually it over music, if you can believe it. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: I can.

Carolyn Coffin: I can't even think of a song that I have, to be honest. Oh

Ally Brettnacher: my gosh.

Carolyn Coffin: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Do you have, do you have any mantras, like, or, you know, phrases- Yeah ... you tell yourself when it gets really hard?

Carolyn Coffin: I do. So I break them in... I got this from Chris McClung, who's the host of, um, Running, the Running Rogue podcast. Okay. And he talks about rhythm mantras and fight mantras. Mm. So you wanna have different mantras for the beginning of your race versus the end, right? You don't wanna- Makes sense ... be necessarily, like, all hyped up at the beginning.

So beginning, so rhythm mantra he would call it. Mine is more like, um, "Relax, relax, relax. Relax and [01:24:00] flow. Settle in." Mm-hmm. Those are usually the three that I go to. I like to keep my mantras short. And then, um, fight mantras towards the end, 'cause again, I like to have no doubt that I've left it all out there.

So the end, I usually say, "It's go time."

Ally Brettnacher: It's go time.

Carolyn Coffin: It's go time.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's so good Oh, well thank you so much for doing this, Carolyn. It was so much fun getting a chance to get to know you better and I hope we get to meet in person, if not this year, at some point. I'm like, "Lindsay, we should have like a retreat or something."

Ooh. Like somehow all of us get together. Ooh.

Carolyn Coffin: Yes-

Ally Brettnacher: Wouldn't that be amazing? ... please to the

Carolyn Coffin: retreat. Right? Yes

Ally Brettnacher: please to the retreat. Or like some sort of get together, gathering or, you know.

Carolyn Coffin: Sandy Boy meetup. There's just so many- Mm-hmm ... so many good ideas. Um- Yeah ... yes, likewise. I hope to meet you sooner than later.

Hopefully this year's Indy, whether I'm running or not running. Um- Yeah. I'm cheering ... can't wait to have you, so stay tuned. You're gonna be on my podcast- Oh my

Ally Brettnacher: gosh, you're

Carolyn Coffin: so sweet ... soon as well. Like you don't

Ally Brettnacher: have to have me on. Like-

Carolyn Coffin: No, I can't wait ... the [01:25:00] caliber of

Ally Brettnacher: people you've had on is-

Carolyn Coffin: No, no, no. I cannot wait to get to know you better.

Thank you so much for- Oh, thank you ... this opportunity. It was- Absolutely ... it was great to get to connect.

Ally Brettnacher: You too. All right. Well, thanks for everybody who listened and happy running.

Hey, thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode of Finish Lines and Milestones from Sandy Burr Productions, you will probably also love Carolyn's podcast, Inspired Souls. She interviews pros, everyday athletes, all to inspire you on your running journey.

So check her podcast out. Thank you Killa and Hug for supporting this episode of the podcast. Go show them some love, and I will talk to you again next Friday. Bye.