The Hobby Jogger Podcast
Welcome to The Hobby Jogger Podcast, where elite athletes and ham-and-eggers lace up their stories. We explore the common ground that running creates from the world-class runner to the hobbyist hitting the pavement, trail or treadmill. Expect a blend of inspiration, laughter and the shared joy that makes every step count. Join us on this journey, where every run is a story worth sharing.
The Hobby Jogger Podcast
E32 | Connie Gardner - An Akron Legend Enters the Ultra Running Hall of Fame
Ever wondered how one begins an ultra running career at 36 and ends up with nearly 100 wins? Connie Gardner, an ultra running legend and latest inductee to the Ultra Running Hall of Fame, joins us to share her fascinating journey, recorded live at the Thirsty Dog Brewery in Akron, Ohio. With co-host Nikki Niemeyer, we explore Connie's tales from the trail. Connie's passion and dedication to running are truly contagious, offering listeners a masterclass in perseverance and love for the sport.
Connie and Nikki elaborate on the joyful side of running—fun track workouts and community events that highlight the supportive nature of the running community. We discuss Connie’s coaching philosophy and the thrill of setting personal goals. Through personal anecdotes, we celebrate the humor and humility that come with navigating the unpredictable world of running.
Today's guest is an ultra running legend and the most recent inductee to the Ultra Running Hall of Fame. Connie Gardner is also from my current hometown of Akron, ohio. A 12-time national champion across 50 miles, 100k, 100 miles and 24 hours. Connie has conquered over 180 ultras with nearly 100 wins, including three JFK 50 titles. She set 37 course records and represented the US on the national team for years. Starting her ultra career at 36, connie dominated the sport well into her 50s, earning accolades like USATF Ultra Runner of the Year twice. From smashing 24-hour American records to coaching and inspiring others. Connie's journey proves that with determination, anything is possible. Also, please check out Davey Crockett, who runs ultrarunninghistorycom as well as the Ultra Running Hall of Fame, of which 25 people, including Connie, have been inducted.
Speaker 1:In this episode we attempted to record live on location, which we do for the first part of this conversation. Please bear with us as we did have some audio complications and needed to record via our normal methods after about the 12 to 15 minute mark, and the audio quality does improve greatly. Now let's dive into a couple chapters of Connie's incredible story. Thank you for joining us for this week's episode of the Hobby Jogger. This week's episode is a very special episode. We are doing it. Well, it's not live, but it is on location at the Thirsty Dog Brewery in downtown Akron, ohio. The first time we're trying something where I'm not in the office, I am also joined by a new, very special co -host, a friend of mine, nikki Niemeyer. Nikki, how are you?
Speaker 2:Doing great. How are you Great?
Speaker 1:Thank you for having us at this awesome brewery, very historic building. If you like that we're in currently right.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Mid-1800s started as a brewery. It's always been a brewery Burkhart Brewing, one of the first female-owned breweries in North America Marguerite Burkhart.
Speaker 1:Backward History, always like to get our history lessons in here at the Hobby Jogger we have a very special guest today A very close friend of yours.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Miss Connie Gardner. Connie, how are you? Oh fine, thank you. Good Thanks for having us here at the brewery. You also, you help host events here, correct?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I serve beer.
Speaker 1:You serve beer. Well, that's an event itself. Well, you're drinking at 12 Dogs at Christmas, correct?
Speaker 3:I'm drinking 12 Dogs. That what it is 12 Dogs at Christmas, yeah.
Speaker 1:Christmas is. So many beers, many beers, more than one beer.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Nikki, what are you having?
Speaker 2:12 Dogs at Christmas Ale.
Speaker 1:I don't think I'm having the Leg Humper. That is my favorite beer name here.
Speaker 2:The Neon's one.
Speaker 1:The old Leg Humper Neon, which is awesome. But, connie, thanks for joining us here at the Hog Jogger. We certainly appreciate your time. You are definitely a local legend of running, not a Strava sense. I doubt you even have Strava.
Speaker 3:I don't, I'm going to watch.
Speaker 1:Okay, perfect.
Speaker 3:Oh, I do have a Timex. I have a Timex that I put on the track sometimes. No, I usually give it to you, but I have it, I bring it to the track.
Speaker 1:Well, that's good, I mean track. That's important. You keep track, but you have been through. I did look at your ultra sign up. You've got a lot of them. How many?
Speaker 3:you said 180, 180 races and close to 100 wins. That's pretty good, huh yeah, that's not bad.
Speaker 1:It's not bad, yeah, yeah, uh, pretty good, pretty good and vicky. You run quite a bit as well. I joined you for some track workouts up there. Mutual friend will yes, will.
Speaker 2:Who?
Speaker 1:Will Walmsley, that's right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, will Coppedia, will Coppedia, Walmsley.
Speaker 2:That's good so you grew up in this area correct honey.
Speaker 3:Incorrect.
Speaker 1:Perfect, right on spot Okay.
Speaker 3:Very good. I grew up in elementary school outside of DC.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:I was born in DC. I think that's kind of DC Okay.
Speaker 1:And I was born in DC. I think that's kind of cool. Were your parents, did they work?
Speaker 3:for the government. My father was in. He worked for the University of Maryland at the time. Okay, he was pretty accomplished like an engineer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was hoping like CIA agent or something. Nope, that's a whole different episode.
Speaker 3:No, not that cool, but pretty cool, though he's pretty cool. He wrote Thermodynamics, gas Dynamics, fluid Mechanics textbooks.
Speaker 1:Isn't that cool? Is that cool? Sounds cool, I don't know. I think it's super cool. I think Fluid.
Speaker 3:Mechanics is very cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah Right, it's one of us here, I think.
Speaker 3:It's good. Well, okay, regardless. A little bit over my head, I think it's over all our heads, but that's what's nice about it. That's what's nice about it. And then moved from DC area to Toledo area and then high school, columbus, olin Tangi, right, olin Tangi. Then I graduated from college at UMass UMass, yep, zoomass, you rowed at UMass, right, I was a crew team rowing.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you didn't run in college.
Speaker 3:Nope, I rode, I ran in high school. You ran a marathon in college, though I ran a marathon in high school. High school, is that it? Yeah, I ran a marathon.
Speaker 1:My first marathon was 1981, that's crazy, connie, you've been at the game a long long time. Correct, you were a fruit, so that's the rowing Rowing.
Speaker 3:But I was still running marathons. I was sneaking a marathon in the fall and the spring, just before season, a couple times during season, but you can't let them know. You know, yeah, they frown upon that.
Speaker 1:And not good history buff here, but I know when did the first woman run. I forget her name.
Speaker 2:Oh, Catherine Switzer.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that.
Speaker 3:I think the more that was the 80s. I want to say yeah.
Speaker 3:No, that was before then, that was the 70s, but the first women were not allowed. When I ran my first marathon, women were not in the marathon in the Olympics. If you're running marathons in the early 80s, 81, you're, it's mostly men on the line and you don't have any female role models. So you're very odd, very peculiar, so, but I'm okay with that. And then when I got in, you know, 20 years after running marathons, I started doing ultra marathons. And guess what, when I'm running 100 mile races and I'm like a mom in Medina, what am I? I'm very odd, very peculiar, and I'm OK with that. Yeah, so it's just like it. Yeah, I was set up beautifully for it. I had 20 years of marathoning, right when marathoning and women are doing great in it and it's cool and it's fine and it's acceptable. Then I go into the hundreds and it's right. Then you're like not such a great parent if you're running a 100-mile race every other weekend, supposedly. But my kids were at the races, I think they had a good time.
Speaker 1:They probably had a lot of adventures. We run ultras, it is. They're out in cool places. You're out in the woods, yes, even if you want to go to the Thai Huggaballon National Park or the Burning River your kids are going to see some stuff.
Speaker 3:They saw things that most kids don't see and they made friends with runners in the races that are very out there. You know what they're like and like ultra runners like, I think, 20 years ago, ultra running. So I would run these loop courses just so I could check up on my kids every five miles, every mile or every 10 miles, and I would bring a babysitter and she'd be at the race with me and I'd run a 10-mile loop check in do you guys need anything? And then run another 10-mile loop check in. Do you guys need anything? And then run another 10-mile loop check in. It worked out quite nicely, but while I'm out there running my kids are like meeting other runners that are coming through the best one's.
Speaker 2:Western States.
Speaker 3:What Western States? I thought like I thought, yeah, Okay, she's saying Western States. Nikki knows my brother, Jim, so it's Uncle Jim and he doesn't have any children. And I schlepped my kids and babysitter. My babysitter was like another child, so I have like three kids and she's only a couple of years older than my oldest. So you have, you know, elementary, middle and high school girls that I bring out to Western States with me. And that's my crew. My brother is driving. My brother has never had a child. He's schlepping my kids, one who's developmentally delayed, the other supposedly gifted. I'm still waiting for her to use it. I'm still waiting for her to use that. No, she's. She's pretty smart, but she uses it in bad ways. I'm still waiting for her to use it. I'm still waiting for her to use that. No, she's pretty smart, but she uses it in bad ways. And then the babysitter who's trying to deal with this, and my brother's driving them from. You know, I don't have two crews, so he's driving them.
Speaker 3:He made it to every aid station that you could get to which with Western states, and he's schlepping a developmentally delayed like she was in elementary school at the time. What year was this, I don't know? 2003?, 2004?, so before GPS was in effect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, before GPS, yes that is a hell of an aid station to get to that first aid station, okay, okay.
Speaker 3:So when I get into that aid station I'm running in, it's difficult to drive there. It's difficult to run.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that I don't.
Speaker 3:So I've just run a 50K through the mountains. I'm coming from Medina Ohio.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:You know, and it's pretty tricky and I'm supposed to be competing, you know I'm supposed to be like in the race. And you get there and it's like hey Jim, how's it going? He's like oh man, and the kids were like uncle Jim cannot drive, he can't drive, we can't make it. You know it's off, I'm not getting back in that car. You got to get back in the car with Jimbo. You got to get in the car. I'm not getting in the car. Ah, they didn't really give me anything. I didn't get anything. You know, it's just. It's just a quick update. I realized the three kids are alive, my brother seems to be okay, and then onward, you know so then I keep going, but they, wow, what did you hear about that story?
Speaker 2:the uh when, like at the river, when, um, it's like what in the 80s?
Speaker 3:80 degree, 85 over, really, really hot year and I'm running along the river and my brains are baking in my skull. And I get to the other side and jim got those kids all the way down to the river and he's sitting on a rock. He's like, wow. I said hey, what place I'm in. He said I, I can't even count that high. And then, and then he's like do you know how hot it is out here? Do you know how long? And then Abby starts saying Jimbo made us come down here. There are cougars out here. We're gonna going to get killed. I don't know how we can get back. And then you hike up to Green Gate and it's just bitching, moaning, everyone's falling apart and she's taking care of them.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, oh, it'll be OK, come on, you can make it.
Speaker 3:You can make it. So I don't have like no one's here for me. I'll just say that. But I think that makes it a lot easier. I think when you have people catering to you and I would see at the races these like wives like all over their husbands and giving them whatever they need, or like women coming and crying like, oh you know, and they're getting, they're just wasting a lot of time. Uh, you know, and they're getting. Uh, they're just wasting a lot of time. I'm getting in, checking, making sure we're all okay and getting out. I'm not wasting any time. I'm taking care of myself. I'm taking care of them. It's all fine. No one needs to take care of me. It makes you a little bit stronger. You're fine, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, and I've definitely been in a situation where I've run into eight people, their girlfriend or significant others there they're the ones freaking out, yes.
Speaker 3:But my brother doesn't care about what I look like, he just knows, he knows. And then he's like come, these kids are a handful Was this before or after he took them to Subway.
Speaker 3:Oh, he said there is no place. He couldn't find any place to take them to eat. They knew nothing there. He couldn't find any place to take them to eat. They knew nothing, there was nothing. So they were very hungry.
Speaker 3:One he found a place, he took them to a subway and they're starving, and the three of them, he gets them all subs and we're competitive people, right. So they start to eat the subs as fast as they can and Abby says. Abby said Gwen, I'm going to beat you. Gwen shoved the whole sub in her mouth and swallowed it and then she said I won. And Gwen said Abby said you didn't finish your soy milk. And then Gwen looks and chugs the soy milk. So then within two minutes, little Gwen projectile vomited the whole lunch all over the table and subway. And Jim, who's never been around children before, is there.
Speaker 3:The babysitter is like I'm hitting the jackpot with this family vacation. She doesn't care, but it's just like, and Abby's laughing hysterically, she's having a blast. Care, but it's just like. And Abby's laughing and staring, she's having a blast and she's yeah, she's just picking on the babysitter, picking on her sister. You have to take it on as a challenge when I'm running Western States trying to get in the top 10, it's like I need to get in the top 10 to get there the next year. I have a lot more on my mind than I'm trying. I'm actually trying to wrap it up to get done so the kids can get to bed.
Speaker 1:There's a very historic race in particular that I want to ask you about, Connie, because it's coming up this weekend. It's a race that you've won the JFK 50 miler down in Maryland.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think I might be wrong with this. I maybe I'll have Will fact check me again, but I think it's the only race that takes place on the app part of it on the Appalachian trail.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like 10 or maybe a half marathon, maybe 10 miles. You run up a hill and then you go into Appalachian trail for about a half marathon and then you jump onto a towpath and by the time I was on the towpath 10 miles into the towpath. A lot of times I was all alone. It's yeah, yeah, jfk. That's great because it's Appalachian Trail, pretty rocky. Every year was different Sometimes there'd be ice on the rocks, sometimes there'd be snow.
Speaker 3:There was year I I finished in like schwarzenegger jog bra I mean it just snowed.
Speaker 3:It just snowed this weekend, so yeah, yeah, one time I wiped out at mile three like the first water stop they had. The water was all over the ground and it was a sheet of ice, so you don't know what you're going to get. And sometimes the trail is just covered with leaves and I'm tripping over all the rocks on Appalachian Trail and other times the leaves are gone like somebody blew them. So maybe it was just like you know, mother nature just blew them away.
Speaker 3:But Appalachian Trail for me was always a bit tricky and it made me feel like I'm not a very good trail runner. I tried to do my best I could on trails but I think people thought I was a road runner, not a trail runner. But then that thing that came out that David Crockett did with the Hall of Fame said I did a lot of trail races.
Speaker 3:I think I had 80% trail races and I'm considered a road runner. But on the Appalachian Trail I felt like a road runner. I like tripping all over the place. I'd usually have quite a few women ahead of me on there, but right when we got onto that towpath I could catch them, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty much any trail out in Pennsylvania in between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia is going to be very rocky.
Speaker 3:They are, I thought.
Speaker 1:Laurel Highlands felt like a hundred miler. I did that a couple times. Yeah, you've, you have, you've won that a couple times as well. The laurel highlands, uh 70. Well, it's the full trail. Oh, you want it once correct, finish, second once I don't know.
Speaker 3:I don't know one time. Both times I got lost a lot.
Speaker 1:You got lost in the Laurel Highlands.
Speaker 3:You go over this bridge. There's a bridge that goes over a road.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then you know the highway. You go over a highway.
Speaker 1:You go over the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Speaker 3:That's it, okay that you go over that. And then I went over it and then I went straight. And then I went over it and then I went straight and then I went up a hill, climb, climb, climb, climb, climb, climb, climb. And I just kind of stopped. And then I go all the way back down the hill and there's nothing. I'm thinking, well, I must've missed something. I go all the way back up the hill and I'm all the way back down and then there's this little teeny, tiny trail that looks like a deer trail or something. And then I get into the aid station. And I was first going in there.
Speaker 3:Getting to the aid station and I'm just like dropping F-bombs, like like what the fuck? You know, could you just leave a sign? And these are all volunteers. Then all of a sudden I realize, oh, what's coming out of my mouth? You know, all the stuff in my brain is coming out and I need to keep it in. But that's why the race directors are super nice, because when they finished I said, first thing I say is you know, you just give me one fucking arrow. You know, like that really mean I was really, really bitchy. And my friend, who's not a runner starts taking pictures of me as I'm talking to the race director, like giving him advice on how to put on the Laurel Highlands. You know, from my stupid perspective. Afterwards he shows me the pictures. He's like you really needed to stop. You shouldn't talk to those guys like that. They're really nice guys. You know to put it on and and I'm like I was, I was just talking, I told him, I just told him like they needed an arrow.
Speaker 3:And then he's like, take a look at this, and my veins are like popping out of my neck. And then he said, before we leave, you know you need to go apologize, like that's bad. So I go up and then they're like, uh, hey, no, you can say anything you want for an hour after the race. We don't anything personally. You're in the heat of the race, stuff happens. We understand. It's not who you are, so. So, fortunately, I vented within like an hour after the race. They said they don't listen to anything anyone has to say right then. And then afterwards, you know, I'm back to normal, like whew, but it, it, but it, it. Uh, lower highlands is pretty funny, but I think I, yeah, I think I was second once and one at once, I don't know yeah, according to the ultra sign up, you did win in 06 and must have been the wrong turn year in 07 I think the woman that had the previous record stayed ahead, like she got ahead of me.
Speaker 3:I don't think I was able to catch her. Something happened, but one of the years I got caught around the ski resort area and the other years I got caught up in this like right after you cross that highway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do know that they have done a better job marking the ski area, because that is the only part where you come off of like a non-marked, like the laurel highlands trail, yeah, where you're running, getting into the groove and opposite is like what, where are we supposed to go?
Speaker 3:like, what are we doing?
Speaker 1:you know, it's the only part that's not in the woods but, I love that the pa trails don't have switchbacks.
Speaker 3:You're just going straight up and straight down. Somebody at an aid station was really funny, like the one year. He's just like someone goes right behind you and he's like you just got to go kamikaze down the hill. I'm like okay okay.
Speaker 3:So there's no sense in even trying, like I'm going to trip, no matter what, might as well trip fast, just let myself go. And I just like flew down the hill and it was so much fun. It was really, really exciting. I could not do that now. I just remember trying to go as fast as I could on the downs, letting my legs go and staying as strong as I could in the ups, and then, when I was going as fast as I could down, there are these few guys out there that they pass me on every single down when I'm doing my best and I just thinking, but I would catch them on the up. But it's like it's for PA. Trails are hard just because of that. No switchback, a lot of rocks, a lot of roots. You got to pick up your feet and you can't be afraid of falling. You just have to go for it. Yeah, go for it. You know, if you want to, if you want to get a fast time yeah, I was.
Speaker 1:Uh, I was pretty beat up and bloody after last year's 50k it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's the way it's supposed to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was kind of embarrassing because we were finished and my mom comes out to that race because it's right by her house. My shoulder's bleeding. I think I might've hit my head, my knee's bloody, and here she comes with ice packs to put on. You know it's like ah, come on, mom, I'm a trail runner. I'm supposed to be tougher than an ice pack.
Speaker 3:Hilarious little baggies of ice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but thanks to mom for putting some ice on me. You know it did feel much better, so I I certainly appreciate that.
Speaker 3:Laura Highlands is a good one, though. And then Buckeye Trail 50k. When I was really trying to compete, you know it was just like a free race, so you didn't pay anything. You signed a clipboard. You started in Brextor, you ran the peninsula, turned around, ran back all Buckeye Trail it was like 34 miles. You finished and you wrote down your time on the clipboard and went home.
Speaker 1:That's what buckeye trail 50k was for a while, and it's really cool that is old school, cool, right there, write your name down on the clipboard, go home and wait and see what happens now. Buckeye trail, that's a. That's a local race with a lot of history to it.
Speaker 1:It's what 30 years they've run that race yeah, we've had ultra runners here for a long time you know, we we've had ultra runners in our community for a very long time yeah, I mean, I I think a lot of people when we go, like when we travel out of town, a lot of people were very surprised that akron one, that we have hills. They're shocked that we have actual hills to run up and down. Some are even steep a little bit. But a lot of people are surprised that we have such a running community here. You were, I guess, one of the founders of that community, correct, because it probably wasn't very big back when you started ultra running community correct, Because it probably wasn't very big back when you started ultra running.
Speaker 2:It was a good size.
Speaker 3:Roby Black. There were guys that were 10, 15 years ahead of me.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 3:You know, there were some guys out there running the Buckeye Trail. When the Buckeye Trail was, you know more, before it was groomed and everything. There were guys that were doing it and then there was a Saturday group that that started up the old guys there. Somehow the godales found out about it and they started showing up. You know, mark and steve, and so steve's on every single buck.
Speaker 3:I trail 50k and ron walks from medina, has run every 50k there there are, there are a few guys that have been doing that buck. I trail 50k for 30 years. You know 30 something years, 30 something years and I think that's pretty interesting. So I was like I have a good 10 years after him. It's fine, but we have like one about 10,. When I was like 10 years into this sport, my brother calls me up from Arizona and he's like hey, do you realize? You realize you have like a lot of national championships, like champions like within five miles of you.
Speaker 3:I'm like, yeah, we run every Saturday, we all run every Saturday. We love each other and hate each other every Saturday. But we had guy, we had it's not like one or two that had won a national championship. We, we had a pack, our running community. If you want to focus on a 5k, a track race, 5k, 10k, track, road marathon, ultra, 100 mile, six day you have in in this akron area, you could I don't know how big of a group.
Speaker 2:What do you think? That's why mickey moved here.
Speaker 3:That's why Nikki moved?
Speaker 2:here. That's why I moved here.
Speaker 3:It's like the running community it's the community and we have all terrains and that's why you started to bring up JFK. When you said that it's like that's, I thought that was the ultimate race because it was Appalachian Trail, towpath Trail Road, rolling Hills, on Road. So you have to be decent at all surfaces and that's what I always try to do, like be the best I could at roads, best I could at trail, best I could at track. You know all distances, all surfaces and I didn't want to focus on one or the other, I wanted to focus on all of them.
Speaker 3:I just think it's kind of cool to be able to, you know, be fast at all the different things and then if you look, they're like now, look at Wamsley, it's like he can do it. He's another, he's one, he can do it Like he's like a hundred times better than I ever could be, but he does it, he's mastered. He's mastering all the distances and all the terrains. I mean, look at his marathon time, look at his hundred mile time, yeah, look at his marathon time. Look at his 100-mile time Marathon on roads and look at his half marathon time. It's insane that somebody can do that and do the 100K on roads and do the Western States as fast as he does it.
Speaker 2:And do you know? Ucmv, UCMV.
Speaker 3:It's like I think that's the ultimate ultramarathoner and that's somebody that really appreciates the sport. No way can you be great at all surfaces, all different, but JFK, he won JFK. Why? Because it's all the surfaces, it's all the terrain. You have to be good at everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's not many that we're going to beat him on the Appalachian Trail and there's even less that we're going to beat him on the flat road after that.
Speaker 3:There on the flat road after that, there is no one. No one on that starting line has his marathon time. No, that means no one is going to beat him. It's a full marathon on the towpath. No one has a prayer. Who could compete with that? There's it's like it's amazing. Those are the runners that I just really appreciate, really admire, and I'm thinking he gets it, he gets it, he gets it, he's got. I think he's got to be having fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely seems like he is and I know his brother had some fun. You know which you helped to coach Will. So you know you and Nikki helped coach Will and, you know, did some workouts.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't say that Will always has fun, fun we, uh, I don't know if I call it coaching, it's just like uh, will, will does what you're supposed to do. He takes advice from different people. You try to give him a little bit of advice, like hey, think about this and think about that. He'll take the advice if he thinks it's okay. But he's, he looks at all. He does a little research.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's, he's, he's a little bit analytical, but, connie, one thing you do and I told you this before is that you have the ability to instill confidence in athletes that you're around, like Will myself, nikki, where hey, here's the splits I want you to go run. You can do it. Go do it Very nonchalantly. It's not a speech, it's not a Ray Raw, but I think that is an attribute that a lot of coaches, now that we have this era of canned training plans, I feel like that is an attribute that those coaches do not have, of which you possess, and you do coach youth as well, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That is something that's not to be overlooked when it comes to coaching Just the ability to do that In the story. Real quick, we were up running whatever maniac workout Connie had us doing on the track with me, nikki and Will, and she's like what's your time? Well, whatever I said, my marathon time was oh, so you can run 400s and 130, whatever that pace ends up being. I'm sure you'll let me know, and you're probably upset with me that I don't know it.
Speaker 3:But Six minute mile pace.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you were just like just go do it, you're, you're fine.
Speaker 3:You are fine, it's just a 400. You'd be fine.
Speaker 3:You're fine. It uh um, like working with people, working with kids and stuff like that, I don't know, I just always I remember like I figured out a lot of things through the years and if I could have, if I could have known it sooner, I would have saved myself a lot of time. Like it took me 20 years to take an hour off my marathon, 20 years of figuring things out. And then I've never considered myself a fast runner or a natural runner, but I I like to work at it and try to figure out different ways to get myself faster and for me the track workout made it so I could pull off the tempo run. And if I could pull off the tempo run, I knew I could pull off the race and I always knew that going to the starting line line, no one had more aerobic miles than I did in my life, because I've been running really long distances for a really, really, really long time.
Speaker 3:So I have the aerobic thing done. The tough part for me was turnover. You know, just take a look at you. And I just know that I ran my 490 seconds and and 800 repeats in three minutes and it was fine. So I'm thinking, yeah, you're fitter than I, you're you're, you're faster than I was then, so you should be able to do this. It should be a nice little workout for you. I mean, it's going to be challenging for you when you first get there, because you haven't been on track. And how long? When was the last time you'd been on track? When I saw you that day? Um, I would say probably the year 2001, connie. I knew you were gonna pull it off, though I knew you'd have fun with it. And you also had um will and nikki for comic relief, and that comic relief is super important yeah because that takes.
Speaker 3:That takes the workout and it takes the workout of workout, it takes it out of it. It's like it makes it just like a game and it's just fun to watch people just work together and take turns leading the 400s and pull each other along, push each other along and you are all chit-chatting like the first 200. You get quiet towards the end of the 400. It was perfect. You know you did it perfectly, but it was all fun, it was just all fun and games. Yeah, so you get a workout in and you have a good time with your friends. If it's a workout, what happens is your heart rate goes too high. If it's work, if it's not fun, you're pressing too hard. You're trying to learn how to run fast and relax with a bunch of friends, people like will.
Speaker 1:It's relaxing and I, connie I was. I was very surprised at how quick you notice a difference from those workouts. Just running like a handful of 400 800s a week makes a massive difference in training.
Speaker 3:And yeah, and I noticed that myself and for me, I was always struggling on track workouts like 30, 40 years ago when I would get to like a race it's like nothing was as bad as a track workout. But I just want to make sure that when I'm with people on the track now, I want it to be an enjoyable thing where you look forward to getting out there and just doing your best versus stressing about, oh my God, it's track day. Just doing your best versus stressing about oh my God, it's track day and this is going to be hard and I got to pull this off. And you know, I don't think the people that come to the track with us are feeling that People are rolling into the workout five minutes late and then getting out of the car and joking about stuff. You know, a lot of times at the end of the day and joking about stuff you know a lot of times at the end of the day, we'll play little games. Our last track workout last Wednesday, I was thinking well.
Speaker 3:I'm running on the track I'm thinking, hey, we should probably. I wonder if my friend Tom, 70, you know, tom and I are old and then Nikki's there. I wonder if Tom, myself and Nikki could run a relay for a lap and Will would take on the whole 400 if we could beat him. And then we all realized Nikki's like well, I can't hang with him for 200 in his 400, and then Tom and I don't have a prayer of hanging with him for 100 in his 400. It's like, oh my gosh, I wonder what kind of lead we'd have to take in order to beat will in that 400. But at the end of a workout you're playing games like that. It's just fun. It's fun. It's like you're a kid again. You know, you're just trying to figure things out is this the 5 am wednesday workout, connie yes yes
Speaker 3:okay so it's 5 am, wednesday morning workout. So our workout is we start on the line together and then Tom and I run a steady pace you know fast for us, a little faster than our marathon pace and then Will takes off, and when he lapsed us then we're done with that interval. But he was lapping us and then we're thinking, man, he's lapping us before he even hits the mile, lapping us. And then they're thinking, man, he's lapping us before he even hits the mile. So then last interval I took a 200 lead and then will comes flying around and then tom will make comments like wow, you know, he just went.
Speaker 3:It's scary when you hear this because will's massive. It's scary when you hear his body coming around. You know it's like we're kind of jumping out of the way.
Speaker 1:He is. He is a large lad, that is for sure.
Speaker 3:Yes, he is Well. I know it's true because I used to get that person to try to catch. It's very difficult when your finish line is moving.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:So it's actually a really good head game for Will, because he has to pick it up and kick harder to pass us, and when he passes us then he's done with an interval. So it's very. I think it's real good for your brain. It's harder than just running a regular mile, but it's more fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he is a very unique, skilled athlete. He's one of the only people actually might be the only person that I've seen he played the two position, which is called hooker in rugby, and could play the 10 position, the fly half, as well, which couldn't be polar opposite of positions on a rugby field. But yeah, very, very diverse athlete and I know just from talking to him that, Connie, you definitely instilled confidence in him to go down there and run a 248.
Speaker 3:You just have to make sure you want your goal to be slightly unattainable and for him a 248 was attainable based on, like the way he was running, his splits and the workouts. And I would do ask him, like what he's doing over the weekend and stuff and things were falling into place pretty quickly, but it's still his first marathon, so that makes it a little bit unattainable. That makes it your first marathon. You're not going to nail it, but he has to have that goal of the two 48, just in case he does nail it. If you don't have the two 48 goal, if his goal is sub three, he would have run two 59, three hours. Top three, he would have run 259, three hours. And I just I I want him to go to Boston. You know, I think everyone should. I think Boston is like one of our you know, one of our races. Runners in the United States need to experience, like people racers need to experience. It's part of the history of our running and in the United States, you know the Boston marathon, yeah, and I want him to be a part of that. But I would hate to see him run a 252 or 255 and not qualify if they have some kind of you know, and the old standard for a man used to be 250. And I just want him to be solidly under that. If he just thinks about it, then he has a shot of doing it. If you're not thinking about it, you're not going to just go out and run 248 without thinking.
Speaker 3:You know and I always told that to kids I coached as well, like what are your goals? And then if they said I'd like to run under 18 minutes, you never make that your goal. You always make the goal what you're going to run. If you say under 18, you're going to hit 18. And that's just the way the brain works. It's awful. So if you want to get under 18, you have to think I'm going to run a 1730. You know that's under 18. But if you think under 18, you will hit 18 every time. You can't put that in your brain. You have to make the goal just a little bit more. With that first American record attempt, if the American record is 145, why? That's the stupidest thing I could have done was run 145 miles race that I did it in the race director was a little shady and stuff and whatever.
Speaker 3:I didn't get it. But he said I didn't get it. But witnesses said I did. But it's like I wouldn't have even been a problem if I would have. Just I should have made my mark 150 then, or 148. What's the difference between 145 and 150 miles? It's running. Yeah, you can run under 10K an hour, 6.2 miles an hour, or you can run 6.4 miles an hour. You know, it's like that, that's nothing.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 3:I should have had a better goal that's nothing.
Speaker 1:No, I should. I should have had a better goal, yeah, but I I think that's just another like, I guess, feather in your hat of a very long career that you've had, connie, from from running to now coaching, you know coaching, guiding, giving expert advice, and that has all led to now you being inducted into the Ultra Running Hall of Fame, which Nikki was kind enough to share the article with me. Thank you for that, nikki.
Speaker 2:Yes, of course.
Speaker 1:That's quite an accomplishment. Just going over your Ultra Runner sign up very justified and it's quite an honor to be able to have you even give me advice like that, someone that's now in the hall of fame and a big part of our sport locally. So what does that feel like all those years of hard work and you know running around to these races that you know to get all of that acknowledged in in Hall of Fame?
Speaker 3:I certainly didn't set out to be in the Hall of Fame because when I started running ultras there wasn't one. But being in the Hall of Fame now is nice because you know I'm old, that racing career is done and it's nice that someone acknowledged like everything I did. And it's nice that someone acknowledged like everything I did. A lot of people say I must have like a real strong work ethic or blah, you know that kind of thing, like it was a lot of work to get there. It's not. I love running. I love running.
Speaker 3:And then I realized right away like I know what's going on, like I know that when you enjoy it and you're relaxed, you can run fast and relaxed and that's the key. And then I want to check and see is this really what it is? Is this what it's all about? So I've been coaching for a long time because I'm old. So it's like 20, 30 years, 40, I don't know of different kids, different teams, and it's probably more challenging and more fun to convince someone else that they can get their body to do this. It was really fun for me to try to wrap my brain around something and convince myself that I could do this in that time. You know this distance, that time and what it takes and what the paces needs to be and mastering paces and it's just like it's a fun, fun game and it's not work at all. And when we live where we do now we can always find a track group. We can always find a 20 mile Saturday run group here and these groups are a bunch of characters and people are pretty fun and you meet good friends and you want people to love running.
Speaker 3:You know, because I got a lot out of it when I coach kids, when I coach people, I want them to have the same experience as I did, because I love my experiences. I love going to state and high school track. I love cross country, like when we would sweep races one, two, three, four, five, you know, and we had five girls on our team and we all did it together and I love pulling certain things off and the idea of being on a podium at a big race with your friends in high school. So when I coach high school, I want all those girls to be on the podium together. I don't want just one to win state, I want a team to go. You know, I want everybody to get that experience because you never forget it.
Speaker 3:It's kind of fun. I think it's very, very fun. And then going to different races as I got older, I wasn't in it for being on any kind of podium or that sort of thing, I was in it just to I would see a course, you know, like Laurel Highlands, and I'd see people's times, I think I I would check out their times on different courses and I'd think, okay, if they did that, I should be able to do this and how can I do that? And then you just go try to put it all together. It's just a really, really fun game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is a game and it's one of the one of the reasons it's just been fun for me to try and figure out, and you know anytime that you have someone around like you, connie, that can answer questions and give insight and it definitely advances you much quicker than just going out and trying to figure it out on your own when you have to wait three or four months between races and that's a lot of time. If you need 10 races to figure something out like you're talking about a lot of time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. And, like I say, it took me 20 years to figure out a marathon and I still wasn't with it you know it's like it's fun to try to figure things out and the way, the best way to do is talk to a bunch of different people and find out their experiences and find out what their best race was and where it was and why was that and what did you do? Right, you know, it's all. It's all pretty interesting.
Speaker 1:It is, and it's a great game. It's going to remain a game always for me. Obviously, I'm not, you know, not competitive. I am competitive with myself to try and get better, because it is a problem to try and solve, and that is what is fun to me. But, connie, I wanted to thank you, nikki, I want to thank you for helping us get all this set up.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:I just want to thank you guys. So much. Thanks to thirsty dog for hosting the original taping of this. That maybe didn't go so well. We had to rerecord a bit.
Speaker 3:Well, the recording didn't go well, but the evening went well, didn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, the evening was great. We got a tour of the brewery, which is awesome. Probably haunted, I imagine. Haunted for sure, haunted.
Speaker 2:Friendly friendly ghosts though.
Speaker 1:Friendly friendly beer, ghosts and yeah real quick. Where can we find the both of you on the internet?
Speaker 3:you mean like social media yep social media I'm on facebook. I have instagram.
Speaker 1:I'm on facebook more than instagram well, I do see I'm watching a video right now of it's under under Connie John Gardner.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's it.
Speaker 1:And Connie is drinking a beer in a thirsty dog tank top, a skirt on. I imagine going to run after drinking this beer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the thirsty dog racing team.
Speaker 1:And Nikki, where can our listeners find you as well?
Speaker 2:I'm on Instagram Neemeyer Nikki. Neemeyer is spelled weird, but they can find it if they really want.
Speaker 3:What am I on? What am I on?
Speaker 2:You're Connie John Gardner. I made that for you, way to go.
Speaker 1:And also Nikki, you do run the Thirsty Dog Brewing social media, correct?
Speaker 2:Yes, follow Thirsty Dog Brewing. There's a Thirsty Dog Brewing social media, correct? Yes, follow Thirsty Dog Brewing. There's a Thirsty Dog Beer Instagram that we can't access and we can't delete, so just ignore that one. It's the Thirsty Dog Brewing Instagram.
Speaker 1:Let me see if I'm following the right one. Yes, I believe. Yes, I am.
Speaker 2:Joggers and Loggers will come back in the spring.
Speaker 1:Do a lot of running stuff with the brewery Joggers and loggers will come back in the spring, do a lot of running stuff with the brewery Joggers and loggers. I look forward to that and I look forward to this episode coming out and seeing how Rob and David put it together, how they piece it together.
Speaker 2:Good luck.
Speaker 3:Good luck, I'm glad. I'm actually really glad we met at the brewery, even if that part doesn't work out all the way, that was really nice at the brewery.
Speaker 1:Even if that part doesn't work out all the way, that was really nice. We had time, it was fun. Hey, anytime you're at the brewery, let me know. It is one of my favorite breweries that I've ever been to and great, thank you. Such such a cool place, a lot of history, there been around a long, long time and beer is excellent. So, yeah, awesome place. Thank you guys so much. We appreciate it thank you.