Triple Knot

Content preparation: we discuss relationships with food, body, and eating disorders throughout this episode.

Thank you to guests and fellow Wildwood Girls Virtual Camp counselors Miranda DiBiasio, Emily Chaston, and Marci Klimek for making this conversation happen. Thank you to Marie Markham and Robyn McGilis for creating Wildwood Running, such a wonderful platform and opportunity for runners to collaborate, learn, and grow the current and future generations of females in the sport. Check them out at wildwoodrunning.com and wildwoodrunningpdx on instagram!!

In this conversation we cover….

• Background and introductions
• Our “why” for running and the evolution of our “why”
• Our “why” for joining camp
• What knowledge we left our trail group with, what our trail group taught us
• What challenged us in our preconceived beliefs, current practices, and with facilitating a group
• How the topics covered at camp have showed up in our experiences
• Our transition from high school to college running
• The evolution of our relationship to food and our bodies
• Where we want to take the work of wildwood from here
• Finally, how everyone’s process to success in running and life looks different!
  

Links to other resources discussed in this conversation:

After transferring from the University of Illinois, sophomore Emma Wilson now runs for Huntington University and is taking the collegiate running world by storm. During the craziness of the 2020 COVID-19 affected fall season, she ran a 20:18.7 6k (a PR of 1 minute), a 16:24 5k, and a NAIA national record time of 32:38.56 in her debut 10k (1 second off of the Olympic Trials standard!). Hear from Emma on how she overcame burnout and a stress fracture to make huge strides this season.

In this episode:

1. Fundraising campaign for NQTTCN (see below)
2. Training during the pandemic
3. Jazz’s ballet background and joining the University of Toronto’s track club in grade 8
4. The “curses” and challenges of female youth running
5. Eating disorder recovery and pandemic diet culture
6. Building a healthy, open, and supportive team environment
7. Blackness as a runner in a white circle, during the current moments, and diversity in Canadian distance running
8. Winning team national XC championships and qualifying for world juniors
9. Mastery in executing a race plan
10. Training from 8k in XC to mid-distance on the track
11. Overcoming stress injury and sickness, finding joy in running
12. Goals for last year of college
13. Canadian club system and U of T’s inspiring group of post collegiate runners

Some of Jazz’s accomplishments:

Dorcas Wasike has been on a history-making roll since entering the University of Louisville in 2016. She has made an impressive progression from 145th at the NCAA D1 XC Championship to 14th in 2018 and posted a runner-up finish in the 10k at the 2019 NCAA D1 Track Championship. On route, she has earned many ACC honors, school records, and school firsts. 

With some key mentors, team support, and 6 sisters (all of whom are runners including marathon world record holder Brigid Kosgei!!) she has made the move from Kenya, recently nursed a hamstring injury, and always balances motherhood, work, and school as a nursing major with a psychology minor. For Dorcas, its about showing up, working hard, persevering, and just being who she is while finding trust in herself as a strong competitor worthy of being at the top of the NCAA. Watch out world, this rising red-shirt senior still has a full year of eligibility. 

After sitting out nearly two years (sophomore and junior) due to an achilles injury and surgery, the University of Mary’s Ida Narbuvoll was just getting back into her normal training when she won the high point crown at her conference meet taking the mile, 3k, and 5k. Heading into the 2020 Indoor NCAA D2 National Championships, the 5th year Civil Engineering major from Norway was set to run the 5k as the first seed (30 seconds ahead of 2nd place with her 16:14 school record), 3k as the second seed (9:26.52), and the DMR before the event was cancelled due to COVID-19. Fortunately with the new rule change, she will have a shot to return to the track for a 6th year while pursuing her master’s. Outdoors will give her the opportunity to continue showcasing her endurance in the 10k, an event she previously established herself in.

In this episode we cover:

• Nordic skiing & running in Norway
• Embracing the opportunity to move to the US & compete in the NCAA
• Transferring from the University of Edinboro in Pennsylvania to UMary
• The challenges of injury & an absolutely incredible comeback
• High mileage training

More of Ida’s Accomplishments:

After experiencing her first major injury, a sudden coaching change, and struggling with homesickness, it was time for Audrey Belf to make the courageous decision to transfer. She left the community she had formed during her 2 years at Georgetown and headed back home to the University of Michigan; the state where she had established herself as one of the all-time best and top in the country as a high schooler.

At the University of Michigan, Audrey earned a bachelor’s in Kinesiology in 2019, and a master’s in Supply Chain Management in 2020. She also took a step back from a perfectionist mindset, focused on the little parts of the process to get to the bigger goals, learned from different training philosophies, and grew into a more balanced student-athlete.

Finally, we discuss the dominoes of COVID-19 news that ultimately stripped away her last experiences as a 5th year and how she looks to reinvent herself in a post-collegiate atmosphere.

At age 18, Grace Norman made history winning gold at the first ever installment of the 2016 Paralympic Triathlon event. Twenty four hours later she was tearing up the track, winning bronze in the 400m (the longest track race offered for amputees). Meanwhile back home, she was already 3 weeks past the start of her first-year year of college.  In this episode we talk racing experiences, overcoming injury, the biomechanical and controversial aspects of being an amputee athlete, what it means to be a Paralympian, and the current challenges Grace is facing due to COIVD-19. Hear from Grace on how she's worked with what she has and learned to not take anything for granted while balancing life as an elite triathlete, NCAA runner, and oh did I mention she is also a nursing major.

Some compelling info on amputee runners:

After winning a Footlocker national title her sophomore year of high school in 2012, injury and surgery to both feet would side-line Anna Rohrer. However, she made an epic return to win the New Balance Nationals 5k on the track and then redeem herself as a Footlocker champion in 2014.

Now, as she concludes five years of running for the University of Notre Dame where she earned an undergrad degree in neuroscience and is about to complete her master’s in business; Anna reflects on how this opportunity allowed her to become a better version of herself as one of the most accomplished and resilient runners nationally. In this episode, Anna speaks on transitioning to college, gaining perspective while battling injury, faith, gutsy racing tactics, favorite memories, and some visions for a future in which tenacity will see her through to her full potential.

As a collegiate runner some of Anna’s accomplishments include...

How do they do it? This is a question that Taylor Knibb and Kyleigh Spearing, two of the top triathletes in the world get asked a lot, but one they often ask themselves as well. Even more admirable than the on-paper accolades, is the gratitude, humility, and wisdom in which the Cornell University seniors impart as they reflect on challenges faced, experiences had, and lessons learned. For Taylor and Kyleigh, success has been a matter of establishing strong support systems, incorporating fun, and rolling with the punches. In addition to triathlon, the dynamic duo were key leaders in taking their cross country team to the 2019 NCAA D1 National Championships after what was an extremely uncertain start to their season. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, their enlightened perspectives and open attitudes are guiding them through the abrupt end of their collegiate careers in the presence of an unpredictable future.

Background for the Non-Triathlete:

Everyone loves a good comeback story, but in order to reach the glory of the comeback, you have to go through the painstaking process of writing the story. Pen in hand, Princeton sophomore and NCAA D1 runner, Page Lester, is recovering from her third bone injury in two years. Page’s first draft with injury was in high school when a labrum tear in her shoulder ultimately ended her competitive swimming and triathlon career for the time being. Ever since, it has been a constant revision process of learning what it will take to get her period back and improve her bone density so that she can stay healthy to realize her potential as a runner. In turning the next page, the 2x Footlocker finalist, Team USA triathlete, and 2018 NCAA D1 XC Championships competitor gets real about the mental challenges that come with injury.

Bone Health & Periods in Female Runners (2004 publication but most comprehensive I could find. We need to disseminate the research in this field to a more general audience, increase awareness, and extend medical knowledge!!)

In a detour from the normal interview format of my podcast, I share my story of over-training, binge eating disorder, and the mental health struggles I have faced during my journey as a runner, swimmer, and triathlete from high school to college. Join me for some stories and thoughts on breaking stigmas and breaking silence around mental illness in the running community.

“Fly fast and free, why not me?” This is the motto that Nicole Clermont, an NCAA Division 1 runner at Boston College, runs by and what has kept her going through the ups and downs of massive PRs, winning a national championship, racing for Team USA, volunteering for the Special Olympics of Costa Rica, stress fracture recovery, eating disorder recovery, anxiety, and perfectionism. Nicole openly discusses using practices like journaling, spirituality, relationship building, and meditation to rewire her brain so that she thinks differently about food and body image in a way that allows her to honor the strong, confident, badass runner she is. Through learning self care and self love, Nicole’s healing is the groundwork for her continued growth, allowing her to rediscover what it’s like to feel alive, liberated, and free. Nicole has learned that “my body is either what will make me limitless or give me limits and I have to respect it,” leaving the message that “my voice has so much power, your voice matters... if you are struggling, you are not alone, you can get help, and you can be a successful runner no matter what your body type is.”

Murder is the 3rd leading cause of death for Native American women and is a normalized part of growing up on a reservation, so for 18 year old Rosalie Fish of the Cowlitz and Muckleshoot tribes, running came from a place of healing. Rosalie uses her platform as a multiple time high school state champion in Washington, and now as a collegiate runner at Iowa Central Community College, to advocate for indigenous rights and to give a voice to those silenced by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women epidemic (MMIW). Hear from Rosalie on topics such as how “racism against native Americans is ingrained in our athletic society”, respectful ally-ship, the importance of mentors and community connections, transitioning to collegiate running, and how her mindset shifted from running for a PR to running “so that [her] relatives would be seen”.

What happens when 28 strangers come together to run across the country? In the first episode of the Triple Knot Podcast we are joined by Bea, an NCAA Division 3 runner at Smith College. She discusses what brought her to collegiate running after her gap year during which she ran a marathon, found new meaning in running for herself, and faced the cancer diagnosis of her father. She then explores the community of support that emerged as she and 27 other young adults ran from San Francisco to Boston representing the Ulman Foundation 4k for Cancer (named for the 4000 plus miles of running that the team collectively completed), inspiring hope along the way. Finally, Bea reflects on how she strives to run for herself while giving back to others and making the most of her final year as a collegiate runner.

For more information on the Ulman Foundation 4k for Cancer: