Stay ConnectedListen as Dana Giordano, a professional middle-distance runner, sits down and talks with some of the most inspirational and insightful women in running. Whether they’re doing amazing things on the track or working tirelessly to promote the sport as industry leaders and entrepreneurs, hear how they’ve found success.
Follow Dana on Instagram: https://instagram.com/dana_gio
Follow the show on Instagram: https://instagram.com/morethanrunningpod
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“My biggest goal right now is making the Olympic team for 2020. I feel like that’s a start. Sometimes I get a little scared thinking about bigger goals for years and years down the road. I like to do incremental ones. I think I would want to be known as a tough runner. I feel like I’m not super glamorous but a little more blue collar – just getting the work done and being tough. I like to be a badass.”
On Feb. 9th, Elle Purrier broke a 37-year-old American record when she won the Millrose Games mile in 4:16.85. Her time took seven-tenths off Mary Slaney's time and now ranks as the second-fastest indoor mile in history. Before her breakout indoor season, Dana and Elle sit down during a high-altitude training stint in Flagstaff, Arizona to dive into some of her upbringings on a dairy farm in northern Vermont and what led to her success at the University of New Hampshire and post-collegiately. She now has her sights set on making her first U.S. Olympic team in 2021.
In 2019, Purrier qualified for her first national team and competed in the 5,000 meters at the World Athletics Championships in Doha. She finished 11th with a personal best of 14:58.17. She is one of 16 American women who have broken 15 minutes on the track for 5,000 meters. Her personal best of 4:02:34 for the 1,500 meters also makes her a contender for that squad to Tokyo.
On this episode, we touch on:
- Growing up on a farm in Montgomery, Vermont
- Brief basketball aspirations
- Experiencing a runner’s high
- Her favorite parts of training and some of the craziest workouts that she’s done
- Advice for a high school runner pursuing running at a higher level
- Envisioning her legacy within the sport as a competitor
- The 5th Avenue Mile finish: “That’s a classic example of not overthinking something and just competing. That’s when I think I have my best races. That’s definitely a good lesson.”
- And more...
➡️ Follow Elle on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elleruns_4_her_life/
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Recommended read: Olympic hopefuls Gevvie Stone, Elle Purrier have very different paths ahead to Tokyo in 2021 (NBC Sports) | https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2020/03/25/tokyo-olympics-gevvie-stone-elle-purrier/
Photo for this episode's cover art by Kevin Morris | https://www.kevmofoto.com/
“How I would like people to see me is ‘She didn’t give up.’ I’ve had so many times where I’ve had to come back from injuries – even as recently as this past summer. I remember calling coach Sparks after I hurt my hip again and literally sobbing to him on the phone that my running career was over because I thought that was it. After my surgery two years ago, they had given me a 50% chance of being able to run competitively again. They didn’t know if the surgery was going to take. It’s really difficult having to deal with that and mentally realizing this is the thing I love the most in the world and I may never get to do this again. I don’t know if it’s because I’m too dumb to do anything else but it was just this thought that I can’t quit now because I feel like I haven’t done the things that I’ve wanted to do yet and this feeling that I’m leaving something on the table. I know that I’m capable of more but if I don’t sort everything in my life and get over this victim mentality or get through some of these things, I’m not going to get there. That’s why I feel like there’s never been another thing that I love as much as this. That’s why even though I couldn’t run for six months. I just keep coming back to it."
The first guest on 'More Than Running with Dana Giordano' is Molly Seidel. Just a few weeks after finishing second at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta, Dana and Molly sat down in her Fenway–Kenmore apartment to discuss how her much her life has changed since making her first U.S. Olympic team. The conversation was recorded before the coronavirus pandemic led to the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to 2021.
Topics touched upon in this episode include:
- The build-up to the biggest race of her life
- Putting us in her shoes for her marathon debut
- Speaking up in response to the criticism of her Olympic teammates Aliphine Tuliamuk and Sally Kipyego for being Kenyan-born Americans.
- The media’s coverage of her after the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials and why she felt uneasy about it.
- Handling the spotlight since being a star as a high school
- How life changed after making the Olympic team
- Donuts, hot ham and rolls
- Seeking out a group and the perfect training set up with coach Jon Green
- What she and her coach expected that she would place at the Olympic trials
- What she wants to leave behind as her legacy within the sport
- Advice for younger generations of runners: Just because you fail doesn’t make you a failure.
- Showing off different bodies and diversity on the starting lines in the sport
- And much more...
➡️ Follow Molly on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bygolly.molly/
▶ Follow Dana:
https://www.instagram.com/dana_gio/
▶ Follow us:
twitter.com/CitiusMag
instagram.com/citiusmag
facebook.com/citiusmag
Recommended listen:
Molly on Running on Om with Julia Hanlon | https://runningonom.com/podcast-225/
Photo for this episode's cover art by Kevin Morris | https://www.kevmofoto.com/
Welcome to ' More Than Running with Dana Giordano.' This new show from the CITIUS MAG Podcast Network will give an inside look at women's running from all types of perspectives. The goal is to bring you a different side to the athletes, coaches and notable people from the sport that you may know. This is a podcast about just that – more than running.
The first season of guests will include 2020 U.S. Olympic marathon trials runner-up Molly Seidel, American indoor mile record holder Elle Purrier, Fast Women newsletter's Alison Wade, Nutrition Rewired's Erin Kenney and more.
▶ Follow Dana:
https://www.instagram.com/dana_gio/
▶ Follow us:
twitter.com/CitiusMag
instagram.com/citiusmag
facebook.com/citiusmag
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