Joyce Lee: [00:00:00]

On day three 66. I was like, I think I just gotta keep going. Like that was too cool. Like I can't step away from that. Like what other cool miracles are going to happen then if I keep going and so. Now whenever I have a really bad day and I feel like I want to give up on the streak. I can't, I have the, like, this keeps me going.

Kevin Chang: [00:00:23]

Hello and welcome to the RaceMob podcast. This is episode number 16, I'm Kevin entrepreneur technology and fitness nerd, and the founder of RaceMob. I'm joined by master motivator, founder of two legitimate co chair of the Taji 100, RRCA certified coach USA track and field certified official the incomparable Bertrand Newson.We're so excited to welcome Joyce Lee to the podcast. Joyce, the Bay area running legend after stumbling into long distance running. Rather haphazardly a story with that we'll definitely get into Joyce has become a pillar of the running community. Perhaps she's best known for her running streak. Having run at least one mile every single day.Since January 1st, 2013, that's over 2,700 days consecutively of running the streak. Turn this once admittedly inconsistent athlete into a model model of stability. And it just displays the power of perseverance. Even when you sometimes don't feel like it. The streak has also opened Joyce up to new athletic endeavors, including completing an iron man triathlon qualifying for Boston and starting her very own race.The Joyce three six, five K more importantly, she's found a supportive community, something she stresses doesn't require a streak in order to join. So don't you wait to be part of the amazing running community. This episode is brought to you by RaceMob, and inclusive community for fitness enthusiasts.Whether you're brand new to fitness or you're veteran athletes, we all need support, motivation and accountability, our new community, the site just launched and you can find it at community dot dot com. Here we'll host online meetups challenges, giveaways, and live sessions with coach B myself and some of your favorite podcasts guests.We'll also be launching online training. Start with a group program like our couch to five K or create your own custom program that suits your needs. Head over to dot com slash training. Enter your fitness goals and schedule your free one on one coaching assessment with coach, but you have to hurry.We've only got a few limited spots available for this kickoff. Here's our really, really fun conversation. I hope you enjoy.We're so excited to welcome Bay Area legend Joyce Lee to the podcast.Joyce, welcome to the podcast.Absolutely

Bertrand Newson: [00:02:58]

laughing with you. Not at you.

Kevin Chang: [00:03:02]

You're you're really well known across the Bay area for a number of different things. But I think one of the things you're probably most well known for is the streak, this running streak. So tell us about the running streak and tell us how it started.

Joyce Lee: [00:03:16]

Okay. Well, I was not really been in the habit of goal setting, so.Oddly 2013, I decided, you know, I'm gonna miss that a goal, but it can't just be something like I'm going to become more fit or yeah. I wanted to pick something that was really, really easy to do, but also really easy not to do. And running was definitely it. And I figured, Hey, why don't I just challenge myself?To run every single day of the year. So it'll take you 365 day commitment. And as with setting new habits and things like that, there's with kind of contingent, like side effects, side benefits. And I, I struggle a lot with consistency in my life and I thought, yeah, you know, I already run, this will be really, really easy to accomplish if I really commit to it.And so I decided to make it, you know, run at least a mile every single day, also cross train and swam. And I ran of course, and I bikes and I did yoga. And so I figured like a mile a day is not too much to ask of myself. Oh, it's something I didn't take into consideration. All the international traveling I would do that year.So that really presented a pretty big challenge initially. Um, just having to coordinate all the logistics for what's going to happen when I land and where I'm going to run and that kind of thing. But now figured it out this a year. I'm eight years in now.

Kevin Chang: [00:04:41]

Eight years and at least a mile every single day for eight years.Incredible. Incredible. So talk to us a little bit about, I guess, before, or you started the streak, you said that you ran a little bit, you struggled a little bit with inconsistencies. So what do you think, what are, give us an idea of what that schedule was like before the streak?

Joyce Lee: [00:05:00]

I basically just had. The intention to run three to four times a week.I didn't really like getting out to go run unless I could commit to, you know, six to 15 miles. It just seemed like, you know, six is like a really good distance for me, enough to get warmed up, hit that happy pace, go for a little bit clear head. And so if I, if I couldn't run six plus miles, I just wouldn't run and sometimes life gets busy and you don't have that amount of time.And so. Misstating the rule of like, Hey, if I just do one mile, like you have to build to find time to do one mile. There's really no excuse for that. I mean, in our, I can, people are on the toilet longer than 10 minutes and most of the time they're just on their phones. So I really have no excuse, you know, you just put on some shoes and go outside.That was it.

Kevin Chang: [00:05:49]

You know, a lot of us make new year's resolutions and a lot of us break them by the end of January. So what do you think was the difference for you keeping that new year's resolution and, and moving forward with it? Did you tell the world, was there a broadcast? Was it just,

Joyce Lee: [00:06:03]

Oh boy, I, you know, I didn't really set resolutions.Right. And so I was really worried like, Oh man, if I tell people.See, they'll probably be on blast.This defeats the purpose of setting this goal. So I kept this up for a couple of days. And then after day 16, I was like, I should probably tell some, some people more people, you know, I, I loosely told a few people and then they were like, every day. That's crazy. So. From the get go. I think it was day 14 or day 15.There was this website called fab.com. I'm not trying to put a plug in for them. Um, they, they said some like free gift and it was a day counter. And you know, it was, it was a really cute little artsy calendar, but just give you numbers one through 31. So every day it took a picture with this calendar. Um, and people were like, what are these numbers?I was super vague. There were a lot of vague posts. Right. And I was really vague and people started asking like, what's up with these numbers? And I'm like, Oh, I'm, you're in a renewal for a year.I was interested in seeing also, you know, people enjoy following journeys on social media. And I thought like this would be a cool story to follow for a year. The intention was really for 365 days. My goal for myself was really like, look, Joyce,

Bertrand Newson: [00:07:35]

you really got to come up with a schedule, the more

Joyce Lee: [00:07:38]

regimen.And, um, honestly after 365 days, I'm still just really loosey goosey. But I, I, I learned in that process, like, you know, sometimes you just have to accept yourself the way you are and figure out how to work with yourself. So I work within a framework like every day, at some point I need to run. And at that point, uh, in the first year I made a rule also like once a week or once or twice a week needs to be on a treadmill, just because they don't know the effects of pavement running every single day.So that was one of my strategies. In, in keeping off, um, injury and also just minding my supplementation, um, recovery supplements and things like that, I think really helps support me through that year.

Kevin Chang: [00:08:24]

Talk about those recovery supplements. What types of supplements were you?

Joyce Lee: [00:08:27]

So what got me into marathon to begin with?Was, um, the sauna health sciences health pack before I was doing three to five miles and five being like the absolute max, I just couldn't even fathom a half marathon. And one of my buddies was an independent distributor for this company. And strong earned means of purchasing some products and like, Aw man.So I bought them and they were expensive, but let me tell you, they were worth it. You don't, you know, don't go cheap on your health. And these are highly bioavailable and it basically took me, I'd say day to day, energy couldn't really pinpoint a difference, but in the morning it was really hard to sleep in.Once I was up, I was awake and, um, when I went on my runs five miles just didn't seem like enough. And I just kept inching more and more. And then after two months, I didn't even know I was outside for that long, but I was, you know, shuffle, jogging. Roughly 16 miles. I'm like, Oh my goodness, what? You get a little scared, right?When you look at yourself and you're like, what did I just do? Who am I, you know? And so that, that definitely helped support me in, in my endurance journey. And then, especially during the first year of my running, I added on, uh, on top of the, the general, um, multivitamin I edit on, um, there's a vegetation Korean glucosamine, which is perfect for me.And that really. I believe it really helps support my joint health. And to this day I'm doing okay, except for, you know, the dog running into my knees. So I just have this knee thing,

Kevin Chang: [00:09:59]

which we'll definitely get into in a little bit, but I do want to dive in. So it was a you sauna package. Was it a multivitamin?

Joyce Lee: [00:10:07]

Yeah. So the USADA health sciences, they make a lot of broad range of health. Products and, um, within it, they have some supplements. So you have the health pack, which is, it's a small collection of your general multivitamins. You have your antioxidants, you have keylated minerals. And there's a difference if it's kelated, it just means, you know, it's got, you know, acids attached to it and then your, your body will like it more and take in more of it.And there's also a calcium that comes in this little packet. So at the time when I was taking it, initially, I decided, Oh, my, my dosing should be half a person's dose because I'm very petite. You know, I'm 95 pounds or I range between 92 and 96, if people must know. And I just figured like, look, this is for you.Take it two times a day for a year average person. I was trying to go very frugal. I had to blend back a day and. Uh, it was just able to support my energy and so that, like, I'll never give up that regimen. Like that's always a part of my daily routine, those supplements. And it's been, it's been 10 years.Yeah. 10 years since I've been on.

Kevin Chang: [00:11:20]

Did you have different pace? Did you keep like your five mile pace and you could just go longer? Were you slowing it down or were you going more often or, and I know it was 10 years ago. So you might remember too

Joyce Lee: [00:11:35]

at that time I was running almost every single day because I.Prior to the running. I was swimming almost every single day and I got really burnt out from the swimming and I was teaching swimming and swimming. I was a swimmer before I was a runner fun fact, and I wanted to just maintain that fitness. He's in college. You guys don't have the time to do all of that.My, where I went to school, Santa Clara, U we didn't have a swim team. So. Yeah, I put on some college accounts, it's just trying to keep it off. And I remembered one of my gymnastics teammates picked up running and her tumbling got really, really good. So I was like, maybe I'll take up jogging Laura yogic and we'll just see how it goes.And it was able to help me, you know, maintain weight, maintain fitness, and it was. Was awesome. Um, I worked my way up, you know, from half a mile, I kind of just went for distance. I didn't go for pace. I didn't run with a watch or anything. I just would map out a route and, and decide like do or die. I'm going to finish this.And I think looking back, it was roughly half a mile and I worked my way up to a three mile route, and then I had a longer run, a five mile one, and I just kept between those three. For the first couple of years and then enter these supplements. All of a sudden it just supported my energy so much more. I felt like it was this itchy leg feeling like I had to go a little bit more, a little bit more.So I didn't know my pace to answer your question, but I did go farther. And then eventually you, I was out for two, three hours. I'm like, how far did I really go? I'm drawing it on the Google maps. And I'm like, Oh my

Kevin Chang: [00:13:06]

gosh,

Joyce Lee: [00:13:08]

it's kind of scary. What, what have I become. Yeah. And shortly after that I did my first marathon.So

Kevin Chang: [00:13:15]

yeah, I was just about to ask, is that kind of the breakthrough moment when you changed from like, Oh, I just do running on kind of the weekends and, or a couple of times a week into like, starting to find races, starting to identify as a runner. Was that around the time that you started going to races?

Joyce Lee: [00:13:32]

Yes, actually it was, I had not done any chip time races ever in 2010 and had always wanted to do this really coveted race. The Nike women's marathon, Nike, Nike, and. You've got the Tiffany's necklace and the firemen at the finish line and the red carpet is just so, so much a love about this race, right? No, it was women only were not women only, but predominantly women.And so I thought it would be a really great safe space. Um, and prior to that, I didn't even know how to register there. Wasn't really social media. Wasn't what it is now and racing and sharing about it. What isn't, what it is now either or last year.Um, and so I just didn't even know how to register it. And another process knew any of this stuff. And I just thought, like, you know, when I do this race, I'll do the half marathon because you get all the same goodies, half the distance and you get the necklace, you get to see the firemen and, and, you know, you don't have to, you don't have to put in all 26.2 miles.And so that was sort of the. The half-hearted intention that I had, but after I hit that 16 and an 18 mile Mark, I saw like, you know what? I just got a shoot for that thing. That seems impossible. And we'll just see where I land.

Kevin Chang: [00:14:54]

The first race was a marathon, like a full marathon.

Joyce Lee: [00:14:57]

Yeah.

Bertrand Newson: [00:15:11]

mic drop right

Kevin Chang: [00:15:12]

there. Wow. In Sanford, in the

Bertrand Newson: [00:15:15]

Hills of San Francisco.

Joyce Lee: [00:15:18]

Wow.

Kevin Chang: [00:15:19]

Wow. Yeah, we got to hear the story. We got to hear the story.

Joyce Lee: [00:15:24]

Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. I didn't really know any human beings that did it and, and didn't die. Right? Like, um, Ellie knew of, um, you know, was it the Greek Greek myth of, yeah. Yeah.So, so I, you know, aside from my childhood friend, Sherry, who was injured at the time, I didn't know anybody else who ran the marathon and, and survived and. So I just kind of was like, well, I wasn't smart. I do not recommend this method to anybody. I only recommend the showing up part. Okay. Everything else don't do what I did.Um, I didn't have a watch, so I couldn't really track, like, my progress also was afraid to track my progress cause they didn't want to see myself sucking and then improve others. I've grown so much since then. But, yeah. And then in that year, the crazy thing was I wanted to do the impossible thing because I wanted to see what, what I could do.But leading up to the actual race, I really just, I followed a loose format where once a week or twice a week, I would do some kind of fart fartlek. I would do some Hills. I live in the Hill, so there's, I have no choice. I just always have to run the Hills and then I would run long. And that was all I did, but I didn't track my pace and I didn't do speed work.And so leading up to the race, um, I still dress very professional for work. I wore my heels, like don't recommend wearing heels on race week. That's very, very, very dumb. My, my feet were very unhappy. By the time we got to mile 20, I was like, Hey, quit. You're just going to have to figure out how to run a marathon without feet.I got into the most awkward. Like death, Mark shuffle, you could imagine. And I remember looking down, I had one of those Nike fit. It wasn't called Nike. It wasn't called Nike sport band. So, and you have much time had elapsed and according to the foot pod, roughly how far I had gone, other thing wasn't that precise except for the timing aspect of it.And I remember just seeing a mile 20 and my friend Sherry, who I had mentioned at the time. I think her PR was three 27. So at mile 20, I was at three 27. Respectable.

Kevin Chang: [00:17:33]

That's great.

Joyce Lee: [00:17:35]

Oh, Oh no. The wheels continue to fall off. And then I caught on fire. It was just bad. And so I'm thinking like, Holy moly, I still so much farther to go.And I kind of had this really, really lofty dream. I wasn't very serious about, about doing an Ironman. And I'm like, okay, so people swim 2.4 miles and bike 112, and then they do this. Yeah, I was just going to cross that one off the list. Now that's just not, that's impossible. It's not happening. I'm going to just try and get to the next aid station, you know, and, and the self-talk you go, there was all kinds of strange things like, you know, you should just drop your ego.It's okay to walk and I would try to walk, but the walking muscles are very different from your running muscles and. Two steps into a walk. It was extra fatiguing was very strange Himalaya, I guess we're going back to this awkward shuffle. And, uh, eventually I finished and I was thinking to myself until the finish line, I'm never doing this again.This is marathon. This is the dumbest thing ever. I'm so embarrassed. And then I looked back at my life. I finished high school. I was like, Hm, I can't end all this. No, I didn't. I need to redo. You need to redo. And for years, I never talked about my finish time for my first marathon. So I'm going to put it out there.It was five 25 and I didn't train smart. I highly recommend getting on some kind of training plan if you want to get through it and not feel like crap for a whole week. I was hobbling for a week. I literally started my new job the next day and was limping around. This is me sharing with everybody. Just do what I did smart.Is that starting at all? But think committed and, and, and understanding that improving as a process and not to be embarrassed of where you are, that's something to take away.

Bertrand Newson: [00:19:26]

Yeah. Nobody can take that finish line away from you. That first experience about you committing and then look where you're. Your running journey has just flourished and impacted so many others.And as we talk about your running journey, let's dial back because you dropped a couple of nuggets. Oh, I was a gymnast. I was a swimmer. Let's talk about Joyce. The total athlete. When you got into athletics, just to round out the conversation a little bit more.

Joyce Lee: [00:19:51]

I did swimming and I started competitive swimming when I was.In sixth grade. And so that became my passion. I was obsessed with him, big. My parents let me do year round swimming, but honestly it was the most, um, it was definitely the, the, okay. Is swimmer out there. You know, I did let her in high school, but I was not, you know, it's not a star swim or anything, but it, it definitely, it definitely taught me the importance of showing up, even though I wasn't the best swimmer.It's kind of funny. I look back on this now. I had perfect attendance and never miss practice. I don't know, like national load fees or anything, but I have a perfect attendance trophy somewhere or plaque somewhere. I have, I have a couple of them. So just showing up every day, apparently it's funny back like, Oh, kind of doing that right now with running, but swimming was definitely my passion.Growing up and gymnastics, do you just because I'm petite, it just was a natural fit. Uh, I was also very okay at gymnastics. I did let her it also in high school. Yeah. It wasn't a collegiate athlete or anything, but I enjoy being active and using my body. And also, um, the comradery within the team, even though these were, I did very individual sports, but I did understand the importance.Of supporting your teammates and, and helping them through when, you know, there were tears and helping celebrate PRS and wins.

Kevin Chang: [00:21:19]

I mean, that's a great transfer into running. It really is. It speaks so well to how the streak began, the attendance part of it, and how running is also kind of an individual sport, but you've made it community as well.So talk to us a little bit about guests. You know that first starting line, that first marathon you told us, you didn't have, I have too many people you didn't have, right. A support network or people to count on or ask questions about. So I guess how, how has your community evolved over the years? And we know that you're kind of central to many different running communities here in the Bay area.So, um, tell us how you got involved with the other runners and how you got to meet other runners.

Joyce Lee: [00:22:02]

Well, it's more like other runners identifying that I needed support and then forcing their help on me.It was just so I was so embarrassed because when you start your newbie and you're just going to be where you are. And I wasn't, I was very embarrassed of that. And I didn't like talking about it. I didn't want people to. No, it was training for a marathon until I, I was getting close to racing and I was freaking out and everybody knew I was running a marathon because I'm like, Hey, if I die King, you pick me up.Like, I might call you for a rescue. I just don't know because obviously my training wasn't that solid. Otherwise I would have a little more confidence in at least finishing this. I didn't really have much help or advice with part of it was just out of my own stubbornness for not wanting to reach out and leading up to race day.You have, Nike's all these awesome events and met a lot of people at the expo. And I connected with people who are sort of in the same boat as me just, you know, kind of too scared to share about their there. Training. And I did make a friend Mallory, we're still in touch to this day. She's from so Cal she had some training partners, but in the end, all bailed and she was the lone survivor.So she had nobody there with her. And so we both committed, like we met at the expo and we both committed that we would find each other at the cert line. And run with each other.

Kevin Chang: [00:23:26]

That's so cool.

Joyce Lee: [00:23:26]

And did you, yeah, we ran with each other for, I think if my memory serves me, right. I think up to like 16 or 17, like when, when you got to golden gate park by then, like my, my feet were starting to get really mad about peels situation and she ended up taking off.She did awesome. I think she ran like a four 15 first marathon. Yeah. She really crushed it. That was, I was so proud of her. And along the way, um, yeah, I'm in a lot of team in training. There were a lot of very, very supportive, uplifting people that encouraged me along the way and shared with me, their story, met a lot of team and training supporters as well as leukemia survivors.Right. So, um, you know, they share with me their story and things like that. And that year I dedicated my first marathon to a classmate that passed away from leukemia. So. That I didn't even know that group existed to the X Bella. It just goes to show how, how the Tasha was. And once they got that first experience and made all these friends, we actually exchanged phone numbers and kept in touch.And from there it just started meet more and more people. And, and what marathoning showed me was, you know, you can be in any. Part of your chapter of your life and you could be running a marathon

Bertrand Newson: [00:24:45]

and thank you so much for, for sharing that initial marathon experience. And how can we go from there to iron woman, a multi, multiple time Boston marathon finisher.Um, you've won races. Ultra marathons. Um, let's talk about some of that good stuff. These are really good. So right now this is kind

Joyce Lee: [00:25:08]

of the season. Um, years ago, the memories are starting to pop up, uh, on Facebook. Uh, let's go marathoning to Trathen. We'll talk about that. One of my old teammates from, um, some team from clips from team Canada thought it'd be a fun idea to do a triathlon, no training.He's like, Oh, it's a sprint should be fine. He, and some of the other guys, they would go surfing with no wetsuit and Santa Cruz and they were totally used to the water. I was not. And I remember they dragged me into this sprint travel on the Santa Cruz sprint tri and this was August. I think it was like the first weekend of August.And, um, had a really swam, I owned a bike. I didn't know anything about anything, but you'll be fine. You'll be fine. You're so fit, blah, blah, blah. Fine. I was not fine hotel. This is like a repeat of my marathon. I'm telling you it was so bad. I had all the gear, at least though. So if we hit the water and I'm like, terrified of open water swimming, I can swim.No problem. I can swim forever. No problem. But in the ocean, I'd never done open water swimming. And so I hit the water. I'm super cold and they give me one piece of advice. Like, just make sure you cite and keep the buoy to your right. So I'm swimming in the state of panic. I'm like going to the right food to the right, to the right.And I'm like, I keep this cadence and it kept the buoy to my right. Eventually the second buoy disappeared. And I was like, Oh my God, I'm lost. I'm going to die out here. And I'm like treading water and somebody on a standup paddleboard with like, he trying to go back to the start line and I'm like, no, I've lost it.He's like, you want to go that way? I'm like, Oh my God. I had like made a U-turn and this is, I think you're only swimming like 900 yards or something. And I'm like, Oh, Oh, this sucks. So bad. It doesn't. And you're so tiny when you're in the open water. You couldn't feel smaller and I'm so scared the whole time I'm thinking like short and skinny, me short, skinny, eat me.I don't like this. And you get out of here, you know, I just haul, but eventually I make it out of the water. I'm like, Oh my God, I'm so done with this triathlon. I survived, but I was also hypothermic. So I'm, I'm like my teeth were chattering and I'm like, why do I feel like my head is become a balloon? I learned later, you want to work your plugs, the cold water in your ears does something to your equilibrium.And again, just all these routine things I wander over to, um, to the bike. And I'm trying to like gather myself. And I was just so cold. I took a job call and I'm like, yo, I'm not even a clip, clip my feet. And I put on my running shoes. This is how inexperienced I was. And Santa Cruz was still very cold at that time.In the mornings I put on a hoodie, I looked so non arrow. I looked like a person out for leisure, elite bike ride that morning. And it was just such a miserable experience. But I have this rule, I call it the rule of three. I have to do everything three times before I completely squared off. Right.

Kevin Chang: [00:28:07]

That's a cool rule.I like that.

Joyce Lee: [00:28:09]

Yeah. So this was August, 2012. I think I did this and I hated triathlon, but there was still that sort of goal, right. Of doing an Ironman someday that I crossed off during my first marathon. So fast forward two years, I get dragged into doing wildflower and that was even more terrifying and miserable and there were more tears.And then the Hills on the bike, everything was just so. It was so hard for me, even though I trained for it this time, but there was just something about that challenge. When I crossed the finish line at wildflower 2014, where I was like tears streaming. Yeah. I was terrified. The whole thing was just so hard and I don't know what came over me.Maybe I was just really unwell, but I was like, Hi, do it again.This was may, this was a special year. This was a year. It was swim, run, bike run, because there wasn't enough Lake for you to go from the Lake to your bike. So you had to run to your bike. You ran two miles to your bike. And this, this race I'm telling you, it was so brutal. There's no cover. And it's just so hot and hilly.And when you come out of that swim, you're running up a boat launch. That vert is that the incline is very, very intense. So you're, you're basically like hiking up this. What feels like a complete vertical wall to find your stuff and then to change into running stuff, to run over to your bike and you hit another boat launch when you get to your bike.So there's two of these and as you're running for those for, I can't remember if it was the whole two miles, but you're running through silt. It's your feeder like insane then it's just right above you. It's so hot. You're like, Oh my God, this is so miserable. And you get to the bike and the first thing, right?When you go through the bike out ban, um, arch, you hit the fifth grade, they called nasty grade.

Kevin Chang: [00:30:11]

That's a great name for it

Joyce Lee: [00:30:15]

name and all I think about was I could barely get up this Hill and this is the same Hill. You have to go down. I was miserable, but lucky for me, I had a very, very friendly bike for beginners.They actually had three big cogs. So I had a lot of gears to go through, which really helped for all the Hills. It was just, this race was so challenging, but I think by then I had grown enough through all the running that like, Experiencing this incredible challenge and overcoming so much fear, uh, was, would drew me to then go from the Olympic distance to the half Ironman distance that September.

Kevin Chang: [00:30:53]

Oh, wow.

Joyce Lee: [00:30:55]

And then that following year I did an iron man.

Kevin Chang: [00:30:57]

That's crazy. That's awesome. It's a bug. And then you just,

Joyce Lee: [00:31:01]

everything just kind of gets out of control

Bertrand Newson: [00:31:04]

Ironman, Arizona. What was your first sermon?

Joyce Lee: [00:31:08]

Ironman Arizona is my first and only, um, Ironman. Yeah. So I volunteered that fall at Ironman, Arizona and registered, and then slim biked and ran the following year.

Bertrand Newson: [00:31:20]

Just recap the distances of a full Ironman. It's 2.4 miles

Joyce Lee: [00:31:25]

swimming, 112 miles on the bike and then a marathon 26.2 miles. Fantastic.

Kevin Chang: [00:31:31]

Yeah. Incredible

Bertrand Newson: [00:31:33]

and tastic.

Kevin Chang: [00:31:34]

And at this point, you were a couple of years into your streak. So two questions at this point in time, were you increasing the mileage that you were running over your streak or had it kind of stayed fairly consistent? And how did you introduce biking into your training?

Joyce Lee: [00:31:50]

The, the running mileage was more or less pretty consistent throughout the whole year. Um, if I had a marathon coming up, um, that I was running for myself, then. A month out. I would do a, a fairly long run, but PRI but overall I, my speed work for my weekends because I was racing to fitness. And then during the week, uh, I swim two to three times during the week and I would bike two to three times during the week.Again, I didn't follow like a strict training plan, but I had a framework that I was using and I would also do a practice yoga, at least twice. I had no social life, obviously within the fitness community. But I definitely had to increase the bike mileage and the training. So in order to do that, I, I did have a bike trainer, so I would use that and, um, catch up on some Netflix movies and things to just get me through.That's a year of the Ironman. Actually, I had made a friend through mitten running and he was a pro. And he, I nicknamed him casual coach. He actually gave me a training plan, which I just followed to the tee. And that was very helpful.

Kevin Chang: [00:33:00]

What was this coach's name?

Joyce Lee: [00:33:01]

His name was you shall. It's funny because his, um, his like tagline, I guess you want to call it this?You shall try

Kevin Chang: [00:33:13]

love it. I love it. So how did you meet him? And.

Joyce Lee: [00:33:16]

It was through a tech rep. Um, he and this tech rep from Newton running or classmates at UCLA. And so they did triathlon together in college. And so, um, I didn't really know any try coaches at the time that I wanted to pay for anyway. And so I just asked some straight like point blank.Hey, do you want to coach me? These like, Oh, I wouldn't consider myself a coach, but I can share a training plan with you. And if you need any advice, you know, you can always hit me up. I do want to be a coach someday, so this is good practice and that's kind of what we operated on and night traded coaching plans for youth on a health packs, the workout.Awesome.

Kevin Chang: [00:33:57]

Very cool. Were you working with you sauna at that time or.

Joyce Lee: [00:34:02]

So because of the whole marathon, I just call it like a miracle marathon. Um, I then really believed in the product and became a, an independent distributor for Esau. And I've been ever since they made great products, I still stand by it to this day.So.

Kevin Chang: [00:34:18]

That is awesome. Very cool. We'll have to have we'll have links, definitely in the show notes for anybody that wants to check out, you sign up talk to us about the Ironman experience. Cause some of us, I know for me out of the question, but some of our listeners might be interested in someday experiencing, um, triathlon and then Ironman.So tell us about Arizona. So I look back on them, like, did that hit. What really happened. It was just, it was insane. And I feel like everything in life winds up

Joyce Lee: [00:34:47]

perfectly to set you up for these life changing experiences. I honestly, I still stand by that thought when I was in the middle of that first marathon, I, I did not believe at all that it was possible.Um, but as it continued marathoning, the distance became very familiar. Whether or not I could do it by a certain time target. It was a different question. Right. But covering the distance became very comfortable. And so with all the cross training I was doing, I started to see feel a little more likely.And then after wildflower and then doing that first half. I was inching my way closer. I'm like, okay. I, I know what it feels like to cover, you know, a half Ironman distance. And I don't want to make light of the full distance, but it's like, well, it's just double you suffer three times more maybe. And cause it's not, you don't suffer double.It's definitely more than that. And Mike, you know, I could kind of visualize, right? Cause I had, I had the half distance covered. It's like a visualize what it would take to cover the full. So it became highly likely I could do it. And so I wanted to explore that. And in the process you meet so many people.The second thing, smell that you might want to do an Ironman.

Kevin Chang: [00:36:03]

Yeah.

Joyce Lee: [00:36:04]

They don't let it go. And they forced the, all this help you in the most loving way that you don't want. And you're like, okay, it's a smile for this bike ride. Okay. I guess I'll come out for this group. Slim. And it was just, the whole thing was so incredible.Like I would have. Yeah, never imagine you, you, you would think you sign up for this, the thing and you just do it all by yourself. You don't, somehow people just magically pop up in your life. Really? That was experience for me and they help you. I was just such a new, but, and because of my, my first marathon experience.I knew that I needed to really commit to some kind of plan I needed to dial in nutrition. I needed to make sure my gear was right. I needed to really put in the time and I needed to have faith. And so I had to surround myself with those kinds of people and I didn't know where to find them, but they found me.And I still have family. I don't know how all that happened. Like everything lined up, just so perfectly for me to, to accomplish that goal. And I, I just remember, like when I was coming down that red carpet and you see the bright lights and I was about to cross that finish line, it wasn't even like. All right.I crushed it. I did it. This goal was so awesome and it seems impossible. And I really use overcame, blah, blah, blah. And I did it. There was none of those thoughts. It was like, I could not have done this. If all of those people did not help me, I just felt it was weird. It was so weird. Like I was just supposed to like, I am nothing like I couldn't have done it.No way. No way. And I, as I was going with each step, I was counting down like, you know, this person helped me. I'm so thankful for them. And I'm still thankful for this person. And it was just a incredibly humbling experience crossing that finish line. Fantastic

Bertrand Newson: [00:37:56]

about the fitness community runners and triathletes, and we're all the struggle, you know, the, the trials and tribulations the, those days when you have the toughest workouts.When the body is fighting you, and when you cross those finish lines, the ones that really speak to you, all those emotions and all the hard work, it's just, it's all worth it. And then you realize the people that have helped support you in order to get to that finish line. So hats often, one event that we haven't gotten into any detail in your journey to qualifying for Boston, your very first Boston marathon experience to share that with our, our listeners, we know how special that must have been for you.

Joyce Lee: [00:38:34]

Oh gosh. I can't tell the story without it being a little bit long. So I'm gonna just give you a little warning, but in 2014, I mean, I had really caught the marathon bug, like really caught it and just let you know, in the first quarter of 2014, I ran four marathons and I qualified, there were also four and I qualified for, um, marathon maniacs.But, you know, Boston wasn't on the radar. I was just in Boston for Boston runners. I'm not one of them. Um, but as, as the year went on, I kept doing more, more races and doing more speed work and adding in the cross training because I was training for triathlons now. And so naturally just my fitness, my endurance got better and better.Um, but what was very interesting was leading up to that qualifier. I wasn't sure where I was exactly in terms of like my marathon ability. And so September I had gone to New Zealand for the developer's conference and. Kind of funny because it was after another really big, like little milestone in my fitness journey.I'd just done because who knows, which is now Ironman, Santa Cruz half, but just on my first half Ironman distance. And then the next day New Zealand and then did it after work 5k and then laid over in Sydney, did the Sydney marathon. That was all it in six days, which is really crazy. When I look back on it.No at Sydney. I just told myself, I didn't want to put all that pressure because I'd already done all that flying. I'd done all that schmoozing for the conference and that kind of stuff. And so I just did like, look, it's your first international marathon. Just have fun. And so I did, but then after finished the marathon, like I crossed the finish line and I wasn't looking at the watch.So I looked back at the time, I was like, Um, this was after a couple of minutes of wandering around and grabbing food. And I looked at the time, I was like, wait a second. I've been done for awhile. And the clock says three 55. And my PR at the time was three 52 cells, which they run. They had no idea and I didn't get my results texted to me because I was in Australia.And. They're not texting international numbers. So I had to wait to check off in the Sunday, extra that afternoon, and it was three 45 11, and I got scared because I'm like, Oh my God, did I cut a corner? I'm going to get banned from marathons. Didn't think, I didn't think that was me. You know? Cause I was like so casual.I was chit chatting with people and it was, it was a steady effort. It wasn't like a full online. Hundred percent marathon effort. It was just very conversational. So I'm like, Oh my goodness. Like what? I hadn't done a race since the SF marathon and that was in July. So it wasn't sure like, Hmm. Maybe I should check in on a marathon pace and fast forward to.A few weeks out. And I had been that far forward, uh, with the Chicago marathon. And just before that I had gone through is basically one of those times where your life falls apart for it to come back together and in different way, you know, lawns for sure on that aspect, just a lot of things fell apart.And I was in a very, very, very, very, very tough spot emotionally, mentally. Professionally, like everything was just in a bad spot and going out to Chicago, my flight was canceled, but I didn't get any notice. So it was just scrambling around Saturday morning, the day of the last expo, right. Trying to get into Chicago.I just, all of this, even more stress built up a gun is San Jose airport flight was canceled. Then they're like, well, we can put you on this flight, but you gotta fly out of San Francisco. I'm like, what are you talking about? So my dad saves the day, drives me out to San Francisco and then the flights delayed 30 minutes, like literally get into Chicago at like four 27 or something.And I just like bolt out of the airport, hop in the first cab I could find. And I'm like yelling at them, not yelling, yelling, but just. Very frantically telling the driver, like, Hey, you get to the convention center, blah. And he's just like, Oh, okay. So eventually he gets on, um, gets on the freeway and he goes, you know, what you just did was illegal.You need to get on, like from the, um, the rivals you just got on to the cab in the departures, which is apparently illegal or something. Um, so I'm like, I don't care. Just get me there. And I'm like sobbing in the back. Right? Like, I, I just had so much stress from everything I told you about. Plus like, just trying to get there.I'm like, am I even gonna make it to the expo? And so I was just, I felt like giving up is just so much, I mean, to give you an idea, a college. A college classmate had just taken his own life. And then another college classmate had just died from, um, this was living two weeks said just died from kidney cancer.So it was just, uh, it was a lot to handle plus things with work and so on and so forth. Um, so just to give you an idea, like what a bad spot I was in. And I didn't tell any of this to my friends at the time I show up at the expo, like, everything's good. Like, Oh, I haven't happy to meet you. And I just could not sleep that night, night in the morning.I'm like, Oh, it's going to rain today. I don't feel like, you know, it's all these negative things. I'm like, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope. None of these have anything to do with today. Today is its own day. People want to know on this marathon, they're not here cause they didn't get picked in the lottery. You are here.Embrace it. Just count your blessings tonight. Everything else. Go. So as I'm running the marathon and I just felt like I was hanging by a thread that I was going to just like keel over and just give up. You just there's sometimes you just feel so bad in life. You just don't want to disappear into a little hole and you don't want to do anything.But I like pretended everything was fine. I showed it to the start line. I remember thinking like, okay, Joyce, you just got to count your blessings. No matter how silly they are. So supposed to rain that day, it didn't rain. So I was like, okay, thank God for the great weather. It's nice and cool. It's actually a little breezy.There's no rain clouds in the sky. And I just went through, through all the miles. I was just looking around things to account. I even thanked him. Oh, it's thankful for shoelaces. I'll thankful for the person who drew the sign and thankful for somebody who invented markers. I was thinking of anything. I was such a bad spot.I have to stay focused on just that I wasn't even thinking about pace. Eventually I get to mile 24 and I look at the clock and I was like, wait a second. That says, that says three. That says three 30 and I'm like, no. Cause I started, I started, um, am I doing my math? Right? I forget. But anyway, we started 20 minutes behind the clock.And when I looked at the clock, basically I was like Boston qualifying within striking distance. And all I could think about was like, something's not right. This is a little too fast. That's like, whatever, whatever, just we'll figure it out and then just keep going. Right. So I just kept going, yeah. Cross the finish line and, um, I didn't know, time.So it was like trying to figure out what my time was and frantically asking her. Where's the timing test. Let's see the time this guy behind me, he's like, Hey, Hey, Hey, you helped take a picture for me and my friend, I'm usually three 18. You're under three 32. I was like, no, this isn't right. So I started.Bawling my eyes out. This is not right. I must have cut a corner. This is not me. I don't run in three 50. Oh my God. I'm going to be in trouble. I'm going to be banned from marathon majors. I'm panicking. And he's like, you grabbed my shoulders. He's like, I'm going to get your banana. You're clearly low in blood sugar and I'm like, okay.But I was scared, right? I'm thinking like, Oh man, I'm going to get banned from marathon cut corner. I cheated. I don't even know. And so I take my plate, my phone off airplane mode. Apparently people have been following me. It accidentally broad like sign up to broadcast my time. Would we call it the timing checkpoints?So I did qualify for Boston. I found out through my own Facebook. All of that stuff was being brought idea. It was the most special way a person could qualify for Boston when you're just feeling at like the lowest of lows and like just not believing in yourself at all. I couldn't even believe that I ran at time, but you can't deny the person running behind you, telling you that you ran the time and then everybody else.And then also. Um, eventually the official time was posted and it was evident. I crossed all the checkpoints. So I was like, okay, I guess I'll accept this fact. But that was guys, my, my first BQ at three 31 outstanding. They still don't believe it's for this day.

Kevin Chang: [00:47:15]

And how was Boston?

Joyce Lee: [00:47:16]

Oh, man. It was awesome.Okay. I've never been to, like, I don't know, I have to tower, but it's, it's kinda like you just see this like landmark thing over and over in the media and movies and pictures, and then you're there and you're like, Oh my God, like I, here, there were in Hopkinton. This is. The Boston marathon. And I was just like over the moon, it was so cool.And this was like a hundred percent different from my first marathon, because I went into Boston, wanting a PR I trained smart. I followed a training plan. And I felt like I was in control of my race. And so I ran discipline. I ran smart. Okay. It got a little bit hot for me though. So that affected my pace a little, but this was Boston 2016 was my first marathon where I, I had complete control over the whole thing.And I just remember when I got to the top of the Hills in Newton, you have exactly 10 K left. And I just remember yelling super loud time to drop the hammer. And I like,I just let it fly. It was not a PR, but I was so happy with how I did just because it was so different. It was such a contrast to how I ran a lot of my other races.

Bertrand Newson: [00:48:44]

I mean, for being an, an endurance athlete for the last 10 years, and now it seems I was doing some math over here, 3,100 plus days of running every single day.75,000 hours plus of movement just in the streak alone, let alone all the cycling and swimming and all the other fitness related activities, all the races in between there. And when you initially crossed that San Francisco Nike women's San Francisco marathon finish line, where you felt it was basically just yourself and to see the community that you're a part of.And the communities that you have started in the people that look to you for the source of motivation and inspiration, because if you are dedication, fan tastic, work Joyson, how have you seen the running community morph and change over the years? Do your eyes.

Joyce Lee: [00:49:36]

I don't know where to start. Actually. I'm only on 27, 89.Okay. For the record 20th. That's where I'm at the running community. I didn't even understand that. I didn't even know. I couldn't even even have imagined such a community because I kept to myself so much. So when I wandered into it, it looked like it happened upon this mystical land. Right. You have the pool, we'll just let you geek out about running as much as you want.And they will match you probably I'll doing you. And then you'll go for a run and then eat delicious food. Right? Like it was incredible. And for the longest time, I didn't have a lot of faith in myself. I just saw myself as a newbie who didn't know anything, although I loved running and I love talking about my love for running.I didn't feel like I had anything to brag about then. Honestly, I didn't even. Tell people or refer to myself as a runner until 2013. I figured I didn't have an excuse. If I was running every day, I would actually have to say, I'm a runner. So I started, I started the whole yogging, um, fall of 2003 and I went on for that long and I didn't call myself a runner.Until I felt like I had to, cause I had no other excuse because I was doing a running streak. I know. But as far as the running community is concerned, like I almost felt like, Oh, I'm not good enough to be a part of, I'm not very fast. Like I was just so timid. I'm not a timid person, but I was very timid about my ability.And through that process, the evolution was more not to sound corny, but it was within myself just to understand like, yeah, it's not really about you. It's about like what you bring to the community and. And how you lift other people up. And just in the first two years of being a part of this community, I just was lifted up by so many people, people that I didn't know, they didn't have to help me, but they did.And they believed in me. And that to me was something. I would have never expected. I just thought running was about yourself, hitting targets, getting those metals like this other aspect of the running community. That's that's what made me fall in love with running. Cause even on days I hate running, I would never quit because.Or even if God forbid I'm on sideline, I would never quit the community because of just everything that they've done for me. Um, some of them are, you know, they're, they're people that I'm helping or there's people out there who are accomplishing their own, really crazy goals. And they need my support, me, all of it there's growth in it for everybody.And so I don't know that I can speak to any kind of quote, unquote, change in the community, but more in like. How my perspective on myself as a runner has changed and my belief in what I can bring and how I can help and how I can contribute that aspect of is changed. It's like night and day from when I first started until now.

Kevin Chang: [00:52:37]

And it's so funny. Cause a lot of the times it's that mindset shift.

Joyce Lee: [00:52:41]

Absolutely.

Kevin Chang: [00:52:42]

I mean, of course you bring additional experience and stories and those types of things now, but even when you started out, you could have brought so much to the table. And that's what I want to challenge all of the. The newer folks that people that are new into running is it start talking King.So some of us start telling your story, start, yeah, start inviting yourself into the community. And we invite all of you to come and join the running community. Cause it, it can transform you. It can change your mindset and the way that you think about fitness and yourself and the friendships and the stories that you can, that you can create as well.So,

Joyce Lee: [00:53:17]

absolutely. Are

Kevin Chang: [00:53:19]

you enjoying the show, help us out by sharing the podcast. You can win some cool prizes like headbands, wristbands, training programs, shadows, and more, especially if you're part of an existing running group online community, or have friends that you think will enjoy the show. Get your personal referral link at https://racemob.com/referral
Talk to us a little bit about the hard parts of the streak. So, I mean, it can't have all been just like easy rainbows, I mean, 2,700 days of consistent running. So,

Joyce Lee: [00:53:54]

so I would say 50 to 60% of the time. I don't even feel like running

Kevin Chang: [00:54:00]

just like the rest of us sometimes.

Joyce Lee: [00:54:02]

Yeah. You know, and sometimes it's like, you just had a busy day, it was very draining or you had a bad day or, you know, relationship trouble or friend trouble, and you just plank, you just don't feel like doing anything, but then, but then there's this streak.Right. And I don't want to break it. And I just tell myself, you know, don't let temporary emotions cause permanent damage. And so there's just, this, this is a very, actually very important detail. Why I, I have a hard time now. I wouldn't break the streak is what happened in that first year. They, because I was showing up every day, running somewhere, maybe with somebody, maybe by myself, that journey in the first year completely changed me.One. I learned how to tune out my excuses because unless I'm really sick, which I don't want to have time to do. Yeah. Some people don't have time to exercise. I don't have time to get sick, so yeah, I just don't get sick. Um, so far knock on wood. The people I've met, um, the people I've helped, the people who have come and helped me in that first year have really inspired me to keep going again.Just like how it drew me into the committee community that much more because the contact points just because I'm showing up every single day, right. You have so many more. Chances to connect and communicate and, and build relationships. And so over the 365 Jay's and all the traveling, all the ran run clubs.So I popped into, uh, around the world. It really, really impacted me. And as I was getting closer to day three 65, I was thinking like, well, what am I going to do for day three 65? And of course of running, I'm thinking about this, right? When you work out your ideas, And I'm like, Oh, you know what, why don't I get a couple of things together?You know, my brother, Sherry and her husband who are marathon, they're really fast marathoners and why don't we get together and do something? And I'm like, Oh, we can put on a race themed running event, you know? And then the idea and it got out of control. I'm like, no, wait, I'm going to have I'll do I'll do it in person.Running party. And I can invite more people. I'm like, Oh, I have like a race theme party. I gotta have metals, gotta have metals. I'm like, Oh, and I got to have bids. Oh, I'm going to make it exactly how I want it. And we didn't have shirts that fit me because he's huge on me.

Kevin Chang: [00:56:31]

You got to show the shirt. It's this Sanrio hello?Kitty shirt.

Joyce Lee: [00:56:35]

Yeah, work. So, um, my buddy, Danny Cho of, um, Sakoda designs, uh, does it for me every year. You know, that was the idea. I'm going to have this running party. And then I'm like, Oh, and that way I'll be able to include some of my friends who are in other countries. Because they can't cancel have like a little virtual run and then I'm like, okay, let's, you know, let's get cracking.So after I started planning all this out, I, I didn't know what to charge, but the, I did need some kind of contribution when like five K's are like 40, 40 to 50 bucks. So I just told everyone like, wow, why don't you use. And I contribute like $45 and then I'll deal with it. And as going through that process, cause this was done, I pulled this thing together in like two weeks.Okay. So I really had no idea. This was all on the fly and I actually have some money leftover. So I was like, Hmm, this is kinda awkward. I don't want to keep the money. Um, cause it's like, hi friend, I'm gonna refund you a $12 and 26 cents. Like that, it's just kinda awkward. Right? So I'm like, why don't I donate the money?So I go, I hit up my friends who had contributed. I'm like, Hey guys, are you okay with me donating this money? I want to donate to children's hunger fund, an organization that is supported by Usama as one of the charities that they support. And I thought it was a great one because you can buy food packs and things like that.The dollar goes so far. You just, you can buy pounds and pounds of feed with it. And that first year we donated $1,700 and this was not planned, right. This is like done on the fly and it just kept building a bubbling up to this really, really amazing, amazing thing. And like, You remember how I mentioned sometimes not to do you pick up a new habit and yeah, there's some unintended side benefits.Like something I would have never imagined. And for that I on day three 66, I was like, I think I just got to keep going. Like that was too cool. Like I can't step away from that. Like what other cool miracles are gonna happen? If I keep going. And so now whenever I have a really bad day and I feel like I want to give up on the streak, I can't, because I have this, like, this keeps me going.

Kevin Chang: [00:58:50]

Incredible.

Bertrand Newson: [00:58:51]

Thank you so much. Joyce, what has been some of the individuals in the running community that have had the most impact on you? That have been mentors that have given you inspiration and moments when you needed it the most, if you want to shout them out, I know there's not many. I know you put it,

Joyce Lee: [00:59:07]

you know, so, you know, so many, the first person, his name is DJ scene.He's not that involved with the running community, but he and his family. They all marathon, his parents marathon, his brother does marathons and they do it together as a family. And, um, they offered me a lot of support as I would just call him freaky. I know what I'm going to do. And they assured me I'd be fine.They were right. Oh, there's just so many people. I mean, you coach fee, like just seeing you grow the community from where you are with to legit fitness, it's just so inspiring to see everybody contributing in their own way. Right. And that, that inspires me. There's Verity. Brene. I know she'd been on your show before.She does a lot for women in the running community and she's absolutely incredible. My childhood friend, Sherry, we, we both started with yeah. And piano and violin in math tutors. And here we are, we're done marathons. Um, her husband, he hates it when we call him coach, but he, he writes her training plans.It's very formulated based on what's going on with the Kenyans. So we follow, or I try to, I I'm like the worst. Right. Anyway. Do you want to think John Kimora. We've been trying to convince him to start, you know, a coaching thing. Hopefully he'll agree to that. Someday, John, we made a website for him to do more running.There's nothing on it.

Kevin Chang: [01:00:42]

Okay. In the show notes, we're linking to camera running.

Joyce Lee: [01:00:45]

We're going to slam him with coaching requests. So he's great. He's really great. I mean, he was just his wife, my childhood friend, who was sub-three coach, my brothers who sip three, coached me to my PR. So he's fantastic. So we have to thank him for that and for their friendship, my brother, of course, a really big supporter.He's also, um, My co race director. He's a lot more organized, a lot more systematic than I am. And so he's been a great help. Uh, when it comes to the Joyce's three 65 K event, he, he he's a more behind the scenes kind of guy, but the contribution that. He puts in there. Like it wouldn't be what it is, you know, without him.He's the one who course, uh, who mapped the course. And when there was construction, he re remapped everything and ran through it multiple times to make sure it was exactly 3.1. Um, uh, okay. He was the one who pushed me to make it a true 5k. Initially it was just a loop around the Lake, which is actually 2.2 miles.Um, but he's like, no, it's like, Joseph's three, six, five. Hey, it needs to be 5k. So I'm like, okay, you go.So, um, he, yeah, he's, he's a huge help. I know. I'm gonna forget people. Gosh.

Kevin Chang: [01:02:00]

And he's an entrepreneur, right?

Joyce Lee: [01:02:02]

Yes, he is. Let's talk a little bit about that, about his business and how you're helping out and. Yeah. So he actually has to, he is, uh, he, he has his own, um, CPA firm, nexus tax preparers. They think I'm a terrible sister.I just call it nexus tax services. Um, so there's that. And he, he runs that all year long. Um, so if there's any small businesses, large businesses, he does personal taxes, also just, uh, all, all of it and everything in between. Um, he's got that, but the more interesting thing to me anyway is his kombucha business.So he crafts small batch, um, kombucha, which the next batch is going to be ready quite soon. I was got mint, watermelon. I think it's peach. You're Beaumont, blueberry, blueberry. So we just use seasonal. Um, what's what's available seasonally. Yeah. And everything's organic. And it's called, um, SCOBY kombucha, S C O B I E.And originally they were brewing out of Oakland. So the logo has the Oakland, crane and SCOBY also was giving out, um, post-race kombucha at my race and kombucha is Cree. It supports stronger, um, immune health because of all the probiotics. So it supports your gut and Danielle now, you know, a lot of immune cells live there, so,

Kevin Chang: [01:03:32]

and they have a interesting business model in which they are, you told us they're using the same bottles.Everything is kind of zero waste or attempting to be as zero waste as possible.

Joyce Lee: [01:03:43]

Absolutely. Yeah, that's part of the mission is, is to have as small of an impact as possible in terms of, um, Yeah, carbon footprint and waste. And so there is a bottle exchange program where you, you contribute a bottle deposit and you would just keep raising the bottles that we have.So you can get it's like the size of a wine bottle. So I think it's like one T four fluid ounces and 40. And so, um, basically you put in your bottle deposit and right now what we've been doing is doing just porch drop-offs and pickups. And so you bring your empties and drop them off on our front doorstep and you pick up your fresh boots and we have a little contraption with ice packs.So, um, keep it'll keep it nice and full walls waiting for you. And grassrootsy, um, you know, if I'm in the San Jose area and I know that there's some people who need kombucha, then I will also go and drop off for them. And then the same goes for when Jay's seeing clients out in different parts of the Bay, he'll also do drop offs and with them, of course, keeping, you know, physical distance rules and all of that, and everything is sanitized.So it's not just like I Oregon. And I just throw this in the dishwasher, everything complies with, um, food safety guidelines

Kevin Chang: [01:05:00]

and, and talk to us a little bit about. Your diet, because we know that you are vegan as well. When did you start becoming vegetarian vegan? And how do you think you have managed your diets in relationship to being an endurance athletes?Because I know that that probably provides some challenges.

Joyce Lee: [01:05:18]

Back when I was swimming, my coach had advised that we just kind of scale back on the red meat intake. And so I'm going to Paris for summer cut out red meat. And it was mainly like lane animals. They just stop eating them. And then as the summer went on, I got kind of competitive.Also go, yeah, coach, I'm gonna wind up you and I cut out all animals altogether. And, but at the time it's still love the idea of barbecue and ruins and that kind of thing. And so it was counting down the days. So you eating meat again at the end of the season, but fortunately, or unfortunately when my family did take me out for myself, barbecue, I couldn't even eat the food.It just didn't feel right. Biting into animal flesh anymore. And I think in terms of energy, it, it did help. And so, yeah, I didn't really have that many reasons as a 13 year old, besides that I did love animals and. You don't want to eat them anymore. And it did help me in terms of athletic performance. So, um, I just cut it out and I didn't for, for that first meeting, six months after the swim season, I didn't think it was going to be permanent, but it ended up becoming permanent.And as time went on, I found more and more reasons to stay this way and fast forward into my adult life. I had wanted to become vegan. But I really enjoyed cheese and French desserts really, but it just got to a point where there's so many replacements for it. Now that just the transition became very easy.And again, back to, um, compassion, even animal byproducts, I don't want to get peed on people here, but just even the animal byproducts. Do involve some amount of cruelty to these animals. And so I don't even, I can't even watch those videos. I just know it's happening and that's an ass to like, keep me from wanting to indulge in that anymore.And so I haven't had, I haven't eaten animals basically since I was 13. So 26 years.

Kevin Chang: [01:07:18]

And do you feel like you have to supplement your diet? For endurance sports.

Joyce Lee: [01:07:22]

Yeah, I absolutely do so with USADA health sciences like that, you know, I have those supplements which have been a great help. Um, blood work comes out good.And, um, the other thing is to be mindful of is protein intake. So I think the average American diet doesn't need as much protein as everyone seems to believe. But as an athlete, you definitely need to mind your protein intake depending on where you are in your training. Um, is, if you don't take in enough, it does affect your recovery.And as far as supplementation goes for that, I really like, you know, Vega recovery, as far as the proteins are, uh, are concerned. Um, you sinusoid proteins kind of my favorite. But I also switched between that and whatever vegan proteins are just basically on sale, buy one, get one free every now and then.So I try and capitalize on that. Costco's got some deals from time to time, so I just keep that stocked and I just switched between them all, depending on what I need. The sauna, um, soy protein, I think is definitely the lowest in calories and most like, um, most protein for the punch. So youth as like a booster with the other protein drinks, because they have some sort of, you know, vanilla chocolate flavor, you know, you can just dial it as, as you go, depending on what your training demands,

Kevin Chang: [01:08:41]

great advice.And people do have to be a little bit careful about the soy protein that they they're using. Because as we know a lot of soy these days use GMOs. Especially for men, there can be an increase in estrogen levels if you're taking the wrong types of proteins, just be careful of that and make sure that you know, where your, where your proteins coming from, that you're sourcing high quality protein.

Joyce Lee: [01:09:04]

Definitely. non-GMO organic. That's very, very important. And you know, if, if we are doing any of these dairy alternatives to make sure that there aren't a lot of additives in the brands that you're buying, I grew up on floods. Lot of tofu, the Asian markets will sell well, a very, very light, you know, two ingredients, soy milk.It's very different. The texture you would get at say a whole foods or. Something like that. It's really just slowly beans and water. So there's no extra thickeners or anything added to it. So that's the soy milk that I prefer. But definitely to your point, we need to be careful about the GMOs because you just don't know what that can do to your body.

Kevin Chang: [01:09:43]

Talk to us about this year. And we know in talking, I guess a little bit previously, A lot of people had paid it forward to you. You had gotten a lot of coaching, a lot of training, and this year was supposed to be the year that you had set aside to help with other people for certain circumstances. So I guess we're privy to the story of what happened going into 2020.Um, tell our audience.

Joyce Lee: [01:10:07]

Over the years as my confidence grew. And I started to acknowledge myself as a runner who was quote unquote, worthy enough to help other people heal over the years. I've, I've done a lot of pacing with Tri-Valley running club, also with pack West. I've done a lot of crewing for ultras, for various friends and things like that.But since, you know, Badwater understatement. And when you say curling, we did go through, um, the previous hottest recorded July through bad waters. So there've been quite a few experiences already with the supporting runners and giving back. Um, but this year, because I wasn't sure. Yeah, how my knee would be reacting to what had happened and also just, um, feed reaction to the antibiotics that I had taken.

Kevin Chang: [01:10:57]

Yeah. Let's get into it a little bit. Cause we said we're going to get into it later in the episode. So dog, right. Was that,

Joyce Lee: [01:11:04]

was it, there was a dog in my life that. Changed the course of a lot of things to say the least, um, you know, re re-injured my knee and then further in the year being a due to behavioral issues, actually that me in the face.And so I was on antibiotics for nearly a month. Initially it was, you know, 10 days and then it wasn't long enough and I had to get back on it. And then I allergic reactions. I had to take a different one. So it was just a lot of drama that I actually never shared on publicly. Like people who are close to me knew I was going through this, but the antibiotics.Really took a toll on my body and I wasn't able to train because I had open wounds on my face. I couldn't really get into anything. Sweaty. The antibiotics also left my tendons vulnerable for rupturing. So it was just like

Kevin Chang: [01:11:53]

we're chanting Biotics because we, we talked about this earlier.

Joyce Lee: [01:11:56]

Runner is an athletes stay away from levofloxacin because one of the quote unquote rare side effects is tendon rupture.And it's rare because most the average American Ken is not active like you. So, you know, when you tap it, when you give that to this very, very sick Maneesh group of people who are athletes, actually the likelihood from what I've heard around the community is quite high for tendon rupture. So. If you can try to avoid that.Um, and the reason why I was on bees was because I'm allergic to penicillin. So I had to be given a different set of, um, antibiotics to ward off infection from the dog bite.

Kevin Chang: [01:12:37]

And you felt fairly early on that something was off, right? Something was a little bit different when you were taking the antibiotic Biotics.

Joyce Lee: [01:12:44]

Yeah. I, it felt like when I was out running, it definitely felt like my muscle fibers were very dry. Um, I don't know if that's actually what was going on, but I just felt like everything was super dry and it was like dry grass, like rubbing on itself. It was just very strange. And so I just, I just didn't know like how I could push.Um, I was running, you know, very late at night when it was much cooler, so I wouldn't really break a sweat, but I also found that the fatigue was so great. And then this weird sensation within my body, my muscles, I couldn't really push. And as I was describing these symptoms to a couple other friends, um, catcher, Corbett being one of them, she immediately identified, but I was taking.And, um, shared with me, her experience from over 10 years ago of taking this and how it really ruined her too. And another friend of ours, um, she actually ruptured her Achilles while taking this stay away, stay away from Lila. Floxacin that's really hard. Yeah.

Kevin Chang: [01:13:45]

And I mean, this is somebody who's has been running every day for years and years and years.And so you probably know your body. Extremely well, way better than the average, what things should feel like, how your body should feel after these normal activities. And so kudos to you for checking in with you, your body identifying, you know, earlier on that something was not right. Right. But it didn't feel right.And so how did that change? How you looked at 2020.

Joyce Lee: [01:14:12]

Obviously a lot of fitness was compromised during that time. And so going into 20, 20, 20, I had to really, really check it that FOMO. I didn't want to fall into that FOMO trap of like only everybody's doing this and I'm not, I'm not achieving this. I just had to like eliminate that and plan with a lot of intention, which is just not what I do, but I had to be very careful because.That kind of the disappointment can be very, very detrimental to your morale. Right. Um, we all know what it's like when you have to sit out for just a little bit, even just a rolled ankle for like a week with intention. I scheduled out my race calendar. Two very, very different experiences. And one of them was to be a guide for a blind runner and Boston marathon.You got an even cooler job. So I wasn't the guide, but I was the support guide, which is the person who goes to grab the drinks and, um, or mixes drinks, even on grabs the food and things like that. You can't meal for them, but you can go on. Grab their nutrition from the aid station. And so that was going to be different experience.Number one, a different experience. Number two was I had already been crew chief for this specific runner. Oh, Tony endorphin dude. Another very inspirational runner. I was his crew chief at Rio DeLago, which got him his Western States qualifier. And so he'd asked me to also be as crucial for Western States this year.So that was going to be my first like crewing experience at Western States. So, you know, that I was very, very much looking forward to that. And for Badwater instead of. Crewing says I've cried three times now. And last year I was actually crew chief for Katherine Corbett, which was quite the experience being chief, just crew.Um, there's so much more to do, but such a rewarding experience, but this year I wanted to go and. We joke to cruel the race director, Chris Costman and to be a part of his staff. And I was so much looking forward to it. But as this whole covert situation continued, um, it was a tough call, but he, he had to cancel the event.

Kevin Chang: [01:16:26]

What are you looking forward to now? Are you having any goals, anything on the horizon? What kind of down the road for you?

Joyce Lee: [01:16:32]

Yeah. That's a really great question. It's really tough right now because you know, there's so many things that are unpredictable. So the best thing is to just work on what you can control.So we take it a day at a time and. For myself. I have some friends from tribal running club that I'm quite close with. So we actually have daily meetups on zoom, um, to do some workouts on Peloton and of, we don't work out because we might've worked out on our own early in the day. And it becomes kind of this.Like shelter and place therapy session, or just talk about, you know, what's going on current events, how we're feeling. Um, so as far as what the future holds, um, as a group, we've signed up for virtual races. So in September, I'm part of this national parks, really me run on your own. You have a team of 24, you picked a, represent a certain park.So I'm on like the windy, windy tunnel, windy cave. I'm terrible. And you pick a time slot where you just run for an hour straight and then you pass the Baton to somebody else. That's really, I think the only race left on the horizon besides Joyce has three 65 K, which is going to be a hundred percent virtual.I haven't announced that yet. So there, there you go. Even if the COVID-19 what's up, I think just in solid they're already, it's just going to be virtual. I don't want to be like, ha you guys didn't get to have a race, but I will. Who would it be like that where we're just going to do it virtual this year and.I mean, my race was already partly virtual anyway, but I'm going to brainstorm a bit on how to make it a little more connected this year, versus like, this is just Joyce's friends running in like some other country. I want to make sure that the runners are for feeling connected and in doing this together.

Kevin Chang: [01:18:21]

Is there anything that we didn't get to? Anything else that you wanted to mention?

Joyce Lee: [01:18:24]

Well, of course, there's a lot to mention. I want to just close with this message for those who are new to running is that I don't know you, but I know you're definitely more capable than you believe you are, and it's okay to listen to other people tell you that.You're awesome. And, and just, just try it on. You'll see, you're going to be able to do so much more than you thought and like, Getting into that uncomfortable spot, you will surprise you

Bertrand Newson: [01:18:53]

words of wisdom from the one and only joyously. Yes. Thank you so much, guys. This has been fun.

Kevin Chang: [01:19:02]

Thank you so much. This has been a blast and we'll have all of the links on the show notes too.Joyce's three 65 K her Instagram page, where she posts every day or running adventures and so much more. So thank you so much, Joyce.

Joyce Lee: [01:19:18]

Thank you for having me guys.

Kevin Chang: [01:19:21]

Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the RaceMob podcast. Check out all of the show notes or find a running buddy online at dot com.Please subscribe to us on Apple. Spotify Stitcher or wherever you listen to your podcasts and leave us a review until next time. Keep on moving.