2,800+ Days of Running - Consistency, Perseverance, and Personality with Joyce Lee

###### 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.