Rucking Around - Interview w/Danielle Parsons

Ari: Hey, everybody, welcome back to Rocking Around. This is your host, Ari Fleeman, and I want to welcome everybody to twenty twenty six. Hope you guys had a great end of the year and an even better beginning of the year. Hope those New Year's resolutions are still kicking. You're still kicking strong and, uh, you know, really excited to have you guys back.

Um, this week we've got a great host, a bright, shining light in the fitness community, some up and comer, um, Danielle Parsons talking about her fitness journey, her growth in not only fitness and running, but really getting into the functional side of things around the high rocks races. So really hope you guys enjoyed this one. And uh, again welcome back. Welcome everybody to Rucking around.

I think it's been a little bit since we last talked, so we're really happy everyone's sticking around with us. It's been a crazy, you know, end of the year, beginning of the year. Um, but we're ready. We're ready to kick off twenty twenty six with a bang. And I think there's no better person than Danielle Parsons, our next guest, who, you know, really lead off the new year with us. Uh, so, Danielle, thank you so much for for joining us. Welcome to the show.

Danielle: Yes. Thank you. Yeah.

Ari: Um, so, Danielle, like I said, I know we talked a little bit in the pre-show about this, about how you got connected to us. Um, but why don't you just tell us a little bit more about yourself and you know, where your fitness journey has kind of come from, what it's taken you to, and all of that fun stuff.

Danielle: So, um, I would say probably like July of twenty twenty three, my husband's job was, um, doing like a, uh, competition thing where they had to, like, whoever could be the most pushups, told me about it, and I got down on the ground and I couldn't do it, and I was very embarrassed. So I said, this is the time I need to get back into the gym. I had my daughter. Um, so that was no, that was sorry, twenty twenty four. Um, so that kind of started getting into the gym. It was just a little nervous. I'm a mom of three, stay at home. So kind of meantime. And then. Yeah.

So then the running portion started in May of twenty twenty five. I thought I would never be a runner. Here I am loving it.

Ari: Right? Famous famous last words, right? I have the exact same, uh, story. I started dating my now wife, and she was a cross country star in high school and ran, you know, all the time. And I'll never forget her always saying, you know. Oh, you know, come run with me. Come do that. And. No, no, no, I'll never do running. I you know I can't do it. Running is terrible. I'm not going to do it. And then we did one race and then the next thing you know it's oh, hey, come sign up this race with me instead. And I'm going to get you out and running. So yeah, they know how to they know how to convince us, right?

Danielle: Oh yeah.

Ari: And is your husband a runner at all or is he more fitness? Otherwise, what's kind of his story?

Danielle: He's a naturally good at it.

Ari: I hate those guys. Right?

Danielle: I like I mean, he doesn't run, but when you get him on a treadmill, he does it. He could run a mile. Always has no problem. For me, I like died going oh point five and had to slowly go up. Um, but yeah. So he he'll go on runs with me, like we'll run over to the coffee shop, but he always is like way ahead of me. I'm like, hey, this is my time, right? It's my thing with me.

Ari: Cool. Um, so as far as running goes, you know, what's kind of what's your wheelhouse? Let's say. You know what? What do you like to run? Um, are you into any specific races or anything like that?

Danielle: Uh, so last year I had done like this all started with I went with my sister in law to, um, this, like, running. It was supposed to be, I think, a five K, but weather kind of knocked it down a little bit. But you were supposed to run. And then when you got back, you got wine in a wine glass. So that was my motivation. Hey, wine. Let's go. Yeah, but after that, that's when I signed up for the Des Moines Women's five day. Um. And that was my first ever race. Then I believe I did eight more last year. Wow. Um, I, like, wanted to do one once a month.

Ari: Yeah. You jumped in feet first. Well, both feet first, right?

Danielle: Yep. I was never, like, a distance runner. Furthest I ran was like, four point six, I believe. And then just the other day, actually, I had ran six point five.

Ari: Nice.

Danielle: Yeah, I pushed myself. I did that, and it was all treadmill, which is miserable.

Ari: Yeah, yeah. You are. You are braver than I. I, I could do maybe two miles on the treadmill and and then I. Yeah, I'll jump off. Like, I will literally dive off of a treadmill if I have to. Um, but which is fun because I know we're both we're both Midwesterners, and I'm sure you're hit with a cold front right now, which is probably why you're on the treadmill right now.

Danielle: Yep.

Ari: Um, I would, you know, I would rather freeze, freeze everything off than run any kind of distance on a treadmill. So I definitely applaud you.

Danielle: Yeah. Like right now I'm currently on the treadmill. And because it's negative stepping out, so.

Ari: Oh, God. Yeah. Well, hopefully the wait till spring. Hopefully our warm listeners are listening to us and laughing at us, but I don't know. I'm a weirdo. I like I like the cold. I'd rather actually run in the cold than the summer any day. Um, I just think I run easier that way. I'm like, I get outside and I see and I can't breathe. That's like my comfort. And then, like, just instantly start sweating. But my like, my comfort distance is, by the way, so nice. That's great. Yeah.

Danielle: That's a good neighbor in the neighborhood, guys.

Ari: Well, I'll have to figure out. I know there's a I think it's a half marathon, so maybe it's like a stretch goal to get to, but I think it's a half marathon that you hit like five or six wineries during it or something. It's something crazy like that. Yeah, as soon as you said wine, I was like, oh, I bet. I wonder if she's heard about that one yet.

Danielle: That's gotta be in, like, California or something.

Ari: Yeah, it's either California or France or, you know, something, not Midwest.

Danielle: I'm willing to travel, right? For wine and for running. You've got two reasons right there.

Ari: Yeah. Awesome. So you started. You said you started running. Um, you know, a little bit, uh, would you say, I'm sorry? Twenty twenty for May of twenty twenty five.

Danielle: May of twenty twenty five.

Ari: Okay. Even earlier. And then so what was the the linchpin, I guess I'll say to, to switch you over because I know now you're really more focused on high rocks in the I guess I'll call it functional fitness racing. Um, you know, so what got you into that? Into the high rocks or. Yeah.

Danielle: Um, into the rocks, I don't know, I just got I did it on, like, the tick tock side of high rocks, and I just kind of got sucked in. Uh, there was a girl named Dom that I follow all of this stuff, and she does many of the races. She's like, man, that's like running but meets fitness. It kind of forces you to focus on both, and it's something else that I can. I've now proven I can run, but now I get to prove that I can do both.

Ari: Yeah. And have you. So have you done hyroxy yet or are we leading up to one?

Danielle: I am leading up to one. I think I'm like thirty three days out February twenty first in Vegas.

Ari: In Vegas. Okay. Is that, um, is that like a special one at all? Like a regionals or championships or anything?

Danielle: No, I think that one's going to be in Houston, Houston or Phoenix.

Ari: Gotcha. Yeah, I haven't, I haven't really I mean, I've followed Hydrox. I, you know, see it all around, but I haven't followed like the whole story of it or what. Everything does. I've, I don't know, for some reason, I feel like people either split between the Spartan Deca and the high rocks, and I just happen to know a few people in the Spartan community, and that was the one I went to. And, well, I also heard it's almost impossible to get hyrax tickets to.

Danielle: Oh, gosh. Yeah. Yeah, they could definitely grow to different cities and yeah, they'll be okay.

Ari: So for those who aren't familiar, um, can you kind of run down like. I know hyrax, you said it's like running and it's a little bit of lifting as well. Can you kind of give like an overview of of all the things it involves?

Danielle: Yep. So that actually took me a while to kind of get down, because I don't think that hyrax is a US based race originating. So it all was like in kilometers. Oh, God. So I had to learn and kind of move it over, convert it over. Um, but it's roughly five miles of running. Oh, it broke up into eight laps. So you run a lap and then you go over and you do, like, um, broad burpees, and then you run another lap and then you would do like rows. So it's eight laps, eight workouts, eight different stations. Oof. So it runs. It's roughly five miles.

Ari: That is that's intense man, I thought. I did not think it was five miles. I thought it was is a lot shorter distance. Honestly, I thought it was like maybe a mile or two. But that's pretty true. Okay, so you got you got blindsided a little bit.

Danielle: Yep. Mhm.

Ari: Um, awesome. And then so what's how is that changed I guess your, your, you know, training and everything as, as you move from it sounded like you know, you started with like push ups and doing a little bit of lifting and strength training there. Then you focused on running and you know became a runner and now you're moving on, you know, more to this functional. So what is what is kind of like a training split look for you?

Danielle: Um, it's it's been kind of hard, actually. And I think the reason, um, because we had gone on vacation and once I was on vacation, I kind of fell off, even on the running portion. And then that fell right into winter. And obviously being in the gym, and I'm not in a gym that's High Rocks affiliated. So it's all morphed different types of, um, workouts to try to look like the, the equipment reviews utilizing the hydrops, so it kind of fit us a little bit tough. Um, but the main focus, they say, is like, the hardest part is wanting to run because a lot of people are coming from the gym, but they're not runners.

Ari: Sure.

Danielle: Luckily I have that down. But now people are just saying you need to learn to run a cycle.

Ari: Ah, that's the hard part.

Danielle: Like I'm comfortable running all the time, you know, I'm not running after being on the couch all day with the kids. Now I'm having to learn to run exhausted.

Ari: So what is that? What does that look like for you? Like, is that running? Like you said, after a long day of of with the kids, which is a long day in itself. Um, you know, or do you do, like, a workout first and then go run?

Danielle: Yep. Kind of trying to split it up to where like I'll go I'll bring like, dumbbells and things over by the, um, treadmill that I'm going to be utilizing. And I've been just trying to like, do, um, kettlebell swings and then running oh point five and then I'll go over, do wall splits and then one point five. So just kind of like doing squats and just kind of keeping my body busy in between my point five. That way I'm not allowing myself to calm down right through my heart rate high.

Ari: And is there a is there like a piece of the event that you're, I don't want to say scared of because you shouldn't be scared of it. But you know, like most nervous about like is there an exercise you haven't done a lot of? Yeah.

Danielle: Um, learning to do wall balls is tough. And it's we have them here, luckily, so I can train it. Um, lunges. Can't stand them. And then the absolute most terrifying thing and I think, honestly, everybody says this is burpee broad jumps.

Ari: Mhm. Yeah. Those are burpees. And you have to do like I can't even think I think it's equivalent to like fifty four feet broad.

Danielle: Oh wow.

Ari: Yeah that's that's awful I did, I did um just like a not even a standard workout. But yeah my workout yesterday was, it was just a twenty minute run and then fifty burpees and I came in and immediately crashed on the floor. I was like, oh, my wife's what's wrong? What's wrong? I was like fifty burpees. That's what's wrong. Like they're just they're the bane. I think of everyone's existence who works out, you know?

Danielle: Yeah. So I asked me if I turn on one burpee.

Ari: Oh, no. Okay, you gotta get some burpees, like raw. Dog it out. Uh, and I apologize. I don't know if I. Are you doing because hyrax has, like, singles, doubles, a whole bunch of different.

Danielle: Mixed doubles.

Ari: Mixed doubles.

Danielle: Okay. My husband into joining me. Nice little payback for him. Yeah, he's not trained at all either.

Ari: Well, he's not trained at all. So, um, he actually started a new job and is really busy, so he hasn't been able to train, so I told him no, you know, like your standard.

Danielle: He's very good at fitness. Your standard is going to be my best. So that's okay. You have to stay with me the whole time. So it's not like you can run. He has to be within arm's length of me, so.

Ari: Oh, okay. So that's kind of cool. You guys got to stick together and kind of work together. And so how does the split work? Like, is it he takes one whole exercise up and runs, or is it like you can split it any way as long as you hit the number of reps?

Danielle: Yep. So we both run each lap. And then when it comes to the workouts, you can split it however you choose. I'm wanting to train to where at least I'm doing half that way if I can. Do you know, more or less it helps. But, um, I think we're going to kind of focus on eventually, you know, I'm going to be doing better at the roads, and he can probably do better at the burpee. Broad strokes.

Ari: Gotcha. So find like, what you're both good at.

Danielle: Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Ari: Awesome. That's great. Cool. Um, so how have you seen, like, you know, I'll call high rocks more of that, like functional fitness or, like, have you seen anything as far as far as your day to day or your fitness? You know, just level overall since kind of making that switch from just running to, to more of the functional fitness side.

Danielle: Yeah, I mean, the big thing for me, I guess, is just noticing, like the weight fluctuation, um, because I'm not running every single day. I'm not running. You know, usually I was running two to three miles a day. Now that's kind of tapered down. Um, so it's less cardio, more strength. So I'm building more muscle. I like that, and then, um, feeling more hungry. That's the. That's like, the worst part of exercising, right? Is, like, you work so hard, and then you get so hungry, and then you're too tired to, like, actually cook something. So then you're eating pizza or something like that.

Ari: Yeah. That's that's what we go through probably daily too. My wife is a personal trainer as well, so thankfully she keeps us a little bit better in line when when I'm just like, oh, junk food, give me all the junk food. You said the functional fitness was more of like you wanted to challenge yourself, right? Like it was, you know, you did the running, you did the push ups. Now you wanted to kind of get the whole picture, right?

Danielle: Um, I was just gonna say, like, I'm almost thirty five now, so, like, I never when I was a even in high school, like, I never ran a mile even in high school. I always had an excuse. I was the the jerk that walked the the the campus and made everybody well. Um, so it was just like, now I'm in my thirties wanting to do all this fitness stuff because I need to be healthier and be a better. I need to be a better role model for my children.

Ari: Have you gotten them into, like, burpees yet?

Danielle: No. No. My daughter does run with me though. She is seven and she does that with me.

Ari: That's awesome.

Danielle: Yeah. She's done a five K with me, and she's going to do a mud girl with me this year, a mud girl.

Ari: Yep. So a mud obstacle race. Just for girls. Just for women.

Danielle: That's cool. Actually, I think men do it too. It's just tied to, like, breast cancer and stuff like that.

Ari: Oh, gotcha. That's awesome. Yeah. We did. I did a obstacle one. Um, it was called. What was it called? Oh. That's terrible. It was the Arctic something, but it was same thing. It was a small one. And I've seen I've seen some mud runs around, but I've also seen them like, unfortunately, there's a few that I feel like are scams. I don't know if you've seen any of that come out.

Danielle: Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Ari: So like I've been kind of wary of like the mud specific ones. Um, but that's awesome. So that, that I think is like, honestly kind of the, I would think the future of running and racing and stuff like that is if you want to get kids involved, like get them where they can just swing on things and get dirty and like, you know, not just make it fun.

Danielle: Exactly.

Ari: You know, don't make it a I mean, five cars are fun, don't get me wrong. But, you know, add, add donuts or add, you know, a snow snowball fight or something, you know, make it make it real fun. Is there another challenge kind of on the horizon as you're you're a month out from hyrax?

Danielle: I think once I finish with this, I, you know, obviously when I said I would never be a writer, I was like, yeah, maybe like a a 10-K. Well, I ended up doing that by myself. No race involved. Just made it my own. Um, but I think I would love to push for this year. Maybe doing a half.

Ari: Nice. The wine one. Right?

Danielle: Yeah. Yeah. Yep. That would be awesome.

Ari: But yeah, any I mean, there's so many fun ones that you can do. Um, the Des Moines area has, like, the dam to dam. They have the Des Moines, the Des Moines girls half. But we are honestly, right now our house is listed and we're going to be moving to Nebraska, so.

Ari: Oh, wow. Anybody knows the race in Nebraska? That's fun. Okay. Yeah. There we go. Listeners, if anyone's in the Nebraska area or around Nebraska, hit us up. I hate to say I'm ashamed to admit it. I don't know anything about the racing community in Nebraska. So maybe we'll have to do some research and we'll have to bring you back on, uh, the next time, you know, when when you've conquered Nebraska, if you feel like you want to start writing, definitely just start doing it.

Danielle: Small zero point five miles. And that was exhausting to me. Um, and then I incorporated, like, running slash walking when I needed to. And then eventually I was just pushing myself to mile to mile to mile. And I mean, just the other day, even on a treadmill, I felt like I could just run and keep going. And people were like, oh, I never could do it. I get so tired. I don't know how you do it. You just have to have the mindset and honestly now, like putting on my headphones and just drowning out, like, everything in the world and just allowing the music to be in my ears has been my safe place. Mentally struggled a lot. So, um, it's kind of just my quiet time.

Ari: So that was gonna be my therapy. Yeah, that I'm the exact same way I, um, I actually, I'm probably a weirdo when it comes to it, but I actually, I do audiobooks, um, and not anything, like, serious. It's definitely, like, weird, you know, just things I can tune out for a little bit. You know, Stephen King is probably, like, my favorite example of a good running audiobook because you can listen and you could probably zone out for like two hours. And he's still talking about the same thing because he has nine hundred page books, you know. So you don't miss a lot. Um, but same thing. It's my kind of like, time to just zone out and, you know, listen in and kind of just let the world go by. Um, so what's what's the music choice? What's what's like your your go to running song?

Danielle: I've been kind of just, like, leaning on TikTok and finding, like, people making running related channels. So like the one I currently am on is like one hundred and seventy beats per minute. And it's all like up to up tempo music to kind of get you going.

Ari: Sure.

Danielle: I'm kind of a little bit of EDM thrown into there.

Ari: Um, have you, have you seen and I know he's on Instagram because I got sent it, but I don't know if he's on TikTok. Um, there was a guy, he's a runner, and he asked his audience to, like, make him the playlist. And I think the first time he said, like, just make me a playlist. And they wound up making him because people are evil. Like the worst playlist ever. It's all super slow songs and like, you know, Sarah McLaughlin, tears of an Angel or arms of an Angel, you know, just like the the worst songs to run to. Um. And then he made another one where he was like, okay, now let's do it again. And it's like just all those terrible slow songs. And he he runs races doing it.

Danielle: It's insane. That's hilarious.

Ari: That would be awful. Yeah, I the whole time I'm sitting there, I'm just cringing like I could, I'd go insane. I, you know, I would jump out of the race and just smash my headphones.

Danielle: Yep. Exactly.

Ari: And and you did mention before and I apologize, I definitely did want to touch on this. You mentioned that, you know, it's a therapy for you and that you, you know, you've struggled with with some mental health. And I think, you know, I think everybody has especially, you know, the as, as we get older and stuff. Um, and I think you said that you were working on um, with hyrax, the doing a little bit of fundraising for that, that as well. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Danielle: Yeah. So I'm currently just, um, I signed up my ticket. I could have taken it the easy way and just bought a ticket and did the race. But I wanted to challenge myself a little bit, um, to where I am raising money for the high rocks instead. And my goal is six hundred dollars. I think I'm halfway there, actually, as of today, I'm halfway there. Um, and it just is helping. It's all for mental health, so it helps people to not suffer alone through theirs. Um, people like me, they don't have insurance. So this just kind of helps pay for those channels.

Ari: That's fantastic.

Danielle: Medication therapists, things like that. Um, I think right now I've helped five lives. It's equivalent to five people helping. So by the end I'll be helping at least ten people.

Ari: So that's so cool. And this is just through high rocks?

Danielle: Correct. Correct. So it's the High Rocks is affiliated with race for impact is what the company has called the website. And I could have done like for animals. Women's health. There are a few different ones I very cool I could have chose from, but mental health what stood out to me.

Ari: And is race for impact only associated to hyrax? Or do they do other races as well?

Danielle: Believe they are only affiliated with hyrax? I've never seen anything else channeled to it and their website is very high driven.

Ari: Interesting.

Danielle: But I'm not one hundred percent sure on that one.

Ari: Okay, well, yeah, they could be like I said. Yeah, I feel like I've seen it to your point, just the hyrax. I just didn't know if that was just because I got to them through hyrax page.

Danielle: Yeah.

Ari: And so is it. You said, do you get like a free ticket for for fundraising, or do you have to reach a certain amount that's like equivalent to a ticket, and then the rest goes to the, um, the charity of your choice?

Danielle: No. So, um, in so I could have paid, like, I believe two seventy five for per ticket. Um, but I ended up paying, I want to say One hundred and something for the tickets. It was like half price, but I have to fundraise and then if I don't meet my goal, then I pay the difference.

Ari: Oh, gotcha. Okay. Yeah, I've seen that before. My my wife did, um, there's a bike race down down here in Columbus, um, called Pelotonia that goes to to cancer research. And it's the same thing you have to raise. Theirs is a little crazy because it's it's no matter the distance you have to raise. I think it's like fifteen hundred. Um, yeah, it's a lot of money. Um, which in all things, you know, equal. At least it's going to a good cause. That's great.

Danielle: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Ari: Um, but to the same point, like, if you don't hit that goal, um, it goes to, you know, you put a credit card on and it goes to the credit card. So, um, crazy because they have a huge number of people who who do the race. Um, so, you know, we're definitely racking in the money, but.

Danielle: Oh, definitely. It's just. Yeah, like, it was actually one of the reasons I didn't do the race, because then we both had to raise that same amount, and we're both fishing in the same pond. And, you know, I don't think we could tap grandma and grandpa for for that much money. Twice.

Ari: Yeah.

Danielle: That's what I've been. I've been kind of like, um, doing, like, my own little fundraisers to help. Like doing, um, if you donate every dollar you get as an entry into a gift card giveaway. So I've done a couple gift cards. I'm currently doing, like, a calendar fundraiser.

Ari: Um, oh, that's so cool.

Danielle: I think just different things to kind of get people to like, hey, you don't. I'm also putting my money towards so.

Ari: So that's awesome. Well let's go. Well and and is this just all donation through your Instagram page or how can people find, uh, you know, to help the cause?

Danielle: Yep. My Instagram Instagram page and my Tik Tok page both have links directly to the website. Um, but a lot of people have been just, you know, some people don't trust websites. So they've been sending me venmo's and I just pay it directly on their behalf.

Ari: That's awesome. Okay. And I don't I know we'll get to it probably in a little in a second too. But, um, you know, if you want to just throw out that plug for for your Instagram and TikTok so people can find you, that'd be that'd be awesome.

Danielle: Yeah. So my my actual fitness page is healthy fit dot times three. Um, and then my regular pages, Daniel Parks because that's pretty boring. That's just me and the kids.

Ari: And so how does being a stay at home mom affect, you know, your your training and stuff? Like, is it are you doing super early workouts before they're up, or are you doing workouts in the middle of the day, you know, while they're at school? How do you find time to do that balance?

Danielle: Right now, it's kind of just, um, balance on my mother. Um, she currently lives with us right now. So we're lucky enough that, um, she she's she fought breast cancer in the past six months and has double mastectomy and everything. So she's kind of been home a little bit more. Um, but she is back at work. Um, so she's kind of based on when she feels like she has enough energy to take care of her kids while I go to the gym for an hour and a half. Um, my, my, they have a gym. They have a baby sitting place here. But, um, my daughter does not take well, so.

Ari: Yeah. No, I'm. I totally understand. My wife, uh, you know, unfortunately goes through the same thing we have. We have two boys at home. Um, and we have tried multiple times to get them into the daycare at the gym. And it's, you know, we're lucky if we get ten minutes, you know, without them fighting it or anything.

Danielle: Yeah, exactly.

Ari: And I'm kind of the opposite. I get up super early, uh, to go work out so that, you know, we can fit it kind of in, um, so we definitely understand that struggle, but that's awesome.

Danielle: That is my husband. He wakes up at three a m. He chooses. Yep. He chooses to be at the gym when nobody is here. He's nobody around.

Ari: Well, I was going to say if he wanted, if he wants to like, sleep in or anything. The the workout group I'm part of, it's a, it's a nationwide group and we don't meet till five thirty. So he would get, you know, a little bit of sleep, you know, and then can still enjoy the day, right?

Danielle: That's all this is all based off of you. Start work till eight.

Ari: So. Oh, man. Yeah. Well, awesome. Well, Danielle, this has been fantastic. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us and tell a story and hopefully inspire some people to, um, you know, get out of their comfort zone and try it. I think, you know, you hit the nail on the head of, um, just try it, you know, like, don't don't bite the whole was it bite off the whole thing, you know, do a little bit here and there. Um, you know, start small and grow yourself and grow your confidence and most importantly, have fun. Um, you know, I think I think that's the best part. I have a friend, same thing, who hasn't ran in fifteen, twenty years. And she, which I love, she messaged me out of nowhere, um, to tell me she's running a five K and, you know, wanted to see if I was going to do it with her. And first thing you know, she was like, you know, what's your advice? And the first thing that I could think of was, you know, have fun. Just just make it fun. Um, especially for us that aren't, well, I shouldn't say us myself. I don't want to include you, but us that aren't, uh, you know, superstar athletes or professionals. Um, you know, I think the best thing we can do for ourselves is not not struggle or not challenge ourselves too hard where we're we're frustrated that we didn't, you know, hit this arbitrary goal, um, and not have fun with with the process and with the the events.

Danielle: Yep. Each race is different and everybody's different. That's like another thing is don't focus. Like if you are influenced by somebody else, do not focus on their goals. Focus on your own. If you're not, if baptism, it's okay, you can get there. And if you don't ever get there and your pace is a thirteen minute pace, that's fine. As long as you're doing it, as long as you're doing it.

Ari: Exactly. I, I, I the light bulb switch for me was I was chasing um under two hour half marathon for, for a couple years and I got very close. I got to two hundred and three, um, which is still fantastic. And of course, at the time I was pretty bummed about it and very distraught. And then I kind of had that light bulb moment of like, what does three minutes make? You know, what difference does that make? Um, I still did it. And, you know, kind of ever since then, it's been a much easier, much more enjoyable ride.

Danielle: Yep. And that's my focus. As long as I cross that finish line, I will be fine. I don't even care to pay attention to the clock. It's my first time. Maybe I'll enjoy it and eventually focus on time and PR and all the things. But right now I'm just doing it for fun.

Ari: Right, exactly. You. You hope you enjoy it so that you can do it again and get to a PR the next time or the next time.

Danielle: Never been to Vegas, so this will be a first too.

Ari: Yeah. So there you go. It's more of a you get a vacation and a and an event. Awesome. Well, Danielle, again, thank you so much for taking the time. I really have loved talking with you. And I think, like I said, I don't think there's a better person to to start the twenty twenty six year with and learning from you. And I hope nothing but the best at High rocks. I can't wait to to hear from it and follow you along. And you know, see how you do and see what else you conquer after that.

Danielle: Yes, definitely, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Ari: Of course. Um, do you want to just give, like, uh, any last minute plugs or shout outs or anything like that?

Danielle: Um, I just, you know, for, for me, the, the crazy thing is, is, um, I was driven by one, you know, one or two people that, um, I watched race, that I would never do it. And then they helped talk me into it. And so my sister in law, Ashley, she kind of just, like, showed me that I can do this. Um, the words were obviously a huge impact. Um, I do have another friend, Chelsea. She doesn't even know that she was a big impact on it when it came to me running with my daughter. She always runs with her daughter. Oh, it's all kind of just like allowing myself to slow down so that she can have her pace and she can enjoy it with me. Um, was a big thing, but yeah, again, my Instagram. I just want to make sure it's correct because I feel like I get it wrong. Yeah, so it's the healthy fit bomb. Times three. Give me a follow. All I do for there is posting all my my fitness journeys.

Ari: But yeah, well we definitely will make sure that's added in the in the linear notes and on the post. So everyone can definitely follow. And for everyone listening please. You know give Danielle follow give her a cheer on. Um, you know we're we're half a month out for Vegas, so we'll definitely be following you along and can't wait to hear how it went.

Danielle: Yep. And just go say hi to somebody and smile because you could make her whole day.

Ari: I love it. Thank you so much, Daniel. You have a you have a great rest of your day and enjoy the rest of the treadmill.

Danielle: All right. Well thank you. Have a good one.

Ari: Well, that is a wrap on another great call with a great person. Thank you to Danielle for her time today. Even on the treadmill. Um, you know, she kept things really interesting. And I loved just hearing her journey. Hope you guys got something out of it. Um, hope you guys got a little motivated. You know, if you're here listening and you've got kind of an idea or a challenge in your mind, you know, hopefully Danielle and I were the spark that says, you know, get up and go. Because whether you believe it or not, we believe in it and believe that you can get up and go, whatever that challenge may be. So it's a if it's a run, if it's a ruck, if it's a race, uh, you know, whatever it is. So we just hope that, you know, you, you have that confidence in yourself to, to get out and go. Um, and again, huge shout out to Danielle. I hope, um, you know, she does great at High Rocks in Vegas. Um, hope, you know, we get to see her again and learn from her. And, um, you know, again, thank you, everybody, for joining and taking the time out of your day to listen to us ramble and, uh, can't wait for you guys to come bac