Sole Sisters - Virtual Races (Interview w/Cora) - Full Transcript

Speaker	Dialogue
Kylie	I'm Kylie at the hub. I'm running with our new friend. Hi, I'm Flora. Hi, IRA. Hi. 2 Welcome to the pod. You're our second guest, which is very exciting. 3Unfortunately, I'm feeling under the weather, so Cora is currently running outside with Justine, and we're going to talk about virtual races. 4Before we get into that, though, Cora, give us a little bit about your running background. 5
Cora	This is going to be really hard to talk in run, but you guys can slow the pace. 6Yeah, I'm not trying to hit any PRS during the interviews. 7I've been doing fun runs for as long as I can remember. 8 I really got serious into fitness probably about ten years ago. I joined this gym called Orangetheory. 9Before then, I was in the army and I did whatever fitness I had to do to stay fit, but I never really stuck to anything. 10When I joined this gym, it was super fun because it's like a group fitness, high intensity fitness class. 11 The thing with them is that they do challenges. Three years ago, that's kind of when I got really into running. 12 They were doing this marathon challenge in August. I'm really competitive, and if it's something that I feel like I can have a chance in, it really motivates me. 13The challenge is to get a certain distance for the month of August. 14That's when I really get serious about running more than two and a half miles. 15

Local Races and Running for Exploration

Speaker	Dialogue
Cora	I moved to Reno three years ago. I think my first race was a Dirty Wookie race classic. 16
Justine	For those who want to know what the Dirty Wookie is, it's a local race that we have around Halloween time as close to Halloween weekend as we can get it. 17 The mascot of it is Chewbacca. I think it's based off a local brewery that we have here. 18There's a dirty Wookiee brew, but people kind of take the Chewbacca spirit of it and dress up in costume. 19
Cora	I know I went one year as Yoda. This was Princess Leia, so we went into Star Wars, but people just dressed up in general for that one. 20It would be really cool to run all the races and get to know the city and where I live. 21
Kylie	That is so smart. Actually, I never thought about that, but that is an excellent way to explore a new place you're going to. 22 So advice to anybody listening planning a move? Look at the local races and sign up for a few of them. 23
Cora	That kind of progressed to my first half marathon. Lake Tahoe... 24

Race Collecting and the "Half Marathon Fairy"

Speaker	Dialogue
Kylie	Are you the kind of person who always has a race coming up sort of situation? 25Or if one catches your eye, you'll sign up for just those ones? 26
Cora	I want to collect them all, all of the local races. 27 And so now it's like when I travel, I'm always looking for a race. Oh my gosh, that's so fun. 28
Kylie	Instead of getting like, a magnet or a mug as a souvenir, you collect race medals. 29
Cora	I've done that for a few of them already. I went to Chicago. It was for my sister's graduation. 30There was a race to Wrigley FK, and what was really cool about that is that you got to run the warm up track on the Wrigley Field, and you got to be. 31 Oh that's cool. Under the marquee, I'm going to Seattle at the end of this month for a half marathon. 32I convinced another person from work to do his first half marathon. 33And so oh my gosh, kind of like become this half marathon fairy with my friends, kind of encouraging them to sign up for race. 34 I'll train with you. It'd be so fun. 35

The Infamous Dirty Wookie Costume and Bandit Running

Speaker	Dialogue
Justine	You were talking about the Dirty Wookie. I heard a rumor that you did a fun costume thing. Yeah. 36
Cora	Halloween is my favorite holiday to celebrate. I always like to go all out and this year I really wanted to do a big group costume. 37I convinced all of these people come and do this group costume and sign up for the race. 38 And guess who forgot to register for the race? You? Me? Oh no. 39Did the classic mistake, I guess, of looking in my email and I filled last year's registration, of course. 40 Completely mortified. And so I had to do what they call like bandit running. 41You know, we didn't get medals or anything, which is fine, because I had this huge group costume of ten people. 42 I'm like, I can't not go. I was Mrs. Pac-Man. And then I had everyone else dress up as ghosts. 43And the fruit of the Pac-Man game... 44Everyone loved it. 45 And we had balloons as like the dots for Pac-Man. Oh my. We thought of it all. 46
Justine	Really thought of it all except for registering myself, which is hilarious. Yeah, except for maybe the most important part. 47

Virtual Run for Still I Run

Speaker	Dialogue
Justine	Firstly, I wanted to officially introduce our guest, Kora, who's putting on this epic virtual run the money is going to go to. 48 Still. I run an organization that she is passionate about. And without further ado, Cora, take it away. 49
Cora	So the reason we're doing this life of a runner girl five ten K is because of the nonprofit that's attached with this five K 10-K. 50Probably two months ago, I got an email from Altra, which is my favorite running shoe brand. 51Okay, I got an email from them saying that they were sponsoring with Jill. 52 I run for this mental Health Awareness day. Mental health awareness is really important to me as well. 53And when I signed up, I saw that you can do a team. 54That's how you and I met with Michaela Run Club. 55And I thought a lot of these people like me, so maybe like, they'll let me like, post this on social media. 56And that kind of honestly blew up and it became this big thing. 57I just ended up doing it. 58I think we had at least twenty people come out for that race. 59We were the top team donated for that program. 60And also I was the top individual donor of the program. 61We raised over seven hundred and fifty dollars. 62And that's when I really started looking into this. 63Still, I run nonprofit and for anything like me, I'm like, go balls to the wall as much as I can for anything I'm passionate about the only organization that is based on physical activity for mental health... 64
Kylie	What is a virtual run? When did it start? And everything is a bit dystopian virtual run? 65
Cora	Yeah, with a virtual run. I think they're trying to get people out there. 66I think it's really missing the community part of it that you get from these local runs. 67Yeah, for me, it's just like, let me see if some other people want to get together and do a run together. 68 This virtual run is inspired and based off of the Taylor Swift album life of a showgirl. Right. 69
Justine	Yeah, we both had purchased this without talking about it with each other. 70And then I think you messaged me, hey, I know you like Taylor Swift, do you want to do this virtual race? 71
Kylie	I'm like, oh my God, I already bought the shirt. 72
Justine	Yeah, because I wanted to surprise Kylie with it for an episode of our podcast. 73 Oh, is she not seen it yet? No. We're gonna reveal it to her. Oh, okay. 74
Cora	Okay, the run kit comes with a t shirt, a running bib and a running medal. 75 And of course, it's the teal and orange theme that. Oh, my gosh, it's gorgeous. 76
Justine	We have thirty five. That's crazy. Thirty five? Yeah. Wow. You really are a race coordinator. 77

Turkey-Shaped Route

Speaker	Dialogue
Justine	It would be cool if it could be, like, turkey shaped or something, I don't know. 78 And then Cora literally found a turkey. Not only did she find a turkey, she found a five K version, a ten K version, and then a ten miler version. 79
Cora	Literally you said like, oh, let's do a turkey. I'm like, this kind of looks like a turkey head. 80 That's hilarious. Now I'm running with the idea or the joke of, are we gonna go home with, like, a turkey neck, a turkey head or a turkey beak? 81Or like the whole turkey, because you can run like the middle part to be a five K, and I wanted it to be the start and finish for five k, then a 10-K, and then just continue it out if you want, because we'll help people that want to do more than just a 10-K. 82

Fundraising Tactics

Speaker	Dialogue
Kylie	With the virtual races, a big part of it is the fundraiser, and you were kind of talking about the efforts you put in. What other tactics would you suggest to help people fundraising if they're wanting to do something similar to you? 83
Cora	Put yourself out there and really be vulnerable in a way of like showing your passion for it. 84I was aggressive on social media, posting it every other day, every three days I was out there, I wanted to make sure people knew I'm doing this. 85I really leaned on my community. 86
Kylie	So that's great advice. Honestly, just sharing it multiple times with the way we use social media now, I don't think it registered in my brain that you were fundraising for your first virtual run until like the eighth time you posted it and I eventually donated to it. 87
Cora	I was like, I hope people don't think I'm annoying for this, but I'm like, whatever, this is good. 88

Running Scared Story: Hosting a 5K

Speaker	Dialogue
Justine	Do you have a running scared story that you want to share? 89
Cora	I don't think necessarily scared. 90 Um, in the sense of like really being frightened. But just going back to the mental health awareness race, I didn't know what the hell I was doing, right? 91 I was scared. Yeah. 92 I've never hosted a run. Like, what am I doing? That's crazy and that's scary. 93 As soon as we started running, it was fine. All my nerves went away. 94Part of the race, I blew up balloons. 95But I thought it would be really funny to have people collect the balloons along the route. 96 Oh, that's so good. By the way, someone stole one of the balloons and I was like, why would you do that? 97 And I put a note on each of the balloons. Event balloon, please don't take. Oh my gosh. 98 The idea was to see how many balloons you can get. Just kind of a fun factor. 99 People had a lot of fun with it. It's nerve wracking putting on a run for others. 100
Kylie	And now it's like if they don't have a good time, they'll probably never run again. 101 And it's all on me. And like, not just that, but you have like the balloon aspect too, which is so creative and fun. 102

Training for the Honolulu Marathon

Speaker	Dialogue
Kylie	And I wanted to ask if you had any fitness goals, or if there was any reason you wanted to start working with him. 103
Cora	My big goal this year is to run my first full marathon for like twenty twenty six for twenty twenty five. 104 What? Yeah, for this year. So actually it's happening in twenty nine days. Oh my God. Which one. 105 It's the it's the one in Honolulu. Whoa. Yeah. And everyone wish Cora luck. Yeah. 106 So I like to do a big goal every year. And last year was to run my first half. 107And now I've run mini halfs and it's no big deal for me. 108And so now this year, it was I want to run a full marathon. 109So of course I gave myself nearly three hundred and sixty five days to train for it. 110I love to travel and try to find a race, an excuse to travel. 111I've been working with him since June. 112What's really important to him is to make sure that you have a strong foundation and like your posterior chain, that's what they call it. 113And he's really been helping me ensure that I'm safe and I'm ready for this marathon. 114
Kylie	Yeah. The running community here in Reno is amazing. 115
Cora	I went to a few of them and for one reason or another, they just didn't vibe with me. 116I saw McElroy run club post on Facebook randomly. 117Then I just went to MRC by myself one day. 118That's kind of where the story started, and I'm so glad that I put myself out there and did that. 119 My friend Kat is coming with me. It's also going to be her first full marathon. 120 I also met Caitlyn at MRC. Caitlyn is also coming to Hawaii with me, and Fitz is also coming to Hawaii, so we're kind of God. 121So we're kind of having like a mini MRC Hawaii vacation with everybody coming and doing the marathon. 122And James, my husband, he's also coming and it's also his first. 123

Closing and Next Virtual Race

Speaker	Dialogue
Justine	Speaking of inspiring your friends to do hard things, Cora, I'm gonna have you open up one more package. 124 Kylie, I got you. Oh, you thought you were running one virtual race? Kylie, I got us two. 125 The tortured runners. Five-k. Oh my God! Runner department. That's so cool. I haven't even seen this. What is this? 126
Kylie	After two, five days, I'm definitely going to be tortured. I love them. What does it say? Torture department. 127 All is fair. In the love of running the tortured runners department. That's so cute. Such a cute shirt. 128 They also have their own fundraising. When you purchase the shirt, the money goes towards a fundraiser. That's so cute. 129
Justine	Justine, you're gonna have to be the next race coordinator. Oh, shoot. Oh, my gosh. 130We're gonna have two more virtual races happening in the Reno area. 131Of course, if you want to join along, you could just go to gone for a run com