Episode #117 | Case Study | Running Through Pain, Setbacks, and Self-Doubt
Signing up for a marathon is one thing. Actually getting your body to cooperate for 26 miles is another. Leah Koschak and physical therapist Ben Torres join Mark to unpack a wild eight-month journey filled with hip pain, knee problems, a back injury, and a whole lot of determination. It's a conversation about resilience, managing setbacks, and why you don't have to solve the entire marathon today. Just figure out this week's problem.
About The Curious Builder
The host of the Curious Builder Posdast is Mark D. Williams, the founder of Mark D. Williams Custom Homes Inc. They are an award-winning Twin Cities-based home builder, creating quality custom homes and remodels — one-of-a-kind dream homes of all styles and scopes. Whether you’re looking to reimagine your current space or start fresh with a new construction, we build homes that reflect how you live your everyday life.
Support the Show:
-
Benjamin Torres 00:05
I am an orthopedic physical therapist. I work on shoulders, hips, low back, knee pain, and I specialize in runners and weightlifters. And so the first call was what I always do, which is just a discovery call on a screening of you know what's your background, what's your goal, what do you want to be able to do, and it was pretty quick when I realized, like, okay, Leah's got a lofty goal.
Mark D. Williams 00:31
Today, in the Curious Builder podcast, we have Leah Koschak who works behind the scenes on the Curious Builder, as well as Benjamin Torres with Virtual Health 360. And this is going to be a series episode. This will be kind of their teaser. Leah is a case study, basically battling a ton of injuries. Went from a 6k to a marathon, and Ben helped her through that entire time. We talk a lot about mindset and really how it relates to wherever you're at in your wellness journey. Without further ado, here is Leah and Ben. Welcome to the Curious Builder Podcast. I'm Mark Williams, the host. Today we have a very special episode for you. I've got Leah Koschak on studio here. She has been with us for four years. Leah, without Leah, the Curious Builder would not be a viable product, and it's taken me four years to get her in studio. So, Leah, yes, it
Speaker 2 01:15
has. Thanks for coming
Mark D. Williams 01:16
in. Thank
Speaker 2 01:16
you for having me.
Mark D. Williams 01:17
And we've got out North Carolina. We've got Benjamin Torres with Virtual Health 360, and the reason I wanted to have this episode is in our building company. You've heard us talk a lot about Misahoos around wellness. We have Curious Builder Bootcamp, Curious Builder Sona Camp, and it's a massive market. And I'm really good friends with Mike Weaver, who's was a big part of Misahoos with Emzer Tile, big part of boot camp, big part of Sonic Camp, and he's one of the co-owners with you, Ben, at Virtual Health 360. And you guys came on my radar about a year ago because Mike was talking about it all the time, and I felt like there were going to use Leah as a case study. And so to not lose the audience, this will probably be a 20-minute episode. Leah, spoiler alert, ran her first marathon, but seven months ago, had never run six kilometers before. Had a lot of underlying knee and and hip pain that Ben helped her through. And the reason I think it's going to relate to business owners in general, wellness enthusiasts, but also contractors in America. And there's 800,000 of them. Is we're going to do a future episode with Ben and Mike where we talk about why I feel like this is a very inexpensive insurance policy. That, like myself, I'll have this if I have people in the field doing work. You know, a guy falls on the roof or hurts himself lifting up, you know, some trusses or tweaks his back. Like I know this was how the product started, Ben, because you really are attacking youth sports. But I can't tell you how many contractors are dealing with ailments, and they either too stubborn to go to a doctor, or they go to 800 doctors, and it's really expensive both ways. And so, we're going to talk all about this. But I want the audience to kind of frame it up, like why are we having this episode? Because it's pretty outside our normal episode.
Speaker 1 02:58
Yeah, why is a doctor of physical therapy on here, you know, and and a member of your marketing team that's been around for a while talking about a marathon. That makes sense. Well, I appreciate the introduction, and in general, I just appreciate you guys having me on and allowing for us to share a little story. So I appreciate.
Mark D. Williams 03:12
Yeah. Well, before we we're going to go into Leah's story specifically on this episode. Like I said, for about 20 minutes, and then a future episode we'll dive more into Virtual Health 360. But give us the three minute elevator pitch of what virtual health 360 who they service, and I want to talk a little bit about that connect, and then we'll dive into Leah's story.
Speaker 1 03:28
That sounds great. Yeah, I'll give like a one minute background to myself too. People probably have no idea who I am. I'm a doctor of physical therapy. That's my focal point. I was in a traditional practice for about a year. Been practicing for about 11 years, and my first year, very quickly, I was like, "Wow, our healthcare system's got some flaws. I need to do something different than this." I just didn't see it until I was actually in it, and then I was like, "Oh my goodness, we we have to make a shift here." So I went into the cash pay space and practice very quickly after graduating, and I was able to help people a lot better. Where I was like, "Okay, one set price. Me and you agree on it. Whatever you need is what I'll deliver for you, and that became a much better way for me to practice. And it was pretty quickly after that that people outside my area reached out, and I was like, "Well, let me just get on a call with you." And thus, I became ironically the first ever virtual PT. I was one of the first ever virtual healthcare practitioners ever, which is crazy to think about. But it was 10 years ago, that I took my first virtual patient. So, going into COVID, I had this product and service that didn't really exist anywhere else. It just was this weird niche that I fell into, and then COVID hit, and everybody needed it. And so, I met with a gentleman named Jeff and a wonderful gentleman named mr. Michael Weaver. And Mike was basically Mike pitched me on VH360, and Mike was like, "That's funny." Even though
Mark D. Williams 04:46
you were doing it, he pitched you. Correct. I know he can sell. He can sell any. He can sell anything to anybody. But the best part is selling it to you when you already have it. That's amazing. I like that.
Speaker 1 04:56
No, we talk about it all the time because it's a funny story, and I'm. Bore you guys with all the details, but at the end of the day, I walked out of there and I was like, "Yeah, I guess that is a great idea," you know. And he basically said, "Let's duplicate you and let's create a system that allows for people that maybe don't want to go through the hardships around hardships of entrepreneurship as a physical therapist. Let's help them and let's give them the tools and the resources and the guidelines and the mentorship to be able to build a virtual practice for themselves, and so I loved it, of course. And so we birthed this company, Virtual 360. To date, we're just under 700 total practices that we've been able to stand up off the ground, which is pretty cool to say. And now we got tons of tools and resources and mentorships and communities, and we have a whole application that allows for patients to be seen, and now the VH360 Connect, which is a marketplace. So, it's been a wild ride, but that's a little bit about us and and who we are as an organization.
Mark D. Williams 05:50
Well, perfect. Well, we'll save more of that for the future episode. That sounds good. Let's go to the origin. So, Leah, you signed up for a 6k.
Leah Koschak 05:59
That was last year. Yes. Yes. Yeah.
Mark D. Williams 06:01
And what at what point did you realize because you don't have a running background?
Speaker 2 06:04
I did in high school. You didn't high school. So like almost 20 years ago. Yep. And
Mark D. Williams 06:09
what was it about the 6k? You know, the 5k fun run or whatever it might be that all of a sudden you're like, I want to sign up for a marathon.
Speaker 2 06:15
I think they made it sound easy. It was like, oh, this is just for fun. You don't have to be a runner. And so then I actually had intended on just walking it the whole time. So my training, quote unquote, for that 6k was literally just walking on the treadmill, just getting the miles in that way. And then the day of the 6k, I'm like, I'm just gonna run it. Which honestly, in hindsight, it was a bad idea because I couldn't walk down the stairs for like four days after that. So
Mark D. Williams 06:40
I I love the can do attitude though, Ben. Yes, this this part makes me super happy. Okay, so so after that great experience, what made you say I'm going to sign up for a marathon?
Speaker 2 06:50
So the same organization that came to my church was talking about the marathon, and I'm like, well, you know, I did a 6K last year. I had been intending on getting back into working out, and again, their message was anyone can do it, and they had a video of like all these different people, ages, sizes, running the marathon. I'm like, she's talking literally directly to me, and I had to have something so big and so scary that I said yes to that would actually put me back in emotion because it had been, I don't know, 10 years since I was like consistently doing something, and I just needed that push. So
Mark D. Williams 07:23
dare we say it was your masogi?
Speaker 2 07:25
Yeah, I love it. I
Mark D. Williams 07:26
love it. I love it. So I can't remember. You would probably know at what point did I suggest we use you as a case study early on? You already signed up for the marathon. Yeah,
Speaker 2 07:34
I started training in February, and within three weeks, I started having foot pain, and I actually had gone to a physical therapist in person, and I was just racking up the bills. It was like $500 per visit, where I was like,
Speaker 1 07:49
"This is
Speaker 2 07:50
not sustainable. I can't keep doing this. My foot's just going to have to figure it out, right?" And so then I think I was just talking to you randomly, and then I started having some knee pain, and then you just like sent me a text message with both Ben and Mike, and you're like, by the way, this is what you're doing. I'm like, wait, hold on, I don't know who these people are, but sure.
Mark D. Williams 08:09
That's that does my everyone who knows me knows I forget everything, which is why I have to tell Leah what it is. I love that. Sounds very much like what I would do. Just complete no idea who Ben is, but Mike said Ben's the greatest, so like obviously he must be the greatest, and I can help you achieve your misogy. Great. So Ben, when you had your first call, walk us through your side of it. Leah is introduced to you. You know we're going to do a sponsorship at some point, so we're going to have this arrangement where we do some work for trade and kind of figure it out. I mean, this is no different than your normal patients, but I had this idea because I'm the one that pitched it to Mike that while you normally obviously are targeting you know youth athletics or you know obviously your your anyone can get injured. I was the one that told Mike, so I guess I get to sell Mike on this. I'm like, what about every single contractor in the United States that gets hurt and in you know he he shoots a nail into his finger and is like, I'm not going to the ER. I'm going to pull it out and they suffer, versus like basically just having an on-call person for a very inexpensive monthly total. Just be like, hey, do I need to go to the ER or not? Because that's really what people want to know. Like, is this life-threatening or is it not? And if it's how
Speaker 1 09:14
urgent is this? Yeah,
Mark D. Williams 09:15
and we're not doctors, so what? What do we know?
Speaker 1 09:18
Right on. Yeah, 100%. No, I was just about as blindsided as you, Mark. So the the text came in, and I mean that's Mike's style. He'll just be like, "Hey, this is you know this is so and so. You two need to link up." And I'm like, "What number is this?" You know. And so I just texted Liam. Was like, "Hey, I think we're supposed to do a call." I'm Ben, by the way. You know, I'm a doctor of physical therapy, and I kind of had to introduce myself to Leah because she was like, "What are we doing here?" So I think all of us were equally as as surprised by the scenario. But then on the first call, I was like, "Oh, this is perfectly up my alley." I am an orthopedic physical therapist. I work on shoulders, hips, low back, knee pain, and I specialize in runners and weightlifters and. In the last five years, it's leaned heavily runners, and so I was like, "Oh, yeah, this is right up my alley." Like Mike actually did a wonderful job too. Yeah, good job, Big Mark. Yeah. So the first call was was what I always do, which is just a discovery call on a screening of you know what's your background, what's your goal, what do you want to be able to do, and it was pretty quick that I realized like, okay, Leah's got a lofty goal, and has not necessarily put a whole lot into motion yet. Like this is pretty early in into the mix, so it was a it was a great goal though. And that's usually why people hire somebody like myself or anybody on the VH 360 team is because they want a specialist, they want somebody unique who goes above and beyond.
Mark D. Williams 10:38
So how walk us through that? So I think what's cool about this is you. I think you you laid it out for us. How many total visits did you have between May and the race? And I know right now she's in some recovery protocols that you've got going on. Yeah,
Speaker 1 10:50
yeah. I think was 16. Am I right? Okay. Is that how many it was?
Speaker 2 10:55
It was almost every week. So whatever that equates to.
Mark D. Williams 10:58
Okay. So once a week, kind of a check in. So you you I mean walk us through the short version. Basically, you you create a program based on what her weaknesses are, weekly check ins, and then it just progresses.
Speaker 1 11:10
Yes, first thing I want to do is like see how you move, right? And so I get I get a movement screening and I take this video. It's like three minutes. You could take it anywhere. You guys could stand up at the studio and do it right now, right? And you send it back to me, and I take a look at it, and I show you your imbalances. Here's where your hips are. Here's where your knees are. Here's if your feet pronate or collapse. And then I take a running video of a runners, a gait analysis. I say, just get on the treadmill. Don't worry about it. Run your regular pace. Don't even think too much. Put a video. Put a camera behind you and to the side, just a minute of each. And then I give the person a breakdown of what's going on with their gait. And let me tell you, we had to clean up Leah's gait for sure. There was definitely some serious things to clean up there, and that was also when I realized, like, oh, Leah is not a runner. Like she is running a marathon, but she is not a runner. And you were strong, and you had all sorts of good movement patterns. But I was like, oh boy, there are some hip things, some knee things, some ankle things. And then I later found out some low back things, you know. And so there was a lot of pieces of the puzzle we had to put together. This was not the story of the smooth, perfect VH360 experience. That's not what what we're telling today. It was it was a whole lot of challenges along the way, but probably nice for Leah to have maybe somebody who she can just tap into every time a new challenge. I think
Speaker 2 12:22
like the most telling thing is you would hold your breath when we would get on our weekly call just to like wait to hear what else was new in my body that week, and so that was just like a really funny thing for me to like have to approach you on the other end to be like, well, this happened on this run last weekend, but then I always felt really confident that you would then tweak the program and be able to help mitigate that new issue. So, so what I'm really
Mark D. Williams 12:48
impressed at. I mean, there's the I'd love to talk a little bit about the psychological side and from Leah's side because Leah presents herself as a very positive, and you are a beautiful, positive person. But you are also one of the toughest MFs I've ever met. But mainly, Ben, and you can attest to this because I was aware of all the pain you were in, not to Ben's level. Like things were not dialed in your favor, and you kept having all these hurdles, right? And every single time, you used the hurdle as a way to step up. And I think a lot of times people find obstacles and they quit. And I remember the first time we did sauna camp, Leah was very concerned about getting in the cold water. And I was like, Leah, I don't think you understand. You're a woman. You've had children. Like you were way tougher than every man at this camp. She stayed in thing for like 10 minutes. Everyone else is like doing multiple tests. And so like I knew she's tough as nails. And so plus she has the mindset, you know, to do it for her. So I loved your motivation. But walk me through from your point of Leah. I'm sure there was many times you were disappointed and disgruntled with your body. And what was it, either about Ben's review or Stepping Stones, that kind of made it so that wasn't overwhelming? Because I mean, you can do elite athletes or intro athletes, and you have to make it so that it's attainable. Otherwise, you lose them on day 1am I wrong, Ben? No, right on the money. Completely agree. So, what did he? What did they do that helped you help overcome some of those things?
Speaker 2 14:12
Well, I think for me personally, having such a long training timeline was on my side because I needed every single week because there are weeks that I had to take off. So at the beginning, I would say speaking to that, Ben was really good about like only really letting me see what was right in front of me and what I had to tackle that week because it is really overwhelming when you're looking at the treadmill. You're running three miles. You're like, well, how am I supposed to tack on 23 miles by the end of this, and so really, just like mindset-wise, Ben was really quick to like help me narrow in on the goal that week. I think towards the end of the training was when I really was leaning on him for mindset because I would get to the 14 mile or the 17 mile, and I was having so many issues. And I remember one of the weeks Ben was like, "Lia, what would happen if you couldn't run?" And I literally, I could cry right now, but I literally broke down in tears on video because I was like, "No, that is not, that's not, I'm not going to accept that." And so, just being able to lean on Ben for just like having him speak back to me of like we can do this, like we just need to fix this one problem, it's gonna be okay. So that was a huge need for me in that moment.
Speaker 1 15:32
Yeah, I remember that about three quarters of the way through, and I wasn't saying it to you out loud, but I had some very questionable thoughts in my head of whether or not you should run the marathon, because I mean, you ran into every roadblock. It was like your hip locked up, knee pain came out of nowhere, patellar tendinopathy issues. You blew out your back picking up a bag of soil, and and you had a disc-related injury in the back. Whole leg is is banged up, and you're like, I can't walk. I'm like, oh my god, we're like peak training right now. Like we, this is this is like the two weeks that you're supposed to run hardest right now, and I was like, okay, we got this. Back of my head, I was like, I'm so
Speaker 2 16:08
glad you kept that inside. And so it
Speaker 1 16:10
was about three quarters way through where I was like, Leah, like realistically, if you can't run this, where are we at? Where are you mentally at? And that's when you really showed your emotion, and I was like, no, no, no, we got to run this. And I was like, okay, this is a even if you leave with your hip as banged up as it was when you did leave, you know, I was like, we got to get it done. And so I didn't share it with you, but I was definitely nervous in the month leading up to whether or not you had the capacity. So yeah, agree, Mark. She is tough as nails. Just gridded it out to make it happen.
Mark D. Williams 16:42
Oh, 100%. She told me later when she was running the marathon, there was a guy that was trying to save the Boundary Waters, and he ran the marathon with a canoe. And he was in the paper; he got disqualified. He stashed a canoe at like 100 yards past the start line, and then I think he carried it all the way to like mile 26, and they had him disqualified. Anyway, at one point he was Lee Asam. She's like, "I am not losing to a guy who has a canoe," and it's like, "Hey, whatever motivation it takes, you take it down."
Speaker 1 17:11
Yeah, no, yeah, you got to be the guy holding the canoe. That's impossible.
Mark D. Williams 17:13
So, question for you, Ben. You know, you've seen a lot of people that you've helped. How would you? It's a big question. It's probably more philosophical, but I'm interested in the answer. Is like how much of it as a as a coach? I mean, literally a doctor as well. Leah's physical limitations and versus also like encouraging them from a mental point of view. How do you sort of like balance that? Because there's certain physical things that I would suspect. Correct me if I'm wrong. Like, because I don't know enough about the actual analysis, and not that we have to go there. But I mean, it might be years, or it sometimes they're lifelong things, right? Like, you know, if you have, I have a torn meniscus, and like it causes my foot to you know pronate just a little bit. Like that might never fix, and my body compensates in other ways, and so it just is what it is. When you look at someone, how do you sort of like? And Leah is with you for a longer period of time, so your relationship with Leah is probably a lot longer than it is with a lot of other clients. Sure, speak to that a little bit if you can.
Speaker 1 18:10
Luckily, inside this space, we see people for longer than you expect. 3.8 months is the average time frame that somebody sticks with us. I think it's just because it is transparent. It's like, hey, this is the one set price, and you basically get unlimited access to a doctor of physical therapy that specializes in this. So, if you want to stick around, you can. And so, a lot of people sign up and are like, I'll do a couple visits a month with you, and then they last a while. I think again, just because it's simple. So, we do have the benefit of a pretty good lifetime connection with these patients that last longer, also repeat patients are unbelievably common because they just come back and they're like, "Hey, I got a similar goal, but I'm dealing with the shoulder thing now." Or friends and family come back and, "Oh, I actually needed to get say yes to you again." You know, I have this thing. So, repeat customers are actually super common. So we get a lot of time with them, and feeling like you have to solve it on day one is what you don't need to do. You just need to figure out what the biggest buckets you have to fill up at First Star, and you have to understand what the person's goal is. Because some people are coming to us just like, "Yeah, my back really hurts. I want to be able to like walk around at work and not have it hurt so bad." That's a pretty easy fix. We can go through a couple of weeks and make that person feel good. Somebody coming in is like, "I'm ready to. I need to run. Be ready to run a marathon." And by the way, I don't run at all. Completely different bucket of demand. And this is the first thing we did is like, "This is the actual expectation of what you're going to have to do. Like, I need to hear from you every week, and we need to set up a running plan right away. And we're going to need to follow up for months. Are you willing to do this? And so, understanding the expectations from somebody ultimately is is the goal. And in many cases, you're not trying to fix it; you're trying to manage it.
Mark D. Williams 19:54
This episode is brought to you by Pella Windows and Doors. I've used Pella for 21 years as the exclusive. Window company on every one of my builds. When people ask me who I trust for windows and doors, it's Pella. Every time, their craftsmanship, their innovation, the top-tier service make them a no-brainer for any custom home builder or designer who demand the best. Whether you're designing something bold or building something with timeless elegance, Pella has you covered. They're also the only window company that has a lifetime warranty on all of their windows. I've gotten to know all their people at Pella Corporate as well as locally here at Pella Northland. I'm proud to call them our partners and our friends. Visit pella.com to learn more and connect with your local reps today. For more information, you can also listen to episode one, where I interview the Pella Northland founders, as well as episode 109, where we talk all about their latest innovation with the Steady Set window. You had mentioned, you know, in our next episode about the Connect, which is the marketplace. You're going to have a dietitian and coaches and other things. Obviously, they come to you. Maybe it's an emergent, like, "Hey, do I go to the ER? Do I not? A shoulder? I, you know, I hurt my shoulder swinging a hammer, or I guess throughout my back lifting a bag of soil, or whatever it might be. Right on. And it's funny you say that. Like I'm a lifelong athlete. I think what my one of my biggest weird injuries, buckling my seatbelt when my baby when I had babies, they were in the car seat behind me, and you just twist at a really unnatural angle. And I also was not warmed up. Right, it was like morning, taking him to daycare or something. And I did something. I'm like, what the bleep? I I clean, you know. I'm like, I'm squatting and deadlifting and running and all this stuff. And I heard it buckling my seat belt. Like, what is happening? Anyway, just so weird. That tracks, and that's how
Speaker 1 21:37
a lot of injuries occur, right? And then they're not injuries that you're actually looking to fix. It's injuries that you're just looking to reduce the painful stimulus for the person to become functional again. It's not like when I see somebody for a meniscus injury that I'm like, here's a stretch that fixes your meniscus. No, no, no. It's how do we deload the knee but still create a functional movement for this person? And so if we think about the workforce injuries, which are really common, it's usually low back, it's usually shoulder, it's usually knee, occasionally plantar fasciitis for prolonged standards. But it's not about like, oh, I'm gonna get rid of the arthritis in your low back. Oh, here's the movement that reconnects your rotator cuff. No, that sucker's gone, right? It's actually about how do we get the shoulder to be able to compensate to build enough strength and enough position that it's not rubbing and impinging on that painful area, so now you can function normal and you don't have pain on the day to day. Did you write the
Mark D. Williams 22:30
running schedule, or did Leo? Did you have your own running schedule? Leah,
Speaker 1 22:33
I think actually had AI come in and build one, and then we rebuilt it from that. If I remember correctly,
Speaker 2 22:39
yeah, we did AI and Runna, so I had both because obviously Runna was like when I first started the marathon plan in their thing, they're like, "Well, can you run a five five mile without stopping?" I'm like, "No," so I had to like have AI help me. But then obviously you helped tweak where I should be according to like the injuries I was dealing with. So
Mark D. Williams 23:00
from you know, just to respect the time for both of you too, because I could talk to you guys for an hour about this pretty easy. How we haven't got to the race yet. One last thing in training: at what point did you ever consider not fulfilling and and delaying the marathon to a later date to build up strength, or what was the hardest hurdle for you during this period of build up in therapy.
Speaker 2 23:22
There wasn't a time that I ever thought I would not finish. It was
Speaker 1 23:26
golly. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 23:27
Yeah, it was like I understood all of the hurdles I was facing. It wasn't an option. Like I said, I broke down in tears when he asked about it. I think the biggest setback though was the summer where I picked up the bag of soil. It was unexpected. It wasn't during training. It was literally I was just repotting some plants, and that was like the most pain I had. And it was like a long extended pain. So in my head, obviously every time I hit a new PR, I'd be like, "Oh my gosh, I did six miles. Great. Well, how am I going to add again 20 more miles to this, and so it was a constant like retraining my brain of like I got it like it's just a little bit at a time. It's all I need to focus on, and then it just keeps building on that. So again, there was never a time I was like I'm not going to do this. I knew I would do it if I had to walk.
Mark D. Williams 24:14
As you got to the marathon itself, how would you equate the experience of the marathon versus training for the marathon.
Speaker 2 24:22
Oh, that's a great question. I actually surprised myself because training for the marathon, I gave myself all the oh, I need to walk because I'm tired or I'm out of breath. I actually didn't need to do it as much on train on the actual marathon day because I think the adrenaline of the crowd, the obviously the spectators, I actually hit so many PRs on my marathon day because of that, and I don't know the exact numbers. I don't have it in front of me, but there was a lot of them, and so I really surprised myself by showing up, and had a big injury on my marathon day as well. My hip was having a big issue at mile 10, so. To basically, I don't know, grin and bear it through 16 miles, and I still hit PRs. So I was really proud of myself.
Mark D. Williams 25:06
That's amazing, Ben. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's actually fairly common when you do the training. I'm not going to say the race is easy because it's never easy. But when you put in that much effort, it's kind of like the the race is really the results of your effort. I had a guy that I train with, and I asked him how his marathon went, and or about another guy that we run with, and he said he got the race he trained for, which was which is which is a baller comment. Now the guy ran the guy is this guy's a lifelong runner. That's not the point, but the point was is like he trained like two to three days a week. He obviously didn't PR. He's in his 60s, I mean, phenomenal runner. Kudos to him, but that wasn't the point. The point was, is like he was not expected to do something crazy good because he got the race he trained for. But I also think the inverse is true: that when you do the training, you got the race you plan for, and it's all every race is different, regardless of what you're racing. And I think that's true of life. It's building business. It's that's what I love personally. That's what I love about running because I feel like it's so analogous to life. I feel like you could switch out any word, and it's like a philosophical chapter of Aesop's fables happening.
Speaker 1 26:12
Yeah, I completely agree. It's it's ultimately what you put into it, exactly what you get out of it. It's not always that way in other forms of fitness. Running is like what you put into it is exactly what you're going to get out. Like the more time that you are on your feet and can tolerate it, like you have the the musculoskeletal structure to be able to tolerate it is ultimately what you're going to get in the end. And and so for her for Leah for you to ramp up as much as you did to be able to even complete a marathon is incredible, but PR everything, which was seven, it was seven PRs when you sent me that thing. I saw it seven PRs, and it's because you practiced in a capacity that was harder than what the actual day of was. And when you're running and training and prepping, much like running a business, you're always nervous of like, am I missing something? Am I not doing this, and like once it's game day, once it's run, once it's your toe in the line, it's like it's just all out. Listen, whatever I have, like I'm not worried about tomorrow. My hip hurts. Oh well. Well, and
Mark D. Williams 27:12
there there is something too about that energy. I mean, I've run, I've gotten mostly trail running because I like the wood side of it. Love it. But the the road running. This is only my third one in 13 years, and since my last one. But I was not that I wasn't unprepared for it. It was a happy surprise. The dopamine hit of 300,000 expected spectators. It was a beautiful day, 40s to 60s, and it was in through Minneapolis. And so everywhere you went, it was like a block party. It felt like a close. Other than the last three miles on that dumb hill up summit, that's where my personal race got into Hades level nine of pain. But that, but it was a, it was like a finish line. I had never, as someone who has full blown ADHD, I never listened to music until the last three miles because there was so many people watching, so much energy. You were so stimulated by the amount of people. I had never run in a race with that much energy. You could feel it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 28:09
So I actually was listening to an audio book, but I didn't have the noise canceling piece of it, so I could hear the audio book and I could hear the spectators. And I had my name on the bib, and so people would call out, "Yay, Leah! Go, Leah! You got this, and I'm like, that was adrenaline rush in itself. So if
Mark D. Williams 28:23
you're running a marathon,
Speaker 2 28:24
put your name on your bib. Did you did
Mark D. Williams 28:26
you have a little title on yours too?
Speaker 2 28:27
Yeah, so it just said Leah. Okay, and then my numbers. So I I highly recommend putting your name on it. That's
Mark D. Williams 28:33
funny. I put mine as joyful. I
Speaker 2 28:35
did see that. I mean, they're not going to call that. No, they're joyful. I had
Mark D. Williams 28:40
I had the best sign I saw. Then you're gonna love this. Was you know you see all these great race signs that like keep going or whatever. Like friends are temporary, Strava's forever. That kind of stuff. But they had a great one. Yeah, no, that was a good one. This one's my favorite. Give a give 100% unless that's your blood. I did see that one too. I I thought that was so funny. Yeah, that's good. There's some. There's. Did you see any good ones?
Speaker 2 29:02
Yes, some of them are not appropriate.
Mark D. Williams 29:04
Yeah, a lot of them are not appropriate, which is why they were so funny. Safe
Speaker 2 29:06
work.
Mark D. Williams 29:08
Um. Well, we could talk forever. I guess do one thing here. Now that the race is over, what is that protocol, and what is your involvement now in Leah's recovery? And I imagine a lot of it would be underlying strength. And what is your? Have you thought? Are you? I mean, it's only been two and a half weeks since the race. Have you even thought about what's next or what kind of? You get into that grind for nine months, and you kind of get addicted to the routine. And as your it doesn't your routine changes, have you thought about a what you're going to place it with, and b how are you working with Ben now in terms of you know whatever post race recovery work you're doing,
Speaker 2 29:42
yeah, great question. I knew going into this this would be a one and done for the marathon, but I love. I fell in love with running. I fell in love with it. I mean, I was a sprinter in school, so I had never been a long distance runner. I think it was like a week before the actual marathon. I signed up for Grandma's hat. So I do yes. So I do have another race in the future. I don't know how many months that what that is. I think it's in June. Eight months. Eight months. So it's about that same time. But I definitely am going into it with more of the mindset of strength training first because I think I needed to get the miles in right away. I didn't do as much strength training as I needed, and so obviously all of the things that Ben taught me, and I'm sure I'll have to renew with him at some point of just you know future injuries. But right now we're definitely trying to fix what I hurt on race day because obviously my hip and my knee are just in shambles right now, and so we're still working on what that looks like post race day, so
Mark D. Williams 30:41
yeah, well, super cool, Ben. Thanks for coming on, and thanks
Speaker 1 30:45
for having me.
Mark D. Williams 30:45
You know, for the audience, this was obviously a kind of more of a wellness-based one, and we'll have a whole blog that we publish basically about Leah's whole journey with Virtual Health 360. We'll be teasing some future episodes, as I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, about how this relates to, I think, honestly, anybody, but I think specifically I'm excited for just because most of our audiences in construction some way or another, whether it's architects, designers, but so many people when you talk to them, I think that's what I personally love. Is you know I used to coach for 10 years, and I think what I love the most is just I was really proud of you, Lee, and I know I sent you a number of texts of just like I think it's way cooler that you ran a marathon than I ran a marathon. It's like I think when you see people in your life that do something that takes exceptional commitment, I think that is the addiction quality, specifically of a marathon. And you're such a an amazing person to pick such a lofty goal. To and the reason I wanted your story so clearly is that I think it's even cooler that you did not have a history of running at all, and it was like you went from a 6k to a marathon in eight months, despite the numerous injuries you had. To me, it was all your mindset.
Speaker 2 31:55
It was for sure,
Mark D. Williams 31:56
and it just I know I think it's an encouraging story that I'm glad you shared it.
Speaker 2 31:59
Thank you, appreciate that.
Speaker 1 32:01
Agreed. I don't think many people could have done what you did, Leah. Thank you. Seriously, he's
Mark D. Williams 32:05
worked with a few people, so he would know. That's
Speaker 1 32:08
all I do. Very
Mark D. Williams 32:09
good. We'll have everything in the show notes. Thanks for everyone for listening. Mondays and Thursdays, new episodes coming out every week. Thanks for tuning in the Curious Builder podcast. Thanks for tuning in the Curious Builder podcast, if you like this episode, do us a favor: share it with three other business owners. The best way that we can spread what we're doing is by word of mouth, and with your help, we can continue to help other curious builders expand their business. Please share it with your friends, like and review online. And thanks again for tuning in.
This episode is sponsored by:
