Inspiring story: from asthma sufferer to elite runner
01/09/23 • 56 min
Today’s guest is a lady who I came across in a Facebook group for marathon runners, and after reading some of her jaw dropping story I knew that she’d make a great guest for the podcast.
Rachel Kennedy is a runner, and just a few short years ago she was a complete beginner. In fact, she describes how she despised anything related to athletics - at school she was sick a lot with asthma, was - as she put it - the theatre nerd - and thought sports were a joke.
I’ve spoken to many people over the years who have been put off physical exercise during their school career so the story so far isn’t particularly unusual.
But then in 2018 she decided to try running and was delighted to eventually complete a run without having an asthma attack.
She stuck with it, started entering races, half marathons, then marathons, and made a few other changes to her lifestyle along the way.
Fast forward to today, and she’s running marathons in elite times, and is currently eyeing up the qualifying times required for selection by the US team for the next Olympic Games.
Her trajectory has been astonishing, and of course we get into some of the details of this in our conversation, but I was most interested in how she shifted her mindset - and even her identity - to shake off old stories and begin a brand new one.
I get the feeling that right now we’re parachuting into the middle of Rachel’s story: even since recording this at the end of 2022 she has been setting yet more personal best times and has been invited to join the elite field of a major event in the US.
There’s a huge amount of inspiration to be found in listening to Rachel share her story, but some practical tools as well. We all have our own stories and some of these may well be holding us back. We might not all be vying for a spot at the next Olympics, but some of these ideas may help us unlock a little more of our own potential.
Check out Rachel's Facebook profile to follow her incredible journey
********** NEW FOR 2023 **********
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Today’s guest is a lady who I came across in a Facebook group for marathon runners, and after reading some of her jaw dropping story I knew that she’d make a great guest for the podcast.
Rachel Kennedy is a runner, and just a few short years ago she was a complete beginner. In fact, she describes how she despised anything related to athletics - at school she was sick a lot with asthma, was - as she put it - the theatre nerd - and thought sports were a joke.
I’ve spoken to many people over the years who have been put off physical exercise during their school career so the story so far isn’t particularly unusual.
But then in 2018 she decided to try running and was delighted to eventually complete a run without having an asthma attack.
She stuck with it, started entering races, half marathons, then marathons, and made a few other changes to her lifestyle along the way.
Fast forward to today, and she’s running marathons in elite times, and is currently eyeing up the qualifying times required for selection by the US team for the next Olympic Games.
Her trajectory has been astonishing, and of course we get into some of the details of this in our conversation, but I was most interested in how she shifted her mindset - and even her identity - to shake off old stories and begin a brand new one.
I get the feeling that right now we’re parachuting into the middle of Rachel’s story: even since recording this at the end of 2022 she has been setting yet more personal best times and has been invited to join the elite field of a major event in the US.
There’s a huge amount of inspiration to be found in listening to Rachel share her story, but some practical tools as well. We all have our own stories and some of these may well be holding us back. We might not all be vying for a spot at the next Olympics, but some of these ideas may help us unlock a little more of our own potential.
Check out Rachel's Facebook profile to follow her incredible journey
********** NEW FOR 2023 **********
Join the weekly Boost Bulletin, exclusively for professionals working in high-pressure roles and receive a copy of '7 Quick Wins for Busy Professionals To Boost your Energy'
The short weekly email is delivered on a Saturday morning and contains an immediately applicable strategy, tool or resource, and takeaways from recent podcast episodes.
Sign up for free at https://bygeorgeanderson.com/bulletin
Previous Episode
Creating Sticky Habits with Dr Heather McKee
I’m joined today by leading lifestyle behaviour change specialist Dr Heather Mckee to talk about one of my favourite topics, habits.
Having studied health behaviour change psychology for 10 years, her mission is to offer a sustainable, evidence-based alternative to an industry saturated with quick fixes and health fads.
In today’s conversation among other things we talk about:
What is a habit?
Frequency of habits (including annually!)
Why we get distracted from our new habits
The link between goals, motivation and habits
Goal dilution, and how to avoid it
Values and identity in relation to habits
The role of curiosity and self-compassion in change
Creating systems for change
The role your environment plays in sustaining change
Skillpower over willpower
Building Bite-Sized habits
Heather referenced some a number of studies and resources during our conversation, and here are some direct links if you want to explore further:
Wendy Wood:
Podcast episode (https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ZUfGd8WLyzTvjligc4u3O?si=ViTIgRaASQqFtLKjdPATMg&dl_branch=1&nd=1)
Summary of key studies (https://behavioralpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/BSP_vol1is1_Wood.pdf)
Good Habits Bad Habits book (https://behavioralscientist.org/good-habits-bad-habits-a-conversation-with-wendy-wood/)
Katy Milkman’s book ‘How To Change’ (https://www.katymilkman.com/book)
Dr Heather McKee’s website (https://www.drheatherspeaks.com/) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/drheathermckee/)
********** NEW FOR 2023 **********
Join the weekly Boost Bulletin, exclusively for professionals working in high-pressure roles and receive a copy of '7 Quick Wins for Busy Professionals To Boost your Energy'
The short weekly email is delivered on a Saturday morning and contains an immediately applicable strategy, tool or resource, and takeaways from recent podcast episodes.
Sign up for free at https://bygeorgeanderson.com/bulletin
Next Episode
Hyrox: 'The fitness competition for everybody' with Greg Williams
Today’s guest is a friend of mine and fellow fitness enthusiast, Greg Williams, who has established himself as the go-to guy for everything and anything related to Hyrox - the emerging sport of fitness racing.
Greg is the man behind the RoxLyfe website and YouTube channel, and as well as sharing information on tips and techniques to train for and approach a Hyrox event he has interviewed some of the sports biggest stars.
I took part in my first Hyrox event in Birmingham in October 2022 with my training partner Martin Shipperley, and we were delighted to come 5th in our category and qualify for the world championships taking place later this year in Manchester, and used Greg's blog extensively as part of my preparation.
In our conversation today I ask him about some of the things he’s learned from talking to some of the elite competitors, as well as explaining what Hyrox and fitness racing is all about, why it’s suddenly exploded in popularity, and we even get into a discussion about Stoicism towards the end.
Maybe you’ll feel inspired after listening to today’s episode to get out there and 'get your Rox on' with your first Hyrox event, but even if this isn’t your thing there’s plenty of the good stuff in our conversation to give you a bit of a boost...
If you like this episode you’ll love
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