The Fate of Charity Running in a World Without Races: Susan Hurley - 2020-11-11

11/11/20 • 28 min

Run to the Top Podcast | The Ultimate Guide to Running

The Fate of Charity Running in a World Without Races: Susan Hurley

If you’ve run for charity, you’re probably wondering how charities have been doing this year with so few races being run. Or maybe you’re looking for inspiration and motivation during these uncertain times. If so, this week’s guest, Susan Hurley, may provide the answers you’re seeking.

A former New England Patriots cheerleader, Susan brings the high energy, creative mind, and fun approach required to motivate, inspire, and lead others to achieve personal goals through fitness and running, while also raising funds for small nonprofits through her organization CharityTeams.

CharityTeams helps nonprofits raise money for good causes through the use of running races and athletic events. Running for charity takes a lot more than just asking your friends and family for money. It takes a lot of organization, and Charity Teams helps take care of the details.

Susan shares how 2020 has impacted charity running and what she sees for the future, through virtual racing and beyond. She also talks about her app, Charge Running, which she’s developed over the last 3 years with a team in Chicago. Charge Running is a live virtual training and racing platform, which is especially relevant now when there are so few in-person races.

Susan started CharityTeams when she recognized the need small nonprofits had for support in valuable athletic fundraising opportunities, and she created a niche sports-related business around that. CharityTeams has blazed a trail for many nonprofits to grow and set the bar high in the athletic fundraising industry. Her teams are some of the most desired to run on. She is a certified RRCA professional running coach and fundraising expert.

Susan is a professional at developing team brands and understands what it takes to keep them succeeding. Her network in the industry is extensive and she has a strong ability to work with runners of all backgrounds in running and fundraising building lasting friendships in her groups and strong ambassadors for charities.

She is formerly a New England Patriots Cheerleader and continues to dispel the words of her mother, that "You can't be a cheerleader your whole life."

Susan's marathon personal best is 3:16 and she continues to run The Boston Marathon, NYC Marathon and Chicago Marathon each year, as well as many other races.

(Qualifying for NY and Chicago)

She has been running since she missed the bus in 2nd grade.

She has qualified and competed in the World Triathlon Championship in Hawaii.

She continues to run competitively while raising funds for various causes.

Susan completed the first ever 2017 Fenway Park Marathon and the first ever Gillette Stadium Marathon. She is a two time finisher of the Mt. Washington Road Race in 2018 and 2019.

She finished her first 50K at the Marine Corps Marathon weekend in 2021.

Susan also works on special projects such as the Bobbi Gibb sculpture project which will be unveiled in April of 2021. This beautiful statue named after the children's book, The Girl Who Ran, was sculpted by winner of the Boston Marathon and trailblazer for women’s running, Bobbi Gibb. It is of herself. In 1966, Gibb popped out from behind forsythia bushes in Hopkinton to become the first woman to run Boston.

After listening to Susan, maybe you’ll be inspired to run for a higher purpose!

Questions Susan is asked:

6:36 Your business, Charity Teams, has raised over $24 million for various non-profits. Can you tell us more about how Charity Teams works and how you started it?

7:39 Let’s say I am a charity and I want to raise money and I give you a phone call. What’s that conversation going to be like?

8:26 Charity Teams is like a one-stop shop then for fundraising?

8:57 Obviously 2020 has been strange for all of us, but especially in the running world with no races. What are charities doing?

9:48 Most runners, we race because we want to achieve a personal goal. What makes it different when you run for charity?

11:09 Let’s talk about the Boston Marathon for example. If you’re not fast enough to meet the qualifications, you can go ahead and sign up with a charity and run for charity. But there’s some big fundraising goals you have to meet which I think might be intimidating to some people, and maybe kind of stressful. So how do you encourage people when they’re facing some $5,000 goal or something like that? How do you encourage people because that seems a little scary to me?

12:41 Do you have anybody that you can think of in mind that is just a charity superstar? Any good stories that you can share with us?

14:23 Let’s talk about virtual racing. Virtual racing is here to stay I think for a while. I think it’s a challenge for some people because it’s not the same as in-person races...

The Fate of Charity Running in a World Without Races: Susan Hurley

She is formerly a New England Patriots Cheerleader and continues to dispel the words of her mother, that "You can't be a cheerleader your whole life."

Susan's marathon personal best is 3:16 and she continues to run The Boston Marathon, NYC Marathon and Chicago Marathon each year, as well as many other races.

(Qualifying for NY and Chicago)

She has been running since she missed the bus in 2nd grade.

She has qualified and competed in the World Triathlon Championship in Hawaii.

She continues to run competitively while raising funds for various causes.

Susan completed the first ever 2017 Fenway Park Marathon and the first ever Gillette Stadium Marathon. She is a two time finisher of the Mt. Washington Road Race in 2018 and 2019.

She finished her first 50K at the Marine Corps Marathon weekend in 2021.

After listening to Susan, maybe you’ll be inspired to run for a higher purpose!

Questions Susan is asked:

6:36 Your business, Charity Teams, has raised over $24 million for various non-profits. Can you tell us more about how Charity Teams works and how you started it?

7:39 Let’s say I am a charity and I want to raise money and I give you a phone call. What’s that conversation going to be like?

8:26 Charity Teams is like a one-stop shop then for fundraising?

8:57 Obviously 2020 has been strange for all of us, but especially in the running world with no races. What are charities doing?

9:48 Most runners, we race because we want to achieve a personal goal. What makes it different when you run for charity?

12:41 Do you have anybody that you can think of in mind that is just a charity superstar? Any good stories that you can share with us?

14:23 Let’s talk about virtual racing. Virtual racing is here to stay I think for a while. I think it’s a challenge for some people because it’s not the same as in-person races...

Previous Episode

Your Mind is an Opportunity: Building Mental Toughness with Dr. Lara Pence 2020-11-04

As a runner, you prioritize your physical training, but what are you doing for your mental health training? Dr. Lara Pence (aka Dr. L) is a clinical psychologist who has spent the last 15 years working with endurance athletes to help them shed unhealthy patterns of behavior and build mental strength using curiosity as a tool to become mentally resilient and adventurous. By training athletes to dive deeper into the why behind their goals, she also helps them boost their mental toughness by creating a values-driven way of being.

Dr. L shares a lot of great info with Coach Claire on how to build mental strength, including discussions on the relationship between athletes and food, changing our personal narratives about our performance as we age, setbacks, and motivation. Having a fit mind is at least as important as having a fit body, and this is an episode everyone can benefit from.

Dr. L is an East Coast native who did her post-doctoral fellowship in Dallas, TX. She has since built her own private practice, becoming one of the most sought-after therapists in Dallas. She moved to Colorado in 2019 to become the Chief Mind Doc for SPARTAN, the world’s top endurance company. She also hosted the Spartan Mind podcast and served as a consultant to the organization on various mindset-focused initiatives.

Dr. L is also a coach for The Unbeatable Mind, alongside Mark Divine, founder of SEAL FIT. She has been featured in various publications and media outlets such as Good Morning America, the BBC, Glamour, Vogue, WebMD, Psychology Today, and The Huffington Post.

Most recently, Dr. L has launched her own podcast called Curious Minds with Dr. L, and she has a new product called LIGHFBOX, a simple program designed to exercise your mind, spark curiosity, and boost your mental fitness.

Get ready to strengthen your mind and boost your mental fitness with Dr. L!

Questions Lara is asked:

6:17 You like to call yourself an "active therapist" and that's not just because you are also a runner. What do you mean by that?

7:39 Let’s talk about the people you do work with and your own running background. How do you specifically work with runners?

9:34 Eating disorders and running. Obviously, to be at the top of your game, you need to be light and lean. Thankfully some elite runners these days are talking more about how getting too lean is really causing huge problems, but there is a fine line between being at your highest performance and whether that’s actually healthy or not. So how do you kind of dig through that mess?

12:15 Let’s go into the performance side of what you do, mental strength training if you will. A lot of people, when runners or athletes get to a certain level, they realize that it’s not just all about physical training. The mental aspect is absolutely huge, if not more important than the physical training. Everybody wants to know: How do we get mentally tough?

14:47 You’re saying that we should just be curious about why a race or a workout didn’t go well. How do you incorporate curiosity in success and failure when it comes to athletes?

17:12 I would love to hear about how you practice incorporating curiosity. Say I’m a runner and I’m trying to go after this big goal and I’m just getting frustrated. How do I practice curiosity to improve my mental strength?

20:33 What happens when you peel back the onion and maybe there’s not such positive motivation down there?

23:45 Obviously 2020 has been a crazy year, but for runners specifically, all their races have been canceled pretty much. And so the carrot that everybody has, that’s evaporated, and so a lot of the clients that I coach have just been like, “You know what? There’s no race on the schedule. I don’t really feel like training anymore.” What advice do you give runners who are training without races?

29:23 I read on your blog that you wrote an article recently about overcoming setbacks. Obviously as people, but also as runners specifically, setbacks can happen all the time, whether it’s just a bad workout or a big race that you train for that didn’t go so well. I’d love to hear your ideas about overcoming setbacks.

33:28 How about successes? Some people, surprisingly, don’t handle success very well. What are your thoughts on that?

35:54 I'd love to get your thoughts on comparison and competition. Runners compete in races and we compete against ourselves. That can be great, but that can also be pretty tough, especially if you were let’s say a high school or college runner and you’re now in your 40s, 50s, and 60s, and you’re just not the same person that you used to be. I would love to get your opinion and thoughts about Masters runners and about how as we get older, we’re not as fast as we used to be, and how can we still celebrate what we can do?

40:16 I think honestly, the runners that have the healthier outlook as Masters are th...

Next Episode

How to Make Everything That's Hard About Running Easier: Brad Miles-11-18

How to Make Everything Hard About Running Easier: Brad Miles

Imagine being able to run and heal through an injury. Or imagine significantly increasing your weekly mileage while healthy, while also minimizing your chances for injury, increasing your speed, and improving your recovery. Wouldn’t that be great? Brad Miles, the founder of Lever Running says it’s not only possible, but scientifically proven.

Brad created his Lever system to deliver the benefits of body weight supported running in a convenient, portable package that costs a fraction of the AlterG. The what? The AlterG is basically a big, fancy, eye-poppingly expensive treadmill that takes some of your weight off as you run. It’s a bulky piece of equipment that NASA uses, not your local gym, and certainly not your average runner. And for years, it was the only player in the market for body weight supported running.

Enter Brad, who says that the Lever makes everything that’s hard about running easier. He shares use cases with Coach Claire about how injured athletes have benefitted from body weight supported running using his system, and also how healthy athletes have leveraged it to up their game. He describes the technical aspects of his system and how it works, and after hearing about it, you’ll probably find yourself visiting his website to check out the videos and see the Lever in action.

Please note: Lever Running is not a sponsor of the Run to the Top. This is not an infomercial, but we do talk about the product in great detail in order to introduce you to something that just might help you run faster and injury free.

Brad is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He started getting serious about running in high school where he helped his team win two State cross country titles, won an individual State cross country title, as well as the Footlocker Northeast Championship. He went on to run cross country and track for Baylor University and was named as Baylor's Cross Country Runner of the Decade.

Brad first experienced the benefits of body weight support first hand in college, and soon his business degree was put to good use. He and co-founder Ryan Ognibene started LEVER in 2019 after they recognized the overwhelming need for a mobile, athlete-friendly body weight support system to compete with the AlterG. The primary goal with LEVER was to take technology that was once reserved for the elites and make it available to everyone.

This episode is for everyone interested in breaking the injury cycle, cross training while running, or getting faster!

Questions Brad is asked:

7:22 You first experienced body weight supported running in college. Can you talk about that experience?

8:05 Were you injured when you first tried body weight supported running?

8:13 The AlterG is a pretty expensive piece of technology, is that right?

8:32 AlterG was basically the only game in town as far as taking gravity off your run, is that right?

8:52 From a physiological point of view, what does taking the weight off running actually do for you?

9:32 Because AlterG is such an expensive piece of equipment, not a lot of people have access to it, so I don’t think a ton of people besides the real running nerds know a whole lot about body weight supported running. So what made you decide to make a competitor?

10:37 Let’s talk a little bit about the Lever product. It’s basically an AlterG in a bag?

11:28 How much body weight can the Lever support?

11:35 Can you tell us a little bit more about what this is used for? Why would I want to have something like this?

13:32 In the use case you just described, you talked about a woman using your device to significantly increase her mileage. How was she able to do this safely?

14:28 Are you saying that anybody can use your product and basically double their mileage in a couple of months?

15:24 As a coach, I know that the best thing to do to become a better runner is to run, but there’s an upper limit to that. So basically, it sounds like using body weight support could be like cross training, the most specific cross training that you could possibly have. Would you agree with that?

16:10 Let’s go back to what Lever was originally designed for, which was injured runners. Do you have any stories that you could share about some of your clients?

17:56 Any surprising kind of uses that you’ve seen?

19:05 How do you use Lever for speed?

19:49 If the Lever makes it easier to run, isn’t it de-training by using it?

20:45 Let’s say you’re running whatever pace for your tempo run and your heart rate is X, you want to make sure your heart rate is still at X, but obviously that speed, that pace is going to be much faster with the weight taken off using Lever is what you’re saying?

21:59 Does your Lever pace translate to when you go outside? Do you run at the same pace or s...