Transcription
All of a sudden, I hear this voice and it says, "Hey, you're going the wrong way." Woody saved me from who knows how long I would have been running before I realized. I was just walking, eating snacks. We came into the 15 and 12 mile aid station together. So, we ran just under 10 miles together.
"What's your name?"
"Kira."
"Kira. Nice to meet you. My name's Woody."
"Woody."
"What time are you trying to get on the 50?"
"Uh, 10 hours or less."
"10 hours or less. All right. All right, and welcome back to the Price for Paradise. My name's Cresten Woods, aka Woody, and with me today, we have a special guest. I did not know her before this weekend, but I met her in the middle of our ultramarathon, Kira Sapach."
"Yes."
"Thanks for coming on the podcast."
"What's going on?"
"Thanks for having me here. I'm excited."
"Yes. Uh, so we're going to talk a little bit about our race story. We just came off the Vortex Ultra Marathon. And so she did the 50 mileer, though. She's a little more badass than I. I only did the 34. I actually did 36 cuz I ended up running two extra miles, bonus miles."
"I actually did 51."
"Yeah. See, exactly. Everyone on our course was getting lost and it was crazy. Um, but let's talk a little bit about our race story first, then we'll get um your background after that. But um first and foremost, I'm like six, seven miles in and I saw this girl running off path. She had taken a turn and I'm like, I don't think that's where we're supposed to go. And I turned right and I yelled. I yelled your way. I almost didn't yell. You know, I thought you were going the right way for a second. Maybe that's where the 50 miles are going."
"And so I yelled and..."
"Lo and behold, Kira."
"Yeah, exactly."
"Yeah. And so what was happening? So, I'm running and I see the most beautiful mountains. There's this like slick rock landscape and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, this is so amazing. We're running in my hometown where I live.' But I never get over the views. And I just thought, 'This is incredible.' And all of a sudden, I hear this voice and it says, 'Hey, you're going the wrong way.' I look, oh my gosh. I turn around. Lucky I was barely off the trail at all. And I went back and Woody saved me from who knows how long I would have been running before I realized."
"Yeah. I mean, you ran 51. Imagine how many you would have ran if you would..."
"Exactly."
"I was just walking, eating snacks, and then she catches up to me and then I'm like, 'Oh, snap. I got to start running cuz this girl, she was off track.' But I still need to go. Right. And so we start running together. We probably ran together for..."
"I don't know what, five to 10 miles."
"10 miles together. Yeah. We came into the 15 and a half mile aid station together. So, we ran just under 10 miles together."
"Yeah. No, it was it was super nice. Like, did you run those 10 miles with me?"
"So, I was like, Kira, uh, this is my race where I'm just like, I'm building up for Iron Man, you know, I'm going to go easy today. Normally, I'm throwing up and I'm blowing it out of the water. And she's like, 'I'm trying to blow it out of the water today.' And so..."
"Yeah."
"Yeah. Your goal was the PR. It was to push hard. And your goal was 10 hours at first."
"I had I had a 10-hour goal. That's what I wanted. My goal was to run under. In fact, I wanted something just under sub 10. I said just under 10. Um, I knew I was going to have to PR all day. In fact, based on my historic pace, I was basically going to have to PR all day. So, I went out of the gates strong and was really pushing right."
"And how'd it go?"
"The beginning. You PR, PR, PR, PR, PR, PR, PR."
"I PR'd all day."
"But still not enough to reach my goal. So, I was on track when I came into the 34 mile aid station. I PR'd my 34 mile time by around half an hour. I came in around, I think, like 7:20 and I was really on track. If I could just lock in. I still would have been a little over, but I was going to be happy with that if I could just lock in, you know, a three a three-hour for the last 16 miles, but I I lost it right at the end."
"And what was the big adversity going towards the finish? Um, what was that like thing that caught you?"
"So, I was even leaving the 34 mile aid station, I was running really strong. It starts with a downhill. You're taking off right on the same trails you started on in the beginning of the race. I'm flying down the hills. I'm probably running 9-minute miles on the downhills. We're doing really good. Um, we did on that loop end up getting lost. It was only about like a mile and a half, but we did run out of water. It kind of kind of demoralizing mentally me out of it. I really felt like, oh my gosh, I'm losing it now. Feel like I had to run about two miles without water."
"And they're telling you you're in second place, right?"
"Okay. Yeah. So, at that point, I know that I'm apparently in second place. And that was just crazy to begin with because entering this race, never did I really imagine I would podium. My goal was when I entered the race, my goal was finish. I then set a time goal of the sub 10 hours, but I never really thought about podiuming because you don't know who's gonna show up to the race."
"And how many people in the race even finished sub 10 hours?"
"Oh, well, I came eighth overall."
"Yeah. So, like maybe three."
"Yeah, maybe maybe three or four people actually finished in sub 10. Yeah. Which is crazy. And out of um you can check out of the past years, I'm the fourth fastest female to ever."
"Let's go."
"There we go. Yeah. Amazing."
"So, I finished in 11 hours 11 minutes, which I'm happy with that time."
"11-11. Nice. Nice. Make a wish."
"It was meant to be."
"Yeah. Very cool. And then the one other thing that Kira did out there when we were running is I I like turned to my left and I started taking a video of her and I'm like, 'Oh, what's your name? Nice to see you, Kira.' And then I was like I was running with her and I was like, 'Kira, what's your favorite race fuel?' And she turns to me and she goes, 'God.' And I was like, 'Uh just like that spine tingle thing that goes up your back and it's just like one of those like moments where she didn't even want to say it loud.'"
"I even actually it was more like..."
"She was like, 'God.'"
"Yeah. She like she like said it under her breath. She like did not want She saw me and she's like, 'Oh, this guy, he's not going to like be a part of this.'"
"I've known you for probably like 10 seconds. I don't know. It was like right away."
"Yeah, it was right away. We had known each other for a couple of minutes at most. And I was like..."
"And immediately I knew I was going to be friends with this person. And uh she didn't know I was like on this, you know, whole God journey. And I just brought the pastor on the podcast like three or four podcasts ago. And like so I was like somebody had I had run into the day before the race um they were just like how are you with God and how's all this and actually one of my old clients Sue shout out to Sue if she's listening and uh it was nice to see them and they're like God's got you on this one and I knew somebody was going to talk to me about it out there. There always is. I always meet God every time when I'm in my most adverse moments out there. But I do I I did have a feeling about it and you were that person. So, um, thanks for bringing that up. It honestly helps so late in the race when you're hurting and you're in pain and you remember that you're going to survive. God's got you and it's part of the plan, right? You know, and that like just get you start running again when you realize that."
"Yeah, that's that's so beautiful. I didn't. Yeah. You know, everyone has their own um journey. And before the week before the race, I really started feeling God's presence in my life. And I'd been kind of, I would just say, feeling it less. It's just interesting how sometimes you can just go through this like alone-ness, but I had been feeling quite alone. And for whatever reason, the week before the race, I just started feeling that God was going to carry me. And I was reading a prayer and um I think it's the 91st Psalm and it says that you will not strike your foot against a stone stone. God will lift you up in in his arms. And I was thinking about that the whole time and someone kept asking me actually someone was like, 'Oh, what are you going to do if you trip?'"
"I was like, 'God's got me. I already know this. God's going to lift me up. I'm not going to strike my foot against a stone.' Although I did I ended up stubbing my toe over and over, but as you do, of course, you have to on these races like once your legs start to get tired. Yeah. It's hard to pick them up. I get it."
"Yeah."
"And so the rest of the race uh went well. You ended up being in second place overall."
"So it of course went really went really well in the end. And yeah, the last I was still really pushing strong until the last six miles. And then around the final six, I just came down with the worst knee pain I've ever had. It was just on the outside of my knee, IT band area. And before that, I would say I was running pain-free. I had muscle pain, but I put it in a different category of pain. It's like muscle pain, you know, even muscle cramps or kind of this like different kind of pain. And then I got this pain in my left knee that just felt like..."
"Kind of searing."
"The kind where you just go, 'Something's not right.' And at this point, you're six miles out from finishing. And you're six miles..."
"There's no not finishing. Yeah."
"Well, you're six miles in the middle of nowhere. The the closest way to get back is the way we were getting back."
"Yeah. You're..."
"There was no choice. So, um I had a pacer which was amazing. Shout out to my friend Cody who seriously was really helping me the whole way. Um I picked him up at mile 34 and that was just such a blessing. I knew those last 16 miles were going to be hard. Um it's the furthest I've ever ran. I've only ran 34 miles before. So I was preparing to run an extra 16 miles. I asked him to pace me and I'm so grateful that I asked him to do that and that he did because I needed him."
"And he sounded like he was an amazing pacer. So, like..."
"Yes."
"Tell me a little bit about that strategy you were saying because I was I'm going to pace Hannah, you know, later in the year and I want to be like I want to do this strategy."
"So, he was incredible better than I could have ever I mean imagined. He's an ultrarunner, right? He's an ultrarunner and I'll say an incredible ultrarunner at that."
"He's an elite guy."
"Elite. He's run Cocodona 250. Oh yeah."
"He's won multiple 100-mile races. Mhm."
"His 100-mile finish time is 13 hours."
"What?"
"So, I I pick him up and um I'm just hoping we can run. I remember picking up and I said, 'Cody, just try to keep me like, you know, 12 to 14 minute miles.' Like, we're shuffling."
"Yeah."
"And as we're running, I mean, I'm like grunting every few steps. Like it my body is starting to really hurt. I'm making I'm like, 'Ugh.' Like every couple, you know, I'm just in pain. And he would just run in front of me, try to keep me at a pace that we were, he was kind of pulling me pace-wise, but if I was falling back, he would fall back."
"Yeah."
"And every few minutes, he would just look at me, he goes, 'I'm so proud of you.' Maybe, you know, five minutes would go by, I'd just hear him call out, 'You're doing great, Kira.'"
"Just a little hope."
"For four hours."
"Wow. We ran for 4 hours and for 4 hours he told me that I was doing amazing. That he was so proud of me. And when it got really bad and I could barely run anymore, he would go, 'Okay, Kira, I'm setting a timer. We're running for two minutes, walking a minute. You can do it.' And we would run for two minutes. We'd walk a minute. And then I wouldn't want to start running. He goes, 'And he'd go, 'Just this downhill. Just this downhill, Kira.' And we'd run just a downhill. And then we'd walk. And he'd go, 'Just this flat.' You would run just this flat. I mean, seriously..."
"Just moving the goalpost the entire time just so that you can get you there."
"Pulled along for 16 miles and it was yeah, one of the most amazing things I've ever got to experience. Um, being supported by another another person in your in your goals and endeavors and when you're really suffering because it was higher up on some of the bodily pain I've experienced where you start to wonder. I was kind of getting into, 'I really don't want to injure myself.' Like, you know, you don't want any lasting effects."
"Yeah. We do these things because they're fun. We do these things because they're healthy to build for and but by the end if you're hurt and you can't do more of your life, you can't do more. Exactly. So, and you can kind of let the fear creep in. I was like, 'Am I am I injuring my knee out here?' Um, but it it turns out it's fine. I actually I got a little bit of massage work immediately after and my I had immediate pain relief with..."
"Yeah. And it's probably because of dehydration and like, you know, one muscle's tight and then all of a sudden your gait's bad and that was one thing I didn't do as well as I would have liked to was nutrition. I really stopped wanting the tail end of my water and I refused it on the last two aid stations."
"Oh yeah. So, I did my gels, but I definitely didn't have enough electrolytes the last two. And that was just I told myself, 'Kira, you're not going to want it, but I'm you're going to do it.' And then the time came and I said, 'Plain water. No Tailwind.'"
"Yeah. I can't stomach any more sugar or salt."
"I told myself, 'You're not going to want it. You're just going to do it anyway.' I I said no. And I I took off from the last two aid stations with plain water, no electrolytes, which you know in retrospect I would do differently, but in the moment it is really hard. You just don't want it."
"You just don't want it. No, I also did the same thing in the last like the last two miles. You'd like know you could take another gel and it would help but at the same time I just I was done by then. I can see the finish line and I am like not going to eat another thing because I know I can go have a meal after this and like Yeah. So I get that towards the end but..."
"It will help your soreness for sure."
"100%. Yeah."
"But um anyways, so are there any future plans um going forward? So like what are you going to do next? And like is that..."
"Everybody wants to know everybody says what's next?"
"What do you do after you've done one?"
"Well, I will definitely be running another ultra. I have nothing planned right now, which feels amazing. Um, training for this race was a huge um endeavor, time commitment, life commitment."
"Life."
"And I trained for about six months and my peak training season was also peak busyness at the restaurant I work at. We were so busy for spring break. I was working six days a week at a restaurant. I'm also a personal trainer. I had a handful of clients in the mornings before I'd go to the restaurant and I was running 40 miles a week while maintaining a lifting schedule."
"To be fair, everyone who does all this stuff are already busy people. And it just it seems to be like that's kind of like the person that gets attracted by Ultra, which I thought at first I was like, 'Oh, these people have all the free time in the world to train.' Actually, these are the least free time people, you know, that are fitting it in."
"Yeah. Exactly."
"And so, and so it was amazing. I got it done. I actually had like the best social life I've ever had. Like everyone's like, 'I bet you didn't have a life.' No, I had the most life I've ever had. All the hikes, all the runs, all the lifts I got to do with people, all of the stuff. It was amazing."
"Brings community, not pushes it away."
"It does. It 100% is. You really find your community. I found the people that I'm most connected with in this period of my life, which has been so beautiful. Um, but I'm also really excited to take a little bit of an off-season for probably three months of not as intense training. Um, I'm going to look at some races. I'm thinking something in January or April. Um, maybe the race in Arches National Park or maybe the race in Zion. Um, so either a 34 or a 50-mile ultra. Um, but I haven't picked anything yet."
"And is ultra your sport from now on? Like, is like, is it going to be trail running? Is it going to be that? Because like other people are like different kinds of endurance athletes, right? Like some like road marathons. Is it ultra is your niche?"
"So, I've never ran a road marathon before. Um, I I had no niche until Ultra. I'm finding niche. Ultra was where I started. Um, Ultra was my first race I ever ran and I definitely loved it from the get-go. I thought it had great community and it was something that Yeah. I didn't feel like you were kind of like people looked at you like you weren't good enough at it. I think that was something like..."
"Anyone can do it but then could do it."
"It's also like takes such an effort."
"You finished and everybody my first ultra I ran at 34 miles. I finished in nine hours and everybody still clapped."
"Yeah."
"And that's still like, 'Oh my gosh.' Like, what? Like I didn't think I was good."
"People can't even imagine running 34 miles in one day. Are you serious? Like that's crazy. The perspective of people sometimes we're over here like, 'You run a 50-miler.'"
"So, I've never really had any other sports or niches. I used to rock climb a little bit. I played volleyball in high school, but I wasn't like that good or anything."
"You know the first person that ever ran the marathon died at the end, right?"
"I have heard that story."
"Yeah. Yeah. Like the guy that's like he ran to marathon in Greece and he died right at the end and that's 26 miles you did double..."
"I bet he didn't have the fuel but..."
"That's fair, that's fair, that's fair."
"Or the water, everything, or or the knowledge that people can. That's a huge thing to know that you can um and so yeah, I would say that ultra is my sport. I'm not very fast at short distances. Um, like the fastest mile I've ran in my whole life is like a 7:30. Like and that's like real high, high effort. So, I'm in short distances in 5k, I'm not that good but the longer the distance the better I've found I almost am um because I can maintain quite a bit longer um so I'm pretty excited about it."
"And she's pretty fast on the downhills. She calls herself a downhill specialist out there. She's like, 'You might not be able to keep up with me,' but she sprints off on the downhill."
"Wipe down corner immediately. Exactly."
"You got to hold back a little bit sometimes."
"Keep it keep it safe on the downhills cuz I do like to I will take advantage of the downhills. It is so much harder on my body to brace. So, I will almost just flow as much as I can and I can very quickly process my terrain and my footing. Um, but I will say it is high risk and you have to be confident."
"Yeah, you have to be confident going in and you have to attack it. You can't hesitate because if you do, that's when you misstep or that's when you just got to go in and accept it and go for it. Exactly."
"But it's the funnest part."
"It's the most fun part. And if you're able to use it to your advantage, Yeah. you absolutely should."
"Is there a dream race or is there something that like like piqued your interest like when you first got into it? Like why did you want to even start up?"
"Yeah. How did how did it even start? Right. So, um, I went for a hike with a friend of mine November of 2024. We hiked a mountain in Sedona called Wilson Mountain. It's maybe the quote hardest hike you can do in Sedona. It's 10 miles round trip, huge elevation gain, um, tall tallest mountain."
"And we do this hike. I was tired, sore, in pain. And he just like makes this comment. I knew he was a runner, but he goes, 'Yeah, like I ran up this the other day and I ran up it in like half the time it took us to hike it or something like round trip.' I was like, 'What? You what?' And he goes, 'I'm running a 50-mile race in April and I didn't know people ran 50.'"
"You didn't even know that was even a thing."
"Never heard of it before."
"What? People run past marathon distance?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. So he tells me like, 'Yeah, he's training for this race and I was going through a pretty hard time in my life.' And he goes, 'Yeah, like when I went through the hardest time in my life, running really helped.' Like, 'Have you ever tried running?'"
"Every time."
"Well, I was like, 'Oh, I mean, yeah, I've ran in my life like a couple times, but hated it, of course.' You know, like, 'Yeah, no, I've never ran. Who likes to run?' is what I thought. Right?"
"You know."
"Um, well, the next day I went for my first run. So, November, like it was November 17th, 2024, and I went for my first run the day after um that hike. And he kind of put it into just my realm of, hey, that's a thing. And my my first goal was I want to run a 10K. So, I decided I was going to run a 10K by the end of the year. So I had, you know, a month and a half. I was like, 'Here, you can you can do it.' So, at first, you know, I started with a mile and then a mile and a half, two miles. And I would still run-walk in the beginning. And then I remember the day I ran my first four miles and I had I mean, I'd never ran four miles in my life. I did run a 5K once when I was like a freshman in high school or something. So, the furthest I'd ever ran was that 5K, you know, three miles. So, I remember my first four miles, I was like, 'Oh my god, I ran four miles.' And remember thinking, 'I can run four miles. Like, what else can I do?'"
"And then I just ran further. And then somewhere in that December, I ended up running my first my first 10K ever. Um, it's like I ran six miles and I wasn't even that tired that day. I thought I could do 10."
"Yep. So the week later 10. After I did 10, I thought, 'Oh my gosh, but I could do.' And it was like that over and over and it was I think when I ran my 10 miles was the day I decided to sign up for the ultra. I thought I ran 10. I remember running that..."
"I ran 10 miles for the first time ultra marathon..."
"First time and I thought, 'I'm not, I almost thought I think I could do it today. I think I could run 30 miles today.' Like that 10. I remember thinking I could that like I'm like, what? And it just felt so expansive from the way that I had been living and the way that I had been feeling. It was like, 'Oh my gosh, all these doors opened up.'"
"All the doors opened up. It wasn't just running. It was it was everything. It was outside of running."
"True. And like also like there's the other thing about running that like it increases your like bandwidth for life where like you have energy to do other stuff. You can go out with your friends. You can do this cuz guess what? One thing, one activity doesn't tire you out, right?"
"100%."
"Yeah. So, I just had this excitement and I signed up for the race and I definitely had moments of in the training where I was like, 'Oh, I don't know if I'm actually going to be able to do it,' but I stayed relatively consistent with my training um in that training block. The furthest I ran before the race was only 20 miles, though, so I'd never even run a marathon. I went for one 20-mile run."
"Before your ultra."
"Before my ultra. And then the day of the ultra, I was like, 'I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this,' but um that day, God carried me, too."
"Of course."
"Yeah, he really did. And I finished my first ultra. I ran 34 miles and it was just five months into running."
"Five months into running. Insanity. People spend their whole lives trying to get to marathon distance. You know that, right? Like..."
"So, sometimes like the perspective of us runners is I know, you know, but it's so cool and it's so cool to see like how much like I I just think so many people are leaving so much on the table um with their athletic ability like we can do so much more."
"We can do so much and me and you were talking about that in the race section we were running because we can do so much more than we're than we think we can. Like I remember thinking, 'Okay, if I could just run a 10K.' I mean that I just ran 51 miles last weekend, you know, and just within the last year and a half, I was attempting to run my first 10K. And it felt huge. It felt monumental. But as you grow, improve, and expand, the expansion is just ever ever more. And you realize that you're so capable and that I mean, I know that I'm nowhere near my peak fitness if I continue to train. Um, and that's just it feels like the world is open."
"I think that that it says a lot about the the human psychology part of it where you didn't really like even attempt any of those things until you believed you could because like as soon as you knew you could then it's like, 'Oh yeah, let me try it.' Like, you know, and uh but a lot of people I think they don't believe in themselves enough."
"Yeah. Like if you have this identity of like, 'Oh, I'm not the athlete in the family,' or you know, they have this identity. 'I'm not good at sports. I'm not good at this.' And then they like they don't believe they can run 50 miles. Like what? Like a year ago, you wouldn't even think that, right? Like and so that's that's crazy."
"Yeah. Well, a year ago I believed I could have ran 50 miles."
"Well, now because a year ago after my first ultra, I finished the race and I said, 'I could have ran 50 miles today.' And then I decided I was going to sign up for the 50-mile race next year. It was um and so yeah, I think a lot of people don't believe and I think a lot of it comes down to determination and how much you want it. So many people just quit when it gets hard. Mhm."
"And I had been a somewhat of I would say I wouldn't say like a quitter, but at the same time I had, you know, tried maybe running a couple times in college, ran a mile or two, and basically I just quit. And up until that point, I'd never never had the fire within me. I didn't have the determination that I had at that point to persevere when it was hard to show up continually because that's what it takes. I mean, it's you continually show up. You know, the Saturday race, the 50 miles is like, 'Whoa, you ran 50 miles.' I did, but that was just one that was one day. The amount of days that it took to get there."
"Yeah. All the unseen hours."
"Effort."
"And that's where really the determination is."
"Yeah. Uh, it takes a And it's funny, uh, you haven't been in the sport long enough to DNF very much. And our last guest, Deb, she was talking about DNFs and how much you learn from DNFing. Um, and I'm sure eventually you'll get there. Hope not soon. Hope not in your next one. But, uh, the the do not finishes are uh also eye-opening in a different way. Like the self-belief that you can once you already know you can do something, but then you fail it, right? And then you're like, 'Hey, all right.' Like, 'Now I got to learn how to do nutrition right. Now I have to learn how to train my miles right.' Because if you don't put in the miles in the groundwork, because it sounds like you did actually put in the miles in the groundwork where a lot of people are like, my friend Sam, he's been on the podcast before. He he likes to like wing Iron Mans and I he pays for it on the back end because like when you're in the middle of those races and you you know, you've put in your 40-mile weeks, you've put in long runs like Yeah. Then it carries you through the end too. But doing a 50-miler the day you've only trained for a 34 probably wouldn't have actually worked."
"Probably not. Exactly."
"But the fact that you believe that you could and it pulled you into that, that's amazing."
"Yeah."
"Yeah. And so, uh, talk to me a little bit about one not ultra, but like how does this affect how does ultramarathon affect your personal training and your like lifestyle outside of ultra?"
"Yeah. So, I would say the last six months training for an ultra kind of became my life. It was my lifestyle. You know, my schedule to do all these runs was just, you know, every Thursday was a long run. Every Saturday was a mid-run. Every Tuesday was a long run. My social life and everything revolved around it."
"Like, 'Hey, you guys want to go run with me?' Or like, 'Hey, this.'"
"Yeah. Exactly. And so it definitely affected a lot of what I was doing, my time, where my energy was going. Priorities, you know, shift and things that aren't a priority really drop away. I used to rock climb, rock climbed like once in the last six months because there is only so much time and energy and I just had to, yeah, hierarchically create my life. Um, and then in terms of personal training, I got to learn a lot about running."
"That is the cool part about the sport is you do get better at your job also."
"You really do. And I actually, one of my clients is running Cocodona 250 this year. No way."
"And she is an incredible ultra marathon runner. Um, shout out to Peggy Shouse. And yeah, she has run multiple 100-mile races, distances, and honestly, it was so interesting to train her for the last few months because practically she trained me."
"Yeah, she was teaching you all the stuff she knew."
"I trained her in some weightlifting specifics, but the entire time I'm picking her brain on ultra running. I'm picking her brain on her training plan. We're connecting over this over this sport, you know, while I've got her training her triceps for her pulls and different things, you know. Um, but it was um very cool to have her as a support and have her as one of my clients through this training block as well."
"Yeah. And do you still like are you still going to continue training her?"
"I have one more with her before she does Cocodona."
"That's amazing. Are you going to go see it or is that next week?"
"I'm volunteering at Cocodona actually. So I will be at the aid station at Muns Park which I'm excited for. So fun and they'll be right as people have had to climb up a huge hill. So, I'm really excited to see some of the racers and support them however I can on that journey."
"Shout out to all the people who do volunteer at these races as well. Sometimes you get free races and like, you know, stuff along that nature, but like these guys can't do it without you. So, like shout out to you for doing that. They needed a lot more people for this one. They still might. It's probably still accountable for Cocodona and it really is a part of the community aspect that I love about it. Um, it's supporting each other just like I had my friend Cody support me in that race. You and I had friends and family show up for me at my finish line and aid stations my whole race. It is so beautiful when you have that support and you really can go so much further with that momentum of it. So yeah, it's a part of the community. It's a part of the sport, especially in Ultra. It's not an individual thing as much as other um races in my opinion."
"Yeah. And uh there's always that that great quote, 'If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.' And it takes it takes a village like it and it takes a village in training. um all the people that go on runs with you, all the people who like build you up along the way and like tell you you're crazy for doing this feat and like, you know, you're like, 'Yeah, I love that when you tell me that.' So, you know, um but it is all of them uh that makes it get get you there."
"Absolutely."
"Right? Because it's not a solo sport as much as it feels like it is when you're at mile 30 by yourself."
"Yeah, it can. Absolutely."
"But you're not doing it for yourself. You're doing it for all the people that helped you along the way and you know what God so that they they can believe they can too. That's a big part."
"Agreed."
"Yeah. I just, you know, I didn't always believe in myself and I have had people believe in me more than I believed in myself. Um, the race that I ran, I actually had a sponsor for, which I never imagined. Like, it's just a whole whirlwind of me a sponsored athlete. There's no way. And it was um it wasn't a company, it was just a friend, a family friend who wanted to support my athletic endeavors and sponsor me financially for the race and everything. And um it's just amazing to have support and have someone believe in you. Cuz while he financially sponsored me, he really sponsored me in belief. 'I believe you can do this. I'm literally putting my money behind you. Invest in you.' And so that is just Yeah. Incredible to feel that support, that support, that love, right?"
"Yes. Oh my gosh. So amazing. And so tell me a little bit about how you train people and uh how many clients you got like what's uh what's your training like style like?"
"Yeah. Yeah. So, I just have a handful of clients right now and training style is pretty different for each client based on their needs and their goals. Um, but most of my clients, we just do um weightlifting, mobility, and then I have some calisthenics clients. Um, so that's one of my main focuses. So, I've seen the handstands on your pages and stuff like that. So, I don't have any active clients really working on handstands right now, but I have had a couple in the past who we've done handstand intensives or other calisthenics skills. I teach a weekly calisthenics like class and it's pretty all levels. So, we do just a lot of bodyweight movements. Um, I really love bodyweight movements. I think it is just amazing to be able to fluidly move your own body, your own body weight. Um, also great for longevity as well as sports like running. I mean, you're moving your whole body weight the entire time, getting comfortable in that. Um, being comfortable proprioceptively, the coordination aspect. Um, so training wise, yeah, I mean, my favorite arm exercises, pull-ups."
"Yeah."
"And push-ups."
"Yeah, I like it."
"So, that kind of stuff. Um, and handstands. I just love play and I think it makes it so much more fun um than just going to the gym and, you know, hammering out a couple bicep curls. I'd really rather swing around on the monkey bars and do a couple pull-ups."
"Yeah. And when girls do pull-ups, it's pretty badass. So, you know, as much as you're like, 'This is easy for me. I probably pull them up all the time,' but a lot of girls can't even do a pull-up."
"Most girls can't do pull-ups. And yeah, most girls can't move their own body weight in that way. And for me, it just feels really freeing and fun and it just is to be able to move my own body. I did grow up um as a dancer and so I feel like it has some of that like flow aspect where you can just yeah do handstands and flow and it has this um beauty to it and um like freedom of movement. It's just a different kind of movement. You're not stuck in one plane of motion. And so that's really my favorite and I do try to bring that in with all my clients. Um, then we just do specific training for whatever they're looking for. I'm the guy that's always walking around on his hands in the gym, too. So, I I love it. Yeah. And so..."
"We're gonna have to do a handstand competition after."
"Competition after. Oh, no. That's exactly where I was going next. So, don't worry. And you Yeah. And you know, you don't have a chance anyways. Um, but besides the point. Um, waiting in the car. Waiting for a ride. I see grows. Look at your hand. Besides the point. Um, so how long have you been training for? And, uh, is that like your passion? Is that what you want to continue to do?"
"Um, I've only been a personal trainer for about seven months, I'd say. So, super new. Um, and I would say my passion in general is health and fitness across um multiple spheres though. So I would say holistically mental health, um mental health and fitness, physical health and fitness and spiritual health. Um, so I would say holistically and across really all spheres is what I'm interested in. My bachelor's is in psychology. So, I originally went into mental health and thought I'd be a therapist. Now I'm a personal trainer. Um, so I like all aspects. Um, and so working towards something I would say that is really kind of more encompassing is what I would uh ideally like to do."
"Yeah. But uh I think that the foundational piece of like being a personal trainer is super strong in that you can help all the people with that one on the physical side now and then you can add that to whatever you know niche practice you want to go into."
"I like it. I like it. And then tell me a little bit about your favorite psychology concept since you're a psychologist."
"Have you been using them on me?"
"Psychology concepts. It could be the placebo effect."
"By far one of the best ones. Yeah."
"Like it's..."
"I don't care if it's working or not as long as it works for me."
"It's the most interesting. And when I was in university, we I remember one study very specifically that was a study on meniscus knee surgery. And the placebo effect was as good as knee surgery was for healing. And that kind of stuff really blows my mind in what we're capable of, how powerful our mind is, how much our mind is playing into our experience. Um, and even I notice it with things like I'm just very conscious of what I think because I believe we are subconsciously programming ourselves all the time. I try..."
"24/7. Every word you use is in your nervous system all the time. So, I'm very conscious with the words that I say in my head, with the words that I'm speaking into my body, over my body."
"I after I ran my race the over the weekend, I went to my gym and there is uh long retired long-distance runner at the gym. I told him I ran the race and he looks at me and he goes, 'That's amazing. Congratulations. Just don't do it again.' And he starts in with his hip replacement, his knee replacement. I put my hands in my ears. Get that away from me. I don't want to hear any of that."
"He walked away."
"Yeah."
"I will not let him program me like that."
"Yeah."
"Absolutely not. I won't bo I won't believe it. I think that we are so strong. I think that um yeah, I just I think that you need to be cautious with how powerful your mind is."
"I do believe though that as personal trainers, it's our responsibility to change a lot of people's mindsets on those things that are self-limiting themselves, right? And so when you do hear it, if you don't acknowledge it, that's problematic, right? Then it becomes like, you know, you let it slide. You let it slide."
"I've talked to this guy for like six months. Um, but and I will say too that we didn't have he didn't have the resources that we have now."
"Yeah."
"He wasn't I do injury prevention every single week on my knees. He wasn't doing that, you know, 40 years ago when he was running marathons. Didn't have the same knowledge base that we do have now. No runners were lifting back then."
"Now it's every runner lifts. Every runner does."
"We all take care of ourselves 10 times better than they used to. For sure."
"Different now than it used to be. So..."
"I completely agree with you and you're right. It is a is a much uh safer environment as an athlete. We do have all of the bells and whistles. We just have to use them, guys. And that's the other thing is we have like this social media world with all of like these doors that are open for us, but you can only have a few of your paradises and you have to sacrifice the other ones. So, you have to be really intentional with what you guys do out there, right?"
"Yeah, definitely."
"I do like the the psychology background. I think that does help a lot of, you know, your personal training um and helping."
"It's very intertwined."
"Yeah."
"100%. Like you said, the the mind, body, spirit."
like, but they're all they're all one in the same, two at the at the same time.
The mental capacity to get yourself to the gym, you're not getting to the gym in the first place. It actually starts up here.
Yeah. And having a good enough why. And then that why going back to your spirit and going, why, like, where, where deeply do you want to get out of bed and what drives you?
Yeah. How, how hard are you able to push? When, what are, what, and why are you going to give up or not? You know, who do you want to be? Are you deciding who you are, or are you just living passively? Are you in control of your life, or are you just letting life control you?
Yeah. I love it. Yeah. Um, but all right. So, you're going on this new adventure though, um, coming up soon.
Yeah, I'll be moving to Alaska soon.
So, she's moving to Alaska for how long?
Four months. Um, and why?
Because the opportunity presented itself and it was one I knew I should not miss.
100%. God put it in your lap for a reason.
That's precisely right. Yeah.
And, uh, while you're out there in Alaska, one, you're going to have to like, you know, find the best trails and like, you know, you know, see the scenery.
Bear spray.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. True. I didn't even think about that.
There are so many bears in Alaska. Everyone's like, "You're going to run in Alaska 'cause bears like a moving target." Oh, even better. Nice. I bet you PR all of your races from then on.
You know, like those people who put in like headphones to listen to scary music.
No scary music required. Just run in Alaska.
Yeah. Right. And but at least you're going in the summertime when it's probably manageable on the the heat and like the light.
Yeah. Yeah. There's sunlight almost all night, so it'll be interesting.
Yeah, that'll, yeah. Oh, is it the 24/7 sunlight? There's like two or three hours of darkness.
Yeah, that's wild. Um, so how are you going to do that? Blackout curtain everything.
Yeah. I'm a pretty easy sleeper. I'm not too worried.
Mhm.
Yeah.
And then, uh, but excited for this little like, you know, journey. Get out.
Yeah. So, I'm going to be doing something totally new and just in terms of where I am and stuff. Um, and new people, new opportunities. I'll probably be working a lot, which is why I think the four months that I'm there will be a little bit of an off-season. My plan is just to maintain fitness and hopefully do some speed work. I want to come back faster.
Faster. Faster. I am trying to get rid of the idea that I'm not fast. I don't know.
I got that.
That's your identity. It's so funny. I'll tell people like, "I'm not fast." "I'm not fast." And I think I picked up that idea when I was 15.
Well, technically you're fast on ultras.
I'm fast on ultras. So, so when I was in, um, when I was 15, I decided to do track and field for a year. And I'm pretty sure my coach basically told me I was slow. So, I When you first do track and field, they're like, they put you in all the events to see what you're good at.
Yeah.
Well, I was not, not good at any of the running events. So, I became like a pole vaulter and a triple jumper. I did like field sports. And I think that's where I got the idea, like, "I'm not good at running. I'm not fast." Because that was my testing ground for like, okay, like, should I try this track and field, this running thing? And then it was like, nope. And I think ever since then, I've just had this idea.
And then again, as the psychology major, you know, like how like childhood it like so much more influential and like that move, yeah. So I think that that probably, you're probably right on like what, where that came from.
Um, and also objectively, I know my times that I was running.
That's true.
Okay. I know. I know how I know what I placed in the sprints.
And to be fair, kids do develop quite differently, um, early on in life. So, you know,
I did not hit my growth spurt my year of track and field and I was definitely one of the slower ones as well. So, I feel you. I feel discus.
Absolutely.
Big discus guy.
Okay, cool. Yeah. No, it just, it didn't end up being my, my sport. And I was doing a lot of athletics that year. Um, I played volleyball at the same time as the track and field. So I would go and I would do track and field five days a week after school. We, we, it was like from 3:00 to 5:00, and then I played club volleyball, which was like the off-season of volleyball, and I'd go straight into the gymnasium for a two-hour volleyball practice twice a week after. So I was completely over-exercised, doing the most.
Now, being an ultramarathon runner, it kind of looks like it seems like it's fitting though. You know, it might have been fitting for your plan in the future, right?
It's true.
Well, Kira, this has been amazing. Thank you for coming on to the podcast, driving down from Sedona to come see me. But, uh, any last things you want to say, like, you know, on the podcast?
Yeah, I would say that if you're just starting to run, or if you're not even running right now, um, give it a shot. Or even if it's not running, whatever it is that you have out there that you're like, "Oh, I've always wanted to do this or maybe I'll try this." You might be really good at something you've never even tried. And you know, you're not going to be good the first day.
My first, no. Nobody is. And you won't know until you give it some time, some effort. Um, I went for my first run and I was running like a 14-minute mile, walking part of it. And if you told me a year and a half later, I'd be running for 51 miles, right? I probably wouldn't have believed you.
But and that's in a crazy that like that's so much of a build. That's insanity in my mind. I don't even know if that's like a believable build, but it happened and you did it. And so now it's possible. Now I can tell somebody that I know somebody that built that fast. Like it's not going to be like a 20-year process for you to get there. It could be one.
No, it could be a year and you're capable of so much more if you just actually put in consistent effort. And by consistent, I don't mean every single time. Consistent isn't showing up 10 out of 10 times. It's showing up nine out of 10 times. It's showing up eight out of 10 times. It's the majority. It's, it's eight out of 10 times for six months.
Yeah.
It's the compound effect of it over time.
And not 100% work out every time. Sometimes you don't even feel like going, but you make it.
It's just some consistency over time and you should just believe in yourself.
Yeah. Number one, you should just believe in yourself.
Well, thanks Kira. This has been amazing. And, uh, guys, thanks for listening. And Kira, can where can we find you on the socials?
Yeah. Okay. You can find me at Kira Sapach on Instagram and on Strava.
And, uh, what gym in Sedona if someone wants to stalk you?
I work at, I work at Snap Fitness.
Snap Fitness. All right, cool. Well, thanks again. And guys, we'll catch you guys next week on the Price for Paradise. My name's Woody and this is Kira.
Thank you.
And aloha.
Boom.
Good job.
Great job. 48 minutes just like that.
Oh my gosh. Perfect.