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Michigan Runner Girl

The Michigan Runner Girl podcast is where you'll find a passion for running, hiking, paddling, and cycling crosses paths with a love of nature and outdoor exploration in the beautiful state of Michigan — and beyond. A mother, writer, gigantic Great Lakes fan, and book lover Heather Durocher, creator of the running and travel site MichiganRunnerGirl.com, hosts the show. Expect to hear informative, engaging, and inspiring conversations with others also on their own health and wellness journey. The Michigan Runner Girl podcast is about finding our way, through movement. Season One of 2022 now underway, with a theme of Reconnection.
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Now displaying: September, 2020
Sep 21, 2020

When it comes to trails, there's no place like Michigan. We are home to more than 13,000 miles of state-managed trails, plus thousands of miles of local, county, and federally managed trails and pathways. We all love exploring these trails, and over the next 8 days, a new event that's part of this year's Michigan Trails Week gives us more reasons to get outside and hit the trails.

Michigan Trails Week kicks off today, Sept. 20, and runs through Sept 27. New to trails week this year: the 2020 Michigan Trails Challenge, which invites trail veterans and newcomers alike to join the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance on a mission to collectively travel 100,000 miles. 

Michelle Coss, a runner and race director who works at the Michigan DNR, talks about the Challenge and its expected 5,000 participants. Whether you run, hike, ride, or paddle, the Challenge works like this:

-Register for the event (it's free to do so!) here.

-Self-report your treks on nonmotorized trails and earn badges (no limit) for different milestones. Badges enter you in a drawing for cool outdoor gear and Michigan branded prizes -- and help toward the event's 100,000-mile goal.

-Earn a badge when you log at least one mile, as well as every time you horseback ride for 5 miles; or walk, run, or hike for 5 miles; or bike for 10 miles; or paddle for 2 miles.

-Share your miles with the hashtag #everymilecounts

FIND HEATHER:

@michiganrunnergirl on Instagram

@michigan-runner-girl on Facebook

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If you enjoy what you’re hearing on the Michigan Runner Girl show, we’d be so, so grateful if you’d take a few moments to write a review on iTunes. This will help more runners and Michigan lovers like yourself find the podcasts. Thank you!! Also, the quickest way to get the podcasts is to subscribe to the show via iTunes or via Stitcher or your favorite podcast app. 

A special thanks to the talented Jonny Tornga for producing the show.

Sep 13, 2020

Getting outside, enjoying nature, breathing in the fresh air and exploring both familiar and new-to-us places in Michigan -- we’ve all realized just how important these activities are for our mental and physical well-being over the past several months. We see more people out and about walking, hiking, running, and biking in our neighborhoods and in our communities, and we’ve also seen lots of this as we’ve taken trips throughout the state with our family and friends, particular, you may have found, during trips to northern Michigan and in the upper peninsula. The U.P. has indeed witnessed a significant uptick in its visitors this summer, as more families venture across the Mighty Mac, sometimes for the first time ever, according to travel industry experts. 

Travel is transformative, and now more than ever is helping us cope with so much uncertainty in the world. Dave Lorenz, vice president of Travel Michigan at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, believes travel also has the power to connect us with one another in positive ways. “You look at all the disharmony in America right now. People distrusting each other because of politics or our skin color -- what I call stupid reasons to not trust each other or like each other. Travel is the biggest exporter and importer of peace the world has ever known. As much as I want people to stay in this state, spend their money here ... man, people need to travel around our country, because I’ll tell you, what I’ve learned is in my many, many travels around, mostly on behalf of Pure Michigan, we are the same. We all want a better life for children, for our grandchildren. And in many other ways, we are the same.”

“The travel industry, through immersion, teaches people because it’s deeply felt when you travel and when you meet different people -- that’s the biggest benefit of travel...and it’s going to be one of the most important things in the next several years.” 

Dave Lorenz, along with Maia Turek, resource development specialist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, join Heather to talk about exploring during the pandemic, how to do so safely during COVID, the enduring strength of the Pure Michigan campaign, the future of travel (in Michigan and outside of our state), and why both Maia and Dave believe this fall is going to be big for traveling in Michigan. 

Dave and Maia also talk about the Pure Michigan Pledge, the “Two Peninsulas, One Pure Michigan” message, and their ideal way to spend the day in Michigan.

FIND HEATHER:

@michiganrunnergirl on Instagram

@michigan-runner-girl on Facebook

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If you enjoy what you’re hearing on the Michigan Runner Girl show, we’d be so, so grateful if you’d take a few moments to write a review on iTunes. This will help more runners and Michigan lovers like yourself find the podcasts. Thank you!! Also, the quickest way to get the podcasts is to subscribe to the show via iTunes or via Stitcher or your favorite podcast app. 

A special thanks to the talented Jonny Tornga for producing the show.

Sep 2, 2020

“I’ve been running every morning at 6 a.m. and then walking every afternoon or night with my daughter. I’ve run more since we shut down on March 16 than any other time in my life, I think -- like 500+ miles. So you can tell how I’m coping.”

West Michigan runner Vicki Cavanaugh joins Heather to talk about life during these interesting times. Vicki, who is involved with Total Trek Quest (TTQ), a program that assists third-, fourth- and fifth-grade boys in learning to run a 5K in the 5-county area in and around Grand Rapids, Mich., last was on the MRG show in 2017. More than 4,800 boys and their families have taken part in this program, which held a summer session for the first time this year.

“TTQ is adapting, adjusting, and pivoting. We sent out an email-based program ‘TTQ@Home’ the week of March 23 to try and provide some fun and movement in those first few weeks and month. When it started to look like this wasn’t going away, we began to develop a virtual summer TTQ program—complete with GoPro-filmed tips, virtual parent support meetings, and activity meetups, a modified curriculum to get the whole family involved, moving, and learning new things—and then we’ve added in person meetups. And to finish the season—a virtual 5k called the Challenge, Inspire and Achieve 5K the weekend of August 15-16. This has not been easy—we’ve all learned so much about everything we took for granted.”

Vicki also shares what’s kept her going strong throughout the past few months, as well as her hopes for the program and for all of us as we move forward.

“Movement can help us cope, brings us together, and helps make us healthy so we can withstand what we are going through.”

FIND HEATHER:

@michiganrunnergirl on Instagram

@michigan-runner-girl on Facebook

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Total Trek Quest

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If you enjoy what you’re hearing on the Michigan Runner Girl show, we’d be so, so grateful if you’d take a few moments to write a review on iTunes. This will help more runners and Michigan lovers like yourself find the podcasts. Thank you!! Also, the quickest way to get the podcasts is to subscribe to the show via iTunes or via Stitcher or your favorite podcast app. 

A special thanks to the talented Jonny Tornga for producing the show.



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