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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: December, 2020
Dec 31, 2020

“My mind was just not in it for some reason, and I go through that a lot — my brain just doesn’t want to do it, even though my legs, and physically, I feel completely fine. Sometimes in your head, you don’t want to get out there for some reason. But I love what Des Linden always says. She says, keep showing up. And you know she’s also said before, the hardest part of a run is putting on your shoes and getting out the door. So I think about that a lot of times. I just force myself to get out there.

“In those times, it’s especially crucial to get out there and get the run in. Because the sport is so mental and I think we forget to exercise our brain and our minds ... we can get so stuck in the physical side of it and strengthening those muscles. But the brain is a muscle, too.” 

In this final episode of 2020, former collegiate runner, marathoner, and blogger Jackie Reneaud shares how her relationship with running has changed over the years, during her time running for Northwood University and also as an adult navigating a full-time job and moving back home during the pandemic. Jackie, 24, is from Goodrich, Mich. and grew up in a running family. (Her first race? The Crim Diaper Dash.) You may know Jackie from Instagram, where she is JackieRunsALatte.

FIND JACKIE:

@jackierunsalatte on Instagram

Jackie Runs 

FIND HEATHER:

@michiganrunnergirl on Instagram

@michigan-runner-girl on Facebook

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.

 

Dec 16, 2020

As local businesses in Michigan and across the U.S. continue to adjust and adapt to pandemic-related closures and pauses, and resulting in-store capacity restrictions, the holiday season marches on. Things just look decidedly different this year, to say the least, for shop owners and their customers. The great news: stores are getting very creative in how they’re connecting with their customers, and we shoppers are thankful for these efforts. (Still need a few gifts for the runners and active lifestyle friends and family in your life? We’ve got you covered with this episode.)

This special holiday episode is a live recording — with all safety precautions in place, of course, from social distancing to mask-wearing — at Running Fit in downtown Traverse City. Heather sat down with Running Fit managers Jennifer Teeples and Alison Goss Shaw and Jonny Tornga, assistant manager of downtown’s Lululemon pop-up shop, to talk about what it’s been like to operate a small business during COVID — including how stores have collaborated and helped one another out more than ever to get through these tough times. 

“Pretty much anybody who is in the athletic industry down here is in touch with each other,” Alison says. “That’s always been the case for downtown, here in Traverse City, but it’s even more so now,” adds Jonny. “The lines of communication are really open … All of the stores are coming together and trying to come up with unique solutions to the challenges we’re all facing.”

Jonny, Jen, and Alison also let us know about the latest and greatest athletic clothing and gear options, especially for winter running and other outdoor exploring. You’ll definitely get some great ideas for those last-minute gifts on your list — for your best running friend, or for you. We also talk about ways we’re all staying motivated to keep moving forward, during the pandemic and no matter the weather. A common theme: having friends to help you along your journey.

FIND RUNNING FIT - TRAVERSE CITY

@runningfit_tcdt/ on Instagram

@runningfitTC on Facebook

FIND LULULEMON - TRAVERSE CITY

Lululemon TC on Facebook 

FIND HEATHER:

@michiganrunnergirl on Instagram

@michigan-runner-girl on Facebook

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.

Dec 8, 2020

As of today, Dec. 8, 2020, the U.S. has a rate of close to 200,000 confirmed new infections of coronavirus per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control data center, which is updating daily. Cases in the last seven days alone top one million, and all told, more than 280,000 lives have been lost to COVID-19 in this country. 

We’re all experiencing the pandemic in our own individual ways, and in more recent time, as cases surge across the U.S., and Michigan this week enacted a 12-day extension of the statewide Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) epidemic order, the virus and its myriad impacts continue to find new and challenging ways — and in some cases, personal and devastating ways — of affecting us, as individuals, families, and communities. 

Here at MRG, we wanted to share heartfelt and honest stories of what it’s been like for two northern Michigan runners who recently received a COVID diagnosis. In this episode, we talk not only about what it was like to have COVID, but also what recovery looks like and how it can change our views of running, staying active, and staying connected (while being safe) with our family and friends.

Jonny Tornga, an ultrarunner and trail enthusiast, shares his experience of getting COVID in early November. Jonny, 33, who had been training for a 30ish-mile trail run at the time of his diagnosis, had many of the typical symptoms, including loss of taste and smell.

“It knocked me out pretty good. The road to recovery has been a long one. It’s not easy. I feel like I was in pretty good shape before getting it. I was feeling good. [After the diagnosis] it was amazing the lack of energy I didn’t have — and still don’t have. I feel like I’m lacking in that extra push. The mind is there, but the body doesn’t really want to follow just yet. It’s been a struggle, being that I am an active person. It’s frustrating for sure, to say the least.” 

Kristen Verrett, an avid runner and racer, also received a COVID diagnosis earlier this fall. The 46-year-old remembers going out for some morning miles the day she became sick. 

“I got up and had a really good run. I was feeling good. Later that evening, it hit me. I was tired, I had a fever. I was just exhausted.” 

Kristen didn’t lose her sense of taste or smell, but she did feel nauseous for about a week in addition to feeling run-down and extremely fatigued. At the same time, her husband Kyle got sick and received a COVID diagnosis. Thankfully, their two children — Kylanna, 13, and Keegan, 11 — were OK and did not feel ill. 

Getting back to a running routine has been tough, for both Kristen and Jonny.

“Just like having any injury, you have to listen to your body. One of my first runs after having COVID, my legs were feeling great, they were ready to move, but my body wasn’t. I ended up pulling a muscle in my back. I wasn’t listening to my body, I wish I would have.” 

MRG is grateful to Jonny and Kristen for being willing to share their stories. 

 

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