The MidPacker pod is brought to you by FreeTrail with generous support from Vacation Races. 

Today on the pod Troy Meadows sits down with Jessica Grinspan. 

Jessica is a public health researcher, trail runner, and ultrarunner from Philadelphia, PA, with a passion for aligning running pursuits with social advocacy. She is also a vibrant member of the FreeTrail community and an active member of the mental health channel in the FreeTrail Pro Slack community.  

In today's episode, they discuss how Jessica got into the trails. A recent injury that will likely lead to surgery with an extended recovery process and how she will cope with having to let go of running for a few months in the healing process. They also discuss a few other topics outside of running, like the fact that she used to be a lead singer in a symphonic metal band and how she gives back to her community by volunteering in an a cappella group to sing oldies to seniors in nursing homes. 

We also dive into ways Jessicain has aligned her running goals around raising money for charity, including raising over $1,000 for front-line workers during the pandemic while running the Quarantine Backyard Ultra in 2020 and raising awareness to get people out to vote in the last election cycle when she set up and ran what she called Propel the Vote.

Jessica is also a member of Team "Jess Do It" and the Jess Backyard, a group of women named Jessica who met through running the Great Virtual Race in May 2020, where participants ran the equivalent distance of running across the state of Tennessee. 

We hope you enjoy our conversation with Jessica Grinspan.

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Jessica Grinspan

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