Inspired Soles

Got feedback about this episode? Send Carolyn a text

Omena Babalola is an accomplished 55-year old masters sprinter from Winnipeg MB and an absolute force to be reckoned with. Born in Nigeria to two high achieving parents, Omena came to Canada in her early 20s and spent time on Prince Edward Island before completing her MBA at St. Mary’s University in Halifax and following her man to Winnipeg. Omena currently works as a Professional Auditor at Manitoba Hydro and is the Vice President of Athletics Manitoba.

As for her start in athletics, Omena describes what it was like to “be so slow when her mom was so fast.” Despite coming dead last in her first foot race, Omena stuck with sprinting and chose to focus most of her energy on things that would give her the biggest return on investment. It turns out this is a valuable life skill off the track as well. 

After taking some time off while having her twins in 1997, Omena was re-inspired in her late 30’s by Saskatchewan-based sprinting legend Carol LaFayette-Boyd, who is over 25 years her senior. Carol gave Omena some positive words of encouragement about her potential, she decided to re-engage with competition and, as they say, the rest is history.

Omena still holds numerous university and provincial sprinting records and has medaled on national and international stages in the 200m as well as the 4x100m relay. In 2023, Omena was awarded female masters Athlete of the Year by Athletics Manitoba.

Connect with Omena:

• Instagram: @omenab7828
• Facebook: @omena.babs

Connect with Carolyn & Kim:

• Email us with guest ideas: [email protected]
• Inspired Soles Instagram
• Kim's Instagram
• Kim's Facebook
• Carolyn's Instagram
• Carolyn's Facebook
• Carolyn's website

You can help spread the running love! The best way to SUPPORT Inspired Soles is to share your favourite episode(s) with friends, subscribe, or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Connect on Instagram @inspiredsolescast or email guest ideas to [email protected]. 

Got feedback about this episode? Send Carolyn a text

Jean Fortier is the general director and founder of Québec Mega Trail. He joins us to talk about his running origins and dive deep into the past, present and future of this amazing event.

QMT is a legendary ultra-trail race, renowned as one of the most beautiful but also as one of the hardest in Canada. Crossing one of the most beautiful places in Québec, it takes runners all the way to Mont-Sainte-Anne, and more than 3,000 racers meet there every year. A place where high-level athletes come to compete, the organization also offers challenges for beginners with ten events ranging in distance from 1-160 km over four days. Founded in 2012 and now in its 12th year, the Québec Mega Trail actively promotes trail running while being a flagship race in terms of safety, sustainable development and constant innovations.

Since 2023, Québec Mega Trail has been part of the World Trail Majors and has been selected to host the 50 km and 80 km events of the 2025 and 2026 Canadian Mountain & Trail Running Championships.

In this episode we talk about:

• Jean’s own running experiences
• How QMT came to be
• The values that guide Jean’s decisions as a race director
• The highlights and the challenges the race has seen in the last 12 years
• How QMT has chosen to remain independent in the international racing landscape in becoming a founding member of the World Trail Majors, an international group which includes some of the most iconic trail running events in Asia, Europe, Africa and North America

Connect with QMT:

• Website: https://ultratrailcanada.com/en/
• Instagram: @qcmegatrail
• Facebook: quebecmegatrail

Connect with Carolyn & Kim:

• Email us with guest ideas: [email protected]
• Inspired Soles Instagram
• Kim's Instagram
• Kim's Facebook
• Carolyn's Instagram
• Carolyn's Facebook
• Carolyn's website

You can help spread the running love! The best way to SUPPORT Inspired Soles is to share your favourite episode(s) with friends, subscribe, or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Connect on Instagram @inspiredsolescast or email guest ideas to [email protected]. 

Got feedback about this episode? Send Carolyn a text

Nick Kershaw is a man with a mission.  A runner with a background in finance and a passion for international development, Nick joins us from the UK to tell us all about how the Impact Marathon Series came to be and why it is so special.  The Impact Marathon Series was born in 2015 from a dream that we could use the simple power of running to uplift communities and empower runners all over the world.

Throughout the Impact process, from the organizations they choose to support, to the way they engage and interact with the projects and the communities, their goal is to take the impalpable and make it real.  Nick and his crew have a goal to take their runners on a journey where they can find out what impact really means - the direct impact one can create, as well as how our lives indirectly have an impact that creates ripples across the world.

Over the last eight years, Impact Marathon has raised $1.5 million for grassroots organizations and has built a reputation for creating entirely unique events in some incredible countries.

Connect with Nick & Impact Marathon:

• Website: https://www.impactmarathon.com/
• Instagram: @impactmarathon

Connect with Carolyn & Kim:

• Email us with guest ideas: [email protected]
• Inspired Soles Instagram
• Kim's Instagram
• Kim's Facebook
• Carolyn's Instagram
• Carolyn's Facebook
• Carolyn's website

You can help spread the running love! The best way to SUPPORT Inspired Soles is to share your favourite episode(s) with friends, subscribe, or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Connect on Instagram @inspiredsolescast or email guest ideas to [email protected]. 

Got feedback about this episode? Send Carolyn a text

Jen Shapka is a woman with a mission who seemingly can’t say no…and there are many runners who are grateful she says yes most of the time! Jen has moved a lot in her adult life, and it was the frequent moving that made this now 45-year old force herself to find a community wherever she landed. With two small kids at home, a husband away for work, and no family around, it was tough to get to the gym or join a team (both of which she’d have promptly quit anyway). One day 9 years ago she put on her shoes and went for a run. Or rather, mostly walking with a little bit of running. That eventually led to longer distances, a few races, and the most supportive and fun community. Currently living in Winnipeg - for the longest time ever in one place as an adult - she’s had time to really appreciate all that the running community, and now the triathlon community, have to offer.

In this episode we learn about Jen’s personal running journey that I’m sure many of you can relate to. Her personal journey is inextricably intertwined with her experiences race directing and volunteering for numerous events around the city. Jen talks about who has inspired her and what she has learned along the way. It is an absolute pleasure to share this conversation with you.

Sponsor: GoodPhyte 

Phytase is known to substantially increase absorption of micronutrients, protein and amino acids. This super-powered digestive enzyme unlocks micronutrients in your food, helping you absorb more so you feel better, sleep better, and perform better.

Use code Jointhegoodphyte10 to receive 10% off all orders.

• Website: https://goodphyte.com/
• Instagram: @jointhegoodphyte
• Our previous episodes with GoodPhyte Founder, Amy Golumbia
  • Fighting the GoodPhyte
  • Accessing Your Intuition

Resources we discussed in the episode:

• Find a Manitoba Road Race: https://mraweb.ca

Connect with Carolyn & Kim:

• Email us with guest ideas: [email protected]
• Inspired Soles Instagram
• Kim's Instagram
• Kim's Facebook
• Carolyn's Instagram
• Carolyn's Facebook
• Carolyn's website

You can help spread the running love! The best way to SUPPORT Inspired Soles is to share your favourite episode(s) with friends, subscribe, or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Connect on Instagram @inspiredsolescast or email guest ideas to [email protected]. 

Got feedback about this episode? Send Carolyn a text

Rory Linkletter is a professional Canadian athlete who lives and trains in Flagstaff, Arizona, is sponsored by Puma, and is coached by US half marathon record holder, Ryan Hall. He is also now the 2nd fastest Canadian marathoner in history!

We first had Rory on the show six months ago (Ep 153) after finishing 19th at the World Championships marathon in Budapest. Since then he’s been training up a storm with one goal in mind…making the Paris Olympic team this summer. Ideally that meant running the Olympic Standard of 2:08:10, which was no small feat considering he’d have to shave over 2-minutes off his personal best. But on February 18th 2024, Rory got the job done in Seville Spain with nine seconds to spare, running the race of his life in a new personal best of 2:08:01!

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How he got fired up watching the US Olympic Marathon trials
• What Pumas he wore on race day
• What it meant to have his family’s support in Spain, and
• What it feels like to run a 1-second negative split. 

Even though Rory is at the very top of the sport, so much of what he talked about was relatable to the average runner. Just like you and me, he experiences taper crazies in the weeks before a big race, he ceases to be able to do math in the final stretches of a marathon, and he sometimes hesitates to put his big goals out into the world in case he fails to reach them. You’ll have to listen to the end to hear about his Olympic Marathon dreams this summer in Paris should he be named to our Canadian Marathon team, which we’ll know by May 5th.

Resources we discussed in the episode:

• Rory's first interview on Inspired Soles: Top Canadian Men's Marathon at 2023 World Championships
• US Olympic Marathon Trials Recap
• Ben Flanagan | Deep Dive on World Championships

Connect with Rory:

• YouTube: @LinkletterRory
• Instagram: @rory_linkletter

Connect with Carolyn & Kim:

• Email us with guest ideas: [email protected]
• Inspired Soles Instagram
• Kim's Instagram
• Kim's Facebook
• Carolyn's Instagram
• Carolyn's Facebook
• Carolyn's website

You can help spread the running love! The best way to SUPPORT Inspired Soles is to share your favourite episode(s) with friends, subscribe, or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Connect on Instagram @inspiredsolescast or email guest ideas to [email protected]. 

Got feedback about this episode? Send Carolyn a text

Today’s episode features three incredible ladies who all have speaking roles at The Run Retreat, an inaugural women’s event that will be taking place in beautiful Hecla Provincial Park, 2 hours north of Winnipeg, MB, from June 7-9, 2024. 

Three-time Inspired Soles guest Sasha Gollish is our keynote speaker and in addition to being an elite Canadian runner, she is also the Director of Community Engagement at the University of Toronto’s Mental Health & Physical Activities Research Centre. A lover of moving her body in nature, Sasha brings the fun to everything she does and welcomes every level of runner – including the run-curious folks! – to show up as their authentic selves.

Obstetrician Gynecologist Dr. Georgia Lefas joins as our women’s health expert and invites us to lean into our intuition and see it as somewhat of a superpower. A marathon runner with a passion for giving back to her community, Georgia hopes to provide women with more language and a safe space to advocate for themselves.

Jamie Donaldson is a pelvic floor physiotherapist practicing in Winnipeg, MB. She is a huge proponent of empowering women to safely move their bodies, and she’s currently taking her own advice as she gets back into running herself.

Each of these women got a full body hell yes when they were asked by The Run Retreat’s founder, Robyn Penner, to be involved. Robyn was on our show back in the spring of 2023 if you want to learn more about her and hear what inspired her to create this awesome event for women and those who identify as women.

Learn more about The Run Retreat:

• Website: https://therunretreat.ca/
• Instagram: @therunretreat
• Founder, Robyn Penner on Inspired Soles 
• Social Media Giveaway contest for a free hat from The Run Retreat
  • Follow @therunretreat
  • Follow @inspiredsolescast
  • Tag your friends in the comments
  • Contest closes Tuesday, March 12th, 2024

Connect with Sasha Gollish:

• Instagram: @sgollishruns
• Previous Inspired Soles episodes
  • Dec 6, 2023: Perimenopause & the Competitive Athlete
  • Oct 25, 2022: 3rd at Canadian Marathon Championships

Connect with Dr. Georgia Lefas:

• Website: vulvarhealth.com  (it has links to curated resources)

Connect with Jamie Donaldson:

• Instagram: @PelvisPhysio and @protaclinic and #pelvicfloorphysiotherapy

You can help spread the running love! The best way to SUPPORT Inspired Soles is to share your favourite episode(s) with friends, subscribe, or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Connect on Instagram @inspiredsolescast or email guest ideas to [email protected]. 

Got feedback about this episode? Send Carolyn a text

Our COTQ series is meant to highlight the different aspects of what it means to be in a partnership when one or both people are runners and do we ever have a power couple to feature today in Jonelle Koop-Yumang and Melvin Yumang.

Melvin is the runner of their duo but as you’re about to hear, his 6-year running journey has aligned very closely with the couple’s fertility journey…and what a wild ride it has been for them! Their story is filled with love, loss, grief, hope, setbacks, serendipity, more hope, more setbacks, and eventually an 8-lb 2-oz miracle in the form of baby Jameson, who at 4.5 months can be heard cooing in the background for most of this interview. 

Fertility can understandably be a sensitive topic and we want to put that disclaimer on this episode. For many years Jonelle & Melvin kept their struggles private, but baby Jameson is a direct result of letting their guards down and in that sense they’ve found unexpected beauty in opening up and being vulnerable.

Resources we discussed in the episode:

• Arli Cruikshank | Running Through Surrogacy
• Couple of the Quarter | Bo Huang & Mingdi Zhou
• Jonelle's tumor: Myxopapillary Ependymoma
• Embryo adoption (US)
• Embryo donation (Canada)

Connect with Melvin & Jonelle:

• Instagram: @emjaywhy

Connect with Carolyn & Kim:

• Email us with guest ideas: [email protected]
• Inspired Soles Instagram
• Kim's Instagram
• Kim's Facebook
• Carolyn's Instagram
• Carolyn's Facebook

You can help spread the running love! The best way to SUPPORT Inspired Soles is to share your favourite episode(s) with friends, subscribe, or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Connect on Instagram @inspiredsolescast or email guest ideas to [email protected]. 

Got feedback about this episode? Send Carolyn a text

Evan Birch is a partner, father, friend, colleague and ultra runner who has been running his entire life, in more ways than one. While his accomplishments range from competing in the Sinister 7 100, the Canadian Death Race and the Divide 200, Evan’s foray into ultra running began in 2017, born out of running away from a two-decade career in emergency services. He assisted thousands of people, saved countless lives and comforted many more on their worst days…until it broke him.  In January 2022, Evan finally asked for help and slowly developed a new relationship with running through hours of intensive therapy. He forged a path towards healing from a diagnosis of PTSD, anxiety, and depression and eventually found he was no longer running away. He was facing his trauma head-on, leaning into the storm and the fear. His goal is to show others that there is a path forward and that you are not alone. He believes that you are more capable than you perceive yourself to be and that stepping out of your comfort zone is the only way to grow. It is through shared experiences that we can make a difference for ourselves and others.

Connect with Evan:

• Instagram: @ultrabirch 

Connect with Carolyn & Kim:

• Email us with guest ideas: [email protected]
• Inspired Soles Instagram
• Kim's Instagram
• Kim's Facebook
• Carolyn's Instagram
• Carolyn's Facebook

You can help spread the running love! The best way to SUPPORT Inspired Soles is to share your favourite episode(s) with friends, subscribe, or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Connect on Instagram @inspiredsolescast or email guest ideas to [email protected]. 

Got feedback about this episode? Send Carolyn a text

On February 3rd, 2024, the United States held their Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando, FL to determine the team they will be sending to the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, France. Once every four years the best in the country  race head-to-head where the top three men and top three women are chosen to represent the country at the Olympics. Not many countries select their team this way and it’s got to be an absolute pressure cooker of an environment for athletes, but for fans of the sport it promises some of the highest quality athletics entertainment. Carolyn considers herself a fan of the sport but nowhere near the level of her older brother, Kevin Beatty, who accepted our third invitation to the show to break it all down with us. 

This topic of the US Olympic Marathon Trials is admittedly quite nerdy and likely only interesting to diehard fans. Luckily we had Kim asking excellent clarifying questions, preventing us from going too deep in the weeds, and even coming up with some very insightful takes of her own!

In this episode we discussed:

• How to qualify for this race
• Why it’s such a big deal
• Who the favourites were on both the men’s and women’s sides
• How each race played out
• Notable DNFs
• Surprise underdog performances
• Shakespearean tragedies that were tough to watch. 

We realized afterwards that beyond discussing the qualifying standards, there was virtually no mention of the athletes’ finishing times, which speaks to the thrilling nature of championship style racing.

Kevin’s previous episodes on the podcast:

• Ep 3 | Treating Running Like a Sport 
• Ep 78 | Pacer for Carolyn’s Las Vegas 10k Win 

Resources discussed in the episode:

• Ep 104 | The Anatomy of a DNF 

Connect with Carolyn & Kim:

• Email us with guest ideas: [email protected]
• Inspired Soles Instagram
• Kim's Instagram
• Kim's Facebook
• Carolyn's Instagram
• Carolyn's Facebook

You can help spread the running love! The best way to SUPPORT Inspired Soles is to share your favourite episode(s) with friends, subscribe, or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Connect on Instagram @inspiredsolescast or email guest ideas to [email protected]. 

Got feedback about this episode? Send Carolyn a text

Andrew Swan is a 55 year old lawyer, former politician and runner who is a staple in the Winnipeg community…some might even say “Winnipeg famous.” He practiced family law for 14 years before being elected to the Manitoba Legislature in 2004. He served as the Minister of Competitiveness, Training and Trade as well as the Minister for Liquor and Lotteries before settling into his role as Manitoba’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice from 2009-2014. Andrew left politics in 2019 and is now General Counsel for Doctors Manitoba, and for the past three years he’s been a director for the Manitoba Runners’ Association.

At 6-foot 6-inches, Andrew self-identifies as a Clydesdale runner who has taken part in roughly 60 half marathons, including every single running of the Winnipeg Police Service half marathon since its inception 20 years ago. Every Father’s Day after completing his half marathon, you can find Andrew at the finish line of the Manitoba Marathon greeting exhausted marathon runners.

In this conversation you’ll hear about: 

• The backhanded compliment Andrew received from Running Room founder, John Stanton
• How running brought him closer to some of his political opponents, including Stockwell Day
• His one racing victory at the Winnipeg Beach Fun Run, and 
• His prowess at the beer mile.

Sponsor: GoodPhyte 

Phytase is known to substantially increase absorption of micronutrients, protein and amino acids. This super-powered digestive enzyme unlocks micronutrients in your food, helping you absorb more so you feel better, sleep better, and perform better.

Use code Jointhegoodphyte10 to receive 10% off all orders.

• Website: https://goodphyte.com/
• Instagram: @jointhegoodphyte
• Our previous episodes with GoodPhyte Founder, Amy Golumbia
  • Fighting the GoodPhyte
  • Accessing Your Intuition

Connect with Andrew:

• Instagram: @andrew.swan
• Facebook: andrew.swan

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Winnipeg Police Service Half Marathon
• Nancy Gajdosik | Manitoba Marathon Volunteer x 41 Years
• Beer Mile

Connect with Carolyn & Kim:

• Email us with guest ideas: [email protected]
• Inspired Soles Instagram
• Kim's Instagram
• Kim's Facebook
• Carolyn's Instagram
• Carolyn's Facebook

You can help spread the running love! The best way to SUPPORT Inspired Soles is to share your favourite episode(s) with friends, subscribe, or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Connect on Instagram @inspiredsolescast or email guest ideas to [email protected].