Kelly Brown Willis is a paragon of positivity and is perseverance personified! Growing up in a family of nine no doubt forged her grit, toughness, hustle, and drive. As a mom of four with a big appetite for travel, running adventures, and community, these qualities serve her well.

Kelly traveled the world for 18 months on the cheap with her husband, Rich, before having children—soaking in the culture & experiences in Syria and Guatemala—and learned she could do hard things like climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro & Mt. Ranier (which took two tries because of the technical difficulty and extra challenges from having epilepsy).

Kelly spent a full year working on her strength and agility and came back a year later and got it done!

She struggled in her first year of law school, but pushed through with encouragement from her dad (who was also her mentor) to achieve her career dream of becoming Assistant District Attorney of Atlanta.

We discuss: the influence of growing up in a big family, her dad/mentor, traveling the world, climbing adventures, law school becoming an ADA, finding running & the marathon, the running community, AbbottWMM Majors, WAG Champs, chasing another sub-3, community service, and more.

Kelly loves all things Abbott World Marathon Majors and is one of just 45 to earn TWO Six-Star medals, one of 85 to run an Abbott Slam (all six in the same calendar year, 2018), and qualified and ran in the first AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships in London.

I had the honor of sharing the stage with Kelly on a panel at the London Marathon discussing our Abbott World Marathon Majors adventures and her positive energy really shined through and connected with the crowd!

What a journey from 4:15 marathoner to her current 2:57 PR! Kelly's dreaming of taking another big swing at sub-3 in Berlin and I'll be there running & rooting for her to get it DONE! Mad RESPECT for this badass mom of 4, running at this level and putting out so much positive energy into the running community!

I hope you all enjoy this convo as much as we did!

If you enjoy the episode, it would mean the world to me if you would rate the podcast or write a review and share feedback wherever you get your podcast groove on.

Connect With Kelly:

Instagram: @kelly_brown_willis

Connect With Ron:

Personal Instagram: @ronrunsnyc

Podcast Instagram: @runchats_with_ronrunsnyc

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Website: https://ronrunsnyc.com

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© 2021 Ron Romano