Transformations Through Running

Coach Denise, AKA The Marathon Whisperer has been coaching runners of all abilities and ages since 2010. She started coaching part-time after surviving a near fatal car accident. It’s been her way to give back to running for what running has given to her since she first laced up her running shoes in the 4th grade.  Through her coaching business, Run For Change, she provides virtual, group and one on one coaching. In the latter, she literally runs the race and or workout with her client.  In 2016, Denise left her 26-year career in accounting to coach full-time because she is that passionate about sharing running and finish lines with anyone that comes her way.  She has guided runners to their first mile all the way to their first 100-mile event.  She recently published a book to help runners complete their first marathon, “Me, You & 26.2 -Coach Denise’s Guide to Get YOU to YOUR First Marathon”

Denise is also a Co-founder of Girls on the Run-Chicago.  She has personally run over 300 races across 7 Continents. This includes 117 marathons, 2 Ironman triathlons and 2 100-mile ultramarathons.  In 2019 she completed her second round of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, became a member of the 7 Continents Club and also fulfilled her life long dream to go to Everest Base Camp. She ran the Everest Marathon!   Her goal in working with her clients is to help them run their first, fastest and or funnest race. She is a Certified Road Runners Club of America and UASTF Level 1 certified coach.

For most of my life I’ve been the athlete, funny how I find myself in a new position in life as more so the coach. I can’t say I’ve entirely understood coaches (I had a hard time really connecting with most I’ve had). But the experience is entirely different.

You work so hard to prepare who you’re working with. It’s not like the sessions are over after the 60 mins is up. You’re always thinking about the progress of whomever you’re working with (online or in person). I’m wondering how they’re doing during the week. If what we’ve talked about is working, if it will get them results and if what is expected is being done.

You almost feel helpless at times because you’re not able to actually do it for them. All you can do is support, encourage and find ways to help them get results. I almost find myself more nervous at times coaching than when I was performing.

Their victories almost feel like yours both big and small, and their set backs are yours the same as you find new ways to help them reach the goals you both set out to achieve.

A big shout out to Noel Darcy who’s been working with me for quite some time. More months than I can count, he came to me and said he’ll be training for the Death Race in Grande Cache which is 125 KM course. Hard to even try to understand how long that is for most of us.

Noel’s been working incredibly hard from nutrition to workouts and (especially in this case) recovery. At the point of this post there’s only 23hrs until the race begins and I couldn’t be more excited for all of Noel’s hard work to pay off. Looking forward to hearing how it goes Noel, we’ll be with you.

Today we're bringing on  Dorothy Keith to talk about Essential Oils for Runners. She's super passionate about holistic health and helping people live healthy lives.

In this case she wanted to share her love and passion of essential oils and teach runners how they can make a difference in their lives.

The main topics we'll cover today is the Respitory system, very important for runners. We all know if you can't catch your breath it's going to be very difficult to finish your run strong.

We have muscle recovery, which means the quicker we recovery the sooner we'll be able to get back at those challenging workouts.

Hydration is always important for runners especially for how much fluid is lost during runs.

Digestion is another topics as well because we know how nervous some people get right before a race. Dorothy talks about how to calm your nerves and prevent an upset stomach.

And lastly she'll talk about what oils help with mental clarity. We know how important the mental game of athletics is, so why not use some of these tips to step up  your mental game before a race! 

The oils listed and talked about in this show include the following:

Respiratory - Raven, RC, Eucalyptus

Muscle Recovery - Panaway, Copaiba, Peppermint 

Hydration - Lemon, grapefruit, lime, orange 

Digestion - Digize, Aromaease, Peppermint 

Mental Clarity -  Frankincense, Valor 

About twelve years ago, at the age of 38, I was still playing a lot of team sports.  I was a marginal varsity basketball player in university and was still playing in local men's leagues and some weekly pick-up games and was playing touch football in a solid league.  However, I was realizing that this was something that couldn't go on forever and was looking for something to fill the void.  Around the same time, my wife started running while attending medical school. 

She had worked as a nurse for a number of years, and had decided she wanted to go in another direction, and she was lucky enough to get into Dalhousie in 2006.  She started running with a friend and eventually ran a half-marathon.  Then she decided she wanted to do a marathon.  During training, her uncle said to her, "If you qualify for Boston in your first marathon, I'll take you there and pay for the whole trip," thinking she wouldn't stand a chance as it's pretty rare for someone to qualify for Boston as a hobby jogger running their first marathon.  She qualified by three minutes and ran her first Boston in 2009.

I was watching this whole scenario unfold from a distance and saw how hooked she was getting on running.  The physical, mental and spiritual benefits she was getting were obvious, so I decided to give it a whirl.  Gradually, I got to the point where I was running a few days a week, ran a half myself and decided to run my first full in 2009.  I was hooked.  Running took over.  I not only started running myself, but I wanted to share my love of running with everyone I possibly could. 

I started coaching cross country and track at the school I was teaching at, and I cranked up my own mileage.  When we moved back to PEI, I called my friend who was AD at the high school I was going to teaching at.  He asked me which basketball team I wanted to coach, and I replied, "I'll help you out with whatever you need, but what I really want to do is build a cross country and track and field program." 

He was very supportive, and it's really paid off.  We've built a real culture at our school and in our community where a lot of people are reaping the benefits of running.  It's totally normal for us to have upwards of 60 athletes on our cross teams and 75 involved in track and field.  I absolutely love going somewhere around town and seeing a pod of our students running, or a huge number of them on the start line of a local road race, or when one of them has a great run and posts it on Strava, not to mention the large number of Colonel Gray High School students who have gone on to compete at the Usport level.

In 2014, my friend the AD took the next step in his journey and was hired to take over the helm as AD at UPEI.  Shortly after, he called me and said, let's build the same thing at the collegiate level.  I took a year to get things up and running, but it was too much to coach two programs and do it well.  I had also just finished my masters and had undertaken a counselling role at my school, and my wife and I had just had our third child.  So I handed off the program to long-established local coach, and he took care of things until last year, when I felt I was ready to take things on and do it right.  Now, I'm trying to build something at UPEI. 

We took some big steps last year, and I'm hopeful we can continue to keep moving in the right direction.  Along the way, I've managed to run 19 marathons, 3 ultras - including my first 100-miler last year - and countless other road and trail races.  I'm getting older, but I've managed to keep taking chunks off my PBs - we call then PBs in Canada - and was pretty happy with the 2:47 I ran in Chicago last fall just 8 weeks after the 100-miler. 

It was pretty cool when I searched up the results and realized I was the first Canadian in my age group;)  I love running.  My family loves running.  And we are doing the best we can to help everyone around us love it too.