with well my name is evan wood and i'm your host today i'm very excited to introduce you to our two guests who participated in this year's footlocker five borough challenge at the new york city marathon a race within the race between five inspiring runners each selected to represent their home borough please welcome pamela pasteurella who represented my home borough of manhattan and stephen andrews this year's footlocker fibro challenge champion representing brooklyn thank you for having us just our pleasure so for those who didn't have a chance to follow the footlocker fibro challenge this year can each of you tell us a little bit about how you got into running and how you found out about the footlocker fibro challenge you can start with them sure i started running about ten years ago in two thousand and eight as just a healthy way to stay active as a young attorney in manhattan and since then i've run about eight marathons i would say about fifty to seventy five ish half a half marathon yes well yes and i did three new york city triathlon so i guess ten years ago i just started running and i guess i never really stopped as a healthy outlet initially and raise funds initially for the leukemia lymphoma society would team in training and then i went on to coach with the american cancer society and then raise funds for fred's team with memorial sloan kettering and then i joined my traffic on group empire triathlon so i started training with them this year for the triathlon in july and then i just stuck with them throughout the year and we a bunch of us train for the marathon together so that was very helpful and inspiring group to train with the man communities incredible and for the footlocker challenge i apply every year and never get chosen so this year i applied and i was thrilled to find out that i was chosen as the manhattan representative while i can't think of anyone more qualified having run fifty seven half marathons i mean that's that is a very impressive amount thank you running and racing it was a lot of fun too just like you know the feeling of coming off the bridge of all of manhattan cheering for you on both sides and it's at that point we leave you are your friends at the half marathon seer so i started running back in two thousand and ten so you are much more of a run of than i am you have more experience than i do as a way to help me teen and to lose it's been at the new year is a marathon and years i know many many people ran personal bests and it was just a gorgeous the and i can't imagine how much fun it must have been especially going through brooklyn basically alone virtually getting all the group i have to let out another thing another secret is that it's not so secret that you have quite a reputation in that group and i feel like there are a lot of people in that facebook group who would be very upset if they found out the two of us and i promised myself i wouldn't make this about me ok that the two of us are together in this room because we've both had the fortune of being featured in the new york city marathons ad campaign yes this year your photo was featured at the finish line and everywhere else and everywhere else on the subway what was that like i'm still trying to wrap my head around it like you see it  still there is a picture from last year's marathon the twenty seventh the marathon and the using it know to promote next year's marathon so this is just a weird experience for me i have to say i mean i really think that your photos a wonderful representation of what makes the new york city marathon special in the kind of energy that people bring to the race the runners the spectators there's no feeling quite like crossing the finish line pamela you are a corporate attorney yes that is a very high speed career it is so running marathons and running as many marathons and half marathons you have that takes a lot of dedication and it takes a lot of sheer time when the training  to race how do you do it how do you manage the time i would say it's just a balance really because it's a lot of hours that work obviously but like for training during the week it's kind of a good way to get out and kind of clear mind i think it allows me to be a better attorney at the end of the day for my clients and to make better decisions in the house counsel at american express on the global commercial payments team so i think it allows me to kind of have that time and that clarity and a sense and then on the weekends i think it's great for the last ten years from my experience i think it just allows you to have that like healthy outlet during the week and it put you in a better schedule and use kind of really get used to it over years and years and years of not like if you have plans obviously going out there like going to bed early on a friday night and like really looking forward to seeing your your running or your biking friends on saturday morning and them and having community all in the morning in central park on a saturday or sunday like it just becomes like a crazy habit that you really like look forward to and i think at the end of the day it's about balance and i think it'll allow me to be a better attorney a better person at the end of the day he decisions generally in life and as a corporate attorney i think a lot of people who work in similar fields and also i work in filmmaking and i think people in the arts would also agree that running can serve this really great purpose of relieving stress but also making you feel that you've accomplished a great deal in your personal life and your personal pursuits in a way that benefits your profession helps me make decisions i would say as well like if you're like face whether it's like personal professional and you're i think that we were talking about this in the locker interviews when we were leading up to the marathon just helping you make better decisions at the end of the day and solve problems and kind of be there for friends family and clients as well i think it's really inspiring people to know that someone who you know who runs as much as you do you know is still doing what they do every day and a pretty serious fast paced job  that so i think that that's really cool steven you really come a long way i mean losing fifty pounds is a is a big goal and you managed to achieve it and not just achieve it but you really  hrive through running and you have not just an example for others that that's really inspiring and it makes it feel like something that's reachable for many people who are struggling to manage their weight but you've also gone and taken it to feel another level of joy of excitement it's not a chore it's not something that you have to do to philip checkbox or to reach a number goal this is something fun the mean you can see in the pictures it's run but it's raining like i'm going to miss my run today and i feel like great so how did you figure out that running was this enjoyable activity for you and how did it really become what it is through today  points you stop but with weight watchers if you do activities you get extra points and therefore you can consume more and so my activity used to be walking on the treadmill get more activities more fun so you walk fast get those extra points when you can have another slice of pizza and so one week and my partner visiting his sister her family and husband valley and he have a treadmill going to try to do my walk which i'm doing every day and she says no we're going to go walk outside finds the hudson valley you go walk in the forest or whatever and so we're having a nice brisk walk and we get to the top of the street and she was lackluster went back to  i can't breathe and she's like no let's let's just so i did and i said hey i don't feel bad and so the next day when i went to the gym i'm doing my walk and they said let me try running for a minute so i ran for a minute didn't feel bad went back to looking at trapper two minutes so over time i built it up from this like hey i can run for ten minutes and i don't feel bad and that's how i started running i don't walk on the treadmill i don't one of the tribe i run outside now and i was like a passion of mine and that's why we all got along so well today you know we all were like a major part of our lives as opposed to like a goal gore yeah we all just enjoyed it so much and i think like meeting up to four of us four of you guys and knowing myself you just see the joy in their personalities and i think that's why we all got along so well one of the beautiful things about the footlocker fibro challenge is you get to meet these other runners who are representing the other boroughs and they do a very good job of selecting very different types of people with different stories and i think that it's a wonderful little representation of what makes the new york city marathon as a whole so special you get to meet people who have overcome all kinds of challenges who come from all different walks of life can you tell us a little bit about what that's like having this experience of meeting other runners did you learn something new from someone about something that they had overcome more something they were currently dealing with i with when we were doing the actual interviews that's  you overcome it whether changing jobs or relationships or new adventures in life or death or sickness like everyone kind of faces these things at all different parts of their life and running just kind of was that overall theme throughout all of them of kind of dealing with it so i that is that i told the guys you guys should do the lottery to get into chicago it's amazing and everyone from new york always gets there and so we all signed up for the lottery and they all got in and i really fantastic event yes and it's going to be hard to top that i have to say when you get the royal treatment and i do the following year you know it's not going to be the same you are just another runner people around the guys think about not just the new york city marathon specifically but running in general the way that it has done what it has done for you guys being a positive influence in your life maybe it started out as a way to reach a goal maybe it's just always sort of been a presence activity in your life that helps you keep balance and deal with daily stresses do you think that this running boom around the world what do you think the rest of the world can learn by looking inside the running community those who don't run what can they learn from seeing all these inspiring stories that seem to be made possible by running just through to them that the running community is a huge representation of the world we're all  were all not turtles you know everyone's like you know you have your own speed you can do this you can do that but we're all runners you know when we run a race we all got the same metal regardless of time we're there to support each other so this year and a doctor happened to be also running a marathon alongside her and he happened to know what to do to take care of her and she survived and i think there was a very nice they they met every saw that i got goosebumps you watching it so it's wonderful to see these sorts of things happen you get the impression that some of these stories would only be made possible because the running community has the synergy of people seeing other people doing inspiring things that leads them to do inspiring things of their own think there's a quote too it's like if you ever need to be in fire go outside and watch the marathon and i think if you ever want to be fire go to central park any time during the weekend everyone knows each other everyone's waving to each other i think the five of us are really good example as well we never knew each other we both run most all run multiple marathons and we all become really good friends and  would never would have known each other before unless this experience happened which is kind of really inspiring so i think that says a lot about the community itself about five strangers just coming together and developing a friendship based on running but also having a lot else in common that they never would have chooses but it's all these other people yeah in a way it's really eye opening you know this experience has been eye opening so that you know you'll meet other people who run the marathon and they're all running for very important causes and they're all mo motivated by something you know i would also say just to talk to everyone around you to a new york like i was telling a story this weekend to a friend that when you're in the suburbs everyone looks at all the runners when you pass by and they say good morning good morning good morning i met a manhattan like i want you know each other you know it's not happening so you just it helps me lose weight you know so maybe running because you know they're battling cancer you never know what someone story is behind the running so who needs your strength when you have to give it exactly i think that puts it very very nicely you know so pamela you run for very many interests important causes how did you get involved with team in training with american cancer society can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got involved with them and became a coach with yeah sure my sister was a i think a coach or a mentor at that time for team in training either i think she quit for the marathon for a while and then she coached for the triathlon as well so she was running marathons doing and i think in two thousand and eight like hey i want to do that just you know you have to take it seriously if you're going to do it do it i'm like i went to a meeting i signed up for rock n roll phoenix so my sister kind of inspired me to do it and then i started running with a team in training at that point and i completed the phoenix rock n roll marathon in two thousand and eight with them i ended up a bronchitis day of course the country i'm at my sister's like she was with me she ran my first few marathons with me she's if you don't have to do the full you could do the half will be just as good like i just raised thousands of dollars for the leukemia lymphoma society i trained for my first marathon to prove to myself that i could do this i'm doing so with bronchitis i completed my first marathon so i'm like anything after that will be not as terrible and then  stuck with him in training for a while and i mentor there for a little bit i did a few new york city triathlons with them and then i made a lot of my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years back so i wanted to raise money for  organization so i joined american cancer society i think i ran a few new york city half marathons with them my coach for the half marathon of coach for the new york city marathon with them raising funds as well and then i u civically them being treated a few years after that at memorial sloan kettering so i wanted to specifically raise awareness raise funds for memorial sloan so i join fred and i respect them for a little bit each of these groups and funny looking back on it just but you make so many friends over the years that looking back now i have all these different connections and friends in all these different areas of my life that it's been really special and now i train with empire triathlon to kind of get me going on the area for the new york city tried entering the summer and then they do all different races for beginners and there's a club that i belong to as well with them now but i also try to stay involved in all the other causes as well and is looking for different organization very impressive how many organizations you've been involved with and traffic soon as you said triathlons i just my heart dropped at that as i was never a swimmer i had to learn how to swim for this my team is very advanced and skilled on the bike runners new york is the largest l g b t multi sport club in the united states and new york chapter and so i joined the club so i can be part of a running community that is part of my life i am openly gay man and i do a lot of long runs with them but they are also involved in doing training and swimming triathlons speed work so i did a lot of train with them last year which is when the crones charity so it's always wonderful to see other runners running for charities and getting important work done yeah do you have any last words of wisdom for anyone out there who is just getting its running trying to start their weight loss regimen is balancing a hard job trying to find something to help them get through what's what they're facing in life i would say make it a lifestyle and also take that pause during the day and believe in yourself if you could run a mile you could run a marathon as well it's not the speed it's kind of the the conviction to just do it like it seems overwhelming when you like go into it but you're trust the training you know you put the work into it and then also just make it a lifestyle you know i mean that's kind of something that it's really healthy to have in your life create balance to matter what your career is and it makes you a better person at the end of the day so i'd really recommend it to everybody my it didn't happen overnight you know just like room was not built in the day i started running to the weight and research here a little raised there it took me four years to actually say i'm going to run a marathon and warriors past that i've done a love in and even though i'm not training for math i still go out every morning and get my miles then it becomes for your lifestyle and so if i can do it anyone can do it and so if i can inspire one person who is struggling because they have issues with their weight stephen andrews will help you on race day everybody