Shea Aquilano and I met through our dads, which is pretty fitting considering it's Father's Day Weekend. This episode is going to blow your mind (neuroscience pun intended). 🧠During this episode we talk about:
- How I creepily followed her to our interview
- Her first race was the Lucky Clover 4 miler in 2019
- Her first ultra was a virtual race she planned herself and her family and friends helped crew
- How she ended up at Notre Dame and choosing neuroscienceÂ
- Working with Matt Ebersole to go from 4 miles to a 50K
- 8 Hour Endurance that she WON her first time racing an organized ultra Â
- Trail 50 miler at Falls 50 in Kentucky in the kind of mud that wants to suck your shoes off
- The cultural difference between the trail community and the road running communityÂ
- What Shea likes to eat during ultra marathons and what it’s like being vegan as an ultra runnerÂ
- How she trains for mountain ultras in flat IndianaÂ
- From 50 miles to 100K at Black Canyon
- Mindset - how she believes perception becomes your reality
- Running the Boston Marathon a week after qualifying for Worlds at the Lake Sonoma 50 milerÂ
- How a chat with some USATF representatives made her realize she could qualify for Worlds
- Qualifying for Team USA and going to WorldsÂ
- Out and back vs. Point to point vs. looped races
- Eating pretzels during races 🥨
- Not finishing and not starting racesÂ
- Golden star tattoos she wears on her face - reminds her that races are more of a celebration of all of the work you’ve put inÂ
- What “accumulating miles for smiles” means to herÂ
- Being sponsored by Näak and hoping to be a sponsored athlete moving forward Â
