This is the Hope Cast Network. Stories and shows you actually want to listen to. (upbeat music) - Hi, this is Erin Mayer, your host from the everyday runner. This show where we love to chat about the unfiltered side of running. Everything from why the first mile is always a liar to chafing and why you should never trust a fart. Just the things that people don't typically talk about, we're gonna talk about on here, as well as bring on other everyday runners to share their running story. So don't forget to like and subscribe on iTunes and Spotify and leave us a review. And also we have an Instagram account if you want to connect on there at the everyday runner. And to kick off the show, I wanted to talk to you today about my running story because I think it's gonna surprise you a little bit as I share how I went from being somebody who absolutely hated running to now I love it. Here we go. Hello everybody and welcome back to the show, the everyday runner. It's the space where you can lean in, listen to us talk about the unfiltered side of running, where I get to bring runners on and share their running story. And today I've got Ray Hardion, who I'm so grateful has taken the time to chat with me today because this, this man has done a whole lot of running, as well as a whole lot of impact with his life. And I'm excited for him to share his story. So Ray, welcome to the show, how are you? - I'm doing great, Erin, thank you so much. From my favorite area of all of America, up there in Boston and Cape Cod, that's where America's born and I love that area in the country. - It's definitely an interesting space. I know a lot of people tell me if you can drive in Boston, you could probably drive almost anywhere. I think it takes like a special person to come through Boston. - Yeah, so usually when I hear Boston, it's either from the subway in the city, anywhere or let somebody else do the driving on an Uber. - It's true, it's true. So let me ask you about how you started running, 'cause I'd love to hear your running story. I know you've accomplished a lot, but could you bring us back to the beginning, Ray, as far as how you, you begin your running journey? - Sure, I wanted to be a good runner, 'cause I don't want to play football. So I started doing that. Now I discovered over the years that there was not much of a future for guys who were five and 11, 140 pounds, they ran a five out of 40. I've never ever processed a lot, like junior high, high school years that I became a pretty good runner, longest as runner in Grand College Country in high school, and there's no bad world running for my team, and I reported some good times, and had some cool experiences then, and I've just kind of done it since then. I cross-trained as well, too. I've done characterize lines, math lines, and mirror lines, and all kinds of other stuff like that, because I like to cross-trained as well, too. - So what position did you play in football, or did you want to play? - I would have loved to have been like a quarterback or a wide receiver, and I got to play a little bit, but when people came through the line and actually were trying to tackle me, it was just something else. It was different, so I ended up being a wide receiver, a slow wide receiver. - Yeah. - All of those elderly people out there and they're beyond 60 like me, my friend Lydikoff, back from the open rangers, a long time ago, you have no idea who that is. - No, no, I know that you have to be really fast. - Yeah, you do. - Like, you have to be really fast, and you have to be as much as you'd like to say, it is size, right? Like, people would imagine as size, being able to take that impact over and over again. Actually, my family, we watched the movie last night, The Grader, have you seen that? - I have nothing, it's good. - It's amazing. - I am not, like, I've never been a huge football person. I pay attention enough for the Patriots. My husband's obsessed with football. I promise we'll get back to running. But my son loves flag football, so I've gotten more into it. And it's the story of, it's based on a true story, The Grader, a Brandon Ballworth, I think he was. He was the college walk-on that made on the Arkansas Razorbacks and his story. - Oh, yeah. - So, one of the things that his high, when he went to visit the college as a potential walk-on, they told him he had to weigh 300 pounds. And at that point, he was like, I think maybe 250. So he just put on like 80 pounds as quick as he could. And then the coach is like, well, no, like, we need some muscle to that, not just put on the weight, but it was an emphasis of part of his story was he had to like get bigger. Basically, he wasn't going to be considered. So, good movie there, I definitely recommend it. So with running and in school, were you always like, so were you always athletic growing up? Did you love to stay active? Were you just one of those kids that you were always on the go when you were young? Or did you have to be pushed into it? - Well, I just wanted to get fit. You know, when most guys turn like teenage boys and girls, we become aware of our body dimensions. I wanted it to be some language and shape. And I wanted to look at the mirror for myself, but also it basically gave me the opportunity to do that. And I just covered while I was not a great football player, I found that I could run a long distance a long way and relatively fast. I mean, I had an Oscar record and this was really cool stuff there. And I was able to run fast. And it was, okay, it's probably another thing like, if you're out there, you're a runner and you're one like, I was really better at football and I run to endure. Well, just enjoy the fact that you're a good at football. For me, it was the other way around. Like, you don't want to be good at something. It was going to have to be me something for me in my old '65, '11, or young body that back it ran a long way fast with endurance. And so it was surprising, but it was also fun. It was also a time so older runners are out there will remember this, but the classic book, the complete book of running by Jim Fix came out back when I was like in high school and college. And Nike made their first walk with trainers and first very dedicated running shoot. It's interesting. So I now have like the Nike Pegasus, I think the last model I bought was like 38 or 39. So I remember the first one, I had the first one. So it's been around that long. And I just celebrated my 40th wedding anniversary. So I think that Nike era of Vegas has been around for 40 years, so much. - Well, first off, happy anniversary. - Thank you very much. I have a patient wife and she's taken me on as a personal mission project. So she's still working on me. - Well, it's amazing. Now, was she ever into running or being active and things like that? Or is that just a you kind of thing? - It's more of me kind of thing. We did run some together when we were in college and later on she told me she did it just so that she would progress me. - Oh, I love that. - She is active, but man, she liked it. Her favorite activity is Tastes babies, whether they're ours or our grandbabies. - So how many children and grandchildren do you have? 'Cause you've got kind of a busy schedule, right? - I have five children, 37, 33, 29, and then five grandchildren who are 11, eight, four, two, and 12 weeks, old, yeah. - So your wife is running. - She's running, she's very, it's interesting. She has this disease in her back, but you never know that I'll lick and add her, but she does some back problems. That's another reason she didn't run a lot, but she won't visit with therapy because our in church company wants her to do that and everything to be healthy. And she goes in and the guy's like, "You have really athletic legs, do you run a lot?" I kind of said, "No, just run after "grandchildren and the children." - That's amazing. - Now if we go like, so let me ask you this. So what are you running? - You ran in high school. You ran in college, I'm assuming. Now, did you have plans to go, like when did your distance start running? Like I know you said you were endurance training, like were you in, like back when you were running, was there like half marathons and marathons and all these races like they are now? Or was it just kind of like only running in school? - That was very, that was very much the kind of thing that was just taking off in the early '80s when I started to run. I think Jump Dicks' books came out in the late 1980s. - Yeah. - And so it's a, they're the weekend five-case party that they were infrequent and was still kind of a cool thing. And then the 10th case kind of came along and stuck on all those in college. So I just discovered I could run it a long way and I got tired of hitting people in the hill with the football, I held them with that kind of stuff. I had a good question once. I was like, "You know, God did not make me for this. "Maybe I just need to run." And the next year I ran cross country and it was just my thing. You know, I was about runner and I ran like a PR7055 in high school for a 5K course. And I was like, "Okay, I can do this." And then I got to college and had the opportunity to run in Charlotte. 'Til I got hurt, I foretended my leg right toward the end of our season in my junior year. But this had really big experiences to do this kind of thing. I did remember the only 10K I ever won, Charlotte is the 49ers. It's just the mascot or whatever for Charlotte. Which used to be UNCC University of Utah in Charlotte. And now she's Charlotte. On one weekend in particular, I signed up for the Mean Green 10,000, which was the after UCC and the kind of stuff. It was on the campus and I happened to win it. I won the whole thing with like a 36-20, which is obviously not a sad, fabulous, cool time, but it was for me and my parents down there. But part of the reason was there was another race that day nearby where a bunch of other elite runners went. So, actually the local youth patient was able to cover the race and set them ready to cross the finish line. I always thought about finishing first in any kind of race past 5,000 meters. But then you kind of caught that bug and just the runners high and the things that go along with killing matter about yourself. And now college, I've been post-college years that I got into cross-training and doing triathlons and bathlons and those kinds of things. But just most recently, as recently as 2018, I started competing with a greater purpose in mind. And you know, I love doing medals and I got a bunch of them back here. Well, I found out, you know, you could do things. And the very first marathon I ever did was to run the race mining for a family. And I think it was like it could be a part of your story. And World Vision has started this thing called Team World Vision and essentially, they give us an opportunity to races that are around America and around the world that are hard to get into because they're charity bibs. And that's typically how you need them through that because we've raised money or raised enough money for them. And I've done healthy costs. So I took a must out of the time of this year where the team was 12 people from World Vision and we have 10 teams of 12. And this year we will raise between $2 to $3 million just for that race. Where people are getting money and ultimately the money goes to build vulnerable children and families, particularly the World Water Fund. You know, the average distance in the world that most kids and adults and most of the time with children is kind of their job. They have to walk us about 6,000 meters a day to go get water. And there's all the bad things you can imagine that happens to go along the way. Soft and attacked by animals and minas and all kinds of stuff. So I really caught this vision of how can we do that. And so I got behind it, our church got behind it. World Vision does the series of things you're possibly called the Global State for Water, out of 5k, 19k, but 6k. And so they're all over the place and Boston's one of the biggest ones, as a matter of fact, in that area. And essentially you try to rally your church around getting in shape. And so we started a campaign back in 1819 to drink water, make water, and give it away. You know, bring more water, exercise and make more sweat and give more away. And so over the past eight, since 18, 19, seven, two, three, seven years, we've raised a return to $50,000 for the World War 5 for World Vision. Now it's an opportunity to run things like Belinda, Maryland, New York City, Maryland on one to run others along the way, as well as the opportunity for this itself. - So here's my question. So first off, where can people go? And I'll put this in the show notes too. - Yeah, we do. - To support you and your cause. Where can people go to connect with you to learn more about this program and how you're a part of it? - So they can go to Team World Vision, and it's church recording to the runner, it's just Ray Wardy, R-A-Y, H-A-R-D-E-E. My middle name is McKay, C-K-A-Y, but if you look that up, you can find it online and you can support it. - Thank you so much for doing so, because every time you give $50 increments, it gives a towel to clean water for life. This seems to me they go into villages and they turn to the kind of stores thing they need to do. They need to dig a well. And certainly in Africa and the parts of Africa, they do that. If you're in Brazilian rainforest where they can drink water with poisonous causes to melt trees and they're picking up toxins and that kind of stuff. So instead, no reef filtration system is in, but for $50, when you know you can bring a towel and their family clean water for life, it just, it gives you another reason to move your feed. As a matter of fact, that's one of all of Vision's favorite raises, we move our feed to raise water, to raise. We move our feed to children. This is just the way it is. - That's amazing. So have you ever traveled to any of these countries to go see where you've made the impact? Want to share a story about a time you went and what it was like? - Absolutely. Several times in Africa to Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, various other places like that. Graph the most memorable thing happened I traveled to Ethiopia about an hour and an hour and an hour out south of Ethiopia is the Thola and it's where the National Ethiopian Olympic teams and all the development teams run. And so we got kids to go to a workout with the Ethiopia Olympic development teams, which, you know, I was slow already, but I feel like they were running backwards while I was running forwards. - Oh yeah, I can imagine like they'd be running, skipping, dancing, having a full meal by the time you catch up to them. - Absolutely, so if you need to eat their big colors in the uniforms, they're typically bright yellow and bright green and a little bit red and their kind of stuff. And I mean, so first of all, Ethiopia is in altitude, like everywhere. So they're born in altitude and they run it altitude their whole lives. But it was interesting in the stadium in the middle of the city where they trained, there was a stance around the stadium too. And only the elite runners got to run around the track and we got here running on the track. I felt so guilty because all these kids, they could fly were running around, they had to run outside of the stadium. It's the same time that the elite at police for his died of stadium training, they had to run around the census. And so, you know, it was just a great honor to be able to run a couple miles with those folks there, just so absolutely elite and well trained. - And they just look so graceful when they run 'em. They just like, like, like, I think of like cheetahs. If you watch a cheetah, they just they're moving. Where I look like, I don't know, in walks with them. - Yeah, they're called a tour. (laughing) - I'm like, I don't know what I am. I'm like a monkey's gorilla going, I don't know, I don't know. But they like, I would imagine look like graceful. - Wow. - I've had the opportunity to go on safari in Africa, too. And it's a very, it's a very adept kind of comparison. I'll say, if you see it, she's a run. It's one of the most beautiful things in the world. And it's very much that way, the mechanics and the size of the yogiobians makes it so, or the elite runners, I would say. And then most particularly very wide and very lean folks in the house, if it's just a beautiful thing to watch. I love to watch people run that fast. It's just really, you and I watch the Olympic trials and when people watch the people run, it's really important for runners to go outside and try to do what they, how to go how fast they go over to 50 yards. - Yeah, below your mind how fast they're really on. - Yep, just to think, it's just, I can't, I can't. It's awesome, it's so special. So now I know you've mentioned you've run some marathons before, you've run New York, London, Jerusalem, Twin City and Charlotte Marathon. - Right. - What was your favorite and why? - Almost the person of faith, it was cool to run Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a monster of course. New York's the challenge, Boston, there's other things you're hard. I mean, it's not like running a big surveyor on but Jerusalem is like tea. It's like that all the way through because if you see the picture of their way sees on the news, you see that little picture with the middle of the rock and the kind of stuff that Jerusalem is sprawling, it's just two million people and all kinds of hills and literally he was up and down all day long. I mean, it's crazy. - And when you imagine the weather is just hot. - It's relatively hot. We were in in April, wasn't it bad? - The most beautiful and wonderful marathon ever runs got through New York in terms of weather. The London Marathon was spectacular. I did it in April. And it's spectacular for all kinds of reasons. It's the largest charity race in the world. You won't really, excuse me, I may be, it's 61 million dollars was raised for charities and I ran for Team World Vision with another 28 people and we raised $580,000 just along the 28 of us. But it was 40 degrees when we started, it never got enough 50 and it didn't rain. That was kind of cloud. - I hate to interrupt what you're doing now, but something very important I need to let you know about. When you purchase serious coffee beans, we want you to try to enjoy each brew for two reasons. Number one, because you're a part of something bigger, making a positive impact around the world. And number two, because we did not compromise on the quality of coffee, you're drinking some of the best coffee in the world. 100% of profits are donated to non-profits that are fighting injustice facing humans around the world, Wallace, that's powerful. Generous is best known for especially coffee, but the heartbeat of generous is their hope to use for profit business for good. In 2024, generous is hoping to provide coffee to churches around the US to spread a message within congregations that churches care about people even down to the coffee they are serving and the people they enjoy. I apologize for that extremely long run-on sentence. If you have interest in hearing more about generous coffee, please reach out to their founder, Ben Higgins, at binhiggins@genresmovement.com. Thank you and back to our scheduled podcast. (gentle music) - Okay, I know I just interrupted a great conversation, but my name is Brad and you may be listening to me or any of the other talent we have on this network at HopeCast. We wanna thank you for listening, but also, we want you to like and subscribe to the show you're listening to. So, when you're done listening, go on the iTunes or the Spotify and leave a great review, if you like it, and follow the show on Instagram and any other platforms that it's on. I think we're on TikTok, so follow us on TikTok. But make sure you leave us a review. We love good reviews here at the HopeCast Network. Now, I guess I'll let you get back to your show. - Me and then the Stumble Peak true, it was like running an air condition all day long. - That's fantastic. I feel like that's my biggest, one of my biggest fears when I go into a race is what's the weather gonna do, especially here in New England. Even in the fall, we can have some days that are 50s and it's beautiful and cool, but then we could spike and have an 80 or 90 degree day and in October. So, you just don't know it's kind of rough around the scenario to figure out what you're gonna walk into. So, speaking of marathons and overall you're running, I'm curious, is there anything you've ever done, like a mistake you've made through your running journey, that you can share with our listeners to help them kind of learn and from your mistakes as far as something that you've grown from or realized and that you want to, or you learned, 'cause we all make mistakes. We don't know what we know until we know. So, what would you say is your biggest mistake, Ray? - Absolutely. In my first marathon, everyone else, 30 in my PR, I wish I could go back and run it over again because I did not eat enough or drink enough. It was just, you know, you got to eat and drink every 30 to 45 minutes or you're just gonna bulk out, sweat a lot anyway, and my PR is like, there's 40 ish, but I think I could have easily been a 315 or 320 on that first marathon. It was the week after Operation Desert Storm and the invasion of Kuwait. It was in January 21st, 1991, and I ran with this guy who carried America flag and he's one of these guys who could run a marathon every weekend. He kind of goes all these races and I said, "Dude, I'm following you." So, for the first 18 miles, I kept up with him and we're running like these six 30s and seven minute miles and that kind of stuff. And then we kind of dribbled down to 737 45. But as I had the 18th mile, it was like, "Pam!" And he just took off that, "Dude, thank you." It was kind of cool because people are cheering, but the flag is like, "Yeah, they're cheering for me." You know, even though they weren't, but it was cool. Here's the thing I would just say is before you start to run a marathon and you wanna do your first one or even a half is your body's just gonna need something to eat within 35 to 45 minutes. And those little gels are wonderful. Find the pack you like and find the flavors you like and look forward to it. It's your running belt. And the other thing he's missed is that because I tend to get the hot area quickly, I'll discover that mustard is magic. Straight up, frances yellow mustard. If he keeps you from cramping up, particularly late in the race, that works. - So would you bring like little packets of mustard? - Yep, before you were verified, I went to Chick-fil-A across the street from the top square off the air cell and I got like 20 types of them stuffed in my belt. And what I'll discover is the magic for me is I eat a gel after 40 to 45 minutes. Right after eating a gel, I ate a little packet of mustard. And I ran out in New York and it's two years ago, 2022, when it was the hottest one on record. Even the leaders were falling out of this race. The Opians, Indians, several of them just fill out the adoration. So about ran out of mustard around mile 18 or 19 and we're coming to Manhattan. It was all some people cheering that kind of stuff. I would fall and still cramping up on a recent on my belt to get another pack of mustard. I didn't have any. And I ran another mile that kind of cramped up and raised more. And I just knew, I said, if I don't get mustard, I want to be toast. And so I had my credit card on my belt and I ran into a grocery store right in the middle Manhattan. And it was dreamable. It was like 60 degrees in there. I wanted to stay in there, but I bought a bottle of Francis mustard about that big. And so when I grew up, I just kind of said it on the way for the finish for the last hour or six miles. It's been a cost in the finish line. Again, this big bottle of mustard. And the only thing that is a picture. You have to send me that picture. I need to see it. I need to see it. So what is in the mustard that helps so much? So I don't typically eat mustard. Like, I think we have mustard here at the house, but like I've never really been a mustard person. So the biology in it is people can understand is it's high in what's called a steady gas. Or a steady gas that I might be saying that it grew up. Well, for those chemistry people out there, I'm sorry, this I just said it. And essentially, it's like when your body sees that you're giving it some of this acid that they're joining out of, it'll immediately stop cramping. It's almost like if you, for people to talk about drinking pickled juice, pickled juice does the same thing for plants. When you have a slight, your body's going like, you're not absorbing the depth of salt. You're actually going to give me something so it doesn't cramp up. It's just like almost immediate relief. But I found that you use it in preparation for performing the cramp start. It lessens the effect. And in the London, I had a really good experience. I didn't, I'll run out of it off until I've miles went through in 24. I started cramp up a little bit after that. But, and then what worked for everybody? You feel it works for you, but it's an easy way to transport something with you that can beat cramps, other than just going to the salt down. And even with all this thing, day rays and power rays and liquid jails and those kinds of things they make in the European variety. It's a lot of still on the salt for some people like me. And I'm about 180, 500, 90 pounds. So, you know, I need a little more to drink and eat anyway 'cause I'm a little bit bigger than I used to be. - I think we need to get you a brand deal with French. - I love it. - I love it. Give you the mustard. - Give you the mustard shirt. Like you'd be like the mustard runner. - This is the white bean. I can just tell people the phrases they most. - We should tag them. When we put up the recording in the link on the page on Instagram, we're going to tag French as mustard. We're going to be like, you need to sponsor. - Right. - Yes, you're right, oh yeah. - No, 'cause I'm really intrigued and you might push me to try it as a practice feeling because I know pickle juice is really good, but it's messy. - Yeah, you think pickle juice right there, will you? - Yeah. - Yeah, I don't want to bring pickle juice with me. But if I can bring a little packet of mustard from Chick-fil-A or McDonald's or something, then maybe that would be a way to go. Now, here's my follow-up question. - Yes, yes, yes. - You get dehydrated after six or seven, wherever you have any start, you get dehydrated. If you think it, it's just a great, it's almost like a preventative. It keeps your body from cramping. Your body's going like, okay, I'm going to solve. 'Cause your bot, when you cramp is not understanding, it's just while you're trying to get a stop. - Yep. - You know, it's the way to keep it warm. But then you gotta be careful out the pushes who aren't before you take in the, almost like an opiate, or like an opiate for cramps. So let me ask you this. So when you're running, when you're training, do you fuel every run? 'Cause I know like you said, about 30 to 45 minutes is roughly when you should be fueling or adding something in your system. Is there a length of a distance during your training runs that you start adding fuel, or do you fuel anytime you hit over a certain amount of time? Just curious. - That's a great question. Now usually, if I could do it for an hour, 15 minutes without fueling, always sometimes I'll hide dairy, bottles, and bushes along with horses, just to make sure. But then typically, if I'm doing a long run, that's exactly what I'll do the night before, or the morning of, I'll be finding some places along the way where there are parks where I know I can get water and drink, or place where I can do a couple of bottles and bushes beside the road, and I can pick them up at different mile markers. Now, typically, I can go about an hour, an hour or 15 minutes without continuing to fuel. If I'm going to run, you know, 90 miles, I'm like, I know that I need to take some time to fuel. - Same, yeah. I typically, well, I typically do about an hour is what I've been doing, is I'm trying to practice it even at an earlier time, even if I don't think I need it, just so I can try different fuelings as I'm going. So here's my next question. So, over your years of running, can you share with us and nothing's off limits whatever you're comfortable with? What's maybe the most embarrassing thing that's happened to you while running, or you've seen while running? - So, it's easy. First thing popped into the line, I ran into the McAlpine Park in Charlotte where Charlotte, named C.C. runs a racist. But before I became a team member, so right after high school, like a freshman in college, and there was a Saturday race that started and there'd been a big rainstorm Sunday, or once you meet with Friday night before. And so, right from the starting line, it was very moist and muddy and all that kind of stuff. And so, when I took off the starting line, it's kind of something made me mad at the same time too. A guy behind me pushed me, just straight up pushed me and I fell into my head. Straight to the space board. And so, I said, "How many of you did that, "but I'm more confused?" We ran the race, the ran there's a big hill and all those people that run the car behind me, it was a big deal that you run, no twice if you're in college. But I finished right in front of this guy. I'm going to face the top five, but I think I figured out my person who made me his victim, and I had to try to catch him out of bed 'cause I didn't win that race, but that was very embarrassing. Straight and wet. - So, you like faced like your face was kind of-- - Face down, no, that's straight all over me. Like I said, I had to wipe off my face, being able to see and to keep going. - It was okay, it was a good opportunity to demonstrate resilience too. And to keep going. - That's awful, that's awful. Like you did, blah, blah, blah. - Yeah, that was cool. - It was like an 18-20 time. I finished like an 18 minutes, 20 seconds. I had a good place, but I thought I could work for 17, or into the 17s. - Wow. - I thought we got a question now. 'Cause it took me five, 10 seconds to get back up and get going. - You found him though. You found him. - I found him. - I found the one and you passed him. - So do you do this too when you race? So when I get in the crowd, and I'm waiting at the starting line, I'm looking at the people around me. I'll pick one person out of the crowd, the group, and I'm like, no matter what, you're not passing me. Like no matter what, I'm crossing the finish line. And your hat or-- - No, I think you're rude. Wow, it's kind of an way to pick a goal. So sometimes along the way, when there's somebody that is a little faster than me, then it's just a little faster than me. I'll try to stay with them and follow them as far as that can. And sometimes I'll find that that person changes two or three times in the race. That I can keep up with somebody that is in the crowd of having me, that I've picked out the follow for a while. But ultimately, I think that's the last strategy, is to get away and keep pulling you. I just, I think the keeping along the way is to make sure to just stay in your lane and don't get injured, just trying to do something stupid. - Because you definitely can injure yourself. Particularly when you learn to run through the pain and you run through distance and you do this for life, you can take on the world and that kind of stuff. You gotta get hurt. Embarrassing always is not a bad thing, but while running in high school, I had two races, one on Tuesday, one on Thursday, that particular week of my senior year. And that was my best year too. I've been set a great year at one then. But at Navy Institute College do Charlotte, there was a European 10,000 meter race with steeple faces and run over various stuff like that. That was in Saturday, so after running two hard five days, I ran that 10K on Saturday. And wound up a last feel about 300 yards from the finish line. I just had somebody and it felt like they had taken a rock and thrown it in the back of my leg and getting my really, I was turned around like, you sorry, Slicker, what did you do that? But then it was, no, that's not that. And I had a stress fracture and I heard it pop. There was a little green stick fracture, but it was enough too. And I made it through the race and I wanted my race to do stuff like that. But so you, yes, yourself, and yes, you're good, but the instance of your body signals because your body is trying to save you something. It's after running London, having a good time with you for a good day, that kind of stuff. In May, I read 31 miles all month. Now, officer time ellipticals and times on bicycle, you know, the tax cycles and those kinds of things. There's a lot of way lifting and stuff like that. But your body's just kind of like stocks. Wait a minute, get caught back up and they all I'm accelerating my training again now that I'm headed for the fall of the fall season. - Well, that's what I was gonna ask you. So what do you have coming up this fall? Like what are you working towards right now? What can we, what can we cheer you on with coming up? - Awesome. I am gonna do head to coach for the team's 12 people again. You're two vans. We run from Millhud to Stisab, Washington and basically about 24 to 28 hours overnight and one of the other legs. - So how many miles is that? - Just 200, 200 miles. I'll tell people and you run through legs. So that's what I'm gonna get ready for next. I would like to do some other miracles in the future. Maybe Chicago in the fall and took the other spring song before I'll be able to be on a train and be able to do some other stuff. So people. - That's amazing. That's amazing. Well, where can people stay in touch with you? Where do you document your running journey anywhere online or Facebook or social media? If you don't, you should. - Yeah, I'm gonna start doing that. I mean, Ray Mc, there's like 50 Ray Hardies in the world. So one name like, is it? So my middle name is MCK-AY. So on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, it's Ray McK Hardie with an MCK-AY and Hardie with two Bs together. Those are easy ways to stay in touch. I do, I do publish something every day. Sometimes it involves running, but it usually has to do with, I'm a pastor of a church. And so I typically do a devotional Bible study every day that's published at Facebook and Instagram. And really it's just a way to show people how to read the Bible and apply it in your life. But sometimes I use running analogies and I guess that's good. - All right, you know, you could, if you ever wanted to expand on your voice, on your faith, in your passion, you could consider creating something that's running, but you sharing a scripture and sharing it at the end of your run. Or something that comes to mind that then you can bring it back to the book. And in all connect it together, I feel like, and this is just my random thought, the more we can simplify, - Yeah. - The scripture. - Yeah. - I make it relatable, which is what I believe you do from what I've seen and what our connection, Brad has talked about, - Right. - The more we can make impact for everyday people to start opening up their hearts and their minds more vigorous, so. - And so for me that was part of the reason to run for other people too, to raise money for other people. I mean, I like metals, I like all that kind of stuff and I like when you raise this, but I mean, you know that you're the manager, you need to help somebody else. And then it's part of the core of your being that you're helping because you have a greater purpose and a higher purpose than just self-fory or we'll accomplish those kind of things that step will ensure. - Absolutely. - Well, thank you for that. First of all, Aaron, and thank you for sharing our mutual friend, Brad. He's a great guy. He's headed to Minnesota now to be in a new place and I'll be excited about his journey. - I didn't change for him in his life. And if you're listening to the show, if you go to work advice for me, he has a podcast over there. You can hear what Brad is. That's his podcast show. - Yeah, it's absolutely true. I was gonna say though, I told you this was a little bit of a decision. He has a copy, a podcast on work in life for me. And you weren't with me for years and you never asked me to go to this podcast. So people will be about to study. - We're gonna have to question. - The spook off you was going to be wanting to do. He had good ideas and that kind of stuff. - Oh my goodness. Well, thank you Ray so much for hanging out with me today for sharing your running story and sharing about what you do and the impact you're making 'cause it's really, really amazing. And there is such a power in community. - Yes. - And commitment to making a change. And I think sometimes as a society, we get so stuck in our circle. - Yeah. - And just trying to survive day after day after day. But I'll tell you that I know from personal experiences from when I decided to raise money and honor my mom when she passed from cancer. I raised my first raise for Dana-Farber Hospital. It can help you when you become a part of something so powerful like that. - Sure. - It can make you feel like you're becoming alive again. - Right. - And to know that there's more than just every day. - It's all a follower of Jesus. And so one of the things that comes to mind is that he says better to give the receive. It's one of the only things that is said outside of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John that is a recording that Jesus said second hand. You know, they're definitely true with you. That's your life and other people for a greater purpose. It makes a big difference. And to write purpose for you too. - Absolutely. - Oh, well, thank you, Ray, so much. I appreciate you and glad to have you on the show. - My pleasure, Aaron. You have a great day. You take care of that great growing family, athletic family of yours. - Thank you so much, Ray. Take care. - Yes, ma'am, you too. Good luck. - Hey, thanks again so much for hanging out with me this week at the Everyday Runner podcast show. Don't forget to follow along on iTunes and Spotify and even check out the account on Instagram at the Everyday Runner. See you next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
