20 Marathons, 3 Kids, and Boston Dreams: The Maddie Stier Story

DFW Running Talk: Maddie Stier
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Chris Detzel: [00:00:00] Welcome to DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Deel, so let's get started.

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Chris Detzel: ~Alright, welcome to an~ welcome to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel, and today we have special guest Maddie Stier. Maddie, how are you?

Maddie Stier: Awesome Chris. Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited.

Chris Detzel: I'm more excited and you have had quite the journey. Did you run the Dallas Marathon?

As of recent or

Maddie Stier: Yes. Yep. I ran the Dallas Marathon in December, so that was my okay. Yeah, that was actually my 20th marathon, so it was a big accomplishment for me.

Chris Detzel: Wow. So we'll talk a little bit about the Dallas Marathon. I talked to a lot of folks that ran, that and a couple, a few people that won it and the half and et cetera.

So we'll get into that in a minute, but I wanna know a little bit more about you and your journey and who you are, and then we'll just dive into the questions, if that's fair?

Maddie Stier: Yeah, sounds great. Let's

Chris Detzel: do it. So when, why'd you start running? When did you start running? [00:01:00] Let's start there.

Maddie Stier: Okay.

Yeah, so starting way back at the beginning, so I know you've had a lot of my fellow DFW runners on lately and I've enjoyed listening to all their podcasts and what I think is really cool about a lot of them and a lot of these people that you see recently who have won all of our Dallas local races.

Yeah. They've all gotten to running very recently, like within the past five years, which. Is a huge testament to show one, their athletic ability, but two, how hard they've all trained. I am very much on the other end of the spectrum, which maybe goes to show that I've taken a very long time to get where I am, but I more or less have been running really my whole life.

My mom was super into running, growing up, and both of my parents were really into fitness, I just knew if you wanted to exercise, you would go on a run. My, I have, I'm one of seven siblings. My, my sister particularly, she has always very much been into running, so I always saw her as almost crazy.

Like why are you running so much? Is she older? She's [00:02:00] younger.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Maddie Stier: She is in the Marines, but she actually, she runs marathons and she ran her first marathon when she was 14. And she actually almost, I think at the time, if she would've been old enough, she would've qualified for Boston. And I remember seeing her finish.

It was a Cleveland marathon 'cause we're from Cleveland, Ohio. I remember seeing her finish and just thinking, you are crazy. Why would anybody, why would anyone do that? But I also think pathetic. I also think I was a little bit maybe jealous at the time okay, if my little sister's doing this, I can do it.

I'm still some sibling competition there, and. That really, I ran track in high school, I played soccer and then really into college. I went to University of Cincinnati and I ran on the University of Cincinnati running Club Uhhuh, and that's where I learned more about running a little bit more seriously.

A lot of them were training at the time for the Flying Pig marathon, and I just thought, okay, I guess if they're doing the marathon, I'll do the marathon. Why not? So I really just hopped in. And then back to my [00:03:00] sister, she had come down 'cause she was still in high school at the time. She came down the day before and she decided, I'll run it with you.

So she just hopped in. I know she's a little crazy, not normal. I very much know she's not normal, but she hopped in and so I, I pretty much just ran it with her and that's what started all of these marathons and my passion for running. And then, yeah. Since then, so let's

Chris Detzel: back up. Yeah.

How'd you do during that marathon?

Maddie Stier: I think we ran a actually I was looking it up for this. So we ran a 3 26. So your first, this is your first Yeah. And this was the year this was 2013. I remember when we were running that, we came up to the, I think it was the three 30 PACE group, and I remember the Pacers telling me and my sister, Hey girls, if you stick with us, you'll qualify for Boston at this time.

I didn't even know what Boston was. All I knew was what. Okay,

Chris Detzel: cool. I

Maddie Stier: knew the bombing had just happened, so I knew it was a big deal 'cause this was maybe a couple weeks after, but yeah I had no idea. So I just thought that's how it went. You run, if you wanna [00:04:00] do Boston, you do Boston.

It wasn't a big.

Chris Detzel: You didn't know how big of a deal it was to get in. Exactly.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. Yeah. And then from there, obviously my eyes were widened and I realized it is a very big deal and definitely not something you take for granted.

Chris Detzel: So I have to back up because technology froze. So you got, you went to college and you ran, and so you were.

Is that right?

Maddie Stier: So I didn't actually run for the University of Cincinnati. I just ran on the running club, which was a group of kids that would get together after classes. They would, there would be various meets and stuff, but it wasn't, I wasn't a. Competitive college runner by any means.

Chris Detzel: Got it. Okay. So you just ran in college through a running club.

Awesome. And then the next thing was, oh, you should just do a marathon. And you were like, okay, let's do a marathon. And then your sister runs with you. Did she just run with you as a, Hey, I'll run with you to get you through this? Is that kind of how she saw it, or,

Maddie Stier: You have to think. She was in high school at the time, so I think she was like, I'm not gonna let my sister show me up here.

And I felt the same way. [00:05:00] So I think that. Really what contributed to it, and I beat her. So I will say

Chris Detzel: that's, that was my next question. Did you beat her?

Maddie Stier: I did, I do. I think I passed her at mile, like 25 there. But yeah, we, me and her have been neck and neck. She still runs to this day.

So me and her always have had very similar times.

Chris Detzel: How fun. Yes. Wow. I love it. Actually.

Maddie Stier: Yes. I have a

Chris Detzel: twin brother that got me into running,

Maddie Stier: oh, okay.

Chris Detzel: That he doesn't do any running anymore, but he got me into it, did it for a minute. He did it for a while and then got me into it. I started doing it, and then he left and started doing yoga and some other stuff.

Maddie Stier: Hey, yoga can be very hard.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Yeah. He does CrossFit. He stay, he's very active, but

Maddie Stier: yeah.

Chris Detzel: But it doesn't really do much running all right. You got this one marathon down. That's good. And what was your hook, it sounds like

Maddie Stier: Kinda. I then turned it into, okay, I qualified for Boston.

I have to do Boston. So I ran Boston the next year.

Chris Detzel: You didn't do anything in between.

Maddie Stier: No. Between then, 'cause I was in college, I just thought that was the next thing on the plate. So I ran Boston and [00:06:00] I think I actually ran it a little bit slower than I had qualified, so I wasn't happy about that.

So then I went back and hard and I did so hard. Yeah, it's a hardcore doubt. I don't really remember, but I sure I did not,

Chris Detzel: did some running not to what you know now is what we call training.

Maddie Stier: Exactly. Yeah. So I then that kind of was, it turned into I wanna do another one to do better. So I think I turned around and I ran the Buffalo Marathon.

Then right after that. Okay, so I, that's all, I think Boston, end of April, and then Buffalo is usually around Memorial Day weekend or sometime in May. So it was very close. Quick, yeah. And I was able to shave time off again and get closer to what I ran the pig. And then really from there it was just, oh, let's.

Let's just do marathons and keep running for fitness. Did you say the pig? Yeah. The Flying Pig marathon. The Cincinnati Flying Pig. Oh, that's what it was called. Yeah. The

Chris Detzel: Flying Pig.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. Yeah. It's called, I had to

Chris Detzel: stop for a minute. I was like, what?

Maddie Stier: Yeah, it's called the Pig. Okay, got it. Yeah. Got it.

The flying pig, that people call it The pig. Okay. Yeah. So really. From there I would do one or two [00:07:00] marathons a year. Didn't really train like I do now. I think that really came when I moved to Texas, which was in, why'd you move to Texas? So I moved to Texas in 2018 and then Job, yeah, marriage,

Chris Detzel: whatever.

Job.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. Okay. Came down here for work and that's where I really got connected with the running community and learned, what Track Tuesday is, what tempos are, really switching it up, how to build in workouts into your long runs. So when I started training down here, my first at the time I started with Frisco, running Club Uhhuh.

And then I slowly learned and I met people, from White Rock the White Rock co-op, white Rock co-op.

Chris Detzel: Who'd you meet?

Maddie Stier: I, so my first connection, Taylor, so I don't know if Taylor Murphy. I ran with him a lot and part of the Frisco group. And then me and him, we connected with Alex Barientos, Ray Nichols, Mel at the time, of course, Javier, Brent Woodle, all of those.

So we, typically, what we would do is we would train up here in [00:08:00] Frisco Plano during the week, and then we would go down to White Rock for our Saturday long runs.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Maddie Stier: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Makes sense. Are you in Frisco area or?

Maddie Stier: I live in Allen. You do. Okay. Yeah. Got it. Yeah, I originally, I lived in Frisco, but yeah, now I'm over in Allen.

But yeah, it was really, running with, started a bit with Frisco Running Club, then Ray Nichols. So Ray's Track Club originally. That is, that was our core group. And we would meet for track and then we would all go down on the weekends. And this was just interview him

Chris Detzel: by the way.

Maddie Stier: A hundred percent.

Chris Detzel: I've heard of him a few more times. I know him. But I haven't talked to him in a long time. I think of

Maddie Stier: Ray as like the DFW running president. He knows everyone. He will connect everyone.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. Ray is great.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. I'm gonna get I'll get with him anyways. Go ahead.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. Yeah, you definitely should.

Yeah. And this was even pre-loss, pre all of that. This was back like 2018. 2019. So then after my first, real training cycle here and I started running with the co-op downtown or down. By White Rock and all of that. I remember Brent Widdle said on one run, I don't even know if he remembers this, he told [00:09:00] me, because I hadn't broken three yet in the marathon, and he said if you run with this group, you'll break three.

Everyone in this group breaks three. And I remember thinking among this long, this group, and there was, it was a big group on a Saturday morning, just thinking okay, I can keep up with them now. So just stick with it and eventually it will happen. So that year I was training for, that was the 2019 Boston Marathon, so it was.

Basically the first full year I had lived in Dallas and I was going for a sub three

Chris Detzel: at Boston.

Maddie Stier: Yeah, I know.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Maddie Stier: Clearly I don't have a very good plan going into these, but I was going, Hey, run

Chris Detzel: the miles, do the work maybe. Yeah.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. But I ran a 2 54 that year, and I remember finishing and I was blown away.

I think I what was your

Chris Detzel: previous PR before that?

Maddie Stier: The previous PR before that was a 3 0 8.

Chris Detzel: Okay. So it's a lot, but it's still,

Maddie Stier: yeah.

Chris Detzel: Okay. I see it. Yeah, because you're running with the co-op.

Maddie Stier: I was shocked. And I remember, I think I titled my Strava after that run. Holy shit, did I just do that?

Because I, I couldn't [00:10:00] believe it. Yeah. I just, I love it. That's exciting. Now you hear so many people break three, and I heard, I just listened to your your episode with Matt Campbell and they're talking about all these 2 20, 2 30 runners. That's great. They are epic people. But for me at the time, like sub three.

No way. That's illegal. You know what's funny?

Chris Detzel: You know what's funny that you say that? Because that's what came to my mind was during that podcast, Matt Campbell said, he goes, if I can break two 30 and he even said this because I've quoted him a couple times already. That's the only reason I know.

But he goes, the only person that really was breaking two 30 at the time and still for now, is Brent Little. He's like this magic unicorn. But if I break two 30, then. All of us are gonna break two 30. Same thing that Woodle said to you, right? That's true. That's true. If you run with this group,

Maddie Stier: yeah,

Chris Detzel: you're gonna, you're gonna get under three.

And what happened? You got under three. Why? Because it's doable. Like you're already running a 3 0 8.

Maddie Stier: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Think about it. Yeah. You just have to run with these people Then confidence builds upon confidence build. It's all about the community. [00:11:00] I say this almost in every podcast. It's crazy. Yeah, but it's true.

A hundred percent. It proved it. Already. Yeah. Anyways, go ahead.

Maddie Stier: Yeah, no, one of my favorite quotes is if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, exactly.

Maddie Stier: Goes to show with running too. If you're the fastest person in the group, you're in the wrong group. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. No, I love that. All right. Yeah. 2 54. That's great. That's amazing. Yeah.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. So that was 2019 and then, since then I kept trying to chip away. At that time, I sat in the 2 54, 2 53 range for a bit and then. 20. 20 was supposed to be a really big year for me for running. At the time.

I had a goal, I wanted to hit all of the world majors before I turned 30. And so at that time I had done Boston. I had done Chicago, and I had done Berlin. So then in 2020 I was supposed to do both Tokyo and New York. So I was training for Tokyo, and that's when, oh, you know what's

Chris Detzel: coming.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. So that's when everything happened.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Maddie Stier: Found out it was canceled maybe two weeks out and. I had all this [00:12:00] training and I thought, what the heck am I supposed to do now? And I think then, I can't remember who texted me about it. It honestly might have been Liz Northern from Fort Worth and said, I heard what happened about Tokyo.

You should do cow town instead. And this is, I was still newish to Dallas,

Chris Detzel: the 50 K you did.

Maddie Stier: I did do that, but this was the year of the marathon.

Chris Detzel: Okay, got it.

Maddie Stier: So I signed up to do the marathon. It was basically, I think it was maybe the next week or something, but I was already trained.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, you're ready.

Maddie Stier: And it actually was a great year for me to do it. 'cause 2020 was also the year of the Olympic marathon trials. A lot of the fast girls were at the trials that year. Perfect. So perfect segue for me to go and run the marathon. And I actually was able to win the Cowtown marathon that year, which was, did you

Chris Detzel: ever won a marathon before?

Maddie Stier: That was the first time. No. So that was a first. That was awesome. That was a really cool feeling. Especially cow. That's awesome. Cowtown is such a good race. I like to go back every year. I love that race.

Chris Detzel: I do their half every year for 10 years. It's

Maddie Stier: awesome.

Chris Detzel: I [00:13:00] love the atmosphere in Cal Town.

I did interview Heidi. She's the race director.

Maddie Stier: Okay.

Chris Detzel: Earlier this year.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. They do. Gary, who runs their elite program.

Chris Detzel: It's

Maddie Stier: top notch. So definitely a huge shout out to him.

Chris Detzel: So how'd you do? What was your time?

Maddie Stier: So that year for Cowtown my time I won it in a 2 53. So was still pr Yeah, it was a p yeah, it was a PR at that time, so I was still chipping away.

Yeah, I was very happy with that. Then of course, good covid happened and life shut down and then I kept training and I ended up doing the Woodlands in 2021 and that, that is my current pr, so that I ran a two 50 and honestly, it was not a, I didn't run it very smart. I'm pretty sure a highly positive split.

It was a PR too fast. Yeah. I always say whatever it takes. I don't think the listeners are gonna get much tips from me because I don't do these very smart. So yeah, that's my pr And then after, do you, all so yeah, I wanna Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Touch on that because, I'm [00:14:00] somewhat similar and, I have run races where I'll negative split it.

But it's rare. A lot of times I go out too fast, like I'll go. 30 seconds too fast per mile thinking, I can hit that, and then if then I don't, because then I'll start, positive stability. But if you're hitting prs, I think that, yeah, to me that means you went out too fast maybe, but and you felt it at the end.

'cause you probably felt like shit after, the two 50. But maybe if you would've been smarter, you wouldn't have felt as bad. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's kinda how I see that. You still pr and you still had a great race. Although you positive split it. Split it. You still obviously had your best race.

Maddie Stier: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: You probably just how you feel afterwards is gonna be not as fun. It's, yeah, it's not as fun. It's fun PR

Maddie Stier: but yeah. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Later you can talk about it anyways.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. Like when I did brand Chicago 2023, and I think my splits were almost perfect and I finished that race feeling so good, and I know I went out conservative.

I ran it with basically your co-host Jennifer Pope. She [00:15:00] follow, she she was injured so she was just gonna run it with me. But I'm also weird when I run marathons, I don't necessarily like it. I don't really like to run with anyone else. 'cause it can sometimes gets in my head. So I told her I would love to have you as company, but don't talk to me.

So she just ran behind me basically until her hamstrings gave out 'cause she was injured. But. It's funny. You see the pictures and there's me and then there's her right behind me.

Chris Detzel: That's awesome though. So you were running with her before or during kind of some of the runs that you do just every day?

Maddie Stier: Yeah. Yeah. Jennifer and I run together at least once a week. Okay. Ran with her earlier today. So me and her always go back and forth and we bicker on start times and where we're gonna run. 'cause me and her are both very stubborn. And then the.

Chris Detzel: She's a great runner. Oh yeah. If you think about like just her story, like you're saying, a lot of 'em are new.

She's pretty new at running, and hitting like 2 35 is ridiculous. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, she's

Maddie Stier: a very talented runner, for sure.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. All right. So you run you said Chicago with her right? Yeah. You say Chicago? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. [00:16:00]

Maddie Stier: You

Chris Detzel: didn't PR then, doesn't sound like because the last one was,

Maddie Stier: no, that was, it was not a pr but maybe a big chunk.

I skipped you. It, so I PRD at the Woodlands. I thought I would continue down the track of pring and I ended up running Houston in 2022 and I ran a 2 54. I thought my training had gone great but. Honestly, not just the marathon, but the half marathon. I felt like I plateaued. And that kind of segues into maybe my journey as a mom because I had been waiting all this time to, I wasn't really waiting all this time, but I was strategically thinking in my head, how do kids and running fit in?

How can I even keep doing marathons when I become a mom? I'm just about to

Chris Detzel: find out here shortly.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. And after Hus, after Houston didn't go as planned. I still did well, but I didn't, I don't know. I didn't, it didn't go as well as I would've liked. I thought, okay now I'm, I think I'm ready to do this whole motherhood thing.

And my good friend Mel, she had just had a kid. My friend Amy Lyles had just had a kid, so I saw other, so funny,

Chris Detzel: Your, all your friends are having kids. Yeah.

Maddie Stier: And

Chris Detzel: you've [00:17:00] been thinking about it. Now it's time.

Maddie Stier: Yes. Yes. So ended up getting pregnant in the B right after Houston, pretty much. And then I had my daughter December of 2022.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Maddie Stier: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: You have really young kids.

Maddie Stier: Yeah, I, up until December, I had three kids under the age of two.

Chris Detzel: Yeah,

Maddie Stier: that's great. People talk about two under two. We three under two. We had three under two. Yeah. So I had my daughter and I was pleasantly surprised that I had a relatively easy pregnancy where I could run my entire pregnancy.

So

Chris Detzel: by the way, I saw this Instagram post of you with. Your pregnancies. I was gonna say kids, but one of 'em was twins, so Yeah, with where you're kinda show like your belly from the beginning and then you go all the way. Yeah. And I was like, you couldn't even tell the first time that you were pregnant till the last couple of months.

Two or three months. Like it was like, oh my god.

Maddie Stier: Or two kind.

Chris Detzel: Now because you had twins, the next one it was a little bit more obvious. You're super fit. So I think that, that was, thank you. It was just [00:18:00] very interesting. Anyways, go ahead. Sorry.

Maddie Stier: No, that's funny you say that. I was huge with the twins.

I remember my sister-in-law, she came to see me 'cause she came to help us with the 2-year-old when the twins were born and she saw me and she was like, oh my gosh, you're huge. I'm like, yeah, I know the twins. What's actually interesting though is I gained less weight with the twins than I gained with one.

I have no idea how, I don't know how that works, but somehow, yeah. It did. Who does? It did, yeah. But all right, so

Chris Detzel: the first one you have and it was easy-ish pregnancy. Yeah. Easy. That's good.

Maddie Stier: I got to come back to her birth. I know. I am so lucky for being able to say that. Everything went very well.

No hiccups. Her delivery was super seamless. My recovery was great and really I was able to just jump right back into running. Yeah I feel like I didn't really skip a beat with her. Came back and was able to get back in shape throughout the summer. And then that's when I ran the Chicago Marathon in 2023.

So my daughter was, 10 months old at that time when I ran Chicago.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Was it easy, [00:19:00] like when you think about having a partner husband, how does that work? Do you have family that helps? Does your husband help? What's the whole kind of helping situation out?

Because excellent question.

Maddie Stier: It's impossible to do without help, we don't have any family here, unfortunately. Okay. We're both, me and my husband are both from Cleveland, Ohio.

Chris Detzel: It's all him and all you.

Maddie Stier: Yes. So I would not be able to do any of this if it was not for my husband. He gives me way, way too much grace when it comes to running.

We have our system, we have it built and you talked about your brother, like in CrossFit. My husband is very into CrossFit, so he likes to go three days a week and then I like to run. Every day. So how does that work? So we have our system, but even, he holds down the for on Saturdays so I can leave for these long runs.

And at first, with one baby it's not a big deal, but then

Chris Detzel: it becomes

Maddie Stier: a little harder. It becomes a little bit harder when you add more kids into the mix. Oh,

Chris Detzel: the twins.

Maddie Stier: Twins. Yeah. So that's what happened after. So after I ran Chicago, oh yeah.

I knew I wanted, I knew, [00:20:00] we knew that we wanted two kids close in age, and I always said, oh, 202 would be cool.

Let's just do it. Let's just get it over with. Once they

Chris Detzel: grow up, yeah, you get a lot of fighting. But as they become older I have three brothers, you have a lot of siblings, you fight a lot in the beginning, when you hit your twenties you become friends forever. For the most part.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. Yeah. We wanted to enter two. And then so after Chicago figured, okay, now is a good time. And it's weird, you build your pregnancies into your training schedules. But I guess as runners, that's what they do.

Chris Detzel: I love it. That's what runners do.

Maddie Stier: I know, it's funny 'cause you talk to some guys and they are planned different, I don't know. Some guys have talked about oh, when is a good time to get their vasectomy or something like that. Yeah. And then they'll talk about how much time they need to recover. And I'm just like, you guys don't even know us girls. We have to deal with pregnancy. Couple weeks. That's all

Chris Detzel: you or less, that's all you need.

Yeah. It's, I've already had all that happen, and it wasn't that long.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. And I'm just like, come on guys. We have to deal with basically a year of pregnancy, postpartum, all of that, maybe TMI for what you want on your podcast, but.

Chris Detzel: No, it's not. I think this is good. Okay. [00:21:00] When you talk about postpartum, is it, obviously it's a real thing.

How did that affect you at all? With your first or second?

Maddie Stier: Yeah, postpartum is a real thing. Again, I think I'm very fortunate that I didn't have a lot of, I didn't, I. Really have postpartum depression or the baby blues that a lot of people have. It is a mind trip, I'll tell you that going from being pregnant to not, you are on high alert and it's, your hormones are all over the place.

Really, for me even. And I can get into it with a twin pregnancy, but that's why I right away as soon as I could, I would at least walk every day to get out. 'cause I needed, I. Before I had my daughter, I had a seven year run streak where I was running for every single day. So going from that seven years?

Yeah, seven years. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy. But I don't know if you wanna count on a run streak. 'cause I've heard some people say it doesn't count unless it's like a minimum of three or four miles. Mine was just a minimum of one mile. So

Chris Detzel: cares. Yeah. That counts.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. After then having the kids and not being able to run it, it's hard.[00:22:00]

I guess that would've been hard to,

Chris Detzel: Lose that streak one, but then realize that I can't get out there every single day anymore.

Maddie Stier: Yes. Yeah. Yep. It is definitely different, I guess back to. We're taking that. That's fine. We're doing good. Yeah we're doing great. We're all over the place, but it's good sidebars.

That was the word I was looking for. So back to

Chris Detzel: that was my fault, by the way. No, it's good. I like to go on sidebars. It's good. I like the sidebars.

Maddie Stier: So Yeah. After Chicago, we wanted to go for our second kid and, we were lucky where we were able to get pregnant pretty quickly right away.

We, I got pregnant. My husband did not get pregnant.

Chris Detzel: Just say we, let's just go with it.

Maddie Stier: I knew this is where it gets funny. I, so I basically knew I was pregnant right away. I could just tell before I even took a pregnancy test. I could just tell I actually had taken one early and it was negative, but I think it was too early.

Finally I took one. It was positive. And my, again, my sister-in-law, who, she's basically my best friend, she was visiting and she has one of those like a home doppler, which is basically, you can listen to the baby's [00:23:00] heartbeat. And this was before I had gone to the doctor or anything, so we Okay.

Yeah, we, that's fun. I just knew I was pregnant with one. We thought, oh, let's, oh no, this where you, let's see if we can hear the heartbeat. So she's doing it and she listens on one side. She said, oh, I think that's the heartbeat. We're like, oh, cool. She goes and she's wait. But is this the heartbeat over here or is that your heartbeat?

We're like, I don't know. This is weird. I'm just like, you don't know what you're doing. We didn't think anything of it. Yeah. And then I go to the first ultrasound and the we, the ultrasound tech does a scan and the first thing she says is, oh, you're the lucky one. It's twins. I was speechless. I could not, I think I said, are you shitting me?

Chris Detzel: Yeah,

Maddie Stier: and my husband just sat there my

Chris Detzel: gosh, I see shit. No.

Maddie Stier: Yeah, and you're a twin. So I guess, but all I could think of was dollar signs. Yeah. We already have a baby at home. How the heck are we gonna do this? How am I gonna be able to run? How huge am I gonna get? All of those things went through my mind figured

Chris Detzel: out.

But [00:24:00] yeah. Yeah,

Maddie Stier: so that was the start of the Twin Endeavor.

Chris Detzel: So a little sidebar my mom, whenever she got pregnant with me, and Buddy is, his name is my brother's name. It was a long time ago, right? I'm 50. So you can imagine, 50 years ago when they didn't have all the same things. And my mom was not, she was a teenager.

I think she was 17, 18 when she had us. And so she, she had buddy. And they're like, wait, here's another one. What? So she couldn't, she didn't know number one. What? And so they're like, yeah, here's another one. And she's

Maddie Stier: oh my God. Oh my God. There's another. So she didn't know until delivery, that smile.

Chris Detzel: She did not know until delivery and until one was done. And then another one's coming, she didn't know until then. Wow. Yeah. She must could have been like, she must've saw it

Maddie Stier: during her whole pregnancy. This is an active child.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. He must be

Maddie Stier: huge.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. It's a little sidebar, but that is crazy.

But we all have our stories, yeah.

Maddie Stier: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: But yeah, go ahead. [00:25:00] Sorry. No, that's figure out you're gonna have two babies.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. Figure out. We're gonna have two. And it was funny 'cause it was right before a bunch of me and my running friends, a bunch of the slots we were getting together for lunch that day.

It was a holiday lunch. This was around Christmas time. Okay. So we had the ultrasound and me and my husband go home and then we're about to go to this lunch. So I just remember just sitting at that lunch like. What am I can't tell anyone yet. What am I supposed to do? Yeah. Yeah, that's the

Chris Detzel: hardest part is when you can't tell people.

Yeah. 'cause you don't wanna, you wanna make sure things are okay and all these things, but then you have a double whammy there. Yeah. You got twins.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. That

Chris Detzel: you can't wait to tell somebody, but yet,

Maddie Stier: yeah, you

Chris Detzel: can't.

Maddie Stier: Yep. Yeah, that was very, that was a big challenge to keep a secret, but it was very, it was really fun to tell people about a twin pregnancy because second kid, you tell people you're pregnant.

They're like, oh

Chris Detzel: yeah. Oh,

Maddie Stier: that's great. Yeah,

Chris Detzel: I'm having twins.

Maddie Stier: When you tell people, twins, and especially when you already have a baby, they think you're crazy, but. It's not like

Chris Detzel: you picked twins. I didn't feel, I'm sure you're happy now, but Yeah. [00:26:00]

Maddie Stier: Yeah, true. And I didn't really feel, I felt crazy, but another name I'll drop is, I don't know if Madeline Rouse.

She is another runner. She's a sloth. Again, her name is Madeline. She has four kids and her two, her youngest two are twins. And she is my inspiration because she has these kids and she's still able to pull off running in these high mileage weeks. And she's a sub three runner. She did it all. If she did it.

I can do it. So she was my inspiration the whole pregnancy. And I text her all the time now about twin stuff. So twin moms definitely stick together. That's awesome.

Chris Detzel: See, running brings people together. Yes. In not just running, right? Yes. Just in friendships and things.

Maddie Stier: A hundred percent. All my best friends are for running.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you all have something in common so it makes sense,

Maddie Stier: yeah. So then really just throughout I, the pregnancy progressed, it was pretty uneventful somehow. I was Did you run

Chris Detzel: during,

Maddie Stier: did Somehow I was able to run the entire pre twin pregnancy. Towards the end, it turned more to run walking, but I still got out there, unfortunately, with [00:27:00] the twins, fortunately or unfortunately, whatever it.

It ended up being a C-section, so that takes a lot more recovery than my fir my daughter. But when I was finally able to jump back in and train, it's a journey, but it's had its ups and downs and I finally feel like now I'm really back in shape and I can do it again.

Chris Detzel: Let's go slightly back from now till December.

You did run a pretty good marathon in Dallas. Like a 3 0 1 I think I saw, or three, no, three hours and like one, one second. Yeah,

Maddie Stier: can

Chris Detzel: you believe that? And I was like,

Maddie Stier: I look at it at a positive because my yeah. So my dad was visiting my dad and brother and they brought, how was it not

Chris Detzel: a positive?

I was never gonna say it's a negative.

Maddie Stier: They brought my daughter to the race, to the marathon and I ran off to give her a kiss and I ran back. So she is the reason for the one second. So I second. It's because of her and it's good. It's worth it. It's a badge of honor.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. It's alright. Yeah. I mean there's other marathons.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. But Dallas, it was really just supposed to be, get back in shape postpartum. Let's see what we can do. Boston, which I'm training for now, was the real goal. And Dallas [00:28:00] training, it just went, it went really well. I really think I had more in the bag than I gave, but it was a terrible day.

I don't. I'm sure you talk to other people very humid so that its toll. Yeah. I pace

Chris Detzel: the one 50. Okay. A half. So I just remember I was like, man, this is a rough day. Yeah. It was rough for marathoners.

Maddie Stier: It was very rough. Yep. So that really brings us to where we're today. Training for Boston going we'll see how it goes.

Chris Detzel: Do you have a goal in mind?

Maddie Stier: If I could do. Sub three, I would be happy, I would be ecstatic. Obviously prs are always in the back of your mind. Of course. Just given my life right now and how crazy it is with the three kids and work and everything, being able to train and do the mileage that I'm doing is a big enough accomplishment for me.

Where I would be happy with a sub three, and if it's closer to the 2 55 range, that's awesome too.

Chris Detzel: Talk about training for Boston. What, tell me about the mileage, how you're. Doing that and all of that stuff, because I think now you do have three kids.

Maddie Stier: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: How are you managing that? What does the training look like and that kind of stuff?

Maddie Stier: Yeah, [00:29:00] so I definitely do high, higher mileage than probably most, I, it's very early mornings to be able to get it to work. Usually 5:00 AM starts, 'cause I have to get in as many miles as I can before the kids wake up. And then, or it will be I basically wait until my husband. Pulls in from getting back from CrossFit and then I take off right away so we can be, we can tag team with the kids.

So there's that. And then

Chris Detzel: so he gets up early? Yeah early to go do CrossFit.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. He'll, when he goes to 5:00 AM class, so he's back in time too. And then it's, I would say it's 90% of my training is in the morning. And then most recently when I've been. Getting higher up in mileage.

I'll add in the doubles, the four miles for a couple times a week to be able to peak in the peak week. Kinda like the sloth mentality,

Chris Detzel: right?

Maddie Stier: The doubles,

Chris Detzel: yeah, the doubles, yeah.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. No, I

Chris Detzel: think it is.

Maddie Stier: Yeah, a lot of us do doubles. 'cause it's, with work, it's, you can't, it's hard. Can't do all to do it [00:30:00] all in the mornings.

Chris Detzel: Can't do 15 or 20 miles or whatever the number is.

Maddie Stier: Exactly. And it's impossible to get into the, or a hundred mile weeks without doing doubles. So you have to be able to build it in.

Chris Detzel: You do a lot of speed work or is it just mainly

Maddie Stier: Yep. Yeah, I'll do speed work every Tuesday. I'll do some assortment. A lot of times it's been marathon pace meat me and.

Taylor Murphy and some other sauce will meet at Fowler Middle School in Frisco and, or I guess it's in Plano. And there's a really good three mile loop that has hills, which we'll do a lot of MP and like tempo work on. So that's been really good for training and then, going long on the weekends and building in a lot of alternating marathon pace or half marathon pace workouts into the long run.

Okay. A lot of that. I also, something maybe a little unique about me Too is I do a lot of strength work on top of that. So I don't physically go to a CrossFit class, but I do a lot of I'll see my husband's workouts and he'll share 'em with me and I'll do them at home. And we have a really [00:31:00] good, I.

Set up in our garage where I'll do a lot of strength training.

Chris Detzel: What kind of strength training do you mean? Is it a lot of leg stuff or whole body kinda stuff? Or what? Whole

Maddie Stier: body, pullups, pushups, burpees, box, jump weight.

Chris Detzel: What pullups can you do? If you were to outta curiosity at one time?

I'm working on it. Yeah. Let's say if you had to do it all at once,

Maddie Stier: they do 10 pretty good form, and then it would get pretty sloppy from there. Yeah, but I can

Chris Detzel: only do seven or eight. I've been working pretty heavy lately on that. As you get older it gets harder, and if you never do it, then it's hard.

But now I've started to do some of those and it's like when you get older, you really gotta. Work on your core and stuff. Because running's just, this. Sounds like you've been doing a lot of really good strength training that's probably really gonna be helpful to you. Yeah.

That's great. How do you think about like, when you go into marathon, things you eat? Is it go or, you know what? I'm just curious how your nutrition works.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. For me it has definitely changed since, especially since postpartum With the twins, I used to be a big ucan advocate. I [00:32:00] loved ucan.

I would take the powder and I would drink it 45 minutes before long runs. After the twins, it really didn't sit well with my stomach, I have actually switched. I do a combination. I do gels. I really like the BPN Bare performance nutrition gels. And then Morton's always great, but it's very expensive, so I save those.

I use those for the big workouts. Those are my favorite and I usually will do it for longer. It really depends. But longer run workouts, I'll do 'em every maybe five or so miles, and then I try to consume a lot of electrolytes prior. I actually, surprisingly have a quite sensitive stomach, so I have to make sure I eat very bland, almost the day before big workouts and races.

Chris Detzel: So I'm not a big fan of eating a. Ton of food the night before, like people were like, oh, I gotta eat this big plate of spaghetti or something like that. I'm like, no, I'm getting some fish. And same vegetables or something. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yep. So during the race. How does that work? Like [00:33:00] you take maybe five or six gels overall or do you take more?

Maddie Stier: Yeah, five or six. Think I

Chris Detzel: saw you running on one of your videos and you had full of stuff, and I was like, dang, I think that's really interesting that maybe it was during Dallas or something. You had these red shorts on and then these pockets looked really full.

Maddie Stier: I know what you're doing. I don't know.

Yes, I do carry my gels. However, I also run with my phone, which takes up space, and I also run with EpiPens. Yes, I. Learn that the hard way. But I carry EpiPens with me when I run, which also take up space. But yeah, my, my friends make fun of me for having loaded pockets all the time. I used to run with nothing.

I feel

Chris Detzel: like the jerk now. Sorry.

Maddie Stier: No. You are fine. But I did notice you had a lot of stuff in your pocket. It is a lot. I like the sports bras that have the pockets in the back that I'll use, but during marathons that's hard to get stuff out. Yeah, I definitely have a lot of cargo that I carry with me.

So I

Chris Detzel: wasn't just, I wasn't just imagining things no,

Maddie Stier: It's true. And it's something I get made fun of but I'll take it if it means I survive, whatever works by me.

Chris Detzel: [00:34:00] EpiPens, you've gotta have those. Geez. Yes. Any stories about that? You said you learned the hard way.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. So I I feel like so many people have heard this story, so people are.

I's heard this story

Chris Detzel: that's listening to this.

Maddie Stier: So I am deathly allergic to fire ants, actually. Wow. Which I know is unique, but I did not grow up here. I grew up going to Florida and stuff when I was younger, but. I guess it's something you can develop over time. Did I lose you? Looks like it stopped for second.

No, you're still there. There we go. Okay. There was two different instances. One instance that happened on a run, and thankfully there was a nurse on that run with us, Connor Brock, and Ray Nichols was on the run and a few others, but they were able to take me to an urgent care. We didn't know at the time what it was.

It was in the summer, and we thought maybe I was just dehydrated. That one was bad, but not as bad as the next time, so we didn't know it was fire ants that caused that. We just thought maybe this was a weird one-off incident. The second time it actually happened when I was at home and Eric Brittle was over, my husband was there and I got bit, and it [00:35:00] quickly got bad.

They had to call 9 1 1, and I got taken in and basically I went into anaphylaxis and we learned I am deathly allergic to fire ants. Very scary situation. Anaphylaxis is terrible. Since then, I wanna know, but Sounds like it. Yeah. I had no idea. I, I didn't know that a reaction like that could even happen.

And then

Chris Detzel: what is it in the fire ants that you're allergic to? That makes no sense.

Maddie Stier: They have venom in them. Oh. So the fire ant venom. And what's interesting is, you could go get a test and it could say you're allergic to fire ants, but that doesn't mean you're gonna have a reaction like me.

So you can't really go in, and I'm not a doctor, so don't quote me on this. You can't go in and get. Tested and understand what's gonna make somebody have a certain type of reaction. Yeah, it could show that you are gonna have a reaction, but. Er worthy. You don't know. So that's what's very scary about allergies.

So I've, it's been a long journey, but I do fire ant shots now. Doesn't mean I'm immune, but it definitely will help if helps in the case that I get bit and I feel like I tell [00:36:00] everyone I know because you could stop for water and there might be an a fire anthill there and you don't know. So I have EpiPens with me exactly.

Chris Detzel: Especially in Dallas.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. Yes. Yeah, very. It was a very scary situation. And I was, when that happened, I was, I think maybe 12 or 14 weeks pregnant with my daughter. Oh my God. So that's actually how Eric Brattle found out I was pregnant because he had to call 9 1 1. I shouldn't laugh about this, but when he called 9 1 1, they asked, oh, was she pregnant?

And he was on speaker, and Eric said, no, she's not pregnant. And my husband who's trying to make sure I'm okay, yells, yes, she is pregnant. So that's how.

Chris Detzel: That's how Eric found out. Yeah. See, I told you didn't look pregnant.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. That was very, that was really early on.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Wow. Okay. I appreciate you sharing that story.

That's an intense, I'm allergic to shellfish, I'm not gonna get, stung by a shellfish, during the run or anything, so

Maddie Stier: Yes. Not a, maybe not a threat while running.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. He's not running run. Yeah, exactly. Yep. Wow. Okay. That's good that you carry that.

It's kinda a bummer that you have to, but.

Maddie Stier: Yeah, [00:37:00] they have these, because originally the EpiPens are these big EpiPens and Yeah, I something, yeah, I was saying this is, I like to run. This is annoying to carry. They actually have these smaller, they're called the AVI Q. They're just a small rectangle about that big or so smaller than the palm of your hand and.

I can carry that. I used to have to carry two. Now that I've done the shots I can get away with carrying one and I just keep the other one in my car. Just put it Did you

Chris Detzel: just

Maddie Stier: put it in your

Chris Detzel: pocket

Maddie Stier: or something?

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Oh, okay.

Maddie Stier: I always try to find shorts that have pockets or sports bar with pockets.

'cause I don't like the belts or any of those things.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Laine there. Now, so Boston is your main race now. Are you bringing the family or,

Maddie Stier: yeah, so me and my husband are going to go and we're gonna bring the twins. Okay. One of my, I told you, I'm one of seven. So family across the globe. My brother lives in Wayland, Massachusetts, which is along the course.

So we're gonna stay with him and his wife. So we'll visit them and my daughter will stay here with my mother-in-law.

Chris Detzel: Okay, good. That's. Positive. You got some help there? A little bit. We could, we [00:38:00] probably

Maddie Stier: could leave the twins too, but it's a lot to leave with. It's a lot to leave with one person for sure.

And I'm not ready to leave them yet either. Just me being a mom. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. He will be though. That just takes time. Are all right. So what's after Boston? What's the plan after that? You just gonna take some time off, or is it,

Maddie Stier: I tell everyone it's Maddie's Summer of strength season.

Chris Detzel: Okay, so

Maddie Stier: I, that's just do five Ks and 10 Ks.

That's what I'm titling it. Yeah, I'll do five Ks and 10 Ks, but I really do just wanna focus more on the strength aspect and do a lot of hit workouts, CrossFit workouts. I have some goals that I wanna achieve this year on non-running goals, like strength goals, so I wanna focus on that. And TPD, if I do a marathon this fall, Boston has been a lot training for it, just with my.

Life situation. So if I do one in the fall, winter, maybe CIM, but I'm still TBD on that,

Chris Detzel: A really cool 5K is called Mambo Miles. I don't know if you've ever heard of it, [00:39:00] margaritas, but. Yeah, so it might be an opportunity in June, talk to Travis. Today, Travis, he runs with you guys every now and then anyways.

It's Hey dude, you gotta do this 5K and this is where the parties are at. It's all the five Ks, the mambo

Maddie Stier: miles.

Chris Detzel: Mambo Miles. It's, yeah, it's, yeah. Get a Mambo taxi or two. That is great. Right after the 5K, I dunno what it's about. These five Ks in

Maddie Stier: June.

Chris Detzel: It's in June. Okay. Type in Mambo miles.

Maddie Stier: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: And it's right there. Sign up, say hello. I'll be in Boston. By the way, my wife is running her 12th Boston Marathon in a row. Wow. And then she goes right to London. I'm not gonna go to London with her. I'll go to Boston. So I'm running the 5K and I told Brent I would try to beat him, that's not a.

Maddie Stier: Congrats. Your wife though, 12 in a row.

Chris Detzel: That's, yeah. Yeah. So it's exciting for her. And she, again, she's going to London, which she'll just run and walk that one because you can't run hard two marathons I don't think, in a row. One week after another.

Maddie Stier: Do you know Ferrell? He did that a couple [00:40:00] years ago.

He did. He did Boston and then he went and did Chicago. During the Covid year when they were back to back.

Chris Detzel: Wow.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: No way. Did I miss anything? Is there anything that I should have asked that I just completely missed?

Maddie Stier: I think so. I just wanna say I love what you're doing with the running community.

I think. I know a lot of people listen to this. Called out my sister a few times, but she lives in Hawaii and she listens to this. She asked me, she does after, I don't, I think it was after Match. She just listened to Match and it was right after you texted me to be on this. She said, when are you gonna be on Chris's podcast?

'cause it sounds like all your friends are. I was like, oh, he just texted me actually. So yeah it's funny. That's funny. You're reaching far and wide.

Chris Detzel: That's good. And if she ever wants to come on, let her know that she's welcome. I'm always open to have other runners that. Wanna talk about their running journeys and things.

Yes. It's a DFW focus, but at the same time, I Can you get a random girl from Hawaii? Yeah. From Hawaii. Random and downloads? No, there's some people that listen. Yeah, no I think that, it is funny 'cause I did have a, an elite athlete on from Houston and he [00:41:00] did okay. From a download standpoint and, but oh, he is just not known in Dallas, Fort Worth, right?

So people are like, yeah, I don't know.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. Makes sense. I think it's cool when people hear their friends, they like to hear their friends stories. Keeps me entertained when I was doing all my doubles.

Chris Detzel: I always tell people is when you get on, it's kinda and I didn't tell you this, but generally if it, they're nervous or something, it's like, hey, it's just like you and me running together.

Yeah. We come out, I just wanna know about your life and it's probably gonna be me asking you more questions than anything. Yeah. In general that's what happens, but. I'm just gonna, I wanna know about you, your journey, how you got into it, and eventually, if we do this more than once, then I'm gonna get to know you even more, because I'm not gonna ask you about your journey anymore, right?

I'm gonna ask you about how's training, how's this or that. Who knows? But yeah, it's been a lot of fun for me and really it's just trying to get, people like you to. Be able to tell your stories because so many interesting people doing some really cool things and think about it like you've been running for a long time, right?

You have a lot of things to share and we probably didn't even get to half the stuff. We just got to your journey, which is a great story. You've had kids, you've had [00:42:00] to deal with that, the people, your body's probably changed a little bit. Your network from getting people to keep your kids or whatever, to go do these things.

You, you and your husband have had to switch lives, and change lives, and what does that mean? A lot of people are going through that. And they want to hear it.

Maddie Stier: Yeah. And I wanna

Chris Detzel: get it out there. So thank you for your

Maddie Stier: No, I appreciate it. I think it's, we always joke when we run, if you were to film or if you were to record some of the conversations Yeah.

That people have when running, it would make a great podcast. Maybe you can do Chris on the road one day and you bring your Chris on the road, you bring your little microphone and you record.

Chris Detzel: I'll be like, you guys are going too fucking fast, man. Come on. I can't.

Maddie Stier: That would actually be really funny.

Or you on a bike and you go across. Yeah, I'll

Chris Detzel: be on

Maddie Stier: a bike. Oh, down to the lake one Saturday morning. Wow. That would be interesting. You just catch up. It'd be fun. You have a prom.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, I like it.

Maddie Stier: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Get a couple of mics, and say, Hey, can you wear this real quick? Yeah. Or Maddie, this has been really great.

Really appreciate your time and thank you everyone for tuning in to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Tetzel. Don't forget to write and review us. And Maddie, thanks again.

Maddie Stier: Awesome. Thanks Chris. Take care [00:43:00] everyone.