From 4:28 to 2:52: Traci Duty's 20-Year Marathon Journey

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

All right. Welcome to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Zel, and today's special guest is Tracy Doty. Tracy, how are you?

Traci Duty: Hi. I am good. How are you, Chris?

Chris Detzel: Really good. It's good to connect with you again.

Traci Duty: It is. It's been a while, a really long while.

Chris Detzel: It has, we were talking pre-show, and I think we mentioned it's probably been since you ran Boston last time.

So I saw you and your husband, or I saw your husband talked to him for a little while, and then you came out. So I, I don't know if that was how long ago that was, but

Traci Duty: Was that 2023 or?

Chris Detzel: Yeah

Traci Duty: maybe not that long ago. I don't know. Maybe it was into you after.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Traci Duty: I think you, I don't know exactly

Chris Detzel: when it was, but I remember,

Traci Duty: yeah.

Chris Detzel: Connecting with your husband. Maybe it was two or three years ago, who knows? But yeah. Yeah. And so I wanted to talk to you today because you have an interesting journey and I can't wait to talk to you more. [00:01:00] I learned a ton just talking to you for the last five or six minutes, so let's get into it.

Tell me a little bit about you and how you got into running, when you started running and all that kind of stuff.

Traci Duty: All right first off, I'm married to Jay. We've been married for 22 years. Wow.

Chris Detzel: Congrats.

Traci Duty: Whoa so long. We went in college and then we have a 10-year-old son Nash. He's about to be 11.

He's in fifth grade. Yeah. Super awesome. Is he a drummer? He is. He's like a very amazing drummer. It's I know,

Chris Detzel: like I remember several years ago, five, seven, I don't know, however long ago I saw Facebook and he was playing a post that you did. He did, and I was like, holy cow. This kid is like really good.

So he's still doing it. Then

Traci Duty: Chris, we bought him his first drum set when he was two.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, two. I was

Traci Duty: like, yeah. He's been going ever since. So that's great. Great.

Chris Detzel: That's awesome. I

Traci Duty: running, so Chris, I have, I always refer to myself as I was that crazy kid that always loved to run. Like I have loved to run since I can remember, since elementary school.

I ran track in junior high and high school, but I was always, I think in junior [00:02:00] high I anchored all of the relays. So I was fast and then come high school super fast,

Chris Detzel: like just like short distance.

Traci Duty: Yeah. That was just short. I did not do long distance. The longest I did, so in high school I ran the 800 that was like my race and then I ran the mile relay.

So Okay. Those were my two things, but I So you basically

Chris Detzel: did a quarter and you did the 800. Wow. Yeah, so it

Traci Duty: was always a little shorter distance. I was not long distance. I think my coach made me run cross country in high school just for conditioning and I did not love that, but I did it. As

Chris Detzel: was a kid, man, I did cross country, but I always thought it's difficult.

Traci Duty: It was hard.

Chris Detzel: I know, I

Traci Duty: remember funny story. There was one, so I went to, I lived in Midland at the time. That's where I went to high school, went to Midland League and there was a cross country meet and it was super cold that morning and I don't know, I like, did not wanna go. So I'm like, you know what? I think I'm just gonna like sleep in and skip it.

My coach didn't let me, I got a call from my coach, they like held the bus for me. And this is like not my personality at all. I'm like a hundred percent like I'm gonna do it. I will [00:03:00] commit. But for whatever reason I was like, I really don't wanna go. But they made me go and it was miserable, but I did it.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, sometimes you have to do that when, especially when you go out and train and run and all that kinda stuff. That's right. So you did 800, 400. Did you go to state at all or was it just,

Traci Duty: okay, so man I got third at regionals. I should have gone to state. It was my senior year and I just let the girl that got second, she just got out.

I let her get a little too far ahead of me too early on, but she was dying at the end and I had a kick and I like almost caught her, but. I didn't, so I got third at regionals but I didn't get, couldn't go to state, so an alternate. So one of our relay teams made it, and so I went as an alternate for the relay team, which was super cool.

So I still got the go. What's funny about

Chris Detzel: that is I think that's something we'll always remember, right? Yeah. Something like that. Like one time I went to this half marathon and I was running it, it was Paris, half Paris, Texas Uhhuh, first time they ever did it a long time ago. [00:04:00] And. I was running it.

The first half was pretty easy. And yeah. Then I was like, I'm feel pretty good. I, 'cause I was high fiving people and everything else, and that I just didn't hold ass. And I was like, okay, it's fun. I was passing people left and right. I got into third place, like I could see the first and second place person and I wasn't gonna catch the first or second 'cause I, but I was, I could see 'em in sight.

Yes. And so I have my headphones on and I think they were this big as well. And I see this guy, he's managing whatever, and I just take a left and he might've been saying something to me, I don't know. But then I go like literally, maybe not a quarter, but just a little point, one or two miles. I look back and I see them passing me, like I, oh no running.

I tried to catch her again, and so I'll always remember that I would've got third place in that race and I got fifth

Traci Duty: yeah. Yep. I hear you on that. I'm just,

Chris Detzel: sorry we digress a little bit.

Traci Duty: No, I like it. I like [00:05:00] it.

Chris Detzel: But sorry, you get outta high school, go to regions pretty fast. Did pretty well and yeah.

So what was next?

Traci Duty: Okay, so I went to college. Obviously didn't run in college. I wasn't quite fast enough to run in college. But I just ran for fun. But I will say, so one of my good friends, his name was Walt Hill, and he actually was the one who got me to run my very first marathon. So I ran my first marathon in college.

Chris Detzel: Wow.

Traci Duty: It was I think it was 19 years old and it was like 2000. That's right. And it was in Abilene, Texas, which is probably the worst place to ever run your first marathon. It was called The Great Southwest Marathon, and it was in March. I don't think they do. I went and looked it up. 'cause there was like, that's before records were kept online.

Yeah. And so it's pre all of that. So I don't even fully remember my time, but my friend Walt, he was I think he ran for a CU, he was very fast and he was running it into, I was like, I'll run it. Chris, I think I did like maybe a 15 mile run. I did not really know how to train for it [00:06:00] whatsoever.

Nobody does. Chris, I wore cotton, everything. They didn't have any kind of like dry sticks. Yeah. It was so heartless race. It was so hard.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. But you did it.

Traci Duty: I did it. I did it

Chris Detzel: running like 20 or 30 miles a week and that was it. Or what?

Traci Duty: Something like that. I don't even, to be honest with you, I don't even remember how I trained for it.

I just remember maybe doing one 15 mile run and then I would run with my friend Walt at school. But I like trained for part of it. Like I think I started training over like the Christmas break anyways, it was, I remember, I think it was like mile 18, I looked overhead at him. I was like, I need some encouragement.

Like I, I don't know if I'm gonna finish this. Yeah. So he was such a trooper. And he was so patient with me, but we finished, I think I ran like a 4 28 and yeah,

Chris Detzel: That's okay. Like that's always a good first marathon, especially 19 and not even knowing anything about it.

Traci Duty: I had no idea. But also, this is gross, but like I almost lost all of my toenails. I lost eight toenails, just found

Chris Detzel: out one run.

Traci Duty: From that one run, it was, I had gotten [00:07:00] everything. It was probably, my shoes were not the best, we've learned. So it's funny, my

Chris Detzel: wife was telling me that she thinks she's gonna lose it to now from her last couple of races.

So it happens. Yeah.

Traci Duty: It happens.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. All so you get that and you wanted to do it again, or you didn't do it for a while, or what?

Traci Duty: I didn't do it for a while, so I did that one. And I remember waking up the next day and my body hurt so bad. Also, I thought like I was gonna have to cut all my hair off 'cause it was like, ended up in this rat's nest at the end of my race.

I was just like, what happened? And I like, I just remember waking up in the middle of the night. My body hurt so bad. Like I said, I didn't, I think, I didn't have any nutrition really. I might've had stuff on gotten a water at the water stop. It was also a very small marathon. The weather was, it was at the end of March in Abilene, Texas.

Sure. It was like not a great first experience, but obviously it didn't deter me because. I kept at

Chris Detzel: it, but you did it with a friend, and so that's probably what kind of pushed you a little bit. I'm sure

Traci Duty: I would not have finished that race if it hadn't have been for my friend Walt. Like he got me to the end, but it was so hard.

But I [00:08:00] didn't run my next, so that was what, 2000 and then I looked back and my next race, my next marathon was 2004.

Chris Detzel: Okay. Were you a little smarter this time, or

Traci Duty: Not really? I actually ran slower and it was in insane. What made you decide to do this marathon? Texas? It was in San Antonio. It was not a good marathon.

What was I thinking? I don't know.

Chris Detzel: What made you decide to do that one and was Because I think I

Traci Duty: had a friend. I had a friend, so my friends always were like, I feel like a lot of my race is you're doing it. Okay, I'll do it. And so I, one of my roommates in college, she was doing it and I'm like, okay, I'll do it.

I might have trained a little bit better, but I ran a slower time. I ran a 4 36. Okay. In that race.

Chris Detzel: Did you run with somebody this time again, or

Traci Duty: Right. We ran together and then she died. And so I ran like the second half of the race and the San Antonio marathon at this point, I don't know what it is now.

I think it's still going on, but it was two loops. So you did two loops and the loops were not great. It was not, yeah, it's not great.

Chris Detzel: All so ran a couple marathons. Did you ever get a to a point where you're like, or [00:09:00] when did you get to the point where you're like, you know what, I've gotta train for these?

Traci Duty: So that was my next one. Okay. So I didn't run my next marathon until 2010. Yeah. Okay. And at that point I had been, I had a friend, Matt Aaron, I don't know if you know him. He ran with the DRC for a while. Yeah, I know who he

Chris Detzel: is. Yeah. Okay.

Traci Duty: So we, he, we went through a season of running five Ks together and like our, my husband and his wife were also really good friends.

We did five Ks and he was like, I'm gonna do the Dallas Marathon. I'm gonna do that. And then also at that point. I dec I was 30 and I was like, I decided that, you know what, I'm gonna train for it and then I'm gonna qualify for Boston.

Chris Detzel: So finally got some goals.

Traci Duty: Yes. So I had a goal. I was like, I'm gonna qualify for Boston.

I'm gonna actually train for this. I think I still use like a plan out of the running, running magazine. What's the main running magazine? I don't know. There was a magazine that I like took the plan out of Runner's

Chris Detzel: World or something.

Traci Duty: Runner's World. Yep.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Traci Duty: Took the plan out of Runner's World and followed that.

But I had a training partner, so Matt and I would do all of our long [00:10:00] runs together out at White Rock Lake. So I think there's

Chris Detzel: nothing better than friends or community to run with,

Traci Duty: Huge. I think that's, I've always had my best like training and probably my best results when running, when training with a group or a friend for sure.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And so you and Matt. Decide to run this and train together and, properly How'd you do? Yes,

Traci Duty: I qualified. So I, that was Dallas 2010. I ran the 3 33, so I cut like an hour off of my time.

Chris Detzel: I'm sure you were impressed with yourself.

Traci Duty: I was. I was like, whoa. Like I did it.

Chris Detzel: You qualified for, did you think during that, after that race, did you think Wow, like I cut an hour off?

I bet I can do a lot better at some point.

Traci Duty: I dunno that I was thinking it at that point, to be honest with you. I think I was just like, I did it. So I was super excited about that. 'Cause that was my goal that I'd set out for.

Chris Detzel: That's pretty cool.

Traci Duty: Yeah, so after that's when I thought, I don't know what got me, like what put the idea in my head of like actually training with the group.

'Cause that's when I joined [00:11:00] the DRC.

Chris Detzel: Didn't Matt Ha wasn't he part of the DRC you said? So did he join too, or? He was, and not

Traci Duty: right away. Okay. So I'm the one that kind of brought him into the DRC after my experience with them. I just was like raving about how wonderful it was to actually train with a group of people.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And I think DRC is great for, especially that, I've been running DRC for years and years. It's a group that if people don't know that they have certain paces that, they have PACE leaders and things like that for pace groups for all, for a lot of different races or runs.

One is a marathon, two is a half marathon, then they have even 5K kinda stuff.

Traci Duty: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: And so you were running with the three 20 or three 10 at first

Traci Duty: I got put with a three 10 group. Okay. Which I was shocked. I think. I was like, what? Yeah, so I got put with them and. That's, I didn't do any kind of tempo or mal repeat.

I didn't do any of that before. Okay. That was like my first experience with actually doing some faster [00:12:00] training. That, that

Chris Detzel: seemed to help out quite a bit. I'm sure.

Traci Duty: It helped out tremendously, but I remember on our first, what was it, Tuesday? 'cause I would always go on Tuesday. I feel like our runs were

Chris Detzel: Tuesdays were the fast ones.

Yes. Or Hills. And then Saturday were the long run.

Traci Duty: Exactly. So I feel like our very first one, we were doing like two sets of two, like three miles, I think two by threes. I didn't realize, I didn't really understand. And so I went out there and killed that first three miles. Chris, I died the second one. I think Ethan was one of our leaders at that point, and he hung back with me on the second one because I was like, I'm, I was dying.

I was like that. I had two by

Chris Detzel: threes. Like I, I remember doing two or three, two milers, like a, yeah, but not three. That's pretty intense.

Traci Duty: I feel like it was three, I could be wrong. I don't re, but it was, I just know that I died on that second one and I needed he hung back with me, which I really appreciated.

But the next time we did that like workout, I was like, I got it. Like I'm gonna be a little smarter. Yes. So I learned my lesson.

Chris Detzel: And [00:13:00] then as you were with DRC, and I know you ran, did you run Boston with the DRC training? Okay.

Traci Duty: I did. So I ran, that's why I joined them because I was like, I wanna train properly for Boston.

So that was Boston 2012. So I started training with them, I guess at like the beginning of 2012. And, okay. Just that one second. That thing year that it was crazy hot. So it was in the mid eighties, I think it got up to 88.

Chris Detzel: Wow. So that

Traci Duty: year they actually deferred, allowed you to defer if you wanted to.

'cause it was so hot. But I was like, I'm here. I'm not gonna defer. And I remember a VI was leader at that time and I remember, I think I was messaging or texting him like what do I do anyways, he was super helpful and I actually ended up running a pr. So I just played it really smart. I was pretty conservative and I ran a 3 31.

So that actually ended up qualifying me for Boston. 2013. That was cool.

Chris Detzel: That's pretty, how many Bostons have you done overall?

Traci Duty: I've done four Bostons. I've run four Bostons. I've actually, there's been, so [00:14:00] 2013 and 2018, which, 2013 bombing 2018 was the really awful cold. Cold. And I was injured both of those years.

So part of my story I feel is like injuries suck. Like it's not fun to be injury injured, but those, my injuries in a sense have been a blessing in disguise for me, which is weird to say. There's always been like a silver lining to my injuries. I would not have Nash I don't think, if I had not been injured, I had got injured.

And up until then I always thought I have got to train. Like I'll put off getting pregnant, two more years. I wanna train. I have a faster time in me got injured and it's like I can't. And so we ended up having Nash and then I. I missed Boston 2013 because I was injured. I'm very thankful.

That's a blessing. I wasn't there in 2018. Cold is my kryptonite. I do not like cold weather. I don't like running or racing in the cold. And

Chris Detzel: I think that day was a lot of people's kryptonite. Yes,

Traci Duty: it was horrible. I just remember looking at all the pictures. I don't know if you went back and looked at any of the pictures of our friends that ran and they [00:15:00] looked so miserable.

It's that looks awful.

Chris Detzel: I remember I was working at a company and I was one of the guys that were, he was one of my clients. We became friends and he ran that marathon. He told me all about it. And I remember Leah didn't, my wife. So she didn't start running the marathon until the year after, like 2014.

Okay. Until this day. But I have some, there's some stories that, have been told, and plus some people here on the podcast have have had to deal with that too. But

Traci Duty: yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, that was, nobody wants to be injured, but if you were injured, it's, that year was probably a good time to be injured.

Traci Duty: Yeah, that's what I felt. I'm like okay. I don't mind missing that one. That was okay with me. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: And so 2018 you were injured. And then what was after that? You have Nash at 2013, how old was he at

Traci Duty: Nash? 2014. 14,

Chris Detzel: okay. He's 10

Traci Duty: at him. And then So

Chris Detzel: birthday's coming up.

Traci Duty: Yeah, he is, he's gonna be 11, which is blows my mind.

Time goes by so fast.

Chris Detzel: It's crazy. Yeah, I know. I've got a 14-year-old and it's insane. It is

Traci Duty: so [00:16:00] insane, right?

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Traci Duty: Yeah. Just how they, he's like such a pre-teen right now. A very sweet one. He's like a super sweet kid though. That's, and he also loves running, I will say he did like a track club. This is like a, I'm digressing.

He did a track club at the beginning of the year through the high school and he like, they did a mile and in six 40 something. Like six 40. Dang it. Can he in fifth grade? I'm super proud of him.

Chris Detzel: Kids are fast and if you look, I think one is, at the very least, all you can do is instill in them how important exercise is, and yes, eating right and all this other stuff.

But I think, if you can get your kids at some point into doing something, whether it's some activity, okay, if it's running or tennis or I don't know, whatever drums. I think those are the important things. But he does see his mom run. I'm not sure what your husband does he? If he, does weights or exercises somehow, whatever

Traci Duty: He lifts weights and run he'll.

Running is real. Another side note, we figured out very early on in our marriage, we went on one run together. I was like trying to [00:17:00] encourage him. Chris, it did not go well. And at that point I'm like, you know what? I think we don't need to run together. That's not gonna be good for us. So we've always kept that separate.

He'll run for fitness, but he doesn't love it like I do.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. I think that even like I run with Leah some, we're about the same speed and most cases, especially with, which is rare, you don't really sound. Yeah, that is

Traci Duty: rare. I agree. Spouses

Chris Detzel: that can do that. Like to me, I like to talk and, she doesn't it's just kinda like running by myself and I'm like, yeah, I'll just do it myself or whatever.

It's not fun, but all so 2018 you get you just, you get injured. What, what happened was the,

Traci Duty: just, do you remember? It was, I think it was my back.

Chris Detzel: Oh.

Traci Duty: So I'm also, so I love running is my first love. I will always, that will always be my first love. However, I had gotten into some group fitness classes.

I love to do like cardio dance and I think at this point I was doing, I've seen some

Chris Detzel: of your Facebook posts. You still do it?

Traci Duty: I do. Yeah. I love it. It's just, it was like [00:18:00] my cross training 'cause it's like moving your body in a different way than running does, which is good. So I was doing, but I think this was like a body combat class.

I don't know. I was into classes and so I did something and I like, I know I was like going all in and I like jacked my back up so I like pulled my lower back pretty bad to where I just went and got it. I think I got an MRI on it. Anyways, all that being said, it kept me from being able to train for Boston 2018.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Traci Duty: But obviously it wasn't completely debilitating. I got over it. It was just an injury.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. That's hard, because a lot of times if we as runners we wanna keep going. And keep pushing. Yeah. And 'cause our mindset is just keep go. We don't, we just, hey, we're gonna lose our physical kind of abilities.

I don't know, whatever, our fitness and things like that. And so we just push through and it's not always the best thing to do,

Traci Duty: No, and I don't. Do you feel, I don't know. I feel like I've always I continue to learn that lesson. This, that's a hard lesson to learn. I'm like, I'm not gonna do that again.

I'm gonna listen to my body. I'm gonna stop give it time to [00:19:00] heal. It's just so hard. It's so hard. And then you, when you see your friends running or your group is running, you have major I know I had major fomo, yeah. I hate that I'm not running and training with them. It's so hard 'cause it's such a big part, like such a community.

Chris Detzel: So huge community. And I think that. The one thing I'm learning is doing all these interviews and talking to a lot of people is that's always the common thing. And I think that it's a good thing. You wanna be out there Yes. Running with your friends. You build these unique relationships and friendships that you might not, probably would've never thought about building.

'Cause they're completely different than you a lot of times. And, but when you're on the running, when you're on the pavement running, or if you're on the trail doing it, you're doing it with people that are doing it with you and similar things and you learn, you, you enjoy it. I think that's, I don't know.

It's the beauty of it. There's something magical about it.

Traci Duty: Yeah. I totally agree with you. There's so many people, I'm like, there's no way we would've ever crossed paths if we'd had not run together. And I'm so thankful for those friendships and

Chris Detzel: and it's not easy. But it becomes easy.

Yeah. 'cause you get to know 'em after you go four or five times and things like that. You just [00:20:00] gotta push yourself to, to get out there and then just speak up. I'm pretty vocal, in any group.

Traci Duty: Yeah. Yes you are. I'm a little bit, I can be touch more like introverted, but like in a small group I'm fine.

But so it's been fun, like the long run. You're forced to talk in a sense, like you wanna join the conversation, but it's also, I don't mind listening, it was always, I dunno, long runs are fun. Lots of conversation that goes on. You talk about it, like everything.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, you talk about a lot of things for sure.

And you when you were around a drc, it was a smaller group, at that time, right? Yes. You had Paul and

Traci Duty: Paul and Ray. Do you remember? And then. Jonathan was part of that group. And Lexi.

Chris Detzel: Lexi, yep. So a lot of fast people. Yeah, really fast people. What did you run with Omar ever or?

Traci Duty: Yeah, I ran with Omar. Okay.

Chris Detzel: Yeah,

Traci Duty: I sure did. I ran with Omar. I think he was a leader at one point. Yeah. A

Chris Detzel: lot of 'em were pace leaders and things and and those guys went on to run similar to what you did, and we'll get to that in a minute. Yeah. Because you did some super [00:21:00] fast races. And so 2018 we're done with that.

Finished what was next after that? What'd you kinda, I did

Traci Duty: New York. In 2019, and that was an awful race trained, but I think, I feel like I trained mostly by myself for that one, whatev for whatever reason. I think I did like the Hansen's method or something. So I did a lot of training. I think I was, maybe Nash was young, I just was hard to go run with the group.

I did a lot of training myself and I think maybe I had a little bit of an injury going into it, but I cramped really bad starting at mile 18. Did you ever have those races? Okay, let's go. Okay, so I don't know if you've ever had a race like this, but 2019 I ran New York and it was not a good race, but have you ever started a race and you're like, I just don't feel right.

Chris Detzel: Yes.

Traci Duty: That was 20, that was New York for me, was going over the periods and man, I don't know, my training had gone pretty well. I was like, I, thought I would run a pretty fast time. And at mile 18 I started cramping like in my lower half. And so I [00:22:00] fought through cramp. That entire, like from mile 18 on.

So I was talking with somebody recently, I like totally had to play games with myself to finish that race. Like I'll do a hundred steps and then I'll walk a hundred steps, but it was just like, it was brutal.

Chris Detzel: It was so hard. You gotta do what you gotta do during those kind of races,

Traci Duty: yes. So that was tough and that was, right before COVID, like I feel like the world shut down after that.

Chris Detzel: It did, yeah. What'd you do during COVID,

Traci Duty: Chris? I went the opposite of everybody else. So actually I was supposed to run Boston 2020. I ended up training, 'cause they canceled, I trained for 16 weeks and then they canceled the April one. And I actually had signed up with a coach this time that I had found online, signed up with a coach, and then obviously they like canceled that, but they're like, we're gonna do it in September.

And so I took a little break and then went back to training again. And then they officially canceled it. And I was so burned out on training. I was like. Yeah, a

Chris Detzel: lot of us are, there's nothing else to do besides train and then you're like, yeah, this sucks.

Traci Duty: Yeah, exactly.

Chris Detzel: I'm like, there's no races.

Traci Duty: No, I don't [00:23:00] wanna go. I run around my neighborhood anyways. I don't wanna pretend to run a race in my neighborhood. That was my mentality. I know not everybody had that.

Chris Detzel: Virtual races to me sucked.

Traci Duty: Same. I

Chris Detzel: never wanted to do 'em. Yeah,

Traci Duty: no, it just like, where's the race? I like the energy of a race.

Yeah, there's something so different. And so I like, yeah. Yeah. So I, I feel like though a lot of people started running in COVID and I went, yeah,

Chris Detzel: that's true.

Traci Duty: Went the opposite. To be honest with you, I decided that I was gonna start lifting more, so I'm like, I'm gonna focus on lifting weights,

Chris Detzel: by the way.

That's, especially as we become older. Look, I'm 50 and I think, and I don't do a lot of weights and I should do more, but I think that's key. At the end of the day, I.

Traci Duty: Yeah,

Chris Detzel: and so if you can add in weights and core and things like that in addition to your running, you're gonna feel a lot more better when you hit 50, 55, 60, et cetera, because you stand not even think that, now I'm like, that's not that far off. Yeah, I'm already 50.

Traci Duty: I totally agree with you. I know. I think that once again, that's I was like a silver lining of COVID for me. It was like [00:24:00] weights. I started doing that a lot more and was not running very much. I might have run once a week. I really was not running very much.

I was so burned out. It's

Chris Detzel: You look like you still do weights. Your arms look kinda Thanks. Muscular. So

Traci Duty: I mean that deals a little bit with like where I'm at injury wise, or not injury, but just not being able to run. So I will say something about marathon training is like you, like I thoroughly enjoy like the process, but you, I love to have a goal to work towards and that is something that like marathons put out there, right?

You have this goal to work towards. And so like when I, when since, I've been not running as much, I haven't had that goal, which that was such a big part. And so I've had to like transition, change my goals. So because I can lift, that kind of became my goal is like to get stronger. And

Chris Detzel: that's a good one.

Do Pullups, I think that's a, we have a pull up bar right here yeah. At the house. And so we'll do both chin-ups. Yeah. And pullups. I try to do five to seven chin up every, every other day or so, and then [00:25:00] maybe a little bit more, and then the pull-ups I can do a little bit more. Yeah. I do think that's important is to really kinda look, do some pushups, do some sit-ups, but if you're not gonna go to a class or go workout, do some other things besides running,

Traci Duty: oh, I totally agree with you. To be honest with you too so COVID happened, I didn't run a whole lot, started lifting and then I feel like they deferred. We could, you could run Boston 2021. And they decided to do that in October. And so that became a goal. And that's when I started. So I did start running I would run maybe like once or twice a week and I would run with Jonathan.

And there was another couple of people that we had run with and we'd run like once a week. Who were they? Do you remember? Victoria, I think was another gal. And then I think there were some people that ran maybe with Pegasus or the White Rock Running Club.

Chris Detzel: Got it. Just a mix of people. Yeah,

Traci Duty: just a mix of people.

Which also I love that about our running community. Like it's small and you just, I don't know, you meet some really cool people. I love how like into all the running clubs are like, so I [00:26:00] dunno. I feel like they're friendly with each other. So that's been, yeah, I

Chris Detzel: don't, I don't think any of 'em are against each other for sure.

Not. Fair not. Yeah. So it's just running. Like I was talking to this guy the other day, we were running with him and, at the end of the day it's just a running club. But there's a lot of politics to a lot of these running clubs that, you know that everyone that I've been in, there's always some politics

Traci Duty: for sure.

Chris Detzel: And I think that it's just 'cause we're people like, yeah, some people wanna run faster and they don't think this group is doing it, so they start their own thing over here and do this over here and create another running group for these types of people. And so whatever, that's just life, and that's just how we do it.

Yeah, I

Traci Duty: totally agree with that.

Chris Detzel: Sure. It'd be fun to listen to some of the politics, on the podcast, but maybe you need to start

Traci Duty: a separate podcast for that. Like the, I don't know.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, it's like trash TV or trash podcast, about running, and.

Traci Duty: It'll be like the Real Housewives kind of drama, but yeah.

Little running, I don't know. Yeah, some little, alright, it's

Chris Detzel: not it's not enough. We have to make some shit up, so let's pause it and then go. All [00:27:00] right. So you do October's, Boston Marathon. How did you do?

Traci Duty: Okay, so that one, so I trained Jonathan was my coach and that was great.

Like he offered because I was like, I don't think I wanna go back to the coach I was working with. I liked them. One thing I did get from that one was the strength training. So I actually strength trained three days a week and it was specifically for running, which was great. And then I really focused on my nutrition.

I think I might have found Featherstone at that time. There's a gal that's was real big into the nutrition part. So I really focused on nutrition and strength training and that's when I had my breakthrough was Boston. What was that? Boston 2021. I, what'd you run? I ran a 3 0 1. And I,

Chris Detzel: that's the one I went, no, it didn't go till October, did I?

No. Did you? No one. The one after? No, I don't think we did. Yeah, I don't think I did. My previous

Traci Duty: fastest time was a three 14, and that was in Kentucky 2019.

Chris Detzel: So that's a huge breakthrough. I think that I hear that a lot about, nutrition. I got a [00:28:00] coach and I streak train. And I think that's a recipe for success for sure.

Yes. Obviously. You're saying it and a lot of people say it, and a lot of times when I talk to the folks from sloth, they say some of those same things, I, they, I don't know if they use Matt Campbell as a coach or whatever, but Yeah, I know they do a lot of his stuff.

But they talk about strength training and nutrition and a lot of miles. They do a lot of miles,

Traci Duty: they do a lot of miles. And yeah, when I start, so I ran Boston 20, 2021. That was a huge breakthrough for me, and that at that point I was like, holy cow. Also for that race, like I told you, like in our pre convo.

It was, the pressure was off. That race was just so interesting because at the time of year, the weather was ideal. And then it was the start, you didn't all start together. You had a period of time you could start whenever. So it was just like, I don't know, the pressure was just so off. It was just like, and then I went out there and I ran and I felt great.

And I had struggled with, I think in previous marathons towards the end, right? You struggle it becomes really hard and I would walk, run a lot [00:29:00] of it. This one, I ran the whole thing and I felt so strong at the end. And I think if I had known how close I was to breaking three, I probably, maybe would've pushed it a little bit more in the beginning.

But who knows? I don't know.

Chris Detzel: So quick question for you. Yeah. And we talked about this in the pre-show a little bit, is something I've been hearing lately, especially with thinking about that speed and beyond. Is that there's actually a, a. A strategy that some of the, some folks like yourself take.

I don't know if you took this or not, but I'd love to hear your thinking around, the first part of the marathon, the second part and the third part. Because what I've been hearing was, and look, maybe this is common sense, but it doesn't seem to happen this way for a lot of people, including myself.

A lot of times I go out too fast, I'm struggling at the end, there has to be, I think if you really wanna run these times a strategy in the very beginning. First five to seven miles, you're gonna do this. The next several miles you're gonna do go a little faster and then mile 20 to 21, you're gonna just haul ass [00:30:00] Yes.

And go at that, at the red, but how do you do that? And is that something that you do or thought about doing or what?

Traci Duty: So I hadn't, I'm, I had not really done that until Boston 2021. And I call it like chunking my race. So I like chunked it into, I don't know if it was like five mile, like increments basically.

And so I had a pace for the first five and then, the second five. And then I feel like whenever I hit, like the half marathon point, if you're feeling good, then let's pick it up. So yeah, I definitely had like goal paces, so it just chunked my race, which was, I really liked it because it helps make the marathon a little bit more manageable in a sense.

If you chunk it and I'm like, I'm not thinking about the entire race, but I'm thinking about these. Five miles at a time. Which just really, I don't know, really helps mentally. And gives you a little like mini goals. I think mini goals throughout a race are really good. 'cause the marathon's long.

It's a long run though.

Chris Detzel: Yeah,

Traci Duty: I like those. I like at least three hours

Chris Detzel: apparently.

Traci Duty: What'd you

Chris Detzel: say? I said at least three hours, apparently. Yeah. At least. Yeah. All right. You ran [00:31:00] that. Wow. Congrats. The real oh one is pretty amazing, but I know you've done even better, so let's continue.

Traci Duty: Okay, so I could have turned around and run Boston, what, 2022? But I chose not to, and I, and after Boston 2021, that's when I like ended up started, I started running with the slots. So I think I went on one run one day. It was like we were doing, I dunno, some kind of a speed workout or tempo. I can't remember exactly, but I ran with Jennifer and Maddie.

And then I think the Eric was there and Aaron Pearson was there. Talked to all of

Chris Detzel: them.

Traci Duty: Yeah. And I, we were doing some workout and it was like just so much fun. It was just so much fun to do it with people and I was able to keep up with them, which was, I was proud of myself for that. 'cause also, I'm 45, at that time I was a little bit, still in my forties.

So everybody that I was running with was, 10 to 13 years younger than me, which. Honestly

Chris Detzel: 32. Yeah, like

Traci Duty: that's it. That's a big difference, [00:32:00] especially once you hit your forties. I feel like

Chris Detzel: I, I definitely think age is a key factor. Obviously that's why there's age group winners and things like that, but for you to be able to keep up with them and run as fast as you are, and I think, look, maybe shoes and things like that have helped us a lot, over the last five to maybe the last five or six years.

I think that's huge. Yeah. Factor, don't get me wrong, from injury prevention to running faster, all these things, which is a good thing, yeah. But I think that you doing that at that level, but at your age and you're not old, but you are 45.

Traci Duty: 45. Yeah. It's, I'm not a young chicken.

So No, but

Chris Detzel: that's awesome.

Traci Duty: Yeah, so I was, that was really, it was really fun. I think they really inspired me and also showed me like I could do it. There was, I always felt like I had this potential and I never, I felt like my training would go really well and then would come race day and I wouldn't live up to.

What I had been training potential at, my potential. And I think Boston 3 0

Chris Detzel: 1, you hit that potential.

Traci Duty: What'd you say?

Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yes.

Traci Duty: At

Chris Detzel: [00:33:00] 3 0 1, I think you hit that potential for sure.

Traci Duty: Yeah. So that's when I was like, oh, like I have more left in me. I knew I had more like to go, so it was really awesome to have the loss and just all have the same goals in mind.

And they really pushed me in the best way. So I did, I had a whole like, season of halves, so I ran four halves in 2022 in that like winter spring. So I did Houston Bow Town, big Star, and then I ran the Indy half

Chris Detzel: Cal Town. Is that the one that they, because I think I did that one too. Yeah. A, I think it was a rolling star, but they had this weird line.

I mean it was still COVID like, but not COVID kind of thing or

Traci Duty: No, it wasn't, actually that year, which was cool. I got to run as an elite.

Chris Detzel: Wow

Traci Duty: at Cal Town, as for the half. And so that was super fun. I can't remember, I placed on the top 10 for women, for all women. Not even just like masters, 'cause once you hit 40, you become a master's runner. So yeah. Yeah. Did you win

Chris Detzel: masters? At least?

Traci Duty: I can't remember if I won the masters. I think [00:34:00] I might have. I can't

Chris Detzel: remember. I won so many.

Traci Duty: No, but I yeah, so that was, it was fun. That's a hard, it's a great race, but it's a hard course.

Chris Detzel: It's always hard.

I've done it like 10, 10 times and find that race is hard. I would never do the marathon.

Traci Duty: That's fair. Yeah. Yeah. I have not done the marathon, but just the half. Yeah. Did that people

Chris Detzel: do well on that course. They do. I don't know how, but they do. Yeah.

Traci Duty: Year is so right. So many people do really well on that course.

But yeah, it's a, it's a great race. It's really one run really well. Did you run your one 20

Chris Detzel: That year or?

Traci Duty: I ran, so my previous PR was like a 1 28 and I had done that at Dallas, the Dallas half, I can't remember what year. Anyways, I ran a Houston, I ran like a 1 21. And then I did a one another.

Like I had a pr like by seconds in at Cal Town. And then Big Star, I ran Big Star and I ran a 1 20 0 7. I think I played second.

Chris Detzel: Overall for women you're very consistent. Those last three

Traci Duty: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: That you mentioned. So that, that had to feel pretty good and Yeah. You know what I would think of is there's gotta be another breakthrough.

Traci Duty: I know. So I [00:35:00] so badly if I had known, like the end of Big Star was hard, it has a lot of turns and I don't, I had Eric Woodcock who was also part of this loss, he was pacing me at the end or pacing me through that and he was like, that was so helpful that at the very end I just, I, it was a little bit of a confusing ending 'cause there was lots of turns and stuff and I don't know, I was like, oh, I was so close to breaking one 20 and that was my goal.

Ended up running Indie half marathon Indie. It's really fast. It's really cool. You get to run on the Speedway and I ran like a 1 20, 30 something. At that race.

Chris Detzel: Geez. So consistent. Yeah. So I love that. Yeah. It was very consistent. Was four in a row that were very consistent. Yeah. But it was like very

Traci Duty: like back to back.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. But still very, I mean it's funny 'cause you hit the breakthrough of 1 28, right? Then now you're running 1 21, 1 21, 1 20, whatever. And then another one, 20 something. So that's, you gotta look at that and think, wow, you are now a very consistent runner at that very fast pace.

Traci Duty: I was just like, I was so first or 40-year-old woman [00:36:00] breaking the, I was so bad. 40-year-old

Chris Detzel: woman. Look at

Traci Duty: that. Yeah, I was on my four, awesome. 40. So yeah, I was proud of myself, but I also still felt like I had more in me. So I did, a season of halfs, which I think really prepped me to help like that.

I think that's what was part of what mindset contributed to me breaking three. So

Chris Detzel: I I'd signed up for You broke three. Wow. Okay. Tell me about that and the training. I wanna know more about it. Okay, so

Traci Duty: training. So I was still training with the slots. Ran, I ran the Indianapolis marathon. This was. What, November of 2022, Jennifer Pope also ran it.

Yeah. And I got to run as an elite at that race too, which was super cool. I actually got to have my water bottles on the course. This is the first time I've ever had that, which is like really cool.

Chris Detzel: Pretty awesome.

Traci Duty: Yeah, so I ran that race and it was really well run. It was the weather wasn't ideal to be honest with you.

It was rainy and though the wind at the end was like, I think 20 mile gusts at least. It was really windy at the end. But, so that was the first time I ran without music. I like to listen to music [00:37:00] when I run. I know it's like a lot of people don't, but I do. I like put certain songs at the end to pump me up to finish.

So I ran without music and I ended up breaking three. I ran a 2 54 0 3. Wait, where was this? In Indianapolis.

Chris Detzel: Oh, you actually ran the marathon there. I thought you were talking about the half. Okay. Oh, I did the

Traci Duty: half. So funny thing, I did the half and when was that? The half was in May and then I turned back around and did the full.

Got it. 'cause I had just got it. I had read that it was like a very fast course, to be honest with you. The entry fee was super cheap. And actually looking back I didn't sign up to be an elite or until I had already paid for it. I could have had it paid for, but, oh Anyways,

Chris Detzel: so looking back, maybe you'll know it for next time.

So was, is that an October race, the one you did for the marathon? Do you remember? It's I wrote it down. It's in November. Oh, November. Yeah. Wow. So you hit 2 54. What? You just trained with the slots and with the popes and the whoever else was there?

Traci Duty: I sure did. I trained with them. Had my nutrition was really dialed in, was still doing a lot of strength training.

So I think all of [00:38:00] that really helped. And I think I just had the confidence of having some fast half marathons. I had some speed behind me at that point and I just had a really solid training block and. It's like I can do this. Was

Chris Detzel: there any specific mindsets that the group had that you adopted or you feel like maybe you, I mean you were already running really fast, from a half standpoint, but, was there anything there that gave you that confidence to go that fast?

Traci Duty: I think it was just, honestly, our training runs. We had such good training and so when you have good training, you have that to lean on. I think when it comes to race day like you, I just would think back to, I've done this before, I've run this pace before, like I said, like chunking up your race too.

So that always helps. Like at the end I'm like, I've done, three miles at this pace at the end of a training run, I could do it in a marathon. So I think it was a lot of that, just like a different kind of confidence that I had. And I think that really and the slots were so supportive too.

They're such a supportive group and just really believe in each other. And so I think that was helpful too. And it was really cool to have Jennifer [00:39:00] there. That was the one where she. I think it was 15 seconds away from qualifying, like having an Olympic qualifier. Like she almo, she won the race, which was so cool.

And so it was really cool to be there for that too. And Matt Campbell, I think, was at that race as well. So we all got to learn together or not. I did not work. Sure.

Chris Detzel: He did well too. They ran

Traci Duty: together. I ran slower behind them, but still fast. More myself.

Chris Detzel: Very fast by the way. Oh, it's, I'll say this is there's a lot of really fast men and women in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Just a lot. You're right. And when you start looking at the women specifically, like running under three hours, there's a lot of 'em now, right? And they're just super fast. The Melanie Maddie, and of course then you have another level of people at two 30. There's two women, three women that I can think of right now.

And maybe there's more that are hitting under, it's just insane. Think of. Jennifer, Mimi Smith. Yep. Jennifer and this woman, Rena I forget her last name, but she runs with this loss from my understanding now, but I'm just saying, I think of like women at that level and at [00:40:00] under a three hour, but also at two.

He's that's insane

Traci Duty: to me. It's insane. And Chris, like thinking back to the, your previous question, like mindset, I think that was also it. There were all these, I was actually running with women that all of, I think all of them had broken three just about, I think there was like a couple of us that hadn't, so it was also like, I can do it.

I'm keeping up with them in training. Of course you can. Training's good. So it was like, okay, let's do it. And so it was like a whole kind of thing too let's break three. And you did it. That's,

Chris Detzel: I love that. And I think that some of it is certainly mindset. You went from a 3 0 1 to 1 54 or 2 54, so that's pretty another good chunk.

Yeah. For PR and then I. After that, I know you've done better than a 2 54 which is crazy. Awesome.

Traci Duty: So I did, I followed along the path as Jennifer Pope I, she did indie and then she ran Houston. I did the same thing 'cause my training was there and I felt, I wasn't like, I was feeling really good and so I just, November to January, okay.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. It's pretty quick. But

Traci Duty: yeah. But I was like, I felt really good after Indy. Like I was a, I recovered [00:41:00] really well and just felt like I could discontinue the training and I ended up running a 2 52 in Houston. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: So see, the consistency continues. Yeah. And I think that one of the stories here is this, it's a lot of times the same story as everybody else.

From a, it takes time to get to your, peak, to your best. And I'm not saying that is actually your absolute best, but you really did cut down a lot from a four 30 something marathon all the way down to, 2 52. Yeah. Insane. It was like, like 25 years,

Traci Duty: or not quite that much, but

Chris Detzel: 20 something years.

It took you a long time. You over time got better. Yeah. But you and I could always see I would see runner, whatever I knew, like whenever were at three 20 or I don't know, three 10 or whatever you did, I was like, that woman has, I don't know what's going on, but she has so much more potential than what she's running.

Yeah. I even saw that in Lexi, like she was running half marathons [00:42:00] and she was running like, one forties and I was like, Lexi, you have the ability. I said, sometimes, one, it takes a little bit of time to kinda get down there. I was like, but your ability is like awesome. I don't know what it is, but it's pro easily under a one 30, but by then, you know your mindset's I'm running with a one forties, I'm not gonna ever get that, but. You have to put yourself, and I think it's the community around people that are doing similar things that you are train like they do. And then you can get that even, and I almost quote this every time 'cause Matt Campbell said it best, he goes, right now we have a lot of two 30 years.

If I hit under two 30 and become a two 20 or everybody else is gonna be a two 20. Yeah. And it's same thing that you're do, all these women and there's a lot of men too, but are hitting under three hours and hitting in the low two fifties and hitting under two fifties. And we have, anyways, the point is it's like pretty amazing because like you surround your Miss dfw.

Traci Duty: Yeah. You surround yourself with the people that have like your same goals.

Chris Detzel: Exactly.

Traci Duty: So I, yeah, I definitely think my, my next goal was to break. [00:43:00] I wanted to break two 50. That was huge. So what happened? What's going on? So I ran, so I did Houston, ran my best time there. And then.

My hip started bothering me a little bit after Houston and I, but I ended up running Boston 2023 and that was my last race. And I ran a 2 57. Which was a PR for me on the Boston course previous time, best time there was a three 19, no, a 3 0 1, I'm sorry. 3 0 1 was the, my previous best time. So ended up running Boston a 2 57, which to be honest with you, I almost didn't run Boston.

'cause my hip, I just was like, my hip was bothering me.

Chris Detzel: You still ran 2 57, he

Traci Duty: ran 2 57 and I was with two bathroom stops. I was like, so I could have probably, oh my god, faster, but, oh at 2 57 I was pleased with that. 'cause the weather was not ideal. It rain, it was really rain, it was rainy.

Not necessarily cold, but it was rainy, that race. So I did that. And then after that I. So hold up. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: I've got a question that I should start asking people and I want to ask you because I'll forget if I don't ask now, is when you look at [00:44:00] one, like your shoes and things like that, are you running in a certain pair of shoes like that is a go-to for you?

Like before, or during these races or,

Traci Duty: yeah, I so the Nike, remember? Yeah, I the, it's the Nike Vapor Fly. Wait, okay. No, alpha Fly. I'm sorry. That's the ese Alpha Fly. Okay. Alpha Fly. So I was running a nose, which I do think those help mean. It. So I ran, that's all my fastest times were in alpha flies.

I think I would train, I would do my speed work and then vapor flies, but the alpha flies is what I ran. How about just like long runs? Same

Chris Detzel: thing,

Traci Duty: long runs. I typically, I really the, I have the asic nova blasts, so I like that shoe a lot. And then there was a new balance shoe that I liked.

So I would switch 'em out. And then anytime I did any kind of faster run, I would usually use my vapor flies for that in training. So I rotated.

Chris Detzel: Rotated, very popular. They're, it's hard to get, nowadays you could try to buy 'em and they're always sold out now.

Traci Duty: But I had noticed, I was watching, like looking at Boston and know they always do the reports of what [00:45:00] shoes like the fastest runners were wearing.

What was it like Puma was up there and what was that? They

Chris Detzel: were

Traci Duty: on cloud. It's different. There was like some interesting, I was like, huh. So I feel like a lot has happened. Like a lot Pumas.

Chris Detzel: Look, I think they're fairly new. They look, I know who Puma is, but they've been around for a long time. Used to be a soccer shoe, right?

Didn't Asics used to be. So anyways. Yeah. But Puma, yeah, like their shoe looks really cool. I didn't try it on or anything. Yeah. But I was like, dang, that looks really fast.

Traci Duty: Yeah, it does. So they, yeah, it looks so interesting. It's not a shoe you would just wanna wear like out and about,

Chris Detzel: yeah.

Traci Duty: For racing, for sure.

Chris Detzel: So you dip Boston 2 57, that's pretty awesome. See the consistency. Yeah. I know you probably wanna do faster. You went to the bathroom a couple times, so you had the pit stops and you still ran under three. Yeah. Pretty awesome. And so your hips been bothering you. What's going on there?

And then what happened?

Traci Duty: Yeah, so hips started bothering me, took a little bit of time off after Boston. And then I started training. I was gonna, supposed to do Chicago 2024. No, 2023 Chicago, [00:46:00] 2023. All a lot of the sloths were running that and we were all gonna do it together and go. And so started training for that.

And very early on in my training, I was on the longer training run and. My hip just like really gave out to the point where I had to have Aaron Brittle, actually he was injured at the time, I think, and he was like rollerblading with us or something. So he actually went back and got his car and picked me up and then that kind of started like my whole injury, like issue.

So

Chris Detzel: before we get into that, yeah. Funny you say that Eric Brittle seems to be the hero here because I dunno if it's I think it was Melanie or Maddie, one of 'em is allergic to ants. Maddie. Maddie. So she's allergic to ants and he, they called 9 1 1 or something because she got all, so he seems to be the hero here, like what's called on.

He is,

Traci Duty: he like came and he was like, I'm gonna roller boy back and I'll go get my car and pick you up. So he would, yeah he's a great guy. Also super encouraging. Yeah. So he picked me up and then that was my last long run that I've done [00:47:00] and that was June, 2023. Wow. I I wonder,

Chris Detzel: I did wonder.

I was like I saw you like a poster too, from Instagram on DFW talk, but I was like, whatever happened to Tracy? I haven't seen her run lately, yeah. And so I thought I'd get to the bottom of this. 'cause I knew you had a really great story. Yeah. But I never, I was like, it's something going on.

Yeah. You're, you've been injured for both. You mentioned your hip. Is that getting better or, so my hip

Traci Duty: was the start of it. It wasn't, so that was June, 2023. Then fast forward through the summer, I like wasn't running really. I like had met with a running PT and was trying to work through that.

Which it was getting better. I think. I started running a little bit and then I. I wanna say it was like September of 2023. My knee, I was after like I also was playing tennis during this time, doing some things like my knee after a heavy lower body lift, like the next day. My right knee was like really swollen and I've never had, as as long as I've [00:48:00] run, I've never had knee issues.

So this was like, what is going on? And so that kind of started I don't know, I don't know what happened, but I like tried to figure it out. I did, I've done so many things, so many therapies, all kinds of injections over this past it was like a whole year. Like I completely changed to my diet.

Like I've done so many things to get to the bottom of like, why are my knees this way? Finally got MRIs on my knees and found out that I have osteoarthritis in both of my knees. So that's where like my cartilage is worn down. And for whatever reason, like I was telling you earlier, like it didn't happen overnight, right?

It's been there probably for a while, but for whatever reason, there was something that sent my body over the edge and just cause this like state of inflammation. Chris, like a year ago I couldn't walk. I could hardly walk without limping. I couldn't squat down to get my laundry out or pick something off the ground.

I was in a really bad state and I had, like I said, I like was doing all the therapies that I could do, doing all the research. Met with several orthopedic [00:49:00] doctors. I'm still young. Know, I'm 45. I feel like still young. I'm still young and I like not, my knees aren't so bad that they need surgery.

I don't want surgery. And I'm really into finding something that's gonna be long term. But regenerative, I'm very into like regenerative and functional medicine. So I actually ended up getting stem cell injections in my knees. Almost a year ago. And that was a game changer, I will say.

It actually calmed my inflammation down, allowed me to have mobility in my knees again. And I started running again last summer and was doing pretty well and then I could feel like my knees. I just, at a point I was like, you know what? I went for so long without running that. I like, feel like I need to rebuild that foundation.

Yeah, of

Chris Detzel: course.

Traci Duty: I like,

Chris Detzel: yeah, you do.

Traci Duty: I was just like, I'm gonna end up hurting myself again and being out. And so that's when I end up finding this doctor who actually works with people with arthritic knees. And so he's a pt he's in Houston. I actually have a Zoom [00:50:00] call with him almost weekly.

And so he's written me this like very specific plan to get me back to running. Particularly that was my main goal. So I like. Like I told you earlier, does you think

Chris Detzel: you can, yes, very positive, but Okay.

Traci Duty: I do. So that's the other thing, like I have this no, I have a very positive mindset.

Like I will put in the work. I'm a hard worker. You give me a planner and I will follow it to a t and I will work so hard. And I love it. If I didn't love running so much, that's like my

Chris Detzel: wife Leah, man, she'll just, yes. Whatever plan, she'll just do it.

Traci Duty: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: I'm like,

Traci Duty: that's totally how I am.

Chris Detzel: I love that. That's awesome. And she

Traci Duty: loves running yeah. And I feel that's, it's my first love. I love running and so I will do anything to get back to running. I'm like so thankful for the like years. That I had that I had those times. And I'm thankful for that, but I'm like, man, I still feel like I have something left more.

Of course you do. So working towards it, it's been a rollercoaster. They, I know like your journey back is not linear by any means. You [00:51:00] have, I've definitely hit some snags here and there because what I realized is, like with osteoarthritis, it's not an injury, it's actually a condition. So it's something that can flare up.

If I, about a month ago I was doing, I was running and I got back into my dance classes and was doing some lifts on top of my other prescribed lifts. And it too much was too much. It was like too much volume. And I it gave me a setback. So I was like, ah. So it's really hard. It's been challenging, but my knees are so much better than they were.

I'm still working. I got to run today, which was great. I did three miles today. Yeah. So I, you felt good. Yeah. So at this point I'm like, I like it. You realize you take things for granted, I took my health for granted that I was able to run and train and and then all of a sudden something happens, you're like, oh my gosh.

I had this vision for myself a few years ago. I'm gonna continue to like, get faster, continue to be able to train and run like I was. And then, shit, hit the fan [00:52:00] and dude,

Chris Detzel: I think that it's, it sucks that, you have to go through all that, but I think sometimes it's just reality for some people is that injuries happen, and conditions happen in this case, so you had a little injury, but then a knee condition that happened, with the arthritis stuff, and you're and part of that journey is how do you get your way back?

And you're getting there, you're fighting with everything. You have to do that. Yeah. And it's not easy, but what I love about somebody like you. You'll put, like you said, you put in the work to try to make it better. And that is the key at the end of the day whether you wanna become a fast runner or really good runner or and get better, you have to put in the work and you have since day one.

It's, you've just got better over time and you've shown that, like you went from a four 40 whatever, four 30 or whatever to, 2 52 in a marathon, and you went from running fairly half or fast halves to really fast halves, yeah. And now it's just another, yes, it's a [00:53:00] setback from an injury standpoint, but you're all you're doing weights, you're doing core work, you're doing dance stuff, or whatever you call it.

Yeah. You're still extremely active and you can't even run.

Traci Duty: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Hardly. So that was

Traci Duty: a, I feel like something that I've learned too through all of this is you've gotta focus on what you can do. Like I said, I loved Marathon. One of the things I loved about Marathon training is I had a goal to work towards.

I loved that. I loved the process. I love working hard towards something. I was like, okay, then how can I put that energy into something else? And so it's I can do this, so I'm gonna focus on doing this, and that will only help me and like when I'm able to run again. So it really is like focusing on what you can do, being positive about that.

Of course I have my days where I like sulk and I'm like, oh, this sucks. Of all I wanna do is run, I'd go on walks 'cause there was a period of time I could only walk and I'm like, I'll see somebody running. And I felt like I need to say I'm a runner too. I run. You have that but it's it's okay.

So focus on what you can do. Stay positive, you'll have setbacks. But I've learned like you can work through that setback and then I'm so much [00:54:00] better than where I was like a month and a half ago. My knees are so much better and I'm able to run, I was able to run today. So that's a positive.

I'm gonna focus on the positives. So I think that's something that's super important that I've learned through all of this.

Chris Detzel: I think that's awesome. Tracy, is there anything that I should have asked that I completely didn't ask and forget that I forgot?

Traci Duty: I don't think so. I feel like we pretty much covered everything else other than I will say one thing I was thinking about through this whole, like my running career, something I would tell like my younger running self.

Or I would love to tell the people that are younger, like I said, I'm, like 10 to 12 years older than all the people that I was running with. They're all in like their early thirties. I'm like strength train and then really focus like your hip flexors, your glutes, your ankles. Those are so important in running.

So if you can focus on those things, like it's gonna help you age gracefully into running. I would say if I, somebody had told me that and I had worked on those things, I think I could have avoided like hip and back. Issues that I [00:55:00] had, I didn't know, and so that's something that I've learned that's so important.

Chris Detzel: I do think it's hard to do so when you think of the amount of miles that you're putting in at your peak, right? A lot of, I don't know if this, you tell me what you did, but a lot of these people are running 70, 80 to 110 miles a week. Yeah. Literally it's a lot. 110 miles a week.

It's insane. But, then you gotta fit in, core work. You got strength work and all of that kind of stuff. It's hard because that's your life. You have a kid that's 10, and he will only need, he will need more because when he is 12 or 13, he's going 14. He gets into high school and then has all these things he's going to, yes.

Eventually he can drive and there'll be some load lifted off or whatever. But. You're still a parent, and you're so right. My only thought is that, Mimi said this one time, she goes, look, we all have jobs. Some people have kids, some people have, we're not necessarily gonna be doing this, at an elite level.

She is, but yeah. You know what I mean? Like for the most part,

Traci Duty: yeah.

Chris Detzel: Most of us aren't.

Traci Duty: Yeah. No, you're so right. We do this for

Chris Detzel: fun. Yeah.

Traci Duty: Yeah. So that would be the only [00:56:00] thing I would, but yes, re to find the time but I think maybe it's, you don't feel it as much when you're younger, but as you age, like the recovery becomes way more important and then just what you're doing.

But it just takes more work, it takes a little bit more work if you want to continue to perform at those levels. I feel

Chris Detzel: My wife tells me this stuff all the time, and I hear her say these things all the time. So it's so weird that you're saying the same things.

Traci Duty: Yeah. But I have to say, I, I told you this earlier, but you're, Leah was always such an inspiration to me.

I loved watching her journey and that's awesome. Yeah, I think she might've been somebody that turned me on to like really looking at my nutrition for racing. I think that was something that she was big on. I'm like, what are you doing? 'cause she was just killing it.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, I think I'm sure she'll appreciate that.

I'm glad you said that. And I think that she used Nutra works, or no, not Nutra Works. What's her name? Yes.

Traci Duty: I think I actually asked Leah and I worked with that out. That's so I was like, what are we doing? Did you were like killing it. So I wanna do what you were doing. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: And I think they, that helped her a ton, was was doing that so well.

Tracy, this has been really [00:57:00] good. I really appreciate you sharing your journey. So thank you everyone for tuning in to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Zel, please go to our Instagram, follow us, go to our we have a Substack newsletter, make sure you follow that. And we'll talk to and YouTube.

But until then, Tracy, thank you so much. Welcome. Thank you, Chris. Take care.