Transcript
Sarah Kieffer: Cool. Hello and welcome to the Wild Ones podcast. I'm your host, Sarah. Woo!
Viv: And I'm your host, Viv.
Sarah Kieffer: All right. We have no idea what we're doing here, so let's get started. So y'all might be asking why we decided to start a podcast.
Viv: It's because everybody wanted to listen to our voices, Sarah. That's exactly what what we wanted to do.
Sarah Kieffer: i
Sarah Kieffer: If you guys have ever heard us on a podcast before, you know this might be mostly laughing and some content. So at the very least, we hope that we make your day a little bit brighter.
Sarah Kieffer: so we're going to get started and Viv is going to tell us a little bit more why we yeah why we actually decided to start this podcast, where the inspiration came from yeah.
Sarah Kieffer: yeah
Viv: Yeah, I mean, as you could, you guys, if you've ever raced on the course with us, you can hear Sarah and I coming. We are talking, we're laughing, chit chatting, singing to each other. it just kind of depends on the day, the mood, the vibes.
Viv: But we came up with this idea of a podcast like two years ago. at the Austin swim run.
Sarah Kieffer: Yeah.
Viv: Was it Odyssey then? I guess that was Odyssey before I bought it. But anyway, I digress. But we we wanted to kind of really shine a different light onto endurance female athletes, obviously, including swim run as as our primary, because that's a sport that we love and is very near and dear to our hearts. It's a community that we absolutely adore.
Viv: and we want to show the good, the bad, the ugly, and maybe some TMI parts of being a female racing. We just kind of wanted to just kind of celebrate our female athletes and and what kind of it entails to not have it be so intimidating to race or sign up for 5K, to a marathon, to an ultra, to swim run worlds. So it's, we want to be a more inviting environment and kind of have an inspiration from the wild community.
Viv: And if that, if you don't know what wild is, it's kind of the, oh my gosh, I'm drawing a blank. like It's female, trying to get more females into swim run. And that's, it was based in Sweden. And we have an entire group of female athletes that kind of we grew this year with the program. So just, we want to just shine a light on female athletes and kind of just how badass they are and how badass, like the whole endurance, feats of endurance there are.
Viv: Yeah, no, I i mean, i absolutely love swim run and I could talk about it all day. Hey, it's why we have a podcast, right, Sarah? like
Sarah Kieffer: Hey, there we go. Now we can start talking about swimrun even more, but not to the same five people that we work with. So this will be great.
Viv: Exactly. That's exactly right. we're we're We're expanding our outreach to more than those five people. Yeah.
Sarah Kieffer: Yeah, we're really hoping that what this podcast will do is bring more inspiration into this community and make it feel very welcoming and inclusive for female athletes.
Viv: Thank you.
Sarah Kieffer: And at the very least, provide more information for those beginners that are maybe a little bit too unsure of what swimrun is all about or endurance sports are all about.
Sarah Kieffer: maybe unsure about what they're capable of. And so at the very least, be able to inspire them to take, you know, the next foot forward and get out of their comfort zone and know that they're supported doing so.
Sarah Kieffer: And yeah. So I think that's where our inspiration to starting the podcast came from. i wish we would have had our entire Austin swim run back two years ago recorded. Like if that was a mic'd up swim run, Yeah.
Viv: maybe maybe one day Maybe one day we will mic up and do a swim run because it a lot of it is unhinged. like It truly is. like I don't know how to really explain it other than it is unhinged when we are together racing. so This is just a little a little snippet of what it sounds what it sounds like when we get together.
Sarah Kieffer: Awesome. Yeah, I think it's going to be really fun. i think as we get going here, we're going to have big group of athletes that we're interviewing.
Sarah Kieffer: We're getting to know they're going to be able to share their stories and hopefully them sharing their stories offers a new perspective and insight on the sport of swim run and other endurance sports.
Viv: yeah we're kind of talking to it some amazing athletes like
Sarah Kieffer: Yeah, y'all just wait.
Viv: I'm so excited. I'm so excited about our list. Like we were like, we're like typing a list together. And I was like, Oh man, Sarah, like, I think like we're like, I'm running out of space on this piece of paper. Like we just ended up typing in a word doc. I'm like, I, it's, it's insane. The amount of female athletes that we're going ask. And, and from all walks of life to like, yeah,
Viv: I mean, just like Sarah and I, like we like, we don't have the same athletic background. And so that's, again, that's the goal here too. Like we're at, we're going to be talking to some, again, badass females from literally all walks of life, which is so freaking cool. I'm so excited.
Sarah Kieffer: I'm so excited. This is awesome. Well, speaking about like your kind of history with sports and all of that good stuff, do you want to explain a little bit more about like your background and endurance and like, how did you like, yeah.
Viv: Oh my God. Well, I mean, let's, let's start off with, I was not an endurance athlete. I mean, you know that a few people who are listening know that, ran track and dove and like, like springboard diving, like little flips and tricks here.
Viv: and maybe ran like nothing more than maybe two miles, two miles max. And that was it. and then after college, I, uh,
Viv: graduated, retired from diving and track and was like, you know what, I'm gonna join Orange Theory and Orange Theory. I was like, Oh, I could totally do a marathon.
Viv: So I set it for a marathon and I have not looked back from endurance training. And I mean, it's, it's been so fun to see, like I was talking my mom today and I was like, mom,
Viv: I've gotten to a point where I could literally just do a marathon cold turkey if I wanted to. And she was like, yeah, because it's, it's, you've put in the work and the training and obviously it's never easy, but i mean, it's so wild even like see from the beginning to what, what I've, what I've done now. And like, literally like hated, absolutely hated running.
Viv: Growing up. I, on the soccer field, like I literally like, we're like, all right, we're going to do running drills. And I would sit down. So i not it. So if younger Viv could see me now, she'd be like, you are crazy.
Viv: So, but yeah yeah, I mean, and you have a totally different background coming into endurance sports as well, too. Like you grew up in Minnesota where it's cold as all hail.
Viv: How was that growing up? And what was kind of that?
Sarah Kieffer: Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, i grew up not even knowing what endurance was all about.
Viv: Yeah.
Sarah Kieffer: The concept of running a marathon was so far-fetched from the lifestyle that I grew up living. like My family, we were like active. We did camping and fishing and hunting and stuff like that, but like not active in the sense of running, doing different like challenging sports or the 5Ks we didn't do that stuff growing up.
Sarah Kieffer: And so for me, things really changed when I moved out here to Colorado.
Viv: you
Sarah Kieffer: And for some reason, actually, this is like literally the turning point in my life, like that changed the trajectory of how I live life now and probably the rest of my life too. But when I was Just moved out here.
Sarah Kieffer: My grandpa was not doing very well and he was getting heart surgery. And i had this really weird longstanding joke with him.
Viv: That's
Sarah Kieffer: Like he's not a runner. He's never been a runner. So I have no idea where this came from, but he would laugh every single time I would tell him this.
Viv: hilarious.
Sarah Kieffer: And so I just continued to tell him this because it would bring a smile on his face. And I would say, Grandpa, you need to get better so we can start training to run a marathon together.
Viv: that's hilarious
Sarah Kieffer: And yeah, like this was just like every time I visited him, every single time I saw him, like this was the the the joke that we would always laugh about.
Sarah Kieffer: Well, at at some point he eventually passed away and I was out here hiking in Colorado. And I can remember like the very specific point I was on the trail when this thought came into my brain, which is so wild.
Sarah Kieffer: And like, I've gone back there a few times since and it's just like a really cool, like magical place for me.
Viv: I was like, you might need to put like a rock there that says Sarah decided to run a marathon here.
Sarah Kieffer: Yeah, it's just, it's like one of those moments in life where you like know that thought that came into your head and you're just like, you know, you have to do it. And so since that day and since that hike and since it's passing, I think I literally went online the same day and like signed up for this marathon.
Sarah Kieffer: I was like, I need to find a marathon. I need to commit to this right now. So I know that this is not just like a feeling and it's going to pass and I'm going to decide not to do it. And so I think
Viv: Cold turkey, let's go.
Sarah Kieffer: So I think I decided, yeah, like right away sign up for it. And I wanted something that was going to be back in the Midwest. And so I found a marathon in Wausau, Wisconsin.
Viv: Nice.
Sarah Kieffer: So a lot of my family attended it, which was amazing. But it was like, this was really the start of my endurance career and like dabbling in anything endurance wise.
Viv: Oh, that's so cool.
Sarah Kieffer: And I ran that marathon in 2022, think. Yeah. August is when I,
Sarah Kieffer: when i ran that marathon And so that's only been like four years. Growing up, like I skied and I played rugby and and I did like I was active and did stuff like that.
Sarah Kieffer: But like what Viv said, like running, like when we had to do our warm up lap, I was like, this is the worst thing, having to run all the way around the field, one whole lap around this field.
Sarah Kieffer: What the heck?
Viv: like,
Sarah Kieffer: Why would anybody do that?
Viv: I'd rather do, this is torture. This has to be torture. Like this is like, this is what I think of when it's torture.
Sarah Kieffer: people
Viv: It's just a lap around the field.
Sarah Kieffer: And yeah, I guess like so me starting running also leads into how we met and our friendship, which it began because I wanted to run something called the 4x4x48 with one of my friends at the time.
Viv: my gosh. I totally forgot about that. Yeah, you were crazy.
Sarah Kieffer: Yeah.
Viv: Like, you were crazy even before we met. Like, we're both crazy, but you were were like, yeah, I'm going do this.
Sarah Kieffer: But I think that was before my first marathon that I even did that. But anyways, my friend and I were looking for a group to run this with because we knew that it would be easier. And so we found Traverse Fitness, which is how Viv and I met, which is an amazing gym in downtown Denver.
Sarah Kieffer: Or not quite.
Viv: A little plug. I think they just celebrated six years, too.
Sarah Kieffer: yeah.
Viv: like, a gem. I know.
Sarah Kieffer: Yeah, we like that's where our our friendship started to like develop and blossom. Like we were the crazies that went to 515 a.m. classes and like you just are a different person at 515 a.m. And so we got to know each other pretty well through that. And yeah.
Sarah Kieffer: Yeah, eventually one of our coaches, his name is Rob. Shout out to Rob Howard for doing crazy things.
Viv: Woo-hoo.
Sarah Kieffer: Hashtag Rob made me do it.
Viv: yeah that is That is probably the turn the trend of literally everything that started this this so this friendship and this just crazy world we call swim run.
Sarah Kieffer: my
Sarah Kieffer: gosh.
Sarah Kieffer: I know. and yeah, so like my endurance story really starts with that marathon and then being part of Traverse Fitness and just like getting myself out there and doing things that like honestly, i sign up for and they're really scary to me. And I'm like, I'm like very curious about what I can do and what things will be like. But not necessarily prepared for these things that I've signed up from like, had no idea what we were getting into.
Viv: Girl, same.
Sarah Kieffer: Okay. I was like, I ran a marathon the year before and I swam across the lake. Mind you, it was all breaststroke because I could not swim freestyle for more than like 25 yards yeah when I was training for my first swim run.
Viv: yeah we had no idea like we're like pull buoys like okay again like everybody who does swim run we explain they're like you have a pull buoy you have paddles oh my gosh and we're like yeah okay cool and then we like sign up for swim run and we're like yeah we could we could totally do this we yeah it's it's yeah long course sign us up long course put us in coach like i'm okay
Sarah Kieffer: Thank you.
Sarah Kieffer: I have no idea what we were thinking. I was like, I've run 26 miles before and Orcas is like 24, 25 miles of running or something.
Viv: Yeah.
Sarah Kieffer: Yeah, a few miles of swimming. And I was like, well, I swim breaststroke across the lake. Like, how bad can it be? Why don't want I just put the two together?
Viv: And we, like, we'll get into this. We'll go back. But we had white caps our year of Orcas. It was so windy. We're like, we got this. It's fine.
Sarah Kieffer: Oh my gosh, we're ridiculous and I love it.
Viv: I was so fun. I mean, like when we signed up for it Sarah and I signed up for it solo. And cause like, I mean, we didn't really understand.
Sarah Kieffer: Yeah.
Viv: Yeah, it's a partner sport. And like, I mean, I think what was it like um'm literally maybe a month before we were or two months before we were set to toe up at the start line of orcas.
Sarah Kieffer: Yeah.
Viv: shout out to Trista and, Sarah Wagner, that kind of combo. then Amy Bush came in too, but like those three kind of like, what?
Sarah Kieffer: andpo boy And the low tie boys for all of their knowledge in saving us.
Viv: Oh my gosh. Yeah. Low tag boys.
Sarah Kieffer: Right?
Viv: Oh my. Yeah. Literally that year we're like, so how do we do this? How do we, like I think we slid in the like, uh, Chris and Chipper's DMs. Like as soon as we signed up, we're like, Hey, can you guys help us?
Sarah Kieffer: Right?
Viv: Hey, what's a pool movie?
Sarah Kieffer: here
Viv: And they're like, just send us like YouTube links. They're like, here you go. Here's this, here's, here's a really good video. Like we've done or like somebody else has done explaining this entire thing.
Sarah Kieffer: how do we mount this?
Viv: Like, yeah.
Sarah Kieffer: How does this work?
Viv: yeah The amount of times that I had to watch the video, I'd be like, okay, I don't feel confident poking a hole in my buoy, but I need to do it. i just need to do one hole instead of, like, five holes because then I have to cover the other five holes.
Viv: How many holes?
Viv: Not enough duct tape.
Sarah Kieffer: Yes, the duct tape.
Viv: Oh, my gosh.
Sarah Kieffer: It's been quite the journey. But yeah, no, the low tide boys were really great when we were first learning about swim run and all the things because like so much knowledge was shared. And yeah, yeah we had so many friends in Reverse that shared so much information.
Sarah Kieffer: knowledge about like the investigation that they've done through, you know, Google searches, watching YouTube videos. Like we really just came into swim run having no idea what we were getting into, but we were all about it.
Sarah Kieffer: I mean.
Viv: Oh, we came in like a wrecking ball too. we like, so Rob Howard, of course, hashtag Rob made me do it. He convinced 30 people people from the gym in Denver to sign up for this swim run that none of us have ever done.
Viv: And we were like the biggest party that was there. They're like, i think Lars was like, there's 30 of you guys. What? Like totally blew everybody's mind. But like, it's been awesome to see them.
Viv: Some, some of those people from that original group, like kind of come back in this swim run.
Viv: And it's just, I mean, I think that's what the sport is too. it It's so welcoming. I love it. I mean, we we're talking about it right now. We have a whole podcast about it. But it's just, oh my gosh, it's been so fun.
Viv: i mean li I mean, our first swim run, Sarah and i again, you guys get to listen to a snippet of what we kind of talk about during the race.
Sarah Kieffer: Oh
Viv: I mean, I serenade Sarah sometimes as well. I'll get some High School Musical going. we got Cheetah Girls. I think last time I, like, sung some Celine Dion as well.
Sarah Kieffer: my gosh.
Viv: Like, there's there's some good some good karaoke going on of Mom Constitution.
Sarah Kieffer: It's so
Sarah Kieffer: This is why swimrun as a partner sport is the best thing. It's such an adventure with a partner out there. like It would not be the same thing doing it solo.
Sarah Kieffer: My experience with swimrun in the community and the course even is a million times better, just sharing that with a partner and Yeah, having this experience is where we're singing to each other and laughing and having ideas to start a podcast.
Sarah Kieffer: Like what?
Viv: It's kind of like the shower thoughts. Like, I think, like, after Austin, we forgot about it. Like, you know, when you you're in the shower, like, this is why they need notepads the shower or on the toilet. Shower, toilet thoughts. You he magically just forget about it after you leave. Like, it just it just disappears. And I think that's what it was for a while for us. And then we're like, hey, remember that one thing? Like, remember that podcast idea we had?
Viv: I think we should actually do it.
Sarah Kieffer: And here we are, folks. Here we are.
Viv: man.
Sarah Kieffer: Welcome to episode one which we forgot to mention in the beginning. Yeah.
Viv: Oh, yeah. If you have not noticed, we're going to be very awkward at this until we actually maybe figure it out.
Sarah Kieffer: yeah
Viv: But we're we're very excited to do this. I mean, we're going to be dropping episodes every other week, talking to some, again, amazing females. don't I mean, we're going to be learning so much. Like, I mean, I feel like I'm every single race. Like, people are asking me. They're like, oh, how do I do this? How do I do that? And I go, girl, – i you could do something that I've never seen before and I'd be like, oh, I will never do the same thing again. Like, mounting a buoy or like, oh, what kind of gel are you using? Or like,
Viv: that's the, that's the easier way. Like, okay. Yeah. and digress like I I got like sparkle brain, but like I pooped for the first time on a race course in Austin.
Viv: And I don't know, Sarah is a pro at like, I'll get cabbing down, but I don't know how people do that all the time. like it was Like it was kind of difficult. Like I'm not going to lie, but like there's things like that where like, I'm still learning how to do things efficiently like pooping on the course. Like, but like, I'm just saying like, there's things that like, we're going to learn from so many athletes. Like we're still figuring things out. Like I don't know everything. And i think that that's, what's so fun about it is like every race is a new adventure for sure.
Sarah Kieffer: Yeah, and I also feel like just swimrun in general, it's a sport that's still relatively new, and there's always new gear, new wetsuits, and like just new ways of swimrunning that we didn't think of 20 years ago when it first started.
Sarah Kieffer: When, what, they were like rafting between islands and swimming?
Viv: Dude, they had fins. They had to change from their fins to their shoes.
Sarah Kieffer: See? Yeah. Yeah.
Viv: I think they packed like a couple beers in their pockets too. Like, I mean, listen, you need a good brewskis every once in a while.
Sarah Kieffer: I didn't have a bad idea.
Sarah Kieffer: not
Viv: And during World, that might be nice, actually.
Sarah Kieffer: Yeah, so I think we're really excited just to have different guests on this podcast is our goal for us to learn, for you guys to learn, but just to really be great hosts and facilitating conversations where we can all just like grow and inspire each other and go out there and swim run and run or swim or whatever kind of endurance sport you're in. and yeah.
Viv: I know. I mean, it's it's going to be very exciting. and like i I mean, first off, so Sarah is located in Colorado right now, and I'm located in Louisiana. And I think during her first swim run, like, we didn't even train in the same state.
Sarah Kieffer: Viv, we just had our first pool swim together at my bachelorette party in October.
Viv: That's true. That is so true.
Sarah Kieffer: Okay.
Viv: Yeah. So you, you can find a partner. This is it just a little, a little like slide in there. You can find a partner anywhere in the world and train and meet up for the first time at a swim run race.
Viv: I mean, obviously Sarah and I knew each other beforehand, but it's possible. And I mean, we have so many friends that have done that too, who have just met through like, the, what is it?
Viv: The,
Sarah Kieffer: Like the Onville WhatsApp groups and stuff like that.
Viv: Yes, we've got Anvil WhatsApp groups. we've got i think Attila just dropped the the find find a friend or find a find a teammate.
Sarah Kieffer: Oh, I love that.
Viv: on their website. we'll find we'll We'll plug all of these like resources. like If you are looking to get into swim run and don't want to do it by yourself, we will find you a friend.
Viv: I promise.
Sarah Kieffer: Yeah. 100%. hundred percent
Viv: here's like Cross my heart. Fingers not crossed. Hang on. Piggy promise. There you go. Because it's it's my time. Listen, every analogy just like left my brain.
Sarah Kieffer: Amazing.
Viv: Either way, we will get you into swim run.
Sarah Kieffer: You can.
Viv: We'll let you drink the Kool-Aid and get you into trail running and doing all the fun stuff. And and you too can think. hey, you know what? I can run a marathon tomorrow. I can do swim run worlds because you can.
Viv: Your body is capable of so many things.
Sarah Kieffer: you
Viv: Like, and like our community, like the swim run community, the trail running community, like Sarah and I are part of, like, there's so many things that are like, it's so encouraging.
Viv: And that's really why we're here is to be your biggest cheerleader.
Sarah Kieffer: Yeah. Also, you're listening to this podcast and you can't even run a mile, i could not run a mile when I started training for my marathon four years ago. so there is hope, there is inspiration, and you can absolutely do hard things. We believe in you guys.
Viv: no, I was like, we we don't even not like meet people and we hear stories and we're like, oh my gosh, I'm so proud of you. they're like, you even know this person? I'm like, no, but I'm so proud.
Sarah Kieffer: I love that. Cool. Well, do we have anything else for this first little tidbit here?
Viv: You know, i think, I think we've got everything covered. I mean, Again, if you've made it this far in our first episode, we are going to absolutely blow your mind.
Viv: We're going to Yeah.
Sarah Kieffer: us a DM on Instagram we'll send you a gift.
Viv: yeah know. Yeah. yeah you If you have gotten this far, you can plug in wild ones, one, two, three, and we will send you a emoji of your choice and with sparkles on it.
Viv: So, thank you for joining
Viv: But you you you're going to – I mean, they're going to get a complete insight into what it means to a race with us as well as kind of like our banter and and shining a light on what endurance females female athletes have done and continue to do.
Sarah Kieffer: Heck yeah.
Viv: <unk> so excited. going to be amazing.
Sarah Kieffer: yeah Well, we we love you all and we will see you guys on the next episode. Woohoo!
