You Can Take the First Step in your Transformation with Micky Ely

#054 - Active duty military member and obstacle course racer Micky Ely shares his story about how running has helped him lose 50 pounds. Through obstacle course racing, Micky regained his fitness after losing motivation during a challenging time in his life. He shares tips on how to get started on your journey and ways to stay motivated. 

Topics Covered:

• How to take your first step toward your transformation
• Finding time for fitness while maintaining a busy life
• The benefits and challenges of running
• Staying motivated on those difficult days

Micky Ely

Micky grew up in the southern part of Maryland spending most of his life dedicated to focusing on a career in baseball. Micky got into OCR racing back in 2018 where he joined and raced in Bonefrog, Maryland to spend time with his brother; having no idea what to expect or what training was required. Over the next two years, he began to build his obstacle proficiency and dedication to running finishing the run the year challenge of 2020 miles during the year.

2021 was a breakout season for Micky setting personal records in all three Spartan distances while finishing two trifectas. During the season, he ran perfect races (NO BURPEES) in all but two events setting his focus on reaching his first podium in 2022 and showing everyone that the big guys can win races!!!

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Transcript

Richard Conner: 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to episode 54. Today you'll learn how to take your first steps on your own transformational journey, as you will be inspired by our guest Micky today, as he shares a powerful story around his own transformational journey and will cover all three aspects of mindset, movement and motivation. Hope you enjoy.

Intro/Outro: 0:22

Welcome to Inspire to Run Podcast. Here you will find inspiration. Whether you're looking to take control of your health and fitness or you're a seasoned runner, looking for community and some extra motivation. You will hear inspiring stories from amazing runners, along with helpful tips from fitness experts now here's your host, Richard Conner.

Richard Conner: 0:45

Hi, everyone, welcome to Inspire to Run Podcast. I'm here with Micky Ely, who is an active duty military member who has a passion for running OCR races and enjoys motivating people to better themselves. I'm so excited to have Micky on the show today, because he has such a powerful story about how he made a big change in his life. And I'm really excited to share that story and transformation with all of you. So welcome to the show, Micky.

Micky Ely: 1:12

Hey, Richard, thanks for having me on. Like, we've been waiting to sit down and talk about this for a long time, I think from the summer. Till now it's just been building up to a great story and sitting down talking to you, I'm really looking forward to having that time to share my passion with you and hopefully motivate the people out there like me.

Richard Conner: 1:34

Absolutely, Micky. And, you know, I'm thinking back to the first time you met was probably at a Spartan Race, Spartan obstacle course race. And I remember I was just so fascinated with your stories are kind of telling me about, you know, what you've been through over the last few years and where you were versus where you are today. And it's just an amazing story. So really excited to have you here. And, you know, just share with our listeners just a little bit about yourself to get started.

Micky Ely: 1:58

So like you said, in my intro, I am an active duty military member, I've been doing it for 14 Lovely years, I'm a dad of four. So working out is definitely a challenge to make time and find the motivation after long days at work and with the kids and just trying to extend the day to make the workouts work. I become very passionate with working out and running. And for somebody my size being over 200 and some pounds being a runner has just been a challenge from day one. But digging down deep inside of I found that passion that drive and motivation to say that I can do this every day I can be the big guy who runs marathons are the big guy who can run sub eight minute miles, it's definitely been challenging, but that's who I am. I'm somebody who stays driven and stays focused on goals to better myself every day, not only for my family, but everybody who's around me who needs that extra boost that extra push that extra motivation to be better every single day.

Richard Conner: 3:04

That's wonderful. And you know, and it's interesting that you mentioned or you refer to yourself as the big guy, because quite honestly, when I met you, and every time I see you, you're the energetic guy, you're the passionate guy, you're the guy who's going to, you know, really run and put your heart into the races. And that's how I see you. So thank you for sharing that. And you know, it's also interesting about how you fit in kind of the, I would say your workouts with such a large family you know, I'm, I'm complaining about trying to do that with with my family. I don't have four kids, but you know, no complaints, no excuses, if you could do it with four kids, you know, anybody could do it. So hats off to you.

Micky Ely: 3:43

Yeah, day in the life and Micky I, I wake up at 435 o'clock in the morning, get my daily breakfast and coffee and scoot on to work. Every day I make it religious to stop at 11 o'clock 11 o'clock on the.no matter what I'm doing where I am, I'm like it's time to run, it's time to work out. And I've developed that kind of cycle to not only hold myself accountable, but make it a pattern of consistency. And I know where we'll talk about that a little more later on. But having that pattern is what I need because by the time I get out of work at two, three o'clock in the afternoon, I have four kids that I have to tailor to getting them to sports, school functions and everything because my wife works a challenging schedule where she she doesn't get home till later. So it's it's developing that schedule around the kids to make sure that I'm getting my needs getting their needs, but and also getting the proper amount of sleep at night because as most people know your body needs to recover at night when doing all these workouts so that you can process and be ready for the next day because you can never perform at your highest standards. If you You're only getting four to five hours of sleep, it'll really wear down your muscles and not give them time to recover properly. So it's challenging to say the least.

Richard Conner: 5:09

Yeah, I completely agree. And, you know, and I love what you said about having that plan upfront, every day at 11 o'clock, you're consistent about it, I think that's the key to really seeing results, is that consistency, and for sure, taking care of your body, I think some folks may, may be proud of the fact that they don't get a lot of sleep. But if you're really looking to kind of take control of your health and fitness, sleep is such a big part of it. And it may not be obvious, because you're like, well, the more hours I put in working out or the more hours I put on the road, that's what's gonna get me better. But it's got to be more balanced, right? So so thank you for sharing that. So why don't you to kind of take us back to where you were before the person you are today, right? The one that starting your workouts at 11am every day and managing all the kids activities and getting enough sleep like just take us back to before before that.

Micky Ely: 6:01

So yeah, bring back the dark days, as I call them. But there it's also bringing light upon where I am today. Like I said, so I'm back in I guess it was mid 2019. Right before the pandemic, I was kind of lost on where I was I was away from my family. My family was still in Connecticut, I was in Maryland, I was trying to figure out how to get through work while being away from them. And kind of put me in a really dark place mentally, to where I really didn't want to do anything I was eating I was it's hard to talk about, but I was just playing video games all day with no motivation, no, no drive to really go anywhere or do anything. And I actually ballooned all the way up to 280 290 pounds, which is the heaviest I've ever been in my life. And it wasn't really a focus that I had until March of 2020. Pretty much three weeks before the pandemic started. I was at a wonderful place called Greek peak in New York. I went up there for the winter Spartan Race, it was something that I've always wanted to do. And I labored through the race, it took me well over and an hour and a half to finish a 5k race. I failed multiple obstacles it was it was really eye opening to see how out of shape I had become and how weak I had become. I mean, I couldn't even hold on to one of the rings and make it to the second one, my fitness level had fallen so much to the wayside. And but I think it really did not hit me until I saw the race photos. I'm very proud to show the race photo of when I was then because it looked like I was carrying a juicy watermelon on the front of me in my midsection. I had gained so much weight. I mean, it was just it was depressing to see how my physical figure had changed and how I had gone from an athlete who loved to doing things and working out all the time to somebody who had really lost sight of what health fitness and mental happiness was. And as I look forward, it was that day where I started to realize that I need to make changes in my life. And those changes were not only for me, but for my family. I everybody always says that you make changes for yourself. You really it's it's a valid street, you make changes for everybody around you. Because it's important that you make changes for yes, your mental health, but it's also that you're a better person for those around you. And if you can be better for the people around you, then it circles back around to you're making yourself happier because you're seeing other people happy. It's a continuous circle that I started down and it started with just the simple thing I would I would run a mile. I would walk a mile I would, I would just say to myself every day when I would go out, I'm going to finish this mile. It sucked. It was terrible. I could barely breathe, I could barely walk. I mean, my joints were hurting. Carrying around that much weight is definitely not ideal for my skeletal structure that I have right now. And most people don't know that your bones are only only good for the weight that you're supposed to be ideally not carrying the excess of 5060 pounds more than you should be. So I labor through workout after workout after workout. It was terrible. I felt terrible. Every day when I woke up I was like this is this sucks. I don't want to keep doing this but But I would always carry around that picture from the Spartan Race and look at it to say, this is where you were. You don't ever want to be back there. So when I talk to other people about running, I say you need to find your, your motivation. When I say your motivation, it's not a it's not a large picture type item, singly, singularly focused on something that really caught your attention. So I still have a picture hanging at my desk at work, so that every single day, I have a reminder of what I don't want to be. And I think that's where most people make a mistake, they look at this big scheme of goals, like they want to do this, they want to run a marathon, they want to do this, you can't focus that far out, because your body's not ready for that you have to focus on small goals. So if you hit a small goal, you then up your goal to the next one. And you have to hit those milestones. I like calling them milestones, because think of it as a timeline, you have your milestones that you want to reach, and you have to shoot for those milestones every single time. Because if you say, I want to go out and run a half marathon, and I'm gonna go do that today, you're going to epically fail, your body is going to fail, your nutrition is going to fail, because you're just not educated enough to be at that point. That's the motivation, I took into essentially losing 50 pounds of weight, and getting my body fat down from 15 to 9%, which was the pinnacle of working out, I really wanted to get below that 10% body fat and under 230 pounds to be, as I call it, the lean mean big running machine. So that's, that's how I got to where I am today. And it's, it's, it makes me smile every time I talk about it to know that I accomplished something that great that big, and it's not a race, it's not a it's not a competition, per se, but it is a competition with myself to make sure that I'm continuing to challenge myself and beat myself every single day.

Richard Conner: 12:02

That's a wonderful story. And congratulations for for accomplishing all that you've done in a really short period of time. And we were only talking three years, maybe three years. So that's tremendous. And you know, you touched on a lot of things around kind of the pillars that we talked about rum, mindset, movement, and motivation. So just want to kind of double click in some of those areas that you talked about, you know, especially around the movement part. So you mentioned, you know, running a mile walking a mile. So just kind of tell us a little bit about what was the program or plan that you're following for like that kind of first milestone that you're trying to reach?

Micky Ely: 12:37

Yeah, so the one the one thing that I knew I had to do, and any running coach out there will tell you the same thing. It was time on feet, time on feet, it was it was getting your body used to moving. And I knew that if I could keep my body moving, it would get better every day. So getting to that first milestone. Obviously, during COVID, we weren't able to really move races or too much of anything. So I found myself going to a local park that had a three quarter mile trail around the lake and I would just walk, it had elevation, it would it had terrain differences. It had different types of terrain and had grass, gravel, dirt, wood, wood bridges going across the water. So it really gave me the diversity, I needed to train my body, train my ankles, and kind of just get back into it. It was like an introductory that hey, body, I'm going to be doing some workouts here, we're going to start by doing something easy. And I think about it everyday, I can still tell you the mental fights that I had everyday with myself. And it was all the way up until I took took that first step out of the chair. When I took the first step out of the chair, you you knew you are ready to go. So they always say it's that first step that matters that absolutely, as soon as you take that first step, then you're motivated. And it just builds from there.

Richard Conner: 14:03

Yeah, and you know, and that's a lot of what we're trying to do here is help our listeners take that first step if they haven't already. So I love that you said that. And then the other thing you mentioned around, you know, the the photo, your before photo, right. And that was your motivation. And that's interesting, because, for me, it seems like that was a visual reminder of your why for you it was a photo for someone, it might be just something written on why they're doing what they're doing, why they're going out and doing a couch to 5k or why they're taking walks or getting on their bike, whatever the case is that daily reminder so so that's really that's a nice takeaway, I think for our listeners is once you start to think about your why is to have that visual reminder again, if it's a photo if it's something that's written because I'm sure every day it was still hard for you to get out of the house and and do the run or do the walk because you said it was very hot. Other than your body?

Micky Ely: 15:01

Yeah, it definitely was. And Richard, as I, as I talked about that picture, in the motivation piece, I still use that as a motivating factor not only for myself, but for others. So I work in a place that has an increased obesity rate, and lack of motivation. I know that's hard to say with the military. But it's a it's a growing concern that we see every day. And I keep that picture, it's an eight by 10. I want it to be big, I want it to be bold, I want it to be straightforward. And everybody that comes to me for motivation, or understanding of fitness, I pointed at picture. And they're like, what do you what do you point at? Who is that person? I say, and I look at him, and I say, That's me. And every single time that somebody looks at it, their jaw drops, they're like, how could you go from that to where you are today. And I'm like, sit down on the couch, we can have a talk. But I use that picture. Now. It motivated me in the beginning. But now I use it as a motivational tool. So it's, it's, it's something you can keep forever and continue to manipulate or change it to work on your growth from beginning to never ending because our journeys never end, they just change. And the fact that I can utilize something so negative to positively impact so many people, and families and friends is is a continued motivation and driver for why I do what I do today.

Richard Conner: 16:31

That's wonderful. That's wonderful. And, you know, I'd love to hear more of those stories that you might share with your, you know, with your friends or their colleagues. You know, tell us a little bit tell us some of the stories maybe about maybe earlier on in your journey, or maybe some success stories, as you're getting back to the races, you're closer to that 10% body fat you're losing, you know, the way you're passing more obstacles, you know, maybe there's some stories you could share with us around that.

Micky Ely: 16:57

Yeah, it was very fortunate. So I'm big on group motivation, right. So you, you know, my dear loving friend, Mr. Lash McGee, we just happen to fall into each other at work. We were two people from two different backgrounds. And we ended up training together. We when I say training, we ended up running, we ended up running together, we found a love and passion in running. And early in 2021. Were like, hey, let's do Spartan Races. Let's do obstacle course racing together. So we found that dual motivation together and we weren't doing anything crazy, we would go out we'd run a mile we'd run two miles, three miles, but it was nothing over exerting ourselves. And it led to both of us being very successful in the Spartan season. So my first season back, I completed two trifectas to include a trifecta weekend. So a person who went from 285 pounds to a year and a half later competing in a trifecta weekend and finished not only the beast, but also the super in the sprint all within two days. And for me that was kind of like the pinnacle of I have made it I have gotten to the point in my life of I can do this I can do hard things. And I know a lot of people talking about doing hard things. But when I walked off that hill completing three week three races in the single weekend, I can't even describe the feeling I felt of knowing what I had become and what I had work towards because you have all people know how stressful stringent and terrible these races can be and harsh environments and mud and hills and your IT bands are screaming at you the whole way. And it becomes less of a physicality portion of it, but more mental. mental pain is much more than physical pain. And the mental aspect of overcoming tough situations and doubting yourself like that. That's the biggest thing with runners is you tend to doubt yourself. Like when I talk when we started this conversation, I talked about the big man in racing, right? It's just a stigma on larger people, not larger being obese, they're heavy, but large in general, dense muscular figures not being able to run and I went out this year with an extremely motivated coach who had the same bodybuilders me who had the same height as me. And he he kind of continued the motivation process to say, Hey, big guys can run and we can win. So it's you're going to take from where you started to the pinnacle at the time of where I am using other motivation to get there. So you have your initial motivation. Then you have your following motivation. So For the people around you, who motivate you to, to be better, it's it's exhilarating to know that people share in the passion with you of getting better in your life.

Richard Conner: 20:11

For sure, for sure. And, you know, I know last, I think I met last around the same time that I met you, and he's great. And it's great that you kind of started down on this journey together. And, you know, you've done these races together. And it's been wonderful when you talked about kind of having that group, because I'm thinking even the last race that we did together, the Spartan beast, which, honestly, I'm still recovering from, I left a part of my soul on that mountain. And, you know, having you guys there really, really helped me get through so certainly can relate to what you said about having that group of people. And I think that's important for our listeners, right? If you're it for those days, that are just you just don't want to get out of bed or, you know, you don't want to get out the door because it's too cold or it's raining or you're not feeling right. You know, having that group to really help you and motivate you whether you're running together or not, is really going to help you kind of along that journey. So so great point there.

Micky Ely: 21:07

It's very fun. It's really funny you talking bring up the beast and when when we ran together because I tell people I said one of the happiest portions of my race that day was coming up on Richard screaming loud and proud that I finally caught up with you and getting the skin to motivate you for that little bit of time that I ran with you and seeing you pick up your tempo and seeing your mentality grow. I was like, that's that's a win for me to see. Like i i took the sadness out of your face for a minute for running that crazy race to see the positivity like, fill you and watch you run. Like I I saw a different side of Richard for that quarter mile that we ran together. It was it was great. It put a smile on my face. And I was talking to everybody about it. As I was running up to him. I was like I got to run with Richard ever so great. It was fun. We're laughing having a great time. So yeah, it is about who you run with who you who you're around, and, and surrounding yourself with people who also want to get better and motivate you to get better.

Richard Conner: 22:13

That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, and I have fond memories. From that race. I am happy it's over. That was quite miserable for me. But I agree with you, like you really brighten my day and others on the team, you know, through various parts of race because it was hard. And you know, it's interesting about what you said about the mental part being harder than physical? Because, yeah, there was some physical pain, but it was more mental, like, oh my gosh, am I gonna be able to finish this race? Or I'm not really feeling like I want to do that obstacle, like, what are my options here? Or, you know, so or got, you know, thinking about the inclines and declines on the mountain, because I'm afraid of heights, and I think I talk about it quite often on the podcast. So going up wasn't so bad. But coming down, I'm thinking the roll down the mountain. So yeah, for sure is a lot of mental and when I saw you, I think you broke up a lot of the negative thoughts. So that narrative that was going through my head or going through my mind at the time, so you brought a lot of positivity to to that part of the race, and I appreciate that.

Micky Ely: 23:14

Yeah, absolutely. And it's funny you talk about like, questioning yourself and your and your abilities and their the rollercoaster of emotions that you experienced because as we talked about my, my journey to where I am today, I think this past April was the pinnacle of everything that I accomplished. It was something that I had put my mind to off a joke at the end of the race season and 2021 I was standing at Vernon mountain out there and mountain creek, New Jersey. And the altar women had just finish there was only one, one female that finished that day or named Charlotte, Charlotte Curtis, amazing, amazing endurance athlete. She said to me, Oh, you complete the trifecta. Why don't you do the Ultra? And I was I kind of looked at her and I laughed and I said you're crazy. I'll never do that. What is wrong with you? What do you what do you what did you eat? What are you doing? Come on. You know me better than that. I'll never do that. It became a running joke between lash and I because he was always like, Hey, you're going to do the altar. I'm like, Absolutely not, not doing it. Lo and behold, about four months later, I looked at Kevin and I said, I'm gonna run the Ultra. And he's like, seriously, you can do it. And then I told Lasch he goes I knew you were gonna say that. That's awesome. But now Now we're in January, the races. The first weekend in May and I'm like holy crap that is 33 miles and 70 obstacles of living health. So I really buckled down on my training. And you have to go back to when I talked about consistency, right? When you're thinking about running a 33 plus mile race with 1000 feet of elevation, you're training is everything. running and running, and we live in New England, like training during January to April is not the most ideal situation weather wise, you either one have to run in the freezing cold to run in the snow or three brutal wind. So hardening your mind through those three elements is, is a is a challenge in itself, let alone trying to put in 30 to 50 miles a week, just getting your body ready to enter the time that you're going to run. And those four months of training. I have never been more focused in my life, knowing that I've never done anything of that caliber. Even when you run the trifecta weekend, you're still not putting in that number of miles. When you're looking at a 10k or 5k and a half marathon, it's still not equal to 33 miles, let alone the little kickers that Spartan throws in there at the end of their runs. Or for the ultra guys, they had this little taste of pain to make it even worse on you. which most people don't know, because the mindset is they can't do it. And I think the biggest step for me was just saying I'm going to once I reluctant. Absolutely, absolutely. I had no desire even when I said I wanted to do it. I still had zero desire to do it. Kind of talking to you about doing another Spartan Race. You're like, No, I'm done. I feel you I got it. I talked to

Richard Conner: 26:56

at least three at least.

Micky Ely: 27:00

I totally understand. I'm like I understand you Richard. We're feeling it. We're feeling it right now. It was nerve racking. I still remember the morning of the race i i got to the course I think at 430 in the morning, which nobody should ever be up at that time to go running unless it's 85 degrees outside or nicer. But when we walked out on the course it was 41 degrees. 41 degrees. I don't like cold. I don't live for the cold. I don't like being out in the cold. New England is not my cup of tea. I grew up down south I love I love the heat. I love the warmth. But I began the track of the 33 Miles not to mention as purse barn usually does, they throw water on the course. And when you're thinking of that frigid lake at the top of mountain creek at 530 in the morning, the water was not warm to say the least. But it was great hearing everybody scream and loud pitch tones as they jumped in the water was was extremely motivating for me to get in there. But yeah, so the entire race I just I just kept moving. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other and physically my body was there physically it was it was just keep moving just your body you've done this before just keep moving keep moving. Mentally, was a struggle. Absolute struggle. I there was portions where I was like, this sucks. My knees hurt. I'm not gonna keep going my back hurts. I was literally trying to find any excuse like, Hey, can you tell me to get off the course. So I can I can leave. But I know everybody was so positive. Everybody is like keep going Ultra keep going. You got this. You got this. You're doing great Ultra. And we talk about in Spartan racing. When you see those type of people, it's it's the whole sport. Everybody's so positive. Everybody's so driven to push you to push you and mentally. I think that's what it kept going. And there was numerous people along the way. They just would start running with you. It's kind of like Forrest Gump the movie. When you're running an altar, it's so long that you're hoping somebody just like takes runs a mile with you tell tell. They tell you about themselves. Like why you're just dying next door. And before you know it, you're like, oh, man, I have three miles left. I got this. And that's where your whole mindset starts changing to like, when you leave transition. You're like, I'm only halfway done, but I only have to run all this stuff one more time. And as and as with age group racing, you know, they're still there for your burpees Well, not anymore. But there was that fear of burpees to motivate you to finish things. And for me, it's funny because the picture I sent you is absolutely hilarious and I laugh about it all the time. But when I crossed the finish line from an ultra, I literally just stood there and stared at the sky, like, Thank you, God, I just finished this hell, I don't know what I'm gonna do. And I was missing a pants leg. It looked like somebody drugged me down the hill, by my feet, it was. It was terrible. But, but tough things make us stronger. Still, to this day, I have my ultra metal hanging on my wall. Because when people talk about great accomplishments in your life, that is one that that will never, nobody can ever take that Valpak away from me. And I talked to my friends back home in Maryland, and they're like you do what? You rent America, you're not a runner. And it's funny that people put stigmas on people like that, because everybody's a runner, everybody is just gotta want to do it. You just got to, you just have to get out there and say, I'm gonna do this. And just keep pushing forward and keep staying motivated. I mean, it's guys like you and Kevin and Sammy and all the team that just every day, I just smile, knowing that there's people out there that love the torture themselves as much as I do.

Richard Conner: 31:16

For sure, for sure, there's a lot of us out there. And, Micky, thank you so much for sharing that, you know, just hearing your story about the Ultra. And then thinking all the way back to the beginning of this journey for you is incredible. And you know, you went from not moving not in a great mental space, to taking that first step. And then just progressing milestone by milestone up into, you know, the Ultra, which is an amazing accomplishment. And it's funny what you mentioned, when you said, I'll never do that, quite honestly, that's where I'm at, for the Ultra. So I don't know, in three years from now, I'm going to be like Micky, I'm like, Yeah, I'm gonna do the Ultra. So I'll certainly let you know. But I really, really appreciate you sharing your journey, sharing your stories, because what I love for the listeners to take away is understanding where you started to where you are, it didn't happen overnight, it was step by step, you had those milestones, you had the support of the group, you know, of your group, and you built those, you know, the right habits, and you had that consistency. And I love all of that. And I just wanted to kind of share, you know, three, three kind of takeaways from what you shared with me is, you know, number one around, really having that that motivation, whatever it was, whatever it's a visual photo, or something that's written to really remind yourself of what you know why you're doing this, to is having that group of people around you whether whether it's a coach or an accountability group, or you know, your running partner, and just having that group to help you kind of keep moving. And then third is, I love what you said about taking that first step. For a lot of people. That's the hardest thing for one reason or another, you know, taking that first step is really hard. So I really appreciate you sharing, again, your journey and sharing, you know, kind of this wisdom with us. So you know, kind of as we wind down here, for our conversation, I love for you to share just one thing that you would like to share with our listeners to inspire them to run.

Micky Ely: 33:13

One of the biggest things like that I want everybody to know is anybody can do anything. We are our biggest critics. Nobody out there dictates who we are or who we can be. Throughout our lives, we are constantly told that we shouldn't do things, we can't do things we, we don't look like the person that could do certain things. Well, anybody can be anything or do anything that they want. As long as they put their mind to it, the mind is a powerful thing. And it can overcome boundaries and challenges as long as you push hard enough. And as you move forward in your running journeys, no matter what fitness level you are, just know that you're out there challenging yourself and you're doing more than 90% of the United States is doing and most of the world is doing everyday just by getting out there and moving. So be the difference for yourself and others and just continuing to do to do great things and make yourself better every day.

Richard Conner: 34:14

I love it. I love it, Micky, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you being here sharing your story. This has been a wonderful conversation. And I'm really looking forward to kind of continuing this journey with you and and your Spartan Races and running. So thank you so much for coming on the show.

Micky Ely: 34:30

Hey, Richard, thanks for having me. And like I said, You're you continue to be a motivating factor in my running world seeing how you challenge yourself every day. So I'm grateful that you continue to spread the love throughout the running community and and make it aware to everybody that they can do everything if they put their mind to

Richard Conner: 34:47

it. Much appreciated Micky. All right.

Micky Ely: 34:50

Well have a great day. You too. Take care yourself Richard.

Richard Conner: 34:53

So I hope you enjoyed this episode and I have three small asks one follow Micky at M_ely84 on Instagram to take your first steps on your own health and fitness journey. And three, please rate and review this show. This helps us get in front of more people and share stories like Micky to help people take control of their health and fitness. So with that, thank you again for listening and have a great day.

Intro/Outro: 35:24

That's it for this episode of inspired to Run Podcast. We hope you are inspired to take control of your health and fitness and take it to the next level. Be sure to click the subscribe button to join our community. And also please rate in review. Thanks for listening