 Hello my friends and welcome to another episode of Running with Ryan today. I'm going jogging with a really interesting and inspiring character Maybe you've never heard of her. She's never been on any podiums. She's never gonna set a world record But she is gonna run over 35 marathons and ultra marathons this year She is a huge force in the body positive movement She is funny. She's a comedian my friends ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to Latoya Shantae Snell I'm gonna sneak up on her. Here. She is. What's up girl? Welcome to Boulder. Thank you. Thanks for coming all the way to Boulder for this thing I know, you know, it's really important for you to be on the show and you came all the way from Breckley And you're awesome. Yeah, how do you say we go running? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, let's do it First you admire this view. I mean look at that. Yeah, you have that in New York. Oh, no No, we have pollution and rats rats at pole dance. So no That is pretty incredible. All right, let's go have ourselves a wonderful day. What do you say? Yes? Yes? Yeah, we got some high altitude here, but you're gonna be just fine because the beautiful mountains are gonna power you first of all I like to get this out of the way. Yeah, you don't drive a car. I don't drive a car It's very rare that I meet somebody like this Why don't you drive? Because I'm a New York City resident and now we're kind of spoiled Yeah, I believe in trains and avoiding the five hundred dollar Insurance. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Could you drive a car if you got into a car right now? It'll be really really tragic tragic. Hey, that's exactly like me. My friends never let me drive How many races are you doing this year about 38? No big deal. No big deal. What are the distances of all these races five altars? 15 marathons And the rest of them are like I have sin Just little old half marathons. Yeah, you know doesn't run in the park And how did you get into running? I got tricked into this. You got tricked into this? Who would do such a thing? Man listen, I didn't run for anything more than the ice cream truck Which is a great thing to run for by the way. Yes it is and I still do. I love those bomb pops No, but I got into this about six years ago Like almost six years ago So now for my half my first half through a friend I'm meeting this year. He's out in the UK We've been friends on my space 16 years. Wow, and He signed up for a half marathon. I follow suit. It was a bucket list item and Somehow I fell in love with this sport. Yeah, it's not Just a running as a people it's a culture And that's like I want more of it. Yeah Yeah, how you doing? How's that the ones? Oh god. Oh god. Oh damn. So when you run these races, what's your goal? Personally, like what are you? What are you striving for every time you get to the starting line? Well this year's a challenge myself, so For the first six months. I wanted to see how far I can actually take it before I'm always like looking the ways to Face my fears. Sometimes our imaginations are like the worst people to listen to which is your head Yeah, and the dialogue and I realized I wasn't going to get past it unless I actually went through it. Yeah, so This year in particular is to see if I can get faster as a runner But I want other communities to get involved people who don't see themselves as an athlete We're all athletes. It's a matter of you know when we choose to pick out poison We live in a society, unfortunately where people are very judgmental and they'll look at somebody And whether they're their color or their shape or whatever and they have a preconceived notion already of that person Yeah, what are some of the things that you go through? With this kind of stuff Some of the things get really vicious and file. They'll attack my motherhood How could you feel comfortable, you know going out on these races abandoning your family? Yeah, to Someone actually attacking and poking fun at my son for being a type of diabetic It's like when you're short of line. Yeah, and you have the question Is it about you or is it something with them? Yeah, and it took years for me to get to that place. Yeah of understanding What do you say to mean people? How do you do you deal with them directly online? Or do you just kind of live your positive life and hope that that inspires people and you just deal with the haters be very honest both Like sometimes you want to embrace your petty say Jack petty white Yeah, and it feels good for about five seconds. Yeah For me It depends on the approach Some people are cry for help, but I came to a piece and understanding that You're not going to fix everybody and regardless of you have to ask yourself. Are these people actually receptive to what you have to say So there's times Where I actually go back and forth and then this sometimes where I know the conversation is already dead before it started Yeah, so what you can do is live your best life live your best life. I love it And you're like a super positive person you talk about how toward the end of races the backside of races You're the one pumping everybody out. How do you do that? What's your method man? You're at mouth 22 everything hurts all you want is a shower and it's hard When you're in a back-of-the-pack, you know things are already being torn down The cups sometimes are gone the stations are going the audience is gone You have to entertain yourself and sometimes you get to hang yourself with other runners. That's actually left out there That's feeling just as bad So instead of wallowing in that depression I choose to enjoy it, you know, so I find ways to do it through Instagram stories Talking to people that's out there in a course trying to figure out their life a little bit And we go hand-in-hand across finish line. I love it and those to me Those are some of the most inspirational moments at races. It's the fast guys and gals go fast and that's great Right. I'm proud of them, but it's the people towards the end that really have the stories Yeah, you know, they have gone through the pain cave times 1,000 to get to that finish line Right and those are the people to bring a tear to my eye. Like I mean, don't get me wrong I would never ever take from any one story, you know, sometimes when I listen to the back-of-the-pack and even the front-of-the-pack people just have this disconnect. Yeah, and If we start at listening to each other a little bit more You'll realize how much more we have in common. Yeah, the differences that separates us. Yeah, look at this beautiful scenery. Look at this She's good to learn a little oxygen break. I get a view of my beautiful mountains. You see, I'm a north boulder guy I don't come to south boulder very often. Oh really? Yeah, this place is huge And it's beautiful and I can understand why everybody's like into something like fitness like out here Yeah, like why why do you need a phone? Yeah, totally Well, you are not just a runner. No near near to my heart. You're also a cyclist. Yes, I am. All right. Let's talk about that Oh, man. I started off my journey as a road cyclist and I would do like these crazy Like hundred malars just for the hell of it And the running was relatively new. There you go. I'm gonna flash you real quick. Oh, yeah, we got to flash Everybody's flashing here in boulder. This is not New Orleans What do you love most about biking? What is it that, you know, besides the physical aspect and you know, burden calories, whatever Freedom freedom. That's what I'm talking about Like don't get me wrong. Like I love running The cycling You're able to just surrender let your hands go and just Really just focus on what's in front of you and what's around you just take a moment and just absorb and everything, you know And that's the reason why eventually I want to go into triathlons So I can get a little bit of the best of both worlds, but I have to get past this swimming Swimming's hard. I suck at swimming. That's why I've never gotten to triathlons I feel like I'm fighting and I'm going nowhere in five minutes So when you started running Was it because you wanted to lose weight you wanted to be more fit you what was the impetus for actually running? Yeah, um fitness in general. Um, initially my story started out as a weight loss journey I know that's like a curse word to some people. Don't you talk about weight loss like this and sorry guys This is my real part of my journey, but um 2013 I was well over 265 pounds and um And it's not even so much to a number now. I guess he's not so much a number. It was to look Yeah And the looks that people give you because they treat you like a third classes Not even a second class like a third class It's like we know that you're real, but we're gonna either stare at you really weirdly or act like you don't exist And um, I didn't like the way I felt not even so much the way I looked And I hated the comments that came with it people telling me that I would be much better If I lost weight When I lost the weight I lost it in a year went down to 165 pounds. Wow and So 270 to 165. Yeah, wow and the crazy part is After I lost the weight I was more unhappy than ever was in my life and it wasn't the weight I realized I was using fitness and running As my placebo to do all the things that I enjoyed Yeah, I can do it any size. Yeah, true, you know So I gained a little bit of it back, but that wasn't until I actually went through a stent of anorexia Before I actually know in it and it's one of those hard conversations to really have with people because Usually they associate anorexia to have a look, you know, um, and I didn't fit that look I didn't I wasn't bone skinny I didn't have any like signs in my teeth but Unless someone talked me into eating 1200 calories a day By marathon training Wow 200 calories a day. No 1200 1200. That's still not much. Yeah, so essentially I was starving myself Long story short dead in winter 12 degrees outside. I'm burning and dripping up the sweat I get out the train station Lost my hearing lost my vision Um, eventually passed out and it took for a really good er doctor to get a crisis team in To say hey listen You may not think that you're starving yourself But you are and my relationship with food Completely changed and the thing is people think like it's some kind of like a hot moment Now i'm fixed forever. Yeah, it's a process that I still fight through every day We have to remind myself to eat and you know, how long have you been running now? Almost six years six years and I imagine this is something that's going to be with you for the rest of your life Like you're hooked. Yeah, as long as I have my my mobility I'll find a way to move and even if I'm you know, like because I I do have um A series of health issues. Um, because I mean as much as I don't look the part of being an athlete with disabilities. I am Uh, I have sciatica Dis issues herniated disc Uh, I have endometriosis. You have weird orange hair. Something's wrong. Something's wrong. Oh my god. No, just kidding. The orange hair is awesome Oh, no, no, no. This is no. This is self-diagnosed Just that's just crazy new york syndrome but yeah, like um You know all these things you have a restriction on your mobility, but when you have those things taken away from you You realize how much it is a gift. Yeah to have it and to fight for it So my goal is to regardless of what I do Just keep moving. What do you say to people out there who might be watching who? Maybe they're like you and they're like, oh, I could never do that. I could never run a 5k What do you say to people like that? How do you get them psyched for it? Walk for a 5k walk There you go. Pro for a 5k. Break down the 5k to where it's only a mile. If a mile's too much Do just a walk down the block. You know, everything starts with a walk and starts with movement and Four motion is motion. So We have to stop overthinking it and stop looking at it. You know with this I have to be this type of body Or this type of shape or have everything or your ducks in a row. You're never ready. Yeah, so Face it. Let me all head on and don't let your fears kidnap your joy. Do we have a nature break real quick? Oh, yeah It's only illusion has bowled it here She's high on colorado not that kind of high I told myself I would never do 100k and I did it last year, you know A few americans who don't know what 100k is that's 61 miles. Oh my god. What do you think? I don't know drugs No, it's um, no, definitely the course had wonderful tequila. I mean the same course that we were just talking about Yeah, the javelina 100. It's a good one if you're gonna do 100k Recommend the javelina 100 because the eight stations are all parties and everybody's dressed up. It's halloween weekend God, like I had a funny story with um javelina. I made friends with a guy and we're now facebook buddies Um, we took a shit together a mile 40 something Yeah Hey pass over the toilet paper please Yeah, like, you know, like when you're running in the dark and that's like a fear for a lot of runners Like I don't want to run at night time, you know, your imagination gets the best of you Like I think that's like the tune of all this like your imagination is like your worst and best enemy um So I turned off my headlamp, you know, I was like, let me cop a squat, you know, right here about his cacti And all of a sudden I'm like, oh no, I'm like, so he's like, oh no, no, no, don't come any closer And I'm like, and he's like, do you have tissue and I'm like, what? And he's like, do you have anything to like wipe yourself? And I'm like, dude, I got this disposable wipe and he's like, you know, throw it at him He's like, hey, what's your name? I'd like to show off that we both have really bright colorful hoka speed goats Hoka and look at these socks. Look at those socks. Let's talk about fear fear holds back a lot of humans With not only athletics, but work projects relationships love How do you combat fear? You got to face it head on man Fear is our worst enemy And sometimes we make it scarier than it actually is, you know, when I think about it in relation to Running athletics, you know It's usually our mind now stop It's not even so much things that people will say to us those things contribute to it But it's our I saw it says this self defeat is 12 that we have I like to call myself a recovering self-defeat is For many years. I want to say for about 27 years of my life I talk myself out of almost every success that came my way I think I would have Been more successful in my life if I would have gave myself a chance Most of us are so terrified that once we hit a certain point How can I do better than last time? Part of doing better than last time means that you have to surrender to the fall You know, we think that we have to be perfect. Nobody's perfect. If you're perfect, you're not human You know, don't be afraid to screw up once in a while. It's supposed to happen There's growth and there's a learning experience by actually failing. Let's have a time out. We got horses here. Yeah time out. Hey guys Back back to the fear conversation Like um When I think about all of the things that I stopped myself for 27 years from doing It was always this doubt that was implanted for myself And with from others it was like the internal dialogue was are you worthy enough of doing X Y and Z that was in relation to work To fitness to health My darkest point. I literally was told by my doctor if I kept this up. I was gonna die and I remember Seeing my doctor's face. He's a really good guy and I remember seeing his face and he's like that's this He's like, you know, what are you going to do about this? And I was like, I guess I'll die That was my response, you know, and it's really dark, you know To tell somebody that but you have to understand the mindset of what get people to that place, you know, where You almost manifest failure and that's a job in itself to keep up And if we put in even a quarter of work Of trying to do the best that we possibly can and this doesn't have to be dynamic Sometimes we're looking at these goals Like it has to be something like grandeur. No reduce it down. Make it smaller. Hey, I want to run a marathon one day Cool, let's start off with a 5k. Oh, I'm doing this house of 5k program But it's not working out for me. It's telling me by this week. I should be running a straight mile with no brakes Screw that and on four more weeks Like like rules are meant to be broken. Yeah, exactly If you're following these Rules of how you're supposed to be How do you know how to actually improve the next time if you're never daring to take a chance on yourself or the program Challenge these things question these things ask yourself Why am I so hard on myself, you know, um, and That's why I love fitness so much because if you feel That struggle that's progress. Um, when you get to that level of comfort Is good But at the same time if you're dare for too long you're stagnant and then you get bored Then you're wondering why you're doing this every year The reasons why I run Change as I meet different people. I get to hear different people's conversations Uh, I remember meeting a follower. I won't say her name. Um First 20 minutes of meeting her She uplifted me and said oh my god, you're so dynamic But everything about what she said about herself was super self-defeated. Oh, I'm so stupid I'm so clumsy and it's this and in the middle of us talking. I said stop I was like, I want you to listen to yourself. I'm like all those wonderful things you're saying about me You can't say one positive thing about yourself. Yeah and It's something that you can acknowledge and people's dialogue and what they don't say their body language can tell you a lot about a person Yeah And a lot of my body language changed as I became more confident in who I am Uh, what I looked like When all my rough days and I still have them because people get eluded like they get this delusion about me that Oh, you're an athlete. You're a professional athlete. So you don't have bad days. No I have them more. We all have yeah I have them more than people may know and The thing that gets me out of it is I intentionally force myself to do the things that I hate Which this is going to sound terrible. One of the things I used to hate doing was looking in the mirror Wow And that's something I hear a lot of people in the plus-sized community complain about I don't like looking at the full body Or I don't like taking full pictures because people are going to see my fat before they see me what I do I keep a pen near my um my bed from my bedside and I have sticky notes And I choose the area that I hate the most and I write three good things about it There's no ifs ands or buts There's no hey, I like my stomach, but it's too big to them. No, I write three positive things about it I don't care how stupid it may sound at that moment It's three good things I can carry on for the rest of the day and I rinse wash repeat it Until I start to feel better about myself. I don't care what background you are I don't care how much you think you're gonna hate me Maybe we're gonna find two things about ourselves that we have in common. We're gonna run with it I like yellow We are gonna run with it We're gonna run with it like if we focus too much on these negatives We're never going to be able to grow. Yes. I'm not asking you to walk around this bubble and act like these things don't exist But ask yourself, how can you grow from it? Oh I just I just want to give you a hug. This is so wonderful. It is a beautiful day to be alive on planet earth I wish I could take like some more new yorkers out here Yeah, and see what I see like, you know the gift of traveling being a traveling athlete It's like if they experience different people with different cultures In the surroundings, uh, it reminds you How much more is around you and it makes everything so much smaller Like even the petty things it makes them so much smaller when you're able to look at things like this. Yeah I mean that is just awe inspiring. Yes. I have another question. Yes In the running world There aren't a lot of people of color. Yes, and there aren't a lot of plus-sized people Pink elephant. Pink. Yeah You show up to the start line. You don't look like most people. No, um, I stand out. Um, Everybody think i'm jamaican when I go to other parts of the world I was like, oh It looked beautiful and they'll say things like yeah, modern. I'm like, dude. That's like dude That's really really like wrong Just because you have dreads or something like yeah, it's the dreads in the beginning. It was really hard Because you never want to feel like you're alone. I look around at races and I realize I'm the only person of color Not like just black person, but In general, the only person of color out there and then people will make snarky remarks like Are you out here for the 5k and if there's like the shortest distance is a marathon? I'm like, you know, I'm not out here for fucking 5k. Yeah. Yeah, you know, it's it sucks. There's a hurt. Yeah, but um I also think there's a barrier that's not only placed You know outside of the community or within the community. There's a fear again that word comes up a lot. Yeah There's a fear of the unknown if you don't see enough or something You don't take advantage of it. You don't you know, you don't want to be the first Now some people thrive off of it I'm person-like I don't I don't thrive off of it, but I don't also desire it either I feel like If you put yourself out there other people will come too and you have to make it accessible Yeah, and I think that's really The biggest thing that's the issue in our community when it comes down to people being the person of color and being a plus size athlete Is seeing it. So there are certain things. I think that race directors can actually do To get more people more diversity out there show more of our faces right us out there Tell us that hey, you'll want it. Yes, it's the it's the boondocks of Idaho Who gives a shit come out here, you know, like the way to be inclusive Is to show people that they can show up without judgments Take a lot of friend. We all have a plus size buddy or maybe a friend of color You don't realize how much more you have to put out there Just for being yourself and it makes and other people look at you as the outsider Um, and sometimes I experience that up races, but I show up Because I want more people to show up. I want people to know that yes, this is open for you too Like make space don't think that you're taking up space that you don't belong Or you're going to some imposter syndrome Just being there is a statement of his own. I can't thank you enough. I mean for doing this And for all you out there watching this, I'm gonna link some of the really awesome films that she's been a part of in articles You can get to know her better. She's an incredible human She lives in brooklyn if you're out there go say hi give her a high five on the streets Please like and don't get all ice here like I don't want to interrupt you listen I will bear hug the shit she will bear hug you Okay Thank you for joining me out another running with ryan. We will see you down the road and uh, oh wait, we gotta end this with uh Okay, let me get let me let's get this all set up here. We're gonna. This is the grand finale here Okay, here we go. Hold up. She's gonna pick me up. Yes. Oh my gosh. Look at this. She's also a power lifter Ah That was like nothing for you Why weren't we doing that the whole