E104 Natasha & Caitlin Carew First Marathon
Let’s Be Well Together Podcast - Episode 104
Date: January 23, 2024
Participants: John Webster, Sheila Webster, Cameron Earnshaw and Elise Seifert
Guests: Natasha Carew and Caitlin Carew
Start Times and Segments:
[0:00:15] What’s On Your Mind: We open the curtain and let you in on some behind-the-scenes events when we were deciding whether to do the podcast, and what the show format might look like. Imagine John and Sheila driving in a car listening to draft early episodes. What were they thinking?
[0:10:04] Expanding Minds Interview: [Physical Wellness] We interview sisters Natasha and Caitlin Carew. They started running in April 2023 and then did something that’s hard to believe (crazy?). They signed up to run a full marathon in October 2023. They tell us about their first marathon experience. They stared with a plan to run a half-marathon, but quickly shifted gears into full marathon training. Caitlin battled through an injury during training. At one stage she was running for 2 hours in place, in Lake Ontario, with wave washing over her. It started as a box-checking exercise. Things changed during training, when they cherished the journey towards checking that box. Caitlin ran through an injury and Natasha endured after hitting the wall. They got a big boost from the fans, especially from family and friends who cheered them on. What an amazing experience.
[0:31:49] Adventures of the Starving Artist: Independent musicians need to wear many hats. Cameron was outside his comfort zone working on a website. He also had fun learning about Musso.AI, searching for his and other artists’ music credits.
[0:37:01] Move That Body: Ways to move that body indoors, while you’re at work or doing everyday tasks.
[0:41:57] Running Popup: My approach to wellness and balance is achievable, but there’s no getting around the hard work. It’s worth it. Didn’t most of our cherished accomplishment take hard work? Why would balance be different?
[0:45:21] Flipside of the Coin: Our interview guest Nora Fueten passed away recently after a fatal diagnosis (Episodes 89, 90 and 94). It reminded Sheila of a question Nora asked herself: if I’m not what I do, who am I?
Quotes and Take-Aways:
Natasha – I read your wonderful book, Accidentally Well. I was inspired by your story. In addition to that I had always wanted to run a marathon. For me, it was a box checking exercise; a bucket list item. It was more about checking that box than it was about the journey towards checking that box. That very much changed in the process of our training.
Caitlin – We both felt like we needed to sign up for a race that was long enough that it would not be feasible to just show up an run it without training.
Caitlin – We started with a half-marathon plan, but within a couple of weeks of training Tash came over and said, “I’ve been thinking about this a lot and I think we should just run the marathon instead of the half-marathon”.
Caitlin – I had a lot of nervous energy during the day before the marathon. I sat down and wrote a reflection on the running experience and the past year. That released some of that nervous energy.
Natasha – I became extremely irritable the day before the marathon, from stress. I was griping at my husband all day. I was so irritable.
Caitlin – The start line was very exciting. We met first time marathoners, and people who were super-experienced. It was a cool sense of community to talk to the people around us in the corral about their running experiences and what they were looking forward to. It was really fun.
Natasha – We were super amped up at the start line. We were really wired. We were dancing and laughing and doing stretches. When we started the race my heart rate was at 153 from the excitement.
Natasha – It was crazy, because Caitlin was extremely injured. She is a hilariously gritty person. She was in a terrible amount of pain for over 30 kilometres of the race.
Caitlin – At 26 km [out of 42.2 km] I was running over a bridge in horrible pain. I was close to my house. I stopped and walked and thought, “I have to decide right now if I’m going to stop or not.” I could run, walk, limp home to where my house is and stop there and bail out, or I can decide to keep going. I walked and started to feel a bit better and thought, “Okay, it’s already been super painful for the last 16 kilometres. I can probably keep going. I don’t know if it’s going to get worse. I’ll just run. I’ll just keep putting one foot in front of the other.”
Natasha – By 34 kilometres I felt quite good. I thought, “This is weird. Am I going to finish this and feel good the whole time?” But no. Five kilometres from the end, I suddenly hit the wall. I had the lead legs and so exhausted. I started going along with Caitlin’s mantra.
Caitlin – We were saying the mantra, “I’m strong. I’m brave. I can do this”. Natasha’s version was “I’m strong. I’m brave. I get to do this.” We kept saying this when it was tough going.
Caitlin – It started as accomplishing the goal of a marathon. As we went through the training, it became clear that the experience of running a marathon is much more about the journey to get there than it is about the actual marathon itself. It was an awesome experience to work towards something that was only for me and totally a recreational thing.
Caitlin – I felt it had been a very long time since I set a goal that was exclusively for me, and not related to work or my career.
Natasha – I realized half-way through the training that I was feeling exhilarated by the training. I would get giddy with excitement when I had my long runs in the morning on Saturdays. I was an athlete all through school. I hadn’t really engaged in any athletic pursuits in a decade or more, because I’d been focusing on my career and then on starting a family. It was the first thing I’d done for myself both as a personal goal and also going back to being an athlete, which used to be a huge part of my life.
Natasha – I remember finishing a 30 km training run. It was really hard. I finished it very late at night. I’d run across the entire city. I texted my parents to say it was the hardest athletic thing I’d ever done in my life. I’d never done something that hard before. That was pretty cool. I felt really good about that.
Bulletin Board Quote brought to you by Caitlin: I would run for 2 hours in place with big waves washing over me and freezing.
Guest Information: Natasha and Caitlin Carew are red-headed sisters who live five houses away from each other in the Beaches neighbourhood in Toronto. On April 10, 2023, they started the Nike Run Club’s learn to run program, and on October 15, 2023, they ran a full marathon.
Natasha is a mother of two children and one dog, a lawyer, and a dormant animal rights activist. She loves live music and being outside.
Caitlin is a pediatrician in Toronto and Iqaluit. When she's not working she loves hiking and walking her dog on the beach.
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Thanks for joining us,
(-(-_(-_-)_-)-) Your wellness check-in team
John, Sammy, Cameron, Sheila, Elise, Isabelle, Julie and Noura