Liz Andersen: Claiming Her Peace, Becoming An Athlete

You are listening to women's running stories where exceptional women runners share inspirational stories about their running experiences. I remember that post I'm 43 and I just ran look at who just ran this 5k and that kind of propelled me into this just way of life that is so like I guess purposeful for me and then also just giving me back that piece that I've never had that I always needed giving me that purpose it's kind of to me amazing like you know going 43 years and not having that and then just all of a sudden building this up and then my 40s have been really good to me and I think that's why I wanted to end them with something big going into my 50s because I really have just overcome a lot of things and I feel at peace with myself and who I am and where I'm at my name is Liz Anderson and I actually grew up in Tacoma Washington but I currently live up on the Olympic Peninsula in Portland about Washington and I'm a mama for me and my husband between us have four kids and I work for an airline so Alaska Airlines that's kind of me and I'm native I'm a to lay the tribal member yes this episode features Liz Anderson who is a runner and a mom and a native woman and Liz has overcome a lot and running plays a central role in the piece she has today and she's here to tell the whole story up through the big event she chose to mark the end of her 40s and to celebrate turning 50 but before you hear more from Liz I want to welcome you to women's running stories I am Shari Louise Turner I'm the host and producer of this podcast thank you so much for being here now on to Liz's story so yes Liz has overcome a lot in her life and her running journey is actually part of a larger health journey which she's going to get into a few things to know before we get started here Liz has done a lot of work with native women run she's going to mention that organization and she mentions NWR founder and executive director Verna Verna Nezbegay Volker and one of the big things that native women run does is send native women to particular running events and you're gonna hear a little bit about that in this story Liz also mentions the we out here trail festival which is actually where I first met Liz and she makes an appearance in an episode that I did about that event and I will link to that episode in the show notes we out here happened in early June in Seattle Washington it's also happening again in 2026 and Liz mentions that she did the race and that there are many things she liked about it and one of them was that the race directors are two black women there she is referring to Aliyah Irvin and the author of Running Well Black Allison Mariella de Seer Liz also mentions Stephanie Flippen who is a coach as well as a professional ultra runner and Stephanie is a podcast host she is the co-host of the Making Strides podcast with Carolyn Sue and Stephanie is one of the co-hosts of the Earth Movers podcast along with Allison Mariella de Seer and Verna Nezbegay Volker also Liz mentions Kayla Jeter and Kayla is a Lululemon sponsored athlete as is Stephanie Flippen and the two of them are friends all right let's get into it now here to tell her health and running journey is Liz Anderson so in 2007 I actually had gastric bypass surgery I was well over 300 pounds and lost 150 pounds from that surgery and then 2007 8 ish I started walking 5k's and a friend asked me to walk a half marathon and I did the Seattle half marathon and I thought never again that took way too long and so I kind of I did like one big 10k that I like ran walk and 2007 and then I kind of just fell off and you know with four kids we just got busy with life and then in 2016 actually right after the presidential election I went into kind of a depression for a couple months of just watching TV and going to protests and just being really upset and my son who was working at the Y at the time said I think you need to do something different mom I think you should join the Y so January of 2017 I actually joined the Y with my husband and started going to bootcamp classes and some weightlifting classes and got really into that and then started yoga and I love the yoga I would call it my Trump free hour and it was amazing and so I just really got into like every day I was going and it was just feeding my soul with the yoga and even the bootcamp and the weightlifting and kind of just propelled me into you know a healthy lifestyle and so then I started getting people I worked with into it and one of my co-workers and I decided we were gonna do a Spartan sprint so we started big and that was I think around 2018 ish and so when we started training for that I thought I need to add some cardio in because I really wasn't doing cardio one of my classes they would have us run around the gym like you know in between sets and I hated it I didn't want to do it like one time I even walked out and just thought I'm not here for running and so then I thought I need to add some cardio in and so I think it was I was 43 I do remember this because I have a post on my Instagram and we did a heart walk but me and my friend decided we were gonna run it and that was the first time I had ran a full 5k and I posted look at this 43 year old run in a full 5k and then I just got addicted after that I remember just really enjoying going for a run before work like that just calming me and I was doing both I was doing you know the gym workouts and the running we did our Spartan had a great time that was tough but it was it turned out really well and then I convinced three other friends to sign up for a half marathon so and it was probably September of 2019 we did the orca half that was my first half and I trained hard like I actually really am proud of that training I never missed a training run I remember having one really bad my 8 mile was just awful and I remember walking home crying because it just fell awful but besides that really just enjoyed all of the training and it felt doable in my life and loved though it was the orca half in West Seattle you look run along the water and Tulalip tribes are kind of animal that symbolizes us as an orca so it just felt like very calling to me and that was kind of my first big run and I just loved it and then shortly that after that though in November I actually had skin removal surgery from all that weight I had lost previously and now I'm getting healthy and I noticed when I was running actually that it was causing problems and so I thought I need to just do this so I went into it super healthy probably the best shape of my life and just super excited about it and everything went well he gave me about 12 weeks before I could actually run again which 12 weeks in is the end of January of 2020 and started training I bought all these races for 2020 started training for I think it was like a hot chocolate run in Seattle and that was the only run that I actually ran live that year and that was I think end of February beginning of March of that year and then we all know where that year went so the gyms close down so my weight training I'm never really fully picked back up but my running did that's all I could do and so that's all I did and that's all I've done since so just kind of a background with me I have one native parent and I have one non-native parent my parents divorced when I was super young and my dad who's the native parent was not really involved in my life for a long period of time and my mom remarried and but we grew up in a lot of poverty you know there wasn't a lot of support like going to go into sports wasn't a big deal when you're trying to you know make sure there's food on the table so I didn't have that aspect in my life and I never felt that I was an athlete or that I belonged in that space and when I first started going to the gym there was a lot of mental overcoming and there was several times I'd get in the car after the gym and I would cry and just doubt being put on me by other people when I was younger and fighting that back and so it was overcoming all of those negative thoughts of who I was and I also gave birth so I had my son when I was 17 I was 16 when I got pregnant with him and so there's all these things in my head that I kind of had fed myself about who I was kind of as a native like I said up to every stereotype I was overweight I had a child at a young age kind of the history of my family is my grandmother who I'm named after had died of cirrhosis of the liver before I was born that's why I was named after her so kind of the typical native story my dad had been fostered out he had four him and three other brothers that were fostered out and then there were three other kids that were adopted out because she was so sick due to alcoholism so it's that generational trauma that just kept showing up and I never kind of felt like I was free I dealt with mental health issues I had actually a hospital stay in 2000 when I was in my early 20s and you know two suicide attempts so there's all these things in my life that I had just been fighting to overcome and I think when I finally found exercise and movement it was I had been on medications like crazy even up to this point even after losing the weight and I had gotten off all my medications all my mental health medications anything else I was on like I had just really worked hard thankfully I had a great therapist but I had really worked hard to overcome all those doubts in my life and then I'm in the space that I'm not familiar with and I'm overcoming that and I think it was just that that sense of relief of like I'm here I'm doing this but also just battling that doubt in my head that I had been always kind of told that I didn't belong in in certain spaces and I think I think mentally I just became strong like after going through all of these classes and then when my friend wanted to do the Spartan Sprint I was like okay I have to do this and that's one thing that I will say is like I feel like I've overcome so much that when I set my mind on something I'm gonna do it and I'm I hate telling people but I tell everyone so that they'll hold me accountable to doing it so I think it was around December of 2022 I don't know why I did this quite honestly I think I was just trying to achieve something different you know I've kind of done halves and felt good and what's the next goal a marathon so December of 2022 I tell my husband hey I think I'm gonna run a marathon next year I don't know which one but I think I'm gonna do it and he's very encouraging he never doubts me he's like okay this is what you're gonna do and Christmas he actually bought me a running belt and a massager he took me serious and so then I just this is so funny - I downloaded the Nike app I've been using the Nike app but I downloaded their marathon plan and started their marathon plan in December and I picked a marathon that I thought would be perfect for me which was the Tacoma City Marathon I had grown up there we had recently moved out of there in 2020 to where we live now and I wanted to go run where I knew I wanted my family to be present and I wanted that support and then I also didn't want to really travel for a marathon and so that's what I picked it was the end of April and I trained with the Nike app which is super funny I love the Nike app don't get me wrong but like I had no idea what I was doing I did everything alone I never ran with anyone else during any of my training I didn't have any friends up here so it was very lonely and it was you know winter into spring and winter kind of lasts forever up here so a lot of wet running and I did it though I went out and I did it I was slower than I wanted to be I was miserable the entire time I my family was there though and that was like every happy moment so it's a super small marathon there were points on the course where there's nobody running but you because of how small it is and I was so slow and then they give you a six-hour time cutoff and I came in at like 5 40 something and they give you if you want to start early you can if you think you're gonna take over six hours and I thought no I can do this I thought I would come in right around five that didn't happen so I end at 5 40 and they're pretty much taking down the everything down by the time I end even though I met their six-hour cutoff so it's just like all this kind of disappointment for me even though my family was there and I don't want to downplay that because I had the my sister set it up so I had a person cheering it every mile so that was the amazing part of it I had friends and family and everyone supporting me my parents like stood at mile I think 18 because there was an out and back and they said they wanted to see me twice so they made sure they were there and it was my stepdad and my stepdad is always had a really hard time saying I love you and so that's something that we're working on and it was cute because his sign said and big letters I love you so like that part of my marathon was wonderful the running part of it my son ran like the last mile with me which was super powerful and he actually also had had weight loss surgery to just recently before that so the fact that we were running together was huge and so those moments were super powerful but when I look back at the running I just wasn't trained right I wasn't trained up enough you know and so I got what I needed out of the I guess the inner inner part of the running but I didn't get the running experience that I really felt I needed and I actually at that point hated the marathon and told everybody don't ever let me do this again which I think happens for some people I even wrote the marathon company and just said hey like I didn't get the experience that I really expected like I finished under the time on there was a one point where there was a turnaround and that volunteered left so we kind of didn't know where to turn around and everybody was a little confused and his response was awful to me he basically just said sorry you had a bad day and I and I expressed in my email what a great day it was because of my family and everything and so I thought I'm never running with that company again and I'm sad that I had that because I really was excited about being there and so that was another reason where I just said never again like I don't want to do this I don't want to be that last few runners out there and have that experience and so mind you I put the marathon out of my spectrum I didn't think that was gonna happen again and then about two months after that I actually I think I was already following native women run but I signed up they had put out for a team to run the Windy River Relay which is the company that puts on Hood to Coast puts that one on also and so Ferna the founder of Native Women Run had asked for runners in the Pacific Northwest and it's down in Hood River Oregon and you start from Hood River and you basically are running up to Mount Hood and it was six member team I think maybe probably 70 80 miles I'm not kind of sure I don't remember but I got picked for that and then Verna Verna comes out for it because it's her first relay team so I get to hang out with Verna for like three days which is amazing and it was the most powerful experience for me and that's one thing I've always struggled with being mixed race and being native and not being raised by your native parent and my my dad who I have a great relationship with now was not raised in his culture because he was fostered out and so I've always struggled I've always been proud of who I am but I've always struggled with having that be a piece of my identity and all the negative inputs that have came in and never having a good example of a strong native woman because my grandmother had passed and so being in this space was just amazing and then to have other people that are like me doing what I like to do and just feeling that common bond and then just the healing of being out there and running and we're standing on the start line and a eagle comes and swoops down right over us and many people in native culture believe that's your ancestors coming back and like he it it was just amazing we all just got chills so had that great experience with native women run and that relay and then I was just kind of sold I was like these are my people and I love that verna has given native women space one but also the examples when I was a kid I didn't have any native women to look up to I do remember though in school I did have one they have like Indian education and so they have like a counselor and they come and get you you know once a month and they might take you to something native event but it's just connecting with native students in the school district to make sure they don't get lost and that was probably the only exposure I had to native woman and so then all of a sudden seeing this space where verna is just creating all these role models and I love it and so I just continued when she had races in this area to sign up and run fast forward let's see verna actually got a partnership with or go running which is a local or go run club here and so she got five races with them in the Seattle area and so I helped kind of coordinate that with her and so it continued to run with them and 2025 has been a tough year we had moved up to the Port LaLoe area to help care for my in-laws my husband's stepfather and his mother we were super close to them and we'd come visit them all the time and I always loved living up in this area they live in port towns and it's a beautiful area I have an Instagram post where I thought one day like I put on there I love this we will retire here and in August of 2020 we packed up our house and sold our house that we had raised our kids in but moved up here to be close to them and had cared for them we lost my father-in-law and actually 20 I believe it was 2020 one and so then we had just been going back and forth and helping his mom since we're within 30 minutes of them and then we noticed her health declining kind of beginning of this year and April we were finally able to get her to go to the hospital because it had gotten pretty bad my husband had started staying in the house with her but she was refusing to go get care and so we took her to the hospital and Saturday she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma on Sunday and she passed away on Wednesday and so we had been caring for her for the last you know four or five years my husband's an only child and I got super close with them she would always say I was her daughter so losing her it was it was really hard and so Verna had put out for Chicago and so this was kind of in the period of the end of April to maybe mid to late May so I put in for it I just thought I'm doing this I need something big for my 50th I need something to keep me going right now because I didn't really have I didn't want to keep going like honestly we just kind of wanted to stay in purgatory because we both were just so emotionally distraught over it and I put in for it and Verna called me and said hey I was actually at a work meeting it was my first day back to work because I had taken a month off and I was at a work meeting in downtown Seattle and she had been trying to FaceTime me and Verna has never tried to FaceTime me before so I knew something was up and she said hey I have this great news for you and I'm super excited to be not super excited to be running the marathon again but super excited to be representing and doing something really hard and I knew it was two days after my 50th birthday so I just thought I'm putting it all into this like everything that I have right now is going into this so here I am signing up for this marathon and I am like what am I doing and so I ran into well Verna came and stayed with me we did the we out here trail fest and she was just so reassuring of like you can do this Liz like this is this is meant for you we picked you for a reason and it was so nice to just have her reassurance and then have that reassurance in person and just that weekend she I felt like she really cared for me I felt like she was kind of being a mom to me and making sure I was okay and that was super appreciative and so I met Steph that weekend Steph Flippen who ended up becoming my coach there I mean it was just such a great weekend like there was just so many powerful things at that just having it you know two black women being the race organizers so many first-time trail runners like a BIPOC trail race great music great food great people like it just was really amazing so I also met somebody else there Jackie who is a coach but she only coaches for short distances she's a 5k runner she's over has like over 105 cases done and so I'd asked her about coaching me and she said oh I'm not doing longer distances and I was like okay I'll look for somebody else and then Stephanie Flippen just kept coming up on my Instagram feed and then I started listening to strides making strides so I just thought okay like I need to reach out and so I reached out to Steph and just said hey I'm interested would you be interested in working with me this is who I am this is what I'm doing and she was super excited and so I think we met the end of June or July and just made sure that we were a good fit to work together and she was just once again comforting and reassuring and so it was a hit like we hit it off we met over the phone and then she just started setting up my training plans and we went full swing into training and it was just amazing like honestly what a difference from my first experience of just downloading an app than having this person and you know we didn't talk all the time we would just talk through the training app that she gave me but what a difference of just having somebody that one knows what they're doing that was just reassuring of everything I'd say hey I'm doing this does this look okay this is what I'm taking in during my runs my long runs does does that sound good and I would adjust things as needed you know just with travel and work and things like that and she was just always super supportive so I really felt like I had and I've never I think I hit 100 mile during my first marathon month when I was training for that one and I think I'm now into like four months of a hundred miles each month but it felt strong it didn't feel tiring or anything it just felt like doable so I I went into Chicago super confident like I knew I put in my hard work I had no knew I did all the right things like I just went in going yep I can do this almost too confident honestly I kept scaring myself like is this reality like did I really do this and it was it was neat though because I have all these great women around me that were saying like hey you've worked so hard I see the work you're putting in you're so dedicated and in my head I'm thinking no it was on my plan I just had to do it you know and and trying to down top myself but really I had put in the hard work and I really felt good about my training and what I had done and I'd stayed healthy and I'd set up like I'd done a couple different native women run runs during that time so I'd met other Jocelyn's on the board for Native women run she came down from Canada we did a half together I think we even did another trail run together because for and I had got the trail run for Native women run and we did that of course I fell on that run same as I did on we out here but I survived right like I got back up and kept running but yeah it was just a really good experience all together training for this so I went into Chicago super confident and super excited one thing that I will say to you is is so the ribbon skirts native women it's it's part of our culture and it's it picked up kind of I think a couple years ago with the running ribbon skirts which are shorter and I thought I need to make a new one for Chicago I need to be fresh coming into Chicago well I don't sew and so I my mother-in-law was a really good seamstress she actually did it for a living and she had a really nice sewing machine and I told my husband I want the sewing machine I have no idea what I'm doing but I want it and so I did get her sewing machine and so I asked my mom my non-native mom I said can you help me make this ribbon skirt and she said I will help you but you are making the whole thing and I was like okay and so I took that sewing machine to her house I picked out my ribbon skirt so our tribal colors are red black and white and I so I did a black skirt those were my three colors of ribbons and then I decided to put an orca on it and I was laughing the whole time I was sewing it I was so nervous because I don't know what I'm doing like I'm sweating and my mom's like you're fine you've got this like she's cheering me on why I'm sewing the ribbon skirt but I made my own ribbon skirt and that's the ribbon skirt I wore for Chicago and I think for me that was powerful just I don't you know I didn't have a grandma or I didn't have somebody saying hey this is how you do it but I took my mother-in-law who gave me that sewing machine so I feel like she was there making that skirt with me and I took my mom who was just there to encourage me and tell me what to do and I made my own ribbon skirt and to me that's powerful and I used to suffer from a lot of anxiety honestly on the daily I would have panic attacks and it's something that runs really helped with and I was so stressed out during that whole thing as I'm pulling like my sweatshirt off and I'm just like and I thought this is how I used to live every single day and I was like a proud moment of me of like this does not feel comfortable you know and I was like and I did this every day and live that way and it was a moment in time of sewing the skirt but to me too that was another kind of proud moment of like that's that's not who I am anymore like it's great that I overcame it but that's not my story for a long time I felt like the mental health and me going through all of the trials of the mental health and you know having a hospital stay and struggling with that was kind of my story and one day when I realized like hey my anxiety is pretty good like obviously we all have a little bit of anxiety but this isn't dictating my day to day and this isn't my story anymore and that that's a powerful moment for me to just realizing like the running was is the story now you know the the overcoming is the story not not the mental health issues is no longer the story it's the overcoming of those things so we got into Chicago the next morning I'm going to the the expo I decided to walk there because I see that Nike has some event going on where they're giving out slushies and coach Bennett is on the Nike app and I've listened to him for years and he says he's there so I thought I'm gonna go by there and I'm gonna see coach Bennett well I was in a daze I walked by there I got my slushie I'm taking video I'm super excited I'm stopping at stop lights where I don't need to because they have all the streets cut off like I my brain was somewhere else I'm just like in the moment of like wow this is so amazing being here in Chicago I look back on my video and there is coach Bennett and I never even saw him or said hi to him but he's in my video but that's how it felt like it just felt surreal being there right like I was just walking around in this surreal days of being in Chicago for this and then we had a dinner with Native women to run so I got to meet we had four runners there I got to meet our three other runners were all from the United States I'd never or all around the US Turtle Island and I'd never met them before so it's all new women I had never run with before so that was super special and then on Saturday morning we did our shakeout run and that was great I met one of the other runners that had ran for Native women run last year in New York Michelle Blanco she was wonderful and then there was just other women that came that I had met through Native women run online and we finally got to meet in person too so that was super special so it was just like one thing leading up to another it was just this great weekend but Saturday night I went to bed and I started doubting myself really big time and I'm sitting in bed going why did I tell all these people I was doing this I don't want to fail in front of everyone I don't want to embarrass I don't want to embarrass Native women run like I got all of this doubt in my head and I'm sitting there in bed I've gotten everything done and I'm trying to go to sleep and my husband is watching TV and he looks over at me and I'm crying and he said what are you crying for and I said I don't know if I can do this and he said yes you can and I said I'm just doubting everything and at the same time I'm actually texting stuff telling her all of this like I don't know what I'm doing and she sends me this wonderful text back saying you're nervous because this is super important to you and if it wasn't important you wouldn't feel this way and my husband's telling me the same exact words as I'm getting my text from stuff and I was like okay and he's like you've got this I know you you worked hard like he's he's such a good motivator and so I was like okay you're right you're right so I kind of calm myself down be between the two of them finally fell asleep got up Sunday morning so confident so confident it was so cool I woke up and I remember walking I walked to the race all by myself which is fine I was in like the M corral and the other runners were you know and and earlier corrals but just feeling like this is amazing like this is great I've got this and one thing so I had kind of thought I would come in right my goal was like an 1130 paces which is right over five hours and stuff really believed I could go a little quicker based on my training and so she put me for kind of like a 445 and that I think kind of made me nervous but I you know I trusted her and so she gave me this great plan I decided to start out with the Pacers but I so I found the Pacers like I'm in just such a good place and it starts out and it's there's so many people like I've never been to anything like this I think if you remember me saying my last marathon there were spots where you're running all alone there's no one cheering you on there's so many people here but it's so great like you're seeing the Chicago Skyline before you start the crazy part too is when I ran past the start line coach Bennett's like cheering people on he's right near me like I feel like we came like eye contact I was like okay I had my coach Bennett moment now and so I just like started out super confident and stayed with that pace group I think it was the 450 pace group is who I was with stayed with them felt really good like say the first mile or so and then I run into my husband at mile two and things had felt like it was they were getting hard and I was like this is mile two this should not be hard and I said that to him I said this feels really hard and he's like you got this keep going and so I kind of kept going and I was like this is just feeling harder than I thought it should be like mentally I'm like you're doing great like I'm watching my watch and I'm like everything's good but it just feels hard what is going on and I'm staying with that pace group though and so I'm proud of that because this is kind of where our plan was at I'm checking everything I wrote the plan on my arm but it still felt hard and so I run into my vernet at mile eight and it's amazing that we can connect with people there's so many people on the course and she just said remember those that doubted you and you got this and I was like you're right I got this and my I had a friend that flew out just to chase me around with my family so my sister and my parents had came out for the marathon so I had family there and they were trying to drive around to the spots though and I'm getting this message on my phone like I have so many people messaging me which was wonderful too and that was a great motivation but my family says we can't we're stuck we can't find you and I sent them a text back and said I'm running 26.2 miles you're gonna find me and and so mile I think it was mile 10 they finally were able to catch up with me and I come strolling and they have a video of me and I'm acting like I haven't ran 10 miles and at that point I'm still feeling like it's hard so I love looking back at that video because that I think was just my mental you know because I look at the video and I come casually strolling up like it's not a big deal and which is super cool like I love that I was that relaxed even though in my head I still felt like it was hard about mile 13 I fell off from the pace group and I'm actually very thankful for that because I feel like that's what was making it hard is trying to keep up with them and then I just thought I'm just gonna enjoy this like there's so many people out here I'm walking past keg stands or running I should say past keg stands every neighborhood is different it's like a party in the streets for the entire time and I thought I'm just gonna enjoy all of this I ran by Michelle we caught up at somewhere Michelle Blanco the one I had mentioned before that was native women run we all had our running skirts on our ribbon skirts on so I recognized her and caught up with her and she was struggling a little bit but we were able to just chat a little bit and then she actually took off and run past me I was like okay which which is good like she was struggling so it was good to see her kind of take off and still have that motivation and just my family caught up with me I think four times that friend was with that was with them was three times I think I saw Verna twice I mean there was just someone everywhere that you needed a moment on Kayla Jeter she was there with the Lulu women and I saw her and ran up and gave her a huge hug and I have no idea she even knew who I was at that point but I told her and this was the funny part too I said I'm one of Steph's athletes because I knew her and stuff were good friends and then me saying out of my mouth Steph's athlete it's actually gonna be me crying right now sorry because that's the second time I've said it to say I'm an athlete was huge that was huge because I don't think I ever really even up to this point felt like I was an athlete you know and so that was just an amazing moment like it was amazing moment after amazing moment after amazing moment and then finally I think it was mile 25 my husband caught up with me and I saw him on that he had went to a different spot than we had agreed upon but I knew he's gonna be there soon and so I saw him so I just ran up and I kissed him and I he said you got this you're almost there and it was cute because everybody around him started cheering when I kissed him and then I even my sister said like you picked up that last mile and I was like yeah I did because I had kind of I kind of slowed down a few of those miles like I look back and at the time I felt like oh my gosh I'm going so slow but I look back and there was a few miles that were a little bit slower but I think I was enjoying the moments I was you know stopping and hugging the people that came out to see me so I ended up crossing the finish line I had also taken my Tulalip flag with me which being an introvert I felt like that was bringing a lot of attention crossing the finish line with my flag but I was really proud of that and so I wanted to do it and so I brought my flag with me and just ran across that finish line and was the most amazing feeling like I'm sure I teared up but I just was so happy you know like it was a such a good moment of just overcoming all these different things like all of this mind the games that I had played with myself all of the heartache that we had had over the last year the doubt in myself the doubt is a native woman that I could do this and it was just all of those things like it just came and kind of went away I guess after I ran across that finish line and so I feel like I crossed it with confidence which was amazing given the journey you know so yeah it was just a really really special day a huge congratulations to Liz on Chicago and it just being such a special day and also congratulations on working to heal and build the piece that she has today and a big big thank you Liz for coming on the podcast and sharing this whole story just wow thank you you are incredible and I am so grateful that you came and shared your story on women's running stories and happy 50th birthday now I know you like me are gonna want to keep up with Liz so please look to the show notes for how you can do that I will provide a link to her Instagram I will also provide links to the we out here special episode that was on women's running stories also to the we out here trail festival race itself as well as the earth movers podcast native women run verna nesbague valker Stephanie flippin Alice and Marielle a day seer all the links will be there so yes look to the show notes and that does bring me to the end of this episode thank you so much for being here I always appreciate you coming and listening I am Cherie Louise Turner I'm the host and producer of women's running stories and until next Tuesday I do wish you joyful healthy peaceful strides forward [BLANK_AUDIO]