00:00 You’re listening to the live happier, longer podcast, episode 37
00:15 welcome to the live happier, longer podcast. We’re your hosts, Molly watts and Angela McDade. We are here to help you build the habits of a happier, longer life starting now.
00:27 Hey Angela. Hey Molly, how are ya? I am not too bad. Didn’t really because well, let’s be truthful. Okay. I am dying from allergies, but other than that, all is well. Not keeping you from running? No, it’s not yet. I have to see it’s kinda rough. Yeah, a little bit? Today we are going to talk to someone who’s all about running. She’s an avid runner and also an actress, a writer and a producer. Yes. And she has produced a documentary called the human race, all about people over the age of 50 who are running. Yeah. And who had not always been runners. No, not always been runners, but definitely a, we got linked with her from our interview with Katherine Switzer, who’s definitely been a lifelong runner and someone that, you know, a big part of this project with Liz Vassey and really just had a great time learning more about the human race and it’s really not a story about running as she says. It’s really more about the human story. Yeah, it’s just wonderful. Yeah. Here’s our conversation with Liz Vassey.
01:36 Hi Liz. Hi Liz.
01:38 Hi.
01:40 Oh my gosh. Thanks for coming on. Yeah, we’re so excited to speak with you today. We just gave a brief introduction on who you are and the documentary, the human race and can’t wait to just hear your personal story behind it and kind of even more details about the, about all the great people that you got to meet and talk to in building that documentary.
02:02 Oh, well thank you and thanks for wanting to talk about it. It was an incredible experience. Meeting these people has changed my life. My husband, who’s my director of photography, it’s changed his life as well, and we’ll talk details in a second. First Marathon in November of last year, we ran the New York City Marathon. My husband and I did it together because we’d followed Katherine Switzer for the documentary running at the year before that, and we’d seen these people in their sixties seventies, 80s uh, running and being so active. And then when the New York road runners said, do you want to run the marathon? My husband and I said well we kinda have to, something’s going to come and make it so we can’t do this. Like something’s going to come up so we won’t have to do it. But no, and we did it And it was spectacular. We owe these people a lot because It was a great experience.
03:00 Yeah. So in the beginning of the documentary, you kind of talked about the fact that, you know, you’re an avid runner. You have always loved running, or I don’t know always, but you, at least in your forties you’re an avid runner. And after losing your mother running just became something that was very meaningful for you in terms of dealing with that depression and the stress. And it sort of started you thinking, am I going to be able to do this for the rest of my life?
03:27 Yeah. I got very curious because I lost my mom. I was very close with my mom. And, um, the one thing nobody warned me about with grief is that it doesn’t, uh, it doesn’t have the decency to be linear. Um, I found that things would hit me out of the blue. My sister and I talk a lot about how it feels like waves and suddenly the things you think are going to hit, you don’t, and then you see something like a mother and daughter, you know, in line at the grocery store and suddenly boom, it just hits you out of the blue. So I thought, well, I, you know, you’re dealing with all these huge emotions and um, you know, some of them are sadness and some of them are anger. And, and I wanted a way to get all that out because I firmly believe in dealing with your emotions head on. And you know, I also, I believe in grief counseling. I believe in all of that. But the thing that was singularly most responsible for me getting through that period of my life was running. Uh, it gave me something in the morning to look forward to. It’s a, it was meditation for me. And so I started to really, I’d been physical before that, but then I started to realize the mental benefits as opposed to just physical benefits. And I fell in love with it and then I started to think, Oh God, what age do I have to quit doing this and take a mall walking? Like what age?
04:48 So I just did a Google search and I looked up, uh, how old a lot of marathon runners are and I’m was just, I was amazed because I was finding stories about all these people who were decades older than I was when I was looking all this up. And I, I was so happy about that one because I, you know, selfishly speaking, I want to run. But also I live in Los Angeles where, uh, ageism abounds, a lot of isms abound, but ageism is a big one. And I felt like if I can help combat the way that people of a certain age are viewed in the media, if I can be a part of that, if I can help change that, then, um, I got to do what I can do. So, I went after some of these runners and they agreed to be in the doc.
05:32 Yeah. So, I mean the people that you spoke with and we connected with you, um, via Katherine Switzer who was on our podcast previously. And I mean she didn’t have too many, you know, a more brilliant example of not only her, her original act of being the first female runner in the Boston Marathon, but you know, then her continuation of running and ran it again, you know, 20 or 20 years later. And just being able to do that at over 70. And you know, I’m sure she, for us, I know she was incredibly inspiring and also her nonprofit that she started with the uh, fearless 261 or fearless. Yeah. When you first met Katherine, what did you, what were you just like, this is, she is amazing.
06:24 Well, Catherine, it was really interesting because I’ve been a fan of hers for a very long time. First as a feminist, I’m so grateful that she exists and put herself out there cause who at the age of 20 , right, I have to do this, I’m going to finish this marathon in my hands and my knees. Even if even after getting attacked by that man by the race director, who decides that they are going to put their gender on their shoulders, carry it over the finish line for the good of all women. Sort of preternaturally self-aware and she was blown away by her, just as a human being and as a feminist. And then as I got into running and I started to realize, oh my God, she ran the Boston marathon 50 years after she first ran it and her time was within minutes.
07:11 Yeah. Yeah. But she also, she also said, and that was her, she had like four interviews or something while she was, not only did she run it, she also stopped and chatted to people. Yeah. I mean it ran it faster. Had she been, had she not had all the interviews?
07:29 Absolutely. So I was, I was blown away and I reached out to her as did everybody else. After the Boston Marathon, I reached out. I just said, hey, can you do anything? Could you narrate? Can I just interview? And she got back to me and she said, yeah, I would love to because I want to show people that before they used to say it was my gender that made it so that I couldn’t run it. Now they’re saying that it’s my age, i want to help fight that. And then she said, by the way, I’m running the New York City Marathon. If you want to follow me, you know, you can come to my training run. If I want to follow you? So it started off as just thinking maybe I could have an interview with this spectacular woman turned into her being basically the spine of the entire documentary and I walked through what started her in her running, which was her father and her father should be commended for that too. Telling her, she had wanted to be a cheerleader, cheering for other people. He wanted other people to cheer for her. Yeah, I love her dad. I got to know her. We now become friends and, uh, you know, I’ve become friends with her husband and I absolutely adore this woman. I’m so grateful that she’s been a part of this. She’s, uh, she’s just turned into one of my favorite people.
08:42 Yeah. And her, her passion for running is so great that, and then, you know, and, and for what running has meant to her, her whole life is what is just so inspiring to her too. Yeah. And just how proactive she is, or she was for, for women runners, you know, she knew that we, we can do this. And she just, like, we were chatting to her about, you know, the, the first female marathon in the Olympics and all of that, and just, it’s hard to believe that that wasn’t a thing until she said, okay, this isn’t okay. We can do this. Just amazing.
09:25 Yeah. To meet somebody with that much of an impact. Somebody who realizes her purpose on this planet that early. I mean, she’s, she’s just, she has remarkable. So, um, it was, I, I’m forever grateful to have her in the documentary and I’m forever grateful to her for doing what she’s done for our gender. And now for people you know, past the age of 50, showing them what’s possible.
09:47 Yeah, there’s great stories all amongst the documentary. Um, and I have to say that I think my favorite though my favorite person person, not at, not Catherine, not withstanding, um, was Velma the yes. From Tampa, from the Tampa runners club for run run Tampa. And I know that, uh, that was started by um, Debbie Voiles. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Um, she started that group, but the, but Velma is, has run, I don’t know, I think they said seven marathons and she’s 84. She’s over 80.
10:22 No, I think she’s 82. We followed her just after her 80th birthday running a half marathon.. She is an amazing woman. I met her about seven or eight years ago through Debbie Voiles from run Tampa and Debbie is one of the producers on the film and Velma really wanted to be in this and she, because she was so mad that she, she, there wasn’t a marathon and that actually coincided with the schedule of shooting this doc. So I had to follow her running a half marathon and because of all this, and Velma is remarkable, she said, I Can’t believe I’m only running and a half marathon. It’s fine. Um, so it was, it was great to follow her around. I get to see her do that. She’s, she’s an amazing human being too.
11:11 Well, and, and what I loved about what she said and what was so inspiring for us and stuff that we have researched and, and it has been proven again, backed by science. She said that she was running from Alzheimer’s. She had her maternal grandmother, her mother and her sister, um, all diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. That’s a pretty strong genetic path, you know, and, but there has, there’s science behind, um, cardiovascular exercise and how it is a preventative thing for Alzheimer’s. So just the fact that she didn’t start running until she was 59 or 60. I mean, it was late. She didn’t, you know, it wasn’t like something she had done, not like Catherine where she had started, you know, really ran, her whole life. But this was something that she started later in life. And that’s something that I found so compelling about the documentary and about the story. There were many people that in the documentary that we’re not avid runners their whole lives, but they started running later in life and did it for some very real reasons. And that’s, you know, and Velma’s continuing to run in, in, you know, into her eighties
12:21 yeah. I want to put the message out there that you can start any time. One the catchphrases, one of the taglines for the film is You’re never too old to start. And I think a lot of people think once they reached a certain age that they’re done, they have achieved and done enough new things and there’s also science behind experiencing new things and how that opens up your brain and that actually helps in all areas of your life. And one of the things that I really liked, I interviewed a lot of doctors while I’m doing this, this film. And one of the things that I love that they said, because a lot of people say to me, what if your, uh, if you have a genetic predisposition for this disease. And I said, okay, but these doctors talk about how if you are exercising and if you are taking care of your body, you’ll, you’ll have sort of a, um, like if you’re genetically predisposed to having a heart attack, you are more likely to survive that heart attack and come back from that heart attack. So I love that this doctor said that because a lot of people say genetics are genetics and I understand what they’re saying, but you are giving yourself a better shot of bouncing back from whatever your, your, uh, sort of genetic predisposition is if you take care of themselves. And, and, and I thought that was an important message to put out there. I’m never saying it’s a cure all, but I am saying it’s a help almost all.
13:43 Yeah. But even as far as Alzheimer’s itself, there have been studies that have shown that you can have the disease, but if you doing all of these other things, you’re not actually showing the signs and symptoms of what you would typically see, you might see. And it’s because you’re doing all these things and basically your, your brain is rerouting around the disease areas, which then allows you to have a and normal life. But it’s not until after, it was a study of a group of nuns and the, they studied their brains after they had died. And they all showed, the physical manifestation. Yeah. Brain itself had signs of Alzheimer’s, but they had not manifested it in life because of all the things that they were doing. They were, um, physically and mentally active. And this actually, you know, prevented all the signs that, that we fear about Alzheimer’s.
14:46 You know, so Velma was just a great example of that. And there were certainly other women in that whole group that were all over the age, you know, we’re older, were women that started running at an older age and I guess is a way of putting it. Yeah. And I think the great thing about that group of women was, there’s Velma who was annoyed she couldn’t run a marathon. But then there was the other gals who had just, they were running the 5K or the 10K, you know, so it’s know that if you show up you have to run a marathon.
15:16 No, no.
15:18 Yeah. And, and you, you, you run and you’d run and enjoy what you’re doing. Although who was it that the one that said one that then the tamper runners was like every single time she said she didn’t love it. She like, she’s like, she doesn’t get the endorphins. And she was like, yeah, I don’t like it. And every time she goes I like, I don’t like it but I do it anyway.
15:40 I will say, a lot of people feel like, well a lot of people in the doc say they’ve never been athletic growing up and they always thought that that was necessary. This documentary has people with all different body types and with all different backgrounds and there’s all different reasons for running. And you know, I have a sister who absolutely hates exercise. One of my sisters and I keep saying her, she nervous to go to a gym. She’s like, I don’t look like I belong in a gym. I said, there is no looking like you belong in a gym. And then she said, I can’t run a marathon. And they said, you don’t have to run a marathon, walk on the treadmill for 20 minutes because anything is better than doing nothing. And I was explaining to her that if you look at the difference, cause I run pretty much every day. I mean I cross trained and I’ll do bike occasionally, especially after the marathon, but I run and I run a substantial distance and I said the difference between doing nothing and walking 20 minutes a day and walking 20 minutes a day and what I do, the bigger differences between nothing and walking, the benefits will be huge. And I, and I really wanted to sort of smash the preconceived notion that you have to look like a gym rat or you have to start running in high school. Um, many of the people in my doc didn’t start till after 50 and many of them are, they go on the record about not being terribly fast. You don’t have to be fast. It’s just about doing something and getting out there. It’s helped them in a lot of ways.
17:08 Yeah. Yeah. Another one, and this was, this guy is just, I mean, I think anybody that runs ultra-marathons are pretty amazing, quite honestly. I don’t even really like know how to, uh, we, I’ve never run a marathon. I’ve run a half marathon. We’ve both run half marathons. We ran one together, but an ultra-marathon and, uh, Mike Ehredt, uh, who’s in the documentary ,56 when he ran it and he grew up, uh, with, uh, or was born with club, with club foot. And so he had to have like, like he was never supposed to be able to run. So people give excuses like, you know what I mean? Like, oh, I couldn’t possibly, and here he is. He was never supposed to be able to run, not only the whole, the whole, um, Hardrock run, but his project America run that he did in terms of, um, expressing gratitude for the military. Yeah.
18:08 Mike is one of the nicest men that I’ve ever met. And he had a doctor tell him that because he was born breech and he shows his scars where they had to turn his leg. He has these sort of Frankenstein scars on both of his legs and doctor said to him, if you can ever run, you’ll probably never do more than a half marathon, which I realize sounds like a long distance to a lot of people because it’s not nothing,
18:31 nothing. It isn’t nothing. I’ve done it.
18:35 That’s a lot. But he started running half marathons and then you started going into marathons and then he started doing Ultras and we followed him doing The Hardrock 100, a hundred miles most or all above 9,000 feet. Yeah, I mean, it’s insane. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I would go running in the morning before we follow him because we had a long time to follow him, it’s a 48 hour thing. So I went running one morning and we were so high up that my run took probably 10 minutes longer than it normally does because you’re trying to get a breath, it’s so high up there. And He, um, it was an amazing thing to watch him do this and it’s one of many a hundred mile races that he’s run and get a, and he took a, he tells a story in the doc that I love. He took his medals back to his doctor and the doctor was like, well, I guess I was wrong. Mike also did project America run that you mentioned where he went and planted flags one mile apart for fallen soldiers. And he would salute the flag and he would put a number a, and there was a tracking device so that people could look up when the relatives were getting a flag planted and people, he tells a story about a mother who came all the way out to see him, uh, and had driven all night just to see them plant a flag for son. So, uh, yeah, he, he’s a remarkable, remarkable man.
20:00 Yeah. Yeah. Just, I mean, incredible. Um, like I said, so many of the people, everybody really that’s in the documentary is incredible in their own right. I mean, he’s obviously takes that to a different level, especially with the project America run. But everybody was just unusual. We loved the story, Jose Collazos who started running with his autistic son. But we also loved coach Pat who he’s like, he’s, he’s close to 80 so he’s like out there teaching people how to run. And He. My husband just loved him. He, cause my husband, he’s a cyclist and runner and he just, everything, every time coach Pat would say anything, he’d be like, oh, that’s good. Oh, I like what coach Pat’s saying there.. Oh, ease. Just ease. Absolutely brilliant. And again, working with these people of all abilities and giving this, these just nuggets of wisdom, you know, because here he is at 79 and he’s teaching people who have no idea where even to start. And he’s, you know, and it started out with getting, getting a pair of shoes that fit you. I mean, just like super simple start at the very start, get yourself set up to success. And he was just, yeah, we, we loved him. We were big. We were big fans of coach Pat.
21:30 Yeah, he’s wonderful and funny and smart. And also one of my favorite things about him is that he likes to coach what he calls the middle of the pack runners. He doesn’t have much interest in coaching champions, he’s not out there trying to help people win marathons. He’s, he’s helping people finish marathons and he helped set up the LA road runners training program for the LA Marathon and he’s got thousands and thousands and thousands of people over that finish line. And he also talks about, and there’s a great secret of marathon running it a lot of people don’t know, a huge amount of people walk/run marathons, the whole thing. I mean, I actually had a preconceived notion that people ran the entire time. And then I did one and I saw, oh, people walk the water stations, they take breaks after 20 miles. A lot of people started walking and they walk the last 10 k there are no hard and fast rules and crossing the finish line.
22:27 Like David and I, my husband and I, we said we’d never tell our time because it wasn’t about the time. Like you just wanted to finish. So people ask us when we finished in New York City marathon and we go, well, we’ve got a metal, so clearly we won. Like, we just, we don’t talk about the time. And Pat encourages that, he said, you know, get your butt over the finish line. And he trains people to start with a five k and the whole goal is to finish. And once you finish it, you think about time if you want to. And um, yeah, his training program is very gentle and very understanding and it’s geared towards humans, regular humans.
23:08 Yeah. And I think, you know, in his work with Jose who really started, you know, I think from kind of like from a couch potato, he kind of was alluding to like, you know, he really hadn’t been very active but wanted to kind of be out there with his autistic son, being able to, he was, his autistic son wanted to run on the cross country team and he was worried about him being out and potentially getting lost or not, you know, so you’ve wanted to literally take to protect him. So he needed to start running himself. And, um, I think something he said was the, you know, you just need to up off the couch and go and do it. Take one step at a time. And you know, that’s, and I think throughout the whole documentary, everyone kind of had that theme. It really isn’t about, you know, and I know Katherine very much in, um, 261 fearless. It’s all about, you know, if you start today, if you run, if you can run 10 steps and that’s all, then that’s it. You run 10 steps and then the next day you come back, we’re going to try to run 15 and then you know it. And it’s a building, it’s a building process from wherever you are. And anybody can start from, no matter how old they are or what position they’re in or how they are physically, you know, where they’re at and then you can improve.
24:28 Yeah. And I think a lot of people don’t realize that you can, I mean, most people can walk or run for, you know, five minutes, just get up and do something for five minutes. And I, I think a lot of people don’t realize until they started getting really into it. How much it helps all aspects of your life. Like for me, uh, I work in an incredibly competitive industry. There’s a lot of stress in the industry and it helps me deal with stress. It centers me in the morning. Um, it’s like coffee for me. I don’t feel awake if I haven’t had a workout, if I haven’t gone out for running. Um, it is meditation. Like I said. Uh, so I think a lot of people don’t realize the mental benefits the go along with it until they do it. Um, and I mean the physical benefits, like also in the documentary, I was happy to have so many people in it dealing with so many different issues. Yeah. There was a scoliosis, blood pressure, um, Alzheimer’s, um, several people had run through cancer treatment or after cancer treatment. A lot of these people, it has helped them through a lot of, uh, medical situations that, that, uh, people would think would render them bedridden or on copious amounts of medication and, and the drug, the running has helped them get off some of the drugs, uh, which, which is great. I applaud that. It’s wonderful.
25:47 Yeah. And I loved the fact you, you were able to weave in and talk to Dr. James Freis about, so the science behind it and really dispel kind of some of the myths again of, of you know, what happens or why you shouldn’t run, but the fact that he has proven again and again, not only the benefits of uh, or or that that running isn’t bad for you, but also the benefits of it in terms of slowing the, the effects of aging, um, having a longer span of active life reduces the risk of several different diseases. Um, then that there is, again, like I said, not bad for you. There’s no higher rate of osteoarthritis or knee replacements, it and it, and it delays the age related disabilities by 16 years on average.
26:39 You did very well.
26:40 Thank you. Did you like that? I went through it all. I got them all. Boom, boom. But no, seriously,
26:45 That’s what I love about the study. He really didn’t expect to find that. It was approximately 500 runners and 500 non-runners. It was a Longitudinal study that followed them for I believe, two decades. And he was shocked by the results because he thought the runners and these runners, we’re running about five to six miles a day every day. I mean these were intense runners and he thought that their knees would give out on them. And what he found is that their knees got stronger and he also found out something interesting because, it’s so funny when I talk about running the first thing out of somebody’s mouth to me is how are your knees. Yeah my knees are fine because they’re getting strengthened every day by running. And nine times out of 10 somebody will say to me, I don’t want to run. And they’ll say, I can’t, you know, I have really bad knees. I hurt them running and I’ll say, did ya?
27:38 Yeah, I mean I have hurt knees. And I said, did you play football? Was their hockey, was there something else? And a lot of times people have a preexisting condition. They hurt their knees doing another activity. They sort of erroneous blame it on running and it hasn’t been because of the running. And studies have proven that. Um, and I’m not saying everybody can run. And coach Pat says this too. We actually recently, he’s saying, I’m not telling everybody that can run. I’m not telling everybody of every age that they can run. I’m saying check with your doctor, but most people can do something. And if that’s something is getting out of bed and going for a long walk, fantastic. Yeah. And, but it is interesting because so many people blame knee problems I’m running and a lot of times and it’s nothing to do with that.
28:22 Yeah. And I did appreciate that. I think that, I think it was coach Pat that said at first about, you know, his recommendation is that everybody have a physical first before you start any type of exercise regime, whether that be running or anything else. You need to have a doctor say, yes, you’re good to go. You don’t want to have, you know, be surprised by any, um, issues that you might not know about. Especially if you’re starting from scratch. Right. Yeah. Um, but then also I know, I think it was Debbie Voiles talked about really not appreciating the whole mentality of no pain, no gain, you know, and that actually pain is something that we want to pay attention to in our bodies. And it is something that is telling you you need to take a break. You need to change.
29:08 Yeah, Dr Fries talked about that too, because I asked him privately, look I run a lot, and am I hurting myself? Should I be doing more cross training? What, what should I do it, what’s the safest way to be treating my body? He said, is your body giving you a pain message? And I said No. And he said, will you listen if it does? And I said Yes. So if your body is telling you that running isn’t feeling good for you, you need either or do something else for, take some time off and you just need to listen. And it was great advice. You know, after, after the marathon, I didn’t want to keep, I didn’t want to. I will quite, I’ve been doing my 18 mile training runs, tough training for a marathon. It’s a long. So afterwards I thought, you know what? I’m going to do something that feels different. So I started taking up cycling, which has been wonderful. And then I’m going to switch back to running. And um, you know, I’m just listening to what my body needs and if I’m dealing with a little bit of Plantar Fasciitis, then I treat my foot very carefully and then I’ll do my biking or something or swimming or something else. So, yeah, that’s a big message is listen to yourself and be honest with yourself about how your body’s feeling.
30:14 Right? It’s important because you know, we want to, no matter what, just like you said, no matter what we talk all about, and we said this to you earlier, our daily action number one is move. We say it’s move for a reason. Um, mobility is a, and loss of mobility is a huge fear for people as they age. It’s something that we can prevent by continuing to move. And you know, the, the earlier and the more often that we get into the habit of moving, the better. Um, but it, you do have to pay attention to what your body is saying. And for many people you, you may be more capable than you’re than what you think you are and you can push yourself and you can do these things. And, and that challenge to yourself and proving to yourself that you’re capable was also a theme that I, that I heard, you know, recurring throughout the documentary, these people were proving to themselves at a later age that, you know, they still had it. They could do it.
31:20 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I think that’s so important to people’s mentality. I think, as we age you start thinking, I think somebody in the doc actually says, maybe it’s time to hang up my shoes and a lot of areas in my life, metaphorical shoes, and you surprise yourself. I think it opens up possibilities for all areas of your life and you realize you can surprise yourself in different ways. My brother in law and my sister started taking dance lessons together and I love it because they’re never going to be in competitions. They’re never going to, it’s not, that’s not their goal, but they’re doing it because it’s something new. And, um, my brother, he wants to take voice lessons. And I, I love it. He’s not going to become a singer, but he wants to do something new and I just think as we age, the more that we can find exciting new things in, the more that we can surprise ourselves by our own abilities, the younger we will stay in our heads and really in our body. So, um, and also just, you know, optimism in general, we all, we all need to feel joy and, um, surprising yourself and accomplishing more than you think you’re capable of helps you feel joy.
32:26 Yeah, for sure. And you mentioned kind of anecdotally there about taking those lessons and doing something. One of the things that also, I know Debbie Voiles mentioned was the, um, the joining these oh, running club like this, not only before the accountability but just, I mean, they’re like a family. So that and that social connection, that relationships that they build, right. Is again, another thing that we talk about all the time in terms of being something that’s an actionable habit and has been proven to not only increase longevity but improve overall happiness.
33:05 Oh yeah. It was really wonderful thing to see. They’re like teenagers when they go out running. I mean her group is growing and growing. I was there I think when when there was about 30 people running together and they go out for breakfast afterwards, they run at all different speeds and talk about absolutely everything. And it’s interesting because lately I was reading an article about aging in Japan and they’re having this problem. Uh, they, they actually, uh, this is so morbid, but they call it lonely death, for people that are all alone. And it’s becoming, sadly, uh, a larger and larger number every year of people are just sort of shutting themselves in to playing video games on the TV. They’re never leaving, ordering in food. They’re living their life inside this little square box. And that’s happening at an alarming rate in Japan. But loneliness, it’s a, unfortunately something that plagues a lot of older people here too. And it can have a horrendous effects on your health. And so even just getting out and the accountability is one thing to get out there and make yourself go exercise, but to be there with people and laugh with them and talk with them and have this sort of makeshift family. I’m a big believer, there’s an author named Armistead Maupin and he talks about a logical family, how we have biological family and we have a logical family and logical family is the family we make. And I watched run Tampa and I realized, oh, they’re a logical family. There’s somebody in there now who is battling cancer and he’s going to win. And I’m watching all of the RUN Tampa, I got chills thinking about it on Facebook, on Twitter. There is an outpouring of love and support for him and his wife as he’s going through this battle. And um, that can make all the difference, an incredible group of people supporting him. And to Debbie Voiles credit. And when she created that, she, she started, she’s the Grand Mama of this family. She realizes the importance of it. And it’s a, it’s a beautiful thing to see. And also just funny because you’re watching a bunch of people, like, I mean the people that we follow and you should see them giggling, big run and they giggle and talk and they plan their years around these races, but they’re going to run together. And it’s all about hope and optimism. And, um, they’re just, they’re just wonderful.
35:22 Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could, you could definitely tell. Yeah. So tell us a little bit more about, um, what the, you know, what is going on with the documentary in terms of, uh, you know, cause we’ve gotten to see it, but I know that was a, you know, a special Amazon. It’s on Amazon. You saw it on Amazon that I thought on private. Yeah. So tell us how people can engage with the documentary, how they’re going to be able to find it and what the plans are for it moving forward.
35:48 I am absolutely everywhere with this thing. It was technically released on January 8th through Gravitas Ventures, we got distribution, which was absolutely fantastic. You can find the 27 different ways as it stands right now, but you can go to the human race.net, which is the website. You can find human race on Facebook. You can find the human race on Twitter. You can find me, Liz Vassey on Twitter, on Facebook. I talk about it all the time. The easiest ways to find it right now, I would say Amazon, apple, iTunes, Walmart’s at Barnes and noble. Um, it is, it’s everywhere. And it’s been doing the letters and the response that I’ve gotten. The thing that makes me the happiest is that people are realizing it’s not really a documentary about running as a, a documentary about the time for the human spirit and writing me and saying, I went for my first run ever the other night.
36:46 And, uh, I thought of you when I got up and at laced up my shoes and I ran for 10 whole minutes and I didn’t stop to walk once. And a friend of mine just ran her very first race for very first five k for charity. And she said, I was at the premiere of the movie. It has changed my life to watch these people and to see what they’re capable of and to realize what I’m capable of. And so the response that I’m getting has been overwhelming because people would really understanding the message that I’m trying to put out there. And, and again, it’s not, you should go run a marathon, it’s take care of yourself, get moving and you’ll surprise yourself and it’s going to benefit you in ways that you couldn’t imagine.
37:21 yeah, it’s a great message and a great been a great documentary and definitely as we’ve mentioned, just reaffirms everything that we’ve learned and studied about, uh, our daily action number one move. And the fact that you know, you’re never too old, it’s never too late and you can start a new habit, you can create a new habit and getting moving is going to help you in so many ways. And you know, and maybe you’ll just, you’ll just pick up running at 65, 70 and you never thought you could, but you can.
37:57 Yes. Stranger things have definitely happened. If you watch the Doc there’s also a lot of really good pointers about how to get started, finding a coach and finding groups. 261 Fearless is all over the world.
38:10 Yeah, exactly.
38:13 I was telling my sister, my sister lives in Georgia, and I was saying, look, I’ll talk to Katherine and find out if there’s a 261 Fearless group near you because what’s wonderful is people empowering each other and telling each other, you know, you don’t need to run an eight minute mile and we’re not talking about a nine minute run, a 12 minute mile, it’s a mile out there and try. I think that takes a lot of the fear out of it for people when they realize, oh, it is a very supportive community, which are all the runners. I, I was amazed like Colleen in the documentary, she has run across every single stage. She’s now running across Alaska. So I run across 49 and a half, to basically spread the news that you can rethink impossible. And she’s beaten cancer and she talks at cancer hospitals and she lets people know that you can get out there and again surprise yourself. And I think she met Jose and a screening recently. Jose ran the 5K , with his autistic son. And I think Jose Thought, Oh, I’m meeting this, this runner, and she’s running, you know the right. Yeah. And Colleen’s excitement about, she’s got star struck meeting Jose, because he got up off the couch and he ran a whole 5k and she meant it. She running 30 miles a day, but him running the 5K is his challenge. So it is such a supportive thing, genuinely and it, it just uh, it was lovely to see
39:42 And I think that is the, that is the thread that runs through the whole, the whole documentary. Every single person who is out doing, you know, from the ultra-marathons to the 5K, the amount of support that they have is just overwhelming. They have so much support and that’s what, that’s what makes them get up and keep going. Yup. Yeah. Like you said, so much more than about running really about the human spirit and very much so also about what we as people who are aging can do, you know, and accomplish and leading that happier longer life that that successful aging experience and aging with optimism. We will link to everything in our show notes and all the different ways people can connect with Liz Vassey and with the human race. And we just appreciate you taking the time to talk with us.
40:37 Absolutely. Thank you for putting this message out there to so many people. I always tell people that if you, if you can see it then you can be it. So you are helping people realize just by showing representation of people doing these surprising things. People can watch that and realize, oh, I can to. Thank you for helping to spread the message.
40:55 Thank you. Thanks Liz.
40:58 Thanks for listening to the live happier, longer podcasts. Now it’s time to move, learn, share, give and let go. Five daily actions to make the rest of your life the best of your life. See you next week.
41:14 Okay.
41:15 Hey, we are so happy that you found us, and we appreciate you listening to the live happier, longer podcast, but you don’t need to just hang out with us here. Come find us on social media. We’re on facebook @facebook.com/fiveforlife.co And we’re on Instagram @happierlongerlife, and we’re also on Twitter @happylongerlife. So check it out. We hope to see you there.
