Transcription of Running/Spring Feet #36
Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, recorded at the studios of Maine Magazine in Portland, Maine and broadcast on 1310 AM Portland, streaming live each week at 11 AM on wlobradio.com. Show summaries are available at doctorlisa.org. Download and become a podcast subscriber of Dr. Lisa Belisle through iTunes. See the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page for details.
Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors: Maine Magazine, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin at ReMax Heritage, Robin Hodgskin at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Dr. Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists in Falmouth, Maine, Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial, Booth, UNE, the University of New England and Akari.
Dr. Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. You are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast Show #36 Running: Spring Feet, airing for the first time on May 20th 2012 on wlobradio.com. Today’s show is one that I know that people will enjoy if they’re runners or even if they’re not because I’m a runner and I know I have enjoyed putting the show together. With me in the studio I have Genevieve Morgan, the Wellness Editor for Maine Magazine. Welcome, Genevieve.
Genevieve: Good morning, Lisa. Did you run today?
Dr. Lisa: I did not run today. As we’re taping it today, it’s raining and I always take off days. That’s part of running is you have to take off days and I always do a long weekend run so it ends up being that early in the week I’ll take either a Monday or a Tuesday off so it’s all part of it. We were talking about how it kind of keeps me sane and that for me is the importance of running is the mental and emotional well-being. We have a series of diverse guests today. From Akari, we have podiatrist, Dr. Chris Toth and Carol Fortun. We have fellow Bowdoin graduate Will Thomas from Tri-Maine Sports. We have John Rogers from the Maine Running Company, which actually is our show sponsor today so thank you to the Maine Running Company for sponsoring this show and we have Maya Cohen who is the volunteer coordinator for the Beach to Beacon coming up in August.
Genevieve: A lot of runners.
Dr. Lisa: A lot of runners but even some not so much runners. What we had hoped by bringing in this diversity of guests is that we could inspire those of you who are listening to think a little bit more about your feet, whether you’re a runner or not and also think about how you might be able to get out and about and enjoy the energy around running, which is why we’ve talked to Maya Cohen from the Beach to Beacon.
Genevieve: Well, you can’t get very far if your feet are killing you. I wrote an article in Maine Magazine last July 2011 called Happy Feet and then I think the subtitle was Feet Are the Foundation of Fitness and it’s really true. I’m sure you see that in your practice all that time. When people’s feet are killing them, they can’t move.
Dr. Lisa: Well, it’s interesting I’ve had several people come in lately. I do see a lot of feet in my practice interestingly enough and I’ve had several people come in recently with long-standing foot issues and the problem is that if you have an issue with your finger, maybe you can compensate around that finger but if you have an issue with your foot and you still need to walk. You still need to be able to use that part of your body.
Genevieve: Well, I think there are 106 bones in the feet and then I think every single nerve ending goes into the feet, right? they’re incredibly complex.
Dr. Lisa: There is a lot going on down at that part of our body and this is why I think Akari likes to do their pedicures up good. In fact they have these mojitos and foot-focused event that’s coming up later this week, which we’ll post on our website and I also know that the Maine Running Company, the sponsor of today’s show, they really … they spend a lot of time thinking about feet. They want to make sure that people who are going to run or even people who are going to walk they find the right shoes, they find the right fit so that it impacts their gait in the right way because that can set you up for either doing well or not doing well, whether you’re racing or just walking or running for fitness.
Genevieve: Isn’t it that if you have back pain or hip pain or knee pain often it can be … it can originate in the feet and you just don’t know it?
Dr. Lisa: That’s absolutely true and when we go through medical school, what they teach us the hip bone is connected to the knee bone and it’s this funny little thing that you think about but there’s always an upstream and a downstream so if you’re having issues that are upstream like your knee or your hip or your back or even at your neck, it could be that you’re having some sort of gait disturbance that starts way down low. There’s mechanical reasons for dealing with your feet. There’s, as we’ll talk to the people from Akari, there’s sort of cosmetic reasons for dealing with your feet. We’ll talk to the people who are involved with running. There’s joyful reasons for keeping your feet in tune and I think all of these are reasons to listen to today’s show and get some inspiration and insight and for those of you by the way who have never been to Akari, if you’re looking for a fun, I went to Akari right before Mother’s Day and it was a really fun place to visit. I encourage you to go spend some time there on their upcoming event.
Genevieve: I think at the event Dr. Toth is going to be there looking at everybody’s feet so it’s a free way to go get your feet checked out.
Dr. Lisa: Yes, and there’s always a free way to get your feet checked out if you go to the Maine Running Company because they’re always all about gait, and proper fit and just ways to get us grounded in this world.
Genevieve: You’re up for the Beach to Beacon.
Dr. Lisa: That’s absolutely right. we will be speaking to our diverse lineup of guests and we hope that you will be listening and let us know what you think.
The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is pleased to offer a segment we call Wellness Innovations, sponsored by the University of New England.
Our wellness innovation associated with running and diet is that new research finds no association between white potato consumption baked, boiled or mashed and obesity, type 2 diabetes or systemic inflammation. Preliminary research presented at the Federation for American Societies for Experimental Biology demonstrated that habitual consumption of white potatoes baked, boiled or mashed is not associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes or levels of C reactive protein, a marker of systemic inflammation. Previous studies examining the association between potato consumption and disease failed to consider demographic factors that could potentially have confounded the relationship such as age, gender, race, ethnicity and education.
For more information on this wellness innovation, go to doctorlisa.org. For more information on the University of New England, go to une.edu.
Speaker 1: This portion of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast has been brought to you by the University of New England, UNE, an innovative health sciences university grounded in the liberal arts. UNE is the number one educator of health professionals in Maine. Learn more about the University of New England at une.edu.
Dr. Lisa: Today’s show is one that’s near and dear to my heart because it addresses running and also feet. I know feet are very important to me because as a runner, I use them all the time. I think feet are important to most people. Even if you’re not a runner, you use them all the time. We’re happy today to have in the studio with us Dr. Christopher Toth who is a podiatrist and obviously, your practice, Dr. Toth, is on feet so I think you think that feet are pretty important.
Dr. Chris: I do.
Dr. Lisa: Yes and we also have Carol Fortin who is a nail technician and Carol, you also spend time down around the bottom of the body at the feet.
Carol: Absolutely, yes.
Dr. Lisa: Dr. Toth, I’ve looked over your resume and it’s very impressive. You have science and business degrees from McGill. You got your medical education at Temple, internship and residency at Cornell and Mt. Sinai and then you went on and did additional work. You have a lot of education.
Dr. Chris: Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: Is this typical of a podiatrist?
Dr. Chris: Not really. Most podiatrists do 4 years of podiatry school and then they choose to go on for residency. I felt that I wanted to travel a lot in this country and internationally and so the opportunities are much better if you have more trainings. I kind of wanted to do something very narrowly focused, as focused as I could so that’s why I chose to go on and do more education.
Dr. Lisa: What is your narrow focus? Tell me.
Dr. Chris: Well, I specialize in the foot and ankle which podiatrists do. It’s a unique perspective to do it surgically where you’re seeing the foot inside out. It’s almost … I think it’s very artistic in its nature just because you look at a textbook, you look in an anatomy book and it’s not the same when you actually see it in real life. For me, it’s a special sensibility that I love to have and a perspective that makes a huge difference in the work that I do, as far as even basic stuff like choosing shoes, working with people that have balance problems. The unique perspective you get from the surgical education is something that is unique, I feel.
Dr. Lisa: Do you think that this is one of the reasons why working at Akari here in Portland made sense to you, this aesthetic appeal?
Dr. Chris: Yeah, I think that has a lot to do with it. the other thing that has to do with it is that there are things about the foot and ankle that are common, that are painful, that people have, that are traditionally treated by surgery and traditionally treated by medical means using pills that I’m able to do at Akari that are different and that are not invasive and that work very well. I feel that it’s an alternative approach that I think people will find appealing.
Genevieve: What are some of those things?
Dr. Chris: Well, the two things that I would say that are the most common is, it’s not a very sexy topic, but nail fungus is very common. A lot of people have it and I would say 10 to 12% of the population suffers from that in the US and worldwide. Europe has been on the forefront, mostly England and France, treating nail fungus with lasers and it works extremely well. It’s painless and the efficacy rate is much, much higher than the oral medication that can affect the liver and we do need to monitor liver enzymes with that. I find that the laser is very, very useful and I will say that we’ve test-driven a lot of machines and have been done all our research and have become very patient with introducing it to their market because Maine is a state where people are very … They do their education. They’re very patient-centric and I feel that this is a good time to introduce it. I believe I’m the only one in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont offering this technology.
Dr. Lisa: Is there anything else? Nail fungus is one.
Dr. Chris: Yup, some runners seem to have problems with the term is Metatarsalgia which is a very broad-based term describing foot pain. Also plantar fasciatis, this is a very common pain complaint people have that are runners, that are dancers, that work, women that wear high heels, men that wear dress shoes and sometimes people that have no athletic background whatsoever. What I’ve been doing is, I was trained in New York at the International Aesthetic Foot Society, which is an interesting place to go to inject sculptra which is a filler, a collagen-based filler, that naturally stimulates collagen production and so I’m injecting the substance into feet to naturally augment the fat pad that you normally lose as you age and as you get older.
Dr. Lisa: You lose fat as you’re aging?
Dr. Chris: Yes.
Dr. Lisa: Is there also an impact if you are a runner? Is there an impact on the fat pad?
Dr. Chris: There is. Everybody is different and everybody’s gait is different. I work with dancers. I’ve done that for many years and a lot of it is postural in nature. People blame the foot for a lot of different things that really don’t come from the foot. It can come from your neck position. It can come from your spine position. It can come from an imbalance. The center of gravity changes every single time you’re walking with different things that you do so the impact on the foot comes from a wide array of sources including the foot itself as well as what you’re doing. I’ve seen patients and I’ve treated patients that they would like to wear high heels and they’re uncomfortable and this helps. I’ve treated patients that simply cannot walk without this procedure. They’ve tried orthotics and they’ve tried other means and in my traditional practice that I work in Southern Maine at Goodall Hospital York in Southern Maine, I do surgery for this. It’s a procedure that works beautifully however there’s a large downtime and I feel very fortunate to be able to offer something that’s non-surgical before I would even suggest the surgical option.
Dr. Lisa: Now what does running or working athletically with your feet, dancing, what does this to your nails?
Carol: It does a lot actually and a lot of runners will lose a toenail or they’ll develop a really ridged toenail or a lot of calluses and things like that, definitely some damage, yes.
Dr. Lisa: Are you sort of the gateway to diagnosing some of these larger problems? Because I assume you work with a client regularly and you can see changes in their feet.
Carol: Yes, I spend about an hour with each client so they talk a lot about the issues that they may have and then because I work closely with Dr. Toth, then I can see if they’re a good candidate for the things that Dr. Toth does do. We can provide a lot of help or sometimes people, they don’t realize that there are things that they can have fixed without having surgery especially which is great.
Genevieve: I have a really good friend who suffers from bunions and her foot pain led to kind of compensatory actions that have really ruined her physical fitness because she hasn’t been able to really do the things that she’s wanted to. I think she believes it all started with her feet. Do you see that often?
Dr. Chris: I do and a lot of what I see in my practice is almost at the end stage. I kind of wish sometimes that I would see these patients a little earlier so that I can give them suggestions and there’s a wide array of support, people that you can ask to do this, one of which could be a running shoe store like the Maine Running Company that would custom fit a shoe and would let them try it out and return them. Other sources would include athletic trainers so even if you have something that’s … I mean a bunion is considered genetic and it’s considered a dislocation syndrome where the big toe joint is dislocated and is moving differently. It’s unsightly and people come to my office because it looks different however it does affect the biomechanics of your foot. It affects it so much that it can change a person’s athletic career, whether you have it fixed or not so it does. It changes the way that you walk. It changes your fitness level but it is manageable and there’s a lot of different options and sometimes people don’t think of the simple options before they think of actually the surgical options.
Dr. Lisa: What are some of the benefits of being barefoot? I know there’s been a big barefoot running craze lately. Do you have thoughts on that?
Dr. Chris: I do. I have a lot of thoughts on that. a few things, it’s interesting, I’m a surfer and a big hero of mine is Laird Hamilton who’s an extreme surfer and his recent book I read that he walks barefoot everywhere. The reason for that is there’s thousands and thousands of lightning bolts hitting the ground at a certain time and you collect that energy in the sand and the water and it changes you in a meaningful way. I think there is definitely benefits to walking barefoot however the running shoe craze with the typical barefoot shoes, I think you have to be very cautious. I think … I’ve traveled through Africa and I’ve worked with runners in South Africa and Namibia and they run like this from the moment they’re birthed, they’re born practically and they’re used to it. It’s a lifestyle for them. The way they get around is they run. They don’t have cars. They don’t have what we have and so they’re used to it. They don’t have the same injuries that we do. When we try to duplicate that without proper training, meaning a running coach or someone that knows how to do it, it’s very, very difficult and it can create injuries. You have to assess your health level as well and your fitness and also your weight. Weight has a large factor in your running and in the barefoot movement. I think it’s great. I’ve worked at a number of marathons. I’ve run one myself and I’ve seen people run barefoot and they’ve done wonderfully but I think you have to sort of be aware of your pain level and your pain tolerance because I have seen people have stress fractures doing this kind of activity. Their feet may be fine but they have non-specific foot pain and it ends up that it’s a stress fracture. It’s very similar to the military. I worked in the military sector as well and you have these recruits coming from all around the US that have worked on farms or worked jobs but they never actually marched 26, 28 miles in a row. No matter what you do, you have to be very methodical and you have to be conditioned to do it.
Speaker 1: We’ll return to our interview after acknowledging the following generous sponsors: Robin Hodgskin, Senior Vice President and Financial Adviser at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Portland, Maine. For all your investment needs, call Robin Hodgskin at (207) 771-0888. Investments and services are offered through Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, Member SIPC; and by Booth Accounting and Business Management Services, Payroll and Bookkeeping, Business is done better with Booth. Go to boothmaine.com for more information.
Dr. Lisa: What type of long-term changes do you see in people who run barefoot or maybe even walk barefoot all over the place?
Dr. Chris: There could be a lot of changes and it doesn’t necessarily have to do with the foot. The foot is a very adaptive structure. We’ve got a lot of bones in there statistically and percentage wise, more bones than the rest of your body and it adapts beautifully well just like your hands do. The foot and the hands are very, very analogous structures. Your hips and your back aren’t so a lot of what happens is with respect to your feet and the center of gravity so when you walk, you have to be very cognizant on how you do it and if you’re going to make the commitment to do the barefoot thing. Like I said, it’s not a bad idea to go see a running coach. That’s the first thing that I would recommend. These coaches, that’s their profession. That’s what they do and they’re very good at it. They can analyze you. They can put you on a treadmill but as far as long-term effects, I honestly don’t think it’s been going on long enough. I think it’s been going on maybe 4 or 5 years. It’s been kind of an exotic thing that I saw people do in marathons back in ‘97, ‘95 but I think we’re going to start noticing changes. I honestly can’t predict what they would be yet. I have seen some people with stress fractures but I wouldn’t say it’s to the point where I would warn people from doing it.
Genevieve: Well, I would think that if you take some attention to … pay some attention to the ground that you’re starting to barefoot run on, I’ve heard a lot of advice to start in sand or grass for instance, not the pavement.
Dr. Chris: Right, I do agree with that but the problem with running on sand and grass is when you try to do the front foot forward first and then the heel to follow, what happens is your heel sinks into the grass and it sinks into the sand more than it would than if you were wearing shoes on pavement and your Achilles can take a pretty severe beating. What I’m seeing is if there’s one injury that I’m seeing the most its Achilles tendonitis from this, because people don’t quite understand that they have to condition themselves and stretch. A lot of runners do yoga. A lot of surfers do yoga. I do recommend yoga to people that would do this or even just a really good stretching regiment.
Dr. Lisa: Dr. Toth, I understand that there is an upcoming event at Akari that will be open to the public.
Dr. Chris: Yeah, thank you. We have on May the 23rd, it’s a Wednesday from 6:00 till … How long does it … 7:30? 8:00?
Carol: Yes.
Dr. Chris: We’ll be there as long as people are there and what we’re doing is we’re doing an open house on the services that we provide at Akari with respect to the foot and ankle. I’ll be there doing consults. I’m happy to talk to anybody with any questions. There’s going to be …
Carol: We’re doing free mini pedicures and reflexology on the feet and sunless tanning on the leg so all focused and serving mojitos and trying to provide sort of a fun, lighthearted way to address issues on the feet.
Dr. Lisa: How can people find out more about Akari and the work that you, Carol, are doing at Akari and you, Dr. Toth, are doing at Akari?
Carol: You could give us a call. The number is 772-9060. You can go online also acaribeauty.com but yeah, come in for a consult. Consults with Dr. Toth are free.
Dr. Chris: Yup, I’m happy to talk to anybody and give any information or advice that they want to have addressed.
Dr. Lisa: Do you have any parting words of wisdom for people about their spring feet or their running feet, Dr. Toth?
Dr. Chris: Yes, I think people should keep running as much as they can. Just do your homework and stretch and consult a running coach and get good shoes and if you’re going to run barefoot then do your research and make it happen.
Dr. Lisa: Well, we appreciate your bringing your expertise into the studio.
Dr. Chris: My pleasure. Thank you.
Carol: Thank you for having us.
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Dr. Lisa: When you think about spring feet and running, sometimes you think about triathlons so whoever to have in the studio with us today but Will Thomas, who happens to be a 2003 graduate of Bowden College, experienced triathlete and race director with years working to promote endurance athletics in Northern New England who in March of 2006 established Tri-Maine Productions. Thank you for coming in and talking with us today, Will.
Will: Thank you, guys. Pleasure to be here.
Dr. Lisa: Will, I know that one of the reasons we’re interested in having you in is that you were actually featured in the Bowdoin Magazine doing your thing.
Will: Yeah, I know. It was pretty unexpected but I’m very sort of humbled by it and thankful. It’s cool to kind of see how Bowden has sort of embraced that entrepreneurial endurance sports, that whole kind of category and one of my good friends, Matt O’ Donnell who is the associate editor there has become a transformed triathlete. He was formerly not an athlete and he did the Polar Bear Tri at Bowden and has since sort of transformed his whole experience around sports and it’s been pretty cool to watch. I think he was the one who kind of came up with the idea for the magazine and article and it’s been very cool.
Dr. Lisa: What is it about triathlons that seems to be so well, you used the word transformative? What is it? Why are people gravitating towards triathlons?
Will: Triathlon, the sort of the buzz phrase is triathlon is the new marathon. It’s become the kind of thing that people can brag to their friends about but not come across as sounding obnoxious or over the top. It’s the water cooler effect. People love being able to say after the weekend, “Hey, guess what I did,” and their friends are impressed and that’s what triathlon has become in the marketplace. It’s very attainable for a lot of people in a way that other types of events aren’t. It’s very much driven by community which I think is probably the most powerful part of the triathlon experience. People love doing this stuff together. They love training together. They love building new networks of friends and encouraging their family to do it with them. A lot of triathlons are built around family and community and that is becoming really the driver of the growth in my opinion. Unlike some of the other endurance sports out there, triathlon has a feel good component to it and it really is about getting that finish line more than what your time is and what your personal best is. It’s really about accomplishment and sharing and celebrating that accomplishment with friends and family. That to me is sort of the real excitement behind the sport.
Dr. Lisa: What was it about triathlons that drew you as individual to create this company, to work with Bowdoin? Tell us about your personal story.
Will: Yeah, it started when I was 16 so a long time ago and it was a challenge from one of my family members who had been doing them for a couple of years and said, “Hey, I bet you can’t do this.” Of course, I’m not going to back down. I was a 16-year-old, right? I signed up for a race having absolutely no idea what I was doing like most people but back then there were probably a dozen races in all of New England. This is 1996 so I had to borrow a bike. No one had the wetsuits back then, basically did the whole thing in a Speedo and nearly killed myself. It was pretty embarrassing and ridiculous but got the bug then and just started racing as much as I could. I think it was one of those I won my age group because I was 16 and there was no one else in it and I realized, “Hey, wait a second, I could win all my age group in every race if I just keep showing up.” That got me hooked and then I started doing it more and more and by the time I got to Bowdoin I had done probably 20 at that point and it was really a passion in my summers. I swam at Bowdoin and I had a lot of friends who were really athletic and into that kind of stuff but no one really knew how to do a triathlon or where to do them or how to prepare for one. I decided instead of having people asking all these questions and trying to give them advice and telling them where to go, I might as well just bring a triathlon here so they can experience it at the college. That was sort of the motivation behind the Polar Bear Tri and that was 10 years ago.
Speaker 1: We’ll return to our interview after acknowledging the following generous sponsors: Akari, an urban sanctuary of beauty, wellness and style located on Middle Street in Portland Maine’s old port. Follow them on Facebook and learn more about their new boutique and medi spa at acaribeauty.com and by Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists in Falmouth, Maine makers of Dr. John’s Granola Cereal. Find them on the web at orthopedicspecialistsne.com.
Genevieve: One of the things that I find interesting about triathlons is this notion of people having to dig deep that when you’re in the middle of a race that has that much diversity and endurance, you have to dig deep. What happens? When you’re running that race, what happens?
Will: That’s a really good question because it is an individual pursuit and you’re out there by yourself and it really is up to you to complete it. Talking to other people in my own experience, it really isn’t an individual pursuit because it takes all those people who have helped you along the way to get you through that moment. When I talk about the community of triathlon, you really are relying on your friends and family inside of you at that moment to help you overcome that pain, that discomfort, that sense of dread or impossibility and so if you don’t have that kind of support mechanism around you in your training and in your racing, it’s very hard to overcome that but it is different for each person, that moment of I don’t think I can do this and that doubt and really that’s the essence of the sport. If you can overcome that, you learn an incredible amount about yourself and it translates into confidence and excitement and a sense of accomplishment that will percolate into the rest of your life. It’s really a spectacular thing to watch. People I’ve seen … We started this work 3 or 4 years ago to what they are today, night and day in terms of personality and what they’re able to accomplish.
Dr. Lisa: Are you more or less likely to get injured if you are training for a triathlon? Than say if you’re training for a marathon.
Will: Generally, if everything was even, triathlon is probably better in terms of the wear and tear on your body. Clearly, that means if you know how to swim, right and if you’re swimming the right way, if you know how to ride and you know how to run but the cross-training has been shown over and over again to really have a lot of medical benefits and you’re not bashing your legs the way you do when you run a lot of marathons. That being said, people get injured doing anything so it’s hard to say if it is or isn’t more risky. People are on their bikes. There’s a lot of risk being on a bike more than being running. In general, triathletes tend to have sort of the healthier balance I think and in terms of how they take their work and family and incorporate their training into that, I see the triathletes tend to be a little bit more kind of balanced in that way. It’s not just, “I have to do this every day.” No, that’s all … Be all, End all. There’s definitely some flexibility that comes with the idea of having to do all of these different sports.
Dr. Lisa: Tell us about the Polar Bear Triathlon.
Will: The Polar Bear Triathlon is one of my favorite races of the year because the college really gets excited about it and we have this huge influx of students who come out and volunteer. You’ve got football players. You have hockey players. You’ve got women’s volleyball team, the whole swim team. Lots and lots of students come out in a way that they otherwise really don’t participate on a community events, at least when I was there that was the experience I had. You have a really neat confluence of the community members, the triathletes, the college, the teams and it’s sort of a celebration of spring and athleticism in Brunswick and Bowdoin and a lot of things that I think are just phenomenal. It’s a short race. It’s a sprint race. The swim’s in the pool. We do waves of 32 people at a time and they just kind of cycle through the pool. It sells out every year in about an hour, an hour and a half. It’s very popular and it really kicks off the outdoor tri season for people around here.
Dr. Lisa: Usually, people have to register how far in advance?
Will: We do 2 registration opportunities. One is in October and that’s sort of an early bird registration and there’s a limited number of spots for that and then the general registration is in late January typically.
Dr. Lisa: If people are interested in going to the Bowdoin … going to the Polar Bear Triathlon for 2013, then they would start thinking about training now and have it on their schedule to register coming up.
Will: Exactly, yup. They would be registering in the fall.
Dr. Lisa: Tell us how they can find out, how our listeners can find out more about the Polar Bear Triathlon or Tri-Maine Productions.
Will: The best way to do it would be through our website which is just tri-maine.com. We have lots of information there about all kinds of races, everything from triathlons to obstacle running to 5ks to everything you can imagine. Check out the website. We’ve got contact information there. Feel free to e-mail me directly and I love talking about this stuff. It’s my passion so the more I can encourage people, the better it is for everybody.
Dr. Lisa: Well, thank you for joining us today, Will. It’s been great to talk to you, Will Thomas from Tri-Maine Productions.
Will: Awesome. Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: As part of our Spring Feet running show, we have in the studio with us today John Rogers who is the owner of the Maine Running Company, a very well-known long-time running store here in the Portland area and actually, you have a store up in Brunswick as well.
John: Yes, that’s correct. We have 2 stores. We opened in 2005, opened up the Brunswick store 3 years ago and it’s doing very well.
Dr. Lisa: John, I understand that as part of the Maine Running Company, you have recently founded the Maine Running Academy. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
John: Well, actually the Maine Running Academy evolved out of our training programs, which we started in 2006 and we have a program that we call Reach to Beacon which is really centered around Beach to Beacon, the 10k and as the years have gone by, we’ve evolved it and added more programming and we now have a Maine Marathon Training Program. We support the Fit at 5k, which is a couch to 5k program. We offer 3, 4 couch to 5k running programs that are capped at 35. The Maine Running Academy really evolved out of trying to expand our programming to offer different entities for different types of training. We now offer triathlon training for anywhere from beginners to the Olympic distance. We offer couch to 5k. We offer the Maine Marathon Half Marathon training, which is beginning the Sunday after Memorial Day and we also offer fall and winter training. We actually have a winter training group called the Winter Warriors Training Group.
Recently, we have outsourced our training academy to a company called The Sustainable Athlete, which is owned and operated by Denise Good and Doug Wellen. They are both Level 2 triathlon coaches but they’re very approachable. They’re very inclusive and they’re very easy to work with and one of the things that we started to do is to cap our programming so that we have more of a one on one coaching attention to the people that participate or take part in our training programs. We are now offering core training as well as TRX training. We have what we refer to as a community room which we are thinking about expanding and that room allows us to also house spin training groups in the winter. We roughly have 5 training classes in the winter and it’s capped at 20 but it gets a multiple usage out of it in terms of the community. It’s also offered up for meetings, for lectures and for just the general public if they want to use it. If it’s available, we offer it to the running community.
The Maine Running Academy is a good way for people that really want to evolve their training or whether at the beginner or the intermediate trainer or somebody that’s advanced. They can come to the running academy and evolve and improve and reach their goals.
Genevieve: I love that idea of the sustainable athlete. Running is available to anyone who just wants to get out their door but it sometime intimidating for people who don’t run all the time. What about people who just want to get started running or run intermittently?
John: Well, one of the things that we recognize in our store is our core customer is really somebody that may be a walker. It may be somebody that’s only running 2 or 3 times a week and our biggest philosophy that we have it’s really our core values is anything that we do with our company or our store, we have these 3 values which is approachability, inclusivity and community and that is really the foundation and the cornerstone of Maine Running Company and Maine Running Academy is that it’s open to anybody. We try to make sure that people understand that they’re welcome, that it’s a non-threatening or non-intimidating environment and that anybody can join the academy or come into our store and feel truly comfortable and not intimidated and we work very hard on that from our employees to our instructors to even the products that we select, the merchandise within our store.
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Dr. Lisa: Some of the things I’ve heard you offer as advice are people need the right shoe, fit the right way, which they can get at your store, yes?
John: Mm-hmm. (Affirmative)
Dr. Lisa: They need to have the right training program and sometimes they need to be looking for coaching because if you’re starting from zero, that’s something that is important, perhaps the right running group if support is important to them. What are some other things that you can offer as suggestions to either first time or ongoing runners?
John: Well, I think the biggest mistake first-time runners make is really that they don’t allow their body to adapt to the training cycle that they’re about to embark on. I think what we do is we make sure that we understand what their goals are and then we try to fit that runner who is coming in and whether it’s somebody from a zero base or somebody that’s running 2 times a week to somebody that’s running 5 times a week. We find out what their goals are and then we try to adapt that training program around their goals and that’s one of the reasons that we have for example in our couch to 5k group, we have a race that they’re pointing towards because that person, their real goal is just to finish the 5k. somebody that maybe training for a half marathon or a marathon, we require that they have the ability to run from anywhere from a half hour to an hour so what we know that they can take on the type of training programs that’s necessary to run 26.2 miles or even 13.1 miles. In terms of footwear and how we fit people, one of the things I always stress is that we’re in the product knowledge transfer business. We’re not in the business of just selling footwear. It’s our job to be educated and know what’s going on within the footwear industry so that we can transfer that knowledge to our customers and that’s really the type of service that our customers are paying for is the fact that we have 10 full-time employees, most of them have been with us from anywhere from 2 to 3 years and that we will pay our employees more because we want them to retain the knowledge that’s going to be necessary to transfer to our customers get them into the right footwear.
Dr. Lisa: You brought up the book Born to Run which was a national bestseller last year and one of the things that struck me about that book was that we’re all meant to run and that running can be a joyful experience. A lot of people go out and kind of grind away. Have you seen anything at the Maine Running Company that shows you that once people start running, there is something that takes over a kind of emotional … If it’s something that they start to do regularly, there’s a buoyancy or something, an emotional lift that comes with starting a running regime.
John: In terms of running, I mean it can become addictive just like anything. Endorphins or that emotional stage of being able to complete a goal that … or an objective that somebody has can be very emotional. For example, we also do a lot of cause-related training groups that are centered around cancer, the Maine Cancer Foundation, Tri for a Cure, the Mother’s Day Seadogs Race, which is also a cause-related event to other events out there, no matter what it is. that emotional connection to that cause can be very, very emotional for most of the participants in that event. Yeah, it can be very emotional and it depends not he level of each individual in terms of how far they want to take their training and as you know, endorphins can get released and people can have what we refer to as a runner’s high where there’s nothing better than when you’re out there on a whatever distance it is that you’re out there for your long run and you’re just floating along feeling wonderful. It can be addictive and a release of that runner’s high can really relate to anybody at any distance.
Dr. Lisa: John, do you have any special events coming up this summer that you’d like to let our listeners know about?
John: I think the summer is at the height of our running season. We’re involved in a number of races and have been since we’ve opened. We’re a big believer in community outreach. We’re a big believer in giving back to the community. We give and access anywhere from 50 to $75,000 a year to cancer-related events. We have Tri for a Cure, which comes up in June. We have the Fit at 5k, which is at the end of June. Obviously, Beach to Beacon is probably the showcase race of the summer. We have the Maine Marathon, the Maine Half Marathon which is actually growing faster than the Marathon so there are a number of great events. We also offer what we refer to as the weekly Back Cove series, which is every Wednesday night at 6 PM beginning May 23rd and that would go 15 weeks through September 5th, with the exception of July 4th which is on a Wednesday. This year, we’re going to have to charge a $20 donation but all those proceeds go to Portland Trails and one of the years that we’ve had to do that versus offering it free is that we used to ask people to donate and now our participation has increased dramatically but our donations have gone down. we want to make sure that people are reinvesting in our trail system which is one of the major reasons that Portland, Maine is always noted as one of the fittest communities in the country so a number of events coming up this summer and we’re excited about being involved in most of them.
Genevieve: One excuse people give for not running or not getting back to running is injury. How would you prevent injury from running or come back from an injury?
John: Injuries are often the result of overuse because people tend to want to do more because they think their improvement is going to be a result of that when actually what they should be doing is adapting moderately. We always use the philosophy for example when we have our beginners start out we start them out on a walk to run program which helps them prevent from getting injured and we start them out with walking 4 minutes, running 1 minute and we do that for 2 weeks. Then we take another minute so it’s 2-3. Then we do another minute a week later and it’s 3-2 and 4-1. Some people don’t get beyond the running 4 minutes and walking 1 minute stage but that’s all right because they’re enjoying the sport and activity and they’re getting fit and healthy. Our main job is to try to communicate to people how to adapt properly whether it’s footwear or whether it’s training to help them not get injured and for the most part, we’re very successful at that, whether it’s with our footwear or whether it’s with our training groups. One of the things that I always tell our people is we have a personal fit guarantee, whether it’s involved in footwear. We want to make sure that our customers get the right footwear that’s going to best protect them from injury or whether it’s our training groups. We always say, “If you’re not getting what you expect out of this, we’ll give you a refund 100% if that’s the case.” For the most part, I think we’ve had maybe 5 to 10 refunds over the course of the last 6 years.
Dr. Lisa: John, is there anything else that you’d like our listeners to be aware of with regard to the Maine Running Company or Maine Running Academy?
John: I think the main thing is, is that the running specialty channel is really unique in terms of what it offers for our customers. We’ve had growth every year. we don’t push for it but I believe that because of the service that we offer our customers, that a strong word of mouth about that service exists and that the running specialty channel is a community-based business and one of the things that we like to emphasize is that we are a community. We are not a running specialty chain. We are an independent community-based running specialty store and our real goal is to make sure that we are the center of the running community whether you’re just a beginner or whether you’re just wanting to improve on your 10k or your marathon and we want to offer those services to our community. For the most part, we’ve had a lot of success at that and we’re going to continue … we continue to strive everyday to try and improve on our customer service and our products that we offer.
Dr. Lisa: How can people learn more about the Maine Running Company and the Maine Running Academy?
John: Well, go to mainerunning.com or mainerunningacademy.com and both have separate websites. We also have a Facebook fan page that has over 5,000 fans. Also, just come into the store and see what it’s about. we feel like it’s a very welcome environment for our customers or anybody knew that has never been in the run specialty store so come on in.
Dr. Lisa: John, thank you for coming in and sharing your wisdom today and your background and your experience. People who are out there listening, whether they’re first time runners or long time runners I’m sure will find a wealth of information at your stores so I encourage them to look into the Maine Running Company.
John: Thank you very much.
Dr. Lisa: As part of our Spring Feet Running Show, we have in the studio with us today Maya Cohen who is the volunteer coordinator for the TD Beach to Beacon 10k race being held in Cape Elizabeth and this is an annual event. Maya, welcome to the studio.
Maya: Thank you for having me.
Dr. Lisa: Maya, tell us about the Beach to Beacon race.
Maya: The Beach to Beacon is a point to point race that leaves from Crescent Beach in Cape Elizabeth Maine to Fort Williams, the Portland Headlight. It’s a 10-kilometer race and we have about 6,000 runners and this is the 15th running of the race.
Dr. Lisa: What’s the background of the Beach to Beacon?
Maya: The background is, is that the vision that Joan Benoit Samuelson had was to share her backyard of Cape Elizabeth, Maine and have a point to point race along the coast and the along the shores of Cape Elizabeth and to end the finish line with the Portland Headlight.
Dr. Lisa: Joan Benoit who was an Olympic marathon winner and actually just ran Boston again I believe.
Maya: Yes, she did.
Dr. Lisa: With her daughter and is a fellow Bowdoin graduate so she grew up in Cape Elizabeth.
Maya: Yes, she did. she won the women’s first gold medal in marathoning in 1984 and she and her daughter finished the Boston marathon together at the anniversary of women being able to participate in the marathon and also the anniversary of Title 9 for women involved in sports.
Dr. Lisa: Tell me how fast the entries filled this year.
Maya: Well, I believe the entries … We staggered them so that we filled or we had Cape Elizabeth residents fill in 4 minutes then the next day we had just general registrations for runners and that filled in I think 5 minutes and then the lottery. We reserve so many slots for lottery participants so we fill pretty quickly. The first time that we had online registration, it was like shoving a basketball into a garden hose. It was difficult.
Dr. Lisa: Yes, a lot of technical problems but those seem to have been resolved now.
Maya: Definitely. Definitely.
Dr. Lisa: I know that when I tried to register a few years back, it was one of those, you have to sit at the computer and just click and click and click and click but you’ve now made improvements in that area.
Maya: We’ve made a lot of improvements. We’re very fortunate that the race is that popular. That people want to run.
Dr. Lisa: How many runners do you have this year?
Maya: 6,000.
Dr. Lisa: You still have some slots available for people who want to do charity, right, charity fundraising
Maya: Yes, absolutely.
Dr. Lisa: Tell me about … This is a running show and what I’m interested in from you, Maya, is what can people do if they can’t run a 10k but they still want to be involved in running in some way. What can people do for Beach to Beacon?
Maya: Well you can volunteer. We have a great volunteer program in place. we have about 800 jobs that have to be done between the Wednesday before the race and the day of the race and they range from working with medical professionals or being a medical professional working in our medical tent to helping set up the course, helping in registration. It’s a … The volunteer piece is really important because without the volunteers, a race of this magnitude is very difficult if not impossible to host.
Dr. Lisa: There are a lot of Cape Elisabeth residents that don’t necessarily volunteer per se but they’re out on the course and they’re providing course support and cheering the runners as they go by.
Maya: Yes, we have a lot of residents who are very supportive of the runners. They’re just handing out water or playing music along the course, that kind of thing. It’s really special. It’s a big community event really.
Genevieve: I’ve run the Beach to Beacon once. I’m not a huge runner and the thing that I felt … I’d never run in a race before. I was pretty intimidated about that idea but it’s such a friendly atmosphere. It made me think, “Wow, I could run races. Everyone’s so nice.” I always thought it was very competitive but it felt very family-like almost.
Maya: We joke ever year amongst ourselves in the organizing committee that the Beach to Beacon is a lot like a big family reunion for us at Thanksgiving. You spend all this time preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. Everybody hurries up and eats it and then you’re left with the cleanup but by and large everyone has a great time and that’s really what it is. it’s once a year you get to meet your other family, your other running family or your organizing family and it’s really a lot of fun. The host families that are generous enough to open their homes to all the elite athletes and stay with them, they form some very special bonds throughout the year and it’s a very, very special event.
Dr. Lisa: Is that another way that people could get involved? people who live in the areas, they could become host families.
Maya: Absolutely. You have to commit to about a 5-day stay for an athlete to stay with you and we have very few requirements for host stays. The major requirement though is you have to live in Cape Elizabeth and that is simply from a logistics standpoint.
Dr. Lisa: Maya, when is the Beach to Beacon?
Maya: It’s August 4th of this year and it’s the first Saturday every year.
Dr. Lisa: Is there a reason that Beach to Beacon is held besides showing people where Joan Benoit Samuelson ran? Is there a charitable organization that’s benefited?
Maya: Yes, every year the race selects a charitable organization that shines the light on children and this year is the Center for Grieving Children.
Dr. Lisa: Past recipients of this have been?
Maya: Riding to the Top, Maine Handicap Skiing, Camp Sunshine so a broad variety of children’s organizations.
Dr. Lisa: A broad variety of children’s organizations. Which I should mention we’ve actually had representatives from some of these places in our studios so we do agree that it’s important to be spotlighting these. Maya, how can people find out more about the Beach to Beacon race?
Maya: Well, you can go to our website. It’s www.beach2beacon.org. you’ll find a lot of information on that particular website about the race, about past runners, race winners, how to volunteer, which is something that I like to have on there but it’s a great resource of information and you can read about past beneficiaries as well.
Dr. Lisa: Now this show is airing in May. The Beach to Beacon is not till August. Is it too soon for people to be contacting you about volunteering?
Maya: Not at all. We are in full registration mode for volunteers. We have a need for about 700 volunteers. Many volunteers do many other jobs, double up on jobs during the week, during race week but it’s always good to sign up early so that you can get the job that you’d like to do but there is still time to register.
Dr. Lisa: All right. well, thank you so much for coming in and …
Maya: Thank you for having me.
Dr. Lisa: … Talking to you today. we appreciate it.
Maya: Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast Spring Feet Running Show which is sponsored by the Maine Running Company. Today’s guests have included from Akari, podiatrist Dr. Chris Toth and Carol Fortun, from Tri Maine Productions, Will Thomas, John Rogers from Maine Running Company and Maine Running Academy and Maya Cohen volunteer coordinator for the Beach to Beacon.
We hope our listeners will be inspired to spend some time thinking about those all so important appendages of theirs, the end of their body, their feet, spend some time maybe getting a little pampered at Akari or getting the right running shoes fit and then getting out there and actually running, going out for a triathlon coming up, go Beach to Beacon, volunteer. There are lots of different ways to focus on your feet. We know that you’ll find them. We know that you will find good information on the Dr. Lisa website for more insight and inspiration on our guests, doctorlisa.org. also like us on Facebook, follow our posts there and download all of our past podcasts. There’s a wealth of information to be had through the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour on iTunes.
This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. Thank you for being part of our world. May you have a bountiful life.
Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors, Maine Magazine, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin at ReMax Heritage, Robin Hodgkin at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists in Falmouth, Maine, Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial, Booth, UNE, the University of New England and Akari.
The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is recorded in downtown Portland at the offices of Maine Magazine on 75 Market Street. It is produced by Kevin Thomas and Dr. Lisa Belisle. Editorial content produced by Genevieve Morgan. Audio production and original music by John C. McCain. Our assistant producer is Jane Pate. For more information on our hosts, production team, Maine Magazine or any of the guests featured here today, visit us at doctorlisa.org and tune in every Sunday at 11 AM for the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour on WLOB Portland Maine 1310 AM or streaming wlobradio.com. Show summaries are available at doctorlisa.org. download and become a podcast subscriber of Dr. Lisa Belisle through iTunes. See the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page for details.