WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The Healing Hour: She's a Runner, She's a Track Star

Episode Date: February 23, 2024

In today's episode, we interview Meredith VanDerWeide about her journey with running, as well as its positive effects on her physical, mental, and spiritual health.

Hello and welcome to the Healing Hour, where we bring you your weekly dose of healing. I'm your host, Adriana Azarian. And I'm your co-host, Erica Kaiba. And today we have a very special guest with us, our good friend Meredith Vanderwydie, Hillsdale Class of 2026, an avid runner. Today Meredith is going to be sharing how she's found healing and joy in running. Welcome to the show, Meredith. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. So Meredith, why don't we start with you telling us about your running journey?

because you've been running for how long? I think it's been seven, six, seven years now. Yeah, I started running ninth grade in high school in track. I did track because at Hillsdale Academy, where I went to high school, everybody does track. It's not an option, you know, you do track. Mr. Roberts tells you, oh, what are you doing in track this year? And you say, oh, I didn't know I was doing track. So I started running, started the season.

unable to even run two miles without stopping. That was our first day of practice. Like, if you've never run before, run two miles. And I was doing this and I was in so much pain, could not breathe. I was like, what the heck am I getting into? That entire first week of track, some of the most pain I've been physically in my entire life. But I stuck with it. And that fall, I decided to do cross-country because all of my friends were doing cross-country and mostly I wanted to get better in track and I fell in love with cross-country continued running track and cross-country through all of high school and when I graduated high school I'd reached a point where almost all of my wellness is kind of due to running like I tell

people, if I don't run, I don't sleep well, I don't eat well, I'm not happy, like I'm emotionally unstable, I'm not physically well. Like once, I think once you really develop such a habit as an integral part of your life, like it has an effect on all of the areas of your healing. Because healing is a very holistic experience, as Adriana has often pointed out. So I've continued running in college. It's definitely a different experience, but it's something that I love and something that really just keeps me healthy in all the areas of my life. So what would you say it was that changed? Because you described going through a lot of struggling as you first started getting into running, but then it grew to be something that was a part of your life that you can't imagine not having.

So where and how would you say that shift happened? Yeah, I'd say that first track season was just, a struggle and I the really the only reason I was doing it is because all my friends were doing it and it was you know track was the place where we all socialize but then when I decided to do cross-country I did it because I wanted to get better at track at the beginning of my first cross-country season in cross-country the race you do is a 5k which is 3.1 miles my first race I was like I don't even think I can run the 3.1 miles without stopping. But over the course of that summer training for the season and starting to become a better part of the team, starting to be encouraged by my coach and understand what was happening a lot more. I just had a lot more motivation. And also, I think,

so before I was a runner, I played volleyball. And it's just, it's hard to see, progress with a sport like that. Like obviously there are checkpoints. You can reach certain skills you can develop. But with running, I think it's a lot more straightforward. It's like, oh, I can run two miles faster than I could last week. Or it's easier than it was last week. And like you can see very visible progress.

And that really inspired me to keep working at it because it was something that I saw that when I put work into it, like that work did pay off. So I think that that was definitely the starting point was I just, I wanted to be good at it because I saw that it was within my grasp to at least improve in it. And eventually that just mere desire to improve developed into a greater love for all the aspects of the sport and the exercise. So I know that with running injuries like shin splints can be an issue, pushing yourself too hard. Do you have any practices? that you've implemented into your schedule that have helped you guard against injuries like that?

That's definitely, I think with any exercise, our bodies are very prone to injury. And in high school, I definitely did not have a healthy mindset about this, because my mindset was kind of, I'm going to run, I'm going to work as hard as I can, and I don't care how much I'm hurting. Like, I want to do this. It actually got really, really unhealthy, I think, my senior year, because I kind of reached a point where I had a chance to be on the varsity team for, yeah, for more context. My first year, I was like the slowest person on the team.

My second year, I was, you know, like one of the top JV runners, but still no chance of being on varsity. By the time I got to my senior year, it was like I could actually be on varsity and I was on varsity, but I always had this constant fear of losing my place. and so I was doing things a lot more out of fear than desire, which is not healthy. So I was just pushing my body to the absolute limit. Like every single workout, every day I was like, I am going to run myself as hard as I can. Don't do that. It's not good for you.

It's just not a healthy relationship with the sport and definitely took a toll on my body, even though I did see improvement from that. But some really practical ways as a runner, and I think in any sport, any exercise you do, is to keep variety of something that our coaches always did when we were having our weekly workouts. You know, like Mondays we do a tempo run, which is a kind of fast run. Then Tuesday, we do an easy run to recover from that. Wednesday we do, you know, a short and fast workout. Thursday, you have another easy run.

Friday you have a long run. So you're just, you're varying it up because if you're doing the exact same thing every single day, like if I'm just pounding out five miles every single day, like on the same road, on the same surface, it's not, you're not going to see that much improvement and your body is also going to get really tired because you need to incorporate, you know, hard workouts, but also more restful workouts. And I think this is true for any exercise. You You can't just do a super intense, super hard workout every single day. You've got to give your body a time to rest. So for shin splints, another way you do that is you don't run on just hard surfaces.

You try to make sure that you're running on soft surfaces too. Like Hayden Park we have at the college, we'd go and run there. You run on the grass so that your muscles and your bones and your body has time to kind of recover. It observes the shot? Yes, yeah. Okay, so Meredith, now that you're in college, you're not running competitively anymore. So what does running look like now that you're not? You don't have any coaches.

Talk about it. Yeah. It's definitely a lot harder when you're not a part of a team. Because in high school, one of my main motivations, you know, to get up and do these things every day was I'm doing this for my team. I'm doing this for my coach. Like I had so much love for my team and my coach. And so I wanted to do well for them. I wanted to make them proud.

And now it's, most days, it's just me out there on the backroads. And there's a lot less motivation when it's just you and the pain. And you're like, why am I doing this? You know, no one said I had to do this. No one knows I'm doing this. What's the point? But like I said, I know that running has become such an important part of just keeping me healthy in every area. So the ways that I try to keep myself accountable is I do have one friend that I still run with every once in a while.

Olivia, shout out to her. There are so many people that run at the college. I really do think we should start a running club. that's kind of on my list of a thousand things I should do. So you'll run into, you know, you'll be talking to a friend and be like, oh, you run. Run into it? Yeah. Oh, yeah, I'll run into a friend and talk and realize, oh, we both like to run.

And, you know, occasionally we'll actually schedule a run. Because I think it is a very healthy thing to be exercising with other people. And running is a great opportunity to do that, especially if you're really a distance runner, because yesterday I ran five miles by myself. That's 50 minutes that I could have a conversation with someone if I'm running with them. But when you're by yourself, I think one thing that I've definitely started to do is make my runs, my like quiet and prayer time because if I don't listen to music, it's just me and my head and the trees and the dirt.

And it's a great time to give thanks to God. just give him a little update, focus as much as I can. And it's also a good time to just let my mind kind of wander. Because we, as Hillstall students, live very, very busy, very, you know, motion-filled lives. And it's good to just have that time to dedicate to a bit of silence. What advice would you give for the college student who wants to work out, who wants an incorporate exercise, but it's just really busy? Because I think he'd be really good at explaining this because you are incredibly busy, like, all the time.

Like, I don't know how you do it. Yeah. If you look at my Google calendar, there's something every single hour of the day. And so every – what I've started doing is at the beginning of every week, I look at my calendar for the week. And I'm like, okay, I have to set aside time for running. It's one of those things. Like, if I don't set aside time for it and say, like, I have to run at 2.30 this day. I won't because I'll be sitting in the library reading and doing my homework and freaking out about

finishing my homework before I have to go to a dinner and a meeting and whatever. So, yeah, I just really am intentional about setting that time aside. And, like, again, knowing that if I don't do it, I'm just going to not function as well. Like when I run in the afternoons, it's strange, but once you, your body has become so accustomed to like this habit of exercise, when you run or you do something hard, you're going to have more energy. Like when I go for a long time without running, I feel extremely like lethargic and I start sleeping more, but it's not good sleep. and I just feel really dead, but then I run, like, just three miles. And all of a sudden, I'm, like, jumping off the walls and happy. And I will never understand why.

Like, I know there's science behind it, but that's just how it is. So I just have to live with the knowledge that it will be better for me in the end. I really love how you talk about exercise. The reason why you do it is because of how it makes you feel. I think a lot of times people mistake exercise. It's like, oh, I'm going to do this so that I can look a certain way or so that I can, you know, have like enough muscle. And I think that's especially a problem for women. So I think it's really great that you do it.

You focus on how you feel. I wanted to ask you, though, about how do you handle running in the wintertime? Because when you go running in the winter, I just want, I don't know. I can't even walk in the winter on these icy Michigan sidewalks. So tell us about that. Yeah. So at the Academy, Hillsdale Academy, we had winter athletic club, as we lovingly called WAC. This is like the 15 weeks in between cross country and track, you have to train because you're going to, if you don't, you're going to come to the first day of track and you're going to be so out of shape.

and you're going to have like three weeks to get all of that back in time for the season to start. And there are definitely some people out there who can do that because they're much more naturally fit. I'm not that person. Like if I go like three weeks without running, I'm kind not quite, but I feel like I'm back at ground one, you know. And it's definitely like last semester I got a concussion. and I went five weeks without running. That was the longest I'd gone since I started in ninth grade. And like, I'm a lot slower right now than I was six months ago.

I still can mostly get the mileage, but I've slowed down a lot. So for me, like, we just, we had that community in high school, and we were like, okay, it's 15 degrees and icy, but we got a run. And I personally hate treadmills with a burning passion. So I choose that over treadmills. But for people who like treadmills, great. Like, that's a, treadmills are really good because you can get, like, really consistent times.

You can really work on your running form. You know, you can really zone in on, like, technique type things. but for me I just I just hate treadmills so you know it was kind of that stubbornness that now in college

like I totally could go to the splix and run on a treadmill but there's just something about like voluntarily inflicting so much more pain on yourself that is necessary that like

It makes you stronger and better because of it, because you can endure that cold. Like, yesterday, it was really cold. And I went out and ran five miles on what we call the back roads or dirt roads in Hillsdale. And it was kind of icy. And there was also a section where there was no trees. And the wind was just going crazy at me. Like I had AirPods in, but I couldn't hear it because of the wind. wind was so loud and like I was crying because my face was so cold. I'm like, what am I doing?

But it's that endurance. Something, you know, we said a lot in high school. It's the Bible verse. We know that suffering produces endurance. Endurance produces character. Character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame. It's just like that physical suffering that it's really a mortification of the flesh is just really healthy. for your spiritual discipline, for your bodily discipline, for every aspect of your life. So you don't have to go outside and run in the winter. No one's making you. But I do it. Meredith, you talked a little bit before about getting into an unhealthy mindset when you were in high school with running

and maybe pushing yourself a little bit too hard. So I was wondering what you had to say about how a runner can learn his or her limits and avoid pushing themselves to the point of exhaustion. Because I remember you told me a story once about almost passing out. I did pass out, yeah. Oh, goodness. So it was my last season of cross-country, my senior year. Like, I had put two years into this sport,

and really I was putting, like, the sport had become my identity. You know, I feel like that is how it is for a lot of high schoolers. Like, your sport or your theater or your music, like, that kind of becomes your identity, which is unhealthy. But my identity was cross-country. And I was like, I am going to have the best season ever. I'm going to be on varsity. I want to break 22 minutes in the 5K. Like, I had very, I had very big goals, but they were within my reach. And so I was like, wanted so, so badly to do them. And because of that, like, because of that desire, I did do all of those things. I was on varsity. I did break 22 minutes in the 5K. Like, I did have arguably the best season I could have

possibly had. But that also meant that whenever I didn't do exactly what I wanted, I was devastated. About half of my races that season I p-red, which is a personal record, like a faster time. And the other half of them, when I didn't, I just had like a mental breakdown. Like, I was just in, you. I was just in tears. Like there were also some races I was in tears on the start line because I was so stressed out about beating a certain girl or something. So it was just, it was very unhealthy. And at the state cross-country meet, I fainted right before the finish line because I, like, I woke up that morning and I said, this is my last cross-country race in my high school career. I am going to run it as fast as possible. It is going to be the best race of my life. I am going to be the best race of my life. I am going to

beat blah blah blah blah blah like I will and so I went out and like I did but in the process I pushed my body like beyond anything it should be doing probably so like I was like 300 meters away from the finish line and like my vision is blurry and I'm kind of wobbly and people are passing me because I'm starting to slow down and I was furious. I was like, you will not pass me. I am going. But like, I physically couldn't. My legs were burning and screaming. And then I fainted like, you know, 10 meters before the finish line, picked up my glasses, got up, fell down. And it was like, okay, I'm dead now. Like, I'm done. Looking back now, it's really funny because I was like, okay, like that was the last performance of my life. I'm done now. Like I can, I can die.

I literally, like, my coach was like grabbed me by the show. Once they finally got me out and got me to walk, I like collapse and sat back down because I was like, I am not standing. I refuse to stand. And my coach, Mr. Roberts was looking at. He's like, all right, Meredith, I need you to open your eyes. I need you to look at me. And in my, like, in my mind, I was laughing at myself because everyone else was so freaked out and I was like, guys, I'm fine. I'm just going to like go to bed and die. Oh my gosh. What? What? Um, so it made for a really great story, but the reality is like my body should not have gone through that. Um, so how to develop a healthy relationship. I think it's just and how to know your limits, you just really need to know what you're doing this for. Because

obviously during that season my reasons for pushing myself were not exactly the most healthy motivations. And so now, like, I've reached a point where I'm not doing anything competitively, so it's like I am just doing it

to keep myself healthy and to keep myself happy. And so because of that, like, yes, I'll push myself, but I'm not going to push myself so hard that I faint because, like, there's no reason for me to do that. And there's never any really any reason for you to do that. So it's just, it's really, what's your motivation?

Exercise is, you know, suffering and then healing from it, but you don't need to suffer so much that you die. Well, thank you so much, Meredith, for coming on the show. Thank you. It's been an absolute pleasure and delight. Running was always something I struggled with, but I have a newfound appreciation for it after talking to you more about it. Yes, and we all know Meredith as a very joyful person and seeing the joy that running gives you is definitely inspiring. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of The Healing Hour with your host, Adriana Azarian, and your co-host, Erica Kaiba. Join us next week. And if you have any questions, feel free to email us at Your Doseofhealing at gmail.com.

That's Your Doseofhealing at gmail.com. We'll be happy to answer your questions.