189. Running Industry Hot Takes with Phoebe Wright

Ali on the Run Show

Ali Feller

Run, Health & Fitness, Women, Inspiration, Runner, Entrepreneur, Sports, Fitness, Health, Running

4.9 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2019

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"When you’re in a powerless position and the rest of your career is totally dependent on what you do, you aren’t going to burn bridges. You don’t have many bridges to walk across."

Phoebe Wright is a former professional middle-distance runner who spent six years competing as a Nike-sponsored athlete. Phoebe, an 800-meter specialist from Tennessee, became a five-time national champion before retiring after the 2016 Olympics. On this episode, she reflects on her time with Nike and talks about some of the big stories in running right now, including #DreamMaternity and Mary Cain. She also talks about confidence, overtraining, and being an advocate for the running industry and its athletes.

Thank you to the New York Road Runners Virtual Turkey Trot 5K for sponsoring this episode of the Ali on the Run Show! CLICK HERE to register (it’s free!) and complete your Turkey Trot anytime between November 23 and December 1. Everybody’s doing it!

What you’ll get on this episode:

Phoebe reflects on her six years as a Nike athlete (4:45)
Phoebe’s take on the #DreamMaternity coverage (13:10)
Phoebe discusses the recent Mary Cain story about Mary’s time working with Alberto Salazar and Nike (18:40)
Phoebe talks about training with Brooks (21:50)
On being an advocate, confidence, and having thick skin (27:45)
Phoebe talks about her experience with overtraining (30:45)
All about being a pharmacist! (35:30)

What we mention on this episode:

"Nike Told Me to Dream Crazy, Until I Wanted a Baby," via The New York Times

"Allyson Felix: My Own Nike Pregnancy Story," via The New York Times

"I Was the Fastest Girl in America, Until I Joined Nike," via The New York Times

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of The Alley on the Run Show is brought to you by the New York Roadrunners
0:04.4	Virtual Turkey Trot 5K. Go to nyrr.org slash virtual racing slash alley to learn more about why
0:12.8	Turkey Trots are the best ever. Welcome to The Alley on the Run Show. It is bonus episode day.
0:24.2	I didn't want to wait to release this episode because I am so thrilled and honored to have
0:28.5	Phoebe right as my guest today. Phoebe is a former professional runner. She was an 800 meter
0:34.2	runner. She has several championship titles and podiums under her belt and today she is a
0:40.4	pharmacist which I think is so cool. I wanted to have Phoebe on the show right now because she's
0:45.6	been really vocal particularly on Twitter about some of the issues plaguing the sport of running
0:50.8	right now. I love following her on Twitter but I wanted to dive a little deeper right here.
0:57.2	She was willing to do that. I was thrilled. Phoebe ran for Nike for six years so she's got a lot
1:02.9	to share. I hope you enjoy this discussion. It sheds a lot of light on the realities of being a
1:08.8	professional runner. Cool. Let's go.
1:17.6	Phoebe, welcome to The Alley on the Run Show. Super excited to have you here today. How you doing?
1:23.4	Great. Yeah. Thanks for inviting me on. All right. We have a lot to talk about. Before we get into
1:28.1	all the good juicy stuff, warm us all up. Tell everyone who you are, where you're from and what it is
1:34.5	that you do. All right. So I am from Tennessee, Born and Raised. A Dodge accent though because my
1:42.3	dad's Canadian and my mom's from Ohio. I went to undergrad at the University of Tennessee where I
1:48.8	walked on and then got lucky because the coach there was incredible and somehow
1:56.9	got my talent to shine and I became five time national champion and I graduated and used my bio
2:06.9	chem degree in no way and became a professional runner for six years and then I retired after the
2:12.0	2016 Olympics to focus back on a career in well sort of biochemistry but I went to pharmacy school
2:20.4	to get my farm D and I recently graduated with my farm D in June. So yay for being a doctor and
	...

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