5-MINUTE FRIDAY: Being A Beginner Is A Prerequisite For Greatness
Hurdle with Emily Abbate
iHeartPodcasts
4.9 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 15 May 2026
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As she prepares for the Brooklyn Half, Emily's looking back at her first 13.1-mile race in 2008 and the massive health transformation that led her there.
Today, Emily discusses the beauty of progress and the reality of "readiness." She's sharing her perspective on why being a beginner is a prerequisite for greatness and how she maintains her fitness routine today—not for a specific time goal, but to feel like her most capable self. Plus, she answers a listener question from a new business owner about how to design a productive schedule and find motivation when you are your own boss.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:20.5 | Happy Friday, everyone. Happy five-minute Friday. Emily here. You are listening to Hurtle. I am feeling a bit anxious, but mostly excited because I'm running a half marathon tomorrow, if you're listening to this in real time in Brooklyn, the New York Roadrunners Brooklyn half. |
| 0:38.8 | I'm running a half marathon in Brooklyn tomorrow, |
| 0:40.7 | and I am sitting here reflecting on, gosh, my first half marathon. |
| 0:46.7 | For context, I ran my first half marathon in 2008, |
| 0:51.7 | and this was the cherry on top of what had been a newfound love affair with running. |
| 1:02.3 | So I won't get into the entire spiel today. But basically, if you are familiar with my backstory, |
| 1:14.4 | I went through a pretty large health transformation in college that resulted in me losing about 70 pounds. The first part of that was learning |
| 1:21.5 | how to eat better. The second part of that was learning how to love running. Running was something that I was made to feel |
| 1:29.1 | like I could never be good at from a young age. I didn't make the JV volleyball team in high school |
| 1:36.5 | because I couldn't run a mile in under 10 minutes. Fast forward. Now, I think that my PR |
| 1:43.6 | marathon time, which is virtual, always feels like a little |
| 1:50.2 | asterisk, but I need to note there, is a 747 pace. So ironic that back in high school, |
| 1:59.1 | I didn't make the volleyball team because I couldn't run that mile |
| 2:01.5 | in under 10 minutes. And that dissuaded me from sport for a really long time. It became a part of a |
| 2:07.3 | really upsetting statistic, which is that young women drop out of sport at twice the rate of young |
| 2:14.5 | men. And so as part of this weight loss journey, I began to run again. And it started |
| 2:21.4 | with a half mile every day over the course of a summer. And eventually that half mile became a |
| 2:26.8 | mile. That mile became a 5K. And so in 2008, I made the choice to sign up for that first half marathon and really invested in myself, invested in that goal. |
| 2:42.3 | I was so proud when I finished that half, the official time, two hours, 43 minutes, and 33 seconds, which is, again, crazy if you take a step back and look at |
| 2:54.4 | the journey, because I would never have run a three hour and 23 minute 56 second marathon, |
... |
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