Fresh off hill repeats in a surprisingly brisk LA morning, Olympian Alexi Pappas hopped on the MTA Podcast to unpack her whirlwind life—from Olympic highs to injury lows, and now a trails, books, and blind guiding. Here’s the edited Q&A, straight from our podcast chat.
Catching Up on the New Book
Trevor: Alexi, it’s been six years, what’s new?
Alexi: Fun. Yeah. I have a new book coming out with Random House, my editors noticing my life has changed a lot. They asked if I could create a process for really big changes. So I thought of this multi-step process for big change and did research and interviews. This book is a big-think help book mixed with memoir because every step has examples from my life and other people’s lives.
How Running Stays Aligned With Life
Angie: That resonates—your running’s morphed so much. How do you keep it feeling alive, not obligatory?
Alexi: I have a chapter about your North Star, which is being guided by chasing a feeling or a purpose more than an outward facing outcome.
What I’ve learned is that even if there are outward facing dreams you’re chasing, once you get to any peak, you’re actually chasing a feeling or a value. What’s cool is you can always chase a feeling or value no matter what opportunities pan out.
You’ll never be stuck because there’s always ways to move toward feelings and values and doors don’t close on those things. For me as a runner, what I’m doing is really unusual. I do it because it feels aligned with me. It’s taken a real understanding of how to keep moving towards my North Star and not get derailed by what other people think a North Star could be for me. It has to really be your own.
The Glitter That Made NYC Magical
Angie: Speaking of iconic shifts, at the 2017 NYC Marathon you decided to run with glitter on. What sparked it?
Alexi: The glitter came about because after Rio, I crashed pretty hard and it felt very scary to accept I might be depressed. I ended up training through this period when you’re really meant to be decompressing after the Olympics. I tore my hamstring slowly. That hamstring tear got progressively worse through the training for Tokyo.
I had been contracted and signed up to run the New York City Marathon, which I’d never run. I was really excited and hopeful I could still run it nine months after this huge reconstruction surgery. Sure enough, I was healthy enough to run, but not fit enough to race. Healthy enough to run 7:30 pace, not fit enough to race 5:40 pace.
I love the New York Road Runners and that whole team. But I was really nervous because the women start 30 minutes ahead of everybody. If I ran 7:30 pace, I was going to be alone for almost the entire race. Alone means alone in front of the biggest crowds at the biggest marathon in the world. It was a time when elite athletes did not want to show their face if they weren’t gritting and racing at Olympic pace.
So I hired a makeup designer to paint glittery stars on my face and do my hair because I wanted to show the audience that I was okay. If you see someone running five minutes behind the pack, they’re going to do that slow clap like, are you okay? It was a message to the world that this was intentional. The dance, kissy, joy, celebratory, my inner nature coming out, that was really organic and happened unexpectedly during the race. The glitter was a communicative, protective, empowering, deliberate choice. This is my day and I’m going to have a presence among thousands of people. I’m here. There’s so many reasons why you might wear glitter. It’s evolved for me, but that was why I wore it that day.
Mentor Buffett Podcast
Trevor: Can you talk about the importance of having a mentor?
Alexi: I think it’s super important. Part of why I started theMentor Buffet Podcast is because we all want people to help us. The truth is you have a mentor the minute you learn from them, not just the minute they want you to learn or they give you advice.
Then there’s satellite mentors. I’ll listen to podcasts of people I don’t know or books or see something on the internet and pretend that’s just for me because those people can be satellite mentors too.
I chose the word buffet for my podcast because buffets are so abundant and everywhere. They’re often eclectic and diverse and surprising and ornate and specific. Most buffets are like it’s a big party or a restaurant serving so many people’s tastes. It doesn’t mean you take every piece of information as your new law. It’s about taking in all information and deciding what has resonance with you.
Building the Guide-Runner Bond
Angie: Are there skills needed to be a good guide-runner?
Alexi: I reached out to a nonprofit that helps connect guides and visually impaired athletes. They had a roster of people that could use guides. There was one woman, Lisa, who had a fast time. She wanted to compete to win and has frequently had male guides because you need to be a lot faster to be comfortable guiding.
What I learned about guiding is that it’s a developed teammateship. You’re there to serve and help somebody. Number one, you’re there for them and you need to learn how to be a good teammate because you’re not going to be neutral. You’ll either help them or limit them. The skills are very personalized to them. Lisa and I learned how—we actually the first race didn’t use a tether. I was holding her hand for a whole marathon or grabbing it and then not grabbing it. Then we learned how to use tension in a tether to communicate, which was much easier because I didn’t have to say a little to the left, a little to the right. She knows how taut the tether should be. If it’s too tight, she’s too far away from me. If it’s too loose, she can’t feel tension, she needs to float away. Then we learned how to do obstacles like train tracks and cups all over the road.
There’s a lot of dangerous stuff if you don’t have vision. We learned how to navigate her pacing and get the most out of her because she has a really big rival that sometimes beats her, sometimes she beats. My job is also to look out for the competition. It’s awesome. If you’re a competitive person or care about tactics of racing, if you guide someone trying to win, you really are there. You’re really in it. There’s so many little details, but really you understand how to get the most out of this person and you need to not have an ego because it’s quite an intimate experience.
We’ve even done paratriathlons together. We’ve fallen off bikes together, which is horrible. But it’s pretty awesome because we’ve learned how to be a team. We have fun together. People are more aware of the visually impaired community now. People make more room on the roads for us. The first year we weren’t able to run tangents because people were plowing through us. I’m grateful our visibility has connected the running community more so there’s more room on the road for us.
A Mantra for Running Ultras
Trevor: You have the Javelina 100K coming up, what do you tell yourself when the miles get tough?
Alexi: I like the word “stay”. It’s the same way I talk to my dog. Just stay. Stay with the pace, stay with your team, stay with the joy.
I do get nervous when I feel like I’m going to be pushing my limit because you know a limit will be pushed. You have this ticklish feeling of hope. It’s that feeling kids get when they audition for a school play where they’re really going for it. There’s something so adorable about that.
Final Advice: Run on Soft Even If You’re Racing Hard
Trevor: Any final advice for our listeners/readers?
Alexi: The thing I feel most excited about right now is encouraging people to keep moving. If you’re in a challenging situation or struggling or stagnant, just keep moving and see what that can do for you. Get into nature.
If you have high performance goals in running, run on soft even if you’re racing hard. I’ve seen so much success with people on trails or track, somewhere softer, even if racing on roads. A lot of pros run on soft a lot more than people realize, or walk, hike, whatever. Running can be walking and running. Just move your body, get outside, smell the pine trees, let it delight you, let it change you, do it with people or alone sometimes. Walking is okay. You can walk!
