In today's episode of the Ready to Run podcast we'll meet with professional long distance runner, Bria Wetsch. Bria lives in Colorado and has been passionate about competitive running since she was 11 years old. Following a successful high school career, Bria went on to compete at a collegiate level at the University of Oregon. After college, she began her career as a pro runner in Mammoth Lakes, CA where she met her - now husband and coach - Aaron Lange. We'll discuss her journey from Haglund's surgery in 2017 to Olympic trials qualifying time just 13 months later. Bria ultimately finished 27th at the 2020 Olympic marathon trials in Atlanta. More recently, Bria ran a marathon PR of 2:28:35 to finish in 4th place at the California International Marathon earlier this month. We'll recap her incredible performance as well as some of the mental health challenges she overcame during her build up. For Bria, CIM was about more than a marathon PR. She shares a very open conversation on her struggles with depression, anxiety, and panic attacks at the beginning of her marathon training cycle. She also discusses how the trajectory to finding groundedness was not linear. We hope this episode encourages everyone in the running community to better understand the influence of mental health in sports so that we can support those in need and help others achieve their goals. Let's get ready to run with professional long distance runner Bria Wetsch!
What we talked about:
4:15- Introduction to Bria
5:25- How Bria is feeling coming off of her race at CIM
9:50- Her racing mentality
14:15- Her mentality during her race at CIM
15:10- Her buildup to CIM
20:25- Her Achilles injury she sustained post-college and her Haglund's surgery
26:10- Bria's husband and coach, Aaron
28:55- Return to running post Haglund's surgery
29:45- Moving to Boulder
31:05- What has kept her in the sport through all of the injuries
38:05- What she is looking forward to in the coming years
41:20- Her battle with her mental health this summer and how she treated that
Show notes:
Bria on Instagram
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