We’ve heard it already a few times this year — one way to help you follow through on your New Year’s Resolutions is accountability! You have to set your goals, check off the steps, and measure progress along the way. Working out with a buddy also reminds you that you’d better not skip a day!

Well, local public radio station WFAE is helping you with your resolution to get active by giving you a goal, and some accountability. The “Charlotte Walks” fundraiser wants you to check off some goals to support a great cause — operating one of the best newsrooms in our region and the radio programs that go with it on WFAE! Jeff Bundy is here to talk about the purpose behind this fundraiser — welcome!

We love running, but we also know our sport comes with occasional aches and pains. Our next guest on Running Around Charlotte helps both people and animals recover from the inevitable soreness that come with training.

Stephanie Pope can help. She started her business of Red Light Therapy because of her lifelong love of horses. After studying Animal Sciences, with a specialty in Equines, at the University of Florida, she furthered her education with studies of accupressure and other alternate therapies. She joins us now to tell us how both pets and people can benefit from her work. Welcome!

Two things can really make a runner want to smile – finishing a race, and a good dentist! (Get it?) Our next guest on the Running Around Charlotte podcast can relate to both of these things – she is a marathon and ultra-marathon runner, and also voted one of Charlotte’s Top Dentists from Charlotte Magazine for several years in a row! That makes us smile, too.

Dr. Heather Dowlin is part of the Flying Biscuit Running Club and the Flying Biscuit Marathon, and she joins us now. Welcome!

We know a lot of our listeners are hard-core runners. You love the marathons, training on long runs, and you wear out a lot of shoes. Our next guest on Running Around Charlotte has a slightly different point of view, as she calls it, because she fully admits to running at the back of the pack.

Mandy Carter calls herself an “average runner” who started running later in life – she has 2 kids, a law degree, and several jobs; knows a thing or two about time management, and really just wants to be that person who encourages others to start moving. She’s also issuing a challenge for the new year, and joins us now to tell us what it is. Welcome Mandy!

If you’re a runner – or even if you’re not – chances are you’ve been around one of our next guest’s projects. There are 230 of them, encompassing more than 21,000 acres across the county. From greenways to playgrounds to pavilions to pickleball – Mecklenburg County Park and Rec has your recreation needs covered! Bert Lynn joins us today – he’s the Capital Planning Division Director – and will fill us in on what’s new and what’s coming up!

Happy New Year everyone, and why not kick it off with some new goals for 2021? Everyone has them.. and number one on the list of most popular is always, “Eat better and exercise more.” And of course we all want to lose that extra 10 or 20 pounds that made itself even better known this year, right? So how do we do that? We have just the guy to answer that question.

Matt Dengler is a registered dietitian and owner of RxRD Nutrition, and what’s even better is…. he lays it all out in a way that’s easy to understand. Welcome to back the Running Around Charlotte podcast, Matt!

We don’t have to explain a runner’s relationship with food – we all have one. Marc Jacksina’s relationship with food goes several steps further, though, as an award-winning chef of some of the Charlotte area’s top restaurants. It can be a stressful business, but he’s overcome that, too – and some other major obstacles in life – by running. We’re excited to welcome Marc to today’s Running Around Charlotte podcast.

Now that there’s a chill in the air and winter is at hand, we get to see a popular feature come back to Charlotte’s Whitewater Center for the whole family to enjoy. The installation “Lights” takes you on a tour full of unusual and artistic lights on one of the Whitewater Center’s wooded trails. The trails are popular with runners year-round, and the lights were an even more popular touch — with 80,000 visitors last year. We have the artist, Meredith Connelly, and Jesse Hyde from the Whitewater Center to tell us more about the installation and partnership.

We were delighted to see how many runners got excited about the Novant Health virtual Charlotte Marathon and turned in some good runs in November. Usually joining us on that day is Dr. Keith Anderson, our marathon Medical Director, but he’s been busy nonetheless organizing some Ironman races. Dr. Anderson is a physician specializing in Family Sports Medicine at the Novant Health Cotswold Medical Clinic. Welcome back to Running Around Charlotte, Keith!

Running sometimes has us nursing our sore legs, but our next guest has the workouts and the after-care down pat. Meet Novant Health Charlotte Marathon Ambassador Deanna Nichole — a Nurse, Marine, Mom of two Marines, Cross Fitter, and of course, runner. And she is bringing us that energy on today’s Running Around Charlotte!