Running is a great way to stay healthy — and a great way to know if something just isn’t right. That’s exactly what happened to marathoner Tom Perri, who has run marathons in all 50 states — more than once! — and some ultras too. But in 2018, Tom sensed something wasn’t quite right and a visit to his doctor confirmed it. He had prostate cancer. And guess what else — the resulting surgeries and treatment didn’t stop him from running marathons. In fact, he’s completed more than 100 of them since his diagnosis! Tom is an Iron Man in the truest sense of the word, and he joins us on Running Around Charlotte to share how he kept going.

We all have good reasons to run…. And some days, we tell ourselves we have plenty of good reasons not to. Work, school, kids, fewer daylight hours… our list goes on and on. Our next guest on Running Around Charlotte has all of those excuses, and still makes time to get out and get a few miles in before the sun comes up. Kerri Vardon is a busy marketing accounts manager and mom of 2 young kids, who calls herself an “average” runner, but has done 2 virtual half-marathons this year and one in-person relay down in Greenville, South Carolina. She’s also one of our Novant Health Charlotte Marathon Ambassadors.

In a year with very few in-person marathons, one elites-only event allowed Charlotte’s Olympic Trials qualifier Paula Pridgen to hit the road with other runners. Only 50 men and 50 women were invited to take part in the Marathon Project on a closed course in Chandler, Arizona, in December. Pridgen has, of course, run a few marathons in her time, but this one was a little different — and Pridgen says she learned some things about herself along the way.

She’s our guest today on Running Around Charlotte, and she’s going to explain what she learned at the end of this very strange year for marathoners.

Hopefully, we’ve all gotten off to a good start with our New Year’s Resolutions, right? The top resolutions, most of us know, have to do with diet and exercise — but for runners, there’s even better news. If you’re trying to burn fat, running is the best exercise because runners burn more calories per minute than other sports like swimming or riding a bike. As a result, dedicated runners are leaner than most other athletes. Congrats to you if you decided to lose weight this year with running.

We thought we’d help out. Our guest on Running Around Charlotte today is Dr. Karan Shukla, a Family and Sports Medicine Physician at Novant Health Randolph Family Medicine. He is a GREAT resource for us about the science behind running and our continued good health.

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!