It is always an honor and a pleasure to have an elite marathoner with us on Running Around Charlotte, and today is that day – as we welcome Charlotte’s ONLY female Olympic Trials Marathon Qualifier to our podcast.

Paula Pridgen picked up running at a late age, by most standards… AFTER college. She has now run in not only Olympic Trials, but Boston and New York, and the upcoming elites-only Project Marathon in December in Arizona. Welcome Paula!

We know a marathon is a long run. We know training for a marathon involves a LOT of long runs. But in this era of canceled races, one man came up with a solution that went beyond virtual… to REALLY go the distance.

Joshua Miller turned his annual St. Jude Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon — which was canceled — into a 410-mile trek through the North Carolina mountains on his way from Charlotte to Nashville. He ran, he cycled, and most importantly, he raised money for St. Jude while his wife and kids followed along in an RV. And he’s here today on Running Around Charlotte to tell us more about his amazing trek.

IThe Turkey Trot is one of Charlotte runners’ oldest Thanksgiving Traditions. For the past 31 years, up to 10-thousand runners have gathered behind SouthPark Mall on Thanksgiving Morning to run a 5k or Fun Run with the whole family.

Well, we know we can’t do that this year — but the 32nd Annual Turkey Trot is still alive and well… in your neighborhood, or along your favorite route. And there’s one other change this year — a new tradition — in that your registration will support a charity in Charlotte. This year’s Virtual Turkey Trot will help us reach our goal of providing shoes for 500 Charlotte-area children through Samaritan’s Feet. Great organization, and co-founder Tracie Ohonme is here with us today to share what they’re all about.

If you’re a triathlete who didn’t spend a good amount of time on a swim team as a kid — summer league or year-round — you probably dread the swimming part of the triathlon. Well you don’t have to! There are programs around Charlotte that will help you gear up for that short but important part of your Tri…. or just give you a great activity to work out your running cramps and work your overall muscle tone, flexibility, and aerobic conditioning.

Doug Miller runs Miller Swimming just for folks like you — runners and triathletes who need to work on their swimming technique and endurance. He’s also the director of the Charlotte Open Water Championships… just in case you prefer to do something besides swim when you hit the lake.

Our Novant Health Charlotte Marathon Ambassadors LOVE running. They to run, and love to talk about running. And sometimes, running tells a story about THEM. That’s the case for our next guest on Running Around Charlotte, marathon Ambassador Judy Caswell.

Do you love winter? The feel of a brisk wind in your face? The sound of snow and ice crunching under your boots? Yes? Well, our next guest can multiply that by the thousands. Pete Ripmaster ran the Iditarod Trail foot race, a thousand-mile trek across the great wilderness of Alaska in February of 2018. No, he didn’t ride a sled pulled by dogs — that’s a different Iditarod race. This one was all Pete vs. the wilderness. And he not only survived, he won! And he lived to tell about it — right now, on Running Around Charlotte.

Let’s check in with another one of our Novant Health Charlotte Marathon ambassadors — and this one, can give some valuable advice and motivation to those of you who’ve ever had an injury and needed to take some time off. Lissa Nypaver is used to running a LOT of races — at least one a month… or 2… or 3… but like we all know, a lot of races this year were cancelled or run virtually. And then on top of it all.. ow, knee surgery. She joins us now on Running Around Charlotte to give us an update on her year.

Our partnership with Novant Health is a great one. Novant keeps the marathon rolling with health and wellness, and all money raised by the marathon is used to support programs at Hemby Children’s Hospital. In fact, in the last few years, the Novant Health Charlotte Marathon has donated more than $200,000 dollars to Hemby because of our runners’ enthusiastic support.

So it’s with great joy that we welcome Amy McKinney and Jessica Osborn from Novant Health Foundation to the Running Around Charlotte podcast.

Here’s a virtual race you want to be a part of — one in which a donation gets you a free pizza! And not just any pizza, but a Brixx Wood Fired Pizza. Yum. We’re talking about the Hit the Brixx 10k/5k Run/Walk. Coming in October, it’s part of the RunCharlotte 6-pack series and this year, it’s virtual – so this year’s race is actually called, Hit *Your* Bricks. It benefits a very important nonprofit in our community — the Kids Path Pediatric Hospice Program.

We’re honored to Have Pete Brunnick, President & CEO of Hospice & Palliative Care of the Charlotte Region, and Jenna Wise, Marketing Director at Brixx Wood Fired Pizza on the Running Around Charlotte Podcast to tell us all about it.

We all know training for a marathon involves a lot of running, but what else should you be doing in your workouts to get the best performance? We’re asking that question to Will Hayes, a sports performance manager at Novant Health Sports Performance in Huntersville.