Running for the Love of It

Chacho Valadez 0:08
Hello, hello, everyone. Welcome to Running in Public. This is the weekly podcast that empowers you to build your running routine while also making strides in your career. I’m your host, Chacho Valadez, and this is my first ever podcast. I’m so so happy about it. In each episode, I sit down with a startup founder, operator, or leader to talk about their experience of running while they also build and run their companies. You’ll walk away feeling empowered to run your next mile while also making strides in your career. And honestly, we support any form of movement on the podcast that suits your lifestyle. So whether you like to run, walk, bike, or swim or whatever it might be, we’re all in this together.

Running in Public is sponsored by Arlan Hamilton’s new recruiting and retention startup Runner, a really cool name, if I say so myself, and totally coincidental on both our parts. Are you an entrepreneur who wishes there was more time in the day? Have you ever said, “I wish I could clone myself?” Then Runner is for you. If you find yourself spending more time scheduling, researching, and fielding emails than talking to your customers, strategizing, and resting, Runner could be a game-changer for you. Get matched with fractional and temp to hire operations talent who want to work at your inclusive startup. Fast-growing, larger companies are using Runner to hire dozens of operations talent at a time. Runner is a head of recruiting’s best friend. Interested in learning more or becoming a runner yourself? Apply at hirerunner.co. That’s hire runner.co.

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Running in Public. I’m really excited to have you here. Today I’m joined by Megan who’s the CEO and co-founder of Lumineye, a Y Combinator hardware company that builds wall-penetrating radar devices to help first responders identify people and threats through walls.

Megan has been an avid runner since she was about eight years old and competed for Stanford and Boise State track and cross country teams. She’s also the secretary on the USA TF Mountain Trail executive committee, running track and road at an elite level, and recently made her first world champion team for mountain running.

Megan told me ahead of our call that she actually qualified for the Olympic trials during Y-Combinator so I’m really thrilled to talk about that as well. So welcome, Megan, to the show. Really accomplished background and running. Like, I’m just trying to beat a 10-minute mile.

Megan Lacy 2:46
Thanks for having me.

Chacho Valadez 2:48
I’d love to talk a little bit more about yourself. Where’d you grow up? And how did you get started running along the way?

Megan Lacy 2:56
I grew up in a suburb outside of Philadelphia called Marlton, New Jersey. And I kind of always was an athlete, I think since I was about seven or eight years old. When I was five, I actually started playing soccer and I was a really bad athlete. So it was kind of surprising. But when I was seven, eight, my life started to kind of revolve around athletics. And I started with soccer. And then I played softball, and I actually really didn’t like it. I was not very good at hitting at all. But I did like running around the bases. So my mom signed me up for track and basically that I stuck with it. I loved it since that moment. So I really liked it too, because I’ve always been really big on I think gender equality even before I realized that and I liked it because at that age I actually could beat the boys and that was very satisfying to me. That’s how I got started.

Chacho Valadez 3:51
Do you remember that first race you ran as a kid?

Megan Lacy 3:56
I don’t remember the first race but I remember my first season there was a specific race. And I was doing some local races I was wearing like these Skechers hiking boots basically like running around the track. And my coach said, I think you can go to the Junior Olympics. And I was like, I’m not that good at this. And I just like I ended up going through and qualifying to Junior Olympics. And I think I came in fourth as an eight-year-old and then I decided, okay, well maybe I should get some running shoes now. And I started doing it from then. So I kind of remember that moment where I realized that this was something for me like I love doing it. But then after that I was pretty good at it. So that was pretty cool.

Chacho Valadez 4:39
That’s cool. What attracted you to it as a young kid? Because you think about as a kid, most kids see it as a punishment when they’re running sprints for soccer or basketball or softball. So what is it that attracted you at such a young age?

Megan Lacy 4:57
Yeah, that’s a good question. I think I think it was partially that I just loved doing, I just had this innate need to do things and running, you can really tire yourself out. So I probably had some sort of sense of feeling of accomplishment. They’re like, I ran four miles today or I ran, I beat my best time. And so I think I’m pretty competitive innately. And I liked that you could actually see tangible results and compare them to your past performances and other people. Whereas in other sports, you know, it’s kind of hard to I played soccer, too. And it’s hard to kind of quantify, like, how good of the player you are and stuff. So I think, as a very analytical person, I was kind of driven towards the data of being able to tell that I was getting better at what I was doing.

Chacho Valadez 5:48
That’s cool. I mean, really interesting. Why do you run today?

Megan Lacy 5:53
Today, I have a much different relationship with running. I just love running, I think it is, I mean, I just feel so grateful to be able to run even just generally I run because I love challenging myself, I actually think it’s a great way to socialize as an adult, it’s harder to make friends, once you’re out of college and, and it’s harder to keep in touch with those friends. And so I have a great community around me, which is, is probably my number one reason at this point. And then I also love it because it creates some structure in my life. And I think that’s really important is like a startup founder or really anybody that works a lot of hours or even during the pandemic, where there was kind of this blend between work and home. And I just think it provides that structure and then well-being too. I love that. If I want to go on a really long hike. Even if I haven’t really been training for hiking, I can probably do it because I’m generally physically fit.

Chacho Valadez 6:56
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It’s important to tease out that you’ve been running for almost 20 years or more and to have that endurance for one thing for that long is really impressive. And yeah, I guess I’m just curious if the motivations change over or— I don’t know if motivation is the right word, but what keeps you going after doing something for so long?

Megan Lacy 7:27
The motivation for me actually totally did change, because I think I almost, it was great to be so good as a little kid. But that put a lot of pressure on me, I remember being known as the fast kid that was going to go to the Olympics like that was like this. And I don’t think people meant to put that pressure on me. I kind of put it on myself, too. And so I think I actually had an unhealthy relationship with running for a while, where it was very, I must achieve these things. Because I’m born to do this, I have to do this. And ironically, I really got, I didn’t have a great college career. And I got injured pretty significantly. And I broke my back twice at Stanford. I basically realized, in that time that I took away from the sport, how much I loved it and also that I wanted to do it. I made that conscious decision that I wanted to run regardless of if I ever became an Olympian. And I would say ironically, I’m much closer. I’m still far from being an Olympian, but I’m much closer to being an Olympian. Now I just do it for the love of it than I was when I was actually doing it because I wanted to be an Olympian.

Chacho Valadez 8:38
Yeah. Well, sorry, you broke your back. That’s terrible. I’m glad you’re a decade better and back to running. Can we talk a little bit about qualifying for the Olympic trials, which you’ve done? Well, for those who don’t know, what are the Olympic trials? And what does it take to qualify for them?

Megan Lacy 9:00
The Olympic trials has both marathon Olympic trials and they have track Olympic trials. And so I qualified for the marathon Olympic trials. And in 2020, when I qualified that took running a 245 marathon or lower on a certified course, somewhere in the world, so it can’t be like a totally downhill course or something like that. So I ran my first marathon in 239. And that’s how I qualified for the Olympic trials. And then to track Olympic trials, they are a little bit harder to qualify for. Depending on the event, they take anywhere from 24 to 32 athletes, and that’s there’s a time standard, and that’s like a descending order list. So my goal is in 2024, to qualify for both of them.

Chacho Valadez 9:47
Oh, cool. What’s your running routine look like today in preparations for qualifying?

Megan Lacy 9:55
So I run 70 to 80 miles a week, and I run probably About seven to nine times per week. So I run multiple times a day Sundays, and I take one full rest day. So I take every Monday off, which I really like because I get the rest that my body needs, but then also I get to work really long day. And that kind of sets me up for success for the rest of the week. And then I do harder workouts Wednesday, Saturday. So that works a little bit better with my work schedule. So I can do one of my harder workouts on a weekend day, and then I do a long run on Sunday.

Chacho Valadez 10:31
Very cool. Do you do any cross-training?

Megan Lacy 10:34
I actually don’t cross-train. I do a lot of physical therapy and strength right now. So cross-training is something I would do probably by didn’t work as much as I do. But I find that I resent it when I do it right now. And it’s not necessarily worth it for me, I’d rather get the extra miles in because a lot of my competitors run 20 to 40 miles more per week than me. So I just focus on mileage.

Chacho Valadez 10:58
Got it. When you run those miles, are you running them primarily at an easy pace, fast pace, a mix of everything in between? What does that look like?

Megan Lacy 11:10
I actually like to say that the faster I get, the slower I run because it’s actually pretty true. Wednesday and Saturdays are pretty fast. Those are normally structured workouts for me. And the other days I run easy. So some days I run really, really easy, which for, for me, that would be like a 10-minute mile pace or so. And that’s about five minutes slower than I would reach that per mile. And so I really don’t worry about pace on the other days. And that I think also helps me have a healthier relationship with the sport because there’s really only two days that I have to really, really push myself.

Chacho Valadez 11:51
That’s really impressive considering that you’re basically doubling the amount of time you’re spending per mile on runs. I’ve tried to do really slow runs before and it’s actually really difficult. What’s your mindset going into those slow runs in terms of how it’s easy to get caught up in a podcast or an audiobook and then you look down and you’re like, oh, I’m running way too fast right now. How do you control that for yourself?

Megan Lacy 12:22
On those really easy runs where I try and do that, I communicate with the people that I’m running with that I’m planning on running that pace and I typically try not to I love running with music. But typically if I’m really, really trying to go easy, I try to either not listen to music or be intentional that I’m not listening to my awesome EDM playlist or something. But I’m listening to something that probably won’t pump me up intentionally, just so that I don’t start sprinting. I still have to sometimes catch myself like on Sunday, I needed a really, really easy recovery day. And then I started thinking about how I was going to make the Olympic trials and it was going to be great on my downhill and I started running really fast. And I had to tell myself like, Okay, if you want to make the Olympic trials, you’re gonna have to slow down because otherwise you’re gonna get injured.

Chacho Valadez 13:11
Right, yeah. And I think running slow prevents injury and also makes you faster over time, which is very counterintuitive. For whatever reason, it does. Do you like EDM?

Megan Lacy 13:25
Yeah, I do.

Chacho Valadez 13:27
I’m a big fan.

Megan Lacy 13:28
I love running to like EDM beat drops. That’s like my favorite thing.

Chacho Valadez 13:32
Awesome. Yeah, that’s cool. I’ll definitely have to get some recommendations from you. What factor does nutrition play into running? I’m asking this selfishly because last year I was trying to train for a 50K ultra. It’s 31 miles, for those who don’t know. I went on a 23-mile long run and I just got completely wrecked. I had terrible runner’s gut, I was super nauseous, really bad abdominal pain, and all this stuff. I thought I was taking in the proper calories but ended up I wasn’t and it really kind of threw me for a loop. Trying to eat the proper amount of calories while running that far is actually really difficult. And so yeah, how do you think about nutrition, especially on those long runs?

Megan Lacy 14:25
I would say, first of all, nutrition is different for everyone. Like I know some really good marathoners that just bust out a 20-mile long run without any calories. And that’s wild. I don’t know how they do it. But yeah, I have a friend that like is a really good marathoner, and he just takes like one swig of like a gel and juice in the middle of the marathon and that’s it. I’m not like that. I need fuel I try and fuel before I feel hungry. And I think that that that helps a lot. So if you’re going to go for like a two to three hour or even four-hour effort, you should start fueling a lot sooner than when you actually feel like you need to. Because by the time you feel hungry in a run, it’s kind of too late. And you’re, you’re already working from a bad spot. So I normally eat my first gel around 30 minutes if I’m running really far. This is like a plug for product. I actually really like human gels. They are really natural tasting. And they kind of just taste like concentrated applesauce. And I noticed that those that are a little bit better in my stomach because they just they don’t all these types of sugars that I normally don’t eat in my diet. And I agree that sometimes like when you have artificial stuff that you’re putting in your stomach when you’re stressing your body that you normally don’t put in your stomach, I think that sometimes causes some of the runner’s gut as well. And then something that helps to is actually salt. So there’s like salt tablets. And I’ve, I’ve noticed I kind of thought it was crazy at first, but I did it. I’ve done some trail racing now snd some of the ultra runners were like, “You got to get salt tablets,” and they help so much so I’d recommend those.

Chacho Valadez 16:10
Do you have a specific company that you buy them from? Or just like table salt?

Megan Lacy 16:16
I’ve had people just give me table salt on a run, but I do know that there are companies that have salt tablets. I don’t have a specific company that I know of.

Chacho Valadez 16:28
Got it. I use Tailwind Nutrition. It’s like a mix which is it’s really helpful, but I do need something extra. And I haven’t found a good gel that’s a very clean brand and natural, like you said, so I’ll definitely check that out. Thank you.

What’s something that people tend to miss about running that you find important? Like something that people cross over but to you stands out as particularly important?

Megan Lacy 17:01
One of the important things, especially as an adult running, is that it’s a lot more about finding your people and community and reaching goals together than it is about, oh, I’m just going to run really hard. And I’m kind of crazy. And I just do this because, you know, for some reason, I like pain. Like, I think a lot of people think that like, oh, I could never do that, and they probably could. And so that’s I think like a lot of people could surprise themselves, like a lot of people are capable of running a marathon. And it’s a lot more meaningful when you have that community— whether that’s in person, or it’s with just you and your coach having that accountability, or you have a network on Strava or another running app. I just think that it’s more about community than people even realize.

Chacho Valadez 17:50
Yeah, that’s a really good point. And that’s kind of something that I’m trying to do through the podcast is sort of build a community of people who work in tech, but are also runners. So I’m glad you pointed that out. What’s your favorite thing about running?

Megan Lacy 18:04
Yeah, I think my favorite thing is actually kind of related to the last thing I said, just the feeling that you get when either you or someone in your community reaches a goal. I was really a lone wolf in running for a really long time. And I felt kind of odd, I think in high school because I was like chasing these like big goals and like didn’t care as much about like the normal high school, things that most people care about. Something that has been incredibly surprising and meaningful is how cool it is for me to see someone finish their first 10K, even though I’ve run a lot of 10Ks in my life. Celebrating that joy with other people, that’s my favorite thing.

Chacho Valadez 18:50
That’s so true. There are folks who have listened to the podcast who said, Oh, I’ve run my first mile in part inspiration from the podcast, which is like, incredible, even people saying that they’re just going out and walking. I’m just like, that’s exactly like. So sort of what I want to do is just inspire people to move. It doesn’t seem to be running necessarily. So right now we’ll take a quick break to hear from our sponsor, hirerunner.co.

Hey, thanks for listening to this episode. Don’t forget to check out our sponsor, hirerunner.co for all your fractional and temp-to-hire operations talent needs. Now let’s get back into the show.

Welcome back, folks. Shifting gears a little bit, what was your experience qualifying for the Olympics while at YC? And for those who don’t maybe aren’t as familiar, can you explain a little bit of what Y Combinator is as well?

Megan Lacy 19:47
Yeah, so I’ll just say qualifying for the Olympic trials because I did not qualify.

Chacho Valadez 19:51
Yeah, that’s what I meant.

Megan Lacy 19:52
I just wanted to clarify, and then YC is Y Combinator. It’s a startup accelerator. Basically it’s an immersive program. At least pre-COVID, you would go to San Francisco for three months, they would give you an amount of 100— Well, I think it’s a little bit more now, but it was $150,000 when I was in Y Combinator, and basically go down there. And it’s totally immersive. You’re there with a bunch of other startup founders. And you’re basically focused on growing your company. And then you go to Demo Day After three months, and then you pitch in front of a bunch of investors, and then kind of start your journey as a venture-funded startup founder.

Chacho Valadez 20:36
That’s cool. And you said that you were qualified for the Olympic trials while at YC so you were balancing a lot of things at the same time. What was that experience like for you?

Megan Lacy 20:48
Stressful but rewarding, I would say. So I actually took a little bit of a break from running to focus on my startup. And that did not work out super well. For me, it kind of felt like I lost a part of myself, I felt like I lost my structure and balance in my life, and I bootstrapped for about two years. And when I say Bootstrap, we really I mean, building it through all sensors hard. So we didn’t really have any customers. And we were really bootstrapping, like getting by the skin of our teeth. I’m glad Boise rent wasn’t high yet, because we wouldn’t have been able to do it in 2022. And that started kind of causing some mental health issues for me. And so I decided to make the goal of qualifying for the Olympic trials, just to kind of distract myself and give myself something else to work towards on a day-to-day basis. And so it just so happened that as soon as I started trading again, then we started getting some traction. And then we got accepted into Y Combinator. And my goal race was in June and Y Combinator started in May. And I was almost done by training. And I was trading at a level I had never really thought I’d get back to since I hadn’t done a best time and about five to seven years by that point. And I was in shape to do bath time. And I just decided that I couldn’t give it up like selfishly like for myself, I couldn’t, I would resent Y Combinator and my company if I decided not to continue the training cycle when I knew that I could achieve this lifelong dream of mine. So I just decided to balance it. But I’m very glad that the marathon was in the beginning of YC. Because I don’t know if I could have done it if it was in August or September. Because it was a really hard month. I was working a lot of hours not sleeping too much. I actually ran about five minutes slower than I thought I would. And so I was pretty grateful that I had some buffer between me and the time standard. So I’m glad I did it. But I don’t know if I do it again.

Chacho Valadez 22:58
Yeah, that’s a lot to balance for sure. What was the most difficult part about balancing that and then being a startup founder going through YC?

Megan Lacy 23:11
At first it was the guilt that I felt that I was pursuing something else. In startup culture, a lot of times, you’re told that you need to work a hundred hours a week and you need to only care about the startup and I think that that’s something that, you know, I still need people that think it’s kind of weird how much effort I put into running. I am a runner and that is something that I can’t shake. I’m the happiest when I’m doing that and if I’m happy, then I’m going to perform a lot better as a founder or an employee or really anything. And so I think working through that guilt was probably the hardest part for me and then being confident like, yes, I know that maybe this means I work fewer hours, but I make up for that in the way that I feel when I work and the focus that I have when I work. And so really just breaking that down and being okay with saying I run 80 miles a week and I won’t stop doing that.

Chacho Valadez 24:15
Oh, totally, just full-on embracing it. That’s the same thing I felt in terms of when you’re training for something. And you have to run like long runs during the week and stuff. And it takes away time from work, especially like in the morning or whenever you run. And you do feel that guilt that’s like, Am I doing enough of my like for your role like for me at a venture fund and that guilt is something that adds so much stress. And I think you hit the nail on the head in terms of like it makes you even better for like the position that you’re in at the time. And that’s sort of the I almost feel like kind of internalized like well this is kind of part of my job description, to make sure I’m the best I can be for my work. And there’s a whole nother conversation to be had about, like, his work everything in life, which is not. But yeah, it’s interesting because you’re, you’re balancing this sort of lifelong goal. But then also something that’s like you really want to build in terms and create in the world and create good with your this company and that’s really cool and amazing that you were able to get through that and feet and navigate it and get through it because that’s really, really hard for sure.

Megan Lacy 25:34
Thank you.

Chacho Valadez 25:36
Absolutely. So would you consider running as part of your role as a founder? Kind of going back off of that?

Megan Lacy 25:48
I’m not sure, really. It’s part of me at like a deep level. And I also think being a founder, I think that the same part that makes me a really serious athlete is also what makes me a founder. It’s like the team stuff that I am so competitive, and I love to build things and, and work hard at things. And so I would say like, right now, it’s probably not part of Lumineye. Because the topics are so different, and through all sensing versus running. But I do think that they go really well together. And I try and as a leader of the company, try and encourage our employees to get active and embrace that. And I know that some of them even need for some runs, and I posted some runs where they’ve met so it does kind of blend a little bit. And then something I think’s interesting too, is I think sometimes when we’re working, especially with like military and first responders, I haven’t been in either one of those situations. And so sometimes it helps with my credibility that I can run really far, because they at least know that I know some of the pain that is entailed in some of those physical things that they do, despite not having that background.

Chacho Valadez 27:05
Totally. So last question here before the quickfire round, and you’ve touched on this a little bit, but how does running affect your role as a founder?

Megan Lacy 27:17
The hardest thing for me is knowing when to sacrifice my running for the company, and doing that in a way that I’m not going to resent my decision. And I think this is actually become harder for me in the last two years, because I used to say, when I was in Y Combinator and stuff, I want to be the fastest startup founder. And I’m kind of getting to the point, my running career where I’m really fortunate, and my coach now has pushed me like to think more, I want to be the fastest in the world. Like I mean, I don’t know if I’ll actually get to that type of level. But I want to be really fast. Like for even a Pro Runner. I’m not really labeling myself in that. And so I think that the hardest part right now is balancing that because I go to these races. And I run against a lot of professional athletes, or a lot of women that are focused mostly on running and maybe they have like a side job to support them. And kind of balancing and recognizing like, I want to do both of these things. And I love doing both of these things. And this is who I am. And I’m not going to resent running for making it sometimes a little bit harder to balance all the Lumineye stuff. And I’m not going to resent Lumineye for maybe making it a little bit harder to focus on some of my running dreams. So I think that’s the biggest challenge I’ve been faced with. And I’m grateful that I’m faced with that right now.

Chacho Valadez 28:51
Well, we’re wishing you the best of luck. And we’ll be cheering for you along the way. And so we’ll get into the rapid-fire questions, and they’re supposed to be rapid-fire take all the time you need honestly, they can be really interesting side conversations. But if you had to recommend one book to your younger self, what would it be?

Megan Lacy 29:14
Yeah, this one’s hard for me because, to be honest, I’m not a huge reader at this point in my life. I’m more of a podcast person.

Chacho Valadez 29:22
Okay, so if it’s a maybe podcast.

Megan Lacy 29:25
I do have a book though.

Chacho Valadez 29:26
Okay, cool.

Megan Lacy 29:27
I have a book, but I read it a few years ago, but I think it’s a really good, it’s called mindset. And a lot of people, I think have read it, but it’s really about the fixed versus growth mindset. And I just think it’s so applicable to like anything you’re doing in your life. And that’s something that I’ve really tried to embrace. It’s just being a work in progress and always trying to find things that you can improve in what you’re doing, instead of kind of just accepting how they are.

Chacho Valadez 29:57
Totally, that’s definitely one of mine to recommend. I love that book. It’s great. What was your dream job as a kid?

Megan Lacy 30:07
My dream job when I was little was that I wanted to be everything. I have a distinctive and distinct memory of one of the back-to-school nights be to draw pictures for our parents. And I think I drew myself in a suit in front of the White House, because of course, I was the first female president. And I was wearing a gold medal because I was an Olympic gold medalist and I had an astronaut helmet on. And that is kind of, I didn’t realize that’s kind of what I’ve been doing. Like, and obviously not doing anything that crazy in my career. But that’s kind of once I realized that that’s kind of how I prefer doing things was really when my mindset shift kind of focused. Or switched, I would say to like, not feeling as guilty about running because like, that’s how I’m wired. I have to do multiple things or else I don’t really feel fully fulfilled.

Chacho Valadez 30:59
That’s really cool, and I love that drawback.

Megan Lacy 31:03
I wish I could find it. I know my mom has a picture of it somewhere.

Chacho Valadez 31:06
Yeah, that’s cool. What was your first job?

Megan Lacy 31:10
I was a lifeguard and swim instructor. I swam, actually, since I was four until 18 as well, so lots of swim lessons.

Chacho Valadez 31:18
Nice. Fill in the blank. Running is blank.

Megan Lacy 31:25
The first word that comes to mind is freedom. Actually, I love it. I just think it’s so freeing. And there’s nothing better than being in like, the trails.

Chacho Valadez 31:34
I love that. If you had to listen to one song and repeat for an hour-long run, what would it be?

Megan Lacy 31:45
There’s only one artist that I’m really like I feel like I’m obsessed with. And that’s 21 pilots, and I have loved them since they came out. And so one of my favorite running songs is Tree by 21 Pilots. It’s one of their earlier songs, and it’s a great downhill trail running song.

Chacho Valadez 32:01
I’m definitely gonna check it out.

Megan Lacy 32:03
It’s really good.

Chacho Valadez 32:06
What’s your go to running app?

Megan Lacy 32:08
Strava. I love Strava.

Chacho Valadez 32:10
Awesome. Last one here. What’s your favorite thing about yourself? And why?

Megan Lacy 32:16
Yeah, I think that my favorite thing about myself is that I like to push barriers when appropriate. I think this can also be my downfall. But I think that that I like to kind of challenge like the why not like Why Why can’t say, have a startup and run at an almost professional level. And then also the other big example my life and you can’t probably tell right now and people can’t see but I have like bright purple hair. And I work with the military and tie kind of like that. Like, I really want to dye my hair purple, though I just, that’s really cool. Why not? Like, if my product works. It’s not a big deal. And so I think that’s one of my biggest things. And then I think something that’s becoming more important to me that I’m trying to get a lot better about is, even though I’m so achievement-driven, I’m think I’m getting better and better at like recognizing that at the end of the day, like the relationships and the community and like things that relate to the one on one relationships that I have with other people are by far much more important than like running a startup or being the fastest person in the world. So I think I think that’s something I’m proud of myself for kind of focusing on more in my life.

Chacho Valadez 33:32
I love that. Thanks so much. Where can people follow on your journey?

Megan Lacy 33:37
I have LinkedIn for work stuff, so I’m on LinkedIn for that. For running things, I actually mostly focus on Instagram so you can find me on Instagram @LeganMacy. That’s basically the first two letters of my name flipped and that was my nickname in college. I post actually weekly workout summary there and I try and give some tips for new runners. And then I’m trying to get on that TikTok as well so I’m also on TikTok now. It’s MeganLacyRuns. Then I also am on Strava and I post all of my training on Strava. I actually use it as a training log. I like to be really open about my training because I think more serious athletes should do that to kind of show people how to do it themselves.

Chacho Valadez 34:25
Very cool. Well, thanks so much, Megan. This was an awesome conversation. I learned a lot. And I’m ready to implement some of your tips into my runs as well.

Megan Lacy 34:35
Awesome. Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Chacho Valadez 34:37
Thanks so much for listening to this episode. I really hope you enjoyed it. If you have a chance, please leave us a review and let us know what you liked about the show, and if you want to follow along with future episodes, go to your favorite podcast platform and hit the subscribe button, or you can also go to runninginpublic.co where we’ll be updating the website regularly. I’ll catch you on the flippety-flip.