EP 006 Christi Beth Adams

Tom Regal: 0:01

Hey, Kenny.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:02

Hey Tom, how are you?

Tom Regal: 0:03

I'm great. How are you today?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:04

I am doing well. And the reason why is we have our sponsor AFTERSHOKZ for this episode, super excited to have AFTERSHOKZ on because what we're talking about is safety and be able to have situational awareness and AFTERSHOKZ makes headphones that are wireless headphones that use bone conduction.

Tom Regal: 0:20

Yes, so bone conduction is not in your ear, it's actually vibrations that go through your cheekbones. And that gives you that that situational awareness and still spatial ability to know where you're at and hear the things around you.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:33

Yeah, and I use headphones quite a bit on my training. I did a long training yesterday. Normally I would have headphones in my ear or in one ear, gets uncomfortable after a while. I tried the AFTERSHOKZ on a long training session yesterday. First thing you notice is how lightweight they are. Second thing you notice is how comfortable they are right on your cheekbone. I was able to fit it underneath a cycling helmet. And the music sounded great. I was able to listen to music and still hear traffic and still hear the things around me.

Tom Regal: 1:03

Yes, even at low levels it still sounds good.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:06

Went for a run afterwards. Didn't didn't even think about, they disappear, which is what you want in the headphones and my ears weren't fatigued afterwards. Impressed like crazy with these things.

Tom Regal: 1:17

Yeah, I hate having things in my ears for long periods of time. And I don't usually like headphones at all when I'm running on the street, especially because I want to know what things are around me. And this is the only pair that I've been able to actually keep the music going at a nice level and be situationally aware of everything around me, which is great.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:35

Yeah. What's cool is AFTERSHOKZ has multiple kinds of models. They have a model for running, they have a swim specific version, which is fantastic. And they also have it for your office. So I know people that use headphones a lot in the office and get a lot of fatigue. They have a model that that is great for folks that are spending all day on the phone, all day on zoom calls. So for those that are interested in AFTERSHOKZ, we encourage you to go to their website AFTERSHOKZ.com. It's A ERSHOKZ.com

Tom Regal: 2:04

Yeah, go check them out. They're great to have. And now let's get to the episode.

Narrator: 2:19

Welcome to the Athletes In Motion podcast from Race to Recovery. With your hosts Tom Regal and Kenny Bailey.

Tom Regal: 2:36

Hey, Kenny, how you doing today?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:37

I'm doing well. Tom, how are you?

Tom Regal: 2:39

Fantastic! Thank you.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:40

I'd like to introduce you to Christi Beth Adams, the owner and operator of Fleet Feet. Nashville.

Tom Regal: 2:44

Welcome.

Christi Beth Adams: 2:45

Thank you. Good morning.

Tom Regal: 2:46

Good morning.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:47

She also has a relatively new title, which is model for Lululemon. Recently, is splattered all over the Lululemon in, Is it, Where's it at Green Hills?

Christi Beth Adams: 2:57

At the Gulch, there's a new store in the Gulch. So I'm an ambassador, which which feels very awkward, but they said they wanted me so I said sure.

Tom Regal: 3:05

Ok! Excellent.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 3:07

And you're representing Well, thank you. So we like that. Yeah. So a couple things we want to talk about today, we want to talk about sort of specifically around women in sports and running. But before we get too far into that, maybe you can give us a little history about yourself. Have you been a runner your whole life? Is that something that.....

Christi Beth Adams: 3:25

I've been a runner for a little bit? So yes, you know, we have a lot of people that come into the store. And first words out of their mouth is I'm not a runner. But I'm the opposite of that. It's really hard for me to remember a time before running. So it's an identity that I've had for a really long time since, fourth grade started running competitively, influenced by an older brother who was running competitively and you know, when you get dragged to all the meets, you start to say, Oh, well maybe I want to try this. So he was a great influence on me and had the opportunity to run division one cross country and track at Belmont and then stay on as an assistant coach with both the girls cross country and track teams and later on had the opportunity to work and then path to ownership of now three running stores here in town. So yes, running is a is a big part of who I am. And I'm so grateful for the sport for everything it's given me.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 4:20

What is your favorite distance then? And what's your favorite distance now?

Christi Beth Adams: 4:24

Oh, great question. So I loved in high school, my thing was a 3200 which was very boring. It was towards the end of meets and everybody would leave and when they would go to the concession stands and you know is that like a ghost town? And then I wasn't I wasn't great at 1500 meters but that was a really cool I came to love that distance in college. It's just your it's so there's so much strategy and talent like you're just on, every lap. You have to be. So I think that's a really fun one that I still enjoy watching. Now, I would say half marathon. Half marathon distance is a distance that I don't really have to train for. I can go out though, you know, I can I can get it done and not be in pain. I've done obviously a handful of marathons, Boston, Chicago, New York, those were all great experiences, but there's just a lot of peer pressure to get me to do a marathon. So when I was like, Wait a second, why am I doing this? I dropped down to half marathon.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 5:33

Yeah, I mean, marathons You can't hide, right? Those are the things where you can kind of train for half marathon, if you miss a couple of sessions, great. You're still gonna get through it, but a marathon at mile 19, mile 20? You're going to know whether or not.....

Christi Beth Adams: 5:45

Yes, yes, and this is not a specific plug for what you do. Because I tell people this all the time, I actually think the biggest difference between training for a half and a full is you have to pay attention to recovery. And and some people do at the half marathon distance as well, it depends on your fitness level. But that is something that when somebody moves to the marathon, I'm like that, those are the things those are the things you have to do is just like that training run on your calendar, you have to make recovery a part of the process, or you're not even going to get to race day. Your body's just, you know, it's a lot, it's a lot to train for.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:22

Absolutely.

Tom Regal: 6:23

Miles add up on that. It really, really beats the body up a little bit more.

Christi Beth Adams: 6:26

It does.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:28

So one of the things that we're trying to break is this myth, the idea of the athlete has to be a person that's going to line up to a half marathon or to a marathon or grew up as an athlete like you have. Obviously, you have a lot, a wide variety of people to come into your store. What do you how do you try to break that myth? Or is that something that you see first off, is it something you see is a myth? And if it does, like, Well, I'm not an athlete, so I don't deserve these shoes. We get that a lot here. Like I don't know if I earned it. Do you? Do you see that? Or do you........

Christi Beth Adams: 6:56

All the time, you see it all the time. And and that is, it's very common. I don't believe it. But yes, it is a commonly held ideal and and I think it starts on the playground when we're young. You know, you're either that kid that was able to do that lap around the playground or baseball field, whatever your PE teacher made you do you know, you either love PE or you hated PE and you very early on classify yourself as a as an athlete or not. And I'm a big believer, I think it's a Bill Bowerman quote, if you have a body, you're an athlete, and so I think we just, it's one of my, if I had one quote, it's it's that, because people don't realize that we move our body every day. And we are built, I believe, to be athletes, you know, I always go back to the the, the primal things our bodies did, which was, you know, migrate and cover large, you know, expanses of land to hunt or gather and, and so I'm just like, I just believe it's what we were biologically created to do is be athletes. And so people just have to figure out what that means for them. Like, what do they love? Do they love cycling? Do they love dancing? Is it yoga? Is it running? Like, my goal isn't necessarily to make everybody a runner? I, I think everybody could be if they wanted it. And, and it does take several weeks, like you don't go out day one and get that elusive. runner's high. I'm like, No, no, no, it does not happen that way. So if you're expecting it, you're automatically going to be like, well, it's not for me. So yes, e see a lot of that as peopl saying, you know, I'm not an at lete. And I'm like, Oh, no, y u are, you know, you admit the i sue is, is the mental piece right, like your body is? You j st have to come to that concl sion.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 8:47

Yeah. And I think it's, it's almost more exciting. You get people that like, hey, I've never run a half marathon, but they're runners, right? Like, Hey, I'm gonna try the half marathon distance. Sometimes the more exciting ones is the folks that are on the couch that think that they just can't do anything. Or like, I just don't have the ability to do stuff and they get their first 5k or they get their first 10k. That to me is like,

Christi Beth Adams: 9:05

It's the best.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:06

that's the best, right? Because it's, you see that you see someone now taking an active role in their lifestyle versus just, you know, no, again, I mean, if I my first marathon, I worked my ass off and hurt like crazy when I got done and I felt accomplished. But that accomplishment is, to me is is great. It is the accomplishment for somebody to be able to move in that didn't think they could or do that. That's the fun thing.

Christi Beth Adams: 9:31

Again, it's it's an identity shift. Yes. It's not the distance that makes them again, it could be from couch to 5k or someone who's gone from half to full marathon, it's, that's not the qualifier. It's It's when between their ears, they make that shift that they can, when they thought I can't.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:50

Yes. So with what we're seeing is a rise in more women in marathons as well or in racing. I believe the last last study showed that half marathons are now attended more by women than they are by men by the we tip that kind of right into that. What do you think that rises? is occurring? What what happened over the last few years that, that that's becoming a thing?

Christi Beth Adams: 10:12

Yeah, I'd be interesting to see like what year that happened. I mean, obviously, it's, it's, I tell people all the time, especially running specialty. I remember running stores when I was young, it was very male dominated as far as ownership of running stores. You know, we would joke that you walk into a store, and you'd see a guy in Split shorts, talking about his 10k PR, you know, that's maybe not the type of environment that's that's super welcoming to female customer base or beginner customer base. And so, I don't know, I'm sure you know, just the evolution of women's rights, you know, that that probably went into a lot of different categories. I mean, you see the women that were jumping into marathons. When, you know, frankly, people thought, Oh, no, you cannot run a marathon, your uterus is gonna fall out. You say something like that in jest, but you're like, holy shit, people actually told women that! Are you kidding me? Yeah. So thankfully, you know, science and and things continue to evolve and we learn things about the body. And But yeah, I would say women are just more empowered and and then and we have to see representation. So it's something that grows exponentially. So you see women doing half and full marathons, and then you say, oh, okay, well, she can do it, I can do it. So I think you will just always going to see this exponential growth, because the representation is there. And again, when when I was a young runner, two athletes that were my mentors, or they weren't active mentors, because I didn't know them, but they were the guys on all the posters and in Runner's World, it was two male athletes, you know, Bob Kennedy and Todd Williams. And so I think now there are so many incredible women over the past few years, Des Linden and Shalane Flanagan, all these women who are just bad ass runners, you get to know a little bit about their personality. And and women are just like, yeah, I want to I want to get out there and get after it. Just like these other women.

Tom Regal: 12:16

Yeah. You're totally inspired by your environment, what you see. What you see on TV or what you now that we have access to media and things a lot quicker. We get to see those amazing stars that will actually change your your mindset and hopefully inspire you.

Christi Beth Adams: 12:30

Yes. You see yourself out there. Just like them.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 12:32

Yeah and in the Ironman scene. I mean, if you look at Miranda Carfrae, who I look, every time that woman runs. She's one of the fastest marathon runners out there, men or women doesn't matter. And her run form is absolutely beautiful. Beautiful. It's ridiculously good. Yeah. Right. And I'm looking at her going. I want that. To run a little bit like, I want three steps like that. That's all I want.

Tom Regal: 12:55

Yeah, And the ultra runners for the women are really, really kicking butt. They're out there, winning the overall.

Christi Beth Adams: 13:04

Pain threshold! (laughs) That's all I'm going to say! They have a very high pain threshold.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:09

Raise your hand if you've pushed a kid out.......

Christi Beth Adams: 13:11

Yep, yep, a couple of those. Yeah, just endurance. And that has been really exciting to see as the women in the in the ultra space. Man they're beasts. I love it.

Tom Regal: 13:21

They're amazing.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:22

Well, I think there's also I know, when Lori and I were in Northern California, we did part of the Philippi group there. And there was very much a better, a rise in a socialization to a running where it became a social group as well.

Christi Beth Adams: 13:35

Right,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:35

which I think is has been kind of a major factor in it. She showed up obviously, to run to get better, but it was also it was also designed really around. Hey, I'm gonna meet my friends there. We're gonna we're gonna have a good run. We're gonna go afterwards. Do you see that kind of group?

Christi Beth Adams: 13:51

Yeah, I'm so glad you said that. Because interestingly enough, I for me, for most of my running saw myself as a competitive runner. And I haven't raced or trained competitively the last few years. But it hit me I was like, wait, I think even when I was in high school, and in college, I was more of the social runner. I mean, I was good enough at it, you know, to compete, but if I think back on what need I was really fulfilling, it was the relationships I had with the other women on the team. And so that's where I am now. You know, again, like I said, I'm not trying to set any currently I'm not trying to send me personal records. Um, my marathon PR is, was pre babies. And so I keep saying, I really want my marathon to PR to be after my two kids, like I just want to prove to myself and others that it can be done, but I'm also really lazy and I don't want to train hard right now! But it is the, I have a sweet friend who during the pandemic, she, my kids have been at home virtual schooling for the last year and so I've kind of been stuck at home and She has driven to my house nearly every Monday morning for the past year for us just to run a half mile block around my house since the kids are in there and they're young and and, and I just love it. It was just our time to talk. And yes, I was getting in five miles. But I there's there were times when I wasn't taking another step the whole rest of the week, you know, so it wasn't the five miles it was the time with Jen that I was looking for. So So yeah, it's it's that socializing, it's that venting. It's that emotional and mental and spiritual need that kind of checks all those boxes,

Tom Regal: 15:39

Therapy.

Christi Beth Adams: 15:39

It is therapy. I always say, running is therapy and therapy is also therapy. You can have both, but it is it's just an honestly, that is where I would wish more people would run is is just the benefits that that it brings, you know,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 15:57

Yeah. And I think the the market also responded to that because you had the Nike women's half marathon in San Francisco that I think it was 30,000 women which which you know, we showed up Lori was ran in that one you know sponsored by Nike you get you know, you get a necklace......

Christi Beth Adams: 16:15

A Tiffany necklace, that's right, you get a blue box!

Kenny Bailey<br>: 16:20

Know, your know your audience and know the motivation. Yeah, so but it was great. Unfortunately, I don't think they've I think they've canceled that but women specific races are some of

Tom Regal: 16:30

Hot Chocolate runs, some of the bigger ones lines of kinda,

Christi Beth Adams: 16:31

Yeah, it is. Well, I haven't put much thought into it. But it is interesting. And again, it's a conversation for another podcast but the women's specific event seemed to really boom and we even had a women's specific half marathon here in Nashville few years in it and it was just it was a really special event and and it never seemed to it just didn't stick. So I'm not sure why that is I just be really curious about the business model and and all that sort of thing. But we're out there you know, it doesn't have to be a women's specific race. Like I say it can be Chicago, New York, whatever.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 17:04

Yeah absolutely. So part of.... you've so you how long have you owned Fleet Feet? so

Christi Beth Adams: 17:11

as as a as a typical franchisee owning the store? It has been 10 years.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 17:18

Okay. Wow.

Christi Beth Adams: 17:19

Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 17:20

So as you see, the joke used to be in gear and in shoes, a sort of shrink it and pink a right.

Christi Beth Adams: 17:27

Yes, yes.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 17:28

How do you, have you seen that evolution over the last few years? I know, there's been a huge thrust forward in the last few years. Obviously, for the better, what have you seen lately?

Christi Beth Adams: 17:37

Yes, there have been improvements and to your point, sort of the definition behind shrink it and pink it was taking product that was developed for men and and literally scaling it down smaller and changing the color ways. So that was their way of making it female oriented product. And we all know that the biomechanics of male versus female, even even what feels comfortable, to most males compared to females is different. And so I would say now, almost, I would say every shoe on our wall, the the design that goes into the men's versus the women shoes is gender specific now. There were several years where Asics was like, we have a gender specific specific Nimbus versus, you know, female versus male. And the stack would be different different things about the shoe anyway, I think I think all the companies are doing that now. Gosh, I'm trying to think of the book, there's there's a great book that talks about how many products are designed for men, white men, band aids to seat belts, like how so much of our research is based on the male population, and then we create these products based on that research. So anyway, I think the running gear products are getting better. I think we are very much still alienating a percent of the population, different body type, sizes, we have a really hard time getting extended sizes from our vendors. A lot of vendors just don't make that product and because we're a retailer as opposed to manufacturer or wholesaler, we're we're sort of in this limbo where we can't you know, people need the product but we don't produce it so we kind of are a little bit at a loss. But it has improved over the years and I think it will continue to. The run space is a, I love running specialty. I love all the people that work in the run specialty. I think they all want to do the right thing. It's a business right? So they're looking for ways to financially make it sustainable. And so hopefully we can we can kind of match the needs, from vendors to retailers to obviously the end customer.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 19:57

So as a new manufacturer that comes on like Altra is relatively new when compared to the other ones, those folks did they did they come out of the gate with with sort of men's and women's and being that sensitive. Have you seen newer manufacturers that are.....

Christi Beth Adams: 20:10

They've even.... not always because I'll be honest, most of that they're they're usually male owned companies. And so, you know, they've they've also had their own evolutions. I think a lot of companies like Hoka, Altra, those came out of men who wanted a specific product and then that's why they created the product they did. So nothing wrong with it, but the premise of their companies even On I would say, the the team behind On, they created product for themselves, and they are all men. Now, once they got into the business, of course, they're like, Oh, wait, we need to also figure out how to take what we wanted out of this product and what we love about this product and and how can we adapt it for our female customers?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 20:53

Yeah. Yeah, cuz what's I think we're, I think we all want to know what's going on with Hoka.......because.....men or women.....we're just here to break it. We're just here to ask about the Hokas! (laughing)

Christi Beth Adams: 21:04

Product is hard to get. If you want to, if you want to, you know, drive out to the coast and jump in the water and swim to a container, you can probably find that, you know, well.

Tom Regal: 21:13

Which one?

Christi Beth Adams: 21:14

(Laughing)

Tom Regal: 21:14

I'll go get some

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:15

Yeah. Don't tell that to an ocean swimmer.....

Christi Beth Adams: 21:17

No, no. Good point.

Tom Regal: 21:18

Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:19

So one of the things that I mean, one of the main things we want to talk about today was was you know, it's, it's fantastic that manufacturers are looking at ways to continue to do gender specific gear, it's fantastic that more women are are running than than men that are signed up for the event. The unfortunate thing is also there's a rise, it seems, or maybe we're ignorant, and tell me if I am but there seems to be more visible rise in the fact that women are having to protect themselves a lot more these days. So you have this weird dichotomy of more women want to get out and run and more women are signing up for this thing. yet we're we're creating an environment that's not conducive to allow them to do that. What's been going on? Is it is it always been there? And we're just now getting a little bit better? Am I I know, I'm ignorant and stupid. I will absolutely say that. And the reason why I know that is because when I went for a run, one of our friends, were just on a small little area here, I think was in Bicentennial, a little wooded area. And she and she was running and going, Okay, all I think about on this run is not today. And and I'm like,

Christi Beth Adams: 22:22

and you're like what?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 22:23

Yeah, I got shade! I'm happy. I hope there's not mud because I got new shoes, and I want to get mud on them. and she's like, you know, not today. And it blew me away. And, so I guess what's going on?

Christi Beth Adams: 22:34

I could talk about this all day. And again,

Tom Regal: 22:36

Yeah, that would be great. there is a wider conversation right now about how can we be empathetic toward what other people are feeling when it's not

Christi Beth Adams: 22:45

No, absolutely. I think that's something that we've ever experienced? Whether that's your that's part of what we wanted to talk about was like, What are male versus female, whether that is white versus BIPOC. We have to be able to hear other people and their experience and empathize and understand why when she goes into a wooded those, you know, three or four things that..... what we're area, she's thinking not today, Mother effer. And you're thinking, Oh, shade. So it's great that y'all are having those conversations. And again, we can there's a broader topic about running and being safe because I have a former female employee, Kim Glynn, African American woman who was training, marathon training out in Brentwood back when she worked for us, you know, maybe half a dozen years ago who got stopped by the police and was questioned pretty aggressively you know, show your ID all these things. I don't carry an ID when I go run. I've never thought about being stopped by police asking me why I'm running in a certain neighborhood. And so again, that's a different conversation about safety that I do hope we can kind of improve on so that anybody who wants to run, feels safe, going outside and running. What I can directly speak to is the female experience and yes to be out on the trails and Percy Warner even though I've lived in Nashville 20 years, I've never had a bad experience and Percy Warner but it doesn't stop me from thinking about it anytime I'm out there and very rarely what I even go out there by myself. But yes, I would love to speak to you know, some of the things that are happening especially in Nashville, we've actually had three attempted abductions in the past three weeks around the Sevier Park area, 20th Avenue right by Vanderbilt. So we're talking what are considered quote unquote, safe areas. middle of the day, one of the girls the attempt was on a Saturday at like, one o'clock It was about a mile from my house, you know, so these aren't, I was I was running in this bad part of town by myself and it was late. Yeah, you know. So it's kind of scary. The courage that somebody has to, you know, again attempt to lay hands on someone that's super scary. Had an opportunity. Actually, just last night, if you've been a runner for a long time, you know who Todd Williams is, I mentioned him earlier. He was a phenomenal runner at the University of Tennessee then went on to be to run professionally with Adidas. And anyway, it was a great professional runner made two Olympic teams. He went on to get his black belt in Brazilian jujitsu. And several years ago, he created a program called Run Safer. And and so he took this experience of being a runner, having two daughters, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, which is sort of those concepts of like, hey, again, especially for females, maybe I'm smaller, maybe my attacker might be larger, what are some things I can do to create space, create time and and put myself in a more advantageous situation? So I'm happy to sort of talk through maybe some of those safety tips that we would like from trying to do is remove the the barrier for anybody that wants to run, right, we remove the barrier to anybody that wants to define themselves as an athlete, you know, to get out and moving. And one of the bigger barriers is the fact that I want to sign up for something, but I don't, I don't feel safe doing that. What are those things that that you learned, and that, that he's proposing that we need to do? Number one, and again, some of these things may be really obvious, but I'll kind of start with these are easy things to do. Number one is strength in numbers. And so anytime you can walk with a buddy, run with a buddy, that is always best case scenario, almost any time a woman or a walker or runner is attacked, it's they are almost always alone. So strength in numbers is the number one thing, even if it's with your dog. So maybe maybe you don't have a partner that you're meeting up to run, but if you if you have a dog and and you can run with your dog, that is safer. So definitely the buddy system. And and if you're, you know, that kind of couch to 5k athlete, I'll just tell you that accountability is going to serve you well anyway. Not just from a safety standpoint, just from like, Oh, I really don't want to get out of bed today. And your buddy's pinging you saying Okay, I'll see you in 30 minutes and you're like, dang, okay, I can't I can't let Kenny down. You know, I gotta go meet him. So So safety in numbers. That's it sounds obvious. But again, I'm, I'm a mom, like, I can always say, Oh, I'm gonna do my run at this time. You know, sometimes it's like, oh, I've got 30 minutes. It's two o'clock, I gotta go. But if we could just all slow down and say okay, how many how many of my runs this week? Can I plan to meet a run group, a Franklin Road Runners, a meet with a Fleet Feet training program, meet with a buddy. So be intentional. Just don't take that for granted that you're just gonna run out your door by yourself. So strength in numbers, I would say as number one. So scenario where, where you can't meet up with somebody. The other thing that would be smart to do is to at least let somebody know that you're going out and this is something I can do better. So it's Hey Kenny, you know, I'm texting you saying I'm gonna run the Red Trail. I think it's gonna take me 55 minutes. I'm starting now and and you know if I don't text you I'm 55 minutes that's a that's a red flag right? And and maybe we're friends and so we've got our GPS turned on we've got our find a friend, you can see where somebody's phone is. It's an inconvenience but I run with my phone. There's a lot of great products out there you can actually Garmin almost all the Garmin products you've got GPS, they all have safety features. So that's another thing too I think all three of us right now have some sort of smartwatch on our on our wrist and so familiarize yourself with some of the products you already have. Even you know on my on my iPhone, if you hit certain buttons, you know it automatically comes up with sort of like an SOS call. So anyway, if you if you are by yourself, think about what you have think about how do I understand how my watch works when it comes to safety, what I can do with my phone, who's tracking me, Who did I text, always letting somebody know where I am and when to be expected back. The other thing we talked a little bit last night are our there are different products, people have different comfort levels. We did bring in sort of a race, excuse me mace for runners and race. It's ironic that they put the two together. But it's sort of just Velcro straps onto your hand just like a handheld water bottle would and so you've got it in your hand. You can run with it comfortably. There are also some sort of like sound devices and so we have one in the store right now you can clip to your shorts, you can clip to your sports bra, you pull it, it makes an obnoxiously loud sound. And and it can, it's reusable. It's something a lot of people we heard felt comfortable with. Some people may not feel comfortable using mace. The other thing I would emphasize, that Todd always emphasizes is practice. So if you do have mace, if you do, there's a product called GoGuard, which is essentially like having a little sort of plastic serrated knife on your finger. I a lot of people run trails with a GoGuard. If you have that siren, it's it's practice with it. And, you know, that feels awkward, right? It feels scary, where you're like, I'm simulating this thing. But, you know, you practice everything. I had my 10 year olds practice in baseball, you know, so that when he's in a game, and he's in a stressful situation, where there's more pressure that that he doesn't have to think about those things. And so that's, that was the big thing Todd always emphasizes is us talking about this right now. It's helpful, but if we don't practice as he says, dress rehearsal, these things, it's not gonna become automatic. And we need it to become automatic.

Tom Regal: 31:20

Absolutely. It's I think it's completely overlooked thinking that you have the device that you're, you feel safe, right, you're good. All the emergency responders practice all the time, right? They train, to be able to adjust to that because you have to be able to focus mentally, that something's going on and not emotionally lose it. Right, right. Right. When this strikes you, whatever happens, is going to hit you mentally,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 31:45

you're gonna get an adrenaline rush, there's going to be a lot of things happening.

Christi Beth Adams: 31:48

Exactly. There's no there's no time. There's no thinking. So what do you... it's muscle memory, right? What have you done....

Tom Regal: 31:53

It needs to be okay. It's always on my hip or whatever. So I reached down and just pull automatically without thinking about it, you have to get to that level of

Christi Beth Adams: 32:01

Absolutely. And there's, there's one thing that I dress rehearsal, often I won't, since we've got these really great microphones, or maybe I will, but I love I love this concept that I learned from Todd several years ago. And it's the safety name. And again, this is if a situation where you're by yourself and and so if or and this isn't just runners, right? This could be if you're in a parking lot, it can be when you're walking your dog, this isn't just for women, but to have a safety name. And so if you're in a situation where you're being approached, you're being attacked, specifically, specifically yelling a name. So I think the earlier thought was if you were to yell fire or help, but now they say to yell a person's name, that the psychology of that will, your attacker thinks, Oh, your buddy is just around the corner. Again, sometimes if you meet with Franklin Road Runners, right? You might not be somebody might be 50 yards ahead of you or 50 yards behind you, you know, but that concept of I'm gonna say a name, you know, Kenny! Kenny! Kenny! I'm gonna yell that out. Kenny's not there. But the attackers like Oh, shit Kenny's around the corner, you know, so I that's a very simple one. I don't wear anything. But what's your safety name?

Tom Regal: 33:14

A specific name will respond as opposed to just yelling Help. Help. People will hesitate and wait. They've got a window of time.

Christi Beth Adams: 33:22

Absolutely. So I love that.

Tom Regal: 33:24

That's a good one.

Christi Beth Adams: 33:24

Put that that in your toolbox.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 33:26

Anybody wants to Kenny Kenny?

Tom Regal: 33:27

I'm gonna go outside right now and

Christi Beth Adams: 33:32

Go practice it. Practice it.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 33:34

It's going to be really weird walk into Whole Foods........

Christi Beth Adams: 33:36

Yeah, I love the safety name. Another one I'll talk about, again, these, these, this is all the low hanging fruit stuff. I grew up. I never listened to music growing up. I grew up thinking I was always gonna be that like fourth grade girl that got abducted on a run. So I was like, had the fear of God in me. So we didn't listen to our Walkmans. So I never ran with music. Nowadays I really enjoy listening to a podcast when I go out and run. And so another big thing is that situational awareness, you know, either choose not to wear headphones, or in reality, a lot of people do need some music for motivation. Go with one earbud or AFTERSHOKZ is as a product that it's actually bone conduction that sits outside of the ear. If you've never put on a pair and demoed them. Yeah, it's kind of unbelievable until you try it. And you're like, oh, wow, I can clearly hear the podcast but I can hear that car driving up behind me. I can hear footsteps, I can hear another runner coming up behind me. So it just allows for that. That awareness. So that's a big one. I mean, you guys have seen people in races, you know, or if you're on your bike, you know y'all are triathletes, right? So it's like you know on your left and people don't respond. You're like, Oh my gosh,

Tom Regal: 35:01

getting people to be situationally aware even when they don't have headphones on is huge.

Christi Beth Adams: 35:06

It's hard.

Tom Regal: 35:07

Like you come up on somebody, a lot of cyclists I ride behind with no awareness of what's going on around them because they're just in that focus. Same with running. They're out just kind of in that and then if you put your earbuds and forget about it, right? Their, you're in a completely different planet.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 35:22

Yeah, and it's it's AFTERSHOKZ, right?

Christi Beth Adams: 35:24

AFTERSHOKZ.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 35:24

Yeah, those I got a buddy of mine who wears those. Yeah, they're fantastic, right? Because they are bone conduction and allows you to do that. Yes. So you can I am a cyclist that puts music in one year because it's a three hour ride by myself and I'm lonely and I need Yeah, I think it's a fantastic thing.

Christi Beth Adams: 35:39

Right. It's, again, you're you're gonna listen to music. You're gonna listen to podcast. Just be just be smart about it. Be smart Kenny, I know, that's hard for you. (laughing)

Kenny Bailey<br>: 35:48

The the one thing you said I want to make sure that's clear, too, before we got on the air was the idea that it's it's let's just dispel the myth It's not what you wear that, you know, it's attackers aren't like looking at going, Wow, that's a T shirt. I don't think I'm going to attack. I mean, do you want to talk about that?

Christi Beth Adams: 36:05

Yeah. So off off air. Todd Williams and I were having this conversation. And he was sort of asking me, you know, so you know, Nike pro shorts. That's a really short fitted short that a lot of people run in. If you live in Tennessee, you know how humid it is in the summer. And I'm a sports bra and shorts girl all the way. And so I I don't know, I think if somebody is mentally crazy enough to put their hands on you, in my opinion, they are looking for an opportunity, they are looking for a target. And whether you're in a sports bra or short sleeve shirt, I don't think it matters. And and again, there have been a lot of times where people said, Well, she was wearing this, you know, doesn't matter. And And ideally, we would say these attackers wouldn't exist and these attacks wouldn't happen. But again, that's also a sort of pie in the sky aspirational. Like, we're not going to get down to zero attacks.

Tom Regal: 37:07

Or it's not like the attack started happening. All of a sudden, because sports bras and shorts were being worn.

Christi Beth Adams: 37:12

Right, right.

Tom Regal: 37:13

Attacks were happening long before. Back in the Victorian age.

Christi Beth Adams: 37:16

Yeah, absolutely.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 37:17

There were a lot more clothes!

Christi Beth Adams: 37:18

Yeah, yeah. So I'm, I'm you know, I'm not gonna, I'm not, I'm not going to change what I wear. You know, when I go outside, I'm gonna dress by the temperature? If it's cold I'm putting on a bunch of layers! of it's hot, I'm wearing as little as possible. I don't care if it's pretty.....

Kenny Bailey<br>: 37:36

Well, I think that's important is you dress to whatever level of comfort you think you need that run. If you're not comfortable just in as in a sports bra and you want to wear tank top over that. Yeah, go nuts. But you're doing it because not because oh

Christi Beth Adams: 37:46

Right. gee, I need to, you know, get ready to make sure an attacker is so therefore I could make myself less attractive or less, you know,

Tom Regal: 37:55

Yeah less attractive in a T shirt versus....

Kenny Bailey<br>: 37:57

Yeah, like.....

Christi Beth Adams: 37:58

Exactly. Again, it's that awareness of.... and again, the attacks that happened recently, broad daylight. So you think about not putting yourself in certain situations and it's like gosh, the reality is, you would never dream that middle of the day is is a sort of perfect situation. And so it's all these things of like, what can you control? Like, you can't control that crazy person, But what is within your control? And how can you just be more aware? I think those are are the biggest things.

Tom Regal: 38:33

So how do we how do we get the education outside, we talk about what women should do to protect themselves and how they should be acting, but it's not all their responsibility. How do we how do we educate the males in this, like us like Kenny and I how to re educate us to like, what do we need to be doing? We're not empathetic to it because we don't experience those those situations. What is it that we can be doing that we can be then educating other men who are then going to hopefully educate their sons and kind of go that way? We have to take at least some of the responsibility. I mean, come on

Christi Beth Adams: 39:09

It's about time! I think that's great. I think well like Kenny said you know you have a conversation with Lori or you have a conversation with a with a female you know, running buddy and and a lot of men have a wife or a daughter or a niece and you know, so you're right like they may not have those thoughts but hearing these stories and and then once you've heard the story, it is on you to be aware and to be cognizant and and so I think that is step one. Another thing that just came to mind when you asked that question, I had never thought about this before but there's a guy who shops at Fleet Feet, we go to church together. Super good guy. Transitioned from road to trails just a year or so ago and he told me that he does not run in Percy Warner, when it's dark in the mornings, let me take this back. I think he went out to Percy Warner. Best time he could go before the kids got up, you know, before he got to work. So he went out to Percy Warner, it was dark, he was on the trails. And he crossed paths with a female runner. And he saw her tense up and sort of look at him. And it had never crossed his mind until that moment. He's like, she doesn't know me. But he saw that she was scared and that she was aware. And after that day, I mean, I just think this is such a level of empathy and awareness. He's like, I don't run by myself on the trails in Percy when it's dark, because when I cross a female, I don't want to, I don't want her to feel unsafe. I was just like, Oh, my gosh, would it just that he was thinking like that, you know, but I think it's just the conversations and the encouragement. And .....

Kenny Bailey<br>: 41:03

Well, I know there's also like, so Lori, and I, quick story, right, Lori and I were going for a run, and I was getting annoyed, because I'm like, just just run like I don't, I may not have time, or you know, I'm doing triathlon training. So sometimes I'm sore. And she's like, well, I just want to run around the neighborhood. I'm thinking, well, we're out in the country. Just go. She's like, but I went with her, right. And she was no more than 20 yards behind me in the middle of the country and got a cat call. And it shocked me. I'm like, and she looks at me like, this is why I don't do this, right? And I think, to your points, the other end what men can do on the other end of everything that you mentioned, like running groups, make sure you know where you're going is to make sure to stop and tell, you know, whoever your friend, your wife, your daughters, like no, I want to make sure that we are on that same page. So there can be a time when, like you said, I just want to go out and run to write and well, I just want to go for a run. And maybe I shouldn't, you know you forget about those kind of things until you're in that situation that it's up to us also to say, hey, I want to know where you're going. I want to know what's going on too. So I can so I can make sure that we can look out for you as well is, is make sure that's an open, conversation. Don't kind of roll in it. I have to be honest, I rolled my eyes and I'm like, God, just go run. I run. Just go run. And I was like, Yeah, and that's, you know.....

Christi Beth Adams: 42:15

She's like, see? See? Offering to run when you can, if you can

Kenny Bailey<br>: 42:19

Exactly.

Christi Beth Adams: 42:20

And and yeah, you initiating is what it sounded like, like not always waiting for us to say, Hey, will you run with me? Or, hey, this is where I'm going. It's like, Hey, I know. I know, this training partner trains so many days a week, Hey, I'll be your person, you know, that you text. Because I know you're out there training by yourself a lot.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 42:38

Yep. So I'm gonna ask an impossible task to which is is there a way? Is there a way that the community of you know Fleet Feet, Franklin Road Runners, other folks try to influence sort of city council on way we're doing things to, like, college campuses had to had to adjust and start putting blue lights into into college campuses, because there's just way too much attacks going on. I used to work at a place that had a Blue Zones where we looked at Blue Zones as a healthier place to create cities, is there a way we can start influencing, you know, better lighting? Do we on well worn paths that everybody runs on? Can we look at putting more safety features in it? Can we create an environment that's a little bit safer? Do we have the power to do that? Or am I just thinking that that's adorable, pat me on the forehead? You know......

Christi Beth Adams: 43:34

I think it's a great question. And honestly, that's, that's not one that I think about and I don't know if it's because I I'm not as knowledgeable of that space, sort of, you know, what, what does get done at the City Council level? What, what, what are the levers that we have to pull? I don't know, I would say the answer is yes. I'm a big believer that we've got a lot of smart people in the running community. And I'm sure there is someone who knows that system better than I do. Because I think that is one of the things. I will go back to what we were doing this clinic last night, you know, Todd rolled through all these things. And then the questions got really specific, you know, it was like, What if I get pushed down from behind? Again, I'm kind of staying in my lane with like, the low hanging fruit.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 44:28

Yeah, absolutely.

Christi Beth Adams: 44:29

These are the things that I'm like, dude, if we just did these handful of things consistently, I think we'd be pretty good. But yeah, I hope there's somebody out there that says, oh, I've been involved in city council or I'm a runner. I'm aware that this is an issue and you know, there have been a few times in the past where either through a vendor or just Fleet Feet on our own, we have we've gone to councils and said, Hey, can we pay for signage or can we do this and that. We used to sell these park sweatshirts and the money would go back to the parks. There have been some times we've said, Hey, we have this money XYZ Park. What can be done with it? and, and not gotten an answer! And I'm like, hey, what? You know, you always think things are like financial issues, but no, I think we can we could raise the money. It's it's then the getting it done. I don't know, I don't know how those things happen whether it's lighting or clearing out brush along a path that's that maybe tends to get overgrown really quickly. And maybe there's less visuals for somebody on the path. But like, hey, if you know if something reach out to us! Yeah, we'll try to make it happen.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 45:37

Yeah, we had a woman in here just the other day and I was saying, Hey, we're gonna have Christi Beth on. We were talking about running and what women can do to be more safe. And she's like, I had to shut down. I wanted to run another 1k, but there was overgrown brush and other things that made her uncomfortable. And she shut down. So I believe, you know? Yeah, there are simple things that the city can do to I mean, the blue light thing, you know, obviously that costs money. And, and it would be difficult to do. But simple things like, you know, make sure that the lights that you do have are working. Make sure that the brush that is not overgrown. I'm particularly not thrilled with the way Williamson County handles bike lanes, because there's nonexistent bike lanes.

Christi Beth Adams: 46:14

There's bike lanes?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 46:14

No, there's not. There's like 80 feet.......... Yeah, right. There's a bike lane for you know, just enough to make you think there's a bike lane and then it stops. But, but it's just more and more people are moving in from out of the Tennessee area. More and more people have an expectation that they want to be able to live a lifestyle that allows them to be outdoors. And I feel like if we can increase that voice a little bit, maybe that's just a little bit of what we can do.

Tom Regal: 46:40

Yeah, that's why they're coming here to be outside.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 46:42

Yeah.

Christi Beth Adams: 46:43

But yeah, to your point, they're expecting the infrastructure that had. I remember I lived out in California for a little while. And I'm like, oh, crosswalks,

Tom Regal: 46:49

Do you feel lucky? like cars stopped. And pedestrians went and I'm like a crosswalk in Tennessee. You You know that? Yeah. It's like, really? There's a crosswalk there?

Christi Beth Adams: 47:04

Yeah. It's so funny, because I always had this idea of like, oh, California, those people are always zooming around and really aggressive. But I'm like, No, they know how to coexist with cyclists and runners. And yeah, so maybe that, you know, all this of these influx of people moving to Tennessee, sometimes we're like, no, we're closed! Status closed! There's no vacancy. But maybe that's something that we will see gets improved.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 47:31

Yeah, needs to be wider variety of, again, empathy, and sort of other people's sort of view of the world and how things could be great. So. So, just to do a quick recap, Hoka's aren't coming soon. We want we want women to sign up, we want women to get off the couch, we want women to strive for those goals they want, if I like you said I came, you know, you came after childbirth, a couple of kids, I want to hit that marathon PR, I want to be able to do that, absolutely 100% encourage and make sure that women are going after whatever the hell they want.

Christi Beth Adams: 48:05

Absolutely.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 48:07

Second thing is, is look at those safety features to be able to do that. So you know, know your environment, know that people around, know your safety equipment, practice it. And that's a really good one. I mean, it's one thing to buy one definitely and practice that. And the last thing is, what can we do as a community to start letting the folks that are in charge of the community, on how you can do a little bit better job and in helping foster an environment? That's a little bit a little bit better? Anything else?

Christi Beth Adams: 48:33

That's great. I just the other thing I want to reference, if I haven't already, again, Todd Williams is is the sort of creator of Run Safer. And so runsafer.com, you can see a lot of the safety tips I referenced. And there are several video clips, his wife, Lindsey, will do these different things. And what I didn't get into today are some of those basic self defense strategies and maneuvers. And so there are videos online. And that would be a really, really great resource for folks to follow up on.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 49:08

Yeah. And I think that would be an appropriate place to go do that rather than us trying to explain things that somebody directly knows what they're doing.

Christi Beth Adams: 49:14

It's so hard to explain via podcast!

Kenny Bailey<br>: 49:19

Do a couple on Tom and I'll explain it to the audience....... Now, Tom's elbows out of socket.........(laughter)

Tom Regal: 49:27

Yeah, we'll make sure to put that in the in the show notes. For sure.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 49:31

So what's going on with Fleet Feet in the next couple of months is anything kind of fun? What do you guys got going on?

Christi Beth Adams: 49:37

We are busy, which is such a blessing. This time last year, we were closed and I had to furlough about 65 employees and I was spending most of my days in tears and working out cash flow to try to understand how long we could sustain the business in a shutdown and a year makes a really big difference. So I'm, I'm very hopeful. I think that a lot of vendors, a lot of the industry is predicting this to be the next running boom for a couple different reasons. A lot of people during the pandemic picked up walking and running, again, maybe for mental health reasons, maybe because their gym was closed. So we're seeing a lot more folks in the sport. So there's a huge influx of folks that are coming into the sport now with the weather getting nicer, that's going to sort of encourage and motivate more of that activity. The other thing, again, are minority groups who have not felt welcome in the space in the past and and I always thought running was a super welcoming space. And we even say in the store all people all paces, but just have realized in the past year that again, not everybody, just like how you were running in that area and felt safe. And the female runner didn't go out every day running, feeling relatively safe. And there are a lot of runners in underrepresented minority groups that haven't felt safe. And we think that's getting better? And so I do hope we see more participation and more diversity in the sport. So all that to say, at Fleet Feet, we are from a business standpoint, we're just trying to get staffed up. We are serving people every day right and left from people who are you know, signed up to do Chicago and Chicago says the marathon's on or people are just coming in that said, I need some walking shoes. I started this a few months ago and I'm kind of enjoying it and the weather's getting nice and and so we don't have anything new. Well, we've got some things coming up. If you follow us, fleetfeetnashville.com is our website, fleetfeetnashville on Instagram and also on Twitter. One of the things we're really trying to do is engage the community. We've got a really cool event coming up called Run Discover encouraging people in Nashville to maybe hit some running parts of running routes in other parts of town that they haven't hit up.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 52:11

That'd be great.

Christi Beth Adams: 52:12

So that's what we're looking for, you know, you talked about Franklin Road Runners, and we love all these different groups of runners in Nashville is we're really trying to figure out a way to sort of cross pollinate and get folks to go out to East Nasty and somebody from East Nasty to heaven forbid, drive all the way to Franklin, you know,

Tom Regal: 52:27

such a long drive......

Christi Beth Adams: 52:29

it is! it is but these these groups have cropped up because it's convenient, and you live and work and go to school, you know, with these people in these communities. And it's wonderful. But you know, Nashville is growing, but it's still a small town, you know, we've got that small town feel. So we really want to make sure we are fostering that across the little run groups in Nashville, we just want to be a resource for them.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 52:52

Good. And you've intentionally I think we talked earlier, you're intentionally working with other vendors that you believe also have a cause, it's not just it's not just a logo anymore for you. It's not just you're you're being intentional about those kind of partnerships that you're making, right?

Christi Beth Adams: 53:06

Oh, absolutely. I'm, I'm, I believe you should do meaningful and purposeful work, I've always thought that with Fleet Feet. And and as I'm growing and maturing, I try to or I get to align my business with my own personal beliefs. And I think I tried to separate those things for a really long time. But you know, it is my business. I'm not a my way or the highway type of person, but but to align those things feels better for me. Because I'm constantly making decisions that support my value system. And and those aren't separate in my personal versus business life. And so I just feel really honored that I'm in a position not only to take care of a phenomenal staff, because our employees are great, I want to I want to be financially viable for a long time so that they have a place where they can come to and love working. But then also want to try to serve community needs. Yeah, not just that runner that's trying to qualify for Boston. That's great. And we can help that person. But we also donate shoes to folks that have just recently come out of incarceration. We've partnered with Metro Police Department and they say, hey, a lot of people come out, they come into jail without shoes, and now they're going out into the community and they don't have clothes and shoes. So we now fully stock their sort of closet with footwear so that people are re entering and they've got some shoes, you know, they might get a haircut before you get

Kenny Bailey<br>: 54:36

probably sorry, that's destiny calling by the way. We're gonna say, No, her name is Destiny she needs, she needs a cryo appointment. Sorry about that. Well, we appreciate your time today. This has been a great conversation and it's one that we were looking forward to doing because we know that that we need to be more empathetic as as just people And, you know if we can make an environment to make sure that everyone stays healthy and active. That's that's

Christi Beth Adams: 55:04

What we want.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 55:05

That's what we want.

Tom Regal: 55:06

Absolutely. So yeah thank you so much for being o really great to meet you an talk with you and learn mor about you.

Christi Beth Adams: 55:12

You're welcome

Tom Regal: 55:12

and for everybody, If you like what you're hearing, please give us a couple thumbs up five would be great, five stars, any reviews. Let us know what kind of content you like. If you want more like this. Let us know. We're open to that as we as we book our guests and move on with that. So thank you all very much.