Mats and Miles

3: Sprinting Past Limits: Angelica Vannatta's Athletic and Mental Health Crusade

• Angelica Vannatta • Episode 3

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Lace up your running shoes and take that first step towards a healthier state of mind. That's the world Angelica Vannatta, a fireball of energy and former high school sprinter, invites us into. In this episode, Angelica shares some of her physical endeavors and mental leaps. Along the way, she highlights the unexpected joy and community connection found in running.

With a zest for life, Angelica delves into how her passion for mental health awareness resulted in an innovative fundraiser. We unravel the intricacies of the 4x4x24 challenge and Angelica's pursuit of "ridiculous but doable" goals – including tackling a sprint triathlon and her fear of swimming head-on. Join us for stories of triumph, the occasional Steelers shoutout, and a surge of inspiration that might just spur your next great challenge.

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Mats and Miles is a weekly show about yoga, running, and Pilates featuring conversations with everyday people who champion a consistent movement practice. Hosted by runner and mat movement enthusiast Shuva Rahim, You’ll learn from inspiring practitioners and instructors, get fitness-related recommendations, and hear race reviews.

Do you or someone you know have an interesting yoga, running, and/or Pilates story who would make a great guest? If so, send an email to matsandmiles@gmail.com.

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Angelica Vannatta: Through some conversations with some other friends who are doing triathlons, but also someone who was interested in doing the four by four by 24 challenge. So it's that they're doing triathlons and I was like, Oh gosh, I wish I could do that. I said, the thing that is preventing me from doing any sort of triathlon is the swimming component.

Angelica Vannatta: Put something out on social media. If anybody knows anybody who can coach me how to swim, let me know. I did have someone respond and said, Hey, I have someone for you. And I was like, okay, I guess this is happening. 

Shuva Rahim: Welcome to Mats and Miles, a weekly show about yoga, running, and Pilates featuring conversations with everyday people to champion a consistent movement practice.

You'll learn from inspiring practitioners and instructors, get fitness related recommendations, and hear race reviews. I'm your host, fellow runner, and map movement enthusiast, Shuva Rahim. Let's get started. Hello friends. My guest today is Angelica Vannatta. Angelica is an avid runner, certified concert junkie, and an unapologetic Steelers football fan.

I'm going to pause here for just a moment because of what I know about you, I knew the Steelers would come up, but I did not expect it to be in the first sentence. 

Angelica Vannatta: Well, and yeah, like I wasn't sure I'd actually say Steelers. 

Shuva Rahim: I think it's cool. All right. So a sprinter in high school, she has a newfound love for long distances and has completed several half marathons and marathons, along with other challenge races.

She plans to compete in her first sprint triathlon in 2024 after learning to swim as an adult. And would like to run a marathon every year until she's 50 professionally, So we'll start with our opening question, which is what is one thing that brings you joy every day?

Angelica Vannatta: Well, it can be the little things for me. I like those little Stanley toppers that go on top of your straw and their little frogs or pigs or kitty cat that just makes me smile and brings me joy, obviously onto some of the bigger things when my football team wins. So obviously mentioned that I'm an unapologetic Steelers fan whenever they win, that obviously brings me a lot of joy, but I think.

What really brings me the most joy is being able to connect people with opportunity services and other people that they wouldn't already be aware of. So I really do enjoy being a connector in the community, both professionally, but certainly personally as well, which is, I think how we probably initially got to know each other, um, was just through outreach through the running community. So yeah
 
 Shuva Rahim: Yeah, absolutely.

Angelica Vannatta: Makes me happy.

Shuva Rahim: That's wonderful. I'm curious what got you into distance running in the first place? 

Angelica Vannatta: Honestly, I think it happens with a lot of runners. It just sort of organically happens. I don't know that many of us set out saying, I want to run a marathon. There's obviously a lot of steps along the way, but in 2018, I believe it was I picked up running again, and honestly, it was just trying to see if I could accomplish a 5K. I think that's a pretty digestible goal for first time runners. It was about weight loss for me at the time. And so I did 5K's for a little while. And then at some point it started to get better to where I just kept pushing myself for longer and longer distances. And then in that time span of the early days of the pandemic, I really needed to have some goals set in front of me in order to continue to run. I wanted to run and actually realized after the derecho and during the pandemic that I really needed to keep running for my own mental health. That meant just. Pushing myself further and further. So that's how I found myself doing distance running. My first half marathon was actually a virtual one, and I don't recommend that. Not a good idea. And I actually ended up running a little bit longer than 13.1 miles because my GPS at the time. Took me in a wrong direction.

But yeah, honestly, because I did that first one virtually, I was like, huh, I wonder what the experience would be like if it's in person. And if you have more crowd support. And then I was like, Oh, I wonder what it would be like for marathons. Honestly, that's kind of how I fell into it.
 
 Shuva Rahim: It escalated like it does with every long distance runner, I think.

Angelica Vannatta: So yeah, yeah. I would be curious if anybody immediately sets out and says, I am going to do a marathon, um, without first doing a half marathon or even shorter distances.

Shuva Rahim: There are people like that.

Angelica Vannatta: Oh, okay. Well, it's not us.

Shuva Rahim: No, it's definitely not us, no. You mentioned in your bio that you were a high school sprinter. Did that help in any way? Or did that really not make any difference when you restarted running?

Angelica Vannatta: Yeah, I think It helped certainly as an athlete in general, just understanding the importance of training, workout, understanding equipment. As a sprinter, we have our sprinter shoes or our spikes and that sort of thing. So I knew that when I wanted to get into the longer distance running, that I really needed to make sure that I had the appropriate pair of shoes, that sort of thing. As a sprinter. Our mentality, or at least mine anyway, was just to go as fast as humanly possible for that short amount of time. The 200 meters was sort of my specialty race, so there is some pacing that's involved with that, but most of it is just generally going really, really fast for the 200 meters. So it didn't necessarily help me in that space, but just more as an athlete, again, understanding the importance of a lot of the different tools and things that you need to be a confident runner. 

Shuva Rahim: Yeah, absolutely. Your first half was a virtual, we know the full is 26.2, but what's been a couple of your favorite events from either of those distances?

Angelica Vannatta: The marathon, I've only done two of those, but I've done seven half marathons and then two of them have been virtual. So it was both of the half marathons I ran in 2020 when we weren't holding in person races at the time. But also what I realized is that all of the races I've run have all been in the state of Iowa.

The two marathons I ran were Quad Cities and Des Moines, and I think they're both incredible events. It's what I really enjoy about Des Moines. They just have incredible crowd support, especially as you're going through neighborhoods and kind of trekking up some of the steep hills and you've got individuals at the top of those hills, just cheering you on. That's really incredible. I loved going around Drake's blue track. That was really cool. So if you're a long time, Iowan, it's just amazing to have the chance to run on that track. So that was probably one of my favorite races. And then the half marathons have all been here locally at either the Newbo race or the Marian Arts Festival race. Newbo takes you through some of the trails. In the Indian Creek area and then Marion through the community. So kind of depending on what type of road race or trail race you might like, you know, I might recommend one or the other, but I'd say of all of those, the Des Moines Marathon was my favorite. 

Shuva Rahim: Wow. Well, that's good to know. I have not done a marathon in Iowa, but I've heard good things about Des Moines and that's good to hear that validation from somebody who's done that race. So that's good to know. I might have to look into that for the future.

Angelica Vannatta: Yeah. Well, and it starts and ends in the East Village area. So if you like just that downtown Des Moines space, it's really cool. And I've heard great things too, but I served as a resource for people and was like, okay, when you get to this spot, think about this. But yeah, I think it is really a great local race that we have here in the state. 

Shuva Rahim: What do you consider a challenge race? 

Angelica Vannatta: So generally I think a challenge races are just those that are not your standard 5k, half marathon, marathon. Um, I have done quite a few obstacle challenges. Um, the Tough Mudders come to mind and those are 5, 10 and 15 K distances, but also have obstacles in between that.

And of course, the mud factor is always a lot of fun. I mean, those endurance races, I think you would consider those challenge races, anything that's above and beyond like your 50. I think some of the other things that I have done is also just pushing yourself in different ways, and I have participated in a four by four by 24 challenge race the last four years, I guess this was the fourth year that I completed it in October.

Shuva Rahim: Yeah. So let's talk about that mental health challenge. So it's the four by four by 24 World Mental Health Day Challenge. And it's usually in the fall. 

Angelica Vannatta: Yep.

Shuva Rahim: So talk a little bit more about that in terms of why you decided to do that, what that entails, just the logistics around doing that particular challenge.

Angelica Vannatta: Yeah, absolutely. So the challenge itself was something that I developed on my own. And the very first year I did it was again, when we were not racing in person. So that was 2020. I needed something beyond the virtual half marathons that I was racing in to feel like I was still challenging and pushing myself.

I was not ready for a marathon. At that point, I don't think mentally ready, possibly physically ready, but I had come across an article from some individuals who had participated in a four by four by 48. So basically, that was running four miles every four hours for 48 hours. I wanted it to be more than just challenging myself physically and mentally, but also just to challenge other folks to participate in whatever way that looked like for them.

And so I decided to do a fundraiser for Foundation 2, which is a local nonprofit organization that has meant a whole lot to me. The day that I had selected to do this challenge for myself was World Mental Health Day. So everything just kind of Aligned. And I thought, you know what, this is something that I need to do.

So I just put it out there on social media as I do with a lot of things, because I think that holds us accountable. Right? So that first year I had a couple of people last minute choose to run a few of those four mile laps with me, but I ran a majority of them by myself. Was definitely very difficult to do if you have very little sleep and we have to get up and do another four miles and then each year I'd say it's gotten easier, but also that's because I've gotten more support from my friends who are runners.

Shuva Rahim: Yeah, wow. When you're putting the call out for people who want to run with you, how is that done? Are you reaching out to them privately and basically saying, Hey, I'm doing this challenge again. Do you want to run part of it with me? And if so, how should we meet? Where should we meet kind of thing? Or is there something else involved?

Angelica Vannatta: It's still very a grassroots effort. I did create a sign up using an online platform. I think the second year, my safety and the safety of my friends who are running with me are important. So I don't typically say, Hey, this is where we're going to run. So when I asked people if they wanted to sign up, it was more about the shift.

The shift being the time, like what time do you want to run? Cause I would run at midnight. For a noon for an eight each year, that kind of changes a little bit depending on my schedule, but I would have a sign up and people would decide what time that they wanted to run their four-mile lap with me. And I opened it up to usually two people ‘cause you just never know, maybe one person isn't able to do the run as they had planned to, but. This last year, I think I had one or two people at every single lap, which really was the best experience just to have someone else to participate in that with you. But once they signed up, if it was one person or two person per time slot, I would email them directly, start communication and say, this is where I'm thinking of running.

Meet me here at this time, but because it's my race. So to speak, I usually say I'll be choosing where it is that I'm going to be running at because if it's late at night, I might want something that's a little bit closer to my home if it's during the day, I'm okay traveling a little bit further away. So yeah, that's how I get people to participate.

And usually because I have had a lot of runners, I think this last year I had. Three or four who have run with me for the past three years. I'll usually email them first and say, Hey, here's the date. This is what I'm looking at. Go ahead and sign it up for whatever time works for you. And then I'll share it on social media just to try to get some other folks.

But once I get at least one person for every shift, then I just kind of leave it open to others if they want to join or not. 

Shuva Rahim: That's very cool. Wow. That's really inspiring that you do that. That's amazing.

Angelica Vannatta: Thank you. Well, I'm inspired by other people who are willing to donate to the fundraiser and just willing to join me for a run. I did have one friend who did two of the four mile laps with me. She was able to run in the morning and then at the end of the day. And that again, it's really inspiring to me too. So I think this challenge comes full circle for everybody involved. 

Shuva Rahim: And where does the money go again? 

Angelica Vannatta: So it goes to Foundation 2. It's a local nonprofit organization that supports um, individuals and mental health crisis as well as other mental health services. Um, they also manage the 988 suicide hotline here in the state of Iowa along with one other nonprofit organization. So yeah, we raised in the four years that I have been doing this challenge, we raised $5,000, which I'm pretty proud of. I think that's not easy to raise when you're really just asking friends one on one and we're raising these funds 50 to a hundred dollars, sometimes 10 at a time, so not getting thousand-dollar contributions. 

Shuva Rahim: Yeah, that's amazing. I think what will happen in the coming years is the momentum is going to increase. There's going to be more runners joining you and you're going to see that amount go up even more. So congratulations on all that hard work and also to your friends who are running with you, everybody who's volunteered, everybody who's donated to that cause. How has running impacted your own mental health?

Angelica Vannatta: I think for me, it just more than anything, it helps me manage my stress of life. Gives me the head space to process any situations because I don't have to worry about anything else. I can just be thinking through whatever that situation is. But I think also it gives me confidence in myself when I can accomplish these challenges and these ridiculous races and distances and so forth.

But it also gives me something that I have a majority of control over as far as just the act of getting out and running. I had mentioned briefly earlier that during the pandemic and derecho is when I realized how critically important running was to my mental health and working for a nonprofit organization that helped the community mobilize volunteers after the derecho was a very, very stressful full time and I didn't get a chance to get out and run for four or five days. Obviously also there were trees all over the place in our typical running spaces, but about a week after the derecho was able to get out on a run and it felt so incredible just to put everything else aside that was happening in the community in my life and just go out for a running and really clear my head and then just honestly run a lot of that stress out of my system. So yeah, running has really been a great tool for me in that way. 

Shuva Rahim: And you mentioned the derecho for people who aren't familiar with that. That was a tornado that blew through a good chunk of Iowa in August of 2020 and did a lot of property damage and just really uprooted a lot of trees, especially in your area.

Angelica Vannatta: Yeah, that was, that was rough to get through. 

Shuva Rahim: So now you are training for a spring triathlon, a sprint triathlon. When is that event?

Angelica Vannatta: So I believe it is the first weekend in May. That's the one that I am planning to sign up for. It is the try by night at Wartburg in Waverly. So it's the sprint try T R I Y. I'm not sure how they spell it, but they have a little play on words. But yeah, that's the one I am doing. 

Shuva Rahim: What made you decide to sign up for that? 

Angelica Vannatta: I think as I had said before, the theme is just continuing to challenge myself and do things that are more ridiculous, but doable. I think that might be a phrase that I should trademark ridiculous, but doable.

Shuva Rahim: That should be on a t shirt. 

Angelica Vannatta: Well, and I do love a good shirt with words, so who knows? There's some conversations with some other friends who are doing triathlons, but also someone who was interested in doing the four by four by 24 challenge. So what was really cool is that they're doing triathlons and I was like, Oh gosh, I wish I could do that.

I'm doing the four by four and they're like, Oh gosh, I wish I could do that. So we came together and sort of shared some thoughts and ideas. And I said, the thing that is. Preventing me from doing any sort of triathlon is the swimming component. I have a deep fear of deep water and I have been able to overcome that this year, but it took a lot of energy, I think, mental energy to overcome the anxiety that I face being in deep water. And then of course, learning to swim as an adult, but that person that I was chatting with this time last year said, Oh yeah, there are adults who take swim lessons all the time. And I was like, really? And I don't know why I didn't think that people wouldn't give swim lessons to adults. Typically we're just familiar with those swim lessons for younger kiddos. So I put something out on social media and said, Hey, here are my goals for the year. Also, if anybody knows anybody who can coach me how to swim, let me know. That was sort of an aside. It was sort of a joke. I honestly didn't think anybody would respond, but I did have someone respond in a private message to me and said, Hey, I have someone for you. And I was like, okay. I guess this is happening, so I reached out to them and had a meeting with a swim coach who was also in the early stages of becoming a long-distance runner. So again, there's just some great relationships that have formed through this process. And she coached me and will tell you that the first time she saw me in the pool, she was like, I don't know if this person's ever going to be able to complete a triathlon.

Spent about six months with her and she does feel confident that I can at least get through the 300 meters that triathlon at Wartburg. The pool swim is indoors and then your bike and your run is outdoors. Otherwise your traditional triathlons, you're going to have open swims. So yeah, the swimming component fell into place and I did have a goal to do that in 2023. I wasn't ready by the time that the Wartburg Triathlon came. And then even in August, I wasn't quite sure I was ready yet. Um, and I'll need to spend some more time in the pool before I do it again, or attempt to do it in 2024. 

Shuva Rahim: Okay. Well, good luck to that.

Angelica Vannatta: Thank you. 

Shuva Rahim:Yeah. That's really brave of you to reach out and be so vulnerable and say, Hey, I need help. And thankfully you had somebody who reached out and, um, was willing to help you. So that's awesome. 

Angelica Vannatta: Yeah. I've actually had two other individuals reach out to me specifically after I shared on social media that I was learning how to swim who were in similar situations. And honestly, that brought me so much joy and happiness to be able to share with them my experience. But then also say, here are some coaches that you can reach out to, to help you learn how to swim too. Honestly, I was embarrassed about not knowing how to swim as an adult, as someone who was well into their forties.So I was glad I was able to do that for other people. 

Shuva Rahim: All right. Well, thank you so much for sharing that the triathlon. I'm hopeful that'll be an amazing experience for you. That's actually a nice kind of safety net in a way that that swim is indoors as opposed to the ocean. What is. What's the distance components of the sprint triathlon?

Angelica Vannatta: Officially it's half the distance of an Olympic triathlon. So it's 750 meters for the swim, a 20K bike ride and a 5K run, but locally you'll find varying distances. So again, the try by night is a 300 yard indoor pool swim, a 15 mile bike ride in the. 5k. So I feel really confident about the 5k run and the 15 mile bike, right? It's just that swimming piece. And I definitely think that that piece also, it humbles me. I mentioned earlier that running helps me feel confident, but also understanding that swimming is different than running has been an incredible learning opportunity for me as well. 

Shuva Rahim: All right. Well, thank you so much for sharing that. How can people find you on social media? 

Angelica Vannatta: Well, I don't have a very common name, so you can search Angelica Vannatta, V A N N A T T A. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, X, and on X, the only thing I'm posting there is the Pittsburgh Steelers. So if you want to connect with me on my football team, go to X.

If you want to connect with me regarding running or strength training, go to Instagram. Otherwise I'm on Facebook. Quite a bit. So they can just search my name and should be able to find me. 

Shuva Rahim: Why the Steelers? 

Angelica Vannatta: I chose a team in the early 2000s because learning to talk about football and be passionate about a team was a great skill I developed to engage with other people as I was selling products So I was a salesperson before I worked for nonprofit organizations and football conversation was more engaging than talking about the weather. So I picked a team in time. And at that time, Troy Polamalu, who is the best safety ever and a first round hall of famer, uh, was playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers or was recently drafted for them.

So those years, they were really good team. And now I'm committed and have been committed for almost 20 years now. No going back after I have picked them as a team. 

Shuva Rahim: And you've never lived in Pittsburgh, have you? 

Angelica Vannatta: I have never lived in Pittsburgh. I have visited Pittsburgh once. I believe we're going to go to in 2024 because my plan is to run the Marine Corps Marathon in Arlington. We'll make a detour to Pittsburgh to catch a Steelers game.

Shuva Rahim:Okay. Well, that should be a lot of fun. 

Angelica Vannatta: Yeah.

Shuva Rahim: All right. So before we close, I have two other questions, book recommendation, travel recommendation.

Angelica Vannatta: So I am not a very prolific book reader at all. I don't know about a specific place for folks to go. Cause I think we all enjoy either a beach vacation or a mountain vacation. Like those are the types of travel destinations that a lot of people choose. But for me, when we choose a destination is a place where we can.

Challenge ourselves because it's such a safe space when nobody knows who you are either. And so maybe to choose a country whose official language is different than your first language. One of the best vacations we've ever been on as a family was where they spoke Spanish as their official language and none of us speak a lick of Spanish. So that was interesting. Um, and quite fun, honestly, if you're going to choose different activities, you would choose when you're traveling, maybe try to pick something that would help you face your fears, um, that you might have, like maybe going zip lining, that sort of thing. So.

Those would be my travel recommendations is just choose a destination or activity where you're challenging yourself and being brave. Awesome. 

Shuva Rahim: Very good. Well, thank you so much, Angelica. This has been a lot of fun. I'm eager to hear how the sprint triathlon goes and, and good luck to everything that you have going on for you in 2024.

Angelica Vannatta: Thank you so much. It's been an honor to chat with you this morning. And yeah, now that that sprint triathlon is out in the online universe through this podcast, that means I definitely have to do it. 

Shuva Rahim: All right. Well, thanks again and have a good rest of your day.  Check out the show notes for links to the Des Moines Marathon. Foundation Two, and the Try By Night Triathlon. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with your friends and family.

And if you're feeling extra thankful, then rate or view the show on Apple Podcasts, which will help generate more interest among listeners. Thanks, and have a fun day.