Carolyn Coffin And Kim Senechal Podcasts

On July 10, Michael Bergeron ran 25 laps of the UPEI track in a world record time of 34 minutes and 47 seconds while simultaneously juggling three balls. The previous record was held by Toronto’s Michal Kapral in a time of 36:27 and while Michael technically broke this record back in 2018 (35:36), it was not ratified by Guinness World Records becau…

Tomasz Drybala is a 44 year old flow and mindful running teacher who’s planning to run the circumference of the earth (25,000M / 40,000K) before 2025 while raising money for Unicef. Although Tomasz has been running recreationally for 20 years, his foray into the extreme distances came more recently after hitting his own rock bottom and subsequently…

Ben Flanagan is a 27 year old Canadian track and road runner who has been setting records and winning races seemingly every time he toes a start line lately. He grew up in Kitchener ON with big dreams of becoming a hockey player, but when his growth spurt never materialized he switched focus to running and has never looked back. Always drawn to the…

Today we welcome Ailsa MacDonald back to the podcast to talk about her recent performance at Western States Endurance Run, where she finished an impressive second female and 15th overall. Her previous performance at Western States in 2018 earned her a 45th overall finish and provided her with some wisdom and unfinished business. She returned this y…

Today we are honoured to host Jason Schlarb as a guest on the show. He is a champion professional trail ultrarunner, coach, military veteran, and proud father. Jason’s most notable achievements include winning the Hardrock 100 and Run Rabbit Run as well as finishing as the top American in the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (4th place, 2014). Jason has h…

Today we welcome Dalip Shekhawat back to the show to tell us all about his most recent adventure, The Jungle Ultra, a 230K 5 stage multi-day event in Manu National Park, deep in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. You first met Dalip in Episode 30 when we talked about his summit of Mount Everest. This time we talk about: What it’s like traveling on foo…

Jane Quinton is a 56 year old runner from Winnipeg, MB who, despite not taking up running until her late 40s, has already qualified for Boston four times and ran the iconic race twice. In this episode we dive deep into the weeds of how Jane has become even smarter about her race execution as she’s continued to gain experience in the sport. A few we…

We are excited to welcome another Couple of the Quarter - Jennifer & Matt Hoadley! Jenn & Matt met in college in Maine and now live just south of Boston, MA with their two children. While Jenn ran track as a child and into college, Matt didn’t discover his love for running until shortly after he got sober and became a recovering alcoholic in 2013. …

For all you aspiring Boston Marathon runners, this episode is for you! Chris Lemke is a 50 year old runner from Winnipeg who started chasing after his Boston dream in 2017. Over the past 5+ years there have been incredible highs but also excruciating lows, which Chris details beautifully in this conversation. Three weeks ago on May 21, 2022, on his…

Trena Chellino is a married mother of 3 from Atlanta, Georgia. She grew up in eastern Washington state, in the Columbia Valley and started running 10 years ago at the age of 48 when a hiking friend wanted to run a marathon and invited her along. After completing a few road marathons, she found trail running and never looked back. Now at the age of …

Nate Riech is one of the biggest names to emerge in Canadian Para athletics in the past few years. He burst onto the international scene in 2018 with world record performances in the 800m and 1500m and since then has continued to lower his own records in the men’s T38 category. Last summer in his Paralympic debut in Tokyo, Nate earned a gold medal …

Sophia Nehlich-Arobba is a Lifestyle Coach and Personal Trainer whose mission is to help people find meaning not just during the highs of their lives, but in the lows as well. She loves sharing her own health, wellness, and self-development journey on her podcast, Flow With the Grow, in hopes that others might relate and take aligned actions on the…

Today we are pleased to welcome Kirsten Fleming and Rachel Munday to the show. Kirsten is the Executive Director of Run Calgary and Rachel is the Executive Director of the Manitoba Marathon and as you’re about to hear, they view themselves as collaborators rather than competitors in their work to put on some of Canada’s top notch race experiences. …

Rebecca Doring is a 33 year old married runner who lives in northwest Connecticut about a mile away from the Appalachian Trail. She started her mindfulness practice in 2012 and since then has become a Certified Yoga Instructor, a Certified Meditation Teacher and a Personal Development Coach. She is also a podcaster, producing the Deep Rooted Bliss …

Today we welcome Dave Proctor back to the show. Dave is a Canadian ultrarunning machine from Okotoks, AB. He will be starting his second attempt at breaking the Trans-Canadian speed record on May 15, 2022 with the goal of travelling from one end of the country to the other in 66 days by running an average of 105km/day. We first had Dave on the show…

Today we welcome Caroline Wiebe back to the show. Caroline is a 51 year old ultrarunner from Winnipeg, MB who just returned home after completing the Marathon des Sables (MDS), a 250km 6-stage/7-day race in the deserts of Morocco. She was one of 15 Canadians among 1000 racers representing 54 countries. Since the race began in 1986, only 20 percent …

Ailsa MacDonald is a 41 year old ultrarunner who was born in Great Britain and raised in Nova Scotia. She currently resides in Cochrane, AB and splits her time between Cochrane and Phoenix, AZ when she is not working two week shift rotations in northern Alberta as an Imperial Oil Plant Operator. You first heard about Ailsa on this podcast when we i…

Jacob Puzey is a 39 year old husband, father, coach, race director and runner from Invermere, BC. He is the Director of Peak Run Performance, a company that offers a variety of coaching experiences to assist you along your running journey. He has also been a race director for two decades, and is currently directing the 5 Peaks Trail Race Series and…

Gina Tranquada is a 37 year old occupational therapist, runner, wife and mother of 2 children from Winnipeg, MB. After playing many sports while a teenager, Gina found herself getting more into running while in college. Despite having a young family and a busy career, Gina has continued to foster the fire that started to burn during that time and h…

On February 27th Carolyn completely surprised herself by winning the Las Vegas Rock ‘n Roll 10K in a time of 42:04. She recapped the race extensively on social media so check out her Instagram for all the details (@coach_carolyn), but today we wanted to hear the story from her pacer’s perspective. Not only is Kevin Beatty Carolyn’s big brother, he’…

Pam Smith is a 47 year old pathologist and mother of two teenagers who lives in Salem, OR. She also happens to be the new W45-49 American age group track record holder in the 50 mile, 100K, 12 hour and 100 mile distances. This amazing performance at Desert Solstice in December 2021 qualified her for the US National 100K team. She has been a steadfa…

Anna Charbonneau is a 44 year old working mother from Alberta who rediscovered running during the pandemic. She first took up the sport back in 2007 pushing her newborn baby in the jogging stroller, but as life got busier over the next decade running slowly became more ad-hoc and reactive rather than purposeful and intentional. Pandemic closures we…

Today’s episode is a little bit different in that we were on the other side of the mic! We recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by physical therapist Dr. Duane Scotti on episode 108 of his highly rated show, the Healthy Runner podcast. We had a great conversation about the benefits of trail running for road runners and we wanted to share …

Kristian Andres is a 35 year old trail runner born and bred in Manitoba, Canada. Once a licensed physiotherapist, Kristian went back to school in 2016 and now works as a Physician Assistant. He grew up doing functional training before it was a thing, chasing cows out of the trees on his family farm and found himself excelling at local track and fie…

This episode features one of Carolyn’s coaching clients, 35 year old Sara Golinvaux, and what led to her 14-minute PR of 3:41:30 at the Houston Marathon in January of 2022. When Sara started with Carolyn just over a year ago she had already experienced some great success but she also had a hunch that she could be even faster. She had run several ma…

Originally from Scotland, Morag McDonah is a 66 year old Nova Scotian runner who currently holds the Canadian W65 marathon record of 3:21:38. With an impressive time like this you might assume she’s been competing since grade school, but nothing could be further from the truth. Morag was in her late 40s when she took up running and it was purely fo…

Are you ready for another dynamic power couple? Both officers in the Canadian Armed Forces currently posted to Latvia, Kristine Self and Mike Mueller met in the late 1990s in Barrie ON where they instantly bonded over their shared love of running. While these two have very impressive road running resumes, we spent a good chunk of this conversation …

Shane Hartje is an entrepeneur who has run several successful for-profit organizations and is the Executive Director of the Winnipeg based non-profit organization First Steps Wellness Centre. First Steps Wellness Centre (FSWC) specializes in rehabilitation for people with neuro-muscular disorders where they help their clients regain function throug…

Janelle Vincent joins us to talk to us about nutritional considerations for runners and athletes. She is a Registered Dietitian working as a Sport Dietitian with the University of Manitoba Bisons, Canadian Sports Centre Manitoba, Pro Prep Academy and many other provincial teams and athletes. She has completed a Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Scienc…

Today we are talking with brothers Warren & Jeff Dudar, the founders of Prairie Sky Running Company and race directors of the Beaver Flat 50, a trail race near Swift Current in southern Saskatchewan, Canada. Despite their choice of name, Beaver Flat 50 is anything but flat. It boasts 8000’ of elevation gain over a persistently undulating 50K course…

Happy New Year and welcome to our quarterly catching up with Kim and Carolyn episode. We open with a discussion about treadmill running and how it can have its place so long as it supports the purpose of the day. Next we recap our fall racing seasons as well as goal races for 2022. Find out all about Carolyn’s February training camp designed to get…

We are so excited to be kicking off 2022 with running physical therapist Dr. Duane Scotti in the hopes of making this your best running year yet. Duane pretty much lives and breathes running. Not only is he the owner of SPARK physical therapy in Hamden, Connecticut, he’s also a certified running coach and host of the Healthy Runner podcast. In this…

For our final episode of 2021, we took the liberty of tweaking our normal Couple of the Quarter format to bring you this conversation with training partners Noella Klawitter and Ilona Thomas. Noella is a visually impaired runner and former high performance middle distance track athlete who’s represented Canada on a number of occasions and still hol…

Jonathan Torchia is one of the most energetic and passionate people you could ever meet, and fortunately for the Winnipeg running community he has directed a large chunk of his energy there. Not only is Jonathan a dedicated runner, he’s also a running store owner, race director, coach, pace bunny and philanthropist. Jonathan has been actively givin…

Brent Manke is a runner, web designer and writer who lives in Steinbach, Manitoba with his wife, three daughters, and new pup. After an initial venture into sprinting in grade school, Brent became more serious about running over the last decade. After competing in many 5k, 10k, and half marathons, he ran his first marathon in 2018. The following ye…

Jenn Walton is a road runner turned trail ultra runner from Winnipeg, MB. She is a former professional ballet pianist who was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at the age of two. After spending her childhood developing the skills and discipline needed to become a concert pianist, Jenn found herself struggling with overuse injuries and de…

Jaala van Dongen is a 41-year-old mother of three from La Broquerie, MB, who recently completed her first ultramarathon. She didn’t train for it nor did she have more than a couple week’s notice, but after hearing the devastating news that she’d lost her older brother to suicide, she knew she had to tackle something challenging in his honour. Jaala…

Rick Canning grew up in Nova Scotia as a competitive paddler before discovering road running, trail running and eventually ultrarunning where he now loves testing his limits the most. Although a bridge engineer by day, Rick dedicates much of his time to his coaching business, New Leaf Running Company, where he helps beginner and experienced runners…

Dala Bortolussi is a 53 year old masters sprinter from Brossard, QC. While she ran some track in high school, it wasn’t until her mid-40s that she rekindled her love for short events from 50m to 100m. After discovering how much fun it is to compete locally and across Canada over the past five years, Dala is now on a mission to bring others along wi…

Christian Stenner is a man with very diverse interests. We invited him on this podcast because Kim connected with him when he was running the Sinister 7 100 miler this summer, however as she got to know him she discovered ultrarunning is just one of the many things to which he devotes his time. Christian lives in Calgary, AB with his wife and his d…

Welcome to the fall edition of Catching Up With Kim and Carolyn, where we meander our way through various current events in the road & trail running worlds, including some of our own racing and pacing experiences. Kim kicks things off by sharing about her DNF at the Canadian Death Race, why that really concerned her and what she’s doing to remedy h…

Today we had the pleasure of interviewing brand new Guinness World Record Holder, Steffan Reimer. Steffan is a 32 year old Physical Education teacher and accomplished runner with a marathon PB of 2:37:16, so naturally when he discovered that the world record for dribbling a basketball while running a marathon was 3:00:25, he knew he had to go after…

Today we welcome our first repeat guest to Inspired Soles, Carolyn's husband Johnny Coffin. He was also on Episode 12: Slow the Bleep Down. We've been documenting Johnny's long and winding road to the 2021 Boston Marathon for several months, which began with him qualifying in the 2019 Manitoba Marathon in a time of 2:59:22. On October 11th, Thanksg…

Calvin Reimer is in his 3rd year of Kinesiology at the University of Manitoba and is part of the Bison’s track & field and cross country teams under the guidance of coach Claude Berubé. What struck us most about this fascinating interview is just how much the recreational adult runner can learn from an athlete like Calvin, who has lived and breathe…

It’s always fascinating to us how interconnected the running community is across space, time and genre. While in Manitoba Kim kept hearing the name Gavin dropped whenever anyone talked about sourcing high quality and hard to find running gear and products in Canada. “You just need to check out Gavin’s store. They’ll have it.” Over the years she has…

Brandy Adolphe is a dedicated amateur distance runner from Winnipeg in her mid-40s who has been absolutely crushing it lately. After spending a few years focused on the half marathon, in 2016 at the age of 40 she ran her first marathon in a time of 3:53:01 and has been chipping away at it ever since. In the 2021 Manitoba Marathon, she clocked in wi…

Brian Gallant is a full-time mountain trail race director from Crowsnest Pass, Alberta where he runs Sinister Sports, a growing operation that puts on trail races that many recognize and respect including the famous Sinister Triple: the Sinister 7 Ultra, Canadian Death Race, and the Black Spur Ultra. Brian has been race directing for 20 years, and …

Today we are celebrating our one year anniversary at Inspired Soles Podcast and we have a very special guest on the show, pro mountain runner Sally McrRae! Sally is a very busy and successful professional athlete, writer, coach, mom and wife. She has had podium finishes all over the world and after over a decade of racing she doesn’t seem to be slo…

Today we’re pleased to welcome Genevieve Groulx to the show. Originally from Montreal and based in Calgary AB, Gen is a Partner in tax services for a large professional services firm. She discovered running through a Run to Quit smoking cessation program offered by the Running Room in 2017, and while those first steps were tough and she didn’t have…

It’s time to welcome our third Couple of the Quarter, Brad Whitson and Jennifer Tackley, to the show! They are a running couple from Winnipeg with decades of running experience together. You would be hard pressed to find a race that they haven’t done in North America. The range represented between the two of them is incredible, from shorter road ru…