Yamini 00:15
Hello and welcome to Women of Wayland, the podcast. This is your host Yamini.
I am going to talk about a very interesting topic today and I’m sure you would relate to it. When I moved to Boston from Toronto, the first thing I noticed were the runners. They were everywhere. Like wherever I went around town, in whatever weather, whatever time of the day, I could just find people running. I was so in awe of this maybe because I could never really pick up running, especially running long distances. I can perhaps go for a jog for a few miles inside the coziness of a gym, but running 26 miles when it is 40 degrees outside, forget about it. What also amaze me was the passion that was oozed out of the runners. Oh my god! It’s like a cult, like a good cult. Running gets them all psyched up. They love discovering new people and places through running. They love their running gears too.
Well! when I approached our guest today for recordings, she gave me a disclaimer. I may not have a story, she said, with the reasoning that she has only run two marathons and Boston being the first. I assured her that doing two marathons already makes her a fantastic protagonist for a fascinating story for all those people who are already running and who are non runners, because marathon is a marathon after all, one or many. Also, isn’t it cool that she ran this year, the year that our podcast came into being? You know, it was live. So please welcome Rimante du Randt to our studio. Rimante, Thank you for coming.
Rimante 01:54
Thank you for having me here.
Yamini 01:56
It’s absolutely our pleasure. I think I attracted you on the show or maybe because you know, we’ve been wanting to talk to a runner from a long time. Thank you so much. How did you end up in Wayland?
Rimante 02:06
I’ve been in Wayland for about three years now. But in the states in general for about 19 years. I moved originally from Lithuania. I arrived in Concord area at first (Concord mass), and I was appear for a family with three children. It was wonderful match for myself and a family and I stayed with them my second year and years just seemed to follow each other and one another. And before you know 19 years later, I’m still here. So life certainly had another plan for me. I think I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. I love this town.
I find myself here with my South African husband and my two American children. And it’s wonderful. I love Wayland. I love the community. I love how green it is how rural it is. And it reminds me a lot from back home. How I grew up. Being from small town even smaller than Wayland. Spending most summers in my grandma’s village, which was half size of Wayland and probably not even that and it brings me home. I don’t think I could love to live in a big city like Boston.
Yamini 03:33
Yes. And I am not a city girl, I would love to go there. But this is better. This is good.
Rimante 03:40
This is good. It’s fun to go there, have some fun, come back and in the peace and enjoy your home.
Yamini 03:47
So Rimante, what do you find most rewarding about running, running, especially running long distances?
Rimante 03:54
It’s a personal challenge, right? And it’s being afraid of a challenge as well, right? And it’s wonderful when you reach your goal as running a marathon you train for let’s say, for four or five months and the day is here and you achieve what you were trying to achieve. It’s a wonderful feeling, of course! But what I like about running in general and why I like running long distances is that it really allows me to disconnect from the world, that multitasking world that I’m out there running and all the problems seem to be much smaller. It clears my head to kind of leave everything behind.
Sometimes, I have my phone with me and listen to the music and sometimes I don’t but I make sure not answering the messages. I’m not taking any phone calls or anything like that. It’s just me time. It allows me to be in the nature which I really love and I miss. Like I said it’s really a me time and obviously the longer you run, the more of it you can experience and there is nothing like that nice fresh outlook on life and the stress relief at the end that you feel. It really helps you carry you for the day. And then you look forward to that other run.
Yamini 05:15
As someone who doesn’t run a lot, I want to know if there is a thing as born runners. Meaning, does running come easy to some than the others. And Rimante, are you a born runner?
Rimante 05:27
I can certainly say I’m not a born runner. I wish I was! I would probably be winning marathons right now or be somewhere close to that. No, I’m not. And I’m quite fine with that. As I mentioned to you before, as we were chatting before recording, and recording this, that I wasn’t really very good at sports in high school or college. Not that, I probably could have been better. I just didn’t really try. I tried a little bit of soccer, tried a little bit of gymnastics and whatever they had to offer at that time. But I wasn’t much into it. I always like more drama, riding and these kind of things.
But running came into my life later. I was in my 30s and I was in a quite an a crisis in my life at that time. And I wouldn’t use to go for long walks. I was living in Lexington at that time and it was beautiful Minuteman trails, they have to walk. So go for, you know, miles and miles walking.
Yamini 06:28
When was this, Rimante? Which year was it?
Rimante 06:30
It was like about eight years ago. I had so much emotional turmoil that fast walking became too slow. And I just kept walking and I decided running. I would just go from one landmark to another landmark. Then next time I’m on the same trail, I would just miss that landmark and just follow today another one before it was a mile and before it was three miles then, I just couldn’t stop. I remember being like 90 degrees days, it was a hot summer, the summer when I started running. And, people would walk their dogs and go back in their houses again, because it was so hot. And I would be on the trail running because it was like a Forrest Gump moment. I started and I couldn’t stop.
Then I have my children later and my husband had my kids and obviously took several years away of running. Now that I had both boys, I picked it up again. And that’s when I decided to go for marathon. My husband always laughs that I don’t do things in a normal way. I always push myself, I don’t sign up for 5k to get started, I signed up for a marathon.
Yamini 07:42
Which is so amazing! Oh my goodness! I wish I was like you and because I have this initial hesitation for running. I feel like I have to train myself for 3k, 5K, 10k..
Rimante 07:55
But, that’s the smart way to do it. That’s exactly how you should be doing it. Not like me. So, don’t set me as example!
Yamini 08:01
But, here you are running a marathon and here I am just thinking about it.
Rimante 08:06
It’s a good fun, and that’s kind of brings me to that, I don’t follow rules. But, when it comes to running, it just tells me not for discipline because with the Boston Marathon, I had injured both of my knees because I was just running too long, too many runs too far. And I think that would brought me to the runners knees and they had to take out weeks out of my training right before the marathon and just do other things to stay fit as much as I could. But then again, that’s another lesson learned that you have to stick to the plan!
Yamini 08:43
I have to ask you this. What in the world motivates people to run long distances? Like what is so attractive about it?
Rimante 08:49
Now I can see that for someone who is not a runner. It’s like why do you do it? Why would you go just go for casual run and have fun, right, get some exercise. But I think it brings me back to the same answer that I gave you already before the other previous question that is truly as a flow, it’s a challenge. And it’s a personal victory at the end. You know, it’s a journey when you train for a marathon for such a long distance. It’s not just a casual 5k or 10k run around the block or a fun run. I think a fun run, you know, and then next down, it’s something you have to prepare. You have to put your mind into it. You have to prepare you know your mind your body. Again, it’s not just the physical challenges as we know. It’s just as much as a mental challenge.
Yamini 09:34
What are you guys thinking when you’re running this marathon? Like what are the train of thoughts or do they stop and what happened? Yeah, I’m like 26 miles, that means around three hours…sometimes it’s three, four or five hours you are running and what are you thinking when you’re running?
Rimante 09:45
During my casual runs, when I’m circling the town of Wayland or just going for my fun run, it’s more what you’re going through, what your problems, what you’re going through the day, what was good, what happened, what was maybe something upsetting or maybe even what you’re cooking for dinner? Or maybe, you know, whatever whatever you’re going through in your life. That’s what you are thinking. Sometimes it shuts down. Sometime you have full head of thoughts and sometime it’s completely empty. It’s like just you listening to your breathing you hearing your footsteps and you just looking at the beautiful lilacs growing along the road.
During actual marathon, when I ran Boston or Dana Farber, for wonderful charity, I thought of the people that I was running for when the running really got tough. And then the weather became hot. I was thinking about my brother in law, a few other people, what I was running for, and it really powers you through those last miles. You also try to enjoy it. as fun as it sounds maybe for someone on running, thinking like you’re struggling, gosh, this is so much work, but you’re really enjoying it. Because it’s a victory lap.
My favorite run would be going towards the farmland farm in Lincoln. There’s so many beautiful landmarks and beautiful flowers and homes and farms. I love seeing it. During a different time of the day, during different season. So it’s really it’s just a wonderful fulfilling experience. And I don’t think of – “Oh my God, I have so many more miles left, like, Oh my goodness, it’s so much more to go.” You know, it’s not a job! It’s enjoyable.
Yamini 11:58
Do you think a lot of pressure is on you to finish the race on time ? Or you have your own goals?
Rimante 12:05
You brought into a very good point that you truly try to do what you set yourself off to do. I especially like Chicago around as I always say for myself. It was just I wanted to do it. I went for a fun weekend away. It was my own desire to finish my first marathon and I had no expectations. But yes, I knew I wanted to run it without stopping. That was my first goal, I guess. And I have so much fun doing it. For Boston, it was a little bit different, it was different for Dana Farber, and because I have all these people I was running for. And so it definitely meant more for me. Did I answer your question?
Yamini 12:06
Yeah, you did.
Rimante 12:20
I think I went away somewhere with it. I ran to some other place which I tend to do.
Yamini 12:59
I think it’s fascinating because I was thinking about Boston Marathon being so brutal last year. And this year, it was rainy but it wasn’t that bad.
Rimante 13:09
You’re Right! You know I started the marathon when we started in Hopkinton. It was cloudy, it was perfect actually weather conditions. There was cool. And I truly enjoyed it up to about Framingham the sun started to come out when they saw my family Natick, which was so nice to see my husband and then the sun really came out and it became very hot and thinking about that what you just asked what you’re thinking when you’re running a marathon.
What I was thinking that for a stretch was like, Okay, I gotta make it to my boys because the nap time approaching my little white needs to go for a nap. And then I see them and they’re so excited. I’m like, Oh my gosh, I have no hats. I bet they have no sunscreen. I wonder if they had water, you know, all the things that I was laughing to myself as I passed them thinking like this was a moment to really hug embrace and take some nice pictures and here I am just being a mom, you know, no matter what.
Yamini 14:06
And we’ll always play
Rimante 14:08
Yeah, we did. We did our best we took some, you know, just shoveled pictures, but it doesn’t matter. They still very precious and they made a nice sign and all and it was very special. Oh yeah, they were very proud. I think the leading up to it. It’s really what is a celebration, I feel optimistic on as well. It’s like enjoying the journey.
It’s like the bride when you plan for the wedding. You know that the wedding day is almost like a blur. It’s so much excitement that so much going on. You know what every second every person you talk to, every move you make is super special. But it’s a blur and flies by. From the moment you wake up to the moment you’re gonna go to bed. It’s gonna be such a long stretch of time. How am I going to make it? It flies by just like a wedding day so why not enjoy the preparation.
In all the journey, my boys would watch mommy go run on the weekend sometime gone for two-three hours and they were so cute they would even bring me water somewhat somewhere along the way with daddy or snack or so on. So, they were fully engaged and involved in this journey and they know, here we go… mommy’s running, she’s gone and they put some time pick up my headphones and put in their ears and say, “Mommy, I’m going for a run”, or they would step in my shoes and say, “Mommy, I’m wearing your marathon.” You know, it’s what’s so special.
Yamini 15:35
And you beautifully put it up as a wedding when this is happening. All of blurry. You know, I wish I could just go back.
So, tell me something. Do athletes, runners, pee? I mean, too much information, but I want to know.
Rimante 15:47
Oh, you’re so cute. I love your question. Well, it’s interesting. There are plenty of porta potties along the way and people do go use them and some don’t. So, just go to the side of the road, like a man.
Yamini 16:03
I am so sure that last year, it was so cold. People would be like, using those toilets throughout.
Rimante 16:11
Oh, yeah, well, they some used it and some not. But people went…
Yamini 16:16
But, do people train to not go to the washroom?
Rimante 16:19
I don’t know if you could train for that. I mean, your body does what… You just drink less water, like leading up to maybe half an hour or 45 minutes for your run. You also sip along the way. As you go, there are tables, the hydration stations. In both marathons, I never had to stop. Talking about the body, it seems like everything just shuts down. And I heard that from several runners. And that whole system just wait till later. Yeah, but some don’t, it’s just what your body is used to. And in general, whenever I went on my long runs during my training, I’ve never in my life had to stop. So that’s pretty good. That’s a useful time as a minute to the marathon time.
So it depends, what kind of level marathoner you are and how serious about your goals you are. Most of training plans will be around from 12 weeks to 18 weeks. I think I started training late November. And we had pretty good winter when it came to running. It was cold, but it wasn’t so snowy.
Rimante 17:34
I was thinking you might just lose on some time if you use the washroom. Alright, on to the next question Rimante. An often asked question, how is your training process? When did it start? Tell us about the whole process?
And again, just unfortunate that I got in injured end of January. So I wasn’t able to run for February and March. I don’t do things the way it’s supposed to be done, I ran too much in too fast, they think and I just got Runner’s knees. And basically when you just over use your body over use your knees, and you know, your body says, “Okay, you got to slow down.” For some people few days are enough.
For myself, it took almost two months. So unfortunately, for me, I had to do other things at the gym, like use machines, and so on, and just pray to God that I can still be fit enough to do it. And that’s why I think that made the marathon kinda more special, too, because I knew I wasn’t prepared. I knew I wasn’t as fit as I was for Chicago. You know, when I nailed every training ground, almost every run, and I missed a lot. And it meant a lot.
And you know that again, I’m going away from your question. But I think for Dana Farber, running this marathon, it was so imperfect, in that sense, because my training wasn’t perfect. And it was a struggle, I’m not gonna lie, I have a lot of pain in my knees, and so on, and what’s hot and, you know, other elements, but I was running then through those struggling miles thinking, this is perfect. It’s imperfect-perfect in the sense that a lot of people who going through cancer right now and going through cancer treatments, and some passed away and some battling their battles, and what would they done? You know, would they stop? They would have not stopped, it would keep going, keep running. And you know, those patients who are going for it also,
Yamini 19:31
It’s a motivation you have.
Rimante 19:32
It’s a motivation. So it gave me a different outlook. I was struggling, they were struggling, I know what I was doing. And it was beautiful. It was one of the best days of my life. And what was your question again?
Yamini 19:49
This is very fascinating. Rimante like I said, is there a particular part of your body that you focus on? When you’re taking a break from the marathon like, do you have to have a very strong core to run long distances or you can just start like, for example, I don’t have a strong core. And I’m running. But is that what is stopping me to run long distance?
Rimante 20:12
Oh gosh, this would be a great question for our Dana Farber marathon team Jack Fals, who is the winner of 1976 marathon, Boston Marathon, that would be all great questions. And I can ask him, he’ll be more detailed with that. But with my knowledge, yes, core is big part of it. And you got to build your cardio somehow, right. So you have to start with walking, start small runs, it doesn’t have to be fast. But yes, the whole body, really your upper body, your lower body, it all matters. But as they say, everything comes from your core, it comes from your glutes, so you really have to work your glutes and your core. Everything is engaged as you’re running. And right now, I’m in rehab, so to speak, I’m still rehabing my knees after marathon. And what I’m doing a lot is glute exercises. So it takes away from like, well merely exercises for your bom-bom you know, you have to strengthen that and your core, and then takes away the pressure from your knees and the joints and all kinds of tissues. So overall, it is good to do some cross training and additional to just running getting strong. Anything you can do count.
Yamini 21:30
So, when you were running Chicago and Boston, which one did you think was the easy and which one was tough? The track?
Rimante 21:38
Definitely Chicago was the easier. I think like I did one of each and so to speak Chicago being the easiest I think. People usually tend to say that Chicago out of especially sixth world major marathons is easiest. Yeah. It was cool. It was 47 degrees maybe and raining.
Yamini 21:57
Do you prefer running in cold?
Rimante 21:59
Yean definitely cold. It’s easier to run in cold then when in heat. So Chicago was flat, very flat. There was tiny little hill at the end. And we were like, oh, my gosh, who put that hill there. You know, it was like a challenge. But it was so flat and Boston. It’s that downhill. And then it’s pretty flat. Yeah.
Yamini 22:18
So when you’re training for Boston marathon, are you looking at some elevation gain every time you’re..
Rimante 22:23
Absolutely, you want to train for hills, so thats again, to go back to my regular course that I usually run from happy hollow area to drumlin farm, that way, it gives me enough hills to go up and down. And that is great Hill right by happy hollow, which you can just go up and down, up and down. You know, do your drills, I’m gonna say didn’t do very much of that or track running. But again, I’m not trying to win a marathon. I’m just there for fun and running for charity and just trying to somewhat fit and have my mind in place to raise children.
Yamini 23:00
I’m a big foodie Rimante. I can eat breakfast..
Rimante 23:04
Yeah, we have a thing in common!
Yamini 23:07
Oh, I’m so glad. But talking about the diet. You think, you know, a diet play? I’m sure diet plays an important role in marathon. But I’m thinking, is there a specific diet you follow before the race?
Rimante 23:21
Let’s just say that I have not been very strict with my diet. You know, a lot of times I’ll finish my kids mac and cheese, right? Just like most Mom, you know, at the end of the night. But yes, diet is important, you will know right away when you’re out there running, if you’ve been eaten while or not, or if you maybe had too many glasses of wine or you’ve been not sleeping very well, because of whatever reasons maybe you’re staying up late reading a book or whatever you’re doing. You need to get enough sleep, you somehow find at least most nights and eat well..
Yamini 23:54
There’s no restriction while… you know, carbs or..?
Rimante 23:57
You want to make sure that you don’t eat a lot of fat, I guess. They say the fatty foods are not different, not very friendly towards runners. Carbs are good, because it’s your fuel, so you want to eat good carbs, or like the whole grain and breads, and, lean meat and all of that is wonderful too. But you just want to stick to the healthy diet as much as you can. I’m sure that the athletes, professional runners and people who win marathons, they have everything lined up from A to Z for them, and they follow and it certainly makes you reach your optimal goal and your results.
For someone like me, I’m more of a casual runner. I wouldn’t say that I had a specific diet. One book that I refer to a lot, it’s by Shalane Flanagan, who is one of our local runners, runs many marathons and she won New York few years ago. So, I have a cookbook. When she eats and so it’s a lot of fresh produce, a lot of fresh meats, all of her fresh fruit. Then, she has plenty baked goods in there too. But they have all the dried fruit or nuts or something healthy olive oil, coconut milk, all that. Yeah, trying to just organic and fresh, eat fresh, eat local.
Yamini 25:21
So what do you eat before the race? Like do you have breakfast?
Rimante 25:25
Yeah, you gotta have a breakfast and a good one. You don’t want to eat right before. So, let’s say we started marathon at 11 o’clock. I think that’s a long time from you get up at five that morning to get to Hopkinton. So before I left, they had oatmeal with protein powder in it and walnuts.
Yamini 25:42
What do you have for dinner before?
Rimante 25:45
Let’s talk about that. So most people will have spaghetti or they’ll have like, Oh, yes, that actually reminds me of a funny story. Before my first Chicago Marathon, a night before, I met some native foreigners, some local runners who also were running Chicago Marathon, we connected on Facebook, that they’re gonna be there and we said, let’s all meet for breakfast. I’m sorry for dinner night before. So we pick this nice Italian restaurant and we all met. Sharing our experiences and meeting each other for the first time and so on, and time came to order food.
Everybody just got like playing spaghetti and water and they were very disciplined they ran many marathons, which people know what they’re doing. At that time. I wasn’t very concerned about the food. It’s my first marathon. I’m like, I would like some spaghetti. Can I have some broccoli? And can I have some what other veggies do you have? And I want this and that and they were looking at me You really shouldn’t eat like vegetables, especially broccoli and I before I guess because it’s fiber can load you. Okay, you don’t feel good.
Next day, you might need to go to the bathroom. And I was sitting there thinking, I don’t think I have this right on my plate. But I ordered it and I ate it. I’m like, whatever it is, I’m gonna stick with it. Right there. I figured it out. And you know, thank God, I was okay. I didn’t have any issues. But I’d now I kind of I think I’d stay away.
So the night before Boston, we had Dana Farber pasta dinner at Marriott Hotel in Boston. And it was amazing. They had very nice pasta, and they did stick to spaghetti and bread. It was very touching. It was lots of stories about you know, cancer survivors and all the wonderful fundraising that we did for the charity. It’s such a well run charity.
Yamini 27:41
All in all, marathon is not just a race. I think it’s a amalgamation of all the love and dedication and motivation we pour into a race.
Rimante 27:52
You just said it all what I’ve been trying to say all this time, you just summed it up very nicely. It’s exactly what it is. Marathon is just like life, it has ups and downs. Like I said, the training and all but why we really do it is because we not only want to reach that personal victory, and say, “Oh, I can run a marathon.” But I think running for a cause makes it that much more special. Yeah.
Yamini 28:19
And pushes you mentally
Rimante 28:20
Yeah, that pushes you mentally and you know, it made me so aware. There’s so many charities out there. Like I wasn’t aware of people run for organic farm, you really brings a lot of awareness, it brings you the community, it brings you the people that you never met before, and you stay in touch and that’s why people run several marathons in a row. Then they run for Dana Farber again, I met people who ran consecutive 5-10-20 marathons in a row. Can you imagine? it’s because this is their life. It’s like a cult, almost at the beginning you mentioned, but it’s a best cult.
Rimante 29:01
Its people, hundreds of 1000s of dollars for these charities and without them you know, they can’t have as much success of finding medicine and coming new treatments or whatever charity you running. It’s so important. And that’s why I have this dream of, well, I said to my husband, I’ll never say it out loud. But I guess now one way saying it I want to run all six majors of marathons, so, I have four left. So, we’ll see. First, I need to get those knees right. It might not even happen but you know, so if I do do that, I’d love to run for charity again if I could. It’s always good to do it as a lottery because a lot you can win the lottery and enter without having to raise money, but it makes it so much more with a purpose.
Yamini 29:57
It’s all worth. So, this may be a long shot, but talking about races, do you have any running heroes?
Rimante 30:06
So you know, first again, going back to charity runners, I feel like all these wonderful charity runners are the heroes. Not that you’re not a hero if you train hard and run a marathon without the charity, but the people who do all the work. Of course, all those people who donate, they’re my heroes too. All those people who donated money and brought me to my goal of over close to $14,000 a day for a race for Dana Farber, they are my heroes. They all deserve a medal. You know, not just me. And so, but that’s true. It’s true. Any charity runner will tell you the same thing. But you cannot really talk about the marathon especially for us women marathoners without thinking about Katherine Switzer. She was the first.
Yamini 30:57
I’ve read about her the time I have entered Boston. Yes.
Rimante 31:02
Yeah. And it’s amazing like she has her own charity now and and she’s done so much wonderful work. So you know, she’s definitely a marathon hero. And as I mentioned before, you know, Shalane Flanagan, Cara Gaocher, Deseret, you know, all of those ladies are living unicorns to me. And my favorite Jack Falls our coach.
Yamini 31:29
I have a question for him.
Rimante 31:31
I expressed his love publicly met my love to jack publicly many times already. He knows that everybody knows. I just admire him how humble he is and funny and great storyteller. Oh my gosh, you’ve to listen to him.
Yamini 31:44
Admiration always leads to gracious love.
Rimante 31:47
Yeah. Selfless man with such wonderful accomplishments and so humble. And I just adore him.
Yamini 31:56
This one is for our listeners. Do you have a favorite trail or track in Wayland?
Rimante 32:01
As I refer to the Drumlin Farm. I’m a creature of habit. I don’t have much of imagination, I guess when it comes to those things, but I stick to what I know and what works and having so to speak mommy’s running hours. Usually, you do what you can.
So I know my track. I know where it leads to. It’s safe. It’s by the main road I’m on a sidewalk I know God forbid something happens there is always someone to see me. I also love on and off the nature of the beauty of the nature. There is always a path of I know what’s coming. I know what I’m looking for. Is there a pretty house with a nice flowers. If they’re like some lilac bushes and going towards conquer. There is I think hood project the farm on my right, usually a pass and it’s the most beautiful sight to see. It’s like you pass it in you. It looks one way and then you go towards Concord on the way back it already looks different because sun is sitting at a different angle. So all these things I enjoy. I don’t really like running track like loops around. It’s boring to me.
Yamini 33:08
I feel like I will seek out more and more new trails.
Rimante 33:13
And like I said, Lexington conquer, there’s like a dirt road. It’s lovely. I love that.
Yamini 33:28
What has this marathon journey taught you personally? Like you ran for a cause. And it was a motivation. But you started Chicago on your own and you did not wait for 5k 10k
Rimante 33:43
it healed me in the areas where I need to be healed, I think. And it still is healing as I go for my runs. And I go from my experiences it really shows you that you’re much stronger than you think you are. And you can do more when you think you can. It taught me more of a positivity in that sense that instead of saying “no, I can’t over take this challenge. I can’t do that I’m not a runner. I’m not gonna make it happen.” Well, you know what, I want to run and I’m going to do it. And I’m going to stick with it!
It taught me that you have to show up. Also, if you said you’re going to do something, you got to show up and do it. You can’t just do it halfway. It also taught me a lot about myself: where I have to improve myself as a person, as being impatient that I want things to happen fast, that I need to take my time and do the things that I supposed to do at that time. It really made me stronger I think as a person. More confident as a person. Running is like your therapist. You are out there, sometimes you have one story to tell sometimes you don’t have so much to say to your therapist, but it’s always there to listen to you. And it’s always a good visit.
Yamini 35:04
Finally, last question to end on a light note. Do you have a fun fact to share about Wayland?
Rimante 35:11
Fun fact? How about there’s one Lithuanian in Wayland. You know that for a fact? Yes. But now that i think there are several Lithuanians. I just have not connected with them yet. But we know for a fact it’s probably just one who ran a marathon or Boston Marathon. I doubt it. Yeah, you go up on Lithuanian and Wayland.
Yamini 35:29
Do you have a fun story about marathon running this year?
Rimante 35:32
Gosh, there’s so many stories. The whole marathon is made up of all fun stories and some serious stories. One story that I still think about some time that I go on, when I exercise or whatever, just some time randomly comes to my head. On the marathon course, when I ran Boston, there were two guys maybe in their 50s or 60s, wearing this shirt says “Thing number one and Thing number two”, and they were just always somehow around me.
And I’m like, how we can we just be at the same pace all the time, because I stopped to see my family then I stopped to see friends, I made like five, six stops along the way. And every couple minutes, I’m like, oh, here they are! Here I see thing number two, and I sometimes would be like, where is thing number one.. And then the professional pictures came out the Boston Marathon. They were there. Thing number one. Now I can’t remember if it was thing number one or thing number two, right then return into Boyle stead. I was like, you know, your victory picture so to speak. Here it is over my shoulder. The gentleman with his shirt. I was like, Oh my gosh, here we go. I’m glad to have a picture with him.
Yamini 36:43
Oh, my God. Yeah. This is hilarious. Thank you so much! This has been a truly fascinating conversation. I think I enjoyed every bit. I might have some questions popping in even when you leave. But I swear I’m not gonna bother you now.
Rimante 36:57
And I’ll think about that, too.
Yamini 36:59
I’ve learned by talking to you, Rimante. And I realized the importance of getting a fresh perspective on this running conundrum.
Rimante 37:06
Yes, you should do it. If you ever thought about it that oh, you know, I would like to just up the street up the hill and back another day, maybe you turn the corner, maybe go a little walk?
Yamini 37:18
Yeah, break that mental barrier and just go That’s it.
Rimante 37:22
That’s it. We don’t always have to have a shake up in our life to start running. You know, though, that helps. I think a lot of times in that sense that we have another force in you that motivates you to do that. But I think it’s fun. I really believe everybody can run if you’re not prone to injury. If you’re prone to injury, then you have to look for other things.
Yamini 37:46
Thank you so much Rimante
Rimante 37:48
Oh, you’re so sweet. Thank you. I was so nervous. And like I told you before that I wasn’t sure if I have much of a story to tell. You’re doing great work.
Yamini 38:00
Thank you very much. Rimante, welcome and thank you for coming.