Name: Watch Obstacle Racer Talk About the Gender Gap in Sports
Uploaded: 2016-12-01
Duration: 13 min 13 s
Description: Amelia Boone spoke at MPW NextGen Summit in California.

this is Amalia Boon. She is superman bat man all rolled into one you just heard that phenomenal into. I think a lot of people see these tough mudders and the spartan races as that photograph on instagram at the finish line with your face caked in mud and all that but just explain to people, if you haven't heard of it, what are some obstacles you are over coming in these races physical. It; s interesting a lot of people are like so you've heard of the tough mudder or spartan and I'm like yeah. You can compete in that? But, for those of you who may be unfamiliar, it's basically you're running distances from three miles to the longest event we have is 24 hours and you're jumping and you're crawling under things, and you're crawling under barbed wire, and you're climbing ropes, and you're carrying buckets up a mountain full of rocks. so it's pretty much very primal. It's what ever can be thrown at you and your doing it as fast as you can .>> I've been interviewing people for a long time especially athletes and they say go with the simple question. Why? [ LAUGH ] Good question. It's interesting, I actually didn't start, it's a fairly new sport it's been around for five, six years at his point. I didn't start until I was 28. I was a first year associate at a large law firm in Chicago. And I think at that point I went out and ran it with a bunch of friends, a bunch of coworkers actually, and I felt so alive. There is something so primal and physical about being out there, and I think nowadays we shield our self from so much pain and from so much things, we don't like being uncomfortable. So it was almost this mechanism of feeling alive out there and I just got hooked Let's talk about pain tolerance, for a second. [ LAUGH ] Because I think yours is obviously, the threshold is much higher. But, what does it feel like to go through that? How do you push through that kind of pain? Yeah, it's one of those experiences where your entire body is screaming at you. And that's what's unique about obstacle course racing is that it's not just running. You go out and you run a marathon, your legs are gonna hurt by the end of the day But you're like, my arms. What do I do with my arms? [ LAUGH ] Literally, like what do I do with my arms when I'm running? It's an entire body experience, and so it's just one of those things where you're just physically And mentally draining by the end. Yeah. I have tons of questions, I can only imagine how many questions you guys have. So get those ready and we'll come to you in just a moment. Recently though you have suffer a couple injuries, the knee surgery which you came back from but then also broken femur. And you were really forced to be side lines for the first time since you started absolute course racing. What did you learn about yourself, what did you learn about the sport when you were on the sidelines? Yeah, what's interesting, the thing that's made me very successful at this sport had been a very high tolerance for pain. It's also something that led to my downfall, which was running my way into breaking my femur. And But, so I've been on the sidelines this entire past season and it's been incredible what it's taught me. Is really to experience joy through the success of others and to be someone's biggest fan. I think athletes their entire identity is wrapped up in being an athlete and you when you can't do that you lose part of yourself. And your instinct is to go hide your head in the sand and pretend it's not happening. And as much as it was awful to be out there on the sidelines, just wanting to compete, what I found was that being part of that community and staying involved was so key to me. And what I learned was, there is many different ways to go around these races. And Winning a race for somebody doesn't necessarily mean that they're crossing the finish line first. It's your race, everyone has their own experience out there. So you have the most decorated obstacle course to racer as a female ever, or maybe both genders. You're also a corporate attorney. [ LAUGH ] How do you know when to give up? How do you know, and how do you process if there's a time when you don't meet your goal. That's interesting. I'm not sure giving up are in my vocabulary, because I'm kind of hardheaded, as I'm sure a lot of women out here are. But, I think A lot in life is facing those failures and realizing that at some point you are going to come up short. But you don't learn any lessons when you fail and we've talked about that, there's so much beauty in the struggle And being knocked down a peg and learning from that and that's really where you grow as a person and that's where people identify with you. And that's one thing I've learned from being on the sidelines this entire past year is that exposing that vulnerability and exposing that hey, I struggle too and this isn't all roses and I'm not just out there dominating everything in life. And that's very relatable. It seems like after you do a 24 hour race or there used to be something called a death race that I found out recently it was like 72 hours in the middle of Vermont in the winter. Amelia can tell you more about that but it seems like coming back to the office on Monday morning would seem kind of anti climactic. [ LAUGH ] What does the law side give you? I mean, you could be just a professional obstacle course racer. You could be a spokesperson, a brand ambassador. You could make a living that way. Why do you keep wanting to practice law? I found that I function the best when I have multiple balls in the air. When I'm juggling a number of things, and when I'm busy. And what I found a lot of me provides a mental stimulus that's different than being out there racing as an athlete, which is actually very mentally taxing. Endurance racing, the first 12 hours are physical, the next 12, 14 hours are all mental. So [ LAUGH ] your body is going to give out before your mind gives out. So I think for me it's just I don't like to identify myself as one thing. When I go around, when somebody asks me what I do, it's a very hard question. I'm like I'm a full- time attorney, and a full- time athlete. But I like having those both sides and to me, it just makes me feel very well rounded. I read something where you said a race, you call yourself a notoriously slow starter in these races cuz you say the race isn't gonna be won in the first eight hours, it's not gonna be even won in the first twelve hours. Do you apply that same long view to the rest of your life? Are you able to use that same philosophy when it comes to your corporate life too? Yeah I try to carry it over I try to think there's a lot, we can get into metaphors and whatnot between racing in life, but there's a lot of carry over between the two and I think that people often focus on the here and the now and the what can I fix and everything is going wrong I try and take a step back always. And look down the road and kind of look at the whole picture. And that definitely for me it's helped pace myself. Cuz I will jump into something, I'll get all flustered and then just like [ LAUGH ] Step back. yeah, it's not one of the first eight hours. Or twelve. Questions out there? Get them ready for Amelia. There's one right over here. Yes, I wondered if If you could describe your training schedule and when you do your training around your full time job. Yeah, so I'm a notoriously early riser. I've always been a morning person, but I'm up around 4- 4: 30 in the morning and I've found that If I put off training 'til the end of the day, I know that work can get in the way. Emails will come up, clients will reach out, and that I won't always have that time. I know nobody's gonna be looking for me at 5 o'clock in the morning. So that's where I get in the majority of my training. And people always wonder, how do you have time? And it's not always a perfect fit. But I've really found that, if you have passion for something, you make the time. And so I have these passions and these two facets in my life, and it doesn't feel like a chore. To me that's, you know, I make sacrifices elsewhere, but I'm able to juggle those two because I love them so much. What are some of the other sacrifices? I mean, social life isn't always the best. To be totally honest when you have to get up and run 30 miles for training run, you're not gonna be out heavily boozing the night before or may be you are? [ LAUGH ] Some people function better that way. But to me it doesn't feel like a sacrifice because I feel like You know, I'm redefining and reframing what it means to have it all for me, and those are the things that are important to me right now, and they can shift later on in life. And that's great that we have the ability to pivot and we have the ability to reinvent ourselves. You know, I didn't start racing until I was 28, until I was an attorney already and. That was a reinvention for me. Yeah, I also loved that you eat Pop Tarts and doughnuts and stuff. [ LAUGH ] Not like crazy, crazy- I never ask anybody, I'm like don't ask me about my diet because you don't wanna follow it. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] I think we have another question here, go ahead. There, I just started doing Spartans last year so I've done three. And it's just amazing, like how many people you see there, but yet, how many people don't know about it. And I think what you talked about, the primal, and just taking you out of your every day life, it's been great. I was just curious what obstacle for you is the hardest, that I'm still trying to learn how to climb the rope. It's really hard, just as a Deeper piece for that one but what was the hardest physical obstacle that you? Yeah, I'm notoriously awful at the spear throw. So if anybody's seen is you basically take a spear and you throw it and you have to stick it into a bale of hay. Totally natural. I grew up playing softball, and I was a pitcher, so I got this no problem, no problem, no it's not at all like throwing a softball. It's more like throwing a dart. So that's always been kind of my Achilles heel. But that's what's great about is most people go out to these races and they'll fail miserably And then they'll just not, they'll be like, whatever, I wasn't good at that. But it gives you something to work on, and it gives you a challenge. We'll meeting tomorrow at 7 am for spear throwing. Right. [ LAUGH ] I'm not good with the legal weapons. Stay out of the way? I think we have one over here, too, go ahead. Hi my name is Kimberly, I work at UBS, and I was on a gym this morning, and I have to say your body is amazing. [ LAUGH ] And my question is, that push up you were doing it was quick down and up. [ LAUGH ] How do you do that? [ LAUGH ] Let's do it Emilia. Lot's of training and then you wanna see? I felt is so. [ APPLAUSE ] [ APPLAUSE ] Amazing. My gosh. In the heels. In the heels. I'll clap for that. Sorry to put you on the spot there. I just, I knew you could do it. We don't have a lot of time left here so I do want to talk to you about one thing which is both of your, these trades. Which are obstacle racing also being attorney at apple really male dominated. And curious to know when you first got into the obstacle course racing, your beating the men. You're passing them on the course. What's the response to you? So what's interesting I have this story in 2012 world service mutter There were about 1, 000 competitors and I think only about 100 of us were women. And you're running through the night, this was New Jersey in the middle of December and it's about 20 degrees, and everyone's wearing wetsuits, cuz it's the only way you'll survive cuz you're in and out of water. Everyone looks the same in a wetsuit. And so I was passing all these guys, and they're like, go dude, you got it dude. I'm like thank you. [ LAUGH ] And they're like my God that's a woman and it's amazing like five years ago or so there was a lot of shock and awe and resistance. A lot of men didn't like the idea that they were quote on quote checked by a woman. They would almost try and shove you out of the way or elbow you out of the way. And now it's surprising the amount of support and guys who, I wasn't able to run [ UNKNOWN ] [ INAUDIBLE ] this past year because of my injury but all these guys were like, we're going to miss you lapping us out there. So I've seen a culture shift and it's actually very encouraging. Yeah This is awful but we are actually out of time. So sorry about that I know that Amelia she'll be around answering your questions. Thank you so much you're so inspirational. I can't figure you out but I love it. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Amelia Boone spoke at MPW NextGen Summit in California.