Run to the Top Podcast | The Ultimate Guide to Running Running at the Mouth, While Running For Her Life: Fitz Koehler - 09-22-2020
Imagine doing everything right with your health and fitness, being in peak shape, and enjoying a super successful career announcing at the start and finish lines of some of the top marathons and races in the country, and then being slammed with a cancer diagnosis. What do you do?
If you’re Fitz Koehler, you become even more of an inspiration. In 2019, Fitz found a cancerous lump in her breast just seven weeks after a clear mammogram. True to form, she immediately began treatment, including chemo, to wage an all-out war against the cancer. The treatment was exhausting and debilitating. Did she take time off? No! She got on the phone to the race directors, informed them of her diagnosis, and then told them she would still be showing up for the races. And she did.
Fitz announced at all of her scheduled races, even when literally losing her hair while doing so. She continued to fly around the country, sometimes spending entire nights on bathroom floors, but she still showed up at the races where she both gave and got energy from the athletes.
Fitz is now cancer-free and shares her story and amazing outlook on life and running in this motivating episode with Coach Claire.
Fitz Koehler, M.S.E.S.S. is one of the most prominent and compelling fitness experts and race announcers in America. As the voice of the Los Angeles Marathon, Philadelphia Marathon, Big Sur Marathon, DC Wonder Woman Run Series, and more, she brings big structure, energy, and joy to sport. She’s also passionate about guiding others to live better and longer through her company, Fitzness®. Fitz has appeared on national media outlets and has worked as a speaker and spokesperson for corporations like Disney® and Office Depot®. She has also inspired millions of kids to get active through her successful school running/walking program, The Morning Mile®. Fitz enjoys water sports, strength training, animals, hugs, sarcasm, and travel. She lives in Gainesville, Florida with her husband and two kids.
Questions Fitz is asked:
4:53 Besides being a fitness professional, one of the things that you are most well-known for is race announcing. Can you tell us how you started and what exactly is involved?
7:48 You had a really full race schedule and were doing great. You’re absolutely uber-fit, and then all of a sudden, after doing everything right, you were hit with a cancer diagnosis. Can you talk about what your life was like just before your diagnosis? Did you feel invincible?
8:43 You had just had a clear mammogram a couple months earlier before your cancer diagnosis.
10:04 Can you tell us how the cancer diagnosis, that first few weeks, how it affected you and your family?
11:21 You’re known for being a positive person who encourages people all the time, and you had to deliver some pretty bad news. How was that?
12:49 You had a full race calendar, and after you made that video announcing your diagnosis you had to make some phone calls to the race directors that were expecting you to show up. What was that like?
14:47 As you were announcing the March 2019 LA marathon, your hair began to fall out during the race. Can you talk about that?
17:16 Obviously losing your hair has got to be difficult for anyone, but you chose specifically not to wear a wig and embrace your baldness. Can you talk about that?
18:54 How many races did you end up announcing during your treatment? And how difficult was it?
20:55 How did you have the confidence to call races? Anybody would have understood if you said, “Look, I’m just too sick. I’m going to take a pass.” How did you know that it was going to be okay?
21:33 Clearly your own exercise routine was thrown way out of whack by cancer. How did your exercise change and how did you build back up?
24:46 Why don't you like pink ribbons?
26:23 Coming full circle, you were back announcing the 2020 LA Marathon. Can you explain what that was like?
27:52 Now that you are cured of cancer, your life has no doubt been completely changed with the cancellation of races due to the virus. How have you used this time instead?
29:50 Tell us what the title of your book is and when it comes out.
31:45 What’s your advice on what to say to somebody who announces a diagnosis like yours?
33:28 What’s your next race on the calendar?
Questions I ask everyone:
33:52 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you started running, what advice would you give?
34:46 What is the greatest gift running has given you?
35:11 Where can listeners connect with you?
Quotes by Fitz:
“First of all, I whip them into a frenzy and then I yell, ‘Go!’ because we do not do boring races. And then I’m there at the finish line to welcome them home, and my intention is to make every single finisher feel like they won the damn thing, and if somebody goes home feeling disappointed, then I haven’t done my job.”
“Part of my platform as a fitness expert has always been annual exams, self-exams, and personally I felt like, ‘Gee whiz, if I ever have one cancer cell in my body, I want to know about it instantly so I could slaughter it.’ I just felt no mercy on cancer.”
“Stubborn is my greatest asset, my greatest curse. There was nothing going to hold me back, and when I make a decision, God help the person or thing that gets in the way.”
Take a Listen on Your Next Run
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Mentioned in this podcast:My Noisy Cancer Comeback - pre-order signed copy
My Noisy Cancer Comeback will be released in October on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Audible, etc.
Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community
Book: My Noisy Cancer Comeback, available on presale at Fitzness.com
Finding a cancerous lump in her breast seven weeks after a clean mammogram was terrifying. But fitness expert and race announcer Fitz Koehler refused to play the victim or allow cancer to steal her extraordinary career or time with family. In My Noisy Cancer Comeback, Fitz reveals the juicy and gory details of her 16-month battle, all while zigzagging across the United States. Enduring chemotherapy, radiation, and surgeries in the public eye wasn’t easy. You’ll laugh, cry, wince, and cheer as she chronicles the clash of an avalanche of side effects with 22 major race weekends. Her inspirational tale encompasses the terror of diagnosis, bald heads and black dresses, spectacular stages, parenting with cancer, perspective, and, most importantly, triumph. You’ll walk away grittier, more optimistic, and inspired to conquer any obstacle.
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