#051 – Welcome to Inspire to Run Podcast (formerly Inspire Virtual Runs). Inspire to Run Podcast helps you take control of your health and fitness by sharing stories of runner’s journeys along with health and fitness tips from experts. Whether you or new to running or preparing for your next race, Inspire to Run Podcast will help you along your journey.
Topics Covered:
- Why we rebranded the podcast and community
- How running can help you reach your goals
- What you can expect from Inspire to Run Podcast
About your Inspire to Run Podcast Host

Richard Conner
Richard is a strategic marketing professional with experience in B2B marketing. Richard is the founder of Inspire to Run Podcast and is passionate about helping others reach their goals. He is a Connecticut native and is a husband, dad, writer, Star Wars fan, and of course – runner! Richard recently discovered obstacle course racing and has fully embraced this new obsession.
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- Strava – @InspiretoRun
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Welcome to Inspire to Run Podcast. Here you will find inspiration. Whether you’re looking to take control of your health and fitness or you’re a seasoned runner, looking for community and some extra motivation. You will hear inspiring stories from amazing runners, along with helpful tips from fitness experts. Now here’s your host Richard Conner.
Richard Conner
Hi, everyone, welcome to Inspire to Run Podcast. My name is Richard Conner, and I am your host. And I’m so excited that we’re back. We took a little hiatus, but we’re back with a new name. And I want to thank you for joining whether you’re a new listener, or you’ve been part of the community for a while. So in this episode, I’d like to share with you three main topics. One is why we rebranded the podcast to why we focus on running. And three how inspired to run podcast can help you take control of your health and fitness and reach your goals. So first, I want to talk to you a little bit about why we rebranded the podcast when we first started Inspire Virtual Runs Podcast was really focused on the virtual aspects of running. So on one side, our virtual running community and and on the other side virtual races. As the podcast evolved, we wanted to share more and more stories. And I wanted to have less of an emphasis on the virtual and more of an emphasis on helping you reach your health and fitness goals, whether it’s in person or virtual. That’s really the main reason why we rebranded the podcast. So I’m excited to bring this back to you with even more stories, more resources, and more tools to help you reach your health and fitness goals. So that’s just a little bit about why we rebranded the podcast. Now let’s talk about running. I’d like for you to just sit back, close your eyes for a moment. And imagine the future. A man imagine a future you that feels great throughout the day, most days instead of Sundays. Imagine being able to walk up the stairs or go hiking without feeling extremely winded. And imagine having to take less medications, with doctor’s orders, of course, all with the appropriate exercise and nutrition plan. Now, what I like to do is spend a moment talking about how you can make the future you a reality. And one way to do that is through running. Running is an excellent way to help you reach your future goals. It is well known that running leads to better cardio health, better sleep, improved knee and back health, improved memory, better mood and energy. I’ve shared my personal story before, but I’ll share it again on how I used running to help me in my life. My story goes back to when I was in high school. I started to run cross country when I was a sophomore through my senior year in high school. And it was just one of those sports that I felt like I could do versus some of the other sports that I didn’t really feel that I was very good at. And this was one that I could really get into. And I really enjoyed my time in high school. But I stopped running after high school. And I really only ran as part of my workouts, so not really a lot. And then about five years ago, I got back into running as I started running road races again at my old high school. And I really didn’t get much into it. You know, I can only prepare for the race, maybe a few weeks leading up to the race or just kind of hearing there throughout the year, but not really much or not to the extent that I really wanted to. And then it came across obstacle course racing. And obstacle course racing for me was a way for me to face my fear and do things that I’ve never done before. But it also made running kind of fun and interesting for me again. So my story is not about obstacle course racing. But it’s, it’s to tell you that I got back into running again, and I got those benefits associated with running. And it was just such a wonderful journey because I was kind of able to get back into the kind of shape that I wanted to get into. I wanted to get back and get fit and feel great. And you know, I really owe a lot of that to running. So I share that story with you. Because I believe that for you. I believe that you could use running to really take control of your health and fitness. And it’s really just a great way to help you reach your fitness goals. You You know, I hear this next part a bit. I’m not a runner, I can’t run. I don’t like running. And I can tell you the number of guests that I’ve had on the show that have shared their stories with all the same reasons why someone may not want to run or think they cannot run. And it’s my passion to share those stories with you to help inspire you to run. So here, I’m just going to share with you three of those stories from our previous episodes. The first one is a story from one of our guests, and her name is Carla. And she has such an amazing story. Karla lost 88 pounds with running and nutrition. And now she’s an ultra runner. Can you imagine she went from not running at all, to becoming an ultra runner, getting in the best shape of her life, feeling really good about herself, and just loving life in general. And she shared her story on a previous episode of the podcast, and continues to share her journey on Instagram. But you know, running and health and fitness isn’t all just about losing weight. So I want to share with you another story. We had another guest on the show that rediscovered his love for fitness. His name is Marquel and Marquel had a wake up call from his doctor. Even though he thought he was relatively fit and in shape. He knew he wasn’t really eating all of the right things, and not necessarily taking care of himself in the way that he used to. And his doctor gave him some news about his health. And he had to make a change. So we use running as part of that change, to get back on track and get healthy. So just an inspiring story from marquel. Now from my last story, from one of my guests, is actually one of my first guests, Danielle, I love the story with Danielle, because she was not only one of my first guests on the show, she really just had a fascinating story about how she wasn’t a runner before. And the way that she got into running was through fundraising for a friend, which we find is actually quite common that you’ll see these charity or fundraiser races. And that’s a way that a number of people kind of get into running. At some point early in her journey, she ran a marathon. Again, another person who didn’t run got into running to support her friend, which is a very noble cause. And she ran a marathon early in her and her running journey. So just a tremendous story. Now it doesn’t end there. With the work that she did to run the marathon and the subsequent races. She shared with me on the show that this really gave her the courage to change careers. Something you really want think about right? How are these things connected? Running a marathon gave her courage to change careers. And now she’s doing her dream job as a physical therapist. And she’s also teaching yoga. So with Carla Marquel, and Danielle, these are just three wonderful examples of how anyone can transform their life with reading. Now let’s talk about the podcast. Inspired to run podcast is a helpful resource to help you along your running journey. Here we’re going to focus on three things. I like to call out the M three, mindset, movement, and motivation. These are going to help you no matter where you are in your journey. You’re going to hear from everyday runners, health and fitness experts and more. And we’re going to connect you with a running community that inspires each other to prioritize their health and fitness. So I hope all of this is exciting for you as it is for me. My hope for you is that you take control of your health and fitness and do something different. And what I’d love for you to do is subscribe subscribe, subscribe to Inspire to Run Podcast. Listen to the guest stories that will help you along your journey of mindset movement and motivation to make the future you are reality. So with that, thanks again for listening, and have a great day.
Intro/Outro
That’s it for this episode of Inspire to Run Podcast. We hope you are inspired to take control of your health and fitness and take it to the next level. Be sure to click the subscribe button to join our community. And also please rate and review. Thanks for listening.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai