Nametags Chat Episode #36 - Britnni Mason

every week we do a q a with interesting and accomplished members of the adaptive community to find how they persevered how they innovated how they built communities and how they found solutions welcome to the nametags chat podcast all right welcome to chris whitehouse name tags chat today we are with brittany mason who is a very very fast woman world record holder t47 class in the hundred meters world champion in 100 meters she won the 100 and the 200 at trials going toward tokyo she also was all academic in the mac uh in the mac conference so so we have that and i had a scholarship to eastern michigan university to run track before she knew that she could be a paralympian brittany thank you so much for joining us of course this is awesome this is absolutely awesome and also i didn't mention you actually had the high school state record in ohio in the 60 meters right i did at the trials you went 100 and 200 you won the 100 and 200 you had the state record in the 60 meters when you were in high school you were second in the mac conference in the indoor 60 meters are you going to move up to the 200 are you going to be making some noise in the 200 as well yeah so that's my goal um i've always been a short spurner so i've really focused on um i'm a power runner so i've always done the 60 100 and the 200 was kind of um to help me with my hundred but as of recently i have actually been training more for the 200 and focusing on the 200 instead of my 100 because running a faster 200 will you know coincide with helping me run a faster 100 so i'm hoping to make some noise um in the 200 really soon so so this is more of a strength thing in some ways for you is getting stronger so you're running a good 200 which is going to help you be stronger at the end of your 100 which as we all know you know you're trying not to slow down at the end of your of your 100. how about your your rivalry so you and deja our two deja young are two of the fastest i mean she won two world championships in the 100 prior to you winning the world winning the world championship but she also she had broken the world record in the 100 in in in dubai and then you turned around and re-broke the world record i think it was three hundredths of a second right start knocking that just tipping that little bit off of it what's this what's this rivalry like because she's both a 100 and a 200 meter runner as well yeah so she let me just start off by saying like she's a phenomenal athlete my first time obviously um you know going into pear my first time meeting her was in dubai in 2019 at the world championships and i heard a lot of success from her and like a lot of you know successful stories about her and how she's really never lost and she's a really good athlete so that really amped me do you know want to be a better athlete and to compete because i'm the type of athlete who i like to compete against the best and when they're at their best and that's kind of what fuels me to run faster so you know i we ran into prelims we ran in individual arm heats and so i ran before her and i like i think i had broke the meat record and i'm like okay like that's pretty good i haven't ran in about six seven months and then i saw that she broke the world record right after and i'm like okay i need to do something in the finals so that like really amped me up in a sense of you we're on the same team so it's like i'd rather you know usa go one and two or if my teammate beat me versus another country so it really excites me to um you know have her on that on my team and like she motivates me to want to you know work harder and run faster so is this some of what you're thinking about as you're training as you're going through whatever you're doing on the track your intervals or you're in the weight room it says are you thinking okay deja's working hard too i need to i need to show up she's gonna throw down yeah absolutely i feel that way about a lot of my um competition you know there's a lot of good girls you know not only just deja here in the usa but also like all around the world so it's like you never know who's gonna show up and show out so that's like constantly in the back of my mind like they might be doing this but you need to work harder and do that so that's just kind of been what's been pushing and motivating you guys i've been continuing to train um for tokyo which is why specifically i have actually been more serious about my my 200 meter dash so that i can you know have that strength to run multiple rounds at tokyo for you know prelim finals and then execute each race without you know being exhausted to come back again and do the same thing over and over for different days now with with the 200 and with stretching sort of the endurance part of your sprinting so so you have herb's palsy right can you describe what herb's palsy is because that might affect the ending of your race as well right 100 it affects it tremendously once my arm stops pumping everything goes so um i have nerve damage in my left shoulder and um elbow and so it's a form of brachial plexus which affects my range of motion so i can do certain things but a lot of my range of motion is very limited and it's not really noticeable until i run so kind of my every day-to-day routine not many people notice but then it really shows on the track especially with my longer races like a 200 you know once i'm fatigued it shows a lot more so that's basically in the gist of what my earps palsy is and and so so with with the endurance that you that you're developing by going more in the 200 what does that do for your arm because it is it is noticeable right looking at the looking at the videos your arms look different right where it's not necessarily even the plane of your arm where your right arm is kind of like right by your body where your left arm is kind of coming across your body which is not helpful right as a sprinter you want everything going in that direction yeah a lot of wasted movement but it's also your right arm is much more muscular than your left arm is how do you go and strengthen that and maintain your form because maintaining your form it sounds really easy right for for me sitting here watching you run i'm like okay brittany just you know maintain your form in the last hundred meters you're like okay yeah but it hurts now and it's and the coordination is going how are you going about maintaining your form yeah so um we just actually a couple years ago um incorporated me doing a lot of upper body strength so i made it a goal my junior year of college to be able to do a pull-up like you know just my upper body strength and like really focusing on that so i really worked hard at being able to hit the um weight room really hard because when i came in as a freshman my arm would flare up so bad because i wasn't used to you know working out five six days a week in high school i maybe did workouts two to three times a week and so i had a lot of recovery time and then coming into college oh boy it was a rude awakening for me and my coaches we had no idea what was going on with my arm it was constantly swollen and just so inflamed and like no treatment was really helping me but then i realized and we realized um over time i have to kind of get through that breaking point where okay it's sword swords sore it's hurting it's hurting it's swollen and then once it gets used to you know being worked it just stops being sore and it just stops working so it was a lot of convincing my college um strength coach to just let me push through it because he didn't want me to because i'm like no i want to do it i have to do like this is the only way i'm going to be able to run faster and get faster like my arms have to be just as strong as my legs so it took a lot of convincing and a lot of just working through pain like legit crying because it would just hurt so badly and then i would just have to you know ice ibuprofen go get some treatment and then make do what it do but um also with um the running aspect me and my coach noticed that i have to run longer than my race to condition my arm kind of how you condition your lungs to run fast like to run longer i had it kind of in a sense condition my arm to run over 200 meters or run over the 100 meter mark because if i was only practicing for a 60 my arm wouldn't know what to do the last 40 meters of my race so we really have you know dialed in and started executing running a little bit longer so that when i am in my race and i'm running just 200 meters versus running 300 meters in practice i have that extra you know wiggle room of 100 meters to know okay you can go a little bit longer you can pump your arm a little bit harder and it won't be as fatigued as it usually is when you're not doing these things what's your arm like after you stop so you're pushing through all the pain for your workout you're an athlete you're like there's good pain this is good pain this is my job i have to beat the pain but then what was it like afterwards after you're in your regular everyday life yeah so my coach would always make a joke because i would come into practice and he'd say like my arm would like my shoulder be like this so it looked like i was like the hunchback of notre dame and so he's like what is going on like i don't know why it's like hard as a rock and sometimes it's like it's a weird feeling to describe but it would kind of feel like i can feel nerve pain but i don't really have feeling in this arm but in my shoulder i could feel so much pain just rushing through my arms so we've tried a lot of different things like um scraping it's like reduced inflammation cupping needling my arm doesn't like the nerve pain does not enjoy needling at all like the dry needling it was we tried it because we thought it would be you know beneficial but it it made matters worse so i just kind of got used to like the pain and over time it just became so i just became so used to it that it didn't really bother me as much anymore so the pain didn't bother you and you kind of got the arm and more condition that maybe your arm wasn't getting inflamed as much you've drawn an analogy between herbs palsy and asthma haven't you i believe so i might have yeah okay i i've read this at one point so so i'm hoping that what i've read was absolutely true and if and if it doesn't work as an analogy i mean i thought it was an interesting analogy and interesting to see kind of kind of where you go with that but but if if that's the case what what what does that mean in terms of a strategy in terms of uh you know attacking the herb's policy or or and working in concert with it yeah so like i said like even with like you know breathing and every time you like work out and exercise it's kind of like you have to train your like how you have to train your lungs or like to train to run faster run longer or to be able to like run controlled that's kind of how i had to do with my arm as well so it's just kind of the sense of when you first start conditioning you're completely out of shape it's super super hard to breathe and you want to give up it feels like track sucks it's the worst thing in the world it hurts everything hurts literally and so that's just kind of how my arm was and that's just in a sense of i need to continue pushing through in my conditioning conditioning conditioning and then over time how your legs get in shape how your lungs get in shape so were my arm but i didn't realize that until i was a little bit older maybe my junior senior year of college and so before i'd run a lot of really short reps and then we couldn't figure out why i couldn't finish my longer races or how i was an amazing 60 meter runner but my 100 or my 200 was struggling so we realized that how you train your lungs is kind of in a sense of how i have to train my arm in a way if that makes sense it might sound a little funky but no no it it it makes perfect sense what about on the mental side of that like you don't necessarily feel you said you don't necessarily feel the nerves in your arm but is there a way that you can help your arm to relax as opposed to holding all of that tension yeah so my coach and i we always make a pack i tell him you know if i'm running long races or i'm running longer reps in practice obviously over time i get fatigued and so i make it a point for him to yell out at me if my arm looks funny so we're like he's like fix your chicken wing like as a joke and so i like you know i know like you know relax and like relax my shoulders and pump and like really focus in on that so like a lot of my running is focusing on being able to run my reps fast but also relax so that my arm knows how to run relax naturally in a race so that it's not you know hunching up like this when i'm tired and i can you know get through a longer amount of meters before it does start to you know give me the banana back that we all get after a certain amount of time well that's it right the natural instinct when you get tired is your shoulders just start coming up toward your ears right and and you have to relax and drop that shoulder drop those shoulders which is that much more difficult for you you didn't know about the parallel i mean did you know about the paralympics you didn't know that you could be a paralympian but did you know about the paralympics yeah absolutely so i knew about the paralympics and i i didn't know much in depth i will admit to that but i obviously knew that it existed and it didn't get as much exposure as the olympics so i never honestly really watched um the paralympics until i got reached someone reached out to my coach and then i started doing more research and i'm like oh wow like this is really amazing and then it kind of frustrated me at the fact that i didn't find out that i was eligible at all until i was 21 years old so it's like how many other athletes around the world have the same condition as me and have no idea that they're eligible because they think that the paralympics is just a wheelchair racer or someone who's has um amputated legs or anything of that sort it's right and so for you during the you know when you're not on the track when you're not running when you're not sprinting 100 meters it's not obvious yeah that that you have any kind of an issue with your arm does that make it difficult for you in some ways that it's that it's not obvious that people are like what why are you in the paralympics i don't care i get a lot of questions and i don't think people mean to be ignorant when they ask me so i i just i'm patient with responding to people in the sense because they're like no offense you look really normal and i'm like well paralympic athletes look normal i mean like they might be missing a leg or two but they're still normal human beings so i had to like you know explain to people you know i have nerve damage it's a classification in the paralympics i had no idea and i just started competing and so i just would kind of tell them like a quick backstory and it's actually funny like even when i had to get like my medical history from my doctor he's like you're not eligible for the paralympics i'm like i just need my paperwork he's like well you're not eligible and i'm like but i am eligible like even he had no idea and he is in medicine so it's just kind of bizarre how we just have no idea about you know the different disabilities and paralympics and how it doesn't get the same exposure that it should be getting because people just don't know and i don't think they mean to be ignorant about it but you just don't know well i mean that's part of the game right now too right and i think that's one of the things that's great about the paralympics is that there's a responsibility on you as an athlete to to own the sport to own what's going and be that representative and help educate and help promote and and you really do have ownership it's not like you just come in and somebody says hey yeah we're going to pay you a bunch of money and you just do what you do and and then you can go home you know it's like you've got to live it all the time now for you though you started at 11 years old you were the fifth fastest kid in your age 100 meters and 200 meters so you you've been fast for a long time i mean you're probably fast before that you just you just didn't have anything that said that documented that you were actually that fast but then but then you you raced at eastern michigan scholarship athlete at eastern well i mean you did the high school thing and conference champion state champion all this stuff i mean it just you kept running running what's it like to go from running division one in college to being up against the best to then going into the paralympics how what's that transition like yeah so again like i just stated before i've ran uh competitively since i was 11 years old so i've always you know aau track and field is the best of the best in the country at a young age so i was taught really young to be very competitive against people no matter how tall how small whatever so my parents always like you know like you have to get after it and even though you struggle with your arm like this is what you need to do and so kind of like leading into you know high school college i thought that i would be done running in college after college because it's like what else am i going to do i'm not going to go to the able body olympics you know my times aren't fast enough and when i realized that i was eligible for the paralympics and my times were really great in that you know field it was amazing like it's just it's different and i like that i've had the competitive the competitive side from you know running so young and through um college and high school and then now here it's been like it's different but it's more exciting honestly to run on this level that i am now than it has been any other level that i've ran on my entire life and why is that why is it more exciting now so it's more exciting now because it's kind of like it was uh it was something i at least expected and so it's new i'm fresh to the you know i'm fresh at the game of track and field for pera and so i've had a lot of success early on and that has motivated me and it's like when i was in dubai my very first international race i had no idea what i was doing i had nothing to lose and so just going out there and the adrenaline i had and the excitement i saw from the crowd no other race why i'm sure tokyo will feel the same like that but no other race before that felt the same as when i was on the line in dubai running my final race and i had no idea what i was doing and i had three weeks of training i just threw myself out there and just ran and well and you threw yourself out there and ran and ran really fast i mean that was that was your world record breaking performance what's the when you when you look at that you keep getting faster though too don't you i mean in some ways that seems a little bit almost a little bit strange right that you've been running against the best college athletes and now now that you're in the paralympics you're getting faster to what do you attribute that i think just you know my experience now that i'm a little bit older like i took track seriously obviously um in college in high school but knowing that i am now considered a professional athlete i have to do more things for my body and take it a lot more serious than i did in high school in college and so i think that you know mentally i know my goals and i know that this is now my career and i want to do this for as long as i possibly can and so having that mindset and knowing that this is what i want and having goals has definitely helped me along the way well because in some ways getting into sports was was almost rehabilitation for your for your arm too when you first started right now it's gone from rehabilitation to this is your job and and not even your job this is this is your profession profession this is your career this is your opportunity to make a statement i guess we do have to you have been talking with your hands a little bit we have to talk a little bit about about some of the statements that you make i mean i saw i saw you you've got your nails painted i i've read something about if you look good you run good is this is this your motto yes absolutely i feel like you know when you get on the line and you're feeling yourself and you look fantastic you're gonna run fabulous like there's no doubt about it when you have that confident in your look you're gonna run well regardless if you have you know a little bit of doubt in the back of your mind because i did have a little bit of doubt you know in dubai i'm like you know what you have nothing to lose your nails are done your hair looks good you're smiling and waving you have nothing to lose so look good run good now now okay i understand this and the thing is like as a track athlete like this is this is your focus right it's just your lane and you're a sprinter right so you're not you're not getting out of your lane and there's so many different elements that go into making a good hundred meters do you look around at all i mean if you're looking good do you do you look around to see the other the other athletes to to check them out to see if they're looking good too or to see if they're looking at you yeah i do a little bit you know we're standing on the line everyone's you know they're um announcing everyone's name and i'm like looking like okay this is my competition like okay i can fit in i can handle it and so like not a sizing them up or anything but you know i'm like okay they look good i look good i'm focused i'm staying in my lane and i know that you know once i look good and i have that confidence that i usually run good now i've i've read that that you that you listen to gospel music before before you start what does gospel music do for you before the start yes so uh for me i listened to my hype music you know prior to like warming up and everything like that i have to get super amped up and super excited and then once my jitters are going because i'm listening to so much music and like really amped up music um listening to gospel music actually calms me down and like kind of brings feedback kind of like back down to earth in a sense where it's like okay like before you know i'm getting real confident like i can do this like nothing can stop me i'm in my i'm in my lane no one can like stop that and then when i listen to gospel music it just like really helps me dial in and like really focus on what i need to do why god has put me in the place that he has put me in that everything i do is for him so being able to listen to him right before i step on the line just kind of gives me that reassurance that he's got me and i have nothing to worry about which is interesting right because i think that that as an athlete you can do all the work right i mean it doesn't sound like it sounds like you put in the work you you work hard but that sense of connection and purpose to your sport is something that they can be the difference between a great competition and a diff and and one that isn't quite great that was like oh because you you always have that elusive one too don't you where you're like it was almost it was right there and so so is that that connection is is the connection that kind of brings it together for you is that right yeah absolutely um i'd make i've made it a point like you know every single day no matter what i'm going through with my training i've always been focused and super doubting and very very you know laser focused that's just kind of how i have been like even in competitions like my coaches know like don't talk to me like i need to be in my zone and this is what i do and i have like a routine of what i do every single meet and i hate when that routine is thrown off like i can tolerate it but i i don't like it at all and so once i you know dial in and so i've been like doing devotions every day and so like that helps me every day at night and like that helps me with like my trainings know i had a good training regimen and my my work has been good for the week and then like even before my races like just having that you know time with god has like really helped me like i don't care how much i've trained i feel like personally if i don't you know thank god for what he's done for me or you know i don't incorporate him into like my race or anything with my practices that i don't run well i don't perform well at all but it's not just your raises and your practices it's it's your everyday life this isn't you showing up but the starting line going hey help me out here yeah need it need a little bit of push you know just just a little bit get me past the line no i mean it's it really is part of who you are every day what about the the work ethic i read that during during the training uh or actually during your recruiting that your coach was talking about the work ethic and and your mother said don't worry she has to answer to me uh so is that is your mother the one in charge do you have to answer to your mother or you answered yourself or how does that work my mom's definitely a boss woman she's definitely in charge and i actually she ran track uh in high school she was a 400 meter hurdler i do not hurdle but it's been nice because it's just kind of like both my parents were sports oriented and they both did sports growing up and so that's helped me a lot and so they've taught me a lot about you know discipline and work ethic and not doing anything halfway like if you're going to go for something you're going to do it 100 and so that's always stuck with me and so even when it came to school and my grades like god forbid i get a anything lower than a b i'll like cry so i think that having my parents you know teaching me that at a very young age and you know having to you know answer to her has definitely helped me um in my sport for sure well it also so so you have you have the faith part of it you have the family part of it but then i was looking at some stuff and you were saying that that it's really about the role model part of it as well right it's it's being able to to help those that are that are coming behind you i mean it's a similar kind of thing right in the in the sense of like serving others working as a role model how does that what does that feel like on the starting line does it feel like responsibility does it feel like a gift how does it feel it definitely feels like a gift and a responsibility so i actually i helped um my dad actually has an aau track and field team in cleveland ohio that he helps coach with and so when i was younger i would always go back you know help them with their block work and those kids also looked up to me and like that was really motivating but specifically this past year i hope to coach a high school team in um michigan and so having those kids who are you know going to college and wanting to work as hard as they possibly can to get scholarships and they saw that i was able to you know run division 1 college track and field and i'm going to the paralympics and i'm you know doing something greater than myself and them you know looking up to me i think that's what really really got to me like i would have them you know super excited to tell me how i've helped them run faster and they couldn't have done it without me being supportive of them and how they'll message me before my races even at trials and um other um meets that i've had and i was like you got this like we believe in you and so just having that and them running faster help me to run faster and want to be a better coach and a better um you know role model and so just it's amazing to know that you can make an impact on someone's life and a genuine impact and i've had kids you know come up to me like you know without you like i don't think i would have made it and like it's just it's just so heart touching because it's like i never thought that i would have that effect on people into in the degree that i have now it's interesting too because as a coach you often have to demonstrate what you want them to do and the next step of that is now you're on the on the grand stage and you're doing that same kind of demonstration do you feel like it's like because you're coaching right and you're like okay this is what you need to do this is what you need to do but sometimes as an athlete it's easy to forget that stuff isn't it and it's definitely helped me so like sometimes i when i forget things and i'm teaching them i'm like oh my gosh like i need to you know execute this in my race a little bit better when they're running faster i'm like okay this is getting me amped up like i need to fix this this and this and go home and do this so that i can run faster for them so they can be proud of me how does it work now that you're on the paralympic side as well so you have the people that you're coaching but then has has the sense of being a role model is a sense of serving others changed now that you're a paralympian as well no i've been kind of doing the same thing that i have been doing i don't think much has changed uh that i can think of right now okay well some of it what i was reading was was the idea of that that you as somebody who doesn't necessarily seem disabled can can compete in the paralympics right it's not just about people with wheelchairs it's not just and and in some ways you kind of get to this to this grander sense is is home something that motivates you too yes yes i'm actually i just got a message from a guy from cleveland so you got to give your shout out to cleveland i think yes shout out to cleveland ohio i love it there that's where i'm from born and raised so i'm trying to put you know cleveland on the map in tokyo and what is it what is it about cleveland is it the rock and roll hall of fame is it the uh is it you know is it true cary what what is it i think it's more so the fact that um that's where i spent my entire life i've never lived anywhere besides when i went to college in michigan i've never lived anywhere else besides ohio that's why i grew up that's where my family still is majority of them a lot of them have moved away but my parents still live in ohio and so i go back and visit and it's just kind of like i started from there i started you know running track and field at age 11 10 11 with a cleveland mustangs track and field team in cleveland ohio and so it's like now i'm still progressing through if it wasn't for them i wouldn't be you know where i am today if my dad hadn't put me on track or i hadn't ran for cleveland mustangs i might not be running at the level that i'm running at now and and the thing is for you it's you're running at the top level but it's but it hasn't always been about just the running right and it still isn't just about the running i mean you're still you're still in school aren't you yes i am two masters two masters are you doing these concurrently i am doing them yes correct i am taking them both at the same time uh i don't know who decided that it was me but um it hasn't been as bad as i thought it would be but it's definitely been some work for sure and what are you getting your masters in so i'm getting a masters in sport management and then business administration sport management business administration and what will you do with sports management and business administration so the goal the end goal which i would love to do this has been my goal for a while now i have a degree in exercise science for my undergrad i originally thought that i wanted to go to pa school work in pediatrics and you know work in the hospital setting i've always wanted to work with children and so now that i have that exercise science base and i've had my little taste of coaching and i'll have that sport management side as well as the business side i want to eventually open up my own facility and help train younger athletes as well younger athletes and so paralympic athletes specifically or not paralympic athletes or as of now i actually had to do a little project in school and i had made it for specifically like a pair like just coaching paralympic athletes but i think i would definitely expand that more so um over time but that would be my goal my original goal to start with the paralympic athletes and so what would you teach them i mean what because you you've been through you've seen a lot in your life i mean you're still young but you've seen a lot in your life and you've learned a lot and you've been forced to learn a lot what are the messages what what would you help them how would you help them get better or find their dreams so one thing i think for me and especially you know competing against athletes my entire life who were able and i had you know overcome a lot of things i my main thing i want to teach them is confidence so it's like with everything you do have confidence in what you're doing and you know don't have that self-doubt because you're a little bit different from everyone else that you can't do it or you can't have the same goals so that's something i really really want to emphasize when i eventually do open my own facility that you know you're going to do everything with your confidence and your head on your shoulders and you're going to you're going to succeed you know sometimes you're going to fail but if you mentally believe in yourself you can do whatever you want to do has what's made you a little bit different has that made you stronger has that made you more successful honestly yes because knowing that i had to work twice as hard as the next person definitely motivated me to want to continue working like for example when i said earlier i had to convince my strength coach to let me go through the pain just so i can overcome that so i can be a better athlete i could have given up you know if i was hurting or if you know i had an injury that was you know my new and i was an able-bodied and you know i didn't really have a disability i might have you know oh coach i'll sit this one out but because i know that i have to work twice as hard i don't want to skip a day it's been days where my coach is like brit like we have to take the day off and i'm like no like i i have to get to it because i don't want to fall behind because i am in a sense already behind in to in the eyes of other people how does that work with the other athletes because you know that you have to work through that pain and that pain is the pain that's telling your strength coach to to stop like this this is it this is going to be bad for you but you knew that you had to move move through that how does that work with the other athletes the athletes that you're coaching yeah so it's funny because the other coach i helped coach with she would tell them like come on like you guys can do this like she's disabled and she's doing it so you guys can do it too so it's like a little joke we have where i don't get offended if someone's like oh yeah she's disabled but she's always like she has one arm and she's doing it what you guys excuse and so that has really like helped them to you know work hard too like kind of seeing that i can do what i do with my arm situation and then they're like okay we're shutting up we have no excuses anymore we'll do it well do you always think that you can push harder than you think you can yes which is why i continue to go harder so i would have never known that i could lift what i lift now if i wouldn't have pushed myself to my limits you know convincing my um strength coach to let me do it and i will always tell him like you know i want to run faster and everyone else is doing it so why can't i do it that's always been my that's always been my reason like if someone else can do it i can do it too can you can you give us a few numbers there on terms in terms of what you're lifting yeah so i squat so it's actually funny my freshman year i came in and i told mom my coach i'm like it was a field coach i'm like yeah by the time i leave college like i want to squat 400 pounds and he's like 400 pounds like you're not gonna squat that like whatever i'm like okay well i would like to do that like that's a goal you know and then that same day my freshman year i squatted 400 pounds and so they're like oh my gosh and so the most i've um freeway squat it is 405 um and then i can with bands and other things i squatted like 445 um on my back and so that was another issue that was no my shoulder was swelling up from all that weight on my back but that's what makes me a power runner and so i just stuck through it and then now i've been you know being able to do high pulls um which also is a huge thing with your shoulders and i can do that with about 250 and then some i've never maxed out on that and then i've been cleaning which is very difficult it looks a little funky when i do it but i do it and then i really also have some emphasis on you know push-ups and pull-ups and things like that but squatting is definitely my strong suit for sure squatting is your strong suit but the push-ups and the pull-ups have really helped you as a runner and helped you with your arm too right yes yeah so just just your own body weight it's amazing what your own body weight can do for your performance how have things been in covid i mean this was a crazy year right and you were what you were second in the conference in the 60 meters and then you didn't get an outdoor season yeah and then then you wait and wait and tokyo gets postponed and how did how did you deal with that what was your training like what was your focus like so honestly um going into my conference championships um when i got second i'm not sure if a lot of people know but like uh three weeks before that i strained my hamstring really bad to the point like i was not doing like the first time i sprinted again was that tuesday and conference was on friday and i had a hamstring sleeve on and it was like held together and we're like okay we're gonna make do what what it has to do and just go out there and run so after that we knew that obviously i need to get through my um senior year and i'm like coach i want to run like i'm going to bike i'm going to do everything i can and just rest and i'll just run at conference and see what i was capable of and i got second which i was happy about wasn't happy about the time but i was happy that i was still able to compete for my team and score points my senior year and so it actually was a blessing in disguise with covet i had time to have that that down time and you know actually fully recover and you know really focusing on strengthening my weaknesses that i didn't know i had you know like blue um weaknesses and like my hamstrings were not as strong as they should have been i wasn't stretch stretching as much and you know really focusing and dialing in on those things during covid and so it actually made coming back and training a lot easier with actually having that break so covet hasn't always been a negative thing for me you know i was really devastated about not being able to go to tokyo um in 2020 but it was a blessing in disguise of the fact that i've learned how to take care of my body a lot better i was able to train a lot longer and you know get a better fitness level for this year now my 200th are you know excelling a lot better and like really just dialing in mentally physically emotionally and like focusing on my diet and a lot of things that i was focused on but i wasn't really really 100 tuned in and tuned in on so so did you have did you have a season for eastern michigan this year in outdoor season yeah i had an outdoor season and so it was a it was a little tricky because it was okay i need to compete because i have a fifth year but i can't run too fast too early because i have to run all the way until september of this year because of tokyo so my coach and i had a lot of going back and forth of you know he's like okay i want you to come back i want you to run for the relays i want you to get that base in that conditioning but you have to be okay with not running super super fast or times you want to run now so that you can have that glory and that success later on and so it was a hard idea for me to you know a hard concept for me to acknowledge and accept because i am a competitor and so when my numbers aren't showing it is very difficult for me but they eventually started you know coming down over time and i was running those times without really you know tapping into the workouts i really needed to do and so that was kind of even more motivating for me to know that okay you're still running similar times to what you run or what you ran in your world record in dubai but you're not even doing what you need to do yet to get to your top performance right so you're not doing a lot of speed work yes yet so you're doing more of that strength work and then that speed is where where those times start coming down where you start sharpening how will that look for you between now and the games yes so um i hope hope that i am done dying at practice i have been throwing up like almost every week um running hills and conditioning so it is a love hate with track and field i tell you that so my coach will always say you know like what do you want to do this week like do you want to run hills i'm like i don't want to run them but i need to run them and so every single time i deeply regret it so we've still been you know conditioning and then we're going to start speeding myself up um in about i think a week or two and just you know starting to fine-tune those things that i need to focus on um because i don't run until august 31st so i still have some time so he's just been like you know we're not going to rush you getting faster right now when we can just continue building your base that you can be so strong that even if you don't get to the speed worker you don't hit what you want to hit like you will have that strength to be able to run multiple rounds and run very successful multiple rounds so we've been really executing my um strength base because that's what we didn't do buy and it worked i ran hills the three weeks that i had before dubai and we found out that just from me being a power runner and just being really strong i was able to run that world record so he's been you know focusing on my strengths which is my building my base a little bit more in like running hills and you know doing that strength stuff and then we're gonna you know fine tune in that sprinting a little bit last minute so so some of it also is just getting to know your body isn't it and just how your body reacts to to the training that you need that workload is it fun though when you get to this sharpening part when you get to the point where you're working on the speed are you like this is yeah when i'm not when i'm not running uh 300 meter hills and throwing up it's a lot more fun to run fast 120s and 150s and like little we do like the time trials so he'll also put like their um like a little chip on me and like we get to test like my flying 30 and like my my flying 50 and those are always fun but it's you know it's kind of weird because it's like sprinting shorter it's a lot more taxing on your body but it's more fun than running you know longer runs and it's a little bit slower those are death to me i must i like shorter sprints but i'm definitely tuning in for this 200 because i really really want to run well so i'm excited in the future that we get to you know go back to doing some speed endurance stuff and some short sprinting i miss it so you do you do well at the shorter races what do you what do you really do well what part of the race do you do well and what are your what is your challenge so everyone says that i have a really really good reaction off the blocks that's like my strong suit it's kind of like a i get out you have to chase me like that kind of it's kind of like a i can't remember my coach always says like like make them run you down or something like that kind of like tire them out to the point where like they're so focused on catching up to you that they never catch up to you and so my main focus has been just getting out and then just holding on for dear life so i would definitely say that i decelerate a little bit quicker than a lot of people i don't know my racing dubai started decelerating about 80 meters in i didn't know how i was gonna hold on but i got out so well that i had no choice but to just you know decelerate through the line so that's what we've been focusing on more you know still having that strong start but also being able to finish strong as well which is why i've been you know running the 200 more and training more so i don't decelerate as quickly it's interesting that you talk about the reaction because it's easy to kind of look at it and say well she starts well but you said reaction and so that's the reaction to the gun which is different than than getting out of the blocks too right those are two unique elements in the start of a sprinter aren't they absolutely so it's those two things that you do i mean certainly the reaction you said you'd do well but then what's going to be the biggest challenge for you when it sounds like the endurance but it sounds like you're putting in the time to be strong yes absolutely i would say the challenge would be just you know going out there and not having that self-doubt that okay you have multiple rounds don't hold back so i want to be able to you know execute each round without worrying about the next one so i think that's going to be the challenging part of when i have to you know run a 200 in the morning and then come back and run the same 200 if not better in the afternoon but you know you can't really jog the prelim because you need to make it to the final but you can't you know go all out in the prelim because you need to make it to the final so just being able to you know have that confidence like okay like you've been practicing this you've been training for this don't be afraid to you know go out there and just compete it's a challenge though isn't it because you i mean you guys as sprinters i mean you're gunslingers right this is this is what you do you're the you're the biggest baddest on the on the track right and you hear these guys who are who are going through the prelims like at the olympics who are talking about trying to run as slowly as they can to make it and still get four which which is bold too right like i i'm gonna go as slowly as i can have to go and do you do that and if you do that what elements of the race do you have to make sure to do properly to be able to not go full out yeah so what i'll do if i know that um i'm like gonna win my heater like i can kind of like gauge it based on my start pretty much uh once i get out if i know that i have a pretty good lead i'll shut it down a little bit about 70 80 meters where i can like you know finish through the line i won't slow up but i won't just continue to speed up so i'll just you know relax so it's like okay you're making it through you won your heat kind of what i did at um in my trials or you're my prelim sorry um in dubai it's like okay you're getting a feel for it you're getting a feel for it and then like i was able to you know finally tune in what i needed to really tune in in the finals but that's more so what i would do or you know in the 200 i'll know to you know execute my start and then come around the curve and just like ride the wave of just whatever i go through the curve just like keep that momentum don't speed up but don't slow down don't speed up but don't slow down does that make you feel confident when you can do that in the prelims yes absolutely it really does doesn't it it's just one of those you get out and you go okay now just be comfortable you go through the finish line everything's good it doesn't hurt what has been different about joining the paralympics we were actually i mean i guess i'm talking specifically about one thing we were talking about beforehand where did you have to go through like all the drug testing and things like that when you're in college or is that something that you've had to do more so in the paralympics yeah so i've gotten drug tested only twice in college um my freshman year and then my fifth year i got drug testing like five o'clock in the morning it was awful but a lot more drug testing in uh the paralympic world for sure 100 i think just i was just you know in june i drug tested three times in that month and so it's just like it's rapping they find you and they will drug test you well can you explain to people how that works because people don't have any idea right you they want to think it's a it's a level playing field but they don't want to they don't know what you're responsible for in terms of drug testing and where you're going to be etc etc yeah so we have this little thing we have to fill out called a whereabout and they have to know where you are 24 hours out of the day if you leave and go to the store you have to update it if you leave or you forget to tell them that you're out of town and they come to your house it's a mistruck test and they'll call you wherever you are it's been times where um as long as you're kind of like in realm of your home they'll pretty much call you and you say like hey we're here where are you and if you're not there they'll find like a central location for you guys to meet or to say like you'll come back home and they'll drug test you but there's been times where i was in ikea and i got a random phone call and i'm like hi like who is this she's like uh i'm at your house to drug test you and i'm like just in an ikea with a cart full of things with my mom and my aunt and i'm like we have to go i'm getting drug tested and then another time was um i was out at the track and she calls me she's like hey like i saw i just missed you um i was assuming because your whereabouts said that you'd be at practice at 9 30. i got to your house at 9 15 9 20 where are you and i've got i had to get drug tested across the street at a church and then another time um i got drug tested at a restaurant because i was out to eat for like 30 minutes i just left my house with my family and she came to drug test me at chili's in the bathroom so they're definitely glamorous yes i mean to the point where you've actually become friends with the woman who who drugges you right yeah shout out to tina i love her she's super super cool and she's leveling the playing field and you certainly believe in a level playing field and a clean race and all of that but but it is challenging to to go through all of the drug testing and i mean you fill out that form three months in advance or the next three months of where you're going to be and that's that's hard on the scheduling side yeah especially when you don't know where you're gonna be so it's it's cool that they let you like kind of update some things last minute but like you have to even incorporate like where you're sleeping or where you're practicing the exact location or what days are you traveling so if they do come and try to find you that you're not in an airport or you're not in the air like it's a lot that goes into it for sure there is do you get do you get any time off i mean you're in school two masters training drug testing no because if i'm not training then like so for example after tokyo i'll take some time some down time but i'm still into a master's program so once i am done with i have my first programs done in december and my second will be done in may of next year once that is completely done i'm going to take a break from school and just you know focus on traveling and running which is what i love to do anyway but it's not really fun where i'm like oh shoot i'm in the airport and i have to do a paper because i'm traveling for a track meet and i have to get on the plane in an hour and this is due in like two days so you haven't had any time for netflix then i do netflix in the evening sometimes but honestly sometimes i'm just so tired that i just go straight to sleep when i'm done with my day well it seems like people during during covid have have certainly moved in i mean it seems like it's one of those things that is like back years where everybody watched the same tv show kind of thing and you could comment on it did you have anything that you had to watch during covid are you going to tell us is this getting embarrassing grey's anatomy i definitely wanted to be a surgeon i definitely thought that i was a surgeon watching that i watched like i it was so bad like i would just been watched like 10 episodes a day and they're like an hour long almost the greatest anatomy though has been on for like 20 years or something and honestly i had never really watched it before until um we had coved and so you went back and and that did you watch the whole thing absolutely you you were you were competitive you're goal oriented you're going to get to the end of this i was going to get to the end of yeah i fell in love with grey's anatomy i'm like i don't understand what all the hype is about this show then i started watching it and i like i was getting like personal connections with like the the characters and i got super sad about certain parts i'm like this just isn't right what about when you go to tokyo will you have some down time during tokyo or are you continuing to study while you're in tokyo as well yeah so um i took this is my fourth summer class i've taken so right now i'm only taking one so that's a pretty down time for me you know just taking one at a time so that's a pretty laid back class so i'm hoping because we can't really do anything in covid or not sorry not kobe we can't do anything in tokyo because of covid i'm hoping that i can you know watch my tablet and watch some netflix or find some new shows and then just do my like three discussion posts and my one assignment that i have to do each week so which is super super easy compared to me doing like five different classes at once well but you have some other stuff going on too right you're competing on the highest level and those kinds of things what do you think it's going to be like in tokyo because your family can't come right there won't be fans in the in the in the in the arena what what do you what do you expect do you feed off that kind of stuff so i know that it's you know no fans it's kind of it's pretty depressing the situation they put us in but knowing that i worked this hard to get to here and that they didn't postpone it again like i don't care if it's dead silent or if i'm just running it by myself i'm gonna run and i'm gonna get hyped because i need to you know compete and make myself feel like my training's not going to waste so i'm not gonna feed into you know the circumstances of us not having fans and things like that because uh even at trials we didn't have fans and it was still you know i had to get myself hyped and i still had to go out there and compete and just have people watching on tv so knowing that people are still going to be watching just not so much in the stadium it's still motivating to me so i'm gonna go out there like it's a normal meet and try to you know get hyped and you know just not let those um outside things play come into play well it's part of your mindset though isn't it i mean it's it's the difficulties pushing you to greater heights right i mean this has kind of been the theme of of what you've done and what you teach to other people so yet again you're in that position where where it's what you've talked about so now it's what you have to do right what are your expectations in tokyo do you have any expectations how do you approach a big event do you go into with expectations or process driven or how does it work yeah so i have goals on my wall that i have that every single day i wake up and they're like right by my mirror because i look at my mirror every day gotta look fabulous so i um i look at those every single day and like those are my goals i'm like okay i think about those up until when i'm going to leave and then i don't do well with competing if i overthink i just have to go out there and run so i'm like okay so i have my goals like obviously it's a goal of mine to you know break my world record again and the 100 meter dash and you know win like that's the goal that's everyone's goal everyone wants to win so i have that in my mind but if i'm constantly overthinking about it or like you know i'm over analyzing i don't perform well so i just have to clear my mind and just go out there and compete in whatever happens happens so do you do you so you don't really think on the process side because it's hard like to have those kinds of expectations right i want to break the world record do you actually do you get specific about that in terms of like buy how much you want to break the world record no just as long as i break it that will be completely fine i've i tied it this year like to the millisecond and oh it killed me so much because all it took was a little hair to break it and i'm like are you kidding me so once i i was telling myself all um my colleges like i want to tie my work i want to break it and then like the more i kept thinking about it it's like it wasn't coming and then like when i was like okay i'm just gonna run and wing it i'm just gonna go and i tied my record when i wasn't thinking i'm like alright that's it don't think about it anymore just go out there and run what you do at practice and how you warm up is how you're to compete so it's like if i'm having killer workouts and i'm throwing up i'm hoping it's for a reason i'm hoping um but if i'm throwing up and you know i'm you know uh executing my warm up and i'm really focusing down and there's no sense of me thinking when i get to the start line right so in some ways what you're saying is that the the goal is really the motivation for training to continue to push you to that training whereas then once you get to the race okay this is it i've done it there's nothing else i can do i just have to get on the track and just perform the way that i want to perform is there is there anything you want to see is there anything you want to do is there anything you want to this is your first paralympic games right so like to to experience to signify to you that you're actually there is there anything that you're looking at um i look i'm looking to you know i would like to be holding that american flag on that podium so that would be like surreal to me because it's like when i was younger i watched you know my role models compete at the olympics and not so much obviously paralympics but it was just amazing that they worked so hard and it only comes around every four years for them to you know showcase their talents around the world um at that level and so like being able to be in that position myself is just something i'm looking forward to so much and the fact that i have that opportunity is something i'm definitely not going to take for granted if you could go back and you could talk to that 11 year old girl who was fifth in the 100 and the 200 what would you what would you tell her having learned everything that you've learned now i would tell her don't stop believing in yourself and that what you put your mind to you can definitely do that seems like it's pretty powerful stuff and and would you tell her about the idea of being a complete person as well i mean it seems like you're i mean you're you're good on the track you're good you're good in school you're doing a variety of things would you tell her that that's something that's important yeah it's definitely important you know all those aspects of like what i was taught growing up and you know having good grades in school and you know working hard and that also helped me you know work hard on the track which helped me to you know want to work hard and be an inspiration to other people so it's all all in the same one thing so it's like you can be you can be great in track some athletes are great in track but if you don't have that um you know outside stability or you don't have those same goals in other parts of your life it might not be so great after all so i've really tried to dial in on you know making sure that all aspects of my life i'm working on each day so that each aspect is helping to build on a different one and one another so that you know track is helping me with with wanting to motivate myself to you know do two masters at once because i'm like okay if i can break a world record i can do two masters like no biggie and so that's kind of what happened i i had too much confidence going in it's been good but too much confidence and so you know having that confidence in all other aspects of my life have definitely helped me to be very well-rounded okay so we've talked about the idea of look good run good i think you i think you just mentioned that i don't know if that 11 year old did that 11 year old girl know that yeah i used to run with um a side ponytail and like that was my signature look so even at 11 years old like i thought it had a look to me and now looking back i i asked my parents i'm like you you never loved me you let me look like that when i ran like it was oh it was so bad when i look at pictures of how they use how i used to run and like what i looked like and i thought i was like the coolest person ever with that little side ponytail but i was so superstitious that i felt like if i didn't wear my side ponytail and look like that i wouldn't run well at all like it was like such a confidence thing about my looks so i don't know if you're allowed to answer this question or not i don't know if you want to divulge this but you'll be in the us kit you know so so you won't have much i mean you will be able you could do a side ponytail i guess if you wanted to you have that as a choice but the fingernails are you can you tell us what you would what your fingernails are going to look like do you have a plan yet yeah so i want to incorporate some sort of you know symbolism of our nation so i would like to do some sort of red white and blue i don't know what it's going to be yet but i'm hoping that they're going to be definitely noticeable on tv because you have to look good to run good so i'm hoping like they're bright and you can see them when i'm running because like that's the goal and so i don't know i might say that for a little bit a little bit of a surprise okay okay we will definitely i will look for that do you do them yourself or do you have somebody do them i have someone do them for me so this is something you're gonna have to do before you leave home yes okay okay so there's a little forethought and so then will you be wearing gloves the whole time before you get to the track or how does that work once i'm in tokyo it's not a surprise anymore everyone can see my nails but i'm hoping to get a style that lasts long enough since i will be there for almost a month and i don't want them to look you know older when i'm competing so i might do like a little red french tip or a little blue fringe tip or something like that just kind of make them look super nice while i'm competing and they'll last a little bit longer okay okay we will look forward to that i will make sure to note that when you're there because you'll be there right on the right on the starting line with the hands out and we'll definitely be able to see the fingernails so brittany thank you so much for joining us for taking time out of your busy schedule of training in school and a little bit of a little bit of uh of grey's anatomy and and you know the things that you're doing right now so thanks so much for joining us and good luck thank you yeah no it's been absolutely awesome so thank you good luck train heart in between thank you to all of you for joining us as we usually say if you if you didn't get a chance to see the whole thing you can go to the one revolution page on facebook it will be archived there you can also wait for the podcast which will end up being on youtube it'll be on spotify it'll be on apple it'll be on all the usual suspects wherever you get your podcast you can listen to brittany on youtube you can actually watch her as well greatest compliment you can pay us is please tell your friends please tell your friends to tune in like us follow us like and follow brittany because she's doing some great stuff and you might even know before we do what she has on her fingernails all right thanks a ton take care [Music] you