This week’s guest is Dani Shanahan of HOKA Northern Arizona Elite. Dani is a California native and graduate of Loyola Marymount University who joined NAZ Elite in 2018 and has a personal best of 15:26 in the 5000. Last weekend, she had a huge breakthrough race at the Sound Running Track Meet, setting a personal best of over a minute to run 31:22 in the 10,000 and get the Olympic Standard.

We talked about that wild race in depth in this episode, as well as what it felt like to join a big pro group coming out of a small college experience and how chasing her teammates got her to that next level. We also talked about the new season of the Mandalorian, our Christmas lists, and way more.

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HIGHLIGHTS

On her expectations going into last week’s race

“I knew it was there, and I had trained for it, and I did go into it feeling like I was in shape to run what I ran, but I knew I would have to have an A++ day to run the standard.”

On the bar being set high by her NAZ teammates:

“The bar is here, and it is very high. It was a big switch this fall; I was like ‘I know what I need to do. I need to start believing in myself that I belong here’ – not only on this team but as a competitor in the professional running world.”

On the best albums of 2020:

“I listened to Phoebe Bridgers’s Punisher on repeat when I was injured and sad during this summer… It’s just a mood. It’s a ‘gray and misty outside, and I just want to sit in my feels’ kind of album.”