My Running Story & What’s Is DPM

In a world where social media feeds are filled with "easy" 15-mile runs and Boston qualifying times, finding joy in running can feel impossible for the average runner. Each week, Bridget, your running buddy and podcast host, brings practical tips, honest stories, and a refreshing perspective on making running fun through creative metrics like her signature "Dogs Per Mile" count. Hear her running origin story from wedding preparation to grief and grad school stress, running started as a solution to life's challenges.

Whether you're struggling with motivation or just need a break from the numbers game, this show reminds you that the best runs aren't always about the fastest splits – sometimes they're about the four-legged friends you meet along the way.

HIGH FIVES, RUNNER! 🙌

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Until our next run together, remember: every step forward is progress, and every dog you see is bonus motivation. Keep running, keep smiling, and keep counting those dogs!

Transcript

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Hey, welcome to Dogs Per Mile podcast. I'm Bridget, your host and runny buddy today. I'm all about finding the joy in running, no matter what your garment says. I'll be sharing stories, practical tips, and some laughs to keep you motivated, whether you're new to running or a seasoned pro. We're all in this together, and trust me, there's always something to laugh about on the run. In today's episode, I'll share with you my running story, talk about why I choose to keep going, and why I count dogs on every run I go on. Let's get going. Hey all, welcome to the first episode of the Dogs Per Mile podcast. I am very, very excited to have you here with me on this journey to learn more about running, to just talk about stories and tips and really just normalize that running can be fun and it doesn't have to be that serious. So we're going to start today with just giving you some history of my running journey, why I got started, when I got started, just to give you some context. context about me and that part of my story. So I started running back in 2012-2011 as what most Women did in that time or do in that time to get in shape for their wedding. So if you ever saw the Etsy sweating for the wedding tank tops, I had one. I was trying to get in shape. I wanted to look good before my wedding. I also had recently lost our one-year-old puppy to a kidney failure function. Still escapes me. And I was also starting grad school right in the summer. Of 2012. So there was just a lot that was going on. And running was something that I just... started on a whim just to see what it was like. Even though I had played soccer for years and years and I ended up quitting and going to volleyball in high school because I was so tired of the running. I didn't want to do sprints. I didn't want to do laps. I didn't want to do any of it. So I went to a different sport because I hated going for runs so much. So I started off by doing a 5k that was raising money for a dog rescue because there's something that was close to my heart and it felt like it fit what I wanted to do and how I wanted to start this. And then I did another Color Run 5K and jumped right into grad school and met my really good friend Charlotte in grad school. And we talked and chatted and she eventually convinced me of many things, but she convinced me that well, we should sign up for a half marathon. You've never done one before, but we're students. We get a discount for the no longer in service Nike Women's Half Marathon in D.C. And, of course, I moved from doing a 35-minute 5K and being very proud of that to understanding what it was going to be like to run a half marathon or 13.1 miles. But I fell in love with the training process. That was what really sucked me in. My brain saw it as this fun, logical puzzle of trying to fit these different runs into my busy days in grad school. And okay, I have to get up early and run eight miles this day before I go to my internship. And I have to get a long run in here and doing laps and laps and laps around the West Hartford Reservoir back in Connecticut. I just kept training. I kept trying. And I had no goal. goal time at all set. No idea how it was going to go. And we get to the start line and Charlotte almost backs out of it. But I ended up seeing my friend from college there and we ran the first three miles together. And I ended that with a 2.04, I think, for my first half. And from that moment on, I was absolutely hooked. I could not... have enjoyed it more. I loved the process. And so I kept training for different races. I would do ones in different states. I even did one very challenging and very strange sprint triathlon where I did all of my training inside for swimming and never swam outside. Didn't have a wetsuit. Borrowed a bike for my parents' house. But I liked trying new things and I really just loved the training process and I really liked making running fun. It was something that I never was interested in the seriousness of it. I never... loved doing track workouts or anything that was very that realm. I just liked the process of training and getting better and fitting these runs in here. It also was the only time during grad school that I wasn't able to multitask. I wasn't able to work and also be researching a paper or be wedding planning or be doing all sorts of other things. It was the one and only thing that I had to focus on just myself and it was the first time I was selfish for something. And that was really enjoyable. I loved the feeling after my runs. And plot twist, spoiler alert, that most people starting out on a run, the first few miles always suck. It's just sometimes the whole run sucks. But I just really loved it. every aspect of the other part. I loved learning about it. And I, over the past 13 or so years I've run, I don't have an exact number. I've lost count about maybe 50 half marathons. Then I've also done two marathons, which I always say never again, and then one will come back. So we're probably about due for one of those again. And then my awful, awful sprint triathlon. And I just love mixing my running with whatever, other season of physical activity I'm in. I have done times where I've done a lot of strength training mixed with running. I have been an avid Orange Theory member for years and have mixed that with training for races and getting better. I've done cycling. I've done Peloton bikes. I've done Pilates. I've done group classes, anything and everything. I just never seem to stick in one lane when it Running always is the thing I come back to and I will miss it anytime I'm not doing it. So that's kind of been my journey and what's brought me to running and what keeps me going with running is just finding the fun and enjoying it. And so that moves into kind of the why finding joy in your running routine is just so critical. I know for me, I could see people on social media and Or even friends who do races and they post their picture and I see their bib number and I am as guilty as the next person of looking up the race results, putting their bib and thinking, am I faster than them? Am I not faster than them? How do I feel about that? Or this last run, my heart rate would not go down. And no matter how slow I was going or look at this person, they can run, they're qualifying for this or they're doing that. And so... you can really get just so dialed into the numbers, which are very critical if you're training for a specific goal, if you're trying to qualify for a race. They're important. You can't train effectively for a goal without paying attention to most of the numbers. But they can not tell the whole story of who you are, how good you are. So between... between people saying on social media that they're, oh, I just went for an easy 15-mile run, and my mom always laughs every time I tell her how far I ran. I always say, even though I don't mean it, oh, I just went for an easy six miles, and she just laughs and laughs. Or you see people who, without any training, they pull out a 145 half, or they qualify for Boston on their first go, and it can just be frustrating. And so a lot of the why behind why people run get lost in the numbers and the noise and everything. So it's really important to have something that is fun about it that's outside of qualifying, hitting a pace, seeing these different successes or not successes, because when you're day in and day out or going for long runs sometimes you need that something that's a little bit silly or feels stupid um and it's not always about the stats of the bead for a lot of people it's lets them think about their day process information um go through emotions i know a lot of my runs i think about different ideas or things i see or what i need to do that day or Sometimes it just lets me be alone and not have to worry about everyone else, what my dogs are doing, what my husband's doing, what I need to do at work. It's very much alone. Or it could be you're in a running group or you have a running buddy that it's just nice to connect with them and hear about their day and just process externally or just enjoy another person's company and laugh or whatever. tell stories or anything like that. And just sometimes it's just being outside before the sun's up. That's one of my favorite things is getting a run in and then the sun comes up. Nothing is better for me than feeling so accomplished and the sun hasn't even risen. So that's another just thing that finds joy in it. So one thing that has really been like my core value that I've discovered more and more about running is just the dogs per mile mindset. And this is a absolutely ridiculously made up stat that is just a low stress way to make running fun and light and enjoyable. So I started doing it during my last marathon in Portland, Oregon, because the long runs, if you've ever trained for really any distance, you know that sometimes you're out there for at least one, two, three, maybe even four hours on some of your runs, and it can start to get boring. You can only listen to so many podcasts, so many audiobooks, the same playlist before you really just want to throw your AirPods in the river. And some days the pace just wasn't working. I'm looking at my watch and I'm feeling like I'm dying and it's buzzing at me like, you are going too slow. And I'm like, F you watch. What the fuck are you talking about? I am going fast. I don't know what you're talking about. And so then I would just get so upset at myself at the end of the runs that I deemed that that run wasn't good because my watch told me it wasn't a good run. Which just is fucking stupid. The watch doesn't control whether or not you had a good run. So I just started to... notice all the dogs I would see on the run. And I would say, Oh, look, I saw. So what I have two dogs, I have a mini Australian shepherd and I have a, now I have a golden retriever as well. And so I would just look at the dogs I saw and I would report back to my husband and say, I saw five dogs. I saw an Aussie. I saw a cute Burmese mountain dog. I saw this, I saw that. And so it became something that was just kind of fun that I would, my goal would be to try to remember as many as I saw when I came back to tell them about my run and living in Portland, you have to kind of have a year. I mean, anytime, anywhere, you live and you run. You have to have your head in a swivel. You need to be aware of your surroundings. You can't just like 100% zone out and not look. So it was another way for me to just stay focused on my surroundings. So I would start saying how many dogs, and then I started just kind of counting how many dogs I saw and seeing what the average of dogs per mile I saw based on how far I ran. So if I saw 10 dogs and I ran five miles, I'd be like, cool, I saw... 10 dogs that many miles. And I ran a 2 DPM, two dogs per mile on average. And it just was a fun stat that made me enjoy running a little bit more. So, cause I'm an average runner. I'm not, I'm not qualifying for Boston anytime soon until I'm 80 and maybe then. But so I just wanted to find some way to enjoy the runs and not focus on my splits. So I focused on the dogs. And the best part is I get to make the rules on this so I can decide, well, my rules are, if you see the dog more than once it only counts once on the run unless you're in a race and you can count that dog as many times as you see them i can allow myself to have certain breeds get extra points so if i see a mini aussie or a golden retriever i can let them be two points if i want to if i remember and i can just make that decision and i can decide if it's cheating if you run by a dog park and count all the dogs in there or i can decide if it's cheating for these sort of stuff so i used to just let my watch tell me if my run was good or bad and And I'm changing my routes to now improve my dogs per mile and less of my split time, which is much more enjoyable. It's so much more fun. So there's just other ways that you can find joy. Find your own dogs per mile. And it could be just really enjoying the environment you go on. So if you're a... runner who likes to do different routes, seeing different houses, different things. I like to look at the signs that people have, who has 12-foot skeletons, who has a really fun Halloween display and has ghosts and skeletons crawling up their house. So that's really fun and enjoyable. And also running outside is a way to mentally reset your brain. It's a way just to get that fresh air and that vitamin D. And so that's another way to a non-stat-related lifestyle. way to find joy in running. And then also it can be, if you're a type of person, you're an extrovert and you love talking to people, run clubs are the way to go. It's so fun to chat with one. I am the leader of a run club here in Kansas City. We are tiny, but we are going to grow. And it's just really nice to talk with people about they're buying a house or they're doing this and oh my husband got laid off and just talking about that sort of things it's just really nice to enjoy time with another human. And then also just never underestimate the power of the rudder wave. I'm a big fan of the runner wave, just waving and smiling and saying hi, even if they're unfamiliar. I think it's just one of the things that brings runners together. It's like the Jeep wave. You got a Jeep, you do a little Jeep wave, you feel like a cool kid. I feel like the same way when I run and I get to wave at another runner. And running also, since even when they feel hard physically, it's often a way to mentally reset and prove that you're able to do hard things. I know this last weekend, I went for a six-mile run. I was planning on going three because I was very tired. My stomach hurt. And there was a whole bunch of other just things going on. And at the end of it, I ended up doing way more than I thought I could. And I just had that release of stress. and just felt the accomplishment really pushed me through the rest of my day. And it's just so great to come back on a run, just feeling lighter and clearer and more aware and awake, whether or not you met your speed or your distance or your Garmin says you programmed a run and it says that you got a like 42%. Don't translate that to like, oh, I failed. No, you got out there. You did more than you thought you were going to do. So really, I want you to like, Think about what a dog per mile stat could be for you. And it can be dogs. It can be trees, types of birds. It could be fun signs you see. It could be Christmas lights. Just anything that helps you enjoy the run more. And there's going to be runs where the numbers are not matching. You slept like crap. The weather is windy. or you just feel off. And sometimes finding joy in those days helps. And also on their side, on the days where the weather is perfect. I know when I have that 40 degree day, it's perfect. There's no wind. It's nice. And my run goes to shit. I will beat myself up because like, well, logically, this day was perfect. Why did you suck? And being able to say like, yeah, shit happens. And at least I saw 27 dogs and that was real great. So You're just really shifting your focus in those moments from numbers to enjoyment or something that's going to make it a lot more fun. So each week I am going to provide you with what my dogs per mile were for the week, just so you have an idea of what I'm doing, what's going on. And at the end, so basically the way I do dogs per mile is I figure out how far I ran that run and then I count how many dogs I saw and then Then I just divide it by each other. And that gives me how many dogs I ran or I saw. So this last week I ran 11 total miles and I saw nine dogs. So it was a little bit light for dogs. So really only a 0.81 dogs per mile was my dogs per mile. So I'm always interested in what your dogs per mile was on your last run or what the most dogs you've ever seen on a run was. Let me know. I'd love to know more about what your dogs per mile has been. So that's a wrap on today's first episode. We really covered a lot. I loved giving you guys a little bit more of my running history, why I jumped straight from a 5k to a half marathon like an absolute lunatic. I fell in love with running and then really just going into the heart of what I hope this podcast and I hope you take away from this is just finding your joy and your fun in running. And we talked about how it's important to kind of shift focus away from what your watch says or the traditional stats to your own sort of way to make running enjoyable. Why I shifted away to just counting the dogs that I see and how they keep me motivated. And so I want you just to take away, at least from this episode, that running doesn't always have to be about performance or pace. It can be a source of fun, a mental reset, or just your moment of joy, your moment of alone time. So next time you're out there and the watch is going and buzzing and saying, slow down, speed up, too fast, too high, too whatever. Think about what your dogs per mile are, how many 12-foot skeletons you saw, or any funny lawn signs you see in people's yards. And just let yourself enjoy the run. if you enjoyed today's episode please hit the subscribe button so you'll never miss a moment of the fun the motivation or any running tips and if you loved it i'd be super super grateful if you could leave a review on spotify apple podcast or wherever you are listening to this uh you can follow me along on instagram at dogs per mile pod for more updates and more tips and maybe some pictures of my two dogs yogi and maple uh so share your runs with me tag me and And let me know what stat you're counting on your runs. Thanks for listening. And I'll catch you next time for more stories, tips, and dogs. Until then, keep running and keep counting dogs. See ya.