She has a runner’s body. It is also a body that lost 200lbs and has run 100-mile ultras and climbed mountains. Even after enduring years of mistreatment from overeating, undereating, binge eating, and no eating, it has helped her accomplish things once thought impossible.
Callie Vinson is an ultra-runner and advocate for body diversity and inclusivity within outdoor sports. She shares her deeply personal story in hopes it’ll inspire you to think twice about what’s holding you back.
Discover the transformative power of embracing your body and join Callie in exploring topics of self-discovery, resilience, and the pursuit of personal goals.
Additional Links
Callie Vinson (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/callievinsonn/
Callie Vinson (Outside Magazine): https://www.outsideonline.com/health/running/culture-running/people/callie-vinson-believes-in-herself/
It Matters To Me (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/adamcasey/
It Matters To Me (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@itmatterstomepodcast
Transcript
Adam Casey: Callie, welcome to the show. How are you doing?
Callie Vinson: Doing awesome. How are you doing?
Adam Casey: I’m doing great. You know we’ve had a few back and forths. We had some scheduling conflicts, I don’t know, air quotes conflicts. But we had some issues, but it’s so good to finally have you on the show.
Adam Casey: I’m really excited to talk to you because. You’re an advocate for body positivity and also a pretty accomplished ultra runner. But before we get into any of that, I would like to know if I knew you growing up, what kinds of stories would I tell about you?
Callie Vinson: I think one of the first stories you’d probably tell is how I was always I was the dirt.
Callie Vinson: I was always escaping to the backyard and pretending that I was building a fort or playing in the grass and making, you know, where I was going to cook dinner in my escaped environment. And I was always barefoot too, and this was Florida, so you never know what you’re going to step on out there. But yeah, I think as a child I was just so, just, Curious about the outdoors.
Callie Vinson: That I wanted to spend as much time as possible in it. And that’s definitely one of the first stories you probably tell. And then another one would be how much I was always just also fascinated with art. I was always creating something. I was always painting or drawing or, you know When I got older and got a camera, I was always trying to, how to take, take the best picture.
Callie Vinson: And when I was in high school, that’s when I got into a photography class. So growing up I was either always outside playing the dirt or playing with Art .
Adam Casey: And I think the art is awesome because, in some of the prep that I’ve been doing for the interview, definitely, admittedly, looking at your Instagram and seeing some of the content that you put out there.
Adam Casey: And it’s not just a simple, one off photo with a caption, there’s some artistic quality to it. So I definitely, I can’t wait till we get into that kind of later half of the story. But like I mentioned, you’re an advocate for body positivity and for anyone out there who doesn’t know what that term means how would you define body positivity?
Callie Vinson: To me, body positivity is just like taking those moments when you would otherwise have this flood of negative thoughts about yourself and how you look. And maybe it’s like a certain part of your body or the way that. That you move or the way that something is hard to do like going up the stairs and That’s when that kind of triggers all these negative thoughts.
Callie Vinson: I think it’s about changing that and Just reflecting on it and then moving on to have a more positive outlook on your body And I like to kind of bridge the idea of body positivity and body neutrality though I always talk about body positivity. But it’s also about, like, loving what your body can do, too, and appreciating what it can do in whatever stage you’re in, whether you’re trying to be more active, or if you’re happy where you are.
Callie Vinson: I think it’s, in a nutshell, being… Happy with however your body is in that moment and appreciating and loving it and respecting it and Acknowledging everything that our bodies do for us day in and day out versus just having these floods of negative thoughts about it because it looks a certain way
Adam Casey: How did you come to be an advocate for body positivity?
Adam Casey: Because growing up in Florida, you then went on to art school in Chicago how do you bridge the divide between those two periods in your life?
Callie Vinson: Yeah, I mean, it’s one of those things that I didn’t like set out to do.
Callie Vinson: It’s just something that kind of grew organically. I think because of the way I grew up, just very, very shy and very introverted. I never wanted to stand out or like be an advocate of anything or like be the leader.
Callie Vinson: And so that, that idea of like being a leader or an advocate never really crossed my mind until recently. And I think it’s because I’ve heard from other people saying like, oh my gosh, you’ve inspired me to do this. Or, oh my gosh, you made me realize that I’m more capable of, you know, setting out for this ultra marathon.
Callie Vinson: And I never thought I could do that. But because of you I. Like I mentioned, fell in love with my body and I started to appreciate what it could do and just hearing this playback, I was like, Oh, maybe, maybe me sharing all these random adventures that I go on and going after these ultra marathons, maybe it’s actually doing something more than I thought it was.
Callie Vinson: And I thought I was just sharing something on Instagram to be like, Hey, look what I did. But it was, I guess it had more meaning and more value and more purpose. So, it’s one of those things that just kind of, Yeah, happened organically. And I’m still trying to figure it out because I’m still that introverted, very shy person.
Callie Vinson: But because I’ve, I’ve realized that like I said, those adventures that I go on or ultramarathons that I do, they have meaning and can help others. I like to then use those. stories to continue to inspire others.
Adam Casey: I think one selling point for lack of a better term for why you’re becoming, and have become so popular is because of your personal story I believe you lost over 200 pounds what were the origins of losing that weight.
Adam Casey: And take me through that period in your life where you, you realized you needed this change in how you went about actually accomplishing it.
Callie Vinson: Yeah. I, I guess I grew up pretty healthy, pretty normal. Like as a child, child I was always active and. I didn’t realize it later that I chose sports because they required the least amount of running.
Callie Vinson: So, I was always the soccer player, but the goalie, because you just hung in the back and protected the net. And then I was always a rower, and I fell in love with rowing. I actually almost went to college to become a rower, but then… I took a hard right turn to art school, but it was once I went to art school, and maybe before that, that I just kind of, like, fell off the wagon of, of being active and playing sports and picking up just unhealthy habits, I guess you could say, and it was in art school that I just, like, completely just went off the rails and went rogue and just, you know, would eat out at fast food restaurants, like, three times a day, getting, like, two meals for one person and just picking up crumbs.
Callie Vinson: All these bad habits. And because I also was an art student, I was just like the typical art student. And I would party and go out and experiment and do whatever. It was art school, whatever. And then once I got my first job in Chicago, I moved there with all these big dreams and these goals that I wanted to accomplish going into Chicago.
Callie Vinson: And I realized pretty quickly that because of the limits that I put on myself, because of my health, I couldn’t go after a lot of those dreams. Because, I don’t know, I had this moment of just like, Oh my gosh, I’m putting these own limits on myself. This has to change. It started the momentum. But what really started the momentum, and I always tell this story, is one of my friends asked to go to brunch one day, and of course I Googled it to see how far it was, and what I was going to eat, and where we were going to park or whatever, but he was like, Oh, we’re just going to walk there, and it was a mile away, and that terrified me.
Callie Vinson: Absolutely terrified me. Because there was absolutely no way that I could walk a mile to go to brunch. And that ultimately became like the, the switch that flipped or the moment that flipped it. And so I, prior to this, I had failed, you know, trying to lose weight, picking up any kind of fad diet, trying anything and doing it to the extreme and not really creating a sustainable lifestyle.
Callie Vinson: But after that moment, I was like, okay, I got to take this. And I have to put my health first, like, before my career, before my friends, before my family. It has to be the thing that I choose when push comes to shove and it’s like happy hour or no because I’m getting up early and I’m gonna like start a healthy day the next day.
Callie Vinson: And so I started and I, I, Started with small changes like making my breakfast every day for two weeks and then doing that and then Picking up making my lunch every day and doing that And then eventually got a gen membership And I was terrified of going in there because I don’t know what people are gonna think of me like trying to use machine I’ve never used before and I would only go To the gym and running later.
Callie Vinson: Early in the morning or late at night when it was dark. So like, I was hoping nobody would be there so nobody could see me. But eventually, I started getting confidence. And then I was like, okay, running. I’ve always hated running. Despised it. But if I feel like if I can conquer running, I can conquer anything.
Callie Vinson: And so, that became my mission. That became my goal. And I started with just trying to run around the block. And that was, it felt impossible. I mean, my lungs were burning. My, just everything hurt. Even just like a run around the block. But I kept at it and, you know. A run around the block became two blocks, became four, became a mile, two miles.
Callie Vinson: Eventually I just ran like a half marathon, like on my own in the neighborhood one day. And then shortly after that I saw a newspaper talking about the Chicago Marathon. And in my mind, I was like, there’s absolutely no way I could ever run a marathon. But then my next thought was like, I have to run a marathon.
Callie Vinson: And so I went home, did research, found a way to get into the Chicago Marathon. And then in 2016, I ran it. And then. And I went down that hill from there and got into trail and ultra running and the list goes on.
Adam Casey: Well, one thing you kind of mentioned was the lack of success you had in like the fad diets and I, I fully admit I’m someone who’s participated and up until recently been a part of like the keto diet and things like that. And so I am on that side of the equation where I can embrace something like the hottest trend in fitness sometimes, but I can almost do it to a detriment.
Adam Casey: Why do you think that it took something as serious as this is a life or death kind of thing?
Callie Vinson: I think back when I was trying the more like fad diet approach it didn’t really click that that was something that I would need to do for the rest of my life and that was never like there was never like a long-term picture.
Callie Vinson: It was like I just need to lose 20 pounds or 50 pounds and then I’ll feel great I just needed to like get to this goal and then like that’s it it never really clicked for me that whatever I chose that needed to be for life and I think when I started on this, like, okay, we’re going to take this seriously journey.
Callie Vinson: That’s when I was like, okay, let’s just start small. Let’s just start with something small. And at the same time, doing a ton of research. I became so infatuated with just… learning about food and the value of food and almost like what I was considering like the superpowers and food and learning like what they can do for your body versus like how they can harm your body so I learned like what can broccoli do versus like pumpkin seeds or what does what does fat do versus carbs and what is a carb and what is a fat and just learning like the basics of food and ingredients and a nutrition facts label I think because I was gaining all of that, like, just basic knowledge of food.
Callie Vinson: It, it helped flip that switch permanently to something that ultimately has become, fingers crossed, a lifetime, a lifetime just lifestyle, I guess.
Adam Casey: It’s amazing what motivation you have when it’s intrinsic like that. I kind of always joke that I… I have an engineering degree but I don’t know anything about engineering until it came to time to like building out my van.
Adam Casey: And then I had to actually learn how like electrical currents work and things like that because I didn’t want to burn the thing down. And so with fitness and it seems like for you, you said you grew up healthy, but whether or not you had that background, it’s only when it kind of really matters it’s inspiring the challenges that people will take on when in those moments of crisis, it’s so important.
Adam Casey: You’ve been alluding, this is a journey. This is, you know, whatever the, the cliche, it’s not the destination, it’s the the journey along the way. And so obviously this is a continuing evolutionary process. What kind of keeps you motivated now to maintain this lifestyle when you’ve already achieved something so monumental like losing 200 pounds?
Callie Vinson: I think now… Before, when I was very unhealthy in what I ate, and just how sedentary I was, there’s no way I would have been able to see You know, some of the things I, I’ve seen because my, my body has gotten me there.
Callie Vinson: I didn’t drive there. I didn’t, you know, even get on a bike to go there. Like, I either ran there or I hiked there. And I think that has motivated me to just continue because it’s so, I don’t know, I feel like, I feel like I almost unlocked something that was within me all along. And I think that has also become a motivator. The motivation just comes from, like, how this lifestyle makes me feel, and what it allows me to do.
Adam Casey: Like I said, for me, I did the ketogenic diet for a while and it’s not fun. Like, it’s just,
Callie Vinson: I did that one too.
Adam Casey: It’s a boring diet, but for me, having a goal of, you know, being a fellow runner, like, I was all in on the concept that the low carb, high fat high sustainability was the way to burn fuel.
Adam Casey: And so for me in those moments, it was easy for me to stay motivated for that. But up until recently, through my own health concerns, I had to stop doing it. And so now I’m, I’m relearning some of these nutritional facts that I thought were myths and embracing like a higher carb diet.
Adam Casey: And so that’s what’s amazing about I think health and fitness is that it’s. It’s always changing. 10 years from now we’ll be talking about a completely different diet and we’ll probably be looking at the things that we’re doing now and just looking down our nose at them and just being like, oh, I can’t believe they were doing that kind of thing.
Callie Vinson: 100% yeah, it’s funny whenever you like if you’ve gone through that journey of learning more about food And then you go back and look at diets, fad diets You can understand like they were created to help people who don’t want to learn below the or discover more You know below the surface of food just helping them to just like create this like easy plan to get healthy or to lose weight or to Get to some goal and and looking back.
Callie Vinson: I understand it now I see it like looking back at Weight Watchers looking back at like the 21 day or Whole 30 or Keto. They’re designed just to be like something that anyone can pick up and you don’t have to learn anything else other than this but I feel like now that I know way more about food. It’s almost like I can just eat and live this lifestyle freely knowing that, I don’t know, that I’m getting all the nutrients that I need without having to follow a diet.
Callie Vinson: But I, I understand why the diets are created, but I also understand how they can be a problem, too. Because personally, I’m, I can be very militant in, like, my diet or my regimen. Like, if I had to eat the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a month, easy, no problem.
Callie Vinson: I can see why the diets are popular because they’re also easy. You just pick it up and you follow the plan and that’s it.
Adam Casey: Continuing along your story, you know, you picked up running as a means to an end for this process of losing weight, but yet you continue to run and now here you are talking to me today and you’ve done things like the Moab 240.
Adam Casey: You’ve done 100 mile races, you’ve done the Tahoe 200, if I’m correct, right? Or no, you’ve done Cocodona. You did Cocodona 250.
Adam Casey: Why? is probably my first question. Like once you get past a point of maybe you didn’t have a specific goal weight that you wanted to achieve.
Adam Casey: But why did you continue to run once you kind of did achieve that weight loss goal of losing 200 pounds.
Callie Vinson: Yeah, it’s funny because like you mentioned, like, running was just a means to lose weight originally. And then once, I don’t know, I met that goal, I continued with it, I think because I just fell in love with running.
Callie Vinson: I love what it allows me to do. It’s connected me to this amazing community. It like I mentioned, brings you to amazing places that not a lot of people can, can see. And. It also just like, it allows me to continue to challenge myself in a different way outside of my day to day. Like, I’m a creative in the ad agency and that’s challenging, but that’s challenging for my mind and my creativity and imagination.
Callie Vinson: And then, outside of that, I don’t really have any physical challenge because, I don’t know, that’s not a part of my job. So, running has become this thing that continues. This curiosity to see like how far I can go or how better I can be at Performing or how better can I get at fueling or it just becomes like this.
Callie Vinson: I know this it’s not a game But it’s just something I’m just continually curious about and then also there’s just so many races out there and the races Again, bring you to all these amazing places and connect you to that community. And so running is just It’s become that thing that, I don’t know, it’s part of my, part of my day.
Callie Vinson: And so when you get to do it for multiple days at a time and a 240 mile race, it’s like, Oh, I can keep doing this and not have to log into my phone or a laptop. I’ll sign me up.
Adam Casey: It’s amazing the people that are continuing to get involved in things like ultra running not just running in general and I feel like a lot of people come from backgrounds where they have such a dichotomy in that and that their typical day to day life is more definitely more sedentary but more confined to just being inside. I know I’m in this camp when I’m able to go for a run and when I am in a race but just the idea of unplugging and disconnecting like that during a race is definitely one of the highlights for me.
Adam Casey: The physical fitness benefits, you know, that I am hopefully getting those are secondary to just having the ability to be outside.
Adam Casey: So I definitely can empathize with that.
Callie Vinson: It is funny, the farther I’ve gone in distance, the less I, I place, or the lower I place like the health benefits towards the top. They kind of become secondary or tertiary because there’s so much more that becomes the primary or secondary the farther you go, and I’m sure you notice that in the hundred mile too, which is, It’s also just incredible to do a hundred mile.
Callie Vinson: So congrats on that.
Adam Casey: Thanks. Well, that was three years ago, and there’s a reason why I’ve only done one and I always like to tell the story, I ran it here in Colorado and just when I did it, it was during elk hunting season and I just had these, like, imaginations of like, oh, you know, it’d be awesome if a hunter shot me with a bow and arrow right now so I didn’t have to finish this race.
Callie Vinson: [Laughter].
Callie Vinson: Yeah. Please. Anyone. [Laughter].
Adam Casey: I’d take one. I’d take one on the butt for that. [Laughter].
Adam Casey: So you’re a self described shy person, but looking at your public persona, it’s just that it’s public. How did a shy person like you decide to make that change to being more public, not just about their overall life, but something as deeply personal, like your weight loss journey and just overall body image?
Callie Vinson: I think just discovering that the more I shared my story and my journey and the adventures I go on and found out that it was helping others or inspiring others or making people rethink what they’re capable of, that then became the motivator to keep doing it. And it’s funny because whenever I do… Like, you know, whenever I post photos or a Reel now I imagine myself sharing those with like, a small group of people.
Callie Vinson: Like, I’m sharing them with just my people. You know, it’s not like to the world or public. It’s just like, I’m creating this or I’m posting this because I’m just talking to this smaller group of people. And, to me, it makes it feel more intimate, and it makes it feel more personable, and it makes it feel more genuine and authentic.
Callie Vinson: Versus… I don’t know, something that I’m, I feel like I’m broadcasting, you know, country to country. And, I don’t know, maybe that’s how I, I help my, my stuff be, feel more authentic and real is because I feel like I’m only talking to a small group of people, but I know that it’s going to a lot more people than what’s going on in my mind.
Adam Casey: I really like that idea of you’re not just posting, you know anyone can look, look at your follower count and be quite impressed. And so having this mindset of I’m still posting for this core group of people that I would consider part of my community versus 60, 000 followers that you have.
Adam Casey: I think that’s a really interesting point it can be something that gets lost on a lot of people that are trying to be more public and have a brand like that.
Adam Casey: What kind of feedback do you get when you’re preparing for a race like Moab or Cocodona, and you’re posting about your training and everything, and I’m sure there’s going to be some naysayers out there, but what kind of feedback do you generally get when you do post something?
Callie Vinson: I would say generally it’s all positive, it’s all like people being supportive in the same way that I would be supportive of them, like commenting on something that they posted. It’s generally people who are like, yeah, you can do this, or like, oh my gosh, I never thought of this, I should try that. And, and so because it is more positive than negative, it then also, like, inspires me and motivates me to keep going.
Callie Vinson: Keep posting, but I mean there are definitely those people out there who will post something negative and to me I just kind of laugh about it Because it’s like why? Why waste like a moment of your life being negative or hurtful or unkind to someone when you have no idea how much time you have left on this floating rock.
Callie Vinson: So just like, I don’t know, I’m all about more love than, than just being rude and mean.
Adam Casey: Yeah, the trolls that are out there for me, it’s this quote “graveyards are filled of people who thought they were more important than they really were”. And that one just, it’s as morbid as it is, it helps me kind of in those moments when, let’s just be honest, someone’s being a dick and you’re like, you know what?
Adam Casey: Do you like that? I’m not going to waste my energy. I’m not going to waste my time responding to it. And I can only imagine just again, because of. body image stuff. And you know, that is just such a contentious topic sometimes. And the fitness industry is so contentious. But let alone the fact that you’re a female, I can’t even imagine some of this stuff that you get.
Adam Casey: But I’m glad to hear that it’s mainly a majority positive.
Adam Casey: When you say you engage with the people that do give you support. How does that make you feel when someone, I’m guessing, probably reaches out to you and says, “Following your stuff or seeing your story helped me start my own journey to” whether it’s losing weight or becoming a runner?
Callie Vinson: I mean, it’s so hard to not feel anything but just like overwhelmed with joy, like it makes me feel just so happy that maybe that flip switched for them and they’ve been waiting and they’ve been trying and they’ve, you know, tried and failed, tried and failed like I used to do.
Callie Vinson: And maybe they’re going after it and this is going to be it. This is going to be the moment that that changes and it becomes this journey that they continue to go on. And whether that’s like a weight loss journey or just like a health journey or a running journey, it’s hard. It’s hard to start. You don’t know how to start.
Callie Vinson: You don’t know where to start. You’re, you’re vulnerable in that moment when you’re, you’re, you’re basically saying like, I’ve done it wrong this whole time and I’m going to try and do it right. You know, if you’re going for a health journey, and it’s hard to be a newbie in running. You don’t know what’s the right way.
Callie Vinson: You don’t know if you’re running right. You don’t know if your form’s correct. You don’t know if you’re, you have the right gear. And I felt like a fool in the beginning, trying all this stuff out for the first time, even just like how to run. I had no idea what I was doing, and that’s why I only ran in the dark, because I didn’t want people to see me.
Callie Vinson: But, I know how that feels, so when people are saying like, Hey, you inspired me to sign up for my first 50k, or hey, you inspired me to like, rethink my health and, and where I am right now. I, I… Completely sympathize with those people because I know how hard it is and I know the effort that it takes to, like I did, you had to, you have to put that goal above everything else and that in itself is hard to do.
Callie Vinson: So I applaud them and wish them well in their journey.
Adam Casey: And do you think that that’s something, I guess, negative about the running community in the fact that people approach it with such shyness that are from the outside, and I won’t paint too broad of a brush, I would say the running community in my eyes has some things they can improve upon, but for the most part, it’s pretty welcoming.
Adam Casey: But what would you say are some of the shortcomings in not just the running community, but the ultra running community when it comes to stuff like weight loss and body positivity because I think a lot of people have this conception that
Adam Casey: “Oh, you’re a runner and, oh, you run these long distances. You must be able to eat everything you can.”
Adam Casey: But that’s not necessarily the case, but I’d love to hear what you think in air quotes is wrong about the ultra running community and what your work is trying to do to address it.
Callie Vinson: I think for so long the idea of what an ultra runner looks like has been portrayed very clearly very thin fit, maybe generally white. And I think that there’s a lot of great people out there. Who are, are working to change that, and are working to show that you can have this body, you can be this, how many years old, you can be a woman, you can be a man, you can be trans, you can be whatever, and you belong in the ultra community.
Callie Vinson: My goal, my personal goal, is to one day see an ultra running mag cover or a Runner’s World cover of someone who’s not fit, toned, maybe not young. And for them to not talk anything about their age, not talk anything about body positivity. But just talk on the cover as if it was like any other runner, like your, your stereotypical runner because I think that’s when that happens.
Callie Vinson: That’s like when we’ve got there. When you can see someone who maybe looks like me or, or someone, I don’t know, who just looks like a normal person on a running magazine cover and for them to not acknowledge like bravery or body positivity or their weight loss journey, I think that’s when we can finally realize that everyone can be an ultra runner.
Callie Vinson: Everyone can be a runner, a trail runner. And everyone belongs versus, you know, the contrary.
Adam Casey: And what other advocates like yourself are kind of out there, if at all trying to champion this message?
Adam Casey: Because, no offense to you, but I feel like there’s probably other people who have come before you who have had the same story and hopefully the same results, but why is it taking until 2023 for someone like you to get the notoriety that you’re getting?
Callie Vinson: I don’t know why, honestly, but I do remember, I just jogged my memory back when I was. I think right after I finished my first marathon and I had just learned about ultras and trail running, I, there was this one guy, I can’t remember his name, but he lost, I think like 100 or 150 pounds and he finished the Leadville 100.
Callie Vinson: And I was just like, Oh my God, like, I can’t believe that someone can do that. Like one, go through that journey and two, become a runner and three. run a hundred mile race. And not just a hundred, but the Leadville, the Race Across The Sky. And that became like, Oh man, like if he can do it, maybe I can do something like this.
Callie Vinson: Maybe I can do a 50 miler or a 100k or a hundred miler one day.
Adam Casey: Again, like my bone to pick with the ultra running community. I think there’s a lot of sometimes “do as I say, not as I do”. And even though I’ve never been in a position where I’ve lost 200 pounds, I’ve been in a position, where I’m still in this position, where I struggle with body image.
Adam Casey: And I’m considered thin and athletic build, but I still have really significant body image issues and for me, it’s not uncommon for me to wake up in the morning and see myself in the mirror and have some pretty negative thoughts about the way I look
Adam Casey: but it is one of those things where I feel like the more people talk about it, and seeing someone like you be more vocal about it does help someone like me.
Adam Casey: Just even in this conversation bring up the fact I, have body image issues where usually I wouldn’t because being a guy I don’t want to be looked at a different way.
Callie Vinson: Yeah. A hundred percent. I think that’s a great point. Like the more people like rally around this and make it feel normal to be in whatever stage they are, whether they’re older or you know, their body, their nationality, wherever they come from.
Callie Vinson: To show up and say, I’m a runner and I’m an ultra runner and I belong in this space. The more that people do that, the more that people who didn’t think that at all are going to see that and maybe think better of themselves or start to believe that they can go after these goals. And yeah, the more that we can make it a norm and the louder the voice, I think the better for everybody.
Callie Vinson: Cause I’ve noticed that too, even with my boyfriend Scott, like even he has body image issues and I’m like, are you kidding me? Like you’re a fast, elite ultra trail runner with like a 2:29 marathon PR time absolutely not sir.
Callie Vinson: But I completely understand it because we grew up just being told to look a certain way And if you didn’t look this certain way then then that’s wrong and that’s unnatural and that’s not normal and you need to change that or plastic surgery or yada yada yada, and I think the more that we can show up is just real people with real bodies.
Callie Vinson: I think we can finally move past that, hopefully.
Adam Casey: So one question I wanted to kind of ask, because it seems like you did a lot of this on your own.
Callie Vinson: I did.
Adam Casey: Not just, not just the weight loss, but then also training and running these races.
Adam Casey: Do you think it was important for you to do this independently, or do you think it would have been easier for you had you met Scott from day one and had someone giving you all this nutritional advice.
Adam Casey: Or do you think it was necessary for you to both physically struggle along the way mentally struggle by learning how to change your lifestyle so that it stuck?
Callie Vinson: I think I learn the best if I just jump and build my weight, my wings on the way down. That’s how I’ve always learned best. And Yeah, I think that’s just my personality, because like when I moved to Chicago, I moved with two suitcases and just like crashed on someone’s floor. When I moved to Arizona, I found a place and two weeks I was gone.
Callie Vinson: And you just kind of figure it out along the way. But I think because I, I learned on my own and did research as I needed to do research, because that’s when I wanted to learn that information and I, I knew how to apply it right then and there. I think that’s, That was probably the best scenario for me because it’s one thing to, to be told how to do something.
Callie Vinson: But like we were talking before, like if it doesn’t apply to my need in that moment, like it’s just going to go in one ear and out the other.
Adam Casey: I’m the same way sometimes too, it’s either I just got to jump right into the deep end and just hope that I find a way to swim or if not, I just walk away from the edge of the pool to continue that terrible metaphor.
Adam Casey: [Laughter]
Adam Casey: Well, one thing you recently did. And I hope this is bringing up a sore topic is Western States this year. You participated in Western States but you did that in partnership with Rising Hearts and GU Labs. and so I’d love to hear, how did you get involved with those two organizations and let you talk about your Western States experience and what came out of that.
Callie Vinson: Yeah, so every year, GU they get a sponsored bib and GU is partnered with Rising Hearts for this year and last year too. And Rising Hearts they wanted to pick me to raise awareness for that body positivity. And so I was completely honored and I said yes. And it’s funny because at the moment I was thinking I was going to run Cocodona for 2023 and then I get this message from Jordan saying, Hey, do you want this bib?
Callie Vinson: And I was like yeah because how often do you get a chance to run Western States? It’s one of the hardest races to get into. And I, so, I went all in. With training, I mean, I had Scott coach me, and, I mean, he finished 10th place in 2022, so I’m like, okay, he knows what he’s doing. So I had full trust that whatever he told me to do in training I would do it.
Callie Vinson: Which is very rare for me, because, like we talked, I have to learn my own way. But for this, I was like, I’m gonna do it. Like, exactly what I need to do because it’s a very important race and for an important cause, and I want to take it very seriously. So, training went spectacular. Just spot on, everything I needed to do.
Callie Vinson: Fueling up until Western States, I’ve always, always, always had stomach issues. Racing and running every single time and that’s what ultimately pulled me out of Cocodona one year and it had the same issues in Moab but I was just so stubborn that I just kept going the entire time with those issues but anyway so I was very concerned that this was gonna happen again at Western States but this is the first time that I tried GU’s liquid fueling option their Roctane drink and I was curious to try it out.
Callie Vinson: And of course in that moment, I’m like, well, nothing else has worked. So why not try this? And for the first time I’ve never had stomach issues. And so I was like, Oh my gosh, training’s going well. Fueling is going great. I I’ve got everything figured out. And then this happened to be one of the craziest snow years of all time.
Callie Vinson: And so we get to we get to training camp, which is Memorial day weekend. And I mean, we start. Training camp the first day 30 miles into the course and if you know this course, it’s a net downhill race So you start higher up and you go down So we start 30 miles in and there’s a shit ton of snow shit ton of snow and ice and I’m like well, what is the first 30 miles look like?
Callie Vinson: I think it was like for the first 10k of the training day. It was just all snow, just all snow and me, I’m a total fish out of water or Bambi, as you want to picture it, trying to navigate on snow and ice. I mean, I have no momentum. And so once we left training camp and we were kind of leading up to the actual race weekend, I was so concerned because I knew.
Callie Vinson: If, even if there wasn’t snow and ice, I had to push to meet these cutoffs, because there’s a lot of climbing at Western States, but even more descending, and that can tear your quads up, tear your whole legs up. I was concerned with the cutoff times anyway, and then knowing that there was still gonna be a ton of snow going into the race I was just like, you know what?
Callie Vinson: I can’t control the weather. I can’t control what’s out there all I can do is just give it my best and see what happens. So it’s kind of the mindset that I went into the race even Scott was a lot of the runners were struggling I mean just trying to navigate the race for the first or the snow for the first like 20 some miles It was just full of ice and not just like nice ice to run on.
Callie Vinson: It was, it was hard, slippery, very unfun ice and I can’t tell you how many times I fell how many times I had to butt slide down a steep hill because that was the only option of getting down the hill I think I had bruises on my hips for like two weeks after the race but I get to the Duncan Canyon Aid Station and I don’t make the cutoff so they had to they had to take my wristband.
Callie Vinson: So that’s, that’s ultimately where my race ended. But I left it with absolutely like no sadness, no regrets. I did everything I could. I moved as fast as I could in the ice. And you know what? There’s more ultra marathon racing to do.
Callie Vinson: And so what we did is my people who were going to pace me, we went to a pizza shop around the corner and got like a huge stack of pizzas for the whole team. And, and was at the finish line there waiting for Scott and saw him finish.
Adam Casey: The ability just to say I did everything I could left it all on the table is so important and the truth of , there will always be another race you will eventually find your way back to Western States if that’s what you want.
Adam Casey: I like the phrase, things don’t happen for a reason, things happen and it’s up to you to find the reason in them.
Adam Casey: And maybe just that day you just needed to celebrate with some pizzas with Scott.
Callie Vinson: That’s also kind of like what draws us into ultras is because there is no guarantee. There’s no guarantee that you’re going to finish. That race, so it just it draws you in even more and makes you want to put yourself into the challenge and see what’s possible.
Adam Casey: Well one last question kind of before we, we wrap things up, but I know you’ve got an FKT coming up. I’d love to hear kind of what you’ve got planned. And just, I guess the way to ask that question is what’s next for Callie?
Callie Vinson: Yeah, so what’s next is an FKT attempt, which, if you don’t know, it stands for Fastest Known Time and it’s gonna be in Arizona.
Callie Vinson: So it’s the, the Maricopa Loop Trail, which is about a 250 mile complete loop that goes all around the valley, and I’m gonna try and do it in under 109 hours We’ll see. And, and originally I was going back and forth between supported or unsupported but after posting that and getting messages from people saying like, I will come down there and help you.
Callie Vinson: I want to be a part of this so bad that it got me thinking like, there’s so much more meaning when you can bring a community together for an effort versus me just going out there and doing this thing by myself. So I want this to be a supported effort that brings together the trail community in Arizona.
Adam Casey: That’s so unselfish of you. That’s awesome.
Adam Casey: When are you going to do this?
Callie Vinson: I’m going to do it over Thanksgiving weekend.
Adam Casey: Oh, okay.
Adam Casey: Well if I somehow find myself in Arizona on Thanksgiving, you better believe I’m going to invite myself because I love rad stuff like that.
Adam Casey: Well, Callie, this has just been such a fun conversation.
Adam Casey: How would you like people that are out there to engage with you and your work?
Callie Vinson: I think the easiest way and probably the most engaging and hopefully valuable way is through Instagram. And now you can find me under Callie Vinson with two ‘n’s at the end.
Adam Casey: I will be sure to include a link to that in the show notes as well.
Adam Casey: We’ve touched on a few different things, but I think the biggest takeaway is the message that you’re putting out there and for all the world to see as shy as you might still be from that little girl growing up in Florida
Adam Casey: But Callie again, thank you so much. I’ve really enjoyed this.
Callie Vinson: Yes yes, thank you. Thanks for having me.
It Matters To Me Podcast 