Polly Mertens: 0:23

Hey superstars, welcome back. This is Polly here with the Everyday Awesome Project and I have a special guest for you. I’m very excited to introduce our special guest today, karen Adelot. Welcome, karen, thank you very much. I’ve gotten to know you just a little bit. You’ve been a longtime friend of Samantha, my co-host, which is lovely, and I’ve watched you from afar and you guys, it feels so amazing to be in the house of such a legend in our area and community.

Polly Mertens: 0:55

I know she’s already like oh, don’t, don’t, but let me just read off to you a few of the amazingness that this person sitting in front of me has brought to this lifetime, this short, under 80 year lifetime. So, born in the Midwest, and why I’m here, I would say mostly so I’m on my first Ironman journey, half Ironman journey, and this woman sitting in front of me has done 31 Ironmans, too many half Ironmans to even remember. She’s like I don’t even remember Half marathons, don’t even remember Two ultra marathons. And then we get into the whole biking world. So 60 double centuries, that’s 200 miles. Those rides, two 1,200 kilometer, and 1,200 kilometers is about 750 miles. Just amazing, amazing athleticism in this woman and, not to mention that, her heart, you guys.

Polly Mertens: 1:55

So she was a 35-year career, leading up to the CEO of our local YMCA. You’ve been doing triathlons for almost 40 years. You have two beautiful children, two grandchildren, volunteering left and right Currently. Today. You know our local bike association you’ll tell more about that but just in awe at, you know every I know and you’re like, oh, and one of the things she said before we recorded and I’m I appreciate this. And she said you know, I just realized I was an elite athlete. So so, karen, welcome to the Everyday Awesome Project. Thank you for having me in your home and and your little buddy here, rowan, for joining us today. So if you hear any leashes or perhaps a bark, maybe Karen has her lovely little friend with us. So it’s nice to have you here today.

Karen Aydelott: 2:46

Thank you very much, Polly yeah.

Polly Mertens: 2:49

Yeah. So what we are doing here at the Everyday Awesome Project is talking with people like yourself who have amazing journey stories. Not only is your elite athlete career just remarkable, and you guys, when I said those 30 Ironmans which let me just share, if you haven’t heard of Ironman World, that is, and you tell me if I’ll get these close soon it’s 120 miles, right, 120 miles, it’s a two mile or more. Swim, 2.4 mile, often in the ocean, ocean swim, sometimes a lake. 120 mile bike ride 112. 112.

Karen Aydelott: 3:27

There’s a reason for all of that, I can tell you. Oh, okay, okay, the people who dreamed up the Ironman as an event were a bunch of sailors sitting around in Hawaii and they decided they were discussing who was the best athlete and they said, well, let’s test it, who was the best athlete? And they said, well, let’s test it. So they put together the open water swim, the Honolulu open water swim, which is 2.4. Okay, that’s why we have these odd numbers. The ride around Hawaii is 112 miles. Okay, that’s the bike. And the Honolulu marathon is a marathon. A marathon, wow. And so those are the distances it was at Ironman.

Polly Mertens: 4:05

So that’s where it all started and that was one of the things I was thinking I was talking with. So you’ve been in the triathlon world. I think you said you started when you were 40. That was your first About About 40. Yeah, and so a long time, right, yes, right, right, right. And so I was talking with someone recently who was giving me some numbers of what it was like. You know, oh, back in the day when triathlons so were were a lot of women racing in triathlons. Then we’re like, tell me what the environment was like for you when you first started, like how did you get into this and where did it start for you?

Karen Aydelott: 4:39

Well, it, started with the first Ironman I did, or the first triathlon I did was women only, wow, and it was in lake harriet. I lived in minneapolis at the time and I literally rode my bike to the start. I, that’s how close I lived. Okay, I had to borrow a helmet, wow, um, and I won my age group right, it was short, it was a distance, but that’s kind of how I got started and it was like maybe I’m going to be good.

Karen Aydelott: 5:08

Maybe I can do this, and so that’s really how it started, and, as far as I don’t think, I ever was the only woman. But women have increasingly gotten to the point where there is many as there are men, yeah, and they are as good, if not better, athletes.

Polly Mertens: 5:29

Wow, no doubt, no doubt. You know, samantha was in Kona last year supporting the—. So when anyone in Ironman world says Kona, at least in the Western US or United States, that’s a big deal right?

Karen Aydelott: 5:44

Yes, and I think that’s probably worldwide.

Polly Mertens: 5:46

Worldwide too, is it?

Karen Aydelott: 5:48

There are people from everywhere.

Polly Mertens: 5:50

Wow, okay, so that’s a world champion. So, karen has been there 15 times. Fifteen times you’ve been to Kona and we’re going to get into this a little bit later in your story but some of those years were as an adapt. You know you had an adaptation, let’s say, but you didn’t let that stop you. It was. You were still in your age group.

Karen Aydelott: 6:09

So, yes, I raced in my age group as an amputee and my back is fused for me when I was on a ride one day.

Polly Mertens: 6:20

So that was one of the things you know. Let’s start there. So you can’t physically see Karen, but she’s a beautiful lady, you know, inside and out, and she does have. One leg has been removed at some point in your life, or part of it, part of your leg.

Karen Aydelott: 6:36

Right, I’m lucky it’s below my knee and that makes a big difference. Okay, so it’s below my knee amputation. Wow, so it’s below my knee amputation Wow.

Polly Mertens: 6:51

And I had a lot of wonderful support to get back to being able to function as a normal person. Let’s talk about that. So I would love to talk more about all the Konas and Ironmans, but this thing that happened in your life and I think you’re out training, as I understand, right.

Karen Aydelott: 7:01

I had just been riding with a group of fellows after we moved to Pasadena. I met them for a good number of years, twice a week. We met at the same time in the same place in the morning. And as I was coming to that point, um, I was hit from behind by a distracted driver. And what I I can? I had bright blue handlebar tape and I thought, oh, I’ll just hold my handlebar tape up and I’ll ride out this person hitting the back of my bike. And of course, that’s not what happened. I fell over, the movement didn’t stop, so I got pulled and flipped.

Polly Mertens: 7:45

Wow, so you were in front of her. The car came up from behind hits you. Did it roll over you? Yeah?

Karen Aydelott: 7:57

It dragged me and flipped me and that’s what caused the injuries, which was to an explosive break and mashed up my lumbar vertebrae. Wow. Twisted, them distorted, so those things needed to be fixed. Wow. And the first thing I’m laying there and I look at my leg and I can see that it’s a compound fracture. Yeah, and I’m like, okay, I just bought my tickets to race in New York and my tickets to go to Kona.

Polly Mertens: 8:36

Wow, and I’m like damn it, this isn’t going to happen. This is probably not going to happen.

Karen Aydelott: 8:42

Yeah, so I was aware enough to realize that.

Polly Mertens: 8:47

So this is on the ground. After this happened not even in the hospital so you came to or you were alert enough to know.

Karen Aydelott: 8:53

Yes, I don’t think I really passed out. Oh, okay, because I can remember all of that. And then the ambulance came. They put me in the ambulance and I remember being really upset because the woman who hit me said I ran my bike into her and I knew that I hadn’t. And it turns out that you can tell when a bike’s been rear-ended. So it all turned out okay and she actually got away with it because she didn’t have a license or insurance or something. The details escape me now, but it didn’t matter.

Karen Aydelott: 9:27

I mean it was what it was. It was a done deal by then, but I had excellent care.

Polly Mertens: 9:33

Wow. So you know, for people who go through traumatic events like that, you know such a physical change in your body, so I’m guessing you were taken to the hospital. There were some surgeries. So you know, one of the things is, you know, we often ask our guests is like tell us about a time when things weren’t so awesome. That’s probably that’s one of the wasn’t so awesome. So how did it affect you?

Karen Aydelott: 10:00

tell me about what this was like well at first, um, I was just hopeful. I hoped that it could be fixed. My leg wasn’t amputated for two years. I we tried everything and in the middle of that I did get take my back. Taking care of the pain in my back was really, really awful. I burst out into tears more than once. And so I did get that. My back was fused for vertebrae and it made a huge difference. Wow, and that has only recently, in the last maybe 10 years, become more of a problem as I’ve aged, but for a long time it was a godsend.

Polly Mertens: 10:49

Wow. So you had your accident, went through a number of surgeries and recovery, and you know you were a peak athlete, so thank goodness your body was in the best shape you could possibly hope for After two years, it was obvious that I wasn’t going to be able to do anything.

Karen Aydelott: 11:07

I would joke with people there was no way I was going to be an old woman wearing clunky shoes and limping. So we decided that the best thing to do and that might mean that I could continue to do the things I loved was to have my leg amputated, which we did in 2008.

Polly Mertens: 11:28

So what was that leading up to that? What was going through your mind? What were you? What choices like? How did you face this choice?

Karen Aydelott: 11:38

I wanted possibilities. I wanted to have the possibility of being able to do what I wanted to do, and I knew enough. Thankfully, through the Challenged Athletes Foundation, which I supported just because I think it’s an awesome thing to support challenged athletes and I was thinking well, I’m one and I can get support too, and that’s the only way I’m going to be able to do.

Polly Mertens: 12:03

What I love to do again is if my leg is amputated, because there was nothing useful left and we tried I think I counted 20 surgeries in the effort to get put all that together yeah, were you able to train and do any of the triathloning that you were used to before the back surgery and the leg?

Karen Aydelott: 12:25

No, that was pretty much. I can remember the first time I got back on my bike and my husband was wonderful helping me get clipped in and all of that. I think prior to that I got ready by riding my trainer. I followed the doctor’s orders, yeah, but in between those couple of years I think, um, I could swim up to a point and that’s when my back was really giving me fits yeah and um, that was part of of getting my back taken care of, but I certainly wasn’t running. Yeah.

Karen Aydelott: 13:10

And I missed it. I missed all of it, a lot, and I wasn’t willing to give up hope. That’s something that’s very important to keep a hold on, yeah, and I didn’t let go of hoping that I have a lot of faith in the medical world and my dad was a pediatrician, so maybe that’s why.

Polly Mertens: 13:31

But where did that sense of hope come from? Like were the people around you more positive than you? Like, did you ever get into the doldrums, or did you never get into the doldrums? Or did you never get into the doldrums or did you, like you said, always had hope?

Karen Aydelott: 13:47

I think I had things that scared me and scared other people too, but I had a bone infection. I can remember they having a hard time waking me up once from one of the surgeries, but overall I could see myself moving forward. I just imagined that I could go forward and stay focused on that and I think that was what helped the most, and then just remembering how important it was to me and I also was able to continue to work. I was working it the to me and I also was able to continue to work. I was working it the whole time and I missed unless I was in the hospital, I missed very little work. Sometimes I had to work from home during those two years and I had staff meetings in my dining room.

Polly Mertens: 14:38

The show must go on right. Yeah, yeah, and this is you, you know, the CEO-ish of YMCA.

Karen Aydelott: 14:43

I was executive director of the Pasadena YMCA at that time Gotcha, gotcha. And we were doing a lot of youth programming and trying to build a facility. Wow. So it was a busy job. I loved my work, which it filled up time and didn’t allow me too many gaps when I wasn’t able to race.

Polly Mertens: 15:08

Yeah, well, you know, and that’s one of the things we talked a little bit before we started a little bit. And you know so, our friend Samantha is. She’s going for her next full Ironman in September. I’m doing the half, I’m working full time. I’m doing the half, I’m working full-time. You had, you know, children doing. You know all of these races in relationships, business, you know work. Oh, I just don’t know how you do it all. I’ve got you know work and a half iron man and I’m like, okay, this is you know, I don’t have any other time. No, no more people or whatnot. But so it seemed like you’re able to fit all this in and you and you didn’t want to lose a step, like you were like no, my life can go on, yeah I had my children young, so they were actually my older son was very supportive of helping as I was going through this whole process of having lost my leg.

Karen Aydelott: 15:59

um but um, by the time I was focused on racing, I had taken care of a lot of the other things that were important in my life, so I guess I just found time you could focus on yourself a little bit more.

Polly Mertens: 16:19

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. So how did um? I guess one of the things I think about is you know, sometimes life lessons are things that insert themselves into our life, whether we self create it. Like I told you off air that you know, I created an eating disorder for myself. So I would say that I manifested that, if you will, your accident was someone coming into your life and, you know, manifested that, if you will, your accident was someone coming into your life and that changed the direction of your life in some ways. What did you learn in that process? What would you say is one or two of the things that you learned about yourself or about that?

Karen Aydelott: 16:57

Well, one of the things that I used to move forward was to be positive and to be hopeful and to stay focused on what I could control and how. I guess again, just the positive attitude, being hopeful, not giving up and counting on the ability to taking small steps, I think was very helpful. I tried to stay positive because sometimes things get you down and it really is a mental exercise almost. It is.

Karen Aydelott: 17:47

Okay, I’m not going to let that attitude take over my life. I’m going to try to stay positive. And I still have to count on those things. To count on those things and I think, imagining yourself to be strong both mentally and physically.

Polly Mertens: 18:14

Is, you know, when I think about what it I’ve watched on television, the Kona race, right, or women, you know, and men running that, and you know, having experienced some sense of endurance, racing myself, but not those distances, if you will, I just think about how hard those races are, you know they’re not. I mean no matter what you say, I mean maybe you could say, oh, they got easier, or they were easy for me, but like they’re so tough, how was it for you?

Karen Aydelott: 18:40

I, you endurance is my strength, yeah, more than, and so I I would say that for me it was a mostly a positive experience. Um, I enjoyed seeing what I could do. I guess I wasn’t I didn’t expect to win anything. I was doing it because it was something I enjoyed doing. And um, obviously it was. Yeah, it just was, I really enjoyed what I was doing.

Polly Mertens: 19:23

That’s great One of the things when Samantha and I talked with you before we planned today and I asked for some advice you know, for my first one and one of the things you said was smile I was like I didn’t think I would get that advice out there.

Karen Aydelott: 19:40

But it helps. I believe it really does help. And you’re? I always thought of myself as being incredibly fortunate, lucky that I could do something that I enjoyed so much, so I think I felt grateful. But I think when you smile, it’s contagious, and so you’re doing something for yourself as well as for anyone who’s around you. Yeah, I think having a positive attitude is the other. Yeah, it does you no good to give up before you’ve gotten to the finish line. Wow.

Polly Mertens: 20:16

Were there moments in races that you’re like I don’t know if I’m going to like were you? Did you have moments where you felt like you were going to give in or give up or couldn’t?

Karen Aydelott: 20:23

make it. I had moments when I didn’t know if I had time to finish. I had a tendency to throw up oh no, on some of the long you know the long runs and trying to see how fast I could walk or run. Yeah, some of the long runs and trying to see how fast I could walk or run yeah. There were times when I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to the finish line, but I didn’t stop and say, okay, I can, you just kept doing. I went until I ran out of time and that did happen a couple times. More after I lost my life. I think, yeah, yeah. More after I lost my life, I think, yeah, yeah, but I it’s only been as I’ve aged that it’s become. It felt more of a burden than it for a long time. It was just something there that and I could do what I wanted to do anyway do what I wanted to do anyway.

Polly Mertens: 21:22

You know, when I’m hearing you describe this and what I said before we, you know, hit record was you grew up loving swimming, right, and so you had been a swimming coach, even you know you love swimming. You wanted to introduce swimming to other people and coach them and your own children. And then you, in your midlife, let’s say, found running and long distance running in Minneapolis when you live there, and that became a joy. And then this whole cycling world came to you a little bit later in your life and you became this amazing cyclist with all these. You know double centuries and you know all these races and stuff.

Polly Mertens: 21:51

So what I’m picking up is like you know, some people, um, exercise. Either they they hate it or they do exercises they don’t enjoy or they do it, you know, for, let’s say, the wrong reasons. Or you know, oh, I want to lose weight, and they do it short term or something. I’m seeing you just sitting here and seeing your face light up, thinking about these races and how much you know, like when you say you just loved it. Like I’m hearing a musician who loves to play music, a artist who loves to paint, a cook who loves, or a chef who loves to cook, and for you this is your art or something, this is your.

Karen Aydelott: 22:32

Possibly because I love art and I’d like to cook.

Speaker 4: 22:36

I majored in art history. Yeah, I majored in art history.

Karen Aydelott: 22:41

Yeah, but it is it definitely. It gave me gifts. It gave me the gift that I could test myself and figure out what I could do and push. It gave me friends. It gave me opportunities to see things I might not have seen otherwise.

Polly Mertens: 23:05

Because you did these races, I’m guessing, all around the world, or in different parts of the world, not too much around the world.

Karen Aydelott: 23:12

I raced in Canada, but otherwise I was in the US.

Polly Mertens: 23:17

And you said something about Paris that was your century rides. Maybe that was really the US. And you said something about Paris that was your century rides, maybe, Right, right.

Karen Aydelott: 23:23

That was really pretty awesome. Yeah, that was it’s called Rondoniering and Paris-Vers-Paris is kind of the top of the top, and you race from Paris to the coast, the west coast of which is on the atlantic of france, and then you go back and you just you see so much of france, right and um, and it’s definitely endurance because it’s timed right it’s yeah, you have to finish in a certain amount of time, and ronde nearing includes everything you need to do.

Karen Aydelott: 24:01

whether you’re you know you’re to finish in a certain amount of time, rondineering includes everything you need to do, whether you’re going to take a nap, need a shower, you’re going to eat any of those things. Whatever you use, you have to learn to use your time wisely.

Polly Mertens: 24:14

And is it self-supported or do they have crews that help you or do they have crews that help you?

Karen Aydelott: 24:20

There are rest stops. If you need to take a nap at some other time, you can lay down on the ground. But if you want food or drink, there are rest stops. So you have to kind of plan and know where those are and train for that.

Polly Mertens: 24:36

And train to make it to those, because, if I remember correctly, some of these were like, we talked about 80 hours.

Karen Aydelott: 24:45

Yeah, a full Paris, brest, Paris, or I did one from Davis, california, to almost Oregon and back 80 hours, I think, is the time, but you did yours in.

Polly Mertens: 25:03

Yeah, I had to finish it in under 80 hours to be considered a finisher. Yeah, and so that’s like three days, and I asked you how many hours you slept in, you said like around four.

Karen Aydelott: 25:12

The first time I did it. I think I slept four or five hours and I finished in about 70 hours. Wow, wow, I finished in about 70 hours, wow, wow.

Polly Mertens: 25:19

And if any of you listening to this have tried to do anything for more than 24 hours and still be standing, let alone two days, and I mean, and athletic, I mean, this is riding pretty damn hard. You know, this isn’t like a leisurely stroll, and you know.

Karen Aydelott: 25:38

Get off and walk around, and you know this is, and there are hundreds of people doing it.

Polly Mertens: 25:42

Hundreds of people doing it. I can’t remember now, but it’s a huge number of people.

Karen Aydelott: 25:47

Wow. We started like in groups of four or five hundred, I think. Yeah, and in France it wasn’t that many when we did it in the States, but it’s a big deal. It’s a big deal. It’s a big deal.

Polly Mertens: 26:01

Yeah, and that’s who you were, and you did this with your husband, I think right, yes, then husband, yeah, yeah, yeah, so you know. So you have this accident you choose to, you know, have your leg amputated below the knee, like you said.

Karen Aydelott: 26:19

It’s a big difference in what you can do.

Polly Mertens: 26:21

Yeah, how is that so Well?

Karen Aydelott: 26:25

because you have a knee. A knee is critical for how you walk. I can run Thanks to the Challenged Athletes Foundation and whatnot. I have still Challenged Athletes Foundation and whatnot. I have still. I have a running leg with a C-foot and I really, really enjoyed running that and I could do it, yeah. And then I have a cycling leg and I have a walking leg. Yeah, and I still have all three of them, even though, since I got, since I’m not able to do some of those things now, I still have them.

Polly Mertens: 27:06

You still have them yeah, I haven’t quite given up hope yet. So it was 2008,. I think you had your leg amputated and you started training. Then with the new what do you call them? Prosthesis, prosthesis, prosthesis, yes, prosthetics. Okay, so you didn’t give up. You’re like uh, I missed, I missed a little.

Karen Aydelott: 27:28

I missed a season maybe, but I’m back yeah, I took a couple years, but I was very happy to be able to try again. Yeah, and I did it in little increments, yeah, um, it’s just, it’s just having hope and it’s realizing that you can keep moving forward and I just kind of focused on that and probably the way I did a lot of other parts of my life was just keep trying to do what I wanted to do, do it better, be better at it, I think. And then I really liked helping other people, and you mentioned swimming. I was able to help because swimming is usually the sport triathletes are the weakest at. It is.

Karen Aydelott: 28:15

So I was able to help run classes in ran classes to help in Minneapolis to help people get to figure out what they needed in order to work on being able to swim.

Polly Mertens: 28:28

Tell me a little, because you said when we were talking about your journey along the way, about you were, I think, at the YMCA doing the swimming early on and you hadn’t gotten into the coaching yet and then you started to Like what was that like? Like what attracted you to that?

Karen Aydelott: 28:47

Well, I think I like the idea of helping people and when I started working at the Y, I was just volunteering and then teaching infant swimming not infant six months or older with moms or dads and then did more in older kids and then they needed a coach for the swim team, which was just like a rag tag. We might have had at at most 25 or 30 kids, and I loved it. I learned, I did research, I connected with a coach at the University of Minnesota to have her come and the women’s coach to help run a clinic for me or to do. We did a sleepover at the Y and eventually we grew to a hundred kids and won the state championship, which in Minneapolis is a big deal.

Polly Mertens: 29:50

Wow.

Karen Aydelott: 29:54

It’s a big deal and it was. It just was such a good way for me to try to help other people. Kids learn how to swim, but also to build their character, give them the skill to want to do more or do better, I don’t know, and we had fun, but I liked being able to introduce young people to opportunities to expand their lives or the opportunities that are available for them.

Polly Mertens: 30:38

And I think you said you did some more of that through the Y, with the programs that you created, and some more volunteering.

Karen Aydelott: 30:47

When I was working, one of the things that I was particularly concerned about was that kids were not learning the skills they needed to have full, rich lives. They were learning how to do just what the tests. This was when testing became really centered in school, and so the kids are getting tests, but they’re not learning how to think creatively. They’re not learning how to get along with each other, and so we could do that in our after-school programs, and that was one of the things that was really important when I was in Pasadena, because the city is very wealthy and challenged and we, the kids in the public school, needed all the support they could get, and so it was just very rewarding to work on the after-school programs and to develop my staff and to have the kids feel good about themselves and feel comfortable with the skills, and we also helped with homework.

Polly Mertens: 31:59

And so it seemed like you were just going from one passion and love to another, to another.

Karen Aydelott: 32:07

I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I think some of that is attitude. You can decide to make the most of your opportunities or make the most of what’s given to you, or you can decide to not be that person, and I think I like myself better when I’m that person.

Polly Mertens: 32:31

Hmm, where did you learn that? Where did you? Did you grow up in a household that was super positive and you had role models that you know I was like oh, I’m actually just like my dad, I’m guessing not.

Karen Aydelott: 32:46

Not too much, but I would say I was, my dad was a pediatrician and I had held him in very high regard guard and and I think both my parents, for different reasons, wanted us to excel. But sometimes that’s not the proper motivation?

Polly Mertens: 33:16

I’m not sure. I don’t really have an answer to that question, but it’s just something that you’ve carried with you and it’s been kind of like a beacon or just kind of like an inner compass for you is like hope. It sounds like yeah, yes.

Karen Aydelott: 33:28

And as life gets more difficult and more complicated, those kinds of beacons like do I have courage? Do I have am? Am I hopeful? Do I?

Polly Mertens: 33:40

Yeah, share with me. Yeah, you have a little list with you that you have some themes.

Karen Aydelott: 33:46

Yeah, I think it’s important to have purpose. I think it’s important to be positive. Yeah, I need to think about having courage at times, because I’m not any different than anyone else. You can get down, yeah. You can feel like the world isn’t on your side all the time, yeah. And I think strength isn’t just physical strength, it’s mental strength. Yeah, I think it’s important to make commitments and have focus and strive toward things, and I think maybe one of the most important things is to have hope, to always have hope, because then you can work towards fulfilling that hope. I mean, it doesn’t come, somebody isn’t going to shower you with what you want. You have to feel hopeful that you can achieve some of the things and you will achieve some and some. You’ll have to learn how to move on.

Karen Aydelott: 34:50

We all have to do that Kind of that resilience. It’s just what your attitude is Resilience is a good word.

Polly Mertens: 34:56

And kind of bounce back from your attitude is resilience is a good word and kind of bounce back from yeah yeah, whatever, and you’ve you’ve say in some ways literally bounced back.

Karen Aydelott: 35:03

You know like kind of some ways and and now it’s getting harder. Yeah, age has not been kind to me well, you had a second accident.

Polly Mertens: 35:14

You said uh, so, so there was the one that resulted in your back injury and your leg injury. Yeah, the car accident.

Karen Aydelott: 35:23

That’s been a long time ago and I’m okay with that. It didn’t slow me down all that much. It slowed me down, but I could still do things. You kept going Even if I was slower.

Polly Mertens: 35:35

You kept going and you kept racing and you kept getting back on the bike and all of that.

Karen Aydelott: 35:40

I was riding until just a few years ago and I had a. I have no memory really of the accident, but I shattered my collarbone and had a very, very bad concussion, wow. And then I had another incident a couple years later that ended up, which may have caused the accident on my bike as well, but I ended up being diagnosed with something called Syndrome of Inappropriate Antidiuretic hormone, siadh, and it’s a a form of hyponatremia which a lot of athletes are aware of, because that’s when you you can’t function because you’re not, you don’t have enough sodium, and it turns out that it can cause death. Wow. And so they’ve discovered that that’s something I’ve developed Nobody seems to know why, and so I take something called urea, which is a sodium. I take a lot of sodium, yeah, but I’m very good, I take it every day.

Polly Mertens: 37:00

So so far it seems to keep it under control, yeah so and and we were talking a little bit before about your physical therapy and you do workout, so you and I had both gone to headstrong for a while and you know you still do. You know different exercises and so continuing to maintain the body as best you can, as much as I can, yeah, and a lot more than most.

Karen Aydelott: 37:24

Still, right, all right, I ride my trainer and I use the program so that I’m actually look like, I feel like I’m riding on the road and I have to climb hills and so on. And I have a wonderful little dog and we go for fairly long walks regularly. He’s a good trooper, he’s just a little guy and they you know, those things spark my life. I mean, they’re yeah.

Polly Mertens: 37:57

I was going to say. One of our questions that we often ask is you know, our name of our podcast is Everyday Awesome Project. Right, it’s helping people remember or see, even though every moment isn’t awesome, we can find awesome in every day. Yes, right, so what is everyday awesome to you, like these days, or how do you find it? Or create it for yourself?

Karen Aydelott: 38:19

Well, I try to take really good care of myself and my dog and we enjoy being outside. We enjoy walking, we enjoy running into people having a conversation. I love being outside, so he gives me great reason for being outside. You can’t walk your dog inside, so I walk and I ride my trainer and I take care of my disabilities as best I can with physical therapy once a week and doing some exercises.

Polly Mertens: 39:00

And you’re still active on some nonprofits, as I remember.

Karen Aydelott: 39:03

Right. Well, mostly I’m trying to help finish a bike path called the Bob Jones Trail. I’m on that committee board. I’m on that committee board. And then Bikesville County is our the organization in our county that oversees, tries to improve and make sure cycling is safe, and I work with them and I’m on the board. And then there’s another. This was something that was under the auspices of the San Luis Obispo County Health Department, but it’s called Healthy Communities and again it’s looking at how to have the community build itself in ways that create a healthy environment for all of its members and a safe environment. So there’s crossover between what the Bike Coalition is looking to accomplish and what Healthy Communities is looking to accomplish. That’s awesome.

Polly Mertens: 40:09

So there’s this running theme I see in your life of just I’ll call it contribution. Life of just I’ll call it contribution. You know, wanting to contribute to helping other people’s lives be better or be the best that they can be, whether it’s the children or the healthy community or your little puppy here, you know, whatever it is, yeah.

Karen Aydelott: 40:29

I love coaching and that’s what that is. Yeah.

Polly Mertens: 40:32

Do you do? You find yourself coaching nowadays, Do you do? Any of that.

Polly Mertens: 40:36

Yeah, but it was part of a lot of your life, you know, especially tied in with the YMCA, and as a person who grew up around the YMCA as a young person, it was amazing the energy of those communities and the I forget what we call them counselors or something like that and I went to YMCA summer camp and just the best, the best, you know. So if anybody listening to this ever went to summer camp or had YMCA in their life or in their community, that’s what we’re talking about it’s so good, it’s so good. So let’s see. So what’s, um, what’s one thing or the most important thing you do in a moment where you’re not feeling awesome. So let’s say, you know something’s not going great in your day, whatever, are there some go-to things that you have to help you pull yourself out of it or, you know, get your mindset right or call a friend, or I do.

Karen Aydelott: 41:34

I do have friends that are very important to me, and I might not call them, but I see them often enough and they can bring my spirit back without even necessarily knowing. Um, I feel very, very lucky that I have adopted this amazing little puppy. He’s made those hard times much easier, much smoother. I haven’t I’ve been to, I’ve had moments where I thought I might need to call and talk to somebody, but I haven’t had to yet I don’t like to be a person who complains, sure, so I think I just try to find ways to feel positive. I think of feeling positive and grateful and hopeful are the things that I work on when I feel that way.

Polly Mertens: 42:40

Yeah.

Karen Aydelott: 42:41

I really try to focus.

Polly Mertens: 42:42

Build that momentum and it’s you know, almost it’s like you know I mean, overall, I’m a pretty fortunate person. Yeah.

Karen Aydelott: 42:52

I mean, I know I would wish away some things immediately if I could Sure, and I sometimes feel down about them, yeah, but I also recognize that I’m pretty lucky.

Polly Mertens: 43:05

Yeah, and one of the things you said is like my helmet worked that day. Yes, right, yeah, when you get in a, you know.

Karen Aydelott: 43:15

I had a. I had my knee, my helmet worked. I could have died. I could have been a vegetable.

Polly Mertens: 43:21

I mean any number of things yeah, yeah, you live to see another day and another day and another day good days.

Polly Mertens: 43:29

Yeah, and it was a choice, you know and it’s and you’re a choice. And you know some people who, um, let’s get pushed to that close point of seeing death or they get a life-threatening diagnosis or something. It’s like things go off in them that they start to take their life more seriously or they see the blessings rather than take advantage of them or, you know, don’t realize how good things are, and so it sounds like you’ve had some of those wake up moments, but you were going into it also very hopeful and yeah, yeah, I think hope is an important I. I get that. I definitely get that. Yeah.

Karen Aydelott: 44:09

And I think, being being as positive as possible and taking that as a serious characteristic to have, yeah.

Polly Mertens: 44:20

Yeah, like a guiding light it sounds like for you, and to be that for other people.

Karen Aydelott: 44:27

I don’t want to make. I don’t want to bring my if I have grief or unhappiness, I don’t feel I don’t want to bring that to anyone. Right, that’s for me to deal with.

Polly Mertens: 44:39

And sometimes we need to lean on people, especially those friends. Yeah, yeah.

Karen Aydelott: 44:45

There’s healthy ways to do that.

Polly Mertens: 44:46

Yeah, you can get support that you need.

Karen Aydelott: 44:51

You can do that without being a moaner and groaner.

Polly Mertens: 44:54

I love it. I love it. Well said, well said, well said, speaking of people in your life, and one of my questions that I always am curious about so who in your life or in the public life so it can be a movie star, an author, whatever so who in your own life or in public life, would you say, lives every day awesome to you? Who are people that you, who you know, who are people that you most admire, and what do you admire about them? What’s what about their attitude or about them?

Karen Aydelott: 45:25

Well, I have a couple of friends that I hadn’t I wouldn’t, that I admire beyond anything. Yeah. I have a friend who has had to have a new heart, literally yeah. I have a friend who has had to have a new heart, literally Wow, and she’s beyond awesome. Oh, and has handled it beautifully Wow. I have another friend that is just there, as she’s there as a friend when I need. We have wonderful fun times together, but she’s there when I need her. She’s your solid.

Polly Mertens: 46:05

Yeah, that person that you, that first phone call you can make if you’re in need it’s harder.

Karen Aydelott: 46:12

I mean, that person is way more important, because I’ve lost my husband and that’s been hard. And, of course, I have my son. Yeah, he’s proven repeatedly to be I guess I did a good job A good human. Oh yeah, and my daughter-in-law and my grandkids bring me enormous amounts of joy, lovely. Unfortunately, they don’t live anywhere nearby.

Polly Mertens: 46:47

They don’t live right nearby, that’s okay. That’s what planes are for. Yeah, right on. Well, one of the things that I like to do to help people see other people’s philosophies or mindset right, because we’re often inspired by the life someone’s living and sometimes they know what they’re doing. Like hope seems to be a theme for you, or you know something that you’re really tuned into and helps you kind of stay your course, if you will. So this little yeah as much as possible?

Polly Mertens: 47:20

Yeah, do you know how you do that? Do you know? How do you think you know? Do you notice it in your mind and you cut off the negative, or how? Do you yeah?

Karen Aydelott: 47:30

I think, I think I think it’s what it is, is it gives you have, as a person, the ability to make that choice and then, if you’re can be a positive person, your life is going to be so much better. You’re going to see the good things before you see the bad things. You’re going to see the good things before you see the bad things. You’re going to make.

Karen Aydelott: 47:59

I think you make better decisions. I think, um, I think you can. Just, it’s a good way to work on how to make yourself. You know, if you are positive and can work on being more positive, you’ll have a better life. You’ll enjoy life more, you’ll be yeah.

Polly Mertens: 48:22

Yeah, the grass is always greener when you walk through with that lens and that attitude.

Karen Aydelott: 48:29

I mean, it’s impossible to maybe do it all the time, yeah, and bad stuff happens, mm-hmm. But if you can see your way around it, if you can, I think being hopeful, hopeful is one of the other. Yeah, hopeful and positive, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Polly Mertens: 48:49

I love it. Well, I’m going to ask you. So I’m going to share a couple of phrases. So I’m going to start the sentence and then I want you to finish it, and so whatever comes first to mind, no filtering, just this, this is what comes to mind. So there’s four phrases, so I’ll say the first one and then I’ll say it is, and then you just whatever you think of. So so, karen, life is a joy. Anything else, life is A challenge.

Karen Aydelott: 49:20

Yeah, An opportunity.

Polly Mertens: 49:27

Yeah, joy opportunity challenge. Yes, how about I am? I am what I am. I am what I am a woman who is trying not to age, gracefully. All right, okay.

Karen Aydelott: 49:57

How about people are? People are what People are amazing, challenging and amazing, and they can be anything. They can be awesome, they can be difficult, they can be joyous, they can be sad and all of those things are part of what make us human Right.

Polly Mertens: 50:24

Right, love it. How about the world is? The world is what Pretty awesome.

Karen Aydelott: 50:35

I think, if you really think about it, you can just think of so many amazing things, just having just had the total eclipse. Yeah, it’s a pretty awesome place. Yeah, it’s a pretty awesome place. And, of course, there are awesome things that are good and awesome things that are not good, and it’s our job to find our way through them.

Polly Mertens: 50:59

No doubt have there been any mentors in your life that you’ve learned things from that maybe guided you to have these beliefs that you have, or have you been a mentor or had people that you’ve worked with to help them along their path?

Karen Aydelott: 51:18

I hope so. I hope I’ve done that. Yeah, and I’m not thinking of anyone in particular, but most of the friends I have had and have have been more important to me than they probably realize in terms of of support, help and thoughtfulness. I’d have to say that my, my husband, john, was beyond awesome, and I Say more about that.

Polly Mertens: 51:50

Tell us about him.

Karen Aydelott: 51:51

Well, he was such a kind, generous, thoughtful person who enjoyed life and so we had fun and it was like two people who supported each other. It was so positive. So I miss him more than I could put into words. Um, just, you know the the presence of being with someone who you love and loves you it’s pretty hard to it’s hard to beat that. Yeah, yeah, it’s hard to beat.

Polly Mertens: 52:34

What made your relationship so strong? Was there ever challenges and you worked through them? Was it easy from the beginning? Yeah, yeah.

Karen Aydelott: 52:45

Yeah, I think we both had had experiences, both of us had difficult marriages, which I think made us I felt for my, for John, that I could return it, so he would feel it as much as I felt. And it wasn’t always easy. Yeah, like yeah, but we were, I, I never felt estranged or put off or anything.

Polly Mertens: 53:29

What were some of the hard times and how did you guys navigate that Well?

Karen Aydelott: 53:33

the ones that pop into my mind were just his health he had congestive heart failure, okay, and just you know, helping him take good care of himself. Otherwise, we, you know, we enjoyed our friends. We enjoyed our company being together. We enjoyed our friends. We enjoyed our company being together. We enjoyed our families. I think we had a lot in common and that helps.

Polly Mertens: 54:02

Did he also have children? Was there a blending of families? That happened, well, our kids were grown when we got married.

Karen Aydelott: 54:08

Gotcha. He has three kids grown when we got married, gotcha, and he has three kids. Okay, two children and a grandson.

Polly Mertens: 54:13

And were those relationships also good?

Karen Aydelott: 54:16

He had great relationships. I mean, his kids loved him. There was no yeah.

Polly Mertens: 54:22

Yeah, that’s awesome, awesome. What is the one thing?

Karen Aydelott: 54:29

And I think together we have the three most wonderful grandkids in the world.

Polly Mertens: 54:33

Oh lovely, that’s beautiful. Well, I hope they get to come and see their grandma a lot and I’m sure you’ll continue to coach them and teach them and you know we you know, if we pass on some of this beautiful juju, that you have this I just try to be there for them.

Karen Aydelott: 54:51

I’m not I don’t think I know, I just I’m just there, yeah, and I think that’s that’s great, right, right, you see them, you get them.

Polly Mertens: 55:03

and there’s something you said earlier about, um, why you wanted to help kids. I think with the swimming, you said, or maybe it was with the YMCA programs like kids weren’t learning the things that they needed, like to kind of make it in. Yes, yes, what were you seeing, what were they missing or what was happening?

Karen Aydelott: 55:24

Well, I think it just was a need to reinforce how important it is to value your partner, your friends, how important it is to work together on projects, how to be a good friend, how to support your buddies. Those things, the kind of things that are maybe unspoken but make life worth living, put a richness in your life, kind of see the humanity in other people.

Polly Mertens: 55:59

Yes, that sounds like collaboration instead of competition or something.

Karen Aydelott: 56:04

Working together for an outcome celebrating it together, yeah.

Polly Mertens: 56:10

Wow, wow thing and working together for an outcome, celebrating it together. Yeah, wow, wow. That would have been beautiful to have seen the children that you have touched and had an impact on. Do you, do you see any of them?

Karen Aydelott: 56:17

probably not, it’s been, it’s been years and yeah, I’ve been retired for, I think, about 12 years.

Polly Mertens: 56:24

Yeah yeah, but I’m sure there’s lots of souls walking around there doing more good paying it forward. Paying it forward Like you have.

Karen Aydelott: 56:32

I haven’t thought of that, but I sure hope so yeah.

Polly Mertens: 56:35

Yeah, what is some of the things that you’re looking forward to right now in your life, with either the volunteering that you’re doing or the friendships that you have, or in any area of your life. What are you most either grateful for or looking forward to?

Karen Aydelott: 56:50

Well, I’m grateful for my friends and I’m grateful to live in a place like this and have this home and, you know, have not a lot of things I have to worry about other than my health and well-being yeah, and my dog’s health and well-being.

Polly Mertens: 57:11

Yeah, your little buddy, and he was a rescue, as I remember you saying he was a rescue. Yeah, yeah, continuing to pay it forward, giving him a good life as well, oh, if.

Karen Aydelott: 57:21

I thought I could handle more than one dog, I’d get them all.

Polly Mertens: 57:24

Get them all, come on over.

Karen Aydelott: 57:27

Right now my life is challenging enough that I’m not sure I’m able to give as much as I would like to, but I I do. I am happy I have some things that I’m trying to help happen in this county. Yeah, well, back to this place and didn’t you?

Polly Mertens: 57:44

I think, just last weekend weren’t you, uh, volunteering at a race, something? Or you did some cooking for the bike race or something, didn’t I hear you? You were cooking skewers, I think you said oh that’s coming up. Oh, that’s coming up.

Karen Aydelott: 57:59

I’m going to help put skewers together, and then I, because I can’t ride the Sentry’s rides anymore. Okay, I volunteer through the Bike Coalition coalition. I volunteered to help at eight, the one of the rest stops yeah and so next tomorrow, I think. Oh, I’m doing that, helping to put skewers together. Yeah, um, for the it’s, it’s either tomorrow. I have to look at my calendar. Thank god for my calendar, but anyway, we’re making skewers to have at our restaurant.

Polly Mertens: 58:35

And what is that for you? Why do you do that? What does that give to you, or what’s the purpose for you? Why? Does that matter to you.

Karen Aydelott: 58:46

Well, first of all, being with other people and doing something working towards a common goal is just satisfying, yeah, and it can usually be fun, yeah, and so I do it because I enjoy it and because I think it’s important to continue to contribute when you can.

Polly Mertens: 59:12

It makes my life fuller, richer than it would be if I. If I didn’t do that, yeah, it just like you have so much more to give still.

Karen Aydelott: 59:16

Yeah, and seeing I have a, I am a member of a book club and I enjoy that. We can discuss the books we read. You know, they’re just things that make life worth living. I, I, that’s what I think about it. I think these are things whether it’s making skewers or helping it out at the um, you know, helping people that are doing the century ride yeah, have what they need, to go on cheering them on. Those are positive things.

Polly Mertens: 59:51

Well, as we opened your name, I was kind of joking a little bit. How do you say it? I mean it’s not spelled like it jumps out at you, but it’s aid a lot. I mean it’s like woven into your name who your life expression is, if you will. It’s beautiful what you know, if we want it. One of the things we like to help people who listen to our podcast, if they fast forward it to the very end of listening to the whole conversation and we give them a summary gem, if you will like. What’s the one thing? So we would ask you know, what’s the one thing you want people to remember about this conversation, or about you, or just about life or themselves? If you could leave people with one thing, what would you want to tell them? Wow.

Karen Aydelott: 1:00:48

I think, something like focusing on what you can bring yourself, what difference you can make to make the world, your world, your space, a better place for the people that you love and care about, and maybe even beyond that. But I think we all have that capacity and what I would encourage people to do is to do it, because it’s sad. I can’t think of anything that’s more satisfying than to help other people reach their highest goals.

Polly Mertens: 1:01:30

Yeah, yeah, so not just kind of take from the world, but also to give back. And in giving back, it seems, you also receive as well.

Karen Aydelott: 1:01:41

That’s my belief.

Polly Mertens: 1:01:43

That’s what you’ve experienced in this beautiful life that you’ve created. Love it.

Polly Mertens: 1:01:47

Love it, love it, love it in this beautiful life that you’ve created. Love it, love it, love it, love it. Well, karen, thank you so much for having me here in your home and sharing your stories with us and who you are, and I have a feeling there’s maybe another episode we might talk about in the future. We talked a little bit about some things that maybe we’ll see if there’s another way that we can come back and get together, but I just want to leave people with. What we always tell our beautiful humans is remember people. How your life feels is more important than how it looks, and every day is your opportunity to find your awesome. Cheers, guys, cheers, cheers.