Meet The Nation 345 - Julia Garza

**Scotty** (0:00)
All right, you guys, it's going to be Meet the Nation. It's not quite Monday, but we're going to still meet the nation anyway. Things are kind of buzzing over here because we're getting ready for the race, which is about 10 days away. Still some spots left and some races, but it is the biggest Badger Trail races ever. Most participants, almost 200, 100 milers. It's going to be nuts. It's going to be fun. Mickey Cecil and Ursula Hall are getting married at the beer mile.
We're going to have a good time. You're going to feel FOMO. So, if you haven't signed up, find a way to sign up. The swag is not guaranteed, but you'll probably still get a lot of it anyway, and you'll get a lot of fun. And if you are coming, bring a lawn chair because you're going to hang out. We're going to have a good time together. That's what this is all about. I mean, at the end of the day, I wouldn't be doing any of this stuff if I didn't want you guys to all become friends and meet each other. I'm also going to do a pre-race meeting via video. There'll be a Q&A for people that want to come. It won't be mandatory, and we'll record it and we'll put it up. I think it's going to be Friday night. So watch for details on that on the Official Ten Junk Miles racing page, the Facebook page. But we'll put that out, and you can come and ask questions if you want. So anyway, what we're doing today is we're talking to somebody who listens to the podcast, just about themselves, to get to know them a little bit in case we run into them at a race. If you want to do one of these, email me at tenjunkmiles.gmail.com. If you've already emailed me, you're in the queue and I'll get to you.
There's some people in the queue. Not a ton, but there's still maybe ten after this. So in ten weeks, I won't have anybody to talk to. So you might want to get involved. Send me an email. I'll do it. You'll be fine. Trust me. It's a lot of fun.
The music means I got to stop talking.
Enough already. Today, we're calling Julia Garza.

**Julia Garza** (2:25)
Hello?

**Scotty** (2:26)
Julia.

**Julia Garza** (2:28)
Hi.

**Scotty** (2:28)
What are you doing?

**Julia Garza** (2:30)
What am I doing? I'm calling you, I guess.

**Scotty** (2:33)
Are you at work? Are you at home? Are you on a run? What are you doing?

**Julia Garza** (2:36)
No. I am just... I was out shopping with my sister.
I took off a little bit from work before I go back to school. I have one more year left at the university, so.

**Scotty** (2:50)
All right. Well, where are you? Like, geographically?

**Julia Garza** (2:54)
Fort Wayne, Indiana. Oh, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

**Scotty** (2:56)
I have a friend who's the food critic there.
Dining out Duvall, if you ever hear about that. That's a guy I know. Just tell him, you know Scotty. Went to kindergarten with him. Yeah. And what are you going to school for?

**Julia Garza** (3:10)
Criminal justice.

**Scotty** (3:11)
What do you want to do?

**Julia Garza** (3:14)
I'm currently applied to, after I graduate in December, I'll graduate a semester early, go to State Highway Patrol, and then eventually FBI.

**Scotty** (3:23)
Very nice. That's exciting. All right.
Okay. And why don't you tell me your short running story? Give me your two minute, what happened that you found yourself listening to this podcast at this point in your life?

**Julia Garza** (3:39)
So I started running because my dad started running probably about like 2020
And then a big group of like my dad and some of our family and family friends would go on like run tations where would they plan a vacation around a run. And I wanted to go to San Antonio with them. But the deal was like I had to run the half marathon or I couldn't go. So I ran that very poorly. It was really bad. But then from there I ran cross country my junior and senior year of high school.
And then kind of gave it up for a little bit going into college. And then I got back into it. And then around April of, I was supposed to run a marathon in April of 2025, but that got canceled. And so I just kept training into the summer. And my aunt was training for the 100 miler at Badger. So I ran a training run with her and then she convinced me to do the 50k because it was like, she's like, that's only like six more miles than a marathon so might as well do it. And I was like, oh, okay. So I did that. And then I did a last man standing last fall.