Life-Changing Challengers

Fitness, Fortitude, and Fitz Koehler: A Story of Survival

• Brad A Minus • Season 2 • Episode 7

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In this episode of 'Life Changing Challengers,' host Brad Minus interviews Fitz Koehler, a fitness innovator, race announcer, and author of the 'Cancer Comeback Series.' Fitz shares her battle with aggressive breast cancer, diagnosed just six weeks after a clean mammogram, detailing the brutal treatments she endured, including 15 months of chemotherapy and 33 rounds of radiation. Despite the agony, she continued to inspire and educate others through various media platforms such as TV shows, articles, and her podcast.

Fitz discusses the importance of maintaining a positive mindset, controlling what you can, and pursuing your passions, even in the face of life-threatening challenges. This episode is a testament to resilience, the power of perspective, and the impact of media in spreading hope and encouragement.

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Brad Minus:

And welcome back to another episode of Life Changing Challengers. Again, I'm your host, brad Minus. As always, I am so honored and so humbled to have Fitz Koehler on the podcast today, and you have no idea how much of like a fanboy I am now. She's a fitness innovator, she's a race announcer, she's a speaker and she's an author. She has books that she calls the Cancer Comeback Series my Noisy Cancer Comeback Running at the Mouth While Running for my Life, your Healthy Cancer Comeback. Six to Strong Healthy Comeback Journal. And not only is she right in our wheelhouse as an endurance person, but she's also been on Dancing with the Stars, so we got to get into that. So, fitz, how are you today?

Fitz Koehler:

Well, I am freaking delighted, Brad, thank you so much for having me on your show. You are so sweet and you're a fellow Floridian how awesome is that.

Brad Minus:

I'm a fellow Floridian. Where are you?

Fitz Koehler:

Gainesville Okay cool. Born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Came up here for college and never left. It's always nice to hang with a Sunshine Stater, yeah unfortunately.

Brad Minus:

I grew up in Chicago, but I am now a Floridian, you're a smart man by choice.

Fitz Koehler:

All the credit. I am not going. Floridian, you're a smart man, I'll take it, yeah, by choice, that's all the credit.

Brad Minus:

I am not going to those winters again, believe you me, but anyway. So, as I ask every one of my guests, can you tell us a little bit about your childhood, where you grew up Well, I guess you've already told us that and the compliment of your family and what the environment was like.

Fitz Koehler:

Yeah, so, born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, moved into the house. I grew up in my mom's still there. When I was three, I was the youngest of three. My brother was nine years older, super cool guy, super handsome, athletic. My sister six years older, very beautiful, very athletic, mean to me or very mean to me. So I was the youngest one dealing with a lot of stuff.

Fitz Koehler:

I would say generically we were middle class. We always had food on the table and we went to Disney for vacations. We weren't off in Europe and, yeah, it was very reasonable upbringing Both my parents were and we were scrappy. It was at a time where people weren't recording everything on their cell phones. So we got into a decent amount of trouble Never too much.

Fitz Koehler:

I had a lot of my friends, did drugs and slept with everybody. I drank all the beer and kissed all the boys, but never went too far beyond that. I drank lots of beer, boy, did I ever? Yeah, we had fake IDs. We were little troublemakers, but also with this really wholesome sidebar where my mom said never egg a house or a car because that can be very expensive replacing those things with paint. So I would never egg a house. So anything we did was just harmful or stupid for ourselves.

Fitz Koehler:

But yeah, fun, beach goer. My very first car was a Suzuki Samurai, the little baby Jeep, and then my next car was a Jeep Wrangler two door and my present car is a Jeep Wrangler four door and all stick shift and just rowdy and scrappy. And public high school, massive public high school. We had all the friends of all the colors, all the the religions Fort Lauderdale is that kind of place and yeah, I had some really nice memories of my family and some not so nice. My dad was a prescription pill popper, which wasn't awesome, and so I might be giving you more than you asked for, but you know we were. We were gritty and we got through it and I got to college and created my own destiny and, yeah, things are really good.

Brad Minus:

So did you. So you're an endurance athlete now. Were you an endurance athlete back in high school?

Fitz Koehler:

What's interesting is we were very sporty and my siblings were elite athletes. I played everything but I was never really good at anything. I played everything but I was never really good at anything. So I think I started off with t-ball and flag football, cheerleading, and then I joined the soccer team and I rode the bench a lot playing soccer, blew my knee out at 14, had a MCL, acl reconstruction wasn't crutches for six months, that type of thing. So that didn't enhance my athleticism. So I didn't make our soccer team school soccer team because that was they type of thing. So that didn't enhance my athleticism. So I didn't make our soccer team school soccer team because that was. They were state champions.

Fitz Koehler:

I happened to be at the school with the best soccer team, which wasn't good for me. I just wanted to be on a team. So I tried out for softball and wasn't very good. They cut me. I tried out for volleyball and my mom was worried about me landing on my knee so she made the coach cut me. Tried out for cheerleading the first couple of years of high school. Didn't make it. And then in senior year they chose me, I made the team and they made me captain. But yeah, I wasn't great at anything, but at about 15, that's when I started teaching fitness. I started teaching group exercise or aerobics classes at a local gym and that really changed my fate. I became good at something where physical fitness was involved and I loved it not only the way it made me feel, but the connection I got to have with all the people that I was teaching fitness to and that really set me off on my career.

Brad Minus:

Wow, we were teaching fitness at 15. How does that happen? Usually, people are just like you're only allowed in the gym at 13.

Fitz Koehler:

Okay, so this is great. So when I had my knee surgery when I was 14, I went to lots and lots of physical therapy and before the PT released me, he told my mom. He said you need to sign her up and get her going to a gym so she can continue strength training. She's going to re-injure this thing. So my mom lied. She lied and told the people at Spa Lady Fitness Center that I was 16. And so I was 14, going to the gym and then I was working at Cinnabon. This is great. This is the perfect vision.

Fitz Koehler:

Just so you know, my first job was I was the birthday clown at the skating rink, which is not far off from what I do right now. I'm still the birthday clown, but yeah, I was working in Cinnabon, which is the opposite of fitness. But my manager was really mean. Her name was Ronnie and she was horrible, and so finally, I quit Cinnabon at the mall, thank goodness, and I applied at the gym because I really enjoyed being there and I was taking classes. I thought the instructors were cool and the manager who was interviewing me. He said do you do our classes? I said yeah, and he said do you think you could teach one Friday night this was a Tuesday or something I said sure, thank God, I'm a gamer, that's really. That's the threat. That's how I became a fitness professional right at about 15 is because I said yes and you do it. I said sure, and I'm of the mindset that if you get a good opportunity, agree to it and then figure it out. And so I did. All worked out.

Brad Minus:

Oh my God. So I just have to ask this question because you're falling right in line. You ever heard of Laura Langmeier? I have not. You ever heard of Laura Langmeier? I have not. Okay, so she's another personal development person and she has this book called the Power of yes, and it was a little bit different story. So she gets out of college and they ask her if she would start a fitness fitness gyms on oil rigs for the guys. Yeah, knew nothing about fitness, knew nothing about gyms, but she just said yes, and that's like the same thing. You were just like, hey, I was just taking the classes and now you're going to teach one. So I was just, it almost was like a parallel, it was pretty cool. But yeah, so you can see that I'm constantly talking about personal development and stuff. But yeah, so that's amazing.

Fitz Koehler:

So you were, so you're teaching, so you got this job you're teaching and you're going to school, and did you something special about teaching to a room full of 50 college students? I got to play the vulgar rap music that I maybe couldn't slash, shouldn't play for some of the grownups I was associating with at the other gym. But we got to be really rowdy at UF and I taught all sorts of classes to excess. But it was a wonderful part of my collegiate experience and you get to make so many friends when you're the instructor, right. So 50 kids pour in and they instantly became your friend. They know your name, right. So I made a lot of great buddies through my fitness teaching.

Fitz Koehler:

But in the summer after my sophomore year, I took a job on a cruise ship teaching fitness. I was a fitness director on the Crystal Harmony, which was a five-star cruise liner, and I boarded in New York. We sailed across to France, stopped in England and then did every country in Scandinavia plus Russia and Estonia a few times, and so that was pretty cool. That was my first time going global. And again my family. We did Disney and Busch Gardens. We did not do Europe. So not only did I get to do it, but I got to go alone and I got paid for it. I just had so many wonderful experiences and it really gave me a lot of confidence and maturity being over there on my own, especially roaming the streets of Russia. And then, when I came back to UF, there was a producer who was holding auditions for a fitness TV show called Cardio Jam, and I auditioned and he chose me. I was one of a handful of instructors and so then I had a TV show that was airing three times a week and that expanded my impact, which I that.

Fitz Koehler:

That's the thing that connected me with real strangers. I remember going to a Sonny's barbecue, which is a barbecue joint and not the Mecca of healthy food. You can get salads or whatever, but anyways, I sit down and the morbidly obese waitress comes over to me and she's certainly not someone you would anticipate was exercising Right and she starts taking my order and she says are you fits? And I said I am. And she says, oh, you Fitz. And I said I am. And she says, oh, my gosh, I love your show. You're my favorite instructor. I do it when it's on live, I record it and I have lost 17 pounds. And with that she just. It's almost like somebody punched me in my chest.

Fitz Koehler:

I just, I felt just was so meaningful to me, and so I love the fact that through mass media, I was able to help strangers. Would we be in the same social circle? She was a grown up, I was a college kid. Could she have afforded me as a personal trainer? I tell you, I wasn't charging much back then, but I don't think her Sunday's barbecue waitress salaries would have connected us. And so, because of that experience on TV after her, people started coming out of the woodwork with similar experiences.

Fitz Koehler:

Then I wrote my first article and that brought me in, connected me with people all across the country, and so I really I'm so passionate about fitness. I'm a big believer that it can change your life and it's fact-based right. I can stand on evidence that it will make your life better. It will help you live better and longer, and it's fact based right. I can stand on evidence that it will make your life better. It will help you live better and longer, and that's my mission. It's back at least 10 years of quality life on everyone I come across. And so I haven't been, I haven't worked in a gym in decades, because I learned really quickly that my power really was extended if I spent my time, my efforts on TV and radio, books, magazines, online content, speaking engagements and so forth, and so I have the dream career doing what I love to do for people I truly care about. It's awesome.

Brad Minus:

All right. So you got this TV show. You're impacting all these people which I am so on board with I try to do that myself and so excited about that. Oh and, by the way, remind me after we're done here to tell you my funny story, because you're going to tell me anyway. So we're going to go forward with that. But yeah, so you made this impact. Where did running start for you, or was that just always a part of your fitness?

Fitz Koehler:

Yeah, so I was always running for exercise. I was a soccer player, remember. I wasn't a very good one, but we ran a lot. We ran a lot for all sports. When I was in high school I was a bit overweight and so I used running as a way to try to manage my weight and I think my gosh.

Fitz Koehler:

I believe there was a few fun runs or 5Ks involved in my life up to a point I really can't remember, but I think my first race I did was I was training a woman with breast cancer and her father hired me as a personal trainer for her and her father hired me as a personal trainer for her and she was doing great and so we ran that Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk or run here in Gainesville. I ran with her and that was really my re-entry to racing and I've never been well, never been. I was so proud, I was so proud. I ran the whole way with her and I just was just mesmerized by her ability to do what she was doing during treatment. And, yeah, as we approached the finish line, I just backed off and let her go do it herself and, as magical, but yeah, jumped into racing excessively. After that I'm not sure how that happened, but here we are. Not sure how that happened, but here we are.

Brad Minus:

All right. So there's the segue. You were training somebody with breast cancer and for all of you, as you've known, I've already given you all of her titles. So obviously you had a scare and a part of this yourself that you ended up with breast cancer. Do you want to start with how? What were you feeling like when you start, when you started to feel like something was off and what that felt like, and then how you ended up getting diagnosed?

Fitz Koehler:

Yeah, so, interestingly enough, I never cancer never made me feel bad. I was healthy. I was actually at a race weekend getting ready to run a race when I found my lump. And I found that lump six weeks after a sparkling clean mammogram. So I had gone in at the end of December of 2018, had a mammogram they didn't miss anything. That wasn't there, I'm assuming.

Fitz Koehler:

The second I stepped out into the parking lot, a cell went rogue, and so I'm at a race weekend and I get out of the shower and I rubbed my under boob. It's a Thursday. I rubbed my under boob just so it was itchy, and I found a lump. Doctor describes it as a grape-sized lump and I thought, ah, damn it.

Fitz Koehler:

So standing there naked in the bathroom and this is very important I picked up the phone and I called my doctor. I did not Google it, I did not call my mom and cry or ask my friends what I should do. I just picked up the phone and call and, folks, if you have any sort of red flags whether it's chest pain or a droopy face or a lump in your breast or testicle you call right away. So I did and I said, hey, I found a lump. And they said, hey, can you come in tomorrow? And I said no, I'm running a race tomorrow. And they said, ok, what about Monday? And I said sure.

Fitz Koehler:

So I kept it to myself and I went in Monday and the doctor says, yeah, something suspicious, let's get some scans. No-transcript, no-transcript, you like wildfire and we need to treat you immediately because it is. It's a big deal. We're treating you urgently and aggressively. And they did, and I ended up with 15 months of chemotherapy. I think I had 21 rounds. I had 33 rounds of radiation, I had several surgery and I'm super grateful to say that I am several years cancer free. But I had the treatment triathlon and it was no fun.

Brad Minus:

Yeah, I can't even imagine. First of all, I'd like to know who did your first mammogram.

Fitz Koehler:

No, they didn't miss it, and it's very interesting because we took a scan and they sent it to other radiologists. So Gainesville is a tight-knit community and I'm pals with some doctors and people reached out and said hey, I looked at your scan. She did not miss anything. It was not there. So. But again, it was this warp speed on fire. I'm going to kill you Fitz Kohler type of booger.

Fitz Koehler:

And I'm so grateful I found that lump, because had I not found the actual lump, I wouldn't have known until perhaps I started coughing because it had settled into my lungs, or perhaps I would have been confused because it had settled into my brain. And that's where breast cancer tends to go. First is the lungs and the brain. And so I'm just very fortunate that I found that lump. I want to encourage everybody to squeeze their stuff every single week. Don't wait till you're 40. Don't wait till you're 35 or 50, whatever it is. Take your hands on your stuff and have a squeeze Grote all the little special places in your body and if you feel something, make that phone call. Save your own darn life. And it's so much easier to cure something in stage one or two than three or four. And so, yeah, get all the scans and squeeze yourself.

Brad Minus:

So you found this a week after the first mammogram where they said it was clear oh, it's six weeks, Okay, six weeks. So with the way that you said it was so aggressive, can I ask did they dictate you at stage one or were you already at stage two?

Fitz Koehler:

I was stage 2B, which is pretty quick for six weeks in. It's really there's so many different options based on each cancer case is like a snowflake, so the things that are relevant to me aren't really necessarily relevant to everybody else. With breast cancer they check three different things. One is are you estrogen positive? Does your cancer feed off of estrogen? Does it feed off of progesterone? And is it HER2 positive? And basically what HER2 means, as explained to me, is HER2 moves really fast. It's a rapid growing type of cancer. Mine was HER2 positive. Her2 moves really fast. It's a rapid growing type of cancer.

Fitz Koehler:

Mine was HER2 positive, estrogen positive, apparently on the border for progesterone. So I was told, hey, you got cancer. And then we were told we're going to do further exams on your sample, on your biopsy, and then we'll let you know exactly what kind of breast cancer you had. And again, back then I didn't even know there were multiple types of breast cancer. I thought breast cancer was breast cancer and multiple types of breast cancer. I thought breast cancer was breast cancer. And so I get a call from this oncologist, nurse, practitioner or PA. She goes hey, fitz, I got your results and I want to let you know that you tested positive for estrogen, progesterone and HER2. And I let out the biggest F-bomb. I was meeting with my interns at a big old bakery. I was like freak I'm going to say the ugly word and I was like I am definitely dying because now I'm positive for all of these things and they said no. In this case the positives are good things, because if you're positive for estrogen, they know how to kill that type of cancer. If you're HER2 positive, they have a solution for that. It's really the most tricky type of breast. Cancer is triple negative because they're really unsure what your tumors are feeding off of. So I was actually lucky that I was HER2 and estrogen positive.

Fitz Koehler:

But I don't know, once it spreads to your lymph nodes, usually you're in for chemo and I can attest to chemo being not a good time. In fact, out of all of my treatments, chemo was by far the worst. It just brutalized me. I was wasted, of course. I lost my hair, all the hair, lost my fingernails. My stomach was a catastrophe. I lost tons of weight. I was beaten up by chemo Radiation. I didn't find very difficult at the time. I didn't burn super badly. Like many people do. I have long lasting effects from radiation which I hadn't anticipated. And then surgery. Surgery was annoying and I was blessed with a lumpectomy versus a full mastectomy. So the poor women and sometimes men who have a full mastectomy that means they remove the entire breast, one or both If they choose to reconstruct, that's not just one surgery. They're having multiple surgeries and so I really dodged a bullet with that one. There was no benefit for me having the phlemosectomy, but yeah, 15 months of yikes and I'm glad it's in my rear view mirror, that's for sure.

Brad Minus:

So most people don't understand it. I've actually been in the industry. Well, I don't know about the industry, but I've been around answer kids and um and adults and stuff a good amount of time. I'm luckily I never had it. My mom is a breast cancer survivor, my father is a merkle cell uh cancer survivor. So I've been around it. But but people, chemo is poison. It literally is poison. It rids you of everything you have so that when they put the medication back in that you start over.

Fitz Koehler:

Well and so, yes and no. Some people are on chemo right now and they're living full lives. They've got their hair, they can eat the food, they can run the races. I have a friend, phil Decker, who's run several marathons during his colon cancer chemo so cool. But some of us are just in a different boat and they threw me. What my doctor said is he was giving me. In hindsight. After the fact he said no, I gave you the nastiest concoction we give anybody. You need four nasty drugs and it was god awful. I'm thrilled for people who don't have to have that type of chemo and really, as long as we survive it right, we get past it right, right and again, it's the what you said absolutely the nastiest type, and that's what I was trying to just put out there.

Brad Minus:

It is nasty. No, you're right, in the current time, they have found ways that they need that to use chemo and different, different treatments in order to localize and find the specific cells, the specific things is. But when you went through it and because it you were three different, very good, your breast cancer triathlon, right, I heard you project they had to give you that in order to like wipe your body of everything so they can start again. But it's, yeah, it's nasty and yeah, I wouldn't wish. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy level on you.

Fitz Koehler:

So yeah, thank you. Yeah, it was awful. What's interesting is chemo. Number one is super scary because of the unknown. Right you walk in you think what is this? What's going to happen?

Fitz Koehler:

I had friends who had breast cancer, the triple negative breast cancer, and those were to my two girlfriends who I was looking to for guidance. I created a little wall because once people know everybody's like hey, my cousin's best friend had breast cancer, let me get the hook you up. I'm like, no, I want to talk to everybody. I've got doctors and I take their advice. And then I had two close girlfriends who were either recently finished or were going through it at the time. So I decided they would be the people I'd talk to.

Fitz Koehler:

And they had triple negative breast cancer and they had a drug that nickname is the red devil. And so I thought well, clearly that has to be the worst thing. It's called the red devil Now they call it that because it's red. But both of them had said, no, I'm not really sick. I feel a little mousy, a little tired after chemo, but it's really not that bad. And so I thought, well, whatever I'm getting, clearly it's going to be way better than that, because it's not the red devil and I was wrong. I was wrong, they, they went, I don't know. It was like a nuclear explosion went off inside of me and it didn't stop for over a year. But again, I get to live to tell the tale. So Crimea River right.

Brad Minus:

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, and you are obviously one of the strongest that I've ever met. So you're going through all of this, right? You said 15 months, 33 different radiation treatments, plus. What's going on inside your head, because you are such an optimist and you're teaching these people to get through fitness and stuff. What's going on through your head while you're going through all of this?

Fitz Koehler:

Yeah, so great question. That's very important stuff, it's the most important. So originally I thought, well, surely I'm dying. I thought I have the perfect career, perfect family, I'm somewhat of the perfect example of health and fitness. I'm going to make the perfect tale of tragedy and it was sad to think that I was going to die. But really what I was gutted about was losing my kids' lives. Ginger was 15 at the time, parker was 13, and I really mourned losing them.

Fitz Koehler:

So it was about a week and a half until I met my oncologist and he said no, you're not dying, we have a plan to cure you. You just have to endure the cure. So then I thought, okay, now I have choices. So lovely to have choices. And so my number one choice was to utilize perspective, which has always been my right hand man.

Fitz Koehler:

But there were there's babies in the hospital here at the University of Florida Health. They did nothing. I never had the why me? Moment. A babies didn't do anything to cause themselves cancer. So that's a stupid thought at all. Why me, why not me, right?

Fitz Koehler:

And then I just kept thinking well, it would be way harder to be a baby or a child with cancer than to be a grownup with cancer, and I was so, for I'm so grateful that I wasn't a parent of a kid with cancer, right. So I think, when you start thinking about what really is a worst case scenario, me having breast cancer wasn't the worst case scenario, and so what I decided is that the stress was real, the stress was unbearable, and this grief and the loss, the loss has kept coming for a long time. It was really difficult, but I would probably cry about 15 minutes every day. I didn't schedule it in, it would just happen. When I felt it coming, I would go in my bathroom and shut the door, I'd go in my car and I'd cry and then I'd get all the boo-boos out and then I'd get on with it, because I do have children and dragging them down further after they were already so fearful for me wasn't going to be okay. And, yeah, I would just cry and then get on with it. And I hope people know that it's okay to feel sad, it's okay to grieve, it's not okay to bask in those feelings, it's not okay to wallow.

Fitz Koehler:

And I'm a bit type A and so my instincts are what can I do, what can I control? And that matters not only with cancer. But everyday life is control what you can when you can. And so, knowing that I was stressed, what can I do to relieve the stress? So for me, the things that worked are exercise I couldn't always do that, I had a duck at the time. Spend time with my duck, spend time with my dog, be outside. I would turn on music, I would get in the shower and there was a lot of crying in the shower, but I would go to YouTube and search for Jerry Seinfeld. That was it Just search Jerry Seinfeld and I would listen to him. I'd listen to his standup, I would listen to his interviews and just force joy upon myself, and so that really mattered. And then the other great decision I make was to continue pursuing my passions, which was probably the coolest decision I've ever made in my entire life.

Brad Minus:

Wow. So that's fantastic. So I'm going to run down this list because you gave us some great little things. So, first of all, you get into a situation that's not. It doesn't have to be cancer, it could just be an obstacle in your way, it could be some a little bit of adversity that you need to get through. But basically what you said is utilize perspective right. And basically you said comparing yourself to people that might have it worse, might even have it better, and fine, where does your perspective lie? And then you said allow yourself to cry, yeah, allow it to happen, but don't bask in it.

Fitz Koehler:

Yeah.

Brad Minus:

Give yourself some time, allow yourself to cry and then move on and then determine what you can control. The serenity prayer yeah, that's right. Yes, allow me the strength to allow me the strength to control what I can and the wisdom to know the difference between what I can and what I can't. Unfortunately, I don't have them off the top of my head, but great thing. And then force joy and then continue pursuing your passions. Yeah, am I missing something?

Fitz Koehler:

No, you nailed it, that was it. That was it. That's my big, my words of wisdom right there, brad.

Brad Minus:

All right, I love that. So the interesting thing is that we went back and you said that you had done a 5K with someone that had breast cancer and unfortunately, maybe I made an ass out of myself, but I assume that was after your cancer.

Fitz Koehler:

No, it was 20 something years ago when I was doing personal training. That's been a long time, but yeah, it was many years ago and it's interesting. I think I was probably about 22 when I showed up at a fitness conference and I took a course on how to train women who had been through breast cancer care and I learned so much about it. And you're managing the potential for lymphedema, you're trying to avoid irritating the arm that has had lymph nodes removed, and so forth. So I learned a lot about it back then. But then it was a friend and neighbor who she was diagnosed and she came to me and said, hey, my dad wants to hire me a personal trainer. Are you available? And at that point I had already been done personal training. But I said yeah, for you for sure, and it was great and I've done all sorts of walks and the fundraising and all this stuff. And it's one thing to support a cause, it's another thing to show up and be the cause. And so when I was going through treatment I never stopped working. I traveled all around the country. I boarded over 30 planes out of Gainesville, florida, to go announce races and do keynotes, and right here in my own backyard we had the Making Strides for Breast Cancer Walk and so they invited me to do like a keynote before the walk. And I show up there and I was like, well, damn it, I'm the cause, I am the cause. And I was. My hair had just started coming back. I was as skinny as a little rail All of these little things. I was like, oh, it's me this time and it's very humbling. So this is interesting.

Fitz Koehler:

As soon as I got diagnosed, I started ribbons. Pink ribbons made me recoil, just really bothered me. I'd see those pink ribbons and everyone was buying me stuff. They're like, oh, it's almost like congratulations, you got breast cancer. Here's a hat with a ribbon, here's a shirt with a ribbon, and so all well-intentioned. But in my mind I was like, no, I'm not putting on that ribbon. And so I was really averse, and I still am. I didn't really understand it at first. It took a while, but that ribbon makes me feel like a victim. And so I know that the pink ribbon stands for this cause and the cure. And breast cancer is extraordinary because it was killing droves of women for a very long time and some men. I never want to leave them out, but people just got really sick of it. They got pissed off. They didn't want to lose any more mothers and sisters, and wives and daughters and grandmas and so forth. And so the fundraising has been highly effective because they put those dollars to good use and now 94% of people diagnosed with breast cancer are cured, which is amazing, and I'm so grateful for that. But that ribbon will never define me. This disease will not define me.

Fitz Koehler:

And I do not wear the pink ribbon. Like I'm part of the team, I have that Florida Gator logo. I wear a lot. I wear the Big Sur Marathon logo with great pride. You put that pink ribbon near me and I just, I don't want anything to do with it. And again, it's wonderful. I support the causes, but yeah, it's just interesting what it does to you and I think it was me, it was my cancer. I get to make the choice. I wear pink pink's pretty and I will raise tons of funds and I will volunteer and support those causes and I do. But yeah, it's just. You know, cancer hits people in different ways and I'm not a victim at all. I didn't like that. I didn't like that.

Brad Minus:

As soon as you mentioned it, as soon as you said you were adverse, I was like she didn't want to be a victim. No, knew it right away. No it that the outlook on life right now tends to lean us in that side, and I can see you being who you are. I'm like, okay, she didn't want to be a victim. I knew it as soon as you said it. So kudos to that, because I think you're right, it's an awareness and that's what it's supposed to be about making you aware of the cause. But if you are the cause, it flips on you. So I get that.

Fitz Koehler:

So as I traveled this country with a bald head, I never wore a wig. That was probably a little more powerful than any ribbon and I've got the scars to show it. If you want to say breast cancer, I could show you breast cancer, but no ribbons for me. Thank you very much.

Brad Minus:

I get it, I get it, so all right. So what was your first marathon? Let's get into some, let's get some positivity here, let's go.

Fitz Koehler:

Let's get on it. My first marathon so far has still been my only marathon, and it is none other than the Boston Marathon. What?

Brad Minus:

How did you do that? Yeah, yeah, to qualify for Boston.

Fitz Koehler:

Well, at least to that one way. That's one way to run the Boston Marathon. So I had Meb Kofleski, the 2014 Boston Marathon champ, american running icon, on the Fitzniss show. That's my podcast, and so it was a live interview and I'm trying to think, yeah, it was like June of 2021. And so I end the conversation with Meb, which was awesome. If you haven't listened to that interview, it's spectacular. His coming to America story is just mind blowing. The whole thing is so great. So, anyways, I get off with Meb and then I get a phone call from this guy, vince Varela. Vince has a large running group called the Boston Buddies, and so he calls. He goes hey, I just want to let you know that was an awesome interview. And I said, oh, thank you so much. And I thought that's why I was calling, or I would have maybe not answered the phone. He's like so, anyways, we work with Boston, we work with a charity and they handpicked you to run the Boston marathon this year. Would you run the Boston marathon? For the second step? It's this domestic violence support cause for Boston.

Fitz Koehler:

I was like well, I cursed him out First of all. I gave him all sorts of ugly, curse words and he was like no, you could do it. And, mind you, I was still working my way back up. I had lost so much weight. I got to the point where my mom had said, like you need to eat, you look like you're in the Holocaust. I said I know, I'm trying here and I had wasted away. So I was rebuilding myself back up and doing a pretty good job. And so I get this invitation.

Fitz Koehler:

So after I curse Vince out, I say when do you need to know? By it goes the end of the week. And I said I'll let you know tomorrow. And so I just and when I said that I knew I was going to do it, but I just mulled it over, I texted Dave McGillivray, the former race director there, and I said I just got invited. What should I do? He said why would you not? I said you're right. And then I was thinking about it. I just thought, well, I think I've just done the scariest thing you could do, aside from harm coming to my children. Nothing in my life is ever going to be scary again compared to all that Right. And so I thought, well, boston Marathon, that's got to be child's play, right? So game on, let's do it and I did. I trained.

Fitz Koehler:

It was the October 21 Boston Marathon and it was so fun and my training was effective. I did not run it fast, I never run fast, I've never been a fast runner, but I'm a finisher Right and it was a great day and a lot of fun. In fact, we probably had too much fun for it to be the Boston Marathon and I was super proud of myself and I still wear the little bracelet they put on us. So that was the weird COVID year, the first race post-COVID, and they made everyone get this stupid little band-aid or bracelet to prove that they didn't have COVID, and so I just left mine on. I thought you know what All the races that I announce are for everybody else? This one was for me. So three years later, I still have that dumb little bracelet on my arm. But whatever, it was an awesome experience.

Brad Minus:

Well, yeah, and then because then the April? Because then they got back on track, right. So April 22nd it was boring, it was rainy and it was nasty.

Fitz Koehler:

I think that was 2018 was the crazy storm in Boston, I think in April. It was still good weather that year.

Brad Minus:

I think you're just yeah, well, no, there was just a recent one, so maybe it was 23 then. Maybe 23 was my birthday.

Fitz Koehler:

I had beautiful weather.

Brad Minus:

You had beautiful weather. Yeah, I thought the very next. I think that very next April they had like it was crap, Maybe it. You had beautiful weather. Yeah, I thought the very next.

Brad Minus:

I think, that very next April they had like it was crap, but maybe it was 2023. Yeah, cause it was, there was. But yeah, 2018 was a torrential downpour. That's when Des Linden ended up winning. And the guy from Japan yeah, that's when he won that one as well. Yeah, I'm big Des fan. But just to give you my little story about Meb Meb lives out here in Tampa, so I see him all the time. I have a group that I coach on Tuesdays at a middle school out here and his daughter runs with one of my ex-coaches, dora Bankin, and so he's out there, and then he's got a race every year called Run With Meb, and then he's a good friend of a running group that I coach for called Run Tampa, so he's always there too. So all of the races that we do, he'll show up, we'll be able to talk to him and you're right, the most down-to-earth, grateful, humble person that you've ever met You'd never believe it.

Fitz Koehler:

So I've worked with meb quite a few times philadelphia marathon and gasparilla bunch. He's our special guy at gasparilla right and so it's so funny because we pair up, we do book signings together at the expo. I bring my books, he brings his blah, blah, blah. But he's always like thank you so much for partnering me, it brings such a long line. I'm like no, those people are here for you, maybe it's for me. He's like no, he's just humble to the nth degree. He is such a lovely, decent man. Next time you see him, you run up and you tackle him with all your might, you give him this big old bear hug and then, when he right before, he slugs you.

Brad Minus:

You see? No, that was from the same, so I don't know. Okay, you got it, you got it. I will do that because his, his daughter, is a heck of a runner. She definitely got the genes and I've. So he was we're at the tinsel run and he was had a long line of people taking pictures, signing stuff. And I'm talking to his daughter and I'm like, yeah, so is this something that happens all the time? She goes? You'd be surprised. Not really, she goes. I'm like he doesn't, so you're not in the grocery store. She goes once in a great while. Someone will mention it, but most of the time it's only when he's in the community. But so go ahead.

Fitz Koehler:

I was just going to say. So that's our sport is. We do not have household names, we don't have any athletes.

Fitz Koehler:

That my mother has ever heard of, or probably your mother has ever heard of. Of course she knows who Tom Brady is and A-Rod the running sport is. We don't have household names, but we do have people that are special for us and that's probably good for their quality of life, right? He gets to go to the grocery store without being harassed, and then when he shows a better race, he knows he's going to get lots of extra love.

Brad Minus:

Yeah, I, yeah. For me it was always um Rinda Carfrae and Tim O'Donnell and every time I got to see them, they've been out here a few times doing triathlons. And I've gone and done triathlons that they've been at and I was a volunteer when Marinda was running and that always was a big thing.

Fitz Koehler:

And, but yet yeah, when I talked, to them.

Brad Minus:

Like I've talked to tim on the phone and he's like yeah, it's not, it doesn't happen. Like I'm tom cruise, I've never heard of them. Oh yeah, so those are two iron man world champions. Okay, yeah, so okay, and you're even in the and you're even in the, yeah yeah, so yeah, and they're definitely running versus, versus triathlon.

Brad Minus:

You're gonna have the same thing, but I get you know what that's. A great, I would say that would be probably a good thing of gratification for them is the fact that you're right. They can go to the grocery store, to the library they can go by I go by a newspaper and they're not going to get tackled yeah at least not the way that you do. But so what got you into race announcing?

Fitz Koehler:

so I was for lack of a better word. I was the fitness expert for Run Disney. I would show up and teach clinics at their events. So strength training for runners, pain prevention and management for runners, blah, blah, blah. And I would speak a couple of times per weekend. I did that for a couple of years. And their race announcer well, they have a stable. But their premier race announcer the big voice, the one everybody loved was Rudy Novotny. Table with their premier race announcer, the big voice, the one everybody loved, was Rudy Novotny. And Rudy, he and I became friendly, just how you doing kind of friends.

Fitz Koehler:

And then he was stuck introducing me at the expo. He would work the expos and that's when they had the speaker series. So he was always stuck saying and our next speaker is Fitz Kohler, blah, blah, blah. And so he would sit there through my presentations and he, when I'd get done, he was just so complimentary and eventually he said you know what I need? A co-announcer for the OC, the Orange County Marathon in California in a few months. Are you interested? And I said, well, I've never done it before, but I see what you do. It looks like a lot of fun. It looks like it'd be within my wheelhouse. So if you show me the ropes I'd love to give it a try. And so he connected me with the race director, gary Kutcher, and I'm so grateful to the two of them because he really have handed me this career on a silver platter.

Fitz Koehler:

And so Gary and I chit-chat if he went to fitsnesscom. He looked around and he said you know what, come and give it a try, let's see how it works. And so went to the OC. We had a big day Saturday with about 5,000 kids running the kids races and love that. And then on marathon morning, about an hour after I yelled go for the first time, he came over to me at the finish line and said would you please come back next year? I said for sure. And that just steamrolled into other race directors saying well, can you do my race? And it's interesting.

Fitz Koehler:

So Rudy has, he's. He really is my favorite race announcer. He's so far leaps and pounds above everybody else. Charisma and the voice and the connection with the running community is just insane. But he mostly does a lot of California. California is so busy really they've got such a busy running state and I have most of my races are all over the place. I definitely do a bunch in California Big Sur, los Angeles was mine for a long time, yada yada but Buffalo, fargo, gasparilla, the Donna, rocket City and so I tend to bounce around the country more and I'm sure I've announced a few hundred races over the past 10 years and I would like very much to announce a race in every state, and I think I'm over 20 something states for sure, probably at about 25.

Fitz Koehler:

But none of that's important, because what it means to me is my ability to connect with tens and thousands of wonderful people and with my career in fitness, I'm constantly arm twisting, trying to convince people that exercise is a good idea and right. And then on race day, some race organizations to say Fitz, here's 25,000 people who thinks exercise is fun, can you make sure they know what to do, where to go and have a great time? And I say hell yeah. And so I'm there for structure and entertainment and engagement on race day. But really my mission is just to love everybody and make sure they feel totally welcome and highly rewarded and when they cross that finish line they feel like they won it. Every last one of them, down to the last finisher, and says I want them to come back and race again, whether they race with me or race somewhere else. I just want all of those people to have a wonderful experience, so they continue to put one foot in front of another that will change the way they live, for sure, absolutely so.

Brad Minus:

When you said run Disney, was that here at Walt Disney World?

Fitz Koehler:

Yeah, and I did some work over at Disneyland. I'm trying to think if that was for corporate. I can't remember if I did race stuff at Disneyland, but I definitely hear a bunch in Florida, and you did.

Brad Minus:

You were here for a marathon weekend.

Fitz Koehler:

Yeah, for sure yeah.

Brad Minus:

Oh well, I just want to know because I so I've done the dopey five times and the goofy seven times. So I, yeah, that's like one of my favorite races. And when I talked to my in September, I usually get a like I get a plethora of people that get onto my roster on September, in September, because they want to run the Disney marathon. So September rolls around and all of a sudden I got emails after emails. I'm like hey, can you get me to my first marathon? And blah, blah, blah, blah, so yeah, so I ended up being out there. Plus, I was a, I was a coach for a while for the lymphoma leukemia society, so I coached there as well as run it. And yeah, I love run Disney and I always tell people I'm like you don't do Disney to PR. I tell them all that all the time. Yeah, and I fact when I tell them and I said you know what my PR is when I do Disney races? How many pictures can I get? And I hope I get one more than last year.

Fitz Koehler:

That's right. Yeah, it's a very different experience and weird and fun and fabulous. I haven't really done anything with Run Disney, I think, since about 2016 or 2017. It's been a long time. They just started shutting down a lot of the offerings. There was a heyday of Run Disney where everything was firing on all cylinders and everybody felt like a VIP, and then they started cutting back and they cut back on the speaker series and they cut back on a lot of other things. So people still love it, though. People still love it.

Brad Minus:

Yeah, it was. Yeah, unfortunately. So the races used to be open for a month, Like you could sign up for about a month, Right, and they cut down so many slots that you're within an hour it's sold out. Yeah, and it's very tough to get into unless you know somebody or you just happen to have three phones sitting in front of you at the moment that they open it up, which is sad because it used to be such a. It would like you said, they treated everybody like a VIP. It was wonderful. Such a. It would like you said they treated everybody like a VIP. It was wonderful. But you know what? Hopefully they're working their way back and hopefully that'll pop back in. But, oh my God, this has just been amazing. What's your next engagement, what's your next race that you're announcing?

Fitz Koehler:

So I have a wonderfully quiet summer, which I'm quite grateful for, because it's been chaos. But I go to Canton, ohio, in mid-July for the USATF Women's 6K Championship and I've been announcing that for I think it's four years and it's awesome. We bring in some of the fastest women in America. Kira D'Amato's run it, molly Seidel was there last year. We've had a bunch of heavy hitters Fiona, who won the Olympic trials, I believe she's one of ours and yeah, so we have this big group of elites that come in, they win money and they win titles and points for their USATF efforts, and then we have a pack of real everyday women and girls. It's a women's only event and that'll be a lot of fun, and before I do that I will go to the Columbus Zoo. So this is a little Fitz Kohler.

Fitz Koehler:

Fun fact is, I'm obsessed with animals and I travel alone a lot, and so a really nice thing to do when you travel alone and you like being outside and you like being active is roaming around zoos. So I probably have been to a zoo in almost 25 states too now. So I'm trying to make my way around the country, and I think the gold standard for a zoo is if they have a grizzly bear, a polar bear or a cassowary, and those are the three big ones for me, and then everything else can fall where they may. So I'm going to go to Columbus Zoo this year. I was at Cleveland last year, this year's Columbus, and I'm really stoked about that.

Brad Minus:

And I'm a total nerd. I'm right there with you. I'm right there with you. I have seven cats.

Fitz Koehler:

Oh, my gosh Okay.

Brad Minus:

Yeah, and the only reason and they would be dogs if I didn't train so much and I wasn't away from home and coaching and everything Otherwise they'd be dogs. I just feel like dogs who need to be around them all the time. They need to have their people. Cats are okay with you being around just a few hours a day.

Fitz Koehler:

They do their own Cats don't really care, do they? They're like get out of here, brad, get there squirt out.

Brad Minus:

You'd be shocked. They definitely are happy when you're around. They are happier when you're around. But my problem is I adopt. It's like someone goes around like, oh my God, I found this stray cat. I'm like, well, if you can't find a family for me, let me know, maybe I can find one for them. I pick them up, I look at it, I fall in love and they end up at my house.

Fitz Koehler:

Brad, thank you for doing that. More people should rescue than breed. That's awesome, thank you.

Brad Minus:

Oh yeah, no, every single one of mine is a rescue. I actually slew down to Miami to pick up a rescue and I brought them back. I brought them back. So anyway, that's me, but yeah, so have you been to Brookfield Zoo?

Fitz Koehler:

No, I don't even know where that is. Where is that?

Brad Minus:

It's right outside of Chicago.

Fitz Koehler:

I did go to a zoo in Chicago. No, I think is it Lincoln.

Brad Minus:

Lincoln Park Zoo. Yeah, that one I went to. Lincoln Park's not it's short, it's kind of like Central Park Zoo, which you've probably been to?

Fitz Koehler:

Yeah, but it was. I've not been to Central Park Zoo.

Brad Minus:

No, oh, okay, that one you need to go to. That was an interesting one.

Fitz Koehler:

Okay.

Brad Minus:

But yeah, so all these. So, but you've been in, so all these other cool zoos.

Fitz Koehler:

What's the free zoo? And they do have a grizzly bear and I believe they have a polar bear and it's wonderful yeah.

Brad Minus:

Yeah, I'm there with you. I'm a huge animal lover and I cringe at when I see any kind of flagrant abuse. It goes crazy, it goes right to my heart, it's awful, but anyway. Well, listen, let's wrap this up. I am still so humbled that I get to meet you in person. I am just over the moon, joyed and humbled that you were able to come on Life Changing Challengers. And so, as for the rest of you, in the show notes you'll have a link right to fitnesscom You're going to get to. You'll have a link to all of her books. You'll have a link to her podcast. So so please follow and share this episode and for the Fitness podcast and the books, and, yeah, and visit Fitz out there in cyber, in the cyber world, we also have her. Well, I'll have her socials posted on the show notes as well, so take a look at that.

Fitz Koehler:

Yeah, thank you. Thank you, and I'd love to ask everybody if you are going to follow, please reach out and say hi and let me know. You heard me on Brad's podcast, because the best part about what I do is actually connecting with people. So I do promise quality content for the follow, but I'd much rather have friends than followers. And then, of course, if we could see each other on race day, get a little race day loving, that would be super nice. So, yeah, don't be shy, shy, nobody should be shy around me so all right.

Brad Minus:

So, before you go, are you already, are you already scheduled for gasparilla 2020? Yes, I will definitely. All right, gasparilla, I am going to see you at gasparilla. I'm going to make sure of it. Excellent, so excellent. So again, so check out the show notes for all that information. If you've seen the, if you've seen the episode, go ahead and share, like and drop a little review, if you'd like. We'd appreciate it. Other than that, we will see you in the next one.

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