How Cold, Early Morning Runs Led to a Life-Changing Friendship – Olivia Chadwick and Garnet Morris

 

Airdate: June 11, 2025

Julie Rose: How do you find the motivation to make a big change in your life?

Garnet Morris: I actually believe in my heart that if you really want to have a change, the first thing you do is decide you're going to change, and the second thing you do is tell a few people.

Julie Rose: Hey, it's Julie. Welcome to Uncomfy, a show about sticking with moments that challenge us even when they're uncomfortable. And I know you're probably wondering, "Why would anyone choose to be uncomfortable?" But I know from personal experience, and you probably do too, that sometimes a little discomfort has benefits if we can stay open and curious about it. And that's what we're here to explore, so let's get Uncomfy.

I'm joined by Olivia Chadwick and Garnet Morris. They're running partners, friends, and now co-authors of a book about success and habit forming. It's called "17 Runs: The Unbeaten Path to Unlock Life's True Potential." And speaking of Uncomfy, their training runs took place together at 5:00 AM often in the middle of Canadian winter, so they are well-versed in leaning into a little discomfort.

Olivia, Garnet, welcome. It's so great to speak with you.

Garnet Morris: Same here, thank you.

Olivia Chadwick: Yeah. Thanks, Julie.

Julie Rose: Olivia, tell us how you first met Garnet.

Olivia Chadwick: Garnet was a referral from a friend of mine who was also a trainer who had difficulty managing Garnet's unpredictable schedule. Especially if you're working with someone at 5:00 AM and you're planning to get up that early in the morning and you're committed to that, but it sometimes happens and sometimes doesn't, she didn't feel like she could adapt. Um, but that wasn't something that bothered me that much. I was really interested in that early morning client. I like starting my day pretty early anyways, and so it felt like a really good fit for me.

Julie Rose: Garnet, what were you looking for? Why did you need a, why did you want a trainer to run with you so early in the morning?

Garnet Morris: So, I, I went through a big transformation at 40 where I lost, you know, a hundred and some pounds, and I did all that by being coachable. And so, I've had and adopted the practice of having coaches for every part of my life that I want to change or where I wanna become uncomfortable. And so, I, I got started off with trainers when I started losing the weight.

Julie Rose: And what was the project that you set out for yourselves, Olivia, when you took Garnet on? What was, what was the goal there? What were you working on?

Olivia Chadwick: Well, Garnet had been working for a long time in improving his running. He told me when he first started running, he could barely run from lamppost to lamppost. By the time I connected with Garnet, he for sure was able to run much longer distances than that, for sure a 5K in my recollection, but he was, um, wanting to take it further, wanting to push himself even more than that, in which case we came to a point where we signed up for a hundred-mile relay, created a team and made a plan to go and run in the Kananaskis, which is the foothills of the Canadian Rockies.

Julie Rose: And that was, you were training for that, then, over the course of six months, a year, how long did it take, the training?

Garnet Morris: Close to a year, uh, because it was not a given that I was all in at the beginning.

Julie Rose: What do you mean by that?

Garnet Morris: So, I was waffling. I wanted to do it, and I'd decided to do it, but there's a part of me that just wasn't that positive. And so that was, you know, and the story that Olivia relates to making me do stretching and things like that, where I just thought if I was gonna do this race, I just had to get at it. So, she was patient and impatient with me all at the same time.

Julie Rose: That was actually a really lovely moment in the book. Um, it's kind of told, well, you tell it from your different perspectives. I could totally relate, Garnet, when, uh, in the chapter where you were kind of bemoaning or Olivia was relating how she knew that you were kind of begrudging the fact that you had to warm up in order to do the run, right, like, do the slow run and I guess all the other stuff, because I'm like you. I'm like, "Well, if we're gonna run five miles, let's just do it and get it over with as fast as possible," right, whatever the distance was. So, Olivia, maybe talk just a little bit about what, um, what that challenge was like.

Olivia Chadwick: You know, actually, it's so funny that you mentioned that 'cause that is one of the number one confrontations that I've had in the past when I've done a lot more running coaching is that when people feel inspired to take action, we have this sense of, I don't know if it's almost like anxiety that we, we don't approach it really aggressively that we'll just, not accomplish the task. We, we can be quite aggressive in the way that we approach big goals, but the reality is, is that everyone has the same body. Even if you're an elite level athlete, you have to slowly get off the couch and then allow the natural physiology to take place to be able to prepare your body to do hard things. And that takes 20 to 30 minutes, and it doesn't really matter if you're an elite level athlete or if you're literally, uh, learning how to run your first 30 minutes, we all have the same anatomy and physiology, and we all have to go through the same process. I think that people think that if they, they don't attack it like an elite athlete, or how we perceive elite athletes would attack it, that they won't be successful, but we just have poor misrepresentations of what it takes to be successful, I think.

Julie Rose: And Garnet, how did you get on board with that, with, finally with the idea, "Yes, we're gonna train, it's gonna take time. We're gonna have to do all these methodical steps."

Garnet Morris: It's sort of like having a mule that's not gonna move until it had something to eat, so whether I wanted to or not, we weren't moving until I did what Olivia said. So, I just followed instructions that I'm not saying that I loved it.

Julie Rose: You, didn't love it, but what did you learn from that process?

Garnet Morris: To follow instructions. Yeah, do do what you're told. I mean, when you hire a coach, um, as much as you may not like the process, you have, you have to follow it. And I still use that process today when I get coached, and it's still not always that much fun.

Julie Rose: Yeah, I'm interested, you said that you have had a practice of hiring coaches throughout your professional and personal life. Uh, tell me a little more about that. Why, why has that been so important to your success?

Garnet Morris: Well, it's, it's because I'm not very smart. So, I figured that I wouldn't have got through school without teachers. I wouldn't have got through banking without training. And so, what makes me think I can do things that I don't know how to do from my own intellect, so I just get coaches. So, I have coaches, yet I'm very successful, but I keep finding higher and higher level coaches or mentors, and now it's become part of my overall philosophy, and I think it's huge for people.

Julie Rose: Olivia, this aspect of Garnet's life and his philosophy, um, had a real impact on you as you got to know him. What, what were you able to, what did his commitment to improvement but also finding people to help him get there, what, what did that teach you?

Olivia Chadwick: Well, Garnet and I's relationship really evolved quite quickly. You know, we, we started as that coach/athlete or coach/client relationship, but we quickly became friends, and within not that long, it was really a relationship of Garnet being my mentor and, and I was the mentee even though I was helping Garnet with his physical fitness and, and I was able to help him in that one particular area where he felt like he needed support. Garnet was always interested in what was going on in my life, and it turned out that I needed a lot of support as well in lots of different areas that Garnet was, had a lot more wisdom, life experience, and um, guidance, and he's so generous in the way that he offers his guidance. He has a deep desire to get to know people better. He wanted to know me more, and so our runs began to evolve into these conversations, as we explained in the book, whereby Garnet is trying to help me essentially get out of my own way a lot of the time, but also, um, work through a lot of the problems that were going on in my life.

Julie Rose: Can you be more specific? Would you share a story with us?

Olivia Chadwick: Yeah, sure. Um, it could, it related to my marriage. I was really struggling with the marriage that I was in, that I'm no longer in, uh, the health of my son, um, that was evolving and he was requiring some surgeries, and, you know, If you're, if you're in, stuck in a marriage that is not working, but you're still trying to care for a child who is unwell, I was having difficulties navigating that, and I was feeling like I wasn't living up to the idea of success from a career perspective.

Julie Rose: What did he share that proved to be of use?

Olivia Chadwick: He shared many things and, and we definitely go into each of the really important topics within the book, but the one that stands out the most for me is the, the relationship that we had, right, that Garnet believed that I could resolve all of these issues, that I had it within me. And he was somebody who was super successful. I, I trusted him and I respected him, so for him to stand in solidarity with me and say, "If you live to be a hundred, Olivia, this isn't a problem. It's just a problem right now, and what are you gonna do about it?" Because when you're in the problem, it's your entire world and you lack perspective, but when someone like Garnet lovingly can help you step back and say, "This is really hard right now, but in the scheme of living 'til you're a hundred, Olivia, what are you gonna do right now so that you can continue to have the rest of your life, the life that you want, the next decades of your life, the life that you want? Can you get through this? And what are you gonna do to get through this?" Ah, It's amazing to have someone in your life to do that for you.

Julie Rose: Garnet, why were you, why were you that for Olivia?

Garnet Morris: Um, so you, like, I live in, in a world where everything is a feeling, and so I had a feeling about her, and it was, I've always kind of liked underdogs and I was an underdog, and I had almost an immediate affinity for her son because of the challenges he had 'cause I had challenges when I was young, and Olivia was open. So, she was very open to hearing and open to discussing back. And there was more than once that on a run we'd be in tears together because we'd get into a really touchy area of our lives. And so, it was, it was a really, really unique situation and something I, you know, I just don't experience that often, someone who you just create this connection with where you feel you can share and, and, and the sharing and the trust that, that was almost immediately there.

Olivia Chadwick: You, um, are pretty different ages. There's several decades between you, um, you were in different life stages at the point when you met as running partners, trainer and trainee. Also, like, Olivia, you're from the UK. Um, Garnet, you're from Canada, right? So, you know, two different continents, but it turned out that you had had a lot of traumatic life experience in common, experiencing abuse and neglect, and also the tragic loss of, of, of siblings to suicide.

Garnet Morris: It's almost like it is a mirror. And like I, I, I, I, I've told Olivia this, I think more than once, that, you know, if you follow the, the theory of reincarnation, she's just a female version of me, 30 years later because she experienced the same feelings, the same emotions, all of the same trauma, uh, and it's, you know, the, the parallels are almost, almost eerie. The only thing is she's quite a bit older than me, uh, and so it's, uh, because that, that big age gap between us.

Julie Rose: Ha.

Garnet Morris: Yeah.

Julie Rose: Garnet, would you talk to us a little bit about the transformation that you described that had happened prior to your meeting Olivia? Um, you said you'd lost quite a bit of weight. What led you to that point and sort of what, what did that require?

Garnet Morris: So the, and this is gonna sound, like, a little bit, um, simple, but I just got tired of myself being fat.

Julie Rose: I can tell you when it happened, I was walking the length of Pearson Airport. I was late, the flight was late. You need to get to a meeting. I had a briefcase, and I'm just, sweat's just pouring off me.

Garnet Morris: I'm 320 pounds. I feel gross. And so, I just decided I had to deal with it. I went back to Saskatoon and I went to a doctor, just picked one, and the doctor said something to me that I will never forget. She says, "Well, I can tell you what to do, but don't expect me to be your mother." Her exact words. Never saw the doctor a second time, but she referred me to a sports psychologist and then I got into self-defeating behavior. He referred me to a dietician. A dietician referred me to a trainer. And so, I started the evolution, but I had decided I was going to, and that was the thing that I did. And I actually did a visualization around this, 'cause I was in a program where that's how you actually started to see the, what you were going to do. So, I mean, I actually believe in my heart that if you really want to have a change, the first thing you do is decide you're going to change, and the second thing you do is tell a few people, uh, because that kind of is, you know, kind of hard to go back on on what you told everybody you were going to do.

Julie Rose: Keeps you accountable. So,

Garnet Morris: and I never made an excuse. I mean it, I quit smoking at the same time. That really sucked.

Julie Rose: So, you had, so, the habits that this is, uh, there's a, there's a portion in the book where you talk about this and about habit forming and kind of what it takes, um, to create new habits. Um, what, what, what are the key lessons there? You had to overcome, I guess you had to change your eating habits, you had to change your physical fitness, you also had to change your mind, you had to change your coping habits, and you were a smoker. So, there's a lot of change that had to go on there.

Garnet Morris: Well, the only thing that I did was decide, and then I got a coach for the rest of it. So, when we hired a dietician, she came to our house, she went through our cupboard and took out all the food we shouldn't eat. Everything. It went in the garbage. So, that wasn't really that complicated. And smoking was just, "Either I'm a smoker, I'm not a smoker," and so I quit smoking, but I had to change around my order of doing things the whole day so that I didn't keep having the occasions where I normally had a cigarette. So, that's what I said. I took out a bad habit and put in a good habit. So, different, driving a different route, going a different way, changing my schedule around, because smoking is usually you have a cigarette when you get up, you have a cigarette when you have breakfast, you have, and so I had to change a lot of that stuff to make it, to make it work.

Julie Rose: Olivia, what's something that, uh, Garnet shared with you that, that you would recommend people embrace in their own lives?

Olivia Chadwick: I dunno if it's necessarily something Garnet specifically shared with me but something that he certainly taught me is that, "You never know when you're going to meet somebody who's going to change your life," and I just love this concept that we get to get up every morning and let's say we do have to do something really hard, or let's say there is something that we wanna change, we're not alone, and we don't have to do hard things alone. I actually think we're wired to not do hard things alone but maybe we haven't met the person yet, maybe we haven't hired the coach yet, but we have to be open. So, keep your heart open and, and have a desire, have something that you wanna change, and then see who's gonna be on your support team to make help you make that change. Invite them in.

Julie Rose: Olivia Chadwick and Garnet Morris are co-authors of "17 Runs: The Unbeaten Path to Unlock Life's True Potential." You can find out more about their book at 17runs.com. Olivia, Garnet, this has been really great. Thanks for sharing your story with us.

Garnet Morris: Oh, thank you for the opportunity.

Olivia Chadwick: Same. Thanks, Julie.

Julie Rose: And thank you for getting Uncomfy with us today. I'd love to hear what you think about that advice, and when is the last time you leaned into something uncomfortable or really embraced that tough change that you've been wanting to make in your life? How did discomfort play a role in that? Email uncomfy@byu.edu or reach out on social media and tell us your story.

Uncomfy is a BYUradio podcast. Samuel Benson produces it, and the team includes Hyobin Kim and Sam Payne. Our theme music was composed by Kelsey Nay. I'm Julie Rose. Can't wait to get Uncomfy with you again next week.