Fifteen minutes, a nigh-empty tank of gas, and determination.

These were the only things that Skyla Campbell Post of American Falls had when she pulled up to Salt Lake City’s Revel Big Cottonwood Marathon packet pickup on Sept. 13 in 2019.

“I burst in thinking I did not do all of this just to be turned away,” Post said. “They were shutting everything down, everything was closing and I got there 15 minutes before it ended. They gave me my bib and said, ‘we’re out of goodies but there are a few things you can have’ and I said as long as I get to run tomorrow then I’m fine.”

Post did get to run. This momentous race she’d driven three and a half hours for was an endeavor she’d never thought she’d pursue, not from someone who couldn’t run a half mile in high school without stopping.

And then Post, who had five children in five years, was able to accomplish exactly what she wanted to.

She finished.

Becoming a Runner

Post has a lot of titles, but it took her years until she added runner to the list. An American Falls local, she works as a REFIT Revolution Certified Instructor and an English Second Language teacher with VIPKid, waking up in the twilight hours of 2 or 3 a.m. to work online one-on-one with students from other countries. She’s all this and a mother of five daughters, all of whom are still under 8 years old.

Even with such a demanding schedule with work and her girls, Post still manages to wedge in runs and spinning work-outs, striving at least to stay consistent in her exercise. With so much going on, she claims sleep is sparse.

“I’m a terrible napper,” she joked. “I just don’t sleep.”

In 2018, she lost 77 pounds in six and half months, contributing much of that to shifting her diet to more nutritious foods and of course, her running.

Yet Post initially saw the sport as a daunting, difficult endeavor that she simply couldn’t do.

“It was just funny, because I never ever, ever considered myself a runner, ever…never,” Post said. “Because I couldn’t even run a half mile without stopping and then I was like breathing so hard I was dying. Any time in high school we had to run the mile, I’d sprint and speed walk, sprint and speed walk, and I was running eleven-minute miles because I didn’t know anything about running. It didn’t come naturally. I never tried.”

She said she tackled her first 5K race, which is approximately 3 miles, a few months after her first baby was born and after a friend suggested they run one together in an effort to lose weight.

“I pushed the baby stroller for the race…” Post said. “I think I even lost a blanket at one point and had to stop. But I ran for like the first two miles and then walked-jogged the rest of it.”

Post’s relationship with running eventually evolved into a goal to run a 5K race, a 10K race, and a half marathon, something she accomplished in both 2018 and 2019.

Her runs and workouts were shuffled around to balance her schedule, and while training for a 10K race she even pushed a double stroller with her two twin babies in tow.

Yet Post quickly learned running was a mental game she had to win in order to have the courage to run longer distances.

“I had decided that at some point in my early running stages that if I could just go out and run three miles that I was doing pretty good, health wise,” she said. “When my friend wanted to go run six miles, I doubled my goal and I knew that I could go out and do it. I didn’t need any recovery time and I was fine, and that was when I thought, I should run a full marathon!”

“And that’s a big commitment,” she continued. “That’s a big, hard thing to do, and for some reason I pick things that are really hard because I feel so much more accomplished when I’ve done it because they aren’t easy for me. And I thought, well, if I’ve already doubled my goal, and I’ve ran a half marathon twice, if I do the same thing I’ve always done, I can just commit to a program and run and do it, then I’ll be fine. I’ve definitely learned there’s a big mind game involved for sure, but I did it.”

In the summer of 2019, Post still wrestled with the idea of tackling a marathon, and finally caved with her friend’s encouragement. She paid for the race — the Revel Big Cottonwood Marathon in Salt Lake City — and then, two days before the race, proceeded to panic.

“All I could think about was what the heck was I doing, why did I think I could do this, this was a terrible idea,” Post said. “And then I got back together with my friend, chatted, got a hotel, ran the race, showered, and came back home.”

The weekend of the race, however, was a flurry of closing dates and buying dates as they moved houses, and despite the frantic weekend of moving out and moving in, Post said she was already locked into her mindset of running the 26 miles.

“Literally, (my husband) got (to our new house) and all he had were mattresses in the back of the pickup, one outfit for everybody, a box of cereal and crackers, no fridge, no other food, and I was like — bye!” She laughed. “He’s probably still mad at me, but I was like, I can’t not go. I can’t do all of this and go through this entire journey for months and months and technically years and do something that was so big for me to do and then not do it because — our closing date changed?”

It was after this race that Post finally admitted it to herself.

She was a runner.

Chasing Down Lessons Learned

Nowadays, Post spends her time speed training for 10K races she plans to do in the summer, is in the middle of getting REFIT certified to teach classes about flexibility, balance and strength, and is getting recognized for her fitness journey and drive.

In December, she was chosen by health and wellness company Isagenix as a 2020 honorable mention for their IsaBody Challenge, which is a tri-annual 16-week transformation challenge it holds for its customers.

“There’s like 15 finalists every year and a few honorable mentions every year,” she said. “One of the rounds they had about eighty-thousand people enter. So it’s cool to be chosen among them.”

She has learned a lot over the course of her running journey, she said, and passes on what she learns during her REFIT classes.

“One thing I keep repeating over and over to these ladies is that it’s all about progress, not perfection,” she said. “Because I think, especially as women, we have a hard time thinking, well if I can’t be perfect at it then I can’t do it. And that’s not really what it’s about. Even if it’s three steps forward and two steps back, you’re still one step ahead.”