Kimberly Hall is Chief Sole Inspirer at Sole Inspired. She delivers hope, love, and courage, one card at a time. Before venturing off into her own business, she was working a corporate job.
Listen to the full interview on The Omega Sports Women’s Only Podcast.
Kimberly is originally from Detroit, Michigan. She left the city in 1987 for college. She now lives in Charlotte, NC. As a resident of the area for 18 years, she now calls it home. Omega Sports, Head of Apparel, Cleo Faucette recently sat down with Kimberly to ask her a few questions.
What is Kimberly’s “why?”
She was never a runner. She grew up with a lot of self-esteem issues and running was never a thing for her.
She ended up marrying a Navy pilot. He taught her about loving the job you work. For Kimberly, a job was always a means to an end. It made her money.
When her husband unexpectedly died in 2001 from a plane crash, she realized that tomorrow is not promised to anyone. In this pivotal moment, she turned to scrapbooking. She had kept all the letters he sent from when he was away on military duty. She loved the tactile feel of everything, it made her feel connected and allowed her to preserve the memories.
When her son went off to college, she found she had more time for herself and she wanted to do some other things. She wanted to try something different. She entered her first Triathalon. She saw someone at the YMCA with a “triathlon for life” t-shirt and asked them about it. So at 40 years old, she competed in her first Triathalon. She learned to swim for it. And learned that running spoke to her. Running became like meditation. It became a part of her life, it helped her to get through tough times and allowed her to celebrate becoming a better person.
After that, she set a goal of 50 half and full marathons. She wanted to do 50 marathons by 50. She skipped right over 5k and 10k runs since they didn’t help her reach her goal and jumped right in. She completed her 50th race in Paris, hitting her goal.
What was Kimberly’s favorite race?
Her favorite race is Chicago Marathon because the crowd support during the race is incredible. Most races have crowd support
at the very end, or pockets where people waiting for their loved ones to come by. Not in Chicago. Chicago embraces all the runners during the Chicago Marathon it is a fantastic feeling. Spectators are all over the place. Plus, it’s a flat race.
What is Kimberly’s go-to running shoe and must-haves?
Brooks Raveena was her favorite. After it was discontinued, Kimberly shifted to the Brooks Launch GTS as its suitable replacement. She pronates and needs the stability of the shoe.
Normally, she has her fuel belt, and either a visor or sweat-wicking band. She recently started getting into the goodr glasses. Cleo mentioned Handful bras, which we featured a few weeks ago on the Women’s Only Podcast.
What would Kimberly do if she wasn’t afraid?
In 2016, after her parents passed away and she said to herself, “you can’t go through life with regrets.” It further confirmed her suspicions, that she needed to live her life without any regrets because tomorrow is not a promise.
With her love of scrapbooking, she realized there was a market for greeting cards for people doing hard things. You can’t just go to a store and ask for a marathon finishing card. So created a 2-year plan and launched Sole Inspired.
She called it Sole Inspired, not just because of her love for running, but also because our journeys and walks of life are different.
As someone who is always growing and learning, she took a community class on graphic design. While she still uses other designers for more complex design ideas, being able to see a design from start to finish has been rewarding.
Favorite Sole Inspired card?
Her favorite card is “She Believed She Could, So She Put On Her Running Shoes And Made It Happen.” On the outside, there’s a pair of running shoes, and on the inside, she put cracked asphalt with the phrase “Your feet should be crushing your goals.” It’s easy to see why this is her favorite card, it sums up her journey.
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When you are fearful about something like getting out and moving, trying something new, or something different we recommend you take a page out of Kimberly’s book and “just do it afraid.” Kimberly doesn’t believe you have to be fearless, but she believes you can fearless.
Check out more episodes of The Omega Sports Women’s Only Podcast.
How can you find Sole Inspired?
- https://www.soleinspiredinc.com/
- https://www.instagram.com/soleinspiredinc/
- https://www.facebook.com/soleinspiredinc
