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[0:16] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, hello, and thank you for coming back to join me and Kristen Hetzel. This is a bonus episode to the conversation we had previously covering topics and five specific questions we didn't address in the last episode. Today, Kristen talks about her goals as both an athlete and an actor. And you don't want to miss her touching story of her great aunt CD. I'm your host, Patrick Oliver Jones, and this is the final five.

[0:52] Patrick Oliver Jones: So the final five questions, here we are with number one. If you had to pick only one of your jobs, so you're a professional athlete, physical therapist, actress, model, personal trainer, motivational speaker. If you could only pick one of those, which one would you pick to do and why?

[1:08] Kristen Hetzel: Professional athlete. And because it is my absolute love.

[1:30] Patrick Oliver Jones: And number two, this is somewhat similar to that, amongst all those, amongst all those jobs, or maybe even in your life in general, what is a bucket list accomplishment that you still hope to achieve one day?

[1:41] Kristen Hetzel: Getting the gold medal at the world championships. That's the number one thing. Yep, yep. That's right. Do you have a distinct goal acting-wise like that?

[1:52] Kristen Hetzel: I would love at some point to get a series regular on a TV show. I love, I've done some different pilots where I play a cop or FBI agent or something like that. And that suits my personality really well. So I always thought that would be a really fun role to do, or even a medical show, because as a doctor of physical therapy, that would be really fun to kind of again. I like to, you can probably see I like to pair my different jobs together and mindsets when possible. And so that would be really fun to play a healthcare professional and get to act. But so that would be a goal. But right now, I just really love doing the commercial work. So I would like to get that going a little bit more. I mean, as we've said with the pandemic, things are just now starting to happen again.

[2:47] Kristen Hetzel: Right. Um, as I was excited to get an audition today and things are starting to roll in. But I would definitely love to develop my commercial acting a bit more.

[2:56] Patrick Oliver Jones: And number three, who do you look up to as a mentor or someone who inspires you?

[3:02] Kristen Hetzel: My great Aunt Z, my Aunt Zita, is my hero. She's 95 now, and she's the most amazing human. She's the most amazing woman, but she's the most amazing human I've ever met. It's just one of those situations where she only had about an eighth-grade education, and she's the smartest person I know. Just her tenacity, her excitement for life, her relentless, never giving up. I mean, she'd lived through the depression and they didn't have any money. And I mean, she was eight years old going finding rotten potatoes in the dumpster to feed the family with. And she just and she's always had a smile on her face, no matter what life threw at her. So this pandemic is nothing to her. Not at all. Not even a little bit concerned.

In fact, the cute part is she loves to play the slot machines at the casino, and she's really sad that she hasn't been able to go to the casino. They have her, she's in a nursing home now, and they have her, you know, basically stuck in this place for her safety, but she's not happy about it.

[4:15] Patrick Oliver Jones: Oh goodness. Now, whenever you were talking about her, it brought up a question from me as far as being a woman in sports. Did that ever come into play? Was that ever seen as a hindrance? Did it ever did you ever feel like it held you back?

[4:32] Kristen Hetzel: Never, never. Um, I feel very blessed that where I come from, I'm from Wheeling, West Virginia, a small town in West Virginia. Um, I never from a school perspective, from coaches, teachers, other athletes, never felt hindered. Um, fortunately, I have amazing parents that told me I can do whatever I want to do in this life and just don't stop. So you get what you want, kind of an attitude. And so I never even knew of the possibility of being held back as a woman, if that makes sense. So I feel very blessed that my experiences have been all positive. That, you know, people have many and women have respected me for my tenacity and my abilities. And so they never made it about, oh, you're a woman. It was just, well, you have what it takes or you bring to the table what's necessary. So I always have respect from them.

[5:36] Patrick Oliver Jones: And has there been, because I know I mentioned the US Open earlier with Serena Williams, and there's been a parody of payouts as far as the winners and the champions from those events. Has there been that kind of parody when it comes to men's and women's sports and those that you compete in?

[5:52] Kristen Hetzel: Yes, it's again a little bit different in the duathlon because since it's not an extremely popular monetary sport like basketball or football or something, that doesn't really come up in the duathlon world. But you know, certainly in professional cycling, the men do make a bit more than the professional women. And so yeah, there has been that. I it's a little bit of a catch 22 though, because it's the media drives a lot of stuff, meaning, yes, I think it's fair that we should get paid the same, but it's a case sometimes it's just for example, the NBA, they have more viewers, there's more people watching it, there's more money getting pumped into it, and so they're gonna make a lot more money. And so it's difficult because I, as a woman, I think we should have equal pay, but on some level with certain sports, I understand why there isn't yet, if that makes sense.

[6:51] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right. If no one's watching that particular sport, male or female, then that sport is not going to get as much money as another sport that's being watched by millions.

[6:59] Kristen Hetzel: That's right, yeah.

[7:02] Patrick Oliver Jones: So on to number four. Name a lesson or trait that took you a while to learn, or maybe one that you're still working on to this day.

[7:11] Kristen Hetzel: Letting go. Um, it's something that took me a long time to learn. And it's still a work in progress. I'm much farther along, but I mean letting go in the sense of not trying to force and control things so much in life. Just being open, letting things flow more, having more fun with things, not getting so uptight if something isn't going the way that I think it should or had envisioned it would. And so I've found a lot more peace and happiness and joy in being able to let go.

[7:52] Patrick Oliver Jones: And is there a particular example of something specific that you had to let go of?

[7:58] Kristen Hetzel: Well, just recently, I most of the races this season have been canceled due to COVID. However, the national championships were still going on. They were supposed to be October 17th. And I was all in, you know, that was my only race of the year. So I'm like, I am going after this. I want to win this. Like I'm just all in. And so I'd been training so hard and felt so strong and was hitting times I'd never hit before. And then three weeks before the event, they canceled it. And yes, I was very sad. Yes, I was very disappointed, but that lesson came into play. It's like I just have to let this go and feel that my training and the love that I put into my preparation, it has to be enough because there's no I can't control this, I can't change it, I can't fix it. So being upset about it isn't productive. So I just have to find the positive in it and just let it go. It's just the way it was.

[9:09] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right, right. And number five, what is the most memorable advice that you have received?

[9:16] Kristen Hetzel: Hmm, the most memorable advice. Gosh, this will take a sec to think about because I feel like I have had so many amazing people in my life.

[9:26] Patrick Oliver Jones: I'm sure between coaches and your Aunt Z and everybody.

[9:29] Kristen Hetzel: Yeah, yeah. I think that it might be a little bit cliche, but it's just been true time and time again. It's never give up. You know, when I was younger, my dad is a wonderful, wonderful man. I can't say enough about the things he taught me and the values he instilled in me. And even as a little kid, you know, he would always say when things were going rough or something, he's like, you have two choices. You can quit, you can keep going. And we don't quit, you know. And so it just kind of got ingrained to me at such a young age that you just keep, you just don't give up, you just keep going. And that served me well in all of my endeavors in life.

[10:12] Patrick Oliver Jones: Definitely, especially as you reach for the gold.

[10:14] Kristen Hetzel: Yes, that's right.

[10:18] Patrick Oliver Jones: Kristen and I are also joined in a special episode by the hosts of Keep the Flame Alive Podcast. Their knowledge of athletic sporting events makes for some great questions for Kristen to answer. That special members-only episode can be found at donate.winmipodcast.com.