Latest / The People Run Podcast / #2: Remembering Alex Chiu - From Finding Running to Building Community

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#2: Remembering Alex Chiu - From Finding Running to Building Community · The People Run Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: There's that point in the run when you're all running together and your steps are in sync.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: The cadence is is is going.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: Your breaths are in sync with the other person.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't have to be going fast, it doesn't have to be going slow.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, you know, you're in this flow state where you're all doing it together.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: And that to me is like Nirvana.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome everyone.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And uh thanks for joining the People Run podcast where we talk about uh everyday runners and share their stories and how they get it done.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh today's guest with me, I have Alex here, uh coming out of New York City.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's a good friend of mine.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Alex a little bit over the place, but I'll let him share his story.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by that is uh I met him in Seattle, but he's from New York.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: We both went to the same school and area in Brooklyn, New York, which is a crazy story and how we met.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh his background work-wise, you know, he's worked in the government sector a little bit, but uh he's done all six majors, and um, you know, I want to bring him on here to share how he gets it done.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I I see him on the gram all the time.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: He had a hella lot of fun running and doing all kinds of stuff.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, Alex, thanks for jumping on, man.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how you doing?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm doing great, man.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me on.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's a pleasure to see your fate, your smiling face today.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's great.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you've been a little too nice, but thank you, man.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how's everything running with you, man?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: How are things going?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Everything's going good.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Everything's going good.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: I I I I recently stopped working, so which is like amazing to me.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, yeah, I'm taking my sabbatical, which is like probably 20 years, you know.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I always meet these Europeans and they tell me um they like either like after college university they take a break from work, or they save up, or they work for five years and then take the break from work.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was just like, oh god, man, how did you do that?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's so amazing.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: I wish I couldn't do that.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I waited like 19 years and I'm finally here.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I was just like, you know what?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I'm I'm through working for a while, and uh, well, not I can't retire, I can't retire.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, but at least for like the next I'm like two months in of not working, and I kind of like it, you know.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, you know, like I have so much freedom to do what I want and join your podcast.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, yeah, whatever time you need, I'm I'm here, I'm available.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: I can work out whenever I want.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have to wait till after work, you know.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: So it's been going great.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man, that's for sure, man.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: What's what kind of stuff have you been getting up to, you know, with the break, you know, you got run and you say you left when you want.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, like, you know, what one one one advantage of not working right now is like you get to go to the gym whenever you whenever you want.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: So it's never crowded at like noon.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Or like one o'clock or like eight o'clock, you know, it's never crowded.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: You get at the whole gym to yourself.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: I get to run at like when the weather's good, not when I'm confined to like five after five o'clock, you know, or like really early, like at before nine.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: So it's been going great.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: I've been working out a lot.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm getting ready for a big adventure.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I'm gonna try to climb well, it's now called Mount McKinley, but uh it's it's called uh it's the tallest peak in North America.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm I'm working with my teammates to get ready for that.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna leave in like another two and a half weeks.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: So that's very exciting.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: So like I kind of knew I was gonna quit my job, so it wasn't like it wasn't something out of the blue that just it wasn't an epiphany.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: It was like, hey, I was gonna they weren't gonna let me leave on this trip anyway, because it's gonna be a month.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I've been training hard for that.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of you know, just came back from Seattle actually, where we where we met.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I was there working out with my teammates and you know, getting ready for it's a lot of vertical, a lot of high.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: Just imagine hiking uphill, 4,000, 5,000 feet with heavy loads on your back, which is basically the best training you can do.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Man, that's crazy.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: What 4,000 feet every day you walk up?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: What's what's the total for that amount?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, not every day.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: I mean it's like you gotta be in general good cardio fitness, and then you also gotta make sure your body's able to handle that load.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: So it's more like, all right, uh, it was more like a weekend where we just said, hey, what uh we're gonna last weekend we just heavy loads on our back and climbed up like 5,000 feet up to like Camp Mear, which is like the middle of uh Mount Rainier.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, uh anyone who lives in Seattle knows that's the tallest peak in Washington.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, we did a lot of training over there.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: You know, for me, I'm always active anyway.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like even when I was working, you know, I always found time to go to the gym, run, you know, especially when you get to uh, you know, I don't want to say our age, but you know, once you're over 35, you know, you just can't like turn on when you used to.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: So we I'm always like working to make sure it's like that old phrase, you know, stay ready so you never have to get ready.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: So you know, when I knew my my time was alright, I'm not working right now, what am I gonna do?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna get in the best shape of my life and try to get to the top of this mountain.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: So Yeah, man, that's attitude.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: The last two months.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: Two months, yeah.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: So when's this trip start?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we we start on May 16th.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, it's coming up soon.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's coming up soon.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh uh, then we're gonna go, I'm gonna fly back to see on May 16th, pack our all my gear, which is a lot, which is like 125 pounds, and we're gonna fly to Alaska on the 19th, and then we'll be there, and then we're gonna get on the Mount McKinley, the mountain on like the 20th, and we'll be there for like 18 days, close to 18 days, where we'll be having like camping on our own, you know, cooking our own food.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, dragging.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: We have like a hundred pounds attached to us, so we'll have like 50 pounds on our back, maybe even like 70 pounds on a sled, and we'll be dragging up this mountain.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: So I've never done it.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: I've done a lot of research on it.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: We have one person on our team who's done it, but he didn't he got halfway.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: So this is something that I've been looking forward to for a long time.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see if uh uh we'll see that's one of the things when you do this stuff, it's not like a marathon where you're like you run it, you pretty much know if you can do something like that, and you know, if you can will your way to the top, but like there's a lot of factors, and you know, doing mountaineering is like basically weather dependent.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like if the mountain lets you onto the top, uh you can if you're physically able, then you can get to the top.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: But again, I don't know what's gonna happen.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's what's kinda exciting to me, is like you don't know what's gonna be happening.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've run a lot of marathons over the years, so I mean not to brag, but I can I can finish we can you you you too, you can finish your marathon if you need to, you know, tomorrow if you need to.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I have a walk and job.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: It don't hurt, but yeah, for sure.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not afraid to bonk, you know.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, once you get that fear out the way, then you can just do you know anything.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: But uh yeah, yeah, that's that's really exciting for me, and uh I'm looking forward to it.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, and I've been, you know, I'm uh I don't know if people hear this and they're like, wow, he just decided to do this.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: No, well, I've been training for like the last 10 years for like mountain sports, trail running, uh mountaineering, you know, climbing, you know, all various pursuits of getting up to the top of a mountain.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I've taught classes even when I was living in Seattle with you.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_02: I was was teaching classes.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: I have students who have taught who are still doing it, and you know, I just wanted to do it just because, you know, not getting younger, and you know.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Man, a trip though, man, and it sounds like perfect timing, man.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you you kind of have to do it, you know, at this point, especially if you want to do it.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: What what's the uh what's the safety like, man?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it sounds kind of crazy and dangerous, like, you know, what do you guys do in a prep to make sure you you make it and come back?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: Well yeah, yeah.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: So that's a good uh so like you know, everyone asked me, it's like, oh, you're going to a trip like that.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you can go on this trip and you can and you can go guide it, which is basically, you know, you hire basically a team to like get you to the top of the mountain, which is what most people probably like 75% of the people on the mountain do.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like they pay close to$10,000,$15,000 for them to like guide you up the top of the mountain.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: And that's and that's a totally different experience.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: There's nothing wrong with that.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I've done stuff like that before, but they basically tell you, okay, when to eat, when to sleep, when to go, when to walk, yeah.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so like that your safety is not compromised that much because there's someone looking after you and they're not gonna take put you in too much risk if they see it.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: But for us, I mean it's me and two other guys, and we've been and I know these guys so well, they're like brothers to me, and I've always, you know, I trust them with my life.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna be making the best decisions we can in the mountains from based on all the previous experience we have climbing, you know, other mountains.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: So and what does that mean?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: That means you know, checking the weather every day.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: What's the weather forecast like?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, is it gonna be a blizzard?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: Is it gonna be a monsoon?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: Is it gonna be windy up there?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: Checking the weather, making the best guess like what our bodies are like, because I know these people so well, they're not gonna lie to me and say, hey, I'm okay, but they really can't do it.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's that's my life too, because if one of them gets hurt, I can't be stuck on a mountain on the side of a mountain with someone hurt.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, they're always honest with me, and then we have different rescue techniques, god forbid if something do happen.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, you know, you know, I guess the safety issue is there's always risk.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, yeah, for sure, there's risk in anything.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: Especially in this these places where like, you know, it's not like you can call medic, you know, like you know, in Washington, you get hurt, you know, a chopper comes and picks you up, but yeah, you're in the middle of nowhere.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, this is this is wild.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's arc it's the Arctic.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see how dangerous it is.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's not that dangerous.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe you'll be surrounded by tons of people.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, there are decent amount of people who will be there, you know, who are you know with those guided companies and they're all trained to rescue people.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know what the danger level is, but that's kind of what makes it exciting, is that I don't know.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I've never done anything like this before.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's basically 18 days, I'm on my own in a tent.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like the most I've ever camped is like I think five days or something like that.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, for sure.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: So it's you know, I I don't know what I don't know.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll we'll have a follow-on podcast to see how how it went.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm down for that.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna record this or what?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Have you decided yet?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I I got it, I got this really cool camera here.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: This is like this is like an Insta360 Ace Pro.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't I've forgotten this, and my goal is to make a maybe like a YouTube movie or something out of this.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what comes of it, but like I definitely want to record it.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm recording all the stuff that I'm doing before the climb and after the climb and interviewing my co-worker, my not co-workers, it's how long I've been working, you know.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: You think of them as co-workers, but my teammates, you know, recording them and just I want to get the full experience because not a lot of people know what I do, especially I live in New York, so people always say assume, oh yeah, you're just like one of us, and I am like one of them, but I've also done this other life for like 10 years and no one knows about it.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: And you can put the picture up and you know, people can see it, but until you actually s visualize it, like see uh, you know, at first I was just gonna write about it, like I was just gonna write an essay, but no one reads anymore anyway.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, no one's gonna read that.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: So if even if I do write, like you know, uh uh a novel, and then so I was like, well, let me just record it, make it like a five-minute or ten-minute YouTube video, and then people can see how what it's like to be up there, and you know, I'm really excited about it.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: So that's no man.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to that.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be cool to see it on video, and to your point, man, like you see the video and you see you know the picture.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a great looking picture, but the video's gonna be like, Whoa, this is insane! And look at the view.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And toughness that that comes with it, you know.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I I'm excited when you get that recorded, man.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, share it, you know, we'll share it all around, and obviously I'm looking forward to watching it.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's it's one of those things where it's like, you know what, I've we consume so much content.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I've been, you know, even doing the research for this trip, I've been watching so many videos and reading as much as I can, but I'm like, there's nothing really that puts into perspective what it's what it is other than oh, I'm going up the mountain, it's hard, but I want to show like the camping, the sleeping, you know, the cooking, the what do we do on a day-to-day.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it doesn't have to be the whole 18 days, but like at least shows you gives you a feel of what it's like to live live on a mountain for like this long.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I haven't done it before, so and you know, quite crafting, I've climb I've climbed a lot of mountains, I slept on a lot of them, and you know, I never had time, never even thought about recording.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: It was more like, well, let's stay warm before we freeze it up tonight.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it'll be a new experience for me too.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: So well, pivoting onto running.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's get back to running.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: No, you good, man.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh let's talk about it all, man.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I'll come back to the fitness and stuff because obviously it's not just running with you, but like uh, how'd you get into running?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Man, what got you first started around like what age?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's so funny.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like, uh, you know, we went to the same high school, and I'm a little older than you, but I was off basically on a track team.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, uh I was basically one of the I mean it's not I wouldn't say I'm not downgrading myself.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: I was pretty much the most unathletic person you could ever think of.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I had no, you know, I grew up in the age of, you know, you know, no social media, no outside or not go outside sports, you know.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: My parents were immigrants, we didn't know what to, you know, just go read a book, go to the library, you know, do do the best you can in school.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I had no sense of like athleticism.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I found out, you know, when I was, you know, because education was a big thing in my family about applying to colleges that hey, you can't just have good grades.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I really didn't even have good grades, to be honest with you.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, knowing the school that we went to, it was like it wasn't one of those like you know, grand high schools that people were like, you know, uh, you know, uh become presidents or mayors or doctors.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: It was just like I mean, just to shift.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see if you can like graduate from here.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: I was a terrible student, and I was like, well, let me try to like get into college somehow.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the ways was like, hey, maybe it'll look better, you know, because I didn't have the grades if you were part of a team or something, like a a sport or something like that.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, well, you know, you're small enough for the you're not athletic enough for the foot football team, you're too short for the basketball team.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: There's this track team, and I was like, Well, I've never ran before, but you know, one foot in front of another, let's see, let's see how this goes.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: And okay.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's the you know, join the high school track team, you know, and uh I'm pretty sure I was the slowest one.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm that old that I can't I don't remember exactly what it was, but I think back on the times I used to run in you know high school, and it was like I ran like a 520 mile.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: So that's pretty fast.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: If I were to run that today, I'll be like, my god, blazing.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: But like our team was so good.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like we won city champs, we were they were winning state champs, like everyone was good on that team.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: It was crazy.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: It was just like, what the hell?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: These guys are like, you know, they're all from the Caribbean, they're all from, you know, like they all are sprinters, and so I was this mid-distance runner that was like, I didn't think I wasn't that good.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't get any medals when I was running.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, I didn't place in any events, but you know, everyone else was so good.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: They were winning first, second, you know, and I was just like, I'm not even into like I'm not you know, they had heats, you know, where they would say like the fast people would be in the the last heat and the slow people in the early heats.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: I was always in the early heats because there was like no point in me.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll be like, and I I'd run my you know, mile or two miles, and then I'll just you know wait to cheer my teammates on.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: And basically I started in high school, I did that for three years, and then after college, I didn't really do it too much.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_02: And then really what got me back into it was uh I started working at Boeing uh uh at in Seattle, and uh I was it was a really stressful job.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: It was like, you know, I was working like 10, 12 hour days every day.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I wanted to prove myself in my career, I wanted to say, hey, you know, like you can do it.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you graduated from college and now you can be an engineer.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: So I was working really hard, and then um I started getting like some chest pain.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I went to the doctor, and the doctor said, Your cholesterol is off the charts.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: Like your blood pressure is like someone like who's like 50.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: He was like, How old are you?
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, I'm 24.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, Um next day it was a doctor, she said, um, she was like, Hey, um, you need to start changing your habits because I was like working really late, so you know Yeah, eating whatever.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: Eating crap, I was eating like pizza and McDonald's all the time.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's 24-year-old, you know, you think that's great, you know.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: Now you have money, so you can buy anything you want now, so you eat junk food.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then I wasn't even, I was sitting on a table, a desk for 12, 13 hours a day, and sometimes on the weekends, and then you know, they're the doctor was like, Hey, you better like change your lifestyle habits because if you don't, I'm gonna have to start keep prescribing you pills.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like vegetation.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh my god, like I don't want to do I don't want to be like the oldest young person I know.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I just started, you know, working out.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, well, I'll I remember I was back in the track practice track practices and we would you know run a couple miles, and back then we didn't we don't we didn't um this is like 2008 or nine, so there wasn't even any of those like fancy watches that you can like measure how far you ran.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I would just leave my apartment and just run around the block and sometimes a couple times around the block, and then you know, and then I just started you know signing up for like different races, like you know, 5K's and 10K's, and it's like okay, I finished, you know.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: I still didn't have a watch, so I still didn't know what the hell is.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Wait, so you got into all this running back well the second time just to get out of cholesterol on pills, I guess.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: I just I just didn't want to try.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, I'm finally making money.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, Well, I want to live enough to see that.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to be like an unhealthy rich person, or like, oh at that time I thought I was rich because I was making more than like$12 an hour.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, so I was like, yeah, I just wanted to be healthier.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh, you know, the next thing I knew, I was like, I had a friend who ran a lot, and then he, my old college roommate, and he was like, hey, why don't we sign up for a marathon?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was like, I didn't know what a marathon was back then, and it turned out it was the Chicago marathon, which is one of the majors.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: So back then in 2010, you could just sign up for it, you just paid 150 bucks.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, I remember, I was like, wow, that's a lot of money, Gordon.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, I don't think I want to sign up for that.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: And it was just all right, fine, you want to go, let's let's do a trip to Chicago.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: I've never been there.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I ran the marathon and ran it really slow.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: It was like 4 30, 4 40.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, some some some really slow time.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: But I finished.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: And that was like a great sense of accomplishment.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I was just like, wait a minute, if I can finish this, let's see uh what I can.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I still didn't have a watch, so I was like, I didn't know how slow I was until I actually got the uh you know the email says you finished, and then um wild.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh I was just like, oh let me do another one.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: Let me let and then you know, like some people have this thing of like running a marathon in all 50 states, and then yeah, so I told my roommate, I was like, okay, so where are we gonna go next?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: So we went to California, went to LA, then we went to San Diego, so we did that, and then we went and then we started doing and then he got married and he basically stopped running.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was like, Well, I'm gonna keep going.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Well, maybe not 50 states, how about the good states?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: So maybe that's like 10 of them.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: And then 10 states were like, Oh, there's a lot of work doing this on my own.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Wait, maybe like the good cities, so there's like four good cities or something like that.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway, it was just and I basically stopped running.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: And then it wasn't back to like when you when I met you in like 2019.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: The run crews were picking up and like all the culture and Instagram made it look so cool, and now it's like now it's like the coolest thing you could do running.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: When basically I remember growing up where we grew up in Canarsi, people would just make fun of you.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what are you doing?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: Running on the streets?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: What are you nuts?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: Or homeless, you're getting chased by the cops or something?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like it was crazy.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: It was like, you know, you get made fun of, like, you know, run, you know, I I I could just count all the run for us run jokes.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's that dates that showed you how old I am.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: That because that movie came out around then, and there would just see people like yelling at you, you know, and that now I'm in New York City, it's just probably like the running capital of the world.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, for sure.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: People run all over the place in the city.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's like it's not uncommon to see like 50 people run past you, you know, on the city on New York City ball.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was there, as you know, last week, and it was just insane to me, man.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, to your point, man.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just for the record here for everyone listening, you know, we went to like the middle of the hood, Brooklyn to school, you know, and like he had the track team.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: There was no track team when I was there.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think I saw one track team once time in in gym, and I didn't know how it was going on or signing up, and and I was way overweight, or not even thinking about running at a time.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: But New York last week I saw runners everywhere, man, running crews going on, and like 10 years ago, like you were running to your point, and you were like, What's going on here?
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you going?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, yeah.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: Why would you run there?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, oh my gosh, there's homeless people, there's like you could get mugged.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why would you run there?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's like go to the gym, like the treadmill, I would see more people in the gym running on a trend than I'd ever see running people running outside.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: So to see what it is now and how popular it is, and how you know, to your point, like running a major, like you know, remember back in 2010, I signed up for the Chicago Marathon, and I'm pretty sure it didn't fill out, you know.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like I just gave them the hundred dollars, like take it, and then I just got on a plane and I ran.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like now it's like you gotta raise this kind of money, you gotta a lot of.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, you know, I just first time just paid the money and just went, you know.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let you know what let's get into that now.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna wait for later on that, but like, yeah, to your point, you would just sign up for Chicago.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, today it just got announced a few hours ago.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 1.1 million people signed up for London.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 50,000, 60,000 are gonna only be able to run.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you got a better chance of winning the lotto or like yeah, some some free something, you know, somewhere else, you know.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: What's your thoughts on like passing before like the majors, you know, the new craze epidemic on running?
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, everyone's running nowadays, it's all over social media, everyone's a runner.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's forty different shoes out, like a whole bunch of watches and tech now.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what's your thought on the the running boom?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let's call it.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's great.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's like, you know, it's much better than the Other trends that people can be getting into, you know, it's like, you know, at least you're working out and and uh to go back to my point in high school, you know, there's so many obstacles to be a part of like an athletic endeavor.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I'm saying?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like, if you want to play basketball, you gotta, you know, you gotta you gotta have skills, you know.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: And as an adult, you know, after you leave college, you're like, what can I really join that keeps me active, right?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: So for me, it was more like, all right, running is the one thing that, you know, I can do by myself, right?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like I, you know, you can shoot basketballs by yourself, you can only do that for s I mean before you get bored.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, there's tangible evidence about like if you're getting better, right?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: And like to me, I always love the fact that when I ran, I could see if I'd had a good time, if I have a good, you know, session.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: Now that I have a wa I can own I own a watch now, so I can actually measure my performance.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: So it's the one great thing, and then and that didn't really uh, you know, just running by myself.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: Some people love running my by themselves, but I love running with people, and like since bec now that it is so popular, I've met I've met the best people running.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: So like it's more of a social endeavor for me, more of a like a I'm more I guess I would say I'm more attracted to the lifestyle of it, because like every Saturday, like tomorrow's Saturday, and I'm gonna meet up with a a bunch of guys and gals who are I'm gonna look forward to meeting with them and running for 10 miles with, and then we'll probably get breakfast, you know, afterwards or get a cup of coffee at least, right?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: So it's more of the social aspect of like let's all do something, and you know, we're bonded over this activity that's like blood and sweat and tears, you know.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard, like you know, you run 10 miles, it's gonna be a hard day.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, at the end of it, it bonds people, and it's just like, all right, let's do something afterwards, and then that's how you get to know people.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think in this age, this day and age where we're so isolated, we're on our phones, it's like, well, you can't really be running and being on your phone.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you can see or whatnot, but you can like you know, really get to you know experience some hard things, you know.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, there's other activities you can do, like cycling, but you know, who can afford that kind of bike or like if you don't know how to cycle, right?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: But everyone can put it entry on cycling.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's always a barrier to entry in like all these sports, even like my the sports I do, it's just like skiing is so expensive, climbing is so expensive.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: You have to join a gym for like you know, a hundred bucks a month, you know, running just you know, I'm going for a but a run with a bunch of folks, uh, run crew tomorrow, and it's free.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, and it's a great workout.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: You'll see the city, you'll see you'll feel the air, and it's gonna be great weather.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, there's still in my way point of view, there's no better way to enjoy New York City than a nice long run in any city, you know.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: You one of the reasons why I wanted to do that 50 states, but fell well short, was like, hey, it'd be cool to see all this country by just running around, you know, 26 miles of it, you know.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: You're not gonna see more than that.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: I mean so I think it's great.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's great the running boom.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, there's something all these other issues where like you know, the people who really wanted to go to like let's say you know that Boston qualifying time has been lowered like four times already in the last 10 years.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: So and it's getting lower next year, apparently.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_02: Finally, it's getting low it's people are getting faster, and uh and I'm only getting older, so so we'll see.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: But you you've already done all six majors though, so I mean I I'm sure you want to do more, but you know, like well, do you want to do more?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: Do I want to run more marathons?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, more major.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if I want to do the majors again.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I just think it's just so hard to get in now.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, for sure.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: I mean it basically takes a lot of money.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you just really think about it, it's just like if you're willing to raise the money for charity, if you're willing to fly out to these, you know, these are pretty major cities, and the hotels when they're having these marathons aren't cheap.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: They spike up, yeah, for sure.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right, right.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: Airfare spikes up, the foods the the you know you know, it's expensive, and so do I have ambitions to do them all again?
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, but I don't I don't really know.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_02: But I have a race coming a trail race coming up in August.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I'm looking forward to running 50k and which like around 31 miles.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's a new experience for me.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm always looking for new experiences.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: I think uh if I did like I ran New York last year and that was a great experience, but yeah, you know, I've ran it ran that race five times, so uh the sixth time I think will it won't have that you know impact that the first few times have, right?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: No, for sure.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: I I definitely want to run New York at a later date again.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: You should, like I've been telling you.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I just had a feeling it was gonna be crazy this year, and last year it was super hot.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, you know, so I did it in uh what 23.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: So um, but I do want to run it when I'm you know improved as a runner, and also obviously, like you said, there's nothing better than seeing the city.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we both grew up in New York, but seeing the city from a marathon is is it's a whole nother experience, man.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like an Olympian going down uh central.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: And you're getting cheered for all the time, you know, people are yelling your name if you have the name on your bib.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so you it's the one day of the year that if you do it in your home time, you feel like a superhero.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: You're just like, wow.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: I get people to cheer.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, well, when do when else would they cheer for you?
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, yeah, for sure, man.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: You're not a professional athlete.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, oh yeah, I go to work for like, oh, thanks for coming in today, you know.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, it's your job, it's my job.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'm supposed to come in.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: So no, I think it's great.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, I I feel like it brings people together, and I think that's all goodness, you know, like anything that you know brings people together and you know, for good reasons, no, I think that's uh beautiful thing.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I like that, man.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you said like you said, it takes you off your phone, man.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's something to be said about like bonding through like exercise and endorphins and all that versus like you know, online media.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, talking about New York and the majors, uh well, two questions for you.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: What's your favorite one?
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, where's the trail race you're running?
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well, my favorite one is Tokyo.
• 27:57
  unknown: Okay.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: How come?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: How come?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh well, I'm Asian, I'm Chinese, right?
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: So uh, you know, a lot of these uh majors, you know, you you I mean long distance running is a predominantly white sport.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it just it just is, you know, and you know, it's you know, I've been doing this for a long time, since like 2000 to the 1997.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_02: It was always one of these things the stereotype was, oh, it's a skinny, tall white guy who does it, right?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: You know, yeah, and I'm a short, stompy Asian guy, right?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: So when I'm in Tokyo, you could, you know, see I'm looking around and I'm like, wow, everyone looks like me.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, you know, we're all like Japanese, Korean, Chinese, whatever.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm like, holy crap, like this is the first time, and I've run like 15 marathons up to then, right?
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like I'm always the one that's the different one, right?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: And now it's like, wow, everyone here looks like me, and that just blows my mind away.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, you know, I just like I was I was going into that race thing, I was gonna run a certain time.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I had a goal in mind, and then I think halfway through the race, I just realized it was so hot, I was like, I'm not gonna hit this goal, which is okay.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I was also skiing the the a couple the the week before too, so I didn't I wasn't that serious about the race, but um, yeah, I just like I just was in this race, and not only were the people who were running look like me, the people cheering all look like me.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I was just like, wait a minute, and then I would hear my native tongue, you know, uh I speak Cantonese at with my parents, and I would hear it at you hear it somewhere, yeah.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: I hear it somewhere, and I like there's this familiarity where it's just like, oh my god, like I've been doing this for so long.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: I've never seen people who look like me.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, I've obviously there are other people who look like me who do this, you know, in other parts of the city.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: No, I get what you mean.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's relatable, yeah.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's relatable, right?
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, wow, this is like like this is my like, you know, not like my people's, but like this is like our a culture that even I can uh associate with, right?
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's just like it's like when, you know, I guess if you're a minority, you would understand if you were you know engrossed by something that you know you've done for so long, but you've never been, you know, seen, you know, you know, you've never been seen.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: No, I get it.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, right?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Dominican, so like technically that would be New York, but like New York's not my favorite just because of how I win and it's also hilly.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: But right, right.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: I get what you mean, you know.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's more relatable, like there's social and and norms, and you know, they look more like you versus like funny you say that one of my favorite all-time marathoners is Japanese, Yuki Kawauchi, who who ran Boston, like Guns Blazing and won in 2018.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: I watched that video sometimes for inspiration.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's just insane.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: This man just went guns blazing, yeah.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and I watched that video too, and I was just like, whoa, wait a minute, this is a Japanese guy.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_02: He kinda he looks like me too, and he just did it.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: So why can't I do not that I can win that race, but like, you know, I can do this.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: You can go on and run, yeah.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: But what if someone who was me who didn't run at all watches that video and says, wait a minute, that guy just did it.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: He looks like me.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe I can do it too.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: Because it it really is.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't like, if you don't see it, you won't believe it.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I'm saying?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like, so I would just assume there was a Kenyan who just ran that hoof who won Boston, right?
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, for the 18th time in a row, right?
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: So now I've watched the video so many times, man.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh funny, uninspired by the podcast and the whole podcast.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: But funny, he had a regular job too.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't like some elite, he is now, you know, but he wasn't, he was like working a regular or something in the city job or something, nine, ten hours, you know, because in Japan they work longer, and then my man's busting out winning Boston Marathons.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's doable.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you gotta give up something to do that, you gotta sacrifice a lot to do that, but it's it's totally not saying it's doable to win it, but you know, I mean, you can have a regular job and be very good at at the in this sport, that's for sure.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: I've known a lot of people who've done it.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure, man.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: So what's this trail race you're running?
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's called uh Squamish 50 kilometers.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's actually close to uh Washington, right?
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Washington.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's actually like three or two and a half hour drive to what from Washington, but then Canada.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's called this beautiful town called Squamish, it's a mountain town, and uh I just I used to climb there so much.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like I spent all my week every week in there in the summer.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: And then there was this trail race, and I was like, hey, I've been running a lot more since I moved back to New York.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: It'll be great to go visit, fly back, and run this race.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I've been spent so much time there, you know, climbing-wise, you know, like rock climbing.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: But I was like, well, you know, I would love to like you know do a trail race out there and going up and down the mountains and you know, exploring, and you know, just yeah, just like decided to sign up and do it, and that that also got sold out.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like, you know, that's insane.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_02: That popular.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: So well, trail renting's always been big in the Canada, British Columbia, Washington side, you know, it's it's probably more than road, actually, you know, because uh yeah, definitely Washington's more track, you know, Oregon's there and stuff.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: So and then the Vancouver marathon is this weekend, like our friend Mike is going there.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, you know, hat the hat they have the half in full.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: So that's a marathon I've always wanted to go to.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: And that one's easy.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's still you sign up and then you just run the race.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like that's there's no lotto for that one.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_02: So that's also a beautiful it's in a beautiful city, it's a great race.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_02: I've never run it.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_02: I I still plan on running it one year.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: That would be a dope one, yeah.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Vancouver.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: I I've only been once and it was literally a layover, so like that would be cool to see the city, you know.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, your old stomping grounds.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure, man.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh question for you like what um talking about marathons, Vancouver trails.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you got anything else lined up or like what's some of your favorites you haven't done yet?
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um I haven't done yet.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know, Vancouver is also is always one of them.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know, last weekend was the Eugene marathon.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: So they actually like you know, got and ran, you know, the birthplace of track and field, you know, the Eugene on the Eugene track.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_02: So you finished the marathon on the track.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I thought that was really cool.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of my friends did that one, and you know, there's races all over the country that I've always wanted to do.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, I just did Mesa this this earlier this past February, so I did that marathon, and it was like beautiful.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: You're running through these huge cactuses, and it's just like breathtaking because it's like during sunrise, so you're just running in and you're like, wow, look at these huge cactuses, like bigger than a house, and they're just like, wow, I'm just running through them.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like, you know, there's a lot of places in this country that I've always wanted to visit, but I've never had a chance to, or I've never gotten around to it, maybe because I've been working for the last 19 years, so you know.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: But I would love to like visit more places and run, you know, it doesn't have to be a marathon, maybe a half marathon, but at least a half marathon in a lot of these states, which I've always wanted to visit.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: So you know, um, yeah, I mean, I just guess I I guess, you know, you know, here's the thing that really happens is that you know, there's always a buddy who's like, I'm gonna run this race.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_02: You're like, hey, that sounds interesting.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_02: Let me and then you do some research, like, you know what, I'm gonna go with you.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_02: Or like, you know, let's split a room or something like that.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then my friend, my other friend, Chris Lamb, he's like, Oh yeah, I'm doing a Toronto marathon for that weekend.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I already done it.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_02: I know Chris.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, I'll do, I'll go and do the half, and then we'll hang out for the weekend, right?
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_02: And then we'll just be like chill or make a and then you're eating together the whole weekend, and it's just like, you know, as an adult, you know, once you get over a certain age, you don't really have that much time to hang out with each other like you used to.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, like if you can say, hey, here's a race, we'll do the best we can, or maybe we'll just you know, fun run it, and then but at least we're there together and we'll hang out the whole weekend, you know, that's something you know worthwhile and worth doing.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_02: So now it's basically more towards it.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: Used to be about different places, but now it's more towards, hey, you're going there, let's go hang out, and let's go have a great race, yeah.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's something look, yeah, and then the race is an afterthought.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's no longer it's no longer about getting faster now.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's now it's about, hey, let's just do something where we worked, and then we'll have a great dinner afterwards.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_02: Or then we'll maybe we'll have a great dinner before and we'll have a great dinner afterwards, and we'll party our asses off after that, too.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy you say that Mike got injured, as you know, recently, but like I was trying to invite him to come do indie with me in November.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like, hey, if your first race goes good, you know, let's go do indie together.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: So he can like pace me and we can hang out and stuff.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's how all the races end up, man.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I got like two other buddies uh joining with me in Indy.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: And funny you mentioned Eugene and um and Mesa.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: If these lotteries don't happen as it's looking like lately, that's exactly what I'm buying for the beginning of spring next year, one of those two.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, if you go to Mesa, I'll be there.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'll be there.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: I love that race, yeah.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: See, we we setting up Mesa already.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard great things about Mesa, Mesa, either the half of the floor.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, it's just it's just a beautiful place.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's 70 degrees every day.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, you know, a nice, easygoing town.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's not expensive.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, you know, you won't be paying through the roof for a hotel.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's a short flight for me too, now because I'm a model.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, it's it's a it's a you know, I mean, there's a lot of I love the desert.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: So basically, and it's like if if you're living in the northeast, you're like, it's probably like 10, it was 10 degrees this this winter, so it's like, wow, it's yeah, it's miserable and cold.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_02: I never knew I there was a good week where I didn't even like put on my running shoes.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, I'm not running, you know, like so I did a lot of treadmill, man, because Colorado, uh, you know, it's my first winter here.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: Man, it gets cold, bro.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's well, for some reason last year, I think most of the country was colder than ever.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like Necro froze like way earlier than than before.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: I remember seeing New York's family, and here it got super cold all the time.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I don't blame you, man.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: And New York is cold, cold.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: So so it's good to like you know have those vacation, you know, marathons where you're like, or have marathons where you're just like, hey, and you see a city, man, like you said, and you see a different city and you get to hang out with your friends.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like, there's there's always good food, man.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: You're able to eat because you just burn a whole bunch of calories, man.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um wanted to ask you, man.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, you know, because you you've been around a lot of cities, Seattle, and uh, well, I'll start with this first.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, for everyone listening, I used to live in Seattle.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Alex, as you've heard a couple of times, used to flow back and forth uh between Seattle and and New York, and now he's in New York again.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, we met in a run club in Seattle.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's huge now.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: The geez, uh Alex, I don't know how big CSRD is gonna get, but it keeps getting bigger and bigger.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen posts now and like yeah sponsors, and they just did the the uh what's it called?
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: The desert run recently, the project, yeah.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: They did which is wild, but like we met through that run club and stuff, man, and it's cool.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you're ever in Seattle, go check them out.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh CSRD, uh they use the Hilo app where you can find them online, man.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: Big running crew, same thing.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: On Instagram, you know, they always they always do Monday night miles, yep, Saturday uh long run, yeah.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: Out there by Green Lake, and if you want to push them out, there's always someone there doing 20.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: You'll find someone who's at your pace, that's first.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, or fast.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: Their motto is uh all faces for all paces.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, all faces all paces, you'll find everyone.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: And what's crazy is these same people, yeah.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: They'll all run with you, man.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny you say that.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: One of my other buddies out there who flies between similar US Seattle and New York, he's gonna come on the pod too.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then I met him out there.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: But um he's in New York and recently got a six star and whatnot.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: But like point I'm making is man, so you've run with a lot of run crews, man.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, double question.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you I know you say you like running with people, what do you like most also, and like what kind of running crews are you running with in New York right now?
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, what was the first question?
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what do you like best about running in like a crew, you know, versus like solo runs?
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, again, I'm old again, so you know, I again, you know, I I remember the days very vividly when I used to just, you know, put on a Walkman, you know, remember Walkman's you know, I would have that, and I would just put on music and it would be skipping and I would just be running by myself in the cold.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I did that for years.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, all through high school, you know, because like, you know, I was part of the track team, but then that's only like, you know, half the school year, right?
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, well, in the summer you gotta stay in shape, so you're not gonna stop running, so you just you would just keep running, you know, by yourself.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_02: So I did that all throughout high school in the summers, and you know, and I running, you know, some people I think of as like a meditative thing, they can clear their heads.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I sometimes I do that too, where I can run by myself just to like get the endorphines flowing.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's a sport for a meditation for me where I just like I like to be myself, have my thoughts cleared, and figures and like figure things out on my own.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: But I really like running with people because there I mean I you you would know this, and anyone who runs with a group would know this.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like, there's that point in the run when you're all running together and your steps are in sync, the cadence is is is going.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_02: Your your breaths are in sync with the other person, it doesn't have to be going fast, it doesn't have to be going slow, but yeah, you know, you're in this flow state where you're all doing it together, and that to me is like nirvana.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the strides is it, you're just in the stride right, you're in this flow flow state with this other person, you could not even know them, but you're just like you don't even have to talk to them, but like and then if you have like three or four people and they're next to each other and you're just like flowing, and it's kind of like you're flying, you know.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_02: Basically, uh people think I'm on weird, I'm I'm on drugs or something like that.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_02: I've talked to you about this, but it's like you're in this state of flow where you're just like hey, this is hard, we're working.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's not it's not in a at a pace where you're like, okay, I can talk, but it's like you're working all together and you're just pushing each other, and then you guys are not gonna stop until one of you guys, like until you hit a light, or until you're supposed to stop, or you're really tired.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_02: But that it doesn't stay forever, but it's those you know, three or four miles that you get where you're in stride or in a group, and you and you find that flow.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like, if you you you understand that, right?
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, for sure, man.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I uh that's a freaking amazing answer, man.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just picturing it as you say, and it's it's something about like it's usually a couple miles in, never the first few miles, and never the first few miles, it has to be like five, six miles in.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you look at the steps, and out of nowhere it feels like you guys are, and you're not, it just feels that way, but like you're all running the same cadence, it feels like, and the steps are landing at the same time, and the footsteps your breaths are all in sync, your breath all in sync, yeah.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you can like put me and you don't even think you can stop.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_02: You're like, hey, I'm not gonna stop until your body tells you to stop.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_02: But then the other guy I found out he's you know working too, and he's like, he's having the same feeling as you, right?
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's like and you're just like, Whoa, it's so much fun when you have all let's say you have more than two people, you like three or four people, or like five people, and you're just on it, and you're just like you're in the zone together, and it's just like like a really good basketball team.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: You're just passing the ball to each other, and you're in sync, and you're like making the three pointers, and you're and you're playing good basketball.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's like kind of like that with runners, you know, you're just working as a team, you're really just working, pacing off of each other.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: One person, if one person decides to go push it hard and the other people don't follow, you go ahead, right?
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_02: But like, hey, I got this crew where like a wolf pack running down the street, and then you're just like it's the greatest feeling, and then that's what uh I I get that feeling every time I run with a group.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_02: Now, again, it's only like three or four miles that happens.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_02: And then it goes away, and then you're like, okay, you take a laugh at it, you give high pounds, you give high fives to people, and then but it's like, hey, you had it, you had that feeling, and now you'll feel good for the rest of the day.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure, man.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: So what what running cruise are you running with in New York nowadays?
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, yeah, every Saturday.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, every Saturday I'm with Old Man Run Club.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like a club that started in back in 2019.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I've been I I used to live in Seattle, so every time I came back to New York to see my folks or for a wedding or bachelor party or whatever, you know, I had to come back to the city for, I would always make sure a Saturday was with them.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_02: And it's basically a you know, uh a really good crew that like and I've made really good friends with them over the years.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_02: So like every time they they used to say, Oh, you're back in town, it's like great, they remembered me.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_02: And so yeah, I just stuck with them.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Every Saturday, you know, other crews I've run with on Mondays run for Chinatown.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_02: They have like weekly every Monday runs, just like CSRD.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_02: And so I, you know, again, people start, you know, you start going there every week.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know, people start recognizing your face.
• 44:18
  unknown: Yeah.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: And you just like get more comfortable going there.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_02: And you're just kind of like, hey, I can't wait to go to this room crew today, so I can catch up with so and so, right?
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because again, it's not like we're in college anymore and we'll see each other like three out of four days, three out of the five, seven days.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_02: It'll be like once a week.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_02: It'll be good to catch up, maybe grab a bite afterwards, and then we'll just we'll just go.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_02: Until next week or whatever, yeah.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: Until next week, right?
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like no, but I can be funny.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: It becomes a thing, you know, and you look forward to like you got work, you know, and then like at you know, at six, seven o'clock, oh, I'm gonna go meet up, you know, with Alex and everyone else at the crew.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and like you know how we say, Oh, you're gonna run three, four miles, seems so arduous, seems so tiring.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, people have book clubs, people have bowling leagues, people have like basketball.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's the same thing.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's the same, it's the same thing where you get to see people and you're like, hey man, I like these people and let's go hang out afterwards, you know.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I've seen old man run club pretty much everywhere.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously on the gram, but like every time I do like a bigger race or something like that.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like in Chicago, I saw them.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think I was running, and I saw, you know, you can tell the jerseys because they put it on their like uh their um their singlets, you know, it says old man running club.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: So like I next time in New York and I'm not injured, I was injured last week and still have recovering.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta start running with you guys out there, man.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think yeah, yeah.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's a fun, it's a fun group.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, you know, I'll be out there because I still got the family, so I'll hit you up next time out there and I'll leave back there.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me ask you this, man.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we've talked about running a lot, but like um, well, I'll start with the first one and then segue into the next one.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like you climb, you run.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: I know you cycle a little bit.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well kind of uh you lift, I think, too, because quads be looking crazy and casy looking yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: How how less you you get after it fitness wise?
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, so yeah, I do all those things.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_02: I got into surfing last year.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_02: I saw that.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so I mean how can I say this?
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like, basically, I've always wanted You ever watch that movie The Matrix?
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, of course.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_02: Come on.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_02: So you watch the movie.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_02: So Neil is able to like just you know just pick up anything.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_02: Pick up anything, right?
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I need to learn how to fly helicopters.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_02: There's a scene where he's like, if I don't know how to fly, so he downloads how to like learn how to fly a helicopter, right?
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like in his brain, right?
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I watched that movie like when I was a teenager, and I thought, oh my god, like he just learned he can just download it.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how cool is that?
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like you had something in your uh tool belt, you know, like Batman has a utility belt, he can just pull out skills.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_02: So at a very even when I was a teenager, I was always curious about doing other things, right?
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_02: And growing in New York City, as you know, there's not really much to do here.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know, people like you know, see the movies now, like, oh yeah, they're eating and drinking and they're partying.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_02: I was really never into that, you know.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_02: So when I moved out to Seattle, I was just kind of like, all right, uh, I like using my body as a tool.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_02: So it's running.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_02: What else can you do?
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, you can lift weights.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I got into lift lifting weights, and then it helped me with my running, right?
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was like, okay, I see people rock climbing in Seattle because it's big here, just like it is in Denver.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_02: How do you do that?
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was like, Well, I met some people who did it.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_02: And then I just got into it, went to a gym, then I went outside, and then I went, you know, to bigger mountains.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so I was always curious, uh, you know, about how to use my body in different ways and seeing if I can do it.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like if you did like yoga or Pilates.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's something new and different, right?
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, doesn't mean it's you know any less harder or easier.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_02: But when it's new, it's something you're learning.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's something you and you try to like try to like not master it, but try to see if you can get better at it, right?
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I never feared, you know, especially as you get older, you always get you know afraid of like, well, I don't want people thinking I'm an idiot.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_02: I can't be laughing at me.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_02: I don't look like an idiot.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I never had that fear.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like I've always kind of like just said, all right, let's try this.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_02: And if I fall on my face, so what?
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_02: Who cares?
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_02: If they're laughing at me, they're still sitting their ass.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm still doing it, right?
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, I've always kind of like had this mindset of like, let me just try it.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_02: The reason why I do that, like at least try it, is that I don't know if I'll fall in love with it, right?
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like kind of like running with you, you know, like you did it, you weren't an academic, but eventually you did it and you found out you were really good at it, right?
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_02: And then you can keep doing it, but then eventually it gets boring, like it got boring for me for a while, like I didn't run for like years.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_02: And then you try something else, right?
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then if it comes back to you because you used to love it, then you'll keep doing it again.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_02: But for me, I've always liked to try, I was always curious about doing new things, using my body as a tool, and especially now as I got an older, where there's now limitations to how hard I can push this body.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_02: I just went into overdrive the last five years.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of was like, I'm gonna get into swimming, biking, fucking uh kayaking, you know, uh surfing, you know, and like who cares if I fall on my ass or like you should have seen me this past summer, like in the Rockaways.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_02: I was surfing and falling my ass, and the surfboard was hitting me in the face, you know.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, it looked kind of good on Instagram, but you know, you don't see the bloopers.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no, no, you don't see the laughs, or if you were like laughing, like, what the f you doing?
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_02: But uh Yeah, but like it's just like you know, you just if you won't know if you love something if unless you try it.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_02: And like if I tried it and I hated it, then I just won't do it.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like golf.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_02: I tried golf, I didn't like it, so I was like, I'm not gonna do it anymore.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_02: But like I've done a lot, and like you know, the key thing that you said was I always keep my body in a uh somewhat in a pretty good shape.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm always these if I'm not doing cardio on the on the on the road, road work, I'm doing it on a bike, or I'm swimming, or you have tools like different right, right?
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_02: Because I've over the years I've amassed all these tools, like like Neil, I can just download, oh, I'll just get on a bike.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like some people don't know how to ride bikes, you know, in New York City, you know?
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, they don't know how to ride bikes, which is not a bad thing, but you can learn, right?
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_02: And you're probably you know, maybe you're at an age where like I don't want afraid of falling.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm like, well, you can put trainers on and then like see how that feels a little bit, right?
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_02: So, but you at least gotta try, you know, and then like you won't know if unless you love it, right?
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I I taught a girl how to ride a bike, you know, like last year, and now she's gotten her a speed bike, and now she's riding all over New York City.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's crazy.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_02: She's like upstate, downstate, to the beach, everywhere now.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I just like I get inspired by other people too.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I was like, wow, I really I want to try that.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's really the people who get me involved in it.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_02: Because if it if I didn't see other people doing it, like just like how we were talking about that Japanese guy won the Boston Marathon, I probably wouldn't have tried it, right?
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, for sure, man.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's why I mean let me ask you this.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, we both get a lot of joy from this.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_00: We wouldn't be on this pod from running all that and all this fitness stuff, you know.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but like, is it for you?
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm curious because this is part of what it's like for me.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is it kind of like you love testing your body and seeing what the limits are, and there's something about like the unknown and just being able to test and see how far you can take it, and you know, if there's a wall, whatever, you know, but like something about improving consistently is you know how people say the journey maybe it's is kind of way.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is that what it is for you?
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_02: Well, absolutely, I think you're 100% right.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_02: I just like you want to know what is your limit, right?
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like, if there was like like in school, I was never good in school, right?
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_02: Because they gave you a test, you would like get whatever grade you got on that test, but that was just a test, right?
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's just like nothing else after.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_02: There's nothing else after it's right, like you can okay, maybe you take the test again and then you're like, you know, maybe you get a better score or something like that.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_02: But with your body, you can get better.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's almost if you do something long enough and do something, you know, worthwhile, put all of it, all of your and it has to be fun, you know, it has to be really fun, yeah, for sure.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's why we have it, right?
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like if it was boring, that's why I was never good in school, because it was like boring to me, so I never got good at it.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, if you Yeah, I think I know what you're saying.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's like when you wanna you wanna test the limits of your ability and see how good could I have been?
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_02: Could I have done you know that three hour marathon?
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_02: Is it does it mean so much to me that I'm willing to like you know put off you know the television and put off you know uh you know the the fancy dinner and just like go on the road for like you know hours on end?
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it takes acting.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_02: And for up for me, that that that answer was yes, I wanted to see how good I could be.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_02: But I was also having a lot of fun along the way, right?
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_02: If it was horrible, I would not be doing it, you know.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_02: Like if I hated running, I would not be working that hard to get to that game.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what's what's your fastest ever time, you know, in a marathon?
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, not just a marathon, what's your favorite race?
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: 5k, 10k, half marathon?
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um my my favorite race actually a half marathon.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's uh it's it's good enough that you don't have to recover from.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, you could probably walk the next day pretty easily.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh my fastest time in the marathon was not that fast, it was only like 328.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so like, you know, yeah, but and and I got that and I got that at 38, you know.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like I achieved that PR at 38, and like you know, it was it I worked hard for it, and you know, in the back of my mind, I'm like, hey, I can still go faster than that.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like but you know, I'm not willing to give up the things I'm willing to give up now to get to that faster pace, right?
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's a sacrifice.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_02: My goals have changed over the years.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_02: It used to be like, oh, let's go under 320, but now it's it's not that big of a goal to me now.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_02: So but I do it more just to have fun with my friends and just like stay in shape.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_02: Because with the running, it helps me with all the other sports I'm trying to do.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like, there's no way I can do then climb that mountain.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you need the cardio for the climb, yeah.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_02: Without the cardio, right?
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I use running as more of like an aid to all my other things I'm trying to get to.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_02: So you're starting to sound like Goggins, man.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_00: You sound like Goggins.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_02: Goggins?
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I people I I mean I don't watch that guy.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_02: I don't need someone yelling at me.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_02: Gotcha.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_02: Have fun.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know, just have fun.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_02: That's really what it comes down to, man.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_00: So what's uh what's your uh time in the half?
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_02: Fastest half was like 135.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_02: It was pretty fast.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_02: Nice because I thought I thought I was pretty fast, and I was like, I'm gonna do another half in Toronto, and I'm like trying to break that.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_02: I think I'm much a lot, I'm a lot better shaped than again, but again, it that that that marathon is like in October.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's what okay June?
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's May now.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot can happen between now and June.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_02: So who knows if I'll I'll stay on the horse and continue.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_02: That's why running is so hard, is because you have to stay on it, right?
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know, well, for the longest, yeah, yeah.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, my friends who just finished the marathon, they're just like, all right, week off, and we're back on it.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_02: We're back on that cycle.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I mean, that's me currently, but you know, after injury, you know, I'm I'm almost there.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_00: I ran to late finally.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_00: I got cleared to run, and I'm I'd say I'm about 90%, but that's because I haven't been to that.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_00: But that's another story for another day.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you this, man.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we got all this fitness, you know, you're doing all these things, like, you know, as you said, we're getting older, like, what do you do for recovery and being able to do all these, you know, surfing, climbing, running, you know, to be able to do it?
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know, it gets harder, you know, things take longer to recover, etc.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you do for recovery?
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's really good.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_02: I basically stopped drinking, like no more alcohol.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I was like, I hate to bring it people, but yeah, like I basically stopped drinking.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like it just I couldn't, I couldn't, you know.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_02: I think something happened in my body where like, you know, I used to drink all Friday night, snowboard all the next day all Saturday, drink again on Saturday night, and then snowboard the next day on Sunday all day, and I just can't do that.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, all the studies have shown it's basically poison for your body.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_02: So you just you know, I giving that up was a big deal.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I gave up a lot of fast foods, like no more, like yeah, I cook a lot now.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like all my Instagram is basically me cooking, you know, fish and and I keep doing that.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_00: You post something about salmon today.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_02: So like it's kind of crazy, like so eating better and then just knowing your body.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_02: Because like I think at our age, you know, you know your body so much better when you were and you were in your 20s, 20s.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_02: Because when out we were in our 20s, we were just strong.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_00: We were just like we didn't recover fast, everything's whatever, everything bounces off you, yeah.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we would just like take a hot shower and we're back to normal.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_02: But like, you know, there's just some days we're like, you know, my back hurts.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go hard today.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna take a rest day.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna watch a movie, you know?
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_02: Like knowing when to rest is probably like the best, you know, recovery.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_02: You're not pushing it to the limit.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like you don't I try not to go to exhaustion unless other other than it's a race or like a you know or like an objective like climate.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like a big race, yeah, yeah.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like I don't like in my practice or training runs, I'm not trying to get to exhaustion.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like or track days, you know, how we have speed days.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm pushing it, I'm working, but I'm not getting to the point where I'm like, I can really get hurt.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like I on one hamstring pull from being out for a while, like I'm not pushing it to that level anymore.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like I I could, like some of the people who I run who are a lot younger than me, they're like, Alright, the last one's the best one.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm gonna burn rubber on this last on this last lap, and I'm like, I'm not doing that because I know my body and I cannot recover like you can.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_02: So you know, just knowing your body and what you're putting in it, how you're resting, and then if your body's just not feeling right, like you know, there are all a lot of times when I was like, I'm sick, I shouldn't, I'm not gonna run, but I think it's like a badge of honor.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'll show how tough I am because I can run.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, you know what?
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_02: I think you're better off just resting and and get in in and and making sure you're feeling better for the next day or next couple of days, you know.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's all about being smart, man.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's hard lessons for us because we learned it later, but like it's one of those things where a lot of people, you know, they want to go hard.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_00: Easy, easy is not easy, you know.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're going at 160 BPM on an easy run, and it's like that's your race race, dude.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just like and it's just like for us, it's like, you know, we can run just as fast as those guys, like, even if they are younger, but they don't know how to train yet, they're just impervious to pain, they just can't go, right?
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_02: They're just motors non-stop, but they're not running faster than me.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_02: They're just doing better in that like that practice session.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_02: But like when push comes to shove, I know my body, I know I'll be rested, and I know when I can turn.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_02: They've got a lot more bullets to shoot, but I still got some in the chambers to get off, you know.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_02: So I can I can still push it when I need to.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_02: I just can't do it all the time like I used to, you know.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a lot of signs coming out now, too, as far as like you know, easy days, easy, hard days, threshold training, not going DL2 max every run.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, uh, I mean, Kachogi, 40 years old, just ran 205, man.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like exactly, that's insane.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_02: LeBron's still playing.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_02: So there's lots of Tom Brady played till he's 45, right?
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, we're not that, we're not close to that, but you know, it's we can still have fun.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, we can still have fun and do things like that, you know, not like on that level, but you know, we can still do it, you know, why not?
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_00: Talking about that, like what sort of uh lessons have uh has running teached you?
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, so much.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, uh I would say some of the hardest times of my life.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_02: And this is like, you know, therapy wasn't such a big thing back in back in when we were younger.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember like all the heartbreaks I used to have, all the rejections at work, you know, promotions I didn't get, or like just going through a hard time or being lonely.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_02: I would just like you know, zone out and just go for a run.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_02: Go for a run.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_02: And then I would just always feel better afterwards, right?
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm not saying I'm not there.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'm probably pretty sure that's not good therap therapy.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_00: No, but I get what you mean.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_02: It was the one thing in my life that I was like, hey, I'm going through a hard time.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_02: Let me try to like feel better about myself.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_02: And the only way I knew how to do that was like going going for a long run, and then afterwards, it can feel like crap during the run.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_02: It it'll feel even awful when you're starting the run.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the run, I guarantee you you almost always feel better.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_02: Because you know, when you look at when you think about a sad depressed person, he's not running.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_02: He's you're thinking about someone who's sitting on his couch eating or drinking or you know, doing video games drinking or something that not supposed to be taken.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_02: But like I I would say the biggest lessons I had in life was like, you know, just go outside and move, just move.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it doesn't even have to be running, walking is is is is amazing.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_02: Just like going outside and walking, it has to be outside, not on a treadmill, but like even when it's raining or gloomy, just get outside, move your body, and you'll feel better about yourself.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know why, I'm not a scientist, but I felt better about myself when I was going through some hard times, you know.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, Seattle has some gloomy, yeah, hard, terrible weather for eight months out of the year, and I had to live, we had to live through that.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know about that without running, to be honest with you.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's pretty hard.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_02: So you had to get out there.
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_02: You definitely didn't want to be in a room and be like, oh wow, it's just it's miserable outside again.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_00: So so on that flip coin, uh, what about achievements?
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's some of the greatest achievements?
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I have an idea, I feel like I know what some of them, but I'll let you go.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_02: My achievements?
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like through running or just fitness in general, man.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like successes, that kind of stuff.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I think the success is right now, I'm still going.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's we're still going.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's success, success for me.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, I don't I I can't even tell you where most of these medals are.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_02: I guess I guess see people with like, and there's nothing wrong with that, you know, their walls are filled with their numbers or medals or whatnot.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, success for me is just you keep doing it, you don't stop, and then you're just like, you know, success to me is not getting hurt, you know.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_02: That's yeah, it's kind of like a small like don't get hurt, so you can keep doing this and exploring this beautiful world that we have and meeting great people.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's success.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that really is.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's not a race.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_02: I don't I don't run anymore just to like, all right, if I get the PR great.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_00: If I don't yeah, the journey experience has been everything, right?
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's been it's been amazing.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's like I've met so many good people running, I've met so many people.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh uh I've shared amazing experiences with people who are finished and just inspiring other people to keep doing it, you know, just saying, oh wow, I saw you do that, you know, on the gram.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I decided I'll sign up for something too.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I was just like, wow, I get a lot more out of that than any medal that won.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_02: Like I don't even know what they're where they are.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_02: But like I just like, you know, I see other people and they're like, wow, you're still doing it at this age.
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, yeah, I'm 40.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like, this is midlife.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not dying.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm trying to I live I plan on living a long life, man.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, like if I can do this, so can you.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, people see it and they're like, wow, okay, like let me let me lace them up and get a pair of shoes and look cool, because now you can look cool while you're running now.
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's we got really nice clothes that you have to pay for, but yeah, that's that's success for me.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I and I met a guy like you in Seattle, and we went to the same high school.
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's fuck that's nuts.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_02: We wouldn't have met each other.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_00: No, for sure if it weren't for running.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm on your podcast, and if we didn't, if it wasn't for running.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_02: So, how cool is that?
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was just about to say, man, I'll say here on the pod and everything, man.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, Alex is an inspiration to most people I've seen him run with, man.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_00: Every time I run a new race, like I get a text from him, it's like, yo, do you ever think you'd be running here all the way from where we grew up in Brooklyn?
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer is always hell no.
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like you said, there's always some new city, you know.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um he's done the majors, but I'm thinking of doing majors, and you know, like it I was in Tokyo earlier this year, and it was just like I never thought of going to Tokyo, and it probably wouldn't happen even though I didn't go for running, it probably would have never happened had I known about right not for running, you know.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was in Berlin earlier in the year, and I only knew Berlin because of the majors recently, you know, not saying that the majors are everything, but like everything happens.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_00: Running is like kind of like what you said you like about running it, it's a gateway to a lot of other things, man, which is what makes it so I've never met a person who runs marathons and it's kind of like mostly unhappy.
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, there's obviously things that happen, but like you know, there's gratitude that comes from it, man.
• 1:04:37
  SPEAKER_00: Alex is one of those people, man, when you run with them or or he talks to you or messages you it's freaking awesome.
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I appreciate that.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_02: For you too.
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, like you shouldn't just stop people listening to us like, oh yeah, I want to do a major.
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, there's a lot of great races out there.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_00: Great races.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_02: I just didn't do a big both now, but yeah, I I know what you meant, but I was just like, you know, I have just as much fun running Mesa as I did running Berlin.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_00: Mesa's becoming huge.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you got Mesa, you got uh I'm doing indie this year, which is not a major, but to me is really like a major because it's so many people now.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_00: Philly's becoming really awesome.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's one I want to do.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh wine glass in New York, upstate New York, because for some reason when you grow up in New York, you never go upstate.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I never went upstate.
• 1:05:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to do that one.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's a couple in Florida, you know.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_00: Granted, it's not super hot, you know.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's uh Spain, man, because I'm Spanish.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to do the Spain ones every now and then.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_02: Or DR.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure there's a DR uh Dominican.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, to be honest.
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_02: I've never heard or seen one, but we do a lot of people, yeah.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_02: Why not?
• 1:05:41
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe there's a 10K you can run there.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why not?
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's a good call.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_00: I might check that out.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_00: Good way to brand too.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's a big world and like running's getting more popular than ever.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_02: Get more races to make more money, and you know, for sure.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it's meet people and stuff.
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_02: You meet people and you're just like and you just get Blown away because I mean it's intimidating to go to someplace and not know anything, but like if you're going there and you're like, I'm going there with all these different people from all over the world, and they're gonna do something that's common, like running or running a race, and then you know, you don't know what comes out of that, right?
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_02: So many times I've gone to something where I'm like I had this expectation, and it told it turned out totally different and even better, right?
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, just go in with an open mind, and then you'll be you'll be pleasantly surprised.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I didn't think I would like Indy, but Indy's a good city, man.
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like man, I'm just excited.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's cold and flat.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um let me ask you this closing up here a little bit.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, what kind of, and I think we've shared a lot on here, but what kind of advice would you give to someone, you know, who's worked in a regular day job, who's a parent, nurse, student, whatever, you know, just regular in and out and it's looking to get more fit, run, run marathons, run races.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't have to be marathons, 5k, 10k, just get out there and do similar to you.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like, well, I mean, I I I I I I'll be honest with you, I've lived a pretty privileged life.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I've always had a job until recently, so never had to worry about too much about money.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, so I was I was very lucky then.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_02: I I never take that for granted, you know.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_02: I would say um, you know, the people who have regular jobs or have kids, you know, like there's other people who do it with that those things, right?
• 1:07:18
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I know people with three kids, single skin and all that.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I know people they find time, they find ways, and they just like I would say if you don't have 15 minutes or 20 minutes, if your day is that busy where you don't have 20 minutes to walk outside or go for a small jog, that's a hard life, that's a rough life if you don't have those 20 minutes or a half hour that you can escape to do something on your own.
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_02: I would say just do a little bit, you know, do a mile, half mile, walk.
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_02: Walking is always good, you know.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_02: My my friend just had a kid, so she's been walking all over neighborhood.
• 1:07:53
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, that's great.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_02: Just walk.
• 1:07:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:07:55
  SPEAKER_02: And then maybe uh maybe you walk and jog afterwards and get better.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, you gotta find the time.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, this is your physical and mental health.
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_02: And if you can't do that for yourself, you're no good to anybody.
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just no good to anybody.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_02: You're not good at your job, you're not good at your relationships, you're not good with your kids.
• 1:08:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you gotta find something that like you know, no one else is gonna do it for you either.
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_02: No one, no one, yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:17
  SPEAKER_02: You can make all the excuses, and that's really what it is, an excuse.
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have the time.
• 1:08:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, if you don't got a half hour to pull away from something, you really need to evaluate your priorities.
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, for sure.
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm not saying like I I I know I'm probably privileged to be able to say that.
• 1:08:31
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't have a kid, I don't have, you know, I don't have other, you know, but we all have issues.
• 1:08:37
  SPEAKER_02: There's no way to do that.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I get it.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_02: Running's a privilege for the hardship, right?
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like you said earlier, you still gotta be active and functional and these things help.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um, Alex, thank you.
• 1:08:50
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you for jumping on.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, before I like say a little outro here, I guess anything um you want to share with with the pod and everything.
• 1:08:59
  SPEAKER_02: I just want to thank you for doing this for inviting me on.
• 1:09:02
  SPEAKER_02: I just like really appreciate you.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it takes a lot of guts to start something, right?
• 1:09:06
  SPEAKER_02: And um it's not easy, especially from some guy I've tried to start a lot of things, and I never, you know, got even close to this portion of me and you.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you shared a lot of what you started, so you you're doing good.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but uh, you know, it takes a lot of guts to do what you're doing, and you should be commended for that.
• 1:09:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh thanks, man.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_02: I really appreciate it.
• 1:09:25
  SPEAKER_02: I can't wait to follow you along this journey.
• 1:09:27
  SPEAKER_02: Who knows where it'll lead you to?
• 1:09:28
  SPEAKER_02: But just like any race you've run, you know, you like you come out of it on the other end thinking, wow, I can't believe I did that.
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_02: That was cool.
• 1:09:37
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I'll I can't wait to see what you do next.
• 1:09:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I can't wait to see what you do next.
• 1:09:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm like, I I'm I'm looking forward to it.
• 1:09:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh looking forward to where this can be released, so I can listen so I can s listen to how dumb I thought I listen I so I'll share some clips with you before that, but uh have you ever gotten over the fact of how is that how really how I sound like?
• 1:09:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like, do you ever get that like I can't believe I sound like that?
• 1:10:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's always what I feel like when I hear my voice played back to me.
• 1:10:05
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what happened with me, right?
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_02: And you have a good voice, so I think that's better.
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny you say that because no one ever likes their voice, honestly.
• 1:10:12
  SPEAKER_00: You hear your own voice and you're like, yeah, and everyone's always like, you have a great voice, but the person listening to their voice is never like, hey, I have a voice.
• 1:10:18
  SPEAKER_02: I hate my voice.
• 1:10:18
  SPEAKER_02: This is awful.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's like nails on a chalkboard for the unless you're like a commercial like guy, like a guy who who does uh yeah, unless you're the state farm commercial guy, yeah.
• 1:10:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, yeah.
• 1:10:28
  SPEAKER_00: But no, what it is for me, I used to have to do a lot of presentations at work before uh two jobs ago, and you know, you hate it, and they would make you through training record it.
• 1:10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I got to a point in leadership that like I led a team and I was doing presentations all the time.
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then you just get bored of hearing your voice, you're like, whatever, you just stop caring.
• 1:10:47
  SPEAKER_00: You're just like if they hear it, they hear, and it becomes more about being yourself and the message, you know.
• 1:10:53
  SPEAKER_00: And once you pass that comfortability, if we want to relate it to use an analogy here to running, right?
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like the first few runs always suck, right?
• 1:11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Your first marathon, you you remember you sent me a message.
• 1:11:02
  SPEAKER_00: I hated my first marathon, I was being hard on myself.
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like when you cross that finish line and you're on the other side, you're not the same person who started it, you know.
• 1:11:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like just be yourself, have fun with it, and eventually it becomes more about the message, and and like you get over it, you do it enough times, you're like, whatever.
• 1:11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's what happened.
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_00: So now when I hear this, I'm like, that's just my voice, it is what it is.
• 1:11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's just do it, Nike.
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_02: Just do it, you know.
• 1:11:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, but on that note, man, again, thank you for hopping on.
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, for everyone listening, this has been the People Run Podcast.
• 1:11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this episode will drop soon.
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Subscribe, listen, share it with your friends.
• 1:11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, thanks for hopping on.
• 1:11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, these are the runs behind the runs, the story stories about regular runners, man.
• 1:11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
• 1:11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the People Run Podcast.
• 1:11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Alex.
• 1:11:47
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Fitz.
• 1:11:48
  SPEAKER_02: You take care of yourself, you too.
• 1:11:50
  SPEAKER_02: Take care, bye.