Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / 2022 USTFCCCA LIVE podcast: Jim Turchyn-Gill Athletics

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2022 USTFCCCA LIVE podcast: Jim Turchyn-Gill Athletics · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:05
  Tomorrow. No, I'm not going to sing for
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  you. But tomorrow, December 11th,
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  5:30 PM Denver time, we're doing it.
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  We're going live on YouTube. We're doing it again.
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  You back by popular demand, checking out down the show.
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  Notes the URL to see us live on YouTube.
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  You never know what's going to happen.
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  Maybe I'll try to sing again. Maybe.
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  Hopefully not. See you tomorrow night, 5:30 PM
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  Denver time on YouTube. The link is down in the show
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  notes. He looks like he was doing this.
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  And Vince, he's, I think he's nervous a little bit here, but
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  that's OK. This is just kind of what I do.
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  I put people in the spot. We were gonna call the podcast,
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  the On the Spot podcast once. Go ahead and scoot up for me.
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  And we're gonna put him on the spot here.
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  So why don't you introduce yourself here to our audience
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  today? I'm Jim Turchin, originally from
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  Indiana, and now I live. Yeah, in champagne that Gil for
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  about 14 years 14 is that right? Just.
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  About Yeah. So I'm pushing on toward the
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  17th. So you weren't that far behind
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  me, correct. I feel like I'm the old man, so
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  always feel like I'm 20 years longer than anybody, even though
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  only been or 17 and tell us what you do at Gill Athletics.
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  Yeah, I'm an Rd. I dabble in a little bit of
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  track and field stuff. I've got the track background,
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  so I enjoy what I can. I also work in our basketball
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  product range, work on our basketball portables, basketball
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  rims backwards and whatnot. So and tell us a little bit
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  about that track background that you have.
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  Yeah, I ran, my dad, got me inspired, got me into the sport
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  here in for I U back in the day. I don't think I knew that that
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  was. My high school coach, and he ran
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  for Indiana. Ran for Indiana in the 70s and
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  so you ran track at. Batesville High School and then
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  went to Valparaisville. The Crusaders?
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  Yes, I try to know every. But I should correct you.
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  It's no longer The Crusaders it was when I was there.
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  What is it? Or now?
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  The beacons, so the. Beacons like like a lighthouse.
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  And changing the mascot to a lighthouse.
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  You should know this. I don't know about that one.
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  I understand why the Crusader. I get that.
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  But there's had to be other options besides beacons.
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  They're probably wearing they got you could be the school with
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  no mascot Illinois. We don't know what we are.
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  So one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the podcast here
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  on the live recording here at the USTF CCCA convention here in
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  Denver, Co First of all, I'm super glad you don't normally
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  travel with us and so I'm super happy that you're here.
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  One is I want to put you on the spot.
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  You know, I like to highlight our team, especially the ones
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  that have track background. So one day I want you to be on
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  the full podcast. You are absolutely able to say
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  no, you have to commit now. But but I wanted to get on paper
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  just in case you said yes, I can come back and say no, no bro,
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  you said yes. But thank you.
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  One of the real reasons we are unveiling our Continuum C5
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  hurdle at this show and this is pretty revolutionary and you
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  were it takes a whole team. I know you're going to say you
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  were the leader of this. So this new hurdle, you can
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  check it out on our catalog or online.
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  There's some videos on social media.
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  If you think about when you go to move a hurdle up or down, the
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  first thing that everybody does or at least they should do is
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  they put their foot on that cross brace right.
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  Kind of to stabilize that hurdle down and then they click it up
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  303336 or what not. Or if you have our C4, the ones
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  we use at NC Double A's trigger and you move up right.
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  Well our boss David Hodge must think I keep telling about you
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  must think I'm the greatest salesman in the world.
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  I'm pretty pricey hurdle but the real challenge was we actually
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  had to develop this thing and and my friend here Jim Turchin
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  you were the lead design on this.
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  Can you talk a little bit about that process cuz you were
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  creating something from scratch. There was no blueprint here.
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  I'll say that kind of was cuz the C4 is a tried and true
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  hurdle. It's been out there for years.
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  I helped on the development of that as well, just behind the
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  scenes, but we wanted to keep as much of that the same as we
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  could, just that's. It's such a durable, durable
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  hurdle. Save that 10 times.
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  Then we wanted to keep as much the same as we could.
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  But yeah, we wanted to incorporate this new feature so
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  we actually look to the luggage industry.
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  The telescoping handles on those luggage gets tossed and thrown
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  around all day. Every day.
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  Takes some. Beating so, So we took the we,
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  we bought luggage, we looked at those mechanisms and everybody
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  uses the same thing. So we just essentially looked at
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  that, we adapted it to fit inside of our hurdle uprights
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  and we are hoping to, yeah, have the same durability out of the
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  mechanism for it was really fascinating.
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  I got to be along that journey on the sales side, which means I
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  just got to muck stuff up, you know, whenever the sales guys
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  walk in, the engineers like, oh crap, what are we doing now?
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  But it was really interesting to see buying the luggage, tearing
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  it apart, learning, OK, is what this happened.
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  OK, but now we need to do it 180 degrees.
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  We got to do this thing upside down.
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  Oh, and by the way, we're going to have people like Trey
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  Cunningham and Oh my gosh. David, Oliver, David, Oliver.
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  David, I'm sorry man. I love you man.
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  I'm so sorry. The DO test right that people
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  are going to be hitting and knocking the every little.
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  So it's got to be durable. So it's really interesting to
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  see that flip inside of the R&D mechanism.
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  And then also the testing that we do now, I got to ask is the
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  R&D guy is testing the most fun thing that you guys do it from
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  the outside. It seems like it when you get to
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  kind of just try to break stuff. Testing is fun.
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  We do and don't want to break stuff early on.
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  You want to break stuff so you can learn, then late on when you
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  think you've figured everything out.
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  Sure, it's also nerve wracking. Cuz you don't.
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  I never thought about it like, that's like, OK, no, we fixed it
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  now. Yeah.
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  No, we didn't. That's the son of.
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  OK, right. That's.
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  My favorite part is the. Even before that, just the
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  design. Yeah, yeah, that's cool.
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  And what was your. So you know, there's people out
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  there right now going to wait a minute working in the track
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  side. I don't know if I would be a
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  salesperson, but you know, I like to create stuff and ideas.
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  What was your major in college that led you into this kind of
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  career? As a mechanical engineer?
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  Yeah, out of the gates. I worked for a hospital.
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  Been manufacturing my hometown. Yeah, shout out to Hill Room.
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  No one knows. No for sure.
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  Well, someone right now has an aunt that works for home rooms
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  like Oh my God, he. Said Well if you're on a
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  hospital bed there's sure sure more than 50% chance in the US
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  that you're on him. Wow.
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  Right. Did you ever think you'd be
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  working inside of track designing stuff like this?
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  And in basketball I mean that not even your.
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  I assume you didn't play basketball I.
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  Everyone from Indiana plays basketball.
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  Well, that's a. Good point.
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  I played through middle school. OK, then I should switch over to
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  running. I love it, man.
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  Well, we're going to get Jim on the podcast maybe in 2023 and
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  learn the whole story, man. I'm really excited about that.
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  But before you leave today, we're gonna have some fun.
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  I've got 100 questions here, Number one through 100.
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  You get to pick the number. I will go with nine.
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  Was that your basketball number? No, I I thought ahead of time.
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  I'm going to do my anniversary dates.
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  Oh, nice, nice, nice. Love that.
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  All right #9 chiching what currently cost money but should
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  be free to everyone. I'm gonna say healthcare, yes, I
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  agree with that. We had that question earlier and
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  quickly as Phillip Redrick from Fort Scott said, apartments
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  living. And I was like, man, that's a
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  really good, like, I'm so shallow.
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  My answer was Internet. Internet should be for everyone.
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  But no healthcare. Healthcare.
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  Is something that can spring up on you.
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  No, 100%. And then it's tied to your
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  employment is. I mean, it's just not right.
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  It's not right, man. Jim, thank you so much.
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  Thanks for ending this. So this has been our first live
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  event. We've never recorded live and
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  out there. No bleep button, no editing,
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  warts and all out there. And so you were a really good
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  anchor to put us on the podcast. So we're gonna take a selfie and
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  then I'm gonna sign off and then we're gonna go eat.
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  Cuz I am, what do we do? Three, almost three hours.
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  I like that. Awesome, man.
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  Thank you so much, Trish. Hey, and thank you for being
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  here on the live recording, man. I can't believe that they talked
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  me into this and we did it and it went really, really well.
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  If you have suggestions on how it could have gone better, put
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  them in the comments. Man, I want to get better at
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  this. And maybe we'll do this next
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  year at 2023 for the USTF CCCA convention that's going to be in
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  Denver. We're gonna be right here.
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  So thank you for being here. Thank you for listening to the
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  Gill Athletics Connections podcast.
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  We are excited for Season 4 coming up on January 2nd.
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  Check it out and hope to see you around.
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  Thanks guys. World Record Shortest Gill
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  Athletics Connections Podcast ever.
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  Check us out December 11th 530 Denver Co Rocky Mountain Central
• 8:39
  Time. Check us out on YouTube in the
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  link below in the show notes.