Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: The Podcast About Podcasts – Featuring Trackcastic

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BONUS: The Podcast About Podcasts – Featuring Trackcastic · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  It's bonus time. Here we go.
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  This month in February of 2025, we are doing a podcast about
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  podcast. We want to introduce you to
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  other track and field themed podcasts that are out there that
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  might be great for your listening pleasure.
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  So all month we're introducing a new podcast each and every day,
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  showing you who they are, what they are, how they are, why they
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  got started and even their favorite episodes and most
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  popular. And hopefully this adds to your
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  podcast listening library. So here we go.
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  Let's get started with today's podcast about podcast.
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  All right, let's hop into today. Why don't you start by
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  introducing yourself kind of what your background is in this
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  great sport and the name of your podcast.
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  Hi, my name is Chris and I, I'm a contribute to the Track Castic
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  podcast. As you can tell from my accent,
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  I'm British. So we are we're kind of a
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  British and Irish podcast. So there's a group of us
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  contributors and we can evolve, just chat about the latest
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  goings on in track and field, I guess with more of a British and
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  Irish kind of angle to it. But obviously we do chat about,
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  you know, the global sport, which is what track and field
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  is. What's the significant When I
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  first reached out, I love the name Trekastic, you know,
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  fantastic. I don't know where it came from.
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  What's the significance of the name there?
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  That wasn't, to be honest, we were struggling to think of a
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  fun name. And I think, I think we came
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  from the idea of like, like you said, it sounds like fantastic,
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  but we thought we'd put the cast in there because it's a podcast.
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  So we came up with Tracktastic, which again, it's and then we
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  say, well, every every episode we intro it was with by saying
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  we are the fantastic athletic. We call ourselves the
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  Athleticos. That's how I like nickname.
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  And that's, yeah, that's kind of how it kind of happened.
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  I love that, I love that. And you kind of alluded to this,
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  but you focus on. Tell us more about specifically
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  what you focus on in as far as those countries.
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  And then obviously, yeah, athletics, tracking field is a
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  global sport. So it's going to be kind of hard
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  not to get other maybe avenues in there.
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  And but what maybe level are you looking more professional?
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  We would call it collegiate, but maybe it's more club versus
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  young. Tell us kind of that range of
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  what you focus on subject matter wise.
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  We, we, we mainly focus on the, the top tier.
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  I guess we, we're all about the, the big events like the
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  Olympics, the World Championships and I guess for us
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  the European Championships as well.
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  So it's kind of yeah, we, we mainly talk about the, the
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  Diamond League, the the proper like high end level.
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  But obviously that does kind of trickle down when we cover up
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  the junior talk, like world junior championships and we and
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  the US track and field championships, even though we're
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  not American, we know that that is a great week of for us fans.
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  We love watching the US trials because it's like for us, it's
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  obviously in the middle of the night.
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  We, you know, sometimes we stay up and we have like we're
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  chatting on our WhatsApp group and we're all watching the, the
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  drama from the US trials because there's always drama because
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  it's first 3 past the post. And that's never, never a good.
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  But like, when I think MO fell over in the US trials this year
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  at the Olympics, you know, we would.
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  We I was gasping when I screamed out loud about two in the
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  morning. So yeah, we love, we love it.
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  We love, love, Yeah, the the top tier of the sport, I guess.
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  And yeah, but we don't look, we, we keep across every, every
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  angle of it, I guess. I I think we're going to steal
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  that as our slogan. There's the US trials.
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  There's always drama. Oh yeah, that's that's pretty.
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  Good. There's always drama.
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  Describe your style. Is this Do you have a partners?
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  Do you have do you have guests? Is this a solo podcast?
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  Talk to us about the actual style of it.
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  I mean, it's, it's weird because it's kind of like how it started
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  was all quite organic because it was, I'll just give you a back
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  story. We started in 2016 was when it
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  we began. And so basically one of us, we
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  all kind of followed, followed each other on Twitter.
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  Twitter was a place where we went to for our to find all the
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  track fans. And then we want someone was
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  posted. Well, there aren't enough track
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  and field podcasts. And then like I replied, said,
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  yeah, maybe the reason is that maybe we should start one.
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  And then someone else chipped into the thread and said, Oh,
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  well, I've got the tech equipment to do it.
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  If we do it over. We were doing it on Skype back
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  in the day before Zoom became a thing.
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  And then and that was it. And there was six of us that
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  kind of with a core group. And we are the main ones that do
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  it if we can. But sometimes it's three of us,
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  sometimes it's four of us. And now we're kind of study
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  expanding, having other people come on that we know from we've
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  met at meets and other athletics fans that we know about and
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  other guests. And, and just literally this
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  week, our well, our latest episode that we've done early
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  December was with the present. He's a athletics presenter.
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  He presents for Eurosport and Discovery.
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  So he was at the Olympics in Paris and as the main host for
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  the athletics coverage. So it's kind of good to have him
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  on. And I guess I go to a few meets,
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  London Diamond League in the British Championships and I get
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  accreditation and I just grab a few quotes from the the
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  athletes. So I guess you could argue we've
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  had Noah Lyles has been on the podcast, a few big names like
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  that that we've just grabbed, just grabbed them in there in
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  the mix zone and just got a few quotes from them.
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  So it's yeah, we could have, it's a mixture of everything,
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  but it mainly is just Ozlot chatting.
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  Yeah, that's good. An average length of an episode.
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  We are quite long because mainly because we don't, because it's
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  hard to get us all together in one place.
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  So we were called because we all live in different parts of the
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  UK. We're not actually in the
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  physically in the same room. So it's all done over Zoom and,
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  and just getting us all aligned on one evening when we can
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  record it. It's only like once a month and
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  then, but we make up for it. We're making them.
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  They're usually about 90 minutes.
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  Sometimes, sometimes. In fact, our most listened to
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  episode was two hours long. So it's just good to show.
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  I, I'm not a believer in it should be so short because we've
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  all got these short attention spans.
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  I think it's podcasts. I think things you can come back
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  to. You don't have to listen to only
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  one go. It's, you know, you pick up
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  where you left off and I noticed that Spotify now does like
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  little chapters AI kind of works out.
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  So you can just skip around. So it's, yeah, it's I I think
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  the longer the better in my opinion.
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  We, we might be podcast brothers, man 'cause I am in
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  that same. That's what we started this
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  originally of long form podcast. You don't, a book doesn't have
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  to be read in one sitting. You know, it has chapters and
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  you put it down and bring it back up.
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  And that's the way I've always thought about podcasts.
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  I love that. So you guys have been going
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  since 2016 in podcast form. That has to make you one of the
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  oldest track, track specific podcast.
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  I mean, I've been around since 2020.
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  We started right before the pandemic, before COVID.
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  And I know that we're, you know, one of the older ones.
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  I know there are older ones, but 2016?
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  Yeah, because that's like I said, because we literally
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  someone posted on Twitter there aren't any podcasts and we're
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  like, well, let's let's do this. And we literally did.
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  Our first one was just before the Rio Olympics.
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  That was like our our debut was like, let's just preview the Rio
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  Olympics and see what happens. We don't really know what we're
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  doing. And now we've kind of evolved
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  and I guess we're kind of finding our feet.
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  We definitely found our feet now eight years in, but it's still,
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  that was just like we didn't really know how it was going to
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  work. And we were all listening back
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  to those first episodes. We could tell we're a bit unsure
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  of what we were doing, but I think people appreciated it.
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  We've always said we're as we are fans of the sport.
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  We've always said we we are fans and we're making it for the
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  fans. So our slogan is like buy the
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  fans for the fans. So it's kind of very much a
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  niche fan podcast. Yeah, well, I, I love that.
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  You know, I think a lot of people want to do something, but
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  they want things have to be set up perfect.
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  You know, air quotes there perfect.
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  I I love the jump in figure it out.
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  We're going to make air. I I like to every once in a
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  while when I get a little too big ego of our podcast, I'll go
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  back and listen to episode 1 and be like, yeah, don't forget,
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  buddy, you had no, you were doing it from a phone.
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  You had no idea. Yeah, so you gave us a little
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  bit of background on the motivation.
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  Your original idea and form has kind of stayed the same.
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  I'd call you a panel type of podcast.
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  You've got, you know, maybe a little bit of a rotating cast
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  depending on schedules and things like that.
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  You started alluding to this, you know, in business here at
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  Gill, a lot of different types of people will buy equipment
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  from us. We'll have parents that'll buy
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  equipment, of course, track coaches buy equipment, athletic
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  directors, We've had professional athletes call us up
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  and and order equipment. But our ideal customer is for
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  here in the, in the US high school and college track
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  coaches. That's our ideal customer.
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  Your podcast, there's going to be a lot of different people
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  that might listen, but who are you actually?
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  Who's your ideal listener? Who are you actually speaking to
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  when you're working on your podcast there?
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  I think it I think we are literally straight at the heart
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  of the nerds and the nicest possible way we admit ourselves.
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  We love, we're track and field nerds and we are we're gonna be
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  mentioning names that the average fan won't know.
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  We're going deep. We go, we go nice.
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  We don't just, you know, we're not just surface level here.
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  So we're referencing, I don't know, performances from 2013 by
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  some random, I don't know, athlete from Slovakia, you know,
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  that's that's the kind of level we go to.
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  So we're we're not here to like, if you're an entry level,
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  there's an entry level podcast. It's not maybe the best one, but
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  if you're if you're really you're really into your your
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  track and field, then yeah, we're very much there for you.
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  As we get older, nerd becomes more and more of a compliment
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  than what it was when we were teenagers.
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  You know, now it's like, oh, you called me a nerd.
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  Oh, that's awesome. I love that.
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  Yeah. We're reclaiming it.
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  That's right. Exactly.
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  Well, when you talk about first time listeners for you, what has
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  been you guys have, you know, a ton of episodes in the bank here
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  since since 2016, what's been your favorite episode And maybe
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  a different way of answering it could be what's been maybe the
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  most popular episode. Maybe you can actually answer
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  both if you'd like. I think, I think well, our most
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  popular one, usually the way we do it, we always pre, we do a
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  big preview episode for like they're usually our longest ones
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  for a big championship. So the World Championships every
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  summer and obviously the Olympics this year and those
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  preview ones like what we're known for in a way that's the
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  best way for people to look like if they haven't been across the
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  season or the developments in track and field up until the
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  championships. That is a good two hour podcast
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  where you can really get yourself clued up of who's
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  running what form they're in. And you know, we often do.
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  We love predictions. We often we're out wild
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  prediction to what's going to happen so that they're the ones
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  we're known for. So I think our preview ones are
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  usually our, our stronger ones and they are well, they're the
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  most listened to because I think people want to get into the into
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  the championships. And obviously we do our review
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  ones as well, which are equally almost just as popular.
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  But in terms of our favorite ones, I mean, every year we do
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  like a Christmas special, which is more of like a review of the
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  year, kind of like giving out some like silly awards.
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  We don't do like serious ones like athlete of the year.
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  We're more like who who wore the best outfit or who are the best,
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  you know, what was the best blunder of the year, that kind
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  of thing. And we often put a theme around
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  it. So we've done like an Advent
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  calendar one. We've done like A Christmas
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  Carol. We did like a Dickens one where
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  we went through, we assigned characters to athletes and we've
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  done well. There's a pantomime, which is
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  like a British tradition around Christmas.
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  It's like a show. So we've done one of those.
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  So our Christmas ones are a bit more chaotic and a bit more
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  silly, but I think they often go down quite well.
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  They become quite popular every year.
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  Yeah, that's a lot of I might to steal some of those ideas.
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  I like that. That's really cool doing a
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  podcast, you've learned this, people listen and we certainly
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  have super fans that have maybe listened from 2016 episode 1 all
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  the way through, but most fans come in and out, you know,
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  they'll maybe catch an episode drop off or two or whatnot.
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  But we as the host were there through thick and thin every
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  single episode. What have you learned over this?
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  You know, 8 going on 9 years of podcasting as a host and and a
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  group of host of of a podcast, obviously successful enough.
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  We define success in a million different ways, but obviously
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  successful enough that you continue doing it.
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  What have you learned hosting a podcast about this great sport?
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  I mean, we we do it because we love it.
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  We just enjoy it. It's it's the fun element from
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  Apple. We just love it.
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  It's almost for us, it's a catch up with our friends and we just
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  happen to record it. And we know that the people that
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  listen to it are loyal audience. You know, they, we know they
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  love it as well and they feel like they're part of that
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  conversation. So yeah, I think that's that's
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  kind of why we do it. And I guess what we've learned
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  over the the years is obviously we've finessed kind of the
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  structure a little bit more in terms of, you know, what we what
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  we can talk each episode about. But like I said, it is kind of
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  our preview episodes and our review episodes of a big
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  championships. That is the heart of the
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  podcast. And I think that's what people
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  often listen to. What you say when people
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  listeners come and go, that's usually when they come back to
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  us is for those moments. And maybe we maybe lose them at
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  this time of year when there's not as much going on.
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  But that's what we try and do a a different style of podcast,
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  like out of season. We do more of a serious debate
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  or a chat about where the sport's at, what the future is
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  and how we how we cover the sport.
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  And yeah, more of those kind of serious ones.
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  And maybe towards the end of the year and then as soon as the
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  season gets run in like in January with that indoor season
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  and then straight into the kind of outdoor season, it's, yeah,
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  it's pretty non-stop. So you've learned like the flow,
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  obviously our sport has a flow and so that dictates kind of a
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  podcast flow. As well.
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  Which you might have jumped in in 2016, said, Oh yeah, every
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  week or however, you know, whenever you publish, it's gonna
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  be a banger every time. And it's like, well, sometimes
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  nothing's really going on, so maybe that episode isn't as
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  choreographed or whatnot. So yeah, love that final two
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  questions. So right now someone's listening
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  on, you know, our most popular is Apple podcast, followed by
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  Spotify, but there's many, many other podcast apps.
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  What? Where can we find you guys at?
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  Yeah, I think, yeah, we're saying we're on definitely on
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  Apple and and Spotify I think similar, we kind of had our most
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  listeners on Apple, but I think most of them are slowly moving
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  over to Spotify because I guess that's just where most things
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  are. And we get, we've had good
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  numbers on Spotify in the last year.
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  I think since it's Olympic here, we've almost doubled our
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  subscribers in this last 12 months just because of the
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  Olympics. And it's been good to see that
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  on Spotify. And I think we're on, we're on a
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  few of the, I don't know, we're on lots of, yeah, there's so
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  many of them these days. Do you use a video component at
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  all? Are you on YouTube or Vimeo or
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  anything like that? No, we've never done video,
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  mainly because it's just tricky with so many of us chatting and
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  it's all I say. We're all on like a Zoom call
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  and sometimes different Internet connections.
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  We just try and keep the audio quality as good as we can.
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  So we just remove the video element.
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  But then, like I say, when I go to attract me, I'm in the mix
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  zone and I'm interviewing an athlete.
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  I'll do that as a video. Yeah, and that will be what,
• 13:46
  clipped up and I'll put on our social.
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  So it's kind of a little bit different.
• 13:49
  So it's a bit of the podcast, but it's not like the actual
• 13:51
  podcast, if that makes sense. Love it.
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  Well, you know, I'm a big fan of podcasts.
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  You know, we talked about this before we hit record.
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  You know, the average podcast listener listens to between 7:00
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  and 10:00 different podcasts. And I certainly don't listen to
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  all track podcasts. I have other podcasts I love.
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  In the spirit of podcast, what is do you listen to other
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  podcast? What's your favorite podcast
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  that's not track related? Oh well, I'm a big tennis fan,
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  so I usually go for the tennis podcast.
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  It's the kind of the the big one.
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  The big it's just called the the tennis podcast and that's again,
• 14:22
  British one and and that's been going that's I think that's been
• 14:25
  going since 2012. You know, I think it's really
• 14:27
  old. They were probably ahead of the
• 14:29
  curve and that's why they got such a big fan base.
• 14:30
  So those guys are going to go to for tennis.
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  So I listened to that one quite a lot, especially during the
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  Grand Slams because they do 1:00 every single day.
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  So you can really get into the groove of what's been going on
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  and you feel like you're immersed in it.
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  So that's one of my favorites. And then I will, I will mention
• 14:44
  a track one as well because, because obviously I say we with
• 14:46
  Spotify, when we got Spotify wrapped as creators, we got told
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  this year, well, other podcasts your listeners are listening to.
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  And it's really funny because another track 1 was obviously
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  the number one for us. And it was kind of like our
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  friend, like our friends, we call them frenemies.
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  It's called them the back straight boys podcast.
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  They're the 22 twins have been big athletics fans for years.
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  And they've again, I think they started that podcast about a
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  year or so after hours. And we, we know them as friends
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  as well. We see them at all the meets and
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  stuff. And I'm always stood next to
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  them in the mix zone at track meet.
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  So, and actually literally this year here we had our our first
• 15:20
  collaboration where we did Oz and them together.
• 15:23
  After the years of like, you know, listening to each other's
• 15:25
  podcast, we finally got the time to actually join up together and
• 15:29
  do our own like collab special. So that was fun.
• 15:31
  So yeah, back straight boys podcast is my is my go to track
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  1. I love that.
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  That's very cool. Well, listener, you're listening
• 15:36
  right now. My challenge to you is because
• 15:38
  we're wrapped up here, we're done for the day.
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  So hit pause. The same app that you're using
• 15:43
  right now, there's a high, high probability if you just search
• 15:46
  tracastic, it's going to pop up. And maybe my challenge is, you
• 15:49
  know, he's got obviously they've got a deep, deep, deep library
• 15:52
  here. You mentioned you mentioned some
• 15:54
  of the holiday ones. So maybe go back and check out a
• 15:57
  holiday one to kind of entree into the podcast and see if you
• 16:00
  like it and then listen to their latest one.
• 16:03
  That's always kind of my gauge of how do I listen to a new
• 16:06
  podcast. I listen to their latest one and
• 16:08
  then I find one of their more popular back story ones and
• 16:11
  listen that way. But hit subscribe and that way
• 16:13
  you'll know every time that they do publish an episode.
• 16:15
  But check it out. I hope this is another podcast
• 16:17
  for your seven to 10 podcast that you listen to.
• 16:20
  Thanks for joining us, guys, and thank you, Chris.
• 16:22
  Thank you.