Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #316: Pablo Espitia-University of Maine

Transcript

#316: Pablo Espitia-University of Maine · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  You're listening to the Gil Athletics Connections podcast
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  with host Mike Cunningham. Track and field world UNL tuned
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  in to our humble servant Mike Cunningham for another
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  extraordinary message for Gil Athletics Connections.
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  All right, you're back here on the Gil Athletics Connection
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  podcast, man, I'm just so pumped for you guys to be here every
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  week. We're kind of probably in the
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  summer at this point when you're listening to this.
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  So the the season is over. I say that with air quotes
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  because it's track season ever over, right, in regards to
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  collegiate season. And then you've got all the high
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  school national meets. I'll be at the Nike outdoor
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  national meet in in Eugene. And then of course we've got,
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  you know, US championships world champion.
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  I mean it just Diamond League Grand Slam track.
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  Can't forget about those guys and what they're doing over
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  there as well. So just pump man, track season
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  should be 365, right? That's that's the way it should
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  be. And so Speaking of this is a
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  terrible transition. Speaking of 365, I don't know
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  what that has to do with Maine, but that's where we're going
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  today. We're going to head up to the
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  University of Maine, which I've been there one time and maybe
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  it'll come up in our conversation today.
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  Help me welcome from the University of Maine the bears,
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  if I remember correctly, the wise, the wonderful Mr. Pablo
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  Espitia. There you go.
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  Yeah, that. That's perfect.
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  I, I told Pablo I was going to just, you know, you guys have
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  listened to the show. I obliterate every last name for
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  some reason, and so I I do work on it, though I told them I was
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  still going to mess it up, but I, I did OK, yeah.
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  Yeah, that looks pretty good all.
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  Right, just in the podcast right there, it's a success.
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  We're good, Pablo, man. Thanks for being here today.
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  No, thanks for having me. I'm, I appreciate the invite and
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  I'm a follower of your podcast. So I, I, I was pretty happy when
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  I got the e-mail to be in it. So.
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  Oh, thank you, man. You know everybody who says
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  that, I put them on the spot a little bit.
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  What's been your favorite episode?
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  Who's been your favorite Favorite person to listen to?
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  Not surprised, but I've heard or I've listened to booze a few
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  times and I've I've gone through, I think I've gone
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  through most of the coaches that have a similar background or
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  track background to me. So to see how it like their
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  careers played out because that that's I, I like your podcast.
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  Like you say, it's not about track, how how we do track, but
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  it's more like how we got here and how our curious played out.
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  So I, I really like doing that. But but booze is 1.
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  I know he's one and and I, I always forget his name.
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  That's embarrassing. But the sprints coach at
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  Harvard? Oh, Cava, yeah.
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  Listen to him a few times soon. Good, good.
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  Good. Yeah, well, you know, there is a
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  reason why booze episode is our number one most listened to
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  podcast, but by a little bit of a factor, by the way, and it
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  should be I I heard you say you actually listen to it a couple
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  times and I agree with that. Like, you know what, Boo, the
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  Nuggets he dropped during that episode.
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  Like it might not be too hyperbolic hyperbolic to say
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  that every coach it should be required listening because just
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  the way he talks about careers beyond his career, which was
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  amazing, by the way, he started as a high school defensive
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  coordinator for football, for crying out loud.
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  It's just, he just dropped so many just coaching life lessons
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  that I'm like, oh man, guys, gals, you got to, you got to
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  listen to them. And of course cable, what a, you
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  know what, he's an OG, right? So he was episode like #4 or
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  five or something like that. And I think he was our first two
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  parter because we actually couldn't even get it done the
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  first on the first time. And he's been in several
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  different bonus episodes and stuff like that.
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  Just what a great leader, servant leader for us, always
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  teaching and helping other coaches and has definitely been
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  a helpful in my coaching career back in the day as well.
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  So those are good ones, Man, I appreciate that put you on the
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  spot. I know I didn't even tell you I
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  was going to do that, but but I'd like to know that because I
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  like for other people to hear, you know, we're in episode 300
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  and something, you know, this is probably three 17318 or
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  something like that. And it's amazing.
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  I can't wait till you know the person.
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  We're going to have an episode 400 and 600 and 1000.
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  But every time we move forward, my fear is that we're losing the
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  guests we've had in the past, and there are so many.
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  You know, you mentioned Boo and Cava and Diljit.
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  I think she's #2 on the all time list.
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  Carol Smith, Gilbert, Tony Holler, who just recently
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  announced his retirement as a head coach.
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  I bet he's still going to coach as an assistant coach, but just
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  so many high school, college, professional club coaches around
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  the country and just I just want to always express to people that
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  are listening and I'm so grateful that you listen that
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  there's such stuff. If you're on episode 300, that
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  means there are 299 other amazing stories for you to hear.
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  Now my challenge to you, Pablo, and I know you didn't expect to
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  be challenged and put on the spot.
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  You said you you like to listen to coaches who maybe have a
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  similar vain to what you you, I'm going to challenge you to go
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  find someone you think you have no one in common with.
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  Honestly, whether it's a high school coach, we've got a middle
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  school coach on before whatever a distance coach, go find
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  someone that you're like, I have no clue who this is what they
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  do, how they get here. What do you mean you coach at
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  XYZ college proud? I don't know whatever.
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  And listen to them because I, I think there is value in hearing
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  counterpoints to how you did, how we're going to learn about
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  how you got to where you are. I think there's value in in
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  seeing those different paths as well.
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  For sure. Yeah, yeah, you.
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  Didn't know you're getting homework today.
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  That's right. Exactly.
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  All right, Pablo, let's hop back into our Wayback Machine.
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  Let's start with you, my friend. My first question for everybody,
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  it's kind of been a universal question from pretty much from
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  day one, assuming you were a track athlete.
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  That's not necessarily true for everybody, that's for sure.
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  Where does track and field begin for you?
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  It's quite long, I would say. I think the first introduction
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  to track that I had was I think maybe like grade third, like
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  second grade maybe or something. I, I was one of those kids that
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  like couldn't stay still. Like I was pretty.
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  I didn't grow up in the state. I'm Colombian originally, so it
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  was a different environment and I was always outside and
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  climbing days of coming down. My parents were, they did well
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  and I, I really appreciate the fact that they handle all my
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  energy and stuff. I remember I had like a race
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  when I was a kid and then I was being like, I was kind of the
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  athletic kid in the team, in the classroom and stuff.
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  And I would say by fifth grade, there was a teacher that wanted
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  to create like a small track team for, for the school and he
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  reached out and I was like, alright, cool.
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  Like I mean like what? I don't know, 4th, 5th grade.
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  So it's like, yeah. So I think that was my first
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  introduction. I think I run maybe like a like
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  an outdoor sexy cuz we're have indoor over there and maybe did
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  long jump. I would say my mom also did
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  track when she was younger, but myself, I think that was the
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  main. And later on when I moved to the
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  States, I did high school track and and college.
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  Yeah, so. So when did you move to the
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  States? We moved to 22,008.
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  I was 13 at the time. So 8th grade, 9th grade, right
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  around there. 7th. Grade yeah, I think I.
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  Finished 7th grade here and then eighth, yeah.
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  So before you move to the States, and we'll get to that
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  here in a second, I'm always interest.
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  I love when I get guests who grew up in other countries,
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  right? Because they're just so not only
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  a lot of different cultures you mentioned about, you know, being
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  outside things like that, but also different cultures to how
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  track and field is viewed, right?
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  I mean, you've been here long enough.
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  You now know how track and field is viewed here in the States,
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  right? It's football, baseball,
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  basketball, maybe, you know, pickleball and then trash,
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  right. You know, we're just not at this
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  point where we used to be. Maybe back in the day.
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  What is your memory kind of growing up through 7th grade of
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  the respect of track and field? You said Columbia.
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  So I immediately, and this may just be terrible on my part.
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  I immediately thought soccer. I don't know, but just what I
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  did. But where does track and field
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  sit like in the like, Oh, you're a track star.
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  Wow, but you're a big deal. Or like, cool.
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  You're Noah Lyles big, you know. Sorry, Noah, I love you.
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  I so I think it fluctuates depending on I guess where,
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  where the sport's at. But back then I don't really
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  remember hearing a lot of track growing up.
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  I, I knew I heard of it because my mom always said she did it
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  and she was like kind of a multi athlete.
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  She didn't really do multi because she's like women
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  couldn't do a lot of yeah, especially in smaller countries.
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  I would say. So I heard that.
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  But growing up, I don't really hear a lot of like track talk or
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  or sports or like in the news or anything.
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  And we are a soccer. Soccer, right?
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  Yeah. Main main sport is going to be
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  soccer. There was a time where boxing
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  was a big thing. It wasn't until maybe like the
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  early 2010 and 2011 when we had like the world champion in the,
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  an Olympic champion in the triple jump for the one man.
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  So she became like like the most popular athlete and.
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  Clumsy. Is that right?
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  Yeah. I mean, she's, she's a legend
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  down there and like, I mean, she deserves it honestly.
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  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think because of her and
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  because of that time period, there's a lot more track talking
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  in the country and there's a lot more investments in that, in
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  that sport. I would say a lot more.
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  I'm also, I've gone back since I've been an athlete and coach
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  and have met more coaches and athletes.
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  So I kind of know the sport more as a grown up and kind of know
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  how it actually works on there. So now I see it in a different
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  view. But I think because of her,
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  there was a point in time where everyone, like everyone knew who
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  she was. And I mean, she's like 6 feet
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  tall. Like she makes a presence
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  everywhere, everywhere she goes and competes.
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  And like, so everyone knew her face and it was, it was really
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  nice to have that because I think she made the sport a lot
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  more visible in the country. And, and after that we've had
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  like 10K walk or race walk champions and, and Olympic
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  champions. So that's another kind of area
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  where, yeah, it's pretty successful.
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  It's, it's interesting because you know, we hear about
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  countries like Colombia and other countries that where like
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  they're, you know, if they get an Olympic champ, you know,
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  they, they buy that person a house and you know, they get a
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  huge stipend and all that stuff. And you know, Americans will,
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  you know, grumble and be like, our people don't get anything,
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  blah, blah. And it's like, you know, in
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  America, because we are so successful in track and field,
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  that's not a a brag. I think that's just truth,
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  right? We've got a lot of success.
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  There's just so many. Like it's like, you know, I'm
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  not taking away what, you know, our last gold medalist in the
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  100 or the 110 hurdles did. But it's like, yeah, we've had
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  twenty of those guys and gals, you know, and it doesn't
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  diminish it. It's just like how how would the
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  government specifically or how would USATF even do that?
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  Like how do you buy a house for every goal?
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  You know, those kind of examples and I think it just all kind of
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  Harkins back to, you know, winning is hard.
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  And even in a country where, you know, we we grouse about track
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  being so low, you know, made the joke about it being under
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  pickleball. But it is still such a big sport
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  here that we do have a lot of people who participated in it.
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  You know, it's the number one most participated sport in high
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  school and college. When you combine women and men
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  together that we produce a lot of champions.
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  We have a lot of great coaches. Columbia has a lot of people.
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  There's a lot of population down there, but it may be just, you
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  know, it sits behind soccer and maybe boxing at one point and
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  maybe, maybe cricket. Is cricket big in Colombia?
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  No. No, it's.
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  It's close, but not so. So we just, and maybe there,
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  there probably what it really is, most Colombians probably
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  don't have access to track and field to do it.
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  And so when you do get an Olympic champion, it's like,
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  holy cow, we're all in. And in America, we have, you
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  know, American football, baseball, basketball.
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  So we already have like these, you know, giants amongst us of
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  LeBron James, Tom Brady's, etcetera.
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  So I don't know what all that rambling was just I would love
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  for our people to make good houses as well, but just knowing
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  that winning is hard and so our people do a great job there.
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  OK, so you moved to the States around 7th grade.
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  Talk to me about let's go into high school, assuming you did
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  track in high school and maybe other sports, What was, was
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  there any kind of eye opener to you of like, wow, sports in
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  America is different or was it just kind of it was all the same
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  to you? No, it was and this kind of
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  links to what we were just talking about.
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  It's that the US, the US has so many people doing the sport and
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  not just track with every other sport.
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  Is that since high school and even some middle school, there's
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  a system of like schools and high schools have teams and they
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  have coaches and they might not provide shoes or everything, but
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  they provide travel and, and, and uniforms and stuff.
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  Whereas most countries and, and Colombia, I guess my, it works
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  by clubs. So high schools don't really
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  have teams. You have to go, you have to do
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  it or you have to have the energy, the determination to
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  join a club and, and put your time and effort and do all that.
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  Whereas there, there's, it's so much easier for people here to
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  just, oh, I'm going to do track in high school and there's going
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  to be 20 high schools in every state or more and, and competing
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  with each other. So that's the biggest change.
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  When I got here, I, I think I joined my freshman year and I
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  had already one of my like some of my cousins and, and sister
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  friend, she was doing track already.
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  And I was like, all right, like I've done this.
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  Like I've joined and I saw like, I mean, my high school, it's the
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  biggest high school in Miami-Dade County.
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  And I think at that time the coach had like 200 people in the
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  team. Lee what?
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  What school? Johnny Ferguson Senior High
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  School. Yeah, holy cow.
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  Yeah, so that. 'D be more like Trek kids than
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  you had ever seen in your life. If you like, wait.
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  But it's like, is this 20 different teams?
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  What's going on? Here.
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  Yeah. So when I joined, I was like, oh
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  wow, this is like a lot of people.
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  And as a freshman and I was I was probably like 5 foot 5 at
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  that time or, or shorter and like super thin and I didn't
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  really stand out. I was like, I don't see it.
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  Clammed up a little bit, got bigger, got better and stuff.
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  But but yeah, it was such a huge jump.
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  That's like, oh wait, there's so many people doing that in just.
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  School. And then you get to see how
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  everything else is working like I get it now.
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  How did this is interesting. So we've had coaches and this is
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  what is amazing to me, our high school coaches here in the
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  States, like I like to bust myths.
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  And we talked to the several times, you know, there's a myth
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  that, you know, high school coaches can't coach in college
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  And the number one black mark against them is they don't know
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  how to recruit. And it's like, dude, if you talk
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  to high school coaches, that's all they do that they're always
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  in the hallway. So like your coach there,
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  Ferguson, to get 200 kids, you're not just opening the gate
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  and 200 kids walk in to do track.
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  You're hustling and bustling the hallways, your classes, your PE
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  classes, people that get cut from other sports, etcetera.
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  So we've had those coaches on before that have had 200 plus
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  kids, which just a mate. I mean, I can't imagine 200 plus
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  high school kids. So here, let's reverse this.
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  You're one of those kids. How did you think about your
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  experience? Did you go all four years there?
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  Yeah, So think about your experience there for four years.
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  I assume all four years you had roughly 200 that didn't just
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  drop off one year. How did you you mentioned you
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  didn't stand out because you're kind of a, you know, like most
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  freshman, a little freshman, but how did you stand out?
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  And I don't mean like how did you stand out like like, oh, I
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  became better in my event, but like, how did you make
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  connection with with coach? How did you the culture of
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  whatever event group you ended up going to still had to be?
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  I mean, probably every event group was close to 50.
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  If I had 50 throwers, 50 distance runners, 50 sprinters,
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  hurdlers, How did you like the culture of of that?
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  Like that seems hard. Like how did you keep yourself
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  from being just a number, just being #199?
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  That's a tough one, so. Yeah.
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  And maybe how and maybe how did coach handle that as well?
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  And maybe not good, maybe maybe that.
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  Yeah. So at that time I would, I think
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  we had the head coach, Ryan Raposo, and he had an assistant
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  coach doing the throws and that was it.
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  It was two people handling 200 athletes and the throws coach
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  only had the throwers. So, but I, I didn't really so
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  back then I don't have an accent now.
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  I probably didn't have that much of an accent back then, but I
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  was very self-conscious of that. I was like, I don't wanna you're
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  in high school. You're like, I mean, there's so
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  many things going on in your head.
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  So I was very quiet in high school.
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  I just kind of went through. I think the, the, the biggest
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  thing that made me stand out with my coach is that I like the
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  sport. And I was one of them that like
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  practice started after school at 3:00 PM and I would leave at
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  like 637. Like I was one of the last few
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  people in the track. And so I would guess some of
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  like the coach had a little bit more time towards the end cuz
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  there's those people and he would show up and, and guide
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  some like some of my practice. So I would, I really just worked
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  my I worked so much throughout high school and I mean, I still
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  I was one of those. I came in on time and just
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  stayed until I really couldn't do it anymore and just went
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  home. But I wasn't want to be really
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  out there and trying to. I was just quiet and doing my
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  thing and I just, yeah, I just worked.
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  You're like the the quiet assassin, like I'm always
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  around. You ain't gonna hear from me,
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  but I'm around. How did you So what switched for
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  you in regards to track and field?
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  Because I didn't necessarily hear you're talking about you're
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  you know, you're there at 3:00. You're you're what do they say
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  closing the gate? You're, you know, leaving at
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  6:30. You're very, I mean, that's
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  obviously dedication. There's other things in your
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  life you could have been doing. So you obviously, you know, had
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  a love maybe at that point for the track, for the track and
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  field sport. But I didn't hear that in 3rd,
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  4th, 5th grade. Like I didn't hear you say like,
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  Oh yeah, I remember 3rd grade, I did my first race and fell in
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  love because I love to compete. Where did that kind of switch
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  happen of like, oh, this is my sport?
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  I think it's one when I was here in high school when I did, I did
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  my first year and I noticed like there was one time in that first
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  season that I was like, I don't know if this is for me.
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  Like we were doing, mind you, it's 200 athletes.
• 18:55
  So you're doing a lot of work that maybe it's not for you.
• 19:00
  And like you're doing a lot of like finding out what event you
• 19:03
  like and you're doing metal distance sprints, maybe some
• 19:06
  distance runner at some point. And there was a time that I, I
• 19:10
  was like, this is so this is painful.
• 19:12
  Like I don't know if I really want to do this.
• 19:15
  I kind of stuck with it. When I started doing jumps.
• 19:19
  I became more of like a volter, triple jumper, long jumper kind
• 19:24
  of athey and it started showing OK.
• 19:28
  I'm a little bit better at this than the 800 or whatever the
• 19:33
  event I was kind of we were working on.
• 19:35
  Mind you, I still, we still did a bunch cuz I think he trained
• 19:38
  everyone to see for a four by 444 by 1, whatever like he
• 19:41
  needed. And I ended up being that
• 19:43
  athlete that kind of did everything in the team.
• 19:46
  But I think that first year it clicked that I started doing
• 19:52
  better in those in those jumping events And, and I also got a
• 19:56
  little bit more like this is kind of a, a community that I
• 19:59
  like. I like hanging out with other
• 20:01
  athletes and. Going from school to doing
• 20:03
  something afterwards and I've never been to one.
• 20:06
  I've never even want to be outside or outside with people
• 20:09
  of groups are going hanging out outside.
• 20:11
  I've it's either school or home. And I I did track.
• 20:15
  So that's that was kind of like the in between.
• 20:18
  So I think it was just me realizing I really enjoyed the
• 20:21
  jumping events and I'm starting to get a hang of them And and I
• 20:25
  also like the people that I'm that I'm around with did.
• 20:29
  You say there were only two coaches, a throws coach, so he
• 20:33
  or she had let's just let's just easy numbers, let's just say 50.
• 20:36
  And so that means there's 150 other kids that one coach was
• 20:39
  overseeing 150 kids. Yeah, I might be remembering
• 20:43
  that wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm sure.
• 20:45
  But but large numbers. Yeah, it was large.
• 20:51
  How do you, Yeah, how do you remember?
• 20:53
  Because I'm just thinking like, you know, to get 200 kids, to
• 20:56
  get 100 kids out to attract team, they have to be attracted
• 21:00
  to something again, kids even. What year is that?
• 21:04
  What year did you graduate high school?
• 21:06
  2013. So for sure in 2013 and 20 tens
• 21:10
  and stuff, kids have a lot of choices, you know what I'm
• 21:12
  saying? Like other sports, other
• 21:15
  activities, cell phone, video game, I mean, staying home and
• 21:19
  studying. I mean, there's just a million
• 21:21
  things those 200 kids been doing, but they were attracted
• 21:25
  to the team for some reason, right?
• 21:27
  And some of it's, you know, typically sometimes it's
• 21:30
  winning, you know, it's a winning culture, but also it's
• 21:33
  typically I'd say my experience is that kids are attracted to
• 21:36
  like, Oh, I feel wanted here. Like I feel like somebody here
• 21:40
  versus being the the 4th running back that never plays.
• 21:44
  I'm just on the John Brown team. You know, I like I get to do
• 21:47
  something and people like, like when I improve, even if I'm not
• 21:50
  winning IPR, like my coach says something to me positive.
• 21:54
  How did coach from your recollection, how did coach like
• 21:58
  connect with that many people? Like, I just don't understand
• 22:00
  how you could even like, coach jumpers while also trying to
• 22:05
  coach hurdlers while trying to, you know, in a high school
• 22:08
  setting in this number of kids. So I'll give you that.
• 22:12
  I I'm and I'm still good friends with him and I talked to him and
• 22:16
  he's a mentor, a friend and a coach and all for me.
• 22:19
  So he he did a really good job in the sense that like he had a
• 22:25
  lot of structure in the team when when we were there.
• 22:29
  Yeah. He, he's a really smart guy.
• 22:32
  He's got a good memory. So he, he was one of those that
• 22:35
  like, remember everyone's names and like, Oh yeah, he would, he
• 22:41
  could remember. Yeah, he remembers everyone's
• 22:44
  names. And, and I think that's one
• 22:45
  thing that athletes appreciate, especially like younger athletes
• 22:49
  too, Like one of your 200 people and he calls you out by your
• 22:52
  name when you're like, oh, I didn't, I didn't think he knew
• 22:54
  who I was. And then he also with numbers
• 22:57
  and everything, he's great. So he, he remembers times and
• 23:00
  stuff and like what you got to do and stuff.
• 23:03
  And it could be like the fastest or the slowest.
• 23:07
  And he always kind of celebrated that with the athletes.
• 23:09
  So I think that really helped out for sure.
• 23:12
  Besides just the structure like he used to.
• 23:14
  It was 3:00 PM and he was already calling names who was
• 23:17
  here, who was not. He would gather everyone and
• 23:19
  then I. Mean roll call had to take 30
• 23:21
  minutes. Yeah, I mean, he was calling
• 23:24
  names like everyone get up and make a line.
• 23:27
  Then once he was done, we were warming up and he kind of like
• 23:31
  it was very structure and it, I mean, he helped because it's 200
• 23:34
  people for one athlete for one coach.
• 23:36
  And then he was a big distance coach at that time.
• 23:40
  So that group was a little bigger.
• 23:42
  And it's easier for you for him to send them away.
• 23:45
  Hey, do this. And then he would have time with
• 23:48
  hurdlers, jumpers, whatever other event he had.
• 23:51
  So. Yeah.
• 23:52
  That's amazing. Yeah.
• 23:54
  I mean it really it shows the power of someones name.
• 23:59
  I try hard when we're at restaurants or something if they
• 24:02
  have like a name tag when they come up and ask you to order
• 24:05
  like thanks Susie, just they got the name tag there for a reason.
• 24:08
  But you'd be maybe you wouldn't be surprised at how many
• 24:11
  people's faces light up when you just say thank you with their
• 24:15
  name. You know, they're used to being
• 24:16
  told. I hope they're being they're
• 24:18
  used to being told thank you. We should be doing that more
• 24:20
  often. But when you say someone's name,
• 24:21
  that's powerful. And so when you think about 14
• 24:23
  to 18 year old kids, to your point about like, you know, you
• 24:26
  had a lot of things going on, right.
• 24:28
  You're you're coming from another country.
• 24:31
  You probably did have an accent. I used to have an accent as
• 24:34
  well. And I go, I didn't have an
• 24:35
  accent. Yeah, I totally had an accent.
• 24:36
  You had an accent. And, you know, as a high school,
• 24:38
  you're always trying to, it's so funny.
• 24:40
  You're trying. You're not ever trying to stick
• 24:42
  out, but you're always trying to be part of a group that sticks
• 24:46
  out. You know, it's just it's what a
• 24:48
  terrible time to be a high schooler or, you know, being a
• 24:51
  teenager, it's just a terrible part of life.
• 24:53
  Well, that's cool, man. I love that.
• 24:54
  And I'd love that your coach had a great experience on a tough
• 24:57
  situation. I mean, that's just that's
• 24:59
  amazing to me. There are coaches like him that
• 25:02
  are doing that day in and day out where they've got 100 plus
• 25:05
  kids and they are doing their best.
• 25:06
  And I think structure is extremely important.
• 25:09
  That was a keyword I think you said there.
• 25:11
  And I think kids crave structure.
• 25:12
  They're never going to tell you that.
• 25:13
  I think they crave structure. So that's probably what it
• 25:15
  attracted people out. It's like, oh man, we get stuff
• 25:17
  done and he knows me by name and that's, that's pretty cool.
• 25:20
  That's pretty cool. As you go into your senior year,
• 25:25
  what are you thinking about college?
• 25:27
  What are you, what are you thinking about that next step?
• 25:30
  How did that go? So that's, I didn't think about
• 25:33
  until like my senior year high school.
• 25:35
  And so I, the US has a completely different like
• 25:40
  college culture than most countries.
• 25:42
  I would say, OK, I think here people go to the school and
• 25:47
  there's like a, there's almost like a fan base to the school,
• 25:51
  right? There's sure there's people that
• 25:53
  love UF, There's people that even if they don't go to the
• 25:56
  school, they're like UN fans, they're Michigan fans, they're
• 25:59
  whatever other fans. Troy University fan, Yeah.
• 26:03
  We don't have that back home or and I'm sure other countries
• 26:06
  don't have that either. It's just people go to school
• 26:08
  because their academics are good or, or, or that's just where
• 26:12
  it's one of the better schools for whatever it is like.
• 26:15
  And because their sports system, it's also not as well set up as
• 26:19
  here. There's no like big athletic
• 26:25
  teams or, or culture and those in universities back home.
• 26:28
  So like, I never heard people say like, Oh, I'm going to go to
• 26:32
  this school because this isn't like, oh, I want to be a
• 26:35
  whatever, like or anything really down there where I
• 26:39
  serious like I want to be a black bear, I want to be a
• 26:41
  Gator. I want to do this.
• 26:42
  And I my senior year at that time, I was one of the last ones
• 26:48
  to graduate high school from my family.
• 26:50
  So my sister had gone to FIU down in Miami, as in all my
• 26:55
  cousins went to FIU down in Miami.
• 26:58
  So I was like, I'm just going to go to FIU.
• 27:01
  Like I, I didn't have my, at that time, my brain wasn't
• 27:04
  exposed to being like, wait, I could reach out to the coach,
• 27:11
  other countries, other state, other universities and see if I
• 27:14
  can get in or what if they even want me.
• 27:16
  And I was just like, I'm just going to go to FIU.
• 27:19
  And I got reached out by one of the coaches because FIU doesn't
• 27:23
  have a track and they used to sometimes borrow our facilities
• 27:26
  or high school practice. So they knew, they knew who I
• 27:30
  was. And they, we were talking and I
• 27:33
  was like, OK, he's talking to me.
• 27:34
  He, he tells me I'll have a spot on the team.
• 27:37
  And so I just kind of went with that.
• 27:40
  I applied to 1 school, one school only.
• 27:42
  And yeah, I, I ended up going to FIU my 4, my four years so.
• 27:48
  So there was a culture in your family of going to school, going
• 27:51
  to college and, and, and that culture was we go to FIU.
• 27:55
  So you're like, cool, I guess I'm going to FIU.
• 27:59
  It's like, yeah, my family, I think like most Colombian
• 28:04
  families here, it's, it's kind of a given.
• 28:07
  There's not like you get, it's not a choice.
• 28:10
  It's it's pretty much like you're going to be in school
• 28:14
  period. And yeah, yeah, there was no
• 28:16
  questions or there wasn't a point where my family ever told
• 28:19
  me like, are you planning on going?
• 28:20
  It's like, no, it was. It's like.
• 28:22
  Where do you plan on going and where do you plan on going and
• 28:24
  why is it FIU? Yeah, so like, and because all
• 28:29
  my cousins went there, it was right.
• 28:31
  Like it was maybe 20 minutes away from where I lived.
• 28:33
  I, I, I just applied and I got hit, I got in and I, I, I love
• 28:37
  my time there. I, I'm really grateful to, to,
• 28:41
  to the team, coaches and everyone.
• 28:42
  Yeah. I think it was either FIU or
• 28:46
  FAU, one of our conference when I coached at Troy University, it
• 28:49
  was the TAC conference. I mean it was a long time ago
• 28:52
  TAAC conference. I don't even know if it's around
• 28:54
  anymore, but I think I think it was our first championship was
• 28:58
  it was either FII think it was FAU, maybe that's where we were
• 29:01
  at, which is a little more north, if I remember correctly
• 29:04
  from FIU. But the, but both of them were
• 29:07
  in our conferences, FIU and FAU. So I know, I know them well,
• 29:10
  yeah. So as you're exploring FIU,
• 29:14
  you're you're really stretching this recruiting aspect of what
• 29:18
  school you're going to go to. You're going to go to FIU.
• 29:21
  What were you thinking about becoming, you know, when you
• 29:24
  grow up, when as you go into, you know, you're starting to
• 29:26
  pick a major and things like that.
• 29:27
  What did you think as an 18 year old, like, oh, I'm going to go
• 29:30
  become a a doctor, a business owner?
• 29:33
  I at that time, I don't think I had a, a lot of, I grew up
• 29:38
  wanting to be a veterinarian for the longest time.
• 29:41
  And the high school I went to had a, a vet program that you
• 29:46
  would kind of go through a program and get a almost like a
• 29:49
  tech or a vet tech degree that you can work.
• 29:55
  And I did the program and the first time they had me like draw
• 29:58
  blood for some front of dog. I was like, Nope, I'm, I'm not
• 30:01
  doing this. I'm leave me out.
• 30:03
  I'm not going to. Do it.
• 30:05
  Was it the blood or was it the act of a needle?
• 30:07
  What? What was?
• 30:08
  It it was the act of like taking blood.
• 30:11
  I don't, I don't mind blood, but the whole I couldn't do it.
• 30:16
  And then after that I switched, I think I finished it cuz I was
• 30:21
  like already on my third year. I was like, wow, I'm just gonna
• 30:24
  finish. Yeah, yeah.
• 30:26
  And I ended up going to school. I, I applied my first year for
• 30:32
  environmental science. So I, I got into the
• 30:36
  environmental science program at FIU and I did that for my 4
• 30:41
  year, my all four years. And I also added a a second
• 30:46
  degree in geography. Wow.
• 30:49
  OK, So what were you thinking? Like you're studying this.
• 30:52
  You're, you know, you said you went all through four years.
• 30:54
  So what were you thinking like you were going to become?
• 30:56
  I don't know what is, what is an environmental and geography,
• 31:00
  What? I don't know what they do.
• 31:01
  Yeah. I mean, it's so broad and I
• 31:03
  think I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a big nature and sustainability and an
• 31:09
  animal person and conservation and all the, all the yeah, yeah,
• 31:13
  yeah, that come with that. And I think at that time I was,
• 31:17
  I really wanted to be like a not quite a scientist, but I really
• 31:21
  wanted to work with like conservation and protecting
• 31:23
  forests and animals. And I, I was really, I'm still,
• 31:28
  I still really like apes and monkeys and stuff.
• 31:31
  And I was thinking I was going to go and like protect animals
• 31:34
  or something and, and plants and stuff.
• 31:37
  Well. You know what I have to ask you
• 31:39
  then since you just said not only animals and stuff and apes
• 31:41
  and monkeys. So what's your opinion?
• 31:44
  100 average males versus 1 silverback.
• 31:47
  Who wins? Oh, it's going to be the hundred
• 31:50
  guy, the 100 males. You think so?
• 31:52
  Yeah. Yeah, 100%.
• 31:54
  Like I've I've heard both by the time you guys are actually
• 31:57
  listening to this, this is this meme is probably way past.
• 31:59
  It's it's probably past now when we're recording it, but I'm
• 32:01
  going to ask it anyway. Maybe I'll pick, maybe I'll be
• 32:03
  the guy who flames this meme back up.
• 32:06
  But I've heard both ways because I thought the 100, my son who
• 32:09
  who's a 8th grader, asked me the same question.
• 32:11
  I was like, yeah, I think the 100 humans and I was like, but I
• 32:14
  don't want to be like one of the 1st 10 or 20 going at it.
• 32:18
  You know, the 1st 10 or 20 are just destroyed.
• 32:20
  They're they're not going to make it.
• 32:21
  I was like, but after, you know, 304050607080 dudes, just I was
• 32:26
  like, we can just smother the silver bag, right?
• 32:28
  Just 80 bodies on top of his head, you know, but then I just
• 32:31
  look at a silver bag and like, dude, that guy could RIP my arm
• 32:34
  out, like literally just RIP my arm off my body.
• 32:37
  And so but you so you think the 100 humans, huh?
• 32:40
  Yeah, I mean, and I again, I still follow and stuff like
• 32:43
  that, but they're like 500 lbs or something.
• 32:47
  Yeah. And they can match 10 humans in
• 32:50
  strength, right? So yeah, like the first, like I
• 32:54
  would say like the first 30 humans are.
• 32:56
  Gonna be toast, yeah. But after that, like imagine all
• 33:00
  the energy that I mean, it's still a a human being.
• 33:04
  And it had like a. No, I get it.
• 33:05
  Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point.
• 33:07
  Like. Energy.
• 33:08
  Yeah, he's gonna get depleted and at the time the 60th man
• 33:13
  comes around, he's going to be just swinging, trying to like,
• 33:15
  mess up. Yeah, I think he'll.
• 33:17
  Get that's a good point, the fatigue factor.
• 33:19
  That's right. That's right.
• 33:19
  Yeah. I want to be #100 so that, you
• 33:22
  know, the gorillas are defeated and I just stand on top.
• 33:26
  I was part of the 100 maybe. All right, good, good.
• 33:30
  So I'm not hearing as you go through college, you study
• 33:35
  environmental science and you study geography.
• 33:37
  I'm not hearing like, Oh yeah, I'm going to become a track
• 33:39
  coach. I'm not hearing.
• 33:41
  Is is coaching at all in your mind as through your undergrad?
• 33:45
  It wasn't really the first few years.
• 33:49
  I've never, if you looked at me in high school when even
• 33:53
  college, I was never one of those athletes that cuz there's
• 33:56
  always an athlete or a few athletes in the team that are
• 33:59
  always willing to help other athletes and they're like, hey,
• 34:02
  do this. Hey, don't do that.
• 34:05
  And I don't know. I just never had that within me
• 34:08
  that I was like, I thought I was maybe stepping out of or
• 34:12
  stepping on somebody's toes if I did that or like I'm like, well,
• 34:14
  the coach is there like he can tell that more.
• 34:16
  So I never did that in in high school or college.
• 34:19
  I was, I was never the one to tell anybody what to do.
• 34:24
  And then my junior year came by and I started liking track more
• 34:28
  as a OK like this. I think 20.
• 34:32
  Yeah, my junior year I went down to Columbia for U23 nationals
• 34:39
  and it was my first time like actually competing there as a
• 34:42
  like as an adult. And I got to see different
• 34:46
  things and experienced a lot, a whole different Track World than
• 34:49
  the US And it really, it stuck with me.
• 34:53
  I'm like, this is, this is kind of fun.
• 34:55
  Like track as a even if I'm not competing, it seems fun to like
• 35:00
  travel and coach and, and, and do the whole thing.
• 35:03
  And it, yeah, it was my junior year where I started.
• 35:05
  Maybe like coaching might be, might be something that I want
• 35:09
  to do. And then I started bringing that
• 35:10
  up a little bit more my senior year.
• 35:13
  Again, I wasn't coaching anybody at that time or telling anybody
• 35:17
  what to do, but I, I voiced it towards my, or voiced it to my
• 35:22
  coaches a little bit more and, and someone kind of heard it and
• 35:27
  it also stuck with them. So that that I guess that's how
• 35:31
  I, I started. But but yeah, it wasn't until
• 35:34
  probably my junior senior year that I was like, maybe I want to
• 35:38
  go towards track as a, as a career, whether it is like put
• 35:45
  cuz you're always, I mean, if you're at a, if you're in a
• 35:48
  level that you're like, maybe I can go pro because every track
• 35:51
  athlete thinks they can go pro. And I was, I was like, and I'm
• 35:56
  also Colombian, so it's easier to maybe represent Colombia at
• 36:00
  some level, that's for sure. Yeah, I was at Decathleen
• 36:03
  College and I was like, maybe I can go a couple more years of
• 36:06
  training and, and see if I can go to like a, a world meet or
• 36:10
  even an Olympic meet. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 36:12
  Columbia and stuff. By my senior year, I think I was
• 36:16
  like, I don't know. I don't know if my body really
• 36:18
  wants to do this for four more years.
• 36:22
  So I, I obviously I, I ended up, I ended up not doing any, but
• 36:26
  that's where I, I, I told some of my coaches briefly kind of
• 36:30
  just talking that I wanted to do it.
• 36:31
  And yeah. And they heard it.
• 36:33
  So. Yeah.
• 36:34
  As you're your mind, is it it it's very common what we're
• 36:39
  hearing here on the podcast that typically the decision or
• 36:45
  thought process to become a coach is not like a light switch
• 36:47
  where it just clicks on like 01 day you woke up was like, Oh my
• 36:49
  God, yeah, I want to be a coach. It's more of like that slider
• 36:52
  button, you know, the light. And so as your slider buttons
• 36:54
  kind of going up a little bit, it was it was 0, right?
• 36:57
  Just kind of starting and it's like, oh, you know, this is kind
• 36:59
  of cool and it kind of moves up. You you already said that you
• 37:04
  didn't like start like then helping her.
• 37:07
  I don't want to say you didn't help because you're elite.
• 37:09
  Nobody who becomes a coach was isn't a leader.
• 37:12
  So you weren't not leading, but so you weren't not helping, but
• 37:14
  you, your intention wasn't like, oh hey, man, you know what's
• 37:17
  helped me in this event? Try, you know, whatever, blah,
• 37:20
  blah, blah, blah, right? So you're not doing that.
• 37:22
  But do you notice yourself now that you got perspective looking
• 37:27
  back? Did you notice yourself?
• 37:29
  I don't want to say paying attention to the coaches more,
• 37:32
  but maybe being more curious about the workout.
• 37:34
  So like, I wonder why we did that today in this yesterday or
• 37:37
  what did you as the you know what I'm saying?
• 37:40
  Because that's what you deal with today as a coach, right?
• 37:42
  You're always thinking about how you prescribe the workouts.
• 37:44
  Did you start thinking about more about the workouts in that
• 37:47
  tune or were you still just like, all right, coaches go do
• 37:49
  this, I go do this. I think it's both ways because
• 37:53
  again, like if I through high through college, I had many
• 37:58
  coaches and then towards my last two years it was a little bit
• 38:02
  more consistent. And if they told me to do
• 38:05
  something, I, I did it. I wasn't going to be a what are
• 38:09
  we doing this? I'm I'm not going to do this.
• 38:11
  I, I was like, all right, if it was completely like, all right,
• 38:14
  this is a little crazy. Maybe I would question some
• 38:16
  things, but but usually things made sense and I just did them
• 38:20
  because my coach told me to do it.
• 38:22
  But my last year I had two coaches that I jumped around
• 38:27
  with like I was, I was a decathlete.
• 38:30
  So one of them kind of coached me in the jumps on other things.
• 38:32
  And then my primary coach was the sprint's coach.
• 38:36
  So I trained with her for the 110, the 100, the four and all
• 38:40
  that. And I really liked the way she
• 38:43
  trained and also the way like the way she coached people.
• 38:49
  So I started, I, I learned a lot that year and I started kind of
• 38:53
  just like looking at her more and like what she did.
• 38:56
  And yeah, it was a very drastic change of, of training from the
• 39:00
  previous years or not drastic, but it was a change.
• 39:03
  And I noticed that. And I'm like, OK, like why did
• 39:06
  we do this instead of what we've been doing?
• 39:09
  And like kind of just learning what she did and a lot of her
• 39:14
  training or her philosophy and the way she looks is I, I coach
• 39:18
  that way now. So but yeah, I start.
• 39:21
  I learned a lot that year. So you started paying attention
• 39:24
  to styles. Yeah, maybe not the individual
• 39:26
  workouts, but like, oh, I, I like how she treats our group or
• 39:30
  how how she gives us the workouts in advance or whatever.
• 39:34
  You know her style more than like the specific of the XS and
• 39:37
  OS of how she coaches 100 or one to ends or what not.
• 39:40
  Yeah, yeah, OK, that's a that's a great start.
• 39:42
  Absolutely. That's important.
• 39:44
  It, it was a lot of like looking at what she did and how she did
• 39:48
  it cuz at the end of the day, like workouts are just like
• 39:54
  words on paper. And you can switch that however,
• 39:57
  whatever time of year, whatever athlete it is and whatever
• 40:01
  you're really trying to get to. So, but it's the way you kind of
• 40:03
  present those workouts, the way you maybe play around with them
• 40:07
  and like, so yeah, that's that. I learned a lot from them and
• 40:11
  then from the, from the other coaches too.
• 40:12
  I mean the other coaches, they did the throws.
• 40:15
  So I learned a lot from them, the head coach and then.
• 40:19
  My other coach was a jumps and I learned from her.
• 40:24
  I think that's an important part of learning how to become a
• 40:26
  coach. We're learning more.
• 40:28
  We've been exploring this for the past couple months now, that
• 40:32
  maybe in coaching, the actual X's and O's are the easy part.
• 40:35
  And it's funny because we put so much emphasis on that, right?
• 40:38
  Every coaching education, 80, maybe 70% of all track clinics.
• 40:43
  It's all about XS and OS, what kind of long jump workout, what
• 40:46
  kind of shot put workout and things like that.
• 40:48
  And in reality, we're learning that, you know, it's all the
• 40:50
  other things. And what you're describing with
• 40:52
  styles is, is kind of culture. You know, like I, I could give
• 40:55
  the same week of workout of week week, the same week of workouts.
• 41:00
  There we go to a a sprinter and do it in 100 different ways.
• 41:05
  I could literally just print it on paper and say, all right,
• 41:07
  show up on Monday. You see what we're going to do.
• 41:10
  I could talk to them about, Hey, here's what I'm looking for in
• 41:13
  today's workout. I could yell it.
• 41:14
  I could be like, hey, today we're doing the and you're going
• 41:16
  to shut up. You're going to do, you know,
• 41:17
  there's a lot of different ways to do the same workout, a lot of
• 41:19
  different ways to present the same workout.
• 41:21
  And so you're learning style and that's extremely important
• 41:24
  because you got to start creating your own style as a
• 41:26
  coach as well. That's cool.
• 41:29
  I love that. Especially, I mean, like I said,
• 41:31
  I have so many coaches to like have influence of the way I
• 41:35
  coached. Yeah.
• 41:36
  So yeah, that's definitely I think the most important thing
• 41:39
  because anybody can learn how to, how to set up a plan.
• 41:43
  I think so. I think so, yeah.
• 41:45
  Yeah. It's interesting.
• 41:46
  We had David Self from Sam Houston State.
• 41:50
  I think this is it was his story where he had a different coach
• 41:53
  every year for all four years. And.
• 41:56
  And I was like, oh, I was like, well that like, do you ever wish
• 41:59
  you had the same coach? You know, and, and I think most
• 42:02
  athletes, kids, coaches would say, yeah, they, you know,
• 42:05
  that's probably the preference of he said, but I got to see
• 42:09
  four different styles. He's like, so when I became a
• 42:12
  coach, I got to, you know, pick. I really liked what he did.
• 42:15
  Oh, I really like how she did this.
• 42:16
  Oh, I like how she did that. Oh, this person over here did.
• 42:19
  And he's like, it helped me kind of move towards my style.
• 42:22
  And I was like, man, I, it feels, it feels icky to say,
• 42:26
  well, I wish every kid had four different coaches, you know, but
• 42:30
  it's like, oh, OK, there is benefit to both.
• 42:31
  I, I think to that you, you can have a positive benefit to both,
• 42:35
  whether you have one coach all four years or, you know,
• 42:37
  multiple coaches through your career.
• 42:39
  OK, so you graduate from a great university with a really cool
• 42:42
  degree, even added geography into that thing for some reason.
• 42:47
  Where do we go from, you know, spoiler alert, you end up a
• 42:49
  track coach. So what do you do after you're
• 42:51
  in these degrees? What's the first thing?
• 42:53
  So I graduated what, 2017 I believe I I started working so I
• 43:01
  applied for at that time I was already set up and like, OK, I
• 43:06
  want to coach and I applied to a bunch of like different jobs
• 43:10
  and. Did you hold on one second?
• 43:12
  Did your family, you know, some of this is maybe a little
• 43:17
  stereotypes as well, Pablo. So correct me where I'm wrong,
• 43:21
  but I feel you. I heard you say about, you know,
• 43:23
  in my family and in families from Columbia, like you're going
• 43:26
  to school. It's not are you?
• 43:27
  It's where are you? You're going, right?
• 43:31
  You go and get these really cool.
• 43:32
  I mean, you know, someone tells me they got an environmental
• 43:34
  science degree. I'm like, oh, that that couldn't
• 43:35
  have been easy, right? And you go geography with it
• 43:37
  can't be easy, right? And then you're going to become
• 43:40
  a track coach. And I'm not, you know, there's
• 43:41
  no bigger fan of track coaches in this guy.
• 43:42
  So I'm certainly not diminishing the career of track coaches.
• 43:45
  But I'm wondering, did your family have a Pablo?
• 43:48
  What do you, what do you mean you're going to go coach people
• 43:50
  to run around a circle, you know, like you're an
• 43:52
  environment, go become a doctor, whatever, you know, go become a
• 43:55
  scientist, right? Was there any, how did the
• 43:58
  family react to this? Like I'm applying for coaching
• 44:00
  jobs. My, my family is extremely
• 44:03
  supportive and like any sense of the word and whatever we want to
• 44:07
  do in life, like whether it's personal or or career wise.
• 44:11
  But there were times where there were comments like, why like,
• 44:17
  like are you looking at jobs in like your career field?
• 44:21
  Like very big, very small comments and very like, Oh, but
• 44:25
  oh, it's great. But what about like you're like,
• 44:29
  you just had two degrees? Like what?
• 44:32
  And, and again, it comes from like a country that sports,
• 44:36
  unless you're playing soccer and all that they it doesn't pay to
• 44:39
  be attractive. Right, right.
• 44:40
  It's like Pablo, why are you playing around?
• 44:41
  Go. It's real world time, right?
• 44:43
  Right, right. It doesn't pay to be attractive
• 44:45
  black athlete doesn't pay to be a, a, a coach, a track coach.
• 44:48
  And he's like, they, they have that view and it's like, why are
• 44:52
  you doing this? So they times when they were all
• 44:56
  they they were very like, yes, you gotta do that.
• 44:59
  But have you, are you looking into like your career field?
• 45:03
  And what else? Yeah.
• 45:06
  And I, I always told him like there were times where I would
• 45:10
  look and see like, OK, like maybe I could do this because
• 45:13
  again, coaching is not the most lucrative career.
• 45:16
  So like maybe I can do this coach on the side and and this
• 45:20
  and that. I never did.
• 45:21
  I'd never, I did some internships in college that
• 45:24
  probably would have helped out. But no, I ended up not really
• 45:28
  working after, Yeah, after college, I think I applied for
• 45:34
  working at Nike, one of the stores down in Miami.
• 45:37
  And they I applied for like a random position and then they
• 45:41
  reached out to me that hey, like I think we have a better
• 45:45
  position for you. And at the time they had like it
• 45:48
  was a brand new store and down in Miami Beach and they had like
• 45:54
  different sections of the store. They had like a running section
• 45:57
  of basketball, soccer and like like a lifestyle section and for
• 46:02
  track or for running, they were looking for somebody that had
• 46:05
  like a running background and, and could help.
• 46:10
  They call them consumers kind of shop and have like a better
• 46:15
  shopping experience with, with running and like they'll be able
• 46:19
  to Hey, like maybe this shoes better if you're doing 10K.
• 46:22
  Oh, you're a track athlete. Maybe the Pegasus is a little
• 46:25
  bit better or this and that. So that was they hired me for
• 46:29
  that. And then it was honestly one of
• 46:33
  like the coolest gigs I've had, like on a like smaller gigs that
• 46:37
  I really, I have so many friends from that time and learned a lot
• 46:41
  too. Like I don't know, you probably
• 46:44
  know a lot of Nike too. Like they, they have their
• 46:46
  company set up as a team, like a sports team.
• 46:49
  So the the manager of the store is the head coach and then you
• 46:54
  get assistant coaches and then you got a coach and then you got
• 46:57
  like leads and stuff like that. So and, and everybody else is an
• 47:02
  athlete. So everyone that works in the
• 47:03
  store is an athlete? I didn't know that that's.
• 47:05
  Cool, yeah. So they they set it up.
• 47:06
  I think that's why Nike is very successful and has like a very
• 47:10
  has like a fan base as well cuz even I was never like that.
• 47:14
  I like I went there and I wasn't trying to make like a Nike
• 47:18
  career cuz a lot of people go do that and a lot of the people
• 47:21
  that I met there, they were they they were trying to have a Nike
• 47:25
  career. They started as a salesperson
• 47:27
  and they wanted to move up to coach and then maybe go to HQ
• 47:31
  and do this and that. And like, it's, I mean, it's
• 47:34
  great for some people. So during that time I, I helped
• 47:39
  a lot of people kind of work like if they came and I had like
• 47:46
  famous people come and they spend so much money, which is
• 47:48
  wild to me sometimes and, and help them kind of go through
• 47:52
  their, their running journey and stuff.
• 47:54
  And then later on. When you say famous people, are
• 47:56
  you talking about track famous people or like society famous
• 48:00
  people? We both, we had like I, I
• 48:07
  butchered names as well. I'm really, I'm really bad at
• 48:10
  names. So we had Roger the tennis
• 48:13
  player at one point. Yeah, Roger Federer.
• 48:16
  Yeah, there you go, Federer. Dude, we had, I'm also now a, a
• 48:20
  pop culture person. Like I, I don't want to keep up
• 48:23
  with names and stuff like that. So one time they're like, hey,
• 48:27
  this person's coming, like, can you help them out?
• 48:29
  And I was like, yeah, sure. And I helped the person out and
• 48:32
  he was very like, OK, like, cool.
• 48:34
  Like he was. And I had no idea who this man
• 48:37
  was. And like everyone in the store
• 48:39
  was like, he's helping out. Like it wasn't until a couple
• 48:44
  minutes I was like, all right, this is definitely somebody I
• 48:47
  should know, but I have no idea. He was like a he's a producer.
• 48:52
  Timberland, Timberland. Timberland.
• 48:54
  Yeah, Timberland. Yeah, yeah.
• 48:56
  I, I would have, I would have had no clue and I listened to
• 48:58
  his music and I would have had no clue.
• 48:59
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was, I'm, I'm such a context
• 49:03
  person. If like I, I, you know, I travel
• 49:05
  a lot and so I'm in like Admirals clubs a lot, you know,
• 49:08
  eating food, eating dinner and stuff like that, eating lunch
• 49:11
  and, and there's a lot of famous people.
• 49:12
  I shouldn't say there's a lot, you know, that is where famous
• 49:15
  people would go. And I I tell people and I I'm
• 49:18
  fantastic. Yeah, it's serious.
• 49:19
  This is not hyperbole. I think if Michael Jordan walked
• 49:21
  in, I wouldn't recognize unless he walked in with like his
• 49:25
  jersey on. If he just walked in with a
• 49:27
  suit, you know, maybe an overcoat and maybe a hat, I'd be
• 49:31
  like some tall dude. Like looks like he may have been
• 49:34
  an athletic back in the day. I don't know.
• 49:35
  I would not. I don't think I would unless,
• 49:38
  like I said, unless he on the back of his jacket, he had
• 49:41
  Jordan. And I'd be like, that's kind of
• 49:42
  odd. And maybe that would click in
• 49:44
  like, oh, Jordan, Oh, Jordan, you know, yeah, I don't think I
• 49:47
  would at all. I was flying back from Dallas to
• 49:50
  Bloomington one year a few years ago now.
• 49:53
  And I get upgraded to 1st class. I'm just sitting there.
• 49:57
  And when I, you know, when I fly, man, I get my iPad, my
• 50:01
  headphone. I immediately like, I'm just
• 50:02
  getting my zone. I don't need to want to talk to
• 50:04
  anybody. Let's just get home, right?
• 50:06
  And this guy gets seated next to me across the aisle, but next to
• 50:10
  me. And people are like, the gate
• 50:12
  agent came in and, oh, you know, I could see her, you know, get a
• 50:15
  selfie with them and stuff like that.
• 50:16
  All right, I'm looking at them and it's just, I'm not
• 50:19
  recognizing them at all. And so we get to Bloomington
• 50:22
  and, you know, him and a crew are sitting over there and
• 50:25
  people are coming up and, you know, taking selfies.
• 50:27
  And so, you know, I've never been shy.
• 50:31
  So I just go up to him. I was like, all right, look,
• 50:32
  man, you're obviously somebody. That's how I approached.
• 50:34
  That's like, you're obviously somebody.
• 50:37
  What do you do? Who are you?
• 50:38
  And he goes, oh, I'm a rapper. I was like, oh, cool.
• 50:40
  And I, you know, rap is, I love rap, right.
• 50:42
  And so I was like, oh, cool, like, you know, what's your
• 50:44
  name? And he's like Young Gravy, which
• 50:46
  I thought he was joking. I was like, yeah, have you heard
• 50:48
  of Young Gravy? Yeah, he's actually very I, I do
• 50:51
  now. Listen, he he made a fan, but I
• 50:53
  was like, and I was like, he said young great.
• 50:55
  And I was like, and I was like, sweet kid me, what are you
• 50:58
  doing? I didn't say that, but I was
• 50:59
  like cool, cool, cool young gravy, young gravy.
• 51:01
  I was like, I was like, So what? Like what kind of rap?
• 51:03
  You know, Cuz I'm big into Christian rap, right?
• 51:05
  And he's not a Christian rapper by far.
• 51:08
  And he's like, you know, like fun rap.
• 51:11
  And I was like, cool man. I was like, I'll, I'll check you
• 51:13
  out, you know? And so I shook his hand.
• 51:14
  I'm not one to like get the selfie because I was like,
• 51:16
  you're not famous to me. I don't know who you are.
• 51:18
  So I come back to the office and I work with a lot of young
• 51:21
  people here. And so I come back to the office
• 51:22
  the next day and I was like, hey, I met a guy.
• 51:24
  I don't know if you guys would know.
• 51:26
  You ever heard of a guy named Young Gravy?
• 51:27
  And they're like, my God, yeah. And I was like, yeah, I met him,
• 51:30
  talking to him. They're like, I mean, they were
• 51:32
  blown away that I met this guy. And I was like, dude had no clue
• 51:37
  if if people weren't taking selfies with him, I would have
• 51:39
  not even blinked an eye on who this guy is.
• 51:43
  And now I'm a fan. You should if you got a Lex or
• 51:45
  something, you should play It's it's, it's very vulgar.
• 51:48
  By the way, I'll. Look him up there.
• 51:50
  But I don't hate to admit I just.
• 51:53
  It's who I am. I think it's funny.
• 51:54
  It's funny rap. So anyway, what are we talking?
• 51:57
  How did Young Gravy get into this podcast?
• 51:59
  What in the world? OK, so you're working at Nike,
• 52:02
  Did you? I met a guy up at Nike Town in
• 52:05
  Chicago. Long, long, long, long time ago
• 52:07
  now, 5 lifetimes ago. He said that there, he showed me
• 52:11
  there there was a culture of people who work for a Nike.
• 52:13
  They get an upside down Nike, they call it an Ecken and like
• 52:17
  that's kind of like you're in the cult I guess.
• 52:19
  Is that true? Or is this just this one dude?
• 52:20
  He showed me his little is an upside down Nike Swoosh.
• 52:25
  I don't know, maybe back in the day it was different, but so now
• 52:30
  they're called Ekens. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 52:32
  Ekens, that's an Ekens. Yeah.
• 52:34
  But it's, it's not like underground.
• 52:38
  So I think so Ekens are like basically Nike specialists and
• 52:43
  they work outside the store, but they work with several stores in
• 52:47
  like the region they're given. So they kind of they they teach
• 52:52
  this story is about product about initiative.
• 52:54
  So they're kind of like they're like a contact person to to
• 52:59
  promote the the the company throughout the region that.
• 53:03
  OK. OK, that's like a lot of that's
• 53:05
  like the next step that a lot of people in Nike stores want to be
• 53:08
  cuz like that's the that's like the cool thing to do is.
• 53:11
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, you. Want to become an Ikan and and
• 53:14
  you get a lot more freedom of what to do and right events and
• 53:18
  stuff. Yeah.
• 53:18
  Yeah, it seems like you're fully in the cult if you become that.
• 53:21
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And we forget, you know what I'm
• 53:23
  saying? Cult and maybe maybe a little
• 53:25
  bit of humor there. But we, you know, don't forget
• 53:27
  the root word of culture is cult.
• 53:29
  So it's culture is what I'm saying in that respect.
• 53:32
  OK, so you're working with Nike. At Nike, you get this
• 53:36
  environmental science degree. You're still thinking about
• 53:38
  coaching. Where do we go?
• 53:41
  How do we connect the dots here? So I, I don't know, maybe like
• 53:46
  late 2017 when I was, when I was working there, my college coach,
• 53:52
  Unique Booth, she, she was expecting, she was kind of ready
• 53:57
  to, for the baby and she reached out to me like, hey, like I'm
• 54:02
  looking for somebody to, to help me out while I'm here.
• 54:06
  And then when I leave for maternity leave to take, to take
• 54:11
  over for for that time. And I know I don't know if
• 54:14
  you're still thinking of coaching and this and that.
• 54:16
  Because you had mentioned it, Yeah.
• 54:17
  And. I had a really good relationship
• 54:19
  with her when I was an athlete. So she reached out to me and and
• 54:24
  I'm like, yeah, sure. Like I'm still in Miami and I'm
• 54:27
  working at Nike. I could definitely do that.
• 54:32
  So I started coaching, but it was a fully volunteer job,
• 54:37
  right? I worked in the morning for
• 54:40
  track and and then just went with Nike and did what I had to
• 54:44
  do at Nike. So but yeah, it was it was hurt
• 54:46
  rich now because they needed somebody to like take over that
• 54:51
  during the time of of her leave. And and I did that for about the
• 54:57
  rest of 20/17/2018 season. And yeah, it was it was it was
• 55:03
  fun. It was like the start of of some
• 55:06
  of that. Yeah.
• 55:06
  So how was that experience? Because you know, as an
• 55:09
  undergrad, as an athlete, you showed us how you were, you were
• 55:14
  very much like, oh, well, coach will take care of that.
• 55:16
  Well, now you're, you're the coach.
• 55:18
  You got to take care of that. You got to show them and correct
• 55:20
  them. How did you that that's a
• 55:21
  different, that's a switch. How did you kind of adjust to
• 55:25
  that and, and warm up to the point of like, oh, wait, I'm,
• 55:28
  I'm the, there's no one to look at anymore.
• 55:29
  I'm the coach. I have to to help this young
• 55:31
  person. Well, I think I had a lot of
• 55:34
  help from her in the sense that the athletes that she had at
• 55:39
  that moment used to be my teammates.
• 55:41
  So it's also kind of very difficult sometimes to coach
• 55:44
  your teammates. Yes, we.
• 55:45
  Talked about that you. Graduate, yeah, but in in
• 55:50
  college, I think I had a good reputation on the team.
• 55:53
  I wasn't anybody that was crazy or over the top or and like, so
• 55:58
  people, I, I was OK, I was cool with most people in the team.
• 56:03
  So when I came back, they were like, oh, cool, you're going to
• 56:06
  help out. That's fun.
• 56:07
  And like, I think she, because she had a lot of structure and
• 56:11
  she kept, I would say she kept people in check.
• 56:15
  The athletes already were like, all right, like all that he's
• 56:19
  bringing in is what she's telling him to do because I
• 56:23
  don't really have a lot of like freedom to do the training and
• 56:26
  stuff like that. She gave me right, right.
• 56:28
  And we looked at them and I'm like, hey, this is what we got.
• 56:31
  And then I kind of guided them and hey, like, maybe that
• 56:34
  doesn't look right. Let's do this.
• 56:37
  And that's how it basically started.
• 56:38
  So it was a lot of like, she helped me make sure that they
• 56:43
  had confidence and like, hey, it's still her training.
• 56:45
  Like I'm just, you guys are not on your own.
• 56:48
  And like really kind of. Yeah, it was, it was a lot of
• 56:53
  her help and, and giving me and me and the athletes confidence
• 56:57
  that OK, like there's going to be some change, but it's just
• 57:02
  for for a few months and it's somebody that she trusts and
• 57:05
  somebody that they liked and stuff.
• 57:07
  So. Yeah.
• 57:08
  Did you did this during the 2017 eighteen academic year?
• 57:14
  Did did. I mean, it's kind of a dumb
• 57:16
  question because you sit here today as the assistant coach at
• 57:18
  University of Maine. But like, did that solidify?
• 57:21
  Because you still don't seem at this point like, Oh yeah, I'm
• 57:25
  going to be a coach. You know, like I if you told me
• 57:28
  your story veered off and you became an assistant coach at the
• 57:31
  Nike store, I'd be like, oh, that that doesn't surprise.
• 57:33
  You know, you're a smart guy and you wanted to help people and
• 57:36
  this is the avenue you did it instead of coaching.
• 57:38
  It still doesn't seem like, Oh yeah, this guy's destined to be
• 57:40
  a coach. Does this 1718 school year
• 57:43
  solidify like Oh yeah, this is what I'm going to be or or not
• 57:47
  it? It did, but it also that.
• 57:51
  Didn't seem very strong. It wasn't, yeah, it wasn't
• 57:54
  strong because of, I think financial stuff, like, sure, I
• 57:58
  was a volunteer coach. And then you start like, well,
• 58:01
  you start looking at jobs and I'm like, wow, they're only
• 58:03
  paying this much. And yeah.
• 58:05
  Move. Across States and like it was
• 58:08
  very. You're just driving college
• 58:10
  coaching there. Yeah, yeah.
• 58:11
  And at Nike, I started to get into they, they trusted me with
• 58:16
  being, they have a run club in the store.
• 58:21
  It's actually the biggest free run club in the world.
• 58:25
  They gather at times, they gather like 400 people every
• 58:29
  week, every Tuesday of every week to run Wow and every
• 58:34
  Thursday. So I started helping out with
• 58:36
  that. So I was in charge of like
• 58:38
  making the team to who was going to work that day, the run club
• 58:42
  and run with them. So I used to get paid to run
• 58:44
  which we always joked around like.
• 58:47
  You made it. You became a pro.
• 58:48
  Yeah. I was a pro athlete for some.
• 58:51
  Sadly, you probably made more than some of our other pros, and
• 58:54
  that's not a dig to them. It's just the dig to how we pay
• 58:56
  our our athletes. Yeah, that's awesome.
• 58:58
  But yeah, every Thursday we used to get out, run a 5K with the
• 59:03
  community and really just have fun.
• 59:05
  So I started really enjoying that and, and became and kind of
• 59:09
  like, and because I had a tribe background, people have like,
• 59:11
  Oh, this is you're the runner, this and that and that.
• 59:14
  So I was kind of, I was digging that for that time.
• 59:16
  And, and I think people in the store also saw me.
• 59:19
  I was like, Oh, maybe you should like they, they promoted me for
• 59:22
  like like smaller manager kind of deal that they have in the
• 59:28
  store. And like, so some people saw
• 59:31
  that maybe you could do like an IKEA career and this and that
• 59:33
  and it starts playing with your head because like, it probably
• 59:36
  pays better than I'm going to get paid as a coach.
• 59:38
  And, but I really do, I, I still really enjoy track and I
• 59:41
  couldn't really see myself not doing that.
• 59:44
  So when I was working at Nike and it, this takes a complete
• 59:48
  turn that just doesn't, it's not expected.
• 59:53
  But during the like late 2018, I gave myself I, I think I told
• 1:00:00
  myself six months and I was like, all right, I'm going to
• 1:00:03
  start applying to track jobs. Period.
• 1:00:06
  I'm just going to start applying, applying, applying,
• 1:00:08
  applying. If I don't get anything that
• 1:00:12
  works for me and that I like, I'll just travel, take off time
• 1:00:16
  and, and, and, and travel some some time.
• 1:00:20
  And, and so I applied and applied and I got a couple
• 1:00:24
  interviews here and there. I was still helping out at FIU,
• 1:00:29
  but not quite as, as much because she was back.
• 1:00:32
  So I wasn't, I wasn't needed as much.
• 1:00:37
  So I gave myself those like few months and I got a few
• 1:00:42
  interviews, but they were like, I had to go from Miami to like
• 1:00:46
  Ohio and Illinois and this and that.
• 1:00:49
  And they were only paying like stipend jobs.
• 1:00:51
  And they're like, well, we can help you get a job on campus.
• 1:00:54
  And I was like, wow, but that's still a hard move.
• 1:00:57
  And so I ended up not getting a job for track that season and
• 1:01:03
  because I gave myself kind of that ultimatum of like you
• 1:01:05
  either get a job or you travel. I just went and traveled.
• 1:01:09
  And so I took the entirety of 2019 to travel then see if my
• 1:01:15
  head change or see what was going after that.
• 1:01:18
  Yeah. So yeah, where?
• 1:01:20
  Else would you go? I've had a podcast about this
• 1:01:24
  too. Oh, nice.
• 1:01:26
  I was a, I was a guest on another podcast.
• 1:01:28
  So I, I took a, I rode my bicycle from Portugal to China
• 1:01:34
  on 20/19. I usually don't brag, but I was
• 1:01:38
  like, you know what? I'm.
• 1:01:39
  Going to wait. Hold on, hold on, hold.
• 1:01:41
  Maybe the mic cut or something. I don't.
• 1:01:43
  Maybe my headphones didn't work. You rode your bike and I'm
• 1:01:47
  you're the geography major here. I'm not, but I feel like the
• 1:01:53
  distance between Portugal and China is far.
• 1:01:57
  And you rode your bike. How far is that?
• 1:02:01
  It's, I can't really tell you how far in distance, but it took
• 1:02:06
  me a whole year to get there so. Dude, shut up.
• 1:02:11
  First of all, I am gonna get into this a little bit, but it
• 1:02:15
  sounds like you were on another podcast that maybe got into it a
• 1:02:17
  little deeper. What was that podcast for people
• 1:02:19
  who want to hear deeper into that?
• 1:02:21
  What was that podcast? It's been a while you've.
• 1:02:24
  Just been on so many podcasts you can't remember the name.
• 1:02:27
  I've been in. 2 Are you gonna forget?
• 1:02:29
  Are you gonna forget this podcast in a year or two?
• 1:02:30
  But I was on some track podcast. It's been 6 years now since I've
• 1:02:35
  been a it's It's a bike packing. Find it, find it and e-mail it
• 1:02:40
  to me and I'll have it in the show notes and I'll have it in
• 1:02:42
  the show notes for because I'm sure there's people listening
• 1:02:44
  going, Oh, I'd like to no more deeper because I'm going to go a
• 1:02:48
  little bit surface level on that.
• 1:02:49
  So it took you a year. So I mean, when you say you rode
• 1:02:53
  your bike, like literally you've got a backpack and maybe you're
• 1:02:56
  pulling, you know, some other you're riding your bike like how
• 1:03:00
  many hours a day? And then how did where did you
• 1:03:02
  sleep? Like, how did you plan this?
• 1:03:04
  Like this is just this is not so you I thought you were, you
• 1:03:06
  know, when you said this is going to take a right turn, You
• 1:03:09
  know, I was like, whatever, I've done 300 of these Pablo, you
• 1:03:12
  ain't going to say anything that I ain't heard, you know, or
• 1:03:14
  prepared for. And then you threw throughout
• 1:03:16
  this. So give me give me some like
• 1:03:18
  blocking and tackling some XS and OS on this.
• 1:03:21
  How how long did you write every day?
• 1:03:22
  How did you sleep? Like, like, tell me, like, how
• 1:03:25
  did you execute this thing? Man, that's crazy.
• 1:03:27
  So you don't, you don't know me, don't know me really well, but
• 1:03:31
  I'm like the product. Obviously not, I do not know
• 1:03:34
  you. I'm, I'm one of the like the
• 1:03:37
  most go with the flow kind of people and that's all Like once
• 1:03:43
  I didn't get a job, I'm like, OK, I'm going to travel.
• 1:03:47
  I wasn't a cyclist, by the way. I I of.
• 1:03:49
  Course, Yeah, we haven't talked about that at all.
• 1:03:51
  True. That's a good point.
• 1:03:53
  The the idea, the idea popped up because a Co worker from from
• 1:03:59
  FIU showed me like, hey, like this guy's doing a cycling trip
• 1:04:03
  from like Alaska to Argentina. And I was like, oh that is
• 1:04:06
  crazy. But that was years ago.
• 1:04:08
  And then when I started planning a trip, I was like, hey, and I
• 1:04:12
  started, I remember that article and I looked it up and there's
• 1:04:15
  actually a whole community of people that travel by bike.
• 1:04:19
  So I started getting into it and I was like, you know what?
• 1:04:22
  That at that point I was when I said like, I'm just going to go
• 1:04:26
  in trouble instead of getting, getting if I couldn't find a
• 1:04:30
  job. And I was like, you know, I'm
• 1:04:31
  just going to go. And I got like any it just I
• 1:04:34
  think things play out sometimes. I'm not a big faith or anything,
• 1:04:38
  but I was working one day at Nike and I've never seen a bike
• 1:04:42
  with like backpacks or anything attached to them.
• 1:04:46
  And when this whole idea started in my head, one random guy just
• 1:04:52
  stops and, and parked his bike with a bunch of bags in front of
• 1:04:56
  the store and, and came in and I was like, there's no way.
• 1:05:00
  I just got to go ask him what why he has the bags and stuff.
• 1:05:03
  And this is pretty much what I'm looking for in terms of biking
• 1:05:06
  and stuff to go to the trip. So I asked him and he's like,
• 1:05:09
  oh, dude, that's, that's crazy. That's super cool.
• 1:05:13
  He got my phone number and he's like, I'm going to find a bike
• 1:05:15
  for you and, and, and, and see and see if you like it.
• 1:05:21
  He went on Craigslist found, he found like a used bike and send
• 1:05:26
  it to me. And I, I bought the bike for
• 1:05:29
  like $85 at that time. And dude, how'd you fix it up
• 1:05:34
  and everything? I, I, I brought up Google Maps
• 1:05:40
  and it, it tells me by walking it's 157 days.
• 1:05:44
  And I said, oh, I don't want to walk on a bicycle.
• 1:05:46
  Yeah, you can choose that. And I click bicycle and it
• 1:05:48
  literally says, I can't seem to find a way there.
• 1:05:52
  Sorry to interrupt. It was just like, yeah, Google's
• 1:05:54
  like, Nah, bro, I can't figure this out.
• 1:05:56
  You're on your own. Keep going, keep going.
• 1:05:58
  Yeah, no. So I saw the guy, he helped out,
• 1:06:00
  he got me a bike. I went, met the Craigslist guy
• 1:06:05
  on like a Walgreens, bought the bike from him and then.
• 1:06:08
  I'm sorry I got to interrupt again, Pablo.
• 1:06:10
  I'm sorry. It's my show.
• 1:06:11
  So I get to interrupt. What?
• 1:06:13
  What do your parents, you said they were very supportive.
• 1:06:18
  I have a hard time, whether you're from Columbia or America.
• 1:06:21
  I just have a hard time feeling like parents are going to be
• 1:06:24
  like, oh, that's a great idea, man.
• 1:06:25
  Yeah, good luck. Let us know.
• 1:06:27
  Send us a picture or something, a postcard.
• 1:06:30
  I think I, I think I, I trained or I don't know how to, how to
• 1:06:36
  say that, but I prepared my, my family for this point my entire
• 1:06:41
  life cuz I've like, it's not like I've been, I was like a
• 1:06:45
  gaming person or like an indoor cat like.
• 1:06:48
  Sure, sure, sure. I've always been very outdoorsy
• 1:06:50
  and it was. A little different though,
• 1:06:52
  Pablo. Yeah, it was a little, but what
• 1:06:54
  I told them I told my cousin before and she's like, Oh my
• 1:06:57
  God, this is so cool, this is fun.
• 1:06:59
  Oh my God, you're crazy. This and that.
• 1:07:01
  Then I told my mom and she was like kind of in like she didn't
• 1:07:05
  really believe me and. That's what I was thinking.
• 1:07:07
  She was like, yeah, OK. Yeah, cuz it's so big and I
• 1:07:11
  didn't have a bike, but I didn't have anything to do the trip.
• 1:07:14
  So she's like all right, get back to me when you have like
• 1:07:18
  actually a plan. And then I bought the bike and
• 1:07:22
  then I bought the bags for the bike and then.
• 1:07:25
  She's like that. Serious.
• 1:07:26
  And she was like, she literally sat down one night.
• 1:07:29
  She's like, all right, like let's go through this again.
• 1:07:31
  Because now I now I really want like what, what's the plan?
• 1:07:35
  And she got a little bit more concerned because she's like,
• 1:07:37
  are you going to go through these countries and this and
• 1:07:39
  that? So she got word, but she never
• 1:07:44
  told me like no, no, no. She was just like.
• 1:07:47
  I am trying to my son going to be a high schooler next year.
• 1:07:53
  If he told me at some point he's 20 something years old, Hey, I'm
• 1:07:56
  going to do this. I would probably be like, I'm
• 1:07:58
  just trying to put my myself in your mom's shoes.
• 1:08:01
  I think I'd be the same way of like, whatever you never buy.
• 1:08:04
  What are you talking about? And then as I started seeing the
• 1:08:06
  evidence, like, oh, we bought a bike.
• 1:08:08
  Oh, he's doing Oh, he's Google mapping, you know, and I'm like,
• 1:08:11
  hold on a second. But then I'm still trying to
• 1:08:13
  feel like, would I be? I mean, I guess, you know,
• 1:08:16
  you're an adult, there's a little bit of you lose power
• 1:08:19
  over your children and it's like, I can't tell them no,
• 1:08:21
  they're not using my money. Wow, okay.
• 1:08:25
  Just for the sake of time and the other podcasts, cuz I want
• 1:08:28
  that to be the deeper one. Give us just kind of an overview
• 1:08:31
  of how many hours a day did you ride and how did you find places
• 1:08:35
  to sleep? Like how did you execute the
• 1:08:37
  actual trip over a year? Wow.
• 1:08:39
  Yeah, no, I, I relied a lot of camp, so I did most of the time
• 1:08:43
  I camped. So I had my camp in my tent with
• 1:08:46
  me, OK. I had all cooking supplies.
• 1:08:49
  I rode pretty much what I wanted every day.
• 1:08:51
  So if I could do 10 miles, I could do, I think the most I did
• 1:08:54
  was 120 or something. So I really did it.
• 1:08:58
  It really however I felt that day, whatever the goal for me to
• 1:09:01
  get to that, to wherever. Were you safe the whole time?
• 1:09:05
  I never, yeah, I never felt any in any danger.
• 1:09:09
  I mean, there were sketchy parts, but I think I was pretty
• 1:09:12
  safe and maybe smart and too hot the way I did it.
• 1:09:17
  And I think my looks help out in the sense that like in some
• 1:09:23
  countries I don't really stand out as much where?
• 1:09:25
  This guy would stand, this guy would stand out.
• 1:09:27
  I'd be dead meat. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:09:28
  And I and I wouldn't be able to do like a mile a day.
• 1:09:31
  So I'd take meat, you know, my whole lifetime.
• 1:09:33
  Did you like, how did how did you eat?
• 1:09:38
  Is that the right question? Like, like, how did I know?
• 1:09:40
  You obviously had to save up money from your job.
• 1:09:42
  So as far because, you know, there's expense, but like, how
• 1:09:45
  did you like? So did you literally get up
• 1:09:48
  every day? And it was just like, all right,
• 1:09:50
  it's not raining. So I'll do more miles today than
• 1:09:53
  the previous day because it rained or whatever.
• 1:09:54
  Literally. So you didn't map out like OK,
• 1:09:56
  day one, day 20, I'm going to be here.
• 1:09:58
  Day 40 I'm you just wow. No, it's, I think it's really
• 1:10:03
  hard to do that. I knew I was going to go to
• 1:10:05
  China, so the only way to get to China is go east.
• 1:10:09
  So I'm kind of just like, I have to go east from here.
• 1:10:14
  And obviously I had maps and kind of an idea of where I
• 1:10:16
  needed to go that day, but I never had like, OK, this week
• 1:10:20
  I'm gonna go here, here. Yeah, it was more like I'm going
• 1:10:23
  that way and kind of wherever I and do.
• 1:10:26
  You ever get lost? No, it's it's not really hard to
• 1:10:30
  get. Lost and no injury like no like
• 1:10:32
  Oh yeah I was laid up for a month because I slipped and you
• 1:10:35
  know busted my knee and Nope dude you blog this or anything
• 1:10:41
  I. Mean, I kind of have I have it
• 1:10:44
  in my Instagram. I have a lot of videos and
• 1:10:46
  pictures and I kept people updated on Instagram.
• 1:10:52
  Looking back I feel like I wish I would have vlogged it a little
• 1:10:56
  bit. More.
• 1:10:56
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just not into all that.
• 1:11:00
  Yeah, but you gotta. But I wish I had.
• 1:11:02
  Yeah. I mean, I have it written down
• 1:11:04
  stuff. Yeah, I would encourage you to,
• 1:11:07
  whether it's a blog or, you know, a lot of people forget
• 1:11:10
  that LinkedIn has an article system, you know, an article on
• 1:11:13
  LinkedIn like somewhere capture that for a couple reasons.
• 1:11:16
  One is much like that person who went from Alaska down to
• 1:11:19
  Argentina. And the reason I asked, like
• 1:11:21
  where you say it, because I think that person did get mugged
• 1:11:22
  somewhere. If I remember, if it's the same
• 1:11:24
  story, but someone who did this crazy thing got mugged.
• 1:11:28
  But much like that guy's story inspired you, even though you
• 1:11:31
  weren't like when you heard that story years ago, you weren't
• 1:11:33
  like, Oh my God, I want to do this.
• 1:11:35
  But then years later, like, oh, wait a minute, that dude did it.
• 1:11:40
  That's something, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:11:41
  So that your story could do that for someone and have this
• 1:11:44
  amazing experience. And two, you know, at some point
• 1:11:47
  you're going to be an old man. You might have children and
• 1:11:50
  grandchildren and other family. And you do have a big family of,
• 1:11:53
  you said cousins and things like that.
• 1:11:55
  Like there's just a little bit of like just archiving things
• 1:11:58
  like that of like, wow, Uncle Pablo did what?
• 1:11:59
  Like, I don't believe that. And then, you know, they go and
• 1:12:01
  read this article from 2025. It's like, holy crap.
• 1:12:04
  Like that's like, wait a minute, if Uncle Pablo could do that,
• 1:12:07
  maybe I can move to the state or whatever, you know what I'm
• 1:12:09
  saying? Like there's inspiration there.
• 1:12:11
  So I just encourage you to to do that and send me the do do some
• 1:12:15
  Google in there. Find me that podcast.
• 1:12:17
  I do. I do want to have that down in
• 1:12:18
  the show notes for you guys. If you're interested in hearing
• 1:12:21
  more in depth on that story, because that is that is cool.
• 1:12:24
  For time's sake. We're going to move forward.
• 1:12:25
  And you have reached China. That's the, you know, after 300
• 1:12:29
  episodes, I feel like I've said everything.
• 1:12:31
  I've never said that yet. So you've reached China.
• 1:12:33
  How do we get back to the states, go back to Columbia
• 1:12:36
  again? We're, we know, we've, we today
• 1:12:38
  we finish up in Maine. How do we, what do we go?
• 1:12:40
  Where? Where do we go from China?
• 1:12:43
  So, so crazy it it actually does kind of start in China.
• 1:12:46
  When I was in China, I started applying again for jobs and, and
• 1:12:50
  my college coach reached out, Hey, they're looking for a coach
• 1:12:53
  here in some high school. I believe in Florida.
• 1:12:57
  So I, I reached out to them, but I, I've never been want to
• 1:13:00
  really want to coach high school.
• 1:13:04
  Nothing against high school coaches or anything, but I, I
• 1:13:07
  just couldn't see myself coaching.
• 1:13:09
  I don't have, I don't think I have the patience to.
• 1:13:12
  I think my reference of coaching high school is coaching 200
• 1:13:15
  people and 100 different personalities, a good .50
• 1:13:19
  people. I mean, half of them really just
• 1:13:21
  being there for friends and looks and, and it's cool to do
• 1:13:24
  sometimes. So I really wanted like now if
• 1:13:27
  I'm going to do, I want to do college and, and, and when I got
• 1:13:32
  back, I worked again with Nike because I reached out to them.
• 1:13:34
  They're like, yeah, that's fine. You can come back.
• 1:13:36
  They like me and that's fine. So I work with them a little bit
• 1:13:38
  more. And then my coach left FIU and
• 1:13:44
  the head coach reached out to me like, hey, like would you be
• 1:13:46
  interested? And I have, I have a good
• 1:13:49
  relationship with, with the staff there.
• 1:13:50
  So they reached out and I'm like, yeah, let's yeah, I'll do
• 1:13:55
  it. And I got hired as a part time
• 1:13:57
  assistant coach for the sprints and hurdles.
• 1:13:59
  So I yeah, that's basically how it actually started to be in a
• 1:14:04
  paid, a paid job. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
• 1:14:07
  A little bit more serious now. They're my actual athletes.
• 1:14:10
  And so I coached there. I I was their assistant coach
• 1:14:17
  for a year and a half and then I moved to to Maine.
• 1:14:23
  Were you at FIU because now it does feel like knowing that, you
• 1:14:28
  know, FIU domain. So there's some stability now in
• 1:14:31
  the coaching world here with you.
• 1:14:33
  Were you doing where does coaching education fit at this
• 1:14:36
  point? You know, I've said this many
• 1:14:37
  times, coaching education to me is, is a, is a dual path.
• 1:14:41
  There's formal and informal. Both are important.
• 1:14:43
  Not one is more important. The other in my opinion, formal
• 1:14:46
  is, you know, USATF level ones, level twos, USTFCAA, Altus,
• 1:14:51
  those kind of classes, if you will.
• 1:14:53
  And then informal and it's just as important is maybe more
• 1:14:57
  peer-to-peer. So you know, I called, well,
• 1:14:59
  you're at FIU so you called your old track coach, but maybe you
• 1:15:01
  call a coach that, you know, you call a Boo and things like that.
• 1:15:05
  Are you doing any of that at this point during the the FIU?
• 1:15:08
  Yeah. So I actually did a USATF course
• 1:15:13
  right after I graduated. So the summer of 2017, I took
• 1:15:17
  those like the Level 1 USATF course in Baltimore.
• 1:15:22
  John Hopkins is it? Yeah.
• 1:15:24
  Yeah, Johns Hopkins. Yeah.
• 1:15:25
  So I did that right out of college and kind of when I
• 1:15:29
  already knew I was going to coach or wanted to coach, and
• 1:15:32
  then more informal, I reached out to my high school coach and
• 1:15:36
  kind of got a bit more ideas. Hey, I remember, hey, do you
• 1:15:41
  wanna go get food and talk about this?
• 1:15:43
  He knew I got the job at FIU. So we sat down and talked about
• 1:15:47
  some training and stuff. And then a lot of the other was
• 1:15:52
  from the coach that left. That was she was my coach.
• 1:15:55
  That from her too. So yeah, she had.
• 1:15:58
  She had a big influence in your coaching.
• 1:16:00
  What was her name? I don't remember if you said
• 1:16:02
  that. Unique booth.
• 1:16:03
  Yeah, Unique. That's right, Unique Booth.
• 1:16:05
  Yeah, cuz she had a pretty big influence as far as style and
• 1:16:07
  even inviting you back to help during when she started going to
• 1:16:10
  maternity leave and now she leaves and so you take her spot.
• 1:16:14
  That was a pretty big impact on you.
• 1:16:16
  Yeah, definitely. I think her and my high school
• 1:16:18
  coach, and I mean all the, but those two I think have had a lot
• 1:16:21
  of impact and I appreciate, I mean all them and yeah,
• 1:16:25
  absolutely. I'm glad I had them as a coach
• 1:16:27
  and as mentors and stuff. Yeah, that's cool.
• 1:16:30
  So you said about a year and a half I think FIU, why did you
• 1:16:33
  leave there and. So I think I started the 20
• 1:16:39
  2022-2023 season and I, I, I applied throughout the summer
• 1:16:47
  and I started looking cuz I thought when I was at FIUI had,
• 1:16:51
  I was working at Nike, I was still working on FIU.
• 1:16:54
  There was a point in time where I was working another job and
• 1:16:57
  I'm like, this is a law. So if I find a better gig, like
• 1:17:01
  I'll definitely see if I can leave.
• 1:17:03
  Yeah. And like the coaches are new
• 1:17:05
  like, like they knew they weren't going to make that
• 1:17:09
  position a full time. And even if it's a full time, it
• 1:17:11
  doesn't pay like extremely well. So it's Miami.
• 1:17:15
  I mean, yeah, yeah, incredibly well to live comfortably.
• 1:17:20
  So I applied throughout the summer and nothing really came
• 1:17:23
  out of that. And when the season started and
• 1:17:26
  looking back and hearing, hearing or listening to booze
• 1:17:31
  podcast or episode kind of made me realize that too, that he, I
• 1:17:35
  think he said in his podcast, like, don't do it for that.
• 1:17:38
  Like every coach is like, oh, but the athletes don't feel you
• 1:17:42
  got to do it for yourself. And I think that's definitely
• 1:17:44
  true. And at that time, I didn't do
• 1:17:47
  that. I as soon as as soon as the fall
• 1:17:50
  came, I'm like, all right, I'm not going to apply now because I
• 1:17:53
  don't want to leave in the middle of the season if I do get
• 1:17:55
  a job. And this I started thinking of
• 1:17:57
  that. But then one of my college
• 1:18:00
  coaches like the jump start of coaching, she was working Sacred
• 1:18:05
  Heart at that time and she got a job army and she's like, Hey,
• 1:18:12
  I'm, I'm going to leave Sacred Heart.
• 1:18:14
  They're looking for somebody and they're basically kind of
• 1:18:17
  letting me find people to to fill that position.
• 1:18:21
  I was thinking of you. If you're interested, like let
• 1:18:23
  me know and we can make happen. And I was like, I think it was
• 1:18:27
  maybe October, November at that time.
• 1:18:31
  And I was like, I I think she told me I already talked to
• 1:18:35
  Ryan, which was my head coach at that time.
• 1:18:38
  And I was like, oh, OK, like I'll talk to him too, just cuz I
• 1:18:41
  don't want to blind side anybody.
• 1:18:42
  Yeah, for sure. And he's like, yeah, that's
• 1:18:44
  fine. Very supportive.
• 1:18:47
  So. I applied to Sacred Heart, I got
• 1:18:49
  the interviews and stuff like that.
• 1:18:53
  And because I was applying to Sacred Heart, I was like, I
• 1:18:56
  might as well apply to other jobs if I'm already applied to
• 1:18:59
  this one. So I'm, I have the, I have a
• 1:19:03
  Google track, track job alert and the University of Maine came
• 1:19:07
  up and I looked up, I went online.
• 1:19:11
  So they had indoor and outdoor facility.
• 1:19:14
  I vaguely kind of looked up at the numbers they had athletes,
• 1:19:18
  performances and I applied, I sent an e-mail to head coach and
• 1:19:24
  he replied to me pretty quick that week.
• 1:19:26
  He's like, yeah, we're going to reach out in a couple and like
• 1:19:28
  next week to get interviews and all that.
• 1:19:31
  Great. It went by maybe like a month
• 1:19:34
  and I never heard anything back from from your main.
• 1:19:37
  And I kept interviewing with sick or hard, but they, they,
• 1:19:41
  they did like 3 interviews and I was like, OK, like, and they
• 1:19:45
  just kind of kept pushing the, the yeah, I don't know, it just
• 1:19:50
  took forever. And I was like, maybe they just
• 1:19:51
  don't want to hire me, but I don't know.
• 1:19:55
  I don't they just didn't seem that interested.
• 1:19:57
  And and then I think I had one interview where he had me have
• 1:20:03
  he, the head coach at that time, I don't know if he saw that he
• 1:20:06
  had me interview with his assistant coach and it it went
• 1:20:09
  all fine. And then that day, Adam, my
• 1:20:13
  current head coach here, reached out like, hey, do you have time
• 1:20:15
  for interviews? And I was like, yeah, sure.
• 1:20:17
  We sat down or tomorrow, whatever.
• 1:20:19
  And I, I sat down with them, had the interview.
• 1:20:22
  It was like a funny interview because I was, I didn't have an
• 1:20:24
  office that I found used to, I was in the like the student
• 1:20:27
  athlete academic centers there and the computers there.
• 1:20:31
  Like if you, if you don't move the mouse for a while, even if
• 1:20:34
  you're in a call or something, it shuts off.
• 1:20:36
  Oh jeez. And I was in the interview and
• 1:20:38
  the computer just shuts off. And I was like.
• 1:20:41
  Oh no. And it.
• 1:20:42
  Goes off and they're like, yeah, didn't, didn't do anything for
• 1:20:46
  me, but it was funny. I was like, oh, I'm not, I'm not
• 1:20:49
  gonna get this stuff. Like, And after the interview,
• 1:20:53
  he's like, hey, great. Like we'll be in touch.
• 1:20:55
  And usually when I hear that I'm like, right, we'll see if I get
• 1:20:59
  an e-mail in the next few days and stuff.
• 1:21:01
  And then I think I went to work that day for Nike in the
• 1:21:06
  afternoon and he, he called me again or he, yeah, he called me
• 1:21:10
  on, on my phone. I was like, hey, do you have
• 1:21:12
  time to talk later today? I was like, yeah, sure.
• 1:21:15
  So he called me and offered me the job.
• 1:21:18
  And I was like, and I was still talking with Sacred Heart.
• 1:21:21
  But I was like, this has been like a long process with them.
• 1:21:25
  Like, mind you, they weren't really paying all that much.
• 1:21:30
  You know, I'm going to take it. And I was like, I told them
• 1:21:33
  like, yeah, for sure. I'm in.
• 1:21:35
  Wow. So it was very quick with Maine
• 1:21:39
  when it started. It took a while to get the
• 1:21:41
  process going, but once you it it, it started like it went
• 1:21:45
  really fast. And yeah.
• 1:21:47
  Yeah. Well, I can tell you, you know,
• 1:21:49
  and maybe this is hindsight advice for you because you went
• 1:21:53
  through the process, but other people that will go through this
• 1:21:54
  process and you'll go through other process, potentially
• 1:21:57
  you'll go through other processes.
• 1:21:59
  As someone in my world who's hired a lot of people, you know,
• 1:22:03
  our entire team for the past 20 years close.
• 1:22:06
  It never goes for the person who's hiring.
• 1:22:08
  It never goes as fast as you want.
• 1:22:10
  There's always, whether it's HR has certain stuff or, you know,
• 1:22:14
  we've gotten caught where it's like, oh man, I want to
• 1:22:16
  interview this person or my VP wants to interview this person.
• 1:22:18
  But my VP already had vacation for this week.
• 1:22:20
  So now it's, you know, a full week past that.
• 1:22:23
  And I, I think the, the real lesson there is, so maybe head
• 1:22:26
  coaches who are listening, who are thinking about who are going
• 1:22:29
  to start conducting interviews or start asking for resumes and
• 1:22:32
  stuff for position have open. I think it's being open about
• 1:22:35
  that communication. Like I think about that Sacred
• 1:22:38
  Heart example we gave. First of all, if they're still
• 1:22:39
  interviewing you, they were interested in you.
• 1:22:42
  You made the comment of like, well, maybe they're not really
• 1:22:43
  that interested. They're interviewing, brother,
• 1:22:45
  trust me. They're not wasting their time
• 1:22:46
  with someone who they don't want to hire.
• 1:22:48
  Trust me. Trust me.
• 1:22:50
  No one goes through that. No one does that, not at all.
• 1:22:53
  If they're interviewing you, they're at least a little bit
• 1:22:54
  curious of like, I would this guy fit?
• 1:22:56
  OK, so take that off the table. That was not the case.
• 1:22:59
  But I think I'm willing to bet that you would have had a better
• 1:23:02
  experience with that Sacred Heart process if at the
• 1:23:05
  beginning they said, hey, Pablo, just to be upfront with you, we
• 1:23:08
  typically do four different rounds of interviews here and
• 1:23:11
  that, you know, because of vacations and summer and travel
• 1:23:14
  and the conference meets or whatever, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:23:17
  It may take up to 6 to 8 weeks before we make a final decision
• 1:23:21
  on who to hire. You'd have been like, oh, OK.
• 1:23:23
  And then you get to decide, by the way, 08 weeks.
• 1:23:25
  I, I'm looking to turn this around in four weeks.
• 1:23:27
  I appreciate you guys. Thanks, but no, thanks.
• 1:23:29
  But then you, you have the expectation of like, oh, it's
• 1:23:31
  week six. Well, you know what they told me
• 1:23:32
  it's going to take about 8 weeks, All right?
• 1:23:34
  We're still on track, you know. So I think the real lesson there
• 1:23:37
  is for people over there as coaches or HR and HR should know
• 1:23:40
  better because this is their whole gig.
• 1:23:42
  But for coaches who are learning, there is no training
• 1:23:45
  for coaches on how to hire and evaluate and fire staff, by the
• 1:23:48
  way. So we're just picking up it as
• 1:23:50
  we go, I think for our head coaches.
• 1:23:52
  I think it's just being open in the communication of, hey,
• 1:23:54
  Pablo, we got a position here. Certainly your interest in you.
• 1:23:57
  Just so you know, you know, I've got a, I've got a month
• 1:23:59
  vacation. I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna bike
• 1:24:01
  from Portugal to to China. So you won't hear from me for a
• 1:24:04
  month. And, you know, be just be aware
• 1:24:07
  of that. So you don't you're not worried
• 1:24:08
  about what's going on. And you're like, oh, OK, cool.
• 1:24:09
  This dude's doing something crazy.
• 1:24:10
  I'll hear from him in a month or whatever.
• 1:24:12
  So, yeah, little tongue in cheek there about the bike ride, which
• 1:24:15
  is still crazy, by the way, but I think that's the real, real
• 1:24:17
  lesson there. So you go to the University of
• 1:24:19
  Maine. Now it, it's interesting your
• 1:24:22
  entire life with this huge one exception has been in this Miami
• 1:24:27
  area. And I see that a lot where
• 1:24:28
  people are like, oh man, I just, you know, from here, it's, it's
• 1:24:31
  my roots. I, you know, I want to coach in
• 1:24:33
  this area, blah, blah, blah. There's other options, things
• 1:24:35
  like that. Barring this crazy bike ride.
• 1:24:38
  This is your first time since you've been into the states of
• 1:24:42
  like, oh, I'm moving somewhere else from my career.
• 1:24:44
  You go to Maine. I mean, that's pretty.
• 1:24:47
  You didn't ride your bike up when you moved up, did you?
• 1:24:51
  OK, good. I just thought about that.
• 1:24:52
  That'd be like a cakewalk for you.
• 1:24:53
  That's certainly much shorter than Portugal to China.
• 1:24:57
  So when you get to Maine, it's different.
• 1:24:59
  It's different than FIU, it's different than Miami, right?
• 1:25:01
  How have you been adjusting there?
• 1:25:04
  I really like it up here. I think a lot of people ask me
• 1:25:08
  that there's, I mean, there's definitely it's a way different
• 1:25:12
  climate and seasons and people and culture.
• 1:25:18
  But I think because of me moving young to the US, I I didn't
• 1:25:23
  really have a a huge attachment to Miami.
• 1:25:26
  Like I'm not like till I die kind of person.
• 1:25:30
  So it's very, I was like, I'm I'm willing to leave Miami, like
• 1:25:34
  I'm not. And I've had that explorer kind
• 1:25:38
  of mentality. So like I really did not mind
• 1:25:40
  moving up here because that's the first thing people are like,
• 1:25:44
  man, you sure you want to go there?
• 1:25:46
  Like it's cold. So it's always and I'm like,
• 1:25:50
  yeah, that's fine. I actually do it.
• 1:25:51
  I enjoy the snow, I enjoy the seasons and like I I like it up
• 1:25:56
  here. I.
• 1:25:57
  Do you really, because I'm, so I'm originally from Alabama and
• 1:25:59
  now I live in Illinois and every year I try to travel as much as
• 1:26:03
  possible during the winter. I hate the snow.
• 1:26:05
  Do you really, I mean, you're from Columbia.
• 1:26:06
  There ain't no snow in Columbia from I can tell Miami, there
• 1:26:09
  ain't no snow in Miami. Do you really?
• 1:26:11
  I mean like when it because you got to get some pretty good snow
• 1:26:14
  there, buddy, you got you got to get some like real snow and you
• 1:26:16
  still enjoy that when your car's stuck and.
• 1:26:19
  So, so I'll I'll doubled on this or I don't have a car here.
• 1:26:26
  Oh, of course you ride your bike.
• 1:26:27
  Yeah, of course. So I I think not having a car
• 1:26:32
  makes my winters more enjoyable. OK, OK all.
• 1:26:35
  Right, because everyone complaints about their car in
• 1:26:39
  the winter. That's what I'm saying, right?
• 1:26:40
  Yeah. They're like, I gotta dig my car
• 1:26:43
  out of the snow. I gotta do this.
• 1:26:44
  And I'm like, I just walk out of my house and I live like I, I
• 1:26:48
  live so close to campus that Oh, cool.
• 1:26:51
  No, yeah, I'm yeah, it's not a problem with for me.
• 1:26:54
  Alright, alright, so it's it's yeah, I enjoy it.
• 1:26:58
  I really the snow, it can be a lot like this winter was rough
• 1:27:01
  up here and it was kind of, it was like probably the the most
• 1:27:06
  real winter I've had since I moved to Maine.
• 1:27:09
  It snowed it, it was pretty consistently cold throughout,
• 1:27:13
  but I like seeing like when it's all white and and and quiet,
• 1:27:17
  it's really cool. Yeah.
• 1:27:19
  And then you get to see like the changes in the spring and summer
• 1:27:21
  and fall, so. And I like seeing pictures of
• 1:27:25
  all that snow. I don't want to be in that snow
• 1:27:27
  at all, at all. You know, you do have that
• 1:27:31
  explorer gene mentality, if you will.
• 1:27:34
  Have you done anything crazy like snowshoed from the top of
• 1:27:39
  Maine to the South of Maine? Have you done anything else kind
• 1:27:42
  of crazy like that yet? I haven't, I haven't had not the
• 1:27:46
  time because I've been here already for 2 1/2 years, but
• 1:27:49
  you're. Busy.
• 1:27:53
  Just at 1st and I've done Katahdin, which is like the
• 1:27:55
  highest peak of Maine. Oh wow.
• 1:27:58
  But it's like just a regular hike.
• 1:27:59
  It's really not that bad, and other than that I haven't done
• 1:28:03
  any crazy stuff. Yeah.
• 1:28:05
  Yeah. So what are you doing today?
• 1:28:06
  It's 2025. You know, you are in your career
• 1:28:10
  now, right? Like you are fully.
• 1:28:12
  There's no going back to environmental science or
• 1:28:14
  anything like that. There's probably no more, you
• 1:28:17
  know, year long bike rides in your future.
• 1:28:20
  So you're you're a track coach. So what are you doing today to
• 1:28:23
  improve yourself as a track coach?
• 1:28:24
  And we talked about coaching education.
• 1:28:25
  Maybe that's part of it. What are you doing?
• 1:28:27
  You know, you seem like a guy who likes to get better at
• 1:28:30
  things, So what are you doing to become a a better track coach?
• 1:28:34
  I mean education wise, I've done a couple like smaller classes
• 1:28:41
  that again, I forgot his name, the coach from Harvard offers.
• 1:28:46
  Yeah, Ciba, Ciba. They offer them throughout like
• 1:28:49
  the year here and there. I've done a job.
• 1:28:51
  I I think I did like 3 this year with him and I'm planning on
• 1:28:56
  doing the the weightlifting one where you you're still.
• 1:29:01
  Seeing. Yeah.
• 1:29:04
  And in terms of that, I'm just, I'm, I'm getting to the point
• 1:29:08
  where I want to one, definitely like be a better track coach
• 1:29:15
  with all the like really learning how to coach the events
• 1:29:20
  that I'm I'm coaching right now. I, I think I've had success and
• 1:29:23
  I enjoy the coaching them. I have the team, the team and
• 1:29:29
  athletes that I had. We've had like really good
• 1:29:31
  growth and I obviously want to continue that, but I'm looking
• 1:29:38
  to maybe having a more, I guess like a more holistic view of
• 1:29:45
  coaching and how I prove cuz it's University of Maine.
• 1:29:49
  Like the chances of me recruiting and, and, and
• 1:29:54
  coaching and developing a Olympic athlete from here is
• 1:30:00
  going to be really rough. Like we have really good people
• 1:30:02
  here and, and we can in, in the near future, we can have them
• 1:30:06
  get to regionals to NCAA and I can see that in my future.
• 1:30:12
  But now I'm like thinking, how do I get the ones that are not
• 1:30:15
  really maybe getting to to that point in in college career,
• 1:30:20
  maybe beyond that to to be better athletes, better people,
• 1:30:25
  better. How do I work with them in their
• 1:30:28
  like their careers? Like so I'm looking into more of
• 1:30:31
  a. So, so where's that lead you?
• 1:30:33
  Because this is very interesting to me because it kind of fits
• 1:30:36
  into that same narrative of like, you know, maybe the XS and
• 1:30:38
  OS are the easy part. It's all the other aspects that
• 1:30:42
  surround coaching that maybe is the more important part.
• 1:30:45
  So where do your, where do you, where are you seeking?
• 1:30:50
  What are you finding? What are you, where are you
• 1:30:51
  looking for for this kind of the coaching head?
• 1:30:54
  So this this year, I started bringing up ideas within my head
• 1:30:59
  and with other people on campus and how I can help students and
• 1:31:06
  started with a small group, not a lot of people.
• 1:31:08
  Now there's just a few people. So somebody, if they hear this
• 1:31:12
  at work, they're going to be like, oh, is he really trying to
• 1:31:14
  do? But it's hard to.
• 1:31:17
  So when I was in college, we had every senior, they used to have
• 1:31:20
  like a career development sessions.
• 1:31:24
  And if we went to all the sessions and we did what we did,
• 1:31:28
  what we needed to do in all the sessions, the university gave
• 1:31:32
  you like a voucher to get a free sue or like to pay for a sue and
• 1:31:37
  like to go to an interview and get a job and stuff.
• 1:31:40
  And me coming out of high coming out of college was definitely
• 1:31:45
  like I had, I probably had a suit, but it was not like very
• 1:31:48
  professional. It was, I mean, I didn't know
• 1:31:50
  better that I finished all that. And it got me to this, a place
• 1:31:55
  that sold them and kind of really helped you out.
• 1:31:57
  And that was probably my first real suit that I got and I
• 1:32:01
  actually wore for some of my first interviews and stuff.
• 1:32:05
  And I so I, and not only that, I think the whole process of like,
• 1:32:09
  we learn how to network and they, they sat down and hey,
• 1:32:13
  this is what a regiment looks like.
• 1:32:14
  This is what they brought a bunch of alumni and people from
• 1:32:19
  school and they made us hey, go out there and talk, introduce
• 1:32:22
  yourselves and do this and that. So I think that's what I'm
• 1:32:26
  trying to do. I'll reach out to a couple in
• 1:32:28
  the university. So I want to get to a point
• 1:32:31
  where I can have a program here with my athletes and I love that
• 1:32:35
  cuz I know like, I mean, most of them are going to graduate in
• 1:32:38
  four years and track is probably not going to be a thing they do.
• 1:32:42
  And I see that more, I see it more now and I see more here in
• 1:32:46
  Maine. There's a lot of weather is the
• 1:32:51
  long winters, but there's a lot more social or lack of social
• 1:32:57
  interactions happening now. They there's a lot more people
• 1:33:00
  on their phones. There's a lot more like people
• 1:33:02
  reach out through on Instagram, whatever emails, there's not a
• 1:33:07
  lot of face to face. People don't know how to as much
• 1:33:11
  as there's so much technology. I sometimes hear students say
• 1:33:15
  they don't know how to do things in Word and Excel.
• 1:33:18
  And I'm like, whoa, that's like super basic, like maybe what's
• 1:33:23
  going on? So I think just kind of helping
• 1:33:26
  my athletes get past the track once they actually graduate
• 1:33:30
  because I think I I also had a hard time when when did that?
• 1:33:33
  Like I was so into track and and I wanted to do this coaching
• 1:33:38
  stuff at that time. But right out of college,
• 1:33:41
  there's sometimes like you don't know what's actually like, OK, I
• 1:33:43
  don't know a job. Like what am I going to do?
• 1:33:46
  Like you apply for a job, but you don't have one.
• 1:33:48
  Like what's the next step? So I think if I can get, if I
• 1:33:53
  can, if I can help my students and my athletes to get to that
• 1:33:56
  point without too much worry, I think that's that's kind of my
• 1:33:59
  next step. I love that.
• 1:34:04
  One of the things that I'll continue to shout is that no
• 1:34:08
  matter what level, by the way, University of Maine, University
• 1:34:11
  of Florida, University of Miami, 99%.
• 1:34:15
  Maybe Florida has 98%, but 99% of your kids are not going to go
• 1:34:19
  pro. But you know, air quotes, no one
• 1:34:22
  goes pro. You look at the elites, there's
• 1:34:23
  there's so little compared to how many kids are competing the
• 1:34:27
  college level, but 100% of them will go on to become moms, dads,
• 1:34:32
  business owners, Ekins, clergy, coaches, teachers, etc.
• 1:34:39
  And that is the real impact that you as a track coach makes.
• 1:34:43
  Your high school coach made that impact on 100 thousands of
• 1:34:46
  people, right? That you know, very few of them,
• 1:34:48
  you know, was it roughly 7% of high school kids go on to
• 1:34:52
  compete in the NCAA. So roughly 7% of all those kids
• 1:34:56
  on your high school team, they got to go on to college, But
• 1:34:58
  that means 93% of them did not. And they someone on a trade
• 1:35:02
  school, someone on a four year, someone on to go military direct
• 1:35:05
  to the workforce, etcetera. That's the impact your coach
• 1:35:08
  made. That's the impact you're making,
• 1:35:09
  the positive impact you're making on these young people
• 1:35:11
  beyond the how do I become the, you know, an Olympian long
• 1:35:15
  jumper, right? So I love that that's where your
• 1:35:18
  thought process is. I just want to bless that.
• 1:35:21
  Keep doing and working down that Ave. because you're going to
• 1:35:25
  create something. I love that program at FIU.
• 1:35:30
  Like that's like I'm thinking myself coming out of college
• 1:35:32
  like, Oh my God, like, yeah. So I got to do some things that
• 1:35:35
  are going to make me better by the way.
• 1:35:36
  And then you're going to give me a free professional suit that's
• 1:35:38
  going to help me even if it doesn't help me in regards to
• 1:35:41
  like, you know, whether you wear a night suit or a regular suit
• 1:35:44
  that gets you the job or not. But like, oh, I feel better.
• 1:35:47
  Like I feel like I'm a professional doing this
• 1:35:50
  interview. That's amazing.
• 1:35:51
  Bravo to FIU and I hope I'm sure there are other colleges that do
• 1:35:55
  that, but bravo to FIU. Keep going down that line with
• 1:35:59
  you there at University of Maine.
• 1:36:01
  You're going to build a program for that for a couple reasons.
• 1:36:04
  One yeah, even if slash when you leave University of Maine,
• 1:36:08
  that's the kind of program that can live past you, right?
• 1:36:12
  You can then bring that to other places.
• 1:36:14
  But also that's the kind of like when we talk about the Gill 1918
• 1:36:17
  project, we talk about that as the Ted talks of track and field
• 1:36:19
  podcast. That's the kind of topic that
• 1:36:21
  you can come and talk about that.
• 1:36:22
  And then other people, you know, someone at a high school goes,
• 1:36:24
  oh, wait a minute. Well, we should be doing this.
• 1:36:27
  Like how are we doing this in regards to like college
• 1:36:28
  recruiting, you know, as far as interviews and how do you
• 1:36:31
  present yourself? How do you e-mail?
• 1:36:33
  Like there's something that can build tremendously from that.
• 1:36:36
  And so I love that you're thinking that and not when I
• 1:36:40
  first got into coaching, I was like, I'm gonna be the best
• 1:36:42
  sprints and hurdles coach in the world.
• 1:36:44
  So 100% of my attention was to how to this little thing in the
• 1:36:47
  block start and this little thing at the finish and this
• 1:36:49
  little technique of the hurdle. And in reality, again, we keep
• 1:36:52
  saying it more and more, the X&O's part was a small part.
• 1:36:55
  And I I was blind to the all the other aspect and had to learn
• 1:36:59
  that throughout my coaching career and finally got to where
• 1:37:02
  like, Oh yeah, these are human beings first and foremost.
• 1:37:04
  Not, not robots that hurdle and jump and throw the shot.
• 1:37:08
  But so I love that Pablo, that is so cool.
• 1:37:10
  Where does that? And I know you had that
• 1:37:12
  experience at FIU, but that kind of leadership.
• 1:37:16
  So you're really thinking about other people there because it
• 1:37:18
  doesn't you you're not interviewing for jobs, you know,
• 1:37:20
  helping these things out. Where does that come from?
• 1:37:22
  Is there a like, did you have some kind of like a guidance
• 1:37:25
  counselor or a teacher or a family member?
• 1:37:28
  Claire G, Is there someone that kind of modeled that for you?
• 1:37:32
  I don't know. I think my family overall, like
• 1:37:35
  I, I, I told you before, I have a extremely supportive family
• 1:37:39
  and a lot of things or the way I am and the place I am today is
• 1:37:44
  because of them. So for sure I, I, I enjoy also
• 1:37:48
  doing that. So I've had now that I've been
• 1:37:52
  here for a couple years now, I've had athletes that I've been
• 1:37:55
  able to like, hey, like mentor and, and guide them through
• 1:37:58
  difficult times and whether it's personal or academics or, or
• 1:38:03
  track related stuff. And, and it, it, it looks good.
• 1:38:09
  It feels good. Honestly, when, when you see
• 1:38:11
  them like get out of that bad spot that they were and you're
• 1:38:15
  like, OK, they're doing good again.
• 1:38:16
  And, and, and kind of, I mean, I hope that they're also not just
• 1:38:20
  at that time, but they continue to be good and, and successful
• 1:38:25
  and whatever they do in life. And, and that, that, that is,
• 1:38:31
  that spreads throughout. Like I think I'm, I'm a big, I'm
• 1:38:35
  always usually pretty energetic and I go to practice and I'm
• 1:38:41
  never going to be like in a bad mood.
• 1:38:43
  And like, obviously there's days that you're like, it's the rough
• 1:38:46
  day, but. You're human.
• 1:38:48
  Yeah, I think what you put out there is what you get back.
• 1:38:50
  So I try to do with my athletes and hopefully they they they
• 1:38:56
  learn something and they if I help them out or not, that's
• 1:38:58
  fine. But yeah, I just kind of want to
• 1:39:02
  have that so that come back, yeah.
• 1:39:04
  That's great man. I love that I've lost that.
• 1:39:06
  Just keep keep going down that Ave. and you are going to have
• 1:39:10
  an even larger impact that you could even imagine today.
• 1:39:13
  And you know, you have a large impact today.
• 1:39:15
  So it's it's going to just kind of like a fire just continues to
• 1:39:18
  grow there. Pablo, as you look to the future
• 1:39:21
  here at University of Maine and you get to define future,
• 1:39:23
  whether it's 20262036, what's got you excited, man?
• 1:39:27
  There's there's a lot of good things going on there.
• 1:39:29
  They are. I think I, I moved up here in
• 1:39:32
  like a really fun time to be at Maine.
• 1:39:37
  I think the university itself is growing as the university.
• 1:39:42
  It's also growing as an athletic department.
• 1:39:45
  We are getting an outdoor track. It's being built at the moment,
• 1:39:51
  so that's really exciting cuz it's a brand new facility that
• 1:39:54
  we're gonna have for athletes. Mind you, we train indoor for a
• 1:39:57
  lot of the time, but that indoor track is also getting resurfaced
• 1:40:02
  like a few weeks, so that's really exciting too.
• 1:40:05
  Nice just having 2. New facilities to have new
• 1:40:08
  athletes and it's huge recruits and like really show, hey, this
• 1:40:12
  is like facility wise, we got to cover.
• 1:40:15
  Like we can definitely bring you in and have that covered.
• 1:40:19
  I think I'm really excited that the the athletes that I have and
• 1:40:23
  some of the ones that are coming in like they've grown so much
• 1:40:27
  athletically and and personally too, but I now can't see that
• 1:40:32
  group. Like, OK, we can think of not
• 1:40:35
  just making a conference team and and maybe making a top 8 and
• 1:40:40
  giving points for the team, but my 400 group and if my Atlas
• 1:40:46
  here, they they won't be surprised.
• 1:40:49
  It's probably one of my better, my better group, my 400, my
• 1:40:52
  sprinters and my my triple jumpers are kind of like the the
• 1:40:55
  better ones and not the better, the best.
• 1:40:59
  They're also like the bigger ones that have like maybe six
• 1:41:03
  men in the 400. I have 3 in the triple jump.
• 1:41:06
  I've got a few sprinters here and there.
• 1:41:09
  So and, and, and kind of just, that's where I've put a little
• 1:41:14
  bit more effort and energy and recruiting and stuff that
• 1:41:16
  because it's more viable for me both at conference and, and, and
• 1:41:22
  having those people score and how that whereas like it's hard
• 1:41:25
  for me to bring maybe just out a high jumper that only does a
• 1:41:29
  high because that it's it's not going to be as I don't have a
• 1:41:32
  lot of time to coach maybe that one event, one person.
• 1:41:37
  So I'm really excited for the group that I have now for them
• 1:41:41
  to start thinking more about way like we can make a regional
• 1:41:46
  meet. We can make a 4 by 4.
• 1:41:48
  We can, we can do, we can not only win conference or like
• 1:41:54
  we've set up a bunch of school records.
• 1:41:56
  Mind you, they weren't very fast to begin with, but we've like
• 1:41:59
  broken them little by little. And yeah, now have athletes that
• 1:42:03
  are like pushing each other to like, hey, maybe we can get
• 1:42:06
  individuals to a regional meet and hopefully a national meet at
• 1:42:11
  one point. But yeah, I think I'm really
• 1:42:14
  excited to get them in the mentality of like, oh, we're not
• 1:42:18
  just like New England big because I don't know how you're
• 1:42:22
  with New England, but people in New England have like a skew
• 1:42:26
  vision sometimes of like where they are, especially in high
• 1:42:31
  school. So I think they're realizing now
• 1:42:34
  that like, oh, I'm not only New England good.
• 1:42:36
  Like I can compete against like those big SEC schools and ACS in
• 1:42:43
  like they can be more competitive in that area.
• 1:42:46
  Yeah. So I'm really excited for them
• 1:42:47
  to realize that and think of like, OK, this year my goal is
• 1:42:51
  not only to win conference, but heck, if I don't, if I don't win
• 1:42:55
  conference, like I should be able to make a regional me.
• 1:42:58
  Yeah. So I think that's that's where
• 1:43:01
  we are so. Yeah, setting expectations and
• 1:43:03
  resetting expectations and just keep, you know, to use that high
• 1:43:06
  jump as an example, just keeping raising the bar.
• 1:43:08
  If you're not raising the bar, well, we're not, we're not
• 1:43:10
  getting better. So you're just raising the bar
• 1:43:12
  for the program and what's expected.
• 1:43:13
  And you know, and that that takes steps.
• 1:43:15
  You don't go from today to yeah, we want to win the national
• 1:43:18
  championships. Like, well, you know, that's,
• 1:43:20
  that's a whole different stratum on your bar, my friend.
• 1:43:22
  You need to start winning conference 1st and then come off
• 1:43:24
  after regionals, winning regionals, etcetera.
• 1:43:26
  So that's good, man. That's what that's what good
• 1:43:27
  coaches do. So you're on the right path, the
• 1:43:30
  right track, if you will. You know, Pablo, it, it struck
• 1:43:34
  me earlier something you said when you were talking about
• 1:43:38
  during your coaching and coaching search and you know,
• 1:43:40
  maybe a little bit of, you know, my words here, life search as
• 1:43:43
  far as you know, am I going to be a crazy bike rider?
• 1:43:45
  Am I going to be a coach and am I going to work for Nike,
• 1:43:47
  etcetera. You know, I've been doing this
• 1:43:50
  podcast now for 5 1/2 years. So January of 2020 is when we
• 1:43:53
  started and you mentioned about, you know, then I listened to
• 1:43:57
  booze episode and you know, that that really helped me understand
• 1:44:00
  of like, you know, I shouldn't just stay at FIU just to stay
• 1:44:02
  because that's where my alma mater like, you know, I have to
• 1:44:04
  grow and things like that. And that that meant a lot to me.
• 1:44:08
  You know, we work hard at being bringing this weekly, you know,
• 1:44:12
  people's stories, people, different people's backgrounds,
• 1:44:14
  different levels of, of our sport, different successes and
• 1:44:18
  however you define that. And so sometimes it's easy to
• 1:44:23
  stay in my, you know, bubble and, you know, do these and
• 1:44:26
  continue to do them every Monday and things like that.
• 1:44:29
  And sometimes forget like, oh, real people almost kind of like
• 1:44:32
  that 200 track team of like, you know, there's real people.
• 1:44:35
  Joey's a real person, Sally's a real person, Pablo's a real
• 1:44:38
  person that there are people that are listening to the show
• 1:44:41
  that are listening to our guests and their journeys and it's
• 1:44:44
  affecting them in positive manners.
• 1:44:46
  And so that just gives me like, I appreciate you telling that
• 1:44:49
  because it gives me more continued motivation to, to do
• 1:44:52
  this. You know, this is, I've said it
• 1:44:55
  many times, you know, this is on top of everything else I have to
• 1:44:57
  do. Like, you know, when I started
• 1:44:58
  this podcast, they didn't say, oh, cool, Mike, you don't have
• 1:45:00
  to do this anymore. But the podcast and it's like,
• 1:45:02
  Nope, you got to do all that in, in the podcast.
• 1:45:04
  So sometimes it's hard. It, it's, you know, I'm, I'm,
• 1:45:07
  when we're recording this, I'm about next week, I'll start and
• 1:45:10
  I'll be on the road in the next 8 weeks.
• 1:45:12
  I'll be on the road about 6 1/2 of those.
• 1:45:15
  And so that's hard. Like, so I can't record during
• 1:45:17
  that time, right? So I've got to like, build these
• 1:45:19
  up and that, you know, that takes more time of taking away
• 1:45:22
  from the meetings. I have to do the, you know,
• 1:45:25
  talking with coaches about their facilities and things like that.
• 1:45:28
  But your story, your experience reminded me that it is all worth
• 1:45:33
  it, you know, to take that time, you know, for Boo specifically.
• 1:45:39
  So we record this, as, you know, during working hours, right?
• 1:45:42
  So 8:00 in the morning till 5:00 at night.
• 1:45:44
  And you know, I, I have a studio here that if you're on YouTube,
• 1:45:47
  you see, you know, we actually have a kind of a neat little set
• 1:45:49
  up here that they allow me to do this.
• 1:45:52
  And I don't do it because I've been working really hard the
• 1:45:54
  past several years of like when works over, works over.
• 1:45:57
  You know, Pablo, if you call me 8:00 at night, ain't nothing I
• 1:45:59
  can do for you, brother. You know, I can't ship anything.
• 1:46:01
  I can't, I can't do anything. You know, I can't fix anything.
• 1:46:03
  So I can't even like, walk you through like if something went
• 1:46:05
  wrong or whatever. So probably you call me 8:00,
• 1:46:08
  you're going to get a voicemail. I'll get to the next morning.
• 1:46:11
  Sorry, not sorry. I guess I don't know.
• 1:46:13
  So when Boo and I were talking, he's like, oh, yeah, can we do
• 1:46:17
  it, you know, at 7:00 at night? And I was like, Boo, I really, I
• 1:46:21
  got, you know, that's family ties.
• 1:46:22
  So I'm at the house. You know, I was like, really?
• 1:46:24
  He's like, yeah, I just sorry, I can't, you know, my schedule,
• 1:46:25
  blah, blah. And I was like, you know what,
• 1:46:26
  Boo, because he was my mentor coaching.
• 1:46:28
  So, you know, he means a lot to me personally and
• 1:46:30
  professionally. And so I was like, you know
• 1:46:32
  what, for you, I will. And so, you know, I didn't have
• 1:46:34
  family time that night. We spent two hours at night
• 1:46:37
  doing that. And now again, I just say it was
• 1:46:39
  all worth it because it helped you positively.
• 1:46:42
  And I know there are thousands. I mean, that's a huge episode
• 1:46:45
  for us and it's deservedly so. There's thousands of others that
• 1:46:48
  have listened and had other positive experiences from his
• 1:46:51
  story and the other 300 plus individuals here.
• 1:46:54
  So I just, I just kind of made me think a little bit like, oh
• 1:46:57
  man, you know, this has been going on for 5 1/2 years now.
• 1:47:00
  So there are people who, you know, we we have one individual,
• 1:47:03
  Sam, who reached out when he was a college athlete and he said,
• 1:47:06
  Hey, I want to be a college coach.
• 1:47:08
  I listen to your podcast. I wanted to know, you know, can
• 1:47:11
  I ask you some questions? And you know, you know, you know
• 1:47:14
  me, Pablo, I was like, sure, can I record it?
• 1:47:15
  I want to put it on the show. So like, I have this time
• 1:47:18
  capsule, this kid, he's not a kid anymore.
• 1:47:21
  When he was an undergrad wanting to be a coach.
• 1:47:23
  And now he's coaching Jacksonville College down in
• 1:47:25
  Texas, a JUCO down there doing a they're signing a recruiting
• 1:47:27
  class that they've never signed down there.
• 1:47:28
  They're doing a great job. And 10 years from now, he's
• 1:47:31
  going to be the assistant coach at University of Maine or you
• 1:47:33
  know what I'm saying? Like it just, it just kind of
• 1:47:36
  struck me a little bit of like, wow, this program has been going
• 1:47:38
  on long enough that undergrads have become full time coaches.
• 1:47:42
  People have, you know, at the infancy of their career have
• 1:47:45
  been affected positively by it. So I just, I just want to say
• 1:47:47
  thanks for sharing that. It really meant something to me.
• 1:47:50
  No one else is going to think out of that, but I did.
• 1:47:53
  So I'm just, I'm really grateful for that.
• 1:47:54
  Pablo, thank you. Thank you.
• 1:47:56
  Oh, yeah, it's it's one of the part like track podcasts that I
• 1:48:00
  follow regularly because of that.
• 1:48:04
  Because again, like anybody can take a class for track.
• 1:48:08
  Not anybody, but you can take a class, buy a book and kind of
• 1:48:10
  see, OK, this is what it works. This is the pace, this is the
• 1:48:13
  rest. This is the, yeah, I'll try
• 1:48:15
  that. But in terms of career and how
• 1:48:19
  people got to where they are, you get to see so many different
• 1:48:23
  perspectives and see, well, they did that, I should have done
• 1:48:29
  that, or maybe I could do that or see.
• 1:48:31
  And they also speak about their mistakes or things that they
• 1:48:34
  should have or should have done. That's right.
• 1:48:37
  It gives you a lot more of AI would say there's the podcasts
• 1:48:41
  and and track podcasts are like a class and you're like, this is
• 1:48:44
  a little bit more like you're sitting down with a mentor and
• 1:48:47
  like, OK, this, this is like a a a lot more.
• 1:48:51
  It's not just technical stuff. That's right.
• 1:48:54
  And that's why, you know, we're very intentional that, you know,
• 1:48:57
  there's other great track and field podcast and you know, I'm
• 1:48:59
  I'm a big fan of anything that helps our sport, right?
• 1:49:01
  Like I even invited, I invited every podcast that I could find
• 1:49:05
  and you know, not everybody accepted the invitation, but we
• 1:49:08
  had I think 2025 somewhere around that number podcast that
• 1:49:12
  I featured on this podcast. Like I was like, hey, let me you
• 1:49:15
  listen to our podcast. Maybe you might find a other
• 1:49:17
  podcast that you might like. So I love those, but we
• 1:49:19
  intentionally are the long form podcast where the hour, I mean,
• 1:49:22
  we've been going hour and 45 at this point, right?
• 1:49:26
  Like that's intentional because the details of your journey are
• 1:49:30
  important, not just Oh yeah, I was a, you know, multi event
• 1:49:34
  athlete in high school, went to FIU and then went to, you know,
• 1:49:37
  helped out at FIU. And then I did this crazy bike
• 1:49:39
  thing and then I went back to FIU and then I went to make
• 1:49:41
  like, there's more to it. That's super important for
• 1:49:44
  people to hear those journeys. So we're we're very intentional
• 1:49:47
  with that. So it's almost like a symposium,
• 1:49:50
  if you will, each one of the episodes.
• 1:49:53
  Pablo, dude, thank you so much, man.
• 1:49:55
  You know, you're busy. You're right in the middle of
• 1:49:57
  trying. I mean, you're a championship
• 1:49:58
  part part of the season and you know, who knows you, you maybe
• 1:50:02
  you're coordinating some other bike ride or maybe you're going
• 1:50:04
  to maybe you're going to become like a personal triathlete.
• 1:50:06
  Maybe you're going to do some long swim down the Mississippi
• 1:50:08
  River. I don't know.
• 1:50:10
  I will not be surprised if I hear about you doing something
• 1:50:12
  like that. I I won't be like, oh, yeah,
• 1:50:14
  that's Pablo. That sounds, sounds like him
• 1:50:16
  from what I know now. But I'm so grateful for you,
• 1:50:18
  man. You know, the most expensive
• 1:50:20
  thing, the most valuable thing that you can give me is your
• 1:50:22
  time. And you know, I know in the
• 1:50:24
  middle of tracks is not a great time to do it, but I'm very
• 1:50:27
  grateful for you sitting down, being so open to authentic with
• 1:50:31
  your journey because it's important and it's going to help
• 1:50:33
  other people who listen to it as well.
• 1:50:36
  No, thank you. Thank you for the invite.
• 1:50:38
  I appreciate it. It was fun talking about this
• 1:50:40
  whole thing. So it's really fun to share that
• 1:50:43
  and see kind of also just looking back, this is remind
• 1:50:48
  reminds me of so many other things and yeah, it's really fun
• 1:50:51
  to see that. I was like, I got to text my
• 1:50:53
  coach and kind of how they're doing and.
• 1:50:56
  Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, so.
• 1:50:59
  You know, I don't remember my reasoning or thought process
• 1:51:03
  around calling it the Connections podcast, but I knew
• 1:51:05
  there was something about like, how do I connect Pablo with the
• 1:51:08
  world? Like, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:51:09
  Like, you know, someone in Jacksonville, TX may not know
• 1:51:13
  about Pablo for many reasons, because you're up in Maine and
• 1:51:15
  they're in Texas and they're JUCO and you're juvon, all that
• 1:51:17
  kind of stuff. But through the podcast, maybe I
• 1:51:20
  can make that connection and I, I have had it.
• 1:51:22
  It's been amazing. I've had many, many emails,
• 1:51:24
  texts saying, Oh man, hey, I heard so much so and so story
• 1:51:26
  and I reached out because of that.
• 1:51:28
  That's huge to me. That's, that's the connections
• 1:51:30
  part. So I'm so glad that it makes you
• 1:51:33
  think about like, oh, maybe I need to reach back out.
• 1:51:35
  Haven't talked to so and so in a while that that is important and
• 1:51:38
  you're busy and they understand that.
• 1:51:39
  But you know, it is important to to keep those connections alive.
• 1:51:41
  So man, Pablo, thank you again so much for being here.
• 1:51:44
  Just super grateful for you. Big fan of you guys and your new
• 1:51:48
  facility. I'm grateful for what you know,
• 1:51:50
  that partnership we've had with that and just excited for your
• 1:51:52
  future as well. Not only me, but you.
• 1:51:55
  You're yourself, Pablo. Appreciate the same.
• 1:51:57
  I hope hope to listen to it once they come out, but you
• 1:52:00
  appreciate it. You will you'll be on a bike
• 1:52:02
  ride somewhere. All right guys, thank you so
• 1:52:04
  much for being here. This was a lot of fun man.
• 1:52:07
  You know, I love young coaches who, you know, quote, UN quote,
• 1:52:11
  haven't done anything yet because I, I get that a lot.
• 1:52:13
  Every once in awhile when I'll invite a coach who's young, I'll
• 1:52:16
  hear the response of like, well, I'm not, I'm not sure I'm worthy
• 1:52:20
  of it yet at this point. Michael, first of all, I love
• 1:52:21
  that they think that this podcast is that elevated that
• 1:52:24
  you have to be worthy. But first of all, you're a track
• 1:52:25
  coach. So you are automatically worthy
• 1:52:27
  because you have something to help the coaching community
• 1:52:31
  learn from. Whether it's your first year
• 1:52:32
  coaching or your 100th year coaching, you have something to
• 1:52:35
  give. There are perspectives that are,
• 1:52:37
  I think are super, super important and I'm hearing the
• 1:52:39
  feedback all the time in regards to, you know, connections,
• 1:52:42
  hearing this person's story. We've had recruits and their
• 1:52:45
  parents who have listened to your story here on the podcast
• 1:52:48
  before and that's how they chose to go visit.
• 1:52:50
  I've had coaches tell me that recruits are visiting them
• 1:52:53
  because they've been on the show.
• 1:52:54
  I mean, that's I love that I just continue to build up the
• 1:52:57
  coaching community and I'm so grateful to be in the seat that
• 1:53:00
  I am and help steward that in your your journeys out there.
• 1:53:04
  So I appreciate you guys. We are still in the midst of our
• 1:53:07
  Gillights and 18 project. That's going to be a year long,
• 1:53:09
  years long. That's just part of our podcast
• 1:53:11
  now. So I think this will, you're
• 1:53:13
  probably listening to this in June.
• 1:53:14
  Hopefully we're still getting submissions.
• 1:53:16
  Your voice matters. Please, please, please reach out
• 1:53:19
  to me to record your own 10 to 30 minute podcast on that.
• 1:53:23
  And we'll talk more about that when you reach out.
• 1:53:25
  But I'm just so glad and grateful for you.
• 1:53:28
  So we'll we'll leave it there and join us next week.
• 1:53:30
  We'll do it all over again and join us tomorrow for the GO 1918
• 1:53:33
  project. Thanks guys.
• 1:53:39
  The goals to appreciate the coach the ones that point people
• 1:53:42
  most every season needs a voice of reason speaking the growth
• 1:53:46
  you got to bet before you carry the load ice coffee to the soul.
• 1:53:49
  For those of us stay on the go proper handoff to stay in the
• 1:53:52
  zone which you packing for the road.
• 1:53:54
  There's more than one way to go taking notes that's paying your
• 1:53:57
  toe. It ain't practice if your
• 1:53:58
  purpose Saint Clair. It can't happen until you listen
• 1:54:01
  with both is can't mentor without a mentor of years of
• 1:54:04
  experience. You can reinvent those years
• 1:54:07
  Every plan's got to stand and deliver to and the price
• 1:54:10
  sacrifice can you give up you. It's a choice and a fight, not a
• 1:54:13
  win or lose. It's not a ploy boy device.
• 1:54:15
  Y'all can make more moves. It's not about how to it's all
• 1:54:18
  about why. You don't know till you know who
• 1:54:20
  you are inside 6 when you waste of time choose none.
• 1:54:24
  So y'all cross finish line. The work ain't done so we learn
• 1:54:27
  from the experts but y'all got to put in the network.
• 1:54:30
  Guild athletics use the network. It's all about connections put
• 1:54:33
  together for the profession to where every track coach could be
• 1:54:36
  blessing.