Brian's Run Pod
Welcome to Brian's Run Pod, the podcast where we lace up our running shoes and explore the exhilarating world of running. Whether you're a seasoned marathoner, a casual jogger, or just thinking about taking your first stride, this podcast is your ultimate companion on your running journey.
Join us as we dive deep into the sport of running, covering everything from training tips and race strategies to personal stories and inspiring interviews with runners from all walks of life. Whether you're looking to improve your race times, stay motivated, or simply enjoy the therapeutic rhythm of running, Brian's Run Pod has something for every runner.
Brian's Run Pod
Finding Passion in Running with Denny Krahe
Ever wondered how a former ice hockey player and casual golfer transforms into a dedicated marathon runner and influential coach? Join us on Brian's RunPod as we feature a compelling conversation with Denny Krahe, creator of Dizruns.com and the voice of Dizruns Radio. We explore Denny's journey from reluctantly running to stay fit during his college years in Florida to becoming a marathon enthusiast while balancing his responsibilities in grad school. His story is a testament to how persistence and a shift in perspective can turn an obligatory activity into a genuine passion.
Denny takes us through his evolution from a casual runner to tackling half marathons and full marathons, even diving into the trials and tribulations of marathon training when underprepared. He shares anecdotes from his days working on a college track team’s medical support staff, shedding light on the camaraderie and challenges that come with pursuing long-distance running. This episode is packed with insights on the resurgence of running's popularity, historical milestones that have shaped the sport, and the lessons Denny learned from both his successes and mistakes.
In the final segment, we delve into Denny's coaching philosophy, emphasizing the importance of personalized coaching approaches. Denny highlights the balance between firm guidance and understanding an athlete's broader responsibilities, ensuring that running remains an enjoyable part of their lives. Tune in to hear about how major races like the Chicago Marathon have become increasingly competitive and get Denny’s best advice for runners looking to find their own passion in the sport. Whether you're a seasoned marathoner or just starting your running journey, this episode offers valuable takeaways for athletes at every level.
Denny Krahe Website
Plus, we have a new feature on the podcast you can now send me a message. Yep you heard it right- Brian's Run Pod has become interactive with the audience. If you look at the top of the Episode description tap on "Send us a Text Message". You can tell me what you think of the episode or alternatively what you would like covered. If your lucky I might even read them out on the podcast.
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So you're thinking about running but not sure how to take the first step. My name is Brian Patterson and I'm here to help. Welcome to Brian's Rompod. Well, hey there, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Brian's RunPod, where we dive deep into the world of running with some of the best minds and athletes out there. I'm your host, brian Patterson, and today we've got an awesome guest on the show Denny Cray. Ipad Sunday. Today we've got an awesome guest on the show, denny Cray.
Speaker 1:Now, if you've been around the running community online, you may have come across his work. Denny is the creator of Dizrunscom and the voice behind Dizruns Radio, a podcast that's all about running and the people who love it. His journey started back in 2012, when he got serious about his own running and decided to share his experiences with the world. Spoiler alert the world wasn't all that interested in the split times, but Denny didn't let that slow him down. After trying his hand at blogging, he found his groove with podcasting, and the rest is history. Today, we're going to dive deep into how Denny turned his passion for running into a thriving podcast and some of his best advice for runners and what keeps him motivated to keep those logging those miles, so stick around and it's going to be a fun one. And welcome Denny.
Speaker 2:Yes indeed, yes indeed. Hey, Brian, thank you for having me and quite the good job on the introduction, I think it's all right, so good.
Speaker 1:Um, anyway, I I just wanted to start like I start with a lot of my guests is what was your experience relationship with exercise at school, at high school?
Speaker 2:in.
Speaker 2:In high school I mostly played ice hockey uh grew up in in the northern part of the united States where hockey was a fairly popular thing. So ice hockey was my sport through the winter months. I dabbled in playing golf in the spring and summer. But I was not anything remotely good at golf. I was, on a good day, a bogey golfer, which I guess is all right for most novices. But to play competitively, even at the high school level, you needed to be six or eight strokes per nine better, so you know, 10 or 12 strokes per 18 better. I just wasn't. Wasn't there, but I enjoyed knocking the ball around the around the golf course a little bit. But yeah, ice hockey was my thing and running was definitely not yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I mean, I've I've played golf only with my dad, you know, sort of on a casual basis, and I've begun to realize that golf is 90% mind and 10% technique, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Although, if that 10% of technique is off, then the 90% of the mind is probably shot too, so they're very closely related. Yeah, very, very, very frustrating game. So when you went to I'm assuming you went you went on to college, did, did. Did you kind of transition, catch the running bug there, or did it? Was it just something? You just sort of focused on your studies and being within the college environment?
Speaker 2:I ran a little bit in college but I I definitely wouldn't say I caught the running bug. There it was. It was more of a I don't know exactly what it's like over on your side of the pond, but but here in the States you know there's a. You know I wasn't too crazy of a partier but there was a few few light nights of pizza and beers and things like that. And so you know, running was just kind of something that I do a little bit for exercise to try to keep keep the weight, keep the waistline in check, things like that. But I would never say that I would have enjoyed running in college. It was. It was a necessary evil, it was a means to an end to just try to maintain a decent physique, and that was it. You know, the best, the best part of every run in college was the, the, the last step, cause it was over, you know, and the first step was the worst because it was just beginning.
Speaker 2:So, it was a little bit late. It was in grad school more when I kind of started to catch the bug a little bit Okay.
Speaker 1:So did you go to college to where you near where you live now, or or you?
Speaker 2:So I I went. I went to college in Florida. I grew up in kind of the Northern parts of the United States, in Northern Michigan for those that are familiar with the U? S geography, um so so, fairly a fairly good distance away. Got away from the winter, that was a big thing. As much as I liked playing ice hockey growing up, I didn't care for the shoveling, the snow and the ice and the cold and all that kind of stuff. So went to college in Florida. Like I said, didn't much love the running, but but my, my studies. I was studying athletic training, so kind of sports, physio, sports medicine. Oh right, I was around athletes a lot.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed sport, still enjoy sport.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just about any, any variety. You know, you throw a ball on the field or or or whatever, and and I'll watch. I'll watch people do it, I'll try to do it myself, and so so, yeah, I headed, I headed. I headed far South and it lived, ended up living in Florida for for the better part of 20 years. But we've moved just a little farther North now, but still still in the Southeastern part of the United States still in the southeastern part of the United States.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I suppose the next question is is when did that kind of transition, you know, when was that, that transition that you basically, oh, this is something I might enjoy or something I might, you know, even make a career out of, or something I might write about?
Speaker 2:Right when I was in grad school. So a few years after college I went to middle Tennessee state university and as I was the athletic trainer with the track and cross-country team, so I was sitting out at the track every day watching practice, stretching athletes and taping them up as needed, just trying to take care of the medical sides of whatever the college athletes needed. And ultimately long story somewhat short I kind of started to run just because I was surrounded by runners pretty much all day, every day. And then when we'd be sitting at the track at the end of practice they'd be stretching or they'd be doing whatever, and I couldn't leave until all the athletes were pretty much done with their workouts and their stretching and make sure they didn't need anything. And there were enough days of just sitting there. I mean kind of literally twiddling my thumbs, just wishing this was over with, just bored, like I've been been here all day, been here, you know, waiting for for practice to be over, and probably in an effort to try to stay awake a couple, a couple of times, I just go out and run a couple of laps around the track. Nothing, nothing fancy, but just um, just moving, just trying to get some movement in.
Speaker 2:And you know, like I said earlier, when I was in in undergrad, kind of every run, like the first step was always the worst, like I really didn't like it. And I don't know that I liked it when I was running around the track in Tennessee, but like I didn't hate it and so it's kind of like Hmm, all right, this is something that you know, it gets some, gets some movement in. Of course, the exposure of being around I mean college track athletes are are a higher level than I ever was in terms of their, their running capabilities and talents and whatnot. But just being around it every day and it's like, oh, like maybe there's something to this. And then I didn't hate it. So it was it started, I was at least where the seed got planted and it took a few years before I really enjoyed it, but at least I I more than tolerated, I liked it enough that I kept going at it, even when I wasn't just bored.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Even if I wasn't fully, fully on board with the sport of running yet.
Speaker 1:I mean something that just popped into my head is how the culture of athletics in the U S in terms of the college system, you know, like you have the American American football and whatever is very much taken seriously compared to, let's say, other countries. Did you ever feel there was that pressure and expectation on you because you had taken a degree you know or you know in that particular field?
Speaker 2:I mean certainly not from the athletic side of things, but but I mean, yeah, I had a role with the team, you know I mean, I know I mean, I was their, their kind of first, first line of of medical um, you know, whatever you want to call it, the the injury prevention and and treatments and recoveries and things like that.
Speaker 2:And we definitely had some really, really top caliber athletes on our team a couple of field athletes that were competing at the at the national level and the in the U S, a couple of them even the representative of their countries.
Speaker 1:They're not from the United States, but that um you know, different African countries and and uh, canada.
Speaker 2:I think we had a couple of Canadian athletes, so, um, maybe not at the, not at the Olympic level necessarily, some really top quality athletes. I don't know that I felt the pressure to to make sure that they were healthy, but that was just, that was the expectation, right, that was that was. The job was to make sure that, you know, their niggles were taken care of and that they were healthy to compete on the weekend and they were healthy to be able to train you know, during the week, and so so it was.
Speaker 2:You know, I just I, I guess I I don't know that I consciously thought of it, but I certainly, you know, would consider that I was. I mean, obviously I wasn't as much a part of the team as the athletes were from the competitive sense, but I was part of the team. I mean, I was, I was, I was in the mix, you know every day.
Speaker 1:So you, because you had spare time on your hands and then you just started to take up running and then, from there, you I mean you kind of got, kind of got the bug and you know, did you think, oh, maybe I could, you know, do for 5Ks or 10Ks, or even aim for a marathon. Is that how it worked?
Speaker 2:Yeah, pretty much I was. I was there for for two years in Tennessee with the, with the track team, and by the time I had finished up with them, I was, I was probably running. I don't remember exactly what I was running, but like five or six miles probably, I don't know four times a week, something like that. Three, four times a week. So it wasn't always super consistent, but I'd try to run on my lunch break and, depending on how the track schedule went with meets and things like that, maybe I could sneak away for an hour at a track meet when we didn't have any of our athletes were competing and nobody needed anything. I could go for a little bit of a run, um. But then after I finished up a couple of months later I was, I, you know, was done with school, we had moved back to Florida and I decided to look for a half marathon, cause I kind of felt like that was that, like that, that I had raced much. I think it may be done a, maybe a couple of five Ks, maybe a 10 K before that, but I can't even remember if I've done a 10k before that, uh, but it's like I'll. Just I could see if I could find a half marathon and I honestly didn't really realize what I was getting myself into. But I just figured yeah, you know, that sounds like 13.1 miles, sounds like a doable, doable distance. I think I could handle that.
Speaker 2:And we were living relatively close to walt disney world and my my wife and I were disney fans still are dis Disney fans a little bit and so I looked up the Disney marathon or I was looking for the Disney half marathon and at the time the half marathon was sold out, but the marathon still had openings and it was, I don't know, maybe five months away, something like that. So I just said, well, I'll probably just wait till next year to sign up to the half marathon and it'll probably be sold out again by the time I get around to signing up for it. So, which was not how I would recommend people doing it I didn't know what I was getting into for a half marathon. I certainly didn't know what I was getting into for a full marathon, but I signed up and that was for January of 2010, was the first marathon and it was I don't know how much you want to get into the story it was a disaster.
Speaker 2:It did not go well, but I swore I'd never do it again. All those rookie made all the rookie mistakes. I'd never do it again. You know kind of, all those rookie made all the rookie mistakes. I'll never do this again. This is stupid. Why did I do this? And then, of course, next year I did it again and didn't go well there.
Speaker 1:So what were the the first time, what were the key things that you learned or what were the key mistakes you made?
Speaker 2:I just didn't train well, I mean, I wasn't I you know for for being around the track, the track athletes, you'd think I would have learned more, but I was mostly around. Like, honestly, the way, the way that our, our workouts worked out there, Um, I was mostly around either the sprinters or the field athletes on the regular basis. The distance team, the cross country team, would go off campus A lot of times. I'd go to the trails, I'd go other places to run, so I kind of didn't see their workouts very often. Not that that gives me, I don't know if that was an excuse or not, but I just I just didn't know how to train for a longer distance type of event, I guess. And so I was doing. I mean, I was literally doing one run a week. I was doing a long run every weekend. I would try to get a little bit longer every weekend.
Speaker 2:And if the way I tell the story I think it's accurate, I don't know I'd have to go back to my Garmin deep, deep in my Garmin archives to find out. But I believe that the week, the weekend before the marathon, I did a 14 mile long run and that was my longest run ever. It was 14 miles the week before the marathon, and I mean I honestly I thought that I've done more than half. Now, like I can do this, like like, if I've done 14, I can do 26,. You know, because apparently that's how math works is 14 and 12 is less than that, so it'd be easy peasy.
Speaker 2:Um and so, and, and, and, look, and again. Looking back, I see all the, the, the, the mistakes, because in that buildup process every week I would try to do like one mile farther and I would always get to what I had done the week previous, feeling good, and then that last mile I was really struggling. So when I did 10 miles, I got to nine, I felt really good, but the ninth to the 10th was a struggle. And the next week, of course, I got to 10, feeling pretty good, and 10th to 11th was a struggle. So I don't know how I convinced myself that if I got to 14, that the to get to 26 wouldn't be too bad, but it you know, spoiler alert it was. It was really difficult. I think I ended up walking most of the last nine or 10 miles and there you go.
Speaker 1:You said you, you, you ran for 14. Did you? That was it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I've been through 14 or 15 and maybe the race day you know like excitement and adrenaline got me through 16, but yeah, somewhere in 16, 16 and a half, it was just like the wheels came off of the you know, the train went off the rails and we just death marched and tried to run a little bit, but mostly just walked. It, walked it in and you know, like I said, I told myself how dumb this was and how, how this was the most foolish thing I've ever done and I'll never do this again. And I was. I was telling myself for for 10 miles of walking that this was the, this was it that I was done. Thankfully I wasn't, but yeah, that was probably the biggest mistake because I just I was so naive or so just I mean, I just didn't know. You know, you don't know what you don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I just didn't know how to train. I didn't, I didn't.
Speaker 1:Did you do any? You know the run during the week. Did you do anything, any technical, anything technical or anything like that?
Speaker 2:Nope, not really. I mean, maybe I would mix in a mile here or a mile there, but very sporadically. It wasn't a routine. I was just again. I was and I don't know. I mean, maybe in my defense in 2009,. I guess it would have been the fall of 2009 that I was training.
Speaker 2:Obviously, social media wasn't what it is now and blogs and Information was out there, but you really had to go looking for it as opposed to you know, you just kind of stumbling upon it a little bit easier. Um, I wasn't involved in any type of running community. There were runners in town, but I didn't really know them. I wasn't connected to them. Um, so maybe there's a little bit of excuse there, but I just, I just didn't know and so I just thought what I was doing would work, and I I found out the
Speaker 2:hard way on race day, with you know eight, nine, ten miles to go, that I did not train well for this thing. Yeah, I've got a. Yeah, I could, I could quit or I could get. But see, I convinced myself so much that I would never do this again that I was like, well, if I'm never going to do this again, I have to finish this one. Like, yeah, I'd really kick myself if I just, if I just quit at mile 18, like so I just get through it, be done with it and never do it again. Which is probably the only reason that I made it through that, that 26.2 that day.
Speaker 1:I mean, we'll, we'll, we'll come to your kind of coaching methods later, but do you think when you train your coach, your athletes, now, do you, do you give them kind of an element that they make their own mistakes like the mistakes that you made?
Speaker 2:I mean, we certainly try not to you know, try to avoid, avoid some of those mistakes, but I do think that that you know, maybe not across the board, but but in a certain you know, to a certain extent. You know I don't want to say failure necessarily, but but you know you learn a lot. Of people learn best by overcoming by, by by, by experience. And so you know, sometimes there there is an element of you know I'm trying to to make sure that they're doing things maybe a better way than I did. But sometimes, you know, folks really do.
Speaker 2:You know, oh, you know, whatever, like cause, one thing I sometimes do, and maybe as a as a negative, or at least can be a negative, of my coaching styles I'm pretty relaxed about most things, so if you miss a run here, you miss a run there, like, hey, that that happens to everybody. Um, but I, I you know some sometimes that can go too far, where you know, a missed run turns into a missed week, turns into a missed two weeks, turns into I haven't run much in the last month, and then it's harder to get back on track. And so you know, and there are, you know, there are probably some folks that I've coached over the years that that maybe a little bit firmer guidance would have been, would have been helpful to try to get them back on track earlier. But but I'm I guess that's just kind of my. My style is more of like hey, you know, come on, let's, let's go and and and I'll try to help you, but ultimately, you know.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm working with adults and and you gotta, you've got to bring a little bit of that motivation, you gotta. You gotta bring a little bit to the table too. I can't do it all for you yeah, exactly, exactly, that's right.
Speaker 1:so I was just listening to podcasts the other day. I don't know what your take on this is. Well, it was the Runners World podcast. It was the UK version, as it were, and there has been this kind of resurgence in running, kind of like a boom. Have you experienced that recently?
Speaker 2:A bit. Yeah, I feel sometimes like it's hard for me to tell, because I guess I'm deep enough in the running bubble now that even if the bubble gets bigger when you're in the middle of a bubble do you notice how much bigger it's getting. But certainly I mean there's, at least from my vantage point. There's more and more races here in the United States are selling out quicker. Some of the lottery races that we have the New Yorks and the Chicago, some of the world majors that have a lottery that five, six years ago it was.
Speaker 2:I don't want to say you never heard of anybody not getting picked in the Chicago Marathon lottery, but it felt like almost everybody you knew that signed up for the lottery got in and the last couple of years.
Speaker 2:It's like there's more and more people Like I don't know if it's half, I don't know, I don't know what the percentage is, but there's just there's a lot more people that don't get into that marathon than what used to and so like clearly more people are signing up because they're not going. You know, we're not taking half the field. That means more people are signing up for it.
Speaker 1:And of course, then there's a trickle down effect from that.
Speaker 2:So if you were, I think I want to run Chicago and that's in October and you don't get into it. Well then, then you're looking at for some of the you know, smaller race, smaller, quote, unquote smaller races and then those start to sell out. That are kind of October, november races and I know harder and harder to get into again.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean I, um, I mean, I did apply for that here that I'm trying to do the six stars and it's like like again. I mean not that it was ever an easy lottery to get into, but it's just like feels like almost no one from the united states is getting in anymore, or having a lot harder time.
Speaker 2:So I don't know. I mean, I guess, I guess it feels like there's more runners, but but as a as a runner, I mean not even from the coach side of things, but just as as a runner, like I think that's a good thing, you know there's room because they were saying that I'll probably give a link to the podcast.
Speaker 1:But anyway they're saying that it kind of all started at new york in the mid 70s and then it kind of blew up. And then they also mentioned a guy called jim fix who wrote a running book for ordinary people. It wasn't technical. And then they also said that in the 90s. They said the other boom was when Oprah did a run, did a marathon. I wasn't aware of that, I didn't know that, but apparently that got, and the fact that women could run a first marathon in the Olympics was 84, which is one by an American. So and that kind of that was another resurgence, another boom, as it were.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's interesting that there's all these, these, these kind of different evolutions of running, you know, over the years.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, yeah, it feels like I guess maybe, you know, hindsight makes it easy to look back and kind of see things, but it's like every maybe and you know, hindsight makes it easy to look back and kind of see things, but it's like every every 10 or 12 years there's a, there's something that seems to happen that just kind of makes things more popular. You know blows. You know there's some type of boom here, some type of boom there and, like I said, I'm all for it, even though, even though sometimes it makes you know, it makes getting into certain races a little more difficult.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think more runners is a good thing so.
Speaker 1:So you, as I said at the intro 2012, you started to initially blog about running what? What was the motivation and impetus to start that up?
Speaker 2:I mean again sounds ridiculous, but I think it was kind of one of those like I'm gonna write a write a think it was one of those.
Speaker 2:I'm going to write a blog. I just got exposed to blogs or whatever. I'm going to blog about running and I'm going to be rich. I'm going to turn into the next runner's world. It's going to be the one step below. Runner's world is going to be Diz Runs and that's going to be. I can just talk about running and get all the sponsorships and all you know, just naive and not knowing what the heck I was doing. But that was the year I kind of like I set my first mileage goal and kind of got serious about being consistent with my running. Even I was more consistent when I had a race to train for. But even when I didn't have a race, like I was trying to run two or three times a week and try to maintain things, and so I guess I was probably trying to keep myself a little bit more accountable with with blogging about it as well.
Speaker 2:But it turns out you know blogging about your, your fart, like runs, or your you know tempo runs or whatever laps around the track, I don't know. I guess it wasn't interesting Cause my first lap was in. You know, whatever it was in was in 90 seconds and my second lap was 92 seconds, like it. Just I ran out of things to write about that were interesting, about my workouts after about the second workout. But I had a website. I guess it started something that I didn't know where it was going, but I had started something at that point.
Speaker 1:Was it not long afterwards that you kind of thought, oh well, maybe I know well, podcasting wasn't in infancy then? Then, but it was, it's not as popular. Yeah, it's 2015, really, 2014, 2014 podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I would it's not.
Speaker 1:I mean then, it's it, I mean compared to now. I mean it's like every man and his dog is doing a podcast. I know so. You did it early on. So what were those early days like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is interesting to think about how the landscape, if you will, has changed in the last 10 years. But I was kind of transitioning to a self-employed role at that point. I was working as a personal trainer, but I was mostly doing, you know, mostly mornings and evenings was when my appointments were based on around clients' work schedules.
Speaker 2:So I was either you know going at five or six in the morning to workouts, or you know, five, six, seven, eight o'clock in the evening, and I was working from home throughout the day and just kind of you know, kind of biding my time, almost like how I got started with running. I was just kind of bored time, almost like how I got started with running. I was just kind of bored, Um, and I'd heard about podcasting a little bit earlier in the year, maybe late 2013 or early part of 2014. And I I dabbled into creating like a, like a general fitness podcast as well, and I was just like man, I've got all this time in the middle of the day, Like you know, I've got this running blog that I'm not really doing anything with.
Speaker 2:I could, I could maybe try to interview runners and, and you know, put them up on the on the website and that'll give me something to do during the day when.
Speaker 1:I when.
Speaker 2:I don't have a whole lot of other things going on and and yeah, so I just kind of took a flyer and tried it, and I was trying to do both podcasts at the same time and found out that was a whole lot of work and so I was really enjoying connecting with the runners and talking about running stories, and so I just I kind of shut down the other podcast and kept the running thing going, with no real plan of of of any, a new real plan.
Speaker 2:Just just, I'm enjoying talking to people and it gives me something to do a couple of couple of days a week, um, and so I'll just keep going with it. And I don't know, I guess maybe it was after about a year or so. I you know, enough people had started asking if I, if I coached or or kind of you know what, what could come of it?
Speaker 2:Um, but I kind of looked into it and started to do that, but but yeah, I mean it was. It was just, you know, you'd ask, you'd ask a runner to come on to, you know, to, to, to join you as a guest, and like, well, I don't, I mean, what is the, what is the podcast? And you at the very beginning of it, but it kind of in the early days of it and kind of see some things evolve and you know it's, it's been a lot of fun to connect with so many so many people over the years.
Speaker 1:I, I, I think I mean, and also in terms of just an aside, I think the you know, like you said, the landscape has improved. So in terms of making it more accessible, you know, in terms of you know the production values and whatever it's become, like you said, it's like you can be an equal with someone who is quite professional, who may have like a team behind them of 10, 10 you know, an editor and a producer, and whatever you know, you can still do it on yourself at a reasonable level. I think I that's the thing I love about it sort of thing.
Speaker 2:So yeah, absolutely it's, it's, it, it's the playing field is level, you can.
Speaker 2:You can get in and if you, if you enjoy it and put in a little bit of work and a little bit of effort, you know, have something that not only is it like, sounds good but like you enjoy it and put in a little bit of work and a little bit of effort, you know, have something that not only is like sounds good but, like you know, it's also kind of a cool thing. It can be a time capsule of of of your life, of other people's. You know people you're talking to, kind of their stories, I think it's. I think it's just I don't know.
Speaker 1:I mean, maybe I'm Pollyanna to it because enjoy it, I enjoy it for sure, yeah, yeah, that's good. So maybe on to your coaching. Have you you kind of touched on it a little bit in terms of your coaching style? I mean, was that, let's say, from day one you said, well, I'm, I have a very, you know, relaxed, so-called laid back maybe style, or is it something you've kind of organically developed throughout the years?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I would say organic development is part of it. I mean, you know, my, my personality, I think I think it'd be safe to say is pretty laid back. I don't get too worked up about too many things, and so I think that that that it was just natural for me to to kind of head into coaching that way, without without getting too, you know, bogged down on on all the super fine details. You know, did you, did you run nine minute pace or did you run nine 10?
Speaker 1:minute pace.
Speaker 2:Well, like it's close enough, you know, whatever, if you're in there, if you're in the right ballpark, did you go 10K or did you go 10, you know?
Speaker 2:Did you go 11K? Well, I mean, you know, we ran for about an hour Like it's fine, you know, anywhere in there is okay. So I would say that there's been some evolution in terms of, certainly, how I work and you know a little bit more of I don't know whether you want to call it like the bedside manner, if you will like how I interact with my athletes and certainly, and maybe even this is something I haven't really thought about but interacting differently with different athletes. Does this person need a little bit more of a hard nudge even though I'm still not going to be the yeller and screamer and I'm not going to take it to the extreme but some people do need a little bit more firm guidance or telling the hard truths a little bit more bluntly than maybe beating around the bush sometimes, and some people need a little bit more pat on the back and come on, we can get back around the shoulder, as it were.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think I've learned a little, or I think I think that part of my coaching has evolved, but I think for, for better or for worse, and I hope for better. You know I try not to be quote unquote different as a coach than I am as a, as a real person. I try to bring my, my real personality and, like I said, pretty laid back, pretty, pretty relaxed about most things I mean and again, not that I, not that I don't have things that are important and goals and things like that and try to, you know, make sure I'm holding myself to a good, high standard as a coach, but also recognizing that you know everybody I work with like none of them put food on their table based on their running performance.
Speaker 1:You know, they, they all have. They have the real jobs, they have their families, they have their kids, they have their other obligations and so a lot of times they you know, and and.
Speaker 2:I don't mean this in a bad way, but like they beat themselves up bad enough when they miss a run or when when something goes sideways that they don't need me to pile on. Running is something they enjoy doing and I want them to be successful towards their goals. But at the end of the day, whether they hit the mark or not, do their kids still love them? Do their partners still love them? Are they doing a good job at all?
Speaker 1:the other aspects of life, and if they are, then the running will take care of itself.
