Episode 46: Jay Druba - The Carmel Marathon Is Not in California

Episodes

Mar 8

Jay Druba interned at the very first Carmel Marathon in 2011. Now he and his wife Katie own it. Meet the new race director before race weekend.

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About this episode

Jay Druba was the marketing intern at the first Carmel Marathon in 2011, and last year he and his wife Katie bought the race from Todd and CRG Events. Jay ran cross country and track at Franklin College, raced triathlons, owned a local event company called Redline Events, and spent about three and a half years at Ironman leading digital marketing for its North American events, including the Rock 'n' Roll series.

We talk about taking over the race, why some people register thinking it's in Carmel, California, how the solar eclipse moved race day to Boston weekend, and the pancakes and beer at the finish. We also get into running with his dad, raising two girls who might love running, his traumatic first week at Ironman, producing live Ironman broadcasts, and how he channels his competitive streak into work now.

In this episode, we discuss

Interning for the first Carmel Marathon in 2011 and buying the race 13 years later
How he and his wife Katie split the work while both holding full-time jobs
Runners who register thinking the race is in Carmel, California
Growing to nearly 6,000 runners and about 2,000 in the full marathon
The shared half and full course and running past the finish line at mile 13
Why the 2024 solar eclipse moved race day to Boston Marathon weekend
How the marathon waitlist works and how to switch from the half
Pancakes from Indiana Spine Group and the beer garden at the finish
Growing up running local 5Ks with his dad and running at Franklin College
Hoping our daughters love running without pushing them
Starting at Ironman on the day the Rock 'n' Roll team was laid off
Producing live Facebook broadcasts of pro Ironman races
The magic of an Ironman finish line between 11 p.m. and midnight
Channeling his competitive streak into work instead of racing
Supporting other local races like the Geist Half Marathon, the Full Mo and Prairie on Fire

Chapters

Intro
From intern to race owner
Running a race with Katie
Carmel, Indiana, not California
What's new and a bigger field
Running past the finish line
The eclipse and Boston weekend
Waitlist, pancakes and beer
Jay's running story
Raising girls who run
Running with his dad and meeting Katie
Working at Ironman
Jay's own triathlon racing
Competing without racing
Supporting the local running community
Mantra and next milestone

Where to find Jay

Carmel Marathon
Instagram: Carmel Marathon

Mentioned in this episode

Races: Carmel Marathon, Boston Marathon, Polar Bear, Philadelphia Marathon, Monumental Mile, Rookie Run, Tri Indy, Ironman Chattanooga, Ironman Louisville, Ironman Lake Placid, Ironman Mont-Tremblant, Ironman St. George, Ironman Wisconsin, Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas, Chicago Triathlon, Geist Half Marathon, Full Mo 50K, Prairie on Fire, Indy Mini Marathon, CNO Indianapolis Monumental Marathon
Organizations and charities: No More (nomore.org), CRG Events, Redline Events, Ironman, Rock 'n' Roll Running Series, Beyond Monumental, Indiana Spine Group, Rachel Michelle Running, Franklin College, Angie's List
Other: 2024 total solar eclipse, Facebook Watch, Mike Reilly

Previous guests mentioned

Related episodes

Frequently asked

Who owns the Carmel Marathon?

Jay Druba and his wife Katie bought the Carmel Marathon in Carmel, Indiana from Todd and CRG Events; Jay had been the race's marketing intern in its first year, 2011.

Why did the 2024 Carmel Marathon move to Boston Marathon weekend?

Jay Druba explains that the original date was two days before the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse, and the city wasn't comfortable hosting the race with so many visitors expected, so it moved back a week to April 13.

Is the Carmel Marathon in California?

No. Jay Druba says some runners have registered thinking the race was in Carmel, California, but the Carmel Marathon is in Carmel, Indiana, just north of Indianapolis.

Support this show

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically, so it may contain errors.

Welcome to Finish Lines and Milestones with Ally Brettnacher. Incredible stories and tales of triumphs with everyday people achieving their goals and fitness. This podcast brought to you by Athlete Bouquets. Celebrate finish lines and milestones of the people that you love by visiting athletebouquets.com Hi and welcome to episode 46. This is Allie and I am still coming down off the high of Co hosting my first in person event representing this podcast and team athlete bouquets. My friend Eileen Poor who I met through doing this podcast was episode 17 and she asked me to help her get a group together to run a 5K to support an organization called No More Org.

Their website is nomore.org and they are fighting to end domestic and sexual violence, a 'cause that is incredibly important to support, especially given the violence against women in the running community recently. And so we ended up getting almost 40 people to register to either run with us in person or virtually. We raised over $5000 and to my knowledge we're the number one team for this organization, which was awesome. But the real awesomeness came when we all got together and we ran the monon down and back. The weather wasn't perfect but everybody showed up. We had gosh, probably at least 20 runners and we had bibs printed out.

We had signs for the start and turn around. We got together afterwards for some drinks and food and it just really fired me up to see our community come together and really see what community is behind this podcast. So bringing people that I've had on this show together is really cool. And then seeing them support another guest is really cool and then she's turning around and supporting another guest. And it just makes me feel really good. And I'm so honored to have told your story, Eileen. And I'm really honored to know you. And I can't wait to do that again next year and hopefully do more events together as a community throughout the year.

So second thing I wanted to make sure I talked about before getting into this week's episode was voting for the Indie Monumental Marathon. So we were nominated as USA Today's 10 Best Marathons in the People's Choice Awards. And so every day you can go and vote once per device. And there will be a link in the show notes here. There's also a link in the Athlete Bouquet's Instagram in the profile. So please, if you are so inclined and love Monumental as much as I do, please go in and vote so that we can be number one. I think we're currently at #3, which is not good enough.

So come on people. So this week's episode is focused around a different race that takes place in the spring, not in California, but in Carmel, IN not Carmel, CA. We talked about that a little bit and I am honored to introduce you to Jay Druba who was in the Indy area but moved away for a bit and now is back. And him and his wife Katie purchased the Carmel Marathon last year and now this year on April 13th will have their first year kind of with them at the reigns. And so I was. I thought it was a great idea to bring Jay on so everybody could feel like they know him and hear more about his background and his wife's background a little bit.

And I think you'll find that you'll have confidence going into race weekend that he will honor the excellence that Todd and his team have brought over the last over a decade. So during this episode, we talked about that acquisition a little bit. He shares how it doesn't feel like working. We talked about the finish line set up and I asked him his thoughts about what could change in the future for the race. We talked about the eclipse because that's why the race was moved to a different weekend this year, which happens to be Boston weekend. He also talked about how he hasn't actually run the race.

His wife, Katie, has, but he probably never will at this point, given that he now is the race director. We talked about pancakes and beer, of course, that's key to the Carmel Marathon. We talked about Jay's running journey, how he went from high school athlete to college and then to participating in triathlons as parents. We talked about how we hope that our girls love the sport of running as much as we do, but that we're cautious of not pushing them into it. And that brought us to talking about how he ran with his dad and how lucky we both are to have such supportive parents and how we had such supportive parents while we were growing up.

He mentions and talks about his wife a little bit more and how he's certainly married up in his words. So Katie, if you are listening, I think you will enjoy that part of the podcast. And then we talked about how he started working at Iron Man and his first week was a little traumatic. That's an interesting story and a little bit more about what his job was when he worked at Iron Man. We talked a little bit about the Iron Man races that Jay himself has competed in over the years. And then I really love how he relates his competitiveness instead of to racing anymore, how he relates that to his professional life.

I thought that was really great advice for anybody who may find themselves not really racing anymore, but still want to find a way to harness that competitive spirit. So we're a little over a month at this point away from race day. Carmel Marathon will be on April 13th this year. I will be at the Expo. So excited to meet some of you there hopefully. And I also hope you enjoy this conversation with Jay Druba. OK, we're here. Welcome, Jay. Thank you. I'm honored to be here. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. It's nice to finally meet you in person. Indeed. Yeah, I know. I feel like we've talked back and forth now, so much over e-mail and and everything, so it's good to sit down and meet you face to face.

Yeah. Congrats again on acquiring the Carmel Marathon. Thank you. It's been, yeah, the last year or so has been quite a journey, but it's been, I'm having a blast with it, so it's been exciting. So what I thought was so cool is that you were an intern for Todd the very first year of the marathon. That's right. So I was a senior in College in 2011, the first year that Todd started the Carmel Marathon. And so I was the marketing intern. So I I remember driving around with Todd and Aaron Moody that first year, literally working on the course map, trying to figure out, you know, the businesses along the route and who we needed to notify about the course.

And it was just all the communications that go into an event like this are so much more than people realize. Because you you drop an event like this into the middle of a city that's never seen anything like it and traffic gets shut down and all this. And so it was. It was a really cool peek behind the curtain of the event business for me and And now here we are 1413, fourteen years later. Yeah, that's so cool. I love it so much. So how did how did you come to acquire it? Like take us through that that process and then obviously we'll go, we'll go back because of the purpose of this is for everybody here in Carmel, which a lot of our listers are are here in Carmel to get to know you for this year's race so that they can feel like they know you heading into race weekend.

Totally. So yeah, I've been involved in running or enduring sports, It feels like my whole life in some capacity. So I owned a business called Redline Events several years ago. We put on five KS Sprint Triathlons in the indie area and so always had a kind of soft spot for event production. I took a job at Iron Man in 2017, so we moved away for a few years and then family and I moved back about two years ago and I kind of wanted to find a way just to get back involved in the running community. And I'd heard from a couple of people that that Todd had sold the Polar Bear, which is one of his other events.

And so I just reached out to him more than anything just to kind of reconnect and see what he was up to. And you know he said he was starting some new events out West and and wanted to focus on those and and would consider selling caramel. And so the the wheels got spinning and it just sort of sort of worked out. And I think you know fortunate to have Todd on the other side of this equation because he's been such a huge help throughout the past year guiding me along this path of making sure I don't mess anything up too badly. So yeah, it just one of the, it's just one of those things that sort of worked out and it's a for me a perfect blend of passion that I have for endurance sports and running and my professional career has been in marketing.

So I think there's an opportunity here to kind of grow the event And so it just sort of made a lot of sense and and it just kind of worked out. Yeah, and so and your wife Katie is involved too, right? She is more the the brains of the operation I would say and she's the voice of reason. She kind of reigns me in when I get carried away and and want to do a little too much so and and she's she's a financial analyst so she we complement each other really well. I'm usually the idea guy. She's the one saying like can't do that this year, let's hold off or here's how this has to work.

And so yeah, and she's going to manage. She does a lot of the customer service stuff, answering emails and and DMS and stuff like that. She's going to lead the organization and the management of the Expo, which is like a whole event in and of itself. So yeah, it's it's been great to have her along for the ride as well. I think at time she probably wants to strangle me, but it's it's been it's been a fun experience so far. Oh that's that's funny. I can appreciate that. It would be. That would be tricky. You know, like you can't necessarily leave work because you're both doing a lot of a lot of work in the same event, same business and so you do, you both have full time day jobs alongside of this, right?

We do, yes. That's right. Yeah. So it's been it's certainly a labor of love, right. It's it's do your job. Put the We have two girls. They're 5:00 and 7:00. Do the family thing in the evening, put the girls to bed and then work on Carmel for a few hours. So it's it's been very much like nights and weekends. But yeah, it it doesn't feel like work. So you know, it's people ask like how do you manage because that's a full time job. I was going to say like anybody who is in the industry who is put on an event, it's a full time job.

Yeah, it but it doesn't, you know, for me, and you know, maybe I haven't become jaded yet. Maybe I'll get there eventually. But like, it doesn't just wait, right? Right. It doesn't feel like work to me. I'm I'm so enjoying the process and everything that goes into it, the the planning and and everything that it, it doesn't feel. I I have not yet felt like I got to go work on stuff for the marathon, right? I wake up everyday excited to work on it and to to think about it. So we'll see how long it'll last. But for now, I'm having a ton of fun with it.

Well, you get to do a lot of the idea and marketing stuff. I think about Katie, who gets all the e-mail. Todd was telling me about some of the examples of emails he's gotten. And I just was flabbergasted, which I shouldn't be, because, you know, there's always people who just, it's easier just to fire off an e-mail than it is to fire it off the search and Google. I guess you. Know we we put on the website there's a contact form and an e-mail address to get in touch with us and at the very the first thing on that page are frequently asked questions and yet 90% of the emails that we get are those same questions.

And so there's it's part of it, right. I mean you're going to have to answer questions and it's it comes with the territory. So it it's, you know it's funny we get we've had a few people now e-mail us asking for a refund because they registered and they thought the event was in California Carmel, CA and it's kind of like so we give people refunds right. Like, I get it, but it's like the homepage of our website says April 13th Carmel IN like in big bold font. So like we we even had I, I had a group e-mail me in a panic because they had registered and they had even booked a hotel locally.

They lived in Texas or somewhere. And then they went to book their flights and they realized, oh, wait a minute, the nearest airport is not like, wait a minute, It says the nearest airport is Indianapolis. That can't be right. So they got so far and so it's just that's just part of it, you know and and people are excited when they sign up for a race and so we get it, we we do our best to try to answer the questions and treat people like we would want to be. Treated. Yeah. I mean, you got to feel pretty dumb if you do that. I would feel pretty dumb.

I'm I mean, I've done dumb stuff, don't get me wrong. Oh, 100%, yeah. But so, but it's you're like, OK, I wonder how many people do it, realize their mistake and then still come? Can you, I mean, there's got to be somebody out there that was just like, oh shoot, I booked it in Indiana. Guess I'm going to Indiana. I guess I'm going to Indy for a weekend. Yeah, I'm sure there are people who who do. I mean, we have, we're up to 46 I think now people from 46 states. Oh, that's really seven or eight countries. So there may be some people who thought they were going to California and they find themselves and and I I bet you they'll be pleasantly surprised.

When I bet they will too. So we'll see. Yeah, I don't know anything about Carmel, California, but. I've never been. I kind of want to go now just to see what it's like, but I'm sure it's. I'm sure it's not as good as our. Carmel. Yeah, certainly not. Certainly not. So how are you thinking about Carmel? Like, what are some of the things you've changed up for this year? What do you want people to know about what's coming, what you see coming, perhaps in future years? Yeah, good question. So we intentionally we're not making a ton of changes this year. The course isn't changing the start, finish line, all that kind of stuff, the schedule of the the whole weekend, you know I think we're really, really fortunate to sort of inherit a great foundation of an event from Todd and NCRG events.

And so I I don't, I don't see this as like this event needs to be revived. This needs a lot of help. For us it's more about can we maintain the reputation of excellence that they have built. Everyone knows when you come to run the Carl Marathon, it's going to be a great event, it's going to be well organized and it's going to be you know, all the stuff that you would expect. So that's our our primary objective like can we not screw this up and and make sure that we we continue to deliver on that promise. And then beyond that, you know, I think I would love to grow the event which we've done this year.

The event is going to be bigger this year pretty significantly than it was last year. We're going to have pretty close to 6000 runners in total. And how many is it usually? So last year it was about 4500. It's you know the last several years obviously with COVID and things like that, it's kind of been up and down and unpredictable. But this is, it's shaping up to be the biggest year that we've that the event has ever had. And did you open it across all distances? Yep. OK, Yep. Yeah. So we're still doing marathon. Half marathon 10K5K. And those will all be bigger. The fields this year will all be.

Bigger. Yes, I think so. The the marathon and the half are significantly larger. The 5K and the 10K are are going to be slightly larger. So those will be similar to what they've been in the the last few years. But the the biggest change is going to be in in the marathon. So last year there were about 1200 I think or so 11 or 1200 in the marathon and we're 2000 this year. So significantly more full marathoners which you know for us going back to the the operational side of the of the event, like that means we need twice as many portalits to the start.

Corral needs to be bigger, wider and longer. We need twice as many supplies at the aid stations. All that kind of stuff that we we need to make sure that when we add people to the event the experience doesn't suffer, right. Because at the end of the day like it doesn't do us any good to add a bunch of people to the race and make it bigger and then deliver a a crappy experience because no one's going to come back, right. And ultimately we that's that's why we're here. We know, you know the Carl Marathon I mentioned, we have people from nearly all 50 states, but 70 to 80% of people who run are are within 30 minutes of here.

It's a super local race and so we know that if we don't deliver operationally that people won't come back. Yeah. Do you think about future years? Like one of the things I think a lot about? I've run the half. I forget how many times, at least a handful of times. I've never run the full marathon. I've done the 10K once last year and then I don't think I've ever done the five. Ki usually like to do the half but I've held off on doing the full because. Do you know what I'm going to say? Boston. No. Maybe someday. Let's hope. Yeah, that's another topic. But the reason that I've been nervous about trying the full is because of the finish line, because of the mental.

The mental thing of like coming back and like seeing people finishing and then you have 13.1 more miles to go. I've only run run one other race like that. I did Philadelphia before they switched to have the half and full on different different days and I was sick that day, really sick. I shouldn't have run at all but I ended up just being like, yeah I'm going to just peace out and I'm going to go to the right here and I'm going to finish and then let my friends continue to run the full marathon. So, and I've talked to other people about that and they're like, yeah, I mean I still, they still run the full, but it's hard to you know, it's.

It gives you an easy out. If you get to mile 13 and you're like you know what, I'd be happier if I stopped. It's an easy quit. So yeah. And for for those who don't know our our marathon and half, they share the 1st 13 miles, of course the exact same loop And right at the finish, the half marathoners split off and finish and the marathoners go right past the finish line and go do a a different 2nd loop. And you know it's funny you. I've heard mixed feedback. I've heard the exact concern that you have of like, I can't handle running past the finish line and not finishing.

And then I've also heard people say like, that's awesome. It's a mid race boost. There's so many people. Cheering be. Helpful. There's music there are there are people cheering? It's it's it is a really cool part of the course if you can convince yourself to keep going. If you don't, think about the fact that you could. You could just be done and go grab a beer and some pancakes. And so it's, yeah, it's kind of, it depends, I think, on your personality and how you feel about it. But we have gotten mixed feedback about that. I I will say, you know, for us as race organizers, it's super nice.

Oh, yeah, I bet to to have, you know, those two races share a course for the first half. When you think about every, every mile, of course that we have to have opened is that many more hundreds of cones, police officers, medical support aid stations. And so it's not just a, you know, like selfishly it's a little bit easier for us, but more than that, it's a better experience for the runners because you're running with more people. The marathoners are that whole first half. You've got a crowd around you and it's, you know, can keep you going, but it's also just, you know, we can have more aid stations and all that kind of stuff.

So yeah, I don't, I don't know if that course will will remain the same forever. There's always construction going on and reasons we have to change courses. But you know, living in Carmel, what that's like. But for now, I think it's yeah, it's funny to hear mixed feedback about that part of the course. Yeah, I could see how people would like it too. Like the energy of of that area is really nice. Yeah, there's an aid station right there. You come through, there's music blasting, there's people cheering. You get to see your friends and family. That's the other nice thing about that course. If you're you have spectators, they can see you at the start and the finish and at the halfway point without ever leaving that area, right.

You don't have to go anywhere. And so you get a little extra crowd support that way as well. And then? There's an aid station you get to run by, some live music. You get to envy the people in the beer garden who have already finished, yeah? Yeah, right. Feel like, OK, I'll be there in just give me a couple hours or. However long you go from there on to the Modon, back on to the Modon, which is one of the best parts of that course. So yeah, yeah, it's all good. Yeah, OK. Yeah. The other thing you mentioned was Boston being in close proximity because Carmel is notoriously so flat and it's a nice race to perhaps BQ.

And then this weekend, I know my running coach, Rich. I'm like, oh, are you running Carmel? She's like, no, I'll be on a plane to Boston for the marathon. So how did that, how, how did it conflict this year? How did that happen? Because usually it's not the same. Right, it it hasn't been the same weekend for a while. It's it's kind of funny. So the solar eclipse this year is on April 8th, which is Monday. Our our original event date was going to be April 6th, 2 days before the eclipse and the city was just not comfortable with. There's going to be so many events that weekend already.

People in town for the eclipse and and they didn't know exactly what to expect in terms of like how many hotel rooms are going to be available. Is it going to be gridlock in the city can like this is just doesn't seem like a good idea And so, so we moved back a week so we're the Boston weekend now. We're also off of Carmel's spring break. So all the schools in the area are on spring break leading up to the eclipse. And so historically a lot of people are out of town for our race, which is a double edged sword. You can't run the event if you're in Florida on spring break.

But that also has meant that you know, traffic is lighter because a lot of people are out of town. So we're going to have heavier traffic this year and and some other challenges. But we had to move our Expo. Our Expo was always at the high school. We had to do it this year because it's a school day. So we can't use their cafeteria. So yeah, it it was just kind of this fluke thing with the solar eclipse that everybody agreed that it's probably best if we if we move this to a different weekend. So we'll see how it works out. I don't know for next year what you know what what our date will be yet, but we're still working through that.

But yeah, it was sort of, you know, I think it it wasn't by choice, but I actually think it's worked out really well. I think we've gotten more runners now because of the change, you know, off of spring break. Right. People will be here and like you said, 7080% local gives you a nice pool of people who perhaps maybe haven't had a chance to do it because they're always gone. Yeah. And we've had people reach out you know all the schools in Hamilton County are on the same spring break Carmel Fishers HSE and and most of the schools in the area. And so we've had a lot of people reach out and like thank you for moving the day I can I can finally run out of course.

Yeah, we did this for you. So, you know, it was sort of like at the time I was like, oh, this is really bad. It's going to be Boston weekend. Everybody's, you know, But I think it's worked out. And so we'll, we'll see, we'll see how it goes with traffic and all that this year. But yeah, the darn solar eclipse. Right. What are you doing? Anything for the eclipse like this is such a weird. I'm like, what are we going to do? I know it's like 2 minutes of a thing. It's so funny because so we just ordered the glasses on Amazon so that we can do the whole, you know, and our girls are both going to be home from school because the spring break got extended for a day, you know, So I I don't.

We're probably just going to walk in our backyard and stare at the sun for a few minutes. And, you know, yeah, it's it's funny because the Speedway down in Indy is doing a huge event. There are events all through Hamilton County and it's just such a funny thing because you people show up and spend hours like setting up and getting ready for this thing and then it lasts 3 minutes. So I I don't know, we don't have any big plans. I've heard, you know, I was in some of the planning meetings actually with the city. Oh, that's kind. Of neat you you were talking about what events can we have and how do we handle this and all that kind of stuff and they had done some outreach to other cities from you know past years with that had been through something.

Like this, what do they call in the? Path of totality, Yeah. Totality. So they so they got to these plans and these case studies from other cities that had experienced this. And what they found was that it it just sort of like messes everything up because people will be driving down the road and they'll just stop and get out of their car and look. And so like the interstates get backed up, like all the roads get backed up. And so it's one of those things like do we really want to encourage people to go out and contribute to that? So it it's this weird balance of like we want people to to get together feel like a community and experience this this rare occurrence, you know, together, but also like can we can this not be a mess?

But I I'm just like, I I hate to say this and put bad vibes out in the universe. I'm just hoping it's not like cloudy and rainy that. I think the same thing because I'm like I I get the ads for the Speedway all the time for the event at the Speedway. And I'm I'm just thinking just yeah, like because that for everything. And it'll still like, so supposedly it will get dark. So you'll it's still going to be like darker than normal, but like it's still, it's cloudy, right? Yeah, let's just hope. I just hope it's not like, yeah. I saw that Delta Airlines, I think it was Delta has a flight.

They've they've two flights now, they added a second one that's going to like follow the path or something. Like that or like they're going to try to like be in the path for as long as possible. I'm like but like I'm picturing 2 like do you only have tickets for one side of the plane? Because how do you see this one like it's? So funny you say that I was, I asked my wife the same. I saw that and I was like, wait a minute, so do they like fly and then like try to move back and forth? Some people on both sides of the plane can.

Like turn around for a little bit. Or, yeah, because otherwise you're going to have people, like, fighting over those seats. Like how does this work? Yeah. Or like leaning over like it just feels anyway so. Interesting. Kind of a weird thing, but I guess that's one way to guarantee that you'll see it, because you can be above the clouds, right? So that's what made me think of it. Because it's like, oh, at least you'll be able to see it you're. Guaranteed to be able to stare at the sun for. Yeah, and I don't know what to even picture, right? Because they say like totality. Like what is that?

I don't know. I don't know. I so I've heard some of those planning meetings that the city was talking about how literally, like, birds will stop chirping. Some like nocturnal animals will kind of come out. And it like, it throws everything. Like, it's really weird for a few minutes because it's kind of it's really dark. The street department was saying that the lights will, we should expect the lights to come on because it will be that dark. So it's kind of an interesting thing. I'm. I'm excited to see it again. I'm fingers crossed. I'm hoping for clear. Weather. But yeah, if not, like I wonder if the girls will remember maybe a 7 year old.

I have a 6 1/2 year old and a three-year old girl, so I have two girls as well. And yeah, I don't know, maybe the older one will remember. Yeah, but I'm glad they have don't have school that day for the older. Ones Yeah, all the schools just extended spring break, so spring breaks the week before. They just tacked on that 6th day and. Yeah, we're coming back from Florida early to be here for the for the eclipse, so. Yeah, I know. And I think you know, if you look at the time of day, it's like 3 in the afternoon, 3:30 in the afternoon, which is about the time that school gets out, which is why I'm assuming they cancelled school for that day.

Because if again, if traffic becomes an issue, like all those buses trying to get kids home and that kind of stuff. So it's probably the the right call to just for sure. Oh, funny tangent. But you know, relevant enough. Totally. So back to Carmel. Have you run the race before? You know, it's funny. I have not. OK. So I I've been to the race several times. My wife working my, yeah, So the first year we were there working as an intern, my wife ran the full a couple times, She ran the half a couple times. So I I was always there with our dog like playing the, you know, cheerleader and and support crew.

So I've seen it from that side but I never actually ran it on that day because she was always running and it was always just we we tried to stagger races right just so that somebody can support while you're racing and makes life a little easier so and she you know she loved the event which is why she came back and did it several times and you know as a spectator I loved it too because when I talked about like it's that finish line area is so awesome with Carter Green right there and so it was it was great. So I I've I've now run the entire course in chunks just to like familiarize myself with it and like because I want to know what the runners are going to experience and what the course is like and where the concerns for signage and all that kind of stuff.

So I have run the course, but I have actually never participated in the race and. Now you probably. I probably never will. Never will. Yeah, it's it's funny though, I Todd is going to pace. I know. I'm so excited. He's he's never run it either. I just you can't as a race director obviously you've so many other responsibilities that day and so he he's going to pace lead a pace group in the half marathon. So I'm going to be there at the finish line to pick his brain when he finishes, like, OK, OK, well, how was it? Well, it's fresh. Give me all the details.

What are you thinking? Was it what you expected? What what can we do better? So yeah, I'm. I'm excited for him to experience it from from that side of it. Me too. I'll be interested to see what his Pace group is like, because people who know him and who have known the event, you know, get to run with Todd, That would be. Kind of. It's like a celebrity pace group. Yes, it is, yeah. And it's, I think he's leading the 150 half. Yes, yeah. That's correct 'cause I was thinking if I was going to be running that maybe I would have hung out with him.

Yeah, which that's usually a that's like kind of middle of the pack, that's a that'll probably be a big pace group, probably be a lot of people with him. So it'll be fun. That'll be really cool to see. So I'm excited now before we leave this topic and start talking more about you Jay, what are dates should people know about leading up? Are there more price increases before the race at this point, like And if people are on the edge and considering registration, what would you tell them? Yeah, good question. So we don't have another price increase at this point. We're, you know, five weeks out or so.

We're getting there. We're closing, closing in a month, which is nerve wracking in some ways. But no, so we don't have another price increase. I would tell people that the marathon is sold out, but there's a wait list. And so right now we're seeing it. It's almost like exactly the number of people who join the wait list everyday or the number of people dropping out of the event because people defer to next year from the marathon. They drop the, you know, they sign up for a marathon and then injuries happen, life happens and they drop down to the half. So a spot opens up in the marathon.

And so, so we're seeing right now, you know, a lot of people, it's sold out. I guess I can't run. And I would tell people at least for the next two to three weeks it's still worth joining the wait list because you will probably get in so. That's good to know. And how did they do that? So you just go through the website and and just sign up as you normally would. And then when you go to pick your distance, if you pick the marathon, it says join wait list and it's totally free. You don't have to pay to join the wait list. And then you get put in a queue and it's first come, first serve.

So when someone drops out of the marathon, whoever's at the front of that line gets an e-mail. And then once you get that e-mail you have 48 hours to register. And if you don't complete your registration, then it moves on to the next person. So there's no, it's free to join the wait list. There's no risk in doing it. So we have a lot of people who have said I'll join the wait list. If I don't get in, then I'll just run the half. So you and. How does that work? If it's free for the wait list, would you then register for the half and if it opens up they would just?

Yes, so you can. So the the best way to do this is to actually go ahead and register for the half and then go join the wait list and it's it has to be in that order or it becomes a headache for us and we have to manually switch people around. So so sign up for the half, go join the marathon wait list and then when you get that e-mail it's super easy to just it will apply the amount that you paid for the half to your registration and then you'll owe an extra like 15 bucks to switch to the to the marathon. So that's that's probably the easiest way to do it.

And then that you know that the half 10K and 5K still have plenty of room. The half marathon might sell out, but if it does it will probably be race week. It'll be last minute, so we have plenty of space in in the other three distances. Well, if as somebody who's like I said, has run this event many times, anybody who's considering it should sign up. Especially if you're local. If you're close enough and you've never come in town for it, it's it is so much fun. There are pancakes, like, literally pancakes at the finish line. That's right. Yeah, we So the the finish the post race party is is in my opinion, you know Todd and that group, they've done a really good job of making it fun and a place where people want to hang out.

You know this it's April in Indiana, so it's so weather dependent, right? If it's cold and rainy, people just tend to hop in their cars and go. Last year by that afternoon it was 60 and sunny. So everybody hung out and had a beer and had pancakes and shout out to Indiana Spine Group. They're the title sponsor about 10K. They come out and they cook those pancakes and and the sausage for the runners. So cool. And it's so awesome because you you've run races like you get the granola bar, the banana, the bottle of water, and like, it's just that's not what you want. When you finish your.

Race like and so to get actual real food like a hot a hot meal and just sit and enjoy it is is awesome so so they're we're continuing that they're going to come back this year and cook pancakes again for everybody and and we have beer brewery doing our our beer garden this year so it's going to be it's going to be great we're we're looking. For pancakes and beer? Like, really? What more? What more could you ask for, right? Breakfast of Brunch of Champions. Right. Exactly. Exactly. It's so perfect and I'm really excited, you know, as athlete bouquets to be coming to the Expo this year, thank you for putting me in the registration flow so people can order a bouquet and pick it up at the Expo.

That's really fun. Yeah, it's awesome to see orders coming in. I'm not at all surprised because they look amazing. They're they're really cool. And by the way, you're also doing our overall awards, I should give you. A shout. So the overall winners of all four races will get an athlete bouquet top three in each race, which is awesome. You know, we kind of went back and forth on awards and we talked about doing a plaque or some kind of acrylic award or something and it like, I feel like if you're winning a race this size, you probably have a bunch of that kind of stuff already.

So what can we do that's unique and and local and specific to Carmel? So I'm absolutely thrilled with with how they turned out and I think the runners are going to love them. Thank you. But yeah, just it's a great call out too. You can order those during the registration flow, So sign up for the race, buy a mug or a bouquet and then pick it up at the Expo. And there's all kinds of goodies in there too, for the runners all. Kinds of stuff. All you ever want, except for pancakes. There are pancakes in there, but you can get those at the. Finish right?

Right. But you can put your beer in the mug and then eat your pancakes. And I know. Yeah, and I find that even if people have a ton of mugs, which I do like, I just already have so many mugs at home. I find that ones for race. Yeah, like it becomes my favorite mug. It's the ones that I always pick first and then all my old mugs I've had forever just either go to Goodwill or they end up in a different cabinet. Yeah, the coffee definitely tastes better out of a mug that you earned, right? Instead of just buying or inheriting Amen. I'm the same way.

I have a few for that I've gotten from races and those are the only ones that I use. Perfect. Well, that's a good segue. Let's talk about you and all of your running and races. And 'cause you were you ran in high school and college? I did, yeah. You know, it's it's funny, I, I joked like running has sort of consumed my life and and not in a bad way like I remember some of my earliest memories as a kid are riding my bike alongside my dad. He was a runner. Oh, that's so cool. So I inherited it. Like I I don't think I ever could have avoided running.

It chose me but but you know and then and then I got a little older and I started running when I'd run a half mile or a mile at a time. And so I remember going to local 5 KS in second third grade and running with my dad and was just hooked instantly and and have loved it ever since. Yeah. So I ran all through high school, ran in college at Franklin cross country and track and then after school got into triathlon. So it was one of those things that, you know, I think I was a little bit maybe burned out physically on running and and the high mileage that I was doing, but not at all burned out on competing and that kind of stuff.

And so cycling and the swimming allowed me to sort of cut back on the running mileage but still, you know, be competitive and so did that for a few years and you know, it's everybody's running journey is a little different. Mine has sort of ebbed and flowed like everybody else's. But we had kids, got jobs and and life, you know, life goes on. And so I I had a couple years there where I would go out and run like once a month. I'm like, I'm just going to go jog. And that was it. And I did not run regularly. And so now that I'm back into it, it's so good just to like and I don't race anymore.

I don't know that I'll ever, like actually race again. But just to go out and enjoy running for its own sake is has been super nice. So that's just, that's where I'm at. I'm secretly hoping as a dad that my girls, at least at least one of them gets into running. I'm not going to, you know, our oldest is in gymnastics right now, which is awesome. She loves it. Our youngest isn't quite so sure about organized activities. Caramel's so hard, isn't it? Like 5. You're like, yeah, she's 5, but at the same time you feel like if your kids five and isn't in anything that she's never going to.

You're already in anything in life. You're already behind It's. Crazy. So, you know, there's that part of me that's secretly hoping that they'll get into track and cross country when they're older. But I can't. I can't stay away from the sport. It's always going to be a part of my life in some way. Does your seven-year old ride a bike yet? She does. Has she gone with you on a run yet? So we haven't and I didn't like I think we it's probably coming soon because she's asked a few times and. She's even asked. She has asked and and I feel like the challenge is, you know, so she's still on training wheels.

We're actually work we're like working on like getting off the training wheels and like getting. So I would like want to get that done I feel like so be like hey. As a carrot like hey, once you do this. Exactly. Exactly. So I think it's it's coming. So, but it's it's so funny to see her like get into that kind of stuff we did We're we're going to sign her up I think for a there's a summer track program in Fishers this summer. Oh, where kids can run and there's only like a few distances I think. And she said she wants to do that. So we'll see how that we'll see how that goes.

I wonder. If there's one in Carmel, yeah, I'm not sure. If there is somebody, tell me about it because I I have done so with being involved with Beyond Monumental. They have the Monumental mile. And so I've done that ever since I've been on the board last three years. Sydney has done that with us and she was like 5 the first time she ran a mile. I'm like, I don't know if she's going to be able to run a mile, but we can just walk. And I'm pretty sure she can at least do that. And one of my favorite memories is she didn't know what a finish line was and the race ends at the monument.

Right. And so she just, she just keeps going, kept going and ran right up the stair like my husband is, I'm like, stopped. And I was confused because I'm like, why didn't she stop? And my husband's chasing her up the stairs. That is hilarious. And it was just so great because you're like, well, yeah, she doesn't know yet. And so that's the finish line. That's where we stopped. So we did the the rookie run. Oh, and I. Think we're going to do that this. Year. It was awesome. So it's right downtown near the circle in in May and and she loved that, that she had a blast.

It's so fun, like you get a little bib number and they give everybody a finisher medal I think. And so she had a blast with that. So you know, it's one of those things like you don't want to force your kids and to stuff, but as soon as they ask to do something, yes, I will sign you up. Let's go do it. Yes, yeah, yeah, Sid, did the rookie run once I forget it was like only 400 meters or something like that for her. Age. Yeah, there's different distances for per age, but yes. So I think we're going to try to do it again this year if she, you know, she wants to, but it is hard because you want them to love what you love.

And yeah, the bike riding thing. This year, literally on New Year's Day, Sydney and I went for our first, like, bike run. That's. Awesome. And she just learned recently to no training wheels and she made it a whole 4 miles. It was amazing. And then we tried it again with my dad and she did not and it was horrible and we had to stop every 3 minutes. I think, yeah, that's. I think you have to have that right mindset as the person running like she's going to want to stop and pick a flower or look at the squirrel or do something right and she's when you come up to a turn, she's going to want to go that way.

And like, it's just at some point that's no longer your run. That's hers. So that is such a good advice. It is so. True. So, yeah, I think it's, but again, if that, I think more than anything, it's important to me to kind of demonstrate that like your health is important, right. And so whether that's running or cycling or working out in some other capacity, like we take care of ourselves and our bodies. And so like just the fact that my wife and I are both active, like that's important not even for ourselves, but just to set that example for the girls. So that's part of it too, you know?

Did you and Katie do stroller running when the girls were small? We did. We did, yeah. It's so funny. I just. We just. Gave it away. We just sold our double, double jogging stroller. My wife was like in tears over it because it's that's some, you know, we've had milestone. Yeah. You know, like we have no more strollers in our house now and it's like whoa, that's a big, you know, because we did. We, whether it's walking or running or, you know, I would run and my wife would ride the bike with one of the girls in the stroller. Yeah, that was a huge part of, you know, when they were little, we even had the little trailer that you would pull behind a bike and we'd go on bike rides and pulling around.

Don't have that anymore. Yeah. Our three-year old's starting to get a little big and starting to like kick she wants out of this year. Like please don't jump out. Well, please don't. So yeah, it's, it's we just sold our double jogging stroller. But yeah, we did a lot of, you know, we never, I shouldn't say never, we did one race, we did a 5K and but otherwise it's just running around the neighborhood and and stuff like that. But yeah, we did a ton of that. And it's it's weird to see these like, phases of life, you know, to move past them. Yeah, we have to come out for the mile in June, I know or no is it?

Yeah, it's in June. It's later in June. It's a Saturday. I didn't know the day I did the mile. It might have been the very first year they did it down to. It was like straight down Meridian. You finished the circle. I know if. It still is. They changed it now to go around like a loop. Yeah, it was awesome. Such a fun event. I mean, how often do you get to race a mile like that with that many people? And to finish at the Circle, it was such a cool event. Yeah, it's really cool. So yeah, I want to try to come out for that this year.

What events did you do? Did you run in high school and college? Yeah, I was a distance guy. So in high school it was, yeah, I thought I was an 800 guy. Every distance runner thinks they're an 800 runner. So I did the 800, the the mile, the two mile occasionally and then the the four by 8 relay. Of course in college, you know, kind of went through this weird again, thought I was a middle distance guy. So I started in the 800 and 1500. Turns out I was too slow for that, so they moved me back to the steeplechase. I did that for a year.

What is that? So it's a 3K, so just under 2 miles and it's it's a nightmare of a race. I don't recommend it. It's just so like, I mean it's like hurdles, but they're not hurdles, they're barriers so they don't fall over when you run into them. And then there's of course the the water barrier once per lap, where there's a a barrier with a water pit immediately after it, like you see if if you haven't. Seen I actually haven't I? If you haven't seen the steeplechase, go YouTube. Some videos of it and and the top athletes in the world make it look so incredibly easy.

But it is a brutal race. It's a ton of fun. It's the closest you can get to like cross country on the track I guess. So I did that for a little while and then eventually realized like this is not smart and I and I just settled in the 5K10K. So you know I I've always always loved cross country significantly more than track. Just the the close knit team, smaller team, being out in the fall and running on the grass. It just was always much more enjoyable to me. So I was always, always I ran cross country and then I did track out of obligation and you know, you know, just because that's what you do.

You're like, well, I'm a runner, I guess. You gotta gotta run track. So I was. I did a little bit of everything, but it seems like the longer the distance the better off, yeah? And then you said after college you started into triathlons. That's right. Did you do mostly local stuff, Indiana? Yeah, for the most part. You know, there are enough, like really cool races in here that we. I never felt like I had to travel too much. Tri Indy is awesome. Downtown Indy, they. Swim in the canal for that. One. They do swim. Yeah, I've. Never done that one. They do swim in the canal, which is super unique and and pretty cool, and then you know it.

It's one of those things like you do a there are a lot of shorter races here, Sprint, triathlon, Olympic distance triathlon. Once you want to do an Ironman or a half Ironman, you kind of have to then branch out. There just aren't many races, as many, so you have to travel to find them. So I did a handful of 70 point threes, which is the half Iron Man distance. I did one in Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, India all over the place, Florida a couple of times, one in New York. So those were usually like travel, travel races where you go and make a weekend out of it and and have a good time.

Is that how you ultimately ended up working for Iron Man? Just exposure to all the events and wanting to be more of a part of that or how did that come to light? Yeah, it's kind of a funny. It just, it worked out, the timing worked out really well. So I worked at Angie's List for a few years, which is based downtown Indy. Angie's List got acquired. And so a lot of us you either like had to sort of accept a new role, a lot of people had to move to Denver where HomeAdvisor was based or you got let go. And so I just, I moved on.

I'm like, yeah, I'm out. And so I was looking for a new role. This was fall of 2017 and Iron Man was hiring for a director of digital marketing, which is what I do. And I'm like, yeah, I'm get I'm going to get in touch with these people and it, you know, it was one of those things. My wife was like you're crazy. We're not we can't move to Tampa. We had a one year old. We had a one year old daughter at the time. She's like we can't move and and so you know it just it was my mom lives in Bradenton which is like 1/2 hour.

It's in that same area. And so it was kind of like OK, if we're going to move, it's got to be like we have to have family nearby. We have a one year old. We're probably going to have another kid at some point. And so the fact that the timing worked out that they were hiring for that role when I was looking, it was in Tampa, which we are, was like the one place that we're OK to moving to. And and yeah, it was, you know, for me, it was truly a perfect blend of endurance sports and actually being able to make a career out of that.

And you know, the marketing side of my career that I, that I loved as well. So it just kind of fell into place and worked out. It was really fortuitous. Yeah, but I didn't realize your mom was down there. That helps us. Yeah, she retired and moved down there several years ago. And so having family close by, like, I mean, you can't, It's so important when you have little ones like that. It just makes life so much easier so. Yeah, my parents now are snowbirds and so I feel that pain during the winter, although I get to go see them. That's right, spring break. But my in laws are also local and so I'm like, we're so spoiled, especially during the summer we have, they're both here and it's.

Just and that's we moved back a couple of years ago and I had forgotten how much we missed. Just, you know, obviously my mom is down there, but my dad's side of the family is all here. My siblings, my wife's entire family is is in Southern Indiana. They're all, they're all within like 2 hours of us. And it's just so nice to be able to get like see them more often for the girls to spend time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, like all that stuff that we kind of missed there for a few years. So we still go back and visit mom and and we love that that part of the country.

But this is all, you know, it's always felt like home. Yeah. So. Do you still have your dad? Yeah, he he lives in southern Indiana. He's a couple hours South of. Here, yeah, you said. Well, we talked about you running with him and you said was and then your mind was. Like he's still. Living. Sorry, Dad. If you listen to this, does he still run? He does. He does still run. He's in his seven 70s now. He he runs like he's 20 years younger than he is he he was. I I think of everybody When we took over the Carl Marathon, he was probably the most excited.

He geeks out of over this stuff and he's absolutely, absolutely. Cheering, watching the girls. 100%. Volunteering, He's going to be. We're going to put him to work. I was going to say you probably got to put him to work. Yeah. So he came up last year. You know Todd and CRG still managed the event last year, but we were there and just sort of like took it all in and and helped out here and there and just to familiarize ourselves with everything. And Dad, Dad came up and was like taking notes and he, he loved it. So it's it's really cool. Yeah, it's awesome to still have him like involved.

And it's funny every time I see him, he's like, I had, I had an idea for the marathon course because we've talked. We've talked about how like you know, the marathon course. One of the challenges that we've had is, you know Miles 18 to 2122 Ish. It's not the most exciting part of the course. It's the hardest part as a runner, right? It's the hardest part of your day. So what can we do to like spruce up that part of the course and make it more exciting? Can we put cheer zones out there and that kind of stuff. And so we're working through that. But every time I see dad he's like he had an I got an idea for you.

Yeah so. So he he loves it and it's it's awesome that we get to still share that that running connection. Have you done races together? We have it's yeah and it's yeah it's it's funny we we did a one of my favorite races that I've ever done was a Father's Day 5K that we did in New York NY 1 summer and they took they did individual awards of course like any race does but then they did awards for the overall like father son, combo and it was based on like age group so you add your ages together right. And then it was adorable. It was awesome and I was and I was I think I was in high school maybe at the time and and we won it was it was such a blast like because you don't you don't get to have that team aspect of these races very often to have somebody who you're racing with you know And so yeah we've we've done a bunch of races over the years local 5 KS and stuff like that together and not so much anymore just because we live far enough apart and.

Well, and I can attest that, you know, he starts to get old and you're like dad, like my dad, we were in Vegas a couple weekends ago. My dad runs too, but he's just, you know, he's prioritized his golf game. And so his running is is much different. And so I'm like, dad, I love you. I'll be there, but I'm working on my speed now, so it kind of sucks, 'cause I do love, I love running with him. And so we'll still run together occasionally when they're here. But yeah, that's super fun. Yeah, it's, you know, my brother also runs. He ran cross country. He's two years older than me.

He ran cross country and track. My sister, they're twins. They're both two years older than me. My sister ran track for a couple years in high school. So it was always just sort of part of our family growing up and it's been, yeah, I wouldn't wouldn't change it for any reason. I mean, it was so awesome. Just to experience that with your family and to continue to have that connection is is really cool. And is your mom, like, the ultimate cheerleader? Yeah. She mom never ran. So she would and and it's funny when we grew up, like we would go to these local 5 KS and she would walk the 5K.

So she would participate and she would like she was the best about every cross country meet, every track meet. She was always the mom with the cooler of drinks and the snacks that like would just get rated after the race, you know. But she that was her role and she she loved it. And so and you know, I I think it's one of those you don't realize it at the time, like how lucky you are to have parents like that and to have that support. But looking back, it's like, man, you like you sacrificed a lot to make that happen, to drive us all over the place to these meets and these races.

And yeah, so you you have to have the one person who's not a runner to like. To do. Yeah, to be the Sherpa and like, make sure everything goes well. And that was that was her for sure. That's really cool. Yeah. My mom was the one who started the running and then she had hip problems, can't run. So now she, you know, sometimes gets irritated with my dad for how much he likes to run and wants to run. And I think it's, 'cause, you know, partially she can't anymore. But yeah, yeah, you talk about great parents growing up and they instilled that, you know, competitiveness and like active lifestyle in me.

And yeah, how lucky. Yeah, I remember as a kid my dad coached cross country and and track up until we were in middle school, high school and then he stopped because he wanted to go to our meets and and support us. But I remember as a kid going to their, you know, his meets as a coach and just watching his guys run and these cross country meets, I'm like man, they're so amazing. They're so fast and like just that the impression that that left on me, it was it was a ton of fun and they had some good teams. They had a sectional championship one year and and so the, you know, I think it's also you, you probably don't realize as a parent the impression that you're leaving on your kids in moments like that, you know, and so I think about that sometimes with with our girls, just the the little things that you do to kind of foster the things that they're excited about can go a long way.

So I was lucky to have parents who were supportive of, you know, the crazy hobbies that we had and running and all that kind of stuff, so. Yeah, I could see coaching in your future. I could see. It I did, coach. So right after college I coached at the International School at a high school. Oh yeah. On the on the near Northwest side. I coached cross country for a couple years. Oh that's. And I had a blast. I mean it's it's so hard now with a full time job and like practices at 3:30 every afternoon. Like it's hard to make that work. I would love to to one day get back to to even if it's just in a volunteer coaching role or just doing something like that.

Doing doing something like that would be a blast. Yeah, you never know what seasons of life you're going to bring for you, right? Totally. Totally. I mean, I never saw where where I am now, right, with ultimate flexibility and that's been great to be able to volunteer at school and, you know, do more stuff like that. Whereas before, yeah, working full time, working downtown, having to commute like you just, yeah, it's hard in different seasons to be able to do some of those things. But I think that's what's it's important to think about seasons too and know that you know it. It'll change. Yeah. And and we, my wife and I both work from home, which is so nice.

It's so nice. I have to be honest, I hated it at first because I liked going into the office and seeing people. But man, I don't think I can ever go back now. But you know we live a mile from the elementary school where our daughters go and and so like we've both volunteered in the classroom to go in and and help out or read or things like that. And just like as they get older, I like I want to do more of that whether they get into a sport or dance theater like whatever it is music like it would love to just like be able to help out with it and be involved.

So yeah, we're I think we're fortunate to to be able to do that and looking forward to doing more as they as they age. How did you and Katie meet? Did you mean in school? Yeah, we grew up in the same same small town, southern Indiana. We grew up in Hanover, which is near Madison. Tiny town. There's like one stop light in Hanover. So yeah, went to high school together, started started dating in high school and high. School sweethearts. Yeah, and we actually, we went to different colleges. She got a full ride. She was the valedictorian of our high school. Yeah, I married up way up.

So she she got a full ride at Northern Kentucky University, right outside of Cincinnati. So she went there. I was like, I want to run. I'm going to Franklin. And it worked out. It's about two hours apart. She she did 99% of the work and coming because I had meets every weekend so it's really hard to go visit. So she would come up and spend the weekend go to our meets and and it was it was amazing just to have that support too and so it's been really cool. I feel I always joke like we've been together for like 40 years we're not we're not even you know but it's just it's yeah and.

It's how many years is it? How has it been? So we got, well, we've been married for 11 years now. It'll be 12 this year. But yeah, I mean. That's a lot of math. She's going to kill me when she listens to this, 'cause I don't have the years like. Just, I'll just somehow dump it back. And you sent me a voice recording like it's been this many years. Yeah, it would have been, gosh, I had 2004, like literally 20 years. Yeah, to 21 ish, 'cause it was like late middle or like early high school. That's crazy. So 2004 Ish. 2000. 5A. Lot long time long time 20 years.

But it you know it's and she's a she's a runner she ran through high school as well And so to have that connection and to have her now like helping with Carmel and when the marathon, you know I I mentioned like we kind of complement each other really well and our strengths and weaknesses. There's some stuff that I'm just really not good at that she is. So she just takes that and to have somebody at home who you can like have these conversations with like, hey, what do you think we should do with this aid station? Like, she gets it because she, she has run races.

And so just having her as a sounding board has been awesome and she has run Carmel before, right? And so she knows that the good parts of the course, the not so good parts. And so it's been invaluable to have her, her support. And it's also like, you know, this as someone in sort of an entrepreneurial role. Like I have a full time job and I'm doing this on the side. And so she's the primary parent. Like, she does literally everything else she does takes care of all the stuff around the house. And she's so supportive and it allows me to give the time and focus and energy to to Carmel.

And so we, you know, kind of block off those few hours in the evening when the girls are home and spend that time with them. And then she knows I'm going to be working. I'm going to be at my computer. I'm going to be working on something. And so, so to have like, she's so understanding, she doesn't complain about it. She just takes care of everything and does what needs to be done, and none of this is possible without that support, right? There's no way I'd be able to to get all this done and and do the things that I do so. Well, I can't wait to meet her.

Yeah, she's way cooler than I am too. So yeah, she'll she'll be, you'll meet her at the Expo. She'll be there. I can't wait. I want to hear a little bit more too about about Iron Man. Not necessarily. Well, I mean, maybe some of the stories like working there behind the scenes. I mean, there's huge events. And when you think about managing a marathon in Carmel IN, yeah, that's a full time job. But then when you take it and multiply it by three and then have it who knows where, You know, that's got to be really interesting. And then I want to hear about your personal Iron Man experiences as well, as you sit with your very cool Iron Man backpack.

The staff, the staff backpack has seen some stuff. It's it is dirty. It's torn up, but I love. It, yeah, you can never get. Rid of that. I take it everywhere. Yeah. So. So Iron Man, I was there for, I don't know, three years or so, 3 1/2 years, I think. And it was, it was such a cool job. Because where else do you get, like, how many brands do you know where people are so loyal that they tattoo your logo on their bodies? Yeah. Like maybe Harley-Davidson. Like there's maybe a couple of others. I was trying to think of some funny ones, but yeah.

Do you know what I mean? Like and so you see people just you get a job there and you see people just at Walmart and at the mall and like and you see an M dot on their calf and you're like wow you know and and so it's kind of this surreal thing like it this is so important to people that they play in their lives around these races and it and it really is a lifestyle for people and I don't think I fully grasped that until I got there and I saw saw some of the events so you know when I was there so I was responsible for digital marketing for all the events in North America so.

Which is insane. It's about 8080 to 90 events between Ironman Ironman 70.3, which is the half Ironman distance, and the rock'n'roll marathon. Which I actually forgot that that was under the Ironman umbrella. Right. So I that acquisition happened. Iron Man bought Competitor Group, which owned the Rock'n'roll Marathon series in 2017. So I started in late twenty 70s. So I started right around the time that those two companies came together. Funny, funny story, traumatic story. So I started, we were living in Indy, we were going to move to Tampa, but we hadn't yet moved. So I started and I flew down to Tampa. I spent two days there meeting people, you know, seeing the off.

I had never been there in person. I interviewed over Zoom and all this and so spent two days there, drove around, looked at some houses while I was there and then I flew from there to San Diego, which is where Rock'n'roll was headquartered. They had not moved yet to Tampa and when I got there because my so my boss came from the rock'n'roll side, her name was Lori and she was fantastic. So I got there and I I this was like a Wednesday morning and I texted her and like, hey, I think I'm at the office, think I'm in the right place, but the door is locked.

Can you come let me in? And she came down and she was like very upset. Like I could tell she had been crying and I was like, Oh my God, like, what is going on? And she was like, I'm so sorry. This is actually, this is probably not the best day for you to, like, be here. That was the day that all the people had been let go from. That was their last day from rock'n'roll. And so that whole day I'm meeting with my boss and some other people who I'm going to be working with and just trying to get the label in. And all day people are coming in and like, hugging each other and crying.

And meanwhile I'm just sitting like, I'm the jerk who just got hired. Like, I know you just got laid off and I'm sorry about that. But by the way we hired this guy over here, it was it was that would be awful. It was the weirdest experience that would be. Really rough. Yeah, And it just that that CGI team, the the rock'n'roll team was so awesome and so close knit that you could just tell like it was a really tough week for them. So it was, you know, afterward everybody was like, yeah, we shouldn't have done that. You should have started the next week probably, yeah.

It's like, whose idea was this? I'm sure they were all asking each other. I didn't. I had no idea, obviously so. Well, you're thinking, yeah, she comes down crying. You're like, did somebody I? Was like what? What? She was so upset and and rightfully so, she, you know, these people had worked together for years and years and they're supposed. And so I was like, I'm so sorry. I like. I can leave if you want. Do you want me to go home? So it was, you know, I went flew from Indy to Tampa to San Diego, back to Indy and I got home and I was like, Oh my God, I don't know what I've got myself into.

But it it was, it was awesome. And I met some of the best people in my my time. There are people who I'm still friends with and and will be for a long time. And yeah, it's funny because you you go to an Iron Man event and there's only, you know, maybe 2000 athletes, 2500 athletes, but it's this massive production when you think about the start, finish structure and the transition. You have racks for thousands of bikes and you have 112 miles of bike. Course, this is not just your local 5K. Like you take over an entire part of a state sometimes. You know in some cases you go across state lines and you have to deal with multiple city got Iron Man, Chattanooga goes from Tennessee into Georgia and then back in.

And so you have right. And so you have to deal with the Georgia State Police and the Tennessee police and the Chattanooga Police. And so seeing all that and how much goes into it, it's it's just, you know, the Iron Man does a phenomenal job of when you show up as an athlete, you don't have to worry about any of it. You show up, you're guided through the entire process. Everything is laid out for you. It's smooth, it's easy and it's a great experience. And behind the scenes, there are hundreds of people scrambling and making sure that every little detail is is perfect. So that that really left an impression on me too.

Like the amount of work that they do to make sure that things are are perfect, you know, because it matters. It's like Disney, right? You go to, you hear these stories about Disney and how like you never see a Cast member. Not like gets game time right. Like they're suited up and they're ready to go. Like you don't see the behind the scenes stuff. And they go to great lengths to make sure that the flowers planted are a certain color because it blends with the building behind it, like all these little details. That's how Iron Man is. So it was really cool to see that part of it.

And then you you go to some rock'n'roll events and you talk about Vegas. Oh yeah, it was excellent. That's an incredible event. Somebody asked me the other day, like, what was your favorite event? I'm like, it's you ask anybody who worked for rock'n'roll it and the answer is Vegas. I mean it's it's oh, absolutely. It's such a it's such a unique event. No other event shuts down Las Vegas Blvd. Literally shut down the Strip just for runners. You start around sunset and you get to run at night on the Strip. Like it's such a unique and cool event. And you know there were years where that was a 3035 thousand person race.

So it's a whole different animal from a 2000 person Iron Man. Like logistically it's no harder or easier. That's just different challenges. So you know getting to see those those sides of of both brands was really. And rock'n'roll's only running right? That's right. Yeah, just. Making sure I didn't know there's some secret arm of rock'n'roll that was like triathlons I'd never heard of. You never know. No, it's it's just running and and you know the two brands coming together I think was harder than we thought it would be. I think we expect a little more crossover like we can get. A lot of triathletes were runners who transition into triathlon.

Yeah. And triathletes also do running events, right? They'll go run stand alone marathons and stuff. And so there was some cross promotion that that did work, but it was a tough nut to crack because the demographics are also very different. Somebody who's signing up for a full Ironman and somebody who signs up for rock'n'roll Vegas for the 5K to the 10K, like those are very different people, you know? And so the, the crossover, I think that the center of that Venn diagram was smaller than we thought it would be, yeah. I could see I could. See that? But yeah, so totally different brands and experiences, but both super cool and and rewarding.

Well, that had to be fun and challenging for you and your role because you kind of it was like a problem to solve, like figuring that out also communicate. Yeah, I just start to think about how hard that must have been, but also how cool how you have these two. Very unique. It's almost like 2-2 separate jobs. Oh, 100%, yeah. And we actually, our marketing team was somewhat split. So we had people marketing managers who just focus on Iron Man and some who just focus on rock'n'roll. Now obviously at a bigger scale like I was working on both and the leadership team was working on both.

But yeah, it is, it's too, it's the the target audience is different. The product is different. They're in different cities. Like it's. Yeah you're selling different stuff. One of the things one of my favorite parts of that job so in 2018 I think it was Facebook Watch. I don't know if you remember Facebook watch this was Facebook's attempt to make a sort of like video arm of Facebook. Like I don't know if they wanted to compete with YouTube or what what the goal was but it was a a part of Facebook where you could have longer form videos and so they. I don't remember that.

Yeah. So you know, it didn't last too long. So, so they wanted, they wanted live content and they wanted live sports. So they went to the Mountain Dew Tour and signed a deal and they actually came to us and we signed a deal with Facebook in in 2018 to live stream like broadcast Ironman races, the the pro races on Facebook. And we were kind of like you know this is a nine hour event, right? Like this is not, this is not like an Olympic, like like a marathon where it's a couple hours or Boston where it's a 2 1/2 hour show, 3 hour show. Like this is going to be a 10 hour show.

You know that, right? And so my job was producing field, producing those. And so I got to, I got to go to a lot of these pro races and coordinate with the pro athletes, try to explain to them, like, here's what we're doing. There's going to be a dude on a motorcycle with a camera in your face while you're on the bike. We had at any given time, we had like 7 to 9 cameras out there. So we had drones in the air. We had four cameras on motorcycles. We had cameras on foot capturing key points we had. Were the athletes wearing cameras at? All we didn't do that We we were very careful not to interfere with the race at all.

So we would try to shoot from a distance when we could. We didn't want it. Especially on the bike. You can't be in front of them and provide a draft benefit. You can't be next to them blocking the wind for them, right? And so we had to be very careful with how we position ourselves and filmed. And we didn't, it wouldn't put any cameras on them. We didn't do anything to to the athletes or their equipment at all. But you know, we would have a boat in the water, a pontoon boat with a camera guy on it, and as soon as the swim is over, this dude's got to hop off the boat and run and get on a motorcycle.

And so it was, it was a blast producing these things. And meanwhile we have our our commentators in a studio in Boulder, Co. Like, Can you imagine talking for 10 hours straight? It was so hard. Look, he's biking. It was so hard going faster. Yeah that would be and and they were phenomenal some some of the some of the people that they were professional former triathletes who we had. So. So that allowed me to go to some of the coolest Saint George a couple of times, which was one of my favorites. Where's that? Utah. OK. So it's it's an hour and a half or so, two hours from Zion National Park.

Amazing place. If you ever get a a chance to go to Saint George and and Zion, that whole area is just incredible. It's it feels like you're on Mars. It's other world. I want to do There's a rebel race in Zion I really would like. To do Zion is incredible. It's it's unbelievable. So that was one of my favorites. I got to go back there two or three times. Lake Placid has always been probably my favorite spot in upstate New York. I got to go to Mont Tremblant in Quebec, just about every Iron Man in North America I made it out to, which was, which was awesome.

So it allowed me to travel and and see some of that stuff and see how the operational teams dealt with some of these events. You know, they, they all have unique challenges. There's no playbook that is like, this is how you set up an Iron Man course, right? It's different in every city, in every state and so. Are all the swims out? All the swims outside for Iron Man. Yes, yeah, yeah, they're all, most of them are are in a lake. There are some ocean swims. Panama City FL has an ocean swim. There are a few in rivers. So Iron Man Louisville was was in the Ohio River.

Chattanooga's in the Tennessee River. So but it's it's all, yeah now outdoor. Same for the half, same for the 70.3. They're all out 'cause I know a lot of the smaller, shorter triathlon distances. Some of those are indoors. Yeah, you'll see right? You'll see some with a pool swim. Where it's you swim like two to three, maybe 400 yards. The Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim. I can't even. Just so that you just couldn't do that in a pool, right? It'd be like 1000 laughs. Sounds horrible. It all sounds really hard. So it it was a really cool experience overall. And and yeah, it's you know, I I joked because I was really into triathlon before I started working there.

And you know, the joke was the irony of working at Ironman is that you don't have time to train for an Ironman and that turned out not to be a joke. So that was, that was the end of my competitive racing career. Oh, that's why that, Yeah. But it's it's true because you you know it's such a it was a very demanding job and you're traveling a fair amount on the weekends or at least I was to go cover these races And so even if you wanted to race like you're well you're gone that weekend so you can't and it and it was also you know it was a little bit of that but also at that stage of our lives by that point we had two little kids and like I work a lot.

I'm not going to go leave for four hours on a Saturday to go for a long ride and leave my wife home like she deals enough with this without me. So, so it was that stage of life with with the job, it just sort of that was, that was a huge turning point in terms of my my actual running. So you say like competitive triathlon stuff, what are you? So what does that mean? Yeah. Yeah. Competitive is relative. OK. It is, so that's why I'm my. Yeah, my, my, my sense of like competing. Like I'm going to go out and and race. Yeah, So there were a couple of races that I won, like smaller local races.

See, you still say that like it's not a big deal, but like, but you winning. I don't care how small it is winning a triathlon. Pretty cool. But it's so thank you. But then you get on the bigger scale like an Ironman or a 70.3 and it's like I would show up and get 120th, right? And but yeah, I I mean, I had a ton of fun and I think it was more than anything. I just had that competitive fire and I still just wanted to race, you know. So yeah, I would, I would go and do I go to the Chicago triathlon one year and I got second, which was if if I had to point to an individual result, that was probably my best.

It was an Olympic distance try and I got second, which that's like a 2000 person race. It's a bigger one and. You would probably win money then as a result, right? I did. It was a little bit, yeah. I mean, I mean, at that point, like most of the prize money is going to the pros and the pro races, but there's a little bit in some of the amateur races, yeah, so. What's an Olympic Distance? So it's a 1500 meter swim, just just under a mile, and then it's a 40K bike which is about 25 miles and then a 10K run. OK, so all in it's, you know, for me at least it was a little over 2 hours 2.

Hours and then the 70.3. It's a half Iron Man, so it's a It's a 1.2 mile swim, so it's actually the swim isn't that much longer than. An right? That's why it's. Yeah, so it's 1.2 miles and it's a 56 mile bike and then 1/2 marathon. So those are so anywhere from like my PR in the 7.3 was like 441, I think 4 hours and 41 minutes. So but you'll have people finish that all the way up to 7 1/2 hours, right? Right. Actually, I think the cut off is 8. I don't know, I can't remember. Yeah. It's wild. I've done the Eagle Creek. I don't even know who owns the One series anymore at Eagle.

Creek, yeah, I think it's Tuxedo brothers or at least it was. Probably, you know, probably still is. They've been around forever and so I did one there, OK And then I've done those are fun. I've only done one other Sprint. It was like a, it was called a long Sprint. So it's like a touch longer, you know? That's the thing. Like the Ironman distance is standardized, and it is what it is. The half. The half is standardized. The Olympic distance is standardized, a Sprint triathlon it is not at all. And so you'll have anywhere from a 200 yard swim to an 800 yard swim. Sometimes the the run is usually a 5K, sometimes it's 3 miles, sometimes it's a 2 1/2 mile.

Like it literally just a a Sprint basically refers to anything under the Olympic distance. And so it kind of depends. I I would say that a typical is like a 400 meter swim, probably 10 miles on the bike, 10 or 12 miles on the bike and then a 5K run. But it's different everywhere you go, and so you can't even like compare times you. Know from from one race? To another, one race might be one in 50 minutes and another race which is also Sprint triathlon might be one in an hour 20. Yeah. Yeah. And it would, Yeah. That's that's interesting. I I would maybe do triathlons again.

I I don't really aspire to do an Ironman. Yeah. I just. I don't know. I don't feel like I have that itch. There's so much I want to do with running. Yeah, But I understand why people are into it. Yeah, it's it's easy to get hooked. It's very, I mean, it's addictive and it's, it's you feel such a sense of accomplishment. I mean, it's no different from finishing your first half marathon or your first marathon or something like that, Like that feeling that you get it. It's probably just magnified at something like an Ironman. You know, one of my favorite things about working in Iron Man was being at the races and being at the finish line.

Oh, I yeah, I've never. Been at a finish line. For an Iron Man, one of the oh man, it's such a cool experience and one of the cool things is they almost all, with a few exceptions, kind of finish at midnight. So there's a 17 hour cut off. You have to be finished within 17 hours and and they all, almost all of them start at 7:00 AM. So from like 11:00 PM to midnight, it's it's so funny because you'll see the pros finish at like 3-4 in the afternoon or whatever, right? Everybody kind of goes and does their thing and then everybody comes back. The winners of the race come back, all the athletes go shower, eat, come back and from 11 to midnight is the most electric atmosphere.

The the finished shoot was just lined with people cheering and banging on the fence and cheering for people coming in and there's music playing. Mike Riley, the MC gets down in the finished shoot and his high five and people and and you see people finish who they've been out there at this point for 16 1/2 hours, 17 hours. They're drained. They're exhausted and they've been training for this thing for a year and you can just tell it means so much to them and they just, they break down and they start crying and they hug, start hugging random people they don't know. And you see this at marathons to, to some extent.

But it's it's just, you know, people who you don't know what they overcame to get there, right? Because everybody's got a story and you just know that this means so much to them. You don't know why necessarily. But it's so it's hard not to get emotional and like overwhelmed by that. When you're standing there watching it, it it's just a really cool experience. If you ever get to experience the the finish line. I know we don't have the closest Iron Man to us. That's a 70.3. The full Iron Man. There isn't a full in lieu of, I don't know, Wisconsin is probably the up in Madison that might be the closest one, which is also a great race.

Madison's really cool town. Yeah. So yeah, that was, man, that was one of my favorite parts is just seeing that and seeing people, you know, accomplish those, those dreams like that. Yeah, be so cool. It was a blast. Super rewarding, you know? You feel like you work so hard on all this stuff. Yeah. And at times, like it's hot or it's cold, it's raining and you're like, this is miserable. And then you see that, like, it was worth it. It was worth it. I would do it all again. Let's do it. We're doing this next weekend, right? How many events throughout the year? So, so we had on the North America calendar we had 85 like I mentioned which which is 60 or so Iron Man events, Iron Man and 70.3 and then 25 or so rock and rolls, I I didn't go to all those obviously I would go to you know 7 to 10 per year maybe, Yeah, which was enough you know.

For me, I mean, yeah, I can only imagine. And especially with kids starting somewhere in there. Exactly. Yeah. So gosh, it's got to be so hard. Not really racing anymore because you got to still be competitive. So like how do you scratch? That itch? Oh, I compete with my kids now. I don't let them. I don't let them win anything. And my wife, my wife gets mad at me. I don't let them win anything. That's they're going to learn the hard way. Yeah, yeah. And it's, you know, it's funny like we have a dart board in our basement. So like we'll have friends over. And I'm like, all right, we're playing darts and I'm going to, I'm going to win this, you know, So there you find ways to still be competitive you.

You play darts with your. With your No. Oh God, no. I don't give. I don't give her the darts. Somebody's going to. That's a good. That's a good plan. But you know it's just like little stuff like that. I always find ways to to compete and and you know it's it's interesting for me like I think I like competing and I like to win and and for me I think I found ways to translate that out of athletics and into work right. So like, I want this whatever project I'm working on to be the best that it can be. And like, when we took over Carmel and it was, you know, a 4500 person race last year, I can't remember who it was, but somebody was like, yeah, like, there's no way that'll be over 5000 people.

And I was like, watch me, you know, So there's. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so like, I'm a marketing guy. This is what I do. Watch, watch, You know and. So the analytics I've got all. And so there's there's stuff like that, that like, I feel like I can kind of compete and I'm not competing with anyone other than myself maybe. But there's that aspect of like, I want to be the best that I can possibly be, whether it was a 5 KA triathlon or whatever it was. Like I want to know where that limit is. And it's the same for me now in in work I you know you can't turn that off.

You know it's not a switch that you can. You know, yeah, I try during family games. To turn it off because I don't even try anymore. I make people mad. Well, I don't, really. Who am I kidding? Anybody of my family who would listen to this like my mother would be like, aha, you've never turned that off. Just hard. It's a switch that. Yeah. Yeah. So I I find ways to still like kind of scratch that itch. And yeah, it's it's rewarding to to do that and work And with the marathon now and you know, it's it, it, there are always sort of metrics to compare yourself to.

Like we'll we'll do a post race survey. How small can I get the number of complaints right? Like how there's always going to be something that goes wrong. Somebody's going to be unhappy about something. But like, can we dwindle that number? Can we can we increase the number of people who come back next year because they had such a great experience? Like there are things that I can sort of and again you're not competing with somebody else, but it's just like can I get better than I was last year. So that's that's for me, that's kind of keeping that, that fire at Bay for now.

I would, I wouldn't say I'll never go back to running and racing, but I'm in a bit of a hiatus so well. I want to come back to that, but I also, I are you to blame for like the Qualtrics survey I had to take after rock'n'roll that I took and I was like, this is going to take me. I'm like trying to be nice, you know, because I now, like, work in the industry and I'm like, OK, I'll take the survey and I got a $10 coupon to register for next year. But I already registered. But it was the longest survey I've ever taken in my life.

And I was like, you guys, I can't, I can't give you all this. You got to pick some. Yeah, so the bigger races like Iron Man and rock'n'roll, part of that is there's a genuine want and need to, like, improve. So we want to know how your experiences, how your experience was and and where can we improve. So that's a big part of it. The other part of that is the sponsors want to know. Was like there was there's a lot of great questions about like hey do you remember seeing these brands at this stage or you know on course and I was like I totally understand what you're going to use the information for.

But not everybody would. People, I mean, but I don't know. And then I tried to just a bit like leave halfway through and it was like, no, no, you need to. And I was like. You're committed now you. Hopefully, hopefully you still get some of that information. I did end up finishing it, but it was it was long, but I. Understand it's it's important for the industry and and it's but there will be questions in there of like are you or will you be the next year in the market to buy a new vehicle and you're like what in the heck why are you asking.

But it's for partnerships and sponsorships and so we can go sell a sponsorship to Jeep or Ford and say like look our our Tart, their demographic is affluent they live in these areas and they're 30% of them are in the market for it's stuff like that. So we like, yeah, it's it's, I know take. The car Take the caramel survey. People help it get better. Yeah, the surveys can get lengthy. Ours, we don't have as many, like partnership obligations as rock'n'roll would have. So ours will be significantly shorter. But yeah, it does. In all seriousness, like, that does help us a ton, because what you tend to get is the vocal minority speak up.

So the people who are, like, really, really thrilled and had a great day, they'll come up and tell you and they'll post on Facebook and Instagram. And then the people who who like really felt like we screwed up. They will tell. You. Yeah, that's the vocal minority. That's a good way to put. It And so you know, we'll post on Instagram and we'll have, you know five comments and four of them are negative. And this might be the only four disgruntled people in the entire race, but because they had a bad experience, they want to be heard. And so the survey like and so for us it's really hard not to kind of skew.

You see that you're like, man, maybe we really did screw up, you know, but but the survey kind of helps us get data back like OK, we did screw up, but it was 1% of people like we know how to fix this. It wasn't as bad as we thought, you know. So the survey does genuinely help us understand the the magnitude of problems, if there were any, and then what we can do to improve. You know, I love our shirts that we got this year. We we moved away from a pure Polytech shirt and it's like a really soft blended shirt and I love it.

But maybe the that sounds good. Maybe the runners will hate it. And so we need to know. Like that's the kind of stuff that I I think our medals are awesome, but I want to know if you hated it or you'd rather see something different. So you know, I have an opinion. Katie has an opinion and as runners I feel like we kind of have a general sense of what people want. But I'm always happy to be proven wrong. So the survey does help. So yeah, shout out, please do the survey after the race. It does. It does help. I try my best to do that now because.

I do too you. Know it's like, OK, I know this is helpful, but you know, OK, now I want to go back to not necessarily racing but like you getting involved in the running community. I was going to ask if you're participating in any events throughout this year in Indy to kind of get more ingrained. And then I I wanted to make sure people knew that they can reach out to you, they can, you know, give you feedback, give you ideas, and that you're really working hard to get as ingrained in the Carmel running community and indie running community as you can. So. Yeah, you know, I don't.

I'm thinking about doing the Geist Half Marathon this fall, OK? That event has been through its ups and downs and and the team, the city of Fishers and the team working on it now is doing a great job of really trying to like bring that back and make it a great event. So I've been sort of supporting them off and on, just as a consultant almost and just offering advice and helping out where I can so I may go support them and run that. One shout out to them. I love that race. I've done it a handful of times. I did it last year for the first time.

They had it in fall, yes, and it was great. It's really great. Yeah, it's gonna be in the fall again. This year it's in September. Plus I live like a mile from that sort of finish line. So yeah, that's I have no excuse. Better. So it's right in my backyard, which is, which is cool. So I I may do that one, but otherwise I don't have anything planned. You know, I I enjoy. I'm glad you brought up. You know, people can reach out. My e-mail is jjay@carmelmarathon.com. Just don't e-mail him about like, when the race starts or like where the parking is, guys, Come on, just Google it.

Look at the FAQ page on the website. No, but I I love having the conversations. I just met with TJ and and Christy. I saw that actually on Instagram. Yeah, yesterday morning they so they put on the full MO, which is short for the full MO. Non. You start at the North End of the MO and you're on all you finish downtown. It's like a it's a 50K really cool event and then they also do Prairie on Fire in late summer which is another awesome event And so I met with them yesterday and just like how can we help, how can I help you, how can you help me?

Like I think there's there's there tends to be too much of A competitive attitude of like you're a competitive of ours. Your race is a competitor to our race and I don't, I don't think that way, especially for races like theirs that are different time, different spot in the calendar. You know, I think the more that we can do to support the other events in in the area, the better experience runners have and the more they want to race and the more they'll bring their friends out and say this was awesome. You got to do this race and the more people that get into running and that's how the sport grows, right?

If we're cutthroat and we're competing unnecessarily over stuff, it just doesn't. It's not good for the health of the sport and so if there's anything I can do to help Geist the full MO Prairie on fire monumental, I'm happy to. I mean it doesn't make sense, you know, for us to be selfish with that kind of stuff. And so you know maybe my wife would disagree. But I'm more than happy to give my time and my resources to this kind of stuff. I I love those conversations, you know and and just finding ways to help and like there's nothing in it for me to help the full MO or the Prairie on fire like that's I'm not getting anything out of that other than again, like I would they're cool events.

I want to see them grow because it helps. Good for good for the running community. All tide. What's the What's the thing? Rising tide lifts all ships. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah, right. Exactly. That's my mindset. And so, you know, and I've had people ask even the Mini, like, I don't think of the Mini, There are a ton of people who run Carmel and then go do the Mini a few weeks later. That's me. And it's a different event. It's a it's a downtown start and finish. You get to run on the track. I love the mini. I've run the Mini, it's it's a great event, yes.

I don't think of them as a competitor right of ours. I find it so interesting like when I first joined the the board for Beyond, I was so surprised at like yeah those are our competitors and you're like and and they're not like I'm not saying that our team is like like cutthroat but it was like that's they're like yeah these are all this is the landscape in our community and you know I get that mentality too. But I also I tend to side more with with your thoughts of where it's like if we all just help each other like this community the running community will only benefit.

And yeah I mean it's like the people who you're taking from one of the it's got to be a pretty small percentage because of the difference in events, right. It's like you said many way different than Carmel especially for people who are in Carmel. Right. Like if I'm picking between 1:00, well, do I am I doing this to like for the experience of riding, running around the track or am I doing it for proximity for a training run, for racing? Like what is, you know? There's just so many different factors. 100% and yeah, and I think that's, that's a great point. Like it would be different if there was a full half 10K5K in Carmel a week after ours, right?

That's a little different, right? But it's a different city, whole different vibe and experience, and especially races on the other end of the calendar, like Monumental. And guys that's like. There is no interference to be had there, right. There's there's no downside to supporting one another and so I'm. I'm here for it. Right. And whether that means supporting other events supporting local coaches. You mentioned Rachel. Rachel. So Rachel is our you can find her, Rachel Michelle running on Instagram and her website. She's our pace coordinator. It's a big job to find Pacers. So we have like 30 Pacers across the full and half marathon and it's a very important job on race day.

So she's done the work of like finding those people, recruiting and getting it all organized, which has been a huge help. And so we're supporting her coaching business in return. And so if there's stuff that we can do like that, that's I'll, I'll do that all day, every day. Yeah, and people also need to go follow the Carmel Marathon on Instagram because it's a tricky transition. You go from CRG events and that's like Carmel's house there and now you have your stand alone. I feel like it's surprising to me that everybody hasn't, just like automatically just jumped over there. Followed it. I know it's been more work than I thought.

So we had there's a Carmel Marathon Facebook page which has several thousand followers, but there was no Instagram page. It was CRG events and they used that across all their events. And so we started a new Instagram page, and it's slowly but surely growing. I was like, wait a minute, this. Is I'm slowly, we're slowly getting there. I'm I try. I need to get better about posting posting content right more regularly. And that's that's also. Right, a full. Time job let me. Tell you you find time to do that. So yeah, but yes, go follow us on Instagram, please. I've slipped that into a couple of emails to our participants, like go follow us on Instagram.

So we'll get there. It just it just takes time. Yeah, it does. Thank you for taking the time to do this. And thank you to everyone who's taking the time to listen and get to know Jay a little bit better. You know, I hope this gives people a chance to feel like they know you heading into race weekend so they can, you know, come up to you or e-mail you with their random thoughts. But seriously, it's time for the end of the podcast questions, which I'm going to pretend like I didn't forget to ask and then edit them in here. So first question, what is your favorite song or mantra?

You know, I don't think I have a favorite like a song or an artist or anything that I always, you know, listen to when I ran or or raced. I I think the one thing that always worked for me when I was competing is I would always just sort of tell myself, regardless of how bad I feel, this person racing with me, right in front of me, right behind me, whatever. They've got to be feeling worse because I know the work that that I put in and I know how prepared I was for this. So just imagine how bad they're feeling. And that kind of gave me this sort of mentality of like, OK, I'm going to go, I'm going to go after this person and and and see how much we can we can cause both of us to hurt, I guess.

So that got me through quite a bit of sort of, you know, competitive situations when I was racing against somebody. I like that. And then what is your next finish line or milestone? So we talked about how, you know, I'm thinking about running the Geist Half Marathon this fall. I'm not. I haven't committed to it yet. We'll see. But you know, so athletically I I don't necessarily have anything on the horizon that I'm aiming for. I think for me just in general in life the next big milestone is, is Carmel coming up here in the next month or so. You know it's been a ton of work just to get everything ready for it and I'm so excited just to see it all kind of come together and you know try to provide the best experience we can for the athletes.

So really looking forward to getting through that and then it's you know immediately thinking about next year and how can we, how can we improve and what can we do better and all that kind of stuff. So that seems like the next big sort of milestone for me, just to get through the race. Well yeah, that certainly is a big milestone. So if you haven't again yet registered, go register or volunteer and can't wait for race weekend. Well, thank you for having me. This has been a blast. Honored to be here and contribute to a long line of awesome podcast guests that you have. So I'm honored to be here.

And yeah, good work. I'm excited to continue listening to the show. It's been awesome. Thank you. Appreciate that. Well, everybody go. Have a good day And as always, happy running The end. The end.

Ally Brettnacher