May 21, 2025 • 48 mins
RED Episode 311 Bart Yasso Talks About His New Book, 100 Runs of a Lifetime
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RUN EAT DRINK PODCAST Welcomes Back Mayor of Running Bart Yasso
Friend of the show and Mayor of Running, Bart Yasso, comes back to our show to talk about his latest collaboration with National Geographic, the book 100 Runs of A Lifetime. Thank you so much for the amazing interview, Bart!
Purchase his book on Amazon Here
Visit Bart’s website
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https://www.facebook.com/p/Bart-Yasso-100069529179114/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am Bart Yasso and you're listening to the Run Eat
Drink podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to the Run, Eat, Drink podcast.
We feature destination racesfrom across the country and
after the race, we take you on atour of the best local food and
beverage to celebrate.
So, whether you are an eliterunner or a back of the packer
like us, you'll know the bestplaces to accomplish, explore
and indulge on your nextruncation, Dana we are so lucky
(00:38):
to welcome back the mayor ofrunning, the chief running
officer at wonders world untilhis retirement, until 2017.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
He reminds me of my dad, just doesn't want to retire
and keeps on going and in factnow has a new book out 100 runs
of a lifetime the world'sultimate races and trails.
We welcome back Bart Yasso toour show, sir welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Thank you Amy, thank you Dana.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
You're welcome.
We are so excited to have youback on the show.
We have certain luminaries inrunning that we've been
fortunate enough to befriendover the years of doing the show
.
You're an amazing inspirationand wealth of knowledge.
We are so excited to talk toyou today and to talk to you
about your new book.
Tell us what was theinspiration for this new book?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, so I get a call one day from National
Geographic.
I didn't answer the phonebecause the number wasn't in my
contact file.
So, if I I don't know, theperson left a message and said
she worked at NationalGeographic.
So I Googled and certainly shedid work at National Geographic.
(01:54):
So I called her right back.
They wanted me to author thisbook.
They have a series called the100 series.
They've done 100 scuba dives ofa lifetime and 100 hikes of a
lifetime, 100 ski slopes youshould ski in a lifetime and
then 100 runs of a lifetime andthey're rolling out many more in
this 100 series I think theyhad a disney, one that I saw
(02:18):
yeah they just yeah, called himup I remember hanging out the
phone because I said I I havegreat interest, they're going to
send me a contract.
I was like there's only once inmy lifetime National
Geographic's going to call me upto author a book.
So I'm getting on this thingright now.
There was a woman that workedat Runner's World and she threw
my name in the hat and they knewthat I run all over the world
(02:41):
and National Geographic is aglobal product.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
They wanted races in the US, but also races and runs
all over the world, so I thinkthat's why they thought I was
the right person for the job.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I think you are?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
I can think of no one better.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Why do we call him the mayor of running?
Exactly so that's how you endedup partnering and getting in
with National Geographic.
I feel like there could be awhole series of books you could
do for them with everything thatyou've done and seen across the
world.
How long did the project take?
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So it's about a two-year project to get a book
out.
I worked on a manuscript forfour and a half to five months.
We call it a book map, but itbasically is an outline.
I had to come up with a hundredraces and runs, which was easy
to do.
It was easy to get 200.
And then I had to narrow itdown to 100, which was tough.
(03:41):
And you create the map how theyall fall into place, the four
parts of the book.
We turned it into four partsand then get each race or run in
the proper place.
Then you start.
Once that's approved, you startworking on your manuscripts and
then the book has to getprinted and copy editing to make
sure everything's spelledcorrectly and in the right order
(04:02):
and so it's a process.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Is it like training for a race?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
it's like doing two ultras every day.
What most people don't knowabout that haven't written a
book is once you do a chapterand then go out for a run.
And then I would go, oh, Ididn't mention this or I didn't,
and you go back and change allthe stuff that you already had
and kind of rewrite it, soyou're never sold on what you
(04:31):
put out there at first, and thenyou go back and tweak it and
mess around with it and prove it.
So it's not like you just bangout a chapter and say, ok,
that's done, change it and tweakit and then you got your
chapter.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
And some of the best ideas you have are on the run.
When you're outside, you becomeclear.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I think that's where I got the idea of how to shape
the chapter I was working on ofwhat people need to know about
the event or the run Totallyright.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Now in the book, some of the photos.
Of course.
National Geographic's known fortheir photos, Beautiful.
Some of those put you right ina specific moment of a run or a
race in a unique destination andit was just fantastic.
How were those photos collected, selected, placed in the book?
And I love your book map ideaand I'm assuming that's a large
part of it.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
You've got to figure out how many pages and where
those photos go.
I know I'm never going to be amodel in life because I'm 70
years old now.
There's only one picture of mein the entire book.
There's only one photo in theentire book that I produced and
I didn't take the photo.
It was taken out of race but itwas sent to me.
All the other photos wereproduced by National Geographic
(05:39):
so they knew the locations andwhere to find the photos.
I'm sure they have a massivedatabase of photographers.
All the photos are their ideas,except for the one photo that
has me in it near the intro.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Big Sur Marathon and thank God they used a photo of
me running like 35 years ago.
The big difference.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
That's Bart.
He had the hair.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I had a mullet and I didn't even know what a mullet
was, but my hair started toretreat in the front so I had
more hair in the back.
Yeah, I was just cruising alongat the Big Sur Marathon.
At halfway that picture wastaken.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
That looks pretty challenging.
There's a few hills in thatrace.
Yeah, so you were on our showbefore and talked about your
life on the run and how runningshaped you and gave you
direction and gave youdiscipline.
In this book, in the intro youtalked about a specific run in
1995.
You make a reference to asbeing sacred.
(06:40):
Can you talk about that alittle bit?
Speaker 1 (06:43):
You know what I always said that run out of the
crater was my favorite run of mylife.
I've been saying that since1995.
People would ask me what's yourfavorite?
Not a race, the coolest runyou've ever done.
I always said the NuringuruCrater is in Tanzania.
It's 30 kilometers around, it's2,000 foot deep, cold and it
(07:03):
has just about all the animals.
It's almost like creating alittle Africa in Africa.
The giraffe don't go down thatcrater because they can't
negotiate the steepness of thehills going down into the crater
floor, the walls of the crater.
But you go down in the craterand you get to see all the lions
and everything except for thegiraffe.
You're down there spending theday and taking in all the lions
and everything except for thegiraffe.
(07:24):
You're down there spending theday and taking in all the
wildlife.
And then it gets closer tosunset and your guide says we've
got to head on out.
You're not allowed to leave thevehicle, you can't walk around.
But I asked the guy if I couldrun out of the crater and he was
not keen on the idea.
But I convinced him that I'd besafe and I can jump back in the
(07:48):
Jeep if something comes outafter me.
He stayed right behind me and Iran up the crater wall and up
to the rim at sunset Just anincredible view.
The sunsets in Africa are justunbelievable.
I did run into a hyena behind abush, but the hyena was more
afraid of me than I was of thehyena.
We startled each other.
I came around the way the trailwas going and hyena jumped up
(08:11):
and took off away from me.
So that was a good thing,that's a good thing, but that
was the only encounter on theway out was my favorite run of
my life and then eventuallywould turn into a run of a
lifetime.
I never used that phrase beforeuntil the book came along.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
That's a great turn of phrase.
The way that you have theseconnections to these races in
your memories and the feelingsthey evoked in you, I think has
a lot to do with the closenessthat runners feel with one
another.
The running community is soincredibly tight knit and
(08:51):
supportive.
It's the shared struggle, it'sthe emotions that races can
generate in people.
When we're talking about elitelevel runners and running
luminaries like you, who writeon the topic, there's a
connection that forms betweenthe author and the reader.
Do you think that this book'sgoing to connect you in a
different way with your audience, with the running community?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
The book is not 100 runs of Bart Yasso.
The book is really 100 runs ofa lifetime.
And there's some events in thisbook that I've never done.
And there's some events in thisbook that I've never done and
that's done by design because Iwant to do them.
So I challenged myself in myown book that I had to get out
there and do these couple racesthat I've never done, but I felt
(09:39):
they're such iconic events thatthey need to be in the book.
A couple of them I may not beable to do, but there's a couple
that I could finish.
I just don't run that muchthese days, so I would struggle
on the longer ones, but we'llsee what happens.
I really think that it's goingto open up the doors for people
to create their own 100 runs ofa lifetime.
It doesn't have to be anygrandiose, spectacular thing.
(10:03):
It could be just running withyour family member a son, a mom,
a grand, whoever and you end upin Rome and run a 10K run or
whatever it is.
That would be considered a runof a lifetime.
So when I did the Rome Marathon, my mom was there and she was
elderly at the time.
We got a picture.
(10:23):
I stopped during that RomeMarathon.
I got a picture of my mom atTrevi Fountain.
I didn't know it at the time,but that would be my favorite
running moment ever.
When my mom passed away.
That's when I realized thevalue of that photo, what it
meant to me, what she did for me.
So it truly is my favoriterunning moment.
(10:43):
So I think people are going toconnect that way.
It doesn't matter where you are.
You can just go out and do anytime.
It doesn't matter if you're upthe front, middle, back.
I don't like when people putthemselves in a certain area of
a race, whether it's the back ofthe pack, mid pack or front of
the pack.
Just be part of the race.
That's what it's all about.
Part of the community out thereputting one foot in front of
(11:06):
the other getting to that finishline.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
So it sounds like he's answered this question
already.
For people who don't know, wewere lucky enough to explore and
experience the book beforetalking to you tonight.
We see that it's organized intoshort distance and road races,
and then there's a section ofmarathons and then trails and
(11:31):
ultras are together and then youhave the fourth part.
That is not races, and you saidthat came to you on a run when
you got done and you looked ateach section.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Which one is your favorite and why I like part
four, because runners can do itanytime they're in that area at
their leisure and they can do it10 times.
The run, I remember, wasoutside of India, arjalan, india
, a really pretty place withMount Kanchenjunga, the third
highest peak in the world, as abackdrop.
It looks like from my hotelroom that I could take a
(12:06):
baseball and hit the mountain,but it was like 30 miles away.
The mountain's so big it lookslike it was right there.
Outside of Darjeeling there's aplace called Manipajang and I
ran up to a place called Sandapufrom Manipajang, about 20 miles
.
When you get to the top, wherethe trail ends, ends and you're
running right on the border ofNepal and India, you can see
(12:27):
little markers that say this isNepal and this is India.
You can see four of the fivehighest mountains in the world.
It looks like they just putthem there for you, just for
your looking pleasure, and sothe mountain you can't see is K2
, the second highest peak in theworld, which is in Pakistan.
We've got Everest, cancun,junko, lhotse and Maklo, so the
(12:51):
four are just visual, and it'sthe only place on the planet
that you can see the fourhighest peaks, four of the five
highest peaks.
So it's a cool place to run toand hang out yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
So and that's a run, you don't really have to do
registration and worry about.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Take a taxi from Darjeeling to Manipajang and put
on the shoes and up to Sandafu.
You can spend the night inSandafu and come back the next
day.
Pretty place.
There's other ones in that listtoo.
I love the 22-mile run on thePali coast in Hawaii, in the
island of Kauai.
It gets rated as the prettiesthike in the world year after
(13:33):
year.
It's an unbelievable setting.
You can run it.
It is a pretty arduous 22 milescan be really slippery.
You've got to do a couplecrossings where rivers come down
off the mountain and run intothe ocean.
The water is really treacherous.
You got to know when to crossto get to the trail on the other
(13:53):
side.
It's really dangerous.
They list how many people werekilled this year.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And it's that bad you can't't mess around, but it's
such a beautiful, incredible run.
I don't know how you couldoutdo either one.
To be honest, it would beprobably people that do a warmer
climate, love the ocean thepoly coast would be better and
then people that love mountainsand want to go high up and see
(14:22):
snow.
I would say running thestand-up foot would suit them.
So you got your pick.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
So you have bucket list races in this book you want
to do.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
One that keeps me up at night, all the time, the Rim
to Rim in the Grand Canyon.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
In the Grand.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Canyon.
I was there to do the Rim toRim and went to bed, got up at 4
o'clock in the morning ready togo.
It snowed like crazy overnight.
The trail was closed and theyhad signage everywhere you park
clothes.
Luckily I had an extra day.
It was may and I was surprisedat how much it snowed I'm
(14:59):
surprised it snowed at all, wowthat's what you're in arizona,
on the south rim, and it snoweda lot.
So I thought the forecast was towarm up and that'll melt and
then I'll do the rim to rim thenext day.
The rim, the rim's 48 miles.
It's pretty rugged down intothe camp, down to the floor,
across the river, across thebridge, and then up to the north
(15:19):
rim and then work your way backto the south rim.
So it's rim to rim, south rimto north rim, back to the south
rim.
So it's rim to rim, south rimto north rim, back to the south
rim.
The next day it snowed more, itdid warm up and a lot of the
snow melted, but overnight itsnowed again.
So I knew it wasn't going tohappen.
I did some runs in the canyon atother times that I was there,
(15:40):
but I never did.
The classic rim to rim Keeps meup at night.
I got to do it.
That would be the first one Ido.
Once I get some mileage undermy belt and see what I can do.
Maybe wait till June andhopefully it won't snow.
And you want the lodges andstuff on each rim to be open,
because that's where you getsupplies.
Sure, you want that stuff to beopen so you can access water,
(16:03):
bathrooms and everything youneed.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Yeah, here in Florida right now in April, it's 87
degrees.
So the idea that you weregetting snow in Arizona, which
is arguably hotter than here,yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
But that area is high elevation and Mount Humphreys
right there, which issnow-capped basically probably
all year, so it's interestingthere's parts of Arizona that
stay cool.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yeah, I go to sleep thinking rim-to-rim.
I think I can handle rim-to-rimthese days.
It would have been an easy runyears ago.
Once I get that checked off,then we'll see.
I'll take a look at what's next.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
For runners, who might be picking this book up
aside from a beautiful coffeetable book or something to add
to their collection from runningauthors.
What would your recommendationbe for the way runners could use
the book?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, I think to use it as a guide 0-100 runs of a
lifetime.
The mistake I made is I didn'thave in one place all the runs
that I did.
I used to have training logsfrom the 70s and 80s where we
wrote everything down on alogbook and they're buried
somewhere I don't know wherethey're even at.
And then I started writingstuff on a computer back when
(17:22):
you had to put a sloppy disk inyour computer.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
I'm floppy disk years old.
I know what you're talkingabout.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
So I lost those floppy disks.
I don't know where they are.
I didn't even have a place toput a disk in your computer
these days, so when I startedcompiling all the runs I did, I
had to use my passport toremember exactly every place I
went to.
I'm going to suggest to runnersthat they compile their runs,
(17:51):
not like a log, but the run thatyou head out, and you just
thought it was magical.
That's the one you want tostore somewhere and you could
just create it in email or on aWord doc or something like that
to access.
I wish I would have had all theraces I did and all the places
I've run in one place.
It would have been a lot easierto do the manuscript.
(18:11):
So that's what I want people toreally think of what is a run
of a lifetime for them and storethat.
Hopefully they come up withmore than 100 and then they can
whittle it down and create theirlist of 100 runs of a lifetime.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Now for the ones you haven't done yet.
Did you talk to other runnersabout those particular ones you
added to the book?
Speaker 1 (18:35):
There are also well-known races like a Berlin
Marathon.
Oh yeah, races I've actuallyattended for Runner's World.
I was there working and didn'trun the race.
So yeah, there are races I knewa lot about.
But I actually did talk topeople that have run it and got
some feedback from them what Iwas writing about.
They said I was spot on withthe message I was putting out
(18:56):
there.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
And the book has an index.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
By destination, and then it's broken up into states
in the US.
So then, if you are looking totravel, we are the Run Eat Drink
podcast.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
That's what we do.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
So we're planning to go to this, but I love how we
can look at that and say, okay,we're headed to this location.
What should we do or whereshould we run if you had to
select one from the short list?
Yep what would that?
Speaker 1 (19:35):
be.
So I started out the less thana marathon distance started
garden of the gods in coloradosprings.
I just fall in love with thatplace.
Every time I go there Sandstonepeaks and the design it looks
like somebody created it butthere was no one there carving
up this stuff.
It just happens to be just sucha pretty setting and I let off
(19:58):
the chapter with that race forthat reason.
It was one of the coolest racesI've ever done.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Challenging elevation-wise.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
It is a challenge.
The elevation is 6,800 feet, sothere's some elevation, but
people are scared of elevationwhen it comes to a race.
You don't have to be scared,you just run slower.
People that live there runslower.
They are more used to it thanpeople living in Florida.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
It's so flat here we are slower, they are more used
to it than people living inFlorida.
I was going to say we aredwellers at sea level, so we're
used to lots of oxygen in ourair.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
I remember when I did the Key West half marathon I
did a radio interview before therace and the guy said we
measure elevation by inches.
He said that little bridge yougo over to get on the Key West I
think it's 84 inches tall abovesea level.
I was cracking up.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
For us that's the issue is temperature it's hot
and there's no shade.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah, there's no doubt about it.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Part of this book is that you have weather tips laid
out in each run.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Strategically placed.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
If travel is going to be a challenge, here's a
recommendation for where you canstay.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Five-star hotels, and then there's the Joe's Motel
kind of places.
I have nothing against stayingin a nice hotel, but sometimes
you're staying in your motelroom and the car parks up front
and the headlights come rightthrough the windows in your room
.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
That's true, that's true.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
And a lot of those when you drive to Key West.
You drive from Miami to KeyWest you see a lot of they brag
about having air conditioningand televisions.
Because that was a big thing tobrag about 60 years ago.
I was going to say that's partof it, it's still there.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
You see that sign.
That's part of the Americanmotel culture from the 50s 60s
that is still very much aliveand well in parts of Florida.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Okay, so in the marathon section, what is the
most memorable?
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Yeah, so I started out with Big Sur.
For that reason I have thisclassic photo of doing Big Sur
in 1990 and then doing it in2017.
And a photo was taken at theexact same spot on the bixby
bridge, at halfway.
And the difference my time, Ithink I was two hours and 45
minutes slower from when I ranit back in 1990.
(22:14):
But I always say to people andyou can see in the photo, in the
one photo I have a nice stridegoing, I'm not on the ground at
all.
And then you, you see the otherone, it looks like I'm cemented
to the ground.
But you know what I always sayto people I ran so much slower,
I didn't have any hair anymoreand the little bit I have is
gray.
The other photo I didn't havegray hair and I had lots of hair
(22:37):
.
The leg speed's gone, thehair's gone, but the leg speed's
gone.
The hair's gone, but thepassion was still there.
Because I was going slower, itdidn't matter.
I was having the exact sameamount of fun and enjoyment and
passion about the sport as I didrunning two hours and 45
minutes slower.
Could have even been more thanthat.
I can remember somewhere aroundtwo hours and 40 minutes or
(22:57):
something.
Oh, such a pretty place and Iwas happy to be out there and
that you're soaking it in at thepace that's comfortable for you
.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Whoever you are and whatever you're doing, living in
pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
We don't have high elevation.
We have lots of hills here.
The hills in big serve neverbothered me.
I can train on hills like that.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
It makes a big difference we've tried to run
hilly races before and in spiteof running parking lots and it
is just not the same.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
I see all the Miami runners go and just run up and
down that bridge, maybe that'swhat we need to do.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
That's rough.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
The ultra and trails.
Yes, the ultras and trails.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yes, the ultras and trails I led that with.
So I led each of the four partswith what was my favorite.
That one is, comrades, the racein South Africa, which they
call a marathon, but it'sactually an ultra.
Kilometers or 56 miles 56 miles.
It's the oldest ultra in theworld.
It's the largest ultra in theworld.
It's the largest ultra in theworld.
(24:03):
It's a race that changed thecomplexity of a country that was
in need of change.
It really helped with theabolishment of apartheid because
the black citizens weresuppressed from everything
during apartheid.
When apartheid was abolished,the black citizens flourished in
running.
They started winning comrades.
When you win comrades, you'relike the black citizen
flourished in running.
They started winning comrades.
(24:23):
When you win comrades, you'relike the most famous person in
South Africa.
A race is such a big deal forthis country.
It was really cool for blackSouth Africans to be revered at
the highest level in theircountry.
It's a race that really changedthe country.
There weren't manyinternational runners that did
the race during apartheid, butonce apartheid was abolished in
(24:44):
the early 90s, then theinternational runners started
running comrades and then therace really hit a whole new
level.
It's an emotional race to dothe whole thing.
When I was interviewing blackSouth African runners and they
were telling me what it was likeduring apartheid, it was hard
to hear their stories.
They told me that whenapartheid was still around, when
(25:07):
they ran comrades, they feltfree of apartheid because they
were on national TV and everyonesupported everyone for that one
day and that one race.
The next day would be back toapartheid.
They really felt like apartheiddidn't exist.
When they were out thererunning comrades, I said when I
interviewed them I guaranteedthem I'd be a runner the rest of
(25:28):
my life, because I said if thesport is powerful enough to
suppress something as evil asapartheid, that's a sport I want
to be part of.
And I remember telling this guyno matter how much I get beat
up as I get older or slow down,I'm going to keep running until
I can't run anymore.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
I gave him that guarantee.
When you look at the historyand then what we all overcome in
a race when you hit a wall andyou push through, or the
community that is around runningit's amazing.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
How about women?
Catherine Switzer tried totackle her and take her out of
the race in 1967.
1967, I was already 12 yearsold.
Not, this wasn't like eons agoand now there's races that have
more women than men.
I watched that change, startingthis sport back in the 70s when
(26:33):
I started the influx of womenand the guys always wanted the
women to run.
It was just the organizers.
After him became really goodfriends with jock sample, the
guy that tried to take her outof the race because he just
thought women were going to hurtthemselves.
He didn't want that to happen,thought she was trying to make a
mockery of his race.
He became good friends in theend yeah but still he jumped off
(26:57):
the truck and tried to take herout of the race.
Who wouldn't do that?
Speaker 3 (27:02):
wow seemed like a good time and she talks about
him coming up to her and saylet's go get a wee bit of
notoriety up there, he gives hera kiss on the cheek.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
That gets photo on a newspaper yeah newspapers were
really the media back then andto consume yeah, and patterne's
still going to boston.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
She's unbelievable she talks about how men were so
welcoming to women in the sportand archie was her coach guys
knew that women were going tostart beating guys that weren't
as fast as they used to be.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
They were cool with it.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Yeah, so you have big historic races like Boston,
like yesterday's Boston, andthen you have races that are not
really races, they're runs, andthat's that last section of
your book.
And how do you lead that off?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Yeah, I lead that one off with the Nepali Coast in
Kauai and do that 22 mile run.
Now you don't have to do thewhole 22 miles.
I was able to run 22 milespretty easily back then because
it is muddy and just all kindsof conditions you run into in
those 22 miles.
But it is just unbelievablescenery the whole time.
(28:24):
You're just absolutely blownaway by what you witness.
Always looking down the ocean,hearing these crashing waves
it's just incredible.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
And, unlike the crater, no natural predators.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Yes, you're safe from any critters, but you've got to
watch out.
When it's muddy, there's somespots where you can fall a long
way, so you've got to be careful.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
And then, speaking of encouraging people to be, you
assign a difficulty level easy,challenging, moderate, et cetera
to each race.
How do you define these?
What's your criteria?
Speaker 1 (29:00):
there.
It's hard to do.
You hear some people say, oh,that marathon's an easy course.
There is no such thing as aneasy marathon, but it was more
talking about the terrain of thecourse, whether it's a rugged
trail or just a hilly race.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
A race can be only 10K and be a fast course, but
like Peachtree is running Julyin Atlanta and that is not a
fast course, but like peach treeis running july in atlanta and
that is not a fast course, right?
Speaker 1 (29:25):
yeah, it's a net descent course.
So you think it's going to befast.
But fourth of july and youstart that.
The elites go off at 7 30 inthe morning.
The other waves start way back.
I remember doing the tv showfor that race and talking to the
elites afterwards and they saidyou guys do know there's people
(29:46):
that haven't even started therace yet and they were finished
and they already got theirpaycheck.
There's still people out there.
They're just about to startright now.
They had no clue.
They thought I was kidding.
I said no, they haven't started.
They know what corral they'rein and approximately what time
it starts, so they know when tobe in the right place at the
right time.
But they were blown away thatthere's still people that didn't
(30:08):
start running.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
And that's if you've lived in Atlanta, like I did
during college and after and forour first year of marriage.
It shuts the city down.
That's a big deal there.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
It's a classic race and it's been around since the
early 70s and some of thetraditions they keep going.
Like the t-shirt you don't getit till you finish and no one
sees it till you finish, whichis really cool.
It's what makes it fun andunique.
I always say every time I'vebeen to that race there's always
some guy that has a shirt from1974 and it's all faded and it
(30:42):
doesn't fit.
Stomach's hanging out, the armsare up, everything shrunk
T-shirts.
You used to get at a race inthe 70s.
If you washed it three times itwould fit your cat and nobody
else.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
The highest quality.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Race registration fees.
The first couple races I did itwas like $3 to do a race so you
weren't going to get a qualityshirt.
You see these it tends to beguys that women have a better
sense of fashion.
And the gentlemen that come tothis shirt, they're just proud
that it says peak street roadrace 1972.
The shirt is ripped andshredded and doesn't fit anymore
(31:16):
, but they walk around that expowith it on story.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
It's bragging rights I've been doing this race every
year since 1972.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
I've worn the same shirt in every race.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
So when you categorized everything and you
have the range, you have thedistance, are there
recommendations you would makefor us, who may be?
I don't know, we're going to beout there Back of the race.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
We're getting the most out of our race entry fee.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Yeah, they keep the finish line open forever 17
hours.
People stop at Starbucks andget coffee.
That's the only race I know itkeeps a finish line open that
long.
I do the race announcing everyyear at the wineglass Marathon
up in Corning, new York.
They're big on making sureeveryone gets the opportunity to
(32:04):
finish.
I always stay until everyone isin, so it's fun.
We make a big deal of thosepeople that are way in the back.
Royalty.
I love that Wineglass was one ofthe races I really wanted in
the book but didn't make itbecause of all the geographic
locations.
I did have too many races inthe northeast at first, oh, so I
(32:28):
had to move stuff around thatwe really did have.
I didn't want to forget aboutthe midwest and I had to did my
best to include a little bit ofeverything.
It's hard to do that one didn'tmake the cut, the races that
deserve to be in the top 100list.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Maybe National Geographic will call you back
for more races of a lifetime.
It's possible.
I'm just saying something.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
National Geographic it did say it started at 200.
Right.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
I just started and compiled them.
I did have them in a Word docor somewhere where I could just
access it.
I would have been doing that.
It would have been a lot easierto do if I already compiled
that.
But yeah, so we'll see.
That would be cool.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
Well, that's a good suggestion for Honolulu.
I know when race events want todo the logistics and you have
to do road closure.
It's so incredibly expensivefor races to hire law
enforcement and it can beprohibitive.
That ends up dictating a lot oftimes how long they're willing
to leave a race course open.
Having one at a major city likeHonolulu, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah, the way they have it set up and then you come
back in from that side.
There's ways that people canget around and the race going on
doesn't screw their day up, butwhen roads are tied up, cities
really want their roads back.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Yeah they sure do really do.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Race directors have tough duty they do.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
They're like you look at chicago but then you look at
new york and I think New Yorkstays open longer.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
They're all trying to change.
Some of the majors are goingsix and a half hours.
Boston did the 5.30 pm thing.
Boston finished line at 5.30 tobe considered a finisher.
First year I did Boston.
If you finished after threehours 35 minutes and 59 seconds,
you were not in the results.
You had a break three, 35, 59.
(34:25):
I had the booklet upstairs thathas all the finishers and the
last finisher is three hours 35minutes, 59 seconds.
And then they just stopped, youcould cross the finish line, but
you just weren't recorded as afinisher.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Goodness.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Back then they would tear the bottom part of your bid
number off and put it on aspindle.
That's how they did thefinishers.
If you came in after threehours and 30 minutes, there was
no one there to take your bottompart of your bid.
You were on your own and you'renot in the results.
There was no chip timing,that's on you.
Oh wow A little different worldback then.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
You have to bake in the administrative time, the
time we want to thank you forincluding one of our favorites
in the book and one that's nearand dear to my heart as a Tampa
native Gasparilla DistanceClassic, and I know you've made
difficult choices when it cameto narrowing it down.
For every one that's in thatbook there's one that's not.
What's the one race that youwanted to include but you
(35:21):
weren't able to do.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
The Wineglass Marathon, because I always do
that race and I always say tothe race director, sheila Sutton
, this is like the hidden gem ofall time.
I love this race, but we hadtoo much.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
New York stuff already in the book.
What makes it the hidden gem of?
Speaker 1 (35:39):
all time.
I love this race, but it was wehad too much New York stuff
already in the book.
What makes it the hidden gem?
There are people finding outabout it, but I do remember I
always felt it was a hidden gem.
The Finger Lakes area is reallypretty to be a tourist at,
which is right close to Corning.
Corning glassware they do inCorning is really pretty.
The course is fast but it'salso that right size.
Like the town of Corning are10,000 people and the race gets
10,000 runners, so it's likeyou've doubled the size of the
(36:02):
town.
When the race is in town, Iremember doing the race
announcing.
I hear this all the time.
Runners come in and they go.
Bart, let me tell you something.
This race we came in from LasVegas.
We will be here every year.
We love this race, but theyalways say the thing they love,
(36:22):
one of those races, that and Icould be prejudiced a little
there because I do the raceannouncing there.
I've been there every yearsince 2013 they have an amazing
(36:43):
race announcer yeah, that's whatsheila says.
The race director, I do the raceannouncing.
I speak at their dinner.
Every year they do a nice pastadinner and get big speakers.
They started out with me whenthey started these dinners and
then went to Meb Kofleski andDina Castor, and so when they're
speaking I kind of post thewhole dinner and make sure
(37:04):
everyone knows what's going onand introduce everybody.
It's an incredible weekend.
When I held the book, I thoughtof good races that I really
wish were in there, but the veryfirst one I thought of was
Wineglass.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Good answer.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
I'm happy that you talk about the whole experience
with Wineglass and I love thatthe book provides not only
pre-race shakeout runs you cando or post-race meals.
I'm applauding that we're on adrink podcast.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
So if you're in Gasparilla, we could have the
little paragraphs along thesides of the pictures.
You could have one talkingabout the Columbia Restaurant.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Columbia Restaurant's a big deal.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
So the book I always had to remember.
The book is not a Bargiassobook, it is a book about running
and National Geographic.
Because I'm vegetarian, I eat99% vegan.
I didn't put in vegetarian andvegan food because we're a small
part of society.
I really put in food that isvery common to the area.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Where I personally would eat, where I would do
shakeout, runs and that kind ofstuff.
That's for everybody.
Speaker 4 (38:27):
And we have covered an ample amount of vegan and
vegetarian options on the show,because we were completely
plant-based for over a year andwe covered a lot of really good
options, I think if we were todo 100 runs of a lifetime, I
think we might organize it asthe running, the eating and the
(38:51):
places where you can get thebest beverages coffee we cover a
lot of coffee too.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Top of the list.
Now you're speaking my language.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
Where have you run that you can get the best coffee
?
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Boston has a lot of Dunkin' Donuts Little coffee
shops, slash bookshops thelittle places that are really
good.
Boston's a hot spot for gettinggood coffee.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
I spent three weeks in Boston this past year and I
was shocked at the number ofDunkin' Donuts they have there.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Yeah, yeah, that's where you can get good coffee.
Speaker 4 (39:22):
And Dunkin's kind of like America's Tim Hortons.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
That's a good analogy .
Speaker 3 (39:28):
It is, but now okay, so you can get it like after
your race in the morning andthen you want a good cup of
coffee post race, and then weknow where to go to Boston.
At the water stops they'regoing to ask you red or white
red yeah, doc marathon.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
That is really real, I thought.
I could really escape the wine,stop and get around it and they
don't let you escape, but theyjust really give you like one
ounce of wine.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
It's like a symbol or something.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Get red or white and then you keep going.
And they got crackers for you.
You eat a cracker and thenthere's water and you drink some
water and then you continue on.
So that way you don't even knowthat you're really drinking 18
little one ounces of wine.
I think it's 18 stops along theway.
Wow, really, don't, let you getaway without it's red or white.
(40:19):
They don't say you don't wantit.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
That's not an option to partake.
Before the pandemic we werelooking at races to go outside
of the United States and takethe podcast international.
At that time there was a racewe were looking at in Scotland
that had a very similar thing.
So you're running through theroads and trails and hills of
Scotland and they had scotchtastings all along the course
(40:47):
and I don't know if I could do18 ounces over the course of
that.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
I don't think I'd be crawling across the finish line.
I can't give you that much.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
No, I don't think you have be crawling across the
finish line.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
I can't give you that much.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
No.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
I don't think you have to get a lot of water.
Best post-race meal.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
I'm thinking post-race meal, based on the
type of food that represents anarea Crescent city classic in
new Orleans.
Oh when you finish the race,they give you a meal.
I didn't eat it because it wasnot vegetarian it's like a fire
with an andouille is anandouille sausage yeah.
So that's like someone'sturning jambalaya stew, just
(41:31):
keeping it going, and then youcan obviously go into the
restaurants from there.
But I would say and I like thatbecause it is what they serve
at the finish line is reallywhat New Orleans is known for.
Speaker 4 (41:43):
Oh yeah, they handed you a beignet and some chicory,
coffee.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Yeah, you can get it on your own the day before the
race or at the Cafe Du Monde,and then you finish the race and
they're in this big park andthey just feed you like crazy
and take a nap and go out to eat.
That sounds great.
It's always the saturday beforeeaster.
Oh, they always pick thatweekend.
(42:07):
But they do, they know there'sa lot of tourists there they've
just had mardi gras yeah, it's atail end of mardi gras.
They get 20 people in the race.
It's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Like you you can run, you can eat, you can drink a
destination, and that soundslike a place where you could
really soak up the culture.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
Where and how can the Runcation Nation get this book?
Speaker 1 (42:32):
So it is out, everywhere books are sold.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
I just looked it up.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Oh, it's out there.
Wherever buy books, you'll findare you doing book signings?
I struggle with travel thesedays so I can't travel like the
old days, but I'm gonna go acouple places.
I'm going to a race thisweekend in pennsylvania town
called jim thorpe.
Unfortunately, jim Thorpe wasnever in Jim Thorpe.
The town purchased his bodyafter he was deceased and moved
(43:01):
it from Oklahoma to Pennsylvaniaand changed the name of the
town from Monk Chunk to JimThorpe for tourist reasons.
Now they have a Jim Thorperunning festival and I'll be
there signing books this weekend.
But I'll keep up on my socialmedia and put my signings out
there.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
And speaking of that, we know you have a Facebook
page.
We know you have Instagram.
You also have your website.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
And I have the link for the book on bartjassocom.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
Are there options on bartjassocom for signed copies?
I?
Speaker 1 (43:33):
haven't done that yet .
Speaker 4 (43:34):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
I have requests.
I save haven't done that yet.
Okay, I gotta make it happen.
I have requests.
I saved the media interviews Ido over the next two weeks, and
then I'll be able to sort stuffout.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Runcation nation.
When that happens, we'll letyou know.
Bart's also on Twitter.
X formerly known as Twitter.
Uh and we're going to havelinks to everything that we've
talked about here.
We're going to have a link tothe book to bart's website to
his social media and the racesthat we talked about here today
(44:04):
what an amazing.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Used to like twitter, but it's been a weird social
media lately facebook.
I have two pages.
I have a personal one that youmax out at 5 000 and another one
, then another one that has like$17,000.
Interesting.
You can only get that one ifyou have a book, celebrity or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
Deal.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
I got it when I had my book my Life on the Run.
What?
Speaker 2 (44:27):
a great book.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
I do have two Facebook pages that I take care
of, and then I will go on X andInstagram.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
We will keep up with your journey.
This book is incredible.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
This gets a place of honor right on the set.
This becomes a permanentfixture here.
So thank you.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
I think the last race we saw you at was the Shamrock
Marathon weekend.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
I was thinking if it was Alaska or Shamrock.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
It may have been Alaska.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
I saw you guys in Alaska.
It was 2022 been Alaska.
I saw you guys in Alaska.
It was 2022 maybe.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
You're right, whether it's Alaska.
Speaker 4 (45:03):
I remember stalking you that year.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
That's another race I love and was very deserving to
be in the book.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
Anchorage Windfest is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
They got so many races to choose from.
It's really fun.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
And they have unique shirts.
Their shirts are amazing.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
End up in Anchorage and wake up and it's 48 degrees
in the morning.
Speaker 4 (45:22):
Our first time running that we flew from
Florida there and when we go tothe race expo they said there's
black flag conditions on therace course or anticipated.
And so we're telling everybodynow prepare, don't go for a PR,
it's going to be ungodly hot.
And I'm like what did we bringwith us to Alaska?
They were saying that the highwas going to be 75 degrees and
(45:45):
they were dead serious.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
I don't think it got that hot.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
No, it was wonderful.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
Yes, it was truly wonderful.
It was an amazing place to see,a runcation to remember, not
only because of the beauty of it, but because we were lucky
enough to explore and indulgewith you there, and we really
hope to do that again very soon.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
I hope so.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
Bart Yasso, the mayor of running.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Thank you, amy, thank you, dana.
You're doing what our sport isall about being out there,
connecting with people andkeeping it fun and real.
You got to have passion and joyin this sport to be in it for
the long haul, and you guys havethe passion and the joy, so
you're going to be around awhile doing this stuff.
That's what I love.
Speaker 4 (46:38):
Thank you, bart, so much.
We're going to have everythingin the show notes, everybody.
That's it for Bart, yeah.
So on this week's episode ofthe running drink podcast.
I am Bart Yasso and you're listening to the Run Eat
Drink podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to the Run, Eat, Drink podcast.
We feature destination racesfrom across the country and
after the race, we take you on atour of the best local food and
beverage to celebrate.
So, whether you are an eliterunner or a back of the packer
like us, you'll know the bestplaces to accomplish, explore
and indulge on your nextruncation, Dana we are so lucky
(00:38):
to welcome back the mayor ofrunning, the chief running
officer at wonders world untilhis retirement, until 2017.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
He reminds me of my dad, just doesn't want to retire
and keeps on going and in factnow has a new book out 100 runs
of a lifetime the world'sultimate races and trails.
We welcome back Bart Yasso toour show, sir welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Thank you Amy, thank you Dana.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
You're welcome.
We are so excited to have youback on the show.
We have certain luminaries inrunning that we've been
fortunate enough to befriendover the years of doing the show
.
You're an amazing inspirationand wealth of knowledge.
We are so excited to talk toyou today and to talk to you
about your new book.
Tell us what was theinspiration for this new book?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, so I get a call one day from National
Geographic.
I didn't answer the phonebecause the number wasn't in my
contact file.
So, if I I don't know, theperson left a message and said
she worked at NationalGeographic.
So I Googled and certainly shedid work at National Geographic.
(01:54):
So I called her right back.
They wanted me to author thisbook.
They have a series called the100 series.
They've done 100 scuba dives ofa lifetime and 100 hikes of a
lifetime, 100 ski slopes youshould ski in a lifetime and
then 100 runs of a lifetime andthey're rolling out many more in
this 100 series I think theyhad a disney, one that I saw
(02:18):
yeah they just yeah, called himup I remember hanging out the
phone because I said I I havegreat interest, they're going to
send me a contract.
I was like there's only once inmy lifetime National
Geographic's going to call me upto author a book.
So I'm getting on this thingright now.
There was a woman that workedat Runner's World and she threw
my name in the hat and they knewthat I run all over the world
(02:41):
and National Geographic is aglobal product.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
They wanted races in the US, but also races and runs
all over the world, so I thinkthat's why they thought I was
the right person for the job.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I think you are?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
I can think of no one better.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Why do we call him the mayor of running?
Exactly so that's how you endedup partnering and getting in
with National Geographic.
I feel like there could be awhole series of books you could
do for them with everything thatyou've done and seen across the
world.
How long did the project take?
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So it's about a two-year project to get a book
out.
I worked on a manuscript forfour and a half to five months.
We call it a book map, but itbasically is an outline.
I had to come up with a hundredraces and runs, which was easy
to do.
It was easy to get 200.
And then I had to narrow itdown to 100, which was tough.
(03:41):
And you create the map how theyall fall into place, the four
parts of the book.
We turned it into four partsand then get each race or run in
the proper place.
Then you start.
Once that's approved, you startworking on your manuscripts and
then the book has to getprinted and copy editing to make
sure everything's spelledcorrectly and in the right order
(04:02):
and so it's a process.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Is it like training for a race?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
it's like doing two ultras every day.
What most people don't knowabout that haven't written a
book is once you do a chapterand then go out for a run.
And then I would go, oh, Ididn't mention this or I didn't,
and you go back and change allthe stuff that you already had
and kind of rewrite it, soyou're never sold on what you
(04:31):
put out there at first, and thenyou go back and tweak it and
mess around with it and prove it.
So it's not like you just bangout a chapter and say, ok,
that's done, change it and tweakit and then you got your
chapter.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
And some of the best ideas you have are on the run.
When you're outside, you becomeclear.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I think that's where I got the idea of how to shape
the chapter I was working on ofwhat people need to know about
the event or the run Totallyright.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Now in the book, some of the photos.
Of course.
National Geographic's known fortheir photos, Beautiful.
Some of those put you right ina specific moment of a run or a
race in a unique destination andit was just fantastic.
How were those photos collected, selected, placed in the book?
And I love your book map ideaand I'm assuming that's a large
part of it.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
You've got to figure out how many pages and where
those photos go.
I know I'm never going to be amodel in life because I'm 70
years old now.
There's only one picture of mein the entire book.
There's only one photo in theentire book that I produced and
I didn't take the photo.
It was taken out of race but itwas sent to me.
All the other photos wereproduced by National Geographic
(05:39):
so they knew the locations andwhere to find the photos.
I'm sure they have a massivedatabase of photographers.
All the photos are their ideas,except for the one photo that
has me in it near the intro.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Big Sur Marathon and thank God they used a photo of
me running like 35 years ago.
The big difference.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
That's Bart.
He had the hair.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I had a mullet and I didn't even know what a mullet
was, but my hair started toretreat in the front so I had
more hair in the back.
Yeah, I was just cruising alongat the Big Sur Marathon.
At halfway that picture wastaken.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
That looks pretty challenging.
There's a few hills in thatrace.
Yeah, so you were on our showbefore and talked about your
life on the run and how runningshaped you and gave you
direction and gave youdiscipline.
In this book, in the intro youtalked about a specific run in
1995.
You make a reference to asbeing sacred.
(06:40):
Can you talk about that alittle bit?
Speaker 1 (06:43):
You know what I always said that run out of the
crater was my favorite run of mylife.
I've been saying that since1995.
People would ask me what's yourfavorite?
Not a race, the coolest runyou've ever done.
I always said the NuringuruCrater is in Tanzania.
It's 30 kilometers around, it's2,000 foot deep, cold and it
(07:03):
has just about all the animals.
It's almost like creating alittle Africa in Africa.
The giraffe don't go down thatcrater because they can't
negotiate the steepness of thehills going down into the crater
floor, the walls of the crater.
But you go down in the craterand you get to see all the lions
and everything except for thegiraffe.
You're down there spending theday and taking in all the lions
and everything except for thegiraffe.
(07:24):
You're down there spending theday and taking in all the
wildlife.
And then it gets closer tosunset and your guide says we've
got to head on out.
You're not allowed to leave thevehicle, you can't walk around.
But I asked the guy if I couldrun out of the crater and he was
not keen on the idea.
But I convinced him that I'd besafe and I can jump back in the
(07:48):
Jeep if something comes outafter me.
He stayed right behind me and Iran up the crater wall and up
to the rim at sunset Just anincredible view.
The sunsets in Africa are justunbelievable.
I did run into a hyena behind abush, but the hyena was more
afraid of me than I was of thehyena.
We startled each other.
I came around the way the trailwas going and hyena jumped up
(08:11):
and took off away from me.
So that was a good thing,that's a good thing, but that
was the only encounter on theway out was my favorite run of
my life and then eventuallywould turn into a run of a
lifetime.
I never used that phrase beforeuntil the book came along.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
That's a great turn of phrase.
The way that you have theseconnections to these races in
your memories and the feelingsthey evoked in you, I think has
a lot to do with the closenessthat runners feel with one
another.
The running community is soincredibly tight knit and
(08:51):
supportive.
It's the shared struggle, it'sthe emotions that races can
generate in people.
When we're talking about elitelevel runners and running
luminaries like you, who writeon the topic, there's a
connection that forms betweenthe author and the reader.
Do you think that this book'sgoing to connect you in a
different way with your audience, with the running community?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
The book is not 100 runs of Bart Yasso.
The book is really 100 runs ofa lifetime.
And there's some events in thisbook that I've never done.
And there's some events in thisbook that I've never done and
that's done by design because Iwant to do them.
So I challenged myself in myown book that I had to get out
there and do these couple racesthat I've never done, but I felt
(09:39):
they're such iconic events thatthey need to be in the book.
A couple of them I may not beable to do, but there's a couple
that I could finish.
I just don't run that muchthese days, so I would struggle
on the longer ones, but we'llsee what happens.
I really think that it's goingto open up the doors for people
to create their own 100 runs ofa lifetime.
It doesn't have to be anygrandiose, spectacular thing.
(10:03):
It could be just running withyour family member a son, a mom,
a grand, whoever and you end upin Rome and run a 10K run or
whatever it is.
That would be considered a runof a lifetime.
So when I did the Rome Marathon, my mom was there and she was
elderly at the time.
We got a picture.
(10:23):
I stopped during that RomeMarathon.
I got a picture of my mom atTrevi Fountain.
I didn't know it at the time,but that would be my favorite
running moment ever.
When my mom passed away.
That's when I realized thevalue of that photo, what it
meant to me, what she did for me.
So it truly is my favoriterunning moment.
(10:43):
So I think people are going toconnect that way.
It doesn't matter where you are.
You can just go out and do anytime.
It doesn't matter if you're upthe front, middle, back.
I don't like when people putthemselves in a certain area of
a race, whether it's the back ofthe pack, mid pack or front of
the pack.
Just be part of the race.
That's what it's all about.
Part of the community out thereputting one foot in front of
(11:06):
the other getting to that finishline.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
So it sounds like he's answered this question
already.
For people who don't know, wewere lucky enough to explore and
experience the book beforetalking to you tonight.
We see that it's organized intoshort distance and road races,
and then there's a section ofmarathons and then trails and
(11:31):
ultras are together and then youhave the fourth part.
That is not races, and you saidthat came to you on a run when
you got done and you looked ateach section.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Which one is your favorite and why I like part
four, because runners can do itanytime they're in that area at
their leisure and they can do it10 times.
The run, I remember, wasoutside of India, arjalan, india
, a really pretty place withMount Kanchenjunga, the third
highest peak in the world, as abackdrop.
It looks like from my hotelroom that I could take a
(12:06):
baseball and hit the mountain,but it was like 30 miles away.
The mountain's so big it lookslike it was right there.
Outside of Darjeeling there's aplace called Manipajang and I
ran up to a place called Sandapufrom Manipajang, about 20 miles
.
When you get to the top, wherethe trail ends, ends and you're
running right on the border ofNepal and India, you can see
(12:27):
little markers that say this isNepal and this is India.
You can see four of the fivehighest mountains in the world.
It looks like they just putthem there for you, just for
your looking pleasure, and sothe mountain you can't see is K2
, the second highest peak in theworld, which is in Pakistan.
We've got Everest, cancun,junko, lhotse and Maklo, so the
(12:51):
four are just visual, and it'sthe only place on the planet
that you can see the fourhighest peaks, four of the five
highest peaks.
So it's a cool place to run toand hang out yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
So and that's a run, you don't really have to do
registration and worry about.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Take a taxi from Darjeeling to Manipajang and put
on the shoes and up to Sandafu.
You can spend the night inSandafu and come back the next
day.
Pretty place.
There's other ones in that listtoo.
I love the 22-mile run on thePali coast in Hawaii, in the
island of Kauai.
It gets rated as the prettiesthike in the world year after
(13:33):
year.
It's an unbelievable setting.
You can run it.
It is a pretty arduous 22 milescan be really slippery.
You've got to do a couplecrossings where rivers come down
off the mountain and run intothe ocean.
The water is really treacherous.
You got to know when to crossto get to the trail on the other
(13:53):
side.
It's really dangerous.
They list how many people werekilled this year.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And it's that bad you can't't mess around, but it's
such a beautiful, incredible run.
I don't know how you couldoutdo either one.
To be honest, it would beprobably people that do a warmer
climate, love the ocean thepoly coast would be better and
then people that love mountainsand want to go high up and see
(14:22):
snow.
I would say running thestand-up foot would suit them.
So you got your pick.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
So you have bucket list races in this book you want
to do.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
One that keeps me up at night, all the time, the Rim
to Rim in the Grand Canyon.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
In the Grand.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Canyon.
I was there to do the Rim toRim and went to bed, got up at 4
o'clock in the morning ready togo.
It snowed like crazy overnight.
The trail was closed and theyhad signage everywhere you park
clothes.
Luckily I had an extra day.
It was may and I was surprisedat how much it snowed I'm
(14:59):
surprised it snowed at all, wowthat's what you're in arizona,
on the south rim, and it snoweda lot.
So I thought the forecast was towarm up and that'll melt and
then I'll do the rim to rim thenext day.
The rim, the rim's 48 miles.
It's pretty rugged down intothe camp, down to the floor,
across the river, across thebridge, and then up to the north
(15:19):
rim and then work your way backto the south rim.
So it's rim to rim, south rimto north rim, back to the south
rim.
So it's rim to rim, south rimto north rim, back to the south
rim.
The next day it snowed more, itdid warm up and a lot of the
snow melted, but overnight itsnowed again.
So I knew it wasn't going tohappen.
I did some runs in the canyon atother times that I was there,
(15:40):
but I never did.
The classic rim to rim Keeps meup at night.
I got to do it.
That would be the first one Ido.
Once I get some mileage undermy belt and see what I can do.
Maybe wait till June andhopefully it won't snow.
And you want the lodges andstuff on each rim to be open,
because that's where you getsupplies.
Sure, you want that stuff to beopen so you can access water,
(16:03):
bathrooms and everything youneed.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Yeah, here in Florida right now in April, it's 87
degrees.
So the idea that you weregetting snow in Arizona, which
is arguably hotter than here,yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
But that area is high elevation and Mount Humphreys
right there, which issnow-capped basically probably
all year, so it's interestingthere's parts of Arizona that
stay cool.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yeah, I go to sleep thinking rim-to-rim.
I think I can handle rim-to-rimthese days.
It would have been an easy runyears ago.
Once I get that checked off,then we'll see.
I'll take a look at what's next.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
For runners, who might be picking this book up
aside from a beautiful coffeetable book or something to add
to their collection from runningauthors.
What would your recommendationbe for the way runners could use
the book?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, I think to use it as a guide 0-100 runs of a
lifetime.
The mistake I made is I didn'thave in one place all the runs
that I did.
I used to have training logsfrom the 70s and 80s where we
wrote everything down on alogbook and they're buried
somewhere I don't know wherethey're even at.
And then I started writingstuff on a computer back when
(17:22):
you had to put a sloppy disk inyour computer.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
I'm floppy disk years old.
I know what you're talkingabout.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
So I lost those floppy disks.
I don't know where they are.
I didn't even have a place toput a disk in your computer
these days, so when I startedcompiling all the runs I did, I
had to use my passport toremember exactly every place I
went to.
I'm going to suggest to runnersthat they compile their runs,
(17:51):
not like a log, but the run thatyou head out, and you just
thought it was magical.
That's the one you want tostore somewhere and you could
just create it in email or on aWord doc or something like that
to access.
I wish I would have had all theraces I did and all the places
I've run in one place.
It would have been a lot easierto do the manuscript.
(18:11):
So that's what I want people toreally think of what is a run
of a lifetime for them and storethat.
Hopefully they come up withmore than 100 and then they can
whittle it down and create theirlist of 100 runs of a lifetime.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Now for the ones you haven't done yet.
Did you talk to other runnersabout those particular ones you
added to the book?
Speaker 1 (18:35):
There are also well-known races like a Berlin
Marathon.
Oh yeah, races I've actuallyattended for Runner's World.
I was there working and didn'trun the race.
So yeah, there are races I knewa lot about.
But I actually did talk topeople that have run it and got
some feedback from them what Iwas writing about.
They said I was spot on withthe message I was putting out
(18:56):
there.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
And the book has an index.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
By destination, and then it's broken up into states
in the US.
So then, if you are looking totravel, we are the Run Eat Drink
podcast.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
That's what we do.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
So we're planning to go to this, but I love how we
can look at that and say, okay,we're headed to this location.
What should we do or whereshould we run if you had to
select one from the short list?
Yep what would that?
Speaker 1 (19:35):
be.
So I started out the less thana marathon distance started
garden of the gods in coloradosprings.
I just fall in love with thatplace.
Every time I go there Sandstonepeaks and the design it looks
like somebody created it butthere was no one there carving
up this stuff.
It just happens to be just sucha pretty setting and I let off
(19:58):
the chapter with that race forthat reason.
It was one of the coolest racesI've ever done.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Challenging elevation-wise.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
It is a challenge.
The elevation is 6,800 feet, sothere's some elevation, but
people are scared of elevationwhen it comes to a race.
You don't have to be scared,you just run slower.
People that live there runslower.
They are more used to it thanpeople living in Florida.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
It's so flat here we are slower, they are more used
to it than people living inFlorida.
I was going to say we aredwellers at sea level, so we're
used to lots of oxygen in ourair.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
I remember when I did the Key West half marathon I
did a radio interview before therace and the guy said we
measure elevation by inches.
He said that little bridge yougo over to get on the Key West I
think it's 84 inches tall abovesea level.
I was cracking up.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
For us that's the issue is temperature it's hot
and there's no shade.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah, there's no doubt about it.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Part of this book is that you have weather tips laid
out in each run.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Strategically placed.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
If travel is going to be a challenge, here's a
recommendation for where you canstay.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Five-star hotels, and then there's the Joe's Motel
kind of places.
I have nothing against stayingin a nice hotel, but sometimes
you're staying in your motelroom and the car parks up front
and the headlights come rightthrough the windows in your room
.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
That's true, that's true.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
And a lot of those when you drive to Key West.
You drive from Miami to KeyWest you see a lot of they brag
about having air conditioningand televisions.
Because that was a big thing tobrag about 60 years ago.
I was going to say that's partof it, it's still there.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
You see that sign.
That's part of the Americanmotel culture from the 50s 60s
that is still very much aliveand well in parts of Florida.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Okay, so in the marathon section, what is the
most memorable?
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Yeah, so I started out with Big Sur.
For that reason I have thisclassic photo of doing Big Sur
in 1990 and then doing it in2017.
And a photo was taken at theexact same spot on the bixby
bridge, at halfway.
And the difference my time, Ithink I was two hours and 45
minutes slower from when I ranit back in 1990.
(22:14):
But I always say to people andyou can see in the photo, in the
one photo I have a nice stridegoing, I'm not on the ground at
all.
And then you, you see the otherone, it looks like I'm cemented
to the ground.
But you know what I always sayto people I ran so much slower,
I didn't have any hair anymoreand the little bit I have is
gray.
The other photo I didn't havegray hair and I had lots of hair
(22:37):
.
The leg speed's gone, thehair's gone, but the leg speed's
gone.
The hair's gone, but thepassion was still there.
Because I was going slower, itdidn't matter.
I was having the exact sameamount of fun and enjoyment and
passion about the sport as I didrunning two hours and 45
minutes slower.
Could have even been more thanthat.
I can remember somewhere aroundtwo hours and 40 minutes or
(22:57):
something.
Oh, such a pretty place and Iwas happy to be out there and
that you're soaking it in at thepace that's comfortable for you
.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Whoever you are and whatever you're doing, living in
pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
We don't have high elevation.
We have lots of hills here.
The hills in big serve neverbothered me.
I can train on hills like that.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
It makes a big difference we've tried to run
hilly races before and in spiteof running parking lots and it
is just not the same.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
I see all the Miami runners go and just run up and
down that bridge, maybe that'swhat we need to do.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
That's rough.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
The ultra and trails.
Yes, the ultras and trails.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yes, the ultras and trails I led that with.
So I led each of the four partswith what was my favorite.
That one is, comrades, the racein South Africa, which they
call a marathon, but it'sactually an ultra.
Kilometers or 56 miles 56 miles.
It's the oldest ultra in theworld.
It's the largest ultra in theworld.
It's the largest ultra in theworld.
(24:03):
It's a race that changed thecomplexity of a country that was
in need of change.
It really helped with theabolishment of apartheid because
the black citizens weresuppressed from everything
during apartheid.
When apartheid was abolished,the black citizens flourished in
running.
They started winning comrades.
When you win comrades, you'relike the black citizen
flourished in running.
They started winning comrades.
(24:23):
When you win comrades, you'relike the most famous person in
South Africa.
A race is such a big deal forthis country.
It was really cool for blackSouth Africans to be revered at
the highest level in theircountry.
It's a race that really changedthe country.
There weren't manyinternational runners that did
the race during apartheid, butonce apartheid was abolished in
(24:44):
the early 90s, then theinternational runners started
running comrades and then therace really hit a whole new
level.
It's an emotional race to dothe whole thing.
When I was interviewing blackSouth African runners and they
were telling me what it was likeduring apartheid, it was hard
to hear their stories.
They told me that whenapartheid was still around, when
(25:07):
they ran comrades, they feltfree of apartheid because they
were on national TV and everyonesupported everyone for that one
day and that one race.
The next day would be back toapartheid.
They really felt like apartheiddidn't exist.
When they were out thererunning comrades, I said when I
interviewed them I guaranteedthem I'd be a runner the rest of
(25:28):
my life, because I said if thesport is powerful enough to
suppress something as evil asapartheid, that's a sport I want
to be part of.
And I remember telling this guyno matter how much I get beat
up as I get older or slow down,I'm going to keep running until
I can't run anymore.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
I gave him that guarantee.
When you look at the historyand then what we all overcome in
a race when you hit a wall andyou push through, or the
community that is around runningit's amazing.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
How about women?
Catherine Switzer tried totackle her and take her out of
the race in 1967.
1967, I was already 12 yearsold.
Not, this wasn't like eons agoand now there's races that have
more women than men.
I watched that change, startingthis sport back in the 70s when
(26:33):
I started the influx of womenand the guys always wanted the
women to run.
It was just the organizers.
After him became really goodfriends with jock sample, the
guy that tried to take her outof the race because he just
thought women were going to hurtthemselves.
He didn't want that to happen,thought she was trying to make a
mockery of his race.
He became good friends in theend yeah but still he jumped off
(26:57):
the truck and tried to take herout of the race.
Who wouldn't do that?
Speaker 3 (27:02):
wow seemed like a good time and she talks about
him coming up to her and saylet's go get a wee bit of
notoriety up there, he gives hera kiss on the cheek.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
That gets photo on a newspaper yeah newspapers were
really the media back then andto consume yeah, and patterne's
still going to boston.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
She's unbelievable she talks about how men were so
welcoming to women in the sportand archie was her coach guys
knew that women were going tostart beating guys that weren't
as fast as they used to be.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
They were cool with it.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Yeah, so you have big historic races like Boston,
like yesterday's Boston, andthen you have races that are not
really races, they're runs, andthat's that last section of
your book.
And how do you lead that off?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Yeah, I lead that one off with the Nepali Coast in
Kauai and do that 22 mile run.
Now you don't have to do thewhole 22 miles.
I was able to run 22 milespretty easily back then because
it is muddy and just all kindsof conditions you run into in
those 22 miles.
But it is just unbelievablescenery the whole time.
(28:24):
You're just absolutely blownaway by what you witness.
Always looking down the ocean,hearing these crashing waves
it's just incredible.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
And, unlike the crater, no natural predators.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Yes, you're safe from any critters, but you've got to
watch out.
When it's muddy, there's somespots where you can fall a long
way, so you've got to be careful.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
And then, speaking of encouraging people to be, you
assign a difficulty level easy,challenging, moderate, et cetera
to each race.
How do you define these?
What's your criteria?
Speaker 1 (29:00):
there.
It's hard to do.
You hear some people say, oh,that marathon's an easy course.
There is no such thing as aneasy marathon, but it was more
talking about the terrain of thecourse, whether it's a rugged
trail or just a hilly race.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
A race can be only 10K and be a fast course, but
like Peachtree is running Julyin Atlanta and that is not a
fast course, but like peach treeis running july in atlanta and
that is not a fast course, right?
Speaker 1 (29:25):
yeah, it's a net descent course.
So you think it's going to befast.
But fourth of july and youstart that.
The elites go off at 7 30 inthe morning.
The other waves start way back.
I remember doing the tv showfor that race and talking to the
elites afterwards and they saidyou guys do know there's people
(29:46):
that haven't even started therace yet and they were finished
and they already got theirpaycheck.
There's still people out there.
They're just about to startright now.
They had no clue.
They thought I was kidding.
I said no, they haven't started.
They know what corral they'rein and approximately what time
it starts, so they know when tobe in the right place at the
right time.
But they were blown away thatthere's still people that didn't
(30:08):
start running.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
And that's if you've lived in Atlanta, like I did
during college and after and forour first year of marriage.
It shuts the city down.
That's a big deal there.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
It's a classic race and it's been around since the
early 70s and some of thetraditions they keep going.
Like the t-shirt you don't getit till you finish and no one
sees it till you finish, whichis really cool.
It's what makes it fun andunique.
I always say every time I'vebeen to that race there's always
some guy that has a shirt from1974 and it's all faded and it
(30:42):
doesn't fit.
Stomach's hanging out, the armsare up, everything shrunk
T-shirts.
You used to get at a race inthe 70s.
If you washed it three times itwould fit your cat and nobody
else.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
The highest quality.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Race registration fees.
The first couple races I did itwas like $3 to do a race so you
weren't going to get a qualityshirt.
You see these it tends to beguys that women have a better
sense of fashion.
And the gentlemen that come tothis shirt, they're just proud
that it says peak street roadrace 1972.
The shirt is ripped andshredded and doesn't fit anymore
(31:16):
, but they walk around that expowith it on story.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
It's bragging rights I've been doing this race every
year since 1972.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
I've worn the same shirt in every race.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
So when you categorized everything and you
have the range, you have thedistance, are there
recommendations you would makefor us, who may be?
I don't know, we're going to beout there Back of the race.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
We're getting the most out of our race entry fee.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Yeah, they keep the finish line open forever 17
hours.
People stop at Starbucks andget coffee.
That's the only race I know itkeeps a finish line open that
long.
I do the race announcing everyyear at the wineglass Marathon
up in Corning, new York.
They're big on making sureeveryone gets the opportunity to
(32:04):
finish.
I always stay until everyone isin, so it's fun.
We make a big deal of thosepeople that are way in the back.
Royalty.
I love that Wineglass was one ofthe races I really wanted in
the book but didn't make itbecause of all the geographic
locations.
I did have too many races inthe northeast at first, oh, so I
(32:28):
had to move stuff around thatwe really did have.
I didn't want to forget aboutthe midwest and I had to did my
best to include a little bit ofeverything.
It's hard to do that one didn'tmake the cut, the races that
deserve to be in the top 100list.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Maybe National Geographic will call you back
for more races of a lifetime.
It's possible.
I'm just saying something.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
National Geographic it did say it started at 200.
Right.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
I just started and compiled them.
I did have them in a Word docor somewhere where I could just
access it.
I would have been doing that.
It would have been a lot easierto do if I already compiled
that.
But yeah, so we'll see.
That would be cool.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
Well, that's a good suggestion for Honolulu.
I know when race events want todo the logistics and you have
to do road closure.
It's so incredibly expensivefor races to hire law
enforcement and it can beprohibitive.
That ends up dictating a lot oftimes how long they're willing
to leave a race course open.
Having one at a major city likeHonolulu, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah, the way they have it set up and then you come
back in from that side.
There's ways that people canget around and the race going on
doesn't screw their day up, butwhen roads are tied up, cities
really want their roads back.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Yeah they sure do really do.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Race directors have tough duty they do.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
They're like you look at chicago but then you look at
new york and I think New Yorkstays open longer.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
They're all trying to change.
Some of the majors are goingsix and a half hours.
Boston did the 5.30 pm thing.
Boston finished line at 5.30 tobe considered a finisher.
First year I did Boston.
If you finished after threehours 35 minutes and 59 seconds,
you were not in the results.
You had a break three, 35, 59.
(34:25):
I had the booklet upstairs thathas all the finishers and the
last finisher is three hours 35minutes, 59 seconds.
And then they just stopped, youcould cross the finish line, but
you just weren't recorded as afinisher.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Goodness.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Back then they would tear the bottom part of your bid
number off and put it on aspindle.
That's how they did thefinishers.
If you came in after threehours and 30 minutes, there was
no one there to take your bottompart of your bid.
You were on your own and you'renot in the results.
There was no chip timing,that's on you.
Oh wow A little different worldback then.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
You have to bake in the administrative time, the
time we want to thank you forincluding one of our favorites
in the book and one that's nearand dear to my heart as a Tampa
native Gasparilla DistanceClassic, and I know you've made
difficult choices when it cameto narrowing it down.
For every one that's in thatbook there's one that's not.
What's the one race that youwanted to include but you
(35:21):
weren't able to do.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
The Wineglass Marathon, because I always do
that race and I always say tothe race director, sheila Sutton
, this is like the hidden gem ofall time.
I love this race, but we hadtoo much.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
New York stuff already in the book.
What makes it the hidden gem of?
Speaker 1 (35:39):
all time.
I love this race, but it was wehad too much New York stuff
already in the book.
What makes it the hidden gem?
There are people finding outabout it, but I do remember I
always felt it was a hidden gem.
The Finger Lakes area is reallypretty to be a tourist at,
which is right close to Corning.
Corning glassware they do inCorning is really pretty.
The course is fast but it'salso that right size.
Like the town of Corning are10,000 people and the race gets
10,000 runners, so it's likeyou've doubled the size of the
(36:02):
town.
When the race is in town, Iremember doing the race
announcing.
I hear this all the time.
Runners come in and they go.
Bart, let me tell you something.
This race we came in from LasVegas.
We will be here every year.
We love this race, but theyalways say the thing they love,
(36:22):
one of those races, that and Icould be prejudiced a little
there because I do the raceannouncing there.
I've been there every yearsince 2013 they have an amazing
(36:43):
race announcer yeah, that's whatsheila says.
The race director, I do the raceannouncing.
I speak at their dinner.
Every year they do a nice pastadinner and get big speakers.
They started out with me whenthey started these dinners and
then went to Meb Kofleski andDina Castor, and so when they're
speaking I kind of post thewhole dinner and make sure
(37:04):
everyone knows what's going onand introduce everybody.
It's an incredible weekend.
When I held the book, I thoughtof good races that I really
wish were in there, but the veryfirst one I thought of was
Wineglass.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Good answer.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
I'm happy that you talk about the whole experience
with Wineglass and I love thatthe book provides not only
pre-race shakeout runs you cando or post-race meals.
I'm applauding that we're on adrink podcast.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
So if you're in Gasparilla, we could have the
little paragraphs along thesides of the pictures.
You could have one talkingabout the Columbia Restaurant.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Columbia Restaurant's a big deal.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
So the book I always had to remember.
The book is not a Bargiassobook, it is a book about running
and National Geographic.
Because I'm vegetarian, I eat99% vegan.
I didn't put in vegetarian andvegan food because we're a small
part of society.
I really put in food that isvery common to the area.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Where I personally would eat, where I would do
shakeout, runs and that kind ofstuff.
That's for everybody.
Speaker 4 (38:27):
And we have covered an ample amount of vegan and
vegetarian options on the show,because we were completely
plant-based for over a year andwe covered a lot of really good
options, I think if we were todo 100 runs of a lifetime, I
think we might organize it asthe running, the eating and the
(38:51):
places where you can get thebest beverages coffee we cover a
lot of coffee too.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Top of the list.
Now you're speaking my language.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
Where have you run that you can get the best coffee
?
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Boston has a lot of Dunkin' Donuts Little coffee
shops, slash bookshops thelittle places that are really
good.
Boston's a hot spot for gettinggood coffee.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
I spent three weeks in Boston this past year and I
was shocked at the number ofDunkin' Donuts they have there.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Yeah, yeah, that's where you can get good coffee.
Speaker 4 (39:22):
And Dunkin's kind of like America's Tim Hortons.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
That's a good analogy .
Speaker 3 (39:28):
It is, but now okay, so you can get it like after
your race in the morning andthen you want a good cup of
coffee post race, and then weknow where to go to Boston.
At the water stops they'regoing to ask you red or white
red yeah, doc marathon.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
That is really real, I thought.
I could really escape the wine,stop and get around it and they
don't let you escape, but theyjust really give you like one
ounce of wine.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
It's like a symbol or something.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Get red or white and then you keep going.
And they got crackers for you.
You eat a cracker and thenthere's water and you drink some
water and then you continue on.
So that way you don't even knowthat you're really drinking 18
little one ounces of wine.
I think it's 18 stops along theway.
Wow, really, don't, let you getaway without it's red or white.
(40:19):
They don't say you don't wantit.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
That's not an option to partake.
Before the pandemic we werelooking at races to go outside
of the United States and takethe podcast international.
At that time there was a racewe were looking at in Scotland
that had a very similar thing.
So you're running through theroads and trails and hills of
Scotland and they had scotchtastings all along the course
(40:47):
and I don't know if I could do18 ounces over the course of
that.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
I don't think I'd be crawling across the finish line.
I can't give you that much.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
No, I don't think you have be crawling across the
finish line.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
I can't give you that much.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
No.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
I don't think you have to get a lot of water.
Best post-race meal.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
I'm thinking post-race meal, based on the
type of food that represents anarea Crescent city classic in
new Orleans.
Oh when you finish the race,they give you a meal.
I didn't eat it because it wasnot vegetarian it's like a fire
with an andouille is anandouille sausage yeah.
So that's like someone'sturning jambalaya stew, just
(41:31):
keeping it going, and then youcan obviously go into the
restaurants from there.
But I would say and I like thatbecause it is what they serve
at the finish line is reallywhat New Orleans is known for.
Speaker 4 (41:43):
Oh yeah, they handed you a beignet and some chicory,
coffee.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Yeah, you can get it on your own the day before the
race or at the Cafe Du Monde,and then you finish the race and
they're in this big park andthey just feed you like crazy
and take a nap and go out to eat.
That sounds great.
It's always the saturday beforeeaster.
Oh, they always pick thatweekend.
(42:07):
But they do, they know there'sa lot of tourists there they've
just had mardi gras yeah, it's atail end of mardi gras.
They get 20 people in the race.
It's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Like you you can run, you can eat, you can drink a
destination, and that soundslike a place where you could
really soak up the culture.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
Where and how can the Runcation Nation get this book?
Speaker 1 (42:32):
So it is out, everywhere books are sold.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
I just looked it up.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Oh, it's out there.
Wherever buy books, you'll findare you doing book signings?
I struggle with travel thesedays so I can't travel like the
old days, but I'm gonna go acouple places.
I'm going to a race thisweekend in pennsylvania town
called jim thorpe.
Unfortunately, jim Thorpe wasnever in Jim Thorpe.
The town purchased his bodyafter he was deceased and moved
(43:01):
it from Oklahoma to Pennsylvaniaand changed the name of the
town from Monk Chunk to JimThorpe for tourist reasons.
Now they have a Jim Thorperunning festival and I'll be
there signing books this weekend.
But I'll keep up on my socialmedia and put my signings out
there.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
And speaking of that, we know you have a Facebook
page.
We know you have Instagram.
You also have your website.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
And I have the link for the book on bartjassocom.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
Are there options on bartjassocom for signed copies?
I?
Speaker 1 (43:33):
haven't done that yet .
Speaker 4 (43:34):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
I have requests.
I save haven't done that yet.
Okay, I gotta make it happen.
I have requests.
I saved the media interviews Ido over the next two weeks, and
then I'll be able to sort stuffout.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Runcation nation.
When that happens, we'll letyou know.
Bart's also on Twitter.
X formerly known as Twitter.
Uh and we're going to havelinks to everything that we've
talked about here.
We're going to have a link tothe book to bart's website to
his social media and the racesthat we talked about here today
(44:04):
what an amazing.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Used to like twitter, but it's been a weird social
media lately facebook.
I have two pages.
I have a personal one that youmax out at 5 000 and another one
, then another one that has like$17,000.
Interesting.
You can only get that one ifyou have a book, celebrity or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
Deal.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
I got it when I had my book my Life on the Run.
What?
Speaker 2 (44:27):
a great book.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
I do have two Facebook pages that I take care
of, and then I will go on X andInstagram.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
We will keep up with your journey.
This book is incredible.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
This gets a place of honor right on the set.
This becomes a permanentfixture here.
So thank you.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
I think the last race we saw you at was the Shamrock
Marathon weekend.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
I was thinking if it was Alaska or Shamrock.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
It may have been Alaska.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
I saw you guys in Alaska.
It was 2022 been Alaska.
I saw you guys in Alaska.
It was 2022 maybe.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
You're right, whether it's Alaska.
Speaker 4 (45:03):
I remember stalking you that year.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
That's another race I love and was very deserving to
be in the book.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
Anchorage Windfest is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
They got so many races to choose from.
It's really fun.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
And they have unique shirts.
Their shirts are amazing.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
End up in Anchorage and wake up and it's 48 degrees
in the morning.
Speaker 4 (45:22):
Our first time running that we flew from
Florida there and when we go tothe race expo they said there's
black flag conditions on therace course or anticipated.
And so we're telling everybodynow prepare, don't go for a PR,
it's going to be ungodly hot.
And I'm like what did we bringwith us to Alaska?
They were saying that the highwas going to be 75 degrees and
(45:45):
they were dead serious.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
I don't think it got that hot.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
No, it was wonderful.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
Yes, it was truly wonderful.
It was an amazing place to see,a runcation to remember, not
only because of the beauty of it, but because we were lucky
enough to explore and indulgewith you there, and we really
hope to do that again very soon.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
I hope so.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
Bart Yasso, the mayor of running.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Thank you, amy, thank you, dana.
You're doing what our sport isall about being out there,
connecting with people andkeeping it fun and real.
You got to have passion and joyin this sport to be in it for
the long haul, and you guys havethe passion and the joy, so
you're going to be around awhile doing this stuff.
That's what I love.
Speaker 4 (46:38):
Thank you, bart, so much.
We're going to have everythingin the show notes, everybody.
That's it for Bart, yeah.
So on this week's episode ofthe running drink podcast.
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