April 8, 2024 • 31 mins
We're reviewing races and previewing races this week! We'll wrap up the 2024 Rock the Parkway half marathon. A record setting race to be sure! Next up we head to South Carolina for the 2 Slow 4 Boston Marathon. We're getting ready to hit the road in order to bring you all the fun on the road and on the race track from SC. Join us as we review, preview, and talk everything Podcast related!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:12):
Hello, everyone, greetings and salutations. Welcome back to another episode of the
Back of the Back podcast. I'myour host, Kyle Walker. Thank you
so much for tuning in. Whata wild weekend. This was good grief.
This was the weekend of the fifteenthRock the Parkway Half Marathon. Of
those I've done, I'm looking atmy metal wall a lot. I've done
(00:33):
a lot of them. I've donea lot of Rock to Parkway. But
any weekend where we have the expo, working a table at the expo before
the race, it just feels likeeverything goes so quickly and it's always so
crazy. But it was a greatweekend and I had a blast. So
Friday we were at the Rock theParkway Half Marathon expo. It was at
(00:53):
the Double Tree Hotel in beautiful OverlandPark, Kansas. Was it Overland Park?
Yes, it's an Overland Park,but that's where we had the table
set up. Met a lot ofnew people, a lot of people who
had heard of the show, stoppedbuying and said hello. Always a super
fun time. Again, mister Richardsonfrom Arkansas, he came up. He
did Rock the Parkway pretty soon.Some of these races are going to need
to kick back a little dough twoyears truly, because we're getting people from
(01:17):
out of state coming up to theseraces because of us talking about it here
on the podcast, so you know, you know, you could just saying
but whatever. So we had fun. It was it was a kind of
a long day. The expo starteda little slow, I thought, so
I was a little worried, butthankfully it picked up and again we got
to see a lot of people,met some people who had discovered the podcast
(01:38):
but I never got to meet before, so that was really great to meet
those folks as well. So oncethe expo ends at seven o'clock, then
I am already hammered down heading home, trying to get back to the hacienda,
get some spaghetti made because I'm abig carbloader, because I need excuses
to eat carbs. Sure we'll gowith that, but I do like to
(02:00):
have my little pre race spaghetti.Got the spaghetti going, got it eaten,
tried to get in bed at adecent time that doesn't happen the night
before a race, because who getsto bed at a decent time the night
before a race? And then whocan sleep once you get to bed?
Well? Not me, not ever. But hey, laid down, went
to bed, got to sleep,did what I could. Woke up in
(02:22):
the morning. Saturday morning. Itwas race morning, So rock the Parkway
is about a twenty minute drive frommy front door, not a big deal,
but because I am a classic overthinkerand I worry about everything going wrong
on race morning, I left thehouse about two hours before the race started,
just to make sure I had aparking spot at the place in which
(02:44):
I like to park for that race. It's a high school that's right along
the course, Rockhurst High School.I've parked there every year, and I'm
always worried that I'm gonna pull intothe parking lot and it's just gonna be
jam packed and there's not gonna beroom, and I'm gonna have to go
park somewhere else. I don't knowwhere I'm gonna park, and I might
be late to the start line.And yes, I am ridiculous. These
(03:05):
are the things that go through mytiny little brain. Fortunately for me,
I was the second car to enterthe entire parking lot that morning. Yeah,
yep, I was the second guythere, So I might have been
there just a little too early.Oh well, it's fine. It gives
me time. I kind of satin the car, got myself mentally prepared,
make sure I took, you know, some drinks of water, finished
(03:25):
my coffee because I must have coffeebefore a race, it is mandatory.
And then I made my way downto the start line, where I think
I saw everybody. I mean,I think anyone who's anyone here in the
Kansas City running community. Unless youwere doing a race out of town or
you know you already had another race, you were there. You were at
Rock the Parkway. Most of usare there. It's over five thousand people
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show up every year for Rock theParkway. They did say that this year
was the biggest post coronavirus Rock theParkway they've ever done. So looks like
RTP is getting back to where theywere before the pandemic. So that is
actually very encouraging news. I wishthat same level of success on all the
races around town. I hope thateverybody kind of gets back to where they
(04:10):
were before the pandemic started, whenrunning was really hot. It definitely cooled
off for a period. I hopeit is on its way back up and
then we're going too wrongfully, butwe're still going to say it's because of
this podcast. It's not. Butwe're gonna claim that because you know I'll
have numbers to back that up,and you can't prove me wrong, even
though I know I'm full of malarkey, and now I've set it for all
(04:30):
of you to know. But whatever. So Rock the Parkway is a really
fun half marathon. If you didthe Liberty Half two weeks ago, Rock
the Parkway seems like a sweet dream, right. The hills are not nearly
as bad. Although there are hills. No one is ever going to sit
here and try and tell you thatRock the Parkway is flat. It is
not flat. It just isn't Liberty. So really, Rock the Parkway is
(04:51):
great. You start on a niceflat stretch for about the first mile.
You go through the starting shoots.They have a wave start. Thankfully,
the waves went pretty quick, andon we went. You go Downward Parkway
and then you basically do a loopand you start going back up the other
side of Ward Parkway. You're onWard Ward Parkway. Say that three times
(05:12):
fast a lot on this course.But we did the nice little loop.
You hit mile marker one. Aftermile marker one, you hit your first
little hill again after Liberty. Thishill is no problem. Up the little
hill. You go down the backsideof that little hill, you go up
a little bit of a bigger hill. You go down the backside of the
bigger hill you go, and thenyou have a nice little slow gradual.
You're at mile two plus. You'regoing past Ward Parkway Mall. You're heading
(05:34):
up to the ritzy fency part ofWard Parkway where all the really old houses
are, which are really super coolto look at, Like I love running
along Ward Parkway because of it isa very beautiful course and you see a
lot of the really big historic houseshere in Kansas City, so very cool.
You're cruising along mile three, milefour, mile five, mile five.
(05:57):
You make the turn and you headback into the neighborhoods, very nice
neighborhoods, nice houses, and you'rewinding around the neighborhoods a little bit just
to kind of, you know,track the mileage, keep them mileage up,
because you can't just go up anddown Ward Parkway. You'd run into
the plaza, and no one wantsto do that, right unless you're doing
a race that runs into the plaza. After you get past the halfway point,
(06:17):
you're past mile six and again you'redoing these rolling hills back in neighborhoods.
We do them every year. Butit's funny because it's just these rolling
hills right in the back of theneighborhood. But after the halfway point,
you head up the hill and youhit Loose Park. Now you get to
go around Loose Park. Loose Parkis a very nice park. It's in
Kansas City, Missouri. A lotof people, including people I know,
(06:39):
have had weddings at Loose Park,so it is a very beautiful place.
You run along I don't know,you probably cover three fourths of it just
by going around it on the Rockto Parkway route. So you go down.
I'm sorry, I'm gonna backtrack there. You go up the hill and
you're like, oh, look,there's a god. I can't talk.
(07:01):
Maybe I'll cut this part out.Maybe I won't. Who knows. You
go up, you see Loose Park. There is Loose Park. Look,
I'm looking at Loose Park. Yourun to it. You take a right.
You're staying on the road that goesaround Loose Park, and you go
up a little bit and then youget a really great downhill after you turn
left and you're going along the frontwhat I consider the front of Loose Park.
So a nice downhill there. Yougo to the other end of the
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park and you hang another left,and this is where you get the worst
hill of the course. So you'vealready passed mile marker seven. You're in
between seven and eight, and thisis where you get the worst hill.
It's the Loose Park hill of thecourse. Honestly, this year, for
whatever reason, it didn't seem toobad to me, I don't know.
Maybe I finally matured in my running. Maybe hills don't bother me as much
(07:45):
anymore. Yeah, right, Butthis year didn't seem too bad. So
we got up the hill at LoosePark in between mile markers seven and eight.
You get to that top of thathill, you get a nice little
downhill as you are now moving awayfrom Loose Park. You've covered most of
it. Now you're moving away.Then nice little downhill you catch your breath
after the horrible Loose Park hill.Then you got to go back uphill again,
(08:05):
and that's when you hit mile markereight. Now, when you hit
mile marker eight, you hang itright. You get back to Ward Parkway,
the big road that it takes upabout eighty five percent of this race,
if not ninety percent of the race. And when you get back on
ward Parkway, you hang a leftand now after mile marker eight you are
straight shot all the way to thefinish. This is the last road that
(08:26):
you're gonna be on and it isjust hammer down, baby. So after
mile marker eight, we've told peoplethis, you try and kind of keep
keep a little bit in the reservesbecause then you have some pretty flat fast
get back to the finish line.Now there are two hills that you still
have to conquer. They aren't pleasant, but they're also not the worst hills
you've ever done in our life.So I am moving along. This is
(08:48):
just now me personally. I toldeveryone what two weeks ago, or maybe
it was just last week, Ithought, because I performed well for me
at Liberty, I thought, okay, maybe maybe I could actually pr rock
the Parkway because I know that course. I it's the half marathon. I
have done the most in this world, so I know the course. It
(09:09):
looks like good race conditions. Ifeel like I'm in decent running shape right
now. I did well at Liberty, and Liberty is difficult. It was
the fastest Liberty I'd ever run,and it was only three minutes faster.
I'm sorry, it was only threeminutes slower than the fastest Rock the Parkway'd
ever done. So Liberty was attwo forty one I think last two weeks
(09:30):
ago, and the fastest Rock theParkway I'd ever done was like two thirty
eight. Is that right? Well, now I'm going to doubt my own
numbers. It matters not. Itmatters not either which way I thought I
might be looking at a PR thisyear for the twenty twenty four Rock the
Parkway. Well, then after Libertywe go to our next event, which
was last week's Easter Egg ten k, where I, as I told you,
(09:52):
lay it an egg I was awful, horrible ten K, and I
thought, okay, well, myPR dreams are now completely dashed. Whatever
is going on. Something is clearlywrong with my body. I am out
of shape, I'm a terrible runner. I should just burn my running shoes
right here on the course because whatin the world. This was a terrible,
terrible ten k. Thankfully there arelisteners of the podcast who listened to
(10:15):
that episode and sent me messages orresponded to things on Facebook and said,
well, well, You're gonna befine. Don't worry about it. It
was just a bad race, andbad races happen. We all know this.
Bad races happen, but it wasin my head. It was absolutely
in my head. So anyway,we get to rock the Parkway. We
have made the left at mile eight. We're now on Word Parkway and we're
heading back. Okay, and I'mthinking this whole race, the whole race.
(10:39):
If you'd listened back, I saidI wanted to stay with the two
thirty five pacers. Now for thisentire race, I have stayed in front
of them. They have been tomy rear, although I have never looked
back to see how close they were. And every time someone would start coming
up on my left and I couldhear people talking, I think, well,
that's got to be the pace group, because there's people talking in Pacers
(11:00):
are really good at talking to theirpeople and keeping keeping them motivated, keeping
them moving, and having conversations thingsthat I can't do because I have to
focus on this little thing called breathing. I have to breathe. If I'm
running at that pace, they cantalk, I have to breathe. So
every time someone can come up tomy left talking and be like, oh,
there's the pacers, and I'd kindof glance over, just give them
a little side eye, like,oh, okay, good, it's not
them, it's good. It's otherpeople who are having fun. Oh look
(11:24):
at them, aren't they great?They get to have fun. I'm dying,
dying on this course and you're laughingat things. But I would always
think of as a pacer. SoI'm moving along or past mile eight,
am I've been running a good racebecause again I'm keeping two thirty five in
the rear view mirror, however closethey might be. We get to the
second to last hill and I wantto say, it's around mile ten and
we're going up that hill. Andthis is like the first time I go
(11:46):
to the aid station, not thefirst time through the aid station, but
the first time through the ag stationwhere I took my water and then my
gatorade. But I kept the walkgoing. I didn't just slam my drinks
and then get back to my jog. I was gonna walk this hill going
up because I was hurting. Atthat point. I was running a faster
pace than i'd ever run before.Well, we're going up that hill,
(12:07):
and that's when it happened, Iheard people talking next to me, and
if I don't know, oh no, this is gonna be them, isn't
it. I do this slow sideeye. Sure enough it was the two
thirty five pacer, and going upthat hill, the two thirty five pacer
probably got fifty yards in front ofme, and I'm starting to do a
little power walk getting up that hill. Here I go. I'm power walking
like I'm not gonna let him outof my site. Get to that top
(12:28):
of that hill, and I thinkadrenaline kicked in or just the sheer terror
that they had caught up with me. And we get up that mile ten
hill and then zoom I take offand I am heading down the hill.
I'm heading down that backside and I'mgonna go for all I've got because I
know the next hill is at miletwelve. So zoom I go past the
pacer and I'm still going and I'mrunning as hard as I can, and
(12:50):
we get down that hill. Wegot a nice little flat stretch. I'm
still going, still got my pacegoing. Had to dial it back a
little bit so I didn't burn myselfout with whatever was left in the tanks,
which wasn't much. We get tothe hill at mile twelve, I'm
like, okay, I'm not gonnalook behind me, but I also know
I cannot attack this hill because Iam I am on e at this point.
I got nothing. I am runningon fumes. So I get up
(13:13):
the hill at mile twelve just asfast as I can, and going up
that whole hill, they never caughtme. I wasn't listening for them.
I had my music cranked really loudat that point. But we get up
the hill at twelve and two thirtyfive had not evened up with me yet.
I like, hey, okay,I know that after we get to
the mile marker that says one two, it is all downhill from here.
(13:35):
That's not an expression, that's nothopeful optimism. That is how it is.
It is all downhill from that milemarker twelve through the finish line.
So like, okay, everything yougot, everything you got, you put
it into this last mile. Let'sgo. And that's exactly what I did,
and I was able to finish therace in two thirty four thirty eight.
So I beat the two thirty five. I got a new half marathon
(13:58):
PR beat it by about two anda half minutes somewhere in there, and
so I was very pleased with myselfand thank you to the people who sent
me the encouragement after being down onmyself last week after the Easter Egg ten
k, because I really did notrun a good race, but I was
able to pr this race. Ipr'd Rock the Parkway, which, as
(14:18):
a lot of you know, asI've said before, was my very first
half marathon back in twenty eleven,and so here in twenty twenty four,
many many many years later, Iwas able to PR. So that's a
good feeling, not too bad.So now, if you're watching on the
YouTube channel, more on that later, but I'm going to show you the
medal because we like to do that. Here is the medal. If you're
looking, I'll try not to gettoo much reflection on it there, so
(14:41):
as you can see, this wasthe fifteenth Rock to Parkway. I've done
the vast majority of those, notall of them. I wasn't there for
the first year because I hadn't takenup running yet, and then I missed
two years due to the open heartsurgeries. So I've got what I guess
it would be twelve then twelve ofthe fifteen. That's not bad. Not
bad. I'll take that. Iwill take that. So anyway, a
(15:01):
great time. It looks it lookslike on social media, many many,
many of you have new prs atRock to Parkway. Rock to Parkway was
perfect weather for running, except forthe wind. It was pretty breezy.
The wind was pushing us out forthe first half of the race, but
you didn't have to fight at timescoming back in. It wasn't completely all
(15:24):
the way back in because of thehills, so if you got low enough,
that wind wasn't getting to you.But when you got to the top
of a few of those hills,it was pretty gusty, not enough to
blow you back, but enough thatyou noticed. But the temperature was perfect,
it was dry, no rain,low humidity. It worked out really
well for us. So congratulations toeveryone who completed Rock to Parkway. Great
(15:46):
job to anyone who prd out there. And I know that there were a
lot of you. I know afew of us had races in other parts
of the country. Congratulations to youon your race and whatever everyone else did
that weekend. Hey, good jobout of you. You know what,
this was a beautiful weekend. Itreally, really really feels like spring running
season is a firm go now.Like I'm looking at our extended forecast here
(16:07):
in my area, beautiful weather comingup, you know, still in the
forties in the morning, but warmingup sometimes sixties, even seventies. I
think I even saw an eighty comingup somewhere. But it's gonna be while
I'm out of town speaking a witch. As we know, the next stop
for the podcast is not in KansasCity, and it is not for a
half marathon. We are hitting theroad Jack. We are heading to South
(16:30):
Carolina for the Too Slow for BostonMarathon. I told a lot of you
about this race at the expo aswe just you know, shot the breeze
and talked about running stuff. Iam super excited for this race. So
if you don't remember this race,the Too Slow for Boston Marathon, it
is in Greer, South Carolina.So I'm going to be leaving Thursday morning
before the rooster crows. I'm goingto be on the road and I'm actually
(16:52):
gonna stay the night in Tennessee andthen I will finish the rest of my
drive the next day. I amactually gonna go to Lynchburg, Tennessee.
I am taking myself on a littlemini vacation of like half a day,
and I'm gonna go see the JackDaniels Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, because
it's on the way to where I'mgoing. And truth be told, I
am a little bit of a fanof Jack Daniels and the stuff that they
(17:15):
produce and the stuff that I canenjoy responsibly at times. So I'm gonna
go to see the place, maybeget a commemorative something, T shirt,
bottle glass, something, I don'tknow, whatever they offer. I haven't
been there before. And then I'mgoing to stay the night in Lynchberg a
little bit and breakfast, and thenI'll finish my route to South Carolina the
next day, Saturday, I'm goingto roll into South Carolina actually Friday evening,
(17:37):
but Saturday is my first big day. First big day in South Carolina
will be the Saturday. They don'thave an expo because this is a pretty
small race, so just pack apickup. I'm gonna go to pack a
pickup, get my stuff, tryand meet some of the people who are
responsible for this race. This isput on by a run club and it
is it is to really I feellike this is really to celebrate running.
(18:00):
This is not a race I'm goingto go just full out four. I
just did that at Rock the Parkway, and I did that last year in
Boston, where I just went ashard as I could, as fast as
I could, and tried to bethe best runner I could be. That
is not this weekend. So thetwo slow for Boston Marathon. As you
know, the last place finisher isthe winner. The second to last place
(18:22):
finisher is the second place winner.This is a race for everyone. This
is to celebrate all ability levels,and I do mean all. There will
be fast runners out there. Therewill be people who probably do maybe I
don't know, a two forty five, a three, a three point fifteen
full marathon, and then there's goingto be the people that take the ten
(18:44):
eleven, possibly even a twelve hourfull marathon. So the entire spectrum is
covered on this. There's no timelimit and they're officially unofficial. Slogan is
if you're fast enough to qualify forBoston, your discual from this race.
I find that hilarious. Now.I did not qualify for Boston. I
was a charity bib for Boston lastyear. And side note, just side
(19:08):
note, I cannot believe it's alreadybeen a year since I did Boston,
Like it feels like it was acouple weeks ago where I was in Massachusetts
running the Boston Marathon. That iswild to me. That has been a
year. Wild to me how muchthis show has grown in that year.
But if you ever want to hearabout the actual Boston Marathon, just scroll
(19:29):
backwards on your Spotify and find thetwo episodes we did to cover the Boston
Marathon last year. Because I didrun Boston last year, there's two episodes
dedicated to talking about it. Ifyou want to hear about actual Boston,
listen to that. This is SouthCarolina too slow for Boston, and I'm
going to try and bring you absolutelyeverything I can. Now that we're doing
videos, which we were not doingback then, we're doing videos. I'm
(19:52):
going to try and take videos inSouth Carolina. I'm going to probably take
some of the equipment just on thecourse. So this course is just a
one one point three mile loop thatyou do over and over. The whole
neighborhood closes down, and I'm surea lot of people will treat this like
a block party. At least maybethat's just hopeful optimism on my part.
But you just do it. You'rejust rounding a round and around. They
(20:14):
say twenty laps gets you the fullmarathon. Okay, Thankfully for me,
I've got a wearable so I don'thave to worry about counting because trust me,
I will lose count quickly. Butyou just do the laps. So
I'm going to take some recording equipmentand I might grab it for a lap
and then I'll just put it backwith my stuff because one point three miles,
I'll just have my own little coolerand chair sitting along the side of
the road, you know, nearthe start line ish area. I'll just
(20:37):
have my own little AIG station andI'll keep my stuff there and I can
grab a microphone and a selfie stickand I'll do a lap and record something.
I'm hoping to do a lap maybewith the race director, and we'll
do an interview over the course ofone point three miles. You don't know.
I don't know, but we're gonnasee what comes out of this experience.
This will get South Carolina off ofthe fifty fifty states for a marathon
(20:59):
for me, and it's just goingto be fun. I don't care what
my time is. I don't careat all. Is it going to be
my worst marathon time? No,I can guarantee you that it will it
will not be, and I alsocan probably tell you it will not be
my fastes see there. But we'regonna have a good time. And so
that is coming up this weekend.Make sure that you stay tuned on all
(21:19):
the social media platforms so that youcan kind of follow along in Kyle's misadventures
in South Carolina and a little bitin Tennessee and along the way and any
other nonsense and shenanigans that I getinto over the course of this week and
into next week. It could befun. I don't know. I'm looking
forward to it. I think it'sgonna be fun. So I did mention
(21:41):
the YouTube so I have this challengefor you guys. I gotta quit saying
so. I know it, Ihear it. I can't stop myself.
I did lay down the challenge lastweek about the YouTube channel. I would
love, love, love for usto be over one hundred subscribers before we
go to Fargo next month. Wego to Fargo at the end of May.
Right now, we're not even inmid April, so we got tons
of time. We're now fifteen away, so I'm hoping we can get to
(22:04):
the fifteen. I did it again. I hope we can get to fifteen
more subscribers and more and get itover a hundred before we go to Fargoin
YouTube is something that I focused onvery very very late in the game,
so I'm trying to play catch upwe have. We're here now almost to
two thousand followers on Facebook. Yes, thank you all so very much for
(22:26):
the follows and the likes and theparticipation. This thing is growing wonderfully.
But please help out the YouTube channelbecause it needs help. Give us a
subscribe. If you are listening tojust a podcast platform, please continue to
listen. If you ever want tosee what my ugly mug and some of
these metals look like, you cancheck us out after the fact on YouTube.
Easy pasy right. This is howwe grow, This is how we
(22:48):
do the thing. I know,I have been over it before several times.
So I don't know what is comingup this weekend here in Kansas City
because I won't be here. Iknow there's a couple of five kids around
town. If you are running aroundtown, then I hope you have a
great race. If you are notlocal to Kansas City, but you're still
running a race this weekend, makesure you share with us next week on
(23:08):
Metal Monday. Metal Monday. Wealways want to see your picture with your
bling, whatever you earn for theweekend so that people can people can you
see what's out there. This isone of the things I love is seeing
what is out there, seeing racesI've never heard of before. Who has
really cool metal. I just sawone yesterday and it wasn't It had nothing
(23:29):
to do with the podcast. Itwas just me looking at social media.
There was a race in Illinois yesterdayor this past weekend, and the metal
was huge and it was a penny. It was a giant penny, and
it was some kind of Abraham Lincolnthemed metal. Of course he's on the
penny, but it was the coolestlooking metal ever. So now I want
to do that race. So ifyou do a race and it has a
(23:49):
really cool medal, make sure youshare it with us on Metal Monday so
that other people can see it.And it kind of helps us choose what
we're gonna do throughout the year andwhat we might want to do next year.
Trust me. It is actually veryvery helpful when you post on metal
Monday because it gets us all dreamingabout the other nonsense again. Tuesdays,
we're gonna start training tip Tuesday andtraveling Tuesday. So some will be if
(24:12):
you have a good tip for people. The others will be if you did
a traveling race outside of your ownarea and you took a picture, whether
it be a selfie with the metalor something on the course, whatever you
feel like sharing with everyone will dothat. Wednesdays are Charity Wednesdays. Okay,
we just started this last week andI want to share this with you
guys. As a lot of usknow, sometimes we can't get into the
(24:36):
major marathons just on lottery or qualifyingtimes alone. Sometimes we need a little
bit of help, right I did. I had to raise a ton of
money for Boston last year, andso many of you helped me with that,
and I still can't thank you allenough, and I'll never ask you
to do it again. But thereare those trying to run Chicago, trying
to run New York, trying torun Berlin on charity bibs, and they
(25:00):
need our help. So on CharityWednesday, what I did last time was
I had everyone send me their linksand I shared them an individual post.
I understand there are a lot ofposts on Wednesday, and some of them
kind of bury the others, andso I'm sorry about that. What we're
gonna do from now on on Wednesday, I'm going to have just the charity
Wednesday post, and then all ofyou with a charity, I want you
(25:21):
to share the links in the commentsso that everyone can just be one stop
shop. They can see you,they can see what you're running, who
you're raising funds for the charity partner, and you just boom boom boom,
boom boom. They're all right there, one post and everyone can go through
and look at them as you will. If you feel so inclined and you
feel called to do so, Iwould ask that you would please try and
(25:42):
donate to any of these charities andthese runners that you can trust me,
I know from experience, even fiveor ten dollars can make all the difference.
If you just again, if youfeel called to help some of these
folks out, they will all appreciateit so much. So anything you can
do, I'm speaking for them,is greatly appreciate it. So that is
(26:03):
our Wednesday Charity Wednesday. You guysare going to share the links when I
get the post out there. Andthen one stop shop baby, everyone boom,
there's all the people needing some helpto get to the World Marathon Majors.
And trust me, I'm here forit. I'm trying to donate as
I can as well. Bear withme again the podcast. The podcast is
funded by me and by missus Backof the Pack Podcast, and sometimes she's
(26:26):
okay with what I spend on it, and sometimes she's not. She also
can't hear me recording right now,So hey, good team. On Thursdays,
we have race shirt Thursday, likeI'm wearing the Rock to park Way
shirt for this year. Just sharea selfie and whatever shirt that you wore.
And then Friday's are Flashback Friday andan old picture from however long ago
you wanted to go. I justposted one last week from my very first
(26:48):
Rock to Parkway. A couple thingsfirst, I wore my race shirt,
which I know now is big fauxpa. Don't do that. Don't wear
the shirt of the race while you'redoing the race. That's not right.
Even though Cody does that, hejust he spits in the face of tradition.
And then the other thing. Inoticed the pants I was wearing those
like a slick wind pants that Iguess we're all the rage around twenty eleven
(27:12):
or I was just already out ofstyle. But either rich way, my
outfit was absolutely atrocious. I dofeel as though I look better these days,
Thank goodness for small favors. Butthat's our flashback. Friday and then
Saturday and Sunday are mostly a raceoriented. Whatever race. We did some
pictures that either I took or otherstook that I steal and use, which
(27:33):
maybe I should clear with folks,but I don't. But to all the
people who end up taking pictures thatI get to be in and then I
share them for the podcast, Ihope you don't mind. If you mind,
let me know, I won't doit, but I figure i'm in
him too, so I'm allowed toshare, right right, We're gonna go
with that. So we're gonna gowith So that's it. There's no big
message for today, no tips ortricks. This was just kind of the
(27:56):
rock the Parkway review and the tooSlow for Boston preview. I'm super excited
for the race coming up. It'sgonna be a lot of fun. So
I hope you guys will all followalong through the various social media platforms that
we are on Facebook and Instagram,like I said, are there are big
ones, and then we'll have YouTube. There is even a TikTok there's a
back of the pack TikTok page.I do my best. I'm not good
(28:17):
with this stuff. I'm forty four, so I don't get it. Like
TikTok is foreign to me. Butwe've had some success with the videos I
posted. I just needed to getbetter about it. I'm sorry, but
I would love your follow on theTikTok page. We definitely want your subscription
on the YouTube channel. That's wherewe're hitting hard right now. And then
of course we're on Spotify, iHeartRadio, Sprinker, iTunes, anywhere you listen
to your podcast, we're there.So I know this is a lot of
(28:40):
stuff you've heard me say before,and I say it a lot at the
expos But anything we can do toget the word out. I told you
guys, okay, and I'm goingoff, kind off topic and kind of
not I told you at the veryfirst episode of this year that twenty twenty
four is make or break for thispodcast. We either become successful or we
probably have to pack it in atthe end of the year because of the
(29:00):
amount of money that we spend onit. Right now, we are leaning
towards successful, we really are.I am super happy with how things are
turning out. I love it thatpeople participate and play along. I would
just if we can get a littlemore of it, a little more and
we're freaking golden. But again,I want to thank you all so much
for listening, watching, sharing,playing along with the social media stuff.
(29:25):
All the interactions are glorious. They'rewonderful. They're exactly what we need to
keep this podcast going. There's thelittle star formula thing on Facebook. Anytime
we do a reel or a post, if it says give these guys stars,
if you give us stars, man, that's like super super helpful.
That's kind of how we can makemoney through Facebook. And making money through
Facebook would be really great because sofar, the amount of money we've made
(29:48):
through Facebook for the whole entirety ofthe show is three dollars. Three dollars.
So again, I hate asking formoney. You guys know me.
Back when I was raising money forBoston I hated asking for money. This
isn't for charity though. This isIf you enjoy the podcast, give us
some stars and we can keep goingand we can, you know, maybe
branch out and do more things.We'll see, but that's kind of where
(30:10):
we're at with the social media stuff. I just like keeping everyone updated.
I'm honest and transparent. I'll tellyou how it is and the way it's
gonna be. So this is ourmake up break year. This is what
we're doing. So here we go. And I know this whole last part
of the show, you guys arelike, this is not running related.
Shut up quite talking about it,and you know what I will. I'm
gonna shut up about it right now. So everyone, have a great week
(30:30):
of training, have a great racenext weekend, whatever you might be doing
as I am in South Carolina,please follow all the social media platforms for
whatever fund Shenanigans we get into.And then we're gonna be back. Now
next week's episode. I'm traveling onMonday. I'll be trying to get back
into town as fast as I can. But I cannot promise you a new
episode Monday. Worst case scenario,it has to come out on Tuesday.
(30:52):
Because I didn't make it back fromSouth Carolina in time. I don't want
to get a speeding ticket because wejust covered the money stuff. So bear
with me if I am a littlelate. Get an episode out next week.
That's what traveling does. Other thanthat, have a great week of
training. We will see you nextweek. And thank you all so much
for everything you do for the podcast. I really cannot tell you how much
(31:12):
I appreciate it. We'll see younext week.
Hello, everyone, greetings and salutations. Welcome back to another episode of the
Back of the Back podcast. I'myour host, Kyle Walker. Thank you
so much for tuning in. Whata wild weekend. This was good grief.
This was the weekend of the fifteenthRock the Parkway Half Marathon. Of
those I've done, I'm looking atmy metal wall a lot. I've done
(00:33):
a lot of them. I've donea lot of Rock to Parkway. But
any weekend where we have the expo, working a table at the expo before
the race, it just feels likeeverything goes so quickly and it's always so
crazy. But it was a greatweekend and I had a blast. So
Friday we were at the Rock theParkway Half Marathon expo. It was at
(00:53):
the Double Tree Hotel in beautiful OverlandPark, Kansas. Was it Overland Park?
Yes, it's an Overland Park,but that's where we had the table
set up. Met a lot ofnew people, a lot of people who
had heard of the show, stoppedbuying and said hello. Always a super
fun time. Again, mister Richardsonfrom Arkansas, he came up. He
did Rock the Parkway pretty soon.Some of these races are going to need
to kick back a little dough twoyears truly, because we're getting people from
(01:17):
out of state coming up to theseraces because of us talking about it here
on the podcast, so you know, you know, you could just saying
but whatever. So we had fun. It was it was a kind of
a long day. The expo starteda little slow, I thought, so
I was a little worried, butthankfully it picked up and again we got
to see a lot of people,met some people who had discovered the podcast
(01:38):
but I never got to meet before, so that was really great to meet
those folks as well. So oncethe expo ends at seven o'clock, then
I am already hammered down heading home, trying to get back to the hacienda,
get some spaghetti made because I'm abig carbloader, because I need excuses
to eat carbs. Sure we'll gowith that, but I do like to
(02:00):
have my little pre race spaghetti.Got the spaghetti going, got it eaten,
tried to get in bed at adecent time that doesn't happen the night
before a race, because who getsto bed at a decent time the night
before a race? And then whocan sleep once you get to bed?
Well? Not me, not ever. But hey, laid down, went
to bed, got to sleep,did what I could. Woke up in
(02:22):
the morning. Saturday morning. Itwas race morning, So rock the Parkway
is about a twenty minute drive frommy front door, not a big deal,
but because I am a classic overthinkerand I worry about everything going wrong
on race morning, I left thehouse about two hours before the race started,
just to make sure I had aparking spot at the place in which
(02:44):
I like to park for that race. It's a high school that's right along
the course, Rockhurst High School.I've parked there every year, and I'm
always worried that I'm gonna pull intothe parking lot and it's just gonna be
jam packed and there's not gonna beroom, and I'm gonna have to go
park somewhere else. I don't knowwhere I'm gonna park, and I might
be late to the start line.And yes, I am ridiculous. These
(03:05):
are the things that go through mytiny little brain. Fortunately for me,
I was the second car to enterthe entire parking lot that morning. Yeah,
yep, I was the second guythere, So I might have been
there just a little too early.Oh well, it's fine. It gives
me time. I kind of satin the car, got myself mentally prepared,
make sure I took, you know, some drinks of water, finished
(03:25):
my coffee because I must have coffeebefore a race, it is mandatory.
And then I made my way downto the start line, where I think
I saw everybody. I mean,I think anyone who's anyone here in the
Kansas City running community. Unless youwere doing a race out of town or
you know you already had another race, you were there. You were at
Rock the Parkway. Most of usare there. It's over five thousand people
(03:47):
show up every year for Rock theParkway. They did say that this year
was the biggest post coronavirus Rock theParkway they've ever done. So looks like
RTP is getting back to where theywere before the pandemic. So that is
actually very encouraging news. I wishthat same level of success on all the
races around town. I hope thateverybody kind of gets back to where they
(04:10):
were before the pandemic started, whenrunning was really hot. It definitely cooled
off for a period. I hopeit is on its way back up and
then we're going too wrongfully, butwe're still going to say it's because of
this podcast. It's not. Butwe're gonna claim that because you know I'll
have numbers to back that up,and you can't prove me wrong, even
though I know I'm full of malarkey, and now I've set it for all
(04:30):
of you to know. But whatever. So Rock the Parkway is a really
fun half marathon. If you didthe Liberty Half two weeks ago, Rock
the Parkway seems like a sweet dream, right. The hills are not nearly
as bad. Although there are hills. No one is ever going to sit
here and try and tell you thatRock the Parkway is flat. It is
not flat. It just isn't Liberty. So really, Rock the Parkway is
(04:51):
great. You start on a niceflat stretch for about the first mile.
You go through the starting shoots.They have a wave start. Thankfully,
the waves went pretty quick, andon we went. You go Downward Parkway
and then you basically do a loopand you start going back up the other
side of Ward Parkway. You're onWard Ward Parkway. Say that three times
(05:12):
fast a lot on this course.But we did the nice little loop.
You hit mile marker one. Aftermile marker one, you hit your first
little hill again after Liberty. Thishill is no problem. Up the little
hill. You go down the backsideof that little hill, you go up
a little bit of a bigger hill. You go down the backside of the
bigger hill you go, and thenyou have a nice little slow gradual.
You're at mile two plus. You'regoing past Ward Parkway Mall. You're heading
(05:34):
up to the ritzy fency part ofWard Parkway where all the really old houses
are, which are really super coolto look at, Like I love running
along Ward Parkway because of it isa very beautiful course and you see a
lot of the really big historic houseshere in Kansas City, so very cool.
You're cruising along mile three, milefour, mile five, mile five.
(05:57):
You make the turn and you headback into the neighborhoods, very nice
neighborhoods, nice houses, and you'rewinding around the neighborhoods a little bit just
to kind of, you know,track the mileage, keep them mileage up,
because you can't just go up anddown Ward Parkway. You'd run into
the plaza, and no one wantsto do that, right unless you're doing
a race that runs into the plaza. After you get past the halfway point,
(06:17):
you're past mile six and again you'redoing these rolling hills back in neighborhoods.
We do them every year. Butit's funny because it's just these rolling
hills right in the back of theneighborhood. But after the halfway point,
you head up the hill and youhit Loose Park. Now you get to
go around Loose Park. Loose Parkis a very nice park. It's in
Kansas City, Missouri. A lotof people, including people I know,
(06:39):
have had weddings at Loose Park,so it is a very beautiful place.
You run along I don't know,you probably cover three fourths of it just
by going around it on the Rockto Parkway route. So you go down.
I'm sorry, I'm gonna backtrack there. You go up the hill and
you're like, oh, look,there's a god. I can't talk.
(07:01):
Maybe I'll cut this part out.Maybe I won't. Who knows. You
go up, you see Loose Park. There is Loose Park. Look,
I'm looking at Loose Park. Yourun to it. You take a right.
You're staying on the road that goesaround Loose Park, and you go
up a little bit and then youget a really great downhill after you turn
left and you're going along the frontwhat I consider the front of Loose Park.
So a nice downhill there. Yougo to the other end of the
(07:24):
park and you hang another left,and this is where you get the worst
hill of the course. So you'vealready passed mile marker seven. You're in
between seven and eight, and thisis where you get the worst hill.
It's the Loose Park hill of thecourse. Honestly, this year, for
whatever reason, it didn't seem toobad to me, I don't know.
Maybe I finally matured in my running. Maybe hills don't bother me as much
(07:45):
anymore. Yeah, right, Butthis year didn't seem too bad. So
we got up the hill at LoosePark in between mile markers seven and eight.
You get to that top of thathill, you get a nice little
downhill as you are now moving awayfrom Loose Park. You've covered most of
it. Now you're moving away.Then nice little downhill you catch your breath
after the horrible Loose Park hill.Then you got to go back uphill again,
(08:05):
and that's when you hit mile markereight. Now, when you hit
mile marker eight, you hang itright. You get back to Ward Parkway,
the big road that it takes upabout eighty five percent of this race,
if not ninety percent of the race. And when you get back on
ward Parkway, you hang a leftand now after mile marker eight you are
straight shot all the way to thefinish. This is the last road that
(08:26):
you're gonna be on and it isjust hammer down, baby. So after
mile marker eight, we've told peoplethis, you try and kind of keep
keep a little bit in the reservesbecause then you have some pretty flat fast
get back to the finish line.Now there are two hills that you still
have to conquer. They aren't pleasant, but they're also not the worst hills
you've ever done in our life.So I am moving along. This is
(08:48):
just now me personally. I toldeveryone what two weeks ago, or maybe
it was just last week, Ithought, because I performed well for me
at Liberty, I thought, okay, maybe maybe I could actually pr rock
the Parkway because I know that course. I it's the half marathon. I
have done the most in this world, so I know the course. It
(09:09):
looks like good race conditions. Ifeel like I'm in decent running shape right
now. I did well at Liberty, and Liberty is difficult. It was
the fastest Liberty I'd ever run,and it was only three minutes faster.
I'm sorry, it was only threeminutes slower than the fastest Rock the Parkway'd
ever done. So Liberty was attwo forty one I think last two weeks
(09:30):
ago, and the fastest Rock theParkway I'd ever done was like two thirty
eight. Is that right? Well, now I'm going to doubt my own
numbers. It matters not. Itmatters not either which way I thought I
might be looking at a PR thisyear for the twenty twenty four Rock the
Parkway. Well, then after Libertywe go to our next event, which
was last week's Easter Egg ten k, where I, as I told you,
(09:52):
lay it an egg I was awful, horrible ten K, and I
thought, okay, well, myPR dreams are now completely dashed. Whatever
is going on. Something is clearlywrong with my body. I am out
of shape, I'm a terrible runner. I should just burn my running shoes
right here on the course because whatin the world. This was a terrible,
terrible ten k. Thankfully there arelisteners of the podcast who listened to
(10:15):
that episode and sent me messages orresponded to things on Facebook and said,
well, well, You're gonna befine. Don't worry about it. It
was just a bad race, andbad races happen. We all know this.
Bad races happen, but it wasin my head. It was absolutely
in my head. So anyway,we get to rock the Parkway. We
have made the left at mile eight. We're now on Word Parkway and we're
heading back. Okay, and I'mthinking this whole race, the whole race.
(10:39):
If you'd listened back, I saidI wanted to stay with the two
thirty five pacers. Now for thisentire race, I have stayed in front
of them. They have been tomy rear, although I have never looked
back to see how close they were. And every time someone would start coming
up on my left and I couldhear people talking, I think, well,
that's got to be the pace group, because there's people talking in Pacers
(11:00):
are really good at talking to theirpeople and keeping keeping them motivated, keeping
them moving, and having conversations thingsthat I can't do because I have to
focus on this little thing called breathing. I have to breathe. If I'm
running at that pace, they cantalk, I have to breathe. So
every time someone can come up tomy left talking and be like, oh,
there's the pacers, and I'd kindof glance over, just give them
a little side eye, like,oh, okay, good, it's not
them, it's good. It's otherpeople who are having fun. Oh look
(11:24):
at them, aren't they great?They get to have fun. I'm dying,
dying on this course and you're laughingat things. But I would always
think of as a pacer. SoI'm moving along or past mile eight,
am I've been running a good racebecause again I'm keeping two thirty five in
the rear view mirror, however closethey might be. We get to the
second to last hill and I wantto say, it's around mile ten and
we're going up that hill. Andthis is like the first time I go
(11:46):
to the aid station, not thefirst time through the aid station, but
the first time through the ag stationwhere I took my water and then my
gatorade. But I kept the walkgoing. I didn't just slam my drinks
and then get back to my jog. I was gonna walk this hill going
up because I was hurting. Atthat point. I was running a faster
pace than i'd ever run before.Well, we're going up that hill,
(12:07):
and that's when it happened, Iheard people talking next to me, and
if I don't know, oh no, this is gonna be them, isn't
it. I do this slow sideeye. Sure enough it was the two
thirty five pacer, and going upthat hill, the two thirty five pacer
probably got fifty yards in front ofme, and I'm starting to do a
little power walk getting up that hill. Here I go. I'm power walking
like I'm not gonna let him outof my site. Get to that top
(12:28):
of that hill, and I thinkadrenaline kicked in or just the sheer terror
that they had caught up with me. And we get up that mile ten
hill and then zoom I take offand I am heading down the hill.
I'm heading down that backside and I'mgonna go for all I've got because I
know the next hill is at miletwelve. So zoom I go past the
pacer and I'm still going and I'mrunning as hard as I can, and
(12:50):
we get down that hill. Wegot a nice little flat stretch. I'm
still going, still got my pacegoing. Had to dial it back a
little bit so I didn't burn myselfout with whatever was left in the tanks,
which wasn't much. We get tothe hill at mile twelve, I'm
like, okay, I'm not gonnalook behind me, but I also know
I cannot attack this hill because Iam I am on e at this point.
I got nothing. I am runningon fumes. So I get up
(13:13):
the hill at mile twelve just asfast as I can, and going up
that whole hill, they never caughtme. I wasn't listening for them.
I had my music cranked really loudat that point. But we get up
the hill at twelve and two thirtyfive had not evened up with me yet.
I like, hey, okay,I know that after we get to
the mile marker that says one two, it is all downhill from here.
(13:35):
That's not an expression, that's nothopeful optimism. That is how it is.
It is all downhill from that milemarker twelve through the finish line.
So like, okay, everything yougot, everything you got, you put
it into this last mile. Let'sgo. And that's exactly what I did,
and I was able to finish therace in two thirty four thirty eight.
So I beat the two thirty five. I got a new half marathon
(13:58):
PR beat it by about two anda half minutes somewhere in there, and
so I was very pleased with myselfand thank you to the people who sent
me the encouragement after being down onmyself last week after the Easter Egg ten
k, because I really did notrun a good race, but I was
able to pr this race. Ipr'd Rock the Parkway, which, as
(14:18):
a lot of you know, asI've said before, was my very first
half marathon back in twenty eleven,and so here in twenty twenty four,
many many many years later, Iwas able to PR. So that's a
good feeling, not too bad.So now, if you're watching on the
YouTube channel, more on that later, but I'm going to show you the
medal because we like to do that. Here is the medal. If you're
looking, I'll try not to gettoo much reflection on it there, so
(14:41):
as you can see, this wasthe fifteenth Rock to Parkway. I've done
the vast majority of those, notall of them. I wasn't there for
the first year because I hadn't takenup running yet, and then I missed
two years due to the open heartsurgeries. So I've got what I guess
it would be twelve then twelve ofthe fifteen. That's not bad. Not
bad. I'll take that. Iwill take that. So anyway, a
(15:01):
great time. It looks it lookslike on social media, many many,
many of you have new prs atRock to Parkway. Rock to Parkway was
perfect weather for running, except forthe wind. It was pretty breezy.
The wind was pushing us out forthe first half of the race, but
you didn't have to fight at timescoming back in. It wasn't completely all
(15:24):
the way back in because of thehills, so if you got low enough,
that wind wasn't getting to you.But when you got to the top
of a few of those hills,it was pretty gusty, not enough to
blow you back, but enough thatyou noticed. But the temperature was perfect,
it was dry, no rain,low humidity. It worked out really
well for us. So congratulations toeveryone who completed Rock to Parkway. Great
(15:46):
job to anyone who prd out there. And I know that there were a
lot of you. I know afew of us had races in other parts
of the country. Congratulations to youon your race and whatever everyone else did
that weekend. Hey, good jobout of you. You know what,
this was a beautiful weekend. Itreally, really really feels like spring running
season is a firm go now.Like I'm looking at our extended forecast here
(16:07):
in my area, beautiful weather comingup, you know, still in the
forties in the morning, but warmingup sometimes sixties, even seventies. I
think I even saw an eighty comingup somewhere. But it's gonna be while
I'm out of town speaking a witch. As we know, the next stop
for the podcast is not in KansasCity, and it is not for a
half marathon. We are hitting theroad Jack. We are heading to South
(16:30):
Carolina for the Too Slow for BostonMarathon. I told a lot of you
about this race at the expo aswe just you know, shot the breeze
and talked about running stuff. Iam super excited for this race. So
if you don't remember this race,the Too Slow for Boston Marathon, it
is in Greer, South Carolina.So I'm going to be leaving Thursday morning
before the rooster crows. I'm goingto be on the road and I'm actually
(16:52):
gonna stay the night in Tennessee andthen I will finish the rest of my
drive the next day. I amactually gonna go to Lynchburg, Tennessee.
I am taking myself on a littlemini vacation of like half a day,
and I'm gonna go see the JackDaniels Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, because
it's on the way to where I'mgoing. And truth be told, I
am a little bit of a fanof Jack Daniels and the stuff that they
(17:15):
produce and the stuff that I canenjoy responsibly at times. So I'm gonna
go to see the place, maybeget a commemorative something, T shirt,
bottle glass, something, I don'tknow, whatever they offer. I haven't
been there before. And then I'mgoing to stay the night in Lynchberg a
little bit and breakfast, and thenI'll finish my route to South Carolina the
next day, Saturday, I'm goingto roll into South Carolina actually Friday evening,
(17:37):
but Saturday is my first big day. First big day in South Carolina
will be the Saturday. They don'thave an expo because this is a pretty
small race, so just pack apickup. I'm gonna go to pack a
pickup, get my stuff, tryand meet some of the people who are
responsible for this race. This isput on by a run club and it
is it is to really I feellike this is really to celebrate running.
(18:00):
This is not a race I'm goingto go just full out four. I
just did that at Rock the Parkway, and I did that last year in
Boston, where I just went ashard as I could, as fast as
I could, and tried to bethe best runner I could be. That
is not this weekend. So thetwo slow for Boston Marathon. As you
know, the last place finisher isthe winner. The second to last place
(18:22):
finisher is the second place winner.This is a race for everyone. This
is to celebrate all ability levels,and I do mean all. There will
be fast runners out there. Therewill be people who probably do maybe I
don't know, a two forty five, a three, a three point fifteen
full marathon, and then there's goingto be the people that take the ten
(18:44):
eleven, possibly even a twelve hourfull marathon. So the entire spectrum is
covered on this. There's no timelimit and they're officially unofficial. Slogan is
if you're fast enough to qualify forBoston, your discual from this race.
I find that hilarious. Now.I did not qualify for Boston. I
was a charity bib for Boston lastyear. And side note, just side
(19:08):
note, I cannot believe it's alreadybeen a year since I did Boston,
Like it feels like it was acouple weeks ago where I was in Massachusetts
running the Boston Marathon. That iswild to me. That has been a
year. Wild to me how muchthis show has grown in that year.
But if you ever want to hearabout the actual Boston Marathon, just scroll
(19:29):
backwards on your Spotify and find thetwo episodes we did to cover the Boston
Marathon last year. Because I didrun Boston last year, there's two episodes
dedicated to talking about it. Ifyou want to hear about actual Boston,
listen to that. This is SouthCarolina too slow for Boston, and I'm
going to try and bring you absolutelyeverything I can. Now that we're doing
videos, which we were not doingback then, we're doing videos. I'm
(19:52):
going to try and take videos inSouth Carolina. I'm going to probably take
some of the equipment just on thecourse. So this course is just a
one one point three mile loop thatyou do over and over. The whole
neighborhood closes down, and I'm surea lot of people will treat this like
a block party. At least maybethat's just hopeful optimism on my part.
But you just do it. You'rejust rounding a round and around. They
(20:14):
say twenty laps gets you the fullmarathon. Okay, Thankfully for me,
I've got a wearable so I don'thave to worry about counting because trust me,
I will lose count quickly. Butyou just do the laps. So
I'm going to take some recording equipmentand I might grab it for a lap
and then I'll just put it backwith my stuff because one point three miles,
I'll just have my own little coolerand chair sitting along the side of
the road, you know, nearthe start line ish area. I'll just
(20:37):
have my own little AIG station andI'll keep my stuff there and I can
grab a microphone and a selfie stickand I'll do a lap and record something.
I'm hoping to do a lap maybewith the race director, and we'll
do an interview over the course ofone point three miles. You don't know.
I don't know, but we're gonnasee what comes out of this experience.
This will get South Carolina off ofthe fifty fifty states for a marathon
(20:59):
for me, and it's just goingto be fun. I don't care what
my time is. I don't careat all. Is it going to be
my worst marathon time? No,I can guarantee you that it will it
will not be, and I alsocan probably tell you it will not be
my fastes see there. But we'regonna have a good time. And so
that is coming up this weekend.Make sure that you stay tuned on all
(21:19):
the social media platforms so that youcan kind of follow along in Kyle's misadventures
in South Carolina and a little bitin Tennessee and along the way and any
other nonsense and shenanigans that I getinto over the course of this week and
into next week. It could befun. I don't know. I'm looking
forward to it. I think it'sgonna be fun. So I did mention
(21:41):
the YouTube so I have this challengefor you guys. I gotta quit saying
so. I know it, Ihear it. I can't stop myself.
I did lay down the challenge lastweek about the YouTube channel. I would
love, love, love for usto be over one hundred subscribers before we
go to Fargo next month. Wego to Fargo at the end of May.
Right now, we're not even inmid April, so we got tons
of time. We're now fifteen away, so I'm hoping we can get to
(22:04):
the fifteen. I did it again. I hope we can get to fifteen
more subscribers and more and get itover a hundred before we go to Fargoin
YouTube is something that I focused onvery very very late in the game,
so I'm trying to play catch upwe have. We're here now almost to
two thousand followers on Facebook. Yes, thank you all so very much for
(22:26):
the follows and the likes and theparticipation. This thing is growing wonderfully.
But please help out the YouTube channelbecause it needs help. Give us a
subscribe. If you are listening tojust a podcast platform, please continue to
listen. If you ever want tosee what my ugly mug and some of
these metals look like, you cancheck us out after the fact on YouTube.
Easy pasy right. This is howwe grow, This is how we
(22:48):
do the thing. I know,I have been over it before several times.
So I don't know what is comingup this weekend here in Kansas City
because I won't be here. Iknow there's a couple of five kids around
town. If you are running aroundtown, then I hope you have a
great race. If you are notlocal to Kansas City, but you're still
running a race this weekend, makesure you share with us next week on
(23:08):
Metal Monday. Metal Monday. Wealways want to see your picture with your
bling, whatever you earn for theweekend so that people can people can you
see what's out there. This isone of the things I love is seeing
what is out there, seeing racesI've never heard of before. Who has
really cool metal. I just sawone yesterday and it wasn't It had nothing
(23:29):
to do with the podcast. Itwas just me looking at social media.
There was a race in Illinois yesterdayor this past weekend, and the metal
was huge and it was a penny. It was a giant penny, and
it was some kind of Abraham Lincolnthemed metal. Of course he's on the
penny, but it was the coolestlooking metal ever. So now I want
to do that race. So ifyou do a race and it has a
(23:49):
really cool medal, make sure youshare it with us on Metal Monday so
that other people can see it.And it kind of helps us choose what
we're gonna do throughout the year andwhat we might want to do next year.
Trust me. It is actually veryvery helpful when you post on metal
Monday because it gets us all dreamingabout the other nonsense again. Tuesdays,
we're gonna start training tip Tuesday andtraveling Tuesday. So some will be if
(24:12):
you have a good tip for people. The others will be if you did
a traveling race outside of your ownarea and you took a picture, whether
it be a selfie with the metalor something on the course, whatever you
feel like sharing with everyone will dothat. Wednesdays are Charity Wednesdays. Okay,
we just started this last week andI want to share this with you
guys. As a lot of usknow, sometimes we can't get into the
(24:36):
major marathons just on lottery or qualifyingtimes alone. Sometimes we need a little
bit of help, right I did. I had to raise a ton of
money for Boston last year, andso many of you helped me with that,
and I still can't thank you allenough, and I'll never ask you
to do it again. But thereare those trying to run Chicago, trying
to run New York, trying torun Berlin on charity bibs, and they
(25:00):
need our help. So on CharityWednesday, what I did last time was
I had everyone send me their linksand I shared them an individual post.
I understand there are a lot ofposts on Wednesday, and some of them
kind of bury the others, andso I'm sorry about that. What we're
gonna do from now on on Wednesday, I'm going to have just the charity
Wednesday post, and then all ofyou with a charity, I want you
(25:21):
to share the links in the commentsso that everyone can just be one stop
shop. They can see you,they can see what you're running, who
you're raising funds for the charity partner, and you just boom boom boom,
boom boom. They're all right there, one post and everyone can go through
and look at them as you will. If you feel so inclined and you
feel called to do so, Iwould ask that you would please try and
(25:42):
donate to any of these charities andthese runners that you can trust me,
I know from experience, even fiveor ten dollars can make all the difference.
If you just again, if youfeel called to help some of these
folks out, they will all appreciateit so much. So anything you can
do, I'm speaking for them,is greatly appreciate it. So that is
(26:03):
our Wednesday Charity Wednesday. You guysare going to share the links when I
get the post out there. Andthen one stop shop baby, everyone boom,
there's all the people needing some helpto get to the World Marathon Majors.
And trust me, I'm here forit. I'm trying to donate as
I can as well. Bear withme again the podcast. The podcast is
funded by me and by missus Backof the Pack Podcast, and sometimes she's
(26:26):
okay with what I spend on it, and sometimes she's not. She also
can't hear me recording right now,So hey, good team. On Thursdays,
we have race shirt Thursday, likeI'm wearing the Rock to park Way
shirt for this year. Just sharea selfie and whatever shirt that you wore.
And then Friday's are Flashback Friday andan old picture from however long ago
you wanted to go. I justposted one last week from my very first
(26:48):
Rock to Parkway. A couple thingsfirst, I wore my race shirt,
which I know now is big fauxpa. Don't do that. Don't wear
the shirt of the race while you'redoing the race. That's not right.
Even though Cody does that, hejust he spits in the face of tradition.
And then the other thing. Inoticed the pants I was wearing those
like a slick wind pants that Iguess we're all the rage around twenty eleven
(27:12):
or I was just already out ofstyle. But either rich way, my
outfit was absolutely atrocious. I dofeel as though I look better these days,
Thank goodness for small favors. Butthat's our flashback. Friday and then
Saturday and Sunday are mostly a raceoriented. Whatever race. We did some
pictures that either I took or otherstook that I steal and use, which
(27:33):
maybe I should clear with folks,but I don't. But to all the
people who end up taking pictures thatI get to be in and then I
share them for the podcast, Ihope you don't mind. If you mind,
let me know, I won't doit, but I figure i'm in
him too, so I'm allowed toshare, right right, We're gonna go
with that. So we're gonna gowith So that's it. There's no big
message for today, no tips ortricks. This was just kind of the
(27:56):
rock the Parkway review and the tooSlow for Boston preview. I'm super excited
for the race coming up. It'sgonna be a lot of fun. So
I hope you guys will all followalong through the various social media platforms that
we are on Facebook and Instagram,like I said, are there are big
ones, and then we'll have YouTube. There is even a TikTok there's a
back of the pack TikTok page.I do my best. I'm not good
(28:17):
with this stuff. I'm forty four, so I don't get it. Like
TikTok is foreign to me. Butwe've had some success with the videos I
posted. I just needed to getbetter about it. I'm sorry, but
I would love your follow on theTikTok page. We definitely want your subscription
on the YouTube channel. That's wherewe're hitting hard right now. And then
of course we're on Spotify, iHeartRadio, Sprinker, iTunes, anywhere you listen
to your podcast, we're there.So I know this is a lot of
(28:40):
stuff you've heard me say before,and I say it a lot at the
expos But anything we can do toget the word out. I told you
guys, okay, and I'm goingoff, kind off topic and kind of
not I told you at the veryfirst episode of this year that twenty twenty
four is make or break for thispodcast. We either become successful or we
probably have to pack it in atthe end of the year because of the
(29:00):
amount of money that we spend onit. Right now, we are leaning
towards successful, we really are.I am super happy with how things are
turning out. I love it thatpeople participate and play along. I would
just if we can get a littlemore of it, a little more and
we're freaking golden. But again,I want to thank you all so much
for listening, watching, sharing,playing along with the social media stuff.
(29:25):
All the interactions are glorious. They'rewonderful. They're exactly what we need to
keep this podcast going. There's thelittle star formula thing on Facebook. Anytime
we do a reel or a post, if it says give these guys stars,
if you give us stars, man, that's like super super helpful.
That's kind of how we can makemoney through Facebook. And making money through
Facebook would be really great because sofar, the amount of money we've made
(29:48):
through Facebook for the whole entirety ofthe show is three dollars. Three dollars.
So again, I hate asking formoney. You guys know me.
Back when I was raising money forBoston I hated asking for money. This
isn't for charity though. This isIf you enjoy the podcast, give us
some stars and we can keep goingand we can, you know, maybe
branch out and do more things.We'll see, but that's kind of where
(30:10):
we're at with the social media stuff. I just like keeping everyone updated.
I'm honest and transparent. I'll tellyou how it is and the way it's
gonna be. So this is ourmake up break year. This is what
we're doing. So here we go. And I know this whole last part
of the show, you guys arelike, this is not running related.
Shut up quite talking about it,and you know what I will. I'm
gonna shut up about it right now. So everyone, have a great week
(30:30):
of training, have a great racenext weekend, whatever you might be doing
as I am in South Carolina,please follow all the social media platforms for
whatever fund Shenanigans we get into.And then we're gonna be back. Now
next week's episode. I'm traveling onMonday. I'll be trying to get back
into town as fast as I can. But I cannot promise you a new
episode Monday. Worst case scenario,it has to come out on Tuesday.
(30:52):
Because I didn't make it back fromSouth Carolina in time. I don't want
to get a speeding ticket because wejust covered the money stuff. So bear
with me if I am a littlelate. Get an episode out next week.
That's what traveling does. Other thanthat, have a great week of
training. We will see you nextweek. And thank you all so much
for everything you do for the podcast. I really cannot tell you how much
(31:12):
I appreciate it. We'll see younext week.
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