July 7, 2025 • 33 mins
What do pit bulls, frozen hurricanes, and minus-14 wind chills have in common? They’re all part of the wild ride that’s been the first half of 2025 for The Back of the Pack Podcast. In this episode, we lace up to break down the Stars and Stripes 5K in Overland Park — the race that let us run off the BBQ calories just in time for fireworks. But we don’t stop there. We’re rolling out our very first Packy’s: the official, totally unserious mid-year awards for the best, worst, weirdest, and coldest running moments so far. From surprise PRs to regrettable sign-ups (looking at you, double hill climbs) and heartwarming heroes who remind us why we keep showing up — it’s all here. Pour yourself a post-run drink (maybe not a giant Vegas Hurricane at 9 a.m.) and come celebrate six months of sweat, stories, and back-of-the-pack glory. Stick around — your own Packy might be waiting in December!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hello, everyone, greetings and salutations. Welcome back to another episode
of the Back of the Pack podcast. I'm your hos
Skyle Walker. Thank you so much for tuning in. I
hope everyone had a very safe and enjoyable July fourth weekend.
Of course, we can't start this off without mentioning the
terrible events going on down in Texas right now with
the flooding and all the victims of that. So, you know,
just not trying to bring the mood down or anything,
but our thoughts, prayers, good juju, happy wishes, whatever you
(00:36):
want to throw out in the universe, I hope you'll
throw it down in their direction, as it sounds like
they need all the help they can get. Very very
unfortunate to hear about all that this weekend. So for me,
me personally, my prayers are with those families and those affected.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
You.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I hope you will offer whatever you can. So this
past weekend we were at the Stars and Stripes five
k in Overland Park, Kansas. This, of course, takes place
on the fourth of July morning. We've done this race before.
There's not a whole lot we can really report on
it other than it went.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Exactly as that race always goes.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
There is definitely something in this world to be said
for consistency, and this is a very consistent race. You
show up, you know when it's gonna start, you know
the route you're gonna run, you know basically, know the
weather you're gonna get, and then you know what you're
getting when you cross the finish line, and then you
go on about the rest of your Fourth of July holiday.
So this race takes place in Overland Park, Kansas. Like
I said, at the Aspira campus used to be called
(01:31):
the Sprint Campus, and then Sprint died a horrible death
and they're done, and then now they are the Aspire
Campus soon to be maybe possibly home of the Kansas
City Royals. Once they leave the Kaufman Stadium area and
the Truman Sports Complex and move over to Johnson County, Kansas.
They're gonna be in the Aspire Campus. They're gonna build
a brand new stadium. It's gonna be big and beautiful
(01:52):
and great, and honestly, I don't care either which way.
I just find it really funny to give all my
Missouri people a hard time because the Royals are going
to move to Kansas over into God's Country and.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
It's going to be glorious, glorious.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I don't care if they put them out a spire
and they can put them out at the Legends, I
don't care. We're gonna have the Royals in Kansas haha. Anyway,
So here is the medal for said race. Again, there
is really not much I can report great metal though
they did a great job this year. Stars and Stripes
five kit. It's got the Liberty bell on it, twenty
twenty five, nice ribbon. They always do well with this.
I do remember a long time ago, years ago with
(02:27):
this race, like the medals were just kind of okay.
But the metal game has definitely improved over the last
several years, and now this is definitely one of the
better medals that you're going to see throughout the year.
I am wearing the Stars and striped shirt, not from
this year, this is an old one I found out
the closet. I did not buy a shirt this year.
Credit to the race directors who will let you save
(02:47):
money by declining a shirt. I will decline the shirt
and save money one hundred percent of the time, So
when that's offered I really appreciate it. Thank you to
the race directors. Who do that In case you running
company does that. So not a new shirt this year.
I have more running shirts than I'm ever going to
need for the rest of my life, and I'm sure
many more to come, at least until my knee blows out,
(03:09):
which is getting closer every day. So what we're gonna
talk about today? And I thought this was kind of fun?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
All right?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
We are now over barely, but we're over halfway done
with twenty twenty five. I'll let that sink in for
a moment. We are over halfway done with twenty twenty five.
I feel like it just started. So we're twenty some
odd races into this year. Okay, I'm gonna go over
them real quick. Here's the races that we've run in
that we've covered on this podcast. If any of them
(03:35):
sound good to you and you didn't hear about them,
go back and listen to that episode. Speaking of which,
before I do that, I need everyone to do me
a really, really big favorite this week. Okay, and this
is like the easiest favor you could ever do for me,
for just for me personally. I got the report on
Sunday of last week's downloads, and look, I get it.
Last week was a holiday week. Well, nobody listening to
(03:55):
an episode on Friday. They were setting off fireworks or
running races or cooking out or whatever. But downloads were way,
way way down this week. Since we're back in the office,
back to work, you know you're returning to life as usual.
Can you try and get caught up this week if
you want. You know, if you want to listen to
a couple episodes in a row, that'd be super great.
(04:16):
I'd love it if next Sunday the downloads were way
up because everyone got caught up caught up on the podcast.
I don't feel like I'm asking too much, trust me,
I am always caught up on the podcast. I'm usually
caught up on the podcast on about four or five
different platforms as they just play it one after the
other after the other after the other. Just because I'll admit,
I try and cheat the system and I want to
get as many downloads as possible, so I know I'm
(04:38):
good for at least four. If you guys can help
us get a little bit above four, that would be
super fantastic. So get caught up this week if you haven't.
There is a weekly download number that we have gotten
very close to but have never touched. Maybe this could
be the week. If you go real crazy and you
get all caught up, maybe this is the week, and
(04:58):
I'll throw it out there because in my mind it's
a very small number, but it's one we haven't touched yet.
We've gotten very close. We've gotten to I think nine
hundred and eighty eight downloads for one week. I would
love to see triple digits, no quadruple digits. I would
love to see one thousand. I would love to see
us hit one thousand downloads for a week. It's never
(05:20):
happened before. We've gotten very close. It would be great. Look,
I know everyone who watches on Facebook. Facebook is the
creator black Hole, and it kind of kills our downloads
on the podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
But if you like the podcast platform, go get caught up.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I would love to see one thousand, just one time
before the stress of doing this podcast kills me young.
So anyway, go do that, Go do that? All right,
So here's what we've done this year, all right, twenty
twenty five. We started with the Time Travel half marathon
that was in Parkville, Missouri, that was in January. Then
it was the Battle of the Bean five k the
Safari seven k and the Big Beach Half Marathon. Those
(05:54):
were down in Gulf Shores, Alabama, if you remember us
covering that in January. Then we had the Ground Run
five K and ten k, both done it the same day.
That's the Tower to Tower Challenge. Then the Kickoff five
k on Super Bowl Sunday, the Black Day that thought
was for the Kansas City Chiefs. And then it was
off to Vegas for the Rock and Roll Las Vegas
five K and then the next day to half Marathon
(06:15):
in February. Then we went down to Little Rock, Arkansas
for the Little Rock five K and half marathon, and
then we came back home for the Beard Run ten K,
the Westport Saint Patrick's Day four miler, the Liberty Hospital
I'm sorry not Hospital, the Liberty Half, the El Dorado
Half Marathon, Rock the Parkway Half Marathon, Easter Egg ten k,
Kentucky Derby Festival five k Kentucky Derby Festival Half Marathon,
(06:38):
Top City Half Marathon, Lincoln Half Marathon, Hospital Hill Half Marathon,
You wonder why my knees hurt? Fighting Fentanahl five k,
The Village shall Own Father's Day ten k, All American
eight mile race and then the Stars and Stripes five k.
So that is what we have done so far in
twenty twenty five. What we're going to do for the
rest of this episode because I thought it was going
(06:59):
to be really fun And did I just say rist
instead of rest?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
It's possible. It's possible.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
We're going to host our first ever award show, all right,
and we are going to do this I think halfway
point through the year going forward and then at the
very end of the year where we cover the entire
calendar year. But we are going to have what I
think will soon be affectionately known as the Packis.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yes, this is going to be the Packis Award.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Show for this episode. Seemed like a fun idea to me.
So let's just go over some of the some of
the highlights, so maybe low lights so far in twenty
twenty five. So our first category for best race moment
so far so far? Out of the ones I just listed,
what is the best race moment so far? I will
tell you and for me it's a very easy selection.
(07:47):
That is going to be the Westport Saint Patrick's Day
for miler. Now, why was that the best moment so far? Look,
we got to see all of our friends. That morning,
we got to have the people from the Happy Pace podcast.
We had Elaine and Gretchen from the Happy Pace podcast
come up here. They ran that race with us. We
ran that race where I was miked up, so I
got to be miked up for their podcast. That episode
(08:09):
is out, so go over to the Happy Pace podcast
on Spotify and you can find the episode where I
take over and look. I wasn't sure if they were
gonna air that episode or not, to be real honest,
and I can definitely tell there was some editing done,
mainly because listening to me huff and puff for four
miles cannot be overly enjoyable. They did a good job
of making it less painful. And then of course I
(08:33):
try and like recreate their ending, and for whatever reason,
I said Gretchen's last name wrong. All right, I'm chalking
it up to the fact that I just run four miles,
but I screwed up the names. Like man, if they
didn't air that episode, ever, I would completely understand because
I think I dropped the name of a country music artist.
I think that was where my problem was. Now, to
be fair, that country music artist does have one song
(08:56):
on my jogging playlist. I don't even know if it
came on that day, but that's where I'm gonna blame it,
and so yeah, sorry, but they didn't put the episode out,
and it's if you want to listen to me narrate
a race while I'm trying to run, then you can
check that one out. But it was a PR distance
for me or a PR race, So of all the
four milers I'd ever done, this one was the fastest
(09:17):
while I was talking for the podcast, and then of
course after the race, we had the Back of the
Back Podcast three year anniversary party at Kelly's Westport End,
and that was always that was always gonna be my
favorite because it was so fun and it was so
great for all the people who came out and joined
us for that event. Had a beverage adult beverage, not
so adult beverage whatever. There was some pizza flying around,
(09:39):
but we had a great time at Kelly's Westport End
after the Saint Patrick's State four miler for the three
year anniversary at the Back of the Pack podcast, So
of course that is my best moment so far in
twenty twenty five for running now the.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Four miler that PR is the only PR I've.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Gotten in twenty twenty five. Every other distance ipr'd in
twenty twenty four, except for full marathon that was twenty
twenty three. But IPR ten K, five k half all
of that in twenty twenty four, so far, not back
there in twenty twenty five. All right, So that is
so Westport Saint Patrick, stay fur Miley, you guys, get
a packy. The next one the hardest weather day. The
(10:16):
next category is the hardest weather day. I want you
you guys to think about it.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
What do you think?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Don't just go with what I say. Think about your races?
What was your best moment so far? Boll ahead, love
it if you guys would like share this on the
YouTube channel or wherever you pick up your podcast.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
But what was your hardest weather day? So for us?
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And this one was easy, it was April fifth in
El Daredo, Kansas at the Eldoredo Half Marathon.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Whoo, that weather sucked.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
So if you remember the story I started that morning
and like we knew that wind was going to be
a factor.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Wind eh yuck?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Okay, So I remember I'm looking out my hotel window
that morning and everything in the parking lot looks kind
of calm.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
You're like, no big deal.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
So you know, I leave the window and I start
getting ready, and then I can kind of hear it.
I hear something kind of beating against the side of
the hotel I was staying in and then I look
out and the trees are blowing all over the place
and there's crap flying around the parking lot, and thinking,
oh boy, So the wind picked up.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
That dropped the temperature.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Because we're early April in Kansas, all right, so what
was already like a morning in the low forties with
that wind chill, it was drop drop dropping. So we
get to the race, it's cold. Everyone is hanging out inside.
Thankfully we could hang out inside before going to the
start line to start the race. The wind was so
strong that we couldn't start the race going under the
arch because the arch was trying to fly away. So
(11:39):
it was just two timing mats on the ground. That
is how we started the race. We start, we go,
and what was it? It was by mile four we
are in a deluge of rain, So wind over forty
mile an hour, pouring rain. Miserable, absolutely miserable. Remember I
even took like a real TikTok video of it and
(11:59):
put out there. We had to go straight up the
hill for about eleventy hundred miles. That one was terrible
with the rain in the wind directly in our face.
And then remember by the time we finished the race,
we were soaking wet and it turned to snow, so
thankfully I was already done with the race. But then
it turned to snow at the very end. It didn't
snow much and it didn't snow hard, but yeah, by
the end of it, we had snow coming down the wind.
(12:21):
Chills had dropped into like I think the low thirties
or upper twenties, So if you weren't prepared for it,
you were just miserable the whole time. Thankfully I had
packed some extra clothing just because the weather was questionable.
So I was as comfortable for that race as I
was going to be. Trust me, it was never going
to be a comfortable race. But that definitely gets to
packy for the hardest weather day the Eldorado Half Marathon.
(12:45):
The next one we have the packy for the weirdest
thing a scene on a course, and remember we're just
going twenty twenty five. I didn't go back any further.
The weirdest thing that we saw on the course this year,
and my buddy Mark, you guys get the award for
this one.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
So the Top City Half Marathon. M h yep, Top City.
When do we run that? We run that one in April, right, yeah?
Oh no, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
That was May third this year, the May third Top
City Half Marathon. If you remember, coming across mile about eleven,
we had about two miles left in the race, trying
to cruise into downtown Topeka because we're down in Topeka, Kansas.
That's when I'm running along in the gigantic, muscular, huge
pit bull came waltzing out of the homeless camp and
(13:30):
just kind of set up shop right there on the
side of the sidewalk, checking out me and every other
runner that was going by. And look this this dog
was perfect like it. It made no aggressive moves. But
when a big old pit bull comes across you, you
pucker up a little bit. Right Ley, Let's be real
fair here.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
No one in the world's gonna goodugi No, like.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Oh crap, that's a pit bull that's just standing here
and there is no one around me. Now I'm in
the middle of a park would area that cops would
never get to me in time if that pit bull
had decided to get wild and aggressive. So that was
definitely the weirdest thing that I've seen on the course
this year. And again, all that pit bull did with
me was like take one half step forward to sniff,
and he kind of sniffed in my general direction, and
(14:16):
then he stayed right there, and then I was kind
of looking over my shoulder and he just kind of
sniffed the person behind, and then I'm hoping he'd got
kind of backtrack into the camper he emerged from, and
everything was great. I didn't hear of any problems, but
like my heart wasn't already racing enough after running eleven miles.
Then we had that was that was definitely worthy of
(14:37):
an award, And it gets to Packy for the first
half of twenty twenty five. You guys are gonna be
tired of me saying that word by the time this
is over. I have no doubt.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
All right.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
The next one, number four our favorite listener interaction, Packy.
That was an easy one for me. Again, I love
any interactions that we get. I wish we could get more.
I would love it. If you guys interacted more, don't
forget Metal Monday. Always post yourself the on Metal Monday,
brag on your run. One hundred percent brag on your
run so that other people can show love for your
(15:07):
run because you're out doing amazing crap and we want
to celebrate you for it.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
So on Metal Monday, always do that. I desperately try
to post.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Daily something maybe funny, something motivational, Please like, comments, have
fun with it, whatever you want to do. That's always
out there on the social media platforms. And then as
we've started the ultra marathon training, I am putting out
more tiktoks and reels. Would love your likes, would love
your subscribes, your follows, comments, and all those things. Anything
(15:34):
you see of mine on social media, it would it
would benefit the podcast greatly and it would make me
feel lovely if you would just do something with it,
like it, comment on it, share it, interact whatever. So
the best interaction we had this year was at the
Little Rock Marathon Expo, and we were down in Little Rock,
Arkansas for both days of the expo. We had the
table setup and we met some really great people. We
(15:56):
had some fans who we had the young lady who
who was up in Illinois, who is down running that race,
who's from Canns who came and talked to us like
that was super cool. Great to see her, great to
meet her, great to meet so many people that we
met at the Little Rock Expo this year. I really
do think that that is probably the best interaction that
we've had with listeners that I can think of. Now, again,
(16:18):
we're just talking twenty twenty five. I think last year
the expo good Life have Ze because it was only
six hours long, so it was just six hours straight
of interaction with people that one might take the cake overall,
But for twenty twenty five, it was definitely the Little
Rock Marathon. We had a great time at their expo.
They put on a wonderful expo and they put on
a great race. If you guys want a race kind
(16:38):
of in the Central States area, I'm telling you a
Little Rock Marathon. Good friends of the program, and I
do enjoy that race immensely. I've done the half, I've
done the full, I've done the five k, so I
highly recommend them. All right, the next packy halfway through
the list here personal best slash worst moments. All right,
(16:59):
So the my personal favorite moment for this year was
that we launched a second podcast. All Right, on Fridays,
we dropped the back of the pack podcast, Second Wind.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Again.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
We're kind of figuring out where we're gonna go with
that and and what it's gonna always be about.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
My goal was to get us out into the world
more to kind of meet more people, see more things,
and do things. And then I realized I'm terrible at
videoing it. And again Rendezvous Climbing Gym, I'm I'm sorry.
I feel like I sure changed you guys because of
my awfulness at putting that episode together.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Everyone go to them.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
But that episode sucked and it was completely my fault,
and I'm sorry, but that's what I thought it was
gonna be. But now I realized how difficult that is
to go on location. So we're still figuring it out.
But just the fact that I asked if you all
were interested in any more episodes weekly and everyone settled on, yeah,
two episodes a week would be great. So that demand
got us to do this and it's wonderful. So that
(17:54):
is definitely my personal best moment of this year was
that we launched a second podcast, and it's it's super
fun and we're gon we're gonna get it figured out
and we're gonna make it even bigger and better than
it is. Releasing on a Friday also doesn't help us
immensely because everyone's getting into their weekends. But you know what,
it's there, catch up on it. Get let's get to
that one thousand downloads this week. That would be so great.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
The worst moment of twenty twenty five so far, and
this is controversial. I understand that it's controversial, So before
you send me the hate mail, let me just listen.
Just please listen to the reasoning.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
First.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
My personal worst moment where I felt the worst this
year was at the Beard Run in March, the Scott
Green Memorial Run. The Beard Run, because it started as
such a great event in twenty twenty four with hundreds
and hundreds of runners, turned into a nothing event with
(18:45):
like one hundred and fifty runners in just one year,
and that really disappointed me. I kind of called out
the Casey running area saying, you know, guys, what the
hell are we doing?
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Well? I was educated after the fact.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Remember what I said last week about how behold than
I am to race companies, race directors, race committees and everything.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I'm not so. I was told, hey, there is.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
A lot of drama, a lot of issue, a lot
of questions raised about the people who organize the Beard Run. Okay,
I was told things, stories, stories, based in fact. Maybe
story is not based in fact. I don't know because
I'm not in the note.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
But I was told many.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Things, and a lot of them lined up that the
people overseeing the Beard Run, the race directors, companies, committees,
whatever you want to call them, maybe there's some questions
on where money goes.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
All right.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Now, I'm not saying who said that. I'm just saying
that questions out there. So if you are a race director,
race committee, or race company that oversees the Beard Run completely,
just know that people are asking questions and that directly
affects your race. And that race is supposed to be
in the memory of Scott Green, Kansas City's most famous
running legend. And one hundred and fifty people showed up.
So where there's smoke, there's fie. Figure your shit out,
(20:01):
or no one's coming back next year for the final
Beard Run.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
There we go.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I said it, huh, But as you can see. It
pisses me off. That is our worst moment. It's a
bad look for Kansas City. It's a bad look for
that race, and it's a bad people for It's a
bad look for the people who run that race, because
how to just screw it up so much in a
year and how much you're gonna screw it up in
two And look, the Green family deserves nothing but the best,
and if they're not getting the best, then there's gonna
be some serious freaking beef my friends. And I'm just
(20:26):
throwing that out there right now because it pisses me off.
If what I heard was correct, and maybe it's not,
but if it is, we all got reason to be
pretty upset. Any whosers on we go the next packy
goes to the best post race snack or beer. So
the best post race, well, for me, all so easy
(20:46):
this was. You know what is the best beer? A
beer that's bought for you? Well, my best drink this
year was my gigantic Frozen Hurricane on Fremont Street, Las Vegas, Nevada,
on my birthday after the Las Vegas Rock and Roll
five K, bought by back of the pack super fan
Allison for me for my birthday. Well, of course that's
(21:09):
gonna be the best one. That's absolutely the best drink
that I've had after a race this year because it
was bought for me and I'm in Las Vegas and
a friend bought it. Like winning all over the place.
Because if you don't know me, if you've only been
listening to this podcast for about five seconds, I love Vegas.
Vegas is my most favoritest.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Place to go.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
So when I get to enjoy in ice cold adult
beverage on Fremont Street in Las Vegas after running a
five k, after pitifully running a five k, then I'm
going to enjoy it, and that's going to be like
the best drink ever. So definitely a Packy to Las Vegas,
a PACKI to the Rock and Roll five k, and
a Packe to Alison for buying me a drink.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
On my birthday.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
So number seven in the packy for the most regretted
sign up. Again, I'm not taking shots here because I've
taken plenty of shots with these people. My most regretted
sign up was for what last week's All American eight
miler that was back in June. At the very d
of June in Independence, Missouri. Not because of the race company,
(22:08):
not because of anything that they've done, not because of
our previous history. No, because I knew about the god
awful hill that we would have to run twice out
and back, out and back, and I still signed up
for the damn race.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I knew how bad that hill was. I'd done that
hill before.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
I had stayed away from that hill for like ten
years because I did not want to run another race
out there again.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
And what are to do? I ran another race out there.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Again, and I had to do that hill twice on
a blistering hot day, and it was awful. So I
regret signing up for that race. I should have just
done the four miler. Now, of course was measured incorrectly,
things weren't marked right. We had a whole bunch of
issues that we've already been over. But I should have
just done it once, so I only had to do
that hill once. So I regret signing up for the
(22:54):
All American eight miler simply because I had to do
that damn hill twice.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
And I don't ever want to do that hill again.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
If I ever signed up for that race again, if
it's the only race going on on the weekend like
it was four miler. That's it, four miles nothing more. Now,
I know some people are saying, what, you're not regretting
that you signed up for an ultra marathon that you're
gonna run fifty miles in September. No, I haven't regretted that,
probably because I haven't done it yet. I'll regret it afterwards. Yeah, afterwards,
when we do the end of the year packys, I
(23:21):
bet I know what race might take its place. Might
be a little fifty miler coming up in September. Oh,
dear god, what did I do? All right?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Number eight? The why did I even show up? Pack?
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Ye?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
All right? That one was an easy one for me.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
That is on January eighteenth, at the Battle of the
Bean five k Why in the actual hell did I
even show up for that race?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Why did any of us? We are all gluttons for punishment? Why?
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Because with the windshill it started feeling it about if
memory serves, it was like negative fourteen degrees fahrenheit. That's
how we started that race. Yeah, it was sunny, it
was also windy as hell, and sometimes those clouds help
hold a little bit of heat down.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
There was none. It was ice cold.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
How do I know it was ice cold because there
was a big old patch of ice that had gathered
right in front of the finish line where when you
were coming down that hill to finish finish the race,
you needed to watch your step because it would have
been real easy for you to face plant or slip
out like you're on a you know, hit a banana peal,
and go flying across the finish line, as opposed to
(24:24):
running it in control of yourself and your faculties.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
But man, why did we do that race? It was
so cold?
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Good lord, that was just awful. Hated every moment of
that race. And again not the race company's fault. Everyone
knows you run a race in January, you run the
risk of having awful weather, and we had. I thought
that race was actually gonna get canceled because I didn't
think they'd be able to get the snow and ice
removed from the roads in time. Because memory serves that
(24:53):
week had been pretty snowy, pretty icy. They did just
that little bit of you know, melts one day and
and refreezes overnight, and because of how cold it was,
there was no way you're gonna melt it again. Just
that little bit of refreeze by the finish line was
really the only hazard. The roads did really well. It
was just the fact that it was about negative fourteen
degree windchill out there as we ran this race. Nothing
(25:16):
felt better than getting in my car and cranking the
heat after that race, which sounds really weird to say,
as I'm standing here in July and I'm in here
sweating because on the upper floor of my house, when
it's this hot outside, it doesn't stay very cool up here.
It's like heat rises or something. It's weird, right, all right.
The next packy the Packy for the unexpected running hero
(25:37):
of twenty twenty five so far, all right, And this
is I can't believe I've never talked about him before
on the podcast, but I've especially kind of in the
spring running season. I saw him everywhere, and so I
wanted to give him a big shout out. And that
is I'm want to make sure get the name's right.
Patrick and James McGinnis. You have seen them at a
race if you've been running around Kansas City. He just
made me didn't know their names. Patrick and James are
(25:59):
the father and son running duo at a lot of
the five k's and tenkse and James was injured long
ago with I believe playing football. It was a football injury,
and I'm trying to see I had I had a
right in front of me the quote, just.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Because I wanted to get it right. Here we go,
There we go.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
In twenty fourteen, James suffered an acute subdural hematoma during
the third quarter while playing football for a Late the East.
The doctors gave him less than a seven percent chance
of survival, and so after recovering from that, he had
to relearn everything, including how to eat, how to walk,
how to talk, and how to use his hands. And
so you will see them at times, James normally in
(26:46):
front and James has long, curlyish hair, and then his
father Patrick is in the back, and they kind of
use chords that Patrick will will have in his hand.
They used the chords just to kind of keep James upright,
and then they run together doing five k's and ten case.
It is the damnest thing you've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Now.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
I came across them last year at the Garman Kansas
City Marathon expo. I gave him both back to the
Back podcast shirts, which I've seen them both wear out
in public before, which always makes me very happy when
I see him in their podcast shirts. But James is
an inspiring story. He also is an artist, and so
he does paintings and big into his church and things
like that, and so they are kind of my running
(27:25):
here as a twenty twenty five especially because I saw
him a lot this year. And I know that James
had some distance goals that he was working on, and
I'm pretty sure that he's reached his distance goals for
this year. If not, I know he's come darn close.
But again, a person with seven percent chance of survival
who is now running five k's and ten k's after
relearning how to walk and talk and do all those things,
(27:46):
that's pretty damn inspiring. Again, if you're in Kansas City,
I guarantee you've seen him.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
At a race.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
They were just a hospital hill, but you'll see him.
And that's James and Patrick and again we'll see him
running together.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Say hi. They're both lovely people, and so they are.
They get the paki.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
If I had a little trophy, I would give it
to them, but they have the packies for the running
heroes of twenty twenty five so far, all right, and
then our last packy because again.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
I'm silly and I thought this was fun.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
The most questionable fashion choice, the most questionable fashion choice.
I don't really have any myself this year. I think
if anyone is going to have a packy for fashion choices,
we have to give it out to our buddy, the
Casey cosplay runner, because that guy makes some interesting fashion
(28:32):
choices pretty much every weekend. As for me, I think
the most bold thing I've done this year was where
pink on Wednesdays we do our group runs. Last year,
definitely I would have won for my very revealing to
two at the Hell on Gravel half marathon, but I
have not two two to yet this year I do.
I'm gonna let you know I do have some very
(28:53):
riskue pink shorts that I'm gonna wear on a group
run you know.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Some point in time.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
But I'm not doing it until people actually show up
to the group run that I've been doing on Wednesdays.
Otherwise it's just me going around the track over and
over again by myself, wearing very revealing pink shorts. So
I'm gonna wait and I'm going to make sure to
kind of poison someone else's mind and make sure that
they have nightmares by wearing those shorts when I know
there's going to be somebody else there. And so that's
(29:20):
the important part to me, is that I leave people
well scarred. Yeah, I just kind of want them to
be scarred for this. I don't know why, don't make
any sense why, but that's why. That's why I'm doing it.
I want you to I want you to feel it,
and I want I want it to hurt. So anyway,
that took a dark turn, that's it. I thought this
was fun. So this is our twenty twenty five mid
(29:41):
year PACKI Awards Show. We will have one at the
end of the year. I think they're silly. I almost
said stupid, and that's correct as well. They're silly and stupid,
and so we're gonna make sure.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
We do it again.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
If you would like to nominate a category, that would
be great. If you want to nominate a person for
any of the categories I listed, that would be great.
I really think we should make this the whole thing
a thing and that everyone needs to contribute to our
end of the year PACKI Award Show, and who knows,
you know what would be really fun and again, I
just had this idea today, so I'm still flushing everything out.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
What if we did it live?
Speaker 1 (30:14):
What if we met at a bar, restaurant something and
we did the end of year award show live?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Ooh, I gotta work on this. How fun would that be?
All Right?
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Everyone be prepared. Sometime in December, we're getting together and
we're doing a live filming episode of the Back of
the Pack podcast for the Packy Awards. Oh oh my god,
million dollar idea. That's not worth ten cents. The million
dollar idea just had before your very eyes. Man.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Now I'm stoked. We totally got to make that happen.
That's gonna be super fun. All right.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
So next week okay, So, if you haven't been watching
the Back of the Back podcast, second Win, we started
another series. We are going around the country and talking
about different racing and different racing cultures as it pertains
to region. This Friday, which you missed because it was
the fourth of July, go back and listen, we talked
about the West Coast. Now, I pulled all the research
(31:06):
I could on West Coast. I haven't done a lot
on the West Coast, so we talked about it. There
is already an error that I made that someone called
me out on, which is great. We're gonna have that
corrected this Friday coming up. This Friday coming up, we're
now going across the country and we're going to the
East Coast, So on the East Coast on this Friday's episode,
I can speak a little more intelligently about it because
I've done far more races on the East Coast than
(31:28):
i have the West Coast. And then of course we'll
have kind of the Midwest and North Central States area,
and then we'll have the South. So that's all coming up.
That is the series going on on the back of
the Back podcast Second Wind. Remember you cannot find that
on Facebook the Facebook. If you see it, it's only
gonna take you a link to Spreaker where you can
listen to the podcast. Or if you want to see
what I'm doing and talking about, you have to see
it on YouTube, Facebook creator black Hole. So Second Win
(31:51):
episodes just don't go on Facebook. You have to listen
to it on a podcast platform against Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Podbean, Spreak,
or you have to go to YouTube and please go
subscribe to the YouTube channel. Like I said, you gotta
help participate.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
What are you doing? All right?
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Our next race is Saturday morning at the Sunglasses five
k That is in least Summit, Missouri, so we're gonna
be over on the Missouri side. Super cool Metal. I
know that you can still register for this race. If
the medal is as cool as it looks in the picture.
I'm I'm excited. It was super cool metal, very bright
and colorful.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Loo. It's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
So that's our next race. And then after that we
had the big one coming up on July nineteenth. I
know I alluded to it in the previous episode. And
again I'm not starting any drama right now, but the
RGO half Marathon is coming up. If you're familiar with
this area, you know about Argo, and you know that
I've signed up for some level of nonsense that I
don't fully understand, but I'm gonna understand it.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
On on July. On on on July nineteenth, some yay
because we make all the bad decisions. And then on Sunday,
Sunday is the thirteenth. Sorry, got it back up a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
The cheer station for the Shining Mission traffle on please
if you can make it my goodness, please make it.
Otherwise it's just gonna be my daughter and I out
there trying to cheer people on. And trust me, those
triathletes need all the help they can get because we're
gonna be at the top of the worst hill that
the bikers and runners have to do. That hill sucks,
it's the damn hill. We're gonna be at the top
cheering people on. So please come out and join us
(33:15):
very early on Sunday morning, July thirteenth. All right, well
that's gonna do it for this week's episode of the
Back of the Back podcast. I'm your host, Kyle Walker.
It is my pleasure as always, everyone, have a safe
week of training. We will see you next week.
Hello, everyone, greetings and salutations. Welcome back to another episode
of the Back of the Pack podcast. I'm your hos
Skyle Walker. Thank you so much for tuning in. I
hope everyone had a very safe and enjoyable July fourth weekend.
Of course, we can't start this off without mentioning the
terrible events going on down in Texas right now with
the flooding and all the victims of that. So, you know,
just not trying to bring the mood down or anything,
but our thoughts, prayers, good juju, happy wishes, whatever you
(00:36):
want to throw out in the universe, I hope you'll
throw it down in their direction, as it sounds like
they need all the help they can get. Very very
unfortunate to hear about all that this weekend. So for me,
me personally, my prayers are with those families and those affected.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
You.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I hope you will offer whatever you can. So this
past weekend we were at the Stars and Stripes five
k in Overland Park, Kansas. This, of course, takes place
on the fourth of July morning. We've done this race before.
There's not a whole lot we can really report on
it other than it went.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Exactly as that race always goes.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
There is definitely something in this world to be said
for consistency, and this is a very consistent race. You
show up, you know when it's gonna start, you know
the route you're gonna run, you know basically, know the
weather you're gonna get, and then you know what you're
getting when you cross the finish line, and then you
go on about the rest of your Fourth of July holiday.
So this race takes place in Overland Park, Kansas. Like
I said, at the Aspira campus used to be called
(01:31):
the Sprint Campus, and then Sprint died a horrible death
and they're done, and then now they are the Aspire
Campus soon to be maybe possibly home of the Kansas
City Royals. Once they leave the Kaufman Stadium area and
the Truman Sports Complex and move over to Johnson County, Kansas.
They're gonna be in the Aspire Campus. They're gonna build
a brand new stadium. It's gonna be big and beautiful
(01:52):
and great, and honestly, I don't care either which way.
I just find it really funny to give all my
Missouri people a hard time because the Royals are going
to move to Kansas over into God's Country and.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
It's going to be glorious, glorious.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I don't care if they put them out a spire
and they can put them out at the Legends, I
don't care. We're gonna have the Royals in Kansas haha. Anyway,
So here is the medal for said race. Again, there
is really not much I can report great metal though
they did a great job this year. Stars and Stripes
five kit. It's got the Liberty bell on it, twenty
twenty five, nice ribbon. They always do well with this.
I do remember a long time ago, years ago with
(02:27):
this race, like the medals were just kind of okay.
But the metal game has definitely improved over the last
several years, and now this is definitely one of the
better medals that you're going to see throughout the year.
I am wearing the Stars and striped shirt, not from
this year, this is an old one I found out
the closet. I did not buy a shirt this year.
Credit to the race directors who will let you save
(02:47):
money by declining a shirt. I will decline the shirt
and save money one hundred percent of the time, So
when that's offered I really appreciate it. Thank you to
the race directors. Who do that In case you running
company does that. So not a new shirt this year.
I have more running shirts than I'm ever going to
need for the rest of my life, and I'm sure
many more to come, at least until my knee blows out,
(03:09):
which is getting closer every day. So what we're gonna
talk about today? And I thought this was kind of fun?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
All right?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
We are now over barely, but we're over halfway done
with twenty twenty five. I'll let that sink in for
a moment. We are over halfway done with twenty twenty five.
I feel like it just started. So we're twenty some
odd races into this year. Okay, I'm gonna go over
them real quick. Here's the races that we've run in
that we've covered on this podcast. If any of them
(03:35):
sound good to you and you didn't hear about them,
go back and listen to that episode. Speaking of which,
before I do that, I need everyone to do me
a really, really big favorite this week. Okay, and this
is like the easiest favor you could ever do for me,
for just for me personally. I got the report on
Sunday of last week's downloads, and look, I get it.
Last week was a holiday week. Well, nobody listening to
(03:55):
an episode on Friday. They were setting off fireworks or
running races or cooking out or whatever. But downloads were way,
way way down this week. Since we're back in the office,
back to work, you know you're returning to life as usual.
Can you try and get caught up this week if
you want. You know, if you want to listen to
a couple episodes in a row, that'd be super great.
(04:16):
I'd love it if next Sunday the downloads were way
up because everyone got caught up caught up on the podcast.
I don't feel like I'm asking too much, trust me,
I am always caught up on the podcast. I'm usually
caught up on the podcast on about four or five
different platforms as they just play it one after the
other after the other after the other. Just because I'll admit,
I try and cheat the system and I want to
get as many downloads as possible, so I know I'm
(04:38):
good for at least four. If you guys can help
us get a little bit above four, that would be
super fantastic. So get caught up this week if you haven't.
There is a weekly download number that we have gotten
very close to but have never touched. Maybe this could
be the week. If you go real crazy and you
get all caught up, maybe this is the week, and
(04:58):
I'll throw it out there because in my mind it's
a very small number, but it's one we haven't touched yet.
We've gotten very close. We've gotten to I think nine
hundred and eighty eight downloads for one week. I would
love to see triple digits, no quadruple digits. I would
love to see one thousand. I would love to see
us hit one thousand downloads for a week. It's never
(05:20):
happened before. We've gotten very close. It would be great. Look,
I know everyone who watches on Facebook. Facebook is the
creator black Hole, and it kind of kills our downloads
on the podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
But if you like the podcast platform, go get caught up.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I would love to see one thousand, just one time
before the stress of doing this podcast kills me young.
So anyway, go do that, Go do that? All right,
So here's what we've done this year, all right, twenty
twenty five. We started with the Time Travel half marathon
that was in Parkville, Missouri, that was in January. Then
it was the Battle of the Bean five k the
Safari seven k and the Big Beach Half Marathon. Those
(05:54):
were down in Gulf Shores, Alabama, if you remember us
covering that in January. Then we had the Ground Run
five K and ten k, both done it the same day.
That's the Tower to Tower Challenge. Then the Kickoff five
k on Super Bowl Sunday, the Black Day that thought
was for the Kansas City Chiefs. And then it was
off to Vegas for the Rock and Roll Las Vegas
five K and then the next day to half Marathon
(06:15):
in February. Then we went down to Little Rock, Arkansas
for the Little Rock five K and half marathon, and
then we came back home for the Beard Run ten K,
the Westport Saint Patrick's Day four miler, the Liberty Hospital
I'm sorry not Hospital, the Liberty Half, the El Dorado
Half Marathon, Rock the Parkway Half Marathon, Easter Egg ten k,
Kentucky Derby Festival five k Kentucky Derby Festival Half Marathon,
(06:38):
Top City Half Marathon, Lincoln Half Marathon, Hospital Hill Half Marathon,
You wonder why my knees hurt? Fighting Fentanahl five k,
The Village shall Own Father's Day ten k, All American
eight mile race and then the Stars and Stripes five k.
So that is what we have done so far in
twenty twenty five. What we're going to do for the
rest of this episode because I thought it was going
(06:59):
to be really fun And did I just say rist
instead of rest?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
It's possible. It's possible.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
We're going to host our first ever award show, all right,
and we are going to do this I think halfway
point through the year going forward and then at the
very end of the year where we cover the entire
calendar year. But we are going to have what I
think will soon be affectionately known as the Packis.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yes, this is going to be the Packis Award.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Show for this episode. Seemed like a fun idea to me.
So let's just go over some of the some of
the highlights, so maybe low lights so far in twenty
twenty five. So our first category for best race moment
so far so far? Out of the ones I just listed,
what is the best race moment so far? I will
tell you and for me it's a very easy selection.
(07:47):
That is going to be the Westport Saint Patrick's Day
for miler. Now, why was that the best moment so far? Look,
we got to see all of our friends. That morning,
we got to have the people from the Happy Pace podcast.
We had Elaine and Gretchen from the Happy Pace podcast
come up here. They ran that race with us. We
ran that race where I was miked up, so I
got to be miked up for their podcast. That episode
(08:09):
is out, so go over to the Happy Pace podcast
on Spotify and you can find the episode where I
take over and look. I wasn't sure if they were
gonna air that episode or not, to be real honest,
and I can definitely tell there was some editing done,
mainly because listening to me huff and puff for four
miles cannot be overly enjoyable. They did a good job
of making it less painful. And then of course I
(08:33):
try and like recreate their ending, and for whatever reason,
I said Gretchen's last name wrong. All right, I'm chalking
it up to the fact that I just run four miles,
but I screwed up the names. Like man, if they
didn't air that episode, ever, I would completely understand because
I think I dropped the name of a country music artist.
I think that was where my problem was. Now, to
be fair, that country music artist does have one song
(08:56):
on my jogging playlist. I don't even know if it
came on that day, but that's where I'm gonna blame it,
and so yeah, sorry, but they didn't put the episode out,
and it's if you want to listen to me narrate
a race while I'm trying to run, then you can
check that one out. But it was a PR distance
for me or a PR race, So of all the
four milers I'd ever done, this one was the fastest
(09:17):
while I was talking for the podcast, and then of
course after the race, we had the Back of the
Back Podcast three year anniversary party at Kelly's Westport End,
and that was always that was always gonna be my
favorite because it was so fun and it was so
great for all the people who came out and joined
us for that event. Had a beverage adult beverage, not
so adult beverage whatever. There was some pizza flying around,
(09:39):
but we had a great time at Kelly's Westport End
after the Saint Patrick's State four miler for the three
year anniversary at the Back of the Pack podcast, So
of course that is my best moment so far in
twenty twenty five for running now the.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Four miler that PR is the only PR I've.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Gotten in twenty twenty five. Every other distance ipr'd in
twenty twenty four, except for full marathon that was twenty
twenty three. But IPR ten K, five k half all
of that in twenty twenty four, so far, not back
there in twenty twenty five. All right, So that is
so Westport Saint Patrick, stay fur Miley, you guys, get
a packy. The next one the hardest weather day. The
(10:16):
next category is the hardest weather day. I want you
you guys to think about it.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
What do you think?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Don't just go with what I say. Think about your races?
What was your best moment so far? Boll ahead, love
it if you guys would like share this on the
YouTube channel or wherever you pick up your podcast.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
But what was your hardest weather day? So for us?
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And this one was easy, it was April fifth in
El Daredo, Kansas at the Eldoredo Half Marathon.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Whoo, that weather sucked.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
So if you remember the story I started that morning
and like we knew that wind was going to be
a factor.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Wind eh yuck?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Okay, So I remember I'm looking out my hotel window
that morning and everything in the parking lot looks kind
of calm.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
You're like, no big deal.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
So you know, I leave the window and I start
getting ready, and then I can kind of hear it.
I hear something kind of beating against the side of
the hotel I was staying in and then I look
out and the trees are blowing all over the place
and there's crap flying around the parking lot, and thinking,
oh boy, So the wind picked up.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
That dropped the temperature.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Because we're early April in Kansas, all right, so what
was already like a morning in the low forties with
that wind chill, it was drop drop dropping. So we
get to the race, it's cold. Everyone is hanging out inside.
Thankfully we could hang out inside before going to the
start line to start the race. The wind was so
strong that we couldn't start the race going under the
arch because the arch was trying to fly away. So
(11:39):
it was just two timing mats on the ground. That
is how we started the race. We start, we go,
and what was it? It was by mile four we
are in a deluge of rain, So wind over forty
mile an hour, pouring rain. Miserable, absolutely miserable. Remember I
even took like a real TikTok video of it and
(11:59):
put out there. We had to go straight up the
hill for about eleventy hundred miles. That one was terrible
with the rain in the wind directly in our face.
And then remember by the time we finished the race,
we were soaking wet and it turned to snow, so
thankfully I was already done with the race. But then
it turned to snow at the very end. It didn't
snow much and it didn't snow hard, but yeah, by
the end of it, we had snow coming down the wind.
(12:21):
Chills had dropped into like I think the low thirties
or upper twenties, So if you weren't prepared for it,
you were just miserable the whole time. Thankfully I had
packed some extra clothing just because the weather was questionable.
So I was as comfortable for that race as I
was going to be. Trust me, it was never going
to be a comfortable race. But that definitely gets to
packy for the hardest weather day the Eldorado Half Marathon.
(12:45):
The next one we have the packy for the weirdest
thing a scene on a course, and remember we're just
going twenty twenty five. I didn't go back any further.
The weirdest thing that we saw on the course this year,
and my buddy Mark, you guys get the award for
this one.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
So the Top City Half Marathon. M h yep, Top City.
When do we run that? We run that one in April, right, yeah?
Oh no, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
That was May third this year, the May third Top
City Half Marathon. If you remember, coming across mile about eleven,
we had about two miles left in the race, trying
to cruise into downtown Topeka because we're down in Topeka, Kansas.
That's when I'm running along in the gigantic, muscular, huge
pit bull came waltzing out of the homeless camp and
(13:30):
just kind of set up shop right there on the
side of the sidewalk, checking out me and every other
runner that was going by. And look this this dog
was perfect like it. It made no aggressive moves. But
when a big old pit bull comes across you, you
pucker up a little bit. Right Ley, Let's be real
fair here.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
No one in the world's gonna goodugi No, like.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Oh crap, that's a pit bull that's just standing here
and there is no one around me. Now I'm in
the middle of a park would area that cops would
never get to me in time if that pit bull
had decided to get wild and aggressive. So that was
definitely the weirdest thing that I've seen on the course
this year. And again, all that pit bull did with
me was like take one half step forward to sniff,
and he kind of sniffed in my general direction, and
(14:16):
then he stayed right there, and then I was kind
of looking over my shoulder and he just kind of
sniffed the person behind, and then I'm hoping he'd got
kind of backtrack into the camper he emerged from, and
everything was great. I didn't hear of any problems, but
like my heart wasn't already racing enough after running eleven miles.
Then we had that was that was definitely worthy of
(14:37):
an award, And it gets to Packy for the first
half of twenty twenty five. You guys are gonna be
tired of me saying that word by the time this
is over. I have no doubt.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
All right.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
The next one, number four our favorite listener interaction, Packy.
That was an easy one for me. Again, I love
any interactions that we get. I wish we could get more.
I would love it. If you guys interacted more, don't
forget Metal Monday. Always post yourself the on Metal Monday,
brag on your run. One hundred percent brag on your
run so that other people can show love for your
(15:07):
run because you're out doing amazing crap and we want
to celebrate you for it.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
So on Metal Monday, always do that. I desperately try
to post.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Daily something maybe funny, something motivational, Please like, comments, have
fun with it, whatever you want to do. That's always
out there on the social media platforms. And then as
we've started the ultra marathon training, I am putting out
more tiktoks and reels. Would love your likes, would love
your subscribes, your follows, comments, and all those things. Anything
(15:34):
you see of mine on social media, it would it
would benefit the podcast greatly and it would make me
feel lovely if you would just do something with it,
like it, comment on it, share it, interact whatever. So
the best interaction we had this year was at the
Little Rock Marathon Expo, and we were down in Little Rock,
Arkansas for both days of the expo. We had the
table setup and we met some really great people. We
(15:56):
had some fans who we had the young lady who
who was up in Illinois, who is down running that race,
who's from Canns who came and talked to us like
that was super cool. Great to see her, great to
meet her, great to meet so many people that we
met at the Little Rock Expo this year. I really
do think that that is probably the best interaction that
we've had with listeners that I can think of. Now, again,
(16:18):
we're just talking twenty twenty five. I think last year
the expo good Life have Ze because it was only
six hours long, so it was just six hours straight
of interaction with people that one might take the cake overall,
But for twenty twenty five, it was definitely the Little
Rock Marathon. We had a great time at their expo.
They put on a wonderful expo and they put on
a great race. If you guys want a race kind
(16:38):
of in the Central States area, I'm telling you a
Little Rock Marathon. Good friends of the program, and I
do enjoy that race immensely. I've done the half, I've
done the full, I've done the five k, so I
highly recommend them. All right, the next packy halfway through
the list here personal best slash worst moments. All right,
(16:59):
So the my personal favorite moment for this year was
that we launched a second podcast. All Right, on Fridays,
we dropped the back of the pack podcast, Second Wind.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Again.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
We're kind of figuring out where we're gonna go with
that and and what it's gonna always be about.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
My goal was to get us out into the world
more to kind of meet more people, see more things,
and do things. And then I realized I'm terrible at
videoing it. And again Rendezvous Climbing Gym, I'm I'm sorry.
I feel like I sure changed you guys because of
my awfulness at putting that episode together.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Everyone go to them.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
But that episode sucked and it was completely my fault,
and I'm sorry, but that's what I thought it was
gonna be. But now I realized how difficult that is
to go on location. So we're still figuring it out.
But just the fact that I asked if you all
were interested in any more episodes weekly and everyone settled on, yeah,
two episodes a week would be great. So that demand
got us to do this and it's wonderful. So that
(17:54):
is definitely my personal best moment of this year was
that we launched a second podcast, and it's it's super
fun and we're gon we're gonna get it figured out
and we're gonna make it even bigger and better than
it is. Releasing on a Friday also doesn't help us
immensely because everyone's getting into their weekends. But you know what,
it's there, catch up on it. Get let's get to
that one thousand downloads this week. That would be so great.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
The worst moment of twenty twenty five so far, and
this is controversial. I understand that it's controversial, So before
you send me the hate mail, let me just listen.
Just please listen to the reasoning.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
First.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
My personal worst moment where I felt the worst this
year was at the Beard Run in March, the Scott
Green Memorial Run. The Beard Run, because it started as
such a great event in twenty twenty four with hundreds
and hundreds of runners, turned into a nothing event with
(18:45):
like one hundred and fifty runners in just one year,
and that really disappointed me. I kind of called out
the Casey running area saying, you know, guys, what the
hell are we doing?
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Well? I was educated after the fact.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Remember what I said last week about how behold than
I am to race companies, race directors, race committees and everything.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I'm not so. I was told, hey, there is.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
A lot of drama, a lot of issue, a lot
of questions raised about the people who organize the Beard Run. Okay,
I was told things, stories, stories, based in fact. Maybe
story is not based in fact. I don't know because
I'm not in the note.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
But I was told many.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Things, and a lot of them lined up that the
people overseeing the Beard Run, the race directors, companies, committees,
whatever you want to call them, maybe there's some questions
on where money goes.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
All right.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Now, I'm not saying who said that. I'm just saying
that questions out there. So if you are a race director,
race committee, or race company that oversees the Beard Run completely,
just know that people are asking questions and that directly
affects your race. And that race is supposed to be
in the memory of Scott Green, Kansas City's most famous
running legend. And one hundred and fifty people showed up.
So where there's smoke, there's fie. Figure your shit out,
(20:01):
or no one's coming back next year for the final
Beard Run.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
There we go.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I said it, huh, But as you can see. It
pisses me off. That is our worst moment. It's a
bad look for Kansas City. It's a bad look for
that race, and it's a bad people for It's a
bad look for the people who run that race, because
how to just screw it up so much in a
year and how much you're gonna screw it up in
two And look, the Green family deserves nothing but the best,
and if they're not getting the best, then there's gonna
be some serious freaking beef my friends. And I'm just
(20:26):
throwing that out there right now because it pisses me off.
If what I heard was correct, and maybe it's not,
but if it is, we all got reason to be
pretty upset. Any whosers on we go the next packy
goes to the best post race snack or beer. So
the best post race, well, for me, all so easy
(20:46):
this was. You know what is the best beer? A
beer that's bought for you? Well, my best drink this
year was my gigantic Frozen Hurricane on Fremont Street, Las Vegas, Nevada,
on my birthday after the Las Vegas Rock and Roll
five K, bought by back of the pack super fan
Allison for me for my birthday. Well, of course that's
(21:09):
gonna be the best one. That's absolutely the best drink
that I've had after a race this year because it
was bought for me and I'm in Las Vegas and
a friend bought it. Like winning all over the place.
Because if you don't know me, if you've only been
listening to this podcast for about five seconds, I love Vegas.
Vegas is my most favoritest.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Place to go.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
So when I get to enjoy in ice cold adult
beverage on Fremont Street in Las Vegas after running a
five k, after pitifully running a five k, then I'm
going to enjoy it, and that's going to be like
the best drink ever. So definitely a Packy to Las Vegas,
a PACKI to the Rock and Roll five k, and
a Packe to Alison for buying me a drink.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
On my birthday.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
So number seven in the packy for the most regretted
sign up. Again, I'm not taking shots here because I've
taken plenty of shots with these people. My most regretted
sign up was for what last week's All American eight
miler that was back in June. At the very d
of June in Independence, Missouri. Not because of the race company,
(22:08):
not because of anything that they've done, not because of
our previous history. No, because I knew about the god
awful hill that we would have to run twice out
and back, out and back, and I still signed up
for the damn race.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I knew how bad that hill was. I'd done that
hill before.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
I had stayed away from that hill for like ten
years because I did not want to run another race
out there again.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
And what are to do? I ran another race out there.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Again, and I had to do that hill twice on
a blistering hot day, and it was awful. So I
regret signing up for that race. I should have just
done the four miler. Now, of course was measured incorrectly,
things weren't marked right. We had a whole bunch of
issues that we've already been over. But I should have
just done it once, so I only had to do
that hill once. So I regret signing up for the
(22:54):
All American eight miler simply because I had to do
that damn hill twice.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
And I don't ever want to do that hill again.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
If I ever signed up for that race again, if
it's the only race going on on the weekend like
it was four miler. That's it, four miles nothing more. Now,
I know some people are saying, what, you're not regretting
that you signed up for an ultra marathon that you're
gonna run fifty miles in September. No, I haven't regretted that,
probably because I haven't done it yet. I'll regret it afterwards. Yeah, afterwards,
when we do the end of the year packys, I
(23:21):
bet I know what race might take its place. Might
be a little fifty miler coming up in September. Oh,
dear god, what did I do? All right?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Number eight? The why did I even show up? Pack?
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Ye?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
All right? That one was an easy one for me.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
That is on January eighteenth, at the Battle of the
Bean five k Why in the actual hell did I
even show up for that race?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Why did any of us? We are all gluttons for punishment? Why?
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Because with the windshill it started feeling it about if
memory serves, it was like negative fourteen degrees fahrenheit. That's
how we started that race. Yeah, it was sunny, it
was also windy as hell, and sometimes those clouds help
hold a little bit of heat down.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
There was none. It was ice cold.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
How do I know it was ice cold because there
was a big old patch of ice that had gathered
right in front of the finish line where when you
were coming down that hill to finish finish the race,
you needed to watch your step because it would have
been real easy for you to face plant or slip
out like you're on a you know, hit a banana peal,
and go flying across the finish line, as opposed to
(24:24):
running it in control of yourself and your faculties.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
But man, why did we do that race? It was
so cold?
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Good lord, that was just awful. Hated every moment of
that race. And again not the race company's fault. Everyone
knows you run a race in January, you run the
risk of having awful weather, and we had. I thought
that race was actually gonna get canceled because I didn't
think they'd be able to get the snow and ice
removed from the roads in time. Because memory serves that
(24:53):
week had been pretty snowy, pretty icy. They did just
that little bit of you know, melts one day and
and refreezes overnight, and because of how cold it was,
there was no way you're gonna melt it again. Just
that little bit of refreeze by the finish line was
really the only hazard. The roads did really well. It
was just the fact that it was about negative fourteen
degree windchill out there as we ran this race. Nothing
(25:16):
felt better than getting in my car and cranking the
heat after that race, which sounds really weird to say,
as I'm standing here in July and I'm in here
sweating because on the upper floor of my house, when
it's this hot outside, it doesn't stay very cool up here.
It's like heat rises or something. It's weird, right, all right.
The next packy the Packy for the unexpected running hero
(25:37):
of twenty twenty five so far, all right, And this
is I can't believe I've never talked about him before
on the podcast, but I've especially kind of in the
spring running season. I saw him everywhere, and so I
wanted to give him a big shout out. And that
is I'm want to make sure get the name's right.
Patrick and James McGinnis. You have seen them at a
race if you've been running around Kansas City. He just
made me didn't know their names. Patrick and James are
(25:59):
the father and son running duo at a lot of
the five k's and tenkse and James was injured long
ago with I believe playing football. It was a football injury,
and I'm trying to see I had I had a
right in front of me the quote, just.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Because I wanted to get it right. Here we go,
There we go.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
In twenty fourteen, James suffered an acute subdural hematoma during
the third quarter while playing football for a Late the East.
The doctors gave him less than a seven percent chance
of survival, and so after recovering from that, he had
to relearn everything, including how to eat, how to walk,
how to talk, and how to use his hands. And
so you will see them at times, James normally in
(26:46):
front and James has long, curlyish hair, and then his
father Patrick is in the back, and they kind of
use chords that Patrick will will have in his hand.
They used the chords just to kind of keep James upright,
and then they run together doing five k's and ten case.
It is the damnest thing you've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Now.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
I came across them last year at the Garman Kansas
City Marathon expo. I gave him both back to the
Back podcast shirts, which I've seen them both wear out
in public before, which always makes me very happy when
I see him in their podcast shirts. But James is
an inspiring story. He also is an artist, and so
he does paintings and big into his church and things
like that, and so they are kind of my running
(27:25):
here as a twenty twenty five especially because I saw
him a lot this year. And I know that James
had some distance goals that he was working on, and
I'm pretty sure that he's reached his distance goals for
this year. If not, I know he's come darn close.
But again, a person with seven percent chance of survival
who is now running five k's and ten k's after
relearning how to walk and talk and do all those things,
(27:46):
that's pretty damn inspiring. Again, if you're in Kansas City,
I guarantee you've seen him.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
At a race.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
They were just a hospital hill, but you'll see him.
And that's James and Patrick and again we'll see him
running together.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Say hi. They're both lovely people, and so they are.
They get the paki.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
If I had a little trophy, I would give it
to them, but they have the packies for the running
heroes of twenty twenty five so far, all right, and
then our last packy because again.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
I'm silly and I thought this was fun.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
The most questionable fashion choice, the most questionable fashion choice.
I don't really have any myself this year. I think
if anyone is going to have a packy for fashion choices,
we have to give it out to our buddy, the
Casey cosplay runner, because that guy makes some interesting fashion
(28:32):
choices pretty much every weekend. As for me, I think
the most bold thing I've done this year was where
pink on Wednesdays we do our group runs. Last year,
definitely I would have won for my very revealing to
two at the Hell on Gravel half marathon, but I
have not two two to yet this year I do.
I'm gonna let you know I do have some very
(28:53):
riskue pink shorts that I'm gonna wear on a group
run you know.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Some point in time.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
But I'm not doing it until people actually show up
to the group run that I've been doing on Wednesdays.
Otherwise it's just me going around the track over and
over again by myself, wearing very revealing pink shorts. So
I'm gonna wait and I'm going to make sure to
kind of poison someone else's mind and make sure that
they have nightmares by wearing those shorts when I know
there's going to be somebody else there. And so that's
(29:20):
the important part to me, is that I leave people
well scarred. Yeah, I just kind of want them to
be scarred for this. I don't know why, don't make
any sense why, but that's why. That's why I'm doing it.
I want you to I want you to feel it,
and I want I want it to hurt. So anyway,
that took a dark turn, that's it. I thought this
was fun. So this is our twenty twenty five mid
(29:41):
year PACKI Awards Show. We will have one at the
end of the year. I think they're silly. I almost
said stupid, and that's correct as well. They're silly and stupid,
and so we're gonna make sure.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
We do it again.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
If you would like to nominate a category, that would
be great. If you want to nominate a person for
any of the categories I listed, that would be great.
I really think we should make this the whole thing
a thing and that everyone needs to contribute to our
end of the year PACKI Award Show, and who knows,
you know what would be really fun and again, I
just had this idea today, so I'm still flushing everything out.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
What if we did it live?
Speaker 1 (30:14):
What if we met at a bar, restaurant something and
we did the end of year award show live?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Ooh, I gotta work on this. How fun would that be?
All Right?
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Everyone be prepared. Sometime in December, we're getting together and
we're doing a live filming episode of the Back of
the Pack podcast for the Packy Awards. Oh oh my god,
million dollar idea. That's not worth ten cents. The million
dollar idea just had before your very eyes. Man.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Now I'm stoked. We totally got to make that happen.
That's gonna be super fun. All right.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
So next week okay, So, if you haven't been watching
the Back of the Back podcast, second Win, we started
another series. We are going around the country and talking
about different racing and different racing cultures as it pertains
to region. This Friday, which you missed because it was
the fourth of July, go back and listen, we talked
about the West Coast. Now, I pulled all the research
(31:06):
I could on West Coast. I haven't done a lot
on the West Coast, so we talked about it. There
is already an error that I made that someone called
me out on, which is great. We're gonna have that
corrected this Friday coming up. This Friday coming up, we're
now going across the country and we're going to the
East Coast, So on the East Coast on this Friday's episode,
I can speak a little more intelligently about it because
I've done far more races on the East Coast than
(31:28):
i have the West Coast. And then of course we'll
have kind of the Midwest and North Central States area,
and then we'll have the South. So that's all coming up.
That is the series going on on the back of
the Back podcast Second Wind. Remember you cannot find that
on Facebook the Facebook. If you see it, it's only
gonna take you a link to Spreaker where you can
listen to the podcast. Or if you want to see
what I'm doing and talking about, you have to see
it on YouTube, Facebook creator black Hole. So Second Win
(31:51):
episodes just don't go on Facebook. You have to listen
to it on a podcast platform against Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Podbean, Spreak,
or you have to go to YouTube and please go
subscribe to the YouTube channel. Like I said, you gotta
help participate.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
What are you doing? All right?
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Our next race is Saturday morning at the Sunglasses five
k That is in least Summit, Missouri, so we're gonna
be over on the Missouri side. Super cool Metal. I
know that you can still register for this race. If
the medal is as cool as it looks in the picture.
I'm I'm excited. It was super cool metal, very bright
and colorful.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Loo. It's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
So that's our next race. And then after that we
had the big one coming up on July nineteenth. I
know I alluded to it in the previous episode. And
again I'm not starting any drama right now, but the
RGO half Marathon is coming up. If you're familiar with
this area, you know about Argo, and you know that
I've signed up for some level of nonsense that I
don't fully understand, but I'm gonna understand it.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
On on July. On on on July nineteenth, some yay
because we make all the bad decisions. And then on Sunday,
Sunday is the thirteenth. Sorry, got it back up a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
The cheer station for the Shining Mission traffle on please
if you can make it my goodness, please make it.
Otherwise it's just gonna be my daughter and I out
there trying to cheer people on. And trust me, those
triathletes need all the help they can get because we're
gonna be at the top of the worst hill that
the bikers and runners have to do. That hill sucks,
it's the damn hill. We're gonna be at the top
cheering people on. So please come out and join us
(33:15):
very early on Sunday morning, July thirteenth. All right, well
that's gonna do it for this week's episode of the
Back of the Back podcast. I'm your host, Kyle Walker.
It is my pleasure as always, everyone, have a safe
week of training. We will see you next week.
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