August 1, 2025 • 31 mins
Every journey starts somewhere — and for The Back of the Pack Podcast, that “somewhere” involved closet recording, clunky editing, and the hope that maybe someone out there would listen. In this kickoff to our Road to 200 series, we rewind all the way back to episode one and share how the show began, what inspired it, and the hilarious stumbles along the way. From awkward first recordings to the surprising messages that made it all worth it, this episode is a love letter to starting messy and sticking with it. We talk about the spark that lit the mic, the early listeners who gave us a reason to keep going, and the milestones that built the foundation for nearly 200 episodes of running community goodness. Whether you've been here since day one or just found us last week, this episode will remind you how far we’ve come — together. Hit play, take a jog down memory lane, and help us kick off the countdown to 200. Spoiler: we’re just getting started.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hello, everyone, greetings and salutations. Welcome back to another episode
of the Back of the Pack podcast Second Win. I'm
your host, Kyle Walker. Thank you so much for tuning
in here on the Friday Second Win episodes. We've been
having a lot of fun doing series over the last
two months. In June it was the Mental Health series.
In July it was the Run of the Nation series.
Now Here for August, if you'll forgive me just a
(00:33):
little bit, we're gonna be a hair self indulgence because
on Friday, August twenty second, we will be airing our
two hundredth podcast episode. So the Back of the Pack
Podcast will air it's two hundredth episode on Friday August
twenty second, So we're gonna lead up to that and
just kind of go through the last three plus years
(00:56):
and now almost two hundred episodes of the Back of
the Pack podcast, just to kind of talk about when
we started, where we've been, where we're going, what we
hope to see happen, and things of that nature over
the next couple of weeks, and then leading into the
two hundredth episode, of which I've already got a few
surprises lined up, hopefully good ones. I think you all
will like them very much and just kind of enjoy
(01:19):
the I don't know, the reminiscing and the adventure that
we've been along the way. Some of you might notice
that I risking lawsuit and wearing the hat from our old,
very first logo. So the very first logo that the
show ever used on is what's on my hat right now,
(01:40):
and I'm wearing the shirt from the first race that
we ever covered for the podcast, and so old logo,
old shirt, that's what we're going with today. So for
those of you who don't know when we started over
three years ago. Okay, So the first race that we
ever covered on behalf of the podcast was the Westport
Saint Patrick's Day four miler, which takes place in March
(02:02):
March March in Kansas City, Missouri, in a place called Westport,
if you're not familiar with the area. It was the
first race we ever covered. It was the first time
I'd ever gone out there thinking, Okay, I really need
to memorize things and memorize the experience and take pictures
and do all this that and the other to report
on this race. So it was the first race we
ever covered. Now, back then, if you're mildly new to
(02:24):
the show within the last well almost two years. Now.
When we started, we did start with a partner with
a production company. There was a person that was kind
of my co pilot producer in this whole venture. Now
that only lasted through the first sixty three episodes. Then
there was a thing and falling out. So what we're
(02:44):
gonna do though, is I am not gonna say anything negative,
or at least try not to. If I do, I'm
gonna apologize in advance. This person and that production company
were very integral into getting us started. So not gonna
be a jerk face hopefully because I'm nice. They're not
gonna suit me for using the old logo, which they
kept the copyright for, which is why we rebranded back
(03:05):
in fall of twenty eight, twenty three. So when we started,
we went to Westport and we did that race, and
the first race that we ever reviewed way back when
was the Westport Saint Patrick Steve for Miler. Then after
that we went to the Liberty Half and on we
just went. When we started the show, I did not
think it was going to be kind of the review
(03:26):
fest that it is these days. All Right, people have
told me. One of their favorite parts of this podcast
are race reviews, and so we have focused more on
the race reviews. People often ask me, well, why did
you even start the podcast? Okay, I started this podcast
because I had been running for many years. It had
been thirteen years. No, I'm sorry, twelve years when we
started the show. And really, when I tell you guys this,
(03:48):
this was my rationale for starting. I make the mistakes
so that you don't have to. I felt like I
had made every bad mistake a runner could make. I
had done every dumb thing. I had made, every mistake.
I had aired as bad as you could error, and
it was all just learning over my years in years
of running, and I thought, wow, I have a lot
(04:09):
of running knowledge just from experience. I'm not talking book knowledge.
I'm not talking at the time that I was a
certified running coach. I am now, but I wasn't then.
So I really just wanted to call upon my experiences
as a runner and as a person who likes to
do the races. We've talked about this before. I like racing.
I like getting up on the weekends. I like being
(04:31):
at the start line. I like crossing the finish line.
I like my participation medal. I love all these things.
I am not great about training during the week. I'm
not great about just getting out there and putting in
my training run, starting my stove, turning it off, and
being like okay and I'm done. No, I want to
be rewarded for my efforts, because goodness knows how many
runs are left in this body. I at least want
(04:53):
to get rewarded when I do it. So that was
one of the reasons when we started the show, so
that I could just kind of share my experiences and
the thing I had learned along the way, the tips
and tricks of the running world that I had learned.
That's all it was. That was the whole reason we
started the show. Now. Did I think we were gonna
get big and famous? Absolutely not. Did I think that
a wonderful fan of the podcast was going to someday
(05:16):
stop me in the Boston Marathon expo to take a
picture with me. No, I absolutely did not think that
was going to happen. Did I think we'd be setting
up booths at expos and be one of the vendors. Nope,
didn't think that either. Did I think that we would
ever have a run that was based off of us
and what we wanted to do. Nope, didn't think so,
and we sure did. Even though it wasn't the name
that I wanted. We called it the Casey Hustle Run.
(05:38):
I really wanted it just to be the back of
the pack podcast. Five K and ten K lost that battle,
but we definitely had a race kind of in our honor.
So we have done a lot of the things that
I never thought we were gonna do when we started this.
So I think we're doing freaking great. As we marched
towards two hundred, I hope that we are doing nothing
more than picking up momentum. I hope that we're just
going to continue on. I hope we get to three hundred,
(06:00):
maybe four hundred, five hundred, who knows. It's however long
you guys want to listen to me is probably however
long I'm going to do this nonsense, or until my
knee just explodes and I can never walk again. So
that's kind of why we started it. I love the
community that we built. I did not have that intention.
I didn't know that was going to be a thing.
I started a Facebook page because well, you should always
(06:21):
have a Facebook page for what you're trying to do,
whether it be a business or a podcast or whatever
your venture, you want people to be able to find you.
Did I think that we would someday be over six
thousand strong. I did not. That's where we are, that's you.
Credit to you all for engaging with the Facebook page
as much as you do, because we have really built
(06:41):
a good online community, and like, I look forward every
week to Metal Monday so that you guys can show
off what you did over the weekend, and we can see,
you know, who's out and running, what the metals look like,
here about races we'd never heard of before. All of
this stuff just like totally makes my dang. And we
get a ton of interaction on Metal Monday, and I
(07:02):
love it. I'm trying to post more stuff during the week.
I hope you guys will give it a like and
you make a comment, make a smart alec remark. I'm
good with all of these things, but your interaction in
kind of the online community that we're building is really fantastic.
We're gaining momentum on Instagram, I would love to get
a little bigger. We're gaining momentum on TikTok. I would
love to be a little bigger, even though I know
(07:24):
that is not my strong suit. TikTok definitely not my thing. Now,
did you know that when we started this podcast we
were audio only. We did not do video for the
first over year of the podcast. So if you ever
go back far enough and you can get to the
mall all right, any podcast platform and YouTube, you can
go all the way back to the seventeen minute pilot
(07:46):
episode where I probably did not know what in the
actual hell I was talking about, probably sounded like a
rambling moron trying to spit out what we're gonna what
we're gonna do, much like I am right now, I'm good,
no blah. But that was it. So for so long
we were audio only, no video. But we kind of
learned along the way that people want the option. People
(08:07):
want the option to either just listen on their podcast platform,
maybe while they're in the car, maybe while they're on
road trips. A lot of people listen on road trips.
I could not listen to me that long, so more
power to you if you do. And then there are
people who just they want to see the video on
YouTube or they watch it on Facebook. I definitely am
trying to aim the Friday episodes more towards the podcast
platforms and YouTube because that's where we want to grow.
(08:29):
I know Facebook is where our biggest audience is, but
I'm actually gonna make it do a little bit of
work on Fridays, and you gotta either go to YouTube
to watch it or out on the podcast platforms to
stream it or download it or whatever, just because it's
more helpful to me. And that's another thing again, because
we're transparent on this show. I'm never gonna blow smoke
at you guys. I'm gonna keep it one hundred as
(08:50):
the kids say the entire time. Did I ever ever
think that I was going to make a dollar up
this podcast. No, Now we actually get some funds and
monetizing over the course of a month. It's not a lot,
but every time you listen to a podcast episode, every
time you downloaded on iTunes, or you downloaded on spreaker
(09:12):
or Spotify or iHeart or podbeing, you're helping us get monetized. Again,
it's not a lot, but it's more than zero. And
again I'm thankful for that. And so did I think
that was ever going to be the case? Absolutely not,
especially when we were just audio only when it was
just me sitting in a basement, in this echo chamber
of a room, trying to do this podcast. It was brutal.
(09:36):
I know the audio at the beginning stunk, if you
can believe it, though, same microphone, same microphone. Just I'm
in a different room of the house now, not nearly
as big and echoe as a basement, although there might
be a time where I moved back to that basement
because it's a bigger room. But I'll do some soundproofing.
Will that work for everyone? We'll do that. So since
we started this podcast again, we've become big on reviews,
(09:59):
but we have we made friends with other races, We
have made friends with other podcasts, We have helped influence
other podcasts. We have just grown in a manner in
which I never thought that we would. So I just
I wanted to say thank you before we die any
deeper to everyone who has supported us from the beginning.
Even if you're one of those people that listen to
us when you're audio only, and I know there's a few,
(10:21):
there are still some ogs out there that have been
around since the start that are still listening today. And
you guys are the Absolute Best, the other absolute best
of course, or anyone who is donating on Patreon. Don't
ever forget that we do have the Patreon page out there.
Back of the Pack podcast. Just search for it on Patreon.
Five dollars a month, we got more people doing five
(10:41):
dollars a month, we'd be able to go out and
do more races, get farther out into the world. Right now,
we just kind of have to hover in the same
area sometimes because it all costs money to travel. But
if you want us covering races out there in the world,
you get on the Patreon if you feel called to
do so, and you help us out, and trust me,
I will. I will get out there to more and
more stuff so that you can get reviews. If you
are a full marathon tier patron, of which there's only two,
(11:06):
but I love you guys. If you are that and
you say, hey, Kyle, do this race and cover it
for the podcast, you can bet your sweet but tuity
I will make that happen. I will pony up the dough,
shall they say, to travel to whatever race that you
want me to cover. If you are a full marathon
tier patron, boy, say that three times fast, so anyway,
(11:26):
going kind of back to the beginning, Yeah, I kind
of pulled up you know, what are just some fun
things to reminisce about, And of course the first thing
is says is talk about technical flubs, you know, editing disasters,
mic issues, weird recording locations, or interviews that went sideways.
I have an interview that went sideways, but it was
not the interviewee's fault. So you might remember from way
(11:47):
back when, and it was twenty twenty three, early in
the year, we tried repeatedly to have Nathan Nathan Spencer
from the Liberty half on this show. We did the
recording and the connection was bad, so the audio was unusable.
Now I couldn't tell in that moment, like as I
was listening and conducting the interview with them, like I
(12:09):
could hear it wasn't good. But then upon listening to
the playback, and this is when we had the production company,
that's where they told me unusable, you can't use this interview.
There's no way that anyone's going to be able to
hear or understand what it's being said. So that whole
episode had to get thrown out and I had to
do something like right, there on the spot because it
used to used to be we would record, edit, post,
(12:33):
you know, put out in the world just bam, bam
bam all right at the same time. And so if
I wanted things to get out in a timely manner,
I had to just you know, basically, shit, can that
other episode and re record something completely different that I
hadn't even prepared for because that was when we were
doing one episode a week and I thought, okay, well,
I'm just I'm doing the interview, I know what I'm
going to ask him, and on we go with life.
(12:54):
But nope, that that did not work out. So that
was a technical flub. That was an interview that went sideways.
Other than that, though, we've had some great interviews on here,
interviewees and really we've never had a bad experience. I
have never had someone I was interviewing just go completely
off the rails, you know. I've had some that maybe
they talk a little light, they don't you know, project
(13:15):
as well as I might. Like. You know, what we
do we just turn up the volume. You know what
you could do if you can't hear them very well,
turn out the volume. But no, everyone is always been
very respectful of this podcast end up being on it.
Even though in the podcast world we are such small potatoes.
Like I get that we're deeny deeny tiny in the
realm of the podcast world. But I have never had
a disrespectful Interviewee, I've never had a disrespectful company that
(13:39):
maybe either wanted to work with me or we kicked
around some ideas. Trust me, I've certainly met with people
and we've talked and just maybe nothing was mutually beneficial. Okay,
I am more than happy to have companies and people
and things on this podcast, but there's got to be
a little mutual benefit to it. Let's be real honest here.
I am not just here to pimp you out unless
(13:59):
you go pimp me out too. And if you're not
gonna pimp me out, then I'm not real thrilled about
pimping you out. We got to pimp each other, all right,
And if I get out of line, you can backhand me.
But we got to pimp each other. That's how this works.
So something you may not have known years and years
and years ago, I helped launch a veteran outreach organization.
Now is an organization, Well, it's a five o' one
(14:21):
C three at charity to help with veterans and like,
because we built it really from nothing. And again I
was at the table of people when we decided this
is what we were gonna do. So I've been around
since day one, since its inception, but I was able
to learn a lot of lessons. There is a period
we do anything, you know, if someone wanted us to
do something, we were in because we just wanted exposure.
(14:43):
We wanted people to see our shirts, to hear our name,
and to maybe interact and talk to people. There does
come a point though, where you can't be the doormat
anymore and you can only do things it's going to
be mutually beneficial or if it's just a cause I
care about now, even if I know it's not gonna
help the podcast one little bit, but I want to
help said group. I can do that, and it's a
(15:05):
wonderful position to be in. So I'm happy to help people.
But yeah, it's it's gotta be a little you know,
no give, little take. That's the only way it works.
Editing disasters, I don't think we've had any. There was
one time I thought I lost an episode after recording.
I thought, like the recording of it didn't save like,
it wasn't where it was supposed to be. It saved
somewhere else and I couldn't find it. For a while,
(15:26):
I thought it didn't save it all. So that was
probably eleven to thirteen minutes of sheer terror that it
was just gone and I was never gonna find it again.
Mic issues we just had. I think it was the
first time ever that there was a mic issue on
my end, and it was when we were trying to
cover the RG half Marathon two weeks ago and the
mic didn't work. This mic didn't work. It picked up
(15:48):
the audio from the webcam that you see me in
right now, So the audio wasn't great because there was
a lot of distance between my mouth and that microphone
for it to pick up. Thankfully you can hear. Thankfully
you can understand. But I still feel bad that that
mic issue was a problem. So let's see here. Were
there any episodes that didn't make the cut or any
title ideas. No, to be real, honest, I did not
(16:11):
think we were going to do it this long, and
there's certainly been days where I've been half panicked, like
I don't know what in the hell to talk about?
What am I going to talk about today? Like it's
slow time in the running world, I feel like I've
already done everything I can kind of speak of. So
I've certainly had some high pressure brainstorm situations. That's why
I tell you that my favorite episode is a listener
(16:33):
requested episode. It takes all the pressure off me to
come up with a topic. Now, if I had a
co host, there might be a time we would just,
you know, rap about something the entire time. We'd have
just this back and forth on a topic, like a
conversation we'd have with any of your running buddies. But
since it's always me, well normally me right here, I
have to come up with prepared things to talk about.
(16:53):
And there have been times where writer's block or whatever
it has not come into my head. So we've definitely
had that before. So really we don't have any We
don't have any real good quotes. I don't think there's one.
Give a quote from early on. If you go and
listen to earlier episodes, there's probably tons of quotes from
stupid things that I said. I have no doubt that
(17:14):
that is the case, because again, we were audio only.
I was new to it, not new to the podcasting world,
but new to doing this running podcast, and it is
different when you know that there's someone else listening to
you on the other end, but wasn't involved. So our
former production company, our producer, she was not a runner.
She didn't give a crap about the running world, didn't care.
(17:34):
It wasn't her jam told me that several times, this
is not my world. So there were a lot of
times where well every time I recorded where she was
on the other end, but you're never gonna hear there
was no interaction because she had nothing to add or
say into this. Eventually she would come on a few times,
but in the early goings, it was really just me
and because we were just kind of learning, learning what
(17:54):
people wanted to hear about, learning what we wanted to
talk about, kind of learning the flow of the show.
I'm sure there were probably some terrible quotes and just
god awful episodes out there. I do know one of
the first episodes I did within the first five was
one that I really liked and if you've ever wanted
to request it, if you want to hear about music.
We did enjoy doing the music episode, and I think
(18:15):
that was like episode three. You can go back and
listen to that. You can't see anything, but you can
listen to it. So I'm always trying to make this professional.
I've never wanted it to look amateur. I know, because
this is an amateur production, it often looks amateur, but
that's never the intent. We always try and make this
look as good as we can, and yes on social media,
(18:35):
and as I just said, I do always say we.
That is the royal Wei, that is we the podcast,
even though it's me. Even missus Back of the Pack
Podcast doesn't care. She'll hang on the one in credit
for that, don't quote me because she also not a
runner and does not care, so she thinks we're nuts.
I'm trying to think. So the first comment email, DM
(18:57):
or review that made us feel like this was real,
you know, I'm going to give a shout out to Ellen,
and I hope that Ellen still listens. I know Ellen
was an og. Ellen was the first person to bring
a sign to the race, a Back of the Pack
podcast sign she made and brought to Rock the Parkway,
(19:20):
and I do believe it was Rock the Parkway twenty
twenty two. I think it was just within the first
couple months of this show. Starting that Ellen was out
there and she had her sign, and of course I stopped.
When I came back around on the course, I stopped
and took a picture with her with that sign. But yeah,
I think that was the real first fan interaction that
(19:40):
I had where I really thought, Wow, like people like this,
this is kind of cool, it's enjoyable. Then, of course
I had the woman from Texas who stopped me in
Boston to take a picture at the Boston Marathon expo,
still one of the highlights of this whole podcast career,
something that I think about fondly all the time. Time.
(20:00):
That was super cool. There have been people who've wanted
pictures at expos, which has been great. There's a woman
who wanted to take a picture with me at the
expoll because her husband, who lived in New York, was
a fan of the show, and so she wanted to
take a picture with me and send it to him.
I thought that was super cool. We've had people at races, in,
people at expos and just people out in the world
(20:22):
who said, oh, you're the podcast guy. You're the running
podcast guy. Yep, that's me. And so again, I know
there are a few of you jerkfaces who like to say, oh,
you're a celebrity. No, no, not a celebrity. It's just
a few, a minor amount of people have a little
appreciation for what I try and do twice weekly now.
(20:43):
But no, there's definitely no celebrity going on here. No, no,
But those are some of the really cool moments that
we've had here in the last three plus years. And again,
I want to shout out to all the early listeners
that are still listening my Running Family, and I just
posted about that today. The importance of your running family,
(21:04):
my running family has grown so much since I started
this podcast. I told you guys before, and I tell
you again because again, I make the mistakes so you
don't have to. I used to be the guy that
would go to an expo and I was just head down,
blinders on to pack a pickup, get my crap gone,
just zoom zoom here in out gone. I used to
(21:26):
be that guy. Now that I'm a vendor and I'm
at a lot of these expos I don't like those
people anymore. It's like, no, please, I'm over here, pay
attention to me, Come talk to me. I want to
tell you about the podcast. No wait, but I have
met so many people that have now become important members
of my running family by being at expos and by
hanging out after races and by just staying and talking
(21:49):
to people and getting to know people, and you know,
we all have those mutual friends. But be like, oh, hey,
have you met Cody. Yeah, this is Cody over here.
I mean he's kind of a jerk face. But once
you get to know him, he's fine. And then there's
this guy here Will, Now we just don't like him
at all. Now, I mean like, you get to know
the people, and this person knows this person, so they
introduce to you. Now you know this person and you
(22:09):
hit it off with that person, and the running family
is the best. And so because I took the blinders
off and I do this, and I feel like it
benefits me to be a little more friendly out there
in the world. I'm more friendly out there in the world.
I've made tons of new friends and people who have
listened to the show now for a very long time
and will still like the episode, comment on the episode,
(22:31):
give me a little feedback, leave it, you know, leave
a message on YouTube or whatever. And again, those those
people are the absolute best. I love it because Honestly,
the feedback is the only way that I'm going to
get better. So we've had some of the guests on here.
We have tons. We've had tons of guests on here.
I never thought we'd have this many, but you know,
a big shout out to well of course right now.
First off, Baby Jay's Legacy of Hope. They've been on
(22:51):
the show multiple times. The folks from the Fighting Fentanyl
five K They've been on here several times. My guy
from the Garman Kansas City Marathon has on here several times.
We have had the Casey Cosplay runner on here, the
Happy Paced podcast Behind the Big Podcast running up that Hillary.
We have had some great people kind of bless us
with their presence. Because I will never sit here and
(23:13):
say that I'm the end all be all of running knowledge.
There are people who know a hell of a lot
more than me, and if I can get them on
this podcast, then I would love to get them on
this podcast to share the share the knowledge. That's why
we just had Karen on. Karen from the Just Grow
Something podcast is my favorite guest host. Whenever I need
a guest host, I reach out to her first. Unless
(23:34):
I feel like i've already abused her too much lately,
and then I reach out to someone else. But she
is a knowledgeable runner in a way that I'll never be.
You know, she knows the science and she will break
down that science. And so I just I love having
the people that I can call on to help me
out to do the things that I can't. And so
this is it's funny that I said that. It said
(23:56):
what episode? Did you realize that this wasn't me anymore?
And it was us? Man, I'll tell you, actually it
was a long time ago. It really was I. And
again I've always said us, and I've always said we,
but it's not I mean, yeah, I guess part of
it is maybe a sound humble. I don't want to
say III all the time because it's not me, me, me,
(24:16):
It is we, we, we us, us you you you.
You guys have done more to support this podcast than
I could have ever anticipated. If this podcast it lasted
a year, I'd have been like, cool, we tried. I tried,
you know, no big deal. I can say I did it,
and I could have just walked away. But it just
kept growing and it still keeps growing. Three and a
half years later. We still grow a little more and
(24:38):
a little more each passing a week, and as long
as I keep seeing us growing that, I'm still gonna
be here doing it. But it's you, guys, And so
I couldn't tell you what episode I felt like it
was real. You're our very first guest was Libby from
the Fighting Fannel five K. They were a brand new race,
we were a brand new podcast. Kind of felt like
it went together. It might be that when Dave from
(24:59):
the Casey's Sports Commission and the Garment Kids seing a marathon,
when he decided to give us the time of day, Okay,
maybe then I felt like, you know what, we might
be a little real here, We might be a little
bit real. Maybe it was the first time someone recognized
us out in public. Possible, But I can't really put
my finger on it. But there's certainly been moments like, Okay,
I feel I feel like we're almost legit here, and
again there are times I still feel like we're not,
(25:21):
but there are times I feel like we are, and
uh yeah, I just I hope we can keep that going.
The more we talk to other races like we're known now,
like the Little Rock Marathon, they love us. The Gulf
Coast Marathon. They know of us, the Big Beach One,
they like all my stuff on Instagram. We're getting in
there with races and organizations that want to either work
(25:42):
with us or at least acknowledge us or like like
what we do, and that that is really a cool thing.
But again, it's it's because of y'all and the people
who go to races wear in the back of the
pack podcast shirt, the people that tell someone else, hey,
you should listen to this podcast. That's that is why
we are kind of where we are. It's nice. It's nice.
(26:04):
So anyway, there's really not too much else to go into.
You know, this was just kind of the early goings
of it. Again, we had the producer. She helped get
us going. We did not always see eye to eye.
But I will go out there and say, because I'm
trying to be kind, we probably would not still be
going had we not had their support in the beginning.
(26:27):
I think that's fair to say. I did. I learned
a lot. Some lessons were good, some lessons were bad,
but we learned a lot in that time. And so,
you know, credit to them for helping us get going,
credit for leaving us because I feel like we've only
gotten better since then. That's not a dig. When you
are required to change, when you're required to grow as
(26:49):
a podcaster and as an editor and as the guy
who has to record and produce and do all these things.
When you're forced to take those steps yourself, you get
better at doing them. And so them step, in a way,
forced me to up my game and try and be
better what we were doing. I think we have greater
at our logo. I think we have great at our production.
We upgraded the things that we wanted to go out
(27:10):
in the world and do. And as I said on
the first episode solo, there's now no one to tell
me no. I can do whatever the hell I want,
right or wrong. It's my decision now. There's no one
that's gonna argue with me. There's no one that's gonna
push back. And again, I've made good decisions since then,
and I've made bad ones. But whatever the decisions are
and however they work out, that's on this guy right here.
And so I actually like that that kind of responsibility.
(27:33):
So one thing I'm gonna bring up, Okay, and I've
I've emailed quite a few people about this, but I'm
gonna put it out there for everyone. For the two
hundredth episode, we have people who are gonna come on
with maybe a little two to five minute video just
kind of talking about what they like about the Back
of the Back podcast, or maybe just a hey, congratulations
on two hundred episodes or whatever, or Kyle is a
(27:57):
complete clown, uh, never listened to this again, whatever they
want to say. I want to invite you listener. If
you so desire and want to be on the two
hundredth episode, send me a message, send me a message.
I'm in. I'll kind of tell you here's what I
would really kind of like out of your little two
to five minute clip. Other than that to really go
(28:18):
do your thing. But if you're interested in submitting a
clip for the two hundredth episode, because with everyone I've invited,
I know we're not like full on time. I got space.
I got some space. So I just wanted to open
up to you guys. If you're a Patreon member, you
get first dimps and if you're not change it right
quick and then say hey, I want to do it,
and then it's perfect. But yeah, I want to fill
(28:40):
that episode with you all. I only want to get
on and say hey everyone, here's the two hundred episodes.
Came bye, and then it's just going to be all
these people that are going to submit videos for the
two hundred episode. I think that would be really cool.
I've all said more of you, less of me is
a good thing, right, So that's where we're at. I
would love to get your little human video. Please. If
(29:02):
you have a favorite episode, and again we were about
to hit two hundred, If you have a favorite episode,
leave it in the comments. Say oh, I mean if
you know the title, great, If you don't, that's fine,
Say oh, you talked about this episode, or you know,
when you talked about the Berlin marathon that was my
favorite one it was you know, it was great. Or
when I talk when you talked about imposter syndrome that
really resonated with me. That was great. When you talked
(29:24):
about not being able tout run a bad diet. Okay,
now that one really hit home. If you've got one
of those leaving in the comments, I'd love to know.
I wish we could enough people to vote so that
we like knew what the a number one favorite episode was.
But I don't think I'm gonna get enough enough people
to h to submit, but that would be great. So
I'd be curious to know. Leave your favorite episode in
the comments. If you're watching this right now okay on Facebook,
(29:46):
you'll see the link that was sent for the podcast
for this episode here on Friday August first. Responding there
in the comments, say oh yeah, my favorite episode was
blah blah blah blah blah. That would be really cool.
So all right, well, we're gonna talk more about it
next week with just kind of a for an approach.
But we're on the March to two hundred again. It's
going to be on what Friday, August twenty second, yep,
(30:07):
our two hundredth episodes. That's really cool. I promise I
will not go back to wearing the retro hat. I
just wanted to wear it one time. Keep your lawyer
on the sideline. My lawyer is better and I'll be
back in the normal podcast gear next week. So that's
gonna do it for this week's episode of the Back
of the Back podcast. Second win, I'm your Skyle Walker.
It's my pleasure as always. Thank you. What are we on? Like?
Episode seven? I think thank you all so very much
(30:31):
for your support. It really means more to me than
you will ever ever ever really understand this. This is
so much fun. I can't believe I get to do it, honestly.
So everyone, have a safe week of training. We'll see
you next week
Hello, everyone, greetings and salutations. Welcome back to another episode
of the Back of the Pack podcast Second Win. I'm
your host, Kyle Walker. Thank you so much for tuning
in here on the Friday Second Win episodes. We've been
having a lot of fun doing series over the last
two months. In June it was the Mental Health series.
In July it was the Run of the Nation series.
Now Here for August, if you'll forgive me just a
(00:33):
little bit, we're gonna be a hair self indulgence because
on Friday, August twenty second, we will be airing our
two hundredth podcast episode. So the Back of the Pack
Podcast will air it's two hundredth episode on Friday August
twenty second, So we're gonna lead up to that and
just kind of go through the last three plus years
(00:56):
and now almost two hundred episodes of the Back of
the Pack podcast, just to kind of talk about when
we started, where we've been, where we're going, what we
hope to see happen, and things of that nature over
the next couple of weeks, and then leading into the
two hundredth episode, of which I've already got a few
surprises lined up, hopefully good ones. I think you all
will like them very much and just kind of enjoy
(01:19):
the I don't know, the reminiscing and the adventure that
we've been along the way. Some of you might notice
that I risking lawsuit and wearing the hat from our old,
very first logo. So the very first logo that the
show ever used on is what's on my hat right now,
(01:40):
and I'm wearing the shirt from the first race that
we ever covered for the podcast, and so old logo,
old shirt, that's what we're going with today. So for
those of you who don't know when we started over
three years ago. Okay, So the first race that we
ever covered on behalf of the podcast was the Westport
Saint Patrick's Day four miler, which takes place in March
(02:02):
March March in Kansas City, Missouri, in a place called Westport,
if you're not familiar with the area. It was the
first race we ever covered. It was the first time
I'd ever gone out there thinking, Okay, I really need
to memorize things and memorize the experience and take pictures
and do all this that and the other to report
on this race. So it was the first race we
ever covered. Now, back then, if you're mildly new to
(02:24):
the show within the last well almost two years. Now.
When we started, we did start with a partner with
a production company. There was a person that was kind
of my co pilot producer in this whole venture. Now
that only lasted through the first sixty three episodes. Then
there was a thing and falling out. So what we're
(02:44):
gonna do though, is I am not gonna say anything negative,
or at least try not to. If I do, I'm
gonna apologize in advance. This person and that production company
were very integral into getting us started. So not gonna
be a jerk face hopefully because I'm nice. They're not
gonna suit me for using the old logo, which they
kept the copyright for, which is why we rebranded back
(03:05):
in fall of twenty eight, twenty three. So when we started,
we went to Westport and we did that race, and
the first race that we ever reviewed way back when
was the Westport Saint Patrick Steve for Miler. Then after
that we went to the Liberty Half and on we
just went. When we started the show, I did not
think it was going to be kind of the review
(03:26):
fest that it is these days. All Right, people have
told me. One of their favorite parts of this podcast
are race reviews, and so we have focused more on
the race reviews. People often ask me, well, why did
you even start the podcast? Okay, I started this podcast
because I had been running for many years. It had
been thirteen years. No, I'm sorry, twelve years when we
started the show. And really, when I tell you guys this,
(03:48):
this was my rationale for starting. I make the mistakes
so that you don't have to. I felt like I
had made every bad mistake a runner could make. I
had done every dumb thing. I had made, every mistake.
I had aired as bad as you could error, and
it was all just learning over my years in years
of running, and I thought, wow, I have a lot
(04:09):
of running knowledge just from experience. I'm not talking book knowledge.
I'm not talking at the time that I was a
certified running coach. I am now, but I wasn't then.
So I really just wanted to call upon my experiences
as a runner and as a person who likes to
do the races. We've talked about this before. I like racing.
I like getting up on the weekends. I like being
(04:31):
at the start line. I like crossing the finish line.
I like my participation medal. I love all these things.
I am not great about training during the week. I'm
not great about just getting out there and putting in
my training run, starting my stove, turning it off, and
being like okay and I'm done. No, I want to
be rewarded for my efforts, because goodness knows how many
runs are left in this body. I at least want
(04:53):
to get rewarded when I do it. So that was
one of the reasons when we started the show, so
that I could just kind of share my experiences and
the thing I had learned along the way, the tips
and tricks of the running world that I had learned.
That's all it was. That was the whole reason we
started the show. Now. Did I think we were gonna
get big and famous? Absolutely not. Did I think that
a wonderful fan of the podcast was going to someday
(05:16):
stop me in the Boston Marathon expo to take a
picture with me. No, I absolutely did not think that
was going to happen. Did I think we'd be setting
up booths at expos and be one of the vendors. Nope,
didn't think that either. Did I think that we would
ever have a run that was based off of us
and what we wanted to do. Nope, didn't think so,
and we sure did. Even though it wasn't the name
that I wanted. We called it the Casey Hustle Run.
(05:38):
I really wanted it just to be the back of
the pack podcast. Five K and ten K lost that battle,
but we definitely had a race kind of in our honor.
So we have done a lot of the things that
I never thought we were gonna do when we started this.
So I think we're doing freaking great. As we marched
towards two hundred, I hope that we are doing nothing
more than picking up momentum. I hope that we're just
going to continue on. I hope we get to three hundred,
(06:00):
maybe four hundred, five hundred, who knows. It's however long
you guys want to listen to me is probably however
long I'm going to do this nonsense, or until my
knee just explodes and I can never walk again. So
that's kind of why we started it. I love the
community that we built. I did not have that intention.
I didn't know that was going to be a thing.
I started a Facebook page because well, you should always
(06:21):
have a Facebook page for what you're trying to do,
whether it be a business or a podcast or whatever
your venture, you want people to be able to find you.
Did I think that we would someday be over six
thousand strong. I did not. That's where we are, that's you.
Credit to you all for engaging with the Facebook page
as much as you do, because we have really built
(06:41):
a good online community, and like, I look forward every
week to Metal Monday so that you guys can show
off what you did over the weekend, and we can see,
you know, who's out and running, what the metals look like,
here about races we'd never heard of before. All of
this stuff just like totally makes my dang. And we
get a ton of interaction on Metal Monday, and I
(07:02):
love it. I'm trying to post more stuff during the week.
I hope you guys will give it a like and
you make a comment, make a smart alec remark. I'm
good with all of these things, but your interaction in
kind of the online community that we're building is really fantastic.
We're gaining momentum on Instagram, I would love to get
a little bigger. We're gaining momentum on TikTok. I would
love to be a little bigger, even though I know
(07:24):
that is not my strong suit. TikTok definitely not my thing. Now,
did you know that when we started this podcast we
were audio only. We did not do video for the
first over year of the podcast. So if you ever
go back far enough and you can get to the
mall all right, any podcast platform and YouTube, you can
go all the way back to the seventeen minute pilot
(07:46):
episode where I probably did not know what in the
actual hell I was talking about, probably sounded like a
rambling moron trying to spit out what we're gonna what
we're gonna do, much like I am right now, I'm good,
no blah. But that was it. So for so long
we were audio only, no video. But we kind of
learned along the way that people want the option. People
(08:07):
want the option to either just listen on their podcast platform,
maybe while they're in the car, maybe while they're on
road trips. A lot of people listen on road trips.
I could not listen to me that long, so more
power to you if you do. And then there are
people who just they want to see the video on
YouTube or they watch it on Facebook. I definitely am
trying to aim the Friday episodes more towards the podcast
platforms and YouTube because that's where we want to grow.
(08:29):
I know Facebook is where our biggest audience is, but
I'm actually gonna make it do a little bit of
work on Fridays, and you gotta either go to YouTube
to watch it or out on the podcast platforms to
stream it or download it or whatever, just because it's
more helpful to me. And that's another thing again, because
we're transparent on this show. I'm never gonna blow smoke
at you guys. I'm gonna keep it one hundred as
(08:50):
the kids say the entire time. Did I ever ever
think that I was going to make a dollar up
this podcast. No, Now we actually get some funds and
monetizing over the course of a month. It's not a lot,
but every time you listen to a podcast episode, every
time you downloaded on iTunes, or you downloaded on spreaker
(09:12):
or Spotify or iHeart or podbeing, you're helping us get monetized. Again,
it's not a lot, but it's more than zero. And
again I'm thankful for that. And so did I think
that was ever going to be the case? Absolutely not,
especially when we were just audio only when it was
just me sitting in a basement, in this echo chamber
of a room, trying to do this podcast. It was brutal.
(09:36):
I know the audio at the beginning stunk, if you
can believe it, though, same microphone, same microphone. Just I'm
in a different room of the house now, not nearly
as big and echoe as a basement, although there might
be a time where I moved back to that basement
because it's a bigger room. But I'll do some soundproofing.
Will that work for everyone? We'll do that. So since
we started this podcast again, we've become big on reviews,
(09:59):
but we have we made friends with other races, We
have made friends with other podcasts, We have helped influence
other podcasts. We have just grown in a manner in
which I never thought that we would. So I just
I wanted to say thank you before we die any
deeper to everyone who has supported us from the beginning.
Even if you're one of those people that listen to
us when you're audio only, and I know there's a few,
(10:21):
there are still some ogs out there that have been
around since the start that are still listening today. And
you guys are the Absolute Best, the other absolute best
of course, or anyone who is donating on Patreon. Don't
ever forget that we do have the Patreon page out there.
Back of the Pack podcast. Just search for it on Patreon.
Five dollars a month, we got more people doing five
(10:41):
dollars a month, we'd be able to go out and
do more races, get farther out into the world. Right now,
we just kind of have to hover in the same
area sometimes because it all costs money to travel. But
if you want us covering races out there in the world,
you get on the Patreon if you feel called to
do so, and you help us out, and trust me,
I will. I will get out there to more and
more stuff so that you can get reviews. If you
are a full marathon tier patron, of which there's only two,
(11:06):
but I love you guys. If you are that and
you say, hey, Kyle, do this race and cover it
for the podcast, you can bet your sweet but tuity
I will make that happen. I will pony up the dough,
shall they say, to travel to whatever race that you
want me to cover. If you are a full marathon
tier patron, boy, say that three times fast, so anyway,
(11:26):
going kind of back to the beginning, Yeah, I kind
of pulled up you know, what are just some fun
things to reminisce about, And of course the first thing
is says is talk about technical flubs, you know, editing disasters,
mic issues, weird recording locations, or interviews that went sideways.
I have an interview that went sideways, but it was
not the interviewee's fault. So you might remember from way
(11:47):
back when, and it was twenty twenty three, early in
the year, we tried repeatedly to have Nathan Nathan Spencer
from the Liberty half on this show. We did the
recording and the connection was bad, so the audio was unusable.
Now I couldn't tell in that moment, like as I
was listening and conducting the interview with them, like I
(12:09):
could hear it wasn't good. But then upon listening to
the playback, and this is when we had the production company,
that's where they told me unusable, you can't use this interview.
There's no way that anyone's going to be able to
hear or understand what it's being said. So that whole
episode had to get thrown out and I had to
do something like right, there on the spot because it
used to used to be we would record, edit, post,
(12:33):
you know, put out in the world just bam, bam
bam all right at the same time. And so if
I wanted things to get out in a timely manner,
I had to just you know, basically, shit, can that
other episode and re record something completely different that I
hadn't even prepared for because that was when we were
doing one episode a week and I thought, okay, well,
I'm just I'm doing the interview, I know what I'm
going to ask him, and on we go with life.
(12:54):
But nope, that that did not work out. So that
was a technical flub. That was an interview that went sideways.
Other than that, though, we've had some great interviews on here,
interviewees and really we've never had a bad experience. I
have never had someone I was interviewing just go completely
off the rails, you know. I've had some that maybe
they talk a little light, they don't you know, project
(13:15):
as well as I might. Like. You know, what we
do we just turn up the volume. You know what
you could do if you can't hear them very well,
turn out the volume. But no, everyone is always been
very respectful of this podcast end up being on it.
Even though in the podcast world we are such small potatoes.
Like I get that we're deeny deeny tiny in the
realm of the podcast world. But I have never had
a disrespectful Interviewee, I've never had a disrespectful company that
(13:39):
maybe either wanted to work with me or we kicked
around some ideas. Trust me, I've certainly met with people
and we've talked and just maybe nothing was mutually beneficial. Okay,
I am more than happy to have companies and people
and things on this podcast, but there's got to be
a little mutual benefit to it. Let's be real honest here.
I am not just here to pimp you out unless
(13:59):
you go pimp me out too. And if you're not
gonna pimp me out, then I'm not real thrilled about
pimping you out. We got to pimp each other, all right,
And if I get out of line, you can backhand me.
But we got to pimp each other. That's how this works.
So something you may not have known years and years
and years ago, I helped launch a veteran outreach organization.
Now is an organization, Well, it's a five o' one
(14:21):
C three at charity to help with veterans and like,
because we built it really from nothing. And again I
was at the table of people when we decided this
is what we were gonna do. So I've been around
since day one, since its inception, but I was able
to learn a lot of lessons. There is a period
we do anything, you know, if someone wanted us to
do something, we were in because we just wanted exposure.
(14:43):
We wanted people to see our shirts, to hear our name,
and to maybe interact and talk to people. There does
come a point though, where you can't be the doormat
anymore and you can only do things it's going to
be mutually beneficial or if it's just a cause I
care about now, even if I know it's not gonna
help the podcast one little bit, but I want to
help said group. I can do that, and it's a
(15:05):
wonderful position to be in. So I'm happy to help people.
But yeah, it's it's gotta be a little you know,
no give, little take. That's the only way it works.
Editing disasters, I don't think we've had any. There was
one time I thought I lost an episode after recording.
I thought, like the recording of it didn't save like,
it wasn't where it was supposed to be. It saved
somewhere else and I couldn't find it. For a while,
(15:26):
I thought it didn't save it all. So that was
probably eleven to thirteen minutes of sheer terror that it
was just gone and I was never gonna find it again.
Mic issues we just had. I think it was the
first time ever that there was a mic issue on
my end, and it was when we were trying to
cover the RG half Marathon two weeks ago and the
mic didn't work. This mic didn't work. It picked up
(15:48):
the audio from the webcam that you see me in
right now, So the audio wasn't great because there was
a lot of distance between my mouth and that microphone
for it to pick up. Thankfully you can hear. Thankfully
you can understand. But I still feel bad that that
mic issue was a problem. So let's see here. Were
there any episodes that didn't make the cut or any
title ideas. No, to be real, honest, I did not
(16:11):
think we were going to do it this long, and
there's certainly been days where I've been half panicked, like
I don't know what in the hell to talk about?
What am I going to talk about today? Like it's
slow time in the running world, I feel like I've
already done everything I can kind of speak of. So
I've certainly had some high pressure brainstorm situations. That's why
I tell you that my favorite episode is a listener
(16:33):
requested episode. It takes all the pressure off me to
come up with a topic. Now, if I had a
co host, there might be a time we would just,
you know, rap about something the entire time. We'd have
just this back and forth on a topic, like a
conversation we'd have with any of your running buddies. But
since it's always me, well normally me right here, I
have to come up with prepared things to talk about.
(16:53):
And there have been times where writer's block or whatever
it has not come into my head. So we've definitely
had that before. So really we don't have any We
don't have any real good quotes. I don't think there's one.
Give a quote from early on. If you go and
listen to earlier episodes, there's probably tons of quotes from
stupid things that I said. I have no doubt that
(17:14):
that is the case, because again, we were audio only.
I was new to it, not new to the podcasting world,
but new to doing this running podcast, and it is
different when you know that there's someone else listening to
you on the other end, but wasn't involved. So our
former production company, our producer, she was not a runner.
She didn't give a crap about the running world, didn't care.
(17:34):
It wasn't her jam told me that several times, this
is not my world. So there were a lot of
times where well every time I recorded where she was
on the other end, but you're never gonna hear there
was no interaction because she had nothing to add or
say into this. Eventually she would come on a few times,
but in the early goings, it was really just me
and because we were just kind of learning, learning what
(17:54):
people wanted to hear about, learning what we wanted to
talk about, kind of learning the flow of the show.
I'm sure there were probably some terrible quotes and just
god awful episodes out there. I do know one of
the first episodes I did within the first five was
one that I really liked and if you've ever wanted
to request it, if you want to hear about music.
We did enjoy doing the music episode, and I think
(18:15):
that was like episode three. You can go back and
listen to that. You can't see anything, but you can
listen to it. So I'm always trying to make this professional.
I've never wanted it to look amateur. I know, because
this is an amateur production, it often looks amateur, but
that's never the intent. We always try and make this
look as good as we can, and yes on social media,
(18:35):
and as I just said, I do always say we.
That is the royal Wei, that is we the podcast,
even though it's me. Even missus Back of the Pack
Podcast doesn't care. She'll hang on the one in credit
for that, don't quote me because she also not a
runner and does not care, so she thinks we're nuts.
I'm trying to think. So the first comment email, DM
(18:57):
or review that made us feel like this was real,
you know, I'm going to give a shout out to Ellen,
and I hope that Ellen still listens. I know Ellen
was an og. Ellen was the first person to bring
a sign to the race, a Back of the Pack
podcast sign she made and brought to Rock the Parkway,
(19:20):
and I do believe it was Rock the Parkway twenty
twenty two. I think it was just within the first
couple months of this show. Starting that Ellen was out
there and she had her sign, and of course I stopped.
When I came back around on the course, I stopped
and took a picture with her with that sign. But yeah,
I think that was the real first fan interaction that
(19:40):
I had where I really thought, Wow, like people like this,
this is kind of cool, it's enjoyable. Then, of course
I had the woman from Texas who stopped me in
Boston to take a picture at the Boston Marathon expo,
still one of the highlights of this whole podcast career,
something that I think about fondly all the time. Time.
(20:00):
That was super cool. There have been people who've wanted
pictures at expos, which has been great. There's a woman
who wanted to take a picture with me at the
expoll because her husband, who lived in New York, was
a fan of the show, and so she wanted to
take a picture with me and send it to him.
I thought that was super cool. We've had people at races, in,
people at expos and just people out in the world
(20:22):
who said, oh, you're the podcast guy. You're the running
podcast guy. Yep, that's me. And so again, I know
there are a few of you jerkfaces who like to say, oh,
you're a celebrity. No, no, not a celebrity. It's just
a few, a minor amount of people have a little
appreciation for what I try and do twice weekly now.
(20:43):
But no, there's definitely no celebrity going on here. No, no,
But those are some of the really cool moments that
we've had here in the last three plus years. And again,
I want to shout out to all the early listeners
that are still listening my Running Family, and I just
posted about that today. The importance of your running family,
(21:04):
my running family has grown so much since I started
this podcast. I told you guys before, and I tell
you again because again, I make the mistakes so you
don't have to. I used to be the guy that
would go to an expo and I was just head down,
blinders on to pack a pickup, get my crap gone,
just zoom zoom here in out gone. I used to
(21:26):
be that guy. Now that I'm a vendor and I'm
at a lot of these expos I don't like those
people anymore. It's like, no, please, I'm over here, pay
attention to me, Come talk to me. I want to
tell you about the podcast. No wait, but I have
met so many people that have now become important members
of my running family by being at expos and by
hanging out after races and by just staying and talking
(21:49):
to people and getting to know people, and you know,
we all have those mutual friends. But be like, oh, hey,
have you met Cody. Yeah, this is Cody over here.
I mean he's kind of a jerk face. But once
you get to know him, he's fine. And then there's
this guy here Will, Now we just don't like him
at all. Now, I mean like, you get to know
the people, and this person knows this person, so they
introduce to you. Now you know this person and you
(22:09):
hit it off with that person, and the running family
is the best. And so because I took the blinders
off and I do this, and I feel like it
benefits me to be a little more friendly out there
in the world. I'm more friendly out there in the world.
I've made tons of new friends and people who have
listened to the show now for a very long time
and will still like the episode, comment on the episode,
(22:31):
give me a little feedback, leave it, you know, leave
a message on YouTube or whatever. And again, those those
people are the absolute best. I love it because Honestly,
the feedback is the only way that I'm going to
get better. So we've had some of the guests on here.
We have tons. We've had tons of guests on here.
I never thought we'd have this many, but you know,
a big shout out to well of course right now.
First off, Baby Jay's Legacy of Hope. They've been on
(22:51):
the show multiple times. The folks from the Fighting Fentanyl
five K They've been on here several times. My guy
from the Garman Kansas City Marathon has on here several times.
We have had the Casey Cosplay runner on here, the
Happy Paced podcast Behind the Big Podcast running up that Hillary.
We have had some great people kind of bless us
with their presence. Because I will never sit here and
(23:13):
say that I'm the end all be all of running knowledge.
There are people who know a hell of a lot
more than me, and if I can get them on
this podcast, then I would love to get them on
this podcast to share the share the knowledge. That's why
we just had Karen on. Karen from the Just Grow
Something podcast is my favorite guest host. Whenever I need
a guest host, I reach out to her first. Unless
(23:34):
I feel like i've already abused her too much lately,
and then I reach out to someone else. But she
is a knowledgeable runner in a way that I'll never be.
You know, she knows the science and she will break
down that science. And so I just I love having
the people that I can call on to help me
out to do the things that I can't. And so
this is it's funny that I said that. It said
(23:56):
what episode? Did you realize that this wasn't me anymore?
And it was us? Man, I'll tell you, actually it
was a long time ago. It really was I. And
again I've always said us, and I've always said we,
but it's not I mean, yeah, I guess part of
it is maybe a sound humble. I don't want to
say III all the time because it's not me, me, me,
(24:16):
It is we, we, we us, us you you you.
You guys have done more to support this podcast than
I could have ever anticipated. If this podcast it lasted
a year, I'd have been like, cool, we tried. I tried,
you know, no big deal. I can say I did it,
and I could have just walked away. But it just
kept growing and it still keeps growing. Three and a
half years later. We still grow a little more and
(24:38):
a little more each passing a week, and as long
as I keep seeing us growing that, I'm still gonna
be here doing it. But it's you, guys, And so
I couldn't tell you what episode I felt like it
was real. You're our very first guest was Libby from
the Fighting Fannel five K. They were a brand new race,
we were a brand new podcast. Kind of felt like
it went together. It might be that when Dave from
(24:59):
the Casey's Sports Commission and the Garment Kids seing a marathon,
when he decided to give us the time of day, Okay,
maybe then I felt like, you know what, we might
be a little real here, We might be a little
bit real. Maybe it was the first time someone recognized
us out in public. Possible, But I can't really put
my finger on it. But there's certainly been moments like, Okay,
I feel I feel like we're almost legit here, and
again there are times I still feel like we're not,
(25:21):
but there are times I feel like we are, and
uh yeah, I just I hope we can keep that going.
The more we talk to other races like we're known now,
like the Little Rock Marathon, they love us. The Gulf
Coast Marathon. They know of us, the Big Beach One,
they like all my stuff on Instagram. We're getting in
there with races and organizations that want to either work
(25:42):
with us or at least acknowledge us or like like
what we do, and that that is really a cool thing.
But again, it's it's because of y'all and the people
who go to races wear in the back of the
pack podcast shirt, the people that tell someone else, hey,
you should listen to this podcast. That's that is why
we are kind of where we are. It's nice. It's nice.
(26:04):
So anyway, there's really not too much else to go into.
You know, this was just kind of the early goings
of it. Again, we had the producer. She helped get
us going. We did not always see eye to eye.
But I will go out there and say, because I'm
trying to be kind, we probably would not still be
going had we not had their support in the beginning.
(26:27):
I think that's fair to say. I did. I learned
a lot. Some lessons were good, some lessons were bad,
but we learned a lot in that time. And so,
you know, credit to them for helping us get going,
credit for leaving us because I feel like we've only
gotten better since then. That's not a dig. When you
are required to change, when you're required to grow as
(26:49):
a podcaster and as an editor and as the guy
who has to record and produce and do all these things.
When you're forced to take those steps yourself, you get
better at doing them. And so them step, in a way,
forced me to up my game and try and be
better what we were doing. I think we have greater
at our logo. I think we have great at our production.
We upgraded the things that we wanted to go out
(27:10):
in the world and do. And as I said on
the first episode solo, there's now no one to tell
me no. I can do whatever the hell I want,
right or wrong. It's my decision now. There's no one
that's gonna argue with me. There's no one that's gonna
push back. And again, I've made good decisions since then,
and I've made bad ones. But whatever the decisions are
and however they work out, that's on this guy right here.
And so I actually like that that kind of responsibility.
(27:33):
So one thing I'm gonna bring up, Okay, and I've
I've emailed quite a few people about this, but I'm
gonna put it out there for everyone. For the two
hundredth episode, we have people who are gonna come on
with maybe a little two to five minute video just
kind of talking about what they like about the Back
of the Back podcast, or maybe just a hey, congratulations
on two hundred episodes or whatever, or Kyle is a
(27:57):
complete clown, uh, never listened to this again, whatever they
want to say. I want to invite you listener. If
you so desire and want to be on the two
hundredth episode, send me a message, send me a message.
I'm in. I'll kind of tell you here's what I
would really kind of like out of your little two
to five minute clip. Other than that to really go
(28:18):
do your thing. But if you're interested in submitting a
clip for the two hundredth episode, because with everyone I've invited,
I know we're not like full on time. I got space.
I got some space. So I just wanted to open
up to you guys. If you're a Patreon member, you
get first dimps and if you're not change it right
quick and then say hey, I want to do it,
and then it's perfect. But yeah, I want to fill
(28:40):
that episode with you all. I only want to get
on and say hey everyone, here's the two hundred episodes.
Came bye, and then it's just going to be all
these people that are going to submit videos for the
two hundred episode. I think that would be really cool.
I've all said more of you, less of me is
a good thing, right, So that's where we're at. I
would love to get your little human video. Please. If
(29:02):
you have a favorite episode, and again we were about
to hit two hundred, If you have a favorite episode,
leave it in the comments. Say oh, I mean if
you know the title, great, If you don't, that's fine,
Say oh, you talked about this episode, or you know,
when you talked about the Berlin marathon that was my
favorite one it was you know, it was great. Or
when I talk when you talked about imposter syndrome that
really resonated with me. That was great. When you talked
(29:24):
about not being able tout run a bad diet. Okay,
now that one really hit home. If you've got one
of those leaving in the comments, I'd love to know.
I wish we could enough people to vote so that
we like knew what the a number one favorite episode was.
But I don't think I'm gonna get enough enough people
to h to submit, but that would be great. So
I'd be curious to know. Leave your favorite episode in
the comments. If you're watching this right now okay on Facebook,
(29:46):
you'll see the link that was sent for the podcast
for this episode here on Friday August first. Responding there
in the comments, say oh yeah, my favorite episode was
blah blah blah blah blah. That would be really cool.
So all right, well, we're gonna talk more about it
next week with just kind of a for an approach.
But we're on the March to two hundred again. It's
going to be on what Friday, August twenty second, yep,
(30:07):
our two hundredth episodes. That's really cool. I promise I
will not go back to wearing the retro hat. I
just wanted to wear it one time. Keep your lawyer
on the sideline. My lawyer is better and I'll be
back in the normal podcast gear next week. So that's
gonna do it for this week's episode of the Back
of the Back podcast. Second win, I'm your Skyle Walker.
It's my pleasure as always. Thank you. What are we on? Like?
Episode seven? I think thank you all so very much
(30:31):
for your support. It really means more to me than
you will ever ever ever really understand this. This is
so much fun. I can't believe I get to do it, honestly.
So everyone, have a safe week of training. We'll see
you next week
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