"Mr. Motivation" Ignites Your Inner Passion featuring Adam Duran

### INTERVIEW
###### Adam Duran: [00:00:00]
Inch by inch, it's a cinch, but yard by yard. It's hard. You don't need to take those giant steps. Just do a little something every day. That's going to build this and then just keep on with this. You got this believe in yourself, believe in yourself more than you believe in anybody, because if you believe in yourself, you are limitless.
And I mean that the skies ceilings are manmade. Ceilings are manmade. We are way beyond that way beyond that. And I know where I've come from and believe me, if Adam can    do this, anybody can do this.   
### Episode Intro
###### Kevin Chang: [00:00:38]
Welcome to the RaceMob podcast. This is episode number 46.
I'm Kevin entrepreneur technology and fitness nerd, and I'm joined by the head coach of RaceMob and master motivator, the incomparable Bertrand Newson.
On today's episode, we have the one and only Mr. Motivation himself, Adam Duran from humble beginnings to a storied 30 year career as a law enforcement officer. Get ready for this motivational speaker to pump you up. You'll hear about Adam's incredible daily routine, how micro-commitments and atomic habits had fueled his longterm success.
His incredible drive to overcome difficult moments and the amazing ways that he's giving back to the community. Plus you can't help, but feel invigorated by the way, Adam attacks life. Get ready to bust through a wall and share this episode with those that might need a little pick me up.
All the show notes can be found online, including links to Adam's YouTube channel and his active Instagram account.
And without further ado, here's our conversation.
### Start of the Interview
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:01:43]
Hello, RaceMob family. We are all in for real treat today. You've asked for it. And we're giving it to you. Motivation here today, we have the motivational owner, Mr. Adam Duran serving our community and law enforcement for 30 plus years, an avid runner for just about that amount of time. We're very fortunate for him to share his stories, his insight, his expertise, and his finger on the pulse, on the human condition, on how we can all work closer together in moving forward.
Welcome, Adam.
###### Adam Duran: [00:02:13]
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the invite. I I'm very excited. You're just given me the prompt and I'm just, I'm all in. Let's get these people set. Let's get these people in the right mindset, the emotional, mental, and physical part of us and let, just take people up to a different level.
### Adam's Origin Story
###### Kevin Chang: [00:02:30]
Yeah. Yeah. Let's get this going. So, Adam, where are you from? Where did you grow up?
###### Adam Duran: [00:02:35]
So I'm from San Jose. And I grew up on the, uh, proverbial East San Jose, a story white road where the, kind of the other side of the tracks as you people might say.
So I pretty much born and raised there. And all my life went to school there, elementary all through high school, growing up there, wasn't a lot of expectations to do well. Just, uh, stay out of trouble, go to school. And if you don't go to school, you're going to get a job. You're going to pay rent. So. That was our expect.
There was a real high level of expectations for us. And of course I was that kid. If you know me you'll know that I typically have high energy. So with that high energy being a young man, 14, 15, who knows what you're going to get into. So I'm just glad that many years ago I thought bigger and I kind of had like a spiritual experience, went away to school and lived in Louisiana, Baton Rouge.
And, uh, from Baton Rouge will move to Illinois, just up by Chicago, uh, Freeport, Illinois, which was not too far from Rockford, Illinois, lived there for a while. Came back by the time I came back, I was a different person of what school and that. And then,    I was ready, my mind was set and I knew kind of what I wanted.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:03:48]
What was, what caused you to come back a different person? What do you think it was?
###### Adam Duran: [00:03:53]
We do believe when you are a product of your environment in a big way, whether it's your family or your surroundings, you don't see bigger for yourself. If you're closed in a circle, you may see it on TV. You may see it as, Oh, those guys on the other side of the tracks and you may not on a venture out.
Uh, but when I went to school, I began yeah. Two, I met people from all over the country and different parts of the world. Well, at that point, then my mind, we got expanded. Now I'm living in a different state. I'm not home anymore. I'm not around the old friends, as you might say. And now I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is how people live. This is the difference.
Um, I was there for just shy of four years and I moved to Illinois for about a year. It was a different environment, a different people, different culture. And then my mind began to expand more than, than my close mindedness. And I think just being around different people, made the difference in my life.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:04:42]
That makes a lot of sense. When you can expand your mind when you can get out of your comfort zone, when you can meet other people with different backgrounds, different viewpoints. I mean, I think it does expand your mind. It kind of allows you to look at the world a little bit differently.
So talk to us a little bit. Why Baton Rouge, why Louisiana, why Illinois? Those are kind of not the typical places people from San Jose go off to. So, so why, why those places.
###### Adam Duran: [00:05:08]
When I was 18 years old, see my dad began to go to church and he required that we go to church at least once a week. If we were going to live in his house, he said, you can do whatever you want, but not right now, whatever you want. Don't get in trouble.
You have to, you have to go to church once a week, you pick a service,    but you're going to church. Then I had like an experience. Your experience kind of gave my life to God. And then I went to Baton Rouge because there was like a Bible call is I wanted to attend. I wanted to know more about the Bible and God and evangelism, and basically public speaking because I was always kind of a chatterbox.
So, so then I began to public do some public speaking and, uh, that kind of found them my forte. So I was there for several years. And then from there, I moved with a friend doing some work in Chicago with the, uh, gang called the Latin Kings. We began to do some work in the inner city of Chicago. And then also where I was living in Freeport, Illinois, not too far from Rockford.
And then it was there for about a year. And then my family, we came back. But by that time, I like my mind, again, I started to plan. I started to understand how to project. When I came back, I was already on it, like an 89. I think I came back and I said, okay. So I'm going to work for one year and whatever job I'll clean toilets, I'll do, I've done it before.
And then within one year, I'll look for another job and they'll begin to make more. And so within one year I started to look in the paper, boom, that's why I found this at this job, but it took me two years to get this job. But in the meantime, I had two jobs. One electronics. One in, um, I worked at Levitz. You'll love it at Levitz. I worked at Levitz.
So it took me two years to get this job because they had a hiring freeze. Well within two years, because I understood what it took. You have to work for something nothing's given to you and those people who are waiting get off the sidelines.
You have to    form forward momentum to start to do something every day, to try to realize your dreams. And the distractions of life will always be there, but you have to make some type of forward, even the smallest things and that'll give you confidence.
And then, so I started to do that and I said, okay, when you're in a startup, boom got this two years, they believe me. At the time I got hired there, they probably like, thank God this guy is hired.
I was every day, every three days for two years. But in those two years, I knew we had to go to like a bootcamp, like an Academy. So I said, because of that, I had ran off and I worked out weights and stuff like that. But I started to run in 1990. So between my two jobs at my electronics company and I got it for three 30 and my Levitz job at five.
I ran for a half hour to an hour every day I could. That's when I'm running, because I wanted to in the Academy succeed. And I ran for two years before I get the job in 92, since 92, I've been running ever as little as 1990, till 2021. And then just little by little, you get to meet more people like, you know, Kevin and you and Coach "B" and understanding bigger and more and how you can level up everything in your mind, your body, everything in life can bring up.
It's contingent on you are the five people who you hang around with. You are the average. We tell that to our kids all the time, Hey, little Johnny, don't be around those people. You want to do better? Oh, Johnny, we want you to, you know, you should not be around it. But guess what? I think as adults, we don't follow our same advice.
We around who we fall into and we're telling our kids that, but we as adults. We kind of like where we ended up, we ended up no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Time is so valuable as something you can't get back. So be very, very choosy who you choose to spend your time with, because you're not going to get that time back.
And if you think it doesn't matter, everything matters. Every thought you have in your head matters, thoughts, become things. Thoughts, become things. You can't fight it. It's just the way it is
### Choosing a Carreer
###### Kevin Chang: [00:08:53]
Tell our audience, , you've been working for the Sheriff's department now for the last 30 years. So how did you know that was what you wanted to do?
I mean, it sounds like you came back, you had a plan, you said , even though there's a hiring freeze in two years, , I'm going to get this job, I'm going to work here. This is really what I want. You had that passion to do it. You worked everyday towards that . , so why the Sheriff's department, why was that the thing that you wanted to, to get after?
###### Adam Duran: [00:09:19]
Well, I wish I can say it was for, uh, working for the community. I wanted to give back, but I was 24 years old. That was not in my mind, to be honest with you. Although I always love to give back and to help people. Cause that's why I got into the Bible stuff, you know.
But I was looking at the paper one day, I was reading the paper at lunchtime because I was always looking and I thought, wow, I saw this job that paid more for one job than my two jobs that I have. And I said, wow, that looks like a pretty cool, and I wish I could say I went in for the benefits. I just looked at the pay and it made again, more than I had to two jobs I can. And that's where I just, I zero it in and I never, never looked back.
And it's been a while. It started in 92. So 29 years now this year that I've been working for it. And it's, again, it's huge. When I got that, the job, I was never going to let it go. You're talking about to this day, to this day, to anybody that knows me there. And there's probably people there's people watching and there's people fired from my job is that they know you're going to be hard pressed to find somebody that loved their job more than me.
That's been there as long as I have one, I'm probably top 10 in the entire department, 800 people to, with all those 10 people, 20 people, 800, you're going to be very hard pressed. To find someone that loves their job more than me. Why? Because I'm thankful, I'm grateful and I'm appreciative of everything that job has helped me in my family. It's helped me to just be everything where I'm at today and to be able to live a very good life. And that job has supplied me that.
But over time I have family that have been in custody, many family, by the way, a lot of cousins, uncles. I had an uncle who actually died in prison after 30 years. So I grew up visiting jails and prisons. Because of my cousins and because of my uncles, I went to a wedding in prison before I was like 14 years old. My uncle got married in prison.
So I've been around this all my life. This is very normal to me to be around jails and prisons. And here I am working there. And, um, some of my cousins and uncles over the years said, Hey, if I ever go in custody, I want an extra sandwich. And you going to help me, your cousin you're off the butt.
But over time it evolved. And I saw that we served a broken people, people that are broken, that have lost everything and not everybody's a career criminal. Some people, they just made a bad choice in life in a way I'll be honest. I'm thankful I'm not getting to pull up political aspect of it, but I'm thankful some of the criminal justice reform, because there are some people that had a felony at 18 that held them back for the rest of their life.
It's very difficult to ever get that expunged out of the record. So prevented them from getting a better job, even though they were a good person, 10, 15 years later, and now that's criminal justice reform. Those people have an opportunity to get a better job to help them in their families and the community.
And again, there are some career criminal, believe me. I know a lot of them, you know, there there's some dangerous people, but there are people that are legitimate, good people that made bad choices. And so thanks for the criminal justice reform. That's given them an opportunity a second chance. But so now I see that w as I got into that job, that, uh, there are people that have some serious issues.
And I know we have programs out there, whether someone believes them or not there's programs. I used to work at a place it's here in town. Actually, there is a big, law enforcement change probably in 2011, 12, where it's called AB one Oh nine assembly bill one Oh nine, which really a lot of the state prisoners had brought them down to the County level. And it opened up these services called the reentry centers around the state of California.
And there was one I was working with as a law enforcement, as a Sergeant here in San Jose that,    they have drug counseling there. They have medical help. They have,    expungement, they have clothing, they have food, they have housing, they have different services to help people that are broken and to give them an opportunity.
And I told the inmates and I tell the people I used to tell them all along all these different people, they all, Hey, Duran, Adrian. I said, listen here guys, gals, the only thing, this building and the services that it does, it, the only thing it doesn't do for you is do it for you. That's your job. We have everything else. We're providing you everything to succeed and that's your job.
And so, uh, over time, I'm very thankful that have opportunities to try to make an impact. And even that we know work in the facility, a lot of the guys know me, especially the older guys, like, Hey, Duran, hey, Duran and I'm still here, but I'm better now, you know? And you see, you see him, I see him out on the streets sometimes. And, and I'm not doing that anymore. So you just become appreciative and thankful and confident in your abilities. But humble enough to know that there are people that need help. You know.
### A Scion’s Story
###### Kevin Chang: [00:13:50]
Bertrand I just want to give you the opportunity to tell a Scion's story, which was featured on CNN, because , I think it's so apt here,
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:13:57]
wow. Thank you for that. KC.
Adam, my, my nephew, who's now a freshman in college in San Francisco. He was going to a private school on the Monterey peninsula Palmer high school. And    during his. Sophomore year. He was part of a program where the students were part of a reading program at, Salinas Valley correctional facility.
And at some point during that year, my sister and brother-in-law were having a tough time in maintaining his tuition because it was a private school. And through the reading program with the high school and the inmates in particular, they took it upon themselves to raise enough money, to cover his tuition by foregoing their allowance.
That story is incredible, profound. And I mean, so many life lessons that came from that, and it did make national, um, recognition featured on CNN, as Kevin mentioned. And it's touched so many people in so many different ways. Above and beyond my family and particular, my nephew, the young man.
But this, the character of the inmates and sharing their life experience person to person, to the student, and then challenging my nephew in particular, you know, what is your five-year plan? What is your ten-year plan? Him having to get up into articulate that for all those gentlemen, those brothers and blue, it was just, just amazing.
I could not be prouder of those gentlemen for really paying it forward and letting their life adversity benefits so many other people and just shedding a light, where giving somebody a second chance an opportunity.    You own your transgressions and you do your part from a rehabilitation standpoint.
And then taking a concerted interest in the youth, , forgive for going, you know, that their ability to provide for themselves while incarcerated, just, I mean, I, I, it's just incredible.
So thank you, Kevin, for allowing me to share that wonderful story on, you know, adversity,    owning your poor decisions and looking internally, and in imparting will and direction and candid feedback. They're living example of their life choices, where he could benefit and others have in the process of well, so good stuff.
###### Adam Duran: [00:16:25]
What a great story. Thank you for that.
Kevin Chang: [00:16:27]
I wanted to get back to something that you said a little bit earlier, and that was about working every day towards something, even if it's just a little bit, even if it's putting just a little bit into it, and this goes back to something I've heard a long time ago, which was.
We think that we can do more in the short term than our bodies can actually handle or that we can actually handle, oftentimes.    But in the longterm we always sell ourselves kind of short, you know, putting in that work, that little bit of work. What can you do a year from now? If you put in five minutes every day, what could you do two years of now when if you do, if you put in just five or 10 minutes every day, right?
And, and you think about that in terms of running to, you know, a lot of us think, Oh man, can I hit that PR that 5k, PR that 10k PR, you know, if I'm training really, really hard every single day, maybe I can hit that a week from now or two weeks from now, but that usually doesn't come to fruition.
But thinking about, you know, putting in a little bit of work every day, putting on a little bit of, you know, strength, training, a little bit of cardio, a little bit of this and that, and think about what you can do months from now, years from now, three years from now, 30 years from now. Right?
### Becoming a Runner
So let's dive back into the running journey. You know, where are you started from? How were those first runs? How, how did you get into the sport? You know, To share with us a little bit of that journey.
###### Adam Duran: [00:17:45]
So yeah, I got into it. I mentioned that for the Academy. I wanted to make sure I pass the Academy physically and I got into it and I didn't know any people who ran.
I just got out there and ran a few days a week. I didn't know what you could run every day. I didn't know anything about running. I began to subscribe to Runner's World magazine, after a beer. I found it. And then I eventually was Running Times magazine. I began to just become a student of running over time.
You, you get to meet different people, but it took me several years to be honest with you because I, I ran by myself and even though I passed the Academy, I did great. And they're all that good. All those good things but I continued running. But it probably wasn't until I met a older guy who was a very good runner.
It took me about seven years before I met that person. I met some pretty good runners, but not like really top top-notch took me about seven years and I met him and I'm like, wow. Okay. They can run mountains now. So I began running the mountains with him and what it did for me is built fortitude and    some self-control.
And    because I have high energy it and worked in a really stressful environment. It allowed me, um, cause I slept better. It allowed me to decompress that time from life in general, but from the job that I had. And so I saw the benefits of it.
One I began to, when I ran, I began to think about plan for my day. It gave me time and to really structure my life. And discipline it over time. This has been many years in the making, but, , I began to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and, and begin to push myself. And the more people you hang around who do that sort of thing, the more like, you know what I think I can do that.
And then I remember I'm going to, I should do 10 K sound. It should be San Jose mercury back in the day. And I began 10 Ks. And I said, you know what? I wonder if I could run a marathon. I think I ran my first marathon, maybe in 97. And the longest I'd run with like 15 miles.
And I didn't know how we should we see PowerBars the real chewy ones back in the day. And now it's like gels and stuff like that, but it was like a far to eat. You're like, and you're running. But, uh, I remember hurting so bad. Like, I mean hurting so bad that 26 miles.
But I remember this guy said he was a former Marine who told me you can do anything. It just depends. What's motivating you to do it. This is kind of morbid, to be honest with you. He's when you feel like before I ran the marathon, he's you ever feel like quitting, you're probably going to feel like you want to quit, but when you do think about someone having a gun to your mom's head, and saying if you don't finish this marathon, we're going to pull the trigger. He said, when you, when you think like that, you'll figure out a way to get it done.
And I'm not kidding you. I actually thought about it. I just like pictured it. And I pushed through in spite of the pain from mile 20 to 26. And I'm not being a exaggeration hyperbole.
Every step shook my body. I mean, it shook my body. I could feel it, the tension in my body, but I would not quit because I was picturing that in my mind to motivate me to finish that marathon. And I ended up finishing the marathon. I don't think I, I didn't even walk because I wanted to finish it, you know, but, but it hurt really bad.
It took me a few years to come back and to be, um, crazy enough to try another one. And I said, this time I'll actually train better. And again, I was reading. Runner's world's kind of beginner. I did. I didn't even know it. And then over time you get books and stuff like that, you know, maybe the old Jim fix book or whatever.
But I remember meeting people at races, a couple people, there were like a God to me. If you ran the Boston marathon, you were like a God. I was like, man, you ran the Boston marathon. Oh my, what was it like, what was it like was a big deal. And then I, over years, I thought, I wonder what it would. I'm wonder if I could ever qualify for the Boston marathon. You know, I said, no, I go, maybe I can.
And I remember trying it back in 2006 or seven in Sacramento, it was the CIM and it hurts. I was, I fell apart. It took me, I think like five marathons in four years. To find the qualified, but I'll be honest with you. This is a true story and don't go on and on, but kind of get off topic.
But I remember that last, that last one I tried, I said, I'd rather die, but if I cross that finish line and I qualified for the Boston marathon and died after I'd be okay with it. Because it meant that much to me. Because it took me four years and five marathons. And I, and I remember I said, I'm never going to give up, I got this because I would fall apart.
Like at mile 22, 23 I'd fall apart. It was just like, I don't know what happened. I think I just didn't understand the training and what I needed to do. And then I bought a book and that book changed everything.
And at that last one and I finally qualified, then I qualified now four times since then every time I've ran and tried, I qualify, which is four different times. And then you get to, I said, you meet different people. And uh, you're like, okay, how fast can I push?
And I'm like thinking, okay. Uh, I don't want to like kill myself at about I'm feeling pretty darn good. And 30 years I've never been hurt from running. You know, I've never had an injury that kept me at, for running in 30 years, 31 years this year.
So I become a student of it. And one thing leads to another thing. So if you guys can see this here, um, I'm, uh, uh, I love reading books. This is some of the ones I've read recently here, some of my books. So every day, every morning I wake up, I have to read and then I have to run five days a week.
And then I take cold showers, not warm, not lukewarm, not hot, not complete cold showers. I'm trying to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. And then I start my day. So, and then I meditate and pray every day before I go to bed tonight, I do the same thing. I meditate and pray plan for the next day before I go to bed, I said, did I do my best today?
I literally, every day, every day, every night I look out, I live on the 30th floor here. You can. It's pretty bright out here right now. But the SAP center is like right out here. But every day before I go to bed, I said, did I do my best today? And I start thinking, I said, you know what, tomorrow, I'm going to give more than what's expected of me.
And I said, if it doesn't serve God, my fellow man or myself, let me not think of it. Act it or become it in word, or indeed, I'm going to do more than what's expected of me tomorrow. And then I start my day, my cold showers, my run, and my reading. And then through the associate, the books that you read, your associations and the choices that you make, you become a different person, little by little it's habitual.
It's what we repeatedly do witch springs excellence. It's not a single act as Aristotle said. Right. And it's true. And then you start meeting rockstars like yourselves. So Coach be, and you, Kevin, we're gonna meet you soon. We're gonna run together. We'll do something together and we're going to collaborate and we're going to push this.
Until we cannot push it anymore. And it's never going to stop guys like you guys. And I know myself, it's all about giving back. It's all about, you know, you can't force this on anybody.
All you can do is lead them and you could give them tips on what you know is going to help them. But it's up to them to accept it or not accept it. But guess what? I will never stop pushing this. Never.
And even in my work, I don't like talk about it all the time because I'm not because they were like, Oh, here comes out again. They're going to drown or whatever. Right. And so I don't do it, but they know where to go, where I stand in this. And if they want tips on books, If they want tips on.
Uh, Oh, somebody said you're rocking the podcast.
Enjoy sleep by the way. Joyce, I see you. Joyce Lee has run like 4,000 days in a row for the last 4,000.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:24:48]
That's right. 3000. Yeah, 3000
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:24:50]
She's a friend of the podcast.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:24:52]
Friend  of the show. We love Joyce.
###### Adam Duran: [00:24:55]
I think we've paced together or a nine Berkeley and Rebecca and I have paced by ...
But this is all about giving back. It's about giving tips.
Inch by inch, it's a cinch, but yard by yard. It's hard. You don't need to take those giant steps. Just do a little something every day. That's going to build this and then just keep on with this. You got this believe in yourself, believe in yourself more than you believe in anybody, because if you believe in yourself, you are limitless.
And I mean that the skies ceilings are manmade. Ceilings are manmade. We are way beyond that way beyond that. And I know where I've come from and believe me, if Adam can    do this, anybody can do this.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:25:39]
Adam man. Oh man. I'm about to jump out and start running on 87 right now. At top speed until the wheels fall off.
### Finding a Running Methodology
But let's go back to the marathon breakthrough for you. Cause you said there were a couple of times when you were close and then you hit the wall. You said you found a book, a methodology that worked for you. Why don't you share that with our audience? What was the game changer?
###### Adam Duran: [00:26:06]
So I've tried many of them running.
I have a lot of books around it. It, I have boxes of books somewhere else right now, but, uh, one called the Hanson Marathon Method. It's a small, they're sponsored by Brooks they're out of Michigan. In fact, I think Desi Linden Davala broke the 50 K war record today. She's from the Hanson.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:26:22]
Under six hours. Yeah. Running a sub six minute marathon, 50 K.
###### Adam Duran: [00:26:26]
Yep. Yeah. She's out of the Brooks running club and she's the Hanson she runs with the, and that's their coaches out of Michigan. She's from California, I think South Cal. And, um, I think Josh Cox is her, um, agent, but she runs out of Michigan Hanson's marathon method.
When I saw that it resonated with me, it's basically a cumulative fatigue. So you run up to 70 miles a week and, uh, you basically, you're never in recovery mode, you're constantly fatigued, but what the tapering. The last couple of weeks, your body just builds up the steam, the steam, the steam, again, a lot of mileage, a lot more than maybe people may be used to, and that I was used to.
But when that tapering happens, that marathon happens you just take off and you trust your training. And I hooked up with patients. That's why. Based over the years. So many times with the running addicts, Lynn and the rest of the, uh, Albert fam out of San Francisco, all these guys, they really have helped me. You guys know some of them.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:27:22]
Oh yeah. I know Albert. Yeah, absolutely. He's fast. He's fast guy for sure.
###### Adam Duran: [00:27:28]
He's probably on right now.
It was Albert , VIN. No, paced me in Modesto and I fell apart right at 23 miles. Right. And, uh, but they were, I was right there with them. I was going to get    my Boston, my wheels fell off and I said, I was so close, but I would never quit. But those guys helped me so much with their mindsets.
I finally, I qualified down in Southern California, the mountain to beach marathon. We started in Ohio, California down to Ventura.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:27:59]
Ventura.
###### Adam Duran: [00:28:00]
Funny, uh, those Pacers, I love Pacers and that's why I love pacing and, uh, how important it is for people that really want to hit a PR or just some like a Boston or whatever.
And, uh, I've paced many places with the running addicts, uh, all through Northern California, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, um, Sacramento, uh, LA Fresno, just trying to give back.
But, uh, so that was that breakthrough that I, you just don't quit. You just, I've never failed. I just found a different way not to do it. That's all I go, okay. I will do that again. And I got better each time I got closer and closer until finally I hit it in Ohio. And then since then, I've, I've, I've done pretty well after that. And, uh, I just know that there's no limits. The only limits you have is what you set for yourself.
### The Boston Marathon
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:28:41]
Well, let's talk about the breakthrough and where it propelled you to the 2014,    I'm gonna talk about that first Boston marathon experience from a participant perspective. Wow. But also Adam, as a member of law enforcement as well.
###### Adam Duran: [00:28:53]
Yeah. It was a big deal. Uh, so the balmy, I think was 2013 and it was the 2013 or 2014 was the bombing.    Was April 15th, 2013. And I ran in 14.
And so when I ran, it was obviously a big deal. There was a million people, 1 million people on the sidelines of that, of that marathon. It was so emotional. Of course they had, you know, set up where the shoes were, the bombing and it was just, you're just kind of looking at it. And I remember when it happened, I mean, I was glued to the TV.
I mean, tears were, I mean, I don't wanna think about it right now, but tears rolling down my eyes. The people that were there. Right. But I knew that point I was going to qualify and I was going to get there.
And then, um, in 2013, I qualified, I ran in 2014, but to be there after the bombing so much to me, and to see so many, uh, law enforcement personnel in the military, the military national guard was out there.
It was probably the safest place in the United States at the time for that day Patriots day in, um, in Boston. But the people are to that event. I think Meb (Keflezighi) may have won that year. He, uh, it was for an American, I know where he's from Eritrea but he's American and we claim him.
But, uh, for Meb to win and it was so overwhelming the feeling, I will never forget it. 1 million people there were on the roofs. Throughout, uh, Hopkinson, Hopkinson all the way into Boston. And when you went into the bus from Boston out there to that school, where they stage you and you come back in and all the people were just there. They were treating you like you are royalty. I mean, everywhere you went, the people that are restaurants that got you to the front of the line and you felt bad.
Yeah. Like people were waiting in line, but they didn't care. They wanted you to the front of the line. So at that point I saw what runners do. And Lynn Lynn Nguyen. Oh. With their running addicts, how much him and his wife. Give back to the community. They work so hard raising money and helping people. And how many the runners, I mean, I'll be honest with you.
I've hardly ever seen an unhappy runner. Now. I do know the dopamine that serotonin everything that happens within the chemicals in your body. I'm like, I knew that I have a book. I think it's at work called spark and all the chemicals that it's a real phenomenon that happens within you when you get the cardio up.
So when you think happiness, do you feel better after a gym workout? It wasn't just the satisfaction of doing it, which is part of it. But there actually was a chemical reaction that you had within yourself that, and then the confidence and your self esteem builds. And then you, what can you do more? And what can you do more?
You want to give, you want to accomplish? I tell you, you want to grind and people where I work, some people ask, why are you still there? And to be honest with you, and I hope it does not sound too like terrible, right? It's not what I'm getting anymore. It's what I'm becoming.
My department is, has given me an opportunity to become something that I never thought I could become and to give back at a level I never thought I can give back to, I didn't have the confidence. But that my department has enabled me to do that and the opportunities. Yeah.
Yeah. I had to study. Yes, I, so I thank God, not only for their ability to run, but I think God also for the desire to want to use that ability. So either way I can't brag about myself, I have to do it in humility and thinking I wouldn't have anything.
And now I can give everything I have. And the more I give, the more I become
###### Kevin Chang: [00:32:15]
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