February 11, 2021
###### John Brust: [00:00:00]
Well, John, the running Coach, it's simply about to enjoy this journey. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, time doesn't matter to me. I mean, yes it does. If people, whatever their goals are, so maybe time goals. So maybe to cross the finish line to do their first marathon. I mean, Even before that do to 5k couch, to 5k kind of stuff.
So I want people to know that, that we're not concerned about what their times are per se. that's up to them and I'll support them any way we can. I always like to think about the idea in training. You're going to get better if you're consistent.
So consistency is King in training.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:00:33]
Hello and welcome to the RaceMob podcast. This is episode number 35.
I'm Kevin entrepreneur technology and fitness nerd, and the founder of RaceMob. I'm joined by master motivator, founder of two legit fitness co-chair of the Taji 100 RRCA certified coach USA, track and field certified official, the incomparable Bertrand Newson.
There are very few people on this planet like John. When you talk to him, you get this instant warmth and genuinely welcoming feeling. It's no wonder he was named RRCAs club president of the year.
He kind of has this boyish enthusiasm for the sport, and yet he clearly fosters a culture of care and community by embodying those principles.
In this episode, you'll learn about John's background. And I think he's the first collegiate steeple chaser that we've interviewed. We talk about the importance of community and family, especially when you're chasing big goals or when heartbreak happens.
We dive into what makes the San Francisco Roadrunner's club so successful. And there are some great takeaways for our own community. Plus we get to hear all about John's globe trotting adventures, including how he finished a marathon on every single continent. And yet that includes Antarctica.
This episode is brought to you by RaceMob and inclusive community for endurance athletes. If you like our podcast, you'll love our YouTube channel, where we keep you up to date with news from the running world and give you tips that will help you improve your running. Check us out by searching RaceMob on YouTube and subscribe today.
You can find all the show notes online at racemob.com/podcast. And without further ado here's our conversation.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:02:17]
All right, raceMob family. Welcome to our podcast and we are in for a real treat: John Brust. President of the San Francisco road, runners club, avid runner running coach, and someone who you will hear very shortly can inspire anyone from couch to finish line. Welcome,
###### John Brust: [00:02:37]
John. Thank you. It's an honor and pleasure to be with you.
And Kevin Coach V and I met about, is it about, about three years ago and RRCA. Level one coaching clinic actually at one of your hotels. Wasn't that? Yeah.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:02:50]
Correct. Running certification is such an high demand that every time I think we probably may have both looked, it was sold out. So I said, what the heck, I'm just going to go ahead and contact the organization in post to training that way and guaranteed to get a slot.
I'm glad that that happened because now I have a friend for life.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:03:06]
That's fantastic. So, , John talked to us about how you got into the sport of running.
###### John Brust: [00:03:10]
It was pretty much, uh, possibly a little bit in the blood.
I mean, our parents were runners. I'd say our parents, my brother and I, our moms every weekend, it seemed like in Milwaukee, there's a little church, had it, had a running race or something around the city. So we'd go and there'd be beer afterwards for the parents. And the kids would just run the race and there'd be a lot of prizes and quite fun.
And that's how we just started doing it. It was not competitive per se, but then we just enjoyed this experience in, and our parents had fun of it. How did they raise it? And they did, they went their best, but it was more like they weren't training for it per se. And that's how I got into it. I just ran in high school and had a lot of fun and we had a good team in high school and continue to run in college.
And then after that, then I took a break and it's like, you just gotta gather yourself and try some new things. And then our mom passed away about let's see, about eight years ago. I remember after she passed away, I thought I was gonna be the one consoling Chris. And yet it was him consoling me. I said, how are we gonna get through this, Chris?
He said, well, why don't you take up running again? And that's when I started running and I joined the San Francisco road runners club. And that was about eight years ago.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:04:08]
What were you running in college? Was it track, was it shorter distances or...?
###### John Brust: [00:04:12]
No, no. I have no short distance speed at all. I wished I did. I said at one point, I remember saying to my dad now, dad, what am I going to go run fast for like the 800 meters? Or like the sprints? He said, John, you may not be able to your distance. I ran steeplechase in college. So I always felt that it was fun.
I was a distance runner, two miler in high school. That was my distance. I'm like, all right, I can do the 10,000 meters, 5,000 meters of course. Cross country. Yes. But to add a little bit of something else in there would be good because it gives me a, maybe a little bit of an edge. I always felt like had a little bit of agility, not much, but just a little bit to maybe get a little advantage over the guys in the steeple chase.
So that's what I did. And it was a fun event too. So he jumped over the water barrier and then you have other barriers along the way and ...
###### Kevin Chang: [00:04:54]
That seems like a blast. Yeah. During the Olympics, that's probably the only time I ever watch it. And it looks good.
###### John Brust: [00:05:00]
Your shoes are always wet at the end, guaranteed. At least at our level. I mean, sometimes they can jump over the entire way, but generally not, you know.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:05:08]
Coach do you want to talk about any wipe outs?
###### John Brust: [00:05:11]
I mean, over the steeple, over the barrier, have I fallen in? Yeah, I definitely did, but I can't remember this point coach "B".
###### Kevin Chang: [00:05:17]
That's awesome. When did you move out to San Francisco
###### John Brust: [00:05:20]
area?
So I went to business school back home. I went to Colorado after undergrad and moved, moved to Vail, became a ski instructor out there. I timed it to graduate in December. So my parents would allow me not to go onto graduate school. And ah, so I taught skiing for five years full time and it was one of the great gifts, wonderful time of my life.
And I was going to go back after the, you know, that to school. And then I kept pushing that back because I was scared. There's wonderful people. And I said, Whoa, well, I'm not going to get access to these kinds of people to get to ski with us ski with different presences of different organizations. I was teaching privates at one point kept from my final years.
And, uh, Oh, it was great, great opportunity. And then they, they, most of them were businessmen and I... I said, all right. I think business school is the right fit for me. So I went back to Notre Dame for business school. And then after that came out here late 2001. And, uh, that's I want to work with Oracle.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:06:06]
Talk to us about that transition back into running. So you had mentioned that your mom passed away. Did you find it cathartic? Comforting? What was it that brought you to kind of back
###### John Brust: [00:06:16]
into running? Oh, it was all that comforting cathartic, a way to, you know, just kinda to realize, get rid of the sadness and out there running, you can see all the beautiful things and is as it's quite enjoyable, the way to get, to get my mind thinking differently.
And then I started realizing the community is so good. And it's like, gosh, I can't do this alone. The community is what makes us think doable. And the reason we're not, not just, of course I couldn't run the times without the community, like in college or high school, you have the team to run with. So that makes it a little bit easier.
But after that trip, train for a marathon solo, I tried to do it a few times. I couldn't quite do it in this case out here, San Francisco Roadrunners have just had a real nice group of people. Well, boy, I think I would like to run to them and that's how it began.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:06:54]
Coach how did you find them?
###### John Brust: [00:06:55]
It was after the bar and bombing.
Was that, was that 2013, I think?
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:06:58]
Yes.
###### John Brust: [00:06:59]
It does right then. And my mom passed away early 2013 in January. And so I'm like, gosh, they're going to. Run for Boston. They wrote, I think, Oh no, they just rocked the board Boston. And it was a Tuesday track night, I think. And that, gosh, I'm going to do, I need to join them for that.
And then I joined them. I'm like, what a nice group of people. And then I started kind of dabbled. I'm like, ah, I'm not sure if I really want to do this. And that's how I found them. I think I must have looked it up on the internet.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:07:21]
Talk to us, I guess about that welcoming experience, because you know, we've seen some clubs. It might be hard to get ingrained. It might be hard to get introduced. So do you have any tips for people that are going to their first, you know, club track meet...
###### John Brust: [00:07:35]
Yeah. And it's, it's a great question. I mean, I think it's been intimidating for a lot of people in the past.
It still is. Particularly if you haven't run or you haven't run it a while at say. I came back. I was a runner that was somewhat easy to transition, but what we did for example, a couple years ago, we started this race club ambassador program for the San Francisco Roadrunners. And the idea behind the ambassadors is to kind of reach out to those runners who might be coming for the first time.
And they're, they're kind of standing outside, their arms might be crossed who was this group of people that seems to all be laughing and having fun together. And so they are ambassadors will, may reach out and say, Hey, I'm John. And say, Oh, I'm Kevin. I was like, Kevin great to meet you.
So your first time joining us, we'll kind of get to know you a little bit and say, Oh, you listen, what pace you're on? Okay, good. You know, eight 30 pace we'll come on in. We're gonna have you join Ned's group today and you might join. And rather than now, he's the eight 30 pace group leader or is he the eight actually, but nonetheless, that's the way these things start.
And we're trying to really reach out to those people who might feel intimidated or uncomfortable or whatever it might be and just make it really welcoming for everybody that that's truly one of our, our main focus is I would say.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:08:34]
Coach how large is the run club?
###### John Brust: [00:08:38]
Before COVID we are over 500 people. So, right now we're, we've dropped of course. And the way it's going to work, I believe is people are welcome back whenever they want. We hope they can stay with us.
We're trying to do things in the meantime, for example, the keep that community engaged and keep them involved and keep the community alive as best as possible.
So we're doing our winter film festival this Sunday night, for example. Oh, we got to show a movie what we're going to throw four different movies. And we're using the software called Kira alive. The gentlemen in our club actually are the co-founders of this and allows us to all watch a movie together.
And then last time they were about 20 people on from the club. And you can, you can press the space bar and kind of give feedback on that movie or like during the movie when it's live.
So we're trying to find ways to keep engaged. Coach "B" um, we did, we do scavenger hunts when I started to see the city, so we can't run together, but we say, all right, we put clues out for these different popular places in the city and feel can take pictures next to those are just ways to keep people engaged. And we're trying to do a lot of those things and get creative.
This coming year, doing more. We'll have to do some races. You know, I end up feeling a little bit sick of virtual races. Hopefully we're back to run together sooner than later, but, you know, nonetheless, wait, we're trying to, and I know, I know that our next president, Matt is in team are gonna plan for ways to engage people and get.
Yeah. Things going into the less, uh, races and things like this. So does that answer it a little bit?
###### Kevin Chang: [00:09:55]
Yeah, absolutely. That's incredible. Okay. 2013, you're starting, you've joined the sprung club. You said that you had tried training for marathons in the past. Was the goal. Like, let me try to do a marathon.
So talk to us, I guess, about getting back into the sport and what was that progress like?
###### John Brust: [00:10:13]
Well, I'm no different than anybody else. What I'm going to say is. Is despite being a runner. Now I do know there's no rushing this process.
Yeah. We want to get quicker, quick as fast as we can. So, I came back back in that January we actually ran. Our mom she passed away in early January. January 11th of 2013. We were planning and doing the roll marathon with her. She's from Ireland, she's a hundred percent Irish and she said, we're going to do it as he made it St. Patrick's day, the Rome marathon.
So she passed away and our dad and a brother, and the way we cancel that race. And how about, about three weeks later? My dad said, John, what do you think? Should we do this race? And my brother and I talked about it, we said, all right, let's do the Rome marathon.
So we did that and my time with let's say it's about four 30, four, 25. I can't remember what the time was. Exactly. But. Nonetheless, we did it because we love to run. That was the, kind of the motivator to do these.
My most favorite runs are the ones that didn't go for time. Let's say, I mean, we travel and we do these different races and of course, don't get me wrong.
The PRS are wonderful races. The ones truly rewarding, of course. And the journey to get there equally rewarding as well. I got back. I'm like, let, let's just, I hadn't trained properly, ever trained for a marathon. Just got their run. I thought, okay. And let's just go out and run. And my, my brother would tell me what he was doing.
And I'm like, I'll try that, try some long runs and things like that. But then I came, we had a little structure here in the club and I'm like, all right, let's fall from their training programs. And so I did that and the next goal was to train or to, to qualify for Boston. And that was just like, and my heart, that's what I did.
I couldn't breathe. I got three 22. I couldn't, I need to get below that. And I, I got three 22 and again, like, ah, this is, ah, come on. This is horrible. Anyway, then you commit to and be like, okay, you gotta, you gotta really stick to the plan, get, get some miles in. And just, uh, about like I said, just enjoy the process.
And then we try to try to do that. And it's easy to enjoy the process when you have people around you and a nice, nice group of people.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:12:00]
So I guess you were training for Boston. I'm assuming yes. You got it?
###### John Brust: [00:12:05]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got, Oh my gosh, you got that. Uh, and uh, it's really the time to get the, whether it's Boston or the other races you can, you can qualify for or whatever when you hit those goals.
But for me, qualified for Boston, that was the thing. I mean, that was like, wow, that was a different me. It was down in mountains to beach. And you're coming down that long Hill. I don't know. Let's say you drop it by a thousand vertical feet in the whole race. Little bit of a cheater course, nonetheless.
It's cool. You still qualify for Boston. And I remember that. Oh, it was, it was a great feeling. But then, then getting at the race and it's emotional. First of all, I qualified for Boston, even at the race I didn't expect, but you never know when emotion is going to hit you in the middle of a race or at the end of a race, but it does.
It's just some of the special gifts that come with the sport and the joys of it. And the beauty of it. Now, let's say too
###### Kevin Chang: [00:12:49]
incredible. And did you have a team? Were people there with you when you were running both your qualifying race and then I'm dying to dig into Boston experiences?
###### John Brust: [00:12:58]
Okay. We can talk about that yesterday.
I went down with a couple of the fellows from the club. We went down to the mountains, the beach, for example, and. I believe we were all trying to qualify. And I don't remember how many of us did, but I was with my friend, Dave Stelmach and Dave, and I would train or do my repeats so often to get ready for this race.
And, and, uh, it was such a joy. I remember at the end, Hep having this cheers at the end of the beer garden, so to speak. Now, I felt like I was back in Milwaukee. You know, the way that, you know, the taps are flowing and things like this, but.
That's the thing, when you hit your goal in the goal could be anything. The goal could be breaking five hours, let's say, or whatever, even breaking four let's say, or whatever might be to hit those things. Is it specialist special time? And I say, listen to enjoy the journey. Even small little wins. Like if you do a 5k and you hit it, PR and five go, you hit the time you want to hit celebrate. Enjoy these little milestones along the way.
Our mom was really good with celebrating the little victories. Whenever my brother would run a race, any race, she would have a cake with Chris and Nick, congratulations, Chris, and like the race and stuff like that. Like, Oh, it's just, is it a lot of fun. And that's why I try to remember to bring fun in this whole thing, because everyone gets a little bit happy then.
I always try to do something a little bit special at then these races for whoever I'm with or whoever the team might be, that we're with.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:14:07]
I love it. Yeah. That's always been our philosophy is that races are more fun with friends or while you're making friends, because it can be about the time it can be crossing the finish line, but it's really more about the experience. It really is more about that race day experience. And that's fantastic
###### John Brust: [00:14:22]
Someone said to me, once it's like the victory lap for all the training, you know, and it really kind of is. And then you got to execute well.
I tell people, I said, all right, Mr. Coach, what should we do for the race, for the marathon?
We had at the CIM last year, not this past year, the year before, I think it was I 2019, we had Carlos was a race captain for that race. And we had it at the dinner the night before for the San Francisco Roadrunners.
Suzanne has Italian restaurant up there in Sacramento. We had the whole backroom, let's say 20. Plus people 25 to let's say. And at the end, I said, as a coach, and as it fell out, tell us, first of all, share your time. If you're comfortable doing that, what you want to get, if that's even a goal.
But secondly, the people I coach know this already, tell us what your first mile is going to be. So I made a point, I told my first mile time, and then you're accountable to it. And I always say, listen, make your first mob, the slowest mile, the entire race, because then you're likely going to have a good race because you're not going to motor out too quickly.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:15:15]
I love it. Yeah. I mean, that is great coaching advice. First of all, because that's the same advice you always give. Right? Coach "B", I mean, there's always the negative split. You can't win a race at the first mile, but you sure can lose the race in the first mile.
###### John Brust: [00:15:30]
So true.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:15:31]
Been there.
###### John Brust: [00:15:32]
Been there as well,
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:15:34]
live and learn.
###### John Brust: [00:15:35]
I mean, I always tell people I've been like, I think of , some of the younger fellows or gals . One of the young gentlemen, I remembered it and he said, John, what should I do? I told him that same thing. I said, I got to try to put him up to the task.
He said, Jonathan anxiety, I didn't do the work too quickly. And I said, you're going to learn yourself. But ideally, if you can learn to listen to, we're going to try to lead you down a good path. We really are. Um, but you gotta learn you're on your own. Yeah.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:15:57]
Yeah. Sometimes you got to learn too, we've all been there for sure.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:16:01]
As Kevin mentioned, we all want to, you know, peel back the layers and understand your race day experience in Boston. But you also have referenced your brother on a couple occasions that you both love running. Is there any sibling rivalry.
###### John Brust: [00:16:14]
In high school? I was the faster, from a time perspective. And then we got to, um, he didn't run in college or anything like this.
And he, so we started running in and he he's just started running marathons. Now he'd done run two or three or four before and started running one. I think the first one. Let's see, I was the first, I didn't even run one before he qualified for Boston. I went up, I was in down school in Indiana, South bend, I drove up to the Chicago marathon and he wanted to qualify for Boston at the time is three 10.
Let's say he was, 10 and that's supposed to do this, but I paced him in, you know, for a few of those miles in the backstretch. It was us. So he ran, let's say three Oh six that day. I'm like, boy, this is crazy. And so at that point I couldn't break through, for six months, I said, I was trying to break that three 22. Couldn't do it.
If, you really want to do things you can commit to it, you can do anything you want get dream big. You put a plan in front of you and you can do whatever you want. And that's when I started to chip away to stuff and had a lot of fun with it, coach, "B".
It's a healthy, reliable ride, but I want him to crush it. I want him to have a great race and now he's just running. It has a lot of fun out there. We got him in the Hoka shoes last year. So he's into that before he's in the noodles. He likes the color from Newson shoes and, uh, Oh, he's having a lot of fun.
So he's looking to get back into running himself because he's taken a few years off just because he's been doing other things as well, working a lot.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:17:26]
Well, he's going to listen to this podcast will be plenty expired that is his brother, put him on the spot. So I asked the question. So, anything to get it moving.
###### John Brust: [00:17:34]
he ran his 40th marathon a couple of years ago. So I think he's, let's say 42 right now. We went down to Disney world and I went down there with him and. I saw him cross the finish line. I didn't, it was a tough day. It's warm and always emotional for all, both of us, but he crossed the finish line at his, in his 40th year, in his 40th marathon.
And these are the things that he dreams with his eyes wide open. He really does. And that inspires me so much. So I love my brother and he inspires me. And it's great to have that as somebody encouraged me to get out the door and get, get some miles in. With him or solo, but thanks for letting me talk of him, Coach. "B"
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:18:06]
awesome. Awesome. Boston, take us through that journey that weekend, the weekend, the expo. If you did a shakeout run the day before the meal prep the anticipation. Yeah. Take us there through your eyes.
###### John Brust: [00:18:18]
Let's go back to just the most recent one 2019. And because I'll tell you about that whole community experience or that we had, we have a race captains now for a racist and the race captain puts together a dinner the night before.
And that was Alejandra was the race captain for the last one, I'm pretty positive. She and her husband had this great Italian restaurant with gluten-free pasta, for those who want that, or need that prior to the race.
We'd tell people as a coach, I said, listen, the exports wonderful, but don't walk on the eczema forever. Try to get there. You know, the racism Monday, trying to get through on the race bikes for Friday afternoon, maybe, maybe Saturday. Maybe Sunday. But don't walk too much on Sunday.
Yes, we shake our runs. Yes, of course we do check it runs. We did a club shake. I run that with the, um, I believe it was the Sunday morning.
We had an ADM run. We met at the, at the finish line there we had about the last time we did that. We had about 18 from the club qualified. We had about 12 or 13 ish. Wow. For a shakeout. When we basically did the last, uh, a little less than three miles. What about, yeah, about a little over a mile out, maybe, maybe a mile and a half out in my left back, but super slowly.
I mean, there's easy it, and there's also like out runs, which is even slower. I mean, you don't want to tire any bit of your body up, but you just, you just want to get their heart moving and heart pumping. And that's what we did. And, uh, and that was a lot of fun. And then that night, you know, basically to put the legs up against the wall, you know, read a book whenever you're good.
You rest the legs as much as you can. Of course go to the expo. We go to the, the normal tech machinery, put those little booties on your leg and we'd hang out at the normal tech. We're all kind of circling the normal tech. We came, we became friends with those guys there. And, uh, that was good fun on that night.
Was it the night before? Yeah, the night before we met for dinner, we'd like to have our dinner about, usually about, you know, get the dinner in the bite at least 12 hours before the race. But we had our dinner that night. I think we met at about 5:00 PM. This Italian restaurant got done early, got out there about seven and later that night, I think I had few snacks or whatever like that before I went to bed because the race is a little bit later, Boston starts a little bit later.
It starts at, I want to say 10:00 AM and there's a different corrals and things like that. And it's a lot of fun cause they bus you out the 26 miles. Dab Keaton and, uh, it's special. I mean, you're surrounded by everybody and no one really talked . Yeah. They support each other in the, in this whole process because it's the process to really, to get there.
It doesn't matter if your, decision is to cross the finish line, enjoy the journey, or if they hit a time, oftentimes it's somewhere in the middle. It oftentimes the weather there, you can never really know. Never really know. So that's always a challenge.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:20:42]
And how was the weather that year?
###### John Brust: [00:20:43]
Let's see this past year, this past year we did, it was warm.
I don't know. Let's see. So it was too warm for me. I had trained Ashley in car rides had gone to Colorado prior to that, as it never got above 30 degrees Fahrenheit. And, uh, so I'm out there. Hot train high out there thinking, okay. Hope hoping for Cola. So here it's this, you know, 70 degree day or not even barely in a warm up starts stuff at the beginning.
So it's too warm. I do better. Some people do better. Most of us do better and cool weather but, um, yeah, that's just how that goes. So nothing to really say about Boston. I've had, my first two experiences were wonderful. I crossed my first sub three was Boston. it was emotional experience for me. and then that's it, that's it. The second year kind of similar experience. Yeah. Also emotional. You don't expect that.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:21:27]
You said your mother had passed away. Your brother had put the bug in your to start back running again, where you running.
I mean, I'm probably asking the obvious was that first Boston experience dedicated to your mother running with her and on your, in your heart and on your mind?
###### John Brust: [00:21:39]
Oh, for sure. You know, a lot of those early, a lot of those early, you know, years, shortly after like baskets for mom. I mean, I had some bibs. I'd write her to write her name on there for mom.
mom and I are so close and, uh, loved her immensely. She has a school teacher. She taught in the public school system for 30 years and she had just this heart of gold and then soft heart. She loved everybody so much and taught. She was a reading specialist for much of the time and taught the children who had problems, reading, brought them in and, and worked with them to help them learn, to read.
And she just instilled that care for people in us. And, she was really a well loved woman as I think back and we'll get into that too much, but, you know, it's just, it just and encouragement for me to kind of try to treat people the same way and try to love people and give gifts myself.
And that all comes back to mom. At least at the time she was so well cared for, and people liked her a lot. And. We admire our mom very much.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:22:27]
Yeah. I brought that up. You shared some wonderful stories and thank you for that. I should.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:22:31]
Thank you. And perfect segway into John. The Coach coaching, helping other runners at all different , abilities, all different types.
So what are some tips that you try to instill into runners. What are some of the mistakes you've seen runners make and talk us kind of through your philosophy as John, the running Coach.
###### John Brust: [00:22:54]
Well, John, the running Coach, it's simply about to enjoy this journey. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, time doesn't matter to me. I mean, yes it does. If people, whatever their goals are, so maybe time goals. So maybe to cross the finish line to do their first marathon. I mean, Even before that do to 5k couch, to 5k kind of stuff.
So I want people to know that, that we're not concerned about what their times are per se. that's up to them and I'll support them any way we can. I always like to think about the idea in training. You're going to get better if you're consistent. So consistency is King in training.
So you don't have to have perfect workouts, you have to have perfect wakes, but try to, you know, just try to get some miles in an easy mitochondria though, that little organ of the cell that holds in Dorrance and he build that base at time based on time and feet, not how fast we're going.
And how fast we're going we need that to get quicker for our races too, to dial the speed in. But those are things. And I also try to tell people it's a long journey and a long, I don't mean even three months long. I don't even mean a year long. I mean, closer to three years long in longer, you can't run your best marathon your first year back.
Even for me is, uh, you know, I was quick in high school for example, and I can't come back and run fast marathons, but you need years. Of that cumulative mileage to start to build up and in your system to train your system for this stuff.
So I tell people that just enjoy the journey there's no, no race here. Yeah. You'll be fast. Of course you can. We can get you quick. And the first in three months, um, no question about that, but we can get you quicker if you're in this for the long run, think long in the sport, you know, go long on, on running because it's something that can be around with you for a long, long time.
We have one runner, let's just say in her seventies, I'll go with that. And she's an inspiration to a lot of us. She was actually her name's Chao Smith. She was picked up by polka this past year. They have an ambassador program. They choose a different people from different regions and they picked her up and she ran like, for example, on, on Christmas Eve this year, she ran, you know how we have a 49 mile?
Like you could, you could run the 49 bar drive the 49 mile drive. Yeah. The scenic 49. Yeah. She ran the 49 mile drive on Christmas Eve when her husband was in the, on the bike next to her, a lot of the time taking pictures and stuff, she said at the end, hurt her, watch that it came out to about 52 miles because she missed a few spots.
But that's just an example because we're in this for long one boy, is it rewarding for the body, you know, for the health, for the mind, for the friendships, all this kind of stuff, it's just. There's so many benefits to running. Anyhow, if you can keep it up, we try to encourage our dad. Our dad walks now because he had a knee problem and he had to get a knee replacement and things like this, but he can still run, but more and more walks.
It's just, it's, it's such a cathartic sport, like kind of like Coach "B", as I mentioned earlier, let's let off the steam and anyhow, it makes such good decisions. After, after run.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:25:35]
For so many of our athletes. It really is about getting them to fall in love with the sport, getting them to fall in love with the time on the feet, because you know, again, you're in San Francisco, we're in Silicon Valley.
People can get busy work, get in the way, all that stuff, but I mean, A, can you get them to be consistent to go out there to think about activity levels, their body, and then B can you build that community to help encourage them along the way? And so. That's something else. Do you guys have done a fantastic and phenomenal job of is building community .
So can you talk to us a little bit about, okay, how do we get these newcomers into the community? You talk a little bit to us about some of the events that you're holding and whatnot. What do you think are some of the secret sauces to the community that you've built up there?
###### John Brust: [00:26:21]
Well, it's really comes down to caring for people's wellbeing and happiness and generally doing so we attract people.
I would say, I mean, truly one of our best outlet. Yeah, of course the website's fine, but our website still looks like it's a little older, you know, like circuit, like 2005, let's say. Nonetheless, but if you can attract people in many ways, word of mouth number one, of course. Um, but also social media and we have ode and Lisa running social media for us running Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, let's say as well.
And the, these average, if you show people, if people can see people, Kevin each other, they're having fun. They're smiling. They're actually getting out. They're just, they're laughing a little bit, the way you right now, we're trying to get good models we're now. And, and just trying to just be good ambassadors of the sport.
People are attracted to that and it would just try to have it. Fun activity. Our litmus test is, but being would Kevin Bertrand Coach "B" and John, what would we do this activity on her own? And if the answer is yes, then let's try it as a club.
For example, we, last year we started our first running camp. Like I want to go to a cool running camp. Like yeah, that sounds awesome. So we were like, and it was, let's do it for the club then. So we w we chose a place reward with Catholic charities and they have a camp up in. In Occidental and they let us use the camp that weekend.
It's tricky because you have to find it from an insurance standpoint. We had a fun, perfect weekend to do it that weekend. We were up there. It had to be, , you know, only adults on campus, let's say. So we had this fun activities and like, I want to go do this thing.
So we brought, brought in great speakers. We brought a Yogi in there. Her name is Jenny Meyer. She became kind of our partner in this whole idea of. Keeping a few people of fit and engaged in, in moving during this COVID period as well.
So we, you know, we brought it for camp. She drove to Occidental, we brought up other, you know, other good coaches and it just had a lot of fun and explored, you know, the Sonoma coast up there one day.
Other, other days would run along through the redwoods from the camp area in the fall, we did a fall retreat. Like I want to take a what Richard let's get away. In other words, Went down to Pacifica. And we had a data on there. We started with an early morning run and we ran it. People can choose right along the, along the water that we had lunch for everybody down there, we had great coach come back down there. We had another yoga on the beach .
And these kinds of things, we're just trying to do fun activities. And from there we just, you know, just had to keep doing these things particularly during COVID we had to kind of get creative and we had, Oh gosh, everyone on the team got so creative.
The whole born and this pace group leaders and finding creative ways to, to gather together safely and things like this as well.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:28:45]
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###### Bertrand Newson: [00:29:03]
Coach why should a runner consider retaining a Coach there's so much free information out there. People can go online and read and follow their own plan. What are the benefits on someone getting advice from a running coach and why should they really consider it?
###### John Brust: [00:29:17]
I would say a couple of thoughts on that. Number one would be accountability. If you have somebody who's going to like, watch you help you be your partner along this road, it's going to be a lot easier to get to that goal. Whatever that goal might be. I coach one gentlemen, for example, Ashley, uh, late sixties, he's in Massachusetts.
And I asked the same thing. Why do you want to work with me? He said, John, I, I, my program, it we're basically Coach Jack Daniels as the platform for what we do. And he said on that, I want to hear what you have to do. He likes ideas. I'm into slow running on that 80/20 plan. I know Coach "B" you guys do a lot of that as well.
80% slow. For easy, let's go with the word easy 20% fast because, um, there is so much out there. Of course, people don't think they don't need it. They don't per se, but they do because Coach particularly, they know who they're going to bring in the Coach can help them get to that goal. Can tailor things, can answer questions that they might not be when they're Googling, whatever what's the best workout for.
A marathon or like they might not know the progression to get there. So those are just some things. What, what are your thoughts? What do you guys do, for example, what are the reasons that you asked for, or encourage people to work with you, with you all
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:30:19]
You turned that on us and I wanted it for our listeners. When you said Jack Daniels, I don't think you meant you referred to drink Jack Daniels as part of the running. Just maybe what it clarified. Who Jack down.
###### John Brust: [00:30:28]
Yeah, no, Jack Daniels is an exercise physiologist. I study at the university of Wisconsin. I would say right now he's in his cash. Can I even say as in as eighties? Yes. I think he is.
He's the been the coach for numerous Olympic marathoners. It's basically, um, there's no shortcuts to Jack it's, it's basically get your base miles and, go easy sometimes. Easy means easy, you know, eight he's similar to Fitzgerald and the 80, 20, 80% easy, 20% faster, let's say.
yeah, so that's a Coach Jack Daniels is. And he has a couple of great books called, Jack Deanna's running formula. The results in these things are incredible. I mean, like I said, I was trying to break three 22 and I didn't have any proper coaching at that point, nor was I even fallen our coaching program for San Francisco Roadrunners.
Now we actually, we incorporate a lot of Jack Daniels into our program, but then I started following the Jack Dennis program. Like, alright, let's we can get down to step three. No, we can go from that. We can keep breaking down what we thought was. Previously we thought was impossible, but actually all the, whatever you want your heart wants.
And if you, if you have a plan to get there, there, it's hard to get places alone, maybe at the end. That's why a Coach, because particularly if you don't have teammates around, if you, if you're not running with the San Francisco rotors or the in paws or, you know, your team down there, Coach, "B". They have a coach is so helpful to bounce ideas off of to ask questions, you know, manifold benefits to it. For sure.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:31:46]
I agree. I agree. Wholeheartedly coaches have been down those roads before we know the paths. We know the most efficient paths. We know what speed to, to cruise on. We know when to take a pit stop and being able to be that roadmap for the athletes, giving them direction and having them articulate what their goal is, and then picking, you know, if there's a goal race, a goal distance uh, goal time being able to work with them and giving them confidence.
And as you mentioned that the gentleman who you said you work with out of state, the level of accountability, someone that is going to check in with you and see how it's going. And if there's a bit of a lull, you can pivot. But the level of accountability and having community around the athlete as well is a huge, , level of motivation and inspiration so.
###### John Brust: [00:32:31]
All these things are true. And then also for example, next week, the gentlemen on Coach, he's running in Martha's vineyard marathon, which is, I want to say it's in may timeframe, basically right now it's easy miles. We were starting to bring in some fartlek stuff, you know, once a week. And then the weekend we're starting to bring in some other threats, either shorter, easier staff, marathon pay threshold stuff.
But then, um, but also I said, listen, next week we're taking a down week because you can't always be wrapping up. Yes. You've heard this idea of no more than 10% a week. Now, if you're going to keep going that you have more of a chance to get injured.
part of the reason we want to have people that I want people to have fun out there, enjoy the process, but also not get injured and they might not no that,
Oh yeah, let's take a step back week. So this week we're actually going from, like, let's say 80% of our maximum peak mileage. 65 and then next week we'll jumping jump up to 80 and then we're kind of, stair-step our way up. For example, one example where coaches can help you from get injured. They can help you get faster.
They can share with you what different philosophies might be, what what's worked for people in their situation. Id say,