Kevin Chang - RaceMob founder tells his story, fitness journey, and vision

###### Kevin Chang: [00:00:00]
And so it wasn't until I ended up at Tiny Prints that we got a dog, we got a puppy and I started to eat healthier because Hey, new life, you new job, new lease on life. Something that I'm looking forward to, I want to feel better. I want to do better for myself. And so I started to eat better and I said, okay, I'm going to walk my dog every day.
And so every day for 10 days, 15 days, 30 days, I was doing this little jog and that 15 minutes, you know, ended up being turning into a mile eventually. And it ended up turning into two miles and then it ended up turning into three miles and I realized, you know, two or three months in that my dog was always, she wouldn't let me take a day off.
Hello and welcome to the RaceMob podcast. This is episode number 13, 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, RRC a certified coach USA track and field certified official, the incomparable Bertrand Newson.
So some of you may be asking, who is this Kevin character? And what is this RaceMob all about? Well, this is the episode where we flip the camera. Or the microphone in this case on me, we dive into my background and why my parents and sister have provided constant motivation and are the driving force behind me.
We talk about my dog Kiah, which is short for Macchiato and how she helped me discover running and literally changed my life. From being overweight and self-conscious to living a healthier and happier life. And the many, many lessons learned along the way, it was this transformation that helped inspire me to create RaceMob, because to accomplish great things.
It takes a lot of support. Luckily I have the support of my wife. But the support of a community can be so powerful. It also helps to have guidance experience from athletes so that you don't have to make those mistakes. And what good are those amazing accomplishments? Unless you have a platform to share your stories and inspire the next generation.
Because all it takes is one step, one little change, something small. In my case, it was taking the dog on a walk. That's something small can help change somebody's life. So hopefully the story helps you in some little way. This episode is brought to you by RaceMob, and inclusive community for fitness enthusiasts.
Whether you're brand new to fitness or you're veteran athletes, we all need support, motivation and accountability. Our new community site launches on September 14th. Where we'll host online meetups challenges, giveaways, and live sessions with coach B myself and some of your favorite podcast guests.
We'll also be launching online training. Start with a group program like our couch to five K, or create your own custom program that suits your needs. Head over to https://racemob.com/training. Enter your fitness goals and schedule your free one on one coaching assessment with coach B, but you have to hurry.
We've only got a few limited spots available for this kickoff. Without further ado, let's get into our conversation.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:03:25]
Hello everybody. You are in for a real treat today. We have the one and only our very own Kevin Chang. Founder team, captain innovator, community inspire, uh, here to share his story on the RaceMob history, the relaunch 2.0 and him as an athlete and his vision of bringing the community closer together without further ado. Kevin, how are you today?
###### Kevin Chang: [00:03:58]
Oh, thank you. Thank you. Be good. I'm doing fantastic. I mean, especially this, this whole week, we've been, um, you know, talking with a lot of podcasts guests, we've been hearing just so many inspirational stories. You know, I was worried if my story will stack up with the rest of the folks that we have I have on the podcast, but at the same time, I'm hopeful that not every story has to be about.
Incredible incredible journey. Some of them can be, you know, everyday folks that have interesting stories to tell that we can relate to. So I'm hopeful that somebody finds my story interesting, and that I can help somebody along their journey.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:04:34]
Yes, it will. And you will. Everyone's story is unique.
Everyone's story resonates once you're open to share. And we're so thankful that almond just with your, your passion, your commitment, and you have done a lot and so much more to come. So let's jump in, man. Well, you're here in California, but we know you didn't grow up here. Uh, take us back, you know, parents, home, state, hometown school, and, and the like, I
###### Kevin Chang: [00:05:00]
definitely want to give a lot of props, a lot of credit to my parents.
They grew up in Taiwan and both grew up from very meager beginnings. I think my mom often tells the story about her growing up with, with 12 relatives in a single room. And my dad, similarly, you know, very, very meager meager beginnings. And, you know, often during those times, When we're talking about the sixties, you know, Taiwan was a very poor country, very poor nation, and a lot of kids didn't get the chance to even go to school, you know, high school or college.
Um, well, middle school as well. My mom was a gifted athlete and that actually allowed her to attend junior high and high school. She was the point guard for her basketball team and ended up setting all sorts of records in her high school in javelin and shot. Put. She was a fairly gifted athlete back in the day in a relatively small village in Hualien.
And so had it not been for athletics, she probably might not have been able to be afforded those opportunities to grow in her education. My dad, on the flip side, not an athlete at all, it's still like, you know, has, has problems like shooting a basketball. We'll hold it like, you know, with a, with your hands and whatnot.
But gifted intellectual math genius, literal math genius would walk into a classroom and would school, his teachers, and even his professors walked into college and would teach them, end up teaching them. And so they both got the opportunity to come to the U S after college. They went to Michigan State University right around the time when magic Johnson was there and that great rivalry with Larry Bird.
And my mom being a basketball fan was, you know, a huge, huge magic Johnson fan. Um, they're still, yeah, huge fans, but, but, you know, really had a really difficult time moving to the States, not knowing the language, not knowing English very well. You know, thankfully they just worked, they just worked at it and worked at it and worked at it.
My dad excelled in the academics and got his PhD. My mom worked and worked and worked at it and got her master's. I think she had ended up getting two masters. And so really my drive and my fortitude really comes from. They're want to live a better life and have a better life for their kids and the amount of work and effort that they put in to it.
And so, um, yeah, I was born in Colorado. I grew up in Colorado. It was interesting growing up in, you know, I think the state of Colorado is probably, at least at that time was about 99% Caucasian. And so we knew very, very few Asians. At all, we knew very, very few minorities at all. The closest grocery store that was Asian was about 40 minutes away.
Um, you know, it was quiet a drive away. And so it's really interesting because I think about growing off in, in that environment, which. You know, you don't think about it at the time, but sure. Or like you always stood out like a sore thumb. And it was interesting because my parents were great cooks, but they didn't have the ingredients on hand that they were used to cooking.
And so we grew up with, you know, the, our afternoon snacks were very processed foods. Uh, we had those. Frozen chimichanga burritos, you know, frozen French fries. You stick in the microwave, all the frozen pizzas, all of that pot pies. That was, I loved that food, that those TV dinners, you know, and like my parents would cook the Chinese food if they could and rice at every meal.
And I'd be like, no, I want to have Mac and cheese. I want to have, you know, this process processes it's food. So I didn't realize it, but I was growing up fairly unhealthy and. I think it was fifth grade or sixth grade. We had this like TV broadcast that we did used to do in the morning at the school. And I was one of the anchors and one of my friends had put on, Oh, Connie Chung is like, you know, a news anchor, a famous Asian news anchor at the time.
Well, he mistyped it and it said Kevin Chunk. And that was my nickname for two years. It stuck like that. Kevin Chunk, you know, and it's funny, these things that like. Stick with you after a while. Like, and so I had this relationship with food, with obesity, with those types of things, even growing up, you know, and my family was so focused on academics from a very, very, very early age.
You know, we did. A little bit of sports. Like I was enrolled in soccer and later in basketball and, but mainly the focus was on academics. You know, we would come home from school and it would be multiplication tables and it would be, you know, math, workbooks, and booklets and those types of things. And I remember, I mean, I guess it's, it's such an Asian stereotype, but.
I remember in fourth grade, very, very vividly. I got a C and it was a C in reading. I still remember this reading comprehension. And it was because I didn't like read an extra book or something. And my mom literally made me cry that she, she was on my case for that C and I didn't understand it as a child, you know, I was like, ah, C's average, C's average.
But she said, do you want to be average? That was what she's asked me. Do you want to be average? And so it's so funny. Cause it's like these moments in your mind, they stick with you for all of time. And so from a very, very young age, I knew, no, I don't want to be average. I always want to work that extra little bit to be beyond average.
So growing up. I ended up going to high school, about 20 miles away from my house, because there was this international baccalaureate program which had just started, they actually chose like a location. The only one in the County, they only allow one in the County. It was 20 miles North of where we were.
And, you know, 20 miles South of like the Northern border of the County. So you can imagine one school, all of the kids that wanted IB or, you know, these higher level classes from a 20 mile radius were all congregating on this one location. And for me was just an incredible experience because, you know, they brought in the best teachers in the County wanted to teach there because the kids wanted to learn.
You know, we've got to make amazing friends in high school, and I'm still extremely grateful for my parents for offering to drive me in the morning. We had a carpool of kids in my location, but that's quite a drive. That's quite a commitment to take your kid all the way to a high school. That's. Fairly far away, you know, taking those extra 30 or 40 minutes out of your morning, extra 30 or 40 minutes out of your afternoon or evening, actually, probably more.
Cause it was 30 minutes one way. So, so we're really talking about, you know, two hours of your mom's time driving you to school, just so that you can get a better education. So I'm always thankful for them for that. And I'm lucky because I ended up excelling really, really well at that school. I ended up being valedictorian.
I ended up earning the scholarship, which was the Boettcher scholarship. And so most people outside of Colorado have never heard of the better foundation and the Boettchers, but. Long time ago when there was a gold rush in Colorado. I just tell this story because I find it fascinating and interesting, but a long time ago, when there was a gold rush in Colorado, one of the patriarchs of the Boettcher foundation now went out for the gold rush, but instead of mining for gold, he started hurting where store he sold the pickaxes.
He sold the buckets. He sold the stuff that enabled. People to go out and pursue their dreams out there. But he was the one that actually made the fortune. So many people went out there and, you know, lost the money, but he, he had the foresight to know that the hardware store was actually where the money was being spent.
And so he took that hardware store. They later. Ended up having a beet farm and manufacturing, most of the sugar for the whole Western United States, a lot of our sugar today could actually comes from beets, not sugar canes, and it's because of the better foundation. So that's your foundation and the bedroom, the scholarship in particular.
Yeah. It's an interesting story. The better foundation. If you look at any of the museums in Denver, you know, natural history, the museum, museums of the arts. Coors field Invesco field, the center for performing arts, all of them will have better foundation plaques because they have just given and given and given to the city of Denver over the years, that has been their creed and what, what the Boettcher foundation is known for.
And one of the things that they're most known for is the better foundation scholarship. Which has given to 40 high school seniors every year. And the only stipulation for the scholarship is that you must stay within the state of Colorado. So even though I had been accepted to some other universities, go ahead and please
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:13:46]
share Kevin, please do.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:13:48]
You know, I think, you know, like Case Western and I think we're talking, you know, Berkeley and the other around here. I think I was weightless at MIT. I remember applying to MIT, Caltech, like those types of schools and, and whatnot, but, you know, I think for me, I knew in my heart, my sister was actually a Boettcher scholar as well.
So I have to give her a ton of props for being the one leading the way leading the charge. Um, she's been a huge inspiration in my life. Not only in college, but also entrepreneurially, which we'll probably talk about later. But, you know, I knew in my heart that I wanted to get that Boettcher scholarship because I wanted to pay my parents back for all the sacrifices that they made.
I wanted to make sure that there weren't any student loans or student debt that I was able to go to college. All that debt free. So I was, you know, I got the Boettcher scholarship, a couple of other scholarships as well, national merit president's leadership class, a couple of others. So ended up that I was actually being paid to go to college, which was phenomenal.
Wow. Instead of walking out of school with a student loan, Or a student debt. I was walking out of school with a small checking account that had a little bit of money, you know, and they, they kept the scholarships to, you know, the cost of the school and all of that. But, um, but I was really fortunate in that all of that hard work from elementary school, middle school, high school, it ended up paying off quite quite a bit.
So, yeah, so I went to college in Colorado, ended up transferring enough credit into college that I was able to take one semester and do a semester at sea, which is this awesome study abroad program. And it ignited my passion for traveling semester at sea. For those who don't know is this program that basically it's, you're on a cruise ship and you stop at 10 different locations around the world in a course of three months.
So. Wow. So I've been to, yeah, I've been to, you know, parts of Asia, Thailand, Vietnam. We went to India, we were in Kenya, Africa. We were in South Africa. We went to Brazil. We were supposed to go to Cuba, but there was tension at the time. So we ended up going to Venezuela. And so, yeah, that ignited a lot of passion for me to realize I have a true love for traveling.
I have a true love for, you know, exploring the world. And it also told me that, you know, my major at the time was, well, it is in electrical and computer engineering, but it told me at the time that I couldn't see myself behind a desk for eight hours a day, just programming, just coding, just. You know, circuit drawing and doing that sort of thing.
So I had this passion and I wanted to explore something else. And so that's basically what brought me to San Jose was, you know, I, I found a job that was actually in semiconductors and it was. Marketing semiconductors. It was product marketing for semiconductor. So it was like, Oh, I'm going to be able to do something a little bit different.
I'm going to be able to interact with other people and talk with other people and, and all of that. So, so that's actually what brought me to San Jose, which is incredible. Yeah. Which is a funny story.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:16:54]
I've known you for 13 years and we've been chatting for 17 minutes and.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:17:00]
85%
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:17:01]
of what you just said. I've heard for the first time.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:17:05]
Wow. That's the coolest thing about podcast, right? It's like, you get to tell your story. You get to relive some of the past, some of the history, all of that.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:17:13]
Yeah. That's good stuff, man.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:17:15]
So yeah, we moved here in 2006. My now wife, Christina. Took the plunge with me and we both moved out here. And the funny thing is we, I moved out here thinking this was going to be a two year stint and we were just going to head back to Colorado and, you know, the Silicon Valley thing, it might be nice for like young folks, but we'd rather raise kids or do something else or, you know, have that family life back Colorado.
And it turns out, you know, we ended up loving it here, but I'll tell you that first year that we were out here, it was a real struggle for me at work. It's interesting when you do and excel really well in school, school's one thing, you know, they tell you what to do. You show up for tests. They tell you exactly how you're supposed to do everything.
Oftentimes when you go to work, if you don't have the right manager to help you along the way to pull you along the way to coach you and teach you things. You can struggle, even if you are talented and capable and all of those things. So I'll tell you that first year, I didn't really know what I was doing, struggled mightily and heavily, and it wasn't until I got pulled into another team and had a fantastic manager who showed me the ropes and let me really shine and flow that I'd really did well.
And I started excelling. I've got to give a shout out to Kemal who was that first manager who allowed me to see that I was capable of doing more. So I was in semiconductors for two years. I always knew though that I wanted to do something in web and had a passion for startups, even at that time. You know?
And I didn't know the first thing about startups at the time. I didn't know the first thing about programming or developing or designing or any of those things. And so I was lucky enough. I had just applied for this Tiny Prints company online and got an email back from the CEO, like 15 minutes later, like, Oh, do you want to come interview?
Of course, yeah. I want to come interview. And I interviewed for a business development role because I was like, Oh, I've been doing contracts. And that sort of thing. And luckily for me, you know, the business development, that didn't make sense for what I was doing at the time, but that CEO saw enough potential in me that he got me a job as a product manager there at the time, I didn't even know what a product manager did.
And I was like, what, what is this role? What do you do? So for me, that was a godsend, really putting me in that role, in that position. And so a product manager for those that don't know, they're the ones. Deciding and prioritizing what engineers will develop for a business or a company. And for me, you know, being somebody who's an infinite learner wants to be quick on their feet, wants to figure out solutions when they can being at a startup environment where you get to talk to different stakeholders, get to understand their problems, get to come up with creative solutions.
Gets developed tools that you think will solve their problems. And then seeing a lot of those come to fruition and help company. To me, that was a godsend. So at Tiny Prints, I was there for four years and we were acquired by Shutterfly at that time. So. I think three years in, I was applying Pfor an MBA. I thought it's, you know, the next logical path for somebody like me, um, go back into academics and ended up we were acquired and financially, it just didn't make sense to go pay, you know, a hundred thousand a year or what I, $120,000 over two years.
For an MBA versus, you know, make a good amount of money through the acquisition and those types of things. And so for me, I decided, okay, I'm going to stick it out. Stay another year, ended up leading one of their larger divisions and product launches. They're in the greeting card space. And that's actually about the time where I got into running.
So I know I'm talking to all of this like career stuff, all this other stuff. And I do want to talk about running and fitness because. It's impacted my life in so many ways. When I think back to when I moved here to San Jose, yay. And the shape that I was in, I was a much, much larger person then than I am now.
I was probably around 200 pounds. And I think that that first year and me struggling, I'm the type of person that when I'm struggling and I'm not doing well, I bury it in food and I eat my way out of it, you know? And at the time, especially I was not into nutrition, health, any of that stuff. And so, you know, anytime I would find myself in a new environment, you know, going to college, I probably gained 20 pounds coming to San Jose.
I gained quite a bit of weight as well. And so for me, a lot of times the success in the career world is actually tied to how I'm feeling. And you know, if I'm feeling poorly, I tend to eat. And so it wasn't until I ended up at Tiny Prints that we got a dog, we got a puppy and I started to eat healthier because Hey, new life, new job, new lease on life.
Something that I'm looking for, or two, I want to feel better. I want to do better for myself. And so I started to eat better when I started to go to Tiny Prints. And that winter, I think is when, or maybe a year later, but it's actually, when I started to find running, you know, I tried maybe running like 30 minutes and just hating, we've all been there and just like, okay, I'm going to do this.
I'm going to just do this for a week. I'm just going to, you know, uh, you know, it's not great, right? It wasn't until I started walking my dog and I said, okay, I'm going to walk my dog every day and I can walk her for 10 or 15 minutes. It's it's around the block. She's a little bit hyperactive and doing the walk, you know, dog whisperer, Cesar Milan was like, you got to give them work.
You got to walk them, you got to lead. Show them who's the alpha dog. So I said, okay, I can walk her for 15 minutes every day. That's fine. And you know, that 15 minute walk turned into, okay, I can do it a 15 minute jog. And so every day for 10 days, 15 days, 30 days, I was doing this little jog and that 15 minutes, you know, ended up being turning into a mile eventually.
And it ended up turning into two miles and then it ended up turning into three miles and I realized, you know, two or three months in that my dog was always, she wouldn't let me take a day off. Right. So sometimes you have, sometimes you have training partners. And they're like, okay, he can take a day off.
My dog would not let me take a day off. And I remember reading something in a men's health magazine, and it really clicked with me at the time. And it's funny cause we had Joyce Lee on earlier this morning, but the article said, if you miss a workout, you are 70% more likely to miss the next workout. And it's always stuck with me even after all of these years.
It's like, okay, if you want to be consistent, you've got to plan it out. Be consistent, make sure that you are living to your plan and working towards your plan. So that is when I got started into running was my dog, you know, barking out the door every morning, making sure that I was getting my miles in and then starting to see progress.
And I think there's something magical about starting to see that initial progress. About starting to, you know, we all go from like this, ah, I hate running. It's the worst to like, okay, I'm going from a mile to two miles. I'm now going from two miles to three miles. And now I think there's something magical about being able to go three miles, being able to go 30, 40, 45 minutes that you now can go into the zone and start to enjoy yourself.
And I think. You know, before that period of time, I was always going out too fast. You know, if you slow down and enjoy it, it's actually fun, which is crazy. It's crazy to explain that as somebody who doesn't run, but when you actually slow down and you can actually have, you know, your own thoughts, you can have yourself to your own thoughts.
And it's actually fun. And I remember even like three months in, I rolled my ankle pretty bad and had running, taken away from me for that month, before my wife tried to run my dog, that didn't work, but, you know, And I just, I came back with such an invigorated love for running for activity, because it was taken away from me, something which we've talked about recently, even, you know, like having these pandemics take away these races.
And I hope that we come back with even more invigorated love for races for, you know, that, that human contact. So, yeah, so that's how I kinda got into running. I think we have some similar stories about our first races. My first race was also warrior dash was also going down to San Diego. I slept on my buddy Jason's couch.
We had some great nights out situations and, uh, you know, plenty of, plenty of beer at the finish line and all
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:25:52]
great photos, by the way. I've seen
###### Kevin Chang: [00:25:53]
pictures and it's, um, You know, I think you go from not realizing what a live event is going to be like to just falling in love with that live event.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:26:05]
And especially that type of live event.
I mean, no pressure. They festive vibe to it. Everyone, all shapes and sizes, some in costume, some not, and it's fun. It's fun. The distance is good for all fitness levels and it just sticks with you, especially if you're out there doing it with friends, it just makes that experience even better. So, yeah, totally get it.
Nice little springboard into how your running career continued to evolve.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:26:31]
Absolutely. And it's so funny cause you look back and like I was training so hard. I was like, yeah, I'm going to crush it. I'm going to kill it out there. And now you look back and you're like, everybody's in costume. What are you doing, Kevin?
What, you know, I guess it's just my nature to be like Uber competitive, uh, everything that I possibly can be. So. So actually the idea and the thought for RaceMob came out of that event. And I wrote about this a little bit on the blog about RaceMob 1.0. But you know, my friends, Robert and I, we went down there for warrior dash and he was into running.
He's actually one of the people that got me into running and we came back and we were so excited about the event and what we had done. And we just wanted those pictures. We just wanted those photos of us jumping over fire and crawling under barbed wire and all of that. And the photos came out and it took forever to find your photo because, you know, they didn't really use optical character recognition and a lot of the things that we have take for granted today, and then they wanted to charge like $25 for a digital copy of it.
And like $30 for like a four by six prints. You have. Got to be kidding. You've got to be kidding me. But you know, at that time, nobody knows when he brought phones with them, nobody brought like anything or GoPros. We didn't have any GoPros. We didn't have any cameras. So these were like the only pictures that we had of the event was like these $30 pictures.
And so my buddy, Robert and I, um, we were, we were saying like, there's gotta be a better way. What if we could either pay the photographers? Like jointly, like pull together some photographers, make this an easier process, you know, make it easier for users to get their photos. And, you know, I'm sure they pay like five or $10 instead of like 20 or $30.
But, you know, we wouldn't need all of that overhead expense. If you can get hundreds of people to buy their photos. It's better than getting a smaller portion, paying a lot of money. That was at least our thoughts at the time. So we had developed a couple of things in that vein, and we actually trying to think of the timelines, but we had actually reached out to a couple of race directors at that point in time talking to them about photos.
And we realized that race directors were actually more interested. In the front side, other events, how can I get more runners to my event? I don't, I don't really care about that backend stuff. Like who's taking photos and yeah, that's good additional margin on the back end, but I really care about finding more people, finding more people for my event.
And so it's funny because I parallel that with like my running career, because. That same year I ran in Dean Karnazes, Silicon Valley, half marathon, and I was so excited. You know, I think I got a one hour 39 minutes. I was like, starting to look at that point in time. Yeah. Getting faster and getting faster.
And we actually talked to. The race director from Silicon Valley half marathon, which was Keir Beadle, who was actually, and Scott's boss at the time. And this was before I had met JT and, you know, got to know about him. It was actually Scott, his business partner, who I first met all those years ago. And so, yeah, so it was interesting.
We were having all these conversations back then. We had conversations with all star dog run at the time as well. And we were just trying to figure out this. Area this niche where we could help them get more runners to their events, get more racers to come through. And we're all trying to figure out this whole social media stuff at the side, our angle at the time was that Facebook and the Facebook graph was wide open at that time.
And so. If you signed up for an event and you clicked connect with Facebook, which was very easy to do, we could get all of your information and make it super simple for you to check out and complete your order. But we could also figure out which of your friends I might be interested for this race. And we thought there was this interesting angle because we had been to a couple of races at this point, not too many, but we've been to a couple of races where we were at the race and we knew somebody was at the race, but we didn't realize it until weeks afterwards.
Like, Oh, you were at the, you were at the warrior dash, you were at the, you know, such and such Silicon Valley, half marathon. Yeah. And so we just thought that there was this interesting area there where we could help people locate friends that they might have missed contact with and to be able to help them set meeting points.
And, or we thought, you know, the number one reason you go to a race is to go with your friends. That's like the number one reason why you would go. So that's kind of the impetus to RaceMob at the time, but the whole idea fast forward from Silicon Valley, I was really serious at the time. And now it's like, well, I think that the window has passed now, but maybe in a couple of years, I won't think that the window's past, but I was serious at the time to try to qualify for Boston.
And I was trying my hardest. I think it's a goal. Anybody who gets into running is like, can I do it? Am I capable of doing it? Is there a window? Is there an opportunity? And so I was training my first for my first marathon and I mean, I was still like way, way, way far from, I think Boston qualifying for late 20 year olds is like three hours and five minutes or something like that, probably under three hours now.
And I was training for my first marathon trying to go as gung ho as I could. And I was shooting for a three 30 marathon for my first marathon. Um, This was in Las Vegas for the Las Vegas rock and roll. They shut down the strip at that point in time, but they didn't do it at night to this was the morning run.
And something for runners to realize is, you know, a mistake that people that I made was. You never want to put, you know, things in your body that you're not used to putting in your body. For me, it was Mucinex, I had a cold that week and, um, you know, a little bit stuffed up a little cough, nothing too bad, you know, nothing, nothing too bad.
By took a Mucinex to the morning of the race thinking, okay, well this will help me get over it. Well, little did I know music is just dries your system out. It just pulls all of the moisture out of your body. And so for the first 13 miles, I felt great. I felt fantastic right after we hit the half marathon, Mark, I just fell apart.
My legs cramped, solidly just seized up. And I spent the entire second half of that race between a walk, a painful, painful walk in a, in a mild jog. It's so interesting because you look back and before I entered the race. And even when I went to the starting line, I always thought of a marathoner as like fit as a fiddle perfect body type.
And when I got to, I got to do this to fit in and, and be competitive. And I realized like, We come in all shapes, we come in all sizes, you know, you don't have to be the fittest of the fit to be able to make it across the finish line. And it was a really, both humbling experience for me, but actually afterwards, it was a fairly uplifting experience for me because I realized that even after all those struggles and trials and tribulations and you know, it being my first marathon and whatever, I still was able to finish it, I was still was able to accomplish it.
I was still in a good enough shape. That even walking half of the marathon, you know, still able to get over the finish line. And so, yeah, that was my first marathon experience.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:33:45]
Congratulations. Yeah. I mean a similar experience. We were talking to a Joyce Lee previously and she was sharing her first marathon experience in San Francisco where the last 10 K plus was a bit of a grind, but regardless she got it done.
And then the lessons you take from that, it gives you some confidence when you tackle the next challenge as well. Back to the first half of that Las Vegas rock and roll the first 13. Plus, were you on pace? Do you feel you were either put in the work or you in shape?
###### Kevin Chang: [00:34:11]
Yeah, I was absolutely in shape. I was absolutely in shape.
Well, I thought. I'm not sure. I'm not sure if I would have made the time because I was, I think under eight minutes mile was kind of where my pace was. So I felt great those first 13 miles I felt, um, I think I was even at like seven 45, seven 50, and I felt fantastic that entire time looking back at my training runs.
And the other runs that I had been on mile 19, a mile 20 for me, I always cramped in my training runs. Um, I always had those cramps and I just thought marathon day is not going to be an issue. I'm just going to push through it. I won't cramp looking back on it. I probably didn't have the right nutrition strategy, sodium intake strategy.
That would have allowed me to cross the finish line and a running pace. And so it's so interesting because at the time you just think, Oh, I'm just going to muscle through it. Had I had a coach or somebody to chat with or talk to who had actually done a marathon. They probably would have advised me to, if nothing else have, you know, they have like salt capsules, salt pills that you can bring with you.
There's all sorts of things that you can do for electrolytes. And we're not just talking about the electrolytes on the course, which are, you know, oftentimes really, really sugary and not fantastic for you. But we are talking about, you know, having, having that extra salt, that extra sodium, especially if you like me, tend to sweat and tend to, you know, your body just tends to dehydrate.
So it's so interesting. You know, you look back and I guess I'm the type of person to just analyze every little detail. That's probably what makes me me is like, you know, we've got the Las Vegas marathon, I'm going to look at every little corner, see what were the insight edges? I'm going to map out everything, do the three D mapping and the I'm a planner through and through a planner to the core.
And, uh, you know, I, I read everything and plan everything. So. I thought I was there, but I think looking back at it, I might not have been there.
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###### Bertrand Newson: [00:36:29]
It's nice. Like you said, the ability because of what, you know, now through the other running experiences, you've had being able to look backwards with an objective eye and say, Oh, you know, I thought I was, but the nutrition strategy and what that plays a role.
And also sometimes it's this mindset, you know, good points.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:36:46]
And it's funny. Cause we talked to like Ray the other day and I'm always like curious, like, okay, you were cramping. What happened to, you know, like sometimes your mind is more powerful than your body, which is extremely interesting. And there's, there's some, some science to it.
I think there are some like energy shots that are like pure cinnamon or pure, like, you know, kept say us in or something. And it just shocks your mind out of thinking that you're going to cramp. And I'm always fascinating about like, you know, the science. That's behind, like, you know, or can get us through with like some of these things, like hot shot or something like that, or, yeah.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:37:21]
Yeah. Oh, have you tried that before?
###### Kevin Chang: [00:37:23]
I have not. No, I haven't tried it yet.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:37:25]
You don't not,
###### Kevin Chang: [00:37:25]
as
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:37:28]
you mentioned. What's something you do in training that works for you mimic on race day. I had read all the buzz about hot shots. I was a part of another fitness group on social media and the, in the truck fleets were bragging about the hot shots, hot shots.
I did an iron man, hot shots outside. So I'm like, well, heck if it works for them and I, I sweat, but I don't only cramp a lot and was thinking San Francisco marathon where it felt that may have a chance to PR it's Hills out there. And if I want to stay ahead of the cramps, I'm going to go ahead and take it at a halfway point and be proactive.
Oh.
Man. Oh man, my entire system was inflamed
nasal hairs.
You didn't think that nasal heres had sensitivity, man. They never, again I'm like, and I didn't need it necessarily. And I've learned was the lesson learned? I never had tried it during a workout and it had the reverse effect it through my system off for the balance of the race and all the training that had led up to it.
Was just, you know, it was a byproduct of it. So again, live and learn
hot shots.
I kid you not indoors out indoors, probably not the best thing to do on a podcast, but, uh, uh, you know, other, other forms of electrolytes. So. But yeah. Back to the, how did your running journey continue from that very first marathon