Greg Lanctot: [00:00:00]

I want to make sure everybody around me, my entire life is having a great time. So it's been, whether it's been in concert production or just throwing a simple party. Everything that I do in trail running has blossomed from my experience of life and just throwing a great event.

Kevin Chang: [00:00:17]

Hello, and welcome to the RaceMob podcast. This is episode number seven. I'm Kevin entrepreneur technology and fitness nerd, and the founder of RaceMob. I'm joined by master motivator. You have to legit fitness co-chair of the Taji 100, our C a certified coach USA track and field certified official being comparable Bertrand Newson.
We're excited to welcome Greg Lance Todd to the show. Greg runs Pacific coast trail runs and is a race director known for setting up difficult courses and having amazing food. In today's episode, we talk about Greg's history with trail running his experience at Western States, which is the OJI of the a hundred mile ultra marathon.
And the role injuries have played. We talk about some of the differences between trail running and road racing. The why every runner should experience at least one trail run. We also chat about Greg's involvement with sports programs that benefit the youth, and we get to chat about PCTR his latest endeavor open course racing, which they're pioneering with the inaugural together, really events.
This is a 70 segments race spanning almost 400 miles that covers most of the Bay area. Rich trails. From trails in the South near Morgan Hill, all the way up to Calistoga. It's a technical feat to be sure they've mapped out 70 segments. And as seamlessly syncs, the GPS runs in your power lab accounts. We get all of the nitty gritty details.
So without further ado, here's our conversation with Greg. All right. We're so excited to welcome Greg to the reasonable podcast. Grey runs Pacific coast trail runs. Great. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell us a little bit about,

Greg Lanctot: [00:02:06]

a little bit about myself first and foremost, I'm passionate about trail running.
That's due to a fortunate back injury and surgery. It went from a, a hobby and being president and race director for Quicksilver endurance rides and the running club here in South San Jose, born and raised Santa Clara County. Los Gatos, my beautiful wife, Jennifer Lopez would get on me for that. And co-writes director right of Pacific coast.
You just love all sports. I love competition. I love creating great experiences. The bottom line is if I, if I'm not having a good time, then I want to make sure everybody around me, my entire life is having a great time. So it's been, whether it's been in concert production, or just throwing a simple party.
Everything that I do in trail running has blossomed from my experience of life and just throwing great events. So trail running is what I love. I can't really do it much because of my entry and potential too much beer.

Kevin Chang: [00:03:03]

We got ears to sure.

Greg Lanctot: [00:03:05]

Podcasts. There we go. We were up in Russian river salt point. We had a little private camping events, so I picked up some beer.
This is the Pilsner. Uh, we're going to go light. Here we go. I'll be gone IPS and a couple of hours over. Oh, that is good. Oh, one more. Hold on. Yeah. So PCTR is now, uh, we are the, I guess fourth generation of owners, the historical background we won't go into, but it's essentially the oldest race company, uh, in the United States.
That's producing multiple distance races at one time. Um, you know, getting, um, looking back or if you talked to any, a lot of the veteran runners experienced, uh, mature runners. They will tell you that PCTR was probably their first race. Wow. That's great race. Isn't going to be Western States or, you know, there, but here in Northern California and even Southern California and up into Oregon Pacific coast for everyone has been around.
So I'm just glad that it's a brand that I ran with. The opportunity was there. In fact, the deal was struck at Western States at the mountain bar right there on forest Hill. And that took us a few months to iron it out. But from John Brooks and Marine books, I was very happy to take the song with my wife.
And here we go. So now it's covert era and we got no races and, uh, let's get creative. So

Kevin Chang: [00:04:24]

talk to us a little bit about the back injury and what got you into trail running. And, well, there were a

Greg Lanctot: [00:04:29]

lot of beers involved. I was in with my buddy Russ shock, he's local to the Highlands, his family. And so we've got to experience it in a whole unique way.
We paid an Islander to, uh, get a dinghy and. Go Island hopping in the South Pacific ocean and we were feeling it feeling really good. And the last stop was going to be Tavarua very famous Island. Marcak Lupo leased from the Fijian government and we hit a link and we got launched up in the air. My buddy cracked some ribs.
I ended up cracking my tailbone and didn't know it got back home doctors. Like, do you want to have babies? I go, yeah, he goes then no nerve pain, no nothing. Then you're good. Fast forward playing tennis and ultra running. That flection and rotation and stuff. Eventually it just snapped again. So my, my S one split just kicked out.
Now I'm all fused from both sides. So I got two big scars up and down my back, and they told me that this surgery would get me to running again, but it's been really hard. It's painful. So I'll stick to drinking and race directing. So one, Greg, thank you for sharing that story with us. I do recall that you've had a recent milestone birthday, right?
And didn't you log a significant distance on that milestone birthday with some hydration involved as well? Yes, the surgery was, uh, four and a half years ago. I just turned 50 last year. So yeah, I did something stupid. Like let's go run a bunch of mileage and drink a bunch of alcohol. So yeah, I'm not one of the smartest guys on the planet.
Um, but I am one of the most fun loving guys on the planet, so yeah, we had fun, charismatic. Didn't quite make, it were supposed to end up at a winery. Thomas popery winery up in Scotland Boulevard. And, uh, instead I just said, Hey guys, I think 26 is good. Let's just, let's just give me a ride to the winery.
So we went in there, sneaking up the joint and then, uh, turned into, had a big party in Los Gatos that night.

Bertrand Newson: [00:06:15]

Yeah, we will talk about Pacificos trail runs, but let's
stay with you directly. Gee man, your trail running history in particular. In many cases, the granddaddy of them, all the old G of all trill racist, Western States, let's jump right into that, right.
In the Western States, how it got on your personal radar, the lead up to it,
and then the race day experience. And then how you've been supporting that race in subsequent years, man. It's great. Great stuff. What you're doing?

Greg Lanctot: [00:06:46]

You brought that up. Yeah. Jim McGill, 10 time Western States, finisher, defunct Yahoo group leader, uh, El Presidente day, uh, the Quicksilver running club.
We met at the North face endurance challenge one year and we were sharing a bunk and he's like, Oh, you're from San Jose. He goes, yeah, you should join the club. So I end up joining the club. And the next thing you know, I found out that Quicksilver has been hosting the Duncan Canyon aid station for all these years.
And he goes, why'd you come up? We can't for a few days. And we just volunteer and I'm like, cool. So the year before was the fire, uh, what's called the star fire, which is actually near Duncan Canyon, French middles reservoir up there. Uh, so I immediately got immersed in all the history of it, all the old school books that were people there and, and that Dorsey Moore, who at the time was our aide station.
Captain for Duncan Canyon for Western States goes, Hey, here's a megaphone. And go for it, go for it. We'll just talk, just like, you know, like at the camp our last night, I can tell this is the perfect job for you. Just talk. Yeah. Just entertain people. Smart guy.

Bertrand Newson: [00:07:50]

They found the right guy without question. Yep.

Greg Lanctot: [00:07:52]

So he gives me the program and he goes, here's some names and tells you where they're from. And I'm like, okay. So I started talking and next thing you know, I'm like I talking about their outfits, you know, whether or not they're having a good or bad hair day to start turning up some music. And it just turned into a great experience.
And then obviously joined Quicksilver Jim McGill, and I led a team to. Reorganize the Quicksilver running club. We looked at liability, heavy drinking at the Quicksilver and Doris run. So, you know, Quicksilver was known for the post race food. We're still is right, but now with public health, environmental health things have changed, but we saw liability being a big thing, unlimited drinking after trail running and food.
And we just realized that we needed to get insurance to get a little more organized. So we organized the club, everything just as evolved from there, but my Western States involvement.
Every other year, you'll find me, um, being an entertainer of the host and MC at Duncan Canyon in whatever costume is of the year, the music we pick and the theme. Um, and again, it's like it's the first time the runner sees any cruise or any fanfare at all. So all the aid stations leading up to Duncan Canyon at mile 24 is.
Strictly non crew. It's just volunteers. So when they get to us is a total adrenaline rush and our goal is to really get their blood pumping so much that they burn themselves out on the way up to a Robinson flat. So, uh, you know, anyway now, but that's the true first Canyon is Duncan Canyon. It's a nice little up, down and up.
What mile marker is that? Well, it was 23 eight. It's now 24.4. I'll let you guys raise them all up. Do your homework on that one. I mean, it'll be two, 300 people deep. We have them lined off. We've got 60 volunteers alone running that aid station. I'll give credit to. The station captain is Christine. And she has been doing that for God, probably about seven years now.
Wow. Another 10 time finisher and Quicksilver member. But again, every year I'll make sure I'll never be a PCTR race on Western. I'll always be at Western States. Obviously this year, we didn't do it. So it's a little, um, huh. You know, we all feel a little emotional cause it's, I'm more excited about that.
Probably then producing any PCTR races just to be up there. You know, the thousands of people that surround the event, the cruise it's, it's intense. It really is. And then I even actually got the pay somebody two years ago, Nick condor, fellow club, mate, uh, somebody had gotten hurt and I'm like, he's like, great, can you do this?
You know, you look a little out of shape and I'm like, dude, I can walk 38 miles with anybody. I don't care how many I'll get you there. So we stretched it. We got them in with like 10 minutes to go. Um, but I had no business being out there, but it doesn't matter. It's like, just let's go. You gotta go. And then I finished at once and I was a 29 hour finisher.
I had broken bones in my foot. I couldn't get a deferral. They didn't have the system in place in 2013 that allow me to take a year off. I had broken two bumps in my foot at San Diego 100 a year before. And the sesamoid bone never really fully healed. So in the crowded. So I had all these needles in the bottom of my foot.
And the week after Western States, I had surgery to remove all that tissue and broken bones that were in there. So. But like painkillers are great.
You ran Western States knowing you had a busted foot. I mean, I knew I'd probably never get in the race, so I had to do it, but the best part and Lauren Lewis will tell you this. Is that I actually coordinated a drop bag with beer in it on ice
break. You know, I don't drink. Right. I go, well, yeah, but I didn't think you were going to be pacing me and it doesn't really matter, but the fact that you had a beer on ice waiting for me as my pace, I'm like, well, I'm always thinking of you, bro. I'm always, so anyway, we got to enjoy a few beers. I don't know if it's Auburn Lake trails.
I think it was an aid station or drop bag drop.

Bertrand Newson: [00:11:54]

How deep were you in

Greg Lanctot: [00:11:57]

Auburn? Lake trails is around 84, maybe or 82. So it's like a breakfast beer maybe

Kevin Chang: [00:12:09]

for our audience that doesn't know what Western States is. Can you kind of explain what it is, why it is the OG. Yeah.

Greg Lanctot: [00:12:16]

You know, it's the oldest a hundred mile race first and foremost, you know, the history. I don't want to like break that down too much. I just know that this six foot 20 lumberjack Gordy flowing locks of hair and a physique maybe killed his horse and then decided he wanted to create a race.
No, no, no. Got hurt. And then he goes like, Hey, I'll just race you guys on foot and go back then. It's like, you know, licking the streams and, you know, there's no way he stations. There's nobody, you know, with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches out there or anything like that. But a couple of people did it the next year.
It just sort of grew. And I think it became an official event, maybe three or four years into it. But, uh, yeah, so it's the thing. And, uh, you know, there's a lot harder racist to do in the world. But it's just like colonic, you know, just the layers to it, starting, you know, in Squaw Valley and immediately going from, you know, 6,000 feet to getting it up into nine, 10,000, not 10, but you're getting up their profile to the finish.
With, you know, the canyons starting the Duncan Canyon. Let's see the temperatures up the year I did, it was the second hottest year on record. Really. We know that in the canyons, it was, you know, 115 and it was, you know, a hundred plus at Auburn forest Hill, but it was. It was awesome. I mean, for me, you know, you just have to plan a little harder and you've got support every four miles for the most part a, we call it an over station, a course.
It's got plenty of service along the way, so, but it's awesome.

Kevin Chang: [00:13:50]

And what does training look like for, I mean, a hundred mile event.

Greg Lanctot: [00:13:55]

Wow.
That's a good question. Um, I was a personal trainer in my previous life, so I always trained between. 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. So I was always training in the heat. I do lighter workouts.
I wouldn't run back to back days ever because I believed in recovery. And as a trainer, you know that you need that 48 hours. I wasn't a runner. I'm still not a runner. I'm just like, I'm going to do something. And I just want to experience challenges. Right? Go have fun. I miss being alone in the dark at night in the forest, because I'm scared.
You know, I missed that. I missed the pain of pushing, you know, my body when I know maybe I should stop. And that pain is not a good pain. I miss the emotions, the finish line. I miss all these different things. And so training for me was never about training for a hundred miles. It was just training just to get some miles in.
You know, I never had a a hundred mile program. I never had. I never really tapered. I was already tapering the whole way. I'll tell you. I did have a coach that year. So Ian Sharman, a good friend was my coach and he knew about my sesamoid and the Croix, uh, necrosis. And, uh, he goes, all right, well, you're just going to do a lot of hiking and a lot of weight packs and just focused on your hiking, uh, because I couldn't get up extension on my toast, so I couldn't run uphill.
Because if I was in any toe flection or whatever, then that would be causing the pain. So I was a great power hiker. I still probably walk faster than anybody through Safeway.
I changed my program for that. Other than that, it's just really about. Understanding heats and understanding clothes or shoes, changes, nutrition. Like I focus more on practicing calorie intake and understanding that as a, as a retired personal trainer. That's what it's all about. Like when I talk to runners today, I'm like, well, how many calories do you take about an hour in an hour?
Like calories. And this is a common conversation I have with people. Like they're not counting their calorie intake or understanding how much they're burning and things like that. So again, for me, it's like, I'm not training for a hundred miles. I'm training for the experience really is what I do. And then just being prepared to handle that experience for me.
It's not mileage they're sure my speed. Rick is, Hey, let's go do a five K you know, that's my speed work. Sure. Ian got me doing some progression runs and strides and or whatever. All those things, fancy things and stuff. And it was fine, but the best part about a hundred mile race is not training for the a hundred mile race because he asked me about mileage.
Like just deviate away from that and go, it's all about the experience. You need to focus on the experience of a hundred miles. You need to get your crew plants or where they're going to sleep or they're going to eat or where they're going to take breaks, who they can talk to when they're out there, what you're going to eat, how the feed me, how to get my shoes, where to be.
And I mean, here's the best story at Western the States. I've got my mom, my dad, I got, well, both my mom's out there. My dad was called my best friends. My sister, my niece. And I show up at forest Hill and nobody's there,
like it's the center of the universe, right? Like, Hey guys, just, just be at forest Hills. So you guys there then we'll come in here. And Greg laughs. Yeah.
So,

Bertrand Newson: [00:17:10]

were are you crushing?

Greg Lanctot: [00:17:13]

My foot? And I was looking forward to crushing beers. So I'm thinking, wait, how is this happening right now? And I'm like, cause they got my headlamp. You gotta get, I gotta do a shoe change. You know, I'm going to do this, that I gotta be prepared. Like it's the nighttime, you got to get ready for it a few hours.
So I'm like WTF. So guess what? Here comes my buddy. Hey Greg, what's up? Where are you? Where are you bed, bro? I'm right here waiting for yourself. It turns out he was just getting so caught up in the moment and, and talking with people, he never saw me come in, but my parents got their car total.

Kevin Chang: [00:17:50]

Oh

Greg Lanctot: [00:17:52]

God. They come up.
I go, where are you guys been? Like, I'm really intense. You know, you know, if you know me, I'll elevate a little bit and they're like, Greg, we totaled the car and I'm like my car, the one you drove from Squaw Valley to the fitters light, like so fast forward is a bunch of deer took out. Oh, wow. Oh, dear hop over.
If you guys are ever any side roads or mountain roads back country, these deer, you know, anytime, but it was basically like Santa Claus and that sleigh. With all of the reindeer, but there was no slay. My sister saw that they were just jumping over and then one just cracked into my dad's car. And that was it.
So they were delayed, but yeah, that was a great story. 2003. How long were you? Did you wait for them at the aid station? 45 minutes. Okay. Alright. Yup. I'm such a math junkie and I had everything all calculated out. I knew I still had time to walk it in, so my buddy did. Get me to, uh, do some six minute miles down Cal street.
Well, and finally, I just said, dude, I'm done, dude, stop. He goes, come on, you got to go, let's go. Let's go ladies passing up. Right. But you don't realize that Barbara ashes is pretty much a bad ass. She doesn't want to hear that anyway, but it was fun. Uh, if I do focus on getting back in shape or really.
Drilling the core again, the low back it's possible. It is possible, but I've been so busy producing races and literally it's backbreaking work, being a race director. It's not point and shoot, and everybody does stuff for you. It's, you know, I'm doing a lot of the heavy lifting and we're skeleton staffs, lots of volunteers.
And, uh, you got to lead by example. So often I figured, Hey, I need to get a workout in anyway. So. She, what was that finishing experience like Western States. And it's take us through that. You know, the making your way. Is it Auburn?

Kevin Chang: [00:19:36]

The high school here?

Greg Lanctot: [00:19:37]

Yeah. Plaster high. Yeah. It's pretty cool. There's the one photo that I've saved a few of them from the race, but the one photo that somebody caught was me tipping my cap.
To John Menzer and Lisa Henson up in the announcer's booth. And if you come in, as, when you enter the race, you get a questionnaire sent to you, and this questionnaire is going to go to John and Lisa and even Tia Bodington is even up there doing some after hour stuff when Johnny needs to get his rest.
But he announces who you are, your experience or just things who you want to think and all that stuff. That's sort of cool. So, and I wasn't running. So I just let John talk the whole time. I'm walking the last hundred yards. I didn't run it.
Right. Dad always said, Hey, walk down the Hill and wave to him. All right. Anyway, the problem was, it was so hot. That there really wasn't the fanfare you, you see as normal people trying to grab some shade. Yeah. They'll go grab the shade and the bleachers are firing hot. You can't even sit on them. You can't bring alcohol on the high school.
So that deteriorate some people too as well. Not kidding, but anyway, for me, the experience is just finishing it. It's coming through. Once you hit Rob Robey street, rubbing point coming up. Uh, climbing the neighbors that sort of that last mile is your victory lap. It really is entering the high school stadium of the here in John's.
It really is a mile experience. You know, you're getting up that Hill, you know, you're getting down that Hill you're in, or you're breaking the Gates to hitting the turf right around the loop. It's quite the experience for sure. So. Tears. Yeah. Thank you.

Kevin Chang: [00:21:15]

Yep. I mean, talking to you, it sounds a little bit like trail running is almost a different sport than road running.
And so for a road runners or people that have run marathons, what advice would you give them if they want to transition or want to at least experience this different world of trail running? Get to

Greg Lanctot: [00:21:33]

know the community, uh, in generally somebody is going to bring you in, right. It's whether it's you stumble across a podcast or it's a friend, Hey, I just did this AK trail race at Saratoga.
Wow. It sounded fun. Yeah. These trees were amazing. Like, there's just, it's not about, did you see my metal? Wow. My shirt taking a selfie. I'm sure all that stuff happens and trail running, but you know, just going out. Oh my God. It was so cool. Like I was walking. People are so nice. Right. It's not intimidating at all.
The courses were intimidating, but the people aren't intimidating, you know, it's, it's a much different environment than even if you go to a road race and you see somebody doing their butt kickers in there, you know, Frankenstein
or that, you know, you actually step into somebody. $45,000 bike and a triathlon, you know, things. Right. You know? So, so just come on out, do your own thing, really supportive. You're going to be surprised when you fall, somebody will stay until the end to make sure you get up. Yeah. Just being prepared and knowing that things are green now.
Um, and era, now you need to be prepared with your nutrition. You know, I mean, there's, you're talking about a whole new set of circumstances now. So just go for the easiest one. Look up reviews to see if there's an experience there, you know, and what it is that why people like being at that race, you know, if it's about swags one thing, but if it's, you know, Hey, if food's really good at the end, you know, bagel and banana bar,

Kevin Chang: [00:23:03]

you know,

Greg Lanctot: [00:23:05]

it's totally different.
But I think once people do it, then it's like, wow, where do I get more? Yeah.

Kevin Chang: [00:23:11]

And that is one thing to just keep in mind your first trail run. I mean, don't look for time. Don't look for, Hey, this is what I normally run a five K. This is normally what I run a 10 K in because yeah, the trails are so different.
I mean, obviously there's elevation gain. There's everything else there's footing. And you're going to have to like, watch your foot beat as you're going through the trails and all of that. So, so don't do it for time. And that community is so supportive in terms of, you know, they will help you along the way.
And even if you're not a runner. There's a whole hiking community out there that, you know, we start. And so that's what I love about trail running is, you know, there's road races. If you want speed, you want to get to that finish line, but then there's trail running. If you, we want to explore nature and explore your surroundings, which is.
Which is fantastic.

Bertrand Newson: [00:23:53]

Yeah, for sure. And Greg alluded to some of the changes and in the midst of the pandemic, and you've been an innovator in many areas as it relates to racing specifically trail racing more into that.
But I also wanted to
talk about a soft spot in your heart regarding youth though.
You've mentioned that you were a personal trainer, um, but let's talk about your involvement, especially in the city, San Francisco and some of the outreach you've done. You've done your homework, Evan. Yeah.

Greg Lanctot: [00:24:22]

Well, it's actually fitting because, um, I thinking about reaching back out to Gavin Newsom for a specific project that really got me involved with kids, especially at risk youth, um, or as they call them at promise youth.
Now he had an event called March gladness in which paired, um, a city official with a public servant, usually fireman or police officer, and one of the youth from the Bayview hunters point. And I think I'd always been coaching kids always been like helping out my friends teams. You know, I played baseball in college, any sport, like I could coach and teach, and I've just always volunteered my time.
And then I did this and ended up founding the, the junior giants program for babysitters point for the giants community fund. I worked with a gentleman by the name of Idris Pearson who ran the basketball program or the YMCA there. They had little league in like eight years. Like they didn't know baseball there's no, I mean, we don't need to go down.
The broken part of the society that happens there, but the giants came in or I met Gavin. I met Malia cone. I met Stephanie. She's still the leader of it. She's been there 20 years and they asked me, Hey, I heard you play baseball. How would you like to be part of the junior giants? So here your season to go over for the giants and I'm like, Oh, what do I gotta do?
Well, we want you to start a baseball program with Idris in the Bayview hunters point. I'm like no daunting task. I mean, we're talking about intimidation, we're talking about gangs, drugs, all sorts of problems, you know, and you know, white guy, community sort of like going, okay. Alright, let's see. What's up.
So I met with the address. Next thing, you know, we've got a couple of fields, we've got leaks generating, we're doing some, some training. We're working with giants, we're getting balls and families are out there. And I used to live in the city. So I brought in some of my friends in to come in and help out year or two.
They're like, Hey, Greg, dude, love you, man. Love, love your heart, where you're at, what you want to do, but sorry, we can't help you. I mean, we had some, I gotta be careful in my choice of words here, but. Like there was no competition allowed. Right. It was a very friendly, no score keeping, but some parents they're coming in and they wanted to beat my team or my buddy's team, but we were all helping the kids out and it was like, no guys, no, this is not competitive.
You know? So, uh, but it, for me, that was it. And then I was looking at some ways, well, how do I, how can I make some money? And I haven't worked for anybody since outside of. Working for parents and making their kids' lives better through sports, the at risk youth, the developing programs, and then becoming a trainer specifically to fight overweight and obesity was, is my passion.
It ended up rolling into, uh, started a business called fuse fit for kid kid here in Los Gatos in which, uh, excuse me, the, the, the STS is coming up right now in which we opened up the first medically supervised facility for kids. Uh, we had a doctor on site. It was gaming. It was interactive gaming fitness in 2007.
Wow. It was awesome. But what happened was, is it became something for kids on the spectrum. So many autistic Asperger's learning issues. We found that in a one-on-one environment or a group environment with. Lots of helping hands became a great way for these kids that couldn't survive or participate in a group setting because they, the coaches just wouldn't give them time.
They'd be picking daisies. Right. So that was great. And then I was training kids, but as soon as I broke my back again and after surgery, I couldn't do any of the groundwork. I couldn't do top-load spine. I couldn't do the plyometrics. You gotta be able to run, hop, skip, and jump with kids. If you can't do the work with a kid that you're trying to, you're just another coach, a parent.
Or a teacher just telling them what to do, you know? So I miss it to this day. I still get calls from occupational therapists, physical therapists, doctors, pediatricians, working with kids. I don't hang up the phone. I am still involved in a non-paying way cause it's still who I am. And now it's led into the youth programs that we have come through trail running.
So getting any kid that shows up, it's a me and finishing and seeing the joy on their face. It's definitely 10 X more than you finishing the, you know, um, Oh, I love seeing you. Yeah, totally get them in. We look at the partnership with Earl hooks and boys in the woods. You know what you've done with people who are visually and hearing impaired things along those lines, just being an innovator in so many levels in the trail community, uh, hats off to you.
Thank you. Thank you. I was going to move into that and talk about Earl. And the program that he's done with boys in the woods is spectacular. It's a. But he's done so much more than just bringing them out to our races. It's giving them that experience of going out and venturing on surviving, um, trying something new, not being afraid, be your own man.
It's just amazing. It really is absolutely Emily Bard and her son who is visually impaired and deaf were bringing in the California school for the blind and other organizations of visually impaired to be able to participate is. That was even a hundred X on Earl's kids finishing. Right? Cause now, you know, you're looking at parents crying and emotionally can't believe that their child was able to experience a race, something that they no way, and they'd ever be able to see that happen.
Right. And it's happening. And, uh, you know, right now it's hard because we can't do that. Visually impaired people can't have volunteers from Pacific coast trail runs or, you know, our community that's, that's back to this guide runners for the visually impaired. So now it has to happen. So Emily, she's got to go out there, but it's her, brother's now moved into town.
So that's within the bubble and Eamon is, is get some mileage into he's now got a sprinting coach. He's got better shoes. He's fast. He's loving it.

Kevin Chang: [00:29:48]

What are, what are the mechanics of that for a visually impaired runner,

Greg Lanctot: [00:29:52]

like blindfold me, and maybe we can try it

Kevin Chang: [00:29:54]

together.

Greg Lanctot: [00:29:56]

But one thing I've learned is anybody with a disability, they do everything.
Just they're just like you, they just do it the same way. They just have something's in the way, speed, bump, whatever you want to call it. But everything's the same, you know, queuing guiding is whole nother discussion for sure. And I know that's tiring. I just watched the old Dipsey movie from the seventies and the virtual trail film Fest for a ranch that are running and aspire venture running, gotta plug them guys.
Cause I sponsored that virtual trail film Fest, and this guy was cuing him for 7.2 miles. Go watch that movie go download that bill best. And I heard about somebody queuing for 100 miles out. Robidoux at Vermont 100. And at the end of the race, he's like, I don't want to talk to anybody mentally. He had the cute rock roots, step up, jump, go, move back, drop, pass left.
Right. You know, it's like, there's all these things break and keep walking. And if your mind has to focus on that the whole time, I understand it's pretty life changing, but it's very, very emotionally draining too. So, but there's a guy you should have on Kyle. Robidoux incredible. Uh, he just actually rode a bike.
20 miles a bike.

Kevin Chang: [00:31:07]

Wow. We do want to definitely get into what Pacific coast trail runs is doing today. Um, in response to the COVID, um, just some amazing programs, both the nine piece programs, but also this together. Relay tell us about how COVID hit your company, what your response was those early days, and then what you,

Greg Lanctot: [00:31:25]

well, there is no business, as far as what we know with no is live racing, live racing is what we all know we're used to going.
We pay, we get there we arrive. Uh, we start we'd run. We finished, we go home, we celebrate. And, uh, it's definitely unique environment. The advisory board member of the American Trail Running Association, I was asked to write a piece on virtual and I call it my Jerry Maguire manifesto. If you guys ever know, Jerry Maquire just wants to change the sports agent world and finds that the, the integrity and morals of, of agents is not really focusing on the athlete.
And. I wrote a good piece, uh, that basically exceptional, virtual's not safe. Um, and this is, you know, in March early April where we shouldn't be promoting people going outside of their homes. And, and even now we're sort of in that weird space right now, but, and now I watched these companies pulling it up hundreds of thousands of dollars and, um, and I'm happy for them.
I think that's great because they have. A business to run and fast forward. It got me thinking, um, you know, I went to a large social media company about a year and a half ago about my idea for virtual trail time trials. Um, and essentially it's running the course and in a virtual manner, and then I've done it with Jam on Tam, Hum up Um, Streak to the Peak was about to launch.
And, you know, we got cut off because of the COVID and. It got me thinking I'm like, okay, so the virtual sort of this weird thing, it's different, right? You can run a treadmill, you can run around your house, you can put your phone on your Roomba and just let it go around everywhere and clean up your carpet at the same time while earning, you know, buckles for, you know, a hundred miles in 30 days.
So you've got people yelling at each other for double-dipping on races, complaining this and that. And, uh, the spreadsheets, the management onsite of the race director. It very messy, very, very messy, but. Eventually I knew it would come to the point and we're not there yet. Cause we're still enjoying virtual, but where people are gonna need more, they're gonna need to do the real thing.
They've done enough, elevation challenges, distance challenges, you know, now they're out. And so our new concept is called open course, and we just spent a lot of money and a good time with PWR Lab to create this new concept called open course racing on which it's also called real course racing. We'll work on the marketing later, but.
Uh, you gotta run the course. And while there won't be a start finish line or staging festival area, you will have to run that course. And then real time, your watch will communicate through the app and go up to a realtime leaderboard. So as you see right now that TOGETHERelay people are doing that. The segments we built, essentially, a 70 race event, there are 70 races going on at once.
It's you run this trail or it doesn't count. And then you can add all those 70 races up for one gigantic race. The count in either as a total segment time, which is the time it took you to each run each segment, or it's the total lapse time from the first segment, all the way to complete the 70th segments.
So, and then there's individuals point scoring's reach segments. So trying to get as creative as possible, trying to do it, but I need to push the envelope. For runners to be as close to the thing as possible. So that's what open courses virtuals here live is here and well, we want to push open course to get it to here.
It'll nothing will replace live, but building community. Having a Facebook group, we are working on new technology as we speak. What you are looking at right now is not even close to what we're going to be doing. So, you know, I think we're going to go with, I got two races this year. I think we're just going to go the Headlands and Skylander the seat.
And so breaking into here, I've got four permits and the Headlands through this year. And if Headlands doesn't happen, it'll immediately go to open course for the rest of the year. But I'll also try to drop the live event in November or December where I have permits for the head on. So will we race? I don't know, but what I know is open course is the future.
It really is. When you sign up for a PCTR race, you will always have the open course option as a fallback. So if you email me on Thursday night and go no better, yet you text me Friday, night, 11. Oh. I lost my babysitter tomorrow. Can I get a refund? Oh, Why do you lot, are you want me what? No, that doesn't make sense.
So check it out. You got 30 days to do the open course, go for it, run it. And so now we've got a solution to people that can't make races that maybe they roll their ankle. And guess what? If it's not open for 30 days then guess what? Go do the virtual. Every race, moving forward, we'll have a live open course in virtual forever.
If they don't, then they're missing the Mark. So, yep. But how they put that up for registration, whether or not it's upfront in the registration, or if it's part of the fallback or I can't make the event, then you throw them in the open course. We'll see. So, but that's, that's what I've had. Nothing but time to think about and do just really happy.
That's it together. Relay power lab. I want to think. Catherine Fisher Cameron slug it, um, Todd Gliden, uh, and of course, Harrison Blackwood among others that have been part of the PCTR team to make this happen. Uh, it's really, uh, it's just something I thought about years ago and then it's like, Oh my God.
Well now it's the time to do it. So did together relay.us, uh, just getting started and, Oh, Hey, we got, we made a change. So if you have a relay team, You automatically get put on a solo team. If you're on a solo, if you're by yourself right now, and you want to partner with somebody, let us know, and we'll create a relay team for you.
We just, that was part of a technological issue that we realized we couldn't separate emails and did numbers in the coding and all the background. So, but we realized. You know, instead of like regulating the relay team, Oh, I only got four segments. Well, you know what? Now you've got 70 segments, so you don't have to do them all.
You can compete in one or more. Some people can't do 12 miles. Some people don't want to do one mile flat walk down silver Creek, you know? So we'll see it's a, in the soft opening right now. We've got two weeks of this beta test. We'll call it a, but it's ready to go. The results that are they're alive, they're working.
Um, and then we'll start promoting it a couple of weeks, but, um, it's, it's so far so good.

Kevin Chang: [00:37:24]

And it's awesome. I mean, I just ran one of the segments on Sunday. It's so cool to see 70 different segments, 70 different individual races that you can do all around the Bay area. And for me, I didn't have a GPS watch, but I talked to the power lab.
Folks downloaded the sun to app. Son to app right on your iPhone started where you're starting it finish when you're finishing it, you can run multiple apps at the same time and it works and it works and it worked and I wasn't sure. I was like, Oh, is that, Oh, am I going to appear on the leaderboard?
What's going to happen. Turn the phone off, sign on the next day. And there it is. Yeah. Sigma right there.

Greg Lanctot: [00:38:01]

We've got a Apple watch is not fully set up yet, but you just saw how to do it. The own app. I don't want people to go out and spend 600 bucks on a new watch. You know, there are cheaper versions are apps, but the future of this is that's where I'm going.
We need to, we're trying to create the app. The GPS, the watch is a great thing, but we find most people have their phone on them anyway. So yeah, why not be able to turn it on and battery life? Yeah. Trying to teach people about that. But again, now, Kevin, you got to jump into. The Facebook group, you got to share your experience and that is the best part of trying to move the curve to the live. Is that share your experience. Hey, you know what, man, there was a water stop. I had no idea it was there. I brought way too much water or parking is busy at 8:00 AM, go at 10 or, you know, there's always little things. It's like the person that goes to run. A race they've done every year.
They know the ins and outs of every single part of that race, whether or not that information gets shared or not as one thing. So this is really important that we share information that we build community around this. And quite frankly, the Bay Area Ridge Trail council, I can't believe it and bring that up.
But you know, we donate lots of money to every year because of our runners in our Ridge Trail Series this year, it's really not going to happen. I don't think we're going to have. Well, we've had one race, but I don't think outside of Mount Uminum we'll have any of the others. So this is our benefit for the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council.
And I'm just, just happy to be working with them. And now they're actually going to end up with a circumnavigation app that we're developing right now with this too. So it's, you know, I think a lot of people have tried to figure out, Hey, how do I do this trail? And this isn't the perfect way. This is the beginning way, but now people are going to go explore the North.
Yeah, like they never have, they're going to go right now. They're going to plan a trip around wine country. You know, now they're going to go support a local, a restaurant that's been out of business. Now they're going to go to a running store in Healdsburg or San Francisco or wherever. And check in because that's what this is about.
It's not just going out there. It's about supporting the communities that have suffered and retail just basically almost just got like the final kick out the door with COVID. So, and the restaurants, if you know, restaurants, you know how hard it is to succeed, um, save a few bucks, treat yourself, you know, go support those local.
Restaurants or the food places that, and you'll find, wow, that was well worth it. And then not only are you getting a little exercise, you're taking a mini vacation, but you're supporting local businesses as well. So same thing with the whole, well said G and the same thing with the hotels, the whole hospitality business as a whole has taken a huge hit.
So yeah, you get up and support any way possible. Yup. Fantastic.

Kevin Chang: [00:40:38]

And what I love is, I mean, I think this is the perfect type of event for planners. People that. Like to plan out the trail, like to plan out where they're going, how they get their light to have. I mean, now you have 70 different goals, so you know what, each weekend you can do something.
Or a couple of times during the week, you can go to, Hey, plan all of this out and it forces you to say, yup, I'm going to do this this weekend. I'm going to start here. I'm going to end here. I think it's a, it's a great event. It's a great way to really explore the whole North Bay, the whole rich trail system.
Talk to us a little bit about all of the trails, because I mean, I had just explored one here in the South Bay, but you go, you guys go all the way with penitence Creek down at the bottom of album rock.

Greg Lanctot: [00:41:22]

So you'd probably pick the flattest easiest.

Kevin Chang: [00:41:26]

And even there I'm mainly a Roadrunner, I'm actually a CrossFitter.
So, you know, it's a, there you go. Reel me in.

Greg Lanctot: [00:41:38]

Potentially a Creek is actually a connector trail. It's an urban trail that goes up into near alum rock. Great little stretch. You had to cross some streets, not your traditional Berry rich trail experience.

Kevin Chang: [00:41:51]

And I wanted to go further, but I had my dog and I realized, Oh, if the dog, the dog can't go and tell them rock.
I didn't realize that until I got to the base. So, yeah. And that's another

Greg Lanctot: [00:41:59]

part of that, right? To where, you know, state parks don't allow dogs or County parks do, or it's gotta be all these, all that yet. And those are all variables too, is that we got to add. Yeah, here's, what's going to happen. You're gonna want to Facebook, you're going to meet somebody.
I guarantee you're probably ended up doing two segments with people you've never met before in your life, just because, Hey, Oh, that's cool. Can I join you? Um, and that's, that's what the trail community is. You know, you want to make sure you understand your elevation gains. You want to have your water hydration plan accordingly.
But, uh, you know, I think I, you know, I would just start local. So if you make mistakes with parking or planning, you didn't do a full commitment, two hours away. You know, in Santa Rosa or Sonoma County, you know, so Quicksilver's my hood. I think I can get, be out there to help you out from mockingbirds. The Hicks segment.
Absolutely. We had went out there a couple of weeks and two weeks ago we had Kevin out there and he's like a closet. Did you get them melanoma? No, not yet. Okay. Not yet. Well, here's what you're going to do that dude can move, drop him off at Hicks. And, uh, give them a map and then you go and pick them up at the top Mount Eminem.
So it's basically like an eight mile jog, hike up to the top. Very, very friendly there's well, there's one little section of Barlow trail. That'll. That'll have a hands and knees, but I think ultimately that would be a great time. Just what's your distance, Kevin, do you go, you run like 500 miles a week or a

Kevin Chang: [00:43:19]

no way.
Are you kidding me? I run like maybe 20 miles a week, but 2025. Yeah,

Greg Lanctot: [00:43:25]

a big eight mile run, hike up to the Hill or trend. We'll be there for a beers and food waiting for you. Yeah. And then drive the price down and then you plan your next second. So yeah. Vegan protein, vegan protein drink.

Kevin Chang: [00:43:38]

That is the nice thing.
I mean, it is nice having at least one other person there to be able to drive you from one spot because otherwise yeah.

Greg Lanctot: [00:43:46]

Yeah. It's definitely, um, you know, while we do have the solo event, you need to be able to plan car one car two, and then possibly even some water drops and staffs locations and things like that.
So. You don't have to run the segments in sequential order, you can pick and choose, correct? Correct. Yeah. So our announcement right now with a soft opening is that we don't want people to go outside of their 10 mile radius. Right? We want you to stay local right now. We're not, we're not promoting the circumnavigation.
The circumnavigation competition starts with segment one. And it's segment one is as soon as you launch your foot on that, it's go time now, however long it takes you to take that two months. When you sleep, you eat, you poop. It's on, right? So anything from that first step to completing 70 segments is the circumnavigation contest.
We are not recommending people do that, but we can't stop people from doing that as well. So your point, the other competition is your total segment time. Meaning if you go to segment 64, Tomorrow. And then you do North Bay segment 22, uh, two days later, those segments will have individual times, right? And then once you complete all 70, you'll have a total time and that'll be your score for time score.
Now we're also doing a point scoring system that if you have based on the a hundred, and I think we'll work down to like 97, 94, 91 or whatever. That you can earn points based upon your standings for each segment. I think we're at about a 50 percentile. So the top 50 people will score points and then the bottom 50 percentile will all earn the same bottom line score.
So we're not trying to like do w w like, if you're a last, you're not going to get zero, we're not going to do that. So the bottom half of all show the same score because. B that's where we sort of live anyway. We don't want to embarrass each other. Right. We want to talk about the last

Kevin Chang: [00:45:36]

definitely where I live.
That's for sure man,

Greg Lanctot: [00:45:39]

save or the aid station. We get more time. We're getting more bang for our buck. You know, it's healthy food at the end, right? That's

Kevin Chang: [00:45:47]

right. Why do all of your segments go uphill? It's none of them that go down Hill. Are there, are there any flats? Are there any downhills? I was like looking through all the South Bay.
I'm like, Oh, I'll feel

Greg Lanctot: [00:46:01]

tell them why, why a lot of Hills,

Kevin Chang: [00:46:03]

um,

Bertrand Newson: [00:46:03]

I mean, that's what makes trail running so unique.

Greg Lanctot: [00:46:06]

You know, I want you to come have fun, but you know, if you can go home at the end of the day and you did the 20th hardest Hill in the area, you don't really have much to talk about, but if you go, Oh my God, that was so crazy.
You got an experience for life, you know? So like we have, the hardest courses around, but we want, but we have the best celebration also at the end. So you deserve that. Right? I know that it's hard and people tell me, Greg, why are your courses so hard? I go, well, because nobody else is doing it. First of all.
And I love seeing you guys in pain. I just love seeing you meet new challenges. I love you swearing at me when you finish. That's good. You know, we've got EMT and helicopter, ready to go. So go have some fun, you know,

Bertrand Newson: [00:46:45]

Let's talk a little bit about,

Greg Lanctot: [00:46:47]

I mean, 2020, we know we're in the midst of a pandemic,

Kevin Chang: [00:46:49]

but

Greg Lanctot: [00:46:49]

there are some operators out there still trying to pull off some live races

Kevin Chang: [00:46:54]

here, hearing Callan, certainly out of

Greg Lanctot: [00:46:55]

California can speak to that.
And

Kevin Chang: [00:46:57]

actually, where you've, let's talk more

Greg Lanctot: [00:46:59]

about your efforts in being an innovator with aid stations and things along those lines, in the course of a pandemic, I mean, you've really been a trailblazer in those aspects. I formed the race director Alliance with seven other race directors who are a bit friends of mine and who I think are very creative and also passionate.
And they focus on the experience. And then about four of them, I've done beer miles with, so that's always key. So we've got four women who create the race director Alliance, and we essentially started creating these guidelines and it took us a couple months, but. In the beginning, it was like, do this, do that, do this, do this, do this.
And then we found out, now I'm going to do this and then you're going to do this. And then, so we created, well, we call it the guidelines. So we created the COVID-19 guy lines for racing in the future in which. It's here. Here's sort of the guidelines. You make your own rules. Like if it's six feet, it's six feet, but maybe it's 75 feet for you on a trail.
How are you going to do right. So you can do a staggered start. Are you going to do a way, if you can do a bubble starts, you're going to do time for I'll start spacing out over a minute. You're going to race over multiple days. I mean, there was so many ways to produce a race, but there's very few ways to keep people safe.
So the safety areas that we focused on were how to manage crews, how to manage your volunteers. How to manage your staff or employees, and then how to manage your runners and how keep it all safe. So without boring you through all the details, we essentially looked at every, all four of those components to them to a start, finish related them to an aid station, related them to flow of an event related them to risk management to the tax man down.
Are you doing all you can do to be safe? There's a lot of race directors will never produce a race again. Cause they're afraid. Of the liability and the risk and they should be, you know, just cause you signed something on a piece of paper, it doesn't mean that you can't Sue somebody for negligence. Right.
And then there's gross negligence. We talk about things like that and, and how to be responsible race directors. And it's really more so than ever. The part that I'm excited about the most. Is that runners need to be more accountable than ever too many racers and runners, sheltered races. It's great. Hey, you go every Thanksgiving in San Jose, 30,000 people.
Guess what? You're going to get banked left as there's a horse. There's yeah. Barricade. There's a police officer. You're not getting off course. Right. You're going to get corralled. It's like, you're just, you know yeah, yeah. You know, you're riding through right up through. Let's get it right. Trail running people show up my race go great.
Your course was horribly marked. I got lost like six times and I go, wow, that's crazy. Because the top 10 finisher said it was perfect and they were here really quick and they had a great time and do what you can for everybody, but you've got to be alert. You've got to be prepared and it goes, so the together relay and the Berry nine piece channel, I was just like, I'm not going to give you guys all the answers.
You know, I want you guys to figure it out. I want you to do some research. I've given you tools. I've given you books. I've given you apps. I've given you links. I've given you GPS coordinates. Sit down, plan your adventure. Cause guess what? That's what you would do when you go to your somebody anyway.
That's what you would do when you would go to the, yeah, those are the cascades. And you want a bag that next peak go jump in that glacial Alpine Lake, take a selfie show the world you have to plan. So now when you go to these races, you better be taken extra special precaution that you need to be accountable for yourself too.
I'll do all I can. We will. We all, as race directors, we will retrain ourselves, but now it's about self accountability and reliability and take care of yourself. Plan well said. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Kevin Chang: [00:50:43]

Before we get too far off from together, relay, I'd love to give the audience some knowledge about team sizes, costs, schwag, all that kind of stuff.

Greg Lanctot: [00:50:53]

I'm a little different. So I'm probably the most expensive game in town. A lot of that has to do with just because I think it was as a premium event. I don't want to be, you know, be like, I go stay at your hotel. I'm going to stay at a nice hotel. Right? I'm not going to stay at a bad hotel. Well, I do stay at bad hotels.
Don't get me wrong. But when you go to a place. A good restaurant is the easiest thing. You know, you're going to spend a lot, but you better get that in return. So that's how I operate, right. Is that I'm giving you, you're going to pay more with me, but I'm going to give you more in return. And that's the sort of the bottom line.

Kevin Chang: [00:51:26]

The team sizes go all the way up to 10 people per team. Is that right? Yeah. How do they sign up?

Greg Lanctot: [00:51:31]

So, yeah, so together relay.us. We've got it located on ultra sign up. It's all explained to you. Get your power lab account. You got a free power lab account through the end of the year, 1231 at minimum, and then get some jackets made, probably send those out now in September.

Kevin Chang: [00:51:46]

And the jackets are great. Cause then when you're on the road, you're going to be able to wave to somebody you're going to there's that instant connection of like, Oh, you're also doing this together really, right. I mean,

Bertrand Newson: [00:51:55]

it's still a great value mint. It's not a one day event. It's not a week of, it's not a month event and you have to the end of the year, you're running the Bay area Ridge trail, you know, almost 400 miles, 70 segments.
Um, great swag, charismatic race director.
That's well run
husband,
wife, team.
Western States finisher. These chef of chefs, these chefs, when we get down to the library sing, right? We'd even talk about that

Kevin Chang: [00:52:21]

Mount of effort that went into creating this event. You know, I think anybody could put it on one of these virtual races of like here, here's one coordinate, but.
70 races, GPS coordinates, mapped out, starting points, any points, all of that put online for you to find the segments and then the power lab component, which is go run that race. Turn your GPS, watch on turn your app on. And it automatically gets updated. I mean, my mind was blown and I'm in technology all day long.
Every day, my mind was blown. I'm like, I'm on the leader. What didn't I have to boom. I mean, amazing. Amazing mad props for setting it up for having the foresight and the wherewithal to put this together. And I mean, I'm, I'm hoping that this will be a yearly event. Something that is able to outlast COVID because I mean, people need these milestones.
People need these challenges in their life to be able to, to sign up and do it. Um, And inexperienced this trail, which I think I'm gonna, I've, I've experienced a couple of different segments at different points in time, but I mean,

Greg Lanctot: [00:53:30]

yeah, and yet you've been hanging it down here and under the trees and the canopy, the Duff running in the peninsula is going to be amazing.
The connection that you can make with Tam. And going up into Mount St. Helena and seeing some really rocky difficult climbs and just learning from other people, meeting new friends, you're going to have a whole new community built around, uh, your own experience. And, uh, it'll be awesome. But I appreciate you guys reaching out.
Glad to share this with you guys. It's been awesome. So thank you.
And support local. I mean, Greg is, I mean, he's, he's a bay area guy. He is devoted, he and his wife so much time and energy and giving back, you know, sacrificing time to make sure people enjoy their running experience enjoy, their running journey.
And there are a lot of these race organizers popping up from out of state. Um, the don't have vested time in the community where Pacific coast trail runs does support your local race. Organizers support Pacific coast trail runs. Thought of doubt. Yeah. Thank you so much. Hey guys, I got to get going.
Support local. Thank you so much. And hikers are welcome to togetherelay.us to send emails to run [email protected]. Again, Greg Landsat and my wife, Jennifer Lopez, landslide. Introducing new race director. KK Fisher also knows Catherine will be joining us on this journey. She is a hundred percent of enthusiasm and motivation and a rockstar on these trails.
And once we do the complete launch, you guys will know it's going to be an amazing thing. So thank you guys for the support and just reach out to us anytime. Thanks Greg.

Kevin Chang: [00:55:09]

Take care now. Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the RaceMob podcast. Check out all of the show notes or find a running buddy online at dot com.
Please subscribe to us on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcasts and leave us a review until next time. Keep on moving.