September 24, 2020
Tes Marshall
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:00:00]
every aspect of the race that we could support or black owned businesses, neighborhoods and charities. We did, we run the race through the West side neighborhoods of Atlanta, which are some of the historically black neighborhoods. And it's just a beautiful event and it's it's of course welcome and open to anyone and everyone.
But when you participate in the race, you are getting an experience and black excellence, like that's the unapologetic approach to the race. And it's my passion project.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:00:26]
Hello and welcome to the race mob podcast. This is episode number 15, I'm Kevin entrepreneur technology and fitness nerd, and the founder of race mob.
I'm joined by master motivator to legit fitness co-chair of the Taji 100, our a certified coach USA track and field certified official the incomparable Bertrand nuisance tests. Sobo Marshall is just an incredible human being. Would be successful in any industry that you'd put her in. She has the innate ability to connect and the hard work and determination to see things through.
Luckily for us, she found her passion for running and is inspired tens of thousands to get active from starting the Atlanta chapter of black girls run to creating the running nerds and even her own race series through run social. Most recently, she spearheaded the race. A half marathon 5k and bike ride.
That's focused supporting minority owned businesses. The course normally goes through predominantly black neighborhoods. Although this year it's gone entirely virtual. It also includes a series panel discussions to talk about social justice and change, especially in this time of social unrest. And in a city at the heart of so much tension with tests is doing to open the dialogue and help bring change is on inspiring.
It's so cool to see the evolution of tests from basketball coach to runner run club, coordinator, race director, and now community leader, and soon to be brew masters as well. This episode is brought to you by race, mob, 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 committee unity site just launched and you can find it at community dot race, mob.com. Here 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 dot com slash training. Enter your fitness fools 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. All of the show notes can be found online at dot com slash podcast. And without further ado, here's our conversation.
We are so excited to welcome tests. So Boomi hidden Marshall to the race mob podcast. Welcome to the podcast.
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:03:03]
Hey guys, thanks so much for having me.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:03:05]
Yeah. And I think you're our first out of state guests. Oh, wow.
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:03:11]
I love being a trailblazer. So yeah,
###### Kevin Chang: [00:03:13]
no, there you go. It's a test. You're joining us from Atlanta.
Is that right?
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:03:18]
Atlanta, Georgia. That's correct. Awesome.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:03:21]
We like to ask all of our guests kind of give us some background, give us some information on how you got into running and the whole running industry. So. Take us far back as far back as you want to,
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:03:31]
you know, I've worked very hard to try to get my story down to like a two minute spiel.
So let's see where's the timer right now. Let me see how I do one this iteration, but I really want to go way back. We can go way back to, I hate and running. Becoming a runner was not something that was like the lifelong dream, anything it was. How can I avoid having to run was my, the first 34 years in my life was.
How do you avoid running, but still stay in shape and still be able to make the team, or as you kind of get older, your metabolism starts slowing down and your stamina starts slowing down a little bit. So for the first, like I said, 30, 30, 34 years of my life, I basically was just a athlete. I played basketball.
I was a women's basketball collegiate basketball coach for several years. And I mean, even as a coach, I didn't make my teams run distance, I will say, okay, you gotta, you gotta meet this time for the mile sprinting. You know, I was a big believer in quick, sprints, weight, training, strength, training, bootcamp, style workouts.
But, when I moved to Atlanta in 2010, I kind of wanted to try, you know, a new way to stay fit and stay engaged. I knew like going and playing pickup basketball and getting a workout. Wasn't going to be the way that I endured into my, my mid and late thirties. So, I started going out for little runs around the neighborhood, seeing if I could improve, you know, how long I could run without stopping.
And of course, as, as any runner knows, those first couple of runs are always, it was awful. Like you are want, like your heart's hurting your shin, you getting shin splints. You're probably wearing the wrong gear. So your, your feet are hurting. You're sweating, you're wearing cotton, everything. You're probably carrying a million things in your hands.
Like all you're doing all the wrong things. And it's not pleasant, but you know, I kind of got into the running community by joining some run clubs and actually was one of the first ambassadors for black girls run in Atlanta and helped start that organization, Atlanta and really. Becoming a leader in the organization and being involved in the running community, two races, it just kept me going.
And my first race ever was, was the Susan G Komen race for the cure here in Atlanta in 2006, then I didn't run again until the following year signed up for a 10 K. That was like a st Patrick's day themed race here in Atlanta. Ran that with a couple of friends and literally started running, never stopped running after that, like I said, joined black Rose run, be claimed a leader in that organization.
And then, uh, you know, we'll get into how I got into race directing I'm sure. But it was really just a snowball effect from there. Oh, I did good. That was two minutes.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:06:08]
Wow.
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:06:09]
I've got a lot of good detail, but that's the basics of it.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:06:13]
Talk to us black girls run and , how did you find the club and then your involvement with the club?
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:06:20]
So I always will pay homage to black girls run, um, the, uh, original founders, uh, Tony and Ashley. I always give thanks to them for just having the audacity to say black girls run because when I was going out and participating in races, I, of course, you know, you look left, you look right, you look behind you, look in front of you.
You don't really see a lot of African American representation at these events. And I was enjoying it. I was having so much fun with it and I immediately saw the impacts on not only my health, but my social life, my, you know, how I felt about my fitness. And so I was on Facebook one day and I was like, man, it'd be really cool to start a run group.
And. Some of the gods must've been listening because I saw the call to action for ambassadors for black girls run. So I was like, well, somebody already, I had the idea, let me go ahead and sign on and become an ambassador. And to tell you that, you know, I met all of my best friends to this day. Came from joining black girls run, meeting these amazing women and kind of growing our fitness journeys together.
All of my best friends today, I attribute to that first group run that I ever went to. I mean, even meeting my husband was literally because of a friend that I met through black girls run. So, and, and becoming a race director was inspired by seeing how people can go from having zero fitness. And zero interest in getting out.
Yeah. And whatever, it may be running, walking, Zoomba, whatever it may be and creating this new lifestyle for, for yourself. And then the whole social aspect of it was amazing. I mean, you meet some amazing people through running and you know, some friends that I've met from run groups and run clubs, they don't run anymore, but we're still buddies, you know, kick it and have great conversations about all types of things.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:08:06]
Yeah. Did black girls run already have a presence and Atlanta when you joined and what, I guess, what were the responsibilities for being an ambassador ?
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:08:13]
Yeah, so I went along with a wonderful group of women who I'm still very, very close to. To this day, we started the Atlanta chapter of black girls run.
So black girls run started off as a blog. And like I said, Tony and Ashley started that. And then they, they basically planted seeds all over the country. For small run groups to form. And so myself and there's another woman, Adrian white, we were kind of the lead ambassadors for Atlanta. And what I would do is just go around to different neighborhoods in Metro and I live in Atlanta.
So, you know, no shade to, you know, my suburb, people will hear people say that you're from Atlanta. I live in Atlanta. I have lived in some of the suburbs I am currently. And at this time, uh, when we started black girls, right, I was in Atlanta. But I say that to say, you know, we used to go around to different neighborhoods in the city and in the suburbs and our group runs, we would use Facebook of course, to create events and say, okay, we're going to be a camp Creek marketplace.
We're going to be in Decatur. We are going to be in silver comet trail. We're going to be a Marietta. And then other women started stepping up and leading group runs. So I would literally go around and just help them get that first couple of runs out. I would meet every week. I mean, I was going somewhere every day of the week.
Tuesdays and Saturdays where our large group run days. So we didn't plan. Um, neighborhood group runs on those days. Cause we want it as many women as possible to come to our Tuesday meetup, which was in Midtown Atlantic station area. And then on Saturdays, we would rotate around the city. And do longer runs as well as support races around the community.
And I mean, it grew exponentially in that first year, and this is 2011, I'm talking, I mean, exponentially and other cities were growing as well. But Atlanta was literally like the spotlight because I mean, we went from. A hundred women in the group to a thousand to 10,000, I think. I mean, if you go to the girls run Atlanta right now, there might be about 30,000 and women just in the Facebook group from over the years.
Wow. Yeah, it's amazing. So again, that was, that was how I started. And you know, again, always pay homage to that. Black girls run now is owned by JLL Alexander, who is a phenomenal leader in the community. She's taken the organization to some great levels. They've got a nonprofit arm now. And we have a great relationship.
I'm no longer a leader or involved in any kind of leadership with black girls run, but I'm, I will always be a black girl that runs, and again, just love the organization and what it does for the community.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:10:39]
Amazing, amazing story. Yeah. We know you a lot from running nerds and so was that directly after black girls run or.
When was the start of running yours? When did that come along?
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:10:49]
I got into running. I got really passionate about it and nerdy about it. So all of my friends, when we used to go out and do these races, we would always go back to Facebook, post your picture. And we started trending, you know, hashtag running her is after everything that we would pose this as beef and before Twitter was like, Really a big deal.
And before hashtags were actually being, we would just hashtag on Facebook just cause it was cool. Like you couldn't like click on the hashtag. I actually see a trend or we thought it was cool. I actually started running ours as a Facebook page as all great organizations start. Right. Bring it into the Facebook page.
We supposed content just about. You know, all the things that runners experience, especially new runners, beginning runners, runners of all levels. And like I mentioned, I was going out to all these races and one day I was, you know what, it'd be kind of cool to put on one of these five K's like, it just looks fun.
You know, I had that coaching background where I was used to organizing people and bringing people together. You know, I, one of the things I loved when I was a coach was camp, I used to run summer camps every year. And so I thought of, I like, you know, I have experienced, you know, putting all these things together.
So I, um, contacted about two or three race directors that I thought put on great races. And I said, Hey, can you tell me everything you know about races? I would love to put on a race they're very open with me. And, you know, coincidentally there, it was, it was white men, you know, it's a very white male dominated industry, race directing, but these guys were all great.
Again, still friends with all of them to this day. And they gave me basically open their playbook. And I put on my first five K and it was called the running nerds five K. And it was basically just, wow. Everybody come and run a five K and that forget that first year, this was 2012. Now the first year we had about 400 registrations.
I probably signed up about 150 of them. So people were just getting your registration confirmation. I mean, now when I think about 400 for the very first race that I ever put on, like there's some races that I put on that are much better organized, much better marketed that I can't even crack two 50, you know?
So, or it's basically started just as a facilitator or any community under the running nerds umbrella. I have been and able to put on not only running events, But clinics group runs. We've done training teams. What else we've done? Um, collaborations with other races and events. It started as a passion and it has grown into a, a business that facilitates the running community.
We pride ourselves on being a social forum, a resource. And also a service to the contemporary running community. So that's the basics of how it started.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:13:23]
That's great. So let's see athlete accomplished basketball player coached basketball.
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:13:28]
So you accomplished basketball player,
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:13:31]
passion for basketball.
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:13:32]
And there you go
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:13:33]
with the drills with the athletes mostly.
Sprint based, not encouraging running, you got into running, running grew. Black girls run introduced to that group became an ambassador, helped grow that membership from a hundred plus to thousands and running nerds and from running nerds where now the race, I mean, The trajectory of coach tests, please share about the race and how that the cultivation of the collaborative effort.
Um, the community effort behind that as well,
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:14:03]
over, over the last eight years, you know, I've been very fortunate to develop my skills and passion as a race director. I mentioned running towards 5k, being the first event in 2012, and I haven't done a count, but we've put on over 150 running events. Races running events since that time, not only for running nerds, LLC, but also for other organizations.
So in 2017, the conversation kind of kept coming up, the black running community. We've seen all those growth and running clubs and running groups. You know, we have some great established run clubs. And run groups in the country. And you know, we'd also seen an emergence of race events that were kind of targeted towards different causes and groups like that.
VCU five K's and divine nine, five Ks. Yeah. And a racist for different causes of social justice, whatever it may be. And so the conversation started to brew about, well, why don't we put on an endurance event that we can all celebrate, just celebrate black excellence and utilize all of the resources that we have.
You know, myself as a race director, we also are a timing company. We also have connections with t-shirt vendors. Obviously sponsors. Um, my port-a-potty and fencing guy has a black owned business. So we have all these resources. And then of course the runners we wanted to put together a race that are African American and black running community could support and get just as hype about it as we get for sure.
Congo marathon, Boston marathon, New York marathon. So we put together a Kickstarter campaign in 2017. Basically put it out there. Here's the plan. Uh, we, we actually promoted it as a half marathon only when we launched the Kickstarter campaign and we asked the running community all over the world to back the raise.
And if you're familiar with Kickstarter, backer is kind of the term that they use for people who support your project or product, whatever it is that you have on Kickstarter and project was a half marathon that supported black owned businesses, neighborhoods and charities. You guys who are listening, you can't see, but our colors are red, black and green, which are the colors of the pan African flag, which represents, you know, all things, black excellence.
And, uh, we had over 750 runners, Walker supporters back the race. We hit our funding goal and all of those supporters received a code to register for the inaugural race in 2017, sorry, 2018. And, uh, we opened registration for the race on MLK day. In 2018 and the very first inaugural race was put on in 2018 and October, we had about 1400 runners and walkers from all over the country.
Participate black owned businesses as sponsors and vendors. And in just every aspect of the, Race that we could support black owned businesses, neighborhoods and charities. We did, we run the race through the West side neighborhoods of Atlanta, which are some of the historically black neighborhoods. And it's just a beautiful event.
And it's, of course welcome and open to anyone and everyone. But when you participate in the race, you are getting an experience in black excellence, that's the unapologetic approach to the race. And it's my passion project. And. You know, I've, I've said many times, you know, if I ever get out of race direct and I'll, the race is always going to be part of my portfolio of, of events or, you know, things that I do, even if I'm just the old fogy on the board or whatever, you know, it might turn into, um, the race will always be a part of my portfolio of events.
And, uh, so 2019, we had our second year, we grew to about 1700 and actually through 2020, you know, we've made the pivot to a virtual experience, as many events I've had to do, and we're still experiencing growth. And I'm extremely grateful to the community for the fact that we are growing, you know, a lot of races can't say that they're growing, we've had.
About a thousand who are registered for the race currently. And, uh, we're hopeful to get to about 1500 participating in our virtual event. And we've got about four to 500 runners who deferred to 2021. So very excited about it. And it's an experience that is tough to duplicate virtually, but we are going to do a fantastic job of bringing the race 20, 20 to the world.
And. Honestly, and I love to hear how you guys feel this. You know, I think these, uh, pivots to virtual for a lot of these bigger traditional events, it presents a really cool opportunity for you to let people experience the event, even if they can't be there. How have you guys found, you know, these pivots, particularly for the traditional races, like your, you know, the big SIRS and the New York marathon and Boston, they're coming up with their virtual.
What are your thoughts on these. Pivots.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:18:49]
And I think you're exactly right. Um, it gives race directors an option, and we understand, um, in the past where race directors were maybe not fans of virtual races. Totally get that. But what it's doing right now, it's the ability to still keep people engaged. Great way to keep the messaging and the branding out there as well.
And people need a slice of normalcy in the midst of the pandemic. People, spirits had been down some out of work, some have been directly impacted by the pandemic itself. It's really touched home for them. So. People need a slice of normalcy. So anything that is encouraging active, outdoors, physical fitness, certainly while respecting social distancing and keeping the event live and vibrant because a lot of these race organizers are not large.
Like New York are not large like Chicago. So being able to still have a connection and making sure that the people that are signing up is able to sustain the organization, moving into the future. This model has been very sustainable. And we, and again, we understand where some people may not be fans of virtual racing, but it's also evolved to the point where there's a high level of accountability.
It's no longer just the honor system where participants can upload their results. In some cases, there's leaderboards, which for the runner, that's looking for that competitive edge, it's getting more traction with them. So I think it's changed our running community moving forward. I think most race organizers is going to offer that virtual option.
When we can get back to library somebody, but being able to expand your audience, where people here in California can experience the race in 20, 21 October. And if not able to get out to Atlanta is a good thing. More importantly, experience at this year, sign up for the race 2020.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:20:31]
I think so doing a couple of other things.
One is breaking down some of the location barriers, whereas, you know, people might have only stayed in their local area. You know, now people are probably looking at the race from all over the country, if not all over the world where they might not have been looking at that before. I think another thing that we've heard from race directors is some innovation not only on, you know, just putting on a virtual event for the physical events, but some are now mapping GPS coordinates from one location to another.
So. We've heard of open course racing. We've also heard some race directors say that now they can focus a little bit more time on storytelling and telling the history behind the event and get people really involved with why this event came about. Can they tell that entire story now that they have a little bit more time to make it a little bit more personal?
Those are some of the interesting things that we've seen innovation wise. Now that we were forced to move to virtual, whereas before we might not have been
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:21:30]
a really good point, you made about, you know, being able to share the history. Because someone just asked me yesterday, they were just on the general website and they were like, Hey, I'm interested in this phrase, but I'd like to know more about this.
And in my mind, I'm like, have you not seen the 5 million things that we've put out there? But I was like, you know what, here's an opportunity for me to share the history of the race. And I wrote like a, probably a too long of a post. And response. And then we have actually a short film that we curated about the inaugural race.
And I posted that and he was like, thanks so much for sharing. So I was like, you know, this year ride this, there is a great opportunity to share your why of, of a lot of these races. It's not just, Hey, we just want you guys to sign up so we can send you a metal on a tee shirt and. So you did our race. So,
###### Kevin Chang: [00:22:14]
take us back a little bit. You said that you've put on 150 events since that initial running nerds 5k. So give us a little bit of the evolution of running nerds. The events that you started putting on and I guess maybe early stories, what might've gone wrong or were there any issues in those early days?
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:22:33]
Well, I think the cool thing about running nerds and when I look back on all the different things we've done, it's running arts has always been, Hmm. It'd be kind of fun to do this. So I just put it together and see if people show up, like one of my favorite breweries in town, they opened a second location.
So I was like, let's do a run from the old brewery too. The new brewery throw an event on Facebook. We'll show up. We run from one brewery to the next, you know, I started a run club that meets. In West Midtown, West Midtown, Atlanta to support one of the races that we were putting on and that we are, we're going on year eight of every Wednesday meeting at the same location.
And there's been probably about six of us that have been there since the beginning, but we've seen runners come and go. People move into the neighborhood. The neighborhood is changing and developing. So like things like that or putting any other training team, I signed up for the rock and roll new Orleans marathon one year.
And I was like, you know what? Let's put together a training team and we'll all train together. And we had about 20 people and we would meet up on the weekends and I put together, I think we did like a meet and greet at one of the local new Orleans cuisine restaurants and had just topics about how to train for a marathon.
And some people were doing the half marathon put together training plans. I got my coaching certification so that I could, you know, intelligently and confidently, you know, give people advice about running because as you guys probably know, when you start running, people start asking you a million questions about everything from, you know, shoes and things like that.
I worked for a short time at one of the local running specialty stores. Some of the things that we've done, I forget about until Facebook reminds me and Facebook memories. So it's really just been a passion. It took me a really long time to acknowledge what I do as a career and acknowledge running or as, as a business, because it was like, this can't really be what I do for a living, but I actually want, I went to my first, um, I know if you guys are familiar with running USA, it's one of the.
Governing organizations of race directing, or sorry, race the road, race industry, I should say. And I went to my first conference for running USA in 2017. And that was like the first time that I really like legitimize. Okay. Race director is a profession that is other people who have the same quirky issues up at four in the morning, on a Saturday.
Yeah. Then, you know, setting up cones in the middle of the night and answering. Passionate emo call it passionate runner emails. And then in the midst of all of it, my own personal running journey, you know, I love to do a marathon every year. So I'd go through at least 18 weeks of every year where it's the buildup and the taper and the, the beauty of running a marathon.
You know, I love five. I love local five K's I love Peachtree road race. One of my favorite races here in Atlanta. I love half marathons. I love traveling to races. And then I've gotten into learning more about the elite running field. So I listen to a lot of podcasts and getting to meet great folks like you across the nation.
So, I mean, I can't, can't even truly express how, like, just becoming a runner has opened up every aspect of my life. And I'm so grateful for it being, you know, a legit profession and a legit lifestyle too, you know,
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:25:45]
sharing some of those. The unique and community based events that you put together and how Facebook's reminding you of some of those occasions as Kevin referenced earlier, what are some of those behind the scenes stories where we're only race directors know where the expectation was?
One thing, those wildcards, those curve balls, those permit related age station related port-a-potty
###### Kevin Chang: [00:26:08]
related.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:26:09]
You know, all those things, we didn't get enough bibs the time, you know, all metals.
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:26:14]
How long has it?
Well, I will give you one is on top of my mind. Cause I was going through pictures today to try to find a decent photo of me on race day for article that. I'm working on. And a picture came up from last year is we have a race called the Monday night brewery in West side 10. It's a 10 miler, 10 K in December running on the roads that no one should be running on.
Cause it's all just like semi trucks and people who are in a hurry to get somewhere, but we run it. But the point of the is it ends at a brewery. So enough said there. Right. But anyway, so this is year seven, I believe of that particular event. So of course we got it down to a science. Not quite. So I get a call 10 minutes before the race is to take off and we have to shut down a road so that the runners can take off.
And then that road needs to open up immediately because it's a busy road. I get a call from one of my volunteers at one of the crucial out and back section. She's like test up. I don't see any cones out here. I'm like, what? So I call my car and truck and I say, guys, where are the cones on such as that road?
Oh, shoot, hold on. We'll call you right back. So they had forgot to cone crucial section of the course. So I have two of my assistants. Here's a little race director tip, always have two people. Well, who are just there to just do anything you need them to do on race day, you are going to need them. So I sent both of them.
I was like, I need you to go to such and such intersection. Here's some, I always keep a little of cones with me. Take these cones. And if you got to call him the road, Yukon the road, cause the rice has taken off on time. I don't care. So I literally had to sin my runners off. And of course, you know, I have my police officers out there too.
So it wasn't, I wasn't sending them into oncoming traffic, but yeah, I sent them out there really not knowing if that section, it was about two miles into the race was actually cone, but thankfully I got a call as soon as the race takes off, I got a call from my two assistants. We got it covered. The columns are there.
We're good. We're going to stay here and make sure everything, but it's how you about stress. So there's a picture on our event page of just me on the phone. And then they're like on one of them's on the phone, the other, one's just sitting there like, okay, what are we going to do? And yeah, that, that's not the idea, but I mean, there are millions, sorry, we hadn't raised that had to be canceled for snow.
So you really learn about, you know, runners and some of the things that they will say when you have to cancel a race, what else. Right. We've had the rain, the rainy races. We started our timing company about three years ago. So those first couple of events, my assistant race director became our lead timer.
And she literally learned the art of timing from webinars and tutorials. Like she wasn't a timer. And again, timing is a very like old white man dominated field. So here we are, you know, two black women out here, you know, learning the tricks of the trade and just having a good time with it. But the first couple of events, we had one event where did the time equipment just digging work by?
People were taken off, no reads were coming through. So, I mean, they fixed it eventually, but it was a stressful day. Cause you know how, you know how we are about our finished time. It's gotta be accurate written. You can have it on your watch or your phone, but you need to see it come through. Yeah. I could go on for days about those.
Fun stories. But you know, the best stories though, are the people who are doing their first race ever, or your race becomes a tradition for them. And that's the reason why we keep doing it because people, you know, they, they look forward to our events. Our events are all small community oriented events. We don't have a 10,000, 20,000 person event.
And I don't know. If that's even something that I want, I really love the small race event. I love the fact that when I'm doing the award ceremony, I know 90% of the people's names that I'm calling up just from over the years of running events and putting on events.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:30:02]
That's fantastic. Talk to us, I guess, a little bit more about, um, your response to the pandemic this year.
You said that one year you had to cancel because of snowstorm harm and. People weren't too happy. So, um, what happened this year? And when did you learn about the pandemic and
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:30:18]
what was that like? We had a really interesting timeline here in Atlanta, because as you probably know, we hosted the Olympic trials.
The last weekend of February was really first week in March, last week in February and Berlin, you were here for the Publix. Marathon half marathon at five K, which was the following day. I mean that weekend was the most Epic running weekend. If you were here, it was, it was beautiful. We, no one was thinking about talking about coronavirus.
COVID-19. Washing our hands, hand sanitizing. Like those were just not things that we were talking about. We were neck and neck across, you know, the six, seven mile stretch of the Olympic trials course. We were at the finish line, nine cheering everybody on for Publix. The next one today, we were at our favorite restaurant and bars, brunching and eating and just having a good time.
So that was the first weekend in March. The second weekend in March, we started to hear these rumblings. Of, Hey, you know, my want to be more cognizant of large gatherings. And I remember that weekend, I actually went to a festival and you know, my husband, he was probably on, on it a little bit earlier and I wasn't, he was like, Oh, you think we should be going as fast.
I was like, festivals are going on all over the world. Where are you talking in this festival? It was the brunch festival. We were missing a brunch festival. Right. So we went to the brunch festival. But, I mean, even at that point you were kind of like looking at your drink, like, okay. Make sure you know, okay.
I'm gonna drink it, but, okay. So then the third weekend was wearing the wheels fell off all over the world. So this was the weekend leading into, I think March 14, 15. So that's when. March madness was canceled. NBA spending the season, all the kids got sent home. All the corporations were like, stay at home, work from home.
And we were actually scheduled to have our first planning meeting of the year for the race that Thursday. And it started this day, started off guys. We're on, we're going to meet guys. We're going to meet, but if you're not comfortable, don't come to about five o'clock that day. I was like, guys, we're just not going to meet.
Let me figure out what's going on in the world. And then our first event of the year was scheduled for March 30th or 29th or 30th, our first five K of the year I'm running, or, um, the top golf 5k, which top golf, you guys have top golf on the way
###### Kevin Chang: [00:32:34]
we don't here, but
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:32:35]
yeah, you familiar with it, but it's a big stadium venue.
So I didn't have to make a decision immediately about top golf, but yeah, it became clear very quickly that we weren't going to be able to host. Uh, 5k at that venue. So long story short, we basically put all of our events on hold. We had starting in March. We pretty much have an event every month. So everything started getting either canceled or postponed or pivoted to virtual.
I was very, very fortunate that, like I said, top golf 5k was the first event. We didn't have another event planned until the end of April and then may and June. So I had some time to kind of see what was going to happen in the world. And. Communicate with our race participants, what we were going to do. We didn't have a ton of people already registered.
So the pivot process was easier. And we're also very fortunate that, you know, we're pretty self sufficient when it comes to our waste production. So we don't, we don't have a warehouse that we're playing rent on. I mean, my garage is my warehouse pretty much. I don't have employees that we're counting on Valerie's and Sharon's.
And all that and 401ks and, and we also don't have debts. So I am extremely grateful for the status of running nerds as a business. So we're, we're not losing money by not putting on events, but, you know, unfortunately we're not making revenue this year because we're not able to put on our live events. So I think you guys are in the same position in California, but we have not had a live event since the weekend of March 14th.
And there there's a moratorium on permits. So for the foreseeable future, there won't be any running events in the city of Atlanta. So it's been interesting. And my race participants have, I've been awesome really. I mean, we've had maybe 10 to 15% of people who have requested refunds for our various events that we've either pivoted or had to cancel.
And the rest are either participating in what virtual options we offer or. Letting their registration fees roll over to 2021 when we're in clear time. So there's a lot of brace directors that don't have that, that situation. So I'm grateful.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:34:43]
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###### Bertrand Newson: [00:35:03]
We know that the politics and Atlanta are, are different than other parts of your state. Let's say at least other races, libraries is going on in other parts of Georgia.
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:35:12]
So for the most part, the state of Georgia, you're going to see some trail races.
Some race companies are putting on these kind of small race by appointment events. The Atlanta track club actually hosted three events in June, sorry, in July and August. That were raised by appointment events, but those are all outside of the city of Atlanta. Yeah. Private property. So they were able to secure private property and extremely small.
So for those of you who are listeners don't know, Atlanta track club is the organization that puts on the Peachtree road race, which is traditionally a 60,000 person event on the 4th of July. That event. We'll be virtual this year and taking place on Thanksgiving, but even their events, I went out and volunteered for one of their race by appointment event.
And I think there were maybe 200 participants out there. Um, so you know, these scaled back private property running on in state parks or things like that, we were saying some of those, but as far as road races on streets, I am not aware of anything that's going on like that in our state.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:36:15]
And how has the running community in the city, um, navigated through some of the civil tensions, you know, the people, voices who wanted to be heard and you know, how that impacted the running community in your area?
###### Tes Sobomehin Marshall: [00:36:28]
I think probably similar to the national scope, you know, we definitely had a very strong, um, presence of. Heightened awareness for racial and social injustice here in Atlanta, uh, protests. Um, particularly since we did have one of the heightened incidents right here and Atlanta with Rashard Brooks's murder and it was some real high tension times around here.
For a while, of course, with the Mart Arbery situation, which is kind of, um, the East side of Georgia. But you know, that really struck home with a lot of runners because I mean, even I run through suburban areas all the time I had my neighborhood itself was a suburban area. And so that really, um, you know, struck a chord with a lot of people.
But what I will say is, and I think this can be echoed around the nation. It's not going to stop people. You know, I think if anything, we're being cautious, but also saying, you know what, we're not going to let you know, hate or fear, stop us from living and being, and, and, and fighting for what we feel is right.
Just to, you know, fight for humanity. I mean, that's really the thing, but definitely raising awareness of conversations and, and being more. Conscious of your surroundings. I think that that has happened all over the country, you know, not just here in Atlanta,