EXPERIENCE 155 | Growing Through Challenge with Mandy Mullen, Founder and Owner of Run Windsor, Co-owner of Run Colorado Relays, and Executive Director of Windsor Gives.
Mandy Mullen’s previous episode (Episode 91) is The LoCo Experience podcast most-listened episode! It’s an inspiring journey of a chubby post-college wife, then mom, growing her passion for running and fitness and community until it sprung forth as Run Windsor, a community-driven race series in the Windsor, CO region. At the time of that recording, she was just sealing the deal to buy a pair of legendary races - the Wild West Relay from Fort Collins to Steamboat Springs, and the Flaming Foliage Relay from Idaho Springs to Beuna Vista.
For this big bite of new endeavors, Mandy partnered with her longtime co-director to form Run Colorado Relays. These multi-day traveling circuses were a far departure from her bread and butter community races, but they pulled both off without major hitches, and nearly doubled participation from 2022. Between those two fall events, Mandy took part in a pair of elite events, including her second Leadville 100 finish. I’m exhausted and inspired when I hear Mandy tell stories, and don’t tell but she’s one of my favorite members of LoCo Think Tank. As with our first episode, we get real about mental health, and relationship challenges, and the joys and challenges of entrepreneurship. Please join me and enjoy this conversation with the always inspiring and entertaining Mandy Mullen.
The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Logistics Co-op | https://logisticscoop.com/
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Music By: A Brother's Fountain
Manny Mullen's previous episode, episode 91, is the Loco Experience podcast most listened to episode. It's an inspiring journey of a chubby post college wife, then mom, growing her passion for running and fitness and community until it sprung forth as Run Windsor, a community driven race series in Windsor, Colorado region. At the time of the recording, she was just sealing the deal to buy a pair of legendary races. The Wild West Relay from Fort Collins to Steamboat Springs and the Flaming Foliage Relay from Idaho Springs to Buena Vista. For this big bite of new endeavors, Mandy partnered with her longtime co director to form Run Colorado Relays. These multi day traveling circuses are a far departure from her bread and butter community races, but they pulled both off without major hitches and nearly doubled participation from 2022. Between those two fall events, Mandy took part in a pair of elite events, including her second Leadville 100 finish. I'm exhausted and inspired when I hear Mandy tell stories, and I don't tell, but she's one of my favorite members of a local think tank. As with our first episode, we get real about mental health It's a question. It's a question. I didn't proper cheers. Yeah, no, we shouldn't. Let's not mess with any karma. Yes. No karma messing with today. Oh, and uh, this is the, the syncing. That's how you sync the audio and what's the video thing. We might make this part of the podcast right here. So I'll lead us in. Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. My guest today is a returning guest, our top downloads in 2023, uh, Mandy Mullen. Or 2022 and 2023. Sorry. You're our top downloads. Wow. You've had our most downloads. I don't think I knew that. You're like 20 ahead of Bob and 30 ahead of Ginger. What an honor. Yeah. I, I remember getting text messages from you last year. Like, yeah, just try to get a few more and you can pass Bob. Letting me know and then I'd be like, send it out on my Instagram. I want the, the young, uh, local, existing local member to, to beat out the old white guy. Well, thank you. I think I did it. Yeah. No, yeah. Bob was just here. Actually, oh, that reminds me, we're going to play ping pong. Uh, he's leaving again next weekend, but, uh, I need to line up a ping pong thing for this Friday. You don't play, do you? I don't play, and you probably don't want me to play. I'm a good runner, but anything else, hand eye coordination, I'm not your person. I'll come root. Yeah. I'll come cheer for you, and Mm, you'd probably be a distraction. Probably would be. Show up in, like, little gym shorts or whatever. I'd be like, let's go for IPA. Yeah. Okay. Which is what you do. That's what I do. How many, uh, how many runs per week are you doing right now? Maybe in total number, but also miles, if you'd like to share. Yeah, that's a good question. It's January and it was cold recently. Oh, I love running in the cold. I've actually decided my training right now is probably ill preparing me for the summer and all of my summer race plans because my running routine currently is running between 5 a. m. and 6 30 a. m. Okay, my start time. Okay, and we also have an all shorts rule You're not allowed to wear pants if you're running you're wearing shorts because if you do you have to pay 100 into the bet pool and I've cheated twice this year when we I think we were below 22 one day and below 12 and I did put leggings on for those two runs And now do you have a big kitty there with other people too? No, there's three of us. Oh, okay. There's three. Yeah. We're the, we're the three. So anyone listening. And it's ultimately probably a party fund that you'll spend on yourselves anyway. Absolutely. So it really doesn't matter. It's more just like the pride factor. I think I text Sean and Conrad and said, okay, I, it's, it's negative 22. I don't want frostbite. I'm wearing pants today. Other than that, I love running every morning. I would say right now I'm running four to six days a week, probably more, five to six days a week, maybe one day off a week, anywhere from four to ten miles a day. Kind of just building a nice base. Enjoying it. This is my mental health month. Um, trying not to psych myself up too much for ultra running. It's just a nice base. Well, cause you, you signed up for a new 100 miler. I did. In May, which, like, the Leadville thing is in September, so you got all year kinda. This is Yeah, it's coming up soon. It's in Georgia, though. It's called the Cruel Jewel 100, and it's a qualifier for the Hard Rock 100, which is a dream of mine, a dream of most ultra runners who are listening. You can't qualify for the Hard Rock by running the Leadville? Um, so you need to get tickets in. So as many qualifying races you have, then that's kind of your ticket into a lottery. I see. I see. So the more entries you have, it's kind of like the NBA lottery. Yep. Exactly. Yeah, so uh, Curl Jewel is one of my lottery picks for this year. It's in Georgia. It'll be Much lower elevation, but a lot more gains. Yeah, tell me about it. I really need to start running. You know, I'm not really the best at stats and numbers, as you know the last time I was on your podcast. Yeah, you were like, I ran a 900 miles in January. No, actually, I went back and listened and I was like, it was like 390 miles in January, not 900. Um, but yeah, so Cruel Jewel 100 is coming up in, uh, May. It is in the, it's in a forest, uh, it's the, okay, see, this is, I just don't pay attention. Mountain or something? No, Chattanooga, Chattahoochee. Chattahoochee? Maybe, I don't know. People are gonna laugh at me because I don't know. I thought you brought notes. I just signed up. I didn't write that down. I do know it's double the elevation gain of the Leadville 100. Okay. So it's about 33, 000 feet of climbing and ascending, where Leadville is about 15, 000 feet. So I have a lot more climbing. 15, 000? Yes, so 000 feet of elevation gain. Okay. Um, Coral Jewel is about double that. And, but it's at lower elevation. Well, you get to go downhill that much more too, right? Right, so you go straight up all of those mountains, and then you go, you go down. Um, so, it's in the, it is, it's the Chattahoochee. I think I'm just in, like, I'm insecure to say Chattahoochee. Southern words and whatever. Yeah. Way down down in the Chattahoochee. Yeah, yeah. We lost the song. We're both from, uh, the country, so. Yeah. We know those kind of songs. Yeah. Um. So anyways, that's, that's that race. It's, uh, all forest. Uh, single trail, I'm going by myself pretty much, I think you're not going to have a pace car. I will. Um, that kind of leads into next year's story too. I do have a few pacers, people that I, I would say I know them well now. I didn't know them a year ago, which is kind of cool. People that I've met on the last year's adventures that are going to come and pacing crew me. But, um, Sean might go to run my business partner. He's also trying to get into hard rock. I don't know yet. If Nick is going, my husband, it's like the week before school gets out. So mom of the year going to run an ultra when all the other moms are going to be home, like making their custom, like end of the year teacher gifts, I'll be on an airplane going to run. Yes. And like, when you were, you know, I visited your chapter, your loco chapter the other week, and you were just kind of retelling some of the things that changed in your life in 2023. Uh, and just quite the navigation it was. And, uh, so you should get mom of the year, like business mom of the year or something. And community mom of the year. Thank you. I mean, your kids might be neglected. But Nick's a really good dad. Nick's a really good dad. My kids might have dreadlocks that are not, we're not wanting them. They're just, they live out in the country. Unexpected dreadlocks. that a piece of hay in your hair? Maybe we should brush it. When's the last time you showered, young man? I don't detect too much, uh, lack of hygiene in that family. No, no. They're good. They're, and they're country boys. Yeah. You know, we grew up in the country. You should be a little dirty. Yeah. It's good for the soul. Your, your, your cuts should have a little bit of dirt and rocks in them. You're fine. So, um, should we start? Like, you, you've been, if people are listening, they're like, well, why is Kurt, like, not doing the recap thing or whatever, but let's introduce you and, and like reintroduce you for, for listeners that are going to hear this for the first time. Um, you are the founder of. Run Windsor Running Series, you are the, uh, co owner of Run Colorado Relays, and you are the president of a non profit called Windsor Gibbs. That is correct. Nailed it. Nailed it. Nailed it. So, tell the listeners what, uh, what these three entities. Yeah, so just a quick recap, um, the Run Windsor Race Series is obviously based out of Windsor, Colorado. I started that in 2017 as a women's only running group. I myself was just trying to become a better runner and wanted to create a support system, um, for other women who were trying to run. Yeah. Parenting and marriage and careers and so were you not a terribly strong runner yet at that time? I was not no. No, I wasn't I was getting better Um nick and I started running in our early 20s as a means to lose the you know, freshman 15 I hated it. He loved it. I was reluctantly still just chugging along and, um, so you, yeah, exactly. I was like, well, I guess if we're going to get married, I should try to like running. Cause he loves it so much. And what really turned around for me was in, so, I mean, it was a gosh, probably 10 year running journey. Uh, 2007 through 2013, a really just final run, but 5Ks are terrible. Yeah. Where now, if I only run a 5K every morning, I feel like I haven't even run at all. Um, so very drastic differences, but he had qualified for the Boston Marathon. I think I told you this last time I was on. And we went, yeah, it was the year of the bombing and our oldest Carter was nine months old and it just was a complete reframe of how I viewed the running community. And I just gained this newfound respect and kind of like, well, I want to be a part of that and I want to honor. You know, everything that happened and the solid community come together and just really was like, I want to get back. I want to bring us to Boston one day. Um, and I'm going to become faster. And, you know, but then I don't even think I'd run a full marathon yet. Only some half marathons. Yeah. Not well. So you set a distant goal. Very big goal. To the point you started a running organization to help yourself be in community to help encourage you. Yeah, I really did. Yes, that's kind of where it came from. And, um, yeah, so I started it as just a run coach. Loved it. I fell in love with the community and with building others up. And that trickled into putting on races. You know, a 5k leads to a 10k if you bought a gym and then close the gym and all that. Yeah, I bought a gym right before COVID, closed the gym right after COVID because that was a really fun time to open a gym. Super unwise decision. But kept growing your running series. Yes. Yeah, actually, we put on a half marathon in 2020. In October of 2020, we were one of very few road marathons in Colorado. We had people fly in from, I think, 15 different states to run that race, and it was my first half marathon that I produced. So, talk about imposter syndrome. I'm sure you've had imposter syndrome, maybe, at times in your life. Yes, always, even right now. Where you're like, holy shit. I'm the host of the Low Co Experience Podcast, Northern Colorado's favorite local podcast. Look at this office. Right? Is this mine? Pinch me. Right. Well, it's not mine. I rent it. Well, you pay, you pay the bills. I pay the bills. Lucky you. But, uh, yeah, I mean, we had a lot of people come up. I don't know what I'm doing, but they're here to run and I just fell in love and that just really catapulted into where we're at today. Um, so today it's a very long story and you want to reach out to me if you're ever interested in hearing my ups and downs of business ownership. Episode 91 or something is you 90. I don't know. It was 91. I probably go a little bit more in depth, but yeah, where we're at today is run Windsor race series. I no longer own a gym. I gave up that, that, uh, Dream, uh, due to COVID, but just realized really, I could impact our community more and spend more of my life's passion and work in running. And so today, um, for 2024, we have nine local events. Nine? That's up from seven? It is. Okay. Quite observant you are. Well, I was part of the sponsor crew. You put the hard sell on me. You're like, you're. Logo is going to be in front of seven groups of people. Now we're at nine. And are you going to raise the price on your sponsorships? Says the girl who says I need to say no more. Right. I'm like, it's nine. Um, sponsorship prices did go up this year. Oh, we didn't talk about that today. Um, but I'd say for people like We'll talk. If we, if I can have an IP on your couch, Kurt, I think we can talk. We'll talk. We'll talk. Um Well, and my MC price rate went up too this year. It did, I heard that. Yeah, I'm going to double it. I heard that you emceed some pretty cool events last year. I did, it was fun. In costume? Yes. Yes. My, uh, my Uncle Sam, uh, top hat was very popular. I was just talking to Sean about that before I left. He's like, and what is Kurt emceeing this year? I'm like, calm down. We'll find out. I don't know. Anyways, we expanded to nine races, and this year, this is really exciting, we are going off the grid. Okay. Um, we are Yes, doing nine local, local races, 5k to ultra marathon distance, but I'm adding on two more half marathons and Oh, just adding them as additionals to your other races? Yep. Like 5k, 10k, but this year also featuring a half marathon? Exactly. Cool. We're adding on a last man standing 12 hour race. Can you describe that for listeners? Because I was listening to you when you were describing it to me the other day and it seemed pretty dumb, but kind of something I wouldn't, wouldn't mind trying. So it's, it's just over a four mile loop. And this kind of started as like a backyard ultra thing. If we've got runners listening, you guys will know this. We're going to just very gently introduce it to the Northern Colorado community. So the first one is in June, June 22nd at our red, white and brew race. Um, so it will be 4. 167 mile loops done on the hour, every hour. As many hours as you can go. Traditionally we would let it go until literally the last man is standing. Oh. Um, and they're, they happen nationwide. Gotcha. Like my hero, Courtney Dewal, those are like freshmen more private events for running clubs and stuff. Yeah. And like super ultra crazy people. Super ultra crazy. Very limited. We're gonna open up to anyone this year, so if you're listening and you wanna try this, it's only open for 12 hours. Yeah. So you've got the whole day. So four miles and change. Yep. Every hour on the hour. for 12 hours. So from 7 a. m. to 7 p. m. Yeah. Uh, we're changing locations for some of these too. So this one's going to be held at Hodown Hill. Oh, yeah, the new ski hill. Sweet. Tubing Hill in, in, uh, Rain Dance. Yeah. In Windsor. Um, so I'm currently working on the course. Like, how much of the hill is involved? Are we doing the big hill? Are we doing, like, a little Yeah, yeah. You know, off the side. Yeah, yeah. Like, the side boob of the hill. We're going to do, like, the side of the hill. Ha, ha, ha. Well, and for, for your big runners, Like, that's probably, they're probably running like 8 minute miles or something? Yeah, I mean, we've got some really fast runners. I mean, some are 6 minute miles, right? Exactly. So, who knows? So then they get to rest a long time. Like, 6 minutes times 4 miles is only 25 minutes, then you're like. You should add a beer element to it. Yeah, you could have the ultra ultra if you drink a beer between each leg. Oh, that sounds like The whole 12 hours. a really bad hangover. Well, they could burn it. They might love it. They could burn it. I like this. Basically, their metabolism, they're not even going to get drunk. Yeah. It's just one beer an hour for 12 hours. Uh, kind of full belly. So that's like a whole other category. I like it. Yeah. I think that's the creme de la creme. Okay. You get a special belt buckle if you do that one. Something like that. Yeah. You might do that. I like that. So we're, now we're looking for a beer sponsor. Right. If you have a local brewery and you'd like to sponsor the Red White Brew 12 Hour Last Man Standing. Beer adventure. I love how you, uh, are adaptive right on the fly. Yeah, I'll do it. So, um So, that's that race, um, and then we're also doing a 24 hour race, um, on some private property in Eaton. Okay. The Weld Your Metal is our ultra marathon. Yep. It's, um, you can run for Three hours, six, nine, twelve, or twenty four hours. Okay. It's a big dirt loop on awesome private property views of Longs Peak that Is it a new route for the Weld Your Metal? New route. Okay. Yep, so we're talking like a big loop and in between all that is music, food trucks, camping. Is this like trails that you're running on? We're creating our own trails. Pastures? Pasture. It's basically a pasture but you're kind of just making paths on the pasture? Absolutely. We met, we actually went and ran it yesterday. So we're going to have the whole land groomed to be the route that we wanted. But it's private. Yeah. How cool. You get views of Longs Peak that, sorry, you don't get in Fort Collins. Yeah, yeah. You only get it if you're standing out in a field in Eaton, Colorado. I was just telling somebody about Nunn Road. Yes. Uh, just today, actually, how that's like, One of the most sublime views is coming into, you know, north of Wellington from none. Yeah. It's just great. Yeah. So that same view. Yeah. Um, but camping, 24 hours. Oh, fun. Um, we'll get the rotary out there to cook breakfast. We'll have beer in a cooler. I mean, this really rugged, authentic Colorado experience. So it's a little bit like Wild West, uh, experience, but all in one place and more, you know, Wild West meets Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Yep. Is there music or anything? Yeah, so we're going on live music. We have two, two talents booked so far, um, during the day on Saturday. Yeah, so just branching out and then we're bringing back, I don't know if you ever heard, the, there was, used to be a 5K. On the 4th of July parade route in Greeley. Okay, okay. And at its height it had about 2, 000 runners. Okay. And you ought to run the parade route right before the parade started. Okay. So talk about wanting to feel like a rock star. Right, right. Yeah. All these people are lined up watching you. 2, 000 people are cheering for you. Like you're in the frickin Boston Marathon. Yeah. Yeah. So you're gonna bring that back or something? Yeah, we're bringing that back. Okay, so that's one of your additional nine. And what's the other new one? Right, you're going from seven to nine. Oh yeah, so the other new one is, um The Great Western Trail Race. Have you heard of the Great Western Trail? No. Oh, is it the railroad thingy? It is. Oh, cool. So the Great Western Trail was just finished by the Great Western Trail Authority. Um, Trail Foundation. Yeah, yeah. I've read some articles about it. stuff, but not experiencing it yet. They tell me they're two different names. I'm like, y'all look like the same people, so I'm just going to call you Great Western people. Yeah, Great Western Trail people. So they just completed this. This is a crushed path, um, gravel trail that connects Windsor, Severance, and Eaton. Oh, wow. And so we have a 5k, 10k, and a half marathon. Wow. And we're going to start in Severance, and the half marathon will run out towards Eaton, turn around and come back. 5K and 10K will run towards Windsor and come back. So truly, it is our first kind of connecting all of these rural communities. Oh, that's great. And you'll still get those awesome views of the mountains. What, uh, how, you said it's 5K, 10K? 5K, 10K, half marathon. So is, like, Great Western Trail going to, like, pay you a bunch of money to get people out on their new Recently completed trail. Is that the model here? I mean, I don't want to get into your business, but some, I mean, they should write like it's, they probably got this awesome trail and they're like, well, nobody reads the newspapers. Like they get sick of seeing stupid Facebook posts. Like how do we actually activate, get out there? Yeah, no, that's a, and that's like, that really leads into honestly a little bit of business stuff too. You, I get contacted constantly by. Non profits, owners of trails, um, anybody that says, will you put on a 5k for me? And I don't think they understand the intricacies that go into it. Right, right. And how hard it is. And the market's also very saturated. And so a new model I'm leaning into this year, thanks to, honestly, my group with LocoThemeTank. Cool. Um. They, I owe them 90 percent of this credit of a way to rework how we do this and how we say yes. If Mandy wants to say yes, okay, say yes, because you're good at it, you're passionate, and you have, you have the team and the volunteers and the know how, but also you have to know when it fiscally makes sense for your time. You have to start respecting your time and your peace and your energy. So to answer your question, yes, the Great Western Trail Foundation is sponsoring this race. So that we can put it on professionally, make it happen, but also I'm not just out here literally volunteering all of my time, all of the time as a small business owner. Well, and if Windsor Gives wants to be a properly funded non profit organization, you gotta create some margin in your I'm going to be talking about the world and not do awesome things just because you love awesome things to happen. Yes. So. That's not my strength, my strong suit. I'm really good at just giving away my time. Well, and that's, I mean, that's a great segue of, not a segue per se, but like reflection on Like, there's a few people in your chapter, I suspect, that are very tuned into not just giving away your time. Right. Right, and start learning about your business, how you do things, and say, you know, you're creating a lot of value here. You need to grab some yeah, how do you recap that? Yeah. Yeah, so that's run Windsor We've had a lot of really awesome growth this year. Just learning and I have another friend who owns Amanda with the bottled olive pantry in Windsor and I don't know if she said it But we came up in our conversation of a year of understanding your business That's such a growth part for a business owner. Yeah. Instead of just like throwing darts at all the things it's like actually can understand. Well, in some ways you turned your passion project into a business in 2023. Absolutely. I would say, you know, from outside looking in a little bit, um, which I'm proud of you for that. That's cool. Well, thank you. Yeah. We've had a lot of growth. So that's Red Winds race series. We, we also collaborate a lot like our, our distinction between other, our running organizations that we are really community focused. Mm-Hmm. Mm-Hmm. We are really big into supporting local businesses, organizations. We donate a portion of race proceeds back to local nonprofits every time. Um, so this year alone, I think we had like 15, 000 that we gave back to local nonprofits, whether they're. Uh, you know, the Rotary Club that's out cooking the pancake breakfast at the marathon, or it's just a local nonprofit that we know needs a little love to, to do their mission. Yeah. Yeah. Well, even just spreading awareness and stuff. Oh, and I, you are also on the board of Front Range Behavioral Health. North Range Behavioral Health. North Range, sorry. Yes. Uh, so I didn't make that part of your introduction there and we don't need to necessarily talk too much about that. But, uh, I was just, you know, we have all these titles, uh, Do you want to talk about the, the run Colorado, uh, relay situation and like, do you want to zoom us? Because it was just like a rumor, like in our podcast, even I was like, yes, you should buy that from Paul, but don't overpay him, you know, that whatever. Um, and so as a, you know, catch up, you were at the last podcast, you were just not quite finished negotiating this acquisition. Yeah, you're right. We were talking about that. So we acquired, uh, it was called Road Less Traveled Relays. Paul started Wild West Relay, Flaming Foliage Relay 20 and 10 years ago. And so now it's been about a year. We're probably at our year anniversary. Okay. Where we purchased that from Paul. I'm actually surprised nothing came up in my Facebook news feed about celebrating that. But yeah, so my business partner Sean and I But so he's Sean has been your right hand man as you kind of grew run Windsor Yes, but it was yours. He was kind of a contract employee and now he's Probably still a contract employee for Run Windsor, but partner in Run Colorado? Yes. Okay. Yeah, Run Windsor remains my baby. Um, I think it's one thing that I've had one business partner before, and business partnerships are hard. Yeah. And I've decided Run Windsor so, so much. Like, I started it by myself, um, the, you know, the original roots of it, and I really don't want Yeah. I don't know. I think that's okay. I just kind of want to keep it mine. So, uh, it's funny though, because Sean's always like, make me a part owner, and I'm like You are incredible at what you do here, but for right now, like this just feels like I'm using my baby. So when, when the relays came up, I was like, Oh, I don't want this. This isn't my baby. Too big. It's too big. I don't want to eat that baby. Yeah. I don't want to, I don't want to adopt that baby by myself. I don't want to carry that baby by myself. Yeah. I need someone else to help. And I didn't create those routes, right? Like Paul created the relay routes. It's the volunteers that have created it. It's the runners that have created it. It's the community. Yeah. It's not my baby. I've just been. I'm going to take the football and move it forward. So, uh, Sean and I bought those from Paul last year. Um, it's been amazing. So for those that are listening, that don't know about these races, it's, um, and Kurt knows this first hand. I'm a three time or four time, maybe Wild West Relay veteran now. You're a veteran. Yeah. So it is a 200 mile race that starts at the Budweiser brewery. in Fort Collins and runs 200 miles to Steamboat Springs through the day and night. You start Friday morning. You finish by Saturday afternoon. You know, you experience, I put together a recap today in an email. The highest, the highest highs of it are that you're, you know, your team is running up Dead Man's Pass. Totally. And Red Feather. You're running down Not me, because I'm far from the strongest runner that needs to be that guy. Yeah, you're strong runners running up Dead Man's Pass. You're running down as the sun sets and you see wild horses. Mm. Yeah, the Laramie River Valley. Isn't that beautiful? So cool. Yeah, uh, you run up into Woods Landing in Wyoming in the middle of the night. It's an old historical dance hall. And we've got a spaghetti dinner being served by local owners of Woods Landing in the middle of the night. And everyone's like having a beer and then taking a nap in the parking lot. You run into Walden and then, of course, up Rabbit Ears Pass. And, you know, through more valleys leading into Steamboat early in the morning. It's just magic. Yeah, it really is. Twelve or six or fewer person teams. Uh, the traditional team is two vans of six people each. Yeah. Uh, and one person at a time. So one van hangs with the active runner, the other van gets to go take naps and chill until their first runner is back on duty. Yep. Three legs each. Three legs each, yeah, or less, or if one runner gets tired or injured, you change it up and you go on the fly. It's really, this race is really about the experience, not as much about the accolades and winning first place. And it's a friends for life kind of thing. Like, you'll probably run with people you don't know, and you will definitely know them at the end of that 30 seconds. Six hours and forever probably. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, you'll always have the stories to go back on. So it's funny because you say It is normally a six person or 12 person team, but this year we had our first solo runner. Yeah Erin Kyleman finished it all by herself the entire 200 mile race She's a Fort Collins. She started earlier though, right? Yeah, we, we started, not native, but she's Fort Collins resident. She started on Wednesday morning. Okay. A little unsanctioned start. We went and met her up there while we were out marking the rest of the course. We came back and met her and said, okay, go. Um, but she sent us updates. We had her watch coordinates the whole time, but she ran the whole 200 miles by herself. So is she like camping? Does she have a backpack and like chill or is she just. Drudge through and had support team or something for granola bar snacks and nappies here and there or whatever Yeah, we had we had the port o potties set out there on the course already Yeah, you know that the day before we gave her the combination lock code. Okay, that um Republic. I don't even care about the port o potties. I mean everywhere's a port o potty. Yeah, I know right? We're also trying not to, like, disrespect private, private land. We've got private landowners. We spent probably 35, 000 on porta potties. So again, if you're looking to sponsor, that's where we actually have really big costs because you can't just say nature's open when you're running through private ranches and private property. We love our property owners. Uh, anyways, she started early. She did have a crew that followed her or went out in front of her that had her. change of clothes, her, her food, her water for the whole course. And she would take some cat naps here and there. Um, but yeah, she ran it by herself. And then we had another gentleman. His name is Andrew. He flew here from England specifically to run this race. So he wanted to run a hundred mile ultra in August, Colorado. Well, what, what happens in August in Colorado is Leadville. Sure. He couldn't get into Leadville. He was too late. So he contacted us and said, I can't get into Leadville. We're like, well, duh, you can't just get into Leadville, like willy nilly two months before over many months. And so he asked Sean, can I come to Colorado and just run a hundred miles of the Wild West Relay? Okay. And so Sean came to me and he was like, I've got this guy, he wants to do it. And I was like, no, this seems very risky. Same with Aaron, you know, Sean's more of a yes man than I am for sure. So Sean was like, I think we should let him do it. And oh my gosh, that whole weekend, not only are we stressed about the 42 teams we have out on this whole course, that's this one lone dude. We've got this one lone dude. I'm driving his girlfriend. Did he start at the halfway point or did he start at the beginning or? He started at Budweiser. Uh, when you guys were all doing packet pickup, Right. We went and met him to start him right after packet pickup on Thursday night. Okay. And they've got a car. They're renting a car. They're from England. She doesn't even have her driver's license. They're like on the fly. Yeah. They're just, um, you know, he's just like, my girlfriend's here, can she ride with you? I'm like, sure? The whole race weekend? Like, she's gonna have to be like, race director. I guess so. And he's like, but she doesn't have a car. So we go and meet them at Budweiser. On Thursday night, right after packet pickup with all of you, knowing that, again, we have to be awake for the next three days too. And we just send him off on his way, sweet little Andrew, again, give him the code for the porta potties. And then you're going to follow along with his girlfriend. Well she rides, she gets in the car with me and she's with us now. And I don't know this girl at all. Does she stay at your house? Uh, Layla. Sweet Layla. No, I, so maybe, you know what? Maybe she went to her hotel that night. We met her that night. She went to her hotel in Fort Collins and then met us back at the start line in the morning when you all started. And I was like, alright Layla, good to meet you. Get in my car. You're co race director for the weekend. And so she rides with me and we're getting Updates every once in a while from Andrew. And so he's out on the course ahead of you all. Aaron's out on the course further ahead of you all. Eventually though, the race catches up to Andrew and to Aaron. Right. And you're like. We're going to catch you back up and get you back ahead? Well, no, because then they're kind of caught up and then they have finished with you guys a little bit. Right. Uh, Andrew though, so sorry to digress, but Andrew was only going 100 miles. Right. So he was finishing at Woods Landing. Oh, okay. So, his plan though was to finish before the Derby Girls, you remember the Derby Girls that volunteer? I remember, yep. at Woods Landing, they were going to give him and Leila a ride back to Fort Collins. Because again, Carlos, I can't give you a ride back. I'm the race director. Like, we gotta keep going. We're gonna follow the race. Well, Andrew falls behind pace. Mountains are bigger than he thought. He's from England. He's from England. Like, he's running the Solo. He's self carrying bananas and water. We forgot to leave him bananas in one. Porta potty. We were supposed to leave them in. Oh shit. He's calling Layla and I'm like, where's my bananas, I'm like, I don't know Layla. Me. I'm like, I'm trying to direct you on a runner. And now I'm trying to like cater to this one solo guy who paid us, you know, maybe. 300 or something for this hundred mile race. We're not set up to be a solo adventure, but we're making it happen. So anyways, he falls behind and I wake up sometime in the middle of the night. And I'm like Walden or whatever. And I think I'm like in between Walden and Woods Landing and I wake up. And I'm trying to get a hold of Sean and I can't get a hold of Sean because like also you wake up after you take a little cat nap as the race director and you're trying to figure out like, okay, where is everybody? Are people alive? Are people in Steamboat yet? Are they still in Woods Landing? Cause teams are spread across. And I get a text from Sean and he's like at Woods Landing getting Andrew a cabin. I'm like, why are you getting him a cabin? He was supposed to be going with the Derby girls back to Fort Collins. He's like, well, he didn't have any money left. Yeah, he came in, he came in too late. They have no money. Like, so Sean's just booking a cabin at Woods Landing. The owners are sleeping, who just made spaghetti for 500 runners. And he's like, now I've got this guy that just ran a hundred miles. Can we find a good place to sleep? So they bunk him up with one of their staff. They've got staff that's staying in this cabin and they're like, sure, you can, you guys can just go share a cabin with this guy. They share a cabin. It was why it was a wild west and you are Um so comfortable with that too. That's what I love. I mean, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? Are you gonna do it again if somebody asks you next time? Absolutely Yeah this year we learned some lessons Uh, we'll just set it up so that we're like ready to go a little earlier for people to do it solo. But, I mean, that's the goal of this race and Flaming Foliage Relay is to open it up and be solo attempts. Yeah. Um, they are the only cross state relay races in Colorado. You cannot sign up for another relay that crosses this much, this much ground across Colorado. Um, so our goal is to turn them into solo attempts or even just partnered attempts. Like you and a buddy. Yeah. Go back and forth. And A whole new price structure and whatever else. Yeah. A lot more volunteers. But we'll figure that out. Yeah. I think we're excited about that. I mean, say yes and figure it out, right? Say yes, figure it out. Yeah. So, so that's where Colorado really is. I really digress there. And we haven't even talked about fooling. Flaming foliage, same concept, it's, have you done that one? I'm told it's prettier. It is prettier. And kind of better, I don't know if that's true. It is. I'm going to say, if you had to pick based on views and running terrain, flaming foliage would be your choice. When is that? That is September, so about a month later. Okay. Yeah. Um. So you grew both of those races this year, is that right? Like from what it had been in 2022 or is that ish? We did, yeah. So Flaming Foliage has always been a smaller race simply because it's in September. Right. So families are People have packed in their running shoes for the year in most cases, some cases, or at least for a big thing. Yeah, a little bit. Or like if you've got kids, your kids are back in school, everyone's kind of out of like the summer travel schedule. Um, so that one's always kept Flaming Foliage a little smaller. I like that though. I think it's a cool race to be smaller. It still pencils out for you. I mean, not yet, but it will. It did for Paul for a while. Right now we're in new business ownership, you know, paying off a race. But yeah, Wild West had 40 teams. Flaming Foliage had 22. Okay. And if I'm not mistaken, those were about, they were both about double. What Paul had done the year before. Oh, well, that's pretty good. Um, they're not I mean, since you I guess, were, were a lot of them the growth, like, former racers coming back and former teams and stuff like that? Or was it attracting new attention, drawing some people from your Run Windsor crowds to be part of it? Like, do you know where they came from? Yeah, it was a, it was a good combination of everything. A lot of teams excited to come back with new ownership. You know, Paul, Paul will even admit that, you know, he's one guy. He's you know, he's trying to do the best that he can but he's turning 70. He never had any he's 70? Yeah, I think he was turning 70. Holy cow. In 2023. I mean, I met him in person maybe I don't know Seven or eight or ten years ago. He didn't seem he seemed pretty young at the time, I guess But that's probably what runners do generally. He was a runner. So yeah, he kept himself in shape. And you're like 65, right? I'm 65. I look 25. You do. Neither of those things are true, but Neither of them. Fine. Um, okay, so You are 38? I'm 38. Okay. Yeah, I wouldn't have said that, you know. But not 25. Yeah. Somewhere between. 33, you know. There we go. I mean, you got some crow's feet action going, whatever. It's all the laughter. Yeah, that's, uh, that's the cool thing about being a guy is they're laugh lines or character lines or whatever. It's not wrinkles. Women, it's wrinkles. Yeah. Yeah, anyway, so, um. So that's the Run Calibra relays. Yeah, and Paul And do you have dreams of, like, growing that organization too? Are there other relays that you could acquire? You want to build some DeNovos? You want to tap the brakes? I don't think I would like to add to those. I think I'd like to grow them. Yeah. We'd like to grow them to where we're staggering out runners and bring back more teams. Yeah. In the heyday of Wild West, I believe. 120 teams is the most that Paul ever had, uh, Flaming Foliage. I think he got up to like 50, 60 teams. So we have a lot of growth that we can, we can see there. And that's kind of just Sean and his goal is to grow. The terrain and the route will support that many runners. We just got to, we got to get there. Dangle them back into the, into the fold. Yeah. Yep. And it's getting. You know, runners from across the country that love to run these relay races. It's tapping into our Run Windsor community. So we're just kind of seeing like a Nash and a nice, like natural growth there. So do you do all your own marketing? Like. How do these runners from across the country find out about Run Windsor races and stuff like is it yeah Talk to me about that question. Yeah, so we use a platform called run sign up Okay, and that's how we build all of our race websites. And that's what runs the back end of the business and race registration So if you go to let's just say It's almost like an Eventbrite Plus for running businesses. Way more customized, uh, a lot, a lot more intuitive. But if you go to windsorcorace. com, for example, that is our Windsor Marathon event. So all the graphics, the website, everything you see there, we've built, but from run signup. And when I log in to run signup, I can go in and change a detail about packet pickup or change the price right the second. Then any runner can be like, show me a list of races in Colorado. Yes. So, RunSignUp makes their money because they charge a processing fee to runners. I don't pay to use their platform, but you would pay. You know, I don't even know, that should be the percentage. Yeah, not a lot, but it, yeah. Couple dollars to register for a 5k. Yeah, yeah. That goes back to run signup. And which is cool because it remembers me from back then and stuff as well. Yeah, yeah, you always have your login. and whatever. Well, I had, my, my login was. My password was, I forgot my password. Is that a popular password of yours? That's kind of my standard password for a lot of lesser used sites. I can't remember all that stuff. Now Alma's going to remind you to go change all your passwords so that you don't get hacked tonight. No, it's not, I forgot my password, it's clicking the button that says, I forgot my password. Oh, I thought you meant that for your password. Send me a new password link. I gotcha. Okay, I missed you there. It's cool. Don't be a good password though, I forgot my password. Yeah, it wouldn't seem intuitive, uh, but then you have to have numbers and symbols. That's true. Uh, exclamation point. Yeah. I forgot my password. But then you need a number. Okay. We'll work on that. Yeah. Uh, anyways, yeah, we use, we use run signup. So that's how, but then run signup is going to do a lot of that backend SEO. They want people to find your race. Oh, okay. Because the more money I make, the more money they make. Right, right. It also is cool because it comes with a lot of back end support, so I have a rep, James. I don't even think I've ever met the man, but I call him, you know, Sean, and I call him like every week. I need some changes to this. Can you help me with this? I'm running this snag. So that also comes free, because again, Free to you. Free to us, exactly. But the user is passing that on, but it's not a lot. Right. So we get a lot of national recognition there, so if you're living in Florida, And you Google relay races in Colorado, run sign up is going to be pushing a lot of that out for us. Yeah. And they'll put it on like national race registration websites, so like running in the USA. com. And then I do hire out my social media. Oh, you do? See, this is where I became a business in 2023. Yeah, good. I don't do my own. Um, so we use MCT marketing. Okay. Yep. Uh, Mona. Yeah, you should probably meet Mona sometime. She is a powerhouse. Fair. Okay. Um, I met her I sat beside her Just not that long ago. She's got a pretty big team based at a Greeley or Johnstown or something. Yeah I mean kind of everywhere. Okay. Yeah. No, I'm yeah Oh, I'll hear more about it or you can brag about it right now. Yeah, she's great. I mean she I just trust her with my social media and I feel like I have a good one on one connection with her. Is that her focus, is social media, or she does all types, or? That's her, yeah, that's her focus is um, all types. She also started a new wedding social media company where brides, and it's genius, brides can hire her to go and run their social media No. During their wedding weekend. Oh, get out. It's pretty cool. It is pretty cool. And so she, last I talked to her, she runs that side of her business separately. Yeah, yeah. So she is the one that's like flying out to New York and taking the bride's log in and running the bride's social media the whole time. So then like everyone that's not at the wedding is getting reels and updates and stories. She's, she's, she's awesome. I love that, uh, instinct for finding new opportunities that I'm hearing there. Yeah, she's been great. So she actually now handles social media for both run Windsor and run Colorado relays. And so we kind of just give them our vision. They know our mission. Do you have to provide her photos still share a lot of videos with you running and talking and stuff like that. But are you just dumping them that footage? Yep. Dump them that footage. So cool. Um, I obviously have permission. Like if I want to hop on live and do my own live, I can do that if I want, but I also don't want to mess up their algorithm. So a lot of times I'll film a video. Yeah. And just send it to our rep. Use us if you can, when you can, whatever. Yep. Here's Weld Your Metal. Do something with it. They'll do something fun. Or they'll reach out and they'll say we want something funny of like you and Sean running through the ice and the snow. Yeah. And I'm like, great. So then on the, you know, on the run the next morning, I'm like, it's blizzarding, blowing snow in our faces. Right, right. And I'm like, Sean, we have to shoot a video. And he's like, oh my god. Perfect. I'm like, they need a video. For social media. He has time. Like, yeah. So that, yeah. I don't, I don't run my own social. I would say. Um. Handing that over has been a good thing because I think we were able to build our brand recognition with us as personalities enough Yeah, that people will go and watch it, but I don't have to be the one posting it Right and I could spend my time doing others. That wasn't like you made it seem like you thought it was fun to do all that stuff in the past I do love it. I really miss it. I do miss it, but it's not what I'm best at Yeah, what I'm best at is probably in one on one meetings Yeah, partnerships, organizations, sponsor conversations, creative ideas, yeah, planning the routes, you know, planning everything that goes into the race. I'm going to circle back real quick. We just had a guy attend a freethink that bought a local gym, uh, or he's buying a local gym actually. Uh, he doesn't even have a done deal yet. Uh, and he was like, Oh, I really would like to put on a 5k or something, you know, and I'm like, I got somebody you need to meet. Anyway, I haven't. You'll have to give me the, you'll have to give me the connection. Maybe. Well, yeah. Depends. Yeah, it's. Well, what's it worth to say yes? You know, we'll see. Yeah, I'll, uh. I'll have a meeting. It's funny because I'll sit down with people who want to put on a race and they're like, we want to put on a 5k in a month. Can you help us with some ideas? And then once like, once we finish our, you know, even 20 minute conversation, they're like, nevermind. Maybe next year. Can we hire you to do it next year? And we'll pay you 10 grand. I'm like, sure. Let's have that conversation. Because once they realize. everything that goes into it. Oh, yeah. It's not as simple as just putting on a 5k. Well, and how many volunteers is common for just a 5k? Let's say there's just a 5k. Do you even have just a 5k anymore? No. Yeah, you put fives and tens and run one mile, kids runs, and yeah. I don't even know. The only one that we have that's still just a 5k and a 10k, Turkey Trot. Okay. Biggest race of the year this past year. Okay, that's just a 5k and then santa catch our December race 5k 10k Okay, other than that everything has a 15k or a half marathon or marathon and how many volunteers for turkey truck 30? 30 volunteers and how many paid staff 1099 whatever event support people five, you know Including my husband who works and how many? Yeah, he does work like a fiend. He's a strong man. How many people? Come take part both in activity and watching and whatever, watching their friends. So Turkey Trot was like 900 runners. Okay. Which was crazy. Right. It was our second year doing it. Um, runners and walkers and then I would say another like 300 family members there just watching. Sure. All on Thanksgiving morning. I mean that's a lot. That's like 1, 200 people being supported by 35. Yes. You know, that's a pretty big measure, you know, if you're a restaurant and you can serve 900 people with 35, that would be pretty good. Yeah, yeah. No, it takes a lot of volunteers. For Wild West, for the relays, I think Wild West had 120, 150 volunteers. Oh, wow. That is a lot of people to communicate with. Yeah. And they're all spread out over 200 miles. Right, and they have to know, like, where to find the information if they don't know it. How do you, like, I felt like you did a pretty good job, like it seemed like you took what Paul left you and, and ran with it and, you know, I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff you'll do different next year, but overall, how do you feel you did on the relay stuff? I think we crushed it. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Wild West seemed to have more hiccups than Flaming Foliage did, but I don't even know that there would be any hiccups that a participant might recognize. It was probably just more our team and communication. Right. I woke up at two o'clock in the morning. I took, I think an hour, my first like sleep and I was asleep for an hour on Friday night after being awake like all Thursday night, Friday day, most of Friday night. And I woke up and there's a semi truck driver pulled over to the side screaming at our volunteers and our teams because he feels like we're being dangerous because he's plowing down the road and there's vans on this side parked and vans on this side and there's runners. So then I'm calling Sean, like. What do we do? And then Sean's mad at me because he's back at Woods Landing trying to book a cabin and we're like, you know, just, oh, this is so stressful. Um, by the time we got to the finish line, I think participants had a blast. Volunteers had a blast. Sean and I were not getting along. Yeah. And then my husband is there. Nick is there like, Whoa, you two, what's going on? Like we are visibly in a fight because we're fighting about some sort of minor communication. Like at the party after virtually. Yeah, I think it was like the finish line. We hadn't clearly discussed exactly how teams would run through the finish line or, you know, on this sidewalk or that sidewalk. And I'm like, here we are at the end of a 200 mile race that has gone like pretty damn well. And now we're fighting about like. This little sidewalk or that little sidewalk to lead you to the finish line that's like right there like just don't throw away It was pretty comical But no, I think we we did a lot that made it better and I yeah, I felt like it was well executed You know coming in relatively cold. Had you run it before? Yes. Okay, so you didn't really come in cold cold You'd seen it at least but not from the back of the curtain. I'm sure No. Because there's a lot of difference, I have to think, for that big spread out relay compared to, you know, everybody gets here at 7 and we're running at 8 and we're done by noon or 1. Yeah. It is a whole new appreciation. Yeah, so I ran it the first time, I don't know if I told you this last time I was here, I took 24 women to run it in 2018. So right after I started Run Windsor. Okay. Um, this is also kind of a funny segue into last year, but I started around Windsor. We were all running. I think only one person on our team had run a relay before. She had run maybe coast to coast or something else. And I was like, we should go do this race. So I got two teams. So four vans. Dang. Um, Yeah. Two teams, 24 women to go run Wild West Relay. Most people hadn't even run more than a half marathon in their life on our teams. It was very interesting. It was so amazing, crazy experience, but. Let your imagination run wild about the finish line when you have 24 sleep deprived women who have all been sharing vans. Yeah. Uh, it was, that's a lot of concentration of women. It was a lot, it was a lot like we had to, do you remember your team names? I think that was my first year. I think it was Run Windsor. It was probably like Run Winds or one run winds or two. You were probably out out of there. We were slow that year. Yeah, we, I mean we had a pretty fast team. No, I don't think we were very fast. We were like. Um, but I remember meeting Paul for the first time, and I went up and introduced myself. We were at Chapel of the Pines, so up at the top and Redfeather. And I went up and I was like, hi, Paul, it's Mandy Mullen with Run Windsor. And he's like, oh, so you're the pain in the ass that brought two teams because it was hard to try to like work with the race director leading up to it. You know, like you have to submit your times and who's running what leg. Oh, right. And you're trying to. I'm trying to coordinate all of this. And barely even know which buses are for who or anything. It's your first event. Yeah. Yeah. It was cool. So that was my first time running it. Yeah. Which was funny. Um, and then we ran it. We signed up to run it, um, Six of us, three couples, in 2020, it got cancelled, but I had run it before, so I was like, let's just go. So we just borrowed a friend's sprinter van, and we did it all by ourselves, the whole course. Oh, cool. So the correct weekend, we started at the right time. Wait, did anybody else do that? No, just us. Huh. And then we went back the next year. Um, and ran it in 2021 when it was rescheduled. And that's when Paul approached me. Oh, really? Interesting. We crossed the finish line and he said, um, can I talk to you? And I was like, shit, who peed on the side of the road? Who ignored the no, no using the bathroom on private property role. We're going to get kicked out of this race. Dang it, man. So I go up there and I'm nervous. And I was like, yes, Paul. And then that's when he told me, Hey, I'm turning 70. This ship is sailing for me. I want to give it to someone that knows the history of it. That respects the Colorado authenticity of this race. And we'll come in and do it justice. Do you want to buy it? Yeah. And I looked at Nick and I was like, what do you think? And he's like, say what you say to everything. It won't be that much work. Do what you want to do. And Sean was there and I was like, do you want, we should buy this. And so I think Sean asked his wife, he was like, should we buy this race? And she's like, whatever you guys do, whatever you want to do. So, uh, You mentioned that, uh, you know, they're, they will make money at some point in the future. So Sean successfully lobbied for like, uh, to be a partner now. Yes. So he's a partner of the relays and I'm like, hold on, bro, you'll find out. Yeah. And he was a part of the journey this year. I mean, you know, as a business, you've got months where you're like, Hey, maybe we could pay ourselves. And then you have other months where you're like. That's not an option. So we're, we're learning and it's been really fun to have him alongside and have him learn and be eager to learn how to run a business. Like let's fill out how to submit our sales taxes and sales tax license and interest keys intricacies around that. We're being for real. Oh yeah. Cause you're going. Sometimes different places and selling shirts in different counties and all that, right? I mean, if you're not filing that way, I won't tell anybody, but right. Like technically if you sell a t shirt in Steamboat Springs, that's route County. Yep. Right. And all those, all of those things right now. Wow. It seems like just your style of work. Um, we made a kind of a list of things we were going to talk about. I wrote personal running journey stuff. Oh, I wanted to ask you like. In our first conversation last November, you were, you know, not too many weeks removed from your first Leadville 100. And then you ran it again this year, right? That's right. Ran it and finished it. I did. Can you contrast those two? Like was it easier, harder, having done it again? What was your experience? It was harder. It was harder this fall? Yeah, so let me Let me lay out what the plan was for fall of 2024. Okay. That goes a little bit into this conversation we just had. So when I was, so I had three really big back to back weekends in the fall of 2024. 2023. Or 2023. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. The years get weird when you're planning. The numbers aren't your thing, right? No, they're not my thing. So I have a cheat sheet over here. So as I'm planning 2023, um, I had planned three back to back crazy weekends, kind of not on purpose. But did I tell you about the Everest ing experience that I was planning? No. So, this goes back in the vault. Like Everest, like Mount Everest? Yes. But it's a local experience, it's a USA experience. So when I was training this group of 24 women to run Wild West Relay. Okay. I've never told you this story. I don't think so. Cut me off. We've not known each other for that long, really. I know, I just feel like we've had this conversation. Okay, so I'm training these women. We go out to climb the Manitou Springs Incline. Mm, sure. In like, so probably May of 2018, would make sense. So we're climbing the Manitou Incline to train for this relay. We're climbing and there's these guys next to us and they're just making all this noise and they're cheering and they're hooting and they're hollering. They have way more energy than anybody else on this mountain. And I'm like, you just, you feel energy from people. And I'm like, who are these guys? I can sense this energy. So we get to the top of the incline and we're talking to them. We all finished at the same time. And I'm playing that with the rise up song. You know, the Audra Day rise up. I'm going to send it to you and it's going to be a good singer. People are going to turn off this podcast if I start singing. Anyways, I'm listening to something like, yeah, we love that song. I'm like, these guys are crazy. So we get to the top. Chatting with them. They're asking us who we are, what we do. I tell them I'm a run coach, new race director. We're going to run this relay race though. Okay. What do you guys do? And this guy's sitting there and he's got like a cut off shirt and like his nipples hanging out and he's all sweaty and he's got like a bandana on and he's like, this guy owns a podcast. This guy's in the NFL. This guy does this. I'm like, who are you? You know, start talking. Well, where do you live? And he says, I live in Atlanta. Where do you live? I say we live in Colorado. He asked what I do. I say I'm a run coach and then just started putting on races. He's like, yeah, yeah, I put on races. You should come and run my race. And we're like, absolutely, that sounds like a good time. And he says, we say, what do you do in Atlanta? He's like, oh, my businesses are everywhere. I sold Marquee Jet. I sold, uh, you know, Zika water, like coconut water to Coca Cola. Oh, wow. And, um, I own the Atlanta Hawks. And Okay. And, um, we live in Atlanta. And we're like, what do you do in Atlanta? And he's like, well, my wife's business is Atlanta. What does your wife do? She owns Spanx. Oh. One of my girlfriends says. You're married to Sarah Blakely? Yeah, yeah. And he goes, Yeah, yeah, y'all know Sarah? And she says, No, but Oprah, Oprah knows Sarah, like I don't know Sarah. Anyways, here comes in, this is, this is Jesse Itzler. He is. So this is the owner of the 29, one of the co owners of 29 Out of 29, and he's telling us about this race. So he's married to Sarah Blakely. Yes. And so he tells us, I'm putting on this race, you guys should come and do it. It's the first year or second year we're putting it on. I don't remember if it was our first or second, it's called 29 Out of 29, where you climb up, up and down a mountain. As many times as you can until you reach the elevation gain of Mount Everest. Okay. And he said, I think we still have openings. It's in April or something. And we're like, done. That's like right up our alley. We're doing that. Sure. We're going to sign up. So we kind of chase these guys and run them back down the backside of the mountain. We're all just chit chatting. We're like, great. We'll see you in a couple months. We're signing up for your race. So we get back to the car and we look it up and it's like 3, 000 a person to Nevermind. Just, I think we were just talking to a billionaire. Like we ask the Colorado Marathon, like every year I email Logan for a coupon code to run the Colorado Marathon. Like, can I get a 15 discount off your 100 month? I'm not paying 3, 000 to run this rally. It's not the Boston Marathon. I'm not paying much. Even if it, like, Boston Marathon's like 500, 600. Is it really? I don't know. Not 3, 000. Right. So we're talking about, like, a bunch of, like, we're mostly stay at home moms. So have you stayed connected to this person? Well, I, okay, so I stayed connected with him. He said, I'll send you free Spanx. I never took him up on that because I was like, that's just weird. Right. I'm not gonna, like, send me free Spanx. Right, just because you saw me on this thing. Yeah. So, but I kept in touch with him. I did a class with him, um, a build your life resume class during COVID and I was trying to get my gym through dark days of COVID and anyways, I put 29 to 29 on my bucket list and I told Nick about it. I'm like, there's this race, it's very expensive, but it seems so cool. You fly to, he rents out private mountains around the U S and in Canada. Okay. And you sleep at the base of the mountain, and it's just glamping your experience. Okay. And you go up and down, and So I put it on my bucket list, and Nick was like, Someday, Mandy, you should go and do that. Just for yourself, go and do it. So I've been, I've been thinking about working on it, and then I last year decided 2023 was my year to do 2929. Oh. Also, inflation has hit. Right. So. Now it's 5, 000? Yeah, it's like 5, 000. But I've been like, I'm saving for it on the side. This is something I really want to do. I'm not a target mom. 2024. No, 2023. Last year, you did it. So I, I had. Was gonna sign up for one that was in, is this all going to a good cause or just to make this super rich guy richer or like No, I mean you can't drink that much champagne after the race or whatever. Well, they have a partnership and it is very expensive.'cause they do rent out private mountains. But I don't know what they give back. I'm gonna go back and look at their philanthropy. Yeah, I think it's, I mean it's seems like a reasonable question. Like that's, that is a good question. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Just because you met all these fancy people. So cool. Did you get to know Sarah? Was she there? Sarah wasn't there, and Jesse wasn't even there. Oh. And I was a little mad about that. But um, I went to, I was gonna register for one that was in like, October. And by the time I went to register after Open, it had closed. Okay. I was like, shit. Okay, well I guess I'm not doing it. Oh, they do these races here and there? Yeah, so they're all, they have like seven this year, I think. Oh, wow, okay. Um, or in a year. And so then I got on the wait list, and then Nick and I were on vacation in Florida. It's when Nick was still drinking. Okay. When he was fun Nick. He was being fun Nick and we were at a bar and I got an email saying, Hey, we're opening up another Snow Basin 29 or 29 August 10th or whatever the weekend after. So let's just call it August 10th. Weekend after Wellbos really. You know me and my numbers. August 10th. They say we're opening registration if you want in register now. Yeah. And I was like, Oh shit. And I told Nick, okay, they're opening up another one. It's Snow Basin, Utah. And he's like, do it, do it. It's on your bucket list. You should go do it. And I was like, it's in between. Race Directing Wild West Relay, which we've just gone over, sleep deprivation for four plus days and stress to the max, and the Leadville 100, which I was already registered for. Right. And Nick's like, just do it. I'm like, okay. We have kids. It also covers the two weeks where he's in AFT, annual field training, because he's in the Colorado Air National Guard. Right. And also, like, physically, mentally, emotionally, I'm like, This is a big undertaking, but also, I don't know, you only live once. So I drunkenly signed up for it. And so fall 2023 was insane. So that first weekend we directed Wild West for the first time. Stayed in Steamboat for a couple of days to decompress, float the river, drink some beer, eat a lot of pizza. Try to make up the business partnership fight that I was having with Sean. Kid started school. I come home for like two days, fly to Utah by myself. Had the time of my life. Met incredible people, um, walks of all life. So, yes, people that are bougie and have money that were like, Sure, 5, 000, I'll go run the race. But also people who had had it on their bucket list for a lot of years. Or fundraised and got sponsored to go and do it. Which you did not really do. No, but I should have. Seeking sponsors for 2024. 29. 29 for Manny Mullen. Um, it was cool. It was a cool experience. So, years ago, My wife and I lived in Colorado Springs and I kind of had this notion that, you know, Oh, the Broadmoor, you know, 600 a night to stay there. Like, how can it really be twice as nice as the nice hotels that I've stayed in, you know, for 300 or whatever. And I was kind of cynical about it and whatever. And then one, after I moved up to Fort Collins, one quarter, I was lots of quarters, I was the most productive lender. Um, but one time the prize was a weekend at the Broadmoor for you and your sweetie. And. They fucking killed it. Like it was worth 800 a night. If you had 800, like they're just their service quality. And it was just, everything was just kind of perfect. Is that like why that was worth five grand or three? And isn't it good to have those experiences where you're like, okay, this is worth it. Yeah. I would never, you know, if you, if you had this kind of guy, if you had the money, you understand the value is there. Yeah. Yeah. It was totally the same experience. I mean, I came home and. People asked, would you do it again? I'm like, in a heartbeat, would I currently spend that money to do it again this year for me with other things that, like, I want to run a bunch of hundreds. I can do three other bucket list things for that. Exactly. But the value, absolutely. Would I pay for a plane ticket to go out there and volunteer and just be a part of the community again? Yeah. 100%. More likely, at least. The next one. Yeah. And, and I think more of, more overly like what I recommend it to somebody that was looking for something that might just inspire them to change their life. to give them, just like any of our races, I mean, it's just like any other race. Yeah, if you're really, uh, what do they say that, uh, a cause driven runner. Mm hmm. Like some of us only really run if we have a reason to run, kind of. And so getting ready for something like that would definitely be a strong cause. Yeah, and part, yeah, part of my reason for going, what I would encourage other, even just entrepreneurs or leaders, is like the saying of you're only a smart, As the smartest person in the room or, you know, like don't, or don't be as, don't be the smartest person in the room. Right, right. Um, you are who you surround yourself with, like all of those things. I definitely felt like I was getting to a place where like, I need, I want to start to show up to places where people don't know who I am and who will challenge my thoughts and my beliefs and my strengths and push me without knowing who I am. Like I could go and run my own Weld Your Metal race for 24 hours. The people that I'm running with, yes, I'll have my friends in my tribe and right, my family, right? You're all push me. But I might have someone that's like one of my clients or someone that admires me. They're not going to like call me out on my shit or be like, I feel like you could push it more. You know, they're going to be like, looking for me for looking to me for inspiration versus me. And I think sometimes it's just good to just totally get outside your comfort zone. And also, like, if I think I'm brave socially and brave and in the endurance world and willing to do things outside of my comfort zone, then like, go. I'm smiling because I had a conversation with my father, I guess it was just yesterday morning before I left North Dakota to come back to, to home and, uh, we were talking about a little bit of this, a little bit of that and, uh, cooking and, and stuff and dad was like, you know, I think, you know, maybe you don't want to or whatever, but it would be good for you to like go cook one shift a week. Yeah. Uh, because you really love it and it would, like, you spend all your time around all these business owners, mostly, and a, and a really smart team and all these facilitators of all your chapters. Like, you're, you might kind of be getting a different perspective of the world than is real. Like, try staffing a restaurant kitchen for a while. You know, try staffing your 7 Eleven store, or getting 35 volunteers for a 10k, or whatever, you know. And so, it was, it was an interesting, and, and, you know, my dad's a very successful farmer. He's got a lot of things figured out, and stuff like that, and whatever, and it's kind of the same message in a, from a different perspective. Right, just like you should sometimes surround yourself with people that are, that sneeze at a 5, 000 race entry fee, uh, also surrounding yourself with people that are trying to find a way to get out of the trailer park and into a house. Or whatever. That's a really good perspective. Having that perspective too. Because, because you do really surround yourself now with people who are Right, or entry level employees. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, me, I'm in a weird place. You know, even weirder than yours, and you're in a weird place in terms of who you connect with on a day to day basis. Yeah. Dad's got some good advice. Yeah. I like that. Son of a bitch. The older I get, the smarter my dad is. How does that happen? Um, I want to call an old guy, uh, time out, and we'll come back in a couple minutes. Oh my gosh, I love it. Okay. This 29, 029 thingy, um, did you win? Like, is it a competitive race or mostly just do as good as you can? And like, yeah, tell me about the actual, like, is it hundreds of people? So yeah, a couple hundred, I think when they sell out probably 500, 600 is their sellout point. Potential, yeah. Their potential. I didn't do any research going into it. Right? Because I'm in full I know that's not true. It was on your bucket list and you hadn't done any research? Mm hmm. And I paid that much money to do it. No, it's just, I just was like, okay. Everybody thinks this is the coolest thing, so Well, I didn't do research about, like, how it would work. Oh, okay. Like, what does, how does this actually work? Who's gonna go? So, in my mind, when you sign up for an Ultra event, you're going in, you're going for time, it's pretty rugged, that's it. And leading up to this, I'm planning Wild West, Flaming Foliage is, we haven't even talked about Flaming Foliage yet. Flaming Foliage is like two weeks after Leadville, right? So I'm in knees deep with like data trying to assign runner times for Wild West Relay, like. Final permitting, all of the planning, volunteers, everything. Like to me, this 29 on 29 thing, like, that's still a 10 days away. And it's a vacation. Like, I'm not in charge. My children aren't with me. Right. I go run up the hill. I run down the hill. I run up the hill. I run down the hill. What else is there to know? I don't even know anything. I do, like, book a flight, finally, and book an Uber from the hotel to the mountain, um, but I get there and I was very confused because I'm not gonna lie to you, demographically I'm looking around this room of people that are there for, like, the meet and greet dinner, like, right when the event registration opens. I know not a person. I know nobody in this room at all. Like, I'm here by myself, which is not like my personality because I kind of like to move on in my tribe. Yeah, well you like to build clumps so that you know people. Yeah, like I'm insecure if I'm by myself. Like, with my thoughts or my feelings or just physically, I'm a little anxious. So this was really weird. But I'm in this room for this briefing and I'm looking around like half these people look like they could go run Leadville with me. Not half, like, I don't know, a handful of these people would look like they could go around Ludville with me in a couple of weeks. And I'm like, look at this other group. I'm like. These people are gonna look like me. No, not, not, not like I'm talking like we've got people that are elderly ish, like, a little heavier, like looking like they're newer in their fitness journey, which, yeah, no judgment, no judgment. But I'm also like, okay, I know from a race director standpoint, a safety standpoint, there is the The task at hand. So you're like looking around like, I could kick your ass, I could kick your ass, I could kick your ass. I'm medically worried about you, I'm medically worried about you, I'm medically worried about you. The race director should be worried about you. Like, I'm looking at you through the lens of like, and then what did I sign up for? Like, I thought I was signing up for this challenge. I'm very confused because I thought the whole point was that we go up and down this mountain. 13 times. I think it was 13. Um, but I'm thinking like, that's the mission, right? You sign up for this event to come here to go up and down that mountain 13 times. And I'm looking around. I'm like, I'm not confident that everyone here can go up 13 times and not from like a, I'm judging them, but from like a, I'm a, I'm a run coach. I'm a run coach and I'm a race director. Like, I'm looking at more like this could be like a 5k to marathon type distance. What I didn't realize and what I didn't appreciate until after it was over was that it wasn't finding Everest. It was finding your Everest. Oh, right. So, Kurt, maybe 13 as you can do. Exactly. Maybe you're coming out of whatever it is, physical, mental, emotional, and you're like, I just need a thing this year to go and do and crush and know that like one or two or three or four or five of these laps is the most I can do. I want to do that. Yeah. And it was this constant challenge when you would come back down from the mountain. And that's kind of how we built Weld Your Metal when we talked about that years ago was like Every time you come around a loop, it's the, do I have it to do it again? Do I have it to do it again? And when you don't and you, when you stop, that's your Everest, right? So we saw a lot of people do two, three, four laps. And there was one woman who's kind of gone famous in this new community that I've built and that I've been so honored to join. Um, but she got out there and she said, I've never, I think she came from inner city, New York or something. She's like, I've never gone for a hike. Like, I don't live around mountains and trails, I've never hiked before, so she's looking at this mountain and she's like, that's gonna suck. But like, I think she only did one or two ascents, she just did a couple, and that was her Everest. Was she wealthy? She might have been wealthy. I'm guessing, I don't know. Or, she found it on the internet, and then was like, I'm gonna save up for this for a long time. Who knows. So they were definitely not all wealthy, but it was just a cool. It was a cool experience. Um, for me, I knew I had Leadville the next weekend. I met a kid, his name was Jaden. He was a cancer survivor, um, from California, or from Canada, not California, Canada. And he had come out to do it. He'd known a couple of people that were there, um, but I saw him and I'm, I'm hiking up like my second hike and, or maybe a first and his, he's got white tennis shoes on and they say, I will run. And then the other shoe says a hundred miles. And of course, I'm like, okay, you, I will connect with you because I'm not sure about what the rest of this is because we're just starting, right? And I'm still kind of doubtful. Yeah, he's not threatening. He looks like a kid. He's like 24 years old. He's got, he says run on his shoes. I'm like, are you a runner? He's like, yeah, I'm running a hundred miles in Canada in October to celebrate my final all clear. Clear from childhood leukemia. And he's going to run it from the hospital, from his final checkup home. And he created this hundred mile route and he's like, so I'm here to train. And I was like, I got you. We're friends. We will do this whole weekend together. I, I love running ultras. And he said, I don't know what to do. Do I train for like sleep deprivation? Do I train eating? Do I train everything? I was like, everything we'll do that at 29 or 29. And so talked him through like. Some of the strategy, we're talking through nutrition and did he pay you for this consulting? Nothing. Oh, I knew that. We both paid 29 out of 29, like 10, 000. No, that's cool though. I love the passion in your eyes and your voice as you're describing this experience. Well, cause like that's, that's the further meaning, right? Like you're not just paying to go have your own experience. You're, you're being a part of a community. Yeah. And that's what running is. So you rocked the 29. 029. It was great. It was super fun. Met so many cool people. Yeah. And then came home. Came home. Flaming Foliage. Leadville. Leadville first before Flaming Foliage. Oh yeah. And, um, you said it was harder than last year. Uh, why? Or the previous year. Whatever. Uh, mile ten probably. I was like, oh shit. I'm really tired, under fueled, last weekend I'm doing 29 hour 29, which was, that was a full, we had 36, 36 hours to complete 29 hour 29, so I was up from, we, and I never, I didn't sleep. So I was up all day, all night, all day. So Wild West Relay, Wild West Relay, day night, day night, 29 hour 29 is the next weekend. Day, night, day, go home, I'm home for two days, then drive, I'm like hitching up the camper, leaving home, even like, hitching up the camper's hard, like, I am tired. Get out to Leadville, um, so this is my second time doing Leadville. I did it in 2022. Actually, I'm wearing my jacket. Nice. This is my finisher jacket from 2022. Customized, even. Well, that's your prize. Kurt, if you, if you run that long for that hard, they should send you a custom jacket. I could get one just like that from Sportabout. Ha ha ha ha. Shit. I would say, Kurt Baer. I'm just going to take a picture right now. Put your time on it. Right. Okay. So my seven hours, just add like a lot of zeros anyways. Um, so yeah, I ran it in 2022. Uh, my time then was 29, 17, just cause I'm looking at my jacket. Um, so this one is your old one. This is my old one. My first jacket and went back and just mile 10 immediately felt it like I. So Carter, my oldest, had came with Nick. Yeah, yeah, usually the race launcher. Yes, yeah, long hair. Yeah, yeah, the dreadlock one, I assume. Dreadlock, yeah. Accidental dreadlocks. Yeah, I have hay in his hair. Um, so he had come with Nick to drop us off at the start line, and it's me and Jason and Sean running it. And everyone's in good spirits, doing great. And I didn't take a lot of food with me that first part because I just ate breakfast on the way to Leadville from Buena Vista. Like I've got an aid station at the half marathon point, another one at mile 22. Like I don't need a lot. It's, we're just starting. I shouldn't need anything. But I'm start, like I would have, I had a granola bar and some gummies in my bag. I ate it and I was still starving. And we're not even to like mile 14. And I was like, Oh shit, this is not going to go well, rookie mistake. Or just like, why am I so low energy? I'm already tired, low energy. I think we're at like mile 15 and Sean's like leaping around being excited and I'm dying and Jason is feeling good but, um, Sean's like, what's wrong? I was like, um, this isn't gonna be my ace, man. Like, I don't, I'm tired. I'm already drained of energy and, but I, then I knew, so Nick and Carter weren't necessarily crewing us yet. I, we technically don't. Need crew until 50 miles. I'm good with at 20. Just come and say hello. Yeah. Yeah. But they were going to come and meet us at mile 2022. And, um, and I'm like, okay, Nick and Carter going to be there. I just like want a granola bar and I want to hug from Carter. Like I need to see Carter right now. I just need to see my Almost 11 year old who sacrifices so much for doing all these crazy things that I do, who's here to support, who was at the start line crying for me, who's worried about, like, I need to see Carter. Oh, because he knew you weren't really ready? Probably. He's just an emotional being. Yeah, yeah. And he's also afraid. Like, mom's gonna go run for a hundred miles. Right. Put an eye on the mom and the grizzly bear will kill you. Yeah. Yeah. Or whatever, right? Like, he's seen this a couple times. He knows that it is all day, all night, all day, you know, you running. And we get to the aid station, and my friend Conrad is there, who's also paying and cruising, pacing and crewing us. Yeah! The financial guy, right? Yeah, High Point Financial Group. Yeah, they're one of our, one of our sponsors. Yeah, he's a cool guy. I don't mind him doing it, I think, so. I love him. He's a great guy. And I get there, and he can see that I'm kind of visibly upset. And he says, Hey, I have to let you know, Carter and Nick didn't make the shuttle bus. They're not going to be here. Oh, shoot. And he's like, but what can I get you? And I just start bawling like, no, like I just wanted, I just wanted a Carter hug. Like I wanted him there. I was hoping that he'd like have a granola bar in his backpack that would be better than the crappy race food that we're going to have at this point. And um, so I just, I cried. And he's like, are you okay? I was like, I, yeah, I'm just tired. Conrad like, and I really needed to see Carter right now and I'm not going to see him, but okay. And then I needed to see Nick. I needed to see my family. Like I knew Nick would have his backpack and have like granola bars and peanut butter and jellies, roll ups. So there is an aid station, but it's just, it's not home. Like when it's your family. Yeah. Yeah. When it's your husband, when it's your kid, you're like, this feels like, I know you're going to take care of me. Then the temperature got really hot. So from there, and I think even like Sean came in and Jason came in and Conrad was like. Did you get some food? Yeah. I think I had. Crappy whatever. Something. I don't know. Refilled my tailwind and water. Got some food and was like, okay, stop being a baby. Like you're at mile 22. You signed, you signed up for a hundred. Right, and you did a hundred last year. Yeah, so shut up, you're fine. Stop being emotional. Also, you're tired. Yeah, you're tired because last weekend you wanted to go do 29 to 29 and the weekend before you wanted to race direct so buck up buttercup. Like, you can't have your cake and eat it too. So I kind of just like kicked myself in the ass. I think Sean and Jason showed up and Conrad told Sean, like, Hey, man, she's crying. You're gonna have to talk to her. Like, this doesn't look good. So Sean comes over and he's like, What, Mandy? Like, what? And I told him, like, I'm tired. I'm hungry. He's like, yeah, because you've been on the go. Like, you've been running. You've been race directing. You haven't been eating. You haven't been resting. You've been trying to be a good mom. And now you're at Leadville. So what are you gonna do? Like, give up? Are you surprised that you're tired? It's like, let's go. We have to run. I was like, damn it. Okay, fine. You know? So, um, anyways, the rest of the race sucked. The whole thing was hard. It was not, did you get a 50 mile check in with Carter hug? I got a 40 mile check in with Carter hug. I've got pictures of my mom, my sisters, my kids, Nick Conrad, our friend, Sarah was there, everyone just loving on us. And, uh, fueling up me, Sean, and Jason. So it's, I have the coolest pictures, like, um, but that fills your, that fills your cup and you're like, okay, like I can be superhuman if they can be here, if they can sacrifice their whole day. If we can put our kids through that kind of trauma too, like I know Carter's like. Worried, especially when you leave him and you're crying, then the rest of the time I've got mom guilt. Like, oh, my kid just saw me having a hard time. Right. Hard to even get up to my, whatever your musician you were just talking about that you like to get it up to. Inclined. My rise up. Yeah, rise up, right? Audrey Day. You know, that, it's hard to get bumped out of that mind space sometimes. Um, yeah, yeah, it is. But it was, I don't know, impressed with your perseverance. We left and we climbed up. What was your time? Uh, so, so what's funny is we got up to the turnaround point. So we leave this 40 mile mark, um, go up Hope Pass in Leadville and then you feel back down the backside of Hope Pass up to Winfield. Okay. And that's your halfway turnaround point in between. Then you cross a river. That's like up chest high, so you walk through a river. For reals? Yeah, for reals. Okay. That's super cool. Uh, do you have a different outfit on the other side or anything? You just learn how to dry off. You just keep running. You have to run. You have to run. So we get to Winfield. Everyone's miserable. I get up there first. Sean comes in behind me. And you know our relationship. Like, we're really close friends. Like, it would only be like a hug. Like, okay, we made it. We're good. He comes up and I just give him like this nod like glad you're alive and he kind of gives me the nod back of like glad you're alive like we are not no one's having fun up here like there are people up at Winfield it's 10 degrees hotter I think than the year before. People have like, they're trying to cool themselves down. Like it's what, like 70? 80? Uh, probably 70. But it's like roasting sun 10, 000 feet is different. Or 11, 000 feet. Yeah, but you could have like snow or rain at any minute. So you're, everyone's like got layers on but you're peeling the layers off. And then you go back down and it gets cold. Yeah. Uh, anyways, we get out to the halfway turnaround point and they're yelling at us that we are butting the cutoffs. Like, now you have to run the rest of the race. It's like this thing that's like chasing behind you if you don't make the cutoff checkpoint. Yep. So now we're, we're back behind cutoffs. So I think at that point, I'm like an hour behind. Oh, wow. Or maybe more. Again, not good at math, but I am way behind. We're way behind where we were the previous year. Okay. Because the previous year, we were not at risk of not finishing. But you're not an hour behind cutoff. You're just like We're right there. Right there. Like, it's chasing you. Like, literally, they're like, go, go, you have to run. Um, and the amount of time we made up, God, I wish one of the guys was here right now because they would know. But the number of hours we had to make up from mile 50 to 100 was unreal. Like there was no stopping. It was, you will run everything. You will only, you only have time to hike the very steep uphills. So backup power line, you know, backup hope you can power hike that, but the rest of it is running. And at one point, so Nick, I picked Nick up. And Conrad, so Nick's pacing me, my husband, Conrad, our friend is pacing Sean. We pick them up at, um, back up at Tweed Lakes, so mile 60 ish, and we're miserable. But they're like, let's go. Both of you are? We're go mode. Yeah. Sean's miserable. Like he also, he didn't do the 29 out of 29, but he also did the Wild West, right? Yeah. He's been focused on other things probably. Yeah. Yeah. We're not doing good, but he's like right behind me. Like we're delusional. We don't even talk. Like the whole. 50 through 100, Sean and I are like, glad you're alive. I don't know. It's like one, each man for himself. There's no, like, we can't even be there for each other. It's like, if I see you throwing up on the side, I'm just going to assume someone else is going to come and help you. Like we gotta go. So they pick us up and we trudge through and it is rough and it's terrible. And my husband really was like. Um, because it wasn't even encouragement you could use at that point, it was physical. Eat this food. Here, put this gummy in your mouth. Drink some water. Chew this. Chew this. Do it. He was like, tough. Like, sorry, you signed up for this. So let's go. You're going to finish it. Yeah. And at one point we're climbing up Hope Pass or, uh, uh, what were we on? I don't even know. We're on one of the climbs and I'm climbing. I'm like, can I just take a nap, please? Just I want five minutes. And he's like, yeah, yeah, you can do that. Let's do that. And then you're not going to finish. It's like, Oh my God, you're so annoying. Anyways, it was not great, but we finished. I, so this. 29 hours and 22 minutes. Oh, wow. Came back to five minutes behind. Yeah, just below, but the experience and the amount of like, oh, the pressure, running on the back half compared to last year was, well, and last year you had got like injured. So you had a physical impediment for the last 30 miles or whatever, but different kind of thing. And probably. If your head is right, it's easier to push through the physical challenge than getting your head right when it ain't right, and just the energy lack of. I would agree. Yeah, the physical pain was In 2022 is much easier to run feeling pain because just pain, like it's physical pain. When you're telling your body, we got to keep going, got to keep going. Your body's like, I don't, I got nothing for you. It's the energy that's, that's really what hurt the most. So I learned some lessons. I might not do a three week back to back endurance challenge. I call it my own personal, like triple crown endurance. Yeah, dude. Race director, fun running, and crazy running. That's gotta be, like, that's your local experience, at least, uh, if you have other crazy experiences this year, but That's it. That is, gotta be it. That is it. Um, We were talking about when we came back from the break, how both of us got texts from our significant other and, uh, I find it interesting that, I don't know how to say it quite right, but we both have made it obvious to people that we really like each other, right? Like we've enjoyed each other's company and we're cheerleaders for each other's organizations. And like, the first time Jill met you is when you were giving me a hug at the trailhead and all of your girlfriends thought I was the coolest podcaster alive. And like, we have this interesting dynamic of, and like, I'm always going to these hoity toity parties. I'm meeting with. It's male and female business owners all the time. You're going off on solo runs with rich people, right? And stuff. And so there's a question here somewhere and it's not, uh, not anything dirty for those of you that are wondering, but it's, but it's like a balancing and navigating, um, marriage, kids, all the business parts of it, all the organizing, all the rallying, like, yeah, the, the, the relationships piece of it. And how do you balance it all and like who you are in your house and in your families and then who you are out in the public and like, all the relationships. Yeah, it's a, quite a navigation, right? And your, your business partner is a similarly aged, also highly fit person and you're spending tons more time with him during certain seasons than you are with Nick. Yes. Right? Yeah. Yeah. That becomes hard. I think it's the, Oh man. Yeah. There's a lot to unpack there. But I think, um, It comes with like conversations and you, you have to just acknowledge like. I mean, for Nick, I, I remember the one time, I mean, he's very, we talked about this too, like introverted spouses. Yeah. Marrying the very extrovert. He doesn't want to be out at the trailhead at 1030 on a Sunday night. Yeah, exactly. That's a family blast. That's not fun. Right. Um, they want to like be at home and in their safe space and we want to be out making connections and being social and having so much fun. And for me, I think that's always been who, part of who I am. And that's also been like a struggle in marriage because if I want to be super social praised, knowing I'm making everybody happy and the people pleaser. That's not necessarily like how that is going to work out super well in your relationship. You're not always going to get that from your partner. Right. I remember the first time, I think I might've shared this with you last week, one of my best friends came to a networking event that I was speaking at and she said, she like we left there and she was like, okay, I could understand how like if you and your husband would have a hard, if you and Nick would have a hard time because the praise that you get in that room and like everybody knows you and people are standing in line to talk to you. And I was like, okay. Like, how does, how do you, how do you come down from that before you go home and then not demand that of your family? Because guess what? Your family needs you in other ways. Like, your spouse needs you in different ways. Your kids need you in different ways. And that is such a different world. One of the key things being to be a critic for you. Right? And, uh, and then you're like, well, I didn't get criticized all day until I came home. And we're emotional creatures and all that. Yeah, no, it's an interesting navigation. Yeah, I never thought about the critic part, because you really don't get, we don't get criticized a whole lot. Not much, no, no, and I mean, for the past six years I've had local think tank, you know, and, you know, 80 percent of my employees over that span have been attractive, young female people. Right. And in the meantime, I'm going out here and going out there and, you know, much like you, you know, you're, oh, they created this thing, man. He's the person that created run Windsor, you know, you're like, well, yeah, I've been working basically for free for four years. Wouldn't you love to be in my shoes? Right. But there's that, there's that, you know, When you have somebody that you committed your life to being with or whatever, like, that's kind of the deal is that they're like your most special person always, right? And so curating that and maintaining that in the face of all this praise from all these strangers or relative strangers and stuff, it's an interesting, you know? It's hard. I also think I've, I've come to a place, I don't know if this is right, but I guess in my mind. Um, and this might go too deep for Nick because he's probably gonna listen to this, but like, I guess where I've come is like, I, I don't know that I believe every, every relationship has to give everything that you want. Like, we can't fill all of our cups in one space. Like just because you, you're married to someone doesn't mean that you can't just hang home with Nick all the time and be happy with the rest of your life. You also can't do the complete opposite, but also like, I don't know, you meet some couples who feel like they're like. He's my everything and she's my everything and we do everything together. And I think that's such a messed up view of relationships and marriage because I mean Nick and will tell me like I know you love your friends I know your friends love you and I want you guys to do that and I want you to go to happy hour and dinner with your friends because they're gonna give you praise and you're gonna give them praise and you're gonna put all these ideas And do all these things like I don't want to do like I don't have the energy to do that I want to go work hard for a family. I want to provide I want to be here for the kids. I want to play my guitar. I want to run. I want to be here for you in the ways that I can and that makes sense in our relationship. But like, I know I'm not going to come home and next time I'll be like, tell me all of the sponsorships you got today. Right. How many people signed up for the race? Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Tell me the highlights. Yeah. What were the highlights? And then, okay, what should we do tomorrow? What's your next business idea? Like, that's not what I need him for. I don't want him to like feed me ideas and praise for my business. Like, that's what I have my, You know, my people in my community in the professional world for so that's part of, I'm sure your attraction, right? Like he's the kind of stable rock that your adventurism can be anchored to. Yes. In some ways. It's also hard to not like I take advantage of that though. Like it's really easy for me just to just assume all is good and all is taking care of on the home front. If I have this and this and this and this, so that's where the work comes in. Yes, and I suspect that, like, he both feels, like, sometimes jealous of the time, or whatever, but also, like, self blames too. Like, why can't I be the kind of husband that can be freewheeling, you know, our kids would love that, and things like that, if it was a little bit this, and both of those things aren't true, like, he's created the way he's created, and, like, When you're critical of yourself for the way you're created. Now, should there be compromise? Should there be, you know, Can't be happy hours four nights a week, you know, even more than one on a school night is probably enough for mom ville. Right, exactly. Yeah, you gotta pick your night. Right. Uh, so anyway, I just appreciate that, uh, interesting dynamic. We're both, uh, you know, longtime married to very organized, relatively Uh, less adventurous. Well, Jill's very adventurous. Just likes her alone time more than being with strangers. Yeah. You know. Yeah, it's interesting. I think that's how a lot of entrepreneurs are built too. I was, I ever saw a podcast, or not a podcast, a reel on Instagram that was talking about that. Like the entrepreneur and the entrepreneur's spouse or partner, and they are generally not the same kind of person. Right. And whether or not they're involved in the business together or not. Exactly. You gotta, you gotta have that difference. So. For sure. Um, one thing we haven't touched on, if we got a few more minutes, uh, your Windsor Chamber Adventure. Well, and just. Tell people about Windsor, too, because the majority of our listeners are in Fort Collins, a lot in Denver and Lublin and stuff, but Windsor is probably a, you know, a barely known community in some ways for people that get deep tracks. Yes. So, um, so I grew up in Brush, Colorado. Go Pete Dickers. Um, moved to Fort Collins, spent my time here, and then went on to Windsor when we just wanted to get a bigger house and kind of expanded some space. Yeah. Young family, whatever. Yeah, young family, found a neighborhood that edged on some farmland. Perfect. And we were like, great, we're basically in Brush for two minutes. Until D. R. Horton continued to expand. Right. So since we've been there. We've just seen incredible growth and it, it became, at first I was reluctant to move there because I loved Fort Collins. Yeah, all the activities, all the things. Yeah, like Larimer County, that was my jam. You're asking me to go to the DMV at Weld County, no thank you. Um, but I was like, okay, we're moving to Weld County. We're going to Windsor. Yeah. Fell in love. Um, Trails are amazing there. Poudre River Trail runs all the way through Windsor. Yeah, all the way to Greeley now. Yeah, all the way to Greeley. There is Knock on Wood. No. Riff raff. There's no crime on the trail. We don't actually have, like, we don't have any, um, people experiencing homelessness right now on the trail in Windsor. Like, you feel safe when you're running it. It's, it's been a, it's been a gem. Um, so we've seen a lot of growth and I quickly entered the Windsor Chamber. community. Way back when. Yeah. And when I had my gym and um, in that time was able to watch a lot of like downtown flourish. We've had a lot of new businesses, restaurants, bars open downtown Windsor. A lot of cohesion happening in that community. Yeah. Peculiar Ales opened. Yeah. We partner with them all the time. You know that. They brew a beer for us a couple times a year and can it. Yeah. Um, which is super fun because then they donate back to our nonprofit. Um, yeah, so I, yeah, that's kind of Windsor. I don't know, I've seen a lot of growth. Yeah, well in the, specifically the Windsor Chamber adventure of this pest, because we didn't touch on that, and that has to be in the 2023 recap, kind of. So about a year ago when I was on my yes train, which I'm now off of. Okay, that's good. It's parked at the depot. Um, Michelle Vance, love you Michelle, I know she's probably gonna listen to this, uh, came to me and said she was stepping down from executive director for Windsor Chamber, um, and I was on the board. I've been on the board since 2020, 2021. And she came in and she was like, I'm stepping down. The Windsor, um, Development Authority needs my help, or it was the Windsor DDA at the time. So. So. So. We're going to redevelop that. I need you to step up for the Chamber. And I was like, um, no. I'm not doing that. And she was like, well, no, you have to. Because, like, I'm stepping down. Who else is going to do it? And I was like, what? Okay, fine! Again, here I am, like, picking up someone else's football and running with it. So, Sean came on full time to work for Ren Windsor. Okay. Um, he left home health care, but also we were opening the relays. So this was kind of like a good time to focus on our own business together, and then So like the income that you were paying yourself for running Windsor could kind of go to Sean, and then you could replace that with the Windsor Chamber job. Yep. And then knowing that we're going to start to be able to pay Sean from the relays, like this is all going to work out. Um, so I took on the Windsor Chamber job as interim executive director. So I'm, you know, buying a new business, taking on this full time job as Executive Director of the Windsor Area Chamber, keeping Run Windsor going. We're also establishing, opening, or, you know, founding Windsor Gives, our new non profit. Right. It was a lot. Yeah. Um, it was, it was good, it was really bad, it was everything in between. Um, I've decided I am not built for politics. Yeah. I'm not going to be easily swayed in a direction that doesn't align with my heart. I don't like answering to 12 different people. Yeah. I'm an entrepreneur. Yeah. I'm not to be managed by a board of Don't tell me what to do. Especially if I don't believe in it. Like, if this is BS, I'm going to tell you, and we're not going to do it. And then Did you get fired or No, no, no. I didn't get fired. Not yet. Nope. I resigned. Um, after I had a A few tussles, not physical ones, but emotional, verbal with just policies and how we do this. I resigned. They asked for me to come back and I said, no, I'll be done tomorrow. I just, it's not good for me. It's not good for you. Um, we had a good, we have a good staff on that kind of carried the ball for a little bit. And then we hired a new executive director and that's a story from another time. But either way, no she's gone. She's gone already? Yeah. So they're looking again? Uh, you tell them not to hire that person? Absolutely. Sorry, Michelle. I had to ask. Well, no. So Michelle was, Michelle was gone. So Michelle left to go be part of the WCA. So she had no part of it. Yeah, yeah. Whoever the deciders are. So she's, yeah. The deciders were people on the board. And it was just a lot. It was just. Yeah. I was like, okay, I try this. And honestly, I was there to fill the gap. Yeah. And to serve. Yeah, it was kind of interim was the expectation at first, right? Yes. Or whatever. Yeah. So. Our business members, our chamber members, got taken care of. We, and I know them all so well, which is also just like, Okay, I can communicate with you guys on a, I, Just because you could do that job doesn't mean you should do that job. Exactly. Yeah, but I, but we did it. Three other jobs. Yeah, I've got seven million other jobs, but I did it and, Um, it was really just the politics that I was like, I don't know that I'm into this. Yeah. Part of it. Cool. So, I left. Good. But our chamber members were super happy. The Windsor Chamber is doing incredible. Um, yeah, we had another executive director come in. She unfortunately was not a good fit, and so she was released of her duties. And then about a month after I said, you know, I'm going to walk away too. Um, and not no drama for me personally walking away from the board, just like I've given this so much time. Yeah. And I got a bunch of stuff. I got a bunch of stuff going on. And it's time for some new blood. And I'm super excited for the current chamber board. There is no executive director right now. Um, we have a couple of staff. So Jessica and Cassidy are running things and they're running them. Well, and they'll figure it out. And when the time is right, they'll hire again. Yeah. That's my story. Cool. Sorry to put you on the spot with that. I was really kind of curious, but now we did it all live. Um, I wanted to ask about your loco chapter. Uh, as one final question, like think about all those people that, like, blow smoke up your skirt when you're doing these events and stuff, and they're, oh man, the fangirls, right? And boys. Uh, has your, your loco chapter membership helped to bring you down to a regular ground level? I mean, I'm sure they love you, but Are they more willing to speak truth to you, uh, than your, your fanboys and girls? Yes. They are. Yeah, I love it. I'm a part of another I don't know if I'm allowed to say this. I'm part of another networking group. Oh. Sure. In, um, Windsor. It's more like a, we meet every Wednesday. Coffee, laughs, fun. Not related to the Chamber. Not related to the Chamber, but like You can give it a plug if you want to. Yeah, so it's the team The team. Team. T E A M. Okay. My friends on social media call it my cult. Okay. Because if someone says, Hey, I'm looking for a bookkeeper in Windsor or Northern Colorado, everyone from my team group hops on like vultures and we're all commenting on the post. Yeah. It's like the squad. Books by James. Better. Yeah. It's like, it's, it's awesome. Anyways, that's my networking group in Windsor. What I love about them is I can be really honest and we definitely have a crying chair in that room like every Wednesday. Um, yeah. Someone cries. And we have visitors come and they're like, this was good, appreciate you guys are like super honest with each other. I can tell that you refer a lot of business to each other. Like there's a lot of money being made in this room, but also y'all are really emotional. Like that's a common thing we get because we're very close. And you're like, well, I'm not in most of my places, but this is my crying place. That's like, that's all of our crying place. And it's, it's so cool. So everyone that's listening, they're my friends. that are in this are going to know it. So is it girls only? I can't come? No, if you can come, you need to come visit. I would visit. Yeah. So we hold it. I do very well in emotional situations. Anyone is welcome. Anyone is welcome. I cry on demand. Yeah, I've gotten you to tear up a couple times tonight. I could do it again, I bet. I might. Um, it's every Wednesday. 8. 30 a. m. starting next week. It's at Peculiar Ales in Windsor. Starting next week. You just made a change or whatever. Yeah, Cacciatore's closing. Oh, yeah. Did you see that? I did. It's a bummer. So, our, our friends Lori and Troy Good friends with them. Actually, Troy just cooked us a private dinner. Aww. On Sunday night. Yeah, I really like Troy. I actually tried to get him into Loco Think Tank when the first cacciatore's opened forever ago. He's too busy cooking. I knew him when he was a cook at, um, Ace Gillette's. Oh, did you? Yeah, when he was, he was slinging Heller's special sauce. Yes! Through, like, Loco Food Distribution or things like that. Yeah. May he land on his feet with strength and resilience. Thank you. Well, yeah, I'll pass that on to him. They will. They're incredible people. Yeah. Um, anyways, they cooked us a private dinner. That's sweet. On Sunday night. Yeah. Um, yeah. We should close this up. Let's, you're going to come visit team. Yes. To answer your question, Loco Think Tank has done wonders. It's so great to be in a room with people that don't know me or haven't known me for a long time. Yeah. Just be honest and raw. So I love it. It's been good. We didn't get a chance to talk about the, like, mobile podcast recording ideas and all that kind of stuff we have for the Wild West Relay, but maybe we'll have you on in the fall again. Yeah, let's do that. Are you going to run Leadville again this year? Yes! You're so crazy. Alright. I am. Well, thank you. Till next time. Thanks.
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