Brian Brode is an endurance athlete with 6 Ironman races and 5 Boston Marathons to his name, not to mention raising more than $1 million for charity. Brian talks to us about being in the Army and how the transition into a corporate desk job took a toll on him physically. Inspired by the father-son triathletes Dick and Rick Hoyt, he decided to change his life and start training.
Enjoy episode #50 of the Hustle and Pro sports podcast.
Show Notes
- [01:20] Quick Hits
- [02:15] How did Brian get into endurance sports
- [06:20] Army Experience
- [08:15] Getting off the couch of doom
- [10:20] Good Sportsmanship & Fun
- [12:00] Finding his running family
- [17:05] Ironman Races and Boston Marathons
- [22:28] Setback of having a stroke
Resources within this episode:
- Brian Brode: Instagram | Twitter
- Kelly Walker: Instagram @kelly_walkertexas | Twitter: @kelly_walker_TX
- i9 Sports on Lifestyle Frisco
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This episode of Hustle and Pro is brought to you by i9 Sports. i9 Sports provides a youth sports experience that teaches the importance of good sportsmanship on the field and in life in a convenient one day a week schedule. i9 is open to all kids and all skill levels, ages three to 14 and flag football, soccer, baseball, basketball, volleyball and lacrosse. i9 Sports is the way youth sports should be. Find a youth sports program near you at i9sports.com. That is the letter I the number 9 sports.com.
This is Hustle and Pro with Kelly Walker. Join Kelly as she talks sports with players, coaches, organizers and entrepreneurs from Peewee league to Pro. Now here’s your host, Kelly Walker.
Welcome to today’s episode of Hustle and Pro. We welcome an accomplished and distinguished guest today, endurance athlete Brian Brode. Thanks for joining us Brian. How are you?
I’m well Kelly, thanks for, thank you for having me.
Yes, I’m excited to talk to you. You have a fascinating story and there’s so much to um, to cover here, but before we jump into some of these, um, topics I want to cover with you, let’s get to know you a little bit better. So I have some quick hits I want to ask you about.
Sure.
Who would you say is your favorite athlete of all time?
Favorite athlete of all time I would have to say is, um, Jesse Owens.
Okay. What is your favorite sport to watch as a spectator of football?
Football.
And what’s your favorite sport to participate in?
I would say a triathlon.
Okay. Now what’s the farthest distance you’ve ever traveled to participate in sports or to watch sports?
The other side of the world? Yeah. Japan.
Ah, Japan. Yeah. And I know you’ve probably traveled, um, personally as well. That doesn’t have anything to do with sports, so we can talk about that as well. So let’s get a little bit of background information from you. Um, I mentioned you’re an endurance athlete and um, you’re an endurance athlete for charity. I don’t even know if I said that important piece and we’ll learn a little bit about that. But tell me how you, how and when in your life you began in this endurance sport.
Sure. Uh, in the prior to, well, it all started back then. I was an athlete in high school. Why? I swam on the, on the high school team. I swam collegiately and I was a lifeguard, uh, on the New Jersey shore. Not one by the pool, but one actually on the seashore. Best job in the world cause you got paid to do something that was, to me it was just like was like play serious jobs. But a lot of times it was, it was playing. Um, and then, uh, then I became an officer in the army. So I had to, and I was in the type of unit where I had to stay athletically, fit there the entire time. And when I departed the army and started working a corporate desk job for 15 years, I led a sedentary lifestyle and I gained to wear 50 pounds or so. And then, um, and I would go to the gym and [inaudible] for maybe a week or two. And I was so motivated to go, but it didn’t really stick. And then, um, in, uh, 2004, uh, one day I couldn’t fit into my blue jeans and winter had common. Now it’s spring and I couldn’t fit in my blue jeans and I was trying to suck it into a button up a pair of scientists, 44 pair of size of parasites, 40 fours and, and I, and it was just my, kind of my epiphany at that, uh, at that moment. Well, right then about that time, it was also the, um, this low carb, high protein diets were becoming more and more popular, the zone diet, South beach and such. And they kind of interested me and I started, uh, you DD eating in that way. And then the third piece came along and that is ice. I attended a conference that was called the seven habits of highly effective fathers. And, uh, in this conference a video was shown of a father, son triathlon team, they, Dick and Ricky Hoyt. And, uh, and I watched that and was absolutely mesmerized and, and I realized that, okay, I’m having an epiphany that this is what I want to do to, to change. And, um, but I wanted to do it for charity. Uh, you know, beloved uncle of mine had just been diagnosed with leukemia and, uh, I thought, well, I could do this and maybe raise money for, for leukemia. But I remember like going home and telling my wife that I wanted to eventually train to do an iron man triathlon. She said, that’s great. What are the distances? I said, I don’t even know. I know that I knew there’s a marathon. And um, uh, so I started training for one. I did my very first triathlon. I was, I, I was so far behind in the pack that looking behind me on the run, I could see that the pickup truck was picking up the cones, shutting down the course. And I figured, you know what, it’s no longer a race between me and that 15 year old girl that just passed me. It’s a race between me and the truck. So I finished it. And then when you’re done with the race, you go back to your car and often the future races are advertised by, somebody will put a flyer underneath the windshield wiper of your car. And I pulled one out. It was for the leukemia lymphoma society. Didn’t even know what it was about. I mean, I mean, I knew what was about, I didn’t even know that was, you knew that something you wanted to help with. Right. But I, I didn’t, you know, it was so very coincidental and they were advertising that do a half iron man triathlon distance race in St. Croix. I thought, wow, I’m going to raise money for charity. I’m going to dedicate this, this raised to my uncle and I’m going to go to St. Croix, checks all the boxes. It did. So I was like, okay, this is, this was great. And that then began this, this obsession, uh, towards, uh, towards, uh, uh, athletics.
Go back a step because I hear some of this also spurred from your time in the army. So you were an officer in the army, correct?
That’s right.
So tell me a little bit about that and some of your, um, your specialties and, and what actually kind of started you on this path. Also, like you mentioned about having a desk job.
Sure. And when I was in the, in the service, uh, spent most of my time with the particular unit in the army. Um, that was part of the 18th airborne core of this is the 101st airborne division of the 82nd airborne division, other, uh, parachute jump units. And I became, uh, a ranger qualified officer in the, in the field artillery. So I had gone through that, that, that training qualification school. And, um, because of that, the unit I was in, it was a, it was a call, it kind of like a first responder unit that, uh, there was not much downtime. We were constantly marching and, and we had to stay physically fit as a part of our job. So, so that, like I said, I had done that. And then when I left the service, I then came to working in, in, uh, here in Dallas, and I was in a competitive position to where there’s long hours, you know, 60, 70 hour weeks and how it’s just sitting, just sitting. So, uh, so, so my day would we begin with skipping breakfast, being at my desk at seven 30, getting home at seven 30, eight o’clock, having, you know, hamburgers, French fries, a couple of Dr. Peppers. Yeah. And then, yeah, yeah. And you know, one or two of those meals is not a big deal, but you do that for six years and you, and you feel bad and you put on the pounds and such. And, um, and it just, it became my lifestyle. And, uh, and like I said, I knew that I needed to get back in shape, but I, I just couldn’t find the time to do it. Or the discipline just wasn’t there until, like I said, I had this epiphany to where it’s like, I know in my mind’s eye, I see my 150 pounds felt self in there. I was standing, you know, almost and it just didn’t last. It didn’t match up. You needed to, and this was in your forties when you write I was 43, 43.
When you said, okay, I’m going to, I’m going to do something about it. And you started running?
Right. I got off what I call the, the couch of doom, you know. Did you do this, the beginning steps of this by yourself?
I did. Okay. I did it. It was, it was hard. That was a part that, that was a part of it. So just so you know, that it didn’t start with running. It started with going to the weight room.
Gotcha. Okay.
And um, so it was a, um, low carb, high protein diet with the weight room. And uh, so I was going to a gym six days a week and I was disciplined in getting it done. I would read books about how to train and how to, to lose weight by gaining muscle. And, um, and within about six months, I went from almost 200 pounds down to 170 pounds. I went from 30% body fat to less than 20% body fat.
You saw that change quickly.
I had that change very quickly. And then, and then that got too, and so I would say in my size, 44 genes, they were tossed and I was back in size 34 and it happened really very, very quickly. But it was a hollow victory because when I would go to the gym, I, I wasn’t making any friends. There was no social aspect to it. And in personally, I’m kind of alpha that, uh, that, you know, another guy comes in and he’s, um, you know, D C working out or such. It’s like, it’s on, you know, there’s a race, there’s a competition here. And so, so what I ended up after some self reflection is that I was leading this narcissistic life. It was like, it was all me, you know, how many more repetitions can I bench press, you know, how many more inches can I get off of my waist? You know, can I see this, the [inaudible] of the muscles in my arm, arms and such. And, um, it’s like, I’m, I’m not making any friends.
And that can also kind of just be a dangerous slope, I guess to you can lose sight of what you’re doing.
Right.
And you, you’re, you’ve stopped then just doing it to be healthy and for the right reasons. And then maybe you’re obsessed with, like you said, all of these little nuances of your, your body.
Right.
And it’s not always a good, no, it was, I was becoming, I was becoming very much a, a gym rat. And, uh, so, uh, so that’s, then when I went to this conference and I saw, okay, there’s more to being fit than just what I was experiencing that, you know, there is a, uh, an altruistic spark that was lit in me when I saw that and I said, I’m going to do that. And so the very first time I went out, I had a pair of basketball sneakers on and I went for a run. I had a goal that I was going to run around a park that’s close to my home was be about two miles I thought. Oh yeah, the army fitness test is two miles. I got about a block away and I was huffing and puffing. You’re that far. I’m far away from where you needed it and felt complete. Now here again, even after being in it, even after being in the gym. So, so, so now cardio wasn’t there wrong shoes, wrong equipment, well, wrong everything. But I guess maybe that’s was, Hey, you know, you need to do something. Do something else. Yeah. So I went to a local running shoe store and they are, I asked about running groups and they looked at me like, are you crazy? Of course we have running groups around here. Found out that there was a triathlon specific running group, uh, that was at the, uh, Arbor Hills nature preserve in West Plano. And, uh, and when I first met these guys, it was almost like they were welcoming in the prodigal son. Very much strong. T
hey want to join, they want people to just, you know, they embrace everyone. Right. And like learn, they’ll teach you, they’ll help you along the way. Right. Is that how you felt?
Yeah, exactly. Is that they were people who are like me who are just getting into it. There are people who are very, very accomplished in the, in, in, in the sport that I could pick their brains and learn from and such. But the main thing is, is that they, they were all very nice people. What it is I would say is that they were a very friendly crowd, but they will judge your shoes because every people talk about the running shoes. So I did start by myself. It was a failure, but it was one. I then got connected with a group that things got a lot better.
How far from that time did it take you to run your first or to complete your first iron man?
Um, it took about two years. Two years.
How many have you completed now?
I have completed six full Ironman.
Six full iron man. Yeah, I bet that’s taken you to some amazing parts of the world.
It did to swell. So it was through, there’s the Ironman itself, but there’s also the different training, uh, places that I would go as well. So it has taken me from Hawaii to, to, to st Croix, uh, to Florida, to New York and Boston and such. Uh, and then, um, I’ve, in the races that I’ve completed is that I’ve completed the Ironman Texas twice. Iron man, Wisconsin twice. Um, Ironman USA, all snow is Lake Placid New York ones. And then my very first one was in, uh, Florida. Wow. Yeah.
How do you pull in the charity component to this? So I know, you know, a endurance athlete for charity is something that kind of rings true for you. So where does I get the first race? Um, kind of in honor of your uncle, but how did you push that along? I mean, I’ve read that you’ve raised over a million dollars for charity. How did that come to be then the rest of that?
Well, I guess it, it, it wouldn’t take how it began starting with, with the leukemia lymphoma society. And what they have is they have a training program to where you pledge to raise money and there’s a minimum amount they will provide the coaching they will provide, um, on just on, on the training. And then also the nutrition. They also will then provide for you transportation, lodging to the race and entry fees into the races as well. So, so the, the goal may be $5,000 depending upon the race and the distance. So let’s say it’s $5,000, a certain amount of that goes to the expenses of getting the athlete there. Another portion goes to two, goes to the charity. And in that got it started. I said, well, if I can raise $5,000 of my first role role was to raise $5,000. And I ended up raising like $15,000. Um, uh, so, um, I haven’t said, well, how can I make this even more robust? So I ended up doing multiples of races of just of marathons and half marathons and short distance triathlons until finally it came upon the, uh, the, the iron man triathlon. And I remember I said, how can I best honor the people that I’m doing this for? And how can I, can I just make this even bigger? I don’t want to raise $15,000. I want $100,000. So what I did is I contacted people whom I thought would support me in this and I made a list of anybody that they said that they know I that I could race and honor for them. So I would say, do you know, do you know somebody that has had cancer, has cancer or has recovered from cancer? Just about everybody said yes. Then say
Unfortunately everybody says yes.
Yeah, unfortunately. And then my next question says, know I would tell them during this iron man, my next question would be, do you mind if I carried their name with me for that entire race and I will dedicate this race to those people? Sure.
Did you ever get to no?
No. Okay. Never. Never got to know the a for that part. But for that, for the money part, I’m sure for that book, for that part. So then they’d say, well, how much do you want would usually be the next question. Right? And for some people knowing who they were, I would say anything that you can contribute would be fine. This is more about honoring and bringing awareness. But then there were some people who I know that I know that they’ve done well in business. And I would say I’m looking for a $10,000 donation. A couple of those, I got a little bit of pushback, but I got some of those two, they said, well, maybe not 10. How about five? Wow. And I would say, well, how bout eight? They’d say, well, that school for seven. Wow. So, so, so that then brought it, brought it out. So that very first iron man that I did, um, I raced with a little over 200 names and then whenever I would do these various ironmans, and what I did is I took the list and I printed it out and I would have it laminated and I would have it pinned to the inside of my Jersey. And, uh, and then the finishers photo, I would take their standing furniture battle, all that. I would hold up the list of the, hold up the list of the names. Wow. Yeah. And, uh, and then let’s let the, let them know that on that day I was thinking in dedicating that race to their, their loved one.
So you have done that with the, that you’re of loved ones that you’re carrying and running in honor of through all of these are all six of these arms, all the first one. You didn’t, hadn’t figured that part of it out yet, but though with the list right? You had, okay.
I did my first, the, the triathlons leading up to that. I did not.
Okay. Okay. I’m thinking triathlons. Ironman. Yeah.
Yeah. So, but then there was the Iron Man and that’s why I said, okay, I’m going to, I’m going to go for, instead of just raising 5,000 or 15,000, I’m going to raise some more. Yeah.
And now you are, what’s next for you? I hear you’re headed to do Boston to conquer Boston again,
Run Boston for the sixth time.
Six times for Boston. How has that experience been for you?
Boston is just an amazing, an amazing experience for, uh, for the sport. So, you know, Boston is to, uh, what’s what it’s runners as to what Wimbledon is to attend this player or what the Indianapolis 500 is to an IndyCar race. It is a just an amazing experience in the, uh, what makes it amazing is not only the crowd support that’s along that entire course, but the history of, uh, of the course and knowing that it’s, you know, it’s the longest continuous running race or running marathon in the world, uh, founded in 1897 and it has a very colorful history. Right. So, um, uh, it, it’s just really quite the, quite the experience.
I bet there’s a feeling I’m sure that you have when you’re there and like no other, so you’re training for that. Now, when is the Boston marathon happened? What time of year?
It’s always held on the third Monday of April. It’s usually, there used to be a holiday in the United States was a national holiday called Patriots Day and it was to commemorate the beginning of the war for independence. Um, uh, the only state that follows it now is Massachusetts. So for, for the third Monday in April, it is a state holiday and that’s the day that the, they hold the Boston marathon.
I didn’t know that. I didn’t put all that together.
The brief history of the Boston marathon is that in 1896 when they brought back the Olympics, the modern day Olympics, a contingent of athletes from the Boston Athletic Club went over to Athens where they had the first one and they were boxers and wrestlers. Well, between, uh, the sporting events, the athletes and the coaches would go and see the other sporting events. Well, there was this one unique event that was on the last day and it was, this run is endurance run of about 40 kilometers, which is right around 25 miles that started in the town of Athens, Oh, excuse me, started in a town of Marathon and then finished in Athens and it is to follow the route of a, of a legendary Greek runner called Pheidippides. In in 460 something BC, the, the Athenians were fighting the Persians on the Plains of Marathon. The plan was that if the Greeks had lost that battle, that the town of Athens was to be abandoned. Well, the Greeks won. They sent a messenger, named Pheidippides to run that entire route. He runs the route, he reports and says, rejoice, we are victorious. And he dies. Okay. So that was his last thing. So, so, so whether that’s true or whether that is all legend, that is it. Right. So that is the, the Greeks, ancient messenger. Well, these athletes, members of the U S contingent with the Boston athletic club, they had an idea. They said, you know, we have an ancient messenger too, and his name is Paul Revere. So they drew a course the next year of about 20 over about 40 kilometers. It was 25 miles starting in downtown Boston and then went to the West kind of along the general route, what Paul Revere would have written. And in the talent Ashland, they had the 11th athletes, the 11 athletes, and they ran the course. And that was the very first Boston marathon. It had it on Patriots day.
Wow. A history lesson. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. So there’s the, the history and the lore and all of that of the race. It’s just like I said, it’s the Wimbledon of running.
That’s exciting. And that will be your sixth Boston marathon. Yes sir. So all that is good and I love this story, but I also want to touch on one last part of your story, um, here, which is some setbacks. So in 2012 you had a setback of having a stroke right in June. So tell me, tell me about what that looked like as far as, I mean, at that point you were a healthy person that wouldn’t expect to have a stroke one day. Um, and then obviously a long recovery after that to get back to running at the skill and the or the high level that you’re running at. So tell me a little bit about that journey for you.
Sure. It was a Saturday morning, is June the 23rd and in 2012 I was going to meet my mates for a run over in the park, close to my home. And I’m one hand, I’m eating cereal. The other hand, I’m checking emails on my laptop when all of a sudden I had think of like an old time black and white movie that just fades the black at the end of the movie. And it, it faded the black and I said, what is, what is this? And then 10 seconds later light comes back. But not completely that something is fuzzy. It’s the things are not clear. And I’m my left side, I can’t feel very well and I’m drooling. I’m drooling out of my left side of my mouth. Oh, I had the presence of mine. So with my right hand, I Googled, you know, symptoms of a stroke.
Google, do you do, I thought you were going to say dial nine one one?
Nope. No, I, I again, I don’t know why it was, why I didn’t just dial nine one one but just, you know, symptoms of a stroke and I, and uh, and sure enough, there’s like five of the fifth symptoms that are there and I have like three of the five and I thought, crap. Wow. And, but, but that point, now it’s over. So, um, so then I then, uh, literally crawled across the living room floor from the kitchen to the living room to tell my wife I said, Hey, I think I may have had a stroke. Go to the hospital pay. Say yep, that’s, you had what’s known as a transient ischemic attack, which is where a an envelope piece of plaque, piece of, of cholesterol or so it becomes plaque breaks off from the walls of, uh, of your heart artery, usually around your aortic valve and travels into the brain and then stops the flow of oxygen to brain cells just long enough to short circuit. If it’s really transient, very short, then not so much damage, maybe, maybe all depending upon where it is and how old is, if it’s longer than that, then you could then you could turn into hemorrhage or could turn to where there’s a lot of brain damage. Fortunately for me it was very transient. Um, it left me almost completely blind in my right eye because part of the God didn’t to the part of the envelope centered in my right eye. And it’s called a C, R, a O, a central retina, arterial occlusion. And then my left side, I was having some mobility problems. So I went to the doctor, they said, yeah, but this is what’s happening. There’s really not much we can do for you. So they sent me home with a bed pan. That was it. And, um, and then, uh, an appointment to see your neurologist and appointment to see a cardiologist. Uh, and uh, so here I was kind of now back in bed.
You had been so active.
Yeah, I’ve been very active, but you know, fully functional and everything’s like, so it’s like, what does this mean to my family? What does this mean for my job? What does it mean for all of that? And, uh, so, uh, after my family next place that I turned was that, um, what was my running club. And I said, Hey, this is, this is what’s happened. And, and they just said, whatever you need. So in my road to recovery, which this happened in June, I set a goal of running a five K and by B between now and the end of the year. Didn’t know which one I would do, but that’s what I did six months in, six months to over three miles. Right. And, um, had one doctor say not gonna happen, you know, you’ll probably get to where you could walk again, but you know, you’re gonna plateau there.
I was like, they don’t know.
They don’t know.
You don’t know me. You know what I mean? So, um, so I, uh, as soon as I could, I began walking, you know, with the Walker, then to the cane and I would go to my running club and they would have, they have once a week they have track and they would be running their, their sprints and I would be out there with my cane, just trying to complete what I, what I could complete. Now that summer went by as it was going by I as the husband and as the father, if I’m a father of four, um, and I had little ones at the house at the time, uh, pretty much got a pass on all of the, the chores and things like that. Regular life stuff is, I, you know, dad, I, I’m not, I’m not gardening here. I’m not doing all of these things of, you know, it came time to painting my son’s room, you know, I was gonna pass and all of that. Well, I, one day I got up and I walked that two mile route through the park without, without a cane and, and that was on a Saturday. Sunday, I’m sitting at home, September football is starting. I’m sitting in my home library and I’ve got the game on. I’ve got something to eat as I am now. The master of LLI, observe. And I hear out of the kitchen, my wife say, Hey Brian, it’s time to take the trash out. It ain’t going to go out by itself. You have to go back to some response. And, and I said to her, and I said, I came out of the room and I said, I’m back. I’m cured. And she says, what are you talking about? I said, you know, if I’m taking out the trash I must be doing, she’s like, you’re damn right. You have to go. So, so after that joyous thing though, you know, something that tells you you’re good enough, you’re well enough to accomplish your everyday things again.
Right. So, uh, so I never thought that I would get any sort of sense of accomplishment by taking out the trash. Although then I caught it, Dawn, after being told, I was like, okay, that’s, let’s, let’s move on to the next thing. And eventually the cane went to the side and then I’m running on my own. And, and, um, I ended up, uh, uh, completing a 5K in December of 2012, I raced in a charity race called, uh, Lucy’s to toys day 5K, uh, and, uh, to a good friend of mine, Lucy Gore. Um, she holds a 5K on the first Saturday of every December. Your entry fee is an unwrapped toy. And um, and I went there and I ran first I walked a little bit, maybe a minute or two. Uh, and um, and then it was picked up by the Dallas morning news and that was okay. That’s great. We’re moving on.
It’s a neat story. I did see that, that article. So I learned a little bit about that. That your, your baby 5k is like how I run 5Ks. That’s, my goal is to just through it maybe walk one or two, three minutes when I stopped for a water or whatever and, and keep going and, and catch up, try to catch up with my kids who are at the finish line before me.
That’s a, that’s a great goal is that as I say that if you’re out there doing it and you complete it, you have just lapped everybody on the couch sitting at home on the couch. That’s great.
It’s usually my goal. Um, but man, your story really hits me because while I am absolutely not an Iron Man finisher or even close to it, I, I will never run a marathon or anything like that. But, um, I just turned 40 and I this year took it to really change how I was living in looking. I did the same thing. I’ve realized I don’t fit into the pants that I have already sized up and didn’t want to go up in those sizes over a few years worth of just not, you know, not living correctly and eating correctly and all that good stuff. So I kind of got myself to get up and I was over 30%, um, body fat too and um, set some goals and I gave myself a year to do it and so got down. Um, and the, the, the weight, the number of pounds wasn’t that big of a deal to me, but to body fat really bothered me. I just felt fat and looked not great and just didn’t, I knew I could do better cause I had been an athlete my whole life. And so I did, I got down to more like a 17, 18%, which is good for me and like feeling so good and doing so much more. And so, um, when you were talking about that, that’s, I was just really like recognizing that and how important that is that even though you may go through some little, you know, bumps in the road as we get into our midlife and life takes over and kids take over and all the work and the different things take priority, that you can still, you know, get past that and get back on track. You can just focus in and get the, do the work to get it done right.
You, you can, that’s a, to know that every race, every contest is really a competition with yourself. You know, some say it’s, you know, it’s against the clock or it’s against your competitor. It’s really about a competition against yourself. And the beauty of it is, is that since it’s a competition with yourself is that there is no too late. Okay. Right there that, uh, that you can always start no matter where you’re at. Uh, and, um, and I always encourage, always encourage folks to find an accountability partner. I call it the social facilitation. Yeah.
Tell people what you need help with.
Well, what you’re doing, and that’s how I, I think my bet is that, that, I mean, that’s helpful too. But what would it really clicks, Kelly, is when you find somebody who, you don’t have to explain it to them. You can say, I were here and they’ve got their reasons. You got the reason. But the most important thing is that you’re here and that you’re going to give out your level, your level best so that, um, so that when you have a breakthrough accomplishment that you’ve run fastest, that you’ve run in a while, you’re going to have somebody there who’s going to say congratulate you, and then they’re going to say, well, well that’s next. Okay. Or somebody says, Hey Brian, this has happened to me. He’s like, you didn’t run so well today. I was like, yeah, I’ve got to start again. And my stomach’s kinda messed up. And they’re like, Oh yeah, we know what that’s like too. So you have that empathetic athlete out there. So I call it the social facilitation. So yeah, I think that’s, you know, 80% of successes is just, just showing up. The other 20% is having your, your friends there to help you all.
I love it. Well, thank you. It’s nice to talk with you and to meet you today and learn this story.
An Insider’s Look at the Life and Minds of Middle School Athletes