975 Days and Counting: Andy Wang on Running Streaks, Race Directing, and Community

DFW Running Talk: Andy Wang
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Chris Detzel: [00:00:00] Welcome to DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel. So let's get started.

All right, welcome to another DFW running talk. I'm Chris Detzel. And today's special guest is Andy Wang. He is the race director over at Fort Worth Marathon. Andy, how are you? I'm doing great. How

Andy Wang: are you doing today, Chris?

Chris Detzel: I've seen you a lot in the running community. I've run into you at different Races, you and I have never really, we might've said, hello.

I don't think we've really had a great discussion. So here we are today.

Andy Wang: Yeah. First time for everything. So I'm looking forward to it.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And this is one of the reasons I started the pot. There's a few, but one of them is that I want to get to know runners that I see. In different areas, Fort Worth, anywhere in Dallas, but also, I just want to get to know you.

You live closer to Fort Worth. I live in Dallas, so we'll never probably run together that much,

Andy Wang: there are a lot of events in the [00:01:00] Metroplex. Yeah pass cross and I'm willing to travel to pretty much anywhere to do a run especially like a race or some, an event like that.

So yeah for sure.

Chris Detzel: Cool. Let's get to know you a little bit. Tell me a little bit about yourself, your kind of running journey. How'd you start running? When'd you start running and that kind of stuff?

Andy Wang: Yeah, sure. So I guess I would say I officially I, first off, I never ran like in high school I never ran, competitively ran, like a little bit in college just as a recreational runner.

So really, yeah, exactly. So it really wasn't until around 2007 and this is after. I'd been married and had a couple of kids and all that. And then I started to say, Hey, I really need to get in better physical shape. And so some of my friends were doing team and training with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

And they were training for I believe they were training for a half Ironman triathlon. And so I basically, I just joined [00:02:00] them and did a little bit of swimming, biking and running. I'm with them, didn't know what the heck I was doing, but did enjoy it. And it felt good to start to get some of that endorphins and all the good stuff that comes from physical activity.

And yeah, it's quite interesting. A lot of people they start, either cycling or running and then they come and go to a triathlon, but for me, I actually started with triathlon. That's pretty

Chris Detzel: bold.

Andy Wang: Yeah. Why torture yourself with one sport when you could be mediocre in all three sports?

Chris Detzel: It's just like we talk about all the time is. A lot of times it starts with the community or the people around you that, that are doing something that inspires you to Oh, okay, I'll go do that too. Exactly. That happened. Yeah. Did you start doing more triathlons or did you say I actually

Andy Wang: did quite a few triathlons.

So like I said, at the beginning, it was just my friends doing it. And then the next season, like the next like spring season, I actually joined team in training myself and I did a half Ironman down in Austin I think at the time it wasn't officially an Ironman event yet, but eventually it did get bought out by Ironman.

But it was called the [00:03:00] I believe it's called the Lone Star Triathlon or something like that at the time. So it was just probably, I believe 2008 is when I ran that. Yeah and, but yeah, along the way I started running. So I did my first. Half marathon, I believe in, I think in 2007 I had actually done a half marathon.

I believe I did the,

Chris Detzel: yeah, the

Andy Wang: Dallas running club half. Yeah, and I think I still have that shirt, drc, I think I still have the DRC half t-shirt somewhere, . And then, and I did try to train for a full marathon. Got myself some injuries here and there. I think I did kinda injuries that probably almost every runner gets at some point.

I had a it band stress fracture at some point, but eventually figured it all out. You did too much too. Yeah, I think it was just too much, too fast. Maybe bad form. A bad running form. And that we can talk a little bit more about that later because like now. I don't know if but I'm actually today was officially day 975 of my running streak since 2000 and [00:04:00] since, yeah, basically since COVID.

So since 2021 the last four years, I've averaged 10 miles a day. Of running. So that's just, not that I have a

Chris Detzel: day.

Andy Wang: Yeah. 10 miles a day is my average. So I've averaged, I've already, I've gone over 3, 650 miles for each of the last four years. And running. Wow. And without getting injured?

Or without getting, so yeah, honestly, like I did have one injury. So I had a run streak of probably close to 900 days, maybe 800 and some days. And then I did somehow tweak my hamstrings. And so I, but I felt right away and I just took a whole, I was like, okay cause like some people would just try to still run through that, but I'm like, I don't even really want to run the, one mile or whatever the minimum is to like to say I'm stubborn.

So I just said, nope, I'm done. For now, and miraculously, like I felt better after about a week, I did a week of like only cross training and run walking. I could walk fine, but I just couldn't run. And I just started right back up. So now I'm back at day nine, 975. [00:05:00]

Chris Detzel: Wow. What kind of you're at 975 at 10 miles a day.

So that's different. Yeah. Yeah. It's

Andy Wang: I, and I work, I guess unofficially with a whole bunch of different coaches. So I know like this I'm not, I don't say the 10 mile a day as an optimal training strategy or anything like that.

In fact I, I like, I just don't watch me. Like I actually try to downplay stuff like on Strava or whatever, because I don't like people like trying to emulate like what I'm doing. It's what I'm doing is like really more for. Just the way I like to run my lifestyle.

It's not necessarily in any shape or form the best way to train if you're trying to like PR your marathon or anything like that. It's interesting.

Chris Detzel: It's, I think getting to know why you're doing this, is there some specific reason that, this is the second time I've done this.

Andy Wang: Yeah. I think, I just really started like enjoying the running aspect of just being out there every day, like I actually, like at this point now I get a lot more satisfaction of, just seeing other people and helping other people with their running [00:06:00] journey and being just, overall part of that, whether it's volunteering or, I probably pace close to about 15 races a year.

Okay.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, that's fun. I do it. Like

Andy Wang: I and that's, I just get a lot of satisfaction out of me being a part of these events. And yeah. From that perspective I have probably different goals than other people at this point. Do you

Chris Detzel: have marathon goals, like times or anything like that?

Or is it something different?

Andy Wang: Yeah. I, I feel, fortunately it may, and maybe I'm giving up too easily. I feel like my best, my fastest times are past me. I'm turning 55 this year, so I'm going to so I've, it's definitely gotten a little bit harder in the last couple of years to do, the faster paces.

I still would like to be able to BQ Boston qualify. And this year I'm running two of the Abbott world marathon majors. I'll be doing the Tokyo marathon here in a little over a month. And then I have an entry for New York this fall, but between the Have you done any

Chris Detzel: of those before?

Andy Wang: Yeah. So it'd be, so after I, assuming I finished both of those, I'll actually have five of the six [00:07:00] stars. I know it looks like they're heading, they have a seven star now with Sydney and it looks like they're probably moving to nine total. But anyway, so I'm five out of the original six with I believe it's a Cape Town.

Okay.

Chris Detzel: And

Andy Wang: gosh, the last one escapes my mind. I want to say something like Singapore or something like that, but

Chris Detzel: how far can they get at all the continents,

Andy Wang: yeah, I know those are definitely far trips and stuff like that.

Chris Detzel: Australia, Singapore, and it's.

It's crazy.

So you're getting a two this year. That's pretty awesome. You said you've done Tokyo before or no?

Andy Wang: No, I haven't. This will be the first time doing Tokyo and it also might, would be the first time doing New York City in the fall. What did you do in Tokyo? What'd you do?

Just, I got in the lottery. Yeah, I applied for the lottery and got into it. And then. For New York, I got in a different lottery. They actually have a virtual run, a virtual marathon, but like now it's a lottery to get into the virtual. So I was a, I just [00:08:00] applied for the virtual marathon, got the entry ran the 26.

2 miles during the the window, I think there's like a one week window you have to do it. And then, so then I should have or I will have guaranteed entry for, this November's actual New York City Marathon in person.

Chris Detzel: It's awesome. Yeah. It's exciting. So you get those two coming up and look, as of recent, you became the race director at Fort Worth Marathon.

How'd that happen? Yeah, so I've been working with

Andy Wang: the, so I've actually been working with the Fort Worth Marathon for Oh, gosh. I want to say too soon after I started my running journey. So like I say something like, maybe 2010 or 2011 or something like that I started working.

So this year was the 18th year for the, or I'm sorry, 2024 was the 18th year. For the marathon. And so yeah, it wasn't I joined probably the, yeah, after it started for maybe four or five years and I was just, volunteered I was, helping with like race registration set up and then would [00:09:00] do stuff like help answer emails and put together race, race guides and, different documentation and stuff like that.

And then I would say about. I want to say three or four years ago, the original race director, his name is Steve Looney, and he was wanting to just do something different with his time. So he ended up selling the race to Cox running club, which is a local running club here in Fort Worth.

So they took over the management. Steve stayed on as the executive race director for at least the first three years. And I guess last year. Even last year, I think he was helping out. I don't know, if officially he had the title or not, like we were looking for ways to grow the race and I've still, I was still helping out with volunteering and just a thing, like I would love, like to step up and maybe be a bigger part and just take on a bigger role.

So

Chris Detzel: yeah,

Andy Wang: That's what I did and say, May of yeah, May of last year. May, April or May is when I started. So had six months to really get up to speed. I knew some things [00:10:00] already and it helped other race directors before, but it was

Chris Detzel: yeah, there's

Andy Wang: still the main owner, but I, I'm helping out with the executive race side of it, trying to work with the marketing and look at just looking at other ideas for how we can improve the race experience and just bring in.

The, I'm like, I run a lot of marathons. I try to put my experience and, things that I've seen from, other races or personal experiences into that, into fully evolving the event and improving.

Chris Detzel: Look, it's a great race. It's been around for a long time and why not, keep it going and look, there's a lot of competition, right?

How do you stand out a little bit and I think that's important,

Andy Wang: Oh, and I think yeah there's always a balance between saying, Oh, like we have competition and that, but I do feel like, we have so many runners in DFW and then even outside of our immediate, metro area that are interested in doing, longer events or bigger events.

I think that it's not necessarily a [00:11:00] zero sum game. We're trying to grow the sport. We're trying to do that. And we do as much as we can. We try not to conflict with a lot of other running clubs and their events. And we've worked with the grapevine running club. We looked at, like other races.

Like I have many friends, I work at the run project team, so we try to make sure that as far as much as we can, that we, we don't conflict.

Chris Detzel: That makes sense. With

Andy Wang: races and things like that.

Chris Detzel: Would you, did you learn a bunch, for the last six months, Yeah, and there's

Andy Wang: always room for improvement and like it's like any other big project a little bit of Murphy's law and trying to mitigate.

What, like what might go wrong. And so yeah, so there's a lot of experiences come from there. And then but I can fully accept that there's always room for improvement and always being able to listen to concerns from participants or, just, even I just general ideas of how, Hey, this would be something that would make it really interesting or make it more enjoyable.

So it's a, yeah I've learned a lot and still have much to learn.

Chris Detzel: I'm sure. And so when you [00:12:00] look at kind of your first one, in the books and everything else, any kind of learnings that you want to think about doing differently this next year, or, is there going to be any major change or thinking, anything like that around that race?

I think that like down the road, yeah,

Andy Wang: There's definitely, I think areas that we can improve some things that were like, maybe not as much in our control, like on race day, but like ways to mitigate around things like, we had somebody steal some of our signs, race morning or the night before.

I don't know exactly when it happened. But, that was obviously disappointing. And then we had an issue with some of the port a potties I don't know if they delivered to the wrong spot or they're just running late. There's like always you're always going to have

Chris Detzel: problems with that.

Andy Wang: Yeah. So it's I think there, like maybe looking at ways to mitigate those things, so for example, with the signs, maybe doing some sort of like other additional markings, that can, that, being able to get more volunteers for course monitors, some for critical junctures, and [00:13:00] then.

With the port a potties maybe, that, that part, I'll, I do have some of the stuff that we farm out the logistics to, sub teams, but working with them and saying, Hey, maybe it makes sense to have maybe more than one vendor that way in case one, it's just not there, at least you have half of the supplies available.

So these are, these are some of the things that we're toying around, but we definitely hear like concerns. The other thing was just, timing of the race. When you do an event like a marathon, some of the participants, can take quite a while before, they finish.

And big goal is to make sure that the finish line experience is going to be as good for people that finish, as far as for the fastest finishers versus the people that finish a little bit slower or a little bit later in the day to make sure that we still have the same amount of energy.

So we're looking, we're talking

Chris Detzel: like

Andy Wang: ideas for early start options. And then also really holding our partners and other vendors, et cetera, to the, to make sure that we still have a positive finish line experience for, yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. That makes sense. Because five [00:14:00] or six, what's the cutoff like six hours or something, or six and a half hours officially

Andy Wang: from, the, from again, start of seven 30, I believe the finishing time or the.

Finish line closes at 2 PM. So it's six and a half, but and yeah, we want to support everybody. So we're looking at ways that people could start, 60 or 90 minutes earlier. So they'll still finish like around the same time as say somebody who's doing a four and a half hour marathon.

And they can still feel that finish line energy. And then worst case is like just making sure that still have enough of the post race amenities, for everybody.

Chris Detzel: No, that makes sense. Now, that, you guys have half marathon, marathon, is it a 20 mile? Is that right? Yeah, half

Andy Wang: marathon, marathon, 20 miler, and a two person relay.

Chris Detzel: I guess I didn't know about the two person. What is the distance on that?

Andy Wang: So that one what we did last year was there was an exchange point at one of the water stops. We didn't have very many teams. I think we only had three or [00:15:00] four teams for the relay. So it's something that we're still looking into right now for, whether we keep it.

But. I think it was somewhere around the mile 14 mark, I think. So it was a 14 mile leg and a 12. 2 mile leg or something like that.

Chris Detzel: Okay. Got it. Sounds fun, but it sounds like, you didn't have a lot of people sign up for it. So yeah, keep doing it.

Andy Wang: Yeah, because well, so what happened was the race used to have a two lap course that was all on the Trinity trail.

And I'm not saying that there was probably a ton of relay participants, even in past years, but it made sense that okay somebody runs the first lap and then they come in and the next person, grabs it, grabs the baton or whatever, and then runs the second lap. But, with the new course, since we actually, the first.

The first like 11 plus miles are, not part of the Trinity trail except for maybe getting out to the road initially. But a lot of the trail now is on Overton Park Boulevard and, other parts of some residential streets [00:16:00] Colonial Golf Course area, that sort of thing. So the course, with the course change, they weren't going to be back at the start line.

So we had the exchange point at, it was actually a pretty big water stop and in a nice area to off of the Clearfork trailhead. But that was where the exchange point was for the for the relay now.

Chris Detzel: So that to compare, but as you look at expansion down the road, let's say it's, maybe it's not expansion, but.

Adding like a five and 10 K, for even more runners. We

Andy Wang: did have a, we did have a five K last year. And so our big change for this year is that we've turned our event into a two day event. So we're going to have a five K and a 10 K on Saturday. So the race this year is going to be November 8th and 9th.

So on the, on Saturday, the eighth, we'll have five K and 10 K, and then the longer distances will be on Sunday. And that'll be great because we have more, um, we didn't really have too much of an issue from a route and trail per trail, like number of runners on the trail impact because, we had different start times [00:17:00] and, the bouquet route was, so much shorter than the longer distances, but this coming year we'll have more flexibility with respect to parking, with respect to, making sure that we have like all of the post race amenities and that sort of thing.

Chris Detzel: Do you guys have. Like many events throughout the year to build up to that particular race.

Andy Wang: So even though like now I'm only officially the race director for the forward marathon and actually another race that I'll be the race director for is the Hell's half acre marathon and half marathon that's coming up in July.

So that's our, so that's my other race. I'm trying to, that's not going to be quite as crazy as the fourth marathon because just because of the nature of that race, so that race we can like just switch gears temporarily that race started. Gosh, I think that race is also probably about, 17 or 18 years total.

Although it's only been called Where is

Chris Detzel: this race again? So

Andy Wang: It's in Fort Worth at Trinity Park. So what happened was this race, there was a race that started, gosh I think [00:18:00] also about 17 years ago. And it was called El Scorcho.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And,

Andy Wang: okay. So yeah, so El Scorcho started because I, and I may, hopefully I don't screw the story up, but I believe one guy was, had a major birthday and the, everybody just decided that they were going to run a 50K, 30, 31 miles in the middle of the night.

And so they mapped out a 5K loop in Trinity park and they all ran it 10 times. And anyway, so like it's, it started growing into an actual event. And I think it went for nine or 10 years

Chris Detzel: and

Andy Wang: then they were like, Oh, like we just don't want to do it anymore.

And I think, some, I think some of the race directors like moved away from the area and that sort of thing. It went for a while and but. So we're like, Hey, this is like a cool event. Like, why don't we do it? So Cox running club actually came up and tried to do a similar event called Hell's Half Acre.

We didn't want to take the El Scorcho name just in case they ever wanted to restart the race and that sort of thing. But it was the same general timeframe. It, it had [00:19:00] a night start, which is the big thing. Like the original El Scorcho started at midnight. At some point. They started moving it to 11 or 10 PM.

So we did in the Cox running club, we did something similar where we'd have 10 PM for the for the longer distances. And I think I, I can't remember the exact rationale for it, but I guess to, to make it more of a classic distance it was changed from a 25K to a half marathon and a full marathon, a little bit shorter, and then we added a 5K and also I believe a 10K. But those were like more, earlier in the evening. So I think like around seven, 30 PM start at 8, 10

Chris Detzel: PM.

Andy Wang: Yeah, that's warmer. But then those are the shorter distances. The really cool thing about. Hell's Have Acre and El Scorcho prior to it is that, the, it's the only race where as you keep running more and more miles or laps or whatever, it actually starts getting cooler.

So right around midnight, you can start, cause the sun's gone down for a while. You can actually see a little bit of breeze. That's one redeeming factor. I did El

Chris Detzel: Scorcho on the [00:20:00] race there. My wife, she did the 50, her first 50K at El Scorcho.

Andy Wang: That's a good one. So I think I did the 50K twice. And the 25 K many times,

Chris Detzel: and I was just so tired afterwards.

Andy Wang: Yeah. We always called it the the L sports show hangover because the next day you're so like jet lagged.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, man. Cause you go on a run and you go home, maybe you sleep for a few hours and then you're just like, Oh man. And so for the rest of the day,

Andy Wang: there was a couple of years where I think too hot to handle Was Sunday morning.

And so people would basically like, that's some really crazy people. I don't think I never did it myself, but some really crazy people would go and then they would run it and then literally just go to do too hot to handle. I think I did something crazy, like during our training, I think I did I think one, one day I did a 70 bike ride in the morning [00:21:00] and then I swam four or 5, 000 meters, like in the pool Saturday afternoon.

And then I ran a 25 K at L sports show. And this was before, before Ironman. So I was like. I was like, okay, that's like close to Iron Man distance. It's, and it's all within, less than 24 hours. At least you get your

Chris Detzel: running in

Andy Wang: too. Yeah, exactly.

Chris Detzel: And I, look, so you're this would be your first then to do that particular race.

Andy Wang: I'm sorry, I missed the question

Chris Detzel: that race that you will be doing in July. What's it called again? Yeah.

Andy Wang: So how's half acre is the, I guess the equivalent, right? So that's race been, I believe it's the 7th or 8th year now. There's been house for house half acre. And actually for a while we moved it to the woodshed smokehouse.

But we got feedback that there it's more of like on the concrete trail and it's Hey, let's move it back to Trinity park. Try to get closer to the original vibe. So now it is on Trinity Park. It's, mostly on the dirt, gravel trail there. So it's a little bit more of a [00:22:00] trail run, so to speak.

And it's still just that, just, Hey, let's just do this by play. It's not a PR event by any Yeah. Of time of year, late night conditions, everything. It's more of hey, like I just wanna challenge myself and I want. A fun atmosphere,

Chris Detzel: fun, different atmosphere, different thing to do.

So you're going to be the race director of this next race

Andy Wang: director. I'll probably do the same thing. I'll do the executive race director duties, like help, help select metals, shirts, and look at the general thing. Race logistics wise, we have a team that helps with, making sure we, water stops are manned timing is done, that sort of thing.

And I think the big thing is just trying to get like that event. I think it's, for a few years then maybe it's because of the change in venue or, the concrete is it had not as many participants for the longer distances, the, obviously the 5k were new.

So that was growing, but this year last year we had a lot of like a lot of good feedback with the move back to Trinity park. And so we're looking to grow that, the main thing is we are limited [00:23:00] by the permit, so we can only have up to, I believe 500 participants for the.

The long distances because of, it's at night.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Andy Wang: So we just want, but we want to make sure that everybody who wants to do it, has is aware of the event and get them all registered and and then just the best experience possible for for the race.

Chris Detzel: Do you, is that something you think this year you could sell out or would that be a longer term thing?

It's 500. Oh yeah,

Andy Wang: I think it will sell out this year. Yeah, close. I wouldn't say super close to style last year, but we definitely bumped up the numbers a lot over the last few years where it was in a different venue. So I think like the change in venue helped a lot. And like now we're just, and we want to really make sure that we get the word out and let people know Hey, we're moving back to, again, we don't want to steal the El Scorcho name or anything like that, but let people know that, Hey, we're back to that original kind of like trail running, almost trail running vibe. And and just it's a great event for the challenge and for the camaraderie and hopefully for the bling, like we have some cool ideas for the [00:24:00] medal and things like that.

Chris Detzel: There's a pretty big trail running community here in Dallas, Fort Worth, right? Exactly. So there's two or three really good groups that, come to mind. I think that's a, and then some people just want to try the trail, and there's not a lot of, look, I know Anne and Chris do blaze trails, that, that's somewhat close to the DFW area, but not being right there in Fort Worth, yeah. That's cool.

Andy Wang: And I think like it's a good, so personally, like I, I really like being on the trails. But to

run trails well, so this is the type of trail where it's not so technical and it's more of dirt and gravel as opposed to something where there might be roots or very unstable surfaces and that sort of thing. And I get it like I, I totally [00:25:00] understand like why people who do trail running like that type of environment.

So I love it. I'd like to support that as well, as much as possible.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Look, I think, there, there's something for everyone and exactly. I love doing the crazy trails, the rock trails, road lately I've been doing more road than the trails, but my wife and I will do both. Yeah.

That's good. I think it's just, it breaks up the monotony of, Hey, I've been doing all these races, there's half marathons, whatever. Then we go to Europe and go to, like to France or go to the Swiss Alps, and go do a five day trip in the mountains, trails, do running, so you got to break it up like I'm always for doing something a little bit different. What you're doing is, look, it's not completely different. It's at night, it's trail like, it's like the El Scorcho. So people like that stuff. I think it's a cool experience.

Andy Wang: And that's the vibe that we're trying to get.

And we're still, because it's a lap course, it's very easy to [00:26:00] have. Obviously we have water stops and support from that perspective, but it's great. Like literally a lot of people just set up a little campsite. So if there's like some special, drink or nutrition item that they want, it's never more than three miles away from you.

Chris Detzel: Exactly. But that's just the, that's the type of race it is. And I think people. Respect it and we'll like it. So I wish you nothing but luck on that. So thanks. I didn't know that you did those two. So that was interesting. I thought we were just going to talk about the Fort Worth marathon.

So that's cool.

Andy Wang: Yeah. So I so going back to your question, which was like, do you have events leading up to the Fort Worth marathon? So those are the two events that I'll be race directing. And I guess the third small event that I have that I've done in the last couple of years is the Pi Day.

5k, so we just do that on March 14th. This is just a small 5k for the area, but get people out. It's a after work run. So 7, 7 PM start. And we have pizza and just have fun on the trail. But but I was going to say we work very closely with the rest of the Cox running club events.

[00:27:00] So they have a calendar, that pretty much does, one race every, four to six weeks throughout the year. So some of their events coming up, there's the Panther City half marathon. That's going to be in early April. There's, they always have a great turnout for their Mother's Day half marathon and 5k.

Obviously in May. And then their big thing is the Trinity 5000 summer series, which is actually in its 40th year this year. And that's a 5k every Thursday night with a small caveat, which I'll go into here in a little bit, but every Thursday night is a 5k race. You can sign up for the whole series 12 weeks in a row from, June, early June through late August this year, we're just doing something a little bit different where the first race, instead of being on a Thursday, which it's actually going to be on national running day, which is a Wednesday.

So just for the week one this year, we're going to have a, yeah, we're going to have. Kickoff the 40th year of the race series. And it's just a great, it's tough, [00:28:00] running in the summer, I'm definitely a cold weather runner myself. But there is just something about, 5k is not so bad and, the competition is just great because, like you have to say regardless of what level you're at, there's going to be somebody who's around the same pace that you are. So if you're interested in just pushing yourself and seeing how you're progressing throughout, week to week, there's always like the same people that are right around, your pace and Oh, that's exactly like who I got to keep up with or get ahead of if I want to accomplish a goal.

I think

Chris Detzel: 5Ks are awesome. I just, sometimes I feel like they're super hard, I feel like I can get in a groove and half marathon, I'm not saying half marathons, you can get in a groove, but 5k feels like a sprint the entire time. Yeah.

Andy Wang: I think every, every distance can challenge you in different ways.

Of course. Of course. A few years ago, one of my running friends was trying to do really well in the mile. Yeah. And I think even if it was during COVID, there was like some group on the internet, where I think it was [00:29:00] the McCurdy trained group. And so they just had this virtual one mile race series.

And so I was like, Oh, let's, this is something I've never raced a mile before.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And

Andy Wang: so they had four one mile things. I think it was like, one week, then like maybe you skipped a week and then another week and then two more. So over the span of eight or nine weeks, you ran the mile four times and you just tried to beat everything.

And they, again, this was during COVID. So like it was all virtual. You had to set up your own races. So you could do, I think you could do it on a track if you wanted to. And, you had to run this. I'm not sure though. I think they may have said don't do it on track because it was COVID.

They didn't want people congregating. So they basically said, run your own, like whatever course you wanted, you can map it out. And the only stipulation was that it had to be less than 1 percent drop for the entire mile. So you could have up to 52 feet of decline in one mile. So

Chris Detzel: you could go up if you wanted, but you can't go up if you want

Andy Wang: to.

The whole point was to try to [00:30:00] go as fast as you can. So I think I found a course in just in my neighborhood where, it was just some crazy course that followed you, whatever roads. And I was like looping one neighborhood at the end. But. I think I got down to I don't know, like a five, I want to say I got down to like maybe a five 39 mile or something like that, which is yeah, great.

Downhill of course,

Chris Detzel: but then, like I said, a

Andy Wang: friend of mine told me about this mile that was that race that's in St. Louis, it's called the Macklin mile. And I guess they've been doing it for years. And so there's this road in St. Louis, I think it's called like Macklin street or Macklin drive or something like that.

And it's the same thing. It's like mostly downhill. I don't remember the exact drop, but so actually a friend, a couple of friends of mine, we actually all drove to St. Louis just to run one mile and we did that. And I think I ran, and I think that one was, I don't think I quite, my goal was to break five 30.

But I think I ran 532 or something, I think. That's [00:31:00] pretty impressive.

Chris Detzel: I tell you what, the downhills help, because my PR and half marathon probably a year, a little over a year ago was at a ravel race in Utah. Which one? And it's called, I forget what it's in Utah. So it's only one in Utah.

I forget what it's called. Big Cottonwood? I think so. And it's about 2, 900 feet of down. And I ran like a one 28 and I remember ever running that many miles that fast, especially, in the middle, like I was sitting six, 15, six, 13, six, 14, six, 26, I was like, geez, man, like I've never I feel like I'm fairly fast, but I'm not, that fast.

And I

Andy Wang: think we're probably around the same speed. Probably. I don't know. We'll trade PRs and whatever, whatnot, but. So I'll tell you my rebel story. So I ran in 20, 2023, I ran Mount Charleston, which is just outside of Las Vegas and it's a [00:32:00] rebel race and I ran the half marathon.

So for reference in late February of 2023, I ran the Caltown half marathon, which, is like not net, obviously like the start and finish are very close to each other. So it's pretty much a zero, zero net elevation. But with some hills in there, but there's a bunch of hills. And I think I ran one, I wanna say I ran a 1 34.

Yeah, there, that's, I'm pretty happy with that. That's that'ss my best

Chris Detzel: count, count us 1 33, 1 34.

Andy Wang: Probably best. Yeah. I think I may have run a 1 32 at the Arlington half marathon. Maybe in, no, a year or two before that. But it's, whatever. 1, 3, 2, 1, 3, 2. So 1 34 was pretty, pretty darn close to my pr.

Yeah. I went to Mount Charleston whatever, five weeks later. And. I ran a 126,

Chris Detzel: which is obviously my

Andy Wang: half marathon PR, like how Strava tells you like, Hey, these are your best efforts, whatever. So it's Mount Charleston half marathon. [00:33:00] It's my half marathon PR, my 20K PR, my 10 mile PR, my 15K PR, yes, my 10 and five.

It's my 5K PR. My 5K PR was during the Mount Charleston.

Chris Detzel: My two, like I hit. I was shocked because I hit 19, 20 or nine, I don't know. Whatever. Yeah, like twice. Yeah. For 5K and the previous best 5K was 1941. But yeah, even then, I hit more like low twenties and then my 10 K was, I've always wanted hit under a 40, but I've never got even close.

But I hit a 40 minute K and I was like, geez. Like these are my best times going down the mountain. Like for running a half marathon.

Andy Wang: In the middle. In the middle of a half marathon.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. I love it. I can't wait. I was gonna go do the one in New Hampshire this year, but Okay.

It's a little too much travel, but still I love those races. There's one in California that's 3,900 feet of downhill that they have. Yeah, that's that's Big Bear. That's right. I thought about that one. It was like,

Andy Wang: [00:34:00] okay. So then, I've done the Mount Charleston Fool. Okay. But I've never raced it.

So one time I ran most of the mountain as a training run.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Andy Wang: Just like a couple of friends and I just said, Hey, like we're going to do, this is before I had, so I ended up switching to the Mount Charleston half marathon. But before that I had originally signed up for the full, so that we, so we actually all, there was like a weekend with cheap flights or whatever.

So we all flew out to Vegas and ran it and just did that as a training run. I think we broke it up into several. Runs like there was like one or maybe two runs. We did maybe the first 20 miles and then like we were done. That's it. So we're like 20 miles is not the next day.

We went back and we ran like the last six miles just to experience it.

Chris Detzel: I tell you, this is as a, so it's funny because when I went to that race, there were several people from the DRC group that decided to do the marathon and they thought for sure, these are pretty fast guys, and they thought for sure, they're going to get a PR, because. It was like 4, 000 feet of downhill, right? And [00:35:00] I was like, guys, you're about to run a marathon down the mountain. How much training have you done? Oh, we did some downhills and things. I was like, look, there's a difference between a half marathon and a full.

And doing this downhill full is just going to kill you. I'm not trying to, tell you anything that's trying to break your heart here or be negative. So when they were done, none of them hit their goals because they just didn't train well enough. And they, they found out

Andy Wang: there's a lot of pounding.

I would say that when I did that PR half marathon and I've run, I've probably run at least four, I've lost count, but somewhere around 40 to 45 full marathon or longer distances. Yeah. Either races or, other events that were, close to I've done some virtual marathon, that sort of thing.

Sure. But I would say I, that after that half marathon, I was more sore than any of like my, probably my last five or 10 full marathons, just because it's so much. Just all that walking, dude. Yeah. It [00:36:00] was like,

Chris Detzel: even me, like I've done it before downhill, but they hurt the worst because The next day, two, three days, it's going to kick your butt, right?

But those guys that did the marathon, they were just like barely walking, and and whenever you go into the Utah airport, it's really long. Did you didn't go to Utah, but it's the airport is just. It's super long to get to your gate and everything. So you're going to have to sit down in those suitcases and walk in,

Andy Wang: Oh my gosh.

That would be that's torturous.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Yeah. The downhills are fun, but I don't know. I don't happen to never do a marathon, a downhill like that for a marathon. Yeah.

Andy Wang: So then I so 2023, I ran the half and then 2024, I went back and I paced the full three, I think it was a three 40 pacer.

And I want to say that, pacing actually didn't feel that much easier than I think if I would have like kind of semi raced it, like I wouldn't say going all out. But I was saying like, like you actually have to hold back a little bit, [00:37:00] like it it actually hurt more than, and then it's if I would have just run this in 325 or something like that, I basically I'm on my feet 15 minutes longer than I need to be.

Chris Detzel: Exactly. Did you paste it? Did they ask you to paste it? Or you just paste a friend?

Andy Wang: I volunteered. So they use a group called beast pacing. So I've paced with Beast for the last, I don't know, probably four years or so. So I've done various, like they, they paced the hot chocolate race in Dallas.

So I paced that like maybe three times with them. They paced like a lot of like small half marathons, in, in the Fort Worth I usually do the Fort Worth or Irving ones.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And I paced the Dallas. And sometimes the DRC half and

Andy Wang: yeah, I was going to pace, I was going to run with you, but then it's I was like, no, I don't think I can run that fast this year.

150. Yeah, because I I was, I did the ultra, I'd never done the ultra at Dallas. So my plan was to actually run the, I was going to run [00:38:00] with the four hour marathon group because a friend of mine was pacing that, but I ran with her for the first five miles and then I was like, Oh, I don't think this is happening today.

So instead of, they were running like a 905 pace or whatever. So I ran nine, I was like, no, I think I'm going to run like 930 or something.

Chris Detzel: Look, I generally can run a 150 pretty easily, but that day it was humid, right? It was kinda Yes. Hot and very humid and yeah. I love the race.

Andy Wang: Yes.

Chris Detzel: Dallas has done such a good job over the last several years to making that really lot of fun.

Andy Wang: Oh yeah. It's an amazing, it's, that's an amazing race. That's what I'm saying. Like people are always like, you should go way back to oh, just cop's no. It's I'll run all the races, I'll run downtown.

Yeah. I'll run, you know that. I'll run all the run project raises, like whatever is out there. I just, I like the whole atmosphere and energy. From the running community that's really

Chris Detzel: right. Andy, this has been such a great discussion. It's like we were just running together, hanging out, and that's really my opinion of what it's about.

Is there something that I should have [00:39:00] asked you that I just didn't invest?

Andy Wang: No, I don't think so. I, I'm, I hope I, I can see everybody and meet everybody out there. I'm on Strava. If anybody wants to follow me, Andy way, you can look at all my crazy antics. How about I ask you what's the craziest or most memorable run that you've done in the last few years?

Chris Detzel: There's a few, I'll say that one is when I PR'd the half marathon to down the mountain, I went with a friend from Boston. And so I used to work with him. Now we have a podcast together. It was fun to get him out there, running the half marathon with me. And so having that experience with the, getting the PR, but also seeing him get done with the, doing a lot better in the half marathon was a lot of fun.

And that was a little over a year ago. I think that was 2023, 22. I don't remember, but And then, my wife and I ran, um, in the Alps this last summer, back in September. It's called running the Alps. So we went to France, ran in the Alps there, and then we went to [00:40:00] Switzerland, ran in the Alps there.

I got to see a friend there, for a day, half a day anyways, and hang out with him for a little bit, but just running in the mountains, things like that. And just, it was run, climb, it wasn't like. A lot of hiking mostly, but that's a lot of fun. It's snowed on us like hardcore and September.

That was a lot of fun. And then the other one that comes to mind is three, four, however many years ago, five, we went to Colorado and we did the seven day, 120 miles six day, 120 miles and 20, 000 feet of gain in Colorado and just did, Lots of running, hiking, and we had to be a team, my wife and I so we had to run at the same time.

She had to wait up for me a lot and helped me a lot. But, it's just a great experience, and and a great racing experience and everything else. And just those things really and, the last thing I'll say is running with the community here in Dallas has just been a great experience for me.

And I believe that community is the key. Keep going to keep motivating you to have beers to just hang out, and doing this [00:41:00] podcast is another reason why I do that. I get to meet awesome people like you that are doing some cool things that just get involved in the running community and do even more race directing by, doing a lot of stuff.

I didn't know you had a 10 mile streak for 900 and something days or whatever. It's crazy, but it's fun. Like you haven't got injured. And so it's working for you. Pretty cool, so I don't know if that answers your question, but yeah,

Andy Wang: no, that's great. That's awesome. I thought probably for me It's like I there's been so many different runs, I really like just recently ran With a bunch of friends we ran from Dallas to Fort Worth, the 35 mile adventure.

That's pretty cool. Just various races. But I would say like the most memorable thing really have been my pacing and seeing people who run like, their first sub two half marathon. That's fun. Or just, just bringing, like some of the smaller races, at 140 bringing in like overall female or something like that and it happens, it's just so much so satisfying to see people hit their goals and just like really enjoying, the [00:42:00] sport.

So yeah that's what I do. And I would say probably for the future, I don't know what I'm going to run that day, but when I hit. When I hit the running streak day 1000 in less than a month from now we'll see what happens.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. It's like 1000. Are you thinking Hey, I'm going to do 30 miles or maybe you do

Andy Wang: a hundred miles.

I'll probably run 10 or something like that. I think I've tried it because I was trying to work out the math. I think that's probably like about five or six days before Tokyo. Oh, it is. Yeah. You got to actually I actually really have to do the math. It may actually be on, it may actually be on Caltown.

So Caltown may be date 1000. I got to, it's going to be very close. It isn't.

Chris Detzel: Are you, what are you running in Caltown? Is it half? I'll be pacing

Andy Wang: the two hour half route.

Chris Detzel: Okay. I'll be there. Okay. Great. I'll be there for sure. Andy, it's been great. So thank you for coming and thanks everyone for tuning in to another DFW Running Talk.

Don't forget to rate and review us. And know that we do have a [00:43:00] Facebook group of over 10, 000 DFW Runners called DFW Running Group on Facebook. Just type it in. Again, Andy, thanks for coming. Great story and look forward to seeing you again and talking to you again.

Andy Wang: Great. Thanks so much, Chris.

Chris Detzel: Take care.