DFW Running OG Scott Manis on Ironman Training, Knee Surgeries & the WRRC Community That Changed Everything

DFW Running Talk: Scott Manis
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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 we have a very special guest today. Scott Manis. Scott, how's it going?

Scott Manis: Hey, it's going great, Chris. Thanks for having me on.

Chris Detzel: I'm excited because I get to run with you quite a bit, and you're a longtime WRRC or White Rock running co-op member.

And you've been doing this for a really long time running with people and so I can't wait to dig in. So let's get started, man. Let's, Yeah, let's- let's talk about, like, when did you start running, all those kinds of things and, what'd you do in high school? By the way, you're- you're what I call an OG.

You've been around for a really long time. A lot of people know you. They talk about you sometimes when I'm running, and they're like, "Yeah, I know Scott Mannis."

Scott Manis: Oh. OG is definitely, from the co-op standpoint, I wasn't there at the beginning, but I got there pretty quickly after.

Speaker: Yeah.

Scott Manis: My running journey actually [00:01:00] is made it different from a lot of the people we've had on.

I wasn't in athletics in high school. I didn't run in college or anything of that nature. I ran a couple of times at the end of high school and- and in college, but just for some charity and Ks. Back then, it was- there was a thing called the Repsi Challenge. It was a 10K. I did it a couple of times, and I think I did a K for the Easter seal.

Probably late 30s. I would run for two weeks and quit for two years and run for two more weeks and quit for two years. I might hurt, right? I mean- Yeah, of course. ... starting, and I knew nothing about running. I was running in literally tennis cheese-

Speaker: Yeah. ...

Scott Manis: whatever sports I had, right? Just wasn't serious about it.

Then I- I got a job transfer, a new job, and we moved to Florida from- from Texas. I got there by myself for the first couple of months, and, was living in an apartment. Didn't have anything to do, so I started running out. So

Speaker: let's back up. We- we skipped a lot of stuff. I know you weren't running back in the

Scott Manis: 20s.

You mean 40 years right there, [00:02:00] right?

Chris Detzel: Let's talk a little- what did you do in your 20s and 30s? Did you do any exercises at all? And what were you up to and what were you doing back then? Were you just working, just trying to make it? What was- what was that like? Yeah,

Scott Manis: I was a young guy raising a family, right?

Vicki and I, my wife, we played softball every Friday night. Before that, I played some baseball, but definitely not seriously. I love fishing, and so- You know, you can't do everything, right? I think that- That's right. ... that's the thing I've realized, right? And especially long runs on a Saturday or Sunday.

If you're out fishing on Saturday, that's mutually exclusive with doing a 20 mile long run on a Saturday. And I used to do it. I could go out of fishing as well.

Chris Detzel: What kind of fish did you like to get the most?

Scott Manis: Oh, man. The kind where you catch fish, right? I my brother-in-law and I went down to Cabo at hockey.

Well- My son and I are going also out of fishing, lake fishing.

Chris Detzel: Okay. Just-

Scott Manis: Trout fishing and rivers. It just ain't anything. I- I just love the outside.

Chris Detzel: I would say, I went to Colorado once, and we'll get to the Ryan piece in a minute, I [00:03:00] promise. But I went to Colorado once with a friend that

I was in Mike 20, so it was a long time ago, and we went for six days, and we literally stayed in a tent and everything else, and we went fishing, and they have a lot of really great trout. And it was the first time that ... I don't know if it's the first time I ate trout, but it's the first time I remember catching trout and eating them right then.

Yeah. And it was cool because with trout, when you take out the bone, it's a very simple process, and- and it ... I remember put- they put butter on it, all this stuff, and then, they ... When they cleaned it, it was after they cooked it and they just took the bone right out. I forget exactly.

Yeah, my

Scott Manis: everything took out at one time, right?

Chris Detzel: Nicole came out at one time. Yeah. I couldn't believe it. You don't do that with cap fish or anything, like- Oh, not at all. ... it doesn't happen that way. So- Yeah. You know exactly where I was going. But it was the best fish I've ever had. And even to this day, I'll order trout when they have it, just because I love it.

So anyways, that's my trout story, fishing

Scott Manis: stories. Little side venture there. Yeah. I, like I said, I- we moved moved to Florida. I was in my early 40s, so I- if you fast forward, I've [00:04:00] been running 20 years this past December. Okay. Started I- I was 62, right? So definitely on the older end of the spectrum of the folks that you've been interviewing, not

Chris Detzel: Mostly, but not- Mostly. ... all. Yeah. So there's three or four others that are ... Your age or older, ...

Scott Manis: So I- I really had nothing to do after work. And I was like, oh, I guess I'll kill a little bit of time and go, run a mile. That- that hurt a lot. And also then the next time I went and ran two miles and a little bit further and- and

It was so primitive that I was wearing my Safeco watch as a watch, right? And the first time, I didn't even know they had running shorts. The first time I bought anything to run in, I got a swimsuit. Exactly. And then realized later that they actually made running shorts and real running shoes.

But what really tripped it, so we went from November, beginning of November was when I moved there. And we moved to West Palm Beach area.

The first week of December, they had the Palm Beach Marathon. And, I'm in my 40s and [00:05:00] I'm thinking, there's this whole bucket list thing all that.

And I said, "You know what? I- I always kinda have a marathon on my list. I'm gonna run that marathon next year."

Chris Detzel: Oh, wow.

Scott Manis: Not- not like this week.

Chris Detzel: That's good. I know people that do that. And it's the worst mistake they'll ever made. But anyways,

Scott Manis: yeah. Yeah. So I did. I set the goal and land sit and I- I joined the group there.

It's called the Wellington Running Club. We lived in Wellington, Florida, about 20 minutes from West Palm Beach. And I met a great group of people right away, started running with them on Sundays, the long runs there, a serious running journey. And I had planned to do one- one marathon and done, right?

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

There's

Scott Manis: so many things that I remember about that early part. Like the first time I got the 13 miles in a training run.

Speaker: Yeah.

Scott Manis: I came home that day and I thought, I can't imagine doing this twice in the same day. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: I

Scott Manis: hurt so bad, right?

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Scott Manis: And then [00:06:00] I kinda ... I- I didn't have a time goal, but I kinda figured I should be around four hours.

Okay. The first one I did 4:33 and I was so disappointed that within probably two weeks, I turned around and signed up for a second marathon just because I knew I could do better. And I

Chris Detzel: ran- Isn't that funny though, is that we put all these ex- especially the first marathon. Everybody does this.

Scott Manis: Oh,

Chris Detzel: yeah. And when you're running with a group, that just naturally comes, I think. You have this kind of smith of what you think you can run. And I'm not saying that you can't run that, but a lot of times, I tell people, look, it's your first. Absolutely. It doesn't really matter what you run, to be honest.

I'm not saying you shouldn't have a goal, but don't be that disappointed if you hit something worse,

Scott Manis: absolutely. And- and the funny part is- is after that marathon, I- I told my family, I- I was sitting on an embankment and- and all my family will verify. I said, "If I ever say anything about an Ironman, you guys can punch me.

Speaker: It

Scott Manis: was ... I thought that marathon was [00:07:00] the worst experience of my life. Yeah. And honestly, if I would've probably been, like, four hours or some four, I probably would've never run another one. They're so disappointed, it's Florida. It's South Florida in December. It's gonna still be hot and it's humid.

Yeah. And it got hot, very hot and give it that day. I spent a lot of time walking. So I turned around, signed up for another one in Tampa 12 weeks later, and I went from 4:33 to my. I literally almost shaved an out of it. And it wasn't- That's pretty

Speaker: impressive. 3:40 all the way ... I mean-

Scott Manis: Yeah. ...

Speaker: just in 12 weeks, you must have been, like, kicking butt, during your training.

Scott Manis: I- I felt like I was in good shape. Yeah. Tampa won a front had come through the night before, and so it was much cooler. It was a north wind, not a south wind. It was, all the things that you would want. It was, like, literally perfect Florida running of it.

Speaker: Yeah.

Scott Manis: And then when I hit that 340, it was game long for me at that.

Because then I was only [00:08:00] 10 more minutes to qualify for Boston.

Speaker: Oh, wow.

Scott Manis: And- and I'm thinking shoot, I shaved almost an hour, I can show you 10 more minutes off of this.

Speaker: Maybe.

Scott Manis: It took me to a

Speaker: lot

Scott Manis: took a marathon to- to qualify for Boston. Some people blessed, they never qualified. Yeah.

I was very fortunate, qualified the first time in 2008 for the 2009 marathon in Austin, and then stayed qualified all the way through this past year in 2025. 16 years- I did. 16 years from now. Did you

Speaker: go

Scott Manis: all 16 years? No. There were other places to go, right? Yeah. Other races, and it's quite expensive.

As you've gone a lot. Yeah. And so I've been fine-

Speaker: I'm fine with my wife, not a lot.

Scott Manis: Yeah. I'm

Speaker: not good Boston. Let's just make sure we're clear on that.

Scott Manis: You- you've accompanied Leah a lot.

Speaker: A lot. That's right.

Scott Manis: But there- there are other places you can go on your running journey as well.

I- I've been blessed to go five times including this past year but not-

Speaker: Yeah. Did you qualify for 2026 or no?

Scott Manis: Did [00:09:00] not qualify for 2026. We can get there, but, I had some- Yeah, we

Speaker: will. ...

Scott Manis: injuries and a few other things, and honestly, motivation has kinda dialed back just a little.

Speaker: We'll dive into that later, because I'm interested in kind of the motivation piece.

But we, I, you and I are running together and we have ... I have a clue of some of that. You're doing a lot of weights and things as well, so doing something different, which I think is key with all your injuries that you've had in the past. Yeah. I was reading your, you sent me your bio kind of, which rarely anybody does, but I appreciate that.

And I know we've talked about some of this stuff, but there was some that we didn't, so I was very interested. The one thing that you said, and you qualified and you just said at 16 consecutive Bostons, because I was like, dang, I didn't know that. I knew you qualified and went, but I didn't know 16 years in a row you were qualified.

I didn't ... I know you didn't go 16. Anyways that's interesting. All right. So you get to the you qualify for your first time to Boston. What was that like when you went?

Scott Manis: It was one of the most amazing experiences, of my life. [00:10:00] I tell people pretty regularly I consider Boston like the Olympics for us mirror morals.

Yeah. The first time I went, I knew I had a qualifying time that would allow me to go the next year as well. And I signed up right away for 2010 also. I had no idea I continued to qualify, right? But I got there and the whole vibe, the experience, the crowd, the ... Back then, the running expo was so much more than it is now as well that I- Let's

Speaker: talk about that because this is a big thing of mine too.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I don't know, I don't know if we talked about this, but all right. So I went to Houston this, back this January, did the half and Leah did the half.

Scott Manis: Right.

Speaker: And Expo was ... I don't wanna call it awesome, but it was the best expo I've seen in a long time. And it's because they just had running sponsors there or running companies, they had the shoe vendors, they had, all

And I was like this is the way it used to be, this, it wasn't special. It was just, that's the way you, it should be. It's a running event. Now, [00:11:00] you go and you have people selling hair supplies and stuff. Nice. Where is the shoe places?

Scott Manis: They, you look at Boston, Adidas is a sponsor.

So guess what they've done, right? They've waned every other competitor out- That's right. ... of the Expo. And so- They all do

Speaker: it now.

Scott Manis: Go to the Expo. If you go to the Expo, you're flooded with Adidas products and whoever other sponsors they have-

Speaker: That's non-running.

Scott Manis: Right?

You

Scott Manis: know, that's-

Nothing

Speaker: to do with running.

Scott Manis: You got insurance companies and all kinds of other things, but because they're- How do

Speaker: people listen to this? Scott, how about people to listen to this? We'll get the rest of your journey, I promise, but, you know- Yeah.

Scott Manis: This back in the day, I'll say-

Speaker: Yeah. ...

Scott Manis: the expos were, something that you could actually enjoy.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. So the way ... All right. So let's be clear, the way that Boston does it, and it's exactly the way you said it, Adidas sponsors it, but [00:12:00] that's when you go to Dallas Marathon, does the same thing, Doctor does the same thing, every ... Chicago, all of them do it now. It's all the same crap. Now Houston didn't do it this year.

Scott Manis: They're not ... There's Bonsons, right?

Speaker: Yeah. And it's a little frustrating. So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Houston. Now, the thing with Boston is what they do is they'll have like little pop-up stores- Yeah. ... which is fun because now you can go walk around Boston and go to these pop-up stores into these different places that have running type of things.

So they figured out a way to do it. Nobody else has, but them, but- ... at least there's that. All right, let's get back to it. You went to Boston, it was amazing.

Scott Manis: So Boston was absolutely amazing. My first time there, I think I was like-. No, 30, 30

Speaker: years. Okay. That's better.

Scott Manis: So it still needs disappointing for where my, I felt my potential was, but of course it was Boston and,

But same.

You just enjoy it, right?

Speaker: Yeah. Love it. All right. So you went to Boston, you loved it. Did you run with anybody? Was it like a, was it ... did you go with the group or was it just

Scott Manis: [00:13:00] you? Yeah, actually that, that first time, one of my buddies, Mark Janet, who I knew is in Florida, we were there together.

We ran together probably the first two thirds. He would probably tell you that I ran off and left him because he slowed down a bit, but I didn't have all that much better of a day. But Mark Mark was a guy that I've run with over the years back. And

Speaker: so you did that in what you say is one

Number one, how many marathons have you done, by the way? Like overall, would you think?

Scott Manis: Oh,

Speaker: I think

Scott Manis: 45.

Speaker: 45, okay. So you're a pro.

Scott Manis: Small number of marathons.

Speaker: That's a lot. And I'm sure you've done a bunch of halves and things like that. Have you ever done like a 50K or anything? Anything like a ultra of some sort or-

Scott Manis: Yes.

I haven't done any trail ultras or anything like that. It was always something I've wanted to do and it's not out of the, out of the realm. I did do El Scorcho twice, which is- ... 50K back in the day, Okay. ... here up here in Fort Worth pretty crazy race. They've renamed it now to L half acre, I think, something like that.

10 laps on a [00:14:00] 5K course that starts at midnight in August. You know- It's

Speaker: hot.

Scott Manis: I've done it. You have to be team up for 90 plus degrees in the dark-

Speaker: Yeah, that's

Scott Manis: right. ... five day a week.

Speaker: Yeah, that's pretty rough. I remember little story again because, one is I think I did the 10, 20K or something.

I don't remember what I've done. I've done a couple times, but the first time that I asked Leah on a date or I went out with Leah on a date before that, but I really wanted to get closer to her and I said, and she was doing the 50K for the first time ever and doing El Scorcho. Yeah. And I was like how about I take you out there and then bring you home, yeah, and it starts at 9:00 PM at night, so we're gonna be out there all night. Yeah. But I just wanted to know, let her know that-. Yeah, I was interested, and so she threw up and all this stuff and so it was just an interesting race, you

Scott Manis: know it was definitely a different kind of race for sure.

Speaker: Yeah.

Scott Manis: But great support from the [00:15:00] running community, especially in Dallas at that time. It was.

Speaker: It was pretty, it was a different time back then, like 2014, 13, whatever, I don't know when you did it, but I think we did

Scott Manis: out of the years I was, I did it maybe 12 and 13 or 11, 12, something like that.

Speaker: Okay. Got it. And then, what was after that? Like you, you decided to do Boston, you finished that. What else?

Scott Manis: So I actually, I wanted to qualify for 2010. I signed up for CIM. I heard it was a good race and went there with the invention of qualifying for New York, Oh, geez.

And I did, I remember it's literally one second per mile under the requirement for the qualifying.

Speaker: All right. Let's back up. So 310, you weren't even close to 310 by the time, like you and I were talking, you were at 330s or 40s. Yeah. 3:38.

Scott Manis: Yeah, I started bumping it up a little bit.

I picked up a couple of additional marathons along the way and I did find- Okay,

Speaker: that's your second Boston then.

Scott Manis: Yeah, this is my second Boston.

Speaker: Okay.

Scott Manis: I had good [00:16:00] weather, all those kind of things and, a little more experience under my belt. By then, that would have been probably my,

Speaker: Okay.

What was your best before the 309?

Scott Manis: Something maybe 315 for sure.

Speaker: And the reason I ask is because, going from, I was thinking like at 3:30 or whatever all the way to 309, that's extreme, but you were getting down there is kind of-

Scott Manis: Where

Speaker: it was

Scott Manis: going. I think one of the seminal things, and, we talked about this running community and zive right after Boston in 2009, we moved back to Dal- or we moved to Dallas.

Okay. So we moved from Florida to Dallas that summer and right away I found running community, right? I'd been running already and I had enough confidence, Mojo, whatever, to start- Yeah. ... looking around saying, "Hey, I need running people in my love." So I met people like Steve Enderson and Margot and, folks like that back then started getting faster, even than I had been with some other people on weekends as well as at the lake or the flight cool hill route, things [00:17:00] like that back.

So it made it really convenient to, drive down there in the morning,

Speaker: nick Plato's been running with people forever. I feel like he and he's still doing the same thing, ...

Scott Manis: Yeah. I wouldn't say I've run more miles with Nick Polito than with, than, than anybody else-

Speaker: Yeah.

Scott Manis: has run with Nick, but I can say one thing, probably over the years, I've run more of my miles with Nick than with anybody else.

Speaker: Yeah.

Scott Manis: And I don't run regularly with Nick now, but, run a heck of a lot of miles together, thought a heck of a lot of running lies along the way.

Speaker: Yeah. He's like the Kevin Bacon of, you know-

The running community.

Scott Manis: For sure. In Dallas, yeah, I would say that.

Speaker: Dallas anyways,

Scott Manis: yeah. Yeah. It's not Mick, it's Marco, right?

Speaker: Yeah, it used to be Marco, and he kinda quit running, but- Yeah. Yeah, that, that's, everybody knows Marco and Nick. All right, you get to Dallas, you ran your 309 whatever, found the community, and

Scott Manis: obviously that's important.

I didn't go to New York in 2011. Okay. And had [00:18:00] pretty good experience. I think I ran like a 320 in New York. I slowed down a little at the end, but overall, very happy. I went there really with the attitude. I was gonna high five everybody and probably-

Speaker: Yeah, was it the only time you went?

Scott Manis: Yeah, it's the only time I've been about four.

It's

Speaker: a tough one. So I know Leo went there once. I remember running the 5K the day before or something and I actually hated it. It was a good 5K, but I thought it was really hard. I felt like crap afterwards. It's cold and-

Scott Manis: Yeah. And in my situation, when I take these trips or whatever, I'm taking family along and all that, right?

Yeah. None of these trips are cheap. I, we took five people including myself to to New York. So you can't do that every week.

Speaker: No, it's, I guess you see it as a family vacation and, hopefully the kids later in life appreciate that and/or do that for their own kids that, that kind of stuff is really

And it keeps you together for forever, those kinds of things is what kind of connects you and with your family and it's the hope anyways. So tell me about, when you started getting, forming or being part of the [00:19:00] WRC because that didn't really form until 2011 and you said that- you weren't really at the first there with

Scott Manis: them. I had actually started running with Jose Lopez, I'd know him. Jose was one of the pace group leaders for the DRC back then- Yeah. ... in kind of 2010, 2011. I wasn't in the DBRC, like formally in the face group thing or whatever, the training program.

Yeah. But Jose was like, "Hey, man, just come out and run because, I want some people in our group, so come run with me. " And I'm like, "All right, fine on Saturdays." And that was kinda, comfortable, good face for me, and so- Is that

Speaker: kinda like a 3:30 for the marathon or-

Scott Manis: Yeah, it's a 3:30, exactly.

Speaker: Okay.

Scott Manis: Yeah. Or the marathon. And that was just a good Saturday training base. So I did that for a couple years with Jose, and then I heard about the co-op kinda early in 2012. It had formed in 2011.

Speaker: Yeah.

Scott Manis: And I thought, it was maybe, a good group fairly nearby, so-

Speaker: Yeah, you know- So there's a [00:20:00] couple things it feels like you learned from there.

I don't know if it's from the WRC, but tell me a little bit about a s- it's a story that you and I talked about, about, a lot of times you're at the corrals and things just happen where you have to go to the bathroom and things, maybe there's a little story behind some of that.

Scott Manis: So- Actually I got the- ... Before the first time I went to to Boston, all of a sudden I'm seeing the guy's face, but blanking on his name, but before I went to Boston the first time I was talking to one of the guys I ran with in Florida and you go to the bathroom, before the race and all this kind of stuff and all the logistics there, you were talking to him, he said, "Man, I've got that salt."

And I'm like, "What are you talking about? " He said I take Gatorade bottle with me and a trash bag, put the trash bag over at the top of me and utilize the Gatorade bottle inside the plastic trash bag that you're wearing. Nobody can see and you stand there and act natural and take care of business in the corral five minutes before the race starts.

We're seeing me in a corral with a plastic trash bag on. I'll probably be talking to you, but there might be some other things going [00:21:00] on simultaneously. Geez. You can cap the bottle and throw in the trash can and it's at that last pit stop before-

Speaker: It's a game changer. And you know what?

My headline for this, I don't know if you read the newsletter. But it's gonna be on that newsletter, trust me. We'll see. Yeah. Maybe it'll be in the subheadline, yeah. All so you start running with WRC and was that kind of a game changer? I know Nick went over there as well, so

Scott Manis: Yeah, it was. Again, running with people that are faster, having a community, a place to look forward to on Saturdays. I have to say my wife has been mostly if not always, tremendously patient with my, running habits, getting up at 5:00 AM or especially on Saturday mornings for the last 15 years, pretty much every Saturday I've spent- Yeah.

Somewhere or with the homework. I

Speaker: think we both have, man.

Scott Manis: But it's, it's a true blessing for us to have it also.

Speaker: So you and I were running together not that [00:22:00] long ago, maybe a week or two ago, I don't remember. And you were talking a lot about some of the things that you guys used to do from meet at people's houses and things like that, tell me a little bit about that, wanted to

'Cause to me, it's about community and you've really helped build that community of WRC and, the runners and everything else because I wanna know some tips and tricks.

Scott Manis: Yeah, I would say first and foremost, it wasn't my idea. Yeah, but- and, but in, in years past, WRC in the summertime would do would dedicate literally every Saturday.

Like we didn't meet at the lake or at wherever we'd been at people's houses and the unwritten rule was you had to have a pool or access to a pool somewhere to every run on a Saturday, especially in the early days of what they called run my hood was from somebody's house, generally starting at 6:00 AM and go run, eight, 10, 15, 20 miles, whatever your plan was for the day, that person would put together a route with varying distances.

And [00:23:00] then everybody that came would bring some sort of potluck items, hung out at people's people's pools for a couple of hours in the morning after instead of, hanging out. Yeah. And it wouldn't be unusual to have 50 or 60 people at somebody's house on the side of the home. And we did that every single year for eight years ago.

Speaker: And that was like once a week in the summer or was that just once a year in the summer?

Scott Manis: So like we'd have it at our house once a year in the summer, but other people would volunteer their house- Okay. ... having it, So

Speaker: it happened actually four or five times or more, but it'd be at somebody else's house that summer?

Scott Manis: Oh, it's in the early days of it, it was every single week at a different- Oh, wow.

Speaker: Wow.

Scott Manis: Yeah. There were enough people that had pools or access to a pool might be my mother-in-law's pool or something. Or somebody opened up partner complex and they just said, "Hey, come, we'll, we'll do it at the pool."

I

Speaker: remember Leah talking about it in the past. I do remember Leah saying some stuff in the past about it and I don't think we ever ... [00:24:00] I might have went once or twice. I don't remember, but but I always thought, man, it's a hard thing to bring back because I think you and I talked about it was because people sometimes wanna stay too long and/or

It's a lot of effort for that person to host, right? And so that's why we now do it taco joint, that kind of stuff, but ...

Scott Manis: Yeah, the first year particularly, first year or two Vicki was a little slow to buy in, right?

Speaker: Yeah.

Scott Manis: But she knew it was something that I loved and certainly running was something that I loved.

And she got to know the running community with the co-op just based on, them coming to our house once a year. Yeah. She took us, because they came to our house and we engaged in conversation for a few hours.

Speaker: Who are some of your favorite people that you've run with over, over the years?

Doesn't have to be-

Scott Manis: Yeah, there's, gosh, there's so many people I've run with over the years. I have to, first jump back to, probably really one of the first role models for Florida Lundgren. Bruce doesn't run as much anymore. He doesn't live in Florida either, but Bruce was really the group leader [00:25:00] for the Volunteer Running Club.

So welcoming.

Speaker: Yeah.

Scott Manis: More recently, for a few years, I ran with a guy named John Thompson, John Dunn running Maury Nick a while ago, Corey McCallum and I run back and a lot together. I know Corey. Holy Hills route.

Speaker: Yeah, Moss Haven Elementary. Cool guy. Yeah. I really like him a lot.

Scott Manis: Andy, Alan Seanborn James Kimbrough just so many people over the years.

Again, these are, people that had a come and go in their life that's, you do some things outside of running with as well.

Speaker: You know who has impressed me over the years is Alan Schomburg.

Scott Manis: Yep.

Speaker: He's the nicest guy that you'll ever meet ever. Yep. And, it's funny because people will come out to Boston to run, and he'll show him the town.

He lives in Boston now.

Scott Manis: Sure.

Speaker: He will show in the town and just- Absolutely. He's ... The guy is just ... I don't know why he's so nice, but he is so nice.

Scott Manis: I'll tell you, he and I went to Boston together in [00:26:00] 2010.

Speaker: Yeah.

Scott Manis: And my son, our older son came and joined me that year, he was in college still but he came up from Florida and joined me and myself and my son and Alan and his wife, Marcy and his son, we all went to dinner together, and it was- Yeah. ... i'd seen more Alan's doing than mine. But yeah, we all went to dinner together, got to know each other, got to know Marcy really well, back then, sweet, mugly lady. And that was long before they moved to Boston.

Speaker: Yeah.

Scott Manis: Yeah. And they were still living here. But, you talk about him showing the town, again, he's somebody who's really gotten to know us, got to know Vicki well over the year.

We're in Boston this past year. Came and had dinner two nights before the race with just me and Vicky. We went to a pizza place and it was just the three of us. And we spent a few hours together that night. It was just, it, he's a fabulous guy.

Speaker: I agree. Just so fabulous. One of the things that you mentioned, you get a little burnt out earlier [00:27:00] this last year running and I think you went through some surgeries.

Let's talk a little bit about, what happened there, what's going on?

Scott Manis: Yeah I didn't necessarily blame injuries, although I've had two knee surgeries. The first surgery that I had, frankly, was from stepping off the curb while we were on vacation in Philadelphia one of the year and I twisted my knee just stepping off the curb.

So I ended up needing surgery for torn meniscus. The funny thing about that one and, I but I had that surgery in the end of August about

Speaker: eight

Scott Manis: years ago, but before that, I had signed up to pace the PCS It's the Bryant Palace Station Marathon, the 350 group in December. So they usually have that race the same weekend as Dallas.

Speaker: Yeah.

Scott Manis: Or thereabouts. And so I had signed up already ahead of time before the knee surgery for that race to pace it at 350. And I used that as my motivation to come back from the knee surgery literally 10, whatever, [00:28:00] 12 weeks later to pace 350. And I hit it exact. Wow. Did it

Speaker: hurt at all?

Scott Manis: Huh? No, it hurts? I was, I ramped up from, because after surgery, you have to wait six weeks or so. Yeah. We need to run at all. And then I had basically a six week ramp up period from no running to the marathon at 3:50.

Something

Speaker: no running that would bug me. It would be more of my knee just to have surgery on it 12 weeks ago.

Scott Manis: I raced by myself for the full and get the number right on. I just, I, you know,-

Speaker: Yeah, so running's not bad for your knees.

Scott Manis: Okay. All the time. I did have a second knee surgery about a year and a half ago, say it was from running. I know when the tear occurred. Again, it wasn't during or- No. But I would definitely say that, running- I,

Speaker: I would just want to see if you, what you thought about that myth, I don't know how you run so much. I think it's just bad for my knees.

Scott Manis: Right.

Speaker: And I'm like when it's really not that bad for your knees, I'm, it is heavy impact. I'm not gonna deny it, but [00:29:00] I mean- Sure. ... okay, so

Scott Manis: I- It's good for your mindset. I'll say that.

Speaker: Say it again.

Scott Manis: I said running's really good for your mindset. Oh, my gosh. Just clears my bad. It makes starting the day running just in general- Yeah. Same. More recently, I've decided, I'm getting up there, I need to work a little bit more on strength and flexibility. So I've built a gym and spending generally three days a week,

Speaker: but you're still out there. I've seen you come out on Saturdays and run.

Scott Manis: No, it's, I'm out there slugging it out. Certainly not the kind of pace it was that I was previously-

Speaker: Do you have any kind of future thinking of another marathon, in the next eight, 12 months?

Scott Manis: Probably not another marathon in the next eight to 12 months.

I, but I couldn't have my arm twister as well. I would say this, right? If I got into if I got into Tokyo- Okay. ... I would tell that because that would be my sixth star.

Speaker: Still

Scott Manis: trying to

Speaker: get in, huh?

Scott Manis: Right? It's not it's not like I have to. But if I got in, I would go.

I'll say it that [00:30:00] way. The other thing I would say is if one of my kids and I run with my daughter's son, and she has no plans at least, for the time being to run a ma- but if she wanted to run a marathon and wanted me to run with her, I would definitely come out of retirement for that.

But I would officially say I'm marathon retired but I would say probably focusing more on halves or things of that nature. After 45 marathons, I don't think I have anything to prove to anybody else- ... So much fulfillment over the years in pacing.

Speaker: Yeah.

Scott Manis: Giving back to the running community for repacing, I faced probably

It's so fulfilling getting to a finish line or just you're a running cheerleader all along the way. Yeah. Two hours or four hour cheerleader for sure trying to reach the air goal. Yeah. It's thank

Speaker: goodness. 100%. I've paced several times. I even paced a marathon watch, decided I would never pace a marathon again, but I've paced several halves, and it is fulfilling.

It's fun. I enjoy it, and, you can just be that cheerleader [00:31:00] that, I like to do that anyways, whether it's getting at a place and just, yeah, let's do this thing, in, in this case, half marathons and things. I'm gonna say this. Think about this. In September, and I think you've heard me say this, I am doing a half marathon and I'm trying to get people to do it with me.

It's downhill revel race. It's in Utah called Cottonwood, doing the half mathon, and it's 2,900 feet of downhill just for the half. So I'm looking at ... I got one guy whose name's Simon, he rings with us every now and then. Yeah. And, whether you PR or not, I'm, I'm gonna try the PR again, but a lot for you to go and others if you're hearing this.

Scott Manis: Yeah, let's let's argue that offline. I, I-

Speaker: All right.

Scott Manis: I've definitely heard of it before. I just haven't really looked into it.

Speaker: It's a blast. I've done it twice,

Scott Manis: ... But had, I haven't had any destination half marathons. I've only ever had destination marathons, so destination half marathon sounds like a good idea, right?

Speaker: Way better. Trust me, I've done it, several times. Leo does ... Leah will [00:32:00] go, she's not gonna do ... She doesn't wanna do those downhill. She'll go, but she's ... I don't know the destination half. I guess we've done Leadville heavy half and other things, but that's 15 miles up mountains and stuff, it's a little different.

You ever done any trails? You said you'd not really done it. Y did that old school

Scott Manis: show. I like to, I was always too focused on, road marathons and I always had a marathon I was always signed up for, right? And I love being outside.

Speaker: Yeah.

Scott Manis: Regardless I always was signed up for roadmap line.

Speaker: So April 4th, you might try this. I'm me and Leo will be there. We're going to Panther City. Anyways, it's the one in Fort Worth, but it's a trail. It's the first time it's being put on. Okay. Race ... i'm gonna have to say it because now the actual spot, I'm not saying this ... Rise Racing Co. And so anyways it's at the it's at trail in Fort Worth.

I can send you the info. But I'm doing the 5K, me and Tegan. Leah's gonna do probably the 20K or something, might be a good kind of 5K-ish or a little bit longer. It's gonna be tough. It's in April. Yeah. Might try. I'll [00:33:00] send you this stuff. Anyways, anything that I missed that, you know that you were, that I, that we didn't talk about that you just were dying to say or talk

Scott Manis: about?

Yeah, one thing I sticked over, and that in my running journey I did kinda take take a little side road for a couple of years. I was still running marathons and things, but I did Iron Man full land in Kosovo back in- It's

Speaker: a good place to do it.

Scott Manis: Yeah, it was amazing.

I'll say the swim there is just undeniably amazing. Beautiful. Run course and the bike course are flat, although you have win to confend with. I have, I tell people that kinda going down that path that the race, in my mind, the race is a celebration of always fighting, right?

'Cause you're training 15, 20 hours a week. Yeah. You're seriously into it. Yeah, you wanna do well, and I did well but I should look at that as a set of motion, probably 90. But I was one and done on an iron man because I did all the goals that I had for it and-

Speaker: Yeah. ...

Scott Manis: definitely didn't feel like things needed to go do [00:34:00] that exactly.

Speaker: And did you lose a lot of weight because of that? All the training

Scott Manis: you

Speaker: had to do?

Scott Manis: Yeah, I was I was in what my daughter back then called the dad eat a sandwich weight.

Speaker: Exactly. When they're first Ironman, and you see them kind of start training and they're heavy, tons of weight, you'll see them lose 15, 20, even if they were a runner or whatever, you'll see them lose quite a bit, which is crazy.

Scott Manis: I lost about 20 pounds from when I started running to when I got serious about doing marathons. Yeah. I lost another 20 pounds in the Iron Man training. I was down in the low 150- You're a tall

Speaker: guy.

Scott Manis: Yeah. Knocking on the door a six feet ball I was pretty skinny, a diver would literally say that he was Santos.

Yeah.

Speaker: So this summer I got down, or when I was running my, I PR'd in a half and, but I spent a lot more time running this last year, and I got down to 139, but, I'm a lot shorter than you are, and not a lot, but a few [00:35:00] inches, two or three inches. Yeah. But I, that's in my best shape I've ever been.

Scott Manis: And that's really-

Speaker: Yeah. ...

Scott Manis: else and trying to balance everything.

Speaker: Lots of that was a challenge.

Scott Manis: I just wouldn't keep them the, keep the, you know-

Speaker: Yeah, exactly. What are some of advice, before we go what's some advice that you would give to runners, since you've been doing this for a while?

Scott Manis: If you're not running with people, you should be first and foremost. It makes it so much more fun. Those 20 milers, if you're doing a marathon, they're horrible by yourself. You can't have enough music. There's not enough thoughts that go through your head in a three or four hour training run or something really big on your mind.

Surround yourself with running people. I'd say everybody doesn't have to be a runner also. Just be active. Yeah. And get out and do some stuff and be able to try new things. Us 4jo was a crazy crazy race. Now, I get, I never did weightlifting or anything like that, and I've started to get into that from strength training standpoint.

Yeah. My, my journey continues for sure. It looks a little bit different than probably a year ago [00:36:00] or, certainly a couple of years ago, but continuing to run, meeting up the folks on the weekends balancing all over as best as possible.

Speaker: Scott, it's been a lot of fun.

I really appreciate you coming on.

Scott Manis: Thanks, Chris. Really enjoyed it and look forward to-

Speaker: Oh, that's for sure. Thanks everyone for tuning in to another DFW running talk. I'm Chris Detzel. Don't forget to rate and review us. That's always helpful, but also subscribe to our newsletter at gfwrunningtalk.substat.com.

Until next time, Scott again, thanks so much for coming.

Scott Manis: Thanks a lot to