From 232 Pounds to 2:46 Marathon: Greg Rankin's Incredible Transformation

DFW Running Talk: Greg Rankin
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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 we have special guests, Greg Rankin. Greg, how's it going man? Good little hot and sweaty today. Just ran a 5K ID you down. You did chase me down. I actually chased you for that first mile and then I passed you for maybe it was a mile ish, and then you passed me the last mile and hit my butt and then I stopped running.

I was like, ah, I started back again. But Greg and I have been running together for a little bit of time. I've known you for a really long time. And I remember when we started running together you thought that's just Leah's husband, that's what she told me. Exactly. So that's

Greg Rankin: all I knew you had probably for a good couple of months.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Greg Rankin: Wednesday mornings all we here.

Chris Detzel: Running with Leah and Leah's husband. No, you and Leah used to run together quite a bit in McKinney, is that right? Actually Rock, wall. Rock. She came out too. Rock. Yeah, that's right. That's right. You've been in the running community for a really long time and you've [00:01:00] been well known.

You're a coach, you've. Run some really good times in marathons, half marathons, five Ks. You've done a lot, so what I wanna do is just get your story a little bit, know a little bit about you, like when did you start running? How'd you get excited about running? All of those kinds of things.

Well,

Greg Rankin: we wanna know where it started. That's all the way back in high school, freshman year, going to. High school felt like the only way to get in with the in crowd was play football. Fortunately, I was the smallest kid in the whole school, and so how to do it didn't get to play much in football, but in spring training after our freshman year we had to run this three mile loop out around the neighborhood and back to the school.

And I was beating everybody by a mile. Literally by a mile, probably literally by a mile. So football players

Chris Detzel: are more sprinters than they are long distance runners.

Greg Rankin: Exactly. So it's the first time I really knew I could run. So Coach asked me to come out for track and first track meet. We go to, I get put in the mile.

Freshmen didn't have the two mile back in. Gosh, that would've been 1980. [00:02:00] Dang. No, I'm just joking. But my big memory is Terrell high school track, running the mile, take off, get a big lead, and the monkey jumps on after three laps. One guy passes me in the curve, another guy passes me on the back stretch, and then coming down the finish, a third guy catches me and I thought, man, I'm not gonna get anything first, second, and third place is who gets awards, right?

Yeah, that's what I knew from the Olympics, right? Gold, silver, bronzes. But we get on the bus and it's even worse than that. My coaches starts handing out awards and I got a fourth place ribbon, which was pink. I never got to live that down. Everybody on the bus riding back to our school. So that was my start into running competitively.

Okay. Sounds like I kept going freshman year. Yeah. And coach convinced me that summer that I should do cross country. Explained what it was. The rest is history. I've been running on and off ever since. I've had at least three different running careers, running stints in [00:03:00] life. Yeah. Went through high school actually was good enough to get a scholarship to College West Texas.

Chris Detzel: Before we get to that, yes. I wanna talk a little bit about your fastest fire, or was it 5K back then, or three miles? 5K. So what was your fastest in high school?

Greg Rankin: Fastest in high school was probably a around the 1550. Wow. I broke under 16. I know I ran a 1538. Yeah, but that was, that did end up being three miles, but it was on a cross country course at Norbu.

Okay. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: That's pretty impressive. And so you got a scholarship to run in Southwestern, you said? West Texas. Texas. Back before it was Texas State. Okay. Got the

Greg Rankin: ring for it right there. Cross Country championships.

Chris Detzel: You won the championships in cross country there? We did. Wow. Yes, my sophomore year. So what'd you, was that wasn't college like five

Greg Rankin: miles, six, or what is that?

Yeah, it was a 10 K then. Okay. Six. So now it's an eight K, which is 4.97. But yeah. Was going to school at Southwest Texas. Of course you never think the coach knows what they're supposed to know. Yeah. I walked [00:04:00] away after two years. Gave up the scholarship, got married, started life. Yep. Had kids then started running again in the like 2000, no, 1992.

Okay. Through 2000. So let's back. So Uhhuh, I graduated high school in 93. I didn't run from 86 to 92. Okay. Busy having kids and then yeah, just working. Feel good. Just living life, trying to, yeah. Having a career. Taking a career.

Chris Detzel: Yep.

Greg Rankin: Didn't like the way I felt. 92 started running. They had this thing on young country.

I didn't even actually listen to country music, but my wife did and she was listening to Young Country and they were signing up runners. They were gonna pay 'em to run five Ks and 10 Ks locally in Dallas. Okay. In the early nineties. Who would wear a singlet with young country on it? And you had to wear this purple.

Styrofoam hat of an armadillo. 'cause that was their mascot. Oh. The whole time for young country. So we would wear 'em before the race. Okay. And we would wear 'em after they wanted [00:05:00] us to wear 'em before. But of course, once I started working out and I got on that team and started working out started getting competitive again.

Yeah. Next thing I know, we were looking around for other people to run with running at the lake on Sundays. Our Sunday morning crew did a few Dallas marathon relays. Wait,

Chris Detzel: these guys

Greg Rankin: paid

Chris Detzel: you

Greg Rankin: to run or they just, they paid for our entries. Oh, okay. And made it all easy. But then once we started running at the lake, we ran into a few people and at that time, Tim Gargiulo in 95 was training for the Olympic trials in the 5,000.

Okay. He had been at SMU come through, plano East. He was actually there at the same time as Lance Armstrong. Yeah. Yeah. During those days. But he was being coached in Dallas at SMU on Tuesday and Thursday nights by Terry Jessop. And Terry took on a number of us, Joe Blow runners for 30 or $40 a month.

Come on, Tuesdays and Thursdays. And he would give us workouts, put us in groups where we could. [00:06:00] Get pushed by others and help push others that he was coaching more seriously. So I enjoyed that through the nineties, up to 2000. A big project at work in 99 dealing with Y 2K.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, I remember that.

Greg Rankin: So I was traveling all over the country.

Yeah. I let running come find out. Nothing happened, except a lot of us made a lot of extra money for bonuses. Exactly. For making sure nothing happened. That's right. That's right. So that was one of the best times in my career on the financial side. But that kind of wrote my ticket to get some other opportunities career wise.

But I found myself missing running and a college buddy was running and convinced me to sign up for the New York Marathon in 2000. Have you done a marathon before that? If we go all the way back to high school. Oh, running buddy. My senior year said, Hey, let's go run White Rock marathon After cross country season's gonna be over.

Wow. So you actually did some distance? We would run nine miles every Sunday around the lake through all cross country season. And so our way [00:07:00] of training for White Rock Yeah. Was, we signed up. Like Thanksgiving weekend, Uhhuh. And then that next weekend we went out and we did two loops around the lake.

The next weekend. I couldn't even make it two loops around the lake. I had to walk after about 14 miles, but two weeks later, ran a white rock marathon, my first marathon ever, and only one for 20 years because it was very painful. 23. Wow. With a lot of walk in the last three miles. You're really young and you can Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Do some of that. You're a runner, but Yeah, still, I know that's a lot for, because you didn't really train that well for it, obviously, but Exactly. You still did pretty good.

Greg Rankin: Yeah, I was happy enough with it.

Chris Detzel: 20 years later

Greg Rankin: I said, I'm not doing it again. Marathon's not for me. I go, enjoy 10 K. Yeah.

And back then you don't realize it, but there really weren't half marathons. Yeah, they didn't exist. The second half marathon ever created in Texas. Was my freshman year in college down at Southwest Texas in San Marco. Nope. Mo's better. Half mo's, better [00:08:00] half. And it went off on some country roads and stuff, and I ran that and I ended up winning that, but it about killed me because I had no idea how to pace for 13.1 miles, even though just a year earlier, a year and a half earlier I'd run the Dallas Marathon.

Yeah, but you weren't. Training. Yeah, I'm training at 50 miles a week, maybe 60 miles a week or three speed workouts a week in college. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. That's, that easily transfers over, I think to a half marathon for sure. Yeah. Marathon now,

Greg Rankin: now I see that it could have if I wouldn't have, yeah.

Like you, you went to. Yeah, you go out too fast, you pay for it. Yeah. So we fast forward to 2003. I sign up in the lottery for New York. My buddy doesn't get in. I get in. So once again, I'm on this weird training plan. I don't really know what to do. My long run's 18, but I did it twice and I actually ran the whole 18 miles.

Yeah, create your own planner. You just find something on the internet. Then back then it was the magazine Runner's World, and. [00:09:00] The runner and the runner had some stuff in the back. There was no internet or anything still really, that I was looking at for running. I think I actually did buy during that training cycle my first GPS watch, which, yeah.

'cause it was after 2000. I did buy my first GPS Watch, which was a Garmin, but it wrapped all the way around your wrist and had the buttons down here at an angle. Yeah, it was diff much different then, but So much better today, aren't they? Yeah. Back then you'd go drive your car to create a route, then you'd come back and you'd run it all the time because you'd wanted to know how far you ran, right?

Yeah. Logged it all in a paper log back in the early two thousands. So New York was a miserable experience. Some people would die to have that.

That's not you.

Times it goes bad.

My best, [00:10:00] my PR period

Chris Detzel: for five 10 K is 39 something. So it's crazy,

Greg Rankin: you think it's gonna just translate. Once again, I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how to, it does translate to some

Chris Detzel: degree, but

Greg Rankin: if you know how to utilize,

Chris Detzel: you have to run the right

Greg Rankin: race. You have

Chris Detzel: to be

Greg Rankin: smart about it, especially marathons to me.

Exactly, so went through a divorce, got away from running again. Probably my worst period, 2008 to 2011. I was coaching my kids in sports. I ended up getting up to 232 pounds. I had to stop twice to catch my breath. In order to tie my shoe. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: You're not you're about as tall as I am.

Yeah. So we're not that tall. Nope. Getting up to 2

Greg Rankin: 32, you're a big boy could actually, I had somebody ask me if I wanted a gig playing Santa Cla.

Not so long ago you had this really

Chris Detzel: big bushy beard. Yep. Just getting back there. And I thought when I first saw you, I was like, is that Santa Claus? No, that's not big enough. Oh, that's Greg.

Greg Rankin: [00:11:00] There you go.

Chris Detzel: And then you shaved not so long ago. And I was like, dang, that dude looks different.

Greg Rankin: So anyways, so then my last running stretch comes to be 2011.

I basically spent all year just. Run, walking and running. And then by May I finally broke under 200 pounds and I was So you were just doing a

Chris Detzel: lot of walking and running? I

Greg Rankin: was walking and running and I was at my uncle's. I like how you went back to it though. Yeah. You

Chris Detzel: knew that you could do it. You did all this stuff.

In the past must have been a little depressed or whatever. Divorce kicked your butt. It does. I've been through a couple, so Me too. First one was tough, so it's good that you got back to it. That's a, after my second divorce, my brother, and I've said this before on another podcast, but he goes, dude, you need to like exercise or start running or doing something because you know you, you're not gonna be able to handle the stress if you don't do something.

I was 30. Pounds plus overweight running helped me as well and that's why I started again for

Greg Rankin: sure. So this [00:12:00] time, I was reading Runner's World. I was looking online at a lot of stuff. Yeah. And I actually found a plan and I ran into some high school guys that they went to South Carland and I went to Lake View.

So we were rivals, but one I might actually run with in the mornings in the summer and try to talk him into, go into Southwest Texas. 'cause he was a year behind me. Yeah. And so he was training for Dallas. In 2011 for December, 2011, I wasn't ready for that. By the time that came around, I went to the expo.

Got all excited. Yeah. Talking to people by then, I'm running 30, 35 miles a week. I think I've really got it figured out. I'm getting it done right. This guy's talking to me about running a marathon and one of the things you don't wanna do is you don't wanna overtrain, it'll get you. You'll burn out.

You won't get to the end. So you're like, maybe I'll have to work. And so run 15

Chris Detzel: miles a week.

Greg Rankin: So it just so happened when I was leaving, there was a booth for cow Town.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Greg Rankin: And it was 13 weeks from Dallas. [00:13:00] Yeah. Weekend.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Greg Rankin: To Cow Town. I said, that sounds about right. I can do this in 13 weeks. Yep.

Went home, pieced together a couple of different. Workout plan. Did

Chris Detzel: you find any like groups in 2011, 10 or whatever to run with, or was it just you

Greg Rankin: 2011 and 12? It was me. Okay. And a couple of guys. A couple of guys from, like I said, couple high school that was in the neighborhood and so they introduced me to the, rockwall running group Uhhuh because one of the guys worked for Metro PCS and they sponsored the White Rock Marathon back then. Okay. Yeah. And so I know that there was a connection and there was a race on Memorial Day in Rockwall Patriots Day run. So got connected with that group of people and Coach Barrett, and that's when I had.

It wasn't until 2014 though, then I met Leah. Yeah, she was, we were all going to Boston together at that point. Yep. Just 'cause he had connections all through the running [00:14:00] community and from there, just got to run in with more and more people. Ran with DRC for one. Short season, but I just couldn't do the evenings.

It was too hot.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, it's

Greg Rankin: tough. And so it didn't really stick. So I spent 2012 or that training. 13 weeks leading up to Cow Town was me, Danny Walsh and Louis Renoso with some sprinkled in track workouts out in Rockwall, just with random whoever was there. Yeah. On Tuesdays and Thursday mornings. Of course going to Rockwall, you never have a shortage of heels to run.

Yeah, that's right. So I got a lot of hill workouts in. And they were telling me, okay, you gotta qualify for Boston on this marathon. When you go do Cow Town, don't go out too fast. You can get a three 10 easy. Yeah, you're already over 40, you'll be fine. But in my mind, I was like, I'd already been looking at all the pace charts, writing it all down.

I wanna run three [00:15:00] hours.

Chris Detzel: Oh my gosh. If I run

Greg Rankin: three hours and 45 seconds, I'm okay. Yeah. But I wanna put myself in position to try to break three hours. When I get to 22, 23 miles, it's

Chris Detzel: quite the goal. I like it.

Greg Rankin: And so they were like, okay, if that's what you wanna do, but I think you're making a mistake. I went out that day, ended up running a 3 57, a 2 57.

Oh, I was about to say 3 50, 2 57. Dude, that's awesome. And qualified for Boston. So signed up. The Louie had already qualified for Boston at Dallas. Yeah. When I was first started running with him, and Danny ended up qualifying later that summer, but then he got injured, so me and Louie, and we ran in, we met up with another guy named Ernie who their parents knew or something who qualified.

So it ended up being me, Louie, and Ernie, who went to Boston in 2013. Okay. Of course, we all know that's the bombing year. Yeah. That was our first Boston. We had just left the area where you [00:16:00] picked up your bags back in the day on the old school buses. Yeah. Gone to the, commons gone underground where you, when you could still park under there and that's when the bombs went off.

So we didn't even know what happened. Okay. When we drive up and out, people are running and scattering everywhere. Mad Chaos took us over an hour to get ahold of anybody on the phone. 'cause it was just gridlock on the cell systems. Yeah. They just kept us going in circles around the park 'cause they didn't know if more bombs were gonna go off.

Very surreal, but that kind of cemented it for me. Were you scared to death there in 2013? I wasn't gonna be scared off by them. Got it. I was going back. Yeah. And I was the only one of the three of us that went back and I went for 10 years. I didn't finish all 10 years, so I don't have a 10 year streak.

'cause in 2018 I had sciatica and I just couldn't finish it. I started, by the way, this one

Chris Detzel: Leah started was 2004 and she's been streaking it ever since.

Greg Rankin: Yep. I think no, Carrie started in 2013 with me, but I didn't know her. But a whole bunch of that group in [00:17:00] Rockwell started in 2014. He is, he and Carrie are probably the only two left out of all of that group that are still streaking it, still streaking him and to back up once I got that marathon bug, once I did good at Cowtown, I got fully off into it. Created my own plans. It became really smart about it. Two thou the fall of 2012. I actually had gotten into New York based on that Cal Town time. Yep. Their signups had already ended, but I sent in a thing and they let me in.

But that was the year of Sandy, so we'd get there. Didn't get to run it. You and your and my wife was with me at Mo. She was my girlfriend at the time, beta, and then she went to New York. So after that she said, I'm not going to anymore Marathon review. So we did when we got to New York and then they canceled it while we're in the park at Central Park.

Police driving around in their cars with their megaphones. The marathon has been canceled. So we get online and found a race in [00:18:00] Pennsylvania. Okay, that's good. Went and ran that race. Brought my time down a little bit faster then in 13 And so you went faster than 2 57? Yeah, I went 2 57, then 2 55. Wow.

And then in Boston, my first one was a 2 54. Wow. In 13. And then just started this cycle of running marathons. Every spring and every fall. Slowly bringing my time I say slowly fall of 2014. Still my fastest time. Yeah. Which is in Chicago. Six. Yeah, buddy. Still giving me a hard time 'cause I ran a 2 46 0 1.

What do you think?

Chris Detzel: Running those times back then was really amazing. Do you think that today, you're starting to see a lot of both men and women just hit under three, especially in the Dallas Fort Worth area. Oh, there's a lot. I don't remember that many people in 2014, 15. If you hit under three, you're like, oh my God, how's that

Greg Rankin: guys

Chris Detzel: are?

Greg Rankin: There was a small group that was going under three. What's amazing mean? I feel like it's right now with all of these

Chris Detzel: groups,

Greg Rankin: it's that it's not that group that's running under three, it's that [00:19:00] 50 people that are running under two 50. That, and it's not just men. It's men and women. Oh, it's both.

And you, so you and it all, you got some under two 40 we Oh, for sure. And Jose was like a 2 32 when I started running with him. Yeah. And when we went to Boston together, and now you can, you probably can't count on both hands. The number of people in the Dallas Metroplex that have gone under two 30.

We're up there now. Whereas before that was that magic line that everybody thought that's where the big runners should be. Yeah. That's where we're gonna be if we're gonna be, we're a running community now, there's no doubt. Yeah, that's huge. In the Metroplex, we have so many marathoners that can go fast and all distances.

We have true runners that are in this and they wanna get better. And having that many good runners, little pockets of. Groups and teams are building and everybody feeds on everybody and everybody gets faster. It's

Chris Detzel: true it's funny because, and I've quoted this guy a couple times, [00:20:00] Matt Campbell, and he goes, we're trying, I'm trying to hit under two 30 and he runs with completely slot.

Because if I can get under a two 30, the others will get under a two 30. You know what I mean? Yep. So it's that mindset shift. It's that community that you put yourself around to get better. These guys are training hard, running 70, 80, 90 miles plus a week. They're doing speed work.

They're doing all of the work that they. They have to, now you do wonder sometimes it's a lot, yes. And at some point you probably won't be able to run that much. I don't know. 'Cause they're in their, they're in their thirties and this, they're in their prime. And so it's time to do it.

And I love that they can do that. It's pretty fun to watch, really,

Greg Rankin: to me. Totally agree. There is something to be said for putting in the miles because I was up in that 70 mile a week range. I was doing that type of workouts and the rock wall group, because we had a group, we did, we pulled six or seven people under three hours.

Yeah. By doing those kind of workouts and learning to put in the miles, getting those long runs in [00:21:00] regularly. But it's now, it's a big thing in the Dallas area. I'm proud to be a part of the community and glad that there are so many people here that enjoy running as their, not only just hobby, but as a mainstay part of their life.

What they build their vacations around and everything else.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And you're not just a runner and so I would love to hear. Now you're helping other runners. So you're coaching, you've been coaching for a long time. How did you get into that and what kind of drives you to do that?

Greg Rankin: Yeah, so when I started having success at running the marathon, some of those same people that I was running with.

Wanted to go to that next level. They started asking me to help build them plans.

Chris Detzel: Yeah,

Greg Rankin: I did. About that time, 2014, 2015, my son's going into high school and the cross country team saw me giving him extra workouts and doing extra things. So I started coaching a few runners at the high school level and we actually created a program where we took a group of eight guys two college guys, and six.[00:22:00]

High school kids to Colorado for 10 days and did altitude training and just put it out there. In the midst of that, what I guess got me the ability to do that besides being around with my son, running in cross country at high school level, going to cross country meets and stuff. I parted ways with my first career in it.

A mutual thing. New management got brought in. Yep. I took my package. I left and I tried to start my own business as a landscape business, but I didn't have the fortitude for it, but I did

Chris Detzel: where to do that

Greg Rankin: while I was getting back into corporate America. I took a job at what then was called Run-on.

Yep. They had a school, I remember that at Murphy and Kathleen, the manager there, asked me if I would coach people. Okay. And then the kids came in from Wiley High School and Allen High School, different high schools, and were asking if I would put together plans for 'em. So that was my main segue [00:23:00] in other than four or five guys and a few ladies outta Rockwall area.

And then the two that I mentioned already, Danny and Louis that I started out with when I started back running, they had me build them a plan and then they just mushroomed rogue, bought out run on after it had become jackrabbit. Yeah. And everything else. And they wanted to hire a coach in Dallas that would coach the more elite runners.

Yeah. And so we took a group of the runners that wanted to be coached more serious, have more serious plans, and we built that program. We ended up, I think the highest I know the highest it got to was 19, but we averaged about 12 to 14 people in the program. Okay. For a couple of years. We never recovered after COVID though.

Yeah. And then I started coaching on my own after that, since 20, mid 20, 21, full year into COVID. I've been, I just put out my own shingle and offered that coaching service.

Chris Detzel: That's nice. And you're still doing that as

Greg Rankin: [00:24:00] I am. I'm, I've only got five runners right now. I usually try to keep it. Maybe 10 runners, mostly training adults at this point to run train for marathons or half marathons.

Yeah, I did have a runner that wanted to run fast, that I trained to get their speed back, to get 'em ready for a 5K last year. Kevin Hebert, who you had on your podcast, I took him through his first couple of marathons. And I think he's still got a lot in him,

Chris Detzel: that guy

Greg Rankin: talented. And we've got him working on a little bit of speed right now as well.

So I'm branching out into that and I'm trying to coach myself to step back to that speed instead of just all the miles. It's been nice actually this summer to run 35 and 40 mile weeks

Chris Detzel: fun for me. Like it's the, I've been probably for the last few years I'd run. Anywhere from 20 to 35 miles a week, but more consistently around the mid twenties.

But over this last year, probably since November, maybe, I've just hit [00:25:00] 35 to 40 miles every week. Just to build my, I've done it before, but I haven't done it in a long time. And so that's what I'm doing is building my base, I think. So then I have a good, half marathon. My goal is a half marathon here in September.

I'm do a Revel race downhill in, I that. That's relative, right? Like you're saying, oh, 35 or 40. I'm like for me that's pretty good.

Greg Rankin: You know what I mean? Nope, I get it. And you're right, it is all relative. And I've been running with White Rock running co-op more Yeah.

In the last year and just the whole variety of runners. Yeah. And I can get to. Holy Hills on a Wednesday morning, if I'm not feeling it, there's gonna be some people I can run with. That's right. And I can run 10 minute pace and feel good about it and go. And if I get there and I'm feeling good, I can go out with people that are running under nine minutes, yeah. Running down an eight minute pace for the hill. So either way, it turns out to be a a good opportunity to run with other people and mix up that. Distance that we do run. I do I do tell [00:26:00] myself. Okay, it's time to change gears again because I am signed up for New York. Yep. This fall. So 13 weeks out, that's that magic number of weeks for me.

Yeah. So I'm gonna try to get my mileage back up just in the fifties for the next couple weeks, but be in the sixties after that for about eight weeks, is the way my plan works. So we're ready for it. I think that's smart. I think that's,

Chris Detzel: At least you're not doing. 60 miles, every single week.

And thinking you have to stick with that. Yep. Injury is real. So do you still have PRS in you, do you think?

Greg Rankin: I'm not even looking at prs. I starting next year. Yep. When I turn 60, I do want to break three hours in the marathon again. Okay. I actually wanna break it. That's good. In every age group since my forties.

So 40 to 45, I did it 45 to 49. I did it 50 to 54. I did it. I just turned 59 and I still have not done it. Oh, really? Since COVID came. So I will be going for it at New York. Wow. Not a good course to try to break three hours at. No. I've run a couple of ths in the [00:27:00] last two years. Okay. Close. So I've got right on the edge.

They were downhill courses when I ran the 3 0 2. Okay. But. Love Denver. I also signed up for Louisiana in January. Okay. So if I go into New York and I don't quite get what I want, I'm gonna continue my marathon cycle into January. Are you still doing it? If you,

Chris Detzel: Get. If I get

Greg Rankin: under three, I will, because I'm also trying to do a marathon in every state.

And so that'll be state number 21. Okay. In Louisiana. And I'm already signed up, so as I'm locked in on that, so how does

Chris Detzel: it work with like family? Do you ever have family that, or that goes with you or, I know your son's been,

Greg Rankin: yeah, so doing some, my son ran in high school and college. He was actually a cross country nationals qualifier twice in cross country, twice in wrestling.

So he's definitely on the athletic side. He still runs now. He did his first marathon with me, circle back a year to Eugene 2024.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. [00:28:00]

Greg Rankin: And blew my PR out of the water on his first marathon.

Chris Detzel: The guys tell, you can tell, like he came around with this one day at Holy Hills or whatever, and you can tell he is very talented.

Yeah. Just seeing him be like, yeah. You guys fit.

Greg Rankin: He makes daddy proud. And then I took him to his first Boston this year and he cramped up a little bit. So I get to brag that I've still got a faster Boston time than he has. So that means he has to go back.

Chris Detzel: I'm sure that he doesn't mind.

Greg Rankin: No, and I do coach him.

I actually, in the midst of my coaching. He lost his coach his senior year at his university and they hired me to coach the cross country season did. So I went and lived there and coached the cross country team and got State Farm to let me work totally remote for three months. That's pretty awesome. So that was a cool experience to get to coach.

It's at the D three level, but still coaching college kids that are there and that wanna be running. Yeah. They can't have, they can't be on scholarship in D three for athletics. But still, it was a fun [00:29:00] experience. It was great to get to when

Chris Detzel: your, your son was really fast cross country too, right?

Yeah. Sure He did fairly well. I'm sure.

Greg Rankin: So he was he could not break 25 minutes for the eight K on a cross country course. He, I think his PR was a I know it is because I always give him a hard time about it. 25 0 1, he got close. He did, he got very

Chris Detzel: close. I would just, yeah.

25 minutes. Didn't break it, but, what did I leave out? I'm sure I'm leaving out a ton of stuff.

Greg Rankin: Oh, I'm sure. But we'll talk over time now on runs. Yeah. And as you learn more about me, maybe we'll come back and we'll talk some more about running Anytime. I'd love to.

Chris Detzel: Greg, this has been really great and this is the first time I've done this live with anybody, so I appreciate you being my Guinea pig.

On this, hopefully it's not as loud as it sounds for us 'cause it's been really loud with planes and things like that coming. So we'll see if I can take out some of that. But Greg, it's been really good. I really appreciate you coming. Thanks everybody for tuning in to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel and this is Greg Rankin.

Thanks everyone. Great one.