From 'Running Sucks' to Running Ultras: Greg Sisengrath's Dirt-y Journey in DFW

DFW Running Talk with Greg Sisengrath
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 guest Greg Sisengrath. Greg, how are you? Did I say it right?
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah, you did it. Greg Sisengrath. Perfect. Yeah, I'm doing good. Thanks for thanks for having me on.
Chris Detzel: Yeah, man. I'm really excited to have you on and you've been a great member of the running community.
You've done a lot of things and so I thought hearing your story would be a lot of fun today.
Greg Sisengrath: Happy to share what I can. Hopefully it's interesting.
Chris Detzel: We'll see, maybe only you get one download or something. That's right I've been
Greg Sisengrath: there
Chris Detzel: yeah, you've been running for a long time and and i've known you and about you for a long for a while now and I don't know that i've ever really heard your story and you're into a lot of things And so I want to dive in and just get to know you a little bit greg Just you know, tell us a little bit about your story How you getting running why you started running and we'll just go from there and see if [00:01:00] the story goes,
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah I don't think my I don't think my running journey is that Is that unique?
I think it's going to be similar to a lot of people I found running now, it's You Things started running in 2009. So I actually didn't enjoy running, growing up, I was a team sports person, and I think with all the team sports is running was always treated as a punishment and you probably had to do cross country or track as cross training for your actual sport.
So I never really enjoyed running growing up. And again, found it late in life in my mid thirties after my wife, Fiona had her third child and, rec league, bat basketball with the Prince starts to shrivel up, you don't have that many athletic endeavors that you can do.
And I started getting, I got pretty overweight. And I think one time I was playing tennis with a friend trying to get back into shape. And Fiona was running laps around the [00:02:00] tennis courts and the track next to us. And I thought, look at that. That is just so crazy. And you know what? I tried it.
And I remember running around the block. And it's probably a half mile in our neighborhood. And I told her, Hey, I ran around the whole block. And he didn't even stop once. He goes, no, you're lying. And that was basically it. So I just started running and I noticed and I think for the same similar reasons as most.
We're trying to get, you're trying to get fit, trying to get back into shape. And I found out, that I enjoyed it. And basically a friend saw me a friend from college saw me. Running and he said, Hey, we should sign up for a half marathon. It's I don't even know how far that is, but let's do it.
And, we signed up for a white rock at the time when the course ran down Katie trail and ended at AAC, which I thought was a great, I thought it was a great course, just the way they funneled you in everyone. And at the finish line, everyone was just crowded around cheering on other people. And I thought that was just the most insane thing that people watch other
Chris Detzel: people run Yeah,
Greg Sisengrath: but it was [00:03:00] just enough to give you that.
You know that competitive feeling of you know Even at rec league even maybe even if it's just the wives and the family watching you play basketball But it was just enough where someone else is watching me. It's cool. And after that, I was hooked So, it started with a half marathons.
And that was the origin
Chris Detzel: I think that's awesome. I remember when, so I ran cross country as in high school and stuff. And then for the most part, maybe ran when I was in my very early stages of college, just, signed up for a running class. Cause I thought, Hey, I ran in high school.
Why not do this running class? But then I quit for a really long time until I was like 37. And I was going through a second divorce and I was a bit overweight. Quite a bit overweight while I was getting there and I thought man i've got to do something Not just because I was overweight, but just because I was really out of shape And I was like, I was really good at running at one point Maybe i'll try that back And what I did was I started [00:04:00] running Just a mile I said, okay for the next five days I'm gonna run a mile, but I don't i'm gonna allow myself to not run it hard.
Just run it You know, like i'd run walk it and I did that and as I on fridays, though I want to make sure I run the whole thing, you know Wasn't I didn't care about speed and that's how I got into it. I allowed myself to really get back into it and then probably three or four weeks into it, my brother comes home from, I guess he's in Iraq or whatever, and he was taking some time off, or he goes, hey man, let's go run a 10k.
I was like, 10k? No way, I haven't even run a 5k. Yeah, I was like if he can do it, I can do it. And I kicked his ass. And I thought, wow, I'm good at this. I was hooked there and lost all my weight and from there I was hooked and somewhat similar story and I just kept going.
I feel like sometimes oh, by the way. One thing that I did and I think you can Relate to this. I don't know if you did this, but a lot of people do [00:05:00] it is social media started becoming popular back then this is literally 13 years ago, and I would post my runs. I'd do everything I can. Oh my gosh I'm, so excited, push my nike run app runs or whatever it was back then.
You know now you're like That's an exciting time like you were excited that you were doing these things and you thought others would be excited for you And that's actually what gets me Excited is to see people start consistently do it. You know what I mean? So
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah, I think it's funny you said nike and nike run app because I think that was the first
Chris Detzel: yeah
Greg Sisengrath: The first thing I used to log I had some nike freeze
Chris Detzel: Which
Greg Sisengrath: I think we're still really good shoes.
Um, and they had the little pod in the heel and I don't know how accurate I don't know how accurate that pod was and you had a little and it attached to your Nike plus wrist strap and that was before I had a gps watch so I was close enough. It's funny. I look at And talking about posting on social media, I look at some of my Facebook memories and some old runs that pop up, I say, man, [00:06:00] was I that fast or is that Nike app really wrong?
But either way, it's funny that it pops up and I just I did, I was one of those that posted probably every run and onto my Facebook and until people got tired of it. But yeah, it was it, to your point that social media was pretty early, started finding a lot of, mutual run friends, and I found them on Twitter, a lot of us are still friends, either, it was probably because we were pushing it to either Facebook or Twitter, and I don't know, maybe the engagement was better in Twitter Yeah, as far as the running and daily mile was before strava if you remember daily mile
Chris Detzel: Yeah,
Greg Sisengrath: so yeah, I think I think we're on that the same similar journey and just really, being proud of those You know, two three mile runs running all the way,
Chris Detzel: No, I agree, man.
I think that, for me, I remember, just progressively getting better and, but one thing that I remember that I did a lot of and shouldn't have was when I started getting into my long runs I'd run them as hard as I could every time. [00:07:00] And I thought. That's the way to do it And I was like i'm gonna be yesterday's time, Yesterday run us faster.
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah, I don't think I don't think at that time at least now, No one told you about gray zone, you know staying out of the gray zone So it was just like oh, this is what I ran last time. I guess I need to run faster And it works until it doesn't,
Eventually you'll hit a, you'll hit that plateau, but but I think that's, yeah, it's still pretty, it's still pretty common with new runners and just telling them, it's okay to, it's okay to slow down, it's okay to, some runs need to be fast, some need to be slow and when you're starting out, they can actually all be slow.
Yeah,
Chris Detzel: I look at some of the better runners today, like Jose Lopez and those kinds of folks that group, I don't know if you know him, but most people do, he'll do like his 20 milers at nine and a half minute paces and, or 10 minutes. But then you look at how he runs like a one 17 or one 20 half marathon or really fast marathons, [00:08:00] and.
And so the that's what they did. They do a lot of races, right? So that's probably where they get their speed workouts. But yeah but it's just It puts it in perspective. I'm not saying you shouldn't, Run fast on different days or you know do speed work, etc. I think you should but but it just goes to show that doesn't always matter that you Always go fast, definitely slowing down is always good.
Yeah. Agreed. You And talking about all that, you have a lot of things going on, you know from uh, you have an online community called team dirt and vert I know you guys meet on a consistent basis in different areas. You're a coach. You have a great. What is it not Twitter, but Instagram profile, I have 2, 500 followers, tell me a little bit about, let's talk about Team Dirt and Virt first, yeah I think,
Greg Sisengrath: I, it's hard to, it's hard to talk about Team Dirt and Virt before we talk about Team Ninja, the coaching part. Let's talk about Team Ninja. One came first and we'll just start from the genesis, I think about, [00:09:00] Maybe six, five, six years in the running, I'd started.
Mostly focusing on trail. Just because I enjoyed it. I was already I already quickly burnt myself out of road marathons I did a bunch of them. Yeah Tried to run them all as fast as I could. Of course, but we can talk about that later so we will getting into trail ultras and Such just started doing more, people wait,
Chris Detzel: hold up.
Yep You just said I got burned out of the marathon. So now i'm going to go do ultra marathons, which is 50 32 miles plus, right? Yeah,
Greg Sisengrath: I think, but it's not the mileage, I think it's more for me mentally, like, when I was running road, I just every mile, I had to, okay, this is the pace, even if it's just, I need to run this pace for this distance, so it was more for me, it was burning myself out of training and worrying about my slits.
Splits that we, we literally just talked about. I think it can be hard, especially for newer runners and especially for inexperienced runners that [00:10:00] maybe like Jose, he has the, he has skins on the wall, he knows how fast he can run, doesn't have to prove it in training. Even though no one's looking at your, no one looks at your Strava.
No one cares that you don't have to put 10 minute mile. This is my easy pace to make sure everyone knows that you're running easy purposely and not just that's your pace. So I think it's, I think it's still very, it's very common and it was the same thing. And maybe I just I, I.
And, it's even BMW, big road races stress me out, and we're only 45 minutes, we live in Allen, and I feel like, oh, I'm gonna get caught in traffic, I'm not gonna get in my Corral, and just all those little things, but you roll up to a trail race, you come up like, six hours away, yeah, you can roll up like 30 minutes before, get your bib, maybe do a little warmup, but most of the time you pin your bib on, you go. So I think that I think it was just a little bit more laid back and it was better for me personally, or at least where I was now, I'll [00:11:00] still get the urge, especially when I see, like you run off and you guys go off and do a, or Leah goes off and does a fast marathon.
I was like, man,
Chris Detzel: I
Greg Sisengrath: wonder if I can still have any speed left in me. I want to do that. But mostly then I remember how hard marathon training really is.
Chris Detzel: It sucks, dude. Yeah,
Greg Sisengrath: and then i'm like, okay, that's i'm fine that's
Chris Detzel: yeah
Greg Sisengrath: That's all right
Chris Detzel: So we're gonna back up because something you just said how hard a marathon is So this is coming from a guy that just finished western states 100 and then some other hundred miler like right after like somewhat recently for 35 hours it took you and i'm like Okay, it took you, what, 27 hours to do Western States and then 35 for the other one, recent.
Yeah, so I don't really, I don't understand. Yeah, but I think it's a different
Greg Sisengrath: kind of hard. It's I think it's, 35 hours? It's physically hard also, but it's all spread out over 35 hours. So it's just I think obviously the [00:12:00] marathon, whether it's a three hour or five hour marathon, it's hard, but I think the training is harder if you're really, because you're really running like the razor's edge.
If you're trying to hit a specific time, you know what tempo pace is, you have to hit either you're adding race pace within your long runs. So there's so much what I, there's. People have been running marathons for quite a while. So there's a lot of science and there's a lot of good coaching methodology and most people aren't reinventing the wheel.
So there's templates on how to, if you need to run three 30, you need to be able to run this pace. For at least a half and things like that. And the margins are smaller there, you can't make as many mistakes during a, two, two hour, three hour race. But during 27 hour ultra marathon, you have time if you mess up on your feeling for a little bit.
And even if it takes an hour and a half or two hours to fully bounce back, you do still have time. But if, you skip a jail at mile three or four, [00:13:00] you've set yourself back,
Chris Detzel: A
Greg Sisengrath: mile eight or nine, and then you've missed that window to BQ because you just don't, you don't have that margin for error.
So I think for me personally those kinds of stressors are harder for me. I think that's why the training is harder. And I think and you're all, and you're all, and all races are like that on race days. You're. Whether the race gods will let you have a good weather day, yeah. But it's it's, I think it's just more difficult for me and especially when people are trained for marathons or I coach for marathons.
I know what the training entails and I think you can be a little bit more creative with ultra marathoning. 'cause it's I think, like I said marathoning is a science. Ultra marathons are more like art and I think like those hundreds and 200s can you know more like black magic? There's no real there's no real.
Yeah, there's no real good formula. It's going to be different for everyone Yeah, because the training is different and the races are different because they're so [00:14:00] much longer and you There's a lot of problem solving involved and it's not just the physical active. I need to hold this pace There's other things that you can do Even if you're not as fast, if you're a better problem solver, or if you experience, that kind of experience can help overcome, if you're not as physical abilities.
So I think there's just, I think there's so much more going on. Especially as I'm getting older in life. So I think those are just some kind of, some of the few differences, and why I think I prefer, At least now, I prefer ultras but I, the training, the training for Maradona, it's just,
Chris Detzel: It can be,
Greg Sisengrath: it can wear on you.
16, 20 week cycle is a long time, but that's what it takes. If if you have a specific goal and a specific time you want to hit and you just you can miss a few, you can, you can miss a long run pace, but you can't miss too many.
Chris Detzel: Speaking of training and marathons and ultras and things like that and back to team [00:15:00] ninja, you started a organization.
So tell me about that.
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah, I started I started coaching I think in 2015 now So it's almost yeah almost nine years. It was more, it was really by chance. I been a friend of a friend who's wanting to get into Trail Ultra, and she reached out and said, Hey, I wanna do this racing Tyler and I know you've done it.
Would you coach me for it? And I said, yeah. Oh I can, I'm not really a coach. And I, yeah. I don't have any experience and I don't have any certifications. If you want to try, we can do it. I'm not, can't charge you anything because. I'd feel negligent do that in doing that.
So we did that and, I coached her for her first ultra up to 50 miler. And then at the, every now and then after a big race, she'd either send me like a Starbucks gift card or a drop off, like a case of beer. And I'm like, oh, this is, this coaching stuff's kind of cool. , and then I'm gonna get all
Chris Detzel: of beer.
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah. At the end of the year she left a big,
Chris Detzel: that's the only thing about trail runners is or runners and period we all like beer. Yeah for the most part. So anyways, yeah
Greg Sisengrath: And she left a kind [00:16:00] of big christmas bonus to a gift card and said That's probably more than I would even charge you So let's just settle on something going forward and after we did that and officially Started charging a few other people reached out and just grew from there is really It was a really word of mouth and you know now i'd try to I guess, identify at least to some extent on at least on my Instagram as a coach.
Chris Detzel: And,
Greg Sisengrath: But before I was just like, okay, yeah. I guess if you trust me, I guess that person will trust me too. And they just grew, it grew from there and it got to the point where, yeah, that's, it's where we are now. And I take it I take it a lot more seriously. So it's been so I still, I coach people from five Ks to 200 plus milers.
Most of the people I coach are trail runners but still have Several straight road athletes going marathons and, 5k. So it's a good, it's a good range.
Chris Detzel: So you actually coach all the way, just like if somebody wants to do a 5k, people are wanting to be coached just to do a 5k or, I say just?
Yeah,
Greg Sisengrath: [00:17:00] I think I, those that are, willing to accept a little guidance, and I think a lot of that comes from, I Masters runners where they be there had some kind of injury in the past and they've either tried coach or self coaching themselves and run into the typical overuse injuries, whether it's P.
F. Achilles, runner's knee and they want someone else to have some guidance. And I think at this point, I think it's more common where people are okay with, this is my coach. I just want someone to tell me. What I need to do and not have to try to figure it out myself I you know, my training methodology is not like it's not rocket science.
It's not mind blowing A lot of it is just consistency and helping them find ways to be creative in because again Almost everyone has a job has families and have other responsibilities. We can't just Go knock out a 20 mile run then go take a nap and and the normal tech [00:18:00] boots have to go so a lot of that is trying to Help them balance their lives and their training and also find out, you know Help them find out when they're prioritized what and when it's okay to okay Let's you know skip this tempo run because you've been up for whatever four hours So it's it's it's it's a I think a lot of it is just trying to help them know it's okay to skip stuff and know when it's okay to say no to big races and try to be the kind of a good angel on their shoulder.
Chris Detzel: Yeah. So
Greg Sisengrath: you have some where you're just trying to get them to be consistent and then you have others that are, been in the sport for a while and you're just trying to, Hey, you need to be smart and not go do this a hundred mile race just because it's on, it's close by and all your friends are doing it.
Chris Detzel: Go in and volunteer or something. Yeah.
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah. Yeah, you can still be part of the race. Yeah
Chris Detzel: So talking about philosophy from a coaching standpoint, how do you help [00:19:00] runners? Do you give a plan together? Do you talk about nutrition and do you tell them to go somewhere else or tell me a little bit about if I were to become you know, a client of yours.
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah, so I will program You know, our program every day, at least what I think you should do and not say that everyone should run. Or work out every day. But if you have the capacity I will program out your whole week of running, cross training, especially, like we said, a lot of my athletes are masters runners.
So I think strength training and mobility is the it's important for everyone, but it's more important when you're in your forties and you can't roll out of bed and go knock out a track, track workout. So I I will preach cross training extensively, and then I will try not to overstep my bounds as far as nutrition and again, even the strength training and the mobility, there's a lot of exercises already out there.
And a lot of it is just trying to. At least get in front of the [00:20:00] people so they know that okay They just need to be organized. Yeah,
Chris Detzel: say on tuesday and thursdays you do these particular Yep, weights and whatever. Yeah,
Greg Sisengrath: but we have you've been around the community long enough people that you trust So it's if you, I can give you a broad outline of what's worked for me as far as nutrition.
But if you want someone else I know this person that's worked with several of our athletes on the team.
Chris Detzel: Yeah.
Greg Sisengrath: Go talk to her. I have PTs and Logan and people like that, that you've known and you've gone to that you trust I, you can only phone row so much and it's even Every morning, I'm doing some kind of mobility or working on my plantar fasciitis or Achilles to make sure it doesn't come back.
If you're heavy in training, sometimes you're going to need the help of a professional. Or someone with really sharp elbows and hard thumbs to dig in there. Oh, it hurts. Yeah. A lot of it I think is knowing when to leverage smarter people or more more skilled professionals around you. [00:21:00] But you're not in the business
Chris Detzel: of giving massages or anything like that.
Greg Sisengrath: And you gotta, I do have to be careful about trying to, I can give experience and I can give advice, but you have to be careful about not overstepping your bounds.
Chris Detzel: Yeah so when you look at your team dirt invert, is that just a branch off of
Greg Sisengrath: yeah It was a just kind of branch off because you know start running with Yeah, i'd run with some of my athletes at least or local and people would come Hey, we're running at erwin park on saturday and someone would ask.
Hey, are you coaching all these people? No, some of them are coaching some are friends and some are just showing up And we just started, it started with just a regular group run like you're you know You have your thursday.
Chris Detzel: Yeah
Greg Sisengrath: your thursday norbuck run and I don't really
Chris Detzel: run on norbuck.
I just have you sit out there and eat
Greg Sisengrath: And in the lawn chairs Yeah, we we would start Small group of friends would like hey, we're gonna go out to cross timbers and people say hey, can we go next? I said, oh, I guess yeah And we just it started just a we just start, you know [00:22:00] We want to go get bird and we like to be on dirt and it started as a hashtag as well And then we just started as a page and then started to slightly become more organized to where it is now and we you know We host group runs on tuesday thursday Friday, although friday i'm not there.
But you someone else is doing that one and then on sunday So it's either three or four. You Regular group runs and then occasionally we'll do some Saturday runs somewhere else But I think the main purpose is we're trying to I think similarly to get people running or get people comfortable Try to bridge that gap between road running and trail running because I know some people it's still intimidating even though They look, you know a lot of trails like it On Tuesday, Oak point's at, it's in Plano, in a, in a city park.
It's not, we're not out in the woods. We're not, really out in the woods. If you're lost, you'll come back out onto the pavement and just go straight on the right poor mile. You're not really lost. You're in cell phone reception. I'm trying to make things not intimidating. [00:23:00]
Chris Detzel: Yeah.
Greg Sisengrath: And I think a lot, yeah, I think especially rubber runners you feel like I don't wanna come out, there's snakes.
I might roll my ankle. But I tell people all the time. My, my worst ankle sprains have been on pavement walking, yeah. So it's just, I think that's how it started, simple group runs and we just tried to try to build it up and make, encourage people to run more trails and make it less intimidating.
Get get more people out there and just make people aware of the trails that they have around us. And at least having someone that is experienced to help guide them. Yeah, into that journey,
Chris Detzel: I think that uh, Javier and I talked about this on our last podcast was one of the things that people talk about and i'll always I'll say this a lot in my podcast probably is They're not motivated to run.
They're not, to train or whatever, right? In the beginning, it's a very hard thing to build that consistency. I get that, you get to build some motivation and things like that. But at the end of the day, consistency is the key. [00:24:00] So you've got to find ways to either. And have you ever mentioned this, I said this is you just got to go out there and motivation is not a single, shouldn't be your factor of either you go run or not.
You just have to go do the work. Yeah. But something that he mentioned was just what you were just talking about is building that community of runners. Find a running group that's near you, whether it's trail or road or whatever. That's what all of us do. Look, you build a whole community around it.
So did I, like I go run with people. That's what I do. And it makes that pain a lot easier to deal with, and then also when you have somebody to rely on to, to go to some kind of run, it's always better because they're relying on you, and that's, I think a really good way.
And I love what you're doing. It's,
Greg Sisengrath: It seems a lot easier now, apparently there's a run club everywhere, but but I think to your point, you find accountability partners, you find people with similar interests, and it's awesome that you go out to these run clubs and then you find someone, [00:25:00] oh, you're my pace.
Do you want to run on Saturday and you and I have, I've seen lots of people that have come out to our runs solo and now they've found they found You know a smaller community within this community and now that they're run besties. You're never gonna find those just running by yourselves I and I get if you're running, if you're trying to run a 215 marathon, you know You're gonna be very you're gonna be very limited on some of your training partners, right?
So yeah, but those
Chris Detzel: people are a little different, right?
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah, they're
Chris Detzel: pretty focused
Greg Sisengrath: you got you can still do your You know solo track and tempo runs But if if you want to do your Wednesday brew run with that group, or even with some of my marathoners I tried to get them to come out on Sunday and just do a, one hour recovery run on trails.
Because they're going to have a recovery run anyway. So I still think you can do both.
Chris Detzel: I'm a big fan of doing both. I've been doing both for years, like some years I might do less than the other, but, [00:26:00] um, like trails are nice. Sometimes they're harder. I, Lee and I were up in the mountains the Swiss Alps and the French Alps about a month ago.
And of course I wore that hat by the way, so thank you, for posting that but but yeah, I think it's look That's what life's all about is to go and if you can go do a running journey I love running journeys lee and I always do that kind of stuff, And we base our life off a little, I see our life our Trips on that in general, right?
Greg Sisengrath: And that's basically, and I'm glad that Fiona and, or, and you, Zuora have a partner that is supportive of that.
Chris Detzel: Yeah.
Greg Sisengrath: Whether or not, she might be as equally driving it as you are. But, like, all of our, our trips, we, Western States was in Tahoe. We went a week early and spent, took our girls and spend a week in Tahoe.
And then we spent a few days after the race and in Napa and Bay area. So that was our vacation. Too bad Wasatch was in [00:27:00] September and kids started school, so it was just a vacation for me, a short vacation for me and Fiona, but a lot of the races, especially the ones that end up in Utah or Colorado that, the kids want to go and that's how we see, that's how we see the world.
I do, I them's exactly how I do it. I wanted the, I wanted to do Tour Dejas sometime in, in the future and that'll be in the Italian, Italian Alps.
Chris Detzel: Yeah.
Greg Sisengrath: So I'm sure the I've are, yeah. Girls are gonna want to go to that. So that's gonna course be something up to say, but because you can't just go out for three three, you better get some more of those coaching gigs.
Yeah. I'm gonna need a little bit more income. But yeah, I think that's. For me personally, I think that's probably one of the main things that pulled me to trail running is just because not just the enjoyment of the trails, but the races that we got to, that we've been able to go to. So I think that's my, that was my biggest driver.
Chris Detzel: What's your, uh, [00:28:00] biggest memory or accomplishment from a running standpoint? What's something you're super proud of?
Greg Sisengrath: I
Chris Detzel: could probably name them, look at your thing and like, how about this one? I think
Greg Sisengrath: this year, for those that, are aware, Western States is hard to get into.
And it's, I had seven years of tickets, so basically since I've been trail, running hundreds, I've been trying to get tickets, and we finally got in, and it can be, it's a big deal, there's
Chris Detzel: a lot of media. Step back though wait, step back. Seven years of running hundred milers, you've been, so you've done at least seven.
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah, so
Chris Detzel: how long have you been running 100 miler? Okay,
Greg Sisengrath: so well, so my first 100 miler was 2014 rocky raccoon.
Chris Detzel: Yeah,
Greg Sisengrath: and I took two years off after that one before I did another one Yeah, so it's just you know first one's always
Chris Detzel: the hardest. It was
Greg Sisengrath: still very new to me and I had [00:29:00] no idea what I was doing So I ran with someone that was a lot more experienced.
She had done five or six, but she was very high mileage. And she also ran, ran through as younger. So I would just do all the runs that she wanted to do. We would do, we did 40 mile training runs. It was just a lot of mileage for me. And I I had a great race. It rained. For about 40 miles of the hundred, it was super muddy.
I snuck under 24 hours, which is always a good goal for those hundred miles. But afterwards I was just, okay, I'm done for a little bit. So I focused more on, I took a little break not exactly not running, I did a little bit more cycling. And I started doing more, not necessarily longer races, but harder, harder 50Ks, harder 25Ks, doing more hillier trails, technical trails.
And then a friend asked if I wanted to She wanted to do Leadville in 2016 and she wanted to see if I [00:30:00] wanted to get in the lottery with her and I was like Okay, let's try it. I think i'm ready for it now because we i'd been to pike's peak a couple years So I felt like I felt that draw the mountains are like this is cool.
It's a little scary it's a lot scary
Chris Detzel: the tough one
Greg Sisengrath: really tough one. And then we got in and after that Since Leadville 2016 i've been trying to get you know Hey, Western States and the hard rock qualifier every year.
Chris Detzel: Okay.
Greg Sisengrath: And yeah, like Western States is the Boston for for a hundred miles is super difficult to get in.
And it's huge, but it's probably really
Chris Detzel: harder than a Boston to get it.
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah. The qualification is easier, I think, in Boston but they just don't, the field is so much smaller and I finally got in this year, and I think the experience was everything that I, that I wanted to be.
I'm not As young as I was seven eight years ago. So my speed wasn't where I wanted it to be But I think I got to remember, you always have to I mean you're not that [00:31:00] old, right? i'm 49 if you'll Yeah,
Chris Detzel: so
Greg Sisengrath: but I think yeah, it was great I brought you know, we had a lot of friends go with us and I just want to go though.
We have room in the house. If you want to go you're welcome. So I had a lot of friends there. We obviously had my kids and they ran on the track with me. So it. It was great. So it's probably it was actually my fastest 100 miler since rocky because everything in between were all mountain hundreds I told you I was like i've never I don't think i've run this much in 100 miler than Since rocky because I'm used to I rocky's kind of flat.
I purposely pick races or mountains, you get long height breaks Yeah, I like to say so. Um, there's a lot of sustained running walking
Chris Detzel: up the mountain and you're like, okay, I need to rest Yeah, five minutes and then go up again. Yeah.
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah, so it's different pretty fast I
Chris Detzel: tried to race you one day and you kicked my ass.
So
Greg Sisengrath: I don't remember
Chris Detzel: That wasn't all that long ago a few years ago. I forgot we're [00:32:00] racing that just quit It's only like a 18k or something. Yeah.
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah, actually I do. And I tried to tell all my athletes after a big race This it's okay to do shorter stuff for a while and like right now, I'm not running as much.
I'm doing a little
Chris Detzel: bit more. Fair enough. I'm not running as much. A couple months ago I ran 100 miles. Plus another one. Okay, I think I,
Greg Sisengrath: yeah. When I say, no, not much for me.
Chris Detzel: Yeah, just taking it easy. Do you have something like now, like in the next six months or something, or not really?
Greg Sisengrath: No, the only race that I have coming up is Athens big four. It's always the first Athens big four marathons, first week of January. It is probably one of the toughest hundred miler not a hundred miler, marathons. In the u. s. It's in arkansas. Oklahoma border you run up and down eight arkansas mountains So I think the qualifies amounts like 1200 feet [00:33:00] So they're not you know, it's not steep it's not a high mountain, but it's technically you just run up and run down you get You end up getting about 7 000 feet of gain in that marathon so that's something i've done the last four or five years.
So it's just a good way to start the but we You I've slowly been dragging as many Texas runners as we can and we make it a big fun thing Don't have any big I don't have any longer races planned after that.
Chris Detzel: i'm sure you'll put the calendar up here pretty soon and Your website and he has this calendar of all the races that you could run not say you're gonna run them But that you could run.
In every single month. So
Greg Sisengrath: we used to I don't know if you remember endurance buzz adventures So, um, Dave Hannenberg used to do that used to do a series of races and all the, like the possum kingdom, the race of Tyler Audible he found, he started all those. So there wasn't as much trail racing available to us in DFW as [00:34:00] there is now yet to go a little bit further, Austin races, San Antonio and Houston, and they've found all those.
Up here started building them and now, blaze is taking some of them over but yeah, they're doing a good job. Yeah. Yeah, so it shoot I lost my what was I talking about?
Chris Detzel: We're talking about races, and yeah one question. I was gonna ask you Within that dfw area or ish, you can just say ish.
What are some of your favorite races?
Greg Sisengrath: All right. Oh, yeah. So getting back to your calendar. He used to have a calendar of all the races In the texas arkansas louisiana, oklahoma region So I tried to do that and it's you know new races are popping up. So it's not all encompassing but at least of all the i've done a lot of racing and I So I try to I want to try to help and try to build and you know Have people go beyond there's a lot of awesome races and really grassroots stuff in Oklahoma and Arkansas and for people that want to get out to some of those trails, some of those trails are a lot [00:35:00] tougher, they're not as groomed as some of the trails that we have here.
So It's a big step up and it's, it's good. You go a three, four hour drive and get in and it feels like a, a whole new world and we'll challenge you in different ways. So that's why I started that calendar to give people give people an idea of some other races that are around them and especially the ones that I've known and have a affinity for.
Chris Detzel: Yeah, and that's at Greg Sissengraft dot com.
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah, I probably need to work on a better domain name for the calendar, but I get too lazy.
Chris Detzel: Yeah you lose some of that authority if you do that, unless you kind of Google authority. Yeah. Was there one or two specific races here in Dallas, Fort Worth area that you would recommend or that was your favorite?
Greg Sisengrath: I like original races cross timbers. It's on trails like lake taxoma. It was my first
Chris Detzel: It's a fun
Greg Sisengrath: drill marathon. It's one of the hardest ones.
Chris Detzel: Yeah
Greg Sisengrath: [00:36:00] And i'd run probably a couple marathons before I started that one and I thought well, you know It's probably what maybe I run like 10, 20 minutes slower than the road marathon and you get out there and this was before this was, yeah, this was before Facebook and a lot of social media.
So we had no idea what it looked like, whatever, a decade ago and you get out there and you, then you end up running, two hours slower than your road marathon. And you really. Trail running really kicks you in the face, but then you end up, you finish and there's a bunch of old dudes
Chris Detzel: with
Greg Sisengrath: Craft beer, it's not just the McUltra.
And I was like, man, this trail running is awesome. Hey, you want a beer? It's Oh, you're gonna, I didn't bring any beer. I didn't know that we could bring beer. So that's how I felt on trail running. And I think that's still one of the, one of my favorite courses that we go up there to train a lot. Just to get the vert.
Ottawa is a good race in December cause it's one of the first. [00:37:00] Cold races, I think rockledge rumble. One that I love rock
Chris Detzel: with trouble. Yeah, my favorite
Greg Sisengrath: everyone I only raced it like a couple times, but I volunteered a couple times and I think it's I think it is a great intro because it's been going on for so long and we both know who Place puts on a good race.
And I think the history of it and it's great, support, supporting veterans and it's just a good course. And it's one of the rare times that at least the runners get to be on that trail, mostly without bikes. It's a rare opportunity
Chris Detzel: is your team dirt invert is that open to anyone that wants to come in or yeah,
Greg Sisengrath: I we Occasionally will get messages.
Are these runs free? Yeah, there's no charge We I mean we don't really the reason I ask
Chris Detzel: is because it's because there's a lot of runners that are in that area and that might want to try trail Racing or running. And check out the team dirt invert Facebook site
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah, we try to I try to post the first [00:38:00] runs, first thing Monday of each week.
Chris Detzel: Yeah a
Greg Sisengrath: lot You know the runs don't change. So if you've been you know That's why we just try to keep them in the same place so people know where to be So I'll post reminders at the beginning of each week To let them know where we're going to be and occasionally if we have a a pop up run somewhere, we're going to go train somewhere else on Saturday and get some longer stuff in.
I'll add those as well. But yeah, all the runs are free.
Chris Detzel: And it's generally like McKinney, Allen, Plano, Little Elm? Yeah.
Greg Sisengrath: Yep.
Chris Detzel: Okay.
Greg Sisengrath: I live in Allen. Tuesday run is in Plano. Thursday run, we're doing hill repeats in Plano because the gravel hill that we used to do in Irwin has been paved over, and it's no fun, it's not very safe to run out there, and then Sundays are always at Irwin Park struggle bus Sunday, and then Friday we have a group of ladies that host a run out at Rowlett Creek.
So we try to spread it out. A lot of snakes at
Chris Detzel: Rollout Creek. I've been there so many times. Yeah, a lot.
Greg Sisengrath: It's Copperhead City out there. Oh yeah, it is. Make sure you go somewhere. It's too shitty [00:39:00] too. Yeah. It's not one of my favorites, but it is flat. It's the trail. It is, yeah. It is trail.
And it is, I like the trail. Like I, it's, I
Chris Detzel: don't hate the trail, I just. There's a sewage plant and there's a bunch of snakes,
Greg Sisengrath: But if you want to go fast, it's a good place to work on your leg turnover. So we have a lot of, we have a lot of group run, we have several group round options and so occasionally we'll do some group rounds, like out of trailhead and like on holidays, but all the runs are free.
And typically on Sundays we had our biggest group. And so there's typically always a pace for everyone. And with most trails around here, you're not, some people are doing three hour long run. Some people are doing 45, one hour, one hour run. So it's easy to shorten the loops.
So you're not, you're not committed to, Oh, I'm going to do this, 15 mile long run with everyone. No it's easy to cut short. And
Chris Detzel: Cool, man. I think that by the way, do you guys ever have beer afterwards or go eat somewhere? Yes.
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah, we
Chris Detzel: Because I think that's [00:40:00] important.
Greg Sisengrath: You know what? We haven't done the Thursday runs. We purposely start at the Shacks, which has a, a bar and a little food down at the bottom. Saturday, Sundays, yeah we typically would have a fuzzies, not typically, but it's been a while. We used to have some fuzzies, and then people bring drinks after, now that I think it depends, it always depends on the weather.
I, I need to be better about it. Mandatory sitting in chairs and drinking beers like you're nor buck run.
Chris Detzel: Yeah, exactly you know what we're going to do is so now it's almost to the time where it gets too dark to hang out So we'll just go to this local bar instead of meat and just have some beers and eat So we don't do any running at all for sure from November all the way till February and then February we get back out and potentially we'll run at the very least we'll sit outside or yeah, we'll sit outside and drink beers.
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah, this is getting to the tougher parts. When when you start running out of light. Yeah.
Chris Detzel: Greg, man, this has been really [00:41:00] good. Is there any questions that I just didn't ask that I should have asked?
Greg Sisengrath: No, I don't think I, I just want to say I appreciate that. I appreciate everything that you've been doing.
Especially your, the DFW running group that you've been building is, yeah. It's grown. It's grown a lot. I see, I see a lot of awesome posts. I try not to comment on a lot of them. Just I feel like I don't want to hear as much as you want. But but I like what you're doing and because I think we're, we're doing the same things.
We're trying to grow. We're trying to grow. We have a, I think. A lot of people don't realize we have a really good running community here. It is really good I mean we are spread out But we do I think we're doing the best we can and I like seeing people that have been In the you know running community for a while and i've seen, you know seen you around for a while so I like I like the way that The way you're building and some of the resources that you're [00:42:00] giving.
It's not just hey This is the group and you come and there's a lot of groups. You don't really meet
Chris Detzel: I don't do a meet thing on my community like i'll farm that out to yeah folks like yourself or White rock running co op or dallas running club or wherever like hey
Greg Sisengrath: People that are experienced like yourselves and know a lot of people in the community and you can push people or not Push probably not the right word but direct people Yeah to other resources and I think it's I think it's great that you have used your you know your experience in the community to Kind of help can you help this place grow?
Chris Detzel: And I think that it's even people like you, like you're doing a lot of cool stuff, so I think that's pretty awesome what you guys are doing and just your love for running and helping people. You're truly helping people
Greg Sisengrath: get their goals,
I've been. I've been lucky that the running has opened up a pretty good life.
Most of my friends now, I'm sure it's like yourself. I still have my [00:43:00] own, my old non running friends, but most of the people that I'm hanging out with now are in this endurance community and it's given myself it's given me a lot of opportunity to do some Do some fun things so I tried to give back is or honestly give back as much as I can so I Think that yeah, I feel generous.
I feel grateful that I can do that.
Chris Detzel: Yeah before we go like how can people reach out to you? What's the best ways if they ever? Yeah, the easiest
Greg Sisengrath: thing is on instagram ultra runner Ultra ninja runner with no e Or you can reach me, Greg Sisengrath on Facebook there's probably only one Sisengrath or there's only one Greg Sisengrath, so it's pretty easy, but Instagram is probably the easiest, cause I try to keep that running, and the, my Facebook is mostly It's try to balance the running in the family.
I have all teenage girls and they don't want to, they don't want me posting about them anyway. So they're at that age.
Chris Detzel: You've got the Facebook group is yeah. Team [00:44:00] Denver. Yep. Team Denver. We try
Greg Sisengrath: to, yeah, we try to be everywhere on Facebook and Instagram. And it's just, and whether it's just posting pictures of people running or trying to engage or, get people out volunteering.
So I just tried that. Yeah, try to help build the community as best I can not just team dirt and vert but you know Some of the race directors locally.
Chris Detzel: Yeah. You're doing a great job and I don't really see you in Dallas dirt runners. Did you start doing that? Were you in that group at all much?
No I just always on your own though.
Greg Sisengrath: I'm on. No, I'm there lurking.
Chris Detzel: I know you're lurking, we all are, but it's changed. I know some of those groups, they've went their own ways and started their own stuff and do some, DDR stuff. But were you ever heavy in that group or No?
Not really.
Greg Sisengrath: No. No. Okay. It's just always more a bystander. I do remember some of the the older.
Chris Detzel: Yeah, some of
Greg Sisengrath: the older groups so it has changed a little so I think back in the day when
Chris Detzel: augustine was there yeah
Greg Sisengrath: I think I've been the bridge. I think i've been the bridge between the older [00:45:00] groups of trail runners and Kind of the newer runners.
So it is funny how to
Chris Detzel: watch that Watch it change over time. Just let's keep this going too much longer But when I started running dallas running club, and I've and i'm a big component of dallas running club They're a great running club and in the dallas area you pay a little bit But it's very organized and their pace groups and everything else and they have races Anyways, when I used to run with their groups, they had you'd have a pace leader right of each group So let's say if you're running a marathon they had a 320 330 340 350 Four hours, 420, 10, whatever.
It went all the way up to that. And so I'd run with the 334 while and 320 and it was all the same people for a long time, right? For two or three years and then it just turns over, And the new people start coming in the old people out, I did that for a lot I was like, man, where's so and and it was but that's the way it goes You know you start having kids or you they start, they move or just things [00:46:00] come up in life, right?
So it's just interesting to watch and I think there's just lots of turnover in the community period
Greg Sisengrath: Yeah, I think That's true. I think and there's a lot of reasons for that. I think depending on how people find running and their goals, sometimes it's just, I want to run a marathon or I want to run, I want to BQ and after I BQ, that's it.
Or like I want to run a hundred miles and then I'm retiring. So sometimes that actually happens, but then it's sometimes it's like you and myself were, been around for a while. And you've, you are like the bridge between , a lot of different groups. So you've seen everyone come and go.
And I think that's why it's even like more impressive that you're still doing what you're doing now. 'cause DFW running group is still fairly new. But you're growing 10 plus years, by the way. Is it?
Chris Detzel: I
Greg Sisengrath: know it's Facebook group. It's funny.
Chris Detzel: Huh? What? Oh
Greg Sisengrath: man.
Chris Detzel: The story goes is that I started, I used to live in Frisco, or Little Elm, and I used that group to just bring local people in.
I thought, oh, that'd be really [00:47:00] good. And, because I wanted to run with people that were in my neighborhood. And so that kind of worked for a little while. And then I moved to Dallas. I did nothing with this DFW running group, nothing. It was called something else. But Oh, wait, why not try it and see if I can just get a bunch of people from dallas You know in this dallas for worth or whatever And then I did that and then i've even expanded it more to allow People from all over the dfw metroplex come in and it just it's hoarding in by the way I do this for a living.
I build online communities. And so So I have an idea of how to grow it.
Greg Sisengrath: You're a lot better at this than I am.
Chris Detzel: But I mean you get to put a little effort into it and sometimes now I just let it go and every now and then i'll get back into it focusing on the engagement piece but not that all that matters to get off of the subject of running, It's it's a it was it's really cool because I get to see runners from all over Dfw come in you get to see some of their journey and yeah things like [00:48:00] that there's some things that are annoying people take off the shirts and just You know do different weird things and i'm like, okay I gotta go back and remember, I was pumped up too when I first started, you know Whatever it takes to keep yourself motivated Yeah, whatever You know, so there's,
Greg Sisengrath: There may be a few people I've already blocked in the group just because I don't want to see that stuff anymore.
But it's okay. But yeah, to your point. Yeah, we have to remember where we all came from. And it's okay that people are getting excited about this.
Chris Detzel: Exactly. It's okay that people are getting excited about this, about running, and yeah, whatever, do it, do whatever you, your heart's desire. I will block certain things from that group.
If you just, I'll even say, hey, look, You've done this a lot, nobody likes it, nobody says anything, let's, no, daily runs isn't necessary to post on here, and a daily video isn't necessary, it just isn't,
Greg Sisengrath: they, you can't help it, you've grown such a big group, they [00:49:00] have a captive audience.
Chris Detzel: Yeah, but nobody cares. They will just go pass it. I guess that I think to me it's about okay You've accomplished something you did this race. Awesome. Post it you get this time great post it but don't post your times every single day and a post of the video of you running and sweating and thinking you're motivating people because I don't i'm being very harsh, but I don't think it's motivating people but if it's motivating yourself post it on your own wall, and You And let people there.
That's what your wall's for. So I do manage that. I wouldn't say always, I'm just allow it to go a bit, and then I'm like, okay, this is 10 times, delete, don't do this again. So we
Greg Sisengrath: could talk about community stuff all day. Yeah, maybe a different podcast or yeah, different.
Chris Detzel: Greg, this has been great, man. I really appreciate coming on to DFW Running Talk to share your journey and how you're helping the community within the Dallas Fort Worth area. It's been really awesome. So thanks so much.
Greg Sisengrath: Now I appreciate you appreciate you having me on [00:50:00] it's been great,
Chris Detzel: of course.
All right, everybody Thanks again, for tuning in please rate and review us So i'm going to make sure greg rates and review us when I send them the link to the podcast But please go do that. It'll only take you like less than two minutes We need all the ratings and reviews and we'll take no less than a five star rating So thanks for everyone for coming.
Take care.
Greg Sisengrath: Thank you