Chris Detzel (00:00:00)
All right, welcome to another DFW running talk. I'm Chris Dutzel and today's special guest, his name is also Chris, Chris Shelton, and he runs or is over, I don't know how you want to talk it, but the McKinney Running Club. Chris, how's it going?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:00:15)
Great. It's great to great to be here, Chris.
Chris Detzel (00:00:17)
Good. You know, the first time I saw you was back or I don't know if it's the first time I saw you, but the last time I remember talking to you was over at McKinney ⁓ what was that? What was that run called, Dallas? Yeah, the historic half. And I and I was helping out and you came up to me and started talking to me and I I was like, dude, I would love for you to have I would love for you to be on the podcast. And finally, here you are. I took a while.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:00:31)
The McKinney Historic Half.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:00:45)
Here we are. It's great how things work out.
Chris Detzel (00:00:48)
⁓ But I if I tell you I don't know if I tell you you're gonna be on it, then you know eventually I'll come and ⁓ find you. But you know, ⁓ I took about a month and a half off just because it's been a while, you know, I've done this for almost two years. And so ⁓ I appreciate you coming on and I can't wait to hear your story. But first, let's do that. Let's talk a little bit about yourself. How did you start getting into running and then let's go from there? How about that?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:01:00)
yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:01:12)
So it was probably two thousand seventeen ⁓ and ⁓ I'd never ran before. I was I grew up playing baseball in high school, but my freshman year I got cut early on. And so from there I just went to PE to to fill out my credits and then lived a normal high school life. And then it was two thousand seventeen and my wife had started running with a friend in the neighborhood just to get out, get active, start doing things. ⁓ And I was married in two thousand fifteen.
Chris Detzel (00:01:19)
Okay.
Chris Detzel (00:01:35)
Okay.
Did you get married?
Chris Detzel (00:01:42)
Okay, so two years before. Okay.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:01:43)
So yep. And so, you know, I'm competitive. And so seeing my wife run, I was like, Well, I want to be faster than my wife, so I need to start running. And, you know, I for Christmas I asked for a Garmin. I got a Garmin, you know, doing little things like that. And then it was January third, twenty eighteen. My a great friend and boss at the time walked into our office and said, You're running the RAR five K this year with me. I was like, All right.
Chris Detzel (00:01:54)
Good.
Chris Detzel (00:02:11)
True.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:02:12)
We've got nine months to get ready. Let's go. And so that's really whenever I first started running and Fort Worth around the Road Brewery. ⁓ And that first run, yes, ⁓ it's a great race, a lot of fun. In fact, that that's what really got me hooked was the race environment. It was like, ⁓ I don't have to be super fast because I'm not, but I can have a lot of fun. And so, ⁓ you know, that night after my boss
Chris Detzel (00:02:18)
Where's that five K at? Yeah, I know exactly. So Eric ⁓ Lindbergh owns that race. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:02:36)
Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:02:41)
invited me to the run or said I was doing it with him, I ended up going for my first training run. It was 1.32 miles in 21 minutes and 35 seconds at a 1623 pace. Right. ⁓ And so you know, but you gotta start somewhere. You gotta start somewhere. And so that's where we started. And then nine months later I did the RAR five K and I ran it in twenty eight thirty four.
Chris Detzel (00:02:52)
Dang. Well, it's super slow. ⁓
But that's the way it goes. I like it. I like it.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:03:10)
at a nine four pace. So you know we we made some improvements during that nine months. Absolutely. And then from there I got the bug. You know, just racing, running the environment, it was just a blast.
Chris Detzel (00:03:11)
That's great. I mean that's ⁓ better than sixteen. ⁓ So that's cool. Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:03:25)
So you didn't do it for weight loss or anything like that or no. What were you doing before? Like active wise, were you doing anything?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:03:28)
No. Just did it.
I would occasionally ride a mountain bike. So we've got Urban Park in McKinney, which is a fabulous park. And I'd go out there for a little bit, but you know, that might be once every three to four weeks. ⁓ And outside of that, I was just living the dream of grilling and drinking a lot of IPAs. ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:03:44)
That consistent.
Chris Detzel (00:03:50)
Yeah. Well ⁓ You know, that's fine. You know, ⁓ how old are you?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:03:53)
⁓ I am forty seven.
Chris Detzel (00:03:57)
Okay. You and I are similar. I'm a little older, but not not too much. ⁓ I just know that, you know, as I hit thirty, ⁓ for me, ⁓ I started I mean, I never was super large, but I gained like twenty five, thirty pounds more than I should, and it was all in my belly. And I just disliked the way I looked and I eventually I think I was getting a divorce at the age of thirty seven. ⁓ And my brother, ⁓ I've got a twin brother, he goes, dude
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:04:14)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Detzel (00:04:25)
I think I've said this before, ⁓ but he goes, ⁓ You're really fat, dude. And ⁓ you're just gonna have to do something about that. You know, why don't you get out and run or I don't know, do something. Anyways, and so for whatever reason that inspired me, you know. But I already knew I was, you know, overweight, but you know, and I haven't stopped since. But I think that for me, that's kind of what that was. I don't know. For you, you just want to be your wife.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:04:33)
Mm-hmm.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:04:49)
Yeah, ⁓ it was competition, you know. At the point I didn't I wasn't really aware of how I looked in the mirror. I knew how I looked in the mirror, but I saw myself differently. And even though I was probably close to two hundred at that time, which I'm nowhere near that now. But now looking back to those pictures, I'm like, whoa, ⁓ I lost control for a little while. ⁓ Didn't even know. ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:04:56)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:04:59)
Okay.
Chris Detzel (00:05:06)
Yeah.
And you didn't even know. That's probably a great place to be to be honest. It's like ⁓ it's yeah, I mean it's like, ⁓ whatever. ⁓ So I like that actually, you know, somebody that's very confident no matter what. ⁓ that's pretty cool. ⁓ all right, so you started running you ran a five K and then you kinda got a bug. What what does that mean?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:05:14)
I you know, there's a lot of happiness there. ⁓
No. ⁓
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:05:34)
Yeah. ⁓ so from there it ⁓ started looking for the other local races, the run project races, skyline, too cold to hold, too hot to handle, all of those. It was just go sign up for five K's and then it was I eventually did sign up for a ten K. And I can't remember which one was my first one, but I was like, Okay, I got a little bit further and I enjoyed the distance more. And so just kept with it ⁓ and
Chris Detzel (00:05:40)
Mm. Yeah. Just five Ks or Cool.
Chris Detzel (00:05:51)
Okay.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:06:01)
running around the neighborhood doing normal things and I finally got to where I ran 10 miles. And at that point I was like, okay, I'm feeling pretty, pretty proud of myself. ⁓ And during that time, ⁓ the Mickey I hadn't joined MRC yet, but they had Trails and Tacos out at Irwin Park. And so it was coming out of COVID to where it was still a virtual race. And so I went and signed up for that and just loved what they were doing. So I joined the club without being really active in it at that point.
Chris Detzel (00:06:06)
Mm-hmm.
That's huge.
Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:06:31)
Point. And then it was finally in May of 2015, May 15th, 2021, I did my first run with McKinney Running Club. ⁓ And that changed everything. Yep. That changed everything for me. It was running with a group of people that were talking, joking, laughing, having fun. It was like, my goodness, what if I've been doing this all wrong this whole time? And it's like I'll immediately just
Chris Detzel (00:06:42)
Twenty twenty one? Okay.
Chris Detzel (00:06:56)
That's on my trap, yeah. Exactly. Exactly.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:07:01)
fall in love with it, with the group, the people, everything about it to where then that that just took my running to the next level of just I knew then I'd found where I was supposed to be.
Chris Detzel (00:07:05)
What?
Chris Detzel (00:07:11)
That's pretty cool. ⁓ did you did was there somebody in particular that you could call out to say, Hey, these two or three people were really kind of inspir or inspir inspiring to me, or somebody I ran with at first or I don't
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:07:25)
There was ⁓ four to five people specifically in that group. It was I won't give last names, but if they do listen, they'll they'll know it's Jay, Jerome, Shantini, Carolina, and Mary. ⁓ And like that group, that combo, I mean, it was just nonstop. Just laughter, conversation the entire way. And it just blew my mind that people could talk and run at that point or joke and have fun. It was like, ⁓ I've been like I said, I've been doing this wrong all
Chris Detzel (00:07:37)
Okay.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:07:54)
this whole entire time. And once I found that, it was like, ⁓ okay. This is great. She didn't. You know, ⁓ she she doesn't do it for the social purposes, which, you know, that's where I've come to realize that I like having a good social outlet that isn't always work related, but writing related works out well for me.
Chris Detzel (00:07:59)
Did your wife follow along or no? Okay.
Chris Detzel (00:08:17)
Yeah, I think it does for a lot of us. I mean, I I I talk about this a lot is, you know, running with a community and a tribe of people that are doing hard things, you know, and pushing yourself to do even harder things like that. If running, for example, you know, like this summer, it's it's not easy to go out and do ten miles, you know, at even at six AM in the morning. So you're just sweating and killing yourself out there and and so it it makes it a little bit ⁓ less hard, ⁓ you know, doing it with people you know, you know. So
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:08:43)
It does. And it it makes it bearable, right? I mean, knowing that you're just everyone's suffering at that point. It's really not fun, but you find ways to make it fun. And then you don't pay attention to the heat.
Chris Detzel (00:08:47)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:08:55)
Yeah, you know, I was and I think exactly and I think that like I was invited to, you know, World Cup party, you know, and Mani Alavi, he's he's the one that ⁓ asked me to come and my wife and a whole bunch of runners came to this party that I knew and interviewed five or six of those people. ⁓ You know, like I had no idea they were gonna be there, but you know, it's kind of those kinds of things. That was just a lot of fun, you know, and and just really good to see people that
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:09:20)
It is.
Chris Detzel (00:09:23)
you run with that aren't running at the time because you know you're actually hanging out and you get to see what they look like in non running clothes. Yeah. It's kind of strange sometimes, man. I'm sure. So ⁓ all right, tell me more.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:09:27)
Mm-hmm.
Right? Isn't that the weirdest thing? ⁓
Yeah. ⁓
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:09:38)
So yeah, I did my first run with them. ⁓ it was a 10-mile run. Went back the next week and it was 12 week a 12 mile run that they were doing. So come to find out they were starting to get ready for Houston and that that was their big race coming up. I had no idea what it was, anything about it. This was my second run, 12 miles, ⁓ and I learned about ⁓ chafing up top.
Chris Detzel (00:10:06)
yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:10:06)
And how what certain clothing can do to ⁓ your nipples. And so I had blood going down the shirt on during just a normal week weekend run and afterwards sitting around a table ⁓ and one of the people I mentioned earlier, Jay, he just slides over his phone with Amazon on it and tape. He was like, There you go. That's what you need. I ordered the biggest like a twelve pack of rolls. I still have eight of ⁓ Basically a live time.
Chris Detzel (00:10:10)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:10:27)
Love it.
Chris Detzel (00:10:35)
Yeah, exactly.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:10:36)
⁓ I was like, I'm never going through this ⁓ again. ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:10:38)
That's kind of what I do. ⁓ My wife, ⁓ I remember one time I bought this ⁓ some trash bags for and this is literally like three or four years ago for our trash can. ⁓ And I bought it from Amazon and it was a shit ton. I don't know how many, but literally we just ran out. ⁓ So ⁓ she makes fun of me for that. So we've thrown away the trash can and we got different bags, you know, and so we're we're kind of excited about.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:10:56)
It's great. ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:11:07)
But yeah, you're gonna never run out of that tape.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:11:07)
Yep. Never run out. I I carry an extra role with me, so if I have see a new runner who's going through the same thing, I can just say, Here you go. You get you you're you're good for the year. ⁓ Absolutely. And then I ran with them, you know, couple another couple of weeks of running with them. I decided I needed to sign up for the Houston Marathon too. So I go through and I sign up for the Houston Marathon.
Chris Detzel (00:11:15)
Love it. I like it.
Chris Detzel (00:11:21)
'Cause ⁓ the the things you learn from from other runners. You learn a lot. What else?
Chris Detzel (00:11:34)
Marathon, okay.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:11:37)
I go back that next week to the run club and I'm running with him. I'm like, guess what? I signed up for the marathon, y'all. ⁓ And I'll never forget. ⁓ Jay looked over and he said, Huh, I don't remember you being invited quite yet, but okay. ⁓ He's one of the greatest people in the world. I love you about the brother, but yes, that was it, that was the perfect response from him. Just to be like, Well, I guess. ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:11:53)
Who is this guy?
Chris Detzel (00:11:57)
No, I'm saying like he's probably saying that t about you like
Chris Detzel (00:12:03)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:12:07)
That's great. ⁓ I love it. And how far were you from the marathon, like before before you were in it?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:12:07)
⁓ So ⁓ that was my
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:12:13)
That was ⁓ that was probably in August when I signed up for it. So Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:12:18)
Okay. Well, at least you gave yourself some time to to train. I mean you did give yourself nine months to train for a five K, so not so long for the marathon. Okay.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:12:25)
Absolutely. Yeah, not so long for this one. And you know, it w what was real funny about that was obviously ⁓ that was during COVID parts. And so ⁓ going into the race, the w race week of the race, my house caught caught COVID. I never did the rest of the house did. So I went and took a test the two days before at CVS ⁓ and came back negative. And then I we had one home test that I took that morning.
Chris Detzel (00:12:44)
Mm-hmm. ⁓ Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:12:55)
before Houston. And I told my wife, I was like, if I test negative, I'm going, I'm out the door before anyone can say anything. There's no going back. And so I tested negative. I took off and I called from just south of Dallas. Like, I'm on my way to Houston. I'll see you when I get back.
Chris Detzel (00:13:13)
That is cool.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:13:14)
And you know, part of our crew we got hit with ⁓ had gotten hit with COVID too. So it was a smaller crowd that went down. And when I got there, that's when I got a message from Jay and he asked if he could run the race with me. And that was the most kind thing anybody could do because I had no clue what I would would have been doing. Yeah, I still didn't know what marathon pace was at that time. It was like, ⁓ just trying to run a marathon. I don't know what a marathon pace is.
And so he was basically my wingman. He guided me throughout the whole course. And you know, it wasn't the fastest of them, but it was four forty-five, I think, was roughly what the time was. And it was perfect. You know, we didn't walk any. We ran the whole time at a nice steady pace and had a blast the whole time. Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:13:53)
Okay. Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:14:03)
That's awesome. Well, and and it sounds like, I mean, I I like that because, ⁓ you know, a lot of people think that, look, I mean, train hard, do all these things, and and ⁓ people have these expectations that their first marathon, they're gonna qualify for Boston. You know, I I was talking to somebody about this yesterday or day before. And in general, you know, I'm not saying it can't be done because it has. I I know people, I've even interviewed people that have done it, you know, but most of the time it does st just doesn't.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:14:18)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Detzel (00:14:32)
You know, like just enjoy your first marathon. ⁓ You know, just who cares?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:14:34)
Absolutely. That that's that's what I try to tell people now. Just just have fun with it. The second one you can chase the time.
Chris Detzel (00:14:39)
your first. ⁓ Yeah, beat the next time, whatever that is. And and you know a lot of times you'll probably have a chance to beat that for like 20 or 30 minutes sometimes. You know, sometimes more. Guy was talking to the other day ⁓ like an hour or something. I'm damn. Yeah. ⁓
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:14:47)
Absolutely.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:14:54)
That's crazy. I I I heard that and was like, my goodness, that's a huge jump. ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:14:59)
Yeah. Yeah, I mean but look I I think that ⁓ in general there's people that have talent and and s you know, this guy in general he was a football player. Is he w I mean and he he played for ⁓ SMU for five years and he was he was just an athlete. He knew how to train, he knew what it took, and he already had, you know, some abilities and apparently he had some running abilities, you know, some distance running abilities that all he had to do was
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:15:11)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Detzel (00:15:29)
He trained, I think, you know, ⁓ a couple of times for one and and then he knew, you know, he got a training plan, he went by it, he focused in on that plan, and he hit his goal, you know, of under three hours. But I think that ⁓ yes, it's fast, but you know, the point is it's like we can't all do that. We're not all superhuman, you know. We're just not.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:15:48)
Yeah. And and for me, you know, the amount of work that goes into getting that much faster, I don't know if I really want to make those sacrifices. I like to have fun. You know, there's I do have somewhat of a life outside of running that is very important to me. So I like to engage in that as well. And I realize that would be need to be sacrificed to make big, big gains. ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:15:57)
Hundred percent. Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:16:12)
Yeah, it's a good point. And I mean, you and I are closer to the same age, a little older than you, like I said, but you know, as you get older, you kind of start to me, I start seeing some of the I love running and I'll always be in this community or for years to come, I'm sure of it. But ⁓ but you know, I'm I'm no longer ⁓ I'm not saying I'm not chasing half marathon times, but ⁓ you know, I've gotta be understanding that at some point just not gonna happen. You know, maybe you just gotta do well in your age group.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:16:42)
That's it. Yeah, that's what I've heard a lot of people talk about. It's, you know, like setting their P PR for their fifties or their sixties, you know, and it's not going for their overall PR, it's just where they're at in life and seeing what they can do at that point. I think that's a great, great way to approach it.
Chris Detzel (00:16:43)
Yeah, so we're
Chris Detzel (00:16:50)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:16:59)
Good friend of mine, ⁓ Greg Rankin. I don't know if you've ever you've probably heard of him or I don't know, but he ⁓ he's he his goal for now, he's he just hit sixty, but from I think from forty to forty-five, forty-five or forty-six to fifty. Yeah, or forty-nine, and then you know, that he just went all the way up to sixty and hit under two hours. And he just hit it. Yeah, he just hit it again at fifty-nine. So now he's gonna have to, I don't know, you know, at some point.
It's gonna I'm not saying he can't do it because this guy's a phenomenal athlete runner and when he's focused, he's focused. But you know, when you hit in mid-60s, it's gonna be a little bit harder. So maybe I'll do it at 61, you know, or 60. Me too. Yeah. Keep it up. I love it though. I mean, I love that goal, you know, just little things to keep you going, keep your mind up. So ⁓ all right. So you did this first marathon, you're excited about it. What happened?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:17:42)
I'm I'm rooting for him. That's awesome. Keep it up.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:17:56)
⁓ finished that and decided it was time to actually run a half marathon. So we j we jumped from the 10K to the marathon. And then ⁓ feeling great from that, it was ⁓ my friend who invited me for the first 5k. We went and did run the line in Tex Arcana. So he l at the time he had moved lived in Arkansas, so it was right in the middle of us. ⁓ and it basically crosses over Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, that whole just little area. ⁓ And it was
Chris Detzel (00:18:01)
Okay.
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:18:22)
Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:18:26)
I love the half marathon, especially after the full. It's like you just realize it's far enough that you feel like you're really doing something, but you can it's easier. It's just easier. I I'm not saying half marathons are easy, but compared to the marathon, it's easier. Yeah. It's so then I caught that and ⁓ it was like I was like, I love that. So then did Cowtown a week later, the half. And from there it was just I I
Chris Detzel (00:18:29)
Me too.
Chris Detzel (00:18:37)
Hundred percent.
Chris Detzel (00:18:41)
Well, it's less training and you know, it's half the distance. ⁓ So I ⁓ agree.
Chris Detzel (00:18:52)
Okay.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:18:55)
At that point I was like, I finally did it. I'm running a f ⁓ marathons, I'm running half marathons. I'm about to start getting real fast now. And so then I was like, All right, next up is a sub four hour marathon. Well, I'm still chasing that one. ⁓ It does. It takes time and there there's the mental side to it too, right? It like there you gotta be prepared for the hurt locker.
Chris Detzel (00:19:07)
That's doable. Okay. All right. ⁓ Well, you know, it takes time, you know, your body has to get used to it. And you're only s ⁓ five years in. Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:19:25)
And you know, I don't think I was quite ready.
Chris Detzel (00:19:27)
You're just kinda like, screw it, I don't like to hurt, so I'll slow down. ⁓
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:19:30)
That wa that was it. ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:19:35)
Well nothing wrong with that, 'cause I'm a lot ⁓ I I'm starting to do that too. I'm like, you know, I'm out on a run, four or five miles in, I was like, All right, I'm done. I I don't really need to keep going. I just ⁓ I'm tired of running ⁓ today, you know.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:19:37)
Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:19:47)
Yeah. I I'm I'm paying to be here. I'm not being paid to be here, so ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:19:51)
Exactly. Exactly. ⁓ how many marathons have you done?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:19:56)
I've done four with one of them being the Cowtown Ultra.
Chris Detzel (00:20:01)
Okay, I mean, you really haven't run a ton of marathons. So, you know, i if you're told me like ten or eleven or fifteen or ⁓ but I I I what what's your best marathon?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:20:02)
⁓ No.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:20:12)
My best would be a four twenty seven and that was at Fort Worth.
Chris Detzel (00:20:16)
Okay.
Yeah, Caltech or Fort Worth Marathon. okay. That that's the looped one, right? So they do like yeah, yeah. That's pretty cool. Do you plan on doing another marathon again or
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:20:20)
The Fort Worth Marathon.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:20:24)
It is.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:20:30)
yeah. ⁓ so we are currently training for Houston.
Chris Detzel (00:20:34)
you are doing Houston Marathon, got it?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:20:35)
Yeah, d going back to Houston this year. So a large group went down there last year and that just triggered FOMO big time. Like saw the group meet in the parking lot take off. And I was like, ⁓ I wish I was going. And so ⁓ then started talking to a few people afterwards and I was like, you know, what about this year coming up? It's, you know, we can get a big group together again. We'll all go down there. It'll be a blast. And people are like, Yeah, let's do it. And so we've got, I don't know, 17 to 18 people.
who right now are plan on going down there together as a group and we're gonna tackle that bad boy.
Chris Detzel (00:21:06)
Holy cow.
Chris Detzel (00:21:12)
Well, my wife and I will be there. We'll be doing the half so ⁓ I mean you've done Houston before, at least ⁓ and so ⁓ to me it is one of the best ⁓ half marathons and marathons that certainly in Texas. ⁓ I feel like even maybe even outside maybe in the US. I don't know, man. They just do an extremely good job.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:21:15)
Awesome.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:21:25)
Mm-hmm.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:21:33)
That is what everyone says. And yeah. Yeah. And so that I love that. ⁓ I'm I'm gonna try and d work out a rotation between it and Dallas.
Chris Detzel (00:21:36)
I think, I mean, ⁓ just a great race, you know, so I'm gonna do it every year now, to half every year. ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:21:48)
I'll do Dallas as well. ⁓ I'll do the half. I'm doing the half. You know, so I mean fulls I get you know, you can't do a back to back for you can, but it's just not but halves you can do pretty easily back to back, you know.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:21:50)
Yeah, that's it. ⁓
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:22:01)
Yeah, use that as a training run type or
Chris Detzel (00:22:03)
Yeah, like you know, ⁓ like ⁓ I'm doing ⁓ Dallas half. I'll I'll try to go pretty fast, but knowing Houston is kind of the the ultimate goal. You know, Dallas is it's kinda fun, you know, it's right there in our backyard. We you know, I I know a lot of people that do it and that kind of stuff, but I'll run somewhat fast and then hopefully run faster in Houston. That's generally how it works. Exactly. Seventeen people. So we'll have to
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:22:25)
Yeah. It it's the warm up. Yeah. ⁓ The warm up for the big for Houston. Yeah, absolutely.
Chris Detzel (00:22:33)
Make sure to connect it, at least say hi, you know. ⁓ and I get to meet some some of your runners, you know. Yeah, we'll love to. ⁓ so ⁓ when you go to Houston, what's the so you get s where are you guest in?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:22:40)
That'd be great.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:22:51)
Right now I believe we are all playing on the Hilton.
Chris Detzel (00:22:55)
Okay. well, right there. Right there. Yeah. So ⁓
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:22:57)
Yeah. Right there. ⁓ That's where half of us are at right now. I don't know if everyone's made the reservations, but a good port part of us. Or that's where we've decided to
Chris Detzel (00:23:06)
Yeah, I love it. I mean, I was thinking about staying at the Hilton, but usually we stay we stay really close, like in Marriott. ⁓ there's like three Marriott's ⁓ properties in one place. So it's just walkable everywhere. So ⁓ so now ⁓ you did that and I know that ⁓ you're kind of the head of McKinney running club. So tell me about that and the club itself.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:23:14)
Mm-hmm.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:23:31)
Yeah. So I'm the current president of McKinney Running Club. I was voted to the position ⁓ a year and a half ago. And so I'm into my second year. ⁓ sin we are a five three, five one C nonprofit organization. So we are set up with a board of directors and we have yearly elections for our board positions. ⁓ through the the big ⁓ what we
Chris Detzel (00:23:37)
they both okay.
Chris Detzel (00:23:51)
wow, okay.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:23:56)
really focus on is the Dan Crumb Scholarship. So Dan Crumb was the first paying member of McKinney Running Club. He passed to cancer before I joined the club. And so to honor him, they started the Dan Crumb Scholarship Award, which we kn year we award a scholarship yearly to a local high school tracker cross country runner who's not affiliated with the club. So ⁓ we got to send ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:24:21)
⁓ Yeah. Cool.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:24:25)
We got to give a scholarship last year for I believe seventeen hundred dollars to a a local ⁓ high school runner. ⁓ And that was an amazing thing. It's it's great that it's fully funded now and w y we know that every year we get to help a student go to college and very proud of that. Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:24:33)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:24:41)
That's pretty cool. Now you pay to become a member of McKinney Running Club, is that right? What's
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:24:47)
Yeah, it's ⁓ thirty dollars a year and that basically just helps support you know, the the insurance side of the club and just little things like that.
Chris Detzel (00:24:56)
Love it. That's n do you guys have races at all or is it just
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:25:00)
We we've got the trails and tacos that we that we're ⁓ affiliated with. but that's really it. Outside of that, we are we just run a McKinney. You know, we we love our we love we love our we love our bubble. ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:25:02)
Okay.
Chris Detzel (00:25:08)
Yeah. ⁓
Well and you know, McKinney is ⁓ as you know of course, is growing a ton still. I mean the airport being built, is it's gonna be there soon enough? Is it there yet? Or yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:25:22)
Yeah. It it's it's built, it'll open up to the public in November for for the flights. So
Chris Detzel (00:25:27)
Okay. Yeah, I mean and you know, my I've got a ⁓ my younger brother, he's a fire marshal in McKinney, so he's been there for a long time. You know, and yeah. And so, you know, ⁓ McKinney I I know well just because I've ⁓ I I grew up in Little Elm and so I always w I went to McKinney a lot. ⁓ but but yeah, so all right. Well tell me about the club then and and just
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:25:38)
that's our.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:25:48)
Okay.
yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:25:56)
Kind of when you guys meet, what's the what is that all like?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:26:00)
Yeah, so we are ⁓ we're growing ⁓ big time. We put a lot of focus into that. ⁓ Yeah, it so it really started, I guess, my first year, and it was the 2024 Dallas Marathon. I I was running that one. It was my first time to run it. And that year specifically, they had a video of the run clubs playing at the starting line. ⁓ And I was sitting there watching it and my all that ran through my head was, why not us?
Chris Detzel (00:26:04)
Yeah. How do you not? How do you not?
Chris Detzel (00:26:24)
Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:26:30)
Why aren't we up there? And so ⁓ after the race, you know, I went to the Dallas Marathon website and tried to find a place to see how to become one of those people. And I didn't see it there at that point. So I would just check back regularly and finally finally saw ⁓ for 2025 that they were accepting run club partners. And so way late, behind, you know, after the due date and all that, I sent an email just asking. And then Patty responded. And Patty is
Chris Detzel (00:26:30)
Yeah. ⁓ Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:26:59)
An amazing, amazing person with the Dallas with the Dallas Marathon. I don't know if you've had a chance to meet her, but she is one of my favorite people in the world. She is ⁓ largely responsible for our social media presence in a lot of ways because she was just like, Look, we want to promote you, but if you're not on Facebook or Instagram, we don't have a way of doing that. And I was like, Okay, well, I want you to promote us, so we'll get to work on that. ⁓ So we we brought our Facebook, our public-facing Facebook back to life.
Chris Detzel (00:27:09)
Okay.
Chris Detzel (00:27:20)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:27:24)
Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:27:29)
We created a new Instagram account because the three previous ones the club had were locked out of. So and from there it's just kind of been trying to build the social presence to let people know that we're here and active. ⁓ we've always had our Saturday morning long run. That's the cornerstone to MRC. We meet at 6 a.m. and have a route, a six, eight, and 10 mile route and ways to build off of that if you want to. And then we've got our Wednesday run with Fleet Feet.
And so those are pretty much the two things that we always had. ⁓ Since I've been in ⁓ the position of president, we've added a group strength training class on Mondays. So because runners, runners need to get stronger. We, you know, we're ⁓ that's where we're bad at. So we we meet with a strength trainer at a local gym and for 30 minutes and do a nice little workout with him. Tuesdays are our off days, then Wednesdays we run to the Fleet Feet store. Thursday, we've started ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:28:12)
Hundred percent. I love that.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:28:27)
three and a six mile evening run at Sticks Ice House. And then ⁓ Fridays are off days. We've got our long run Saturdays. And then starting this Sunday, we we're going to start a weekly run downtown where we're going to do a a three mile route at filtered coffee to try and
Chris Detzel (00:28:31)
Okay.
Chris Detzel (00:28:41)
Okay.
Okay, so just a super simple and and trying to get more people eng engaged and involved. So I I think social is so important ⁓ forerun clubs these days, you know, whether it's it probably depends on the crowd you want to get, but you know, Facebook is obviously people our age. ⁓ So ⁓ but Instagram is probably ⁓ pretty much our age, but all on down a little bit and then TikTok is certainly the fifteen and twenty five year olds or something, but ⁓
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:28:50)
That's it.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:29:02)
Yep, absolutely.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:29:12)
Yeah, we haven't made it to TikTok yet.
Chris Detzel (00:29:16)
Yeah, I mean, look, ⁓ can't reach everyone, but ⁓ you know, but that's I don't I don't know that you do running groups on TikTok. ⁓ certainly on Instagram you can kinda you see a lot of that and it's a lot less Facebook. ⁓ like for example, Pegasus, they're just on Instagram and they have Strava. You know, a lot of people use Stravas kind of where they schedule runs because it's a good, you know, ⁓ learning that so
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:29:28)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Chris Detzel (00:29:45)
No, I'm just saying this because I've been learning for the last few years myself, you know. ⁓ so it's a lot to keep up with, to be honest. ⁓ So
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:29:53)
It is. Yeah. And so that that's what you know, Facebook and In Instagram with them being integrated, it keeps it simple to where, you know, if I'm posting, I post everything through Instagram. So it goes straight to Facebook. If I need to, then I'll go into the content manager side of Facebook to schedule things and do certain things. But yeah, Instagram just makes it easy.
Chris Detzel (00:29:59)
Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:30:15)
Hundred percent. I mean, you can get schedulers that do all the this this stuff, but but not Strava. So ⁓ what do you think the hardest thing is or you know the most challenging thing is, you know, running a a group like that? 'Cause I can imagine McKinney Running Club is just skyrocketing right now. How could it not? How many how many members do you have overall?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:30:23)
Mm-hmm.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:30:34)
Yeah, we we've had we as of today we were up to two hundred and fifty three.
Chris Detzel (00:30:41)
Okay, two fifty three. And then what are you guys averaging at your best running group like in in a group, like Saturdays probably?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:30:47)
The our last two our last two weeks, our Saturday runs have had over fifty people showing up. Yeah. ⁓ Especially in the heat of the summer. So I I think a lot of it is with marathon season coming up, you know. So we do have people who are starting to train for Chicago, just little things like that. And so people are all coming up. It is.
Chris Detzel (00:30:55)
Damn ⁓ it. That's that's great.
Chris Detzel (00:31:05)
Yeah, of course. That's always
Chris Detzel (00:31:10)
This is perfect time really, you know. Yeah. Probably the rest of this year. You'll probably see that place grow. And but then you also see, you know, people kind of ⁓ stiffen out a little bit. But you don't have I mean, you guys have regularly scheduled runs, but it's not paste or anything, right? It's just kinda, hey, show up and find some peeps to run with. Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:31:22)
Mm-hmm.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:31:31)
That that's it. And that's probably the hardest part is trying to be the matchmaker with paces for new people when they show up, 'cause you know, a lot of visitors ⁓ will overestimate what they can typically run. ⁓ And so and you know, take for what they're word. Don't let us be ruined by any mean. But they don't but if you don't know, you don't know. So you just have a few people that you know that you can be like, okay, go run you this would be a good person to go run with, or this would be a great person to run with, and then if can't find anyone, then I'll run with them.
Chris Detzel (00:31:36)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:31:42)
Yeah, exactly.
Chris Detzel (00:31:47)
They don't know.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:32:00)
Give them a a guided tour of the of the route.
Chris Detzel (00:32:01)
Yeah.
That's what I've been doing. So I I don't know if we really have titles, but there's five or so of us that ⁓ manage the White Rock running co op ⁓ here in Dallas. And so, you know, on Saturdays when people come and you start we're starting to see newer some newer people. It's like, Well, you know, what pace do you want to run? You know, these people are running five, some these people are doing thirteen. ⁓ And so it's just you know, people are running different, not just times, but paces. So it is you want people to feel welcome.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:32:10)
Mm-hmm.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:32:29)
Wood.
Chris Detzel (00:32:33)
You know, but for for whatever reason that's just really hard to do. I don't know if you find that. What do you think?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:32:33)
That that's it.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:32:36)
Yeah. I agree. It's, you know, so the way I even kind of got started with being involved with the club was as the well as a welcomer to ⁓ before being pre president, it would be on Saturday mornings. If there were new people that would walk up, I would do everything I could to go greet them, talk to them, ⁓ let them know that they're welcomed and kind of follow up with them from that. And that that really kind of helped because it got me where I was just already looking for new faces coming to the group.
Chris Detzel (00:32:47)
No, I like that.
Chris Detzel (00:32:55)
Hundred percent.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:33:06)
where now I'm like a hawk. I can see him just sit in the parking lot and be like, all right, here we go. Let's go get
Chris Detzel (00:33:06)
Yeah.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah, I mean you've been doing it for a while now and same with me is like on Saturdays generally when I see new people because you know it's kind of the bigger group. So no, I it's I was asking just pretty much for my own. ⁓ And I wonder like, is there any good way to, you know, not just welcome, you wanna say hello, but you you know, you wanna make sure they know the route, know where to go, that kind of stuff, you know.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:33:16)
Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:33:20)
Mm-hmm.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:33:26)
Yeah. Absolutely.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:33:40)
Yeah. So with with that, the first thing that I did ⁓ was I created a QR code and a link tree with all of our routes ⁓ in Garmin. And so ⁓ that way I can just Yeah. It's all the Garmin b since I'm not a paid member, like I don't I'm not a paid subscriber to Strava, I can't do create the routes in Strava, but but I can in Garmin. And so I've gone through and I've created all the route shared created and shared all the routes in Garmin through a link.
Chris Detzel (00:33:50)
I like that. I'm Garmin, but not Strava, okay.
Chris Detzel (00:34:04)
Got
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:34:08)
Posted them on a link tree. So I can just say, hey, scan this QR code. And basically what it does, the f first one is it takes it the the link tree will have a link to MRC, how to become a member, ⁓ how to renew, ⁓ how the maps, the courses, everything. And then but one of the options are Garmin courses. Then they can click on that and it's got all of our routes from the Saturdays, the Wednesdays, the Thursdays, the new Sundays, our special routes.
Chris Detzel (00:34:08)
Yeah. ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:34:23)
That makes sense.
So smart.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:34:37)
Just that way it's easy to get it get it to him.
Chris Detzel (00:34:41)
pretty cool you could create like a Facebook kind of ⁓ you know cover and on that Facebook cover you just have a QR code that takes you to that link tree that takes you to all the codes you know like you can just embed it into the anyways you've got me thinking now so I like that.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:34:48)
Mm-hmm.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:34:53)
Yeah. Yep.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:34:58)
Yeah, so we've got the link tree in all of our socials in the bio and then I carry the QR code in the mornings on a clipboard. I I got it laminated, have it on a clipboard and I that way people can just walk up with their phones, scan it, then have the routes.
Chris Detzel (00:35:02)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:35:08)
Put it on your phone, yeah.
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:35:15)
Look at you, man. Wow. You have it all figured out. You're way more organized. What do y'all do f Go ahead? What do y'all do for like water and stuff? You just has have like do y'all take anything out there or?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:35:18)
Yeah. Try. Try and do you have Go ⁓ ahead.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:35:29)
Yeah. So we've got six stops throughout the ⁓ the our tri courses and ⁓ five water stops and one Gatorade stop. And they're about every two to three miles apart. So every route on the Saturday has water support.
Chris Detzel (00:35:38)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:35:45)
Now is that because of water fountains or you guys you take out ⁓ water drugs and
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:35:51)
We take out the water jugs. ⁓ Water fountains are there's some that are ⁓ buried in some of the trail systems and parks, but nothing along the routes that we just run. So this keeps it where it's easy to get to.
Chris Detzel (00:35:52)
Okay.
Chris Detzel (00:36:03)
So you know my next question, how do get the volunteers to do it?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:36:06)
Well, I'm one of That so I started out with it. And then, you know, it's really one of those things that people take pride in owning the water stop. So we've got JJ, he does two of which that's amazing that he takes over that. Chad, he's got one. ⁓ Carolina, she takes care of the big one that all everyone runs through. Then Monica's got our Gatorade stop. So they're people that just really into it and they take it serious.
Chris Detzel (00:36:09)
Course though.
Chris Detzel (00:36:14)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:36:31)
Okay.
That's awesome. Well, it's pretty serious, especially over the summer. I mean you gotta have you know, but it's just kind of some work, you know, because you have to you know, go you get to fill up, you gotta drop off. You gotta go back and get put somewhere. You know, I own this condo and I don't even have like a water hose or you know, I have I mean, I could probably put in I've got a sink and stuff I could put it in, but you know, it's just being very difficult, you know. I'm just thinking of every excuse not to do it, to be honest, but
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:36:41)
Yes. ⁓
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:36:56)
Mm-hmm.
Yes. Right. ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:37:02)
⁓ That's like the last thing I wanna do. Yeah, I don't know why, but I'm like, ⁓ I don't mind going and being the guy to say stuff and taking picks. But man, you know, some people can step up and do that shit. So, you know.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:37:06)
Yeah. ⁓
Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:37:16)
Absolutely. Well, you know, it it is a good way to get members involved, right? It's one of those things that, you know, there's all different ways to get involved with clubs and help. And to me the water one was whenever I first started doing it, it was the easiest entry into just helping. So I you know, I wake up early. Yeah. I you know, I I wake up at four on Saturdays for the long runs to get ready. So with that, I'm up. So I've got time to prep the jug and
Chris Detzel (00:37:21)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:37:34)
Yeah. I'm glad you did that. That's pretty awesome.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:37:46)
You know, I'll I typically leave the house at five twenty, drop it off, and then head up to the market street and get ready for the run.
Chris Detzel (00:37:50)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:37:54)
Guess you once you get a system down then ⁓ it's no problem, you know. Yeah. ⁓ anything else that we missed about the club? I mean it sounds really awesome. I mean you've
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:37:58)
Yeah, it's just part of the routine.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:38:06)
⁓ yeah, I mean we're having a lot of fun. We're growing a lot. We've so ⁓ with our social media presence, had a member come up to me one day after a run and was like, if you ever need help, let me know. And I was like, We need help. I'm letting you know. And she was like, Okay. I was like, We've got a board meeting coming up. You want to come, you know, come on, check it out, see what we have to say, interact with us a little bit. And then she took it and she started doing videos and
Chris Detzel (00:38:20)
⁓ Exactly. ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:38:29)
Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:38:35)
That's really then what pushed our Instagram over the top was the use of starting to do reels. And she nails them now.
Chris Detzel (00:38:36)
Very nice.
Chris Detzel (00:38:44)
Well, and you know, what I find is not wish I could do it more, but it's little things like quick hits, ⁓ you know, talking about ⁓ or doing the running piece is good or ⁓ making up some kind of quick hit question and interviewing people, you know, and then post on them and and those kinds of things and that helps grow it, you know, especially the Instagram channel. ⁓ and people like that kind of stuff, you know. ⁓ and so I I think that's smart and I'm glad that
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:38:54)
Mm-hmm.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:39:07)
They do.
Chris Detzel (00:39:13)
Now you have somebody doing your Instagram, you know.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:39:15)
Yeah, I mean it it it's helped and it like I've learned a lot from it as well. Like you know, I it's weird because I'm a video guy, but I don't know anything about social really. And so I didn't know about reels. You know, I I just learned, okay, how to do an Instagram post. I was like, all right, ⁓ we're good. I don't need to go any further than this. And then, you know, through talking with Karis and she was like, Yeah, we need to start doing some reels because Instagram likes reels more. And I was like, Okay. And so the first one she posted, it got like five thousand views. And I was like, Whoa.
Chris Detzel (00:39:19)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:39:24)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:39:37)
Hundred percent. Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:39:45)
Why are we using rules for everything? ⁓ Well, time it in place, but
Chris Detzel (00:39:50)
Yeah, mean I think that you know it's funny because I I agree, reels can go do really well, especially when you tag somebody or you collaborate with them and then they accept it and it kind of goes spreads a little bit. And even posts do really well too, just regular posts for some reason. So, you know, a balance of both is is good and putting your stories and things. So ⁓ and TikTok is probably one of the best is in it helps create the videos, they can create some amazing reels.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:40:01)
Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:40:11)
Absolutely.
Chris Detzel (00:40:19)
And you can then download it and push it to your ⁓ to to ⁓ Instagram. It's just a lot easier to do it on TikTok and then push it to your Insta. Maybe it's another thing to do, but you know, just it's better. I don't know why it's the easier that you have more music, they have all kinds of stuff that Instagram just doesn't have, you know. ⁓ and and they make cooler videos. It's like, ⁓ cool, do some cool stuff, ⁓ you know? So
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:40:26)
Interesting.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:40:36)
Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:40:39)
Mm-hmm. ⁓
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:40:45)
Interesting.
Yeah. Yeah, sounds I need to get on TikTok.
Chris Detzel (00:40:49)
Take a look. ⁓
Yeah, I mean, it just ⁓ there's a lot to talk about for TikTok. I'm I'm learning a lot myself and just 'cause I do the DFW running talk. ⁓ you know, and runners love it. I think that's just kind of the way ⁓ I mean, how do you attract younger runners? And I I think that, you know, doing those reels and things like that is certainly a key to it. You're gonna have a social presence. If don't, you're just not gonna grow. Not not with the ⁓ thirty year olds and forty year olds ⁓ anymore, you know. So
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:41:13)
Yes.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:41:21)
Green.
Chris Detzel (00:41:23)
I mean some kind of presence. I'm glad that you guys are doing it. ⁓
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:41:25)
Yeah. It that's been the that's been the big help with with us. So whenever people do join, one of the questions is how did you hear about McKinney Running Club? And the amount of people now that are answering with social is just insane.
Chris Detzel (00:41:38)
Yeah. ⁓ Yeah, I mean I have new people come up and say, Yeah, I found you on Instagram or I found you on Facebook or whatever. You know, I was like, Okay. I I always ask, is like, how do you even know we existed? ⁓ you know, so what what do you do, Chris, on you know, your own time, you know, if it's not running or if it's not working, you know?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:41:45)
Mm-hmm.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:42:00)
⁓ i well it's a lot of running. So I've my daughter's a runner in high school and I'm part of the ⁓ I'm on the the board of the booster club for that because why not? I mean you gotta be involved. ⁓ and yeah, and that's pretty much it. It's work, run, and when I'm not involved with the club, I'm trying to run on my own and then sleep. Sleep and eat. Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:42:03)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:42:10)
Dang. ⁓ Love it. I think that's great.
Chris Detzel (00:42:24)
Yeah, well that's important. Do you get to travel at all from for running? I mean, I know you Houston and stuff, but do you do any Okay.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:42:31)
Not too too much. ⁓ I'm so just such a local yokel that that Saturday morning run just k makes it where I d that's where I wanna be. I wanna kick off that run every Saturday and be with the club.
Chris Detzel (00:42:41)
Yeah. I love it. And how many ⁓ members ⁓ board members or people you get a president, you and then s is there other kind of people that okay.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:42:51)
We we've got a vice president and a treasurer that make up the board and then we've got a general director who comes with to the meetings. We have a secretary and then we've got our social media person.
Chris Detzel (00:43:03)
What do we gotta talk about during a board meeting? I'm I'm curious, just we don't have to go through the whole thing, you know, because I know board meetings are boring. ⁓ But but I'm interested. Okay.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:43:06)
It goes through and we look Yeah. It's we talked budget, you know, making sure that money's coming in, ⁓ memberships. ⁓ So like, you know, la last June was a really big month for us in that going into the month we had twenty memberships that were expiring. And so that that's a huge number to lose. And so ⁓ it was how do we keep that number and grow it? And so we ended up get gaining
Chris Detzel (00:43:25)
Okay.
Chris Detzel (00:43:31)
How do you renew? Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:43:35)
twenty four members in June. So we ended up growing through it, but that was a lot of it. And it was really helped drive social in a lot of ways that we need to make up this membership to keep us on track and on budget with everything. So look at the numbers of everything, look at our social media presence and what's working, what's not working, are we getting views? ⁓ go through, we look at at future events, things that we want to do, things we want to be a part of. ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:44:02)
Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:44:05)
Dallas Marathon coming up. You know, we want to be a bigger part of that. We'd love to try and get a water stop if possible. If we've talked to Patty about it. ⁓ so just for trying to figure out ways to get involved with the community.
Chris Detzel (00:44:18)
Yeah, I think that's probably a a huge way to get engaged and involved is certainly being part of Dallas Marathon, but any kind of races or things like that within the McKinney, Allen, whatever area, you know, that, you know, can bring people over, you know. ⁓ obviously you get a meet to run, but you know, if you could be a pacers or, you know, that kind of stuff, you know, DRC has done a good job. You know, that's that's a very much of a pay it's 70 bucks or I don't know, it's not that much, but
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:44:26)
Mm-hmm.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:44:40)
Mm-hmm.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:44:45)
Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:44:46)
You know, they have training plans and things like that. You know, maybe McKinney Running Club becomes something like that at some point. 'Cause I know one point, ⁓ Craig's Ranch used to do that stuff. I did it with them several years ago. So it was I don't know if they still do it, but probably not as much. Do they? Okay.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:44:52)
Yeah, thank
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:44:56)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. They do. ⁓ Yeah, they're they're the they do the pacing for Big Star.
Chris Detzel (00:45:06)
Okay, got it. Yeah, and they used to do it for balloon festival. So it's no longer. ⁓ but yeah, that's awesome. I I love that. Well, I mean it just whenever you said that it just reminded me of it's like, well, it's a lot of a lot to do because now you gotta think about all right, how do you how do you grow membership? How do you renew the membership? So somebody's gotta keep up with the emailing, somebody's gotta keep up with all of that stuff.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:45:27)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Detzel (00:45:34)
Like you said, social, that's how that's how you're gonna grow probably is ⁓ one way, right? But I mean, you know, how do you maybe get emails from people, I don't know, but still so
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:45:37)
That's it.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:45:45)
Yeah, you know, very little email goes out these days. ⁓ we're working on probably trying to get a newsletter just so we can communicate with our members who aren't on social. But outside of that, it's just letting everybody know that what we do and that we're around and ⁓ the benefits of being a club member.
Chris Detzel (00:45:52)
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Chris Detzel (00:46:04)
Yeah, you can use Substack. Substack's free. ⁓ And ⁓ you know, ⁓ I've got like almost fifteen hundred people on my sub you know, just on my DFW running talk Substack. So it's so that's one avenue. You know, you can just create it and put people in and people can then start subscribing. ⁓ Yeah, it's super easy. I mean, it's probably the easiest newsletter ⁓ pla I mean they give you a lot of stuff for free. So
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:46:16)
Okay.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:46:23)
Nice, I'm gonna have to look into that.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:46:32)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Detzel (00:46:33)
⁓ anyways. I d I dig anything that I miss that you said, Chris, you know, we talked a lot about you know the club, the ins and outs of it, a little bit about your running journey. Is there anything you wanted to bring up between like your running journey or you know, that we missed or something you're excited about?
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:46:51)
I'm I'm excited about all of it. So, you know, the second McKinney Historic Half has just been announced not too long ago. So the fact that that's coming back is huge. ⁓ we loved it. It was such a great race, especially for the first one that ⁓ just everyone the buzz from it, hearing everyone talk about it. I'd never heard one bad thing about the race, which that's so we weird these days. Like there, you know, you can always typically find one thing to nitpick on and there just wasn't anything. It was just such a fun, great race that we're super excited about that.
Chris Detzel (00:47:03)
That's great.
Chris Detzel (00:47:19)
I think they did an amazing job.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:47:21)
They did. ⁓ and just excited about the running community and the how it's growing in McKinney and the whole area. So, like it it's just a great time to be a a runner and to be engaged with the community.
Chris Detzel (00:47:28)
Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:47:35)
It's an exciting time, Chris. And and I mean, look, there's probably fifty or sixty running groups just in DFW alone. And you know, I talk about this all the time is you know, ⁓ we have some really fast people, but we have an even bigger community just around running and the sport of running. And and that's why I started a podcast, because I wanted to hear the stories, you know, what these running groups are doing, like McKinney Running Club and others, and what coaches are doing, what
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:47:41)
Mm-hmm.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:47:56)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (00:48:03)
race directors are doing and what people are doing in general and why they're so excited about running. And I think that there's just some great stories and like like your story is, you know, you just started running in, you know, ⁓ 2018 or whatever it was, 29, yeah. And you know, just kind of grew from there and and now you have a love for the community of running, not just running itself, just getting others involved, engaged. And who knew it was gonna be so big for you, you know, it's such a big part of your life. You know, I bet you didn't think that, you know.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:48:15)
Twenty eighteen. Yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:48:23)
Absolutely.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:48:28)
Yeah. it's taken over it. No, not never. And it's amazing. And the the the tr ⁓ the DF the track races that were that they're they put on this over the summer, those are a blast.
Chris Detzel (00:48:34)
Okay.
Chris Detzel (00:48:43)
yeah. The did you go? What was it the ⁓ the ones that ⁓ the sloths and ⁓ yeah yeah, yeah.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:48:50)
Yes. I I did the one in Richardson and I did the sixteen hundred time trial and then the relay and that was just such a blast. And you know, being a a parent watching track of like I want to get in there and do it. And so this was the opportunity to do that. And it was like, ⁓ yeah. Good stuff. So just yeah, I I love how the community is coming together and you know the fact that they took that from Dallas and brought it up to Richardson. So ⁓
Chris Detzel (00:49:09)
That's pretty cool then. I love it. So
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:49:19)
the North Dallas community could participate in it was like that was just amazing.
Chris Detzel (00:49:24)
Yeah, I should have gone to that. I can't remember why didn't. ⁓ but ne this next year I'll I'll try to go to as many as I can. ⁓ well, Chris, this has been great. I really appreciate you coming on. So yeah. All right. Well, thanks everyone for tuning in to another DFW Running Talk. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter at DFW Running Talk.substack.com. Rate and review us. And let me know ⁓ if you guys have any recommendations of
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:49:31)
Me too.
Chris "CShel" Shelton (00:49:35)
Thank you for having me, Chris. I appreciate it.
Chris Detzel (00:49:53)
I'm looking for women runners that are doing some really great things in running. So ⁓ until then, Chris, thanks so much from McKinney Running Club. Really appreciate coming on.
