Running, Community, and Mimosas: A Conversation with Julie Lanaux of White Rock Co-op

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

All right. Welcome to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel. And today we have special guest, Julie Leneau. Julie, how are you?

Julie Lanaux: I am good. How are you?

Chris Detzel: I'm good. So, you know, I really appreciate you getting on today. You know, I met you through, I don't know if I really met you through White Rock Co op, but I've seen you around and then I've sort of started running with you guys as of kind of recent, but you've been around the running community for a long time.

Julie Lanaux: Yeah, I've definitely seen you all at races for years, long before I met who you and your wife were. So.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, you know, most people are like, well, I think you're Leah's husband, right? Yeah, there you

Julie Lanaux: go.

Chris Detzel: That's what most people say. So, but we've both been in the running community for a while. And, you know, one of the interesting things that I thought today is, is that, you know, you're big in the community.

You actually are the admin today of one of the admins of White Rock Co op running group. I mean, it's a [00:01:00] very popular group, you know, and I was talking to. Jose Lopez the other day, and he was like, yeah, this guy, Chris, something started. You can probably tell me about it and things like that. And I was like, oh yeah, okay.

This is how this got started. And then, you know, he left and then other people got into it and all this other stuff. We'll talk about that in a minute though, but I'm very interested in learning about you, Julie, your running kind of journey and who you are and all that kind of stuff. That's really what we're all here about.

Julie Lanaux: Sure. Do you want me to start off where I started? Tell me a little bit about, you know, how you got into running. Well, I, I always joke that I'm disappointed I didn't run in high school.

Huh. I belong, one of my PE classes we did, I guess it was like a month in each sport, and we did run, we did track.

And I loved it, but I kept getting side stitches, and no one ever told me that that actually just goes away if you keep running. And so I just thought, this is the most painful sport, why would anyone do this? Forget that, yeah. So, I'm really disappointed, because I did like it, and I think I'd be an even better runner had I [00:02:00] been running in high school.

But, for years, I just, it was not something I wanted to do. And then, my father in law was a big Iron Man competitor. And he actually made it to the finals in Kona one year and my, I guess he was my fiance at the time and I went out there to go see his dad finish and it was back in the day.

Chris Detzel: And you're married to this guy now?

Yeah. Yeah.

Julie Lanaux: Okay, get it. And so that was back in, let's see, what was that? Oh six. Okay. And back then you could actually have family members finish on the course with you. And so my husband, or then fiancé, actually ran like the last tenth of a mile of the Kona course. And I mean, he was in cargo shorts and I don't even remember what kind of shoes, they were definitely not running shoes.

But he finished and when he crossed through that chute, even though obviously he did not do the full Ironman by any means, just the energy, he was like, we really, we have to do a race. This was amazing. Into

Chris Detzel: something, yeah.

Julie Lanaux: And so that was I think like October, I don't remember which time of [00:03:00] year. And then the next month in New Orleans, they had a Thanksgiving Day run that was five miles.

And so we decided, okay, we're going to do this and went from couch to five mile, because that's the plan. That's our recommendation.

Chris Detzel: That I would. Unless you know, did some running before, but

Julie Lanaux: no, and I really had no idea what we were doing. And so I went to like Foot Locker or something and found some cute shoes that were on sale and bought them not knowing that I should actually have shoes that work for my feet.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Julie Lanaux: And we ran five miles. We were so slow, they actually turned the clock off on us before we finished. And so it was, if you want your time, just write your time down. And I almost blew out my knees because I ran in the exact opposite shoes of the shoes that I needed. I couldn't make it downstairs for days.

It was

Chris Detzel: Wow, and you kept running. That's, that's kind of a bad experience. Before, before we kind of continue that journey, is what, like you mentioned in high school, you didn't do running. Did you do any sports or anything like that, or?

Julie Lanaux: Yes and no to the extent that you count ballet as a sport, but [00:04:00] I was, I was with a ballet company, and so it was a lot not just, you know, a lesson once a week, it was Six nights a week that I was dancing.

And so I did a lot of physical activity, but no sports. No, I, I mean, that's a

Chris Detzel: pretty intense sport, you know, a lot of talent.

Julie Lanaux: It is, but you know, to my dad, it was not a sport. And so he kept waiting for me to be in softball or something. And soccer

Chris Detzel: running.

Julie Lanaux: Right. And so the joke now is every time, my sister was the one that was in softball and things, but I'm the one that ends up in the sports pages for races and things.

And I'm like, yeah, who would have seen this coming?

Chris Detzel: All right. So now I was, I was just curious, you know, if you had any kind of, and I mean, it's interesting ballet because, you know, If you're a ballet or anything, kind of like person that can be stretchy and things like that, they say, don't run, you know, but runners should be in yoga kind of thing, you know, but if you're completely in yoga or especially in ballet stuff, no [00:05:00] way, you know, so it's interesting that you did that.

Julie Lanaux: Yeah, it was a transition, but and, and, and all the, the bendiness I had from ballet is completely gone now that I run and sit at a desk all day.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. I mean, I was going to ask you about that. Is it, are you still pretty limber or,

Julie Lanaux: you know, trying to touch your toes? I'll take a yoga class and it's embarrassing when, you know, the, the lady next to me is touching her toes and I get to about my knees and I'm like, okay, that's it.

I can't go anymore. That's all I

Chris Detzel: can do. Leah was making fun of me yesterday as a matter of fact, because she's been working on it. And I peek away and I'm like, Well, you know, you could touch your toes, basically, and I can just touch my knees.

Julie Lanaux: Yeah. That's most runners. Because that's sad, Chris.

Chris Detzel: Chris, that's sad.

So back to your running. So you run these five miles and you hurt for a long time, you have the wrong shoes. How did your husband, what's his name again? Andre. Yeah, Andre. How did he feel? I mean, was he,

Julie Lanaux: Oh, we were both dying. It was, it was terrible. And it was, it was an ego thing. Neither one of us wanted to admit we needed to walk.

So we kept like trying to push for as [00:06:00] long as we could before we had to start walking. I mean, it was. It was bad. But he That's pretty

Chris Detzel: funny.

Julie Lanaux: Well, the ironic thing is, he's the one that really liked it at the time, so Oh. Even though he's the one that doesn't run anymore. But he got us into doing the Dashdown Greenville, the St.

Paddy's Day race here. And he's like, okay, this one will be fun. And I'm like, okay, well maybe I can actually train for this one. And it's only three miles.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. It's a lot easier. Far better.

Julie Lanaux: And but we, we had a whole group of friends that did that. And then that just, it started a whole thing from there.

Cause it was, you're, you're a

Chris Detzel: big community person anyways, it sounds like. You know, you just like a lot of people hanging out, you know, and

Julie Lanaux: I

Chris Detzel: think that running is great for that. Right. Yes.

Julie Lanaux: That's the biggest appeal for me. It's not. Even the running so much itself, it's all the people.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, I agree. I'm, I love, sometimes I'll get out of the people thing, like, and start doing, you know, because it's early in the morning or it's cold, you know, and I'm just not mentally always kind of there, you know, it's kind of, once I get there, you know, it's, I thrive on the community [00:07:00] aspect of it and it's just, it's amazing.

Julie Lanaux: It's much harder to run solo than when you know you have people waiting on you and then you get out there and it's great, so.

Chris Detzel: So you run this 5K, you enjoyed it this time, or?

Julie Lanaux: Oh yeah, we definitely did. We had a good time with it. And then there, you know, there's beer afterwards and the parade. I was like, oh, this is, this is fun.

And so little by little, I don't remember what we did next from there, but at some point I was like, I think maybe I could run a half. I'll never run a distance further than a half, but I'm going to do a half. And for some reason I picked The hottest half, which that race is no longer around, but it was regularly 90, 100 degrees.

That's the worst.

Chris Detzel: Like,

Julie Lanaux: I know. And that's why I stuck with running after that because it was one of the worst paths. I

Chris Detzel: remember last year I decided to, you know, try to run about a half marathon every single month. And this is kind of where my speed would, where I'd get my speed workouts, right. You know, maybe I'd do a 5k here and there.

And of course I'd run. Anyways, I did like three [00:08:00] summer races here in Dallas that were half marathons. And I even haste, I don't recommend it because, you know, I can generally run, you know, mid to low one thirties, you know these wives were extremely hard. Like I could barely even get it, you know, and I was actually in pretty good shape.

And I'm like, I don't, this year I didn't run one half marathon in the summer. I don't even remember like one race I did.

Julie Lanaux: Wow. I paced some, I did not sign up for running anything this summer.

Chris Detzel: It's tough, like to race especially, you

Julie Lanaux: know? Yeah, cause you really, you're, you're racing more against other people than for time, because you know you're not going to set your best time when it's 80 degrees at the start line.

Chris Detzel: You will not, ever, I mean unless you never ran before and that's just your best time. Yeah. It's actually a good time to maybe do it. This way you can PR easily the next time.

Julie Lanaux: Yeah, maybe that was the secret to the hottest half, was like the next one was guaranteed to be a PR if I ran in that heat.

Chris Detzel: No doubt.

So, were you prepared to run that [00:09:00] half marathon?

Julie Lanaux: I was. I did train for that one. Okay. So that one was not a disaster other than the heat, but it How'd you

Chris Detzel: do? What was your first marathon, half marathon time? Do you remember?

Julie Lanaux: I don't remember. Probably a little over two hours is my guess. I'd have to go do it again.

I don't remember. That,

Chris Detzel: being the summertime like that, you know, that's actually pretty good.

Julie Lanaux: Yeah. No, I, I don't remember it. It might've been 210 or something, but I, I feel like it wasn't It wasn't anything where I went, Oh, wow, I'm going to have four hours. It could have been tough. I mean, yeah.

Chris Detzel: So you run this half marathon and you're like, you know, pumped to do another one?

Is that kind of, or? Yeah.

Julie Lanaux: For a little bit, I would do halves, but I thought, Oh, a marathon's crazy. I'm never going to run a marathon.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Julie Lanaux: Famous last words. It's what everyone says and the group sucks you in. And then all of a sudden you're like, Oh, great. Now I'm signed up for a race. So then I ended up doing.

I guess what was white rock then became Dallas and is now run Dallas. So that was my first full marathon in 2009.

Chris Detzel: [00:10:00] Well, I mean, how'd you do, did you like, I don't want to do this again. Or,

Julie Lanaux: So The funny thing is I actually turned around and immediately signed up for another, I signed up for Caltown right after it because I got out there and it was one of those days at Dallas where the weather was perfect.

I think it was in like 30s or 40s. I mean, it was, it was ideal marathon weather.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Julie Lanaux: And, you know, I'd never run a marathon before and everyone said, Oh, you know, it, it hurts a lot. And so I'm running and everything's hurting and my, my throat is burning and I'm thinking, well, you know, this is one of our first really cold days.

I bet you it's because I'm breathing so hard. And I was trying to break four hours on my first, I think I ran 409. And I got home and I just, you know, I'm like, wasn't what I wanted to run. And then my husband came over and he like put his arm on my shoulder or something and he goes, you're burning up.

Turned out I had strep and I didn't know it because I just associated every ache and pain with, Oh, [00:11:00] the marathon's supposed to be bad. And so then it was like, no, no, no. If I came this close, this sick, I can do it at Caltown. So I signed up for Caltown two months later. So yeah, I mean, I was sold after the first, that was it.

Chris Detzel: Oh, that's so interesting. And, you know, I guess it's probably positive that you didn't. Know that you had strep because maybe if you did, you're like, I'm not going to do this, you know.

Julie Lanaux: Oh, I don't know that I would recommend running a marathon. I mean, I wouldn't either,

Chris Detzel: but I'm

Julie Lanaux: just saying,

Chris Detzel: you know, if there's a positive to it, it's like you didn't know.

Yeah. And so it didn't keep you from it, you know.

Julie Lanaux: Yeah, because I mean, I woke up that morning feeling fine, but it was just as the day went on, I think my immune system was getting ground down from all the pounding and then just, you know, as the day goes on, just the illness is taking over and I was, I was a mess by the time I got home.

Chris Detzel: Did you, were you running with a group then or just kind of on your own or what does that look like?

Julie Lanaux: You know, I was running on my own and because I was running on my own, you know, long miles are miserable. And so I do some of them just looping the lake, like, [00:12:00] you know, two loops of the lake to get 18 miles in.

And then I signed up for as many races as I could. So I, you know, back when DRC used to have, I don't know, ten races a month or a year. Yeah, something like that. Plus the DRC half I signed, I ran every one of those plus I would usually run at least one of the race a month just to give me someone to train with, even though they were all races, at least to give me people.

Chris Detzel: That makes sense. Now, when did you start kind of thinking about the community running with groups and things?

Julie Lanaux: So I guess in 2011, so that White Rock Running Co op was formed on New Year's Day, 2011. Yeah. And then I started hearing about them pretty quickly after that. I think Marco started trying to tell me, you gotta go, you gotta go.

Chris Detzel: And

Julie Lanaux: I just kept, I was like, I don't know, you know, I don't know that I'm gonna be fast enough. And then there was a woman in the group that I knew and she and I tended to come in similarly in races. And so I knew she was running with them and I thought, okay, if she's running with them, [00:13:00] surely I can do this.

And so I guess I joined in like May of that year.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Julie Lanaux: And it was just, okay, well, this will give me some people to train with. And I don't know, maybe two weeks in, it was like, I'm sold. It's so much nicer to not be running all these runs solo.

Chris Detzel: You

Julie Lanaux: met a lot of,

Chris Detzel: you met a lot of friends there. I mean, you still hang out with a lot of people now.

Julie Lanaux: Oh yeah. Some of my closest friends are all running people and they're all people that I met in the group. And I mean, I've traveled the world with, you know, a lot of them.

Chris Detzel: That's pretty cool. That, you know, that running community has done the same for me. Yeah. You know, like. You know, whether it's a specific races or just our life is around running ish, you know, and our friends are pretty much running friends, you know, it's hard to

Julie Lanaux: have other friends though because we're the only ones that understand.

Hey, I can't really go out Friday night because I have to be up at five o'clock on Saturday morning or I mean even during the week I have all these friends that are like, oh, let's go to happy hour. No, I [00:14:00] gotta meet friends in the morning. I can't go. I gotta

Chris Detzel: go meet at somebody five thirty or six or whatever it is.

Julie Lanaux: Yes. Yeah. So, you know, you kind of narrow your friend circle very quickly because people are like, you never go anywhere. No, I do. I just do it at a different timetable because I'm yeah.

Chris Detzel: You know you, you've done all these, there's some, some races and stuff, but now like you're not, you don't do a ton of races.

You do some.

Julie Lanaux: Yeah. More. I, I more enjoy the community aspect of it. I, I will tell you, racing makes me nervous as can be. I get it. Yeah. I just, I get so much anxiety and then, you know, for me it, I guess I was racing a lot up until 2019 and then the pandemic happened and I was. Not about, I didn't want to sign up for races because I, particularly a lot of races I do are out of town and I wasn't going to book all that and then find out that it went virtual and now I've got a trip planned just to run a virtual race.

Chris Detzel: And

Julie Lanaux: so I guess until 2022, I didn't even really start looking at racing [00:15:00] whatsoever. But did you stop running

Chris Detzel: a lot or did you still run as much?

Julie Lanaux: I, it was kind of a combo for a bit during the pandemic. I was running probably more because I know that they were, one, you have nothing else to do and you're not supposed to socialize with people.

But I always figured if I was outside, it was safe, so I would literally get up, run with a friend, come back home, work for a little bit, and then I'd have a friend message and say, hey, do you want some miles at lunch? And I'm like, yeah, why not? Sure, doing a lot of miles. And then after work, it would be somebody else is like, you want to run?

Yeah, why not? I mean, it was my way of seeing friends. Yeah. And so I, I ran like crazy. And then, but I, I had a, a health scare in 2021. That I ended up having to have surgery and that put me out almost all of 2021. And so then it's kind of been a rebuild. Okay, sure.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. You know, you've run a pretty good half, like, as in the last year or so, I mean, low 130s.

I mean, you're pretty fast. [00:16:00]

Julie Lanaux: Yeah. And somehow I'm still setting PRs, but I had always heard what was the rule is something like 10 years after 10 years, you stop really progressing. But I mean, I've been running since I was six, so it's still working for

Chris Detzel: me. You're killing it. So and so 2011, 12, whatever it was, you get into white rock co op and.

You started becoming part of the community, when did you, I mean now you're an admin of that community. What, what does that, yeah. I mean, you do a lot of stuff like, I mean, you're, yeah, I mean, I think it's kind of crazy. I mean, I think others step up too, but you know, it's, it's a lot of work.

Julie Lanaux: It is. And I, I don't think people realize how much work it is.

'cause there's a lot of people with a lot of ideas. Yeah. But they don't wanna, do I ? That's right. So I joke that I get voluntold a lot. But then. But yeah, I just, I don't even know exactly when I became an admin. It was one of those, I didn't even, it wasn't something I even was looking to do. I just woke up one morning and I had all kinds of extra access [00:17:00] and some like announcement post saying, congratulations.

And I was like, oh, okay, great. So I

Chris Detzel: just give you access.

Julie Lanaux: And then little by little. You know, people move away, people stop running, life gets in the way. And so everybody that was there in the beginning, I don't think any of them are left. I think I'm the one that's been around the longest. I mean, granted, I joined like five months in, and we were formed in 2011, so we've been around a while.

But I think at this point, I'm the last one that was like consistently running with us from back then. And so we just. I've been around long enough. Most people know who I am. And so I'm the one that people tend to reach out to for things because they know me. So, again, I get volun pulled. Lots of things that we need to talk about.

Well, I think

Chris Detzel: you're just easy to talk to, you know, and so people probably feel, Oh, you know, Julie, let me just reach out to Julie. I mean, like, you know, I love Javier, but, you know, he's, I'm not saying he's as easy to, to he, he is. I mean, once you get to know him, right? But, It's, you wouldn't think, Oh, I'm going to go ask him, you know what I mean?

Like, He's not the nice one. [00:18:00] It's not mean, but you know, I'm sure I'll listen to this, but, but it's, it's, it's true. Like I would have probably reached out if I didn't want it, something I would be like, Oh, Julie's the admin or whatever. But, but once you kind of get to know that group, you know, I think everybody's pretty friendly, you know?

So,

Julie Lanaux: yeah, you know, for the ones that are there all the time, I'm one of the more approachable, I guess, admins.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, you're very approachable.

Julie Lanaux: So why do

Chris Detzel: you you're doing all these, I mean, what do you do, what's the reasoning for your running? Like, is there a specific why? I mean,

Julie Lanaux: why do you consistently do it?

For me, it's really the friendships at this point. I, I'd love to say, okay, I, you know, I'd love some more PRs, that's great. But even if that never came, it's seeing my friends. I mean, I realize it when I've had things where I've been injured for a period of time and I can't run and I still show up. Like post run, just to see my friends, because I haven't seen them in a few months, and oh, I miss them, you know, and so much of it is just the community.

I feel like runners, in general, tend to be nicer people, and I think a lot of it is [00:19:00] because you see people at their best and their worst. And so you build these bonds with people, you know, when you're out there and, you know, something's cramping up, or you're injured, or it's just the hottest day ever, or it's, you know, like the weather we're about to go into, where it's 20 degrees, and all I want to do is complain the whole time that it's so cold.

Is he gonna get 20? Oh man. I, I hope not. I'm sure it will be in February, but it needs to be a ways off. But, you just, you, like, build this bond with people that you don't normally. Because I feel like you see them all the time, and you see them in some really, really good days. You know, you, you come off that PR on a race, and I mean, it's just Wow, you helped me get here, but then at the same time on my bad days, they're the ones that dragged me out.

So it really, it's all about the friends.

Chris Detzel: Well, a thousand percent. I was, the one thing I really like about, you know, building relationships in these, these running communities is it's watching people progress over time. [00:20:00] You know, it's, it's kind of fun to see, like, like I could see, like, if you and I just met and you just started running and stuff and we started running for a little while, I could, I would be able to see that you have some Yeah.

Talent, you know, and I'd be like, you know, Julie's got, she's got a, if you're running 140, she's got a 130, right? You know, it's like she just started, but it's going to take time mentally to get there. And so what people have to do is go through this mental state of, Hey, I'm running 140. That's the best I can do at best.

I don't know. I'll ever hit a 140 or whatever. And then five years from now, four years from now, they're hitting under 130s. You know what I mean? Like a half marathon or something like that. To me, it's like. Watching that whole kind of mental aspect of running and, and watching your friends kind of, you know, go through it, even yourself, like we all go through it.

You know, it's, it's not just them, you know, for me, I'm pretty secure in what I know I can do now, and I still try to push the limits in a way, just on the half marathons, [00:21:00] you know, but I just love watching people, you know, just get better, they start, but if they stick with it, you know, that's the key, but.

When they do that, they just get better and better, you know,

Julie Lanaux: and it's fun seeing people do things that they don't think they can do. We had a guy that came to run with us and he really never run before and he started running and we went out and I think we, we did six miles that day. And we're, we're running and we're talking about races and, you know, traveling for races and something came up about the Crescent City Classic and how, you know, that's a race that we usually have a bunch of people from the group that do it.

I've actually never done it. And we were talking about that and I was like, yeah, you know, I mean, not all of them are marathons. That one's only a 10K. And he goes, Oh man, you know. I don't know that I'd ever run that far. And here we're finishing and I go, so if you had run two tenths of a mile longer, you have run a 10K.

And then it was like, oh wow, I can do this. And then, I mean, within two months we did a run and he did 13 miles on a run and we made him run 13. 1 because we're like, you gotta run a half, [00:22:00] come on. But here was a guy that just thought, you know, a half marathon, whatever that means, is just some astronomical distance.

And it's not that it's not, but. It was kind of cute just to see him say, Oh, that's something I'd never do. And then we're looking and we're like, well I hate to break it to you, but you're running your first half.

Chris Detzel: It's fun because, you know, we've all kind of been there and thought, you know, a marathon or a half marathon, no way a marathon, no way.

Yeah. You know, don't get me wrong. Like, you know, a marathon is a long ways to go for me. I've done three and I've done some 50 Ks and, you know, when I run a marathon race, you know, I want to race it. And then. You know, for me, like, I don't, all that time and effort and then you blow up during a marathon, it's kind of a frustrating experience, like, you know, like, I felt like shit the, the last six miles and it was literally like I was going to die.

I cried after my, one of my marathons, you know, [00:23:00] like. Leo is there, you know, I didn't I wasn't embarrassed because you know, I felt like shit, you know, so you're

Julie Lanaux: opening there So yeah,

Chris Detzel: yeah What's kind of any fun stories that you know? You can talk about through kind of the about the group or maybe a race or anything like that.

You can think of

Julie Lanaux: I mean, I, I'm sure I have a thousand of them if I think about it. One of my favorites, Kevin Roberts, who used to be an admin for us, he runs less now because he's taken up Pickleball, the new thing.

Chris Detzel: Yeah,

Julie Lanaux: it is. He sold us on doing this, Grandma's, and we were sitting at Taco Joint one day and he's like, we're going to do this.

And I'm like, no, there's, all the hotels are sold out, I'm not going to do it. And finally he makes a deal with me and he's like, if I can get us a hotel room, will you go? Okay, fine. And at the time my husband was still running. And so the three of us decided Monday morning, like, Kevin has somehow secured a hotel room.

I don't know how. Great. Okay, we're going. And we get out there and it is whoring. Just, [00:24:00] it's bad. And my husband's like, I'm not running this. And it's, and it's a point to point where they bus you out to the start. And so he's like, I'm just going to find a way back. Okay, fine. So

Chris Detzel: he gets there and then decides not to do it.

Okay, wow.

Julie Lanaux: But the best part is Kevin and I start running. And I guess we're about six miles in and I hear Julie, Kevin, and I look, and here's my husband standing on the side of the course, six miles in, with an umbrella, that he didn't have when we left,

Chris Detzel: and

Julie Lanaux: two of us just point at him like, I can't wait to hear this story.

And it turns out he couldn't find a ride back except there was a family that their daughter was running her first marathon and they were trying to figure out how to spectate and they offered to give Andre a ride if he would show them kind of like time wise if she's expecting to run this, where would we go pick her up?

to see her on the course, so he just got adopted by a family, including an umbrella. And, of course, in multiple spots, and every time I pass him, [00:25:00] I'm like, how is he still here?

Chris Detzel: How does he keep doing this? He made friends. Talk about community. He made friends quickly.

Julie Lanaux: He definitely did it. It worked out. He got his ride back.

And for them, they didn't know, you know, if there's a spectating spot at mile six, how long should they give her to get there when all they knew was, you know, I don't remember what she was trying for. She was a runner. Yeah. And so they're like, I don't know how long we need to leave it. And Andre's doing the math going, okay, well, we probably should be here at this point and here at that point.

Chris Detzel: So all I had to do was math and he got it, get the ride.

Julie Lanaux: He did. It was fantastic.

Chris Detzel: I love that. Yeah. Some, you, you, through the running community, you hang out with Javier and his wife and others. Like, you go on vacations. Not running vacations. Just vacations.

Julie Lanaux: Yeah. That's pretty cool. Now we had a group of eight of us go.

Let's see, what was that, October, we went on a cruise together and went scuba diving and all kinds of stuff. There was no running involved, but it, you know, I mean, you just, they become really close friends when it's someone that you spend so much [00:26:00] time on, on the roads with at 5. 30 in the morning when no one else is awake.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And I've been to some of your meetups and I'll continue to come. It's been cold lately and I was like, I get it. It's cold and it's the holidays. Nobody wants to run right now. But I'm, I'm, I'm trying to push myself to get back into it, you know, and run with, to, like, I've got to try and incentivize myself because for a while I've been running kind of alone, you know and I just can't sustain that because you know how it is, you know, nobody likes to run alone, especially 10 or 15 miles.

So, you know, I'm trying to pick out, okay, I'm going to run with this group on these couple of days, this group on this day and this group on, you know what I mean? Just to start mingling with folks and things like that. So

Julie Lanaux: I love. And then see the other groups and. You know, you figure out for a while there when I first became an admin, I ran with every group I could find in the area because I was trying to figure out what do they do that I like, what do they do that I don't like, that maybe I don't even realize we're doing things.[00:27:00]

You know, it's putting people off or so yeah, I mean, I was going as far as like to Denton just to show up to runs, especially in areas like Denton, because there weren't as many runners that knew who I was, you know, if I show up to a run out at the lake, most people, somebody's going to know me, but you show up in Denton and you don't know anybody.

And there were definitely runs that I showed up to and I went, Oh, I don't like the way this functions because there's no attempt to like include new people. And you know, I'm. Relatively outgoing, but I can only imagine if you're pretty introverted to show up to something like that. I don't think I'd ever go back.

And so there's things like that that I went, okay, we need to do things different because I see how it feels to be the outsider at something like this. And I don't know, I think that's invaluable to get that kind of outsider's perspective for your own group. I

Chris Detzel: love that. What what do you think kind of sets your group apart?

Julie Lanaux: You know, I mean, we, we try to do as much as possible with the socialization part of it. Running party.

Chris Detzel: You

Julie Lanaux: Yeah. And running is, is huge. Obviously that is the primary goal, but there are so many groups [00:28:00] that you come out, you run, and then it's everybody, great run, get back in your car, see y'all next week.

And then you only meet the people that run your pace and distance. And so you meet three people in the group versus a hundred. And so we have really tried to make it to where, while yes, you're only going to run with certain people, There's more to invest in the group than just those people that you get to know and, and so one of the things for us Anytime, you know, we always have something afterwards where people come get coffee, tacos, a beer, something And then you can sit and you can sit with whoever and so you're getting to know people that have run all kinds of different things And the one thing that I'm adamant about any place we pick for post run I do not like individual picnic tables because then you end up with the awkward like high school experience where you have to ask to sit at someone's table if you don't know anybody and that for me is terrible.

So everything we do it has to be something where [00:29:00] we're like sitting at the bar and it's one long table or like White Rock Ale House is great about some real long tables. We'll go meet up out there because then it's not. If you don't know anybody, you don't have to be the kid going, Can I sit with you all?

Is that just, I feel like that's such a turn off to so many people, especially if you're really shy.

Chris Detzel: I love that. You know, it's and then that's very interesting that you think about that. And I think that's great. Well, that was the experience I had in

Julie Lanaux: Denton. I went, I went to this run in Denton, and it's all set up on picnic tables.

And yeah, if you don't know anybody, you have to say, Hi, I'm Julie. Can I go sit here? I don't know if you're going to have like the mean girl crowd or what. And, and so for me, I just saw that and went, I don't, I don't like that. And so that was something that I very quickly was like, we are never doing that.

Any restaurant we do, it has got to be big tables because it's far easier to find an empty bar stool at the bar, sit down and then say, hi, I'm Julie. I think I saw you at the run this morning versus having to [00:30:00] ask to pull up a chair at someone's table.

Chris Detzel: One thing you said earlier, and this is why I started pushing hard.

My group, the DFW running group. It's specifically like when I, I only ran with Dallas Rooting Club, still think they're great and stuff, but you know, but my issue was, is that if I ran with them, then I had a group. So the group could have been at that time was three 20, you know, and so the only people I met were in the three hours and 20 minute, you know, marathon group, I didn't even know there was a half marathon curve.

I think there was, but I didn't talk to them. I might've talked to some of the folks in three 10 or three 30, you know, but other than that, I didn't know anybody. Like, I was like, man, I only know like 20 people in this group, you know, like how do I expand it, you know? And, and so I thought, you know, it'd be kind of interesting to have a group that just like, for me, it's not a group like yours, where we go socialize.

It's just kind of this digital group, you know, all this, but, but is it more of when I see a face, I want to be able to, you know, at the, [00:31:00] at the lake or at a race, at least I recognize that face. No matter how fast or slow or whatever pace they run, didn't matter, you know, and I do think that's important because we're all here doing it together.

Doesn't matter with our pace, you know, I mean, we run a pace so that we can hit goals and that's okay and that's good, but we're all runners and none of us are pretty much experts in

Julie Lanaux: Well, and I think a lot of people get caught up in that and pacing and while everybody's pace, obviously it's important to them when you're racing, you know, people get.

I'm so worried with, Oh, this one's too fast. And it's like every, whatever run, whatever pace you run, that is a fast pace to someone and it's a slow pace to someone else. And so it's, you know, it's all relative unless you are setting the marathon world record. Probably what you're running is slow compared to those guys.

So, you know, I was talking

Chris Detzel: to this guy today. He was the winner of the Dallas marathon, Travis, [00:32:00] whatever doubt. And really fast, right? Like in college, he was running Fif 1443, 5K or you know, three mile, right? . Oh my God, this guy is really fast. He is. But he said, Chris, he goes, I, I couldn't make it to nationals.

You have to run at 1340. And the the reality is, is like there's always somebody faster than you for the most part, unless you're that number one person and most, and he's not, there's always levels, right? And we're all trying to hit better levels and, and none of us, for the most part are gonna do this for a living, you know?

'cause there's not much money in running anyways.

Julie Lanaux: It's just, I don't think most people want to pay a 330 marathoner, you know, there's not a lot of money in it for me.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And even him, like he ran a 226. That's not really, I mean, he has potential, he's young, you know, but he's not elite yet. Elite, elite.

He's elite for Dallas, but.

Julie Lanaux: Right. Elite locally. But yeah, I mean, most of the fastest guys I've ever [00:33:00] known, I mean, they're still not fast enough, like to make the Olympic trials. Exactly.

Chris Detzel: So

Julie Lanaux: it's, you can be the, the kid that wins everything, you're not Just

Chris Detzel: to run like a

Julie Lanaux: 217 or something. I know. So that's, I know people get so worried about pace, but it's like For men, but Oh, you know, there, there's always someone faster and someone slower.

Just accept where you are. If you don't like it, then train harder so you can be faster. But, but I mean, you know, I don't know. I just, there, there's a little bit of the, the mean girl attitude, I feel like, sometimes with that stuff. And I, I don't understand it. Because There are days that somebody will look at me and they consider me fast, and there's definitely other people that look at me and think I'm one of the slowest runners, and it, hey look, I'm good with what I do, so that's all about it.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, I think we have to accept that, you know, I, I, the reason I run is obviously the community aspect, same as you, is the biggest opportunity, but it's also kind of to stay in shape, to be healthy, to think about, you know, not gaining weight, you know, the, all those things to me are, are key, [00:34:00] you know, and, and you know, I mean, What else better than the community of runners that we're in and also, you know, kind of keeping our weight down and all that's why I do it.

Julie Lanaux: I mean, yeah, there's something enjoyable too about even when I'm not out there Training for a PR somewhere just seeing my friends get it Yeah, or you know, you you get the newer runner that needs some help tweaking things and you go look You know if you did this a little different this may help out and then all of a sudden they do really well And you look at this, you know, I mean that's part of why I like the group And I don't always run my fastest runs.

Sometimes I'm out there just to run with other people because it's nice to see what they're doing and where they're going to be six months from now. Or, you know, I love to pace for the same reason. Because you get out there and there's something about you're with these runners and they all have all these hopes of I need to hit this goal today.

And, you know, obviously not everybody does, but

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Julie Lanaux: Even if you cross that finish line with one person, they're usually ecstatic because that was their PR and it's like, man, I helped this guy get there. [00:35:00] That's awesome. That's right. I, there's something that even if I'm not the one setting the PR or winning the race or whatever, there's something enjoyable about seeing everybody else do better than they thought they could.

Chris Detzel: Did you run, run Dallas this, I thought you were going to, but something happened.

Julie Lanaux: I was planning on it, and I even went and picked up my bib, I had all my stuff laid out, but my husband had had the flu, and then lucky me! I got it, and when I was still awake at 2. 30 in the morning, the morning of the race, I finally just turned my alarm off, and I have realized now that the most depressing thing in the world is to have all of your stuff laid out, including your gels, and I had the pins and the bib, I was ready.

And so to get up that morning and take all that apart was like, this is, this is awful. And I was sick. So then it just piled on to like how bad I felt, because I was like, I'm so sad right now. And then, you know, you see everybody else and they're like, oh, you know, how did someone I went back to the

Chris Detzel: thought of.

I'm not really sick. This is just the way I'm supposed to feel like the, you know, and just did it.

Julie Lanaux: I mean, look, [00:36:00] I actually, the funny thing is, so last year I just spectated the year before I was sick for Dallas, and I still ran it. And it was one of those, we're just going to run by heart rate, because every time our heart rate starts screaming, let's just back it off.

But I was a little less sick that time than I was this time. And I just kept thinking, you know, I was at that point where I was like weak if I did too much walking around. And I'm like, man, somebody, I'm going to collapse on this

Chris Detzel: board. Well, kick your ass, man. I mean, so you called it, you did the right thing.

Julie Lanaux: I really didn't want someone to have to stop my Garmin while I'm passed out on the ground. Stop my Garmin, please. Just save it. Save

Chris Detzel: it. I did this much at least when I was sick. Yeah. And the title will be, Ran six miles with flu during that rondellas.

Julie Lanaux: Oh yeah. There's definitely, look, when I have those bad days, there are days that I post that I'm like, this is a stupid run, but I did it.

Tell me I'm an idiot for running, but it's fine.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. You know, one thing you mentioned is pacing. I really love pacing as well. So I did, rondellas [00:37:00] this year. Interesting enough, although it was really warm and extremely humid, a lot of people in the 150 stayed with us pretty much the whole time and then passed us the last couple of miles.

And I was like, you know, slightly surprising because that doesn't usually happen with conditions like that, you know? But it did. And it was so much fun to see there's this kid, I think he was, he looked like he was 10, but he was 14. And he was like, I tried to run this last year and hit, I don't know, 155 or something like that, but I'm trying to hit 150 and he killed it.

Like, Within like three miles, he just started, he passed us and just kept going. I was like, wow, you know, he did it. A lot of people did. So it was fun to see. Yeah.

Julie Lanaux: No, that's nice. And then, you know, there's something fun about, I had a guy that ran with us at when I paced toward a floor and, you know, right after that, he started like commenting on all my runs.

And so I'm like, okay, this guy, I feel like he wants some community. And so, so I was like, hey, come out, run with us, come out, run with us. And so now he's been out to a couple of runs and I'm, [00:38:00] but he runs solo and I'm like, look, It doesn't have to be us, but you need a running group if you really, if you want to get faster.

Some people can do it on their own, but one of the easiest ways is to join a group. And so I was, I kept pushing him. And so I was really excited when I see him show up. Cause I'm like, look,

Chris Detzel: he listened. Yeah, you, you, you did good at that. Like just recruiting and things like that. I mean, is that. Do you do that a lot?

Julie Lanaux: Yeah, you know, I mean, if you want to keep a group alive, you have to, because again, people move, people get injured, people just decide, you know, what pickleball is better than running. I mean, you never know. People disappear. And so you have to keep bringing people in. And to some extent, selfishly for the group, the more people we have, the more we offer.

Because we don't have paid pacers and pace groups and distances. So for us, if I have 10 people at a run, that's a maximum of 10 different paces. And some of those people may be running the same pace. Yeah. If I have 50 people at a run, well, now I've [00:39:00] got some more options. And so the more people we have, the more I can say, look, we have people running this faster pace.

We have people running this slower pace, those kinds of things. It makes us able to offer more to other runners. Because I know everybody, no one wants to show up and then you're the only one running, you know, whether it's a five minute mile or a 15 minute mile, you don't really want to show up to a group and still have to run solo.

Chris Detzel: So I'm always trying

Julie Lanaux: to upgrade.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. I mean, you do pretty good. When's your most heavily attended groups? Is it Saturday and Sunday, I assume? Or Sunday?

Julie Lanaux: Saturday's definitely the biggest. Sunday's pretty big too, but, yeah, I mean, and Wednesday night. Wednesday night, I, I joke that that's our, like, friendlier version because it Party night.

Yeah, yeah, you know Josh like Josh is really good about making it fun, and it's it's always it's just three miles I mean obviously you can add more if you want, but it's I feel like it's less intimidating knowing It's only three miles.

Chris Detzel: Kind of like a fun run ish, you know. Yeah, and you know

Julie Lanaux: It doesn't have to [00:40:00] be, you can come out, you can run it hard, you can run 10 miles if you want, but really what we advertise is a three mile run, which is just inherently less scary than hearing 10 to 20 miles.

Yeah,

Chris Detzel: I went out to Jose Lopez sent me a message the other day and he goes, Hey, we run on Saturday and Sundays. I said, okay, I go, maybe I can do it Sunday. And he sent me a message on Saturday. Hey, I did 20 miles today. And, you know, I'm not. And shape to do 20 miles, I could do maybe 10 to 12 or whatever.

And I'm like, well, you know, I'm not going to be running 20 miles tomorrow. You know, I'm happy to run and hang out, but not 20 miles, you know? And so I showed up, he just ran 10 miles with me, you know, but so I think that's, you've got to do that, right? Like you have to have the right mileage and it's probably kind of hard.

I mean. You know, because it's not, it's organized, but it's not, you know, hey, dude, this pays, you know what I mean? So.

Julie Lanaux: Yeah. We're, we're organized, but it's very loose. It's very casual. There's, you know, you don't [00:41:00] have to sign up. You don't do anything. So because of that, I never know who's coming. It's, you know, we may show up and I go, Oh, there's only four of us here today.

Okay. Or, you know, the next time it's 40 and I'm like, Oh wow, there's a lot of people here today. I don't know why. So yeah, it's, it's more flexible because we don't have the organization, but at the same time, it's a little more chaotic sometimes too. Right. Yeah. I

Chris Detzel: like that. I love your group and I think the flexibility is always good, but, you know, just people, you know, people are always wearing the shirts, which I think that makes it, you know, a thing, right?

Like people see it because, you know, it's local and pushing out the Facebook posts and other posts on Instagram. And, you know, that, I think that really helps carry it too, not just the shirts, but, you know, people are wearing them and it's true branding. You guys do a really great job of that.

Julie Lanaux: Well, that the founders, that was his kind of plan was.

You know, you had these other races that would set up or other groups that would set up booths at races and advertise their running group. But half the time, you know, you're getting people from out of state, they're not going to come run with me. And [00:42:00] so for him, it was just, we're going to sell the shirts for as cheap as possible because I want as many people in the shirts as possible.

And I want people to keep seeing the shirts at the late going, who are these people that keep passing me? Or at races, somebody wins it or they win the age group, that kind of thing. And you think, man, maybe I should run with these people. They look kind of fast. And so that was our marketing. It wasn't, you know, we don't do any big pushes.

We don't have all the, we don't have a tent with the branding on it. We don't have booths at races. We don't really do a lot of that. It's just, we're always out there. You'll see us in gear. And hopefully that's enough to capture people's attention.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And I

Julie Lanaux: bought

Chris Detzel: a shirt for the first time, so can't wait until that comes out.

No, I'm really excited about it. So

Julie Lanaux: hopefully they're good. We haven't seen them yet,

Chris Detzel: but, well, you know, I'll still wear it. And like my wife, Leah, she's. She's the one I was putting, it's like, oh yeah, I gotta buy it. You know, so she's like, I already bought mine a long time ago, Chris. You know, you need to Julie, did I miss anything?

Julie Lanaux: Not necessarily. You know, [00:43:00] my biggest thing, I'm, I'm always recruiting, so anybody that wants to come out in the room with us, please do. And, you know, I I really hope we're not that intimidating. I, I try to make it where we are as approachable, approachable as possible. That's not always so easy, especially because most of the time for us, our most outspoken members, I guess the ones that post the most tend to be the ones that trend faster.

And so when all you see is seven minute mile, seven minute mile, seven minute mile, it's real scary when you're the 11 minute miler going, I don't know that I can run with these people. Cause I mean, that was my impression of the group before I joined. And so, you know, I, I don't want people to have that impression of us, and if, if you are considering running with us, shoot me a message, post in the group, tell me what you're looking for, because we've had a lot of that lately where, I mean, even I think it was this last weekend.

You know, it's the holidays, we've got Dallas Marathon, people are coming back, and we had someone that wanted, I think it was 16 miles at like an 1130, you know, and she posted that. [00:44:00] I love that she posted in advance and I said, okay, give me a minute. Let me see who I've got out there. And sure enough, we had another woman in the group that was like, oh, I can run that.

And so I was like, look, see, we have company. I just, you have to tell me and then I can find it. I love

Chris Detzel: that you do that. I mean, that's some work, you know.

Julie Lanaux: We try, but I mean, I'd rather that than they show up and then they don't have anybody to run with because no one knew that someone needed that pace and you know, there's just so many people that stay home because they go, I don't know that anyone's running this and now there probably will be someone or if there isn't, if you post, you will drag other people because they'll go, Oh, look, someone's running my pace or my distance.

That's, that's the biggest thing is just getting people involved. But, you know, while, while we do have a lot of serious runners, we, and I guess I don't I don't want to say serious, it sounds terrible. We have a lot of people that are pushing the faster paces that are scary, but we also have runners that are Well, they're

Chris Detzel: pretty serious runners, you know?

Yeah.

Julie Lanaux: But we have the new runners. We have the runners that are just out there casually enjoying themselves. We have all those things. [00:45:00] It's just ask, but you know, for me, I think the biggest compliment I ever got on the group was two complaints, but I take them as compliments because I got them in the span of a week.

One person complained and said the group is too serious and too fast. And then someone else says the group party's too much. And I was like, if a group party's too much, we're doing it right. And we do. I mean, that's the social aspect that I was mentioning. We will come out and we will train so hard at a Saturday run and everybody's dying on the run.

It's fantastic. You finish and you're like, Oh, I did a great job. And then I'll go inside and have a mimosa and a taco with some friends. I mean, that's, that's how I see that

Chris Detzel: as one is okay. The group's too fast. Fair enough. All right. We'll find some people for you. That's good. And then. You guys party too much.

Perfect. Thank you. And then move on, you know, like that's how I'd see that. You know, that's actually

Julie Lanaux: my thing. If we're both I am doing something right, because that means we are both training hard, but we're also still enjoying life because I don't want to be the person that. [00:46:00] Trains, trains, trains, and then it's like a job.

We make it fun, and we try to make it as fun as possible. We, you know, we just did that Christmas lights run last week from Ale House, and we ran past, I don't know if you've ever seen it, there's that crazy house, Electric Lizzy Land, I've never seen anything like it. No. It's worth, it's worth seeing if you haven't seen it.

But we did this run, and I mean, we get out there, and we spent 15, 20 minutes just walking through this random house that's all lit up, every inch of the house is glitter. It's awesome. There's dioramas everywhere. But it was like, here's a good spot. I think it took us an hour to run two and a half miles because we're all just stopping.

We're taking photos. But so it was a little bit of like, let's go have some fun. And then everybody had a beer after. I mean, that's, that's what I'm looking for. It's social, but it's like, I want to work hard when I'm working, but then I also, I want to have a good time. And I think we are both.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And I think that's important is, you know, like there's this group, I guess they're still called, we're still called TDR [00:47:00] or whatever.

But. On Thursday nights, we get together we kind of have a little lull from like November to February where we don't, but for the most part, we'll get together on Thursday nights at six or five 30 and we don't even run anymore. You know, if we do our own runs late, you know, before early in the morning or whatever, we're still all runners, but we just hang out, maybe have some beers at the What is it Norfolk, Norfolk Park, and that's it, you know, like, and like, sometimes we'll go up to the local bar and just hang out, you know, if it's, if it's too dark or whatever, hey, let's just go to the bar, you know, like you know, that's just the way it is.

And we still talk about running and how things are going and things like that. And I think. Every aspect of the community for running is important. Like you said, you can be as serious as you'd like. You don't have to be all this serious. You have fun. That's what humans do. You know, like people are serious.

I mean, look at Javier and Nick and all these other people, right? Even yourself at times, pretty serious about your running, [00:48:00] you know, still like to have fun and enjoy it, you know? Cause that's just being human. I don't want it to be a job. Exactly. You know, we, we all do this to stay in shape, to look as good as it can and.

Things like that, but we also can have some beer, you know, well, Julie, this has been great.

Julie Lanaux: Yes. Thank you.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Well, I appreciate you coming on. And so thank you for those that are tuning in to another DFW running talk. I'm Chris Detzel. Please rate and review us. Your stars are important. So this gets out to the running community in Dallas.

Julie, thanks again for coming.

Julie Lanaux: No problem. Thank you so much. All right.