Early Call Time

Continuing their international interview series, Eli and Tony welcome the man with the coolest name in the running industry, Johan Tigér, Chief Technical Officer of Göteborgsvarvet, to the Pod. And what a welcome they give him, as Eli greets him by butchering both Johan's and his race's name.

Although our American listeners may not be familiar with it, Göteborgsvarvet is a big deal, the largest half marathon in the world with over 60,000 registrants in its peak year, starting in 30 waves from 1pm-4pm on what's usually a beautiful spring day in Sweden's Second City, Gothenburg (Tony can't get over what these start logistics must look like). As its CTO, Johan is charged with keeping the race ahead of the curve in all areas technology, with a major focus on registration.

Johan came to running a bit later in life than many of our guests, but has immersed himself in running culture over the last decade-plus of his life, since a co-worker at the Swedish equivalent of the NSA asked him to go for a run during and he finished the run with the taste of blood in his mouth. He ran his first Göteborgsvarvet in 2006, and has since run 32 races of marathon distance or longer (definitely not a member of the "just one marathon club" like the co-hosts).

After getting his masters, Johan bounced between e-commerce and working at jogg.se (which he describes as Swedish Strava) before starting a small registration company which Göteborgsvarvet then brought him on to customize as their registration platform. And as the architect of that platform, Johan was recently able to construct a three-click Covid-19 transfer function for its 40,000 runners when it Göteborgsvarvet went virtual.

Eli gets sidetracked when Johan mentions a one-off marathon being held in honor of Gothenburg's 400th anniversary next year, which currently has 6,500 registrants of its 15,000-cap event registered over a year in advance, grilling him about the details of this high production-value, mass participation, one-off event. Johan then gets us back on track sharing the details of what Göteborgsvarvet did when it went virtual, including a custom video (with voice-over work by a national celebrity!) for all finishers. (In the process he drops a sick burn on Eli for his failed hashtag attempts. If he's not invited back, you know why...)

Johan then brags about the Swedish events community, including the multi-sport Swedish Classic series of events which Johan himself completed in 2013. And he also mentions another very cool-looking Swedish multisport event, swimrun. Johan then lets us know right at the end of the pod that we have to wrap it up so he can go home to prepare for the ultra he's running the next day!

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe. If you have any questions, comments, or guests you would like us to invite, please send us an email at [email protected].

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After last week's bye, the guys return this week with an all-banter episode! Tony lets us all know he has leaned that races' customer service teams must be absolute saints, after dealing with virtual event customer service himself over the past few weeks. And Eli shares the story of how an Austin Marathon customer service interaction is actually how he and his wife first met...although they didn't realize it until well into their courtship.

Eli also shamelessly plugs the reason the pod took its bye last week, which is that he was busy last week putting on a different kind of virtual event: a virtual summer camp! Eli volunteers every summer as a Program Director for Experience Camps, a free week-long overnight camp for children who have experienced a death-loss, so he spent every evening last week on a camp activity Zoom call. Like races, virtual is an okay bridge, but he thinks in-person camp is way better. (Volunteer applications for 2021 will open this fall, and since this is a shameless plug Eli wants you to know that events people would absolutely love camp.)

The guys talk about some recently-canceled or altered events, including the Richmond Runfest, directed by former ECT pod guest Tom Bedford, which had to postpone its marathon and half marathon but is still planning to put on its 10k, and also Spartan Race, which after its headline-grabbing Jacksonville event in June has since canceled its entire US season (although many of its international events are moving forward). (Warning: Frustrated with American's response to the pandemic, Eli drops a single F-bomb in this segment.)

But the guys are heartened that some organizations are beginning to pilot new models and environmental safety procedures at small-scale in-person events, like the Atlanta Track Club with its Publix Summer Series. Tony notes the lack of a unified set of industry standards may make it very hard to take the next steps toward larger events, but the guys agree that those standards are needed even though, as Eli is fond of saying, every race is a snowflake. And they're also happy to see events continue to innovate, with ideas like OYO Portland (which they agree they need to have one of the event organizers on to discuss, since they don't know enough about it) emerging as new alternatives for major urban marathons.

Eli and Tony  wrap up talking about how excited they are for the elite-only London Marathon, how London's TV deal likely makes it more lucrative for them to put on an elite-only event than fully cancel, and also how they would be interested in doing a logistics and operations focused "B" broadcast for this unique edition of London (or really any race--if your event needs broadcasters who will talk way too much about what type of ballast they see in the background, hit us up!).

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe. If you have any questions, comments, or guests you would like us to invite, please send us an email at [email protected].

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There are five Thursdays in July, so the guys are excited to release a bonus fourth episode this month, an interview with Richmond Running Festival Founder Tom Bedford! This will be the first of several interviews with international events professionals in the coming months, as Tony and Eli look to celebrate the endurance sports events industry across the globe and learn about different nation's cultures and quirks.

This episode's topics are as far-reaching as you would expect for a transatlantic interview, featuring stories about a cascading series of running bets made over too many pints at the pub post-race day as well as about Sir Mo Farah and why Tom might be partially responsible for his success (and was also responsible for his near-demise). He tells us what it's like to grow up with a legendary badass as a father and also what it's like to work with some of the greatest athletes in the world at the London Marathon, as well as giving us some insight as to what it takes to get a new event off the ground in a place like Richmond (hint: knowing Sir Mo doesn't hurt) and what it takes to make a new event a success.

Tom talks some about a key feature in the British running scene, Park Run, and how this series of free 5ks that may not be familiar to our American listeners helps new people find the sport and creates an inclusive community around it. He then tells us about the British club running scene and how you're with your club for the whole of your life, but also about how run crews and other, "fresher" types of running groups are bringing a new vibrancy and at times a "punky" feeling to the running scene.

He shares his thoughts on the challenges facing the events industry in the post-pandemic world and also a bit about his plans to make Richmond Running Festival one of the first major races to take place in-person this fall, which we would all be excited to see go forward as a safe and successful event!

And it's ambiguous whether Tom ends the episode by inviting just the hosts or all Early Risers to come visit him in Richmond, but if you show up on his doorstep and tell him Tony and Eli sent you, it sounds like Tom would probably be happy to have a pint with you.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe. If you have any questions, comments, or guests you would like us to invite, please send us an email at [email protected].

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In this episode Tony and Eli hide their head in the sand like ostriches and, rather than talk about anything COVID-related, have some fun and put forth what they hope will be a JT Service-approved "beautiful shitshow" of an episode.

Tony lets everyone know that a virtual event is just as taxing, in a different way, as an in-person event, and Eli and Tony both let everyone know about their pets' quirks before they get into the meat of this episode: giving events high school yearbook-style superlatives.

Wanna know if your race or your favorite race got a superlative? Wanna know who we think is "most likely to succeed?" Want to find out what races we think would've been the "best couples" in high school (and also, maybe find out that Eli seems to have thought about this way too much, to the point where Tony accuses Eli of writing "running industry fan fic")? Then you've gotta listen to this episode, because we're not giving away the good stuff in the show notes. Also, be sure you're following us on social (links at bottom of the show notes), as we'll be asking for tie-breaking votes in some categories on our social channels (we got sick of hashtags flopping, so we figure we'll have a Twitter poll flop this week instead).

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe. If you have any questions, comments, or guests you would like us to invite, please send us an email at [email protected].

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Eli is playing a road game for this episode, recording from his father's kitchen in Portland, Maine. He's there helping his dad out after a knee replacement surgery, which his (non-runner) dad had to have because (as Eli rants about a bit) running isn't actually any worse for you knees than any other activity! (And his dad's recovery is going well, thanks for asking.)

With prompting from Eli, Tony gives an update about how his new virtual event, the Texas Distance Challenge, is going (short version: really well!). Tony compares what he hopes to accomplish with TDC (as the cool kids call it) to eating healthy as opposed to dieting and also explains why distance challenges should lean into their storytelling and maybe rely a little less on leaderboards. After sticking his neck out to test his theories (that we've all heard him presenting on at industry conferences for the last few years) by rolling out this event, it's a good thing for Tony that TDC is going as well as it is! And if you're interested in licensing the idea for your market, he's open to it...

The co-hosts then dive into a big topic that Eli somehow overlooked while planning for this week's episode (although it's not always apparent, we actually prepare for our recording sessions!): Spartan's return to in-person racing. (The video of the Running USA webinar mentioned in this segment can be found here.) While Tony and Eli are both skeptical that any in-person event can be done perfectly safely, there are some good takeaways from what Spartan did that can be applied at any event.

Finally, Tony IDs three questions that every event that wants to emulate Spartan and return to in-person racing needs to ask itself before returning to in-person racing:

• What is your organizational risk tolerance?
• What is your market's (participant and state/municipal) risk tolerance?
• And are your pockets deep enough to do everything that needs to be done?

Eli then really strongly encourages everyone to build systems for their return to racing that don't just barely hit minimum standards but have enough slack in the system to deal with things not going exactly as planned. On another quixotic hashtag-pushing quest, he encourages everyone to build environmental safety and operations plans that are robust enough to #absorbtheassholes. (Tony wants to make 100% clear that he not only doesn't endorse this hashtag but that as his "risky click of the day" he also doesn't think you should use or search for it; the more-benign #returntoracing he is more tolerant towards.)

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe. If you have any questions, comments, or guests you would like us to invite, please send us an email at [email protected].

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In this episode recorded earlier this spring Tony and Eli interview one of the behind-the-scenes giants of the industry, David Grice, owner and founder of RaceWorks Incorporated. David is a good friend who worked with and showed both Eli and Tony the ropes in their early days in the industry and, despite his substantially better running pedigree, is also a member of the "I've only run one marathon" club.

David's career has taken him from his days as a college runner at the University of Texas, to becoming an intern at the Austin Marathon (which Eli also did... quite the launching pad, clearly!), to working in race operations at the local running store for a year before leaving on vacation and finding out that the store was no longer in the business of putting on races when he got back. That led to him launching his event logistics and operations business, and having to convince local events that were used to receiving those services for free to start paying him to provide them. From those humble beginnings he has become the "secret weapon" behind the scenes working ops on some of the biggest races in America, including the Chicago Marathon, Houston Marathon, Philadelphia Marathon, 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials and many more.

David gets grilled about being a "portalet prima donna" and his personal hi-viz tailor, and despite us making fun of him for that he graciously regales us with great stories about putting on a 10k for Willy Nelson, having a man threaten to shoot him while certifying a half marathon on a rural county road (here's a link to the voicemail Tony refers to during this story), and climbing inside the finish truss to pull up a clock that was beginning to fall while the race was going on.

We ask David to share his thoughts and insights on everyone in the industry's topic--COVID-19--but rather then get bogged down in that we "pivot" (but in a different way) to talking about what he's doing with his free time since he's not working right now, which includes a detour of a discussion into the Austin brewing and bar scene (Draughthouse for life!) and also Eli trying to get away with saying the phrase "mods on your whip" (don't worry, they let him know he can't pull it off).

We agree that we need to have David back on some time to discuss his work on international races like the Singapore Marathon. And lastly, Eli asks (and Tony begs) for our listeners to come up with a better nickname (that sounds less like a certain male bodily function) than what Eli has taken to calling them, "Early Risers." We're looking for something #betterthanearlyrisers (and yes, this is Eli trying to get another hashtag to take off).

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe. If you have any questions, comments, or guests you would like us to invite, please send us an email at [email protected].

Facebook: @EarlyCallTimePod
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Thanks to Race Roster for sponsoring this month of the podcast. Race Roster and its Runkeeper app, now a part of the ASICS family, form a great team that drastically enhances the digital services Race Directors require to host premier events. Next time you're looking at registration or virtual race platforms, take a look at Race Roster.

This Pride Month banter episode features special guest Michael Clemons, founder and owner of the Louisville Running Company. Michael, already having completed his run before our early morning recording session, gives us a little bit of his history with running before sharing his coming out story. Thankfully, his coming out story is a supportive one, and among the first people who he came out to were his college cross country teammates.

After one of the eponymous "two clueless straight dudes" asks Michael to, he defines two key terms ("LGBTQ+" and "cisgender") for our hosts and listeners before educating us on how our run crews, clubs, and teams can be more LGBTQ+ friendly (use your words thoughtfully and display those rainbows proudly, allies, and back that up with your actions!). Tony then asks Michael to give races a grade on how they're doing on LGBTQ+ inclusion, and Michael gives us a grade that shows there's room for improvement. And the hosts and Michael all agree that while portalets are egalitarian in their terribleness, registration with only binary gender options should rapidly become a relic of the past.

Coming at it from the viewpoint of someone whose workplace is the endurance sports events industry, Michael encourages us all to embrace sharing our pronouns even if we conform to traditional gender norms, to normalize and make it easier for those who may not. And as a sometimes road warrior, he encourages us to think about how we house folks when we bring in folks from away to work our events.

We then transition to talking about track and field's (or as Eli pretentiously calls it, "athletics") spotty history (and present) of policing sexuality and gender, especially as relates to transgender athletes. And Michael wonders whether, in the vast majority of cases, there may not need to be any policing of gender for purposes of awards, and holds up Western States's Transgender Entrants Policy and the BAA's qualification policy as examples of good, gender-inclusive ones.

We then ask Michael, as a Louisville resident who has been attending protests and speaking out since the killings of Breonna Taylor and then David McAtee and also someone who has to work closely with police, how he has navigated that, and also about his sense of ethics in the industry overall.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe. If you have any questions, comments, or guests you would like us to invite, please send us an email at [email protected].

Facebook: @EarlyCallTimePod
Instagram: @EarlyCallTimePod
Twitter: @EarlyPod

Thanks to Race Roster for sponsoring this month of the podcast. Race Roster and its Runkeeper app, now a part of the ASICS family, form a great team that drastically enhances the digital services Race Directors require to host premier events. Next time you're looking at registration or virtual race platforms, take a look at Race Roster.

June's first banter episode kicks off with talk of how 2020 is like the TV show "Lost" before Tony and Eli talk about what everyone in our industry is talking about: virtual events, and our gradual return to in-person racing. Eli leads with something that Tony doesn't think will work due to the pod's lack of social engagement, asking listeners who have launched virtual events or creative in-person events to use the hashtag #runnow2runlater to let us know what cool events your company is doing right now. We want to hear what you're up to and talk about it on the pod! (Desperate plea from Eli: Please don't let Tony be right--use this hashtag folks! #runnow2runlater)

Tony holds up DMSE's Medford2Medford and Run Local's California Coast 500 as examples of events that did it right by developing a unique concept, and talks about the time and effort that Event Southwest has put into developing their Texas Distance Challenge virtual concept the right way. Eli, in expressing his agreement with Tony, repeatedly and weirdly uses the phrase "back it up" to challenge folks to really tell a story and develop their concept when launching a virtual event.

As in-person events slowly return, Eli brings up Millenium Running's Any Time 5k--which has a finish arch set up in the parking lot of their specialty run store, timing running from inside their store 24 hours a day, and a low-traffic 2.5k route that can be run twice for a 5k--and Revel's OYO Marathon--which has permanently installed timing on a local park trail and has substantial results verification processes in place as options--as innovative options that allow for fun races to be held while only small gatherings are allowed. Tony mentions that he considered taking a road trip to run Vacation Races's Zion at Night event. (Note: Eli may be mistaken that OYO times will be accepted as qualifiers for New York--but he swears he saw that somewhere. He also thinks his position on virtual races has actually been pretty consistent.)

Eli then abruptly ends this recording session when he realizes he has a meeting that's about to start, so you'll have to listen to a future episode for Eli and Tony to talk about COVID considerations at Expo and Packet Pick-up.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe. If you have any questions, comments, or guests you would like us to invite, please send us an email at [email protected]. And don't forget, if you've launched virtual events or creative in-person events, post on social using the hashtag #runnow2runlater to let us know what cool events your company is doing!

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Here are some resources for those of you who want to learn more about and take action on racial justice:

Organizations, Resources, and Calls to Action
ColorOfChange.org
Indivisible's Call to Action in Solidarity with Minneapolis
Resources from the Obama Foundation
Anti-racism resources for white people
75 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice (Corinne Shutack)

Online Articles/Commentary (running-specific)
Racing to Stay Alive (US Olympian Marielle Hall, Runnersworld.com)
Black Female Lawmaker in Minnesota Worries About Teenage Son's Safety (Noel King, NPR)
We Ran for Ahmaud Arbery. What's Next? (Alison Désir/Erin Strout, Women's Running)
11 Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Runners Speak Out About Running and Race (Emilia Benton, Runnersworld.com)

Other recommended reading (books)
Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
Me and White Supremacy (Layla F. Saad)

Thanks to Race Roster for sponsoring this month of the podcast.  Race Roster and its Runkeeper app, now a part of the ASICS family, form a great team that drastically enhances the digital services Race Directors require to host premier events. Next time you're looking at registration or virtual race platforms, take a look at Race Roster.

In our June interview episode we take a look at things from the brand-side with CLIF Bar Southwest Region Marketing Manager Alex Calderon. We learn about how he's living the California Dream, what it's like working with duathlon legend Kenny Souza ("a salty little rascal," per Alex), and also get sidetracked hearing stories about his better half (whose voice you have all heard before). Alex and Tony explain how exhausting it is to execute CLIF's activations at the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona and the challenges of working on the Big Island.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe. If you have any questions, comments, or guests you would like us to invite, please send us an email at [email protected].

Facebook: @EarlyCallTimePod
Instagram: @EarlyCallTimePod
Twitter: @EarlyPod

In the second banter episode of the month, we find out how much Eli can talk when he has spent the previous week not podcasting and instead storing up hot takes during three days alone in the car. (Tony meanwhile, spent his bye week more productively, getting fit enough to successfully take on the Murph immediately after recording this episode.)

Eli starts out innocently enough, desperately backpedaling on his call-out of Woody Kincaid in the last banter episode, but he just can't help himself and dishes out a new hot take sure to inflame Strava users (and fans of the Strava Wankers Twitter account specifically). Tony and Eli then wade into more serious territory, discussing ethics, diversity, and inclusion in running and for RDs as relates to the Marathon Investigation article about trail race RD Sean "Run Bum" Blanton retroactively DQing competitors for seemingly arbitrary violations, and also his well-documented inappropriate behaviors toward women in the running community. This transitions into a brief discussion of Ahmaud Arbery, where Eli and Tony are admittedly so far out of their depths that for once, rather than run their mouths, they want to amplify diverse voices and encourage you to read these articles by folks who are more knowledgable:

Ahmaud Arbery and Whiteness in the Running World (Outside.com)
Jogging Has Always Excluded Black People (NY Times)
Ahmaud Arbery and the dangers of running while black (Vox)
After a Killing, 'Running While Black' Stirs Even More Anxiety (NY Times) 

While the co-hosts know they don't have all the solutions, they agree that as an industry we need to keep working to be more inclusive in various ways (expect episodes on this topic featuring folks more qualified to speak on it in the not-too-distant future).

This episode's coronavirus topic is Finish Area, where Tony drives the discussion which is focused on what is essential, what elements may need to be rolled back in the coronavirus world, and what opportunities exist to reimagine certain festival elements or even improve them by using virtual or at-home tools. He also wonders aloud about whether we overextended ourselves from a budgetary or expectations standpoint in the Finish Area in the pre-coronavirus era, and you also learn why if he ever refuses to shake your hand you shouldn't be offended. The episode ends with Eli sharing some big personal news. Want to find out what it is? You've gotta listen!

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe. If you have any questions, comments, or guests you would like us to invite, please send us an email at [email protected].

Facebook: @EarlyCallTimePod
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