Narrator: 0:10

Welcome to the Athletes in Motion podcast From Race to Recovery. With your hosts, Tom Regal, and Kenny Bailey.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:28

Hey, Tom how are you?.

Tom Regal: 0:29

I'm great, Kenny, how are you today?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:30

I'm doing fantastic.

Tom Regal: 0:31

Well we've got a great show today, we have two wonderful guests, Joe Fleenor and Faye Yates, from Team Magic, and to talk about a lot of triathlon stuff. We're talking about races and everything that goes along with that. So,....

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:46

Welcome!

Tom Regal: 0:46

Welcome to the show. Thanks for being here.

Joe Fleenor: 0:48

We are super happy to be here.

Faye Yates: 0:50

Yeah. Great to see you guys. Thanks for inviting,

Tom Regal: 0:53

We've got a lot of great history here, in the Middle Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, areas with Team Magic and Above the Fold. So Joe why don't you give us a little bit of a background and history on your your background, and Above the Fold. And tell us about that. Tell us what's going on.

Joe Fleenor: 1:12

Yeah, so I come from a sport event production background, I went to the University of Tennessee, majoring in sport management and business and left school there and immediately started working with the United States Tennis Association. So I have a really strong background in tennis, especially when it comes to like producing large scale tennis tournaments, tennis leagues and things like that. And, you know, long story short over that time, I wanted to get out of the nonprofit space, wanted to get into the real money generating space of things. And I've always had a passion for starting my own business, but really never knew what I wanted to do with that, what it was going to look like how to get involved in that. And over time, I just got more and more involved in running and cycling and swimming and ultimately triathlon. And we can get into more of the history of it all. But from that I started the River Bluff Triathlon, which was a race in Middle Tennessee that took place for many, many years that a previous company used to manage that race was no longer on their calendar anymore. And that was an opportunity for me to kind of launch something and get my new business started off the ground with that one race. So I started that as essentially a side hustle gig while I was still working full time. Set it up as Above the Fold. And the rest is history. That was six years ago. And then over the years, we slowly started to bring on additional races and grow all those races so that I could eventually like leave my cush full time high paying corporate job with benefits, and go all in on Above the Fold. And and here we are today.

Tom Regal: 2:55

Cool, so you came at it from an athlete perspective, right? You were........

Joe Fleenor: 2:58

a mediocre recreational weekend warrior athlete

Tom Regal: 3:01

like the rest of us! Awesome. So Faye......

Faye Yates: 3:06

Yeah, so my background a little bit different. I have an engineering degree from Vanderbilt. So I went out into the corporate world for a little while working in the industry for about five years. And while doing that as,.... a so I grew up athletic, you know, fastpitch softball, basketball always, you know, as soon as I was walking, I was running. So it was one of those team sport type things. So as I, you know, got out into the real world, those team sports didn't suit me as much anymore as an adult. So I got into running, doing some marathons and triathlons down in, I lived in Birmingham, Alabama, and it was there was a couple of really neat chicks that were way ahead of their time. And they had actually a triathlon shop called the Magic City Tri Shop in Birmingham and I got introduced to them and so the name of this so Magic City Tri Shop had a team of people that help them produce races to promote their shop. And I became one of those people. And those people were guess what?, called Team Magic! So I moved away to, to excuse me to Pittsburgh to the corporate office for US Steel, which was the company I worked for, and went away for a couple of years. So when I came back, you know, during that time, I was just, you know, already figuring out like, you know, there's more out there for me, I think them work in the corporate world. And I come from a background of my father was an entrepreneur worked for himself, my brother and sister more in line for that, that are old on the youngest. And, you know, it's just in our blood, I think. And so I was kind of like Joe was saying, it's like, I always knew I wanted to have my own business. And so I approached one of the owners of the tri shop and said, You know, I think you can put on races for real because they're basically just putting on some little pop up things. More,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 4:55

more. shoppers.

Faye Yates: 4:58

This is really early in triathtlon Yeah, so I just said, You know, I think I'm ready to make a move. And I was obviously very young, early 20s. And I've made a move out, did some consulting work to be able to eat more than peanut butter and jelly for a while. And Therese Bynum, that was the partner from the tri shop that I joined business in business where she's now since retired as of this year, And we just started in Birmingham and started expanding, I was ready to, you know, make a move, in early 2000s back to Tennessee, I'm from this area, went to Vanderbilt, and we've expanded the races into Tennessee. So that's the that's how Team Magic grew out of the Birmingham kind of mom and pop into two states.

Tom Regal: 5:46

Yeah, yeah. So over those years, there's been a lot of changes to triathlon, right. And let's go pre COVID. Just as we were dealing with a lot of the swim issues. That was probably the biggest change that was happening on how we were handling the swim starts for athletes. What was, what were you seeing here in the sprint? I mean, most focus was on Ironman distance, long distance courses. What were you dealing with on the short course, on the sprint and Olympic distance when it came to the swim starts?

Faye Yates: 6:19

Yeah, you know, here's the deal. We've A long time ago, and I'm not sure what year you know, we transitioned to this. We started interval starts to be safer way before it became an issue. So we actually caught a lot of heat for it. You know, there's that point. Yeah. A lot of competitive athletes are like, this is not cool.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:40

Yeah. What made them think it was not cool?

Faye Yates: 6:42

Because they don't know who they're racing.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:44

Oh, I see. So it was always it

Faye Yates: 6:45

It was all about engaging, you know, I'm here to race other people. I'm not just racing myself. Yeah. So we caught a lot of heat. But it's, you know, it's part of it was us for safety. And honestly, part of it was just race venues that we had, that just wasn't a great place to start as a wave start either. So it just, it just fell into place. So we were really leaders in that. And a lot of people started to follow because it does feel safer. We we tout ourselves as very beginner friendly, a very beginner friendly company. And it is a while it's exciting to tell people Hey, I started in one of those mass start swims. The reality is no one, unless they are a competitive swimmer really likes it. I mean, okay, yes,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 7:26

I know, it's a wash machine.

Faye Yates: 7:27

There are a few people that think it's way cool. Yeah. But most people are very, very intimidated by it. It's caused so many panic attacks. Yeah. So it, we felt like it also eased that part because it's a totally different race.

Tom Regal: 7:42

Yeah. And we talked about getting people into the sport, that usually is one of the barriers because it scares them. Just hearing about it scares them.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 7:50

Is that what you find? Is that sort of, like people want to do it when they come like casually talk to you like, Hey, I run a you know, I run Team Magic, or I run Above the Fold. And I'm thinking about triathlons. Is it Usually, Oh, I can't swim. I mean, is that the first thing or......

Faye Yates: 8:03

95% of the time?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 8:04

Really?

Faye Yates: 8:05

I mean, it is really tiny.

Joe Fleenor: 8:06

98% of the time.....

Faye Yates: 8:08

That's the only other barrier are from younger people maybe that say, I don't have a bike or Yeah, I can't afford. Yeah, the other thing is the price. You know, I can't afford that. But that's only a small crowd. It's a very small crowd.

Joe Fleenor: 8:21

Yeah, recreational swimming. You know, most kids grew up swimming. So they have a background in swimming. But then when you when you get to high school and college, you lose that. And then many adults that come back into the sport and want to do a triathlon, they haven't swam in 20 years in most cases, and they don't even know like, where to even begin that process. Yeah. So that is the biggest barrier. And then when you add in the element of open water, and then you're starting with a group of 50 to 100 people the same time like that's, that's a it's a scary thing for me, and I've been in a sport for 10 plus years.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 8:53

So yeah, I started triathlon when I was in my 40s. And I, you know, my idea of swimming was swimming to the pool bar. Right, exactly. Right. Yeah. Kind of farting around when you like jump out of the boat kind of stuff. And then suddenly, you have to like do laps and thing it takes it takes a bit.

Faye Yates: 9:09

You are ahead of a lot of people because the big thing is, you know that open water is intimidating if you've never, like I grew up on a lake. Right. So not being able to see, you know, underneath the water and that's not a fear for me. Yeah, but I have a true fear. I don't like I'm a little bit claustrophobic, so I don't like people, you know, get my space, closing in on me. I was a lifeguard, I'm a completely confident swimmer. But I mean, it lakes don't bother me, but I have unzipped a wetsuit in a panic attack in the water before that's how, you know panicked I was that I had to get that off my neck right then in the middle of the water. That was better than any other option for me.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:49

So yeah, I mean, 120 people on a mass star when you're getting kicked in the face you it's you could be the best swimmer. Right. You're you're holding your line, you're doing your thing and you got somebody that's like, first time they're on the open water. They're going, Oh my gosh, I don't know what to do! So they're going diagonal. They're just grabbing everything right. So you're getting kicked, you're getting, you're getting hit. I mean, those mass starts are like, sometimes they can be fun in a weird sort of way. Right? Because you're, you know, you started with a bunch of people. And once everybody cleans out a little bit, you know, first couple 100 yards, it's okay. But But yeah, it's it's, you know, you just know you're going to get kicked. Just Yeah, get ready, right? There, aren't there. It's practice swims. Yes, specifically for that?

Tom Regal: 10:29

Yeah actually, a lot of the master swims, that I coach, we actually take the the pool lines out, we'll take all the lane line, the lane barriers out and have everybody swim together, we'll have even with the lanes set up, we'll have three or four people in stuffed in the lane, we'll have people swim past them swim over them, so that we can do it in a controlled environment will swim behind them and tap their legs so that they get used to being touched. And something like that, that you're not used to when they're actually out there

Joe Fleenor: 10:57

Swimming around a buoy also is really important too. Yeah. Especially in crowds. Yeah, cuz that's where everybody converges. The narrow line. And that's a that's a big thing that I learned when I was training for my first Ironman was the concept of swimming around a buoy with like, 17 people on top of you. That's, that's a weird, stressful thing.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:18

As you move on along, sort of throughout the years, right, you know, swimming is becoming a more sensitive thing. You know, that's the barrier to get people in. How did you how did you react to sort of did you increase the amount of other than just massed, not mass starts, but just wave starts? Was there more? More boats out there? Did you? Did you try to get kayaks? I mean, was there ways that you can help sort of ease that tension? Or was it to look for water that's a little bit more friendly? I mean, is that a consideration? I know that sounds weird.

Faye Yates: 11:50

No, that's not weird at all. Actually. I mean, you definitely look for, you know, when we're, we have quite a few river swims, we have some urban races, right. So what we want, ideally is to have a point to point swim in the river.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 12:02

And I appreciate that. Thank you!

Faye Yates: 12:03

And when I've raced which I try to still do sometimes. I mean, that's where I want I want a downriver swim. So that's mainly because I don't necessarily find myself going to the pool very often or going to open water to practice. I figure I can get away with it. Yeah, I mean, you look for, you know, a body of water. That's forgiving. You know, you don't want to be in one of those that when the wind comes up, it's always white capping. You know, if you can avoid that, but honestly, when you're looking for race venues, there aren't, you know, it's pretty limited what you have Anyway, you have to work kind of what what's available that is 100% safety of the swim. Well, safety everywhere. Safety swim and bike are huge. Safety of the swim is so important. And I think it's finding those places, what can we do to find a point to point working, it's just thinking outside the box, what can we do versus swimming upstream versus downstream? And then lakes, the same thing is, it's something that you know, we're confident there aren't, you know, blow up winds that cause problems. We know everybody remembers that story. What you ever hear that happened out was in Ironman, Utah, or the wind blew up? My business partner was there......

Tom Regal: 13:10

70.3 Yeah, I did that race.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:14

Yeah, my buddy did that race we were there.....

Tom Regal: 13:15

The people that were starting after after we were swimming further because the buoy was drifting.....

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:19

Yeah, people were swimming backwards. Yeah. And you have a town called hurricane on the shore of the lake. Red Flag. Hurricane? Hurricane?

Tom Regal: 13:27

Yes, you got to pronounce this correctly.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:29

Right. But still, yeah, that's Red flag!

Faye Yates: 13:35

To me, so the body of water is important. And I think it's also doing what we do the interval starts and letting people give give people three seconds apart and give them a second to get their space.

Joe Fleenor: 13:47

And then in terms of like, swim support on the river, or lake with kayaks and boats and things like that, that are out there. It's, it's, you got to have the, you got to have the quantity of boats, safety vessels out there. But then you also have to plan so like, if something does happen, that everybody gets in the water, whether they're a volunteer, or with the fire department, or Coast Guard or a lifeguard, they need to know like, what next? So it's, it's an imperitive that there's a plan in place for them to know what to do, should they have to rescue a swimmer?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 14:19

I think that's really, it's an interesting thing, just the logistics of setting up a triathlon. Right? Because we had some folks, you know, and we're gonna talk about COVID in a second. But one of the challenges about races like this, it's you can just put a dome up like they're doing in basketball, and you can just isolate everybody, because it's out in counties. It's out on public roads. I'm always curious about sort of logistics on setting these things up. I mean, from a permitting perspective, from to your point, it's not just Hey, we got to set up cones can call it a day. You know, you have to look at safeties, you have to look at volunteers. Could you just sort of walk through sort of those big areas that when you go to set up a race, kind of like you moved from Alabama here to Tennessee? What were those things that you had to kind of keep in mind when you're setting up a race like this?

Faye Yates: 15:04

Right? So you know, the races we started with an Alabama we're in rural areas are in a state park. Totally different, doesn't mean there's not safety measures that you have to account for. Obviously you do, but the water that we use was, you know, large such that we had great relationships with the people there. It was very manageable. calm water. That's prior to the Gulf race, which is a different deal in itself. But we moved to Tennessee. It moved the race Music City downtown. That changes everything because you're in the Cumberland River. So we're dealing with, you know, a people worry about water quality, because it's a doubt you know, you're in a downtown area. Yeah. We did not start that race until that redone the downtown system. And the council people swim across the river. Yes. So you know, I think when you get into an urban environment, it changes everything. You You then need all these different permits. Which rightly so you should have them and not just the permits, but the communication between all of those bodies. Because you're dealing with, you know, prior to having a point to point swim in Music City, for example, we had the Olympic swim had to swim upstream a bit. So you have to know that the Corps of Engineers are slowing the water at the right times. Right. Yeah, super important. Yeah. And that they are actually able to communicate if something changes that to the people that we have on the water. And we also we have no one on the water for that race that's not swiftwater certified.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 16:25

So really, Oh, yeah,

Faye Yates: 16:26

yeah. So there's certain places where that's really important. We have a race that we've traditionally had at Montgomery, Alabama, again, you know, down river swam, we start from a riverboat and now we start from riverboat for Music City, which is fantastic. We start from a riverboat there in the city will not allow any kayaks on the water, no personal volunteers, they have to manage everything. So they have all their swiftwater rescue people managing that swim. So that's the other thing you deal with, in addition to permits is what are the local people? You know, what would the local, you know, support? Yeah, jurisdictions as the water, what do they require?

Tom Regal: 17:03

And then you cross jurisdictions as the race goes on, you have to deal with all of those organizations as well.

Faye Yates: 17:09

Once you get outside of the swim, you definitely have to deal with that. Yeah, right.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 17:12

Yeah. Yeah. Cuz on the bike course, it's what multiple counties to deal with you guys.

Faye Yates: 17:16

It's depends on the course.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 17:17

Yeah. How much is that driven? Is the course driven by those permitting issues? Or is it driven? I mean, how do you balance between some neighborhoods are going to hate you for that some neighborhoods are going to love you for it. Some counties, you know, some counties are the sheriff's are going to be like, Yeah, but you know, we got a thing going on. I mean, how much is that course? dictated by sort of those outside pressures? versus Hey, this would be a great flat course. Or this would be a great fun course to do. Or did I just open up a Pandora's box of like, crap?

Tom Regal: 17:43

Yes, you did! Okay.

Joe Fleenor: 17:45

And I'll take this and jump in Faye, but um, I think a lot of it is as race directors, we are constantly looking to figure out what would be the safest, most enjoyable course for the athletes. And then we pick that course. And then we determine if that works with the municipalities that we're working with. Okay, because they really have final say on that. And as she was mentioning earlier, there's a lot of people that make those decisions, whether it's the city or the county, TDOT or, you know, ADOT, whatever ADOT is, yeah. But there's lots of people that help you determine if that course is manageable for what you're trying to do. So yes, we have the general idea. But really, it's up to them on approving whether that's going to work.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 18:31

And then it modifies based off of that. And yeah, all that sort of stuff.

Faye Yates: 18:35

Yeah, it's modified based on what they can manage and what's in keeping the community happy because your community and that's not just for them. That's for us. We want to feel welcome in a community.

Tom Regal: 18:44

Absolutely.

Faye Yates: 18:44

As soon as we're not welcome in a community we, we don't want to be there because then what happens is, the racers don't feel welcome. And they don't want to come back because they don't feel welcome. So there's a lot behind the scenes.

Tom Regal: 18:55

This is a lot of work there.

Joe Fleenor: 18:57

There's races like river bluff. That's our race here in Ashland City that we've done. And prior to Above the Fold starting that race. They ran into an issue one year where they had planned their race on the same day as the annual duck blind drawing. And the duck blind drawing in the world of hunting in Middle Tennessee is a big deal. Thousands of people come to that duck blind. And that duck blind drawing is in Cheatham County, which is where the race takes place. Well, that was taking place the same morning as River Bluff Triathlon. So you've got a lot of bikes on the street, closing the street, a lot of traffic coming into the street with, you know, rifles on the back of the truck. Those are things you want to try to avoid. So there's a lot of those logistical things. Yes. And we can even get into more later on about the Music City Triathlon that we that we just launched and about all the logistics around that bike course and Nissan stadium that are going on this year with that

Kenny Bailey<br>: 19:54

so yeah, and on the run course, do you make it hilly on purpose just to piss me off? Or is it something........

Joe Fleenor: 19:59

It gives it a little character!

Tom Regal: 20:00

I like that! That's the best description I've heard!

Kenny Bailey<br>: 20:03

character? Well, that's actually legitimate question on that is, is, you know, some of these courses are going to be short courses, which means you're gonna have a lot more beginners, you're gonna have a lot of people on variety of equipment and all it's sort of like as you get to middle longer courses, people tend to be more serious when it comes to that, is there a balance between trying to keep it sort of sporty for the folks that are sort of racing it versus the kind of friendly for those people that are trying to just complete that and say, Hey, I did a sprinter I didn't Olympic is that, how do you do look at that. I mean, again, I'm blown away by the logistics on this whole thing, just between, like you said, permitting, trying to make it safe and fun, try to keep the city happy, and then try to have a course that people are going to, you know, both sides of the equation are going to be happy about how does that kind of factor in?

Faye Yates: 20:50

I mean, I'll say, all the competitive athletes, that's, you know, if they act like they want a really hilly challenging course, that that is such a small percentage. Even if they say it, it is a small percentage, most people want a flat, really fast course period.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:09

Really?

Faye Yates: 21:09

Yes.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:10

That doesn't get PR's. And they can get all this.

Faye Yates: 21:12

That is what they want. I mean, and they recover faster. I mean, yeah,

Tom Regal: 21:16

They can do more races......

Faye Yates: 21:16

Yeah, there there is there's some bragging rights when you've done something big. So if you could have some kind of iconic Hill, you know that, it has to be really cool. It has to be something you know, it's a big deal, but it will, it will turn a lot of people away. So you have to have a lot really going for you to pull something like that off. So I mean, I, again, back to what we would just said, We want an enjoyable, safe route. But in reality, we have to work with what we have. So and these venues change, guys. I mean, this is not like, Oh, we found the perfect venue for this race. I mean, there's constant change even state parks, there's changes,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:55

construction alone. I mean.......

Faye Yates: 21:58

They decide to add a bike lane, but then they get a strip between the bike lane road, you're like, well, how are we going to manage that? I mean, that's a real thing. I mean, how many roads out here in Williamson County? If you're biking out here, you run into the rumble strips? Yeah, you can manage that as an individual out training. But put that into your Racecourse.

Tom Regal: 22:16

Yeah. Now you got passing people........

Kenny Bailey<br>: 22:18

And then just construction alone. Almost every city in the United States has some level of construction going on. You know, maybe in February, everything was great. And chose to May, June, July. And all of a sudden, you know,

Joe Fleenor: 22:32

we're also not the we're also not the only people utilizing these venues. In most cases, we're the small player in town. And so if even the small rural races that we do in state parks, there's other people that are utilizing those parks for other things that we have to coordinate with. And we're sharing a space with them. So we've got to make it so that everybody's happy. Parks happy, we're happy, the City's happy, everybody. And it's this whole puzzle piece game. That's that's quite enjoyable on one hand, but it's also very stressful.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 23:04

I'm assuming, obviously, you guys done this for a few years. And once it pulls off, and people start coming in, and you see people finishing the races, and they're like, wow, that was awesome. And, you know, I mean, that's got to be a great payoff, right? I mean,

Faye Yates: 23:16

it's why we're sitting here.

Joe Fleenor: 23:17

Yeah, We could have walked away a long time ago........

Kenny Bailey<br>: 23:21

It's not that corporate money?

Faye Yates: 23:24

We don't have the corporate cush anymore for u....... It's the finish line. If we didn't see that finish line, we would not be sitting here today.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 23:32

Yeah. And this is, you know, part of the word magic, there is something magical when you see people that just finish it for the first time. And, and it's like, I wasn't sure if I was gonna be able to do this, and, you know, a friend talked me into it or whatever. And all of a sudden, you know, they finish it, they get it, they get that. And so yeah, that's

Tom Regal: 23:49

getting across that first line, the finish line the first time and getting them hooked into the sport is awesome. It's just just to see them accomplish that now their family's there to see them accomplish. It's all fantastic. Yeah.

Joe Fleenor: 24:01

And especially when people bring a friend with them. And rope them into this thing and keep them into this thing that's like the best to me.

Tom Regal: 24:10

Yeah, we get a lot of people started with relays. Well, I can't do this. I can't do that. So we put a relay team together and have the relays go out there. And then they're like, you know, I could do the whole thing. I could do that whole thing. Next year you get them hooked in to do it themselves.

Joe Fleenor: 24:22

It's such an underrated, relay is one thing that I feel like we need to do a better job of gaining exposure, that that's an option for people. Because the relay participation in our events is nowhere near where I think it should be. It's so I don't know, it's probably 5% of our numbers are relay participants. And I think it should be a whole lot more than that.

Tom Regal: 24:44

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's one of the barriers I think that we could break down to getting into the sport and staying in the sport. It's certainly being able to share that experience with teammates. And then yeah, if you're not a swimmer, if you're not comfortable in the water, why not just do the bike part or just do the run part we totally

Kenny Bailey<br>: 25:00

Yeah, and if you look at companies like Ragnar and others it's it's it's a great bonding experience. You know, I've done a few Ragnar events where people I don't even know right there. It was like my wife's work friends, right and I show up in a van cuz she made me go. And you know when you're done you're like, you know, yeah, you just accomplished something kind of cool. Right? So yeah, relays are also from a social perspective, a really cool thing to amp up, I love the idea. I think you know even for people that do do triathlons, to be able to just participant really once in a while would be great. I'd love to be able to say, Hey, give me the bike portion, I'll just hammer the living crap out of it. If somebody else wants to swing and somebody else wants to run, why not?

Faye Yates: 25:40

I've done it, For sure. Especially since I don't get in the water that much. Don't pick the time to go to swim. I will always jump in. If someone needs a relay person. Let me do the bike or the run. I'm in.

Tom Regal: 25:48

yeah, yeah, absolutely. So then, so as we move through the triathlon years, so what happened last year, it all blew up with COVID. So last year, was last year, I felt like it was about five years ago. Now, but this......

Joe Fleenor: 26:04

It was a nightmare. Let's just put it that way......

Faye Yates: 26:06

I mean, honestly, I mean, it's this year is, you know, we're

Tom Regal: 26:12

in that zone. Yeah, we're still in that cancel, Whether you're on or whether you're off. I mean, it's frustrating for the athletes I can't imagine for for you as race directors, the stress level of........

Joe Fleenor: 26:25

2021. And this is we'll get into our merger. And yeah, what that partnership looks like. But it's a year of it's a survival year, essentially, like we we are, in every race company is like this. Let's get through 2021 as best we can and survive it. Because on 2022, we're going to be crushing it. So if we can survive 2021 with everything that's dealt with us because the 2020 and carrying over lots of deferred revenue and things like that. Just getting races off the ground, doing them in a way where we can safely produce and have good experience. Breakeven as much as possible, then we're going to be set up pretty pretty positively moving forward. This is a survival year.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 27:12

So when 2020 hit I mean, was it February, just kind of walk us through that. I mean, the rutro moment happened when I mean, I opened the shop in February. And then four weeks later, we got to close it. Yay. You know, so trust me your pain. Yeah, right. It's not launching. Well, that was fun. hunker down. When was it around January, February, when you were going? Okay, this is? Or was it early than that?

Faye Yates: 27:36

Oh no, it was later.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 27:38

Oh, it was later?

Faye Yates: 27:38

Yeah. So we didn't, you know, we didn't realize what was that it was about to go down? What was going down? January, February? No way, March. So our race was scheduled for the 14th. So on March 12, we had our St. Patrick's Day Music City, half 10k and 5k, scheduled for the 14th. And on the 12th. We were doing packet pickup at Fleet Feet because we were still course. Everything just started getting public. It's like, what do we are we having this race and it's seen every day, things start getting canceled? Of course, I'm communicating with the city. And it's like, what do we do? What do we do? And I guess do we go ahead and have packet pickup? It was extraordinarily awkward. So while we're at packet pickup, on Thursday, you know, I get a call from the city. It's like, Look, we're, we're gonna have to pull off all events. So I had 200 people pick up packets or whatever. And, you know, but I also didn't want to pull the plug. They're gonna say, you know, we're outdoors. go ahead and do this. You know, we have obviously purchased everything. All the money spent, we're there. And we had to go send out a message that afternoon on Thursday for the race on Saturday, because we have people people are coming to Nashville, like Patrick's celebration. So it's not just local runners. It's people from all over the place that have traveled in. And yeah, so we kicked it off with an event. I mean, like we hit it with an event scheduled, paid for, done, you know, 1300 people registered. And yeah, that was the beginning. So for us. That race eventually went, we changed it to virtual virtual scheduled a date in October to try to do live racing, which as we all know, everybody tried to do that. And yeah, we over the course of about six weeks knew this is not going to happen, and change to a virtual run. We were able to host two triathlons and then another running event in November we hosted two triathlons under COVID protocol. Really rural, again, a state park our two oldest triathlons in Alabama. Yeah, it's completely different than we've ever done before.

Tom Regal: 29:48

So what months were those?

Faye Yates: 29:50

So it was July and August. Yeah. So it was a limited crowd of people. Super spread out, completely different, you know, drive thru packet pickup. You know, Some of the things we actually still be doing this year. So no post race awards, no party, you know, people have to get their awards at a local retailer, it's completely different. But we were able to, you know, have a couple.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 30:12

Yeah. Obviously, with St. Patty's Day being that close, like the refund policy and all that was, you know, not going to happen, right, because you're saying stuff was purchased. One of the things that I think one of the critiques that Ironman had, was this, sort of they're trying to put on events in 2020. And they would, some would say, and I'm not saying they would, but some say that they wait until after sort of the refunds were not available, was that, obviously you're trying to maintain a company and maintain a business and you've put energy time and sometimes permitting costs and other those? I mean, when you're going through that for 2020? Was was that a really difficult sort of factor to try to figure out how to do I mean, are my Are you guys like, yeah, idiot? Like, is that? I mean, how far in advance? Did you have to try to cancel it and try to again, maintain sort of staying alive as a company, but not pissing off? Like, everybody that tried to register? Is that Was that it? And I really have been stumped? I see the way you're looking at me.... I guess I'll take this!(laughter)

Tom Regal: 31:09

Yeah, how much hope did you have? As the year went on that you're gonna be able to put an event on?

Joe Fleenor: 31:14

Yeah. So if we and we'll be transparent here. If we were to refund everybody for all of our races that that they came in, we would not be sitting here today, we would be working here with you guys. We will be looking for a job.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 31:31

How good are you at smoothies?.........

Joe Fleenor: 31:34

So we were we were forced into that because the business models of our two businesses at the time are a little different than a lot of other race companies where it might just be like a nonprofit putting on a race. And it's not kind of there, they don't have overhead and all that stuff. So it's just a different dynamic. So we, that's kind of what started our communication with where we are today and as one company, but we started talking very early on in the process in March, right after her race got cancelled, so that we could coordinate with one another on our messaging of this so that one of us wasn't going one direction, the other one's going another way. And it looks awkward to the public. So we tried to do things as timely as possible. Understanding that we wanted to have races, but what was the realistic chance of doing those races, and at some, at some point, we just had to make the call, you know what we don't feel comfortable, even trying anymore. So at one, I forget what it was, but there was a time where we just pulled the plug on everything, Tennessee. Anything Tennessee and Kentucky, we pulled the plug on. And we communicated that knowing that Alabama still had some availability, of doing some things down in Alabama. So that's how we operated and we moved all of them, all of the racers over into the deferred status and moved them over and gave them the option to race in 2021 or 2022. And with the merger, also, we are also giving them the opportunity to defer into any of our events for this year. So you're not locked into that one race you did. So now there's a much larger portfolio of races that people can choose from. So as of now, we've had no issues. There's lots of people that are choosing different races and kind of inserting them in different spots. But yeah, it's it's nearly 1000 racers that we had to move over to this year, from last year's events that we did. We're making it work!

Kenny Bailey<br>: 33:35

I mean, I had a race in California that was canceled. Because I was gonna fly out to California where, you know, my wife and I are spent 20 years there was gonna be a great trail run. And we got the note and it's a smaller company that was putting it on and they said, Look, we've already paid for permitting everything, we can't take it back. So we're sorry, we can't do refunds. And I think that transparency helped quite a bit. So it wasn't as if you know, yeah, I mean, we get it. I mean, it wasn't a huge amount of money to, to attend this race. And, you know......

Tom Regal: 34:04

We all own small businesses. So we kind of get that. But I think the general public doesn't understand that there's a lot of costs involved, that there's a lot of expenditure that happens, regardless if the race goes on or not. I mean, is that like, the money that just comes in and goes in your pocket, and then you get your Range Rover and you take off and everything's great. It's not that way at all. And I think the transparency certainly helps.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 34:26

Yeah, cuz like I said, you guys were working with folks months in advance to try to put these things on and that cost money and time and permitting and all that and that money just can't come back.

Joe Fleenor: 34:35

Right. And something this year that we've done is normally we would open up registrations in, let's just say November, the year before, and we're going to open up all of our events in November. Many times not every event had received all the necessary approvals or permits come November the year before, but we're just kind of under the assumption that it'll all be okay. And now we're operating under we've got to have everything in place before we open registration, because we don't want to run into another situation like we did in 2020, where we're collecting lots of registrations, and then we have no event.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 35:07

Yeah. So, but you survived it. So good news!

Faye Yates: 35:11

Yeah, we're here!

Tom Regal: 35:11

So, so the conversations then evolved more around to combining your forces from the separate entities. So how did that come about?

Joe Fleenor: 35:21

I think I think I initially pitched an idea to her. Wondering, wonder what she's gonna say to this......?(Laughter) And so she responded in a positive way. And it just kind of took off from there. So I don't think we would be here had COVID not happened. Maybe we would, but COVID kind of sped the process up I think. Where Faye and I work really well together, we have complementing, complimentary ways of doing business. Technically, we have, we call her the chief operating officer, we call myself the chief growth officer, where Faye is the engineering background, she's got 30 years of experience producing the biggest races in America. She's as good as they come when it comes to putting on a race and all the logistics and operations behind that. Nobody better. I'm good at that, but I don't love that. Okay. I love the sales and marketing side of getting people enthusiastic about coming to races and doing races and things like that, and trying to make a lot of money for the business. And so we just aligned really well on that. And obviously, both here in Nashville, it just, my company didn't have a lot of overhead, we don't have office space, we didn't have equipment, we didn't have all that stuff, where Team Magic has all that stuff. So it's kind of an easy, natural progression. And so what started is just kind of a little, hey, maybe we should do more together turned into maybe we should become business partners to maybe we should just go all in on this whole big picture idea that we have, which is other lines of businesses that we're going to eventually kind of get rolling out. But here we are today.

Faye Yates: 37:04

Yeah. So I think the timing of it, you know, so I have a business partner that started Team Magic, so Therese Bynum founded Team Magic. And then she's over the past few years, she's been slowly exiting, you know, cutting back on her time involved, but has been is still a 50%. Owner. She brought me in in 95. As a part owner, I didn't start I didn't go full time with Team Magic until 2002. So but she had been doing this since the late 80s. So this became her, you know, time to kind of ease back when COVID hit just like, you know, in it, this is the time. And then we started this conversation at the same time. So it was a natural, it would have been difficult for us more difficult for us to do it if you've got Therese and I are still 50% business partners, but with her willing to exit and feelling it was the right time for her to exit. It was a that also lent itself to this partnership. Yeah, and Joe put it, you put it very well, we complement each other. And having the races or races were competition in a small area? Yes, we were just flat out competition, even though we've always been friendly. And we work to try to work around our calendars. It's really hard to work around each other's calendars. With all the other calendars going on, so it just it makes a lot of sense. Yeah, from that perspective, too.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 38:21

So obviously, there was some negative things that happened because of COVID. You know, completely sort of in the good news that came of it is you guys, you know, like you said you came together and it sounds like it may be other other efficiencies that you found, or there was things that sort of forced you to think differently or better that came out of this as well. Is there I mean, some level of positive sort of, hey, it taught us to be this or it taught us like, especially on the on the setup, you're smiling because or it was just, you're doing this, like you know, the matrix or you're just trying to figure out how to dodge the bullets. But was there some lean? I mean, you know, iron kind of, you know, hardens iron kind of thing. Is there some lean things that came out of this?

Faye Yates: 39:00

Yeah, for sure. Um, the reason I started laughing is when Joe and I first started meeting and talking about working together, I said, Well, the first thing we're going to do is change the name of the company to Basic Racing.(Laughter) And he said, I'm not sure if I like that and I said, well, that's what I've done this year. It was so different. And a bit refreshing, honestly, although I love big atmosphere. Don't get me wrong. I love everything. I love the celebration. I love the beer afterwards. I love you know, people that enjoy the food tent. I get all that. But we were just basic racing. I don't know. spective very limited spectators. And I also love the spectators, by the way, so but that's what we had to do. It was, It was just so simple. So what I do think I think obviously I don't want to be there. But I think what we learned was is there as a way to just get back to Okay, what is basic racing all about and where are we really spending our time time. What's what's the best way to spend our time? So yes, definitely finding efficiencies. And I think 2021 is that step we were basic racing in 2020. 2021 is how can we still have atmosphere, but we still have to run really pretty, you know, basic compared to past years. So it's, we're gonna learn a lot about being efficient because we have to survive, for one thing. But we also need to produce a good experience and a super pain to come to a triathlon, they understand it's going to be different. We have a run next weekend, you know that we say threw together. That doesn't mean it's, you know, it's halfway done, it means it was the last minute like, Hey, we got permission to have events now, let's, let's have a run, we couldn't do St. Pat's, let's do a run in Nashville. And it's people are going to have to wear a mask, when they come to the start line, we can't have food, or they're hanging out at a food tent afterwards. So it's going to be different, but we're still going to give them a great experience, they're going to walk away with some things that they can remember the race other than just the run part of it. So, and so we're learning how to do those things provide an experience more efficiently for sure.

Joe Fleenor: 41:09

Yeah, I think that's it. I don't think that's the the atmosphere of the race is a huge deal. But I think it can be done in a way that's a little more tight, and not so extravagant in ways that we're wasting a lot of time and energy and money on. But we can still produce that same high quality level of product, just with less to it.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 41:32

Well, and I like the idea that you stripped down to the essence, right? And then it's sort of like you get back to the base feels like a rocky movie. Like you guys had to go out in the snow and like pick up a log after this. You know, yeah, you know, lift up, you know, rocks kind of deal. But it kind of in to certain extent, it's true, right is to get down to sort of what the essence of racing is, and then build, you know, build the the fun stuff around that. But that's a that's not a out of adversity, at least some little bit of a phoenix come out of that, which is, you know, let's figure out why we're, why we're doing these things to begin with. And then we can add the cool stuff around it. Just keep the beer. That's all.

Faye Yates: 42:13

We can, we will,

Tom Regal: 42:15

So what kind of experiences are the athletes? You know, what, what are you able to actually do, like food wise or beer wise afterwards? Is that still a possibility that you'll be able to hand somebody a plate of food and have him walk, you know, 100 yards down the road? And, you know, mark off a spot for him? Or is that still more pushed out to the end of the year or 22? Maybe that you'll get back to that? How are we inching forward? to get back to that great experience?

Joe Fleenor: 42:42

I think we are getting back to that sooner rather than later. Now, it might be more of those grassroots rural courses that are able to do more of that versus a downtown Metropolitan venue. So right now we're operating as if we're pretty bare bones at this point, until we're told otherwise. Because we're just now it's almost been like a floodgate of approvals this last month that we had, where we had no approvals about a month ago to do anything. And now we're bam!, we have it all at once. So we're operating as if we cannot do a lot of that stuff right now. But if we can, we're gonna do it. Do it in a way that we feel comfortable with doing it. So I don't know, you know, I don't want to give you a date. But we feel pretty good that come late summer, probably we'll start to see more of post race vibes happening. And then hopefully, in the fall even more so than that. Then 2022. Back to normal, hopefully, whatever normal is

Tom Regal: 43:48

Whatever that looks like at that point......

Faye Yates: 43:49

Yeah, these these early races, so our first....... So we have this race in April, the run in April, April 17. And then there is that next one as well, early June. So we have a Triathlon in June and Tri Louisville. That's an urban environment. End of June is Chattanooga, urban environment. The one in June. Next one in July, that's we were able to have last year on July 10. That's in Guntersville, Alabama. Again it's, it's in the city, but it's a rural area. It's very, it's not a place where you have what have a lot of spectators, it's on a Greenway that it's it's very manageable in terms of crowd control. And I see these first races, being very much like what we did with that race last year. It's grab and go food. There's food, but we need you to grab it. Get out, Go to your car, you're going to pick up your award somewhere else which you know, it works out fine because they go to our retailer and do that and it's it's a little bit inconvenient for the racer, but they understand it's the way it's just those are just the awards. In terms of you know, it looking any differently. I mean, I think on the front end expos will look different. I think early. We might see that grow later. I'm trying to think of everything you think of an atmosphere with a race. Obviously, I don't I don't think we can do that at Louisville. Chattanooga, I'm not sure if we can how much we can do that we might be able to do it and just have a limited thing and spread out. You know, it's all about gathering. I mean, so when we get approval for an event in Nashville right now, you know, you have to go to the Metro Public Health, and it's all about gathering and as soon as you say food or beer, that changes everything. Because that, that people have a mask off, and they start talking and you forget, they forget about COVID. So they forget about transmission, because it just, you relax. So I think we're just, we're going with that until further notice.

Tom Regal: 45:48

I think the expo area is one thing that we've kind of forgotten about, because that's, that's where you find all those new products that you try on race day. Right? That you're not supposed to....... but you try them anyway.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 46:02

Hokas got a new shoe......let me try that!

Tom Regal: 46:06

New nutrition. Sure, sure. But, but I always enjoyed the expo areas. You know, that's that's where you find some new stuff. You pick up any last minute, tubes, tires, anything that you forgot back at the house?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 46:19

Is there a favorite race? You are? I mean, is there, in your stable of races? There must be I'm not telling you to pick a favorite child, but I sortof am..... Child, that I'll tell you my favorite child, right. I'm kidding. Is there one that you're kind of leaning? I mean, looking forward to like this was either because like if River Bluff was the first one that you did, and that's sort of a special child for you to really get back to normalcy on that one. Is there a particular race that you're that you're looking forward to? Not? Again, not that anything's less or more than the other, but is a particular one that you're excited about?

Tom Regal: 46:55

Yeah, how many do you have? I mean, now that you've combined, forces right? How many events do you have? Because it looks like you've got quite a few.

Joe Fleenor: 47:02

I think we have 11, currently with maybe another one to add later that we can talk about at some other point. But I think we got 11 in the arsenal right now.

Tom Regal: 47:14

And they're mostly triathlons. But you got a couple running events?

Joe Fleenor: 47:18

all but three.....

Faye Yates: 47:19

We have a side gig the NAI thing as a 12th event. But that's, that's an different. We have one managed event.

Joe Fleenor: 47:25

and this is a cheesy answer. But I'm literally just I, she had the luxury of producing a couple of races last year. I haven't done a race since September of 2019. So I'm just desperate to get out there and like actually put on an event. So I truly Just give me whatever I can take. And I'll take it. So I'm super excited, actually about April 17. Yeah, we have our Music City half marathon. And that one right now is like, top of mind for me. And I'm so excited to get back to racing, because I'm rusty! I'm rusty, and I'm ready to knock off that rust. So that's for me.

Faye Yates: 48:09

Yeah, I mean, for me, I guess it would be. If I look further into the year, I get excited about our races and Gulf Shores. Now that such sit down for hangouts is a popular location for a lot of people. Now, we were the first event that was ever held at the Hangout, by the way. This little thing called the Hangout Music Festival now, right? Yeah, so we're their first event and it's I'm very passionate about that race. It's always been until now, our last triathlon of the year. And it's a big, it's a great time for my staff. It's a fantastic venue. It's got it's got everything. You've got a Gulf swim, you've got a great flat bike course you've got a flat run course you've got the party afterwards. Everybody's happy at the beach. Right? And, of course, we couldn't have that last year even though we had a couple of races in Alabama and rural areas. We couldn't do that. Because that's very similar to being in downtown Nashville. If we're in downtown Louisville or downtown Chattanooga. You can't control the public, you know, influx, there was no way to keep you know, that separate. Yeah. So I think I'm excited about that, because I see that as more hopefully more back to what we're used to. ou know, and maybe it will still look different this year. I think that's something I really missed last year. I missed that race, because it was like a culmination. It's always like, feel good race for me.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 49:25

Yeah. And then you can look back on the year and go, okay,

Faye Yates: 49:28

it's reflection race for sure.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 49:29

that's awesome.

Joe Fleenor: 49:31

I'll agree with that one too, because when I think when we when we merged, you know, there's a lot of like signature events like the Music City Triathlon, Chattanooga Waterfront, that Team Magic has put on it's really cool to be now a part of but Alabama coastal or that race and just having a gulf swim, the quintessential type of triathlon, like that's cool, like not many people have the luxury of being able to put that kind of an event on and to now be a part of that. That's super cool to me.

Tom Regal: 49:58

I'm looking forward to that one because I have I haven't swam down in the Gulf. Absolutely. I'm gonna come down for that for sure. I've swam on both coasts, but I haven't swam in the Gulf Coast.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 50:07

When is that on? September? road trip!

Tom Regal: 50:12

Yeah.

Faye Yates: 50:12

It's always the Saturday after Labor Day, so it's easy to remember.

Tom Regal: 50:16

Okay, I'll put that on. That's got to be on the calendar, I got to come down and I got to swim in the Gulf Coast.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 50:21

Okay so, someone listening to this, they're excited about the idea of triathlon, how....? we talked about relays before we've talked about sort of how to make the water safer? If If someone's listening in their their tri curious, how does a, what would you recommend how they get started? What would you what would be the kind of first two or three things so they just sometimes, like for me, I have to sign up for something that scares the crap out of me. So I get myself up in the morning is, do you recommend that like, just sign up for something and kind of commit yourself? Or how would you say somebody that's that's getting kind of geared up and excited about the idea of these things? How do you how do you get them into triathlons? What's your recommendation?

Joe Fleenor: 51:03

I think the there's almost like a life cycle when it comes to triathlon. And usually, and this is how I started is you find a race and you just sign up for that race, you go all in on that race. And you know, nothing else beyond that one of it, you don't know the community side of things, or the retail side of the you just know the race. So that's where I believe the first thing to do is just find your race, get involved in that race and go tackle it. And then hopefully, once you tackle that race, then you can get connected with other people, maybe there's some friends maybe a tri club invites you to come join them on a ride or something and you learn about The Recovery Lounge and other kind of retailers out there that serves that community and then you kind of get stuck in the sport you get locked in, you start doing more but for me, I think just find you a race which is very easy to find nowadays. Just Google that's what I did. Google triathlon Tennessee and up pops everything or wherever you live. And just jump in. That's my suggestion. And then if you want to get better, you know reach out to Tom or other people and go from there. But there's there's so many resources out there that it's it's hard to navigate all that but really if you just splash in with one race, then if you splash and go all in on it, then you can really find all the tools to be successful to stay within sport.

Tom Regal: 52:19

Yeah, and we want to try to focus a lot on the fact that triathlon is more than just an Ironman. It's not a 140.6 distance race. It's it's all about the swim the bike the run, and I don't think I think people have gotten way focused on this long distance stuff. And it scares everybody. And that's not for everybody. And there's so much fun to be had on the sprint and Olympic distance. And even the ones that aren't the you know, qualified sprint or Olympic that just basically based on the the surroundings changes that. So you get super sprints, you get different distances. All the short course style racing is so much fun. I mean, you can knock it out and go home and have lunch type of thing. Right. So it's not like you have to

Joe Fleenor: 53:07

this is my jam right here. Well, you're speaking right here is I love to hear it short course racing is not a crime, ok?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 53:17

The bumper sticker. Yeah. That bumper, that's

Joe Fleenor: 53:21

Yeah, absolutely. But it's, you know, you're right. Like, I think people when they get into the sport, they think of it as an Ironman. Everything is an Ironman. And I think it's much cooler to be able to race fast and hard. And often, like race, often, race, local, and race often. And that's where we come into play, and the other event organizers around town.

Tom Regal: 53:43

And the race local thing is key as well. Part of the reason I ended up in this area in this region is for the local races to be able to do those. I've done everything all the way out to the ultras. I love every distance of racing. But everyone seems to think that I'm just doing the long distance stuff. Now the multi day, crazy stuff. And it's not the case, I love the short stuff. And I'm trying to get athletes more engaged in that end, because I think we get more people into the sport. And really, that's what we want. We want to grow the sport as much as possible, and kind of get everybody in here. And this is one of those barriers to entry that we keep talking about us the distances scare the heck out of people. Let's get them in there. Let's get them short course racing, on relays, where it's just that community where we get together we try that triathletes and they learn that we talk about everything, like there's no topic that's off off, you know, off the limits that we're just, we'll just, you know, share everything that's out there. And that's that's something that we need to work with. And I'm looking forward to

Joe Fleenor: 54:42

Triathlon needs to be rebranded as a lifestyle sport. Instead of a bucket list sport. This should be a sport that you do for your entire life and to do short course racing and to not have to monopolize your time with your whole life. is training and thinking about triathlon? No, don't do that. Have it be a piece of your life that complements everything else going on. And that's where I think we just need to rebrand what the sport is.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 55:11

Yeah. And I think the other aspect of one of the barriers that we see is you don't need a 12 $100 wetsuit, you don't need a $10,000 bike, you don't have to have six pairs of shoes, which is pretty much, you know. But no, that's not that's not I think there's, you know, it's funny because we, I go on Facebook sites, and people talk about triathlon all the time. And they're like, Look, if you've got a bike that works, it doesn't have to have clipless pedals you don't have to have a high end wetsuit, you can, there are places you can rent wetsuits, there's or you don't need one, or you can buy a low end used one without having to invest a lot of money. Do you see the kind of the challenge with that sometimes is people think, Oh, well, I have to buy all these things, where in fact you don't, right, especially for short course.

Faye Yates: 55:56

I think you do see that I think, you know, if we earlier you asked the question, how have things changed over time, and when I first started, not just organizing races, but racing myself, I mean, no one was talking about Ironman. Yeah, I mean, I did my first triathlon in 1991. That was talking about Iron Man. Yeah, I mean, everybody doing an Olympic race was the jam. Yeah, you know, so I think that because there weren't that many Sprint's then it was almost, there were a lot of Olympic or Olympic near Olympic, you know, distance races, so that there wasn't all that and I think the thing that changed over time is is Ironman xploded. And people see it on elevision. And yeah, that's, hey feel like if they're not oing that they're not doing a eal triathlon. And so it's the ame thing with the equipment. eah, well, my but my guy at ork, he's, he just told me he ought this $5,000 bike, he's b agging about his wetsuit, Oh, I an't do that kind of sport. And that's the same thing is h ppening is like, either you're t ey're doing Ironman or you're n t doing anything, you'r either using the fancy stuff And that is today. And it's because they hear it, they h ar it at their, wherever they c ngregate, you know, at work o other social places. And it' just like Joe said, it needs o be a rebranding, and there's nothing more refreshing than hearing a coach, say, we eed to get back to some local r cing and realize ingesting lifes yle sport, all these words I'm hearing are just like, total mus c to my ears. because it's ju t so true. And I think that take the intimidation away. And let' get the word out there. You jus need it. And we tell people this all the time. If someone ca pick a race and contact us, they'll ask us those questi ns. And we can direct them to c aches that aren't going t push them towards Ironman. eah, they want to do that e entually fantastic. I'm no anti Ironman. I mean, that's great.

Tom Regal: 57:44

But it doesn't have to be the end all be all, it doesn't have to be a bucket list thing.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 57:48

well, and I know when, like, a night before a triathlon, I, you know, I'm terrible, right? I'm in my own head. Right, I'm getting ready for the swim. And I always think everyone looks like, you know, the Ironman pros, right? So when I show up to the race, it's all going to be 6% body fat leaned out people that are, you know, are going to be cranking it and you show up to the races and they're human beings, they're like, you know, it's like all shapes and sizes. people having a good time. And you know, in my head, I'm like, Oh, my God, I got, you know, Jan Frodeno is going to be behind (look him up), you know, and it's gonna be like, he's gonna, you know, like, you know, I got a, you know, Olympic swimmers, and they're not, they're just, they're people having fun. And I think that's, maybe that's what we. So the key lesson, maybe for 2021. And going into 2022. Now that we've stripped all this down is just go have fun, go find a local race, get involved, and just give it a try and have a good day.

Joe Fleenor: 58:37

Basic racing..... Maybe we just rebranded ourselves here! (laughter)

Kenny Bailey<br>: 58:46

Tom, and I only take 10% off the top. a modest fee.

Tom Regal: 58:52

Yeah, so this has been great. I really appreciate you coming on and talking with you and getting stuff out here. Hopefully, we'll have you on again, maybe later in the year, and we can get some more updates on how things are going and all that but thank you so much.

Faye Yates: 59:06

Yeah, we've really enjoyed it, thanks for the opp

Tom Regal: 59:09

yeah, it's awesome. So Kenny,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 59:11

yeah. Thanks!