Finish Lines & Milestones: Episode 180: Chris Morgan - Give It a Go

Finish Lines & Milestones: Episode 180: Chris Morgan - Give It a Go

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Guest: Chris Morgan @printarun

Show Notes:

This episode is sponsored by SWTHZ and Bobbles & Lace.

Chris Morgan is the founder of Printarun and the host of Inside A Runner's World podcast. He came to the U.S. from England for six weeks and is still here 23 years later.

During this episode, we talk about:

  • [4:00] Growing up in Manchester and Leicestershire, and coming to the U.S. at 22 for a six-week soccer job that turned into 23 years
  • [7:00] Running his first marathon, the Miami Marathon, in 2017 to raise money for Alzheimer's in honor of his nan
  • [11:00] Making a framed collage from his race shirt and photos, and the dream that gave him the name Printarun
  • [15:00] His first major at the Chicago Marathon in 2019, building race templates, and growing the business after a COVID severance and a move to Michigan
  • [22:00] Getting his finisher medal from Paula Radcliffe at the Chicago finish line
  • [25:00] The phone call on his drive to Chicago that turned into his first time guiding with Achilles: a six-hour pace, a tether, and 74,000 steps
  • [33:00] Guiding Gulf War veteran Rob Sanchez with the Achilles Freedom Team, and the "my guide left me" Porta Potty prank at the Detroit Free Press Marathon
  • [38:00] Running the Boston Marathon on a charity bib, what makes a great expo (the Flying Pig does it right), and why he thinks Boston is the most boring course of the majors
  • [51:00] Why the London Marathon is his favorite major, and running it after losing his dad
  • [55:00] His parents' health, and his dad's answer to every big leap in his life: "Give it a go"
  • [59:00] Starting Inside A Runner's World to share everyday runners' stories
  • [1:04:00] Choosing family over races, meeting his wife at a work conference, and why they moved to Michigan
  • [1:08:00] His mantra, Winston Churchill's "If you're going through hell, keep going," and looking back at his own race prints when it gets hard

Previous Guests Mentioned

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] This is a Sandy Boy Productions podcast

Chris Morgan: And I can hear him outside and Rob's shouting, " Help! Help! I've lost my guide. My guide left me." and I'm like banging on the Porta Potty. I'm like, "Shut the... I'm in here, I'm in..."

Ally Brettnacher: Welcome to Finish Lines and Milestones, a podcast for everyday runners. I am your host, Ally Brettnacher, and if you run, you're a runner, and every runner has a story. Join me each week as I share these stories and we celebrate finish lines and milestones together.

Before I get into this week's episode, which is sponsored by SWTHZ and Baubles and Lace, more on them in a minute, I also wanted to point you to this new form that I created in partnership with my friend Mary Pittman from Average Athlete. I found that I was having a really hard time keeping up with everybody's finish lines and milestones, especially people who either listen to this show, have been on this show, members of our community.

And so I thought, "What if I teamed up with Mary and we had Average Athlete finish lines and milestones?" So it's gonna be a way to keep track of what's happening for everybody, but you have to tell us about it. So head to the link in the show notes or in my [00:01:00] Instagram bio to complete that form and then we'll do the rest.

We hope to show you love, cheer for you, spectate, so that you know how amazing you are

I'm so excited to launch this. At the end of the show, I'm gonna do all my New York City Marathon shout-outs, especially for my friend Lauren Sterick, that are running New York City this weekend. So , gotta get to the finish line for that

This week I am sitting down with Chris Morgan. He is the founder of Print a Run and is the host of Insider Runners World Podcast.

Chris grew up in England, which you could already tell in the teaser intro. And he came to the US when he was 22, and that was supposed to be for six weeks, and now it's been 23 years. So he didn't start running until a little later in life in his mid-30s, And he ran the 2017 Miami Marathon for charity and thought he was one and done. Of course, we all know where that goes. and , he framed his race shirt and photos and that ended up turning into his business Print a Run.

We talk about some of his race experiences at Chicago, where Paula Radcliffe gave him his finisher medal. Can you imagine? Boston, and his work with Achilles, which, has [00:02:00] provided him with the opportunity to guide athletes who need a guide, and he just did Detroit this month, so congrats to him on that.

We also talk about his dad and how he kinda has a mantra, Give it a go." And so Chris has taken that to heart.

since it's Halloween weekend, there is a hilarious, very viral clip that he caught on his Ring doorbell that ended up on, like, The Tonight Show, all over the place.

And it was so memorable that his wife actually wrote a book about it called The Halloween Flight, and you can buy it on Amazon. It's for kids. And so I'm gonna post that on my Instagram, allytbrett_runs, and print-a-run, So go follow us so you can see that clip. It's really funny.

So I really hope you enjoy my conversation with Chris

All right. Well, welcome Chris, AKA Print-A-Run, to the podcast. We've known each other on the internet for probably literally years, but never really talked until recently. We finally connected, which is so great.

Chris Morgan: I think, I think that's a, a weird thing with most people in just today's world. Uh, you've probably seen it.

I've seen it so, so much with my business over the years. I've, I've, since I [00:03:00] started in 2017, all these people have become, you know, collectors, and they become friends, and you follow their story, they follow your story. And then all of a sudden, five, six years later, it's, "Oh, hey, nice to meet you," kind of thing.

Ally Brettnacher: Or you, like, meet in real life someday, and you're like, "Wow, I had no idea that's, like, how tall you'd be," or whatever. I don't know.

Chris Morgan: Yeah. Expo's are always good for that. People coming up to you at expos, like, "Chris, I'm blahdy-blah." And then you're trying to think about, okay, who is this person? How do I know this person- Yeah

without-- and what's their name, without getting your phone out and, like, looking up and like, "Hey, nice to meet you," 'cause, "Oh my God, so good to see you."

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. "Oh, I've been listening to your podcast for years," and you're like, "Great. I forgot." Yeah. Uh, yeah. I've actually joked about making flashcards of people, like locally I see all the time that I can't-- For whatever reason, I can remember the name of my waiter at a rest- random restaurant like three years ago, but I can't remember a person I've met five times.

Like, how does that work?

Chris Morgan: I'm, I'm embracing middle age, and I'm okay to say I'm a middle-aged person at 45- Yeah ... 'cause that's, do the math. Um, I just, I get used to it now. Yeah. I get used to it. I [00:04:00] don't get as frustrated as I did when I was in my 20s or my 30s.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's good. That's good. Well, everyone can hear your accent now, so I feel like that's probably the first thing people always ask you about.

"Where, where are you from, Chris?" But people probably wanna know, so tell us.

Chris Morgan: Yeah, it's, it's normally the where are you from, and then it's pursued by, "I've been to London. Have you been to London? I've been to London. Oh, do you know such and such?" It's, it's a, you know, a weird, weird thing. So I was born in Manchester, which everybody knows 'cause of, you know, Man United, and football, and soccer, and all that kind of thing.

Uh, third or fourth biggest city in... I think it's the third biggest city in the UK. Um, my parents moved to a place called Leicestershire, which nobody's really heard of Leicester. Um, it's famous-- Well, Leicester City won the Premier League a couple of years ago, which is a, a weird, uh, anomaly. Um, but it's not really famous for anything else.

There's really nothing else that really happened in Leicestershire. They moved there, um, during my school years, and I grew up there. And like most people in the UK or most people that didn't really enjoy where they lived, they just got out of there the, the earliest possible point. [00:05:00] Um, last year, I calculated, actually, I've now been in the States longer than I've lived in the UK.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, wow.

Chris Morgan: So I guess this is home now, 'cause it's now 23 years since I first- Across the pond- Hey ... to coin something. Um, so yeah, I guess this is home now. But yeah, the, the accent, um, it's great for business, it's, it's great for marriages and all that kind of good stuff, so it works. I gotta keep it.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, that's too funny.

23 years though. So you were, like, in your 20s when you moved here then, the math.

Chris Morgan: Put the ma- Yeah. Yeah. I've said I'm 45. Yeah. Yeah. So I was 22 when I came here. Um, came here for six weeks, um, to work in soccer, and I ended up staying. It's funny how you go things... Y- you go somewhere for a few weeks just to, like, you know, try things out, and, uh, here I am, you know, 20-something years later.

It was a long six weeks.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, interesting. So did you move... Were you in Mi- Have you been in Michigan this whole time that you've been in the States? No,

Chris Morgan: no, no, no. Michigan... It's funny, when I, when I left the UK, I was very much, "I'm leaving the UK [00:06:00] to get away from the cold weather. I don't ever-" Oh, no ... "wanna live anywhere cold.

I don't ever wanna be anywhere cold again."

Ally Brettnacher: Joke's on you.

Chris Morgan: Moved to New Jersey, New York for a couple of years, and then realized that was it. This is, the snows and the colds are ridiculous. And then spent 17 years either in Florida, California, Texas. I was in the Middle East for a bit. Uh, or just traveling the world with work, refusing to live somewhere cold, and stumbled across Michigan a couple of years ago.

Uh, my wife's actually from here, and she said, "You know, if we ever have kids, um, we're gonna move to Michigan." And maybe, you know, I've heard about you talking about when you first started dating, impressing people on the- Yeah ... show before. It's- Yeah. ... it's very much like I was living in Miami, I was living in Ocean Drive, and, you know, you're, you're chasing somebody, and it's, like, and they say to you, you know, something, "Hey, we'll live in Michigan one day."

And you're just like, "Yeah, whatever." I'm here. Been here for five years now, so I guess this is now home.

Ally Brettnacher: Now home. Okay, and where in Michigan is where you live? Okay, so I- Where, it's close to Detroit, right?

Chris Morgan: Yeah, um, place called Grosse Pointe. [00:07:00] Um, so we're right on the water. Um, and- Geographically-wise, you'd say East Detroit, like Southeast Out- Southeast Michigan is what we're known as

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

So your first marathon, Chris, was 2017?

Chris Morgan: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Is that right? And so you originally, at least what my research says, is you said, "I'm one and done." Like, that's the only marathon I'm doing.

Chris Morgan: Aren't we all though? Aren't we all when we get into this crazy little

Ally Brettnacher: thing called- You know, actually I wasn't. I will say I never said, like, "I'm gonna do a ton of marathons and make it my whole personality," but I didn't...

When I finished I was like, I was destroyed, but I never said, "Never again," I don't think. Which is crazy, 'cause that is what most people do say.

Chris Morgan: I wasn't a runner. I was mid- mid 30s I think at the time. I wasn't a runner, and I was looking for something to kind of like almost pass the time. Uh, mental health, clear the mind, all that kind of stuff.

Pressures of work, pressures of life, all that kind of thing. Um, and just started running for fun basically, and like anything I was like, "Oh, let's just do a challenge." Right? Let's just do something that's kind of a little bit fun. [00:08:00] Um, as you know, pre-COVID, running marathons wasn't a trend. It wasn't really a thing.

It was just people did it and it, they, you know, it was pretty cool to do and everything. So I decided to do it, but I also decided to do it, um, to raise money for charity. Um, I'd lost my nan several years before to Alzheimer's and thought, "Well, it'll be cool. I'll train for a first marathon- Yeah ... I'll raise a bit of money.

It'll give me a little bit of motivation to go out and train if you're trying to raise money for a cause." And as soon as certain people donate money to you, then it's like shit, I've gotta go and do it now, right? Yeah. It's done, kind of like backing out kind of thing.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: And I ran Miami in, uh, January or February 2017, and yeah, it was gonna be a one-and-done kind of thing, but, and I say but, that experience I had doing it, not so much at the time, but because there was like four or five different Miami weather conditions that day, and if you've lived in South Florida, you- you've experienced everything, so hot, cold, windy, the whole nine yards.

Got to the end, my parents flew over from the UK, and [00:09:00] it was just kind of like, "All right, that was, that was kind of cool. What's next?" It wasn't necessarily from what's the next marathon, it was what's the next race. South Florida's phenomenal because there's, there's events all year round. So there's literally every weekend there's a marathon or a half-marathon.

And I'd done a couple of half-marathons with Fort Lauderdale, uh, Miami Beach. Then I did Palm Beach, um, and then just started doing all the diff- different local ones. Mm-hmm. Um, 2018, I did the marathon again, and then that's when it was like the, all right, let's, let's start looking elsewhere and what else is out there kind of thing.

Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: That's wild. Do you have any siblings, by the way? I've

Chris Morgan: got an older, an older brother, yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Is he still in the UK, or has he come over

Chris Morgan: here? Um, he, he works for an American company, but he lives in Italy most of the time.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay, in Italy. Nice. Well, it's nice to have a reason to go visit other places too.

That's not a bad one to have.

Chris Morgan: Yeah, so, so then the, then the vision was like, kind of like, this is just before I had the, the vision for PrettyRun. Um, but it was kind of like, well, I could [00:10:00] go to a different city and have a weekend away in that city, 'cause I love to travel, and kind of like run a race at the same time, if that makes sense.

Oh, yeah. So it was kind of like, let's go and experience, I don't know, Boston or New York or, um, I don't know, Texas, somewhere in Texas, have a weekend away, run a race, and it's kind of like- Best of both worlds then, 'cause you can keep family happy to a certain extent, but you can also get your fix from running a race at the same time as well.

Ally Brettnacher: Yes. Yeah, I'm all about that. I've thought about that too when it comes to the majors. It's like, do I need to do the majors? I mean, it'd be cool, but now it's so competitive, so maybe I should just pick somewhere I wanna go and figure out when their race is and do that instead.

Chris Morgan: Yeah, I mean, the, the majors now is, it's almost like going- the cost of going to Disneyland if you wanna go and run one of those weekend...

The weekends themselves- Yeah ... um, I know Chicago's coming up next weekend, New York not so long after that.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

Chris Morgan: But, uh, you know yourself. You know, the cost of these weekends now, it's gone from, it's gone from being a, a weekend away to being, for a [00:11:00] lot of people, that's their main vacation of the year.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, so I definitely wanna talk about Print A Run. I wanna keep talking about your running journey too alongside of it, but was it after your first marathon though that you had the f- the idea, or was it after your second?

Chris Morgan: It was after the first. So the one and done thing, you know, you go to these expos, and for most of you guys know, you know, expos, health and fitness things that they have before the race.

You go pick your bib and all that kind of thing. And I, I wanted to get kind of like a wow factor thing. I wanted to go to the event and get something that was like, "Okay, I'm gonna really remember my race by it. Here it is." And I won't get too much into it, 'cause I have a love-hate relationship with expos, and- Yeah

there was really... This was 2017, so there was really nothing there that I, I wanted. You know, everyone's, everyone at that time was selling the same stuff. Um, there was nothing that was different. You know, there's only so many hats that you can get- Yeah ... that say the Miami Marathon on. Yeah. There's only so many T-shirts you can get that say the Miami Marathon on it, and you even get a free T-shirt for doing the race.

So why would I wanna go and buy- Another one ... a different [00:12:00] T-shirt that says the Miami Marathon on it?

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: So I scoured round, and it was a fairly big expo, and there wasn't that many companies that were doing, running things. Um, you know, there was insurance companies-

Ally Brettnacher: It's crazy,

Chris Morgan: yeah ... there was a company there, gutter companies and all that kind of side of things.

Fair play, it's an expo, you know, go, go get your money. But there was really nothing I saw there that made me wanna spend my money. Um, I've been in the art business for 20 years, so I literally, I went home, I took the... This is after the race. I took the shirt I ran the race in, um, I got it framed, and I printed a couple of photos of me during that race and one afterwards, and I just, basically I made a nice little framed collage.

Pretty cool. Put it on, I don't know, Facebook or whatever it was at the time, and I had several people reach out say, "Oh my God, that's awesome. Where'd you get that from?" "I made it myself." Da-da. And it kept, it kept coming. It kept, the rotation kept coming. And then I thought, there's... So I started doing the research.

Started, you know, hitting Google. This is before ChatGPT for [00:13:00] all the kids today.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: Doing the research. You're looking online, and there was really nothing out there at that time that was like race memorabilia or something for runners with photos or, you know, to... that kind of side of thing. So it sounds really corny, but it happened, so I'll, I'll tell it.

I actually had a dream- that I had this print company called Print a Run, and we made race- Crazy ... it sounds so cheesy but- Yeah ... we make race memorabilia for runners. And at that time I was living in Miami. I used to always keep a notepad and pen by the side of the bed because I had a, I had quite a company owner at that time that would literally call me 24 hours a day, and it was literally just I'd write the notes down, da da.

So most dreams you have, you wake up and you get your coffee and you forget about it within an hour. I re- leaned over and I, I just wrote Print a Run down, and then must have fallen back asleep and, you know, woke up, forgot the dream and everything, and then I saw this thing on the side of the bed that said Print a Run.

And then the memory just [00:14:00] started, "Oh yeah, I had this print company," da da da da. So I started off with just having a very, very basic website, which was for, the niche was runners. You know, it wasn't gonna be just doing prints. We're gonna target runners and marathon runners, and you send me a photo, I'll print it on a canvas or just put it in a frame and voomf, have at it.

We'll go from there. And it, you know, it started and we get a couple of orders a month, but there was nothing really explosive about it because I'm doing the same thing as Kinko's. I'm doing the same thing as a million other people where you take a photo You put it onto the website and anyone can do that.

What's special about me just 'cause I'm a runner, just 'cause I like running? Nothing. I've got the accent. Well, great- ... they can't see it on the website. Fast-forward a couple of years and I decided to do my first major, and during, when I was doing the first major, never been to a major before, and this was like night and day from going, running the Miami Marathon-

Ally Brettnacher: Right.

Which major did you do first?

Chris Morgan: [00:15:00] Chicago.

Ally Brettnacher: Chicago.

Chris Morgan: So at that time I was living in Austin. I'd ran Miami three times. I did 2017, '18, '19.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

Chris Morgan: And then, all right, let's go with the big boys now. So Chicago 2019, first major. Get there, the expo was just like, it was like a village within a village, and it was like, okay, this is serious now.

You know, people are not just coming to run the race, they're coming to the expo who have either ran the race. It's like a, an alumni thing for colleges, right? Um, I ran Chicago in 2015, I have to go to Chicago. Um, so you've got, you know, Miami at that time was probably getting like 10,000 runners. Now you've got probably 100,000 people going to an expo.

Wow. And then I thought, well, I've gotta do some- I've gotta design a product just for this race. So then the brainwave started going, and that's when the templates came out. So if you go to printerun.com, you'll see a lot of our races, they're templates. So it's a, it's a race template and you just simply upload your photos.

The idea behind that would [00:16:00] be I would do the six majors at that time. I would have those six templates, and you can int- you could load your photos and put your data on there and all that kind of stuff. And then for me, I wouldn't have to have as much touchy-feely and working things around. It would generate a PDF file that I could literally just print straight off the bat, so I wouldn't have to take that photos, color correct them, change them, resize them.

It was already done through the website. And then that's when PrintaRun really blew up and really took over.

Ally Brettnacher: Ah. And it's not, you have a, still have a normal job.

Chris Morgan: I do. Yeah. Well, at that time I had a normal job.

Ally Brettnacher: And well, and you still do. Yeah, it's-

Chris Morgan: Yeah. And then COVID happened, and- COVID happened, like a lot of people, redundancy package came.

Took a severance package from the company in Austin. That's when the wife turned around and said, "Hey, you know, Michigan, mm." And I'm like, "Well-" "... I don't have a job. We just bought a house," but that was, you know, it is what it is. "All right, let's, let's, let's go to Michigan for six weeks." It's the whole [00:17:00] USA mentality.

Let's give it six weeks and see what happens.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

Chris Morgan: So when I came up to, when I came up to Michigan, this was now back end of 2020. So a year had gone by. I had the website and I just had six templates, all the majors, nothing else, and that was it. Okay. Moved to Michigan and I was like, "All right, well now I've got a bit of time on my hands, um, let's really attack the website.

Let's really go in there and look at races. Let's really move it around." And it was a great time because I basically, I had enough money. I didn't have to work, pay the bills- Great ... everything. Um, just got this nice little severance check. I could really invest in Print-A-Run. I could get everything set up and everything.

Add more races that weren't necessarily just the majors, so we added other cities around the US, and then try and figure out e-commerce businesses. Now, in my corporate gig and my, my professional job, that's all I'd done. I'd worked in the art business, but I'd... We had B2Bs, B2Cs, where we ran very high-end websites and we printed stuff for [00:18:00] artists.

Now I'm kind of doing it myself, so I had a, a rough understanding, but then it was how do I build a database? How do I get people to buy things when we're all in lockdown and nobody can go outside? There's no runs, races going on and stuff. So I'd, I'd have to go back and say, "Well, would you like to make your 2017 Boston print?"

And people did. Yeah. And it was, you know, that time where it was a weird time because if you had a good e-commerce business- 20- 2020, '21, '22, it was a booming market for people. If you had a really good e-commerce store and you, you had product to sell, people were at home and they're clicking, and they were bored, and they were wanting to redo the house.

They're wanting to buy things.

Ally Brettnacher: Yep.

Chris Morgan: Um, and it was a great time, and the ironic thing with the whole COVID thing for me was 2020, I'd actually planned to run all the majors in one year. So I'd gone on this big trajectory. I had Boston set up, I had London set up. London was supposed to be the 40th year, the 40th [00:19:00] anniversary.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh.

Chris Morgan: Um, so I had all this stuff in. It was my dad's 70th, and we'd had- Oh ... this planned trip and everything. So I, I'd planned after Chicago 2019, I'm gonna go on a mad year of just knocking all the majors out. Then I can make samples and templates for myself. I can promote, you know, the product. Then I

Ally Brettnacher: can- Right.

I've done it all. Here's, yeah, here's all mine.

Chris Morgan: Right. And, you know, March 2020, everything just went to, you know, what.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: Um, it was a hard time, but like I say, fast-forward six months, then we moved to Michigan, and that was really the kickstart for Print a Runner that I needed.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: And everything just waited.

Everything put on, got put on pause.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, it was a weird time 'cause you're like, "Okay, well, people are really missing running, too." They're like, "Man, I really miss that," so they're... You know, being able to remember races they'd already done was, was helpful to be like, "Well, hopefully someday we'll do it again."

Chris Morgan: It w- it was a weird time because a month before COVID, I'd actually... We were living in Texas, we were living in Austin, and I actually bought a treadmill with [00:20:00] iRun on it, and you could do, you know, the simulation runs and everything. And the, the goal behind that was I'd buy this treadmill so I didn't have to run outside in Texas during the winter, during the summer months.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: So I got this treadmill. COVID happened. It was two, three months I'm sat at home. I got incredibly fit. I got incredibly fit.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: Could- you couldn't get fast food. Um, in Texas, groceries had to... We got, uh, groceries delivered to the house. So we were, you know, we weren't eating junk or garbage. We were barbecuing and grilling every day.

Got incredibly fit from the, from the machine. And then ironically, when we moved to Michigan, I use the treadmill now so I don't run outside in the winters. But yeah, it was, it was weird that, you know, races weren't happening and people weren't getting together, and there was a lot of virtual runs and all that kind of stuff was going on.

You know, marathons are still trying to make money. Let's do a virtual run.

Ally Brettnacher: All right, Miami three years in a row, your first major. We kind of started talking about print a run, and so I want to go back to your first Chicago. Um, this'll, this'll come out after the Chicago Marathon this year, so I'm [00:21:00] praying that they had- have good weather because it's not looking wonderful right now.

But that'll change hopefully. I'm sending all the good weather vibes. But tell us about your first Chicago Marathon experience.

Chris Morgan: So again, going in there not knowing anything about it, this was my fourth marathon. I was down to this one marathon a year thing. I'd ran Miami that year in February, I think it was the first week of February, and Chicago was October.

Uh, yeah, Sept- October, September, October, whatever it was. Um, I got caught up day before, did the expo. I, I walked for, like, 10 miles around the city, um, did the whole, you know, go down to Nike Town 'cause you get the-- They release the jackets the early, before the finisher jackets get released early, so you can get your finisher jacket, all that kind of thing.

And yeah, just walked around the city non-stop for several hours. Um, woke up on race day, and for you guys that ran Chicago, you know you get down to that park way earlier than you need to be in that park and everything. And, um- Just froze my backside off for like two hours- Mm-hmm ... three hours. Race [00:22:00] started, GPS doesn't work on your watch for the first four or five miles, so like any race you go with the crowd, you're excited, you da, da, da, da.

Yeah. I had an okay-ish race. I- okay-ish, you know, nothing crazy, nothing fancy. The, the quintessential highlight for me, um, I finished the- got over the finish line and, and there's just a million people there, right? I saw a friend of mine who'd ran the race and I'm talking to her saying hello and everything, and then she's like, "Oh, you gotta go get your medal."

So I was like, "Okay." You know, I'm looking over for the medal people. Oh, there's a, a l- a lady over there. I walk over and it's Paula Radcliffe, who was like growing up, um, Paula Radcliffe was like one of my icons-

Ally Brettnacher: I mean ...

Chris Morgan: for track and field. And she's just casually sat there or stood at the side just handing medals over.

She's got, you know, tracky bottoms, trainers, and a, a big wind jacket, and I was, I just couldn't get my head around it after that.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

Chris Morgan: And I'm thinking, does every major do you get a, like a celebrity or like a-

Ally Brettnacher: You know, I think it's more [00:23:00] common ...

Chris Morgan: an athlete at the finish line?

Ally Brettnacher: It's more common now. I know at Indy last year we had Emily Infeld was there.

Um, we've had Cole Hocker, two years ago he came and was at, I think he stayed till the finish line. So sometimes races will do that, at least what I've seen, but I don't know how the majors operate. But I think some of the big names tend to be in town for the event, so sometimes they might be there, but that is crazy.

I've run Chicago several times and never seen a celebrity, so.

Chris Morgan: I should've retired after that. Um- Yeah, like- The, the crazy thing about that year is that was the year her world record got beat, and she'd had the world record for like 15, 20 years or some- Wow ... crazy amount of time before that. So not only had she lost a world med- a world record, or sorry- Yeah

the, the course record for Chicago-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: she's handing out medals to people like me at the finish line.

Ally Brettnacher: That's so, that is so cool. She put on your first major medal.

Chris Morgan: Yeah. I'm sure she never stops talking about it either.

Ally Brettnacher: She probably doesn't. She's like, "Guys, do you know that? Do you know Chris? I did that. I put that

Chris Morgan: medal on."

It's funny, when I [00:24:00] ran it in 2022, um, I was actually guiding with Achilles, and I'm like- I'm gonna get Paula again. Where's Paula? Where's Paula? And she wasn't

Ally Brettnacher: there. Yeah. Then you're, then of course you're like, "Come on, okay, where's my-

Chris Morgan: Yeah ... where's

Ally Brettnacher: my Olympia?"

Chris Morgan: I'm only doing Chicago again if she's there.

That's, that's it.

Ally Brettnacher: There you go. Yeah. That's the deal. Yeah. Okay, so 20-- So that was 20-

Chris Morgan: 2019

Ally Brettnacher: was the first marathon ... '19 and then '22. And was '22 the first year they were back after COVID? I can never remember how all of them came back.

Chris Morgan: I think so. Um, 'cause I know, I honestly can't remember now, 'cause some of them, they moved to, like, the fall and the spring- Right

because there was, like, system overload of people that qualified and everything and, you know- Mm-hmm ... who had bibs, and how do they, how do they get all these runners into a make it- Yeah ... marathon. But they did, and you know, they, they made a lot of money from it, and they, they got everyone through, and you know, the, the race is now.

And since that happened-

Ally Brettnacher: Right ...

Chris Morgan: that FOMO has really come out, and I think that's, if, I'm not saying COVID improved races, but it's coincidental- I mean, but- ... after [00:25:00] COVID you can't get into any of these races now.

Ally Brettnacher: Right. It's all these people started running, 'cause they had nothing else to do. They were going nuts, so they're like, "Well, guess I'll take up running."

Chris Morgan: Once you do one major, the bug happens, and then that's the-

Ally Brettnacher: Oof. Yeah ...

the

Chris Morgan: six star. Ooh, let's- Yeah ... what's, what's the six star about? And-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So how did that, how was your second Chicago compared to your first?

Chris Morgan: Um, second one was funny, 'cause I actually decided to do the expo with Print a Run. 22 we had a, we had a great year and, and it was like, all right, let's, let's go and throw all this amount of money down to do an expo and- You know, it's, it's a-

Ally Brettnacher: Oh

Chris Morgan: it's more than, more than a house down payment almost. So- Nuts ... I'm driving to Chicago. I trained my tail off. I'm like, all right, well let's get the expo out the way and I'm gonna have a really good run this time, 'cause I wanted to improve on my last experience in, in Chicago. And I'd actually done Boston, um- In the, in the four- in the spring before.

And-

Ally Brettnacher: Really? Okay, I wanna hear about that

Chris Morgan: too ... so '22 I did, I did all US majors in one year. So it was kinda like my catch-up to try [00:26:00] and knock everything out, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I'd done Boston. During Boston, um, we'll talk about this later, but I had a blow up and heatstroke and had a bad race, but during Boston I saw the Achilles, Team Achilles for the first time.

I really noticed Team Achilles out there, and it was all the, you know, people helping people that were visually impaired or, um, some kind of physical disability or something like that. And during that time I was like, "Oh, that's, that's really cool. I'd love to do that one day." And I think more so 'cause I needed someone to get me over the finish line in Bo- in Boston.

It was like, well, maybe I could help somebody get over the finish line or they could help me.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: And same thing, I, after Boston, I'd gone home and I went online and I signed up on a few websites and didn't hear anything. And I thought, well, maybe, I don't know, maybe you need to be first aid trained or maybe you need to be military or maybe you need to be in a first responder or something like that.

So I'm driving to Chicago, I've got my music on, I've got a car full of podiums, tables, samples and, you know, got my [00:27:00] happy place on and, well, I'm, I'm, how am I gonna make my money back? How am I gonna make... That's what I'm thinking.

Ally Brettnacher: Right.

Chris Morgan: I'm driving to Boston, I get a number pull up on my phone and, and I don't know about you, but I, I very rarely answer numbers that I don't recognize.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: Um, it's normally spam or, you know, something like that. So I ignored it. Two minutes later, the number calls back. Happy place. Let's go to the sad place. "Hey, this is Chris. I want to help." Uh, and it was a guy from Achilles and he said, "Well, you know, I found your information online and, um, we wanna know if you're interested in, you know, joining our, helping us out during one of the races."

I said, "I, yeah, I'd kind of love to, but I'm, I'm driving to Chicago right now, so can I call you back Monday?" Goes silent and he's like, "Uh, well, we actually want you to help in Chicago." And there was- ... there was a bit of me, because, you know, whether we like it or not, what we do is selfish. Running is a very selfish sport.

We have to admit that because it's just, it's-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: you're doing it for yourself a lot of the time. And there was a, you know, the one voice on one shoulder said, "You've trained your tail [00:28:00] off for the last three months. No, it, uh, you're gonna PB at Chicago. You're gonna have a great race. Weather looks perfect.

Conditions are great. Just tell him you'll do the next one." But then the other, you know, the, the other person in me, the good part of me was very much like, "Uh, uh, well," and I'm trying to think of excuses. I'm thinking, "Well, I've never done this before and, you know, I don't know if I should go straight in."

And he's like, "Look, you'll be fine. You're gonna be a second guide. The other person is a New York City, uh, firefighter. He's done it a bunch of times. We really need a second runner." And I'm, and I'm, I'm still hesitant. I'm like, "Well, you know, I, I, uh..." And then he just comes out with, "Well, we need your help because we don't wanna see any runners go without on the day, and we don't wanna see- Hey

anyone miss out." So at that point I'm just like, "All right, you got me. You know, it's, you know, let's, let's go for it." So- I said, "Let's go for it." And we, I met the, the runner at, I met the guide at the expo, the other person that was guiding me, Sean- Yeah ... um, the firefighter, and he basically gave me [00:29:00] a two-minute instructions of how it works and what happens, and I'm still like, "This is a bit surreal," if you've never done it before.

And, you know, what happens if I do it wrong, or what happens if we do this and

Ally Brettnacher: that? Yeah.

Chris Morgan: Um, and then the other, the other kicker for me was like, well, what's their pace? And- Right,

Ally Brettnacher: right. Huge.

Chris Morgan: They, they, they, well, they wanted to, they wanted, they, they asked me what my pace was, and I said, "Well, I'm, I'm about a four-hour runner."

I said, "I could probably be comfortable guiding somebody four, four hours 30, a little bit slower." And they said, "Well, we're looking at about a six-hour pace." And I, initially I was like, "I can run that slow. That's great. That's almost walking." But-

Ally Brettnacher: Chris ...

Chris Morgan: hey, when you've never done it before, you've never done it before.

So you, you live and learn, right? Yeah. And I, I lived it. I went through it, and I learned from it because there's a difference between being out there for four hours than being out there for six hours.

Ally Brettnacher: Huge difference.

Chris Morgan: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. And so who was your runner? What was his or her story? [00:30:00]

Chris Morgan: So she was a visually impaired lady.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Chris Morgan: Ran a bunch of races before. Um, didn't say much the whole race. Um, you know, we'd, we'd go round and we'd take it in turns to guide with the tether. Mm-hmm. The other person would go ahead, make sure there's no obstacles on the track and, 'cause, you know, Chicago's just a flood of bottles and gels and just crap everywhere.

Yep. And when we were approaching the aid, aid station, you'd be like, "Hey, do you need to use the restroom? Do you want water, Gatorade, anything to eat?" And just constantly having that conversation with them about, you know, do, do you- Right ... do you need to walk? Do you, how are you feeling? You know, checking in.

Mm-hmm. You know, we check in with ourselves during a race, but you're checking in with somebody else more frequently because- Yeah ... you don't understand the feelings they're going through. Um, and then just guiding them through the course, being the eyes for them. You know, it's sharp turns, is there an incline?

Is there, you know, are we going down? Is there a section where there's a lot of people, um, so you don't bump into the back of anybody? And it was, it was such a, an [00:31:00] inspiring, humbling feeling because you're not running a race for yourself. You're not in your head. So you eliminate, right off the bat, all that pressure goes away.

And I, I must have seen 20, 30 people that I knew running Chicago either going past me or, you know, we were going past them, and it's, it's funny to watch other people when you're not really thinking about other people, if that makes sense. You know, we, we're constantly, as runners, are you're looking at your watch for your time and making sure you're sticking to, as close to the line as possible so you don't have to go off it too much.

Yeah. And just silly little things that you get in your head. Um, I found when I finished that race, I'd ran way more than a, an average marathon would be because you, you know, you're circling round, you're going backwards and forwards and you're running ahead, getting some Gatorades, running back, here you go, so you don't have to stop in the aid station and every- all that kind of thing.

The other thing that really opened my eyes to a l- this kind of thing is when you're running with someone that's visually impaired, there's different ways you can do it, but [00:32:00] we ran with a tether. So it's basically, I took my watch off, you, you've both got a tether in your hand like that, and the one thing that we had to do with this young lady was your, your cadence and your stride has to be the same.

So she was a little bit smaller than me, so she was almost shuffling. So you have to kind of shuffle. So I looked at my, my stats afterwards, and I, I think I'd done, like, 74,000 steps, and average marathon, I'm, I'm doing about 35, 36,000 steps. So I'd almost, in theory, done, gone twice as far. Um, I'm out there- A good two hours longer than I'm usually out there, and in 2022 it was a, it was a, uh, it was a sunbathing day, shall we say, for the weather.

It was, uh, it was one of those-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: cloudless sky and just beautiful, beautiful beach weather.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

Chris Morgan: But we got through it, and it was amazing.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. Have you guided with Achilles since then?

Chris Morgan: Yeah, so, um, I got put in touch with, uh, one of my, one of my favorite runners in the [00:33:00] game, period. It's a guy called Rob Sanchez.

Uh-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: Rob looks like a pirate. Um, he's got the big white beard. Um, he was actually another visually impaired person. He was visually impaired in the first Gulf War. So in the, the early '90s, he actually got, um, tragic story, they were doing like a reloading, a ref- a restocking thing, and he had something that just go sh- uh, like a catapult go into his, his face, and lost his vision.

Ally Brettnacher: Jeez.

Chris Morgan: Uh, that's through the Freedom Team. The Freedom Team are a subdivision of Achilles where they deal with, uh, mainly Marines, uh, US marine veterans and whatnot. Um, I've done several races with him, and-

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, great ...

Chris Morgan: unlike, uh, the young lady that, the, the first lady I ran with who didn't say a word, Rob doesn't shut up.

Um, and he'll let me say what I need to say, but he's the guy that literally is just from start to finish is just joke after joke after joke after joke. Um, favorite things he'll do, he'll, he'll like, you know, "Hey, you dropped your wallet." And they'll look around and they see this guy with the [00:34:00] glasses says, you know, blind across his T-shirt and stuff, and they're like, "Huh?"

Or the, the best one actually was last year he did it. So we're running Detroit, um, and I'm like, "I gotta go pee. I gotta go pee." So I, I pull him on, I'm, I'm in the, in the restroom and I'm, you know, we're, we're not the quickest, so there's many people have used this restroom before us and it's, it's just atrocious.

So I'm trying to like unclip and unbuckle, it's wet and all that, cold, that kind of thing. And I can hear him outside and he, and Rob's shouting, "Help! Help! I've lost my guide. My guide left me." And I'm, I'm in the, and I'm like banging on the Porta Potty. I'm like, I'm like, "Shut the... I'm in here, I'm in..." And he's like, "This is funny.

Watch, watch." And he's like, "Help me, help me. I can't find my guide."

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, these people are like, "Ah."

Chris Morgan: And there was like two ladies that came over and they're like, and they're like, "What happened? What happened?" He goes, "My guide said he was t- I was too slow and he just ran off and left me." And then they can hear this noise from like the Porta Potty, "I'm in here, I'm in here."

I'm like quickly coming out so I [00:35:00] don't, you know, peel- Yeah ... myself off and all that kind of stuff and- ... sort of took myself in and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Go out and clip him back on and, and carry on. And then we get to the next round and he goes, "I gotta go to the bathroom." So I, you know, unclip him and in he goes and everything.

And he's, he's in the bathroom. He starts shouting again. He goes, "My guide left me. I'm in the Porta, I'm in the potty. Help me. Help me." Stop

Ally Brettnacher: it.

Chris Morgan: Um-

Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh. What

Chris Morgan: a riot ... yeah, it's just, when you, when you do this and, and it's, it, it's so humbling to, you know, you just, not just the visually impaired people, but you see the people that have lost limbs and, and-

Ally Brettnacher: Right

Chris Morgan: th- the, there's no excuse for anybody for not doing these things, for not getting it done. And, and but for me it's, it's, it's a coin cliche. I, I like to run for those that can't. Um-

Ally Brettnacher: Amen ...

Chris Morgan: whether they're on the course that day or they need guidance or assistance or help and all that kind of side of things, it's, it's, it's a beautiful thing to do.

And, you know, it's, it's, it's pissed my coach off a few [00:36:00] times because I, she's trained me for races and then at the last minute I'm like, "Ah, I'm gonna go guide somebody." Um, she gets it now, but- Yeah ... it's, uh, I, I'll always do it. And, um, you know, e- even for any race, if I'm going to the event and the morning of the race someone says, "Hey, can you, do you mind going a round with this person?"

I won't even think twice about it. It's, um, it's just, for me since I've done it several times now, it's so good to give back. In fact, um- In a couple of weeks I'm running Detroit. We're doing the full marathon with a, uh, Rob's not doing it this year. We're doing it with a, um, there's a female US Marine veteran, and- Wow

she's got new knees, new hips. She just did a 50-miler this weekend.

Ally Brettnacher: Holy cow.

Chris Morgan: Doing Chicago next weekend. What? And then she's gonna turn up with me in, uh, a couple weeks in Detroit, so-

Ally Brettnacher: Let's go back to April of 2022 when you had a horrible Boston experience, 'cause I'm sure there are people listening who can relate to that.

Marker

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And SWTHZ will also be at our Shake Out Run booking those appointments, so there should be a few at least reserved if you come to that. Our ShakeOut Run is also supported by a boutique that just opened in the Bottleworks District called Baubles and Lace. You can actually shop online, so even if you're not local to Indianapolis, you should check them out. I wanna tell you that if you come in town though and you are coming to our [00:38:00] post-race party and you don't have an outfit, be a great place to snag that.

And if you stop in, be so kind as to tell them that we sent you, and you can use code FLAMS, F-L-A-M-S, for $10 off of your celebration ticket, 'cause you should come to that too. Thank you so much to SWTHZ and Baubles and Lace for supporting this podcast and our events.

Now back to Chris Let's go back to April of 2022 when you had a horrible Boston experience, 'cause I'm sure there are people listening who can relate to that.

So let's, let's talk about that. What was it like?

Chris Morgan: A couple of factors I've learned from that since, right? I'm, I didn't have a coach in Boston, so I'm, I'm learning things on the fly, listening to other people, that kind of side of things. There's so much pressure because it's Boston. It's a major, and it's like, okay, well, I'm stepping up now, right?

I've done Chicago.

Ally Brettnacher: And wait, how did you end up running Boston too, by the way? Did you qualify? Did you run for charity?

Chris Morgan: I did a cha- And you know, that's another vertical we can go down because there's love-hate relationships for the, for the charity bibs and everything. But at the time, I, that's how I was gonna get in, [00:39:00] you know?

Yeah. If, if, if I wanted to BQ for Boston, it would be a full-time job for me. It would be literally everything from, from diet to life, everything. I can't work a full-time job and BQ at the same time. I've also, I'm also a dad. I wanna be a dad, you know? I don't wanna be... And, uh, and there's people that do it, I get it, but when weekends come, I wanna play with my kids.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: I wanna see my kids, and it's a sacrifice. And people who do it, I get it, it's great, but at that time, my qualifying time was insane. It's even more insane now. Um, but as we all know, as we get a little bit older, the dream comes alive. Um, uh, I'm, I'm a stats guy, and I was looking at the numbers today.

Nearly half the people that BQ'd for this, this go-round were in the 40 to 49 age bracket. No

Ally Brettnacher: So

Chris Morgan: yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: it's pretty silly That's not, well, that's not good for me

Chris Morgan: Well-

Ally Brettnacher: Is it? ...

Chris Morgan: 47%, that shows [00:40:00] that 47% of runners, now's the time that they're qualifying for Boston. It's not when they're super young, it's not when they're super old.

Right. It's this, it's this- Right ... window we've got. Got a few more years-

Ally Brettnacher: Right. It's like m- it's, like, motivating, but at the same time it's like, well, does that mean it's, like, even more competitive? Which it is in any way, I guess,

Chris Morgan: so. The numbers are going down each year and, and you know-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: the, the, the times have to get quicker and quicker and quicker and stuff, and- I know

I don't know. I did the charity entry. I wanted to do it. That was the way of me getting into it, the means to get into it. My, my charity story's a little bit different because they, they didn't have a, any support there. It was... I don't know if they're even doing bibs anymore and everything, and it was, nobody took, checked in with you.

Nobody helped you, you know, do the fundraising side of things. So I got down there and it was annoying because you saw all these other charities, and they had big weekends planned and,

Ally Brettnacher: you know- Wow, okay. That's interesting, too ...

Chris Morgan: go-to runs and, and you know, all these kind of dinners and all that kind of thing.

Um, and I got nothing. I got an email saying good luck and all that kind of stuff, and blah, blah, blah, blah. And [00:41:00] maybe that was just it, you know. I mean, I'm here to run it. Let's enjoy the weekend experience. I had a great weekend experience, you know. Expo was just a nightmare, as it is for those who've been to the Boston Expo.

It's, it's just w- There's just... My, here's my take on expos, and I don't care. I don't care, you know. This is my personal take on it. Yeah. From someone who's ran many marathons, someone who's exhibited expos. They're either ran by people that understand expos but don't understand runners, or they're ran by people who love running but don't understand an expo.

So you get that kind of mix of experience of there's, and there's, there's some really good expos out there. There's some really, really good expos out there. Because the, the, the mantra should always be, how do we get people here, keep them here, and entertain them whilst they're here? Otherwise, you get the, I'm gonna run in at 100 miles per hour, get my bib and run out.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: And you still see tons of those.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: But how do we entertain people when they're, when they're here and everything? And some of the best expos I've been at, Flying Pig's a prime example of [00:42:00] a good expo. It's well-funded, well-sponsored. They do scavenger hunts. There's, you know, it's, it's, there's food trucks there.

Wow. There's, there's drink there. There's stuff to keep them there and stuff. Um, Indy Mini was another one I joined. Maybe it's Indianapolis in In- Indiana. When they used to do it, um, at the convention center, I know they've gone backwards and forwards a few other things. I had a great experience there. It, it was 9:00 to 9:00 or something crazy.

It was like a long, long day. Yeah, I've, I've done that once.

Ally Brettnacher: It was really, really long.

Chris Morgan: Yeah. It was brutal, but they had entertainment there. They had food there. They had drinks there. They had stuff to entertain the kids basically there as well.

Ally Brettnacher: Right. That

Chris Morgan: helps. Indy Mini, when they had the Colts players come They've, they've had a few ex-cosplayers in the past

Ally Brettnacher: They probably have, I'm

Chris Morgan: sure

Ally Brettnacher: Okay Yeah

Chris Morgan: Okay.

Well, one of the events there, they've, uh, but there's stuff to keep them there

Ally Brettnacher: Right. Right. Yeah

Chris Morgan: Other expos I, I've been to, it's like there's no music, there's no food, there's no drinks. There's very few, um, running health and fitness [00:43:00] sports exhibits there It's just

Ally Brettnacher: wild to... Yeah. Yeah

Chris Morgan: Um, "Oh, look, I can get my goodies done.

I never thought I'd come into an expo and get my goodies done. Let me get my bib and get the hell out of here." Um, the Boston one at that time, it was almost like- It was on the thir- it was on an upstairs floor of a, a building. It's probably still there in the, the conference center at the end of the main road.

We get up there and it's almost like Adidas had this massive area for their... Everything was perfect for them. Once you go through there, there's everybody else, and it was almost like the Wild West where you, you had your flag and you ran, and you stomped it in the ground and you claimed your land. That's what it felt like for the expo.

There was no map, there was no route, there was no layout or anything like this. It was just kind of like you kind of like just stumbled round and shuffled and got a few things- Wow. Yeah ... and then hopefully you can find your way out there kind of thing. Um, so interesting. But the race itself, um, yeah, mixed emotions.

You know, I, my personal take, and maybe I'll win fans or don't win [00:44:00] fans, my personal take on Boston, it's probably the most boring race course out of the majors, and that gets mixed emotions because I just think it is.

Ally Brettnacher: Never done it, so I don't know. Chicago and New York are pretty amazing, so it would be hard to compete with.

Chris Morgan: But with Chicago and New York, you're actually in the cities for most of the race, whereas Boston- Good point ... I think you're in Boston for, like, a mile and a half, two miles. So you go through all these little towns and, you know, there's a couple of hundred people and it's, it's, it is a roar of people when you go through the towns, but then you've got like a mile in between the next town where there's nobody.

It's crickets. You know, you're running by the side of a lake or just a road and it's, it's kind of, it's kind of boring if I'm pers- perfectly honest. That's my experience from, again, compared to like London, New York, uh, Chicago, even Miami. You know, it's, there's, there's-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: parts of most courses which are kind of a little bit dull- Mm-hmm

but Boston for me, if you, if you took the name out of Boston and it was called something else, it's not gonna get the amount of people or the amount of attractive- Right,

Ally Brettnacher: if it [00:45:00] didn't have the- ... when

Chris Morgan: it gets to it ...

Ally Brettnacher: prestige, the, and

Chris Morgan: the history- The

Ally Brettnacher: history ... that it does. Yeah.

Chris Morgan: Yeah. Yeah. It, it's just not. You know, you've got, it's a great finish, but what's that?

Not even a mile of the race is that-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: oh, my Lord, there's a lot of people there and everything. But anyway-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: highlight for me that weekend was getting down to the start, and if you guys have done that, it's the buses and all that kind of logistical nightmare and all that kind of fun.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

Chris Morgan: But as I'm walking down to the bu- buses, I, I bumped into Knox Robinson, and Knox- Oh, I

Ally Brettnacher: don't know who that is

Chris Morgan: so Knox is a runner, coach, guidance. I've followed him on Instagram for a long time. Um, for the run club I ran with in, in Detroit, we run 313, give them a plug. Knox is affiliated with them. He's based out of New York, but I would have Knox on the iRun. So I don't know if you're familiar with iRun?

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, sure.

So it's like Peloton for me. Like if I saw- Yeah, yeah, yeah ... a Peloton instructor. Yep,

Chris Morgan: gotcha. Tommy, um, Tommy Rivs was one of the main guys from there- Yep, yep ... Riv, Riv Runs. I saw him during Boston when I'm running out there.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

Chris Morgan: But as I'm at the start, [00:46:00] I'm, I'm- I was thought, "Shall I go and do the check-in thing on the bus and all that kind of thing?"

They have these school buses where you go and check your gear into, gear- or bag check, gear check. Knox was just stood there by the side of the road, so I did the whole nor- normal, "Ooh, b- b- nice to meet you. And, uh, yeah, I..." Love

Ally Brettnacher: him. I love him.

Chris Morgan: Yeah, he goes, "Blah, blah, blah, yeah, you're amazing. Oh, can I get a picture?"

Yeah. And he's like, "Yeah, yeah, cool." And took the picture and everything, and then after that I was just like, "I met Knox." And what I was trying to tell him was, "You were one of the coaches that helped me go through guiding things on, you know, with iron and everything," um, w- along with Tommy Rivs, and it was just, that was really cool.

But then the race, I, yeah, just had a bad day. Just had a bad day. It was-

Ally Brettnacher: Sounds like it was warm. You mentioned heat stroke earlier. Well,

Chris Morgan: so the challenge I had is from training through the winter of Michigan, I don't think I'd seen sunshine or daylight or any kind of nice weather conditions.

Ally Brettnacher: Right.

Chris Morgan: So I'd either...

Maybe it was Knox's fault as well, 'cause everything I'd done was either on the treadmill indoors-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: or going outside [00:47:00] in, when it's subzero temperatures and-

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm ...

Chris Morgan: snow and snow boots and all that kinda good thing. So we get to Boston and, you know, I get the bus over there to the start and you go around Hopkinton in that big field and it's, it's not fun.

Um, the lines are, like, three miles deep to the, to the restrooms and, you know, people are peeing in, in the fields and all that- Yeah ... kind of stuff, and they're just doing what they gotta do and then they call you and you start walking. You got another mile or two to walk to the start line. They... I think that you know what out of it at the start.

You've seen some-

Ally Brettnacher: Well, you're ready to go too. It, it- You've wa- you know, you've waited, you've done the bus. You're just like- Yeah ... "Get me to the start line." Yeah. Yeah, it's like- So I can see why people

Chris Morgan: are anxious ... it's like Chicago. I mean, there's a good two, three-hour wait from when you- Mm-hmm ... first get down into Boston, into the town-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah

Chris Morgan: to when you actually start. Right. You, you're on the bus for 45 minutes, so then- Yeah ... yeah, it's, it's, it's a different thing, but then, yeah, got going. Um, I did all right with the hills. I got, I think it was like, there's a photo of me actually at the top of Heartbreak Hill, and it's... I didn't think it was me because [00:48:00] I'm, I look fresh and I'm, like, charging.

Exactly. And there's a slew of people behind me that look like they're, like, almost on the hands and knees crawling up and everything. Mm-hmm. But I, as I remember, it was just after I got back after Heartbreak, that that's when everything just started to, the heat exhaustion and the everything just started coming in on me and I...

By then you, it doesn't matter what, how many fluids you take on. And inexperience, I think that was my fifth race maybe, fifth or sixth race. Not dealing with elements, and then it's like there's nobody out there, right? I'm not running with anyone I know. Um- Yeah ... didn't know anybody to, "Hey, help me," kinda thing.

Yeah. After that it was just like, "All right, let's just-" Let's walk a mile, jog a mile, walk a mile. Let's just-

Ally Brettnacher: Get

Chris Morgan: there. Let's just get it done ... get to it at the end of this day and-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: Yeah, it was... There's a video of me, actually, a friend of mine took it. She finished ahead of me, took a video of me as I'm crossing the finishing line, and I'm just like Just red beetroot And I literally just walk across the finish line and I, and I muttered like, "Never again."

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: [00:49:00] Me. There's a photo of me just after that, um, and I'm just like red. Uh, it was-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So did you have a super bad sunburn? Is that safe to assume- Oh ... or was it just you're not really... Oh.

Chris Morgan: Yeah, it was, I've got pictures actually. It was brutal. I had a vest on, and it's just, it's the farmer's tan-

Ally Brettnacher: Yep ... times 20.

Chris Morgan: Yeah. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Um,

Chris Morgan: go back to my hotel. Wasn't flying till the next morning, so I, you know, just sat on the bed and just looked awful. And then got home the next day and, you know, everyone, family looking at me like, "What happened?"

Ally Brettnacher: Whoa. What'd you do, get set on

Chris Morgan: fire? They're like, they're like, "It was only like 58 degrees," or something like that, but-

Ally Brettnacher: Right

Chris Morgan: no clouds and just, yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, pure sun. Well, that's good. I mean, it's good for people to think about, for sure. I, I feel like everybody always, you know, thinks about the post-shower, right, where you're chafed and you can tell where you've chafed, but like a sunburn, like with some chafing probably, oof,

Chris Morgan: oof- It's nasty

Ally Brettnacher: oof.

Chris Morgan: And then the other kicker as well if you guys are in Boston is I stayed in a place called Somerville, which was, you still gotta get the [00:50:00] train back to Somerville.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Chris Morgan: Oh. So I, I'm like 20, 25 minutes out of, out of the city. So I get off the train, and then after you get off of the train, there's still another 10-minute walk back to the hotel.

So, uh, yeah, that was a, it was a fun time.

Ally Brettnacher: I feel like for any world major, I've, I've done Chicago a long time ago though, and then New York in 2018, and I just feel like you gotta be ready to wait a lot- Yeah ... before and after. Like you're not done. You don't get, just get to kick up your feet and celebrate.

You're like, you have to walk a long time- Yeah ... usually

Chris Morgan: to

Ally Brettnacher: get out of there.

Chris Morgan: It's, it's the door-to-door, isn't it? It's the door-to-door. New York's incredibly hard for that because you- Mm-hmm ... you end in Central Park, but then they send you on the maze going through Central Park. Unless you've, I mean, I've been fortunate.

I've lived in New York, so I, I can, I vaguely remember how to get out of there kind of thing.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Chris Morgan: That's amazing. But you just see runners just like, are they going to take pictures down there? 'Cause that's not the way to get out of here. And then you get up, you get back onto the main road, and then the Underground's just like a million people on the tube and it-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, I get

Chris Morgan: it

it's just like so many people [00:51:00] everywhere.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: Yeah. And I was staying with a friend of mine in Jersey City, so I've gotta get from like kinda midtown Manhattan, get on the train- Mm-hmm ... get back to downtown, then get on the, another train to get out to Jersey City, and it was just-

Ally Brettnacher: Yep, yep. Yeah, and so you did that also in 2022, 'cause you said in '22 you did all of the US majors.

Yeah, I did. And what was your first international one then?

Chris Morgan: Uh, London.

Ally Brettnacher: London? London.

Chris Morgan: London. Yeah, I didn't, I didn't, when I lived in the UK I never ran. Right. I never ran. I'd run to the bar and that was about it, but, uh- ... I didn't start running till I was over here, so London was my first international race and it's still my favorite, I think.

I still think it's my favorite major and not necessarily 'cause I'm British or, it's just- London's one of those things for those that haven't done it, it's just, it's all the stuff you studied in school, all the sightseeing tourist attractions, one after the other, after the other, after the other. And you, you end outside, you know, the finish line for London is just special, 'cause it's Buckingham Palace [00:52:00] going down to The Mall.

So it's like, it's crazy. It's just wild. And we actually, the year I ran it was '23, and it was the year of the coronation. So-

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, yeah ...

Chris Morgan: we, we tag- I have some friends

Ally Brettnacher: there ...

Chris Morgan: we tag-teamed that up. We went for the coronation and then, sorry, ran the race, went to see my mom for a bit, and then came back for the coronation.

So it was-

Ally Brettnacher: Wow ...

Chris Morgan: pretty, pretty cool.

Ally Brettnacher: That's really special. Wow, that's unreal. So London was your favorite. Do you also have a good race there?

Chris Morgan: Um, it was okay. Um, yeah, d- it was okay. Um, I'd had a bit of hip injury going into it. Um, it was the first race I ran since my dad passed. Um, so it was mentally, my dad was always my why for my running, and he was kind of on his deathbed for New York just, you know, um, few months before.

And I knew New York would be the last race I ran whilst he was still alive. That's right,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah.

Chris Morgan: So I could get through there, but, but London was the first one where it was almost [00:53:00] like, it's almost like that Star Wars moments where you s- you know, you see the hologram appear and starts talking to you- Mm-hmm

and all that kind of- Yeah ... like moments and stuff. So I had had a hip injury going into it. Um, round about miles 17, 18, I was just really feeling it, and I, you know, walked for a little bit through, through the Finance District. Um, but it's sounds weird, but he w- I just felt like he was with me that race, and he just got me through it and everything, and then get to the finish line, you know, my, my family's at the finish line and everything, and it was pretty cool experience and whatnot.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So, and 'cause you mentioned your parents flew over for your first marathon too. 20, 2016, yeah. So they'd seen, you know, he'd seen you race. Did your dad suffer from Alzheimer's like your nan did?

Chris Morgan: No, cancer got him. No. Cancer got him. Cancer. So he was, uh, yeah, he'd had, um, skin cancer. He also had, um, a mild form of leukemia.

So basically-

Ally Brettnacher: Geez ...

Chris Morgan: he went through three or four years of hell, basically, and yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, I'm so

Chris Morgan: sorry to hear that. When he first got diagnosed with the leukemia side of things, he had, he had something called, I think it's CLL, um, which is basically you have no immune system. [00:54:00] So it's like you're, you're on, you're not on borrowed time, but you know if you get something major, um, it's gonna get you in the end.

So then he, then he had s- then he got cancer, and then it was basically, okay, well, it's not if, it's when. And he went through- Yeah ... like after that, like two years or something like that of, you know, rigorous chemo and, and whatnot. Ah. And it, the, the f- sounds funny, but I remember- I mean, I was in my office in Miami, this is when we still lived there, and this is British humor that people might not necessarily get from it.

I'm in my office- Mm ... it's like 5:00, 4:00, 5:00 on a Thursday or Friday. I'm getting ready to go home for, for the night, just cleaning things up, about to pack my bag and, you know, get in the car and go home and get a text off my mom and, "All right, nice text." They'd just got back from the vacation they had in France so I was like, "Oh, she's gonna tell me about the vacation" and everything.

So I kinda like ignored it and everything then dings again. I looked at it and it says, "Oh, just to let you know, um, had a lovely time in France. Um, give us a shout at the [00:55:00] weekend. Um, just to let you know, um, my breast cancer's returned and your dad had a heart attack. Um, but don't worry, we'll be all right."

I was like, "Fucking this..." And then s- straight away- Mom ... straight away I was like, I was like, 'cause she'd had, um, breast cancer and it come back and blah, blah, blah. Jeez. So she had to go through more, more therapy and stuff. And then I said, "What, what's, what's going on with Dad?" And it's, "Well, you know, he didn't have a heart...

He went for his checkup for his, you know, leukemia and whatnot, and they, they, the doctor said it looked like he'd had a heart attack but he didn't physically have a, you know, an out of body-" Well,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris Morgan: It's, it's one of those where they, they can tell, you know, he's had some kind of heart attack.

Uh-huh. And then I was like, "All right." And then that's when it's, that's when it's like, oh, suck it up, the selfishness. Like I've, I've built a life and career 5,000 miles away from home kinda thing.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. And

Chris Morgan: it's should I be here, should I be there kinda side of things. Mm-hmm. And it was just, uh, yeah, I'll just delete that text.

Yeah. Well, not to worry, Mom, have a nice weekend. I'll give you a shout Monday, this [00:56:00] kinda thing. But, uh, that's how it was. But yeah, my, my dad was always my why, um- Before he got sick, um, when I first had the opportunity to come to America, so it was like, always wanted to play soccer, always wanted to, you know, get into football, soccer, whatever way, shape, or form, and had the opportunity to come here for six weeks and spoke to my dad about it.

My dad was like, "Yeah, al- always take the opportunity. You know, what, what's here for you? Go and do it," kind of thing. So then I, I came over that here, did that for a bit, then got into the art business. Um, remember speaking to my dad one day, I was like, "I'm gonna be an art dealer." And my dad's like, "Well, you know nothing about art."

I said, "Well, I, I'll figure it out." "I'll figure it out. What do you think?" And my dad was always... He was the first person in his, uh, family to go to college, university. Yeah. Um-

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

Chris Morgan: Did the same... Was an accountant, did the same job all his life. Worked for, like, two companies all his life. Here's the kid that's just bouncing around from country to job and all this kind of side of things.

Um, but he was [00:57:00] always... He never said no. He was always like, "Give it a go. Give it a go." And then couple years later, I was doing the art business for a couple of years. Um, 2008, the recession happens and, you know, the financial district crashed here. Nobody's buying art, and I got approached by a guy who lived in the Middle East.

Did I wanna go and move to Dubai and work for an art company out there? So I called my dad up and I was like, um, "Met this guy on the internet, uh, lives in Dubai. Um, he wants me to go to Dubai and run his company for him." And I was expecting a, "Are you nuts? Are you crazy?"

Insane,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. "

Chris Morgan: What's going on?" And my dad was like, "What's the alternative?"

And I was like, "Well, I could try and find something in the States, but the, you know, the financial economy's just dropped." And he goes, "Well, there's nothing in the UK 'cause we're in the same boat. It's, you know-"

Ally Brettnacher: Mm. "...

Chris Morgan: go do it," kind of thing. And that kind of, the push, the push, the push to, to try something new and not question it, to always experiment, was...

It's kind of how my dad became my wife, because he was never the person that would [00:58:00] judge me for... Listen, I made some atrocious decisions during my life. Made some really bad judgments and whatnot, but made some good ones, I think, over the years. But my dad was always the one that would literally, he'd be there for me when I fell, but he was also the first person to push me back up to say, "All right, let's go again," kind of thing.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: And it's, even with Printerinkstart it happened, you know. And again, for someone that's come from a finance background where every single penny is perfect-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: someone that's just loose with money. Um, "Hey, Dad, I, I, I think I'm gonna run my own business now." "Well, okay, good. What, how much money you got behind it to start up with?"

"Not much. Um, if it doesn't work within a month or two, I'll probably have to get a job." And he goes, "Well, you can always get a job anyway, so why not give it a go?" Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: That's great.

Chris Morgan: Still going strong. Well, still going

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Morgan: Man The crazy thing my dad was is in his high school years, he was a national [00:59:00] hurdler.

He represented England, um-

Ally Brettnacher: Wow ...

Chris Morgan: for hurdles. Um, and he was a, um, Huddersfield Town footballer. So he used to play in the schoolboys for the professional football teams. But on... He was 17 or 18, he got jaundice. And back then when you got something like jaundice, you were in bed for months. Um, and it took him forever to recover, and when he recovered, he was never the same person and, you know, he, he still ran.

Um, he would, you know- Run around the block and kept, kept in shape for most of his life and everything, but never did a marathon. And then I think when I first told him I was gonna do this marathon thing, he was like, you know, very inspired by it and stuff and, but by then he was too, it's too late to get him back out.

He's put a few too many- Right ... pounds up by then. It's too, it's too old.

Ally Brettnacher: Um, okay, I wanted to talk about your podcast, 'cause we haven't even talked about that yet, and we're almost out of time. Um, so Inside a Runner's World, you've launched that when? Last or this year?

Chris Morgan: Well, I started it this year. [01:00:00] So last year, a friend of mine, um, who I joined, who came to America with to play football, um, has a successful podcast called Crossing the Pond, and he would basically interview people, expats, people who'd moved from one country to another.

Why did you come to that country? Talk about the journey. And he wanted to talk about my journey. Maybe didn't have enough people that week, I don't know. But we talked about my journey about, you know, how him and I first came to America for six weeks, and I went into different things, into the art business, and he stayed doing the same thing.

So he still works in soccer. Um, he now, um, scouts for the US, uh, national soccer team. Um, he works in college and he, he, he's just made a career out of staying in the same thing. So we did that. I had a really good time. A couple of months after that, he was doing another podcast, which was for the English Premier League.

Um, it was just talking about soccer games basically. So he said, "Do you wanna come and we'll just have a bit of, bit of fun with it?" So I did it and had a bit of fun, and then the season was about to [01:01:00] end, and we were talking about doing a World Cup podcast. The person behind it pulled out and didn't wanna put the money down and everything, so I was like, "That's fair enough."

Um, and then I just started having another dream, but it wasn't, it was like more of a daydream kind of thing. It was like- Mm ... when I started Printerun nearly 10 years ago, I've met so many cool people-

Ally Brettnacher: Yes ...

Chris Morgan: that have so many cool different stories, and I've heard their stories. They should share their own experiences, and it's more for people that either don't have a platform or they don't know anyone to bring their stories to the life.

And we've had people- Yeah ... that have been through weight loss, people who've been bullied, um, people who've started their own companies and failed, or people who've just been on a journey within the running community that inspires me and motivates me to, wow, it's so cool to share it. And the idea was each week I'd pick a different person from a different city that had a completely different story of a background- Okay

and kind of bounce around from... [01:02:00] I've done a professional athlete, but more so I wanna get the average everyday runner-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: to show everybody that you can work in a coffee shop or you can work on Wall Street. Anybody can do this game. Yeah. Tell me your story. And-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: I'm enjoying it. It's fun.

Ally Brettnacher: It's so fun.

I love, I mean, w- that's why I started this. It was the same- Right ... kind of thing, and I couldn't believe some of these people's stories. You're just like, "What?"

Chris Morgan: Right.

Ally Brettnacher: That's insane.

Chris Morgan: It,

Ally Brettnacher: it- So I mean, and but everybody has one too, you know? It's, some stories are crazier than others, but everybody, everybody has their own story, so I guess.

Chris Morgan: Yeah, no, and I think it's unique because again, not this show, but there's a, there's a, there's a lot of podcasts out there right now, so-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: people are looking for something that it's not the same person week in, week out. Now, a lot of these, a lot of podcasts, they will get pro athletes. They get the sub-three runners on, and that's great every now and again.

But if I'm listening to a sub-2:30 runner week in, week out, I can't relate to that. I can't- Right ... [01:03:00] take anything from it. Mm-hmm. But if all of a sudden it's like, oh, here's a person that works in corporate America that does, you know, a 50-hour work week. They're parents. How do they juggle life- Mm-hmm

business, running at the same time? I can maybe take something from that. Um, same with like diet and exercise routines and whatnot, and it's like, you know, if you listen to some of the podcasts, it's like I'm scared of eating a cheeseburger. You know? Yeah. It's like, I, I don't need to just eat this, this, this, and this.

It's like, I want to enjoy my food. Um-

Ally Brettnacher: Right ...

Chris Morgan: I want to enjoy- That's why I

Ally Brettnacher: run ...

Chris Morgan: how I have my life and everything and-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ... but

Chris Morgan: running has been phenomenal to me. It's brought me so many amazing experiences, met me so many amazing people, but it's not the be-all and end-all for me at the end of the day. You know, my family will always come first, and that's, that's how it is.

They'll probably tell you otherwise, but you know- I can

Ally Brettnacher: relate to that. Yep. If

Chris Morgan: it's, if

Ally Brettnacher: it's,

Chris Morgan: hey, you can go run Boston again free of charge, five-star resort the whole [01:04:00] weekend, or you can go watch a movie with your kids that they really wanna go and see-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: I'm gonna pick the movie. I really am. Yeah.

Because we, there's other races. Every year- Right ... there's a race. Boston's not going anywhere.

Ally Brettnacher: Right.

Chris Morgan: Um, New York's not going anywhere. They're amazing experiences those weekends, but the other experiences, they, they don't last forever.

Ally Brettnacher: Uh, okay, before I ask you the end of the podcast questions, I did wanna take a quick second to talk about your family.

Obviously they're very important. How did you meet your wife, and tell us how old your kids are.

Chris Morgan: I was living in, in, in Texas. I was living in Austin. I'd just got divorced, and- It's part of like, I, I'm looking for a new lease on life. I gotta get out. I was working seven-day weeks, I was just burnt out, fried and everything.

Company I'd worked for previously wanted me to relocate to South Florida and set up a, a print shop for them. So I was like, "All right, I can live in Austin where I don't really know anybody." Um, I'd moved out there with my ex and, you know, da, da, da, da. So I was like, "All right, let's go to South Florida.

Let's be a bachelor. Let's have some [01:05:00] fun," right? So moved to South Florida, found a place in Ocean Drive, got the, you know, the Miami lifestyle. I was all ready just to go and start and everything, and then these, the, uh, the s- one of the guys I was working for was like, "Oh, do you mind just stopping at Houston?

Um, I wanna come say hi, meet, meet, introduce you to some of the team. Um, we've got like a conference going on." So I was like, "Fair enough. Fair enough." So, you know, drove, drove over to Houston, walk in, walk into a room, and, you know- saw a young lady in there, and I was like, "Oh, that's... She's very attractive," and da, da, da.

And then there's part of me like, like, I've just got divorced. I've just- I don't, you know, just pump the brakes. Miami, right? Miami. Miami, Chris, Miami. Long story short, she became my wife. So she worked for the company i-i- I'd worked for previously.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

Chris Morgan: And when I went back there, she was at a conference, and we just, you know, got started talking.

Uh, coincidentally, we did a couple of work events together as, you know, professional colleagues and all that kind of side of things. [01:06:00] Mm-hmm. And then several people pull me to one side and say, "No, don't, don't date anyone from work. Just don't do it. Don't do it." Um, and then for about, I think five or six weeks, we started dating on the side, and-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah

Chris Morgan: she would fly, she lived from Michigan, she would fly down from Michigan to, to Miami and blah, blah, blah. And then it was funny 'cause one of the guys I work with, she came to stay with me in Florida and we, we took some pictures at the beach and everything, and I meant to text it to my mom, but I actually texted it to a guy I work with and I'm like- Yes

"Okay, well I guess..." And he was her boss. So, and but we were friends, and we'd known each other before, and then- Thank

Ally Brettnacher: God. Oh

Chris Morgan: my gosh ... and it was, he was cool with it, and he was, you know, da, da, da. And then, you know, we, we just told everybody, "Hey, this is..." We didn't work in the same departments. We worked in different areas and different parts of the company.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: Um, but cat was out the bag after that kind of thing.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: So, yeah, so.

Ally Brettnacher: And then how old are your kids?

Chris Morgan: [01:07:00] Uh, eight and five.

Ally Brettnacher: Aw.

Chris Morgan: Eight and

Ally Brettnacher: five. Yeah, that's right. We have the same-

Chris Morgan: Yeah ... pretty much. So they're, they're, they're good. They, you know, they keep, keep you on their toes and everything. And in fact, I'd, I'd say it was my, my eldest one that was...

He's probably the reason we're in Michigan right now. You know, when we were... He was born in Miami, and we, we never really wanted to bring kids up in South Florida. You know, it just- Yeah ... I was, I wanted to have grandparents around. It was more for the family kind of thing.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

Chris Morgan: And then had an opportunity to go back to, to Austin for another company.

We went back to Austin and, and Austin was fun, um, until it wasn't, until COVID started, and then it was like, why are we living in Austin? Why are we living in a place where, okay, we're here for work, but we're not here for family, right? It's- Yeah ... we've got no, got no grandparents nearby. We've got no siblings nearby.

It's cool and everything and, you know, you can do that for a certain period of time, but that's when I guess she pulled out the whole, "Remember when we said about moving to Michigan?" Um-

Ally Brettnacher: It's time.

Chris Morgan: And at, and at that time, I'd been in the States nearly 20 years. [01:08:00] Um, I, everything I did professionally was here.

I, we looked at the UK for a nanosecond, and then it was like, "Oh, let's go to Michigan. We'll probably stay there for six weeks, and then we'll go wherever is next, right?"

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

Chris Morgan: COVID will, COVID will be gone and, you know, we'll figure something out and then- Yeah, five years later now. Just, yeah, this, this month is five years exactly.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I'm gonna ask you the end of the podcast questions now.

Chris Morgan: Okay.

Ally Brettnacher: There's two. The one is kind of a twofer anyway, but it's what is your favorite running song and/or mantra?

Chris Morgan: Okay. I'll do mantra 'cause the song, song will change every five minutes. Yeah. So for mantra, you know, there's a, there's a Winston Churchill saying, um, "If you're going through hell, keep going."

And it was kinda coined during the Second World War and whatnot, and it's one of those things where this thing hasn't killed me yet. It's not taken me yet. So every time we've been into the pain cave, and every time we've been to that place where we question everything, we come out the other side of it.

And in fact, I, I'm not plugging my business, but I will a little [01:09:00] bit. When I look at print and run canvases I've made for myself in the past, I look at my pictures of myself on my race finishes and my race days, and I'm thinking, "That was a lot tougher than what I'm doing right now." You know, finishing Boston with heatstroke, that was a lot tougher than what I'm doing now.

Finishing London with a hip injury, that was a lot tougher than what I'm doing now. So again, the temporary thing is just, it's just that pain is just temporary. You know, I don't go too Goggins on my runs- ... but when I get those feelings of like, "Oh, this is uncomfortable," but it's- Hmm ... being comfortable with getting comfortable being uncomfortable-

Ally Brettnacher: Right.

Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: is a big thing as well for that.

Ally Brettnacher: I think of that a lot. When we say pain is temporary, I was like, pain is temporary, like Strava's forever or whatever those funny signs- ... are. Yeah. Uh, okay, and then what is your next finish line and/or milestone?

Chris Morgan: Uh, Detroit in a couple of weeks. So Detroit 26.2, uh, with Jessica.

Looking forward to that one. Um, just what's cool about that is I just get to listen to somebody else for four or five [01:10:00] hours or whatever out there for, listen to their story. Um- Yeah ... and that's what keeps me going about it and stuff, you know? Someone who's been through two crazy conflicts of war, that's got all that stuff and all the stuff they've been through and they've seen fighting for the country, and it's just, it's so...

Just gives you a, such a humbling feeling that this person is here, and I'm helping them. It doesn't make sense. You know, they've, they've helped me more than I can begin to talk about. So it's, it's, it's- Yeah ... a beautiful thing.

Ally Brettnacher: Ah. Well, I hope you guys get great weather. And did you decide to do the expo?

Chris Morgan: No, no expo for

Ally Brettnacher: me.

No, no expo for you.

Chris Morgan: Um-

Ally Brettnacher: So-

Chris Morgan: It's getting more challenging now to, for the cost of these expos going up and

Ally Brettnacher: up Yeah, yeah

Chris Morgan: And I, I don't want it to take away from the, the weekend with Achilles and with Jess as well, so I'd-

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah ...

Chris Morgan: I'd rather give time to them.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Oh, s- you're so great. Oh, I loved meeting you.

Now when- I'm gonna have to get you to come to Indianapolis for our expo, 'cause it's such a great- Oh, I, I've, I've

Chris Morgan: still-- Indy Monumental's still on my list.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah,

Chris Morgan: [01:11:00] it's- It's still on the list ...

Ally Brettnacher: it's the perfect size, I feel like. It's just, it's not a major, but it's big and- Yeah ... yeah. But it's, yeah, to your point, it's getting more and more expensive, and we sell out earlier and earlier.

It's like, "Oh, my gosh," so.

Chris Morgan: Yeah. Yeah. Logistics-wise, it's o- you're only like four hours away from me-

Ally Brettnacher: Right, it's not- ...

Chris Morgan: so it's not, it's not too bad. one day we'll get it done.

Ally Brettnacher: One day. I'll hold you to it. Okay.

Chris Morgan: Sounds, sounds

Ally Brettnacher: good. Well, thanks so much for doing this, Chris, and thanks to everybody who listened, and happy running.

Chris Morgan: Thank you. Appreciate you having me on today.

Ally Brettnacher: Well, you made it to the finish line of this episode. Thanks to our sponsors. Thank you to Chris for coming on. And now I'm gonna give my New York City Marathon shout-outs and another plug for the form that I have linked in the show notes and bio where you can tell us all about your finish lines and milestones so I can cheer you on and not leave anyone out.

Okay, so here go my New York City shout-outs. My friend Lauren Sterek, Shannon Spencer, April Roerig, Hallease K2 Patel, Tammy Mills, Olga Warner, Carrie Bradshaw, Brian Stoffel, Brian Lively, and Wyatt Moss is also running. He's gonna be in town next weekend for the Indy Monumental Marathon, and you are not even gonna believe what I have cooked [01:12:00] up.

So trying to get Wyatt to change his flight for us so he can party with us after the race. TBD, but you heard it here first. so much exciting stuff happening for next weekend. Good luck in New York City, everybody. And even if you're not running a marathon, you are a runner. I know this time of year feels weird, so certainly does for me.

I have FOMO. And if you're like me, you're checking the weather incessantly. Leading up to race weekend, I'm doing a 10-day series with my friend Chikage Windler, who was previously on this podcast. She is the running meteorologist. Every day we're hopping on, talking about the weather, and sharing it with everybody because we know everyone cares, and it's looking really good, so fingers crossed.

All right, talk to you next week. Bye.

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