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Now, here are your hosts for the running
around Charlotte podcast,
Tim Rhodes and Dc casey.
As you can imagine, we get a lot
of emails about the Nevada Health Charlotte Marathon.
Folks have all kind of questions and
Many of them are the same. Hence the
term frequently asked questions. Right? I get it.
Well. Yeah. A few months ago, we got
a question. We've never gotten before, Mike Lo
has emailed and asked whether or not the
map for this year's marathon was finalized
and not for the reasons you might think.
You see Mike has a very cool and
probable the unusual marathon hobby, but we'll let
him tell you all about it. He's our
guest today on the running around Charlotte podcast
presented by Nova, health, orthopedic and sports medicine.
Mike, welcome to the show. How are you
doing?
I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. It's
exciting to be talking with you folks.
Are
absolutely. You... It's been interviewed. You something like
this. You you started it. Yeah. So first
up, we are excited that you're coming in
from Oregon to run the twentieth
anniversary event with us. Second for our folks
who don't know you give us the introduction
whose Mike Lopez
Yeah. I'm a
middle aged structural engineer here in Portland Oregon,
the father of 3. I have
a
my my son is my oldest child, and
he just finished his sophomore year in college,
and I have a preschool age daughter at
the other extreme end of that. So I
about a 16 year spread in my my
kids.
I'm 49 years old, and I I took
up running about 5 years ago, when I
joined a relay team,
and I just kinda got bitten by that
bug, you know, and I I
it was terrible at first. It was summertime.
It was hot. And I wasn't in shape,
and it just gradually got a little bit
easier, and I kinda became addicted to it.
And I I ran a couple of half
marathons in the winter of 20 19 slash
20 20,
then the pandemic came and shut everything down
for a while.
And then I decided I was gonna run
the marathon.
As soon as I could when everything opened
up again.
So I did that. I ran my first
marathon 2 years ago, and I've I've run
5 of them since.
And I have
at least 3 more that I can think
of right now that I'm already registered for
over the course of the next 7 or
8 months. And So I'm... Oh wow. Good
for you. No. Full throttle lot.
You. No.
Just for a matter of perspective,
since we're in Charlotte, we know what, you
know, quote unquote hot The summertime feels like,
when
were you in Oregon
you were talking about this hot summer?
Yeah. How hot is it there in the
summer?
Well,
for right now it's it's
right now, it's It's
pleasant. It'll probably get to about 80 degrees
today,
but they're talking about a another incoming heat
wave that we'll hit the triple digits this
weekends. Oh my gosh. Okay. Well then, I
guess we we can we can appreciate that.
Yeah. I can appreciate that. But we didn't...
We we didn't... Wanna get you on the
horn here to talk about the weather. What
we really wanna talk about is the first.
Exactly. The question is,
What's the question? Exactly The question is you
called us to ask about. Is the marathon
map solid
because
You're gonna get this that tattooed on. Right?
Yep.
Horse that man. The course tattoo lay that
honest man. How did that start?
Yeah.
So I was started... I was training for
that. My first marathon, which was in Eugene,
and,
20 22.
And I decided, you know, this is... It
it kinda felt like, maybe this is my
mid midlife crisis. Yeah this is my response
to it I just was running more and
more and more. And I thought, you know
what I wanna do. I want to qualify
for the Boston Marathon. But And if I
can qualify for the merit for the Boston
Marathon on my first attempt,
I am going to get the Eugene Marathon
course tattooed,
onto 1 of my calves.
I never had any before,
and I thought, you know what?
I'm out the man
sort of reinventing myself in middle age here.
So what the heck? I'm gonna
do my best to qualify for Boston. And
if I can do it on my first
attempt, I'm gonna get this tattoo.
And
there were several times during training when it
got tough, and I would just to internally
ask myself. Do you want that ink or
not?
I go and keep keep going. You know,
you you... That tattoo is gonna look really
nice. Isn't it.
And so I did that, and I qualified
comfortably.
So then I got the course tattooed onto
my
left calf
with... You know, there's outline of the course
and I had the date and time
included on that.
And then I had Eu g placed on
there for the... That's the airport code. There
you go. And then I had a big
b q. Dropped on there as well. Nice.
And I was the... I I asked my
tattoo guy to use the Boston Red Sox
font for the b queue. So that's on
there, then I've got the course, the air
the airport code, my date and time that
I ran that,
And then so my my next marathon was
Boston a year later.
I didn't run a fall marathon that year
for various reasons, but I I ran Boston
the following year. And you know, Boston point
to point.
So
it it's
admittedly kind of a boring tattoo,
but I have I have the course along
my right forearm.
And then I added the top. I I
put the profile of the course underneath
the alignment on my arm,
along with the B
airport code,
In the date and time.
And I kept going. So then I ran
Portland
last October,
and I have that 1 of my right
calf. Pdf
Pd,
the date and time. Got it. And that
1 for arms.
That 1...
That one's...
Fun because,
the very southern extreme of that course
goes across a bridge,
And I'm 1 of the engineers that designed
its replacement several years ago. No way. That
is so mad. I can't stand it.
That's cool, man.
Thank you.
So I asked the tattoo guy to put
a heart right over the top of the
bridge on my tattoo. So there's the course,
and there's a bridge at the bottom with
a heart over the top of it, and
it just so happens that my... Older kids,
I have, a 20 year old and 18
year old, and then, nearly 4 year old.
My older kids,
in the time of construction of that bridge,
I took a sharpie down into 1 of
the concrete forms, and, for the piers in
the river,
and I wrote their names and the date
on a piece of rebar. And so that
rebar is buried in the concrete in that
bridge. It'll never be seen again, but for
my tattoo,
there's just this little line on there that's
got a lot of significance for me. That
is so cool, man.
Thank you. And cool. I just decided. I
also
wanna run a a run a marathon in
every city that I've lived in. So
I lived in Seattle
immediately after college for a little bit.
So then I dropped into the Seattle Marathon
8 weeks after the Portland Marathon.
And so now I I think you can
see this, but III know the listeners won't
be able to see it, but I've got
the Seattle course
tattooed,
Oh, on my arm there. Yeah. That's great.
Good. With the Sc sea air airport code,
of course. And for folks who are listening,
Michael send us the pictures of this, we'll
put it in the show notes. So after
you're through listening, you can go back to
the show notes and you can see what
this looks like. These are gonna these are
so cool. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.
So
I ran Boston again this year, and I
I have room on on that tattoo for
the...
Date and time to be added to it.
I'm running the fourth of July marathon here
in 2 days,
And I think that will go on my
left by step, and then I have 1
in September that will go on my left
shoulder and it... The the September and the
July ones, the course is vaguely resemble each
other.
They're
about a hundred
plus miles apart from each other, but they
went money sort of resemble each other.
So I'm gonna have those stacked there.
And then...
So by the time I I get to
Charlotte. I will have, I should have 6
tattoos.
And that Charlotte of course is amazing. I'm
I'm looking forward to getting that 1.
And that 1 will probably be a little
bit bigger than these other ones simply because
of the amount of stuff on there. That's
awesome.
It's really cool. Yeah. That is. So go
end and where will...
Where will the Charlotte?
Marathon
map be adorned?
I'm kinda thinking 1 of my shoulder blades.
I have the the spot right over my
heart is reserved for 1. I wanna... On
I'm I'm gonna turn 50 in December.
And my plan is to run 50 miles
that day. Right on. And I
I already have the location picked up. I
wanna do this down in San Diego.
I have in laws down there that
I I can go stay with them, and
there's a very flat. It's called Fiesta Island.
Very flat,
like, 4 Mh. A little slightly over 4
mile loop, and I figure I'll do 12
laps of that,
get to 50 and put that 1 over
my heart,
And,
I I have a very our artistic,
sister law, graphic designer, and I I wanna
work with her on that 1. Nice. She
she doesn't know that yet. But I I
wanna work with her on bad tattoo.
And I I figured... So then in,
in March of next year, I'm registered for
the La marathon because I did my undergraduate
work there.
That 1 is another linear 1 of points
to point So I think that'll probably go
on my left forearm.
Doesn't that go from Dodge Stadium to Santa
Monica pier.
So I it does... It starts at Doctor
Stadium. I I don't think it finishes at
Santa Monica pure, but it's out to the
West For sure. Okay. You might be right
that But I know I know it starts
at Dodgers stadium. Alright.
But, I gotta ask you though.
You said you ran marathons and... Matt in
each city that you lived? And have you
lived in Charlotte or or why did you
pick Charlotte?
Great question.
There we go.
That's I wanna am here.
Well, I was I was looking for a
fall marathon
that I...
Had not run before. And I've... The local
ones, you know, Portland, I've done that, Seattle,
I've done that. And I found Charlotte on
a list of, like, the 10 best fall
marathons to run. Title.
Yeah. Runner world perhaps,
it's it's... No, well, maybe it's shown up
on several lists, but I found Charlotte,
and I looked into it. And I was
like, wow, this course is
pretty amazing. I mean, there's a lot going
on there. Yeah. And then I looked at
the profile. And I was like, okay. This
is a great challenge too.
That's a pretty hill course. They're fast paced.
Though. Mike, They're very fast hills. Are they
to tell? We we will argue that we
have the fastest hills in the country.
Totally.
Alright.
You can... You can you can judge for
yourself when you coming of november. Yeah. So
I
I looked at Charlotte, and I thought, you
know?
Why not? I mean, Right. And it's another
marathon, and
that would be a great course to get...
Onto my onto my skin, and I I
sent that email about whether the course will
change. And I I don't think it's gonna
change much from what I've heard
we actually have it up on the website
now. So we have... Oh, okay. We we
have gotten preliminary approval. So the first mile
changed. And then
right around 15, there's a very slight change.
So the... Just for our listeners and for
you,
The reason we changed the first... We had
to change the the start line because where
we were starting
really had limited access. So you were... Kinda
loading everybody from the front of the
from the front of the structure versus from
the back. And so there there just wasn't
another way to do it. So we said,
the race is big enough now to where
we need to have a larger place for
people to load in to get ready to
run, so they can kinda seed themselves and
and place themselves according to what their paces
is. So anyway, we're gonna start on Tri
on Street, which is kinda the main street
of Charlotte, if you will.
And we'll do kind of a out left
hand turn, left hand turn and and then
a right hand to pick up where we
were on 4 street headed out. So we're
excited about that And then the other thing
we changed was around 15 miles, we had
a little out and back section on the
green way. On
just too many people anymore to be able
to do that. And and
you know, when we when we had smaller
and we're expecting probably over 2000 for the
marathon this year,
just no way to put 2 a traffic
on our green way.
System. It just doesn't work. So we'll have
to... The out portion will be on the
road and the back portion will be on
the green way. So
Anyway, the the cool thing I like about
the marathon and half marathon is the first
12 and a half miles you get to
run together, and then there's a split in
the half... Marathon goes left, The marathon goes
right.
And
you know, about
2 thirds of the runners, will turn left
and go to the finish line. So
Anyway, those are the changes they are up
on the website for anybody listening and for
you, Mike, so you can get that design
done. And take it to your
sister or whomever does your
design work for your tattoo.
Yeah. That's... So as soon as we hang
up here, I'm gonna go... Look at that.
I mean, I'm looking forward to it, you
know, and
that reminds me when you said, you know,
half the run... Or 2 thirds of the
runners go 1 way and 1 third ago
go the other... Oh, when I ran my
first marathon in Eugene, it was very similar.
There was a split, and I tell you
what it was really tempting to go away
with fat.
Thoughtful man
It's 1 of the dangers of putting that
kind of a checkpoint on the course. Is
it... You know, do I really wanna take
that right or do it? Goes the left.
Yeah.
Well, you know, the funny thing is, and
we we we do have a cutoff, and
you get to that cutoff, and you say,
you know, course is closed. You gotta go
left and you get some people like I
I'm not turning left. I'm going right. Yeah.
And you're not gonna stop me. Now They
get they can go into to... You invite
them to take the hat marathon. I I'm
like. No. I'm good here.
See a couple hours. Sag. Right hang. Still.
Well, I I... I'm still fascinated by the
tattoo piece. You never had any knee ink.
And it's not oh, it's just gonna get
some initials. You committed to something as
that says as big as a as a
course map. And you're like, okay. I guess
I'm gonna keep on trucking with this. Did...
I mean,
and the other part of that is
I don't think I've ever run across anybody
no pun intended
who's gone with course maps,
logos, you know, and things like that. I'm
like, okay. I certainly have seen that plenty
of times. Never seen anybody.
Saying, you know, what course map. I'm gonna
do that. Where'd do you get that idea?
I I've always
really enjoyed looking at maps.
I I love a good printed map.
I I just
something about it has always kinda drawn my
eye.
And my my curiosity as opposed.
I'm also really into photography, and there's a
photographer He... He's passed away now, But,
I became kinda friendly with him and his
wife, and he he made a series of
photographs.
You know, several decades ago, Mh of maps.
They there were close up views of maps,
and
just the intricate line work and
how it makes your... It'll kind of draw
your eye all over the picture. And
I I hear that there's been, like, psychological
research that
indicates that that's
pleasurable to the brain,
that
a lure that that makes your Eye kind
of, Mh.
Search out the entire image.
And I thought, you know,
these course maps look really cool and
III don't know. I I guess that's that's
my best answer. It it's far more exciting
or interesting than just the initials or the
logo.
Yeah. You know, when you when you go
to Boston, you see people with the temporary
unicorn tattoos, Maybe maybe they're not... Some of
them, maybe they're not temporary, but you see
those
all over the place sure.
And I thought, you know, this is something
that I could just make uniquely mine,
And I have
I have hard copy printout outs of
about 2 dozen marathons
around the country
that I would like to check off as
I go. And I've already sort of contemplated
where some of them would fit
and perhaps complement each other, like, maybe
like, my left arm for instance, I'm gonna
get 2 courses on there that are vaguely
similar to each other,
and they'll just have different initials.
That 1, though,
so the 1 that I'm running on the
fourth of July, it's called the foot traffic
flat,
and I already have a portland. Pd
on my on my body. So the foot
traffic flat, I'm gonna use the F t
designation for that course,
And then in September, that 1 is called
the Pacific Northwest Marathon.
So that 1 will be a P There
y.
And I know Charlotte is Cl. So I
don't know if it's a cult or something
I'll have that on there. Yeah.
He'll fewer. C jay is Chattanooga New guy
I think. It's so we we...
Natalie? Chattanooga.
That would... I would be 1 to say.
Yeah. Sure that makes sense now.
Yeah. I would have I would have guessed
Cha for Charlotte, but I was wrong. I
I looked into it. And I mean, I
don't have to tell you that. But
Cl.
Not natural. Not who got us.
You know. But anyway, we're excited to have
you. I think,
last year, we had 47 states and, 13
countries or something like that. So definitely,
that would,
probably,
you know, we'd we'd get a lot of
the 50 state come in or people are...
Right.
You know, I mean the West Coast, it's,
you know, from states like Oregon and Idaho
and Utah. So if forth and so on.
It's twos and threes and fours. But,
the closer you get to Charlotte, the more
we get from Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Virginia, Forth Florida places like that, but, you
know, last year,
and you just never know what motivates somebody
to come to Charlotte, whether it's a good
review that they read or, you know, the
course is pleasing. I... A question about that,
I guess I would ask is to do
you think that because of your engineering background
that you get some of the
some of the thought processes
that you have
in terms of, like, hey, these... I like
maps,
or I... You know, it's you say it's
kinda pleasing to the eye. Is that Is
that maybe because your engineering background and you
get into that sort of stuff? Because
engineering a lot of lines and dimensions and
things like that. Right?
It yes. Yes. It is.
That very might very well might be part
of it. I
I don't know. IIIII
could tell you... When I was 11 years
old,
I got interested in compass.
And
a directional compass is not a pencil. Alright.
You're right. Right. Yeah. And so I remember
my parents buying me a compass,
and
I was 11 years old. And it has
on the case, it says engineer, you know,
and it's it's meant for
old time civil engineers survey,
but that's 1 thing that, long, long before
engineering as a career had
hit me or had... You know, I wasn't
thinking about call or a major or anything,
But I knew that I like compass.
And I guess knowing
which way is which
and vanadium man. And so that was in
sixth grade. Asking my parents for a compass,
and it... Just kind of kept going and,
you know, the the top,
the the course profile is also fascinating to
me because that that does really come into
what I do as a
bridge engineer in particular. We're always looking at
roadway
layouts
and profiles. And so
I really get interested in
profiles, of course, courses. And that's 1 of
the the lures about Charlotte is that... That
is a challenging profile. I'm excited to see
these super fast hills you have
that's my exciting. That that is an idea.
That is a challenging profile. Yeah.
And
you know, Boston is challenging and for its
own reasons. And the... I I ran Seattle
last November and that 1 was, was tough
as well, but I I really like these
rolling hill type courses
And I know
somewhere in... Yeah.
I mean, some somewhere in my psychology, it
all just kinda came together to to be
what it is.
And I... Like I, I have
at least 3 that I can think of
that I'm already registered for,
and I've already...
Thought about where those tattoos will go over
the... The next awesome 8 months or so.
And then I do have... I have a
notes thing my phone where I've outlined a
tentative schedule for, like, the next 5 years.
Oh, wow
what I could do when.
So,
I hope you have a understanding wife and
family
because it sounds like very supportive. Yeah. Very
good. Very good. They're they're very, very supportive
and I I
appreciate it. And I love them. Yeah. Love
it. That's awesome. So good to talk to
you. We appreciate you taking time to...
Share your story. I think it's
unique and interesting, and that's,
part of it. Yeah. That's part of it.
That's part of it. Yeah. Mike Lopez, brother
we look for to seeing you in November.
It's it's gonna be great and we look
forward to seeing you take on these Hills
brother. We're Thank you so much. I'm excited
to come out.
It'll be my first East Coast Marathon and
right
just really really looking forward to it, and
You know, that time of year, I think
it'll probably be perfect for racing.
Absolutely.
Not british To.
Exactly.
Hi mike. Thank you so much. Thank you,
gentlemen. Take care.
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