In this episode recorded earlier this spring Tony and Eli interview one of the behind-the-scenes giants of the industry, David Grice, owner and founder of RaceWorks Incorporated. David is a good friend who worked with and showed both Eli and Tony the ropes in their early days in the industry and, despite his substantially better running pedigree, is also a member of the "I've only run one marathon" club.
David's career has taken him from his days as a college runner at the University of Texas, to becoming an intern at the Austin Marathon (which Eli also did... quite the launching pad, clearly!), to working in race operations at the local running store for a year before leaving on vacation and finding out that the store was no longer in the business of putting on races when he got back. That led to him launching his event logistics and operations business, and having to convince local events that were used to receiving those services for free to start paying him to provide them. From those humble beginnings he has become the "secret weapon" behind the scenes working ops on some of the biggest races in America, including the Chicago Marathon, Houston Marathon, Philadelphia Marathon, 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials and many more.
David gets grilled about being a "portalet prima donna" and his personal hi-viz tailor, and despite us making fun of him for that he graciously regales us with great stories about putting on a 10k for Willy Nelson, having a man threaten to shoot him while certifying a half marathon on a rural county road (here's a link to the voicemail Tony refers to during this story), and climbing inside the finish truss to pull up a clock that was beginning to fall while the race was going on.
We ask David to share his thoughts and insights on everyone in the industry's topic--COVID-19--but rather then get bogged down in that we "pivot" (but in a different way) to talking about what he's doing with his free time since he's not working right now, which includes a detour of a discussion into the Austin brewing and bar scene (Draughthouse for life!) and also Eli trying to get away with saying the phrase "mods on your whip" (don't worry, they let him know he can't pull it off).
We agree that we need to have David back on some time to discuss his work on international races like the Singapore Marathon. And lastly, Eli asks (and Tony begs) for our listeners to come up with a better nickname (that sounds less like a certain male bodily function) than what Eli has taken to calling them, "Early Risers." We're looking for something #betterthanearlyrisers (and yes, this is Eli trying to get another hashtag to take off).
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