2004 Olympic Gold Medalist Jeremy Wariner Reflects On His Career, Now Coaching Team USA’s 4x4 And The State Of The 400m

0:00All right, we are here in Budapest, Khrushava, Cal Merber for the City of Smag series of interviews that we're doing with some TMAO say athletes in collaboration with USATF and we're joined by an all-time port of meter legend and now a member of the coaching staff with TMAO say, Jeremy Warner. How's that, how's coaching life been? That's great. I've been a coaching high school for about eight years and then last summer I got the opportunity to come on as a relay coach for World Relays and World Championship and I'm having a blast being back around these people. What's the hardest part of the job and then what's the part you love the most? A hardest part of the job? Making sure to stick against the wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because it's out of my hands but you know we got to make sure we put the right people out there and make sure everything's flawless at practice and then give them as much knowledge as we can, leading up to the meeting, just sit there and watch and

1:04hope and pray. What's your take on mixed relays at large? Obviously you have to say you like them but like when it first came in I was, I was like, I don't know about this and then I watched them and I enjoyed them. I have to say and I know that they grew on me. I think I kind of had the same aspect when it first came out I was like, well what the hell this is not going to work. No one's going to want to do it and then the more the years went on it's just like it clicked and it started being fun to watch and now a lot of the top athletes want to be a part of it and I'm especially in the 4x4. I would have been one that wanted to. At first I was like, I would never run it and now probably one of the ones that want to run it. I think it'd be fun especially back in our day with who we had. I think we would have had a dominant team. Oh my god the next 4x4. Yeah, do it. Yeah, like when you're all time, next 4x4. I'm from your era. From my era. Man, this is tough. It's probably me, Lashon, Sonia and Allison.

2:06Yeah. I mean, it's such a good game. And now the all time team. All team. Yeah. So you obviously ran a ton of relays throughout your career. Like what's the experience of lining up at a world championship or Olympic games on a 4x4 versus an individual like what's the vibe? You know, when I was running it was more, it was like, I knew when I got the stick I was probably going to be in the lead. Yeah. I didn't have any doubt about that. So for me it was relaxing because I had three dominant runners in front of me. So it was just more just staying relaxed running my race and making sure I come across in the lead. But it was great experiences. I learned a lot. I was able to use some of that towards my races and then now I'm using it as a coach. I'm thinking of my experience running like DMRs and 4x8s. And if I'm anchoring I'd always be like, if you're going to give me a lead, give me like two seconds. Don't give me half a second.

3:06Yeah. Then I have to. Well, you've got to wrap it. Essentially, you know, wrap it. You know, 4x4. No, you know. Of course, there were times where I wished, you know, I got to stick in second or third to get the hero. Yeah. Just so I could have something to do. You know, being out in front is fun. But at the same time it gets boring, you know, especially like in 04 when I got to stick at the Olympics, we were already 50 meters ahead almost. So it was just like, I'm just running. And so 05 was a little different. When I got to stick, I think Chris Brown from Bahamas was five meters behind me. He stayed right there behind me the whole time. So you know, that had a little bit of pressure. But you know, I wish there was a couple of times where I wish I would have been behind. Would your race pattern be different on a relay versus an open? Not exactly. Same exact thing. Same exact thing. My race pattern never changed. I always ran the same way no matter where I was. I might, you know, as an example in 04 A and C A's, I got to stick in seventh.

4:09And you know, I just had to gradually, gradually pick up down a backstretch. And but the way I ran it didn't change. It was just my pace changed a little bit. And then really it just kicking just a little bit earlier than I normally would. From the beginning of your career to the end of your career, did your race pattern change significantly? Or did you find that sweet spot in 04 and just kept it? I kept it. Yeah. Nothing changed. You know, that's the thing with Coach Hard, you know, every day of practice we worked on our race strategy every single day. Nothing changed. He threw some weird workouts at me. But it still had the same benefits of making sure that I was doing the same race every week. When we've done these interviews with folks after they retired, like it's fun to, you keep the cards close to your chest while you're active and competing. But like, then afterwards, people do reveal like the crazy workouts. Like what's one that, like you remember? One that knew I was ready to run was when we do our 3-3-50s.

5:093-3-50s. 3-3-50s. And it would be four minutes rest. I was coming through right around 21, 4-21-5 through the 200 in flats and then I finished up around 43, 8-4-3-9. So that workout, when I hit those times, I knew I was going to run better. That's moving forward. Yeah. Usually we would hit those type of times in practice where we're right around May, June. So right when the year of Pam's side of the season starts, so we had to make sure that we were right on point. So talking about race patterns right now, arguably, not arguably, the best for me to run in the world, Colin, Kevin and Shippie. He's one of the most interesting race patterns that we've seen recently. He goes out slow, but really closes. What is your thoughts on watching him run? You know, everyone's different. Yeah. I mean, Vanneke was opposite. He got out really, really fast and he was able to hold on the whole way.

6:12But it's interesting, you know, he's able to stay focused and not panic and come off and his finishes ridiculous. I was watching the Diabinary Final and he pulled away. He was what possibly third coming off the curve and just took off. He was running 200 years ridiculous. So it's Andy with his side. He's really small. Yeah. I didn't realize how small he was until I looked at him next to somebody else, like someone like Ryan. And I was just like dang. So it's very impressive. You know, I'm just going to see what happens as we can. In terms of, I guess, like, Ryan and just US 400 meter runs right now. What's your impression? How is Ryan doing watching him and his development on the flat 400? Yeah. You don't see many foreign hurlers run well in the 400. They, I don't know if it's like a rhythm thing or that they're used to in the hurdles and they come into the 400 and they have problems.

7:13You know, the last one I saw that could do both was Angela Taylor. He was able to do it. But Ryan, you know, he's built for it. He's confident. He works hard at practice from the videos I've seen. And you know, he takes it serious. It's not just out there for fun and games. He's out there taking it serious. And, you know, he wants to win it. And he's not just doing it just for training reasons for the foreign hurdles. So that's another aspect of it. He believes he can win it. And, you know, I think with another year or so under his belt running open quarter, I think he can win it. Something that I think is interesting about your career was like just the strength that you brought to the 400. That he ran 20 point. You look like 200 and you're like, you never broke playing. But like you could run 43s all day. So, but now thinking back on, I guess, that like are you not to bring up sort of subject where you're like, oh, is that a badge of, like a badge of honor?

8:16Like, yeah, look what I did. And I wasn't even a 200 guy or you like, no, I really would have liked a 99 in there. I would have liked my goal every time I stepped on a track was to try and go 19. You know, that was one of my goals. But now it's badass because it's like, look what I can do. I wasn't, I wasn't one of the fastest foreign runners when it came to turnover and foot speed in the open to. But, you know, I can hang with a lot of them. A couple of years, oh, 607, I got four of that trials and the 200, oh, seven. And I was trying to, in my mind, in me and Coach Harps plan was to try and double that year, just missed it by I think .02 to the same person, the same person two years in a row. But, you know, I do wish I could have ran a little bit faster, but I never trained for the 200. You know, it was, I never worked on my foot speed. You know, our practice is we're based for my 400 races every single day. So we rarely did speed work. You know, I just, it was just natural speed. My natural turnover for me and, you know, we just worked on getting stronger.

9:19Because you were so strong, was there an element of like the rounds being a big advantage for you? Yeah, like, yeah, I mean, did you go four rounds? No, we never did. That was right, it was always three. I think, oh, four in CAAs, it was supposed to be four rounds. And the weather hit and it canceled, they canceled two rounds. And we only had some of my finals in finals. So, cancel two rounds was crazy. But, no, we never had the four rounds. But the way we trained, like Coach Hart trained us four rounds. You know, we could run one race, be perfectly fine. But, you know, we were built four rounds. We can go three to four rounds. He did it with Michael and MJ had four rounds in his whole career. So Coach Hart knew how to get us prepared for that type of competition. How do you think the event has changed like in the last ten years? Obviously, it has changed a lot. You know, when I was running, it was one, maybe two people running 43. You know, for the first part of my career, it was just me and LaShon came in.

10:21And, you know, me and him both were going 43. And I don't think anybody else did. I think it was just us two. And then, as once after I retired, then all of a sudden, you know, it just 43 is like clockwork. It was fourth place, 43 or something. Yeah, I believe. Yeah. You know, it's time's change. You know, the same thing with the 100 and the 200. You know, when you have nine, nine, not make a final at USA's, you know, it just shows the progression of things. And now you got three, got two guys run, seven, 46 and the four in the hurdles. So, you know, 46 is like when we were running, it was 47 low. It was like a draw job. Do you think the shoes in the 400 make a big difference? Or is it more just training? And I knew you said you just did things in trainers like a virgin having a shoes today. You know, we practice wise, we never wore spikes. The only time we did is if we were doing 150s of blockwork. And that was the blockwork was rare. We would do that maybe once a month or once every two months. But I do think the new spikes played a little bit of role.

11:24But I think a lot of it is the training now. Things evolve. People find new ways to do different things. You know, I trained with a lot of distance. Not when I say distance, I'm not saying like mild or anything like that. You know, it was over distance, 450s, 500s, 350s was my peak. You know, we do 250s every now and then, but you know, 350s was a big thing. I think now, you know, broken quarters, step downs are 250, 150s, anything along those mild trainings changed. But then you add all the technology. The track surfaces are getting faster. Everybody else is becoming faster because of it. What's like the one new element or like advanced that you're like, I wish I would have had that? Spy car. I'm not that bad stuff. I don't know. You know, I don't know if I would have liked the spikes or not. You know, I had, my spikes were pretty flexible.

12:28I didn't care for stiff spike. I wanted to be able to feel the ground a little bit. So Anita's made mine to where the toe plate was stiff, but the rest of it was softer. So I was able to, I could literally bend my spike in half if I wanted to. But that's just what I preferred. So I don't know. I think trying the new spikes, I think they would have been interested in to see what I could have run with, put me, hell, you can put MJ in this generation with all the stuff they have now. I would love to see what we would have been able to run. In 2004, I guess, I mean, were you winning? 20. You went Olympic, the Olympics. Before that, it was NCAA Indoor's Outdoors, like USA's. Yeah, I mean, it's one of the all-time seasons. What was that? Like for a kid to win that moment, like we obviously see a ton of, right now, so many 19, 20 year olds on the circuit that are winning worlds.

13:28But how does that change the trajectory of your career a little bit, or your approach when you do have success like that so young? No. And you talked any of the young kids today who are in a similar position? Not, I haven't. I was on the U20 staff in Eugene a couple of about a month ago. So I was one of the relay coaches there. So I was able to talk to Quincy and talk to Jayden and the rest of the quarter-milers. So I was a great experience of being able to kind of give them feedback on what I see. Not tell them how to run, but just see what I see and kind of give them inside of what to expect moving forward. But winning it so young, I didn't realize what I was doing at that time. After I won the Olympics, the first thing I told Coach R was I broke the school record. Like, literally, that's the first thing I brought to his attention. He's like, yeah, but you wanted to go. I was like, yeah, but I broke Michael's record. And that was one of my goals. It was to break Michael's school record.

14:30And so that was the first thing that popped my mind. And as the rest of the year went on, we had the four by four on a couple of days. So I couldn't really enjoy the win until after that. And then coming back home, hitting reality, going about school, it's like crap. So I wish I would have done a few things afterwards a little bit different and kind of enjoyed a little bit more. But that's just who I was. You know, I was mentally preparing for the next year to get ready for the next season. And you know, after before the four by four, I had spoke with Coach Harv, spoke with my parents. And we all came to agreement with time to go pro. So I knew going into the relay that I was going back to college. So we didn't make it announcement till December that year whenever it was official. But I already knew we had already told everybody in my circle that I wasn't going to come

15:30out of college. So kind of everything just got thrown into me right after the last second. So all that once. And it's just like kind of overwhelming. But I was still able to refocus and get ready for the four by four and still enjoy that with me. Especially having Darrell as my team mate, my college teammate and friend being on the four by four at the same time and still going third and fourth like we did all year. So that was special. Was there another season that you felt like achieving that flow state of Ovo 4 that you were like, all right, it came close to just sort of like that out of like on fire from start to finish? Yeah, I think probably O7, you know, O5 was a special one because it was my first year as a pro. Yeah. You know, just first year going overseas full time and running multiple, not having an indoor season because I didn't, as a professional, I never ran indoors. That was just our choice. So you know, trying to figure it out my first year, but O7, you know, everything clicked

16:32that year. You know, I wish I could run a little bit faster. I thought I was going to run a little bit faster than what I did. But at the same time, you know, Lashon was coming up and there's a lot of talk that, you know, that would, that might have been the year that he was going to be me and I just had to stay focused and, you know, run my race completely the way I did and everything just fell on the spot. I'm thinking about, so 2005, Helsinki, we got a wet, colder day here. It was like that then, right? Yeah, Helsinki was pretty much wet the whole competition. Or wet tracks faster than dry chat tracks. Like why is that happening sometimes? Like commonwealth, I think some of it is, you know, as athletes, when it's wet, we're not thinking about our race, we're worrying about, you know, the weather, what it's going to be and everything. And so we're a little bit more relaxed when it comes to our race strategies. We're not worried about competition as more, let's just, let's run and get this out over with and get up out of here. And so I think, you know, things just, your, your body's a little bit more relaxed and

17:36by, you know, Helsinki, fortunately for me, the semi-finals was the bad weather. The finals was, it was still wet, but it wasn't raining. So semi-finals we ran in a little bit of drizzle right before our semi-finals. It was, I want to say it was a four in a hurdle final. They ended up having to delay it because how bad the rain was, it was flooded like one through seven was flooded. And that's how much of a downpour it was. And so fortunately for us, we didn't have to worry about that, but, you know, the four in a hurdle it was had to. But I think, you know, mentally, it's just, you're, you're thinking about other things, you're not thinking about your race. And so you're able to just relax and run. Going out of your career, I'm guessing like most athletes, you're just dialed in mostly on yourself. Like when I was competing, I just thought about myself. I didn't watch. I watched, but I learned to love other events after I was done. Now that you're beyond your own career, is there an event right now that you're like, wow, I never really paid attention to that, but now as a track fan, that's tough.

18:42You know, I've always liked watching the one and the two, especially the 200s since I was, that was my second event that I really enjoyed running. I think currently, I think the 800 is, impress is kind of like up there for me right now. I think what Cooper is doing is very, very impressive. Texas guy, Texas guy, you know, as a high school coach in Texas, you know, he'll be doing me again. Hit him. My first year at my current school, we had 800 guy make state and fair in the state classification. So I'm like, and we're talking to my, we're talking to our athlete where it's like, hey, don't go out with him. Like don't. And, you know, he made the mistake and went out with him. It just backfire, and I was like, I totally don't go out with him. But just to see like his progression, you know, you know, went to trials last year and everyone was looking at the top one. And I mean, I'm up there screaming like, look at Cooper, look at Cooper. The whole last 100, I'm just looking at, that's all I was looking at. So I think that event is getting, getting a lot of press.

19:47And then, my daughter's a jumper. So I'm always watching the jumps. So it's always been one I've watched. So you know, it's up and down. You know, during my career, I liked watching the distance races with the Kaylee and DeBaba and all of them. So those were always fun to watch because we knew they were going to run for it. We knew a record was going to be broken at some point. I still watch them very grainy on YouTube. Yeah. In like, 144. In terms of the 800 women's 800, FEMCA right now, you dabbled in the eight. One time. One time. But like, I remember when you ran the eight, we were all like, here we go. Like, yeah, that was a good start. Yeah, that was a lot of friends on how I was. Now were you like, I was all over. I was all over. I was writing about when I was, when I was interviewing Jeremy Begton. I was like, all over that story. You're seeing FEMCA's progression. Are you now like, man, I should have run out. You more. No, not not not. You know, that one was strictly training purposes.

20:48My season got started really, really late. And so my training season. So we wanted to get some strength work in. And so we just like screw it. This is 153. 153. Yeah. The FEMCA's coming. Yeah, that was death. I'm glad I didn't. I didn't want to do the training for it. Could I have been good at it? Possibly. That was. But I'm dreaming right now for him. I didn't want to do it. I almost burned my heart and didn't say that word. Is it that the high school kids are now training more like pros or like, how do you tinker just sort of like your own sort of experience, like having such a long professional career? And adapting that to coaching high school athletes, like what are some of the changes you make? You know, you're right. I think a lot of the high school kids, a lot of the high school coaches now are understanding how to train differently. So they're going to some of these conventions or they're listening to college coaches,

21:50they're listening to professional coaches. And actually like taking time to understand the sport now. And I think a lot of them were just their football coaches getting stipends and they were still running fast. But I don't think they had the desire that a lot of these coaches now they have. You know, a lot of the coaches now are straight track coaches. They don't do another sport. My almost my whole staff, I have one football coach on my staff that's here. The rest of them are all track people. So I'm one of those that want track people. I want the knowledge and I want everybody to understand what we're doing. So I think we are adapting to college coaches and professional coaches training strategies. And you see it with like take tailor. You see it with these young kids that it's paying off. And they're not overdoing it yet. And that's the tricky part. In high school is not over running. It's a long year. Some of them run club indoors and then they go straight to their outdoor season and then

22:54high school you're running almost every single weekend. You can't take a week off because our season's so short. So now that you're coaching, there's kind of like a weird gap in the US coaching groups right now. Like there's not a 400 or not like a 400 specific group. Do we need that? And if night D or D just came back on your door and said, Jerry, we're ready for an elite 400. We've got to take down Botswana. I would jump. I'd dive in and take control of it. I'll do the best I can. I've learned a lot when during my career watching coach hard coaches, I've picked his brain throughout the years. So a lot of my training is kind of based off his, but I'll also take coaches like Boogie Johnson, Miles, all those coaches, all those college coaches. I see what they do. I see the workouts that people post online or videos online or the training sessions that day. I kind of take some of those and I put it in mind and I kind of adjust it based on my

23:58athletes and you know, it's benefited. So definitely, but if I got the opportunity to coach professional 400 runners, a small group, I would dive in real quick. After coach hard recent passing, it's like the tribute is just like ported and like you could really see I guess just sort of how big his impact was on the sport. I guess what surprised you I guess like from seeing like the public reaction or just like so many of those like memorials and tributes. You know, one of the best ones I saw was Pat Henry at A&M when he dedicated the one of the races to him. I think it was either the race or the meat, one of the two. That shows what coach hard has done. Coach hard and coach Henry, they battled every single year for decades against each other and so to see somebody do that, it just shows what type of coach coach hard was. Do you have, besides just training, is there anything that you took away from your experience working with him that you know put into your own coaching?

25:00Yeah, be yourself. Yeah, you know, coach hard, he wasn't a strict coach, but when it came down to doing something right, if we did it wrong, he'd let us know. But at the same time, coach hard was like a kid. You know, during warm-ups, he'd come up the water in the air and just keep walking. And he was looking right, like, oh, it's raining. Just clear skies and Texas, 22 degrees. And he'd walk by step on our handle purpose and just like, just act like he didn't do anything, play golf or practice golf in the middle of the field while we're working out. I'm warming up down the back stretch and I just see a golf ball fly right in front of my face. So, you know, I was dodging golf balls at the same time as practice. So, you know, just as a coach, just be yourself, have fun and enjoy and just give these kids what they deserve. I think that's a funny thing that no one ever talks about with coaches' roles at meets, especially, like they set the vibe. Right? And so, coaches, it's like, I have to dial up, I got to dial back. I know how my athlete responds to different situations.

26:01Before Big Race, what were you like? Were you intense? I mean, what's the glasses? When did the glasses go on? So, they were on, obviously, they never came off. You're not wearing them right now. Yeah, you know, things, I wear them at meets, but you know, now I kind of back off a little bit, but you know, I don't want to say I was intense. At meets, I always stayed to myself. I get to the meet, get off the bus, get to the meet, and I find a spot where I could be by myself and just relax. I'd warm up by myself. Everything I did was by myself. I'd even, if Barrel was at the meet and we were, obviously, we were training partners. I never warmed up with him at meets. I did everything on myself. No chart would just watch from a distance. And then he'd come up, hey, let's do this. We got this, the skill. He would say his work is peace before we walked into the call room and I'm sitting by myself focused on my race. I didn't care what anybody else was doing. Later in my career, I start seeing some of these younger kids come on and, you know,

27:01they're in the call room talking and having fun and cracking jokes in the call room. And I'm still the same person just sitting there being, I was focused on getting ready for my race. So, that kind of was a weird change because early in my career, none of us spoke into the call room. Like, none of us did. We didn't speak to anybody. And as I got towards it into my career, it slowly started changing. And they were in the call room just talking to each other. They were training partners and there's obviously so many groups that were big groups. And they were all in the same heat. So, you know, they were talking and I'm still looking around. It's like, any time to change. So, Olympic medalists always get asked where do you keep the medals? So, I want to know where the gold medalist for sure. But the pairs of glasses that I guess you wore throughout your career are there special ones that are safe places? So, we'll start with the medals. They are in their cases in a box in my office closet. So, only time I bring them out is if I'm doing an event. They ask me to bring them out, but most of the time they're just in that box.

28:05My glasses from the 04 Olympics are in the same box with them in their case. And then the rest of them, you know, they were warm for years. I have a box in my closet with all my glasses in there. Unfortunately, my son, when he was three or four, he grabbed them and asked them, well, there they are. So, just that one pair is in its case still with all the rest of the uniforms and with the flags that we walked around with at the Olympics. And then my uniforms, I have them, I haven't framed my uniform. I have one frame that I actually gave to my grandfather and then when he passed away, I took it back. So, but the actual one I wore in the finals still sitting in that box with the rest of them. Which is best uniform USA TEP has ever had. That I wore? I really like those fours. That was one of my favorites. I think overall 96.

29:07I really like 96. But you didn't have it. I didn't have it. Did you ever trade one? No. But I think just looking at them, I think 96 is one of my favorite ones. So now you're a relay coach. I'll say it so you don't have to. There's a lot of competitors on any relay team. The US relay, they're going head to head in open events and they have to work together get the stick. You were in that situation, points in your career in which you and Lashon were racing open, obviously going head to head battles and then having to work together. Now as a coach, how do you manage the egos in the room on a relay? And especially on four by ones where, is there a mixed four by one requires more chemistry than anything I can ever imagine? How is that? You know, it's almost still the same. I think most of the time we put our differences aside because we are a team and we just run

30:12our race, we just do our job. Our job in the races is to run our best, run our fastest and get the stick around. I think it's still the same way to this day. As Team USA, when we run the relays, we have to put our differences aside. It doesn't matter what goes on, it doesn't matter how big the rivalry is or anything along those lines. When we step on the track, our job is to secure our leg and that's in the cheer on the rest of our team and make sure that we're there to support them and give them the best that we can. So as a coach, we just sit back and we just give them advice. Make sure that they remember their cues, watch the take, look at what's your mark, don't leave early, don't worry about the other lanes around you and lane integrity. That's really what we focus on right now is getting the stick around and then fortunately for Team USA, we could have somewhat bad handoffs and still win because we're so fast.

31:14We just have to make sure we get the stick around. So that's our main goal is to make sure we see it into the first exam and take it and just run as fast as you can. The showdown I guess that awaits in 2028 with Botswana and the 4x4. For fans, we can't wait to see what that rivalry is going to look like on that day as a coach. Do you feel a little bit of the pressure? We've been in conversations with Ryan and Vernon and they still bring up stories from that call room in Tokyo and in Paris and so it's real. Oh 100% of them. I love it. I love the competition. I've always been that way. Obviously the athletes love it and they're embracing it. 28 is going to be ridiculous on our home soil. We're going to do everything we can to make sure that we're 100% ready and it has coaches and USATF staff. We're going to make sure we put the right four out there.

32:15That mesh well that are going to run right and that we can trust to bring it home. Our goal in 28 is to bring home six goal medals in all six relays. So we're working on that. Everything we do is to get ready for 28 right now. So here this weekend, 4x4, 1x4, 4x4 is to get more knowledge for that and see, figure out ways we can improve and get faster. My last question, it's 2028, you're coaching last second, they need a fourth guy. It's not I ain't running. What can you give the team? You warmed up. You're in your uniform under. I go down glass on and they're like we need one week. I think I would be better off on the, I don't even know if I'd be one of the top four on the women's team right now. But I just heard that.

33:16I'm four, I'm five, six, and I hope 52. I'm good, you know, I was all concerned. I hope to split. Yeah, I hope. Now, when I finish the race, that's the hard part. I don't think the conditioning would be the problem. I think it's my knees, my hips, my handsharing, my claws, my calf, the heart is still there. The heart still, I would 100% give you everything I have. It might not look pretty, but I would finish the race as much as I can. I mean, I would probably not move for about an hour. What's the last time that you went out on a track and you're like, all right, let's see what I still got. Every now and then, I'm at the point now where I'm trying to get back in shape. I'm obviously, as a high school coach, I'm walking all the time. Track meets, it's my home, I put 30,000 steps to that one day, just for that one meet. So that's not an issue.

34:17Every now and then, my son was at baseball practice and so I went out and did some running and I did, I think, like, six 100s with a walk back rest and I was hitting right around 14 on all of them. So, you know, it's there. It's not going away. Did I do anything after that? I'll get to points where I'll go for runs for like three, four weeks in a row and then I won't work out for like six months and then I'll try and start it again. Obviously, every time I start back up, I'm sore for like three weeks and then that's kind of why I stopped because my body is still sore after week two and I'm just not doing this anymore. But, you know, every now and then, you know, I kind of get the urge to just, let me see what I can do with it at the same time with the coaching, you know, I get that aspect of it, that competition aspect. So I still have that. So it's not like I need to go out there and try and go run masters or anything. So I was just, don't expect that.

35:17And that's how you son you're sitting at a hotel bar. Yeah. It's like, hey, let's get you guys out in the street. No, no. No. I'm just like English and Justin can keep you out. You so well. Trying to go out. I got that. That's not going to happen. My athletes try and get me to race on. They try to get me to work out with them and I'm just like, guys, I'm not coach. Well, if we win state, I was like, if y'all win state, I'll consider it. But he's like, we're like Cooper Luke and I was great. So for sure, I don't have to do it anymore. I don't have to do a tape anymore. So my school was 6A, so tape graduating, Cooper leaving. I'm so happy as a coach. I love to see it. I love the competition. I want my kids to run against the best like that. But at the same time, I got to win. So my job's on line. But yeah, I get the competition, all that competition, the urge that from watching them and coaching them, I'm one of their biggest supporters.

36:19I'm on the infield, screaming and celebrating with them during distance races. I'm going from the 200 to the 300 back to the 200 back to the 300. So I'm one of those coaches. Every single event I'm doing, I'm helping with the jumps. I'm helping with the throws as much as I can. So I even tried to coach Paul Walters last year. That was interesting. I had two Paul Walters that decided they want to try and vault right before the district. And I was like, hey, we can get points. So watching YouTube for about 30 minutes. Let's go. I like this helmet. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I'm not going to try. No. There's no way I'm going to go out there and try to race somebody. Well, Jeremy, we appreciate you taking the time to chat with us and reminisce on some of the good times. And I'm sure there's more ahead. And Pestel luck this weekend in the Ruitana LA. Thank you. Thank you. All right, that's a wrap on today's episode. Thanks for listening for the time, the curiosity, and for making this show part of your routine

37:23or your run of big thanks to our producer, Jasmine Fair, and to everyone behind the scenes who helps make the City As Mag podcast happen. If you enjoyed today's episode, a quick five star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps people find this show. And we read every single one. You can find much more track and field coverage at cityasmag.com. And you can follow along across all of City As Mag social channels. We'll see you next time. Thanks again for listening. Bye.