Chris Detzel (00:01)
All right. Welcome to another DFW running talk. I'm Chris Detzel and today's special guest is Emmanuel Damn, I can't even say your name. Emmanuel Amadi. How are you, Emmanuel?
Well, I appreciate coming on. And it's funny because I put out a call of, you know, folks to interview for I guess indie marathon and half marathon. And and you were one of the folks that said, hey, I'll do it. So I'm excited that you you did that, man. So thanks for coming on. ⁓ Emmanuel, tell us a little bit about yourself. I want to know kind of ⁓ a little bit about you, you know, where are you from, and then let's kind of dive into a little bit about your running journey. How about that?
How tall are you?
Okay. You've been slightly short, but yeah.
You look super skinny, man.
Yeah, exactly.
Do you have pictures to prove it?
Do it. Yeah. That's awesome.
Wait, wait, wait, but wait, Emmanuel. We we skipped a lot of stuff. So, you know, let's so let's go back. ⁓ did you play high high school basketball or you know, what what did that look like?
Did you not did you did you think that so when you when you're in Nigeria you were were you like one of the best and then when you came to the US was it just hard to get used to how they play? What was the what was the challenge?
Really? I just I like fitness.
Okay. Little reality sent in, I guess. Okay. And then so you went to college here. Is that is that why you moved here was to go to college?
Okay. And it's your
That makes sense. Do you do you have family that lives out here or are they all in Nigeria?
yeah. Okay. They're actually in LA. So okay.
Feel like it's pretty hot in LA, you know, like you know, in the summer.
Not like this.
It is d it's this summer was tough. This summer was tough.
Hello.
Yeah, 'cause it's way different there. Yeah.
Trust me, I know. So cool. So you get you finished grad school, ⁓ you came to Dallas for a job and did you start running? Wha wha tell me a little bit about I I know you mentioned you ran a little bit, did you like before did you run five any races or anything like that? Or what was that like before you even got here?
Okay.
Yeah, yeah.
Fine.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Celebration Wirework, yeah.
Okay.
For five K?
ten K. Okay. Well that's not bad. I mean, you went way too fast, but still.
How how'd you meet Manny?
I just ran a tin cake. Yeah.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
Mm-hmm.
So you mentioned you got a coach, but let's go back did you start kinda running five five and ten K's with him and with Manny and some others? Is that did she did did go?
Pretty impressive.
Yeah. Yep.
You just said after that five K I wanna get a you just said I wanna get a coach to run to run what? A five K? Or just a
Okay.
Pretty driven.
How do you find your coach?
Yeah.
Yeah, you just want to get better.
Okay.
Yeah. Hmm.
W we ⁓ no, okay. Yeah.
Did you how did you train how how do you make you train for the five K? What was the kind of philosophy there? I'm curious.
Yeah. For five K for sure. Five K is fast, right? Like you know
What would a long run look like for ⁓ for a five K kinda training?
Yeah.
Yep, but that this is this is for a half marathon that you're running in in a couple of weeks. But I'm saying like for five K, would you still run that much distance? Like if you were training for that, or would that be different?
Okay. I was like, man. When you're saying eighteen for five, I was like, that's a lot.
Still pretty good, sixteen. I mean, okay, good.
So he you're that coach got you down to under a s ⁓ a seventeen is and that was your goal, sixteen something. Right. So okay. All right, let's let's kind of continue. Like you started running 5K, you've got a coach, you you know you've been doing pretty well. Did you when did you decide that you want to move it up to the next distance or you know like a half marathon? You know, what's like, hey, I want to do more.
Yeah.
Miraton. Yeah.
Yeah.
So you decided to do you ran ⁓ marathon before the half marathon. Okay. Got it.
⁓ three by five K, that'd be rough.
Mm, that's why you're getting injured. You're running too fast, too much, you know.
Yeah and I I think I think what people do in the beginning too is is they they tr they get excited, right? And there's and they think th they don't know because maybe they don't have a coach but they haven't been doing it for long and they do too much. They do go f too fast and and they see others doing it. They're doing it too, and they're just constantly doing it, not stopping doing it. You know, and and so your body's gonna break down, number one, because it's not used to it. Two is, you know, I mean
that's lot of miles. You know, like let's just be realistic and and be smart about that. But it's it's it's all the journey. It's part of the journey. Is we all learn sometimes the hard way. And it sounds like you had some hard lessons, you know. I mean, getting faster, you know, ha you're you're accomplishing some things and, you know, you get hurt.
So you decided you y go ahead.
Yeah.
my god.
Well, you know what, we never got to your mar we never got to your marathon. So let's talk about your first marathon. When did you run it and then have that?
Okay, so you ran the whole marathon. Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Right. Yeah. It adds up.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
That's your second marathon.
Did you think that was because you went too f d is it because you went too fast or was it, you know, due to nutrition or or what was it?
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Ha ha.
So Emmanuel, I I agree. I think, you know, in in that probably that second marathon, but you're also learning, you know, and and not I mean, you to me, you've only run two marathons. And so the the the sky's the limit for you. Who knows what that limit is? I mean, I don't even I think it's amazing, but you know, you have a little ego, so yeah, that's number one. But two is sometimes you have to push yourself to see what your limits are, right? Or you would have never known. You don't want to
Sometimes you don't want to go out there and say, dang, I could have gone faster. But it's a marathon. So that's that
Yeah. Yeah. So you just get so so I don't know. I mean, there's two schools of thought and I I think that, you know, maybe if you did run a smart marathon, you'd actually hit a two thirty five or two thirty, you know, at some point. ⁓
Well, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you you've got a lot more to go. You know. Even at twenty, you still have six miles to go, you know? It's like it's a long ways.
You know?
Yeah, yeah.
you did three okay.
Got it. Still pretty good.
Perfect.
Well.
But
So
So you do an indie half coming up. We'll get to that in just a sec. Did you do you train with anybody, like friends or community or what what's what's the group look like? Or do you just train on your own?
no.
I like it.
What's her name?
Gabriel. Got it. Yeah, I don't guess I know her. Maybe I should talk to her. I'll I'll send I'll send a note to you later.
Okay.
And so ⁓ so now you're running for in running indie. Now have you run how many halves have you run before?
Right.
That's right.
Okay.
Yeah, it's fun though.
It's kind of where you get it's yeah, and it's kinda like to me, I've done so many haves, is is that it's it's an opportunity. It it's a long distance race, but it's also fast, you know. And and you could do if you wanted one a month. You know, you can't do that with marathons. Or I mean, I wouldn't recommend.
Exactly.
Super fast. Yeah.
Nice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I I like that goal and and I like it because one, you I'm sure you put enough pressure on yourself anyways, right? To you know, you seem like a pretty competitive guy, but you know, at the same time it's like, well, I don't wanna say my goal. Yeah, I hope it's one ten, one twelve, whatever, but you know, we'll see. It's just yeah, I know I know what you're thinking. But
Yeah.
Yeah.
Knocked on it.
I think that's doable for you. Yeah. ⁓ so yeah, that i when we come back to this podcast, because it'd already be out, you know, ⁓ we'll we'll say we'll come back to it, you know, and ⁓ and I wish you nothing but the best. But you have a marathon also coming up. W when's your marathon?
Okay.
Okay.
Perfect.
Yeah.
Are you ⁓ do you have a goal in mind? I mean I I like that, that's really cool.
Okay. I feel like ⁓ you sh and somebody somebody told me that one of their goals was like a two thirty or whatever's like, why don't we just say two twenty nine? You know, two twenty nine to two thirty one. Why not? Why why are you limiting yourself to the two thirty? Or you know what I mean? Like we all you know, mine could be like, Well, I'm gonna run, you know, one thirty half or whatever. Well, why not one twenty nine? You know, whatever. I mean
When you put something in your mind, you know, I mean, 'cause you know you're capable, why not? One minute faster, one second faster. Two twenty nine fifty nine, you know, do that. So
Who cares? It's just a little bit faster, you know. You know, it's not that much faster. Sometimes we put stuff in our own minds that, you know, because your ability is huge. Now I'm not telling you just go, hey, you should just go balls to the wall, you know, like just just just you know, just go, yeah, two twenty five. no, don't do that, you know. But I'm not telling you how to run your race, but what I'm saying is, you know, maybe it's two twenty nine to two thirty one rather than
two thirty to two thirty two, you know? Hit that hit that one minute or one second better, you know. Get that 'cause how much would that feel? How much if you said I did sub two thirty? That's better. You know?
Yeah. Yeah.
Put it on your Insta. Everything, you know. So
Well menu
Emmanuel, like I have to tell you this is ⁓ to me the the potential that you have, you haven't even touched it. You know? And ⁓ as long as you continue to be smart, look, you're learning and you know, and you gotta take care of yourself, your injuries and things like that. The sky's the limit. Like, I mean, you really haven't run you've run through three ish marathons, you know. ⁓ you're still you're still kind of young from a marathon, your journey there. I mean, you're doing some running, you've got a lot of speed, a lot of talent, you're
You're hungry, you're you're gonna do the work. So, you know, sometimes your body just has to, you know, get a few years in, three or four years, you know, some some some things like that. That's just the way it is. And then you start even seeing bigger gains. But you just have to continue to be smart. And I love this. Like I can't I'm gonna I'm gonna be watching you, man, because I think the opportunity's big for you, you know. Not this year, but not this year. A lot of people in Dallas are though. ⁓ but
A lot of people in Dallas are going to Indy. Yeah. Lots. A lot of the Pegasus groups and ⁓ some folks from Swaths.
Some of the slots are w as well. Yeah.
Yeah, there's a lot of people going. There's probably last year there was like thirty.
⁓ maybe. ⁓ it depends 'cause some of are doing CIM, some of the slots. So ⁓ but maybe Indy, I don't I don't know exactly. I know last year was a big ⁓ they a lot of them went to CIM last year. So but very good. Well manual, what did we miss? What did we not talk about? I'm sure we missed a lot, but anything else you wanted to say and say, you know, kind of leave people with?
That's right.
Mm-hmm. Good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
As long as you can. And you know, the the I how old are you again? Yeah I don't think I asked you. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, you well, you know, we're all getting old. I'm 51, so you know. It's all an eye to be holder. Well, Emmanuel, this has been really awesome and I really appreciate you coming on. And you know, thank you everyone for tuning in to another DFW Ronnie Talk. I'm Chris Detzel. ⁓
Go to www.dfwrunningtalk.com. There's training plans there. There's races you can sign up for. A lot of stuff there that I've I've spent some time and effort there. Even you can sign up to our ⁓ newsletter. So ⁓ again, thanks, thanks again for coming on and until next time. Take care, everyone.
