Chris Detzel (00:00.63)
All right, welcome to another DFW running talk. I'm Chris Denzel and today's special guest is Chris Corbett and she's from Fit for Adventure. Chris, how are you?
Kris Corbett (00:11.925)
I'm great. Thanks for having me, Chris.
Chris Detzel (00:14.35)
Well, I appreciate you coming on. it's funny because Fit for Adventure does a lot of different trips and things like that. We'll go deep into that later, but I just went on one and we talked and I thought, wow, you have such a great background. I couldn't wait to talk to you. So thanks again for coming on.
Kris Corbett (00:33.855)
This is great.
Chris Detzel (00:35.768)
So tell me a little bit about yourself. So I know that you know, Fit for Adventure, you do a lot of adventurous stuff, but you have one of the most unique backgrounds, or at least when I talked to you on the trip, you you just do a lot of adventurous things yourself and have done that for a really long time before you even became the owner of Fit for Adventure. So I want to dive in deep a little bit about your background, what you did in high school, college, if you went to college, or you know, all those kinds of things.
Kris Corbett (00:46.216)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (01:05.292)
And then I I think our folks are gonna be super excited about kinda your background. So let's do it.
Kris Corbett (01:11.947)
Perfect. Well, I actually grew up outside the DFW area out in Graham, Texas, so a couple hours west. small little three A school where you could play more than one sport. So I took it upon myself to play them all that they allowed me to back then. I played volleyball, basketball, golf and track, and loved it. So that's all I did was athletics as always in season. ended up playing volleyball in college a little bit at
Angelo State in San Angelo, West Texas.
Chris Detzel (01:42.987)
Love volleyball.
Kris Corbett (01:45.269)
Didn't I came in as a walk on, so it didn't really work out. I didn't play all that much and decided that intermirals was the way to go. So I spent my college years just continuing to play. I took mountain biking as a course and weightlifting and everything that wasn't serious. got a degree in sports management. back then they didn't even call it sports management. It was a Kines business degree, but that's what they would it was just coming out that that was a new
job. So I guess I just aged myself there. But yeah, so I got that. but yeah, so got out of college expecting to work in some sports industry. And I thought I would take a time out to go play in the mountains. So I moved to Colorado and got a job as a literally a ski lift bum. I worked at a ski shop and on the mountain for
Chris Detzel (02:18.19)
We're the same age, so no worries. You're actually younger than I am, so
Kris Corbett (02:42.154)
three years worked my way up to lift supervisor. So I guess I kind of used my sports management degree. I don't know. I played a lot. but then what it was when I lived in Colorado that I just realized you could play. You could do everything. You could go ice climbing on a Thursday afternoon and you could go under the moonlit hike the next weekend because it was so bright under moonlight. And I just really fell in love with the outdoors and where I'd always loved it before and being active, I didn't realize how much I just ignored adventuring.
Chris Detzel (02:48.108)
Yeah, well
Chris Detzel (02:55.788)
Yeah.
Kris Corbett (03:12.208)
so yeah, so that was kind of my start into anything adventurous and traveling and then that just kind of exploded. And then the biggest step after that was I thought that I would go out and get me a real job, so I did. I got into the golf industry and I worked for a small mini tour for three to four years. and then I decided that I wanted to be a caddy. So I caddied on the PGA tour, a nationwide tour for parts of
Twelve, thirteen years almost.
Chris Detzel (03:44.963)
That's pretty awesome. I'm gonna ask you more about that in a minute, but I'm gonna go backwards a little bit. And you know, you mentioned you went to Colorado. Did you do any you said you did some mountain biking, did you do any trail running, running, swimming, did you what you know, what did that look like, you know, back in the day?
Kris Corbett (03:48.468)
Okay.
Kris Corbett (04:01.202)
I did. I did anything that somebody had an idea to go do. Like I learned ice climb because my buddy had gear and said, let's go ice climb. And I actually it was in my Colorado days that I learned to scuba dive because my roommate randomly was a scuba diver instructor. So we went down to Denver and I got my certification in Aurora Reservoir. And I I hadn't really fallen in love with running at that time yet. I definitely
I've always swam. My mom taught swimming and lifeguarding my entire childhood. So I grew up in the pool, even though Graham didn't have a swim team. but in college they had a swim class that I would take. So anyway, I would swim, I would ski, I would snowboard. but running didn't kind of come for me till I got into the golf business later. So in Colorado, like I said, it was mountain bike, it was skis and snowboards, it was snowshoes. I did own a pair of snowshoes and I did snowshoe racing. So I guess I did run a little bit at that time.
Chris Detzel (04:59.694)
Snowshoe racing, tell me about that.
Kris Corbett (05:02.12)
Yeah, I have a pair of snowshoes that have running bindings. So they're not the big clunky ones you picture. They're smaller and you strap them on your tennis shoes and go for a run in the snow. And they would have five K's and ten K's and Yeah. Yeah, parts of the course, like they would have like groups, parts would be groom trail and you could actually run, and then some would be deep that you'd be
Chris Detzel (05:16.91)
Wow. Five Ks and ten K's in snowshoeing? You'd actually run? I mean, is that or okay?
Kris Corbett (05:31.796)
post towing a little bit and through the powder, but so it's a mix.
Chris Detzel (05:34.871)
Okay. One I've gone snowshoeing once. I was in France. My friend lives in Ansi, France, so on the border of Switzerland and France. So just right in there, this beautiful kind of you know lake right there. And we went up the mount the mountain and he's like, All right, we're gonna go snowshoeing. because I wasn't going skiing because I don't know how to ski. And and cause I've lived here all my life. You know, never lived in Colorado or did any of that. And
Kris Corbett (05:59.473)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (06:03.704)
So I went snowshoeing for the first time and it wasn't I mean, it's all it is is walking around with snowshoe. I mean with the shoes, you know, it's not really difficult. But you know, I wasn't used to running walking, running in the snow, deep snow. I fell through one time, you know, and I'm like, okay. So but that's my only foray into snowshoeing. But it was fun. So yeah.
Kris Corbett (06:24.36)
Yeah, we call that post hole and when you fall through you dig a post hole.
Chris Detzel (06:30.254)
Exactly. I did one of those. And I remember just quickly, like there was this huge kind of dip at the top of the mountain to where you can just kind of go down, but going up was really difficult. So my friends kind of made fun of me because they went in it and got out. You know, they're from France, they do this stuff all the time. I got in and look, I I see myself as fit, right? You know, but so when I got into it, I couldn't get out. Like they just kind of
Kris Corbett (06:58.926)
Ha ha
Chris Detzel (06:59.458)
Just jawgone out. And I'm like, I had to get on my hands and knees and start crawling out because I couldn't get out. So to me it was scary and they just laughing their ass off. So
Kris Corbett (07:04.605)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Chris Detzel (07:11.944)
anyways I digress a little bit. So you you get into all these adventures kind of before the caddy. So when you became a caddy, tell me about that. And then then you mentioned you got into running.
Kris Corbett (07:24.168)
Well, so when I was a kid I used to want to be a caddy. I know that that seems really weird with all the stuff I'm gonna say on this call, but like I remember one time in the backyard my mom asked my dad, 'cause you know, as a young girl, you think your dad's the best golfer in the world, and she asked him, like, if you are a caddy or if you are a pro, who would be your caddy? And he was like, Well, Chris would be. Like, I just thought that that was so cool. but that was back, like said in the day, that there was only Fanny who cadied for Faldo. So it wasn't something that girls
were known to do or do. so when I first started, I started with the APT tour as actually working for the tour. So I learned the game a lot more. I had to learn the rules, officials. I would learn the rules, I'd set whole locations, I'd set T boxes. so in the fur I that was probably from three, four and five I worked for that tour. And like I said, became
A lot more aware of the game, even than just playing of actually running tournaments and things like that. So when we would have weeks off from that tour, that was back, I didn't get paid. I only got paid for the weeks that I worked. And so I thought, hey, I'm gonna go caddy on my weeks off. So I we were in Dallas and had a week off in the nationwide tour, which is now the Corn Ferry, but back then it was called Nationwide Tour, was in
I think it was Fort Smith, Arkansas, or somewhere up in Arkansas. And so I drove from Dallas to Arkansas and picked up a bag and caddied. That wasn't actually, I'll take that back. My first one was a guy, our senior tour they qualified for the US senior open. So the actual first event that I cadied was at Bell Reve in St. Louis at the senior open was my first event to caddy in. But that was before I was trying to really do it as a
profession. So a few weeks after that and had such a great experience, then I thought, hey, I can do this on my w weeks off. So drove up to Fort Smith, picked up a bag, had a blast, and started doing that on my Yeah, because they they need caddies and they don't always have one and they can't back then, you know, they couldn't afford to travel with some sometimes. So people were always looking for a bag. And so I caddied that season. So I was still working
Chris Detzel (09:30.678)
And somebody just says, Hey, be my caddy, or you know, what is that?
Kris Corbett (09:48.118)
For the APT tour and just catting on my off weeks. Well, at the end of the season, a guy named Chris Blinks, who has made it really well now and played on the tour a lot, anyway, he said that I could go to Q school with him. And so I went to Q school and we made it to the second stage. And how golfers earn their tour card to be on the PGA tour. So it's a series of events, and so
Chris Detzel (10:08.45)
That's cute so.
Chris Detzel (10:13.129)
okay. Got it.
Kris Corbett (10:17.491)
Anyway, we were playing and we went to dinner one night with one of his buddies named John Kimball. And anyway, long story short, Chris didn't make it. John did. And a couple of weeks after the event, Chris had said, like, hey, I think you should to John, like, hey, I think you should have Chris as a caddy. I think she'd be good. You guys would be a good fit. So John called me up and offered me a full time job. So I quit my job with the tour and headed out caddy and and worked for him.
Chris Detzel (10:45.314)
Well.
Kris Corbett (10:47.627)
For four years. so we had a great relationship. but yeah, and then that turned into other job opportunities in two thousand that was probably in two thousand four, and then four or five range, and then in two thousand ten I got the opportunity to catty on tour for Mark Hinsby, Australian. so that was a fun season. We didn't get in the really big events like the Masters or Pebble, but we got in the
Chris Detzel (10:49.729)
Okay.
Chris Detzel (11:14.744)
Some good ones.
Kris Corbett (11:15.765)
Byron Nelson that we would all know close to home, that was fun. Reno, the Greenbrier. We got paired with Sergio and Jim Pureck at Greenbrier, so it was probably the most two fun days that Caddy and you can have. So
Chris Detzel (11:29.718)
Yeah. Did you so so something I remember you telling me is is that so you'll go on some of these caddy trips or do do the caddy stuff and that you travel like crazy. Like it was you didn't even have a home basically. You just go from one place to another. Tell me about that. And then you know, what you did on your time off. Because you're a very adventurous person, you know, like and that was to me was like that's why you are where you are today. You know, we'll get into that in a minute, but but that was just so intriguing.
Kris Corbett (11:50.014)
Yeah.
Kris Corbett (11:58.474)
Yeah, so in two in when I moved from Colorado home to take a job with the golf tour, I put my stuff in storage and thought, well, if I'm gonna be on the road all the time, there's no reason to pay rent. So that was the beginning of what I call my gypsy days. it was it was twelve to fourteen years, depending on when you classify the end of it, but it was a solid twelve that I truly didn't I didn't pay rent.
Chris Detzel (12:16.182)
Like twelve years.
Okay.
Kris Corbett (12:28.265)
Someone cooked all my meals. Some I never I didn't go buy toilet paper. The things that you don't have to do when you don't have a home. Like you didn't go to the grocery store. You just it was amazing. Most of it was in hotels. The the tour would put people up in what they call player housing. So I stayed with families at certain times and got home cooked meals and I would go visit friends or whatever. But I just never it I used to always say you don't miss home if you don't have a home to go home to. So I just would travel and that's that's where I got into racing.
a lot is I did start running on the road just for fun. It became something I could do when I traveled and a lot of it was to see the places I was in. It's amazing when you roll into a town and you go run what you find and the riverfront that you found or the cool downtown or whatever. So that's where my love for running came was just exploring more than anything. And so we would play and then like the the tour would be like
Georgia, Georgia, week off South Carolina, week off North Carolina. So it'd be on the East Coast for a while. So it was easier for me just to stay on the East Coast than go back to Texas anyway. So I might go to Nashville for the week, or I might go to Florida and visit my uncle for the week, or I would just because I was saving money by not driving or flying back home, that I could explore for the week. But that's where I got into
Back then active dot com was the place to go to find all your local races. So if we miss the cut, I'd just get on active dot com and see if there was any any race within I don't know, hundred miles, two hundred miles of where I was at and go play. Yeah.
Chris Detzel (14:08.716)
You just drive anywhere. What was your kind of go to distance?
Kris Corbett (14:14.839)
gosh. I mean back then the half marathon was really nice because I didn't you didn't have to train. but every now and then I'd throw in a marathon or or just a five and ten K. I mean it all depended, but that's when I really got into triathlons, I'll be honest, 'cause I was traveling with my bike. and if I didn't have my bike, I always traveled with my shoes and pedals because you could find a bike to rent. So I would I would literally travel the world with my
shoes and pedals and find bikes to randomly rent. gosh, I remember I borrowed a bike in Overland Park, Kansas to do a Olympic distance triathlon. I missed the cut. so on Friday, we played Friday morning, I we knew we were gonna miss the cut. So I drove out to the triathlon. I couldn't find a bike to rent. So I drove out to where they were having registration and just asked if they knew a bike shop. And the race director actually was like,
Well, I can't race, you can use my bike this weekend. I mean, you know, the running community is to me what everything is about in the travel on community. But yeah, so the race director let me borrow his bike so I could do an Olympic distance in Overland Park.
Chris Detzel (15:27.382)
That's pretty cool. I like that story. It's it's funny because when we were in Iceland, you're you're our guide as well. So you're telling me that you were gonna rent a bike because you had this kind of thing going on to where you had to ride every trip you were at or every day. I don't remember the you can tell me in a minute, but you just had to rent a bike before the week was out. And so you figured out how to rent the bike and I guess you went riding on the bike, you know?
Kris Corbett (15:56.628)
Yeah, it it's great. So in the last few years I've stopped racing. So I'm not training as extreme as I was because I got into some very long distance triathlon races and was in it was a lot of training time. and I loved it and it was great, but right now I'm not quite doing that. So because I'm not, I wanted something just to keep me motivated. So I made a deal that I have to run a five K every week, I have to swim a mile every week, and I have to go for a bike ride every week.
so when I'm on a trip, those get a lot harder because it's not always easy to find a pool and and or get a bike. So when the week we were in Iceland, because our trip with clients started, so by Monday to Sunday I had to get those in. And so I don't know if you know this, but the morning that you left the trip at six thirty, Rick and I went from there to the local pool and swam.
Before the rest of the clients got up at 7 30 or 8 30, so I could get my mile in before the weekended too. So I got my mile in that day. The the 5k that you and I did on the waterfalls counted as my 5k for the week. And then I rented a bike on after I dropped everyone off at the airport the next day. I found a mountain bike. they only have e-bikes, so there is a technicality there, but I still
Chris Detzel (17:10.702)
Course.
Kris Corbett (17:23.275)
feel like I got plenty of work out in, but I rode around the the old volcano site, so I got to explore a whole nother part of Iceland.
Chris Detzel (17:27.022)
That's correct.
Chris Detzel (17:32.568)
Did you ride it or did you just let it drive itself, you know?
Kris Corbett (17:35.275)
It was pedal assist, so you had to pedal. There was no throttle. Yeah. You had to pedal. It just it got me it was it allowed me to go probably a lot f explore a lot more for the same effort.
Chris Detzel (17:39.273)
okay. But you still had the motor going. Okay.
Chris Detzel (17:50.777)
Which which I think is awesome. Well let's let's go back because you mentioned something that I'm interested in. You said you get heavy into the triathlon and and some distances and hardcore training. Tell me, you know, maybe one or two of the things that you did, you know, that was so hardcore and maybe some of your favorite moments.
Kris Corbett (17:52.51)
Yeah.
Kris Corbett (18:07.087)
well I guess the the longest triathon I did I actually did a double Iron Man. So it was whatever yeah, took me well, took me thirty one hours and thirty one minutes. So it's more than a day, but I didn't stop. It took me thirty one hours. but yeah, so it was so it's just whatever, five point four mile swim or
Chris Detzel (18:13.793)
Okay.
And one day.
Chris Detzel (18:21.306)
Okay.
Yeah. Tell me about how that works, like a double.
Kris Corbett (18:35.413)
Two hundred and twenty four mile bike and then a fifty two mile run, fifty four mile, I don't know. Twenty six.
Chris Detzel (18:40.302)
So it's all at once. So you don't do the the whole Iron Man and then another one or whatever. So okay. Wow. Triathlon, not iron.
Kris Corbett (18:46.207)
No. So that was yeah. So double they call it a double iron, but they actually have to say double anvil because I can't use Iron Man, but obviously everyone refers to it as the double iron distance. then I did two what they call extreme ironmans, which we did one in Alaska and one in Iceland. but they're
the same distance as an Iron Man, but they have a cold water swim, typically a pretty hilly bike and then a trail run compared to a road run as a normal
Chris Detzel (19:22.628)
Did you did you jump in the ocean there? I mean what's the
Kris Corbett (19:26.891)
we're supposed to swim the ocean and the the day before the race they moved it to a kind of lake just off the ocean because of jellyfish or some something in the water. So we didn't swim in the ocean, but it was plenty freezing. Well, Alaska was the coldest. Alaska was beyond cold. We swam in glacier not in glacier bay, in seward and it was a point to point, two point six across a bay.
Chris Detzel (19:37.341)
okay.
Chris Detzel (19:40.558)
'Cause it's freezing there. No matter what time you're there. So
Chris Detzel (19:47.63)
I'm sure.
Kris Corbett (19:56.948)
And so they you start in the dark and they just point to lights. They're like, Head to those lights over there. Like, this is perfect. I look like a seal and it's dark and we're gonna head across this. but as you got close to land on the other side, there was a glacier fed river that entered in and the water dropped below the fifties for that portion. So it was ridiculous. I one came out. I mean, I couldn't use my hands when I came out. It was
Chris Detzel (20:01.656)
Go there, go that way.
Chris Detzel (20:23.244)
You told me about this. Yeah, you were like crawling or something. Was your husband there or somebody was there that
Kris Corbett (20:26.387)
Yeah. 'Cause you have to have your own support crew on those. So my husband was my support crew, but yeah, he basically had to pick me up out of the water and change my clothes and
Chris Detzel (20:39.074)
You know, something that I've been wanting to kinda do is think about is why not bring the spouses on to talk about how they've had to help their spouses do all these things?
Kris Corbett (20:46.603)
Well yeah, 'cause on that one he had to do the last eight miles with me, which was up the mountain, down the mountain, and then back up the mountain. The race finished at the top of Aliaska Resort. Well, my husband isn't necessarily runner. He's a rancher, so he's fit and he was able to do it just because he's what I call work fit. But yeah, so that was before we were
Married too, so he didn't leave me on that one.
Chris Detzel (21:17.59)
Yeah, they try to impress you, you know. That's back in the impressing days, you know. and then any specific marathons, half marathons that that have been kind of adventurous for you that you've done that's exciting or
Kris Corbett (21:34.757)
gosh. All I don't know. That's a hard that's a hard question.
Chris Detzel (21:40.59)
I'm not here to ask easy questions all
Kris Corbett (21:42.58)
Yeah, I would I mean, I always like the ones that we turned into vacations. So we got into swim run, that's a whole new sport. I don't even know if you know much about it, but like we that was one of the last races I did in Switzerland, so it was pretty fun to get to race in Switzerland. But a lot of the half marathons that stand out to me or races in general were the ones that I didn't know I was doing and signed up the week of the race. Like just because you f
Chris Detzel (21:48.067)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (22:10.669)
Yeah.
Kris Corbett (22:12.181)
You're at the start line going, All right, here we go. Like it's yeah, like there was no training. I mean, besides just continue you know, like you're kinda always training if you're a runner. So but sorry.
Chris Detzel (22:15.81)
Might as well see what happens.
Chris Detzel (22:29.869)
No worries.
Kris Corbett (22:30.773)
Can you hear that? It's my dog listening. I my husband's not home. We're gonna wanna cut this out. Buddy. Okay.
Chris Detzel (22:33.218)
Yeah, I can a little bit, but it's okay.
Chris Detzel (22:39.639)
Yeah, I'll cut it out.
Kris Corbett (22:44.309)
Sorry.
Chris Detzel (22:45.73)
No worries, I I'll cut it out. It's no problem. Super easy. So all right. So you've you've run some of your favorite are just kind of like go into a place and just sign up a week before. so when you was well I kinda got sorry. When you any kind of things that you do today that are just super fun or that, you know, I know I know you travel all over the world, so that's gonna be kind of fun, but
Kris Corbett (22:47.477)
Okay.
Chris Detzel (23:15.192)
You know, just any kind of races or anything that you help out with.
Kris Corbett (23:20.821)
I mean, I help out with two local races, which is fun just to be a part of the actual behind the scenes stuff. So the possum puddle here in Graham, and then we also have the Goodnight Loving run in April, which is a half marathon here. So that's fun to kind of see the behind the scenes and actually be on a committee and be a part of it. I you know, I grew up doing the hotter in hell, so nor I've missed it the last three years due to fit for adventure trips, but normally that's a fun local race.
As far as just in general, I'm not racing as much. So to me, just the actual random adventures that I fall into. And right now I'm having fun finding random adventures, evidently, new ones, rafting, traveling. You know, we just hiked Manchu Picchu. We my husband and I were going to Ireland coming up at the end of the month, and I've got a couple of bike and boats.
things, several hikes planned. So it's kinda fun just to now be the adventurous side of training instead of the racing side of training.
Chris Detzel (24:28.238)
Yeah, I do like that. And you know, we'll get to this in a minute. But like my wife and I, we've gone on a few adventure type of trips, and I find those a lot more fun and just rewarding, you know, because you get to see a lot of things that you might not see just in general, you know, because you're not racing, but you're still being kind of fit, you know, during some of these trips that we're that we're doing. And that's you know, I told my wife, I said, Hey, anytime we go to
You know, some other country or somewhere, you know, we need to do fit things. You know, I don't want to sit there at the beach and do nothing. You know, I mean I like the beach, maybe spend half a day or something at the beach and do nothing, but not three or four or five days, you know, I guess boring. You know, let's do something. You know, and so we've kind of started to do things like fit for adventure or we we did run the Alps one year, you know, and and so.
And we did this this thing in Colorado. I forgot what it's called, like six days, six nights, and and it was 120 miles and put 20,000 feet of gain in in Colorado. I forgot what it's called, but they don't do it anymore. But so we'll do a lot more things like that. And so I wanna kinda get to fit for adventure. So fit for adventure that I know of, and and you can you you should talk a little bit about the Boston marathon piece first, and then we'll talk more about kinda
Kris Corbett (25:54.124)
So that's that's great. Boston is our biggest event. It's our longest running event or trip. it started back with the former owner, Diane Golden, started a company called Golden Adventures. And it was started purely out of she was a marathoner out of Dallas based, a lot of DRC, I think I believe it was DRC. and she would plan
trips for her friends to go to these marathons because it's you want to travel, you want to go do the marathon, but someone's got to coordinate the hotel and the whatever. So that's how this whole company started was running races and traveling with them. So she started that she got a contract with the Boston Park Plaza to run a hotel package out of there. And then it's grown over the years. So we've actually been staying at the at the park plaza for
We don't know the exact year she started it because it did start pretty small, but it's at least in the probably 25 year range of how many years we've been staying. we have contracts now through 32 2032. So I've been joking that that's 30 for 30. but yeah, so it's grown into this year we have 290 rooms. So it's grown from a small group of friends.
Chris Detzel (27:08.535)
Awesome.
Kris Corbett (27:18.973)
staying and going to the Boston Marathon each year to now we have two hundred and two hundred ninety. And then in the next starting in twenty thirty we get to three hundred. That's my joke with my hotel contact, but it's three hundred for thirty years. just about a thousand. So we're a about a third of the hotel. Wait I keep begging for more rooms like hey just we were two seventy
Chris Detzel (27:35.617)
They have available.
Chris Detzel (27:40.374)
Think I feel like you should take that over, the thousand, you know.
Kris Corbett (27:47.444)
And so this year last year were two eighty, this year we're two ninety, we're at three hundred and twenty, thirty, thirty one, thirty two. It's a lot of begging, but if you keep showing up, they keep giving me just a few more rooms.
Chris Detzel (27:53.197)
I think that's awesome.
Chris Detzel (27:59.833)
Well, I mean, Boston Marathon is just such a big event, you know. So for you to be able to have that many rooms just at one place is pretty remarkable, I would think. And what what is it that you guys do? I I I mean I re read your website, but all right, so you you book the room, is there other kind of things that that somebody might get if they booked the room through you guys?
Kris Corbett (28:21.663)
Yeah, so the the basic thing is just the room. It's in great location. It sells itself. It's right near the finish line. it's right near Boston Commons where all the action is. It's very walkable to the expo. It's near a train station to get to anywhere else. It's it's just convenient. So the whole part of staying at the Park Plaza, but apart from the fact that the employees of the park probably plaza really welcome everybody. but that's the main selling point. So we're lucky to have that. But
What we try to do is make it a little extra special and be a little more than that. We're on site, so there's always two Fit for Adventure reps on site for the weekend. So if you have a problem with your hotel or any issues at all, we're there. besides that, we do a shakeout run one day, we you get a small gift, t-shirt or beanie, or we've done different things in the past, socks. we have a a pre-race dinner.
That's an optional add-on. So if you don't, if you already have plans or you're gonna do your own thing, that's fine. But if you don't want to fight the crowds and you don't want to have to worry about where you're eating and want to have friends to do it with, we offer that as an option the night before the race. We offer a shuttle to the start. it doesn't go all the way into athlete village like some of the run clubs are because we're commercial and they won't allow us, but we drop it off just outside of the athlete village. So it's super convenient because it picks up.
straight out the hotel. They can stay inside in the warm right until their bus is ready to load. They step on the bus, they go right to the outside of Athlete Village. There they hop on a bus and go in. so they don't have to walk to Boston Commons and and mess with being outside and getting on one of the free buses there. Then we also offer poster race massages. So on the fourth floor there's some conference rooms that we rent out and have
six to seven massage therapists that you book a time a scheduled time so you know when your time is and so you can go grab a shower and then head right to the fourth floor. We offer a few on Tuesday morning as well. So if you don't want one Monday after the race, you can get one. so we just try and kind of make it a little bit more than just the hotel. But if all you want is the hotel, we have that too.
Chris Detzel (30:37.176)
Yeah, that and and and it's funny because my wife has done Boston Marathon like thirteen times in a row. And so I know that the last several years, few years, I don't know, but she started booking through you guys the hotel and and things and that's really at first all I knew that you guys did. Like I didn't know and she would be like, Yeah, it's sort of fit for adventure like I don't even know what that is. and then last year
We were looking at different trips. She goes, We should go on this trip to Iceland, Chris, with Fit for Adventure. I was like, I thought they did the Boston thing. And so I I mean, I just didn't know. Like, I'm I'm just being honest. Like, but she goes, No, they do a bunch of trips and and things, kind of like run the Alps. It's like, It's like that's cool, let's do it. You know, and so she booked it. And so we went on this trip with you guys and you were one of our guides, so which was cool.
Kris Corbett (31:12.531)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (31:34.265)
you know, the the CEO or the owner, I don't know what you call yourself, but you know, I I think there's two of you, right? So so we booked the trip to Iceland and we went just recently, and that's obviously how I got you to be on the podcast, just asked you. But it was amazing. Like I would say this if you don't mind me just kind of talking slightly about the experience because I was truly impressed. and I'm not just saying this. So we go to Iceland.
Kris Corbett (31:41.141)
Yes, there's two.
Chris Detzel (32:04.106)
And ever you're there to pick us up, so that's good. you're there to take us to our hotel. The hotels are booked, but I we don't have to think about anything, like literally nothing besides a lunch or two or dinner, you know, every now and then. But I mean everything is just right there where we're gonna be. And so that you know, it's just extremely easy. But what one thing that you guys do, you specifically go over and beyond, you know, the trip. So, you know, some of it was like the the morning that we left, for example.
You pick us up some breakfast. I was like, what's this? You know, just a little breakfast, you know, before you go. And then you got us a car from our hotel because we had to leave early. You got us a car, which we did you know, we could have just got our own car, right? You know, like and and that would have been you know, okay. But no. You got us a car which we weren't expecting, and you you you just made the whole experience, the entire experience, which I could talk about Iceland and the the
experience itself which would take a really long time, but it was amazing. Like the things that we get to do was, you know, was really amazing. We we get to go on this speedboat tour of, you know, we're in the ocean and seeing all these kind of cool I forget what it is, you probably know all that stuff, but then we get to go s see the icebergs or glaciers, you know, and then we get to go to these black beaches with ice on it, you know, and I mean it was just something I didn't even know existed.
No. So thank you. It it was a great experience.
Kris Corbett (33:35.733)
I'm glad you had a great time because that it's fun to see a return on investment like that. You spend so much time working on a trip and wanting the gl the clients to be happy, so it's always fun to to know that they had a great experience.
Chris Detzel (33:49.699)
Yeah, what what I thought was, you know, just talking to you kind of during that trip and and experiencing that trip is is that you your adventure side certainly comes out to to your guests, right? Like because you're so adventurous, you know it's fun. You've done this before, you've, you know, and and so you you made it extremely amazing. I mean, how do you even find some of these people that like this one guy? I I'll I'll tell you one thing, and and I'll and you tell me kind of how you found.
Like there's this guy that we go into his business and we sit there for a little while because he's gotta get ready. He's he's gonna take us to a dinner, he's gonna take us to these what what he calls them a bath. So we go, so he takes us and and we he drops us off and we go into this mountain and we I say climb up a mountain, we go up a mountain. I don't know, climbing is the right word, and then we go back down, and all of a sudden there's these lava like not lava pits, but water with lava like.
really hot stuff and the ground is really warm. But then you know, he lays the stuff down, he cooks he starts cooking some fish and things and then he went goes over a little bit and creates this bath for like fifteen of us or ten or I don't know how many there was. But we all get into this bath, you know, and it's just a river with hot warm water. You know, and it was just, you know, boiling not boiling, but you know, you could see the smoke coming from it and everything else. And this guy
Kris Corbett (35:04.284)
Yeah.
Chris Detzel (35:17.986)
just knew the land, he knows the stuff. Like, how did you even find him? You know? Like I thought it was crazy.
Kris Corbett (35:23.563)
So that's so Joe, Joe's been with the company 10, 12 years now, at least maybe longer than that. With Fit for Adventure, yeah. so different guides plan different trips. So this was actually one that Joe created and's been actually going on it for several years. I think eight plus years we've been going to Iceland. Now the funny part is is in 2019, I went to Iceland for
Chris Detzel (35:30.51)
With fit for adventure, yeah.
Kris Corbett (35:53.536)
The race that I did and did almost the exact same thing that we did, but it was planned by me. So it was fun to see that I didn't know Fit at the time. Well, I mean, I just started working for them, but I didn't know them when we went to Iceland and the itinerary of how much it was the same. So it was really cool to be a part of that. But yeah, he found this guy from trial and error, from going to different tours and to different ones and experimenting and if and
w from the moment that he's found this guy, this guy cares so much. He grew up there. So he cares so much about keeping it local and small town. And it's, you know, his company is just him as well, which I like because our company's not very big. We have very limited staff. I mean, that's why the owners are going on so many trips. We just, that's kind of how it is. But yeah, so he just cares so much about his
Chris Detzel (36:27.788)
Yeah.
Kris Corbett (36:48.447)
He called I mean he literally calls it my mountain and I think that's adorable. He never said the name of the mountain because he only referred to it as this is my mountain. This is where I grew up and this is my home. And so it was fun that we found him and he takes all of our trips there. So we had three Fit for Adventure trips go to Iceland this year, and all three were taken out by Yuli with the same similar experience each year.
Chris Detzel (37:13.336)
Yeah, it was funny because what the same on that same day, the same trip or same week, a group from Dallas Running Club, a group of women, kind of booked a trip with you guys. It was I guess it was a private kind of trip. And I was like, How weird is that? We went at the same time. So
Kris Corbett (37:30.025)
Yeah, they were basically a day behind us. It was great. So yeah, so we do private trips. So if you have a group of friends and that's what happened, they that group had actually been on our Alaska trip. And because it was a large enough group, it filled up the whole trip. So they had their own private Alaskan experience. And so they decided to do the same for Iceland. Well, there was already some bookings on the main tour, so we said, Hey, we'll
Chris Detzel (37:34.103)
I don't know.
Kris Corbett (37:59.744)
build you a private tour. So we built them a trip based off our regular itinerary, but had to modify a few things so it wasn't the same, you know, we couldn't be at the all the same hotels because it some of them just aren't big enough. But yeah, so it was great. So that if you have a group of friends, we can build you a private trip. And then that way you can take our you can use one of our itineraries that we already have, or we'll do your own, or you can Mitch max it to what your group needs.
Chris Detzel (38:25.176)
I like that. So I want to go back a little bit because I think this is an interesting story when you told me was around kind of your golfing like your caddy kind of career that ended and then you know you came into Fit for Adventure. I'd love to kind of hear that story around, you know, just how that came about and how you became one of the owners of Fit for Adventure.
Kris Corbett (38:47.839)
Yeah, that that's it's kinda random, kinda long. I'll try and make it short. But I was after I caddied, I actually was the tour director for the APT tour. So I was running, that's a men's golf tour that's just under so you have PJ Tour, you have Nationwide, which is now our Corn Ferry, and then you have what they call mini tours. and at the time we were the largest mini tour under the any PGA tour owned tour.
So I would I was head roles official, I would be over the volunteers, I pulled a truck and trailer over the country. It was a lot of work, but that was what my whole life was was the golf industry and golf tournaments at the time. And at that time I was also trying to get a job with the PGA tour. So on my weeks off, I would actually go to Corn Ferry events or Latin America tour events, and roles official for them. So that that's it was like an ongoing
interview. so I was doing quite a bit of that. Well it became a little too much to run the tour full time and spend all the time I wanted working for the tour. And so they had been like, hey, we'll use you for contract official on these smaller tours that they own, Latin America, Canadian, Corn Ferry. So I quit the tour that I was doing and was gonna just do events when they needed me.
But I wanted to also supplement that with some fun. So I got a job with Fit for Adventure as a guide. Now, how I got that job was when I went to Alaska for the race I did, we had 14 of us, I think, between there were three racers and crew, because each racer had to have their own special crew. So we had this big group of people that
We're gonna go to Alaska and we all wanted to hang out together because we're all friends. And then after the race, and it was a point-to-point race, so you need accommodation at the start, accommodation at the finish, three different rental cars because every racer had to have their own car. And then after that, we wanted to take the train to Denali and we all wanted to go together. And with that many people trying to coordinate, you just can't do it. So I was like, hey, I'm just gonna plan the trip and tell you what you owe me at the end. So basically a fit-for-adventure type thing with my buddies.
Kris Corbett (41:15.503)
so I do this trip and the whole trip I was being a big dork of being like, Hey, thanks for traveling with Chris Corbett. Today your luggage is gonna be I mean, doing the exact same thing and they're laughing and we're having a good time. And my friends Mallory and Eric, who are Dallas based, who race with me, had been on the Fit for Adventure Majorca cycling trip, which is one of our other longstanding yearly trips.
They had been on that. So he knew Diane. He had actually helped her with some stuff. He had guided a trip for her. So he knew her pretty well. And he was like, Hey, you need to do this. And I said that would be my dream job is to take people on fun vacations. You know, because I'd spent my whole year doing logistics for the golf tours and traveling and not living anywhere and traveling the world. Like I just feel like this was exactly what I was want. I mean, when it got said, I was like, that's what I want to do.
Chris Detzel (42:06.818)
Totally in your wheelhouse. Easily. Yeah.
Kris Corbett (42:13.011)
So he reached out to Diane, and Diane very kindly was like, Hey, I just hired three people, so I'm not looking for anyone. I'm like, Great, no big deal. I'm still working the golf thing. And about a month later, or three weeks later, I had a call from Diane and she was like, Hey, one of the guides that I hired has decided to do something else. We're gonna do a guide retreat next week in Colorado. Do you wanna come do this hut to hut with us? And I was like, Yes.
So I book a last yeah, I book a last minute ticket. I grab my backpack. I fly up there. I get picked up by these two guys that I've never met before in the airport. And we head off into the mountains to go on this hut trip. And it is. And we had such a great time. And then at the end of it, I was like, So am I hired? And she was like, Of course you're hired. You know, like kind of it's like
Chris Detzel (42:55.628)
That's that's you already for me. To me.
Kris Corbett (43:07.423)
I guess because I showed up and was adventuring enough to do that. But yeah, it was a great week. We had a great time. so that was in 2019. So we all know what happened in 2020. So in 2020, when COVID hit, I lost all golf work because they definitely didn't need contract rules officials anymore because the tourist weren't even going Canadian Canadia tour. Canadi the Canadi the Canada tour. Yeah, it is the Canadian tour. The Canadian tour wasn't going yet.
Chris Detzel (43:33.558)
Canadian tour, yeah.
Kris Corbett (43:35.576)
Latin America wasn't playing, so I didn't have any golf work. I didn't have these to do. So it kind of was, you know, I was actually here on the ranch. My husband put me to work on the ranch, and so that's a whole nother life story there. but as we were coming out of COVID and 21 and and events are picking back up, Diane had decided that she wanted to retire. And instead of just selling it outright, she came to all the guides.
Chris Detzel (43:53.463)
Interesting story.
Kris Corbett (44:05.053)
And so, you know, do any of y'all want to take it over? And it was a no-brainer decision for me. It couldn't happen at a different time of the transition of, you know, I'd kind of gotten to the top of the golf world and this was a a good way to use to be able to be home. Like I work from home. This is here on the ranch in Texas. so I can work at home, still travel and live that life that I still
enjoy but work from home, not have to drive into town every day to work. It just fell into my lap. It it just was too perfect. So I went into business with Joe and Nick. Joe I talked about earlier. He's been with the company for a while. Nick came on board about a year before me. So he was fairly new to the company as well. the three of us took it over. It was great. Three years later Joe decided to retire as well. and so Nick and I
Kind of took over. So it's Snick and I. We're on our fifth year. it's been everything that I can imagine. It's been so fun. The b the biggest thing, and I'll I'll be honest, is the friends. Like I'm I'm able to work in a fun environment. I'm not gonna say it's always easy. No job is perfect. There are marmots, there are stress at full times, there are I have I have all kinds of stories that we don't want to talk about on here. but in general, I mean I get to go these
Chris Detzel (45:20.332)
Channel, for sure.
Chris Detzel (45:26.498)
I'm gonna make it more fun of a podcast with that.
Kris Corbett (45:29.483)
That's round two, the dirty story. But yeah, I mean it's just great. The people I meet, you know, like chatting with you in the van or or Lynn, she's eighty something years old and just was such a joy to be around and travel and to see someone at that age and really living life. I mean, you I look at it and be like, that's what I wanna be when I grow up is still yeah.
Chris Detzel (45:31.658)
Yeah, but I'm too. I like it.
Chris Detzel (45:49.282)
But
Chris Detzel (45:55.086)
She has like three or four more trips that she's going on this year. So
Kris Corbett (45:58.602)
And you just meet these people and they warm your heart and you become friends. I mean, I have friends. I met a girl on my very first cycling trip to Mallorca. her name's Chassis, she lives in Arkansas. We met in Majorca. We're she comes to my Christmas party here on the ranch every Christmas. We've become legit friends. You just the the world that this has opened up is to like minded people, to people who love to to
I'm not just gonna say run or bike or swim. I mean, I used to be a trahlete, so I was pretty focused on that, but it's just in general that just want to live actively. I'll say that. so now I train to hike or I train to bike still, but that's because like next week I'm going to Croatia and I'm in a bike every day, so I need to still stay in bike shape, or all those clients are gonna laugh at me.
Chris Detzel (46:48.108)
Yeah, it's it it it was interesting because on that trip to Iceland, most people were I I think all people were older than me and Leah, but every single one of those people were fit enough to to go in and and you know, do the mountains, go down the mountains, go, you know, in the kayak. I mean, all kinds of things that we did, you know, they were all pretty much fit to do it. And so it was pretty good to see, you know, and
I love that. I was like, Leah, we've gotta be we've gotta stay like this fit. Like us and we will, you know, that's something. But is there anything that you wanna talk about, you know, maybe trips that maybe are coming up or that you really love or I don't know, about the company or yourself that we just completely miss? Because I know I missed that.
Kris Corbett (47:20.923)
Ha ha ha.
Kris Corbett (47:37.9)
well, I'll talk about a couple of trips. so since this is a running trip, we don't have very besides Boston, that's the only true marathon that we plan the hotel for. We do have two other marathons that we pair up with as far as Iceland and Alaska. So what we didn't mention with Iceland first was you could fly in early and do the Rayovic marathon, which was I thought an amazing
Crowd supported well the first the first six miles, the crowd is just unreal because it goes through the town and neighborhoods and it was just lying the streets. It was unreal amount of people. but you can do the
Chris Detzel (48:18.38)
And Lee and I did half marathon, which was amazing.
Kris Corbett (48:22.615)
but yeah, so you come in and you do the race and then then you do our seven day trip. So and if you don't want to do the race, you don't have to, but we've paired it up that weekend for that same reason. Same thing we do with the Anchorage Marathon. So you can go around the Anchorage Marathon and then take our trip that goes up to Denali and then all the way down to Seward. So you get a little the best of both north and south of Anchorage.
Those of you that run, a lot of you also cycle. There's a lot of you that are in the triathlete mindset, I'm guessing. But our two best cycling trips, we do a in May every year. My call it as we call it a cycling camp, but it's still just a vacation. But we it's set up in May to be able to kind of be a big training event for the rest of your season. you ride every day and you get to pick your ride. We literally have six groups to pick from. So you can go from anything from
race riders down to social riders with club riders every level, different distances, different speeds. so you get to pick your own adventure. we stay at a
resort so you don't have to travel each day and then we go to different parts of the island via bicycles so you get to see a lot more that way. Our social groups, if you're not a legit straight hardcore cyclist, that's exactly what it's for. You do a little shorter routes, but you go to cool places and you might do some exploring. You might go to the caves, take a pair of shoes and walk through the caves and get back on your bike and bike to a cafe in another town or go to the market in Acudia or see the, you know, you explore via bike.
the other bike is actually I'm leaving on Wednesday to go to our Croatia trip. And it's the exact opposite of that. It's the not the hardcore cyclist part, it's just the see the island via cycle kind of. So you get everyone goes the same group. So you kind of ride at your own speed, but you regroup, like you'll ride up the mountain and then you group at the top, you go to the down to the cafes.
Kris Corbett (50:24.629)
have a chance to walk around the town, then ride to the next village. but it's on a yacht and you get to cycle on a different island each day. So you don't have to change your luggage, but you also get the fun yacht experience with very delightful shelf chef made meals on board and the sailing in the afternoons, swimming in the Adriatic. So those are kind of the two that I think for this crowd is probably the most.
But then besides that, we have anything. We have hiking munch Pichu. we just set our dates for 2027. That just came out. You can hike the Inca Trail for three days. So it has involves a little bit of camping at elevations of over 12,000 feet. So it's a little more extreme. So and that is one thing. So some of our trips are like Iceland. Iceland is very user-friendly that anyone can do because the the places that you go see the waterfall or the weather, or they're pretty close to the roads. So the
Hiking is not large amounts of miles. If you were injured, you could still see it without doing a lot of hiking. It's a lot more user-friendly. Then we have other trips like Mont Blanc. Mont Blanc circumnavigates Mont Blanc through Switzerland, Italy, and France. It's 110 miles of hiking over 11 days. So you're literally hiking 10 to 12 miles a day. so it takes a different kind of fitness level. And you do have to know what you're signing up for. So it is one thing about all of our trips is you have some that are
less intense on the activity scale and then some are pretty intense. I'd put Peru up there hiking at twelve thousand feet for three days straight, sleeping, because it goes up to 14,000. so it's pretty amazing experience, but you definitely want to make sure you're in shape for it and prepare for it.
Chris Detzel (52:01.711)
Pretty intense.
Chris Detzel (52:13.358)
Yeah, I was talking to this guy, Craig, in Iceland and I think he's been on every single one of your trips. And he he did say that he goes, I I I think he said at Mountain Block he did it and he said he was fine. He's like, but I don't know that I can do that again. You know, he's a little bit older, but you know, but he's in pretty good shape for sure. But he just said, I'm just not right now in shape to do that again. You know, but so you do for for those you just want to make sure you're you know, in decent shape that
I mean, climbing those mountains, although Mont Blanc is amazing, you know, it's not always easy hiking. And if you're doing ten or twelve miles a day, it's a lot. You know. I mean
Kris Corbett (52:51.147)
Exactly. Well, and that's kind of what I think is fun about picking the trip that fits you because we offer a wide range of trips. We offer what we call the multi sport, which is what Iceland was, where it had the kayaking, the hiking, the jet boat. You know, it's kind of a little more of a variety trip. Iceland, I mean Alaska we call a multi sport as well. It's got whitewater rafting, a float plane.
Hiking as well, a biking day. So it's got that variety. then we have just straight hiking trips like Mont Blanc, straight cycling trips like Majorca, Croatia. We have we have some in the United States. I know I've been only talking about international ones, but we do Bryson's Zion every year, hits the two parks. It's a five day trip, so it's a lot easier to to get away from. It's you know, most of our international trips are a week because once you fly over there, you want to spend some time. Well, by the time you
Chris Detzel (53:31.054)
That's so cool.
Kris Corbett (53:51.774)
add getting there a day early or the overnight flight and getting home, you've you're looking at nine, ten days gone on a lot of these. So we do have a five day trip to Bryce and John. We have a shorter five day trip or six day trip to the Pacific Northwest. we have Boston obviously it's three to four nights, but it's a little bit of its own animal in itself.
Chris Detzel (54:17.07)
Chris, this has been great. I really appreciate you coming on. This is very intriguing and and I'm so glad that you get to tell that story. And I'm glad our our listeners get to hear it. So
Kris Corbett (54:28.469)
Well, I really appreciate you having me. This has been fun. But like I said, the best part of my job is making the friends. Like it was fun to sit in the van and listen to this, what you've created and how it became something and how all these followers. And so it's really neat to hear everyone's story and to literally see it come to fruition, how you how where it started and what it's come to. So I appreciate you letting me be a part of it.
Chris Detzel (54:54.476)
Yeah, of course. And I'll I'll say this and and then we'll I'll let you go. But to me, you know, one is you're building communities. and and I think community is a big thing and and and and and running and and those kinds of things. And so like I met three or four people, maybe five people that I might stay in touch with. As a matter of fact, quick story. I don't know, you remember Steve and Marianne? They have this daughter that runs
That ran Leadville and she got second place overall and she got first place a couple of you know, a couple of years ago or or something like that. And and I was talking about my podcast or whatever, they go, You should have her on. I said, I will. And so they reached out and she's gonna be on next week. So the point is is like you never know who you're gonna run into in in even the running community or the active community or you know, and and what you've created is is a really cool thing and and potentially friends for life.
You know, I know that Craig is probably I mean, he's been on every one of your trips and so he's probably got a bunch of friends, you know, from the these trips, you know, and so so thank you for what you're doing and and you know, I think what it's amazing. So
Kris Corbett (56:04.203)
Well, that's our biggest form of advertisement for Fit for Venture. We're a very small company and it's return clients and return clients telling their friends about us. So this is exactly when you said we do that. I was like, absolutely, 'cause you had a great experience and and I think it's you people like you telling others about fit that makes us what we are.
Chris Detzel (56:24.515)
Awesome. Well, Chris, thank you so much for coming on to DFW Running Talk. Thank you, everyone, for tuning in to the DFW Running Talk podcast. Make sure you subscribe to our newsletter at DFW Running Talk.substack.com. Until next time, thanks everyone and thank you, Chris.
