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