Podcasts about lelan

A fascinating discussion with Dr Leland Stillman MD on using health optimisation, biohacking and “dieting”. Relevant links:Lelan's IG: https://www.instagram.com/stillmanmd/?hl=en Get 10% off 9-MBC, Bromantane and SR9009 here: https://science.bio/steveglaveski10 (use code: steveglaveski10) Buy High-Quality TUDCA, BPC-157, and GI Repair supplements here (10% Discount Code: FUTURE): https://lvluphealth.com/STEVEGLAVESKIRelevant links: Where I Buy Most of My Nootropics/Supplements: https://cosmicnootropic.com/?aff=181Free Cheatsheet: 5 Epic Supplement Stacks For Energy, Motivation And Focus: https://bit.ly/suppstackcheatsheetWant More Energy, Motivation & Focus? Apply For My Limitless Men's Energy Program Here: https://bit.ly/LimitlessProgram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lelané is the Chief Executive Officer at the Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa. She joins Louis to discuss some of the changes to the South African fiduciary standards and requirements, being aware of your own biases and understanding your self-awareness. Lelané Bezuidenhout LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lelan%C3%A9-bezuidenhout-cfp%C2%AE-83789b28/ Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa Website: https://fpi.co.za/ For more information on PortfolioMetrix reach out to our team, or visit our website: https://www.portfoliometrix.com/en-za/ Commspace: To see what the leading financial adviser revenue management solution can do for you, book a demo https://www.commspace.co.za/ Join the XY platform: App Store: http://co.xyadviser.com/xyistore Google Play: http://co.xyadviser.com/xygplay Desktop: https://www.xyadviser.com/ General Disclaimer – https://www.xyadviser.com/disclaimer/

"When I fell for bikes, I fell hard. And the only thing I knew that would make it any better was to share it with anyone and everyone that would listen to my gravel cycling ramblings." With Garmin Unbound Gravel just around the corner, we sit down to talk to the legendary Lelan Dains. Lelan is a man who has worn several hats from Lead Promotor of Unbound to his current position of director at Visit Emporia. Through the years of his various positions, one thing is for sure, he helps make the "Superbowl of Gravel Events," possible. He starts off introducing a ride concept that has been years (literally 10 years of dreaming) in the making, a route that traverses the great plains region from North Dakota to Texas. Lelan gives us some insights on a few "must attend" events during Unbound week including BIKE CHARIOT RACES?!? We then have a down to earth chat about the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame, and he does an incredible job describing each of the extremely deserving recipients in the inaugural class. To reserve your ticket to the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame Induction Banquet, go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2022-gravel-cycling-hall-of-fame-induction-banquet-tickets-321512040167 Garmin Unbound Gravel takes place in Emporia, Kansas.

Man City en pole postion apre li ekraz Newcastle. Arsenal contign lor to lanse top 4 ek Spurs ki suive avec to draw kont Liverpool a Anfield. United bezer mem sa semaine la.

Today, we had a conversation with Storm 5 Weather Meteorologist Lelan Statom and Heather Mathis with News 5. WGNS focused on the Good Friday Tornadoes that hit our area i

This month we take a look inside the Spire Academy with managing director Ted Meekma and Director of Lacrosse Lelan Rogers. Throughout the show we discuss what exactly the Spire Academy is, the mission of the program, and what life inside the academy looks like for student-athletes. Spire Lacrosse At the Spire Academy they have several high caliber sport offerings, bolstered by the recent addition of boy's lacrosse. Who better to run this "new" sport than a former division one stalwart with midwest ties in Lelan Rogers. Spire AcademySPIRE Academy Lacrosse programs are ideal for serious lacrosse athletes looking for an intense training environment to prepare for the next level of competition. The Academy serves college-bound high school athletes, as well as high school graduates looking to train/compete for an additional year while seeking the best possible college scholarship opportunities. Lelan Rogers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmI4awfmSVs Last Month's Episode NIL is all the rage right now. College and high school athletes across the country have scrambled to cash in on their name, image, and likeness, but there's one big problem: most people are very unclear on what you can and cant do. https://twitter.com/Rsmith24_/status/1468362445735485440 In last month's episode, I talk with Freddie and breakdown many of the ins and outs of NIL law, how athletes can determine their value and identify opportunities, and lastly we highlight some of the misconceptions that people have about this new wave of legislation. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lax-all-stars/message

This month we take a look inside the Spire Academy with managing director Ted Meekma and Director of Lacrosse Lelan Rogers. Throughout the show we discuss what exactly the Spire Academy is, the mission of the program, and what life inside the academy looks like for student-athletes. Spire Lacrosse At the Spire Academy they have several high caliber sport offerings, bolstered by the recent addition of boy's lacrosse. Who better to run this "new" sport than a former division one stalwart with midwest ties in Lelan Rogers. Spire AcademySPIRE Academy Lacrosse programs are ideal for serious lacrosse athletes looking for an intense training environment to prepare for the next level of competition. The Academy serves college-bound high school athletes, as well as high school graduates looking to train/compete for an additional year while seeking the best possible college scholarship opportunities. Lelan Rogers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmI4awfmSVs Last Month's Episode NIL is all the rage right now. College and high school athletes across the country have scrambled to cash in on their name, image, and likeness, but there's one big problem: most people are very unclear on what you can and cant do. https://twitter.com/Rsmith24_/status/1468362445735485440 In last month's episode, I talk with Freddie and breakdown many of the ins and outs of NIL law, how athletes can determine their value and identify opportunities, and lastly we highlight some of the misconceptions that people have about this new wave of legislation. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lax-all-stars/message

Jim Miller speaks with one of the founders of Unbound Gravel, LeLan Dains. LeLan talks about the state of gravel, and introduces the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame. GUEST: LeLan Dains https://www.instagram.com/lelandains/ HOST: Jim Miller https://www.instagram.com/jmillsd/ LeLan on the Pre Ride Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v98oVcujpRw Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame: https://www.gravelcyclinghof.com |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| MORE FROM PURE GRAVEL |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Get 10% off the Pure Gravel store with the code: “pgpodcast” https://puregravel.com/collections/all Pure Gravel on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PureGravel

Inside Spire This month we take a look inside the Spire Academy with managing director Ted Meekma and Director of Lacrosse Lelan Rogers. Throughout the show we discuss what exactly the Spire Academy is, the mission of the program, and what life inside the academy looks like for student-athletes. Spire Lacrosse At the Spire Academy they have several high caliber sport offerings, bolstered by the recent addition of boy's lacrosse. Who better to run this "new" sport than a former division one stalwart with midwest ties in Lelan Rogers. Spire AcademySPIRE Academy Lacrosse programs are ideal for serious lacrosse athletes looking for an intense training environment to prepare for the next level of competition. The Academy serves college-bound high school athletes, as well as high school graduates looking to train/compete for an additional year while seeking the best possible college scholarship opportunities. Lelan Rogers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmI4awfmSVs Last Month's Episode NIL is all the rage right now. College and high school athletes across the country have scrambled to cash in on their name, image, and likeness, but there's one big problem: most people are very unclear on what you can and cant do. https://twitter.com/Rsmith24_/status/1468362445735485440 In last month's episode, I talk with Freddie and breakdown many of the ins and outs of NIL law, how athletes can determine their value and identify opportunities, and lastly we highlight some of the misconceptions that people have about this new wave of legislation. https://open.spotify.com/episode/23nrCdN3bEZ9bXrbVkulEZ?si=6d825378f2744029

Dr. Lelan Byrd's Story! We have a powerful episode this week! This week Trey talks with Dr. Lelan Byrd, who was trained at the Medical College of Georgia, Harvard University Medical School, Georgia Baptist Hospital, and the University of Florida School of Medicine, where he completed a fellowship in Addiction Medicine. Dr. Byrd shares his battle with alcohol addiction and why it became so important that he help show people the way out. His practice is informed, not only by his formal education but by his previous career as a professional athlete and collegiate coach, working with people, especially young people, of widely diverse backgrounds and ethnicities.

Kimo Seymour (Life Time) and LeLan Dains (UNBOUND GRAVEL) take a look back at 2020 and forward to the 2021 gravel event season including UNBOUND GRAVEL. We take a close look at the COVID protocols the team has put in place to ensure a safe event. UNBOUND GRAVEL Instagram  UNBOUND GRAVEL Covid Safety  Support the Podcast Join The Ridership Episode Transcription: Craig: Gentlemen, welcome to the show. Kimo: Thanks for having us. LeLan: Yeah, thanks for having us, Craig. Craig: Yeah. So it'd be a good place start off since I've got two of you on the line today. Why don't we start off with Kimo, and then go on to LeLan? And just talk about your respective roles at Life Time. And maybe Kimo, prior to that, you could just tell the listener about Life Time in general. Kimo: Okay. So Life Time may be more nationally known as a leading health club company around the country. We operate 154 what I'll call destination health clubs around the country, and very nice, I'd consider pretty high end type health clubs, very family oriented company in 30 plus states. So Life Time's been around 20, I think we're coming up on 28, 29 years now. I'm fortunate enough to get to work on the events and partnership side of the business, so partnerships meaning most people think of it as sponsorships. We call them partnerships because it's an opportunity for us to share our partners with our audiences, and that happens to live both in events, which are outside of the walls of our clubs, as well as our members, which a couple million members, which attend our clubs. Craig: So how did Life Time start to see exterior events, events outside the club, as being an opportunity for a health club? Kimo: It's a great, great question. I think it was prior to my involvement. I've been with the company a little over nine years now. And my understanding was the idea was we kind of positioned ourselves as what we call a healthy way of life company. And I think the thought at the time, and continues to be our thought process that clubs and these destinations are an important component of a healthy way of life, but not necessarily the only component of a healthy way of life. To live healthy, you have to eat healthy. You have to have activity every single day. And clubs are an important component of that, but we also saw that to keep people in the ecosystem, it's important to engage them beyond the walls of the clubs, and events were an opportunity like that. Kimo: On top of it, events were a great brand. We found out that, gosh, you get a lot of really good exposure for your brand if you go create great experiences outside your clubs, a lot of media exposure. A lot of people start to learn about your ecosystem through these events, and so I think it was a combination of extending that lifestyle beyond the walls of the clubs, but also it was a marketing idea. It was a way to extend the brand, if you will. Craig: And were those first events things that Life Time conceived of themselves and created? Or did it start with sponsorships or partnerships? Kimo: To my understanding, I think there were a few sponsorships early on. But our CEO is, I'll say very protective of the brand. And the idea that we would put our brand on somebody else's experience and not control what that experience is like, he didn't like that idea. He liked the idea that we want to deliver a premium experience in everything that we do, therefore, we probably need to really do that effectively, we need to control that experience. So we get asked frequently if we would like to sponsor other events. We've chosen typically not to do that. We've found more success where we can kind of control and really engage with the consumer with our brand, that putting our name on somebody else's event hasn't been as effective for us. Craig: I remember the first time Life Time got on my radar was from the Leadville 100. And I think it was the year after I did it, the acquisition was announced, and it was really interesting because I know how much the founders of that event, how much passion and love they had for it, so it was very kind of curious when this outside entity came in and acquired that event. And then it was very heartening to see how much involvement the founding team has and still has in it, and how the character of the event didn't change. Kimo: Yeah. That's a great example of one where I think Life Time sponsored it for two or three years prior to the acquisition. I was actually, I came on shortly after that acquisition really, and that was my first job, was to make sure that we didn't "screw it up." And first and foremost to me, I thought it's really important to keep those founders because they're the ones that keep us engaged with the community. And they're the ones that know how to make sure that thing continues with the heart and soul that it had developed over the 25 years previous to our involvement, so yeah, I think that's an example of one where I like to think we've done an okay job of continuing that. And hearing you say that we've continued that experience, and like you say, the heart and soul of it is still there. And I think that's thanks to Ken and Merilee. And now Cole, who's Ken's son, has moved over to start helping us as Ken and Merilee reach a point of potentially retiring. We've got to have some of that continuity there in the Leadville community. Craig: Yeah. And obviously with mountain bike events and gravel events, any mountain event in these small communities, it's just so critical that you have the local team involved, because as you said, it's sort of the heart and soul of the event, and no one wants to lose that. Kimo: Right. Craig: LeLan, maybe that's a good time for you to introduce yourself as part of the team at the event formerly known as DK, now known as Unbound, which we'll get into later. Why don't you introduce yourself and what you do in the family? LeLan: Yeah. Well, I was one of those former owners of DK Promotions at the time. And we'd built up this DK event. And it was just a little over two years ago now that Life Time acquired us. Member of our team were getting on in the years, and we knew that there needed to be a strategy for a succession, if you will. And Kimo was one of the first people saying, "Hey, we want to make sure that you are part of this." In fact, I think it was we don't want to acquire this without you staying on board and helping us run it. So I now work for Life Time as the event director for the Unbound family of events, so that's our training camps in the spring, Unbound of course, first weekend after Memorial Day, our summertime lunar ride, and then that also led into the creation of Big Sugar down in Arkansas, which I help oversee. Craig: Yeah. That brings me back to a year ago in 2019. I had visited the Big Sugar preview ride in Bentonville, which was awesome in October. Life Time had announced its acquisition of Crusher in the Tushar. There was all these big things, and I think as one member of the community, I was so looking forward to 2020. I thought we had so many amazing things planned. I think you guys share that with me. At a strategic level, once COVID came into our lives in February, March, I think it really started kicking up. Obviously, Bobby Wintle's event, The Mid South, was probably the biggest event on the calendar that actually just managed to kick off. How did you guys see that and start thinking about it? It must've been incredibly challenging. LeLan: Yeah. I mean, there was so much unknown for everyone as we came into the start of 2020. Initially, to be honest, I personally didn't think it would affect our event, which was end of May, would've been end of May this year. And so you're there in January, February, and we're thinking, "Okay. If we all play by the rules and we kind of isolate ourselves for a few weeks, this ought to just go away," and boy, were we wrong. I was certainly wrong in that assumption. And so it didn't take long to go from, "Yeah, we're still having event this year," to, "We need to pick a postponement date." Then you get into the summer and you're like, "We're not having anything this year. And so it was, definitely didn't see that coming, for sure. Craig: Kimo, from a corporate level, obviously when this started coming down, it affected all of your events. What was that like on your end? And how did you kind of react corporately to the situation? Kimo: Well, yeah, at the corporate level obviously there was a lot of focus on the fact that we had to close down 154 clubs across the country. And boy, what a huge impact on our business. I'll say we're ... I preach this to our team a lot, I'm just incredibly thankful that in a time like this, we have a big company like Life Time behind us. There's a lot of people out there say, "Life Time, this big corporate giant coming in and gobbling up events and these things." And I think, "Well, these are the times where it's a pretty solid benefit to have that bigger company behind us." And I really feel for a lot of the smaller event producers that aren't getting any support from the government, kind of like restaurants. Right? I don't know how they're surviving. And I just feel terrible for them. You know? Kimo: And we're so fortunate that we were able to, I mean, obviously we canceled. I think we did two events in the beginning of the year. We've canceled the rest of our events for the year. Obviously, hard when you cancel 30 plus events, that's a big, big impact both to our business and to our parent company. So the irony was it didn't happen overnight. Right? This, as LeLan said, this thing evolved. Even in March, we thought, "We still got a chance. By beginning of June, we should be good. We'll come back out of this thing." Little did we know. We're talking about next June now. You know? And when we'll be able to get events back on next year, not this year. I think the hardest, the toughest decisions for me, nobody was going to fault us for canceling an event. People would fault us if we tried to put on an event. Right? Kimo: You'd have probably 50% of the people would be the ones bashing you for it, and 50% would be applauding you for it. We couldn't take that ... We couldn't risk exposing people like that, so the decision was not difficult to cancel. The hardest decision for me was what to do with the team, with the company. We furloughed close to 38,000 team members across the company. And unfortunately, some of those, we still haven't been able to bring back because of this. So we've been fairly fortunate in our business. We did lose a few people along the way, but we've been able to bring a number of people back, and those are probably the hardest decisions that we've had to make this year. Craig: Yeah. I can only imagine. I felt like at the time, there was a lot of sort of woe is me from individual riders who were seeing the one event they were aspiring to do for the year get canceled. But at the end of the day, like you said, whether you're a larger corporation or a small event producer, this hit hard. And being able to rebound back and be someone we can count on to create events in 2021 is super important. And I hope we didn't lose any events in all this, but I think inevitably we may have. Kimo: I think so. I think that's yet to be seen, Craig. I think unfortunately, there will be some of the smaller, maybe some of the bigger ones too, that just don't make it through because that's tough to go a year without your ... You got your operating expense that you kind of have to live with throughout the year. And then you've got all your revenue comes from a single day event, typically. Craig: Totally. Kimo: It's tough. Craig: And it's not like events are these huge revenue making machines, by any means, so the margins are quite small. And if you're required to give refunds to people, et cetera, there's a lot to it. On a brighter side, you gave a lot of riders the opportunity to donate their registration fees to charities, which I thought was a great way to kind of turn the tide on this. Do you want to talk about some of the success you had with that program? Kimo: Yeah. Really good question. We did. We selectively chose a number of events and gave people the option to donate to a variety of charities. In most situations, in most markets where we do events, we also through our Life Time Foundation, we support and are implementing school, kind of an improved school lunch program across the country, and doing what we call eliminating the harmful seven. And there's seven ingredients that we believe just children shouldn't be exposed to in school lunches. And so we've now extended that. We're impacting about two and a half million kids across the country through the Life Time Foundation. And those communities, our athletes are starting to recognize that it's pretty neat what we're able to do in those communities where we host events. And so Emporia, where LeLan lives, is a good example. We've entered into an agreement with the Emporia School District. And a number of our athletes for what was DK, now to be Unbound, chose to donate their entries. We gave them the ... We guaranteed people the opportunity to get back in this next year, but they donated this year's entry fee to support the lunch program in that school district. Kimo: And it evolved from not just eliminating the harmful seven in these school lunch programs, but it actually evolved into a COVID relief type lunch program in a lot of our school districts around the country that turned into not only a COVID lunch relief, but many, many districts, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, where there were really high unemployment rates and families that were really impacted. Leadville's a perfect example. I think in total we raised almost a quarter million dollars for that school district to support their COVID relief program throughout the summer and kept feeding not only kids, but their families, where they just didn't have access because they were unemployed. So really grateful for our athletes that jumped in to help out, and it was pretty impressive. Craig: Yeah. It's a great result, considering how much corporate level trauma, with all the employees you had to furlough, and all these sort of negative things going on, to at least be able to put something positive back into the world. Kimo: Yeah, I think so. We're really fortunate and appreciative of everybody that stepped up to help. Craig: So LeLan, I know last year, DK pivoted to a virtual event. And then there was also a virtual event for Big Sugar. I don't want to drill too much into the details of the virtual event. But is there anything that you guys learned running virtual events that might be useful going forward? LeLan: Yeah. I think the biggest lesson was learning that virtual events can be really good and really useful for a lot of people. Take our camp, for example. We had a virtual training camp, and that reached over 1000 people. And it really opened our eyes to the fact that our in person events can be rather limiting when you really think about it. DK, when it was owned by us had been a lottery long before Life Time acquired us because the demand was so high. We can only fit so many people in Emporia. Well, through the, I guess, forced use of virtual events this year, we realized that on top of taking people here in town, we potentially can create meaningful opportunities to engage with people that aren't able, either aren't able to travel to Emporia, or weren't selected to come to Emporia. And so it is certainly our hope that moving forward that we can use virtual activities to continue to engage people beyond those that can come here to Emporia. And so that was definitely an aspect that was exciting to me. LeLan: We had, like I say, I refer to our virtual training camp, what a great success that was. And in fact, we were able to add content that we wouldn't normally have in our in person training camp. We were able to engage more sponsors that don't always travel to town to be with the in person athletes. And we just had all kinds of information and great activations and great input from a lot of people to make that happen. And I think we only charged something like $10 to join that virtual training camp, and so the value return was immense. And I believe those profits were donated to either the Life Time Foundation, maybe a combination of organizations, so that was definitely in my opinion a huge success. Craig: Yeah. I think that was definitely one of those interesting silver linings to 2020, was just that we fleshed out a number of different virtual formats, and some of them are going to stick and some of them aren't. But at the end of the day, I just think it was a way to bind the community together in a time where we desperately wanted community, but we couldn't safely come together. LeLan: Our goal has certainly been to invite and welcome in as many people from the gravel community as we could. And as we've alluded, because of the use of our lottery, because the demand was so high, we couldn't capture all those people. So this will definitely give us an opportunity to engage. Will it be the same as riding hundreds of miles in the Flint Hills? No, not quite. But again, I think we can create a value in that experience that is appropriate and still makes the end user feel like they were a part of something pretty special. Craig: Yeah. I think one of the offshoots of that was a lot of great routes got created and shared across the community, which was really cool. I've benefited from going to different towns and riding routes that someone posted in their virtual DK race. The other big thing obviously in 2020 was DK rebranding to Unbound. For either of you, would you like to talk a little bit about that process and how you arrived at the name Unbound and what it means to you? Kimo: Want to take that one, LeLan? LeLan: Well, sure. Yeah. Well, it was a process indeed. As you can imagine, DK had positioned itself as the world's premier gravel event. And it was going on 15 years in 2020. This would've been the 15th running. And so imagine renaming your 15 year old child or something like that. It was a tall order. But we did, I really liked the process that our marketing team implemented. They pulled together a great committee of people, or group of people, if you will. And that included community members from right here in Emporia, key members from the Life Time team, couple professional athletes that were well involved with DK sponsors. So it was a very eclectic group of people from ... And not everyone was necessarily a hardcore cyclist. They just had an interest or a stake in the event in some way. And we invited them into the process, and it was just pages upon pages of words and phrases and names that we liked. And you start the process of scratching names out. LeLan: And Unbound was one that always just kind of was there. And we would always kind of pursue something else, and it wouldn't work for a number of reasons. And Unbound was there. And I really started to think about what that word signifies, what it means. It became very clear to me personally, a lot of people on the committee, that Unbound does represent the spirit of not only this event, but in gravel in general. The whole purpose of gravel was to get out there with nothing but a paper map and a cue sheet, and your own legs and whatever supplies you could carry, and to really be free out there and explore uninhibited. And that's what Unbound refers to really. And so we found it to be a name that was very applicable and captured the spirit in a lot of ways. Craig: Yeah. I think the end result was great, and I like the name, personally. LeLan: Well, good. Many people do. If you go onto social media, you might think otherwise, but the critics, as they tend to be, are really few in number. And there were some people obviously who didn't want the name to change at all. And we understand that, and so they likely weren't going to like anything that we produced, and that's okay. We understand there's a lot of emotion wrapped up into it. But when we were floating this around, it was clear to us that partners, industry partners in particular, really liked the name, and that really helped us solidify that selection. Craig: Nice. Well, let's get practical now. I really want to have a conversation for our listeners and the community at large about how events can be run safely in 2021. Unbound is scheduled for June 5th, 2021 at this point. And I know from talking to you, LeLan, you guys have fleshed out a lot of precautions. Can you talk through what Unbound is going to look like and how it may differ? And this again, for the listener, this is assuming we're still in the really tricky state of the pandemic, as we are now. LeLan: Yeah. And I warn everyone going into everything that I'd love to share here that this is a largely hypothetical. Here we sit in December, and as a production team, we desperately need to have ... We want some answers and we need to get started on our prep and planning, but those answers just don't exist. I go and I talk to my public health officials and city officials here, and they say, "LeLan, what do you want me to tell you? That's six months away. I can't tell you what next week is going to look like, let alone June." But the positive is that most everyone, everyone I've spoken with is optimistic that a bike ride can take place in June here in Emporia. And that's really reassuring to us. LeLan: And what that means is everything else might look pretty different. And there's obviously going to be a lot of safety stuff that I want to share. But at the end of the day, we think that a bike ride can take place. And that can happen because we can spread out the start line a little bit. And we're talking about hundreds of miles of Flint Hills, open air. There's really few better opportunities for us to have an even than out in the Flint Hills riding our bikes. And so I think that really lends a lot of positivity to something will take place. LeLan: But when you look at the other facets of the event, we really believe that we can make some alterations that still give the participants, our athletes, a great experience. So you take a look at our riders meeting. Okay, it has been a phenomenal gift to be able to gather in the Granada Theater and have those riders meetings. And the energy in that room is eclectic. Probably not going to happen in '21. We'll probably live stream that, and we'll still be able to disseminate the information. We just won't be able to gather in the theater. Packet pickup, we're really going to have to reduce the numbers and control the flow, so we'll probably do things like only the rider will be allowed to go in and sign in for themselves. As much as we love for the family to be a part of that experience, we just, there's not a ... We can't risk having the extra bodies in there. LeLan: Naturally, social distancing and mask usage, assuming that is still in use, will be followed wherever applicable. That's kind of a given. But just controlling the flow a little bit, reducing the numbers in any of our indoor facilities, those types of things. Our Finish Festival is going to probably be the biggest difficulty because if anyone's ever been to our finish line, it is thousands of people. I've heard as many as 10,000, some estimates have been. And they're milling around within a few block radius, and they've got a beer in their hand and a taco or pulled pork sandwich in the other. And you obviously can't have a mask when you're doing that. So that's an area where we're going to really have to scrutinize what we're able to do, what's prudent to do. But again, I go back to our worst case scenario. It may just be a finish line. There might not be quite the fanfare in years past. LeLan: But I don't think most of our athletes will be too upset about that. Is it great to have the crowd there? Absolutely. But if it means being able to have a ride, and that's a part we might have to give on a little, then it's something we're certainly willing to concede on here. But that's an area where we have a little bit of time to figure out what this thing might be looking like come springtime. It's an area that we'll have all the scenarios from A to Z try to figured out. And by the time we get to March, April, we'll know where in that line where we might have to be in terms of execution. Craig: Yeah. I think I heard Michael Marx from BWR say that putting on an event is twice the effort in the current situation that it has been previously. LeLan: Twice is being generous. I mean, we've got multiple plans and schemes and angles. And we want to be prepared for just about any scenario. And we feel pretty prepared as of today. Craig: Yeah. It's comforting that you guys have posted your COVID guidelines already on the website. I really like to see that. Kimo: Yeah. Craig, I think there's even maybe a bigger picture question that's still yet to be answered. It's something we don't know. And it probably extends beyond just our little industry. But in general, is there going to be ... We're starting to think about it. Will there be some period of time where it may just be required for certain activities, for certain businesses that you show up with a negative COVID test and/or proof of a vaccination? And I don't know that we're going to lead in that area nationwide, but I think there may be scenarios, and there's always a lot of talk about that, that some industries may just, they may go to that for some period of time. Kimo: If you're going to get on an airplane, countries and states are doing that now. To get into Hawaii, you have to show that you got a negative test from the last 72 hours. And I think we're going to see that evolve, and we'll probably see more of that over the next, I would imagine, 12 months. And so we're prepared. We're preparing for that scenario that we have to think about across all of our events. Potentially, it could be that you have to ... We end up having to be ... A municipality or local jurisdiction might require us to check that every single person that's coming has had a vaccine or has had a negative test in the last 48 hours or whatever it is. Craig: Yeah. It's sort of mind boggling to play out. I mean, do you have two finish lines for some people who have been vaccinated and some people who haven't? It's incredible. Kimo: It is. Craig: But I think any way you slice it, 2021's going to be a little bit topsy turvy. I think you do have the benefit, as you said, LeLan, of being a June event gives us a little bit of time to kind of see how things are playing out. There's a couple other big events on the gravel calendar that will have gone off, and hopefully gone off without a hitch so we can learn some lessons. LeLan: Even right here locally, not everyone ... If you've been to Emporia, you've probably learned this, but this is a big disc golf town as well. In fact, in April, Dynamic Discs, which is located here, hosts the world's largest disc golf tournament. So we'll also get to take some clues from them right here at home how that is operated and how it goes off. And so we do have that good fortune of being right in the middle of the calendar year. And so we'll get to learn from others on best practices as well. Craig: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's critical that throughout the gravel cycling community, if a rider's intending on attending an event, that they really take a high level of personal responsibility for their attendance. And whether that is in representing a negative test, or just showing up and following the rules, I think that's where we're going to fall down because I know all the event producers I've been speaking to, they know how important it is for them to set the right stage. But if the riders themselves don't take the responsibility, that's where the challenges are going to come. LeLan: Yeah. If you think about it, we utilize the help of a few hundred volunteers. It's an extraordinary number, but that's to manage thousands of people, not just riders, but their support crews and spectators. And so we can't have eyes everywhere all the time, so when we make a statement like, "We need you to wear a buff or face covering on the start line," we need your participation in that because it's very difficult to go row by row, person by person, and enforce something like that. It's simply our expectation that you're coming here with the goodwill and a desire to participate the way we need you to. Craig: Yeah. And I think obviously the other big thing is just responsibility during the travel to Emporia. Being a small community and drawing athletes from all over the world, that's huge. You could be coming from a territory that does not have precautions in place and bringing it to a community that does. LeLan: Yeah. I think most people recognize that even in larger communities, our larger cities, the healthcare system is overwhelmed. But then you look at a place like Emporia, which has 20 hospital beds, we just can't facilitate a big outbreak, so it could be very detrimental. Craig: With the precautions stated behind us, how excited are you to get the community back together this year? LeLan: Well, nothing would please me more. It's been an interesting year, where to Kimo's point, I've been grateful throughout the entire year to have employment, to continually be working towards the next objectives. But it's just felt weird. What have we been working towards? What have we accomplished this year? While I know we've accomplished things, it's been hard to recognize and see those things when you don't have those tangible events to execute. So nothing would please me more to get back to, I'll state it again, to just have a bike ride. I really think if we just view it as that, I think we can accomplish that much and get back to really what all this is really about, which is riding our bikes in beautiful locations and coming together as community in whatever capacity we're able. Craig: Yeah. And I know you're both cyclists yourselves, so you both personally must be missing the normalcy of group rides. Kimo: I'd say a little bit. Yeah. Definitely. I miss, whether I'm in our events, whether I'm riding, or just there to pick up trash, or whatever I do around the events. I miss it. I miss seeing that. There's nothing more. I mean, I'm telling you, if you stand at the finish line of Unbound, or Leadville, or any of these events, and if you don't shed a tear at some point, you must not have a heart. I mean, it is unbelievable the power that these events have to change people's lives and to have lasting impressions on the riders and their families, I mean kids seeing their parents do that. The example that people are setting for the next generation and all these things, it's really powerful and impactful. And it's all gone right now. That made me more anxious to see that than to necessarily cross the finish line myself, or get out on a group ride. Yeah, that's the part that's hard. It's a bummer that we've lost that for a year. Craig: Yeah. I mean, there's absolute magic in the last person to cross the finish line. You see the pros come across very quickly and are very able to have conversations and go on their business, sign some autographs. But that last person who turned themselves inside out, and maybe this is something they've never done before, I mean, it definitely gives me goosebumps even talking about seeing those athletes come across the line. LeLan: Oh, absolutely. As you well know, we are there, Unbound finish line is open until 3:00 AM Sunday morning. We're standing there until the very last come home. Craig: Amazing. Well, there's absolutely a reason why Unbound is on a lot of gravel athletes' bucket list of events to attend, for sure. So Kimo, for Life Time, you've got a suite of gravel events throughout the year. Have all the dates been set for the big events at this point? Kimo: They are all set, yeah. So all the big ones, we've kind of put them back on their traditional dates. At this point, we're contemplating whether or not something in the spring might have to get moved to the fall, things like that. As far as the gravel events right now though, it looks like we've got everything kind of where it traditionally has been in the past. Craig: Okay, because Crusher was later in the summer, I believe. And then Big Sugar obviously is at the end of the year. Right? Kimo: Right. Right. We've still got Crusher in the middle of July. And then, yes, Big Sugar for late October. Craig: Okay. And have you set the stage for when event registration for those later events will be available? Kimo: We have, actually. And I don't have the dates in front of me. LeLan, you probably know better than I do. LeLan: You'll have to fact check me on Crusher. It's either mid January or early February. Big Sugar, we have not made that announcement, but look for a springtime opening for that registration. Craig: Okay. For both of those events, I imagine there's a lot of deferred athletes that are potentially given the first slots. LeLan: You are correct, yeah. But I'm glad you bring that up because even with Unbound, there were many people who donated their entries, or asked for a refund. A lot have deferred. But I do want to mention to the listeners that there will be a lottery registration for Unbound. There will be new spots available for athletes. And that opens up January 15th. So definitely be, if you're wanting in this year, there's still opportunity. Craig: Awesome. That's super exciting to hear. I just sort of assumed that it was already locked up. LeLan: Yeah. And that's why I'm glad you brought it up because I imagine most people are feeling that way. And I don't think we've made big to do about that. This is one of the first times we've been able to get on air with anyone and talk about our registration will be opening. So definitely put your names in the hat. Craig: And then for registered athletes, is there a deferment or refund policy that you guys have already crystallized? LeLan: Yeah. Another great question, I'm glad we're hitting on that because in years past, we've taken a pretty hard no refunds. And even before Life Time had acquired us, we had moved to a no transfer policy, which we used to allow transfers. But this has definitely made us realize that this was something that's obviously out of everyone's control, but we did want to recreate a deferral and a refund policy that would be more generous and maybe a little more fair to everyone. So folks, and I'll kind of rattle some of this off, but you can visit unboundgravel.com, look at our COVID-19 guidelines. And you'll see our little Q and A, which includes the deferral refund policy. But from 90 days out or more, there's a 70% refund available to the riders if we need to cancel the event because of COVID. Then it goes down to 50%. And then within the last couple months, a 40% refund. LeLan: Now I will say this, obviously it'd be our goal to try to postpone. Because we do take place in June, there is a chance like we had tried in 2020 to maybe try further down the road in the year. But if it all comes down to cancellation, then we do have a policy in place for a refund. It's a little more generous than in years past, and an outright deferral at no cost as well if a person wants to try again the next year. Now that's there, but we're not going to need it. Right? Knocking on wood, and it's not going to be an issue. We're going to be able to ride, let's hope. Craig: Yeah. Let's just keep all our thoughts intending that way. I'm definitely struggling a little bit as I'm sitting in Los Angeles County and they've just entered another strict lockdown period. As I'm looking online to register for events, it's hard to get my head around it. LeLan: That's the struggle we find ourselves in now is it's hard to take the blinders and put them on. We need the blinders on right now. We don't want to see what's happening today. And we need to think about what we hope things are looking like next year. Craig: Yeah. That's absolutely right. I mean, I think we're all optimistic about where things are going. It may not go as fast as we'd like to go, but I think things are finally starting to head in the right direction in terms of potential vaccine, et cetera. Well, gentlemen, thank you so much for the time. I appreciate you talking about what's been going on at Life Time and about Unbound and the other events you've got on the calendar for this coming year. I'm excited, and again, optimistic that I may be able to see you both in person again. LeLan: Definitely. Kimo: Oh, we will. We'll see you, Craig. We'll be there. Craig: Great. Thanks, guys. Kimo: Thanks for having us. Craig: Take care. Happy holidays.    

From practices to games, pregame warmups to postgame potlucks, Lelan and I spent a lot of time hanging in and around baseball.  Check out which of my favorite songs have ties to Lelan 

Join our host Diane as she speaks on relocating at this time. Our guest is Lelan from Texas, he shares about his most recent move. Find Lelan on IG @lelan_simpson

Gone Moab is one of the major offroad events in the Nissan world thats lasted 19 years. But there was a chance it wasn't coming back till Lelan Merel stepped with up with some friends to keep the historic event going. Listen as Lelan and Dave talk about this years event and where the future of Gone is going.

News Channel 5 Senior Meteorologist Lelan Statom discusses the early morning #Nashville tornadoes and more on #3HL.

News Channel 5 Senior Meteorologist Lelan Statom discusses the early morning #Nashville tornadoes and more on #3HL.

A conversation with Kristi Mohn (marketing manager) and Lelan Dains (Events Manager) from the Dirty Kanza team introducing Big Sugar Gravel in Bentonville, AR.   Registration opens November 15th, 2019. Big Sugar Gravel Website Big Sugar Gravel Instagram  Craig : 00:00 Welcome everyone to this week's Gravel Ride podcast. We are podcasting today from a basement in Bentonville, Arkansas. And I've actually got a couple of guests on the podcast today, who I'm going to ask to introduce themselves because it's a little bit of a surprise. And we'll talk about why we're here in a few minutes. Kristi: 00:18 Oh, ladies first? Craig : 00:20 Of course, always. Kristi: 00:21 I'm Kristi Mohn. I'm with the Lifetime and Dirty Kanza. What do you want to know about me? I'm from Emporia Kansas, home of Dirty Kanza. Craig : 00:30 And you've been working on Dirty Kanza since the beginning, right? Kristi: 00:33 Yeah, pretty much. I officially joined Jim and Joel at the time after the 2009 event. So Dirty Kanza started in 2006. Was the first race. Craig : 00:45 And was Emporia your hometown? Kristi: 00:46 Yeah, Emporia is my hometown. Craig : 00:48 Were you a cyclist? Kristi: 00:50 Yeah, I was a cyclist. I'd mostly been a runner, but had been graduating or transitioning to cycling more, so was a cyclist. Craig : 00:59 And when we were talking offline, you told me you saw it as just this big opportunity for a rural community, to have an event that everybody could get behind. Kristi: 01:09 Yeah, that it really that's kind of what it was. Is after the first year, I thought this event could be something really cool. You could take your kids to the checkpoints. We had two young kids at the time, twins that were, I think they were four or five when it started. And just really looking for a way to be a family and participate in an event like that. Because Tim would go to mountain bike races and it wasn't as conducive to having kids at mountain bike races. And the gravel scene really allowed that. Craig : 01:39 What kind of friction did you experience with the town? Did everybody say, "Oh, this sounds like a great idea"? Or they- Kristi: 01:44 Well, no, they thought it was crazy. You want to do what? And I'm like, "We're going to have this bike race downtown Emporia and have 200 people. Or people ride 200 miles on gravel in one day. And they're just like, "Nobody's going to come and do that." And it turned out not to be the case, luckily. Craig : 02:04 Did it take a while for people to start coming? Kristi: 02:06 To start coming to the event? Craig : 02:08 Yeah. Kristi: 02:08 I mean, we'd gotten to where it was at least regionally, it was fairly known. When we moved it downtown, we really wanted people to come and celebrate the cyclists finishing that distance. And so the finish line party and our finish line atmosphere, which our local Main Street helps us with that finish line party, you'll have 10 to 12,000 people down there to greet riders coming in, after riding 200 miles. And I think it really celebrates the average, everyday athlete. And I love that about it. And Emporians love watching these people cross the finish line. Craig : 02:43 Yeah. It's so amazing from a community perspective to just bring that kind of weekend traffic into a town. And have people recognize that, as someone who's not a cyclist, there's some hassles involved. But the benefit to the community is so huge. It sounds like everybody just runs with it at this point. Kristi: 03:02 Well, it's referred to as our Christmas, our downtown merchants called. It's their Christmas weekend is Dirty Kanza week, because people are there, and it's an exciting time. And people are spending money and making cash registers ring. It's an economic boom for Emporia, Kansas for sure. Craig : 03:21 Yeah, no doubt. Lelan, I want to invite you into the conversation. Can you talk about your role? Lelan: 03:25 Yeah. My name is Lelan Danes. I'm the race director for Dirty Kanza now. I'm a native Emporian as well, despite my repeated attempts to get away, I felt pulled back at various times. And for the last and what I think was final time, I think I'm stuck in Emporia for the better, for the remainder of my days. I came back about seven years ago, left Carmichael Training Systems to join Jim and Kristy and Tim on this Dirty Kanza venture. Lelan: 03:53 At that time DK was at a point where it was a jump on board or abandoned ship. Meaning that they had all been operating this in their spare time, in their free hours, on evenings and weekends. And it was at a stage where it needed full time help. And so Jim and I made that commitment. We left our careers, and came back to make that happen. Lelan: 04:16 And that was another one of those crucial turning points in DK. It had already moved downtown, the year or two prior. And it was gaining steam, and it needed full time attention. And so I was really fortunate to be able to come back home. It's kind of one of those coming of age deals where when you're 18 and graduating high school, you can think of nothing but getting out of there. And then as I matured a little bit, realized how wonderful Emporia was, and that there was an opportunity in my hometown to do what I love doing, which was bikes. It was just a no brainer. Craig : 04:49 So you came in and it sounds like around the time where it started to be, if you don't register for DK, the moment the registration goes up, you're not getting in. Kristi: 04:58 Yeah, I mean we were getting to our registration was filling very quickly. Yeah. Craig : 05:02 And opening up new course distances, I'm sure, made it even more popular to try to get in. Kristi: 05:08 Yeah, and we added the 25 mile mount distance fairly early on. And then added a 50. And then eventually, I think we added the 50 at the same time we moved. The 100 had been a relay at one point, so it was 200 miles but by two people. And then we eventually turned that into just its own 100 mile distance. Craig : 05:29 Can we talk a little bit about the course? Kristi: 05:31 The Dirty Kanza course? Craig : 05:32 Yeah. Lelan: 05:34 Yeah, of course. Well, for those that haven't been to DK, they've probably likely heard the stories of the flats. And the way I like to tell people is DK is not one knockout punch. It's death by a thousand cuts. And that comes from a variety of things. I'm not literally just talking about the Flint rock that will cut your tires. I'm talking about the literal thousand hills, the endless wind, the exposure to the sun. You just feel like nick after nick after nick, this thing's beating you up. And the gravel itself is amongst the roughest and toughest in the country. Lelan: 06:09 And that's one of those things that maybe we had an idea how special it was, but maybe didn't fully understand what we had in the Flint Hills. But it's just one of those rare landscapes that it has remained untouched because it's so rugged. There's one thing you can do on that land, and that's graze cattle. You can't farm it, you can't plow it. You can't do anything because it is rock. And it's sharp, sharp rock. So that's what that course is like, and it's pretty relentless. Craig : 06:37 I haven't been on it myself, so when you're riding it, is the type of rock that is shifting the wheel around underneath your body? Lelan: 06:45 Yeah, you're going to get a variety. And depending on the time and the situation, if the graders come through or not, you might have a stretch where there's some pretty clear double track, and you're humming along and it feels pretty smooth and fast. But those sections are far and few between. The vast majority of what you're going to get on, is what you'd described. It's not a solid rock base. It's not a solid surface. It's shifting rock, and its fist size. We're not talking crushed limestone gravel. We're certainly not talking pea gravel that you find on a bike path. We're talking fist size chunks of rock that they didn't bother to take the time to break down. They just dumped it on the road and said, here you go. Kristi: 07:23 And the rock was used to make arrowheads and... Lelan: 07:26 Axes. Kristi: 07:27 Axes, and so it serves that purpose on your tires. And [inaudible 00:07:31], sidewall protection are key. Craig : 07:35 Yeah, I can imagine some of the pack riding that happens. There's obviously the benefit of riding in the pack, but the detriment of not seeing your line. Lelan: 07:43 Well this is a conversation that with the World Tour pros that came, people asked me repeatedly, this was talked about publicly on forums and such. It was, what is this gravels just to become road racing? Well, that can't happen at Dirty Kanza. It physically can't because you can't actual on across the road in a crosswind. You can't follow a wheel sometimes. It's more like mountain biking in a sense that you have to ride your own line, you have to ride your own race. And you're not going to get a huge benefit from the draft, because you can't physically stay where you want to stay or choose where you want to be, based on where the wind's coming and so. Lelan: 08:20 And we saw that. What did we see at 2019 DK? Non world pro, World Tour pro Collins Strickland rode away at mile 100 basically, and solo the rest of the way, because no one behind him could organize, or had the strength to even bring him back in. Craig : 08:36 Yeah. Now I love that about the race because I'm definitely one that I think Jeremiah Bishop said it best to me. He said, let's keep gravel weird. And regardless of what the terrain looks like, I do want those parts of it to require a full bag of tricks. Kristi: 08:57 Well and that, your comment there is interesting to me because a lot of times we hear that, I think of gravel as being super inclusive. And I stand by that. And people say, "They're going to ruin gravel." I'm like, "They're not going to ruin gravel because we're not going to let them." Gravel is just that. And it's about what we want to make it. And I think the one thing that's special about Dirty Kanza in my mind is that we celebrate every person that comes across that finish line. We stay out there until 3:00 AM. And so yeah, it's exciting when a pro crushes it in under 10 hours. But we shake Collins Strickland's hand, and move him through the line, and are waiting there for the next person because it's just about celebrating those people, those journeyman athletes that are stepping up and trying something outside of their comfort zone. Craig : 09:47 Yeah. It gives me goosebumps to think about it. I love, it's arguably harder for someone to do it in 15 hours than it is- Kristi: 09:55 Yes, 100%. Craig : 09:56 And probably they're digging deeper, they're certainly doing it for longer. And it's a huge accomplishment for those athletes who just suck it up and get through that day. Kristi: 10:05 And we do not lose sight of that in our event. Any critic that wants to say that about us, they're just wrong. Craig : 10:15 Yeah. Kristi: 10:17 We're passionate about what we're doing for people and changing their lives, so. Craig : 10:21 Yeah, well I think the reports of the event always say that exact same thing. It's celebrating no matter where you're finishing, and finishing is the big deal. Kristi: 10:31 Yeah. Craig : 10:32 One last question on DK. How did the 200 miles come about originally? It's a heck of a distance. Lelan: 10:38 Well, Jim Cummins who isn't joining us here on this, he's one of the original two co-founders of the event. They got the idea by actually going to other gravel events, that were much longer. And Jim will tell you, as he's told us many times, that they settled on 200 because they didn't want to go any further than that. Lelan: 11:01 They thought that it was far enough. They knew 100 wasn't enough. They wanted a challenge, a very hard challenge. But one that most people could grasp is achievable. And 200 seem to be the right number. Craig : 11:12 Yeah. Yeah it's fascinating to me because I think on the West coast we don't see events of those distances. And I think it's probably because you end up with elevation gains that happen more quickly. So you're doing 1000 feet per 10 miles. So it's just not really feasible to have people out doing 200 mile events. So I sort of look in awe and reverence to the athletes that crossed the DK 200 finish lines. Kristi: 11:38 It's an incredible finish line to cross. Craig : 11:40 Yeah. So we're in Bentonville, Arkansas, and not in Emporia. Lelan: 11:45 We are not. Craig : 11:46 And you guys just announced something very special that I think my listeners are going to be keen to hear about. So you guys can Roshambo for who gets to talk about it first. Let's talk about why we're in Bentonville. Kristi: 11:59 Oh, you want to go? Lelan: 12:00 Yeah of course. Well it has been a long time conversation for Jim Christy and myself around the DK office. We knew that there was gravel beyond the Flint Hills. Even as gravel has gone into its probably adolescents, is that where we're at? Kristi: 12:17 Probably. Lelan: 12:18 Yeah, reaching maturity in adulthood yeah. But there's events popping up everywhere, and they're popping up in iconic locations. And there are events who have been going in decades strong. And have fantastic events. But we've still known all along that there are other locations that are ripe for a gravel event, and for a number of reasons. There's great people all across the United States. There's a great geography. And Bentonville is one of those places. Most people are probably recognizing it as a mountain bike Mecca, a cycling destination for single track trail. There's over a hundred miles of single track, all accessible from downtown Bentonville. There's great roads to ride. There'll be hosting the Cyclo-cross World Championships coming up in a few years. But no one was talking about gravel in the NWA, Northwest Arkansas. Lelan: 13:07 And Kristi and I had been in this area before. We have friends down here, not name you Ross. And just came up that gravel needs to happen here. And through our trips, we agreed. And as we scouted this stuff out and spent more time in this community, we were feeling at home. And so all the things were in place to say, let's go forward and let's create an event. And that's what we've got. Craig : 13:31 All right. So what is the event? And when is it? Kristi: 13:36 It's a new event called the Big Sugar. And we've got two distances. The Big Sugar, which is about 107 miles. And then we have the Little Sugar, which is about 50 miles. And there's some significant elevation and lots of hills and hollows, highs and hollows, right? That's what they call them. So we're really excited. It goes through some absolutely beautiful scenery, some amazing roads. We're really excited about the time of year, because the leaves will be in full color, change mode. And it's just a beautiful course. Kristi: 14:09 So, I think we've put together what I think is just a five-star course. So we're really excited about that. Craig : 14:17 Now coming from your wealth of experience in Emporia, what were you looking for as far as the terrain goes here in Bentonville? Kristi: 14:27 I think we wanted it to be challenging but achievable. We wanted some climbing. We wanted some rough roads. Dirty Kanza-ish, so to speak. But also really celebrating the personality of the community is also important when you're putting together a good course. And I think we've nailed it with this course. Craig : 14:48 So I touched on a few gravel roads today, and I'll do a bunch more tomorrow. In fact on the course. In your opinion, what are the roads like? I know what my sense was of the 20 odd miles I rode today. Lelan: 15:03 Well, listen, guys, gals at home listeners, if you have not been to Bentonville and rid some of these gravel roads, it is far more akin to mountain biking than it is even gravel riding in Kansas and around Emporia in the Flint Hills. These are proper climbs. This is not a death by a thousand cuts like DK is. A DK, a typical hill will be a quarter mile, short but punchy. And just one after another. Lelan: 15:31 But at Kanza you've got your periods of flat stretches where you can recover and lock it in a gear and go. You don't have that here. For one, the surface is just about as gnarly as at DK. Kristi and I were just talking, it's firmly category three gravel. If you're familiar with Neil Shirley's scale, which means it's pretty rough. It's big rock. It's gravel, it's proper gravel. And the climbs are big. They are anywhere from one to two and a half miles in length, and that means you get a corresponding descent to follow. Lelan: 16:01 And I think this course, of any of the gravel events I've been on, this could be an equalizer for the more mountain bike crowd that does the gravel. And we were talking about that inclusivity. It's one of the amazing things about gravel is you've got roadies, you've got mountain bikers, you've got triathletes. You've got people who have only gotten into the sport of cycling through gravel, and they're only gravel riders. And they're all coming together out there. And there's different courses all across the United States that have their different flavors. Some are a little bit hard pack and faster. This Bentonville course is definitely a little bit chunkier up and down and gnarly. Craig : 16:39 Yeah, I was surprised, even the 20 miles I rode today. It really was a lot chunkier than I thought it was. My listeners know, I'm typically riding 650 B's, 47, 50 millimeter tires, but I specifically grabbed a 700 C wheel set thinking, I'm coming to a more mellow place, where we were just going to be rolling on dirt roads. And that was not the case whatsoever. Lelan: 17:04 No. Craig : 17:04 So how much climbing does it add up to in the 170 miles? Lelan: 17:07 Well that's always debatable, isn't it? Depending on what program you use and what device you're using. But I think firmly... Well, I don't think we've mentioned the distance. It's right about 108 miles in length for the Big Sugar distance. Right around 50 for our Little Sugar, half distance. And in that Big Sugar distance, it just over 100 miles, you're going to approach 10,000 feet elevation, anywhere from nine to 10,000 feet, depending on the device a person is using. Craig : 17:32 You're going to feel it. Lelan: 17:33 You're going to feel that. That's a lot for a hondo. You're going to be hard pressed to find that elevation, especially throughout the South or Midwest in 100 miles. Craig : 17:42 Do you have a sense of what a pro would ride that distance in, and the range that you might be expecting for athletes? Lelan: 17:50 Well, we had some folks riding this past weekend, and Ted King, Paisan, McElveen, Ali Tetrick were out here. Uri Haswall of course. And I know Payson and Ted were jabbing each other, making claims of six and a half. But it's going to be tough, and it's going to be interesting to see in an actual race setting how fast the front of the pack goes. And what those back in the packers are going to complete it in. Craig : 18:20 Yeah, I think it's going to be, tire choice and wheel choice is going to be important. Kristi: 18:26 Oh yeah. Craig : 18:26 And how hard you're going to be willing to take those descents, given what's going to be in front of you. Lelan: 18:30 Well, and I'll tell everyone this. This will not be the easiest hondo that you do. It's simply won't. This'll be one of the more challenging 100 mile distance on gravel. Kristi: 18:37 Well we even talked about that with the 50. We like to have those tier steps to get into the event, but at the same time, this 50 is going to be a tougher 50. It's not going to be a cake walk. Craig : 18:51 Yeah, it doesn't seem like anything around here would be a cake walk. So that's exciting. So the date was October when? Kristi: 19:00 October 24th, 2020. Craig : 19:02 Okay. And registration? Kristi: 19:04 Yeah. Registration, November 15. Craig : 19:05 Okay. November 15th everyone. This is opening up. And is there a hard cap on the number of riders that course can allow at the time? Lelan: 19:13 Yep. We're aiming for 750 to start. Craig : 19:16 Okay. Lelan: 19:17 For the first year. Looking forward to welcoming that many people to town. Kristi: 19:22 What's our website? Big sugar gravel.com yeah. Craig : 19:24 Okay. Kristi: 19:25 Yeah. Craig : 19:26 And DK allows how many athletes at this point? Lelan: 19:29 Well in 2020, we're looking to register 3,000 riders, across six different distances. And of course that ranges from the 350 mile XL, down to 200, 100, 50, 25, and then our high school distance. And the DK has just grown and grown. And so when we talk about it, most people recognize the 200, which is the feature distance. But we have all those different places for people to have their journey and their adventure. And Big Sugar will be the same. This is called Big Sugar, but you'll have the Little Sugar that you can participate in. And then there'll also be a 20 mile introductory level, more of a familial ride, a beginner ride type of opportunity. So you'll still be able to get out of town on gravel. That's another great thing about Bentonville, is a mile and a half to two miles, and you're out on gravel. Bentonville is not this big metropolis. It's still has a small town vibe, a small town feel. And it's very easy to get around. Craig : 20:25 Yeah. I think that's going to be the fun thing for families and kids to come in and support the athletes. Husbands supporting wives who are out there riding and vice versa. And you've got this beautiful community that I'm seeing for the first time this weekend. And it's a great little town. Kristi: 20:40 It's great, isn't it? It's a cool little town. Craig : 20:41 Yeah. And I've been hearing about the mountain biking progressively over the last few years, but it's no surprise looking at a topographic map that there'll be a gravel ride- Kristi: 20:50 That's why we picked the weekend we picked. It's out-a-bike weekend. Craig : 20:54 Oh it is? Okay. Kristi: 20:54 In Bentonville. And we're synergizing with them a bit. So you can come down for a weekend and buy a demo pass for the out-a-bike, and test out their awesome trails that are here. And then hop on your bike and do a gravel race, and then come back and check out some more trails on Sunday. So it's a full weekend of cycling. And then to top that off, the activities that are here for families in Bentonville alone are great. So it really lends itself to it being a family affair weekend. Craig : 21:28 Yeah. I mean that must be comforting to you guys to know that there's a town infrastructure to accommodate all these people coming in. Kristi: 21:35 Yeah, it's great. Craig : 21:36 Yeah. And do they have similarly sized events that go on in the community already? Kristi: 21:43 To this event? Craig : 21:43 In Bentonville? Yeah. Lelan: 21:44 Yeah. Oz Epic just took place a couple of weeks ago. And that was in its third or fourth running here in Bentonville. They've been out a few years. And I want to say that's around 750 mountain bikers on single track. And so we're starting out at 750, but gravel has the ability to grow a little bit larger in numbers just because of the road is wider. You can get more people out there. Single strap is a little tougher in that respect. Lelan: 22:07 But Bentonville is no stranger to events. And I mentioned at the top of the podcast, they'll be hosting those Cyclo-cross World Championships in a few years. There's an event related to cycling probably every other weekend in this community? Yeah, whether it be just a group ride or an organization pulling people together. People for Bikes just had a big summit down here about a month ago or so. So there was always some type of activity related to cycling. And I think you're really going to see that increase. Craig : 22:39 How were you thinking about the event differently? So Bentonville, different town, different terrain. Are you trying to create something that obviously has the same kernels as DK, but its own unique channel? Kristi: 22:53 Well, I think that's part of the reason why we A, chose Bentonville, and B, are partnering or teaming up a little bit out-a-bike on that, from that perspective. Is that we think it's going to lend really to the flavor of the community. We're also really, I'm really excited about our race directors that we've got coming onboard. We've got Ned Ross who's a hall of fame mountain biker. And really stoked that he's joining us. And then we have Gaby Adams, which formerly Gabby Shelton, is a DK 200 single-speed champion. She's just a badass on the bike, and it's so fun to have a female, another female joining as a race director. Kristi: 23:34 And she's really worked the course hard. Lelan and I- Lelan: 23:38 This is her course. Kristi: 23:39 Yeah, it's her course. Like Lelan and I came down and had given her some tips and some ideas of what we were looking for, and had scouted some roads and taken her with us. And then she put together the route. And it's awesome. To me, being an advocate for women in cycling, I'm really proud that we've got Gaby on our team. Craig : 24:01 Yeah. And is it typically on county dirt and gravel roads? Or are we going into back country trails at all with the event? Lelan: 24:11 No, they're all public access county roads. Although you might be questioning that at times based on the low maintenance [crosstalk 00:24:19] some of them. But so similar to DK in that sense, it's all public roads. There'll be slightly more pavement here, only out of necessity, than what you'd probably find in DK. But to be honest, I think you'll be relieved to have a mile of recovery every now and again. And again, it's 80, it's probably 90% gravel. Kristi: 24:42 Oh yeah. Lelan: 24:43 It's only a handful of miles that you'll be on pavement. And that's only to connect you to the next sweet ribbon of gravel. Craig : 24:49 Yeah. And like you said, I do think it will be this welcome reprieve for people's bodies, to just soft pedal on some pavement for a few minutes. Kristi: 24:56 Yep, 100%. Craig : 24:58 Amazing. Well it's super exciting. It must be thrilling for you both to finally realize this part of the vision that you had at DK, to explore a new community and start something again. And I'm really excited for you guys to take that journey from inception to creating yet another great event on the calendar. Kristi: 25:17 Well and I think that definitely has, like Lelan said, that's been a goal of ours. And then the acquisition of Lifetime, or Dirty Kanza being acquired by Lifetime, was really, that's been what's given us the ability to do this. And that to me is one of the things that's the most exciting about this, is that they're trusting what Dirty Kanza has done, and letting us lead this charge into some additional events. Craig : 25:47 Yeah. Do you imagine that each event will stay in its own lane? Or is there a possibility that they might be linked together in some type of series in the future? Lelan: 25:57 That's a great question. I'm glad you asked, because we haven't really touched on this. Our big picture vision is, as I talked about earlier, there's a lot of great places for gravels still in the US. And we certainly want to create a little family of events. And we are staying completely away from words like series and qualifiers, because that's not what this is. That's not what these events are. So they are a grouping, a family of like-minded events. It's still the DK team leading this and directing it. Working with amazing people who share our vision, and passion for celebrating all these individual achievements. Lelan: 26:36 But there will be a connection, and there will be opportunities at these events. So at Big Sugar for example, any finisher who completes the course within the time cutoff, their allotment of time, if they so desire, they can drop a ticket into a bucket, and we will have some DK entry opportunities. But it is not a, how fast can you go and get on a podium and get an entry, not to receive that golden ticket. It is every finisher is qualified, and has an opportunity. If DK has something they want to try and want an extra helping hand beyond the lottery, because the demand is so high there, there will be opportunities like that. Craig: 27:12 Yeah. Amazing. Kristi: 27:14 Yeah, I think it'll be really cool. Craig: 27:15 Anything else you guys would like to add about the event or the community? Kristi: 27:18 Just make sure you go to Big Sugar gravel.com, and get signed up, so that you are in the know for when we dropped... When the registration opens. Craig: 27:27 Okay. Lelan: 27:27 This is an open registration, which is how DK used to be. Of course, DK is now a lottery. And I just want to reiterate what Kristi just said is, 750 maybe it sounds like a lot of people, but that's going to go fast. And we want you here. We want you to be on it, and be a part of it. So if this sounds like something that gets your goat, then get signed up and come join us. Craig : 27:49 Yeah, I think, everybody put it on your calendar. So I'll put it in the show notes, so everybody has the link. Kristi: 27:54 Awesome. Craig : 27:54 Getting prepared. We'll get this out quickly. I want to share the news to everybody. And I'll give my feelings on social media about Bentonville, which has been great so far. So you guys, it's really been a pleasure talking to you guys. I've wanted to talk to the DK team for a long time, ever since I started this thing 18 months ago. So yeah, thank you. And thanks for everything you're doing for the sport. Kristi: 28:16 Yeah, thanks for coming. Lelan: 28:18 [crosstalk 00:28:18] take you to Bentonville to catch us. Craig : 28:21 Right on. Thanks guys. Kristi: 28:22 Thank you.

durée : 00:03:16 - Plan B comme Berry - La quinzaine du Bio qui se déroule jusqu'à ce week-end est un bon moyen de découvrir les producteurs Bio dans Plan B comme Berry.

On this edition of the Sumner County Spotlight we sit down with Channel 5 Meteorologist and Talk of The Town Host, Lelan Statom. Brought to you by F&M Bank.

Episode 150 features Lelan Statom, Senior Meteorologist of News Channel 5.  If you live in the Nashville area, you are definitely familiar with one of Nashville's News Icons!  He comes on the program to discuss his start in the news business and how he got there.  He also finds time to talk about the city of Nashville, his favorite foods, and drops some true weather knowledge.  John attempts to help a man in his Dear John segment and Lelan has to step in to help out.   

That's probably the most famous and infamous gravel race in the world. The Dirty Kanza, the big monster of the dirty rides. I talked with the organizer, Lelan, I discover way more than what is just scratched from tha surface.Link List:Dirty Kanza – https://dirtykanza.comProject Y – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVOZDmK1oxA&list=WLGCN Dirty Kanza – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC4t-nF-0twGrinduro Scotland – https://grinduro.com/scotland/Toros de Gravel – https://www.torosdegravel.com/Land Run 100 – https://landrun100.com/Trans Iowa – http://transiowa.blogspot.com/Season 2 of Broom Wagon.The Gravel SeasonVoice by: CalamaroMusic by: Lakey Inspired (https://soundcloud.com/lakeyinspired)My contactswww.calamaro.cchello@calamaro.ccwww.twitter.com/readcalamarowww.instagram.com/calamaroccwww.spreaker.com/listencalamarowww.soundcloud.com/listencalamarowww.strava.com/athletes/2668270

That's probably the most famous and infamous gravel race in the world. The Dirty Kanza, the big monster of the dirty rides. I talked with the organizer, Lelan, I discover way more than what is just scratched from tha surface.Link List:Dirty Kanza – https://dirtykanza.comProject Y – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVOZDmK1oxA&list=WLGCN Dirty Kanza – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC4t-nF-0twGrinduro Scotland – https://grinduro.com/scotland/Toros de Gravel – https://www.torosdegravel.com/Land Run 100 – https://landrun100.com/Trans Iowa – http://transiowa.blogspot.com/Season 2 of Broom Wagon.The Gravel SeasonVoice by: CalamaroMusic by: Lakey Inspired (https://soundcloud.com/lakeyinspired)My contactswww.calamaro.cchello@calamaro.ccwww.twitter.com/readcalamarowww.instagram.com/calamaroccwww.spreaker.com/listencalamarowww.soundcloud.com/listencalamarowww.strava.com/athletes/2668270

Nick & Dan get a visit from N&D Show regular Professor Lelan, under his rockstar guise with YELLOW SAUCE! See as the saucy Ryan, the historical Lelan, and the wild BobPaul Nana, party down with the boys, then perform a song!

Lelan Dains is a co-race director of the gravel mecca that is Dirty Kanza. The day after DK 2018, Ted and Lelan sat down to decompress how the entire event went down.

Lelan Dains is the Operations Manager for Dirty Kanza Promotions and is a native of Emporia, KS. After graduating from Emporia State University with a degree in Recreation Management, he spent much of his time time traveling and working in various recreation fields including leading cycling excursions all over the world as the Camp Director for Carmichael Training Systems. When the opportunity arose to return to his hometown and bring his talents to the Dirty Kanza Promotions organization it was a dream come true! What I admire most about Lelan as how he is taking the lead through his position as a co-owner of the world’s premier gravel race to get more kids and families into the sport of gravel riding. Lelan has been instrumental forming the Dirty Kanza Youth Cycling Fund and the DK High school race. Beyond bringing life-changing adventure experiences to folks, LeLan spends every free moment with his amazing wife and daughter. This interview was recorded Live from the Buddy Pegs Media booth at the 2018 Sea Otter Classic in Monterey CA. We built this interview series from the title of our newest children’s picture book Taking The Lead that follows our animal characters along a journey to open a local bike shop and inspire their town to ride. We hope you enjoy these personal stories from bike industry executives, non-profit leaders, pro athletes, and families just like yours who are celebrating kids on bikes and inspiring families to get off the couch... and out for a ride. --- Purchase our books, and download the World of Buddy Pegs podcast so you can share the love of bicycling with the kids in your life. Visit your local bike shop, or visit us at BuddyPegs.com. Remember it’s the little moments that create big memories.   https://dirtykanza.com/

Join us Jim and Lelan walk us through the the history, challenges, changes, growth and craziness of the Dirty Kanza 200 gravel grinder race. This is one of the most iconic gravel grinder races across the US with 2200 athletes in total races across the various distances offered. Emporia Kansas may not be known as having the best singletrack, but it has some amazing gravel roads and is quickly becoming one of the primary destinations for endurance mountain biking across the US. Learn more at: http://dirtykanza.com --- About: Dirty Kanza Promotions was founded in 2006 by Jim Cummins, with the assistance of fellow cycling enthusiast Joel Dyke. At that time, gravel grinding was just beginning to catch the interest of the endurance cycling community. However, Jim had grown up in the Flint Hills of east central Kansas and had been riding gravel for decades. Inspired by some of the early gravel grinder events… and convinced the Flint Hills had the best gravel to be found anywhere in the world, Jim and Joel decided to create Dirty Kanza 200. Initially, these two gravel aficionados had no idea the extent to which this whole gravel grinding thing would grow, nor did they give it any real thought. That wasn’t what motivated them. They both simply felt their lives had been enriched through cycling. And DK200 was their attempt to give back to the cycling community. Since then, the popularity of gravel grinding has exploded and is now the fastest growing genre in the cycling industry. The popularity of DK200 has grown too, from 34 participants in 2006, to an anticipated 2,200 riders in 2017. And while that growth has brought with it a few changes to our format and the way we have to manage certain aspects of the event, one thing has remained constant… DK200 is a grass-roots event, organized and managed by folks who are passionate about cycling, and done so for the primary purpose of providing life-enriching cycling experiences for our event participants.