Speaker 1: 0:00

It used to be 30, 40 years ago that lower income kids just played after school and they were our best college athletes and tended to become pro athletes and they were the ones that really excelled Well and over time. Because of safety concerns, because of screens doing the babysitting, low income kids aren't allowed to play right after school, they're actually kind of stuck on a screen. Kids aren't allowed to play right after school, they're actually kind of stuck on a screen. And so we've created Kids on the Move kind of group clubs to encourage active living. We have about 60 of those, largely in low-income areas but all over the community. But ways just to get kids out and play and get moving. Some of it is very intentional, but we also have training teams. We also do all sorts of things to get everybody moving and we have about 250,000 people in our database, so like we have an outsized impact here in the greater Richmond area One two, three, four.

Speaker 3: 1:21

You're listening to America's Healthiest City on Mike King Biz Radio Network on ESPN Richmond 106.1 and Choice 105.3.

Speaker 2: 1:25

Good morning and welcome to America's Healthiest City. On ESPN Richmond 106.1, part of the Mike King Biz Media Network. I'm your host, will Melton, and we are in the studio today with John Lugbill, the Executive Director of Sports Backers. I'm super excited about this conversation because of the great impact that John has had on our community, but I'm also excited about talking about his past and his legacy. But before we get into the program, if you're tuning in for the very first time, please check out AmericasHealthiestCitycom to learn about our 10-year community partnership to make all of Richmond the healthiest in America by 2033.

Speaker 2: 1:55

We require everybody's participation if we're going to achieve that goal, and you can find out how you can get involved on the website Without further ado. John, thanks for joining me in the studio today on the website Without further ado. John, thanks for joining me in the studio today. I appreciate this. Yeah, thanks for having me Will. So I'm going to start this program off the same way I do everybody and give you the opportunity to share, whether you are a native to Richmond or if you moved here at some point and if you did what brought you.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Yeah, I first moved here in 1993. So I came here to work for sports backers.

Speaker 2: 2:21

Okay, and I've interviewed probably 80 guests on the show. I don't know that any of them have had a Wikipedia page, and you might be the very first guest to have a Wikipedia page. For those of you listening, maybe one of your claims to fame maybe not the only one is that you were the only canoeing slalom racer to be on a Wheaties box. That's in the Wikipedia entry.

Speaker 1: 2:45

Yeah, yeah, I was a five-time world champion in whitewater canoeing and went to the 1992 Olympics and, along the way you know, was one of the best paddlers the US has ever had. So yeah, I was very fortunate to have a great career Started off at a really young age and was able to reach the heights of the sport.

Speaker 2: 3:10

And did you jump straight from sport to work or was there kind of a transition there?

Speaker 1: 3:17

Yeah. So I had won my first world championships in whitewater canoeing a couple weeks after graduating from high school and then over the next 13 years, leading through the Olympics, I went to the University of Virginia. I graduated with an environmental science degree. I worked for the Washington Council of Governments as an environmental planner During my time there the Washington Council of Governments they wanted to do a feasibility study to see if DC could host the Olympics and since I was the only person on staff that knew anything about sports, they put me in charge of that project.

Speaker 1: 3:54

So before the 92 Olympics I had learned all about how to run, how to work to have sports help your community and how different cities around the country did that. So Atlanta got awarded the Olympic Games. So they told me the council of governments, go back to your regular environmental job. And I thought you know I actually like the sports part more. So when the job came open here at Sportsbackers, I applied and got it and moved down here. So there was sort of a year where it was transition from being at the Olympics to working. But I'd been working since I graduated from UVA in 84.

Speaker 2: 4:39

So I didn't realize that it was right after you graduated high school, that you got that. So I'm curious about this, because I've met a young triathlete before and I realize the rigor that's required to be competitive at that age. What was your childhood like? That led you to be top of your game?

Speaker 1: 4:59

I was very athletic as a young kid. I was active all the time, I just loved sports. And then I started paddling almost every day. You know kind of sixth, seventh grade. A lot of the neighborhood kids didn't play anymore right after school, but I still wanted to, and so same with my brother, and so we had a pond near our house and we got permission to paddle on it, and so we'd go there. We'd beg our parents to take us to the Potomac River to paddle there, and we were young and athletic and I was full grown by the time I was 14. So it was kind of all those factors just came together and then, as it turns out, I had a lot of. I always thought I just worked harder than everybody else, but when I look back I had a lot of power and a lot of acceleration compared to everybody else. So I was given some gifts.

Speaker 2: 5:57

I'm not the most athletic person. I didn't like sports when I was young, as a marketer, and as I've gotten older I've come to appreciate the marketing value of sports and the captive audience and being in the stadium and in the stands is a lot of fun. But I also was gifted with a lot of stamina and running and exercise and things like that. So I had a good army friend who would come over at 6 am and we'd go for a five, six mile run in the morning and I could just pick up and go. And my wife doesn't understand it, so I'll train with her if she ever runs, so that I can motivate her a little bit but yeah, that's a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 6:34

Yeah, and you know I learned a lot through it. I had a lot of great opportunities, traveled around the world. I lived Malcolm Gladwell's book the Tipping Point, where you do 10,000 hours of something you can be really good at it, and I did 10,000 hours of whitewater slalom, canoe training before I turned 17. So yeah, I was good young and you know you put in a lot of time and you can really get good. And one of the things from that book Tipping Point is you almost need something that like makes you do all that, and so there needs to be some positive encouragement along the way, and so I think doing so well nationally and internationally at a young age definitely primed the pump for me.

Speaker 2: 7:23

So, before we talk about sports backers, I'm curious these days, what are you doing to stay fit? What kind of sports do you like to engage in?

Speaker 1: 7:30

Well, I just did the King of the James Offered Triathlon on Sunday, so that was mountain biking on the North Bank Buttermilk Trails, it was trail running Belle Isle and some other places and then paddling the Lower James. So I do those three sports a lot actually. Jill and I live in Westover Hills and I'm on the trails all the time and I still rock climb. My daughter's got me into indoor rock climbing so I tend to mainly go indoors. But yeah, those are kind of my four physical activity things.

Speaker 2: 8:07

Um, for a long time I just ran, but but now I'm much more diverse well, I, uh, I have a lot of runway left in me to try out some of those things. So we were talking earlier about how people do their first marathon and things, and then their ninth year. So it's my 39th year, and this week is the Richmond Marathon. I haven't registered for it, so I'm going to miss out, but maybe another marathon someplace else. Before we talk about sports backers, though, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

Speaker 3: 8:39

When we asked ourselves what could we do to stop the tide of plastic bottled water. We never thought we'd start a water brand, but an idea grew and Richmond Water was born. Now we're replacing single-use plastic on the shelf with collectible, refillable aluminum bottles of water and we're installing refill stations throughout RVA, launching a movement to refill. It's your turn to make a splash. Find your bottle of Richmond Water or add refill stations to your next event at drinkrichmondwatercom. That's kind of cool.

Speaker 2: 9:09

Welcome back to America's Healthiest City. I am in the studio today with John Lugbell, the executive director of Sportsbackers, and we're hearing about John's background, but we want to pivot the conversation a little bit towards Sportsbackers, because Sportsbackers is an amazing organization that's done a lot of great for our community. We were just talking about the Richmond Marathon that's coming up this weekend, so let's start there so we don't run out of time. What do people need to know? Right now? It's Thursday morning. The marathon is on Saturday. Is it too late to register?

Speaker 1: 9:37

No, you can still register. We have an expo going on out at Richmond Raceway this afternoon and on Friday, so, yeah, you can still register. We have a record number of participants. So we beat 2014, which is pretty awesome for us, and we're just trying to get back to 2019. And now we're breaking records and people are just super jazzed. So, yeah, we can't wait to get out there on Saturday.

Speaker 2: 10:04

Why Richmond? Not sports backers? But why are people excited to come here, from your perspective, to run this marathon?

Speaker 1: 10:10

Well, a couple things have happened over time. At first, we had to work really hard. We had to be Richmond wasn't known as a destination city and we had to really build up our reputation as a well-organized event. We built up a brand as America's Friendliest Marathon. So we worked really hard with our volunteers and with the community just to make it really inviting and welcoming and just go on that extra mile to be nice.

Speaker 2: 10:36

Are there marathons where they're not nice?

Speaker 1: 10:39

Yeah, marathons tend to be very nice, um, but we, we tend to exceed expectations and and, and I think the quality of what we deliver is really high, and so we were trying to differentiate ourselves. You know, one of the things they always say is you, you can't, uh, operational success doesn't lead to more signups, um, that you actually have to do things that, like, really appeal to people. So we've tried to do some of that, but largely what happened over time is that Richmond became a destination city and that people want to come here, and so more and more, we've been marketing the Richmond Marathon with Richmond as a destination, and so that's really starting to work. And so, yeah, if you combine the two factors of a really high-quality event with a destination city, it's going to do well.

Speaker 2: 11:27

So the Richmond Marathon is not the only race that you guys run. You run several. It's not the only event that you guys run. Tell us a little bit about the operations there, the events, the volunteers. How do you guys make it happen?

Speaker 1: 11:38

Yeah, we have about 8,000 volunteers across all our events every year and we also have programs which I want to get into as well. But our events we have 13 events throughout the course of the year. They're really to celebrate active living lifestyle here in Greater Richmond. We really think that the more the community embraces it, it's more something that's really authentic to the community, that they're proud of, more likely they are to tell friends and family and to participate themselves. So the best example of that is actually the CarMax Tacky Light Run that's out in Midlothian in December and Walton Park neighborhood goes berserk and puts up just all these tacky lights. Richmond is one of the best tacky light cities in America and so I had no idea that that was our claim.

Speaker 1: 12:29

It might be something you know. It might not have been what the Chamber of Commerce wanted to be known as being great at, but we are great at it.

Speaker 1: 12:35

So we created a run around it and it's turned into like everybody's dressed up, wearing all sorts of reindeer onesies and lights all over, and you basically get 5,000 people running around this neighborhood with all these lights and we close the streets. It's pretty awesome, and so that's the kind of thing that our Dominion Energy River Rock is a fantastic event on our riverfront, where people get to try a kayak, watch some of the best rock climbers in the world compete. You get to see, you know people are trail running, mountain biking. You have all these activities going on. It's like the three ring circus.

Speaker 1: 13:15

Of course, the most popular thing is the dog jumping and we have live music and a giant celebration on the riverfront, and over the years, what it's done is it's let Richmonders know how great our river actually is and the trails and the park along it. So the James River Park is now our most visited regional attraction and it's really awesome. And so I think having events that show off something that's really awesome is great, and certainly the Richmond Marathon does that. Going through all these wonderful neighborhoods. You know runners all complain about the hills that we make them go on, but one of the things they love the most is running along the James River.

Speaker 1: 13:58

Well, if you live in Richmond, you know you kind of got to go down a hill and back up a hill to be along the river. Well, if you live in Richmond, you know you kind of got to go down a hill and back up a hill to be along the river. So, yeah, we make them go down and be all on the river out by Huguenot and Pony Pasture, and then the neighborhoods are incredible. So yeah it's. You know the U-Crops Monument Avenue 10K is another huge event that we created. One point in time, it was the 12th largest running race in the United States. So you know we definitely are punching above our weight with our events. The, the Dominion Energy River Rock is the country's largest outdoor sports and music festival oh wow, I didn't realize so you know, it's like 80,000 people right we get up around 100,000.

Speaker 1: 14:39

100 now, okay yeah and it really is a testament to how Richmonders now really have embraced their city and have a lot more ownership and then are telling more people about it. So our visitation from outside is much greater than it used to be.

Speaker 2: 14:59

Tell us where does this creative genius come from to create these events and what's it take to do that. And what else are you guys working on that our listeners need to know about.

Speaker 1: 15:07

Yeah, I mean it's kind of interesting because you know, about 15 years ago we sat back and we're like, okay, what are we most proud of? And we were doing the events. But the events themselves weren't what we were proud of. What we were proud of is getting people to live actively. More people are out running biking in neighborhoods and all over the region. And so we're like, wait a second, what if we kind of change this around and put promoting active living is what we are about? What would we do differently? And a couple of things came to mind.

Speaker 1: 15:39

You know one there's some inequities in our community around bike and pedestrian infrastructure. Basically, there's less of it in a lot of suburban areas and some of the inner suburban kind of core is what was basically skipped over. It doesn't have that infrastructure. So it's incredibly important there. But creating a way that people can walk or bike is just a regular part of life. So you know, our biggest project to date is the Fall Line Trail, which will be a 43 mile long trail from Ashland to Petersburg right through the heart of downtown. So you know, ultimately that will be the spine of our bike and pedestrian network. We also saw firsthand that some communities you know most parts of our region, there's some kind of fitness something in every strip mall or somewhere you know. You turn around and there's another fitness thing. But in the low-income community there isn't. So we created free fitness classes through our Fitness Warrior program. So we have over 60 free classes going on this week and every week throughout the year Community centers, libraries they're just available for free.

Speaker 2: 16:51

Do you do those at Anne Hardy Plaza?

Speaker 1: 16:54

No.

Speaker 2: 16:54

No sure. I don't know You're not the guy I don't know. I think I used to see your signs. It's been a little while since.

Speaker 1: 17:01

I've seen that. Yeah, I mean, we have them all over the place. And then, finally, kids. It used to be 30, 40 years ago that lower-income kids just played after school and they were our best college athletes and tended to become pro athletes and they were the ones that really excelled well and over time. Because of safety concerns, because of screens doing the babysitting, well, low income kids aren't allowed to play right after school, they're actually kind of stuck on the screen and and so we've created kids on the move, uh, kind of group clubs, uh, to encourage active living. We have about 60 of those, largely in low income areas but all over the community, largely before or after school, but ways just to get kids out and play and get moving. So some of it is very intentional, but we also have training teams, we also do all sorts of things to get everybody moving and we have about 250,000 people in our database, so we have an outsized impact here in the greater Richmond area.

Speaker 2: 18:11

We don't have time to talk about it at length, but that is going to have a profound impact on development and access and so many other things. So that's really exciting and I'm glad that. I mean, how many years have you guys been working on that project?

Speaker 1: 18:30

We've been working on it for seven years.

Speaker 1: 18:33

We kind of hatched the idea, but we also were aware of all the local government's bike and pedestrian plans basically their transportation plans, and so we kind of knew what was in the works and then we knew what needed to be added to other entities' plans and then ultimately we got VDOT to do the corridor study and helped get the local governments all going and, to be honest, it's an incredibly shared partnership to get this thing built.

Speaker 1: 19:03

And it's one of the huge lessons I've had you know, I've worked for sports records for 31 years as the executive director and the number one lesson too often nonprofits are created to solve a problem but they think they got to just do it all themselves, do it all themselves, and it becomes like, well, it's kind of them against the world and they're, you know, even in a small area, they're trying to boil the ocean, they're trying to do too much, and so really understanding that partners like local governments are incredibly good at a lot of things that nonprofits want to do, and one of them is to build trails and sidewalks and they get it. And so you have to work with them and you have to work with the citizenry, and it's all a process, but they are a powerful partner to have.

Speaker 2: 19:54

Well, I think it's important for our listeners to know that it takes time to do big things and that you cannot give up before you've gotten the traction that you need. Seven years is a long time to wait, and we're still going to wait another seven more, I think, before it's done. Is that right, or more than that?

Speaker 1: 20:07

Well, it's all relative. So we are anticipating 20 miles of it to be done in about two and a half years. So you'll be able to use those. We're not waiting for all 43 miles and most of it. Well, I might, but not many people actually go all the way from Petersburg to Ashland. You'll be doing the mile to the local coffee shop, or two miles to this park, or it'll be the way that your kid walks to school, like there's 95 public schools along the route. So it's not a yes, it'll be 10 years till we get all 43 miles done, but that's how these things work. I mean, I'm not. That doesn't disappoint me.

Speaker 2: 20:50

No, it's not a bad thing.

Speaker 1: 20:52

It's just the time that it takes and you know, that's one of the things I learned from my paddling it takes a while. It takes time to build these things up. It takes a while to get everybody on board with the projects of this size and the scale and, we're hoping, with the quality that we're hoping to achieve. We want to have one of the top five trails in the country, measured by its impact on the community, and that doesn't just happen overnight.

Speaker 2: 21:23

Well, you're an inspiration for us all. We're going to take a quick break and we'll come back and talk a little bit about the future of Richmond, as well as your future. Thank you for listening to America's Healthiest City on Mike King Biz Radio Network. Hop over to podcastamericanshealthiestcitycom to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also catch these full episodes on YouTube, as well as clips on Instagram and LinkedIn. We want to welcome you into our world so that we can make these things possible. John, a lot has changed in the seven years since I've moved to Richmond. I say that there's a belief system that we can. What do you think about the future of Richmond, and maybe you have an idea or two that we might sprinkle on our ideas board for ways that other folks can get involved in pursuing this mission?

Speaker 1: 22:23

Yeah, it's interesting. I mean you brought up the changes here. I know when I first came here people always kind of looked at the river and the riverfront from their office building and looked down and it was always kind of described that's what those people are doing. And then now it's become what we do as richmonders, and and how many people get out and inner tube on the river or go for a hike or walk on the potterfield bridge? It's hundreds of thousands, it's millions a year and so, like that whole change of what what we are about is part of an active living movement.

Speaker 1: 22:59

So it's not just sports backers, all sorts of entities and there's all sorts of ways to volunteer and get involved, get engaged. You know, if you prefer getting your hands dirty, you know the friends of James River Park or the Capitol Trees do great work. You know, if it's more that you want to help with sporting events, and that area and sports backers is certainly one. You know, helping people with physical disabilities, there's ways to volunteer with Sportable. I'm sure you've talked to Hunter Lehman and the crew over there and they do a fantastic job. And then there's, you know, sometimes it's helping out with your kid. You know your kid's on a sports team.

Speaker 1: 23:40

You know, I was my daughter's coach for too many years and they always need help and they also need supportive parents. I just one of my coworkers was saying how they had to tell the parents how to actually talk to their children when they're out there playing, because too many parents were like giving advice from the sideline rather than just encouragement. And so, yeah, there's a whole thing here Like there's all sorts of ways you can get involved. But active living is a very broad subject. Sports is a very broad subject. There's a reason the Richmond Times-Dispatch still has a sports section. It's why they cover sports. It's big, and then active living is bigger than that. So there's all sorts of ways to be involved and engaged.

Speaker 2: 24:27

I was talking to my wife a couple nights ago and I said you know, I think if we're going to ever make Richmond a blue zone, we're going to have to start making a bunch of small blue zones all over the place. Do you think that we'll get there? Do you think that we're going to have what it takes to become the healthiest region in America by 2033?

Speaker 1: 24:43

Yeah, it doesn't really matter To me. It doesn't matter the number of people that are inactive. If we can change people's perspectives on what a quality life means and how being healthy, being active, eating well, you know if that's all part of how we as Richmonders live. You know we've seen tremendous gains in active living, but we had huge gains the first 10 or 15 years and things have slowed down and and that's natural like the hardest incremental stuff, when you already reached the easily reachable. You know getting to the hard to reach people is tough, and so it.

Speaker 1: 25:33

It is what the great thing about sports backers is. We're not like uh, making you like get your blood tested all the time, and we're not like telling you what all you need to do. What we're doing is we're creating opportunities for you to have fun, to go out and enjoy our community, ways to celebrate what is great about Richmond, the way to embrace your neighbors and work and do things with them to have healthier lives. Like we're not saying you have to do this because you're going to be unhealthy if you don't. What we're saying is look at all the benefits of being healthy and how awesome this is, and so that's really fun.

Speaker 1: 26:15

That's why our board, like they love to be engaged, like they love to be part of this, why our volunteers are so positive and that's why, you know, myself and coworkers have stayed at Sports Backers so long. We're just blessed to be able to be part of a movement. That's fun. I mean it is exciting On the marathon like running a marathon that's fun. I mean it is exciting On the marathon, like running a marathon is really hard but when you have all the fan support and all the community support and everybody out cheering and it is really inspirational. And so to see that and be part of it is for some people they say it's the best part of the year is they come out of their house and they're cheering on the runners. So you know it's about creating that positive movement. So if we don't get and reach the big, hairy, audacious goal, it doesn't matter. What matters is that you tried.

Speaker 2: 27:06

Well, that's a great insight, and I have often thought to myself that if we don't hit the goal, I'm not going to be disappointed because we're doing the work to make it better anyway. So you gave me a good opportunity to pivot to another point. So, after 31 years of being at Sports Backers, earlier this year you announced your retirement. So I'm curious Maybe you know, maybe you don't, but what do you have planned coming up and have you thought at all about your legacy?

Speaker 1: 27:33

Yeah, I mean it's natural to think about legacy throughout. I think the biggest thing I hope is that Sports Backers is a sustainable organization and that active living is a movement in the community for generations to come. And that was always something that was pushed forward by Bobby Ucrop when he started sports backers. You know he's like this isn't, this isn't for me to have fun now, this is for my kids and my grandchildren to have fun for decades. And so that kind of how we can touch more and more people and have it really last, that's what I think I hope I've I've created at sports backers that really lasts from legacy standpoint. It's really the culture, that's what I think I hope I've created at Sports Backers that really lasts. So from a legacy standpoint, it's really the culture, it's the movement, it's the vibrancy of what we do.

Speaker 1: 28:24

And then, as far as me, I'm very healthy right now I just grabbed the mic, sorry. You're good and very healthy. My wife's healthy. We are relatively young. We have a whole world of opportunity ahead of us. We're not saying yes to anything new, we're not saying no to stuff, but I think I wanted to leave Sportsbackers when it was doing great. We have record entries in the marathon for this weekend. We're going to be building new office along the Fall Line Trail. That's part of a trailhead project with Henrike.

Speaker 2: 29:02

I visited that the other day. That's a fun project.

Speaker 1: 29:04

It's really cool and it's really happening and so you know we're going to be leaving. I'm going to be leaving sports backers in a great place and I love being physically active and I'm sure I have. I know I have a bunch of bucket list kind of things to do, but I've also been doing them my whole life.

Speaker 1: 29:23

So it's not like it's not like I waited to retirement to do these things, it's more continuation. I might have to do a little more yoga and some other things to like stretch out than I used to, but you know, for me it's still really fun to be out there and be active.

Speaker 2: 29:38

Well, for our listeners out there who want to sign up for the marathon, where can they go to do that and where can they find out more about Sportsbackers?

Speaker 1: 29:46

Yeah, sportsbackersorg, you can just go there. All things Sportsbackers. Learn about our free fitness classes, our kids' clinics Maybe you want to volunteer and be one of the coaches there and the fall line and other bike and pedestrian infrastructure. You can get engaged. And then, certainly, our events Sign up for our events. Come out and watch the marathon. You know it's regular people doing something really incredible and for people to run 26 miles is hard and people often go through a lot A to get to the start line and B to get to the finish. So just seeing it and being part of their journey is worth it. Go out there and watch.

Speaker 2: 30:28

Well, I'm incredibly grateful for you coming into the studio and sharing with our listeners and with me, and I wish you the very best as you move forward into your retirement and we look forward to seeing you around at all these wonderful events that we have here in Richmond.

Speaker 1: 30:40

All right, Thanks Will.

Speaker 2: 30:42

We'll catch you next time here on ESPN Richmond 106.1, six o'clock Thursday mornings.