Richmond Marathon Winner Returns to City

Speaker 1 0:00

no one was cheering for you . Your opponent certainly didn't . You know , isn't , you know , actually encouraging you , you know , as you are winning or essentially beating them right ? But that's the kind of race Richmond is , you know . You have fans that are there cheering for you , you have other runners there and everyone's out there to really see you know and reach their own personal best , and that environment is is really incredible and really just something that's hard to find .

Speaker 2 0:40

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Speaker 2 1:15

Today we are recording this episode from Common House and I have Rob Mazzanti , the first place finisher in the Richmond Marathon . Last week we interviewed John Lugbill , the director of sports backers , who's responsible for that race , and so we're excited to have this interview . Hopefully I know it's not your first interview , but hopefully it's your first radio interview Tell us a little bit about yourself and , if you wouldn't mind , start with where . How'd you get to Richmond ? I guess is the question we start everybody with .

Speaker 1 1:49

Sure , thanks . Well , I'm really glad to be here . I'm excited , yeah . So how I got to Richmond ? So I actually moved to Richmond . This is way back when , so we're running the clock a little bit . When I came for undergrad , I went to the University of Richmond in 2000, . Started here in 2006 , graduated in 2009 , and then stayed in Richmond for several years working and was mostly at that time involved in the tennis industry as a private tennis coach . I was traveling , playing some tournaments both in Richmond but also throughout the United States , did some travel abroad , traveled with a group of pro players as kind of their hitting partner and sparring partner , traveled and trained at some academies . But Richmond was my home base for a while before taking some time away , went up to Northern Virginia DC area for a couple of years , did business school and then back to Richmond . I've been here full time since for about , I guess , two and a half years now and somewhere 22 .

Speaker 2 2:43

Great , great . And what was it that brought you back ? I mean like Richmond , was it a draw ? I mean , did something say I need to come here ? Was it a job ? What happened ? I ?

Speaker 1 2:52

mean there's a couple of things , but one I mean I love Richmond as a city

Returning to Richmond

Speaker 1 2:56

. You know , when I was an undergrad I spent a lot of my time on campus , but it was really kind of after I graduated I got to explore the city and kind of see what everything was about and you know I fell in love with the city . I moved around a lot growing up so I've been in , you know , some of the bigger cities of Chicago and lived in some smaller areas as well . And Richmond was kind of a nice balance where you have a lot of kind of the bigger city amenities but you have a , you know , a really kind of a nice pace of life . People here are really friendly , very welcoming , and you can find just a really good community without feeling like you're just another person in a crowd , right . So I really like that balance and it's an affordable city .

Speaker 1 3:34

You know , in DC , you know , especially when I was kind of getting to a point where I wanted to buy a house , maybe look at starting a family , richmond became more and more appealing .

Speaker 1 3:41

So I met my fiance here in Richmond . She went to University of Richmond as well , did law school , you know . So we were kind of toying with the idea . Do we want to stay in DC and try to do something there , or do we want to maybe come back to Richmond ? And you know both of us have roots here in Richmond . It kind of felt like a second home . So , as we started looking where we wanted to be , kind of what kind of city would allow us to live the lifestyle we wanted to , we're both fairly active and Richmond kind of checked a lot of those boxes of where we can , you know , find a good house , we can be part of a community and we can stay active , you know , whether it's running , playing tennis or just , you know , enjoying things like getting out and spending some time on the James . So there were a lot of you know , pulls here that brought us back .

Speaker 2 4:26

I was watching one of your pre-race videos and I saw a clip of you running on um about Belle Isle , I think it was . So that's uh . It's a wonderful uh scenery to to be able to train on so yeah , I love going down there .

Speaker 1 4:32

It's one of my favorite places I so I lived when I moved back to Richmond . I lived downtown um , so I did a lot of my running or probably a majority , overwhelming majority on the Capitol Trail , but as much as I could , you know you just go the other . You know it's amazing , with a half a mile you're in your downtown Richmond , right , but you are now on soft trails , you're . You know you kind of have this . You know this serene backdrop . You know I'm running along the river , waking up , you know , before work , and I'm , you know I see deer and wildlife and it's just completely , it's that nice environment , even though you're in the middle of the city .

Speaker 2 5:04

So you are a driven individual , both in your academic performance and your career and , obviously , in your fitness and training and performance out on the race track . So tell me a little bit about your profession , your career up until this point . And , you know , what did you learn from that ? What was that sort of drive , the demanding drive ? We'll just , you know , tell folks that you were , uh were , in the investment banking world , so so anybody who doesn't know , maybe you can explain how rigorous that is . But you know , what did you learn from that ? And , and you know , how do you see those lessons playing out as you move into the future , those lessons playing out as you move into the future ? I know you're helping some folks . You mentioned helping folks as a sparring partner , helping coach runners .

Speaker 1 5:50

Tell us a little bit about what you're working on and how you kind of see the future . Yeah , you know , I think , for better or worse , I have a more of a type A personality where I've always been really driven . I think I this goes back to as early as I can remember growing up , you know , playing sports . My first sport was baseball and I , you know my . My goal was to try to be the best player I wanted to be . I had early dreams of , you know , playing in the major leagues , but you know , I never really had the same passion I did for , maybe , baseball as I did some other sports and end up just picking up tennis because that was what a lot of my friends were doing . I picked up a racket as a junior in high school and realized I was a fairly good athlete and good enough to at least be competitive and make the tennis team . So did that really just kind of more recreationally and then didn't lose a match in high school . So had a pretty good high school career for those two years , really enjoyed it . And then going to college , but that was kind of back on mind . I thought that was it .

Speaker 1 6:34

I played club tennis in college and then it really wasn't until after I graduated and the goal at that point was thinking law school or some kind of graduate school . So I , you know , I finished and started studying for the LSAT and a good friend of mine was traveling and starting to play in the professional tour . He was a top 10 player in the country and he needed a hitting partner , someone to kind of help organize his schedule and so he could really just focus on the training aspect of his game . So I was good enough to at least be a practice partner with him and you know , I would actually kind of supplement the time between training with him doing some private coaching . So I started working with some local players in Richmond , some juniors , as they were trying to make their high school team or if they had goals of playing collegiately , no-transcript .

Speaker 1 7:31

And then we were traveling internationally . You know I spent time in Western Europe , africa , kind of all over North and South America , you know , mostly as a hitting partner for these players , but also , if there was a spot in qualifying , I would jump in and play some of these tournaments as well . Um , you know , I'd be lucky if I held surf a couple times , but it was a really fun experience and , um , like I said , I learned so much about not just , um , you know , the competition , but also how these athletes were training , how they were taking care of their bodies , what they were eating and there's so many other things that go into that elite level performance that I was never really exposed to . So that was my first real experience to see how these players trained and lived as professional athletes and I was able to bring some of those things that you know that you could still incorporate into your daily life if you have a full time job , if you're working , you know , if you have a family , and I was able to bring those things into my own life and then also share those with some of my students . So you have , you know , players , high school players , able to take some of these , you know again , fairly , I think . I don't want to say easy , but you know they were , you know it was a routine that you could adapt into their own training and started to see some really good success . So these players were , you know , doing very well . Some of them ended up with regional and national rankings playing collegiately .

Speaker 1 8:40

So that was a really fun time in my life , but you know it was just . You know it's exciting for me to watch my own game improve , but also helping these juniors reach their own level . And that's just . I don't know . It's just this internal drive that I've had of wanting to find what my personal best was while helping others , you know , find their personal best . And you know I was kind of without thinking about entering into this world of tennis but never really thought about that as a long-term career .

Speaker 1 9:08

But five years went by and was still fairly successful in the tennis industry but wanted to try to do something else . I had this college degree and I was thinking grad school . So I started thinking more seriously about how that would take form . So I was looking at different grad school programs and ultimately just led on business school . I had the probably widest array of options , you know , at that point thinking about , you know , maybe consulting , maybe investment banking , and after , you know , I was like I'll go to business school , talk with some people and see kind of where my strengths might align best . And I ended up after business school landing a job here in Richmond with Harris Williams doing M&A . A job here in Richmond with Harris Williams doing M&A and again for anyone that doesn't know about , kind of investment banking .

Speaker 1 9:49

But it's a , you know , probably one of the most rigorous , I think , career paths where it's not atypical to work 80 to 100 hour work weeks . You know . For example , my work day would probably start around 930 in the morning and I would work until an average day , probably one or two in the morning , with a small break for lunch and dinner . And I would work until an average day , probably one or two in the morning , with a small break for lunch and dinner , and I would get out the door for a run at some point in the evening whenever my time would allow , and then weekends would be . You're working . It just depends on kind of where you are in the deal life cycle , but usually it's putting in four to six hours on a Saturday and then Sunday would be a full day . So you're working seven days a week . Sometimes you have a little more flexibility and then there are others where it's heads down and you're working hard .

Speaker 1 10:31

But I've always been a hard worker and the environment was challenging , but I was also surrounded by some of the brightest and most ambitious people that I've ever been around . I can't really say enough good things about that firm and the people you know . It's interesting because I think about tennis and I knew how to work really hard for something I wanted . Right now I was working for something that sometimes was really hard and things that were interesting and sometimes things had to get done . So I learned to work hard in a different set of environment and with a different set of circumstances that I never really experienced and I was able to kind of take that kind of that perspective into training for something I wanted and I was able to work even harder Right . So I knew if I could do succeed in investment banking that running honestly like I could definitely do that , because that was something I was really you know , it's kind of a growing interest and became you know now it's probably my biggest passion .

Speaker 2 11:23

You're listening to America's Healthiest City on ESPN Richmond 106.1 . I am your host , will Melton . Today in the studio we have Rob Mazzanti . He is the first place finisher in the Richmond Marathon and I'm super excited to have this conversation because we all need inspiration to get up and go and we all can use examples like Rob to better see what's possible out there . So your story is one of performance , I would say , just based on what you've described to me . You said in your social post yesterday , kind of your report out from the run , that leading up to the race and during the race you focused on really three things flow , fight and finish . Tell me about what those three things mean to you . Were those things that you were harnessing the entire race or were those things you kind of had to pull out at different times to be able to motivate yourself ? What , what does flow , fight and finish look like for you inside your head as you're running 26.1 miles ?

Speaker 1 12:16

Yeah , so the flow , fight and finish was my kind of three-pronged strategy going into the Richmond Marathon . I had a lot of time leading up into the weeks and days leading into the race of kind of how I wanted to approach and how I wanted to actually run the course . And my fitness was good . I had a really strong training block going into it . But you know , richmond's a fairly challenging course . There's some elevation on the course . You know weather was pretty good so that wasn't as much of an issue , but there was also some wind and I wanted to factor all these different things and then also consider my own personal strengths to be able to you know what I try to reach the best time that I could . So I broke the course down into three sections miles basically from the start to about miles nine and a half , and that was the flow state .

Speaker 1 13:01

The second part of the race , the next nine miles or so up until mine , from mile nine and a half to 18 , was kind of the most challenging part of the Richmond marathon course and that was the fight course . That's where I knew I'd have to really dial in mentally , work through some of the hills and some of the challenging parts of the race and that's when things would start to get difficult . And then the end from miles 18 to the finish you get more of kind of rolling elevation . But at that point you're really trying to , you know , manage the fatigue that you have in your body . But the course was going to be a little bit more forgiving at that point and my goal was to finish really strong , lean on my training and really just have the confidence to be able to push through and through the finish .

Speaker 2 13:41

So for those listening , just to kind of give them an image of you on the course , I actually saw you on the course . I was picking up a donut from Sugar Shack and walking my dogs , but I saw you run by and for a moment I was like , oh , this guy , just you know , walked out of his house and entered the course and started running because there was literally nobody around you . I couldn't see anybody behind you and your lead was so much that I wouldn't have been , I could look all the way down Lombardi street and I wouldn't have seen anybody at VVU . Um , so I , I , you know , I , I thought that was such a cool thing to see you out front like that . And you finished , um , incredibly strong . I think that you didn't , uh , didn't do the race record , but , um , you , you finished way , way ahead of everybody else in this race and you've did , you beat your best time yes , this is my personal record by a pretty substantial amount .

Speaker 1 14:33

Last year I ran richmond and finished in just under 230 , which was my a goal at the time , um , so it was 229 high , and then this year was 225 , um , in 12 seconds . So , um , you know , in especially marathon in terms , almost five minutes , uh , is a fairly substantial amount of time to take off your previous record . So , yeah , it was a really successful race and I think it was about four minutes or four and a half minutes ahead of the second place finisher

Strategies for Winning Richmond Marathon

Speaker 1 15:00

. Did you hit your goal ? Yeah , so , leading into it , I had three goals . My first goal was to podium , but in the back of my mind was to really win the race . That was my A goal . My B goal was sub 225 , which was a time goal which missed out by 12 seconds . And then the C goal was to hit a PR and knowing and I put my A goal as to win the race ahead of the time because , richmond , if I wanted to run a fast course , there are other courses that are more conducive to that Go run Chicago . Run Chicago , for example , a couple weeks ago . It's a flat course and you don't have to really worry about you know the strategy so much , as opposed to just going out and just locking into a pace and running fast the entire time Richmond , you have to be much more strategic about when you're going to put effort in to manage the hills uphill , downhill , you know so that you're able to finish strong .

Speaker 1 15:51

So my goal also is , you know , I was thinking about , as I was putting together my race schedule , what race I wanted to go , and I originally had one actually marked for my fall calendar in New York the wine glass marathon . But you know , fitness was starting to improve and I started to get really excited about there's the potential that I could win my hometown race in Richmond . I was like I had . I made my my marathon debut in Richmond a couple of years ago and I've had this great journey and I've been surrounded by this community in Richmond and I was like it would be a dream come true for me to win my hometown race . So , um , I switched over to sign up for rich for Richmond and and as soon as I did that , I knew I wanted to fight for podium spot and as my fitness improved , you know , it became a more realistic goal that I might have a shot at actually winning and bringing the crown back to Richmond .

Speaker 2 16:34

So you're , are you watching your time as you're running ?

Speaker 1 16:38

Yes and no . So I have a pretty wide range . So with that three-prong strategy we talked about with the flow , fight and finish , I also had kind of prescribed pace ranges for each one . So for every two or three mile segment , let's say , if it was going downhill into tailwind but then I knew I had a big hill to approach the next mile I might stay between , let's say , a 520 pace per mile and a 540 . So I would stay within kind of a 20 or 30 second range , kind of whatever felt good at that moment . If I'm going uphill , that might change from , let's say , a five minute and 30 pace to a six minute . If I'm going downhill I'd have a 30 second range . That might be a minute below that . So I had an idea .

Speaker 1 17:19

But I give myself , my body , plenty of leeway because there are times in the course where you're going to feel a little better and other times they're challenging . You don't want to fight that . I could maybe run a little faster at points and maybe in that moment I might run faster . But the marathon's a long time to be on the course . You're out there for several hours and if you push a little too hard or you push at the wrong time . That's when it'll catch up with you at mile 20 , 22 , or 24 .

Speaker 2 17:43

Something that's remarkable about this that listeners might not know is you suffered an injury leading up to this or a minor injury ?

Speaker 2 17:50

I believe so you were in recovery mode leading up to the race . Tell me a little bit about that , you . Also , one of the things that I found interesting is that you talked about running and working out , and I found out that working out is running as well . So tell us a little bit about the difference between , just you know , going for a run and working out . And and what was that ? You know , were you worried about , um , your injury , uh , inhibiting your ability to to to podium at this race ?

Speaker 1 18:14

Yes . So and and I think maybe part of it is self-induced I mean one , my , my training volume is quite high , so I run anywhere between 100 and 120 miles per week and then I usually do that for three to four weeks and then have a down week to kind of let my body adapt , kind of you know , hopefully , kind of you know build on that fitness right and then also , if there are any small injuries or things that are just sore on my body , my muscles kind of recover a little bit . But in the final week , really the last month leading up into Richmond , I had two kind of practice races . I ran the Emerald Isle Marathon in Emerald Isle , north Carolina , as kind of my last long run . That was a month out , which I won first place in and that was my first time winning a marathon . And then the next weekend I ran the Raleigh City of Oaks half marathon , which I also came in first place . That one I ran faster and that was a really hilly course . So you know I was running .

Speaker 1 19:10

Many were between five minutes and five minutes , 20 per second mile and and you know I think running at that pace up and down some pretty severe elevation I think just put a lot of strain on my left Achilles and calf , and sometimes , you know , it's kind of hard to know when there's pain and when it's , you know , maybe an injury , and after a couple of days of lingering , you know , I started to worry that it might be something more serious . So , you know , I had a couple of workouts planned , which is , or more , just kind of speed sessions , where I head out to the track and I'm running , kind of what I think a lot of people think about when they're running . You know , your , your hands are on your knees , you're , you're trying to catch your breath , um , and working really hard with , you know , periods of working hard than than rest , um . A lot of my running , though , is , you know , I'd say , 80% of my running is I go out the door . I don't worried if it's . Some days that's a , you know , maybe it's an eight or nine minute mile . Other days it's it's much faster , but I kind of try to enjoy the run as much as I can , and then , usually two to three times a week , I'll go out and do some faster sessions or a long run .

Speaker 1 20:12

But yeah , so it was managing , you know , I think , kind of the recovery from those races and I had a two week window where I had to try to get my body healthy . And that's really where all my focus kind of shifted to in the last couple weeks leading up to the race to Richmond was how do I get healthy , how do I really take care of my body ? So , you know , I'm able to really leverage all this fitness and all the hard work I did so I can perform in Richmond . And really , days leading up to it , each day was getting a little better and a little better . And then , know , race morning , when I was warming up , there was a little bit of tightness . I did a two mile warm-up before the race and then I started doing some faster , you know , just some kind of jogging , but throwing in some faster surges to see how it felt . And it felt good , um , so at that point it was uh , you know , check , check , mark , all systems go I struggle with the idea that anybody would run two miles ahead of running .

Speaker 2 21:01

I said 26.1 , it's 26.2 miles . I'm not even going to let you respond to that , because I think that's just crazy . So Richmond's Marathon is billed as America's friendliest marathon . Tell me a little bit about the crowd interaction that you experience when you're out on the course , and does that help you . What's it feel like to interact with all those folks ?

Speaker 1 21:23

It's incredible . I mean , sports backers is an amazing job hosting this race . This is actually my eighth marathon in two years , so I started my first one in fall . I was at Richmond in 2022 . It was my first experience and it was incredible . And I think about that was I really didn't know what to expect and even then it was a really welcoming , you know kind of experience .

Speaker 1 21:44

And you , I think , if you're running for the first time or really if you've ran marathons before , races before , it's still a really intimidating process . You're , you know you're showing up and you have all these others , other runners around and you have kind of maybe your own personal expectations , so it's intimidating . And then just the course itself . You're running 26 miles , you're out there really pushing your physical and mental limits on that day , but Richmond does a really good job of making it inclusive . Regardless of whether you know you're really gunning for a personal best and you're trying to run as fast as you can or you're just trying to , you know , see what your body's capable of doing , I think there are a lot of resources to make you feel comfortable , to help you kind of know what to expect as much as you can . And then the crowd support , like you mentioned . It really is incredible , especially , you know , even more so for me , from Richmond . You know I was running the race and I remember just hearing my name several times and seeing familiar faces and then also people that I've never met before're cheering for me like they've known me my entire life and and had . You know , and and , and we're so invested in the , in it as well . And you know I'm running and you know I'm , you know there's there's one , this intrinsic motivation . But then you're running and you see all these these crowds cheering and I'm so appreciative of all the time they're taking right , it's 7 , 30 in the morning on the Saturday and they're out there cheering for me and it gives me so much motivation and you get this . You find this extra kind of extra win , this extra gear when you're running by to keep pushing , and especially late in the race , it's , it's incredible , it's invaluable .

Speaker 1 23:11

I remember , uh , and maybe it was , mile 23 or 24 is getting towards the end and I really had to start working hard to push and um , it's when the , the half marathon and the marathon converge , right at that point and you have all these runners that are running the half and they're cheering me on as I'm going . You know , people clapping and cheering and watching and you know , or , and then I remember vividly hearing someone telling me to drive with my legs . My form , my knees were starting to get a little bit lower , I was having to work a little harder and it was amazing , you know , it just helped me remind me to kind of bring back into that moment to push hard , but it's , you know , it's amazing . You have runners .

Speaker 1 23:44

I remember the first time I was running , actually Richmond , I passed somebody in the race and someone said good job . And I , you know , I think from my athletic background , you know , I've played baseball , I've played tennis no one was cheering for you . Your opponent certainly didn't , you know , isn't , you know , actually encouraging you , you know , as you are winning or essentially beating them right ? But that's the kind of race Richmond is . You know you have fans that are there cheering for you . You have other runners there and everyone's out there to really see you know and reach their own personal best , and that environment is really incredible and really just something that's hard to find .

Speaker 2 24:19

Well , incredible inspiration . Big congrats on every aspect of the win and your performance . We're going to take another quick break and then , when we come back , I want to shift focus a little bit toward just the Richmond community and our collective health . You're listening 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 if you are tuning in for the first time , please hop over to our socials . Catch us at America's Healthiest City on YouTube , instagram and LinkedIn . You can see shorts from our episodes and you can catch full episodes on YouTube , as well as wherever you get your podcasts , so please go over there podcastamericashealthiestcitycom to catch those episodes and subscribe .

Speaker 2 25:03

We are at Common House today recording this episode on a tight schedule . We have Rob Mazzanti , who is the first place finisher in the Richmond Marathon Allianz Partners Richmond Marathon and this is again just really inspirational and I wanted to you know this next segment I want to talk a little bit about before we move into Richmond . I want to talk about what's next for you . Do you have another race picked out ?

Speaker 1 25:28

I do so I'm actually running , I'm racing . In about two and a half weeks I'm running an ultra marathon , which is a big category that's basically anything longer than an actual marathon . So it's a 50K , it's about 32 miles trail race in Virginia , out west , a little bit in Farmville . So I'll be running that with the goal of trying to hopefully set a new course record .

Speaker 2 25:49

Is this your first ?

Speaker 1 25:50

ultra . It's the second , so I did one in the fall of 2022 in Virginia Beach , the Seashore 50K , which I also ended up winning in first place .

Speaker 2 26:00

Wonderful , you're just a winner , man , you're just a winner . So you are . You know , just before we wrap up here , you are available for hire . If somebody's looking for a running coach , they need to reach out to you . It sounds like .

Speaker 1 26:11

Yes , so actually I just started running coaching , so I was doing a lot of tennis coaching , so I have a pretty extensive background working with kind of athletes of all levels . But I'm working with a good friend now who's , you know , very , very good athlete and on the precipice of breaking the three hour mark , which is , I think , for most , a lifetime goal hitting a Boston qualifying time . So we're working together and expecting him to do great things . So , yeah , that's kind of the next evolution . You know , I've learned a lot in running in my own journey over the last couple years and I'm just really passionate about running , health and fitness and , if someone is interested , I would love to be able to help someone along their own journey and helping them hit their own personal goals .

Winning Strategies of Marathon Champion

Speaker 2 26:52

Well , rob Mazzanti , thank you for joining us in the studio today and thank you . Congratulations , not thank you , Thank you for the inspiration , but congratulations for your many wins . I'm just , I'm really inspired , inspired and we have so much to learn from you . So , thank you , thanks . I'll really appreciate it . This was America's healthiest city on ESPN , richmond 106.1 . You can catch us on the network every Thursday at 6 AM . We will catch you next time .