Canadian Track and Field League Founder - Quinn Lyness - Episode #232

Can a team-based format elevate Canadian track and field to new heights? Last week, we sat down with Quinn Lyness, the Canadian Track and Field League (CTFL) founder, to uncover the innovative approach poised to revolutionize the sport. Modelled after the success of Formula One and other major team sports, Quinn's vision brings a fresh and competitive edge to track and field. We'll break down the league's structure, from the prelim events scattered across the country to the highly anticipated finals in Ottawa, all set against the vibrant backdrop of the national championships. Discover how CTFL is fostering a strong community and creating a buzz around Canadian track and field like never before.

We'll also tackle the challenges of promoting Canadian track and field athletes, with a focus on marketing, media presence, and funding. Hear about the league's strategies for retaining athletes post-university by offering continuous competition and engaging content, spotlighting stars like Mariam Abdul-Rashid. We compare the CTFL with Europe's Diamond League, discuss the commodification of athletes by shoe brands, and emphasize the need for better storytelling and innovative partnerships. Join us for a deep dive into the future of Canadian track and field, and learn how CTFL is positioning itself to help Canada shine on the international stage.

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Other episodes you might enjoy:
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:20

Hey team, welcome back to the 232nd episode of the Athletes Podcast. Today, joining us is Quinn Linus, from the Canadian Track and Field League. Right at the heart of Canadian athletics. This episode is powered by Diesel, the premium whey isolate protein powder from Perfect Sports, trusted by athletes to fuel their performance with clean, powerful nutrition. Quinn is here to give us an insider's view on the dynamics of professional track and field, sharing how founding the league, the Canadian Track and Field League, is allowing athletes onto the global stage and fostering a new generation of talent. We'll delve into the strategic initiatives that are shaping the future of the sport and the exciting competitions lined up this season.

Speaker 1: 1:00

As we unpack these topics, I'll also share snippets from my recent journey across Canada, where I've connected with athletes and sports enthusiasts alike, exploring the rich tapestry of Canadian sports culture. For those looking to dive deeper and perhaps even join the ranks of elite athletes, don't miss out on our athlete agreement. This is the part of the show where I make sure you guys know it's not free. We ask you to hit the subscribe button. Or wherever you're listening or watching, whether it's on YouTube, Spotify this is your gateway to understanding the commitments and benefits of aligning with not only a league, but a podcast that is on the rise. Stay tuned and get inspired as we discuss everything about the CTFL this past weekend in Montreal and the essential regimens for peak performance.

Speaker 1: 1:47

Whether you're hitting the track or any field of life, it's about powering through. Here we go. You're the most decorated racquetball player in US history, World's strongest man, From childhood passion to professional athlete. Eight-time Ironman champion, so what was it like making your debut in the NHL? What is your biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes, from underdogs to national champions? This is the Athletes Podcast, where high-performance individuals share their triumphs, defeats and life lessons to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of athletes. Here we go. Yo Quinn Linus, welcome to the Athletes Podcast. Yeah, finally in person, dude. It took us long enough, but I had to travel all the way across the country for it.

Speaker 2: 2:32

Yeah, fair enough. I'm based in Ottawa, so I'm not traveling all the way to BC for a. What Eventually?

Speaker 1: 2:38

maybe Harry Jerome.

Speaker 2: 2:40

That's true. Yeah, we had our videographer up there, so we did send some people.

Speaker 1: 2:44

Langley last year. True, last two years. Okay, okay, I've heard it's going to be again there in the future. I heard they crushed it. Yo, ctfl man.

Speaker 2: 2:53

Yeah, making a name for track and field up in Canada. Hey, what kind of inspired it. You said it's been a dream. Yeah, it has been a dream, honestly, since like maybe the age of 18. Um, I thought about kind of like, why is trucking a bigger thing in canada, even in the world? Um, and I really kind of came down to like it's not like a team-based sport. North america we love the nhl, nba, like any kind of team-based anything. Really, we consume it and it's great. Um, but any individual sport, they're always kind of like overshadowed by by those kind of team environments. And even Formula One it's an individual sport but it's gained a lot of popularity in North America and it's still an individual kind of sport but they kind of make it into a team function. So it's pretty cool and that's kind of what inspired it.

Speaker 1: 3:37

It's the Netflix effect for Formula One, hey.

Speaker 2: 3:40

That's what got me into Formula One and, honestly, without Formula One, I wouldn't have come up with the way that the CTFL works. So it's heavily based on Formula 1 and also cross-country.

Speaker 1: 3:50

So break it down how this works, how the CFL is formulated, why people should be participating.

Speaker 2: 3:57

Yeah, so the CTFL is a team-based kind of format. We have four teams, 10 disciplines. There's close to 300 athletes in the third year. So every single year we add about, honestly, like usually, about 30%. Next year we plan not to kind of increase the size as much, but yeah, it's still a lot to manage.

Speaker 2: 4:16

But basically, athletes go through. They have five opportunities to race at a prelim. They only have to race at one prelim across the country. So we have meets from Calgary to Montreal. Freedom they only have to race at one freedom across the country. So we have meets from calgary to montreal, a couple in ontario and stuff, and they the thing culminates. So the season culminates at the ctfl finals, which is going to be this year july 6th in ottawa, so a week away from nationals, and yeah, it's going to be pretty cool to see how everyone does. And then you accumulate points throughout the season and whoever has the most points wins individual and uh, there's also your points contribute to your team and then your team will win kind of a massive trophy and cash prizes and yeah, so it's, uh, it's pretty cool.

Speaker 1: 4:49

Heck, yeah. And it's fitting because we're at nationals right now. You can hear all this background noise. I apologize for those listening right now. We're gonna do the best to edit this part out, but this is part of the allure, yeah, of I can't believe how many people are here right now.

Speaker 2: 5:03

It is a pack stands in the crowd right now it's 100 meter tonight, um, but like throughout the 400 they were pack stands, so it was basically from like four o'clock on you couldn't find a seat, so that's pretty sick right, I know I had to drop in some extra cash to get that vip spot.

Speaker 1: 5:16

Yeah, exactly this one.

Speaker 2: 5:17

We're definitely there we go jesus, this seemed like a quieter spot about five minutes ago we tried, we tried.

Speaker 1: 5:26

This is all. You know what part of being an athlete is being agile, being adaptable and being willing to work under not ideal circumstances. Yeah, and that's part of what we preach here on the show is it's not always going to be perfect. Sometimes you have background noise, sometimes you have a crappy sleep, sometimes you need to still perform exactly and I think you probably learned that both at queens and u of ottawa. Yeah, were you brainstorming business ideas of the ctfl during school? Is that like kind of?

Speaker 2: 5:54

started this. I actually started the ctfl while I was doing my master's at queens, so mid I get, I get bored really easily, so if I'm grinding, it's really hard for me to stop. Um, so when I came home from christmas break, I had had this idea for years. Um, and then I was like, hey, you know what, I'm gonna sit down, write a business plan and it just so happened that aaron brown so one of canada's like top 100 meter sprinters- friend, friend of the show.

Speaker 1: 6:16

He's been on the pod and I probably missed that episode that's okay um, but uh, yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:21

So we we kind of contacted him and he was in full support of it. And then I was like you know what, if aaron brown, one of the fastest men in the world, is on board, then let's go for it. Um started it up with, like I mean, we wrote the business plan, but that was about it. That's the only thing we had. So it launched and I just had to roll with the punches and see how it went and um, luck, like you know what. Luck was definitely on my side and it came through and the first season is successful.

Speaker 1: 6:45

Then we're just getting bigger and bigger every year dude luck's part of when preparation meets, what is it talent?

Speaker 2: 6:54

yeah, timing, something like that.

Speaker 1: 6:56

Oh yeah, everything I can't remember the exact quote yeah, but it proves the fact that you put in the work.

Speaker 1: 7:03

you probably dreamed about this for five, six, seven years. The power of visualization is real. People who don't understand that have not experienced it. I was chatting with Larry B Coach, larry B out of Vancouver, who you probably know Blatso, I'm screwing up his name. Anyway, we just had this conversation this morning about visualization and it's so apparent. Aaron Volpati, who you might know played in the NHL for the Vancouver Canucks, Washington Capitals, had like 30% of his body third-degree burns. Came back within three months, was playing hockey again, was told he might not ever even walk let alone play sports.

Speaker 1: 7:41

It's legit. The brain power is a thing. When you think about what you've been able to achieve over the past three years, where do you see it growing? Obviously, Michael Johnson announced recently his league.

Speaker 2: 7:52

Yeah, obviously it seemed more of a threat when he initially launched it and if it ends up blowing up then I could be in big trouble right now. But he's got a lot of funding behind him. He's got got like 30 million dollars. He's got some of the best athletes in the world. Um, he has city's magazine, probably the biggest track and field kind of news outlet, in in track.

Speaker 2: 8:13

Um, and uh, honestly, I'm not. I'm obviously it's scary because this is my business and livelihood I guess on the line now. But, um, I don't think I'm as threatened by it as I was originally. Um, and yeah, like, it's just kind of like how well he's gonna be able to market it.

Speaker 2: 8:31

That's all it comes down to right, like no matter how good the athletes are and this is kind of hard to hear but no matter how good the athletes are, it's like the people behind everything that organize the events and put it on and then get the tv rights and all that kind of stuff that get to the audience. Like you just need audiences, eyes, and that's how you fund everything. Um, so the more eyes, the more, um, you know, opportunities we can get. Um will allow the athletes in turn to get a lot more opportunities, get more funding and all that kind of stuff. So you know, we can kind of circle back. This is after like year one, but, um, we'll see how it goes. It's a lot of money to play with, also a lot of money to lose. So yeah, I'm interested to see what he does.

Speaker 1: 9:08

That's part of why we're bringing you on the AP man. We got to give you a little bump here and highlight the fact that this is happening in Canada too. It's tough when you have what one-tenth of the population of the US right and you think about all the additional athletes that come with that. We need to do a better job as a nation of highlighting our own and also showcasing the fact that we have some of the best athletes in the world.

Speaker 2: 9:32

We do, and it's funny, like you know, we have how many world champions last year, four or five, um, from on the track side uh, that's amazing, that was our best year ever. But, um, yeah, like, canada is a nation to be, you know, feared on the international stage when it comes to sports and, um, though, you know it's, it's an awesome crowd today. Um, it would be better, if you know, if we, you know, could fill out like the oregon stadium or something like that, like they do at usa track and field trials.

Speaker 1: 9:56

So, um, yeah, one step at a time, right and dude. Track and field Not necessarily the most popular sport over the past few decades.

Speaker 2: 10:06

No, no, and especially with Bolt kind of retiring and stuff like that took a huge dip. But I think we're kind of coming back a little bit. There's a lot of initiatives that are starting up and a lot of content creators that are doing a really good job, and that's what we need.

Speaker 1: 10:19

So yeah, and we keep bringing on people like Liz Gleadle, sarah Minton I was just chatting with Ethan Kra kratzberg in the vip section before this. We're going to bring him on at some point, probably hopefully at some point before after paris finley knox in the swimming space. We as a nation have some of the most incredible athletes. You're doing a good job with ctfl and scaling that. I need to make sure that that's highlighted and emphasized. Thank you, but where do you see maybe room for improvement? Where would you like to see? Right now you have the opportunity here to speak to thousands of people.

Speaker 2: 10:52

Yeah, um, I think the biggest thing for us is, I mean, there's there's a lot of bureaucracy, and that's what I've been dealing with all this season. Welcome to the jungle man, exactly. And so, like, originally, ctfl was kind of like that. People were scared of it, um, like the people that are in established positions in the governing bodies and organizations. Then they kind of came around to it and now we're starting to become, you know, we're pushing the envelope a little bit, doing things that, like, maybe they don't want to do, but it's necessary for us to grow the sport, um, so, honestly, I think for us it's like cutting the red tape a little bit more, being a little bit more relaxed, um, and then just then, just you know, having fun putting out really amazing content.

Speaker 2: 11:28

As I said, it's just a cycle like the more content you can produce, the more eyes you get, um, basically, in turn, like that'll generate more revenue because we're selling to sponsors and stuff, um, and then the athletes get paid more.

Speaker 2: 11:40

Ideally, they get better performances because they're getting paid more, because they have more time to practice and not have to pick up a part-time job, um, and then, yeah, it's just a never-ending cycle of just improvement for canada and we're already seeing the effects of ctfl, like especially at the lower down levels. Um, it's awesome. Like even athletics, canada has kind of noticed that there's a huge disconnect between making a national team and finishing university, so that age between like 22 to like 26, when you're starting to like peak, um, people are dropping off. Ctfl is keeping people engaged because they're able to still compete and it's worth something. They're competing something over a long period of time, not just at like one single event, like a nationals or something. But, um, yeah, honestly, it's just media helping us out following ctfl on instagram, youtube and stuff like. That's the easiest way you guys can help us grow.

Speaker 1: 12:25

You gotta say it loud follow ctfl on youtube and instagram. If you didn't catch that exactly, tiktok too whatever you want there you go well and you are highlighting clients of cookstark management like miriam abdul-rasheed miriam.

Speaker 2: 12:38

We are. We've invested heavily into miriam um, so we've done, we've already released uh, we had down in boston that was kind of the introduction to mariam uh, we flew her out, we paid for everything. Um, it was awesome to see, um, you know, shout out to like new balance and stuff because she got to compete at new balance grand prix. We got, you know, like these really nice dinners and stuff and that was a huge thing for cjf all this season, one of our biggest projects. Um, we've covered her in day in the life videos. We just did a um, a workout with her. Uh, even like pre-comp and stuff.

Speaker 2: 13:07

Today or tomorrow actually we're on friday right now of the nationals and saturday miriam's competing and so we're going to be covering her for the um length of her kind of warm-up. So we're doing a behind the scenes kind of uh viewing of one of the canada's well, the canada's best hurdler, um, so it's going to be really cool to kind of see how that turns out. Um, so stay tuned for that one. But yeah, it's just about highlighting athletes and then they get more opportunities. Like I know, she signed to adidas.

Speaker 1: 13:31

I like to think that oh, just to clarify, she's not signed yet. Oh yeah not signed they sent her product, not signed, not no free ads got it. Uh, just have to make sure that's in there. Uh, I was told to ask about the the time you attended a basketball game celtics versus lakers yeah, that was fun.

Speaker 2: 13:50

Um, mariam and I watched a basketball game the two of us, because she arrived late and I love basketball, so we went to see celtics versus lakers. Lebron didn't show. I was really upset about that, yeah, um, but yeah it was. It was an awesome time. We got to talking and stuff and I think that's kind of how I reeled her into you know, making a big push for ctfl and her creating content and yeah yeah, you got to smooth them a little you know, you bring them out to a game lebron doesn't show.

Speaker 1: 14:14

You're like maybe next time. One of the other things I appreciate is the fact that you're not only doing this from a business side building ctfl but you're also competing as an athlete.

Speaker 2: 14:23

Yes, and that was a big thing for me, like as I started CTFL when I was 21, so I was the average age of a CTFL athlete. Now, that's a lot of heart, like it's hard to put faith into a 21 year old. So when we went in and approached companies and stuff, like again I have to shout to New Balance, because they were the only ones that believed in us. Like I went and approached everybody and they didn't take a shot on us. And now, like honestly, there's companies that are already eating their words and they come back and they're like we should have partnered with you, um, but like I was so thankful for for that and um, but a big part of that was like we didn't get a lot of sponsors in the first part because we just didn't. There was no reputation. It was something completely unique. No one's ever done this before. We're still the first like really team-based track and field league in the world, um, and and so no one really took a shot on us, um, but the athletes did and that was because, I think, because I was so young and because I was one of them, so they were like you know what, let's, let's give this a shot and uh, we had sarah mitten who kind of helped us out and I know she's been on the podcast too, I believe. Right, yeah, so I think I did watch that one and uh, and so she, uh, she was one of the first o Olympians to kind of be like I want to join this. When we publicized that. Then we had another like nine Olympians that joined and that really helped us grow very quickly. It was like two days before the deadline for the registration and I was really worried and then, yeah, and then honestly, the athletes just love it. It's kind of fun being an athlete because I'm like I would say like I'm track famous and so like you are dude.

Speaker 1: 15:46

You were, I see. I saw in the stands. Everyone was pointing you out.

Speaker 2: 15:49

Everyone knows who quinn is yeah, the track athletes are kind of looking at me. But it's really funny because it's not like I'm very good at track, like I'm. I'm good, I'm just not like making the national finals. I'll make semis maybe, but like that's about it. Um. But then I get approached and you, it's like photo ops sometimes and like that's cool for me, kind of distracting, but it's good.

Speaker 1: 16:10

People appreciate hard work, people appreciate people who hustle.

Speaker 2: 16:14

Thank you, yeah, it's true, honestly, and that's why I think the Olympians get so much like props for what they do because they're amazing and they deserve it.

Speaker 1: 16:22

So that's how we started. Four and a half years ago, man, like episode, week over week, having conversations. I was, you know, early 20s, yeah, in my bedroom, you know, chatting with ncaa u sports champs, olympians. I didn't have any clue what I was doing, yeah right, yeah, credentials, I had a sport management degree from brock university and like it's like kind of if, if there was maybe a slight verge of credentials, that is it but at the bare minimum.

Speaker 1: 16:52

No journalism experience, no research experience, but it was curiosity and it was a willingness to learn and being willing to have egg on your face yeah, and drive too right like you need to.

Speaker 2: 17:04

Like people are going to doubt it. Um, people still doubt it, right, cdfl? When I launched it it was funny the people that helps out the most, like other than the athletes, the people that help that would have helped it out the most were the most critical of it and that was like eye-opening. So you need to be able to kind of like go through the haters and and see, see it through if you're really passionate about it. But yeah, kudos yeah, dude, it's.

Speaker 1: 17:25

There's something to be said for being willing to go through the dirt, and if you've seen the movie dirt about the band uh, I'm gonna forget the name so I don't have seen it either.

Speaker 2: 17:39

Such a good movie.

Speaker 1: 17:40

Such a good movie. Highly recommend it anyway. Uh, you gotta be able to eat shit, yeah, and we didn't have sponsors for the first. You know 50 episodes, 100 episodes. But you start building a reputation. People become aware of what you're doing. People see the eyeballs and the attention that you're gathering to your point. And now you get new balance. You get adidas, you get the nikes. If you had a crystal ball five, ten years from now, where do you see ctfl? Where do you see quinn?

Speaker 2: 18:09

it would be. It's so interesting. Obviously michael johnson has shifted my plans, um, because we want to expand to the states, um, we want to make it some more of an international thing. But now we really focus on insulating ourselves just to the canadian market. So we've changed our like, um, our social networks, so we've changed kind of what our demographics are trying to look at, um, and all that kind of stuff. So, um, even what our marketing initiatives are doing.

Speaker 2: 18:31

So I think for now, in the next five years I know it's going to be still based in canada, only in canada we're just going to be trying to increase the level of production, hire more content creators. Uh, obviously we want like we want all the olympians doing this and we want our athletes to stay in Canada, not have to go to Europe to compete at high level meets. We want to be able to support those meets, to increase the level of classification, bring in better athletes from across the world into Canada to compete against our best and, again, still continuing to kind of prop up the next gen. And that's our big initiative for the next five years.

Speaker 1: 19:05

10 years from now Maybe we go international and it's this format is now know from the uk and the united states and stuff, but I think that'll be the goal.

Speaker 2: 19:15

Synergies with the athletes podcast.

Speaker 1: 19:15

You know, educate, entertain and inspire. That's the goal. Um is diamond league, like the equivalent over in europe.

Speaker 2: 19:23

Diamond league is um, so it's. It's put on by world athletics and there's no teams. You basically just go and compete. You still can accumulate points, like ctfl, um, but it's not like you're like capped, so it's not like it's a fair thing. So it's like the more meets you go to, the more money you're gonna win and the more points you have for the season and you make the finals and whoever wins wins, but basically have money based off how many points you get as well. So, um, yeah, it's a little bit different, more individualized, where we work team-based so I want to talk about two things that are somewhat timely.

Speaker 1: 19:55

Relevant bandit, yeah, running bandit running. Yeah, can you talk about how they've taken an over there? Seem to be taking the world by storm. Maybe that's just my instagram algorithm maybe it could be.

Speaker 2: 20:06

But I know I know bandit, I know they do an excellent job at kind of contemplating and I love that like model doing, yeah, doing like the content, like small groups. It's brilliant. Unfortunately, ctfl, like we do, focus now really. Really, we really made the shift this year to kind of um. We made the shift this year to focus more on specific athletes and we're covering them a lot more throughout the 2024 season. But Bandit, they just kind of have an insulated group. They do a really good job and their athletes are really self-aware and they work on themselves to also produce content and help them out as much as possible. So that's ideally the model that we're going for, but yeah, Okay.

Speaker 1: 20:45

Second point I'm not going to name names, but there's one individual who was dropped by another company and she may or may not have been pregnant during this process. Can you explain how absurd that entire system is, how track athletes have been basically commoditized and don't have the allegiance from these organizations that they deserve?

Speaker 2: 21:16

Yeah. So, even on a bigger picture and stuff, it's sad that track athletes are so heavily reliant on shoe brands. I love the fact that shoe brands are supporting athletes and stuff, but on the other side, we need organizations to also help them that are like more systematized, like we need we need like the nhl, with the players association and stuff like that, to support like athletes during pregnancy and stuff. Like I understand why a sponsor wouldn't want you know I mean, in this case she was one, she's one of the best all time, so you wouldn't want to drop her. But speaking to like an athlete that maybe they're making a national team and they get dropped but it's not gonna be a big headline as it would be for that athlete, um, so yeah, I think it's just kind of sad that we don't have like an organization that can really help athletes during pregnancy, during injury, during like all this kind of stuff.

Speaker 2: 22:02

Like during covid, athletes I knew had to go and compete a certain number of events, so you had, like you had to try and find like a meet in your, you know, ontario or something like that if you're an ontario athlete and there's only like two places that were offering them and they were like super low level. You had to show up, you had to compete because I was in your contract, um, because that's how you make a whole living, um. But yeah, I know I'm getting sidetracked and stuff, but it is kind of unfortunate. There's no other than shoe brands and maybe like the odd other kind of brand, but it's heavily shoe brands.

Speaker 1: 22:33

There is no shot at kind of getting like a stable income and with that, like pregnancy or anything that comes up can really affect your life breadwinning abilities and I guess that's why I'm passionate about it, why lander and I started cookstark management and why I'm hoping the athletes podcast can draw attention to the fact that this is a problem.

Speaker 1: 22:52

Track and field is a sport that deserves this attention. Yeah, there's thousands of people sitting in these stands right now that want to watch the damien warners, the pierce lepage, the andre degrasse, as well as the Quinn Linus, as well as the Julia Valley, as well as every other athlete that's competing out there. Right, and I think it's, to your point, important that we have other organizations reach out and explore how they can work together collaboratively. One of the things that we learned in that sport management degree is that it doesn't have to be directly Adidas putting shoes onto your feet. You can explore unique partnership opportunities that can be outside of the traditional box, and I think track and field has been just super squared off. This is how we've done it in the past. This is how we're going to continue to do it.

Speaker 2: 23:36

Yeah, we need people like yourself to shake it yeah, we need to like, we need to shake it up. Um, I think we have a good group of like ctpl kind of content creators that are trying to do that. But, yeah, honestly, like it, just we need to do so much more. We can't be complacent. We have been complacent for so long and just kind of like riding on the backs of, like our top athletes. We need to do a better job at creating content that surrounds them, that like the Formula One drive to survive, or like now they're coming with multitudes of shows that are along that line, but that is like so necessary. Storytelling is so important for individual sports. Um, you're not going to be seeing these athletes like an nhl team that's playing 82 games a year. You're seeing these guys like seven to ten times a year. Um, and you have to do a job at like storytelling so people are engaged with it.

Speaker 1: 24:24

So, yeah, uh, ryan reynolds basically said the exact same thing storytelling is the key to success. Yeah, in this day and age.

Speaker 2: 24:30

Yeah, I mean he created a whole, like he made his whatever soccer franchise into a multi-million dollar organization now. So yeah, like he's what? Probably at least five times to his like investment to that soccer club. Like imagine you get that. I mean it's the clout of ryan riles, ryan rounds, if you're hearing this sponsor the ctfl I heard you're a huge track fan, ryan. Yeah yeah, he's ran a marathon, so I'm running a half marathon in eight days, oh wow where calgary?

Speaker 1: 24:57

oh, you didn't know.

Speaker 2: 24:58

I'm driving my aunt's miata across the country after this no, I knew you were running a half marathon, but I did not know you're running after we were driving a miata it's a little tight.

Speaker 1: 25:08

I have to have the top down to make sure I fit. But yeah, that's, I flew out here. I landed this morning from san diego. Yeah, I drove here immediately, did a quick 5k to make sure I had my sanity, nice. And then here we are recording on friday evening yeah we got two more days of events here at Nationals.

Speaker 1: 25:26

I'm going to take off Sunday afternoon evening whenever we're done here, probably get to like North Bay I don't know wherever the heck it is and then Calgary by Friday. Sunday half marathon. I'm going to have to do some shakeout runs along the way. Oh I bet Keep the stretching good. Any suggestions for my first half marathon?

Speaker 2: 25:48

I ran a 10k um, I just pick a good playlist. Um that's, that's fine in san diego too so okay, binary pods is the first suggestion and then after that find a good playlist. Um yeah, um yeah, just zone, zone out a little bit in the middle because it's gonna be kind of I did a 10k on a track that was mind-numbing, yeah that was 25 laps.

Speaker 1: 26:09

So my buddy sachin laddy right now in bc is running 60k a day for 52 days straight. Wow for first responders. Mental health awareness impressive bonkers yeah he's on day 23, 24, right now. Now Shout out to such yeah, good luck, that is, he's an animal. Yeah, and he's been on the show in the past, will be in the future. It's amazing what you can do when you're motivated by something, right, yeah?

Speaker 2: 26:35

And that's what we were saying. Passion, like passion is so important. If you want to get something extraordinary done, you got to be passionate about what you're doing, because it'll it'll eat at you. Like it takes a while, like to be good at something or get something done that's extraordinary.

Speaker 1: 26:50

But yeah, patience pays off.

Speaker 2: 26:56

Who inspired you.

Speaker 1: 26:57

I don't like for the CTFL no just in general, like was it your parents? Do you have an athlete that you looked up to? Do you have like authors? Were you in school, dreaming about?

Speaker 2: 27:05

I, I always thought that. I mean, I always thought warren buffett was really cool. But um, like I've always loved the business side of sports so I always wanted to become a general manager of like a nhl team and then got into track and it's kind of like my dream job now. Um, but sends fan, habs, fan, habs fan.

Speaker 1: 27:22

Yeah, yeah, sorry to hear, yeah, sorry.

Speaker 2: 27:25

It's good we made the Stanley Cup Recently too so. I know Vancouver's Still on a little bit Of a drought, hey man.

Speaker 1: 27:32

Listen.

Speaker 2: 27:33

Canada's on a drought, canada's on a major drought, but Last time we won the cup Was also Canadians, so this is true.

Speaker 1: 27:40

Edmonton came close, game seven Did you watch. I was cheering for them hard so this is slightly like not the greatest final 10 minutes. I was hoping for a bit more. Drysaddle dealing with an injury, mcdavid dealing with an abdominal tear, apparently. So what are you going to do? Right, that's playoffs. Got a battle. Florida was a really good team. They're a really good team.

Speaker 2: 28:02

They're built well, so yeah a really good team.

Speaker 2: 28:04

They're a really good team, they're built well, so, yeah, but to your point, I don't have anybody who really kind of inspired directly. The ctfl I've always loved like the ct, like the aaron, honestly, was probably my favorite athlete. Um, obviously, usain bolt is probably a huge inspiration for me. Um, that's what got me into track, so maybe maybe him as well. But, um, yeah, I've loved aaron since I met him in like 2016 or 17 when Nationals was in Ottawa. He's dope. So when he kind of gave me like the hey, I'm going to help you out and promote it a little bit, I was like, okay, cool, we can do it. So, yeah, honestly, I shout out him in almost every single podcast, but it's a huge help.

Speaker 1: 28:39

Yeah, well, and you need those kind of people, right, and he's down to to earth, just a really good guy. Yeah, and, similar to when I reached out, it's you want to have those people and share their energy with the rest of the world and they deserve to have those platforms like this, like the ctfl, and now for the next decade, he's going to be shouted out in every conversation and there's value to coming on stuff like this when it is smaller, when it is brought in by someone who's young and hungry and willing to eat dirt for years yeah because it will pay dividends in the long run.

Speaker 2: 29:13

It's like investing in amazon 20 years ago. Exactly, definitely so. Yeah, he's going to be on the wikipedia page for ctfl for sure, so there you go, aaron.

Speaker 1: 29:20

you know, um, I always like to wrap up by leaving people an opportunity to share anything that they want to talk about, direct them to, whether it's following CTFL on socials, whether it's talking about your personal upbringing, future goals what do you want to leave the athletes podcast listeners with today here?

Speaker 2: 29:39

I guess that I would say definitely for sure. Follow, like CTFL on all kind of accounts YouTube, we do a really good job. We're really focusing on our YouTube right now to grow the sport, to do more storytelling. So, if you really enjoy that, you know, go watch stuff. If you're not doing anything, just leave it on and, just like you know, press the like button and go ahead.

Speaker 2: 29:58

Um, but, uh, yeah, and just like for the athletes that are looking to join the ctfl, um, I'd like to thank you guys for, you know, taking an interest and believing in this initiative. Um, it really does mean the world to me. Uh, it means the world to all the people that are supporting the ctfl, whether it be our content creators, whether it be the athletes themselves as well. Um, that, you know, they they the initial ones. They just hope that more people are going to be joining this initiative and it's really kind of come into its own. But, um, yeah, that'd be the the biggest thing. Don't forget to sign up. January 1st, um, it's always the registration date. So look at the standards, apply, apply, apply and yeah, that's about it.

Speaker 1: 30:35

you should adopt the athlete agreement, like we have on the pod. Yeah, it's uh, it's not a free show to listen to. In return for watching ctfl content the Athletes Podcast content you have to subscribe. It's a thing Everyone's doing it. Less than 5% of you who are watching right now as we speak are actually subscribed. So do us both a favor Follow CTFL, the Athletes Podcast, and then maybe we can do some giveaways.

Speaker 2: 31:00

Maybe we can give away some perfect sports protein some supplements I can even give away, like CTFL singlets, if you want.

Speaker 1: 31:06

I could use a singlet. I've been trying to trim down a little bit.

Speaker 2: 31:09

I'll run it in 100 meters.

Speaker 1: 31:11

We'll ship stuff to you. Yeah, no problem, we'll have to get out on the track at some point. Maybe do some fun content creation.

Speaker 2: 31:17

Yeah, cool, we could race yeah yeah, a good guy to go against A little further, if you want. Yeah, I might need a head start, but we'll have some fun.

Speaker 1: 31:26

Quinn, I appreciate you coming on, man, no problem.

Speaker 2: 31:28

This has been a pleasure.

Speaker 1: 31:29

Absolutely. Hey, we'll do it again. Just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to each and every one of you for tuning in listening to this audio-only episode of the show, where we making waves in the sport of track and field in his own way, taking matters into his own hands. I respect that. I also respect people who buy Perfect Sports Protein, our partner and who powers the Athletes Podcast. If you use the code AP20, you can save 20% yourself on every single supplement that they have at their disposal, and it's what's powering me through this half marathon here in Calgary that I'm about to pursue. I hope you folks enjoyed this episode, learned a little bit about track and field and continue to support the CTFL. Thank you for tuning in, hope you have a great rest of your day and we'll see you next week. Bye.