Running Is Cheaper Than Therapy

Many people who lead active lives, particularly athletes, are guilty of sacrificing sleep in pursuit of other responsibilities. It’s not just athletes who fail to get enough sleep. Life is hectic and it’s hard to get everything done within the right amount of time available in a day.

I  personally have been sleep-deprived for years. From college balancing schooling with a social life, to medical school, residency, etc. Now with work, training six days a week, this passion project of hosting this podcast, and trying to have a social life. 

However, in the last few weeks, I have been trying to achieve at least seven hours of sleep every day. It is very hard because as mentioned earlier, trying to balance everything. . I can feel the difference between when I get a full night’s sleep versus when I am sleep deprevied. 

Sleep is important, especially for an endurance athlete. Your body needs to recover from all the training and it can only do it while you sleep. Sleep is very important, not only for recovery but also warding off cravings, boosting the body’s immunity and mood balance. Several scientific studies on different categories of athletes have shown definitive improvement in athletic performance with adequate sleep.

Episode Highlights:  

• Affirmation of the importance of sleep
• My own history of sleep deprivation
• Why sleep is important and what happens to your body when you deprive it of sleep.
• Some notable studies on athletes regarding performance and sleep
• Some tips on ensuring you get sufficient sleep

Did you enjoy today’s episode?

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McKenley Mason is an old friend of mine whom I met back in 2015 at the Football Hall of Fame Half Marathon..  He is a marathoner turned triathlete.  He used to casually run up to the age of 50. At the age of 50 he decided to quit smoking and drinking and become a more serious runner having prayed on it. Hoping to outlive his parents who had both died in their early 50s, his casual runs became longer and longer and soon found himself running 3 hours straight. His goal at first was to run only one marathon a year but his running family pressured him into doing more.

His brother bought him a Walmart bike which was not properly assembled at the store. Mason took it to a local bike shop for repairs and met triathletes who got him to consider participating in triathlons. Although he swam at an early age he was only able to swim 8 feet when he returned to the pool.  After looking around for a group of people to train with, decided to train himself using videos, his GoPro, and seeking the advice of various member of the Black Triathlete Association. In 2021, McKenley  completed  his first Ironman in 14 hours 52 minutes and has plans to do more.

Episode Highlights:

• How McKenley initially  started running 
• How McKenley quit smoking and drinking
• McKenley start as a long distance runner 
• McKenley’s first marathon 
• Getting a bike and  joining the world of triathlons.
• How McKenley advanced in swimming 
• McKenley’s future in triathlons
• A look into how McKenley plays to his strengths 
• McKenley Mason shares some words of wisdom

Guest Bio

McKenley Mason is a Runner/Triathlete. Up until age 50, he would have called himself a casual jogger, only running one local 10K race a year. 

Both of his parents died in their early 50s; they drank and smoked a lot, and so did he. It became a dream to outlive his parents and he prayed about it. During the year of his 48th birthday, he had a testimonial event occur in his life, and on the year of his 50th birthday, he was forced to stop drinking and smoking. At this point, his casual runs became longer and longer and after a year Mason found himself running up to 3 to 4 hours non-stop.

In 2010 at the age of 52, he ran his first marathon in Richmond Va. In the beginning, his goal was to run at least a marathon a year, but once he met other runners and joined several run groups that quickly changed. From 2010 to 2017 he was a marathoner but was given a Walmart bike by his brother and that changed his focus. The bike had many loose screws and parts, so he took it to the local bike shop, and it was there that he met some triathletes.

Running over these years has taken Mason to places that he thought he would never see and has met people who today are his Run Family. He has run marathons in 24 states, and 5 continents and completed 4 of the 6 major races of the world. He is surprised when he looks back and sees that he has completed 24 Marathons, 51 Half Marathons. 1 Ultra, 3 Ironman 70.3’s and Ironman 140.6……all this after 50.

Running has been Mason’s love, but becoming a Triathlete has been amazing. When it came to the world of multisport, he could run and cycle and obtain podiums at duathlons, but his swimming was sub-par. He learned to swim in college, but went 37 years without "swimming". He signed up for his first Tri at 59 years old and literally ran all parts of the pools if his feet touched the bottom. There were frustrations learning to swim, but he never gave up. He went to numerous swim and open water clinics and 95% of the time he was the only Black person there. He can't explain, but he never felt comfortable, so he taught himself using videos and advice from fellow triathletes from the Black Triathletes Association, BTA. March 2020, The Pandemic, our world changed and he was happy with his athletic resume. Mason still trained during the pandemic with no race in sight and found himself after a year trained up for the 140.6 distance. He entered Ironman Maryland (IMMD) as a 63-year-old Black man and in 2021 he finished with a time of 14:52:34.

In 2 months, Mason will be 64 and sometimes he feels like he started late in this game, but sometimes we are not ready for God's blessings until we have experienced some things. It took me 50 years to prepare for the great things going forward and he wants to thank God and all those he sent his way that is part of his testimony.

Connect with McKenley Mason 

Connect  with McKenley Mason on Facebook.

Connect on McKenley Mason on   Instagram

Did you enjoy today’s episode?

Please subscribe and leave a review.

If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email

[email protected].

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of the links below 

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Get a copy of the book Running Is Cheaper Than Therapy: A Journey Back to Wholeness. It is available in  hardback, paperback, and newly released audio form.

Connect with Dr. Ouida Brown

Instagram @ouilifeouilove

Facebook @ouilifeouilove33

Twitter @ouilifeouilove

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Dr. Tiencia James is a physician, a wife, mom, marathoner, and a triathlete. This mother of three started running as a child to spend time with her  father who was a runner. She eventually fell in love with the sport. She ran track in  high school and in her early college days but left the college team to concentrate on her medical studies. She however kept running for her own pleasure.

After the birth of her first child, she decided to start racing. Her first marathon was Disney, she ran so well she qualified for the  Boston Marathon. This was quite an impressive feat, as runners have to qualify for Boston and Disney is usually a slower race due to all the turns and characters along the race course.  She kept running marathons but after her third child she decided to challenge herself and started her triathlon career.. Despite a busy career as a doctor, being a wife and mom of three  Dr. Tiencia James not only races but she strives to be the best.  She is passionate about the sport and  has often neglected sleep to train as she ever wanted to take away from her family. Dr. Tiencia James is the  first black woman to qualify for the Ironman World Championship on merit. 

Following the death of her brother, she has decided to take a sabbatical from medicine to focus on family, training, and other career endeavors. She even hopes to start a business inspired by her passion for running and triathlons. She is currently training for the Ironman World Championships to be held in October.

Episode Highlights:

• Getting started as a runner to stay and spend time  with her  father.
• Running through high school and college.
• Dr. Tiencia James’s  experience at her first marathon.
• The new challenge of triathlons.
• Qualifying for Kona
• Balancing work, family and racing .
• Dr. Tiencia James shares some life lessons from triathlons

Guest Bio

Dr. Tiencia James is the youngest of four kids and spent her childhood in Georgia. Her father was an obsessive competitive age group runner growing up. In fact, she is pretty sure that his divorce from her mother stems from how this took him away from his family at times. Somewhere around the age of 8-10, she started running with him. It was never because she had any strong desire to run at first, however, she figured out that if she ran, she would get to spend more time with him. Instead of just seeing him every other weekend like her siblings, she would see him for morning runs or weekend road trips to races. Eventually, however, she began to really love running and got very good at it. By the time she was in high school she was placed in the top three-four girls in the state in cross country and track/field 1600m/3200m. James never considered herself to be a talented runner, but because of her work ethic, love for the sport and support of her dad, she was able to outperform kids with more natural abilities.

When she graduated from high school, she decided that she wanted to go to medical school so running took a back seat. It was no longer about her racing and competing, but it continued to be something that kept her grounded and helped her deal with the academic stress. She did compete as a walk-on at Stanford for two years before quitting the team to focus on her studies. She kept running most days really just for her sanity to decompress. She graduated from Stanford University and then went to Duke University to complete her medical doctorate while also getting a master’s in public health from UNC. Eventually, she returned to Georgia and did her Emergency Medicine residency at Emory.

After getting married, being an emergency medicine physician, and having her first 2 children Dr. Tiencia James began to miss the competitive side of running. It was in 2010 that she got back into racing and decided to train seriously for a marathon. She did her first marathon at Disney in a time of 3:22 qualifying for the Boston Marathon. The following year, at age 33, she finished the Boston Marathon in 3:11. Over the next few years, she continued to race long distances. After having the third child, she was looking for a different
the challenge, something new. Somehow, she decided that she wanted to try long-distance triathlons. She hired a coach and after completing The Great Floridian and then Ironman Chattanooga soon after was hooked.

Since then, James has qualified for many Ironman World Championship races in the 70.3 distance. She has been determined to use sports and athletics to get closer to her family and not allow it to push them apart. She often will find ways to involve all her kids in her training and for most races, they travel together as a family. It has been a great way to see the world together and to show her kids that life has no limits.

Life has gotten a bit crazy, especially over the past two years, being a wife, mom of three kids and an ER doctor in the middle of Covid while also trying to keep up her training. She reached a major personal goal this past year. After more than 6 years of trying, she finally qualified for the Ironman World Championships in the 140.6 distance at the age of 44. She has been told that she is the first black female to qualify based on finishing place in a qualifying race (as opposed to legacy or slots awarded for charity). When she started giving away her ER shifts so she could go for a bike ride, she knew that she had to find a way to follow her heart.
After losing her 45year old brother unexpectedly this past December, she really had to rethink her priorities. We only have one life so why not take chances and go “all in” on your dreams? This May, she decided after 15 years, to step away from the ED so that she can train for Kona, spend more time with her family as well as starting two entrepreneurial businesses-one in real estate and the other in high-performance endurance athletic consulting where she hopes to combine her knowledge of sports physiology, nutrition, and medicine in order to figure how to make endurance athletes better. She is not sure what the result of this will be for her, but she is very excited about this next chapter of her life.

Connect with Dr. Tiencia James

• Connect to her personally on Facebook.

Did you enjoy today’s episode?

Please subscribe and leave a review.

If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email

[email protected].

To subscribe and review use one links

of the links below 

Apple

Spotify

Google 

Get a copy of the book Running Is Cheaper Than Therapy: A Journey Back to

Wholeness. It is available in  hardback, paperback, and newly released audio form

Connect with Dr. Ouida Brown

Instagram @ouilifeouilove

Facebook

Dr. Tiencia James is a physician, a wife, mom, marathoner, and a triathlete. This mother of three started running as a child to spend time with her  father who was a runner. She eventually fell in love with the sport. She ran track in  high school and in her early college days but left the college team to concentrate on her medical studies. She however kept running for her own pleasure.

After the birth of her first child, she decided to start racing. Her first marathon was Disney, she ran so well she qualified for the  Boston Marathon. This was quite an impressive feat, as runners have to qualify for Boston and Disney is usually a slower race due to all the turns and characters along the race course.  She kept running marathons but after her third child she decided to challenge herself and started her triathlon career.. Despite a busy career as a doctor, being a wife and mom of three  Dr. Tiencia James not only races but she strives to be the best.  She is passionate about the sport and  has often neglected sleep to train as she ever wanted to take away from her family. Dr. Tiencia James is the  first black woman to qualify for the Ironman World Championship on merit. 

Following the death of her brother, she has decided to take a sabbatical from medicine to focus on family, training, and other career endeavors. She even hopes to start a business inspired by her passion for running and triathlons. She is currently training for the Ironman World Championships to be held in October.

Episode Highlights:

• Getting started as a runner to stay and spend time  with her  father.
• Running through high school and college.
• Dr. Tiencia James’s  experience at her first marathon.
• The new challenge of triathlons.
• Qualifying for Kona
• Balancing work, family and racing .
• Dr. Tiencia James shares some life lessons from triathlons

Guest Bio

Dr. Tiencia James is the youngest of four kids and spent her childhood in Georgia. Her father was an obsessive competitive age group runner growing up. In fact, she is pretty sure that his divorce from her mother stems from how this took him away from his family at times. Somewhere around the age of 8-10, she started running with him. It was never because she had any strong desire to run at first, however, she figured out that if she ran, she would get to spend more time with him. Instead of just seeing him every other weekend like her siblings, she would see him for morning runs or weekend road trips to races. Eventually, however, she began to really love running and got very good at it. By the time she was in high school she was placed in the top three-four girls in the state in cross country and track/field 1600m/3200m. James never considered herself to be a talented runner, but because of her work ethic, love for the sport and support of her dad, she was able to outperform kids with more natural abilities.

When she graduated from high school, she decided that she wanted to go to medical school so running took a back seat. It was no longer about her racing and competing, but it continued to be something that kept her grounded and helped her deal with the academic stress. She did compete as a walk-on at Stanford for two years before quitting the team to focus on her studies. She kept running most days really just for her sanity to decompress. She graduated from Stanford University and then went to Duke University to complete her medical doctorate while also getting a master’s in public health from UNC. Eventually, she returned to Georgia and did her Emergency Medicine residency at Emory.

After getting married, being an emergency medicine physician, and having her first 2 children Dr. Tiencia James began to miss the competitive side of running. It was in 2010 that she got back into racing and decided to train seriously for a marathon. She did her first marathon at Disney in a time of 3:22 qualifying for the Boston Marathon. The following year, at age 33, she finished the Boston Marathon in 3:11. Over the next few years, she continued to race long distances. After having the third child, she was looking for a different
the challenge, something new. Somehow, she decided that she wanted to try long-distance triathlons. She hired a coach and after completing The Great Floridian and then Ironman Chattanooga soon after was hooked.

Since then, James has qualified for many Ironman World Championship races in the 70.3 distance. She has been determined to use sports and athletics to get closer to her family and not allow it to push them apart. She often will find ways to involve all her kids in her training and for most races, they travel together as a family. It has been a great way to see the world together and to show her kids that life has no limits.

Life has gotten a bit crazy, especially over the past two years, being a wife, mom of three kids and an ER doctor in the middle of Covid while also trying to keep up her training. She reached a major personal goal this past year. After more than 6 years of trying, she finally qualified for the Ironman World Championships in the 140.6 distance at the age of 44. She has been told that she is the first black female to qualify based on finishing place in a qualifying race (as opposed to legacy or slots awarded for charity). When she started giving away her ER shifts so she could go for a bike ride, she knew that she had to find a way to follow her heart.
After losing her 45year old brother unexpectedly this past December, she really had to rethink her priorities. We only have one life so why not take chances and go “all in” on your dreams? This May, she decided after 15 years, to step away from the ED so that she can train for Kona, spend more time with her family as well as starting two entrepreneurial businesses-one in real estate and the other in high-performance endurance athletic consulting where she hopes to combine her knowledge of sports physiology, nutrition, and medicine in order to figure how to make endurance athletes better. She is not sure what the result of this will be for her, but she is very excited about this next chapter of her life.

Connect with Dr. Tiencia James

• Connect to her personally on Facebook.

Did you enjoy today’s episode?

Please subscribe and leave a review.

If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email

[email protected].

To subscribe and review use one links

of the links below 

Apple

Spotify

Google 

Get a copy of the book Running Is Cheaper Than Therapy: A Journey Back to

Wholeness. It is available in  hardback, paperback, and newly released audio form

Connect with Dr. Ouida Brown

Instagram @ouilifeouilove

Facebook

TJ Bryan is a career educator, an author and a runner who continues to run well into her seventies. TJ is a member of a small group of women over 70 who run in marathons. She is a rare African American woman competing at this distance. After TJ  retired from a 30-year career in higher education, she became a runner. She was 64 years old at the time--hardly the point at which most people embrace a demanding sport. No one was more surprised than she was when she demonstrated ability as a runner at a wide range of distances. At 78, she has completed 53 races. Even more impressive are her ten marathons and qualifying for the Boston Marathon on eight of these marathons.

She is the author of two books, Saving Myself One Step at a Time: A Running Memoir and Black Girl in Red, White, and Blue America. She is currently working on a third one. Prior to retiring, TJ served as a professor, academic administrator, and university chancellor. She has a bachelor's, master's and a PhD in English, Language and Literature.

Episode Highlights:

• How TJ started running at 64.
• Dealing with injuries and how they tried to  derail her running.
• TJ speaks about  her most  memorable races.
• What’s on TJ’s bucket list?
• What motivates TJ to run, and some of her fears.
• Some wise words from TJ.

Guest Bio

Born on August 21, 1945, T. J. Bryan is a member of a small group of women over 70 who run in marathons. She is a rare African American woman competing at this distance. After T. J. retired from a 30-year career in higher education, she became a runner. She was 64
years old at the time--hardly the point at which most people embrace a demanding sport. No one was more surprised than she was when she demonstrated ability as a runner at a wide range of distances.

From 2009 to 2019, T. J. completed 53 races. Regularly, she won age-group awards irrespective of the distances—in 5Ks, 10Ks, 15Ks, half marathons, and marathons. Of her races, ten were marathons—eight of which she ran fast enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon. This marathon is one of the most prestigious 26.2-mile races in the world because competitors must qualify by running fast times in earlier marathons and must be accepted before they may register.

Initially, T. J. planned to run in the Boston Marathon only once. She changed her mind and registered five times. She ran the race three times. Injury prevented her from competing in the April 2013 and October 2021 versions of the race. T. J. has written about running in two books. In Saving Myself: A Running Memoir, she captures her running journey. The memoir is available through Amazon. Readers praise this book, citing its honesty and its inspirational qualities. In her five-star novel titled Black Girl in Red, White, and Blue America, T. J. devotes several chapters to her main character’s late-life running experiences; these sections are based on her own adventures.

Before retiring and becoming a runner, T. J. served as a professor, academic administrator, and university chancellor. Her academic credentials include bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees in English language and literature.

Connect with TJ Bryan

• Send TJ Bryan an email through [email protected] and at [email protected].
• Connect to TJ personally on Facebook.
• Connect with TJ the author on Facebook.
• Read about TJ Bryan on Wikipedia.
• Catch TJ Bryan on Instagram.
• Read her book Black Girl in Red, White, and Blue America.
• Read her other book Saving Myself One Step at a Time: A Running Memoir.

Did you enjoy today’s episode?

Please subscribe and leave a review.

If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email

[email protected].

To subscribe and review use one links

of the links below 

Apple

Spotify

Google 

Get a copy of the book Running Is Cheaper Than Therapy: A Journey Back to

Wholeness. It is available in  hardback, paperback, and newly released audio form

Connect with Dr. Ouida Brown

Instagram @ouilifeouilove

Facebook @ouilifeouilove33

Twitter @ouilifeouilove

Youtube @ouilifeouilove

Sign up for my newsletter http://bit.ly/OuilifeOuiloveNewsletter

Bernard Lyles is the founder and director of Tri-Masters Chicago and is better known in the sporting community as the ambassador of the sport of triathlons. He has been instrumental in inspiring hundreds of African Americans to compete in triathlons over the last three decades.

Bernard founded Tri-Masters Chicago in 1990 and began a program to train youth in fitness through triathlons in 1992 dubbed the Tri-Masters Sports Initiative training over 2800 youths at the time of this interview. He also had a hand in the foundation of Team Dream in 1987 aimed at training women of color in triathlons.

Today we look at the ambassador’s journey in triathlons, through his coaching career and what legacy he hopes to leave behind. We dive into the triumphs of seeing his students thrive and the challenges of getting funding for his organization.

Episode Highlights:

• A brief overview of Bernard’s illustrious career.
• Losing his job, and using running as a coping mechanism for the resulting depression.
• The first marathon and reminiscing on the marathons of the 80’s and 90’s.
• Running 40 marathons, some of the most memorable.
• From marathons to triathlons and getting leptospirosis.
• Starting Tri-Masters Chicago and some success stories.
• Obstacles keeping the black community from Triathlons
• The challenge of funding the Tri-Masters program.
• What legacy does Bernard want to leave behind.

 Guest Bio

Program Founder and Executive Director, Tri-Masters Chicago Bernard Lyles is known internationally as an ambassador of the sport of Triathlon. Bernard has been instrumental in hundreds of African Americans taking up the sport of Triathlon.

His passion for the sport of Triathlon and his interest in teaching the sport to African-American youth athletes led him to found Tri-Masters Chicago in 1990 and Tri-Masters Sports Initiative Programs a youth program focused on promoting fitness through Triathlon training in 1992. Now into year #31 (2022) Tri-Masters Sports Initiative Programs have trained over 2800 youth in physical fitness and competition of the sport of Triathlon.

In 1998 Bernard co-founded Team Dream, an adult organization that introduces women of color to the sport of Triathlon. The most recent initiative developed and coached by Bernard is a learn to swim in open water group named “Seals Team”. Created in 2020 to keep team members active during the Covid-19 pandemic Seals Team members learn the fundamentals of open water swimming, safety and advanced training needed to compete in open water competitions including Triathlons.

Bernard has years of experience in the health and fitness industry as a personal trainer working for establishments such as Hyde Park Athletic Club, Bally Total Fitness and L A Fitness. Bernard also served as the Intramural and Recreation Coordinator for Chicago State University.

His formal education background includes an Associate in Applied Sciences Degree in Automotive Technology from Kennedy King College, and Bachelor of Arts in Health Physical Education & Recreation from Chicago State University.

As a First Choice Fitness Leader (an at-risk youth fitness intervention training program sponsored by the Chicago Department of Public Health) Bernard is an active member of the community volunteering numerous hours with youth organizations throughout the city for over three decades. These organizations include Chicago Public Schools, Inner Visions Youth Mentoring Program, Mercy Home for Boys & Girls and the Chicago South Swim Club.

Bernard is also associated with several professional associations and teams.

• USA Triathlon Association.
• US Lifeguard Association.
• Professional Association of Diving Instructors. (PADI).
• Major Taylor Cycle Club Chicago.
• Men Run Deez Streets / Running Chicago

Bernard Lyles' sports and recreation accomplishments include:

• First Amateur to appear on the cover of American TRI – a worldwide publication in 2002.
• Competing in and completing over 200 Triathlons from sprint distance to the Ironman.
• An accomplished Triathlete and Marathon runner Bernard Lyles was invited to and competed in Triathlon's premiere event consisting of a 2.4- mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run, the IronMan World.
• Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii on October 3, 1998. (15:01:42) IronMan Wisconsin 2002 (14:36:26).
• Completing 40 Marathons, including 9 Boston Marathons: Personal Record is 2:54:21(Chicago 1985).

• Power Bar Elite Team Member in 1997.
• 1998-2000 Saucony Sports Team Member.
•  Invitation and participation in the 1995 Dave Scott Triathlon TrainingClinic, Vail Colorado.
• USA Triathlon Certified Race Director 2009.
• President of the Rainbow Road Runners Club 1984 – 1993.
•  Red Cross Certified Water Safety Instructor.
•  PADI Certified Rescue Diver.

AWARDS

• 2016 President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition Community Leadership Award
• Person of the Year in 1993- Windy City Sports Magazine
• The Jamaican Consulate’s Leadership Award for Commitment to Excellence (promoting youth sports in Jamaica)
• Chicago Marathon 2016 “Pat Rhodes Award” for Volunteer Excellence
• 2001 International Olympic Committee Diploma (for remarkable contribution, as a Volunteer, to the development of sport and Olympics and to the promotion of friendship and solidarity among people).
• Numerous Features on TV, magazine, books, social and newspaper media
• Numerous Peer Awards, Running Club, Cycling Club and Community -Awards

Connect with Bernard Lyles

Catch Bernard on his website.

Donate to the Tri-Masters Sports Initiative.

Did you enjoy today’s episode?

Please subscribe and leave a review.

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[email protected].

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I was heartbroken to learn that my friend and fellow triathlete, Darrell Freeman Sr. had passed on the evening of June 28 2022. This episode was very difficult for me to record. I only ever met him twice but we kept in touch on social media. I wanted to connect him with my nephew who has aspirations of becoming a pilot. I also wanted to interview him for the podcast. We never could schedule a time. Darrell was the first person in his family to graduate from college and through hard work and determination  he became a self-made millionaire, a pilot, and a two-term chair of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, and so much more.

After achieving a GPA of 1.234, he transferred to Middle Tennessee State University and ultimately graduated with a master’s degree. Armed with his $2,000, and his wife’s credit card, he built an IT business from an office the size of a closet and the company grew to 38 million in revenues.  Darrell eventually sold his company for twenty million dollars. He has invested and mentored in many other businesses and hosted an airborne YouTube series of interviews Cockpit Conversations.

In triathlons, I knew him as a member of the Tennessee crew so called because they always travel as a pack. He has completed 10 full Ironman races and used sports as an analogy to life. He believed that business is about perseverance just as it is with completing an Ironman races. 

 After achieving a GPA of 1.234, he transferred to Middle Tennessee State University and ultimately graduated with a master’s degree. Armed with his $2,000, and his wife’s credit card, he built an IT business from an office the size of a closet and the company grew to 38 million in revenues.  Darrell eventually sold his company for twenty million dollars. He has invested and mentored in many other businesses and hosted an airborne YouTube series of interviews Cockpit Conversations.

In triathlons, I knew him as a member of the Tennessee crew so called because they always travel as a pack. He has completed 10 full Ironman races and used sports as an analogy to life. He believed that business is about perseverance just as it is with completing  Ironman 140.6 races. 

Episode Highlights:  

• First meeting Darrell at Ironman Chattanooga.
• Second Meeting at  Ironman Louisville with the Tennessee crew
• Keeping up with Darrell on social media
• A look at Darrell, the man and how he came to be.
• Some wise words from Darrell himself.
• Farewell Darrell, we miss you and you will live on 

Did you enjoy today’s episode?

Please subscribe and leave a review if you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email [email protected].

To subscribe and review use one links of the links below 

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Get a copy of the book  Running Is Cheaper Than Therapy: A Journey Back to Wholeness 👉🏾 here. It is available in  hardback, paperback, and newly released audio form

Connect with Dr. Ouida Brown

Instagram @ouilifeouilove

Facebook @ouilifeouilove33

Twitter @ouilifeouilove

Youtube @ouilifeouilove

Sign up for my newsletter http://bit.ly/OuilifeOuiloveNewsletter

Zsa Zsa Porter is an exceptional friend, an avid runner, member of Black Girls Run,  vegan restaurant owner, Iron Man Triathlete, military wife, mom of three. Her mission is to encourage women, young girls to dream big, her story reminds us that anything is possible.

Zsa-Zsa has made it her life’s work to impact her community which has led her from the financial services industry to opening the Exposed Vegan Restaurant. Through the restaurant she has created some of the best plant-based cuisines proving that a vegan diet can, not only be very delicious, but also fuel the highest fitness performance levels.

We discuss in-depth her journey from her youth, injuries, through struggles with weight gain and  overcoming her fears and self-doubt into life  as a runner, triathlete and so much more. 

I would like to dedicate this episode to Zsa Zsa's mother  Kim Williams who passed away since the recording of this episode. 

Episode Highlights:      

• How ZsaZsa got her name and the fearless mentality behind it.
• Zsa Zsa  school days and becoming a swimmer.
• A major injury during a  bicycle crash and lessons learnt from the experience.
• How Zsa started  running 
• Her 1st major race Zsa-Zsa with her husband 
• How Team Porter inspires each other aFull distance iron-man.
• The challenges and the thrills of Triathlons
• The reason behind opening her vegan restaurant 

Guest Bio:

Zsa Zsa Porter went from someone held

down by personal insecurities and weight gain to becoming an avid runner,

triathlete, and restaurateur. Zsa Zsa is on a mission to encourage women and young girls to dream big and reach for the stars.

Zsa Zsa’s story reminds us that Anything is Possible. She is always willing to share her failures and lessons learned. It’s this burning desire to positively impact her community which led her to open Exposed Vegan Restaurant. As a restaurateur, Zsa Zsa created a West Charlotte hotspot, serving fresh and nourishing plant-based cuisine. From smoothies, to bowls loaded with sweet potatoes, and even cookies she’s exposing how delicious vegan food can be when done correctly.

Her goal is to show how a well-planned vegan diet can fuel the highest performance fitness levels, while reducing risks of injury and chronic diseases.

Zsa-Zsa leverages her unique experiences as an African American female entrepreneur, restaurant owner, digital executive, and Ironman triathlete to motivate and activate her community. She is also a proud military spouse and mother of 3 children, she truly understands the importance of balancing family and life.

Connect with Zsa-Zsa Porter

Read Zsa Zsa’s  inspiring book Running For My Life

Visit her restaurant or preorder your meal at  Exposed Vegan

Follow Zsa Zsa on Instagram

Catch her on Facebook

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[email protected].

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Wholeness 👉🏾 here. It is available in  hardback, paperback, and

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Sabrina Slocum has been active in sports since high school. She ran hurdles, ran 100m, played basketball and even participated in bodybuilding.   Sabrina has an  MBA, she is a marathoner, an ultra-marathoner, a triathlete. She unfortunately sustained an ankle fracture and had to work her way back. She is now back to running, biking, and swimming. The road  was not easy

Sabrina is also a podcast host, she's the co-host of Sole Sistas On The Run. This podcast is based on live conversations that she's had while running. The ultimate goal is to encourage uplift, inspire, and bring awareness to  issues that many face and promote the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. 

We discuss in-depth her journey as an athlete, her approach to nutrition and fitness, among many other things.

Episode Highlights:  

• How Sabrina started running and her journey with Black Girls Run.

• Jump back in history to her high-school days.
• Her experience in bodybuilding.
• Her preparation for her first  marathon.
• We discuss Sabrina’s greatest weakness in regards to multi-sports
• Sabrina’s bucket list.
• Sustaining an ankle injury and the challenge of living with a temporary disability.
• Starting her own podcast and some words of advice.

Guest Bio:

Sabrina Slocum began her fitness journey in 2012 when she began running with Black Girls run. She was active in track and basketball while in high school, however, she also participated in two body-building competitions in her early thirties. It did not take long for Sabrina to progress in her running. She started running in 2012 and progressed to her first marathon in 2012. She has completed seven marathons, several half-marathons, 10k’s, 5k’s. She started her multi-sport journey in 2015. She has completed several sprints, Olympics and two 70.3 triathlons.

She is a fellow HBCU graduate, graduating from Tuskegee University with a B.S in Marketing. She also my Soror, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Incorporated. She has an MBA and worked for over 20 years in the mortgage industry. She changed careers and has served twelve years in higher education currently in the role as an Academic Advisor.

She is also a Podcast Co-Host of : Sole Sistas On the Run. ​​This podcast is based on live conversations she has while running. The ultimate goal is to encourage, uplift, inspire, and bring awareness to the issues that many face and promote the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

Connect with Sabrina

Catch Sabrina’s inspiring podcast

Connect with Sabrina on Instagram

Connect with Sabrina on Facebook

Did you enjoy today’s episode?

Please subscribe and leave a review. If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email [email protected].

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Ronnie Fields Jr. is one of the younger athletes that you will find in a typical triathlon  race. A star athlete in his school days, Ronnie found himself becoming a couch potato after leaving college and was inspired to start  racing triathlons after  watching the Ironman World Championship in Kona. Having played football, basketball, baseball, ran track, and was on the swim team, in school, Ronnie figured that the triathlons couldn’t be too hard and signed up without really training.. The challenge of placing dead last in his category inspired him to train and we join  him on his journey to one day finish first in his age group.

Episode Highlights:  

•  Who is Ronnie Fields Jr.
•  Ronnie’s early life
• How Ironman World Championship inspired Ronnie to make a change
•  How he started his triathlon journey
• Trial and error and how he is learning to become a better athlete  
• Ronnie’s goals for his upcoming races

Guest Bio:

Ronnie Fields Jr. is from Haynesville, Louisiana, but currently is  living in Nashville Tennessee. Throughout his childhood and high school, he was very active in sports (football, basketball, baseball, track, summer swim team). HIs team actually won State in football his senior year

Ronnie graduated high school in 2010, and attended Louisiana Tech University; majoring in Construction Engineering Technology. He still had the urge to play sports so he ended up walking on the football team. He graduated with a degree in construction engineering technology in May, 2014

After college, he began working for a company that builds manufacturing plants all over the United States. Once Ronnie entered the real world, he wasn’t working out like he had done his entire life and ended up gaining weight. One day in 2015, he was sitting on his couch watching TV, and the Ironman World Championships came on. He thought to himself, “I can do that”. So, he bought a cheap bike from Walmart and entered his first sprint triathlon without doing any training. He had no idea it would be so hard. He  loved it because it challenged him.

This was a way that he could continue to compete in sports like he had done his entire life.

After that race, his job relocated him a couple times which made training a little bit difficult, so he wasn’t able to do any races  the year of 2016.

2017 was the year Ronnie became dedicated to triathlon. He bought a road bike, and even ended up qualifying for Nationals somehow. Nationals had to be one of the worst races of his career. It was his first Olympic distance and he barely made it through the swim. Ronnie completed the race but finished dead last of all the finishers in his age group. But this was motivation for him to get better. The ultimate goal for him is to one day win his  age group at Nationals!!

Since then, he has competed in countless sprints and Olympic distance triathlons; along with one 70.3, and one Full Distance Ironman.

Ronnie does this sport for the following reasons:

-It keeps him active and healthy.

-It gives him something to look forward to.

-His family has terrible health histories (cancer, heart attacks, diabetes, etc) He’s trying to break that chain.

-He loves competing.

Did you enjoy today’s episode?

Please subscribe and leave a review. If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email [email protected].

To subscribe and review use one links of the links below 

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Get a copy of the book  Running Is Cheaper Than Therapy: A Journey Back to Wholeness 👉🏾 here. It is available in  hardback, paperback, and newly released audio form

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Facebook @ouilifeouilove33

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