231. Jay Holder, Director of Marketing & Communications at Atlanta Track Club

Ali on the Run Show

Ali Feller

Run, Health & Fitness, Women, Inspiration, Runner, Entrepreneur, Sports, Fitness, Health, Running

4.9 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2020

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Find a way to get people hooked on running. That’s what we need.”

Jay Holder just might love running — the sport itself, plus every single member of the running community — more than any guy I know. Jay is the Director of Marketing & Communications at Atlanta Track Club, which means this week, we're getting a behind-the-scenes look at what it took to host the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials! Jay talks about the bidding process leading up to the Trials, and shares what, exactly, Atlanta did to show USA Track & Field that they were worthy of hosting one of the greatest weekends in American distance racing. (It involved a 90-page proposal and plan!) Jay, a dad of two, shares stories from the course — which he ran several dozen times before race weekend — and explains what he says is "the best part of the job." We look back reminiscing about the Trials weekend, and look forward, with some trepidation: The Atlanta Track Club also hosts the Peachtree Road Race, which is the largest 10K in the world that takes place every year on the Fourth of July.

Thank you to AfterShokz for sponsoring this episode of the Ali on the Run Show! CLICK HERE for 15% off wireless headphones. (My favorite is the Aeropex!)

What you’ll get on this episode:

A bit of background on Jay’s professional career, and what brought him to Atlanta Track Club (6:55)
The bidding process behind the Olympic Trials, and how Atlanta won the hosting gig (10:00)
What Jay says is the best part of his job (21:50)
What race weekend looked like for Jay (28:50)
What does the current state of the world mean for the 2020 Peachtree Road Race?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of The Alley on the Run Show is brought to you by Aftershocks.
0:04.2	Go to ontherun.aftershocks.com to save 15% on all wireless headphones.
0:10.6	Welcome to The Alley on the Run Show.
0:17.2	I'm your host Allie Feller and every week I talk with inspiring people who lead interesting
0:22.5	lives on the run and beyond. And while running is the thing that brings us all together on these
0:27.6	episodes, we cover more than what happens on the run. We learn the wise behind the runs,
0:33.2	the decisions people have made to get where they are today and how getting sweaty has factored in.
0:39.3	My friend today is Jay Holder. Jay is one of the best people I've ever had the privilege of working
0:46.2	with and I'm so happy to get to share his amazingness with you today. Jay is the director of
0:51.6	marketing and communications for the Atlanta Track Club and so naturally I wanted to sit down with
0:56.8	him to talk about what it was like planning the 2020 US Olympic marathon trials. You know I cannot
1:03.4	get enough of this stuff. We've heard from so many of the amazing athletes who ran in Atlanta.
1:09.0	But what about the people behind the scenes? Jay was so gracious giving me his time and answering
1:14.4	all my questions about what the bidding process is like for cities who want to host the trials
1:19.5	and how exactly the Atlanta Track Club planned to pull off such an amazing event not just for
1:25.4	the more than 700 athletes who ran at the trials but also for the spectators, for the fans,
1:31.2	for the thousands who ran the following day in the regular people races. It was an amazing feat so
1:38.4	enjoy reminiscing about Atlanta with us and then we look forward. We talk about the Peach Tree
1:43.5	Road Race which is the world's largest 10k hosted by the Atlanta Track Club. How do you plan a race
1:49.4	when the world is upended by a pandemic? We talk about just that. Jay is an 11 time marathoner. He's a
1:55.7	dad of two so just like so many of us he's navigating this whole work from home be a teacher be a
2:02.3	full-time parent thing and I give him so much credit for all that he's doing right now and just a
	...

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