410: Pete & Zika Rea - The Impact of ZAP Endurance

C Tolle Run

Sports, Fitness, Running, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 555 Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Founded in 2001 as a non-profit training center, ZAP Endurance became a cornerstone in the running community, helping everyone from recreational runners rediscover the sport to coaching elite athletes chasing World Championship and Olympic dreams. Now, as ZAP closes its doors, Carrie sits down with co-founders Pete and Zika Rea to reflect on over two decades of impact. In this heartfelt conversation, the Rea's share their proudest moments, toughest challenges, favorite memories, and hopes for the future of running. From shaping individual journeys to influencing the broader sport, Pete and Zika’s legacy runs deep, and today, we celebrate everything they've built.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everybody. I'm Olympian Carrie Tullifson and welcome to the C-Tolly Run podcast.
0:11.6	Today I'm bringing on two people that have made such a difference in so many lives,
0:16.1	from getting people back to running all the way to athletes trying to make world championship and Olympic teams.
0:22.8	Pete and Zika Ray, they are the longtime owners of Zapp Endurance.
0:27.4	This nonprofit training center started in 2001 and just recently announced that they will
0:32.5	close doors after 25 years at the end of this year.
0:36.0	So I want to pay a little homage to this awesome couple
0:38.9	and hear all about the journey with Zapp. So let's get after it. All right, Pete and Zika,
0:47.6	welcome. We are so excited to have you here at C-Tali Ron. And, you know, Pete, I know that you
0:52.1	really secretly want me to say a word that I shouldn't say on air because the story is every time I'm on air, he texts me like, dare you to say this. And usually it's a word that is only four letters or something like that. So you aren't allowed to do that today, NCTali Rod, Pete. You've never cashed in on that bonus. I know. It is so fun, though. I love it. And I love the fact that you two
1:13.5	are here with me. You know, we've been longtime friends. And I'm a little bit sad for part of the
1:19.0	conversation, but also just like so, so thrilled to have you here and so thankful. So Zika,
1:24.4	I want to start with you. It's been 25 years since you all started ZAP. So can we like,
1:31.9	before we even get into Zapp, I want to know like how you got into the sport and then why in
1:36.3	the world would you want to do this crazy thing of starting this awesome foundation and group
1:41.8	and all of that. So let's hear about it. Yeah. So getting into the
1:47.5	sport, I was a mediocre high school runner who luckily ended up at a Division III school. And I found
1:54.1	out once I got there that I could still run. I didn't know the difference between Division I,
1:58.3	two, and three. And ended up running at Emory
2:01.4	University for four years. And during that time, got more interested in the sport and improved.
2:08.9	And I met Andy Palmer, who I married and ended up starting Zapp with along the way.
2:14.8	And that same summer, I met Pete. and we were all working at a Nike running camp
	...

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