“Every single day for the last 15 years of my life I had a goal and I was able to tangibly work towards it day in and day out and all of my decisions were guided by the idea that I wanted to achieve this goal. There’s not many other things that are happening in the world or in my life where that exists. I have goals in relationships, I know I’ll have goals in my new work life, and longterm bucket list things I want to cross off but not necessarily things that every single day I’m seeing that input and output to the amount of effort that I’m giving towards it. I think that’s just really unique to track and field and running—I don’t think that even basketball players have that same experience.” Kyle Merber, like last week’s guest, Andrew Bumbalough, is a recently retired professional athlete. He spent his professional career training and racing with the New Jersey New York Track Club and Coach Frank Gagliano, where he put up personal bests of 3:34 in the 1500 and 3:52 in the mile. In this conversation, we really didn’t spend any time talking about Kyle’s races, or highs and lows in the sport, or how he got his start in running; instead, we dug into what it’s been like moving on from running in a professional capacity and he opened up and gave his honest reflections of what he experienced as an athlete. We talked about the coverage of the sport, whether or not we need to bring new fans into, how he plans to stay involved now that he’s no longer competing at an elite level, and a lot more.This episode is brought to you by:— Tracksmith: Tracksmith is a Boston-based running apparel brand, born from a desire to celebrate both the history and the evolving culture of the sport. They recently released their Spring Collection full of stylish gear perfected for the pursuit of personal excellence. Designed for running hard and logging miles as the season shifts, this collection is designed with endurance in mind. Right now, Tracksmith is offering new customers $15 off your first purchase of $75 bucks or more. Just use code MARIO15 when you check out at tracksmith.com.— Goodr: Goodr sunglasses are don’t bounce, they don’t slip, they’re polarized to protect your eyes, and they come in a nice range of styles and fun colors. They’re the most affordable performance shades on the planet with most pairs costing only $25 to $35 bucks a piece. If you want to support the podcast and treat yourself to a pair of goodrs, head over to goodr.com/MARIO or enter the code MARIO at checkout for FREE shipping on your first order. Complete show notes: https://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-155-with-kyle-merber/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout

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