May 14, 2021
We have a packed show today, and we're going to talk about everything endurance sports. We're going to be specifically talking about a new magazine for swim bike run, called Run•Tri•Bike.
I'm Hilary Topper. And this is Hilary Topper on air. Today, I have the great pleasure of speaking with Jason Bahamundi president and CEO and Angela Nath, senior vice-president of Run•Tri•Bike, a multimedia platform designed to help beginner athletes navigate the world of endurance sports, which includes running, cycling and swimming. Welcome guys to the show. First you, Jason, can you tell us a little bit about Run•Tri•Bike Magazine, why you decided to launch the magazine and who is the intended audience is?
Jason - Sure. Hilary, thank you very much for having me on. So Run•Tri•Bike Magazine was started by Angela and me because, during conversations amongst friends and acquaintances and people involved in the sports world, we found that there was a need for tips and tricks and stories and inspiration and motivation for beginners. And we're just coming off or still involved in the pandemic. Right. And people are working from home and deciding to buy running shoes for the first time or buying a bike for the first time and not really knowing where to turn and where to go for those ideas and tips. And so we started the business with that as our focus, it's focused on beginners. And then I would say a second-tier level, underneath that beginner athlete demographic would be looking to help women looking to help people of color, looking to help physically challenged, disabled and LGBTQ plus athletes have a platform to talk about their stories and to inspire others, representation matters to us. And so if you see somebody that looks like you or is from your part of the world, you might get inspired and motivated to get out there and participate in the sports that we love as well. And so that's the premise for starting this business when you say multimedia platform, you're a hundred percent correct.
We print a magazine on a bimonthly basis and we run our website and social media platforms which get updated daily. And then just so listeners understand the content that your consuming online is different than the content that is in the magazine and we want to bring stories in all forms to different people because people process information differently and that's kind of why we're doing it that way.
Hilary - So, Jason, um, just give me a brief overview of your background.
Jason - Sure. I've been involved in endurance sports for about 14 years. I got into it similar to the way other people do, which is, this sounds like fun, let's try it out. Um, and in those 14 years I've been able to, been fortunate enough to cross the finish line of eight iron man races, there’s an eight hundred-mile race coming up in about three weeks as I was notified yesterday that I will be taking on the Cocodona 250, which is a 250-mile foot race from black Canyon city in Arizona to Flagstaff, Arizona. Thank you very much for that enthusiasm. I'm kind of really nervous right now about it. I need all the hype I can get from others.
Hilary - That's really cool. Really, really cool. So how did you and Angela meet?
Jason - I have been, um, I guess I would say a supporter of women's sports for a very long time. And I was a Patreon member of I race like a girl. And one day at the start of run tri bike, social media I saw that I race like a girl platform liked three of my own personal stories on Instagram. So I quickly flipped over being an entrepreneur and said, you know what, we're going to reach out to Angela directly, tell our story and see what happens. My goal at the time was to get IRAs, like a girl involved in run tri bike as an advertiser and as a content provider, one conversation led to the next and, before I knew it, Angela was a partner in the business, which is endurance sports investment group, under which RTB operates. And it's been fantastic, the ability to have a partner who obviously is female, and be able to provide you with insight into how women are thinking about these sports and just things of that nature has been great. But yeah, I've been a fan of hers for years, the year she won Iron man Chattanooga, I participated in the race too. So I don't know. Maybe the stars were aligned since way back in 2018.
Hilary - That's awesome. All right. Well, before we move on, I just have to say I'm so appreciative of our sponsors and I must take the time out to thank them. Please support our sponsors and tell them that you heard about them on Hilary topper on air special thanks to The Pegalis Law Group, The Profit Express, The Russo Law Group, Pop International Galleries and Gold Benes LLP. So Angela, tell me a little bit about yourself and your professional background as a triathlete.
Angela - Yeah, I started competing in triathlon shortly after college, it was something that I just wanted to stay active in. I was a track and field runner for college and just really loved all sports. And so I wanted to stay active. And so I jumped into a local pool triathlon and fell in love with it. And from there forward, I was just all about triathlon, and about a year later, I was actually, I qualified for my professional card in Canada and, it's been a good decade about training and racing and traveling the world. So it's, it's been really, really fun.
Hilary - That's so awesome. So tell me, what was your favorite race?
Angela - My favorite race is probably St. Croix they do a race there and it's just such a beautiful Island. The whole Island basically jumps in into the race for spectators and, just the vibe there is nice, It’s a very challenging course and I'm someone who loves hot weather. So of course, St. Croix is going to be up on the list.
Hilary - I was there too, that there was some, some Hills up there, huh? So, um, so talk to me a little bit about, so I heard that you got Lyme disease. Can you talk a little bit about how that happened and, what you actually did about that?
Angela - Yeah, it's a, it's kind of an ongoing process. So in 2018, I was finally diagnosed with Lyme. It was very difficult to really diagnose itself because I went to a number of doctors, world-renowned doctors at Boston Children's no one could figure it out because the CDC guidelines for Lyme are not necessarily accurate in terms of actually having it. So finally I found a doctor and did some other testing, and we found that I had Lyme and Bartonella, which is the co-infection of bacteria, and how you treat it is pretty, it's been a learning curve because you, I kinda treated it with antibiotics. Got better, got off the antibiotics relapsed. And you do that a couple of times and you continue trying to like, get there. Get the layers of the onion away, basically. So during COVID actually, I did a lot of treatment for it. And so I'm just kind of rebounding from that right now because I mean, any type of medication you take really does fall to the body, so you have to kind of process that as well. So it's something that very difficult to go through quite honestly. It's kind of changed my life a little bit in that sense. But really I've learned so much and the education I have for it I try to help as many people as I can that may have unusual symptoms or just a current diagnosis. Anything that I can do to return the favor of the support I've received from others?
Hilary - Well, it seems like that's something that a lot of triathletes get because we go into areas that are sometimes, lots of, lots of grass and trees and, and that type of thing. And, so it's, it's something that I think is pretty unfortunately common among triathletes. So I heard that one of the things that you've been doing is you've been using hydro mag, which is a Moxie life product. Can you tell me about that experience?
Angela - Yeah, I've been with MOXiLIFE for a couple of years now. Theresa, the founder and CEO is just a fantastic lady. Love her to death. I met her at a race in California and she was providing samples of her hydro Mag and hydro Mag is basically a magnesium supplement drink. That is really, really easy to digest. And It tastes great. And so magnesium is something that I lose a lot of, especially even with a Lyme or Bartonella diagnosis as well. It's, it's kind of a common known fact that the magnesium you lose is even more so, and as athletes, you'd be surprised how much magnesium we actually need. And so I've been using her product for two years and I swear by it, it's something I drank two or three times a day. I sometimes add it to my sports drink for training, and it's really helped me in the process throughout this whole timeframe and really be able to train consistently and just try to get the best I can out of my body. So I really do love the product.
Hilary - A lot of triathletes also, and runners find that they cramp up a lot. Is this something that you would tell your athletes to try, as to, take magnesium or to try to…
Angela - Oh, definitely. Yeah. Like, there's, I mean, you obviously want to make sure that your electrolytes in terms of your sodium content is really well done in your sports drink and also your fueling and race nutrition. But another whole process of that is the magnesium. And so sometimes when I have athletes that I coach come to me and say, they're cramping, we kind of do an overhaul of exactly what they're doing in nutrition. So I really like to make sure that they have the sodium content, because I definitely need that throughout training and racing.
And then I always add and let them try the magnesium supplement because I really find that it does so much for the body. Like if you were to do a Google search of what magnesium does for the body, I mean, it's something that's used in basically every cell of the body and every process of the body. So we really do go through a lot as athletes as we push ourselves. And so part of that is cramping. And, I've noticed actually I teach a master's group and we had a guy that would continually cramp in his calves. And so I suggested Moxie life. He bought some and, he's been taking it religiously for the last two weeks and we have not had cramps, so I'm actually glad you brought that up.
Hilary - Wow. That's awesome. That's awesome. And lastly, could you just, talk a little bit about the new magazine, Run•Tri•Bike, and your hopes and ambitions for it?
Angela - Yeah. I started with Jason. He actually reached out to me, kind of in the light of seeing if there was some type of relationship that we could create with run tri bike and right away when he explained his goal with it, the aim of really just providing insights of swim bike, run, triathlon, and bringing stories about athletes from all walks of life and, and that they were all female. I mean, everything I do is really about bringing females into the spotlight of triathlon. And so that's why I have my team. I race like a girl I have my own sites for a lot of educational components. So the run tri bike was just a fantastic opportunity. And so I just asked him, I'm like, well, how can I be more involved? Because this is something that is right up my alley. I'm inspired by people's stories and really trying to share it and make triathlon a little bit less intimidating, all of it just came together. And so we kind of talked a little bit and, I partnered with him and it's just been fantastic. We're really just starting from grassroots and building it up as we go. And I think it's a niche in the sport because there's not a lot for beginner triathlons and I mean, triathletes, for magazine wise and really getting some education out there and like being able to support with a lot of different types of sponsors that come on board, it's just a platform that I'm really excited to continue to grow. And the stories behind it that we've already had this far are just... Just so fun to read. And the educational component is fantastic. I mean, for anyone that starting triathlon, whether you are a female or male, if you're looking for clubs, if you're looking to kind of be in triathlon where you find it a little bit intimidating and want to learn more, it's a fantastic platform. I mean, I'm biased. I love it.
Hilary - Jason, could you tell us a little bit about the first issue of Run•Tri•Bike Magazine and what was your favorite story so far?
Jason - Oh, those are great questions. Thank you very much. Um, there's nothing like I like talking about more than the product we put out. So our first issue covers swimming, biking, and running from, tips for beginners, such as how to pick the right shoe for running, gear you might need for swimming and then how to pick the right bike because it's not just rode bikes you've got triathlon bikes, cross bikes, things like that. In there also we have coaches tips. One is from Angela and one is from Maria Simone of no limits, endurance coaching.
We've got health tips in there. We've got nutrition tips in there as well. And so to answer the second question, which was my favorite article, that's like picking your favorite child, right? It's very difficult to do, but for me being a quasi foodie, the article written by Stevie Smith about seven posts, nutrition foods for recovery was fascinating to me and phenomenal, to help give you that reminder of what you need to do post-race or post-workout. But then we have a couple of features in there called how it all started. and it's, again, it goes back to the representation matters in there. So we have athletes telling their stories of how they got started and they don't look like they were models clipped out of another magazine. They're your everyday Jane's participating in our endurance sports. And I just love reading those stories.
Hilary - That's awesome. Any sneak peeks of Run•Tri•Bike Magazine that you'd like to share with us? Something that our listeners should keep an eye out for.
Jason - Of course. I will tell you that there are two, three actual, um, components of the upcoming issue that we're excited about. Um, one is most endurance athletes don't think about going to the gym and, and doing strength training. We've got some great tips in that. About that coming up. But, um, bigger than that is how it all started feature and our club's spotlight feature are going to be circling around the same person. And her name is Melissa Stockwell. She is a war veteran who is an above-the-knee amputee who participates in triathlons. She has been to the Paralympic games twice and won a bronze medal. And part of her story is that she founded dare to try, which is a triathlon club nationally to help physically challenge disabled athletes. navigate, like we like to use that phrase, swim, bike, run triathlon. So I'm really excited about those three pieces that'll be coming out in our next issue of Run•Tri•Bike Magazine.
Hilary - So as you know the listeners of this podcast are mostly CEOs who may be into a swim bike, run triathlons, and so forth. Any words of advice that you would like to share with our listeners? Just thinking about getting into the sport.
Jason - I'd hate to steal from Nike, but a Phil Knight listens to your podcast, I would say, just do it. I mean, we all started somewhere, and a lot of times we were there at, into this, or we found a story that inspired us and we probably spent days, weeks, months thinking about doing it instead of just doing it, but go out there, find a club that is welcoming to beginners because again, we've all been there. You're going to show up in a cotton t-shirt and a Nike's air Jordans instead of LAN, spandex and Lycra it's okay. Just go out there. These people will support you and put their arms around you and show you the way you don't have to be perfect on day one, just go, just get out there and get active. Even if it's walking, even if it's, um, sitting on a spin bike in a gym, get active, it's as simple as that, you'll figure your way out after that.
Hilary - That's awesome. Thank you for that advice. I love that. Talk to us a little bit about how people can buy Run•Tri•Bike Magazine or subscribe, or, what have you like, how does that work?
Jason - Oh, I love... anytime I can talk about and market our business. I'm happy to do that. So if you go to, for all your listeners, if you go to Run•Tri•Bike Magazine, we have a store on the site that you can click and go to subscriptions to purchase a one or a two-year subscription. If you happen to be in a club and you want to get the club highlighted in our clubs spotlight feature, whether in print or online, nominate your club, we will send you a discount code for 20% off of your club members for all the subscriptions, all of our social profiles have links to the subscriptions. If you are, near a running store, a cycling shop, ask them for a copy. We have distributed about 1500 copies nationwide to endurance specialty stores. And then another way to get your hands on a copy is we are working with races all across the country to have our magazine in the swag bags that you get. So if you show up to a race and you don't have it, ask the race director for it and that'll help us with the distribution side of it all. But yeah, Run•Tri•Bike on all social media platforms, as well as www.trisportmag.com. and you'll be pointed in the right direction for getting your hands on the magazine.
Hilary - Awesome. That's great. I love that. Thank you so much, Jason and Angela for being on the show. I also want to thank our sponsors, the Russo Law Group, The Profit Express, Pop international galleries, gold Benes, and The Pegalis law group. And last but not least, I want to thank you our listeners for tuning in each week. If you want more information on this show or any other show, you can visit us at hilarytopperonair.com or you can find us on Spotify, iTunes, or Google Play. Have a great week, and we'll see you next time.