Pat Melgares Interview
In our latest interview we talk to Pat Melgares, a former All-American cross country runner turned author who tells us about his book "Chasing Excellence" a biography on Olympic Coach Joe Vigil. Pat tells us about how Coach Vigil chose the position as a running coach over more prestigious positions, and how he turned it into one of the longest running and most successful coaching careers. Hear all about the Vigilosophy of Coach Vigil in our latest episode.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
COLIN HILDING: Welcome to Off The Podium for episode number 99. One away from episode number 100, and two away from episode number 101. But we have a nice special episode today. We're doing something a little bit different. I do have to say, this is actually one of the more interesting chats that we've had with any athlete. In this case, author slash athlete. Today we're actually joined by Pat Melgares, who is the author of a biography on one of the premier running coaches in the United States. The book is called Chasing Excellence, The Remarkable Life and Inspiring Vigilosophy of Coach Joe I. Vigil. Coach Vigil is somebody who's been coaching in the United States Olympic circles, college track circles for decades. And Pat himself actually did train under him when he was a college runner back in the day. Now since then, he's gone on to write this book, which sounds fantastic, I have to say. You'll hear in the interview some of just the basic stories that he tells just about the beginning of Coach Vigil's time as a coach, as a running coach. And based just off that, my interest has peaked to read the rest of it, but we get a lot more stories about Coach Vigil, about Pat's time as a runner himself, and even what Coach Vigil's up to today. Plus as well, maybe what his next idea for a book is going to be. This is a first for us, as we never actually had... I think we had one athlete on who wrote their own book, their own biography, which was Sammy Joe Smalls last year. But this is the first time we've had an author who wrote a sports biography about something else, and also the first time we've really had a little talk about a coach, which is something that's been interesting me for quite a while now. So here it is, our interview with author Pat Melgares.
COLIN HILDING: Well, we're thrilled to have a special guest with us here today. This is another first. We've been running through all these first sports where we've never talked to anybody before. And we kind of get to do two things here. We get to talk to somebody who we've never spoken to in a specific sport being distance running, but also for, I guess, technically the first time in the show, we get to speak to an author. The only other time we interviewed an author was an athlete biography, and now we get to interview a real author. No disrespect for the athlete ones, but somebody makes a living out of this. And today we have Pat Melgares on here, who has an interesting history in the sport of distance running himself, but also has written a new book on one of the most famous track running coaches in the United States, coach Joe Vigil. And the book's called Chasing Excellence, The Remarkable Life and Inspiring Vigilosophy. Is it gonna be Vigilosophy or Vigilosophy?
PAT MELGARES: It's gonna be Vigilosophy, you bet.
COLIN HILDING: Vigilosophy.
PAT MELGARES: It's a made up term, but it's Vigilosophy.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and this is Joe Vigil. Now, I guess before even, you know, get into a little background about the coach himself, why don't you tell us a little bit about your history in the sport of distance running?
PAT MELGARES: Well, thanks, Colin. I really appreciate, you know, being on the show. It's really an honour, but I ran for coach Vigil in 1985 to 1989 at Adams State. We were Adams State College back then. It's Adams State University. And Adams State College was truly a running, a small school running dynasty featured in Sports Illustrated. During Coach Vigil's time, we were 19 time or he coached 19 national championship teams and 80 some individual national champions, 400 and something all Americans. You know, the numbers are just astounding. But my own career, I was very fortunate to run for Coach Vigil, very fortunate to run for Adams State. I was a four time All-American at Adams State. I was mainly a 5,000 and 10,000 metre runner. I wasn't a Olympic class, but I was pretty good for a college runner. I was a sub 30 for 10K runner, which is pretty good. You know, about a 448 per mile pace for six miles. So it was not too bad.
COLIN HILDING: So this is great for me to hear that, there's people who run that fast. And I got into distance running a couple of years ago, I mean, into my thirties. And I think my best 10K time was maybe 48 minutes something.
PAT MELGARES: So yeah, you know, I always tell people it's wherever you're at, you can still enjoy distance running wherever you're at, because there's always a goal, you know, I want to beat 48 minutes this time and anything that you can do, you get the same thrill running 48 minutes that I probably did at 30 minutes, maybe more so because I couldn't breathe at 30 minutes.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I can imagine. Now, did you end up going to university on like a track scholarship, or was it just some of you fell into when you were there?
PAT MELGARES: No, I was recruited by Coach Vigil out of high school. I was a state champion in Colorado during my years, and I thought running was one of the paths that I thought would lead me to a college education, but I actually was not on an athletic scholarship. I was able to get an academic scholarship. And back in the 80s, a yearly tuition for a small college was about, oh, between $2,500 and $3,000, which is unheard of right now. But so with an academic scholarship, I was able to get my way through college and didn't need the athletic scholarship.
COLIN HILDING: At the time when you started running, was Coach Vigil somebody who was already a fairly well-known name in the running community?
PAT MELGARES: He was. He was, absolutely. In fact, in 1988, he was the Olympic distance running coach for the United States, and that was when they were in Seoul, South Korea that year. In fact, he took off most of our cross-country season of 1988 to be with the United States team. So yes, he was definitely a household name. He had had many international appointments to that point, with the Pan American Games, World Cross-Country Championships, and others. And one of our most famous alumni at Adam State was Pat Porter, who was a nine-time US. National Cross-Country Champion. He had broken the record of consecutive national championships. And I believe the consecutive number was eight in a row that he won at one point. And Pat Porter was also an Olympian in the 10,000 metres. Now, I told you I ran 30 minutes. Well, Pat Porter was more close to 27 minutes in the 10,000 metres. So, you know, and that was back in the days where, you know, it was, there was not a lot of guys running under 28 minutes for the 10,000 metres. Now, there's a lot of them. The colleges are running sub 28 minutes now.
COLIN HILDING: Can you tell us a little bit about Coach Vigil, like his background? You know, I guess, was he an athlete himself before he got into coaching? And I guess, how did he get into coaching in the first place?
PAT MELGARES: Yeah, you know, it's a great story. But, you know, Coach Vigil's background, and this is what makes, I think, Chasing Excellence so, such a beautiful story, the fact that he was born into poverty. I mean, he was born two months after the Great Depression hit the United States. So this is 1929. And so this is a guy who, you know, very early in his life knew no privilege whatsoever. He was raised by a single mother. He had two brothers. So she was doing everything she could just to keep food on the table. But even despite that upbringing, he grew up to be just a marvellous young man. He was driven by Christian values. He ended up becoming a all state football player in high school, went on to the Navy and became a Golden Gloves boxer, eventually returned to college and was an all conference college football player also at Adam State College. And then initially he had taken a football coaching job in high school. He was also teaching biology. But the very cool story was that after his first year of coaching football at Alamosa High School, which is a small community down in Southern Colorado, he just after school one day kind of wandered into the gymnasium where the track team was gonna have a pre-season meeting. Well, only three boys showed up to that meeting and turned out that the head coach at that time for track said, well, I guess we're not gonna have a track season. And Coach Vigil kind of looked to the side and saw that their tears were canning in these boys' eyes. And he went home that night, told his wife, he said, you know what, I'm gonna see if I can help those boys somehow. He didn't know what the heck he was gonna do, but he just thought, you know, I'm gonna try to help those boys somehow. So went back to school the next day, asked the head coach and asked the principals that okay, if I try to help these boys. And they said, yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead, but there's no budget. We have no money for you. We can't pay you, et cetera, et cetera. Well, he ended up, those three boys made it to the state meet. One of them earned a state medal. And that was kind of his beginning in track and field. What turned out the following year was that he had asked to be the head coach for track and field. And, but they also wanted him to be the head coach for football, but at the school at the time, they had a rule that you could only be the head coach for one sport. So coach Vigil, who was this local hero, so to speak, in football, you know, big, burly guy, strong guy, very powerful guy, could have become the head coach for football or he could have, in my book, I say he could, he could meander over to this strange sport that he just came to know by by happenstance. And with that decision to make, he chose track and field, which is just pretty remarkable. And so that was his introduction to becoming a track and field coach, and that would not be the path that you would have thought he would have taken. You'd have thought that he would have pursued the football opportunity. But after a year of coaching these boys and seeing a little bit about what track and field was about, he decided he wanted to pursue that.
COLIN HILDING: You know, I'm here in Canada and even in Canada, I mean, football's not nearly as big as it is there in America, but I mean, it would be unheard of for somebody here to say, I'm gonna turn down football for track and field. So was it like the kids that you were mentioning in that story where he kind of just said, you know, I want to be able to help these kids. What specifically motivated him to go with track and field over football?
PAT MELGARES: Yeah, you know, he loves people. And you see that even now, he's 91 years old and he just loves people and he loves helping people. And I think that that touched his heart. The fact that these boys, it was important enough to them that when they were told they weren't gonna give the opportunity, that they became emotional about it. And I think that touched his heart. And that is just a very clear indication of who Coach Vigil is. I think that this book, certainly it's a biography of a great track and field coach, and there's no doubting his record. And he's done marvellous things in the world of track and field and distance running, but he's an even greater man. And I hope that the book truly gets at the fact that, here's a compassionate man who overcame adversity throughout his life, and he did it by following his Christian values and believing in people. And that, right back all the way to those three boys, I think that that was the first indication of the kind of man that he was and that he is.
COLIN HILDING: What type of coach was he at the time where you were underneath him? Was it a very personal relationship you had, where you were aware of these stories? Or was it just, I'm the coach, and you do what I say. Did you get to know him very well as a student or did that come later on?
PAT MELGARES: I would say he was obviously a very demanding coach, but also a very personable coach. He was a kind of guy who could joke around with you, have a lot of fun, but it was no nonsense. If you were in the program, you were there to follow the rules and work as hard as you could. And if you weren't willing to follow the rules, then he wasn't gonna have the time for you because there was a lot of people that were after his time. And it was really a privilege to be able to be part of that program. It's not just about being with Coach Vigil, but it was all of the people that were involved with the program, the teammates, the support staff, all of those people that have really put their blood, sweat and tears into the program, that it was a way of honouring them, that you were there to, again, it was no nonsense, that he was the man who made sure that it stayed that way.
COLIN HILDING: What was your longest distance you ran before you started being coached by him?
PAT MELGARES: Yeah, I think in high school, I was maybe eight miles. That was about the most that I did as a high schooler, but once I hit Adams State, because Alamosa and Adams State is located about 7,400 feet in elevation. Not sure what that is in metres, but basically a high altitude community. We did not do a whole lot of mileage. I mean, I think it would not be atypical that college runners would be running 90 miles, maybe even 100 miles, but truly at Adams State College, we're running about 70 miles per week at 7,400 feet elevation. So of course, average is out to about 10 miles a day, but typically had a long run of about 16 miles on the weekend and then the other days of the week would make up that difference.
COLIN HILDING: Did you have to train like year round on that, or is that just during the actual running season?
PAT MELGARES: Yeah, that was pretty much year round. I think in the off season, we would actually up the mileage a little bit. I think there was a time when I was up to 90 to 100 miles through the summer in the off season. But it was a very scientific based program where we would train in cycles essentially. So you had your fall season leading up to a peak, and then you take two weeks off completely. It was mental and physical rest for two weeks completely. You didn't do any running. You could go ride your bike, you could go swim, go do whatever you wanted to do. But you weren't to run. And then you started training again in the December, January. You ran indoor track. You had maybe a day or two break, and then you went right to outdoor track. And then after outdoor track, you'd have your couple of two weeks off again, and then you'd train all summer long to get ready for the fall cross-country season. So yeah, it was a runner's life, and we loved it because, you know, we had one of the guys who was not just a brilliant scientific mind in the world of distance running, but also a master motivator. Who, you know, you wanted to do him proud because he was that kind of loving guy that, you know, you wanted to make Papa proud. You know, we were like his sons and daughters, and we wanted to make Papa proud.
COLIN HILDING: It's crazy that, you know, we've talked about for a long time, you know, being able to, I guess, get some coaches on the show and everything, because it's a completely different mindset you have to be in. Not downplaying what the athletes do in any way, but the athletes often do have a season where they're training and everything, but when you have that two week layoff, I mean, the coach is there working, right? And in his case, you know, when he's not coaching you, he's training Olympians too. And that wasn't something that was new either in Seoul. I mean, he'd been training Olympians long prior to that, right?
PAT MELGARES: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, he's trained 22 Olympians. And I was one of the things that I was surprised to learn when we were compiling that list is that he had Olympians back in the 1970s even, that he had been involved with. Now, he was not necessarily, they were not necessarily training at Adam State, but he had some involvement with them. One of the things I think coach is fond of saying is that, you know, I helped bring them along at the end, but there were lots of people who brought them to where they were. So I just think again, that goes a lot to the humility of this man, but, you know, he might have been the coach when they made the Olympics or in their last stages of becoming the Olympian, but he always has recognised that, you know, they're kind of the sum of all their parts. There were people who helped them along the way, but he just happened to be the guy, you know, that helped them at the end.
COLIN HILDING: And at what point did the idea of writing this book come to you or were you approached to write it? I don't know.
PAT MELGARES: I was approached and I got scared. I tell you, Colin, it was something, you know, I held the man in such high regard, such high esteem that to be asked to actually write a book about his life, it really did kind of scare me because it's like you get one chance to do that. And if you gum it up, you know, it's going to be out there. You know, you only get that one chance to make it really good. And so we, Alamosa hosted the first ever US Olympic marathon trials in 1968, which was pretty remarkable. Anyway, Alamosa is a community of about 10,000 people. Well, the reason I bring that up is because it was 2018, the 50th anniversary of that first ever Olympic marathon trials that we met in Alamosa. Oh, remarkable event. And, but during that event, it was, we were in the bar in the evening having a drink and some teammates of mine said, you know what, somebody's got to write a book. Pat, why don't you try this? And I'm like, well, you know, I've been a journalist for 25, whatever years it was at the time. And, but, you know, I've never written a book. And so it was definitely something where, you know, I said, I wasn't just jumping at the opportunity. There were other more experienced writers, at least book writers, authors, who had been approached with it and they had turned back because they just thought that the story was too unique, that it had to be somebody that was maybe a little bit closer to the story to be able to tell fully this story. Well, I am a very faith-filled person, and so I did some praying and talked to my daughter. And as the story goes, it's a true story, but driving back to Kansas after that event, I asked my daughter, who was 18 years old at the time, I asked her, Kara, should I try this? And she looks at me and she says, Dad, if you don't, you're gonna regret it for the rest of your life. And it just struck me hard. It was one of those moments that's like, yep, she's absolutely right. If I don't, I'm gonna just kick myself because I have an opportunity to do something for a man that did something for me at a very impressionable time of my life. And so that was it. That was the summer of 2018. And by that fall, I had gotten Coach's blessing to go ahead and write the book and began interviewing, ended up doing 50 plus interviews with people, well, several interviews with him, and then about 50 interviews total with people who had lived part of his life or lived in part of his experiences, just lots of different people that could tell stories. Because ultimately, the story of Coach Vigil is a compilation of stories. It's so many stories of his experiences in the United States, outside of the United States with this athlete, with that athlete. And we all felt, both of us that got involved with this project, that these stories are so compelling that they need to be captured. They need to be preserved. They need to be told so that people can grow and learn and see that there was just a normal guy that just happened to do really fantastic things. You know, and so I think in a sense, by hearing these stories, people can see that, you know, anybody can do this if you're just willing to work hard and believe in or follow what you believe in.
COLIN HILDING: You know, a typical sports biography might cover, you know, a 20, let's say maximum 30 year career. I mean, his career as a coach goes even beyond that. And then you add to that the amount of personal stories you're telling him. And how did you even work about condensing that all into one book? Is that what kept you up late at night?
PAT MELGARES: I have no idea. I think it's still keeping me up at night. You know, and that was exactly why I think I got so scared early on, is because it's just too much, you know. But what I did notice is that as I started gathering stories, I started interviewing people, there became common themes, you know. And I think as I saw stories, that one story was similar to another, you know, then you just kind of choose which one's gonna be a little bit more exciting to tell. Because I learned early in the process that there's no way you're gonna tell all of the stories from a 65 to 70 year old, 70 year career. You're basically, if you can find those that are truly representative of what this man stands for, what he's seen and what he's done and who he's helped, then I think that you need to be happy with that. Once I was able to get that clear in my mind and be at peace with that, the project became a lot easier. Because yes, you're right, I have volumes and volumes of information. And I didn't know what I was going to do with them, how I was going to do it justice.
COLIN HILDING: Did you get starstruck at any point with some of the people you interviewed? For one thing, the foreword of your book is written by Billy Mills. I mean, that's about as big of a name as you can get in distance running history.
PAT MELGARES: Yeah, I know. I love that guy. You know what? I got to meet him actually 15 years before this project. We were in Lawrence, Kansas, and he was giving a talk and he's such a personable guy. He's also a Coach Vigil like kind of person because you can walk up to him and feel like you've got a friend immediately. But I would say 15 years ago I was starstruck, but in the years since, I had the opportunity to interact with him at least half a dozen times. And so for the book project, it was so cool because I had not even thought about him for the forward, but it was Coach Vigil himself who suggested Billy Mills to do the forward for the book. But gosh, I got to interview Dina Castor, who I had been friends with when she was in Alamosa.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, so you knew her from before?
PAT MELGARES: Oh, I knew Dina Castor when she was Dina Drossan. She moved to Alamosa and I was living in Alamosa. And one of the first meetings she ever had with Coach Vigil was over breakfast. And it was Dina Drossan myself and Coach Vigil having breakfast together when she just barely moved to Alamosa. She hadn't been there, I bet, not more than a week. And so it was funny because at the 50th anniversary that I talked about a little bit ago, Dina was there with her husband Andrew Castor. And I asked her if she remembered that and she absolutely remembered that time when she first came to Alamosa and I thought that was kind of cool because, you know, I mean, she obviously went on to much bigger things and has lived a lot of life since that time. But, oh, go ahead, no, so there was just some fantastic people to be able to, I would say a lot of the people that have made this book and the people that I was able to interact with relating to this book, I've been fortunate to interact with over the years because of my association with Coach Vigil. And they're all seem to be very humble people. It just amazes me. And from my own personal observations, I feel like Coach Vigil rubs off on a lot of these people that he is around also. So I think some of that is a result of who he is also.
COLIN HILDING: Now I'm going to guess and at least hope that after a long life he's lived, he's finally retired. Is he finally retired from coaching or does he still stick his head in there every once in a while just to give some pointers to some kids at school or Olympics, whatever?
PAT MELGARES: He's not retired. In fact, yeah, he's 91, he just turned 91 at the end of November. And he's loving coaching as much as he ever did. He's never retired officially from coaching at least Olympic athletes. And he had, like I said, he had four athletes that are buying an Olympic trials this year the US Olympic trials. And he still continues to get up at four in the morning to read and to study and to do his work. And it's just, it's just the routine with him. He loves to get up at four in the morning and he'll, like I say, he'll do his work and he'll maybe go for a walk or whatever he's going to do for the day. But he has no intention of ever not coaching.
COLIN HILDING: Wow. And he's read the book, I'm guessing, you know, he gave it a positive review.
PAT MELGARES: Oh, he's so wonderful. Coach Vigil literally called my mother and thanked her for raising such a fine son, which of course makes me blush to kind of even say that, but it just makes my heart warm to know that he would say something like that to my mother, you know, because he's just so excited on how the book's gone. He's gotten a lot of feedback from people in the track and field world that say that they've really enjoyed his book. So to me, you know, it makes absolutely no difference what money or notoriety or anything else that I might gain from this. All that I really cared about is that Coach Vigil smiled when he saw the book. And that's what he did. So to me, it's all gravy. Everything else is gravy.
COLIN HILDING: So either your own opinion or even maybe what you know what he's thinking right now. How do you think that Tokyo is looking right now for the US distance running? 5K, 10K, you know, half marathon, full marathon?
PAT MELGARES: You know what? The Americans are doing great. Yeah, you know, I'm not as in tune to what, you know, how close, how we're going to do on the world stage, you know, in terms of Olympic medals, but, but Americans have been doing really great. And in recent years, you know, since Coach Vigil started one of the elite running clubs, Team USA California in 2000, the USA has won a distance medal in every event from 1500 on up, including the steeplechase, except for the women's 5000 metre run. So that was quite, that's quite a stretch for the American, for the United States, just because before that time, we were getting hammered on the world stage. And so the last 20 years, US of distance running has really done really, really well. So I would assume that we're going to be, we're going to be competitive once again.
COLIN HILDING: Do you remember if whether it be through workout suggestions or anything like that, or even just a pep talk, do you remember like the one great lesson that he taught you that still sticks with you today, you know, for running or anything else?
PAT MELGARES: Oh, yeah. I mean, live your life to serve others and to better yourselves every day. And I think that goes back to him getting up at four o'clock in the morning every single day, you know, even today that he's trying to better himself at 91 years old, even though he's one of the most renowned distance coaches in the world. He's still trying to get better. And I think, you know, we talk about when we're kind of talking about the title of the book, it was V-Hilosophy. And that's a lot of what that stands for is, you know, trying to make yourself better every day. And the runners, we fondly called ourselves the V-Hilantes, which actually spelled just like Vigilantes, but we pronounce it V-Hilantes. And we take a lot of pride in trying to espouse the same values that Coach Vigil did. And again, it was, you know, what can you learn today that will make you a better person or make the world around you a better person or make the world around you better, or make, you know, make maybe the people around you better? You know, how can you help somebody else in your life? And I think that that is a core principle of being a Vigilante is that you're there to serve others, not necessarily to be, you know, to let the spotlight shine on you, but help the spotlight shine on others.
COLIN HILDING: And do you still run yourself, even if it's just for fun? Do you participate in, you know, 5k, 10k fun runs, anything like that?
PAT MELGARES: I do. I do, actually. Just recently, I ran 105 days straight, which I've not done that since I was in college. I was just I was just really motivated. I had set a goal to actually hit about for Easter for Lent this past year. I wanted to run for every day, and I had enjoyed it so much, I just kept right on going. And just last week, I ended up at 105 days and decided it's time to take just a little bit of time off and maybe be a little more sane about it. But I still run, yeah, four to six miles a day, and I'll occasionally jump into a race here and there. But I don't I don't get the thrill from competing that I once did. And once you once you kind of lose that hunger, it's it's not as fun to to race for competition. But I love being part of the crowd. I love being part of the energy. And by and large, runners, distance runners have such a positive attitude, positive outlook towards life that I love being around people with those kinds of attitudes.
COLIN HILDING: Even just outside of competitive, like, you know, Olympic running and everything. One of the things that I thought was so great of last year is, you know, obviously, all the marathons and everything were shut down because of COVID last year, and I typically will do three half marathons throughout the year. All three ended up having to go virtual, and there was still a lot of enthusiasm for people, but everybody who's doing it virtual is saying, you know, I'm going to keep doing this, but I'm missing being able to run with other people, you know? And some of them have said, you know what, we're going to give you a bonus run. We'll do two half marathons, so sign up for half the price or whatever. But it's going to be nice to be able to get some competition back there again, some crowds and, you know, people running together.
PAT MELGARES: Yeah, yeah, it's just it's just wonderful energy. And I think that that's, you know, it's it's neat to see that because running is not just good for you physically, but it's also good for you mentally, you know, and I think my wife would probably want to kick me off the door if I would stop running, you know.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. Now, before we quickly mention the book right at the end, do you have any plans for a second book? Is that something you are you still recovering from that? Is it harder to recover from writing a book than it is 105 days of running?
PAT MELGARES: No, Hatay, I do. I'm excited. I do have another book opportunity with the same publisher, actually. And we want to talk about three of the greatest mountain runners in the history of that discipline. And it is Pablo Vigil, Ricardo Mejia from Mexico, and Killian. I just forgot Killian's last name. From France, basically. And they are the three distance runners that have dominated the Sierres and All Mountain Race in Sierres and All Switzerland. And the idea is that they're not only fantastic mountain runners, but there's a very spiritual part of why they run and kind of the idea that they take care of Mother Earth at the same time that they're running, running across all these mountains kind of thing. So it should be a really interesting book, but it will be probably very visual also. We hope to be able to get all three of those together and hopefully that'll be a book that you'll be hearing about in a couple, two, three years.
COLIN HILDING: And we'll gladly have you back on to plug that one too. Awesome. Chasing Excellence, it's out now. I'm seeing some great reviews for it. People seem to love this. Just the way you described his life story alone, you could cut the sports part out of it. And that's a great story right there. Is this available? Where is the easiest place for people to find this?
PAT MELGARES: I think the easiest way to find it would be well, directly from our publisher, that's solsticepublishing.com. Solstice is like S-O-U-L, so like books with soul, S-O-U-L, solsticepublishing.com. I believe you can also find it on Amazon now. And so that's probably the two easiest ways to get the book. One nice thing about the book is all of our books that are purchased through solstice, there's also a portion that's sent to Adam State College to help build a scholarship in Coach Vigil's name. So we really appreciate when people will order through our publisher, because that money's going to go back to help something that Coach Vigil was instrumental in building.
COLIN HILDING: I'll pick up my copy, so everybody else follow suit there. Pat, it's been a pleasure to have you on here today. And I'm looking forward to the next book, looking forward to this one. And if you're ever up here in Winnipeg, Manitoba, or I'm ever down there in Kansas, we'll do a 10K together or something like that. And I will allow you to wait patiently for 20 something minutes for me to cross the finish line.
PAT MELGARES: Well, sounds good. I wish I could be 20 minutes to hit you, but I probably wouldn't be. But I'd enjoy that. I'd enjoy that a lot. I've been to Vancouver, that's my only venture into Canada and I love Vancouver. I want to check out Winnipeg.
COLIN HILDING: So nice.
PAT MELGARES: Yeah.
COLIN HILDING: One of these days.
PAT MELGARES: All right. Hey, Colin, I really appreciate it.
COLIN HILDING: All right. And it was an absolute pleasure talking to Pat. One of the more interesting interviews we've had, something that we haven't had the opportunity to talk about coaching before, haven't had the opportunity to talk to an author. And I can tell you, I've already ordered the book since we've interviewed this, so I'm excited for it to come. And it is something that people can check out now. If you're interested in Peek Like Mine, you can actually find the book, as Pat said, on the publishing website, which is solsticepublishing.com. That's S-O-U-L-S-T-I-C-E publishing.com. The book, again, is called Chasing Excellence, The Remarkable Life and Inspiring V-H-I-L-S-O-F-Y of Coach Joe I. Vigil. It is also available on Amazon and other places where you can find books. But definitely something that we encourage everybody to check out, and as I said, my interest peaked. I'm waiting for my copy to come. Maybe we'll do a review once it comes out, I don't know. With this episode done, that brings us all the way up to episode number 100, which is next. And like we did with our 50th episode, we're gonna be giving you kind of a best of. So you'll hear clips from pretty much all the interviews that we've done and all the episodes we've done over the last 50 episodes. We had some fun little side projects in there. One of the more interesting things is our co-host Ben, who spent years telling us on this show about how he started an Olympic bid for his hometown of Hobart, successfully got this taken off to the point where it went way beyond what he expected it to. That was actually one of my favourite episodes. You'll hear clips from that, clips from all the athlete interviews we've done, some of the recent ones that people have heard that you can still find. Tessa Virtue, the curling series we did with Jill Officer and Mike Harris. And after that, we do have episode 101, which is already recorded, and we're gonna be talking to another distance runner, so stay tuned for that. That'll be coming in the next couple weeks. Probably by the time that's up, we might have another episode in us before that, but we're basically gonna be into the Tokyo Olympics. We're now four weeks away from the Tokyo Olympics, and I honestly can't be more excited. I've already booked my entire vacation, two weeks of vacation just to watch the Olympics, and we'll be bringing daily coverage of that. So if you haven't already, subscribe to us, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcast, wherever you can find us. You can follow us on Facebook, on Twitter, and stay tuned next week for our 100th episode Spectacular, followed by our 101st episode Spectacular.
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