We recently connected with ALAN FIGUEROA and have shared our conversation below.

Hi ALAN, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about growing your team – how did you recruit the first few people, what was the process like, how’d you go about training and if you were to start over today would you have done anything differently?

As an employee for LADWP for over 20+ years. I needed to find a safe space and welcoming run club for people to be able to come together without intimidation. I reached out to the Employees’ Association and inquired the steps to create a club. I researched the bylaws, put together a roster and the board was created in 2019.

The team was created with 20 runners and has since grown to 100 + active members.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

In 2012, a friend asked me to run with him, which I had not run in over 18 years. The thought of running did not sound appealing. So, we compromised to start walking during lunch a mile per day and eventually was able to run. In consistency I was able to complete my first 5k and eventually therefore a 10k, half marathon and a marathon shortly after.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In August 2023 a loca friend invited me to register to run Mexico City marathon. A group of us decided to accomplish a tough marathon. So little do we know that Mexico City elevation would play a key to achieve this challenge.

I was so excited the day of the marathon and was ready to run. It was not until mile 3 when my vertigo and dizziness kicked in. It almost made me quit this adventure. I got my thoughts and emotions together to embrace it all. I knew quitting was not an option, I decided to slow my pace and hydrate. I walked for some time and when started to feel better, I continue on my run at my own pace without added stress of time.

I completed the Mexico City marathon without injury and had fun.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

The only advice I can give is to make sure that team is up to date with the running schedules and any events happening, making sure everyone is injury free and staying hydrated.

To keep high morale we make sure that everyone in the team feels included and have incentives like raffles and give aways.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @Ladwpacers

Image Credits
@ventiviews Own collection