Iron Mayor: Biking, Triathlons, and Training for Ironman in State College

[00:00:00] Brad Groznik: This is the Rediscover State College podcast. On this show, we talk to locals about how they were able to find their happy place in Happy Valley. I’m your host, Brad Groznik. Today we’re joined by the mayor of State College, Ezra Naines. Ezra can also be called an Iron Mayor, because he’s a triathlete who recently competed in the Ironman 70.3 Pennsylvania Happy Valley Race. Thanks In this episode, Ezra and I cover the types of bikes you might consider owning in State College, the Borough Council’s plans to further enhance biking infrastructure in the area, and Ezra’s Ironman training schedule, and how he recommends you prepare for the race too.

[00:00:42] All right, Ezra, thanks so much for chatting with me today.

Ezra Nanes: Hey Brad, it’s my pleasure.

Brad Groznik: So, it’s not often I get the chance to sit with the mayor of State College, a town that I love and love to talk about. So I’d, I’d really love to hear kind of your story for Finance State College and what brought you here and kept you here for, for so long.

[00:01:00] Ezra Nanes: Sure. So you want to talk about what nourishes our souls while we live here, but I’ll tell you what brought us here. We, my wife and I were living in New York City. That’s my hometown. And I was applying to MBA programs and I got into Penn State Smeal. And when we came out to visit, we had an infant baby with us.

[00:01:17] Our first daughter, she cried the whole way from New York City. We got here, saw those trees along Park Avenue. We drove up to campus and I just like, personally, I just had a feeling, you know, I had this like, feeling and it was like, in retrospect, that was the magic feeling was like, this is going to be our place.

[00:01:34] And, you know, had some great interviews, love the people at Penn State, at Smeal. I got in, I got an assistantship, so my tuition was paid, so all that was great. But the first night we stayed at the Nittany Lion Inn, which is like really a beautiful place and such a, such a piece of the character here. And our daughter Mila kept sleeping and she slept.

[00:01:54] And so Mika and I, my wife, we went down to Whiskers, which we’ll have a revitalization very soon. And she kept sleeping and that was the first night that our first daughter ever slept through the night. We were new parents. She had never slept through the night 1st night right here in State College. So, if that isn’t a sign that there’s something special going on in this area.

[00:02:14] The thing is, we were here for the MBA, didn’t know if we’d stay right? Because, you know, when you get in the MBA, and then you go for that job after, after the program, or you start a company, and we were looking everywhere, Boulder, Austin, New York, Bay Area, but we were really falling in love with this area.

[00:02:29] And one of the big hooks is the outdoors. It was like nature. Was right there. It was like from everywhere. You could see the mountains. You could see the ridgelines And we are very outdoorsy, uh, adventure seeking folk. And so that was something that we started to love. And the other thing, of course, the people like that were just amazing people everywhere.

[00:02:50] And we were like, that’s it. We’re in, had another baby settled in and just found an amazing community. And we’ve been here ever since it’s been 14

[00:02:59] Ezra Nanes: years.

[00:03:00] Brad Groznik: Yeah, that’s amazing. This is a fantastic story. It shares so many similarities to mine. When I first came to Penn State, or did like college tours, I had that similar feeling where she’s like, Oh, this is what it looks like in the movies.

[00:03:13] This is what college looks like in the movies. This is, and then the town was just this small, fun, quaint town, but you know, with a lot of character and a lot of personality. And then, so, I assume, like, you had a burgeoning kind of feeling for the outdoors, or started getting into the outdoors. Tell me a little bit about, like, what was the first, was it hiking?

[00:03:31] Was it biking?

[00:03:32] Ezra Nanes: Yeah, it’s everything, but I have to say the origin story is the biking. Because I, for my 2 years of my MBA, Mika and I were living in Ferguson Township, right on the border with the borough, and it was about 2 miles from campus. And I biked into class every single day, rain or shine, snow, sleet, ice, for 2 years.

[00:03:53] And then we would do a lot of family biking, and I just had a commuter bike. I didn’t have a mountain bike or a road bike. I didn’t even know what a gravel bike was. Whenever we’d go for these family bike rides, if I were not towing, I would be riding off the curbs and jumping things. And eventually Mika was like, you should get a mountain bike.

[00:04:08] And I was like, I hadn’t thought of that, but yeah. So I went to one of our amazing local bike shops and we have two in the borough of state college. We have freestyle and the bicycle shop and they’re incredible. And I bought a bike. I started mountain biking and I was just hooked. And the Nittany Mountain Biking Association, NIMBA for short, was one of the very first local organizations that I connected with outside of Penn State.

[00:04:35] And I’ve been a member ever since. I love that organization. I, I did trail work projects with them. You know, we rerouted some of the old fall line, unsustainable kind of eroded trails. It was just an incredible experience getting to know all these amazing people and discovering, wow, we have a lot of trail and it’s right there 15 minutes from your front door.

[00:04:55] And you can go out there and you can have the whole trail to yourself if you want. For me, it was the biking first, the hiking, the swimming, the lakes, downhill skiing, a passion of ours. We just started discovering all this stuff that was so accessible.

[00:05:10] Brad Groznik: Yeah. So I definitely want to dig into more of like sports beyond mountain biking, but if we could just rewind, you mentioned, you know, you didn’t know the difference between a mountain bike and a gravel bike, you know, for, for our listeners, what is the difference?

[00:05:21] And why might you want both when you’re living in state college?

[00:05:25] Ezra Nanes: I’d say it’s more than both. It’s all three or all four. Road biking is where you have a bike that’s designed to ride on roads and you can go faster and they’re generally lighter and have narrower tires and you can explore all the beautiful country we have, right?

[00:05:38] But then if you want to start venturing into the mountains a little bit, let’s take Roth Rock State Forest. The roads stop being paved. They stop being sort of asphalt and they turn into what we call gravel roads and a little bit rougher surface. And there are just like hundreds of miles of these roads all throughout all the forests.

[00:05:56] So, it takes a little bit of a modification from that road or commuter bike. You need a little bit more tire, a little bit softer so you’re not bouncing around. A gravel bike looks like a road bike. It has those kind of drop handlebars with the curl things on them, but it’s got like almost like small mountain bike tires on it.

[00:06:13] So, you can kind of ride fast like on a road, but you can handle a bit more variable terrain. And then If you want to go off those gravel roads and start getting on to the trails, you’re probably going to want a mountain bike. That can be something with no suspension. Or if you start going on rockier trails and our, our trails can get quite rocky, the ridge lines, then you want something with some suspension.

[00:06:36] So when you ride over rocks, it’s softening the blow. And then if you go on this bike in the winter, you can think about getting a fat tire bike with Four inch thick tires and all the cost money. So you don’t need all those bikes, but those are the big ones.

[00:06:47] Brad Groznik: I wanted to also talk to you about commuting. I also commute on my bike as much as I can.

[00:06:52] I’m a park forest and you know, I always just brag that like the bike paths are the most beautiful, like riding to work. Can you talk a little bit about the bike infrastructure for commuters and maybe some of your goals as, as mayor to expand?

[00:07:05] Ezra Nanes: Absolutely. I love this question. I love that you’re a bike commuter.

[00:07:09] I bike commute anytime I can. Sometimes it’s the quickest way to get from point A to point B. Parking is very easy. It’s free. It’s healthy. So I love bike commuting too. This was one of my big, big goals and passions in Seeking Office. There are others and I want to talk about, you know, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

[00:07:30] Creating a welcoming and inclusive community, but that’s sort of foundational as far as like, what, what do we, what initiatives do we want to pursue bike and pedestrian safety is huge as we continue to grow, you get more and more cars on the road and that can lead to traffic and it leads to high costs of developing parking emissions and we’re trying to make sure that we’re sustainable.

[00:07:49] So we have some really great bike infrastructure in place, but it’s not always all connected. So it’s important to look at the whole network. And think how do we connect different pieces of bike path together and how do we move people safely and efficiently from one place to another if they choose to ride a bike and we’ve made really great progress.

[00:08:11] I’ve made it 1 of the things that I talk about the most, because it’s important to constantly bring it back to our minds. How important it is at the borough. The council is about to approve the next gen mobility plan. That’s for pedestrian and bike safety. It looks at the whole borough and all the opportunities to invest in bike infrastructure, create safer crossings and things like that.

[00:08:33] So, you know, it’s a really exciting time, but we have to remember it. We have to keep pushing because when you have a plan, this is what we want to do. This is our vision. But every piece of that plan has to be budgeted and made a plan for a particular year. So it takes time and keeps continual effort. And you will see big things happening on Calder Alley, Calder Way, that is being dug up right now for a water and sewer replacement.

[00:08:59] But we’re going to hopefully have the funding to streetscape that so it’s more bike and pedestrian oriented than it currently is. Allen Street’s another thing we’re looking at. Westerly Parkway and East Sawyer, you’re getting a bike path. That’s a huge corridor, and it’s going to be a great one. So lots of these things in the works as we speak.

[00:09:19] Brad Groznik: Big picture. That’s where we’re at. I’m really looking forward to it. Like I said, I think the bike infrastructure here is incredible. And I would encourage everyone to get on their bike when they get here and, and just bike around. I do want to talk to you about your Ironman training. Cause you are a triathlete, but before we move on to that, you know, I’d love to hear, you know, you mentioned briefly, what might you want some of our listeners to know about?

[00:09:40] State College where we’re headed the things that are important to you as mayor and important to our community that that you’re excited to work on every day.

[00:09:49] Ezra Nanes: I love that. I mean, this is an incredibly vibrant community. We have people from all over the world coming here because of Penn State largely. And for some other other businesses as well, and we’re nestled in the, in the middle of beautiful rolling Pennsylvania farmland and state forest.

[00:10:07] So we have this, this really dynamic mix of global international culture and very beautiful small town, Pennsylvania, and it’s something that I love so much. You just meet all kinds of different people. And my most important priority is mayor is to make sure that this is a place where every single person.

[00:10:25] Whatever their background, their race, ethnicity, religion, orientation, identity, lived experience, you name it, whatever you bring to the table, we want you to feel welcome and supported and valued and safe in this place. So this is a place for everybody. And that’s, that’s really what makes this a great place.

[00:10:41] The previous council budgeted and passed. A new department of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. We have a new director in that position and a team of people, you know, there’s always so many great events, but now it feels to me like there’s a real cohesion to the program and events that are being added or really growing in such a good way, events that celebrate diverse cultures.

[00:11:02] So that’s really, for me, number one, or, or let’s call it foundation. Cause you have to build on that. If you don’t have that, then the other great things you want to do, you don’t really fit into

[00:11:12] Brad Groznik: place. It’s just like you said, every weekend, there’s reason to celebrate with the community in State College.

[00:11:18] Another major event that was really, really exciting for the community was the Ironman. So the Ironman decided to have a half marathon through Happy Valley. We had our first one last year. Is that right?

[00:11:30] Ezra Nanes: That’s right. We had our first Ironman 70. 3, which is half of what they call a full Ironman. But it’s, it’s a big one.

[00:11:37] Some swimming, biking, running, right? We have at least two more and hopefully this will become a permanent fixture.

[00:11:43] Brad Groznik: Yeah. And so that first one, I’m sure you were part of getting it here along with a number of, of, of people in the community would love to hear about when you first heard of that, you know, Ironman might be coming and then you decided to train and race in it yourself, you know, as someone that is.

[00:11:59] A little curious to maybe do that at some point. Be really curious about, you know, what it was like training at State College.

[00:12:05] Ezra Nanes: I was doing some triathlon previously. So I love the sport of triathlon, which is you do a swim, you jump out of the water, you run over to your bike, you get on your bike, you do a bike ride, and then you jump off your bike, change into running shoes, and you go and run.

[00:12:20] The Ironman is like the premier global brand for triathlon and it’s something that I’ve always aspired to do thanks to Penn State, the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau with support from, you know, CBICC and the Downtown Improvement District and the borough and all the townships. We got the Ironman. And so we had an Ironman 70.

[00:12:39] 3 last year, an incredible coordination between multiple counties and thousands of volunteers. It’s really was an incredible event. If you want to talk about a region coming together to do a thing, and the finish line of the run, the end of it was in Beaver Stadium. It was a real draw for the Penn State alumni.

[00:12:58] Like myself, Ironman was coming to finish in my borough and I’m mayor. Like how many people get to be an iron mayor? So I was like, I am doing this thing. I’ve never done an iron man. It was the longest race of my life at that point. But I knew I could do it, Brad. I I’m a good swimmer and I bike a lot and I run a lot.

[00:13:17] So I was like, I just need to train. So I, I got a training plan and I started training. And so I had this incredible experience of being the mayor of the town that was hosting it. And being able to help promote it and support it and publicize. And the energy was just through the roof. And then I also trained for it.

[00:13:35] And then I did the triathlon. I finished, it was amazing. It was hard. I mean, the energy was just spectacular. So it was an incredible day. I think honestly, what I’ve heard from the race director, Josh Cohn, this was a really successful first time.

[00:13:50] Brad Groznik: So I’m really interested in the training and how you utilize, you know, state colleges outdoors to, for that training.

[00:13:57] So. Where were you swimming? Where were you running? Where were you biking? The swim

[00:14:02] Ezra Nanes: for this Ironman is in Bald Eagle Lake, Foster Joseph Sayers Lake, which is up in Bald Eagle State Forest. That’s one of the great state forests that we have very close to State College. So, it’s an open water swim, meaning you’re, you’re not swimming laps.

[00:14:17] You’re swimming out into the middle of the lake, making a turn, swimming across and swing back. But it’s not easy to train open water because most of our big lakes, you’re not really allowed to swim across them because there’s boat traffic. So, I trained, most of my swimming was done at the State College YMCA.

[00:14:34] Which has a great lap pool and joined a group swim that meets at 6 a. m. every Tuesday morning. And I would go on my own on Friday morning, but that early swim and I got in the water and I’d swim with this group of people and it kept me motivated. I started training about 6 months before, even though I was, I’m always training.

[00:14:51] This was 6 days a week of training. You know, this was a different level. So I swam at the Y and then when the weather got a bit warmer, I’d go up to Whipple Dam where they have a roped in swim area. Yeah. Which is longer than a 25 yard pool, where you can swim for a while and not make a turn. And the thing about open water, your face is in a lake, so it’s not like a lap pool.

[00:15:13] Lap pools are clear and they have a line and it’s, you see everything. When you’re in open water, you don’t see a lot. Sometimes things kind of murk up in front of you. You have to get used to that before you get into the race. So I did a lot of open water in Whipple Dam. The biking, I mean, biking is everywhere here.

[00:15:31] A lot of road biking. Local bike races, there’s a bike series called the seasons of Roth Rock, which is put on by happy Valley women’s cycling and supported by local organizations and bike shops. And so they do a bike series. So it’s gravel biking. They do 2 of those and then they do 2 mountain bike races and I did do all of those.

[00:15:49] So I did those and then, you know, I just, I just built up my training. My last training ride. Was my wife took me up to bald eagle. I swam in the water up there and they’re roped in area and then I did my transition on the bike and I biked the whole bike course. I biked home basically 56 miles and I was like, okay, that’s the course.

[00:16:07] So, you know, it’s in it’s in your head and the running. I did a lot of trail running and there’s Roth rock trail challenge. A big trail race. We have, I did that as a training run and I just would run, you know, you’re running 15 or big weeks could even be closer to 20 miles a week. A lot of trail, but that’s what you have to do 6 days a week.

[00:16:24] Boom. That’s a lot.

[00:16:25] Brad Groznik: Yeah. And it’s, it’s wonderful that the commute to these, to these trailheads, into these things are 10 minutes, 15, 20 minutes at the most. Totally. That’s great.

[00:16:35] Ezra Nanes: Yeah.

[00:16:36] Brad Groznik: Most of my training

[00:16:37] Ezra Nanes: is out my front door. And if I wanted to run to the mountains, like sometimes Brad, I literally just ran over to the mountain.

[00:16:44] I mean, that’s a pretty long run for me, maybe 40 minutes, but like. You can do that here. Like, there’s mountains

[00:16:50] Brad Groznik: all around us, so. Last summer, I was, you know, commuting to campus or something, and I would see you finishing off your run. And, uh, you know, you’re, you know, you’re definitely getting your, uh, miles in.

[00:17:01] So, is this super impressive? I think it’s just awesome to, to have somebody, In the community, that’s just so devoted to this because of just how, how great of a resource it is in C college. Thanks, Brad. I appreciate

[00:17:14] Ezra Nanes: that. I love that. You appreciate that. Thanks for the kind words. It’s the exercise and these activities keep me energized, right?

[00:17:20] They’re the thing that, you know, along with my, my family and our community. The training, the energy, it just keeps me energized. And we have an incredible outdoor scene and it’s everywhere. So I love the energy around it.

[00:17:32] Brad Groznik: Now we’re going to enter our segment called how to do the thing where we ask you to briefly lay out for us three actionable steps on how to do the thing, or at least how to get started doing the thing.

[00:17:42] The thing in this case is training for the Pennsylvania Ironman in state college area. What would you say are three actionable steps our listeners could take towards achieving that goal? Well,

[00:17:52] Ezra Nanes: if you want to do an Ironman and the first thing you have to do even before you start taking steps is you have to want to do it.

[00:17:58] But if you have that call in you, then take that first step. I would recommend making sure you start early enough. You need months to get ready for this. I would say give yourself at least six months. And build up slowly. Right. And the key is you want to have a good training plan. It’s, it’s a lot of training to be prepared to complete an Ironman.

[00:18:17] So find yourself a good training plan. And if possible, if it’s in your budget, find somebody to do some training with. I did a lot of strength training with an amazing trainer named Kara Hundley. She helped me stay strong and injury free. Throughout all my training. So that was really a gift find a training program.

[00:18:34] I use Paragon training. You can just Google triathlon training plan, get a plan, start early, build up gradually. That’s how you’re going to get your body, mind and spirit ready for it. Connect with other people who are doing it. I mean, this place, we have so many people who are stoked about. All of these things, so just find other people are doing it.

[00:18:53] Talk about it. Learn from them. Read books. Just take in the wisdom of of all the people who have done this thing before. I think that’s it. Step 3, just go and do it and enjoy the process. I mean, if you’re going to train for an Ironman, you’re going to be training probably 6 days a week. And I hope that you love that time because you know, the race day race days are magic.

[00:19:14] I love race day. It’s just one day out of your life. The training is your life. That’s six months, right? So you got to think of the training is this is I’m doing this because I love to do it. And every time you go out there, every time you’re in the water, out on the bike running, just soak it in, feel good and realize like, Hey, I’m very lucky to be training for this thing.

[00:19:35] And I’m going to be. Pretty darn fit. And that’s awesome too.

[00:19:39] Brad Groznik: Thank

[00:19:39] Ezra Nanes: you so

[00:19:39] Brad Groznik: much for taking the time. You know, I know you have a busy schedule. I think this was an awesome conversation. I’m totally energized to get out there now.

[00:19:46] Ezra Nanes: My pleasure, Brad. Thanks so much for having me, man. I love that you’re doing this.

[00:19:50] Do you guys, I think you’re just doing such cool work. I really appreciate what we do. Thanks for having me on.

[00:19:59] Brad Groznik: Thanks for joining us on this episode of the rediscover state college podcast. If you like what you heard and want to hear more, please subscribe to the rediscover state college podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts, if you want to connect with Ezra about anything we just talked about, Or you just have some thoughts about triathlon racing that you’d like to share with us?

[00:20:16] Email us at hello at rediscoverstatecollege. com