Dr Ralph Lyons Interview

Ralph was born in 1956 and raised in Savannah, GA.  He attended a segregated catholic school through 4th grade and was then a part of the national experiment, where he and a neighbor first integrated an elementary school when he was in the 5th grade.  That first walk through the school year was my Little Rock. I ran for class president in 6th grade, but they were not ready for little Obama yet.

Ralph left public high school and entered the Ivy League for college, Harvard, in 1974, a turbulent era following the 1960s when he came of age.  Then spent 4 years in Philadelphia at U. Penn for med school.  Moving to Atlanta in 1982, he spent 3 years for residency at Emory/Grady system after which I spent time in the public health service for 2 years, then more medical/ specialty training before settling into private  practice in Atlanta in 1989.

In college Ralph had 2 room mates on the track team, one of which convinced him to run 3 miles one day just to prove he could.  He never stopped running since then but he never called himself a runner until becoming curious about the Peachtree Road Race in 1991.  Next, he stumbled across the South Fulton Running Partners in 1997 which he found out quickly was the oldest African American running club in the US, founded in 1979.  The camaraderie took him places I would never envision on his own- to marathons, adventure races and ultimately triathlons and that Ironman thing by age 59.  I’ve watched the African American endurance community explode over the past 10 years with the advent of social media.

"My delight now as a “seasoned runner” is to help nurture this explosion through the opportunities before me such as being a founding member and active of The Race   and continuing to help the Running Partners. My why?  Because I’ve concluded that endurance communities are healthy social units that improve the spirit, mental health and the physical health as a byproduct."

Oh yeah I haven't mentioned my Ko-fi page.  The launching of my Ko-fi page is me embracing my talents, this is me walking in my purpose, this is me taking the leap, acknowledging that what I'm doing is providing a valuable service for the audience, the guest and the sponsors.  BTW Podcast is a business.

I took the leap 4years ago to drive for Uber/Lyft Full-time, so I could have the flexibility to devote to building BTW Podcast.  Ko-fi is platform that will allow entrepreneurs/business owners to sponsor an episode PRE, MID or POST roll, it also allows you to buy me a cup of coffee.

Thanks for accompanying my on this ride.  Leave a voicemail to let us know how we’re doing and receive a shout out in a future episode.