Active Life #183

Meg LePage:

I sort of got hooked sort of by accident, but I realized there was this whole social world out there of people that like to run together, like to go to races together and so forth, and that that was a world I had no idea even existed.

Ted Darling:

I'm kind of serious about being a cyclist. I'm serious about being a triathlete. So there's fun about it, but it's in a workman type way. I tend to be more serious than fun, but I do have fun doing what I do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to Love Maine radio show number 183, airing for the first time on Sunday, March 15, 2015. Today's theme is active life. How do we balance professional and private responsibilities with the enjoyment of physical pursuits for each person? The answer is different, but most of us find a great deal of satisfaction in taking the time to run, bike, walk or otherwise get our bodies moving on a regular basis. Today we speak with attorney Meg LePage and Ted Darling, founding partner at Ethos Marketing, about their athletic pursuits and why these have become an important part of their lives. Thank you for joining us. One of my great loves is running, and it's always wonderful to spend time with people who share the same love that I do. Meg LePage is a partner at Pierce Atwood in Portland. She has worked on a wide range of workplace disputes, and her clients have included health care and educational institutions, financial service companies, insurance companies, manufacturers, social service agencies, summer youth camps, and hospitality and recreation facilities. Meg is the mother of four grown children. She lives with her husband Mike in Cumberland, and we have Megan today to talk about her work, but also about her life outside of work. As a dedicated runner, we're really glad to have you here today.

Meg LePage:

Good morning. It's good to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So Meg, it's funny to see you out running where I live because I live in Yarmouth on the islands out there. You live in Cumberland. That's a pretty far far. That's a long distance. You're doing a lot of running these days?

Meg LePage:

I'm doing a fair amount. I'm actually training for the Boston Marathon on April 20, so I've had to kind of ramp up my mileage. But I do run Saturday mornings with a group.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So this is probably where I'm seeing you.

Meg LePage:

This is probably where you're seeing me. We often go out to Cousins island or Little John and we cover anywhere from maybe 5 or 6 miles to 12 or 13 in the morning.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So tell me about your running schedule. I know that many runners will do. They'll kind of put together a plan if they're going to run, say, Boston. They're going to run the Boston Marathon. What does that plan look like for you?

Meg LePage:

Well, it's supposed to be five days a week. I try to take Mondays and Fridays off, but I've had to adjust things with snow and, you know, sub zero temperatures. The sometimes I won't go below zero, but I try to run at least one long run and one sort of medium length run and then the rest of them are four, five, six miles.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And a long run for you can be up to.

Meg LePage:

Well, the longest run in the training will be 20, but right now I'm running about 14. 15 is the longest run running for

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

you is something that has come about relatively recently or at least with the intensity that you're approaching it now.

Meg LePage:

Yeah, it didn't start until I was about 53. I'm 56 now, so it's been three years. All four of my kids ran through high school and college, but I stood on the sidelines watching them. It never occurred to me to run other than maybe a mile or two here and there. But I had a neighbor who was an avid runner. She kept encouraging me to go out. She ran at 5 o' clock in the morning, which wasn't appealing. But one day I came back from visiting my daughter in South Africa and my time was all messed up. And she asked me, why don't you come out and run with me tomorrow morning? So I did. I had just finished chemotherapy about six months before that was trying to get my strength back. And so I said on a lark, sure, I'll run with you. She was training for the Boston Marathon and so from that day I kept Going out with her five o' clock in the morning, four or five days a week. And I sort of got hooked sort of by accident. But I realized there was this whole social world out there of people that, you know, like to run together, like to go to races together and so forth. And that that was a world I had no idea even existed.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You and I have known each other for a while and your life looked very different. Maybe we'll say, 10, 15 years ago. I mean, your kids are all grown now. Three of them are in Denver. They've all graduated from college. But you, at one time, you were really in the thick of things.

Meg LePage:

Yeah, for quite a few years. It was working full time. And having four kids juggling their schedules was a challenge. And I found it very difficult during that period of time to incorporate exercise. It almost felt self indulgent to do that, to take time off to do that. So it was tricky. I played some tennis and at times played squash, but not on a regular basis. And now it's much easier. I can get up in the morning and leave if I can force myself out the door. I can work out at night if I want to. And so I don't have those same kind of limits. I also don't have limits on work, too. I can work till 10 o' clock at night. Sometimes I do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why did it feel self indulgent?

Meg LePage:

I don't know. I always felt like I should be doing something else when I was exercising. I should be working or I should be doing something with the kids or getting some chore done. It just sort of kind of felt a low priority for a while.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Tell me about how you came to be an attorney.

Meg LePage:

That was kind of accidental. I was in college. I was an English major. I had thought of going to medical school and decided I liked the arts and humanities more than the sciences, and so decided that wasn't a route I wanted to take. And I spent a summer in D.C. working on Capitol Hill and thought that was really interesting, was with a bunch of people that were taking the LSATs, decided to do that that summer. And then I just followed that path. When I got out of law school, I never thought I'd be doing private practice for more than a couple years, but it's been about 32 years. I'm still doing the same thing I did when I got out of law school, which in retrospect is really surprising to me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What did you think that you would be doing when you got out of law school? What did you think your focus was going to be?

Meg LePage:

Well, I thought I'd start out in a firm and then do something different, whether it was in house or in business, I wasn't really sure. But I just figured, you know, I'd start out in a firm and I'd probably branch out and do something different. But so far doing the same thing, and I'm still enjoying it, so.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I'm fascinated by the wide range of things that you do. It's. You know, having known many attorneys, there tends to be quite a narrow focus. And you have. You're dealing with health care, education, financial companies, social services, recreation. I mean, you're almost the equivalent of like a legal family doctor. Like, you know, it's an interesting thing because it doesn't seem to be the way that many attorneys go these days.

Meg LePage:

Yeah, well, I'm not focused in terms of industry too much. I do a lot of different things, but I'm focused on the human resources primarily. So it's a narrow area of law. Even though everybody has people in their organizations and in the school, the education area, I'm doing employment work, but also work involving students. And again, it's people oriented. And so it is somewhat. It is focused in terms of the. The legal discipline, but it's a variety. And I like that. I like to be talking to a hospital one day about issues involving nurses, and then the next day you're talking about manufacturing welders or some other kind of completely different occupation.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You and Mike, because Mike's been on the show before, and I think people in the community. If anybody doesn't know Mike LePage already, then I'm sure you'll run across him at some point. But you both have a very strong sense of connection to people in very different ways. It's interesting to me that you both have. Are in occupations that allow you to connect not only personally but professionally. But yours is a more quiet way.

Meg LePage:

Mine is. Yeah, I'm definitely more quiet when you compare me to Mike. But, yeah, certainly I have to have relationships with people in order to have business come my way. And those relationships, I've had some that have been going on for 20, 25 years, and those are really important to me. You get to know somebody pretty well if you talk to them once a week, twice a week, for decades at a time. And I like that. I like to be able to answer the phone and help somebody give somebody the answer or tell them, you know, there's no good answer here, but what you're thinking of doing is probably the most appropriate. I like having those Conversations.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How have things changed over the 32 years that you've been doing this? How have things changed from. I mean, from a work standpoint personally, but also professionally?

Meg LePage:

They've changed pretty dramatically in some ways. Certainly the technology has changed things dramatically. I still remember when we had secretaries who typed briefs, and if you wanted to add a sentence in the middle of the brief, it had to be typed over the whole thing, pretty much. And very laborious that way. I was in the early 80s, one of a test case to see if lawyers could use computers. They had four of us with. They gave us a computer. I had been using a typewriter just because I composed better on the typewriter. And that immediately changed things dramatically for me. I knew nobody was taking away that computer. But all of our research now is electronic. We rarely pick up a book anymore. We can do things so much faster. But I think one of the downfalls is that you're expected to do so much faster that you don't always have time to think through something. You know, you're kind of expected to give instantaneous answers. And sometimes you really need to sit back and think through something before you can really feel confident that it's the right answer.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm sure you work with lawyers who are newer to the field. Are you sensing that there's any difference in the way that they approach the law or approach life in general than maybe you once did, sort of before the age of computers, when we were still doing things typewritten?

Meg LePage:

Yeah, certainly positives and negatives there. I do like the fact that young people today expect to have a personal life and practice law. I remember a time when I really, for probably years, didn't plan things on the weekends for the most part, because I knew I might most likely have to work at some point. I think that's sort of turned over that, you know, people have their personal time and they try to work the work in. And I think that newer attorneys coming in are so comfortable with technology that it's a real advantage. But sometimes they can be kind of overly dependent on it and expect, you know, to just be able to plug in a couple of words and find the answer. When it's a little more complex, they have to think, go to the tertiary sources and really get the background before they try to find the magic answer by doing a word search. And I think that's a change. I didn't have the luxury of doing the word searches when I started, so I had to sort of get the background first and then refine it a little bit.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's a really good point. I know that a lot of patients who come in to see me, they have access to Google, so they'll go online and they'll Google their diagnosis and they'll come in and it generates some higher level of discussion, which I really appreciate. But it actually also opens up this whole notion of ambiguity and that you're still only really making your best guess in any given situation. I mean, based on obviously facts and knowledge and intuition and good judgment. But it's not, you know, Google does not give you the answer.

Meg LePage:

It may look like the answer, but it's not necessarily the right answer. Overly simplified sometimes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I have two brothers who are attorneys. You know, I come from a large family. We have doctors and lawyers and such and two brothers who are pretty recently in the legal field. They're very excited to be doing it, but I think it's, it's a different, it seems like a different profession than it once was. Somehow you've maintained your passion for it and you stayed in it all this time. What is it about being a lawyer that has kept you interested in doing it?

Meg LePage:

Well, I think it's the area of law that I really like. And every day I'm sort of brought into some new human drama and they can be sometimes mind boggling what people do at work, what problems employers have to deal with. But it's also very interesting and it keeps me on my toes. I always get a, you know, every day I get a question where I don't know the answer, and that's challenging. I have to think it through and learn something new. So that's, that's kept me interested. Certainly there are days where I'm just slogging through documents and it's no fun and I get frustrated. But most of the time there's something new happening and some new challenge keeps me interested.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

meg, you and Mike have been married for how long?

Meg LePage:

32 years in May.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you've been a lawyer roughly about

Meg LePage:

the same time I got married and two weeks later we flew out to Seattle where I was starting my first job and I took the bar exam and then started a new job. So a lot of new changes all at once.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And Mike, I know, has a background in the financial field and he's currently. He owns his own real estate business. How has that worked for the two of you to be experiencing this professional life and evolving as professionals even as you've evolved personally over the years?

Meg LePage:

Well, you know, I think we both enjoy hearing about things that we're each working on. We're both very busy, and in some ways that's good because no one's sort of resentful of the other. Like, why aren't you home here? His job has been sometimes more flexible than mine, but at the same time, he's almost on every weekend. So there's that. And I'm, you know, I used to be on every weekend. I'm not so much anymore. But, you know, I think the fact that we're both very interested in what we do for work is a good thing. There's not one of us that's sort of frustrated and not enjoying it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And somehow you found time to raise four children in there, being a set of twins?

Meg LePage:

Yes, my youngest two are twins.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So what has that been like for you, both of you working full time, raising four kids who are all now successfully graduated and out in the world and contributing to the greater good? What was that like?

Meg LePage:

When I look back on it, I realize it Was. It was more of a challenge than I thought going through it. There were times when it was difficult, but we always had good childcare. We had the ability to have somebody come into the house and with four, that's kind of a necessity even when they got older. I had somebody come in at 3 o' clock in the afternoon and she would be in charge of getting them from place A to place B, cooking dinner, doing laundry and that kind of thing. And that was just a huge help. But it was, you know, it was wonderful in so many ways, but it was. There was very little time at the end of the day to do anything but kind of the basics. I did have a rule eventually with the kids that they couldn't do more than two sports per, per child per season. You would think that would be enough, but I actually had. The twins were each doing three sports at the same time and there was a conflict with each of them almost every day. So that was too much. But they became, they're very well adjusted and self reliant kids. And I think it's in part because they didn't have somebody doing things for them every minute. They had to figure things out for themselves. On the other hand, Mike and I were at their athletic events and their music events almost all the time. We didn't miss a whole lot. So we both had jobs where wealthough. We worked a lot. We could also flex and go out and go to a game, then go back to the office if we had to. So we, you know, I think they, the kids felt that we were very much present in their lives even though

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

we were very busy and they were all successful as far as being athletes. If I remember correctly. It wasn't, I mean, it was when your children were in the local high school at Greeley. It was a LePage this and a LePage that. And you know, I was reading the local sports news. I mean they did a great job both in high school and in college.

Meg LePage:

Yes, they all participated in three sports a season in high school and I mean three sports a year and they all competed in college. One of my daughters found a new sport in college. She did crew, which she hadn't done before. My oldest played field hockey for Bowdoin, which has the best program in the country. And that was a lot of fun. She also ran track. My son ran 12 seasons of track at Bates and his twin sister ran Verbodo. The nice thing about having twins at schools that are close together is there would be meets where they were both competing at the same time, so that was really fun. And we got to travel. We went to a lot of their college games and their college meets. My son competed at nationals a couple of times in Iowa and Indiana and Illinois, and we made those trips. And my daughter went to the Final Four a couple of times, and we made those trips as well. Those are special memories, being there with family.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Mike has been. Mike also went to Bowdoin, and he's been a lifelong swimmer.

Meg LePage:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And this running piece for you has become really important recently. How does that feel to be the one in the game as opposed to be the one that's watching?

Meg LePage:

Yeah, it's very different. And I think the kids were sort of surprised that I actually entered a race and ran the first time. But it's a lot of fun, and I never really experienced that to the same degree. Mike is now running. He started this past summer and he ran the. The Back Bay Challenge, where you run every week, Wednesdays, and he's signed up for a half marathon in May. So we'll see how that goes. We're both going to run it together.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You know, I'm impressed with the two of you and your longevity because not only have you made it through

Meg LePage:

high

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

pressure professions, four kids together, 32 years of marriage, but both of you had cancer, and you had it within two or three years of each other about seven or eight years ago.

Meg LePage:

Yeah. Yeah, that was. Mike was first, and that was a shock to both of us. It was a difficult time. But he went through chemotherapy with flying colors. And in fact, right before his last treatment, he got his doctor degree to. To postpone the last chemo so he could swim Peaks to Portland. So he had the treatment on Monday instead of Friday, and we thought we were in the clear. And then all of a sudden, my diagnosis. I had ovarian cancer and uterine cancer and was the first person in my family to have cancer. And that wasn't something I ever thought about very seriously. My diagnosis was scary in terms of the survival rates, but fortunately they caught it early enough. And my oncologist is one of the people that encouraged me to run. I don't know if he did it on purpose, but I went to a checkup about maybe almost a year after my last treatment. And I told him that I had had a stomach, like a stomach flu. I told him about it because I thought it might be related. I mentioned that I wasn't able to run a half marathon that day because it was the night before. And he looked at me and he said, what are you doing Running a half marathon. I thought he was going to be critical, telling me I wasn't ready and I shouldn't be doing this. I was about to explain why I was doing it, and he said, you should be doing a full marathon. And I said, well, I'm not ready for that. And he picked up my chart and he looked at my age and he said, you're 54 years old. When are you going to be ready? So I thought, that's a good point. And the next visit I went. He came in and I said, I've signed up for the Maine Marathon. And he was very excited and said, so what's your time goal? Which I hadn't thought about yet. And I said, I don't know. I don't have one. He said, you got to have one. What is it? So out of the top of my head, I said, five hours. He said, oh, yeah, you'll do that. Good. And the next visit, he walks in. I said, 4:47. He said, what? I said, 4:47. That was my time in the marathon. And so that's been a good connection to have. He's also a runner, and so he encouraged me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, you know, talking to you is so interesting to me because having recently gone through cancer myself and also being young and also having no risk factors that I knew about, no family history, such a shock to the system. I think it used to be that cancer was thought of as a disease of old people or a disease of people who were going to die. And it is a very serious. It is a very serious thing. And people do die, and people do get it when they're older. But then there are a lot of us who are out there who are younger and are going to live, hopefully years after having had cancer. So being active is so important from a health standpoint?

Meg LePage:

Oh, I think so. And in fact, I had some other kind of virus which was never diagnosed before. They diagnosed me with cancer, where I had pain in all my joints and muscles for a couple of years. And I just assumed that when I started running that the pain might get worse and I might not be able to do it. And about a month after I started running, I got up one morning at 4:30, walked to the bathroom, and all of a sudden I stopped short and I realized it didn't hurt to get out of bed. It was the first time in a couple of years that I had realized that. And I haven't had that pain since. So part of me is a little afraid to stop. I did ask my doctor, could there be cause and effect or was that just coincidence? And he said, oh absolutely. Could be related.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, there's also just the pure joy of it. Yeah, I mean it's good for your body, but it's also good for your soul. It's good for your soul to get out there and be outside and be running with friends. So tell me, just describe to me how you incorporate the running just on a regular day.

Meg LePage:

Typically I'm doing it in the morning before I go to work. This time of year is hard because it's dark, but I have a number of groups of people that I run with. There's a group of women in Cumberland that we call ourselves Run and Done. There can be as many as 40 women showing up at the high school parking lot 5:30 in the morning to run. So I run with that group. I have a few other smaller groups of friends that I run with. So typically I'm running somewhere between 5:30 and 7:30 in the morning. Then I go to work. I have run in the evening before, but I do prefer the morning. Occasionally I'll run from the office. We have showers in our office so that makes it possible to do that and run down to East End beach and then around Back Bay sometimes. And that's nice but it's hard to, once I get in the office it's really hard to get out even to exercise. So if I get it done in the morning then I know I've gotten it done and it's out of the way.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And we know that you're going to run Boston, so that's coming up in April. What other running events and goals do you have for 2015?

Meg LePage:

Well, Sunday I ran the Midwinter Classic, just a 10 miler in Cape Elizabeth and seemed a little crazy as we were driving over and it was 3 degrees, it was snow banks and why am I doing this? But I knew that I needed to get a long run in anyway, so we did it and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I have a 20 mile run in late March that's kind of a tune up for Boston. I'm going to be doing a it's a two day relay race with a group of people in September and that starts up in the White Mountains and goes to Hampton Beach. So you run 200 miles in about a day and a half. Now I don't run 200 miles, but I run a leg of the 200 miles or three or four legs during the course of the two days and those are Fun. And I'll probably, you know, I may run beach to Beacon and a few other races. I'll just sort of play it by ear. Last summer, I ran with my dream daughters the San Francisco Marathon. And that was really a fun experience. Two of my daughters ran the full marathon with me, and the twins ran the half marathon. Mike ran the 5K the same day. And my daughters and I decided we'd all run together for 20 miles, and then whoever felt like they could take off would take off. And at about 16 miles, I thought, I'm going to definitely take off at mile 20. But something happened between mile 18 and aisle 20. The wheels sort of fell off and my daughters went ahead. But that was. It was really a lot of fun. It was beautiful, you know, area scenery to run a marathon.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Meg, I am so thrilled that you came in and talked to me. I mean, you're like, speaking my language here. You know, everything that's coming out of your mouth, I feel like could come out of my mouth, too. So obviously I'm going to enjoy speaking to somebody who feels as good about running. But also I really appreciate your talking to me about raising your kids, about being a person who's working along with another working spouse. I mean, it's. And going through cancer. I think there are a lot of things that you and I have talked about that other people can really relate to. So I appreciate your taking the time to come in here and talk.

Meg LePage:

So been fun and I hope I see you again on the road. I think I saw you a couple months ago running through Yarmouth.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's right. You're running in my neighborhood. So you and I are definitely going to be running across each other at some point. We've been Speaking with Meg LePage, who is a partner at Pierce Atwood in Portland. Meg is the mother of four. She lives with her husband Mike in Cumberland, and she is a dedicated runner. She's going to run Boston. You're going to be successful. And I'm, I just very. I can feel the joy and happiness that you bring to your life. So I appreciate your sharing that with all of us.

Meg LePage:

Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As a physician and small business owner, I rely on Marcy Booth from Booth, Maine to help me with my own business and to help me live my own life fully. Here are a few thoughts from Marcy.

[Unidentified voice]:

When was the last time you took a break from what you were doing, from the work that was piled up on your desk and just looked up? I know that during the course of my days, I often forget to take a moment or two to just breathe, look up at the sky, and dream. Terrible that I have to remind myself to breathe. But when I do, I feel energized. Because in those moments, I'm able to let go of the daily grind and think more about what I want to accomplish, how I want my business to grow. Sometimes those are the aha moments. If we all took a few moments out each day to stop what we were doing and dream a little about our business futures, not only would we feel a great sense of calm, but we may come to realize that these dreams can, in fact, come true. I'm Marcie Booth. Let's talk about the changes you need. Boothmaine.com

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

here on Love Maine Radio, we really enjoy speaking with people who are passionate about their lives. And today I have such an individual with me. This is Ted Darling, who is a marketing strategist and agency principal at Ethos Outside of Work. He is an avid cyclist and he is so much more which we're going to talk about. But we really appreciate your being on Love Maine Radio and also being a part of Old Port magazine.

Meg LePage:

Thank you for having me, Ted.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've actually done quite a lot in your life, but I know people are going to be interested in this thing that we call Ethos. What is Ethos? Tell me about that.

Ted Darling:

So Ethos is a multiplatformation platform branding agency. We help clients identify their core truths, and then we leverage those in messaging across multiple platforms from traditional media like radio, for example, but also through digital media. So we basically help clients navigate brand communications and effective communications across various platforms.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And why is it called Ethos? What's the story behind that?

Ted Darling:

That's a great question. So when we were struggling with our name, our corporate name is actually results, marketing and design, and we thought that that was what we do for clients, but it wasn't really the way that we should describe ourselves. So as we started debating really what we were about as a branding agency, it was really understanding the core truths. The essence or the name that kept coming up that we were using in discussions about our name was Ethos. What is your ethos? And at a certain point in time, we just said, that's it. Ethos is our ethos. And so we adopted that name and got behind that in the spring of

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

2000, when I think of Ethos, I also think of sort of Ethics and, I don't know, something that seems more authentic and core. Did that?

Ted Darling:

Well, I had three business partners at the time, and presently I have three business partners, but a different one. And one of the things that brought us together was this core orientation of accountability and integrity and being true not only to ourselves, but true to our clients. And so there was sort of, I wouldn't call it ethics per se, but there's this desire to be true, to be true to our clients and true to our principles. One of the things that we say at Ethos is that we don't apply for awards. And the reason that we don't apply for awards is because we don't want to compromise our client's integrity. It's about our client's result, about putting our clients first, not about us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You do many things outside of working at the agency. You've worked for the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust. You live in Cape Elizabeth.

Ted Darling:

I do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why is that important to you?

Ted Darling:

Well, like many people who become involved in the Land Trust in Cape Elizabeth, it was a function of something happening in my backyard. And at the time there was a development involved in and I was invited to participate and help the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust with their marketing efforts. So I explored the Land Trust. I really liked what they were doing. They were trying to get younger. I was a younger man at the time. That was probably 10 years ago. I got really involved and I got involved at a higher level and really liked what they were doing, what the message was, what they stood for. Which is interesting because the Land Trust brings together people who are, you might say, more interested in sustainability. It might be more politically liberal, but it also brings together people who are conservative, meaning they like things the way that they are or they appreciate the natural environment that we live in. And when you talk to people who come to Cape Elizabeth, they point to a couple things. One is schools, but also the rural environment and the natural sort of the natural environment around Cape Elizabeth. So that's important to people. It's really core to people who live in Cape Elizabeth. And so I connected with that. And I spent nine years with the Land Trust on their board. I was five years as president. I couldn't extricate myself as president during a five year period of time and have subsequently just recently termed off the board. But I remain an advisor on their Land Conservation Committee. So it's just a great organization, one that has a lot of broad appeal.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So I'VE been to the art auction several times and it's, it is, it's a great event. It's usually held in a nice venue and I think that all of the art is done within a day or so before it's offered for sale.

Ted Darling:

It's a plant there auction. It's a wet paint auction. So actually the art is done that day. We choose venues around Cape Elizabeth. I believe there were 20 venues last year and a total of 30 artists who painted in wet paint and plein air, as they say. And then they come together for an auction at the end of the day. It's just amazing what the artists do during that period of time and really capture some great light during the July time frame is typically when it's done.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You are a bicyclist. Actually, in the bio that I have for you, it says Ted fancies himself a bicyclist and interns athlete. He trains and races year round as a cyclist, swimmer and triathlete. He hates open water ocean swimming, but does it anyway. He loves his wife of 20 plus years and two kids who are all grown up. He can't believe it.

Ted Darling:

True.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So this is an interesting, it's interesting to read this. You seem to have quite a sense of humor about yourself and your life and the desire to live in a fun way.

Ted Darling:

I would say it's fun, but I'm really goal oriented. So everything sort of has an intention. And so for me, I'm, I'm kind of serious about being a cyclist. I'm serious about being a triathlete. So there's fun about it, but it's in a workman type way. So I'm, I'm pro, I tend to be more serious than fun, but I do have fun doing what I do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you have a sense of humor about it and your definition of fun may be different than other people's.

Ted Darling:

There's the humor.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Got it. Got it. Well, tell me about that. So if you not only do you work at Ethos and you have spent quite a lot of time with the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust, you're also a former member of the board of directors for the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Day One and the Riverview foundation, you're a member of the Lambda Class of the Institute for Civic Leadership, you're really, you're doing a lot of things. So how do you find time to cycle? Where does this fit into your day?

Ted Darling:

For me, cycling is primarily a morning activity in that I find with workouts that if with a busy day and a busy life I start early so I start at 4:30 every day and I'm usually out and on the bike by 5:15. And that's pretty much year round whether it's until times of year like winter, but nine months out of the year it starts early. It has and involves lights oftentimes and you know, just get out and start early in the day and that's the way that you know, putting the things in that are important first. That's the, that's how things get done. Because if I wait to the end of the day I don't, it's, it's variable. I do have one ride that I do every, try to do every week which is the Portland Bellow Club Wednesday night ride that leaves out of South Portland and that's a small group ride that I typically do on a Wednesday night during the sort of proper season.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So in the wintertime do you use like a wind trainer? Do you use some sort of stationary bike? How do you continue to get that? It seems like you have a lot of extra energy. So how do you take care of that?

Ted Darling:

I do have a trainer that I use in my basement. Um, it's not my favorite activity. I do tend to emphasize running and swimming in the winter, but I do keep active on the bike. I try to ride two or three times a week. Inside I'm opportunistic with outside riding. So if the weekend looks promising, meaning anything clear roads and anything above 25 degrees, I do try to get outside and take advantage of the outdoor, you know, being outdoors.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

i'm interested in this idea of being an endurance athlete and also a triathlete because it's not as simple as I'm going to go do a few miles on the bike. I mean, you actually have to have a training schedule in place if you're an endurance athlete. It means you actually have to put some miles in whether you're running, biking or swimming. So I mean, that is something that you do need to be very intentional about.

Ted Darling:

Right. And I have a training program that I've developed over time and it's seasonal, meaning it tends to be lighter activity or shorter duration in the winter, more intense activity in the winter to keep general fitness up, but then adding longer duration during the longer days of summer. So I tend to emphasize medium distance triathlons and short, shorter distance bike races rather than focusing on ironman competitions. I've done several half ironman competitions, but that's about as long as I want to go from an endurance point of view. Mostly because the running is so difficult. The biking is good, the running is difficult.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you're kind of the opposite of me. I can envision myself running and possibly biking actually for me, the swimming. Because even though I know how to swim, it's not quite as natural an activity. But how do you balance all of those three things? I mean, they're very different from a physical standpoint.

Ted Darling:

It's interesting because during the sort of heavy training season, swimming is almost a recovery activity because as we age we need to have more recovery time. But as an endurance athlete you need to be consistent. So one of the things is just being consistent, having a daily schedule. I don't take much time off. I really rarely have a day off of training, so I'm very consistent. So bike swimming tends to be lighter day activity in the summer. And then it's interesting between the running and the biking because I'll bike in the morning and run at night and it's. There are different muscle groups. So oftentimes my best run comes after a hard bike ride. So. And I do a lot of bricks in the summer, so I'll, I'll ride 50 miles and then I'll run, you know, 10 minutes or I'll run 10 miles. It depends on the, on the training protocol at the time.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And so describe for me a swimming regimen.

Ted Darling:

I swim masters, so I try to be deliberate about that. In the summer I swim at the Qiuanus pool, which is an outdoor 25 meter pool. Great coach Jeanette Hagan does that class. I try to go three times a week and she meters out the activity, she's great because she focuses on longer distance. So you're doing 300, 500 yard sets. It's not particularly intense, meaning it's not, you're not working super hard. It's more focusing on endurance. In the winter and fall, I swim at the Cape Elizabeth pool with Eric French, who's the masters coach there, and that tends to be shorter, more intense. You know, some would call it a sprinter's workout, but again, it's sort of that intensity. And then as you move into the closer to goal events, it's focusing on more specificity, meaning swimming at the types of distances and running at the types of distances and biking at the types of distances that you need in order to be ready for race day.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Ted, you grew up in Brewer?

Ted Darling:

I did.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Were you doing any of this when you were going to high school or any of your younger years?

Ted Darling:

No, I'm a latent athlete. I really didn't start doing any of this until I started bike riding in 1999. Actually took a spin class at the Bay Club and then I started working with a couple of people, did the trek across Maine in just about perished on the ride because it was just relatively hard at the time. And then I got into like long distance events. So I did the trek across Maine a number of times. Then I did cycle Oregon, which is a week long event in Oregon, different locations without throughout Oregon for five years. Then I gravitated to the climbing. I really started to enjoy mountain climbing and did the the bicycle tour of Colorado for four years, which is, it's not a bike race, it's more touring. So the biking really started the interest in endurance sports. And then I started swimming mostly as a way of sort of spreading out the activity during the year. And I started to do swim and bike events, which are called aqua bikes because I was never a runner. And in fact I'd had a back injury a number of years ago. I was a heavier person and I had a back injury and my orthopedist said, don't do it, just hang up the running shoes, you don't really need to do it. And I wasn't a serious runner at the time anyway, but I started to develop envy at events because these are all out of triathlon events. And so I would swim and bike and then be done and everybody else would go out on their run. So at a certain point in time I decided it's time to start learning how to run. So I took that up about four

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

years ago, this Wednesday ride that you do with A group of other people. It sounds like that having other people who are like minded is very important and having good coaches is very important. So the community that you've been doing this with has been kind of critical.

Ted Darling:

Yeah, absolutely. So from a cycling point of view, I've been involved with the Portland Bellow Club, which is Maine's largest cycling club. Became president of the, what we call PVC about four years ago now. And that has about 150 active members, male and female. And we have a series of rides, what most notably is the Saturday morning ride that takes place throughout Portland, Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth and South Portland. It can be as big as 100 people, which can be intimidating during the summertime, which I tend to avoid because of the size of the group. But there's a lot. We've set up a Wednesday night ride. There's probably 10 to 15 of us that do a short hard ride in Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And is there any specific type of equipment that people who are considering becoming a cyclist or a triathlete, anything that people who are really at the starting, from the ground up that they need to be thinking about?

Ted Darling:

Well, it's important from a cycling point of view to have a good bike and a bike that fits. So I recommend talking with the people at Cyclemania and having them, you know, basically fit you for a bike. I mean, you can spend $1,000 or you can spend $10,000 on a bike. So really understanding where you are and what you're trying to accomplish with a bike. There are also different bikes. There are road bikes and triathlon or time trial bikes. So a lot of people that compete have both road bikes and triathlo on bikes. Many also in the off season do cyclocross, which is a growing and emerging sport. So really understanding bite bike fit and then making sure you have adequate equipment from shoes to gear, you know, clothing, et cetera. I think that's one of the things that's important, to be aware and sensitive of how to fit into the community. So it takes a little while to understand the cycling culture and what that's all about and what people wear and you know, so there's a fashion thing about it, which it's just more exposure and understanding, you know, what, understanding the, what the culture's like.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you have any specific goals for 2015 either in your endurance sports or in ethos or personally or with any of the many things that you do in your life?

Ted Darling:

So several as it relates to endurance goals? I'm actually, this is the time of year where I really kind of start thinking about what I want to do. I tend to become unfit at this time of year, so it's important to start thinking about what's next. What's next probably this year will include several medium distance triathlon events. I tend to like gravitated towards Olympic distance events, which are about a mile swim, 25 mile bike and a 10k race off the bike. So that's a good event for me. I'll probably do three or four of those. My goal has been to qualify for nationals, so I did qualify this past year for nationals, which takes place out in Milwaukee. I believe I am probably going to forego that because one of my other goals is to get back to France this year to do a week in the mountains with a friend of mine. And so that's on the cycling calendar. Don't tell my wife.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Too bad you're on the radio. Hope she's not listening.

Ted Darling:

Everybody listens to this show, so I'm sure she'll hear it. So personally, my wife and I have just bought a house in Cape Elizabeth. We're rehabbing. So we hope to be able to move in sometime in the March time frame and start a new, a new life there. Our children are now grown and our youngest is graduating college. So that's sort of a different journey that that, that we're embarked on. And so enjoying one another's company and having, having fun, putting some travel on the calendar will also be important as part of the goals this year.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Ted, you're Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude graduate of Boston College with a BA in history and philosophy. How have you made those things work for you?

Ted Darling:

What Boston College taught me was how to think. It taught me how to approach activity, how to approach intellectual pursuits and how to learn. And so when I graduated Boston College, I elected to go to law school, which wasn't really a great fit for me because I was more had. I didn't know it at the time, but I had more entrepreneurial sort of leanings. And my family has been in business a long time, so there's always business talked at the dinner table. It's just kind of a natural thing for me to gravitate towards. And so I met a friend, one of my business partners in another venture. We met in law school and we sort of embarked on that activity together and built a business. But it's always been kind of in that way. It was kind of the road less traveled. It was just kind of like this seems interesting. And I was 23, 22, so it was just let's do this. And so we were risk takers at the time. As you get older, you tend to take fewer risks because there seems to be more to lose. But yeah, so I think what BC did was really provided the ability to learn and think for yourself. I mean, it's interesting because liberal arts education is, I think tougher to recommend now just because everything seems so highly specialized. And with my own kids, they were both business focused in their education, but I think it really was an awesome choice for me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Ted, people can read about your story and your cycling and more about you in Old Port magazine. How can they find out more about the work you do at the Portland Velo Club and with Ethos?

Ted Darling:

Great question. So with Portland Velo Club, people can find out more at our website, which is Portland PortlandBelloclub.com and we welcome all members and it's a great organization, good way to get started in cycling. So as far as Ethos is concerned, you can certainly look us up on our website@ethos-marketing.com we've been speaking with Ted

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Darling, marketing strategist and agency principal at Ethos. Also avid cyclist, endurance athlete, triathlete, man about town. You're very busy and you've done a lot of good work for the community, so we're fortunate to have you in and take the time to talk to us here on Love Maine Radio. So thanks for being part of our community.

Ted Darling:

Thank you very much for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've been listening to Love Maine radio show number 183, Active Life. Our guests have included Meg LePage and Ted Darling. Love Maine Radio is downloadable for free on itunes. Follow me on Twitter and see my running travel, food and wellness photos as bountiful1 on Instagram. We'd love to hear from you. So please let us know what you think of Love Maine Radio. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring Love Maine Radio to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Active Life show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.