Meet the Nation 346 - Luke Nugent

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
All right, you guys, it's gonna be a Meet the Nation on a Monday. Wow. Meet the Nation Monday with Ten Junk Miles. This is where we call somebody that listens to the podcast just to get to know them a little bit better. We find out about their running history and et cetera. It's just like 20 minutes. If you wanna do one of these, email me at tenjunkmiles.gmail.com. I have about 10 people on the list. When they're done, I'm gonna be taking a break until someone else gets on the list. But, you know, this is how we build community. We just had the race this weekend. That's the Badger Trail Races by Ten Junk Miles. A whole bunch of people knew each other and sat around and talked to each other. And we're friends. And that's kind of, you know, what's going on with this podcast. There's a lot of entertainment, education and hero worship. We're just more about people getting to know other people so that we don't have to run by ourselves anymore. So with that in mind, we're gonna call Luke Nugent today and we're going to get to know him as a runner. So buckle up.
It's actually not a Monday. I just realized that because of the badger, I'm all messed up. I came home on Monday. Today's Tuesday.
Somebody's punching up an email right now. Dear sir.
It's not a Monday. Although, you could be listening to this like three years from now. Who knows? All right, here we go.

**Luke Nugent** (1:44)
Hello? Luke.
Yes.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:47)
Nugent?

**Luke Nugent** (1:49)
That's right.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:49)
Just like Ted?

**Luke Nugent** (1:51)
Just like Ted, yeah, but unrelated.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:53)
Okay. Well, you probably don't know how to play the guitar either, right?

**Luke Nugent** (1:59)
No, I tried. I'm no good.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:02)
Okay. Where am I calling you at?

**Luke Nugent** (2:05)
I'm in Conway, Massachusetts.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:08)
Very nice.

**Luke Nugent** (2:08)
So, Interstate 91, kind of western part of the state. Let's see, maybe 10 miles, 20 miles from Vermont border.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:19)
Okay. And what do you do for work out there in Massachusetts?

**Luke Nugent** (2:26)
Locomotive electrician. So, fix freight locomotives.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:32)
That sounds like a complicated job, fixing locomotives. I mean, is that an industry that's going away or is that an industry that we're going back to?

**Luke Nugent** (2:44)
I think we're going back to it. If you pay attention to the news, they say that freight trains are relatively economically friendly, and I think it's been good for the five years I've been doing it, and I don't know. It's, I think, here to stay.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:05)
I think it's interesting just like that we're trying to automate these cars and we're using AI, we're going to have driverless cars and yada, yada, yada, but then the train is pretty much reliable. Not much can go, I mean, a lot can go wrong with anything, but less things can go wrong with the train than these other things.

**Luke Nugent** (3:23)
Yeah, my job stability is around the age of the fleet, so let's say they're from the 80s and they need to be fixed relatively frequently.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:35)
Very nice. All right, well, tell me your little running story. Tell me, how did you get into running and what was your progression and where are you at today?

**Luke Nugent** (3:44)
After high school, just tried to stay in shape. I just, I had, hold on one sec, I got three kids at home and one of them, that's the question.
Part of the running was from the kids. I had one early, no stress, and running helped. Here, I'll take it. So let's say 2007, I started running, stayed in shape, like stress around being a young parent. And then a running family. So my stepfather was a relatively successful long-distance runner, like 2007, running Vermont, AJW and Karl Meltzer or whatever.
So dinner table conversations are about running. I would say like five miles a couple of times a week for a few years. And then a lot of it was in the woods. So most people will be doing cross-country track. I started in the woods and then moved to the road.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:59)
Very nice. Where are you at now when you're running? What are you up to?

**Luke Nugent** (5:06)
I'm building a house and it's taking all my time. And this year, I've just been doing a few times a week, no racing and I'd like to get back to racing next year. So, I have a Tuesday track workout, Sunday trail run.
Let's see. It's just like groups. So friends, conversations, social, really no competitive races.