7515 – Diamond ring discovery, running as Abe, and 9/11 in D.C. with Jeff Kohmstedt

My guest: Jeff Kohmstedt

You’ve probably seen Jeff run as Abe Lincoln in the Illinois Marathon. Jeff and I talk about our connections — through running, an old house, and a lost diamond ring. And he shares a bit of what it was like being in Washington D.C. on and after September 11.

Episode links

Run to Remember: https://illinoismarathon.com/races/run-to-remember/

Contact

Email Steve at steve@holstein.co or visit holstein.co/contact/
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Transcript

This is an automated transcript which likely contains minor errors.

Steve Holstein:
Hey, Jeff, uh, I’ve known you for years and interviewed you, uh, prior to the Christie clinic, Illinois marathon. When’s the last time you put on the Abraham Lincoln outfit?

Jeff Kohmstedt:
Yeah. 2019 was the last year. Uh, that was the 10th. It was my 10th time. My 10th time is running. Is it? Yeah,

Steve Holstein:
That was the, the 2019 was sort of the last year for a lot of things. Yeah,

Jeff Kohmstedt:
Yeah. Yeah. So normalcy was, that was the last year of normal

Steve Holstein:
And it seems like five years ago, doesn’t it?

Jeff Kohmstedt:
If it feels like forever, honestly, um, you know, like running in a pandemic has been a challenge, I think for a lot of folks. I mean, I think, I think a lot of folks like use the pandemic as a means to like start working out and getting fit and everything. And then for like runners like me, it’s like, there’s kind of been like a trapped inside, so what do I do? You know? And so you have to go out and run, but you know, it’s just, it’s more of a challenge when you’re not able to run with folks, uh, when, when you weren’t able to run with folks, uh, safely, I felt so. Yeah. I think it’s been a challenge.

Steve Holstein:
Yeah. I find a, I’m not an avid runner like you are. Um, I mean, you’re, you’re like a regular daily, many miles runner and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you because while the Christie clinic, Illinois marathon, uh, was not held this year, it is on the books for next year. But in the meantime, they’re putting together the run to remember on September 11, so a little over a month away as this podcast air. So that’s, that’s exciting. And I, as soon as that email came in, I’m like I just got sign up.

Jeff Kohmstedt:
Yeah. I mean, I think it’s, uh, I think it’s great. It’s great to do. Um, you know, especially since it’s the 20th anniversary of nine 11, um, you know, it’s a hugely important insignificant date. And, um, so I think, um, my plan is to do it. I really need to sign up. So

Steve Holstein:
On how many miles in a typical day or in a typical week?

Jeff Kohmstedt:
Um, for, usually for it a minimum, um, it’s usually like four to six on just like a regular regular day. And then on a weekend I’ll have like, you know, eight between six and eight. Um, if I’m training for a race, a half marathon or something, I’ll, we’ll do like 10 or 11 or something like that. What

Steve Holstein:
Is your, what is your preferred, organized race distance? Like, are you a, do you really like the half marathon length?

Jeff Kohmstedt:
Yeah, the half marathon. I mean, I’ve done, I’ve done seven marathons. I ran Boston in 2014, so that was a year after the bombing. And, um, you give everything, at least for my body, my body just cannot handle 26. You know, I think for a lot of people you can handle 26 miles, but for me, it’s just like, it wears me out way too much. And it has too much of, uh, an impact on me. I’ve run 56 or 57, half marathons so that those are just like metal, half marathons. Um, you know, so I’ve run thousands of miles, I think with my dog to actually, alright, few years ago he ran a thousand miles and one year I, I counted them. And so it has been a, uh, it’s been, uh, a point of pride that with me, with him that he’s, he’s run a thousand miles in a year. So what’s your dog’s name? The dog that you run with his name’s jackaroo and, uh, he’s, he’s kind of an Australian cattle dog mix. Um, he’s, he’s kind of like, uh, he has the energy and smartness of like a border Collie, and he’s just says an ender, the endurance of a cattle dog. He’s just really, um, he’s really born to run, honestly.

Steve Holstein:
I know when I’m going to take my dog for a walk or a car ride, that’s two words. She just perks up D I mean, do you, do you say Jack or Rudy, you want to go for a run and then boom. He’s just like all

Jeff Kohmstedt:
In no, actually all I need to do is put on running clothes and he knows like, he, I think he, I think it has to do with like the smell of the clothes. Cause like, as soon as I put them on and then he’s like, he’s, you could tell that he’s ready to, he’s ready to go. And if you don’t take him, which you know, there are those times when it’s like either it’s too hot, um, that he gets, you know, a little disappointed, but he’s getting older though. I mean he’s 10 years old now. Um, so he can’t go as far. Well, no, he can’t go as far. He just can’t go as fast as he used to. And he’s really

Steve Holstein:
Older. What you can do is you can be like those moms who, and it’s mostly moms. I see, I do see some dads, but they’ve got the jogging stroller and they’re hauling it. I don’t know how they do it, but they’re hauling it, you know, and they’ve got some toddler in there, so you’ll have to get one of those when jackaroo hits a, you know, 15 or whatever and still wants to go. I

Jeff Kohmstedt:
Mean, I think people get special awards for that, you know, for being able to push that stuff. Cause that’s just a small child plus all the, the gear and everything and pushing that for miles. It’s just, it’s amazing. W mean what’s

Steve Holstein:
Your go-to gear for running. People can really get wrapped up in what to wear. What kind of shoes, what kind of socks do I need? The watch, what level, watch all that stuff. What would you tell somebody who maybe already knows how to do a 5k, but you’re somebody who runs four to six miles a day plus 10 miles on the weekend. So what, what would you, you you’ve you’ve and plus you’ve run 50 plus half marathon, so you don’t get caught up in all that stuff.

Jeff Kohmstedt:
Right? Um, I would say your shoes are the most important part, really, um, getting, getting good shoes that from a running store now, I mean, if you’re here local in Champaign-Urbana, that’s definitely body and go there for your shoes, because I mean, I used to work there too. Um, and you know, everybody on staff knows how to get you the shoe that fits your body type, what your foot does and how it reacts to running. And, you know, if, if you have poor shoes on, you’re going to feel that and you’re going to know, and you’re gonna get discouraged from, from working out and in doing the running. So shoes are really the most important part. And then I would say, um, secondly, your, the clothes that you wear, um, making sure that you have breathable shirts that, you know, tech shirts basically, um, so that you’re not, um, running in cotton, um, because, uh, cotton is rotten basically is, is the, is the phrase that people use because you know, like it’s, it, it doesn’t wick sweat away. And so then it, it sticks to your body and then it makes you, you know, you chafe. And so you just want, you know, some sort of texture.

Steve Holstein:
I saw somebody on social media, I follow she’s a runner. And she put up a quick video that said the first one to two miles, suck for everybody that I have always felt that way, but I’ve never heard from another runner say that, but it’s always, especially the first mile seems like it’s the most uncomfortable. It’s like, ah, what am I doing? And then finally, 10, 15 minutes into it. Your body’s like, okay, we’re running.

Jeff Kohmstedt:
Yeah. Um, I would, I would say 100% agree. Um, and I would almost say, uh, well for, I think it depends on the person quite honestly, like, um, for me and, uh, it will take for me, it will take maybe three miles, uh, for my body to plus I’m getting older. Um, you know, and as I get older, um, I’m in my late forties now. Um, and so, you know, it takes me awhile to get going in the morning. Uh, I used to be able to get up. I used to be able to get up at like four in the morning and just put on running shoes and get out the door. And now that just doesn’t happen.

Jeff Kohmstedt:
It just doesn’t happen that way. Like I need coffee, I need to sit and eat and get the energy and absorb calories in before I can even get going. And so it will take me a good three miles and which is kind of rough when you’re only going to be doing like four. But that means that last mile, that’s a good mile, you know, like you’re running, you’re running and finally it clicks in your body and it’s like, wow, that feels really great. But yeah, it does suck. And, um, it sucks for some people like me. It sucks for three, three out of those four miles. It sucks. But man, that first, that last mile makes it a whole lot better.

Steve Holstein:
Yeah. The, this video I saw that she posted, she mentioned some physical reason why the first mile or two stinks for all runners. And in some cases, like you said, three miles. Yeah. There’s some sort of chemical change in your body that goes from, you know, just walking around breathing mode to, you know, physical exertion mode. So again, the run to remember is coming up September 11th. Now speaking, speaking of September 11th, you were in Washington DC on September 11th and you actually lived there for a number of years. So you were there the day that the Pentagon was hit by the jet.

Jeff Kohmstedt:
That is true. Yes. Um, I was working, I was teaching at George Washington university, um, while I was also going to school and it was, it was on a Tuesday. And so I taught on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, so, and Tuesday I was in my apartment, which was a basement apartment. And my wife was, this was in the, you know, early days of the internet where you had a instant messenger, I think is what it was never used instead of having like everybody having cell phones and texting each other and stuff, we, you know, instant messenger. And she said, did you, you know, she typed, have you seen the news? And I was like, no. And so I turned on CNN or whatever, and you know, it was happening then during the course of the day, I mean, everything just changed as, as you would imagine. It would my wife and I, we drove by the Pentagon.

Jeff Kohmstedt:
I think it was the next day because you could there’s, there’s the expressway that crosses the there’s a, there’s a highway that crosses the Telmex from DC into, um, Arlington. And so you kind of drive by the Pentagon and I mean, you could, you could see it. And it was, it was as bad as, as you could imagine, it would be, it was odd the next morning, because the next morning was, um, we still had class, which kind of boggles my mind that we would be teaching class the day after this happened. So here I am a college, uh, adjunct composition instructor teaching, you know, having to, having to talk to students who just have gone through like a hugely monumental experience and seeing it, like some of my students could see it, see the Pentagon from their residential hall. Um, so that was just a really hard experience. Um, living in DC after, you know, after having that happen for subsequent years was just a really crazy experience. I mean, just everybody was on edge for years afterwards. Um, and so, you know, it’s kinda, we’re, we’re 20 years beyond that now. And it’s hard to even like comprehend how, how, how much the, the terrorist attacks of nine 11 had an impact on the psyche of the people of Washington DC and, you know, the people that lived through through that. Yeah. I

Steve Holstein:
Was in the studio at the time. It was a little after eight o’clock central time when it happened. We had, I think CNN on, in the, uh, in the studio, we always had it on mute, but there was always a TV going in case there was some breaking news. And I remember staying on the air, I don’t know, maybe till noon or something, just sort of, uh, sharing information as it came in over the internet, which like you said, the internet back then, uh, in 2001 was different than it was today. Plus what we were gathering from blogs, you know, blogs were big, you know, people were like updating their blogs with information. And so you would have, I would have like multiple open. I was refreshing the blogs. Cause there was like, there was no Twitter, you know, with this constant you could search for hashtag attack or something today, but not, not then. So 20 years has already passed that’s something else 20

Jeff Kohmstedt:
Years is just, it, it just, it’s amazing how, how it’s like a blink of an eye. I just feel like so old now. And

Steve Holstein:
You did, you know, you brought up a good point. I mean, in those, in those days, weeks, months, and even years after there was a lot of tension in the country because we were on this high terror alert or yellow level to red level, um, there were terrorists who were involved or somehow involved who were still being interrogated or arrested, you know, today, right now in 2021 every day, there’s some sort of new bit of information about COVID-19 and that’s kinda how it was during nine 11. It was like every day there was some new element to the terror attack story. Right,

Jeff Kohmstedt:
Right. It was just, it was, it was information overload. Honestly, I feel like in this was information overload in an internet age that was not like you said earlier, so connected to each other with Twitter and social media. I mean, social media didn’t really exist other than like you said, the blog. Yeah. Like we were chasing shadows. I feel like, um, as consumers of information, we were, you know, hyper aware of how much we didn’t know. And I feel like I’m talking like, um, Donald Rumsfeld now, you know, there were things that we don’t know that we did know or whatever his quote is, you know, like

Speaker 3:
Things we know, we know, we also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know, but there are also unknown unknowns. The ones we don’t know, we don’t know

Jeff Kohmstedt:
That’s how it went. That’s how it felt. 11th

Steve Holstein:
Of Rhonda. Remember it happens to be a Saturday, which is, you know, works out well for the organizers of that for the Christie clinic, Illinois marathon. Do you, haven’t decided if you’re going to run, if you do, do you think you’ll, uh, you’ll run as Abraham Lincoln or is he not going to come back until the marathon in April of next year?

Jeff Kohmstedt:
Yeah, I think, um, I think he, the, the hat which I have right here, which you can’t see or, but, uh, yeah. Um, the, he, that hat will be on the shelf on that date. Uh, I just don’t feel like, you know, running as Abraham Lincoln for remembering those who have fallen is, is the most appropriate use of the costume. I think

Steve Holstein:
I know here’s, here’s what I tell people. So I lived on Daniel in champagne for a number of years and then, uh, sold the house to a family and they lived there for a few years and then you ended up buying it from them. And so whenever I’m talking about, you know, the neighborhood of the central part of champagne and where I used to live, I’ll say, you know, who lived there? You know, the guy who dresses as Abe Lincoln during the marathon and everybody goes, oh yeah, cause you’ve been in the paper and on social media, even if you don’t run the marathon, I’m like, yeah, he’s the one who bought the house that I lived

Jeff Kohmstedt:
In. It was definitely kind of strange because, um, you know, in the, in the garage, that’s, you know, the detached garage in the rafters, there was like some trim work from, uh, I think it was the cabinets in the kitchen that said Holstein. And I’m like, huh, that’s kind of interesting. You know, this was before I knew that you would own the house. I was like, huh, that’s kind of interesting that I don’t really know any other Holsteins. I wonder if it’s Steve it’s then at some point we, uh, we were talking about it and I was like, wow, that’s okay. When your house, and then let’s talk about the ring. Right. We need to talk

Steve Holstein:
To bring up the ring. Oh, so

Jeff Kohmstedt:
We, so my wife and I, we decided to move back to this house that we’re currently in, which is a whole other story that we would buy the same house that we sold. But anyway, so we’re selling the house and we’re cleaning stuff out and I’m in the basement and I’m cleaning out some things and you know, and the shelves underneath the stairs. And I’m like, I see something glitter in the back. And I’m like, what the hell is that? You know? And I, I grabbed it and it’s, it’s a, it’s a diamond ring, but I’m like, oh, this can’t possibly be like a real ring. Right. I mean, it’s like this ring, right. It like it. So then I’m like, okay, well, so I find a piece of glass or something or a mirror or whatever. And I scratched it just to like check to see if it was a diamond or not. And it scratched. And I was like, ha. And I’m like, thinking, okay, well, I, I don’t know the peacock. So those are who, who had lived there, who we bought it from. And so then I’m like, well, I wonder if it’s Steve’s this. So I text you and was like, is this happened to be your ring? You know? And I like, I think I sent you a text, a picture of it. And you’re like, that was my mom’s right. Is that what it was? It was your mom.

Steve Holstein:
Yeah. So, so, but I’ve been, you know, so I was married once before and my previous wife and I lived in the house and my mom had given me the ring that my dad gave her the engagement ring. Right. And so as, as is somewhat common, my mom’s like, Hey, if you’d like to give her this ring, you can. And so that’s the ring that I proposed with. That’s the ring that she would wear. And then the marriage ended. She gave the ring back. She knew it was my mom’s at that. My dad had given him. So I put it somewhere and forgot about it. You know, you put it in a box and you forget about it. And I remember after the marriage ended being back in St. Louis, where my mom is and my mom bringing up the ring and we, you still have it.

Steve Holstein:
Right. And I’m like, no, I think I gave it back to you mom. And she’s like, oh, well maybe I have it here. And occasionally I would think about it and be like, man, did I, what did I do with it? Did I? And so the only thing I can figure is the master bedroom in that house, on Daniel that I lived in, and then the peacocks lived in, and then you lived in, I think there was probably a space of some sort in the floor or the wall. And somehow that ring got knocked off of a dresser, fell down into the basement onto the shelf where you found it many, many years

Jeff Kohmstedt:
Later, it was so far back, like, this is not something you could have, you could easily get to, you know, like it was, it was the shelf I think is probably four feet deep. So it’s like nine, you have to like, get up there to like, crawl, to get to it. If that was something that, you know, so I think it had to fall on, like you say, you know, like somehow it got back there way in the back in between the shelf and the like the wall or whatever that was there. So yeah, it was so just weird circumstance. Then I would find this ring, you know, and that we would connect it to you. And it’s been what, 20 years or whatever, you know, later you get this ring back. I mean, that is crazy. How tall are you Jeff? I’m six foot. You’d been five

Steve Holstein:

10. You probably wouldn’t have seen the ring. And it would still be there, probably not, by the way. So shortly after you gave it back to me, you texted me, he gave me the image and I’ll come by and get it. And you handed it to me. And I got it. I got it back to my mom right away. I’m like, okay, that’s it. I don’t want to hang onto it anymore. And she was, you know, excited.

Jeff Kohmstedt:
That’s amazing. I didn’t, I didn’t know that part of the story. That’s great.

Steve Holstein:
Oh yeah. I mean, I did not hang on to it for much longer. I mean, I obviously mishandled it the first, so anyway, well, listen, it was great catching up with ya. You would see you at least once a year, if not more, as we got ready for the Illinois marathon and you would be on the pre-race show and you were always so gracious, you were, you would carry the flag too, which is crazy. Cause you were doing like, you know, at 10 K or the half marathon carrying the flag. If I remember correctly. Yeah,

Jeff Kohmstedt:
There, there were some years I did that. I can

Steve Holstein:
Barely carry, you know, a bottle of water or something. So to carry a flag is pretty epic after

Jeff Kohmstedt:
I think after one year where it was, um, I think there was probably 15 mile an hour winds. I don’t remember what year that was, but it was, and you get out by stone Creek and, oh, my, I had a bruise on my like, not on my collarbone, but like on the skin, you know, there was just a bruise from the flag, like slamming up against it. So after that year I decided, man, maybe I don’t need to run with the flag anymore. Mr.

Steve Holstein:
President, we do appreciate that. You carried the flag all those many years during the marathon. Thank you.

Jeff Kohmstedt:
Well, thank you. Thank you very much. And I appreciate the invite to come on the show.