Professional Endurance Athlete Garrett Kenyon On Running as a Full Time Job

There’s no sport quite like running, and there’s no one quite as crazy as a runner. That’s why Garrett Kenyon, a professional plant-based distance runner on the rise, is a perfect fit for Team Redd – we’re not so sane ourselves. The Redd community is full of people who are nuts in the best possible way: striving for impossible goals, throwing themselves into life, totally head-over-heels for whatever adventure inspires their lives. Garrett embodies the unconventional life that drives us here at Redd HQ to create uncompromised nutrition: plant protein, powerful superfoods and positive energy. We chatted with Garrett about his life on the track – read on for some serious wisdom.

Garrett, you’re maintaining a vigorous training routine on a fully plant-based diet. Why is eating plant-based important to you?

Garrett Kenyon: Being vegan is not only important to me, it’s important to all the animals, our planet, and all the other humans we share this world with. Sure I may have started out being vegan for health and performance but as you grow and mature, the reasons you do something keep adding up.

Many athletes know that rising to the top of their sport requires hard work and challenging something/someone bigger than them. I am a professional athlete that is vegan and I want to send a message to all current and rising athletes that we must challenge conventional thought and rethink the way we eat. For our sport, our planet, our families, and our other inhabitants on this planet. </span>

Can you tell us about your daily routines?

GK: Running can definitely be a full time job! After waking up from 8-10 hours of sleep at night, I get up around 7 to get ready for my first session of the day. I usually head to gym to lift and do a small run/ hop in the pool for a pool run, to make sure the body is feeling good from the previous days training. 

After that I head home to a post workout smoothie and breakfast. It’s office work for the next few hours, talking to potential sponsors, photoshoots and squeezing in a daily nap to making sure I recover.I have my second session in the evening where I roll out and warm up for a good hour before hitting the roads, trails, or track. After the run and my strength routine, I start prepping dinner. I usually eat, follow up with some emails, update my Coaches and I’m off to bed by 8:30ish!  

What’s your proudest moment?

GK: You would think my proudest moments are the times I win races, but it is actually when other runners come up to me and say “they want to go vegan because of how well I’m doing with my running”. To inspire people to lead a healthier life and motivate them to become their true authentic self, that’s why I run and why I’m proud to do what I do. 

How does Redd fuel your unconventional, uncompromised lifestyle? What part of being a professional athlete and vegan is conventional? Not much. I love to work with companies that are challenging the norms, striving for growth, and will not compromise their values when living their life to the fullest. Redd is exactly that. There is a rebel inside me that wants to inspire the naysayers. To give them a sliver of hope that another way of doing things is possible. Redd is helping me get there.

What advice would you give to younger generations looking to excel, both in sports and in life? 

My favorite audience. Their curiosity is so genuine and we can always strive to be more like the youth. When we give up our ability to dream, question, and create alternate realities – we get trapped in what society says we should be. So my advice to all the younger generations reading this is… stay curious, dream big and always ask “why?”. Surround yourself with people who are like minded but dream bigger, want more, and are better than you at something. This will challenge you to grow everyday and shape you into the person you were meant to be.