Houston’s 93Q Radio DJ Kevin Kline is a true athlete by any measure. He’s a veteran runner with over 165 marathon and ultramarathon finishes in over 48 states and over 4 continents. He’s completed a race that lasted over 47 hours and once ran 482 miles in 13 days across Texas! The best part about it- he does it for a great cause. He founded the Snowdrop Foundation, which raises money for Texas Children’s Cancer Center. Foundation funding supports the center’s cutting edge work in pediatric cancer research, provides twice-annual weekend excursions for patients, and awards college scholarships to pediatric cancer patients and childhood cancer survivors. We previously sang Kevin’s praises in our Top 10 Fittest Radio Personalities in Houston 2019 which was also published in the Houston Chronicle. Read further to see what motivates Kevin, how he trains, and how he’s used fitness to combat depression:
HFR: What is your daily exercise and nutrition routine?
Kevin Kline: My daily exercise routine, while mainly consisting of running, varies greatly from day-to-day. My nutrition typically stays the same, regardless.
Because I am an ultra-endurance runner, I log lots of miles each week and all fitness is centered around that. A typical week looks like this:
- Monday: cross-train and 30 minutes run
- Tuesday: Double run, 1 in the morning before work, 1 in the afternoon post-work (total time 2 – 2.5 hours)
- Wednesday: 90-120 minutes run
- Thursday: Double run, 1 in the morning before work, 1 in the afternoon post-work (total time 2 – 2.5 hours)
- Friday: Complete Day Off
- Saturday: Long run (2 to 4 hours)
- Sunday: Long run (2 to 4 hours)
With nutrition, I’m high protein, high fat with limited carbohydrate intake.
- Breakfast: always 6 pieces of turkey bacon, 3 scrambled eggs, 8oz coconut water, 20oz coffee (throughout the morning)
- Lunch: (skip every day to use fat for my energy)
- Post-run: 16oz whole milk and 2 scoops of protein powder
- Dinner: Typically some type of lean meat, mainly chicken, but I’ll throw in some 90/10 hamburger, an occasional steak, both beef, and pork. Fish, when I do eat it, is either tuna, trout or bass. I also enjoy crab legs, but not often.
I’ll pretty much eat any vegetable. I’m not picky when it comes to that. I have a major sweet tooth, but try to limit those cravings to fruit and not processed sugars. I’ll have 2 to 3 Michelob Ultra beers per week. I drink anywhere from 150 – 300 oz of water per day. Much of that depends on how long I’m running and the temperature when I run.
HFR: What keeps you motivated to stay healthy?
Kevin Kline: Two things keep me motivated to stay healthy.
The first reason I try to stay healthy is that running is the way that I raise money for kids with cancer. If I’m not healthy, I’m unable to run as much as I do, or at all even, and then we lose a major ability to fundraise for these kids.
My second motivation for staying healthy is to extend my life. I’m afraid of death.
HFR: Do you believe that being fit and healthy has contributed to your successful career?
Kevin Kline: I do think that my healthy lifestyle contributes to my career success.
As a morning radio host, we always have to be “on”; upbeat, energetic, quick, funny. Being fit allows me to do just that. The adrenaline I get from running and working out definitely carries over with extra energy throughout the day.
HFR: What inspires you, in general?
Kevin Kline: What inspires my running is doing it to honor or memorialize kids diagnosed with cancer. That is what brought me to the sport and what drives me to keep pushing myself to go further and longer.
In general, I find inspiration in nearly everything; a quote, a sunrise/sunset, a photo, a story, a song.
HFR: What tips would you give your fans and our readers to staying healthy?
Kevin Kline: Someone who runs as many miles as I do per week and who has been an athlete all of my life, you’d think I would have a tremendous wealth of knowledge and multitude of tips that I could provide. Sadly, I don’t. I still use a running coach who gives me plans to execute what I need in order to reach my goals. I don’t have to think about anything but executing the plan.
I do have 3 mantras that I use and maybe someone can find as much use in them as I have. One is my own and that is, “give yourself the chance”. What that means is that if I don’t do something, I’ll never know if I can succeed or not. If I start something, I’ve given myself a chance to do it. I’ll use that mantra late in long-distance races too. If I’m getting tired, not wanting to go on anymore, I’ll remind myself to give myself the chance to experience the glory of the finish.
The other mantra I use, especially late in races when I think I’m tired, comes from retired US Navy SEAL, David Goggins. His quote that I go to often is, “When you think that you are done, you’re only 40% into what your body’s capable of doing”.
Finally, running long distances is just like life. It’s a haul. Greatness doesn’t happen overnight, neither does weight loss, increased cardio capacity, strength gains, etc. It may take a while to see gains. I’ve gone months without seeing any progress in my running or my body type and that’s when I go to my last quote. It comes from Boston Marathon winner, Dez Linden. She was asked about her win at Boston and what about her training propelled her to victory: “I just kept showing up,” she said. Not every run, training session, day is going to be great. Some are going to be downright horrible, but, over time, you “just keep showing up”, doing the work and you’ll eventually see the result you desire.
HFR: Share something that most people don’t know about you
Kevin Kline: When I was 15-years-old, I was suicidal. At 22-years-old, I was diagnosed bi-polar. When I was 35-years-old, my father hanged himself. Being fit is the medicine that keeps me strong and alive.
