Ride for the Mission was a success! It was a huge relief to see so many riders show up on June 19 to support the Streetlight Mission and enjoy a great day on bikes. Over $20,000 was raised, more than 7,000 miles were ridden, and much great food and music were enjoyed. The very first Ride for the Mission was a great event, and I am confident that it will be even better next year.
It’s a relief that it’s over, though. The last 6 months have been a blur of extracurricular work, which has been gratifying but exhausting. I’m thrilled that Ride for the Mission went well, but since then I’m really enjoying the break. I has been nice to once again focus on training. My running has been going well, and somehow I’m staying injury free. I’m riding to work and back as often as I can, which adds up to an extra 90-120 miles of training per week.
Meanwhile, life has been a blur of work and travel. I went to Austin for a week to attend the Asics Gold Conference with the other top 100 Asics dealers from around the country. That was a great experience. After hanging out with the most successful people in the running business, andI feel assured that we’re doing many things right. And I see so many ways we can improve Sneaker Factory and make it something better. The week was filled with creative energy and cool interactions, and I left there psyched about the directions Asics is taking, and feeling positive about the momentum we have at Sneaker Factory.
One of the highlights of the Asics show - and a highlight of my year so far - was meeting and running with elite marathoner and Olympian Deena Kastor. After she spent the first evening of the conference hanging out with us at dinner, she invited everyone to join her for a 6 a.m. run. Over 70 people crawled out of bed to run before dawn, but after the first mile I found myself side by side with Deena, cruising comfortably at a 6:45 pace. We ran together for about half and hour, chatting about training, life, wine, living at altitude, our favorite races, travel, etc. It was an extremely cool experience, and I was thrilled to spend some time with such an amazing athlete who is also just and incredibly cool person.
