June 8, 2010

Well as Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz, “there is no place like home”.
I recently just spent a week in Bastrop, Texas, which is right outside of Austin compliments of Asics. I stayed at the Lost Pines Country Club, a very swanky place with 5 star ratings and all that stuff. I am definitely not a big 5 star guy. I don’t really like people carrying my luggage for me or standing behind me while I eat to pour water for me just to make sure I don’t run out of water; I really could just get up and get my own. I never even made it out to the pool or lazy river around the pool. I got there on Wednesday and stayed until Saturday afternoon. Who has meetings on Saturday anyway? I will have to say that the golf course out there was amazing, apparently one of the best in Texas. Did I play golf, no way, I ran all over the golf course with a bunch of other Asics folks and store owners. I think golf courses are cross country courses when they grow up, we didn’t see many golfers but they always gave us that look when we ran by. The Asics meeting was a gold account meeting of all the Asics accounts across the country. Gold accounts are given based on sales, so I got a chance to sit and talk to lots of other running store owners and not just Fleet Feet owners. The conference got off to a rousing start when we were treated to a live appearance, talk, along with a question and answer session with none other then Deena Kastor, YES! DEENA, it was really a great surprise.

Deena who is a an Asics athlete, talked about her running, fitness, the good times, the bad times, the Olympic Bronze medal in Greece and her triumph, to the crushing blow of a stress fracture in her foot at the Beijing Olympics. You don’t always get a chance to talk to a runner who puts in 120 to 140 miles a week and what it takes to do that. I once did a year of 70 miles a week and I wondered how I even functioned. And of course we were all delighted to find out that Deena and her husband Andrew would be running with us the next morning at 6am for the group run. You would think running with someone like her and Andrew would be a letdown, they have to really slow down and run with you, but when you get to run next to one of the greatest of all times, it’s nothing but motivating. No matter how young or how old, or where you are at with your running you get a sense that you have more in you no matter what. Deena was as nice as can be, stuck around for almost the entire conference sitting in on shoe meetings and just hanging out with the average folks. I don’t know very many professional athletes that would do that. By the way in case you want to know, because that was one of the first questions “what shoe do you train in?” well she trains and has trained in the DS Trainer ever since she has been an Asics athlete.

No matter how much good news or shoes, tops, socks, lazy river, Austin Texas, Stevie Ray Vaughn statue, tex mex food, we got from the conference... meeting Deena Kastor will be high on my list for a long time. Oh yeah, I can’t sit in meetings for more than 45 minutes. No wonder I was a horrible student and teachers didn’t like me, I am the fidget king when it comes to meetings. So my week was full, I ran a lot, ate some tex-mex food, met one of the greatest athletes of all time, walked and ran by the pool 100 times and never got in. Business is good for us and Asics realized again that I can’t sit still in class room settings or meetings, and we still have a lot to do for running and fitness in Savannah. Yes I know it was Austin Texas, hookem horns and all that good stuff, but it felt good to land back in Savannah and breath the salt water air, yep, no place like home.

JCB run this weekend, come run off road and on road with some of the coolest tractors you will ever see. 
 

robert espinoza

"Keep Your Chin Up for Strength, and Down For Prayer"

Fleet Feet Sports Savannah