Topo Athletic Founder and CEO Tony Post talks about his career in the footwear industry and what led him to develop his own line of running shoes in 2013.
Race car driver and raconteur Reece Bobby said it best, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”
Sean Stuck knows that. At last spring’s Virginia 6A track championships, he brought up the rear in the 1600 meters, finishing just 16 seconds out of first place. Fortunately, he won the 3200 meters.
Sometimes races go well and sometimes they don’t, and for Stuck, it’s much more more of the former, lately. Since he hit is growth spurt after his freshman year and dropped baseball, he has found a home on West Springfield’s top seven, and he’s an integral part of the Spartans’ state title hopes this fall.
“Sean’s main strength is that he doesn’t fear anybody or anything,” said West Springfield coach Chris Pellegrini. “That governor in everyone’s brain that tells people they maybe shouldn’t do something, that gives them doubt? He just doesn’t have that; his confidence exists in that moment of truth during races.”
Alazar Tegegnework entered seventh grade in a new school and dived into the lessons and homework. He excelled in the classroom, but one of his teachers at the Brightwood campus of Center City Public Charter Schools saw something more.
“He understands hard work because he knew if he didn’t work hard in his academics, that would affect other things,” says Jermar Rountree, a physical education and health nutrition teacher at Center City PCS.
“Academics is his driving force. But that’s all he knew.”
Rountree encouraged Tegegnework to come with him to a program called Teens Run DC.
Now that a lot of the Fairfax County running gang was back together at the Monroe Parker Invitational, Albert Velikonja decided to see who had done their homework over the summer.
A mile and a half in to Burke Lake’s 2.98-mile course, he surged, and looked around to see how it all shook out.
“I wasn’t trying to run away with it, I just wanted to see if anyone would come with me,” he said.
Herndon senior Colin McCauley and West Springfield seniors Chris Weeks and Sam Pritchard all joined him in the front.
My first ultramarathon was supposed to be the North Face 50K in September of 2009.
My actual first ultra was the Rosaryville 50K that July. Then the Catoctin 50K in August. Then The North Face 50K in September.
All because of Bob Gaylord.
I’d met Bob and his long-time running buddy Stan the previous May, the way I meet all my trail friends: Randomly in a parking lot at a trail head. Then, at some point between May and July, Bob convinced me that the best way to train for a 50K was to run a different 50K. You know, as a training run. And oh by the way, Catoctin is one of the tougher courses in our area — but it’ll be fun.
So … sure … what could go wrong?
To hear Tom Brumlik tell it, Albert Velikonja approaches an August time trial with the same intensity as he does a state championship final.
“It was pretty evident from the first lap last year that he was going to be pretty good,” Brumlik said of the now-senior, who was trying cross country after a moderately successful sophomore track season.
This was before he even took the field for a serious race, at the DCXC Invitational, where he finished sixth in the junior race.
“He just loves to race, and that’s hard to coach,” Brumlik said. “He has a natural competitiveness that’s easy to build around.
Name: Stephanie Balaconis
Self-described age group: Female 31-40
Residence: Alexandria
Occupation: Corporate Digital Marketing Manager
Volunteer roles in the running world: I led a running group in Ohio before I moved to D.C. (shout out to Up and Running)
Why you run: I run because it helps me clear my mind and relax.
When did you get started running: I started running in high school with my dad. It was a way to spend time with him and do some conditioning for softball. He was always a runner and had ran a marathon when I was small. I always thought, “how cool it would be if I could do that too!” So, I started running too.
As a freshman, Jenny Schilling’s Heritage Pride jersey never fit quite right.
The subtext wasn’t lost on Nancy Merriman.
“She didn’t know exactly what her talent level was,” Merriman said. “She was trying to figure herself out in the sport, and that took a little while.”
Schilling had been a dancer until sixth grade, when she followed her brother onto the NOVA Athletic Club and she retrained her legs to run.
