Fleet Feet Davenport - Iowa's newest running store

Runners don’t require a lot of gear, but good clothes, shoes that fit well and a few appropriate accessories can improve the running experience tremendously. So, too, can having a place to hang out before and after a run with other like-minded souls, where a true community can be built around this sport that we love. Specialty running stores can provide both the things and the community that help make running great. Fleet Feet Davenport, Iowa’s newest running store, opens its doors to runners, walkers and others in a grand opening celebration next week and hopes to become an integral part of the Quad Cities running scene.

Thirty year old Phil Young is the man behind Fleet Feet. A native of Davenport, Young attended Davenport Assumption where he ran track and cross country after becoming hooked on the sport running and watching the area’s largest running event – the Bix 7. After four years in college at the University of Iowa where his passion for running grew Young landed a job at Scheels in Coral Ridge Mall as the athletic footwear manager where for four years he familiarized himself with the business side of retail but yearned for the freedom, autonomy and opportunities that just don’t exist at large “big box” retailers.

Enter Joe and Jean Dwyer, owners of the three Running Wild stores in the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids corridor. The Dwyers took a leap and hired Young as the first non-Dwyer salaried manager of any of their stores in the spring of 2012. The shift to working at a running specialty retailer allowed Young to innovate and really get involved in the community in ways he had not been able to previously.

“My time at Running Wild was incredibly valuable,” he says. “Not only did I get to manage a running store and really get to do some community outreach around running, but I got to work alongside John (Joe and Jean’s son) to start a business – Running Wild’s new downtown Iowa City location – and see what it takes to open up a store.”

Two years after that, in early 2015, Young and his wife, Jackie, began talking about their next step and contacted Fleet Feet’s central office and discovered that the company was already looking at opening up a franchise location somewhere between Des Moines (where a Fleet Feet opened up in the East Village a few years ago) and Chicago. In September “meaningful conversations” began between Young and Fleet Feet and by December Young had signed a lease for new space and the race was on to get the store built out and ready to open for the busy spring running season.

Why open a Fleet Feet store instead of his own fully independent “Phil’s Running Store?” Young notes several reasons. “Fleet Feet is an incredible brand,” he states. “I can have my own family-owned store and complete autonomy to run it as I want to as long as I maintain certain standards – so lots of freedom within a good structure.” This structure includes financial support, national brand recognition and a network of owners of the 150+ Fleet Feet stores across the country who can be called upon to help offer advice at any time on such things as build out, merchandising and buying. “The fact that they already had interest in opening a store in the town I grew up in and had connections to made the decision much easier for me and Jackie,” he says.


Not that opening the store has been easy. Young has been sleeping in his childhood room for months away from his wife and two daughters while they remain at their North Liberty home. The long hours and stress of build out, ordering, marketing, networking, hiring and all the other things that come with opening a business have been combined with selling their North Liberty home and closing on their Davenport house just a week after the store’s grand opening. “Running has been an absolute must for me during this time,” he explains. “After 12 hours on my feet I want to just lay down and rest but I need to run for the stress relief that it brings, but also for the credibility in the community. I want to be out in the community, with the runners who I hope will become our customers.”

Young says that community is at the heart of everything he wants the store to be. “The Quad Cities running community is large and established. Every day I hear about another group – the Cornbelt runners, the TURds (Trail and Ultra Runners), the moms who run, the Hashers – and there’s still room to grow.” Young’s focus on the community means that he wants to be able to serve both the competitive post collegiate athlete as well as the walker, the person who’s never run a step to the enthusiastic high schooler. “We will have a broad selection but a staff that can explain not just the features, but the benefits of everything we sell,” he explained. “Everything we will have you can find elsewhere and potentially cheaper, so we need to offer a great experience and advice and be the place that people want to come, not just to buy the products they need but also just to hang out.”



Those who choose to come shop and hang out will find a staff of experienced runners. For Young it is imperative that his staff be relatable to his customers. “I’ve been a high school athlete and competed collegiately,” he says. “I’ve done the marathon thing and raced 5ks. I’ve been injured. I’ve coached and mentored beginners. I’ve directed races. My staff has experienced these things, too, and so we can relate to just about anyone who walks into the store.”

In a recent Next Level Iowa podcast interview with hosts Jim Kirby and Mike Jay Young said “I love helping people reach their goals. My passion for running lines up with my career and my hobby and all my extracurricular stuff. It’s all pretty cohesive and I live it, participate in it and volunteer in it.” That sort of passion that Young brings is exactly what every running store, and every running community needs.

Young and his staff will be offering group runs such as their “Tavern Tuesdays,” a variety of group training programs for various events and a race team available for competitive athletes.

The store held a soft opening on March 10 and, according to Young, Quad Cities runners have been very welcoming of the new store to the community with many stopping in to the Elmore Avenue location to check it out. A grand opening celebration will be held April 1-3.

For more information about Fleet Feet Davenport visit http://www.fleetfeetdavenport.com/

For the kids: Iowa Speed and youth track and field

As a kid growing up in the Iowa City area I played soccer. A lot of soccer. I played in recreational leagues. I played club soccer. I played high school soccer. I coached kids at soccer camps. I refereed soccer. I played on and organized indoor soccer teams, sometimes more than one at once. I loved the team aspect of it and made some great friends. But I also was one of the few who loved the individual training, the fitness, the running, required to be competitive. As I approached what would be twilight of my soccer career it was biking and running that I was drawn to, individual sports with a significant team component to them. While I still watch collegiate soccer games with a certain yearning to be back out on the pitch, my heart has moved on and it is running that has been my passion, a passion I now wish I could have found when I was younger, and probably would have if the Iowa Speed had been around for me then.

Youth track and field is something that just was not on my radar when I was a kid. Sure, I had heard of the Hershey’s track meet but I didn’t know anybody who was into running as an organized endeavor back then. Now, however, there are more and more opportunities for kids to get involved in the sport at a young age with teams like the Iowa Speed in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City corridor, the Central Iowa Excaliburs and several others in the Des Moines area, and the Mississippi Valley Eagles Track Club in the Quad Cities. New programs are in various stages of development in Dubuque and elsewhere, too.

Now in its fifth year, the Iowa Speed club was founded by Joey and Heather Woody and is offering kids from 5 years old on up through high school the opportunity to get quality coaching, improve their fitness, experience racing and competition, build friendships and develop a love for the sport of track and field (and cross country).

“When our kids started getting older we started looking around and discovered the world of youth track and field,” Heather says. “We did this out of love for the sport and wanted to expose our kids and others to track and running.”

It would be hard to pick two people who are better suited for overseeing a youth running program like Iowa Speed. Joey is the Speed’s head coach in addition to his regular duties as the University of Iowa’s Director of Track and Field. He coaches professional athletes like former Hawkeye and current professional and multi-time national champion Erik Sowinski. Joey is one of the state’s great track athletes, earning multiple All-American honors at the University of Northern Iowa, national championships and silver and gold medals at the World Championships. Heather was an All-Conference athlete at UNI and earned All American honors during a brief stint at Division III Simpson College in Indianola. She earns a living as a corporate and personal success coach and motivational speaker. She refers to herself as “Chief Motivation Officer” for the Iowa Speed.

And motivate she has, along with Joey and the other coaches. In that first year there were 30 kids on

the team and last year there were 179 on the roster with 40-50 members traveling to compete at track meets across the state and the region on any given weekend. The track season starts in February and continues into August. Most kids attend a single practice on the weekend but there is the option to attend more focused, event-specific and intensive training at two weekday practices.

“The focus at all of these practices is on providing a positive environment where we’re growing kids as people and athletes while also teaching them the fundamentals and mechanics of track and field, a great work ethic, discipline and life skills,” Heather says. “We’re there to encourage kids to have big dreams and big goals if that’s what they want and we want to help the kids reach those goals.”

Because team members range in age from kindergarten through high school there is obviously a wide range of abilities but the coaches are able to work with everyone and the older athletes gain valuable experience as mentors and leaders of the youngsters. Some of the junior members are there just to try out the sport while some of the older participants are there to try to get that little bit extra necessary to achieve their dreams of running at the Division I level. Those that aspire to compete at that level have access to not just coaches like the Woodys, but also a stable of Hawkeye and elite post-collegiate athletes like Sowinski, who have been known to stop by practices and help out.

Most Iowa Speed members harbor no such aspirations. Many, if not most, are athletes in other sports who are using the team and practices as a way to supplement their training in other sports. The Woodys encourage this and want athletes to be well rounded and not focused exclusively on a single sport at a young age. Heather suspects that few team members come from “running families” where the parents are runners and the kids grow up seeing mom and dad going out for daily runs. Most hear about the team through the grapevine. For them it’s a chance to try something new, hang out with friends, improve conditioning, compete or a combination of all of the above.

One family that is a running family is the Cantons. Nate and Anna Canton of North Liberty are heavily involved, with 4 kids participating on the team. Nate, a very competitive runner in his own right, took the initiative to offer a separate cross country season into the team in 2014. In 2015 35 kids ran cross country for the Speed, with 25 of them qualifying for the National Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Eleven made the long trek to race.

Canton, who serves as the head coach for the cross country season, has two practices a week for his
runners. One, during the week, is held on local trails and focuses largely on running hills while the second is most often held on the University of Iowa’s Ashton Cross Country Course and focuses on some sort of speed work in addition to a warmup, stretching, and form drills. “These kids are at age where doing all the right things before and after running can become a habit for them,” Canton stated.

They are also at an age where they are trying new things. Canton tells of one athlete who was playing football for his school and not getting any playing time and feeling like a failure. He heard about cross country and wanted to give it a try and immediately latched on. Soon he was asking what he could do to get better and set a goal of qualifying for the national meet, which he did. After running at nationals and dropping his mile time by over two minutes he now sees himself as a runner and not a failure.

While not everyone sets goals of qualifying for nationals, many Speed athletes do and the chance to travel to the national meet can be eye opening. “Until you get into the world of youth running you don’t realize how big a deal it is,” Canton noted. Kids come from all over the country to run at the cross country and track national meets. “It’s an incredible opportunity for kids to share the moment and run their hearts out with 3000 other runners and go through an Olympic style opening ceremonies,” he says of the USATF Junior Olympics.

“We just love the whole experience our family has had with youth running,” Canton adds. “It’s such a great mix of kids just wanting to get better, compete, have fun and with such great camaraderie amongst the kids and their families.”

For more information about Iowa Speed visit: http://iowaspeed.teamsnapsites.com/
A list of other USATF-affiliate youth clubs can be found at: http://www.usatf-iowa.org/

2016 No Coast Trail Series

The rapid proliferation of trail races across the country has been mirrored in Iowa with new races appearing every year.  The No Coast Trail Series combines nine great Iowa trail events into a casual, but competitive, race series where the focus is on having fun on some of the state’s diverse trails.

The brains (and brawn?) behind the NCTS

The series, now entering its third year, is organized by Joshua Sun of Davenport.  “My goals for the getting the series started were basic,” Sun says. “I wanted to create a simple and fun method of tying together area trail races to help promote new and existing races with the lowest possible investment from runners and the races themselves and return the highest possible value.  So far, so good!”

The nine events range from 5ks to 100 milers and the courses range from the tight, twisty singletrack of Davenport’s Sunderbruch Park to the steep hills and stairs of Dubuque’s Mines of Spain State Park to the rolling gravel backroads of Booneville.

“Part of what’s great about the series,” according to Sun, “is that there’s something for everyone.  Long races, short races, hilly races, flat races.  They are all a little different and have their own feel.  They are unique but now they are also unified in a small way, too.”

Race directors contribute a small amount of money to be a part of the series and this money is used for the year end awards, which have been much-coveted Hydroflasks with the series logo.  For the race directors, though, participating is a no-brainer.  Matt Jasper, who helped organize the hilly Swiss Valley Trail Run outside Dubuque notes that “It’s obvious from looking at the registrations that there were definitely people choosing to participate in and travel to the races in part because they were part of the series last year.  I’m sure that will only grow in 2016.”

Foote, her 2015 prize and her new friend, Dusty.

There would not be any races without a lot of hard work by the race directors like Jasper.  Sun emphasizes that the race directors in the series do a nice job putting on high quality events that people want to run.  New to the series in 2016 will be a timed 9 hour event in Davenport (Scheutzen NEIN! Hour Endurance Run) and the Pleasant Creek Trail Run just outside Cedar Rapids.  Sun is happy for the additions. “I’m always looking to add new options and add value to the runners’ experience and I think people will enjoy these two events,” he says.

What do the participants say about the series?  Wendy Foote, of Waterloo, comments that “No Coast is great motivation to keep pushing yourself at races.  It’s so much fun to see the same smiling faces at races across the state.  I might be competing against someone race after race on challenging courses but then I can sit and drink a beer with them afterwards. I like that.”

Tim Bergan of Colfax, Iowa, ran away with the most total points (116.3) of any participant in 2015 while Ross Salinas of Iowa City participated in the most events (6).  Both will be back in 2016.  Bergan, a man who always has plentiful words to go with his plentiful miles (he plans on running four 100 mile races this year) says this:

“I've grown to love trail running, much more than road running, because it gets me out into nature, and trail runners are some of the greatest people in the world.  The best part of No Coast is that it gives those of us that run trails a reason to run them more often.  I tell people that when I go to any of the No Coast races, I'll see a dozen people I know and like and I will have made two more friends before the day is over.  The trail running community is what keeps me coming back.  This probably doesn't get said as often as it should, but I really appreciate the time and effort that all the race directors and volunteers put into making the races happen.  I know it's a lot of work, but it brings us all together and lets us have fun, share experiences, and in some of the races, drink beer afterward!”

Participation in the series has grown over the last two years.  In 2014 there were 901 total participants in the races and 29 who both registered for the series and competed in at least three of the races and were eligible for the overall prizes.  Last year there were 1118 participants and 38 who were eligible for the series awards.  Awards will again be distributed at the Wildcat trail run in Muscatine in November.

Participants accumulate points based on their race time, finishing place and the distance they ran and awards are given out at the end of the year in 8 separate categories.  Because of the inherent scoring advantage to running the longer races there is a category for those who do not race any distance longer than a marathon.  There is no cost to participate but runners do need to sign up online.

Sun, an avid trail runner himself, has invested a great deal of time and energy, as well as some of his own money to getting the No Coast series up and running. “It’s great to see this continue to grow and people having fun,” he says. “I don’t want it to get too big or corporate but I do want it to keep improving and to help grow the sport and the community of trail runners in Iowa.”

A new series website is set to debut soon but for now information can be found on the NCTS Facebook page and Google documents found below. EDIT: The new NCTS website can be found here.

2016 Race Schedule
Red Shamrock Foundation Survivorship Run 5k (Iowa City) - April 2
Hawkeye 50k/25k (Solon) - April 9
Sunderbruch Beer & Bacon Trail Races 5k/10k-ish (Davenport) - May 21
Booneville Backroads Ultra (100M, 100k, 50k, 10k) (Booneville) - May 28
Schuetzen NEIN! Hour Endurance Run (Davenport) - June 18
Mines of Spain Trail Races (half marathon, 7M, 4M) - August 6
Pleasant Creek Trail Run 45k/30k/15k (Palo) - September 17
Swiss Valley Trail Run 25k/10M/5M (Dubuque) - October 1
The Runner's Flat Trail Races 50k/25k (Cedar Falls) - October 8

For more information and updates like the No Coast Trail Series on Facebook and click here for complete scoring rules.  To sign up for the series click here.