Certified Rollers

Editor’s Note: The Trestle Run was a pancake flat three-mile run that we used to do back in college. It was the perfect quick shakeout in the morning before class or if you needed to add on a little extra in the afternoon. The run followed an old railroad bed turned rail trail until reaching a trestle bridge. A Trestle Run blog is a brain dump of what I’ve been thinking about, reading, listening to, and/or following. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about challenges recently. Whether they are personal or professional, mental or physical, or some all-of-the-above combination we all find ourselves facing various challenges at one time or another. How we respond to those challenges shapes us and makes us who we are.

Last January there is no way I would have thought 2018 would be as challenging as 2017. In some ways, it wasn’t but that’s the thing about challenges. They’re not all created equal. 2017 presented major emotion, mental, and deeply personal challenges beginning with the loss of my mom. Now, 2018 didn’t bring any single thing that was anywhere close to that heavy, but that’s not something that goes away on January 1. You carry it with you and it manifests itself in different ways.

When I think about that challenge, most of the personal or professional things I face seem pretty inconsequential, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t present an opportunity for growth. I’ve started this year with a bit of a ‘turn over a new leaf’ mentality. Starting from scratch, if you read my last entry. These thoughts about challenges have had me chewing on some words of wisdom that I’ve received from two mentors. One in the professional realm and the other in the personal.

The more uncomfortable you are the more you grow.

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

They are slightly different but both resonated with me for the same reason. You have to venture outside of your comfort zone to find out what you are capable of. I think about all of the times I’ve had a workout on the schedule and thought about how much nicer it would be to just go out and run easy. That’s the problem though. Easy. You don’t get better unless you push yourself. More often than not I find that once I get into the uncomfortable thing it ends up being much more satisfying. Even if I don’t hit the goal, whatever that goal might be, the fact that I went for it and put in the effort generally feels better.

Whatever that challenge may be, personal or professional, mental or physical, I welcome it. Of course, I might need to re-visit this blog to remind myself of that when those uncomfortable moments arise, but that’s not a bad thing.

What I’m Reading/Listening to/Liking

Tracksmith OTQ Program

I have been pretty effusive in my praise of Tracksmith. I love their products and I love the way that they tell stories through their products. Every item they launch has a rich story behind it that connects and resonates with the audience that they are aiming for. In addition to making great products and telling great stories, they’ve also stepped up and put their money where their mouth is when it comes to the aforementioned audience.

“Crafted for the competitive runner.”

That’s Tracksmith’s tagline. Recently they launched a program that shows that they don’t just talk about it, but they are about it. Their OTQ Program supports amateur runners that have hit the Olympic Trails Qualifying standard with apparel, coffee from Linden & True and support as they try to prep for the trials in Atlanta next year.

This is awesome. It’s great to see a company/brand put energy back into the running community in a meaningful way. There are tons of people that are getting out there every day and grinding each and every day with little to no support. I’ve been fortunate to be selected to be an ambassador for a few different brands in the past and that support really can make a big difference. There will undoubtedly be plenty of runners that toe the line in Atlanta next year that won’t have a realistic shot of making the Olympic team but that doesn’t reduce the amount of hard work and sacrifice that it takes to reach the start line. To see Tracksmith providing support to those runners is great for the sport.

Atlanta Born & Brand Podcast

Josh Brown // Wander North Georgia

Speaking of brands that are doing cool things, Wander North Georgia is an awesome store up in the Mountains in Clayton, Georgia. It started as a blog and Instagram account a couple of years ago and has since blossomed into a retail store. I’ve been a big fan of theirs since coming across their Instagram account a while back so when I saw one of their founders, Josh Brown, post a link to this podcast I had to check it out.

It just so happens that this podcast episode fits nicely with this totally random theme I’ve got going for what I’m reading/listening to/liking. Towards the end of the episode, Brown talks about being a brick and mortar shop in a little mountain town and the impact that has.

“People crap on Main street and say Main street America is dying and small businesses are dying and Amazon is threatening everybody. Yeah maybe, but it’s when it’s done poorly or when it’s done bad. People who do it right, do it well and put a lot of thought into it, I think there is a lot of life left. There is a lot of energy that can be channeled in the right direction.”

Josh Brown // Wander North Georgia

I’ll be honest. I had never heard of Clayton, Georgia before I came across Wander North Georgia. I’d been to Tallulah Gorge State Park, which is near there, but I never had any reason to go to Clayton. When they opened their original shop a little more than a year ago Amanda and I decided to drive up and check it out. They had cool t-shirts and stickers and we thought it would be fun to support a small, local business. Little did we know, Clayton has a great little Main street with a bunch of local restaurants and shops.

We may have been missing out on something that people who have been going to the mountains or the lakes up there have known about for a long time, but it was cool to learn about a new place that way. I’m a big fan of Main streets. If you’ve got a downtown with a bunch of brick buildings and local shops, I’m in. I definitely recommend checking out their new shop, which is still located on Main street and grabbing a coffee or something to eat nearby if you are ever in the area. If not, Wander North Georgia is definitely worth a follow on IG or you can check out their website for cool places to visit in the North Georgia Mountains. It’s a great resource if you are looking to get outside.

While we’re still on the brands doing cool stuff thread.

Out of Bounds Podcast

Andrew Drummond // Ski the Whites

This one took an interesting turn. I came across Andrew Drummond’s youtube channel last winter and loved his videos of backcountry skiing in the White Mountains. When I saw he was on Out of Bounds, a podcast about skiing and the ski industry, I had to download it to hear about what he’s up to. They discuss his Ski the Whites shop at Black Mountain and all the stuff he’s doing there to get people on backcountry gear as well as his Instagram account @Ski_The_Whites – it’s a great follow if you are into skiing or cool mountain photos.

One thing that kind of jumped out at me, probably because I’d been thinking about the stuff with Tracksmith and Wander, was when they were talking about operating a retail ski shop and people coming in to try on ski boots and then buying them online. Ski The Whites does a lot of rentals, so Drummond said it wasn’t a big issue for him but it got me thinking back to when I worked in run specialty retail.

It also had me feeling a little ashamed that I don’t patronize the local brick and mortar running shops as much as I’d like to. Especially given my whole soliloquy about loving Main Street. Now, I have never gone into any of the local stores like Big Peach or Classic City and tried something on only to turn around and buy it online. That’s shitty. Don’t do that. I do however tend to shop Running Warehouse first. It’s convenient and has a huge variety and inventory, and tends to be a shade cheaper, but it doesn’t serve the local running community the way that these local shops do. After listening to these podcasts, I definitely feel like I should support the local shop more.

Photos in this post were clipped from the respective Instagram pages of Tracksmith, Wander North Georgia, and Ski the Whites. Links to those accounts are provided in the photo captions.