A young woman walked into Fleet Feet in Minneapolis a few days before her first marathon. Her knee had started to hurt. Joel Reichow brought out shoes for her to try. Aches are common right before a race, he told her. She had no idea who was fitting her. Last year Reichow was the top American at the New York City Marathon, fifth overall. He's set to run it again on Sunday, Nov. 1.
The Journal's Rachel Bachman calls runners like him the Clark Kents of the sport. They finish marathons in about half the time their customers do, and most customers never find out. Merga Gemeda works at TC Running Company in Maple Grove, Minn., and has run a 2-hour, 15-minute marathon. “I do sometimes feel like a ghost,” he told her. One father came in and insisted his daughter get the firm-soled shoes he'd long used. Gemeda mentioned his recent 10K time, 27 minutes, 51 seconds. The father didn't believe him and looked it up. That's about 4:29 a mile. He wrote down Gemeda's name to watch for in New York. The daughter picked a softer pair.
A sponsorship is not a salary
Pro running doesn't pay like football or basketball. Most of these runners work the floor because they need the paycheck. A few stay because they like it. Reichow won a Puma sponsorship after New York and kept the job because he likes helping people. We told you about Vinny Mauri and his Asics deal on Oct. 14. He ran 2 hours, 5 minutes and 54 seconds in his first marathon last April, the fastest American debut ever. He trained mostly on a gym treadmill. Here's what's new. The Asics deal fully supports him, and he kept his job at Second Sole in Youngstown, Ohio, anyway. “I like being on my feet,” he said. Brayden McLaughlin, a sub-2:17 marathoner, coaches college runners and works at Fleet Feet in Pleasanton, Calif.
The stores give back, too. Runners find coaches and training partners there, and they get discounts. Reichow's boss guesses the store has fed him about 50,000 fruit snacks. In 2022 Reichow raced the U.S. championship marathon in a pair of shoes a customer had returned. They were too worn to resell and fast enough for third place. McLaughlin also told of a walker who wanted a $300 super shoe, the carbon-plate kind that world-record setters wear. He suggested a cheaper shoe. The customer chose the super shoe anyway. Other customers now arrive with picks from ChatGPT and hand them to people who run 100-plus miles a week.
Our read
This is a Career and Cash Flow (M5) story. Most of these runners keep the store job because they need the money. Mauri's Asics deal fully supports him, and he kept the job anyway. A sponsorship usually rides on results. A store paycheck shows up whether you ran well or not. That's the difference between income that depends on a result and income you can count on. Most of us have a little of both. We tend to spend as if all of it were the second kind.
The one thing in your plan this touches is the income line. This week, split it into two columns. In the first, put what shows up no matter how the year goes, like wages, a pension or Social Security. In the second, put what depends on a result, like commissions, a bonus, a side business or a sponsor. Then check that the first column covers the rent, the groceries and your retirement savings on its own. If it falls short, that gap is what your emergency fund has to cover in a lean year. It's worth knowing that number before the bad race. We're glad to sort both columns with you at your next review, while the weather is still fair.