Back in January I was having an email converstaion with the marketing guys at Salomon. They wanted to work with us on our Dirt Cheap Trail Series again and I pitched them an even bigger plan. They would get the Dirt Cheap Series along with our two other trail events and would also be the title sponsor of a new Trail racing team that I wanted to put together.
For the last few years I've wanted to build a race team that was about running off road. Of course I needed the right partners in this project and had to build it with the right mix of people. Once Salomon came on board I went about building the team. My goal was to be able to offer up support to the team members while promoting the "trail lifestyle"
To me the Trail and outdoor lifestyle is something we should all strive to have. It isn't just about racing and going fast. It is about being outdoors, enjoying nature and having fun with friends. There is nothing I enjoy more then heading out into the woods and exploring. I don't need to know how far I may go or how hard it may be, I just like to be out there exploring. It really is what I did as a kid all the time.
So now all I had to do was find 11 other people that thought the same way I do. Lucky for me most of my friends have the same idea of fun. I knew K-Robb would be up for it along with his wife Anne. I sent an early recruitment note to two friends hoping that they would be interested, their response was "hell yeh"
So I had 4 plus me. K-Robb and I came up with a short list of potential members and I sent out letters offering support. We filled out 11 spots and I had one to fill. I decided to offer it up to the general public. I posted a note with my concept and waited for the emails to come in. I worked through the dozens of resumes and chose the 12th member.
After reading how so many others wanted to be part of it I decided to add 5 more members that we'll finance on our own and we now have a team of 17. Pretty cool.
My goal with this project is to promote my vision of the outdoor lifestyle. I want to get more people outside running and having fun. I want them to head to the woods and explore a little. Now I have 16 other people helping me spread this vision.
Rochester is going to be known as a trail town. The team will be out running the trails, racing the trails, and getting others out there with us. We'll be hosting races, developing new ones. We'll be hosting trail maintainence days where we get the running community to help maintain the trails we love to run. We'll be offering up guidence and support to new trail runners. This is going to be fun.
Salomon - Fleet Feet Sports Endurance Team
Boots - Director Sportif, Completed Course de Templier in France
K-Robb Ganey - Team Captain, also completed Templier
Anne Esposito - Completed Templier
Alan Powers - 50k completed this year and at least 2 more booked for the year
Laura Church - Multiple Trail Marathons and doesn't want to go much longer (Lab Rat)
Mark Monachino - Learning to go long on dirt (Lab Rat)
Dennis Stearns - Will go longer then he should at times, Ultra vet
Jim Roche - Vows to stay shorter then 15 miles but I bet will be going long soon enough
Chet Jozefski - Will do just about anything. Has completed many ultras
Andrew Baxter - The kid of the team. Has done a marathon on snowshoes (FF Employee)
Kim Rapp - Ultra vet that loves 100 milers (FF Employee)
Krista Englert - New to the game but very much up for the challenge
Dave Sek - The non kid of the team (aka the old dude), Ultra Vet many times over
Karen Kryder - Just completed her first ultra and is signed up for the next one already
Jim McLaughlin - Ironman Triathlete and outdoor enthusiast
Beth Deciantis - Olympic Trials Marathon Qualifier, learning to love the trails
Holly Kuzmiak - Giving the dirt a try after winning Snow Cheap Series
And I can't forget the canine team
Sazerac (Church-Powers) - Our guide out on the trails that finds some great routes for us
Bart (just Bart, kinda like Sting or Madonna) - My over ambitious Aussie that will run all day
Charley (Esposito-Ganey) - The best behaved blonde on four legs
Brandi (Roche) - Learning as she goes. Has been rescued once already on the trails
So if you see any of the red armada (Salomon has hooked us up with some great gear) out on the trails say hello and join them for an adventure
