MANAYUNK

Originally Published in Manayunk.com Magazine

By Shannon Geddes

Bryan Mahon and Ross Martinson’s passion for running brought them together many years ago as teammates on Saint Joseph’s University Cross Country team. After running countless hours together on the track and around Philadelphia, they worked together at a local running store before deciding to open up a shop of their own. Fast forward a few years and three stores later, Philadelphia Runner now calls Manayunk home to its fourth location. Philadelphia’s premier running business is much more than just a retail sneaker store. From offering a wide selection of the best running and fitness gear out there, to hosting energetic group runs, to receiving tips from knowledgeable staff who are running and fitness junkies themselves, Philadelphia Runner is a hub for the local fitness community.

We had a chance to sit down and get to know the guys who built this running empire and more importantly a running community.

MM: Tell me about your running career.

Bryan: I come from a huge family of runners. There are 10 kids in my family so the joke is that most of us became competitive runners to make sure we got a seat at the dinner table before everything was gone!  Almost all of us ran in high school in Southern California where we grew up, and then several of us ran competitively in college.

Ross: I ran competitively at SJU and after college I continued to run and compete. I was lucky to receive coaching advice from Bryan’s brother, who coached a few American record holders, and was able to finish in the top five a few times at the Broad Street Run, and in the top 25 of the Boston Marathon. Now I coach Team Philly race training, with a group of around 200 runners from beginners to Boston Qualifiers.

MM: What’s the longest you’ve ever ran?

Bryan: I’ve run several marathons – 26.2 miles, but one time I did get lost during a long run out of town and I’m guessing I ran for close to 30 miles non-stop.

Ross:  26.2 miles and that certainly felt long enough! I once did 30 miles, but that was split between two runs.

MM: What was your fastest mile time?

Bryan: 4:15

Ross: 4:20

MM: Who is your favorite sports icon?

Bryan: Growing up it was Tony Gwynn, a baseball player for the San Diego Padres who was super consistent and underrated by the media in my opinion, but arguably one of the greatest pure hitters in baseball history.

Ross: I like guys who play incredibly hard and have a good time doing it like Charles Barkley, Lenny Dykstra, John Kruk, or runner John Walker.

MM: What’s your favorite running trail?

Bryan:  There are so many great trails in Philadelphia. But hands down I would have to say the Wissahickon Trail. With the entrance right at the end of Main Street, it is truly a hidden gem in this city. You can run seven miles or more one way on the main trail and even more on the side trails. Plus, how can you not love the beautiful scenery and a calming creek right by your side while you go for a run!

Ross: That’s easy – anywhere with shade! The Manayunk Towpath has a great shady portion of the trail with beautiful scenery. The Towpath is great because it can take you all the way downtown or out towards Conshohocken.

MM: What makes you passionate about running?

Bryan: Running is such a great activity that has the ability to bring together a group of people. It doesn’t matter how fast or slow of a runner you are, but the simple act of running can make anyone feel good. The running community in Philadelphia is so passionate about the sport you can’t help but not feed off the energy. I’ve gained so many friends from running.

Ross: I love how great it makes a person feel. Just from feeling good during a run to feeling good after a run is awesome. That drive to keep pushing how far you can run or how fast you can run is a passion that fuels not just me but all runners. But I have to say I also think it makes us all a little saner. I also have an obvious passion for great running shoes. It can be hard enough to run or workout in the right shoes, so the wrong shoe can make it even harder. We get a decent number of shoes to try out, plus I’m my own best customer. So between my wife, who is also a runner, and I we have quite the collection. I had to put shelves in my garage to store them all.

MM: You have a big following – you can the Philadelphia Runner shirts everywhere in the city – how did you grow such a big community of runners?

Bryan: Our goal has always been to grow the Philadelphia running community, as opposed to just growing the number of tickets that we ring through the register.  Everything we do at Philly Runner is designed to invest in our community, as opposed to just taking from it and not nurturing it. When you have that genuine intention to create something special - in our case to encourage people to start running or become more active and fitness oriented - that same community will inherently take care of you as well.

Ross: We have always tried to do a lot of work with events as well as running and fitness groups in the city. Our stores host several group runs on different nights of the week. Over the last 10 years the number of these groups has really taken off with groups like the Beer Runners, West Philly Runners and November Project.  The running community is such a welcoming group and we’re lucky to have so many friends in all of them!

MM: So you have three other Philadelphia Runner stores. Why did you choose Manayunk as your fourth location?

Bryan: The better question is how could we not! Manayunk is a prime location for fitness and outdoor recreation in addition to all its other amenities. Between the amazing trails and the steep hills, we knew Manayunk was the next neighborhood we had to have a store in.

Ross:  Manayunk was a part of the city that we really wanted to have a presence in! It is such a unique area. In addition to the great shops and restaurants, the trails make it such an ideal place for the runners to live. With the towpath in our backyard, we knew it would be a great store to go out on a run from!

MM: Your staff seems like a big part of your stores’ success, how do you find such great team members? 

Bryan: Our staff is the main reason for any success we achieve. Without their hard work and dedication we wouldn't be able to survive against chain sporting good stores, let alone thrive. We find our staff through friends, recommendations, running, and returning customers. We do as much as we can to train and develop our team as much as possible. We want to empower them and give them the freedom to learn new skills and get better at what they do every day, not just to help our business, but to help themselves in their career.

Ross: We would not be where we are today without our staff! They are the sole reason for our stores’ success. Our team is constantly growing! We employ about 40 dedicated and passionate people and we’ve met them through a variety of ways. We actually met Neil, who’s the manager of the Manayunk store, while running. We can’t thank our employees enough for their enthusiasm and commitment to not just our stores, but to our customers and the fitness community.

MM: The Manayunk store has a really unique look, how did you get to that unique design?

Bryan: As part of our 'brand refresh' project, we wanted to use the new Manayunk store as a template for possible future shops, such as our new retail concept ANTHYM in State College, Pa.,  as well as updating our existing shops in the area. We hired a local retail design and architect firm, Canno Design, to help with this concept. There has been tremendous positive feedback, and our goal is to start incorporating these features into our existing shops.

Ross: We wanted to give this store its own look. When we planned to open in Manayunk, we knew this was the perfect opportunity to start fresh and show how we felt about the store and the fitness community.

MM: What’s your favorite Philly Race?

Bryan: The Philly 10k of course!  But I also really love the Broad Street Run and have run that many times. There’s nothing better than running down the middle of Philadelphia.

Ross: I’ll have to say The Philly 10k as well. But I also work for both the Broad Street Run and The Philadelphia Marathon.

MM: Tell us more about the Philly 10K and what do you hope to do in the future?

Bryan: The Philly 10K is a perfect example of how amazing our employees are. Ross and I can take absolutely no credit for the success of this awesome event.  Our marketing director at the time was the driving force and inspiration behind that.  He had a vision that this was something the city was starving for, and he executed it perfectly. While it was a big financial risk, we believed in him and what he was capable of doing. He put on an event that over 10,000 people tried registering for within the first hour of registration. But all of this comes back to his intention which was to produce an event for the city and by the city which was authentic and genuinely Philly. We partnered with local Philly businesses and hired local designers. The turnout was incredible and all the positive feedback has us making the next race even better.

Ross: The Philly 10K was the first major race that we had put on by ourselves. Our team wanted to do something that celebrated some of the great neighborhoods in the city that don’t usually get seen during a typical city race event. We chose a packet pick up location that runners would want to attend, a new course they would want to run, and a party to celebrate at afterward. We also partnered with only local Philadelphia businesses too! 

The 2015 Philly 10K is scheduled for August 30^th and you can stay up to date on all Philadelphia Runner’s events at philadelphiarunner.com