We got to the finish line about twenty-five minutes before the winner, Kenyan Sylvester Chebii, crossed. We stayed around and watched the finishers for a good hour or so before we zoomed off to check out the post race events. It’s always so inspiring to see so many happy people after a half and full marathon smiling and laughing away. The vibe in Nashville was seriously incredible after the race! We chilled at the expo until 11:30 or so then took off back to the hotel to get some work done and to get in a little run. I took off on West End Road near Vanderbilt and ran about 3½ miles up the road past where the start line was and back (7mi total). It was a great outing and Nashville is such a cool city. I love running in places I’ve never run before – time goes by quickly and it’s so cool to explore new places. I got back to the room and got some New Balance orders completed then went out to the post-race dinner and concert (Music Hall of Famer, Steve Cropper ). The highlight of the night: Being back stage to watch the marathon awards presentation. We got to take an elevator ride down to the stage area, stuffed like sardines with top nine winners from the race. WOW! These are amazing people and it was such a great honor to be in the stuffed in the same space for a couple minutes.

A special thank you AGAIN goes out to John Smith from the Competitor Group, Inc. for showing us around and Elite Racing for your amazing hospitality – You guys R O C K! It was a load of fun and a great learning experience!

The Coin Count

Nothing in Music City today – both times :0

Running Total: 87 cents

Kelly (our resident running stud) and I had the opportunity to make a trip to Nashville this past weekend to check out the inner workings of the Nashville Country Music Marathon and Half Marathon , put on by Elite Racing . We landed in Nashville and went immediately over to the Health and Fitness Expo. Since the race was on a Saturday, Friday afternoon was absolutely crazy with floods of people. The race itself would have a record 30,000+ runners in attendance and trust me, it seemed that there could’ve easily been 20K people at the expo itself when we got there! Whew!

I don’t know how, but the Expo peeps did a great job funneling people through, without a doubt! After the expo, we headed over to watch the Kids Marathon – How inspiring this event was for the future of all kids – Get them kids off the couch and enroll them in a running event ASAP! Those kids were so cute!!! Ahhhhhhhh! I can just throw them all in my pocket and keep ‘em forever! We were told that we can run a little in the marathon itself to check out the ‘Rock N Roll’ feeling of the marathon – We’re looking forward to this – All the remarkable feelings of running a race with none of the stress of performing, BRILLIANT!!!

A special thank you goes out to John Smith from the Competitor Group, Inc for showing us around and Elite Racing – You guys R O C K!

Zappos.com did a little last minute sponsorship at the AFLAC Iron Girl Triathlon at Lake Las Vegas this past weekend. I managed to pull myself out of bed for the first time all week to help out at the expo. We asked Zoot Sports to come out and help represent Zappos as our vendor partner for this expo. Zoot is such a great company (even though they won’t allow us to carry their running footwear yet – I know, low blow, but I had to say it!) with huge roots in Tri.

My athletic buyers and I here at Zappos are big fans of their story and product. Mike and Kevin, our representatives for Zoot, spent the whole weekend helping us out at the booth. Mike and Kevin are great guys and a lot of fun to hang around with. I love race expos. It’s always great to get out there and hang with people in the industry and chat it up with the people doing the races…always cool and always inspiring. I wasn’t feeling it this time around though. Being sick all week really put me in a lazy, pile of rocks mode. I really wasn’t helpful at all during the expo – Thank goodness for Kelly, Gayle (Zappos.com Employee Extraordinaires) and the Zoot Sports reps being there!

What? What? WSA is wrapping up and we had our traditional meeting scheduled tonight with the Brooks boys. Rather than meeting at the hotel room as we historically have, dressed to the nine in suits and uncomfortable shoes that don’t have any sort of cushioned, running, shoe-like technology, we decided to hold the meeting at the Zappos offices. Much more comfy!

We had this meeting with Rick, Dan and Jim, our representatives from Brooks (and some of the greatest guys in the shoe biz – These guys rock!). One of the coolest things Brooks has done for our buying team here at Zappos was last November when they took us to New York to check out the NYC Marathon and the Olympic Trials. It was a chance of a lifetime and we certainly were very appreciative of the opportunity! Rick had not been to our new corporate offices, so it was cool having him come in to check out the operations and the Zappos culture. We had preemptively scheduled a run after our business review (a good one, thanks to all you incredible Brooks and Zappos customers out there!) around the Green Valley area, but ran out of time, so we settled for our ‘on-time’ appointment for drinks and dinner – don’t be jealous!!!

We went to Battista’s Hole in the Wall – a fat little Italian joint off the strip in here in LV. We love this place! If you haven’t been there, try it out on your next trip here for sure! When you come make sure you make a point to see Gordy and his accordion – Good Stuff!
So to the Brooks Boys, as always, thanks for the evening and a little something from Gordy: “Where ya from!?!?!” :D

Mark Sullivan from Formula4media , who publishes “Running Intelligence” and “Footwear Intelligence”, and one of his editors, Cara, visited the Zappos office today for a tour. I first met Mark at The Running Event in Austin, Texas last fall. I heard a ton of great things about him from people in the industry and was very happy to meet and chat with him in person. Today’s tour was great! I was extremely excited that they took the time out of their busy WSA schedules to learn about a little bit more about Zappos.com! I just wanted to say THANKS, Mark and Cara! I really appreciate the time you took to learn more about us and our culture!!!

We are currently building the foundation to become the online destination for runners of all types. Novice runners and experts alike, our hopes are to build a site where you all can come in and find all the gear you’d be searching for, but more importantly, a site you can come to just ‘hang out’ and/or learn more about this crazy addiction many of us have called running! It’ll be a lot of work but we’re ready for the challenge!