Hello to all of the loyal blog followers of the 605 Running Company.  My name is Kyle Schmidt and I am the new assistant manager here at the store. I began running nearly 20 years ago.  My father is an avid road racer as he has been for most of his life.  I spent many a weekend traveling to the bigger races in Minnesota and the surrounding states.  I started running a little more seriously beginning in 7th grade when I joined the cross country and track teams at my school.  After some success in high school, I traveled west to the state of the 605 where I attended South Dakota State University and ran XC and Track for the Jackrabbits.  While at SDSU I met my wonderful wife Danielle.  After we graduated from SDSU in 2012, we traveled west to Wyoming for her to continue her education.  While in Wyoming, I spent hours running the mountain trails and exploring the vast wilderness of the “Forever West” state.  Eventually, South Dakota pulled us back in as this opportunity to develop the running community arose.  That is the story of how I came to work at the 605 Running Company.  Now that I am here, I am excited to organize group runs and social events for runners, develop our store racing team, and to help people find shoes and gear that will keep them healthy and happy in their running. 

Cheers,

Kyle

Well, it's that time of year again. To me, October always symbolizes the best time for racing. Whether it's the Twin Cities Marathon or Des Moines Half Marathon, there is plenty of good racing to be had by runners all over the Midwest who have put in a large base over the summer and have tuned up with workouts in the months of August and September.  One fairly new race that always make my calendar in October is the Market to Market Relay.  I'm not sure if it was inspired by the Ragnar Relay series or not, but the directors of this race have found a way to make it work for the past seven years.

The idea behind the race is that it is a relay race made up of six-to-eight members who run between two and four legs each, with distances that vary from two-to-six miles per leg.  The race was named after the origin/destination locations where teams start in the Old Market of Omaha, NE and finish in the Haymarket of Lincoln, NE.  Since the original race, the directors have branched out to relays in both Iowa and Ohio.

This will be my fourth time participating in the Market to Market Relay, and I've enjoyed every single one. The first time was in 2010 as part of my Nebraska Wesleyan University XC/Track Alumni team. Even as a mixed team, we placed third overall by averaging 6:06 miles and still hold the course record (based on pace since the total mileage changes) for the Academic division.  In 2011, our six person team was neck and neck with another top team, that officially ended in a tie (ask me later if you want the full scoop).  The average pace of our all men's team that year was 5:40. I was extremely happy with how our 6-person team competed against a team with more runners (it definitely is a disadvantage to have six runners versus eight runners).  Then just last year, our men's team averaged 5:23/mi pace for the entire race, which smashed the previous record held.

This year will be a blast, but with so much interest among the LRC Racing team in running this race, I have relegated myself to the "all-time driver".  Although I am more than happy to let my teammates compete, part of me will miss actually competing in (at least two of) the stages. At the same time, I will be looking ahead to a PR at the Des Moines Half Marathon.

Happy Running!

Logan

I almost always prefer to run with someone than by myself, even if I am able to take in iPod or something along with me.  However, on the off chance I do run solo with music or am on the treadmill, there are certain songs that I love to hear come on.  If I hear them blaring on a stereo before or during a race, they are sure to get me pumped up:

1) Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
2) 500 Miles (I'm Gonna Be) - The Proclaimers
3) Chariots of Fire - Vangelis
4) We are the Champions - Queen
5) Gonna Fly Now - Bill Conti
6) Beautiful Day - U2
7) Fix You - Coldplay
8) Your Hand in Mine - Explosions in the Sky
9) Under Pressure - David Bowie & Queen
10) Reader's Choice - What am I missing that should be included?

This is by no means a concrete top 10 (I find my musical tastes are continually changing), but these just reflect my preferences at the moment.

Happy Running!

Logan