Sports Insight

18 • Sports Insight May/June 2019 W alk any neighbor- hood of Beantown these days and you're sure to spot three things—college co- eds, multiple people wearing championship garb given the proclivity of the city's pro teams for winning it all this century, and someone on a run. So, in many ways, it's hardly surprising that many athletic brands are planting corporate roots in e Hub to join longtime city resident New Balance Athletic. Saucony is now operating in nearby Waltham, MA as part of Wolverine Worldwide; Reebok's corporate HQ is in the Seaport District; Asics N.A. has an office in the Financial District near South Station and Puma is planning out a new corporate home in Somerville, MA in 2021 just north of city limits. A lifelong Boston area resident and runner, Dan Fitzgerald has seen it all from a unique perspective. e one-time, scholarship track & field athlete at Boston College, in nearby Chestnut Hill where he ran the 800-meters, is the co-founder and owner of Heartbreak Hill Running Co., which has three doors in Boston and a brand new store in Chicago. e run specialty chain is named for the 91-foot rise in nearby Newton, MA, at the mile-20 marker of the Boston Marathon course, that thousands of runners over the past 123 years have had to conquer to reach the course finish line in downtown's Copley Square. A student of both running and the city's rich history, Fitzgerald confirms the activity has "exploded" in recent years, in some ways returning to its heyday in the late 1960s and 1970s during the dawn of Phil Knight's Blue Ribbon Sports (the precursor to Nike) and Jim Davis' 1972 acquisition of Brighton-based New Balance (where both the Celtics and Bruins now have new practice facilities at a NB complex). "I think we are definitely in our second running boom, and I think you can see it really spreading wide and crossing socio- economic and cultural barriers. I find that to be the most exciting thing about our business…I think that's awesome, and it's what inspires me about running." Fitzgerald also credits some of Boston's rising running movement to more women, of all ages and fitness levels, joining in. He offers a quick story about a woman in her 60s and Heartbreak team member whose biggest training breakthrough was making it to the end of a road race with the team while there was still beer le, adding, "it's those little connections that I love." Approximately 70 percent of the Heartbreak team is women, 65 percent of whom are in the 24 to 44 age bracket. "People oen ask how we get so many women to be part of the group," says Fitzgerald, who abandoned a college track & field coaching dream years ago to spend seven years in the corporate world at Quiksilver before diving into specialty retail. "I think it's just a matter of providing high-level services and treating women the same way sportsinsightmag.com >> HEARTBREAK HILL RUNNING COMPANY At the Heart and Soul of Running THE SUPER SPECIALISTS B Y B O B M C G E E Shining a spotlight on 5 specialty stores — some big and some small — each excelling in different ways. The store's Heartbreakers running team is wildly popular.

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