Dear Running Niche Friends,
It’s hard to believe another year is in the books. We’d like to thank all of you for your patronage. Because of you we have continued to grow and offer more products in a bigger and better store. December was such a fun month. The best part for us was seeing so many of you and your family members come in to buy Christmas gifts. It gave us an opportunity to be a part of your holidays and we got to keep a few secrets, as well. Thank you.
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Focus On Team Running Niche: Bree Gaster
 Bree started training with the Lydiard Method in Fall 2019. Here is her story. It’s also a great example of training not being linear and that consistency and hard work do pay off! “Ever since breaking 3:00 at the 2019 NYC marathon on my 1st Lydiard cycle, I’ve been chasing sub 2:55. I thought this was a reasonable goal and would be obtainable with another year of consistent training. But I was quickly reminded that marathons don’t always go as planned… in 2020, running was my only constant as the world turned upside down and my training was going really well. That fall I ran a half PR of 1:23:49 which would hold as my PR for another 2 years & found a small marathon in Arkansas to try and achieve a sub-2:55. I bonked about 14 miles in but ran my second fastest marathon at the time of 3:04. This happened 2 more times:
Spring 2021 - Grandma’s in 2:57:50 (new PR by just over 1 minute)
Spring 2022 - Boston in 3:05 (bonked at mile 14… again)
 Feeling a bit discouraged, I switched my training to focus on shorter races and completed a 5K cycle. These races (KT82, Macklind Mile & Running Niche vs Spewak Dual 5K) brought with them an amazing community of runners - turned training partners. This new energy from the short races and the new Sunday Long-Run group improved my mindset towards training, racing and life in general! The momentum continued into the fall training cycle and it was fun to run races with a big group of friends. The cycle concluded with the Philadelphia Marathon in November. Race day was cold and had gale force winds, but I was able to stay positive and pull from the tough races I faced the past 2 years to finally break 2:55 with a time of 2:54:50! It wasn’t the perfect race, perfect day or even perfect cycle, but having an abundance of support through tough training runs, a calf strain & there to celebrate the small wins went a long way!”
Postscript: What Bree didn’t say is that she won the Macklind Mile in 5:08 and negative splitted (2nd Half faster than 1st Half) at Philly. She worked hard on this the entire cycle. Outside of running, she works full time as an actuary and recently became a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. This designation required the passing of 10 exams and a series of other requirements for real life applications, ethics and professionalism. For the past 8 years she has been balancing studying, working, running and having somewhat of a social life. This proved to be very stressful at times for her - if you’re running, you’re not studying; if you have plans with friends and family, it has to be intentional to get studying & running in. “It’s amazing how we have so much going on & still wake up at 5AM each weekday to run - must be part of the “crazy gene” we all share!” Says Bree. She’s back at the training now after a well-deserved break working on her Spring 2023 goal. And it’s truly a pleasure to work with her.
-Bob/Jen
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Best Running Stores
One of the highlights of 2022 for us was earning Top 60 Best Running Stores in America for the 3rd straight year and being voted the Top Running  Store in the St. Louis region in the Terrain Magazine Reader’s Choice Awards. Both of these recognitions are very meaningful to us and rest assured we will continue to do what we do and up our game.
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Bob and Jen Taking a Break
We opened our shop in May 2018 and will be 5 years old in April 2023. During that time, we’ve not been able to take a break. So... from Monday January 23 to Friday January 27 we plan to close the shop, take a little trip and during that time Riley (thank you) is going to do a much-needed physical inventory! We’ll put reminders up on social media the week prior.
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Group Runs 
Join us every Wednesday at 6:30 for a 3-mile group social run/walk. Every 2nd Wednesday of the month will be our “Beer Run”, with our cooler ready to go after the run for some social time. All paces are welcome, runners and walkers. Generally, 35-50 folks come and there is a wide variety of paces. We put folks into groups such as 7:00 pace, 8:00, 9:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00 and walkers.
Click here to register:
https://runningnicherunclub.eventbrite.com
We also host group runs on Saturday mornings at 8:00 AM, usually 6+ miles. All paces are welcome.
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Happy Running!
-Jennifer and Bob
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Running Niche — (314) 405-8006
1601 Tower Grove Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110
Monday 10am – 5pm, Tuesday – Thursday 10am – 7pm, Friday 10am – 6pm
Saturday 10am – 5pm, Sunday 12pm – 4pm
www.runningniche.com | runningniche.com/shop
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