Author Archives: Macklin

Support from Asics, Brooks, Mizuno, and Nike will supply training and racing gear for at least 12 athletes

In a departure from the traditional racing-team model, Ragged Mountain Racing has asked several major athletic companies to co-sponsor the group. The rationale? It’s better for the athletes.

“We were really torn about who to approach first regarding support” said Bob Thiele. “In the end, we really wanted to do what was best for our athletes. This arrangement has several advantages. First, it gives the athletes choice. If you ran in Nike in college, you can stay with Nike. Second, it strengthens our group, in that we don’t rely on one source of funding. And third, it is congruent the ethos of our group, namely that this is a collaborative effort.”

He continued – “We are incredibly thankful for Brooks, Mizuno, and Nike’s cooperative support. We didn’t know if they would find “co-sponsorship” to be acceptable. In effect, we asked them to place the sport above themselves, and they did it, no questions asked. In the long run, this is better for everybody.”

It’s official – we are incorporated!

Just over a month ago we registered as a non-profit corporation in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and we recently received notice that our application was accepted. So, we are now officially a corporation (non-profit status pending – this simply takes longer). Why does this matter? Because any donations we receive will be tax deductible. Also, another nice perk is that Google administrates email address and Google App accounts for all non-profit organizations, free of charge. So all of our athletes, directors, etc. will have Gmail accounts with the raggedmountainracing.org address, and a common platform which to share calendars, online training logs, etc. Not earth shattering but kind of cool nonetheless…

Joins 14 former CAA athletes of the year and 10 All-Americans

Charlie Hurt, former William and Mary distance standout and current Ragged Mountain Racing athlete, was recently selected as a member of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Silver Anniversary Men’s Cross Country Team. The team, selected by a panel of current and former coaches, recognized the top runners in the conference from the past 25 years. Read more about this honor.