Leading The Way: Paulo Medina
My message was simple – we know you can order your shoes online from a large retailer or Amazon, but it makes a big difference if you order them from us …
On Saturday, March 14, 2020, Paulo Medina’s company, Single Track Running, organized the Pioneer Spirit 50 miler and the USATF 50 mile national championships. Three days later, he was posting a sign on his running store that said “We’re closed indefinitely.”
When did you first think to yourself "I'm going to have to make a big shift because this virus is going to cause some major changes in the running world?
Pretty much overnight. The Pioneer Spirit 50 miler was one of the last running events in the state of California. The day after the race, on Sunday March 15th, the Centers for Disease Control issued guidelines saying that no more than 25 people could gather at one time. By Tuesday, I canceling and postponing races and closing the store.
I own two businesses – Single Track Running, which organizes events and The Aid Station, a retail running store in Auburn, California. After everything shut down, I took a few days off to spend time with family and ground my feet. I thought about what might happen and where this situation could go. I focused on one question – what can we do that is will give us the advantage of being in front of the pandemic and enable us to overcome the obstacles?
The week after the store closed, we started selling our merchandise online. It was a steep learning curve for me (e.g., how do you package items? where do you buy boxes without paying full retail at Staples? how do you handle the shipping and order tracking? how do you manage your inventory to be sure you have what people want in stock?). There’s a level of expectation when it comes to the online world that’s been set by Amazon. People expect their orders to arrive in two days with free shipping, even though there’s no Aid Station Prime.
What was the message to your customers?
We received a huge amount of support from the local community. They kept running; they kept exercising. My goal was to tell people – if there’s anything you need, we have it. So before you go on Amazon, check with us.
What was happening in the running world during this time?
I postponed an event I had scheduled on March 29th to June 7th, but by mid-April, I could see that I wasn’t going to be able to hold it. So I cancelled the race, and let all the runners know that they could either have a 50% refund (since I had already incurred all the race day expenses) or move their registration to next year. People were very understanding as they realized that races all over the country were being cancelled. It wasn’t just ours.
What else did you offer your customers?
Once I had our online store up and running, I began offering both curbside pickup and delivery within a 13 mile radius of the store. I added my cell phone number to the bottom of our emails so that customers could reach me directly if they had a problem with an order.
We are the only running store in California that sells beer and one of only three in the entire country. I tell people, we’re not a bar that happens to sell shoes; we’re a running store that happens to sell beer. If you’re looking for a place to party, we’re not it. Our goal is to bring people in to hang out.
After the shelter-in-place order was issued, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) relaxed its regulations and began allowing businesses like ours to sell alcohol to go so I began offering “growlers” (a glass bottle commonly sold at breweries and brew pubs that holds craft beer from the tap), in addition to the six-packs of beer we already sell. I added craft beers to our online store. When people would call about a product or arrive to pick up an order, I’d say, “Hey, are you good on beer at home? We’ve got Auburn Ale House. We’ve got beer from Knee Deep.” More often than not, if you offer people a product they want, they will support you.
I want the community to remember that we’re here. They may just need a six pack of beer right now, but tomorrow, they may need a new pair of running shoes. They’re more likely to order it from the same person they get their beer from, especially since I do local deliveries. My message was simple – we know you can order your shoes online from a large retailer or Amazon, but it makes a big difference if you order them from us. You’re still going to get the same product, but you’ll be supporting a small businessman who wants to feed his children.
How did you pivot your event business?
On the running side, there was a movement to go virtual. I took some time analyzing this as it’s not an industry I’m familiar with. I’ve never been very fond of virtual events myself. How do you keep people accountable? If someone pays the entry fee to get a shirt and medal without actually running, that’s not the business I intended to create. I love seeing people run through the finish line. Even though they hate me for a few hours, they conquered something they set out to do.
Virtual races were never my cup of tea until I started seeing the virtual challenges. So it wasn’t run a 5K and I’ll send you a t-shirt; it was commit to running 100 miles in a month. Now that’s a challenge, right? You don’t have to travel. You don’t have to be local. But everyone is running toward the same goal. We had over 1700 runners from eight countries participating in our June “100 Miles to Auburn, California” virtual challenge. In July, we’re launching another virtual event that runs across California. Close to 3000 miles. You have three months to complete it, and every mile – swimming, biking, running, walking – counts. You can also compete as a team.
What has surprised you the most?
The response to our virtual challenge. We got the idea because Western States (a 100 mile race from Squaw Valley to Auburn) had to be cancelled this year. Because of the response, we’re able to donate some of the proceeds to Western States. We’re also donating over $5,000 to the Auburn Food Bank. That was a huge surprise. I never thought we would be able to donate that much. But when people come together over a common goal, those small amounts per runner add up to a lot.
How else have you kept the local community engaged?
Before the store closed, we had a weekly run called “Thirsty Thursdays.” We’d meet at the store at 6:00 pm, go for a 4-5 mile run and then have a beer and hang out. I realized this would be a perfect time to hang out with our community virtually because they were used to coming into the store on Thursdays and going for a run with us. So I launched the Mile 99 Interview Series. The series came from the idea that runners have conversations on the trails they might not have anywhere else. Conversations where you get to know someone and see a side of them you might not otherwise see. Mile 99 is a way to engage local runners and keep these conversations going.
Our first guest was Craig Thorney, the race director of Western States because so many people wanted to know why the race was cancelled, hear his perspective and learn how he became the director of the most popular trail race in the world. In early June, we hosted a local runner, Kuni Yamagata. Kuni was born and raised in Japan. A heavy smoker, he got into running because of his health. He’s finished some of the most difficult races in the world. Sixty-seven years old, 5’2” tall, Kuni isn’t just strong physically, he’s also strong mentally. We wanted to give our community the chance to get to know Kuni as well as find a way to keep people engaged, remind them that we’re still here for you, and we hope you’re still here for us.
Which of these pivots will you continue doing, even now that the store is back open?
All of them! We plan to keep our online sales active. We do our own printing at the store so we have products you can only get from us. Our interview series will continue. Now that the store is open, we’ll do them in person, but we’ll continue to offer virtual access for people who aren’t local or aren’t comfortable coming to the store. We’ll also record them for our library on YouTube. We’re also planning to invest in podcast equipment so people can listen to the interviews in their car or while they’re running. We’ll keep selling beer to go. The virtual challenges are bringing people together and enabling them to focus on something more positive than just being home during a pandemic. And the participants are getting so creative. A friend of mine and another guy got the idea to run the Western States course backwards from Auburn to Squaw Valley. And one of them did it! So we’re going to make a backwards shirt and a backwards medal. We’re going to keep doing our best to stay active in the running community and keep bringing people together.
Paulo Medina is the owner of the The Aid Station – Trails & Ales and Single Track Running. Paulo is also a runner and a coach. He's run the Boston Marathon, the American River 50, Western States 100 and the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc 168K (Franc, Italy & Switzerland).