David Lewin

David Lewin, the owner of South Bend’s Metro Run and Walk, is an active member and sponsor of the Michiana Runners Association.  Beginning his running career at 34 years old, Dave has seen many changes in the running world.  Read on for some insight into the business of running and his resume of 30 + marathons.

 How did you get started running?

I actually didn’t start running until I was about 34.  A lot of people in my family ran, and my doctor said I better start taking care of myself, so running seemed like a great way to cure my health problems.  That was during the first “running boom”, and things were a lot different.  Back then there were more 5 and 10 mile races, not as many 5Ks.  I think it all started to change with the Olympics and marathons.  People started to run more competitively. 

The first running boom refers to Bill Rodgers in the 1970s which ran all the way into the 80s.  There was a guy named Jim Fixx who had written some books and was very well known.  He was probably in his late 40s, early 50s.  Back then a lot more people smoked, and there were a lot of people who smoked and ran.  One day, Jim Fix, who had written all of these books about running, died from smoking problems and everybody realized that wasn’t how you were supposed to do it.

And it just kind of waned there in the mid nineties.  Fewer and fewer people were running.  After the 90s it started to pick back up again.   And I think that one of the drivers now that wasn’t there back then is that a lot of people are health conscious now: people your age, people my age.  And it’s easy.  Walking and running is the least expensive form of exercise there is.

How were the races different back then?

I could remember when there was no nutrition technology at all.  Just flat coke, oranges and bananas, that’s all they would have in races. That and water stops.  No Gatorade.

The shoes today are much better.  Back then everybody had a cyst on the front of their foot.  You had to tie them so tight.  And today there are perfect fits for everybody.

So what was after that first marathon?

Well the first marathon was three years after I started running.  Then after that I kept racing, probably three a year, 10Ks all the time, a few half marathons.  

What were the best and worst marathons you’ve ever run?

Best marathon? Probably the Dallas White Rock Marathon or the Marine Corps Marathon. In Dallas, the weather is always perfect and it’s such a pretty course.  It's is a great city and the race goes through different neighborhoods.  It’s not so big like Chicago, which is shoulder to shoulder sometimes.  

The Marine Corps is cool because of where it is.  It starts out in Arlington at the Iwo Jima monument, then crosses the Potomac, runs through Georgetown and through downtown DC.  It’s a beautiful course.

The worst? Probably New York.  It’s so crowded, and such a logistical nightmare.  There are no hotels close to the start, you’ve got to take a bus or a taxi.  It’s in November, cold, you’re out there 3 or 4 hours before it even starts.  It’s so crowded, and there are so many places where the road is 6 lanes wide, 2 lanes wide. 

It’s amazing to think that the city can just shut down like that, but the sheer mass of it makes it really difficult to maneuver.  Once you finish in Central Park you’ve got to walk a mile right back there, and then you’ve got to get a cab all the way back.  Probably the least enjoyable one.

I did the Disney marathon too.  Half marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday.  That one was tiring.  

When did you start Metro Run and Walk?

I’ve had this store for ten years.  One of my sisters had three stores like this in Northern Virginia and Maryland so I opened one up here.  

How is the business?

It’s very seasonal.  March, April, and May are the busiest, winter and middle of the summer are the most difficult.

Although this winter hasn’t been so bad because it’s been so nice out. People are running outside, which is unusual.  That always helps.  They are outside running 5 miles instead of 3 miles on the treadmill.  But when we have a fall like we did last year, going along having a nice transition, all of a sudden it goes below freezing before October, people don’t buy clothes, anything, just go right indoors.

If we have a nice gentle transition into winter like this year, people stay outdoors longer.  When that happens, I should just sell gloves and hats and forget about the rest!  Everybody loses their gloves.

What about competition with some of the bigger sports stores out there?

Well, there’s always competition with places like Dicks and New Balance.  Dicks is a little bit of competition because they are always cutting prices, but we set ourselves apart from them by providing service and personalization.  Those bigger stores are a certain type of competition, but on the other hand they're not.  We send people up there, and they send people down here.

What about the clothing side of the business?

Clothing is more of a headache, you’ll never know what people will like, what colors they’ll want.  It used to be that these kinds of stores were the only ones who made microfiber clothes.  There wasn’t any Under Amour. Now everyone's making it.  You go up to the bigger department stores, and they’ve all got their own brand of microfiber.  But if you go feel that microfiber, then go feel the stuff from Brooks and Mizuno, you'll see that the running brands are much nicer.

Back when I started running, clothing had just started coming out made of polyester and polypropylene.  And if you were running a marathon, you’d end up getting bloodied from the abrasion.  So it kept you cooler than a cotton shirt but the fibers were still large. Now the fibers are very small and feel quite smooth. 

Do you find that difficult?

It’s a little easier to define what people will want in a shoe. Whereas trying to say “Don’t you like this pink shirt?” is a little harder.

The other problem with winter clothing is that people say how much am I gonna do that? Here, once the weather gets bad, a lot of people go inside on the treadmill.  They don’t even bother going outside.  Except for this winter.

What about shoes?

It’s getting in the right kind and shape of shoe.  People really tend to prefer the type of cushioning system the company uses.  So when people say Asics works for me it’s like saying a Chevrolet works well.  All those companies, Asics, Brooks, Mizuno, Nike make these technical shoes, stability shoes, motion control shoes and these days they’re all making light weight shoes.  But it’s the shape of the shoe and the cushioning system that makes a difference in how the shoe works. 

You shouldn’t pick shoes by what your friends run in.  That’s not really the way to pick your shoes based on somebody’s recommendation.  They are so similar in so many ways but have so many different features. Some people like a more pillowy feel and some like more firm.  After they’ve been running they kind of develop a preference for it.  

Nobody's feet are the same.  You’re lucky if your two feet are the same, much less the same as somebody else’s!

How do you fit new customers with shoes?

We put them in a neutral shoe, a real soft and flexible shoe, and watch them run outside or on the treadmill.  We watch for their foot strike and how much flexibility they have in their ankles.  If they’re brand new, they should be doing a walk run, a program where they are walking five minutes, run for a minute, etc.  We make sure that they are comfortable walking and running in the shoe.  These days there are so many features in a shoe that I have plenty of shoes I like to run in but don’t like to walk in because of the way they hold your foot.  After that we look at their arches, the shape of their feet and see what shoes will fit their foot properly.  Look at them walk or run in the shoe and see how it helped them keep their stride.

The biggest problem in a new runner is shin splints of knee pain.  A lot of the time knee pain will subside, or you get used to it.  If it’s caused by not enough support, then a shoe can help that.  When you over pronate, your leg twists on hard surfaces.  We try to get them into the right kind of shoe that way, something with the right arch in it.

How do you keep up on the new trends?

Companies come around and have reps that show us catalogs about twice a year.  The Dicks buying is all done in Pittsburgh, whereas we buy them right here in store.

The companies usually have an idea of what will be the more popular colors.  This is a more conservative area of the country, especially for men, so you’ve kind of got to keep it toned down.  You just kind of learn what the colors are.  The colors are becoming brighter, a lot more different.  The other thing that’s been changing is that with a lot of the colors nowadays, you can’t tell the difference between men and women.  That benefits the companies in generating costs, but makes it a bit more difficult on us, because when I opened we’d never buy some of these colors.  Ten years ago there’s no way I would’ve bought a mens shoe in white and turquoise.

All the interest is in lightweight zero drop shoes where your heel is lower to the ground.  There are a lot of new companies getting into it.

How do you find mixing a business with pleasure?

That’s a little bit of a problem that a lot of people have who get into this kind of a business.  They get into trouble because they are mixing their pastime with business.  You have to keep the business side of it separate from your enjoyment.  I was always into marketing and sales, and that has helped quite a bit, but you’ve got to keep that separate.  A lot of people say, oh it’d be great to be you and go running all the time, but even at my age I’m working 70 hours a week.

What do you like most about running Metro?

It’s fun helping new runners who come in with problems, or when people come in and say “I heard this stuff, it’s called Glide…?” It’s kind of fun doing that.  Most of the people who come in here are customers who really want to be here, rather than working at a grocery store where it’s kind of a chore for the customers.

How did you get involved with Michiana Runners Association?

We’ve been the main sponsor ever since it started, four years ago.

For Sunburst, the first weekend in June that Friday, they have an expo in South Bend at the Football Hall of Fame.  We take all of our sales shoes and bits and pieces of this and that and sell them there.  People come from all over the country and say “oh they’ve got my shoe”! The one that was two generations back and we’ve got it.  We put a big tent up there and haul all of these boxes down there.

Once we had a woman who came to run the Sunburst marathon, whose daughter had left to go back to school the same morning she came here.  Her daughter had taken her mom’s shoes with her by accident, and the mom came in panicking about running the marathon in a different pair of shoes than the pair she’d been training in.  Luckily we had her shoe, so she came down to the store that day to buy a new pair.  I’m sure she had a few words with her daughter after that!

What advice would you give to any new runner?

Biggest thing is to not do too much too soon.  Sometimes new runners tend to go out and run with somebody who’s a lot more experienced.  You’ve got to increase slowly to refrain from injuries.  Especially when you’re over 30. 

I can remember this one 15K I ran where I lived called the Roseville Crooksville race.  It was the pottery capital there and they made all of this pottery stuff and dinner wear.  It was so HOT.  That was the first race besides a 5 mile race that I’d ever run.  And I was the first one in front of the last person.  I didn’t want to be the last person ever again.