syndicate running started in 1999, somewhere around a pancake eating contest at the base of dead indian mountain outside of cody, wyoming. like a lot of things that end up completely changing your life, the twenty minutes of shared suffering seemed inconsequential at the time but the bond was made.
we were teenagers on paavo west, a two week cross-country running camp/road trip run by the infamous marshall sellers, who we lost this past year. we rode in different 15-passenger vans across two dozen states, logging miles on roads we'd never see again with people we'd never forget. we didn't know each other well. we didn't need to. the miles did the talking.
two years later, we bumped into each other purely by chance at the mall at indiana university in bloomington. early fall, 2001. small world, smaller running community. peer pressure to show up for a morning run on campus turned into hundreds of shared miles, shared drinks, shared housing and a lifelong friendship.
over the next two decades post-college, we never lived in the same city. but we never stopped connecting over miles, training for marathons, trail races, beer miles, dog miles, and everything in between. today, one of us chases mountain ultras in the pacific northwest. the other is chasing masters records on midwestern roads. different terrain, same obsession.
syndicate running sits at the comfortable midpoint of that journey.
we started noticing something in the running world: there are incredible brands out there making gear, nutrition, and coaching that most runners will never discover. smaller companies run by people who actually use what they make. brands with real stories, real performance, and little presence on the shelves of the big box stores.
nobody was connecting runners to these brands in a way that felt honest. not algorithm-driven product feeds. not sponsored content. just two runners telling you what they actually wear, eat, and believe in, the same way you'd swap gear recs & epic stories with a friend on a long run.
so we built syndicate to be that friend.
we're building a home for runners who care about what they wear, why they run, and who they run with. from clothing reviews to nutrition guides, coaching plans to recovery gear, syndicate running is a growing journal that helps map the road to your next run. whatever that run looks like.
midwest grit meets pacific northwest rain. come run with us.
