syndicate log, issue no. 023: you build it mile by mile

battle of the run clubs · sponsor

splits run co sponsored our battle of the run clubs event in august, and they're providing the earth runner cap as a prize for the vert challenge winners.

the earth runner is the green-and-brown trail design, built for the singletrack crowd, which makes it a fitting thing to hand the people who stacked up the most climbing. thank you to logan turner and splits run co for backing the competition.

a marathon a day, across the whole state

after supporting battle of the run clubs, logan turner is ready for something epic over the next 7 days.

he and his daughter nora are running across the entire state of indiana, october 7th through the 13th, a marathon a day for seven straight days, on a route built to intersect with the big BO event in reverse, starting from indiana's northern tip. the year closes at the indy monumental half marathon, where they'll pace a family member through a first half.

brand story · splits run co

logan turner didn't build splits run co for the finish line. he built it for everything that happens before it: the interval sessions nobody's watching, the long runs that grind you down before they build you up, the splits you track because you want proof you're getting better.

logan is a father, an endurance athlete, and a builder, in that order, and running is the lens he uses for discipline and quiet effort. "you don't build endurance overnight," he says. "you build it mile by mile." it's a plain sentence, and it's more or less the whole business plan.

a hat, then a city

the company didn't start as a company. three years before it existed, logan was exploring coaching, helping people work through life challenges, and separately had a quieter itch to design apparel he actually wanted to wear. the first version of the hat was a personal project, designed, sourced, and manufactured by logan himself, until family and his own training made doing it all alone unsustainable. then he ran the indy monumental marathon, noticed nobody had made a city cap for indianapolis the way ciele has for other marathons, and formed an llc on his own couch. the indianapolis endurance cap is a five-panel, camping-style design with a paracord drawstring instead of a snapback or plastic buckle, chosen to kill the forehead pressure line, especially under a headlamp. the first run of fifty sold through in about three months, one direct message at a time. the lineup has since grown to eleven skus without drifting from that indy identity, anchored by an all-black midnight colorway with white stitching.

built race by race

the community came through tj dailey, who organizes both the full mo race 50k race and the backyard ultra, prairie on fire. logan made fifty branded hats for the botrc start line and watched a full line of runners wearing the same cap, a moment no ad budget could have bought. it opened new direct-to-consumer channels and charity bib partnerships he hadn't had access to before. that's still how he grows the brand: race by race, relationship by relationship. splits run co is supplying race day hats for every participant at prairie on fire.

running with nora

running with nora is the deeper reason any of this matters to logan at all.

nora, his daughter, was diagnosed with dup15q syndrome and autism, and logan says that reshaped how he thinks about strength, perseverance, and presence. running became something they share through an adaptive stroller, miles that were never about pace, only about showing up together. it's on the product too: the purple colorway, with a cement-style print on the side panel, represents epilepsy, a cause logan and the people around him carry personally.

our take

splits run co holds together because logan never separated the brand from his own life: the miles with nora, the causes on the purple hat, the collaborations built on relationships instead of ad spend. it's small enough that every product carries something real, which is why it's worth featuring now.

the full story is on the journal, including the rest of the lineup and where logan wants to take the brand next.

or go straight to splits run co, and find logan on instagram.

common interests

a 25 year old from warren, ohio ran the fastest american marathon debut ever this spring, 2:05:54 at glass city, and then built for chicago almost entirely on treadmills at planet fitness.

vinny mauri's buildup is the kind of thing we usually have to make up: 1,223 miles over ten weeks, averaging 122 a week at 5:38 pace, on belts that top out around 4:50. four straight tuesdays of 36 plus miles at sub-5 pace, and one session on september 8th that ran 45 miles total with 36 of them hard. he's open that none of it is sustainable long term, and he's doing it anyway, aiming at conner mantz's american record at chicago.

it's the logan turner math from a different angle: the miles nobody's watching are still the ones that count, even when they happen on a gym treadmill instead of a county road. read the full breakdown on marathon handbook.

explore the shop

the courier lofi sock.

it's built for whatever high-output day you're putting it through, a long run, a long ride, a training block, whatever's on the calendar, with a softer touch that keeps you grounded and composed enough to be ready to go again tomorrow. they'd look great with the earth runner cap, too.

or browse the whole shop.

that's it for this week. if you dig this, forward it to a running friend. if you don't, hit reply and tell us what you'd rather see.

midwest grit meets pacific northwest rain.

come run with us.

graham + mark

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