Fleet Feet moving Brighton store to Culver Road Armory
A cheer went up from the hundreds of runners poised at the start line of the Pumpkins in the Park 5K Saturday morning when Ellen Brenner announced a new location for Fleet Feet Sports' flagship store.
Fleet Feet is moving its Brighton store on Monroe Avenue to the Culver Road Armory adjacent to Cobbs Hill Park where Saturday's race was run. Yellow Jacket Racing will also be headquartered out of the new location.
The move is scheduled for February of 2014. The new location, at 145 Culver Rd. in Rochester, will include 9,000 square feet of space that will house a 3,000-square foot retail store and a 1,000-square foot community room to be used for classes, meeting and other events. The location also offers 400 parking spaces.
The Monroe Avenue store had about half as much room with 4,500 square feet of space and only 35 parking spots, Brenner said.
"This move has been 2 1/2 years in the works," Brenner said. "We are so excited to be able to do this for Rochester."
Fleet Feet Sports and Yellow Jacket Racing, a running and multisport event management company, are owned and operated by the husband-wife team of David (Boots) Boutillier and Brenner.
The Brighton store — at 2210 Monroe Ave. — was the couple's first; it opened in July 2004. A second location in Greece, at 2522 Ridgeway Ave., opened in 2011.
In addition to selling gear and apparel, Fleet Feet offers year-round training and fitness programs. About 3,000 people have participated in those programs this year.
"We had outgrown the old neighborhood," said Chuck Traub, a trainer with Fleet Feet's No Boundaries program, which prepares people to run a 5K. "This is fantastic. It will bring more people back to the store," Traub said. "We used to run No Boundaries out of the (Monroe Avenue) store but we had to move to Genesee Valley Park because we had too many people. Now we can bring the classes back to the store."
Curt Ingalls cited convenient access to the new location just a block off of I-490 as a big plus. His wife Sunni is a Fleet Feet trainer. "We are so excited," said Sunni Ingalls. "Now we will be able to accommodate more people."
Boutillier founded Yellow Jacket Racing in 1998, and the company now produces 140 to 150 races a year.
Fleet Feet is a franchise headquartered in North Carolina, but each store operates independently, Brenner said.
I pushed on passing the mile 24 marker, then the mile 25 marker. We left the park and ran along Central Park South. My friend Kyle screamed my name and sped up, rounding the last turn to the finish.
I crossed minutes later - on an uphill- with my hands in the air. I did it! And I completed this challenge with a personal best time of 4:26.04. I was thrilled!
More than 50,000 people ran the 26.2 mile course Sunday. I just looked up my placement - I am smack dab in the middle as finisher 26,594. I couldn't be more proud.
Finished!
Thanks everyone for your love & support! A new PR for me running the @INGNYCMarathon! #oiselleteam#runchatpic.twitter.com/Bfcox5bFQj-- Victoria Freile (@vfreile) November 3, 2013
Congratulations to all of the ING NYC Marathon finishers, near and far! Now, I must settle on a next goal. Any suggestions?