Looking for new running shoes? Hit the Rogue, Jack

By Pamela LeBlanc
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, February 25, 2008

You've got more options when it comes to buying running shoes in Austin these days.

Rogue Equipment opened at 500 San Marcos St. this month, and Hill Country Running Company is due to open in March at 215 S. Lamar Blvd. Both stores are headed by folks with plenty of experience in the Austin fitness community.

Ruth England and Steve Sisson of Rogue Training Systems, which puts 3,000 athletes a year through 50 different training programs, teamed with Craig Staley and Stephanie Terrell of Bettysport, that cool women's fitness shop at 916 W. 12th St. (and now also in the Domain), to open the new Rogue running store just east of Interstate 35. Rogue will still offer training programs but now adds retail to the mix.

"The timing just seemed right for a new shop," Staley says. "Austin is the only city of its size or larger without multiple running retailers, so the need has been there for some time."

The shop, around the corner from Progress Coffee, is near the future site of a commuter-rail station and close to the Lance Armstrong Bikeway. It's just a mile from the Lady Bird Lake hike-and-bike trail.

The store will offer video gait analysis using a camera that films customers as they run on a treadmill. You can take a slow-motion or freeze-frame look at your running style to check out your foot strike and pronation "so you're less likely to walk out with the wrong pair of shoes," England says.

Austin triathletes and Texas Iron Multisport Training coaches Andrea Fisher and Jamie Cleveland are behind Hill Country Running Company, which will sell all kinds of running gear, from shoes and apparel to accessories. More on that after it opens its doors.

Splish, splash, and have a blast

Austin swimmer and triple Olympic gold medalist Aaron Peirsol is drumming up a new kind of swim meet, one that includes lots of audience interaction, dramatic lighting, live music and some of the country's fastest swimmers.

The Encore Swim Spectacular, scheduled from 3-5 p.m. March 9 at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center at the University of Texas, will feature pros from Austin and across the country trying to have fun and break records in a 25-meter pool.

"The idea is for it to be completely unlike a traditional swim meet and more entertainment-based," Peirsol says. That means raffles and grudge matches between athletes who will compete for gold medals at the Beijing Olympics this summer.

World-class sprinters — including the two top breaststrokers in the country, Brendan Hansen and Eric Shanteau — will attend. Besides Peirsol, world-record holders Ian Crocker, Cullen Jones, Roland Schoeman and Neil Walker will race, along with Nick Brunelli, Matt Grevers, Dale Rogers, David Cromwell, Adam Ritter, Craig Chapman and Tommy Sacco. Other swimmers are coming from South Africa, Britain and Eastern Europe.

It's a sneak peak of some of the swimmers who will be competing at the Beijing Olympics.

Proceeds will benefit the nonprofit S.W.I.M. (Swim with Inspiration and Motivation) Program, established in 2006 to teach swimming to Austin children from low socio-economic backgrounds. Tickets are $7 online (encoreswim.com) and $10 at the door.

Program offers kids swim lessons

The American-Statesman's nonprofit Swim Safe for Austin Kids program also offers free and low-cost swim lessons for at-risk kids. The program works with the YMCA of Austin and the Austin Parks and Recreation Department to provide lessons for children in kindergarten through third grade. Since 2000, it has helped more than 7,300 children learn to swim.

That's important in a city like ours that's surrounded by rivers and lakes. For information about lessons through city recreational centers, call 974-9347. For information about lessons through the YMCA, call 933-9622.

Bike huggers to host SXSW bash

Prepare to hug your bike.

The cast and crew of Bike Hugger, a really cool Seattle-based blog that dishes on all things related to bikes, are coming to town for the South by Southwest Interactive Festival. Besides an urban ride that will include pitstops at places like REI, the Blanton Museum of Art and Whole Foods, the "huggas," as they call themselves, will host a downtown barbecue-and-beer party.

The event, open to holders of gold and platinum SXSW Interactive Festival badges, is set for 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. March 8 in the north tent of Brush Square Park at Fifth and Neches streets, north of the Austin Convention Center.

D.L. Byron, publisher of bikehugger.com, says he started the blog a little more than a year ago after he noticed more people riding bikes. "I started to write about what was going on and hit a kind of niche," he says. The site gets about 100,000 hits a month.

While he's in Austin, Byron promises to join one of the local hammerhead training rides and blog about the experience.

Lock the car, then lock up the keys

Remember to lock your gym locker next time you work out at your fitness club. Austin police say thieves are targeting unsecured lockers, taking items, including vehicle keys, and heading to the parking lot to open cars and search for other valuable property.

Sometimes the cars are taken from the parking lot and abandoned elsewhere after they've been looted. Not cool!