After 35 years and hundreds of thousands of miles, the race is run for a local running shoe retailer in the northwest suburbs.
Runners High ‘n Tri, a staple of downtown Arlington Heights since 1990, announced it would be closing its doors at 121 W. Campbell St. this month in an Oct. 16 Facebook post.
“We were really, really fortunate to be here for 35 years,” owner Mark Rouse said. “It was a long run, no pun intended.”
A store catering to distance runners was still a relative novelty when Runners High ‘N Tri first opened on Dunton Avenue.
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The Chicago Marathon was a little over a decade old when Rouse ran the Hawaii Ironman in 1982; he wore wool, since Lycra wasn’t commonplace yet. Online forums for runners were still a few years out, as was Google search – “why do my feet hurt?”, “Should I pop this blister?”.
“When we opened up, people didn’t know how to do a triathlon,” said Rouse’s business partner, Teresa Ray. “So they would come in and say, ‘What do I wear?’”
Rouse, a former Ann Arbor police officer, and Ray became self-taught experts in running shoe science, scouring for specialty books at Borders Bookstore and applying their own experience across countless marathons and triathlons to the customer experience.
“We’ve got a reputation for being good shoe-fitters and guiding people to the right equipment for their needs,” Rouse said. “Shoe-fitting is kind of an art.”
Runners High ‘n Tri held on as mom-and-pop stores were surpassed by big-box retailers and retail pulled out of main streets. Today, most of the stores on its block are restaurants.
Rouse credits the store’s endurance to the community ties they cultivated. Runners High ‘n Tri sponsored and participated in local runs, threw pizza parties for Prospect High School’s girls track team — where Rouse’s daughter ran — and hired student athletes, and for a time brought in famous Olympians and marathon runners for speaker events at the store.
It also became a community hub for runners in the northwest suburbs, who chatted about races and hikes over shoe-fittings. Rouse joked he takes pride in the fact that the store has spawned more marriages than divorces.
“I think our record was 20 and two,” he said.
On Friday, as Rouse and Ray shuffled through the mostly-empty storefront, long-time patrons stopped in to shake hands and wish them well.
Bob and Diane Mussar came in to shop for orthotics and were surprised to see the store almost cleared out. Both had been customers since its days on Dunton Avenue.
Great service had kept them coming back for decades, Diane said.
“It’s the customer service and the quality of the fitting and the shoes,” said Diane. “I’ve sent two of my sisters here, my sister-in-law, my neighbors here.”
Diane and Bob both sported footwear from High ‘n Tri’s stock – Topos on Diane, and New Balances on Bob.
One Lake Zurich woman said her running club was distraught to learn the store was closing and was wondering where to get new running shoes.
Rouse, in his 70s, is staying in the community with his wife, Pom, and plans to remain active in the running community.
He’s hopeful another running enthusiast will take up High ‘n Tri’s mantle and open another running shop in Arlington Heights.
Joshua Irvine is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.