7 hours Ago
Disillusioned with the world of college athletics, John Lumley says he had no idea what he wanted to do when he left his position as director of athletics at New Mexico Highlands University in 2004 — only that he wanted to do it in Santa Fe, where his wife was an administrator and his daughter was a student at Santa Fe High School. By chance, Lumley stumbled across an opportunity to go into business. The owner of the Running Hub, a Santa Fe specialty store for runners, was interested in selling the business.
Lumley figured he might be a good candidate to take it over, given his background as a college sports coach and administrator along with his master’s degree in biomechanics. In fact, it turned out to be a very good fit. “This became the next thing I didn’t know what I was looking for,” Lumley said with his characteristic dry wit.
He bought the shop, embarking on a new career as a businessman. Over the next two decades, Lumley guided the Running Hub through two expansions, establishing it as an essential source for top-quality footwear and other running gear. Now, Lumley has decided to pass the baton and is in the process of selling the Running Hub to his longtime manager Stephen Sweezey, who also happens to be his son-in-law.
Lumley said he has no agenda for his retirement, other than spending more time “skiing, mountain biking, running and doing 20 years of deferred maintenance” on his home. He said he welcomes the chance to pass the store along to his daughter’s husband. “Everybody’s excited that we’re going to keep the continuity,” he said.
“I think we have a very unique situation here.” Lumley said the Running Hub always has been a business where that kind of continuity is valued, noting three of its employees were working there when he bought the shop in 2004. “So, it’s got a real family feeling,” he said.
Sweezey came on board as store manager in 2016, returning to Santa Fe with his wife, Marie, after seven years of living in Eagle River, Alaska, a suburb of Anchorage, where the two ran a children’s camp. He said he initially was unsure about what he wanted to do when the couple came back, but when Lumley offered him the job, there was a certain logic to it. “I got into ultra running when I was in Alaska,” Sweezey said, so transitioning to managing a running supplies store seemed natural.
“Now it’s almost 10 years later, and I’m still loving it.” He said Lumley has done a fabulous job of operating the Running Hub for the last 22 years, adding he wouldn’t have been interested in buying any other business but this one. “I don’t think I would consider buying something else because it’s too much work trying to figure out the ins and outs,” Sweezey said.
Throughout Lumley’s tenure, the Running Hub has been a regular sponsor of various local running and other outdoors events. Sweezey said that would continue under his ownership, although he does plan one minor change. “We’ve never had the staffing to be able to be present at a lot of those events,” he said, something he plans to make a priority from now on.
“I want us to be more present.” Sweezey said he hopes his new duties as owner allow him to continue to compete in ultra racing events. He said he participated in three races last year and would like to take part in the annual Deadman Peaks Trail Run near Cuba, N.
M., on Nov. 1, which takes place on a 53-mile, out-and-back course.
“I’m really not a competitive racer,” he said. “I just enjoy getting out there.” That’s a sentiment Lumley is likely to understand, given his experience as a track coach at the University of Texas at Arlington and Sam Houston State University.
He said his experience as the owner of a running supplies store turned out to be very rewarding. “It was the right thing at the right time for me,” he said. “It got me back to dealing with runners, which was a lifelong passion.
” Unlike his experience as an athletic director, Lumley said he found it was relatively easy to make people happy in the retail business. “You just give them a couple of pairs of shoes and some insoles, and they wind up dancing out the door,” he said, grinning. Lumley noted owning and operating the Running Hub essentially turned out to be his life’s work.
“I wound up doing this longer than any other position I did my whole life,” he said..
