Mike has been running since his boyhood on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. After competing on the track in both high school and college, he eventually set his sights on the local running scene in New Orleans.
After serving as the race director for the New Orleans Track Club in 1978-79, Mike decided to inject the local running community with his own personal flavor by forming the Greater New Orleans Running Association. He was committed to the idea of making his races fun events, with the party afterwards extending the camraderie beyond the finish line. Once credited with putting on a “moving cocktail party” (John Jones, Times-Picayune), Mike and GNORA set the early standard for the unique post-race party atmosphere found in New Orleans.
Opening a running store seemed a natural extension to both his race production business and the running publication run by his wife Valerie. Once he convinced partner George Owen to leave the banking industry for good, Southern Runner Sports was born and the rest is history!
