I Flew to California to Buy My Wife a Porsche… Then Ran Marathon #128
Distance: Marathon
Race Name: Camarillo Marathon
The Sales Freak Presents
ARE YOU A FREAK ABOUT RUNNING?
Marathons. Half marathons. 5Ks. Trails. Ultras. Training. Shoes. Gear. Coaches. Clubs. Travel. Medals. Creators. Businesses. Recovery. Stories.
My wife and I have spent years running marathons, traveling to races and collecting more stories than I could ever fit into a social feed. So I built Runner Freak as the Freak Sites Island where I can wander into everything running, turn the worthwhile stuff into Parking Spots and build my own Garage around it. If running keeps giving you things worth talking about too, grab a Spot and build yours.
🔎 SEARCH THE ISLAND
Search a race, runner, city, coach, club, product, service, story or keyword and find the Parking Spots around it.
RECENTLY PARKED
Races, running stories, gear, businesses, trips, opinions, old memories, new discoveries and whatever else around running is interesting enough to deserve a Parking Spot.
The Original San Diego Marathon — 18 Years Later I Came Back For Round Three
Distance: Marathon
Race Name: San Diego Marathon
The Albuquerque Marathon — I Knew I Didn’t Train Enough… And Ran It Anyway
Distance: Marathon
Race Name: The Albuquerque Marathon – Run Fit
The Alamo Marathon — Sun, Humidity, Sandals, and Blisters
Distance: Marathon
Race Name: The Alamo Marathon
😂 RUNNING WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE CHEAP SPORT.
Put on some shoes. Walk out the front door. Start running.
That sounds cheap. Then runners get involved.
First you need better shoes. Then a GPS watch. Race entries. Technical shirts. Shorts. Nutrition. Recovery stuff. Maybe a coach. Maybe another pair of shoes because apparently the first pair is only for certain kinds of running.
Then somebody says:
“YOU SHOULD RUN THIS MARATHON. IT’S AWESOME.”
Great. Now add airfare, a hotel, rental car, restaurants, race fees and a weekend away.
For two people, a destination-race weekend can pretty easily become a $1,500–$2,000 little vacation where the main attraction is waking up before sunrise to run 26.2 miles.
At $1,500–$2,000 for two people, 100 destination-race weekends is roughly $150,000–$200,000 around a sport that started with:
“JUST GO OUTSIDE AND RUN.”
My wife and I have probably spent somewhere in that neighborhood over the years.
That’s not just exercise anymore. That’s an economy.
And the shoe business alone cracks me up. When I ran my first half marathon back around 2001 or 2002, try selling the average runner a $300 pair of shoes and see how long it took before somebody laughed at you.
Now HOKA has managed to create the running shoe that people wear to “run” from Accounting to Human Resources.
RUNNING GOT WEIRD.
I LOVE IT. 😂
If you’re currently struggling through your first mile, this may be your last chance to escape.
There’s still time to escape to the weight room or the pickleball court. 😂
⭐ THERE ARE REALLY THREE THINGS THAT MAKE THIS WORLD INTERESTING
🏁 THE RACES
Marathons. Half marathons. 5Ks. Ultras. Trails. Relays. Destination races. Tiny local events. Giant city races. Courses you never forget and races that disappear completely. Every start line has its own little world.
👟 THE BUSINESS
Shoes. Watches. Stores. Coaches. Race directors. Timing companies. Hotels. Airlines. Nutrition. Recovery. Brands. Sponsors. Creators. Charities. Running may be simple. The world built around runners definitely isn’t.
📖 THE STORIES
First races. Personal records. Injuries. Comebacks. Bad hotels. Great trips. Wrong turns. Lost toenails. Finish lines. Medals. Friends. Places you never would have visited if somebody hadn’t put a race there. That’s where the good stuff lives.
THE FINISH LINE IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.
LOOK AT EVERYTHING AROUND IT.
🌴 THE RUNNER FREAK ISLAND
The running world is enormous, so I need enough room to wander around without turning the Island into one giant mess.
Here’s where things currently park:
🏁 Races & Running Events
Marathons, half marathons, 5Ks, 10Ks, trail races, ultras, relays and other events.
🏃 Training Programs & Coaching
Coaches, training plans, group runs, clubs and running communities.
👟 Gear, Shoes & Products
Shoes, apparel, watches, nutrition, products, reviews and running gear.
🛠️ Services & Recovery
Running stores, recovery professionals, photographers and other services built around runners.
🎥 Creators & Storytellers
Videos, podcasts, race reports, opinions, milestones, memories and people creating running content.
💡 Trips, Charities & Creative Ideas
Running travel, fundraisers, charity teams, sponsorship ideas, volunteer opportunities and things that don’t fit neatly anywhere else.
I’m building here myself — my races, my Parking Spots, my Garage and whatever running rabbit hole I chase next.
And the same Parking Spots are open to people who want to build their own Runner Freak Garage too.
THIS ISN’T JUST A RACE CALENDAR OR A CLASSIFIED SITE FOR RUNNERS.
Although, yes, you can absolutely park a race, product, service or running business here too.
Runner Freak was built on the mechanics of a listing site, so a Parking Spot can be used to promote a race, runner, coach, club, store, shoe, product, service, sponsor, fundraiser or running trip.
That’s useful. It’s just nowhere close to the whole running world.
A first marathon. A personal record. A terrible race. A great trip. An injury. A comeback. A shoe review. A race that disappeared. A bizarre discovery. A story somebody else might actually want to find years later.
If the connection to running, races, training, gear, travel, businesses, services or the stories around them makes sense, there’s probably a place for it here.
🔎 I WANTED ONE PLACE TO FIND MY OWN RUNNING STUFF AGAIN.
Running is a massive market, and I can create a lot of content around it. Why not? Races, travel, shoes, gear, coaching, recovery, sponsors, businesses and stories give me plenty to work with. So I built an Island around everything running.
Marathons. Half marathons. Race trips. Shoes. Training. Gear. Businesses. Sponsors. Old races. New races. Stories. Commentary.
Some of those Parking Spots may point people toward CoolCarGuy.com, Freak Sites, my Sales Freak account or something else I’m building.
Some are simply races, memories or subjects I wanted to explore.
And running gives me a pretty good reason to want my own searchable archive.
SOME OF THE RACES I RAN DON’T EVEN EXIST ANYMORE.
My first half marathon was the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon in Colorado. I ran it around 2001 or 2002 and then ran it three years in a row.
The race still exists. The old results are another story.
I ran the Denver Marathon multiple times. That race is gone.
I ran the American Discovery Trail Marathon ten times. That race is gone.
I ran the Mount Sneffels Marathon in Ouray, Colorado. That race is gone.
THE RACE HAPPENED.
THE INTERNET ISN’T OBLIGATED TO REMEMBER IT.
I’ve run 128 full marathons and counting. That’s a lot of races, photographs, medals, cities, people and stories.
Months later—or twenty years later—I don’t want to remember which race website, social feed, timing-company archive, phone or random folder something ended up in.
I want to remember one thing.
THE KEYWORD.
Somebody brings up a race or running subject and I think:
“I ALREADY WROTE ABOUT THIS.”
I don’t start digging through old websites or scrolling through old posts.
I come back to Runner Freak and type what I remember.
GEORGETOWN. DENVER. AMERICAN DISCOVERY TRAIL. OURAY.
BAM. THERE’S THE PARKING SPOT.
Maybe I want to read it again.
Maybe something changed and I want to update it.
Maybe somebody asks about the race and I already did the work.
Copy the link. Send it. Have a nice day.
A social post gets a timestamp.
A Parking Spot gets an address.
That’s what I wanted.
A searchable Island built around everything running, where the content I create doesn’t disappear just because a feed moved on or a race website did.
Remember the subject. Search the Island. Find the Parking Spot.
YOU DON’T NEED A RUNNING BUSINESS TO START.
YOU JUST NEED SOMETHING WORTH RUNNING WITH.
🏖️ WANT TO STICK AN UMBRELLA ON MY BEACH?
I built Runner Freak because I wanted somewhere to park my own running world — the races, the trips, the gear, the stupid decisions, the good stories and the stuff the Internet eventually forgets.
I’m building my own Parking Spots and Garage here with the same product I’m opening to you.
You do not need to be a coach, race director, running store, influencer, shoe company or even particularly fast.
You just need something around running worth parking.
Your first 5K. Your 50th marathon. A race that disappeared. A shoe you love. A shoe you hate. A bad hotel. A great course. A training experiment. A comeback. A lost toenail. A race trip. A club. A business. A weird idea. Something another runner might actually want to find later.
Use AI if it helps. Build the Parking Spot. Give it its own page and URL. Share it where runners are already talking. Watch the counter. Build another one when the next race, run or bad decision gives you something worth talking about. 😂
Already posted the story on Facebook? Already made the YouTube video? Got forty race photographs sitting on your phone?
Great. Bring the useful parts with you.
Starting with nothing but a memory, an opinion or a race you haven’t even run yet?
That’s fine too. Every marathon starts with somebody making a questionable decision. 😂
One Runner Freak Parking Spot is $7 one time. No subscription. No scheduled renewal. No scheduled expiration.
You get the same basic Parking Spot tools I use:
- Up to 25 photos
- Up to two supported embedded videos
- Up to 30,000 characters for writing
- No 280-character post limit here
- Your own dedicated URL
- Links, contact information and calls to action
- A public view counter
- A place inside the searchable Runner Freak Island
THE PARKING SPOT IS THE PRODUCT.
IT’S THE SAME PRODUCT I USE TO BUILD MY OWN RUNNER FREAK GARAGE.
Use it like a race page.
Use it like a story page.
Use it to document something you don’t want disappearing just because a feed moved on or a race website did.
If it genuinely belongs somewhere around running, park it.
If something changes, update it.
If you’re done with it, remove it.
WANT TO PUSH ONE PARKING SPOT FURTHER?
The standard $7 Parking Spot is the starting point. There are also optional one-time products when they make sense:
- Video Spotlight — $99
A finished 3–5 minute video you provide and I approve for publication through the @FreakSites channels on YouTube and Rumble, with links back to the active Parking Spot. - StoryDrive™ 1000 — $299
A commitment to 1,000 additional recorded views for one active, eligible Parking Spot under the current StoryDrive™ terms.
The Parking Spot stays the core product.
ONE PARKING SPOT IS A PAGE.
YOUR GARAGE IS YOUR RUNNING CHANNEL.
THAT CAN BECOME A BUSINESS.
Every Parking Spot connects to your profile inside RunnerFreak.com.
Build one and you have one page. Keep running, keep creating and those Parking Spots collect inside your Runner Freak Garage.
That Garage can become your own running Channel inside the Island — a growing body of races, photographs, videos, training stories, gear, trips, businesses, opinions and whatever else keeps following you from one starting line to the next.
A runner might build twenty years of race history. A coach might build a library around training. A race director might document events. A club might collect its runs and stories. A creator might give every video a deeper page with photographs, links and the rest of the story.
Maybe you already have a running business, audience, club or pile of medals.
Great.
Maybe you don’t.
That’s fine too. The Garage is the medal rack. The Parking Spots are the races, stories and ideas you keep hanging on it.
Mine may eventually require structural reinforcement. 😂
🛠️ YES. YOU BUILD YOUR OWN PARKING SPOT.
Don’t panic. You don’t have to qualify for Boston first. 😂
RunnerFreak.com isn’t a done-for-you marketing agency. It’s a self-service system I built because I wanted to use it myself — then I opened the same tools to you.
Click Grab A Spot. Pick the category that fits. Add the writing, photographs, videos, links, contact information and whatever else the subject needs.
If staring at a blank page makes your brain hurt, use AI. I do.
Just make it true and make sure it genuinely belongs somewhere around running.
Then have at it.
💰 WANT TO DO WHAT I’M DOING?
Running worked its way into my business life a long time ago, which is another reason Runner Freak makes sense to me.
At one point I was running marathons with CoolCarGuy.com on my shirt and letting my own car business sponsor me.
I even convinced Becky and a running buddy to wear CoolCarGuy.com shirts during a marathon. I supplied the free shirts. 😂
Now I’m doing the same basic thing in a different form: building Runner Freak by using the product myself — creating Parking Spots, building my Garage, using AI when it helps, distributing what I create and showing people what gets attention.
You can do the same thing.
The Runner Freak Affiliate Program is free to apply for. Approval is required. You do not have to buy a Parking Spot just to become an affiliate.
Build your Garage. Show somebody what you’re doing.
If somebody buys a qualifying $7 Parking Spot through your affiliate relationship, you earn 20% on the direct sale.
If that assigned customer comes back later and buys another qualifying Parking Spot or other commissionable Runner Freak product?
You can get paid again.
I’m not paying you a piece of somebody else’s race entry, shoe sale, coaching fee, running-store purchase or sponsorship deal. That’s their business. Affiliate commissions are paid on qualifying Runner Freak product sales.
ONE COMMISSION IS A TRANSACTION.
A BOOK OF CUSTOMERS IS A BUSINESS.
Want to build a connected network too?
20% → 15% → 10% → 5% → 5%
No need to recruit 26.2 affiliates before anything happens. 😂
You don’t get paid for joining.
You don’t get paid just because somebody becomes an affiliate.
You don’t get paid just because somebody clicks a link.
The product has to sell.
BUILD IT.
SHOW IT.
SELL IT.
DUPLICATE IT.
I BUILT THE PRODUCT.
YOU CAN USE IT, SELL IT AND BUILD A NETWORK AROUND IT.
🏅 RUNNER TALK
Races. Travel. Shoes. Training. Old memories. New stupidity. Great runs. Bad decisions. Businesses. Sponsors. Finish lines. And whatever else catches my attention around running.
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I BUILT THE ISLAND.
I BUILT THE PRODUCT.
YOU CAN USE IT TOO. GRAB A SPOT.
Read the stories. Search the races. Watch what gets built. See what people park here.
If running gave you something worth remembering, explaining, arguing about or laughing at later, give it a Parking Spot. Then keep moving.
Illustrations and examples are provided for educational, explanatory and editorial storytelling purposes.