Lots of Runly's + ups & downs.

September 13, 2024

Hey Legends!

Wow, it's the 80th weekly founder update. That's wild!

Like, I've sat down for an hour every week for 80 weeks in a row to write this weekly founder update.

That's pretty cool.

Let's hope it continues for another 1000 weeks.

Surely we need to do something fun for the 100th edition, right?

I don't know, maybe a founder's run in Melbourne. Who's keen?

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself a bit.

For those that have been reading for a while now, I had knee surgery a few weeks ago. The swelling has gone down a lot, thankfully. It was like a balloon!

There was some seriously damaged cartilage floating around in there.

I'll be seeing the surgeon on Monday to go through the next steps, recovery and who knows, maybe I'll be having a little trot sooner rather than later.

MARBY RIVER RUN DEBFRIEF

On Sunday we attended our ninth event for the year.

We set a goal this year to get to at least ten events. We're almost there! Our next event is actually next weekend, in Warrnambool, which will be the tenth.

I'm not gonna' lie, as much as I love hitting the road, exploring some new towns and getting involved in different communities, it was really nice to have an event in our own backyard.

We woke up at 6am.

For context, sometimes we're up at 3.30am if we're leaving the same day. Otherwise we take off 1-2 days before.

It was a nice change up.

It's usually a big effort for us to do these events. My wife often gives up her weekend to help. We prep a couple weeks (or more) in advance, travel hours on the road, pack-up, setup, sometimes stay overnight, or multiple nights if it's far away and drive back.

But we love it.

There's honestly no better way to spend your weekend.

Our first event was back in early Feb.

The pure rush we had from that event was unreal.

It was a tiny event. Less than 300 people.

But the community, the vibe, the sunshine. We were hooked.

Since then we've improved our setup and process, and yeah, we've gotten pretty good at putting up a marquee.

The Marby River Run on Sunday is somewhere I've run, rode and walked a thousand times before. I grew up around the corner.

It was really nice to see the place absolutely bustling with enthusiastic runners at 7am on a Sunday. It was a real vibe.

We had a lot of fun.

Although I was limping around, and couldn't get my usual event content, it was so good to chat with everyone.

We spotted so many Runly vests, and many people we spoke to say that they see so many Runly's in the area.

That's an incredible feeling to know that our product is helping real people, real runners, to fuel their passion and make their experience just a little better.

THE UPS & DOWNS

You know me. I really like to give you the good, the bad & the ugly. I try not to paint Runly as this unrealistic brand that has no problems.

If you've been reading this newsletter for a while you have heard some funny, and not so funny stories. Like the time someone nearly drove off with almost all of our stock, when our account balance hit zero, our problems having enough stock, etc.

As a human being, sometimes, some days, it hits me.

Yesterday was one of the those days.

I cracked the sads.

Off the high from Sunday, the week was going peachy.

Sunday - amazing.
Monday - great.

Tuesday - not good.

Wednesday - awful.

Everything that could go wrong, went wrong.

It was just a really challenging couple days.

I'm not immune to emotion, it really impacted me. As much as I tried to put things aside and just focus on solutions, it wasn't working for me.

Some of you will agree with me, and some of you will think it's garbage.

But the best habit I've learned in the last five years is to journal.