Michael Shafai and John Gardner, the runners behind the Winter Series

[Tim Bergsten]

So who are these dudes who organize the Pikes Peak Road Runners Winter Series? We caught up with one of the co-directors, Michael Shafai, who provided some fact-filled, honest and humorous answers.

How long have you and John been Winter Series race directors? 
John Gardner and I have been directing the series as a team for three years now, following the decade-long directorship of Pat Lockhart.

Do you have a position or title with Pikes Peak Road Runners?
John is currently serving a 2-year term as president of Pikes Peak Road Runners.  I’m moving out of the Vice President role and into the Secretary role for 2011.  As board members, we tend to wear many hats.  Both John and I made the decision to help direct the Winter Series prior to taking on leadership roles with PPRR though.

How long have you been a member of the Pikes Peak Road Runners?
I’ve been a member for seven years.  John has probably been a member on and off for around 20 years.  He’s been running local races in town since the 1980’s, right around the time I was just learning to drive.

Title at work?
Outside of our running lives, John and I actually work together as part of a team in business.  We are both Vice Presidents (among thousands, we think) at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, formerly just Smith Barney. I spend the bulk of my time helping our clients develop and implement long-term financial plans. John oversees the investment management aspects of our business.   
The fact that we work so well together has helped us get up to speed quickly with all of the varying skills and tasks required to pull off such a big series.  With over 700 participants on average, nearly 50 volunteers, and eight separate races spread over four different venues in just two months, working well together as a team is critical.  With John’s office right next door to mine, and with shared computer files, we can work together pretty efficiently to ensure everything gets done.

Tell us about how you started running and what the experience has been like.
John and I have similar stories in how we both got into running.  In our younger years, we had our fair share of fun. 
I grew up cycling and playing tennis, but in college, joined a fraternity and as a result, exercising took a backseat.  After college, I worked 12-14 hours a day, ate like crap, and partied pretty hard on the weekends.  By age 25, I weighed over 200 pounds and probably couldn’t run a block. 
I got fed up one day and got back on the bike (mountain biking was just starting to get popular).  I found my cycling legs again and started riding like crazy, dropping weight and getting into better shape.  In the late 90’s, El Nino brought devastating rainstorms to my area, destroying the local trails.  I temporarily switched to running to stay in shape.  Once I built up to five miles, I signed up to run a marathon with a buddy of mine.   When we finished the marathon, crossing the line together, I hurt like hell and vowed to never do that again.  Lo and behold, I’ve now run 27 marathons, including three Ironman Triathlons, and have also completed a 50K, 50-miler, and a 100 miler as well.  I’ve got three more marathons on the schedule for this year, the first one in March. 
John also found himself out of school, having too much of a good time, even playing in rock band.  Like me, he got tired of it, and got into running.  The bulk of his running had been on the Peak, up until a few years ago when he started venturing out.  He and I ran the Catalina Marathon a five times together (10 for me, and five for him) and the New York City Marathon in 2008 and 2009.  If I’m not mistaken, New York was his first “real” road marathon.  Since then, he’s run Tucson, Seattle, Naha (in Okinawa, Japan), and is currently signed up to run Boston in April. 
But bottom line for both of us, we both have “desk jobs” that are quite stressful.  Running provides the opportunity to relieve some of that stress, keeps us  from getting too fat, gives us an excuse to do races in states where we have clients to visit (that way, we can deduct our travel expenses! One of our clients just moved to Boston. How convenient!), and is a great social medium, kind of like a really fun bar, only healthier.