John Pitcairn — Certified Instructor

After a previous life in corporate sales, marketing and advertising and the advertising agency business, John has worked the past 21 years in specialty running stores, as well as in the healthcare and health and fitness industries.  He has owned or managed several specialty running stores in Dallas, Phoenix and the Chicago area, and currently is with the Runner’s Edge in Missoula, MT. He has been a competitive age-group runner for 30 years and has completed 10 marathons including two at Boston.

John coached for 10 years, from beginners to speed training to marathon training, and was Co-Director of Jeff Galloway’s Marathon Training Program for two years in Phoenix and one year in Missoula.  He captained and managed a 50-member racing team that was used to promote Run On! throughout the Dallas-Ft.Worth running community.

A fascination with sports injuries (mostly his own) led John to become a Sports Massage Therapist for 10 years. He has extensive knowledge of anatomy, physiology and kinesiology, as well as injury prevention and rehabilitation.

An intermittent stabbing pain in the left knee caused John to drop out of the 2009 Missoula Half Marathon four days before the event.  It was diagnosed as arthritis and a degenerative joint caused by a soccer injury in 1962!  What to do? Quit running?  Surgery?  Walk only?  The plan was to run until 100!

He bought the ChiRunning book at Runner’s Edge and discovered as a Sports Massage Therapist with a thorough knowledge of anatomy, physiology and kinesiology, that the technique based on alignment and relaxation principles of T’ai Chi, combined with modern physics, made total sense to him to reduce injuries and increase efficiency.  He finished the 2010 half marathon nine seconds out of third place in his age group.

John sees a lot of injuries in his profession and decided that maybe he could help by teaching those folks a safer, more efficient, natural running technique.