You could simply describe our next guest as a math teacher who also runs — but that would barely scratch the surface when it comes to Larry Frederick. Sure, he’s taught gifted math classes for the last 14 years, but before that, he was known to old-school Charlotte runners as the founder and owner of Run For Your Life stores (Hey, we know that place!)

And before he even opened his first Charlotte store in 1989, Larry was a runner — a very GOOD runner. His hometown paper, the Utica Observer-Dispatch, called him “one of the best distance runners ever in the Mohawk Valley” of New York, citing that in his day, he was the most accomplished marathoner ever in Utica’s history. Pretty big accomplishment! And now he’s a Charlotte guy who led the running scene for years.