In 2012, a brilliant move was made…a man listened to his wife! Brian Polen, an avid runner himself, had been long looking for a way to connect with the countless runners that he would routinely pass on the streets of Wooster during his training runs. As we all know, it’s fairly awkward to stop someone in the middle of their workout and state, “Hey, you want to run together sometime?”. It seemed as though his great hometown needed something more; a running club, an online running forum, or as Tammy Polen suggested, a Specialty Running Store! At this point, the idea for Vertical Runner of Wooster was born.

Brian and Tammy, who had long been loyal shoppers and ambassadors of Vertical Runner in Hudson, immediately knew that if they were going to bring a running store to Wooster, it had to be a Vertical Runner. In October, through a partnership with the original owners of Vertical Runner, Vince Rucci and Steve Hawthorne, their dream became a reality and the running community of Wooster and the surrounding areas finally had their hub.