New Runner’s High Location to Open in Freehold

By combining knowledge, passion, and expertise, two Monmouth County natives will open 's third location in Freehold next week and provide all things running related to a large running community.

For Craig Segal and Rob DeFilippis, running is much more than a sport. In fact, for DeFilippis, owner of Runner’s High, running was the jump start to a career in retail. Two stores later (in Jersey City and Metuchen) DeFilippis brought on long time friend and fellow runner Segal, to manage the store’s new third location which will open up in Freehold, on Feb. 13.

“This shop has been a lifelong dream of mine,” recalls Segal. “I ran for Holmdel all throughout high school and ran for Villanova in college and for Monmouth as a graduate student. This has always been something I wanted to do and is a natural fit. Freehold is an ideal location and allows us to draw pretty much from all over Monmouth County and tap into Ocean County from here as well.”

Segal first met DeFilippis during his Holmdel High School racing days. After keeping a strong relationship throughout college, Segal joined DeFilippis as co-owner of Runner’s High and manager of the soon to open Freehold location. By opening a running specialty store to Freehold, Runner’s High hopes to unite the already large Monmouth County running community and draw new people into it as well.

“A lot of people get intimidated and think they are not much of a runner, but if you are out there and doing it, you might as well be getting help from us.”

Runner’s High is not your typical sports store. While they do offer a wide variety of shoes, clothing, and accessories, from names like Puma, Nike, Brooks, New Balance, and Saucony, Runner’s High takes an extra step in their customer service by taking a close look at a runner’s most important asset.

“We’re going to analyze your feet,” explained Segal. “We will ask our customers to take off their shoes and watch them walk around. We will do analysis and different things like that to see if you are rolling in or rolling out and from there, we can pick out the shoe they need.”

While running is part of a healthy life style, another is nutrition, and Runner’s High in Freehold will also cover that aspect of the sport by selling the Pacific Health Line.

“People can not only come in to get their shoes and apparel needs, but they can also get their nutrition needs here too.”

Continuing to provide runners with all the necessities, Runner’s High even has their own racing team that has strong presence at most local races.

“Our racing team is open to everybody; we are not elitist by any means. If you are into it and get out there and race, then we have a spot for you.”

Runner’s High may be new to Monmouth County, but both Segal and DeFilippis have very strong ties to the county and are excited to bring their expertise, passion, and knowledge to residents.

“I’m excited about growing the running community. The running community around here is huge, but they don’t have a local place where they can convene, go for a run with, or even just come in and talk about running with, so I am really excited to become more prominent in the community.”

The Freehold location of Runner’s High, located off Schanck Road, will celebrate its grand opening on Monday, Feb. 13. For more information about Runner’s High visit their website at www.Runners-high.com.