Healdsburg Running Company
Skip Brand
Healdsburg Running Company
It’s fitting that Lake Sonoma is what inspired Skip Brand to fall in love with Wine Country. Today, the Silicon Valley refugee is owner of the Healdsburg Running Company and serves as race director of the Lake Sonoma 50, a world-renowned ultramarathon held out by the lake every April. Over the course of the last six years, Skip has almost single-handedly cultivated an active running community in and around the Healdsburg area. He’s also become a force of positive energy in the local community and Sonoma County overall.
Skip wasn’t always into running; he came to the sport later in life to clear his mind while writing up his doctoral dissertation in computer science at Arizona State University. “The more I ran, the easier it all came,” he says. Once Skip earned his Ph.D. and moved to Silicon Valley to start tech companies, the running stuck.
Sometime around 2007, the native of Red Bud, Illinois, started coming to Healdsburg. On one of his first visits, he “discovered” Lake Sonoma. “Not only was it great single-track, but there was virtually no one out there,” he remembers.
In 2014, Skip moved to Healdsburg full-time to start the shop locals call HRC. Since then, the business has developed a cult following, attracting dozens of amateur athletes to participate in weekly group runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. HRC also sponsors several local races, including the annual Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving and the Fitch Mountain Footrace every June. The shop even works with local hotels to get visitors running clothes and sneakers if they left theirs at home.
Skip’s goal is simple: To make Healdsburg the fittest small city in America.
Of course, he also continues to serve the professionals. In 2018, Skip took over as race director for the Lake Sonoma 50. For the 2020 race, his goal is to recruit a field that is half women—an unusual accomplishment in a sport dominated by men.
“Most people say diversity is quality, so if we want more quality races, we need to have more diversity,” he says. “This is a great community to carry that torch.”