Meet Sloan Ware of Horizon Race Solutions in Midtown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sloan Ware.

Sloan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m from Fort Worth, Texas originally. I came to Atlanta in 2007 to attend Georgia Tech where I studied Mechanical Engineering. I was the recipient of the National Merit Scholarship, which was sponsored by Lockheed Martin. I did three summer internships with Lockheed while at Tech.

During my junior year, I caught the running bug. Since starting college, I had used running as a way to stay fit and relieve stress (there is plenty of stress at Georgia Tech), but I really took to it my junior year. I signed up for my first marathon (The Atlanta Marathon) and was hooked. While at Tech, I ran two more marathons and one ultra marathon (which I won). As much as I enjoyed training and racing, what I loved most about running was the community I found. I met some of my best friends through running. Running became one of the focuses of my life.

I had a fourth internship set up with Lockheed for the summer before my senior year but wanted to do something different. I called my recruiter and let her know that I would be going another direction that summer. I got a job at a local running store.

Upon graduation, I wasn’t passionate about the traditional job opportunities available to me. I loved being plugged into the running community. I was running eighty miles per week, chasing personal bests. I decided to go full time at the running store.

After a few years at the store, I wanted to start something of my own, so I founded Horizon Race Solutions. We organize and time road races in the metro Atlanta area. We launched three years ago and have doubled in size each year since.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It hasn’t been smooth. The easy thing to do after college would have been finding a job to put my engineering degree to work. With an engineering degree from Georgia Tech, those jobs were available. I made a conscious decision to find work that was meaningful to me – even if it didn’t come with a big salary. A lot of people judged that decision. Some assumed I chose the path I was on out of laziness or an inability to land a ‘real’ job.

Starting a business is not easy or cheap. During our first two years, all profits went straight back into the company. To make ends meet, I continued working full-time at the running store. Balancing a full-time job and owning a business is a challenge. There have been many Saturday’s where I leave home at 4:30 AM to manage a race and return at 6:30 PM after finishing work at the store.

Please tell us about Horizon Race Solutions.
Horizon Race Solutions organizes running events. Our goal is to create memorable experiences for our runners, whether they are elite athletes or completing their first 5K. Some of our notable events are the Galentine’s Day 5K and the Radegast Run Presented by New Realm Brewing.

I’m proud that we focus on our product over our profits. When we talk about improving events for next year, we are more concerned with the question “how can we make this better for our runners”, than “how can we make our margins better”. We are a business and have to make money, but if we focus on delivering the best product, profits will follow.

We’re unique in that both my co-founder and I have engineering backgrounds. Engineering is about problem-solving. As engineers, we are constantly looking for ways to improve and optimize the way we do things. When technical issues come up, we are able to adapt and recover without adversely affecting the runner experience. Because we are runners, we also have an understanding of what runners want. Our combination of passion and technical skills sets us apart. We also LOVE what we do. On race day, you’ll find us waiting at the finish line with smiles and high fives.

How do you, personally, define success? What’s your criteria, the markers you’re looking out for, etc?
Success is about being better than I was yesterday. It’s about moving in the right direction instead of worrying about where I am now. For Horizon, success is about doing everything we can to grow the sport of running. That starts with making sure our runners are happy! If we are able to show our runners the things that made us fall in love with running, we’re on the right track.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.runhorizon.com
• Email: info@runhorizon.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/horizonrace/

Image Credit:
Kerri Phox

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