As of Monday, the Chicago Area Runners Association has a new face running its training programs.
Tim Bradley returns to where he grew up after spending nearly three decades in St. Louis at a coaching business. In fact, coaching has been a huge part of his life, as he was a track and cross country coach at NCAA Division-I St. Louis University. Before that, he led group training for Big River Running Company, the premier running store chain in St. Louis. He also was an Endurance and Speed Development coach for Nutriformance of St. Louis.
Needless to say, Bradley is well-versed in training runners of all abilities; in the last several years, Bradley ran 600 to 800 coaching sessions each year. He also has a Masters in Exercise Science, and is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. His expertise and writing has been published in Competitor and Runner’s World magazines.
“I am extremely excited to be back in Chicago after all these years,” Bradley says. “It was very hard moving away when I was young and I knew I always wanted to find a way to get back to the city I love.”
Coming to CARA, Bradley wants to continue the programs that are already in place, and add his own expertise to better meet the needs of the members.
“I am very impressed with the scale, passion and dedication in the CARA organization and look to add to that,” Bradley adds. “I will be visiting as many training sites as possible as soon as possible to get a hands-on feel for all that CARA does.”
As he heads into the second half of his first week in the new office, Bradley knows he’s where he’s meant to be.
“CARA turned out to be the perfect opportunity for me at the perfect time,” he explains. “It has already been an exciting transition and been great running with and getting to know CARA runners. I literally have hit the ground running.”
Bradley replaced former Director of Training Leah Bohr, who served CARA for two years. Her final day was July 31.
“Her impact has been immense, and we cannot say enough about how much she will be missed,”CARA wrote in an email announcement.
Bradley can be reached at training@cararuns.org and on Twitter @coachtbradley.
