The Bill Rodgers Running Center, one of the first stores to open at the revitalized Faneuil Hall Marketplace in the late 1970s, is closing after a 35-year run.
Famed Boston Marathoner Bill Rodgers and his co-owner brother, Charlie Rodgers, will say goodbye to their final customers on Wednesday.
Financial and personal reasons factored into their decision, according to Bill Rodgers, whose new plans with his brother include selling running memorabilia online and organizing road races.
"We're kind of sad about it," Rodgers, 64, said. "The store was great fun. We met people from all over the world. We'll just kind of shift gears a little bit."
Bill Rodgers Running Center opened in Cleveland Circle, at the Boston Marathon's 22nd-mile mark, in 1978 and moved to Faneuil Hall Marketplace the next year. The running retail business since has become a more crowded, competitive field.
"There are running stores all over now," Rodgers said. "There's online sales and that sort of thing. But there's not many that have a sense of history and the original focus we did: to be an inspirational learning center, where you could learn about races around New England and who was the best podiatrist."
The brothers also lost close friend and 35-year assistant manager Jason Kehoe, who died in June.
"We were lifetime friends," Rodgers said. "Charlie, Jason and I started running cross country together in 1963 in Newington, Conn. It's a friendship thing. Our sport is not just about the money."
In addition to selling running memorabilia online, Rodgers hopes to organize a "zoo run" at Franklin Park Zoo and perhaps revive the Jingle Bell Run that started at the store in 1977.
He still runs about 25 races a year around the country — he ran the Kansas City Marathon last weekend and will tackle the Ashland Half Marathon this Sunday.
"It's a great sport," he said. "There's a lot of friendship in the sport. In the end, that's what you have. But we were a successful business."
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