The purpose of this page is for you to view the history of the Alliance Running Cross Country Invitational Logos.  Meet shirts often sell out quick.  Now is a chance to view the history behind each logo.

2004

OK, I admit the first year was lame.  Here's a history lesson on Alliance Running.  I wanted to start my own running website utilizing some of the area's best runners to help promote it.  The purpose of the website would be to promote running in Southwest Ohio by posting age group rankings, race reviews, blogs, etc.  I had it all figured out, but the name!  I spent two weeks browsing the internet thinking of names.  One fall evening in 2001, I went on a run and wasn't going to stop until I came up with a name.  It took me 7 miles, but it came to me like a divine intervention.  I wanted to use something from history, since I'm a social studies teacher.  I thought about WWI and WWII.  You had the Axis Powers and the Allied Powers.  First, I thought of Allied Running.  It just didn't sound smooth.  I kept tossing around names with similar meanings and came up with Alliance Running.  Since, our promotional team was an Alliance of runners all trying to run faster and promote running.  So, there you have it!  Trivia:  this is the only shirt logo that featured the year of the race.

 

2005

I knew I had to come up with something better for the meet.  The first year was a huge success.  I had no idea that many teams would come.  So, I had to do better with the shirt logo.  I spent about a week tossing around ideas.  This also marks the first year I used the Run Strong idea.  Let's get something straight, it has nothing to do with Lance Armstrong.  I hatched this idea before the barrage of Livestrong apparel came out.  Here's were Run Strong comes from:  In 2001, I ran my first 15K.  It was a race called Super Sunday run on country roads in the outskirts of Dublin, OH.  It was a really cold rainy day in October.  It was a small race and I found myself running most of it by myself.  I spotted a runner about 200 meters ahead of me.  I worked my tail off trying to catch up.  I finally did.  The two of us ran stride for stride for the next two miles.  Suddenly, another runner came blazing by with 1.5 miles to go.  I managed to squeak out a weak, "Nice Job."  The runner responded with some encouraging words, "You're Running Strong and Consistent!"  For the remainder of the race, I kept saying Run Strong, Run Strong over and over in my head.  I ended up pulling away from the runner I caught and nearly got the runner who coined the phrase at the finishline.  For some reason that has always stuck with me.  So, I wanted to include it in the logo.  There you have it, I didn't rip it off from Lance.  As for the logo, I made it playing around on Microsoft word.  The shirts sold out really quick.  I didn't want some dorky looking runner image on the included in the logo.  I have so many race t-shirts and most of them I never wear.

 

2006

This marked the first year that I didn't do the logo.  We had a graphic artist name Jeff Jones join the Alliance Running Team.  Jeff ran for Fairmont and the University of Dayton.  He was the first athlete from the Dayton area to run for the Team Ohio in the Mid East Cross Country Championships.  He did a great job with this logo.  You can tell it was professionally done.  Unfortunately, Jeff and his family moved to Nashville.  The team hated to see such a talented runner and great guy leave.

 

 

2007

In 2007, I lucked out again.  One of the runners on our Alliance team was also a graphic designer.  Dave Lunsford came up with our most popular design to date.  I still see kids wearing this shirt at meets.  The font for the "Run Strong" is really cool.  This logo just looks professional.

 

 

2008

We were on a roll with two consecutive professional logos.  However, Dave was unable to help out with the logo in 2008.  The task fell to me again.  How do I follow up the 2007 logo?  The answer, I can't.  I don't have the software or the talent for that.  I choose to do the best I could.  I purchased a reasonably priced logo creator program called AAA Logo.  I spent weeks playing around with it.  One Sunday, I was driving home with my family after church.  I was stuck behind a semi truck on I-70.  On the back of the truck was the company's logo.  The logo was very basic, but it just grabbed your attention.  A few days later I came up with the logo for 2008.  It wasn't as good as the 07, but it sold really well.  Also, I actually saw shirt worn by a runner on the front of a Running Camp flyer for Athlete's in Action.  I thought that was pretty cool to see that.

 

2009

It took me a long time to come up with something for 2009.  I continued to mess around with some of the templates that came with the logo program.  After a week or two, I came up with the RUN STRONG part with out the graphic to the left.  It just didn't seem like it had enough.  I looked through all kinds of graphics and came up with the little swoosh dude.  I just looked kind of cool, so I went with it.  I actually took my XC team to Sugarcreek Reserve this past summer.  A group of us were running the trails when a pack of four high school boys came charging up the trail.  One of the runners says, "Hey coach, that kid has a Run Strong shirt on!".  As he passed us I thought, "I wonder if that kids realizes he just passed the person that designed the shirt he's wearing."

 

2010

Here you go, a sneak peak at the 2010 logo.  I think this is the best one, other than maybe the 2007 logo.  I hope you like it, and buy a ton of them.  Good luck with your summer training and as my podiatrist (foot doctor) says, "Long May You Run!"