Meet Our Management Team!
OWNERS
Doug Alred
Doug Alred was inspired to become a runner when he learned of a new race about to make its debut: The River Run 15,000. He was a rather out-of-shape certified public accountant at the time but after completing that 1978 race he never looked back. Little did he know how that experience would change his life forever.
He ran in every race he could find, joined the young Jacksonville Track Club, became one of its board members (where he has remained ever since) and in 1978 opened a running store that he named 1st Place Sports.
In order to help promote his new store he began organizing races. In 1982 he was injured and he knew he would be unable to run in the 1983 River Run, so he offered to be its race director. The race was such a success that other races came to him for advice and direction. Since then Alred has become one of the most active race directors in the country, conducting more than 40 races a year.
1st Place Sports has become the undisputed king of running in North Florida and is known as Jacksonville’s Running Headquarters, servicing runners and walkers in four convenient locations from Jacksonville Beach to Orange Park.
Doug Alred, an accomplished runner himself with a marathon personal record of 2:29:29, has tirelessly committed himself to the development of running for more than 30 years. His efforts paid off when Runner’s World magazine recognized Jacksonville as one of the ‘Top Ten Best Running Cities In America’. For several years the Running Network has honored 1st Place Sports with its award: ‘Top 50 Running Stores In America’ and this year, Doug and Jane were honored to be nominated to the Running Network Hall of Fame.
Jane Alred
Jane Alred has been a runner since the first Running Boom of the 1970’s. She has run more than 40 marathons, and has a personal record for the distance of 3 hours and 10 minutes. Although she still runs many miles these days, when she attends races it is usually to do with the administration of the event. She is heavily involved in the more than 40 races that 1st Place Sports organizes every year.
Jane served for many years as the assistant race director of Jacksonville’s Gate River Run, a position now filled by Stuart Toomey. She still organizes, from start to finish, the huge expo that accompanies the 20,000-person event. She has been so instrumental in the development of the event that she has been named to the Gate River Run Hall of Fame.
She received a degree from the University of Florida in Occupational Therapy, a career that she excelled in before the demands of a growing retail and race management company pushed her into 1st Place Sports full-time.
One of the Jacksonville Track Club’s earliest members, she has served on the club’s Board of Directors for more than 20 years. When the club needs a party or social event organized it is usually Jane who does the grunt work, very often throwing the party in her own house.
There is not much around 1st Place Sports that Jane does not do. From waiting on customers, to overseeing the stores’ staff, paying the bills and ordering the apparel, she does it all-and more.
