Fleet Feet Columbus runs one of the largest community training programs in the country. With 800 athletes, 15 pace groups, and a head coach who won’t compromise on personalization, V.O2 is the platform that makes it all possible.

About Fleet Feet Columbus and MIT

Fleet Feet Columbus operates three franchise locations in and around central Ohio. But the thing that really sets these stores apart from a typical running retailer is the training program that has been drawing runners for over two decades.

Marathoners in Training (MIT), launched in 2001, has grown into an 800-athlete, 36-week-a-year operation, and is the official training program for all three Fleet Feet Columbus locations. Two seasons a year, January–April and June–October, prepare athletes for regional events like the Flying Pig and Columbus Marathon as well as other major events in the US and abroad.

Head coach Hannah McCorkle oversees 15 pace groups covering the most ambitious runners chasing world major qualifiers to run-walkers aiming to cross the finish line for the first time. Roughly 70 volunteer pace coaches support Wednesday night “grit” sessions and Saturday long runs. New Balance has sponsored MIT since 2015.

The Challenge

MIT’s training plans were managed for years on spreadsheets. As membership grew, that model hit a wall. Hannah needed a platform that could deliver individualized, science-backed plans to hundreds of athletes, integrate with GPS watches, and minimize administrative overhead, all without diminishing the role of the coach.

That last point is critical. AI-driven training apps promise full automation, but Hannah believes their fundamental flaw is replacing, rather than empowering, the coach. For a program where “every pace, every person” is the promise, that tradeoff is unacceptable.

Why V.O2

Hannah was introduced to V.O2 by a fellow coach. The advantage was clear: V.O2 is built on Dr. Jack Daniels’ world-renowned VDOT methodology, delivering individualized training plans at scale with each athlete’s program calibrated to current fitness.

Three primary capabilities made V.O2 the right fit for MIT:

  • VDOT-Based Personalization. Each athlete trains at paces derived from their personal VDOT score. Easy days are genuinely easy while hard days are calibrated to where the athlete actually is, not where they aspire to be. This is the difference between a plan that works and one that gets people hurt.
  • GPS Watch Integration. Workouts push directly to athletes’ GPS devices. Athletes just start their watch and run.
  • Scalable Plan Management. Six plan templates cover two distances and three experience levels. Hannah assigns personalized plans at the season’s start and adjusts on the fly when illness, travel, or a tough work week gets in the way.

And then there’s the part that Hannah feels most strongly about. V.O2 empowers human coach-led training. In her words, “Keeping it human-led is key. The science is there, but there is still a person on the back end who knows the athlete’s story, knows their modifications, knows their schedule.”

In short, V.O2 enables a proven science-backed methodology delivered by a coach who truly knows the athlete.

Results

MIT has been growing 16% annually with low attrition. Many athletes have been in the program for more than a decade, a testament to a community worth staying in.

  • Accountability. Looking at all of those check marks as they progress has been really powerful,” Hannah said. Athletes show up on race day with the confidence knowing they’ve put in the work necessary to perform.
  • Performance Gains. One MIT athlete recently went from a 3:16 to a 2:42 marathon across two racing seasons. Detailed VDOT-based plans, consistent pace monitoring, and an improving VDOT score guided the journey.
  • First-Timer Success. Athletes who at first doubt they can run a marathon get hooked with a trackable plan, visible progress, and growing confidence week by week.
  • Lean Operations. Hannah runs an 800-person program with one assistant coach and a squad of volunteers. V.O2 handles the delivery while Hannah focuses on coaching.

“The [V.O2] technology is making it easy for us to deliver high-quality training, but … there is still somebody on the back end who knows somebody’s story, knows their modifications, knows their schedule.”

— Hannah McCorkle, Head Coach, MIT / Fleet Feet Columbus

Looking Ahead

Hannah is particularly excited about V.O2’s recently launched Groups feature which consolidates communication that MIT has historically managed using Facebook, WhatsApp, and RunSignup into a single gated space inside the platform.

At 800 athletes and growing, MIT runs on the culture Hannah and her team have built, supported by the technology solutions that V.O2 provides.