We have some big and sad news to share as Jason Byrne, the founder, and creator of flrunners.com as well as the entire MileSplit.com network of state sites and national site, which has become the premier and most visited online media platform for high school cross country and track & field in the United States, has decided to step down from his position at our parent company FloSports in pursuit of another career move as a Chief Technical Officer with another company in a similar but different industry.
As the current state editor of flrunners.com who happened to be with Jason virtually at the beginning of this two-plus decade ride of building MileSplit into what it is today, I thought it would be a great opportunity to sit down with Jason for a 30 plus minute interview on the difficult decision to leave his creation in MileSplit.com as well as take a trip down memory lane talking about the humble beginnings and evolution of the website over the last 20 years.
Many new athletes, coaches, and parents might not be aware of the history of flrunners.com and MileSplit.com, so a good opportunity to learn the history of the websites as well as the individual sacrifices and efforts of someone like Jason Byrne to have made this dream into a reality enjoyed by millions of site visitors monthly and annually.
The automated database of statistics and rankings, which makes everyone's life easier to research their competition, college coaches recruit, and an entry system to verify all times and entries? Built by Jason Byrne.
The idea of covering the sport at a local and state level first over national with local state "webmasters" and contributors? Conceived by Jason Byrne.
The flrunners.com XC Invitational and FLYRA Middle School State Championships for cross country and track, which have been hugely successful events for the athletes of Florida? Started by Jason Byrne.
The ability for track junkies like me to turn my passion for this sport into a lifelong career as well as countless others? Only possible and forever grateful thanks to Jason Byrne.
Thank you Jason for all you have done for me and all others who worked with you at MileSplit, the kids, the athletes, the coaches, the parents, and the community who are forever indebted to you for building this amazing online platform to showcase and allow our sport to get the media coverage that it had desperately deserved when you started this journey as a high school junior in 1997.
Now to see if I can get him a video camera to film some Orlando metro area track meets...
