Over the years, Mike Padilla logged countless miles on a treadmill housed down in the basement of his home in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. His view? A less-than-stimulating collection of his kids' toys strewn across the carpet.
But this summer, Padilla, 41, decided it was time to transform the “dark, dank” space into a room that would reflect and inspire his lifelong passion for running.
With a little extra time on his hands because of a calf injury, over the course of a month Padilla brought his ideal runner’s man cave to life. His plans earned him a raised eyebrow or two from his wife, Colleen. But ultimately, she didn’t stop him from tearing out the carpet to replace it with turf and creating the ultimate runner’s haven.
The idea to revamp the basement had been in the back of Padilla’s mind for a while, and now that his kids are older—8 and 10 years old—the timing felt right. His younger twin brothers work at Adidas and Columbia Sportswear, and when he visited Adidas’ offices in Portland, Oregon, “I was taken aback by the interior design,” said Padilla, who works as a digital strategist for Vanguard and ran a 15:53 5K last spring.
Padilla said his main focus was creating visual interest around the treadmill. He settled on pasting a nearly life-sized image featuring Nike athletes like Mo Farah racing down a track on the adjacent wall.
“It is lonely on a treadmill, especially at 9:30 at night in the middle of January,” Padilla said. “But now as I run, if I’m looking for inspiration, I can look to my left and see those people and think about how hard they train every day.”
Mike Padilla transformed his basement into a runners haven this summer Padilla dropped $7,733.65 on what hes dubbed, which reads, “With hope in our hearts and wings on our heels.”
GET MORE RUNNER'S WORLD: Sign up for the RW Daily newsletter
“It’s a reminder that there is something to cherish about being able to run and to run well, and sometimes you have to get injured to appreciate that,” Padilla said.
He also splurged on a projector with a 92-inch screen—he’s already anticipating hosting parties to watch the Olympics—and a rustic wood and stone accent wall where he wrote the word, “RUN.”
Running the length of the room is a track fashioned out of red interlocking foam mats that he hand painted.
“I think the track pulls it all together,” Padilla said. “It makes the whole thing more immersive.”
Padilla dropped $7,733.65 on what he’s dubbed the runner’s man cave. Though he hasn’t run much in it so far because the weather is still bearable, Padilla said he and his family have still spent a lot of time in the basement. And Colleen is supportive of it now, likely because she is also a runner and it came out so well. In fact, the couple met while they were teammates on Cornell University’s track team.
“Anyone who is a runner who has seen it has said, ‘I have to figure out how I can do this,’” he added. “You’ve seen other guys’ basements that have an amazing bar setup or are [decorated] for a crazy football fan, but you don’t really see the runner’s version of that. I look forward to coming home from work and going into the basement.”
