RUN EUROPE!

We are Finish Line Travel – we love to travel & we love running!  So, we combined our loves and created our tour company, Finish Line Travel, to bring runners to Europe to compete in a running event (10k to a Marathon) and tour Europe.

The race is the “anchor” of the tour, but the touring is almost as important. We use private, local guides to get beyond the city’s main tourist sights (and tourist traps) and find the hidden gems (there’s only 8 – 16 of us, so we can get to places where the big tours can’t!) We slow down and get a feel for what each European city is like for the locals.
We get to enjoy “curated experiences” along the way. This is something that the vast majority of tourists never get to see! These experiences are usually a culinary delight which we use to reward ourselves for the running! Some examples are:
  • A wine paring dinner in the caves beneath a Parisian wine bar.
  • A chocolate making (and tasting!) class in Switzerland.
  • A private beer tour in Belgium where we are lucky enough to taste the #1 beer in the world.
  • And, many more once-in-a-lifetime experiences!
Our motto is “Race Fast. Travel Slow.”  Slow Travel is immersing yourself in a local culture rather than rushing from one tourist attraction to another.  And, as runners, we all want to Race Fast!  Read more about our travel philosophy here.

Hi, I’m Dan!  I have a been a runner since just about the time I could walk!  My dad was an NCAA Div. I track and cross country coach, so I grew up around some of the best runners in the world.

I couldn’t keep up with those world-class runners, but I competed through high school and at a Div. III university (University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN).

After a few years of focusing more on skiing and hiking in the mountains of Colorado, I have come back to my love of running.  I ran my first marathon in Bruges, Belgium last year (the Great Bruges Marathon), and I qualified for Boston!  Finish Line Travel may keep me from participating in Boston, but it won’t keep me from running almost every day all around the world!

My travel experience didn’t get off to such an early start.  Jessica and I had traveled to Ireland and New Zealand (our honeymoon!), but our first trip to non-English speaking countries scared me!  I knew Jess had some French background, so I could rely on her in Paris, but I was worried about our trip to Italy… How would we communicate?  What if we needed help with a train?

That first evening in the Cinque Terre, sitting outside enjoying a glass of wine, I was hooked and I was already planning our next trip to Europe!  On our numerous vacations, we started adding some local races to our trips.  We loved running, we loved to travel, so why not combine the two?  (And, it helped to keep us from coming back from our trip 10 pounds heavier!)

The rest, as they say, is history!

Finish Line Travel Coaching
Jess Running

Hi, I’m Jessica! I hated running when I was younger but got into it as an adult. When we moved to Colorado running got swapped for hiking and skiing and the thought of running at a high altitude sounded brutal.

At the suggestion of my trainer, I added running to my other mountain activities and have ended up enjoying it very much…even at this high altitude! It’s been a great addition to my exercise routine especially when we travel. It doesn’t require much gear and I’ve discovered that running is a great way to explore a new destination and burn off some extra calories as well.