For years, Prince George’s County runners had to travel out of the county to find a running store, until Haraka Run and Walk opened in Hyattsville.

The store, located at 5501 Baltimore Avenue, held its grand opening on Feb. 21, making it the first running specialty store in the county. While Montgomery County has four stores and Washington D.C. has five, the nearly one million residents of Prince George’s County have not had a local option until now.

Co-owner Jesse Holland explained that Haraka means “speed” in Swahili, a word his wife and co-owner Carol Holland heard during her travels as a U.S. Navy commander. Jesse said they wanted something unique and significant.

Holland made it clear that Haraka Run and Walk is focused on being a part of the county. “It’s important, not just that we’re a Black-owned company, but also that we’re a Prince George’s-owned company,” he said. “We pay taxes here in Prince George’s County, we contribute to the community in Prince George’s County, and our children go to school here in Prince George’s County.”

Haraka Run and Walk carries all the major running shoe brands, and they offer a variety of running accessories like sunglasses, foam rollers, kinesiology tape and other muscle recovery products. They also have running socks, compression shirts, quarterzips and singlets from multiple brands, as well as their own logowear. 

Perhaps the most unique thing Haraka Run and Walk has to offer is their Volumental 3D foot scanner. Available to every customer for free, it measures the length and width of each foot, foot instep height, heel width and arch height and then recommends certain brands and styles of shoe to fit each customer.

Haraka Run and Walk is already involved in the Hyattsville community, and has been since before the store itself opened. Haraka Run Club’s Wednesday Weekly Walks, which Holland said started last July, take place every Wednesday at 6 p.m. The walk is three miles on the Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Trail.

Holland also said that he spoke to an organization of track coaches at the county school system, letting them know about the store and its services, and offering the coaches a store discount.

Hyattsville resident Terence Dobbins talked about how excited he was to find out about Haraka Run and Walk. He said that in the past he had to order running shoes online and drive to Columbia for pickup. “It’s a great store,” Dobbins said. “My wife and I believe in supporting small businesses, so we’ll come here first before the big stores.”

Carol is a Prince George’s County native and was the first Black female All-American track athlete at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.She was also an NCAA Division II 800-meter champion at the Naval Academy and is a member of the Naval Academy Athletic Hall of Fame.

Jesse is a professor at George Washington University and an award-winning author of seven books. He is also an esteemed journalist and was formerly a host of C-SPAN’s Washington Journal. He describes himself as the “and Walk” part of Haraka Run and Walk, saying he does not consider himself a real runner like his wife, but he enjoys participating in 5Ks and is training for his first 10K race.

With Haraka Run and Walk, Jesse and Carol are hoping to bring the Prince George’s County community together around a shared interest of – running. Jesse noted, “If you want to go fast, you go alone, but if you want to go far, you go with someone else.”

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Michael Murphy is undergraduate journalism student at the University of Maryland.