Lonnie Somers shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Lonnie, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
My twin daughters founded and run a non-profit theatre program called StageBugz. To see the joy it brings them, teaching and producing shows while giving youth opportunities and exposure to theatre and acting brings me so much pride and joy. Recently, they did a production of “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” So much fun!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Lonnie Somers—race director, endurance-sport enthusiast, and someone who has spent the last 20 years turning running events into community-building celebrations. I lead HAL Sports, where we specialize in creating and producing meaningful runs, walks, stair climbs, and fitness challenges. From the Denver Colfax Marathon to The Great Candy Run, our focus is always the same: make people feel welcomed, supported, and inspired to move.
My drive for this work comes from a very personal place. After our twin daughters developed a life-threatening fetal condition, my wife Michelle and I founded the Fetal Health Foundation to help other families facing similar crises. Our very first fundraising event grew into a career I never expected—and a purpose I can’t imagine living without. That story of resilience and hope guides my work every single day.
Outside of directing events, I stay deeply connected to the endurance world as an avid runner and cyclist. Since 2020, I’ve logged more than 40,000 miles on the bike—movement is simply part of who I am. And when time allows, I also step behind the microphone as a voice-over artist for both commercial and animation projects, which adds a fun creative outlet to my otherwise mile-filled life.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
When I was about 14, I struggled with confidence and motivation. I didn’t really believe in myself or see much potential in who I could become. One day while waiting for a bus, a small group of Native American men approached me. They looked rough around the edges, and I’ll admit—I was scared at first. But one of them started talking to me, and what he said has stayed with me for the rest of my life.
He told me he saw something special in me—that I shouldn’t give up on myself, that I looked like someone who could do great things if I worked hard and stayed true to being a good person. He said not to follow the path he and his friends had taken, and that I deserved better for myself.
That unexpected moment changed everything. It was the first time someone outside my family had told me I was worth something. It flipped a switch inside me and made me believe I could be more than I ever imagined. It also taught me how powerful a single kind moment can be. Sometimes all it takes is one person, one sentence, to change the trajectory of someone’s life. I’ve carried that with me ever since.
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
The fear that’s held me back the most is the fear of stepping off a familiar path and taking a chance on something completely different. It’s incredibly easy in life to get comfortable—even when you know deep down that something needs to change. I’ve definitely had moments where I stayed in situations or routines simply because they were what I “knew,” not necessarily because they were right for me.
That fear of the unknown, of leaving the safety of what feels familiar, has kept me from making certain changes as quickly as I should have. But every time I’ve pushed through it, the growth has been remarkable. It’s a reminder that complacency can feel safe, but it rarely leads to the things we truly want. And that sometimes the biggest leaps forward happen on the other side of discomfort.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What do you believe is true but cannot prove?
I love this question. I’ve always been fascinated by astronomy and the vastness of the universe—it’s almost impossible to truly grasp its scale. With trillions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars and planets, I don’t believe life is unique to Earth. In fact, I think life is probably the norm in the universe, not the exception. Even here on Earth, life thrives in places we once thought were completely uninhabitable. That alone suggests that nature finds a way almost everywhere it can.
But what I find even more extraordinary—and impossible to fully prove—is the uniqueness of our individual consciousness. I once heard Neil deGrasse Tyson talk about how improbable it is not just to be alive, but to be aware that you’re alive. When you consider all the people who could have existed throughout time, the fact that you exist, as you, with your particular awareness, is almost unfathomably unlikely.
And to me, that’s exactly why we should make the most of the life we have. Love deeply, laugh often, do good deeds, and take chances—because being here, being conscious, being you is one of the rarest things the universe has ever produced.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope people say that I was there for them—that I genuinely cared. In both my personal life and my work producing events, my goal has always been to create meaningful moments and special memories for others. If people can look back and say their lives were a little better because of something I did, then that’s the story I hope gets told.
Jill Bunny, a fitness coach, once said, “Don’t leave your legacy, live it.” I love that. I try to live each day in a way that reflects the legacy I’d want to leave: one of kindness, connection, and impact. If that’s what people remember about me, then I’ll feel like I lived my life well.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://halsports.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lonnie.somers/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lonniesomers/
- Twitter: https://www.instagram.com/lonnie.somers/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Halsports
Image Credits
Twain Wilkins, HAL Sports
