Michael Merlino – Founder, Head Coach
In Flight Running is owned and operated by Houston running coach and personal fitness trainer, Michael Merlino. He started his career in the fitness industry when he founded Merlino Fitness in 1997 following 10 years in corporate human resources.
Prior to becoming a fitness trainer and running coach, Michael worked as an employee benefits counselor for The Baylor College of Medicine, an employee benefits manager for Houston Lighting & Power (now Reliant/Centerpoint Energy) and an HR/Benefits consultant to the South Texas Nuclear Power Plant in Bay City, Texas.
Michael has 25 years of experience as a professional fitness trainer and 23 years as a running, cross country and marathon coach. He is certified nationally as a running coach with the RRCA (Road Runner’s Clubs Of America).
After catching the running bug in 1999, Michael trained for and finished his first marathon. From 2000 to 2002 he continued running marathons and became a charity marathon coach for the Houston chapter of The Arthritis Foundation’s Joints In Motion Marathon Training Program. In that role, he coached and assisted Greater Houston area walkers and runners who fund raised for the foundation and trained for and finished the Honolulu, Hawaii and Dublin Ireland Marathons.
During the early years of his personal marathon training and run coaching career, he found that group training programs that truly catered to the personal needs of runners of every skill level were lacking in the Greater Houston area. READ MORE
Larry DeSpain – Assistant Head Coach
Larry joined In Flight Running in 2013 after six years with Fort Bend Fit. In Fort Bend Fit, he was an assistant coach for four years and the 5K/ 10K coach for two seasons. He joined the Chevron Houston Marathon’s Run For A Reason program his first year and has volunteered and solicited donations for the Snowdrop Foundation ever since.
Larry was a member of the varsity track and field team at the United States Merchant Marine Academy, but he was a sprinter, not a long distance runner. In the mid-70’s he was challenged to run three miles a day at lunch time and then started entering 5K’s and 10K’s in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Unfortunately, in 1985 he tore his ACL playing tennis, and the doctor recommended that he cease running on hard surfaces. He followed the doctor’s advice and continued to play tennis but stopped running. In 2005 he ruptured his Achilles Tendon playing tennis and decided to retire from that sport. While rehabilitating from the ACL repair, he began running on a treadmill and an indoor track without incident, so he decided to start racing again.
His son-in-law ran the Chevron Houston Marathon in 2007 and suggested (challenged) Larry to do the same for 2008. Larry committed to run a half marathon and joined Fort Bend Fit in 2007 to train. At one of the Saturday morning seminars, Kevin Kline presented the Snowdrop Foundation as one of the Run For A Reason charities. The Snowdrop Foundation is a pediatric cancer charity that benefits the Texas Children’s Cancer Center in Houston, TX. They provide funds for research, fund a research endowment, and provide scholarships to high school graduates who have fought or are fighting cancer. They also visit the hospital several times a year for different events.
Larry signed up to raise donations for the Snowdrop Foundation in 2007, has been one of their top fundraisers every year since and has been one of the top three Run For A Reason Individual Fundraisers since 2010. He was recently named the top overall individual fundraiser for the 2017 Houston Marathon. In 2012 Larry started the Bling for Bravery program where he collects finisher medals from different races all over the world, replaces the ribbons with specially designed Snowdrop Foundation Ribbons and distributes them to pediatric patients at the Texas Children’s Cancer Center to reward them for their bravery and courage. From the responses of the patients and their families, he has started referring to it as putting big smiles on little faces!