Community Trail Running

“This gentleman, he was training and he said, “Hey, show up at my parents' ranch. I'm running a five-mile loop, run as much or as little as you want during the night, just would love to have company. If you could bring your favorite aid station food item, that'd be great.” So there was about 20 of us that showed up. Some people ran one loop, other people ran a couple loops and then sat down cracke...

“We changed everything to just literally say “the voice of the everyday athlete” and then we started asking people instead of waiting for them to come to us. We went out after them and we said your story matters, tell us your story .” Jason Bahamundi is one of the folks behind Run Tri Bike Mag and he is passionate about sharing the voice of the everyday athlete . A trail runner who enjoys pushing...

“It's 33 and a half kilometers long, 2,900 meters of climbing and about 90% off trails. You're on trails, but really you're not on commonly used trails. You're up on ridges, you're running down scree slopes, up scree slopes, truly, truly running in the mountains.” Crowsnest Pass is home to “Meet the Minotaur” , Canada’s only official Skyrunner World Series event, directed by Andrew and Erin Fairhu...

“I came into the running world as a hater of running. When I was a kid growing up, I played a lot of soccer and a little bit of rugby, but I always hated the running part. And so then when my husband and I found out that we were pregnant with triplets, we decided to pick one thing outside of our marriage and our kids. To this day, I still don't really understand why I picked running because I stil...

“It was kind of a bike, a mountain bike community but not a running community at all. And I just thought, you know, it'd be cool to put on a trail race out here. It'd be a cool way to kind of immerse myself in the sport a little bit more and kind of give back.” Devin VansCoy fell in love with trail running and the community. He wanted to immerse himself even more and so he started organizing races...

“Everyone is welcome from the elite athlete to somebody doing their first trail race to somebody doing their first ultra, someone starting in the trail community, somebody that's retiring from running. We really support all those racers. Sustainability means a lot to me. Community means a lot to me.” Kara Leinweber is a trail runner and race director, for Lewiston Ultra Events , who is community-d...

Kirsti Dolson and Matt Shepard are very passionate about trail running and that passion shines through in the way they approach their jobs with Sinister Sports . These two want to create special events for people to celebrate their love of trails, and that mentality is shared with the entire Sinister team. All they want to do is make your experience awesome. And Sinister has plenty of opportunitie...

“There are options, there are different programs, there are all these things that, I feel like they should be talked about, because I probably would have reached out or tried to find a way to figure out why I was drinking so much or how to stop drinking so much earlier if I would have actually known that there were options out there.” Coree Woltering has done incredible things on the trails. He’s...

“Starting January 1st for $20, you can join the Runnin Rich Vert Challenge, and we're going to track your vertical gain throughout the year… And it had to be a vert challenge because Richard was all about the vert.” Tommy Mlazgar is a passionate trail runner, a burgeoning race director, and a grieving friend. We touched on all 3 of these topics in our interview and I’m very grateful for Tommy to c...

Happy holidays friends. Thank you for a wonderful year! I hope you have a great time with family, friends, and on the trails during your downtime, and of course, I wish all of you the best in 2024. Upwards and onwards! Onwards and upwards isn’t always a reality though, and sometimes things go sideways. And that’s where today’s episode comes in! We have guests from the past (and even a few from the...

“Staying true to helping people who can't afford the race registration fees and helping the BIPOC and the queer community get to a start line. That's where we're staying focused” Renee Janssen is a trail runner and race director living in Oregon. Her racing company, Go Beyond holds a bunch of events and that’s where the idea of starting a charity has its roots. The Trail Mix Fund was born during t...

“I think it's why we've been successful in the past few years. The fact that we are obsessed by the quality, right? We listen to our community. I am a runner myself. All our employees run, so we're super into it. We have that obsession of delivering the best products.” Minh Pham and his business partner started Naak in 2016 and have found success in the highly competitive running nutrition market,...

“I need to be outdoors. And I feel like most people need to be outdoors. I see that in my kids, and I see that in most people in society. But I love seeing how much nature can impact people. It is unlike anything else.” Jacob Puzey is the owner and director of 5 Peaks . 5 Peaks hosts trail races in BC, Alberta, and Ontario and Jacob has local race directors who help ensure the races speak to the l...

“That Film Fest was awesome, man. Kudos to you for putting that on and creating, well, not only more community in Vancouver for trail running but also to help trail running filmmakers. It's so unique. And to bring that to Vancouver was super special. So I'm stoked for next year.” Adam Stevens loves filmmaking and trail running. He talked about his passion for both and how they both came into his l...

“When I was going into this event and knowing the season I had and knowing the fitness that I had been working on, I had this silent confidence, but I didn't really voice it to anyone that like, okay, if I have like the best day ever, I think a podium is possible.” Jeanelle Hazlett is one of those people who run like they’re having the best day ever, every day. This is relatable and I love it! So...

“The first hundred miles are just a warm-up. You're sort of discovering how your body is feeling on the day. Okay, how are my legs? Did I rest enough? How's my taper? Getting a feel for, how is your body going to allow you to perform? It's hard to force it, and just really settling into a rhythm. And then the second hundred miles is where you can start to lay it on thicker.” Jeff Pelletier had an...

“My goal was to have a really strong first 67 miles. That's your solo miles. And I really wanted to run that and run it strong and build myself a really nice buffer.” Heather Scott, or as most call her "Koko” , recently finished Moab 240 in 111:06:05 and she managed to finish strong because of her preparation and getting some extra sleep when she knew she needed it. She certainly had some ups and...

“A huge part of the newsletter is me finding interesting stories in the running world and, talking to them, and seeing what's up, and getting insights from them because there's some super interesting people in the running world.” Raziq Rauf has fun with his writing. It’s clear from the name of his publication “ Running Sucks ”, but it’s also clear in the way he covers the sport. His writing is fun...

“I believe in people more than they believe in themselves. I genuinely want it, want it as much what my clients do, if not more.” Joanne Lee Smith is a trail running health coach who is incredibly passionate about the opportunity to coach people and she also is a very positive person in general. It was a pleasure to hear her talk about how she coaches and how satisfying it is to see her clients ac...

“Sometimes when we try positive thinking, our brain's going to call b******t on us and it doesn't work.” Tanya Bottomley is a Mindset Coach from New Zealand and she absolutely loves her job. Tanya gets a thrill helping others achieve their goals and I really enjoyed her no-nonsense approach. I find it helpful when someone can strip down a conversation to what’s meaningful and focus on what’s truly...

“I view the finish line area kind of like my kitchen of my house, you know, you've just finished something incredibly hard. Go and help yourself to a burger that’s cooking on the barbecue and go help yourself to a beer in the fridge.” It’s always great to have Myke Labelle on the podcast and the most recent experience was no different. It’s Myke’s 4th time on the show (despite my claim otherwise d...

Jodi and Karine Isenor are the organizers of “Nova Scotia Trail Running” and they’ve been doing so for over a decade! Besides luring people to their starts lines by offering delicious homemade cookies, they also offer up all kinds of distances throughout the year and different formats like “Backyard” style. I was thrilled to chat with Jodi about the races and challenges they face along the way. It...

“I definitely was planning to chase the record. You know, the course is in better condition this year. It seemed like it'd be possible.” Beating a personal best is always a great outcome. To beat a personal best by 18 hours would seemingly be one of those great outcomes. To beat the course record along the way by 8 hours is a pretty sweet cherry on top. All of that is what happened to Bigfoot 200...

Ryan Teigen has been a runner for a long time and his desire to work on the mental side of training with athletes comes from his own experiences. He had struggled with his mental game while running in college and sought out ways to improve. This led him down the rabbit hole, so to speak, to the point where today he is the Lead Performance Coach for Perseverance Performance . He has really enjoyed...

“It’s just been an absolute roller coaster 3 months. Lots of work, lots of fun, and lots of mistakes as well, but hopefully we’re learning from them, we’re getting better from them.” Sometimes you know you have a good idea but it’s not until you put it out in the world that you realize how good it really is. This is the case for Into Ultra which just recently launched and has been caught up in a w...