Community Trail Running

“It's going to be a challenge and yes, it's scary, but I know it's going to be a lot easier than being a race director. And I think it's important that runners know that and really appreciate race directors because it's a lot of hard work. And we're so lucky that there are so many races that we can now pick from.” - Susan Lowe-Wylde on running the Minotaur after directing it for many yearsSusan and Ian Lowe-Wylde own spry in Blairmore, Alberta, which is in the Crowsnest Pass region of Alberta. With Rocky Mountains on one side and prairie land on the other, the couple of 40 years love the variety of terrain in the region. They are always looking for adventure as they love being the ones that know the spots nobody else does. This passion and drive for the outdoors is a big reason why they love calling the Crowsnest Pass region home. They’ve witnessed a lot of change and growth over the years and their proud they’ve been part of that growth. The pass is becoming more and more popular with trail runners which has been good for their shop, and the fact they are so involved in the community means runners and outdoor enthusiasts get many opportunities to interact with them. Susan and Ian wanted to make a difference for runners and their downtown with spry, and they had to trust the process to get there. It wasn’t easy in the beginning.“Our mindset is that, yeah, you know what? (The store’s) probably not making money right now. We don't care. We're gonna make it great. So we just, we bought the right stuff and we did it the right way, even though there wasn't really a return on it for quite a few years. And I think now, now it is a really good, curated selection of stuff for running and, and hiking and climbing. And it's an interesting mix, it didn't just happen overnight.” - Ian Lowe-WlydeSusan and Ian were really fun to chat with. A couple that’s been together for 40 years knows each other so well and it was fun getting their history from both of them. They’re all about getting outdoors and sharing that love with others and we definitely benefit from having folks like this in our community! I hope you enjoy the chat as much as I did and it gets you excited for all the film festival dates this week! I’m so excited to partner with Sinister Sports in Crowsnest Pass and of course to get started with our shows Tuesday in Edmonton!Alberta Trail Running Film Festival tickets availableTuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) $25#Naaksquad - Try it and get 15% offI enjoy the Naak products, even if the sauces took a few tries to grow on me. They get the job done and they don’t give me any issues, and isn’t that the point? So I applied to be part of the squad to get a discount on the products I plan on using a bunch. Reach out to me if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer! They give me a referral code, so I’m including that today.If you’re gonna check it out, click through this link (CTR15 for 15% off), I appreciate it.Listen where you listenSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“So Fitzy, of course, sleeps in. He's like, “hey, where's my ride, Houda?” I'm like, “it's already gone, Fitzy.” He's like, “how am I going to get there?” So long story short, Fitzy made his way from the bottom of the mountain, hiked to the very top. It's 12,500 feet, so it's cold, right? He didn't bring nothing but a onesie, right? A onesie. That's all he brought. Cowboy boots and cowboy hat.” - HoudaKevin “Houda” McDonald and Michael “Fitzy” Fitzpatrick call Canmore, Alberta, home and have become great friends. A big part of that friendship is their mutual love of trail running. Houda is a race director for many races including the 5 Peaks Alberta races and the Transrockies races and Fitzy created Canmore Trail Culture. They are also a blast to chat with as they play off each other and their stories. It’s evident they’ve known each other for a while and shared some laughs along the way! It was entertaining chatting with them, to say the least, and it was also nice to hear a bit about why they enjoy the sport so much. “In Canmore, there wasn't really anywhere to meet people. So I wanted to kind of create something that, somebody new to town could come and, get to know the trails and hopefully meet people. I think the community that we've created in the trail running community has been pretty special. For myself, some of my best friends I met through the group. That's what keeps me here is, just the people that I've met, and also the world class trails around this area.” - FitzyI’m really looking forward to our show in Canmore. The opportunity to partner with artsPlace is really cool and it’s gonna be great hanging out with trail runners in the Rockies! Our amazing sponsors also have some race entries up for grabs as we’re incredibly grateful for the support of 5 Peaks, Stoked Scramble, Stoked Ultra, and the Black Lung Ultra. There will be Näak for the first 12 people through the doors and a chance to win a Näak prize pack. Run Uphill/Ski Uphill have been kind enough to donate a few gift cards. And on top of all of that, Houda is also giving us entires to Golden Ultra and Moab Run the Rocks to giveaway. It’s gonna be a blast, get your tickets…Alberta Trail Running Film Festival tickets availableTuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) $25#Naaksquad - Try it and get 15% offI enjoy the Naak products, even if the sauces took a few tries to grow on me. They get the job done and they don’t give me any issues, and isn’t that the point? So I applied to be part of the squad to get a discount on the products I plan on using a bunch. Reach out to me if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer! They give me a referral code, so I’m including that today.If you’re gonna check it out, click through this link (CTR15 for 15% off), I appreciate it.Listen where you listenSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

I've always kind of taken charge and tried to get everybody involved. I think it was an opportunity to be the first face that someone sees when they showed up in those early days and, reminding them that, you're welcome here. You don't have to be super fast. You don't have to be an accomplished runner. It's a privilege to give someone that opportunity and welcome them into a space because you'll see all the time people show up for the first time. And a year from then, they're starting their own running groups. They're hosting community events. It's utilizing the massive space to allow anyone to be a part of that community.Seger Brown loves bringing the community together and celebrating the outdoors. This is why he is a run leader with YYC Run Crew and he loves the outdoors so much that he also advocates for protecting our wild spaces through POW Canada. Seger is an outdoor lover through and through. The way he speaks about what it means to him to be in the outdoors and sharing that with others makes it clear that it’s a big part of his life. They are labours of love for Seger and something he looks forward to, just as much as he looks forward to a day in the mountains. The mountains and wild areas of Alberta are special to Seger which is also why he wants to protect them.“If there's one thing that Albertans love, it's our beautiful national parks. Those amazing mountain parks like Kananaskis, Banff National Park, Jasper National Park, all the way down to the beautiful farmlands and trails of the south like Crowsnest Pass where all these amazing races are held. We just want to protect those spaces so that our kids and our grandkids can continue to do these awesome mountain activities.”Seger was a great guest who was thoughtful and inspiring. I’m grateful he had the time to chat and I hope you enjoy the chat as much as I did!Read more about POW CanadaLearn about YYC Run CrewI’m excited to see some folks from the YYC Run Crew at the Trail Running Film Festival screening on Wednesday, June 5 at Globe Cinema! Doors are at 6 pm and the show starts at 7 pm. We have Evan Birch and his crew from the Speed Project as our live guests, and we will screen his new documentary “Running Forward” as part of the evening too! Our amazing sponsors also have some race entries up for grabs as we’re incredibly grateful for the support of 5 Peaks, Stoked Scramble, Stoked Ultra, and the Black Lung Ultra. There will also be Näak for the first 24 people through the doors and a chance to win a Näak prize pack! It’s gonna be a blast get your tickets…Alberta Trail Running Film Festival tickets availableTuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) $25#Naaksquad - Try it and get 15% offI enjoy the Naak products, even if the sauces took a few tries to grow on me. They get the job done and they don’t give me any issues, and isn’t that the point? So I applied to be part of the squad to get a discount on the products I plan on using a bunch. Reach out to me if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer! They give me a referral code, so I’m including that today.If you’re gonna check it out, click through this link (CTR15 for 15% off), I appreciate it.Listen where you listenSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“There's a window of tolerance. All changes, whether they actually are physical changes to our muscles, or to the cells of our brain, all these changes kind of find that window of tolerance between mild and moderate levels of stress. That's the sweet spot for change. And so what I want to create for my clients is some distress, but mild to moderate levels of stress. Where they're going to have the greatest chance for change. Now I'm going to give them tools and support them in those things, so usually by the time we're ready to bridge that out, hopefully I've done my job and they're really ready and they want to, and it seems just like a natural process.”Landon Hildebrand is a Registered Psychologist and trail runner living in Edmonton, Alberta, who loves his job and especially the opportunity to work with athletes. Being an athlete himself means that he’s able to relate with his competitive clients. Through relating and his experience, Landon knows how to help athletes get results. Not only does he love working with athletes in his office, but he also loves volunteering at trail races, where Approach Psychology will often run aid stations. How cool is that?! An aid station with all the physical aid you need, with the added benefit of mental aid as well! I love that idea and it brings me joy just thinking about it. Joy is something Landon strives for with his athletes.“Success should, in my mind, be both measured by how well they're doing in their races or activities, but also how much joy they're experiencing during it. That is the number one thing I'm looking at is I really want to increase the joy. Because being on the podium is cool, but only because it's fun. I don't think it actually proves anything in the world. The joy needs to be the number one factor for us.”I really enjoyed the conversation with Landon and the insight he shared. The mental side of our sport is one I really enjoy hearing more about. It’s fascinating and doesn’t seem to be as explored as much as the physical side, which makes it all the more intriguing to me! I hope you enjoy the chat as much as I did and if you’re in Alberta and interested in working with Landon or anyone at Approach Psychology, reach out to them.Alberta Trail Running Film Festival tickets availableTuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) $25#Naaksquad - Try it and get 15% offI enjoy the Naak products, even if the sauces took a few tries to grow on me. They get the job done and they don’t give me any issues, and isn’t that the point? So I applied to be part of the squad to get a discount on the products I plan on using a bunch. Reach out to me if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer! They give me a referral code, so I’m including that today.If you’re gonna check it out, click through this link (CTR15 for 15% off), I appreciate it.Listen where you listenSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“It's a beautiful setting, great sense of pride in the local community. And we're in a time where people are more inclined to get outside test their boundaries and enjoy themselves. Sports and entertainment is a great way to attract a visitor who has a similar ethics to the one that the community already possesses there and that's why we feel it's a great fit for this region and this place.” - Nick LadeThe entire group putting together the Black Lung Ultra in Nordegg, Alberta, are excited about bringing people to the community through sport and entertainment. In fact, that’s their whole plan to bring tourists and people to the region, to highlight it through the lens of sport and entertainment. I love this idea and it’s awesome they’ve created an ultra-distance trail race as their first event in the region. Chatting with Nick Lade and Mike Williams about the race and what the area means to them was fun and insightful. They’re focused on creating a great event that showcases the area and want to ensure that runners leave satisfied and want to come back for more. They know it will be the runners that determine whether the event is a success or not. “I mean, I don't think we get to determine that, right? It's the people running it that are going to give us that feedback, right? We've talked a lot about, you know, let's make sure we're well organized, nobody gets lost, nobody gets seriously injured, and people have a great time. I think that's going to be the biggest thing, make sure as many of the racers that we have come out this year come back and they tell their friends.” - Mike WilliamsI had a fantastic time chatting with Nick and Mike. I’m really excited for them and their race, and I’m just as excited that Black Lung Ultra is sponsoring the Trail Running Film Festival screenings in Edmonton, Calgary, and Canmore. Yes, you can win a free entry to the race! You need to be at the film festival though, so get your tickets now!Alberta Trail Running Film Festival tickets availableI’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) $25#Naaksquad - Try it and get 15% offI enjoy the Naak products, even if the sauces took a few tries to grow on me. They get the job done and they don’t give me any issues, and isn’t that the point? So I applied to be part of the squad to get a discount on the products I plan on using a bunch. Reach out to me if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer! They give me a referral code, so I’m including that today.If you’re gonna check it out, click through this link (CTR15 for 15% off), I appreciate it.Listen where you listenSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!Community Trail Running is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)ICYMI over the weekend I posted about the shows I’ve been on recently: Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“The part that I enjoy the most about it is seeing athletes through from goal creation to looking at a year plan and then getting into the nitty gritty of individual workouts. What systems they're working on to develop aerobic and develop your muscular that you need for the demands of whatever your goal is. I love that whole process of it.”Joedy Dalke and coaching have gone together quite naturally over the years. He’s coached various activities to different crowds and once he gained the knowledge and experience on the trails, coaching trail runners through Attitude over Altitude was another natural step. He loves the opportunity to connect and support athletes as they work towards their goals and he loves gathering groups and watching them progress. This is why he enjoys his “Pain Train” Thursday night runs so much. Pain Train hosts runners for various work outs and he loves watching runners get stronger over time. It’s a point of pride for the Calgary coach. “I just see these athletes doing these workouts week by week, and I see the improvements, and often they don't really see it. But it's a really cool experience for me to be guiding them through the workouts and then seeing that fitness develop or the skill develop on technical trails or whatever it is and be able to let them know like, “hey, by the way, you're really improving.” And sometimes people just don't know until they're told.”Joedy was a ton of fun to chat with. I loved hearing why he enjoys Calgary so much and how much joy it brings him to work with athletes. You can learn more about his coaching at the Attitude over Altitude website and see his YouTube channel here. I hope you enjoy the chat as much as I did, let us know what you think!Alberta Trail Running Film Festival tickets availableI’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) $25#Naaksquad - Try it and get 15% offI enjoy the Naak products, even if the sauces took a few tries to grow on me. They get the job done and they don’t give me any issues, and isn’t that the point? So I applied to be part of the squad to get a discount on the products I plan on using a bunch. Reach out to me if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer! They give me a referral code, so I’m including that today.If you’re gonna check it out, click through this link (CTR15 for 15% off), I appreciate it.Listen where you listenSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“The more that society in general has sort of moved away from your traditional ties. Sometimes people don't attend the church their parents did, or they don't have a community association, or like Joel moved across the country or myself moving from Winnipeg. You don't have those gathering places that you once did. So I think there's work, there's home, and that third place is where you can find belonging.” - Gavin HarmacyGavin Harmacy and Joel Desgreniers own two shops, one in Squamish, BC, and the other in Canmore, AB. Both are mountain towns and both are places where Ski Uphill/Run Uphill offers all the goods you need to explore. More importantly, though, both are places where the community can unite. Whether gearing up for the next adventure or sitting around and spinning yarn with like-minded individuals, the shop is meant to bring people together. They love to serve their communities and they also take their role in the outdoor industry seriously. They enjoy the outdoors and want to ensure it’s as enjoyable for future generations.“How do we make this a more sustainable and less of a fast fashion thing? Because there's a lot of brands out there that say the opposite, and when you're seeing glaciers on weekends on long runs and you see how fast they melt, you can't just be like, “I'm going to go buy that latest shirt that's in the latest color.” So as retailers, it's a very interesting crossroads right now.” - Joel DesgreniersJoel and Gavin were great to chat with. They were insightful and honest and I really appreciate the insight into what they’re doing with Ski Uphill/Run Uphill. It’s a tough market to compete in and the shops that stick around seem to serve their community in more ways than just sending you out the door with gear. Joel and Gavin have embraced their communities and encourage anyone to get out and explore. Their communities have also embraced them and know exactly where to start their next exploration. Alberta Trail Running Film Festival tickets availableI’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) $25Click on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!#NaaksquadI enjoy the Naak products, even if the sauces took a few tries to grow on me. They get the job done and they don’t give me any issues, and isn’t that the point? So I applied to be part of the squad to get a discount on the products I plan on using a bunch. Reach out to me if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer! They give me a referral code, so I’m including that today.If you’re gonna check it out, click through this link (CTR15 for 15% off), I appreciate it.Listen where you listenSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“I couldn't do it without my wife and a whole host of volunteers, of course, dedicated volunteers that have been with me from the start. It is really a labour of love.”Bryan Wallace started running later in life but enjoyed it thoroughly. We loved the challenge and the community. So as he got older and his body wasn’t able to keep trail running, he started hosting runners and putting them through tough challenges with Rivers Edge Running Series. It’s something he is enjoying and that’s led him to organize three different races. Each one is unique and an opportunity for trail runners to come together and push themselves, including “Hill of a Run” which was recently hosted at Rabbit HIll Snow Resort. “We basically run up and down the hill on snow after they're closed. We go for a 5K, two loops, 10K, four loops, or see how many times you can go in six hours. 160 m elevation gain it's just a small hill and the record in six hours is 19 loops which is quite significant. We get more people doing the six hour then the shorter distances.”Bryan was fun to chat with and he loves the chance to share Debbie’s (his wife) baked goods and the trails on their property. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!Alberta tickets availableI’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25 Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) $25 Click on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!#NaaksquadI enjoy the Naak products, even if the sauces took a few tries to grow on me. They get the job done and they don’t give me any issues, and isn’t that the point? So I applied to be part of the squad to get a discount on the products I plan on using a bunch. Reach out to me if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer! They give me a referral code, so I’m including that today. If you’re gonna check it out, click through this link (CTR15 for 15% off), I appreciate it.Listen where you listenSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

"It's good for the series. It's good for the sport. It's good to give athletes a shot in other places, to actually expand the series a bit. We made an effort to expand in Asia. North America in particular is somewhere we're really focused on. Really happy that we have Andrew's Meet the Minotaur race.” - Etienne RodriguezThe Skyrunner World Series has 21 races in 14 countries, including Meet the Minotaur in Alberta, Canada. The series works in a few different ways with local races to expand, as partnerships generally form through mutual interest. It was interesting hearing about how the group expands the series into new places and how much management goes into that. Even though the series is large they still deal with the same issues and stresses that most race organizers deal with.“Everything is so fast paced. If you're at an event, you have to have, you know, the images straight away, you have to press release in, you have to have the ranking done, you have to have the video cut, you have to do so many things as soon as possible. So that is also a big pressure.” - Seana ForbesIt was fantastic to have Seana and Etienne on the cast and chatting about the series. I like how they work with local races and race directors to expand their series, it’s awesome they’ve been able to expand so much this way. They are working hard to bring a vision to reality and I love the fact the vision includes athlete development. There was a lot to unpack here and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!Shoutout AnastasiaThank you to our first founding member Anastasia from Washington! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you folks putting your hard earned dollars into this thing and I’m so grateful for the support. Pumped to keep growing this with all of you.Alberta tickets available!I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25 (Early birds sold out in just over 72 hours!)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!#NaaksquadI enjoy the Naak products, even if the sauces took a few tries to grow on me. They get the job done and they don’t give me any issues, and isn’t that the point? So I applied to be part of the squad to get a discount on the products I plan on using a bunch. Reach out to me if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer! They give me a referral code, so I’m including that today. If you’re gonna check it out, click through this link, I appreciate it.Listen where you listenSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“It's really unique to this area, Western Canada, because you're surrounded by boreal forest. You have a huge river called the Athabasca River that flows beside this park. You have sand everywhere and it's pretty compacted for the most part, but there's parts on the hills that have eroded a bit and it's like sand dunes. It's old ancient sand dunes underneath that boreal forest. I brought a friend up there and we were running on the weekend. It was a long run. I said, wouldn't it be neat to have a race up here?”Monty McNiece loves being outdoors and he loves helping others get out there as well. That’s why he started the Klondike Ultra at Fort Assiniboine Sandhills Wildland Provincial Park. Monty enjoys the unique nature of the park and the chance to feature it through the sport that’s so important to him was an opportunity he could not pass up. He describes the park as very quiet and the trail network needing some TLC. So he thought that was a natural way to get more involved and work with the park to showcase what’s really there. “I thought if we can create better trails and work with Alberta parks more people are going to go up there. And you see it, you see it on Strava. Now more and more people are running the trails up there. There's a lot of equestrian users as well, but, but more and more trail runners. It's neat to see, right?”Registration will be closing soon, so check it out while you can!Monty was really fun to chat with. He’s so passionate about putting on a good event and he lit up speaking about how much fun it is for him to see people finishing and accomplishing their goals. I had a blast hearing him chat more about this event and I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did! Will you be adding Klondike Ultra to your list?Alberta tickets available!I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25 (Early birds sold out in just over 72 hours!)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!#NaaksquadI enjoy the Naak products, even if the sauces took a few tries to grow on me. They get the job done and they don’t give me any issues, and isn’t that the point? So I applied to be part of the squad to get a discount on the products I plan on using a bunch. Reach out to me if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer! They give me a referral code, so I’m including that today. If you’re gonna check it out, click through this link, I appreciate it.Listen where you listenSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“Vancouver, I'm so excited to hang with you!”Mathias Eichler is the Executive Director of the Trail Running Film Festival and he will be here in Vancouver, BC for our Thursday April 4 screening! It was fantastic to catch up with him about how the festival is going. We touched on the quality of the films, what it means to have Brooks as a title sponsor, where he sees the festival going, and what he's looking forward to about seeing a screening here in Vancouver. He mentioned how exciting it is for him to see the festival in another city and feel the local vibes, like what we’ve created here.“You've really taken the ball and sort of figured out a way of how you want to interpret what the Trail Running Film Festival means for your community. And I hope I can preserve that, right? I hope that I can find hosts and sort of build relationships with them that they continue to want to be able to do this in their way.”We have enjoyed the process of producing an event for you all and this film festival is a real blast to work on. We’re grateful for those who are coming out and we can’t wait to celebrate our amazing sport with you all. Hope to see you all tonight!Vancouver tonight is the night!Thursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Sheena’s Burlesque is in the house as our opening act…Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC, and to have Sheena’s Burlesque producing our opening act! We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, some great giveaways, the awesome Deanne McDoom as our guest, and of course our opening act! Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30/$35 at the door.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the VedderDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsRunGoNaakMum’s the WordAlberta tickets available!I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25 (Early birds sold out in just over 72 hours!)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!#NaaksquadI enjoy the Naak products, even if the sauces took a few tries to grow on me. They get the job done and they don’t give me any issues, and isn’t that the point? So I applied to be part of the squad to get a discount on the products I plan on using a bunch. Reach out to me if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer! They give me a referral code, so I’m including that today. If you’re gonna check it out, click through this link, I appreciate it.Listen where you listenSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“We're (Lethbridge, AB) a huge arts community and a huge sports community and so it's a really cool mix to be able to mix the arts and sport. So just excited to see some returning faces and hopefully some new ones too. What stands out to me from the event last year was all the socializing that happened before and after the film started. I just loved seeing that. I love seeing people out in the foyer, all the sort of chit-chatter and people, you know, getting excited.”Chantelle Erickson is always growing her community. When she sees a demand for something that isn’t offered, she’s all over it. This is why she is a coach, she has a website, she’s a writer, she hosts the film festival as part of the Lethbridge Sport Council, and she does all that while training and running big distance events. She recently completed “Moab Run the Rocks” and had rave reviews about the event. Through all of this, she is a beacon of positivity and continues to push forward sharing the sport and the space she loves, and making friends along the way.“I actually went the wrong way on the first day of the course because I was way too busy meeting other Canadian friends at the race briefing. I'm in the back socializing at race briefing while they're giving (directions) and just “pay attention to this tomorrow and pay attention to that” while I was I wasn't not listening but I wasn't listening. So I missed my turn on day one too busy making other Alberta friends!”Chantelle is an awesome human and I really enjoy the chance to chat with her. Her energy is infectious and I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did! Chantelle is pumped for her showing of the Trail Running Film Festival and we sure are excited to get rolling this week as well!Vancouver Trail Running Film Festival tickets availableThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Sheena’s Burlesque is in the house as our opening act…Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC, and to have Sheena’s Burlesque producing our opening act! Meadow Phorical, Ronnie Canela, Sugar Lestrange, and Sheena herself have been working hard on the routine, themed “welcoming a new trail runner” and it’s a blast. We can’t wait to share it with all of you at the Rio Theatre Thursday, April 4, 2024. The doors open at 6 and the show starts at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe!We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, the awesome Deanne McDoom as our guest, and an amazing show opening act by Sheena’s Burlesque! Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30/$35 at the door.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the VedderDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsRunGoNaakMum’s the WordAlberta tickets available!I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25 (Early birds sold out in just over 72 hours!)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!#NaaksquadI enjoy the Naak products, even if the sauces took a few tries to grow on me. They get the job done and they don’t give me any issues, and isn’t that the point? So I applied to be part of the squad to get a discount on the products I plan on using a bunch. Reach out to me if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer! They give me a referral code, so I’m including that today. If you’re gonna check it out, click through this link, I appreciate it.Listen where you listenSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“I just decided this is going to be kind of part of my life mission, to try to just be an open book and share my struggles and share the triumph over them, and help people realize that there is life outside of that. That's kind of how we got to be where we are now. I work a lot with people in recovery still to this day. And, just want to keep spreading the word that recovery is possible and we do recover.” - Yassine DibounYassine Diboun was addicted to drinking in his early 20’s and the addiction affected himself and everyone around him. Things got quite rough for Diboun but he was eventually able to get himself into rehab and turn the corner. It’s not the most direct path into trail and ultra running, but Yassine found peace and solace through running which helped him in recovery. Suddenly Diboun finds himself looking back over 20 years to reminisce about the no-so-good ole days, a challenging past that remains there, through hard work and dedication to his sobriety. He’s also become an open book over the years, looking to help people in recovery and show them there is light at the end of the tunnel. It’s an inspiring story and a story that filmmaker and good friend of Yassine’s, Steven Mortinson, felt a lot of pressure to tell right.“Being a good friend with Yassine, it's incredibly stressful because you've got this big weight. You want to tell it right.vYou don't want to mess it up. And so it was a lot of responsibility on me, I feel like, to just tell It true to Yassine.” - Steven MortinsonSteven nailed it as this film is fantastic, and Yassine agreed. It’s a great glimpse into a real struggle from someone who we now know as a completely different person. It offers hope without judgment and I hope you all enjoy the film and this conversation as much as I did. Come on out to the film festival and see for yourself!You can also check out Yassine’s Wy’East Wolf Pack here.Vancouver Trail Running Film Festival tickets availableThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Sheena’s Burlesque is in the house as our opening act…Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC, and to have Sheena’s Burlesque producing our opening act! Meadow Phorical, Ronnie Canela, Sugar Lestrange, and Sheena herself have been working hard on the routine, themed “welcoming a new trail runner” and it’s a blast. We can’t wait to share it with all of you at the Rio Theatre Thursday, April 4, 2024. The doors open at 6 and the show starts at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe!We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, an awesome guest, and we will be announcing our show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30/$35 at the door.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the VedderDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsRunGoNaakMum’s the WordAlberta tickets available!I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25 (Early birds sold out in just over 72 hours!)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!#NaaksquadI enjoy the Naak products, even if the sauces took a few tries to grow on me. They get the job done and they don’t give me any issues, and isn’t that the point? So I applied to be part of the squad to get a discount on the products I plan on using a bunch. Reach out to me if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer! They give me a referral code, so I’m including that today. If you’re gonna check it out, click through this link, I appreciate it.Listen where you listenSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“Through our program, “Running on Native Lands Initiative” to bring land blessings and land acknowledgments to life at these events, at races, but also go beyond that and really bring communities together, bring awareness to Indigenous peoples, bring awareness to Indigenous stewardship, the lands, the history, the people connected to them, even if they were displaced or not there presently. But also just an access point to continue those conversations of what does justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, accessibility, affordability, and safety look like when we are trying to create these safe spaces, inclusive spaces within the running and outdoor industry.”Jordan Marie Whetstone is passionate about community and storytelling. The opportunity to tell Yatika Starr Fields's story at the Western States 100 and also work to bring the first land acknowledgment to the race is something Whetstone was excited to document. She and her husband created a beautiful film on a limited budget and found a great subject to follow in Yatika. This film is one of my favourites so far as it’s absolutely stunning and the storytelling is fantastic. Jordan wants her work to have an impact on people and brands.“That's the whole purpose of why we wanted to create this series was to spark these conversations to get people uncomfortable, especially if it does make them uncomfortable and to sit with that and to ask them, what's making me feel uncomfortable? How can I sit with this and process, but take it in a proactive way and in a positive way to do better, to unlearn or relearn… …how can we be a good relative to each other, how can we grow our community together as a collective and how can we just be good humans?”Jordan is also the founder and organizer behind Rising Hearts. The “Know to Run” series continues with more great people featured that you can follow along with. They are looking for funding for episode 3. I’m looking forward to catching these and whatever else they get up to, as “Know to Run: Yatika” is so good, they’ve got me hooked on waiting for the rest! Come check it out at any of our Trail Running Film Festival screenings, we can’t wait to hang out.CTV Morning Live appearanceJeannine and I will also be on CTV Morning Live on Thursday March 28, at 7:40 am pacific. Tune and hear more about our upcoming screening of the Trail Running Film Festival!Vancouver Trail Running Film Festival tickets availableThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Sheena’s Burlesque is in the house as our opening act…Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC, and to have Sheena’s Burlesque producing our opening act! Meadow Phorical, Ronnie Canela, Sugar Lestrange, and Sheena herself have been working hard on the routine, themed “welcoming a new trail runner” and it’s a blast. We can’t wait to share it with all of you at the Rio Theatre Thursday, April 4, 2024. The doors open at 6 and the show starts at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe!We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, an awesome guest, and we will be announcing our show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30/$35 at the door.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the VedderDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsRunGoNaakMum’s the WordAlberta tickets available!I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25 (Early birds sold out in just over 72 hours!)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Thank you to Run Tri Bike Magazine for the fireside chatIt was an honour to chat with Jason Bahamundi and Aum Gandhi on their 100th fireside chat. We had a ton of laughs while chatting about the podcast, the film festival, food, and whatever else we went on about :) I’ll attach the podcast episode when it drops; below is the live video. Enjoy!#NaaksquadI enjoy the Naak products, even if the sauces took a few tries to grow on me. They get the job done and they don’t give me any issues, and isn’t that the point? So I applied to be part of the squad to get a discount on the products I plan on using a bunch. Reach

“We were kind of in the thick of her going to her first couple trips to Mexico. We were alongside her when she first went there and everything, so yeah, it was really interesting. I think it would have been pretty easy to lean into some cliches about loss and grieving and going to find out about people in your family, and I think I think we avoided those pretty well.” - Stephen KershRabbitwolf Creative’s Ryan Sterner and Stephen Kersh were thrilled about the opportunity to work with Laura Cortez on a North Face film project. Laura pitched her FKT mission while seeking to learn more about her Mexican heritage after her father’s passing. Ryan and Stephen did a scouting trip with Cortez and her husband before going back for the FKT attempt. They had to deal with the challenges of shooting in a foreign country and working at an elevation they never had in the past. Despite the challenges they enjoyed working with Laura and the opportunity to tell a small part of her story. Both filmmakers mentioned the human behind the attempt is always the most interesting part of the story, and where they place their focus.“We want to make a compelling film for people who aren’t fans of the sport and I think that that means, it's like Stephen said, developing a character that you are interested in learning about whether or not they succeed or whether or not they fail. So that's always the goal with everything that we do.” - Ryan SternerChatting with these two and hearing more about their film was a lot of fun. It’s beautiful and I’m excited to watch it with all of you at one of our screenings! Laura is a great subject and I enjoyed following her FKT attempt. I hope you will as well :)Live with Run Tri Bike MagazineCome hang out on Tuesday, March 26 at 5 pm Pacific on any of the Run Tri Bike Mag socials, and join the conversation!CTV Morning Live appearanceJeannine and I will also be on CTV Morning Live on Thursday March 28, at 7:40 am pacific. Tune and hear more about our upcoming screening! Vancouver Trail Running Film Festival tickets availableThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Sheena’s Burlesque is in the house as our opening act…Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC, and to have Sheena’s Burlesque producing our opening act! Meadow Phorical, Ronnie Canela, Sugar Lestrange, and Sheena herself have been working hard on the routine, themed “welcoming a new trail runner” and it’s a blast. We can’t wait to share it with all of you at the Rio Theatre Thursday, April 4, 2024. The doors open at 6 and the show starts at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe!We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, an awesome guest, and we will be announcing our show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30/$35 at the door.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the VedderDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsRunGoNaakMum’s the WordAlberta tickets available!I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25 (Early birds sold out in just over 72 hours!)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Listen where you listenSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“There's a lot of people that talk about running being their therapy, and the the line that I like to use now is running can be complementary to therapy. But I think, you know, seek it out. Seek out support in any way, shape or form. If you feel as though you're alone in this, you're not. It's shared experience. We're not meant to do this alone. We're not meant to do it in isolation. Mental health (issues), all these things that people experience, it wants us alone. So don't let it get you alone.”Evan Birch is an ultra runner and former emergency first responder in the dispatch communication field. The trauma from that job took its toll on Evan, who eventually found himself having panic attacks at work (or in his car in the parking lot at work) due to the overwhelming stress of the job. This led him down a mental health journey of self-discovery that’s been difficult but rewarding for the Calgary runner. Not only has he been able to get a handle on his mental demons, he’s been able to share his story and help others understand that it’s OK to not feel OK. Evan is running the “Speed Project” starting on Monday, March 25, which is a solo venture from the Santa Monica Pier to Las Vegas. He’s doing this to raise funds for “Bigger than the Trail” which advocates and raises money for mental health. He’s looking forward to the challenge of running 300 miles as well as the opportunity to raise some money for a cause near and dear to him. All of this allows him to accomplish his goal, which is to help anyone he can so they don’t struggle like he did.“I've said it multiple times, even if one person seeks out help or care or some other form of reaching out to anybody, it doesn't have to be therapy it can be a friend, it can be a family member, not all of us need therapy I recognize that, but just some form of support. I've had so many people in the few talks that I've done on my journey coming up to me and saying “me too” and giving me a hug. There's so many moments or people messaging me saying, “you know I listened to your podcast episode and you know I actually went and reached out for therapy for the first time ever today because of what you talked so openly about.”I’m so grateful that Evan had the time to come on and chat and that he’s such an open book about his mental health. It’s awesome to have someone who wants to help folks as much as he does, and championing such a great cause is something I really love to see. I hope you enjoy the episode as much as I do and if you’re struggling, that’s OK! You can always reach out, I’m here.Alberta tickets available!I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25 (Early birds sold out in just over 72 hours!)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Please share the podcast anywhere you post :)Vancouver Trail Running Film Festival tickets availableThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Sheena’s Burlesque is in the house as our opening act…Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC, and to have Sheena’s Burlesque producing our opening act! Meadow Phorical, Ronnie Canela, Sugar Lestrange, and Sheena herself have been working hard on the routine, themed “welcoming a new trail runner” and it’s a blast. We can’t wait to share it with all of you at the Rio Theatre Thursday, April 4, 2024. The doors open at 6 and the show starts at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe!We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, an awesome guest, and we will be announcing our show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30/$35 at the door.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the VedderDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsRunGoNaakMum’s the WordListen where you listenSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly a

“I grew up in Montreal and maybe we prioritized culture and arts and music and late nights. But from an early age, I really felt the alure towards the mountains. Now I'm living in North Vancouver and with endless trails in the backyard, I'm able to pursue my love for exploring the trails and wilderness. But in between those two things, I've had a few key experiences in my life that are guiding what I'm working on and also RunGo's mission which is to encourage people to explore their world and prioritize their well-being.”Noah Bloom has found a way to make two of the things he loves come together in an app that he and Craig Slagel founded. RunGo, which is a sponsor for our Vancouver screening of the Trail Running Film Festival, is an app that’s the most popular running app for discovering the best routes in the world with turn-by-turn voice navigation. They’ve done partnerships where the app guides you through races, highlighting important features along the way, like trail names, distance to aid stations, and even alerting you if you’re off course. The app never runs ads and they pride themselves on providing an experience, not simply trying to collect people’s data. They look to form strong relationships with folks to achieve growth.We're recently focusing our growth more on our partnerships and by supporting creators. By partners, I mean like cities and hotels, often luxury hotels around the world to develop outdoor fitness programs. And creators like run groups, coaches, run specialty retailers, fitness influencers, race organizers. To give them the best and only tools out there to really personalize maps and routes, let them share more easily with their audience, and make it simple and not a nuisance for people to use these routes and maps. And they can use it on RunGo or via a unique custom route file for any device.Noah was a wonderful guest to chat with, it was a great time hearing his story and how excited he and all of RunGo are for their future. I hope you enjoy the episode and you can let us know what you think about it and the app! We’re so pumped to have RunGo on board a sponsor for the Trail Running Film Festival.Please share the podcast anywhere you post :)Vancouver Trail Running Film Festival tickets available Thursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Sheena’s Burlesque is in the house as our opening act…Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC, and to have Sheena’s Burlesque producing our opening act! Meadow Phorical, Ronnie Canela, Sugar Lestrange, and Sheena herself have been working hard on the routine, themed “welcoming a new trail runner” and it’s a blast. We can’t wait to share it with all of you at the Rio Theatre Thursday, April 4, 2024. The doors open at 6 and the show starts at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe!We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, an awesome guest, and we will be announcing our show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30/$35 at the door.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the VedderDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsRunGoNaakMum’s the WordAlberta tickets available!I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25 (Early birds sold out in just over 72 hours!)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) $25 (members receive a discount)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“Sarah's story was really surprising to me. We all make judgments about people, it's a very natural human thing to do. We go and we look at people and we create a story in our mind about who they are and what they do and where they come from and blah blah blah. Part of this process for me of filmmaking is to challenge that in me and there were things that I thought I knew about Sarah, I assumed maybe, and I was totally wrong, and I just I just love that process.”Dom Bush is an introspective filmmaker who takes pleasure in telling a good story, even if that story touches on subjects we don’t talk about much. That’s why he and Sarah Gerrish connected as Sarah’s story includes not only being an ultra trail runner but also the fact she had both her ovaries removed by the time she was 36. The resulting challenge makes for compelling storytelling but also important stories for others who find themselves in a similar situation. Dom appreciated the opportunity to tell the story while being cognizant that he was telling a story about something he wouldn’t experience personally. “The only way that we're going to come into direct contact with that subject is when our partners go through it. And we want to take that seriously. We want to be people who are thoughtful of the women who are in our lives. And I guess we felt like we wanted to challenge some of the guys as well to sit down and watch this and take the subject matter seriously. But we were very aware that we certainly weren't going to understand it in the way that Sarah does and some of the women would.”Dom was a pleasure to chat with as I enjoyed how thoughtful he was and how evident it is that he loves storytelling and filmmaking. I’m excited Red Needle is part of the Trail Running Film Festival and can’t wait to watch it with all of you!Canmore on sale today!Canmore tickets are on sale now for artsPlace members and on March 15 for non-members! Calgary, Edmonton and Crowsnest Pass are on sale now as well. I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25 (Early birds sold out in just over 72 hours!)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) Tickets on sale March 13/15 (members receive a discount/non-members $25)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Vancouver tickets availableThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, an awesome guest, and we will be announcing our show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30/$35 at the door.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the VedderDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsRunGoNaakMum’s the WordPlease share the podcast anywhere you post :)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“In 2015, I think the first the first group that came, we had maybe six people showed up. We ran some intervals at Quarry Lake and it was kind of fun, we had a beer afterward and really from there it just it it it's grown and grown. I mean it's become a real fixture here in Canmore.”Dr. Andy Reed started Dirt Bag Runners Bow Valley because he wanted some help to stay motivated while training. He didn’t realize that his group would be a weekly fixture for so many in the running community of Canmore, Alberta when it started, but he’s thrilled to be a part of it now. He’s quick to mention others who contribute and how everybody together makes Canmore special to him. He’s also quick to mention that his runs cater to all levels and he creates them with being social in mind. “We have a huge variety of different abilities from, I mean we have ex-Olympic champions and world cup cross country skiers who come out and basically run away from everybody else and then we got new runners come out and hang out more at the back. We cater to everybody, I try and design the workouts so that we all pretty much stay together. It's very sociable even if you're not the fastest person out there. You're not gonna get left behind, we're together pretty much the whole time. We run for about an hour, we go all year round and we pride ourselves in that we've never actually missed a Thursday since we started.”Dr. Reed is also a coach who has athletes all over the world and he simply loves the trail and outdoor community. It was a pleasure to chat with him and I’m excited to meet him and as many others as possible in Canmore on Thursday, June 6, as tickets to the Trail Running Film Festival at artsPlace go on sale this week! We’ve made sure to start the films at a time that gives all the dirtbags a chance to run and hang out with us 😁Run Tri Bike Magazine featureI’m really glad that Jason Bahamundi and I have met! He was awesome to have on the podcast and they recently featured me on their platform. Head over there to get the whole thing:Finding Joy on the Trails: Adam Lee’s Trail Running JourneyThe Road to Trail RunningIn 2012, Adam moved from Victoria to Vancouver and found himself signing up for the local BMO half marathon, initially attracted by the idea of meeting new people. Little did he know that this decision would be the catalyst for a profound love for running. He became addicted to chasing times and participating in organized events every month, but it wasn’t until 2015 that he discovered the trails.Adam recalls signing up for a local mountain eight-kilometer trail race. He mentioned, “It was marketed as Canada’s toughest 8k because how many 8ks are there. When I got there the atmosphere and everything hooked me immediately.” He instantly fell in love with the experience. Having grown up mountain biking in Ontario, the trails felt like a natural fit. The atmosphere, camaraderie, and scenic beauty of trail running captivated him. He realized that trail running wasn’t just a physical challenge but a holistic experience that allowed him to connect with nature and a supportive community.Canmore on sale this week!Canmore will come online on March 13 for artsPlace members and on March 15 for non-members. Calgary, Edmonton and Crowsnest Pass are on sale now as well. I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) $25 (Early birds sold out in just over 72 hours!)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) $25 Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) Tickets on sale March 13/15 (members receive a discount/non-members $25)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Vancouver tickets availableThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, an awesome guest, and we will be announcing our show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30/$35 at the door.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the VedderDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsRunGoNaakMum’s the WordPleas

“I spent the first 20-something years as an amputee, both not knowing what was possible, but also not knowing that my prosthetics hurting me every single day wasn't normal… …It took me two decades to learn that. So my goal with my platform is to make sure that specifically amputees, but para athletes or anybody else know that there's ways to overcome these obstacles and for amputees knowing that pain isn't normal. There's ways to fix this.”Brian Reynolds is looking to be the inspiration he missed out on earlier in life. He’s on a mission to help amputees and para athletes get all the information he didn’t have. He wants to make it possible for amputees to learn how to run great distances, or simply after their children. He also loves to take on big challenges, and the hooks of Leadville had set themselves deep in Reynolds trail running physche from his previous experience at the event. When his name was drawn in the lottery, he didn’t hesitate to get after it.“I love Colorado. I love the mountains. I love the small little town atmosphere where just everybody is into the race. I worked the event a year, I crewed for somebody the next year, and then I put my name in the lottery because it usually takes a few years to get in. I was like, “if I start putting my name in the lottery now, by the time I'm actually ready to run it, I'll get in.” Then I got in on the first year, it was like, “Oh no, now I can't say no.” And, you know what? I like big goals and may as well go from a marathon to an ultra. And we may as well make the ultra at altitude and 100 miles. I have a great community around me, whether it's training partners, coaches, family. I was just like, I'm going to go for it.”Check out the trailer here!Brian is excited to have the film included in the festival to help him spread his message. I had a great time chatting with him and learning more about amputee athletes and I’m grateful he came on to share! Come out to the Trail Running Film Festival and check out the film for yourself, you’ll be happy you did!Check out Episode 78 with the filmmaker Michael Grasela:Vancouver tickets availableThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the VedderDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsRunGoNaakMum’s the WordCalgary early bird tickets on sale now!I’m so excited to get Calgary online! Get your $20 early bird tickets this week only! Edmonton and Crowsnest Pass are on sale now as well. Canmore will come online March 13 for artsPlace members and March 15 for non-members. I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) Regular Price $25 (Early birds sold out in just over 72 hours!)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) Monday, March 4 $20 early-bird tickets. Regular Price $25 starts Monday, March 11Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) Tickets on sale March 13/15 (members/non members)Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those things (Now on Facebook)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“He really wants to pave the way for the advocacy for para-athletes to say “hey you're not just gonna be on the couch all day, you can actually go out there and compete” so I think just that in itself is so powerful that like anytime I can tell his story and help push it into the world, I think that's just kind of the most rewarding part of that. At the end of the day, this guy probably can outwork three people at a time and it's just crazy to watch it from a friend perspective but also from a storytelling perspective.”Michael Grasela is a filmmaker and runner who wants to share Brian Reynold’s story. Brian is a double amputee below-the-knee athlete. Brian and Michael have become good friends over the years as both share a love of running and both want to amplify the message that amputees can accomplish great things. Reynolds is a strong road runner but had very limited experience running on trails. So when he told Grasela that he wanted to run Leadville, the idea to document the journey was not far behind. “When he told me about going out to Leadville to run it, I was just like, I got to come with you. This is going to be a good one to see what's happening because he's not a trail runner, he doesn't really run on the trails because of the way his legs are built. So it's a lot of different challenges that we were going to find out in the moment. It was kind of curious for me as a runner, but also just like, “hey, this is going to be a great story no matter what happens in this race, we're going to find out something new about you today, right?”Check out the trailer here!Michael was a lot of fun to chat with. It was great hearing how he got into filmmaking and he’s incredibly passionate about the opportunity to inspire. He has some plans in the works for another project with Brian that he’s excited about and I’m excited the next episode features Brian! Come back Wednesday to hear Brian’s interview about the film and you’ll be even more excited for the Trail Running Film Festival screenings. Subscribe if you don’t already and you’ll be sure to get the post as soon as it goes up:Vancouver tickets availableThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the VedderDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsRunGoNaakMum’s the WordCalgary early bird tickets on sale today!I’m so excited to get Calgary online! Get your $20 early bird tickets this week only! Edmonton and Crowsnest Pass are on sale now as well. Canmore will come online March 13 for artsPlace members and March 15 for non-members. I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. Our dates are:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) Regular Price $25 (Early birds sold out in just over 72 hours!)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) Monday, March 4 $20 early-bird tickets. Regular Price $25 starts Monday, March 11Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) Tickets on sale in MarchFriday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those things (Now on Facebook)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 cracked open a beer cheered on the rest of us, and there was about four or five of us that ran until three four in the morning.”Gretchen Walla is a race director in Washington who loves the community and taking opportunities when they present themselves. As can be the case, sometimes being involved in a community presents opportunities and Gretchen has seized those over the years to grow our trail-running community. She’s been involved with several race organizations, The Trail Running Film Festival, and of course she operates Walla Trails and Community. While touring with The Trail Running Film Festival Gretchen got to meet so many passionate folks around the U.S. and that opportunity to meet such excited trail runners grew her love for the sport and community even more.“The stories we have from that U.S. tour, we were like this poor indie rock band that was showing up at shows, sometimes playing for seven people and then other times sold out shows like Cleveland, Ohio. Shout out to the Cleveland community. But it was so much fun because I got to meet so many different trail-running groups all over the US.” Road trip to the trail mecca of Cleveland anyone? Gretchen was a blast to chat with. She’s passionate about what she does and our community is bigger and stronger because of her contributions! I really enjoyed the chat and I hope you do too.Gretchen is also proud to be involved with Trail Sisters.Win tickets to the Film Festival with Route Arrows!Our friends at Route Arrows are giving away two tickets to the film festival. Head over to their post and tell your trail-marking story to enter.Vancouver tickets availableThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the Vedder and Race to be NamedDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsNaakMum’s the WordCalgary early bird tickets on sale next week!I’m so excited to get Calgary online as well! Tickets are on sale for some of our Alberta shows. Edmonton and Crowsnest Pass are on sale now. Canmore will come online a little later. I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. We’re still finalizing contracts with theatres, but our dates will be:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) Regular Price $25 (Early birds sold out in just over 72 hours!)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) Monday, March 4 $20 early-bird tickets. Regular Price $25 starts Monday, March 11Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) Tickets on sale in MarchFriday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those things (Now on Facebook)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 himself, Jason is equally driven with his publication. Along with his two partners, the three set out to help endurance athletes by telling stories and showing people there are many ways to get the best out of ourselves. This commitment to the everyday athlete has resulted in growth for the magazine, and Bahamundi finds joy in not just chasing growth numbers, but truly connecting with people. He wants to continue to merge growth with connection and help as many people as possible recognize that their stories matter.“I want to help millions of people. I get that in order for me to help millions of people, I got to start with one. But if my vision is only one person, that's too small. I'm a big dreamer. We're going to help millions of people. We're going to share this everywhere. And so that's our guiding light.”Jason was a great interview and I loved hearing more about Run Tri Bike Mag as well as learning more about Jason and why he’s so driven. Please share the episode! Let us know what you think and reach out to Jason and the crew with your story, I know they would love to feature you.Thank you for sharing this podcast as much as you do!Episode 75 with Andrew Fairhurst was our first episode with over 300 downloads in the first week! Win tickets to the Film Festival with Route Arrows!Our friends at Route Arrows are giving away two tickets to the film festival. Head over to their post and tell your trail-marking story to enter.Vancouver tickets availableThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the Vedder and Race to be NamedDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsNaakMum’s the WordAlberta Film Fest ticketsTickets are on sale for some of our Alberta shows. Edmonton and Crowsnest Pass are on sale now. Calgary and Canmore will come online a little later. I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. We’re still finalizing contracts with theatres, but our dates will be:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) Regular Price $25 (Early girds sold out in just over 72 hours!)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) 1-week of $20 early-bird tickets going on sale soon. Regular Price $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) Tickets on sale in MarchFriday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those things (Now on Facebook)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 Fairhurst. The Skyrunner tag means runners will be cruising summits and truly experiencing mountain running. This partnership has been great for the race but it’s not where the race started. The original races gave runners choices at certain points on the course on which challenge they wanted to face. These days the course is standardized and has runners come from all over the world. It’s something that Andrew cherishes and he loves sending runners into the incredible Crowsnest Pass mountains.“My favorite thing is honestly seeing the racers at the start line with this look of trepidation on their face maybe some of them doubting themselves or just outright fear. A lot of people don't realize what they're getting into. But then when I see these people come across the finish line, lots of tears of joy, some tears of true sadness,but lots of tears of joy or just people cannot believe what they've done.”This race sounds incredible. Andrew loves what he does and bringing runners to Crowsnest Pass is something that brings him joy. That joy is reciprocated as Meet the Minotaur has plenty of supporters and I for one can’t wait to try this race someday! Let us know what you think, will you be Meeting the Minotaur?Alberta Film Fest ticketsTickets are on sale for some of our Alberta shows. Edmonton and Crowsnest Pass are on sale now. Calgary and Canmore will come online a little later. I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. We’re still finalizing contracts with theatres, but our dates will be:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) Regular Price $25Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) 1-week of $20 early-bird tickets going on sale soon. Regular Price $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) Tickets on sale in MarchFriday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Vancouver tickets availableThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the Vedder and Race to be NamedDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsNaakMum’s the WordThank you to our latest paying subscribers Anastasia and Andrew!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those things (Now on Facebook)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 still hated it at that time. But it was life-changing for sure because I met a great group of people.”Laura Sherrer-Townsend doesn’t know why she got into running, but she’s never looked back either. The Edmonton race director found a sense of community and belonging and has engrained herself in the local running scene. Her race, Survivorfest, is a 6 H, 12 H, and 24 H, timed event that she loves organizing because she gets to see the athletes bond throughout the race. That’s been rewarding for her and the race itself raises funds and awareness for Saffron Centre, which is a centre that supports sexual assault victims. This centre and its programs are also what she supports while running towards her goal of 50 ultras by 50 years old. It’s an important cause for Laura. “Things would have been different for me if something like that had been in my school. Or even when I went to friends when I was young and told them what had happened, they would have been able to support me through that and send me to the right individuals to talk about that. But instead, I kept it a secret for quite a long time. And so I thought this could be a life changer for these kids. I instantly thought that this needs to happen in every school.”Laura is passionate about community and running, and I was grateful to chat with her and hear a bit of her story. I’m incredibly excited to meet her in person in Edmonton for the Trail Running Film Festival!Alberta Film Fest tickets on sale today!A big step for us as tickets are finally going on sale for some of our Alberta shows! Edmonton, and Crowsnest Pass are on sale today. Calgary and Canmore will come online a little later. I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. We’re still finalizing contracts with theatres, but our dates will be:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) Limited (50) $20 early-bird tickets on sale Feb. 5 at 11 am. Regular Price $25Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) 1-week of $20 early-bird tickets going on sale soon. Regular Price $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) Tickets on sale in MarchFriday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale nowClick on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Vancouver tickets availableThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the Vedder and Race to be NamedDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsNaakMum’s the WordThank you to our latest paying subscribers Anastasia and Andrew!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those things (Now on Facebook)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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. It started with his stage race, stage race, and now includes “Elevated Trail Racing”, which is a series of four more races. He’s enjoyed creating courses and bringing runners to a few small Oregon towns. The amount of work that goes into race directing has been eye-opening but Devin finds it’s all worth it once race day rolls around. The opportunity to be with the community that he loves so much is his favourite part of it all.“My favorite part by far of race directing is the race itself, having them come in and getting their bibs and having them be all happy and excited for the race and then having them come in and finish and share a beer with them. You know, just the social aspect that trail racing has after the race.”Devin’s races sound like a lot of fun, he doesn’t have any cutoffs during his events and keeps them open until everyone is done, and he loves sharing a celebratory drink of any type at the finish line with runners. I hope you enjoy the conversation, I certainly did, and let us know what you think! Learn more about the Oakridge Triple Summit here.Learn more about Elevated Trail Racing here.Follow Devin here.Trail Running Film Festival tickets now available!Thursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the Vedder and Race to be NamedDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsNaakAlberta Film Fest tickets going on sale February 5!A big step for us as we’re bringing the film festival to Edmonton, Calgary, Canmore, and now Blairmore! I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. We’re still finalizing contracts with theatres, but our dates will be:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) Limited (50) $20 early-bird tickets on sale Feb. 5. Regular Price $25Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema) 1-week of $20 early-bird tickets going on sale soon. Regular Price $25Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) Tickets on sale in MarchFriday, June 7, 2024, Blairmore (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale Feb. 5Click on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those things (Now on Facebook)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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-driven and focused. It’s clear she’s very passionate about putting on events and ensuring they have a purpose. It was awesome hearing her speak about doing everything with intention. It was also awesome having her drop some news about a potential new 100-mile race! You might think that’s the only news she dropped during the interview, but you’d be wrong. This one’s a doozy and I’m so happy Kara and I got to chat about her trail life and what’s important to her when it comes to trail races.“I wouldn't say the course (Shuswap) is a reflection of me, but I would say it's a reflection of what I look for when I participate in an event or an ultra. When I go to sign up for an event, one of the first things I'm looking at is, I like viewpoints. I really do. Exposure is my thing. It's not everybody's thing. Single track, not old quad roads.I feel like if I was to say something reflects me accurately, it would probably be my start finish line area. I think this is very accurate. I have the best playlist. I have been told that so many times!”Kara was a blast to chat with. I can’t wait to hear what you all think of this episode and if you’re excited for the new races?!You can learn more about the decision to put Shuswap Ultra on hold here.Sign up and learn more about BC Backyard here.Sign up and learn more about Moose Mountain here.Marathon Shuffle registration opens February 1Ean Jackson, from episode 30 (chatting about the amazing Sunshine Coast Trail) reached out to let me know registration is opening for the Marathon Shuffle on February 1. You can read more about the event here.Trail Running Film Festival tickets now available!Thursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the Vedder and Race to be NamedDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsNaakWe’re bringing the films to AlbertaA big step for us as we’re bringing the film festival to Edmonton, Calgary, Canmore, and now Blairmore! I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. We’re still finalizing contracts with theatres, but our dates will be:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre) Limited $20 early-bird tickets on sale Feb. 5!Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema)Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace)Friday, June 7, 2024, Blairmore (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports)Click on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those things (Now on Facebook)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

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 opportunities to make your experience awesome as they host a bunch of different races and camp, all varying in length, difficulty and whether you’ll be above ground or not. Yes, Sinister even hosts an underground race in an old mine! Whatever you sign up for, their collective goal is. the same. Make it awesome.“Something iconic that Sinister has is just the energy that we bring. Because I mean our whole team is made up of people like us that are passionate about the role that they have, and then they're tied to the running community, and they get to be a part of this thing. It's a dream job to support the thing that you love.” - Matt Shepard“We want our races to be an event. We recognize that it's not only racers that are showing up on the race weekends. It is also their crew, their family, their friends, the volunteers, the spectators. It is an enormous crowd of people above and beyond those that are at the start line. And we want everyone to feel as a part of the race as the racers are. So that's why we have that energy and we create it to be a whole spectacle of a weekend.” - Kirsti DolsonIt was so awesome to hear all about what Sinister is up to, and how Kirsti and “Shep” are involved. I can’t wait to run the Sinister 7 relay this summer and I hope you will enjoy checking out what these awesome folks are up to!I’m even more excited to be highlighting what Sinister Sports is up to because we are working together to bring the Trail Running Film Festival to Crowsnest Pass as well! Friday, June 7, will be the date and we’re just working to finalize the venue. I’m so excited to be hanging out with so many of you awesome folks and finding more community. Stay tuned for more details of this latest show! Speaking of the Trail Running Film Festival…Trail Running Film Festival tickets now available!Thursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the Vedder and Race to be NamedDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsNaakWe’re bringing the films to AlbertaA big step for us as we’re bringing the film festival to Edmonton, Calgary, Canmore, and now Blairmore! I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. We’re still finalizing contracts with theatres, but our dates will be:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Garneau Theatre)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema)Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (artsPlace)Friday, June 7, 2024, Blairmore (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre)Click on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those things (Now on Facebook)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 won races and set FKT’s. He also celebrated 2 years of sobriety on Oct 31, 2023 and that’s what our chat centred around. It was awesome to have Coree be so open about his journey and I appreciated him giving us so much insight. Everybody has a different relationship with alcohol, and Coree just wanted people to know there are resources available to help. He talked about how the programs available helped him and how they can help others.“Not everybody needs to be sober. And, that's totally fine. I don't care if people are sober or not, to be completely honest. But, if you're someone that's struggling with it, then absolutely reach out. Don't be afraid to get help for it.”It’s a great accomplishment for Coree and I’m thrilled we got to chat about it. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. Let us know what you think in the comments. Trail Running Film Festival tickets now available!Thursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the Vedder and Race to be NamedDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsNaakWe’re bringing the films to AlbertaA big step for us as we’re bringing the film festival to Edmonton, Calgary, and Canmore! I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. We’re still finalizing contracts with theatres, but our dates will be:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Ziedler Hall)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema)Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (artsPlace)Click on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those things (Now on Facebook)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayWe’re on the journey to 2,000 subscribers, help us get there.If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 come on and share. The race directing is about Run Saysutshun, a race on Saysutshun island, in Nanaimo, BC, that features many distance and time options, including up to 24 hours. His passion for getting others on the trails and spending time out there himself is also prevalent in the passing of his best friend Richard Booth. The two spent many hours trail running together and when Richard passed suddenly in December, Tommy, with the help of a few others, organized the Runnin Rich Vert Challenge to honour and help raise funds for Richards’s family. The way people have responded has been heartwarming for Mlazgar.“Community is, there's no other community like it. The trail running community, especially is just, it's wild. You form these bonds with people that, you can only really form through sport, I think, and that's the power of sport. And, I love it. Huge fan.”I’m a huge fan too, especially of what Tommy is up to. Check out more about Run Saysutshun and/or sign up for Runnin Rich Vert Challenge. Let us know where you’re favourite spots for vert are and consider checking out Saysutshun this June for the race. Maybe you can go further than you ever have!“I'm excited to see some people just push and see how far they can go. I can't remember the exact number we had last year but I want to say we had, close to half a dozen people, probably more, that ran further than they ever had before.”Trail Running Film Festival tickets now available!Thursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $30. Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the Vedder and Race to be NamedDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsNaakWe’re bringing the films to AlbertaA big step for us as we’re bringing the film festival to Edmonton, Calgary, and Canmore! I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. We’re still finalizing contracts with theatres, but our dates will be:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Ziedler Hall)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema)Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (artsPlace)Click on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those things (Now on Facebook)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayTHANK YOU FOR HELPING PASS 1,000 SUBSCRIBERS! If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

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 future) sharing some of their funny trail running stories and it’s a super fun holiday listen. I’m so grateful for everyone to have shared their time and stories and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.A huge thank you to the guests who had time to share:Jeanelle HazlettJeannine AvelinoChantelle EricksonAndrew MillerKirsti DolsonMatt ShepardRenee JanssenKara Delwo:Tommy MlazgarJoanne Lee SmithComment about your own funny trail running stories and we can keep the lighthearted good times going! Early Bird Tickets available for one more week!Thursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’ll want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Buy your tickets here.Tickets are on sale now for $25 and go up to $30 on January 1, so pick’em up for your holiday shopping and save a few bucks.Our local sponsors:5 PeaksCoast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the Vedder and Race to be NamedDistance RunwearRidgeline AthleticsPeaks N ValleysBeast of Big CreekHeads or TrailsNaakWe’re bringing the films to AlbertaA big step for us as we’re bringing the film festival to Edmonton, Calgary, and Canmore! I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. We’re still finalizing contracts with theatres, but our dates will be:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Edmonton (Ziedler Hall)Wednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema)Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (artsPlace)Click on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those things (Now on Facebook)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayThank you for the support friends we are less than 5 away from 1,000 subscribers!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 the pandemic because people couldn’t afford to enter virtual races, Go Beyond wanted to remove the financial barrier, and other people wanted to donate funds for entries. It all came together and now the fund is helping get people to start lines at all kinds of events, including events that aren’t Go Beyond. It’s a great way to help make the sport more accessible and awesome that they took the ball and ran with it. Renee enjoys each story of people they’ve helped and how it’s helped pick people up.“They want to represent. They're an Asian person who is tired of being at races and not seeing other faces like theirs. And they're just like, this is an opportunity for them to make a change and they want to become ambassadors of this whole thing and spread the word to other people in their communities. So I like that too.”The Trail Mix Fund is growing and is a great way to help people get into racing. I hope you enjoy the chat and learning more about Renee and the Trail Mix Fund as much as I did!Early Bird Trail Running Film Festival tickets on sale nowThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!Yes, I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways (like Naak!), another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’re going to want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, your tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $25 and go up to $30 on January 1, so pick’em up for your holiday shopping and save a few bucks.Buy your tickets here.We’re bringing the films to AlbertaAnd a big step for us as we’re bringing the film festival to Edmonton, Calgary, and Canmore! I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. We’re still finalizing contracts with theatres, but it’s looking like our dates will be:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, EdmontonWednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema)Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (artsPlace)Click on the links above for the FB event pages to keep up to date. Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those things (Now on Facebook)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayThank you for the support friends we are so close to 1,000 subscribers!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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, although it’s not always been easy. Over the years they’ve managed to find success by listening to their customers, working with their athletes, and continuously looking for ways to improve. This “obsession” is what Minh believes makes Naak successful, and he had a very driven message that he shared when he thought about the journey so far.“There's going to be a lot of up and downs, a lot of lessons learned, a lot of failures, but it's like an ultra, right? I think that we can do the comparison with an ultramarathon. A lot of up and downs, but at the end, if you have the perseverance, if you believe in what you do, if you are curious enough and if you are motivated enough, you're going to make it.”Minh is super passionate about Naak and the conversation was interesting for me, I enjoyed learning more about his company! I have to apologize as I called him Ming at the end of the episode and that was my mistake. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I do and let us know in the comments below what you think.We’re also incredibly excited to have Naak products on hand for the first 2 dozen folks through the door at the Vancouver screening of the Trail Running Film Festival!Early Bird Trail Running Film Festival tickets on sale nowThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!Yes, I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways (like Naak!), another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’re going to want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, your tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $25 and go up to $30 on January 1, so pick’em up for your holiday shopping and save a few bucks.Buy your tickets here.We’re bringing the films to AlbertaAnd a big step for us as we’re bringing the film festival to Edmonton, Calgary, and Canmore! I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. We’re still finalizing contracts with theatres, but it’s looking like our dates will be:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, EdmontonWednesday, June 5, 2024, Calgary (Globe Cinema)Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (ArtsPlace)Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those things (Now on Facebook)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayThank you for the support friends we are so close to 1,000 subscribers!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 locals in each area. It was very insightful to hear from Jacob about how races come to life, what costs go into hosting, and how the permitting process can play out. He touched on so much more than just that and I’m grateful for his candor. 5 Peaks, like all of us, is doing there best to keep costs down, but today’s environment is a challenge.“We tried really hard to not increase costs unnecessarily. And we actually haven't for three years. But the cost of everything, food, gas, storage, shipping, swag, you know, toilets, medics, everything has gone up.”Jacob is definitely in trail running for the love of it. As a labour of love, 5 Peaks touches many who trail run in Canada. They are fun for the whole family and a big part of that is because Jacob’s creating those events with having fun with his family in mind. “I love being on-site on race day, and my kids love attending the races. They love running the races. They love passing the finisher swag out at the end. I mean, when we're there, we're there at 6 a.m. So, if we go to a race, it's usually a road trip, so to speak. Surprisingly, even my five-year-old son, he can't wait to get up before the sun comes up. His favorite thing to do is break down boxes, and they like to work at the merch tent. Even my kids like doing different things. It's their favorite. It's like Christmas.5 Peaks races are a great time and here in BC the race lineup will have something to challenge runners of all levels:April 6 - Alice LakeMay 4 - Golden EarsJuly 20 - Cypress MountainAugust 31 - Whistler BlackcombSeptember 14 - Mount SeymourThis year, Season Pass holders will get an exclusive 5 Peaks running towel. It's also a family-friendly event with 3 km and 1 km kids races at each event. Head over to www.5peaks.com to learn more.5 peaks is the gold sponsor of the Trail Running Film Festival!Early Bird Trail Running Film Festival tickets on sale nowThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!Yes, I’m so excited to host all of you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday, April 4, 2024, with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe.We have amazing sponsors lined up once again (like 5 Peaks!), we’ll have some great giveaways, another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’re going to want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, your tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud, and let’s rock the Rio together!Tickets are on sale now for $25 and go up to $30 on January 1, so pick’em up for your holiday shopping and save a few bucks.Buy your tickets here.We’re bringing the films to AlbertaAnd a big step for us as we’re bringing the film festival to Edmonton, Calgary, and Canmore! I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. We’re still finalizing contracts with theatres, but it’s looking like our dates will be:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, EdmontonWednesday, June 5, 2024, CalgaryThursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (ArtsPlace)Keep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those things (Now on Facebook)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayThank you for the support friends we are so close to 1,000 subscribers!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 life when he was looking to make a change. From there that hobby turned into a career and Adam is constantly releasing new material and challenging himself on the trails. One of those challenges was running and filming his experience at TranSelkirks. It’s a multi-stage event and Adam had to learn how to manage his body for an entire week. “Day 2 I was like, oh, I'm actually feeling pretty good. No s**t. It's day two. And there was a lot of climbing that day, not quite 2200m, but pretty close. And, I was suffering for like 10 K and I was not feeling too well. So that was a bit of a wake up call for day three to be like, okay, I gotta like chill out and make sure I can get through this.”Adam was a great guest and I enjoyed hearing from him about his experience running and filming. You can see the film he submitted to the Film Festival for consideration here. It’s a great piece and should get you pumped for The Trail Running Film Festival!Early Bird Trail Running Film Festival tickets on sale nowThursday, April 4, 2024. The Rio Theatre. Doors at 6, show at 7.Bring your noisemakers!Yes, I’m so excited to host all you amazing trail runners once again here in Vancouver, BC! The Rio Theatre is booked for Thursday April 4, 2024 with the doors opening at 6 and the show starting at 7. We’re gonna do it bigger and better than last year and give this thing a festival vibe. We have amazing sponsors lined up once again, we’ll have some great giveaways, another awesome guest, and a secret show opener that you’re going to want to make noise for. Bring your cowbells, your tambourines, or whatever you have to get loud and let’s rock the Rio together! Tickets are on sale now for $25 and go up to $30 January 1, so pick’em up for your holiday shopping and save a few bucks.Buy your tickets here.We’re bringing the films to AlbertaAnd a big step for us as we’re bringing the film festival to Edmonton, Calgary, and Canmore! I’m incredibly excited to be able to hang out with more of you and share the film festival vibes. We’re still finalizing contracts with theatres, but it’s looking like our dates will be:Tuesday, June 4, 2024, EdmontonWednesday, June 5, 2024, CalgaryThursday, June 6, 2024, CanmoreKeep an eye peeled for official announcements as we will let you know the moment these become official and tickets are listed for sale. I’m so pumped to hang out with you all!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those thingsSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayThank you for the support friends we are so close to 1,000 subscribers!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 it was especially great to hear how her race at Javelina turned into one of those best days ever. Jeanelle finished 2nd and really enjoyed her experience in the desert. From the funky atmosphere of the race to how she executed, Jeanelle was a big fan of Javelina. Her interview is a ton of fun and her insight into how to have a great race was awesome. “I think this race was a really big reminder of, if you want the race that you want, you have to do the things you need to do. Many of us sometimes get caught up in the excitement of the race and forget to take the gels that we know we need to take or hydrate the way we know we need to hydrate or, you know, take a second and douse yourself with water. Take a minute to do those things you know you need to do to allow your body to do what you're asking it to do.”Big fans of Jeanelle around here and make sure you check out her previous episodes if you haven’t already:Special episode and exciting news coming Friday!Adam Stevens is on the podcast for a special edition this Friday! The filmmaker and trail runner joins me for a great conversation, including chatting about his experience at TranSelkirks. We will also have a big announcement on that podcast that I’m excited to share!Please like (me), rate, share, and subscribe wherever you do those thingsSpotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayThank you for the support friends we are so close to 1,000 subscribers!If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 incredible result at Moab 240 recently and did so by running his own race. The filmmaker is a helluva trailrunner and his story from Moab was really insightful and fun to listen to. Jeff talked about his race strategy including foot care, proper pacing, fuelling, and a few more things. And important to note, on top of everything, he documented the whole thing for a film he hopes to release in the new year! Suffice it to say, it was a big race for Jeff personally, and he has taken some new motivation and lessons going forward.“I could have easily found 5, 10, even 15 minutes of time. And part of that might have been being a little bit more aggressive in the back half of the race when it came to the aid stations and things like that. Maybe even cutting back on my sleep time a little bit, adjusting to the way the race was playing out. And so for me, that was a lesson. I think I'm at the point now in my running career where I can start to lay it on the line a little bit more, take some chances.”Make sure to follow Jeff along on IG and YouTube so you don’t miss any of his updates! I’m super stoked to have had him on and hope you all enjoy the chat as much as I did.Last week was also about Moab 240 as we heard from Heather “Koko” Scott:Javelina JeanelleNext week we’re back again! Lots of awesome folks have been available, so we’re gonna keep rolling out the episodes. Jeanelle Hazlett is back on the cast talking about her 2nd place finish in the 100k Javelina Jundred! Help me hit 1,000 subscribersGrowing this with all of you has been incredibly fun and rewarding. This community is truly special, and I’m grateful to be a part of it. We’re getting so close to 1,000 subscribers and my goal is to get there by the end of the year. Please sign up if you haven’t already, I greatly appreciate it!So close to 1,000! Thank you for your support 💪Big news and special episode dropping December 1Even more content and good times are coming… STAY TUNEDPrevious episode with Jeff:Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayIf you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 downs out there which included smashing her first 67 miles and later in the race dealing with hallucinations that were stronger than any she had previously encountered. Throughout it all she managed to enjoy it as much as she could and had a fresh mental start with each of her pacers. She’s incredibly humble about her accomplishments (thankfully she considers herself a runner now at least!), and after finishing this race wants to help other women kick ass.“I'd love to see more women in 200’s, more women in 100’s. Women are natural born endurance athletes, I'm gonna be 47, so you're not too old and in fact you know we're kind of in our prime. So I'll just use this time to help some more girls get out on the course and and keep traveling the world.”This was a really great chat and Koko’s passion for adventure and helping others was inspiring! Hat tip to Pargol for introducing Heather and me for the interview. Check it out and let us know what you’re up to these days as well.We’re getting really close to 1k subscribers Sign up now and help us push through!Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayIf you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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, but it also resonates. He finds great subjects and the joy he has telling their story comes through in his writing in a wonderful way. I was super excited to have him on the podcast to chat about his Running Sucks life and it was great to get some insight from him.“It sucks in the moment. I talk about running sucking in the moment. I think everybody, when they finish a run after the fact, they're really pleased that they did it. It's very rare for someone to regret having run, but in the moment, running sucks. And a big part of the newsletter is finding ways of and showing other people ways of making running suck less.”You will enjoy following and subscribing to Raziq’s Running Sucks, so get over there and do it. Year 3 beginsIt’s hard to believe we are beginning year 3, but here we go. As always, I have to thank you all for the amazing support you’ve shown. It’s a privilege to hang out with you all every two weeks and it’s something I don’t take for granted. Thank you all for being here. And of course, a massive thank you to Francisco, Roslyn, and Sabrina for putting your hard-earned dollars into this. You’re amazing.Community Trail Running is pushing hard to hit 1000 subscribers! Help us hit our goal and subscribe today!Let me know what you think of the latest music track.And want a comical throwback? Here is episode 2 (the first with a guest). My guest was awesome and I’m happy I’ve grown since ;)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereYoutube: Click HereMusic by Paolo Argentino from PixabayIf you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 accomplish great things. Joanne coaches people in a solution-focused way and that was fascinating to learn more about. Joanne is the kind of person you feel like you’ve known forever when you talk and she really just wants to share her knowledge with people pressure-free. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!“Just book a session, you know, completely free. The best way is to find out and experience it for yourself because no words can explain it unless you've experienced it.”HousekeepingYes, the Trail Running Film Festival is back for another year! We will have more details on the 2024 screening in Vancouver very soon, until then, creators submit!Shoutout Sabrina, our latest paid subscriber! The support around here is incredible and I’m constantly blown away by it. Thank you all for subscribing, liking, rating, sharing, messaging, saying hi, and just being yourselves in general. And an absolutely massive thank you to the folks forking out hard-earned cash. I’m forever grateful! This continues to be so much fun for me.November is year 3!Incredible how fast the time goes, isn’t it? Our next episode will be the start of year 3 and I’m excited to see where we go. This year was pretty amazing and I think we’re gonna keep that momentum rolling!Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by REDproductions from Pixabay.If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 important and Tanya really struck me as someone who coaches in that manner. She also struck me as someone who is super passionate about what she does and that is always inspiring. I found her advice about possibility vs positiviity very interesting and helpful. “Your brain will call b******t on you. You know, mantras are great. Stand in front of the mirror and try and tell yourself you're beautiful. If you don't feel beautiful, it's not going to work.But if you can find something along a continuum of possibility, like, “I can”. I can learn to feel great about myself, then we've got somewhere to go instead of in a circle in our head where your brain's like, “no, that's not true”. Tanya loves to talk running and mindset anytime, anywhere you can find her. So check out her pages, reach out, and see if you would be a fit together! Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by REDproductions from Pixabay. (Year 2)If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 during the interview) and it was great to hear about the new 50-mile course and how he had a chance to get out on the course a bit more than in previous years. I also enjoyed chatting about my experience, and it’s always just a fun conversation when he’s on. He is so passionate about the event and celebrating our amazing sport. It’s contagious!“What was really cool this year too, and I saw lots of video of this is the amount of spectators on course this year. I don't, again, because I'm stuck in my little bubble, you know, I don't get to see all that stuff. That was so cool to see the number of people dressed up in dinosaur costumes and stuff like that.”This race is so much fun. I can’t recommend it enough. If you’re looking for a challenging September run in 2024 make your way to Finlayson Arm and see what Myke and the Coastline crew are up to. You will be so happy you did. Myke also has the Vancouver Island Trail Running Series you can sign up for and the Kusam Climb. So check those out too!Credit to Matt Cecill for the photo of Myke. Check out the full gallery here.Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by REDproductions from Pixabay.If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

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 was also enjoyable to hear about the state of trail running on the East Coast, what Jodi’s favourite part of race directing is, and what his favourite course is.“The Capes 100 course. It's beautiful. It has exposed high ground with great views of the ocean and of the Mabou Highlands. It's hands down, in my opinion, the best trail network in the province. It's all beautifully taken care of single-track. It's a network of about 30 kilometers, which is maintained by the Mabou Hiking Trails group and it's in an amazing part of the province, not just scenery-wise, but the locals, and they're not even runners, but they're just curious to see what is going on in their community. We befriended a bunch of locals and that's just a super fun part of it as well.”Nova Scotia Trail Running has 7 races from February to November and it’s clear that Jodi and Karine are very passionate about these races and this community. If you’re on the East Coast and looking to run, find out what race(s) are for you and sign up!Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by REDproductions from Pixabay.If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 champ Mika Thewes recently. Mika blazed through the difficult course (though she mentions conditions were great for record chasing this year) and landed atop the podium (she also made sure to point out that all three women on the podium beat the previous course record). She is super humble and it was really fun hearing about the race from the champ. She had words of encouragement for anyone thinking about taking on a long race like Bigfoot 200. “I'm not going to say it's easy or anything like that, but it's not as intimidating as you might think. You know, the volunteers are also great out there and they want everyone to succeed, and they're super helpful. And, you know, if you learn just how to manage, it's just about managing yourself, really managing your feet, your sleep, your stomach. If you can get all that under control, I think really anyone could, if they put in a little bit of training, can tackle it.”I hope you enjoy hearing from Mika as much as I did, it was a great time and I appreciate her taking the time to chat with us. Good luck to her during her upcoming Canadian 200 miler, The Divide 200! Andrew Miller Coaching GiveawayFriend of the show and trail running coach Andrew Miller reached out to me recently as he wants to give away a month of free coaching and we’re launching that today! Head over to this link and get yourself entered into the draw. Andrew was a great guest and you can listen to his interview and see if you think you two would be a good fit!Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by REDproductions from Pixabay.If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

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 his journey into coaching and has found it very rewarding.“It’s just really cool to see the science in action and just see how it impacts somebody’s life. I’ve had athletes who have come out of complete ruts. They were burnt out or they just had this wall where they couldn’t get past a specific barrier. It’s not gonna be a quick fix. But, when you have that breakthrough, you’re gonna look back and say “Yes, everything we just did is totally worth it.”Ryan is passionate about what he does and he’s eager to work with those who want to train their mental game. Check out his site and see if it’s a fit for you, there is no harm in spending 30 minutes chatting with him to see if it’s a fit!Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereYoutube: Click HereMusic by REDproductions from Pixabay.If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“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 whirlwind of support. It’s a great problem to have for an organization. Into Ultra helps get more people ultrarunning by covering the costs for those less able to afford it. Basil Heaney is a Co-Founder of the group and tells me they want to get more people involved in ultra running and right now that means making the sport more accessible.“We launched and essentially we’re trying to support people to get into ultra running who can’t afford it. That could be race entries, or coaching, or kit, or courses. It’s not a cheap thing to get into ultra running as we all know, particularly when you get into the longer stuff.”Into Ultra is UK based (and they plan to stay that way) and just getting started. The vision is to find ways to break down barriers for as many people as possible to get into the sport and I truly love this idea. Working towards making our sport as inclusive as possible is a great thing and I’m excited to see where Into Ultra goes! Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereYoutube: Click HereMusic by REDproductions from Pixabay.If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“The conference is more about inviting people to come in and have conversations about taking leadership.” Terry Chiplin has been organizing the US Trail Running Conference for 11 years now. The conference has changed a lot over the years, now with a focused theme each year and the idea is the conference is a platform for all involved to grow the sport. This year that platform is taking place in Mukilteo, WA, from October 18-20 and the theme is creating sustainable events within trail running. Terry is excited about the group getting together and seeing what happens.“We do everything in the one room. We have the meetings, the presentations, the discussions and the expo all happen in one room. We deliberately set it up this way so that people get really connected. It’s not just about, “Oh hi, I like your product”. You end up having really deep meaningful conversations.” Terry is really proud of how far the conference has come and is really excited at the prospect of where it can go. He’s looking for the next leaders to step forward and take the conference into the future but he's enjoying the journey too. The future is seemingly bright for trail running and the conference will continue to find ways to celebrate and evolve the sport.Find out more and get involved here.If you’re heading to the conference, let me know! I’d love to hear from you and perhaps we can meet up :)Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereYoutube: Click HereMusic by REDproductions from Pixabay.If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“My goal is to break generational poverty in the downtown communities and help newcomers, BIPOC folks, have access to these opportunities through sports.”Vincent Kuber is the type of person who knows an opportunity when he sees it. When he saw an opportunity to make the running scene in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, more inclusive and more inviting, he ran with it. When he received pushback and didn’t feel welcome in the entire scene, he pushed harder. He’s wired this way and it certainly seems like the community of Hamilton is a better place for his presence. His tenacity drives him and it was incredible to hear about his passion for the community.“As an opportunist and also having to deal with this type of stuff all my life, I’ve learned to take that information, yeah it hurts, but it’s nothing new to me, I’m kind of numb from that now, but what I usually do is come back stronger with more force and more of what I’m doing vs bowing my head down and walking away and leaving the space to how they want it. Which is kind of private.”Vincent has built a great community in Hamilton and he loves helping others. Steel Town Athletic Club is the club that he runs and how he reaches into his community. Not only do they have several runs each week that are inclusive and diverse, but the club also helps young people play basketball, and go hiking and he’ll soon be training track athletes. Vincent is doing everything he can to remove barriers for people so they can get out and enjoy activities. We chatted shortly after he got back from running the Minotaur Skyrace and the interview was so much fun for me. I hope you enjoy what he has to say as much as I did. Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereYoutube: Click HereMusic by REDproductions from Pixabay.If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

Roslyn Braun and her father Randall own RouteArrows, a company that specializes in route marking. Whether it's road cycling, road running or trail running, RouteArrows has what you need to mark the way. Randall had participated in many events over the years, where some were marked better than others, and finally decided he had to offer a better solution. When Roslyn was old enough to start contributing herself, she did just that.I've never really thought about the business potential of route marking until chatting with Roslyn. It was a fascinating conversation as it was really cool to hear what they are looking to accomplish as well as how much time and thought goes into creating route marking that works. "We’re just trying to make that job a little bit easier for them (race organizers). Hearing their stories and helping them make their jobs just a little bit easier is what is energizing. There’s so much potential because my dad is an inventor, he’s constantly innovating and we’re working together to create things that are totally new or a better version of what’s being used."Roslyn is passionate about what she does and the opportunity to work with her father is something she also cherishes. RouteArrows is a company that wants to grow and find its way to a start line near you, and Roslyn is working hard to make it happen. I really enjoyed the conversation and I'm excited to follow the company and see where they end up!Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereYoutube: Click HereMusic by REDproductions from Pixabay.If you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :) Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe

“Helping people see that running is just a chance to go have fun. It's a chance to go see what you’re capable of, but there is no obligation to do certain things, especially, just because you’ve done them in the past, It doesn’t mean you need to do it again in the future.”Andrew Miller has been trail running for 15 years and has been the youngest ever to win Western States (2016) along the way. He’s also a coach who loves to volunteer and give back to the community in any way that he can. His wealth of experience comes through many ups and downs over the years, including after winning Western States and feeling unexpected pressure. He’s realized how he finds joy in the sport and he loves the ability to share his experience through coaching.“It just gets me excited. Seeing people do races, especially people who are running an ultra or a new distance for the first time. Also, I like numbers. I like building training plans. I could look at running numbers all day long. So for me, that works out pretty well.” Andrew was a great guest and I really enjoyed hearing about his trail running journey so far. You can check out his website and what he has to offer as a coach. Reach out to him and see if it’s a good fit for your trail running goals here.Spotify: Click HereGoogle Podcasts: Click HereApple Podcasts: Click HereMusic by REDproductions from Pixabay.800 Subscribers! Like, share, subscribe and commentIf you enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)Myeloma RideThanks to those who donated to the 2023 Richmond @myeloma_canada Fundraising Ride! Our team raised nearly $6,000 and the event was a great success as well, raising a touch over $84,000. Myeloma is a blood cancer made by bone marrow and people living with Myeloma, like my friend Misty, are able to prolong and improve their quality of life through treatments like chemotherapy but there is no cure and those treatments often cause other adverse effects on the body.If you can help out the cause with a donation, we would be incredibly grateful!Donate here! Get full access to Community Trail Running at communitytrailrunning.substack.com/subscribe