Club Scene
Canmore Trail Culture
With its majestic mountains and outstanding trails, there’s no doubt that Canmore is a fantastic place to start a trail running club, and that’s exactly what two local runners, Michael Fitzpatrick (a.k.a. Fitzy) and Alicia Evans did back in March, 2015. Their initial goal with the Canmore Trail Culture club was simple and straightforward: start a group that would allow locals and visitors alike to run trails, meet new people and get comfortable running in a group setting.
Since day one, the group has targeted every level of trail runner. “As the group grew, we began separating the group into subgroups which we call Caffeinated, Midcalf and Decalf,” Fitzpatrick explains. “Our overarching theme is that everyone is welcome, so while the Caffeinated group might consist of local elite runners and Olympians, which are not uncommon in Canmore, we also have new runners and first-timers who just want to meet people and get to know the trails in the area.”
Every Tuesday, the ctc group meets in a different location in the Bow Valley. Routes and times always get posted on their Facebook page prior to the event. The formula is simple; a leader will take their group on an adventure of their choice for approximately an hour. “Each week,” says Fitzpatrick, “I ask someone to lead each group, based on their knowledge of the trails that we’re running that evening. It’s never hard to find people to lead; we have a core group of people who come out each week who we can trust to lead in an inclusive way.”
Over the years, the ctc has grown into much more than just a trail running group. It is now a full-f ledged community that gets together outside of runs all year round for skiing, biking, dinners, races and even Christmas. Evans and Fitzpatrick ’s crew also take pride in giving back to the community any way they can by doing things like setting up cheer stations at the annual Banff Marathon and 5 Peaks races, weekend running retreats, supporting local square dancing nights, putting on an annual Christmas party for all the trail runners in the valley and organizing a midweek trail series with Lululemon called First 49 that takes place from May to September. Plus, as users of the local trails, they want to do their part to keep the local trails in pristine condition. “We support Friends of Kananaskis, who maintain the trails in the valley, and we also support our local Mountain Bik ing Associat ion camba (Canmore Area Mountain Bike Association). Staying in contact with your local mountain biking association and seeing how you can help is super important. Trail runners are always going to use mountain bike trails, so it’s important to work together and help out,” he says.
As for what’s on the docket for the rest of 2020? Fitzy and the crew have a handful of projects in the works. In addit ion to t he First 49 series at t he Canmore Nordic Cent re t hat always sells out, they are organizing end-of-month runs with the Rockies Run Collective/Runuphill and trailbuilding workshops wit h St r ides Running Store, just to name a few.
Melissa Offner is a television and podcast host, and leader of the North Vancouver run crew RUNDISTRIKT.