“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 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 Peaks

Coast Mountain Trail Running Conquer the Vedder and Race to be Named

Distance Runwear

Ridgeline Athletics

Peaks N Valleys

Beast of Big Creek

Heads or Trails

Naak

Mum’s the Word

Calgary 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 11

Thursday, June 6, 2024, Canmore (Partnering with artsPlace) Tickets on sale in March

Friday, June 7, 2024, Crowsnest Pass (Blairmore) (Frank Slide Interpretive Centre partnering with Sinister Sports) Limited (75) $25 tickets on sale now

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!

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Music by Paolo Argentino from Pixabay

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