This week we’re speaking with the organizers of the Forbidden 5 race and we get them to spill the beans on everything we wanted to know about their popular race, except their names!

When the global pandemic forced race directors to postpone or cancel races, two friends in the GTA running community came together to give runners a reason to keep training; while the name of the race may give the impression runners were participating in the some sort of illegal activity, the race encourages runners to “come together while staying apart” to hit their fastest times.

We’ll discuss how the race organizers selected the distances, the courses, and how they track the runners to identify the male and female winners!

To learn more about this race, you can follow along at: https://www.instagram.com/forbiddenfive/

Thanks for listening to this episode!

If you know someone who would make a great guest or you just want to share feedback, please email us at [email protected]. You can also find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!

André and Jonathan

If you search for the word “community” in the dictionary, you’ll likely find a picture of Quinton Jacobs and his captivating smile. Q, as his friends call him, is a community builder, a connector, and advocate for promoting the health and wellness of children in the Greater Toronto Area.

In this episode, Q opens up about his life growing up in subsidized housing and later on becoming a father with three kids. We’ll then discuss how a difficult time in his life changed his perspective and ignited a passion to help others. Q also shares his approach to working with charities and brands and the time he convinced a bunch of runners to run from Toronto to NYC!

Q’s impact on the running community can be seen in the many programs he started or supports, but it’s even more evident in the faces of the children he coaches to run.

It was a real privilege speaking with Q and we couldn’t help feeling inspired throughout the episode!

To learn more about the work Q is doing in the community, please visit the following links:

Kickback Connect - https://www.instagram.com/kickbackconnect/

Start2Finish - https://www.instagram.com/s2fonline/

Lead Up Run Crew - https://www.instagram.com/leadupcrew/

You can also follow Q’s personal journey at: https://www.instagram.com/quinton_jacobs/

Thanks for listening to this episode!

André and Jonathan

This week we chat with Olivia Levy and Kahle Richardson, two BIPOC runners in the Toronto running community, about the social intersectionality of gender, race, and class in running. Olivia and Kahle may both be runners of color, but they have their own social identities which create a unique running experience. We discuss how the generalization of BIPOC runners in conversations might be leaving out other aspects of their identity.

We’ll also discuss how to make running and races more accessible to BIPOC runners and how run crews, race directors, run brands, and others can help.

You can follow our guests at:

Olivia Levy: https://www.instagram.com/liv_levy/

Kahle Richardson: https://www.instagram.com/sweetleaf83/

Thanks for listening to this episode!

To learn more about the work we’re doing in the Greater Toronto Run Community, visit us at thelongeststride.com!

If you know someone who would make a great guest or you just want to share feedback, please email us at [email protected]. You can also find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!

To support the show, please rate and review this episode on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews help our show by making it easier to find in the iTunes rankings. The higher we climb, the easier it is to find us!

Thanks again!

André and Jonathan

This week we’re speaking with a panel of paramedical professionals about running injuries from prevention to treatment and everything in between! What we love about these guests is they’re not only treating the running community, they’re members of the running community! Melissa, Nate, and Brittany may provide different paramedical services to runners, but they all have a common goal; educating runners so they can avoid injuries in the future.

We’ll cover why they chose their respective career paths, the services they offer to their clients, and the importance of listening to your body. Our guests will also share how Covid-19 has impacted their practices and the precautions they are taking to ensure their patients are safe while getting treated at their respective places of business.

You can follow our guests at:

Melissa Doldron: https://www.instagram.com/melissad_rmt/

Nate Tsang: https://www.instagram.com/torunningphysio/

Brittany Moran: https://www.instagram.com/torunningchiro/

Thanks for listening to this episode!

If you know someone who would make a great guest or you just want to share feedback, please email us at [email protected]. You can also find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!

To support the show, please rate and review this episode on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews help our show by making it easier to find in the iTunes rankings. The higher we climb, the easier it is to find us!

Thanks again!

André and Jonathan

Lyndsay Tessier discovered she loved running at an early age and, when she didn’t make the cross country team in elementary school, Lyndsay continued to watch the other runners practice solely because she loved the sport so much. The cross country coach would eventually agree to allow Lyndsay to participate in an inter-school fun run where she went on to win, resulting in an invite to join the team. Lyndsay would continue to have success running cross country, but would eventually stop running in High School when the expectations of placing took away from her love of the sport.

Lyndsay wouldn’t return to the sport until her early 30s when a childhood friend joined a Running Room half marathon clinic and convinced her to do the same. Lyndsay would go on to finish her first half marathon at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon and the passion and love for the sport was rekindled.

In this episode we’ll discuss Lyndsay’s road race success and her truly inspiring rise to become one of Canada’s fastest long distance runners. We’ll also discuss how running influences her work as an elementary school teacher and how she emphasizes the importance of having fun as the school’s cross country coach.

To learn more about Lyndsay, you can follow her on Instagram at @lyndsaytessier.

Thanks for listening to this episode!

To learn more about the work we’re doing in the Greater Toronto Run Community, visit us at Runnersofthesix.com!

If you know someone who would make a great guest or you just want to share feedback, please email us at [email protected]. You can also find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!

To support the show, please rate and review this episode on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews help our show by making it easier to find in the iTunes rankings. The higher we climb, the easier it is to find us!

Thanks again!

Jonathan and Dre

Moe Bsat is as equally passionate about running as he is about bringing awareness to diversity in the running community. In this episode, Moe share’s how he got his start as a runner, his experience as a BIPOC runner, and his thoughts on diversity in the Toronto running community and beyond.

In 2018, Moe left Toronto for Hamilton and soon recognized a need to create a space for runners that reflected his vision of how a run crew could be, so he created The Air Up There Run Crew (@air_up_there_rc) with his Co-Founder Brad, a runner he met on Strava!

This past June, drawing inspiration from a yoga studio owner in Hamilton who created a BIPOC only yoga class, Moe dedicated a day of the week for an Air Up There BIPOC only run to serve as a place of healing and the results paid off immediately. Moe also draws parallels between running and social justice in a way that listeners can truly understand and explains why he is working so hard as a lawyer with the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic and member of the Anti-Racism - Anti-Oppression board to keep fighting for social justice and why you should too!

To learn more about Moe, you can follow him on Instagram at @elginsdiner.

Thanks for listening to this episode!

To learn more about the work we’re doing in the Greater Toronto Run Community, visit us at Runnersofthesix.com!

If you know someone who would make a great guest or you just want to share feedback, please email us at [email protected]. You can also find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!

To support the show, please rate and review this episode on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews help our show by making it easier to find in the iTunes rankings. The higher we climb, the easier it is to find us!

Thanks again!

Jonathan and Dre

Frontrunners Toronto was founded in 1987 as a chapter of the International Frontrunners organization. The LGBTQ+ run crew is made up of runners and friends of all abilities, from novices to advanced runners, for recreation, health and friendship. 

In this episode, we are joined by Lisa Sweetman (@thislisasweetman), one of the newest team members of Runners of the Six as well as two members of the Frontrunners Toronto Executive team, Val Leon (@valemouse14) and Scott Joudrey (@sjoudrey). We’ll discuss the importance of having an LGBTQ+ run crew in Toronto and how running communities and races be more inclusive of the LGBT2Q+ community.

You can follow Frontrunners Toronto on Instagram (@frontrunnerstoronto) and on their Facebook Page.

To learn more about the work we’re doing in the Greater Toronto Run Community, please visit us at Runnersofthesix.com!

If you know someone who would make a great guest or you just want to share feedback, please email us at [email protected]. You can also find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!

To support the show, please rate and review this episode on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews help our show by making it easier to find in the iTunes rankings. The higher we climb, the easier it is to find us!

Thanks again!

Jonathan and Dre

Welcome to The Longest Stride podcast! In this debut episode, we’ll introduce you to your co-hosts Jonathan (runthesix) and Dre (dreizle) and attempt to explain why we started this podcast.

The goal is to bring you a new episode each week! Let’s go!

To learn more about the work we’re doing in the Greater Toronto Run Community, visit us at Runnersofthesix.com!

If you know someone who would make a great guest or you just want to share feedback, please email us at [email protected]. You can also find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!

To support the show, please rate and review this episode on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews help our show by making it easier to find in the iTunes rankings. The higher we climb, the easier it is to find us!

Thanks again!

Jonathan and Dre

Welcome to The Longest Stride. 

Each week, we'll chat with runners, run crews, leaders in the community and so much more!

We're excited to bring to you a podcast FOR runners, BY runners.

Join us as we connect the Boroughs, one stride at a time.

Stay tuned for our official launch on July 9th!