Ep. 126 Gotta Run Racing. With Jodi McNeill and Norm Nadon

“Finish line. All the vibes at the finish line, whether it's tears or laughter or appreciation, you cannot replicate that feeling. Whether you're the runner or you're the race director.” - Jodi McNeill

Jodi McNeill and Norm Nadon have been running for a long time and they’ve had the sport be an even bigger part of their lives than most, having run a retail shop for a while. The one constant love in the sport they both share is the love of community. The opportunity to share that with others and grow their own is one they both embrace as the hosts of the Gotta Run Racing Podcast. The podcast was something that was on their radar for quite some time, and all it took was the pandemic to kick it into gear.

“The funny thing is that I always wanted to do a podcast even before we sold our store, and I bought all the equipment, I threw it in the closet, and that's where it was for a year. And then the pandemic, we sold our store and I said, okay, now's the time. And thanks to YouTube, how do you edit? How do you produce? How do you market? I learned on YouTube. And yeah, that's how it came to the podcast today.” - Norm Nadon

Jodi and Norm were kind enough to have me on their show as well, which you can find here! Make sure to listen to both shows and let us know what you think. I had a blast learning more about them and I equally enjoyed getting the chance to share some more about myself on the Gotta Run Podcast.

The Trail Running Film Festival is coming to Jasper

The Trail Running Film Festival is back, and we are hosting 6 shows this year! I’m incredibly excited to be returning to Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Canmore, and Crowsnest Pass. And we’ve just nailed down our 6th show, the one we’ve been hinting at, as we’re headed to Jasper in 2025! It will be a fundraiser show to help recover from the terrible wildfires earlier in 2024. We’re so pumped to be working with Jasper Community Habitat for the Arts to bring the festival to Jasper. All proceeds from this specific show will be split between the Habitat for the Arts and the Jasper Volunteer Fire Brigade. We saw the Run for Jasper had raised funds for the brigade through that event and thought it was a great idea.

A massive thank you to Mathias, Amanda, and everyone else at the Trail Running Film Festival for donating the license for this show. It truly will be every dollar raised going back into the community. Tickets are on sale now and if you can’t make it but want to donate, we have a donation option on the site as we’d love to raise as much as we can for these Jasper groups. It’s an iconic Canadian outdoor space and the Trail Running Film Festival seems like a great fit and way to help the revival of that great community.

I can’t wait to hang out with you all again, celebrate our amazing sport, and grow this festival to provide an even more fun and entertaining evening for everyone involved. Our early bird tickets are on sale now for the newly announced Jasper show, as well as Vancouver at the Rio, Edmonton at the Garneau, and Crowsnest Pass at Frank Slide. They are $25 and will go up to $30 on January 1, and they will be $35 at the door. So you might as well save a few bucks while you can.

We are so damn excited to have 5 Peaks and the Stoked Scramble/Stoked Ultra back as our Platinum sponsor this year. They have been incredible to work with as they are so supportive and so encouraging and have been since day 1. They love this event as much as we do and we’re super grateful to Jacob Puzey for all the support. They give us so many goodies to give away as well, it means the world to us!

We also have Black Lung Ultra from Nordegg, AB coming on as a sponsor for our tour. Last year they got involved with our Alberta shows and had so much fun they are getting even more involved this year! Their race sold out in its inaugural year back in September, and we’re pumped to help them sell out again in 2025! A massive thank you to Petrea, Nick, Michael, and Brandon for their constant encouragement and support.

We will likely announce some more sponsors in the coming weeks, we’ll have guests to announce, and we’re working on fun acts like the surprise burlesque opening act we had in Vancouver in 2024. We want to lean into the word “festival” and do that by including local artists and performers, so we can continue to spotlight our amazing communities.

I’m so pumped to be working with Jeannine Avelino again on all of this. She’s such an incredible community member and human being and I’m lucky to have her involved. And of course, my wife Sheena is always helping and finding ways to add value to our shows. I’m grateful to her. We have a small but mighty team and we plan on showing what we can do to make 2025 your favourite year yet! Get your tickets now.

The Miller Minutes #2

This was our second meeting and I had a bit of a struggle this month as a storm blew snow in for nearly a week straight. I’ve not had to deal with weather like that for quite some time, and shoveling snow every day was a challenge I forgot about! So this challenge and the challenge of figuring out my personal time with my new job have been tough but I’m feeling good about it. Andrew Miller is a great coach who keeps me positive so we just keep moving forward toward the goal!

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Music by Paolo Argentino from Pixabay

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