Consistency is a virtue when it comes to running, and it’s certainly a message that the We Run Whistler group has taken to heart.
In its first two years, the group—started by Kristian Manietta and Pique’s own Lou O’Brien—has gained a foothold in Whister in large part due to its willingness to run each and every Tuesday at 5:55 p.m.
While the attendance tends to decline in poor weather, it’s not as sheer as one might expect. O’Brien recalled a particularly brutal winter run where temperatures dropped into double digits below zero in blustery conditions. A decent number of people showed up and O’Brien noted that when people aren’t in attendance, it has more to do with their respective availability than whatever is happening outside.
“We have made it our mission to never miss a week. No matter what the weather, we’ll always go out, whether it’s just for 6 km because it’s a blizzard or whether it’s 10 km because the conditions are good,” O’Brien said. “People are beginning to realize that it’s a year-round thing that they can do and there are people that they can do it with.”
While there were running groups active in Whistler in the past, all experienced their ebbs and flows and none ran through the winter. “They tended to be really intimidating to people because people tended to think that they were too hardcore,” O’Brien said, noting groups such as the one run by Helly Hansen didn’t grow much past 10 or 15 runners before its organizer left town. “We saw a hole in the market there to get something going again.”
Led a strong contingent of locals, the group occasionally sees visitors, such as guests training for a race or, as Manietta noted, an Australian couple that drops in whenever they are in the resort. Though both Manietta and O’Brien are experienced runners, all levels are welcome and encouraged to participate.
“Some people, if they’ve never trail run and it’s a bit intimidating to them, they think it’s not for them. But then they come to our run club and they realize that it’s definitely for everyone,” she said. “We’ve seen a lot of change in people over from just road running to embracing trail (running) and trying something new.”
Each week will offer two options, a full-distance and a half-distance run. Each will have a leader, while a third will run between the two groups. “We run together for the first part of the run and the pace tends to be very conversational,” she said. “We purposely try to keep it slow. As the leaders, we run slow ourselves.
“If people choose to run faster, we’ll allow them to if they know where we’re going.”
In its second year of operation, We Run Whistler added après-like socials to some of its runs in order to help “build stickiness and cohesion,” according to Manietta, who recalled going to Toonie Races and Monday Night Rides when he was new in town to create some social connections. He hopes the group does that for a generation of runners, creating a Toonie-like atmosphere that businesses clamour to sponsor every year.
“You can go and be competitive or not, and at the end you can have some food and a beer and it’s awesome. That social part is, ‘Hey, we sweat and suffer together and it’s kind of nice to chill out at the end of it,’” he said. “There are social parts on the run, but you’re still within your own head.”
Heading into 2019, the group is also measuring its own impact on local trails. Manietta is a mountain biker as well as a runner, buys a Whistler Off-Road Cycling Association (WORCA) pass every year and does trail karma when he rides in Pemberton or Squamish. While he accounts for his riding impact, he said runners need to take stock of theirs as well.
“We’re using this network of amazing trails, for the most part built by WORCA or maintained by WORCA and the RMOW and Whistler Blackcomb. It’s important for us to look after them,” he said. “It’s important to us and we really want to show that importance to our trail network. We want this healthy relationship between the runners and the mountain bikers.”
We Run Whistler is doing a WORCA trail night on May 14, working on Yummy Numby, instead of the weekly trail run.
Its season kickoff, on April 30, will start earlier than normal. The run will leave from Lululemon in Whistler Village at 5:30 p.m.
