Let’s talk partners.
We – and that means you, too – couldn’t do what we all do without our generous partners. Their support is key to us being able to create the kind of events we expect to deliver for all of you. Our partners provide generous financial support, share their amazing products with our community, offer vital promotional support, and, most of all, share our values when it comes to community, the environment, the outdoors, and the role we can all play in building a better now and creating a brighter future. We collaborate with our partners because we believe in one another and share important goals and values. We consider ourselves darn lucky.
Let’s introduce you to our current partners:
Real Athlete Diets (RAD: radboulder.com)
Kelly – the ingenious and talented chef behind RAD – is much, much more than a partner; Kelly is a dear friend who we’ve known for years and is one of those people who simply makes the world a better place. And that’s not just because she is a brilliant chef, which she is, but also because she is a warm-hearted, thoughtful, inspiring, and caring human. Kelly and her husband, Morgan, an equally special human, are what makes RAD so special. Over the years, RAD has shared their unparalleled vegan meatballs, glamorous cupcakes, unforgettable cookies, and delicious salads with us and our community. RAD provides performance focused meals and snacks for athletes, groups, camps, and more. Truthfully, a good percentage of our runners join us for the food. We’re all better off for that.
BPRunco (bprunco.com)
Our favorite local running shop, now in its sparkling new location at Gold’s Marketplace, on the corner of 26th Ave and Kipling St in Wheat Ridge, CO, BPRunco is your local, full-service running shop, but they are so much more than that. They are welcoming and inclusive trail and environmental advocates, local event supporters, and, more significantly, community builders. There is nothing like joining them for their various weekly group runs and events – you’ll see old friends, make new ones, and have a blast doing both.
Hoka (hoka.com)
Hoka has been with us since the beginnings, really for both of us. We know the guys who launched Hoka all those years ago with their pillow-soft, brightly colored shake-up of the traditional trail shoe. And we’ve been wearing them ever since. Of course, there is now such an array of Hoka options – for both road and trail – and they continue to innovate and advance, both technology and the sport. And, like us, they know we all have to be better and protect our precious planet – and they work constantly and diligently (as they should) to lessen their footprint. We’re thankful for Hoka’s continued support and generosity.
ECOFLOW (ecoflow.com)
We, too, are constantly working to reduce our own footprint for our events and programs, and ECOFLOW is making that so much simpler for us. Thanks to their generous contributions, we no longer need to haul a loud, smelly and emission-heavy generator to provide power for our events (think heat, lights, timing, hot beverages, PA, and recharging options for phones, etc.). Instead, their powerful, efficient, silent, solar/rechargeable Delta 2 Max, and its sidekick, the Wave 2 for optimum heating/cooling, generator gives us everything we need to keep our runners and volunteers happy and comfortable – even overnight, in the winter, and at altitude. We’ve even got a few of their solar panels so we can keep things up and running from Start to Finish. That’s just brilliant.
La Sportiva (lasportivausa.com)
La Sportiva has been a key member of the team for several years now, sharing their focused mountain running shoes and apparel with our hard-running community. They’ve been part of both our running and educational events, showing up with demos and support. Their Boulder, CO home is certified climate neutral, powered by wind energy, and their people donate countless hours for a variety of causes, all of which enhance their local community - and ours. People, product, planet – you can’t beat that.
Phun Bar (phunbar.com)
Jason, Phun Bar’s founder, a long-time outdoor athlete, realized he wanted/needed a better bar for his outdoor activities, better meaning: better tasting, easier to eat on the trail, no BS packaging, all natural ingredients. Not finding what he wanted he decided to make his own – and they rock. Phun Bars are made right here in CO, in small batches, come in tasty edible flavors, and utilize fully compostable packaging. What’s not to like about that. Our favorites are the Cherry bomb and the Lemon blueberry. But that’s just us.
Athletic Brewing Co. (athleticbrewing.com)
Finally, a great-tasting (meaning it actually tastes like craft beer) nonalcoholic beer. In this day and age, the option to enjoy a refreshing cold brew after a long day on the trails, without the effects of alcohol, is a no-brainer, and ABC makes that nonalco craft brew better than anyone else. A certified B-Corp, ABC’s mission is to: “positively impact [their] customers' health, fitness, and happiness while greatly impacting [their] communities and environment for the better.” We love being able to offer this to our runners after their races – and, not all that surprisingly, they like it too.
Racerite (racerite.com)
Not terribly surprisingly, runners want to know how fast they ran. Duh. OK, we get that, so in order to provide reliable timing, we are lucky enough to work with Mark and the Racerite team. Their timing systems and equipment – bottom line – works, no matter the weather/conditions, and provides reliable, real-time timing. Even better, they recognize anomalies and figure out to ensure that when results are reported they are accurate. Runners love that, so do we.
EcoVessel (ecovessel.com)
No one – no one – should be drinking out of a disposable plastic bottle these days. There are better reusable options out there, and none better than EcoVessel. Based out of our backyard in Boulder, CO, EcoVessel really does make a better vessel: cold liquids stay colder longer, hot ones hotter longer, and they even have a built-in tea strainer. These are, quite honestly, the best bottles we’ve ever used and we’re thrilled to partner with EcoVessel. They offer bottles and drinkware in a variety of sizes and types, but know this: they all look and work incredibly well.
BOCO (bocogear.com)
CO-based BOCO has been making our hats and beanies and socks since we opened the doors nearly 9 years ago. And we’ll continue to do so. They just get the outdoor/running community. They make it all so easy – offering a variety of killer styles, brilliant designers, reasonable minimums, amazing customer service and an excellent product. We change it up each time, and it always comes out the way we want. And, even better, our community digs ‘em.
Ultimate Direction (ultimatedirection.com)
Ultimate Direction – aka UD – produces the tools long distance runners, through hikers, and outdoor athletes need to perform at their best. Think running vests and packs, hand-held hydration flasks, apparel, and more. You can tell: when you toe the line at virtually any ultra you’ll see a ton of the athletes relying on UD to get them back to the finish. UD works tirelessly to develop sustainable products and processes that help shape a better future and outdoor experience for everyone. UD products are 100% BPA-free and all apparel is 100% PFC-free, and more and more UD apparel utilizes recycled materials and fabrics (e.g. bluesign and OEKO-TEX certified). It just keeps getting better.
Gnarly Nutrition (gognarly.com)
Endurance athletes need quality and effective hydration and nutrition for their outdoor adventures, and Gnarly offers the best of both. Gnarly provides the tasty hydration beverage for all of our runners, and they drink it up. Gnarly offers great taste, with all the essentials for a long day on the trails, with no fake stuff. And they’ve recently changed to offering their bulk mixes in steel cans – a huge step forward from the usual plastic bag - for better recycling. Better for recycling, better for us all, better for the planet.
The Pierogies Factory (pierogiesfactory.com)
Several years ago, we decided that for our winter event we needed an easy hot and tasty snack to keep our runners on track, over 24 hours in the winter and through the night. We connected with the Pierogies Factory restaurant here in town and it’s been an amazing ride since then. We now cook pierogies at all of our events and our runners just love them. We couldn’t be happier!
Salomon (salomon.com)
Salomon has been a leader in the trail running/outdoor community for a long, long time. They’re active in ensuring we trail runners understand our role in helping protect our planet so that future generations can enjoy the trails and mountains the way we do now. Their trail shoes and running apparel are thoughtfully produced to ensure we all get to make the most of our time outdoors.
