Happy trails: Run club lends a hand to women on footpaths

Before they met in person, the three women made plans to arrive in a park with no cell service. 

It was Thanksgiving weekend in 2018, and Brittany Gibbons longed to meet new people.

Gibbons started running six years earlier. At the start, she would just run a block around her neighborhood. Quickly, though, she fell in love with the feeling of being on a trail — surrounded by big, bright, mossy trees and the soft sounds of nature.

Maple Ridge has an extensive trail network, but when she moved to the city a couple years earlier, she was hesitant to explore on her own.

“I attempted short runs,” she said. “I’d have a friend with me and I’d be like, ‘I’m going to go run ahead! And then I’m going to come back… I was still scared to run trails by myself.” 

Days before Thanksgiving, Gibbons messaged a local running club on Strava, a popular fitness app. 

The page had not been active recently but Megan Joycey and Anna Razzell, two members of the Strava club who did not know each other, responded to Gibbons’ message. 

Joycey, who despised running in high school gym class, had picked up the sport a few years earlier and similarly wanted to run with people. 

“I had been running solo and training myself,” she said. 

Razzell, like Joycey, did not enjoy running growing up. She played lacrosse, and any time someone messed up, the team had to run. In high school gym class, they were always running laps. 

When a friend passed away, however, she started signing up for five-kilometre races and slowly found peace on the trails. But there was a lack of trail running-specific groups in Ridge Meadows. 

“I tried to get into trail running and joined trail running clinics, but they were always far away,” Razzell said. “I’d been looking for a long time [to join a running club].” 

The three quickly made plans to meet up for a run in Golden Ears park. 

“We put our faith in each other that we’re all good people and nothing bad is going to happen,” Gibbons said. 

Shortly into that first run, on that early fall day, the three runners had a similar idea. 

“We need something like this,” Gibbons said. 

“Are we all thinking the same thing?” Razzell replied.

“Let’s make a Facebook page and see what happens.” 

Five years later, hundreds of other runners from across Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows have joined them.

Launching RMRC

The Ridge Meadows Run Crew, the name the women gave their club on Facebook and Strava, didn’t take off until the pandemic hit in 2020. 

For the first couple of years, says Jenna Van Essen, another founding member of the run club, the RMRC had a core group of roughly six people — including Gibbons, Razzel, and Joycey. 

But as the world started opening up again, their membership skyrocketed. 

“Our first run back [in June 2021] we had gone from our core of five or six people to I think 15 people came out,” Van Essen said. “I remember Britt and Megan getting out of their car and being like, ‘Are they with us?’” 

Gibbons said the pandemic made people realize the importance of having connections in the community and being outside, which may explain the interest in the club after COVID-19. 

But Razzell also said that a lack of other local run clubs in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows contributed to their rise. 

“There’s only one structured organization that does [group] runs and that’s sole experience,” Razzell said, adding that sole experience primarily focused on training for road half- and full marathons. 

Although the Pitt Meadows running store also has group runs in the spring and fall, Razzell said Ridge Meadows did not have a club dedicated to trail running. She also said there’s another organized run group, the Alouette Achilles, but they aren’t openly public on many social media websites, which may be hard for new runners in the community to find.

“Year-round, there really isn’t anyone utilizing these trails, which is kind of surprising, considering it’s a great system,” she said. 

“I don’t know why nobody’s capitalized on that.” 

Celebrating five years of empowerment

The club, which is open to recreational and competitive runners, has strong membership from both men and women in the community. 

Since they launched in 2018, many women have praised the club for helping them feel safe on the trails.

“I do think being a woman and being out there is really empowering,” Joycey said. 

And after they learn the trails on a group run, Razzell added that many women have gained the confidence to explore the trails on their own time. 

“They learn the routes, they learn the outs, and they feel safe,” she said. “It’s super cool to look on Strava and see some of the people went out by themselves.” 

The club meets up twice per week — once on the weekend and another group run that starts and ends at Silver Valley Brewing in Maple Ridge. Each event brings out about 45 to 50 people.

On Oct. 15, they are also celebrating their fifth anniversary with a celebration at Golden Ears park, the same spot where three of the founding members met for their inaugural run in 2018.

The festivities will include a group run, food, beer, merchandise, and draw prizes. 

As the women plot out their fifth year anniversary, Gibbons is also looking to the future. One day, she hopes the RMRC will have their own annual trail race in the community. 

But regardless of whether the club creates their own race, she hopes that more members from Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows join their club — as both cities have miles of trails that are waiting to be explored.

“I just want to keep engaging with the community,” Gibbons said.  “Even the non-runners, maybe we can trick them into running.”