Oddly enough, I didn’t have “travel halfway across the country on my first day of a new job” on my 2025 Bingo card, but we had places to be and a lot of people to talk with. The place was San Antonio, TX and the people were folks from all over the world, all converging at a conference center for The Running Event (TRE). This was Kat’s third time attending TRE, and she told me ahead of time that it was probably going to be a little overwhelming.
I can confirm: TRE is a little overwhelming.
If you’ve never been, imagine thousands of people from seemingly every company involved in making running shoes, apparel, and gear as well as from countless run specialty stores all mingling in a temporary indoor city of booths showcasing just about every running-related product you can think of. Also imagine spending your first 72 hours on the job at such an event. It was a blast.
Our friends at KEEN provided us with a booth inside their big space in the exhibit hall for the entire event. The company was there to showcase their new line of trail running shoes to run specialty shop owners trying to decide what new products to offer in their stores. Yet, they graciously carved out a big chunk of their space to dedicate to RPL so that we could also connect with attendees from all over the country.
Kat assembled a crack team to represent RPL at the event: aside from herself and the new guy was Aimee Kohler and Sara Aranda, two of our awesome Ambassadors. Aimee is a runner, race director, and podcaster from Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley and Sara is a runner, FKT’er, and writer from Durango, Colorado. Austin Corbett, an Ambassador from Flagstaff, Arizona, RPL’s former president, Jess Rogers, and current board member (and most infectiously stoked person I know), Tim Tollefson, were also at the event for work and were able to spend some time at our booth.
The RPL booth fit seamlessly into the KEEN booth thanks to their design team. It featured a massive map of public lands across the lower 48 states, where we had people point out their favorite trails, races, and places on stickers. As we hoped, attendees were drawn to the map like…runners to a map. We met people from Maine to Seattle, from Minnesota to Florida, from Colombia to China. Our team was stationed at the booth for 8 -10 hours both days the exhibit hall was open to attendees. It was only possible thanks to Aimee and Sara volunteering the better part of a week to fly out to Texas and help.
At the core of RPL’s work is this understanding: everyone, including the entire running and outdoor recreation industry, relies on clean air, healthy landscapes, and access to nature. We are so grateful to the companies that have committed to that concept and who have shown up for us by being part of the RPL Brand Coalition. In addition to KEEN giving us a space at TRE, several other brands supported us and our work at this year’s event. For two mornings straight, Altra gave out sweatshirts—which attendees could customize with art by San Antonio-based artist and owner of DGU Customs, Marissa Cervantes—for a suggested donation to RPL that ultimately raised $4,000. Nomadix made us their Giving Tuesday (which coincided with TRE) beneficiary of online sales. Teva raised $1,000 for RPL throughout the event by donating $5 for every pair of Aventrails people tried on at their booth. GU featured information about RPL at their booth, and, alongside Patagonia and Fitz Cahall of Duct Tape Then Beer and The Dirtbag Diaries fame, gave a huge shoutout to us during the fantastic Brands for Public Lands panel hosted by The Conservation Alliance.
Perhaps the wildest part of TRE was tagging along with Kat as she ventured around the conference center. I quickly found out that she knows approximately all of the people. We traversed the event at about the pace of a toddler, never making it more than 10 feet before we ran into an acquaintance. This included folks from the brands mentioned above as well as Fractel, Best Day Brewing, Kane Footwear, and On; staff from other nonprofits in attendance such as Warrior Trail Foundation, Rising Hearts, American Trail Running Association, and The Wander Project; and some legendary runners and race directors such as Mike Wardian, Dale Garland, Scott Jurek, Brendan Madigan, and Mike Foote (whose Trail Runner Magazine article in 2017 partially inspired the formation of RPL)! I was truly impressed with just how many people at the event knew about our relatively young organization and were eager to get more involved.
Ultimately, that’s what TRE is all about for us: making connections. It was wonderful putting faces to names that we normally only see in emails. I especially enjoyed spending time with our Ambassadors, getting to know them better than I could via Zoom. These deeper connections and relationships are the true secret to RPL’s success. The only way to carry out our mission of empowering runners to protect public lands and expand access to nature for all is by working with passionate people and communities from every corner of the country.
Thank you to KEEN for giving us a space to make connections and to everyone who made our trip (and my first week) so special! I can’t wait to see you all again next year.
