Sassquad Trail Runners

"Running isn't therapy" ...Wait, what?! Listen to this squatchtastic conversation with Sarah Strong to find out what that statement means!

Sarah is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, UESCA certified ultrarunning coach and mom based in the Colorado Front Range. Through walk and talk sessions and virtual therapy, Sarah helps individuals cultivate self awareness, self belief and self acceptance by reconnecting them to themselves and the natural world around them. 

"Running is my therapy." Can running really be the answer to all of our problems? .....Maybe it'll work for a little while, but using running as our only coping skill is not a sustainable and effective way to heal. Tune-in to this episode to hear Sassquad Trail Party Director Kim Levinsky talk about her mental health journey through running, therapy and meds.

In 2023, ultrarunner Lynn Maki found herself sidelined by injuries and decided to turn lemons into lemonade by jumping into the world of crewing and pacing. She dove into the deep end with four sleepless days/nights of crewing Kim Levinsky during her 358 mile NY Long Path FKT and got to pace Kim around mile 250. A few months later, Lynn crewed and paced three friends at the Sassquad Wild Goose 100 and then finished off the year by serving as a Guide for her friend Beth Rissmeyer at the New York City Marathon. Tune-in to this squatchtastic episode to hear about everything that Lynn learned from these experiences. You'll be sure to pick-up some golden nuggets to help you on your next crewing and pacing endeavor!

Sassquad Trail Running

Carolina Rubio-MacWright is an artist, immigration lawyer and activist fighting for immigrant and humanitarian rights. She was born in Bogota, Colombia where she lived until, at the age of 20, she needed a safer place to call home. She attended art school and law school in the United States, and throughout was active in her local immigrant community. She has worked as an immigration attorney in Miami, Oklahoma and New York City. Her experience as an attorney opened her eyes to inequities in our laws and racial power struggles, and how the two intersect. She believes that art is often the most powerful way of explaining these legal inequities. She has thus mixed her law and art experiences into performances, installations and workshops that serve a dual purpose - empowering vulnerable communities and educating more powerful ones. Whether working on policy campaigns for non-profits, performing public art pieces, speaking at events or organizing her community, she is guided by a simple principle: anything is possible when inspiring ideas and passionate people come together.

Carolina has been developing workshops that mix legal rights empowerment and hands-on experimental arts mediums, such as clay and cooking. These workshops have now developed into a platform for mixing unlikely communities together, the name is Touching Land. Through this artistic practice, the participants share a storytelling platform, bringing our humanity to the forefront as common traits and experiences are highlighted. This, in turn, enables participants to re-sculpt their political, social, and cultural barriers.

Carolina lives in NJ and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Connect with Carolina:

Join us for this recap on 2023! We highlight some of the exciting things that happened this past year and then look ahead to what's coming up in 2024.

Join us for this squatchtastic conversation with NJ trail runner L'Mani Viney! L'Mani has been in education for over 20 years and currently serves as the Dean of Students in Piscataway, NJ. As an avid trail runner, L'Mani draws on his experiences on the trails to help him navigate situations in and out of the classroom. We also chat about his involvement with Black Men Run and ways that our community can make the trails more accessible.

If you've been to a trail race or OCR in the tri-state area, chances are you have met Crystal Jackson! Crystal can be found on the starting lines of trail and OCR events throughout the year and is a Sassquad-regular. We sat down with Crystal to hear all about how she got into running and why she continues to run and race so much.

This is the recording from our FB Live Interview on Wednesday September 28, 2022 with Lee Connor and Karmell Ohlrogge! 

Lee and Karmell are seasoned ultra runners who are making an incredible impact on our sport! It'll take you a while to scroll through each of their UltraSignUp results as both Lee and Karmell have completed over 100 events combined (and that's just UltraSignUp!).

After we got the backstory on each of their running journeys, we spent the rest of the interview chatting about The Women's 100 Miler Project that Lee and Karmell created. The Facebook Group has over 600 women! Read on to learn more about this incredible group:

"EMPOWERING WOMEN IN ULTRARUNNING!
The Women’s 100 Miler Project Started as a low budget grassroots video project where we follow five women on their journey to their first 100 miler over the course of a year, under the training and guidance of established ultrarunner Lee Conner, in an effort to get more women interested in running 100s. In launching this project it became abundantly clear, however, that there’s no shortage of women WANTING to run 100s, there’s a shortage of women with the confidence to commit to or begin training. One of the biggest things holding them back was being overwhelmed with the conflicting information out there, and not knowing where to start. We decided to open up the training to all women, not just those in our video project. Our mission is to streamline and simplify information and training, in a supportive and encouraging environment, in order to facilitate making a 100 miler an achievable goal for as many women as possible."

We chat all things trail and ultra with Helgi and learn about his inspiring life story as an ultra runner and professional yacht chef. At the age of 19, Helgi was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), a form of degenerative arthritis affecting the spine and other joints. Since then, he has inspired, advocated, and raise money for others with AS through ultrarunning.

Most recently, Helgi completed 2900 miles in 60 days, including three 200+ mile races. Helgi is one of the masterminds behind the Mighty Gallatin 350 mile endurance run in Montana from September 5-11, 2022.

Sassquad Race Director Kim Levinsky and Sassquaders Matt Klein and Doug Wilson will be joining Helgi in Montana for the Mighty Gallatin!

This is the recording from our Tuesday June 28th interview with Sassquad Race Director Kim Levinsky! Kim was in the hot seat and shared about her experience at the Tahoe 200 mile race. After training for more than 640 days, Kim completed Tahoe with the help of her Crew and the support of her Community. 204+ miles in 96 hours, 5 minutes and 45 seconds.

Sassquader and 2021 Triple Crown Finisher (Tahoe 200, Bigfoot 200, Moab 240) Matt Klein led the interview with guest appearances from some of Kim’s Crew Members, Grace DiPaolo and Robin Chase. 

Scott won the inaugural Backyard Squatch in August of 2021 and earned a ticket to the Capital Backyard Ultra in Virginia. Scott just won Capital in May of 2022 by completing 254.16 miles! With the win, Scott has earned a spot on Team USA for the fall of 2022.

Along with his Backyard accolades, Scott has some other very impressive running feats under his belt, including multiple finishes of the Egg Nog Slog All Star Classic and the Hot Dog Run. Oh, and also outright wins at Keystone Backyard Ultra, Run Ragged Last Person Standing, 24 Hour Adventure Trail and the Squatchung Surprise!

This is the recording from our Facebook Live Interview on June 1, 2022... · As a Sports Dietitian, Dina works with athletes one-on-one (including Sassquad RD Kim Levinsky!) to fine-tune their daily nutrition framework and optimize their sports nutrition and hydration strategies. She specializes in working with female endurance athletes.

Trisha recently earned the FKT (Fastest Known Time) for the 360 mi long Erie Canalway Trail!! We heard all about the highs and lows, and of course, about ICE CREAM!

This is our interview with Nick Thompson on Wednesday September 1, 2021!

This is our FB Live Interview on Wednesday July 14, 2021 with Sports Dietician Dina Griffin! 

As a Sports Dietitian, Dina works with athletes one-on-one (including Sassquad RD Kim Levinsky!) to fine-tune their daily nutrition framework and optimize their sports nutrition and hydration strategies. She specializes in working with female endurance athletes.

Dina has a Master of Science degree in Food Science and Human Nutrition from Colorado State University and has worked as a Registered Dietitian and Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics in the clinical, outpatient, and private practice settings. She also holds the following certifications: Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics Certified by the International Society of Sports Nutrition, Certified Level II Metabolic Efficiency Training Specialist, and Dr. Stacy Sims “Women are Not Small Men” and “Menopause for Athletes”.

Dina has a long list of athletic accomplishments including the Leadville 100 trail run, the Comrades ultra race in South Africa, Ironman Coeur D’Alene (2013), Boston Marathon (sub 3:25 finish), NYC Marathon (3:26 finish), the San Francisco North Face Endurance Run 50k, and the Mount Evans Hill Climb.

Today's episode is the recording from our Facebook Live Interview on Wednesday June 16th with thru-hiker Stephanie Langner! We chatted with with Stephanie about her upcoming thru hike of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). Stephanie has thru hiked the Appalachian Trail, the Northville Placid Trail, Long Trail, and the Long Path!

Sassquad RD Kim Levinsky is in the hot seat sharing about her recent runventure at the Grand Canyon! Keilynn Hopkins did a fantastic job dishing out the questions for this interview.

On Thursday April 15th, Kim covered 54 miles and 12,200 ft gain and 12,200 ft loss as she traversed the Grand Canyon solo traveling down the Bright Angel Trail, across the box, up to the North Rim, back down and then up the South Kaibab Trail. 

Miriam Weiskind, aka "The Za Report", is an underground pizziola baking up a generous storm of pizza in NYC amidst the pandemic to help keep New Yorkers in need, happy and full of pizza. Originally from Ohio, she moved to NYC to pursue a career in graphic design. In 2011, she met Scott Weiner, of Scott’s Pizza Tours, where she would then lead pizza tours all around NYC until spring of 2020 when the pandemic struck. In early 2020, she decided to trade in a career as an Art Director to pursue pizza fulltime, starting out as a Pizzaiola at Paulie Gee’s then opening her own speakeasy pizzeria run from her home in Brooklyn, NY. For any New Yorker without a job, a first responder or anyone having a tough time, Miriam gives out free pies—under the notion of paying pies forward to honor her mom who passed away in the summer of 2020.

Launched in February 2020, the Trails Collective provides regional coverage of trail events and updates, volunteer opportunities, links to entities forming the Collective such as coaches and shops, gear reviews, an event calendar with mapping integration, communication message boards, and multiple video channels celebrating all of the above.

Red Newt Racing hosts over a half dozen events in NY, including the Breakneck Point Trail Runs and the Cuyahoga Trails 50.

In 2017, world-class ultrarunner Hillary "Hillygoat" Allen was at the top of her sport--and it felt like she was running on top of the world as she competed in Norway's Tromsø Skyrace. Allen was nearly halfway through the 50K race when she fell 150 feet off an exposed ridge, fracturing her back and breaking multiple ribs, both feet, and both of her lower arms. Ten days and two surgeries later, Hillary flew home and underwent three more surgeries in Colorado. She was told she might never run again. Just 11 months after her injury, after a rehab period that tested her determination, courage, and spirit, Hilary placed second in the Broken Arrow Vertical Kilometer race in Lake Tahoe and raced a 52K race the following day. A week later, she won a mountain race in the Dolomites.

Hillary hopes to inspire, educate and encourage other people to find balance in their lives—something the injury has helped her find. Hillary studies and teaches science, using her masters degree in neuroscience and physiology and structural biology. She is also a trail running coach, and a gravel cyclist.