Setting the Scene

It’s 7am on Wednesday and we’re in the car, just east of Noonan, on the way to Minto, NB to shoot footage for a documentary project. 

“It occurs to me that it might be you that’s nervous.” 

In the haze of the morning, after being on the receiving end of my fixation on bringing the proper clothes for our day on camera, Kelsey has poked back, gently, but with the force of italics. 

Am I nervous? Probably. Do I want to be told that I’m nervous? No. After all, what am I supposed to wear if I can’t wear black, white, green, red, orange, stripes, or patterns? Blue, the answer is blue, or maybe grey, but also, do I have anything blue? 

“I’m focused,” I reply. 

I resist the urge to analyze the difference between nervous, focused, and grumpy. I break the silence somewhere between the Acadian Research Forest and the old Internment Camp — someone is grumpy and it’s definitely not me. 

I’ve always wanted to make documentaries, host programs, be something like the CBC hosts from my parents’ kitchen, and I've been preparing to do it for a long time. But sometimes, no matter how much I’ve been training, I can’t quite accept just how ready I am for the thing right in front of me. 

We finish the drive, and meet the film crew — Dan, Brian, and Mike — at the end of the New England Settlement Road, next to the beaver pond at the entrance to the Mountain Bike Minto trail system. The guys are pros, I can feel it in how they hold their cameras and microphones, the purpose in their steps, and the confidence they have in us. My breathing slows, I notice the trees, the wind, and I’m at ease — it feels like being held. 

Tomorrow, we’ll both race the Rompin’ Rockwood 52km and I’m reminding myself that I’ve been preparing for what’s right in front of me. I didn’t dream of trail racing until I met Kelsey, but I’ve been training for a long time, even when I didn’t think that I was. I’m remembering that more these days, that I can show up at the start line of a race, a project, or a totally unexpected challenge, feeling held by my experiences and by the people around me, even if I’m nervous, focused, and a bit grumpy. 

-AF 

Rompin’ Rockwood Starts Tomorrow (7am AT)

For the first time in 2026, we’re running the same race. We’re in Saint John today, at Rockwood Park, to run the 52km race at one of New Brunswick’s premier trail running events, Rompin’ Rockwood. This is a familiar race — Kelsey holds the women’s course record, and it was Adam’s first trail ultra — and one that we look forward to each year. 

⏰Live timing results can be found on the Saint John Trail Running (SJTR) website.

🏃🏼You’ll likely also find updates from the event on the SJTR Instagram account. 

Rompin’ Rockwood has one of the most competitive fields in Atlantic Canadian trail running. It’s a highlight of the race season and we appreciate that SJTR builds this race for every type of runner — from the first to final finisher. SJTR has turned this race into a pathway to national and global trail running for Atlantic Canadian runners by entering the race into the International Trail Running Association’s (ITRA) Canadian National League and becoming the second race in New Brunswick (second only to Hanwell Hammering by Dutch Viking Events) to commit to submitting results to the UTMB Index. This year, they’re also offering prize money for the top 3 finishers on each podium. These are significant advancements that help to get runners from Atlantic Canadian events more of the attention that they deserve. 

Trails In Motion Film Festival in Fredericton

We’ve partnered with Backtrails by the Radical Edge to bring the Trails in Motion Film Festival back to Fredericton for the second year in a row: join us at Odell Park Lodge on June 4th at 6:30pm for an evening of films celebrating trail running adventures from around the world. This year’s lineup features eight short- and medium-length films showcasing the beauty of the great outdoors and featuring stories of grit, resilience, love, adventure and joy that are deeply intertwined with the sport of trail and ultrarunning.

🎞️Tickets are available here: buy tickets.

This year, we’re coordinating an Atlantic Tour of Trails in Motion to bring the festival to other locations across the east coast through the summer and fall. Do you have a local venue you’d love to see Trails in Motion screened at in your city? Send us a message to let us know, and stay tuned for announcements of screenings in other locations coming soon!

Register For Mines to Pines 

We’re having a blast organizing our first trail race — Mines to Pines Trail Races — in the community of Minto in the municipality of Grand Lake, NB. The community of Minto has met our passion for trail running with open arms and has given us confidence that this race can be something special. It might sound overdone, but really would be honoured if you’d join us this year. There’s nothing quite like being there for the first edition of a trail race and we’d like nothing more than to lead this year’s edition in community with people that we love.  

🏅Register for the first edition of Mines to Pines here: register today. 

MIUT Recap

There are days I still find it wild that someone could be capable of running across an entire island – something unfathomable to a younger version of me that had never heard of this thing called “ultrarunning”. I showed up in Madeira with belief in my ability to not only complete the distance, but to race it among some of the best women in our sport right now. It felt like a milestone. 

I set out with big goals for MIUT, eyeing course record times and the top of the podium, and headed into the race with a mix of confidence and curiosity. After discussing race strategy with my coach, Jonathan, I planned to race fast off the start and put myself in position to see what was possible from there. I led through early moments in the race, running with the front group of five women until the first climb where I started to feel nauseous. I fell into fifth as we headed into the night. I dealt with nausea and fueling challenges through the night and morning, but stayed present in the race and used every tool in my toolbox to problem solve and move forward.

The race played out in moments that blend together in my memory: focused effort through the night managing the steep climbs and technical descents; noticing silhouettes of the twisted laurel Fanal forest against a moonlit night sky; the early-morning smell of eucalyptus after cool mists of rain; climbing steep stairs to the gymnasium where I first met my parents ~60km into the race; noticing the charred trees on the rugged climb to the Pico Ruivo, devastated by forest fires two years ago yet showing resilience; quick aid stations transitions with bottle swaps and cheers from Mom and Dad; finding flow and letting go to cruise along the levadas, shifting to another gear for the final ~30km into the finish; feeling a wave of emotions and gratitude-filled tears stinging my eyes as I approached the boardwalk in Machico and rounded the final corner to the finish line. 

-KH 

Starting the New Brunswick Trail Running Season 

We got our New Brunswick trail running season underway at the Hanwell Hammering, just outside of Fredericton. Adam won the 25km men's race and Kelsey — just back from Madeira and dressed as a hotdog and towing Ralph, also dressed as a hotdog — paced the annual Hotdog Hunt Kids race. Next up was the Fredericton Marathon, where Adam paced Stefanie Boucher on a cold, rainy, and muddy day. After that we headed down to the Saint Andrews, NB seaside for the Wharfbound Trail Race to run along the loose rocks, slippery seaweed, and squishy ocean floor. Kelsey won the women’s 19km and Adam won the men’s 11km. There’s a race to run almost every weekend in New Brunswick and it’s amazing to see so many familiar faces on each start line. 

Crew Appreciations

• Dan McLeod, Brian Lockyer, and Mike for filming the first day of our Mines to Pines documentary project. 

  • The people from Grand Lake who volunteered their stories for the project: Chelsie Rae, Jeremy Thompson, Raine Vienneau, Sean Morrissy, Alicia Cyr, Kevin Nicklin, Shawn Patterson, and Rick Hutchins 

  • To the Municipality of Grand Lake for supporting Mines to Pines. 

• Speeding Cheetahs, Fredericton’s nonprofit kids trail running group, for partnering with us to develop a shoe recycling project (and for having Adam out to run with its middle school group the last two weeks).

• Course Sur Sentier NB Trail Running (CSNBTR) for developing the sport in New Brunswick and for putting trail runners at the core of what they do. 

• Stephen Andersen from Andersen Endurance Sports Management for sharing his knowledge and collaborating with us on how to grow trail running in Atlantic Canada. 

• Pat Olsen and Rose Arsenault from Fredericton Capital Region for their advice and support for Mines to Pines.  

• Kurt Gumushel and Ian Covey for inviting us to run the ocean floor at Wharfbound Trail Race.  

• The Ralph-sitters: Alex Ross, Jos and Noortje (+Krimson), Hilary and Stephen (+ Fergie).

• Everyone who bought tickets to the Backtrails fundraising raffle to help offset Kelsey’s costs for racing MIUT this year. 

A Few More Notes 

🏃🏼‍♀️After her performances at Trangrancanaria and MIUT, Kelsey is 2nd in the World Trail Majors standings for 2026. 

📽️We watched a short film about the Kinder Rising Mass Trespass in England that led to the establishment of some of the existing public access rights for walkers, hikers, and campers. 

🎥After a good while sitting on his “watch later” list, Adam watched, A Runner’s High: An Indigenous Ultra Runner, a film about Kallup McCoy, an Indigenous endurance athlete. In addition to running, the film deals with themes of addiction, suicide, colonization, father-son relationships, and religion so take care of yourself if you choose to watch.    

🍿And one more film, Coming to Term: A Film About Running While Running Pregnant, that follows ultra runner Claire Gallagher. 

📚We both just read Somewhere Beyond the Sea, the second book in the House in the Cerulean Sea series. We didn’t love it quite as much as the first one, but loved getting to spend time with the characters, especially Chauncey, a green amorphous blob who is living his dream as a bellhop.