The annual Traverse City Trail Running Festival, organized by Endurance Evolution, is the focus of this week's show. Heather checks in with Joel Gaff, race director and founder of Endurance Evolution (and previous podcast guest), to hear how the 2016 race is shaping up. This two-day event starts Friday, April 22, and carries over into Saturday, April 23, offering a variety of distances for newer and veteran trail runners alike. The courses take runners through the Pere Marquette Forest on both single track and two-track trails, beginning at Timber Ridge RV & Recreation Resort on the east side of Traverse City. The festival kicks off with a two-person 10K relay (each runner runs 5K) on Friday evening, and the 10K, 25K and 50K individual races get underway on Saturday morning. Joel talks about this family- and spectator-friendly event, which includes a fun kids run during race packet pickup Friday night and cool post-race awards celebration on Saturday, and also shares news of Endurance Evolution's other racing events taking place in the region throughout the year. Heather, who is gearing up for her first triathlon this June, was especially eager to talk with Joel about his flagship race, the Traverse City Triathlon held at Bowers Harbor on Old Mission Peninsula in August. Links: www.enduranceevolution.com Timber Ridge RV & Recreation Resort: www.timberridgeresort.net
