Saturday, March 30, 2013

2013 - Who We Are - Part 1

What's Team Robert's mission statement? 

Published October of 2008

"Team Robert, I suppose you could say, was founded back in the early 90s when my father dragged me out to run my first 5k with him. Years later I paced him at the Vermont 100 and the following fall he introduced me first hand into the world of ultra running at the Vermont 50 where we ran side by side for 50 miles. Since that September weekend back in 2000, running has been something my friends and family know me for. It’s something that I've been able to share with many of them. Anything from just sharing stories, to getting them to take their first steps on a couch to 5k program, to watching them surpass any distance I've ever run by running the Vermont 100 themselves.

I've created Team Robert so we can share our journeys not only on the roads and in the woods but also in cyberspace. So we can have a meeting place online to talk about upcoming races, training schedules, events, and race reports. Eventually, I’d love to see the “family” grow enough that we can start fund raising for a charity to be named when the time arises."


Published January 2011
...was a question i faced a few weeks back.

I'd never thought about this before. The name was yelled at Rik and I at the Vermont 100 years ago. It stuck, later that fall i created a blog and got shirts, but then it kinda petered out. It was just a cool display of my artwork that i could share with my family and girlfriend at the time. To run trails? too common. To hike and camp? too specific. To get outdoors? too broad. The short answer is, i didn't have one, and to be honest, I still don't have one.

Here's a snippet of what hit my Inbox last week written by my lovely girlfriend that i think sums it up more than anything I have written.

"Team Robert started as a family team. In Josh's (and so many of our) words, "Friends are the family that you choose." When you spend hours on the trail with someone, they know you on a deep level. When you train with people weekend after weekend, they see the good and bad. We've been through a lot together, on and off the trail, and we're all family: a team. We're planning on many outdoor events together, and it would be great to have support of a team even when we're not close to each other."


Published in January 2012 in Steve Latours Book ( Link)
"Josh started running ultras by accident in 2000 when his pop Rik needed a pacer at VT 100 then a partner at VT 50 and he's never looked back. The founder of Team Robert, along with his father Rik and brother Steve, he leads the rag-tag band of runners of all levels in various adventures, challenging minds, bodies, and livers. Josh loves introducing people to running of all distances, preferring to share his miles with friends and friendly people at all times."

"...Hillsboro Trail Runners aka Team Robert. I am a proud member of this group even though i never go to any event they sponsor.  Why?  Because they think that running ten miles and drinking ten beers fit together seamlessly....I'm giving them benefit of the doubt.  It is probably more like five miles and twenty beers."

"..i met up with the members of Team Robert.  Now, the lot of them had thought the best way to spend the night before a long race was to go from brewery to brewery quaffing ales to all hours of the night and the wee hours of the morning."

Here and Now in 2013
Hillsboro Trail Runners / Team Robert is just a group of my friends and family that run, hike and go on wooded adventures.  We're all getting older.  We've all got full schedules.  So i created this group as a way for us to keep in touch, to all gather and train together for a shared goal.  Some years it's been our annual Pineland Farms running/camping trip.  Other years it's been disappearing into the deep woods of Maine to hike Katahdin.  This coming year it's going to be focused on Grant and I finishing the Vermont 100 in July.  Then helping Loni finish her first 50 at the Vermont 50 in the fall.

We run/yoga/snowshoe/kayak/hike/cross train at least once a week and put on a fun Summer Fat Ass Running series winding around the back roads of Hillsboro and within Fox Forest.  Our skill levels run from non-runners that do one race a year with us (a two miler that involves beer and hot dogs) to the skilled veteran of my father Rik who's been running Ultras for 20 years.  Our pace is generally dictated by our slowest runner and normally averages out to 10min/miles so don't be intimidated to join us, .  And no, even if you DO join us, we won't force you to have our traditional post run frosty beverage.

Hope to see you on the trails.

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