Ben Preisner joined the cross country team in Grade 9 as a way to stay fit while playing hockey. As he progressed through High School, his relationship with running took an unexpected turn. Ben, still relatively new to the sport, represented Canada for the first time as a junior, placing 11th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and 16th in the 2,000-meter steeplechase at the IAAF World Junior/Youth Track and Field Championships. The following year, he won the 2,000-meter steeplechase and placed 3rd in the 3,000-meter run at the OFSAA Track and Field Championships. Ben would go on to compete at the ..read more

At the height of the pandemic and increasing racial tensions in the United States, Chris McGarrell found himself in a dark place. With gyms and basketball courts closed, Chris would return from work, curl up on his couch, and immerse himself in the social injustices in the world playing out on social media. It was then that two events would change his life. As restrictions were lifting, Chris noticed one of his friends would cycle to the basketball courts. Around the same time, Chris bumped into another friend who was noticeably fit after he discovered cycling. Chris knew what he had to do. Ch ..read more

Jerry Francois always had a sense he could run fast but the schools he attended growing up in Brooklyn didn’t have access to a track nor the funding for a cross country team. By the time Jerry entered High School, he started to get in trouble. In his junior year, Jerry lost his mother and struggled to cope with the loss; realizing he needed something to ground him, he turned to running in his senior year and attended his first track meet at the Armory in Manhattan. Running made Jerry feel normal again. Fast forward to 2016 when Jerry and a few friends were invited to a track meet. When asked f ..read more

In 2014, two friends came together to solve a problem in the sports nutrition market. Matt Smith and Patrick Stark, both passionate about sports and nutrition, recognized the market lacked real natural fuelling options that not only tasted great, but contained real food; that’s when Endurance Tap was born. To start, Matt and Pat didn’t have to look any further than Canada’s number one export, maple syrup, and after months of experimenting with different ingredients, settled on just two more simple ingredients; ginger and sea salt. The combination of these three simple ingredients not only resu ..read more

"I’m very happy that I personally work in an industry of photo that’s all about movement, because I think that movement is something that iPhones haven’t really got to yet. You have burst mode on your phone, stuff like that, but actually really capturing a strong photo of a very quick movement is something phones really haven’t mastered yet.” - Jay Crews There’s no question platforms like Instagram and Facebook have transformed how we create and share content and how brands leverage content in marketing and advertising. In this episode, we chat with Jay Crews, a commercial photographer who wor ..read more

“I got to a place where I was just sick and tired of being sick and tired. I’m looking at all these people curate their lives on social media and their everyday lives. It started off as a thought. It started off like a blank canvas and that’s what I looked at myself as.” - Latoya Shauntay Snell Throughout life, Latoya Shauntay Snell had to overcome adversity. Growing up in Brooklyn during the crack epidemic, Latoya watched as her dad struggled with drug addiction. While the experience made life difficult for Latoya and her family, it exposed her to the many facets of human life. Latoya’s dad w ..read more

April Cockshutt and Eddie Lee met at Sir Wilfrid Laurier University while April was pursuing a degree in International Business and Marketing and Eddie was pursuing a degree in Kinesiology. When April started to experience digestive issues and wasn’t seeing any improvements in her health following the advice of Western medicine, Eddie introduced her to someone in his family who practiced traditional Chinese medicine; April quickly started to feel better and that’s when she realized her true calling. At first April was working part-time practicing herbal medicine, but Eddie convinced her to pur ..read more

“That’s part of the reason why I do a lot of these hard races is to show well, you know what, you can do anything that you put your heart and your mind to. You can do it. You can achieve it and you don’t have to be held back by a disability.” - Jacky Hunt-Broersma At 26, Jacky Hunt-Broersma discovered a sensitive spot on her leg which doctors initially thought was scar tissue from a prior surgery; however, when Jacky woke up one morning to discover a lump on her leg, her doctor quickly scheduled a biopsy. Two days later, Jacky received the news she had Ewing Sarcoma and while she was mentally ..read more

“My relationship with running shifted. It was around the time I started doing ultra racing and trail running when it actually really switched for me. I would run to just work on me and my relationship with my mind and my relationship with my body and find a better way to love myself even more.” - Filsan Abdiaman Filsan Abdiaman’s love for running came at a time of self discovery. In 2014, Filsan traveled from Canada to her hometown in Kenya following a breakup and, in the process, discovered she was struggling with depression, eating disorders, and anxiety attacks. Upon returning to Canada to ..read more

April and Melanie Boultbee are twin, Indigenous runners who have been blazing a trail in the running community for more than 25 years. Early on, April and Melanie had great success running cross country in school and continued to have success later in life, even after taking a break in High School to party. After dominating the roads, both April and Melanie transitioned to trail running where they continued to have success. In 2016, April finished first overall in That Dam Hill 24 hour race by running 204.25km in the alloted time. When April and Melanie are not racing, they're both very active ..read more