About Us

Group Photo We are a non-profit group of runners in the Vancouver-Kitsilano area. We run because we enjoy running, the outdoors and the company of other runners. When we are not running, we love to talk about running and share our stories - if you dare to ask.

The group formed in spring 2004 from alumnis of Gerry's marathon clinic and the Run Club at the Alma Running Room. Since then people have moved on and new people have joined the group. We meet several times a week to run together and always welcome new runners. Our goal is to never leave anybody behind.

Schedule & Meeting Places

  • Wednesdays, 6:00pm at the Alma St Running Room, 235-2083 Alma St
    social run along the beach or through residential areas
  • Saturdays, 9:30am at the park centre in Pacific Spirit Park, off 16th Ave 500m west of Blanca St
    social run in the trails of Pacific Spirit Park
  • Sundays, 8:30am at the Alma St Running Room, 235-2083 Alma St
    long run to always changing destinations, see our clinics schedule

Training Programs

There is always another race coming up that we can train for. After Gerry's departure from the Alma Running Room, Carsten took on the organisation and coaching of the marathon training group at the Alma Running Room.

Carsten Without any expectations Carsten began training for his first marathon in 2004 to break out of a primarily sedentary life style and the confines of working in Vancouver's high tech industry. The four months training transformed him and Gerry, the marathon coach at the time, took a lot of pride teasing Carsten for years to show before and after pictures of himself. (A before picture will not be posted on this website!)

Carsten finished his first Addidas Vancouver International Marathon in May 2004 and caught the marathon bug as he crossed the finish line. Since then he has become a running nut, improved his time significantly and competed in some twenty marathons, including Berlin, Chicago, New York City and the Boston Marathon. In numerous events, Carsten was a pace leader helping first time marathon runners to achieve their goals.

Carsten has been coaching the marathon training group at the Alma Running Room for the last twelve seasons and helped hundreds of aspiring marathon runners kickstart their running career and fulfill one of their life goals. A schedule of Carsten's long runs, past and current, is available in the clinics section of this web site. These runs are open to everybody. For more information on our training programs visit a Running Room store or the Running Room web site.

Favorite After-Run-Hangouts for Breakfast or Burger&Beer

Copyright © 2009-2011 Carsten Rathsack - All rights reserved.