Edmonton’s Fast Trax run shop: rooted in community
The store also offers an accessible and inclusive run club, and their staff don't just talk the talk
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Fast Trax
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Fast Trax Run & XC Ski Shop in Edmonton, Alta., isn’t just a place to buy sneakers. When you come in the front door, you become part of the family, whether you’re just buying shoes, joining one of their group runs or helping with one of their donation drives. Co-owners Simon Stewart and Mekita Aznar, both former engineers with a deep love of running, bought Fast Trax a few years ago after falling in love with the run community.
Catering to the local community
Fast Trax is locally owned and independent, and because of that, the owners are able to be heavily involved with their local community. Last month, a truck could be spotted outside the store loading up box after box of track spikes that were being donated to Go Athletics (an Edmonton-based athletics club for young people). The shoes were then distributed to young refugees in Edmonton to help get more kids into track and field.
“As a business, you buy running shoes, and you try to sell running shoes,” Stewart says. “Inevitably, there’s always inventory left over at the end of the season, and over time, we’re able to gather up enough shoes to donate to organizations in need. We also collect gently-used shoes from customers—the shoes that maybe aren’t perfect for running anymore, but are still OK for for general use. Those donations, along with older shoes that we aren’t able to sell, get sent to organizations in need, like the ReRun Project, the local hospital or the local youth employment services. We like to donate them and hope that they get to a good home.”
Not just here to sell shoes
Hot tip: if you have a race near Edmonton, head into Fast Trax to get all the race beta and the best advice from the staff. “All of our staff run and ski,” says Stewart. “That’s where having a brick-and-mortar business helps–people are coming in for shoes, but they’re also coming in for advice. Most of us are experienced runners now, but we all remember being new to running. We understand where people are coming from. It’s nice to have people come in and they’re not only looking for shoes, they want to talk about their upcoming race. And between all of us, one of us probably ran that race and can share some advice.”
(Stewart is also a run coach and does the programming for run club, so when it comes to training questions, he also has the answers.)
A run club about more than mileage
The Fast Trax Run Club meets twice a week. “The club has been going for years–it’s how I first got involved with the shop before we bought it,” Stewart says. “We used to come out and run, and it was a great place to socialize and meet other people. Last year, we expanded it even more, adding some options for new and intermediate runners, trying to make it more accessible and inclusive.”
A look on the Fast Trax site confirms this. Not only are there workouts for speed demons, the same workout time frames are also broken down with run/walk options for new runners. But Stewart is clear that new runners are also allowed to be performance-focused. “All of the workouts are fairly structured, and that’s by design,” he says. “They introduce a beginner and intermediate runner to the concept of workouts that have a little bit more structure. So in the beginner’s workout, the format is very similar to the advanced workout. It’s just that instead of running hard pace and then jogging in the rest intervals, it’s run/walk.”
Additionally, the workouts are time-based, so that no matter how fast you are, you finish at the same time as everyone else. This means that the new runners and the more elite runners in the club are able to socialize post-run. “It’s developed into quite a thing, where a lot of the runners then will go to a local coffee shop afterward,” he says. “It’s a very social group, even though the runners are there to work hard. We know that when you have to meet a bunch of friends to go running, you’re less likely to procrastinate.”
Catering to the multisport athlete
Finally, it has to be said that Fast Trax doesn’t just cater to runners; they also are a cross-country ski store. And there’s quite a bit of overlap. “A lot of skiers tend to cycle in the summer, but now we’re seeing that more will also trail run,” Stewart says. “And then there are a lot of generally athletic people who want to do a bit of everything.”
That’s because Edmonton is a multi-sport city. “We have great mountains close by, so trail runners love it,” says Stewart. “And from a city running perspective, there’s a river valley that runs through the city that’s got hundreds of kilometres of gravel pedestrian and bike paths. There are mountain bike trails, and a huge expanse of river valley that’s fantastic for running. It’s a great place to live in to be an athlete. It’s great in the summer, and it’s great in the winter.”
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