Member Spotlight: Vipul Raja
Vipul joined Trail Roots in 2024 when he was looking for a crew to run and make friends with and was looking to learn the trails around the city after moving to Austin from Toronto, Canada. He is dedicated and consistent, attending 2-3 runs a week and works with a coach as he aims to do his longest trail race yet, a 100K. Since joining, he’s been bit by the running bug and has no plans of stopping anytime soon. He’s found a home with us and we wanted to ask him a few questions about his journey with running.
What inspired you to start running?
Three things essentially, my partner, my father and COVID. Flashback to 2020, Vipul who used to be a full-on extrovert gets stuck at home with the lockdown and turns to alcohol and overeating, leading to depression, poor mental and physical health. It was at this point that my wife called me on it. She's very health conscious and was disappointed in me and nudged me to do something about it. I started running with this frustration and to escape from the lockdown as exercising outdoors was still allowed, but once I started what kept me going was my father – he has been running for 40 years regularly and he was very happy to see me get into it and was always ready with handy tips to solve some of my rookie issues. It was all this that got me to run!
Why did you join Trail Roots?
I joined Trail Roots when I moved to Austin from Toronto, Canada in September 2024. Building on the story above, after running 2-3 times a week for about 6 months, I discovered a Facebook group called “Saint John Trail Running”. That was a beginning of infinity of sorts for me in the sense that I had never known that running in the woods was a thing and that there were these beautiful humans who were just happy to run with and help each other and become a family. It reminded me of my childhood when we used to go out and play every single day for hours on end. It was honestly one of the biggest blessings of my life, after about 6 months of running with the crew, I did my first trail 50k with them. After a while, life had other plans for me and I had to relocate from Saint John to Toronto. And the thing I immediately did was find a trail running group that helped me build a community in the new city and also accelerated my acquaintance with the trails around the city. When it came time to relocate AGAIN, from Toronto to Austin, the first thing I did (months before arriving in Austin lol) was Google trail running groups in the area and Trail Roots was top on the list – there were several other groups but none that were into trail running and races, I noticed that the group was a subscription-based group, which was new to me, but made sense in that everyone in the group would be more engaged. And so, I pulled the trigger on joining the group about 4 weeks after moving in. So, it was in search of a community and acquaintance with trails around Austin that made me join Trail Roots.
“Find joy in running, try to make it like play and what’s better than going out to play with friends! ”
Has your training changed since joining a group?
Oh yeah, has it ever! Since joining the group my training has rapidly changed. I am running much more than I did before, which is thanks to the multiple runs that the group hosts during the week making it easier to find runs that fit in your schedule. Also, there is always someone training and pushing for a goal which creates an infectious energy for me to push myself further. I recently also got into coaching with one of the Trail Roots’ coaches and that has shaped my training greatly over the last couple months.
Why did you decide to hire Kyle as a coach?
I hired Kyle as a coach because he resonates with me, he is authentic, personal, and I was able to establish a good relationship with him. Secondly, because he is a beast when it comes to long distance trail running and I’m training for a 100k that’s coming up in February, Black Canyons.
What do you love about running?
Well, the fact that it teaches you to embrace the hard, the ugly, and the painful is what I love about it, but I’m sure that’ll change, as I do. That’s what I find interesting about running, it is an activity that seems repetitive and boring but it’s crazy how it can evolve with you. I have many use cases for a run; the fact that one activity can address many use cases is what I find the most interesting!
What do you think is special about Trail Roots?
The people are what is really special about Trail Roots for me. Everyone is very kind and there is a sense of family, psychological safety, and camaraderie in the group that is unmatched. It is truly a one of a kind community!
You’ve been training and racing consistently, what has been your most memorable race and why?
The most memorable race for me has been the UTG 50k which is the Ultra Trail Gaspesia that happens at the Gaspesia National Park in Quebec, Canada. The reason it is the most memorable for me is because that race has some of the most phenomenal views and beautiful trails that I’ve seen. In addition, it is also an insanely challenging race, at least it was for me that day. I had crazy blisters by 25k, my toes were bleeding and the next aid station was 10k away. I had to push through, change my running style till I reached the aid station where my friends had a change of shoes waiting for me, a ½ size up. The other reason it’s very memorable for me is because it was my last race in Canada with the “Saint John Trail Running” crew family and the OG crew were all there for that one and one of my really close friends revealed in a surprise that they were pregnant! It was overall an incredibly beautiful trip!!
Do you have any race mantras for when the going gets tough?
I have a few of them. Firstly, tough is what you want, tough is good. You know what’s tough? Anything we haven’t done before, and so that’s how we grow by facing situations that are new to us.
I usually try to gamify the situation, for eg. I will give myself ‘x’ if I push through this problem. X can range from a beer, to a taco, to a pair of shoes, or a day of no running.
The other thing that works is, just accepting that it is tough, realizing how tough it is, letting it sink in, like really sink in, once you accept how tough it is, maybe you will still feel like moving forward.
What are your interests or passions outside of running?
Outside of running? there’s no time left to do anything else - lol just kidding. I am an AI infrastructure engineer and I love to build, learn and deliver meaningful, novel solutions that have the potential to benefit and help advance humanity and that’s what I do as a full time gig by day. Other than that, I love physics, philosophy and epistemology, so if I’m not running or working, I’m usually reading a book on one of the subjects.
I also really enjoy spending time with my wife and my dog. They’re my two favourite girls!
“The people are what is really special about Trail Roots for me. Everyone is very kind and there is a sense of family, psychological safety, and camaraderie in the group that is unmatched. It is truly a one of a kind community!”
What advice would you give people who are new to running and want to join a group?
Go for it! Joining a group is probably the single most effective thing to get into running (as per me). Find joy in running, try to make it like play and what’s better than going out to play with friends!