The Endurables

In 2010, I never saw myself running more than 7 or 8 miles; _​maybe_​a half marathon one day. Then I joined this trail running group and stuck with it. I’ve now run a 50k and the SF Marathon five times in a row.
«The Endurables» has morphed from a Marin/​SF-​focused trail running group led by Jim Vernon (referenced in older reviews) to an East Bay group training with Caitlin Smith. It’s centered on Wednesday track workouts with some people meeting up for longer trail runs on Saturday. It’s an awesome group, and Caitlin is a caring coach; it has everyone from super speedy people, and slow pokes like me.
Today I honestly can’t imagine living in the Bay Area without trail running – it’s what makes the high rent worth it!

I’ve been a member of the East Bay group for over a year. We do some really fun, exhausting track workouts (strides, mile repeats, tempos), sometimes combined with hill workouts. And ALWAYS some quality time planking after. The coach, Caitlin Smith, has lately been adding a good deal more stretching and core work, which is good for long term development. There is also a recommended Saturday run. Not always well attended due to people’s schedules, but has been very fun in the past. The runners are of mixed abilities, but we all get attention from Caitlin as we need it. Seems like most people are longer distance trail runners, but that’s not necessary to get a lot from this group. The track workout is one of the best parts of my week!

I have been working with the Endurables, coached by Caitlin Smith, for about 2 years now. I can’t say enough positive things about Caitlin, and about this group. Strong community (motivating, supportive, friendly), great workouts (including speed work on the track, hill training, even downhill running clinics), helpful guidance for injury prevention and recovery from injury. My running has significantly improved since joining this group!

I have had the opportunity to train with Caitlin as my coach. Running with endurables has been one of the most life altering things for me. I never thought I would run one mile. And now I’m running 20 at a time and an average of 30 – 40 miles per week.
There is great energy in this group and I’ve been so lucky to be a part of it.

Please do not waste your money registering with the Endurables. Jim, the founder, spends far more energy shilling for the company for which he works (Hydrapak) than he does supporting runners. I recently trained with the group for the North Face race, and was completely underwhelmed. Jim frequently missed runs during the training schedule and provided little support when he did grace us with his presence. In fact, on multiple occasions, when runners claimed to have become lost on a run due to dubious mapping, Jim’s responded with either a laugh or simply, «Good!» Another telling anecdote re: Jim’s commitment is the fact that he failed to post even a simple, «Congrats runners!» on the Endurables page following the end-​of-​training North Face races. He has, however, found time to create new webpages detailing his tiered membership system, aimed at squeezing more money out of runners.
And buyer beware… Jim told Endurables members that he would likely be spending even LESS time and energy on the group in 2013, due to growing commitments with Hydrapak. So, things will likely get worse.
If you are training for an ultra, I recommend that you simply Google for maps of the Headlands and use
or something similar to find folks willing to spend the time and miles with you. And if you’re determined to spend money to be neglected, contact me and I will get you lost on the cheap!

This review is limited to my encounter today with The Endurables while training for the North Face Challenge (50K) in Tennessee Valley. I had the pleasure of running periodically with Jim Vernon, founder of The Endurables.
I had no idea of Jim’s accomplishments as a runner at the time, instead I was running along with a really nice engaging guy that turned me onto the «Miwok Cut-​off,» a scenic alternative to the fire road. Based on that run and my chat with Jim afterward I would recommend The Endurables to anyone who wants to train with very nice encouraging coaches who clearly love trail running for all the right reasons.

the coaches are totally rad… the group is really awesome (yup, myself included)…and you really should shed a few of those holiday pounds, now shouldn’t you?
this is a low-​key group… runners of all different levels… some amazing trail runners, and some runners like me who just like to run for fun out in some beautiful scenery. people are training for events throughout the year, so you can pretty much rest assured that you will find a training buddy or two or more in this group for any particular race.

The Endurables is a running club coached by Jim Vernon and Rachel Rodriguez that specializes in training for trail races (and especially ultra trail races). Jim and Rachel are EXTREMELY accomplished ultra runners – Rachel regularly finishes in the top 3 in 50K+ distances, Jim has run Western States 100 in under 24 hours (twice).
Intimidated? Don’t be. They took all their know-​how and shared it with me, who thought I knew it all after 7 marathons and a 50K. I finally understood the importance of nutrition – gutting it through a run on water only was not helping me.
After training with the Endurables, I was ready to move up to 50 miles. There were some dark moments in training when I felt like I was working so hard, giving up so much (happy hours, late nights at clubs) and not getting better. For several weeks, I looked at the training schedule of a 10 mile run on a Sunday after running 25 miles on Saturday and thought «NFW!» But after sticking with it for two months – I could do it.
The Endurables won’t run the race for you, but they will get you to the point where you can run it for yourself.
And along the way, you’ll get to run some of the best trail terrain in the States.