There are 800-plus runners across the events, and it’s great, all non-profit. Most events are being canceled, but he’s hopeful that he can find a path forward for Pine to Palm, for this year, while conceding, “there’s the old ultra adage, prepare for everything.” As for Siskiyou, he says, “those races really put this area on the map for ultrarunning. He’s race director for the Pine to Palm 100 Mile, the Lithia Loop Trail Marathon, and the Tar ‘n’ Trail six miler, and is co-RD for the Siskiyou Out Back group of races. Koerner works the shop with a pair of employees and calls the store an extension of his home, and it’s almost literally true. I’m trying to foster that more than ever,” he says. We win on specialized fittings and customer service, and I give back to the community–high school, elementary programs, races. Koerner is championing the shop local message. “We were able to provide the one thing that people could do, and wanted to do.
“I saw 60- to 70-year-old-people on steep climbs with an umbrella.” His voice spikes on the “with an umbrella,” but he’s definitely serious. “I’d never seen more people on the trails, never seen more people running,” Koerner said about Ashland during the COVID-19 shutdown period. There’s no Shakespeare Festival this year though, and a few bad fire seasons further hurt the local economy, so much that a few retailers have recently left main street.īut for Koerner and Rogue Valley Runners, it’s an active community. “It’s our lifeblood,” Koerner says simply. Folks from San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland come for the theater, and spend money in the town’s restaurants, hotels, bed and breakfasts, and shops. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is based in Ashland, and is a huge driver for tourism. Ashland is only 10 miles from Medford, there’s 250,000 people in the valley, and there’s a university in Ashland too, for starters. The town’s population is just over 20,000, and Koerner helps me to understand how a running store could thrive in such a small town. Since 2006 Koerner has owned and operated Rogue Valley Runners, a running store in Ashland, Oregon. “Eff man, I’m sorry, I just got into the office, long morning.” If it was anybody else, I would’ve moved on, but Koerner is well known as a happy guy, and he’s easily forgiven. “Oh man, thanks, I was wiped out the other day and we were way back in the woods up the Elk River,” Hal Koerner blew me off once, and then a second time. This week’s “Catching Up With” is sponsored by the Trail Running Film Festival.
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