This story has been told before, and you’ll likely hear it told again.

Our relationship with East Van Run Crew began with a simple message from Ryan just before we opened the shop, offering to help us get the word out about our new endeavor. It was back in April 2015, just a few days before we opened the shop.

Ryan and East Van Run Crew had been around for a while and ran every Monday. They had a strong crew and presence in the community, and around the country. Shortly after the offer was extended, we hosted EVRC’s Monday nighter with a run through Kits and some post-run beers at the shop.

And together, here we are now.

Fast-forward to July 2015 when we started to get questions about a pre-Seawheeze half marathon shake out run from some of our out-of-town friends. There were lots of them coming into town for a few days, and they were looking to run and party – that’s all we needed to hear!

From a couple of messages and a bit of planning, we put together a pre-Seawheeze shake out run for our two crews and everyone visiting for the weekends running celebration.

That night was when we first realized how strong and united the running community is, and no matter where we came from, we were all in it for the same thing. So naturally we had to make it happen again this year.

The 2nd Annual VRC Flight Crew X East Van Run Crew Summer Social was on! Last year we took the crew out to False Creek, so this year we combined our 5K and 10K routes and headed West towards Point Grey to show our guests another side of this great city.

From there we double backed along Kits Beach, Vanier Park and back to the shop to round out a social 6.5km. Once we arrived back at the shop our friends at Postmark Brewing re-hydrated the crew, while our wonderful neighbours BeFresh kept us fed with some local eats, treats, and refreshments.

INSTANCE was on hand with their fresh new Fall 2016 RUN collection (Star Wars!), and of course, our pals Adidas had black beauty and the shoe fleet out for people to try some new tread on their run.

From there we kept it chill at the shop, shared stories over cold beers and started planning the next big adventure...

Massive thanks to Ciele Athletics, BeFresh Market, INSTANCE socks, FBomb Trading, Postmark Brewing, and Adidas for the support.

Check out East Van Run Crew Monday's and VRC Flight Crew Thursdays & Sundays for runs, good times, and beers.