Rocksteady Running Information

Even though we have pretty good sized events, we feel incredibly fortunate to know the vast majority of our participants, and we are blessed to call so many of you friends. Some of these trail / ultrarunning friendships that we have made are closing in on two decades! For those that do not know us, we thought that during this worldwide health crisis (COVID-19) it would be a good time to introduce ourselves and give you a little bit of background about us. Rocksteady Running was formed on January 1, 2012 by myself (John Storkmp) and my wife Cheri Storkamp as a way to pull together several of Minnesota's existing / legacy trail and ultrarunning races; including the Zumbro Endurance Run (founded 2009), Superior Spring Trail Race (founded 2003), Afton Trail Run (founded 1994), Superior Fall Trail Race (founded 1991) and the Endless Summer Trail Run Series (founded 2012). We do not do this alone, we are supported by several trusted advisors, many what I would call "full-time volunteers" and an army of race-weekend volunteers throughout the year - Rocksteady Running is truly a community effort. I started running marathons in 1996 at the age of 16. In 2003, I started training for my first ultra and in 2004 completed my first ultra, I have since gone on to run 125 races at the marathon distance and beyond - the point is, that I, like you, love to run. I started volunteering at trail and ultra races shortly after I started running them and in 2008 took over as the race director of the Afton Trail Run from a close friend of mine. Afton State Park, more or less in my backyard and a park that I have been visiting since I was a kid. I took on this commitment while raising my daughter Emma with my wife Cheri, as I pursued a demanding career in commercial construction project management. Within a few years of taking over that first race, ultrarunning entered a period of exceptional growth. With this growth came increased expectations; not just from runners, but from the permitting agencies, local communities, the insurance ...