Article by Dana Powers, DPMR Board Member and Newbies organizer
Another great Newbies Run season is behind us, and I want to take a moment to reflect on the season, how much fun we had (!!), and all of the people that helped make it a success.
For anyone who missed it, the Newbies Run Series is a set of weekly social runs in April and May that help kick-off each new running season. It is a collaboration between Tahoe Mountain Sports (TMS) and Donner Party Mountain Runners, with a rotating group of running gear companies and brands that provide shoe demos and more. The series hits a different trail every week, usually with 3mi and 6mi options, and aims to encourage and support runners of all levels.
Part of DPMR’s mission is to inform, and we try to do that in our Newbies runs by exploring trails and zones together. We started off the series on the Olympic Valley bikepath in a snowstorm, one of the last of an otherwise dry and warm winter season. In later weeks we ran on the Prosser Dam fire road and Lloyds Loop, the Martis Valley Trail, and on criss-crossing trails in the Sawtooth area. To close out the season we took back-to-back trips to Drifter Hut: first up the trail from Johnson Canyon, and then out the Donner Lake Rim Trail via Glacier Way for our final week.
We talked a bit about one of the season’s big trail closures, the Forest Service Alder 89 project, which closes access for the season to many of the trails just north of downtown Truckee along highway 89. This includes past Newbies favorites like Prosser Hill, Drunken Deer, the Donner Picnic area, and Carpenter Valley (see https://www.truckeedonnerlandtrust.org/news-events/lower-carpenter-valley-closed-for-2026 for a map from the Truckee Donner Land Trust). So this is a season to explore in different directions, and what a great time we had doing it together!
Another big part of DPMR’s mission is to inspire. This season we had a great time inspiring and being inspired by a group of middle school runners in a program called Let Me Run. Bruna Bradford, DPMR’s president, helped organize the group and wrote about the experience in our June newsletter. Watching the kids’ excitement and energy during Newbies was amazing. Their first week joining was Johnson Canyon, and it’s probably the most vertical on trail we tackled this season. They loved it! When the kids got back to the start it was cheers and hugs all around. The future of trail running is here, and it is pretty cool.
Finally, to round out the tour of DPMR’s mission statement, we exist to connect. For our series finale we invited our friends at Alpenglow Run Club and Lake Tahoe Running Group to join and talk to us about their groups and the weekly runs they are doing throughout the season. We hope the connection was useful and leads to even more exploration and fun out on the trails!
But before we wrap Newbies for the season, I do want to say thank you to everyone who came out and especially everyone how helped put it together and keep it going.
First, thank you to Tahoe Mountain Sports for the great partnership. Newbies is a co-production between Donner Party Mountain Runners and TMS, but TMS really brings this event to life. There’s day-of energy and support from Kendra, online support from Tarin, and strategic and vendor coordination from Dave. What a great team. Reminder: all DPMR members can get 15% off any full price item over $50 at Tahoe Mountain Sports in Truckee!
And thanks to all the amazing vendors that came out to our runs with shoes, gear, services, and more: Topos, Arc’Teryx, Hoka, La Sportiva, NNormal, and Altra; Julbo, BUFF, Ascent Tahoe, Anothr Lap, and Gnarly Nutrition. You all were awesome and so fun to hang out with before and after the runs. Thank you!
Huge thanks to so many folks for helping with setup, teardown, raffle tickets, and check-ins, especially Steven for helping dig through the DPMR trailer for supplies, Chris for helping carry all kinds of stuff too and from my truck, Lance (and many others) for helping empty out the ice cooler, and Julie for checking folks in and handing out raffle tickets.
Last but certainly not least, an especially huge thanks to Bruna for keeping her eye on all the details, making sure we have a reasonable check-in process, helping stock snacks and drinks, bringing the tent – and her unstoppable energy. And of course thanks to Bruna for all the work on Let Me Run and getting the kids out to run at Newbies. Thank you, Bruna!!
Well I had a great time, and I hope you did too. Whether you came out for 1 week or all 6 or whether you’re just reading about Newbies Series for the first time right now, I hope Newbies informed, inspired, and connected you with a joyful running spirit for 2026. We hope to see you out there next season!
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