Durango Running Club Annual Awards
Each year, we celebrate the incredible achievements of our club members with our winter DRC Awards Ceremony. Meet your 2026 winners:
Female Runner of the Year: Rachel lasiewicz
Anyone that regularly joins the Thursday morning runs knows Rachel’s smiling face as she has been a regular of these runs for several years. Although getting up in time to join the group at 6AM most weeks is an accomplishment in itself, Rachel also had a huge year of running. Her biggest accomplishment was running the 314-mile Vol State Ultra, a self-supported race across the state of Tennessee in July. In October Rachel also ran the West Elk Challenge Marathon in torrential rain and horrible mud, which she used as a training run for the Javelina Jundred 100k later that month. Rachel was under consideration for this award last year after winning several shorter races so the voters were very pleased she turned in another great year in 2025.
Male Runner of the Year: kian hartley
Kian is a regular of the Wednesday night runs and often volunteered to lead the trail runs and has volunteered to both lead and sweep several Pub Runs. Kian is also a prolific distributor of kudos on Strava. But Kian also had a huge year of running in 2025, finishing both the San Juan Solstice 50-miler and the DRC-sponsored San Juan Softie 100-miler, where he was sixth overall in a race that half of the field did not finish. Kian even won the DRC Halloween costume award this year for painting his entire head and face orange to be dressed as a basketball.
FEMALE Performance of the Year: tara dower
Since a lot of people come and go from DRC, the Board typically only rewards long-time members of the Club; however, we would lose credibility if we did not recognize Tara’s performance at this year’s Javelina Jundred, where she was first place female and set a new course record, averaging just over eight minutes per mile for 100 miles. This includes aid station stops meaning that the entire time she was running, she likely ran sub-eight minutes for 100 miles. Absolutely amazing. Even without this performance, Tara could have won this award for setting the new overall Fastest Known Time (FKT) on Vermont’s Long Trail. Tara’s been a fun new addition to DRC, recently indulging in eggnog shots on the top of Hogsback with a few of us and then doing another lap just for fun.
MALE PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR: matt sheldon
Matt’s performance actually spans more than four years as he completed a 1,536-day running streak in 2025. Every day for over four years Matt ran at least a 5k outside (no treadmills), which includes running on the day his twins were born. As a working father of two, Matt did most of these runs before the sun came up as it was the only time in the day he had to get his run in. Finally, a nagging hamstring injury crept up on him and he did the smart thing by shutting it down until it could heal, but it appears to me he’s back to running every day again.
eric mytko Volunteer of the Year: david herrig
Since joining DRC, David has been one of the most involved members of the Club. Often taking on tasks others don’t want to do. This includes being the sweeper at multiple runs and even fixing DRC’s clock. David was a key volunteer this year for both the Kennebec Mountain Run and the San Juan Softie. David has also worked to build community outside of official DRC functions by organizing the Smelter Grand Slam, which involves running to the top of Smelter four times, followed by eating a Grand Slam at Denny’s.
Sponsor of the Year: DURANGO fitness club
The Durango Fitness Club, owned by longtime DRC member Cameron Winters, offers DRC members $10 off of their membership to the Fitness Club. The Fitness Club has also been the host of our annual pool party. This year’s attendance at the pool party was the highest since we’ve started doing it and Cameron dedicated some of his paid staff specifically to help with the clean up of the event.
Past DRC Award Winners
2025 WINNERS:
Male Runner of the Year: Mike Kubicek
Female Runner of the Year: Robyn Lesh
Male Performance of the Year: Kyle Curtin, CT FKT
Female Performance of the Year: Sarah Ostaszewski, Moab 240
Volunteer of the Year: Robert Marks
Sponsor of the Year: Durango Running Company
2024 Winners:
Male Runner of the Year: Bill Benac
Female Runner of the Year: Sara Cooley
Performance of the Year: Joe Storc
Volunteer of the Year: Stephanie Barnett
Sponsor of the Year: Backcountry Experience
2023 Winners:
Male Runner of the Year: Jared Wolf
Female Runner of the Year: Caitlin Jones
Performance of the Year: Liz Haubert
Volunteer of the Year: Brendan Trimboli
Community Partner of the Year: TBK Bank
2022 Winners:
Male Runner of the Year: Victor Ruggiero
Female Runner of the Year: Marisa Asplund
Youth Runner of the Year: Lucy Ruggiero
Female Performance of the Year: Seana Green
Male Performance of the Year: Cameron Winters
Volunteer of the Year: Nate Brush
Community Partner of the Year: Coca-Cola