Who We Are

Founded in 1994 by Chris Haley and Howie Breinan, the Trail Animals Running Club (TARC) is the original trail running club of the Boston metro area. The club’s membership is diverse, including runners of all ages, backgrounds, abilities, and goals, who’ve come together to share their love of trail and ultrarunning. While our club makes its home on the trails around Boston, Massachusetts, our members include residents of all New England states, as well as from coast to coast, as well as Canada, Australia and beyond.

 

Once numbering just a few dozen runners, our global community is now more than 7,500 Trail Animals strong and growing. Many members get together on weekends to run trails or compete in and/or organize trail running events. Our “home base” is the Blue Hills Reservation in Milton, Massachusetts, with locals also running on trails in the western, southern and northern suburbs of Boston including our second “home” in the Middlesex Fells in Stoneham, Massachusetts.

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In 1997, TARC sponsored its first ultra event – Don’t Run Boston 50K (“DRB”), held in the Blue Hills. Led by race director and course designer Howie Brienan, DRB has run annually ever since on the third Sunday in April, a day before the Boston Marathon. Originally it was meant to be an “alternative” run to the highly commercial and pavement covered Boston Marathon, but more and more members have raced DRB and then used Monday's marathon as a “warm down” the next morning.

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We introduced the TARC Trail Series in 2011 as a group of ten trail races of varying distances from 10K to 100 Miles. The series has grown and evolved through the years, and today we play host to a dozen races, offering distances from 5K to 100 miles and beyond. Whether you’re a first time trail runner or a seasoned veteran, we have a race for you and a place for you in our community.

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Membership is free and the trail humor is priceless. We welcome anyone who is interested in trail running to join and come run with us. Simple? Easy? Welcoming? You’ve come to right place.