From Vision to Reality
Evergreen Trail Runs was founded in 2010 by Roger Michel and Yumay Chang, who had a vision to create a series of trail races around Western Washington. Evergreen Trail Runs is now the trail running arm of Orca Running, a locally owned race production company. We look forward to continuing their vision.
Meet the Crew
Katie Warren
Co-Owner, Race Director
Katie serves as the Race Director for Evergreen Trails. She joined Evergreen in 2019, and couldn’t be happier to be a part of this amazing team putting on the best races in the PNW. In the winter, her time is spent up in the mountains as an avalanche forecaster for the Northwest Avalanche Center. Once the snow melts she is back in her running shoes and exploring remote places in the Cascades. Her pup, Nimbus, is always close by and looking for the next adventure.
Porter Bratten
Co-Owner + Marketing Manager
Ashley Lee
Co-Owner
Ashley is Orca Running’s Race Director but also works behind the scenes for Evergreen to make the races the best they can be! She loves running roads or trails and has completed several marathons. She also received a full ride college volleyball scholarship!
Irene Henninger
Course Manager
Marisa Pasnick
Communications manager
Marisa is PNW native and has been running trails since before it was even cool. She considers herself a functional introvert, is regularly caffeinated and will never turn down an opportunity to show you cat pictures. Marisa is our email connoisseur!
Amanda Mathis
Volunteer Coordinator
Amanda’s happy place is on a mountain or forest trail and has been for most of her life. Skiing and snowshoeing in winter and hiking the rest of the year. After a long break from running, she put her running shoes back on in 2020 and added her re-found love of running to hiking and equaled trail running. Since then, she has been making up for lost time with this fun sport. Her first trail race was Evergreen Trail Run’s Fidalgo, and to this day, it remains one of her favorites.
Aaron Cervantes
Race Production
After a late start trail running (5 years ago) Aaron fell hard for it and now his life pretty much revolves around trails at this point (he’s not mad about it!). He loves spending time anywhere in the mountains but especially the North Cascades. His favorite trail adventure was the Timberline Trail around Mt Hood and his favorite running partner is his dog Sol!
Payton Schiff
community marketing coordinator & Race Production
Payton is a lifelong runner and skier, having grown up in the Rocky Mountains of Utah and Colorado. She made her way to Washington to avalanche forecast for the Northwest Avalanche Center alongside Katie and Irene in 2024. As much as she loves mountain adventures, she loves whipping up sweet treats in the kitchen and hanging out by the river with a good romantasy book just as much.
Environmental Stewardship
We only have one Earth, and it’s in trouble. That’s why being green is something we care deeply about and we continuously learn and improve the process as we go. If you have any suggestions for optimization please do send it our way! Here is a list of our current efforts:
All of the disposable serving items on race day (cups, bowls, utensils) are compostable.
We provide clearly labelled receptacles on race day for landfill, recycling and compostables.
We use clip on streamers to mark courses that are reused from race to race.
We do most of our communication with the race community electronically via email and online newsletters to reduce paper waste.
We do not provide swag bags for our trail runs.
We produce one event shirt per year for purchase to keep both entry fee and waste low.
We donate to the Washington Trails Association.
“Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”
Chief Seattle