We are thrilled to announce the addition of Canadian born-and-raised Jade Belzberg to our team! Jade has only been running ultras since 2014, but has picked up the sport rather quickly, finishing her first 50k in 4:39, her first 100 miler podium at the Orcas Island 100 in 2017 and recently finishing first female at the Zane Grey 50 miler. To this date, Jade has won a total of 17 ultras!
While living in San Diego in 2012, Jade met her now husband Nick de la Rosa (Hollon) who introduced her to the sport of trail running at the King of the Hill Iron Mountain 7 miler. Straight from that experience, she headed out to the Barkley Marathons, where she crewed Nick on his 2013 finish of this epic event. What a way to be introduced to the ultra world! Jade fell in love with the sport instantly, and decided to take on an internship at Trail Running Magazine to follow her passion of writing, right before she began her journey of obtaining a Masters of Fine Arts in Writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
At the end of Jade’s internship she decided to race her first ultra, the Born to Run 50k and finished with a record time of 4:39. While training for this race, she had only run up to the half marathon distance and completed a “fun run” of the Grand Canyon, Rim to Rim to Rim. After Born to Run, Jade increased her distance with a 50 miler, and in 2016 ran her first 100 miler, the Zion 100. She remembers this race to be extremely tough with horrific weather, which caused the course to be shortened to 92 miles. The Cascade Crest 100 came next, followed by the Orcas Island 100 where, despite a lot of snow, cold conditions and 26,000 feet of climbing, Jade still finished 3rd female with a time of 24:45.
Throughout Covid, Jade has continued her training, with a focus more on time rather than distance and running less during the week (still including strength training in her plan), with more miles on the weekend. This year she was fortunate to put her training to the test and compete in the Zane Grey 50 miler, where she finished 1st female with a time of 8:55. Her goal was to not force anything, run the first half conservatively and pick up the speed during the second half. Although there was some nausea due to the heat, overall Jade met her goals and was very pleased with her performance and had a blast on the course.
When Jade isn’t running the trails of Sedona, where she currently resides with her husband Nick and their 17 animals, she is working on her second Masters in Functional Medicine and Nutrition, writes freelance for various magazines including Trail Runner Magazine, SD Magazine, Matador Network and runs her coaching business Lightfoot Coaching, alongside Nick. Together they build personalized endurance programs for ultra-runners, trail runners and road runners of all distances and levels.
Jade has a great year ahead of her in her running career and is looking forward to the Standhope 60k in Idaho, setting a couple of FKTs, the Squamish 50/50 and the HURT 100 early next year. We are lucky to have her join the Injinji Team and are excited to see her sport her favorite socks, Run Lightweight No-Show, on her Instagram page at @jaderebeccab.
