From The Copper Canyons To Spartan Trail

JOSUE STEPHENS LIVED IN A TRUCK AND RAN COPPER CANYON BEFORE EITHER WERE “THINGS.”

- Megan Janssen

With 13 siblings in a converted bread truck, Josue Stephens spent his childhood living in Latin America. He recalls visiting the Copper Canyon of Mexico and being gifted a flute and huarache sandals by the Tarahumara, some of whom still lived in caves at the time. Evolving into an ultrarunner and race director of the Copper Canyon Ultra and Nicaragua’s Fuego Y Agua Ultras, Stephens is now the Spartan Trail product manager and is walking the line to protect the spirit of trail running while ushering it into a new era.

Raised by dilettante gypsy parents who tried on everything from sports to religion to extreme lifestyles, Stephens, now 38, of San Luis Obispo, California, was homeschooled until high school and spent his days fishing in the ocean, playing soccer in the dirt and running with his father. Here, Trail Runner explores his journey.

How did you get into trail running?

My dad goes from one thing to the next. He tried being Amish, Mennonite, Russian Orthodox, Seventh-Day Adventist …

One time, he visited Belize and saw how they used gourds to eat; he came home and threw away all our dishes. Another time, he read a story about yaks in Kazakhstan and he got us all goats (he couldn’t find yaks) and we learned to make yak butter. My sister and I milked them every morning. So when I was 12 and he announced we were training for a 50-mile run, it was like, OK.

We were living in Cambridge, Ohio, and my dad was working a job he hated, so he took up running. In the evenings he would make us run with him, no matter how dark or cold. We didn’t have running shoes; we had dollar-store shoes.