April and Melanie Boultbee are twin, Indigenous runners who have been blazing a trail in the running community for more than 25 years. Early on, April and Melanie had great success running cross country in school and continued to have success later in life, even after taking a break in High School to party. After dominating the roads, both April and Melanie transitioned to trail running where they continued to have success. In 2016, April finished first overall in That Dam Hill 24 hour race by running 204.25km in the alloted time.
When April and Melanie are not racing, they’re both very active in the running community. They’re ambassadors for Fast and Female, Endurance Tap, and INKnBURN and they raise awareness for women’s health, mental health, and the indigenous running community. In June, April and Melanie teamed up with Native Women Running to set a goal to run 215 miles in the month to honor the 215 Indigenous children who were discovered buried at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, BC.
We’re grateful to April and Melanie for speaking with us about this difficult subject and we hope you feel as inspired as we do after listening to this episode.
To learn more about April, you can follow her on Instagram at: @aprilboultbee
To learn more about Melanie, you can follow her on Instagram at: @melboultbee
To learn more about ON Canada Project, you can follow them on Instagram at: @oncanadaproject
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