One of the most famous running advocates in the country, Bart Yasso, the “Chief Running Officer” at Runner’s World Magazine, will speak at the first Garden of the Gods 10 Mile Run Expo on Saturday, June 9, at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.

Yasso is a big fan of the Garden of the Gods run. In his book “My Life on the Run” Yasso writes that the Garden of the Gods 10-miler is his favorite race in the United States. He plans to run in it this year.

“There is something magical about the Garden of the Gods,” he said in a 2010 interview with PikesPeakSports.us. “For me, I'm a natural beauty guy, so I love that. Some people like to run in the city, some like more natural beauty. I just love to see that red-rock setting and the Kissing Camels, I just fall in love with that race.”

See Bart Yasso interview here

The new Expo runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is free and all are invited to attend. Triple Crown of Running race director Ron Ilgen said it made sens to add an Expo to the Garden of the Gods 10 Mile Run weekend.

“The Garden is more than a Sunday morning run, it's an event and deserves to be treated that way,” Ilgen said. “All major races have an expo, it creates runner camaraderie. It'll be a good place to meet other runners and mingle. We thought it was time."

Vendors and nonprofit organizations interested in having a booth space at the Expo should contact Adam Vernon at ppmsponsorship@gmail.com.  Booth space is free.

Yasso will speak at 3:30 p.m. His talk, titled “Never Limit Where Running Can Take You” will cover how he discovered running, how it changed his life, his battle with a crippling illness, and many tales from the trail.

Some of the greatest runners ever to compete in the Garden, including Pablo Vigil, Ric Rojas and Ted Castaneda, plus Garden of the Gods 10 Mile Run founder Tom Berg , will share their stories at 2 p.m.

Vigil lives in Loveland and is  a 2012 Colorado Running Hall of Fame inductee. He won the second Garden of the Gods race.  Arguably one of the greatest mountain runners ever, he is the only man to win the prestigious 32-kilometer Sierre-Zinal Mountain race four consecutive times (1979-82). He was also a member of the U.S. World Mountain Running Championship team in 1980.

Rojas grew up in New Mexico and attended Harvard College.  He won four state high school championships in New Mexico and held the Harvard 3-mile run record.  After College he was one of the country's best road runners, winning races like Bolder Boulder and Bay to Breakers.  Ric now runs RicRojasRunning in Broomfield, a comprehensive training program for adult endurance runners and sprinters.  Ric ran in the 1978 Garden of the Gods 10 Mile Run and served as an advisor to the race committee.

Casteneda grew up in Colorado Springs and attended Palmer High School, where he won a state championship in the 2-mile run.  He set the Big Eight 3-mile record at 13:24 while running at the University of Colorado.  He set the Colorado state record (3:58.5) in the mile run in 1975.  He is the men's and women's head track  and cross-country coach at Colorado College.  Castaneda ran in the 1978 Garden of the Gods 10 mile run.

Berg grew up in Colorado Springs. When Berg and a few others started the Pikes Peak Track Club, which soon became the Pikes Peak Road Runners, he was the club's first race director.  In that regard he started the Garden of the Gods 10 mile run in 1977 and served as race director through 1979. He raced in the Boston Marathon three times and has several other marathon finishes. A longtime lawyer in Colorado Springs, he serves on the Triple Crown of Running Board of Directors.

Garden of the Gods 5K Run: Runners who want to experience the grandeur of the Garden of the Gods, but who don’t feel up to the 10-mile challenge, can register for the new 5K race at Active.com. The 5K will begin at 7:15 a.m. after the start of the 10-mile race. Online registration for the Garden of the Gods 10-mile run is also available at Active.com.

For more info on both races, visit the Garden of the Gods 10 Mile Run website.