Trails Collective

Michael Dubova

I grew up near Crozet, Virginia with the South District of Shenandoah National Park as my backyard. I first started running when I was about 14 years old, as I was on a self-imposed mission to map out as many trails and logging roads as possible. This led to a passion for mapping out mountain streams as “trails to explore” which lead to my passion for bushwhacking through the mountains looking for Native American artifacts. More formally, I ran xc/track in high school, raced triathlons in college for the JMU Triathlon Club, road my bicycle across the country after college, then got into rock climbing. I got bored with climbing and found more joy in bushwhacking and studying maps to find hidden crags. I then realized it was moving through the mountain landscapes that I really loved and got sucked into trail running and ultramarathons in 2014. I still live in Crozet, Virginia and have been building custom musical instruments (Dubova Musical Instruments) since 2009. Back in 2019 I made Sage Cannaday a custom guitar and matching mandolin. While building custom musical instruments, I also worked as an ICU nurse for 14 years. When not running or in the workshop, I’m usually busy chasing around my son, Arlo, and two step daughters, Izzy and Naomi with my wife Sarah.