By Mathias Eichler
Sponsor:
The Trail Running Film Festival - Back on Tour for 2024.
The Trail Running Film Festival - Back on Tour for 2024.
They also have a waffle knit sweater with the words: ‘Tour du Mont-Blanc‘ on it. My best guess is that the combo of gorpcore and Paris hosting the Olympic Games (Ralph Lauren is the official outfitter for the US Olympics team) made them design these products. I don’t care about Ralph Lauren as a brand, but I’m a sucker for stuff like this.
Brought to you by the same folks who do build Vacation Races, the popular Half Marathons around National Parks and a few other ventures, this new outfit is aiming to upscale the 100 mile trail racing experience.
Their first event the Zion 100-Mile Challenge happening late August during UTMB week, is hosted at Zion Ponderosa Ranch Resort and will put you back at least $3K.
What you get for it is: 4 nights of accommodation, food and drink and a training plan to help you succeed… and of course a lot more… I hope.
With the 100-Mile Challenge events, the goal for every registered athlete is to run 100 miles in 60-hours or less. As athletes work to achieve that goal, there are Milestones at iconic race distances along the way (Half Marathon, Marathon, 50K, 50 Mile, 100K and 100 Mile). The award you receive at the end of the event is directly correlated to the cumulative distance you run.
For example, if at the end of the event, you ran 55 total miles, you will have passed the 50-Mile Milestone but you will have not yet reached the 100K Milestone (which is about 62 miles) and you’ll receive the 50-Mile Milestone award. The only way to earn the next Milestone award is to run the distance required to reach it.
The Milestones are intended to be “short-term goals” on the way to the ultimate goal of running 100 miles!
Not sure what the target demo is. Is the goal of achieving an ultra distance but broken up into these chunks really worth the price of admission here?
Is this an American interpretation of the ‘Run the Alps’ style trips?
Well, it feels super niche, but I applaud the creativity here, and am curious to follow how this all will play out.
This was the 30th! Anniversary of this much loved early season ‘rust buster’ ultra in Bellingham, Washington. One of the ‘old school ultras’ as labeled by Ultrarunning Magazine the event saw yet another incredible sunny and warm race day.
There were a total of 585 finishers:
Top 3 women:
Top 3 men:
Francesco ran a new official course record time (Adam Peterman ran a faster time in 2022 on an altered and shorter course).
Friend of Singletrack Thomas Reiss finished in 5:02:48 – congrats.
Back in 2017 I ran Chuckanut for its 25th anniversary in very different weather.
More on Chuckanut 50 from race director Kris Moehl on Singletrack.
All eyes are on Keith Dunn’s Twitter/X account – the in-official, official live commentator for the Barkley Marathons about to go down at Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee. The race that is insanely hard to get into, insanely hard to complete, but insanely addicting to follow on Twitter/X.
Dylan Bowman in the Freetrail Newsletter posted here on LinkedIn for folks who aren’t subscribed:
Trail running is more like surfing than it is like track and field. While we admire the great athletes and performances in the sport, there is nothing more culturally celebrated than Golden Hour and the heroic final finishers. The FURTHER event made me feel like lululemon “gets it” from a brand level.
…
Even though it wasn’t technically a trail race, FURTHER felt in line with #TrailCulture.
…
FURTHER was probably lululemon’s most important brand activation in many years and a seminal moment for women’s sports.
There’s no doubt that luluemon really broke the mold with this marketing effort. It really delivered and was very impressive all around.
In the comments on LinkedIn Ethan Veneklasen added a slight caveat to Dybo’s observations which I feel is important to add:
… the one thing that did NOT feel consistent with the trail running culture to me was that it was not an open event. It was a closed event…put on by a corporate entity…solely to highlight their athletes and set up a record attempt. One of the things that make trail running so unique and, indeed, special is that regular schmos (like me) get to line up on the same course at the same time as fasties (like you).
Ethan’s not trying to knock lululemon here, but comment on Dybo’s definition of the event being “trail culture”. Trail running clearly is inspirational, but beyond that, one of the defining criteria is that it is accessible. The inspiration in trail running doesn’t just come from folks watching world record shattering feats by professional athletes – we’ve had this in many sports before – but from the direct and open invitation for everyone to participate as well. And not just participation by buying the gear, but actually letting your feet touch dirt and experience this adventure for yourselves – that’s trail running.
LIVE: This weekend (Mar 17, 2024) on our Global Race Series Calendar:
The ‘XTERRA Black Canyon Trail Run’ is XTERRA’s 3rd race of their season and first in the US. The event is produced locally by Shendo Cat Racing.
The XTERRA race is a Half Marathon and is part of a bigger event series offering multiple race distances starting in and around Black Canyon City in Arizona. From comparing the GPX files it looks like it’s using some of the same trails as Aravaipa’s Black Canyon Ultras.
I can’t find any information on a starting list (registration is open up until day off) or a live feed.
Find more trail races on ECC’s Global Race Series Calendar
A couple of weeks ago UTMB posted an initial starting list for their Finals in Chamonix. This was never meant as a complete list as many runners are still getting qualified at various World Series Events happening between now and August. I.E.: The initial CCC list had been missing, but is now added.
But the big news is that on that initial list UTMB posted Jim Walmsley was listed as running UTMB. He has since been removed.
I don’t want to say it, but is this another PR blunder by UTMB? Did they jump the gun adding Jim to the list and he went like “Oh no, I’m not coming”?
Nick Triolo for Outside Run:
The film is co-directed by Christine River and Ellie Windham, and it’s recently been selected as one of eight films for the 2024 Trail Running Film Festival, which starts this week and will tour to more than 50 locations worldwide.
Global Tour is kicking off tonight. Let’s go!
From the official press release:
On achieves strong full year results in 2023, significantly exceeding the expectations set at the beginning of the year, reaching net sales of CHF 1,792.1 million. This reflects a reported growth rate of 46.6% year-over-year and over 55% on a constant currency basis. On further reports a gross profit margin of 59.6%, net income of CHF 79.6 million and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 15.5%, showcasing On’s ongoing commitment to combine strong growth with continuously increasing profitability.
Just bonkers numbers for a brand that didn’t exist just a few years ago. What one can do when Roger Federer infuses lots of cash into your company.
*not an official term used in their investor filing.
On Community Trail Running, Adam’s fabulous Substack he’s been posting interviews (just like for the last tour) with filmmakers and athletes featured in the Trail Running Film Festival Global Tour presented by Brooks, which is kicking off tonight in Athens, Georgia.
All episodes are just around 15min so there’s no reason to not listen to all of them.
Popular UK running magazine ‘Like The Wind‘ is touring the US (West Coast for now):
In honor of our 10th anniversary Like the Wind magazine is touring the US, and we want to meet you.
From April to June 2024, our very own Like the Wind co-founders, Simon and Julie Freeman, are crossing the pond and they’re ready to hear your running stories. Simon and Julie will be traveling cross-country uncovering reasons why we run from LtW readers and runners around the US.
Check their email newsletter for locations and dates.
LBA is a special race, not just personally for me, but because we don’t have DNF’s, everyone runs their race, their distance, their speed and “wins” their day. Here are some numbers:
Collectively you racked up 2,784 miles in our little neighborhood woods and completed this loop 696 times. Almost half of you ran an ultra on Saturday. 4 folks broke the 100K mark. Several of you set new distance and duration PR’s. One of you ran their 185th ultra race – wow, we are speechless and in awe!
For a race director it’s an insanely exhausting day, but it’s also insanely rewarding and I cannot wait do it all over again next year.
Mike Foote on Instagram:
One of the worlds largest auto manufacturers recently reached out seeking to sponsor The Rut. Initially I was excited about the opportunity. We are trying to bring new initiatives to light at the event and could use the resources.
It’s always great to get some behind the curtain details on how these conversations go and how these deals come together, or in this case not. Mike chose in the end to not take the sponsorship and while he didn’t say this I wonder if this would’ve gone differently if we didn’t have to watch all that UTMB talk over the past few months.
And it happened in the Alps this past weekend.
While over here in the West Coast I was happy that we didn’t have to deal with snow the Europeans are leaning into this white stuff and just create competition around it.
From the article announcing the World Championships:
The SkySnow discipline – running on snow at altitude with micro-crampons – was introduced as a natural extension of skyrunning during the winter season. The first SkySnow World Championships in 2022 in Sierra Nevada, Spain, were an immediate success with athletes participating from 15 countries. In this second edition, 21 countries from across the globe will battle for the medals and world titles, including the reigning World Champions, Luca Del Pero from Italy and Virginia Pérez from Spain.
The events were organized by Tarvisio Trail Running and held in Tarvisio, North Eastern Italy, and offered two disciplines:
The nighttime run looks absolutely spectacular and I can see why the ISF is eyeing to get this sport into the Olympics.
This is the 5th Little Backyard Adventure and this year for the first time we’re adding to the 6hr race a 12hr event.
We’re super grateful for the support from Heritage Bank, Kevin Hayward State Farm, Tailwind Nutrition, OlyFed, Hydrapak and Rock Candy Running’s coaching partner: Team RunRun.
For this year’s event we’re having a record 91 runners signed up. That’s over double of last year.
For the 6hr race we have 48 runners:
For the 12hr race we have 43 runners:
The 91 runners for the event are broken down by gender like so:
We’ve got 3 runners under 20 at the starting line and one 70! You’re all awesome!
Last year, when we offered only a 6hr race we had 5! People run 10 loops – 40 miles.
This, along with the persistent requests from the community to offer a 12 hour event in Olympia we finally pulled the trigger got the support from the City for the event.
We’ve got about a dozen folks who ran one of the permutations of LBA before. Welcome back.
The 12 hr event is new. There’s no data here. Will we see folks run 100K? How many?
The loop is about 4 miles with 200ft of vert, depending on what watch you ask and how cloudy the sky is. The nicer weather these last few days dried out the course and most of the puddles are gone, which should invite some fast running. But the sharp corners of the course will make it tricky to maintain pace and it’ll be interesting to see what happens when we enter the twilight zone of 10+ loops.
The course has one aid station, right at the start/finish where we keep track of how many loops folks are clocking. We will try to update the numbers through the event online. No promises on how this will go – stay tuned.
Time to adventure!
Interested in following along from afar? Check the live page for updates throughout the event and follow the event with hashtag #littlebackyardadventure on Instagram.
French broadcaster continues partnership to livestream a variety of UTMB World Series events. Here’s the list:
Let’s hope that the Starlinks work this time around.
Some brands sponsor races, some brands put on entire race series (Salomon Golden Trail Series), some brands sponsor athletes to let them wear their gear at prominent races and there’s this. Lululemon must’ve asked themselves “what if we do something that’s never been done before?”
10 athletes, 6 days, 2.5miles of gravel, dirt and pavement, custom rooms to relax and recharge, and endless photo opportunities.
It’s like a mashup of a fashion runway and a trail race, and I mean that in the best possible way.
From a much-welcomed newsletter sent to race directors by David Callahan & Jay Kelley, co-CEOs of UltraSignup:
The platform’s technical overhaul is making significant progress, setting the stage for necessary, desirable, and innovative advancements. Our vision is to continue evolving UltraSignup in a way that adds more value to both race directors and runners, specifically within the trail running niche, as
opposed to other platforms who aim to service all kinds of events and tickets. We are committed to vertical growth, focusing on our core community rather than expanding into unrelated areas.
Man, I love UltraSignup and what it has done for the ultra running community. The combination of race registration platform, calendar and historical results is unmatched. And no upshot can compete with it easily, or even slowly and meticulously, especially if you think of the database of historical results. The biggest races in the US (Western States, Hardrock, Aravaipa, Destination Trail are all still using UltraSignup). What drew me to the platform as a runner was the – what felt almost complete – racing calendar. If a race wasn’t on UltraSignup did it even exist?
So of course, when I became a race director I have never seriously considered any other platform, not even now that I’m in my sixth year doing it – even though I get the regular friendly, but persistent calls from RunSignup. UltraSignups customer service is great and the ability to relaunch an event which from the pervious year is pretty easy to do. The stickiness is real.
But, and of course there has to be a “but”, the platform is aging, glitchy and buggy in places, and with competitors offering shiny alternatives, and others jumping ship, it becomes harder and harder to justify staying.
That age-old Wayne Gretzky quote comes to mind:
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.
One of the beauties of software design is the iterative nature of development. One can constantly improve various elements on a sort of rolling approach. You don’t have to move houses if you want something better, you can refresh and improve on the same infrastructure you’ve been operating on. Of course this has limits – sometimes there’s too much technical debt, and an outdated software stack. That’s when you gotta start with a clean slate and that does take time. I just hope that when it’s time UltraSignup to unveil that new shiny race registration platform “the puck hasn’t been moved”.
Tom Reynolds profiles Canadian Christian Meier, winner of last year’s TDS:
By his own admission Meier was not a winner on the bike.
But in the summer of 2023, only two years after his first steps proper on two trail-running feet, he won the prestigious TDS race in Chamonix.
Kinda amazing to see someone with so much dedication that he’s able to switch disciplines and stay committed to learning the skills required to not just participate but excel.
Here in the PNW there are several ex-Sounders, (soccer players!) who show up and sometimes win local ultra races. This is just amazing to me.
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