By Mathias Eichler
Sponsor:
The Trail Running Film Festival - Online Watch Party Get your tickets.
The Trail Running Film Festival - Online Watch Party Get your tickets.
Speaking of yet another series, this one’s been around for awhile and while aiming for races high above the clouds the events are still somewhat flying under the radar (pardon my bad pun).
To give these shorter race distances some visibility, I shall list the races each year as part of my global trail race series calendar.
Andy Jones-Wilkins on his column AJW’s Taproom for iRunFar:
The year 2023 was quite a year in the world of ultramarathoning, and I fully expect 2024 to be yet another eventful year.
His list includes:
I’ll add a couple of my own:
What is ‘old school’ according to Ultra Running Magazine:
I wish these guidelines wouldn’t be quiet as nebulous and a little bit more measurable. This would help the community understand why certain races were chosen over others. One qualifier we find here:
Old School Ultras was created to honor race organizations who cultivate an encouraging, supportive event. What connects our inaugural collection of races is their longevity (20+ years), their culture, character, strong community, as well as being a single distance ultra event.
So, according to this above paragraph UTMB would qualify, right? UPDATE: (I guess the single distance event element would disqualify UTMB, and most European races, most modern races I suppose.)
I hope this list, or calendar, doesn’t turn into a series… too many series… series everywhere.
Singletrack – Episode 292:
For the last episode of 2023 I sat down with friend of the show Alex Bond to chat about this year in trail running. We covering the latest outdoor industry report and chat about the distinguishing aspects of what makes trail running so unique compared to other sports. We consider the economic impact of trail races in host towns and wonder about the value of live streaming and who might actually benefit from this investment in infrastructure and gear. Of course we touch on UTMB’s much talked about expansion and enduring, or not attraction and wonder if these races are still the status quo. And finally we highlighted the biggest achievements at this year’s biggest races and in the world of FKTs.
By TeamRunRun coach Keith Laverty (who came in first and set a new course record, I might add!):
Difficulty – Is it a tough course?
On paper, this doesn’t appear to look terribly difficult. However, all of the hills in the 2nd half are deceivingly hard, especially since many of these are steeper staircases or steps to climb up. With being a relatively short-ish distance, you’ll feel those hills plenty!Organized and well run – Did it feel like a well-oiled machine or were they flying by the seat of their pants?
Rock Candy Running and Mathias Eichler always do a great job with clear communication in their race event details, e-mail newsletter and everything on their website. Very well-organized, well-marked, well-loved event!How many stars do you give this race and do you recommend that others run it
I think this event will become a staple, winter community event. Friendly folks and a fun way to end the year of racing!
That’s how we like to do it at Rock Candy. Thanks Keith for joining us, and setting the bar high for the next few years.
From the Wikipedia article:
Since 1994, climbing of mountains in Bhutan higher than 6,000 m (20,000 ft) has been prohibited out of respect for local spiritual beliefs. Since 2003, mountaineering has been forbidden completely.
This must drive mountaineers crazy. I’m not suggesting that the community is disrespectful to the local community and it’s rules and regulation, but knowing that there’s this beautiful, unclimbed objective, still a white spot on the map must conjure up all sort of adventure dreams.
Via the ever so excellent Kottke.org.
Speaking of global trail race series, Spartan Trail seems to not have announced anything for 2024? Will it happen?
Their Instagram account makes it look like it’s a go, even though their website has no updates yet:
Who’s ready for new adventures in 2024? This year has been amazing but we’re already looking forward to what’s to come in the new year.
Set yourself up for a year full of new experiences and big accomplishments. Sign up for your favorite trail race today before prices rise on the 31st!
That price increase announcement is for their Golden Gate Trail Classic event, and it looks all the US races have 2024 dates announced, just no official announcement on their “World Championship”.
For folks who like to travel to exotic places for their races:
Welcome to the Antarctic Polar Race, home of the first ever Antarctica Athletics Championships in 2024. Continental titles across a variety of distances and disciplines will be on offer. Participants can run a 1-mile race, 10k, half-marathon, marathon and ultramarathons of 100km and 100 miles.
Just a cool EUR 17,900 for this. Yes, there is a lot included… like air travel from Cape Town to Novo runway, Antarctica. Maybe someone should send this link to all the US runners looking for UTMB alternatives this year? Jim, Zach anyone else?
Via a somewhat cryptic post on Facebook with not much more info available so far:
Discover the new TORX® eXperience RANKING, the ranking of the TORX® circuit.
The RANKING TORX® eXperience is born! The final ranking of the TORX® circuit races will reach its peak with the TOR330 – Tor des Géants® 2024 which will start on Sunday the 8 of September 2024.
So, if I gather this correctly 2024 will be the year where every racing organization is trying to clone, emulate the UTMB World Series and offer a similar scoring, marketing, media system. And yes, many of them had something already in place, but this all feels like it’s tightening up and becoming a bit more professional and structured. Not a bad thing, but a little hard to keep track of it all. Here are the global series I am tracking:
Did I miss an important (and global) one?
Most are structured around two main goals: either ranking racers on a global table and/or creating an access system to a de-facto finale. Looking at the locations in all the series in total 80+% of events are in Europe.
Nancy Hobbs for ATRA shares the press release from World Mountain Running Association:
Featuring a roster spanning eight countries, encompassing 10 events and a total of 13 races, this season promises a thrilling array of locations, beloved classics, and reunions with long-established courses, offering a spectacular racing calendar spanning a stretch of 5 months from June through October.
The full list was posted on Instagram (I modified the post to fit the blog format):
Jun 21 Broken Arrow Uphill – USA
Jun 23 Broken Arrow Skyrace – USA
Jul 07 Grossglockner Mountain Run – Austria
Jul 13 Montemura Vertical Run – Portugal
Jul 20 La Montée du Nid d’Aigle -France
Jul 28 Giir di Mont – Italy
Aug 10 Sierre-Zinal – Switzerland
Aug 31 Vertical Nasego – Italy
Sep 01 Trofeo Nasego – Italy
Sep 22 Sky Gran Canaria Long – Spain
Oct 05 Šmarna Gora Race – Slovania
Oct 12 Laguna KM Verticale – Italy
Oct 13 Val Bregaglia Trail – Italy
The full series is called 2024 Valsir Mountain Running World Cup. As I previous mentioned Valsir is sort of an interesting sponsor for trail running and I’m curious what the PTRA’s stance is on that one.
As the new World Trail Majors global series slowly gains steam more announcements are being made focused on attracting elites to their nine races around the world:
The World Trail Majors series will be held for the first time in 2024 and it is time to announce the prizes for the top finishers in overall categories.
World Trail Majors aims to attract the biggest and best elite runners, and to do so it intends to reward their efforts with substantial cash prizes as well as the possibility of free registration and covered travel expenses. The sum, in cash prizes alone, amounts to €47,000.
And a bit more detail:
To qualify for cash prizes, only the two best results of the season will be considered, regardless of the number of races the runner participates in.
One thing I haven’t been able to figure out is if this is “new money” and if it exceeds the previous (if existing) prize purses the individual races had offered runners. For example, Ultra-Trail Cape Town offered their 100 Mile winners 60,000 South African Rand or apron. $3,250. Could a winner of UTCT double dip and win this, and the WTM prize purse?
Singletrack – Episode 291:
East Coast runner Kuwanna Dyer-Pietras joins Singletrack to chat about running for Tailwind, dreaming of Western States, and getting the call from Hoka to be one of their designated runners for the 2024 Western States. We chat about prepping for her first 100 mile race on gnarly East Coast trails and baking cookies with the family for the holidays.
And a huge ‘thank you’ to all our partners who made Saturnalia 2024 happen: Heritage Bank, Tailwind Nutrition, Kevin Hayward State Farm, Club Oly Road Running, REI Olympia and Nathan Sports.
Cirque Series’s founder Julian Carr made the announcement on Instagram today:
Thrilled to announce, been lobbying for five years, the @usatf US Mountain Running 2024 Championship is @cirqueseries @snowbird race. We look forward to providing world class course & experience. We understand the responsibility of hosting a National Championship event.
For folks not familiar with the Cirque Series there’s a good Freetrail podcast episode with Julian Carr from a few month ago.
TOR X started off in 2010 as the “race for giants”. Offering a REALLY massive race just one valley over to Chamonix and distinguishing themselves from ‘the one race’ every tourism agency looks up to by going bigger and harder. Now over the years they’re slowly adjusting and have become ‘more pedestrian’. Just in numbers though, the new TOR100 Cervino – Monte Bianco still offers with 100K distance a massive amount of vert: 8000m to be precise.
The events will happen September 11-13th, 2024 and begin in Le Breuil Cervinia and finish in Courmayeur. Runners will have 40hrs and the field capped at 250 runners. Not much more information is available at this point, but we’ll keep an eye out for this one as it has the potential make up to attract some folks looking for UTMB alternatives.
Does anyone have a calendar of events for the town of Courmayeur for the summer months? It must just be one event after another, crazy town.
I just found out about Mile & Stone, a publication (or rather Mailchimp newsletter for now) by Tip & Shaft (a similar publication with the focus on sailing) and now they are announcing their first B2B conference: Mile & Stone/Connect Held in Annecy, France of course, on February 8, 2024. The one day networking event focuses on the growth of the sport with eyes set on the possibility of trail running becoming an Olympic Sport. Not at all surprising that this happens in France. The Summer Olympics will be held in Paris this coming year and far away from the casual trailheads of American trail races, sitting in the shadow of Salomon and UTMB the business-minded people are setting their sights on growth.
As an aside, over here in the English speaking world the word ‘stone’ to describe the UTMB lottery entries always sounded a bit odd, but either Mile & Stone straight up took inspiration from UTMB or the word ‘stone’ sounds better in French.
Hong Kong Free Press:
Organisers of a 2021 ultramarathon in northwest China during which 21 runners died in extreme weather conditions have been sentenced to years in prison for their roles, state media reported.
Outside reports:
It was immediately clear that the risk management and preparation at the event had been insufficient.
This terrible tragedy shook the trail running world when it happened. Now two years later the organizers are sentenced to jail for it. As a race organizer myself this makes me sit up straight and makes me cross my t’s and dot my i’s just a bit more.
The newly launched Mile & Stone newsletter takes a deep dive into the shoes that are worn to run the three main UTMB events.
Every year, trail shoe manufacturers visit the major events in France (Templiers, Dacia UTMB Mont-Blanc) to gather statistical information and get an idea of their importance in the market. Mile & Stone has consulted the results of studies carried out over the last three years by several players on the Dacia UTMB Mont Blanc and brings you the results.
It’s worth reading the whole article, and well, worth signing up for the newsletter as well, but what sticks out to me is that aside from Hoka and Salomon leading the pack (not a surprising finding, given that both brands are French) several brands are doing much worse than I anticipated: Adidas, Nike, On, The North Face all have a strong presence on the podiums or an seemingly endless marketing budget, but are barely worn among the wide field of runners. So, why we all sort of agree that elites runners are influencers, their influencing might not move the needle as much as anticipated.
Got no real numbers to share, but a little birdie told me today that globally lottery registrations for the 2024 UTMB events in Chamonix are all up. And that includes North Americas! Seems like that proposed UTMB boycott is not really happening, or at least not in a way that it would register on the spreadsheets of UTMB/Ironman.
I haven’t done one of those in a while and thought I might as well toot my own horn. This Rock Candy Running race is happening this weekend in my hometown Olympia Washington.
It’s a small, festive, holiday-inspired 10K on trails through our City’s Squaxin Park. Last year we had just 50 finishers, this year we have 83 people signed up. Of those, 49 are women or 59% of the overall runners. And for the first time we have a nonbinary runner, my own kid, at the starting line. Swoon!
Super proud of this. I love creating real community. One that’s welcoming, inclusive and diverse. More of this, please.
In a previous post I was wondering where the new website for the World Mountain Running Championships in Canfranc is. Well, the website for the World Masters Mountain Running Championships, which will be held in the same location but this year on September 13th to 15th is launching on the 19th of this month.
The WMRA has more information on the various events offered, including course maps and elevation profiles. The championship is hosted by local race organization CanFrancCanfranc.
Announcement from European Athletics:
The inaugural European Athletics Off-Road Running Championships, an innovative continental championship that combines the disciplines of trail and mountain running, took place in El Paso on the Spanish island of La Palma in the Canary Islands on 1-3 July 2022.
The next edition will be held in Annecy, France from 31 May – 2 June 2024.
Not much more information about this is available at this point, but my guess is that they are trying position themselves on a two year cycle opposite of the World Mountain Trail Running Championships which were held last year in Innsbruck, Austria and are slated for 2025 in Canfranc-Pirineos, Spain.
An aside: the Innsbruck website is still up, but for how long? Then what happens with all the videos, results, and other historic information? There’s currently no website for the event in Annecy and I can’t find anything about Canfranc. This sport is still so young and there’s so little sorted out at this point. I hope things don’t get lost, or inaccessible.
The World Trail Majors, in partnership with the Pro Trail Runners Association announce their scoring system for elites (folks possibly making it into the top 20 at one of their races). This system will be implemented for their 2024 racing season.
PTRA explains further in the comments on Instagram:
the WTM scoring system will take into account ONLY two races per year exactly to limit unnecessary travel around the world. Athletes DON’T need to run all the races. And we need to be realistic: trailrunning will become global, but we also need to be truly careful with the environment
The calls, especially from European trail runners to minimize international (airplane) travel to fight climate change aren’t going away.
This slow and steady rollout of additional features and steps and the clear communication partnership between WTM and PTRA seems to indicate that elites are excited about an alternative races series to UTMB. It’s too soon to tell if UTMB will become the amateurs racing series and WTM the elites.
UTMB released a very concise document outlining all (most) questions regarding the upcoming lottery and entry process for the 2024 UTMB event. It’s great to see questions answered here for most runners.
One thing of note are the entry fees for the 2024 UTMB races:
__________
1 In 2023 the UTMB entry fee was 355€
2 Some comparable entry fees in the US:
Not sure if UTMB leveled up or if just the exchange rate is not as favorable to the US runners this time around.
Back in February it was announced that current CEO was stepping down, and it took the company almost a year to find a new CEO to take the helm.
Paul Sawers for TechCrunch:
Michael Martin will start his new role at Strava on January 2, 2024, leaving his current role as general manager at YouTube’s shopping unit.
Something us the users can look forward to:
However, like all VC-backed companies, the time is fast coming when Strava needs to realize some sort of return for its investors, be that a sale to a bigger company or an IPO.
So on the outside, it seems that Strava has been struggling to capitalize on its recent growth even though it has sought ways to make more money from its users. And this, perhaps, is where Martin enters the fray — at YouTube he is focused on helping creators “build and diversify their businesses through commerce,” so it’s not all the inconceivable that Strava could be looking to diversify its revenue beyond selling subscriptions or data and insights.
Hope this will not lead us down the path of turning Strava into another ‘everything app’.
Lots of updates as the Film Festival is gearing up for another tour this coming spring:
Just announced this week and worth taking a deep dive:
This working definition is a starting point and should be continually reviewed and updated to ensure it remains relevant and responsive to the evolving needs and experiences of the trail and ultra running community. As our sport continues to expand, we have an opportunity to shape an inclusive culture that welcomes runners from all backgrounds.
The new guidelines anchors around four main points:
Accessibility highlights:
Accessibility in trail running refers to the intentional design and organization of races, training programs, media broadcasts, and related activities to ensure that they are open and available to all athletes, regardless of physical ability, socioeconomic status, or geographical location.
Inclusion and Equity highlights:
Inclusion in trail running means creating a welcoming environment where everyone, regardless of their background, feels valued and can fully participate. Equity ensures fair treatment, equality of opportunity, and fairness in access to resources and opportunities.
Diversity and Representation highlights:
Diversity in trail running refers to the representation and active involvement of athletes from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. This should extend to professional athlete sponsorships, event, program, and brand leadership, and marketing and branding campaigns.
Intersectionality highlights:
Recognizing intersectionality is crucial to understanding how various identities overlap to compound marginalization for some athletes. We should acknowledge and address these intersections in partnership with these athlete groups to create a more inclusive and equitable environment.
I haven’t spend a lot of time with this document, but I appreciate how concise it is, appreciate that it exists and that the group of global runners have put in so much effort in creating it. At first glance feel like it’s something I want to sign off carte blanche for my Rock Candy Running races. I’ve been wrestling quite a bit with the need for policies or guidelines that define the community standards of my races but I also feel like this shouldn’t be that hard and not every race director should have to reinvent the wheel here.
UTMB currently offers eight events in North America. One in Canada, one in Mexico, and five in the United States, plus Western States, which is affiliated with but not owned by UTMB. These events include twenty-six races which offer runners a chance to collect stones to be eligible to enter the lottery to run in Chamonix for the Finals. I added a second sheet to the ECC Events Calendar, with the North American dates, events, races and prices. (Click the tab titled UTMB NA Prices 2024 on the bottom of the embedded window on that page to view that spreadsheet.) I wanted to offer all these prices in one convenient place so folks who are REALLY interested in chasing stones can see which races cost how much. Or for anyone is just interested in seeing the prices in comparison to each other in one handy sheet.
The price comparison is interesting to me. In general prices fluctuate depending on popularity and if it’s a Major or not. Prices also are increased at seemingly random intervals, probably when a certain percentage to sell out is achieved. (UTMB currently doesn’t post anywhere entry lists until just before race day, so there’s no way to tell when a race sells out.) I left off the ‘charity bib pricing’, which is on average at least double the price of the regular entry. Overall 20Ks seem quite expensive, especially in comparison to indie races. 100M races seem in line with the competition, but somewhat on the cheaper end. For example: Grindstone is only $349, while Western States is $450, which is the same price as High Lonesome 100, one of the most expensive 100 Milers in the country. Aravaipa’s Javelina Jundred is $420. Whistler is the newest event and currently the cheapest – this could have something to do with the exchange rate, the newness of the event, or the recent controversy around the event (if signups are sluggish, they’ll keep prices down for awhile). Mexico’s Puerta Vallarta hasn’t gotten an update date or prices for 2024 yet.
So for 2024 North American runners have only 17 ultra races to choose from to get their stones. And of those 3 are already sold out.
I’m not sure the point I am trying to make here. Looking at these numbers, and how few events there actually are, it seems that UTMB still has an insane growth potential here in North America. And yes, these events all are meant to give you access to Chamonix, and these Finals are already way overbooked as it is, so perhaps somewhere along the line all of this ‘stone chasing’ isn’t going to compute anymore, but for now, it seems this is just going to keep growing?
This is something that has existed for the UTMB Finals for some time now, but this year they’ve introduced this in a larger scale on most of the events here in the US. Here’s how UTMB talks about this.
Since 2004, UTMB Group has proactively supported numerous solidarity and environmental projects, raising over 4 million Euros for charitable causes to date. With the launch of UTMB Cares in 2023, runners from across the world are invited to ‘Race for More’ to support and showcase positive impact projects in race communities.
Limited edition charitable ‘Care Bibs’ are available at sell-out events to support the UTMB Cares initiative. You will find charity bibs directly on event website pages.
Charity Bibs seem a clever way for UTMB to give folks a chance to get into THEIR seemingly sold out dream race while pulling more money out of people’s pockets. But, if there are bibs still available the race is clearly not sold out. And UTMB is able to charge a premium for entries at a later stage when the event is close to selling out.
Offering two pricing tiers allows the regular entry price to stay reasonable, somewhat accessible, and competitive though, so that is kind of smart.
This appears to be a new concept within the US trail running landscape. I haven’t seen any other organization deploy a method like this. The methods we’re familiar with are either “sell out, lottery and wait list” or “ever-increasing prices to manage the demand”.
From L’Equipe, translated, these are the locations for the 2024 Salomon’s marketing effort:
April 20-21: Kobe Trail – 21 km / 1,615 m D + – Kobe, Japan
April 27: Four Girls Mountain Trail – 21 km / 1,423 m D + – Sichuan, China
May 26: Zegama-Aizkorri – 42 km / 2,736 m D + – Zegama, Spain
June 30: Mont-Blanc Marathon – 42 km / 2,540 m D + – Chamonix, France
August 10: Sierre-Zinal – 31 km / 2,200 m D + – Sierre, Switzerland
August 17: Tatra Sky Marathon – 28 km / 1,770 m D + – Kocielisko, Poland
September 14-15: Headlands – 28 km / 1,304 m D + – Marin County, United States
September 22: Mammoth Trail Fest – 26 km / 1,250 m D + – Mammoth Lakes, United States
October 17-20: Ascona – Locarno – 23,5 km / 1,400m D + – Acorna, Switzerland
There’s a sort of interesting scheduling strategy emerging: Two dates in the early season in Asia – runners could potentially combine these two event on one trip. The same with the August dates for Sierre-Zinal and the newly appointed Tatra Sky Marathon and the Fall dates in the US, each just a week apart.
I tried finding the websites for each of the races. The Headlands one seems… brand new? Rebranded?
Edit: According to my sources ‘The Headlands’ is a rebranded race moved from the August date and 50K distance to become a new shorter distance (28K) Golden Trail Series event. So it seems no race directors were harmed in this new race announcement by a multinational corporation, phew.
Announced via Strava post:
You asked for it and we will do it in 2024.
The TDS, MCC, ETC and YCC Junior will deliver Running Stones next year.
- TDS – 4 stones
- MCC – 2 stones
- ETC & YCC junior – 1 stones
For the first time you can now get UTMB stones by running a race right in Chamonix. The little sister races TDS, MCC, ETC and YCC junior will get you stones for the lottery in 2025.
And it goes without saying that you still don’t get stones for running UTMB, CCC, or OCC.
Man, I want to be a fly one the wall when they do their data modeling. This ever-growing list of races and opportunities to obtain stones will lead to an ever-increasing number of folks having stones and entering the lottery. Fascinating.
For this year’s 2023 Trail Runner of the Year Award (TROY) Dylan Bowman of Freetrail announces a partnership with the Pro Trail Runners Association:
One of Freetrail’s core missions is to elevate the profile of the professional athletes, helping the general public to feel connected to their stories and invested in their careers. TROY and our partnership with PTRA is an extension of that motivation.
It’s great to hear from the PTRA, they’ve been a bit quiet over the last few month. Many had expected them to make a statement in regard to the UTMB Whistler announcement, but unless it’s forthcoming, it might make sense for an organization focused on runners, to focus on issues pertaining to runners, as supposed to race directors. I’m not suggesting ‘shut up and dribble’ here, I would love to hear from them, but I also understand that an international organization with many voting members might have a hard time coming to a conclusive statement given the sensitivity of the issue. Opposing UTMB’s partnership with Dacia was a lot easier to agree on.
From the promo website:
At Outside, we’re on a mission to get everyone outside. That’s why we’re launching the Outside Festival—an all-new way to inspire, educate, and get more people to experience everything the outdoors has to offer.
Look, I want to love this. One thing I miss about our trade shows (TRE, OR) is the consumer aspect. These shows are just for industry professionals, and thus they feel a bit stuffy. In Europe I experienced lots of shows/events that were both: First couple of days for trade professionals, then over the weekend for consumers – this worked great. But I also recognize that in the US the distances are just too far and people just aren’t willing to travel to a consumer show for a couple of stickers and a t-shirt.
Kyle Frost’s new to me blog ‘Here & There’ has a few more details and thoughts on this:
The event is planned for the first week of June in downtown Denver, bringing together gear, music, film, consumers, and industry. The event will incorporate the “Big Gear Show” and a number of different ‘activation zones’ that brands can sponsor.
…
It’s not the first time Outside has delved into a ‘consumer focused’ format. The Outside Experience, hosted in Chicago, was supposed to be “the ultimate urban-based active-lifestyle festival”.
And finally, my favorite line:
Serious question…who at Outside let this event landing page ship? Not a single “link” in the footer works, the ‘expand’ map overlaps content, I wouldn’t recommend using a hamburger menu here (that doesn’t close on click) and the mobile site is a strange amalgam of a responsive/desktop experience.
I found someone else looking at these little details… this warms my heart.
“Lazarus Lake” clearly deserves to be in the Ultrarunning Hall of Fame, there’s no doubt about it. Creator of the infamous Barkley Marathons in Tennessee and countless other “off-center” events, I wouldn’t call him the heart and soul of our sport but the seasoning. He, more than any other character in our sport has kept our sport interesting and quirky, and kept the media, the sponsors, and the runners on their toes, when it comes to defining what ‘trail and ultra running is and can be’ and how we talk about our human endurance and physical achievement. One can never tell if he’s going to hate this induction and attention, or feels honored and proud to be included.
I’ve been talking a lot about how UTMB’s achilles heel is the volunteer recruitment and retention. This week Trail Alsace Grand Est hosted a big volunteer appreciation party to thank their volunteers… and presumably prep for the second edition of their widely successful event. This is how it’s done.
From the official Strava blog:
No more switching apps to plan activities. No more sending routes and events via text message. You can now do it all – right from Strava.
Direct messaging, now right inside Strava, which can be great for chatting and making connecting, and bad for unwanted solicitations.
DC Rainmaker sums it up:
This is not a complex feature, nor hard to use. Starting today, the “social network for athletes” includes the most social of features: Texting. Or rather, direct messaging.
Let’s see how this goes.
Add on: Dr. Dirtbag on Mastodon reminded me of Zawinski’s Law:
Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.
Which, in the age of social media means every app, no matter what has to turn into an ‘everything app’ at some point.
Matt Walsh interviews Greg Volley, Director of the Golden Trail World Series. Here are a few things that stick out to me.
I’ve focused here a lot on UTMB, and in many ways deservedly so, it is the biggest global event in our space, by far. But it’s also been a personal thing, I do want to race UTMB one day. Clearly what these past few months have been showing is that UTMB is in a rock and uneasy space. It’s good if other players in our sport assert themselves and play strong competition in our sport’s media landscape as well as helping create story lines around athletes and places and thus foster dreams for runners to go chase their adventure.
After two years in the Pacific Northwest the show is moving across the country and announcing some much needed changes:
We are already planning exciting changes to the Conference content for next year, along with major organizational changes to the Conference structure as well. More details on these exciting developments to come in the near future.
Over the past two years the conference focused its content almost entirely on race directors. Not sure if a conference can be sustainable with that sole focus, but why not go all in and really make race directors the focus in name and marketing. RDs surely are playing a crucial role in the way our sport is growing and experienced, giving them a place to learn, and a platform to come together wouldn’t be wasted time or effort. Sort of the way the elite athletes are gathering under the umbrella of the Pro Trail Runners Association as their ‘union’, this gathering could become this space for race directors.
From the press release:
Craft Sportswear North America plans to move its U.S. headquarters from Beverly, MA, to Seattle, WA, in 2024 to “bolster the brand’s expansion in outdoor and specialty retail, all while streamlining operational efficiencies.”
…
Sweden-based New Wave Group owns both Craft and Cutter & Buck. Cutter & Buck is based in Seattle, WA.
Good move and I got nothing to add other than I love when outdoor brands move to my neck of the woods. This usually creates jobs and interesting marketing opportunities. Hey Craft, wanna sponsor Beast for 2024?
In lighter news from Apple PR:
This year’s winners showcase the scope of creativity, technical innovation, and design possible across the App Store and Apple’s ecosystem. AllTrails nurtures community through comprehensive trail guides and outdoor exploration for everyone.
This just gets to show how “the outdoors” are trending… Trails, are the hot thing right now. Good thing we have a Film Festival coming up to share this with the world.
Corrine Malcolm on her Instagram account:
Well team, I’ve got some bad news for you. There is one place I won’t be in 2024 – and that’s behind the mic for UTMB Live. As of yesterday I’ve been informed that I can no longer be part of the commentary team that I’ve worked with for the last four years because I’m too outspoken.
I just don’t even know what’s going on over there. This is not normal corporate behavior. This is one insane PR blunder after another. Of course, businesses can “business”, and will do things the community doesn’t like, but usually the way corporations move is that they announce new stuff, hype a new direction and vision, and the community and it’s beloved people are collateral damage. What is currently happening with UTMB Is that they seem to be nuking their biggest fans in brought daylight and aren’t giving us a reason for why they are doing this. Now we will need another series of explainer podcasts where the Ironman/UTMB team has to make the rounds and play damage control. This is asinine.
Of course, Corrine was outspoken. Not just on the broadcast, celebrating and fighting for equal coverage of the women’s races but also in the aftermath of the Whistler announcement on Twitter. I actually am a bit surprised she would’ve wanted to return to the UTMB broadcast. In some way you could be callous and say “what were you expecting”. But our sport is in a weird place. Are these announcers just employees that have to just stay on message, or are they allowed to speak freely and celebrate the sport? If UTMB controls the message so much that the announcers are just doing infomercials then maybe this whole thing is starting to loose a bit of shine and a reckoning is needed. But, I am also not too knowledgeable in sports media and don’t understand what the professional decorum is. If you are an announcer for the Superbowl, or the Olympics, do you get to speak freely? Or are you getting access to the mic by showing how ‘well-trained’ you can be?
Add on:
In an official press release posted on CMTR’s Facebook page Gary and team announce their take over of the Whistler Half Marathon.
Following the 2024 edition of the event to be held June 1st at Whistler Olympic Plaza, the event’s ownership will transfer to Coast Mountain Trail Running whose principals are Geoff Langford and Gary Robbins.
Registration for the 2024 edition will open New Year’s Day. Race weekend is May 31 – June 2, 2024.
This is all getting very confusing up there in British Columbia.
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