By Mathias Eichler
Sponsor:
Trail Running Film Festival presented by Brooks -
Our 2026 Tour is on. Find your screening.
Trail Running Film Festival presented by Brooks -
Our 2026 Tour is on. Find your screening.
I know everything is on fire right now and it’s hard to keep track on what is the biggest pile of shit but this one has the potential to have massive implications for trail runners and is worth keeping a close eye on.
Here’s the official announcement from the National Forest Service:
As part of the USDA reorganization plan, the Forest Service is realigning its organizational structure to strengthen local leadership, streamline operations, and improve mission delivery. The changes include moving headquarters to Salt Lake City, transitioning to a state-based leadership model, building a network of Operations Service Centers, and unifying the agency’s research program.
People who know more than me, folks at Patagonia have this to say about it:
Moving the USFS to Utah will gut the agency. By shutting down its research stations, culling its staff, and moving the headquarters to Salt Lake City, it will be surprising if USFS can effectively manage anything at all.
The only beneficiaries of the move and other rollbacks to public land policy from this past year are billionaires and extractive industries.
Runners for Public Lands has a good summary of what this all means for trail runners:
For runners, this is not happening in isolation. It comes alongside USDA’s final rule on how it implements the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when conducting environmental reviews of projects on Forest Service and other lands, the proposed rescission of the 25-year-old Roadless Rule, and a push to significantly expand timber production across national forests. Together, these moves suggest a Forest Service less focused on stewardship, recreation, science, and public participation—and one more focused on speed, shorter (and less robust) environmental review, and resource extraction.
The website SaveUSFS.org puts it this way:
Trump just ordered the most devastating dismantling of the US Forest Service in 121 years. The outdoor brands that built their entire business on public lands haven’t said a word. It’s time to change that.
It’s just all so exhausting, and this is exactly the goal. But this one could have a huge impact for our sport and it behooves us to watch the development around it closely.
German website ‘Trail Running World’ (which up unto this week I hadn’t heard of) has an interesting interview with head of ITRA Janet Ng (quotes are auto-translated, as always). If you don’t have a translation tool it’s still worth clicking through and checking to the screenshot graphics, they are in English.
A few things that stick out:
And on the opening question by Egon Theiner if the trail running world actually needs ITRA Janet responds:
In a nutshell: Yes, the scene needs ITRA. At a time when trail running is evolving and becoming more commercialized, it is essential to have an independent authority that protects the core values of the sport and ensures a balanced development. The role of ITRA is to serve and represent the sport as a whole, on behalf of runners and organizers worldwide. As a non-profit organization, we can set priorities that are in the best interests of the sport, and not just what is most commercially attractive.
There is also a fundamental structural difference between ITRA and private actors. ITRA operates through democratic governance: Elections are held every four years, members can run, present their vision and actively shape the future of sport.
Private organizations pursue other goals by definition and are primarily responsible to their shareholders. Thus, in summary: with the growth of sport, transparency and the avoidance of real or perceived conflicts of interest become increasingly important. ITRA plays a key role in ensuring this balance.
In general I agree with the notion that it’s a net positive for our sport that ITRA exists, but the organization still have a massive challenge on their plate to try to justify their existence. Their “brand” needs something that makes them relevant, currently almost every one of their offerings is also covered in some way by another entity.
In a new-to-me blog titled ‘The Ultra Trail Ledger‘ author Sam King takes a swing at the popular Squamish 50 event from Coast Mountain Trail Series. Of the 14 articles posted six mention the for-profit business aspect of the Squamish 50 event.
Seems like someone has an axe to grind? Not sure I understand the single focus on one event and business entity.
The point I am gathering from reading his posts can be summarized in: ‘nonprofit event management organizations’ are good ‘for profit businesses’ are bad. It’s a lot of words published to make that one point. Am I missing something here?
New book by ‘blogger’ Raziq Rauf:
This is Running is a celebration of the world of running, exploring everything you’d need to know about the sport and the rich culture that surrounds it.
Raziq has been making the media tour and I’ve heard him talk about this book now several times, excited for this one to hit the streets. Get your copy at Amazon or better yet at your favorite indie bookshop.
Over the last few years trail running lead the charge and we’d seen a solid effort being made to include nonbinary podiums and prize purses at big events like Broken Arrow and other high profile races. This was largely a positive development and one driven from the US trail running scene. Euro-centric UTMB for example never showed signs to add this option. Now with the IOC drawing a (very shortsighted line in the sand) and ACG funding some of the largest prize purses I wonder if we see the this progress stalling out. As of today Broken Arrow has not announced their solution for a nonbinary podium. Gorge Waterfalls also only has a prize purse for men and women. Black Canyon Ultras only cashed out their crowdfunded ‘Race Purse‘ for the top men and women.
This is not a criticism toward the race directors, but an observation of a larger trend. At my LBA race this March I had zero nonbinary runners at the starting line. Several nonbinary athletes ran in 2025.
For 2026:
These numbers aren’t meant to discourage the efforts of diversity advocates, quite the opposite. This is meant as an open question and reminder for us to continue to do right for all runners and participants of our sport. As trail running more and more professionalizes it behooves us to remember what makes us special and fight for inclusion for everyone.
Back in January I shared Kilian’s post titled “Trail Running 2026, where are we, where are we going.” and added the following note: “I largely agree with him and see similar trends and issue emerge.” The one point he made I sort of overlooked but is often being quoted is this one:
3. The Death of technical races?
The general consensus is that as races get longer and more professional, and as UTMB is taking over the attention of the elites, events get “tamer”, easier to control and manage, and safer.
I wonder though if this is the right perspective. Are events really getting tamer, or are athletes, including Kilian just choosing the more popular races, which have always been “easier”?
There was a time when Kilian himself raced skyraces and selected events all over the world that he decided were “fun” and “unique”. Nowadays his race calendar rarely includes events off the beaten path and he replaced it with his own FKT mountaineering projects. When he does race, he runs WSER, UTMB and Zegama. I wonder though if these races do actually still exist. Elite runners just only pick the events that have media attention, sponsorship dollars, and the opportunity to present their brand attached to it?
I can’t believe I am sharing here a link to anything golf related, I can’t stand golf. But in our continued conversation around how to position ultra distance trail races to broadcast partners due to their challenging nature to fit into tight broadcasting schedules I thought it would be worth sharing the 2026 Masters Tournament timetable. Again, you can argue that comparing golf to trail running is sort of like comparing apples to oranges, but comparing ultra running to any other sport is sort of just that.
The full schedule is from Monday April 6 – Sunday April 12. Various channels and outlets and apps broadcast various elements on TV and online but all in all for the week there’s so much going on. For one tournament, for a handful of players, incredible.
Abbreviated schedule:
That’s a lot of hours of coverage, a total of 80hrs to be precise.
So clearly there’s a way to broadcast an entire week long sporting event. One that is really just a single tournament, we’re not talking the Olympics with dozens of short events here. Smart programming, a defined schedule. Clear updates on what is what helps.
Broadcasts and livestreams for trail running can get there without sacrificing its format and shortening its courses. It just needs more fine tuning, more creativity, and a few more dollars behind it to build these shows.
Episode 344 with Adam Lee:
Adam Lee stops by Singletrack just a couple of days ahead of hosting his first of several TRFF show in 2026. Adam and his team sold out the Rio in Vancouver, BC and we chat about what his unique approach to hosting and marketing TRFF in his community. Also, Adam’s next race on his calendar: The Fat Dog 120… that’s like almost 200 kilometers!
Wes Allen with a terrific article, alas on LinkedIn, on the current state of the outdoor/outside economy:
I’ve been thinking about this as the difference between the outside economy and the outdoor economy. They sound similar. They’re not.
The outside economy is aesthetic-driven and frequency-light. It’s a vibe-based lifestyle that involves very occasional activity in what many would consider core outdoor pursuits. Vuori joggers at the coffee shop. Blundstones because they look good with jeans. On Running shoes on someone who doesn’t run. These consumers vibe with outdoor culture without participating in outdoor activities with any regularity or technical need. They might occasionally go for a hike, but not often.
The outdoor economy is activity-driven. Forward-moving, muscle-powered pursuits done by people who choose products based on what the activity demands. The customer who walks into a specialty shop because they’re heading into the backcountry next week and can’t afford to buy the wrong thing. These customers keep coming back because the activity keeps sending them back.
Both economies are real. Both are valuable. But they run on completely different money.
Using the terms ‘outdoor’ vs. ‘outside’ to differentiate brands stocked at outdoor retailers is a fantastic way to explain and make sense of the current market challenges many of our favorite brands are experiencing. But here’s the reality they’ve been operating in over the last few years:
A Better Sweater fleece sold to someone who wears it to a brewery isn’t an outdoor sale. It’s an outside sale made through an outdoor channel. Patagonia counted it as outdoor.
And now heritage brands: Patagonia, etc. are feeling the competition:
Heritage outdoor brands competing for the same consumer are bringing a $600 Gore-Tex jacket to a $90 jogger fight.
If you know your lane you might still do okay:
Vuori knows it’s an outside brand. They distribute through Nordstrom and general retail. They don’t pretend to make technical gear. They’re crushing it. Arc’teryx knows it’s an outdoor brand. They maintain technical focus and premium positioning. They’re also crushing it. The brands that are failing – or about to fail – are the ones stuck in the middle.
And all these challenges are enlarged by the challenging (to put it mildly) economic climate of tariffs and wars and political leaders who have lost (or never had) their marbles.
The surf industry took 15 years to recover from chasing lifestyle consumers at the expense of core surfers. The bike industry is collapsing right now for the same reason. The outdoor industry is heading down the same path.
That’s probably why so many brands are pivoting to trail running and are trying to serve that market segment – it’s still growing, for now.
For articles like these it’s worth to have a LinkedIn account, but luckily I just checked and it seems you can read it without logging in – it’s worth it, the reading, not the logging in.
“A ultramarathon matching platform” is the tagline of this new (seemingly also vibe-coded) match-making website that allows you to find pacers for your next race:
We do the work of pairing compatible racers and pacers. You hit the ground running, build the partnership and plan for success.
Another new web platform without a byline – who’s behind this project? Another impressive-looking tool that sort of creates more questions than answers – like, how do you trust some rando from the internet to pace you for miles alone through the wilderness?
Ahead of the busy summer in sports lots of policy updates are being announced:
New policy reflects the diversity of all athletes’ journeys to parenthood, whether elite or amateur. After introducing a pioneering pregnancy policy in 2023, UTMB® World Seriesis expanding its commitment to inclusion by evolving its parental support policy. Developed in collaboration with the Pro Trail Runners Association (PTRA), it both addresses the specific needs of elite athletes, and reflects the different forms of parenthood and life journeys for all runners across the UTMB WS circuit.
Stephanie Case, who seems to have her head on right, is excited for this development, so it gets my endorsement as well.
Enrique Alpañés for El País:
The meta-analysis, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, analyzed 2,943 transgender women who had undergone hormone therapy for one to three years. It found no evidence of any physical advantage. There were no observable differences in upper or lower body strength, or in maximum oxygen consumption — a key measure of cardiorespiratory fitness — between trans and cisgender women. In fact, after gender-affirming hormone therapy, transgender and cisgender women showed similar levels of physical fitness across all variables analyzed. Therefore, based on the scientific evidence, Gualano concludes that transgender women “do not pose a threat to women’s sports.”
The IOC has a long history of kowtowing to extreme and dangerous leaders around the world. With the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics looming they saw how the winds were blowing in the host country and made decisions to curry favors in advance.
Trail running isn’t part of the Olympics – yet. And won’t be for LA28. But sporting organizations are often looking at the IOC and their official ruling for guidance to determine their own policies, so this could have some implications for trail running in the near future.
Aravaipa with the press announcement:
Due to the rapid growth in the race’s popularity, starting with the 2027 Cocodona 250 presented by Altra, we will be transitioning to a lottery system.
This was inevitable in some ways but what sticks out here, compared to other lotteries is the “gender balance” of the system they created:
The lottery odds will be determined based on the percentage breakdown of the lottery entrants, with 7% added to the women’s application percentage.
Read the whole thing if you’re interested in running Cocodona next year, it all feels well thought out and the right move.
Adam chats with Hans Kristian Smedsrød Engdahl, the filmmaker of ‘The Romsdal Method’ one of the online films of TRFF’26:
Hans Kristian Smedsrød Engdahl wanted to tell this story and managed to find a way to do so within his own means and on his own time. He loved that athletes were training in his hometown and how amazing both the terrain and the runners were. It was a passion project that people are loving, and Hans is thrilled that it’s out there.
‘The Romsdal Method’ can be watched online here.
Episode 343 with Renee Janssen:
Go Beyond Racing, one of Pacific Northwest longest running and most reputable trail racing organizations just went through a major brand refresh and co-owner Renee Janssen is here to share the backstory. We dive into the origins of Go Beyond and Renee’s motivation to leave her corporate cubicle to take on race directing full time alongside her husband Todd.
We also chat about the important work of the Trail Mix Fund a nonprofit the two founded during the COVID pandemic which is aimed to bring more diversity to our trail running community.
A couple of weeks ago UTMB posted their broadcasting schedule, and more importantly their partner networks for broadcasting the 2026 World Series season livestreams.
Matt Walsh on Trailmix has the rundown of what was announced and some comments. I promised him a reply, so here we are.
By and large the comments online were largely negative, mainly because UTMB announced a new partner: FloTrack. FloTrack doesn’t have a great reputation which can be summarized with: bad product, expensive subscription service.
One platform Matt sees missing, and the solution to UTMB’s broadcasting conundrum is Youtube.
Meanwhile, the obvious route sits in plain sight: Use YouTube as your free livestream host with ads and commentary, then use UTMB Live as your paywalled option with graphical overlays, no ads and LiveTrail data integration. People who have already paid for a UTMB race in the past get access, otherwise you pay a season pass for the livestream. UTMB gets customer data and another income stream, and the far significant reach of YouTube.
Since its inception YouTube has operated with somewhat split personality offering two distinct solutions:
UTMB is using the technical side of Youtube (I would assume). For folks who are looking for full length streams, and commenting (just not YouTube comments) UTMB Live has existed, isn’t its going anywhere, and is free to the user and free from third party ad insertion.
But this, to me, isn’t a matter about looking for a technical solution. What UTMB is after is partnerships. And that’s the piece that Matt overlooked here. Youtube isn’t a partner, they are just a service provider and you can do so – if you wish to work the system, game their algorithms, and play in their garden, so to speak. YouTube doesn’t know that UTMB exists. There are way too many hours of video being uploaded every minute, shared, and watched that a livestream of an ultra race isn’t generating a blip on their radar.
What Matt is ignoring is that Youtube isn’t a SASS product, but a social network. You the “content creator” control very little. Case in point: at last week’s Chuckanut livestream from Mountain Outpost several times as podium finishers were arriving at the finish the feed was interrupted with auto-inserted, unstoppable commercial breaks destroying that finish line feel. Discoverability for long streams that have to be broken up into several separate ‘shows’ is an unsolved hassle that adds to the confusion. Black Canyon, with an annual much watched livestream from US largest ultra running livestream provider: Mountain Outpst has a link on their website to the 2024 livestream recording, still. It’s 2026.
While Youtube might appear to be a great solution for the “Youtube Generation” – i.E. folks who are already regularly on YouTube, are logged into their accounts, and have their feed tailored to their viewing habits, YouTube won’t help new folks discover the sport. And yes, if you regularly hang out on Youtube, and I don’t fault you for that, it makes sense that your wish is that UTMB should just come to you and stream there.
Ultra racing coverage is a challenging broadcasting product, there Matt and I are in agreement, and it’s easy to see that current versions aren’t suited for traditional broadcasting schedules. Having said this, we often compare trail running coverage to other sports.
This is not football, or tennis, or even Formula 1. It is a 20-hour narrative scattered across mountains, forests, and tarpaulin aid stations.
But how long is a golf Masters broadcast? Or a cricket game?
I get the fear that some might have, that if you partner with an outsider, especially someone with a large business interest, their influence into our sport might force the sport to change. Things can get out of our control quickly and these different/new ideas might not be up to our standards. Right now I am okay with that tension. Not because I am not acknowledging the potential that someone who doesn’t seem to understand what makes our sport special couldn’t ruin it for all of us. But the problem I see with keeping everything “in house” is that we get complacent and aren’t innovating. That “good is good enough” and there are plenty of folks who feel that way right now. Our current livestream broadcasts aren’t great products yet. There’s A LOT missing. And of course that ‘LOT’ is cash. It’s easy to get volunteers to sit at a mic and ramble for a few hours, but back of the house production is time consuming and costly. Is it possible that we can develop all this talent and expertise “in house”, homegrown from our current selection of aging elite athletes and podcasters? Maybe. But I reckon UTMB has always believed that the product they are creating needs partnerships, not just fans who are given a chance to prove themselves learning something new and sitting in front of a mic. This is not meant to put anyone down but acknowledging that experience from the outside can be a breath of fresh air, and offer you a chance to level up, and bring new people into the fold, that’s not a bad thing.
Addendum: I have not finished listing to the latest episode of Trail Talk where friend of ECC Aaron Shimmons chats with the great Ian Corless yet, but I am struck at how influential sky running used to be (in Europe, maybe?) and that it used to – according to Ian – represent how trail running was presented to the world. The races, the places, the athletes, the visuals. So trail running wasn’t always about long ultras that are hard to capture on screen. This seems to be a recent development, one driven by the Americanization of the sport, and the rise of UTMB adopting the 100M format as their king distance. So of course, this is UTMB’s problem to solve – they are pushing the demand for the ultra distance. And their current strategy is working with partners, rather than just throwing it all on YouTube and letting the algorithm solve the rest. I don’t mind that.
Rachel Treisman for NPR with the story:
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s events, based on the results of mandatory genetic screening.
So glad we’re subjecting athletes, and only women athletes to this.
…the scientist who discovered the SRY gene in 1990, Andrew Sinclair, has publicly opposed using the test to determine biological sex.
So, there’s a potential for plenty of false positives – exactly what solves this problem, fantastic!
Nevertheless, controversy ballooned in Paris 2024 when right-wing politicians and commentators called into question the sexes of two female boxers who had been previously disqualified from boxing world championships after failing eligibility tests.
…
While the accusations were not proven true, they sparked a global debate over gender eligibility and prompted the IOC to begin the review that led to this policy.
Seems like the IOC found their own ‘Peace Prize’ for Trump, and it comes in the shape of a giant dick.
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Seattle-based Brooks is opening a stand-alone retail store in one of the hottest malls in the US: University Village, Seattle Times reports:
The University Village location is around 2,500 square feet, and it will neighbor The North Face outdoor clothing and equipment shop. Billish hopes the store will serve as gathering place for runners, particularly given its proximity to the Burke-Gilman Trail.
UVillage is one of my favorite urban places in the PNW. It has a bit of Euro shopping street feel. It will be interesting to see how Brooks will do alongside a smattering of Aperol Spitz this summer. They have arrived now over here, haven’t they?
Adam continues his conversations with Carrie Highman, filmmaker of ‘Off Course’, part of TRFF’26 Official Selection:
Carrie Highman is so passionate about telling stories that she and her partner, Tim, live the “van life” so that they can be mobile enough to tell them all the time. When the chance came to work with Stephanie Case and Sophie Grant, they were all over it. An emotional journey followed and Carrie is proud of the offering they’ve put out together. It’s part of the online film selection and I hope you enjoy hearing about it as much as I did!
Off Course is part of our ‘long film selection‘ and is playing online parallel to the live tour.
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