By Mathias Eichler
Sponsor:
The Trail Running Film Festival presented by Brooks -
Back on Tour for 2025.
The Trail Running Film Festival presented by Brooks -
Back on Tour for 2025.
Arc of Attrition already happened in late January and Tarawera is happening next weekend, here’s the full list of events:
In 2025, 50 events will showcase the diversity and richness of global trail running across five continents. Each race is an invitation to explore, push personal limits, and embrace adventure.
This sounds very ‘final’. Does this mean UTMB will not add any new events throughout the year?
With the American trail season kicking off this weekend with Black Canyon(s) Ultras ‘Mile and Stone’ is taking a look at what makes American trail running what it is. Here are their key points:
- 100 miles is king, but not alone
- American trail running is a subculture
- Community is king
- Community, yes, but not at the expense of the individual
- Americans less interested in the elite scene
- The American scene strives to be egalitarian and inclusive
I would agree with the overall assessment and summary. The publication has some good quotes from a wide variety of people making their case.
The influence of cross country as a high school and college sport is deeply felt on the sport here in the US. This influences what races elite runners favor and the media covers. It’s no surprise that the poles were made a household gear addition in Europe rather than in the US where the predominant thought still is that one can RUN an entire 100 miler.
This also leads to the only point in Mile and Stone’s article that I disagree with: “Americans less interested in the elite scene”.
American trail runners love following their top athletes. No other country has that deep of a field of elites. The top media outlets covering the trail running scene all follow the elites and their doings. There’s a huge push coming out of the US trying to professionalize the sport and give elites ‘real contracts’ allowing them to pursue the sport full-time. Are there still lots of small “grassroots” events, but that is due to the entrepreneurial spirit of Americans, the limited capacity of many event permits, the huge distances between event locations, and the lack of tourist amenities at many destinations.
New limited edition flavor collab with Courtney Dauwalter coming 02/13/2025 from Tailwind Nutrition:
Who’s ready to party? We’ve got something BIG to celebrate with @courtneydauwalter and you’re ALL invited! Grab your favorite water bottle and dust off your party poppers – you won’t want to miss this!
All I can say is that it’s delicious!
The check most likely isn’t coming from the headquarters in Atlanta; this is probably a regional sponsorship, but nonetheless this takes us closer and closer to that non-endemic sponsorship from a big advertiser that everyone is looking for.
And a side note for our American friends: this is real coke, not Sodastream cola!
Episode 326 with Sam Harvey and Harvey Lewis:
This special episode was made possible through the amazing support from Tailwind Nutrition.
Maggie Guterl is back as Singletrack co-host on this second episode of a two-part series dedicated to the wonderful, crazy, and often endlessly long world of Backyard Ultras. This week we chat with Sam Harvey and Harvey Lewis. We take a deeper look at the motivations, strategies and principles that can bring you success at this race format that’s growing in popularity all over the world.
Talking to these champions of the sport I find myself in awe of what humans are able to achieve… and I find myself scanning UltraSignup for the nearest Backyard Ultra event.
Thank you Tailwind for partnering with Singletrack to share the stories of these incredible people of our sport.
Nick Cornell takes a look at recent athlete signings and makes a solid attempt in giving each transfer a rating.
It is an exciting time of year, the January athlete shuffle! There will be winners and there will be losers. It is exciting to see how and where brands are investing their capital. I’ve decided to grade some of these more noteworthy moves.
A quick side note here: it makes me laugh that some folks replied to Francesco Puppi’s comment that the media isn’t picking up his Nike departure with “maybe we don’t really care”, when in fact, the trail media cares, and hangs on every athlete announcement like it’s some revelation and debates every detail until the cows come home.
But the main reason I wanted to share Nick’s attempt at a rating here is at it reminded me of The Athletic’s transfer rating they are doing for pro soccer players. I’m new to all this sports punditry, so this might be an old hat for you, but I found the way they were breaking things down and arriving at their points awarded fascinating. Of course, in pro soccer we have WAY more data, thus breaking things out the way The Athletic does, by ‘injury record’, ‘market value’, ‘contract rationale’, ‘recent form’, ‘gap-filling’, ‘excitement factor’, ‘future-proofing’, ‘rival impact’, ‘marketability’ is probably overkill for trail running (at this point in time) but it gives a good insight into how someone arrives at a certain number or rating.
I gives Nick’s rating attempt a solid C+.
Caleb Olsen on his blog ‘Chasing Trail‘ taking some stock after the Stian incident and his interview on Freetrail:
Ultimately it doesn’t really matter what we think about his guilt or innocence in this particular case, what matters is that we keep the culture of ultrarunning one where the elite athletes’ perception is that you can trust the system, be clean, and still compete at the highest level—because as soon as that isn’t the case, the doping floodgates open.
…
We lack a central organizing body and funding for expensive anti-doping programs. If we want ultrarunning to remain a sport where clean athletes can compete, we need to demand more than just occasional post-race testing. A real anti-doping system—random out-of-competition testing, biological passports, and a governing body with actual funding—isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.
What’s the role the brands play in this? Are they interested in our sport being clean? Do they want their athletes to be clean? Do they want the competition to be clean? If so, are they able to pay for this? Ultimately they, the (gear) brands collectively, are the only body with deep enough pockets to pay for this.
Press release posted on Shop Eat Surf Outdoor (damn, I still can’t get over that name…):
Outside Interactive Inc., the world’s leading creator of outdoor content, mapping, events, and experiences, today announced the acquisition of Inntopia, a leading provider of integrated software solutions for the adventure travel and hospitality industry.
Inntopia is a booking engine, a hospitality reservation system. Outside clearly has completely moved away from being the preeminent storyteller of outdoor and adventure stories – those were the days – but story telling doesn’t make the investors happy. You can’t 10x stories. Outside wants to “own the full stack”: every transaction point a person engaging with the outdoors encounters. That’s the play.
Kyle Frost for the Here & There newsletter takes a fascinating deep dive into some backroom cleanup Strava’s been doing:
The ramp-up in SEO-friendly route pages suggests that Strava is doubling down on discoverability. These new pages don’t (currently) serve users who are already on the platform; they’re a top-of-the-funnel acquisition and marketing tool, drawing in new audiences searching for routes in specific areas.
Until now almost everything Strava offered was inside the app. These new offerings are for the open web. Strava is trying to reach new users, and probably taking aim at AllTrails and other competitors which have had a pretty solid open web search strategy so far.
Surprising turn of events, after the dust up from the last few weeks, but very welcome nonetheless:
After much reflection and listening to feedback from the trail-running community over the past month, we have made the decision in collaboration with SheRACES to change our policy, so that we include transgender women at these events. We recognise that transgender women also face barriers in competing in mixed events and with these events we have the opportunity to create a unique environment, where all women are encouraged to participate – aligning with our original mission.
I say ‘welcome’ as this doesn’t often happen and deserve some extra praise. Usually organizations announcing these type of policies this just dig their heels in and move only further right. This deserves extra mention, especially in today’s times.
How fast can you get up the mountain and make it back to your office wearing your Patagonia finance vest? Furtenbach Adventures to the rescue, and Alan Arnette reporting:
The Financial Times reported on January 10, 2025, that the operator would have four British clients inhale a xenon gas blend for half an hour upon arrival in Kathmandu. Then, they would fly to EBC, meet their Sherpas and leave for the summit within two hours. The plan is for a three-day ascent and another day to descend. There would be no acclimatization rotations. If all goes well, they could return home in about two days, making the entire trip last a week.
…
The so-called Rapid/Flash/Speed climbs are all the rage right now, and there seems to be no end to this high-end trend. I understand that some people want to summit Everest in the shortest time possible–there’s a market for all styles, and each person has their own reason.
It’s EPO for your high altitude mountaineering adventure to the tune of €150,000 ($153,720).
Concerning doping rules, Furtenbach told FT, “It’s not an organised sport, so there’s technically no doping in mountaineering.”
It is what my friend Alex Bond always reminds me of: the biggest dopers are the middle aged men who have the money but not the athletic abilities anymore. They walk into their doctor’s office and just ask for anything to get them to reach their dreams.
I mean, to each their own? Or just because you can, doesn’t mean you should?
One aspect that’s interesting in all this is that if this means people spend less time on the mountain they leave less waste and are potentially in less danger from the elements. Maybe?
Matt Trappe breaks down the marketing stunt by Chipotle/Jamil Coury on last month’s Strava Segment challenge:
Pointless, maybe. But engaging storytelling? Absolutely.
Matt’s post is worth a read if you want to catch up on everything that went down.
One aspect that Matt didn’t really dive into is that this is already the second year of that Chipotle/Strava challenge. Last year Kevin Russ, who has more followers on Instagram than Jamil Coury, made a tricky pact not to duke it out with the other leaders on the L.A. segment, they stopped running and tied together in first place so all could win burritos. That beat the system, but it didn’t create any media mentions until after the fact. So in a way, they did the challenge, but did’t take advantage of the challenge for their own publicity, outside of getting free burritos.
A person with a larger brand (in running) than Chipotle. joined (for free) and made this challenge his own marketing stunt. How much marketing value in dollars was created? Not sure. But replicating this would also cost a shit ton of money as it would require a celebrity runner to devote an entire month, and a huge amount of miles (Jamil is currently injured because of his final push clocking almost 750 miles for the month) to this promotion. Jamil already said that next time he’d bring additional staff for video editing, etc. which only increases the cost of the stunt.
Not trying to piss on the parade here. I think it was super fun to follow along, and there’s definitely some lessons here that can be applied here. Or rather, there some inspiration that can be drawn from it. But catching lightning in a bottle isn’t something that can be manufactured.
One thing is certain, if Kevin wants burritos next year, he needs to find a segment far away from where Jamil lives.
Go Beyond Racing announces ‘Firelane Trail Trail‘:
We’re putting on a Time Trial on Firelane 1 in Forest Park this spring. It’s a wee-bit steep and you go both up and down. The Firelane Trail Trial course is 4.45 miles roundtrip, with 1,266 feet of total gain and total loss.
This one’s worth pointing out because it doesn’t fit the ol’ “has to be an ultra with a round number” to be considered a real trail race mantra.
And for the sake of completion, Coast Mountain Trail Running announces details of their new even Alpenglow100:
The event location, which was the piece missing from the original announcement, is in Valemount, BC, far inland from the coast, in the Canadian Rockies. The pictures look absolutely stunning. Mapping a route from seemingly anywhere makes you weep a little, it’s so remote.
Tom Joly on his website ‘Athelysium‘ breaks down some numbers on what it means, and what it pays, to “go pro” in trail running:
In this article I look at the correlation between index scores and social media following, a rough estimate to an athletes value, and I’ll also share my experience so far in trying to land paying sponsors (including figures that I have received so far) and experience of agency vs “organic” deals.
Overall an insightful article and it comes with the caveat that some of his research is somewhat outdated due to a computer crash, but what I want to point out there is that singular focus on Instagram as a measure of influencer reach. Of course, this is somewhat the drum I’ve been banging, but I am curious if this is true across the board for other athletes. That brand essentially only looking at an athletes’s influence and success on Instagram. There are other social media platforms, TikTok comes to mind and other means to “influence”, how would that be considered? And of course, the question I’ve been asking for weeks now: “How will this change this year and into the next contract cycles?”
The Mingus Traverse 82 is a brand new race by Aravaipa Running added to the family of events at Cocodona and announced on Instagram this morning:
This 82-mile journey captures the most iconic sections of the Cocodona 250, taking runners through Prescott, Mingus Mountain, Jerome, Clarkdale, and Sedona for an unforgettable point-to-point challenge.
So far, no info on the official website, but registration is up on UltraSignup.
That Tabor and Eli Hemmings for you. They have a real website too, and this is what they say on their introductory newsletter post:
Instagram? Total garbage. It’s just a highlight reel of things people hope will make others envious.
And the exodus from Instagram continues.
Instead, Substack is where we’ll dive into what we do, how we do it, and why we do it…
…
But if you don’t agree with us… well, we don’t really care. This isn’t a space for your opinions—it’s for ours. So, suck it.
Is this the new mood out there? After years of everyone posting cute pictures of themselves trying to make others envious we’re now in the ‘suck it phase’.
Trash-talking seems to have arrived in the lovey-dovey world of trail running.
Birkenstock, the German sandal and recovery shoe company has a page on their website dedicated to ‘running’:
Running isn’t just about the miles you log, it’s about your recovery between runs.
Two of the four athletes featured are trail runners:
Be sure to watch the short video segments. Lots of fun clips I didn’t expect to find on the Birkenstock website.
Speaking of design and how to do it well: Pit Viper, the “joke that has gone too far…” (or something like that), just redesigned their website to make it look like the early days of Apple Mac OSX operation system and accompanying marketing website. Go now and look, cause their team seems to redesign their site quite often and I have no idea how long this design will last.
Fantastic blast from the past, and clearly done in jest (the Apple lawyers will probably not like their use of some of Apple’s icons and other trademarked elements), so who knows how long this design will last. According to the Internet Archive the previous design was very reminiscent of the old Microsoft Windows OS.
Spencer Harkins, VP of Brand at Pit Viper was just on Second Nature and shared the beginnings of the business and what they are up to now.
I mean of his training methodology. It’s called KoopAI. It’s in the early stages, looks rough, undesigned, a blast from the 1998 area of web design. Here’s what it’s trying to be:
Working directly with Koop, we’ve developed a mathematical model that captures his proven coaching methodology. This isn’t just another training app – it’s a sophisticated system that delivers personalized, adaptive training plans based on the same principles Koop uses with his athletes.
Genuinely curious who decided to ship a ‘sophisticated system’ looking like this. But to be fair, they acknowledge that ‘polish is missing’:
We’ve prioritized getting this core functionality right over polishing the UI/UX, which explains the current rough edges in the user experience. While we’ll certainly make the app more polished in the future, our primary focus now is perfecting the underlying training algorithm.
I’m generally down on AI products, so it’s easy for me to slam this. Paired with the name and the user interface it feels like a product that should not have shipped yet/never. But, hey, maybe I should give some points for trying? Ah, who am I kidding, “just because you could doesn’t mean you should”?
At this stage, we can only accept runners who fit certain criteria.
So not that sophisticated of a system yet, I guess.
Electric Cable CarTM is a product of Einmaleins. © 2018 - 2025. All Rights Reserved.