Salomon launches the “Drx Defy Grvl” (what a name, lolz) with a marketing campaign calling it the first “gravel shoe”. Aiming to capture a similar hype that the bike industry experienced a few years ago when they put stubby tires on road bikes and created the gravel bike boom. These shoes are beefed up road running shoe with a bit more tread and a bit more stability. But don’t call it a trail running shoe yet.

Road running conjures images of navigating the cityscape—pounding the pavement, traversing busy streets, and weaving through sidewalks in the “concrete jungle,” one stride at a time. Trail running, on the other hand, takes you off the beaten path, through rugged terrain, rocky trails, dense forests, and steep mountain ridges. But what about the runs that blend both worlds? The ones where you cover a few kilometers on asphalt before hitting the dusty trails of your local park? 

We call this new hybrid experience gravel, gravel running, or GRVL.

What I like about the shoe launch is the price point: At $140 it’s almost cheap consider what price point other brands have released their new shoes at. This new marketing focus isn’t trying to wrap an overpriced shoe with all the bells and whistlers into palatable language.

It’ll be interesting if other brands will jump on this train or if it’ll stay a one-off marketing stunt.

Today the UTMB World Series announces the addition of two new events in China to their World Series:

• March 1-3 the World Series is heading to Fantian Cultural Square for the Ultra-Trail Xiamen.
• May 19-20 the tour stops in Dajingmen for the Ultra-Trail Great Wall.

Ultra-Trail Xiamen offers three distances: 100K, 50K, 20K:

Ultra-Trail Xiamen by UTMB makes its debut on the UTMB World Series stage on 1-2 March 2025, ready to showcase its perfect blend of city, sea and mountains. Located in Xiamen, on China’s southeast coast, the setting is one-of-a-kind as runners get to experience the diverse beauty of the area while immersing themselves in the vibrant local culture.

Ultra-Trail Great Wall will have 100K, 50K, 20K and 10K races:

An extraordinary opportunity to race along one of the most iconic landmarks – the Great Wall of China – awaits as Ultra Trail Great Wall by UTMB joins the UTMB World Series circuit. Taking place on May 17-18, 2025, and based in the Qiaoxi District, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, the event offers an exciting blend of history, culture and natural beauty.

This takes the UTMB World Series to 52 events. Just in the past 6 weeks five new events have been added to the calendar. And yes, the ECC UTMB World Series Calendar is updated.

Wildstrubel in Crans-Montana Switzerland made its name proud with wild weather conditions over the weekend (September 12-15) making for wild racing and lots of last minute race and course changes. Again, frustrating as this make be for the runners, safety in the mountains always goes first and as long as the organization honors the stones one hopes to get even on an altered course things seem fair. As a double side note, I love the name “Wildstrubel”. The event is named after the Wildstrubel massif in the Bernese Alps. And no, Crans-Montana is not pronounced the way you think it would be. Also, the event is, if I am not mistaken one of the very few UTMB events that was started as a new event in 2022, as supposed to an already existing event which UTMB took over. Here are the full results on the UTMB website, below the top runners by race:

Wild 110 (72km, altered course):

Women:

1. Fiona PASCALL – Great Britain – 08:47:01
2. Laura SESKIENE – Lituania – 09:30:15
3. Mathilde DUFOUR – France – 09:49:09

Men:

1. Are FETVEIT – Norway – 07:53:02
2. Max DAUBE – Australia – 08:06:01
3. Adrien LEBRETON – France – 08:15:59

Wild 70:

Women:

1. Julie ROUX – France – 07:39:38
2. Lena LAUKNER – Germany – 07:52:46
3. Miria MEINHEIT – Germany – 08:15:11

Men:

1. Þorbergur JÓNSSON – Island – 06:47:52
2. Lucas NANCHEN – Switzerland – 06:53:31
3. Camille POUTIER – France – 07:08:46

Wild 50:

Women:

1. Yngvild KASPERSEN – Norway – 03:19:18
2. Jessica BRAZEAU – USA – 03:27:50
3. Astrid HOCHART – France – 03:32:42

Men:

1. Jonathan ALBON – Great Britain – 02:59:27
2. Loïc ROLLAND – France – 03:05:22
3. Nicolas MARTIN – France – 03:07:13

Wild 25:

Women:

1. Maëlle BEAUVIR – France – 02:52:54
2. Courtney BARNES – USA – 02:56:31
3. Anouk GAVILLET – Switzerland – 03:05:16

Men:

1. Gedeon POCHAT – France – 02:24:16
2. Cesar COSTA – Switzerland – 02:29:39
3. Valentin CHUARD – Switzerland – 02:30:47

Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• Wild 110 Starters: 854 – DNF: 123 – Finishers: 731. Women: 62 (8%), Men: 670 (92%).
• Wild 70 Starters: 828 – DNF: 90 – Finishers: 738. Women: 132 (18%), Men: 607 (82%).
• Wild 50 Starters: 1103 – DNF: 30 – Finishers: 1073. Women: 266 (25%), Men: 807 (75%).
• Wild 25 Starters: 1225 – DNF: 22 – Finishers: 1204. Women: 444 (37%), Men: 760 (63%).
• Wild 10 Starters: 405 – DNF: 1 – Finishers: 404. Women: 228 (56%), Men: 176 (44%).

In total Wildstrubel by UTMB saw 4,415 starters (not counting their kids events) and 4,150 finishers – and given the weather conditions this is a pretty astonishing number. 1,132 (27%) women and 3,021 (73%) men reached the finish line and earned themselves their respective stones and an UTMB index (or directly punched their ticket to the Finals in Chamonix for 2025).

Next up on UTMB World Series Calendar is another triple header with South America’s Paraty Brazil on September 19-22, Julian Alps Trail Run in Slovenia on September 20-22 and the Grindstone Trail Running Festival in Natural Chimneys Park, Virginia, USA on September 20-22.

The North Face released a fantastic ad titled ‘We Play Different‘. Really well done visually the ad tied together various outdoor sports never fully focusing on any one athlete. I did spot a short clip of the film ITZA‘ which is part of the Trail Running Film Festival Official Selection.

And if you’re already on The North Face’s YouTube channel, be sure to check out ‘Karwendel‘ Ida-Sophie Hegemann‘s film about her FKT attempt on the Karwendel Höhenweg separating Austria and Germany.

I was there, finally, in Chamonix during UTMB week. To take it all in, to report on it – I had a media pass – and I was there to race: I ran OCC. It was a lot to juggle, and I probably missed many important things that happened. It’s a completely different experience to be on the ground immersed in all the activities and the bustle as supposed to just watching from afar. It can feel overwhelming at times. But it also feels wonderful to just allow yourself to get swept away by the production, the care, and the enormity of it all. Here are my big things I took away from this week.

The “Arena”

I have not been at every trail race in the world, but the way UTMB utilizes Chamonix and the surrounding trails as “their arena” to stage this production is an absolute masterclass in project management, and displays an incredible amount of care in stagecraft allowing runners – fast and slow – to be celebrated and feel included. Most American races prioritize the starting times of their events, UTMB carefully orchestrates when races start and when finishers arrive back in town to maximize fans being able to cheer their arrival. It’s an absolute stroke of genius and experiencing it in person is emotionally powerful and a huge inspiration. A couple examples of this:

• The first CCC finisher arrive just shortly after the UTMB starters have left the famous blue arch in town. Spectators can just linger around and wait for them to arrive.
• PTL runners leave first – on Monday morning – kicking off an entire week of events. And as they arrive back in town – coming in the opposite direction of how UTMB/CCC/OCC runners arrive they are being rung in by a cheering group of volunteers with bells. Folks stop what they are doing, stand up from their dinner tables and cheer on these incredible athletes. All day and all evening long. Brings tears to my eyes. It’s beautiful.
• My OCC finish (I arrived in town Thursday evening at around 9pm) was absolutely eclectic. The amount of people cheering me on on that last kilometer to the finish arch was incredible. So many people, and just for me, arriving in 1085th.
• And even beyond Chamonix. OCC kicked off in Orsières at 8:15am. Perfect timing for folks to be awake, lining the streets, cheering, cowbells everywhere – beautiful.

The Adaptive Team

UTMB made a big splash in the press about their new policies and their team. At OCC I got to experience this live: I saw a whole group of runners pushing someone in an outdoor wheelchair along the trail. The group was electrifying and incredibly energetic. Was that large group a bit distracting on the narrow trails, yes, but I also loved their cheering and excitement. Total win for everyone involved in my book.

UTMB’s Sustainability Efforts

• Mobility and transportation: I travelled to Chamonix – 90min from the nearest airport without having to rent a car. UTMB makes a big deal of this and it worked flawlessly. There’s a tram connecting the villages and buses taking runners to their starting line – my OCC bus was comfortable and timely. I know coming from a US perspective and expecting to have a large group of supporters helping you at the aid stations – this system can be a bit o a hassle, but with 10,000 runners this seems like the right concept folks will have to adapt to and then it’ll work. If you want to crew at Hardrock you need a 4×4 in certain places, we don’t ask them to clean up their backcountry roads. In Europe public transportation is the future of mobility and folks will learn to adapt and see the benefits of such a system.
• Waste programs and recycling: I saw very little single use plastic at the aid stations. My finish line beer was served in a reusable cup. UTMB had Sodastream makers at the aid stations and no cans or plastic bottles. I even observed volunteers sorting garbage and recycling. I know this might not feel convenient to the runner, but for me a race director, this is inspiring. If a race of this scale can implement these changes than we can do more as well.

The Vendor Village and Brand Action/Activations in Town

The vendor village is truly impressive. An entire plaza filled with Christmas market style booths in numbers seemingly larger than brands present at TRE. Lots of Euro brands I have never heard of. If I wouldn’t have been busy with 400 other things I would’ve definitely spent more time there getting to know the various offerings. Same goes for the activation events all over town. If you want to participate in any of them you really need to plan out your week carefully to not miss any. UTMB promotes only events by official brand sponsors and just being signed up to the brands’ newsletters or Instagram accounts isn’t working as the brands don’t use their global newsletters to share these local events. It’s a bummer as I feel like I missed a lot. But, let’s face it, I also couldn’t have crammed more into that week in Chamonix. There was some talk in the media about UTMB’s effort to suppress ‘ambush marketing’. I wrote some thoughts about it in a previous post.

The languages on the trail

UTMB is the most international event I’ve ever been a part of. Bibs display the countries runner come from and allow you to connect with folks you hope speak your language. Speaking of flags on bibs – I reside in the US but am German citizen. I had the German flag on my bib. Other events (Hardrock, TOR seem to not be able to figure out this distinction.) During the race this international crowd led to quite an intense scene. Often in the US I find myself chatting comfortable with runners around me. There, on the trails it felt like it was all business. Everyone was focused on their own race. Maybe that’s a Euro thing, maybe folks weren’t sure if their little icebreakers starting a conversation would land or be understood by other runners and thus they didn’t even try. But this felt certainly like the most race-like event I’ve ever participated in. On the other side the fans along the side of the trail were able to take advantage of the flags displayed on the bibs and they cheered you on in your own language. That, paired with them being able to see your name created an incredible personal atmosphere in certain places along the trail which made the race truly special.

The elite performances

• Katie Schide’s victory at UTMB: Katie taking down Courtney’s course record and Courtney cheering along in a chicken costume no less just shows that the women’s race is the one we should all be here for. Such class acts, such standard setters for what trail running should be all about. Fantastic. Sidenote: The Koop vs. Roche drama continues: Just a week after Roche took down the fabled Leadville record in his 100M debut no less, Koop strikes back with Schide (coached by Koop) absolutely crushing UTMB. Such drama, what’s next?
• Vincent Bouillard’s victory at UTMB: Vincent didn’t just win because everyone else DNF’ed. He won in under 20hrs – only a handful of racers have come in under that magic mark. He showed everyone that our sport is still what we all want it to be. Trail running hasn’t gone that far pro yet that only the elite, the full-time athletes can perform at the highest level of the sport and win. Vincent works full-time for Hoka. And yes, he’s an incredible athlete, of course, but he has barely any social media presence and designs shoes for a footwear company for a living – incredible. Vincent also used his finish line interview to say as much. He doesn’t want to do the full-time pro athlete dance and is quite happy with where he’s at. I mean, of course, why wouldn’t he be happy, he just crossed the finish line at UTMB in first place. But also, what a perfect finish for Hoka, which might spend $$$ on sponsoring athletes, but here’s one of THEIR employees taking the limelight. Couldn’t have gone better for them.

Of course there were plenty of other amazing performances in the various events throughout the week, but the high drop rate by many runners (mostly American men) left the media in a bit of a pickle. I think the big storylines the talking heads had prepared were left on the cutting room floor. The post race interviews didn’t include any folks who DNF’ed so at this point we’re sitting in the dark on what happened. Was it the Sodastream Cola that some were wondering about – hahahaha – what an idea. Of course every runner has their own story as to why their race derailed and didn’t go as planned. The weather was hot and humid but not over difficult to handle – especially for elites. As an pack of the pack runner I don’t understand why DNF’ing rather than drudging it to the finish line feels the better choice for elite athletes, but I do understand that their reasoning for racing, their opportunities and their overall season plan is completely different – I accept and respect it, but I don’t quite understand it.

As for me, yes I still owe you a full race report for my OCC run. I promise it will be posted before my next race… which I already signed up for.

Announced just today, Grand Raid Ventoux marks the 50th event in the UTMB World Series and the sixth in France alone.

UTMB^® World Series heads to the heart of the Provence region in France in 2025, welcoming Grand Raid Ventoux by UTMB^® to the circuit on April 25-27. With a race history spanning almost 30 years, the event’s partnership with the trail running circuit proves an exciting fit in its evolution, while showcasing the stunning Provencal landscapes, including vineyards, hilltop villages and the infamous ‘Giant of Provence’ – Mont Ventoux.

“Joining UTMB World Series was an obvious choice for us. We wanted not only to structure and grow our event but also to offer our trail-running community the opportunity to experience something unique in their region, while highlighting Mont Ventoux, an iconic territory we love so much,” said Pieryves Coudray, organiser of the event for nearly 10 years alongside Laurent Belmonte.

The ECC UTMB World Series Events Calendar is updated with the event added.

DC Rainmaker has the details:

Today Apple announced Apple Watch Series 10, with a substantial hardware change and upgrade. In fact, so big it’s now got a bigger screen than the Apple Watch Ultra 2 (which didn’t see a new hardware version this year, only a new Titanium finish option)…

Not a ton of hardware changes, in fact the Ultra received face time in the presentation but just to show off a new color, no internal hardware changed were made. The big announcements are all software related and focus on health features and lots and lots of fitness/workout/sport related functions and improvements, which the folks at Garmin, Suunto, and Coros will be watching very closely. So far, the battery life of the Apple Watch still doesn’t make it a contender for running ultras – having said this, for my OCC race last week I bet the Apple Watch Ultra, fully charged, would’ve been just about alright.

A big wildfire is spreading in the San Bernardino Mountains, north of Los Angeles. The Line Fire is currently only 5% contained with 23,714 acres burning. Evacuation warnings have been issued for the community of Big Bear Lake, the start and finish area for the Kodiak by UTMB events which is happening just over 4 weeks time. From what I can tell none of the race course is currently affected but with the hot and dry conditions this can change quickly overnight and in the coming days.

PE Bétremieux, co-founder of BOOST in a post on LinkedIn:

The 2024 UTMB was a huge success, with the streets of Chamonix (or “Cham” if you’re a local or a trail runner) packed with fans.

Beyond its undeniable B2C appeal and the growing popularity of trail running, it’s worth examining how companies are capitalizing on this trend.

Looking at the UTMB sponsors, I can see five key trends for the future of trail running sponsorship.

It’s an interesting post dissecting the current landscape of brands supporting UTMB directly or ones just having a presence in town during the week. From a business point of view there are tons of opportunities for brands to align themselves with an incredible popular and well-loved product. But the key for me will still be on how UTMB and others will be able to grow the audience beyond the folks on the ground racing, supporting or spectating but online/on TV. If UTMB can get this figured out (the Tour the France is probably the product most comparable) then the floodgates of sponsorship Euros will open, and that’s the moment the non-endemic sponsors will jump.

UltraSignup’s Dirt Circus is coming back to Bentonville and the event is featuring the USATF 10K National Championship in partnership with Rush Running and Visit Bentonville. The event will be live-streamed by Mountain Outpost and is featuring a somewhat novel approach to prize purses:

Dirt Circus Bentonville is introducing a community-funded prize purse model, where trail running enthusiasts can contribute to the purse and watch the action unfold through a Mountain Outpost livestream of the event. The twist? The community-funded prize purse will remain open for contributions until the winner of each elite division crosses the finish line, adding an extra layer of excitement and unpredictability to the event. The prize purse, through support of Rush Running and Visit Bentonville, is already set at $10K, stay tuned to watch it grow! 

Novel the idea is, and for that they get extra points, but the 10K will be over so quick…unlike an ultra where one could follow their favorite runners for hours? There won’t be a lot of time to “raise funds” and also, who is going to put their money towards fast runners winning races? Is that something an individual would do? Well, we shall see how this all shakes up. This is another effort by UltraSignup that won’t be in there permanent lineup of things they do:

This year, Dirt Circus Bentonville is being sponsored (by) Rush Running, with the event fully transitioning to Rush Running in 2025. “We’re excited to be working with Rush Running to bring this innovative event to life, and we’re confident that they will take it to new heights in the years to come,” added Goyen. 

Not sure if doing a huge splash for a couple of years, fully supported and broadcasted, will be enough to establish the event. Once the precedent is set, I hope the team from Rush Running can carry it into the future and there won’t be a disappointment when the big supporters have moved on.

Is also happening this weekend in and around the Bad Gastein, Austria. This is one of Adidas’s big branding events and probably explains why their footprint is smaller at UTMB the week prior. The entire Adidas Terrex team is present and racing in some capacity. In fact looking at the pics from the race it feels a bit more like a company summer fest than a trail race.

And speaking of weird events websites… the races are still happening all weekend, but when visiting the main website you’re greeted with an announcement about the 2025 event already. Super confusing, it felt like the event wasn’t happening this year.

The series of monster races around and above the Valle d’Aosta in Courmayeur, Italy is happening this week(end). Katharina Hartmuth is at the starting line of the Tor des Géants as well as Francois D’haene, Damian Hall, Jasmin Paris, Claire Bannwarth. Some big names a the starting line, will be fun to follow along. Live tracking/viewing can be found here.

Whenever I hear someone complain about the UTMB website being difficult to navigate I am thinking of LITERALLY every other race website… they are all awful (and they all about to juggle millions of things, so from an information architecture point of view I understand how difficult it is to display everything correctly).

And Damian Hall is racing Tor des Géants this year, and Damian is part of (founder?!) of the The Green Runners, and The Green Runners campaign against sports washing and especially car companies sponsoring trail races. Damian on Instagram:

I needed to make a decision whether to run or not, for several reasons; including financial, child care, mental health, etcetera. Neither decision felt satisfactory. Though I felt suspicious, there wasn’t enough there to be sure it was sportswashing. So I committed to run. 

…

While my real beef is with Ford rather the Tor, I’m gutted. The Tor felt like everything UTMB wasn’t. And I really hope that can still be the case.

Look, I salute Damian and The Green Runners for highlighting and making climate change a topic of discussion in trail running, but the ‘sportswashing’ angle is a tough one to take for me. Trail runners are asking for more and more from events. Rather than endlessly increasing entry fees (which creates equity issues) and putting the burden on the runners alone, events partners with brands to sponsor these events. To NOT partner with a car company for an events company that clearly needs vehicles to put on an event, especially one of the scale like TOR just because of optics feels misplaced and shortsighted. The issue of climate change is about more than just optics.

I heard some chatter on a WhatsApp group that Ultra Tour Monte Rosa had to be completely cancelled this year due to flooding in the Saas Fee valley in Switzerland. This is a tough break for the runners and the race organization, but of course, safety goes first, especially in these mountains. It’s crazy to think that just a week ago and a couple valleys over UTMB had a nice week with stable weather and now rainfall stops a valley in Switzerland in its tracks.

This change was introduced with it’s latest software update that arrived this week:

When you first get your hands on your new watch, you will have a default watch face displayed on the time view. If you want a different looking watch face, there’s plenty of options found in the SuuntoPlus™ store, in the Suunto App! 

I know this is a minor thing as watch faces aren’t REALLY the reason one buys a sports watch but I always wanted more watch faces and enjoyed the increased variety Suunto started offering over the last few month. They also began letting users customize the complications on the watch face and change what other information is displayed on the dial besides just the time. Now, in a move that indicated that Suunto is going to offer even more watch faces in the future, they moved the selection process out of the watch and onto their app. This allows user to select their favorite watch faces within the app, sync to the watch and only have a few installed on there. This saves space on the watch and allows Suunto to offer more variety and not have to worry about the list of watch faces on the watch getting too long. And yes, I already spend too much time selecting my favorite watch faces, syncing them to the watch and customizing them to my liking.

In somewhat related news, and the UTMB vendor village I stopped by the Suunto booth to check out their $59 UTMB World Series band – I didn’t buy it. Not because I hated it, but because it didn’t blow me away, and there’s only so much UTMB gear one can own/wear/show off at the same time, right? Right?

I’m still digesting this past UTMB week and all the amazing and wonderful experiences on the trails and in and around Chamonix. As I am digging through emotions and storylines I thought I’ll pull together a list of past Singletrack guests and their performances at UTMB this year.

UTMB:

• Hannes Namberger – 4th men – 20:31:54
• Ida-Sophie Hegemann – DNF
• Eva Maria Sperger – DNF
• Alex Borsuk – DNF
• Scott Michie – DNF

CCC:

• Rosanna Buchauer – 3rd woman – 12:16:55

OCC:

• David Norris – 23rd men – 05:49:01
• Julie Urbanski – 238rd women – 11:52:05
• Mathias Eichler – 808th men – 12:28:45
• Daniela Oemus – DNF

I hope I didn’t miss anyone racing over there. If so, please let me know and I will add them right away.

Congrats to all who finished, and sorry to everyone who had a shitty day out there. UTMB is a tough course, there are tons of folks out on the trails, and the DNF rate has always been high. It was a hot year, humid too, but overall the conditions were not awful weather-wise. From reading everyone’s race reports and talking to folks there’s not a single person who doesn’t want to come back to this event. Win or fail, it’s that great. I hope for everyone, we get to do this over soon again.

Outside the actual races this felt like a fairly quiet UTMB week for the UTMB organization. There weren’t any massive announcements¹, either by UTMB, by any of the brands associated with them or by brands just being in town.

There were group runs, elite meet-ups, and other gatherings, but no major product releases or other marketing stunts.

There really was only one new addition that many in the media hung their hat on and wrote lengthy Substack newsletters or LinkedIn think pieces:

The announcement by UTMB to crack down on “Ambush Marketing”.

Here’s the definition of what it means:

Ambush marketing or ambush advertising is a marketing strategy in which an advertiser “ambushes” an event to compete for exposure against other advertisers.

Here’s how UTMB talked about in their guide to the press:

The development of the HOKA UTMB® Mont-Blanc, particularly in Chamonix, and the influx of spectators have created numerous opportunities for brands seeking to reach trail enthusiasts. This has sometimes led to excesses, such as unauthorized advertising and distribution of products, that impact the local community. To deal with these ambush marketing practices and protect the integrity of the event, UTMB Group has put in place several strict measures…

Matt Trappe picks this up in his Substack, calling it misplaced:

What an unproductive way for the race org to continue their bad guy reputation.

What’s funny in Matt’s takedown is the complete omission of the notion that this marketing crackdown might’ve been a requirement from their title sponsor Hoka, or another brand on their roster. But let’s face it, it was Hoka, right?

Every event organization is seeking sponsors to help offset their enormous expenses. In fact, every participant wants these sponsors, consciously or subconsciously – no one wants to pay for the entire cost of putting on an event like this through JUST the entry fees. So there are negotiations and contracts and dollars exchanged, and of course these unofficial brand activation were being discussed. Chamonix and the larger Mont-Blanc region becomes a giant stadium during that UTMB week. And brands not wanting to fork over the sponsorship dollars have figured this out and are taking advantage of this by creating their own activation program on top of the official event. Inherently there’s nothing wrong with that, and since Chamonix is a city and not an actual stadium there’s only so much UMTB can do about it.

For example Brooks had ads at the Geneva airport (the closest major airport to Chamonix), on the back of shuttle and public buses and they flew a paraglider almost the entire week over the town. But Brooks also strategically had their team chalets right next to the OCC course and had big banners hung from the balconies. I heard that last year they created an unofficial cheering and almost aid station along the route. Does this cross the line? UTMB, or more likely HOKA thought so and this year the banners were down during the race (at least when I ran by).

The media can’t have it both ways, constantly asking for more professionalization in the sport and wanting prize money for winners and then whine when the events get more professional. HOKA put up the price money, HOKA asked UTMB to crack down on the ambush marketing. (I admit this is conjecture, I don’t know if HOKA demanded this, but my spidey-senses tell me this is not something that UTMB came up with by itself.) Of course you can be on the side that UTMB should just allow every brand to do everything, but then they won’t have a title sponsor.

What we need is a professionalization in our media reporting and not just reactionary think pieces by folks looking for “fun things” that could come out of creative marketing “flash mobs” by, let’s face it, HUGE brands who themselves could afford to actually put up sponsorship dollars, but choose to get eyeballs on the cheap.

Or are we seriously okay with NIKE, a multi-billion dollar global corporation taking advantage of a nonprofit by ambushing Western States and giving away free shoes through a pop up shop along the route and bypassing giving anything to Western States in return to that marketing exposure²?

__________

¹ Friend Aaron Shimmons pointed out to me that Norda released their 005 shoe during UTMB week – I apologize for the omission.

² Why did no one report on this when this went down earlier this year?

Every year the same song: Western States happens in June, Americans (and Canadians) celebrate trail running and praise what each of the organization does in the highest tones, proclaiming that nothing ever can change, and anything and everything is beautiful. Shortly after Hardrock rolls up and the same Americans (and Canadians) continue their praise and proclamations. These organizations representing our sport can do no wrong, should not dare to change and need to be protected and persevered at all costs. Then a few weeks later into the summer and the attention of the trail running world turns their attention to the Alps and the tone changes.

Voices of our trail running community who are seen as standard bearers, role models and ‘influencers’ (in the largest sense of the world) turn from cheery warm embrace to nitpick-y needling. A sampling:

Amelia Boone on Threads:

Not gonna lie, I miss the brief second when we all hated UTMB.

Ethan Newberry is still beating his drum:

Hi, UTMB still sucks

AJW on X/Twitter:

Wait, UTMB makes bad decisions? I thought they changed that with Catherine’s and Michel’s redemption tour in February. I guess not.

And Liam aka AidstationFireball posts the leading question:

Absolutely brutal decision for UTMB to turn off the live chat for the live stream. Is the live stream audio also terrible for anyone else? Super muffled/not clear…

Remember that’s the guy who went all out defending the WS coverage this year, shutting down any questions about quality issues. And yes, WS is a nonprofit and UTMB is a business but really, Liam was on site working at WS and is therefore invested into that feed, that’s the reason for the vehemently defending whatever went down.

Liam is also the guy who has spoken out against the Youtube live chat because of too much trolling there, but now that UTMB has taken action it’s considered “brutal” and a strike against the heart of the trail running community. I can’t even.

The online chatter continues wondering if offering Cola made with Sodastream machines to cut down on plastic waste instead of offering official Coca-Cola products had anything to do with the high number of male elite runners dropping out this year.

That last one made me howl… what a comment, what brain twist to get there. Yes, full-time athletes weren’t able to prepare for this and relied on REAL COKE MADE IN AMERICA to succeed at UTMB. That’s it.

I totally get that it’s a complete different experience watching UTMB from afar vs. actually being on the ground in Chamonix. Online, one desperately chases stories and hangs on every word typed into Instagram or published in podcasts. I also get that the notion of UTMB being the big bad wolf is just so damn convenient of a story line that one just HAS to run with it. We love a bogeyman. But, we also are proclaiming that we as the trail running community are better and have created something special. This endless needling and fishing for dirt is lazy, lame, and really misses the forest for the trees. But most online trolls never want to see reality anyways, but stay in their basements stirring up shit that ain’t there.

Here are the results for the “QUEEN EVENT” of the UTMB week. The race that started it all 21 years ago. The race that is still the biggest in numbers and the one that draws the most spectators in Chamonix, as well as online. The race with THAT starting song, the race that starts with much fanfare in downtown Chamonix and ends under that blue arch in the same location. It’s a beautiful and brutal route and an incredible production. There much more to be said about all this, much much more, but for now, here are the results for the 2024 edition, and here’s a link to the full results.

Men:

1. Vincent BOUILLARD – France – 19:54:23
2. Baptiste CHASSAGNE – France – 20:22:45
3. Joaquin LOPEZ – Ecuador – 20:26:22
4. Hannes NAMBERGER – Germany – 20:31:54
5. Ludovic POMMERET – France – 20:57:48

Women:

1. Katie SCHIDE – USA – 22:09:31
2. Ruth CROFT – New Zealand – 22:48:37
3. Marianne HOGAN – Canada – 23:11:15
4. Lin CHEN – China – 24:16:33
5. Blandine L HIRONDEL – France – 24:35:54

The race organization called for the “Mandatory Hot Weather Kit” and the temperatures were hot in the valleys and on the trails, just like for CCC and OCC. If that was the reason so many of the top runners dropped is being hotly debated online right now, but overall there were 2,761 Starters, 1,001 DNFs and 1,760 Finishers. That overall drop rate is somewhat in line with previous years, so not terribly unusual. 205 (12%) women and 1,555 (88%) men finished the race. For the top trail running event in the world having only 12% women at the event is just not great and this sad number is certainly felt in town and on the trails. Trail running needs more women at the starting lines everywhere, period, but this is also something that can’t be fixed overnight and it will take time.

Here are the results for CCC, OCC, TDS, MCC, ETC, and PTL.

The new list of events is updated and posted. At a quick glance it doesn’t look like there many changes compared to 2025, just some additions:

• Buffalo Stampede 100k – Australia
• Hellbender – North Carolina
• Hood Hundred – Oregon
• Tenerife Bluetrail by UTMB – Spain

One thing that I do find interesting is that UTMB is the qualifying race, but CCC the Golden Ticket race for that event.