Alex, German YouTuber takes on the “business side” of the UTMB World Series in one of those ‘outrage porn/explainer videos’. These shows all are manufactured to get the “outrageous point” across in the first 3 min, then cut to an ad – so the host can make money off the outrage – just to end with a wimpy “well, things are nuanced and both sides of the story are reasonable and worth considering”.

But the reason why I am linking to it here is because he’s another voice just so casually dropping the whole “Whistler kerfuffle” as a done deal and he mentions this, boldly and wrongly as if UTMB pushed Gary out of a business opportunity. Not sure why this is so pervasive in Germany especially, but it’s something I need to investigate further. Of course it fits the narrative of “big business doing bad things to little guys”, and wrong information travels further and stick longer than the truth, especially on the internet. And maybe the further one is removed from the actual story – geographically speaking in this scenario- the harder it is to get to the actual story, aka the truth, and maybe one doesn’t even care to get to the full story as it wouldn’t fit their preconceived narrative?

Well, as a fellow German I am kind of embarrassed by this odd trend, to be honest.

Grace Cook went to the Satisfy x adidas activation and has some thoughts on the explosive aftermath:

Runners turned into high school mean girls this week, unleashing a Burn Book of public criticism against Satisfy, the small but very influential French running brand. The trigger? Its collaboration with Adidas, which was unveiled at a private launch party in the Sonoran desert in Arizona last weekend. I was one of the very few to attend.

It’s a really great post summarizing her experience in the Arizona desert and putting the event into the context of how fashion and sports brands launch new products, build hype and activate the public to buy their stuff.

The one quibble I have with it is her analogy of the ‘bullying mean girls’ is that Satisfy isn’t the poor beleaguered wallflower. They are a luxury company whose CEO keeps getting into cat fights online. A VC funded brand built on trying to be ‘cool’ while charging $300 for a cotton t-shirt with holes. “Oh, who will stand up for the little guy” isn’t the rallying cry that will resonate with a brand that’s build on an air of exclusivity and “too cool for school” attitude. Yes, they aren’t Nike, but they are also partnering with adidas on this collab. Over the past few years Satisfy has to be the darling of the running world. Business experts extolled their strategy of going ‘upmarket’, and influencers in both the fashion and running world loved to show off their affluence and edginess by wearing their gear. Now the brand is experiencing a bit of headwind and mockery, I’d say a good punk rocker should feel right at home with this.

Sabrina Little for iRunFar ponders the ethics around doping for non-professional runners:

This is another reason why we should maintain consistent moral norms across non-professional and professional racing: Professional runners do not just materialize from thin air. They are introduced to the sport and mentored through the running community at large. If that community has a cavalier attitude toward drugs, or is broadly complicit in illicit supplementation, this makes compunctions around drugs less acute at all levels of the sport.

This article is in response to the ‘Cam vs. Sage‘ saga that’s been swirling around the social media channels and has resulted in a official complaint with USADA.

For me the issue with doping is that this is one of these subjects that does have an effect on the community. If you’re just a solo runner, outdoorsman, and bow hunter, and you like to put things into your body, be my guest, I couldn’t care less. But as an influencer who’s build an empire inspiring others to ‘keep hammering’ or what ever you do, you’re not just a random amateur. You’ve build and you’re representing a community and that is part of your business strategy. Be transparent and don’t be like the ‘Liver King‘. But, and this is not “gatekeep-y”, once you start participating officially sanctioned events, and you bring all the attention of your social media community with you, you do need to submit yourself to the ‘rules of the game’ that exists. And that doesn’t matter if these rules are basic trail etiquette, mandatory gear, or doping regulations. Carving out exceptions is what erodes community and creates division and that is something worth standing up to.

Josh Rosenthal makes the case for the importance of the local 50K on his Borderlands blog:

Trail running needs race directors whose ambition is to put on a race for 80 people because they love the sport enough to do it. That kind of ambition is becoming harder to sustain financially and culturally.

Large organizations should not just market trail running. They should help preserve the local races that make trail running durable in the first place.

If the local race disappears, the entire ecosystem upstream weakens with it.

This so far is true and most likely anyone will be in agreement. But, what has changed?

Sub-100 person ultras are commercially difficult. Most are not meaningful businesses. They are love letters to trail running held together by volunteers, exhausted race directors, and thin margins.

I’d wager these races have always been economically challenging. Maybe there just used to be enough weirdos (I am saying this lovingly, I am one of them!) that are doing this for the love of it. I don’t experience the pressure from the running community to compete or chase the professionalism of the big events. I am putting that pressure on myself. I watch the big races evolve, grow, and constantly add new “features” like livestreams, prize purses and fancy nonstop race day coverage and I want that for my races too. Does the community expects this? Some folks might, but not all runners sign up for the spectacle. They sign up for the personal challenge. Yes, at some point they might want to run one of the big races and are training for it, but they sign up to run on trails and gotta start somewhat. That, until Aravaipa and UTMB own all the events (they won’t), will still be at the event closest to home, on trails within a reasonable travel distance.

I will turn this into an invitation and call for participation. The events RDs put on every weekend all over the map are an incredible creative playgrounds for folks with ideas to come out and “enhance the experience”. This is not just a call to volunteer and ‘help out’ where needed. Races will always need volunteers and they are the live-blood of the events. But these events also thrive when folks come with their idea, their hobbies, and passions and want to help build the trail community. Got ideas, want to build something, interested in starting an outdoor business? Come to a trail race and connect with the people who are doing this every weekend. It’s worth it.

And you know what else? I wager partnering with a locally run event will allow you to let your creativity shine more than trying establish an official partnership with one of the corporate events requiring credentials and complicated contracts.

Last weekend Zegama kicked off the Golden Trail World Series, for 2026 (and yes, I am slacking and didn’t post results… apparently I can’t do it all). And with it GTWS launched their new ‘Team Ranking‘. Did anyone talk about how it went? I can’t find GTWS posting about it. Is it working? Looking at the results it seems that several of the big brands that were hyped pre-race didn’t place. Only Asics and of course Salomon are on the current results table. The rest is filled with – what seems to me – local teams, not the global brands. Not here to rip it apart, just wondering how this will develop. I think the idea could fun, but after one event it seems to be off to a slow start and not the conversation piece Salomon might’ve hoped it would become.

Mandie Holmes for Ultrarunning Magazine (owned by team behind Cocodona):

If you entered the Cocodona 250 lottery, you already know what the entry fee looks like.

For everyone else, here it is:

Entry and fees will go up to $2,238 for 2027.

Mandie’s post isn’t meant to highlight the cost beyond the entry fee but rather the additional costs it takes to run this race including flights, gear, and accommodation for your crew.

Among the runners I talked to, total race week costs ranged from under $2,000 to well over $6,000.

Our sport is not one for folks pinching the pennies. I bet the numbers to fly to Europe and book a hotel in Chamonix have gotten even crazier than when I did it a few years ago.

Mountain guide Simon Kearns sets a new FKT from Paradise to the Summit of Mount Rainier and back. What a stellar day (few hours) out. RMI Expeditions celebrating his achievement:

On May 9th, RMI guide Simon Kearns ran from the Paradise parking lot to the summit of Mount Rainier and back in 3 hours, 43 minutes, and 52 seconds, shattering the previous unsupported on-foot record by more than 30 minutes.

13 years of dreaming. Two failed attempts. One very good day.

FKT entry. Strava file. Instagram. Seattle Times.

Who orchestrates a very public marketing activation which was meant to evoke strong emotions and then sit in the social media comments to explain and defend themselves?

I continue to be puzzled by the actions of the folks behind Satisfy. If you want to be bold and let your freak flag fly… or bang a giant gong in the suburban desert, be my guest. But then why are you personally all over social media trying to defend and explain yourself? If you want to make art, make art. If you want to sell products, sell them and prove the naysayers with your success. But don’t try to be edgy and then act thirsty when folks misunderstand you.

But maybe that’s part of the performance act. When Satisfy dreamed up the by now infamous “Circle Pit^TM” they knew (must have known, please tell me they knew) that it would create a strong reaction online. By now they know that Satisfy isn’t just universally admired and adored anymore. By now they must know that Satisfy is increasingly the butt of a joke.

I wonder if they are now just feeding the beast? Purposely trolling back to create hype. (I personally couldn’t handle the time arguing and defending myself, but some might thrive on this.) How much of their activation in the desert hyping their collab with adidas was framed so that the meme accounts would pick it up and drive the message further than they could’ve done themselves? I am not here to condone this. I am not trying to write a LinkedIn marketing genius post extolling the attention economy at all costs. I am just wondering out loud here. It’s day 4? of nonstop hot takes and think pieces and questions and comments online. Usually when something like this happens it’s serious, political, big. But this was just a wee marketing activation by a fashion brand cosplaying as athletic brand. No one got hurt, no one got harmed in the making of it, no one needs to get cancelled. This IS all fun and games – so far.

I didn’t want to wade into that “circle pit’ conversion that the entirety of the running world had been circling around these past few days, but I thought two posts were worth sharing.

Chris Z writes on ‘Das Letter Z‘:

I am writing this because this disturbing brand theatre in the desert moved something personal in me.

Chris doesn’t write his article about the business and marketing angle, or how this stunt affects running culture, he talks about punk and hardcore subculture here, which I ,as an outsider to this, appreciate.

Chris also shares an article I had bookmarked a couple of days ago by Katherine Douglas at ‘Running Wylder‘ who wrote about the feeling the images evoked as well as the overall impact of it all:

The lack of diversity and the blatant toxic bro culture are so exclusive and so specific to a certain type of runner I’m honestly embarrassed to have thigh tattoos.
…
A good collab (and subsequently a good launch event) should get people talking, initiate (+ fuel) the buzz around the upcoming products and raise the mutual brand equity of both parties involved. Sadidas got ppl talking but for the wrong reasons. One could argue the brand equity of both was lowered and instead of reaching new customers, they turned them off.

To me Satisfy feels like a brand that’s run out of ideas.

Carlos Ultrarun for Asociación Española de Trail (auto-translated):

At a time when Trail Running is experiencing an unstoppable expansion, initiatives like this festival help reinforce the cultural identity of a sport that goes far beyond competition. Cinema thus becomes a perfect tool to transmit values such as companionship, resilience, respect for the natural environment and the ability of sport to transform lives.

The public’s response was very positive in this first edition, making it clear that there was a real interest in an event of these characteristics in Spain. Attendees were able to share experiences, learn about new audiovisual projects and enjoy a different day, where Trail Running was also understood as a form of artistic and emotional expression.

Thanks to our incredible hosts We Run Astur for bringing TRFF to Spain. More of this.

Jessy Carveth for Marathon Handbook did the lord’s (lady’s?) work of compiling the whole online drama:

At the time of writing, Hanes has not been charged with a rules violation. His Eugene result stands. His age-group win stands. His 2011 blog post is still up. His Instagram comments to Canaday are still public. He has gone on his own podcast and confirmed, in his own words, that he used a banned peptide.

Canaday is not claiming Hanes used BPC-157 at Eugene specifically. He is saying the public admission of using a banned substance during the same competition window is enough to refer to USADA, and that placing in the age group at a USATF championship while doing so breaks the rules athletes sign up to follow.

That is where this sits for now. The Eugene result is on the books. Hanes is back home in Oregon. Canaday’s tip is with USADA. Whatever happens next will happen on the agency’s timeline, not the podcast’s.

Worth a read if you want to catch up with the various events on the timeline without the emotions and comments on social media. Not sure where I stand on all this, but I thought it’s worth sharing as there are a lot of conversation floating around about what “community and culture” really is and who’s the arbiter of it all.

Staying on the “Beast Coast” for this one. Cole Townsend on ‘Running Supply’ shares an email exchange with Ben Cooke, President of Marathon Sports and some thoughts on their brand new rebranding:

The new Marathon Sports is modern, sharp, and geometric. It doesn’t have the warmth of a slab serif typeface or their clip art image of Bannister breaking the tape.
…
This ambitious play comes with some risk. Stores like Fleet Feet and Marathon Sports are trusted by a huge community of runners, walkers, and hikers. It’s a familiar place to shop with all the brands they expect.

Aside from the fact that I’m very interested in design, and to that a bit more in a little bit, one of the reasons I am bringing this up here is this part of the interview with Ben:

In trail, we bought races, amplifying them with real prize money—championship status, and deep prize money to support aspiring athletes and keep them in the east. [New] field trip experiences to get people opened to trail, an adult camp in the Berkshires. Additionally we are building a trail mecca store in North Conway to honor the sport. We almost feel an obligation to do these things. If not us, who else will?

Marathon Sports bought SIX03 the company behind Kismet Cliff Run – now part of the USA Skyrunner National Series. Which coincidentally also has the tagline “Beast of the East”. So we will be seeing alot more from them in trail in the coming years.

Switching over to the official blog post and announcement by Marathon Sports on their rebranding efforts:

We wanted an identity that respects that history, but also looks and feels ready for contemporary run culture. That is a delicate balance. We selected Upstatement, local design agency, to guide this process. Their editorial mindset, blending disruptive design and storytelling, captured Marathon Sports’ identity and pushed us further than what felt familiar.” – Ben Cooke, president of Marathon Sports.

Logo and brand refreshes are hard and I am not one to do the usual internet pile on here of yelling at how the old one was better and the new design is automatically shit, but this sentence below has my skin crawl:

Upstatement must have drawn over a hundred running figures, a million variations of the letter M, and everything between the sky and the ground, including a hedgehog and banana peels.

I really really hope this is meant as a figure of speech. A casual way for a not-a-designer explaining the process of how one goes about redesigning a brand with 50 year history. Because man, you definitely don’t start with the drawings, you start with the emotion, the feeling, the idea and vision of what you want to convey.

Look closer and you’ll also see a runner breaking the tape, arms raised in that split-second mix of exhaustion, relief, and disbelief. It’s the moment every runner understands whether you’re winning a race or just winning a personal battle on that day.
These two symbols; the four dots and the upraised arms are universal among all forms of running. They are road, trail, track and treadmill and they are the essence of our sport.

A smart designer can explain any shape into anything. This above feels a little bit like a stretch to me. The new logo is a modern and abstract *M*, and that’s just fine.

Ben Mazur writes on his blog ‘Rocksylvania Dispatch’:

UTMB’s arrival in Pennsylvania is not just the addition of another race; it is the collision of two very different versions of trail running.

Jeff Calvert adds on his blog ‘The Rush of it All‘:

In the end, it was less about UTMB (I guess I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt) and more about supporting the local runners who are organizing and directing the race. I know and trust them — they have deep roots here, they care about this race and all it represents. And in this case, the race is a collaboration, not a hostile takeover.

Ben concludes:

None of this is to suggest that UTMB’s arrival is inherently detrimental or that it should be resisted outright. It is, however, to say that the situation deserves a level of attention and thoughtfulness that goes beyond surface-level reactions. There is opportunity here, but there is also risk. The challenge, as always, will be navigating both at the same time without losing sight of what made this community worth investing in to begin with.

Both were vocal in the Whistler aftermath, boycotting UTMB and pulling several race from the region they were involved with from the UTMB Index calendar. Now both are back supporting and rooting (albeit hesitantly) for UTMB to succeed and do this right. Will be interesting to see what their postmortem will be after this weekend.

Tiffany Montgomery for Shop Eat Surf X Outdoor:

REI union workers and allies are launching a nationwide boycott of the co-op’s Anniversary Sale that starts Friday, escalating a four-year contract dispute that remains unresolved at all 11 unionized stores.
…
REI has roughly 200 stores nationwide. The 11 unionized locations represent a small fraction of that total, but the boycott’s consumer component, with 70,000 co-op members allegedly pledged to participate, extends its potential reach well beyond those individual stores.

My understanding is that REI’s business structure – that of a co-op – makes it unsuitable for an IPO or private equity takeover. Which is usually one of the key reasons why a business of this size – that’s not already publicly traded – would be anti-union. I don’t have an MBA but I would just love to see the spreadsheets laying out why a co-op that’s supposed to be “for the people” has to be anti-union. Why not just go full in on union support and continue your tradition of being different? Every American business is just always “anti-union” by defaults citing all the reasons of why it hurts the bottom line. But public sentiment has shifted so much in this country that it might just be a good PR play to actually be the ONE business that’s pro-union?

But what do I know? Happy Anniversary sale. The La Sportiva Prodigio Pros, my favorite trail running shoes, are 25% off… but don’t be a scab!

Episode 346 with Coree Woltering:

Coree Woltering joins Singletrack this week to chat about his approach to running trails, and racing short and long distances. This year his goals include Western States, Beast of Big Creek, and Fat Dog 120. We discuss his role as Merrell US trail team manager and the upcoming relaunch of the Skyrunner World Series to the US, the US National Series, and Merrell’s plan as title sponsor of these series. See you at Beast in August!

Links

• Coree Woltering on Instagram
• Coree Woltering on Strava

I had previously mentioned this new team ranking and just ahead of the season kickoff event at Zegama this weekend we get some more insight into how this will all work and what brands are lining up their athletes for this:

• ASICS Trail Team
• Brooks Trail Runners
• NIKE ACG
• Run2Gether On Trail
• Salomon
• Kailas Fuga Team
• New Balance Running
• Scott

Ostentatiously missing are brands like Adidas and Hoka. But even Nnormal with their strong field targeting GTWS events I am surprised not to see listed.

How this all will work:

The Team Ranking is determined by combining the results of each team’s top two men and top two women in every race. Their finishing positions are added together to produce the team score for that event, making every position count and consistency a decisive factor across the field.

It will definitely be fun to follow along and see if this ‘yet another new thing in trail’ will gain any traction.

Small side note here:

A post on the GTWS published on 04/10/2026 is titled “Québec Mega Trail: the Beast of the East“.

Maybe something got lost in translation here, and if there is I’d love to know. I can’t find any references online to the Québec Mega Trail being called this. I am curious on why they chose to label that race “Beast of the East”? There’s an actual race called ‘Beast of the East 100‘ in North Carolina. Or maybe they just wanted to get the word “beast” into one of their headlines after their lost their US event this year and the Skyrunner World Series returns to the US at ‘Beast of Big Creek‘?

I haven’t talked about TORX eXperience in awhile, mostly because their circuit and system around it is just too confusing and most races includes are fairly obscure, but I just noticed that Tim Tollefson’s Mammoth 200 is now an official TORX eXperience race.

If I remember correctly TORX has a leaderboard for folks who participate in multiple races of their eXperience circuit – but it also targets the really long distances – to match the spirit and challenge of TOR. But the biggest draw is the access to TOR for finishers of one of these TORX eXperience races. This is definitely a cool thing for the still new Mammoth 200 event. Tim and his team seem to be working hard to differentiate their 200 from all the other ones that exist/and are popping up everywhere trying to replicate the financial success of Destination Trail events and the popularity of Cocodona.

JAMBAR is fueling the Trail Running Film Festival:

Trail running is about more than the miles – it’s about the stories behind them. The Trail Running Film Festival brings those stories to life through a lineup of inspiring films created by talented filmmakers from around the world, and JAMBAR is proud to be part of the tour as an official sponsor.

Have you gotten to sample any JAMBAR bars at any of our locations this year? JAMBAR joined us this year in helping us lift up the creative community that’s powering the trail stories we share – thank you.

Oh my, I just read Julie Urbanski’s race report from the ‘Oh My Deus by UMTB’ event at the beginning of this month and the race shirt slogan cracks me up:

The race t-shirt could have used the help of a native English speaker. Serra da Estrela is in the center of Portugal, geographically, so the slogan was, “You in the center,” but on the shirt, it had a * (star) in the center, because estrela means star in English, and it’s like you’re the center of the race as well, but the shirt just looks weird with, “You in the C*nter.” When I ran into two South African women in the race, the first thing they asked me was, “So what do you think of the race shirt?”

You gotta read the full race report on the Team RunRun blog and scroll to the bottom for the picture proof.

Language man, you gotta love it.

A few more thoughts on this mega media event for the trail running world down in Arizona. I experienced it again just from afar, but nonetheless I wanted to put some (final?) thoughts down for this year, on this genre-expanding production.

Cocodona is a Spectacle

Unquestionable what Jamil Coury, Steve Aderholt and their team at Aravapia/Mountain Outpost have built here is a fantastic product. An ultra endurance event, built from the ground up with a livestream as the focal point allowing the athletes to not just conquer the trail, but also take advantage of the public platform and present their story to the world. If you choose to run Cocodona you’re not wanting to be invisible and alone in the mountains, you want to be part of this spectacle – and be a bit of a spectacle yourself.

The Super Bowl of Ultra Running

That word ‘Super Bowl” has been floating around for years to describe the “biggest and most important event in trail”. My argument qualifying the term has always been that the Super Bowl isn’t even the biggest sporting event in the world, just for the US, and therefore shouldn’t be used to describe the biggest event in trail – globally. That of course, still is, and will be for a long time UTMB. Westerns States fits the Super Bowl moniker well = America’s biggest and most important trail race. Bestowing that crown on Cocodona mere days after the event and still in the emotional afterglow feels premature. We have to wait for the verdict on this until after this year’s WSER. Clearly they aren’t sitting still over there and we can expect a leveling up coming from the team in Auburn as well. Let’s hope by then the Cocodona moment hasn’t faded too far back in memory to allow us a better comparison and judgement. (Personally it won’t help that I’ll actually be in California for the race for the first time this year – talk about getting influenced in an unfair fashion.)

An Elite Level Competition

While the race and it’s insane distance requires elites-level performances from anyone attempting it, the event has not YET attracted the deep field of elites (full-time, brand supported athletes) we have seen regularly at WSER and UTMB and even Hardrock over the past several years. All the pieces are set and it seems just a matter of time, but there are two things that are holding back the elites from toeing the line at Cocodona: Brands are being too slow to adopt Cocodona in their bonus structure – this will very much change after this year, I project. And further the fact that racing 250 miles is a unique skill requiring athletes to focus a lot of their year preparing for it. Currently the 100M distances is still the pinnacle of racing for elites. Maybe these issues will converge and solve themselves if a new level of elite will emerge – one focused exclusively on these super long ultras, leaving the 100M as the “middle distance”. But I caution this narrative as our sport is too small still, and the endless bifurcation brings lots of challenges with it – at the professional level of our sport that is. Looking at it purely from a creative storytelling point of view it’s great that trail keeps inventing new formats that capture the imagination of endurance athletes.

The Livestream Advantage

Over the years Aravaipa build up insurmountable lead by having smartly invested into their live-streaming equipment and the know-how required to run it well. No on can compete with it – in the US. No one has the tools to build a similar event experience. All race directors in North America who are wanting a livestream for their event are contracting Mountain Outpost – an Aravaipa company.
The comparison that comes to mind here is the way Amazon used its head start as the leading online shopping platform to build out AWS. Under the AWS brand Amazon sells B2B server products that have been used by all tech companies large and small in various ways. Even Amazon’s fiercest competitions are using AWS products essentially paying Amazon to compete against them. That’s the Aravaipa/Mountain Outpost combo right here. And yes, we don’t talk about competition in the trail space unless it’s the big bad UTMB wolf, but let’s face it, if you want to build an event with a similar offering to what Aravaipa is doing you’re either contracting them or starting from scratch, very small, with huge investments in tech and know-how. Good luck and godspeed to you.

Case in point: Ethan Newberry, aka the Ginger Runner started Tiger Claw in Seattle in 2019. Clearly someone with considerable online clout he created the event with a unique racing concept and branding around it. Tiger Claw livestream though this event happened this past weekend with barely a blip on the radar of the collective trail world.

Trail’s Breakthrough to the Mainstream

The mainstream media loves superlatives. A sub 14hr WSER won’t register with Good Morning America – well, unless Rachel runs it. But a woman taking the overall win at a 250 mile race is perfect cat nip for the MSM. Not saying this disparagingly, but this year was catching lightning in a bottle. Not sure this can be replicated year after year. Not sure this is even necessary for the events future success. But what is different from Cocodona’s MSM success is that (as crazy as it sounds) it is more approachable and attainable than Barkley Marathons which has had similar MSM breakthrough moments. Although with Barkley the stories that are being told are veering closer to the line of “this is unfathomably crazy” where Cocodona’s headlines are more accepting and leaning a bit more to “this is so cool”.

A Return to What Made Ultras Great

Another bifurcation I often pointed out is the “trail running as adventure sport, vs “trail running as logical extension of the cross country college sport pipeline”. Cocodona feels very much in the aforementioned camp = putting on a bib to have an adventure vs. the endless optimizing of shoes, nutrition, pace, coaching styles and other elements that feel foreign and quite boring to me. If the hype around Cocodona brings us back to a bit more adventure and bit less hyper optimizing I am all here for it.

Still a Logistical Monster

How do you run a 250 mile race without a huge support team using multiple cars, meeting you at every aid station and caring for your every need? It’s possible, but the stories we see coming out of Cocodona are those of a runner bringing their entire team to the party in the Arizona desert. Is that sustainable? That’s a question for another year. But what I am wondering if this production is attainable for anyone coming from far. Are these logistical realities the next challenges for elites with their teams? Or are they a bridge too far and the reason why Cocodona has (so far) failed to attract international top elites to the race?

How will this evolve? Not sure, maybe once the CTS kiddie pools arrive Aravaipa will begin to put some rules around this circus. But for now if you want to run Cocodona IT SEEMS LIKE you need a caravan of support to carry you to Flagstaff.

Cocodona, the Coachella of Trail

Several folks on the ground have pointed out – and at occasion bemoaned – the media frenzy, both from official drones in the air to influencers bringing their entire media team – on top of their actual support team. This is the event for it. Created out of the influencer culture hype Cocodona invites exactly the people who love to capture and tell their story – live from the trail in real time straight to Instagram. If you run Cocodona and complain about it you’re at the wrong party. Or maybe need to slow way down to the back of the field.

Is Cocodona for me?

Finally just a personal note, and not a judgement on the larger event itself: It’s meant to answer all the folks who’ve been asking me – since I’ve been so incessantly following Cocodona this year – if I’d be interested in running Cocodona myself one year, and I must disappoint everyone. The world of 200+ mile events isn’t exciting at all to me as an athlete. I find them fascinating from a cultural point of view and from a business angle – so it’s a perfect event to cover here on Electric Cable Car. But me personally toeing the line one year? I’d rather not.