A Crowdfunding project with less than 2 days to go (why am I only learning about this now?) by filmmaker Megan Robinson:

We’re excited to announce this independent documentary project in development, following the Coast Mountain Trail Running team as it establishes a new race in Valemount, B.C. July 5-7, 2025. The film will capture a behind-the-scenes look at how CMTR tackles the challenges associated with launching a new race, the Alpenglow 100, under an ultra-compressed timeline. The CMTR team is doing so while still maintaining the races on its existing schedule.

Not sure if and how much this documentary will dive into the backstory on the Whistler kerfuffle. Clearly they are mentioning it in the promo messaging, and for sure this sets up the story of how the ultimate project they are leading up to – the Alpenglow 100 – gets its start. I do hope this film gets made with or without the crowdfunding. And if you too want to see this film be made, chip in a few bucks and support the filmmakers.

Istria 100 by UTMB happened last weekend. A fairly international field of runners found themselves in Croatia kicking off their trail running season. I was curious if the addition of events like Chianti and a few other spring events in Europe resulted in a dip in participation for this event, but Istria had about a 10% increase in starters in 2025 compared to last year.

Find all UTMB coverage on my dedicated UTMB page here.

For full results visit the UTMB website, below the top runners by race:

168K – 169K (100M – 4 Stones)

Women:

1. Ivana SIRIC – Croatia – 22:59:31
2. Maja BONAČIĆ – Croatia – 24:11:04
3. Lenka HIKLOVÁ – Slovakia – 24:18:01

Men:

1. Alexander WESTENBERGER – Deutschland – 18:09:55
2. Pavle KRULJAC – Croatia – 19:24:42
3. Matija MEŠTRIĆ – Croatia – 20:48:15

110K – 110K (100K – 3 Stones)

Women:

1. Nicol GUIDOLIN – Italy – 12:17:58
2. Alena PABORTSAVA – Neutral Athlete – 12:33:22
3. Julie LESAGE – Canada – 12:45:18

Men:

1. Zan ZEPIC – Slovenia – 09:56:14
2. Martin HALASZ – Slovakia – 10:38:15
3. Tomasz KIK – Slovakia – 11:04:26

69K – 69K (50K – 2 Stones)

Women:

1. Ivana LÍŠKOVÁ – Slovakia – 06:55:12
2. Nicole KEßLER – Deutschland – 07:28:30
3. Joana RAIO ESPERANÇO – Portugal – 07:39:35

Men:

1. Tobias BAGGENSTOS – Schweiz – 05:26:31
2. Suman KULUNG – Nepal – 05:46:59
3. Donatello ROTA – Italy – 05:54:19

42K – 42K (50K – 2 Stones)

Women:

1. Martyna MLYNARCZYK – Poland – 03:15:01
2. Camilla RIZZARDI – Italy – 03:40:13
3. Martina DAL BOSCO – Italy – 03:51:17

Men:

1. Sammy Rotich CHELANGAT – Kenya – 02:51:46
2. Linus HULTEGÅRD – Sweden – 02:56:30
3. Manuel HARTWEG – Deutschland – 03:05:03

21K – 21K (20K – 1 Stones)

Women:

1. Caterina STENTA – Italy – 01:29:18
2. Eszter DANYI – Hungary – 01:42:29
3. Isobel GODFREY – Great Britain – 01:43:35

Men:

1. Johannes NUSSBAUMER – Österreich – 01:11:42
2. Maël BURES – France – 01:19:45
3. Leon CHETCUTI – Malta – 01:20:32

Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• 168K Starters: 369. DNF: 106 + Finishers: 263. Women 34 (13%), Men 229 (87%).
• 110K Starters: 468. DNF: 81 + Finishers: 387. Women 75 (19%), Men 312 (81%).
• 69K Starters: 624. DNF: 61 + Finishers: 563. Women 136 (24%), Men 426 (76%).
• 42K Starters: 672. DNF: 29 + Finishers: 643. Women 222 (34%), Men 421 (66%).
• 21K Starters: 351. DNF: 2 + Finishers: 349. Women 166 (48%), Men 180 (52%).

Istria 100 by UTMB saw a total 2,484 starters and 2,205 finishers. 627 (29%) women and 1568 (71%) 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 is Ultra-Trail Mount Yun in Xiangning, China on April 11 – 20, 2025.

Victoria Song for The Verge:

The deal seems like a win-win for Strava and Runna. Strava gets to shore up one of its biggest weaknesses — the lack of running training plans. For Runna, it gets access to one of the largest online running communities and Strava’s coffers.

The more Strava pushes into the coaching space – first with AI and now with this acquisition – the more they are encroaching on the terrain of the numerous coaching businesses, large and small, who rely on reviewing Strava data for their clients. It will be inevitable that Strava will eventually turn off this data sharing to other platforms and try to own every piece of the pipeline. Of course they have the right to do this, one can argue. Although, if you think about this, this personal activity data isn’t theirs to begin with – it comes from all the various GPS capture devices – aka sports watches. But every cloud-based software tech company in existence has walked down this path in the past. Here’s a quote from Strava CEO Michael Martin:

I genuinely believe this is an amazing thing for all users.

I’m sure that’s what he believes. But what he really means is “this is amazing for my business”.

Strava sits in a precarious place though. Social media as a place for positivity is being increasingly looked down upon. They needs a new thing. And by not being the generator of the activity data they need new ways for users to engage with the app to justify the annual subscription price tag. I bet it wouldn’t take a lot of development effort for watch makers to add a public viewing option to their apps, allowing others – coaches for example – to look at the data the app captured from the watch. My Suunto app has all the data available, I just can’t easily share it with my coach. This quickly would make Strava obsolete for many users as a training check-in tool. And if elites, who are sponsored by watch companies not Strava, begin sharing their runs from these platforms it could be game over quickly.

Side note: I love tech reporters who are still, after years of watching acquisitions turn mostly bad, write about obligatory “win-wins”.

Desert RATS in Fruita, Colorado kicked off UTMB racing in the US for the year just weekend. With Canyons looming just a couple of weeks later this event always feels like it gets passed over in getting any attention.

Find all UTMB coverage on my dedicated UTMB page here.

For full results visit the UTMB website, below the top runners by race:

100K – 102K (100K – 3 Stones)

Women:

1. Lotti BRINKS – USA – 09:25:50
2. Emilie MANN – Canada – 10:21:38
3. Geneviève ASSELIN-DEMERS – Canada – 10:31:59

Men:

1. Alex JOHNSON – USA – 08:57:28
2. Tyler D’ARCY – Canada – 09:04:06
3. Corey KALLEMBACH – USA – 09:23:40

50K – 49K (50K – 2 Stones)

Women:

1. Allison BACA – USA – 03:57:03
2. Ashley BRASOVAN – USA – 04:10:39
3. Sophie LINN – Australia – 04:24:13

Men:

1. Brian WHITFIELD – USA – 03:35:46
2. Grant COLLIGAN – USA – 03:49:12
3. Austin ANDERSON – USA – 03:59:44

21K – 20K (20K – 1 Stone)

Women:

1. Tabor HEMMING – USA – 01:36:16
2. Janelle LINCKS – USA – 01:39:20
3. Sydney PETERSEN – USA – 01:40:29

Men:

1. Eli HEMMING – USA – 01:19:46
2. Taylor STACK – USA – 01:22:33
3. Coleman CRAGUN – USA – 01:23:28

Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• 100K Starters: 205. DNF: 53 + Finishers: 152. Women 39 (26%), Men 113 (74%).
• 50K Starters: 411. DNF: 26 + Finishers: 385. Women 140 (36%), Men 245 (64%).
• 21K Starters: 502. DNF: 3 + Finishers: 499. Women 253 (51%), Men 246 (49%).
• 10K Starters: 163. DNF: 2 + Finishers: 161. Women 112 (70%), Men 48 (30%).

Desert RATS was just a tad smaller in attendance compared to last year, and definitely one of the smaller events compared to the rest of the world. Desert RATS saw a total 1,281 starters and 1,187 finishers. 544 (46%) women and 652 (54%) 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 is Ultra-Trail Mount Yun in Xiangning, China on April 11 – 20, 2025.

Salomon’s Golden Trail World Series kicks off this weekend with their first race of the season in Kobe, Japan. With it Salomon announced several major changes to the structure of the organizations worth diving into a bit. Yesterday Matt Walsh already shared the news of the broadcasting deal with WBD. Today we have the full press announcement with more details.

• GTWS has a mission statement, plastered right over the main hero image on their homepage: “The Golden Trail Series exists to celebrate and grow the sport of trail running”.

The key word in this statement here is ‘grow’.

• GTWS unveil a new visual identity.

After leaning heavily into the words “Golden Trail” the series now adds a ‘W’ for World. Late last fall they discontinued a few national series and are now going all in on the ‘World Series’ branding. That paired with the 4 letter acronym feels a bit too similar to the UTMB branding to my liking, but I guess all board room acronyms must become brand names eventually.

• And a CSR Program focused on sustainability in the events business.

… a new CSR program which includes a new open-source “My Event Impact” tool, developed in partnership with Protect Our Winters, AirCoop and key races to assess the impact of events before their selection and track their progress once part of the circuit. This CSR program, which will be fully unveiled at this year’s Grand Finale, also relies on advocating for more responsible sport and championing diversity and inclusion.

I haven’t had the chance to check the tool and it’s usefulness, but I want to commend the European race organizations, event the ones as big as UTMB or GTWS who are leading the way by always including and prioritizing these efforts. We often herald, and rightly so, the various US race organizations in efforts where they are leading the way and ask the Euros to level up. In this case of sustainability and environmental stewardship all the big US races/organizations have absolutely no voice or initiative.

• The location for the Grand Finale for 2025 is announced.

The final piece of the 2025 puzzle has been revealed: the 2025 GTWS Grand Finale will take place in October in the breathtaking Ledro Valley, nestled in Italy’s Trentino region near Lake Garda.

Fantastically beautiful location, but I am curious what it would take for Salomon to bring a Grande Finale to North America?

• And more on their broadcasting partnership with Warner Brothers Discovery.

Through this collaboration, WBD Sports Europe will lead the production, international distribution, and localized broadcasting of GTWS races across multiple markets. In addition, the partnership will drive the promotion of the series across digital media platforms, helping to grow a global audience of sports fans. WBD Sports will also support the international marketing of the series to attract new partners and sponsors and help trail running break ground in new and emerging markets.
…
Live and on-demand coverage of the series will be delivered to the widest possible audience, reaching more than 100 countries across five continents via WBD’s premium linear channels, including Eurosport (Europe) and TNT Sports (UK & Ireland) as well as streaming platforms Max/HBO Max and discovery+. This will be further amplified by an extensive network of broadcast partners, including free-to-air channels and OTT platforms.  

Not sure how to properly compare this to UTMB’s partnership with DAZN deal, but one thing that seems different to me (and I fully admit I am sort of speaking with very little knowledge of this world) is that if I read this correctly DAZN was broadcasting what UTMB was feeding them, while this GTWS deal will have WBD lead the production of the broadcast. This could be a good thing in terms of money, but it will be seen how much the event will get altered to fit the programming requirements. Clearly Salomon had been very open about their desires to create a race format that fits local and remote viewership.

Alright, that’s all from the business side. Let’s actually race!

Press release as PDF linked here:

Just two weeks ago, the Government of Spain, through the Higher Sports Council, announced a grant of €400,000 for the organization of the Championships, and it is expected that in the coming weeks, other already committed funds will be made public.

This announcement makes me think of the ‘tourism angle for sporting events’ I touched on a couple of weeks ago. American race directors aren’t taking promoting the economic benefit of their events to the local region. And well, local government organizations here in the US like to extract money in form of permitting fees rather than supporting these efforts, but not everywhere. For my Little Backyard Adventure Races I received a local tourism grant from the City of Olympia. This allowed me turn the race into a two day event, I booked a nonprofit theater to host the Trail Running Film Festival and give away hundreds of free ticket coupons to local runners. Not touting my own horn, but sharing how city government can support and see the value in these sporting events. In times like today (hello tariffs, hello layoffs, hello funding cuts here in the US) where funding cuts and price increases are looming everywhere, working closely with your local partners can help an organization survive and build strong bonds for the future.

Via Mile and Stone.

From the Pro Trail Runners Association’s press release:

Ida Nilsson (Sweden), Rosanna Buchauer (Austria) and Tim Tollefson (USA) have been elected as new PTRA Board Members after the 2025 General Assembly held online on Monday 14th April. They’ll be leading certain working groups like Antidoping, Women Equality or Competition on top on taking major decisions along with the other board members. Their energy, vision and new ideas will be a great aid to bring the PTRA to a new level and to keep working for the future of trail running.

These three athletes mentioned above are replacing Corrine Malcolm, Kayltyn Gerbin, Adam Merry and Nancy Jiang who are leaving their board positions.

Trailmix with the scoop on Instagram:

For the last two years GTWS has been distributed on Eurosport across Europe but through this new partnership WBD aims to livestream GTWS to all of their sports channels including IqIYi in China, Fox Sports in Australia, TNT in the UK. WBD also holds the rights to the Olympic Games. One of Salomon and WBD’s joint ambitions is to get the sport ready for the 2032 Olympic Games.

No official word yet on this, so take it all with a grain of salt for now, but if true this is fascinating on many levels:

• We don’t often see scoops like his being posted without them being orchestrated via a corporate PR push. Will be curious to see how close the official word will be behind.
• Warner Bros Discovery has the rights to the Olympics in Europe, but not in the US. Where does that leave the US with distributing GTS? WBD owns HBO/MAX and could possibly distribute GTS content via their MAX streaming platform in the US.
• I was under the impression that the sports for Brisbane were already locked in. Getting a version of trail running ready for the games down in Australia would be fascinating and yet, still 7! seven years out.
• Over the winter there was a lot of talk about Salomon and their investment and continued interest in the trail running space. With their athlete team announcements a couple of weeks ago, followed by the Golden Trail Series’s athlete announcements, and now this, it seems clear that Salomon isn’t “exiting the space” or whatever people were worried about. This might be one of those examples where the meme of Salomon “is playing 4 dimensional chess” might actually apply.

Late in the season announcement for ON. Comes paired with a nice website refresh for Katie Schide and Germain Grangier, and with the – by now obligatory – Freetrail announcement on Instagram. On April 1 they dropped their somewhat cryptic “thank you The North Face (their previous sponsor)” where an out-of-the-loop social media manager for TNF replied with the sentiment of excitement to continue to partnership. That replied was quickly removed making it pretty obvious that the athletes wouldn’t stay with TNF. For Katie and Germain this move is a return to their previous sponsor. ON is a brand know for deep pockets but not for making amazing trail shoes, it will be interesting to see what shoes they wear and which ones they promote. But in any case, congrats to Katie and Germain on their new sponsor partnership and to ON for signing two of the hottest athletes at the top of their game.

German “everywhere” outdoor brand Jack Wolfskin sold a few years ago to Topgolf Callaway with the hopes of finally being able to break into the American market. An effort was made for a couple of years to try to make this happen, it didn’t. Now Topgolf sells the venerable German brand to Chinese ANTA Sports:

Topgolf Callaway Brands is selling Jack Wolfskin to ANTA Sports for $290 million in cash.

Topgolf initially paid $476 million for Jack Wolfskin.

A refresher on ANTA:

ANTA Sports is one of China’s largest sportswear makers, and it also owns Descente, Fila, and other brands. ANTA is also a major investor in Amer Sports, parent of Arc’teryx, Salomon, and more, and was part of the consortium that took that company private and relaunched it on the New York Stock Exchange in 2024.

With the current global business climate I am curious what the founders of Jack Wolfskin think right about now. Given the last few weeks one would think having their brand in Chinese hands is certainly a better place than part of an American parent company, but are they cool with how this all went and were just happy to sell their business and get their hands on some money and sail into the sunset? Or do they have second thoughts?

New show for folks who aren’t racing, but make the events happen. Hosted by RD Shalini Bhajjan featured in the film ‘Our Terrain‘ part of TRFF’25.

Trail Ultrarunning Race Directors (T.U.R.D.)

Join Shalini Bhajjan once a month for a table side conversation with some of your favorite RDs and get a glimpse into their world outside of running and race directing. Yes, we will be talking races as well but from a race director’s perspective!!!

First episode just dropped with no other than Hardrock 100 RD Dale Garland – great listen.

Speaking of magazines, here’s a new one popping up currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter:

Female runners deserve a publication that puts their stories front and center—a place to celebrate their achievements, honor the history-makers, and continue to shrink the coverage gap between men’s and women’s sports. 

RUNHER is that magazine. And we’re just getting started. 

Physical print magazines focusing on a small niche of dedicated and passionate individuals is such the rage right now – I love it so much. More of this. Let bring quality print media back in a big way, please. Is this the vinyl area of the print periodical?

On a recent episode of ‘Second Nature’ hosts Aaron Lutze and Dylan Bowman ask themselves this question as a response to the widespread news stories of what has been happening at Outside over the past few weeks.

So, what does one do, rather than just yelling at the trees while listening to a podcast? I write down my own thoughts and answer this question for myself:

My key problem with the current management of Outside is that they pivoted to being a tech platform on the backs of the creatives who built the Outside magazine and the other publications. They then laid off actual content creators and doubled down on tech. They already angered many of their longtime contributors, but it might not be too late. What I would do is fairly simple and might not be profitable for awhile, but would be a big branding push: Completely remake the Outside magazine. Go big, go even bigger. Completely one-up Mountain Gazette and others in that space and create a unique print periodical that cannot be resisted by anyone: brands, contributors, subscribers. Get it into every ski resort, lodge, and AirBnB. Make it the most coveted physical storytelling outdoor media property in the US. They have the money, the have the historical brand appeal, and the have the reach. On the back of that they can sell subscriptions to tech platforms and do all their other stuff. But they need ONE thing that is sexy and honors their legacy. Magazines are hot right now. There’s a clear avenue on how to make a product like this work. They have the resources to pull this off.

I am hearing that Outside is working on a redesign of their main magazine, maybe they are already working on this. I don’t think with their current leadership they have the vision to pull this off correctly, but I may get surprised.

Speaking of UltraSignup News, here’s Brian Metzler with an article about his wishes for the future of trail running:

Trail Running Isn’t Broken, But These Changes Could Help Fix It.

First off: shitty AI slop as feature image is very cringe! Why, if we try to elevate and PAY creators, are we using AI slop?

Second: Wishing to not ‘stray too far from the grassroots beginnings’ while only offering ideas that essentially call for next level professionalization of the sport seems… dishonest?

Third: Brian’s wishes are only focused on US trail racing and doesn’t consider the global aspect of our sport. Which is fine, but should be acknowledged.

Here are Brian’s five wishes:

• End-of-the-Season Championship Races with All the Sauce
  
  Maybe it’s a pipe dream, but I’d love to see a high-profile multi-race event like Broken Arrow Skyrace staged in the U.S. at the end of the year that includes multiple race distances and a big prize purse with a festival atmosphere that will attract more interest among a wider range of runners, new sponsors and more spectators. 

Mammoth Trailfest comes close to that, but maybe it’s not “end of season” enough. Javelina does have the party atmosphere and the WS Golden Ticket, but doesn’t have the prize money. And maybe the loops aren’t exciting enough to be a USATF championships. Ultra Trail Cape Town (one of the most important races on the World Trail Majors circuit) is that season ender for many elite runners. For a US race to become that draw it needs to have a lot of things going for itself, especially with Cape Town being in the Southern hemisphere and offering very nice weather in November. In October there’s Kodiak Ultra Marathons which is now the North American Major for UTMB and in November there’s Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko and Chiang Mai, the Oceania and Asian Majors for UTMB respectively. The Golden Trail Series has their Grand Finals in October as well. I guess, what I’m after here is that the elites are well-served with lots of race options and they will pick their events based on what bigger event they are chasing, be it Golden Trails, a Western States ticket or running stones for UTMB. The idea that there’s one event that will bring folks together on a national level will always be challenged by the fact that our sport is very global one.

• More Women in the Hardrock 100
  
  I appreciate that Hardrock and the Western States 100 try to be as fair as possible with their weighted lotteries, but it might be time to move forward and break away from old legacies. If it was up to me, both races would have a 50-50 split between men’s and women’s entrants starting next year.

I love this idea and what better event to introduce this 50-50 split, essentially creating two races, than Western States. I don’t think it will come to Hardrock anytime soon, but want to be surprised. This would actually be an aspect of professionalization that would really help the everyday runner and keep things “grassroots”, as it wouldn’t take very much to implement it. Heck, technically this could be implemented on UltraSignup today.

• More Big-Name Talent from Road and Track Running
  
  While there is no guarantee of success transitioning from the to the trails, more high-profile athletes from other disciplines would add depth to the sport, develop more intrigue around key events, and potentially expand more mainstream interest and create more fan favorites.

I can’t see a ‘big name’ who trained on the track and road all their life making a successful career pivot to be successful in mountainous races like UTMB or Hardrock. Getting big names into the sport will require big money and is probably a chicken or an egg thing. Will these top athletes bring their sponsors and dollars along with them or are they waiting for the general sponsorship packages to rise and become interesting for them, so that a jump to a new sport becomes a financial lucrative move?

• More Comprehensive Drug Testing
  
  No matter who is racing on the trails, the sport desperately needs enhanced drug testing to maintain its legitimacy and credibility, especially as it continues to delve further into professionalization and commercialization.

Yes, of course this needs to happen, but I wish Brian would’ve offered some ideas on where the funding for this should come from.

• More Feature-Length Movies and Storytelling TV Series
  
  While we’ve all been inspired by the countless 10- to 20-minute reels and videos (like those in this year’s Trail Running Film Festival) that have whet our appetites, trail running is ready for more advanced content. It’s time for a YouTube docu series about the Western States 100 with candid interviews, professional cinematography, and savvy editing that emerges from the early December lottery event and continues through the start of the next race. If there can be a Netflix documentary about sprinting, there can certainly be a similar (and more relatable) production about trail running.

Well, thank you for the shout out of TRFF, Brian, really! What Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive’ has done to the imagination of sports lovers everywhere is fascinating to behold. Everyone wants a docu series now for their favorite sport. I don’t think we’re far off from this for trail running, the stories are there. Currently there’s just the issue of the missing dollars, not just to produce a series but also give the athletes featured the incentive to participate. What makes these docu series so intriguing is the long-term, season-long, behind the scenes coverage. Currently no athlete in our sport would want to subject themselves to this, I would think, unless there’s serious, and I mean serious money involved.

I’m not the only one commenting on this article. There are some great comments underneath the article worth reading.

How often do you see a CEO take on a issue like this head on and address it with:

We shouldn’t have signed a letter of support for the nomination of Doug Burgum for Interior Secretary. We apologize to our members. We retract our endorsement. We take full accountability for our actions—and for how we move forward.

A promising start for the new president and CEO of REI Mary Beth Laughton.

Outside started as a magazine and is now trying, desperately, to pivot to being a tech company. UltraSignup is essential a tech company but increasingly embraces news, and is promoting and funding its creators via the revenue generated from their tech platform.

Folks who used to be associated and/or worked for Outside and are now on UltraSignup’s News platform in some capacity:

• Zoë Rom
• Buzz Burrell
• Brian Metzler
• Brendan Leonard
• Did I miss anyone?

I don’t mind that. If it means giving outdoor creators a voice and a paycheck, I like where this is going.

Ethan Newberry announcing the partnership on Instagram:

In late 2021 I approached my friends at @runinrabbit with an idea I’d been dreaming up to create an innovative adventure running kit focused on every runner that pushes themselves just a little bit farther. A sustainable, future-thinking kit that didn’t care if you finished first or took your time partying to the finish – everybody deserves next level adventure gear that just works.

rabbit is one of the sponsors of the Ginger Runner’s Tiger Claw race in Issaquah and they’ll be unveiling this new kit just before that event.

Doing merch is one thing but doing these collabs with real, usable performance products is an exciting next level. Freetrail too had been doing logo merch for a while now but recently leveled up by offering a “factory kit” (and damn, if I can find a link to a webpage mention of it, it seems to already be sold out).

Scottish project aimed to make a more sustainable sports watch:

UNA Watch is the world’s first fully modular & repairable GPS sports watch built to last.

The watch can be pre-ordered on Kickstarter for under $300 – get yours before the tariffs hit.

The modular watch will allow you to customize various hardware elements and more so promises to let you replace old and outdated pieces like the battery to extend the life of your product. And yes, it will offer an app and allow syncing to Strava – the most important feature.

As modular tech by a start up goes, I don’t hate the look of this product. Their website misses some key pieces of information on the product, but their Kickstarter page lists some of them.

• Charges directly via a standard USB-C cable – which is nice.
• Promises 20hrs of GPS tracking – which is not good enough for ultras, but should work for most other activities.
• Can’t find any mentions of a total weight of the product – which is a bummer.

They aim to ship the product in August of 2025 and their Kickstarter has raised almost $280,000 already, off a goal of $13,000.

I wonder how a project like this will be affected by Trump’s stupid and needless trade wars. I remember Panic launching the Playdate during COVID and it turned into a logistical and financial nightmare.

The other thing I am curious about is their claim for offering a more sustainable product. I don’t want to slam on their effort, I like and encourage when new ideas and new companies are entering the market, but in order for this product to truly be more sustainable what should the expectation be on the longevity of its parts? All my Suunto watches I, and my family members have owned have lasted for many years are still working. In fact the Suunto 9 Baro I received USED in 2018 is still in used today in my family. That’s a seven year old tech product. So for this modular watch to be more sustainable it would have to last and function and be supported for… much longer than that, doesn’t it?

Tested for a long time, teased a while ago, now available to everyone.

High Carb Fuel is a power-packed drink mix is specially designed for high-intensity efforts, offering a higher carbohydrate content to maximize your energy per sip. 

Both flavors are great, but my favorite is the ‘Ginger Lime‘. Delicious!

After Karel Sabbe’s massive FKT earlier this year we now see the Women’s FKT being reset. Eszter Horanyi reporting for iRunFar:

It took Paulina Zäck 54 days, 9 hours, and 48 minutes to travel the Te Araroa (TA) trail, New Zealand’s premier long trail, a time that set both a new women’s self-supported and women’s overall fastest known time (FKT).

New Zeland’s Te Araoa is busy this time of the year.