Episode 311 with special guest Scott Sowle:

Scott Sowle is the owner of ‘Mountain Running Races’ offering several awesome events east of Seattle in Washington State. On this episode we talk about his visit to the Broken Arrow Skyrace, one of America’s biggest trail events, where Scott volunteered and took in the atmosphere. We ponder on what the team is building down there at Lake Tahoe in the days between Broken Arrow and Western States, including the new Trail Conference.

LINKS

• Mountain Running Races 
• Vert Running Series
• Beast of Big Creek
• Broken Arrow Skyrace
• Trail Conference

I’ve fallen behind and off the horse. There are several UTMB World Series events that happened this months I have yet to post full results for. Restonica Trail on July 4-6, 2024 is one of them. The only European event that still has their own website. Restonica is an event on the island of Corsica, France, yes another island race!

Below are the top finishers, for full results visit UTMB Live:

100M (107K – 4 Stones)

Women:

1. Miria MEINHEIT – Germany – 19:58:16
2. Kimino MIYAZAKI – Japan – 22:57:50
3. Natacha PIECQ – France – 23:46:36

Men:

1. Louison COIFFET – France – 14:45:09
2. Gautier AIRIAU – France – 16:01:27
3. Antoine LAINÉ – France – 16:43:44

100K (66K – 3 Stones)

Women:

1. Axelle HENRY – France – 10:02:57
2. Irén TIRICZ – Hungary – 10:29:05
3. Kaline OSAKI – France – 10:51:30

Men:

1. Lambert SANTELLI – France – 07:53:55
2. Vincent VIET – France – 08:38:14
3. Sylvain FERRAND – France – 09:01:33

50K (32K – 2 Stones)

Women:

1. Blandine L HIRONDEL – France – 03:44:00
2. Sara ALONSO – Spain – 03:53:03
3. Mahauld GRANIER – France – 04:58:44

Men:

1. Rémi BONNET – Switzerland – 03:06:01
2. Johann BAUJARD – France – 03:25:25
3. Sébastien POESY – France – 03:29:25

20K (16K – 1 Stone)

Women:

1. Najwa LAAJAIL – France – 01:32:49
2. Maëlys DEVOS – France – 01:32:49
3. Victoire ALZON – France – 01:35:25

Men:

1. Najwa LAAJAIL – France – 01:32:49
2. Maëlys DEVOS – France – 01:32:49
3. Victoire ALZON – France – 01:35:25

Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• 100M Starters: 457 – DNF: 138 – Finishers: 319. Women: 34 (11%) Men: 285 (89%)
• 100K Starters: 669 – DNF: 162 – Finishers: 507. Women: 96 (19%) Men: 411 (81%)
• 50K Starters: 778 – DNF: 21 – Finishers: 757. Women: 182 (24%) Men: 575 (76%)
• 20K Starters: 534 – DNF: 5 – Finishers: 529. Women: 206 (39%) Men: 323 (61%)

Restonica Trail saw in total there 2,438 starters (not counting their relay event) and 2,112 finishers. 518 (25%) women and 1,594 (75%) men reached the finish line and folks earned themselves their respective stones and an UTMB index (or directly punched their ticket to the Finals in Chamonix for 2025).

Several more races in the backlog, and I’m getting to it – I promise. I also desperately need to update the UTMB World Series Calendar, but first Beast of Big Creek Skyrace is coming up. Let’s go!

Team RunRun has a bunch of race reports that aren’t mean to be personal retelling of a runners’ race but instead helpful guides for folks interested in running a particular event. The Western States Endurance Run doesn’t need a lot of ‘insight’ information as most folks know about the race, but this particular race report, written by my coach Matt Urbanski is quite insightful.

Break the Western States 100 into three main parts:
1. The High Country. It was less smooth than I was anticipating. It isn’t overly technical or difficult, but it’s also not smooth. There were a number of sections with baseball-sized rocks strewn around the trail that made it necessary to be more focused than I was expecting. Some sections were more overgrown or difficult to see than I was expecting. Additionally, the higher elevation is noticeable for someone coming from sea level, so I had to be extra cautious and patient while up high.
2. The Canyons. The steepest climbs and descents are in this section and it feels hottest here. The two bigger descents were more narrow single track with rocks than I remembered, and coupled with my aching hip flexor, I took this section way slower than I would have liked. The two big climbs are the only sections I really felt like I needed to hike. Poles (not allowed) would have been great here.
3. The rest of the course. The Cal Street section from Foresthill to the river was not as fast as I was expecting. There were lots of little rollers and single track that kept me from really getting going fast. We worked well through here and I’m happy with it, but it was slower than I was expecting. I liked the climb up from the river. There was a lot of runnable faster stuff in the last 20 miles of the course that I walked given my hip, but knowing that there is a lot of runnable stuff to finish is key. This is why conserving energy and staying patient is important: if you have legs, you can really fly the last 20 miles!

Summary: There was more single track and rocks than I was anticipating. That said, there were still plenty of fast and runnable dirt roads.

Yes, the “more rocks than anticipated” realization is what I too recall from the few sections of the course I ran last year as part of the Canyons Endurance Run.

In an email hitting the inboxes today UTMB shares updates, changes and new initiatives for the policies and efforts regarding adaptive athletes (I’m linking to the Inclusion landing page as the content of the email isn’t available online yet):

Building on its long-standing commitment to the inclusion of athletes with disabilities in the world of trail running, as well as encouraging the participation of women, the HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc organisation aims to show that disability is not an obstacle to sporting performance and achievement, while at the same time extending a welcome to all runners.

UTMB is a big organization and therefore moves slowly at times. Often they are being held up as lacking in offering solution to various issues stakeholders are caring about. And all this ‘calling out’ and even ‘needling’ at points is good. But what confuses me is that when UTMB does move and make an announcement the stakeholders that needled seems to be quiet. I don’t necessarily expect them to parrot every news release UTMB sends out, but if there’s an announcement that’s a clear reply to the stakeholder’s focuses then I would expect a response, either way, positive or negative.

But maybe that’s a bigger issues we face in our world of online communication. We’re quick to yell, condemn and demand to be heard, but when things actually move forward, we have moved on and don’t care to acknowledge it. Sad.

Ahead of the lighting of the torch which signals the official opening of the Olympic Games in Paris for 2024 the IOC had their general assembly and a few things are discussed, among them, of course, what cities will be hosting the next Olympic Games. Here’s where we’re currently at, after Paris:

• 2026 – Milano/Cortina – Winter Games
• 2028 – Los Angeles – Summer Games
• 2030 – French Alps – Winter Games
• 2032 – Brisbane – Summer Games
• 2034 – Salt Lake City – Winter Games

A few years ago there the IOC really struggled with finding host cities and needed to make some serious adjustments in expectations around environmental stewardship amidst ballooning costs and other factors. Especially for the winter games this has become a serious concern as few locations are still suitable to even host the games and provide reliable snow cover. But while many of these concerns don’t go away, the net positive in global goodwill by fostering a peaceful gathering of the human community on this planet still outweighs, but doesn’t wipe out, the other issues. The point I am trying to make here though when looking at the selection of upcoming host cities is that it seems to me that the IOC has resorted to picking “save” locations. Countries and cities it can trust to deliver. Those that can clearly afford it, have proven track record and of sable governments (or so one hopes) to deliver a reasonable comfortable experience for all participants. There was a time when the IOC seemed to either choose to try to engage in politics making or there was too much dark money flowing that some of the host cities just felt straight up wrong. Especially Sochi and Beijing for the winter games come to mind.

But there was another announcement, and maybe that one is meant to appease the countries with questionable governments but plenty of cash:

IOC announces Olympic Esports Games to be hosted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

I had mentioned this Esport thing with the ICO before, and I still don’t know how I feel about it. My best take is that the IOC is really trying to be ahead of the trend here and sees the potential, not necessarily of athletic excellence, but for them to milk a cash cow. Esports are huge business, and clearly the IOC wants a piece of that action. If they can build an event around it and therefore own the “olympics of …” for this market segment then it’s a big win for them. But beyond engaging marketers and players/athletes and spectators they can engage with a new series of host cities/countries interested in hosting an Olympic event but one that doesn’t quite require the complexities and scale of a full blown “real world” Olympic Games. I used a lot of air quotes and insinuations in this paragraph and I don’t mean to diss anyone one playing, or any city interested in hosting these events, I am merely trying to look at it from a strategic point of view of how the IOC might view these events:

At the same time, the IOC will have to create a new dedicated structure within its organisation, clearly separated from the organisational and financial model for the Olympic Games. In order to address the specific nature of the Olympic Esports Games, the IOC will also have to take a different approach with regard to the financing and organisation of these Games.

Just take a look at the Wikipedia article of the Olympic Esport Games and you can see how this all will play out. Fascinating.

As a personal aside: I have been endlessly fascinated with this host city selection process since I was younger. One of my big dreams has been to work for a city on their “bid book” in securing the nod to host the events in their town. I would be such a crazy, and dreamy project. I digress…

Tiffany Montgomery for the Daily:

Evo’s sister company has been buying up property around its Seattle store to create a collective of active and outdoor businesses. The latest project – the construction of a 120,000-square-foot office building, the future HQ of Brooks Running.

Taking a page out of the McDonalds playbook: “Yes, you’re selling hamburgers, but really you’re in the real estate business.”

The diversification of the evo business is becoming increasingly important to riding out highs and lows. As many other industry retailers have experienced, the past two years has been tough for evo retail in North America. 

While the other big outdoor company in Seattle, REI, sold off their headquarters to Meta during the pandemic, EVO seems to be going all in on real estate. And who can blame them, Seattle is still an insane boom town.

From the World Trail Majors’ press announcement:

We value teams, we value brands. They are part of the sport. Here at Gran Canaria World Trail Majors we want to give them some extra exposure. We present you the Team’s League 2025.

…

The intention is to provide an opportunity for brands to promote their athletes and their brands as participants in a high profile, competitive, global league.

I see two distinct audiences for this:

• Clearly this effort is aimed at brands to encourage their athletes to run the races on their calendar? Is this a sign that the idea by WTM to pry elites away from the UTMB circuit has not been as successful as they had hoped?
• Another fun side benefit might be that friends could get together to race a few of their races and call themselves “a team”. The requirements are simple and inviting enough.

Fun Youtube show with host Aaron Shimmons and guests Krissi P, Ricki Wynne … and yours truly.

We’re back with another panel show, this week with a special guest who was on the ground in Silverton during the Hardrock 100 Endurance Run. We talk all about the race and some key storylines and also dig into the media coverage and Jamil Coury’s recent purchase of Ultrarunning Magazine!

And can someone please help me and tell me what the German equivalent cheer is for: ‘Allez Allez Allez’? This is very embarrassing.

A brand new trail race coming to Africa’s mountain in October of 2025:

The Kilimanjaro Peak Ultra is a unique trailrunning race to the summit of the 5,895 m Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and back down. The KPU follows the Marangu route, the most popular and easiest route with about 68 km and 4,100 meter of elevation gain from Marangu Gate, one of the entry points to the nationalpark, up to Uhuru Peak and back down.

Put on by Plan B, the events management team behind Zugspitz Ultratrail and the TransRockies and TransAlpine Runs. Looks like a fantastic event and a fantastic way to get to experience this amazing mountain.

The brand new UTMB event is officially announced and the website is live:

Participate in a monumental trail running adventure in the Italian Alps, following the paths of historic mountaineers and alpine guides. Discovers vibrant local communities and ancient villages brimming with traditions and legends. ​Conquer unprecedented trails winding through the breathtaking beauty of the Aosta Valley from the iconic Matterhorn to the majestic Monte Rosa.

• Registration opens: July 23, 2024
• Event dates: July 18-20, 2025
• Distances offered: 120K, 90K, 43K, 15K

Monte Rosa Walserwaeg by UTMB takes place in Valle d’Aosta on the paths that pass at the foot of the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa.

!!! I have not updated the ECC UTMB World Series Calendar – hold tight.

In light of yesterday’s news that Jamil bought Ultrarunning Magazine I wanted to collect and list what else Jamil owns (and by Jamil I mean Aravaipa which is a family business and registered LLC in Arizona operated by Nicholas Coury, Jamil Coury, Peter Coury, Nathan Coury, Melia Coury, Pati Coury):

Aravaipa Running, the racing events company operates 58 events (as currently listed on their website) in the three states of Arizona, Colorado, New Hampshire.

These include:

• Cocodona – the most important “max ultra” (over 100miles) event in North America.
• Black Canyon Ultras and Javelina Jundred, which are two of North America’s largest ultras and also make up for 2/3s of the US’s Western States Golden Ticket races, and 1/3 of global Golden Ticket races.
• Dozens of larger and smaller events including Jigger Johnson Ultras, Mogollon Monster 100 and the popular Desert Solstice Track Invitational and the Across The Years events.
• Aravaipa also owns The Silverton Alpine Maration and the Kendall Mountain Run in Silverton which happens the week before Hardrock each year.

With Mountain Outpost Jamil offers live broadcasting of 14 live events (that 17 races) for 2024. That includes two of the most important trail races in thew world: Western States and Hardrock (both nonprofit organizations). There’s really no other American entity that owns as many Starlinks, or has the capacity to offer live-streaming for trail races beyond a fixed finish line cam. (UTMB is streaming, or trying to stream 1 event (Canyons) in the US and eight globally in 2024.)

Yesterday ‘Steep Life Media’ (a new business entity registered with the Arizona Secretary of State on 5/31/2024 and owned by Aravaipa Running) purchased Ultrarunning Magazine. This is (one of) the oldest and I believe only US-based print magazine dedicated to trail and ultra running. The publiciation has been around in some form since 1981 and offers one of the most comprehensive calendar of ultra running events in North America including results listings. UR Magazine has also published the popular but somewhat controversial ‘Ultra Runner of the Year’ Award since its inception. An annual award of the best North American Ultra Runner.

With a combined 14 Hardrock finishes Jamil and his brother Nick own over 1% of all Hardrock finishes.

To recap:

• Jamil and family own (by event) the largest trail race organization in the US (maybe even the world).
• Jami and family own the largest (by number of events streamed) trail race live broadcasting company in the US (maybe even the world).
• Jamil and family now own the US’s only print publication and popular website dedicated to trail and ultra running.

I genuinely do not know what this all means for other trail race organizations in the regions Aravaipa operates in or across the country. And I have no clue how this impacts other media businesses in our space, like iRunFar and Freetrail.

But I do know that this puts Jamil and family into a VERY powerful position to shape the future of our sport and I’m sure glad Jamil’s last name is not Poletti.

This is a brand new pre-announcement which hasn’t been made official via the UTMB press office, but according to the local news Aoesta Sera here are the details (again, browser auto-translated!):

From 18 to 20 July 2025 the most important trail organization in the world will baptize a new race, from Aosta to Gressoney-Saint-Jean, for a total of 120 km and 8200 meters of positive elevation gain, plus three other shorter distances.

Monterosa Walser Waeg is the name of the race that will become a ‘by UTMB’ event in 2025.

The Valle d’Aosta, just one valley over from Chamonix is full of high profile events already: TOR, Gran Trail Courmayeur, Ultra Tour Monte Rosa to name just a few, but the news paper doesn’t make this move sounds like this is a bad thing, so it will be interesting to see how these all will coexist.

A slightly shorter race, just over a month ahead of the UTMB Finals could be the perfect tune-up race for many top athletes, and the region is well-know for it’s breath-taking and really steep trails.

While the American trail runners were playing summer camp in Silverton in Wales the “original running, adventure & music festival” happened. Sponsored by some of the biggest brands, including Salomon and Mammut, this ‘summer camp for trail runners’ is a fascinating concept, and I’m a bit surprised something like this hasn’t caught on in the US. And by me saying I am surprised that it hasn’t caught on, I mean, it’s happening for the first time in California in October of this year. But no lineup or sponsors are announced yet.

This is huge news:

Steep Life Media, LLC, headed by veteran ultrarunner Jamil Coury, has acquired UltraRunningMagazine, based in Bend, Oregon. The new ownership will be effective immediately beginning with the September 2024 issue and Coury serving as publisher

There is lots to be said, and will be said about this acquisition and move, but for now: Congrats, Jamil and team.

It fits all their newest watches, has the official UTMB World Series logo on it, is $10 more than their other bands… and… I must have it. Yes, I’m a sucker.

Womens:

1. Courtney Dauwater – USA – 26:11:47 (new overall course record!)
2. Camille Bruyas – France – 29:28:18
3. Katharina Hartmuth – Germany (not Switzerland!) – 30:29:17

Mens:

1. Ludovic Pommeret – France – 21:33:08 (new overall course record!)
2. Diego Pazos – Switzerland – 24:39:36
3. Jason Schlarb – USA – 24:48:18

More to come…

In 26:11:47.

She just keeps on winning and is completely untouchable at pretty much every race she enters. What a performance.

In a time of 21:33:07.

48 year old Ludo from Prevessin, France lead the race from start to finish and broke Kilian’s overall course record by over 3min. According to the iRunFar pre-race interview Ludo had been in Silverton for almost a month preparing for the race and running the ‘Soft Rock’ twice during that time. Talking about being ready and prepared to take on this challenge.

For full results and updates visit the Hardrock tracking page.

But he was denied by Hardrock’s medical board according to Brian Meltzer for trailrunner:

Miller said he had consulted with his doctor, his girlfriend, Jess, and several other people close to him and decided he wanted to continue with his intent to run. He said he didn’t feel any pain running this week, only some slight discomfort from the suture closures at the three point-of-entry holes in his abdomen that provided access for the laparoscopic procedure.

However, the Hardrock board of directors met with its medical advisors on Thursday and decided Miller would be ineligible to start the event.

Rumors have it UTMB has already reached out to him with the invitation to come run around Mont Blanc later in the Summer.

Hardrock is hard, and even though the course was in great condition today it was a hot and humid day.

So far, after ~14hrs of running here are the notable drops:

• François D’Haene
• Pam Reed
• Deby Kumasaka
• Michael Marchand

I’ll be updating this as more information becomes available.