New venture by Aravaipa’s Jamil Coury:

We build for endurance athletes because we are endurance athletes. Every product in the lab started with a real problem. On a trail, at a race, or inside a team trying to do something that hadn’t been done before. Start where you are. Use what you know. Ship something real.

The tech team behind Aravaipa’s numerous ventures assembles. First new project: ‘Obsession‘: – a journal to track your run and a platform for run streaking.

This thought occurred to me when chatting with Krissi about Race Purse and Run.fund on Singletrack: trail running has had several pillars: events, gear, media. There has been lots of improvements and big pushes been made in these various areas:

• events went from ‘grassroots, dirt road to large scale trail fest productions.
• gear is constantly getting more optimized with a bigger and bigger focus on ‘trail’.
• media is desperately trying to move from ‘single talking head’ outfit to actual ‘media company’ where the celebrity voice isn’t required anymore to draw the audience and close the advertiser deal.

But technology has been largely overlooked, or has been too expensive to invest in. So far ‘trail’ has been fine with using common tools like Instagram, Youtube and Strava as their platforms to communicate and track. Now with AI vibe-coding we’re entering an era where “anyone can cook” and release custom build apps and platforms that speak to the spirit of trail and reflect the sport and it’s unique quirks.

Will be fascinating to see what will be build next.

Announced via IG and on the Freetrail Rest Day live show yesterday:

The embodiment of personal transformation, Rich is deeply connected to the endurance sports community while also being a globally recognized thought leader and media figure. 

Rich has brought inspiration to millions of people around the world through his books, podcast, and other creative endeavors.

TrailCon is aiming beyond the trail running niche with this get.

Adam Lee continues his interviews with the filmmakers for TRFF’26. Today the conversation with Max Haimowitz and elite runner and protagonist of the film Allie Mac:

Allie Mac had long thought about this project, but it took a while for all of the pieces to come together. Max Haimowitz was the right filmmaker for the job, and they teamed up to make the project as they envisioned. It was fun hearing about how it came to be and some of the pressure that came with creating it. I hope you enjoy the chat as much as I did!

Fun side note: Allie will join us at ‘Beast of Big Creek‘ this summer!

Ushuaia Fin del Mundo by UTMB changed their name from Valhöll Fin del Mundo – not sure why? Maybe to reflect the region the event is held better. This year’s event was also affected by weather with the two longer races, the Epic 130K and Advance 85K been forced to get cut short and the runners were pulled off the course. UTMB’s communication:

Dear competitors, due to the inclement weather that occurred on Saturday afternoon and the unfavorable weather forecasts for the coming hours, race comitee have decided to neutralize the competition at the Tierra Mayor, Cerro Castor, Popper, and Valle de Lobos checkpoints.

Neutralized runners will be classified as finishers based on the maximum accumulated distance and time.

The running stones corresponding to the respective distance will be awarded only if the distance covered is more than 50% of official course.

This affects the DNF numbers I pulled from the UTMB Live website and therefore a few numbers aren’t fully correct here. It also shows UTMB’s continued struggle with the weather and events held during the “shoulder season”.

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

EPIC 130K (100M – 4 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Barbara GASSMANN – Argentina – 14:22:40 (90 km)
2. Evangelina ARROYABE – Argentina – 15:27:05 (90 km)
3. María Silvina PÉREZ – Argentina – 01:38:55 (83 km)

Men:

1. Franco ISORNA – Argentina – 13:31:10
2. Diego TALES – Brazil – 14:35:51
3. Matias VIOTTI – Argentina – 14:37:35

ADVANCE 85K (100K – 3 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Mayra EDENET ESPARZA – Argentina – 12:56:02
2. Tatiana FEDOSEEVA – Russia – 13:01:23
3. Sol BADORREY – Argentina – 13:38:55

Men:

1. Remigio HUAMAN QUISPE – Peru – 09:31:43
2. Martín Eduardo CICHERO – Argentina – 10:26:25
3. Carlos Daniel MORALES – Argentina – 10:29:43

CHALLENGE 50K (50K – 2 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Anabel OVIEDO ZELARAYAN – Argentina – 06:04:23
2. Marcela CASADEVY – Argentina – 06:12:15
3. Mariana FERNÁNDEZ – Argentina – 06:36:55

Men:

1. Joaquín NARVAEZ – Argentina – 05:10:18

(2. tied) Máximo MERCADER – Argentina – 05:24:18
(2. tied) Brian MONTES VIEIRA – Argentina – 05:24:18

COURAGE 32K (20K – 1 Stone) – Full Results

Women:

1. Luciana MAZA DÍAZ – Argentina – 03:59:42
2. Olivia CASTRO GELMI – Argentina – 04:00:15
3. Anabella MIGNINO – Argentina – 04:00:47

Men:

1. Brian PALACIOS – Argentina – 02:55:47
2. Marco BORTOLOT – Italy – 03:18:29
3. Emiliano LAGO – Argentina – 03:23:53

POWER 22K (20K – 1 Stone) – Full Results

Women:

1. Rosa Liliana GODOY – Argentina – 02:23:49
2. Brenda TAPIA – Argentina – 02:33:04
3. Carolina OHACO – Argentina – 02:35:45

Men:

1. Jhon HUAMAN – Peru – 01:52:19
2. Nicolas BENAVIDES BOHLE – Chile – 01:55:22
3. Tobias FRANCHINI – Argentina – 02:03:37

Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• EPIC 130K Starters: 123. DNF: 112 + Finishers: 11. Women 0 (0%), Men 11 (0%).
• ADVANCE 85K Starters: 177. DNF: 67 + Finishers: 110. Women 18 (16%), Men 92 (84%).
• CHALLENGE 50K Starters: 468. DNF: 15 + Finishers: 453. Women 142 (31%), Men 311 (69%).
• COURAGE 32K Starters: 522. DNF: 3 + Finishers: 519. Women 234 (45%), Men 285 (55%).
• POWER 22K Starters: 387. DNF: 0 + Finishers: 387. Women 208 (54%), Men 179 (46%).
• EXPLORE 12K Starters: 244. DNF: 1 + Finishers: 243. Women 135 (56%), Men 108 (44%).

Ushuaia Fin del Mundo by UTMB saw a total 1,921 starters (a 10% decrease compared last year) and 1,723 finishers. 737 (43%) women and 986 (57%) men reached the finish line and earned collectively 2,186 UTMB Stones.

Next up, on 09-12 April 2026 is the UTMB World Series first (for real this time) triple header weekend. We travel to the US for theDesert RATS Trail Running FestivaL, to Croatia for Istria 100 and to China for Ultra-Trail Mogan.

Chianti Ultra Trail posted on Instagram ahead of this weekend’s races the following announcement:

No safety pins at bib collection.
To reduce the environmental impact of Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB, safety pins will not be provided. Please bring your own bib fasteners: clips, magnets, or any other reusable solution.

Some quick math:

• A box of safety pins (1,000 count) on Amazon is $10. (Those are the ones I’ve been using for my races over the last few years.)
• UTMB Chianti had ~4,000 starters.
• Each racers needs 4 pins for their bib.
• That’s 16,000 pins, r 16 boxes
• Which costs UTMB $160, (if they have an Amazon Prime membership)

Of course this is not about the money savings. But also, by announcing this the trolls show up online and in various podcasts to lament at the micro management of it all. And maybe one could argue that this is a fight not worth fighting: just give the damn pins and worry about the bigger picture. In some ways it reminds me of the ‘plastic straw debate’ from a few of years ago. It’s a topic easy to politicize (Trump announced very smugly that “straws are back on the menu, boys” and score easy laughs, so maybe a giant corporations shouldn’t dictate their customer behavior, is the general sentiment.

But! Maybe this also can be seen as an opportunity. UMTB is the largest trail events management company in the world. Why not use your brand and voice to influence customer behavior? I’ve run countless races, always expected pins to be handed to me, it’s a learned behavior. But what I also learned over the years of racing is that Tailwind in my own bottles is better for me than relying on whatever hydration product the aid stations provide. So I adapted. I learned what socks work for me, how much lube I need, when I should use poles. I adapted. I spend weeks fretting over what shoes to wear and what headlamp would work for me. We as trail runners love our gear. We adapt.

I could just learn a new behavior. To bring my own pins, or whatever safety mechanisms I want to adopt. God, I am sure I have enough pins floating around with my race kit. I already prep drop bags, nutrition, and mandatory gear. Thinking of a couple of safety pins don’t ruin my life. Unless you’re a podcaster or online troll… then it might just be the end of your world.

Climate change is forcing the last ski lift on Germany’s Zugspitz glacier to be taken offline. The Augsburger Allgemeine Newspaper has the story (translated via browser translation tool):

The reason given is climate change. The glacier has melted steadily in recent years. This loss of volume has altered the terrain, making the slope significantly steeper, according to the announcement. As a result, it is no longer possible to disembark at the top of the lift because the area is too steep. Therefore, it is no longer technically feasible to operate the lift.

Here’s a video of the explosion of the lift structure.

Climate change will force communities in the Alps to rethink their entire way of life.

For the 32nd year Krissy Moehl and her team invited runners to Bellingham, Washington for the classic, historic Chuckanut 50K. A classic early-season rust buster that attracts some of the top runners from North America. After a week(s) of rain the trails were muddy and slick, but the weather on race day was kind on the runners and volunteers.

Here are the 2026 podium finishers:

Women:

1. Andrea Lee – BC, Canada – 4:19:55
2. Jade Belzberg – BC, Canada – 4:22:37
3. Sarah Paxson – WA, USA – 4:24:37

Men:

1. Will Murray – WA, USA – 3:33:54
2. Noah Dylan – WA, USA – 3:41:42
3. Dylan Flewelling – ME, USA – 3:42:41

NonBinary:

1. baby timm – OR, USA – 4:31:32
2. Sarah Edens – WA, USA – 5:24:22
3. Heidi Strickler – WA, USA – 5:42:36

Mountain Outpost provided the livestream. Tracking and full results can be found here.

Chianti is a WSER Golden Ticket race and but not until Tenerife Blue Trail was forced to cancel due to incoming weather on the island did this year’s lineup get truly spicy. Several top athletes made the late switch after the cancelation was announced. And it paid off for two of the late elite switchers: Courtney Dauwalter took the win, and Andreas Reiterer second place. Now both can decide if they want their just won Golden Ticket. Will be fun to see if we’ll see them in California later this year.

Update on the Golden Ticket scenarios (iRunFar has the deets):

• Womens: Yngvild Kaspersen and Lauren Puretz accepted the tickets. (Courtney Dauwalter, Rachel Entrekin, and Gemma Hillier Moses declined.)
• Mens: Thomas Cardin and Vincent Bouillard accepted the tickets. (Andreas Reiterer declined due to his wife’s expecting a baby.)

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

Ultra Trail Chianti Castles 120K (100M – 4 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Courtney DAUWALTER – USA – 11:31:55
2. Yngvild KASPERSEN – Norway – 11:33:34
3. Rachel ENTREKIN – USA – 11:38:13

Men:

1. Thomas CARDIN – France – 09:58:38
2. Andreas REITERER – Italy – 10:06:16
3. Vincent BOUILLARD – France – 10:06:52

Chianti Ultra Trail 73K (100K – 3 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Elísa KRISTINSDÓTTIR – Island – 06:22:31
2. Judith WYDER – Switzerland – 06:31:48
3. Hannah DERKSEN – Netherlands – 06:46:11

Men:

1. Andrzej WITEK – Poland – 05:39:16
2. Guillaume TIPHENE – France – 05:47:11
3. 3. Alessandro AFFOLATI – Italy – 05:48:42

Chianti Marathon Trail 46K (50K – 2 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Ida Amelie ROBSAHM – Norway – 03:39:10
2. María Teresa LA CHICA LHOËST – Spain – 03:42:36
3. Anonymous – Individual Neutral Athletes – 03:47:31

Men:

1. Francesco PUPPI – Italy – 03:09:39
2. Daniel PATTIS – Italy – 03:11:13
3. Alex GARCIA CARRILLO – Spain – 03:13:48

Chianti Half Trail 20K (20K – 1 Stone) – Full Results

Women:

1. Caterina STENTA – Italy – 01:34:58
2. Arianna DEL PINO – Italy – 01:37:24
3. Axelle VICARI – Italy – 01:38:21

Men:

1. Samuel DEMETZ – Italy – 01:22:15
2. Cesare MAESTRI – Italy – 01:19:01
3. Alberto VENDER – Italy – 01:21:41

Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• Ultra Trail Chianti Castles Starters: 671. DNF: 132 + Finishers: 539. Women 51 (9%), Men 488 (91%).
• ‌Chianti Ultra Trail Starters: 1,122. DNF: 80 + Finishers: 1,042. Women 157 (15%), Men 885 (85%).
• Chianti Marathon Trail Starters: 1,059. DNF: 35 + Finishers: 1,024. Women 218 (21%), Men 806 (79%).
• Chianti Half Trail Starters: 925. DNF: 22 + Finishers: 903. Women 337 (37%), Men 566 (63%).
• Chianti Wine Trail Starters: 259. DNF: 1 + Finishers: 258. Women 115 (45%), Men 143 (55%).

In 2026 Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB saw a total 4,036 starters (8% increase over last year) and 3,766 finishers. 878 (23%) women and 2,888 (77%) men reached the finish line and earned collectively 8,233 UTMB Stones.

Next up, on 09-12 April 2026 is the UTMB World Series first (for real this time) triple header weekend. We travel to the US for the Desert RATS Trail Running FestivaL, to Croatia for Istria 100 and to China for Ultra-Trail Mogan.

Jessy Carveth for Marathon Handbook:

A French sailor named Arthur laced up his shoes on the morning of Friday, March 13, 2026, and went for a run. He covered 7.23 kilometers in just over 35 minutes at a 4:58 per kilometer pace — a genuinely solid effort for a confined deck on a moving warship. His Garmin Forerunner 955 tracked every step. Then he uploaded the workout to Strava, set to public, and inadvertently told the world exactly where France’s flagship nuclear aircraft carrier was parked.

Ooops. Someone’s gonna get to walk the plank.

Announced today:

Acknowledging the gaps in the current college-to-pro trail running pipeline, we are offering the opportunity for the next generation of trail runners to chase their dreams.

Backed by committed brands in trail running, the Trail House is an opportunity for 4 post-collegiate athletes to live together, train together, and be professionally coached on the trails of Colorado.

Is this like “Big Brother” for trail?

CNN reporting from Engelberg, Switzerland:

One person has died after a cable car cabin at a Swiss ski resort crashed down a snowy mountainside during strong winds on Wednesday.

Not a good winter for Swiss ski resorts.

Announced on their race website:

After almost 15 years of putting on races, we thought it was time to for a refresh. That and the GO infinity icon from our logo kept getting knocked off. We wanted to keep that concept of movement and navigation in it. So today we introduce the new Go Beyond Racing logo and color palette.

I like the new look. Looks sharper, more professional, grown up. Here’s to the next 15 years.

From their Help FAQ:

Event Cancellation Protection is a benefit program available to race directors who register their events on UltraSignup and choose to opt-in to the program. Through UltraSignup’s affiliation with Adventure Advocates, participating events gain access to a reimbursement program that allows race directors to offer their registrants a refund of event registration costs in the event of a qualifying cancellation or postponement.

Note: Adventure Advocates is not providing an insurance plan. It is providing a refund guarantee on behalf of the event should the event be canceled due to certain covered circumstances (described below).

If your event is cancelled or postponed due to a covered circumstance and is not rescheduled within 90 days, Adventure Advocates will remit refund funds to UltraSignup, and UltraSignup will electronically distribute refunds back to the credit or debit cards originally used to register.

This is a great new feature, not cheap – will cost RD’s 3% of their revenue – but worth it, considering the increased weather and climate related challenges trail events are facing.

Updated: All events are cancelled!

Not the first year that Tenerife Bluetrail has had weather issues. The event was previous held in the fall. UTMB’s new spring date on the Canary island off the coast of Western Africa proves to be challenging for the race organizers. Last year the VK got cancelled due to weather, this year there’s a weather advisory shared on Instagram.

All events are now cancelled:

The Tenerife Island Council has activated the Island Emergency Plan (PEIN) following severe weather warnings issued by AEMET and the official state of alert declared by the Government of the Canary Islands.
In line with instructions from the relevant authorities, we are required to cancel all races and scheduled activities of the Tenerife Bluetrail by UTMB.

Several high profile athletes (Courtney Dauwalter and Andreas Reiterer) who were due to race the Tenerife Bluetrail 110K have since pivoted and are now on the start list of Chianti 120K as Travis Loncar is reporting on Freetrail’s Trail Ticker.

If this holds true then UTMB is showing some great flexibility in allowing elite athletes to get into sold out races and make last minute changes. Further it would mean that Courtney Dauwalter could get a Golden Ticket into Western States.

If this doesn’t hold true, it shows again that the UTMB start lists need some quality control.

Add on: After the forced reschedule Puerto Vallarta this is not a great start of the year for the UTMB World Series.

We had an almost exclusive Chinese podium for this year’s War Horse Ultra-Trail Xiamen in Fantian Cultural Square, China. For full results visit the UTMB website, below the top runners by race:

LXM 100K 105.3 KM (100K – 3 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Wenli JIANG – China – 11:57:35
2. Liping WANG – China – 12:12:15
3. Huarong FU – China – 12:53:14

Men:

1. Jiaju ZHAO – China – 09:52:25
2. IONEL CRISTIAN MANOLE – Spain – 09:52:25
3. Sheng ZHANG – China – 11:01:53

MXM 50K 53 KM (50K – 2 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Anonymous – Individual Neutral Athlete – 05:01:01
2. Xuemei HUANG – China – 05:18:59
3. Ying LI – China – 05:26:03

Men:

1. Jianjian YANG – China – 04:18:56
2. Tao YANG – China – 04:23:06
3. Peng TIAN – China – 04:30:08

SXM 20K 28.2 KM (20K – 1 Stone) – Full Results

Women:

1. Yufang LIN – China – 02:48:02
2. Wenwan ZHOU – China – 02:49:57
3. Qinghua LE – China – 02:53:51

Men:

1. Jiang CHEN – China – 02:09:42
2. Chaojiang CHEN – China – 02:13:45
3. Zuochao DONG – China – 02:17:05

Below are the overall numbers for this year’s Event:

• LXM 100K Starters: 346. DNF: 39 + Finishers: 307. Women 54 (18%), Men 253 (82%).
• MXM 50K Starters: 1,266. DNF: 53 + Finishers: 1,213. Women 324 (29%), Men 889 (73%).
• SXM 20K Starters: 1,587. DNF: 21 + Finishers: 1,566. Women 538 (38%), Men 1,028 (66%).
• EXM 8K Starters: 892. DNF: 9 + Finishers: 883. Women 491 (52%), Men 392 (44%).

In 2026 War Horse Ultra-Trail Xiamen by UTMB saw a total 4,091 starters and 3,969 finishers. 1,407 (35%) women and 2,562 (65%) men reached the finish line and earned collectively 4,913 UTMB Stones.

Next up, 18-22 March 2026 is the UTMB World Series first triple header weekend. We travel to Italy for Chianti Ultra Trail, to Spain for Tenerife Bluetrail and to Argentina for Ushuaia Fin del Mundo.

Run.fund Founder Erik Peterson on Instagram:

The Run.fund payment infrastructure has been shut down by Stripe. No reasons were given, multiple appeals were filed, and it is final. We are dead AF.

A short-lived, vibe coded platform with a good idea but some glaring policy issues in the background – hello money laundering possibilities. But Erik’s not giving up. He loves the sport and knows how to code:

I’m always looking for more projects to lift up the running community I love, so please reach out if you’ve got any ideas or you want to get down and jam on something new.

Maybe this can be an invitation to some of the bigger players in our sport to engage and partner with folks like Erik who genuinely want to contribute and not just ignore the emails and then copy the ideas later.

Acantilados Del Norte Skyrace on the island of La Palma, Spain brings the Skyrunner World Series to Europe for the first time this year. Watch the highlight video.

Find all Skyrunning coverage on my dedicated page.

Here are the current rankings and below are your top podium finishers:

Acantilados Del Norte Skyrace 28KM +2,200 m

Women:

1. Sara Alonso – Spain – 3:00:43
2. Patricia Pineda – Spain – 3:06:12
3. Marta Martinez – Spain – 3:07:30
4. Amanda Nilsson – Sweden – 3:09:48
5. Shangave Balendran – Norway – 3:11:31

Men:

1. Manuel Merillas – Spain – 2:31:54
2. Frederic Tranchand – France – 2:33:12
3. Alain Santamaria – Spain – 2:36:09
4. Damian Bogdan – Romania – 2:37:45
5. Loic Robert – Spain – 2:37:50

Next up, a little breather, the Skyrunner World Series will stay in Spain for the Calamorro Skrace, but not until 11 April, 2026.

The world’s most popular marathon partners with the world’s most popular technology company.

“We are delighted to welcome Apple as an official partner of the TCS London Marathon,” said Hugh Brasher, CEO of London Marathon Events. “Inspiring activity across all ages and abilities is central to both of our missions, and this new partnership echoes our commitment to helping people lead healthier lives.” 

How’s this for a Monday news drop? I bet UTMB/Ironman is delighted by this news.

He’s racing Zegama-Aizkorri:

For the 25th edition, it felt impossible not to come back.

So…four races now! Zegama. Western States. Sierre-Zinal. UTMB. The season just got more interesting!

Not surprising and a bit predictable, but fine.

Ian Corless on the business closure of Ourea Events I reported on yesterday:

Shane Ohly and his team didn’t just organise races. They shaped a culture.

This is just a really great sentences: “Race directors are the ones shaping our trail culture.” And something is indeed changing.

In some ways, races are like mountain routes. They can outlive the people who first established them.

Change is inevitable and the question is when the new crop of “culture shapers” will take over how is that going to transform trail running for the local communities and the global sport?