Singletrack – Episode 266:

We’re back with our first episode of Singletrack for 2023, finally. I have with me race director John Lacroix from Colorado and we talk about the beauty of our trail running community and the challenge we face as we continue to grow and evolve. We also talk about the Trail Running Film Festival and John’s plans as host for our Denver Colorado location.
Links and more at singletrack.fm

LINKS

• Human Potential Running Series
• The State of Our Sport: January 2023
• Vermont 100
• Miwok 100K
• The Trail Running Film Festival in Denver, CO

Mike Rogge, editor of Mountain Gazette:

Today the news came out that Warren Miller Entertainment, the company founded by the legendary filmmaker Warren Miller, is in fact not making an annual ski film.

And on Twitter (yeah, I’m still lurking on that bird side) he follows up:

… Outside Inc is axing the annual Warren Miller film. Absolutely no regard for legacy. No respect for heritage and building on something. …

I saw the latest Warren Miller film ‘Daymaker‘ a few weeks ago in town at our local theater and I walked away with mixed feelings. I didn’t think it was that great of a production, but then again I’m not a skier. The crowd loved it though and it was exciting to watch as I transition into the roll of the producer of the Trail Running Film Festival. That day I went to see Daymaker for research. I wanted to see how outdoor films on the big screen work and I wanted to see how Outside/Warren Miller was engaging with the audience. I learned a lot, and felt confident that we can pull off a similar experience for trail runners all over the world. In my conversations these last few weeks ‘Warren Miller’ was the north star. That’s what I’m trying to model our festival after. This news is devastating on many levels.

FATMAP is a subscription-based mapping tool for your outdoor adventures. Strava always had a mapping tool… but while it was the main reason many folks bought the subscription, it never really was THAT great. Hopefully we’ll see a better integration of Strata’s mapping tool with FATMAP… this might almost make the price increase for their annual subscription worth it.

The main mission of the Kilian Jornet Foundation is the preservation of mountains and their environment.

For 2023 the foundation narrowed it focus on the following pillars: Research, Education, Direct Action.

I just learned from Bono’s book ‘Surrender’ the term “spending your celebrity capital”, and I like the idea behind it. If you’re superstar there are many ways you have more than most and more than enough. And while Kilian didn’t sell as many records as U2, the idea that you can use your status to try to do good, give back, and make a difference in the world is a noble idea and something I learn to appreciate more and more.

UTMB Cares is an endowment fund and global initiative to unite trail running communities and create positive change by supporting local social and environmental causes in race destinations.

UTMB has had this program around for a few years, now it’s revamped and consolidated: If you have the cash and want to donate it to a cause you can bypass the lottery and get yourself a bib into UTMB. The expanded program now includes bibs for Lavardo and Eiger as well as UTMB. The cost is €1,000 for Lavardo and Eiger and €2,000 for UTMB. That’s just the donation, you still pay for your entry, and you still need to qualify via index and stones. The ‘donation’ goes to one of four causes UTMB:

In 2023, UTMB Cares will launch four main programs that support mountain preservation, women in trail running, transport in the mountains, as well as directly supporting race communities by working with local non-profit associations.  

While folks in the Sierras are getting pummeled with snow, things look very dire in the Alps this winter. Bare slopes, green hillsides and cancelled sporting events. The bit of fake snow is just enough for a few professional events. Those are the images that make it across the internet. While a mild winter is perhaps what everyone welcomes this year, with the insane energy prices due to Putin’s war, but it’s still a somber wake up call of what the future of our mountains will look like as our planet heats up and our leaders have their heads in the tar sand. Speaking of the devils, they are all meeting right now at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. I wonder what they chat about? Sporadic and inconsistent snowfall isn’t great for the water levels that power the hydro dams, it’s not great for the permafrost and the glaciers, and it’s fatal for the tourism industry that’s build around four season visitors.

Via their Instagram page:

Women were more involved in the FKT world last year than ever before and it has been super fun to share so many of your stories!

Lots of progress has been made this past year… and a lot more will have to happen, but this has been a fascinating project to follow. Almost exactly a year ago we had cofounder of ‘Women who FKT’, Marta Fisher on Singletrack to share her hopes and vision for the project.

Is back for another season with episodes that feel very much like done in the style of Netflix’s popular Formula One docu series ‘Drive to Survive’.

There will be so much video content produced in these coming years. We’ll be drowning in it. And it will change the way we’ll experience trail racing.

Via Matt Walsh’s Trailmix newsletter.

So many awesome things about this Swiss website ‘Bankgeheimnisse’:

For one: The website lists benches along hiking trails all over the Swiss Alps… and beyond. I mean, this is an incredibly fun idea. Who doesn’t love a good bench to sit on? (Am I getting old?) I often find myself running along trails in our woods and wish folks would put up more benches. Sometimes they are good for just the obvious: taking a seat. But sometimes they are that focual point you can use to stop at to take off your jacket, or readjust your vest, or tighten your shoes. Benches are a great reminder that you’re not alone out there in these wild – I know some go out there to be alone – but for me it’s a nice reminder of our collective humanity.

The other awesome thing is the name. In German, the word bench translates to bank, the same word for, well, a bank you deposit your money at. Why? No idea. Perhaps taking a rest and depositing your money has some similar connotations. Either way. The name of the website, a website from Switzerland, a country known for its banking secrecy, is … bench secrets. “where the secret benches are hidden”. But, because the word for bench is the same for bank and bench… well, you get. Brilliant word play.

This was inevitable next steps after the layoffs. The more interesting part is that apparently it’s not clear by how much and in which country. DC Rainmaker has the rundown:

In short: For some people, prices will double overnight. For others, it’ll be nothing. Others still yet will split the difference on a wide-ranging scale in between those points. The determining factor? Theoretically a combination of which country you’re in, when exactly you signed up, whether you’re on annual or monthly plans, and finally, exactly what today’s date is, relative to the date of your subscription renewal. I’m not kidding, you can’t make this up

I think this is the game we’ve all been duped to join in: everything now is a subscription, and now everything is getting really really expensive. I’m sort of glad I opted for an open website and not a subscription email newsletter. I bet the churn this year is going to be brutal.

I had missed this unsurprising news from last month. Bicycle Retail resports:

Cycling app maker Strava has let go of about 15% of its staff, multiple current and former employees have confirmed to BRAIN.

…

The Strava layoffs affect at least 40 employees, including product designers and product managers.

So, don’t expect any new features anytime soon. Most tech companies over-hired during the pandemic and are all scaling back across the board.

Via John Lacroix’s ‘The State of our Sport‘.

Really good take by AJW for iRunFar on the High Lonesome “stand against UTMB”:

Whether intended or not, High Lonesome’s policy has the effect of dividing the running community into “UTMB runners” and “non-UTMB runners.” By forcing athletes into making this black and white choice, High Lonesome is perpetuating the divisiveness we see in so much of society today. 

And his second point is even better:

How do I know that the values of UTMB and Ironman do not “reflect the values of the sport?”

There have been lot of assumption tossed around since the beginning of the UTMB/Ironman partnership. There’s talk of slippery slope, and the usual online fear mongering. Does UTMB, as the leader in the sport need to do better when it comes to diversity and inclusion, yes. And we need to hold them accountable. But so far, not a lot, or any of the things the doom sayers have been predicting have come to pass.

But clearly, it would do UTMB a ton of good if they wouldn’t just drip out faceless press releases week after week announcing their endless expansion, but instead put some faces to their ever-growing organization and make their moves a bit more transparent, and… well, friendly and personal to us as runners.

The Waldo 100K Trail Run used to be called “Where’s Waldo 100k”, and as you can imagine the owners of that trademark send a cease and desist letter back in 2010:

The owners of the “Where’s Waldo” storybook character claimed ownership of the name, and to avoid a legal battle, a new name had to be found.

Invite me on a run sometime and I’ll tell you a story about the name of my podcast…

Announced in a press release:

The Ultra-Trail Mt. Fuji Race Committee has confirmed that the UTMB Group has filed an opposition to trademark registration for the “UTMF”, a registered trademark of the NPO Fuji Trail Runners Club which has used the name for its 100-mile race.
  The Race Committee is committed to compliance and will monitor the progress of the opposition. Meanwhile, in order for runners, volunteers, sponsors, and all the other stakeholders to use a race name without worries, we have determined to change the 100-mile race name from the “UTMF” to the “FUJI”.

We’re clearly entering the “jumping the shark” territory here for UTMB. Many have predicted this would happen, still upsetting when it actually does.

Every few months the internet’s selective voices of trail running find their collective pitchforks and storm the gates of the ever-growing behemoth that is UTMB World, and increasingly I can’t blame them.

Here’s what UTMB/Ironman Group are doing wrong in their expansion, especially here in the US. Of course I am saying this, without actually know if any of this would help reduce the amount of pitchforking… this is the internet after all.

Our trail races rely on local buy in

Most sporting events do. The communities have to WANT these events to occur. That’s why permits are being issues to control the crowds. But more so than the permitting, trail races rely heavily on volunteers. Locals who are willing to spend their free time helping others having a great racing experience. And I bet anyone who’s ever participated in a race and experienced the friendly helping hand is willing to help when they are called up. This all gets tricky, when the person asking for volunteers isn’t a local race director anymore but a giant out-of-town corporation. If said corporation’s brand is cool, then folks are willing to spend a weekend volunteering walking away with nothing but a free meal and a t-shirt. I assume that’s how the Olympics have been operating for decades. Thousands and thousands of volunteers enabling a giant corporation to bulldoze themselves through city after city. But, these giant corporations don’t have the best reputation anymore. And in a funny twist especially here in the US, the country that invented giant bulldozing global corporations.

So, here’s UTMB expanding and adding more and more races, but not surprisingly struggling in the US, of all places. I bet, especially if you compare it to other regions, UTMB had hoped that by now things would look differently over here in North America.

• As of today there’s still not a single race in Canada.
• No brand new race has been announced.
• The Western States partnership stays the way they’ve always operated, which seems to indicate a mutual respect.
• Canyons became a UTMB race, which perhaps was the most obvious one.
• Speedgoat was probably a bit of a surprise, but Karl Meltzer hinted at the fact that he loves operating a race, but there comes a point in a race director’s life when one might want to move on.
• Grindstone and Desert Rats, the newly announced races certainly came out of left field and don’t really fit the usual UTBM format.

We all could foresee that this would be a bumpy road. And clearly UTMB knew this as well, otherwise they wouldn’t have partnered with Ironman for their international expansion. In fact, UTMB had tried going solo before and they weren’t able to break into the American market. Now with a partner like Ironman they are hoping for more success. But, so far the road has been just as bumpy, so it seems.

So, here’s what would help:

The races that UTMB has partnered with across the globe don’t give a good indication if these races are in fact sold to UTMB, or if they are indeed still a partnership between the local race organization and the UTMB group. Why not be more transparent about this?

IF! UTMB is truly, as they are saying, only taking on races they can actually buy outright that would create lots of problems locally on the ground. And, as seen in the case with Western States, UTMB has the ability to partner with a race without having to buy it. I can’t imagine that Lavardo, mozart100, or Eiger completely have sold their races to the UTMB group. So, who can get us insight on how these partnerships are spun? And NDAs be damned, I think we as local runners on the ground deserve to know how this sausage is made.

UTMB will always need to rely on locals on the ground

The Polettis aren’t sitting in their chalet in Chamonix filling out hundreds of land use permits for various city/state/national forest areas across the US and beyond. They need locals to understand the nuances. The permitting is done by local jurisdictions and nothing fucks up the ability for anyone to get a permit faster than a corporation acting like an elephant in a china store.
Races rely on local volunteers. No one volunteers for Walmart. One might volunteer their time for the Olympics, but that’s a once in a lifetime experience for most.

And that’s where it all can fall apart very quickly, and, I don’t know if UTMB has thought this through. They’ve already made it plenty clear that their perspective on what a trail race is, is completely different than what has grown over decades here in the US. Americans and Europeans think very differently about many things. Where does UTMB draw their volunteers from for their big dance in Chamonix? If the company is as evil as many American trail runners make them out to be, UTMB shouldn’t be able to get thousands of volunteers to ring cow bells on some col on the way into Courmayeur all night long.

American races are driven by identity, just like American politics. We know who stands at the finish line offering cheers, hugs, and that medal or buckle. If UTMB replaces the race director at their races with a corporate entity no one will come race that event. Especially not if there are other local races in the area that still offer that finish line feel.

So, especially in America trail races will only succeed if the organization has locals on the ground, understanding and respecting the permitting system. The races will need a local race director to be able to activate local participation and help in forms of lots and lots of dedicated volunteers.
If UTMB buys these races, what prompts the local race directors to stay put and continue to operate them. Are these buy out offers that generous? Are they employing race directors and staff in all these locations?

I started off telling you what I think UTMB should be doing. And in turn I asked a lot of questions.
So maybe UTMB should just answer all these questions, publicly.
Let these race directors speak and share how the arrangement has come to be for a race to be a ‘by UTMB’ race.
Give the organization in the US a face, so we know who reports to who, who we can ask questions to, and who we can blame if things go sideways. This faceless operating isn’t great for our sport and doesn’t fly in our culture.

Strava:

We’re proud to announce the recipients of our first-ever Year In Sport awards! 

They’re the athletes who recorded incredible performances and uploaded major wins – who entertained us with clever activity titles, creative route artwork and epic use of video – and who inspired us. 

Some great categories awarded to some awesome people. Inspiring.

My favorite weather app has been discontinued. Apple bought the app a few years ago and announced that they would discontinue it at the end of 2022. Nothing unusual really, that’s how it goes in the tech world. Apple did integrate some of the features in their official Weather app, and that app definitely improved greatly with the integration. But where Dark Sky shined (shone) was in two ways:

• It alerted me of incoming rain, often to the minute and often several times a day, if the weather asked for it.
• The app showed me the day and the week at a glance in a fast and intuitive interface.

As a trail runner knowing when it’s going to rain is pretty important. (I live in the Pacific Northwest, it rains often and a lot.) The new weather app has all that info too, baked into several other features that are also cool, but bloat the app and gum up the user experience. It just takes a lot longer to get to the info Dark Sky offered quickly at a glance. Full featured weather apps are fine, but allowing the user to customize a view or select certain features to focus on would be… nice. Will Apple ever understand that part of the user experience? I doubt it.