This was the fourth year that Rock Candy Running produced the Little Backyard Adventure race in Olympia, WA. Every year we’ve changed the format or the time of year around. And this year, for the first time, we moved it to a March date, which made it a winter race.

We had a total of 37 finishers at the race. 15 were women, or 41% of the total. This number dropped from 57% from last year and I don’t quite know why that is.

Singletrack – Episode 271:

This week I’m chatting with good friend Adam Lee, the host of our Trail Running Film Festival stop in Vancouver, BC at the Rio Theatre. He’s also a returning guest on Singletrack and the owner, voice and host of Community Trail Running, Substack newsletter and podcast.
Links and more at singletrack.fm

LINKS

• Community Trail Running
• Beast of Big Creek
• The Trail Running Film Festival at the Rio Theatre in Vancouver, BC

Inspired by baseball’s endless rule adjustments Andy Jones-Wilkins suggests some rule changes for ultra running in his column AJW’s Taproom for iRunFar:

An Aid Station Clock

An aid station clock would only punish amateur runners who don’t have a well-oiled pit stop crew. This change would force runners back out onto the course before they are ready. The DNF rate would increase and with that the safety concerns of the runners.

Limited Crew Contact

Limited crew contact is hard to implement as every race is different witha different layout of distance/terrain/aid station access. This also could have a negative effect on safety.

Common Gear Specification Limits

Gear requirements are often already implemented in races that go through remote or possible treacherous terrain to increase safety. Especially in European races this is already the norm. But Europeans complain about this as races that aren’t in technical/remote or dangerous terrain still require you to carry mandatory gear even if the weather doesn’t call for it.

Most of the time rule changes for a sport are considered to increase watchability for spectators. One other big reason is due to safety concerns.

We certainly don’t have to alter rules to make our sport more spectator friendly. There are other mechanisms that could help there, but I kind of like that our sport is a participatory sport and not one for fantasy leagues and hot dog stadiums, for now.

Changing rules to increase safety is always welcome, but often our races are already pretty regulated by the fact that the permits race directors are required to obtain come with lots of stipulations. If people would get seriously hurt the public lands agencies would address this concern. If there’d be regular helicopter rescues at Western States or Cocodona the permitting process would turn into a nightmare very quickly.

Now, implementing rules to make our sport more accessible that would be a welcome change.

• For example there could be a ratio of how long a runner would be allowed to stay on the course based on distance/elevation/difficulty.
• A maximum number of crew per runner would be a playing field leveler as not everyone can afford a huge staff of support.
• I’m also not sure about pacer support. Big races in big terrain in Europe don’t allow pacers, over here it’s considered for safety. Necessary? What would Western States look like without pacers?

Singletrack – Episode 270:

And Harold the pig!

Karen and Nancy, (and Harold!) will be hosting the Trail Running Film Festival on Nancy’s farm, which is a regular gathering place for trail runners in the Lennox, South Dakota area. When I heard about this fantastic place I had to get Karen and Nancy on the show to hear their story. Harold wasn’t up for being behind the microphone, sadly.

LINKS

• The Good Earth Farm
• The Good Earth Farm on Instagram
• Glacier Hills Ultra on Instagram
• The Blood Run on Instagram
• Karen Lechtenberg on Instagram
• The Trail Running Film Festival Global Tour

Mark Lane-Holbert:

Trail Running Film Fest Global Tour, with Executive Producer Mathias Eichler, is available just about anywhere Podcasts can be heard!

That’s me, on a podcast, talking about the amazing Trail Running Film Festival that’s touring the globe and had me completely occupied for the last 3 months.

From the official UTMB Instagram account:

We are thrilled to welcome NÄAK as the Official On Course Sports Nutrition and Hydration Supplier of the UTMB World Series.

A few month ago I had never heard of that brand, then over the winter they announced several high profile athlete sponsorships and now this partnership. Pretty crazy rise to prominence if you ask me. I wonder if anyone bankrolls them in the background?!

Singletrack – Episode: 269:

Steve Aderholt, self-proclaimed behind-the-scenes-guy, joins Singletrack to share some incredible backstage info on the making of the Cocodona 250. Refreshed after a backpacking trip to Patagonia, Steve is now gearing up to dive into an insane amount of events management and race directing work. He’s directing the Park City Point To Point mountain bike race and the mighty Cocodona events, but most importantly, he’s the hosting the Trail Running Film Festival in Salt Lake City on March 16th.

LINKS

• One Step Events
• Cocodona 250
• Park City Point To Point
• The Trail Running Film Festival Global Tour

NNormal on Instagram:

Tomir’s new colour: Sand!

Kilian in his iRunFar interview back in July of 2022:

Yes. We want to change things when we find a better solution but not because it’s a business trend for this new color that is coming out now or because we need to change to sell more.

Hmmm…