By Mathias Eichler
One last hurrah before the end of the year. Runners, get ready for a fun and festive holiday 10K trail race at Squaxin Park in Olympia, WA on December 14.
One last hurrah before the end of the year. Runners, get ready for a fun and festive holiday 10K trail races at Squaxin Park in Olympia, WA on December 14.
Kevin Fallon, co-founder of Speedland on his personal Instagram account, on the opening day of TRE:
I’m flattered that Speedland inspired another small brand to challenge how shoes are made, and follow our lead. It would have been much better story, and product, if NNormal had collaborated with us.
…
I wish the best to Killian and the NNormal team, but let’s be clear on who’s following who. And imagine how much cooler it could have been to team up and do something awesome together.
NNormal had a booth at TRE and was almost nonstop busy. Speedland did not have a presence at the show.
Skyrunner World Series is putting out the call:
We are expanding our search for the next Skyrunning super stars. If you think that you, or someone you know, has what it takes to compete in the world’s most technical racing circuit at elite level, fill out the form and tell us more.
Earlier this month Freetrail announced a ‘Good Morning Austin’ show, that was supposed to be featuring brands and organizations from TRE. Does anyone have the scoop on where to find this show? Is it not happening?
Edit: Oh, there it is, on the Freetrail Youtube channel. That’s why I couldn’t find it. This is totally on me. Youtube is a platform I just never think about. I was expecting the shows to drop on the podcast, and be announced and shared on Instagram. I guess I’m showing my age.
From the Canyons Instagram:
We are thrilled to confirm The Canyons Endurance Runs by UTMB as the 2024 UTMB World Series Americas Major!
While this is a reasonable option, announcing it so late, and after the 100K distance has already been sold out, makes you wonder if they had plans to host the American Majors somewhere else.
It’s officially lottery season in the trail world. (In the soccer world this is called silly season, refers to something different, but it feels apt. This season is a bit silly, as our sport is growing and runners worldwide are making their plans on where they get to race this coming year by entering lotteries.)
If you’re silly enough to want to race in Chamonix this coming summer and want to race on of the World Series Finals races (that’s UTMB, CCC, OCC) then these are the dates you gotta keep on your calendar:
This year I finally have an index and a few lonely stones, so I will enter the lottery and make my offering to the luck dragon.
Even though the WTM currently has only nine races and thus the annual calendar isn’t as convoluted yet, I decided to still throw all the races into a manageable spreadsheet so you (and I) can have access to all the important information at a glance. And just like with the UTMB events calendar my goal is to keep this spreadsheet updated as changes are announced by the organization.
After losing Transvulcania just two month ago UTMB announced a new race, just one island over in the same Canary Island group, but this one on the main island Tenerife, which is officially part of Spain.
The races will be held on June 6-8 with distances ranging from 110K, 73K, 47K and 24K.
Tenerife Bluetrail by UTMB® will become the second event in Spain to join the UTMB® World Series in 2024, giving the large community of runners across the country the opportunity to explore the highest peak in Spain and its surroundings.
UTMB seems to like these island destination races, which sort of goes counter to their sustainability efforts which state that runners should have access to lots of races close to where they live in order to minimize air travel. Getting to an island requires almost everyone to fly into. But it does hint at UTMB’s strategy that they are positioning their races as tourist magnets.
The Electric Cable Car UTMB Events calendar is updated.
With the promise of an even bigger and better Switchback:
Switchback at The Running Event invites outdoor retailers, brands, and industry leaders to build new partnerships, access actionable information, source quality products—and celebrate the greater specialty retail community.
The Running Event is for all running, mainly road, but their Switchback section of the trade show floor will be dedicated to the outdoors and trails.
I’ll be there, wearing my Trail Running Film Festival hat, among my other hats, hoping to catch some of you in person.
From their official press blog:
RMB Ultra-trail Cape Town 2023, now part of the World Trail Majors, delivered a host of stellar performances and exciting racing from both South African and international ultra-trail runners over the weekend.
The official social media accounts of WTM were quiet all weekend during the race and didn’t announce any of the races or winners. But I’m glad to see that they are giving the racers some visibility now.
Dylan Bowman on Twitter:
Wow, Anta is now the title sponsor of a major trail race! The multi-billion dollar Chinese footwear and apparel giant is the latest mega brand in trail running.
Anta owns Fila (for mainland China only) and a majority share in Amer Sports who owns Amer Sports, who in turn owns Arc’teryx, Salomon and a few other companies. This is all a bit convoluted but needless to say money seems to be pouring into the sport, as expected.
This is a big get for Hong Kong 100, but does not, at this point translate into a sponsorship for the entire series of the World Trail Majors.
Hardrock Lottery is the same day as Western States‘. Why? No idea.
Preliminary numbers (as of 11/20) show 2,801 people are hoping to get one of the 146 entries.
These numbers are just crazy and give lots of ammunition to the folks (UTMB and et al.) who believe that our growing sport can handle more races in more places. And even the ‘die hards’, who love these historic races and see their changes to ever getting picked in the lottery decrease every year should be happy with more races drawing attention away from the few that are way way way overbooked.
As Ryan Clayton on Twitter points out:
Okay, this is crazy. Almost 10,000 people in the #wser lottery?!?
So, there are almost 10,000 people vying for the 369 spots. And really it’s a lot fewer considering that there are so many special consideration entries awarded. In 2023 there were only 274 spots for the open raffle.
The lottery will be held December 2, 2023 8 a.m. PST at Placer High School and live-streamed here with viewing parties all across the globe.
Paul Sawers for TechCrunch reported this a few weeks ago and I forgot to post it:
Powered by Fatmap acquisition, Flyover is only on Android for now
Kind of cool to see acquisitions to actually amount to something useful for the end users. Also worth nothing that I doubt there are many features/apps that are Android first, this one is.
I had Wes Plate on Singletrack a couple of weeks ago and we chat among other things about his epic 200 Mile run around the Puget Sound. Now Wes release a video on Youtube sharing his journey. Worth a watch.
Kilian on his YouTube live event posted during my turkey trot run this morning:
A modular shoe that encapsulates the core values of NNormal, namely authenticity, commitment, usefulness, and No-Normal.
Normal is looking for some beta testers to help with developing the elements and in-soles of the new shoe that’s meant to last you longer, while allowing you to interchange various components.
Has a bit ‘fuck it, we’re doing five blades‘ energy.
Singletrack – Episode 290:
Daniela Oemus, German trail runner for Salomon, ER Doctor and parent of two joins Singletrack to talk about her breakout year of racing, including a win at Zegama and Wildstrubel and a 6th place finish in the trail short discipline at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Innsbruck. We chat about her favorite racing distance, her love for the Golden Trail Series, and her challenges of navigating her career, her athlete life and her family.
Bart Schaneman for Outdoor Retailer’s ‘The Daily’ reports:
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis’ economic data shows the outdoor industry generated $1.1 trillion in economic output for the United States in 2022.
The article breaks down the industry by segment, running/trail running not included. Is that because trail running would be considered a sport and not an outdoor activity? Strange.
In the headline I’m linking to the event website, but this blurb below is from the English Wikipedia entry:
Since 1973, the race has taken place annually in May. It used to be the biggest popular sport event in East Germany, and is still one of the biggest ultramarathons in Europe, attracting more than 10,000 participants, including those for other distances.
I love learning about these events that have been going on for decades, run by volunteers, drawing a huge crowd without any of the fuss and attention it deserves. More of this, please.
Kilian Jornet on Instagram:
Born from a Vision. Reveal awaits on Nov 23rd on NNormal Youtube Channel. Be part of the change.
Is the announced change a change in direction at NNormal, or just a new product that’s continuing their vision for change?
Secondly, this announcement is slightly ill-timed for a global company. While headquartered in Europe, the US must be one of their biggest markets and announcing a press event on Thanksgiving 10am (PST) is literally smack dab during the time most runners are either at their local turkey trot or are already in a food coma.
From the Western States Endurance Runs press release:
The Board of Directors for the Western States Endurance Run has named Lamont King, Western States volunteer, ultra runner and accomplished public pension fund lawyer, to the board, WSER president Diana Fitzpatrick announced.
In an increasingly diverse world, or as WSER president Diana Fitzpatrick calls it in the official press announcement: “an incredibly dynamic moment in our sport”, this is a great move for Western States and for our sport.
In an excellent interview on the Ultrarunning Sam podcast host Sam Hill sits down with Paul Huddle – Senior director of global trail running and Keats McGonigal – Vice president of North American operations for Ironman/UTMB to ask some hard questions and gives them the chance to share their side of the story. I will even link to the Youtube version of this podcast, I think it’s that important of a conversation for our trail running community.
Here are some of my takeaways:
IF you believe this version of the story things end up looking very different. UTMB is a business, saw an opportunity and took it. That’s it, that’s the story. No nefarious backdoor deals, no collusion, no “big trail” bullying the little guy. CMTR closed the door on Whistler with their public post in February, UTMB jumped on the opportunity to bring a trail race to Whistler.
Could’ve, or should’ve UTMB reach out to CMTR and asked them about Whistler? Maybe. It’s not a common business practice though. It might’ve been nice, but not sure what results we expected to come from this.
So for them to be able to move reasonably quick in selecting a site/course and be willing to do what it takes (pay permits and perhaps higher fees) seems entirely feasible. Even I saw the excellent potential of a trail race in Whistler many years ago. Their timeline from initial contact to race announcement to actual race is longer than what Gary proposes for his yet-to-be announced competing race on the same weekend next year.
Whistler clearly is a beautiful location in itself, and creating events just to give people the opportunity to obtains stones to get to Chamonix is a limiting marketing message. But, that’s how some of us travel and experience cool places. I had never been or even heard of Big Bear Lake before the Kodiak announcement. Is it bad for the community that I arrived, spend money and ran the race. I loved it (even though I DNF’ed and didn’t get any stones). In fact I am pondering of going back.
Not sure, this was our finest moment. I even posted a comment on the official Instagram announcement of the new Whistler race saying ‘good luck finding volunteers’. I have since taken this post down. It doesn’t serve anything, other than help create division. I do still agree that volunteers are the achilles heel of any organization in our sport positioning themselves as a business, but this, UTMB knows.
How fast the community turned on UTMB and made it a us vs. them story is still quite upsetting to me. I do think people were lead down a path making them believe lots of untrue things, but what worries me is that ‘our community’ won’t take the time to clean this up. Everyone will move one. Everyone will feel ‘there was smoke, therefore there was fire’, without anyone asking who started the fire. It’s not a good look for ‘our community’ which claims to be different and better. This is also entirely not surprising, as every community who sees themselves as ‘precious and special’ deals with the same issues at some point. So, in a way this was an important moment for trail running to grow up. We’re not the one unique flower that is innocent and pure. We’re just like everyone else. We just like to run for a really long time, and some of us want to run around Mont-Blanc once in their life.
What will be interesting to see in the coming weeks and months is what the ‘elites’ make of all of this. They in many ways are the show horses for our sport. The media follows them around and shares their stories and in turn the story of the races and places they happen. They introduce folks to new events and their efforts inspire others to follow.
Ultra Trail Cap Town’s Stuart McConnachie Race Director on Instagram:
“We are extremely saddened and concerned by what happened to Tom Evans and have reached out to him to offer our support and access to counselling. We were excited to have him race at this year’s RMB Ultra-trail Cape Town but respect his decision to return to the UK….”
Earlier this week Tom Evans was attacked at knifepoint while training along the route.
Not making light of this at all, this is an awfully shitty situation and I wish Tom Evans all the best in his recovery and wishing all the runners and the organizers of the race a safe and successful race.
This comes mere days after the announcement of the World Trail Majors, which includes Ultra-Trail Cape Town and who’s stated objective is to create a wish list of races that runners ‘must’ compete once in their lifetime. Oooof.
Zach Miller for iRunFar:
Even if all the races ceased to exist, we’d still have running. We’d have the power in our legs and the breath in our lungs. We’d have the mountains to climb and canyons to cross. We’d have sunrises, sunsets, and starry skies. We’d have the ability to wonder how far and how fast we could go and the means to find out. We’d have joy, awe, and wonder. We’d have tired legs and overflowing hearts.
I don’t disagree here at all. This is what it’s all about, and this is why we run. After a busy summer season of racing the pendulum swings the other way. One looks for the essence, and even peace in our daily movement. But I also see this as a natural swing toward the other end of the spectrum of our sport. Summer is far away, and I bet once racing season upon us the runners who aren’t just born to run, but love to race will find themselves on some of the most competitive starting lines. And come end of August most elites will toe the line in Chamonix.
From Apple PR:
Apple today announced it is extending free access to Emergency SOS via satellite for an additional year for existing iPhone 14 users.
I love that this feature exists, love that Apple continues to invest into it and offers it as a free service. But I must confess, I would have no idea how to activate and use it.
Here’s a document showing how to active it the basic SOS service, which is great, but relies on cell service. This feature is using satellite and requires some setup beforehand. Your Settings app has a section called “Emergency SOS”. Visit this section and familiarize yourself with the basic functions before you head out into the wilderness next time.
Quick update: Worth nothing that this feature isn’t available worldwide as of now. Thanks for the tip Federico Hernandez.
Emergency SOS via satellite is available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S.
Singletrack – Episode 289:
Jack Rosenfeld from Seattle joins the show. He’s a podcast co-host of the Beer on the Run podcast, race director with the Seattle Running Club and 200 mile finisher. Jack shares his story of failing 100 milers and then walking to success at the Cowboy 200 in Nebraska. Later we dive into a deep conversation about the challenges and joys of being race director and how our trail culture is changing in the light of big businesses and new voices challenging our status quo.
From the UTMB/Ironman PR email:
The 2024 Canyons Endurance Runs by UTMB has less than 75 spots left in the 100M and less than 25 spots left in the 100K! If you’ve been thinking about signing up, now’s your chance to register for the 10th anniversary of the event, as these spots won’t last long.
As of today Canyon is not an American Major and still they are selling out.
Boycott’s going well, I see.
Update: 100K is sold out.
DC Rainmaker with the money shot:
The Suunto Race is easily the best watch Suunto has ever made. It’s not even close.
I bought into it. Got myself the new Suunto Race to replace my trusty Suunto 9 Baro. This five+ year old watch Ricky Gates sent me after I had completed #EverySingleStreet in my hometown Olympia almost five years ago. Now I got a new one and it’s beckoning me to run… fast. Like the toddlers with new sneakers. Man, I love this new watch. More on it soon.
This morning after a stealthy media embargo the news of a new trail racing series dropped on various trail media outlets. In 2024 runners worldwide have the ability to compete in yet another trail race series: The World Trail Majors.
The timing of this announcement is of course impeccable given the challenges UTMB has faced over the past few weeks. Nothing wrong with trying to strike while the iron is hot, I suppose. And while no one suggests that this group of race directors pulled this together within a few short days I do think it all feels a bit rushed to take advantage of the news cycle. The website has several important components missing or labeled “coming soon”. Which might be fine for a little neighborhood race, but this is aiming to be the “World Trails Majors” – a name that suggests ambition of grandeur. On the Freetrail podcast the invited race directors (Janet Ng, Steve Brammar, Jamil Coury, & Stu McConnachie) shared their excitement to collaborate while staying independent races and organizations. Again, nothing wrong with it, but then the question arises: What, and for who is it?
The best answer to that I found in the explanation of the name. Inspired directly by the World Marathon Majors the idea behind the new series is not to be a qualification system for a Final, or even a focus on a leaderboard, but rather an invitation to travel and explore and race in exciting places around the globe. Seems noble, but also: all of these races existed before, not sure how this new series brings them closer to me.
What we’re getting with the World Trails Majors is a collection of exciting, high profile races that have successfully withstood the UTMB sirens call (so far) and have, with this announcement declared that they aren’t for sale, or at least not for sale to the UTMB/Ironman Group. Many of these races had previously partnered with UTMB Mont-Blanc on the Ultra-Trail World Tour which shuttered just before the pandemic.
In the words of the race directors, the hope is to share best practices and offer a truly local racing experience. This kept coming up in various interviews, but it felt a bit forced to me. Was this answering a call from the community? Is UTMB serving alpine cheese at their races in Asia? Are these UTMB owned events loosing their local touch?
One thing I have not been able to do, and I hope the community with help with this, is check on the various policies and community guidelines for this new group and hold them to the same standards as what we all expect from UTMB. The website seems to be thin on these for now, and perhaps therein lies the rub. There are plenty of races out there that are just local “show up at your dusty trailhead and run for a long time through the woods and hope for the best” type of races. If the aim is to be the ‘best of the best’ then it needs more than showcasing beautiful locations, the community has called for that ‘more’ for awhile now. And nothing seems to have been answered here. We, as the trail community are after this announcement sort of in the same place as before. Questions around elite racer consideration, prize money, pregnancy deferral + adaptive policies, environmental considerations, the list goes on – all are missing so far.
So, if this isn’t really for us runners, but more for the race directors to create a shared pool of experience, then why is it happening?
My best guess is that newly formed group is playing the long game here. None of these experienced RDs need advice from each other on how to mark the course (maybe the need help with developing community policies), but where the proverbial treasure sits is media rights, and marketing the races to an audience thirsty for live coverage of these unique and historic events. If this group can figure out how to consistently stream their races, in multiple languages, to a global audience, then this has the chance to attract sponsors and partners wanting access to those eyeballs. Each event organization can keep their local sponsors, but they can sell the media rights to a series sponsor. This has the opportunity to ‘up-the-game’ for the organization, and for each of the events in turn.
Finally, and I know you’ve been waiting for this: The World Trail Majors logo is awful.
I have no words. Yes, I get that it’s trying to be simplistic, and usually that is something I appreciate, but this is just unfinished and uninspiring.
Yes, this is my initial impression dump and there certainly will be more new to be shared in the coming weeks. I’m not writing them off, there is too much experience at the table to call this rushed or ill-advised. It’s good to have competition on the organizational level in our sport, even if it’s just for keeping UTMB honest, and for giving elites a few new ideas on where to race in the coming years.
Speaking of Substacks, my pal Adam Lee posted an open letter to the trail running community with the subtitle:
This sport is amazing because this community is amazing
Adam shares links to his (and his community’s) favorite organization making the trail running community what it is. And a big thanks for including Rock Candy Running.
Community feels so good because it gives back. It’s there for you when you invest yourself. So huge thank you to all the organizations working so hard to make the community as great as it is. We’re better because of you!
I couldn’t have said it better.
Matt Walsh on his Trailmix Substack dives into the fashion aspiration of HOKA:
However, Hoka has specifically been partnering with up to 6 brands per year recently to enter the lifestyle market.
It’s an interesting move by HOKA for sure and I’ll add two things:
Here’s the announcement that has been hinted at on social media over the weekend: A new trail race series is born. Here are the nine races participating independently in it’s 2024 season:
Bryon Powell, back from his sabbatical has the announcement on iRunFar:
In contrast to various tours owned and operated by global corporations, Coury shares, “The league itself is run collectively by the member races on a very democratic level. There is not one single race that owns the series. There will be some shared staff members and resources to oversee series-wide communications, marketing, and coordination.”
There will be a lot more information and details coming out in the coming days and of course it will be very interesting how this series position itself against the giant in the room, the UTMB World Series.
Teased on social media over the weekend, the few big races that are currently not a UTMB race are announcing a new trail race series this coming Monday November 13th, 2024:
Ian Corliss on Twitter:
As if we did not have enough ‘trail series,’ I believe there will be a NEW – “international trail running series that will start in 2024.”
Meanwhile the race organizations sharing a cryptic pre-announcement teaser are the following:
This is a developing story and I will update as new information becomes available.
We’re all Gary now.
Announcement of today confirms this new series!
Paul Huddle, Senior Director, Global Trail Running, Ultra Trail Whistler by UTMB organizing team lead, signs an official open letter to the trail running community addressing the Whistler kerfuffle:
We understand people are trying to make sense of what took place, however, the mischaracterization of our goals, methods, and importantly, our people – suggesting unethical behavior and dishonesty – has come as an unpleasant surprise to us.
They clearly did not expect the backlash.
In retrospect, we should have kept the lines of communication open between us and CMTR to inform them, as a courtesy, of our conversations; perhaps this would have made a difference. We will never know whether the outcome of the partnership announcement would have been different, but we could have, and should have, been better here.
The letter will make no one happy. The lines are drawn now, and no one seems to be backing down, at least online. UTMB is considered to be the bad guy and these backhanded apologies aren’t helping. If they REALLY did not anticipate any possible backlash with their announcement of a new race in Whistler then I understand that there were initially surprised by it, but now, that they are seeing as digging their heels in. Do they have a way forward? Is there a way to calm the waves? Probably not. The Whistler by UTMB Instagram account hasn’t posted a single update since the initial announcement. Even that letter is just listed in the ‘links in profile’ section to avoid comments by the raging mob.
Meanwhile the Polettis are in Hong Kong for their Translantau by UTMB event.
I asked a friend of mine who runs triathlons and Ironman races for her take on Ironman entering our trail running sport. She had, of course, heard about the Whistler kerfuffle over the last couple of weeks and has her thoughts on it all. This is just one person’s opinion and experience as a triathlete, but given that most of us trail runners cling to that one tweet John Kelly posted when Ironman first announced their partnership with UTMB it might help to add a few more perspectives to that mix.
I’m posting this email exchange only slightly edited with some of my comments below.
Yeah, no way has Ironman killed triathlon. They certainly have a near-monopoly on the 140.6 (“Ironman”) and 70.3 (“Half Ironman”) distances. The copyrights on the word Ironman, Half Ironman, 70.3, and 104.5 certainly have the impact of that impression you have, but it’s not reality. Any sprint distance or Olympic distance or off-road tri you do is locally organized or put on by a small non-m-dot company. And organizers still hold halves and full Ironmans, you just have to call it something else due to copyright, but we all know you did an Ironman lol.
In some ways the media has made triathlons appear to be exclusive Ironmans, but in reality there are a lot of ways where athletes can enjoy the sport without participating in an Ironman branded race.
In a number of ways, I do agree with the sentiment you’ve heard. Some really special races have gone the way of the history books thanks to Ironman either directly competing with them or buying them out. But I have to respect that Ironman is a business and frankly they can put on one hell of a race.
While some competing races definitely have disappeared and lost to Ironman, the perception seems to be that the Ironman experience is a spectacle and worth the price of admission. And going even further:
In my experience, and this is in smaller communities in Wyoming and Utah, local races experience volunteer fatigue and small volunteer pools. So getting enough people to do it all, year after year, can be a bit challenging, especially for long events. Ironman makes deals with their host cities that they have to provide volunteers, so they know they will be fully staffed without having to go ask their neighbors for help like you and I. An Ironman is also a fully supported event so they require a lot of volunteers for a long time. Infrastructure travels with them and higher entrance fees cover all those expenses that add up to a more “polished” event, if you will. So if your non-Ironman races are always offering better experiences than Ironman can on the same date nearby, they won’t be able to drive existing races out, unless it’s a matter of qualifying for something, but even then most racers aren’t seeking that.
So, not just for racers, but the overall volunteer experience seems to be better at an Ironman event compared to a locally run event. My friend hints at how Ironman solves the volunteer challenge: getting the local communities to commit to proving volunteers. This was really surprising for me to hear, as I’ve been projecting that this might be the achilles heel for Ironman, but maybe they have ways to approach this that I haven’t thought about.
I encouraged my mom to do an M-dot 70.3 instead of a race by any other organizer, because as a woman in her 60s, she was going to be back of the pack and needed a race where aid stations stay stocked and the finish line volunteers are fresh. There are more races available than there have ever been, which is cool for so many people around the world. The races are very well done (pricey, yeah, but you do get what you pay for). The recognition of the sport has grown, as has participation. So while we have our frustrations, Ironman has done a lot for the sport and I still participate and still try to qualify for championship events.
Again a surprising and fascinating perspective. An Ironman seems to actually be a BETTER experience for an average athlete, compared to a local event. None of us in the trail running world would be considering this as of now.
They cannot seem to figure out their World Championships qualifying process. They kept adding so many races that eventually you pretty much had to win to KQ. Now they’re trying to address that with bigger championships, but of course people have feelings about that, haha. And you know Ironman won’t stop buying/creating new races so the problem will repeat itself. To be fair, there are some unique challenges in triathlon they’re going through right now with championship locations and splitting up the mens and women’s races, but it’s been a mess. And it doesn’t instill confidence in a UTMB World Series system set up by Ironman. Expect frustration and changes with the wind.
This seems to track. As these races are getting more popular, more people qualify, and this creates challenges to the lottery and qualification system. I bet that’s not an easy thing to project and solve. Not wanting to defend UTMB/Ironman here, but if their models don’t work, then their qualification system falls apart and that creates understandable frustration among the runners trying to collect stones.
They pack races with too many people, which makes business sense but creates risks (and deaths) for racers, especially racers who toe the line unprepared. The size of all their events also undermines the sense of community in some ways.
Something we’ve not seen here in the US, but I could easily foresee this to become an issue in the Alps. People are already lamenting that Chamonix feels like a complete zoo during UTMB week.
I think Ironmans are generally a great experience for amateurs in most regards, except cost and sometimes crowding. Amateurs at the pointy end trying to KQ have complaints about that process (and about the crowding on multiple-lap courses), but that’s always going to be a difficult thing to make everyone happy on, tbh. Pro payouts and support are not great, which is a big part of why the PTO started.
Again, kind of shocked with my friend’s response. Ironmans seem to be a positive experience for most athletes? Not something we as trail runners would want to believe.
I’d do what you can to preserve your local races, to support competition to Ironman, and to empower your pros. Take a look at what the Profession Triathletes Organization is doing. They just started up a couple years ago with better support for racers, intentional programming for female racers rather than willy nilly perks, and a healthier take on a world tour (which Ironman is now trying to replicate next year lol). I hope they can stay in the game, and I hope the Challenge Family maintains a presence, but as racers one of the biggest things we can do is help our small, local events (even if they aren’t 140.6 or 70.3 distance, which Ironman has basically copyrighted most organizers out of providing).
I think trail running can take a look at the things triathletes don’t love about Ironman’s approach and play a role in preventing them while still enjoying what Ironman can do for your sport.
I don’t think we’ll see the issue of copyrighting a specific distances arise in our sport, for that it’s too established. But clearly leaving Ironman, the one corporation, to run away with it all would be fatal and silly. But we’re also very far away from this in trail running. And yes, competition is healthy, if it comes from local event organizers or from competition global organizations that are trying to address different issues, or approach solving a problem from a different angle.
My friend’s overarching feeling is that Ironman, as the big player in her field, needs to continuously be checked, held accountable, and encouraged to improve and do better. But the overall racing experience at an Ironman seems to be not just good enough but actually worth the higher prices and worth the existence of an Ironman organization in the sport. That, Ironman hasn’t proved to us in trail running. Outside of holding the key to Mont-Blanc they haven’t given us racing experiences that were a step above the local grassroots events. Aside from the need of “stone collecting” there’s no need to run a ‘by UTMB’ race. If we want to be enchanted by that UTMB experience beyond Chamonix we need a bit more than HOKA banners and a big merch tent.
Finally, it doesn’t seem to be all doom and gloom. It seems Ironman’s contribution to triathlon seems to be a net-positive. Maybe it is okay for them to exist after all in our trail running world, and contribute their version and vision of our sport. We’re standing by and keeping watch.
Just listened to Corrine Malcolm and Buzz Burrell discuss the Ironman/Whistler kerfuffle on their latest episode of the ‘Trailhead podcast by UltraSignup‘, and man, if not even these two “voices of our sport” understand how UTMB’s stone system works, then I don’t even know. The two lament that UTMB requires a runner to run 2-3 official UTMB races each year in order to get their stones for the lottery. While that might fit the emotional narrative of the moment, it is just not true.
Stones do not expire. Stones are cumulative.
Their argument insinuates that one has to run exclusively UTMB events to be eligible to enter the lottery each year for a chance to run around Mont-Blanc. Yes, one needs to get a single stones every two years to enter the lottery. But a single stone from a single race, that could literally be a 20K, is enough to keep your account valid. And! The stones don’t expire but add up. You can run any of the community index races to keep your index current in order to put your name into the lottery for any specific distance.
So, to iterate:
This UTMB stone system is no threat to our community. It really isn’t.
Singletrack – Episode 288:
Abigail West runs the trails in the South East of the United States and creates art that is inspired by the unique and beautiful landscape of her home in Athens, Georgia, the nearby Great Smoky Mountains and the Appalachian Trail.
She recently claimed the FKT on the famous S.C.A.R. route and we talk about her upcoming project designing the poster for the Trail Running Film Festival Global Tour 2024.
Red Bull press announcement:
Each of the images has a unique story behind them and shows the creativity, hard work, and dedication of the creators who go to extreme lengths to capture such outstanding moments.
Mountain culture on display:
All finalists are invited to the Red Bull Illume Winner Award Ceremony in Sölden, Austria that takes place from November 28 – 30. There, the 10 category winners will be awarded along with the overall winner. Here the who’s-who of the adventure and action sports photography scene come together in the heart of the Austrian Alps to celebrate the best imagery. Following the Winner Award Ceremony, the top 50 images will be exhibited on 2x2m lightboxes in the village of Sölden until December 21 in the unique outdoor exhibition.
Some absolutely jaw-dropping photos. Check out the entire selection here.
But none of the photos selected show trail running.
The finalist images show that each and every sport needs a different approach.
What would the top trail running photos look like? Is it just Kilian on a ridge line? What other inspiring images can we think of that capture the essence of our sport?
Back in late 2018, almost exactly 5 years ago I let Ricky Gates inspire me to run every single street of my hometown Olympia, Washington. The project was something new for me, I usually run trails, but I enjoyed the time immensely spending almost as much time planning and plotting each route than actually running the streets. During and after I posted about and wrote a full article that now lives in Singletrack. Well, after five years the local paper calls and wrote about it too. It’s the project that keeps on giving.
New and interesting way to visualize and categorize trail races. From creator Stephen Searer:
The main goal is to simply make the sport’s information easier to find/access which will be helpful for both runners and fans.
Especially the visualized results from the top runners is kinda cool. Also check out Beast of Big Creek, part of a illustrious group of events.
Meghan Hicks shares more comments from the various entities involved in this kerfuffle. And In reading the various comments in the article from the various entities (Ironman Group, Vail, and local municipalities) it very much sounds like UTMB is leaning heavily into the narrative that they didn’t reach out to Whistler about a possible UTMB race there until after CMTR announced on Instagram in February that the were walking away from Whistler.
Gary responds in the comments:
I’m just going to put this here because it is important and does inform as to the backpedaling on their side right now. IM did NOT close down communications with us in Jan, in fact they had not even received the necessary, requested information from our organization at that point, because we were so embroiled in these ongoing issues with Vail at that time. IM did not receive our internal documents until mid March, and it was two full months after that, at the end of May that they officially informed us they were halting acquisitions. It appears that altering the timeline serves a purpose for them now, but it is 100% untrue.
I think one thing is clear now. With UTMB in our sport, race directors need to be more careful in how they announce their race plans, and operate more guarded. CMTR publicly and definitively announcing that they are walking away from Whistler created the opening for UTMB. It doesn’t matter in the end if UTMB was interested in that area before or after, that is how this will be spun. I bet in hindsight Gary wishes he could take this post on Instagram back as they didn’t expect anyone else to show up and put on a race in Whistler. The fact that it is UTMB stings because their draw is huge as runners sign up to get their stones for their chance to race in Chamonix.
Meghan leads into her article with this:
Here’s a story that reads like a trail running version of the David and Goliath parable.
One big problem with this analogy is that as in the parable David struck and killed Goliath with one shot. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen here.
On his Freetral podcast Dylan Bowman chats with Gary Robbins about the Whistler kerfuffle and makes some great points:
If this would’ve happened to another ‘no name’ race director, this would’ve blown over and no one would’ve thought of it. I’ll add: heck, this new Whistler race would probably be already sold out.
It’s the most likely the last we hear from Gary on this. DBO makes a bittersweet point in that it was sort of a good that this happened to Gary in order for our community to step up and really start asking the proper questions, taking ownership, and standing up to the bullies.
It’s time that this is done by the people who actually wield the power. Yes, we can individually boycott races and split the community, but I believe there are people, the media producing the live streams for example, and the perfectly positioned Pro Trail Runners Association1, oh and even the sponsors, (they’ve been awfully quiet here) to stand up and form a cohesive response.
In 2023, The Kauai 50 gave away $55,000 in prize money, had 74 finishers, 41 DNFs and 45 DNS, according to UltraSignup. The entry fee was $550 and apparently race director Brady Silverwood invested over $100K into the creation of the race.
For 2024 Brady announced the cancellation on Instagram:
The Kauai 50 event lost a significant amount of money in the first year of the race and unfortunately isn’t receiving enough support to survive another year.
…
Success, just like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. For some success is all about the numbers and the money. Those people would say this race was not a success.
…
Instead, I believe this race was a massive success.
I don’t know where to begin here.
And finally, according to the Instagram post the inaugural race was a huge success, but not a financial success. And while some might look at money as a measure of the success, he doesn’t. But the race can’t continue because it didn’t make any money the first time around, but it still was a huge success. Or something like that.
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