By Mathias Eichler
The adventure podcast about trail running and mountain culture. Subscribe in your favorite podcast player.
The adventure podcast about trail running and mountain culture. Subscribe in your favorite podcast player.
Electric Cable Car is counting down until the end of the year by reliving the action-filled year 2024 in trail running. Join me.
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.
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