The Mile and Stone newsletter has a short interview with Näak’s cofounder William Walcker in their latest issue and a couple of things jump out:

At the moment, yes. Näak generates almost 100% of its sales from trail running, and all our energy and investments are linked to this discipline. 
…
Our ambition is to become nutrition number 1 in endurance sports.
…
(W)hen your ambition is to become number 1 in your discipline, there’s no other way to do it than to become a partner of the world’s number 1 event and circuit. We quickly came to an agreement, because UTMB was quick to see the advantages of working with us, thanks to our extensive range of products and, above all, our shared ambitions to develop and democratize trail running for as many people as possible.

Näak’s growth and success has surprised me initially and is still surprising. When I initially mentioned their partnership with UTMB I wrote:

Pretty crazy rise to prominence if you ask me. I wonder if anyone bankrolls them in the background?!

But more than the assumed VC funding this brand received the other piece that’s fascinating to watch is that I don’t really know anyone who truly loves Näak or swears by it. I’m not suggesting that their product is bad, but I think their marketing strategy is very different than other brands that have in recent years launched on the market. Especially in the nutrition game the initial marketing splash is all about “revolutionary innovation”: We discover how ingredient A is benefiting you and turned it into a product you can buy in order to succeed in your next race.” Näak is sponsoring athletes, but their message is just “I’m using it” not “My entire nutrition game has changed”. Näak is sponsoring UTMB and people have no choice but to use it and get used to their products, taste and brand. It’s probably a fairly expensive marketing campaign but it’s a game focused on market share, not on being the best. In my technology world the comparison I can think of is that Näak is sort of like Android. Not iPhone, not the product that demands to be loved and wants to be the best (and there is often the most expensive) but the one that works, and is everywhere. Or another analogy from the car world would be that Näak is the VW Jetta, or Toyota Corolla. (There are probably more up to date comparisons, but here I am aging myself.)

Where does this leave the other brands:

Well, as we’ve seen with Spring Energy recently, betting on “being the best” can be tricky and is generally really hard. Sometimes brute market forces and big marketing investments pay off and being everywhere is good enough.

The other strategic thing to consider is that Näak seems to be winning the game offering everything. Tailwind Nutrition for example only has liquid nutrition in powder form – it comes in a dozen flavors, but for most athletes it’s just not enough and they have to supplement their nutrition game – even if their marketing language is “It’s all you need. Really”. Even Courtney has Feed sponsorship and uses Spring alongside Tailwind. So, while Näak only has two flavors of their drink mixes they also offer bars, purees, gels, waffles, nut butters, soup mixes and recovery drinks… ummm, and coffee and cricket powder, I guess. Are these products best in class? I don’t think anyone suggest that they are, but if a race wants to partner with Näak (or vice versa) Näak is able to provide the entire nutrition game. And if an athlete wants to try Näak, they can get into the brand through whatever product they either love, or look for to supplement their already existing nutrition games.

Clearly Näak is doing something right.

BBC reports:

Event organisers said more than 840,000 applications had been received, smashing the previous record of 578,000 set by last year’s ballot.

The London Marathon is the largest marathon in the world, with 54,218 starters and 53,700 finishers for their 2024 edition, which was held just this past weekend.

Given what I just posted about the growth of trail running I now wonder if trail running is growing on the back of a general running boom, or if the “new” visuals of trail running is driving people to running in general.

Judy Leand for Sports Destination Management:

Trail running, which combines Americans’ love of the outdoors with their enthusiasm for running, jumped from 13.2 million participants in 2022 to 14.8 million in 2023, a one-year increase of 12.3 percent, according to the SFIA’s 2024 Topline Participation Report. What’s more, the study found that in the three years spanning 2021-2023, trail running participation soared 25.6 percent.

If a ‘destination management’ outfit is starting to pick up this trend and recognizes trail running next to the usual mountain biking and pickle ball trends, then maybe tourist destinations and land managers will begin to recognize the economic value, paired with the minimal stress on infrastructure that trail running represents. Race directors with their ideas and plans for trail races should be welcomed with open arms by said folks. Trail running is good for the local communities.

Local favorite Seven Hills Running Shop on Instagram:

These shoes should make Hoka add a new category to their cushion spectrum: Responsive, Balanced, Plush…Ultra Plush. Beyond their usual Plush. 

Hoka in their own marketing:

We threw out the rulebook when creating the Skyward X. Pushing soft and smooth to the extreme, this cushy new trainer features a revolutionary suspension system with a convex carbon fiber plate that allows the suspension system to compress and spring back with each step. A soft, highly resilient PEBA foam sits closest to the foot for a lively, cushioned ride, while a super critical EVA frame provides a stable base for your easiest miles yet.

This is getting into e-Bike territory for running shoes… price-wise as well: $225 for a pair.

The 2nd Golden Trail Series race of the season happened this weekend in Sichuan, China. In an effort to be more logistically sustainable and to make it easier for runners, the Golden Trail Series is trying to group events geographically together. So, after Kobe Trail in Japan the Series travelled to China for a race for the first time. Greg Vollet, interviewed by Dylan Bowman on Freetrail, mentioned that the reason for Salomon bringing the Golden Trail Series to China was that the CEO of the parent company Anta Sports, a Chinese outdoor good brand, wanted a stop of the Golden Trail Series in China. And so it was.

One thing that’s interesting when comparing results of this Golden Trail Series race the Mount Yun UTMB event is that the Mount Yun podiums were almost completely swept by Chinese runners, were in this race, neither on the women’s nor men’s side any Chinese runners made it into the top 5.

The historic Zegama-Aizkorri in Spain is next on the calendar on May 26, 2024. This will be the first time this year we’ll see Kilian Jornet racing, who’s opted for shorter and more local races, expect a personal project in the early Fall that he hasn’t announced yet.

Too much going on this weekend, but iRunFar has the results and race summary:

When all was said and done, Martina Valmassoi (Italy) and Ben Dhiman (U.S., lives in France) took home the women’s and men’s victories.

This was the second World Trail Major event this weekend, yeah, busy race weekend indeed.

The Canyon Endurance Runs by UTMB went down this weekend (April 26-27, 2024). After a slew of press announcements over the weeks leading up to itthe American Major, first time live streamed went off without a hitch as long endurance trail races go. In a full weekend of trail racing, this event, especially here in the US, definitely took the lion share of online chatter (it also helped the Courtney had already won her Mt. Fuji race before the races in Auburn, California even took off). Catherine Poletti was present again at the start/finish line adding to the “finish in downtown like in Chamonix” feel of the event. Canyons 100K was also the last race on the calendar offering Golden Tickets into Western States.

Below are the top runners, for full results visit UTMB live:

100M (164KM – 8 STONES)

Women:

1. Elena Horton – US – 21:35:56
2. Jacquie Mannhard – US – 22:35:52
3. Sonia Ahuja – US – 23:11:53

Men:

1. Canyon Woodward – US – 18:54:32
2. Nicholas Lightbody – CA – 19:14:17
3. Nick Orr – US – 19:55:51

100K (101KM – 6 STONES)

Women:

1. Katie Schide – US – 09:10:10
2. EmKay Sullivan – US – 10:01:26
3. Anna Kacius – US – 10:24:37

Men:

1. Rod Farvard – US – 08:44:30
2. Drew Holmen – US – 08:51:09
3. Petter Engdahl – SE – 08:55:31

50K (50KM – 4 STONES)

Women:

1. Dani Moreno – US – 03:52:24
2. Jennifer Lichter – US – 03:57:49
3. Tabor Hemming – US – 03:59:44

Men:

1. Eli Hemming – US – 03:25:23
2. Daniel Jones – NZ – 03:28:03
3. Cole Watson – US – 03:32:51

20K (24KM – 2 STONES)

Women:

1. Bailey Cossentine – US – 01:55:52
2. Amanda Wiggenhorn – US – 01:58:55
3. Natalie Chirgwin – US – 02:01:41

Men:

1. Talon Hull – US – 01:25:59
2. Richard Skogsberg – US – 01:31:04
3. Eric Hamel – US – 01:32:06

Combined, the events had 1,987 racers and 1,723 finishers. Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• 100M Starters: 291 – DNF 105 – Finishers 186. Women: 33 (18%) – Men: 153 (82%)
• 100K Starters: 586 – DNF: 141 – Finishers: 445. Women: 118 (27%) – Men: 324 (73%)
• 50K Starters: 642 – DNF: 12 – Finishers: 630. Women: 203 (32%) – Men: 427 (68%)
• 20K Starters: 468 – DNF: 6 – Finishers: 462. Women: 221 (48%) – Men: 240 (52%)

In total the event saw 1,723 finishers, 575 (33%) women and 1,144 (66%) men reached the finish line and earned themselves stones and an UTMB index (or directly punched their ticket to the Finals in Chamonix for 2025).

• US trail races are often held as shiny beacons of gender equality, or rather, the best that it can be around the world, but these numbers, while not bad are on par with China’s Mount Yun and lag behind Tarawera’s splits.
• The DNF rate on the 100M was pretty high compared to other UTMB events so far on the calendar.
• This is the last year that Canyons will be the American Major – it’ll be interesting to see how total participating will change if ‘double stones’ aren’t up for grabs anymore.

Next up on the UTMB World Series Calendar is UTMB’s Amazean Jungle in Thailand on May 3 – 5.

A few months ago I got a free pair of refurbished bone conducting Shokz headphones at the US Trail Running Conference. And as free gifts go oneshouldn’t “look a gift horse in the mouth”, right? I began using them, because I definitely wasn’t in love with my Beats Flex earbuds I had previously used. They worked alright, but not great.

Here are some observation on the Shokz:

• Connectivity via “just” Bluetooth compared to Airplay is inferior and it bums me out that Apple doesn’t open up this protocol and let other makers utilize it too.
• The audio isn’t amazing, but I don’t it to be great when out running. Where it really falls flat is when I’m running next to a busy road and the car noise completely trumps the audio pushed into my ears. There’s no cranking of the volume that overcomes that.
• The controls take a bit getting used to, but they work.
• The battery, even on these refurb ones is good enough.
• I can take phone calls and the mic works just fine.
• Here’s the most important point: They are comfortable. I barely notice them, even on long runs. They don’t tire my ears, the don’t bounce on my head, the aren’t in the way.

That last points basically wins overall other issues. This style of headphones has become my favorite way of listening to music or podcasts on walks, short runs and long runs. I never have issues with them getting pulled out of my ear, the sweat doesn’t make them unusable, they don’t tire my ears. That right there is such a huge plus, especially on long monotonous training runs. Can highly recommend them to anyone looking for a pair of headphones for running.

LIVE: This weekend (Apr 26-27, 2024) on our Global Race Series Calendar:

Americas Major (for the last year – next year the Major will be Kodiak), the ‘Canyons Endurance Runs by UTMB’ is UTMB’s 6th race on the 2024 calendar, the second UTMB event of the season in the US and the 100M runners are already on the course.

I ran the 50K last year, got myself the double stones and that got me into OCC this year. These were my observations from running my first UTMB World Series event.

The course for the 100M and 100K has changed several times over the last few years and is becoming more and more a “Western States Lite” which feels a bit boring from the outside, but I don’t know the trail management realities on the ground so I won’t judge.

UTMB has made tons of improvements on their website, but the starting lists isn’t something they have fully gotten online ahead of the races yet. Freetrail is doing their Trailgating shows on Youtube and live tracking for the races can be found here. There will be another attempt (last year’s failed spectacularly) of live-streaming the finish of the 100M and the 100K and 50K races.

Find more trail races on ECC’s Global Race Series Calendar.

This coming month, in May, Run with Strava and Brooks get a discount of your online ticket for the Trail Running Film Festival Online Watch Party.

So stoked for this partnership. Cannot wait to share our films with y’all online!

Earlier this week UTMB announced their new broadcasting partnership with DAZN and a few folks have been wondering what would happen with their Youtube broadcast and their coverage on their own Live.UTMB.world website. I reached out to their press office to confirm and was told that this new deal has no effect on this efforts and UTMB will continue their coverage as before in these channels.

Speaking of which, Canyons is about to kick off.

The racing season is picking up steam, and I have a hard time staying on top of it all. Several big events are happening all over the world this weekend alone. Here are last week’s Mount Yun by UTMB results, some numbers and observations. (For full results visit the UTMB website):

UMY 100M (144KM – 4 STONES)

Women:

1. Wenfei XIE – China – 23:03:50
2. Ronghua DENG – China – 23:44:24
3. XIAOXIA YANG – China – 24:08:22

Men:

1. Jiaju ZHAO – China – 17:05:57
2. Jiqian WANG – China – 17:39:28
3. Weiqiang ZHANG – China – 19:15:32

DMY 100K (97KM – 3 STONES)

Women:

1. Anna LI – China – 11:53:08
2. Wenrong ZHENG – China – 12:03:02
3. Liping WANG – China – 12:12:46

Men:

1. Ji DUO – China – 09:36:05
2. ZHAO Hu – China – 09:47:07
3. Jiasheng SHEN – China – 09:59:37

MMY 50K (48KM – 2 STONES)

Women:

1. Fuzhao XIANG – China – 04:53:01
2. Ting ZHANG – China – 05:01:27
3. Na ZHANG – China – 05:09:16

Men:

1. Tao LUO -China – 04:03:39
2. Guangfu MENG – China – 04:09:34
3. Erqing WU – CNChina- 04:14:38

EMY 20K (21KM – 1 STONE)

Women:

1. Qinghua LE – China – 02:38:53
2. Sheyonghua SHE – China – 02:52:28
3. Jun LI – China – 03:22:08

Men:

1. Chaohai QI – China – 02:03:38
2. WANG Guolong – China – 02:07:19
3. Tiago VIEIRA – Portugal – 02:09:21

This was almost an entire clean sweep by Chinese runners, in a race in China of course. Special shout out to Tiago Vieira from Portugal who claimed a third place finish in the 20K race.

Combined, the events had 3,683 racers and 3,485 finishers, and another low DNF rate. Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender :

• 100M Starters: 393 – DNF 86 – Finishers 307. Women: 65 (21%) – Men: 242 (79%)
• 100K Starters: 668 – DNF: 72 – Finishers: 596. Women: 149 (25%) – Men: 447 (75%)
• 50K Starters: 1,337 – DNF: 21 – Finishers: 1,316. Women: 409 (31%) – Men: 907 (69%)
• 20K Starters: 1,285 – DNF: 19 – Finishers: 1,266. Women: 490 (39%) – Men: 776 (61%)

In total the event saw 3,485 finishers, 1,113 (32%) women and 2,372 (68%) men reached the finish line and earned themselves stones and an UTMB index (or directly punched their ticket to the Finals in Chamonix for 2025).

When I think about this event I come to the sober realization that I really know very little about our world. Yes, the Olympics have been in China before and when it comes to truly global sports, of course they play soccer there, but I had no idea that trail running is as popular and when it comes to gender participation even quite diverse. Yes, it’s hard to travel there and so we see a very “regional event” with almost only Chinese runners (in the 100Miler, of the 307 finishers there were 294 from China). So maybe this World Series that UTMB is building is really about offering regional events for local runners to get their chance to earn their Stones for the Finals. Kinda like exactly how it has been advertised.

Next up on the UTMB World Series Calendar, and going live in just a few hours from April 26 -27 is UTMB’s Americas Major, the Canyons Endurance Runs in Auburn, CA.

LIVE: This weekend (Apr 26-27, 2024) on our Global Race Series Calendar:

The famous Mt. Fuji 100 events in Japan, the one previously named Ultra-Trail Mt. Fuji (until UTMB filed a trademark dispute) and the event who’s RD’s were instrumental on putting the World Trail Majors together.

This race explores the trails encircling Mt. Fuji, spanning 100 miles (approximately 160 kilometers), connecting the rich culture and communities intertwined with these paths and their surroundings. By organizing the race that continues day and night, without breaks for sleep or rest, we highlight the significance of self-challenge and showcase the allure of trail running as a sport. Additionally, we aim to share the rich culture and unmatched natural beauty of Mt. Fuji, a valuable Japanese treasure, with the world and future generations.

Courtney Dauwalter is racing the 100miler and is in search of Japanese candy.

Here are the full entry lists for the two distances offered, a 100miler and a 70K. At a quick glance the 100miler has 2,281 racers and the 70K 1,115. The official Mt. Fuji Youtube channel has a Japanese livestream and the English livestream is on the World Trail Majors’s channel.

Find more trail races on ECC’s Global Race Series Calendar.

The long running trail running podcast ‘Trail Runner Nation’ launches an app for iOS and Android:

Trail running continues to grow at an annual double-digit pace, bringing enthusiasts from a wide variety of sports and interests. To welcome everyone in true trail runner ethos, and ensure they achieve whatever aspirations they seek, safely, we’ve built a simple, FREE, mobile app.

I downloaded the app and took it for a spin, and while I’m clearly not the target demographic here – this app is meant for new-comers to the sport – I don’t quite understand what the app is meant to be or do.

On first launch you gotta submit your email address – which is a clever way of harvesting emails – but then you’re presented with a dozen+ buttons of common ailment “chafing, bleeding, muscle cramps” etc, and each button leads to a single page with a summary of symptoms, a single sentence of solutions and what to avoid. That’s it. That’s the whole app. It’s like a blog post wrapped into an app form. Yes, the app has the advantage that this information is available offline, like in the backcountry away from cell coverage, but to go through all the hassle to get an app into the Apple App Store (Android is coming), for just over a dozen paragraphs of texts feels a bit… overkill? It’s free, so I don’t want to look the gift horse in the mouth, but I am reading the marketing page for it and I am trying to figure out if there’s more coming and this is just the beta launch or if I am missing something here?

COROS just announced the Vertix 2S, an upgraded version of the high-end, all-out adventure watch. There are several minor improvements, including a new heart rate sensor which sadly reduces battery life overall.

DC Rainmaker has the full product review with the overall take-away:

As for upgrading from an existing Vertix 2? Probably not much of a reason. But if you’ve got a Vertix 1 or APEX series, this is definitely a solid upgrade.

COROS entered the marked a few years ago with a huge splash, competitive pricing, and dizzying speed of updates and product announcements. This clearly paid dividend and they were able to gain marketshare at a time when other watch makers (mainly Suunto) were struggling. Now it feel the product line is a bit more established and settled in, and as things are shaking out many of the competitors have now responded. As such COROS doesn’t feel quite like such a positive outlier anymore. Still solid, still a worthwhile product to consider, but not the darling on the block anymore.

Personally I was never a fan of the Vertix design language, that fake industrial bezel felt unnecessary and over the top burly to me, I’m curious if and how this product evolves in the coming years.

Singletrack – Episode 302:

Nick Triolo, writer, activist, and trail runner is back on Singletrack to share an update on his recent professional move and the giant leap of faith he just took. Nick and I chat about what motivates him to run, to share with others, and why he believes in beauty within our broken world. We also talk about running for a cause and the importance of story-telling in our overcrowded life full of churned out content.

LINKS

• Nick Triolo’s website
• Nick Triolo on Instagram
• Nick’s new book: ‘The Way Around‘
• Nick on Dirtbag Diaries

And The Green Runners are taking credit for the new sponsor rearrangements.

What more likely happened is that Hoka brought more money to the table to take on the title sponsorship for not just the Finals, but the Majors around the world too. Dacia is still premier sponsors and is still providing their cars as shuttle vehicles for the events in and around Chamonix.

The Trail Running Film Festival is still touring the globe, but, if you missed seeing it live or live somewhere where we’re not having a tour stop (gasp!) we have a solution for you: Our Online Watch Party and Fundraiser. We’re pre-selling tickets now and the show airs online from May 30 – June 11, 2024.

Come join us, support great filmmakers and invest into the future of trail running film creation.

Monika Glenn writing on the Tailwind Nutrition blog:

Over the last two years, the scoop was redesigned a few times, building in strength for daily scooping, ease of use and not to forget making sure it is food-safe and can be added to our drink mixes. We literally “broke the mold” with the scoop, well there was no mold, so it got designed from scratch, Tailwind paid for it and this was a big commitment.

This was one of my biggest hopes when I was asked by the Tailwind team on how they could improve their product.

Two years later, we are adding this new scoop to our pouches and have removed all plastic scoops from the Endurance and Recovery Line.

This is such a win!

Yesterday Brian Metzler for Outside broke the news that Hoka is UTMB’s new title sponsor for the full World Series and today UTMB is sending their press release with a few more tidbits of information on this new partnership:

Extending its partnership with the UTMB World Series through 2028, with the UTMB World Series, HOKA secures the Title Partner position for the circuit’s flagship events – including the Finals and Majors – which will now bear the HOKA name

This reads to me that not EVERY SINGLE EVENT in the series will be get the “Hoka” branding added, only the Finals, and Majors.

HOKA Chiang Mai Thailand by UTMB® (known previously as Doi Inthanon Thailand by UTMB), UTMB World Series Asia-Pacific Major

No reasoning is given on why the name is being changed, but the Major is getting a new name “Asia-Pacific” from the previously named “Asia”.

… and the 2025 Americas Major being HOKA Kodiak Ultra Marathons™ by UTMB®

This is big news. Last year the Major announcement had been delayed for months with UTMB finally taking the Majors back to Canyons – which is something that clearly was a fallback decision. It’s possible that UTMB had hoped to make Whistler their American Major, but due to “the kerfuffle” it decided it wouldn’t be the right move for the foreseeable future. I ran Kodiak last year and thought the location would make a great place for hosting a Major. It’ll be interesting to see if they will move the date for Kodiak for 2025 – currently it’s fairly close to the Finals.

Check out the insane drone light show at the Mount Yun by UTMB trail races this past week.

And over here I just use a shitty $30 walkie talkie to try to reach my summit crew for my Beast of Big Creek race. This is trail culture.

Massive news dropping this morning not via the official press release emails from UTMB directly but via Brian Metzler for Outside Run:

Hoka Elevates Its Support of UTMB to Become New Title Sponsor

And as part of that deal, Hoka is asking their flagship athlete to go back to Chamonix answering the question he posed on Strava last year after the Whistler kerfuffle broke: “So what do we race next year then?“.

This article holds several other important breaking news pieces and I need to break them down individually:

As title sponsor all UTMB Finals and Majors will now be called *Hoka* Canyons Endurance Runs by UTMB, *Hoka* Kodiak Ultra Marathons by UTMB, etc. Yes, that’s a mouthful, and yes that’s how these sponsorship deals work.

What about Dacia:

Last July, Romanian auto manufacturer Dacia was announced as the title sponsor of UTMB and the UMTB World Series for three years. Dacia, which was onsite last year at UTMB week in Chamonix promoting its Spring EV, is expected to remain a premier-level auto sponsor in 2024.

The article doesn’t make it clear what happened here, but from what I am gathering Dacia was never the title sponsor of the entire Series, just of the Finals, and this new Hoka’s deal supersedes that with UTMB creating a new sponsorship level for Dacia.

More races to be announced:

The other UTMB World Series Majors include the Hoka Val d’Aran by UTMB (European) and Hoka Chiang Mai Thailand by UTMB (Asia-Pacific). Hoka will also be the title sponsor of a yet-to-be-announced UTMB World Series Oceania Major that will debut in 2025.

This indicates there not just being more events, but another Major coming on too.

The UTMB website isn’t updated yet and there’s no official press announcement from Chamonix yet. We will see how this deal will affect the messaging around the individual races and especially the Finals.

Lastly, this was announced via US media exclusive, with is 100% a deliberate move, most likely initiated by Hoka, to own the narrative. I have no idea what a deal like this is worth, but clearly Hoka is showing its commitment and negotiating power here which comes with deep pockets.

From Brendan Madigan, co-race director:

We are excited to announce the addition of a new 18K race at the 2024 Broken Arrow Skyrace, powered by Salomon!

The team at Broken Arrow really has figured out the challenge of how you scale a trail running event in the US. The event held at a ski resort. And while ski resorts usually don’t have enough trail mileage to make a classic US 100M race the team is growing their numbers beyond anything that we’ve seen over here by offering short distance races – so European of them.

Over 3,000 runners will run the various distances at Broken Arrow in 2024 with an additional 1,400 on the waitlist.

Registration for the new 18K race will open April 29th, but folks currently on the waitlist will get first dibs.

Back in 2018, their third year, I ran their double loop race when it was still a 52K and had an absolute blast. Can highly recommend it to anyone.

Geoff Nudelman for Barrons interviews Michael Martin, CEO of Strava:

 In the U.S. running is now the most popular sport, followed by cycling, which used to hold the top spot.  

The app which started of as a biking app is now an app for runners.

One of the core reasons that people come to Strava is to find out where they can do an activity, not just who they can do it with. Strava as a tool is best-suited to do that with the data our users  shared and trusted with us, but in our “Maps” tab, we didn’t give you any prompts or tools to find these routes or locations, even though our geospatial data set is absolutely unmatched. To fix this, we recently launched an app update that used AI and machine learning to suggest some routes. This massively increased the use of the Maps tab, and it’s an early example of the things we can do. 

It didn’t take long for him to drop the magical word “AI”, cause that’s exactly what I think the app and service was lacking – more AI!

I get that a service used my millions of users will have millions of different perspectives of what the app is supposed to do for them and clearly there’s a distinct difference between the power-user and the causal “I just track my running here” user. But the app is incredibly sticky and has no real competition out there and in a case like this we’ve seen what happens next. Let’s hope that the VCs of Silicon Valley don’t fuck this up like almost every other app that has had this status at some point.

Host Salomon Alpenstadt City&Trail is bringing two shows on April 22+23 to the Park Kino in Bad Reichenhall, in southern Bavaria in the German Alps.

And we made it onto local TV, which is always fun.

Another day, another press release from the UTMB Group:

UTMB^® World Series and DAZN, the world’s leading live sports streaming service, have signed a groundbreaking two-year global broadcast partnership to showcase UTMB World Series in 2024 and 2025.

This covers the “rest of the world” while Outside will continue to be the provider for the USA and Canada,  L’Équipe in France and iQIYI in China.

Now with just over 4 month to go until the Finals the UTMB steam engine is gaining speed. Will be fun to watch what else will come down the pike…. and it’ll be fun to see if the proposed live streaming of Canyons will be improved over last year (and by improved I mean actually happening).

It’ll be free to watch:

What’s more, fans will be able to access all the best of the UTMB World Series for free as the content will live within DAZN’s ever-expanding global free tier. 

What’s not clear with this announcement is if this DAZN deal replaces Youtube as a platform for streaming the UTMB races or will be an addition. I will update once I find out more.

Alright, bear with me here. There’s a new “2024 Endurance Trail World Championship” in town.

There are so many over-the-top claims on this website, I can’t even list them all:

The Real Global Competition: Challenge your idols in a true, global mountain trail competition across continents with the One Hundred World Series…

Who’s racing here?

Qualifying for the OneHundred World Series doesn’t need to be complicated.

The ranking for 2022 has 61 people on it. There’s no ranking for 2023. Yeah, it’s not complicated to list runners if no one runs.

All qualifying races will be broadcasted live through One Hundred TV, so that you can still be a part of this global event even from home!

Here’s a sample of the stream. The parent website calls itself “broadcasting powerhouse”, “sports tech innovation”… oh and guess what other word you find on that website “A.I.”, of course.

MetaRace is reshaping endurance sports, blending technology and creativity for a unique experience. It brings to life authentic virtual running through kinetic signature analysis and altimetry conversion, ensuring realistic and fair races.

Got that?

Total prize purse of $100,000 USD

Checks breakdown for each race/racer: For the Finals, a first place in the 100K gets you $1,000. And only “elites” are eligible.

Starting in 2024, qualifying for the Gold, Silver or Bronze starting Elite boxes at the One Hundred® Endurance Trail World Championship Final will be a fairly straightforward process.

The key word in this sentence is “fairly”. There are categories, statuses, age groups, points… it’s confusing as hell.

Their Rules section lists the possibility of having 50,000 racers across 50 races annually. In 2022 they had 62.

There’s a “rewards card”:

The OneHundred® ‘Runwards’ Miles Card is a digital card that can be added to your digital wallet. No physical card will be issued.

It’s like a frequent flyer credit card, I guess.

And finally: the event website has a tab called “Investing”?

Venture into the next frontier of trail and virtual running with One Hundred Sports Group. We are on the lookout for visionary investors ready to fuel the future of sports technology and media innovation. 

This entire concept….I’m utterly speechless.

Fun interview with Friend Adam Lee on ET2media, not sure if the question was ever answer though.

LIVE: This weekend (Apr 20-21, 2024) on our Global Race Series Calendar:

Salomon’s Golden Trail Series kicks off it’s annual racing series this weekend and for the first time the tour stops in Japan.

With all a beautiful port side metropolis, KOBE TRAIL offer ‘Flower’ style amazing trails to trail running fanatics! The trails always start from top of Mt. Maya, national best three night view spot. Mountain steams, rocks, deep forest, and spectacular view of the sea and city of Kobe are waiting for all the runners.

Read here about the top runners at the starting line of the 21.3K course with 2,062 meters of vertical gain. 300 runners will be at the starting line, including Daniela Oemus from Germany.

I couldn’t find a link to any live tracking, but if you follow Golden Trail Series on Instagram you will learn of any race updates and results.

Find more trail races on ECC’s Global Race Series Calendar

On Instagram:

On April 18, the Organizing Committee of Ultra-Trail Mount Yun by UTMB® received an emergency notice. Shanxi Jixian Meteorological Observatory issued a weather forecast for the 19th-20th. There will be strong convective weather in some sections of the UMY 100M in Jixian County, and rainfall will continue to increase in some areas, which posing a greater threat to the personal safety of the runners.
So we have temporarily decided to use the backup track. The start ceremony at Yellow River Hukou Waterfall tomorrow will be canceled and will be changed to Zhonghe Square at 16:00.

Weather can impact these remote races everywhere, but I am sure the race organization in China is taking extra precaution after the infamous event in 2021 that saw several runners die on course and consequently the race directors found guilty.

Redditors are on the case, testing their own packages of Spring Energy and coming up with results that could indicate that the nutrition facts Spring promotes are wildly inaccurate and overpromising carbs and calories.

Here’s the thread that started this off: “False nutritional info on Spring Energy gels” which was followed up by “I replicated the dehydration experiment of Spring Energy Awesome Sauce – it was the only one where dehydrated weight was below claimed carb amount” and “Type 1 Diabetic experiments on self to confirm the Spring Energy Gel rumors” (*This post has been taken down by the author). As you can see by the headlines, these experiments are done on single packages for personal use. I’m not here to defend Spring, they haven’t responded yet and I know very little about these nutrition facts and the rules around them. When this story first broke last week, I chose not to post it because, well, it was posted on Reddit, but since this is picking up steam, I’ll share it and see what comes from it. What are the industry accepted fluctuations on these products? Will Spring respond? Will they stay silent and let it blow over? What are their athletes/influencers thinking?

Maybe the rules applies here too that if things seem too good to be true, they most often aren’t?

Juicy.

* Update: One of the posts has been taken down from Reddit as requested by the original author with the following statement:

…I think it was unfair of me to make this post until I accounted for more controlled experimentation….

This seems like a good call, in my opinion.

Singletrack – Episode 301:

Gretchen Walla, race director for Walla Trails and now for the Cougar Mountain Trail Series just outside Seattle is back on the show to chat about the amazing events she’s putting on and what makes them so special. We share stories about the challenges of race directing, and I cheer her on taking on a personal challenge of training for Teanaway Country 100 while directing almost a dozen events.

LINKS

• Gretchen Walla on Instagram
• Walla Trails on Instagram
• Walla Trails Website
• Cougar Mountain Trail Series
• Teanaway Country 100

LIVE: This weekend (Apr 19-21, 2024) on our Global Race Series Calendar:

The sold out ‘Ultra-Trail Mount Yun‘ is UTMB’s 5th race on the 2024 calendar and the first in Asia.

Other than the races being sold out I don’t really know anything about this event – sadly China is still very much a black box for us Westerners who lack the basic language skills. But this also makes me curious on how the particular ownership/partnership is structured for this event and for the other two events Ultra-Trail Ninghai in China and Translantau in Hong Kong.

Here’s how UTMB advertises Mount Yun:

Step into Mount Yun that Laozi, the founder of Taoism, once visited. Experience an unforgettable trail running adventure in an enchanting emerald paradise with breathtaking natural scenery: the majestic Mount Yun, lush pine trees, and ice cave groups.

And about that “ice cave” mention – you gotta go to the website and check out the ice cave photo (I linked to it directly here) – I wonder if the race goes directly through it… can you imagine? that would be so cool.

No starting line up announced yet, but live tracking for the races can be found here.

Find more trail races on ECC’s Global Race Series Calendar

Outdoor Retailer ‘The Daily’ reports:

Salomon President and CEO Franco Fogliato is departing the company for personal reasons effective immediately, according to parent company Amer Sports.

Salomon has been doing incredibly well under his leadership, the only wobble has been letting Kilian go start his own thing, so these personal reasons must be really personal.

UTMB’s first event acquisition announcement (I believe Mallorca is a new event) for 2024 and the first UTMB event in England (Ultra-Trail Snowdonia is in Wales):

For the new 2025 season, the not-to-be-missed trail event in the UK, Arc of Attrition joins UTMB^® World Series calendar on January 24-26, 2025, to become Arc of Attrition by UTMB^®.

Snowdonia has been a highly shought-after event even before the UTMB partnership, and since joining UTMB has been selling out very fast, so it makes to offer folks “on the island” another chance to collect stones.

One notable piece in the press announcement is the highlighting of the local race directors who’d build up the race:

Founded by the visionary MudCrew trio Jane Stephens, Andy Trudgian, and Andrew Ferguson, known as Andy, Jane, and Fergy, Arc of Attrition by UTMB has become a legendary fixture in the UK winter ultra-trail running calendar. MudCrew, a company renowned for its meticulously planned and well-executed events which have brought to Arc of Attrition by UTMB its success, will continue to organise and run the race to ensure the inaugural edition’s success. Their decision to join forces with the UTMB World Series originates from a shared commitment to delivering an exceptional and challenging running experience with strong identity and history.

The announcement even includes a quote from the RD’s:

“We are thrilled to be working with the team at UTMB World Series. The local running community is really important to us and the Arc Angels are key to the success of the event. We will endeavour to maintain the Cornish culture and deep community spirit that the Arc of Attrition is known for with our continued involvement during these exciting times.”

For all the grief we’ve been giving UTMB’s press strategy in the past, this clearly shows that they are listening. Overlooking the local connection and buy-in when “UTMB comes to town” has been one the biggest issues over the past years where it has felt more like a corporate takeover than a mutually agreed and appreciated partnership. Highlighting the real people still putting on these events is key to future and longterm success, not just for UTMB but for the local communities supporting these events – more of this, please.

‘Arc of Attrition’ will offer 3 distances, a 100M (4 Stones), 100K (3 Stones) , and 50K (2 Stones) and registration will open April 30th.

This event I won’t be adding to the Global Race Series right away as it is happening in January of 2025.

From their Instagram post on their European account:

In our new campaign, entitled Trail to Paris, we’re launching a bid to make trail running a future Olympic sport.

We’ve hooked up with five UK run crews to trail run over 455km from London to Paris over the next four days ahead of this summer’s Games.

The press release also mentioned that cross country running used to be an Olympic sport:

“This summer’s Olympics marks one hundred years since running off-road was an official discipline,” said Tom Jenkins, a passionate trail runner from London. “Cross-country running, now commonly known as trail running, was the last of its kind at the Paris 1924 Games.”

Merrell’s an American footwear brand and is the title sponsor of the Skyrunner World Series, but this marketing effort seems to be coming from the UK. Of course, with Paris hosting this summer, all eyes will be on France and with UTMB happening mere days after the Closing Ceremony UTMB will be in the spot light. Exactly 100 years ago the first Winter Olympics were happening in, yes, you guessed it, Chamonix, France.

So, we have an effort promoting trail running for this year’s Olympics in Paris and there’s an effort promoting it for 2032 in Brisbane, Australia. The city hosting the Olympics in between Paris and Brisbane is… Los Angeles, California. There are hills just outside that city. I ran them, this past October. Who’s gonna organize the promotional efforts stateside?

The full ‘open letter’ can be found in a blog post here.

Jonathan Turner for Run247:

There has already been a 10-year-plan initiated by the Trail Running Association of Australia (TRAA) to have trail running included at the 2032 Games in Brisbane.

There are efforts efforts going on around the world to make this happen, the International Skyrunning Federation is also pushing for this, but hadn’t heard about Australia’s effort. Is there anyone/any organization from the USA pushing for this/organizing this?

Here are the results of the first UTMB event of the year in the USA, the Desert RATS by UTMB in Fruita, Colorado on April 12-14, 2024. (For full results visit the UTMB website):

100K (100KM – 3 STONES)

Women:

1. Elena Ormon – USA – 11:33:02
2. Carrie Koso – USA – 13:30:02
3. Oana Mihalcea – Romania – 13:59:52

Men:

1. Rajpaul Pannu – USA – 09:19:35
2. Zach Hauer – USA – 09:28:06
3. Julien Chorier – France – 09:45:10

50K (50KM – 2 STONES)

Women:

1. Helen Mino Faukner – USA – 04:14:42
2. Allison Baca – USA – 04:26:07
3. Karis Scroggs – USA – 04:56:02

Men:

1. Justin Grunewald – USA – 03:40:55
2. Matthew Vira – USA – 03:42:11
3. Jacob Banta – USA – 03:57:59

20K (20KM – 1 STONE)

Women:

1. Jaycie Thomsen – USA – 01:39:47
2. Tabor Hemming – USA – 01:40:53
3. Gabriella Brinkley – USA – 01:42:33

Men:

1. Eli Hemming – USA – 01:22:44
2. Brian Whitfield – USA – 01:23:08
3. Jeshurun Small – USA – 01:23:19

10K (10KM – NO STONES)

Women:

1. Leah Ibarra – USA – 00:47:54
2. Aria Paxton – USA – 00:50:49
3. Gabriella Lawson – USA – 00:53:55

Men:

1. Watkins Fulk-gray – USA – 00:39:38
2. Shane Massey – USA – 00:44:25
3. Joseph Benson – USA – 00:45:51

With the podiums almost swept by US runners Desert RATS doesn’t give odf the vibe of an international race, but rather a regional one. Being so close in location and timing to Canyons it’s a bit puzzling what UTMB’s strategy with this event is. Is it just meant as an overflow event to the sold-out Canyons? Of the 123 finishers of the 100K (the event folks are willing to travel the furthest for) 93 were from the US. Here’s how the numbers of this somewhat small event from a UTMB perspective breaks down by gender:

• 100K Starters: 153 – DNF 30 – Finishers 123. Women: 25 (20%) – Men: 98 (80%)
• 50K Starters: 419 – DNF: 36 – Finishers: 36. Women: 122 (32%) – Men: 261 (68%)
• 20K Starters: 561 – DNF: 2 – Finishers: 559. Women: 294 (53%) – Men: 265 (47%)
• 10K Starters: 179 – DNF: 2 – Finishers: 177. Women: 129 (73%) – Men: 48 (27%)

In total the event saw 1,312 starters, with 70 DNFs and 1,241 finishers. 570 (46%). women and 656 (53%) men reached the finish line and earned themselves stones and an UTMB index (or directly punched their ticket to the Finals in Chamonix for 2025). 

Next up on the UTMB World Series Calendar, the first event in Asia: The sold out Mount Yun on April 19 – 21, in Xiangning County, China.

When the Golden Trail Series World Series was announced earlier in the year Salomon held back announcing the location for the Finals. This past week the announced the Finals on social media:

The Swiss region, Ascona-Locarno will be hosting the 2024 Golden Trail Series Grand Final. Nestled at the heart of an Alpine setting, between Lake Maggiore and the foot of the Basodino mountain, the finest trail runners on the planet will meet from 17th to 20th October to determine who will be champion at the GTWS 2024.

Here’s the link to the race website for the event. The Finals seems are put on by Scenic Trails, a local race organization with its own event.

I updated the Electric Cable Car Global Race Series Calendar.

The International Trail Running Association (ITRA) launched a podcast awhile back in 2022. It’s quite a challenge to find a mention of their show on their website but one fun thing ITRA does with ‘ITRA Trail Talks‘ is that they select different hosts, not just different guests, to host the show. I previously mentioned the podcast when it was initially launched but it’s not been on a super frequent schedule with new episodes coming out about every six weeks. Will be fun to follow Stephanie Case who has a great voice and isn’t shy to address important issues in our sport and culture.

€1,200 gets you a lot… and I’m trying to collect it all:

The TORX® Academy is a fully customized educational program, developed in collaboration with Franco Collé (4-time winner of TOR330 – Tor des Géants®) and a team of professionals and experts, aimed at providing high-level theoretical and practical training to all participating trail runners.

The program includes aptitude tests, individual coaching sessions, the development of personalized training schedules for each participant, a collective training day, 12 theoretical sessions (covering topics such as training, nutrition, mental preparation, GPS device usage, injury prevention, race regulations), and a two-day excursion on the TOR330 route.

First of all, you get Kailas (TORX sponsor) gear. And then you get a training plan and weekly meeting in Italy, or on demand, remote, to get you ready for a weekend on the TORX course in August.

Your journey concludes with a two-day training on the Donnas – Gressoney stage of the TOR330 – Tor des Géants on August 10-11, 2024. Meals and overnight stay at Rifugio Coda are included in the registration.

Somewhat convoluted, but still an interesting concept.

From the official UTMB press email:

Shokz and UTMB World Series collaborate to allow runners to connect to the outdoors and enjoy an open-ear listening experience when exploring the trails.

The pioneers in open-ear headphones have recently made headlines by signing a whole slew of top ultra runners including Marianne Hogan, Adam Peterman, Tom Evans, Mathieu Blanchard and others.

I’ve been using a pair over the last six months and like them quite a bit. If there’s lots of outside noise, like when running along a freeway, they are useless and you can’t hear anything, but they fit and work well and aren’t in my ear, which is nice when it’s really hot outside.

Interesting side note: Just last year GPS watchmaker Suunto, another recent UTMB sponsor released headphones strikingly similar to the Shokz design and technology.

LIVE: This weekend (Apr 12-14, 2024) on our Global Race Series Calendar:

‘Desert RATS‘ is UTMB’ is celebrating its 20th anniversary, is the fourth race on the 2024 calendars, and the first for the year in the US. With less than two weeks before Canyons the event feels like it’s hiding a bit in the shadow of the American Major.

Celebrating their 20th anniversary, an unforgettable weekend awaits at Deserts RATS (Running Across the Sand) Trail Running Festival by UTMB. With 5 unique distances on offer from 100km to 10km, runners will find themselves traversing the famous Kokopelli Trail, climbing up ridgelines with endless views and running along the Colorado river or through the Western Rim via flowly singletrack at this famous celebration of trail running.

Desert RATS offers a 100K (3Stones), 50K (2 Stones), 20K (1 Stone) and 10K.

The event has an interesting acquisition story with Electric Cable Car breaking the news back in November of ’22 that UTMB had acquired the races in Colorado.

As of today there’s no start list I can find but I’ll be posting results after the weekend.

Live tracking for the races can be found here.

Find more trail races on ECC’s Global Race Series Calendar

It’s Daybreak & Freetrail’s big Gorge Waterfalls weekend here in the PNW. The weather looks amazing – and the numbers look even greater.

• For the 100K 411 are signed up to race.
• For the 50K 400 are signed up to race.
• For the 30K 440 are signed up to race.

With 1,251 total racers, does that make it the largest event in the PNW? I think so.

Here’s the gender breakdown:

• 100K: Total racers: 411, Men: 301 (73%), Women: 106 (26%), Nonbinary: 4 (~1%)
• 50K: Total racers: 400, Men: 231 (58%), Women: 168 (42%), Nonbinary: 1 (~0%)
• 30K: Total racers: 440, Men: 193 (44%), Women: 244 (55%), Nonbinary: 3 (~1%)

That’s a fantastic gender split overall with 518 (41%) at the starting line of the three events.

The forecast looks great (no rain and into the 70’s) – much much better compared to last year, and that combined with an adjusted and relaxed cutoff time should results in a much lower DNF rate. (Last year’s 100K had only a 65% finisher rate and the 50K a 74%).

The events will be live-streamed on Youtube on the Mountain Outpost channel.

The races are still not listed on the UTMB Index calendar? If a race director promotes their events as offering UTMB index “points”, but doesn’t renew the event on the UTMB website, can they still upload the results after the event has concluded? What happens if a runner hopes to get this run counted for the Index and this isn’t possible?

As DBO would say: #LFGorge

Nick left his senior editor role at Outside this week:

After two years, my creative and professional drives are taking me to places beyond running. I am in the process of re-engaging with work devoted to the animate world, a pledging of allegiance to wildness (inner/outer), and to matters of climate and justice. Following a decade in publishing, I plan to harness my writing and editorial experience to support this intersection of ecology and artistic subversion—it’s just too urgent not to.

I just listened to his ‘Short’ episode on Dirtbag Diaries from last December on my run yesterday and I was reminded on how running can be so much more than metrics, numbers and results. It’s a beautiful, simple yet powerful thing, and sometimes it can move mountains. I cannot wait to follow Nick’s journey to see what he’s up to next… like publishing a book.

Singletrack – Episode 300:

Madlen Kappeler just returned from the SkySnow Skyrunning World Championship in Tarvisio, Italy with 4 silver medals two her name. The Bavarian triathlete went to Florida Atlantic University on a track scholarship and is now killing it competing in sky races for the German National Team.

LINKS

• Madlen Kappeler’s Blog
• Madlen Kappeler on Instagram
• SkySnow World Championship
• SkySnow Championships in Tarvisio, Italy

I you’re remotely interested what’s going on this season on the mountain there’s no better voice to follow than Alan Arnette:

It’s a huge day at Everest Base Camp on the Nepal side, aka EBC–the first commercial team has arrived! This is almost a week earlier than in 2023. It will be their home until late May unless they are on acclimatization rotation and, of course, the summit bid. The majority of Everest summits occur between May 18th and 23rd. However, the Icefall Docs still have problems in the upper Icefall. Thankfully, most teams are still on their trek, so there’s no problem, yet.

Despite all the challenges the modern world and climate change throws at this place, the allure remains.

I will repeat this for you slowly so you can catch up here: There’s a board game about trail running… and further, there’s a special and officially licensed version of that game with a separate map that’s playing in the official “universe” around Mont Blanc and players are running the various UTMB events as part of the game play.

I sort of have no words, but maybe one: #trailculture?

I often comment on here that US municipalities don’t understand the positive economic impact sporting events have on their communities, but of course, that’s a blanket statement and there are outliers. Vail Valley Foundation is one. They organize the Vail Mountain Games:

The GoPro Mountain Games started as a local whitewater event in 2002. Over the past 20+ years the event has grown into the best all-around mountain experience anywhere in the world. The GoPro Mountain Games is a 4-day celebration of Athletes, Art, Music and Mountains that takes place each June in VAIL, COLORADO.

And the organization understands that this event is meant to be an economic driver. Huge corporate sponsors include GMC and Polaris.

As part of the many events, that include slack-lining and fishing, among others, the four day festival offers several running races, including a 20K trail race, that’s sponsored by Adidas Terrex. The website only lists results from 2023, so I will assume that this is a reasonably new offering. Last year only 65 runners competed. The entry fee for 2024 range from $50 – $70 (with a $25 add on option if you want the brunch).

But here’s the kicker: They are offering a $11,500 prize purse split evening between men and women for the top 5 runners. Is this the biggest prize purse of any event in the US (considering the distance and numbers of sign ups)? Easy money for elite (fast) athlete, maybe?

Here are the results (yes, a little bit late – sorry about that) for Istria 100 by UTMB in Labin, Croatia on April 4-7, 2024, the first sold out event of the season on the UTMB 2024 World Series Calendar. (For full results visit the UTMB website):

168K (168KM – 4 STONES)

Women:

1. Alessandra BOIFAVA – Italy – 20:51:24
2. Ida Sophie HEGEMANN – Germany – 21:27:38
3. Claire BANNWARTH – France – 22:26:28

Men:

1. Marek CAUSIDIS – Czechia – 18:58:00
2. Jan PROCHÁZKA – Czechia – 19:21:24
3. Juuso SIMPANEN – Finland – 19:35:46

110K (110KM – 3 STONES)

Women:

1. Monika STEJSKALOVÁ – Czechia -11:59:43
2. Inês MARQUES – Portugal – 12:13:07
3. Biborka Krisztina FAZAKAS – Romania – 12:36:04

Men:

1. Janosch KOWALCZYK – Germany – 09:52:43
2. Pablo VILLA GONZALEZ – Spain – 10:19:14
3. Pau CAPELL – Andorra – 10:31:38

69K (69KM – 2 STONES)

Women:

1. Kristyna CERNA – Czechia – 06:38:58
2. Melodie GILBERT – Canada – 06:57:09
3. Martina KLANCNIK POTRC – Slovenia – 07:14:12

Men:

1. Simon GOSSELIN – France – 05:40:56
2. Hans-Peter INNERHOFER – Austria – 05:51:00
3. Dominik MILEWSKI – Poland – 06:14:32

42K (42KM – 2 STONES)

Women:

1. Andrea KOLBEINSDÓTTIR – Island – 03:34:32
2. Claudia TREMPS – Spain – 03:55:02
3. Alexandra TREMBLAY – Canada – 03:55:53

Men:

1. Simon SCHÄPPI – Switzerland – 03:01:35
2. Peter CUDRNAK – Slovakia – 00:13:47
3. Egill GUNNARSSON – Island – 03:24:22

21K (21KM – 1 STONE)

Women:

1. Kinga KWIATKOWSKA – Poland – 01:34:55
2. Ludmila ZEPA – Latvia – 01:37:48
3. Tytti KIRVESMIES – Finland – 01:49:18

Men:

1. Matteo ROSSI – Italy – 01:16:13
2. Yves HELOURY – France – 01:18:16
3. Nils BERGMANN – Germany – 01:19:27

Combined, the events had 2,287 racers and 2,083 finishers, and another low DNF rate. Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender :

• 168K Starters: 370 – DNF 90 – Finishers 288. Women: 32 (11%) – Men: 255 (89%)
• 110K Starters: 432 – DNF: 57 – Finishers: 376. Women: 76 (20%) – Men: 299 (80%)
• 69K Starters: 555 – DNF: 44 – Finishers: 511. Women: 131 (26%) – Men: 380 (74%)
• 42K Starters: 589 – DNF: 25 – Finishers: 568. Women: 193 (35%) – Men: 371 (65%)
• 21K Starters: 341 – DNF: 1 – Finishers: 340. Women: 172 (51%) – Men: 168 (49%)

In total the event saw 2,083 finishers, 604 (29%) women and 1,473 (71%) men reached the finish line and earned themselves stones and an UTMB index (or directly punched their ticket to the Finals in Chamonix for 2025). 

Next up on the UTMB World Series Calendar, the first of the year, event in the USA: Desert Rats on April 12-14 in Colorado, USA.

Why do I just count finish line numbers, you ask?
The UTMB Live webpage shows these numbers easily, and I don’t want to wait until full results are posted to share these numbers.