Earlier today Hardrock announced a partnership/sponsorship with Karl Meltzer’s ‘Speedgoat Trail Running Co.’ and that made me think how far this name has made it. What started (most likely) as one of those old school ‘trail names’ that folks who thru hike give each other, has become Karl’s brand identity, but so much more, right?

• Hoka’s Speedgoat shoes are legendary and were created in partnership with Karl. But in a stroke of genius Karl never gave away the rights to the name ‘speedgoat’. And you’d think a brand like Hoka would GIVE A LOT to own that name outright in the trail space.
• But no, there’s also the Speedgoat Mountain Races by UTMB. That event Karl sold to UTMB/Ironman and again he was able to keep the name for himself.
• And not just as a ‘personal trail name’ but he still (or started up again) his Speedgoat Trail Running Co. offering coaching, running retreats and selling gear on his website.

According to the US Trademark office Karl has owned the trademark for ‘Speedgoat’ for over a decade, which might explain with neither Hoka or UTMB were able to pry it away from him. Kinda brilliant, I must say.

Mallory Arnold writing for Outside Run and summarizing the entire saga, but I’ve posted about all this here already, so I just make one point:

On May 17, German endurance sport speciality shop Sports Hunger released a video stating that they, too, had Awesome Sauce gels tested by a third party, and allegedly found that each packet contains 16g of carbs instead of the 45g that Spring Energy claimed.

“The maker of Spring Energy assures us that they will rework their manufacturing process to ensure that they will again reliably achieve their high numbers that they declare to have,” a Sports Hunger representative says in the video. “We hope that this is really going to happen because we believe that natural food for many of our customers is a great alternative to the regular gels.”

The second half, the English translation of Jonas’ words, is taken word for word from my translation I posted here on Electric Cable Car. Mallory, it’s okay to link to someone’s work and crediting them when using it in your research and article – just a thought.

Reddit again coming through with user ‘Simco_’ posting the full timeline of events in the ongoing Spring Energy saga.

I’ll add a couple more:

• Koop posted another lengthy video on May 29 to Instagram that got deleted before I could watch it.
• The Feed has since pulled Awesome Sauce from their product catalogue.

There’s a lot at play here, but it comes down to accountability. Spring put a number on their product that just wasn’t real. They lied about their product. That’s the end of it. The New York Times finds a million words to avoid using the L word when businesses or other people in power lie, but in the end that’s what it is. Now athletes, coaches, runners, buyers of $4 gels, including me, feel duped and upset. They blame their poor performances on the product are asking for refunds and are wondering about class action lawsuits. Where this will ultimate lead to I don’t want to speculate. It sucks. Trust is eroded, unfair competitive advantage was gained in the market place, people were taken for a ride.

But there’s another conversation happening. That one that goes beyond some people being upset at Spring’s misleading claims. Jason Koop has used this blow up to continue his ongoing cyberbullying against Megan and David Roche and Sage Canaday. Remember we didn’t need Koop’s lab results that “he paid so graciously out of his own pocket”. Sport Hunger had done some testing and there is an ongoing GoFundMe campaign to get a larger variety of products tested. When you watch the full video that Koop posted on his Instagram account you get a sense that the reason why he jumped on this is not because “he wanted to get to the bottom of this Awesome Sauce issue” but because the results could further his vendetta and campaigns against other ultra running coaches. I’ve heard about this ongoing issue for a while now and have choses to stay out of it. I’m not here to understand why there’s so much animosity or who deserves what in this fight, but what I do wonder about the tone and necessity of the attacks.

(…insert something here about freedom of speech but not of consequences…)

In the past my focus and posting policy here on ECC has been to comment only on ‘company policies and/or decision’ not on individuals. But I wonder if this self-restraint is misplaced in a case like this.

Ethan Newberry posts on a IG story:

“Always on team support and uplift vs shame & bully (unless it’s UTMB, cause fuck them)…”

So maybe it’s time for me to recognize that these folks aren’t just individuals, but are brands and businesses in themselves and maybe it’s time I comment on these statements and actions after all.

We talk a lot about trail culture and how special our sport is, but this here on display feels like personal attacks that create an unsafe atmosphere? Online, in the comment sections of the respective social media posts the war is already raging. Yes, we’re supposedly dealing with adults here (at least if we count their age and not their behavior). Everyone here is a grown-up and can block, delete, hide and manage their social profiles. But, inevitably this spills out into the real world, doesn’t it? These folks find themselves at the same events and races, supporting their athletes and working side by side each other. Are we okay with this sort of bullying in our sport?

The question I am asking myself is not where the line is to be drawn, but who gets to draw it.

Are there any adults in the room that will speak up and “call a spade a spade”?

LIVE: This weekend (June 1, 2024) on our Global Race Series Calendar:

mozart 100 (yes, lowercase mozart – it’s a German language thing) is happening this weekend. mozart 100 is one of the original “big events in Europe” and was part of the original Ultra-Trail World Tour.

Immerse yourself in the magic of the world-famous city of Mozart and experience an unforgettable adventure on the trails along the beautiful mountain backdrop and through the breathtaking and diverse nature of the Salzburger Land, crowned with a unique finish in Salzburg’s UNESCO-listed old town.

The races aren’t full on remote mountain races but the courses wind themselves close to the city of Salzburg around the nearby hillsides. Very Austria, very picturesque.

Follow the races live on the UTMB live tracking website.

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

Currently the product is not available in their online store for purchase anymore. Probably the last few sales all were sent to a lab somewhere anyways.

The Feed still has the product in stock.

Jason Koop sent Spring Energy’s Awesome Sauce to a lab to get tested and what others have been reporting seems to repeat itself. Spring’s Awesome Sauce numbers are just not at all what is printed on the package. As this is becoming more and more clear (and we still haven’t seen comparable products tested to compare Spring to the rest of the industry) we probably can can begin to talk about Spring’s disastrous public response to this, or the lack there of. Will Spring Energy survive this? The product is tasty, but also quite expensive and in a crowded field with competitors popping up seemingly every other month how could they possibly rebuild the trust with their customers? And beyond their relationship with their customers, how will their athletes and ambassadors respond to this?

(Linking here directly to the lab results report.)

The Trail Running Film Festival for “your couch” is happening this week! From May 30th to June 11th watch our incredible lineup of films for our Official Selection for 2024:

• IZTA – by Rabbitwolf Creative  
• KNOW TO RUN: YATIKA – by Jordan Marie Whetstone, Devin Whetstone  
• RED NEEDLE – by Dom Bush and Simon Sylvester  
• BRIAN REYNOLDS: THE LEADVILLE TRAIL 100 – by Michael Grasela  
• RUN LIKE A KID – by Guy Tucker  
• GIRLS RUN ULTRAS – by Ellie Windham and Christine Rivera  
• WELL WORN LIFE WITH DANI REYES-ACOSTA – by Daniel Mitchell and Trent Sugg  
• NOW – by Steven Mortinson  

Get your tickets, watch anytime from anywhere and as often as you like. Join us! And help us raise cash for filmmakers to create their next incredible projects.

The Mountain Ultra-Trail by UTMB happened this past weekend (May 24-26, 2024) along the beautiful and magical Garden Route on the south eastern coast of South Africa. Check here for my pre-race coverage.

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

MUT Miler (163K – 4 Stones)

Women:

1. Maria MARINCOWITZ – South Africa – 32:15:29
2. Sveta BECKER – South Africa – 32:43:55
3. Janet WOODHEAD – South Africa – 35:23:41

Men:

1. Douglas PICKARD – South Africa – 22:25:26
2. Christiaan GREYLING – South Africa – 24:43:28
3. Brandon HULLEY – South Africa – 26:10:17

MUT 100 (98K – 3 Stones)

Women:

1. Natalia MASTROTA – Italy- 13:29:49
2. Kerry-Ann MARSHALL – South Africa – 13:51:50
3. Simone MALAN – South Africa – 15:22:50

Men:

1. Axel SLEEBUS – Belgium – 11:48:51
2. Michael MOLYNEAUX – South Africa – 12:40:20
3. Thato KABELI – South Africa – 13:20:57

MUT 60 (58K – 2 Stones)

Women:

1. Emily DJOCK – USA – 07:17:18
2. Brigitte JOUBERT – South Africa – 08:42:51
3. Michelle ROLFE – South Africa – 08:46:09

Men:

1. Andreas LUNDEGÅRD – Sweden – 06:08:50
2. Kane REILLY – South Africa – 06:22:34
3. Admire MUZOPAMBWA – Zimbabwe – 06:22:34

MUT Marathon (44K – 2 Stones)

Women:

1. Rebecca KOHNE – South Africa – 04:52:52
2. Maryke VAN ZYL – South Africa – 05:07:51
3. Sabrina DAOLIO – South Africa – 05:22:44

Men:

1. Ryan SANDES – South Africa – 04:12:00
2. Robert RORICH – South Africa – 04:30:37
3. Iain PETERKIN – South Africa – 04:32:20

MUT Challenge (25K – 1 Stone)

Women:

1. Mila Bianca GELDENHUYS – South Africa – 02:12:36
2. Lijan BURGER – South Africa – 02:12:40
3. Lisa Kathryn GEFFEN – South Africa – 02:20:15

Men:

1. Philani SENGCE – South Africa – 01:49:01
2. Jacques DU PLESSIS – South Africa -01:49:11
3. Underson NCUBE – South Africa – 01:49:15

MUT Lite (11K – 0 Stone)

Women:

1. Jandri SNYDERS – South Africa – 00:58:53
2. Bailee NELL – South Africa – 01:01:23
3. Esrie LOOCK – South Africa – 01:03:04

Men:

1. Sindrino MATTHEWS – South Africa – 00:47:20
2. Luan VAN DER VYVER – South Africa – 00:47:48
3. Lunga NOLAKANA – South Africa – 00:48:34

Overall Mountain Ultra-Trail saw 1,518 starters and 1,450 finishers for all the events combined. Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• 100M Starters: 54 – DNF: 7 – Finishers: 47. Women: 7 (15%) Men: 40 (85%)
• 100K Starters: 83 – DNF: 17 – Finishers: 66. Women: 10 (15%) Men: 56 (85%)
• 58K Starters: 187 – DNF: 12 – Finishers: 175. Women: 36 (21%) Men: 139 (79%)
• 44K Starters: 403 – DNF: 21 – Finishers: 382. Women: 136 (36%) Men: 246 (64%)
• 25K Starters: 454 – DNF: 9 – Finishers: 445. Women: 218 (49%) Men: 227 (51%)
• 11K Starters: 337 – DNF: 2 – Finishers: 335. Women: 208 (62%) Men: 127 (38%)

In total the event saw 1,450 finishers. 615 (42%) women and 835 (58%) 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).

So far for 2024 Mountain Ultra-Trail is the second smallest event in the UTMB World Series – only Desert RATS has been smaller so far. MUT has a fairly high percentage of local participation as seen on the countries represented on the podium. The overall gender split across all events looks pretty promising, although it’s somewhat skewed by the high percentage of women in the two short distance events, where combined more women than men were at the starting line.

Next up on the UTMB World Series Calendar we’re heading to Salzburg, Austria for the famous Mozart 100 on June 1st. “The hills are alive…”

Love everything about that project:

Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS) systematically documents and monitors long-term glacier changes in the Swiss Alps. GLAMOS is operated jointly by the ETH Zurich and the Universities of Fribourg and Zurich and is in close contact with the Swiss Commission for Cryosphere observation (SCC).

Small geographic area, lots of money, big history of applying smart design to visualize data. And most importantly the identity of Switzerland is wrapped around “snow-covered peaks”. Mountains are in their DNA. The Swiss need these mountains to “stick around”. Climate change is already wrecking havoc on some of the areas, but if there’s any country that can lead us into a carbon-neutral future while keeping the standard of living at a level expected for our western world it will be Switzerland. What would the visuals of trail racing in the Alps look like without the stunning backdrops of massive glaciers against the blue summer sky?

In a world where I’d get a career do-over I’d become a scientist and study glaciers. Fascinated by them.

Via Sander Meijer on Mastodon.

LIVE: This weekend (May 24 – 26, 2024) on our Global Race Series Calendar:

The UTMB World Series is heading to Africa. The Mountain Ultra-Trail by UTMB along the Garden Route in South Africa is happening this weekend – the area around George is a beautiful place and I’d love to get back there sometime. Six different races will be offered, from a full 100M to a an 11K intro race.

Almost 2,000 runners head to the city of George on the Western Cape ready to uncover the paradise and biodiversity of the Garden Route National Park, the wild Outeniqua Mountain Range, and the passionate George Trails community.

Follow the races live on the UTMB live tracking website.

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

UTMB continues its expansion in Asia by adding its first event in Malaysia:

Malaysia Ultra-Trail™ by UTMB®, formerly known as the Malaysian Mountain Trail Festival has joined the UTMB World Series and is set to welcome runners from around the world to Taiping and the incredible jungles of northwest Malaysia. The 2024 event will take place from 14-17 November, with entries opening for UTMB Index holders on 4 June while general registration opens to all runners on 6 June.

This brings the total list of events in the UTMB World Series to 44:

• Europe (including the Finals in Chamonix): 21
• North America: 8
• Asia: 7
• South America: 3
• Oceania: 3
• Africa: 2

The Electric Cable Car UTMB Events calendar is updated.

Via Local Florida News:

Family members said the men were taking part in the Keys 100, a 100-mile race from Key Largo to Key West, when they were struck.

Keys 100 is a 100-mile point-to-point running race from Key Largo to Key West for both individuals and teams and held mostly on roads.

This is literally the worst and I feel for everyone involved.

This is only the second year for this event and it’s already selling out at almost 5,000 runners. The beautiful and magical Trail Alsace Grand Est by UTMB happened this past weekend (May 17-20, 2024) in the Alsace Region of France. Check here for my pre-race coverage.

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

UTDC (171 KM – 4 STONES)

Women:

1. Jenny JOSEFSSON – Sweden – 24:04:30
2. Francesca CANEPA – Italy – 26:35:00
3. Isabelle WASMES – Belgium – 29:10:02

Men:

1. Sébastien SPEHLER – France – 17:24:21
2. Florian PIERRE – France – 18:17:19
3. Clément DESILLE – France – 18:51:27

UTDP (116 KM – 3 STONES)

Women:

1. Anna CARLSSON – Sweden – 12:26:01
2. Jennifer KAISER – France – 13:04:20
3. Simone SCHWARZ – Germany – 13:53:06

Men:

1. Théo DETIENNE – France – 10:12:25
2. Régis RUCHAUD – France – 10:44:38
3. Xavier DIEPART – Belgium – 10:52:35

TDC (50 KM – 2 STONES)

Women:

1. Marie GONCALVES – France – 04:29:31
2. Megan MACKENZIE – South Africa – 04:38:15
3. Diane RASSINEUX – France – 04:48:31

Men:

1. Sammy CHELANGAT – Kenya – 03:33:31
2. Benedikt HOFFMANN – Germany – 03:43:20
3. Kipsang CHEBOI – Kenya – 03:43:41

TDP (34 KM – 1 STONE)

Women:

1. Émilie TISSOT – France – 02:58:12
2. Noémie LE GOVIC – France – 03:10:46
3. Stéphanie CAPPELLE – Belgium – 03:18:53

Men:

1. Dominik TABOR – Poland – 02:20:33
2. Dorian LOUVET – France – 02:46:00
3. Ludovic BOUR – France – 02:48:35

Overall Trail Alsace Grand Est saw 4,818 starters and 4,210 finishers for all the events combined. Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• 100M Starters: 637 – DNF: 256 – Finishers: 381 Women: 18 (5%) Men: 363 (95%)
• 100K Starters: 1,231 – DNF: 299 – Finishers: 932 Women: 111 (12%) Men: 821 (88%)
• 50K Starters: 1,734 – DNF: 33 – Finishers: 1,701 Women: 312 (18%) Men: 1,389 (82%)
• 20K Starters: 1,216 – DNF: 20 – Finishers: 1,196 Women: 437 (37%) Men: 759 (63%)

In total the event saw 4,210 finishers. 878 (21%) women and 3,332 (79%) 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).

I know I’m repeating myself, but the whole idea of running through this historic landscape filled with castle ruins gives me everything. I love this event. One year!

Next up on the UTMB World Series Calendar we’re heading down to South Africa for the Mountain Ultra Trail by UTMB along the Garden Route in George, South Africa on May 24 – 26, 2024.

Down Under’s largest trail race and self-proclaimed “the world’s second-largest Ultra-Trail” Ultra-Trail Australia 2024 Results by UTMB happened this past weekend (May 16-19, 2024) in the Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia. Check here for my pre-race coverage.

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

UTA100 (100 KM – 3 STONES)

Women:

1. Beth MCKENZIE – USA – 10:41:43
2. Lucy BARTHOLOMEW – Australia – 11:00:34
3. Stephanie AUSTON – Australia – 11:11:17

Men:

1. Michael DIMUANTES – Australia – 09:01:24
2. Shaun PETTIT – Great Britain – 09:55:27
3. Josef MCGRATH – Australia – 09:56:55

UTA50 (48.8 KM – 2 STONES)

Women:

1. Kate AVERY – Great Britain – 04:46:25
2. Sarah-Jayne MILLER – Australia – 04:49:13
3. Margie CAMPBELL – Australia – 04:52:35

Men:

1. Charlie HAMILTON – Australia – 03:57:19
2. David HAUNSCHMIDT – New Zealand – 03:59:41
3. Clément DURANCE – France – 04:05:16

UTA22 (21.8 KM – 1 STONE)

Women:

1. Sara LEVETT – Australia – 02:05:43
2. Jess RONAN – Australia – 02:10:04
3. Joanne MILLS – Australia – 02:11:54

Men:

1. Pat HENNESSY – Ireland – 01:45:05
2. Ben DUFFUS – Australia – 01:47:22
3. Billy CURTIS – Australia – 01:48:14

UTA11 (12.1 KM – NO STONES)

Women:

1. Rosie BOYN – Australia – 01:15:31
2. Mikayla MCLEAN – Australia – 01:21:47
3. Tessa PAXTON – Australia – 01:24:18

Men:

1. David BYRNE – Australia – 01:02:19
2. Elijah GOSBY – Australia – 01:02:22
3. Keeden HARRISON – Australia – 01:04:54

Overall Ultra-Trail Australia saw an astonishing 6,809 starters and 6,538 finishers for all the events combined. Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• 100K Starters: 1,523 – DNF: 207 – Finishers: 1,313. Women: 240 (18%) Men: 1,073 (82%)
• 50K Starters: 2,151 – DNF: 46 – Finishers: 2,103. Women: 764 (36%) Men: 1,338 (64%)
• 22K Starters: 2,282 – DNF: 9 – Finishers: 2,273. Women: 1,284 (56%) Men: 989 (44%)
• 11K Starters: 853 – DNF: 4 – Finishers: 849. Women: 515 (61%) Men: 334 (39%)

In total the event saw 6,538 finishers. 2,803 (43%) women and 3,734 (57%) 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).

These truly are BIG numbers for Ultra-Trail Australia. They are a bit skewed, as essentially half of them come from the 11K and 22K events which aren’t really “ultra distances”, but nonetheless Australia delivered a massive trail running event, wow.

Next up on the UTMB World Series Calendar we’re heading down to South Africa for the Mountain Ultra Trail by UTMB along the Garden Route in George, South Africa on May 24 – 26, 2024.

The whole “live streaming trail races” continues to evolve and expand. And Western States continues to blaze the trail. Rather than JUST trying to find knowledgable folks, having great personalities behind the mic is valuable.

Callie Vinson and Scott Traer will be taking over the show after Corrine Malcolm and Dylan Bowman’s coverage of the elite finishers:

This year’s livestream is gonna be extra wild with your usual pros anchoring all day long and then when the sun goes down, well, that’s when we’ll come in as your late night commentators.

Even though I myself am rarely watching any of it I think live-streaming is a terrific addition to our sport. Maybe if the personalities draw me in, rather than the action, which in long ultras can be a bit more of an in-action, then maybe I will get hooked on this thing. Live streams are also a terrific platform for more personalities to shape our sport.

Another tidbit of information comes from Corrine Malcolm in the comments on that IG announcement:

…there is a Google form going out to ALL participants to gather stories, their whys, and all the good stuff…

This is obviously super cool. Hardly scalable to a large field of runners, but for Western States this is perfect.

Via Press Email:

UTMB Group strengthens its commitment to clean trail-running

• 100,000 Euro investment in 2024
• Tests conducted by the International Testing Agency (ITA), an independent organization
• Creation of UTMB World Series anti-doping rules in line with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
• Educative training program for elite athletes and their managers to support and guide them in their practices

This announcement directly connects to yesterday’s status update on doping controls in trail running. And as Jason Koop pointed out in that post, these steps are incremental, probably not enough to catch everyone, but it’s pointing in the right direction.

Corrine Malcolm for PTRA adds (this was shared via the UTMB press email!):

“The anti-doping testing and framework that you’ll see implemented as in-competition controls as part of the UTMB World Series this year is more than a year in the making. We (the PTRA) are incredibly happy to be working with the team at UTMB Group and at the ITA to take what is the first of many steps forward when it comes to safe and fair sport in trail and ultrarunning. We recognize that in-competition controls are just one of many steps needed, and will continue to work with UTMB Group and the ITA to carry out athlete, team, and race personnel education. I want to recognize that this is no small feat and commend UTMB Group for putting up the financial resources to make this first piece of the puzzle possible.”

Just yesterday I was wondering out loud about the PTRA on a different matter. Great to see their work carry fruition, and yes, it’s again in partnership with UTMB.

Speaking of Cocodona, for 2025 the 250 mile distance race is already sold out*.

*We are hopeful that we will be able to accept additional entrants in a few months time as we go through our 2025 permitting process.

Per UltraSignup: 2023 saw under 200 runners. 2024 had close to 300. This year the team had some permitting issues and had hoped to allow more spot to be filled. For 2025 they opened conservatively with 250 spots and the sold out in under a month. Aravaipa smartly opens registration during the current year’s event, while the hype and stoke is high from folks following the live tracking and streaming.

So a 250 foot race mile race that can take up to 120hrs, requires a team for support to follow you along for days and costs $1,600 to enter sells out in just a few days. Destination Trail offers 4! 200+ mile events and they are all sold out. We seriously live in crazy times for our sport.

Singletrack – Episode 305:

Ben Mead is a finisher of Cocodona250 2024. After months of training, he almost didn’t make it to the starting line, and then just after a few miles his race seemed over before even the first nightfall. But, with his team by his side Ben rallied, adjusted, and gritted his teeth all the way to Flagstaff. The stories of humanity these ‘multi-day mega trail races’ like Cocodona generate are truly something special, and this is Ben’s story.

Links

• Ben Mead is Chasing Cutoffs on Instagram
• Cocodona an Aravaipa Running event
• Cocodona RD Steve Aderholt on Singletrack
• Cocodona winner Maggie Guterl and finisher  Staci Revel on Singletrack

A road marathon, in my hometown, on streets I run often, and in fact have run all once before. This is the Capital City Marathon, a Boston Qualifier with deep history and steep hills (compared to other road races, I am told). This race happened this week, and after over a decade calling Olympia, Washington my home I decided to sign up and race it.

I’ve never run a road marathon before. Once a 5K fun run for my kids’ school, but never a full marathon, all on roads, all on pavement. But that’s what I did this weekend.

I finished in 4:44:08, which isn’t something to write home about, but I achieved my goals: I wanted to run the whole thing, I wanted to finish closer to 4:30 than 5:00. I didn’t want to feel like shit and give up and walk. I did all that and I’m proud of it. I ran consistent and smart, fueled well, enjoyed myself – for the most part (the last 5miles were pretty tough – it got hot and so it became a bit of a grind).

Why did I as a trail runner and mountain lover run a road race?

Yeah, why?

Two reason really:

• Logistics: My A race goal this year is OCC and with that come tons of logistical challenges. Therefore I wanted my spring tune up race to be simple, cheap and straightforward. So a hometown race made sense.
• Speed: I am slow, still super slow by road marathon standards, but my hope (and my coaches suggestion) is that if I dedicate a portion of the year to road running and focus on speed then this should help me and translate into faster mountain running. Will this work? We shall see.

Did I love it?

It was fun, yes. So “simple”. Just run, keep your pace, don’t stop, fuel at the aid stations without trying to break stride, just keep going. One foot in front of the other, until the end.
The simplicity of it all made it beautiful. And yes, this being my first one I understand that the complexity comes in when you’re actually trying to improve, get faster, and fine-tune all the little things.

But compare this to a trail race. Even a reasonable short and local trail races has so many more logistical challenges for you. And running the same miles on trails is longer, so much stuff can go wrong with your body, you need to fuel more and better and you need to think of other elements. And don’t forget the terrain changes requiring different physical skills. In a road marathon all you do is run – easy.

Was it hard?

I was depleted when I finished, I pushed really hard the last 3 miles. So to stay committed to that goal and not give in and walk was hard, yes. But overall, compared to probably any other trail race I’ve ever run this race was easy.
Maybe next year, when I realize how hard it is to improve my performance I learn how hard it is to run a road marathon. For now, I’d say this was easy, easier than trail, and yes, because its’ still less than 36 after I finished and I’m still on that runner’s high, I’d say: of course I’ll do that again. Running a road marathon once a year makes total sense – sign me up again.

Back in March the Skyrunner World Series announced their partnership with Chinese electric car maker Aiways. When the announcement broke I wondered:

I’m curious if this announcement will generate any online chatter?

A few days ago on Instagram the Skyrunner World Series posted a photo of one of their electric vehicles.

• Results: 2 comments positively supporting the post.

That’s it. No negative barrage of outrage comments, no response from The Green Runners.

Which makes me wonder, aside from UTMB has the Pro Trail Runners Association, addressed any other organization, race management company or outdoor brand directly?

Jason Koop summarizes and explains where we’re at with anti-doping efforts in Ultra Running for Ultra Running Magazine:

While trail and ultrarunning will certainly go through some bumps and bruises as this patchworked anti-doping system comes to light (if you’ve been paying attention—we already have), let me make one thing clear: the ultimate responsibility is on the athlete and there are no excuses.

But he’s not just asking others to take responsibility, as a coach and mentor he offers these final words:

Sure, it’s a bit of work and effort to get the right information, but it’s also part of our job. So, let’s do this right. Take the time to get educated, then, as the system unfolds, we will all be in a better position to manage it and keep the sport clean.

As someone who finds this world of professional sports very far away from mine I find this article positive in as much as that yes, things are messy and will be messy, but there’s a way to do this right if everyone own’s their roles and responsibility. This seems doable!

As a side note and question:

Western States Endurance Run will issue an athlete a lifetime ban from the race if they have previously served a ban in any sport from any point in time.

Not sure if this sentence is still up to date with WSER current policy which was just recently updated.

LIVE: This weekend (May 17 – 20, 2024) on our Global Race Series Calendar:

The exciting and stunning, and still fairly new Trail Alsace Grand Est by UTMB is happening this weekend – a race that’s been on my radar since it was first announced. I always felt like Western Europe needed a big 100M event in the spring before the mountains melted out in the Alps. I had hoped this event would be in Germany, but having grown up just across the border from where Trail Alsace Grand Est is located I am just as excited about this event, in these hills, along these historic ruins, castles and beautiful vineyards. One day!

Follow the races live on the UTMB live tracking website.

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

LIVE: This weekend (May 16 – 19, 2024) on our Global Race Series Calendar:

Another double header in the UTMB World Series, with the Ultra-Trail Australia by UTMB in Down Under.

The world’s second-largest Ultra-Trail, UTA has developed over its 15-year history to become Australia’s premier trail-running festival.

Will be fun to dive into these numbers!

Follow the races live on the UTMB live tracking website.

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

Coming to Toronto this Summer:

Arc’teryx wants your gear to last you a long time – a concept driving the opening of its first Alpha store in Toronto. Named after its flagship Alpha jacket, the new outpost will mark what the brand refers to as its “vertical-led strategy,” essentially its aim for customers to get maximum usage out of their buys.

At the store, Arc’teryx will house its largest repair and resale ReBIRD Service Center, where two full-time technicians can repair items on-site, replacing zippers, cords, sliders, locks and buckles, along with both internal and external patches. They’ll also conduct product assessments, such as testing its GORE-TEX for potential leakage.

Aside from the obvious focus on sustainability in addressing environment concerns this ‘service’ that Arc’teryx is providing in-house at a retail store could be the answer for outdoor shops that don’t have the service revenue component that have helped ski and bike shops thrive this past few years. (Yes, I know they are struggling now, but it’s the brands that have inventory problems post-supply-chain-issues and that trickles down to the actual bike store.) But in general with the competition of online retail stores, physical retail needs to find a ‘service component’ that can generate revenue and can’t be replicated via Amazon-like online competition.

The well-known Aid Station, right in downtown Auburn, CA along the finish line of the Canyons Endurance Runs just announced that they are closing up shop and while this is always sad to see it’s somewhat not surprising in today’s climate. Retail is hard, and it’s harder than ever with sky-high rents and endless online competition. But if a retail store has a ‘service component’: rentals, ski waxing/tuning, bike repair, etc they have a chance to generate revenue with low cost of goods and a chance to compete. For run specialty shops or stores not selling bikes/ski I’ve always wondered what that ‘service component’ could be. If higher end brands are now beginning to offer gear repairs and are making this cool, it could be a smart play and a way forward for smaller independent stores, which in many ways are still at the heart of the local outdoor community.

In a video released today on Instagram the founders of Sport Hunger, a popular German specialty online shop for the endurance world share the results of their lab test of Spring Energy’s Awesome Sauce. This is the full translation of the video (done by me – don’t use it for legal actions!) into English:

Dear friends of Sport Hunger,
We have today some upsetting news for you all. Many of you might’ve followed the discussions online that questioned the carbohydrate numbers of Spring Energy’s Awesome Sauce.
We reached out to Spring and tried to get to bottom of this, but sadly we didn’t get enough information so that we had full trust in their numbers. So we took the product off our shelves and send it to a lab to get tested. We wanted to make sure that we knew what we were dealing with and we paid out of our own pockets for this testing.

And the results are back. What the results say is that per package (of Awesome Sauce) you get 16 grams of carbs. That is of course a big difference to the promised 45 grams. And what can we say we’re shocked and disappointed.

It hurt us that you all trusted us, we’re really sorry about that. We got caught in the middle of this.
If you have any Awesome Sauce at home you are welcome to send it back. If you have further questions please send an email to jonas@sporthunger.de. We’ll respond to all inquiries.

The maker Spring Energy ensures us that they will rework their manufacturing process to ensure that they will again reliably achieve their high numbers that they declare to have.

We hope that this is really going to happen because we believe that natural food for many of our customers is a great alternative to the regular gels. Especially because there aren’t many good alternatives available. And for many it’s a great help to have these natural products.

We’re looking forward to seeing your comments and hear your thoughts about this situation. We’d really want to offer you wonderful products that might not be readily available.
Hope you all have a great weekend and hopefully have a chance to get outside.

Again apologies if I made any mistakes in the translation, this was done fast.

Here’s the context to how this mislabelling was first discovered.

I don’t often agree with folks posting on Reddit, and usually when I link to it I do so to make fun of the post, but ‘BigSpoon89’ nails this one so hard:

Under no circumstances can an aid station be forced to ration water to runners and you sure as hell can’t run out of water. Full stop. This cannot happen.

The comments on the post are sobering and paint a fairly brutal picture: Races also over, from big to small, from historic to new, from legendary to corporate have had this issue, but this cannot be an excuse and needs to be addressed and corrected.

The poster conclude:

RDs please head. It doesn’t matter how great the food is at the finish line or how cool the t shirts are if people are DNFing your races because you couldn’t supply them water.

As an RD myself, I post this as a reminder to myself and others: Water doesn’t seem the highest priority on the list of things to think about, but in the end it should probably one of the most important things – and it’s cheap – so there are no excuses.

DCRainmaker has the summary:

In total, there’s a slate of things coming, some more concrete – and some a bit more fuzzy. Here’s the quick-hit list, and then I’ll dive into the nuances a bit more down below:

– Adding new family plan for up to four family or friends in a group (except, the pricing is TBD)
– Adding mobile app ‘Dark Mode’
– Adding night heat maps to show which routes are better/safer for night workouts
– Adding new quick edit feature to edit workout details
– Adding new “Athlete Intelligence” feedback, akin to basic coaching feedback on activities
– Adding “AI-Enabled Leaderboard Integrity” to sniff out improbable uploads

Lots of folks are excited about dark mode, but I’m excited about the family plan… I have a family, this might be fun. And of course the AI-enabled leaderboard integrity: AI will detect workouts that aren’t real. If they nail this it will clean things up a lot of mess, but if I’d be Kilian I’d be worried.

Freetrail announced today ‘TrailCon: A New Trail Running Industry Conference’:

A Taste of TrailCon: The Trail Running Industry Conference kicks off on June 26th, 2024 and features panel discussions focused on four key growth areas in trail running. Feedback from this industry event will help collaboratively shape the programming for TrailCon 2025.

Spearheaded by Dylan Bowman, Brendan Madigan, Doug Emslie this teaser event is promised to be something new, big, and special. This year, for 2024 it’s a networking event with panels, smack-dab in the middle of the week between Broken Arrow and Western States, held right at Olympic Valley, California. The organizers are offering the half-day for free, knowing that this is more meant to be a marketing event for next year’s two day conference, and probably soon a full week of events bridging two of the US’s biggest trail running events, Broken Arrow and Western States.

A few thoughts on today’s fascinating announcement

This couldn’t be placed at a better time and location. When Broken Arrow first launched it was clear that their ambitions were to connect their event, held just a week prior to Western States at the starting location of the race, Olympic Valley. Now, a few years later and Broken Arrow having grown into the US’s foremost, and probably largest trail race event (that’s not a 100miler!) it’s time to take this to the next level. Olympic Valley is no Chamonix, but that’s the trajectory here, clearly. Or as Doug Emslie, the co-founder who brings the conference organization experience to the table, said in the launch video on Freetrail: “the conference is meant to be the Davos for trail running”. Not sure if that is tone deaf or overly ambitious, but I don’t think Davos, aside from being a gathering in a mountain town, conjures up images of being representative of the larger community, or open to community ideas, or accessible to the community at all. Davos is anything but, it’s full of elitist billionaires planning the destruction of the planet. But, I give them that this was a reference to a gathering of importance in a mountain town.

Speaking of importance: There has been a US Trail Running Conference, now in its 12th year, traveling to various places around the country to be accessible to folks in these places. This event, attended in the past by trail dignitaries Craig Thornley, Tim Tollefson, (also in on the speaker list for ‘TrailCon’) and Dale Garland, (and me) never really “made a dent” in the larger community and didn’t have the media attention and cheerleading surrounding it. Now TrailCon is meant to matter to the larger trail community, but it’s placing itself in a very special geographic location. The eyes of the trail running world will be in Northern California for this week, but, this new event will have to deal with the reality that trail running has unique regional flavors and there’s more to US trail running than “California carpet”.

Speaking of limited views: The three founders are all three white men. Heck, if I had been asked to join, I would’ve jumped and said yes too, but I am glad to see Brendan on the team, a guy who’s not going to lose focus of the need for diversity and to address larger accessibility issues. Having said this, this year’s conference feels very “business-focused” and trail running is certainly more than “brand, retail, and media”. This year’s focus of the half day of events, as mentioned several times in the intro video is meant to “bring the trail running community back together”. One concern the team is directly addressing is the need to move away from “unproductive online discourse” and back to “in-person conversations”. This, after the last 6-9 month of “UTMB-related kerfuffle” is welcome, but also creates exclusivity – not everyone is privileged enough to be able to travel to California for a day to chat. This is something the team will need to wrestle with. Some folks who are listed to speak on the panels are Catherine and Michel Polettis and Corrine Malcolm. That to me is a clear sign of what the focus of this year’s conference is going to be: To mend the fences between UTMB and the US trail running community. So far it has felt like the strategy of the players on the microphone has been to let its run its course, but this agenda seems to indicate that they are trying to make a move to address things – one way or another. I don’t know if it’ll work – certainly not for the edge lords online – but it’ll send a signal. And I believe that signal will be bigger than just ‘hug and make up’. When Broken Arrow first came on the scene it almost apologized for being a ‘Euro-inspired’ trail race. I ran the 52K in 2018, its second year and back in the PNW I always felt like I had to apologize of why I enjoyed racing big events like Squamish or Broken Arrow. I had to explain that events with sponsors and more than 200 runners did not automatically have no soul, that the RDs can be just as welcoming, and that the professional setup at a race can actually make one feel taken care of and looked after. Now a few years later and Broken Arrow is becoming the defining trail race in the US. This is a clear signal to me that the US trail community has embraced this “euro-style” event and folks are willing to make it the showcase of what trail racing can be in the US. Of course, this isn’t a signal to other RDs that they need to level up or “shape up or ship out”. And of course, it’s not a line in the sand that tells runners that if you don’t get $150 worth of high quality swag at a race you should stop going to trail races all together. But it’s a sign to the brands, the sponsors, and the media that there are trail runners in the US who see the same trajectory and potential for their sport as their European counterparts. The conference bills itself as an ‘industry’ conference, it’s not a cultural gathering or community council. The focus is business. I imagine that the ‘leaders in our sport’ have had many conversations in the past few months with brand representatives and other folks with checkbooks, about exactly this trajectory, its challenges, its potentials, and its opportunities. It’s not just about the money – or so I hope – but as our sport grows it offers anyone within small little universe a change to make a living, build a business, and create something sustainable for themselves. It’s the “rising tide lifts all ships”, or something like this. So, here we are in 2024 and Dylan’s Freetrail and Alpenglow (Brendan Madigan’s retail store in Tahoe City) are yet again changing the game. The speed and frequency by which these latest announcements have come and hit our community have been frenetic and breathtaking all at once. And while I sit here trying to keep up typing words every day I am glad that there’s something else to think and write about than new shoe releases and race results.

Alright, done writing, going to check for tickets to Tahoe for June.

I’ve been thinking a bit about ‘Fastest Known Time’ and its current predicament.

When I first stumbled upon the website Fastestknowntime.com and terminology FKT I was blown away by the achievements yes, but without the context of actually knowing what an average time on any give route is it was hard to quantify. So, rather than using the FKT website as a leaderboard, for me it became a travel guide. A place to learn about epic routes all over the world.
Then FKTs became popular and COVID blew the doors off of the idea of finding an iconic route, running it fast, and claiming the title. More routes were submitted and top athletes with no races to compete in, ran FKT projects and set new standards that just might keep some of the more popular routes out of reach for a long time.

On the business end, the website never turned into a profitable venture and the owners sold it to Outside Media Empire for an apple and an egg – as the German saying goes. Outside in turn acquired the property during a time when cash was plentiful and the idea of creating a giant outdoor media powerhouse seemed the thing to do. Beyond acquiring the site Outside didn’t really have any ideas for the property and so here we are in 2024 and now what?

Take the Wonderland Trail in Washington State for example

One of the most iconic ~100M routes in the world and one that was instrumental for putting the idea of FKTs on the map. In 2020 – during COVID – many of the top athletes tried themselves on that route and put up incredible new times. Since September of 2020 only one new time has been added to the ever expanding variation of the route “the mixed-gender-team” category. But overall the 2020 times still stand and looking at the athletes who put those up will most likely stand for a while. The route is still just as incredible, but no one is going to touch that leaderboard.
The leaderboard for the iconic R2R2R look similar, and there too we’ve seen now a myriad of permutations of the route just to give folks a way of standing out and getting themselves on the leaderboard. 4xR2R2R anyone?
All this reduces participation, the exact opposite of what the intend of the project was to begin with.

FKT QUO VADIS – where to go from here?

I’ve had several conversations with folks and probably have heard as many ideas about where to take it as people I talked to. It’s not an easy problem to solve. The FKT website and community has reached a scale that is requiring substantial cash to keep operating and growing. And after all these years, it never found a path to profitability outside of slapping display ads on the website. ‘R2R2R presented by HOKA’ anyone?

• Should only to fastest time be displayed?
• Should there be a leaderboard of really fast times as well?
• Should there be ratings for routes?
• Should every route someone creates be approved?
• What makes a great route?

If top athletes aren’t doing FKTs anymore how can website serve its community of amateur enthusiasts?

Every expansion of the current model requires a serious cash infusion but with the previous model not working and Outside themselves struggling to figure out a business model the possibility that we’ll ever get an FKT2.0 is fast approaching zero.

A Reset

This might not solve all problems, and certainly won’t please everyone, but my idea is to completely reset the entire idea of ‘FKT’ as a way to talk about an iconic route.
FKT was inspired by the climbing scene and its iconic routes. “Speed climbing the Nose” has its place in Yosemite Valley but folks gather below El Cap every year for the sheer pleasure of touching that rock. Very few make the annual pilgrimage with the attempt to break any records, let alone speed records.

FKT routes need a new name. If these routes are supposed to be a tool for the community, the moniker of ‘fastest’ isn’t helpful. At the core the focus shouldn’t be speed and elite athleticism – that’s what races are for – but it should be a celebration of the adventure, the personal journey and the personal discovery in wild places. That focus can grow the community and maybe has a chance of sustaining the project.

Strip it all down

Every state/region/country gets two routes:

• A long run >100km
• A short run <100km
• An extra label on these which one is more popular by annual submissions.
• An extra label if a regional route is also significant on a global scale – think R2R2R.

What you would get is the following: A vastly reduced set of routes. The US currently has ~2,600 routes on the FKT site. With two per state you’d hover at just over 100. That reduces the need for constant admin work to review and vet new routes.
The selected routes in each region would gain more focus and become more iconic. “If you’re traveling to State X, this is the route you should be running.”
Each route could be highlighted more and celebrated as a ‘de facto’ route for any ambitious trail runner to have run at some point in their life – think bucket list routes.

Every community member is allowed to upload and share their running story on these routes. Every run is listed, not just ‘the fastest’, every story celebrated. There could be an easy engagement tool via upvote buttons to celebrate the stories submitted. There could be an easy GPS check that a certain percentage of the route should’ve been completed for the story to be included. Or let the community vote determine this too.

This “newly named running project website platform idea” should vastly reduce the administrative overhead and increase community participation, which is all good for business.
The goal is to celebrate the community enjoying running inspired by these iconic routes in wild places.

And yes, this would kill my Cushman Six route, as it’s certainly not the most iconic route in the state. Here in Washington State the long route, of course would be the Wonderland Trail, the short route would the Enchantments Loop.

Thoughts?

Holes in the thought process? What are your ideas? Would love the hear what you think.

Victoria Song for the Verge:

Strava’s new leadership is committing to accelerated product development with a bunch of new features that are coming to the fitness app later this year.

Here for it!

Camp Strava is happening right now – curious what else will be announced.

The famous and famously brutal Ultra-Trail Snowdonia by UTMB happened this past weekend (May 10-12, 2024) in LLanberis, Wales, UK. Check here for my pre-race coverage.

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

UTS 100M (168 KM – 4 STONES)

Women:

1. Rachel FAWCETT – Great Britain – 34:10:57
2. Maria PIJOAN GALL – Spain – 39:47:42
3. Corine KAGERER – Switzerland – 41:12:05

Men:

1. Mark DARBYSHIRE – Great Britain – 23:41:13
2. Andy BERRY – Great Britain – 25:18:51
3. Michael DUNSTAN – Australia – 25:45:24

UTS 100K (103 KM – 3 STONES)

Women:

1. Aleksandra NARKOWICZ – Poland – 16:16:23
2. Tess ELIAS – Great Britain – 17:06:28
3. Georgina LEWIS – Great Britain – 17:57:26

Men:

1. Daniel JUNG – Italy – 12:41:20
2. Philipp AUSSERHOFER – Italy – 12:41:20
3. Gautier BONNECARRERE – France -12:55:57

UTS 50K (55 KM – 2 STONES)

Women:

1. Henriette ALBON – Norway – 06:39:54
2. Lina EL KOTT HELANDER – Sweden – 07:35:14
3. Sanna EL KOTT HELANDER – Sweden – 07:36:41

Men:

1. Brennan TOWNSHEND – Great Britain – 06:01:52
2. Michele MERIDIO – Italy – 06:08:02
3. Harry JONES – Great Britain – 06:11:36

ERYRI 25K (25 KM – 1 STONE)

Women:

1. Naomi EATON – Great Britain – 02:55:03
2. Kamila FERET – Poland – 02:57:23
3. Eleana MATOS – Great Britain – 02:58:22

Men:

1. James TILLEY – Great Britain – 02:10:59
2. Tom JOLY – Great Britain – 02:16:54
3. Jack HARRIS – New Zealand – 02:19:34

Overall Ultra-Trail Snowdonia saw a total of 2,709 starters, 1,928 finishers for the for events combined. Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• 100M Starters: 260 – DNF: 161 – Finishers: 99. Women: 8 (8%) Men: 91 (92%)
• 100K Starters: 715 – DNF: 284 – Finishers: 431. Women: 53 (12%) Men: 378 (88%)
• 50K Starters: 1058 – DNF: 266 – Finishers: 792. Women: 173 (22%) Men: 619 (78%)
• 25K Starters: 676 – DNF: 69 – Finishers: 607. Women: 210 (35%) Men: 397 (65%)

In total the event saw 1,928 finishers. 444 (39%) women and 1,485 (77%) 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).

Women participation levels for the 4 races are pretty low compared to other UTMB I’ve been tracking. This could have something to do with the notoriously hard course – the DNF rate, especially for the 100M and 100K is pretty brutal.

Next up on the UTMB World Series Calendar is another doubleheader with the amazing Trail Alsace Grand Est by UTMB in the Alsace region of France on May 17 – 20 and Ultra-Trail Australia by UTMB in Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia on May 16 – 19.

One of South America’s biggest trail races, Valhöll Argentina by UTMB happened this past weekend (May 9-12, 2024) in Villa General Belgrano, Córdoba Argentina. I’m a bit late with results this week, the racing season is kicking up and things are getting busy around here.

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

EPIC 125K (125 KM – 4 STONES)

Women:

1. Tara FRAGA – USA – 20:12:28
2. Belen BARRERA – Argentina – 20:36:57
3. Laura Emilce GORDIOLA – Argentina – 20:51:07

Men:

1. Santos Gabriel RUEDA – Argentina – 14:27:14
2. Ludovic POMMERET – France – 14:37:16
3. Sergio Gustavo PEREYRA – Argentina – 14:46:18

ADVANCE 80K (80.7 KM – 3 STONES)

Women:

1. Anabel Estefanía OVIEDO ZELARAYÁN – Argentina – 09:34:04
2. Daniela RINCON RUBIANO – Colombia – 10:12:42
3. Maria Ayelen SIAN – Argentina – 10:30:49

Men:

1. Remigio HUAMAN QUISPE – Peru – 07:50:19
2. Horacio PEÑALOZA GROSSI – Argentina – 07:59:13
3. Patricio GONZALEZ – Argentina -07:59:13

CHALLENGE 55K (57.3 KM – 2 STONES)

Women:

1. Maria Sol ANDREUCETTI – Argentina – 06:36:17
2. Florencia Soledad IURNO – Argentina – 06:50:42
3. Milagros PARERA – Argentina – 06:58:36

Men:

1. Nicolas Ignacio BENAVIDES BOHLE Chile – 05:30:10
2. Mauro Laureano ROMERO – Argentina – 05:47:20
3. Luis VALLE B – Chile – 05:48:27

COURAGE 35K (37.9 KM – 2 STONES)

Women:

1. Maria Paula GALINDEZ – Argentina – 03:35:15
2. Maria Belen SANCHEZ RUIZ – Argentina – 03:53:59
3. Patricia COBI – Chile – 03:56:18

Men:

1. Javier MARIQUEO – Argentina – 03:07:34
2. Marcelo DEL COLLADO – Argentina – 03:07:42
3. Maikol MENDEZ – Uruguay – 03:10:59

POWER 22K (20.7 KM – 1 STONE)

Women:

1. Paula NAZAL LABRIN – Chile – 02:06:19
2. Olivia CASTRO GELMI – Argentina – 02:12:29
3. Karina Paola SOSA – Argentina – 02:13:17

Men:

1. Agustin ALANIZ – Argentina – 01:42:29
2. Brian José PALACIOS – Argentina – 01:46:27
3. Juan Cruz BUSTOS – Argentina – 01:50:56

* To streamline the results, going forward I am now only listing results for the “stone” races.

Overall Valhöll Argentina saw a total of 3,732 starters, 3,535 finishers for the six events combined. Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• 125K Starters: 294 – DNF: 98 – Finishers: 196. Women: 28 (14%) Men: 168 (86%)
• 80K Starters: 414 – DNF: 18 – Finishers: 396. Women: 79 (20%) Men: 317 (80%)
• 55K Starters: 712 – DNF: 51 – Finishers: 662. Women: 222 (34%) Men: 440 (66%)
• 35K Starters: 918 – DNF: 22 – Finishers: 897. Women: 373 (41%) Men: 524 (58%)
• 22K Starters: 1,030 – DNF: 8 – Finishers: 1,022. Women: 529 (52%) Men: 493 (48%)
• 11K Starters: 364 – DNF: 2 – Finishers: 362. Women: 221 (61%) Men: 141 (39%)

In total the event saw 3,535 finishers, and 3,173 finishers in “stone-eligible races”. 1,231 (39%) women and 1,942 (61%) 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).

Two standout names on the scoreboard are Ludovic POMMERET from France, who travelled to Argentina to take second place in the 125K. Ludo is in his late 40’s and has been racing on the highest level for 20 years. What an incredible achievement and inspiration for old folks like me.

The second person is American Tara FRAGA from the Pacific Northwest who crushed the 125K and came in first – congrats!

I believe I am repeating myself, but I am super fascinated as I am tracking these results for UTMB events all over the world how BIG trail racing is in parts of the world I don’t have any access to. Of course, this lack of knowledge sits squarely on me, but even more so, I am excited to learn how big trail racing is, not just in “classic western trail communities”. This is in many ways what makes the UTMB World Series special. The element of travel and adventure, of camaraderie, of shared passion and joy. It’s needed more than even in our world today.

Next up on the UTMB World Series Calendar is another doubleheader with the amazing Trail Alsace Grand Est by UTMB in the Alsace region of France on May 17 – 20 and Ultra-Trail Australia by UTMB in Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia on May 16 – 19.

Previous posters were very ‘cartoonish’ and stylist illustrations. This new one is “just” a stunning photo of course:

This year, the poster pays tribute to the Alpine landscapes with the Arête du Mont-Favre (Aosta Valley), an iconic landscape of the UTMB and TDS races. Some UTMB runners will traverse it under a starry sky, others early in the morning… Conversely, for TDS runners, it will be the first major challenge, a demanding warm up in the coldness of the night.

I’m ready to adventure – let’s go.

Stephen Garner for Footwear News:

In the first quarter of 2024, the Seattle-based performance running brand reported a 9 percent year-over-year increase in revenue. This marks the company’s highest quarterly results in the brand’s history, Brooks said in a statement.

And specifically the ‘trail’ category drove that growth:

Brooks also made strides in the trail running footwear category with 11 percent year-over-year revenue growth for the quarter, driven by updates to core styles including Catamount and Caldera, in addition to the launch of the Catamount Agil, a brand-new racing shoe built for distances under 50k with vertical climb.

And by the way, thank you Brooks for sponsoring the Trail Running Film Festival during that quarter.

Tailwind Nutrition launched ‘Dauwaltermelon’ as a limited edition flavor last year, but it was oh so good they are bringing it back and adding it to their permanent selection of flavors.

My favorite flavor, I very much endorse this permanent addition to Tailwind’s endurance fuel. Delicious and nutritious. Bring on summer racing!

Following the way UTMB has used their Index in the last few months to highlight registered runners ahead of a race in their press announcements I noticed an interesting side effect of the Index that I hadn’t considered before.

I only thought of the Index to rank top runners post race, and of course as a qualifying tool for upcoming events, but with races all over the world, UTMB is able to highlight top runners in countries far away from the media circus. The Index is a valuable tool to discover and highlight these athletes.

Our media landscape is very regional. German media focuses on German runners, French on French, the US on US runners. That’s not a knock, just somewhat of a reality. But this also somewhat skews what runners become known or get the attention from the media, especially if a region’s media has an outsized presence in our sport.

With this Index UMTB has a tool to watch as runners sign up for their races, check their Index, and rank them pre-race and announce and highlight these runners even if they come from countries without a big media presence in our sport.

Kinda smart.

In Matt Walsh’s latest article on his Substack ‘Trailmix’ he begins by referencing Malcolm Gladwell. Given the controversies around Gladwell over the past few years this peaked my interest beyond Matt’s usual stout observations into our sport. Walsh continues sharing a story about Cobras in Delhi, India and uses this “historical event” to build a jumping off point to ask this question:

“Are TV rights deals the only way for Trail Running to professionalise?”

I was about to answer that question in a longwinded article breaking down my views of where I see trail running as a sport and as a cultural phenomenon to be heading, but then I stopped myself. went online and searched for more information about that alleged cobra story in Delhi. You know, since Gladwell was referenced I thought it would be worth doing due diligence.

Turns out historians can’t find any references that this ‘cobra event’ actually ever happened despite economists referencing it for years. Oh so very Gladwell.

But using dubious stories that economists regularly rehash as historic realities aside, what this article left me wondering is a sentence in Matt’s last paragraph:

I think it [trail running] can grow and become a more sustainable business for athletes and organisers through other means.

A whole article decrying TV deals and then not offering any “better ideas” feels a bit cynical to me.

A couple of thoughts:

Has the Tour the France changed dramatically with it being televised?
How about Golf tournaments?
Both sports haven’t been altered to fit the “short timeframe narrative”, right? People watch tours of Tour France for days at a time. And the same with golf tournaments.

A side note:

Matt published the article on the final weekend of Cocodona, an event that that has a very dedicated media strategy at its core. I wonder if the article was a response to Cocodona and their media focus, or if Cocodona is still somewhat a regional (US centric) event and the general excited hasn’t really made it across the pond.

Singletrack – Episode 304:

Adam Lee, Mr. Community Trail Running, from beautiful Vancouver, BC is back on the show to chat about the importance of keeping ‘community’ in trail running and challenges of the ever-changing media landscape. We opine about the possibility of taking our little sport of trail running to the Olympics and I check in with Adam about his screening of the Trail Running Film Festival at the Rio in his hometown. Catch Adam and the Trail Running Film Festival in early June in several more locations all over Western Canada.

Links

• Adam Lee is Community Trail Running
• Community Trail Running on Instagram
• Trail Running Film Festival on tour

LIVE: This weekend (May 10 – 12, 2024) on our Global Race Series Calendar:

The second race in this weekend’s double header of the UTMB World Series, the Ultra -Trail Snowdonia by UTMB had been until very recently the only UTMB event in Great Britain. This notoriously challenging event has been selling out in record times even pre-UTMB acquisition.

Upholding its tagline as ‘Beautiful beyond belief. Savage beyond reason’, the event promises an adventure through the Eryri/Snowdonia National Park via technical trails, across ridges and through forests.

With a large international field the races at Snowdonia are starting to offer good measurements of where some of the top runners are at leading up a hot summer of racing.

Follow the races live on the UTMB live tracking website.

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

LIVE: This weekend (May 9 – 12, 2024) on our Global Race Series Calendar:

The sold out Valhöll Argentina is the first UTMB event in South American of the season and the eighth of the year overall.

4,200 runners ready to discover the testing trails, cultural treasures, and epic scenery at Valhöll Argentina by UTMB.

The race initially operated as an independent race and is now, since 2023 an UTMB event. From the runner’s guide:

[Vallhöll is].. a great challenge in which runners will experience the most diverse sensations facing an unparalleled challenge in Argentina mixed with the warmth of our people. Valhöll explores exclusive mountain trails in the region that will allow runners to cross hills in contact with the most beautiful summits and in a truly unique context.

The 2024 event is affected by a general strike in Argentina, which has impacted folks trying to travel to the race. The race organization announced that if anyone can’t make it to starting line that their registration will be transferable to the following year.

Follow the races live on the UTMB live tracking website.

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

One of those famous island races that’s perfectly located for Europeans to travel to in the early season is happening this weekend on May 11. The field is selection of the global who’s-who in trail running including Germans Hannes Namberger and Katharina Harthmuth. Live-tracking can be found here and live screening right on their website and on YouTube.

Transvulcania made news in the fall of last year when it parted ways with UTMB and rather than joining the World Trail Majors (which at the time of departure hadn’t been announced yet) went “independent and local again”. Adidas went all in as sponsor of the event. Which seems to be a bit of a thing for Adidas. They scoop up and sponsors the big events that are still independent.

Maria Dalzot, frequent guest on Singletrack, just launched her own podcast titled: ‘Nourishing Narratives by Maria Dalzot‘:

In this podcast Maria explores guests’ relationship with food growing up and how society, social norms and expectations, diet culture and trauma have influenced their approach to food and how they treat their body. These are real, authentic, and emotional conversations that will ultimately help the listeners feel felt and encourage compassion towards themselves if they are struggling with making peace with food, body, and behaviors.

Add this one to your podcast queue. Maria, as registered dietitian nutritionist and professional trail runner, has a great angle and insight into our sport, connections to athletes and understands the culture we create and are subjected to.

From their website:

The San Juan Softie is a 100 mile ultra run taking place in southwest Colorado through the beautiful San Juan mountains. At an average elevation of nearly 10,000ft and with over 20,000ft of vert, this is a proper mountain race.

Hardrock 100, Leadville 100, High Lonesome are all way oversold and impossible to get into. Adding another race into the mix makes perfect sense, especially if the permits don’t allow for the others to grow their capacity. If you want to experience the Colorado mountains – this is your chance.

For its inaugural year (they wanted to launch last year but had some permitting issues) the cost is $375. I’m using the word ‘they’ loosely as the website doesn’t mention who the race directors are. I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t trust the team – Tailwind Nutrition is a sponsor – but it’s a bit odd to me that one is invited to enter a race where it’s not clear who is the team that’s putting it on.

Race day is Aug 16, 2024 and you can sign up on UltraSignup.

The incredibly internationally diverse Amazean Jungle 2024 by UTMB happened this past weekend (May 3-5, 2024) in the Betong District, Thailand. I think that’s the most diverse combined podiums of any race I’ve been tracking so far this year. One country does stick out on that podium listing though is ‘Russia’. Back in 2022 when Russia first attacked Ukraine UTMB released a statement aligning themselves with the recommendations of the IOC banning Russian athletes. When clicking through to the athlete profile of ‘Elena Anisimova’ she’s listed as a neutral athlete. It seems the website results page isn’t able to list a “neutral athlete” designation. So this seems to be a technical issue rather than a policy reversal, which is for another post to dive into.

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

Betong 140 (147KM – 4 STONES)

Women:

1. Man Yee Cheung – Hong Kong – 30:25:13
2. Francesca Canepa – Italy – 35:51:51
3. Nutcha Phalee – Thailand – 40:14:52

Men:

1. Gediminas Grinius – Lithuania 24:23:36
2. Sangé Sherpa – Nepal – 28:26:41
3. Michal Lesniak -Poland – 28:40:31

Betong 100 (107KM – 3 STONES)

Women:

1. Hau Ha Thi – Vietnam – 16:12:30
2. Hang Le – Vietnam – 22:41:37
3. Siok Har Lim – Malaysia – 22:42:01

Men:

1. DISI LIANG – China – 15:39:09
2. Hau Ha Thi – Vietnam – 16:12:30
3. Yutaro Yokouchi – Japan – 16:51:12

Betong 50 (56KM – 2 STONES)

Women:

1. Vanja Cnops – Belgium – 07:25:03
2. JIANGRONG YUAN – China – 07:38:50
3. Elena Anisimova – Russia – 08:10:53

Men:

1. TAO LUO – China – 05:38:33
2. PEIQUAN YOU – China – 05:50:58
3. Davide LIU – Italy – 06:13:20

Betong 20 (26KM – 1 STONE)

Women:

1. Yupa Saelee – Thailand – 03:36:57
2. Pengjia Chen – China – 04:24:31
3. Prissana Machuay – Thailand – 04:25:35

Men:

1. Tiago Vieira – Portugal – 02:30:37
2. YIH SUA – Malaysia – 03:08:38
3. Nobuhito Kubo – Japan – 03:09:12

Betong 10 (17KM – 1 STONE)

Women:

1. Phapada Ninvisut – Thailand – 02:01:09
2. DUANGJAI Wangjaroenmanee – Thailand – 02:11:46
3. Lee Jing – Malaysia – 02:12:35

Men:

1. Hiroyuki Kawachi – Japan – 01:30:36
2. Malachy Kirwan – Ireland – 01:34:58
3. Rodrigue Hauwaerts – Belgium – 01:43:26

As UTMB events goes, this was on the smaller side with ‘just’ 1,657 racers and 1,275 finishers for the five events combined. Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• 100M Starters: 81 – DNF: 49 – Finishers: 32. Women: 5 (16%) – Men: 27 (84%)
• 100K Starters: 184 – DNF: 105 – Finishers: 79. Women: 17 (22%) – Men: 62 (78%)
• 50K Starters: 563 – DNF: 150 – Finishers: 412. Women: 105 (25%) – Men: 307 (75%)
• 20K Starters: 606 – DNF: 70 – Finishers: 545. Women: 185 (34%) – Men: 359 (66%)
• 10K Starters: 223 – DNF: 16 – Finishers: 207. Women: 96 (46%) – Men: 111 (54%)

In total the event saw 1,275 finishers, 408 (32%) women and 866 (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).

The photos from the start in the tunnel looked absolutely amazing, what a cool place for a race start.

Next up on the UTMB World Series Calendar is the first doubleheader of the year with two sold out events with UTMB’s Valhöll in Córdoba, Argentina on May 9-12 and Ultra-Trail Snowdonia in Llanberis, Wales on May 10-12.

The Experience Collection includes a road shoe, a daily run shoe and a trail running shoe. All three offer 4mm drops. The brand that made zero drop shoes popular just expanded the line. Will this be a one-off or the beginning of the end of zero drop shoes for Astra? Either way, your achilles will thank you.

XC-Run.de reports and auto-translated via my browser:

New participant and visitor record and many favorite victories in the ten competitions. The 9th adidas TERREX Innsbruck Alpine Trailrun Festival has set new new records. From Thursday until today, 5,000 starters provided World Cup flair in Innsbruck.

Innsbruck hosted the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships last year and this event clearly helped put this city on the map as a trail running destination. Almost 5,000 runners for this year’s event is about half of a UTMB and close to 2,000 more than one of the US’s largest trail race events, Broken Arrow. The article also mentions almost 10,000 spectators. Trail running is just different in the Alps. And I am not mentioning this because I believe these numbers are a competition and bigger is better, but I wanted to share this to highlight how different races have to be organized, positioned and managed if you have, and can have permission for an entry field that large. Just mind-blowing.

To the full results which saw Marcel Höche take the top spot in 85K and Ida-Sophie Hegemann took first place and third overall in the 110K. This is Ida-Sophie’s second podium within a month after her 2nd place finish in the 100M at Istria by UTMB.

Brady Burgess and Johanna Ohm  professionally employed scientists with education in biology and biochemistry launched a GoFundMe to get after the truth on energy gel labels:

While Spring Energy has been called out on social media, published studies examining other sports nutrition products find that mislabeling is common. FDA rules allow nutritional labels to be approximated using imprecise and easily manipulated methods and do not require experimental verification. We believe sports nutrition companies should hold themselves to a higher standard than those of nutrition labels, which do not guarantee the accuracy required by athletes.

The goal is to test several gels and get to the “truth” in response to several people having reported on Reddit that Spring Energy’s Awesome Sauce in particular doesn’t hold up it’s claim to be “that awesome:

Is this just Spring Energy, just Awesome Sauce, or is it rampant? It not Awesome Sauce, what else should I use?

The results from this will be fascinating, and I foresee very sobering for many, companies and consumers/runners alike. In almost every other area of our gear purchases we accept the over-promises the companies make. Do shoes last 500 miles? Do socks last a year? But with nutrition we’re more calculated and accurate and rightfully so. Companies, and marketing departments in particular should take note.

The massive run through the Arizona desert is happening right now. Hundreds of runners kicked off their 250 mile spirit quest this morning at 5am hoping to make it to Flagstaff by the end of the week some time. Perfect week to slack off at work and constantly refresh that live tracker.

• Livetracking
• YouTube Livestream (If you want to waste even more time)

Friend of mine, Ben Mead is somewhere out there chasing glory.

UltraSignup’s Dirt Circus is coming to Seattle on July 24 in what seems like a somewhat slimmed down full blown Dirt Circus. USU is partnering with local running store Seven Hills Running Shop for a mid-week brand expo and group run event starting at the Seven Hills shop in Magnolia.

Ed Viesturs’s outdoor brand ‘Himali‘ opened a store in downtown Seattle in the old Arcteryx location (they moved to a bigger spot right across the street at 401 Pike St.)

After the events from last year, Footprints is back announcing their 2024 Camp:

We overhauled our mission and spelled out our values 

As we shared in October, we failed to provide the experience that our community deserved last year. We remain incredibly grateful to our campers for their honesty, which allowed us to take responsibility and change in a big way. Moving forward, our programming will exceed expectations for all campers and model the kind of community building we want to see — both in climate action and trail running.

Glad to see them back in action and happy to see the changes they enacted.

We’re thrilled to share that Camp 2024 will take place Sept. 29 – Oct. 6, 2024 at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Vermont, and it will be co-organized by Rising Hearts’ Jordan Whetstone.

That’s Jordan Whetstone from the film Know To Run: Yakita, currently playing at the Trail Running Film Festival.