Italy’s flagship trail race for many years and now an UTMB event, Lavaredo Ultra Trail is held in one of the most breathtaking places in the Alps. This event is so high on my bucket list that it’s almost more important to race than UTMB itself. A few years ago I had an entry but couldn’t make the travel work and I had to let go. This year I had my name in the lottery but didn’t get drawn. Lucky for me the Lavardo lottery is such that if you didn’t get drawn one year you get an automatic entry the following year. Kinda exciting – we shall see if I’ll be able to make the trip work this time.

Lavaredo as a race has huge potential to stand alongside of UTMB as one of the premiere races in the world – the number of runners are almost rivaling UTMB itself – and in many ways it does live up to that already, but one of the biggest challenges Lavardo has had right from the onset is that it’s happening on the same weekend as Western States. No race with big ambitions would dare to put themselves on the same weekend as UTMB, but Lavaredo disappears under the outsized media coverage of Western States. Yes, WS deserves all the hype, but looking at the field of elites toeing the line at Lavaredo it’s very much comparable to that at Western States. It just has the American runners missing as they are all in Olympic Valley, California. Of course there’s a probably a fairly reasonable explanation of why the founders of Lavaredo chose that weekend and in the end it is what it is but when it comes to American media coverage they will always have to deal with this competition.

In Europe though the race serves as a perfect tune up event leading up to UTMB and many of the elites planning on toeing the line in Chamonix later this summer are stretching their legs on the 120K around the Tre Cime di Lavaredo above Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Cortina by the way hosted the Winter Olympics in 1964 and will do so in 2026 in partnership with Milano. The James Bond film ‘For Your Eyes Only’ was filmed in part in Cortina.

Lavaredo’s flagship event, the 120K race has a start time of 11pm. Evening start times are not unheard of for races in the Alps, but this time is extra special and kind of weird. I believe the idea is to get the bulk of the runners to the famous Tre Cime di Lavaredo at around sunrise. Which is a spectacular site to behold and kind of makes the challenge start worth it.

Lavaredo isn’t live-streamed and aside from the usual live tracking on the UTMB site and the updates on social media doesn’t have a big global media presence which is a bummer given the stacked field in the 120K and the importance for many athletes as a tune up race for UTMB itself. If you want to know what European competition will toe the line at UTMB later in the summer, better follow that race.

La Sportiva has its home near Cortina and has been the title sponsor of Lavardo for the last few years. This creates the fun and fascinating situation where Hoka as a title sponsor of the UTMB World Series does not have a presence at this particular event and instead you see the La Sportiva banners everywhere. There’s another reason of why I want to run this race more than any other. This partnership also brings all the La Sportiva athletes to town. Anton Krupicka is usually there (I couldn’t confirm this as Anton’s Instagram is … deleted? Or at least it didn’t load for me as of this writing. Maria Dalzot is racing the 120K. John Kelly is also in Cortina fulfilling his sponsor duties and sort of being forced to jump over his own shadow:

So why am I here? Traveling a great distance (something I’m trying to minimize), and at a by UTMB / Ironman event (something I’ve voiced my concerns about for years). First, to be clear, I’m not racing here.

…

I’m a firm believer that it’s extremely difficult to influence a conversation without being a part of it. Yelling from the outside usually achieves the opposite of the desired effect. We’re all on the same team, even if we sometimes have different ideas.

…

I love events like Lavaredo, and UTMB for that matter. They’re exciting, mean so much to so many, and motivate people to achieve amazing things.

I leave off the part where he alludes to the idea that UTMB is a monopoly, which it is not.

Alright with that, here’s the link to the live-tracking. The 120k race is on its way. The 80K is about to kick off and the 50K, 20K, 10K have already concluded.

Kaiserkrone Trail is an event put on by the local tourism region to promote itself and is part of the Skyrunner World Series. I added this event to this weekend’s list of incredible races, because it’s in a really beautiful region of the Alps, the Wilder Kaiser region, but also because it’s such a classic example of how trail races are thought of in the Alps. This race doesn’t even have its own website. They are part of the Skyrunner World Series and offer several distances for “the whole family”. They provide live tracking, but aside from that its aim is to bring heads into beds of the local region. And it’s successful at that. Roughly 2,000 people will be at the start of the various races over the weekend. There are no big name sponsors directly attached to the event, other than Merrell being the sponsor of the Skyrunner World Series.

Jason Bahamundi founder of Run Tri Bike on LinkedIn announcing the news:

Earlier this year I had an idea for an unwired podcast network.

…

I chatted with podcasters about this idea. I spoke with advertisers about this as well. Both of these parties agreed that having a podcast network under the Run Tri Bike umbrella, which is a growing and trusted community, would help.

And on the website for the network:

The Everyday Athlete Podcast Network is made up of 7 shows which means that there is something for every one just like our motto:

There is a spot at the starting line for everybody and every body.

This effort (I believe!) is the first in the trail world that’s trying to bring a variety of shows under one combined umbrella. Freetrail has a couple shows listed on their website, but from what I can tell these shows are still very much independently produced, advertised and marketed. What Jason is trying to do with the ‘Everyday Athlete Podcast Network’ goes a step further: There’s a singular combined feed for all shows and most importantly from a business perspective there is an opportunity for brands to reach the audience of all shows.

The 10th edition of the Garmin Mountain Festival is happening this weekend June 28-30 in Vall de Boi, Spain is part of the XTERRA Trail Run World Series and is on the ECC TrailGlobal Race Series Calendar. Located in the Pyrenees mountains this event offers 5 races and 2,500 participants. The event website very much bills the event as a ‘tourism play’ like many of the European trail events. This also means that there’s no live-tracking or streaming of the event, as tourism focused events really are created for bringing people to a place and a larger media play isn’t really a priority.

What’s fascinating to me is the title sponsor of Garmin. The multinational corporation with headquarters in Switzerland and the US is not known to sponsor many of the high profile trail events around the world. But for this festival in the Pyrenees mountains, they are title sponsor. Fascinating.

Via press release:

The Western States Endurance Run and HOKA have announced the continuation of the presenting sponsorship agreement between the world’s oldest 100-mile trail race and one of the fastest-growing performance footwear and apparel brands. The agreement extends the current presenting sponsorship partnership, originally formed in 2019 between the two organizations, through 2029.

Clearly Hoka loves the partnership with America’s flagship trail race and will do (almost anything) to continue this title sponsorship. And clearly this partnership benefits Western States tremendously that they don’t have to even blink and consider an alternative.

But also, clearly, the Golden Ticket races will continue to only be Hoka sponsored events and there’s no chance that any event that’s sponsored by a competitor would be considered for inclusion in the Golden Ticket race calendar as long as Hoka is title sponsor of Western States.

What is not clear to me is if one stipulation of this partnership contract is Western States’s inclusion at the UTMB World Series. Hoka just re-upped their sponsorship ties with UTMB and its World Series a few weeks ago. Clearly Hoka loves this synergy, but are they just loving this happy coincidence or is this manufactured. Me thinks the latter.

UltraSignup’s David Callahan on LinkedIn:

For those that weren’t there, here is a summary. There were 4 panels – Events, Media, Brand & Athlete, and Retail. The panels were stacked with important thought leaders from the space. All conversations were informative and professional (sometimes hard when there are differing opinions) among the panelists.

I can’t wait to hear more what the “hard parts” were.

David continues:

Also, one question asked of me during my panel was how the long-tail of the sport felt about this period of growth. While I don’t speak for the long-tail, I was happy to provide an opinion – and in my view, I think the long-tail feels a sense of being disconnected from information about the growth and what growth means for them.

In this industry, it is hard to have your finger on the pulse of information because of the variety of places where it is disseminated. I think this difficulty in assimilating information makes it hard for people to fully understand how developments in the industry apply to them.

I have thoughts on this, of course:

• There are now lots of different media companies that not just reporting, but often creating stories – where there used to be just a couple blogs and it was easy to just visit their sites and get the full scoop.
• Social media first blew this scenario up, created new opportunities and then imploded in itself – no one has a chronological timeline anymore, no one sees the posts from the people and accounts they actually follow.
• While the “old school media outlets” are struggling and are trying to navigate these choppy waters the “new school media outlets” are currently just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. I don’t see a good cohesive plan from them either other than just trying to capture eyeballs.
• In theory podcasts are a goldmine of incredible information being shared in informal interviews but even with the arrival of transcripts the format is largely a locked silo and it’s impossible to link to a specific segment or share out the point worth sharing.
• Not to toot my own horn, but this is what Electric Cable Car is trying to do. Gather the most important stories, make them easy to follow and digest. Link to the source and give credit to the author.
• If you can’t come to this site every day, there’s a newsletter you can sign up where I share the best stories once every other week.

Katie Asmuth on Instagram:

This initiative with PTRA Women’s Equality group will raise funds through the sale of “Here for the Women’s Race” t-shirts and stickers.

The shirt is currently only available in Olympic Valley, but an online ordering system is being setup.

You can also head to our website to learn more and to donate.

I previously reported on the launch of this fund. It’s great to see this in action and moving. Let’s go!

Slackliner Nathan Paulin took the Olympic Flame to the highest point of France.

Check out his reel too of him walking the actual wire. Insane.

As announced in a email today, Spring has tested and relaunched their most popular product ‘Awesome Sauce‘ after having it pulled from their store due to wide complaints and lab-tested proof that their nutrition facts on their product were completely off.

Today, less then a month after pulling the product Spring relaunches their products:

Since we know that the results are important to you, we wanted to share the specifics of our adjusted products so that you can ensure exactly what you are fueling your body with. We want to assure you that Awesome Sauce, Hill Aid, and Canaberry consistently perform at their target nutritional values, as shown in the results below:

AWESOME SAUCE Certificate of Analysis
HILL AID Certificate of Analysis
Canaberry Certificate of Analysis

So, if these numbers are correct and truly reflect what has always been in the package, then it seems that this really was just due to a lack of quality control. And yes, the word ‘just’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. The production of a nutritional product athletes put in their body isn’t something a company should take their eye off. This mistake is something Spring truly has to own and work hard to regain the trust of their customers. But also, if this ‘mistake’ was something that was so easily fixed and the product really is that good after all, then the trolls on the interwebs can go and eat dirt – yet again.

French publication Mile and Stone has a great overview of this historic event in Chamonix in their latest newsletter. Here are some highlights.

On the inspiration and creation of the event:

“In 1976, we saw the birth of Sierre-Zinal on the Swiss side. The Chamonix Sports Club quickly decided to draw inspiration from it to create the Mont-Blanc cross-country race in 1979. It was a different time, of course, when you could pick up your number at the start line, without having to wear any compulsory equipment or have a federal licence”, recalls Frédéric Comte, director of the Chamonix Sports Club since 2006, the club still organising the event 45 years after its creation.

So many great events were created in the 70s and have had a longstanding history.

On the partnership with Salomon and how the event is being perceived in the community:

The following year, everything accelerated with the arrival of the event’s historic partner: Salomon. “With Salomon, I’m used to saying that we’ve grown together. They used our event and we used their expertise as a leading company. They’re really part of the team, and it’s really interesting to work with them. They have a real vision and a rare understanding of the sport”, comments Frédéric Comte. “Today, being a partner of the Mont Blanc Marathon means seeing 60,000 people pass by your stand in the village, because each runner comes with an average of five companions! It’s a different population from the UTMB, more family-oriented, more relaxed. To show off your new trail products, it’s a must”, says Grégory Vollet.

And more on the business side of the event:

With a budget of almost €1.2 million, the Mont Blanc Marathon is one of the top trail events in France. “70% of this budget comes from registrations, the rest from private partners. We get almost no public money. The local authority allows us to run our races – that’s not bad – and it works on maintaining the trails all year round and provides rescue services. We’re lucky in Chamonix to have particularly good support in this area” explains Frédéric Comte.

A bit more insight here into how these type of events are setup in Europe: No permit fees from the local authorities, but also no subsidies. In other parts of Europe local municipalities are heavily subsidizing these type of events with their tourism budgets in the hope to bring tourists into town to fill the beds in the community.

On the media production:

Today, the MMB is one of the flagship events of the Golden Trail World Series, and its longest race too. “In recent years, we’ve taken charge of producing and broadcasting the race (since 2023 on Eurosport) and we’ve brought in our own teams of content producers”, continues Grégory Vollet.

Salomon, the main sponsor brings their own media team to cover the event.

On the focus to reduce the carbon footprint of the event:

“We weigh all our waste and do carbon footprints after each event. From 2025 onwards, each runner will receive his or her own carbon footprint and will be obliged to offset it”, he (Frédéric Comte) continues.

The fact that the article in the newsletter ends with a focus on the environment – in a business newsletter at that – is such a important challenge for all race directors and events managers to make this piece not an afterthought, but build it into their business plans.

A few more interesting pieces of information for the Marathon Mont Blanc:

• The event offers six events of varying distances and additional kids races for different age groups.
• The finish line is right in downtown Chamonix, in the same place as UTMB’s.
• The Golden Trail Series race is the 42km marathon, but there’s also a 90km distance offered and a 2 person team event.
• Salomon is the title sponsor and essentially only “big name” global brand sponsor of the event.
• The live tracking show 11, 202 runners registered (that includes about 1,100 kids registered for the various kids races!).
• 139 runners from the US are at the starting lines.

The Marathon Mont-Blanc is an absolute massive event on the global trail running scene. And while only one race is at the ultra distance, with 1,302 people at the starting line of the 90km this race alone makes it a bigger single ultra race than any race in the US (I believe).

Information on how to follow the event live can be found here and on Eurosport.

What a week(end) ahead! Racers from all over the world are putting on bibs for several of the most important races on the global calendar – all happening on the same weekend.

• The Western States Endurance Run is June 29 – 30 in California, USA.
• Lavaredo Ultra Trail by UTMB is June 26 – 30 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
• Marathon Mont-Blanc (part of Golden Trail Series) is June 27 – 30 in Chamonix, France.
• Kaiserkrone Trail (part of Skyrunner World Series) is June 28-29 in Scheffau, Austria.
• Garmin Mountain Festival (part of XTERRA) is June 28-30 in Vall de Boí in Spain.

If you’re NOT running trails this weekend, what are you even doing with your life?

Since I am not racing this weekend I will spending some time highlighting what makes each of these events special, as well as sharing some difference and comparisons between the massively different events that are all at the heart trail races, celebrating the local trails, the great outdoors, and communities they are hosted in.

Tailwind Nutrition launches their limited edition summer flavor: Blueberry Lemonade.

Just in time to celebrate summer and the most challenging rides and races of the year, we’ve added a refreshing new flavor to our Endurance Fuel lineup. Created in collaboration with The Feed, and reminiscent of summers past, Blueberry Lemonade is the perfect combo of flavors to keep you refreshed, hydrated and fueled all summer long.

I’m all for citrusy flavors and this one sounds delicious. The collaboration with The Feed sounds very interesting too! Will pick some up when I’m in Durango next month and report back.

Today Suunto released the Race S, the smaller sibling to the fantastic Race watch. Coming in at a diameter of 45 mm instead the 49 mm for the Race the watch is just 2 mm larger than their 9 Peak Pro. Aggressively priced at $349 and with a just few paired down features compared to its bigger sibling Suunto is positioning this watch as the new entry level into their lineup. For folks with smaller wrists this could be the watch to consider getting.

Also: the new straps look great too.

This past weekend on June 22-23, 2024 UTMB’s smallest events so far, the Mauritius by UTMB happened on the remote island of Mauritius, off of the coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

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

100M (135K – 4 Stones)

Women:

1. Xueer SHANG – China – 26:41:58
2. Marion BACHELERIE – France – 30:04:23
3. Mayumi KIMURA – Japan – 33:23:50

Men:

1. Elias KADI – France – 16:45:43
2. Gregoire CURMER – France – 18:10:04
3. Tahirinirina Jeannot AVOTRANIAINA – Madagascar – 18:23:11

100k 98K – 3 Stones)

Women:

1. Eléna LÉONARD – France – 16:36:10
2. Manon DÉSIRAND – France – 20:45:15
3. Léa FILIPPI – France – 20:45:18

Men:

1. Simon DESVAUX DE MARIGNY – Mauritius – 10:42:52
2. Admire MUZOPAMBWA – Zimbabwe – 11:45:22
3. Djamadar SAID OILI – France – 13:19:46

50K (59K – 2 Stones)

Women:

1. Pauline WINER – France – 06:33:38
2. Daisy MYBURGH – Zambia – 06:55:00
3. Laetitia AUBRY – France – 07:18:40

Men:

1. Yousheng GUAN – China – 04:53:03
2. Andrianirina RIVOSOA HOBILALAINA – Madagascar – 05:10:44
3. Antoine COMPAROT – France – 05:15:10

20K (22K – 1 Stone)

Women:

1. Julia BRULIN – France – 02:14:52
2. Katherine BROOK – Great Britain – 02:16:46
3. Amy BURTON – Zambia – 02:22:09

Men:

1. Aneeshrao SUDDHOO – Mauritius – 01:52:01
2. Nicolas CHARRETIER – France – 01:54:29
3. Florent GANOFSKY – France – 01:54:35

Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• 100M Starters: 96 – DNF: 35 – Finishers: 61. Women: 4 (7%) Men: 57 (93%)
• 100K Starters: 90 – DNF: 21 – Finishers: 69. Women: 8 (12%) Men: 61 (88%)
• 50K Starters: 270 – DNF: 12 – Finishers: 258. Women: 88 (34%) Men: 170 (66%)
• 20K Starters: 247 – DNF: 5 – Finishers: 242. Women: 93 (38%) Men: 149 (62%)

The inaugural Mauritius by UTMB was one of UTMB’s smallest events to date – not surprising, given the very remote location, but it drew a fairly diverse group of runners from many different countries. In total there 703 starters and 630 finishers. 193 (31%) women and 437 (69%) men reached the finish line and folks earned themselves their respective stones and an UTMB index (or directly punched their ticket to the Finals in Chamonix for 2025).

Next up on UTMB World Series Calendar we’ll get ready for one of trail running’s biggest week on the calendar. Western States and Lavaredo Ultra Trail are happening June 26 – 30, 2024.

A little late, and for that I apologize, but things are a bit crazy around here right now. Let’s get into it. On June 14-16, 2024 the Trail Du Saint Jacques 2024 Results or “spirittrail” along the route of the Santiago de Compostela in France happened.

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

100M (130K – 4 Stones)

Women:

1. Maëlle DERUAZ – France – 17:25:17
2. Manon GRAS – France – 17:55:11
3. Hannah DERKSEN – Netherland – 18:29:51

Men:

1. Sylvain COURT – France – 14:22:42
2. Alexandre BERAUD – France – 14:34:32
3. Geoffroy BONNET – France – 14:49:26

100k (79K – 3 Stones)

Women:

1. Anais DACHET – France – 08:26:34
2. Anna Louise Astad SØRLIE – Norway – 08:41:20
3. Aurore CANINO HEMON – France – 09:03:41

Men:

1. Guillaume TIPHENE – France – 07:13:56
2. Yoann STUCK – France – 07:41:25
3. Morgan POULIQUEN – France – 07:45:28

50K (51K – 2 Stones)

Women:

1. Adeline MARTIN – France – 04:44:20
2. Elisa RAVET – France – 05:06:41
3. Caroline DELORD – France – 05:17:42

Men:

1. Remy BRASSAC – France – 04:10:07
2. Aymeric DAMOUR – France – 04:11:13
3. Florian BERNABEU-SEGUY – France – 04:11:48

20K (18K – 1 Stone)

Women:

1. Alice GORRY – France – 01:28:39
2. Guillaume MARIE – France – 01:28:51
3. Solène BAYLE – France – 01:29:25

Men:

1. Lukas EHRLE – Germany – 01:03:48
2. Sylvain CACHARD – France – 01:04:44
3. Alexandre MEYLEU – France – 01:08:51

Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• 100M Starters: 998 – DNF: 304 – Finishers: 694. Women: 43 (6%) Men: 651 (94%)
• 100K Starters: 1,029 – DNF: 87 – Finishers: 943. Women: 80 (9%) Men: 862 (91%)
• 50K Starters: 1,624 – DNF: 46 – Finishers: 1,578 Women: 288 (18%) Men: 1,290 (82%)
• 20K Starters: 993 – DNF: 3 – Finishers: 991 Women: 439 (44%) Men: 551 (56%)

The Trail Du Saint Jacques saw 4,644 starters and 4,206 finishers. 850 (20%) women and 3,354 (80%) men reached the finish line and folks earned themselves their respective stones and an UTMB index (or directly punched their ticket to the Finals in Chamonix for 2025). This “spirit trail” along an old religious pilgrim route doesn’t attract a large number of women… coincidence?

Next up on the UTMB World Series Calendar I’ll post results for the first Mauritius by UTMB. And then we’ll get ready for one of trail running’s biggest week on the calendar. Western States and Lavaredo Ultra Trail are happening this weekend on June 26 – 30, 2024.

Strava bought FATMAP back in 2023:

As we move towards this joint mission, we will retire the FATMAP app, website and Explore Portal on October 1, 2024. As a Strava subscriber, you will continue to have access to all the FATMAP features you currently enjoy during this transition.

That’s how it goes with these services, time and time again.

Jen Sotolongo digs up the history of the belt buckle as a finisher award for ultra races for UltraSignup News:

The history of the belt buckle as a reward for completing a 100-miler stems from the horse world.

I appreciate the history and lore, and even the designs of many of the buckle, but have yet to seen a design where I felt like I HAD to run that race just for the buckle. I’m just not cowboy enough, I guess.

Announced on Instagram and posted on their website:

…The Broken Arrow Skyrace will offer prize money for elite nonbinary athletes at a level consistent with the men’s and women’s divisions. However, because of the smaller field size and a desire to ensure that prize money is limited to athletes competing at the very highest levels, non-binary athletes must meet the performance thresholds to be eligible for prize money…

This seems to strike a good balance. Their new advisory council is doing some great work helping shape the future of our sport.

In a public post on their website Spring acknowledges issues with their products, calling it “product Inconsistencies”:

We realize some have had questions over the past few weeks about recently reported inconsistencies found in some batches of our products. We do apologize for the perceived radio silence, as we have been working tirelessly to identify and rectify all possible concerns since this was fully brought to our attention.

While it’s appreciated that Spring fully comes out acknowledging what has been going on (a part of me was wondering if they would just ignore it all, remove the product from the shelves and magically relaunch in 6 month with Awesome Sauce 2.0) it’s sort of shocking to consider that they had so little oversight into their manufacturing process (as they claim, or blame):

We conducted a comprehensive assessment of our manufacturing processes and identified two contributing factors that have since been updated to counteract greater levels of variation between batches.

I mean, it’s a food product we put into our bodies and they just don’t really know what’s going on? Not a great look.

Great to see rabbit being transparent here and post on their website the requirements, perks and expectations to be considered for their elite team.