Popular Science has ‘electrolyte sports drinks’ tested by experts and ranks Tailwind Nutrition’s Endurance Fuel ‘Best Overall’:

You tend to get three options with sports drinks: taste, hydration, and easy on the stomach. Typically, however, you can only pick two. The one that hydrates the most and tastes the best may not be easy on your stomach, and so on. But you get the complete triangle with Tailwind Nutrition’s Endurance Fuel. It’s, according to one of our staff writers here on the gear team, “freakin’ delicious,” and it includes electrolytes to replenish what you sweat out. Best of all, it won’t irritate your stomach while working out. It comes in eight flavors, including caffeinated options, but our favorites are mandarin orange and Dauwaltermelon.

“Freakin’ delicious” – I agree.

Episode 312 with special guest David Norris:

David Norris is the current record holder and 5 times winner, including 2024! of Mount Marathon in Seward, Alaska. He runs for ON, often competes at Cirque Series events and in the winter switches to nordic skis. David is currently training to beat me racing OCC by UTMB in Chamonix in just a few weeks.

LINKS

• David Norris on Instagram
• Endurance Training Strategies
• Mount Marathon
• Cirque Series
• Cover Photo by Mick Dees

This feels like an April’s Fool’s Joke, but I guess it’s real: Arc’teryx Mo/Go are a $5,000 pair of hiking pants with built-in exoskeleton. Yes, you read that right, the price is insane, the thing is a mobility device, according to the Verge:

Marketed as a mobility device that can help hikers extend their range instead of a medical device that can assist those with mobility issues (you can think of them as an e-bike but for walking), Skip claims the MO/GO pants can make the wearer feel up to 30 pounds lighter.

I’m all for making the outdoors more accessible, so I probably shouldn’t make fun of this ‘thing’, but it just sort of feels a bit extra. Or maybe I should say “move over carbon-plated super shoe, here comes the exoskeleton for train runners”?

Episode 311 with special guest Scott Sowle:

Scott Sowle is the owner of ‘Mountain Running Races’ offering several awesome events east of Seattle in Washington State. On this episode we talk about his visit to the Broken Arrow Skyrace, one of America’s biggest trail events, where Scott volunteered and took in the atmosphere. We ponder on what the team is building down there at Lake Tahoe in the days between Broken Arrow and Western States, including the new Trail Conference.

LINKS

• Mountain Running Races 
• Vert Running Series
• Beast of Big Creek
• Broken Arrow Skyrace
• Trail Conference

I’ve fallen behind and off the horse. There are several UTMB World Series events that happened this months I have yet to post full results for. Restonica Trail on July 4-6, 2024 is one of them. The only European event that still has their own website. Restonica is an event on the island of Corsica, France, yes another island race!

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

100M (107K – 4 Stones)

Women:

1. Miria MEINHEIT – Germany – 19:58:16
2. Kimino MIYAZAKI – Japan – 22:57:50
3. Natacha PIECQ – France – 23:46:36

Men:

1. Louison COIFFET – France – 14:45:09
2. Gautier AIRIAU – France – 16:01:27
3. Antoine LAINÉ – France – 16:43:44

100K (66K – 3 Stones)

Women:

1. Axelle HENRY – France – 10:02:57
2. Irén TIRICZ – Hungary – 10:29:05
3. Kaline OSAKI – France – 10:51:30

Men:

1. Lambert SANTELLI – France – 07:53:55
2. Vincent VIET – France – 08:38:14
3. Sylvain FERRAND – France – 09:01:33

50K (32K – 2 Stones)

Women:

1. Blandine L HIRONDEL – France – 03:44:00
2. Sara ALONSO – Spain – 03:53:03
3. Mahauld GRANIER – France – 04:58:44

Men:

1. Rémi BONNET – Switzerland – 03:06:01
2. Johann BAUJARD – France – 03:25:25
3. Sébastien POESY – France – 03:29:25

20K (16K – 1 Stone)

Women:

1. Najwa LAAJAIL – France – 01:32:49
2. Maëlys DEVOS – France – 01:32:49
3. Victoire ALZON – France – 01:35:25

Men:

1. Najwa LAAJAIL – France – 01:32:49
2. Maëlys DEVOS – France – 01:32:49
3. Victoire ALZON – France – 01:35:25

Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• 100M Starters: 457 – DNF: 138 – Finishers: 319. Women: 34 (11%) Men: 285 (89%)
• 100K Starters: 669 – DNF: 162 – Finishers: 507. Women: 96 (19%) Men: 411 (81%)
• 50K Starters: 778 – DNF: 21 – Finishers: 757. Women: 182 (24%) Men: 575 (76%)
• 20K Starters: 534 – DNF: 5 – Finishers: 529. Women: 206 (39%) Men: 323 (61%)

Restonica Trail saw in total there 2,438 starters (not counting their relay event) and 2,112 finishers. 518 (25%) women and 1,594 (75%) 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).

Several more races in the backlog, and I’m getting to it – I promise. I also desperately need to update the UTMB World Series Calendar, but first Beast of Big Creek Skyrace is coming up. Let’s go!

Team RunRun has a bunch of race reports that aren’t mean to be personal retelling of a runners’ race but instead helpful guides for folks interested in running a particular event. The Western States Endurance Run doesn’t need a lot of ‘insight’ information as most folks know about the race, but this particular race report, written by my coach Matt Urbanski is quite insightful.

Break the Western States 100 into three main parts:
1. The High Country. It was less smooth than I was anticipating. It isn’t overly technical or difficult, but it’s also not smooth. There were a number of sections with baseball-sized rocks strewn around the trail that made it necessary to be more focused than I was expecting. Some sections were more overgrown or difficult to see than I was expecting. Additionally, the higher elevation is noticeable for someone coming from sea level, so I had to be extra cautious and patient while up high.
2. The Canyons. The steepest climbs and descents are in this section and it feels hottest here. The two bigger descents were more narrow single track with rocks than I remembered, and coupled with my aching hip flexor, I took this section way slower than I would have liked. The two big climbs are the only sections I really felt like I needed to hike. Poles (not allowed) would have been great here.
3. The rest of the course. The Cal Street section from Foresthill to the river was not as fast as I was expecting. There were lots of little rollers and single track that kept me from really getting going fast. We worked well through here and I’m happy with it, but it was slower than I was expecting. I liked the climb up from the river. There was a lot of runnable faster stuff in the last 20 miles of the course that I walked given my hip, but knowing that there is a lot of runnable stuff to finish is key. This is why conserving energy and staying patient is important: if you have legs, you can really fly the last 20 miles!

Summary: There was more single track and rocks than I was anticipating. That said, there were still plenty of fast and runnable dirt roads.

Yes, the “more rocks than anticipated” realization is what I too recall from the few sections of the course I ran last year as part of the Canyons Endurance Run.

In an email hitting the inboxes today UTMB shares updates, changes and new initiatives for the policies and efforts regarding adaptive athletes (I’m linking to the Inclusion landing page as the content of the email isn’t available online yet):

Building on its long-standing commitment to the inclusion of athletes with disabilities in the world of trail running, as well as encouraging the participation of women, the HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc organisation aims to show that disability is not an obstacle to sporting performance and achievement, while at the same time extending a welcome to all runners.

UTMB is a big organization and therefore moves slowly at times. Often they are being held up as lacking in offering solution to various issues stakeholders are caring about. And all this ‘calling out’ and even ‘needling’ at points is good. But what confuses me is that when UTMB does move and make an announcement the stakeholders that needled seems to be quiet. I don’t necessarily expect them to parrot every news release UTMB sends out, but if there’s an announcement that’s a clear reply to the stakeholder’s focuses then I would expect a response, either way, positive or negative.

But maybe that’s a bigger issues we face in our world of online communication. We’re quick to yell, condemn and demand to be heard, but when things actually move forward, we have moved on and don’t care to acknowledge it. Sad.

Ahead of the lighting of the torch which signals the official opening of the Olympic Games in Paris for 2024 the IOC had their general assembly and a few things are discussed, among them, of course, what cities will be hosting the next Olympic Games. Here’s where we’re currently at, after Paris:

• 2026 – Milano/Cortina – Winter Games
• 2028 – Los Angeles – Summer Games
• 2030 – French Alps – Winter Games
• 2032 – Brisbane – Summer Games
• 2034 – Salt Lake City – Winter Games

A few years ago there the IOC really struggled with finding host cities and needed to make some serious adjustments in expectations around environmental stewardship amidst ballooning costs and other factors. Especially for the winter games this has become a serious concern as few locations are still suitable to even host the games and provide reliable snow cover. But while many of these concerns don’t go away, the net positive in global goodwill by fostering a peaceful gathering of the human community on this planet still outweighs, but doesn’t wipe out, the other issues. The point I am trying to make here though when looking at the selection of upcoming host cities is that it seems to me that the IOC has resorted to picking “save” locations. Countries and cities it can trust to deliver. Those that can clearly afford it, have proven track record and of sable governments (or so one hopes) to deliver a reasonable comfortable experience for all participants. There was a time when the IOC seemed to either choose to try to engage in politics making or there was too much dark money flowing that some of the host cities just felt straight up wrong. Especially Sochi and Beijing for the winter games come to mind.

But there was another announcement, and maybe that one is meant to appease the countries with questionable governments but plenty of cash:

IOC announces Olympic Esports Games to be hosted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

I had mentioned this Esport thing with the ICO before, and I still don’t know how I feel about it. My best take is that the IOC is really trying to be ahead of the trend here and sees the potential, not necessarily of athletic excellence, but for them to milk a cash cow. Esports are huge business, and clearly the IOC wants a piece of that action. If they can build an event around it and therefore own the “olympics of …” for this market segment then it’s a big win for them. But beyond engaging marketers and players/athletes and spectators they can engage with a new series of host cities/countries interested in hosting an Olympic event but one that doesn’t quite require the complexities and scale of a full blown “real world” Olympic Games. I used a lot of air quotes and insinuations in this paragraph and I don’t mean to diss anyone one playing, or any city interested in hosting these events, I am merely trying to look at it from a strategic point of view of how the IOC might view these events:

At the same time, the IOC will have to create a new dedicated structure within its organisation, clearly separated from the organisational and financial model for the Olympic Games. In order to address the specific nature of the Olympic Esports Games, the IOC will also have to take a different approach with regard to the financing and organisation of these Games.

Just take a look at the Wikipedia article of the Olympic Esport Games and you can see how this all will play out. Fascinating.

As a personal aside: I have been endlessly fascinated with this host city selection process since I was younger. One of my big dreams has been to work for a city on their “bid book” in securing the nod to host the events in their town. I would be such a crazy, and dreamy project. I digress…

Tiffany Montgomery for the Daily:

Evo’s sister company has been buying up property around its Seattle store to create a collective of active and outdoor businesses. The latest project – the construction of a 120,000-square-foot office building, the future HQ of Brooks Running.

Taking a page out of the McDonalds playbook: “Yes, you’re selling hamburgers, but really you’re in the real estate business.”

The diversification of the evo business is becoming increasingly important to riding out highs and lows. As many other industry retailers have experienced, the past two years has been tough for evo retail in North America. 

While the other big outdoor company in Seattle, REI, sold off their headquarters to Meta during the pandemic, EVO seems to be going all in on real estate. And who can blame them, Seattle is still an insane boom town.

From the World Trail Majors’ press announcement:

We value teams, we value brands. They are part of the sport. Here at Gran Canaria World Trail Majors we want to give them some extra exposure. We present you the Team’s League 2025.

…

The intention is to provide an opportunity for brands to promote their athletes and their brands as participants in a high profile, competitive, global league.

I see two distinct audiences for this:

• Clearly this effort is aimed at brands to encourage their athletes to run the races on their calendar? Is this a sign that the idea by WTM to pry elites away from the UTMB circuit has not been as successful as they had hoped?
• Another fun side benefit might be that friends could get together to race a few of their races and call themselves “a team”. The requirements are simple and inviting enough.

Fun Youtube show with host Aaron Shimmons and guests Krissi P, Ricki Wynne … and yours truly.

We’re back with another panel show, this week with a special guest who was on the ground in Silverton during the Hardrock 100 Endurance Run. We talk all about the race and some key storylines and also dig into the media coverage and Jamil Coury’s recent purchase of Ultrarunning Magazine!

And can someone please help me and tell me what the German equivalent cheer is for: ‘Allez Allez Allez’? This is very embarrassing.

A brand new trail race coming to Africa’s mountain in October of 2025:

The Kilimanjaro Peak Ultra is a unique trailrunning race to the summit of the 5,895 m Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and back down. The KPU follows the Marangu route, the most popular and easiest route with about 68 km and 4,100 meter of elevation gain from Marangu Gate, one of the entry points to the nationalpark, up to Uhuru Peak and back down.

Put on by Plan B, the events management team behind Zugspitz Ultratrail and the TransRockies and TransAlpine Runs. Looks like a fantastic event and a fantastic way to get to experience this amazing mountain.

The brand new UTMB event is officially announced and the website is live:

Participate in a monumental trail running adventure in the Italian Alps, following the paths of historic mountaineers and alpine guides. Discovers vibrant local communities and ancient villages brimming with traditions and legends. ​Conquer unprecedented trails winding through the breathtaking beauty of the Aosta Valley from the iconic Matterhorn to the majestic Monte Rosa.

• Registration opens: July 23, 2024
• Event dates: July 18-20, 2025
• Distances offered: 120K, 90K, 43K, 15K

Monte Rosa Walserwaeg by UTMB takes place in Valle d’Aosta on the paths that pass at the foot of the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa.

!!! I have not updated the ECC UTMB World Series Calendar – hold tight.

In light of yesterday’s news that Jamil bought Ultrarunning Magazine I wanted to collect and list what else Jamil owns (and by Jamil I mean Aravaipa which is a family business and registered LLC in Arizona operated by Nicholas Coury, Jamil Coury, Peter Coury, Nathan Coury, Melia Coury, Pati Coury):

Aravaipa Running, the racing events company operates 58 events (as currently listed on their website) in the three states of Arizona, Colorado, New Hampshire.

These include:

• Cocodona – the most important “max ultra” (over 100miles) event in North America.
• Black Canyon Ultras and Javelina Jundred, which are two of North America’s largest ultras and also make up for 2/3s of the US’s Western States Golden Ticket races, and 1/3 of global Golden Ticket races.
• Dozens of larger and smaller events including Jigger Johnson Ultras, Mogollon Monster 100 and the popular Desert Solstice Track Invitational and the Across The Years events.
• Aravaipa also owns The Silverton Alpine Maration and the Kendall Mountain Run in Silverton which happens the week before Hardrock each year.

With Mountain Outpost Jamil offers live broadcasting of 14 live events (that 17 races) for 2024. That includes two of the most important trail races in thew world: Western States and Hardrock (both nonprofit organizations). There’s really no other American entity that owns as many Starlinks, or has the capacity to offer live-streaming for trail races beyond a fixed finish line cam. (UTMB is streaming, or trying to stream 1 event (Canyons) in the US and eight globally in 2024.)

Yesterday ‘Steep Life Media’ (a new business entity registered with the Arizona Secretary of State on 5/31/2024 and owned by Aravaipa Running) purchased Ultrarunning Magazine. This is (one of) the oldest and I believe only US-based print magazine dedicated to trail and ultra running. The publiciation has been around in some form since 1981 and offers one of the most comprehensive calendar of ultra running events in North America including results listings. UR Magazine has also published the popular but somewhat controversial ‘Ultra Runner of the Year’ Award since its inception. An annual award of the best North American Ultra Runner.

With a combined 14 Hardrock finishes Jamil and his brother Nick own over 1% of all Hardrock finishes.

To recap:

• Jamil and family own (by event) the largest trail race organization in the US (maybe even the world).
• Jami and family own the largest (by number of events streamed) trail race live broadcasting company in the US (maybe even the world).
• Jamil and family now own the US’s only print publication and popular website dedicated to trail and ultra running.

I genuinely do not know what this all means for other trail race organizations in the regions Aravaipa operates in or across the country. And I have no clue how this impacts other media businesses in our space, like iRunFar and Freetrail.

But I do know that this puts Jamil and family into a VERY powerful position to shape the future of our sport and I’m sure glad Jamil’s last name is not Poletti.

This is a brand new pre-announcement which hasn’t been made official via the UTMB press office, but according to the local news Aoesta Sera here are the details (again, browser auto-translated!):

From 18 to 20 July 2025 the most important trail organization in the world will baptize a new race, from Aosta to Gressoney-Saint-Jean, for a total of 120 km and 8200 meters of positive elevation gain, plus three other shorter distances.

Monterosa Walser Waeg is the name of the race that will become a ‘by UTMB’ event in 2025.

The Valle d’Aosta, just one valley over from Chamonix is full of high profile events already: TOR, Gran Trail Courmayeur, Ultra Tour Monte Rosa to name just a few, but the news paper doesn’t make this move sounds like this is a bad thing, so it will be interesting to see how these all will coexist.

A slightly shorter race, just over a month ahead of the UTMB Finals could be the perfect tune-up race for many top athletes, and the region is well-know for it’s breath-taking and really steep trails.

While the American trail runners were playing summer camp in Silverton in Wales the “original running, adventure & music festival” happened. Sponsored by some of the biggest brands, including Salomon and Mammut, this ‘summer camp for trail runners’ is a fascinating concept, and I’m a bit surprised something like this hasn’t caught on in the US. And by me saying I am surprised that it hasn’t caught on, I mean, it’s happening for the first time in California in October of this year. But no lineup or sponsors are announced yet.

This is huge news:

Steep Life Media, LLC, headed by veteran ultrarunner Jamil Coury, has acquired UltraRunningMagazine, based in Bend, Oregon. The new ownership will be effective immediately beginning with the September 2024 issue and Coury serving as publisher

There is lots to be said, and will be said about this acquisition and move, but for now: Congrats, Jamil and team.

It fits all their newest watches, has the official UTMB World Series logo on it, is $10 more than their other bands… and… I must have it. Yes, I’m a sucker.

Womens:

1. Courtney Dauwater – USA – 26:11:47 (new overall course record!)
2. Camille Bruyas – France – 29:28:18
3. Katharina Hartmuth – Germany (not Switzerland!) – 30:29:17

Mens:

1. Ludovic Pommeret – France – 21:33:08 (new overall course record!)
2. Diego Pazos – Switzerland – 24:39:36
3. Jason Schlarb – USA – 24:48:18

More to come…

In 26:11:47.

She just keeps on winning and is completely untouchable at pretty much every race she enters. What a performance.

In a time of 21:33:07.

48 year old Ludo from Prevessin, France lead the race from start to finish and broke Kilian’s overall course record by over 3min. According to the iRunFar pre-race interview Ludo had been in Silverton for almost a month preparing for the race and running the ‘Soft Rock’ twice during that time. Talking about being ready and prepared to take on this challenge.

For full results and updates visit the Hardrock tracking page.

But he was denied by Hardrock’s medical board according to Brian Meltzer for trailrunner:

Miller said he had consulted with his doctor, his girlfriend, Jess, and several other people close to him and decided he wanted to continue with his intent to run. He said he didn’t feel any pain running this week, only some slight discomfort from the suture closures at the three point-of-entry holes in his abdomen that provided access for the laparoscopic procedure.

However, the Hardrock board of directors met with its medical advisors on Thursday and decided Miller would be ineligible to start the event.

Rumors have it UTMB has already reached out to him with the invitation to come run around Mont Blanc later in the Summer.

Hardrock is hard, and even though the course was in great condition today it was a hot and humid day.

So far, after ~14hrs of running here are the notable drops:

• François D’Haene
• Pam Reed
• Deby Kumasaka
• Michael Marchand

I’ll be updating this as more information becomes available.

A few updates from the elite field:

Dylan Bowman is repaying his debt from last year and is volunteering at Chapman Aid Station:

Tomorrow I get to repay my debt. Captained by Bill, myself and a team of volunteers will return to Chapman to assist the 2024 class of Hardrockers in their quest. A chance to exorcise demons, witness human striving, fill some water bottles, and maybe distribute a few pep talks. I can’t freaking wait.

Jeff Browning was out in the San Juans marking the course this week.

Two days of marking the @hardrock100run course.

Zach Miller is not running tomorrow according to Mountain Outpost coverage.

And around town:

• The town has quieted down now on the evening before the race. The bar in my hotel is shutting down at 8pm to allow runners a quiet night sleep before their big dance.
• Earlier this evening clouds pulling into town and looking quite menacing over the mountains. But forecast seems to look dry for the race (not sure if my weather forecast captures the entire course).

With the same few athletes toeing the line at Hardrock. But this one was special:

Courtney talks about how she hopes to push the right amount throughout the race to use everything she’s got, how she’s hoping to smooth out the lows of her prior Hardrock experiences, and if she’s thinking at all about time or splits on race day. Oh, and we play a few yard games, too.

Fun.

Just in time for Hardrock the film featured as part of the Trail Running Film Festival‘s Global Tour 2024 is now available to watch online.

This has a chance of taking trail running live stream to the next level:

Starlink Mini is a compact, portable kit that can easily fit in a backpack, designed to provide high-speed, low-latency internet on the go. It includes a built-in WiFi router, lower power consumption, DC power input, and max download speeds over 100 Mbps.

* not a fan of the Elon dude, but man, these Starlinks are amazing.

This event in Silverton is tiny and still I am losing complete control of all the events that are happening during Camp Hardrock and all the other things that are happening which aren’t official but notable. Here are a few and I hope I’ll be able to add more small notes like these in the coming days.

• At last night’s Film Festival screening in Ouray the Spring Energy logo received quite a loud snicker from the crowd. This saga will not be so easily forgotten. (Spring sponsored one of the films in our 2024 lineup.)
• There are several group runs and brand “activation events” happening around town, but I can’t find any information on any of the social platforms about it, which is a bummer. Be sure to check out the Depletion Mile sponsored by Tailwind Nutrition though.
• Dakota Jones will be the pacer for Katharina Hartmuth.
• My Suunto Race watch isn’t charging anymore since the last software update. I went to the Suunto booth, chatted with Jake and received a loaner watch for the duration of the week. Amazing customer service. I would hate to run out here and miss some segments.
• Roaming film teams and photographers are following elites around town and shooting b-roll at every corner. Kind of fun to watch this from afar.
• Lots of commotion is happened right off of the main street (which is the only paved road in town) where the finish line is being set up. All the flags poles are just drilled straight into the dirt, which is just incredible. Two German runners are at the start line, but one lives on the East Coast of the US and the other in Zürich, Switzerland… so there’s no German flag at the finish line.
• At today’s Women of Hardrock panel it was announced that Meghan Hicks from iRunFar will become the new President of the Board of the Hardrock organization (a nonprofit). This feels like an important changing of the guard.
• I now have run Strava segments that list Kilian Jornet and Camille Bruyas. Turns out I am not as fast as they are.

Singletrack – Episode 310 with Michael Marchand:

Michael Marchand, from Olympia Washington is running Hardrock in just a couple of days. He got his entry in the lottery and has been training his heart out at a local city park pounding the miles and vert just mere feet from his house. We talk about his training leading up to the race and his motivation to take on audacious challenges like this.
Follow his tracker through the San Juan mountains and cheer him to a finish back to Silverton.

LINKS

• Michael Marchand on Strava
• Hardrock 100 Endurance Run
• Electric Cable Car Hardrock 100 coverage

Singletrack – Episode 309:

Dale Garland has been part of the Hardrock family since the first moments. He’s the run director and part of an incredible team of locals from the Silverton, Colorado area who deeply care about these mountains and love to share them with the runners, support crews and spectators who come every year to this tiny, remote and very special place. We talk about Camp Hardrock and many of the behind the scenes elements that make this event one of the top trail races in the world.

LINKS

• Hardrock 100 Endurance Run
• Electric Cable Car Hardrock 100 coverage

Several top runners are dealing with late injury blows and their chances of them showing up at the starting line are slim:

• Zack Miller had to have his appendix removed – WHHHAT?
• Katharina Hartmuth is still dealing with a bum back from a fall on a training run just before leaving Europe – Gute Besserung, there’s still hope.
• Maggie Guterl just told me this morning that she’s definitely out for the race – huge bummer.

I’ll add to this list if I hear more.

Episode 308 – with special guest Hannes Namberger:

Hannes Namberger, German Dynafit athlete and now triple winner of the Lavaredo Ultra Trail is back on Singletrack. We’re chatting about the race and his conversation with Tom Evans in the last few kilometers of the race leading to Hannes charging ahead and taking first place. We’re also touching on the topics of the longevity of an athlete’s career, what it takes to win at highly competitive races, and most importantly the famous Hannes Namberger Pizza at Ristorante 5 Torri in Cortina. See you in Chamonix later this summer.

LINKS

• Hannes Namberger on Instagram
• Hannes Namberger on UTMB
• Hannes Namberger’s pizza at Ristorante 5 Torri in Cortina
• Lavaredo Ultra Trail by UTMB
• Finish line shot by The Adventure Bakery
• Background photo by Peter Namberger

Episode 307 with special guest Rosanna Buchauer:

The German Dynafit athlete Rosanna Buchauer is the new queen of Lavaredo. Last weekend she ran an incredible race leading from start to finish at the highly competitive Lavaredo Ultra Trail 120K in Cortina, the heart of the Dolomites in Northern Italy. Rosanna is coming back from a rough winter battling injury and self doubt, raced her heart out and gained back her confidence with this stellar performance. Now, as she’s recovering and slowly restarting her next training block she has her eyes set on CCC late August at the UTMB Finals in Chamonix.

LINKS

• Rosanna Buchauer on Instagram
• Rosanna Buchauer on UTMB
• Lavaredo Ultra Trail by UTMB
• Cover shot by The Adventure Bakery

Plan B, the events management company behind some of Europe’s biggest trail races announced the first* 100 Mile trail race in Germany** for 2025 as part of the Zugspitz Ultratrail event. The race has its start and finish right in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the route is going around the Zugspitze Germany’s tallest Mountain crossing the border into **Austria and back.

The Zugspitz Ultratrail is Germany largest trail running event (*The Rennsteiglauf is not considered a “trail” race but rather a “Crosslauf” – more a “cross country run”) and absolutely worthy of a flagship distance. The flyover video can be found here. I gotta study the route a bit more but this looks intriguing.

The rains in Europe keep wrecking havoc with many high profile trail events around the continent:

We are compelled to make this difficult decision to ensure the safety of each and every one of you, which is our top priority, and of course, in compliance with the decisions of the local authorities following the major damage caused by the adverse weather conditions. 

We have explored all possible solutions to make this weekend a celebration and to ensure you have a great time. We understand and share your disappointment regarding these changes, and we are doing everything we can to ensure your safety throughout this event.

Every race is impacted by this. Some distances are shortened, some are cancelled all together. This is the new normal for outdoor events in the days of climate change. Not good.

Back last fall when UTMB first announced their new and highly controversial event in Whistler, BC the 100M distance race was missing. This omission didn’t seem that unusual given that not every one of their World Series events offers a 100M distance option to begin with. This being a first year event it seemed to make sense to not offer it. Further even Coast Mountain had trouble finding an obvious route for their 100M WAM race and had to change routes several times. Ski resorts just aren’t that big and don’t offer enough trail miles to easily chart out a ‘nice and not contrived’ race course, and beyond the ski resort you run into wilderness permitting issues very quickly.

So UTMB launched with the 100k distance as their flagship event. It had almost 5,000 meters of vert and, just like WAM, would’ve been a very stout race climbing both Blackcomb and Whistler Mountain. Now, just over the last couple of months the race organization changed the name of the race to a 70K with 3,800 meters of vert and the actual distance being 64km or 39.52 mi with 12,657 ft of vert.

The 70k course offers the challenges of a true 100k distance, and falls under the UTMB 100K Race Category due to its kilometer based effort, while showcasing the full variety of what is offered on Whistler trails.

The changes:

The original 100k route started in sort of far out behind Green Lake and meandered along the Sea-to-Sky trail to Whistler village. From there it climbed up to Blackcomb Mountain descended back down to Whistler village and climbed Whistler mountain and descended via a few contrived loops toward the finish in Creekside.

The new route now starts and finishes in the same location in Whistler Creekside makes its way over to Whistler village before climbing the two mountains an descending back to Creekside via a cleaner line. The two big changes which brought on the distance shortening are the new start in Creekside vs. the far out place beyond Green Lake and the less contrived route back to the finished in Creekside.

Having covered every UTMB race on the calendar to date it’s not actually that surprising that UMTB is very casual with their labels for the race distances. There are several other of their races around the world that are similarly labeled. UTMB applies their ‘Kilometer-Effort’ algorithm to determine what race distance falls into what stone and index category. While this might be confusing and maybe UTMB should come up with a better naming scheme than 100M, 100K, etc… it’s also understandable given the way vert plays into how difficult a race actually is.

Here’s what the team wrote on Instagram in response to someone asking about the reason for the change:

We wanted to ensure that we could provide the best course possible so that all of our runners were well-supported and have an exceptional time on the trails. The new 70K distance still offers 3 Running Stones and is qualified in the 100K UTMB Index category. If you’re registered for the 70K and would like to run a true 100K linear distance, we have offered to allow you to transfer your registration to any of our other NA UTMB 100K races at no cost. You should have received an email with information on how to switch. If you would like to stay in the 70K distance, we are also offering the opportunity to register for Sunday’s 25K at no additional cost. We want to ensure all of our runners have a great and memorable experience at Ultra Trail Whistler!

So why the changes?

I have no insight information, but I am willing to hedge some bets:

• Registrations are low and volunteers are hard to find. If I judge by the event’s Instagram engagement (they still don’t have a 1,000 followers and almost all comments are still calling for boycott) one could come to the conclusion that this event is STILL a very hard sell. The shortened distance will require fewer volunteers and is logistically easier/cheaper to pull off.
• The original race was hard – it’s still hard, but a bit easier now. The fall in the PNW is full of events and many of them are hard. Given the reputation around the event, Whistler will have no chance to compete against already established races in the region. For the foreseeable future this event will have to be a clear play for stones and qualification for the Finals in Chamonix. But! The date of the event is less than 4 weeks after the Finals. It’s too close for people to got run both events. So folks from North America who have been in Chamonix won’t go to Whistler as well. By offering 3 stones for a shorter distance race it is now possible to race in Chamonix and then head to Whistler. So this is catering to the folks who love UTMB already, might have been in Chamonix but need another qualifying race for the coming year. I have no proof of it, but I could see UTMB applying this marketing technique to a variety of events that might not be reaching the level of interest they are expecting.

I could be completely off base here, but I think for folks looking for stones and a qualifying index this race has now become a lot more exciting. For folks who don’t care, or outright hate UTMB this race was never in the cards anyway. At least not for a few years until new stories are being written in Whistler.

Fourth of July in the US for is for many things, but for trail runners not out on a long run it is for watching the incredible and slightly insane Mount Marathon in Seward, Alaska on their Youtube livestream. Now there’s a livestream I love and one that makes me a true spectator and fan.

For the history and stats fans: the 2024 edition is the 96th running of this event. 96!

I met Matias Saari the race director of this incredible event at the US Trail Running Conference last year and we shared a few stories over beers.

Byron Powell previews the upcoming race for iRunFar:

The 2024 Hardrock 100 kicks off on Friday, July 12, with the 146 lucky runners having 48 hours to complete the mountainous loop through Colorado’s San Juan Mountains.

It’s fascinating to me that Hardrock, hosted in such a remote and logistically challenging location, with such a small field of runners, is such a desirable race, not sure for Americans, but for Europeans alike. In fact, looking at the elite entry list it feels almost as if the race is more popular among European elites.

A new Salomon film chronicling Courtney Dauwalter’s incredible year 2023 will world premiere at Camp Hardrock:

Next week (July 9th) The Trail Running Film Festival will take the Global Tour 2024 to Camp Hardrock in Ouray, Colorado and we’re bringing you something special: ‘A TEAM SPORT’ is a brand new Salomon film of Courtney Dauwalter’s incredible 2023 season. After the screening we’ll have a Q&A with the filmmakers Alexis Berg and hosted by Electric Cable Car. This is a one time screening ahead of the worldwide online release.

This event is part of Electric Cable Car’s special coverage of the Hardrock 100 Endurance Run 2024 – and I cannot wait!

Get your free and very limited tickets.

Well, this is new, or at least news to me: La Sportiva releases a new version of their Bushido – one of my favorite trail shoes ever made – and releases a “wide version“.

Get ready to conquer the most technical trails with the all-new Bushido III Wide Mountain Running® shoe. Building on the incredible 10-year legacy of the original Bushido, this updated version features a new outsole and rubber compound design, updated aesthetics, increased breathability and now offered with a Wide Fit option!

Must try.

Related to that: Buzz Burrell share with me on the latest episode of Singletrack how La Sportiva found its way into making ‘mountain running’ shoes. If you’re a gear nerd, this is a story for you.

How Western States was covered in the press and on blogs from around the world. (I’ll add more links as I find them in the coming days):

iRunFar (USA):

Walmsley Wins a Fourth Time While Schide Rocks the Women’s Field

xc-run.de (GERMANY):

The favorites prevailed at the Western States 100 Endurance Run: Jim Walmsley quadruple winner, Kate Schide triumphs with the women.

Run247 (GREAT BRITAIN):

Another Walmsley masterclass for win number four – Schide just spectacular

trailrunner – Outside (USA):

The favorites prevailed and dark-horse contenders ran lights out to place on the podium at 2024 Western States 100 Endurance Run

Das Z Letter (GERMANY):

Just like last year’s race, or whenever I get emotionally immersed in Western States, I realize again that I have to come back to this place. And I will.

Runspirited (USA):

The Golden Hour is still the best hour. This year, Iris Cooper was the last of the official 286 finishers, crossing the line in 29:56:10. There were 61 finishers in the final hour. William Barkan, the race’s first legally blind runner, entered the track in a sprint but fell a little short. He finished the distance but about 30 seconds too late for an official finish.

Trail Running NZ (NEW ZEALAND):

12 AM Sunday morning (5 AM in Murica), one of the most highly anticipated Western States ever got underway. Dylan Bowman was frothing in the commentary booth. I think he said, “My mind is blown”, 3 times before the starting gun went off.

…

It should have been one of the most tense finishes in Western States viewing history, with both Farvard and Hawks on the track at the finish.

Unfortunately for those watching live, the commentators were down at the finish line getting ready to interview Jim Walmsley as Farvard collapsed across the line, looking like a sack of shit as Hawks came in full sprint only 15 seconds behind.

The coverage was much improved this year, but it felt like we were robbed of an amazing moment (yes, I know there’s footage you can watch on Instagram, but not the same as catching it live)

Freetrail (via email) (USA):

Best day ever. Best sport ever. Best race ever. Best job ever.

America’s race: the ‘Western States Endurance Run’ had it’s 51st running this weekend in California and I don’t need to add too much to this as it is clearly the most covered race (outside of the UTMB Finals in Chamonix).
It’s still somewhat peculiar how the partnership with UTMB really works, this race is part of the UTMB World Series and folks finishing get a their Index, Stones and direct Finals Entry for podium finishers, but it is also completely standing on its own.

This event is straigthforward to recap as there’s only one distance, lots and lots of media coverage, super tight official race press releases, and a fairly small and manageable entry field.

Here are the winners (as if you needed me to list those, you’ve seen it everywhere already):

100M – 100M 4 Stones

Women:

1. Katie Schide – USA – 15:46:57
2. Fuzhao Xiang – China – 16:20:03
3. Eszter Csillag – Hong Kong – 16:42:17

Men:

1. Jim Walmsley – USA – 14:13:45
2. Rod Farvard – USA – 14:24:15
3. Hayden Hawks – USA – 14:24:31

Overall the 100 mile race had 375 starters – DNF: 89 – Finishers: 286 – Women: 62 (22%) Men: 224 (78%)

I won’t dive too deep into these numbers, there are “baseball fans out there (folks who loves the sports for every little statistic) and they will find the stories these numbers tell. But two things I want to point out that I found fascinating:

• Tarawera had a higher finisher percentage for women in their 100M race. (Also the only other UTMB 100M distance with a higher women finisher percentage.)
• It feels that at Western States American men have dominated, yet struggled (until recently) at UTMB. And at Western States we have lots of non-US athletes on the podium – and even top 10, while at UMTB the American women have dominated. No idea if this idea is supportable by numbers, but this somewhat stuck out to me this year.

A couple more observations:

Clearly Western States, as an organization (and nonprofit on top of it) is incredibly dialed. The right people do the right things to deliver a world class event for racers and spectators alike. The event is without question the top trail race in the United States and represents and celebrates American trail culture like no other. The organizations knows what it has and what it needs to preserve.

The partnerships with brands works (for now). The interplay between the appeal of being “just a charming nonprofit” while partnering with massive global brands like UTMB and Hoka works if the power dynamic is understood and preserved. I don’t see this being challenged, but as Western States renewed their partnership with Hoka just last week this is something worth pointing out. Who gains more in this relationship, and further: who makes who.

The Inspiration:

The Western States course is classic, many of the locations are legendary due to the history of the race and the competition that has found their way to California. For many runners, even many international runners, this race is the pinnacle of their racing dreams. And for many many reasons it deserves all the desire.
I ran Canyon’s 50K last year – for stones, and definitely felt the magic of the Western States Trail, bnut for me personally seeing runners running down Cal Street on the livestream just doesn’t hit quite like seeing trail running happening in the mountains, with glaciers as backdrops and ridges in the distance. It’s a personal thing and I don’t want to diminish or take away anything from it. But I still after many years don’t have the bug of wanting to run this race. Or maybe I just believe that I would suck dealing with the heat in the canyons?

It’s time to design the poster for the 2025 Global Tour of the Trail Running Film Festival.

Help us design the poster for our Global Tour 2025!

We’re commissioning a custom piece of art representing our mission and speaking to the global trail running community. Your art will be featured on the poster for our upcoming 2025 Global Tour and on other merchandise supporting our Festival.

Learn more about this paid gig and the process on how to submit your designs.

On trail running’s biggest week, June 26-30, 2024 the massive Lavardo Ultra Trail by UTMB might’ve been outshone in media coverage by Mont Blanc Marathon and of course Western States here in the US, but offered incredibly competitive racing in the beautiful Dolomites in Northern Italy.

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

100M (120K – 4 Stones)

Women:

1. Rosanna BUCHAUER – Germany – 14:09:23
2. Giuditta TURINI – Italy – 15:19:03
3. Michaela WOLF – Germany – 15:22:41

Men:

1. Hannes NAMBERGER – Germany – 11:57:15
2. Tom EVANS – Great Britain – 12:00:45
3. Yannick NOËL – France – 12:12:37

100K (80K – 3 Stones)

Women:

1. Emmiliese VON AVIS – USA – 09:50:03
2. Virginia PÉREZ MESONERO – Spain – 09:51:03
3. Kristýna ČERNÁ – Czech Republic – 09:53:36

Men:

1. Patrick EHRENTHALER – Germany – 08:31:29
2. Virgile MORISET – France – 08:36:01
3. Andrea MACCHI – Italy – 09:05:59

50K (50K – 2 Stones)

Women:

1. Elisa DESCO – Italy – 04:54:19
2. Sofiia POROKHNAVETS – Ukraine – 05:08:19
3. Andreea Alina PISCU – Romania – 05:09:42

Men:

1. Antonio MARTÍNEZ PÉREZ – Spain – 04:15:17
2. Luca DEL PERO – Italy – 04:16:07
3. Mattia GIANOLA – Italy – 04:19:28

20K (20K – 1 Stone)

Women:

1. Alice GAGGI – Italy – 01:52:03
2. Ingrid MUTTER – Romania – 01:53:30
3. Carrodilla CABESTRE LUCIA – Spain – 01:56:33

Men:

1. Nadir MAGUET – Italy – 01:29:35
2. Andrea ROSTAN – Italy – 01:30:30
3. Lorenzo CAGNATI – Italy – 01:32:59

Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• 100M Starters: 1,614 – DNF: 374 – Finishers: 1,240. Women: 156 (13%) Men: 1,084 (87%)
• 100K Starters: 921 – DNF: 162 – Finishers: 759. Women: 168 (22%) Men: 591 (78%)
• 50K Starters: 1,676 – DNF: 106 – Finishers: 1,570. Women: 390 (25%) Men: 1,180 (75%)
• 20K Starters: 651 – DNF: 24 – Finishers: 628. Women: 212 (34%) Men: 415 (66%)
• 10K Starters: 362 – DNF: 1 – Finishers: 361. Women: 171 (47%) Men: 190 (53%)

Lavaredo delivers again (just watch the recap video and you’ll understand why this race on the top of the list of events I want to race\!). One of the most beautiful races in one of the most beautiful locations in the Alps saw in total there 5,224 starters and 4,558 finishers. 1,097 (24%) women and 3,461 (76%) 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, on July 3-7, 2024, we’re entering the heat of summer with three! UTMB events on one weekend including the European Major: France hosts Restonica Trail on the island of Corsica. Verbier, Switzerland hosts Trail Verbier St Bernard. And the UTMB Major, Val D’Aran is happening in the Pyrenees in Spain. To follow the races live visit the UTMB Live tracking website.

Singletrack – Episode 306:

Buzz Burrell needs no introduction. A giant in our trail running world, Buzz joins Singletrack to talk about the differences and similarities of trail running in Europe and North America. We touch on tourism, permitting, environmentalism and the way the media has influenced the past, present and future of our sport.

LINKS

• The Trailhead Podcast with Buzz Burrell an Zoë Rom from UltraSignup
• Buzz Burrell on Strava
• Buzz Burrell on Wikipedia
• Fieldsheer Mobile Cooling shirts