“Where Do We Draw the Line?”

Francesco Puppi doesn’t like 200+ mile trail races and feels the need to air his displeasure using Rachel’s incredible achievement as the dumping ground.

There’s all kinds of wrong with this and not just the timing of the post.

If you wish to be a gatekeeper and define what trail running should be – either as co-founder of the PTRA or as an athlete to ensure the distance you chose reigns supreme – you could find ways to facilitate that conversation and maybe learn from others in the process.

But going on Instagram to share your displeasure of a specific race distance or format – in our world of trail running that’s been enriched by new ideas popping up every other year since its inception – feels immature, unprofessional, and trollish behavior that’s uncalled for for any level of athlete.

The sport of trail running is at a fascinating moment in time. The professionalization is happening slowly, but we’re not in a place where the elite runners race separate events with full on doping controls, prize money, and federation support on the way to the Olympics, while everyone else “plays in the mountains just for fun”. What largely defines what is considered trail running is what makes a splash in the media. And that arrives from both ends of the spectrum – manufactured and financially incentivized, and the way explorers used to share their historic conquests: through sheer boundary breaking achievements that inspire the public beyond our niche.

Our sport still hold both ends closely together and that what makes it great, and unique, and worth pursuing as an elite and an amateur. The best athletes and voices in our sport can hold both of these things in balance and celebrate the humans behind it that choose to step onto the dirt and believes in themselves to do the unthinkable.

That’s worth celebrating and that’s why we’re in this sport.