Dakota vs. Ben

Dakota Jones with yet another banger of a blog post and a response to Ben Dhiman’s race report of his win at UTMB this year:

…it seems a little rich for Ben Dhiman to suggest that he’s the first person ever to try to run fast at UTMB.

And further:

… don’t patronize me man. The problem with Ben’s statement is not that it’s false. It’s that Ben doesn’t seem to realize there might be other reasons for running a race than simply winning.

Dakota is as eloquent as ever and tries to be fair to Ben here. He closes bringing his response to the heart of what trail running should be all about:

I want to look to leaders who can figure out how to compete for the win and simultaneously be inclusive of the sport as a whole. Do their successes include others? We’re not in the stone age because we haven’t been running fast enough. We’re here because we’re specializing the sport toward exclusive, elite outcomes. True innovation will include everyone.

This is trail running.