By Mathias Eichler
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With the last Golden Tickets claimed at last weekend’s Black Canyons Western States has now posted the full entry list for 2024. (I guess there’s still the possibility of wait list movement as runners bow out between now and race day.) Among the many deserving things that makes Western States such an alluring story to cover is that the relatively small data set of runners each year is incredibly well displayed and documented. This event seems to be the gold standard when it comes to entry field documentation and presentation on their website. And while this might a lot harder to do for races with a much larger entry field, we in the media would love it if other events (hello UTMB!) would adopt some of these practices. Alright, with that, let’s dive into this much-praised data:
THE GENDER SPLIT FOR WESTERN STATES 2024:
Some historical comparison (and I did just pull a single year from the website, so I can’t model a direct graph here): In the 2013 running of Western States there where 80% men and 20% women at the starting line. So, this seems to be trending into the right direction: more diversity and equality.
GEOGRAPHY:
Of the 371 total bibs assigned, 275 (74%) are going to runners from the United States and of those 88 (24%) to runners from California, the home state of Western States. 7 bibs go to German runners, which feels like an exceptional lucky year for Germans. In 2023 there was only a single runner (Janosch Kowalczyk from Stuttgart) at the starting line. A single bib, just like for the past two years, is going to a runner from Austria and again there’s no Swiss runners are at the starting line.
These data sets aren’t huge, the difference here is between a couple dozen runners, but nonetheless this would suggest that the Western States entry field is becoming more international, which is another way of expressing diversity.
(These numbers are just for the lottery registration so far. Elites still have the ability to qualify via various races at the World Series.)
Let’s look at the gender split of US runners vs. rest of the world:
I want to break this down a bit further as ‘elites’ make up a rather big percentage of the entry field at Western States.
Here’s the gender split between elites vs. regular lottery entries:
Of the 371 total entries there are 45 (12%) runners who got into Western States via a Golden Ticket, direct entry as a returning top ten runner or gunning for their tenth finish. For this exercise I call these runners the elites, which isn’t 100% complete but an easy way to separate the spreadsheet.
Of these 45 ‘elites’ there are:
So, this of course checks out as in the way I pulled these numbers Western States offers an equal number of tickets for each gender.
Of the 326 runners who I would consider ‘non-elite’ there are:
Of these ‘non-elite’ runners there are:
So, the percentage of women runners slightly dips compared to the overall numbers due to the fact that the elite numbers are close to equal and the lottery pool still has a larger percentage of men then women.
I’m reminded of a comment Sarah Lavender Smith made a few weeks ago on the Midpacker Pod:
To summarize: the suggestion she made was that elites should to boycott UTMB events and Hardrock and Western States should drop the UTMB affiliate qualifiers due to her assertion that “European men are flooding the lotteries of popular US races”. Aside from the weird taste her statement left in my mouth I also don’t see these numbers I posted supporting her statement. Sure, we could go back to just regional running, but we already have this in the countless local community driven trail races put on each weekend at some trail head at the end of a dirt road. If some of our events celebrate the global trail running community, is that so bad?
I am reminded of a comment the race director of the Kullamannen by UTMB Per Sjögren made a couple of weeks ago, who suggested that one of the great things about running a big international race is getting to experience the global trail running community coming together. That’s what attracted me to trail racing. That’s my kind of adventure.
Here’s a common song from the ‘anti UTMB’ crowd:
The new UTMB stone system is bad, and a corporate money making scheme. UTMB should go back to the ITRA System.
In the past UTMB required 15 ITRA points to be eligible for the UTMB lottery, 8 ITRA points were required for CCC & TDS (at least according to the spreadsheet I had created back in 2017). Those points you could acquire by running any races where the race director decided to pay the annual ITRA membership fee (which wasn’t much, but wasn’t free either and was definitely one of the pieces that RDs complained about.)
So in any case you needed 3 races at a minimum to accumulate enough points to qualify. Even running two 100 Milers in a year wasn’t enough. You could collect them in multiple years though.
Each runner had to plan their year(s) of running according to an ITRA calendar HOPING that independent race directors would re-upp their membership with ITRA. So, if you planned year one to run certain races, and wanted to run the next year another set of races to complete your points hunt, there was no guarantee that a race director would have their race included in the following year’s ITRA calendar.
So, that’s the system we want back?
Did that make it better for runners than the current system?
The current stone system creates stability for runners wanting to run UTMB. We know where the UTMB World Series events are happening and we can plan our year around it. We could augment our index by running independent races, but that does require race directors to submit their event to the FREE event calendar on the UTMB site. Did I mention it’s free, and easy?
If the complaint is about wanting to ensure that UTMB doesn’t create some sort of chain-store juggernaut “monopoly” and needs to be kept in check at all cost then yes, sure, let’s break it apart and give runners wanting to run it a shittier experience chasing their dream.
Lotteries to enter a trail race that has limited capacity and can’t just allow 10s of thousands of runners on the trail has not been perfected.
The Western States and Hardrock lotteries are difficult and frustrating for many runners wanting to run these races. Many have given up trying to yearly get their qualifiers.
What UTMB has decided to do is that, rather than just letting people try for close to decade, over and over again to get into their races, they’d build a series that would allow a sort of triage. Folks could get a chance and taste at the UTMB experience at races all over the world. This is a work in progress, the World Series events needs to strike a delicate balance by fitting into the local community while giving you a taste of the spectacle that is UTMB in Chamonix. They are working and improving this marriage of local flair and global experience.
The alternative for UTMB is to HOPE that local race directors make the races available as qualifiers and hope that the experience locally on the ground sets runners who are wanting to come to Chamonix up for success. You could say now, that UTMB needs to try harder to appease local RDs to ensure that they are interested in being a sort of ‘feeder event’ and many rightfully might decline. Some see their race as an experience in itself, some just really don’t want to partner with others. That’s a fine perspective to have as an RD, but obviously not a tenable solution for UTMB. If they want to give access to runners from a specific region they can’t just throw their hands up in the air and say “sorry, if you live in that region you’re out of luck.
In the road marathon world it’s a sign of pride for race organizations to be a Boston qualifier. It attracts runners from all over the region, increases sign ups, and generates tourism dollars. Does it hurt the local marathon if a few fast people show up and try to get their BQ? They still pay the entry fee and are part of the event. There is a more stringent control over the accuracy of the route length, and this requires a USATF certification but beyond that I don’t see the downside.
So yes, if you don’t want to run UTMB ever, either because you don’t like Ironman, or UTMB, or France, or the Alps, or don’t care about vacation races, by all means, run any of the thousands of independent races around the courtly. They won’t go anywhere.
And yes, if your favorite local trail race was purchased by UTMB, why not reach out the RD that sold that race and is still operating it. Buy them a cup of coffee and hear their story on why they decided to sell to BIG TRAIL and stay on managing the event.
Lots of words are being tossed about, but two big words stick out to me in regards to this UTMB situation.(I’m escalated it now from kerfuffle to situation, if you’re keeping track.)
I’m not even going to answer these two questions above. What I am going to say is this:
I’ve read a lot online over these last few months. I’ve even read comments on social media (god help me), chatted with folks, and debated the issue, and here’s where I land:
Folks who call big things they don’t like or don’t understand a “monopoly” and folks who say things like “friends don’t let friends run UTMB races” and call for boycotts of organizations because they don’t like an aspect of their image are rarely seeing the full picture and are mostly not correct. Not in the short-term, not in the long term, and most of the time they don’t succeed with their doomsday fear mongering. Gate keepers, accusation screechers, and moral preachers aren’t my thing.
I want to run trails up mountains. I want dream of adventures and train my body every day so I can run the races I feel like signing up for. I trust myself and my personal radar to decipher what is a positive experience and which one matches my values and my worldview.
I want to run trails with people who feel the same way. You are my people, and this is my trail community. Trail running is adventure seeking through physical and mental challenges. (And most of all a huge privilege!)
Dylan Bowman commenting on Kilian’s post on Instagram:
Thanks for the leadership, Kilian!
Still no clear statement from Dylan Bowman on the developments of the last few months.
Ethan Newberry on Twitter/X:
This literally says nothing. PR shit wrapped up in glossy PR glitter with a headline that’ll appease the masses. WTAF
Ethan’s been on a tear about this for months.
Kaci Lickteig on Twitter/X:
They expect people to read the headline, not read the content, and have everyone believing they made amends with the ultra-trail community. It’s a ploy…
“It’s a ploy”… get your tinfoil hats folks.
Andy Jones-Wilkins on Twitter/X:
So there was a meeting with the guys who wrote the email and the Sith Lords and now we’re all good?
Someone wasn’t invited to the meeting.
Look, we all get to use our social media platforms to comment and we’re entitled to our opinions. All is good. But! If trail running is supposed to be special, If there’s a precious culture that’s worth defending, or standing up for, and if said culture is supposedly been guided by well-known and accomplished trail runners/media personalities in our sport and not giant corporations, than what is on display here feels sort of not that special at all. In fact it feels small and petty. The ‘us vs. them’ mentality is tiresome and lazy. Not everything needs to be compared to going to war. And a community is not better off by rallying against an imaginary enemy.
And before you call me a shill for Big Trail I’ll add this: If we in our community cannot call each other out and hold each other to higher standards, we most certainly can’t expect ‘them’ to hold themselves to these standards.
Francesco Puppi closing his statement on his personal Instagram:
As always, as I would like to see way more in our society, dialogue is often the solution. Simply sitting down at a table and listening what the others have to say, understand their position, show empathy.
Now that is real leadership.
Earlier this week on Instagram Martin Cox from VO2maxCoaching shares a private email sent to various elite runners. Apparently sent from Kilian Jornet and Zach Miller asking folks to skip UTMB in 2024 and find a different race. Preferably everyone should pick the same alternate race so they have some competition and hopefully media coverage with it. Zach Miller then confirms in the comments the validity of the email.
I won’t comment on the tactfulness for taking an email that wasn’t actually addressed to Martin himself but to some of the athletes he coaches, and posting the content online. I suppose nothing new was in the email, Zach more or less posted the same sentiment on his Instagram a few weeks ago. Expect that it seems that the “anti UTMB stance” has now fully crossed the pond with Kilian now being fully on board with the “soft boycott” (most who currently openly boycotting all says they are doing it out of love and are looking forward to returning once “their demands are met”, so to speak.)
Martin in his post uses some choice words, way overboard for my taste, but one word sticks out to me. He calls the two authors of the email hypocrites. And I guess Martin refers to the question of chicken and egg and which came first: Did UTMB make Kilian’s and Zach’s careers or did Kilian’s and Zach’s commitment to race UTMB year after year help UTMB grow to its prominence in our sport and beyond. The short answer is probably a mix of both. And since I don’t want to split hair here and I don’t think we can come to a quick conclusion who made who, for me “hypocrisy”, or the possibility thereof can be measured on steps taking in the future. Let’s look at 2024 and beyond. Where will they race? And for me, what’s even more interesting and the ultimate telling piece: If Kilian boycotts racing UTMB, will his brand NNormal have a booth at the UTMB Expo in Chamonix come August? Over the last two years NNormal made a huge splash during UTMB week and sort of used the de-facto gathering of the trail running world to launch their brand. Can Kilian in good faith boycott the commercialization of UTMB on a personal level but still take advantage on a professional level? Well, I guess he definitely can do that, but in my book that would fall into what I would call hypocrisy.
I don’t want to beleaguer this much more, especially since nothing has been decided yet and all of this clearly falls into major speculation category at this point, but I want to use this moment and share a bit of my editorial philosophy for Electric Cable Car:
I won’t comment on an athlete’s and any other individual’s choices as it pertains to them personally. While athletes are influencers, and therefore their own little micro brands, it’s not for me to comment or judge someone’s personal choice. I don’t know what’s going on in their life for them to decide or choose one thing over the other. So, in the end I don’t care if you choose to run for this sponsor, or race this particular event. I might mention it, if I deem it newsworthy, but I won’t judge it.
What I will comment on, have an opinion about, and will judge is what brands are doing. Big or small organizations are doing business in our sport and affect our culture and it’s fair game for me to point out their decisions, possible shortcomings, or where I am at odds with them on how I see our world. These brands are run by people too, but I won’t attack, or publicly out, or point the finger at an individual making these decision (with a few exceptions for real egregious behavior).
I believe there’s a bit of wiggle room here for some light ribbing of folks and of course, quoting someone’s exact words also allows for a bit of commentary and interpretation.
I might be adding more to this as my thoughts evolve, but for now this explains my stance quite well – I hope.
Over the holidays I had some time, or rather some muse and inspiration, and I abused the spreadsheet software again for my layout purposes. I created and uploaded the Electric Cable Car Global Race Series Calendar. After my successful experiment with the UTMB World Series Calendar I wanted to add a few more events. And rather than focusing on individual events which would’ve broken my brain, and spreadsheet, and quickly turned into 1,000s of entries, I decided to only focus on global trail races series. Why? Well, the most obvious reason and the one that inspired it all is that the series’ websites are often heavy on the marketing but lack severely a good way of viewing all races easily at a glance. That’s why the UTMB calendar exists on here. So I when the World Trail Majors were announced I added the WTM calendar and after more and more athletes were wondering out loud what races to compete in this coming year I thought it lend them a hand and create an easily to digest guide that’s viewable in Google sheets. For shorter distance events I added the Skyrunner World Series, the Golden Trail World Series and the Valsir Mountain Running World Cup and for folks who want to go really long I added TORX Experience. For now, that is a good start. If there other series you want to see included, please reach out and let me know. The full calendar is color coded to allow you to quickly see which races belong to which series. It also provides an easy way to see which weekend will be busy with lots of racing happening all over the world, great to follow traveling elites from afar. Hope you’ll have fun with it and it provides itself useful. Happy New Year!
UTMB currently offers eight events in North America. One in Canada, one in Mexico, and five in the United States, plus Western States, which is affiliated with but not owned by UTMB. These events include twenty-six races which offer runners a chance to collect stones to be eligible to enter the lottery to run in Chamonix for the Finals. I added a second sheet to the ECC Events Calendar, with the North American dates, events, races and prices. (Click the tab titled UTMB NA Prices 2024 on the bottom of the embedded window on that page to view that spreadsheet.) I wanted to offer all these prices in one convenient place so folks who are REALLY interested in chasing stones can see which races cost how much. Or for anyone is just interested in seeing the prices in comparison to each other in one handy sheet.
The price comparison is interesting to me. In general prices fluctuate depending on popularity and if it’s a Major or not. Prices also are increased at seemingly random intervals, probably when a certain percentage to sell out is achieved. (UTMB currently doesn’t post anywhere entry lists until just before race day, so there’s no way to tell when a race sells out.) I left off the ‘charity bib pricing’, which is on average at least double the price of the regular entry. Overall 20Ks seem quite expensive, especially in comparison to indie races. 100M races seem in line with the competition, but somewhat on the cheaper end. For example: Grindstone is only $349, while Western States is $450, which is the same price as High Lonesome 100, one of the most expensive 100 Milers in the country. Aravaipa’s Javelina Jundred is $420. Whistler is the newest event and currently the cheapest – this could have something to do with the exchange rate, the newness of the event, or the recent controversy around the event (if signups are sluggish, they’ll keep prices down for awhile). Mexico’s Puerta Vallarta hasn’t gotten an update date or prices for 2024 yet.
So for 2024 North American runners have only 17 ultra races to choose from to get their stones. And of those 3 are already sold out.
I’m not sure the point I am trying to make here. Looking at these numbers, and how few events there actually are, it seems that UTMB still has an insane growth potential here in North America. And yes, these events all are meant to give you access to Chamonix, and these Finals are already way overbooked as it is, so perhaps somewhere along the line all of this ‘stone chasing’ isn’t going to compute anymore, but for now, it seems this is just going to keep growing?
This is something that has existed for the UTMB Finals for some time now, but this year they’ve introduced this in a larger scale on most of the events here in the US. Here’s how UTMB talks about this.
Since 2004, UTMB Group has proactively supported numerous solidarity and environmental projects, raising over 4 million Euros for charitable causes to date. With the launch of UTMB Cares in 2023, runners from across the world are invited to ‘Race for More’ to support and showcase positive impact projects in race communities.
Limited edition charitable ‘Care Bibs’ are available at sell-out events to support the UTMB Cares initiative. You will find charity bibs directly on event website pages.
Charity Bibs seem a clever way for UTMB to give folks a chance to get into THEIR seemingly sold out dream race while pulling more money out of people’s pockets. But, if there are bibs still available the race is clearly not sold out. And UTMB is able to charge a premium for entries at a later stage when the event is close to selling out.
Offering two pricing tiers allows the regular entry price to stay reasonable, somewhat accessible, and competitive though, so that is kind of smart.
This appears to be a new concept within the US trail running landscape. I haven’t seen any other organization deploy a method like this. The methods we’re familiar with are either “sell out, lottery and wait list” or “ever-increasing prices to manage the demand”.
Matt Walsh interviews Greg Volley, Director of the Golden Trail World Series. Here are a few things that stick out to me.
I’ve focused here a lot on UTMB, and in many ways deservedly so, it is the biggest global event in our space, by far. But it’s also been a personal thing, I do want to race UTMB one day. Clearly what these past few months have been showing is that UTMB is in a rock and uneasy space. It’s good if other players in our sport assert themselves and play strong competition in our sport’s media landscape as well as helping create story lines around athletes and places and thus foster dreams for runners to go chase their adventure.
This morning after a stealthy media embargo the news of a new trail racing series dropped on various trail media outlets. In 2024 runners worldwide have the ability to compete in yet another trail race series: The World Trail Majors.
The timing of this announcement is of course impeccable given the challenges UTMB has faced over the past few weeks. Nothing wrong with trying to strike while the iron is hot, I suppose. And while no one suggests that this group of race directors pulled this together within a few short days I do think it all feels a bit rushed to take advantage of the news cycle. The website has several important components missing or labeled “coming soon”. Which might be fine for a little neighborhood race, but this is aiming to be the “World Trails Majors” – a name that suggests ambition of grandeur. On the Freetrail podcast the invited race directors (Janet Ng, Steve Brammar, Jamil Coury, & Stu McConnachie) shared their excitement to collaborate while staying independent races and organizations. Again, nothing wrong with it, but then the question arises: What, and for who is it?
The best answer to that I found in the explanation of the name. Inspired directly by the World Marathon Majors the idea behind the new series is not to be a qualification system for a Final, or even a focus on a leaderboard, but rather an invitation to travel and explore and race in exciting places around the globe. Seems noble, but also: all of these races existed before, not sure how this new series brings them closer to me.
What we’re getting with the World Trails Majors is a collection of exciting, high profile races that have successfully withstood the UTMB sirens call (so far) and have, with this announcement declared that they aren’t for sale, or at least not for sale to the UTMB/Ironman Group. Many of these races had previously partnered with UTMB Mont-Blanc on the Ultra-Trail World Tour which shuttered just before the pandemic.
In the words of the race directors, the hope is to share best practices and offer a truly local racing experience. This kept coming up in various interviews, but it felt a bit forced to me. Was this answering a call from the community? Is UTMB serving alpine cheese at their races in Asia? Are these UTMB owned events loosing their local touch?
One thing I have not been able to do, and I hope the community with help with this, is check on the various policies and community guidelines for this new group and hold them to the same standards as what we all expect from UTMB. The website seems to be thin on these for now, and perhaps therein lies the rub. There are plenty of races out there that are just local “show up at your dusty trailhead and run for a long time through the woods and hope for the best” type of races. If the aim is to be the ‘best of the best’ then it needs more than showcasing beautiful locations, the community has called for that ‘more’ for awhile now. And nothing seems to have been answered here. We, as the trail community are after this announcement sort of in the same place as before. Questions around elite racer consideration, prize money, pregnancy deferral + adaptive policies, environmental considerations, the list goes on – all are missing so far.
So, if this isn’t really for us runners, but more for the race directors to create a shared pool of experience, then why is it happening?
My best guess is that newly formed group is playing the long game here. None of these experienced RDs need advice from each other on how to mark the course (maybe the need help with developing community policies), but where the proverbial treasure sits is media rights, and marketing the races to an audience thirsty for live coverage of these unique and historic events. If this group can figure out how to consistently stream their races, in multiple languages, to a global audience, then this has the chance to attract sponsors and partners wanting access to those eyeballs. Each event organization can keep their local sponsors, but they can sell the media rights to a series sponsor. This has the opportunity to ‘up-the-game’ for the organization, and for each of the events in turn.
Finally, and I know you’ve been waiting for this: The World Trail Majors logo is awful.
I have no words. Yes, I get that it’s trying to be simplistic, and usually that is something I appreciate, but this is just unfinished and uninspiring.
Yes, this is my initial impression dump and there certainly will be more new to be shared in the coming weeks. I’m not writing them off, there is too much experience at the table to call this rushed or ill-advised. It’s good to have competition on the organizational level in our sport, even if it’s just for keeping UTMB honest, and for giving elites a few new ideas on where to race in the coming years.
I asked a friend of mine who runs triathlons and Ironman races for her take on Ironman entering our trail running sport. She had, of course, heard about the Whistler kerfuffle over the last couple of weeks and has her thoughts on it all. This is just one person’s opinion and experience as a triathlete, but given that most of us trail runners cling to that one tweet John Kelly posted when Ironman first announced their partnership with UTMB it might help to add a few more perspectives to that mix.
I’m posting this email exchange only slightly edited with some of my comments below.
Yeah, no way has Ironman killed triathlon. They certainly have a near-monopoly on the 140.6 (“Ironman”) and 70.3 (“Half Ironman”) distances. The copyrights on the word Ironman, Half Ironman, 70.3, and 104.5 certainly have the impact of that impression you have, but it’s not reality. Any sprint distance or Olympic distance or off-road tri you do is locally organized or put on by a small non-m-dot company. And organizers still hold halves and full Ironmans, you just have to call it something else due to copyright, but we all know you did an Ironman lol.
In some ways the media has made triathlons appear to be exclusive Ironmans, but in reality there are a lot of ways where athletes can enjoy the sport without participating in an Ironman branded race.
In a number of ways, I do agree with the sentiment you’ve heard. Some really special races have gone the way of the history books thanks to Ironman either directly competing with them or buying them out. But I have to respect that Ironman is a business and frankly they can put on one hell of a race.
While some competing races definitely have disappeared and lost to Ironman, the perception seems to be that the Ironman experience is a spectacle and worth the price of admission. And going even further:
In my experience, and this is in smaller communities in Wyoming and Utah, local races experience volunteer fatigue and small volunteer pools. So getting enough people to do it all, year after year, can be a bit challenging, especially for long events. Ironman makes deals with their host cities that they have to provide volunteers, so they know they will be fully staffed without having to go ask their neighbors for help like you and I. An Ironman is also a fully supported event so they require a lot of volunteers for a long time. Infrastructure travels with them and higher entrance fees cover all those expenses that add up to a more “polished” event, if you will. So if your non-Ironman races are always offering better experiences than Ironman can on the same date nearby, they won’t be able to drive existing races out, unless it’s a matter of qualifying for something, but even then most racers aren’t seeking that.
So, not just for racers, but the overall volunteer experience seems to be better at an Ironman event compared to a locally run event. My friend hints at how Ironman solves the volunteer challenge: getting the local communities to commit to proving volunteers. This was really surprising for me to hear, as I’ve been projecting that this might be the achilles heel for Ironman, but maybe they have ways to approach this that I haven’t thought about.
I encouraged my mom to do an M-dot 70.3 instead of a race by any other organizer, because as a woman in her 60s, she was going to be back of the pack and needed a race where aid stations stay stocked and the finish line volunteers are fresh. There are more races available than there have ever been, which is cool for so many people around the world. The races are very well done (pricey, yeah, but you do get what you pay for). The recognition of the sport has grown, as has participation. So while we have our frustrations, Ironman has done a lot for the sport and I still participate and still try to qualify for championship events.
Again a surprising and fascinating perspective. An Ironman seems to actually be a BETTER experience for an average athlete, compared to a local event. None of us in the trail running world would be considering this as of now.
They cannot seem to figure out their World Championships qualifying process. They kept adding so many races that eventually you pretty much had to win to KQ. Now they’re trying to address that with bigger championships, but of course people have feelings about that, haha. And you know Ironman won’t stop buying/creating new races so the problem will repeat itself. To be fair, there are some unique challenges in triathlon they’re going through right now with championship locations and splitting up the mens and women’s races, but it’s been a mess. And it doesn’t instill confidence in a UTMB World Series system set up by Ironman. Expect frustration and changes with the wind.
This seems to track. As these races are getting more popular, more people qualify, and this creates challenges to the lottery and qualification system. I bet that’s not an easy thing to project and solve. Not wanting to defend UTMB/Ironman here, but if their models don’t work, then their qualification system falls apart and that creates understandable frustration among the runners trying to collect stones.
They pack races with too many people, which makes business sense but creates risks (and deaths) for racers, especially racers who toe the line unprepared. The size of all their events also undermines the sense of community in some ways.
Something we’ve not seen here in the US, but I could easily foresee this to become an issue in the Alps. People are already lamenting that Chamonix feels like a complete zoo during UTMB week.
I think Ironmans are generally a great experience for amateurs in most regards, except cost and sometimes crowding. Amateurs at the pointy end trying to KQ have complaints about that process (and about the crowding on multiple-lap courses), but that’s always going to be a difficult thing to make everyone happy on, tbh. Pro payouts and support are not great, which is a big part of why the PTO started.
Again, kind of shocked with my friend’s response. Ironmans seem to be a positive experience for most athletes? Not something we as trail runners would want to believe.
I’d do what you can to preserve your local races, to support competition to Ironman, and to empower your pros. Take a look at what the Profession Triathletes Organization is doing. They just started up a couple years ago with better support for racers, intentional programming for female racers rather than willy nilly perks, and a healthier take on a world tour (which Ironman is now trying to replicate next year lol). I hope they can stay in the game, and I hope the Challenge Family maintains a presence, but as racers one of the biggest things we can do is help our small, local events (even if they aren’t 140.6 or 70.3 distance, which Ironman has basically copyrighted most organizers out of providing).
I think trail running can take a look at the things triathletes don’t love about Ironman’s approach and play a role in preventing them while still enjoying what Ironman can do for your sport.
I don’t think we’ll see the issue of copyrighting a specific distances arise in our sport, for that it’s too established. But clearly leaving Ironman, the one corporation, to run away with it all would be fatal and silly. But we’re also very far away from this in trail running. And yes, competition is healthy, if it comes from local event organizers or from competition global organizations that are trying to address different issues, or approach solving a problem from a different angle.
My friend’s overarching feeling is that Ironman, as the big player in her field, needs to continuously be checked, held accountable, and encouraged to improve and do better. But the overall racing experience at an Ironman seems to be not just good enough but actually worth the higher prices and worth the existence of an Ironman organization in the sport. That, Ironman hasn’t proved to us in trail running. Outside of holding the key to Mont-Blanc they haven’t given us racing experiences that were a step above the local grassroots events. Aside from the need of “stone collecting” there’s no need to run a ‘by UTMB’ race. If we want to be enchanted by that UTMB experience beyond Chamonix we need a bit more than HOKA banners and a big merch tent.
Finally, it doesn’t seem to be all doom and gloom. It seems Ironman’s contribution to triathlon seems to be a net-positive. Maybe it is okay for them to exist after all in our trail running world, and contribute their version and vision of our sport. We’re standing by and keeping watch.
Just listened to Corrine Malcolm and Buzz Burrell discuss the Ironman/Whistler kerfuffle on their latest episode of the ‘Trailhead podcast by UltraSignup‘, and man, if not even these two “voices of our sport” understand how UTMB’s stone system works, then I don’t even know. The two lament that UTMB requires a runner to run 2-3 official UTMB races each year in order to get their stones for the lottery. While that might fit the emotional narrative of the moment, it is just not true.
Stones do not expire. Stones are cumulative.
Their argument insinuates that one has to run exclusively UTMB events to be eligible to enter the lottery each year for a chance to run around Mont-Blanc. Yes, one needs to get a single stones every two years to enter the lottery. But a single stone from a single race, that could literally be a 20K, is enough to keep your account valid. And! The stones don’t expire but add up. You can run any of the community index races to keep your index current in order to put your name into the lottery for any specific distance.
So, to iterate:
This UTMB stone system is no threat to our community. It really isn’t.
Just for folks playing along in the online shitstorm creation game a quick reminder: UTMB is not a monopoly, not even close.
The definition for a monopoly:
Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service.
UTMB is not controlling every single race out there, you are not forced to run their races. Their races aren’t the only option for you to enjoy trail running. They currently own 6 races in the North America and partner with a seventh (Western States).
Rock Candy Running, my race company, operates three. Rainshadow Running operated eight, Aravaipa has over fifty! on their annual calendar.
There’s plenty to complain, criticize and question about UTMB/Ironman’s partnership and operation, but spreading misinformation doesn’t help anyone’s case.
If “trail running is supposed to save the world”, we, claiming to be their voices and stewards, gotta do better.
Here it is. The inevitable has come true. UTMB/Ironman announced a new event in North America and for the first time it’s not just a rebranded/acquired/previously existing event, but a brand new one. Except it’s not.
For the past 5 years Gary Robbins’ Coast Mountain Trail Running held the Whistler Alpine Meadows on the trails of Whistler Blackcomb resort. But the resort, under new ownership of conglomerate Vail Resorts didn’t renew the permit and the event was permanently cancelled just this past February.
The race is in a perfect location. I previously said, when Gary Robbins announced Whistler Alpine Meadows that this location has the makeup to become THE UTMB location in North America. A lot has changed since, but the mountains still exist and the location is still incredible. It’s close to a major city, close to an international airport. The trails aren’t at insane altitude (my personal favorite!) and most of the trails are in a resort, so permitting should be straightforward. So one thinks.
Fast forward a few years and Coast Mountain has had a few challenging COVID years (which RD hasn’t) and then the announcement arrives last February that WAM is dropped due to Gary and team not being able to come to terms with Vail Resorts.
So a beloved, albeit new-ish and not without complications (grizzlies, snow…) race is shut down. Not unheard of, but still somewhat surprising because it certainly felt that Coast Mountain had wanted to continue to operate it. CMT is clearly a highly regarded, professional organization that shouldn’t have any problems getting permits for an event like this. CMT didn’t walk away from it due to ‘difficulties’ or ‘lack of runners’, they couldn’t get a permit from resort owner Vail. No real reason given beyond that, but rumors have been floating through the grapevine that Vail was particularly complicated in trying to make this event happen. It almost felt like they didn’t want WAM. Which is surprising because Whistler has had a history of summer trail events beyond mountain biking and even after Vail took over several events continued to operate.
In any case we now see what this expansion is going to look like. Here in North America UTMB/Ironman still doesn’t seem to be able to find good locations for races unless someone did the legwork for them. So they end up buying an existing race or in this case, taking the work someone else did and stepping in and in many ways all over.
Should this be an unsettling reminder for race directors? Is this the turning point on how that Ironman/UTMB partnership is perceived in the community? Is this fair game? Squamish was oversold over year anyways and Gary walked away from Whistler. Is it just a blip in the news cycle and we all just move on and sign up to race anyways because the draw to race in Chamonix is just too great?
One thing is clear, the initial reaction online about this event is all negative. There’s a lot of behind the scenes moaning that this is, on paper, the perfect event – and this in the end might be UTMB’s financial saving grace, but the stench stays. And while this might not affect registrations this could really bite UTMB in the ass when it comes to getting folks to volunteer. I am not envying race director Christine Cogger, who previously managed the Ironman Canada in Whistler, to try to build an event under these circumstances.
In a press release on their news blog:
Many of our members are uncomfortable with the recent evolution of the partnership between the UTMB and the carmaker, Dacia, because of what we feel is a conflict with our values, our stated Environmental Ethical Boundaries, and our ideal vision of trail running.
This comment and effort seems to be a bit more of a level-headed approach than the ‘Change.org petition‘ floating around pre-UTMB spearheaded by the ‘The Green Runners’ while the essence of the criticism is largely the same:
I do like the approach the Pro Trail Runners Association is taking here. Doing it this way gives them a good platform to voice their concerns and discomforts. This can open a dialogue.
How UTMB is positioning the Dacia partnership is nothing new and certainly not uncommon in pro sports. Beloved local sports stadiums have their names changed all the time to reflect some corporate sponsors. Teams of the Tour de France have more brands associated to their team name and on their jersey than one can count. Most of the big marathons have a sponsor attached as top billing to their name. But just because it’s common doesn’t make it good. Naming ‘UTMB’ the ‘Dacia UTMB’ sounds kind of gross, no matter what brand is or would be attached. Well, check that if it would be called the ‘Electric Cable Car UTMB’ it would be damn rad, but I digress. Pro athletes who are hoping the sports progresses and offers more support for athletes to make a full-time living should welcome this addition as more money flowing into the sport means more for everyone. And currently the outdoor brands are the only sponsors and thus get to dictate their term. And in turn are raking in the millions without being questioned. Getting sponsor support from ‘outside the industry’ helps with leveling the playing field and offers better sponsorship terms for events.
Here are my questions for UTMB:
Some questions for the fast athletes on the frontlines calling themselves pros:
The amateur, every-person trail runner who feels that our sport should keep it’s ‘grassroots feel’.
I collected the data from the top 10 finishers of the World Finals events ‘UTMB, CCC, OCC’ to see how the sponsors faired at this year’s UTMB events.
This data is just taken from the website, so if athletes didn’t put that information into their athlete’s profile it doesn’t up here and I didn’t do any further digging to see what brands support what athletes. Also many of the top athletes are supported by more than one brand and the UTMB athlete profile only allows for “a team” to be added, which is what being displayed on the results page I took the information from.
Last year with TDS added to the mix things overall looked pretty similar. Hoka on top, which almost seems like a requirement for them, given that they are the big sponsors of the UTMB World Series. Adidas Terrex and Salomon, and even The North Face in some respect, are cleverly using the big stage of UTMB or get their brand valuable airtime through the athlete endorsements without having to pay the big Euros to become a UTMB sponsor. The big winner of this year’s race is clearly Nike which was completely missing on last year’s podiums, but got runners into the top ten in each of the races.
If we want to go one level deeper and include TDS, ETC and MCC to the mix, Asics and Brooks jump into the list of top brands. Also notably Nike, Adidas Terrex and The North Face are completely missing on the “other races” top list, which could indicate that they are really setting themselves up to be “pro athlete teams”.
Alright, I completely recalculated all the entry numbers of the UTMB races of 2023. This in turn changed everything about this article. I apologize for the initially wrong assessment. I had pulled the numbers from the UTMB.Live website, but these were incomplete/incorrect.
Here it goes. UTMB is trail running’s biggest stage with the various events drawing thousands of runners into the shadow of Mont Blanc each year. This year is UTMB’s twenty year anniversary and the call to “be a door, not a mirror” continues with a brilliant campaign by Auteur Sportif which is using this big stage to launch their newly formed marketing firm.
But, I’m here with numbers. There are a ton of different races part of the UTMB event, it’s kind of mind boggling, I will try my best to break it all down for y’all. (I left off the YCC, the youth races, to keep it a bit simpler. Further the UTMB website makes it fairly challenging to figure out the gender of the various 2-3 people PTL teams, so I pulled these out into a separate column.):
Total number of runners: 12,236. Total men: 9,445. Total women: 2,790 (23%)
Comparing these numbers to last years’, a couple things jump out to me:
In 2022 there were 559 starters from the United States across all UTMB races. This year only 482 made it across the pond to Chamonix. Only the MCC and ETC races saw an increase in US participation. Overall US participation dropped from 5.6% in 2022 to 3.9% for this year.
482 American runners made it across the pond for their chance of a finish in downtown Chamonix. The two most important races in the US Western States and Hardrock100 see a combined numbers of starters of 515.
Overall starters: 482. Women: 157 (33%). This number is encouraging and especially in the longer distances lifting the overall total which is a welcoming sign.
Overall starters: 268 (2.1%). Women: 61 (23%). I don’t have much to say about these numbers as I don’t have 2022 numbers to compare it to. The women participation is lower than the US’s but in line of the overall average. Will be interesting to see how to compares to the coming year.
Final thoughts:
The numbers are just massive. Almost every break down in itself could be a race on its own. What the UTMB group built there, and operates each year is in a completely different universe compared to any other trail running event we’ve seen. But, the UTMB starting line still looks very male dominated and the gender participation breakdown shows this. While Asian runners are starting to make their way into the top 10 with some incredible performances It’s also still an incredible ‘white’ sport.
I can’t wait to get my turn on that starting line and hear that song before I head into my vision quest around Mont Blanc.
Matt Walsh over on his Substack is suggesting that “we don’t need more shoe reviews”.
This week we’re back discussing why endless shoe reviews are bad for our sport and why we need more trail running media outlets to make a leap away from the safety of the spreadsheet.
I suppose he’s referring to the recent shift in iRunFar’s focus from race reports and race coverage to reviewing and promotion A LOT of shoe releases. Although it’s of course a bit unfair to just single them out here, since most trail media outlets are getting sucked into the vortex of chasing the SEO game and hoping for the big ad spenders to consider their platform for a an ad buy.
Matt ends with the simple plea:
The future of trail running media needn’t be more shoe reviews. We have enough of them thank you. We need stories built on the sport and it’s community.
His comment got me thinking and I wanted take this thoughts a bit further.
1# Shoe/Gear brands are the only businesses in our market that are currently making real money.
Athletes certainly aren’t buying themselves third vacation homes.
Media outlets are either start ups, or are suffering from the general decimation all media outlets are challenged by. (Or invested their cash in NFTs and are trying to dig themselves out of that hole.)
Events managers (race directors) don’t seem to have a business model that allows them to scale to riches.
Land owners are mostly public entities.
So, gear companies control the narrative via their cash.
But there’s another angle to this:
2# Trail running is and hopefully will always be a participatory sport.
When Dylan Bowman exclaims boldly that ‘trail running will save the world’ I hope what he means by that is not just a desperate call for him to find a business model for his post pro athlete career but that he sees the power of trail running being an accessible invitation for everyone to go out and experience adventure. Our sport is relatively cheap (makers of carbon-plated shoes are desperately trying to change that.) and is challenging to follow along from the couch.
So, we have a participatory sport (woohoo!) and gear companies with outsized influence (big pockets full of cash).
So the folks with money get to dictated how the media writes about the sport. And while we might say that we don’t need any more shoe reviews, the average runner needs several pairs a year, because they don’t just sit on the couch, but actually participate in the sport they are reading media articles about. So, the advertisers reach their audience through the media desperate trying to get their hands on some of the cash the gear companies make from the growing interest in our sport.
Should the media be more discerning and critical in their reporting? Yes. And one would think the readers would appreciate discerning and quality reporting… but then again, TikTok videos seem to move the needle more for brands these days than quality conversation about the advantages of $300 running shoes. So what Matt seems to be lamenting is a general “social media-ification” of the general media landscape rather than a unique problem in our trail running sport.
But, one thing I do agree with is that if trail running is supposed to save the world then I hope it ends up doing more than just making lots of money for gear companies.
Last week I had the immense honor to chat with Frédéric Lénart, CEO of the UTMB Group on Singletrack. (I hope you go check out the episode and hear from him directly). But I also wanted to highlight a few things here on Electric Cable Car, so people can easily scan and reference what we discussed. My overarching questions were around the corporate ownership structure of the UTMB Group and Ironman Group, how this affects the races in their growing World Series, and in turn the experience for runners, volunteers, and organizers on the ground.
Here are the highlights:
About 30,000 runners put their hat into the ring (lottery) to run one of the various UTMB Mont-Blanc races each year.
I’m not a statistician but if I do the math right, that’s roughly a 1 in 3 chances of getting to race. These odds are better than I expected, given the popularity of the event, and especially compared to the big races in the US1.
What strikes me, is that even with these ‘reasonable chances’ (compared to other big races) the Polettis felt the need to re-think their qualification and lottery system to find a better way to give more runners the chance to experience Chamonix. This tells me that at the heart of the UTMB organization is still the focus on the individual runner and the invitation to come and have their own mountain adventure. We touched on this briefly as we agreed that by and large trail running is a participatory sport, more so than a spectator sport.
This is also reflected in Frederic’s comment on how the revenue they generate is considered internally. The cost of the bib for each runner is supposed to cover everything the runner needs to have a successful event, that includes aid station support, race tracking, medical and swag. The dollars generated from sponsorships are there to sustain the organization, help them expand their media presence, and position themselves for the future. How much that is actually separated internally can’t be verified, but it’s an interesting way to express UTMB’s strategy.
Quick 2023 entry fee comparison with some of the most well-known US 100M races:
Frederic mentioned that the UTMB Group currently owns 12 events and the Ironman Group owns 16 events, with the remainder of the 36 events being managed via a sort of franchise model to allow local organization to ensure a successful event in regions where neither Ironman or UTMB have a foothold, this includes Latin/South America and China. He also mentioned that the UTMB group owns the European races and the Ironman Group focuses on Oceania (where they’ve owned the Australian races for several years) and now North American. I would’ve loved to have gotten a bit more detail from him but it sounded to me that even Eiger and Lavaredo (two massive races in their own rights even without the UTMB attachment) are now owned by the UTMB Group. It also seems the Ironman group doesn’t not own any races in Europe, but again, I’m 100% how that math breaks down, because looking at the map there are a few loose ends I can’t fully connect.
But what is more interesting to me in this conversation is how the corporate ownership model affects the local race organization on the ground and Frederic confirmed that in each region they employ a local race director who’s tasked with permitting, volunteer recruitment, and overall race management. This for me is a crucial piece that affects runners and the overall health of each of the events into the future (No runner wants to come to an aid station that’s out of food). In trail running we don’t have a corporate ‘chain store’, ‘cookie cutter’ model that is workable (one could argue it isn’t really working anywhere, except for Wall Street shareholders). The Olympic Games only visit a city once and can command a legion of volunteers, but the annual nature of our trail races, and the remoteness of our trails requires dedicated volunteers to drive on dirt roads to far away aid stations, and spend countless hours there. That isn’t something that will work sustainably year after year if the race director and his team aren’t on the ground taking care of these dedicated volunteers and all the other loose ends that come with it.
Will be announced at UTMB Mont-Blanc in Chamonix later this summer.
Our sport is growing and growth in many (most) ways is always a healthy thing. Some entity would’ve jumped on the chance of building what we now have as the UTMB World Series to take advantage of this growth. The way I see it, is that I’m glad that the Polettis are at the heart of this driving force and that their vision, which created UTMB Mont-Blanc, guides this partnership between UTMB and Ironman. This gives me hope that the UTMB races will always be accessible for the average runner in some way. Yes, this growth will also need to provide and consider professional runners, but this is a conversation for another time. The answers I was looking for were coming from a place where I, the average bloke and back of packer, was wanting to know if dreaming of running UTMB is still a worthwhile goal of if it would make sense to look elsewhere. What has also been clear to me beyond this conversation is that trail running has many forms, and will always have many forms. At the heart of trail running is the active participation of runners, lacing their shows and running along on a trail looking for adventure. This can be found in a small group run, a multi day adventure outing, a personal FKT attempt or toeing the line at one of the countless races that are happening each weekend all over the world. Ultrasignup lists hundreds of events within a 500 mile radius from may hometown each year. The UTMB World website lists 5,174 independently hosted races on their 2023 Index Calendar. There are 36 races, globally owned by UTMB.
Trail running will be just fine.
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1
Hardrock100 has 2,413 people applying for 146 entry spots. Changes to get a spot: 1 in 17.
Western States has 7,239 people applying for 369 spots. Changes to get a spot: 1 in 20.
And yes, their compounding lotteries make it easier each consequential year, but there are still many stories out there of folks waiting for years to get to run these events, while I haven’t heard anyone having given up getting into UTMB due to their odds in the lottery.
About a year ago I realized I needed one more passion project in my life. Within a timespan of 48hrs after that realization I had built a new website, called it Electric Cable Car, secured the domain! and started blogging, again. Now, after a full year in operation of this fine, old school web blog I wanted to share some numbers:
Thanks for reading and being part of the journey.
This is year one and we’re just getting started!
Hardly a week goes by with me not seeing a new, or new to me hydration vest by a gear company not previously in the market of producing and selling them.
What once started out as a niche product made by very specific companies (Ultimate Direction, UltraSpire, CamelBak, Nathan) focusing on hydration is now a product offering peddled by Mammut, The North Face, Patagonia… everyone, even REI is making their own.
With the growth of our sport and the overall media attention it’s no surprise backpack makers (to frame that term loosely) would say ‘hey, we can do that too’. But I would suggest something else is the driving force here: ‘brand and logo placement’. The vest, once an obscure specialty item for ultra runners who weren’t cool enough to just run shirtless with two handhelds is now a hot item every runner has to have. Even if more and more races are requiring runners to carry gear and thus vests becoming a necessary piece of gear to carry said required gear I believe the main driving force here is that the vest is the most prominent and outward facing item a runner wears, even more prominent than their shoes. So, if a gear company is in the pro/influencer sponsorship game they will have to offer a vest just to place their logo prominently on their athletes and in their marketing shots.
Gone are the days when runners had a shoe sponsor and a separate clothing and a gear sponsor.
NNormal has to sell a race vest so Kilian doesn’t have to wear his old Salomon vests in product shots and at races.
Adidas was one of the first gear companies that had their trail team fitted out from head to toe in branded gear. So does The North Face and of course Salomon. But Salomon had been in the game for several years while The North Face and Adidas are still fairly new to the ‘race team circuit’.
Hoka doesn’t have a hydration vest yet, but as a shoe company they have been outfit their sponsored athletes very prominently in head-to-toe HOKA clothing over these last two years but when Jim Walmsley ran UTMB in 2022 he wore a pack with no brand name on it. So I assume one can expect a HOKA pack in the near future, maybe in time for this year’s UTMB. And one can hope it’s a better offering than this piece of weird branded product.
It’s kind of funny to think that new product iterations, (I won’t call it innovations), might be more driven by marketing desire for logo placement than the need to sell good product. Heck, some of the vests might not even need to be sold, just made for their athletes.
Innsbruck, one of the Alps largest cities is no stranger to hosting large sporting events. Innsbruck hosted the Olympic Winter Games in 1976 and has been on the regular winter skiing circuit for decades. This week the attention is on summer trails when Innsbruck and the neighboring Stubaital region welcomes runners from all over the world to compete in the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships (WMTRC) – (damn I wish they would come up with a better name for that event). And while this is all super exciting to follow along as pros race these trails, what makes this event unique in trail running is that for the Championships only pros, selected by their national associations will compete wearing the bib of their country. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is awfully exciting to watch and follow, but of course a departure from our regular trail running events where amateurs (you and me) can run the same events as the pros. To prevent FOMO Innsbruck has partnered with the Innsbruck Alpine Trailrun Festival, an annual event held in the same region on several of the same trails as the WMTRC. This event has been on the calendar for several years and is organized by the Laufwerkstatt, an events team organizing various large scale outdoor sporting events in the region. So, The WMTRC is in great hands organizationally with the partnership of Tourism Tyrol and the Laufwerkstatt. And for folks wanting to get a taste of the trails pros compete on during the WMTRC, they can sign up to run the various distances at the Innsbruck Alpine Trailrun Festival.
And for folks in the area looking for something to do they can come and watch the Trail Running Film Festival on June 9th at the finish line in Neustift-Stubai, which surely will be one of the biggest screenings on our 73+ tour.
Here are some (somewhat random) observations about my first visit to a ‘by UTMB’ trail running event: The Canyons Endurance Runs by UTMB that happened this last week in Auburn, CA.
Initially I was invited by Canyon’s race director Chaz Sheya to host the Trail Running Film Festival as an official entertainment offering during the race weekend at the Auburn State Theatre, but, you might’ve heard, that didn’t work out. Long story (for a different time).
A newly announced nutrition sponsor of the UTMB World Series offered samples in the vendor village. They had their liquid electrolytes and solid food offerings at the aid stations.
Mind you, it was hot, 90 degrees!, but their solid offerings were pretty boring: ‘stroop’/energy waffles (we’ve seen those on the ultra scene for a many years now) and gooey bars that sort of melted in the heat – not great.
Their liquid electrolyte drink (I tried the lime flavor for the last 7 miles when I was sure that it wouldn’t screw with my nutrition plan anymore) was sort of amazing. It wasn’t sweet, but tart and refreshing. I gotta do some research and see how “good” this powder is in comparison to my trusty Tailwind, but after having run 6hrs in the heat and only having had Tailwind and Spring Energy the tartness and not-sweetness of the Lime electrolyte drink was a welcome and refreshing change. Stay tuned for more on that.
Didn’t seem as bad as many had feared. The race had enough runners (1,900 across the 4 distances offered) that a vendor village made sense. Of course there was a merch store and almost more HOKA signage than UTMB World Series banners, but that’s about it. It all seemed pretty reasonable to me, but I am also someone who gets, and even likes a festival atmosphere at trail races, so why not. I am not originally from the Pacific Northwest, can you tell?
Outside from a couple event staff members wearing Ironman safety vests, I didn’t see the Ironman logo anywhere. Interestingly, the medal I received at the finish felt very corporate. Not bad, just mass-stamped and massive. A friend of mine just finished an Ironman and showed their medal on Facebook and you can clearly see that they are using the same vendor for both events. Me thinks that that’s where Ironman will save the most money, by leveraging the already existing machine they have built.
What I still don’t know, and quite frankly it’s driving me crazy, is how the partnership with the race directors and UTMB/Ironman actually works.
We sort of know how the partnership between UTMB and Ironman works and even there are still a lot of missing pieces, but how does UTMB/Ironman partner with the race directors on the ground.
I’ve said it before, I cannot for a second believe that, the Swiss team that build Eiger Ultra-Trail would sell their entire event to Ironman. It’s not happening. But maybe it’s different for races in the US?
After having observed at Canyons what UTMB/Ironman brings to the table and what the local race directors lift I don’t believe that UTMB/Ironman will be successful if they own these races outright and ‘just employ’ the race directors. Every aid station is managed by local volunteers who put in a sleepless weekend to ensure these events go off without a hitch. The race directors need the connections to the local community. If you remove this ‘people management element’ into a corporate office somewhere at “Business Park Drive 1” how is this supposed to work on an annual basis? These races happen all over the world, every single year. This isn’t like the Olympic Games where a giant corporate machine asks of for hundreds of unpaid volunteers to help in exchange for a once in a lifetime experience and a t-shirt.
Were there in Auburn. It was after all, the first UTMB World Series Major in the Americas, which was kind of a big deal. Michel (a seven time finisher of the UTMB) ran the 50K, and beat me by over 45minutes. Catherine (who was named race director for the inaugural UTMB event because she was the only one in the organizing group that didn’t also wanted to run the race) greeted the runners ahead of each race start and it was all pleasant and quite nice. There clearly is a language and cultural barrier there, and (for obvious reasons) I don’t mind that. It’s a good tension to have in our global sport.
On Friday afternoon I caught an interview with Catherine and Michael, conducted by Brian Metzler from Trailrunner Mag/Outside in the expo/vendor village. The interview was mostly fluff, but it was interesting to see them trying to create something that isn’t just HOKA Pro athlete content. Thank god.
The feeling I get is that the Polettis are genuine, love the race they build in Chamonix. Their World Series effort is strategic. They approach it from the point of view that if they wouldn’t step up someone from outside the trail running world would, and that would be worse than whatever UTMB is building right now. And I also think that whatever business deal the Polettis struck with Ironman ensures that whatever happens internationally, the actual UTMB Mont-Blanc event will always be in the hands of the Polettis. Again, this is just a feeling.
One interesting tidbit Catherine Poletti mentioned is that their children work for the tech company responsible for the live tracking and data presentation of all the races.
LiveTrail SARL is a start-up who is specialized in IT development in the outdoor sport area. Known for many years as the leader in live following of very long races, its more important client, UTMB®, is today the world summit trail races.
Two things:
Didn’t happen. After big media fanfare in the weeks leading up to the event a brief press release had been sent out that I had missed mentioning the cancelation:
Following the recce of the contingent courses (due to the exceptional conditions in the area) carried out by our production team last week, unfortunately, we have had to take the decision to cancel the live streaming.
Corinna Malcolm send me a bit more detail:
Combination of service and heat. For much of the WSER and canyons course you have to utilize starlink to get anything out (which is shaky) then you have equipment in the heat which is a whole other problem to contend with.
I told them in December that it would be an issue – they sent their crew out to the course ~3weeks ago TM preview the routes, filming locations, and service. They then decided that the data coverage wasn’t adequate and we were informed roughly a week before the event.
So clearly we have a very long way to go to, both in bringing tech to the races but also in communication and setting expectations around these events. Or they could just ask Aravaipa which seems to have this figured out. (fewer trees/less heat in Arizona?)
Was everywhere. As a sponsors of the UTMB World Series they really were ever-present. And clearly HOKA currently is everywhere, even beyond the trails. Free People, Nordstroms… every fashion outlet is featuring the “cute, colorful and blocky shoes from the outdoors”.
But this got me thinking. When Hoka One One launched, that’s what was their name. A mouthful no one could pronounce. In fact back in 2018 Hoka.com was still owned by a Dutch Technology firm. HOKA didn’t own or use the domain Hoka.com until the Fall of 2021. Around that time HOKA must’ve acquired the domain (4 letter domains aren’t cheap!) and redirected it to hokaoneone.com, their homepage. Now hokaoneone.com is redirecting to hoka.com.
This tells me that HOKA was aiming to simplify their brand and what better way than to use a simple four letter word, designed in sans serif font that looks similar to NIKE. But also similar to UTMB. In Auburn the white UTMB on dark blue and the white HOKA on light blue felt almost interchangeable to the casual observer. Almost.
Calls itself the Endurance Capitol of the World and I don’t want to take this away from them, but I just got to chuckle at of the most American things ever. Every American small town seem to have the need of a marketing slogan, some pick the claim of the WORLD’S largest lava lamp or host an WORLD’s largest onion festival. Baseball in American plays a World Series…
Another thought I had is that Ironman might be getting ‘not great’ advice from the team in Chamonix who might be dealing with difficult mountain terrain in the Alps but clearly have infrastructure in place (Helicopters! Cell coverage! eBikes! mountain huts!) which allows a complete different level of support when it comes to media coverage and racer safety.
Which brings me to a conversation I had with a local trail runner who mentioned some safety issues for the 100M and 100K runners and the aid station captains receiving subpar support from race headquarters when calling for support for runners. My thought is that Euro races are trying to promote self-reliance and individual responsibility of the runners, but this comes from a perspective and mindset which puts runners into mountainous and potentially treacherous terrain, but at the same time these Euro mountains offer a certain level of support (huts every couple miles, cell coverage, search and rescue support, helicopters on standby). That infrastructure doesn’t exist in the US wilderness. Further, while Euro races are comparably cheaper than US counterparts most require you to obtain a special insurance policy that will take care of any evac. needs. Growing pains? Maybe. But UTMB/Ironman wants to sit on the top of the heap. They gotta step up and deliver a race experience for every runner and not just the elites. A trail race experience that raises the bar, and keeps them out of legal troubles down the road.
Inspired by baseball’s endless rule adjustments Andy Jones-Wilkins suggests some rule changes for ultra running in his column AJW’s Taproom for iRunFar:
An Aid Station Clock
An aid station clock would only punish amateur runners who don’t have a well-oiled pit stop crew. This change would force runners back out onto the course before they are ready. The DNF rate would increase and with that the safety concerns of the runners.
Limited Crew Contact
Limited crew contact is hard to implement as every race is different witha different layout of distance/terrain/aid station access. This also could have a negative effect on safety.
Common Gear Specification Limits
Gear requirements are often already implemented in races that go through remote or possible treacherous terrain to increase safety. Especially in European races this is already the norm. But Europeans complain about this as races that aren’t in technical/remote or dangerous terrain still require you to carry mandatory gear even if the weather doesn’t call for it.
Most of the time rule changes for a sport are considered to increase watchability for spectators. One other big reason is due to safety concerns.
We certainly don’t have to alter rules to make our sport more spectator friendly. There are other mechanisms that could help there, but I kind of like that our sport is a participatory sport and not one for fantasy leagues and hot dog stadiums, for now.
Changing rules to increase safety is always welcome, but often our races are already pretty regulated by the fact that the permits race directors are required to obtain come with lots of stipulations. If people would get seriously hurt the public lands agencies would address this concern. If there’d be regular helicopter rescues at Western States or Cocodona the permitting process would turn into a nightmare very quickly.
Now, implementing rules to make our sport more accessible that would be a welcome change.
Every few months the internet’s selective voices of trail running find their collective pitchforks and storm the gates of the ever-growing behemoth that is UTMB World, and increasingly I can’t blame them.
Here’s what UTMB/Ironman Group are doing wrong in their expansion, especially here in the US. Of course I am saying this, without actually know if any of this would help reduce the amount of pitchforking… this is the internet after all.
Most sporting events do. The communities have to WANT these events to occur. That’s why permits are being issues to control the crowds. But more so than the permitting, trail races rely heavily on volunteers. Locals who are willing to spend their free time helping others having a great racing experience. And I bet anyone who’s ever participated in a race and experienced the friendly helping hand is willing to help when they are called up. This all gets tricky, when the person asking for volunteers isn’t a local race director anymore but a giant out-of-town corporation. If said corporation’s brand is cool, then folks are willing to spend a weekend volunteering walking away with nothing but a free meal and a t-shirt. I assume that’s how the Olympics have been operating for decades. Thousands and thousands of volunteers enabling a giant corporation to bulldoze themselves through city after city. But, these giant corporations don’t have the best reputation anymore. And in a funny twist especially here in the US, the country that invented giant bulldozing global corporations.
So, here’s UTMB expanding and adding more and more races, but not surprisingly struggling in the US, of all places. I bet, especially if you compare it to other regions, UTMB had hoped that by now things would look differently over here in North America.
We all could foresee that this would be a bumpy road. And clearly UTMB knew this as well, otherwise they wouldn’t have partnered with Ironman for their international expansion. In fact, UTMB had tried going solo before and they weren’t able to break into the American market. Now with a partner like Ironman they are hoping for more success. But, so far the road has been just as bumpy, so it seems.
The races that UTMB has partnered with across the globe don’t give a good indication if these races are in fact sold to UTMB, or if they are indeed still a partnership between the local race organization and the UTMB group. Why not be more transparent about this?
IF! UTMB is truly, as they are saying, only taking on races they can actually buy outright that would create lots of problems locally on the ground. And, as seen in the case with Western States, UTMB has the ability to partner with a race without having to buy it. I can’t imagine that Lavardo, mozart100, or Eiger completely have sold their races to the UTMB group. So, who can get us insight on how these partnerships are spun? And NDAs be damned, I think we as local runners on the ground deserve to know how this sausage is made.
The Polettis aren’t sitting in their chalet in Chamonix filling out hundreds of land use permits for various city/state/national forest areas across the US and beyond. They need locals to understand the nuances. The permitting is done by local jurisdictions and nothing fucks up the ability for anyone to get a permit faster than a corporation acting like an elephant in a china store.
Races rely on local volunteers. No one volunteers for Walmart. One might volunteer their time for the Olympics, but that’s a once in a lifetime experience for most.
And that’s where it all can fall apart very quickly, and, I don’t know if UTMB has thought this through. They’ve already made it plenty clear that their perspective on what a trail race is, is completely different than what has grown over decades here in the US. Americans and Europeans think very differently about many things. Where does UTMB draw their volunteers from for their big dance in Chamonix? If the company is as evil as many American trail runners make them out to be, UTMB shouldn’t be able to get thousands of volunteers to ring cow bells on some col on the way into Courmayeur all night long.
American races are driven by identity, just like American politics. We know who stands at the finish line offering cheers, hugs, and that medal or buckle. If UTMB replaces the race director at their races with a corporate entity no one will come race that event. Especially not if there are other local races in the area that still offer that finish line feel.
So, especially in America trail races will only succeed if the organization has locals on the ground, understanding and respecting the permitting system. The races will need a local race director to be able to activate local participation and help in forms of lots and lots of dedicated volunteers.
If UTMB buys these races, what prompts the local race directors to stay put and continue to operate them. Are these buy out offers that generous? Are they employing race directors and staff in all these locations?
I started off telling you what I think UTMB should be doing. And in turn I asked a lot of questions.
So maybe UTMB should just answer all these questions, publicly.
Let these race directors speak and share how the arrangement has come to be for a race to be a ‘by UTMB’ race.
Give the organization in the US a face, so we know who reports to who, who we can ask questions to, and who we can blame if things go sideways. This faceless operating isn’t great for our sport and doesn’t fly in our culture.
This week has been all about an event the trail and ultra running world has never seen before in that fashion. Initially slated for 2021, and postponed due to COVID, the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Thailand to some feel like ‘another event that’s trying to be a world championship to crown the best trail runners in the world’, but is the only event where runners compete not just for themselves or their sponsors alone, but wear their country’s singlets and colors. Sanctioned by ITRA, the World Mountain Running Association, and the International Association of Ultrarunners athletes from 49 countries race in shorter distance events and compete for medals, and even team medals. It’s worth following as this event feels like a good example of what trail running could look like if it’d become an Olympic sport, with opening ceremony and fireworks. Next year’s event is already announced and is going to happen in October 2023 in Innsbruck, Austria.
The World Mountain and Trail Running Championships has the potential to be a great alternative for trail running fans who are getting a bit fed up ‘the old boys club gatekeeping their favorite trail races’ or folks freaked out by Ironman’s super dominance rolling over our sport. What it is though, is an event for pros. A very traditionally setup structure favoring athletes in the top 5% of runners, not an event for everyday runners to aspire to compete in. Which is fine, if the event creates the a great spectacle and allows us fans to follow along from the proverbial armchair.
I don’t know about you, but browsing the UTMB World website is pretty annoying. The site is convoluted, bloated, difficult to navigate, and things don’t display in a way that it would make things easy to understand. So, I made it simpler. I pulled all the dates/events/distances and locations from the website and added it to a Google spreadsheet.
I embedded the spreadsheet here for quick browsing, but also added a link so you can download and modify it yourself as needed – and resort, if you want to display the content in a different way.
I might make some changes to it in the coming weeks as I think of other elements to include, but I wanted to stay away from making the spreadsheet too complex.
And I certainly will make changes to the spreadsheet as new information is published by UTMB.
Are you missing anything? Know of anything I could add? Let me know.
Volunteers!
The summer is coming to a close and the running media (Twitter!) has been hotly debating on where our sport is heading. There are lots of worries and concerns and I am working on a larger article to address them individually, but the ‘elephant in the room’ that’s barely addressed, is the need for volunteers at every race. Our sport is growing, and becoming more professional on the upper end, but the events can only happen if people volunteer at aid stations, at pickup, during course marking and sweeping. The human power required to put on these events is enormous, and perhaps I am not long enough ‘in the game’ yet, but when I see even popular and very established races send out desperate emails and social posts asking for volunteers at upcoming events I can’t help but worry and wonder how the growth will affect our sport. And this doesn’t even include the need to volunteer at trail work parties that help maintain the trails we love to race.
This is not just a post meant to highlight and celebrate all the volunteers who make these events possible, but is meant as a challenge to all us folks talking and debating and thinking about our sport. The importance of volunteers is often emotionally celebrated, but rarely highlighted in a honest and serious fashion.
UTMB! The biggest trail race in the world is now a global racing series. This year’s incredible images of runners traversing the high alpine meadows with the glorious glaciers of Mont Blanc as a backdrop will only make everyone want to run these races around Chamonix, Courmayeur, and Champex-Lac even more.
Over the last few of years there has been lots of confusion as the UTMB Group reorganized itself, introduced a new lottery system and dealt with a global pandemic. But the new system is in place now and while people are still have questions, I think it’s fairly straightforward and can be broken down quite simply. I’m posting this September 6th, 2022, this is all subject to change and if I made any mistakes I’d move to hear it and correct it.
First the summary, and then below I try to explain a few terms UTMB uses regularly throughout their website to speak about the process.
For the main event, the 170 km UMTB, and the smaller 100 km CCC and 50 km OCC races you need
(The other races that are happening during the week in and around Chamonix, the PTL, TDS, ECC, and MCC, aren’t subject to the same system, yet.)
Mandatory to enter the UTMB Mont-Blanc lottery, a valid UTMB Index is achieved by completing at least one race of the UTMB World Series or a UTMB Index race in the relevant category within the previous 24 months.
According to the UTMB World website events listing there are 4,681 races globally for 2022 you can enter and get your index.
So, find a race near you in the distance corresponding to the race you want to race at UTMB and finish! And you get your valid index. Easy. Just remember that you can’t run a 50K index race and use that to get into the 170K UTMB race, which makes sense, right?
Run a UTMB World Series race around to world and collect stones. All stones are equal, but the more stones you have the better chances you have making it in the lottery.
In order to run at UTMB you have you now run a “qualifying race” of the official UTMB World Series. There are currently 25 World Series Events and each race lists how many stones you get from running a specific race; the longer the distance the more stones you get. On top of that, there will be 3 World Series Majors around the world where you can get double the stones.
Val d’Aran by UTMB and Doi Inthanon Thailand by UTMB are the European and Asia-Pacific Majors with the US Major to be announced.
Only 1 Running Stone acquired in the past two years is mandatory to enter the lottery. Running Stones are cumulative, have no expiration date, and each Running Stone gives you an additional chance to be drawn.
So, here’s how you plan your year of racing with a UTMB World Series finale race in Chamonix in mind:
UTMB World Series Finals
The races in and around Chamonix at the end of August.
UTMB World Series Majors
Run these races to get double the stones.
UTMB World Series Events
25 races around the world. You have to run one to get your stones. One stone is the minimum to enter the lottery for the UTMB in Chamonix.
Running Stone
Run a UTMB World Series race around to world and collect stones. All stones are equal, but the more stones you have the better chances you have making it in the lottery.
Only 1 Running Stone acquired in the past two years is mandatory to enter the lottery. Running Stones are cumulative, have no expiration date, and each Running Stone gives you an additional chance to be drawn.
This makes me belief (and I am not 100% sure here) that you will have to run a Series Event once every two years to keep your stone active, even though they don’t expire and are cumulative if yo don’t get selected in the lottery, thus increasing your chances in consequent years.
UTMB Index
There’s more to the Index than just accessibly to the race you’d like to run. There’s also this:
A UTMB Index race contributes towards every Finishers UTMB Index in the corresponding category (20K, 50K, 100K or 100M) and gives privileged access to the UTMB World Series Events or Majors*. The privileged access corresponds to:
The registration process for 2023:
Elites
(I didn’t cover the elites in this article. If you’re speedy, like really speedy, you can get into UTMB in the following way:
The first 10 men and women on the UTMB World Series Majors, as well as the first 3 men and women on the UTMB World Series Events in each of the 50K, 100K and 100M categories, will win a place at the UTMB World Series Finals in the equivalent category.
UTMB offers more detailed description of that process and personal support here.
Edit:
After talking to my coach Matt Urbanski, who has lots of experience helping people get into UTMB and other high profile races, I changed some wording around the UTMB Index. I used the word ‘points’ to describe the index score you get from completing an Index race. This seemed confusing because you used to accumulate points from completing qualifying races. So you still need a valid index, but this number just ranks the runner, and doesn’t amount to a point system in itself.
A thought that popped into my head this weekend as I was following and covering UTMB this year:
What Chamonix and UTMB is to trail running, Yosemite Valley and El Capitan is to climbing.
The images that this race provides are unlike any others. The exhilaration and inspiration it creates reminds me of the hey days of 80’s rock climbing in Yosemite Valley. Yes, mountain climbing had existed in the Alps and the Himalayas long before the stone monkeys ascended to the Valley and did they crazy climbs. And as such, Western States will always be considered the cradle of ultra trail running, but just like Yosemite climbing culture redefined how we look at and what we think of mountain climbing, racing UTMB redefines running ultras. I am not trying to take away anything from other races, but these performances and these visuals of mountain runners we’ve experienced and seen this past week will define our sport for many years to come.
Inspired by the Nolan’s 14 route, I dreamed up the Cushman Six route hoping to connect all the major peaks by Lake Cushman above Hoodsport. Over the course of many years I had climbed all the peaks individually and was looking for a challenge that’s on the edge of trail running, flirts with mountaineering but does not require deep wilderness travel and backcountry experience. Cushman Six is my kind of route. And it needed to be something entirely new, so I could claim my FKT crown – I’m too slow to chase existing routes. I doubt anyone had every done this combo of peaks before in this fashion. So for me, as a marketer and designer I knew I couldn’t be quiet about it and had to create a website, and share every detail I could. I didn’t want to keep this adventure a secret, I invite people to follow my footsteps and try themselves on this project. In fact I know it can be completed faster and I’m sort of surprised our initial time has been standing this long.
Putting a route like this out isn’t without risk. Good photos and marketing can invite people to take this too lightly. While seemingly accessible, this route isn’t all on trails. There’s a lot of off-trail navigation along scree fields with loose rocks and over exposed sections. It’ll require smart planning, good navigation skills and the ability to problem solve and move fast and light.
When we ran Cushman Six wildfire smoke covered the sky and made the air heavy. The road from Staircase to Big Creek was closed requiring us to run, well more like crawl the additional 7 miles on a dirt road in the middle of the night back to our car.
Last year good friend of mine Tabatha Collins and Mary Flinders attempted it. Got stuck on Copper and had to spend the night up there before rushing home to another engagement and missing Cub Peak. Almost a year later they attempted the route again… and missed Cub Peak again.
This weekend Barrett Gray is stepping up with a friend of hers and I am incredibly stoked to see if she’s going to be able to repeat the route and put down a new time that gets me off my chair and take another look at these incredible peaks wondering if they need another visit from me.
Here is what I wrote for the website I created detailing the route:
There is little running and a whole lot of mountain terrain to cover. Be ready for plenty of exposure, rough terrain that cuts your hands and legs. Scree, loose footing, and thick forested hillsides will make route finding slow and challenging. But, oh how glorious it is to stand on six mountain summits in one run.
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