RE:RUN 2024 – March

This article is part of Electric Cable Car’s RE:RUN 2024 – The Year in Review.
This was March 2024 in our world of trail and mountain culture.

In March of 2024 we finally are heading back out onto the trails. Events are happening around the world and the mood is upbeat. The Trail Running Film Festival Global Tour 2024 kicks off and with my race management company Rock Candy Running I host the Little Backyard Adventure races again. For the first time we try some live-tracking and posting on Electric Cable Car. And I learn that this shit is hard especially when you’re also the race director and got a million of other things to do.

March is of course, sometimes, often, maybe, who knows, the month for the Barkley Marathons. The event that barely sees any finishers, but, because people are glued to the cryptic messages from official voice of the race Keith Dunn on Twitter/X the hype around this event is unprecedented. The event this year experiences favorable weather, an unprecedented 5 finishers, and most importantly for the first time a woman, and no other than the incredibly Jasmin Paris finishes the race with less than 2 min to spare. Jasmin’s achievement I would consider the greatest race performance in all of 2024. And while we don’t have a livestream for this event the photos that made it around the world of Jasmin’s finish instantly became iconic.

While everyone was waiting for the start of Barkley to be announced we did get a momentary distraction by one of the biggest and most unique marketing events ever conducted in trail running. The Lululemon Further event has everyone talking, for days. The images and storylines that are being shared on social media during the event are having a huge impact. ‘Further’ feels new, and fresh, and over the top. Sadly it was just a marketing event after all, the products aren’t available in their online store anymore and the website created for it is completely offline – it doesn’t even reroute to their main corporate site. What a waste of what clearly was one the biggest and most important marketing campaigns of 2024.

For TDS, registration opened in December, and as March comes around the race is still not sold out. With the Finals in Chamonix being oversold year after year, this seems strange. Does this have anything to do with the general weariness of the running public about all things UTMB? When the starting list is first posted iRunFar takes a look and highlights the top runners. Jim Walmsely is initially listed but then disappears of that list. Oh, the drama continues.

Outdoor Podcasting is also going into overdrive with seemingly everyone starting their own show. Or a second one for that matter. Aaron Lutze and Dylan Bowman take their personal conversations about the outdoor industry and their business ideas, and record a show around it: Second Nature is born. This podcast has found its way into my feed of top podcasts I listen to regularly. Sometimes I yell at the trees when listening, mostly I agree with the two of them. If you’re interested in the intersection between the outdoors and business, this is a good show for you.

Adidas finally brings their trail super shoe to the market. First announced and teased to much hype during UTMB week in Chamonix in August of 2023 the Agravic Speed Ultra is available for purchase on their website, where they immediately get lost in the deluge of other products. I understand why Adidas wants to sell all of their products through one webshop, but man, this is one convoluted shopping experience not doing the product any justice. What a bummer.

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This post is part of Electric Cable Car’s RE:RUN 2024 – The Year in Review. I’ll be dropping the April edition in the coming days. To catch up on all of them visit RE:RUN.