RE:RUN 2024 – May

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

In May, I ran a race, finally. And it was my first ever road marathon: the Capital City Marathon in my hometown Olympia. Here’s what I wrote afterwards:

But overall, compared to probably any other trail race I’ve ever run this race was easy.

This one might’ve been easy but what is certainly not easy is Cocodona. And that is what everyone’s talking about in May. On Singletrack I chatted with the cutoff chasing friend of mine Ben Mead who ran, and finished this beast of a race and while I am still deeply impressed by Ben’s and anyone’s achievement running this super long power-hiking adventures even after this interview I am not sold that this is something I ever want to sign up for. Cocodona can’t really be mentioned without Aravaipa’s Mountain Outpost live-streaming efforts. This event, more than any other on the annual trail running calendar lives off of the livestream. And naturally, folks have thoughts on what this new media brings to our sport.

As I mentioned above (in April’s write up) the ’Spring Saga’ spilled from one month into the next and even in May it doesn’t find its conclusion. In fact there were so many articles I posted I can’t even summarize it all here. But I promised a side show and it arrived in Jason Koop turning to Instagram and taking it upon himself to bully coaches Megan and David Roche (competitors of his in the coaching world). Somehow this saga turn the entire conversation from talking about product trust and integrity and made it about human decency and weird white male behavior. Not sure what the intentions here were, but if I was coached by Koop I’d run. But then again, the “end justifies all means” is one of America’s most favorite mantras, and the results his racers achieve leave little doubt that behind the macho appearance is probably a good coach. But that’s like saying Musk shooting rockets into space somehow excuses his otherwise subhuman behavior.

In eyebrow-raising footwear news, Altra drops a not-zero-drop shoe. Got that? The shoe maker that made us believe you should wear shoes like walking barefoot is now adding a gentle drop to some of their shoes… as if some podiatrists rang the alarm bells.

Tailwind Nutrition makes their previously limited seasonal release Dauwaltermelon a permanent flavor. Aside from it being delicious and it immediately coming one of their most popular flavors this product is also a partnership with their sponsored athlete: Courtney Dauwalter. I don’t have any insight into how this partnership breaks down, but it is, in our sport, still a fairly rare occurrence, that athletes have their name and likeness so closely tied to a product. It will be interesting to see how this develops. Salomon releases a small capsule with Courtney ahead of UTMB week in August and just before the holidays Suunto released a “Courtney watch” – the Suunto Race S titanium with a special “Courtney watch band”. Clearly brand Courtney is a hot commodity.

And another interesting pattern is emerging this year: races and especially UTMB events are running out of water at the aid stations. Is this amateur hour?

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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 June edition in the coming days. To catch up on all of them visit RE:RUN.