Snowdonia Route and Event Changes

Lots of hubbub over the changes UTMB just announced for their Snowdonia event in the UK. The 100K race got a large reduction in vert in the later part of the route. Folks aren’t happy that these changes make the race less ‘brutal’ and that the route diverts from the historic trails. The event further added other distances after the first wave sold out in record time.

I don’t have a good answer here. Of course if you register and pay for something and then the ‘product’ changes ‘before delivery’ so to speak, I understand people’s dissatisfaction. And if these changes seemingly are made to maximize revenue it feels a bit shitty all around. But UTMB is caught in a difficult situation (of their own making!): the demand for their events way outstrips supply – especially in Europe. If UTMB would just keep every event to their historical routes and numbers of entries capped, people would complain that it’s too hard to get into races of their series to collect the stones. UTMB’s answer, like any sensible business: create more supply. Open up more events, allow more runners to register and in turn collect more revenue. This of course creates another frustration for the runners: if an event changes too much – it’s route, or feel away from the historic precedent – is it still the desirable event people have been lining up for years? But UTMB is also an easy target. Many/most trail races have seen lots of variation and course alteration over the years. Land management, environmental concerns, and weather events all lead to deviation from the plan and force people to adapt. In the end race management is always beholden to these forces and needs to communicate clearly, while preserving the relationships with both the land owners, and the runners signing up to run the event.

A huge part of what makes trail running special, and what draws people to certain events year after year is that ‘sense of place’. Some events capture it, stories are being told around these trails and places they run through, and these races truly become iconic. If these event owners are not factoring in how important this is for runners they are missing a huge piece of what makes trail running special. Collecting stones can’t be the sole purpose for a race to exist, the event in itself needs to be a draw to be sustainable. Otherwise we’ll end up with race courses that are just repeats on ski hills.