The Beauty of that Local 50K

Josh Rosenthal makes the case for the importance of the local 50K on his Borderlands blog:

Trail running needs race directors whose ambition is to put on a race for 80 people because they love the sport enough to do it. That kind of ambition is becoming harder to sustain financially and culturally.

Large organizations should not just market trail running. They should help preserve the local races that make trail running durable in the first place.

If the local race disappears, the entire ecosystem upstream weakens with it.

This so far is true and most likely anyone will be in agreement. But, what has changed?

Sub-100 person ultras are commercially difficult. Most are not meaningful businesses. They are love letters to trail running held together by volunteers, exhausted race directors, and thin margins.

I’d wager these races have always been economically challenging. Maybe there just used to be enough weirdos (I am saying this lovingly, I am one of them!) that are doing this for the love of it. I don’t experience the pressure from the running community to compete or chase the professionalism of the big events. I am putting that pressure on myself. I watch the big races evolve, grow, and constantly add new “features” like livestreams, prize purses and fancy nonstop race day coverage and I want that for my races too. Does the community expects this? Some folks might, but not all runners sign up for the spectacle. They sign up for the personal challenge. Yes, at some point they might want to run one of the big races and are training for it, but they sign up to run on trails and gotta start somewhat. That, until Aravaipa and UTMB own all the events (they won’t), will still be at the event closest to home, on trails within a reasonable travel distance.

I will turn this into an invitation and call for participation. The events RDs put on every weekend all over the map are an incredible creative playgrounds for folks with ideas to come out and “enhance the experience”. This is not just a call to volunteer and ‘help out’ where needed. Races will always need volunteers and they are the live-blood of the events. But these events also thrive when folks come with their idea, their hobbies, and passions and want to help build the trail community. Got ideas, want to build something, interested in starting an outdoor business? Come to a trail race and connect with the people who are doing this every weekend. It’s worth it.

And you know what else? I wager partnering with a locally run event will allow you to let your creativity shine more than trying establish an official partnership with one of the corporate events requiring credentials and complicated contracts.