The Rise of Shorter and Faster Trail Racing

This article originally appeared on Trail Runner

Late on the night of September 16th, several of the world's best trail runners could be found dancing and frolicking in costumes at the Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort in Manitou Springs, Colorado.

They’d run 13 miles up to the 14,115-foot finish line of the Pikes Peak Ascent that morning, and now Switzerland's Remi Bonnet and American Sophia Laukli--the race winners--were celebrating in style with dozens of other competitors who participated in the latest stop of the Golden Trail World Series international race circuit.

The post-race party included plenty of adult beverages, dancing to the tunes of a DJ, the community drinking from a shot-ski and, later--perhaps because of the liquid consumed off that shot-ski--some spontaneous unicycle and tricycle riding from the lodge's collection of velocipedes.

Now in its fifth season, the Golden Trail World Series--a Salomon-sponsored lineup of high-profile and very challenging mountain races around the world--is all about three things: fast and frenzied made-for-TV trail racing, enticing thirst-trap promotional content, and endless amounts of rowdy fun that matches the high-energy running experiences.

In many ways, it's at the opposite end of the spectrum of the more staid cavalcade of fun in the ultrarunning world. That's not a knock against ultra-distance races, but more a hint of the growing excitement brewing in the mountain running scene.

This year's Golden Trail races range in length from 21K to 42K--roughly half-marathon to marathon distances--which means there is always time to party later at night.

"It's fun because it's based on short and fast trail racing, which is what I love," says Allie McLaughlin, a Hoka-sponsored trail runner from Colorado Springs. "It's just a different vibe than a lot of races."

Overall, there are a lot more shorter-distance mountain running events and participants than there are in the ultra-distance scene, but for years ultrarunners and key races have gotten most of the attention.

"I think it's much more approachable," says Dani Moreno, an Adidas-Terrex pro from Mammoth Lakes, California. "If you told someone who wanted to get into trail running that they could only do a 100-miler, most would say, 'Uh, no thank you.' And I get it because when I first started trail running, I was asked, from the get-go, 'When are you going to do your first 100?' That was always the conversation, but it took me five years just to do a 50K. But the point is that the performances of runners at shorter distances are just as impressive as the runners doing longer distances."

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The New Vibe of Mountain Running

Although trail running has been growing as a recreational activity for several decades, it has remained relatively small on the endurance sports radar compared to marathon running, Ironman triathlon, cycling, and even obstacle racing. Why? Perhaps because the niche discipline of ultrarunning--still mostly a fringe activity that most mainstream runners don't relate to--has gotten the lionshare of trail running's media exposure, marketing money, and race promotional efforts.

In other words, if you wanted to get into trail running--as an elite runner or as a recreational hobbyist--ultrarunning was really the only means to an end. There have been a lot of great short and fast trail races throughout the U.S. since the 1970s, especially in mountain towns and on the summer slopes of ski resorts. But just as the marathon became the primary goal for road runners during the initial running boom of the 1970s and 1980s, so, too, has ultrarunning become the main target of dedicated trail runners as the sport has grown. (In Europe it has been much the opposite, with shorter and steeper mountain or fell running races dominating the scene for decades until the rise of ultra-distance events over the past 20 years.)

Although tiny in size, the Western States 100 and Hardrock 100--and the 100-mile distance in general--have created larger-than-life aspirations for interested trail runners and made well-paid icons out of Scott Jurek, Krissy Moehl, Anton Krupicka, Kilian Jornet and Courtney Dauwalter. In doing so, ultrarunning became the prism through which most of the running population viewed trail running, but, to some extent, at the expense of smothering shorter and faster types of racing.

Lost amid the boom of 50K to 100-mile races was the fast, fun vibe of mountain running: swift starts, quick cornering, speedy climbing and full-throttle descents, strategic passing on narrow singletrack routes and all-out sprints to the finish lines. Plus, there’s exciting close-to-the-action spectator access and races in which the top 10 places are often separated by only a few minutes.

While some people classify those races as "sub-ultra" events, that naming convention is a disservice to the essence of mountain running because it creates the assumption that it’s a lesser form of running, says competitive masters runner Buzz Burrell.

"Ultrarunning is great, but I just think America kind of went overboard with it," says Burrell, the co-founder of the Fastest Known Time website that tracks record times on trails. "We turned into a country of ultra joggers, and that wasn’t good for the sport. It just sucked the air out of the room because if you weren’t running hundreds, you couldn’t get sponsorships and no one knew who you were."

But things have changed in recent years.

The post-pandemic era of trail running and the emergence of Gen Z runners has invigorated a new interest in shorter and faster types of trail racing. Not only are short- to moderate-length race distances more relatable and accessible to everyday runners, but also to post-collegiate runners who raced no longer than 10K in track and cross country in school. Plus, there's less gear, planning and support needed.

Led by the Golden Trail World Series and U.S. mountain running events like the GoPro Mountain Games, Broken Arrow Skyrace, Mammoth TrailFest and Cirque Series, and bolstered by the advent of the combined World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in 2022 and 2023, there's suddenly a notable buzz--and a lot more money--hovering around relatively short and exceptionally fast trail running.

The GTWS continued at the Mammoth 26K on September 22 in Mammoth Lakes, California, and concludes October 20-22 with the Golden Trail World Series Championship (a 5K prologue and a 25K race) in conjunction with the Il Golfo Dell'Isola Trail Race in Liguria, Italy.

Tim Tollefson, a pro ultrarunner for Craft, started the Mammoth TrailFest in 2021 with a 50K ultra race, a 26K mountain race, and a shorter hill climb race, specifically to attract a wider range of runners.

"I'm not a believer that ultra trumps all," Tollefson says. "If I had a choice or if I was more confident as a trail runner when I was younger in my career, I would have stayed running sub-ultra races for a long time. But I sensed where the opportunities were at the time, and there were more financial incentives to go longer. So I think giving young athletes an opportunity to compete at shorter distances is a great thing, but it wasn't an option 10 years ago."

The shorter/faster style of racing is also aligned with the massive growth in the mainstream among recreational runners. (A 2022 report from RunRepeat pegged the sport's growth at 231 percent over the past 10 years, but noted the average trail race length is only 24K or about 15 miles.)

"It’s definitely a lot more accessible and relatable," says American runner Grayson Murphy, a Saucony-sponsored pro who won the gold medal in the 14K mountain race at this year's world championships in Austria. "People always ask me, too, 'When are you gonna do ultras?' It's just two different kinds of running. It’s like asking a 400-meter runner, 'When are you gonna do the 5K?' They’re just different events and disciplines and skill sets."

Increased trail running shoe revenues have led to shoe brands signing more sub-ultra runners to their professional trail running teams than ever before. And while maximally cushioned trail running shoes are the biggest sellers, Salomon, Adidas-Terrex, Hoka, Brooks, and Nike have all developed lighter, fast, and more agile trail shoes in recent years.

Plus, the rise of the shorter disciplines and the increased sponsorship opportunities have brought over more athletes from other sports, including ski-mo racing, Nordic skiing, obstacle racing and triathlon. For example, Laukli doubles as a pro trail runner and skate skier, while fellow American Eli Hemming, who placed third at the Pikes Peak Ascent, is thriving in his second year as a pro trail runner with Salomon after concluding a career as a pro triathlete.

"I wouldn't have gotten into trail running if it was ultra or nothing," says Laukli, 23, who was an Olympic skier in 2022. "Right now, with my skiing, I'm able to combine the two because the training for the short-distance races is similar. I know quite confidently that I could not run ultras and also be a skier. So I'm grateful to be in trail running during the trend of this part of the sport growing, and it's cool to see first-hand how much it has grown even from last year to this year."

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Emerging Trail Running Stars

The other booming element of the post-pandemic trail running world is the additional exposure from the growth of livestream broadcasts of races. The advancement of mobile connectivity technology has brought livestreaming to several U.S. races for the first time this year, including the Bandera 100K, Hardrock 100 and Run Rabbit Run 100, among others.

While this summer's productions of UTMB and Western States were certainly intriguing, the broadcasts of some of the Broken Arrow Skyrace events and those of the Golden Trail World Series were arguably more compelling, replete with non-stop action in a much more compact production.

"Do you really want to watch a livestream for 20 or 30 hours? It’s like watching paint dry," Burrell says sardonically. "Those are great events, but often someone wins by an hour or more. But in mountain running races, it's exciting racing and there's a lot of action. They're bumping elbows, they’re making passes, they’re surging on the ups and getting passed on the technical downs. It’s fun to watch."

Most of the GTWS races play out via a livestream broadcast on its YouTube channel (including the September 22 Mammoth 26K race) and later on lively two-hour recap shows on various cable TV channels throughout Europe and Asia, including the wide-ranging Eurosport network. Unfortunately, the shows are not yet available on North American TV outlets, but the upbeat recap shows are posted to the GTWS site soon after the races.

"We want to have the Golden Trail races on TV and the best format is a two-hour format," says Greg Vollet, the director of the GTWS. "That's what the TV channels are asking for to broadcast the shows around the world. And for that reason, we need to focus only on one distance to really develop one story and stars. I think to help our sport grow to the next level, we really need stars, so that's what we're trying to develop with our communications and videos and storytelling."

The GTWS content crew--headed up by creative talents of The Adventure Bakery--also creates fun, lifestyle, and race-related videos and reels that it posts on its Instagram channel before and after every race, as well as a miniseries called "Chasing Dreams." That additional exposure is another factor that contributed to the increase in athlete sponsorship opportunities in trail running over the past few years.

Ultrarunning is still booming on a global scale, but so, too, is mountain running. As Burrell says, "It is the past and it is the future of trail running." No longer do new runners need to push into ultra-distance running too soon, but instead they can get right into short-and-fast racing.

"When I started trail running if you weren't doing the long stuff, the ultras, you weren't really known at all," McLaughlin says. "I'm glad I waited it out and didn't force myself into ultras. My heart is still in the shorter distance races and the exposure that Golden Trail is giving us is amazing, but even more important is that it allows us, as athletes, to do what we're best at and not get injured trying to do something we're not ready to do."

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