Trail running is evolving fast—more expensive shoes, more global attention. Here are five things Brian Metzler would love to see emerge in the coming years.
If you’ve been trail running for a while like I have, it might seem we’ve entered a bit of a time warp recently.
After years of consistent growth tied to the grassroots essence of the sport, trail running has started to break outside the walls of its traditional box. But change is a good thing if you consider that growth with some degree of innovation and disruption have led to the evolution that has included the Fastest Known Time craze, the continued advancement in trail running shoes and gear, and the globalization of the sport.
You can tell it’s starting to reach a tipping point because Substack, Instagram, and entirely too many podcasts are going bonkers about what’s happening at “the zeitgeist” of trail running — whether it’s Sabrina Stanley landing a sponsorship deal from OnlyFans, top of the line shoes from Speedland and Norda hitting the $300 range, Michelino Sunseri’s insane battle with the National Park Service over an FKT attempt, all of the outrageously priced and quirky stuff Satisfy produces, or the not-so-quiet battle between the UTMB World Series, World Trail Majors, and the Golden Trail World Series for world domination.
Where it goes from here is anyone’s guess, but hopefully it doesn’t stray too far from the grassroots beginnings. For the good of the sport, here are five things I’d love to see emerge in the coming years.
1. End-of-the-Season Championship Races with All the Sauce
For decades, U.S. trail running has been dominated by historic ultra-distance events like the Western States 100, Hardrock 100 and the Barkley Marathons that include some of the country’s elite runners (and a few top international competitors) but never with exhaustively deep fields worthy of a championship. Those events have produced epic races and celebrated champions, but neither hasn’t elevated the full breadth of trail running in a championship-style event with mainstream appeal.
Maybe it’s a pipe dream, but I’d love to see a high-profile multi-race event like Broken Arrow Skyrace staged in the U.S. at the end of the year that includes multiple race distances and a big prize purse with a festival atmosphere that will attract more interest among a wider range of runners, new sponsors and more spectators.
There could be three main races — let’s say a short and fast 5K, a 12- to 15-miler and short ultra between 50K and 40 miles, each held on mostly runnable, semi-technical spectator-friendly loop courses — to give trail runners, ultrarunners, road runners and even triathletes a chance to delve into their most competitive niche.
Make the races official USATF championships (or not), ensure good prize money, and create a championship-caliber setting that includes an expo with activities for kids and families, and a big post-race party and maybe even a concert. A TV deal probably isn’t possible (or necessary), but an online media production like that of the Golden Trail World Series and making sure content creators and personalities like Kofuzi, Laura Green, TommyRunz, Jeff Garmire, Knox Robinson and Mario Fraioli are there could bring huge exposure and the right kind of exposure.
It would be difficult to execute (let alone find an ideal, low-altitude venue), but if done correctly, it could replicate and expand on the best aspects of The North Face 50-Mile Championship, which was a transcendent event fueling trail running growth before it was eliminated in 2019, and include some of the pop culture vibe that’s happening at Diplo’s Run Club events and Travis Barker’s Run Travis Run series.
2. More Women in the Hardrock 100
As interest in the Hardrock 100 has increased over the past 20 years, it’s become one of the hardest races in the world to enter. Since 2022, as a means to increase the number of women on the starting line, the race has selected runners proportionally to the percentage of female applicants in the lottery. For the 2025 race lottery, 646 (or 21.4 percent) of the record 3,020 applicants were women, so as a result there will be a record 32 women among the 146 runners on the starting line for this year’s race on July 11.
Prior to the changes, there were typically 16 to 22 women in the race (as low as 10 to 12 percent of the field), so the change has led to good progress. The race organization has an impossible task given the ever-increasing overall demand, but it could take an even bigger leap by arbitrarily increasing the women’s field to a minimum of 40 or 50 women runners next year (which would still only be 28 to 34 percent of the field) knowing that its existing lottery ticket algorithm still rewards long-time finishers and applicants, which historically has been composed of a much greater percentage of men. I’d argue that there have been fewer women entering the lottery up until recently because there have been fewer women in the race through the years. In other words, the race is still maintaining its out-of-balance legacy when it could be doing more to aim for a more equitable gender balance. (Imagine the reaction if the New York City Marathon — another race that’s very hard to get into — followed similar practices.)
I appreciate that Hardrock and the Western States 100 try to be as fair as possible with their weighted lotteries, but it might be time to move forward and break away from old legacies. If it was up to me, both races would have a 50-50 split between men’s and women’s entrants starting next year. Besides, we all know that women’s sports are booming, and in most cases that’s helping up-level men’s sports, too, and trail running in general.
3. More Big-Name Talent from Road and Track Running
How cool would it be if Molly Seidel, Jared Ward, or Des Linden announced they were done with marathoning and were going all-in on trail running? The marathon hasn’t jumped the shark, but unless you can run faster than 2:03 (men) or 2:15 (women), your chances of being competitive are limited. However, runners with high-level aerobic systems can still be a force in trail and ultrarunning once they gain some experience and expertise at running on technical terrain, understand and adapt to ultra fueling, and learn how the seemingly endless amount of unforeseen problem-solving skills needed to find success.
It’s not an easy transition. A foray into trail running didn’t work out for Kara Goucher, and runners like Andrew Bumbalough, who ran 13:12 for 5,000 meters on the track, and Reid Coolsaet, a two-time Olympic marathoner for Canada who finished 25th at Western States in 2022, have only experienced modest success on the trails.
Magda Boulet and Eli Hemming proved it’s possible, but I’m surprised it’s taken so long to get more high-level marathoners and triathletes out on the trails. Boulet was a U.S. Olympic marathoner in 2008 who reached the pinnacle of the ultra world with her 2015 win at the Western States 100, while Hemming, last year’s OCC champion, has gone from an elite-level Olympic-distance triathlete to one of the world’s best 50K runners.
While there is no guarantee of success transitioning from the to the trails, more high-profile athletes from other disciplines would add depth to the sport, develop more intrigue around key events, and potentially expand more mainstream interest and create more fan favorites.
4. More Comprehensive Drug Testing
No matter who is racing on the trails, the sport desperately needs enhanced drug testing to maintain its legitimacy and credibility, especially as it continues to delve further into professionalization and commercialization. That’s not to suggest that I think there is a rampant performance-enhancing drug problem in trail or ultrarunning—I don’t—but it would be naive of me to think that it doesn’t exist at all. There have already been enough notable doping infringements in the past decade to significantly raise concern.
Unfortunately, as prize money, brand sponsorship, and global championship prestige continue to grow, there is bound to be more incentive to cheat, and that creates a dilemma that’s bound to explode. It’s an awkward reality, but it’s been the nature of sport—and specifically endurance sports—as sports science and pharmaceutical technology have rapidly evolved amid a near-exponential increase in popularity, money, and exposure.
Several races have instituted pre- and post-race anti-doping policies in recent years—including Mammoth Trailfest, Pikes Peak Marathon, Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, and the Golden Trail World Series—but there needs to be uniform and transparent testing across the entire sport, and I’m not sure how that’s possible without a unified governing body. And while post-race testing is a key component, an anti-doping system is nothing without regular out-of-competition testing.
5. More Feature-Length Movies and Storytelling TV Series
It’s been several days, but I’m still captivated from watching The Chase, the new feature-length film from Dylan Harris and Aravaipa Running about last year’s Cocodona 250. (If you haven’t seen it, I’d highly recommend trying to catch it in a live-theater showing during its limited tour this spring.) It’s a compelling cinematic tour-de-force with candid storytelling about five men who went all-in on trying to win last year’s 250-mile point-to-point race that links trails and towns across Arizona from Black Canyon City to Flagstaff.
It picks up where Aravaipa’s live stream race commentary lets off and goes deep into the character development, personal motivations, and mid-race challenges of Michael Versteeg, Joe McConaughy, Michael McKnight, Jeff Browning, and Arlen Glick. It does an even better job than Unbreakable, JB Benna’s stunning feature film about the 2010 Western States 100, in showcasing ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Harris plans to do a similar version focusing on the women in this year’s Cocodona 250, which is especially enticing given that Courtney Dauwalter will be racing.
While we’ve all been inspired by the countless 10- to 20-minute reels and videos (like those in this year’s Trail Running Film Festival) that have whet our appetites, trail running is ready for more advanced content. It’s time for a YouTube docu series about the Western States 100 with candid interviews, professional cinematography, and savvy editing that emerges from the early December lottery event and continues through the start of the next race. If there can be a Netflix documentary about sprinting, there can certainly be a similar (and more relatable) production about trail running.
On point #4 – when people get caught doping, we also need to take the violation seriously rather than see them on Freetrail interviews about how innocent they are and how corrupt the anti-doping system is. UTMB still has Stian Angermund listed as the winner of the 2023 OCC! What’s the point of anti-doping if you don’t even lose your result when you test positive? The sport is letting clean runners down with this sort of thing.
Agreed on taking things seriously. If testing was untouchably perfect, I’d be in favor of lifetime bans. However, I also think Stian Angermund has a uniquely troubling case. I’m not in position to say he’s innocent, but I would suggest the testing process and sample management might be severely ineffective and flawed in his case. The challenge with that case (or any case) is that a flawed or incomplete anti-doping system is essentially doing the sport a disservice compared to if there was no anti-doping system at all. Most athletes who are doping at this point are probably doing it during training or microdosing to get the effects in training, months before a race. If they show up “clean” and test negative before or after that race, it doesn’t mean that athlete didn’t benefit from doping. But we can’t go down the rabbit hole of casting aspersions on everyone in the sport. So it seems that random, unannounced out-of-competition testing is necessary, but, alas, that doesn’t even happen on an equal basis in track and field or marathon running.
As trail running grows in prestige, commercial value, and pop-cultural visibility, the community—and especially those shaping its narrative—has a responsibility to ensure that growth is inclusive. One glaring omission in this piece is the absence of any mention of BIPOC athletes. That kind of blindness isn’t neutral; it reflects a deeper issue of who gets to be seen and celebrated in the sport.
If this moment is truly the “zeitgeist” of trail running, then it’s time to ask: whose stories are we telling? BIPOC runners are out there—training, racing, building community—but they remain vastly underrepresented. If we want the future of trail running to reflect its values of grit, connection, and resilience, inclusion has to be part of the foundation—not an afterthought.
I’m 100 percent for more diversity and inclusion, but I am not a fan of the token sponsor entries at WS 100. It seems like a band-aid approach to a bigger challenge. What I am in favor of is an equal opportunity for anyone and everyone to enter. If the race didn’t have a weighted lottery entry (that continues a bias, even by default), it would give everyone an equal opportunity for everyone to enter fairly. No legacy entrants, no special favors, just a transparent 1-to-1 chance for everyone. It might be a privately run race, but it’s on public lands and uses public resources. Sure, it would still be very, very hard to get in, but I guarantee there would be a more gender equitable field and more diversity than there is in most years. That seems more fair than things are now with a few notable races.
I like it! I’d go even farther and steer away from the focus on pros, prizes, and sponsored athletes, though. That would deepen the field better, in my opinion. I heard Jurek speak at last year’s Boston run show where he said the sport “needs” pros to make it great. Hard disagree! Your idea of cinematography and storytelling would have a broader effect. The reason we all cheer for Des is because of the publicity that has made her story and face familiar. But focus publicity on a middle of the pack runner and you’ll get the same thing, PLUS more regular people will identify with them and maybe think, “Hey I could try this trail running thing!”
Good creative ideation! By while you’re at it, how about (in addition to proportional fields of women), add similarly several allocated/guaranteed bibs/entries for those over 70 still competing. The elites won’t be compromised, but media coverage of the ‘elder’ ultrarunners (I’m soon 78), would be inspiring and newsworthy— and to an even larger audience.
“Equal” men’s & women’s entrants at Hardrock has a downside, obviously. There is always a trade off. In this case I don’t believe it’s a good one.
50% of a race being women when only 20% of the lottery entrants are women doesn’t seem logical to me. Maybe I’m not “progressive” enough, but common sense says they are doing it right. Just because they’ve done it that way for (however long) doesn’t mean it needs to be changed. Sometimes the system in place is in place because it works, is the most logical and the fairest system.
I’ll bet a lot of men said the same thing when women were fighting for the right to vote, you know, that “Sometimes the system in place is in place because it works.”
P.S. What feels “fair” to a man doesn’t necessarily feel fair to a woman. I’m just saying…
As a woman… I agree with this take. Progress in the sport would be doing a better job at supporting women coming up and progressing in the sport and staying in the sport year over year so that the lottery numbers in races like Hardrock become inherently more even, rather than forcibly.
I absolutely love the idea about increasing women at Hardrock. If talking about fairness, men have had a heads up in sports for years and that leads to things like more men entering the Hardrock lottery, so it’s about equity, not equality. https://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/do-you-know-the-factors-influencing-girls-participation-in-sports/
Nice work – thanks! Here are my thoughts – – –
1. End-of-the-Season Championship Races
Definitely! The current situation is bizarre – USATF Championships get less attention than Thanksgiving Turkey Trots, while the proprietary events dominate the media, but do not have championship fields – the top MUT runners do not race each other. (I’m a voter in UROY and others, and the lack of head-head competition is painfully obvious).
2. More Women in the Hardrock 100
Sure. But I think after decades of the wierd ‘old boys club’, the current lottery system is fair, as the allowed participation exactly represents the interest in participation.
3. More Big-Name Talent from Road and Track Running
Fine, and go tell them that, while remembering there is essentially no prize money in MUT running; we use a strange sponsorship business model.
4. More Comprehensive Drug Testing
Maybe write a book on this topic which is the biggest can of worms in the history of sport. There is nothing black or white on this topic.
5. More Feature-Length Movies and Storytelling TV Series
Like, “more” being more than one? 🙂 It is remarkable that while running has fantastic personal meaning and relevance, it is poorly represented in the arts. The writing, photography, and filmmaking are at a distinctly lower level than climbing for example. I don’t know why. But I do know I personally do not have the time or interest to watch a live-stream of anything longer than 3 hours. And am not going to watch a video of anyone plodding through the desert with cramps and dehydration (I do plenty of that myself). So with races becoming incredibly long, filmmakers are going to have to vastly improve their technique to make it viewable to more than die-hard fans.