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I’ve known races in the past to be canceled or postponed, but never the entire season as a whole being more or less shut down. To add to this mix, I lost my favorite sister, Gwen, to complications of the dreaded COVID virus, so I wasn’t feeling at all good about 2020. A sense of melancholy is exactly what I was feeling when I finally decided to try and enter the Heartland 100 yet again this year.

It was a calm, crisp morning at the start of the Moab 240, as the last group of runners lined up by the arch five minutes before 7 a.m. We hollered in anticipation, as we were about to embark upon 241 miles of remote country before returning to where we started.

Dan Barger was registered for Western States this year and looking for a way to still get out and experience the course after it was canceled. It seemed that 2020 was the perfect year to try and run a double Western States. The consensus among the tight-knit Auburn, California, endurance community was that it had not been done, and thus, the “Western States 200” was born.

After months of uncertainty with canceled races and FKT attempts, I caught wind that Javelina Jundred might take place. The pancake flat, fully exposed Arizona desert is a far cry from the terrain and climate where you would expect to find this mountain-minded ultrarunning junkie, but I needed something to look forward to.

I wonder what this hill looks like through my three-year-old’s eyes. I have run it probably a hundred times and to be honest, it is not even that steep. But to my son, it is “Mount Everest.” He says so as he struggles up the snow-covered trail, each tiny step unstable and unsure, yet determined.

An an offshoot of Topo’s most popular trail running model, the Ultraventure Pro has the same geometry and stack heights, plus added design elements to improve comfort and performance for long outings on rough terrain.

UR columnist Gary Cantrell (Lazarus Lake) took on an unexpected and exciting new race format this summer that ended up being one of the biggest of his career. This podcast episode began as a column and turned into a conversation about the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee (GVRAT), Big’s Backyard and more.

Eve was an active kid who grew up in rural Indiana. She started her running career early, running both cross-country and track throughout high school. Her running coach was instrumental in her growth. “He taught me to love heat running, to run easy when needed, and to race smart.”

Ride the Wave 50-Miler consisted of three legs: two checkpoints at miles 10 and 31, plus the finish line. The directions and course map were unknown for each leg until we arrived at the checkpoints, where we received the directions and maps on laminated cards to assist us in getting to next leg.

Humans, at our most primitive state, are explorers and have always needed trails. Whether it was to hunt, seek help or flee from danger, we’ve needed an efficient way to go from point A to B. Today, we need trails less for basic survival, but arguably more for mental and emotional health.

This weekend, UR columnist Jeffrey Stern set a new supported FKT on the Backbone Trail in Southern California. He finished the 68-mile trail in 11:10, snagging the record from Jeff…

The Mines of Spain 100 makes excellent use of the area’s colorful history, and the beauty and variety of habitats of the natural world there. Add to that, stellar race organization, great volunteers and exceptional runner support, and it all adds up to a cool event that is likely to become a fixture in Midwest ultrarunning.

The NURVV Run are smart insoles that can be inserted beneath your shoe’s existing footbeds in order to provide unique data such as foot strike and pronation information. The NURVV Run system also promises to improve your running through live in-run coaching, a holistic health score and additional resources to improve technique.

Conquer The World (CTW) Endurance not only held their first live race of the year in September, but the first edition of the Pawling 24-Hour Trail Running Festival. The event included 24-, 12-, 6- and 1-hour events on a 1.68-mile loop of road and trail with approximately 160 feet of elevation gain, that circles a beautiful lake in Pawling, New York.

Like many of you, I have had to create my own trail running adventures with many races canceled and trails closed. The thing is, I’m only 14, so I can’t just hop in my car and head out. Anywhere, except for to attempt to run 24 miles across the Grand Canyon. I’ve been very lucky that I have had some amazing adventures and made great friends in my seven years of trail running, but this adventure tops them all.

Long sleeve shirts are a staple of fall training. There is a lot of variety within the category, from lightweight fabrics intended for high-intensity work, to thicker layers that protect you on long aerobic outings or in harsh conditions. We’ve tested a range of long sleeve tops so you can choose one for your specific needs.

Five waves of runners dispatched from the start under cool air as the skies lightened. This year’s race took runners in the original counterclockwise direction on 82% unpaved fire roads with just over a mile of elevation gain in central Pennsylvania’s Rothrock State Forest.

The successor to Garmin’s multi-sport focused Forerunner 735XT, expands the functionality of that model extensively, and closely approaches the feature profile of the higher-end Forerunner 945. In comparison to the 945, the Forerunner 745 has a smaller casing, minimal navigation features and lower battery life, but has a more affordable price point.

In a year of so much uncertainty and speculation, Hungerford was able to provide a bit of reprieve. It was just what we needed to affirm our love of running and once again celebrate each individual journey to the finish line.

Last year, I started and finished my first ever, 100-mile race at the Wasatch Front Endurance Run, but knew that I was capable of better. So, the next day, I sat in the car and decided to sign up for the Bear 100 in 2020.

To understand why the Marathon Des Sables 2020 wasn’t canceled earlier and discuss 2021, we recently talked with its race director, Patrick Bauer.

Autumn means cooler temps, wet trails and a new harvest of running socks to choose from. Here’s a rundown of models we’ve been testing over the past several weeks.

“It seemed like it became a self-fulfilling prophecy that I was always going to get second,” Tyler Green laments. “I shouldn’t put myself in this pecking order. To come to that realization that I should just go for the win, not necessarily that I am going to win, but I should go for it and just see what happens, is pretty cool.”

A next-generation multisport GPS watch from Polar, which builds on the performance metrics of the Vantage watch, and adds a handful of new features that are ideal for ultrarunners and mountain runners.

This was our first race during COVID-19. Race director John Doggett and his team made sure everyone was taken care of and it felt like we were part of the family.

As the Vermont 50 race weekend approached, sadness hung in the air, as the void of the race was evident. When Laura Farrell, founder of the Vermont 100 & 50-mile races and Vermont Adaptive, texted us four days earlier, asking us if we’d like to join her and her family for an impromptu 50k to keep the Vermont 50 spirit alive, we were immediately on board.

As a zero-drop shoe, the Terraultra G270s fills that void for the minimalist runner who wants a lightweight and energetic shoe for aggressive running, with just enough cushion to stay comfortable.

Tracy Beth Høeg, MD, PhD is a sports doctor who happens to specialize in ultrarunning injuries. She is an accomplished ultrarunner herself, and continues to pursue a balance of being a working mom, wife and ultrarunner. We discuss how she found ultrarunning and became interested in studying the sport, her medical research at Western States, and how the current pandemic is affecting athletes. Dr. Høeg writes the column “Ultra Doc” for UR.

I am sealed inside my home—a prisoner to the hazardous air that has choked Oregon for over a week. The state is on fire. This year is a reminder that life is too short not to dive in headfirst after your goals. All we have is right now.

Odds are that for the really long distances, like 100 miles, almost everyone will need to power-hike at some point during a race. To put it in context, each time I won the Leadville Trail 100, I typically power-hiked around 25 miles