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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

Fall has arrived. In a typical year, back-to-school activities would be in full swing and fall races would fill the weekends. While much of that has changed, brisk morning runs and leaf-lined trails are a sign that summer is no longer around to keep us warm.

The Maah Daah Hey Trail consists of 144 miles of single track that weaves through the badlands of western North Dakota. Its name comes from the Mandan language and can be translated as “an area that has been or will be around for a long time,” “long lasting,” or simply, “grandfather.” However, one should not imagine a gentle grandfather, always ready with a Werther’s candy in the pocket of his flannel jacket.

Innovation can be an interesting process. Any creative-minded person can attest that you have to throw some ridiculous ideas into the world before you develop one that lands precisely where you’d like it. If it took working our way through the TenNine shoe to get here, the Clifton Edge certainly seems to have justified the creative process.

As the co-founder of Squirrel’s Nut Butter, Chris Thornley is in the business of chafing – well, preventing it, that is. But it may come as a surprise that SNB was not originally created to prevent the dreaded skin burn.

One of the cool things about racing versus a long adventure run is that you don’t have to carry all of your gear and calories with you. Aid stations offer general food and hydration needs, but if you have specific requests, using drop bags or having a crew with a dedicated crew bag can help, if your race allows them.

Chip Howard felt his adrenaline pumping as he began buckling himself into the thrill ride Superman, alongside his family at Six Flags New England, but he had a problem. The buckle was not big enough. An attendant approached him and explained he would have to get off the ride.

We’ve spent the summer testing four high-performance trekking pole options in mountain running environments and big vert days on our home trails: LEKI MCT 12 Vario, Ultimate Direction FK Ultra, Black Diamond Distance Carbon Z, and Black Diamond Distance Carbon.

“Anything can happen in the mountains,” I tell my 19-year-old son, Kyle, as I show him how to use the SOS button on my GPS tracking device. When I hand him a windbreaker, he looks at me as if I’m insane, because we’re living through a heat wave and the sky is cloudless.

Adam Kimble crossed the finish line in Tahoe City with a new supported FKT on the Tahoe Rim Trail. Says Kimble, “I love the supported effort from the standpoint of that it’s really fun to get your core group of people together, your team in life, and go after something together.”

In January 2019, something unexpected happened at the 20-mile mark of the Hong Kong 100K. Dylan Bowman broke. Something more was going on than merely not finishing a race. It was something deeper and profoundly unsettling. For the first time ever in his celebrated career, Dylan felt used up and over.

At 4 a.m. on July 11, on a moonlit track in Fairplay, CO, the ultrarunning world experienced something that it had been longing for—the beautiful cacophony of sound that is a 100-mile start line. The Silverheels 100 Mile Endurance Run, with an average elevation of 11,000 feet, is the second highest 100-miler in the country, second only to the Hardrock 100.

Thirty years ago, at age 39, endurance athlete Marshall Ulrich completed his first 146-mile crossing from Badwater Basin (282 feet below sea level) to the summit of Mount Whitney (14,505 feet). At 6 a.m. on Monday, August 24, 69-year-old Marshall Ulrich began his journey across the desert to climb the highest mountain in the contiguous United States for his 30th crossing of Death Valley and his 27th summit of Mount Whitney.

Good races – races I want to run, crew and volunteer at – all have some key characteristics in common. It often boils down to leadership: good races have race directors who evolve.