Last weekend across North America, events on our UltraRunning Calendar suffered in the sweltering heat. However, this weekend looks to provide some late summer relief in a few locations. We have a quartet of challenging 100-milers, Canada’s largest ultrarunning festival and a collection of other fun events in unique places.
Just a few hours southwest of UltraRunning Magazine headquarters in Williams, Oregon, is the 10th annual Pine to Palm 100 on Saturday, September 10. Pine to Palm is a remote and rugged point-to-point course, traversing the Siskiyou Mountains in southern Oregon and winding its way east to Ashland on a mixture of single-track trails and fire roads with less than 4 miles of pavement. The course boasts over 20,000 feet of climbing and descending with three epic climbs up to 7,000 feet, and has fantastic views of Mount Shasta and Mt. McLaughlin. Race day temps are calling for 100 degrees. You can track runners here. Read: Pine to Palm 100: Help Along the Way by Stephen Strauss and Pine to Pain by Erik Price.
The 11th annual Idaho Mountain Trail Ultra Festival (a.k.a. IMTUF 100) in McCall, Idaho, on Saturday, September 10, is one rugged 100-miler. Billed as a “race that is alpine to the core,” IMTUF starts and finishes at the Jug Mountain Ranch while collecting a little over 22,000 feet of elevation gain. The course is crafted to be “TUF,” yet features a scenic loop through the Salmon River Mountains in the central part of Idaho. Runners can expect very steep climbs and descents, beautiful summits and ridge lines, deep canyons with pristine rivers and a diverse range of wildlife sightings. The race is also a Hardrock 100 Endurance Run qualifying race. Read: Overcoming at IMTUF by URM contributor Drew Dinan.
Traveling southeast to Kaysville, Utah, we find another brutal 100-mile race in the form of the 42nd annual Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run beginning on Friday, September 9. The point-to-point event stretches from East Mountain Wilderness Park to Soldier Hollow and covers some of the most beautiful scenery the Utah’s Wasatch Mountains have to offer. With a cumulative gain of approximately 24,000 feet, a loss of 23,000 feet and run at an altitude above 6,500 feet for nearly its entire length, the Wasatch 100 is arguably the toughest race in this week’s What’s Up in Ultra. Read: Weather at Wasatch 100 by Race Director John Moellmer.
Flying north across the border to La Malbaie, Québec, we find ourselves landing at the largest trail and ultrarunning festival in Canada, the Ultra-Trail Harricana™ du Canada (UTHC), starting on Friday, September 9 and finishing up on Sunday, September 11. UTHC offers three ultra-distance events: 65k, 80k (50 miles) and 125k, as well as five sub-ultra trail distances. The ultras are all point-to-point with the perfect mix of flowing single track and technical terrain in Canada’s wild backcountry of Charlevoix. Over 2,500 athletes are expected to attend the event from around the world.
Check out our UltraRunning Calendar for more races happening this weekend, as well as the Haliburton Forest Trail Races 50k/50/100-mile in West Guildford, Ontario, the Superior Fall Trail Races 50/100-miler in Two Harbors, Minnesota, the Lost Soul Ultra 50k/100k/100-miler in Lethbridge, Alberta, the Virgil Crest 50k/50-mile/100k/100-mile in Cortland, New York, the Hawk Hundred 50/100-mile in Lawrence, Kansas, and the Mogollon Monster 105k/100-mile in Pine, Arizona, all on Saturday, September 10.
What’s Up in Ultra in your community this weekend? Let us know what we missed by leaving a comment below.