Events

UD Ambassador Gabe Joyes shares his thoughts on his Italian race experience. [caption id="attachment_4025" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] photo credit: Canofotosport[/caption] Everything was steep at the Lavaredo Ultra Trail—notably the 19k of long, grinding ascents and absurdly technical descents—but my greatest challenge in the Dolomites of Italy was the steep learning curve of international racing. Just about 1900 runners from 60 countries toed the line of the…

UD AMBASSADOR RACE REPORT: Maria Dalzot shares her pacing and crewing experience for Kaytlyn Gerbin in the 2019 Westerns States 100 . Running a 100-mile race has never been on my bucket list. The thought of running through the night and missing all three meals in a day is not something I consider pleasant or fun. So, when I had the opportunity to be on…

UD ambassadors Sandi Nypaver and Taylor Nowlin, and Jade de la Rosa and myself (Sarah Burke) ascended the first major climb of the course as the sun was rising. It was just that kind of lighting where you could finally make out the trail below you without the aid of your headlamp. Joyful hoots of “WOOO WOOO” and “EYYYYYE EYYYE EYYYE” were heard as we…

Come to Mongolia they said! It will be a laugh they said! You will enjoy it they said!... 100 miles, on a frozen lake, in northern Mongolia - by any means. A RatRace "bucketlist" trip. My friend Marcus Liddiard told me about the RatRace site so we sat down over a beer and decided that the Mongol100 was about as much adventure as we could pack…

Ultimate Direction Signature Races are ten events - from South Africa to Italy, New Zealand, Colorado and much more - celebrating the iconic places and people of the sport of skyrunning, ultrarunning, trail and mountain. Like the game-changing Ultimate Direction Signature Series vests and vestas, Signature Races are original and innovative. The first Signature Race this year was the Tarawera Ultra in Rotorua, New Zealand.…

Ultimate Direction ambassador John Kelly is known most for his multiple Barkley Marathons appearances and completion in 2017. A rarity in the ultra-running community, John also competed in Ironman triathlons. This year he is leaving the bike and swim cap behind for a more focused season of running. In typical John Kelly fashion this meant attempting something new and difficult: his first 200 mile race.…

The Rut 50K is one of the most technical mountain races in the U.S. and in order to set myself up for success I made sure my training reflected both the steep, rocky sections of the course and the fast, runnable sections (as a mountain runner I realize I have a skewed view of what "runnable" means!). Here's how I did it. Road workouts These…

Adventure racing is a complicated sport. You are navigating a course while participating in disciplines like running, trekking, mountain biking, paddling and whatever else the organizer might find fun and challenging. Your task is to get from one place to another, taking in the checkpoints printed on your route map. The races can last a couple hours or up to 10 days. New Ultimate Direction Ambassadors…

It’s the eve of the Grand Traverse, a classic backcountry skiing race from the bottom of Crested Butte Mountain Resort to the bottom of Aspen Mountain. The course travels the Elk Mountains Range with around 8,000 feet of climbing over 40 miles. As a sponsor of the Grand Traverse and fanatic of the sport, we asked UD ski mountaineering ambassadors for advice on how to…

Fastest Known Times have become really popular - as we found out when Ultimate Direction, along with partners La Sportiva and GU Energy Labs, announced the intention to award four Grants to people attempting FKT projects - and we received 315 Applications!  After screening those 79 projects were still left - and each one was totally worthy and really interesting.  I planned to crush that down to 20…