UltraRunning Magazine

After the first-ever hiatus in the 41-year history of the magazine, awards for UltraRunners of the Year (UROY) have returned. Even though 2021 stumbled to a rough start, larger races like Black Canyon Ultras produced successful events that included wave starts, touch-free aid stations and mask requirements at the start and finish lines. Other Golden Ticket races like Canyons Endurance Runs redesigned their out-and-back 100k course to a point-to-point, which allowed runners to avoid close contact when passing on singletrack trails. Race directors got creative with safety protocols which were necessary to move forward with races. Looking back, these Herculean efforts made 2021 a year to remember. As the year progressed to racing season, we saw mind-blowing performances by ultrarunners who had been waiting for a year to toe the…

The USATF Mountain Ultra Trail (MUT) Running Council of long distance running announced the 2021 USATF MUT Runners of the Year. Chosen from 37 nominated candidates, the following athletes were selected by 15 MUT executive committee members which include elite athletes, coaches, administrators and race directors: OPEN MALE Joseph Gray Colorado Springs, CO OPEN FEMALE Grayson Murphy Bozeman, MT MASTERS MALE Max King - Bend, OR MASTERS FEMALE Kasie Enman - Huntington, VT USATF MUT Council chairperson Nancy Hobbs said, “There were many outstanding mountain, ultra, and trail performances this year to recognize in the USATF MUT runners of the year. Congratulations to all the nominees and to the winners in all four categories.”…

Don Choi, age 73, a long-time postman from San Francisco, has been inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame as its 20th member. Don is recognized as being “the father of the modern multi-day race.” He made a significant historic contribution to the sport of ultrarunning by bringing back multi-day races after an absence of 75 years. He organized the first modern six-day race in 1980 in Woodside, CA. As a pioneer ultrarunner, he set nearly all the initial modern-day ultra records over 100 miles and won more than 30 early American ultras. In 1984, he was the first American to surpass 500 miles in six days, since 1903. During the 1980s he participated in 21 six-day races, more than anyone in the world, and won nine of them.…

Canyons Endurance Runs and Speedgoat 50K have joined the inaugural UTMB World Series in 2022. The series includes events around the world and are categorized as Qualifiers, Events, Majors or Finals, with the Finals being the OCC (55k), CCC (100k) and UTMB (100 miles). According to UTMB.world, “To qualify for a place at the Finals, trail runners must compete in at least one of the UTMB® World Series Events or UTMB® World Series Majors, where they can collect Running Stones for use in the lottery, or be rewarded for their performance with direct access.”…

Nick Coury ran 173.015 miles, securing the American 24 hour track Record at the Desert Solstice Invitational at the Central High School Track in Phoenix, AZ. The previous record was 172.45 miles held by Mike Melton and set in 2012. Camille Herron beat her own 100-mile American track Record in a time of 13:21:51. This bests her previous time of 13:25:00. Pam Smith set four women’s American 45-49 Age Group Records throughout her 100-mile race by running 50 miles in 6:40:49, 100k in 8:21:36, 83.59 miles for 12 hours and 100 miles in 15:15:02. Jacob Jackson, who came in second in the 24-hour race with 157.33 miles, set a men’s American 40-44 Age Group Record for 200k in 17:51:17, beating the previous record of 18:00:12. Canadian Viktoria Brown set the…

Out of 100 entries, UltraRunning Magazine chose Natasha Daniels as the winner of their sponsor entry, and she will be running the Western States Endurance Run in June. Daniels submitted the following: “I was never athletic; I was shy and lacked confidence. Did everything right; college, marriage, house then kids. But it fell apart. I was 27 and found myself divorced with 2 kids under 3. My world was working and my boys. In 2006, I moved to Folsom for work and found myself working 7 days/week with insane hours. Fast forward to 2014, I had no friends, no personal life, my kids were finishing high school and I started to go through what I would call a mid-life crisis. My 45th birthday was coming fast and I decided to run…