Here’s a better way to get hydrated, wherever you are: Just drop a Nuun® hydration tablet in your water bottle and get complex sugar-free electrolyte goodness that recharges your salts, but is more refreshing and efficiently absorbed than water or sports drinks. If you are tired of those over sweetened energy drinks, give Nuun a taste and you will become a daily user!

Karl Meltzer and Scott Mason have a series of trail running tips (video’s), we will share our first video on running downhill, this skill can help you catch a lot of people the last 25 miles of steep 100 miler. Running downhill is a lot like skiing, pick your turn way ahead of time!

This subject continues to be an issue with the USATF and certain race directors. I had a guy e-mail us questions about headphones and why won’t the Napa Valley Marathon let him run with headphones? The Napa Valley Marathon is sanctioned by the USATF and they do not allow headphones. In fact my team mate and long time running partner Karl Meltzer was 2006 USATF trail runner of the year and they would not post his picture because he had headphones on. What is the awnser? Run the headphone cord under your shirt and use a single earbud and run like the wind! Do not worry about a cougar, they will get you with or with out the head phones!

WINTER MARKET 2007 WAS LARGEST AND BEST EVER!

Outdoor Retailer, the leading outdoor industry trade event, closed a successful 2007 Winter Market with a record 17,973 total attendees, up 24% from 2006*. The largest Winter Market to date attracted 5,602 buyers, up 14% from 2006*, who toured a show packed with innovative gear, apparel, accessories, footwear, educational events and hundreds of new exhibitors.
The first Winter Market in the expanded Salt Palace Convention Center housed a total 815 exhibitors, including 274 new exhibitors and 152 expanded booth presentations.

The La Sportiva treadmill event was a big attraction when Meltzer and Jurek went head to head right after hardrock 100.

“Kahtoola Wasatch Winter Bigfoot Festival 5K and 50K“

This scary looking dude means winter is on it’s way and a new cross training event shows up for the winter.

Kahtoola is putting on a 5k and a 50k winter snow run, Kahtoola has a winter Traction System they will be showing off for the race, me I will run in my reliable Montrail Vitesse . Running on the snow is a great way to build base with a low impact approach!

WasatchSpeedGoat

As we all run our 50 and 100 mile races a new trend is hitting the trail scene. Multi day stage races are starting to show up from Europe to the USA. I have always felt a trail race that resembles the Tour de France would be a really good time. Next year I am going to team up with another runner and run the transrockies.com.

This is the first Multi day stage race in the USA, the course starts at :

Stages
Stage 1: Beaver Creek Resort, CO to Vail, CO – View Profile Here »
Stage 2: Vail, CO to Pando, CO – View Profile Here »
Stage 3: Pando, CO to Leadville, CO – View Profile Here »
Stage 4: Leadville, CO to Champman Group Camp, CO – View Profile Here »
Stage 5: Basalt to Aspen, CO – View Profile Here »

Good times for all!!

Wasatchspeedgoat

Karl Meltzer and Scott Mason from Wasatchspeedgoat.com are putting on a new award this year and many years to come. On January 1st we will open voting for the readers of Trail Outlet Blog and Wasatchspeegoat.com to vote for Speedgoat of the year. This award will be decided by runners not a panel, we hope to make this award bigger then the USATF and Ultrarunning.com annual award. So stay tuned for further details on nominations and voting! 3 Scrapes!

Trophies designed by Goat Davis, a true trail runner!

Wahsatchspeedgoat

Wasatchspeedgoat

Not to miss the Heartland 100 out in Kansas this past weekend. Paul D threw down a 14:26 (on a course with a paltry 6k’ of gain…even Rocky has 8000?…it is KS afterall) to break Clifton’s 14:30 course record by 4 minutes.

I am not sure how someone can hold together that well for the whole 100 miles, the pace is 7:01 minute miles, out of control! Way to go Paul Dewitt!

Being a big fan of Mr. Goat, Steve Clemons sent us a picture from the Cascades. This goat is looking at him as if he shouldn’t have been up there visiting. Once you get on a spine like this you can usually jog along side or behind these guys with out them getting to spoked. They probably figure if you can reach this point you are no threat to them, because you are a four legged version of the goat. Bahahahah – Two scrapes!

WasatchSpeedGoat

As we blog about Utah trail running, keep in mind Utah is home of some killer trails races. If you like the 100 mile distance, go give the Wasatch 100 a try, if that is not enough go do the Bear 100 just north of Salt Lake. Both 100’s are qualifiers for the Hardrock 100 course.

There is a monster 50 miler here called the Squaw Peak 50 which I ran 6 times, this 50 has 20,000 combined vertical. If you like Buffalo’s go to Antelope Island and run a 50 miler or 50k distance around the Great Salt Lake, that race is like being on moon landscape.

For the 50k distance, Snowbird has a race called the WasatchSpeedGoat Ultra. This race has 20,000 vertical and takes you through a 600 ft. tunnel at the top of the ski resort and down the rugged Mt. Baldy side into Alta Ski Resort.

For the marathon distance, there is a race called the Mid Mountain Marathon , this is a true trail race with 25 miles of spectacular single track in Park City, Utah.

There is a long time race called the Wasatch Steeple Chase, this race has a huge 4,000 ft. climb and descends back to City Creek Canyon in Salt Lake for a 16 mile distance. A classic!

WasatchSpeedGoat