Dec 2024 / Jan 2025

The Good Ol' Days

Max King
Dec 2024

The sport of trail and ultrarunning is getting to a point where we’re seeing a generational gap. This begs the question: are we seeing a splitting of generations, or do we just grow into cranky old people as we age? Will Millennials and Gen X eventually get to an age where they, too, are pining for the “good ol’ days” of trail running? If you’re thinking this is just another old guy writing about the glory days of running, please—keep reading.

I first noticed it at the 2017 Marathon du Mont Blanc. I was weaving my way through the pre-race expo on my way to pick up my number. They had it set up so that you had to walk through a chicane of vendors before standing in a line to receive your bib and check your gear. It reminded me of a big city road marathon and all I could think was, What happened to the trail running vibe?

I am only a sample of one, but I’ve always been a little crowd-phobic and am drawn to smaller events. I can’t tell if I’ve always been like this because trail running consisted of mostly smaller events when I started or, if I’ve just gotten old and cranky. Maybe it’s a bit of both?

Over the course of 20 years in the sport, there have been a lot of changes. Companies growing larger, growing faster, commercialization and race companies buying out other races. That all sounds so negative, but I’d like to give you a different perspective on all this growth.

It’s good. Yeah, we’ve grown and there are a ton more people in the sport than there used to be. I won’t bore you listing all the ways that it’s grown, you know what they are, but when someone is complaining about how big it has gotten, like myself, they are more concerned with losing what the sport used to be: small, community-driven and non-commercialized. Well, I am here to tell you that while so much has changed, the old school trail running vibe is still going strong.

Sure, sometimes it feels like the old school races have been left behind. No one is talking about them, but they’re still going strong and as fun as ever. The media focuses on the next big event but if you go back to 2005, there was no trail media, we were all talking about the classic courses in the same way we still do now, just by word of mouth.

What I love about this sport is that while we’ve grown and made room for new experiences, we have also kept the things that makes this sport so great. As new people get into ultrarunning via the big, flashy race experience, they start to look around the community and find all the classics—the races that feel like they got left behind. But they didn’t get left behind, they just didn’t change, and I appreciate that.

So, it’s time to go old school. This season, I encourage you to find a classic race that you’ve never done before and sign up. There are so many out there waiting to be re-discovered. On the flip side, if you’re stuck in your ways and haven’t been to a big event with a festival atmosphere, sign up for one and embrace the chaos and excitement. We have a growing sport that has room for both experiences, and neither are going anywhere, anytime soon.

 

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