International Trail Running and Ultrarunning Resources
October 24, 2011 by Bryon Powell · 46 Comments
Trail running and ultrarunning have exploded around the globe over the past decade. With that, a multitude of great magazines, websites, and forums have sprung up worldwide to meet local runners’ call for information. However, at the same time, both sports have become much more international with the most curious of us looking beyond national and linguistic boundaries to read the magazines, websites, and forums of other nations.
With that in mind, I’m hoping all of your will suggest the best trail running and ultrarunning resources in countries other than the US. (We’ve previously discussed American trail and ultrarunning resources.) We’ll be adding some of your suggestions to the below lists.
Even if you don’t have any suggestions for resources, we’d love to hear from our international readers, so please say “hi” and where you’re from in a comment.
Update: Thanks to everyone who’s made contributions, many of which have been added to the below lists.
Magazines (Each magazine has a complimentary website)
- Endurance (France)
- Esprit Trail (France) (Rudimentary website)
- The Fellrunner (UK)
- Generation Trail (France)
- Go Trail (South Africa)
- Nordic Ultra (English e-zine for Scandinavia and Northern Europe)
- Spirito Trail (Italy)
- Trail Attitude (France)
- Trail Endurance (France)
- Trail Magazin (Germany) (now in print!)
- Trail Magazine (Spain)
- Trail Run Magazine (Australia and New Zealand)
- Ultrafondus (France)
News Sites
- Corredor de Montaña (Spain)
- Carreras de Montaña (Spain)
- Distance (Israel)
- Distance Plus (Italy, but multilingual)
- Dogsor Caravan (Japan)
- Mud, Sweat & Tears (UK)
- Mud, Sweat & Trails (Netherlands)
- Running Cafe (France)
- International Skyrunning Federation
- Trail Runner (Canada)
- Trail Running (Singapore, in English with a Pan-Asian focus)
- Ultra168 (Australia)
Forums/Bulletin Boards
- Adventure Zone (Greece)
- Carreras por Montaña (Spain)
- Cool Running Australia
- Corredors.cat (Catalonia)
- The Fell Runners Association (UK)
- Kikouroù (France?)
- RunningForum.it (Italy)
- Running Mania (Canada)
- Tekaški Forum (Slovenia)
- Trail Runner Forum (Hungary)
- Ultrafondus (France)
Last Updated: October 11, 2012
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Filed under Discussion, Resources ·
Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
All posts by Bryon Powell
Trailrunner forum in Hungary:
http://forum.index.hu/Article/showArticle?t=9186500
Thanks, Oliver. I’d seen forum.index.hu… but didn’t know which sub-forum was for trail running. :-)
If you click to my link, you will jump right to the trailrunning forum, called in Hungarian “Terepfutas”. The conversations there are in Hungarian, but you can post in English, if you have questions related to trail running, racing in Hungary, etc, no problem, someone will answer you soon (in English). Only a couple runner know it from abroad, but we have lot of great marked trails here, but unfortunately no big mountains. Inspite of the flatland, Csaba Nemeth have been able to finish five times in the top 10 at the UTMB in the recent years.
Hi Bryon,
I’m a keen reader from Israel – where there is a young but fast growing
ultra community. We have a website – http://www.distance.co.il – but it’s mostly
in Hebrew…
Over the last 5 years we’ve progressed from an introductory 50k trail run
up to 100 miles and beyond on some challenging trails. We’ve had a couple
of runners at Badwater and WS and 1 runner at the Spartathlon this year.
Hi Anthony,
I’d be very keen to to caht with you about a project we are working on for Israel…it’s a long distance trail run!
Please email me so we can chat…… runvixrun@gmail.com
Shalom,
Vickie
Hi from Finland. Your guide book R.F.P. has been really useful to me. The section about descending alone has helped me to “keep the shiny side up” on technical Alpine trails. Thanks!
Nordic Ultra is a new e-magazine in English about ultra running in Scandinavia and Northern Europe.
You can read the first two issues at http://issuu.com/nordicultra
TP, this is a great resource. Thanks for bringing it to my atention. I notice the magazine has lots of stories on individual races around Scandinavia, including Sweden. Do you know of any other particularly good online resources discussing ultras and, more importantly, trails in the Swedish heartland? I’ll be in Varmland (around Hagfors) for a month next summer, and I’d like to know what kind of trail running opportunities are available. I assume there must be lots, but I’m having trouble finding them, especially in English.
Thanks,
Jeff
Jeff, I’m afraid NU is your best bet. Most online resources like marathon.se tend to focus on road races and the language is Swedish. People in Scandinavia are friendly and helpful, but trail races seem harder to reach than Barkley Marathons! You didn’t say which month, but on May 19 there will be BUM 50 miles in Göteborg. Then there will be Trans Scania 100 miler on August 10 down south near Malmö. Just ask around and you’ll discover more.
Jeff, here are some info for Scandinavia,
In Sweden, GAX 100: http://web.comhem.se/stefan1/Gax100-20060417/Gax100-Mainpage/Gax100-Main.htm
http://www.laplandultra.nu
Danmark: Around isle of Mors: http://www.100miles.dk/
Hammertrail: http://www.tejnif-lob.dk/www/index.php/utbmenu
Norway: http://www.kondis.no Choose “terminliste” at the top and “fra dato” = 01.01.2011 and distanse=ultra then you should get overview over all ultras in Norway this year (but there is also triathlons and stuff like that on the list). You should be able to find a link to websites there also under most of the events, i.e. click “arrangement or arrangør”.
Will let you know if I find anything more substantial for Sweden.
http://www.ultramarathonrunning.com/races/
Three international resources that helped me find trail running events during travel:
Trail Running Soul, http://trailrunningsoul.com/trs/ — nice blog & calendar, especially for European events;
Patagonia Eventos http://patagoniaeventos.com/ — lots of events in South America (we did one in Argentina and it was fantastic), but the site is in Spanish;
and for New Zealand, Paul Charteris’s blog http://trailrunz.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the great list of resources in this post! It makes me want to run around the world :-)
Unfortunately, Trail Running Soul has faded away this year as other pursuits have drawn Edu away.
Hey Bryon,
They have a website in France called http://www.jesuisuncoureur.com which gives lists and maps of races and records your stats etc. I live in France and my french is lousy but the site is quite informative. I’m sure you are aware that the French ultra and trail running community is pretty advanced. I believe second only to the US in terms of the number of trail races and usually with plenty of elevation! I seem to be the only foreigner in all the races , we need more of you guys over here, be a bit more fun. They take it really, really seriously……but to be fair they’re they are very good.
Phil
Hey Phil, where are you based incidentally? I’m in a similar situation in France, in the southern Vercors. Thanks for the link!
Anybody have any resources for Trailrunning in Iceland?
Hi Ryan
Check marathon.is for Laugavegur Ultra and http://www.jokulsarhlaup.is for Dettifoss trail run.
..or contact me for more info: barky@simnet.is
Borkur
Hi Byron,
Thanks for the mention of the Australia/ NZ Trail Run Magazine. To return the favour, we’re reviewing RFP in the next issue (actually this was already planned a while back and I’m busily making my way through the book) :).
Many great trails on this side of the world – a trail-running holiday to Australia and NZ would be sure to please.
Nick
You’re welcome, Nick. I hope you enjoy the book.
Hi Bryon,
Marcus and I met you in Squaw valley earlier this year.
In addition to the Australian trailrunner mag there is also;
http://www.ultra168.com
Our goal is to provide runners with the latest Australian and international news, gear reviews, interviews and information on our own training and races.
Andrew, you’re on the list!
Cheers Bryan – much appreciated! (Andrew, Dan, Darrel, Marcus)
Just started to study French. Here’s trois sites:
Trail Mag (Les news etc)
http://www.trailmag.fr/
Running Café (“la pause des runners” – Les News etc)
http://www.runningcafe.fr/
Generation-Trail (Le Magazine du Trail, Les News, etc)
http://www.generation-trail.com/
We are a web site of Trail Running reviews (spanish and english):
http://www.trailrunningreview.com
I hope this will be helpfull!
TRR Team.
If you really want to get information about trail running, and ultratrailrunning in France, these two websites and on line magazines are updated every day
http://www.endurance-mag.com
http://www.generation-trail.com
Most interesting note, Bryon.
May I suggest 3 further resources for S, one per category:
Magazines: http://www.desnivel.com
News sites: http://www.carrerasdemontana.com
Forum: http://www.elatleta.com/foro/forumdisplay.php?314-Carreras-por-Monta%F1a
Hope you find them all worthy of making your list.
For the Dutch speaking nations or indicividuelas there’s http://www.mudsweattrails.nl/ – it has a forum plus an up to date race calendar encompassing trail from all over europe http://www.mudsweattrails.nl/Trailkalenders
Hi Bryon
It’s worth me saying that The Fellrunner magazine is not commercially available. It is distributed only to members of the Fell Runners Association. So anyone hunting for a copy via “normal channels” will struggle to find it.
As you know, the FRA covers a broad church of fell and mountain running. We don’t yet have a specific body here in the UK devoted to off-road ultra running. But the FRA race calendar covers events from classic 1.5 mile “shorts” up to a 37 miler in the Lake District as well as a number of 2 day mountain marathons. The magazine content reflects that breadth.
The FRA race calendar is fully web-based and available via the FRA website you’ve linked to.
Next edition of The Fellrunner is out any day now.
If you are lucky, one may turn up in Park City!
Cheers.
Morgan
Morgan,
Thanks for pointing out that The Fellrunner is not commercially available. I’m hoping that the listing will get a few Brits (or others) interested in becoming members of the FRA. :-)
… now if only we could get a fell race in Park City!
-bp
You got any hands and knees stuff there?!
And you’ll need a 200 year old (minimum) stone trough for us to clean our Walshes in once we’ve finished. :)
Good to see Joe Grant doing hs stuff in his Walshes recently.
Cheers.
Morgan
Hi Bryon,
in Hong Kong we organise hikes and trailruns using the meetup platform. I am sure there are more groups like that around the globe.
Our meetup groups have submitted around 15 teams (of 4 each) for the Hong Kong Trail Walker 100km.
See
http://www.meetup.com/HKTrailRunners
http://www.meetup.com/hongkonghikinggroup
http://www.meetup.com/HKFastHikers/
Cheers,
Martijn
http://www.geziyorum.net (Turkish/English) UTMB CCC and TDS – ultra marathons and trail gear reviews especially Salomon)
http://www.uzunpatika.com (Turkish/English ) UTMB TDS – Ultima Frontera , Trail ultra and North Face gear reviews
Anything for Belgium? I know there are trails outside Brussels but don’t know how to get info about them. I stay in Nivelles when I’m there.
Johanathan,
http://kalender.ptityeti.be/ or the mud sweat trails site – plenty of info about benelux trails.
Have also a look at http://www.lescoureurscelestes.be/. Though those runners are mainly living eadst of Liège, they run everywhere. This yeaar thzir main run is a 100 k on May 27. Starting place shall be in the vicinity of Stoumont.
Hey, thought that some asian sites will be great for the list:
http://trailrunningnepal.org/ – trail running in Nepal
http://trailrunning.sg/ – trail running around Asia
Bryon , professional footage of UTMB TDS 2011 Video Documentary http://www.savoydukununizinde.com/ in English and Turkish.
Hi guys
Love the site
For the UK http://www.gofar.org.uk
For a route to be on there it has to be long, steep, off road, not a race. Its a good resource for the big three peak-bagging rounds (England, Scotland, Wales) but there are lots of other lesser known rounds and routes throughout the UK
Thanks
Matt
Hey Byron,
Don’t forget Canada’s leading ultra and trail website – Trail Running Canada at http://www.trailrunner.ca
Jonathan, Trail Runner Canada is a no brainer… that slipped my mind. I’ve corrected the oversight.
Does anyone know resources for trail running/running in general, in the Eastern Caribbean (Bahamas, St. Thomas, St. Maarten)?
Going on a cruise and looking to do some running on the islands.
Greetings from Denmark!
Going to Geneva, Switzerland, in the spring. Just found wikiloc.com, which has some OK trail info in that area. The stored trails are generally rather short distances but seem to be from all over the Globe.
Anyone know of a trail running club or community in the vicinity of Geneva by any chance?
http://www.boostadventure.dk is the place to look for any sort of long distance race although primarily focused on adventure racing. Only in Danish, though. Use a translation engine like Google Translate or similar.
SOX – changing lives! The Southern Cross (SOX) 3 day Trail Run is only a few months away, and the Entries are flying! Rated the “Best Mountain, Forest & Coast Combo” trail run by TrailRunner Magazine (by the Editors of Runner’s World) – Summer 2012 edition, this Epic event will “blow your mind”. Early Bird entries are closing at the end of this month, and with the field limited to only 100 Pairs & 100 Solo runners, Organisers will start with a waiting list soon. Check out the Promo video of the very successful 2012 race below …
Quick facts:
Date: 9 – 11 August 2013 (long weekend)
Race Village: Ebb-and-Flow Resort; Garden Route National Park; South Africa
Distances: Day1 – 25km Mountain run; Day2 – 30km Forest run; Day3 – 20km Coastal run
Info & online entries: http://www.southerncrossadventure.co.za/calendar.html
Make use of the last few days for an Early Bird entry! Don’t miss out on this “life changing” experience …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j732pGoXcaE
I’m moving to Germany next fall and am wondering what the running culture is like there. I’ll be near Munich/Regensburg. Any information would be great!
Ultra calendar for Germany:
http://statistik.d-u-v.org/calendar.php?type=future&country=GER&Language=EN
More than 7000 active ultra runners: http://statistik.d-u-v.org/getcharts.php?&country=GER&Language=EN
Jürgen
from Munich
Just want to point to the statistics pages of the German Ultramarathon Federation DUV: http://statistik.d-u-v.org/
Currently the most comprehensive database of ultramarathon results and rankings with almost 1.4 million perfomances of 400,000 athletes from 156 countries.
980 calendar entries of upcoming race all over the world.
Available in 7 languages.
Have a look at your profile there.
Regards
Jürgen Schoch