2012 La Sportiva Mountain Cup Schedule
January 26, 2012 by Bryon Powell · 10 Comments
I’m excited to announce that iRunFar will again be the media partner for the La Sportiva Mountain Cup. This will be our fourth straight year covering the top sub-marathon trail running series in the US. In 2011, Megan Kimmel won the women’s cup as she has every year, but not without a new cast of characters chasing her. On the men’s side, Jared Scott won the cup at the tenth and final race after winning the previous race by a scant 3 seconds. Indeed, every season and every race provides new excitement and a new storyline. Once again, $25,000 in cash will lure top competitors to the series, the standings for which are based on each racer’s five best races. (The scoring and prize breakdown remain unchanged from last year.)
La Sportiva, along with fellow sponsors GORE-TEX and Clif, continues to pull together a diverse schedule of sub-marathon-distance races from around the country. This year’s cup will feature races from 7 miles to 33k (20.5 miles), from Olympia, Washington to Moab, Utah to Reading, Pennsylvania.
The series will kick off in Ophir, North Carolina at the Uwharrie Mountain Run 20 miler before heading to four additions to the cup. After Uwharrie, the series travels to Utah for the ever-popular Red Hot Moab races before heading to Reading, Pennsylvania for the Ugly Mudder Trail Run. While the Ugly Mudder is new to the series, it’s put on by Pretzel City, a race company whose Mt. Penn Mudfest has previously been included. Guerilla Running’s Hillbilly Half Marathon is next up in Olympia, Washington. Hell’s Hill in Smithville, Texas is also new to the LSMC, but the series has previously included race director Joe Prusaitis’ Nueces race.
The Mountain Cup’s back half will look much the same as last year as the series returns to the Don’t Fence Me In Trail Run, the Jemez Mountain Trail Runs Half Marathon, and the Rothrock Challenge before again concluding with the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase here in iRunFar’s mountain headquarters of Park City, Utah. The lone addition in the series’ last five races of 2012 will be the Barr Trail Mountain Race, which took a one-year hiatus from the Mountain Cup. The full Mountain Cup schedule can be found below.
This year’s cup will return the La Sportiva Standout Award, a La Sportiva/GORE-TEX/Clif prize pack which the race director awards to the person at the race the RD feels is most deserving. La Sportiva is also continuing its Going The Distance program that awards up to $1,500 at each race to a local trail organization. This year, that will take the form of La Sportiva selling 100 limited edition travel mugs, customized for each race venue, for $15, each with all proceeds benefiting the local trails. Last year’s Going the Distance program featured custom tee shirts and raised $5,000!
Aside from covering each La Sportiva Mountain Cup race on iRunFar, we’ll also be giving a pair of La Sportiva’s away with each race report as well as offering a grand prize. As with last year, the grand prize will consist of three pairs of La Sportiva mountain running shoes of the winner’s choosing as well as some LS swag. Speaking of last year’s grand prize, we’ve yet to award it… until now. Congratulations to Thomas Bowling of San Antonio, Texas for being the winner of last year’s grand prize. I’m sure he’ll agree to better late than never!
Call for Comments
- Have you taken part in the La Sportiva Mountain Cup in the past? If so, which were your favorite race?
- Regardless of whether they were part of the cup when you ran them, have you run any of the above races?
- Do you plan to run any of the La Sportiva Mountain Cup races this year?
Full 2012 La Sportiva Mountain Cup Schedule
Related articles:
- 2011 La Sportiva Mountain Cup The schedule of the 2011 La Sportiva Mountain Cup....
- La Sportiva Mountain Cup Giveaway Grand Prize Two final winners in iRunFar's 2010 La Sportiva Mountain Cup giveaways....
- 2010 La Sportiva Mountain Cup Preview! iRunFar previews the 2010 La Sportiva Mountain Cup, a series of 10 mountainous trail races held across the US from April through August....
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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
Thanks to La Sportiva for being a part of two races in Pennsylvania. The Ugly Mudder does not seem to be on the same level as the other races in terms of distance or difficulty, but Pretzel City Sports puts on a fantastic event. Their race director pens the best race descriptions that I’ve seen anywhere. I’m looking forward to both the Mudder and the Rothrock Challenge.
Agreed, they should have chosen chilly cheeks, cause that was tough
I think they’re going with this over mudfest, because mudfest may have to use different trails due to Antietam lake now being owned by Berks (rather than Reading)
new course will be different (and I loved the old course) Berks won’t let more than a group of 25 on the trails at one time (mudfest had about 850 a year)
I think the half-wit or double trouble would have been a worthy entry to the cup, or even the blues cruise to give the cup an ultra
Also starting to plan for these two PA courses as races for this year
I ran in the Uwharrie 8-miler last year. It was my first trial race and I had a great time. The organizers were great and it is a great trail, very challenging. I am doing the 8-miler again this year and am thinking about doing the 20-miler for 2013.
I’ve done Joe Prusaitis’ races before and he puts on a top notch event. Great volunteers and as an ultrarunner himself he knows what we need. Everyone should run Joe’s races when their schedule allows. I wont be running the Cup this year. I’ve chosen to run Hell’s Hills 50K and Jemez 50M this year but plan on enjoying running with some great runners.
Thank you Bryon & La Sportiva!!!!! This is has been a great surprise – what a way to start 2012 – I look forward to logging many miles in La Sportivas!
Didn’t know the Hillbilly Half was part of this series, but I am planning on running it…good to know! It’s supposed to be tough… See you there!
keep an eye out for dave roche at uwarrie this weekend. the kid has been tearing it up in every race he has entered in the last 2 years. he is one to watch
Nice to see a non-ultra race series continue to succeed and attract good runners. Thanks to iRinFar for covering that side of the sport as well. Personally, I think the the series would benefit from some high profile anchor races (much like WS100 in the montrail cup) to raise the stakes and excitement level a bit. Also disappointed to not see any west coast races in the mix this year.
Last year, the Table Rock 25k @ Stinson Beach was added late to the Mountain Cup schedule for July. Inside Trail (http://www.insidetrail.com/ai1ec_event/la-sportiva-table-rock-25k/) has it on their calendar for July 22, 2012. It’s a great course, and I hope it will be part of the series again.
Red Hot is great for us Rocky Mountain dwellers, as it’s a fine course not under a foot of snow (probably).
Barr Trail is definitely one of the best races in the country; neither roadies nor ultraites can win it.
Jupiter Peak is virtually unknown, but highly recommended, due to its outstanding course.