2012 TNF EC 50 Mile Championships Live Coverage
November 29, 2012 by Bryon Powell · 10 Comments
[Update: We've posted full 2012 TNF 50 results with links to many other race resources.]
For the fourth straight year, iRunFar will be livecasting from The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Mile Championships in the Marin Headlands just north of San Francisco, California. As always, both the men’s and women’s fields feature a veritable who’s who of trail ultrarunning with an even greater than usual influx of shorter-distance talent entering this year’s fray. Despite being in the center of a five-day stretch with huge rain totals, the race should only see intermittent precip. Still, there’ll be plenty of mud to enhance the day’s challenges.
We’ll be livecasting the event on iRunFar’s Twitter feed. We’ll also be combining our twitter feed with other possible news sources and encouraging all of you to join the discussion in the CoverItLive window below (once moderation goes live on race morning).
Here are a couple resources to help you follow the race:
- The official race website and 50 mile info packet (pdf);
- Our description of the course changes after inclement weather forced a re-route;
- iRunFar’s extensive men’s and women’s previews;
- Geoff Roes’ thoughts on the race; and
- iRunFar’s multitude of pre-race interviews, including Miguel Heras, François D’haene, Emelie Forsberg, and Sage Canaday.
Please consider making a donation in support of our coverage of the The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Mile Championships. Purchasing items from the iRunFar Store also supports our race coverage around the world.
-Bryon Powell, Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar
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- 2012 TNF EC 50 Mile Course Change Course changes for the 2012 The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Mile....
- 2012 The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) Live Coverage Live coverage of the 2012 The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) 100....
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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.
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In!
Hi Bryon,
Looks like this event is set up for the wrong day – the Live Feed is set for Friday 30 Nov rather than Saturday 01 Dec.
:) Matt
Matt, I actually start the CoverItLive stream at some point the day ahead of the race so that it collects some of the fun tweets from the athletes. :-)
Cool – I’ll be tuning in when it goes live. Thanks!
Pacing in American ultrarunning races seems to be normal or even expected, where as it’s very rare in European races. Could someone please explain the origin of this concept? Is it for safety reasons, socializing or performance enhancing purposes? And how does, potentially, twice as many people on the run course, fit in with some of the regulations in numbers in some of the National Parks? Just curios, Claus Bech, Denmark
Not just that… In Cavalls del Vent is not allowed to pace a runner. If a runner without a bib is running with a runner with a bib, this one is descallificated
hmmmmm… seems to be course marking issues and problems with people getting significantly lost every year on those trails at this race (was last year the exception?)… perhaps it’s time for a course marshall at the turns… i know there are a TON of turns… but for a big $$ event, big efforts may need to be taken on a course with a maze of trails at their disposal.I feel for the racers as well as the organizers on this one… and especially the volunteers who field the frustrations but have little power to change anything.
This is just sad. These guys are totally incapable of getting it right at any of their races. In the one TNF50 race I ran (DC, in their 1st year), the ribbons in one section led me literally straight into a lake. The organizers blamed high school kids and said they must have moved the markings. Whatever… first year events generally have some kinks… However, having things continually go wrong at the championship event is pathetic. There is $10k on the line for the winner. This is a big deal to a lot of people. I know lots of people claim (incorrectly in my opinion) that it is the responsibility of the runner to know the course inside and out to avoid getting lost, but how is that even possible when the course is dramatically changed the day before the race? Too many people are creating 50 and 100 mile races just for the “hardcore” status it supposedly provides, but very few do it right anymore… If you are going to direct an ultramarathon, mark the course extremely well, double and triple check your markings, make sure your distances are accurate, and own up to the fact that it’s probably your fault if tons and tons of experienced/top runners go off course. Also, if you’re going to try to attract top talent with a cash prize, you need to be extra vigilant in putting together a smooth race. People base their livelihoods around this stuff.
In response to: “Not even slightly amused says”
Spot on…This is suppose to be a Legit Ultra sponsored by a proper Company and they made some serious what looks like to be rookie race planning mistakes esp for being a Championship. I would rather see it be pushed off a day or two to allow the original course to be ran, than to create some course on the fly that allows runners to get lost. (It would be one thing if only one runner ran off course, but to have 3 leaders one of which is sponsored by North Face run off course reflects race directors). Not trying to steel the victory for the current 1st place winner, but we will never know if that off course mistake would have changed the out come of who won.
10,000 is a lot!
Not cool at all, but big shout out to irunfar! kudos for doing what you guys do best and that deliver every single time to us viewers. I just hope this TNF Race Series gets better as I’m running the one in VA in 2013 of June.
There must be something especially difficult to course marking for this to happen so often and so spectacularly. They just have to bite the bullet and spend the money especially for these championship high money races and go out and hire guys out there who has reputation for marking courses well because it really does seem like a rare skill or at least someone who will take responsibility. They could even work with the local hiking club, give them a course map, and they would probably mark it so well.