Earlier this month, the USATF Mountain/Ultra/Trail Committee met in Anaheim, California. At the meeting, the committee rounded out the 2015 championship schedule, some of which had been set previously at last year’s annual meeting.
2015 USATF Mountain/Ultra/Trail National Championships
- January 10 – 100k Trail, Bandera 100k (Bandera, TX)
- January 31 – 100-Mile Trail, Rocky Raccoon 100 (Huntsville, TX)
- March 1 – 50k Road, Caumsett 50k (Lloyd Harbor, NY)
- April 11 – 100k Road, Mad City 100k (Madison, WI)
- May 31 – 50-Mile Trail, Cayuga Trails 50 (Ithaca, NY)
- July 25 – USA Mountain Running Championships (Bend, OR)*
- August 29 – 50k Trail, Tamalpa Headlands 50k (Muir Beach, CA)
- September 19-20 – 24 Hours, NorthCoast 24 Hour (North Coast, OH)
- October 17 – Half Marathon Trail, Lake Padden Trail Half Marathon (Bellingham, WA)
- October 24 – 50-Mile Road, Fall 50 (Door County, WI)
- November 7 – Marathon Trail, Moab Trail Marathon (Moab, UT)
*July’s race on Bend’s Mount Bachelor will also serve as the 2015 World Mountain Running Championship selection race with the top-six men and top-four women being selected for the team. The race is also the Collegiate Mountain Running Championship, which has its own $6,000 purse.
Call for Comments
- Have you run any of these races? If so, what did you think?
- Will you be running of these races in 2015?
Would be great to tun the Cayuga Trails 50. The "Awards" section is hilarious. Including "best picture from the creek crossing". I'll train for that one.
Someone still cares about the USATF? ;)
I got to run Cayuga earlier this year – USATF aside, it was definitely a cool race in a beautiful location. The atmosphere in the preceding days was fun too, with the Trails In Motion Film Festival and the Animal Athletics hill running camp. Also, for those fans of the Moosewood cookbook, the actual Moosewood is right down town.
Colorado homer here is surprised that none of the races occur in our fine (mountain-dwelling, trail-saturated, ultrarunner-populous) state…
I /think/ Colorado only had one race apply for consideration for one of these championships. That'd be the Dirty Thirty for the 50k trail national championships. Dirty 30 will again be considered for the 2016 championships.
While I haven't had much luck there myself, Caumsett has hosted quite a few fast 50k performances over the years, a pile of sub 3:00 male performances and almost an American record on the female side by Emily Harrison. For NY in March, they usually get good weather for running fast. Other than a couple of tight turns, it's a nice 5k loop, and the event is well-organized.
Cayuga is a top notch event from start to finish, the location, the course, the organization, and the peripheral events. It's worth a trip from anywhere.
I imagine Headlands will be like TNF championship without 7 colors of tape marking the course, overlap with other races, a middle of the night start, and all the other madness associated with TNF events. I ran it twice years ago when it was a USATF championship, and the course was spectacular. Another travel worthy locale.
my edit to Ben: "Headlands will be like TNF championship without" … more guys in front of you than at a cross-country collegiate championship race. But yes, a spectacularly well-run event on a beautiful and challenging course.
I have run races (in several cases sub-ultra options) at all the venues Ben Nephew mentions (I do know I chatted with him after one of the Headlands 50Kms, which was an EXCELLENT event). I second Ben's observations and would go back to all those venues if time and my body allowed.
Thanks for posting, Bryon.
Everything is so tempting, quite a good mix of destinations (9 states), will try to run a few again this year…