2018 Year-End iRunFar Fund Drive

A call to support iRunFar as 2018 comes to an end.

By on December 24, 2018 | Comments

iRunFar logo - square with taglineHi there iRunFar reader,

What a year we’ve had in 2018! Our deep, personal passions for trail and ultrarunning have led us to work tirelessly to share educational, informative, reflective, and inspiring articles across an enormous range of subjects.

We brought you nearly 500 articles, including at least one every weekday. We’ve added four columnists: we welcome Sabrina Little, David Laney, and Morgan Tilton, and welcome back Ian Torrence! (A fifth new columnist joins us this Thursday, so stay tuned. ;-) ) We’ve provided exhaustive race coverage from around the world, from here in the U.S. to Hong Kong, New Zealand, France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, and Scotland, from the Skyrunning World Championships to classic 100 milers and even the 100k World Championships on the roads. Wow!

Now, with the year wrapping up, we’re looking for your support to help us start 2019 stronger than ever. Financial support from our readers and followers has long been a critical part of making iRunFar happen and that’s even more the case today than it’s ever been. It’s with all that in mind that we launch our semi-annual pledge drive. With the year ending, consider this a quick reminder to think of how much iRunFar has meant to you this year as well as pointing out quick and easy ways to do something about it.

How Our Supporters Have Helped Us

Looking back, it’s through the support of iRunFar fans like you that we’re able to have a great team of writers for our daily articles, cover a variety of races, upgrade our equipment, and dream of future improvements. The addition of monthly patron support via Patreon this year enabled us to replace both a failing satellite modem and an ancient laptop. It’s also meant operating iRunFar (and its editors’ lives) in a stable, sustainable manner for the first time in our history. A few years ago, individual one-time donations allowed us to pick up a great DSLR camera. In the summer of 2017, fans purchasing iRunFar gear made the difference between shutting down and striving onward. Thanks so much for helping us share our passion with you!

Ways You Can Help iRunFar

The best way to support iRunFar is to become a monthly iRunFar donor on Patreon. Your monthly support offers us financial predictability, a great compliment to the highly variable support we receive from brands and one-time donations. Patreon allows us to continually improve iRunFar while also allowing us to breathe easier when we have a quiet advertising month on the horizon. We’ve got a big goal for this fund drive… to hit 1,000 patrons by the end of the year at which point we’ll invest in a second DSLR camera and otherwise upgrade iRunFar’s imagery. Will you be one of them? We hope so! Alternately, you can similarly support iRunFar with monthly donations via PayPal.

Some folks prefer to support us with one-time donations via PayPal (no account needed) or check. That’s great, too! Such donations allow us to dream of bolstering some of our equipment as well as helping build a little cushion for the tough times.

Finally, you can also support us by purchasing iRunFar gear. We’ve recently launched iRunFar’s first-ever trucker hats, two unique designs brought to reality by Territory Run Co. We also still have some of our limited-edition iRunFar SCAPE tee-shirt designs available for order as well as a number of previous iRunFar products. Purchasing this gear helps fund iRunFar’s operations.

Happy trails (and holidays),

Bryon and the iRunFar Team

Recent Testimonials from iRunFar Supporters

Do any of these resonate with you? If so, consider supporting our work!

“What you do for the ultrarunning community cannot be measured–education through articles written by experts in their field, detailed and unbiased live race coverage from across the globe, motivational and inspiring writing, and raising the profile of our sport in the running world more generally. To donate a small amount through Patreon each month for this is excellent value for money.” – Ellie G.

“Your coverage of major races is so comprehensive that when you compare it to other race coverage outlets, the difference in quality is pretty profound–iRunFar is definitely the gold standard as far as race coverage is concerned. Thanks for doing what you do–we’re very, very lucky that you exist.” – Ric M.

“I would not be the runner I am today without the impetus of iRunFar; it has taken me from newbie to knowledgeable, from hesitant to enthusiastic.” – Anon.

“Apart from the obvious fact that you cover extremely well the trail/ultra scene, it’s the way you do it that marks you out from the rest. The personalized way that the whole operation seems to be run gives it a feel which I have never encountered elsewhere. It’s warm, curious, interesting, opinionated, but also fair and considerate in a really unique way. And you are clearly not doing it to make a quick buck. And I think that high quality work such as yours which is done in that way should be and needs to be supported. I really admire what you do.” – Tristram L.

“iRunFar provides five-star journalism to the sport we love, no holds barred. The reporting is intimate and real, bridging unique personal experiences with descriptive race coverage to present a trusted, valued source of information for the ultrarunning community.” -Michelle F.

“iRunFar is the best platform about ultrarunning: the quality and the diversity of the content are amazing. But above all the good spirit, the constructive discussion and the sense of community are unique and useful.” – Antoine L.

“…because iRunFar is unique package of love, coverage, and story in one place!” – John C.

Bryon Powell

Bryon Powell is the Founding Editor of iRunFar. He’s been writing about trail running, ultrarunning, and running gear for more than 15 years. Aside from iRunFar, he’s authored the books Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and Where the Road Ends: A Guide to Trail Running, been a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, written for publications including Outside, Sierra, and Running Times, and coached ultrarunners of all abilities. Based in Silverton, Colorado, Bryon is an avid trail runner and ultrarunner who competes in events from the Hardrock 100 Mile just out his front door to races long and short around the world, that is, when he’s not fly fishing or tending to his garden.