Trail Racing Is Going Corporate—Is That a Bad Thing?

Michael Strzelecki has been running trail races since 1985. He considers himself an outdoors lover at his core, and the fact that he can join other like-minded souls at trail races is icing on the cake. The 55-year old Maryland-based energy industry analyst hits up several low-key, traditional style trail races every year.

Jenny Medvene Collins, a 33-year old teacher from Massachusetts, is at the other end of the spectrum. Running for the past decade, she traveled across the country to try her first trail race, a North Face-sponsored event full of costumes, bling, and “excitement.”

It’s a tale of two cultures—and they are clashing. With the addition of corporations like North Face, Spartan, Xterra and others to the trail-racing scene, events on dirt now come in a wide variety of packages. But what does that mean for the sport?

A new kind of trail racing

Strzelecki remembers fondly the days when trail racing meant no more than a few dozen people showing up to take on a challenging course and share a beer afterward.

“We didn’t even talk about our times or care if we got on the podium,” he says. “We simply wanted to have fun. The races were natural experiences, with no bells and whistles, and the race directors understood the runners.”

Now, trail racing is growing—thanks, in part, to corporate backing helping to draw in more runners.

Take the new Spartan trail series, which will feature nine events this year, beginning in Seattle in April, and finishing next fall in New Jersey. The North Face series already has five events around the country, and XTERRA, which began in off-road triathlons, started offering trail races back in 2008. Today, the company offers up dozens of trail racing options worldwide. Runners are encouraged to run multiple events to rack up points in the series, culminating with American and worldwide championship events each year.

In many cases, the corporate-sponsored races are looking to bring in a whole new kind of trail runner: Those who feed on the excitement and glitz that hadn’t really been a part of the traditional trails.

Piggybacking on Spartan’s successful obstacle course race series, race directors Charlie Engle and Luis Escobar—both high-level, accomplished ultrarunners—bill the events as “a classic approach to trail running with the Spartan ethos.”

Part of that ethos is a higher price tag akin to what you would find at a road race. Entry fees are as high as $84 for an age grouper taking on the 21K distance, and spectators face a $20 fee for cheering on friends or family—on top of a $10 parking fee. For the cost of entry, athletes receive T-shirts, finisher’s medals, professional photos, and food at the finish line. Contrast that with a traditional trail race, where a low entry fee affords no frills other than an aid station and maybe a cotton T-shirt.

“We’re trying to give people the core experience of trail running, but at an achievable distance,” says Engle. “Because we combine the trail races on the same weekend and location as our OCR events, athletes have the opportunity to try both. This is something that appeals to the newer generation who want to create race experiences.”

Plenty of lower key trail races do, in fact, come in distances shorter than ultras, but for newer runners, the problem is finding them: Lower budgets mean less advertising and/or social media love than their bigger counterparts.

[USATF to Elect New President Amid Budget Deficit Runner’s World Training Plan, designed for any speed and any distance.]

A culture clash

With the advent of bigger, flashier events—backed by big dollars—Strzelecki doesn’t like what he sees.

“The newer events and the runners who participate come from road backgrounds and have different expectations now,” he says. “A low-key race without all the extras they are accustomed to generally won’t suit them”

As road racing grew and organizers offered more swag and bling, it was only natural that bigger companies and road runners started to migrate to dirt, Strzelecki says. “Many of today’s trail races are yesterday’s road races,” he says. “Corporations see an opportunity to promote events, and so they enter the arena.”

Strzelecki doesn’t think this is for the better. “I tried one North Face event several years ago, and it didn’t feel like they understood trail runners. I also don’t think many of the runners doing the event understood the trail culture. They were attracted because of the high profile and marketing.”

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Since completing her first North Face event, Medvene Collins has tasted the lower-key vibe of a smaller, locally offered trail race. “There were only about 50 or so people and no prizes,” she says. “I liked it, but I like the bigger events better. The whole scene is just more exciting.”

Where does it go from here?

“I don’t see this is a zero sum game,” says Engle. “There’s something in there for everyone.”

This is where Crystal Seaver falls on the issue. The 32-year old personal trainer from Charlotte, North Carolina, has participated in both smaller, local trail races and bigger, more marketed events. “Each has its distinct flavor,” she says. “There’s a place for both.”

Seaver says that traditional trail racing experiences are about the communal experience in nature. “The bigger events can reach more people, however—which is also a good thing,” she says.

Engle agrees. “We’re expanding the options available to trail runners,” he says. “So far, people are responding enthusiastically.”

For Strzelecki, making trail races bigger isn’t better. “When I see a thousand runners turning up for a trail event, it loses the essence of why people are out there,” he says. “It becomes more about achieving a certain distance and earning bragging rights.”

And that, more than anything, may be where the two cultures divide: One in it for a laid-back, chill vibe no matter the distance or incentives; the other, for the ability to tick an item off a bucket list and wear the T-shirt to the office the next day.

Only time will tell if the newer style trail race series will have staying power. Events like Warrior Dash, Color Run and the like are already fraying at the edges, which may not bode well for corporate-run trail racing 10 years down the road.

Engle is putting his money on its hold, though—literally and figuratively. “Our events in L.A. and Virginia sold out in a couple of days,” he says. “We see an opportunity to grow the sport.”