It was a wild weekend in the running world with numerous races on a variety of surfaces, including the IAU 50K World Championships in New Delhi, India, the latest Skyrunner World Series race in the Canary Islands, the challenging Pierra Menta skimo race in the Arêches-Beaufort region of France, and a blistering fast women’s marathon result on the roads in Barcelona. Among the many domestic trail races included the Marin Ultra Challenge, Mesquite Canyon Trail Runs, Folsom Lake Southside Trail Run, Santa Barbara Nine Trails, and The Cove 50K.
In other news, Nike is seeking ultrarunners for a new research project, Run the Alps has opened a writer residency contest, a runner training for this summer’s Hardrock 100 was nearly hit by a falling tree, and a popular UK-based race series announced it is shutting down and canceling its 2026 races. Plus, Zoë Rom writes about why she believe in returning to the same race for a second time, and we highlight 12 of the best trail running shoes to consider as you rev up training for spring and summer races.
Read more in this week’s Trail and Ultra News Recap below, cutting through the noise to the trail running headlines you don’t want to miss from media outlets across the sport. And be sure to browse for your next trail or ultra race on UltraSignup.
Race Results
U.S. Men’s Team Places Third at IAU 50K World Championships
Amid hot weather and poor air quality, American runners Ryan Root (2:56:29), Steve Mance (2:58:32), and Nolan McKenna (2:58:50) ran strong race and finished 12th, 15th, and 16th, respectively, at the IAU 50K World Championships on March 14 in New Delhi, India.
Root, a 34-year-old runner from Boulder, Colorado, who owns a 2:15:22 marathon personal best, recovered from a broken pelvis a year ago to lead the U.S. men’s team to a third-place finish in the team standings. Mance, 42, was also the top 40-and-older runner in the field, earning him the title of the World Masters Athletics 50K title.
UK runner Alex Milne won the men’s race in 2:46:09, leading a British sweep of the first six places to secure the team championship ahead of runner-up India and the U.S. in third. British runners Naomi Robinson (3:13:39) and Katrina Ballantyne (3:17:24) finished 1-2 in the women’s race, helping the UK win the women’s team title over Poland and Japan. Melissa Tanner was the top U.S. runner in 11th place (3:33:49), while Alexandra Niles finished 23rd (4:07:18).
The world championships were originally scheduled for December 7, but were postponed to March 14 due to poor air quality just two weeks before the event. The postponed race began at 4 a.m. local time, with runners running 10 laps of a L-shaped 5K loop through the roads of New Delhi. The Air Quality Index was 178 (unhealthy) and the temperature was already 70 degrees at the start.
Read More: iRunFar
Alonso, Merillas Win SkyRunner World Series Races
Manuel Merillas of Spain (2:31) outran Frédéric Tranchand of France (2:33) over the rugged 28K Acantilados del Norte course to win the third race of the 2026 SkyRunner World Series race along the coastal cliffs of northern La Palma in the Canary Islands. Spanish runner Sara Alonso won the women’s race in 3:00.
Read More: iRunFar
French Athletes Dominate Pierra Menta Skimo Race
The 40th year of the famed two-person ski mountaineering race is known as the “Tour de France of ski mountaineering” and, as always, it included many high-profile trail runners. This year’s edition had four stages over four days that totaled about 92K with a combined 32,000 feet vertical gain. IRunFar reports that William Bon Mardion and Xavier Gachet of France won men’s gold in 10:24, while Emily Harrop teamed with Margot Ravinel for France to win the women’s race in 12:13.
Among the many notable trail runners in the race were Martina Valmassoi (Italy), Kelly Wolf (U.S.), Marcela Vašínová (Czech Republic), Rea Kolbl (Slovenia/U.S.), Davide Magnini (Italy/U.S.), William Boffelli (Italy), Nadir Maguet (Italy), Rémi Bonnet (Switzerland), François D’Haene (France), Ludovic Pommeret (France), Tove Alexandersson (Sweden), and Emelie Forsberg (Norway).
Read More: iRunFar
Ethiopia’s Fotyen Tesfay Runs 2:10:53 in Debut Marathon
Ethiopia’s Fotyen Tesfay stormed to second on the world all-time women’s list by winning the Barcelona Marathon in 2:10:51 (or 4:59 mile pace) in her debut at 26.2 miles. The 28-year-old started the race as the third-fastest women’s half marathon runner in history (1:03:21) and ended it within a minute of the tainted world marathon record set by Ruth Chepngetich (2:09:56) in 2024. (Chepngetich later tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and was suspended, but the record was allowed to stand.) Tesfay won the race by almost 8 minutes ahead of Kenya’s Joan Jepkosgei Kiplimo and was just 6 minutes behind Uganda’s Abel Chelangat, who won the men’s race in 2:04:57.
Read More: Marathon Handbook
Other Notable Headlines
UltraSignup Live: Learn How to Train Amid a Busy Life from Coach Amanda Basham
Want to gain some training knowledge from a top American trail runner and an experienced coach? During our next free UltraSignup Live online virtual session, elite ultrarunner and coach Amanda Basham will be offering insights about how to prepare for a season of trail running, how to approach your first or next ultra-distance races, strength training for women, training for ultras after having a baby, and balancing family life. Be sure to tune in on March 25th at 3 p.m. MT / 5 p.m. ET.
Register for Free: UltraSignup
The Aid Station: Why You Should Repeat Races
UltraSignup’s Zoë Rom penned a thoughtful essay about her return to a race in Italy this month after things didn’t go quite as well as she expected last year. Read about why she believes repeating a race is less like running it again and more like actually running it for the first time. “Finishing is not the same thing as mastery,” she writes. “Finishing is just the proof of concept. Mastery is the slow accumulation of specific knowledge about a specific place, in a specific body, on a specific day, and the willingness to keep showing up and being surprised by what you find.”
Read More: UltraSignup’s Trailhead Media
Nike Seeking Ultrarunners for a New Research Project
If you want to take part in what appears to be a cool research gig with the Nike Sport Research Lab, you need to apply by March 17. Nike says it’s looking for high-mileage runners who regularly log big weeks, because it wants to study how athletes adapt across a complete training cycle. Selected runners will temporarily live and train in Beaverton, Oregon, where they’ll spend 15 weeks training full-time under Nike’s Applied Performance Scientists. Housing, financial compensation, and a full kit of footwear and apparel will be provided by Nike.
Read More: Marathon Handbook
Is Yoga Worth the Time for Runners?
Sarah Lavender Smith, a Colorado-based writer, trail runner, and 2025 Hardrock 100 finisher, writes about her evolution with yoga, in part through the inspiration from rising ultra star Isabella Poulos. If you’re a runner who has had trouble immersing into a yoga pratice or sticking with it, this is worth a read!
Read More: Sarah Lavender Smith’s Substack
Run The Alps Opens Writers Residency Contest
Run the Alps just launched its first-ever writers residency for emerging writers, and the perks are exactly what you think: living and writing in Chamonix, France. If you’ve ever wanted a legitimate excuse to spend time in the Alps that isn’t just “I signed up for a race,” here it is.
Read More: Run The Alps
Ourea Events Closes Doors, Cancels 2026 Events
In an shocking post on March 12, UK-based Ourea Events announced that it was shutting down and canceling its iconic events, including the 2026 Northern Traverse, Cape Wrath Ultra, Dragon’s Back Race, and Skyline Scotland.
Read More: iRunFar
Are Federal Staffing Cuts Threatening Trail Running?
Writer Sam King posits that stewardship alone cannot substitute for funded, staffed, functional land management agencies. “The permit system, the trail maintenance program, and the emergency response infrastructure that make trail racing possible are not things that can be crowdfunded or volunteered into existence at the scale required,” King writes.
Read More: Sam King’s Substack
Sonoma Fall Classic: The Ultimate Trail Running Festival
Lake Sonoma has a certain reverence to it in the trail running world. This October there will be an evolution of that legacy as the Sonoma Fall Classic comes to life. This new event will combine the original Lake Sonoma 50 Mile race with a new 100-mile event, a trail marathon, and new four-person relays.
Read More: UltraSignup’s Trailhead Media
Eagleton Trail Challenge Adding a New 86-Mile Race
On May 9-10, the Eagleton Trail Challenge is leaning fully into the rugged central Pennsylvania reputation of “Rocksylvania” with the addition of a new distance: an 86-mile race on the locally infamous Chuck Keiper Trail. We caught up with race director Blake Cohen to talk about Eagleton, the new Eagleton 86, and why Pennsylvania trail running has earned its gritty mystique.
Read More: UltraSignup’s Trailhead Media
Trail Runner Nearly Hit By a Tree Training for Hardrock
Trail runner Travis McWhorter, a 39-year-old trail runner from Albuquerque, was running on a trail near Los Alamos, New Mexico, when a big wind gust blew a large tree over that nearly toppled on top of him.
“I had no idea where it was going to fall. I heard it and I sprinted for my life,” said a visibly shaken McWhorter, who is entered in this summer’s Hardrock 100. “You never know when it’s going to be your time, so try to enjoy it.”
See More: Facebook
Mark Tanaka Runs 100th Race of at Least 100 Miles
Mark Tanaka, a 59-year-old runner from Hayward, California, became the 37th person in the world to run 100 races of at least 100 miles on February 28, at the Grandmaster Ultras in Littlefield, Arizona, where he finished fourth among men and sixth overall in 28:46.
Tanaka finished his first 100-miler in September 2005 at Rio del Lago. Since then, a third of his finishes have been sub-24-hour efforts. His fastest time came at the 2007 Kettle Moraine, which he won in 16:28:25. His accolades include being the first runner to earn one (and then two) of each of the three tiered buckles at Tahoe Rim Trail, as well as earning all three buckle tiers at the Angeles Crest 100. He has also finished Hardrock 100 in both directions. The final push to reach 100 finishes before his 60th birthday and full-time retirement involved a grueling stretch of 25 100-milers in 25 months.
Read More: Ultrarunning History
Run Lucky: Map a Run in the Shape of a Lucky Symbol
An online gaming authority has organized a rather unique “Map Your Luck” contest loosely tied to St. Patrick’s Day, challenging runners to record a running a route in the shape of a lucky symbol for a chance to win a $4,000 trip to Las Vegas. That could be a four-leaf clover, a pot of gold, horseshoes, or even a leprechaun for those who can be artistically skilled on the run.
Simply plan a route in a luck-related symbol, track it on any fitness app (i.e., Strava, Apple Fitness, Garmin, MapMyRun, etc.), take a screenshot of the completed route (with date, time and distance visible) and submit it via the official entry form by March 31. (Participants must be 21 or older.)
Gear
Dirty Dozen: 12 Great Trail Running Shoes for 2026
Running shoe guru Brian Metzler highlights a dozen shoes you should consider adding to your quiver this spring in our roundup of some of the top models from this year and last year.
Read More: UltraSignup’s Trailhead Media
More Coverage of Trail and Ultra Races
UltraRunning’s Ultra Weekend Recap: March 15
Read More: UltraRunning Magazine
iRunFar’s This Week in Running: March 16
Read More: iRunFar
Videos
Rock the Ridge: A Runner Tackles His First 50-Mile Ultramarathon
Most stories about endurance sports celebrate record times and podium finishes. This isn’t one of those stories. This is one about Jon Antonucci, a full-time sales professional, a husband, a father, and someone who set out with one thing to prove: That he can do hard things. This video follows Jon as he trains for Rock the Ridge, one of the most beloved 50-mile ultras in the Northeast, held every May among the dramatic ridge lines of the Mohonk Preserve in New Paltz, New York.
Black Trail Runners: We Are Here
Directed by award-winning filmmaker Carrie Highman, this film follows ultrarunner and Black Trail Runners co-founder Sabrina Pace-Humphreys and six women from the community she helped build as they prepare for and compete in a series of Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc races in Chamonix, France.
More than a story about sport, “We Are Here” explores visibility, representation and belonging in the outdoors. Historically, trail running and mountain sport have lacked ethnic diversity, particularly among Black women. By standing on these global start lines together, these athletes challenge historic norms and expand the image of who belongs in the mountains.
I Couldn’t Run a Quarter Mile—Then I Tried 100 Miles
Two years ago, Mike McCalley couldn’t run a quarter mile. He was 52 years old, overweight, and completely out of shape. One short run with his son exposed a truth he could no longer ignore—and everything changed from there. This is the story of how McCalley, a 54-year-old runner from Flower Mound, Texas, went from being unable to run a quarter mile to attempting to run the 2025 Leadville 100.
Podcasts
Trail Runner Nation: Simple Running, Powerful Living
In this episode, Scott and Don are joined by Michael Miller to discuss his book Run Like a Rarámuri : Stories and Wisdoms from the Sierra Tarahumara and Running Long and his deep connection to the Indigenous Rarámuri “running people” of Mexico’s Sierra Tarahumara.
Listen: Trail Runner Nation
Aging as an Athlete Series with Darcy Piceu and Krissy Moehl
In this episode of Trail Runner Nation’s Aging as an Athlete series, along with Krissy Moehl, we welcome elite ultrarunner and therapist Darcy Piceu for a thoughtful conversation about longevity in endurance sports.
Listen: Trail Runner Nation
Singletrack Podcast: Backyard Ultra Callouts, JFK + Snowdonia Controversy & Are Elite Runners Boring?
In this edition of Long Run Archives, Finn Melanson is joined by Brett Hornig and Jeff Colt for a wide-ranging conversation about some of the biggest debates circulating in trail and ultrarunning right now.
The Trailhead Podcast: What Running 150 Miles Across Iceland Taught a Pavel Cenkl About the Planet
In this conversation, Zoë Rom and Brendan Leonard talk with climate writer and ultrarunner Pavel Cenkl about what happens when endurance running meets climate science: the vulnerability of being utterly alone in the Arctic wilderness, why “resilience over resistance” is a better framework for both ultrarunning and the climate crisis, and the moment a screaming match with an Icelandic goose triggered an unexpected paradigm shift.
RELATED: UltraSignup’s Trail and Ultra News Recap for March 9
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