Hey y’all, we scrolled through 940+ IG posts and 165+ articles, newsletters, podcast episodes, and videos since Monday’s issue so you could head into the weekend without living on your phone. Here’s your Friday Ultra Minute:
UTMB’s men’s field has lost two GOATs and its defending champion: Kilian Jornet, Jim Walmsley, and Tom Evans. Jornet withdrew Thursday and will have knee surgery after several months with the injury; an initially conservative approach did not resolve it. Walmsley explained Friday that new specialist opinions found no structural damage in the knee that ended his Western States race, but a probable fountain-related illness cost him the final block of long runs he needed to test it. After nearly two days of vomiting and lingering nausea, he decided there was too little time left to know whether both his knee and stomach were ready for UTMB. He began telling HOKA Sunday that he would not race but did not formally cancel until Wednesday because he was still leaving the door open. Walmsley has otherwise been able to run a lot this year and hopes to race once or twice this fall. Evans will not defend his title, saying only that he needs to look at the bigger picture. We hope all three are back healthy soon.
The Leadville Trail 100 starts at 4 a.m. Mountain Saturday. This year’s 99.7-mile alternate course has 13,357 feet of gain, 2,135 feet less than the race previously listed for its traditional course, and avoids Hagerman Pass Road, Sugarloaf Mountain, and Powerline after the Willow Fire. Live timing will update during the race. John Sugden’s excellent preview maps the changed first and final 20 miles, warns that the final 16 miles have no aid, and found every aid station warmer in Wednesday’s forecast than at the same point in any edition from 2017 through 2025. Ultra Uncovered spent the week interviewing entrants and hosts a live expo panel from 1 to 2 p.m. Mountain today with Tim Tollefson, Michael Mitchell, McKendree Hickory, and Jacquie Mannhard.
Mark Dowdle won Last Soul Ultra with 94 yards and 630.4 kilometers; Ayyoub “Ello” El Osrouti completed 93 yards and 623.7 kilometers. An emotional video from yard 94 shows El Osrouti walking and then lying down in the field before Dowdle finished alone. I didn’t watch the livestream, and backyard ultras are a segment of the sport I don’t follow very closely (though maybe I should?), so Kiel Martin’s yard 87 breakdown helped me understand the debate I was trying to decipher in IG comments: he reads Dowdle’s close following and matched movements as psychological pressure on El Osrouti. The footage cannot establish Dowdle’s intent, but Martin offers a plausible explanation for why that sequence drew so much attention. Harvey Lewis estimated that the stream drew more than 100,000 live viewers and around seven million total tune-ins.
USDA’s proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule is open for public comment through September 21. The 2001 rule originally protected 58.5 million acres with national restrictions on road construction, road reconstruction, and timber harvesting, but Idaho and Colorado’s separate rules remain in place. Field & Stream calculates that 44.7 million acres would lose those restrictions and explains why “roadless” does not mean motor-free. Wes Siler offers a useful counterpoint, arguing that rescission would be consequential without amounting to the immediate bulldozing of 44.7 million acres, especially given agency budgets, staffing, and difficult terrain. His larger point is hard to dismiss: protections this important are safer in law than in a rule one administration can reverse.
Aaron Kubala says Bigfoot assessed a three-hour penalty after he became separated from his pacer near mile 150. Kubala told Amazfit that his pacer stopped with back spasms without him realizing; after searching and calling for roughly 10 minutes, Kubala continued to the next aid station so his crew could locate the pacer by satellite. Bigfoot’s 2026 runner manual requires runners to accompany a pacer who cannot keep up to the next aid station. The current results still display Kubala first at his raw 47:21:11, while the time-penalty rule says a penalized runner is not eligible for a top-three placement. I did not find an organizer update explaining whether that page reflects the final adjusted standings. Amazfit says the penalty still leaves Kubala 2:14 ahead of Triple Crown record pace with Moab still to run.
Robyn Lesh argues for separate starts for elite women at large races after rewatching last year’s CCC before her return next week. “It’s not actually racing, it’s running and at some point seeing where you’re at, if you happen to see another woman, at some point,” she wrote. Lesh observed that the top 10 men crested the first climb within roughly 30 seconds while the top 10 women spread across about five minutes inside male traffic, even though the women’s finish was tighter. Her argument is that where a woman lands in an early train of men can shape the race before the field opens enough for the women to race one another directly.
The Ultra Minute is now supported by Altra. They reached out earlier this summer to say they’ve been longtime readers and were interested in supporting the project. I’ve been running in their shoes for well over a decade and am currently really enjoying their Experience Wild 3+. If you’re shopping Altra, using this link lets them know TUM sent you, and is a great way to support us.
Also worth a look:
Eszter Horanyi profiled Michael Mitchell for iRunFar before his third Leadville start. Mitchell is a Nike ACG-backed ultrarunner, influencer, and mountain athlete whose videos jump from exposed Colorado ridgeline scrambles to glitter-covered races. His super-fun personality has quickly made him one of my favorite Instagram follows. Leadville was both his first ultramarathon and first 100-miler in 2021; he had never raced beyond 10K, led the opening marathon, and then walked from mile 62 with help from a stranger who essentially became his crew. Five years later, he returns with a second-place Broken Arrow Triple Crown finish, much more mountain experience, and plans to run every step of Hope Pass.
In a recent Borderlands episode, Karl Meltzer reflected on selling Speedgoat to The IRONMAN Group for 10 times the races’ annual earnings, saying the deal preserved his course, let him move to Ridgway, and included a three-year paid race-director term.
UTMB Mont-Blanc week opens Monday with the 300-kilometer PTL at 8 a.m. Central European Summer Time, the 40-kilometer MCC at 10 a.m., and the 145-kilometer TDS at 11:50 p.m.
Two UTMB-week product launches hit my feed: HOKA’s Tecton X 4 updates its dual-carbon-plate trail racer with a what the brand describes as a more breathable Matryx Micro upper and adjusted plate structure, while COROS and SATISFY collaborated on a limited-edition APEX 4.
Tabor Hemming will return to OCC after an Achilles injury turned the last 18 months into stopped runs and uncertainty about reaching the start; even now, she says some runs end after five minutes and become bike sessions.
Jack Scott ended another Pennine Way attempt at Cauldron Snout after nearly 24 hours, six weeks after extreme heat stopped his first try at 100 miles; INOV8 did not give a reason for Friday’s stop.
Andrew Drummond called off his attempt at the unsupported Long Trail FKT after more than three days, saying blisters and trench foot from rain left him without the mental energy for another 90 miles, ending the run we mentioned Monday.
Freetrail’s UTMB coverage started with athlete interviews Thursday, then expands into preview, prediction, recap, and champion shows beginning Saturday across Freetrail’s and UTMB’s channels and the main podcast feed.
Finn Melanson and Brett Hornig previewed UTMB. Singletrack’s Chamonix studio has also hosted Rachel Entrekin, Hans Troyer, Lauren Gregory, and Caleb Olson, while Friday’s CCC preview closes with Toni McCann.
Lastly, Raziq Rauf’s new Running Sucks profile of Camille Herron centers on her late ADHD and autism diagnosis, which she says brought both relief and grief by finally explaining a lifetime of feeling that she did not fit in.
The most viewed links from our last issue:
That’s it for today. If TUM helps you follow the sport without spending your whole day on Instagram, the best way to help it grow is to share this issue with one friend who’d get it. Or simply like this post. Thanks for reading.
Ken
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