Trails Collective

Trails Collective Weekly Rundown | January 29, 2021

In the Media

Stickiest Outsole Rubber Bonus Round

This past week I headed back out for a bonus round on the stickiest outsole rubber comp from the week before. I wanted to get a Vibram Megagrip compound head to head with a Vibram XS Trek, and see how it stacked against the others. Check it out to see if it knocked any others from the podium.

The North Face VECTIV Review

Tuesday I released a review of The North Face VECTIV Infinite, a model from a series that’s been in somewhat secretive development and testing since I learned of it in 2019. It was a fun shoe to test, and the first of a couple I’ll put miles into. Check out the review to see whether the North Face is finally toeing the line with a trail runner worthy of their standing in the outdoor space.

TC Live Interview Series

In tonight’s TC Live Interviews Series, I’ll take the reigns at least for a bit as Ellie is headed back to school and getting her academic focus on. I’ll be connecting with the team putting on the Mahoosuc Ridge to River Challenge, a beautiful event that was on my radar this past year. These individuals bring various awesome entities together including Inland Woods + Trails, the Mahoosuc Land Trust, and Maine’s The River Fund.

This Week On the Pain Cave

I’ll also be on this week’s Pain Cave with Jay and Phil. I pulled a friend who some of you may know, Bryon Powell into share the Pain Cave experience with me. We’ll be drafting our ideal trail shoe closets, so no doubt you’re going to want to check it out.

CULTRA This Week

CULTRA released Episode 112 last Friday, connecting with this summer’s AT record setter, Liz Anjos. Check that out.

Best Trail Towns

I’m also hoping to go live by the end of the week with my first article in a series on Best Trail Towns, State by State in our region. Stay tuned to see which I chose to roll out with.

The West Virginia Mountain Trail Runners

the WVMTR Board of Directors adopted and released a Preparedness and Safety Planning Guide for hosting club sponsored races and events during the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic. You can check that out here.

Results

The event calendar, at least on my radar, was pretty quiet this week. That is, with the exeption of the Frigid Idiot put on by Idiot Runners Eric and Becky Kosek. Looks like they had a good crew out to see who was stupid enough to keep going, all for the podium prizes of swords. If COVID continues we may have to start running with those things in place of bottles, and especially if Sassquatch’s keep turning up in the forests and social media posts. Some contenders held strong, though most on the day, as usual, were Losers. We’ll hear from two in this week’s YouTube episode: Steven Larik and Misty Trowbridge.

Upcoming Events

The UltraSignUp Open Registration Hot List

Don’t Say I didn’t give you fair warning the past two weeks, but two events just closed out:

Speaking of the Squatch, the Squatchy Onesie Fest “5k-Marathon” (I don’t even know what the hell that means other than a marathon clearly is no longer as tough as when that original dude ran it to spread a message and then died). In any case, it’s 96% full.

Valentines In the Pines, slated for February 13^th in Beachwood, NJ is closing in on 90% full.
English’s Ridge Rumble 10 Miler, April 17^th in Fayetteville, NY crept up 2% on the charts this week to being 86% full
Runamuck 50k, running on April 4^th in Brownsville, VT crept up another 5% and is 81% full.

Registrations Opening

January 30^th

Shawnee Peak Ultra Challenge (2 / 6 Hour) in Bridgton, Maine

February 1^st:

Blue 2 Blue Challenge 50k, running September 25^th in New Haven, CT

Loon Mountain Race, running July 11^th in Lincoln, NH

Catoctin 50k Trail Run and Half Cat, running July 10^th in Frederick, MD

Loopy Looper 12 hour in Pennsauken Township, NJ, August 7

Soapstone Mountain Trail Races 24k / 6k, which runs May 16^th

Nipmuck South Trail Race 14.5M which runs on June 13^th

FKT’s

CT:

Connecticut is holding down this past week’s FKT lineup solo. In the mix:

Chris Deming, 1h 36m for the 8.4 mile Sunny Valley Trail Out-Back configuration.

Brian Kimmey 55m 16 for the Tunxis Trails South Trail One-Way format, a baseline mark.

Stefan Rodriguez went out a day later to lower Brian’s mark by 8 minutes to 47m 11s for the Tunxis Trails

Kate Gelineau 3h 47m for the one-way unsupported mark on the 16 mile Ives Trail, shaving 9 minutes off of two of my teammates, Amy Hanlon and Mendy Gallo’s mark from August 2019