Should I run UTMB?

That's it, the title is the post.

No, of course that's not the post, but I am wondering. My schedule has filled in a bit for the year. I'm now signed up for: Orcas 100 (Feb), Paiute Meadows 50K (May), Scout Mountain 100 (June), TRT 100 (July), and hope to run the fun runs Lupine Loopfest (Feb), Desolate Peaks (August), and Euchre Bar Massacre (October). But the big news is that I got selected in the UTMB lottery. I have until the 29th of January to confirm my registration.

For the non-runners: UTMB is a 106-mile loop around Mont Blanc through France, Switzerland, and Italy, starting and ending in Chamonix. By all accounts it is spectacularly beautiful and very difficult, with about 33,000 feet of climbing. For most of my running life I haven't really cared about European races or followed European runners, but I got swept up in the spectacle of it last year. It was the race's 20th year, an American man finally won (Jim), and also finished second (Zack), and Courtney completed the never-to-be-repeated triple of winning Western States, Hardrock, and UTMB, two in record time. The race is now one of the sport's two major world championships.

So why would I consider not running it? Because UTMB is not just a race, but it also a company. In 2021, UTMB™ partnered with Ironman™, who has been accused of crummy business practices for years in the triathlon world. UTMB™ changed the method of entry into UTMB--you now can only gain access to the lottery by running a UTMB™-branded race, which are spread throughout the world. For the most part they are fine--a mix of new races and old races that are bought by UTMB™. In the latter group are races like Speedgoat, Canyons, and Kodiak: well-established races that seem like they weathered the pandemic reasonably well, but perhaps weren't on elites' must-run races, nor did they sell out instantaneously or have selective lotteries. I have no inside information, but from what I've heard publicly or second-hand, the race directors who have sold to UTMB™ seem reasonably happy. (In at least one case they signed an agreement to co-organize the event for a few years, after which UTMB™ would fully take over.) 

The major issue, however, is with UTMB™ muscling races out when people don't want to sell, which is allegedly what happened in Whistler, BC. Gary Robbins is a beloved former elite runner, Barkley near-finisher, coach, and race director who apparently waits at the finish line offering hugs to every finisher. I met him in 2018 at Barkley and all the rumors are true--he's a really nice guy. He organized the Whistler Alpine Meadows race for six years, then announced in February 2023 that the 2023 edition was cancelled. Then in October 2023, UTMB™ announced a new Whistler race for 2024, after which Gary posted a blog "What Really Went Down in Whistler with the WAM Races" essentially stating that Whistler (owned by Vail Resorts) deliberately put impossible-to-meet conditions on his race, hoping to push him out so they could partner with a bigger company, which they successfully did. Vail claims there were safety concerns about Gary's race, Gary says Vail staff stopped communicating with him and UTMB™ used his company's information about the Whistler race, and UTMB™ hasn't commented, as far as I'm aware.(Irunfar.com summarized the whole thing here.)

I think it's the near-unanimous opinion that UTMB™'s behavior at Whistler sucks. I for sure will never run UTMB™'s Whistler race. But is it bad enough that I shouldn't run the original UTMB? Elites are considering boycotting UTMB. UTMB™ also fired Corinne Malcolm from their announcing team after she was vocal about their shortcomings.

I felt really anxious about it the other day, but I've also been experiencing anxiety generally lately (working remotely is somewhat lonely but the head of my agency is being a complete turd about return to office creating a lot of uncertainty, my house in Yucca Valley is nice but the list of things I'd like to fix is infinite but time and reliable contractors are scarce, etc.) so it's unclear if it's just me.

Races require a ton of volunteer effort. I feel good about that when the race director is making money, but less good when it's a corporation making profit. I'm generally fine with capitalism and corporations making profit (I just think we should regulate the bejeezus out of it) but it's weird that anyone would be making $2.4 billion conglomerate-level returns from something that runs on volunteer labor. Perhaps corporate races could pay their volunteers, but that would probably sap the comradery from it. UTMB™-branded races also cost more than most other comparable races. 

On the positive (I think) side, UTMB™ has done a lot to increase the profile of ultra trail running. Many races now have live tracking, and some are live streamed. These eyeballs bring advertiser money, which means elites can actually make a living running, which makes races more competitive, which is interesting to me as a fan of the sport. Of course, UTMB's title sponsor in 2023 was Dacia, a Romanian car company owned by Renault. That's a little lame, because global warming is real, but also a lot of people had to drive or fly to get to the race. 

Corporate races can be poorly organized, but so can mom and pops. When Leadville was sold to Life Time Fitness, they let in way more runners/crew vehicles than the roads could handle and the race was a shit show for anyone in the middle of the pack. I've heard that Vacation Races' handling of Matt Gunn's (RIP) races wasn't great. But I can also think of plenty of mom and pop races that sucked (the first edition of Badger Mountain, or decades-old drama in the Bay Area trail running scene, or allegations of sexual harassment against one RD) so races can be bad regardless of the size of ownership. I'd say non-profit running clubs like VHTRC and Silver State Striders do have a notable advantage, in that the races are for sure well-organized with amazing volunteers, but that's not a scalable solution--there just aren't enough strong clubs (and even if the volunteers are amazing, you may not always be in the mood for those rocky east coast trails).

There's also the issue of getting into the race, for elites and for normies. For normies, many hard 100-milers require that you complete an easier 100-miler, or maybe 50-miler or 100K before registering so that you know what you're getting into. Western States has a specific list of 100-milers and 100Ks that seems to be based mostly on size of field and longevity of the race, which seems like a good enough, if perhaps blunt instrument way of weeding out phony results. Hardrock has a list of ~32 qualifiers selected for difficulty and to ensure at least some geographic balance. UTMB is the only race where the ~40 qualifiers are all owned by UTMB™, with one single exception: Western States, which is how I got in. I got 4 "running stones" by completing 2023 Western States, and was selected in the lottery. 

For elites, Western States bestows "Golden Ticket" status on some 100-milers and 100Ks (5 of 7 of which for 2024 are owned by UTMB™!) where podium finishers get in. UTMB has a similar thing for finishing podium or top-10 at other UTMB™ races. Hardrock has no way to compete-in at other races for elites, which I think leads to it not being a super deep field at the front. 

So that's it. I don't want to pay UTMB™-level prices for every 100 I run. Sometimes I'm initially a little annoyed by volunteering requirements that run of the mill 100s institute, but mostly that's when they're too specific about what sort of volunteering counts, and I get over myself eventually, and obviously that's what it takes to be on the receiving end of all the help myself. I don't want UTMB™ to run every event. But I do occasionally want to run an event with a large field, where a deep field of elites come out, and non-runners at work watch the YouTube stream over the weekend and say "Wow, you ran that?!" UTMB™ seems like they're part of that.

So, should I run UTMB? I need to get a Hardrock qualifier in order to continue to apply for Hardrock. I could do that with Hardrock itself (I'm 13th on the waitlist and don't expect to get in), or with Wyoming Range 100 (Oh $#!+. His permit is in question because of wolverine listing as an endangered species) or with UTMB, or with Ultra Tour Monte Rosa (UTMR), though it's a week later and perhaps not as good of timing work-wise. (So really it seems like UTMR is the only viable alternative.) But really I feel like I should just run UTMB, get it out of my system, and try and avoid running any UTMB™-branded races again. I got in without supporting any of their branded races, and if I don't register this year, I lose half my points in their lottery. So if I want to run it and give them the least money possible, I think this is my chance.

I guess I'm fine with that. It's how I feel about most problems in society, like global warming. You should do what you can to lower your carbon footprint, but ultimately we're only going to solve it through regulation, because we're not all going to stop flying, driving, using concrete, and heating or cooling our housing until those things are priced or taxed appropriately, or until technological innovation gets sufficient funding due in no small part to regulation and pricing. Oh, and also, as far as I am aware carbon offsets are largely bogus. (Did you forget I am an economist?) Or maybe that analogy is invalid because there's no government regulations in question here, it's just a question of if I give my money to UTMB™ or to Lizzy Hawker (the UTMR RD who won UTMB five times)?

I'll "pre-register" (I'm not quite sure what that means) for UTMR tonight, but first I have to go running.