Overview / Geography / Trails

The Idaho Mountain Trail Ultra Festival—better known as “IMTUF 100”—takes place in mid-September just outside of McCall, Idaho. Runners get to enjoy about 22,000 feet of climbing and descending, which range from many miles of smooth cruiser trails, to abrupt 1,000+ feet per mile rocky and loose proper mountain running.

TLDR: Be prepared to climb, sweat,and pack your own nutrition for this minimally supported 50k. The backcountry terrain and expansive views are breathtaking and worth coming back for. At the very least, scroll for amazing race pictures by James Holk. 

Ultravasan 90K Race Report

Late summer sunsets in Sweden seem to go on for hours. That slowly sinking sun lights up the sky that makes staring at it all you want to do.

Trails and Tarmac is excited to announce our newest coach selection. Gabe Joyes hails from Lander Wyoming. He’s coached trail and ultra athletes for the past four years and brings loads of experience and massive amounts of enthusiasm to our amazing team of coaches. Gabe is a farther of two as well as a high school social studies teacher. If you take a gander at his ultra sign up page you’ll see that mountain 100 milers are his jam! He’s supported by La Sportiva.

We know that anyone who has the luck to be able to work with Gabe as an athlete is going to be more than thrilled. Check out our interview with Gabe below to get to know more about what makes it tick. Get in touch with us here if you are interested in learning more about engaging Gabe or any of our other Trails and Tarmac coaches to help you take your running to the next level.

Whenever I sit down to write these race recaps I always ask myself essentially the same couple of questions. First I ask myself, What really happened out there? What can I learn from it? And how can it apply to anybody taking their time to read this?

I had some time to mull (or should I say mullet) over the Canyons 100K yesterday as I drove from Auburn back home to Bellingham. See, once I get driving, I don’t really like to stop. When I found myself with a 14 hour drive ahead of me, I knew I could drive 850 miles only stopping once to refuel the tank. As I hobbled to my car and pulled out of the motel parking lot, I knew I had some thinking time ahead of me.

My Experience: Ryan Ghelfi here with Trails and Tarmac, ready to give you the rundown on the Black Canyon 100k course in central Arizona. I ran this race back in February 2015. I was fortunate to be able to spend a few weeks leading up to the race in the area, training on all the sections of the trail multiple times. I found that I became quite fond of this piece of southwest desert, the looming Bradshaw Mountains to the West, and the quiet stark beauty of the landscape. On race day the temperatures were quite hot after the first 20 miles or so (more on this later). The competition was solid, and I was so close to gaining a golden ticket, getting passed in the last 15 miles and coming in third, six minutes shy of that elusive Western States spot. Still, I loved this race, and the course itself.

The North Face Flight Vectiv is one of three new North Face trail shoes for the 2021 year.  The Flight Vectiv is the top tier ultra trail racer, and offers rockered geometry midsole with a carbon propulsion plate.  Could this be the first true trail super shoe? Read on to find out!

For many trail runners, sharing miles with their dog is one of the greatest joys. It’s evident that dogs love being out in nature, roaming through the hills and mountains just as much as their human counterparts. If you are a new dog owner, or are considering how to bring your dog into the trail running fold, there can be a lot to know. Trails & Tarmac interviewed two of our athletes who are both avid runners, skiers, trail lovers, and of course dog owners. Alli and Dani both live in Bend, Oregon and work for Ruffwear, a performance dog gear company. Alli’s dogs Riggins and Firnspiegel, and Dani’s dog Vilas are totally their partners in crime. They have taught their human companions a great deal about how dogs tick on the trail in both the front country near town, and in the backcountry, many miles from the nearest road. In this article we’ll share what they have taught us about trail running with dogs.