Races
Trail running races are organised globally. Due to the relatively short history of trail running as an organised sport, there are very few established organising bodies. For example, in the United States, the American Trail Running Association was only founded in 1996 to represent trail races in the US.
Compared to road races, there are often fewer participants as number of entries is often limited. There can be a few reasons for this: narrowness of trails, national parks (where the courses are often set) limits, safety and environmental concerns. Distances in races vary widely, from 5 km, to over 100 miles (161km). Many high profile trail races are of ultramarathon distance. Races of similar distance often differ significantly in terms of terrain. This make it difficult to compare performance across different course. This is in contrast to times over standard distances in road running, such as 10 km or marathon.
Aid stations supplying food and beverages are commonly located every 5 to 10 kilometers along the course. Most trail races only have a single stage, where competitors are timed over the entire duration of their run, including stops at aid stations. However, fully supported trail running stage races also exist. These multiday stage races offer complete support and runner amenities between stages.
Some trail races include:
Read more about this topic: Trail Running
Famous quotes containing the word races:
“The so called white races are really pinko-grey.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“Listen, my friend, there are two races of beings. The masses teeming and happy—common clay, if you like—eating, breeding, working, counting their pennies; people who just live; ordinary people; people you can’t imagine dead. And then there are the others—the noble ones, the heroes. The ones you can quite well imagine lying shot, pale and tragic; one minute triumphant with a guard of honor, and the next being marched away between two gendarmes.”
—Jean Anouilh (1910–1987)
“For the most part we stupidly confound one man with another. The dull distinguish only races or nations, or at most classes, but the wise man, individuals.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)