Western States and UTMB have become the two most influential institutions in trail running, but beneath the debate over lotteries, race series, and growth is a deeper question: when something becomes successful, how do you protect it?
Josh explores why UTMB believes trail running is important enough to scale globally while Western States believes it's important enough not to. Along the way, he examines scarcity, culture, the hidden cost of success, and whether the thing worth protecting was ever the race itself.
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Topics / Timestamps- 01:33 Two Philosophies of Trail Running03:19 Is Growth in Trail Running Corruption?06:13 The Scale Problem in Trail Running11:06 What Cultre are We Protecting in Trail Running?15:50 The Supply Chain of Trail Running Culture
Resources / Links
- 8 Bit Trail RunningJosh Rosenthal on IGBorderlands.ccLa French Trail
Related Episodes
- Ultra Running isn't Just Running
Presented by Kiprun.
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Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.
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