How many trail races have a trail maintenance requirement? Which trail races are they?
I was curious, so I put together this list to keep track of all the major US ultra trail races and their requirements in one place, starting with 100-milers.
This list also gives us an opportunity to see how these trends shift over time. Once a staple of early ultra trail marathons, new races continue to emerge that leave this requirement by the wayside.
In many ways, that's unfortunate. Trail work is a great way to give back to the trails. You use them. As ultrarunners, you use them A LOT. And the sport has continued to grow. I love that more and more people love spending hours in nature on the trails, but that nevertheless means more trail traffic and a greater need to support these networks through the wilderness.
Another byproduct of trail work is a greater connection to the environment. As you take care of the trails you run and love, you connect with your surroundings in a deep way. You may even develop a sense of "home ownership" over the trails you frequently help repair and maintain. You'll gain more appreciation for all train maintenance, and this deeper support will bleed into better outdoor stewardship.
It's also a great way to connect with the community. Trail work volunteers tend to be hikers, trail runners, and outdoor enthusiasts. We all have a common love of nature. And when the work is organized by the race, you get to meet your fellow runners!
So even if a race listed here doesn't require you to do trail work, do it anyways! Find local community groups that support your local trail system.
How Many 100-Milers Require Trail Work?
Looking back at Ultrarunner Magazine's 1988 issue comparing the elevation profile of the top 5 100-milers at the time (taken from the AC100 site): Western States, Angeles Crest 100, Leadville, Hardrock, and Old Dominion. From what I could gather, Western States, Angeles Crest 100, and Hardrock all have service requirements that include trail work. That puts the percentage of 100-milers at the time that require trail work service at 60%.
It turns out, not very many trail races still maintain volunteer requirements that include trail work. Of over 150 100-Mile trail races analyzed, only 16 (10.5%) had a requirement that included trail work.
Which 100 Mile Trail Races Require Trail Work?
Which 14? Here's the list of 100-milers that had a requirement that included trail work:
Western States Endurance Run
Angeles Crest 100 Mile Endurance Run
Mountain Lakes 100
Cascade Crest 100
Mountains-to-Sea Endurance Race
Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Race
Tahoe Rim Trail
Mogollon Monster
Hellbender 100
Ouray 100 Mile Endurance Run
Dark Divide Trail Race
Teanaway Country 100
Wild Goose Trail Festival
Hardrock 100
HURT 100
Orcas Island 100
How Did I Come up With this List of Races that Require Trail Work?
I went through all of the ultrasignup.com 100 mile races in the US and created this list, below. Then, I went through each of their websites' race and registration info or race packets to look for anything that spoke about registration or runner requirements related to trail work.
Feel free to peruse the list below. Did I mess up on any? Did I miss some races? Some races may have requirements but either don't list them, or I missed it. Let me know! I'll aim to keep this list updated as a living document that should get more accurate every time someone helps out.
Which states have more trail work requirements for their 100-milers?
Now with all this data, I was curious to break it down by state. Just for fun. The first thing that struck me was how many 100-milers there are! Nearly every state. When it comes to percentage of 100-milers per state with a trail work requirement, here's the data.
As you can see, most states don't have a race with trail work requirements. But some of the big "original" ultrarunning states, like California and Colorado, still maintain percentages in and around 20%. Other western states, like Washington, Oregon, Utah, and Arizona have similarly "healthy" levels. And what's great to see, is states like North Carolina are carrying on this tradition well, with two of their three big 100-milers requiring trail work (the Hellbender 100 and the Mountains-to-Sea 100).
Keep the Trail Work Requirement!
As the sport of ultra trail running continues to grow, many parts of its humble, community-driven, grassroots elements are bound to get lost. More people enjoying the trails is a wonderful thing. And some loss is unfortunate and inevitable.
But I hope a large percentage of new races maintain the trail work service requirement tradition. This has a long tradition, stemming from the earliest days of the sport, for good reason. It's in many ways, a part of the sport itself. It ties the runners to each other and to the trails, themselves.
What did I miss? Get wrong? If you find an error, let me know!
Looking for other ways to support the environment on your trail runs? Check us out to see how you can help collect environmental health data on every run!