BIG News for New England Trail and Ultra Races!

Reunited and it feels so good! After 6+ weeks of knee surgery recovery, I am officially back to running on the trails! Albeit quite slowly and not for more than an hour, but within this past week I had a couple of run/walks, followed by a 3.5 mile continuous easy run and then a 6.9 mile trail run this morning (with some hiking on the uphills). I’ve also been enjoyed just straight up hiking during this time, being able to head up and over Mt. Mansfield, VT’s highest peak, last week. You can check out the details of that 8 mile hike, with about 3350 ft of elevation gain, here.

BIG News for Northern New England Trail and Ultra Racing!

The big news for this week, and what the rest of this week’s newsletter will focus on, is that New Hampshire-based While Mountain Endurance has teamed up with (aka joined the family of, aka been acquired by) one of my favorite trail race hosting companies, Aravaipa Running. From the initial email announcement:

“we are excited to announce today that White Mountain Endurance, a trail series based in New Hampshire will be joining the Aravaipa Running lineup of events! These events hosted by Kristina Folcik & Rem Stone are held in some of the most beautiful and rugged terrain in the country with a focus on runner experience, building community & educating adventure seekers on traveling safely through the mountains. Aravaipa is thrilled to work alongside Kristina & Rem in producing these events as we make an on the ground commitment to the East Coast trail running community.”

So let’s break it down…what does it all mean??

First, I think it’s important to give some background. Who is White Mountain Endurance? Who is Aravaipa? And most importantly, what will this merger mean for trail and ultra racing in New England?

Who is White Mountain Endurance?

White Mountain Endurance (WME) states that they “strive to make the running community more equitable and provide opportunities for everyone to share what we love most, the mountains”. More specifically, they are a New Hampshire-based organization with three core functions:

• Coaching

• Running Tours

• Races

From what I can tell, this partnership with Aravaipa is only related to the races and not the other two offerings from WME. WME’s founder, Kristina Folcik, recently moved to full time coaching. Kristina served as a member of LaSportiva’s Mountain Running Team from 2012 to 2019, and in 2018 started what was originally named Rock Hopper Races (changed to White Mountain Endurance in 2020). Kristina’s coaching offerings can be read through here.

I have never participated in one of WME’s races nor have I engaged Kristina’s services as a running coach - though I have considered both. I did reach out on a whim when we started our Outdoor Endurance shop with trail running themed shirts in December 2022, and they were kind enough to respond with this:

Good afternoon! Thank you for reaching out! We looked at your shop!!! It looks fun!!!!! It would be awesome to see you at one of our races!!!

-Kristina and Rem 😊

The Rem in the above signature is Rem Stone, Kristina’s WME partner who joined her in 2020, bringing with him the WME name and eventual brand change. If you are interested in hearing more about these two and their pretty awesome organization, check out this episode of the Cultra Trail Running Podcast from 2022.

Who is Aravaipa Running?

Even though I am only on episode 6 of this newsletter, I have already mentioned Aravaipa a few times in previous posts, which tells you how important this organization is to me, and in my opinion, to the trail running community in general. They state that “Aravaipa Running is committed to the development of a vibrant community centered around being active in the outdoors. We feel most alive on a trail, experiencing the solitude and restorative power of nature. From our course markings, pre-race email, chip timing, convenient packet pickups to unique awards we want to make your event experience flawlessly smooth and something you can count on. From music to wood fired pizza, beer gardens, meeting new friends, beautiful trails to stunning sunrises and star filled nights, having fun is easy. Come explore with us.”

Jamil Coury is the head of this giant, and he is equal parts visionary, leader and every-man runner. From his quirky and always entertaining Mountain Outpost News, to his GoPro carrying live race coverage, to his vision to start US trail race live streaming, and much more, to say that he is a person in the trail running community that I look up to is an understatement.

As a company, Aravaipa Running puts on some big-hitter races such as the Black Canyons 100k (a Western States Golden Ticket Race), the Cocodona 250, the Javelina Jundred (also a WESR Golden Ticket Race), Desert Solstice, Across the Years, and many more. I have participated in one Aravaipa race and it is an experience that I won’t forget. I’ll share more memories of that one in an upcoming newsletter, but the recap is that it was the Tushars Mountain 70k in 2021, it kicked my butt, and it was one of the most beautiful areas of this earth that I have ever seen. I made a video about it, you can check it out here.

At this point while there are still some unknowns surrounding the answer to this question, I think that the combination of WME’s ability to secure race permits in the notoriously difficult to obtain White Mountain National Forest, and Aravaipa’s track record with running top notch events that bring the trail running community together, mostly really good things will come of it. WME has been running 5 events, and all signs point toward these 5 staying on the docket:

• White Lake Ultra, May 5-6, 2023, Tamworth, NH (timed 3 mile loop event)

• Chocorua Mountain Race, June 3, 2023, Tamworth, NH (15 mile lollipop course with ~4500 ft gain, including summit of Mt. Chocorua)

• Race the Cog, June 24, 2023, Bretton Woods, NH (2.75 miles, 3500 ft gain if you make it that far before the cog overtakes you)

• Jigger Johnson Ultras, August 18-20, 2023, Waterville Valley, NH (distance options of 50 miles, 100k and 100 miles with 17k, 20k and 32k ft of elevation gain, respectively)

• Kilkenney Ridge Race, September 16, 2023, Stark, NH

Will there be more races added? What will change with these 5 races? Will live streaming be brought to any of these events? How will this impact the competitive landscape associated with these, and other New Hampshire trail and ultra races? All valid questions with a lot of unknowns, but still exciting to see how this will all shape up.

The WME and Aravaipa teams got together for a live stream last week in conjunction with the announcement to discuss some of the details, and you can check out that live stream here.

Oh, and one last tidbit, Aravaipa Running has a racing team which has always been Arizona (and generally out west based) but with this announcement, they are opening up some new spots on the racing team for northeast runners. Those in New England looking to apply can submit their application here.

Until next time, happy running!

Ricky