I’m excited to announce that iRunFar will again be the media partner for the La Sportiva Mountain Cup. This will be our fourth straight year covering the top sub-marathon trail running series in the US. In 2011, Megan Kimmel won the women’s cup as she has every year, but not without a new cast of characters chasing her. On the men’s side, Jared Scott won the cup at the tenth and final race after winning the previous race by a scant 3 seconds. Indeed, every season and every race provides new excitement and a new storyline. Once again, $25,000 in cash will lure top competitors to the series, the standings for which are based on each racer’s five best races. (The scoring and prize breakdown remain unchanged from last year.)
La Sportiva, along with fellow sponsors GORE-TEX and Clif, continues to pull together a diverse schedule of sub-marathon-distance races from around the country. This year’s cup will feature races from 7 miles to 33k (20.5 miles), from Olympia, Washington to Moab, Utah to Reading, Pennsylvania.
The series will kick off in Ophir, North Carolina at the Uwharrie Mountain Run 20 miler before heading to four additions to the cup. After Uwharrie, the series travels to Utah for the ever-popular Red Hot Moab races before heading to Reading, Pennsylvania for the Ugly Mudder Trail Run. While the Ugly Mudder is new to the series, it’s put on by Pretzel City, a race company whose Mt. Penn Mudfest has previously been included. Guerilla Running’s Hillbilly Half Marathon is next up in Olympia, Washington. Hell’s Hill in Smithville, Texas is also new to the LSMC, but the series has previously included race director Joe Prusaitis’ Nueces race.
The Mountain Cup’s back half will look much the same as last year as the series returns to the Don’t Fence Me In Trail Run, the Jemez Mountain Trail Runs Half Marathon, and the Rothrock Challenge before again concluding with the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase here in iRunFar’s mountain headquarters of Park City, Utah. The lone addition in the series’ last five races of 2012 will be the Barr Trail Mountain Race, which took a one-year hiatus from the Mountain Cup. The full Mountain Cup schedule can be found below.
This year’s cup will return the La Sportiva Standout Award, a La Sportiva/GORE-TEX/Clif prize pack which the race director awards to the person at the race the RD feels is most deserving. La Sportiva is also continuing its Going The Distance program that awards up to $1,500 at each race to a local trail organization. This year, that will take the form of La Sportiva selling 100 limited edition travel mugs, customized for each race venue, for $15, each with all proceeds benefiting the local trails. Last year’s Going the Distance program featured custom tee shirts and raised $5,000!
Aside from covering each La Sportiva Mountain Cup race on iRunFar, we’ll also be giving a pair of La Sportiva’s away with each race report as well as offering a grand prize. As with last year, the grand prize will consist of three pairs of La Sportiva mountain running shoes of the winner’s choosing as well as some LS swag. Speaking of last year’s grand prize, we’ve yet to award it… until now. Congratulations to Thomas Bowling of San Antonio, Texas for being the winner of last year’s grand prize. I’m sure he’ll agree to better late than never!
Call for Comments
- Have you taken part in the La Sportiva Mountain Cup in the past? If so, which were your favorite race?
- Regardless of whether they were part of the cup when you ran them, have you run any of the above races?
- Do you plan to run any of the La Sportiva Mountain Cup races this year?
Full 2012 La Sportiva Mountain Cup Schedule
