Do you ever put down your hydration pack and lace up a pair of lightweight racing shoes to tear up the trails? Well, this summer some of America’s best sub-ultra distance trail runners will be doing exactly that as they race for a huge purse in the La Sportiva Mountain Cup. We here at iRunFar have long considered providing more coverage of shorter trail races and thought there’s no better place to start than with the continent’s premier short distance trail running series. Keep reading for more on the La Sportiva Mountain Cup, iRunFar’s coverage of the Cup, and the iRunFar.com La Sportiva Mountain Cup Contest!
What is the La Sportiva Mountain Cup?
So what is the La Sportiva Mountain Cup anyway? It’s a 10-race trail/mountain running series straight out of Europe – just like La Sportiva. The events, which are spread around the country, include hill climbs (i.e., Mount Washington Road Race), up-and-down mountain races (i.e., Jupiter Peak Steeplechase), and speedy circuits through the forest (i.e., Haulin’ Aspen Trail Half Marathon).
Here’s the LSMC schedule:
La Sportiva, GORE-TEX®, and Fleet Feet Sports Boulder have come together to offer sick prize money ($25,000!!) that should insure heated competition through the summer. At the end of the Mountain Cup, the top open man and women in the series will each bring home $5,000, while the top masters runners will bag $2,000 apiece for their age-defying efforts. Second and third place open runners will win $2,500 and $1,500, respectively. The prize money is rounded out by $1,000 and $500 awards for the second and third place masters runners of each gender.
So how does one win the LSMC? Score more cumulative points in any five Mountain Cup races than anyone else. Points are awarded 15 deep in each gender in each race with 20, 17, 15, 13, and 11 points earned for each of the top five places with the next 10 places garnering from 10 points down to 1 point for 15th place. All races are scored equally regardless of distance or difficulty. However, to reflect the varying level of competition at different races, the series will award two bonus points to a runner for each competitor they beat who was in the top 10 overall Mountain Cup rankings on the day prior to the race. Masters points are scored along with all runners of a gender regardless of age. The masters Mountain Cup winners will be determined by summing the points each master runner earned in his or her five best LSMC efforts.
What will iRunFar.com Be Doing?
We’ll be providing you with the results of each of the La Sportiva Mountain Cup races on the Monday or Tuesday following the race. We’ll also keep you in the know on how the overall series is developing. And one more thing…
iRunFar.com La Sportiva Mountain Cup Contest!
What would make an exciting trail running series even more exciting? Give away a pair of FREE LA SPORTIVA shoes to iRunFar readers for every race! That’s right, throughout the Mountain Cup, we’ll be offering a pair of sweet La Sportiva shoes with every race result we post. To win, all you need to do is leave your name and town in a comment on LSMC race result post before we post the next results a week or two later. [A couple folks jumped the gun – entries should be on subsequent LSMC race result posts, not this one. The first race result post will go up the morning of June 3.] The contest is open to US and Canadian residents.
Of course, the La Sportiva Mountain Cup has an overall winner, so why shouldn’t iRunFar? That’s why anyone who enters one of the weekly contests will be eligible for a sweet grand prize package. While we’re not ready to announce the grand prize just yet, we can assure you that you’ll want to enter the contest every chance you get. Just as in the Mountain Cup, the more contests you enter, the better your chance of winning the overall prize as you’ll get one ticket in the grand prize drawing for each previous contest you entered.
Finish Line
Let us know if you plan on running any of the Mountain Cup races or if you’ve run any of the races in the past. I am hoping to run the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase. I’ve “run” it before and need to redeem myself!
That’s it for now. We hope you follow iRunFar and the La Sportiva Mountain Cup all summer long!
