Western States Wants to Protect, UTMB Wants to Grow

Western States Wants to Protect, UTMB Wants to Grow

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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If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Topics / Timestamps
  • 01:33 Two Philosophies of Trail Running
  • 03:19 Is Growth in Trail Running Corruption?
  • 06:13 The Scale Problem in Trail Running
  • 11:06 What Cultre are We Protecting in Trail Running?
  • 15:50 The Supply Chain of Trail Running Culture

Resources / Links
  1. 8 Bit Trail Running
  2. Josh Rosenthal on IG
  3. Borderlands.cc
  4. La French Trail

Related Episodes
  1. 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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Episoder(309)

Trail Running Culture Doesn't Scale | Bob Crowley's Response

Trail Running Culture Doesn't Scale | Bob Crowley's Response

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Wasatch 100 & Bear 100: When Ultra Running Just Hurts

Wasatch 100 & Bear 100: When Ultra Running Just Hurts

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The Trail Running Sea of Sameness | Nike ACG, Nostalgia, and the Cost of Optimization

The Trail Running Sea of Sameness | Nike ACG, Nostalgia, and the Cost of Optimization

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Why Western States is America's Most Important Race | More than a Run

Why Western States is America's Most Important Race | More than a Run

Western States 100 occupies a different place in trail running than almost any other race. Months before the starting gun, runners and fans are already studying the field, imagining the canyons, debat...

9 Jun 23min

Why Trail Running Hides Competition

Why Trail Running Hides Competition

Trail running culture loves winners. That's obvious. The sport builds documentaries about them, fills Instagram feeds with them, and spends months debating who will win Western States. But the more Jo...

4 Jun 17min

What Happens When Running Becomes Your Job? | Jacob Puzey

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Professional running can quietly turn into pressure, performance, sponsorship obligations, and constant visibility. This episode with Jacob Puzey is for runners who have felt burnout creeping into the...

25 Mai 19min

The Race That Makes Trail Running Real

The Race That Makes Trail Running Real

Trail running usually becomes real for people at a local ultra, not while watching UTMB or Western States online. The parking lot at 5am with 53 runners, one exhausted race director, and volunteers gi...

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