North Face trail race series opens for registration

By

Cassidy Mantor

Published
Feb 19, 2016

The 9th year of The North Face Endurance Challenge trail race has opened for registration for the 2016 race series.

The Endurance Challenge race has 6 locations across the US, including SF’s Marin Headlands, Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort, and NY’s Bear Mountain State Park and is sponsored by The North Face, as well as Gore-Tex and Sierra Nevada. It was born out of ultra runner Dean Karnazes' 2006 quest to run 50 marathons, in 50 states, in 50 consecutive days.

The race series has events for every distance, from a kid’s 1K to the Gore-Tex sponsored 50 miler title race. It takes place over an entire weekend in each stop.

The Endurance Challenge is a strong marketing tool for the company, as it hosts run clubs and training groups in the cities where the series stops, as well as uses its trail running team to help promote the series. The North Face’s trail running team includes top ultra runners Karnazes, Rory Bosio, Rob Krar, and Dylan Bowman.

"The Endurance Challenge motivates runners at all levels to experience the trails and challenge their physical limits," said Katie Ramage, director of Sports Marketing at The North Face.

Ramage commented, “We are thrilled to bring the series back again this year and attract more people to the sport of trail running. We've seen urban marathon runners who have never run on trails and novice runners revel in the success of their first 5K."

The first year of the race showed 1,387 runners. Last year, the series hosted more than 16,000 runners over six weekends. Almost 90,000 runners have participated over the 9 years of the race.