Today, we’re excited to announce a big new development for the sport that will debut at TrailCon in just a few weeks – the Trail Running Hall of Fame. 

Much of what Freetrail has done over the last few years is take existing concepts from other sports and repurpose them for trail running. Freetrail Fantasy, free agency tracking, and Trail Runner of the Year are all examples of things we’ve borrowed from mature sports to encourage and cultivate fandom for trail events and trail athletes. 

Of course, most mature sports also have a platform to honor the legacy of the greats from yesteryear, celebrating their history and enshrining their landmark achievements. That’s what we’re hoping to do by creating the Trail Running Hall of Fame and inducting the inaugural class at TrailCon.

The Hall of Fame induction will be part of a larger award show to conclude TrailCon on Wednesday, June 25th. The TrailCon Award Show will recognize last year’s Trail Runners and Trail Performances of the Year, and mint four new awards outlined below:

• Future Award: Recognizing a young pro with the potential to be a next-gen superstar.
• Courage Award: Recognizing someone who has displayed a remarkable level of determination and grit on or off the race course in a way that embodies the values of trail running.
• Community Impact Award: Recognizing someone who has a unique and powerful impact on the global trail running community beyond competitive performance or race results.
• Icon Award: Recognizing giants from the modern era who’ve single handedly moved the sport forward in some way. 

Between the above awards and the Hall of Fame inductees, we’ll honor fifteen separate individuals, each deserving the spotlight in their own way.

Co-hosting the TrailCon Awards Show with Dylan is the amazing Sally McRae – herself a legend of the game – concluding with a final afterparty before the Western States festivities begin in earnest the following day. I simply can’t wait. We really hope the TrailCon Award Show becomes an important annual tradition with new Hall of Fame classes inducted each year. 

Like the rest of TrailCon, the award show is free and open to attend, all you have to do is register on the website to secure your spot. 

Finally, a huge thank you to Nike ACG for supporting and co-creating the concept for this event with us. We are very grateful. Thanks also to Brendan, Doug, Harmony, Lynn, & Rachel who’ve been the driving force on this for months. 

It’s finally happening. We hope to see you all in Palisades Tahoe in just a couple weeks!

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Miscellaneous Stuff

+ Strava File Of The Week – Anna Gibson & David Norris secured their spots on Team USA with wins at the Classic Mountain event at the Sunapee Scramble in New Hampshire. Both files are impressive and both will be anchoring strong teams at the World Championships in September. Of course, I also need to link to Kilian’s ridiculous 50 mile, 6hr training run. Complete mind blower.

+ Freetrail News – An important moment for Freetrail, this week, Travis Loncar finally joins as a full-time member of our team! Travis is the creator and steward of our Freetrail Fantasy and Trail Runner of the Year platforms who has contributed in so many valuable ways on the side while working full-time in tech. We’re grateful he’s taken the leap with exciting new projects on the horizon! 

+ Zegama – Last year’s Trail Runner of the Year and Golden Trail World Series Champion, Elhousine Elazzaoui picked up where he left off, winning the iconic Spanish mountain Marathon. Meanwhile Sara Alonso is an early TROY candidate in 2025, bringing home another huge win and securing a solid overall lead in the Golden Trail World Series. 

+ Terignōta Pod – For the last six months, I’ve observed Alex King build his new trail running apparel brand Terignōta from scratch. Offering a great product at a very reasonable price, Alex is flipping the typical business model on its head. We recorded an episode of Second Nature with him last week, which we also cross-posted to the Freetrail feed. Check out what he’s up to!

+ Unbreakable 2 – Last week we announced that our ambitious film project Unbreakable 2 will not be moving forward in 2025. A confluence of factors made this the right call for both JourneyFilm and Freetrail. We hope to pick up the concept in the future if all the stars align.

+ Kilian’s YouTube – There’s an awesome growing trend of athletes using YouTube to give fans a closer look at their training. Last week, Kilian posted a lovely 15min video showing himself at home in Norway in the thick of WS training – a much-appreciated glimpse into how his goals and lifestyle have changed since the the last time he ran Western States. A must watch!