The results are in and the US men ran very strong en route to a 2nd place team finish and the silver medal in Slovenia.  Joe Gray was the top US male with a 10th place overall finish and Max King was the 2nd American male, with a 16th place overall finish.

The USA women’s team finished in 4th, just missing medal contention.

Results can be found by following the link on the right side of the page, here.

Last weekend, Montrail athlete Annette Bednosky entered the Continental Divide Trail Race in North Carolina, this year’s USATF 10k trail national championship, mainly because “it was only 15 miles from my home.”  Despite the fact that “short distance mountain runners” made up the majority of the field, Annette, who’s name is usually associated with 50-mile, 100-mile and 24-hour running races, showed her versatility and overall talent by running to a 4th place finish for the women (and 1st place Masters) in a time 58:07.  The winning female finished in 52:04.

Congratulations Annette, way to step outside your comfort zone and challenge your potential.  Great job!

The following day, Annette hit the trail again for a 1/2 marathon trail race and finished in a time of 1:55:30, good for 4th overall and 1st place female.

How many people do you know who could run these races on back to back days and do so well?  Yeah.  Me neither.

Congratulations Annette!

World Mountain Running Championships

Max King is heading to Slovenia with Team USA on Wednesday for the World Mountain Running Championships, which take place on September 5th in Kamnik. Follow the US Mountain Running Team on Twitter and the USMRT Blog.

The men will run for 12km with with 1295m of ascent. The course is about 4.5km of road and 7.5km of trails.

Preview 26th World Mountain Running Championships
Written by Nancy Hobbs, Trial Running Examiner

At the 26th World Mountain Running Championships slated for Sunday, September 5 in Kamnik, Slovenia, a record number of countries are expected to participate. Approximately 360 athletes representing 41 countries will participate.

The juniors (who must be at least 16 in the year of competition and not yet 20) will have nearly 80 in the men’s category and 19 full teams (maximum of four to run with the top three to score) and over 50 in the women’s category and 17 teams (maximum of three to run with the top two to score). On the senior side, there will be 156 men and 22 full teams (maximum of six to run with the top four to score) and 73 women and 16 full teams (maximum of four to run with the top three to score).

Expected to be strong this year are the traditional uphill scoring teams – Italy, Uganda, Eritrea, Turkey for the men; Austria, Czech Republic, and Russia for the women. USA is considered one of the favorites to medal in both the senior women and junior women categories, but don’t count out the senior men and junior men who also have their sights set on the podium.

There will be three course distances. The junior women will run approximately 4 kilometers, the junior men and senior women will run approximately 8 kilometers, and the senior men will run approximately 12 kilometers. The courses are uphill-only as opposed to odd-numbered years when the courses are up/down in nature. The terrain will include tarmac (for the senior men’s course), gravel road, single-track trail, open meadows, and lots of climbing.

The USA Mountain Running Team will arrive in Kamnick by Thursday, September 2, and preview the course on Friday. The opening ceremony, which includes a parade of nations, will be held on Saturday, September 5.

Read more here.

Congratulations to Max King and Andy Martin of Team Montrail/Hammer!!  The team won all 6 stages of this year’s TransRockies race in Colorado en route to an overall Men’s Open championship!  This is Max’s second time winning TransRockies and Andy’s first.

Check in here for more standings, updates, photos and videos.

Great work guys!  Now get some rest and have a few beers!

***UTMB has been canceled due to severe weather and a mud slide across the course.  Press conference in 1 hour.  Updates coming. – as of 1:30pm  PST

The 165km Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, or UTMB, is about to start in France and we’ll be following along as Montrail athlete Geoff Roes takes a crack at the challenge.

Thus far Geoff has enjoyed his time in France, which has included catching up with friends, running the last 10 miles of the course, and passing a drug test administered by the race officials.  Bryon Powell of irunfar.com caught up with Geoff for a quick interview as well.

Follow along with the race at the official site or with Bryon on his IRunFar twitter account as well as on his website.

The race will start at 9:30am PT, 12:30pm ET in the USA.  Good luck to all the runners!

As you may know by now, Montrail athlete Geoff Roes will race this year’s Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) in France for the first time, a 165km technical and mountainous course around the Mt. Blanc massif.  It will also be his first time racing in Europe, against some of the world’s top endurance runners.  The race starts Friday at 6:30pm local time (9:30am Pacific) and the top runners should be finishing about 20-22 hours later.

Geoff is approaching this race with his usual calm and collect and is doing his best to avoid all the hype and just run is own race.  We all know that if he runs smart and fuels properly, he’ll be at or near the front come the finish line.

Geoff will be running UTMB in his Mountain Masochists.  Good luck!

First and foremost, the 2010/2011 Montrail Ultra Cup series kicked off in Willamette Pass, Oregon with the Where’s Waldo 100km.  The race was won by Timothy Olson of Ashland, Oregon in a time of 9:25:04.  Last season’s female Ultra Cup champion Meghan Arbogast is at it again, as she runs to the win at Waldo in a time of 10:52:50.  Montrail athlete Erik Skaden took 4th place overall.  Congratulations to all the runners who finished.  Western States 100 auto-entry spots were awarded to Timothy Olson, Dan Omstead, Amy Sproston and Jenny Capel for their top finishes at Waldo.  Next up, Run Rabbit Run 50 in Steamboat, CO on 9/18/10

In Colorado, the Transrockies stage race kicked off Sunday morning, with the first leg being 20.6 miles of relatively flat terrain (2700 feet of climbing).  Veteran competitors Max King and Andy Martin, comprising Team Montrail-Hammer Nutrition, went on to win the first stage in a time of 2:26:03, putting a 7-minute gap on the field.  Keep up with the race here.

Montrail ultrarunning superstar Gary Robbins completed his Conquer the Coasts project by running the East Coast Trail (220 km) in Canada in a record time of 35 hours, 17 minutes.  He now owns the speed record for both the West Coast Trail (70km) and the East Coast Trail.  Congratulations Gary!

Read Gary’s Blog for the full story.

Did you race this weekend?  Or maybe you just went out and challenged yourself?  Where were you?  How’d it go?

Things have been fairly calm here at Montrail headquarters in the few weeks after the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City.  If you haven’t already seen, check out the photos from the Wasatch Wobble 5k.  More photos are being added to the Montrail facebook page daily.

The storm is brewing however, and in this case it’s a storm of excitement and anticipation heading into a few major events in the upcoming weeks.

The Montrail Ultra Cup 2010/11 season kicks off this weekend in Oregon at the Where’s Waldo 100km near Willamette Pass.  This gorgeous setting plays host to the kick-off Ultra Cup series race for the second straight year and once again the competition is strong on both sides of the field.

TransRockies starts August 22nd and Max King and Andy Martin will be competing for the win.  Max is running very strong right now, coming off a win at the Trail Runner Uphill Challenge (15 minutes at 10% incline on a treadmill) during Outdoor Retailer and a course record run at the Ashland Hill Climb, 13.2 grueling uphill miles, with an elevation gain of 5,600 feet.  We’ll be following Max and Andy throughout the week during TransRockies in Colorado.  Good luck guys!

Also kicking off next week is the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) in France.  This race is the world’s largest mountain ultra (2300 runners) and certainly one of the toughest (166km with over 9000 meters of elevation gain).  Two-time defending champ Kilian Jornet will be back to defend his title, and he’ll be challenged by the likes of Montrail athlete Geoff Roes, as well as other Americans Karl Meltzer and Scott Jurek.  Irunfar.com’s Bryon Powell will be there to cover the race and keep us posted on how Geoff is doing.  We can’t wait for this one!

Canadian Gary Robbins will be out trying to break another speed record.  A few weeks ago he took down the 80km West Coast Trail and next Friday he’ll head out on the 220km East Coast Trail and go for the record.  Follow his blog for more info.

Then in September, we take the Montrail Ultra Cup to Colorado for the very first time, as the Run Rabbit Run 50 hosts the 2nd race in the series in Steamboat Springs, Colorado on September 18.

Enjoy the action!

Big-ups to our Canadian friend Gary Robbins for his new speed record on the West Coast Trail in Canada.  Gary knocked 5 minutes off the old record and ran the 80km trail in 10:08:50

Gary and a park ranger, post run

Gary said logistically, this one was a nightmare, and very challenging.  But he pulled it together and challenged himself and came out triumphant.  Success!

Check out Gary’s blog for more info and for some videos and photos.

Gary will go after the East Coast Trail speed record in a few weeks.  That one is 220km and will be a serious test of will and endurance.

From Cara Marrs, Steamboat Springs Running Series organizer:

Well we are 7 races into our 2010 series and the series is going great, breaking records at almost every race so far. New for 2010 was the addition of a partially off road Duathlon in late June. The Du was a fun event for our first multi sport race. July brought us the aspen-lined singletrack of the Howelsen 8 Miler and the 9M Spring Creek Memorial Trail Run that includes a challenging steep rough 3 mile section of primitive trail, tree crossing, and bushwacking.

In keeping with the last few years both races broke runner number records and we had to cap the 9 Mile at Spring Creek for the first time. We are so happy with the way the series is going and happy to share our beautiful trails so far with runners from 20 states and 3 countries, as well as runners from all over Colorado.  Proceeds for almost all SSRS races go to local non- profits and charities so we appreciate our runners, as they help us give back to the community!

The next 2 races are close to being full and are both in the Trail Runner Magazine Trophy Series. On the 7^th we have the Mt Werner Classic, a 12 or 5 mile run up to the top of the Steamboat Ski Area and another beautiful race on the 22^nd of August with the Continental Divide 16 Miler, both of which will serve up a hefty amount of elevation gain.

After August we will look forward to the remainder of the season with 3 more trail races in September, capping off on September 18^th with the Run Rabbit Run 50M, now in the Montrail Ultra Cup Series.