Challenger 7 GTX

Trail (and ultra)Running (which developed from the more traditional and original fell running) comes in a few different forms these days, mostly due to its exploding popularity. NB: contrary to popular thought, ultrarunning is more ‘doable’ than people think - it’s less intense than road marathons, less competitive between average runners (every course is different, the same course is different on different days / weather conditions). It tends to be more ‘self-competitive’ if you’re not an elite and the trail running community is generally very chill and inclusive. It’s also worth noting that the skills gap between men and women seems to dramatically shorten the further you run. Running on trails for fun, mental health, general fitness. Ultramarathons very much have a huge mental challenge to them. Trail half- and full marathons. Ultramarathons, anything longer than a marathon - 50k, 50 miles, 100k and 100 miles (and beyond!) being the ‘usual’ step up in distances. There are also ‘timed’ races (how far can you run a certain loop or round a 400m track in, say, 24 hours). Plus multi-day events. Even more recent are Back Yard Ultras - a loop of 4.167 miles, and you have to complete 1 loop every hour…until you can’t! Last person standing wins. You can fathom the logistics / challenges of this yourself! Eating, sleeping, toilet stops! 4.167 miles because 24 loops in 24 hours = 100 miles. Then there’s all sorts of wacky and mental variations on the above. Trail and ultrarunning also takes place over differing terrains. Some are flat, most are hilly to varying degrees, some mountainous, some in deserts - basically anywhere you can do an endurance race there is one! Often hill / mountain training - both up and down - is essential to training. Most non-elite ultrarunners will hike the hills and run down. Both need practice and differing fitness. I recently did 10YFan (10x up n down Pen y Fan in 24 hours), partly as training for other forthcoming events. It tested out my uphill hiking fitness and helped my downhill fitness and speed over ‘technical’ terrain. There’s a knack to chucking yourself downhill as fast and safely as possible and it takes practice. NB: I’m a bog standard ultra runner. Shoes very much depend on terrain. Some popular brands are (and I’m not extolling the virtues or otherwise of any): Hoka, Nike, Salomon, Saucony, Altra, Brooks, On, Inov8, New Balance. There’s loads. Have a look on SportsShoes.com and search trail shoes. There’s different models with different pros and cons for different terrain. I’ve got loads of different pairs / brands (it’s a sickness!) but FWIW I used a hybrid trail/road shoe for 10YFan - Hoka Challenger 7. Very spongy and soft, durable AF, with decent enough grip for that terrain. It’s very much personal preference though. As an aside, there’s TONNES of amazing ultrarunning films on YouTube. Hit me up if you want some recs. In short, there’s a lot of overlap on the Venn Diagram of hiking, trail running and fast packing. And some kit is interchangeable for reach. I can’t be arsed to spell check this, so if there’s any grammatical errors - SOZ!