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Big Alta didn’t just crown winners, it showed how quickly short trail racing in the U.S. is leveling up. Rachel & James break down a heat-impacted weekend where the 28K delivered a course record and the 50K produced tight battles that came down to execution. Rachel shares what the Big Alta course feels like at speed, why the exposure changes everything late, and how she approached racing while pregnant, chasing smart goals and still competing hard.

From there, we go global with skyrunning and the World Skyrunner Series, starting with the Trans Gran Canaria Marathon and then jumping to Rachel’s trip to Chile for the Andes Mountain Sky Race. We talk real logistics and real terrain: travel delays, mandatory kit, high-altitude starts around 9,000 feet, and a mountain environment that turns “only 35K” into an all-day effort. We also dig into why South American athletes deserve more spotlight and how these races reveal a different skill set than fast, smooth trail formats.

We wrap with a packed preview of Calamoro and the Gorge Waterfalls 30K and 50K start lists, then pivot to trail running sponsorship moves that made waves. Salomon’s additions of Grayson Murphy and Tove Alexandersson, plus Arc’teryx signing Jane Maus and Kyle Richardson, spark a broader conversation about what brands value and how the sport treats athletes through life changes. Finally, we get into Sierre-Zinal separating men’s and women’s starts and why that small shift could dramatically improve fairness and flow on singletrack.

If you like smart race recaps, skyrunning results, and the behind-the-scenes forces shaping trail running, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave us a review.

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Follow James on IG - @jameslauriello

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