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The Ultimate has always had sub-contests – and now we’re bringing them to life!

The Ultimate competition is a well-rounded competition with a well-known formula: 8 days, 7 stages, 160 KM. Less well-known are the sub-contests that are designed to reward runners who specialize in certain disciplines of running.

This week we have launched a results tool to make results for any year, and historical records, easy and interactive!

Our hope is that through the growth of this event, the continuing progress in our results capabilities, and new prizing (cash prizes for these titles is new for 2019) will help these contests as they continue to gain interest and prominence over time.

This is what it looks like:

It’s worth noting that since this data wasn’t easily accessible in years past, it’s unlikely that Jackie Jackman knew in the moment that her record Trail in 2010 (which still stands) beat April Boultbee’s 2007 time by a mere 15 seconds! But we’re happy now to give participants and spectators alike the ability to see and use this information.

Besides choosing between years or all-time, you can also drill down into the demographics, and that highlights the great masters performances over the years. Both of the women’s records belong to Joanne Bink from 2008, while the men’s records were set in 2012 (Mark Meyers – Sprint) and 2014 (Patrick Kelly – Trail).

The contests in 2019

This year, we are awarding two contests with prize money ($100) for the first time:

  • Sprint – combined time at Stages 2 and 6
  • Trail – combined time at Stages 3 and 5
  • In Trail, the courses at Bechtel and Chicopee offer a range of trail challenges and are essentially unchanged for 6+ years. For Sprint, lots has changed. The 25k of total distance is constant, and the Stage 2 time trial start remains, however Stage 2 is now on a linear trail and Stage 6 is now a track event with heat starts. These two flattest Stages still offer the best opportunities for hammering during the week.

    Historical winners

    Five times, the Sprint and Trail King were different people, but only once for Sprint and Trail Queen. In total, eight “crowns” have been awarded to people who ultimately didn’t win the title.

    Notes

  • “Trail” wasn’t officially contested or awarded until 2015. From 2003-2014, it was the Mountain contest (combined time in Stages 4 and 5) that was recognized. But we are including historical results for comparison purposes, and feel that these two contests in 2019 are the best representations of specialized runner discipline.
  • An Ultimate must finish the week to count in Sprint and Trail. This first version includes those times, but they will be removed soon.