A trail runner runs on a high-altitude trail in Chamonix, France -
© B. Metzler / Unsplash
Trail-running has been a sport that has experienced very strong growth over the past ten years, according to our partner The Conversation.
However, faced with the global Covid-19 pandemic and with the ecological crisis in the background, the development of the discipline is currently hampered.
The analysis of this phenomenon was carried out by Mathilde Plard, CNRS researcher and Aurélien Martineau, postdoctoral researcher in social geography.
With nearly 20 million estimated practitioners around the world, trail-running is one of the fastest growing sports in the world since 2010 according to the International Athletics Federation.
However, faced with the global Covid-19 pandemic and with the ecological crisis in the background, the development of the discipline is currently hampered.
The players in the discipline are fully mobilized to ensure that the trail runners find their bibs on the trails.
A recent discipline with undeniable success
Trail-running is an outdoor sport offering immersion in nature in the heart of diverse landscapes: in the mountains or near ocean coasts, in the aridity of deserts or in the heart of forests.
Officially, trail-running is defined as a pedestrian competition open to all in a natural environment, passages on cemented or paved roads not to exceed 20% of the total distance.
This definition was formulated in 2013 by the International Trail-Running Association (ITRA), a body created by the main trail-running players to structure the discipline and promote its development throughout the world.
However, the trail in its modern version existed well before the creation of ITRA, from the 1970s in the American West and in the 1980s and 1990s in Europe.
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However, it was at the turn of the 21st century that this outdoor sport experienced a real boom with a significant growth in the number of its sporting events and its followers.
To testify to this undeniable success, from 2013 to 2019, the ITRA recorded more than 25,700 races in 195 countries around the world for more than 1.77 million participants in competition.
A brutal health crisis
Since the start of 2020, the sports events sector has been facing an unprecedented crisis with the global Covid-19 pandemic.
The health crisis required the deployment of containment measures affecting nearly half of humanity at the end of March 2020 (3.9 billion people).
These measures had the effect of a serial cancellation of trail-running events, even of certain international circuits: in 2020, the Ultra-trail World Tour did not award a title and the Golden Trail World Series and the Skyrunning World Series have been canceled.
If all the consequences of this crisis are not yet known, the repercussions will be numerous for the organizers - going as far as the stopping of certain events.
More broadly, it is the socio-economic players in the areas where the hardships take place who suffer from these cancellations.
These outdoor sporting events are structuring for the local economy by being real tools of territorial and tourist attractiveness.
The economic benefits generated by certain events can be counted in millions of euros (nearly 7.5 million euros for the UTMB in 2017).
For elite and amateur athletes, staying on the move has been a way to cope with this uncertain period where movement has been severely restricted.
Many unprecedented challenges were thus achieved during confinement, both for sports performance, and out of solidarity to raise funds to fight against Covid-19.
Thus, runners have, for example, ventured to run the distance of a marathon on their balcony, to climb the equivalent of the positive elevation of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc at their home, or to run the distance of 'a 160km ultra-trail at home or around a tree.
A marathon on a balcony is possible!
Sports brands (Asics, Strava etc.) and event organizers have also been numerous to opt for new digital solutions by offering challenges or virtual races.
These “phygital” events allowed runners to participate from home or near their home (the GPS track of connected devices guaranteeing that the performance has been achieved).
This new type of sporting event has grown in popularity during the Covid-19 crisis and has successfully spread to the four corners of the world.
This allowed the main protagonists of the trail-running industry to maintain the link with their community of practitioners, to compensate for the inability to organize face-to-face races and to show solidarity.
Another notable phenomenon for trail-running is the renewed interest in the practice of so-called “off” or “FKT” (
fastest known time
)
challenges
after confinement.
These challenges outside of traditional competitions are not, however, new and correspond to attempts to set records on long-distance hiking trails (GR) or the opening of new routes while running in the heart of nature.
There were many attempts during the summer of 2020 such as Xavier Thévenard on the GR 20 in Corsica (180km and 14,000m D +) and Mathieu Blanchard with the crossing of the international Appalachian trail in Quebec (650 km and 40,000m of D +).
In the absence of international travel, these ultra-local alternative challenges provide an opportunity to (re) discover and invest in racing areas near their regions or countries of residence.
The imperative of the ecological crisis
The ecological issue is the other crisis facing the trail-running sector.
The races are established within frequently protected natural areas (National Parks, Nature Reserves, Natura 2000 Zone, etc.).
The passage of hundreds, to see thousands of runners on the trails has an impact on the vegetation, the fauna and the soils.
We must therefore not underestimate the environmental impact of a trail-running event in various ways: modes of transport to reach the event, soil degradation due to trampling by participants, waste management etc.
Events, whether large or small, question the necessary changes imposed by the ecological crisis and the evolution of their practices.
The organizers are therefore attentive to ecological issues and share the values promoted by the discipline and the ITRA of respect for the environment and sustainable development.
Ethics and eco-responsibility are therefore at the heart of the project for many events.
The ultra-trail Transvulcania 2017, on the island of La Palma, May 13, 2017 © Désirée Martin / AFP
The organizers limit as much as possible the impact of their events on the environment: restricting the number of participants, awareness raising and eco-responsible actions, waste reduction, actions to preserve the environment, etc.
Athletes too are wondering about their carbon footprint and its initiator: awareness raising, creation of foundations, actions with equipment manufacturers, etc.
The challenges of the post-Covid-19 era
The crossing of ecological and health crises constitutes for the discipline of trail-running a moment of truth.
These main players have shown creativity and adaptation to face these unprecedented challenges.
At the heart of trail-running experiences, two elements ultimately remain fundamental, immersion in nature and social relationships.
These sporting events are therefore undoubtedly spaces for plural encounters with the environment and other participants.
Our “Trail” file
As a result, there is little chance that virtual races and other “Off” challenges will eventually take precedence over these races.
Time will tell if however these alternatives will remain ephemeral or will be anchored more durably in the practices of the discipline.
Finally, with regard to the ecological crisis, the eco-responsible policies and measures of the stakeholders bear witness to a clear awareness.
In the medium and long term, the stake will be to guarantee the benefits of trail-running for the followers and the territories without forgetting to limit the environmental impact of the practice.
The future challenge for the trail running industry will be to ensure the long-lasting and sustainable development of this outdoor sport.
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This analysis was written by Mathilde Plard, CNRS researcher (UMR ESO, University of Angers) and Aurélien Martineau, Postdoctoral researcher in Social Geography (University of Angers).
The original article was published on The Conversation website.
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