What the hell is "sky running"? Is it for people who can't succeed even at trail running or ultra running?

i didnt google it, but ive got some familiarity with it.

it may be that its a lot like trail/ultra in that the talent pool is just exceedingly shallow. but it may also be that its actually a different discipline. guys who are not very good runners can do very well in even short sky events--in a way that doesnt seem to possible for bad runners in shorter trail/"ultra" events. one simple explanation may just be that at grades above ~12%, the value of running efficiency might just go completely away . . . and then things like your engine and strength matter a lot more.

having watched some of the top events, i think ive come to the conclusion they shouldnt actually call it "sky""running" at all. its really just about who can move fast up and down steeper grades.

maybe they should call it steepmoving?

Maybe it's like "fell running"? Nobody has a clue what that is either.

ggkjfdfgbbhjjfserghj wrote:

Maybe it's like "fell running"? Nobody has a clue what that is either.

Letsrun wins again

Ever heard of Kilian Jornet?

Ultra > Marathon wrote:

Ever heard of Kilian Jornet?

Is she from Game of Thrones?

I never saw so many ignorant dumbfukks in one place in my life.

Maybe you should ask one of your track Olympians what he thinks of running up and down a few hills. #Anthony Famiglietti Ever here of the speedboat 50k? Your famous track speedster who even was good at running over little hurdles and a puddle of water tried that race once.

What was the outcome? DNF, injured, never tried another one.

Serious answer:

It's a Mountain / Trail race series in which each race has a vertical component of +/-2000m over the course of the race. The courses are fairly technical (as far as trail running go), and the vertical component is almost always at a steep grade. Most of the races are between 22K and 35K. Just like any race series, there are elites that compete for points. Kilian Jornet was the overall race series winner two years ago.

The race series is dominated by people that are good and train for this specific type of race - most are European or Japanese, and most grew up in the mountains. Obviously an elite road racer could DEFINITELY also be competitive in these types of races with race-specific training. However, I don't think an elite road racer could jump into an elite Skyrace and be competitive with elites, especially along technical terrain. There isn't really any money to be had in this race series - and less prestige than Golden Trail, so you are obviously not going to find a lot of top guys training for this type of race. Only a few of the very top guys are sponsored, and races take place in different countries, with a significant travel component, so the field of top guys/gals is thin.

Professional hiking

It's a brand name for a Race Series...

but basically they are usually "Hard Core Mountain Races"

I like to make the joke that they should call it "Sky Climbing" because often bits of the course are not runnable and you have to use your arms/hands to actually climb up a mountain (and worry about falling and dying in places!)

I did the full international "SkyRunning Ultra Series" in 2013 and 2014 (finished 2nd to Kilian Jornet) and won like $800. But that was a long time ago. Prize money and support has increased a bit since then.

Those years we did races like The Rut 50km (USA 2014 final), at the UROC 100km (2013 final where Kilian only finished 4th place), and others like Transvulcania and Speedgoat 50km etc.

SkyRunning was the series to do (unless you wanted to go super long and to Ultra-Trail World Tour) until the Golden Trail Series came along. But now these races are offering $5000 USD + for finishing as a finalist and many are offering a lot of travel support all around the world.

The SkyRunning series had mountain races that were either longer than an Ultra or shorter (often only 30km-40km but with thousands of feet of climbing and on gnarly technical trails). The categories were either "Ultra (longer races)" or "Sky (shorter races)". They also had a "Vertical Kilometer series" but that's another event all together....basically a < 5km race with over 1000m of vertical gain.

Basically all these races are right up Kilian Jornet's alley. I'm glad we still have Pikes Peak Marathon in the Golden Trail series - and mountain running classics like Zegama and Sierre-Zinal are generally the pretty epic and the most competitive (Mont Blanc Marathon 42km is getting up there as well!). Those aren't SkyRunning any more because they are part of the "Golden Trail Seires"

What would be nice is if they banned former convicted dopers (Desco for example is a former EPO positive at World Mountain Champs) and if they actually had some sort of competent PED testing in place. They didn't even bring out USADA for Pikes Peak last year (despite it being local) for example.