Here we are in late August, with several races still to go on this year’s calendar, but already deep into planning our 2025 races. Like always, we’ll unveil our next year’s schedule now, with the usual caveat that everything depends on permitting, and that doesn’t get finalized until next year. Before we jump into the Go Beyond Racing 2025 calendar, we have a few things we’d like to share and hear from you on.
Historically, we open registration about six months before a race. There’s a trend out there now to open registration a whole year in advance – to turn on the next year’s registration before the current year’s race is even over or immediately afterwards. We are not fans of this. We don’t need your money that far in advance. Sure, we do start incurring expenses for the next year’s race right after the current, but not so much that we need to take in money 364 days ahead. It just doesn’t feel right to us. But here’s the rub. Some people plan their race schedule that far out, and when races open their signups so far in advance, it locks people into those races, leaving race directors like us with the chance of fewer runners. We seriously would like to hear runners’ thoughts on this. Let’s have a conversation. Do we just need to catch up with the times? How do you feel about this trend?
While we are nailing down dates, we are still working on pricing. If you’ve run with us before, you know that our prices are generally lower than our other local organizers. That is on purpose and even though our costs continue to increase, we are hesitant to raise prices each year because everyone else has. Just because people will pay more doesn’t mean we need to charge more. Last year, we increased the cost of some of our races by $5 or $10 and kept many price levels the same. This next year, we expect to have some small increases on some of our races at the some of the different registration tiers.
If you are price-sensitive (and who isn’t) we encourage you to look closely at the cost of a race and be sure to consider all the other add-ons when deciding where to run. Are shuttles an extra charge? Do your crew or pacers have to pay to eat at the finish of a 100-miler? Are age group awards included? Will your left behind drop-bags or lost-and-found items get shipped to you? Just what do you get, or don’t get, for that registration fee?
We’d also like to remind people who struggle to pay for races that the Trail Mix Fund is available to cover that registration fee. Over 250 people have applied to have their fee paid for by the Trail Mix Fund so far so don’t hesitate to seek support there!
Now onto 2025 dates. There are a couple notable adjustments for next year. The Summer Portland Trail Series will be every other week, instead of every week, just like the Spring and Fall Series. This means we need to start the Spring a little bit earlier. Bend Trail Series will start in April and finish in July so we can avoid potential smoke issues. We are also moving the Wy’east Wonder back to June and Bristow to earlier in June.
Wood You Rather – May 3
Stumptown Trail Runs Half Marathon/50K – May 24 & 26
Bristow 24/12/6 Hour Run – June 7
Wy’east Wonder 50M/50K – June 28
Mt Hood 50M/50K/25K – July 12 & 13
Volcanic 50K/25K – August 2 & 3
Oregon 200 – August 22-26
Mountain Lakes 100 – September 20
Lastest Not Fastest – October 4
Portland Trail Series Spring – April 2, 16, 30, May 14, 28
Portland Trail Series Summer – June 4, 18, July 2, 16, 30
Portland Trail Series Fall – September 3, 17, October 1, 15, 29
Bend Trail Series – April 17, May 15, June 19, July 17
We are still working with the permitting agencies for Smith Rock Ascent. We had a great solution that met both the state park’s and the forest service’s requirements but were presented with another roadblock. It’s important to us to have the start and finish of this race actually in Smith Rock State Park, and not in a gravel parking lot in the middle of nowhere. Runners and spectators want to see and experience this amazing park and we’ll keep working on a way to have our race there.
Now, let’s finish out this year! There’s a lot of great racing yet to come and we hope to see you whether that is with a bib on or as a volunteer.