Western States and UTMB have become the two most influential institutions in trail running, but beneath the debate over lotteries, race series, and growth is a deeper question: when something becomes successful, how do you protect it?

Josh explores why UTMB believes trail running is important enough to scale globally while Western States believes it's important enough not to. Along the way, he examines scarcity, culture, the hidden cost of success, and whether the thing worth protecting was ever the race itself.

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If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

Topics / Timestamps

  • 01:33 Two Philosophies of Trail Running
  • 03:19 Is Growth in Trail Running Corruption?
  • 06:13 The Scale Problem in Trail Running
  • 11:06 What Cultre are We Protecting in Trail Running?
  • 15:50 The Supply Chain of Trail Running Culture


Resources / Links

  1. 8 Bit Trail Running
  2. Josh Rosenthal on IG
  3. Borderlands.cc
  4. La French Trail


Related Episodes

  1. Ultra Running isn't Just Running


Presented by Kiprun.

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Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

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