Open Range Races was born at Beer Bar in Salt Lake City when Joey Hendrix, Jared Wright, and I were talking about trail races in the foothills of Salt Lake City. Most notably that there were none.
How is that possible? An old friend in the scene said they just don’t give permits back there, they’ve historically been difficult to work with or simply unresponsive.
The next day I started chasing down the permitting bodies to see what’s possible. Salt Lake City had recently invested millions of dollars in the trail system behind the University of Utah and were quite keen to open up their trails to large events.
And thus, Salt Lake Trail Races was born.
It’s an extension of Borderlands’ mission to be the Heart of Trail Running™. We know that when you sign up for a big race its both the most important thing in your life – the apex of self-actualization – and the greatest luxury to be enjoyed both in real time and when you look back on it.
Open Range Races has one event as I write this but we’ll be adding a second for fall 2025. Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races offers a 10k, half marathon, and 50k with hopes of adding a 50 miler all along an iconic and beautiful stretch of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail in SLC.
More here.
