After this year’s Cocodona 250 coverage, we released an episode called Cocodona Has a Fan Problem.
The reaction surprised us a bit. Not because people disagreed, but because so many viewers, commentators, photographers, and race-adjacent people immediately recognized the same feeling:
Ultra races are difficult to follow live.
Not because the races are boring. Quite the opposite. The problem is that too much of the race happens outside the reach of cameras, checkpoints, and timing splits.
A leader can be unraveling for an hour before coverage understands it. Rivals can begin working together deep into the night. Entire race dynamics can shift somewhere between aid stations while commentators are left piecing things together from fragments, radio chatter, and live chat speculation.
So we built a prototype called LoC: Live on Course.
LoC is a live race intelligence system built around distributed human observation throughout a course. People positioned across the race submit real-time observations about athlete condition, pacing shifts, tactical developments, atmosphere, weather, crew dynamics, and other details cameras often miss entirely.
Information goes through human moderation and is distributed to on screen commentators.
The system is intentionally text-first and operational. More race control room than social feed.
The goal is not more content. The goal is better live signal.
At the moment, this is less startup launch and more public experiment. We’re interested in seeing whether a system like this can make races feel more understandable, more alive, and harder to leave in real time.
We also think the broader problem matters.
Trail running has grown enormously over the last decade. The live experience has not evolved at the same pace.
LoC is one attempt to explore what that next layer could look like.
