We can’t think of a better way to officially enter the trail running scene than jumping feet first into ultra-trail racing in Park City, Utah, at the Twisted Fork Trail Festival earlier this summer.
Born in 2018 by local community leader Canice Harte as a 68-kilometer celebration of the Central Wasatch landscape and history, Twisted Fork is part race, part party – designed to bring the community together around the sheer joy of running.
This year, festival organizers added 15K and 30K race distances to welcome even more runners to the fun and explore more trails. Over 400 runners tackled the courses, with 10 athletes wearing our new Seek trail running shoe. We loved seeing folks stop by our Run for the Trails van to try on a pair. We even had one runner who decided to ditch their usual shoes and race the 68K in the Seek trail runners after wearing them in a shakeout run the night before!
"You felt the passion and joy of running in every aspect of the race experience."
One of the Seek-wearing racers was Deborah Wagner, a 74-year-old retired middle school teacher and longtime endurance athlete. “I was stoked to get KEEN Seeks to wear in the race,” she says. “I wore them just a few times training and they were great! No breaking in; comfortable from the get go. They were super in the race! No dirt gets in because the inner sleeve fits snugly. The laces do not come undone. And the grip was so good on the rocky trails of Glenwild.”
Another Seek athlete was already quite familiar with how our new trail running shoes felt and performed. As KEEN's innovation manager, Scott Robertson logged over 1,000 miles wearing Seek prototypes during the past two years to perfect the fit, and he raced the Wy’East Wonder 50-miler in the final version. It was his first time running Twisted Fork, though, and he loved the experience.
"I left with a few more friends than I arrived with, and that’s what trail running is all about."
“You felt the passion and joy of running in every aspect of the race experience,” he says. “From publishing in-depth course previews for multiple distances to help runners figure out their race-day strategy, to providing childcare (something that seems like it should be inherent for races but isn’t yet), to having one of the most humorous announcers at the finish,the entire event felt like a party you hope you’re invited to.”
His favorite moments of the race were playing leap-frog with other runners on the big climb, the smell of the flora that reminded him of meadows in North Lake Tahoe, the blooming wildflowers lining the trails, the joyful scene at each aid station, and the comfort and relief of crossing the finish line and plopping down into the recovery tent KEEN hosted with a cool beverage and big smile.
“I left with a few more friends than I arrived with, and that’s what trail running is all about,” Scott says. “Even when there’s competition, there’s even more camaraderie.”
