Posts By: Peter Maksimow

The Rise of Spartan Trail

Photos and article by Peter Maksimow. Spartan Trail and Altra are American Trail Running Association switchback corporate members. Spartan Race. You have more than likely heard of this brand name in the context of obstacle course racing (OCR). The stereotype of Spartan participants is they are muscular, athletic human specimens; half-clothed, scaling walls, tossing spears,… Read more »

Untold Stories from the Pikes Peak Ascent & Marathon

Peter Maksimow is ATRA’s Outreach & Partnership Specialist and lives in Manitou Springs, CO. He is also an elite trail runner, plogger and member of the silver medal winning US team at the 2015 World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships. Photos by Peter Maksimow. The recent Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon in Manitou Springs, Colorado… Read more »

Bo Aucoin Discusses the Western States Transgender Entrant Policy

With increasing cultural acceptance and awareness of transgender persons, there have been more conversations within the trail running community about how to categorize these athletes in competitive athletic events. Over the past several years, international governing bodies and national federations have introduced policies regarding transgender athletes to attempt to clarify rules and regulations within events… Read more »

6 Highlights from the Winter Outdoor Retailer Show

The American Trail Running Association (ATRA) team was out and about at the recent Winter Outdoor Retailer (OR) show in Denver, Colorado–aka the “Snow Show”–and although this was an event highlighting skis and snowboards, we did managed to find some great products for trail runners. Here are a six highlights from the show. Fourpoints Bar… Read more »

Coaches and Camps for Trail Runners

As trail runners, we often look for ways to improve our training, racing performance or general enjoyment on the trails. Whether you are a beginner training for your first trail race, trying to get your daily nutrition dialed in for long runs, or even an elite athlete attempting to qualify for a U.S. National Team,… Read more »

Give your favorite trail runner the gift of holiday beer

Let’s face it, during the holidays we sometimes get stuff that we don’t exactly want, or necessarily need. Rather than getting your favorite trail runner “stuff” that will probably just get placed in the closet full of other new stuff, why not just get the gift of holiday cheer, in the form of beer! Beer… Read more »

Happy Plogging Day from Peter Maksimow

Our Outreach & Partnership Specialist, Peter Maksimow, will be celebrating his birthday on December 7th. Instead of receiving presents for his birthday, he would like to make a call out to all his trail running friends nation-wide, and around to world, to take a brief moment to “plog”; which is picking up trash while running… Read more »

Featured Trail Town – Boise, Idaho

Welcome to the latest edition of our Trail Town series; this time more appropriately dubbed a “Trail City.”  Boise, ID has a population of 226,570 people and nearly 750,000 in the greater metro area known as the Treasure Valley. This edition of our Trail Town series is written by Bob Pollmann, father of ATRA Project Associate and… Read more »

Featured Trail Town – Salida, Colorado

Welcome to another colorful installment of our “Trail Town” series. Every month—and sometimes more often in this case—we will feature an article about a trail running city that you should put on your bucket list of places to visit! This month we feature a location that is out of this world, the city of Salida… Read more »

2nd annual National High School Trail Championships a success

This past weekend in Salida, Colorado, the 2nd Annual National High School Trail Running Championships (NHSTC) saw some fierce competition amongst some of the top young female and male high schoolers in the state. The 5+ mile course took runners up some of the tight switchbacks, lung-busting climbs and fast, single-track descents on the Salida… Read more »

ATRA member XTERRA Trail Run Castle Rock race is this Sunday

American Trail Running Association corporate member, XTERRA Colorado Trail Run Series, will host the third annual XTERRA Trail Run Castle Rock at Colorado’s beautiful Phillip S. Miller Park located in Castle Rock, CO just 30 minutes north of Colorado Springs and 30 minutes south of Denver, on Sunday August 5th, 2018. The race distances include… Read more »

Youth Running: A Chat with Dan Kesterson

We recently spoke with Dan Kesterson about youth running and the Youth Runner Elite Middle School Camp he organizes near Mt Hood in Oregon. This camp is designed for girls and boys entering 6th, 7th and 8th grades. Dan is the editor of Youth Runner Magazine which was founded in 1996 and is based near… Read more »