Profile written by American Trail Running Association (ATRA) switchback member Ultraverse Supplements.
When married couple Chase and Casey Hammond signed up for graduate programs in nutrition, they planned on someday opening their own nutrition consultation business. Being a competitive ultrarunner, Chase planned on consulting primarily endurance athletes, and as a result, connected everything he learned about nutrition to endurance training and competition. But, plans changed in the last two trimesters of Chase’s schooling.
With their new knowledge, Chase and Casey decided instead to open an endurance-focused supplement company – Ultraverse Supplements.
Chase earned his Master’s Degree in Clinical Nutrition, while Casey earned a Master’s in Holistic Nutrition. “We saw a hole,” said Chase. “The vast majority of endurance supplements out there were either under-dosed, inappropriately prescribed, or simply did not correlate with what the scientific literature says is effective.” Added Casey, “We knew that if we followed the science, we could make a supplement line that was unlike anything else out there.”
Another goal of Ultraverse Supplements is to cater to the unique needs of Ultra-runners and other ultra-endurance athletes. Chase said, “There are certain things that are beneficial for someone who’s training and competing for super-long durations that aren’t as important for traditional endurance athletes. Increased muscle catabolism, elevated cortisol, high caloric needs during exercise, mental fatigue, and GI issues are all significantly amplified with ultra-endurance activities. Additionally, these sports are more aerobic in nature than, say, a marathon.
“There are nutritional ingredients out there, with solid evidence backing their effectiveness that are especially beneficial for ultra-athletes. We thought it made sense to focus on these athletes because nobody else seemed to be.”
Casey said, “Plus, we love the sport of ultra-running, everything about it, and we are very involved in the sport and the community, so it made sense.”
In addition, to being ultra-runners themselves, Chase and Casey are also Race Directors. Casey said, “We will have three races in the Midwest in 2022. Hopefully, four, we are still working on approval for the last one.”
Their current stable of trail races include:
- April 23 – The Eternal Damnation Backyard
- June 4 – The Sticks 6/12/24/48/72 Hour Races
- October 1 – Hell Creek 100
- November 5 – The Cowboy 200
Chase’s passion for trail-running was born from hiking in the mountains of Colorado. “I always loved to go out to Colorado and just hike a couple of weeks every year. I started getting into the 14ers, and they kicked my butt, so I decided I better get in better shape. I started running, and everything just snowballed into a full-blown obsession with trail-running.”
Since then, Casey has caught the bug. “Our favorite thing in the world is to go backpacking together; we hope to backpack all the long trails together someday. That’s our dream.”
Chase and Casey’s love for the trails shows through in their business endeavors. Ultraverse Supplements gives 1% of sales to a specific trail each year, and the couple hopes to be able to increase that in the future. Additionally, they give a percentage of race entry proceeds back to the trail(s) they run on.
“More people are using the trails than ever right now, which is awesome. But it comes at a cost that we’ve seen firsthand during backpacks. As a result, more resources are needed to offset the impact of increased usage. We hope to do our part,” said Chase.
Ultraverse Supplements currently offers a recovery formula Terminus and a daily endurance supplement T-30. They will be releasing a third supplement, an endurance fuel, in early 2022 named Proxima C.
Visit the Ultraverse website to learn more about their supplements and check out their races on the ATRA event calendar.
