Mountain running certainly isn’t for just everyone. The races span miles and miles, the elevation climb is several thousand feet and the prizes, well, they aren’t much.
Cirque Series founder Julian Carr initially didn’t think the sport was for him, either. While Carr always had a passion for the outdoors and mountain sports. He was a skier by winter and a mountain biker by summer.
Carr’s reluctance to run on the same mountains he biked on in the summers all changed in 2013 when he got his dog.
“I fell in love with mountain running with my dog, Lexi,” said Carr. “It’s just such a fun mountain adventure. It didn’t feel like running to me. It was a very dynamic adventure through very interesting mountain landscape.”
He found his passion. Carr would then search for challenging-enough mountain running races all across the country. When he couldn’t find any, he started his own. Then, in 2015, the Cirque Series was born.
The series now has six summer races across the country, in Utah, Alaska, Wyoming and Colorado. Its first was June 29 at Brighton and its second, July 13 at Snowbird. The series is next headed to Alyeska, Alaska, July 27, before returning for the third and final Utah race Aug. 17 at Alta.
The Alta race is one of Carr’s very favorites.
The Snowbird race served as USA Track and Field’s national mountain running championships for the first time. It’s a huge deal for an emerging sport looking to potentially sneak its way into the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, something Carr has been lobbying for behind the scenes.
“The Wasatch is world class, and the course at Snowbird is very world class,” said Carr. “When you have that kind of media attention on a national championship, I think it’s important to show off the highest caliber of terrain.”
The Snowbird field was 440 runners deep between the series’ sport, expert and pro divisions. Carr thought the race went off smoothly, a great promotion of the sport.
If mountain running were to be added to the 2028 Games, the Snowbird national championships or wherever they’re held would be the U.S. Olympic trials for the event.
“It’s really fun to be able to produce races,” added Carr. “All these amazing mountain communities, each mountain that we go to, there’s such a vibrant culture. You get to know them and the local businesses, and obviously all the locals come out and support it.”
Carr said those who come out share his love for the high alpine. He’s taken some elements over from skiing, including the post-race aprés sessions including drinks and music.
Carr knows generations of families who have come out and raced together, and he’s seen strangers meet at the races and go on to start families of their own.
A lot of those competing and succeeding at the races are Utahns, including a few Parkites.
“We had a lot of people out from the east coast this last weekend, and all of them were definitely talking about elevation,” Carr said. “There’s a big endurance athlete crowd that is based out of Park City and the surrounding Wasatch, so I think they definitely have some leverage being able to condition in that high altitude.”
Parkites Wesley Perkins and Griffin Briley have been competing in the men’s pro division this season, each finishing top-30 at Snowbird. Briley finished fourth last month at Brighton, one spot away from the podium and some prize money.
The pro division is reserved for professional and sponsored athletes and is the only series category handing out prize money. A podium finish in the other divisions lands you different amounts of gear.
The Utah races are typically popular and benefit from the name recognition of their host ski resorts. Carr said Alta sold out over a month ago.
At Alta, the distance traveled will be 7.1 miles, and the climb is 2,545 feet.
Carr referred to all of the races as his children, saying he couldn’t pick just one favorite. He isn’t looking to add any Park City races soon, despite the town’s two ski resorts. He likes where they’re at with six races and said if they do expand they’d go northwest or out east.
He encourages people to come make the 40-minute-plus drive out to one of the Utah races or to travel to one of the out-of-state ones.