Trail runners, it’s time to get your game on when The North Face Endurance Challenge Series’ races into Park City, Utah. The “mountain region” part of the national race event happens Sept. 24 when the resort town hosts not only the highest elevation start within the North America series at 7,000 feet but it will also climb to the highest elevation of 10,000 feet. If you want a run that will push your limits and make you feel like you could hurl, this is it. Heck, core skiers can consider this the ultimate pre-season conditioning. Athletes will navigate Park City Mountain using a mix of double and single track trail, ski runs, mountain bike trails and various dirt access roads.

Welcome to Park City

The Park City Race is one of six across North America, each with seven distances. The GORE-TEX® 50 Mile, 50K, Marathon, Marathon Relay and Kid’s 1K race will be held on Saturday, and the Half Marathon, 10K, 5K races and a Kid’s 1K race are on Sunday. In case you didn’t know, The North Face is the largest trail running series in the world and the North Face Endurance Challenge Championship offers largest prize purse in the sport of trail racing ($30,000 total), awarding $10,000 to the top male and female runners in the GORE-TEX® 50 Mile distance.

Endurance Evolution

The iconic The North Face Endurance Challenge race series was born out of Ultrarunner Dean Karnazes’ 2006 quest to run 50 marathons, in 50 states, in 50 consecutive days. The brand launched the race series the following year and it has since grown into a full-weekend festival with a challenge for every fitness level. In 2015, the series hosted more than 16,000 runners over six weekends. Nearly 90,000 runners have participated in the nine years that Endurance Challenge has been in existence.

“The North Face Endurance Challenge motivates runners at all levels to experience the trails and challenge their physical limits,” said Katie Ramage, director of Sports Marketing at The North Face. “We are thrilled to bring the series back again this year and attract more people to the sport of trail running. We’ve seen urban marathon runners who have never run on trails and novice runners revel in the success of their first 5K.”

Register by September 21 to ensure your slot. Race packet pickup for Park City begins Thursday, Sept. 22, at The North Face stores in Salt Lake City and Park City.