#168 - Mountain Tiger RD's, Connor & Alice Curley

A great trail race isn’t a distance on a flyer, it’s a line you cannot stop thinking about. I sit down with Connor and Alice, the founders and race directors behind Mountain Tiger, to unpack how a “run it because it’s beautiful” mindset turned into one of the most talked-about mountain races in Donner Summit, California near Lake Tahoe. We get specific about what makes their course work: a point-to-point route that links two ski areas, hits four summits, and avoids the usual trap of adding awkward mileage just to land on a round number. 

We also go behind the curtain on race directing. Connor and Alice share the real workload that shows up long before bib pickup: permitting across multiple partners, the stress and joy of race day, and how they build a tight community feel by keeping it one day and one distance. Then we nerd out on the brand itself, from the Smilodon-inspired “Mountain Tiger” name to the punk and metal design language that helps the event stand out in the California trail running scene. And yes, we talk about the free finish-line tattoos and why runners went all in. 

Big news closes it out: Mountain Tiger Diablo is coming to Mount Diablo State Park in the Bay Area on October 10, 2026, aiming for a steep, direct, short mountain race around 12 to 13 miles with roughly 4,000 feet of gain. We also dig into their inclusion goals, equal prizes for men, women, and non-binary finishers, plus a free women’s training program with San Francisco Running Company designed to bring more women and non-binary runners to the start line. If you love mountain running, community-first events, and California trail races that feel different on purpose, this one is for you. 

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Transcript

Welcome And What’s Ahead

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast. I'm your host, James L'Oriello. And today I'm so excited to welcome Connor and Alice, the race directors and founders of the Mountain Tiger Race. Race I've been super excited on lately, very pumped on. If you uh didn't find out about it through social media, I'm sure you heard about it through the mountain running community. Mountain Tiger is this absolutely aesthetic point-to-point race, this beautiful line that goes over four summits in Donner Summit, California, which is in the Greater Lake Tahoe area. If you haven't added it to your bucket list, it's definitely something you need to check out. Um super excited to have the both of them on the race. We talked about the inception, uh, we talked about some uh different initiatives that they're launching around the race. And then very last but not least, they did announce a brand new race that they're going to be putting on down uh in Mount Diablo State Park. So by Mount Diablo in the greater Bay Area of San Francisco, another uh beautifully aesthetic mountain race. So hope you guys enjoy this one. Definitely big fans of Conor and Ellis and uh love what they're doing uh with this community focused set of events. So without further ado, Conor and Ellis of the Mountain Tiger. Ladies and gentlemen, we uh Connor and Alice, race directors, founders of Mountain Tiger. Welcome to this Deep Stuff Podcast. How's it going?

SPEAKER_02 2:18

It's awesome. Thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

That's funny to be here. Thanks for making some time for us.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Yeah, I'm so excited to chat with you guys. I uh I think you guys have a pretty important community event that you put on. Uh, and it's not just community-based, it's it's growing massively. I think it's a very inspiring course. And, you know, in in the last year, you had a lot of athletes run it and a lot of people had a lot of amazing things to say about it. So I found out about it and was like, all right, well, let's let's have a conversation and talk about the race, talk about you guys, and and go from there. So maybe uh before we get started, introduce yourselves, maybe talk if you want to talk a little bit about your background and why you started the race, go from there and uh we'll kind of ask questions off that. Awesome. Ladies first.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

All right, I'm Alice. Um, I'm one half of Mountain Tiger. Um, yeah, Connor and I actually met working in the outdoor industry. So we both have a background with working with running brands and yeah, just always wanted to put on the type of race that's the type of race we love to run. Um, so yeah, it's been a long time coming, but that's kind of the the origin, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Very cool. Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry, don't want to jump on you there. Uh Connor, uh husband to Alice here. Uh yeah, a couple of NorCal kids that have lived all over the West uh and been back in in the Tahoe area since 21. And uh, you know, running we'll really dive into it, I'm sure, but running these trails right by where we lived um really ignited uh the vision to put on this race that kind of spoke to something we'd always wanted to do, which was host these these events that really speak to us. Very cool.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Well, so yeah, maybe maybe dive a little bit deeper. Let's kind of unpack it and we'll go into like the the true vision of like, all right, I I came up with the idea for this race and I don't know, give me a like a year, a date, and and and what the process was trying to put something together. Like I always I always find it interesting when founders or creators like come up with this idea and how long they've sat on it for, um, or and how like what the kind of the development process to put this thing together looked like because the finished product last year looked absolutely amazing. I mean, from from the outside.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Awesome. Thank you. Uh always great to hear that. We worked pretty hard at that. And yeah, I think there's this the backstory could be so long and winding. I don't know how deep we should go. I'll say from my end, like I love trail running. I love running in the mountains, I love trail running. Um, I started working um with Julie Swingard, the current race director of of Way Too Cool, Rio del Lago, among other races. I started working for her when I was a freshman in high school. Um, because I grew up in Auburn, kind of adjacent to the community. Um, so have been in and around this for a super long time, particularly from an event side, and have for a very long time um always wanted to kind of produce my own events because again, I feel like I knew it from that end, because I love running so much. And specifically, I felt like you know, the type of stuff that I get super excited about, those races and events, like they're kind they're particularly years back, they were pretty rare. Still, I feel like it's it's a kind of underserved nation, underserved market. Um and yeah, that's that's the outline of how we got here. But the specific race, there's certainly a lot to it. Alice could speak, speak to it.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Yeah, I mean, Connor mentioned we've lived like all around. We lived in Connor lived in Utah, we both lived in Durango, Colorado, Bellingham, Washington, Connor's from Auburn, like he has outlines of like dream one day or or from the past races, course ideas that are like everywhere we've watched all over the place and all you know types of races. So I feel like that's just something you've always thought about. Like, oh, this would, you know, goes on a really cool run, be like, this would be a sick race. Um, and yeah, like you said, like we're both athletes, we love to race, but like there's so many great races out there, but we have a pretty specific, like the type of race we love to run, which kind of felt like I mean, again, there's so many awesome races in California and in the West, but like the type of race we love, we just kind of wanted to bring more of. And then yeah, I would say moving to Donner Summit, moving, you know, out of California and then back to Tahoe, living on Donner Summit, racing or running all over these trails that are now part of our race course. That's kind of how this, like, always turning the background, wanting to put on a race, having ideas of the type of race we'd want, then doing a ton of running on what is now a race course. That's kind of how it went from like a vague one-day idea to like this is the spot, like Mountain Tiger Donner Summit. Like, this is our perfect race. We're so psyched. We can't believe there's not a race here already because like this is a sick course and we should do it. So yeah, the long version.

Why A Point-To-Point Wins

SPEAKER_01 7:08

No, I like it. It's it's awesome. It's interesting to me because I I I've I've only been out there one time. I went for Broken Arrow back in 2023. And I was blown away by the trails and just that location. I have a lot of friends from that area, and I was like, man, like we there is a need. Like, there is a lot of like there's a lot of like longer races, if you will. There's always, you know, like the I don't know, there's the the Tahoe races and things like that. They're more like ultra-marathon based. But like for a badass mountain race to put something like that in addition to what's already there with Broken Arrow, I felt like there's a big enough community that and there's enough California is a big state, man. There's a lot of people that come to these races. So you might have heard of the fourth biggest economy in the world. Yeah. And you're also in such a cool area. You got the Bay, that's not too far away, the Bay Area, and then you've got Nevada, Nevada, Nevada, however people want to pronounce it, uh, Reno, kind of right there in that community, which is a big running community as well. So I feel like there's there's no shortage of people. And I I do have to ask one question because I think it's really cool, because it's a point-to-point. Where did the idea for that kind of come from? Because I think that makes it a very unique mountain race.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Point-to-points are the best. I'm always like, Connor, will you drop me off in town and I'll run home? I'm always like trying to get a ride for a run. Cause like point-to-points are the best. That's I mean, that's really part of like a lot of our decision making is for this race. Is like, would we want to do this? Does this make it better? Would this make us want to sign up for it? Um, I mean, point-to-points require logistics from a race director's perspective, but we're lucky that it's like a five-minute bus ride. I think it's a couple miles, it's super short. Um, and again, we just wanted to like make the course that made the most sense. Like, we didn't, you know, want to do the easiest like logistics, um, and then sacrifice some of like the best peaks that you could do if you made this point to point. So yeah, I guess I mean, I don't know if you have anything outside of that front, but just it was the route that made the most sense. Like, that's the best way to do this, these ridges. And it was kind of a no-brainer.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Yeah, it makes it kind of special, right? The opportunity to do a point-to-point. Certainly we can and do them in training, but not very often, right? Like Alice talks about how she wants me to drop her off. And my ideal daily run is I start and finish at the door, right? Um, of the house. So uh I think, you know, making giving people that opportunity to do the point-to-point, eliminate the logistical uh planning on their part is appealing. But even more so, like we're not married to the point-to-point concept as much as like what is what's the most compelling route for this space, right? And this route is awesome. It's from the the it's the same ownership, but the Nordic um ski area called Royal Gorge is owned by the Sugar Bowl group. So we go from the Nordic um base to the Alpine base, and there's this ridge of peaks, right, um between the two. So they're they're really close uh as the Crowflies or as the bus drives in this case, but there's this really incredible set of ridge running, and we summit four peaks, which we skip. There's a fifth peak in the way, but it it would make add this spur to what's otherwise a perfect point-to-point. So we're skipping it. Four in a clean route is better than five in a dirty route. Um so yeah, it's it's just this incredible route, really, really pretty mountains, great time of year. Dunner Summit historically gets a shitload of snow. Um, so like late July, you you're reliably snow free, but the mountain flat, the mountain, the wildflowers are going off on the mountain. Um, so it's just like peak season in this part of the Sierra for a really beautiful run.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

I would I would also add something about a point-to-point is that it shortens the distance. And like you could do this run as a big giant loop, but like you're veering on ultra territory, which like there's so many great ultras out there, but like we like short races and we like kind of like the most direct, shorter route. We also think it's a lot um more inviting. Um, like you don't have to sign up for a long ultra to experience a super hard and cool mountain run. So, anyways, in this with this specific course and mountain and access points, like the point to point allows runners to get the best route without necessarily having to have, you know, double the distance or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

So we'll pull this across. It's it's very logical too. I think one of the things that drives me crazy about uh races is like there'll be these contrived routes to have to get something to a 25k or I have to get something to a 50k. It's like, well, can it just be can it just be like 11 or 12 miles? If if that's like the most aesthetic and like beautiful, perfect thing, like if that is the best product, like you're not gonna I at least I don't think I feel like there's there's always been this notion that you would turn people off with the idea that it's not a perfect 10k or it's not this or that. And I don't think that's the case at all. No, you're speaking our language.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

Yeah, we feel really strongly we're like run the route that makes sense. If it's like an off number, it does it's trail running. It's true, it doesn't matter. Like who cares?

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Like I I I just there's something about it that's so funny to me. And like, I don't know, there's I'm American born and raised. I think there's a lot of value to the metric system, but it's secondary to me, right? And I'm like, why am I why are we doing a conversion to figure out how far we're running? Like we're running 12 miles today. Uh and this other event, this is gonna be 11 and a half miles. And uh, I don't have to figure out how 0.62 goes into it. Um, and there's yeah, it's trail running. Like your PB does not matter, like uh it takes as long as it takes.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Yeah, we'll never be out adding on, we'll never make you run around the parking lot to make you get your 13th.

SPEAKER_03 12:57

Always practice whatever possible.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

So I'm on the board of directors for Pikes Peak, and we have a race under our calendar uh for uh it's it's the Bartrell Mountain race. Love this race, but the way the race ends, it's like this contrived like uphill through a parking lot. I'm like, guys, why do we have this? Like, get rid of it. This is this is this doesn't serve the purpose of the race. Totally. There's sometimes, I don't know why, people just want to like round it out to like make it a perfect half marathon. It's like sorry.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Yeah, and no shade to the round numbers people, you know, whatever makes sense uh in your brain for your running. But yeah, just in trail running, to me, it's it's so illogical to be married to a distance before the route. Right. Very true.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

I want to shift gears a little bit. One of the things I find so interesting about the race, and I maybe interesting is the right way to describe it, I just think it your branding is awesome. Like I whoever came up with the idea for like some of your shirts and like the branding with this like really beautiful Sabertooth tiger skull, and it's like very punk rock metal vibes as well. Like, was that who who is that? And how did you guys come across that?

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Yeah, this is um so a little bit of my world. Um, yeah, I I grew up um in in Northern California here uh in the 90s. I was growing up. And uh my world, you know, I was a ball sports kid, but I was also a California kid. So, you know, X Games, pop punk culture as, you know, um, I guess that that entryway into, you know, dirt bag snowboarding stuff, and you know, being in bands in high school and at community college and in, you know, a pretty niche DIY hardcore and death metal scene. Um, that's that is my foundation before my foundation as a runner. Um, you know, a lot of people mature as they grow up. I like to tell people I have the palate, both uh, you know, musically, uh for food, uh maturity level of like 12-year-old me. Um so I just never outgrew it essentially, um for for what it's worth. And so like that's just that's just kind of my language and I guess my design world through which all things flow. And uh yeah, that's how we got here. We I've done a lot of the work. I'm I would not say I'm a talented artist by any means, but I I know what I want. So we've worked with artists, I do some of the art. We work with with uh artists on commission to create stuff for us as well. But um yeah, you definitely want to have, we want to stand out, right? Having a brand is important to us. Um, connecting with a consumer that maybe doesn't connect with with the concept of racing or maybe more traditional branding certainly uh appeals to us uh as well. And I think so far we've had a really positive response. So it's nice to hear it from you. Uh we've heard it from from sponsor partners as well as, of course, our runners. So uh I can't do anything different, so I'm glad y'all like it.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

No, I love it. You you inject a little bit of who you are into it. Yeah, it's not like you know, it I don't know. I find that like so cool that rather because you'll meet people that just like will go on, and there's nothing nothing wrong with this. Like if you're not artistically inclined, like people just go on the internet and like ask ChatGPT to make a the make a thing for them, and that's totally fine, but like you injected who you are into this, and that just shows the amount of love and and just how interested in you know how much you like this, you know, how much you're set up like it's all fine.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's like picking race courses. Like, we would make a course that we would on a race. Connor's gonna make a shirt that he would want to wear, not a race shirt that he would not want to wear. Like he's gonna make it look metal, like it's from a metal manager.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

We've all got race merch that we're like, I love this race. Uh could you you could keep the shirt, man? I'm good. Um uh yeah, I promise we won't none of our our work will ever be generated through chat GPT or any other AI as well. No, no worries on that front. We're pro-human here.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 17:00

Pro-human, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Where um where did the name come from, Mountain Tiger? Like I love the Saber-tooth tiger, like the whole kind of the smile-odon kind of uh branding for that.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Yeah, yeah, it's just that. Uh for us, Mountain Tiger is Sabertooth. You know, the the state fossil in California is uh Smilodon California. It's uh saber-toothed cat. Uh, we were actually at the tar pits about a month ago. It saw a bunch of fossils. It's so cool down there. It's an incredible museum, not to be missed in LA. But uh yeah, we had to name it something uh and again, iconic California animal. Um love yeah, what it led to as far as kind of design and merch offerings. Um, but nothing, nothing too deep. It's not that deep looks cool.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

We just like saved tooth taggers.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

I like it. I like it. Yeah, I'm a I'm a I have a geology degree, so I'm I'm a big nerd at all. Oh yeah, yeah. I'm a big fan. So anytime people talk rocks, I'm like, whoa, say less.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

Have you been with the tarpids in LA?

SPEAKER_01 17:59

I'm not, I've not. I've only ever been to LA on like layovers through uh like dramable.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

So I have to it's pretty incredible.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

LA gets a bad rap. LA is an amazing city, and there is truly uh yeah, a geological marvel in the middle of the city. The tarpets. So it's amazing. It's got great trail running as well. Yeah, so cool.

What Race Directing Really Feels Like

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Yeah, no, it's on the list. Hopefully this summer I'll probably get out there. All right, so here's a little out of left field question. So you obviously get to spend all this time running on these trails, you come up with all these great ideas for courses, you've got this great branding. How have you enjoyed race directing? Because that's like a whole job within itself. It's a whole there's a lot to it, it's not an easy thing. Talk about that. Please you first.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

Yeah, I mean, I've loved it, I guess, veering into just like personal anecdotes. We have two very little kids, and I'm taking a work pause right now and I'm full-time with the boys. And kind of we've we've we talked about Mount Tiger before they were born, but it's starting now has just for me personally been amazing because it's like getting to use my brain, getting to use some of my, you know, experience in the outdoor industry, working at events. Um, just really nice to have like a side project come to life right now. Um, I mean, yeah, we launched it last officially last year, and our youngest was four months old on race day. So it's kind of wild timing. And I anticipate that like this year will be a little less stressful without a newborn and some other life things going on. But yeah, anyways, I so that's just for my perspective, just being a full-time mom right now. I've like totally loved it. And yeah, I mean, race day is really stressful, and there's so much going on that that was like pretty intense. But yeah, as a whole, just loved it so much. It's been awesome.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

So cool. For sure. And you, yeah, I think um, you know, as a married couple here, I likened uh our first race event, which was last year. Uh the only day that was similar was our wedding. And like it was not the same as our wedding. Um because both were these huge productions, but uh at the wedding, we just had to look at somebody and they take care of it. And that this is like it's up to you to take care of it. But uh it's just it was similar because there's just like all these people around um that we saw, you know, participating in our vision and people that we know and love, you know, f professionally from our lives, from our community, showing up to help or run. Um, so felt like a ton of love and support from that, which was so cool and caught me off guard a little bit. Um, but I totally, I really love it. Um, I probably flipped side experience a little bit from Alice, where I'm, of course, am working full-time. Um and some there, you know, there's days where it's like, I've got this list of stuff to do for the race, and I'm like blown out from sitting, you know, being behind the screen all day. Like I'd rather do anything else. But net, it's super positive. It's this really creative threshold, like I guess it's creative canvas that uh is a little bit different than you know my day-to-day work. And um it's something I'm going to do forever. So to really kind of get here and be doing it is very rewarding. And race day is a blast. And there's, you know, there's ups and downs on race day. We had a pretty bad injury last year. Uh, that was a major down, of course. But um, you know, the the combined experience of everyone else, which was so positive, was was incredible and really, really fun.

Permits And Partner Logistics

SPEAKER_01 21:30

If you don't mind me asking, and this might be, I don't know if this is too much inside baseball. I usually ask all RDs this because a lot of them come from different states. How much of a pain in the neck was is permitting? And because I know that there's a lot of wilderness area not too far from there. And this is a like a beautifully aesthetic course, about as aesthetic as it gets. So, how how is that process for you guys working and trying to get that all all squared away with permita?

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Yeah, so I that's definitely part of the role that really falls on me. Um, I will so. This race is 12 miles long, give or take. And we actually have um three permit partners for a 12-mile race, which seems like a lot to me. Um and they're all great. You know, it do I wish it was easier? Yes, for sure. Um, but they're all great. Uh they've they've they've got, I'd say, different personalities and communication styles, but we love working with them. We love putting on the race. Um, and it's pretty hard. Getting a permit is pretty damn hard. Um, uh, as we've learned.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

Um, it's the least stuff. It's the least fun part. Yeah, the masking is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

I've never heard someone say it was easy or great. Permit, no, it's hard.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

You're crossing your fingers, you're waiting, you're on someone else's timeline, you're like, I hope they care. A fraction of how much we care. If you care a percentage of how much we care, then like you'll say yes. And then yeah, it's just like on someone else's terms, and that's like really hard. And um, yeah, I mean, it it all worked. We got our permits, and the the people we work with are awesome. But yeah, it's just like a long process and complicated. And that's how races can or cannot happen, right? Because like what's protected, what's not, as they should be, but it just can be super complicated. And we're very grateful. I think the first year is always the hardest. So we're very grateful to like have had our first race launch on Donner Summit. It's like smoother the more times you do it. But yeah, it's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

I mean, I'll add 2025 was the first year of Mountain Tiger Donner Summit. And we had for all you know, intentions of 2024 being the first year, and it wasn't because it took longer than than you know, we thought was reasonable to have the race in 24. So we pushed to 25. Um and yeah, again, all good, not that easiest part. Uh, all of all of you non-race directors listening, uh, this is what you're paying for. You're paying for the work that goes into getting the permits. Uh, you know, we're working with ski resorts uh who inherently have a lot to offer for a trail run. The human gets parking lots, uh, infrastructure, access to trails. They, of course, are focused on their skiing business, right? Um, so uh we're even when we're getting the best of them, we're just not we'll never be top priority. So it can it can certainly create challenges with timelines and you know, just all stuff to kind of learn and manage. And we love our partners.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Yeah, it's it's it's a tough, it's definitely a tough art. It's an interesting aspect of the of the job. So that's why I ask. I mean, yeah, it's it's super hard.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

Yeah.

Announcing Mountain Tiger Diablo

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Yeah. On the pig uh to piggyback off that, and I guess uh some big news you guys have is you're gonna be launching a secondary race. I'll let you take it away from here to uh to talk more about that. It's big news.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

For sure, for sure. So exciting. We have a new race. It's gonna be October 10th, 2026. And uh, we're up here uh in Truke, and it's right down the road at uh a little place called uh Mount Diablo. Uh Mount Diablo is a pretty iconic mountain in the East Bay of the Bay Area there. Um it's been on our radar forever. Actually, uh, probably my best race performance I ever had as a trail runner. I got disqualified from a race on Mount Diablo for missing a turn.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

And he's never forgotten it. So now we have to direct a race. Just kidding.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

No, it's it's just this incredible mountain. It's it's huge. Um, there's a ton of training, a ton of trails, and this was um really exciting. We thought this would be coming in 2027. We speaking of permits, we had another race in the queue for 2026 that we got the permit reversed on at the last minute, thanks to uh yeah, uh federal government and confidence. Yeah. Um uh but we we've got this race. Uh it's so this is different. We're not working with the Forest Service, we're not working with the Stewers work, it's all with Mount Diablo State Park. They've been incredible. Uh this came together, you know, we've had the route forever, but actually working with them for the permit came together really quickly. And we're super stoked to to bring this, you know, different route, same attitude, um, kind of, you know, same general distance and elevation profile, but a short, hard run to our friends uh in the East Bay.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

Yeah, it's uh it's different, obviously. Donner Summit is like four peaks on a ridge, kind of up and down. And Mount Diablo is gonna be super hard. It's like the way we would want to run it, obviously, it's like basically the most direct way up and down without being a boring out and back, but it's gonna be, depending on final approval, between 12 and 13 miles and 4,000 feet of gain. So it's like a really hard six miles up and down. Um, and Connor ran it last week.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

It was out there last week.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

Um start to finish, and it's a burly course, but like so beautiful and so awesome. So we're really fired up.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

What would we say?

SPEAKER_02 27:03

October for this one?

SPEAKER_01 27:05

October 10th. October 10th. That's great. Because like, I don't know, I feel like we need more fall classics like that. Like a super competitive fall classics that you can get a lot of people to. Yeah, I think that's a that's a great addition. And again, another like course profile that just like works perfectly for just the short trail scene.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

For sure.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

Yeah, I think you know, a big benefit we uh with all three of us in this conversation, we love short mountain races, right? I think there's just there's so much value in this type of race in that like, oh, you're an ultra guy, like, oh, you can't running two, three hours is bad for you. Like, oh, you're training for a marathon, like you can't work in one trail Saturday, you know, like I just think that there's so many people that can benefit in their training from this race, let alone, you know, the fun, the uh, you know, the subjective benefits of doing a race like this. That yeah, there's it's a so many people that it could be really appealing to. And yeah, time of year, it's outside of normal mountain running season because we're not worried about snow, right? The summit's 4,000 feet. They might get a freak snowstorm once every couple of years in the spring. Uh it's not it's not a concern. So yeah, great to to get off you know the Tahoe or the Sierra calendar for the October date.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Yeah, no, for sure, for sure. Um yeah, that's so interesting. And I think it's like I said, it's a perfect, perfect one. Um yeah, maybe maybe talk about like so where did the idea, the background from it, come from? Like it was just something in the in the works, like why, why that specific location? Yeah, great question.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

It's it's been on our radar a long time. Like this would be a sweet place to do our style race and race course. Um, there's a decent amount of races on Mount Diablo, actually. It's like not the case of Donner Summit. We're like, how is there not a race here? But a lot of them are ultras, a lot of them are getting a ton of mileage within this state park, and we're, you know, the opposite. Like, how do we get to the top the fastest and down the fastest? So yeah, there really wasn't a race that's um this type of, you know, course profile. Um I mean, I guess I feel like Marin gets a lot of like hype deservingly, because it's so beautiful. And Mount Diablo is like just this like super badass hard mountain in the East Bay that's like just rugged, so beautiful and and like burly and steep and challenging. And we're like, Mount Diablo deserves its own steep, hard mountain race because like it doesn't exist right now. And again, we just like want to put on a race that's our way. Do you have a Tyler?

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Yeah, well, I think you know, speaking to other races, we you know, we we want to be respectful of everybody else. There's lots of good stuff going on. I think something not just for this race, but it it speaks to the value of our race is that we really um we really think it's cool to just put on a single event, right? Donner Summit is one race, one distance, one day. And Mount Diablo, it's one distance, one day. And there's lots of there's so many good reasons to to do it different than that, right? But for us, it there's definitely this really cool sense of community that arises from that, I think, is like everybody's in there doing the same thing, whether you know they're done in two hours or the five-hour cutoff. Like everybody's in this boat together. Um, you know, the point-to-point nature, or there's a shuttle aspect to this event as well. Like you're kind of just like in this cluster, right? You're in this community for the morning. And like, let's go, let's do it. We're gonna run up and down a mountain, we're gonna hang out, uh, gonna listen to some music that I make you listen to and uh yeah, maybe get a tattoo, maybe have a beer. I don't know. Um, but we're all gonna be for the better for it.

Tattoos And One Distance Community

SPEAKER_01 30:52

I love that. Let me ask you this as far as naming goes, because I think the naming is so interesting. Like, because you have the Mountain Tiger name, obviously, but you have Mountain Tiger Diner Summit. Will this just be Mountain Tiger uh Mount Diablo? Is that how you guys are gonna go with the namings? I think that's awesome, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Yeah, I think I I think it's Mountain Tiger Diablo. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

Mountain Tiger Diablo.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

And yeah, without, I guess, without like a hard and fast style guide for the name, right? Um that maybe uh an Iron Man would have or whatever. Um, but yeah, we you know, and on Donner Summit, we work with with Sugar Bowl the ski area. It's not exclusively Sugar Bowl uh property or trails that we're using. Um and Donner Summit, I mean, is so iconic for obvious reasons. Uh, of course, most infamous for the Donner Party uh love it, love, love the cannibal history there. How could we how could we put a race on a Donner Summit and shy away um from the Donner Summit name? It seems impossible.

SPEAKER_02 31:50

And Diopolo. That's actually how we pick the race. We're like devil, yeah, satanic.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

Yeah, we'll never we'll never get a race in Utah. Everything's got the wrong naming.

unknown 32:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

That's funny. And actually the the branding around this one you could have a ton of fun with. It's gonna be really fun. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Good. And the tattoos, we do free tattoos to finish, so get some Diablo tattoos at our finish line.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

That's actually really cool. If they're gonna be really psyched to you're gonna hate it.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Uh don't take it too seriously, I guess. My best.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

Does that get a does that get a lot of love? Because I know with the rut, people go bananas over uh the tattoos. So it's a yeah, we just straight up stolen from the rut.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

Yeah. Um I didn't know how it'd go though. I was like, Connor and I will get tattoos, and that'll be like an exciting thing to talk about. Like we got it, and it'll be kind of like, I guess, a gimmick. And we had 50 people get tattoos, which was like 50 of 300 runners, is a pretty high percentage. So it's crazy to think that there's like people out there with the same tattoo as us, like from the race. It was really cool. And our yeah, tattoo artists, a local studio that we hired, they were like, Yeah, we were busy from like the minute the first the winner came. Both winners got tattoos.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

Both winners got tattoos.

SPEAKER_02 33:08

Both winners got tattoos, yeah, until like we were kicking everyone out. So it far exceeded expectations. It was really fun.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

It's such a first year thing, like, really hard to anticipate. And I'm like, I don't know, a dozen seems like a lot of people committing to this, but uh shout out to my tattoo people. Yeah, it was pretty fun. We had a as a uh party at TRE and bumped into like four different people, myself included. There were four of us at the party with mountain tiger tattoos. I'm like, that's a pretty good ratio.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

That's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

A little first year race.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

So yeah, all good stuff. Wow, that's cool. I didn't really, I mean, like I said, I I know the rut was always like I I have friends that everybody's got one of those tattoos, so that's totally expanded everywhere, and I think people you're starting seeing people with uh Mountain Tiger tattoos everywhere, which is which is pretty dope.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

Do you guys have a little bit of we do we do like a flash sheet per race to like love the rut and and the rack of antlers there? Ours, like he's he's kind of got like a pick one of five option. Our tattoo artist is actually super excited. He's like, I'm working on one. I want to do one that you can only get if you got the one the year before. I'm like, cool, man, let's let's run with that. I love where you're at. Um so like, yeah, a little bit more diversity uh of choices. Um but uh yeah, thanks, thanks, Mike's for the idea. Uh we stole it, we're not paying you for it.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

That's funny. No, it's it's it's I I I don't think I think he he probably loves that.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

Sure. And I've I've told him as much last time I saw him uh that basically everything that he does that we liked, we stole stuff. And other races too, lots of good races that we've stolen.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

I was gonna say, I think that's like a cool thing, though. I I don't know. I think like we the collaborative environment like in the scene, because it I don't know, you come across some races, like I know a lot of people hate on UTMB, and and that gets its own rap, but there's other there's other lot of races where you can borrow ideas from and you can kind of mix it.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

It's really true to the point. We're gonna incentivize uh if you go to Mount Diablo to get five balls, and then if you go to Donner Summit, you get 10 balls. We're not doing that, actually.

SPEAKER_02 35:12

You pumped the bear. Yeah, just kidding.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

Yeah, I think standalone events.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

Ran a bunch of races, worked at a bunch of races. Of course, we're gonna like pick the things that we love. There's so many races out there we're like so inspired by and just think are the best races ever, and we just want to make something in that class that, you know, again, we would want to sign up for. And yeah, it's it's so cool to learn how all the different races are doing it.

Growth Without Losing The Vibe

SPEAKER_01 35:40

You guys have like unique courses too. Is there any chance like you'd be interested? I'm just gonna throw this out into the universe at some point in time, but like like having a US mountain running championship, like one year at the race. Obviously, kind of where they fall on the calendar, it's a little hard, but like for USATF or like braces, the that the courses are perfect for from a mountain running perspective.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Totally. No, you know, I will say we definitely are not closed to it. Um I think in general, our guidance is going to be way more towards um what's the best for kind of the local running community. Um and like can can we manage the headache that this organization or this that organization will bring, which is not to say that USATF is inherently a headache, but I've on in other roles with other organizations uh had like very hands-on um kind of uh experiences with those headaches. And generally, um like our race, we're doing multiple races and hoping to add more. There's there is no series component, they're just races. Um to to me, they they each kind of stand on their own. Um so yeah, the the influx of like we love seeing people push it and run super fast. And what that that would of course come with the USATF race and like having a competitive front end would be really exciting.

SPEAKER_03 37:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:08

Um but yeah, working with our community, our longtime sponsors, right? Like how USATF, you know, interacts with existing sponsors is certainly uh, you know, can get thorny, I know, um, because of the the brand that they're most associated with.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

Um I feel like also like we obviously love like if a pro signs up for a race and like elite runners sign up for a race, like we love seeing like who would want to come and do that and you know who's pushing the pace, setting a new course record, like how fast can they run this course? Like we're so fired up about that. But I feel like that's not like the main goal right now. We don't have prize money, like we don't have plans to implement prize money anytime soon. Like, not never say never, but not currently. And I feel like it's something Connor touched on earlier. Like we're kind of just as inspired about getting people who might not consider themselves runners, but like the mountains to come and do this race. Like, something really appealing about Donner Summit, there's so many locals here that like love sugar bowl, know it in and out, skied it, snowboarded it all their life, like like spend so many days on them out in the winter and like know these peaks and like know these and and Nordic skiers who like Nordic ski all winter. Like we every anyone who identifies like that, and then would be like, oh, I've never run a trail race, but like I know this course, like this is sick on a pair of skis. Like, I guess I'll go do it on foot. Like bringing people into the sport that way, I feel like we get really excited about. And like again, you can have both. Like, we hope to welcome everybody and have both and have the front be competitive, but like getting more just like mountain biker, skiers, snowboarding, north Nordic skiers, like roadrunners, roadrunners, like anyone like that to this race, I feel like it's we go on and on about why we think subulture running is the best, but like it's something about a short distance that's like so appealing. It's like these people that are like, I'm not a runner, I would never do like 30 what? How many miles? Like they wouldn't sign up for something like that. But our race, I feel like if you like the mountains and being on this mountain, like come do it on foot. And like if our race is the first time you experience a race setting, like we are just so pumped about that. So that's kind of like a huge tangent away from your original question. But no, no, it's I think a little bit like of what kind of you know, why we're not necessarily like putting a lot of thought into that kind of thing right now.

SPEAKER_01 39:24

Honestly, I think I think I would have been shocked if you would have been like, yes, I want to, I wanna make the USATF, this and that. Yeah, one of the things is like I don't know, like for instance, like I'm I'm a big fan, I'm friends with Julian Carr from the Cirque series, right? And one of the things I find that their secret sauce is so well is kind of what you just hit on, big community basis, but also you're pulling people, it's not just runners, it's like literally like it might be 60% like runners, like trail runners, but the rest of people are skiers. Uh, you're pulling people from so many different communities. And I think that's the secret sauce to creating something truly different in the scene. Um, where it's not, it's really not about running, it's just about experiencing this location in a different way, maybe than what you're used to doing. And I think the community aspect of it is is is that's the secret sauce as well. That's the what is so important, um, is starting with that and having you know a strong community base.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Totally. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:20

Yeah. Shout out Julian and Cirque Series. I believe I did the first Cirque race in 2015. Maybe it was the second. But they what they do is incredible. Love love their model as well. Excited to see them down in LA actually uh this fall. I don't know. Schedule's gonna be tight. It's one week before the Diablo race. Uh but love to love to get down there and do that race.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

That's actually that like makes a perfect October for me.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

It's like just yeah, I don't go down there and shoot north. Just come on north.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

I was gonna go to Vegas after, but maybe not.

SPEAKER_03 40:50

Maybe I'll just go to Diablo.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

It's not it's out of the way, but actually it makes sense. You got you know, a full week. You could LA, Vegas, Bay Area. It's true. It makes more sense to go to Tahoe, but whatever. I'll let you figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

I actually have a family member that lives like right by Mount Diablo.

SPEAKER_02 41:07

So really gonna hit him up. Oh, we're gonna do it. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

Gives me something to do in October. Should be fun.

SPEAKER_03 41:14

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 41:15

Yeah. Well, listen, guys, I feel like we we hit on everything. Registration is obviously open for Mountain Tiger now. Um, this will come out today, tomorrow, probably tomorrow or the next day, probably tomorrow. Um so registration's open for Mountain Tiger now. When is uh the Diablo registration gonna open?

Women’s Program And Equal Prizes

SPEAKER_02 41:33

We're gonna open up that up next week. I think final date TVD, but probably like the ninth or 10th. Um so next week. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:40

There is another point we actually would love to talk about for a minute.

SPEAKER_03 41:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:44

Um, and it's aligned with what we were just talking about, themes we've hit on the whole time, right? And it's uh participation and inclusion um at these events. Um so our first race, we had 60-40 male-female participation, which we're really happy with. That's like in line with races that are really trying hard to achieve that in the USA. Um, but our our stated goal is to get to 50-50 um on that front. And we're we're really kind of driving uh a lot of energy into that moving forward. And I say we, you know, we collaborate, but uh that's obviously best left uh to Alice here. Um but along with the Diablo race, we're also really excited. Um, I'll let you announce it.

SPEAKER_02 42:27

Yeah, we're launching a women's training program um with San Francisco Running Company. Um, it's gonna be a 10-week program kicking off in May. And there's gonna be, yeah, if you sign up, it's totally free. There's no like you have to be signed up for a race to do it. It's, you know, just it's training for our race, but anyone can join. Um, and the goal is really to just get more women and non-binary runners to the start line of our race, but any trail race. Um, so yeah, we're it's been super fun to start planning. We have a local coach down the Bay Area who's gonna be at all our Sunday in-person long runs. Um, everyone will get like a weekly training guide. We have um our current sponsors and potentially some new sponsors on board for this women's program only to just kind of kick everyone out and and get them excited. Um, there's gonna be an optional Tahoe training camp. Well, you'll get to come and stay in Tahoe and run part of the course. So um, yeah, we're really fired up. Like Connor said, like we were happy with our ratio last year, but we, you know, it's one thing to say like our race is welcoming to all, but you really have to, it's such a male-dominated space still. You can't just say that and expect it to shuffle out in a way that's totally fair and inclusive. And um, we're really grateful for San Francisco Running Company and the North Face for being so fired up and like on board to help launch this too. So um yeah, I think that's we're doing a group run with San Francisco Running Company this Saturday, and then the program will start um May 3rd. So yeah. Sweet.

SPEAKER_01 43:54

Really well, give me more information on that so we can put that in the show notes and we'll blast that out to the world. That is such It is a a big thing to tackle and and trying to get more women into the sport, more non-binary ro non-binary runners into the sport. It's it's yeah. I'm glad that there's more to it that people are doing.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

I gotta give a shout out to the North Face too, because they're our primary sponsor, our presenting sponsor. And last year and moving forward, we have equal prize prizes for top three for men, women, and non-binary finishers. So I think that's pretty rare to have equal prizes one through three for three divisions. And um, yeah, again, thanks to partners like the North Face for just wanting to make it equal and inviting for everyone. We're we're really excited about doing things like that. And yeah, like you said, like it's it's hard to do and it's one thing to say it, but we really have to like walk the walk too. And yeah, we're excited for the program. It's gonna be super fun.

SPEAKER_01 44:55

Very cool. Congratulations. This is super yeah, very, very cool to see this. Um cool guys. I think we anything else we want to add on closing?

SPEAKER_00 45:05

No, I think that's it. Yeah. Uh really grateful for your time. Uh grateful to anybody that spent 45 minutes lost in this talk. Uh you rock. Uh come out and and go for a run. We're actually, I will add this. We're gonna be doing a uh Thursday evening running club all summer in Tahoe. Very cool, especially on part of the Mountain Tiger course. So every Thursday evening we're gonna we're gonna run moderately hard for an hour and a half and drink some beers. And uh all are welcome. Track us down on Instagram and find a way to show up. Absolutely, dude. I love this. I love the community vibe. This is very good.

SPEAKER_03 45:38

We're doing a lot.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

We need two in the springs. We need to recruit you. You guys got plenty going on out there. You got good folks. We're getting there, get in there, it's growing. Um guys, thank you so much for your time. Genuinely appreciate it. I can't wait till the next one. Anytime you guys have an announcement or something you want to talk about, the mic is always yours. Um, just like I said, super uh grateful and uh appreciate it. Awesome. Thanks a bunch, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you guys.

unknown 46:03

Bye.

Registration Details And Final Requests

SPEAKER_01 46:04

All right, cool. We're done uh recording. Guys, thank you so much. What'd you guys think? Oh man, what a fun race! Sounds super exciting. Registration is now open for Mountain Tiger. It's been over open for about a week. Uh, so if you happen to be listening to this and there are still spots available, definitely go claim your spot. Uh, I'm not really sure if there's any spots left. So uh definitely want to toggle on over to mountaintiger.com. You can also get it in the show notes, and uh, we're also gonna be doing a giveaway on social media for one free entry, um, which I'm super excited about as well. Um, yeah, guys, I hope you enjoyed this. Uh, definitely check out the registration for, I think that's gonna open in about a week as well, for the Mountain Tiger Diablo race. Um, love these community events, love what uh Connor and Alice are doing with the community for just the scene in general, and uh can't wait to see this grow and into a bigger, wider community-based event. Um, guys, if you've been enjoying the podcast, please give us a five-star rating and review on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you consume your podcasts. Uh, definitely go on over to YouTube, hit that subscribe button, and if you've been enjoying us, give us a rating on Apple. Would love to hear you guys' thoughts. Uh, definitely uh throw some ratings our way. That'd be awesome. Uh yeah, lots of good stuff on the way. Appreciate you guys. Thanks so much for tuning in.