Find a race
How to find your next trail race
By Simon Busch · · 4 min read
Short answer
To choose a trail race, start with when you can run it, then decide how far you want to go and how much climbing you can handle, since two races of the same distance can be very different days. Next, pick where: close enough to get there easily, or far enough to make a trip of it. Finally, check that entries are actually open and the date is confirmed before you plan around it. On Kliva, Explore lets you filter the trail race calendar by place, date, distance and D+, and each race page links to the organiser's site when we have it, so you can check the rest.
How do I choose a trail race?
Look at five things, roughly in this order:
- Date: which weekends you are free, and whether you have enough time to prepare for it.
- Distance: how far you want to run.
- Climb: the D+ matters as much as the distance, because the same distance can be a gentle day or a very hard one.
- Location: close to home, or worth the trip.
- Whether entries are open, and whether the date is confirmed.
Explore has a filter for the first four. The last one you check on the organiser's site.
Where do I start when I have no race in mind?
Start on Explore. Search, place, dates, distance and D+ sit in one bar above the results, so you can start wide and narrow it down. Your filters live in the page address, which means you can share the exact view with a training partner.
Set the place first. Pick one or more countries, or use Near me: share your location or set a point on the map, then choose a radius. Only races with a mapped start appear in that view, so a race with no location on file will not show up there.
Then set the date. You can pick this month, the next 3 months, or your own dates. If you already know which weekends are free, your own dates will save you time.
How do I filter by how hard I want the race to be?
Use distance and D+ together. Two 30 km races can be very different days depending on the climbing. Distances come in steps from 0–10 km up to 100 miles, and the D+ slider sets both a minimum and a maximum.
The chips under the bar filter further:
- Discipline: trail, ultra, vertical, skyrace or other.
- Labels: UTMB, UTMB Index, ITRA and Running Stones.
- Format: backyard races have their own chip.
How do I browse one country at a time?
Open the Countries page and pick a country. Its page lists upcoming races month by month. A chart shows when races peak in the year, and tapping a month jumps to it. Each month shows its most notable races first, with the full month one click away. Regions of that country sit at the bottom, each with its own page.
This is the view to use if you are looking for a reason to travel, or for what is on near home in a given month. Races with no date yet have their own undated list.
What should I check on a race page?
The race page leads with the distances. Pick the one you care about and look at:
- Distance and D+ for that course, and whether aid station data is available for it.
- The Terrain card, when you are signed in and where we have it: road, forest track and path, plus the T1 to T6 hiking rating, from OpenStreetMap. It says nothing about mud, snow or race-day conditions.
- The forecast along the course, which appears from 5 days before the race.
- The Official site and Register links.
How do I know if registration is open?
Follow the Register link and read the organiser's page. Kliva shows a status such as Registration open or Sold out only when we have set it by hand, so most of the time the answer is on the other side of the link. No status on a race page does not mean anything either way.
Watch for the Dates to be confirmed label too. It means the date is carried over from the previous edition and is not confirmed yet. Treat it as an estimate and don't book around it. Our article on how we check race data explains this, with live figures.
How do I keep track of the races I like?
With an account, save a race as Interested, or mark it as I'm running it. Saved races appear in your calendar with a countdown to your next start, and the Season setup lists them as quick picks.
Without an account, the Notifications page can email you when a matching race is added: pick countries, disciplines and distances, and choose a weekly roundup, alerts or both.
What if my race isn't on Kliva?
Use the Submit form to propose it. A submission does not appear straight away: it can take a few business days. You can still plan it in the meantime: the race planner takes your own GPX, or just a distance and D+.