The Gnarly Bandit!

Toward the end of last year we waffled the idea of adding a third trail running series to our UpperMidwest Trail Runners. We have the infamous short series with a plethora of excellent races MNtrail series we also had our inaugural Fab 5 Fifities series this year that was awesome and will be going strong once again this year, not to mention an added race to the series courtesy of Andy and Kim Holak. Now to the aforementioned addition.... yes, for those looking for a raw test of serious mental and physical stamina and sanity we bring you the GNARLY BANDIT series. This series inlcudes the classic 100km distance and 100mile distances that co-exist with many of our shorter distances. The beauty of this series is the variety in terra-firma, landscape, and distance. These races are definitely tough and to end the season with Superior Sawtooth 100mile followed by another brutal assault of the Superior Hiking Trail at the Wild Duluth 100km will have runners with a serious trail high. If you are looking for a new race or are dropping by the UpperMidest I encourage you to explore. You will not be disappointed. The series starts off with the inaugural Zumbro 100's. A rugged trail romp up and over the bluffs of Mount Frontenac, and down through swollen Zumbro river/ Mississippi river bottoms. Outlooks of beautiful Lake Pepin. I'll be there helping helping out and watching the first race start (100km runners start at midnight) hellgate style.
Last year Pierre Ostor (Arrowhead 135 RD and finisher)was the only runner to officially "shoot the moon" and finished all of the Fab 5 Fifties races. He plans on shooting the moon at the Gnarly Bandit as well.. Cheers!

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