The Trail Team
Mission
Our mission is to support and develop rising athletes into the best professional trail runners in the world through mentorship, skill development, and media exposure.
“While the US is the leader in our development pipeline from youth through college running, very little exists to support rising professionals in trail”
The Why
“Since the mid-1990s, the popularity of trail running has grown at a rate of 15% each year, with the current estimates at 20 million trail-runners worldwide.” *
Trail athletes have become more professionalized.
Races have become more competitive and decade old records are being broken.
While the US is the leader in our development pipeline from youth through college running, very little exists to support rising professionals in trail.
The Team
The Trail Team (TTT) consists of twenty elite, under-supported, sub-ultra runners, ages 20-30 years old, that live and train in the US.
Bringing in a diverse group of high level athletes to inspire and encourage all trail runners and setting an example of what the sport can be in the future.
Each year in January, we select six new members via application. These new elite recruits are often recent NCAA graduates, who ran in college, and are the most elite and promising young trail runners on the continent.
TTT now has a large network of runners who have “graduated” from our team, as well as runners we have supported and collaborated with over the years since our launch in December 2022.
Funding
TTT is under the umbrella of American Trail Running Association (ATRA) which is a 401(c)3 not for profit organization. We have raised approximately $25,000 each year from individual donations, and contributions from running brands (Ciele, Naak, Darn Tough, Stryd, Suunto, Maurten, etc)
100% of those funds go to
Paying for housing at our team camps
Paying for housing at goal races (Sunapee Scramble, Moab Trail Half Marathon, etc in 2025)
Airfare for races/camps
TTT Training Camps
TTT training Camps have been an essential way to meet The Trail Team’s goals.
The Trail Team’s 2025 season featured four high-performance camps: Moab, UT (January); Grand Lake, CO (June); Squamish, Canada (early August); and Garmisch, Germany (late August).
Our camps serve as a hub for organic mentorship. Emerging athletes connect with teammates who are a few steps ahead in their professional careers, offering firsthand guidance on everything from race strategy to securing contracts.
We partner with industry-leading brands—including Ciele, Arc’teryx, and Satisfy—to outfit our runners with top-tier equipment. Beyond gear, we facilitate professional content creation, organizing photoshoots with world-class photographers in iconic locations like the Alps.
Performance is about more than just running. TTT introduces athletes to a comprehensive support network, providing access to sports massage, physical therapy, chiropractic care, and specialized nutrition. At our Grand Lake camp, for example, we collaborated with Skratch Labs dietitian Taylor Brower, RD, to conduct sweat tests—giving our team the data-driven insights needed to master their fueling and hydration.
“We aren’t coaches and we aren’t a shoe sponsor. We are the heart and soul of trail running and focus on how we can help bridge the gap for elite, development runners, whether that is financially, by paying for race entries, race housing and travel or by helping them assemble a world class support system. ”
Elite Development Opportunities
2025 Unofficial USA Team
TTT provided funding and guidance for 14 athletes—many of whom were competing in Europe for the first time—at the prestigious WMRA World Cup Final in Slovenia.
Beyond the race, TTT builds international competency. By navigating complex travel logistics and new environments together, our athletes develop the 'pro-level' organizational habits necessary for success on the world stage.
