Kodiak Ultra Marathons by UTMB® 2026

Imagine a mountain town so quiet, so picturesque, that Hollywood filmed western scenes there for decades 🎬. Now imagine that once a year, hundreds of madmen roll in, lace up their trail shoes and charge into the pine forests at 2,000 meters of altitude ⬆️.

Welcome to the HOKA Kodiak Ultra Marathons by UTMB®, in Big Bear Lake, California 🏞️. The name comes from rancheros who climbed into these mountains in the 19th century and found the valley teeming with bears 🐻. So the name seemed logical... until intensive hunting was so ruthless that by 1906, all the local grizzlies had been wiped out 🤯. Big Bear Lake without bears is a bit like UTMB without elevation gain: the name is there, the beast is gone 😅. No need to sprint around every bend fearing you’ll be chased by a grumpy wild animal! 😬

The race offers five distances for all levels: the 10K (10.5 km, 280 mD+), the 21K (19.5 km, 575 mD+), the 50K (48.4 km, 1,339 mD+), the 100K (99 km, 3,120 mD+), and finally the big Boss of the Kodiak: the 100 Miles with 162 km and 4,850 meters of positive elevation gain 😱. To put that into perspective: it’s the equivalent of climbing the Eiffel Tower 135 times, running, with a pack on your back, at night. The 100M covers the entirety of the Big Bear Valley, with a few kilometers on the Pacific Crest Trail and a passage to the summit of Sugarloaf Mountain at 3,047 meters 📈. It’s a true mountain 100-miler, with a large part of the course above 2,100 meters 🗻. That famous Pacific Crest Trail you’ll be running on for a few strides is a legend in its own right 👑. It stretches over 4,200 km, from the Mexican border up to Canada, following the Cascade ridgelines and the Sierra Nevada ❄️. Designated a National Scenic Trail in 1968, it was first proposed in 1926. Thousands of hikers take six months to complete it 🥾. At the HOKA Kodiak Ultra Marathons by UTMB®, you’ll sample a few kilometers of it before heading back toward Siberia Canyon. All in all, you’ll cross three distinct ecosystems: the high desert, the subalpine forest 🌲, and the semi-arid zone—each with its own beauty, topography, and challenges 💪.

You can’t talk about the Kodiak without mentioning what it’s also a qualifier for: the Western States Endurance Run 🏃‍♂️. And here, we’re touching the very origins of ultra-trail worldwide 🤩. The Kodiak recently earned the title of UTMB World Series Americas Major, which in the UTMB ecosystem is like a promotion with a bonus 😎. The Running Stones, those precious tokens that grant access to the lottery for UTMB Mont-Blanc, are doubled compared with other World Series races 🤪. And the top runners in the 100M, 100K, and 50K distances leave with an automatic qualification for the UTMB World Series Finals. Suffering in the mountains of Big Bear Lake can therefore lead straight to an invitation to the end-of-year ball in Chamonix ✨.

The icing on the cake is the atmosphere that wraps around all of it 🥳. The start and finish are right in the heart of the village, with spectators cheering at every step. The festival features local food stalls, a DJ, and a parade through the streets to welcome runners. A town of 5,000 inhabitants that turns into the world capital of trail running for a weekend 🙌. That’s also the charm of an event that knows how to keep a human soul behind the UTMB machine ❤️.

The grizzlies have been gone for a long time, but the bear is still here—his name is Kodiak—and he’s patiently waiting for you to come run with him! 😝