2025 Superior Spring Trail Race – Photo Credit Scott Rokis
Greetings Runners,
With just under three weeks to go, I wanted to check in, and extend an early welcome to everyone. I will, as usual, be sending out our final / week-of ‘2026 Superior Spring Trail Race Runner Welcome’ email with final updates and more, but I wanted to quickly share a handful of things with you…
Superior is on Saturday May 16, 2026. As always, if your plans have changed and you can no longer make it to the race, there is no need to contact us. We will know you are not running if you do not show on race day.
Now is a good time to study up on the Superior race website – everything you need to know about getting to the race, the distance you are running, and the race course can be found on our website.
Trail Conditions:
Current trail conditions are really similar to this time last year. The 80 inches of snow that we received was right around the historical average of 90 inches, but a good amount of that came late in the winter and continued into early April. As of today the race course, besides some of the steepest north facing slopes, is snow free. We are on the tail end of a rainy period which should wipe out the rest of that stubborn snow on the north facing slopes and get any remaining frost out of the ground. After today it looks like we are in store for a dry stretch. We are out scouting and clearing trails between now and the race and will provide a conditions update the week before the race in our normal ‘week of’ runner email. For those that like to track it and some recent historical context, both the winter(s) of 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 saw in the neighborhood of 150 inches of snow, with the spring of 2022 delivering some historic flooding to the north shore which all culminated in the change of race course / venue that year to the “the party in the pit“. 2023-2024 was a low snow winter with only 50 inches. Leading into last years race after the winter of 2024-2025 we received around 75 inches of snow, just shy of this years total, but that snow was more evenly distributed throughout the winter than it was this year.
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This year’s t-shirt design is a tip of the cap to that awesome feeling of accomplishment, the socializing, and refreshments at the finish line. Keep an eye out as this character will be featured on all our race shirts this season! We will have a limited number of hoodies with this same design for sale at the race.
Nerd’ing out if I may… This shirt has been year’s in the making. Designing and sampling / prototyping them was of course a lot of fun, but an insanely time-consuming affair. There is a reason you don’t see many 7 color race shirts as its complex and hard to pull off well. For this years t-shirt we went with a 100% cotton with the same weightless water based ink we normally use on our t-shirts. These shirts are the exact same cut / fit as the triblend fabric shirts we have been using for years, so your normal size should fit perfectly. For the hoodies we had to go with a little heavier print on these in order to get the color match to the t-shirt but they wear well. A note about fabric and sizing on the hoodies – this print is going on what we are calling the RSR Heavy Blend 8oz Hooded Sweatshirt. If you have bought hoodies from us in the past, these are different. They are a little heavier. We love the fabric and the generous hood in conjunction with this full color design. The material is 50% cotton, 50% polyester. These are sized similar to our other hoodies to start but they do shrink a touch more. If the previous hoodies you have purchased from us were just on the small side for you, you may want to size up.
Beyond the giveaway t-shirt and the hoodie for sale, other Superior and RSR goodies are available for sale at the race. We also have items available on our website HERE https://www.rocksteadyrunning.com/shop/
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Welcoming ACG!
We are incredibly excited to introduce ACG (All Conditions Gear) the historic Nike outdoor and trail focused brand as a sponsor of the Superior Spring Trail Race and all Rocksteady Running races! Our local Nike/ACG reps are fervent runners themselves and are no stranger to our events and our local trail community. We could not be any happier to have them on board! As always, if you need running gear please support our independently owned running store sponsor Mill City Running, and while you are there, be sure give ACG a look!
Welcoming Best Day Brewing!
One of the owners of California based Best Day Brewing participated in a Rocksteady Running race and were impressed with the experience. In short order they reached out to see how they could get involved and support us and our trail community. We are so stoked to announce that Best Day Brewing will be providing us with the best non-alcoholic beer (and we would argue one of the best beers period) at the finish line of the Superior Spring Trail Race, and all of our races in 2026!
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As always, a huge thank you to sponsors and partners. Please take a moment to click the link and check them out https://www.superiorspringtrailrace.com/sponsors/
Superior Hiking Trail
Caribou Highlands
Visit Cook County
Mill City Running
ACG
Vaniply / Vanicream
Fika Coffee
Best Day Brewing
Northwoods Running
State Farm Insurance – Geri Martin
Trail Transformation
Performance Running Gym
Consilience Coaching
Climb Above Endurance Coaching
Discover Strength
North Coast Trail Running
Bridge Realty – Bill Pomerenke
Full Sun Services
Mile in My Shoes
LutZen Massage Studios
Captain Ken’s Chili
Relentless Courage – Jon Howard
Critical Connections Ecological Services
St. Croix Law
If you are not quite ready to get back to what you were doing, linger a few more minutes and get stoked for what’s to come https://www.superiorspringtrailrace.com/photos-2025-highlights/
That is all I have for you today – thank you for your time. We can’t wait to see you all in (just under) a few weeks!
Thank You,
John Storkamp
Race Director
Superior Spring Trail Race