superior_spring_website_device_mockup

We are super excited to announce the unveiling of the new Superior Spring Trail Race website!  This post probably gets a little more technical and delves into the nuts and bolts of why we designed our site the way we did than the average reader (runner) may be interested in – but besides trail / ultrarunning, web design and user experience is another thing we are very passionate about – so here goes!

Too often I find myself going online to check out a race that I just heard of or click a Facebook link to a race a friend has signed up for only to learn, well… nothing or at least nothing very easily.  As a potential participant, when I go to a race website there are a few basic things I am looking learn and hopefully, learn very quickly without having to look too hard.

• Where is the race held (region, state, nearest city)
• When is the race (what time of year and what is the exact calendar date)
• What does the course / race look like (beautiful, ugly, mountainous, flat)
• When does registration open, close and are their field limits etc.

From there, if the prospective race fits the criteria for something I would like to run, I will take the time to dig further into the website and hopefully that website is laid out intuitively.

When we decided to retool the Superior Spring Trail Race website we started with the name / URL.  The web address has changed from http://spring.superiortrailrace.com to https://www.superiorspringtrailrace.com to make it a little more straightforward when looking for the site.  Next, we were determined to give people the best feel possible of what this race is all about and what better way to do as much than with beautiful photography.  We have been blessed to have (since the inception of this event) some of the most dedicated and talented volunteer photographers I have ever seen and we really wanted to showcase their work!  It is hard to sum any trail / ultra up in words or a single image, so we went for it and sorted through 1000’s of images and came up with about 100 awesome photos that we feel represent the race and put them all on the homepage, front and center.  With the help of some fancy code that makes it manageable to load this many images without completely bogging down the site, it worked out wonderfully and gives you an immediate feel for the race – like they say, a picture is worth a 1000 words!  So while we made the home page of the site very visual we made sure that that basic bullet list of items I listed previously can be found quickly and easily and we did this via a couple of strategically placed “Quick-Info” links that activate a nifty “Flyout” slider containing all of the most important information.

From there, we stayed with a similar layout of the old site but grouped most of the key content / pages into “mega-menus” so when you hover over the header “Race Information” for example, a large menu with all of your options appears and you can quickly make a decision about where you want to go.  We kept our unique results section where you can not only see results from a single year, but can compare year to year results and analyze result in several ways via search and sorting via the column headers.  We retooled the Course Records page into a “Records” page, and put the focus not just on the fastest times run, but accounted for those runners with the most finishes and highlighted the youngest and oldest finishers of each distance.  We reorganized the race reports page and continue to encourage anyone that has written about their experiences at the race to please submit their race reports for inclusion on the race site – your first hand experience as runners is invaluable to anyone considering running one of the events!  We retooled the sponsors and volunteer sections of the website – as you all know, we would not have an event without volunteers and sponsors and wanted to make sure that volunteering is as painless as possible and that our sponsors get proper recognition!

Well, I could go on but I digress and encourage you to spend some time exploring the site.  If there is something that you are looking for and it feels like it took more effort than it should have, please drop us a line.  We thank you; runners, volunteers and sponsors for your continued support of our awesome event – we look forward to seeing you all in the Spring at the Zumbro Endurance Run!

Sincerely,

John Storkamp
Race Director
Superior Spring Trail Race

Superior Spring Trail Race
50KM, 25KM & 12.5KM
Lutsen, Minnesota
Saturday May 16, 2020
50KM 7:00AM
25KM 8:00AM
12.5KM 9:00AM

Registration / Lottery:
Opens Wednesday January 1st, 2020 – 12:01AM CST
Closes Wednesday January 15th, 2020 – 11:59PM CST
* Due to high demand, registration for the Superior “Spring” Trail Race is held via a lottery, more details about the lottery can be found HERE

Directions to Race Start:
Caribou Highlands Resort / Lodge
371 Ski Hill Road
Lutsen, MN 55612
Google Maps Directions HERE
Approx Travel Times
1:15 North of Two Harbors, MN
1:45 North of Duluth, MN
4:00 North of Minneapolis, MN

Terrain / Course Description:
The Superior 12.5KM, 25KM and 50KM Trail Races are extremely hilly, rugged and technical out-and-back (100% trail) trail-races which traverses the Sawtooth Mountain Range on the Superior Hiking Trail in the far reaches northern Minnesota .  The course parallels Lake Superior, the greatest freshwater lake in the world, climbs to near 2000′ peaks with breath-taking vistas of the lake and inland forests and crosses whitewater rivers and serene streams while meandering through mystic Boreal forests.  The races start and finish at Caribou Highlands Resort in Lutsen Minnesota.

Superior 50KM
25KM Out & Back Course = 50KM (31MI)
Elevation Gain 4,200 FT
Elevation Loss 4,200 FT
NET Elevation Change 8,400 FT
4 Aid Stations
9 Hour Time Limit
Starts at 7:00AM Saturday
Compete 50KM Info HERE

Superior 25KM
12.5KM Out & Back Course = 25KM (15.1MI)
Elevation Gain 2,300 FT
Elevation Loss 2,300 FT
NET Elevation Change 4,600 FT
1 Aid Station
8 Hour Time Limit
Starts Saturday at 8:00AM
Complete 25KM Info HERE

Superior 12.5KM
12.5KM Point to Point Course. 12.5KM = 7.75MI
Elevation Gain  900 FT
Elevation Loss 1,050 FT
NET Elevation Change 1,950 FT
NO Aid Stations
7 Hour Time Limit
Starts Saturday at 9:00AM
Complete 12.5KM Info HERE

More About the Area:
The North Shore of Lake Superior runs from Duluth, Minnesota at the Southwestern end of the lake, to Thunder Bay and Nipigon, Ontario, Canada, in the North to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, in the east. The shore is characterized by alternating rocky cliffs and cobblestone beaches, with rolling hills and ridges covered in boreal forest inland from the lake, through which scenic rivers and waterfalls descend as they flow to Lake Superior. The shoreline between the city of Duluth to the international border at Grand Portage as the North Shore.  Lake Superior is considered the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area. It is the world’s third-largest freshwater lake by volume and the largest by volume in North America.  The Superior Hiking Trail, also known as the SHT, is a 310-mile long distance hiking single-track hiking trail in Northeastern Minnesota that follows the ridgeline overlooking Lake Superior for most of its length. The trail travels through forests of birch, aspen, pine, fir, and cedar. Hikers and runners enjoy views of boreal forests, the Sawtooth Mountains, babbling brooks, rushing waterfalls, and abundant wildlife. The lowest point on the trail is 602 feet above sea level and the highest point is 1,829 feet above sea level.