North Bend Trail Fest Mountain Running Events

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NBTF July vert challenge

How does this work?

Run/walk/crawl up a mountain. Or a hill. Or a set of stairs. Repeat.

‘Officially’ join by joining the NBTF July Vert Challenge Strava club. Upload your runs, walks or hikes on the app.

Max out on vert from 6/29-7/31. Climb the leaderboard and cross up to three tiers to be entered in a raffle. Win a race entry, Goodr glasses, Brooks Running shoes and Näak drink mix or snacks. Make a team and try to become the royal court!

Why?

Mountain running is incredibly challenging and rewarding. And it’s more fun when it brings people together. We hope to give folks another reason to get outside and to do something that challenges you. We also hope to get people excited about our North Bend Trail Fest 30k, Vertical Kilometer, and 10k races on October 3-4.

What counts towards my total?

Vertical feet gained totals will be tallied weekly from 6/29-7/31. If you accumulate more vert than a tier, you will be entered for the raffle. And there is a prize and bragging rights on the line for the vert king and queen.

All activities must be uploaded to Strava. Any running, hiking, or walking activity in Strava will automatically add on to your weekly total. Activities must be uploaded by the following week’s Friday at noon PT to be calculated into that weeks leaderboard.

To submit a team, respond to the ‘Submit to the royal court’ post in the Strava club. Tag your teammates under the comments. You need to do so by the 7/10 deadline.

How do you calculate vert totals?

We manually tally vert totals using the ‘NBTF July Vert Challenge 2026’ Strava group leaderboard. If it’s not on Strava, it doesn’t count. Activities set to ‘only you’ will not show up on the weekly leaderboard and will therefore not count. Activities privacy settings should be set to ‘Everyone’ or ‘Followers.’

To join Strava, download the app on your phone and create an account. You can use Strava to track your activities, or you can sync your activities on a smartwatch (Garmin, Coros, Apple, etc) to automatically update.

If you don’t join the Strava group by 7/10, we will not retroactively honor vert. Bummer!

But, but, cheaters!

Since Strava activities can be manipulated, we reserve the right to flag any activity/account to be removed from the group and competition.

Since treadmill vert is not real, we will disqualify any participants who get more than 25% of their total vert from treadmill.

Prizes

Prizes include a free pair of shoes courtesy of Brooks running, Boost drink mix from Näak, a pair of Goodr sunnies, and a free (and transferable to a friend) entry to any of the North Bend Trail Fest races for 2026!

Once your monthly vert total has achieved an elevation tier threshold, you will be automatically entered into a raffle prize drawing for that elevation. If you achieve multiple tiers, you earn raffle tickets for each tier (i.e. if you run 20,000ft of vert, you will earn a raffle ticket for both Tier 1 and 2). Earn double raffle entries by attending a Mt Si group run on 7/2 or 7/31.

Tier 1 – Mt Si

Run 4,167ft+ of vert. The main geographic feature for the North Bend Trail Fest VK and 30k.

Tier 2 – Mt Whitney

14,505ft+ of vert. The highest point in the continental US.

Tier 3 – Mt Everest

Run 29,032ft+ of vert. The tallest mountain in the world.

Vert King and Queen

For whoever totals the most amount of vert. Male and female are separate categories.

Royal Court

The royal court is a team of three who will win a single race entry, a single pair of shoes, a single Goodr sun glasses, and a single delivery of Näak drink mix. Hopefully, the courts of grandeur won’t tear you apart!

To submit a team, respond to the ‘Submit to the royal court’ post in the Strava club. Tag your teammates under the comments. You need to do so by the 7/10 deadline.

Group Runs

Join us for some extra fun and shenanigans! We will preview parts of the race course and bring the vibes. Race director Joe will try to make ice tea and Brooks and Snoqualmie Running will be raffling off some swag. If you attend a group run, we will double your raffle tickets for whatever tier you achieve!

Group Run #1: July 2nd, 6:30pm

Run 1 was so fun! We had almost 25 people, ran around or up Mt Si (the big climb at the North Bend Trail Fest Race) and raffled off some shoes.

Group Run #2: July 31st, 6pm

Event will be created on our Strava club account.

Group Run #3: July 31st, 6pm

Event will be created on our Strava club account. The vert won’t be eligible for the challenge, but come join anyway!

Leaderboard

Leaderboard updated at of 7/12.

Questions? Corrections? Email Joe at stringbeancoaching (at) gmail.com and please don’t be a jerk 🙂

Vert doesn’t look right? This data requires some manual manipulation, there could be human errors! Also, runs are only traceable from the date that you joined the club, i.e. the first few runs of the month might not be factored in. Email me if it off.

Week 1 total (6/29-7/5)

Wow, what a start to the week! 498 individuals ended up joining the challenge, and we hosted a group run at Mt Si. Kyle E started strong with over 40k of gain in 4 days, but Amber C rallied hard and amassed over 50k feet of gain to hold the overall vert title. Chase H and Kyle E both crossed the 50k vert mark this week with the former leading by about 2k gain. For the team competition, Peak Freaks will be tough to beat. With 93k in one week… What are these people even doing with their lives? The Harpy Eagles (~69k) and Flat Earth Trail Elite (~59k) trail for 2nd and 3rd in the team competition, respectively. 6 athletes have achieved the Mt Everest height, 48 have achieved Mt Whitney, and 188 have achieved Mt Si.

Are people going to hold this insane pace? That would mean ~275k+ gain…

Week 2 total (7/6-7/12)

Amber C – she’s our queen!!! Totaling in 122,143ft of vert, Amber has a 7k lead over Kyle E who is also putting up insane numbers (115,860ft!). We saw a slight dip in vert this week, the top 50 runners averaged ~15k of gain while week two saw an average of ~22k of gain. The Peak Freaks continue to lead the royal court challenge, although The Harpy Eagles closed the gap by about 5k. We now have 42 individuals at the Everest + tier, 108 at the Mt Whitney + tier, and 271 at the Mt Si tier.

Within 24 hours of announcing a $100 bounty on the fastest ascent up Mclellan Butte, Mt Si, or Mailbox, Isabel Lane set a new segment on McClellan Butte!

There is still plenty of time to rack up more vert and boost yourself to a higher tier. Get it!