05/05/2026
The Blue 2 Blue Challenge is a graduate level 50k+ that starts and finishes in New Haven CT. The race is capped at 25(-ish) to ensure that each runner gets a ton of attention from the volunteers since crews aren’t allowed. It’s been called small, grassroots, old school. It’s because the run should be about the run and the trails and nothing else. What I mean by that is I purposely don’t partner with companies because frankly, I think most race directors charge too much and give crappy swag. There, I said it. Because of that I purposely partner with other small local companies for my awards and screen printing/embroidery because the shirts and hoodys are a far better quality than when you’re getting at other races. At least 50* people have come up to me in the last five years to be like these sweatshirts are my favorite! If you’re a race director and you’re reading this and getting pi**ed off then I am talking directly to you. Do better.
Anyway, I love this day. It was in September for three years because of the pandemic… well, really only one year because of the pandemic and then I got lazy and didn’t move it back until 2023. More importantly, some people like he of the beautiful quads Joey Nuara come back and run it every year (eight times), while everyone’s favorite wunderkind Tobias Tello has run 7! There’s a whole bunch of other folks that have 3, 4 or five finishes, I don’t know what’s wrong with these people. I did this run once and I don’t wanna do that ever again.
honestly, though I have so much respect for you brave, stupid souls that want to sign up for this race. Some of you hit the turnaround with terror in your eyes like “holy s**t you weren’t kidding in the race description”… no, I’m not fu***ng around. This s**t is hard. That’s why people who sign up to do this race are my kind of people, the ones that get up and train, even though life is hard and training is hard and we do all these hard things in spite of how hard they are all the time- and we still choose to do this other crazy hard thing anyway. F**k yeah.
…props to Alex McDaniel for a bunch of these photos, and props to Rebecca Rose for a few others.
* probably like 30