Dear PUTS Family – Racers, Volunteers, Sponsors, Partners, and Fans,
We want to express our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you who has supported us over the years. Your dedication, passion, and encouragement have meant the world to us!
It is with no small measure of sadness that we feel compelled to announce that 2024 was the final year for RD Jeremy Smith and RD Jeff Fullmer as race directors of the Palisades Ultra.
Over 7 years ago, we took an impossible dream, and willed it into reality. We brought order to the wilderness; we tamed the nettle and the bears and the flies (ok maybe not the flies!) and somehow, made miles and miles of trails our home!
For the past 7 years, the Palisades Ultra Trail Series (PUTS) has been a major part of our lives. It's impossible for most folks to clearly understand the determination and consistent care required to continue orchestrating such an elaborate event. While we dealt with the pressures of all ‘customary’ race-director duties (ordering swag, marking trails, answering emails, etc), the Palisades Ultra was in many ways VASTLY more difficult than most races– From maintaining a large social media presence to finding (and keeping) the best volunteers in the business, not simply asking these volunteers to drive up to an aid station, but in many cases, asking them to carry supplies into the wilderness and stay overnight (or longer)… Not to mention hundreds of hours on the trails, literally using weed whackers and machetes to cut miles and miles of trail that would otherwise be largely neglected and impassible. We also felt it our duty and obligation as members of the ITUS (Idaho Trail and Ultra Series) to be proactive members of the regional trail-running community– Volunteering for years at several events, and even running in races from the aforementioned race series, supporting local events to the best of our ability.
The combination of these tasks has been a taxing and stressful hardship to say the least– One that has imposed a considerable burden on our time, our sanity, and our families.
Of course, the process of building up a world-class event on one of the toughest courses in the country has been uplifting in so many respects. Knowing that we’ve made such a beautiful network of trails accessible to hundreds of athletes! Seeing the race grow in stature and in efficacy, in many respects, by 2024, becoming the smooth, well-oiled machine that we’d always hoped it would become. And finally, fostering relationships that have enriched our lives in myriad ways- Above all else, the friends we’ve made during this journey will always be our most priceless treasures.
Of course, any ultra-marathoner knows that for any goal worth striving for, there will always be ups and downs. And the process of directing the PUTS has often brought with it an unhealthy degree of stress and anxiety to our lives— But perhaps more importantly, it has also carried with it a dangerous interruption to the lives of our ever-supportive spouses and children. Ultimately, it is this interruption to family life that has led us to make the gut-wrenching decision to walk away from our PUTS family at this time– So that in 5 or 10 or 20 years, we can look our wives and children in the eyes, and be able to confidently declare that THEY were our absolute #1 priority in all things.
We recognize that many might not understand this decision. And we respect the emotions and opinions of so many supporters who may feel a bit lost when they have to find a new path to trod during the 3rd weekend of July that has become so important to so many, including us.
At this time, in an effort to help folks plan their 2025 trail-racing seasons, we have decided to cancel the 2025 race altogether. To give volunteers and runners the chance to rest or to explore other races or volunteer opportunities while we undertake the search for a new race director to take over the intense obligations necessary to continue directing the race. However, we are not inclined to relinquish our beloved PUTS to any person or group who does not meet our high standards of professionalism or who does not seem to be capable of continuing to offer a world-class experience to the hundreds of trail runners who come annually to run the race.
If we are able to find the right person within the next 12 months, we will with gratitude and relief undergo the necessary formalities to transfer ownership as soon as possible, to hopefully avoid any more than a 1-year interruption to the event! As part of the transfer of ownership, we will stipulate that anybody who had previously qualified for a 2025 rollover credit, should be granted free entry into the 2026 race.
If we are unable to find an individual or group to take on the very real challenge of hosting PUTS, we would likewise accept that reality as the end of the race– Leaving us with incredible memories, many great and loyal friends, in addition to a handful of battered machetes, several dusty boxes of aid station equipment, and a few hundred yards of blue finish-line fencing that could possibly be used to prevent Jeremy’s dogs from terrorizing local children and pets.
We remain committed to our involvement in the trail running community, and to the many friends we’ve made along the way! We appreciate all of you who have supported and stood by us throughout this stage of our journey. We hope to continue taking part in the lives of the many friends who have given so much back to us over these glorious 7 years.
Until we meet again,
RDs Jeremy and Jeff
**See Below for our messages to our amazing Volunteers and those with a Rollover for 2025:
A NOTE TO OUR PALISADES ULTRA VOLUNTEERS:
It is with considerably mixed emotions that we, Jeremy and Jeff, announce that 2024 was the final year for us to direct the Palisades Ultra. And while the reasons for this decision are included in the letter below, we wanted to extend an additional note of gratitude to you, our volunteers and partners, who have become some of our greatest supporters and friends.
During these past 7 years, we have witnessed some miraculous feats of endurance by our runners– But we are not sure that any achievement of any runner in any of our race distances has been remotely comparable to the toughness and grit and dedication shown by our loyal volunteers and additional supporters, year in and year out.
You’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty– You’ve magnified your callings to a level that quite literally brings us to our knees in gratitude! From packing supplies in and out of the wilderness to loaning personal items to assist runners… To helping us fight back against the fallen trees and bushes that somehow seem to return to the trails every July… To battling critters as small as mosquitoes and as large as bears… You’ve simply been amazing!
This race could in no way have been successful without you, and we are so grateful to all of you who have stood by us for so long.
We count all of you as friends– And in spite of this big change to our annual July traditions, we hope to continue seeing many of you out on the trails and in the trail running community that we’ve grown to love.
ROLLOVER PROTOCOLS FOR THE PALISADES ULTRA
If you are on the short list of folks who qualify for a ‘rollover credit’ for the 2025 Palisades Ultra, please read below. You are aware that PUTS is taking an ‘off year’ in 2025, so that Jeff and Jeremy can find a new race director for the event that has been one of their greatest labors of love for the better part of the past decade.
It seems the most responsible thing is to skip 2025. We hope that it will be helpful for racers and volunteers and other race partners, as the last thing we want is to have anyone waiting anxiously for an event that, with potential new leadership, may or may not come together that quickly! So please take the year 2025 to explore other races, to have other adventures– And to get in shape for what we hope will be a triumphant return of the Palisades Ultra in 2026!
The PUTS rollover policy states that your rollover is ‘good for one year’, but due to the circumstances, we will allow all our 2025 ‘rollovers’ to have free entry into the 2026 race. Rest assured, we have no plans to allow somebody to direct the event unless they are willing to honor the current list of rollover participants.
Once the race ownership changes hands (hopefully by September of 2025), you will STILL NEED TO REGISTER for the 2026 race by January 31st, 2026– A coupon will be applied to your personal ultrasignup account. So please put those dates in your calendar, as it will be your responsibility to register in a timely fashion.
There is of course a chance that nobody will be interested or motivated enough to take on the responsibility of directing the race– In which case, your rollover credit will unfortunately be lost. And due to the dissolution of the race, no refunds will be given. We understand that this will be frustrating to some, and for that, we express our sincere apologies.
Thank you for your patience with this unforeseen process– We wish you the best in your trail-running journey, and hope you get the chance to toe the line at the 2026 Palisades Ultra!