The Emerald Mountain Epic, formerly known as the Steamboat Stinger, provides a challenging backcountry race experience showcasing some of Steamboat Springs’ finest singletrack. The race benefits two local nonprofits: Partners in Routt County and Routt County Riders. In addition to the Saturday mountain bike race, a full and half trail …
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The Emerald Mountain Epic, formerly known as the Steamboat Stinger, provides a challenging backcountry race experience showcasing some of Steamboat Springs’ finest singletrack. The race benefits two local nonprofits: Partners in Routt County and Routt County Riders.
In addition to the Saturday mountain bike race, a full and half trail marathon is featured on Sunday. These two events can be separate or, if you wish to take the ultimate challenge, you can participate in both – the 50 mile solo mountain bike race as well as the 26.2 trail marathon the following day. The male and female winners with the lowest combined bike and run times shall be crowned King of the Boat and Queen of the Boat.
The full marathon course is identical to one lap of the mountain bike course, which is approximately 26.2 miles. The same open meadows, aspen forests and wild sage gardens offer incredible views of the surrounding peaks and valleys.
The half marathon course does not include Ridge Trail, Cow Creek or Beall Trail.
90% single track. 100% dirt. And major elevation gains.
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Beautiful race, good elevation challenge
Race was so much fun! First half mile is steep and slow as everyone gets a bit bottle necked. By end of the first mile or so, pace kicks in … MORE
Race was so much fun! First half mile is steep and slow as everyone gets a bit bottle necked. By end of the first mile or so, pace kicks in and people spread out. Too many walkers started in the front of the pack, slowing down all the runners behind them. Waves would be really nice!!!
The photographer they used was the best I’ve seen on a race. The pictures are stunning of the landscape and terrain. Incredible!
4 aid stations on the course. Clean trails. One Boulder field on the downhill that was a little slow. Beautiful wild flowers all around you! I’ll definitely run this again.
Would prefer if bibs had timing chips, timing wasn’t very exact (someone was recording it by hand and we all started in one wave). It took a bit to even cross the start line after the race began. A mile marker somewhere on the course would be helpful. This was the first race I’ve ever ran without any distance markers. I asked at the aid stations, but the volunteers all had different guesses!!!
A bit disappointed in the lack of race swag. Beers and sandwiches at the finish we’re nice. Received a yellow race tee with your bib. A few race water bottles were available, but it seemed they were all snagged by spectators before racers even got a chance to finish and get one. This happened both days, on the bike and run portions.
Stinger was super stingy on handing out any products. Very disappointing. Had to buy them or settle for samples that everyone had their hands in ( waffles and gummies). For a big company, they were not very racer friendly. It wouldn’t kill them to hand out free full sized products to ravers, especially as the main sponsor of the race.