Lauren Gregory part of Team USA in World Mountain and Trail Running Championships

CHIANG MAI, Thailand – Razorback senior Lauren Gregory is part of a United States team that is competing in the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships being held this Thursday, November 3 through Sunday, November 6.

Gregory, a 23-year-old UA graduate from Fort Collins, Colorado, will contest the Uphill as well as Classic Up and Down competitions. She earned a position on Team USA by winning the inaugural USATF Vertical Mountain Running Championships, which covered a six-mile distance at Loon Mountain, New Hampshire, in July.

“I’m really excited and it’s fun to be a newbie in this sport,” noted Gregory, who has eligibility remaining for the 2023 indoor and outdoor track seasons. “It’s still running, but it feels like I have so much to learn still even though I’ve been running for a dozen years.

“You get so accustomed to running on the track and how to train for cross country, and the NCAA cycle lends to it being very repetitive. Now, I get this break in the fall and get to try something new and experiment with training.”

On Thursday in Thailand, which is 12 hours ahead of U.S. central time, there will be a Parade of Nations prior to the opening ceremony and welcome dinner. On Friday the senior women’s Uphill Championships start at 11 a.m. (11 p.m. CT Thursday). The Up & Down Championships will be held Sunday with the senior women’s race starting at 11 a.m. (11 p.m. CT Saturday).

“One of my favorite parts about trail running is that it takes you to these places and then you get to race,” noted Gregory, who in high school would train in the Colorado mountains as part of her summer and fall training.

“Any time or opportunity you get to represent your country and feel that support it’s just really cool. Also, to come together with a team is special. I think there’s 36 of us going to Thailand. That’s a large U.S. contingent in a sport that is still growing in this country. So, it’s real cool to see representation and the support USATF and the American Trail Running Association has raised for this sport.”

Racing over a distance of 8.5 kilometers in the Uphill race the elevation gain will be 1,021 meters. In the Up & Down event, the course covers 10.7 kilometers.

The multi-race event, which combines the Trail World Championships and World Mountain Running Championships, features 30-plus teams from all over the world competing in an uphill-only race, a classic mountain race, a 40-kilometer trail race, and an 80k trail race.

Each event features an individual race and a team event. Each team can field up to six runners, with the top three from each country counting for team scoring.

Countries competing in the World Championships for the Uphill race include Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Kenya, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and the United States.

Additional countries entered in the Classic Up & Down race include Cambodia, Honduras, Ireland, Mexico, Romania, Uganda, and Venezuela.

Strategy in mountain and trail racing will differ from traditional track or cross country racing since each mile of the race will differ in the amount of time it takes given the elevation and conditions of the course. In addition, some elevated portions of the course may require hiking as a faster mode of traversing the terrain than running.

“That is kind of the mind game, since at some points you don’t know how close the next person is to you,” Gregory explained. “Over a long distance sometimes the gap can get over a minute or two minutes. So, they’re kind of gone. But it doesn’t mean you can just check out.

“Sometimes the course will open up and you start doing some switchbacks, and then you can kind of see how many switchbacks you’re leading or trailing someone. I like that about this kind of race, there are times you can run within yourself and other times when you can play the race. A lot of it is by yourself, which is so much different than being on the track.”

As far as being able to gauge her pace over the course of a race, Gregory added: “I’ve learned not to go off distance at all and just go off time. That’s been nice to switch off myself mentally because I get so engrained on the mileage.

“Just knowing this effort is going to be 45 minutes all out. I do run with my watch on these races so I can kind of know where I am. Some miles will be 20 minutes, and then another mile will be seven minutes or something. So, it’s really hard to gauge your pace.”

Competitions for Gregory after her U.S. title included placing third at Trofeo Nasego in Italy and finishing fifth at Flagstaff Sky Peaks in Arizona. Back in 2017, Gregory claimed a bronze medal in the junior race at the 2017 World Championships held in Premana, Italy.

“Italy was a bonus,” Gregory said of winning the 2022 USATF title. “They asked me if I wanted to race in Italy and I felt like you can’t pass that up, so I agreed on the spot.

“I knew that the USATF Championships was a qualifying race. I wanted to extend this fitness a little bit and see if I could make the team. It was a bit of a trek to get out there for the USATF Championships, so I made it a point to make the team. It was exciting to accomplish it.”