Puerto Vallarta is a beach resort city on the Pacific coast of Mexico. It’s a popular destination for those seeking sun, water sports, and nightlife. But it’s not exactly known for its trail running.

I had been to Puerto Vallarta many times over the years to visit my sister who lives in the area, but it wasn’t until a visit in 2018 that I discovered this little gem that has since become my favourite local trail.

Starting in Courmayeur, the 330 km Tor Des Geants follows two popular trekking routes in the Italian Alps. The course heads counter-clockwise on the Alta Via 2 along the south side of the Aosta valley for the first half of the race, returning along the Alta Via 1 back to Courmayeur.

There are 43 aid stations along the way, along with 6 major life bases, where runners can eat, sleep and obtain medical care if needed, with a cut off time of 150 hours.

The Loowit Trail circumnavigates Mount St. Helens in Washington State, past old-growth forests, waterfalls, meadows, and the leftovers of the volcano’s 1980 eruption.

A group of us ran the roughly 30 mile trail in August of 2018, starting from Climber’s Bivouac Campground. Watch the video below.

The Suunto Spartan Collection is the newest line-up of multisport watches, building on the success of Suunto’s Ambit series. After training for several years first with a Suunto Ambit 2, then an Ambit 3 Sport, and finally an Ambit 3 Vertical, I was pretty excited to get my hands on their top-of-the-line Suunto Spartan Ultra recently so I could put some of the new navigation features to the test.

The Kalalau Trail leads 11 miles along the rugged Nā Pali Coast on the north shore of the island of Kauai, Hawaii. The Trail traverses 5 lush valleys, above towering cliffs, before ending at Kalalau Beach where it is blocked by sheer, fluted pali.

Most hikers will take between 2-3 days to finish the trail. While in Kauai on vacation in late-November, our plan was to travel fast and light, running the entire 22 mile (35 km) return trip with 6,500 feet of elevation gain plus descent in roughly 8 hours.