Why trail running is set to be one of 2025’s hottest fitness trends

Get out of your head and onto the trails in the new year

• In this article:

• What is trail running?

• The rise of the trail running movement

• The mental game of trail running

After 16 years of slogging it out in the bush, Australian trail runners have been flung onto the global stage as the sport joins the ranks of international events. And with a new 100 mile challenge added to the Aussie line up in 2025, we’re set to witness some incredible new triumphs. 

From the very moment Sydney school teacher Ella Clark crossed the finish line of her first 50km ultra-marathon she was hooked on the magic and pure adrenaline of trail running. 

“I love running on roads but for me running trails is just my happy place, that's why I feel so comfortable, and that’s what I love doing,” the 31-year-old British expat tells Body+Soul. 

“I think on the trails you just get that sense of freedom and it's almost childlike because there's nothing [more fun] than running down a really steep hill. But I also run for my mental health and that’s really noticeable when you’re out on the trails because there’s no space to think about anything else. I’m watching my feet, I’m watching where I tread, I’m looking at the beautiful views. You’re really focused on what you’re doing and it takes you out of your head.” 

Since then, Clark has gone on to compete in about a dozen ultra trail events across Mexico, Oman, Australia and New Zealand, each one longer than the one before it. And while it’s only been a matter of weeks since she wrapped up the most gruelling challenge of her life, it’s clear that her passion for the trails hasn’t wavered, despite spending more than 45 hours and 35 minutes running 240km through the Aussie bush as part of the infamous Coast to Kosciuszko race.

Just 52 people made it through the exclusive event’s stringent selection process this year and Clark was the 43rd and final runner to cross the line in November, with those following her being forced to withdraw amid demanding conditions and impossible heat. But the primary school teacher, who was known on course for the constant smile on her face, says she loved every moment of it. 

Image: iStock

“I’d say I was pretty happy the majority of the time, even the tears were just from tiredness, but the moment I reached the summit of Kosi was when it all hit me and when the adrenaline was there and I just thought, I’ve done it,” she says. “I knew I could do it, but getting to the top and thinking,‘I actually have done it, I worked hard for this, this is something I’ve managed to achieve, and people might have not thought that I was able to do it or that it was too big, but I proved them wrong and I’ve proved to myself that I can do it.”

Even crossing the line last didn’t dampen Clark’s spirits. 

“I was the last finisher and that didn't even bother me in the slightest, because for me that was just such an achievement,” she explains. “I was proudly the last person across the finish line because everyone else behind me had to withdraw. So to show that I did manage to make it to the finish line, and that I made it within the cut off, was just such a proud and emotional moment.” 

Image: iStock

The trail running movement

While Clark’s utterly incomprehensible 240km adventure is the stuff of legends, to say trail running has taken off across Australia is a vast understatement. 

Since its inception in 2008, Ultra-Trail Australia by UTMB has taken over the Blue Mountains each year, swelling in size and participants to become the world’s second largest Ultra-Trail event, and the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere. For the first time next year, May’s four-day running festival will feature a 100 mile event (that’s 163km) on top of the 100km, 50km, 22km and 11km races. The new distance was announced after UTA was named as the newest UTMB World Series event and fourth global race alongside events in Asia, Europe and North America. Just 400 spots were made available for 100 miler and they’ve already sold out, as well as all other events, with 58 per cent male and 42 per cent female registrations.

“Historically UTA sells out each year,” a spokesperson tells Body+Soul. “This wasn’t the case during COVID-impacted years but the trend is returning now with the 2025 event already sold out.”  

To say trail running has taken off across Australia is a vast understatement. Image: iStock

Meanwhile, just two years after Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko by UTMB was launched, numbers have almost doubled in size. In 2022, 1,800 runners took part in the event, 2,800 in 2023 making it a sell out, and 3,100 in 2024 after capacity was increased and all races (the Kosci Miller, Kosci 100, Kosci 50 and Kosci 30) sold out. 

Hooked on the trail running trend, Clark says she’s witnessed the sport explode. 

“I think in the past couple of years it has grown immensely and I've seen it get bigger in more of a competitive sense as well,” the 31-year-old tells Body+Soul. “So before it was the road races that got all the press attention, like who won them and all those top times. Whereas now trail running is getting that exposure as well and people are starting to know the top trail runners, like their names are just as well known as some of the top marathoners.” 

The rise of female ultra runners

What Clark is most thrilled about, however, is the emergence of so many female runners.

“It’s always been such a male-dominated sport,” says Clark, who was inspired to take up trail running and competing by her trail-loving stepdad. “I remember going to his races and it would be all middle-aged men and there wouldn’t be any women there. Whereas now women are really dominating trail running, particularly in ultra marathons.”

At Coast to Kosci, the primary school teacher says it was “pretty much half and half”, while the results spoke for themselves. “Out of the top 10 finishers, five of them were women, and out of the top three, two of them were women,” she gushed. “So second place and third place were women and there was only a two minute difference between number one and number two.

“Women are really just dominating in this sport and are showing that they can do this and that they belong on the trails as well, which I think is really hard. As women there are so many places where we might not feel as safe, and being out by yourself on trails can be a scary thing sometimes. So you do need to take extra precautions if you’re going for a run out in the bush and I think about my safety a lot more than a man would. 

“But I think we’re just showing that you don’t need to be this big buff gym man to run trails, because actually women are incredible endurance athletes, and we actually outperform men the longer the distances are. And often women are doing it while raising families as well, managing all the training while working full time and looking after young children. They’re just showing that we can do it too.” 

The rise of female ultra runners. Image: Getty

The mental game 

While ultra trail running requires brute physical fitness, Clark says “when you're doing those distances, it really is your mind that gets you through”. 

“I think it's that kind of perseverance,” she explains. “It's my stubbornness, basically, that I say to myself, ‘I'm not going to give up, there’s no way I'm not finishing this’ and it’s that stubbornness that gets me through it.” 

Especially in those really dark moments when Clark has to rely on positive self-talk. “You need to be able to talk yourself around it and talk yourself through it,” she says. “For example, during Coast to Kosci it was really, really hot, and so many people complained about the heat. But I switched it around, because the weather was something that I couldn't control, and I told myself, ‘Well, I'm so much happier in the heat than I would be if it was raining’. It was just switching it around and controlling what I could control and not stressing about what I couldn’t.”

But it’s also got to come down to just enjoying running, which Clark says has taken her to some of the most breathtakingly beautiful places in the world. “As long as I'm having fun and I'm enjoying it, that's what gets me through,” says the school teacher. “If I push myself too hard, I know I won’t enjoy it and it won’t be for me anymore. So I keep it in that zone where I challenge myself and I set these big targets, but I do it in a way that I still enjoy it and I still love it and I have a really great time.”

Originally published as Why trail running is set to be one of 2025’s hottest fitness trends