Athletes faced the trials and tribulations of trail running and obstacle races during the SLO County Ultra Games held on Saturday and Sunday.
Nearly 800 athletes participated in this year’s events at the event’s new location of Lopez Lake. Organizers say a couple hundred volunteers helped set up and coordinate the races.
SLO Ultra is different than a traditional race because the organization adds in the factor of running on a nature-made course.
“We wanted to mix different modalities of fitness and using our own backyard of Lopez Lake to do so. We want to use strength, we want to use functional fitness, we want to use land that is basically given to us—the trails, the lake—and throw all those different tests of fitness,” said Robby McLaughlin, the SLO Ultra games director.
Next year’s SLO County Ultra Games will be held on October 24 and 25. Early registration is open now by heading over to the SLO Ultra website.