A trail runner on a grassy ridge above a sea of clouds

HOKA Kodiak Ultra Marathons by UTMB

HOKA Kodiak Ultra Marathons by UTMB is a trail running festival held at Big Bear Lake, California. It offers five distances, from 10 km to 100 miles, as part of the UTMB World Series.

Prepare for Kodiak by UTMB

A plan built from your answers and your race date.

trail training plan

HOKA Kodiak Ultra Marathons by UTMB is run around Big Bear Lake in the mountains of Southern California. Start and finish are set in the centre of the resort town, which turns the event into a two-day festival rather than a single race. The trails alternate between conifer forest, open ridges and mountain dirt roads.

The event is part of the UTMB World Series and offers five distances: 161 km with 4,876 m of vertical gain, 100 km, 50 km, 21 km and a 10 km with 280 m of vertical gain. That range means travelling partners and family can race too.

The formats

5 formats on the program.

Format	Distance	Vertical gain
100M	100 mi	4,876 m
100K	62 mi	—
50K	31 mi	—
21K	13 mi	—
10K	6 mi	280 m

Organizer information, checked on September 21, 2026 · kodiak.utmb.world

When to start

At this distance, a build usually runs 12 to 24 weeks. The 2027 date is not published, so counting back from October puts the start around April 26, 2027.

These ranges are working conventions, not a research finding — no trial has compared plan lengths against each other. What matters more is that the plan was built for the weeks you actually have, rather than shrunk down from a longer one.

How to choose your start date

When to start

April 26, 2027

→ July 19, 2027

Worth reading before you enter

Races and distances Trail distances: what changes off the road Distance stops being the useful number. What decides a trail race is how long you are out, how much you climb, and how much the descents have wrecked your legs by the end. Read Training Eating and drinking: what’s proven, what isn’t This is where confident advice most often runs ahead of the evidence. Some of it is well tested. Some is opinion wearing a number. And one common habit can kill you. Read Races and distances When to start preparing your race Most plans fail before the first session, because the block started too late and everything had to be squeezed. Counting back from the date is the dullest and most useful thing you will do. Read

Questions

What is the date of HOKA Kodiak Ultra Marathons by UTMB in 2027?

The organizer has not published the 2027 date for HOKA Kodiak Ultra Marathons by UTMB yet. The race is usually held in October, in Big Bear Lake.

What distances does Kodiak by UTMB offer?

Five races are on the programme: 161 km with 4,876 m of vertical gain, 100 km, 50 km, 21 km and a 10 km with 280 m of climbing, all part of the UTMB World Series.

Where do the Kodiak races start and finish?

Start and finish are located in the centre of Big Bear Lake, California. That setup lets the organisers run a two-day festival around the different race distances and their staggered start times.

Other races

This list keeps growing; it draws no line. A race that is missing is prepared for in exactly the same way.

Honolulu · United StatesUltra HURT 100 Jan 16 Its five-loop, 20-mile-per-lap format carries a famously high drop-out rate. Bandera · United StatesUltra HOKA Bandera Endurance Trail Race January The HOKA Bandera Endurance Trail Race is a trail and ultra weekend held in Bandera, Texas, inside the Hil Moab · United StatesUltra Moab 240 Endurance Run January 7 km ultramarathon with 9,620 m of vertical gain, run as one continuous loop out of Moab, Utah. It is par Your race is not here? Tell us about your race You can prepare for it all the same. Any race, anywhere, and even a goal without a race.

Your race is on the calendar. Your plan should be too.

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