Elevation Profile #4: CNX Trail Community Weekend, Saucony Chrome 5s Sells Out in BKK and more

Elevation Profile is a weekly column from Doi Trail Research covering the world of trail running, running fashion, and outdoor culture, with a particular eye on Thailand and Southeast Asia.

Three trail events in Chiang Mai in one weekend, a shoe drop that brought queues to Bangkok, and a marathon in South Africa with stakes bigger than any single finish time. A lot to get into. Let's go.

The Chiang Mai Trail Community Shows Up

This weekend, the local running community came out in force across three separate trail events on Saturday and Sunday, each pulling a different group onto the mountain and reminding everyone why, if you are looking for trail culture, you will find it in Chiang Mai.

The one we are most excited to talk about is our own: the Doi Pui Peak Experience, a beginner trail event hosted in collaboration with Coros, Track Supplements, and Run to Paradise Chiang Mai. We brought a group of first-timers up to the summit of Doi Pui, the peak that crowns Doi Suthep-Pui National Park.

The morning started with coffee at Khun Chang Kian mountain village, which is quietly becoming known for its specialty coffee and its own locally grown beans. Worth the stop on its own. From there, we made the push to the Doi Pui summit, and for a lot of people in the group, it was their first time standing on top.

The whole event took place inside a cloud, thick mist, soft light, and the kind of quiet that only happens above 1000m. The Coros watches were pre-loaded with the route so that participants could experience the navigation function firsthand. Once back in the city, the group was dropped off back at Run to Paradise on Nimman for a second cup of caffeine and a proper landing after the descent.

The second event came from our friends at Storm Valley Racing Team, who invited some of us along. In collaboration with Garmin, Run Rabbit Run, and Decathlon, the Storm Valley trail event took beginner runners from the base of Doi Suthep-Pui to the Huay Tung Tao waterfall. Attendees got to try the new Garmin trail watches, which were super cool. The event was welcoming and well-organized. Big thank you to Khim and the full Storm Valley team for putting together something with really great photos, too.

The third event went longer and harder. XYZ Club and Introvert Running Club teamed up for a 30-kilometer trail run from Huay Tung Tao lake out to Baan Mae Sa Mai in the Pong Yang Subdistrict, with 1,400 meters of total elevation gain. This seemed like some good race practice with some good views too. Really cool to see two run clubs give our city a long option this weekend.

Three events, three different entry points into trail running. The community showed up.

The Saucony x Minted NY Endorphin Pro 5 Sells Out in Bangkok

The Saucony x Minted NY Endorphin Pro 5, which the running world has nicknamed the Chromiums, dropped internationally on Friday.

In Thailand, the release was at Bangkok stores, with queues forming at Saucony, RevRunner across multiple locations, and at Carnival. Unsurprisingly, the shoes were gone in less than an hour. Unfortunately, if you missed it, the window has closed.

We featured the Chromiums back in Elevation Profile #2, when the Minted x Saucony story was still building. To see it land in Thailand with this kind of energy is a good sign for where the local appetite for running fashion is headed. A big shoutout to Saucony Thailand and our friend Tee for coordinating a release this clean.

247 KMS5000: Five Years and Getting Better

The 247knowmesoon KMS5000 returned to National Stadium Bangkok on Saturday evening for its fifth consecutive year. It seems like each year this event gets bigger and better which is really cool to see. Two categories: a 5,000-meter individual race and a 5,000-meter social team relay, open to everyone from high school athletes to casual runners chasing their first personal best on a track.

What makes the KM 5000 interesting is what it represents for track running in Thailand. This is not a trail race or a road half. It is a proper track event, where people are looking to set personal records and improve on the previous year. Events like this one earn that kind of loyalty slowly. 247knowmesoon has put in the work.

We had a bunch of friends out there this year. KMS 5000 co-founder Pro Chorsarun competed in the team relay and came away with 3rd overall with a time of 16:36. Our long-time friend Bank Boonyabovonviwat, who now runs for Adidas Thailand, had a strong individual race, crossing in 18:52. But the overall winner of the KMS5000 Championship was Leo Le Gall, setting a monster time of 15:45. Insane.

The biggest highlight of the night was everyone on our end walking away with a personal best: Darren Liu in 20:48, Jazzy Chongsanguan in 21:28, Jeremy Lipkowitz in 21:37, Dino Clapp in 21:51, Danny Chan in 21:57, and Eric Chan in 21:57.

A good night for the Bangkok running community.

Mount Batur Ultra: Thailand and the Region on the Podium

The Mount Batur Ultra presented by ASICS took place last weekend in Bali, Indonesia, one of the most prestigious trail races in the country with distances ranging from 7k to 100k. The results across the board were strong, and there is a lot to highlight.

In the women's 60k, France's Céline Loubière crossed first in 11 hours, 1 minute, and 16 seconds. In second, Trisha Reyes of the Philippines, representing Hoka Philippines, finished approximately 35 minutes back. And taking third was Phichanan Manachot of Thailand, sponsored by Asics Thailand and Active Peak, in a time of 12 hours, 16 minutes, and 31 seconds. A podium stretching from France to the Philippines to Thailand is a reminder of how wide and deep the talent pool has gotten across the region. Congratulations to Phichanan on a strong result.

In the men's 100k, Japan's Hiroyuki Matsuda set a new course record in 17 hours, 15 minutes, and 17 seconds, doing so without a sponsor. What makes that even more impressive is that 15 weeks before Bali, Matsuda won a 250-kilometer ultra across Greece. Back-to-back results at that level and distance, without a brand behind him, is the kind of thing that deserves far more attention than it gets.

On the women's side of the 100k, Bo Min Park took the win in 23 hours, 13 minutes, and 52 seconds, racing in Adidas Terrex. The depth coming out of Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand right now is real, and results like these are exactly why.

Pas Normal Studios x Salomon: Back Again

Pas Normal Studios and Salomon are back with their next collaboration, and expectations are high for good reason. The two have worked together before and have consistently delivered something worth paying attention to, and this time around is no different.

Rooted in Pas Normal Studios' technical cycling heritage and fused with their experimental T.K.O. aesthetic, the collab centers on the Salomon GRVL CONCEPT in a colorway called TKO moss green, designed for gravel running across pavement, mixed terrain, and off-road transitions.

The shared brand language around "movement without boundaries" fits here more than it would for most. The GRVL CONCEPT is a shoe built for the in-between spaces, and Pas Normal Studios has always operated in those in-between spaces from the cycling side.

Personally, I love seeing cycling and running brands find each other. The communities have more overlap than either tends to admit, and when a brand like Pas Normal Studios brings their design precision to a Salomon trail silhouette, you get something that neither brand would have arrived at alone. More of this, please.

Hardrock 100: A Women's Race Reshaped

The Hardrock 100 on July 10 was shaping up to be one of the most anticipated women's matchups in recent ultrarunning history. Courtney Dauwalter, the three-time Hardrock champion, against Katie Schide, the runner who has spent the past two seasons methodically breaking Dauwalter's records.

At UTMB, Courtney set the course record in 2021 at 22 hours, 30 minutes, and 54 seconds. Katie broke it in 2024 at 22 hours, 9 minutes, and 31 seconds. At Hardrock itself, Courtney set the course record in 2024 at 26 hours, 11 minutes, and 47 seconds. Katie broke that one too, running 25 hours, 50 minutes, and 23 seconds in 2025 in the clockwise direction. Fun fact, this also stands as the fastest combined time ever recorded on the course across both genders. The pattern is hard to ignore.

Unfortunately, this matchup will not happen this year. Katie Schide has withdrawn due to a persistent battle with plantar fasciitis and nerve trouble in her foot, making it impossible to start. Her absence reshapes what was already one of the strongest women's fields the race has ever assembled.

Dauwalter responded with a short message of support: "💚💚💚 next time!" The wider running community landed in a similar place, well wishes for Katie, and a quiet disappointment that this particular matchup has to wait another year.

With Schide out, Dauwalter is the clear favorite for July 10. Regardless, doi will be watching.

Sanlam Cape Town Marathon: Making the Case for a World Marathon Major

The 2026 Sanlam Cape Town Marathon carried stakes well beyond the finish line. Cape Town is currently in contention for confirmation as the eighth Abbott World Marathon Major from 2027, and this race was the second of two candidacy assessments. Everything about the day needed to land and it did.

The men's race dramatically set a new course record. Ethiopia's Huseyidin Mohamed Esa crossed first in 2:04:55, four seconds ahead of compatriot Yihunilign Adane in 2:04:59, with Kenya's Kalipus Lomwai completing the podium in 2:05:06. That demolishes Abdisa Tola's 2024 course record of 2:08:16 by more than three minutes, and marks one of the deepest men's marathon finishes ever staged on the African continent.

Also on the start line was Eliud Kipchoge, running his first-ever official marathon on African soil, which is a surprising fact when you consider that he lives and trains in Kenya. He finished 16th overall in 2:13:29, racing in a Nike Alphafly 4 prototype. He is 41 years old. At that age and with that mileage on his legs, a 2:13 on a hilly course is not something to gloss over.

Esa also wore the Alphafly 4 prototype on his way to the win, coded internally as Nike-Dev 16141 and Dev 164. The recent era of dominant marathon performances has largely belonged to the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, most famously at Chicago, where both first and second place became the first runners in history to officially break the two-hour barrier in a sanctioned race. Whether Cape Town represents a turning point in that conversation will depend on what comes next, but it is a result worth watching.

For now, the bigger story is the city itself. A winning time in the low 2:04s, a historic field, and a result that answered every question the candidacy process could have asked. Our good friend Ziyaad Solomun and the city of Cape Town have made their case.