In a world of runners searching for answers from within, what does community and support really look like? Alyssa Clark, a young veteran of the trails, has the answers.
Growing up in a family of endurance athletes (cross-continental cyclist, triathlete marathoner, national team rower, elite cross-country skier) Alyssa really had no choice in falling in love with the great outdoors. But it wasn’t always running.
She read Dean Karnazes’ book Ultramarathon Man when she was just 10 years old, and thought, ‘I’m going to do that one day.’ It’s not classic reading material for a 5th grader, but there was another surprising aspect to her reading that book at that age.
“I hated running at this point. I wanted to be on a sports field.”
That all changed over the next couple of years as Alyssa was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. A very competitive Nordic skier, she had to think about her relationship with sport as repeated hospitalizations and surgeries impacted her ability to place well. She had to relearn her approach to being outdoors – a place deeply entrenched in her soul.
“Running became the constant throughout all that, and has been the thing that I view as my freedom. For a long time, running was my way of escaping confinement, and to prove that I wasn’t sick.”
“I had to learn how to run with it. I’m really grateful that I’ve gotten to learn that. There have been rocky moments, but I’ve gotten to run through that transformation from a pretty negative place to a much more positive place.”
You don’t get much more positive than finishing on the podium during UTMB week, and that’s what Alyssa did at the end of August when she finished third in the Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie AKA TDS, a 95-mile / 150km trip through the Alps.
It’s far from her first achievement, of course.
2020 - 95 consecutive days running a marathon before contracting Covid
2022 - finished third overall at Moab 240
2023 - first female in the Canyons 100-miler
2024 - finished an agonizing 11th in the UTMB 100-miler
2025 - first female to complete the HURT 100 in Hawaii in under 24 hours
It’s an impressive list, but when I met her in Palisades Tahoe, she was getting ready to crew fellow On athlete, Jeff Mogavero. Her role this time was to be in charge of filling pantyhose with ice. It’s a seemingly innocuous job, if not a little absurd, but cooling a trail runner down during the height of summer in the American West is a full-time job performed in short bursts over 14 hours. Jeff finished 7th at UTMB.
Alyssa explains exactly how and why that offering of community is key to what makes trail unique.
