Istria 21K

Istria 21K

The shortest race runs from the hill town of Grožnjan all the way to the sea, finishing on Umag’s main square. With 157 m of climbing over 21.5 km it is mostly downhill and, in the organiser’s words, an easy, runnable path that is not demanding. It is the last race of the weekend, on the Sunday morning, while the 168K’s 45-hour limit still has hours to run.

The organiser aims it at people new to trail running, at volunteers, and at the friends and family who came along with runners doing the longer distances. It is a UTMB World Series 20K race worth 1 Running Stone, and the maximum time is 4 hours, so the course closes at 14:00.

Some on this start line will have spent the two days before following someone else. Now it is their turn to be followed. On Livebib the runner shares one link. Family and friends open it in a browser, no account and no app, and see the position on the course line, the distance covered and a finish estimate for the main square that updates as the race goes. If the signal drops on the way down, the position is carried forward along the course and marked as estimated, never shown as measured.