It looks like Speedgoat is in every single place in path working and ultrarunning today.
There’s the shoe that dominates the beginning line of many ultras world wide, in its latest iteration because the HOKA Speedgoat 6; there’s the mountainous and rugged race in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains, the Speedgoat Mountain Races; after which there’s the person behind all of it, Karl “Speedgoat” Meltzer.
From the origin of Meltzer’s nickname in 1998 to the beginning of the race in 2008 to the launch of the unique Speedgoat shoe in 2015, and now the shoe’s latest model in the summertime of 2024, the identify has a legacy that Meltzer couldn’t be extra pleased with.
Karl “Speedgoat” Meltzer has left a permanent affect on the game. Picture: HOKA
Introducing the HOKA Speedgoat 6
The HOKA Speedgoat shoe line has rightfully earned a popularity for having an outsole that’s grippy on technical terrain, a midsole that’s delicate sufficient for working 100 or extra miles, and an higher that gives ample help and lockdown.
The HOKA Speedgoat 6. Photographs: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
The HOKA Speedgoat 6, releasing this week, has gotten a number of notable updates on its predecessor, the HOKA Speedgoat 5.
The Vibram outsole maintains an analogous cutout sample with 5-millimeter lugs — deep sufficient to grip however shallow sufficient to carry out on tougher surfaces as effectively.
The up to date midsole is product of a single-density foam that’s lighter, firmer, and extra responsive than that of the Speedgoat 5. The shoe additionally has a 5-millimeter drop, moved up from 4 millimeters on the earlier model.
For the higher, HOKA eradicated the engineered mesh of the Speedgoat 5 and went to a extra supportive woven knit higher with an inner chassis system to offer elevated help across the midfoot.
Whereas the Speedgoat line has developed since its first version, it continues to carry the spirit of the unique brainchild in Meltzer and the shoe design engineers at HOKA.
Practically the unique, the HOKA Speedgoat 2, photographed in 2017. Picture: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Speedgoat Karl: Nicknames that Stick
Most individuals within the path working and ultrarunning world know the identify Karl Meltzer, aka Speedgoat Karl.
It’s arduous to not know him. He’s received extra 100-mile races than anybody else — 38 as of this text’s publishing, together with the Hardrock 100 5 instances and the Wasatch Entrance 100 Mile six instances.
He was the 2006 “UltraRunning Journal” North American Ultrarunner of the Yr, set a then males’s supported quickest identified time on the two,190-mile Appalachian Path in 2016, and has performed a world-record 230 holes of pace golf in 12 hours.
It’s typically solely the actually good, and the actually dangerous, nicknames that stick, and Meltzer lucked out along with his. Originating from an off-hand remark he made whereas driving residence from the 1998 Pikes Peak Marathon along with his buddies and commenting on a speedy jackrabbit crossing the street, exclaiming, “What a speedgoat!” it wasn’t lengthy till Meltzer himself turned synonymous with the identify. The following summer season, the race director of the Zane Gray 50 Mile modified Meltzer’s identify on the entry sheet to Speedgoat of the Wasatch, and Meltzer embraced the moniker absolutely, going as far as to trademark the identify in 2000.
Years later, when he approached HOKA with the concept of the shoe line, it was solely pure to name it the Speedgoat.
Speedgoat 50k: Origin Tales
Meltzer was initially a ski bum, the career that first introduced him to the Wasatch Mountains in 1989. Path working quickly took precedence, and by 1993, he positioned within the high 10 of the Pikes Peak Marathon. He raced his first extremely in 1996, the Wasatch 100 Mile, received his first Hardrock 100 in 2001, and for effectively over 15 years, was at or close to the sharp finish of races.
Whereas working at Snowbird ski resort in 2007, deep within the Wasatch Mountains, Meltzer and John Collins, the Snowbird occasion director, determined to host a race on the resort. Collins challenged Meltzer to get 100 folks to the beginning.
Addie Bracy, the 2022 Speedgoat Mountain Races 50k girls’s champion. Picture: Kyle Rivas/Getty Photos/Speedgoat Mountain Races by UTMB
Meltzer is the primary to confess that the primary yr of the occasion was a little bit of a large number, however they received 112 runners on the beginning line, and everybody realized rather a lot within the course of. Because the occasion grew within the following years, issues began to go way more easily.
In 2012, the occasion was a part of the Skyrunner World Sequence in its Extremely class, and attracted worldwide expertise, resembling Kilian Jornet of Spain, to the beginning line.
Of the early days, iRunFar Editor-in-Chief Meghan Hicks says, “I ran the second version, in 2008, after listening to others discuss in regards to the wild inaugural race the yr prior. Solely a half decade into path working and ultrarunning then, I used to be making an attempt a lot of completely different sorts of races. The Speedgoat 50k was positively a part of my slippery slope into racing and working on larger mountains.”
Concerning the occasion’s aggressive growth, Hicks continues, “Through the years 2012 to to 2015, there was a concentrate on getting sturdy competitors to the race. iRunFar lined the race two or thrice throughout this period, when runners like Anna Frost, Ellie Greenwood, Jornet, Anton Krupicka, and lots of extra like them stuffed the entrance of the races.”
9 years later, in 2021, the race turned a part of the UTMB World Sequence and expanded to 2 days of racing and 4 occasions, including a 28k, 20k, and 10k, to accompany the unique 50k occasion.
Meltzer has stayed on because the race director all through the assorted evolutions of the occasion and hopes to remain concerned sooner or later as effectively.
The Speedgoat 50k has grown from 112 racers the primary yr to greater than 1,400. Picture: Speedgoat Mountain Races
A Lasting Legacy
Meltzer acknowledges that he’s been capable of create a legacy within the sport with the Speedgoat identify. Whereas he’s removed from carried out with working, he says, “I believe the shoe goes to be the legacy. And I actually hope the shoe does final for an extended, very long time.”
If the present recognition of the shoe is any indication, the road will certainly final for a very long time. Throughout a chat in regards to the Speedgoat shoe line, Meltzer says, “I see it day-after-day. We stopped on the Ouray Brewery [in Ouray, Colorado], and the host on the door was sporting the issues. And I’m like, ‘Good footwear.’ I all the time say good footwear.” And whereas Meltzer didn’t inform the host they had been his footwear, his spouse did, resulting in an prolonged dialog about them.
The HOKA Speedgoat 4 on the 2022 Canyons 100k. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
HOKA Speedgoats are discovered in every single place. And Meltzer, now 56 years outdated, remains to be working sturdy.
On July 13, Meltzer completed the 2024 Hardrock 100. He says that in preparation, he put in additional vertical this June than ever earlier than. This was his fifth 100 miler end this yr and the eighty fifth of his lifetime.
“My focus now could be to attempt to get to 100 of them,” he says. “ I believe in a few years, I ought to be capable to get to that. It’s a distinct aim, however I believe it’s going to be fairly monumental after I hit that. Hopefully it’s Wasatch that would be the one centesimal. It was my first.”
Karl Meltzer working the 2024 Hardrock 100, en path to his eighty fifth lifetime end of a 100 miler. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
It’s been fairly a run for Meltzer and the Speedgoat identify. “I’ve carried out all proper for some knucklehead who dropped out of school and determined to be a runner from a ski bum.”
[Editor’s Note: This article is sponsored by HOKA. Thank you to HOKA for its sponsorship of iRunFar, which helps to make iRunFar happen and free for all to enjoy. Learn more about our sponsored articles.]
The 2023 Speedgoat 50k girls’s podium (l-to-r): 2. Mali Noyes, 1. Helen Mino Faukner, 3. Addie Bracy, and 4. Valerie Arsenault. Picture: Nils Nielsen
