Every February since 2016, Jared Wright, Joey Hendrix, and Josh Rosenthal have packed up and headed to Moab to either run or spectate the Red Hot 55k/33k. It wasn’t just about the race—it was ritual.

Whoever had driving duties that year had an obligation, a responsibility: pull up to the other guys’ houses with Michael Bolton cranked to eleven, windows down, sunglasses on, one hand on the wheel like Spicoli or Bueller, fully locked into the moment. It didn’t matter if neighbors stared or if someone’s family was in the middle of dinner—Bolton blasted, the trip was on, and tradition held firm.

One night at Beer Bar, while planning the next Red Hot trip, the conversation drifted toward race names—ridiculous race names that made them laugh. They kept throwing out ideas, each worse than the last, until they landed on one so ridiculous, so perfect, that Josh started making calls the next day. The joke was supposed to die at the table, lost in the buzz of beer and good company. Instead, it became something else entirely.

Between their inability to let go of a stupid idea and their obsession with ultrarunning, the three of them found themselves diving headfirst into making it real. What started as an inside joke turned into late-night research, trail scouting, and the first serious steps toward launching an actual race in the foothills of the city they loved.

The door eventually swung open to making this race a reality, so for fun, they packed it with everything that made them want to do it in the first place—a love for the city, trail running, and the people who do it—plus a heavy dose of the things that make them laugh and keep an increasingly chaotic world fun to live in.

Open Range Races gets it—this is both the most important and least important thing you’ll ever do.

It’s the ultimate luxury to push yourself on a trail, to willingly take on something hard. And at the same time, it’s supposed to be fun. None of us are elite, so if we’re carving out time from work and family to train, it should be life-giving in every possible way.

That’s why we have the Michael Bolton Final Mile. It’s the last stretch of a brutal race. You’re spent, but you can smell the finish. We ask you to dig deeper than ever, to prove to yourself that you’re amazing while blasting When a Man Loves a Woman.