Phoenix 24
The mountain does not forgive reputation.
Zegama, May 2026. Zegama-Aizkorri opens one of the most ambitious Golden Trail World Series seasons with its 25th edition, placing the Basque mountain marathon once again at the center of global trail running. The race will be held on May 17 with more than 900 participants across its different events, including the marathon, the vertical kilometer and the junior race.
The main event keeps its brutal identity intact: 42.2 kilometers, 2,736 meters of positive elevation gain and a route that has become a ritual of resistance for elite runners and local crowds. Zegama is not only measured by distance or altitude. It is measured by atmosphere, mud, noise, weather and the psychological pressure of a mountain community that turns the race into something closer to a collective ceremony.
The 2026 edition arrives with a powerful elite field and a symbolic burden. Sara Alonso returns after her historic 2025 victory, when she became the first Spanish woman to win the race in years and restored local emotion to the top of the podium. Her presence gives the women’s field a clear narrative line: defending a title in Zegama is almost harder than winning it once.
The men’s race also carries high tension, with international contenders arriving in a season where the Golden Trail circuit expands its global reach through Europe, North America and Asia before its final stage in South Korea. Zegama, however, remains the emotional beginning of the calendar. It is the place where rankings matter, but myth weighs more.
The race also reaches a new milestone in female participation, with record numbers across the event’s categories. That evolution matters because trail running has often built its mythology around endurance, landscape and heroism, but its future increasingly depends on broader representation, deeper competitive fields and visibility beyond the traditional male-centered narrative.
Zegama does not simply open a season. It establishes the tone. In a sport where technology, sponsorship and international circuits keep expanding, the Basque race still protects something elemental: the idea that performance must answer to terrain, crowd and weather before it answers to marketing. The Golden Trail season begins there because Zegama remains the mountain that tells the circuit who is ready.
Geopolítica, sin maquillaje. / Geopolitics, unmasked.