TransJeju by UTMB®

When you say “Jeju” to someone who doesn’t know it, they either shrug or reply, “isn’t that the Korean Corsica?” 🤷. So this is your moment to actually explain what this island is 🫵.

An island volcano that rose from the ocean two million years ago, classified three times by UNESCO+ a crater lake at its summit, underground lava tubes among the finest in the worldand a biodiversity ranging from subtropical forest at the base to subarctic vegetation at the top 🌳. The TransJeju by UTMB, that’s exactly where this takes place 🌋.

What makes Jeju truly unique on this planet is that it’s the only place in the world where four types of international recognition coexist in the same spot: UNESCO World Heritage Site, Biosphere Reserve, UNESCO Global Geopark, and two Ramsar wetlands. Four labels, that’s not nothing. The UNESCO site comprises three components: the lava tube system, the cone Geomunoreum, considered the best of its kind in the world, the Seongsan Ilchulbong crater and Hallasan Mountain, the highest in South Korea, with its cascades, its rock formations and its crater lake 🛶. All that... 😮 You go from the coastal forest to the nearly Alpine slopes of the summit on the same route 🏔️. For a fun fact, at the summit of the Hallasan grows the largest forest of Abies Koreana: the Korean fir, famous worldwide as a Christmas tree 🎄. So at some point in the race you run through the world’s largest Christmas tree forest. If you wear a red jacket (and a silky silver beard), you’ll nail the photos 🧑‍🎄.

The formats offered are four in number four, and they cover the full spectrum of what an island volcano can reasonably make you endure 😬. The crown jewel, the ultratrail of ultratrails, the cream of the crop, the “Jeju100M,” is the beasts of the lineup 👑 : 148 km and 5 000 m of cumulative elevation gain, with 4 Running Stones for UTMB qualifications in Chamonix 🏔️. Start from Seogwipo, the island’s second city, nestled on the southern coast. The “Jeju100K” offers 104 km and 4 000 mD+, which is already a solid chunk, including the ascent of Hallasan and the course along the crater lake at the Baekrokdam summit 🔝. 100K runners climb Hallasan at sunset 🌄, which the race director calls “very special.” “Very special” is Koreans’ way of saying you’ll get a sunset photo at the summit of a UNESCO-listed volcano that you’ll keep as wallpaper for at least two years 📸. The “Jeju60K” offers 60 km and 1 400 mD+. Note that the elevation gain drops significantly, reflecting the more coastal profile of this format. Finally, the “Jeju20K” with 508 mD+ is the perfect warm-up to test the terrain without exhausting all your physical and mental reserves 🤯.

What makes the TransJeju unique on the Asian racing scene of the UTMB circuit, is a combination you won’t find anywhere else. First, the “insularity” : you race on an island, which naturally creates an intimacy with the terrain that continental races don’t have 🏝️. No theoretical escape, no distant horizon toward another massif: you are on the island, in the island, you are almost... the island 😂. Then, the “verticality” : starting from the sea edge and climbing to 1 950 meters before descending the other side, it’s a complete crossing that tells the region’s geology in order. And finally, the Baekrokdam crater lake and the Youngsil Giam (a cliff of oddly shaped rocks) are passage points that don’t exist in any other race in the world. That’s a race with an identity 🌊.

The hosting city, Seogwipo, deserves a few words too. The island’s second city, on the southern coast facing the East China Sea, it’s famed for waterfalls plunging directly into the sea: the Jeongbang Falls, the only ones in East Asia to do so, and for its seafood markets, which the race director himself promote with enthusiasm. Indeed, Byeungsik Ahn wants participants and families to enjoy the local seafood specialties before and after the race. A race director who sells you the prowess of haenyeo (Jeju’s traditional women divers who have been spearheading ocean harvesting for centuries) and seaside restaurants just as much as his markers. We love this man 🦞.

The next edition will take place in autumn 🍂. October on Jeju is Korean autumn at its finest: mild temperatures, the Hallasan forests starting to turn red and orange 🧡, and a late-afternoon light over the Pacific that justifies the plane ticket on its own ✈️. If you’ve never run in Korea, never stepped foot on a volcanic island of this scale, and never had makgeolli around a trail runners’ table after a race, now’s the time to fix that.makgeolli

The volcano awaits you 🌋, and so does your bib!