The new ITRAPerformance Index

Why the index is changing

The Performance Index was built to answer one question: how do you compare a 31 km alpine race won in under three hours with a 171 km ultra that takes twenty? For more than a decade a single weighted model has done that job for over five million runners.

Trail running has changed faster than the model. Short technical racing has become its own discipline, vertical formats have exploded, and race fields are deeper in more countries than ever. The new index is a response to that: same 0–1000 scale, a far more precise engine behind it.

A terrain-aware model

Instead of treating elevation as a single correction, the new model scores vertical gain, descent, technicality and surface separately. A runner racing 2,700 m of climb over 42 km of rock is no longer flattened into the same profile as a rolling forest marathon.

Field strength is also recalculated continuously rather than once per season, so a breakout result in a deep field is recognised immediately instead of a year later.

Fairer across formats

Short, Long, Ultra and Ultra Long keep their identity, but cross-format comparison becomes explicit: each athlete carries a headline index plus a profile showing where that number comes from. Selectors can see whether an 890 was earned on steep technical ground or on fast runnable terrain.

Faster and fully transparent

Certified results will feed the index within days of a race rather than weeks. And for the first time the complete methodology, including weightings, terrain coefficients and field-strength calculation, will be published alongside worked examples.

Rollout

The new index enters public beta during the 2026 season, running in parallel with the current index so athletes can compare both. It becomes the official ITRA Performance Index for the 2027 season, with historical results recalculated so progression stays continuous.