Race Reminder
Never miss a trail ultra registration.
Live Site: racereminder.run
Race Reminder tracks 81 ultra-trail races — the full UTMB World Series calendar (65 events), the World Trail Majors, and independent classics like Western States, Hardrock, and the US 200-milers (Cocodona, Tahoe, Bigfoot, Moab) — with race dates, registration windows, entry methods (lottery vs. first come, first served), and index requirements in one clean calendar.
Why
Popular ultra-trail races sell out within days (sometimes hours) of registration opening, and every race has its own rules: UTMB Mont-Blanc runs a Running Stones lottery, Hong Kong 100 uses a ballot, Eiger Ultra-Trail is first come, first served. Keeping track of all these windows by hand means missed races. Race Reminder puts every window in one place — and emails you when the ones you care about open.
Features
- Browse 81 races across UTMB World Series, World Trail Majors, and independents
- Filter by series and distance range (≤50K / 50–100K / 100K / 100M / 200+), computed from each race's real course distances
- Registration countdowns — time until registration opens, or time left to register, sorted by what needs action next
- Derived race status — announced → registration open → closing soon → closed / sold out → completed → next edition; computed at runtime from stored facts, never stored by hand
- Email reminders — subscribe to a race with your email and get notified when its dates are announced, when its registration window opens, before it closes, and on the day of each dated step after that (lottery results, a second draw)
- Auto-updating data — a scraper syncs every UTMB race against its official site (event dates, distances, sold-out and registration status) every 2 hours via GitHub Actions
Roadmap
Running locally
Want to use the app? Just visit racereminder.run — no setup needed. The steps below are for developing or contributing.
Prerequisites
Installation
npm install
npm run dev
Open http://localhost:3000.
Environment variables (optional)
Only needed to actually send reminder emails — everything else works without configuration:
RESEND_API_KEY=re_... # from https://resend.com; without it, notify runs dry
EMAIL_FROM="Race Reminder <[email protected]>" # a sender verified in Resend (optional)
Project structure
race-reminder/
├── app/
│ ├── page.tsx # Server component: loads races, renders the page
│ ├── components/
│ │ └── race-browser.tsx # Client component: tabs, filters, subscribe buttons
│ └── api/
│ └── subscribe/route.ts # POST/DELETE subscription endpoint
├── lib/
│ ├── deriveStatus.ts # Facts → status derivation (the core logic)
│ └── subscriptions.ts # Subscriber storage shared by API + notifier
├── scripts/
│ ├── scrape.ts # Checks races against official UTMB sites
│ └── notify.ts # Emails subscribers when registration opens
└── data/
├── races.json # The race database (facts only)
└── subscriptions.json # Subscribers (gitignored, created on first use)
Available scripts
npm run dev # Start the dev server
npm run build # Production build
npm run lint # ESLint
npm run scrape # Diff every UTMB race against its official site (dry run)
npm run scrape -- --write # Apply the changes to data/races.json
npm run notify # Email subscribers whose races just opened (dry run without RESEND_API_KEY)
API endpoints
| Method | Endpoint | Description |
|---|
| POST | /api/subscribe | Subscribe an email to a race ({email, raceId}) |
| DELETE | /api/subscribe | Remove a subscription ({email, raceId}) |
Subscriptions are stored in data/subscriptions.json (gitignored — it contains email addresses). scripts/notify.ts reads them, derives each race's status, and emails subscribers whose race has an open window — at most once per race edition.
Data
Race data lives in data/races.json. The file stores facts only — status is derived at runtime by lib/deriveStatus.ts from the facts plus the current time. Each race record looks like:
{
"id": "utmb-mont-blanc",
"name": "UTMB Mont-Blanc",
"series": "utmb-world-series",
"country": "France",
"raceDate": "2026-08-28T06:00:00+02:00",
"registrationOpens": null,
"registrationCloses": "2026-01-15T23:59:59+01:00",
"registrationType": "lottery",
"entryRequirement": "UTMB Index 100M + Running Stones",
"distancesKm": [15, 40, 60, 101, 145, 174, 300],
"officialUrl": "https://montblanc.utmb.world/"
}
registrationOpens / registrationCloses are null when the organizer has not announced them yet (TBA in the UI). registrationType is fcfs, lottery, or qualification; lottery races may carry a lotteryDrawDate. The only manually stored status is soldOut: true — code cannot know a race sold out. Everything else (open, closing soon, closed, completed, next edition) is a conclusion, not a field.
Data sources
| Source | Coverage | Data provided |
|---|
| utmb.world event calendar | 65 UTMB World Series races | Names, dates, countries, distances, official sites |
Official race sites (via npm run scrape) | UTMB subdomains | Event dates, per-distance registration status |
| Manual curation | World Trail Majors + WSER/Hardrock + registration windows | Registration windows, entry requirements, lottery details |
Note: Dates are manually curated and may lag official announcements. Always confirm on the official race website before booking flights.
Tech stack
- Next.js (App Router) + React
- Tailwind CSS
- JSON files as the data store (deliberately simple for now)
- Resend for reminder emails
- Dependency-free scraper that reads the
__NEXT_DATA__ JSON embedded in UTMB race sites
Project journey
The research, design decisions, and lessons learned behind this project are documented in PROJECT_JOURNEY.md. The page's information architecture — every UI block, its data, and its display rules — lives in DESIGN.md.
Contributing
Data corrections are the most valuable contribution right now — if you spot a wrong date or a missing race, open a PR against data/races.json.
- Fork the repository
- Create a branch (
git checkout -b fix/eiger-2027-dates)
- Commit your changes
- Open a Pull Request
License
MIT
