Meet BUTS co-founder Greg Wingo

Greg Wingo is co-founder of the Birmingham Ultra Trail Society and outside the trail world? “I’m a paddling race director. I direct Great Alabama 650, the longest paddle race in the USA, and Last Paddler Standing, the premier endurance SUP (stand up paddling) event.

When did you start trail running and why? I started sometime around 2010. I took the common path that most trail runners take; I started out running road races and after some time I wanted to move to something more fun and freeing.

What is your favorite distance? Anything long. I don’t race much anymore but I’ll gladly go run a long distance anywhere as long as it’s taking me to a cool place.

Biggest mistake new trail runners make? Not training in less than ideal conditions. Many runners avoid training days when it’s rainy or cold. You need to train in all conditions because you’re likely to experince all condiitions at some point in your many races.

Favorite food on the run? Swedish Fish (the candy, not the boiled variety).

Best place you’ve been blessed to run? Wow, that’s a tough one. It’s probably a tossup between Albania and Colombia.

What’s something people don’t know about you? I won the state gold medal for violin as a kid.

Biggest mistake ever on Ultra Signup? The entire year of 2014. I was coming off my first 100 in 2013 and started signing up for everything else before I’d given myself some time to rest and recover. There’s probably a lot of DNFs and DNSs in that year.

Earlier in the BUTS blog:

Meet BUTS Vice-President Andrew Channell

Meet Trey Clark, co-founder of Zombie Trail Races

Meet the woman behind Dirty Soles Trail Races LLC Becki Jones

Find out more about Bob Watters, a BUTS OG and 2022 200-mile finisher