ITRA - what is it? Rules and how points are awarded.

An organisation, points that describe a race’s difficulty, and an index that evaluates you as an athlete. In fact, it’s one acronym with 3 separate meanings. How do you make sense of it? We explain in this article.

Find out what ITRA is as an organisation, how route difficulty is calculated, what you get points for, and much, much more. Let’s get started!

What is the ITRA system? Why was it created?

ITRA (International Trail Running Association) is a non-profit organisation founded in 2013. It deals with trail running and mountain running worldwide. Its main task was (and still is) to standardise classification and, as a result, maintain athlete rankings. Although in running slang everyone mainly talks about ITRA points, in practice it is the organisation that awards those points.

To earn points and a result for your Performance Index, you need to finish a race registered with ITRA (one that has been assigned a points value). And once you cross the finish line, you receive two things at once: race difficulty points (the same for everyone) and an individual result for your PI.

ITRA points vs Performance Index - what does each result mean?

ITRA points (officially Endurance Points - from 0 to 6) describe the difficulty of the race itself. They are identical for everyone who finishes a given event.
ITRA Performance Index, on the other hand, is an individual indicator (on a scale up to 1000) that assesses a given athlete’s level. It depends on the time in relation to the characteristics of the race. For example, an amateur usually sits around 300–500 points, while the world’s top athletes often exceed 850.

As you probably know, 10, 20 or 30 km on flat terrain is a completely different story from the same distance but, for example, uphill. That is why the ITRA system uses the so-called km-effort conversion factor. Only the result calculated this way forms the basis for race classification (and the points awarded later).

It is not a perfect tool, however, because while it measures distance and elevation gain, it does not cope well with factors such as technical terrain, the presence of mud, altitude above sea level, or changing weather conditions. As a result, different races with the same points value can differ in real difficulty. The organiser has to pay for such a points rating for the event. That is why some truly worthwhile races do not have ITRA points at all.

What are ITRA points awarded for and how are they assigned?

On this basis, each race is placed into one of the difficulty categories - from XXS (the shortest and easiest) up to XXL (the hardest). Along with the category, the race also receives the appropriate value (the already mentioned range from 0 to 6 points).

Naturally, the higher the km-effort, the higher the category and the more points. In practice, short races usually get 0–1 point, while demanding ultramarathons can earn 5 or the maximum 6.

How is an athlete’s result calculated (that is, the ITRA Performance Index)?

ITRA calculates it as a weighted average of up to five best results from the last 36 months. More recent starts carry more weight than those from years ago. The indicator is created separately for each category and separately for the overall ranking.

What are these points for and how long do they remain valid?

First - qualification. Some events treat them as an entry pass, so they are especially important if you plan to take part in large, oversubscribed races with a limited number of places.
Second - rankings. The Performance Index is used to compare athletes, create start lists and seed the elite field.

For the Performance Index, the above-mentioned 36-month window applies - older results do not disappear, but they lose weight. In turn, the “validity” of race difficulty points is determined by the rules of specific target events. That is why a completed race stays on your account forever. But whether its points still open the door to a given event depends on the time window set by its organiser.

How many ITRA points do you need for UTMB?

Currently, not a single one, because UTMB now uses a separate scoring ecosystem (including the UTMB Index and the so-called Running Stones). ITRA points did exist there in the past, but today they are no longer any kind of ticket to Chamonix. We broke down the full qualification mechanics (index, stones, draw) in detail in a separate article about the series and races of UTMB.