Podbrdo Trail Running Festival

Q: How hard is the GM4O 40.6km compared to other 40km mountain races? A: The GM4O is one of the most gradient-intense 40km courses in the DiscoverTrailRaces catalogue. At 76.35 m/km D+ (3,100m across 40.6km), it ranks in the top 4% of ~390 courses by climbing density — only 14 courses have more D+ per kilometer. The average uphill gradient ranks in the top 7% globally (27 of ~390). The average downhill gradient ranks among the top 3% most demanding (378 of ~390 on a gentleness-ranked scale where rank 1 = gentlest). Only 3.52% of the course is flat. This is a course that demands extreme technical mountain movement — both up and down severe gradients — across 40km with almost no gradient recovery terrain between features.

Q: Who won the GM4O 40.6km at Podbrdo Trail Running Festival 2025? A: In 2025, Tine Žimond (KGT Papež) won the men’s race in 4:13:11. Barbara Jolić (Šmarnogorska naveza) won the women’s race in 5:09:58. The 2025 race served as the Slovenian National Short Trail Championship, adding a championship layer to the event. Complete finisher count for 2025 is not confirmed in our records — full timing results are available at the Timing Ljubljana website.

Q: What does WMRA World Championship host status mean for the GM4O course? A: The GM4O hosted the 13th WMRA World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships in 2016, and the 8th WMRA World Long Distance Mountain Running Challenge in 2011. WMRA world championships are held on courses that meet strict international technical standards for mountain running terrain — sustained natural climbing and descending on mountain trails at high gradient. Hosting twice places this specific course in a very small global cohort of elite mountain running venues. For runners using the DTR database to find world-class mountain terrain, this is the clearest external validation the GM4O course can receive.

Q: What is the history of the GM4O and how long has it been running? A: The Gorski Maraton Štirih Občin (Mountain Marathon of Four Municipalities) has results on record from at least 2002 and celebrates its 25th anniversary in the 2026 edition — making it one of the oldest mountain running events in Slovenia. The race is organised by Turistično društvo Podbrdo, the local Tourism Society of Podbrdo, a volunteer community organisation that has shaped the event across its full history. The Baška grapa valley is identified by race organisers as the site of the first mountain run in Slovenia, held in 1970. The Podbrdo Trail Running Festival has since grown to three distances (40.6km, 70.1km, 103.8km) but the GM4O is the founding event.