⏵ Course guide · Flat New York canal ultra
Beast of Burden Summer sends its 100 Mile, 50 Mile, and 25 Mile fields out and back along the historic Erie Canal Towpath in Lockport, New York, a flat, well-supported course that has become a popular first-100-mile choice. I will walk you through the out-and-back structure and aid stations first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan built for a flat course repeated multiple times, plus free tools to dial in your own numbers.
These facts come from the official UltraSignup registration page. Cutoff times and total elevation gain were not published there as of this writing; check the official race site for the current details. Logistics can change year to year.
Every distance runs the same fundamental leg along the Erie Canal Towpath. The 25 Miler covers it once, the 50 Miler twice, and the 100 Miler four times.
The race starts at Wide Water's Marina, where you have access to showers, restrooms, and a fully stocked aid station before you even leave. Runners cover about a mile of paved trail, cross the canal on one of Lockport's historic draw bridges, and settle into the Erie Canal Towpath for the bulk of the route, a flat, continuous surface with no significant elevation change.
About 6 miles in, you reach a second fully stocked aid station with a chance to get out of the sun. From there, another 5.5 miles brings you to the Village of Middleport, roughly 12.5 miles from the start, where a third aid station marks the turnaround. Every out-and-back leg is identical, so once you have run it once you know exactly what is coming on every repeat.
Aid stations along the way stock a genuine spread: Heed, water, coffee, Coke, gels, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken broth, pizza, pancakes, and donuts among other items. With three aid stations packed into each roughly 25-mile leg, you are never far from real food, which matters a lot if you are out there for the full 100 mile distance across four repeats.
A flat towpath invites even splits more than almost any trail course you will find, but repeating the same out-and-back multiple times punishes an early pace you cannot sustain just as surely as a mountain course does.
Without hills to naturally throttle your effort, it is easy to drift faster than you intend on fresh legs. Pick a per-mile pace you could defend on paper for the entire distance, whether that is one out-and-back or four, and treat any early leg that beats that number as a withdrawal against later legs rather than free progress.
Because the course is the same out-and-back run multiple times, it helps to think in terms of legs completed rather than raw mileage, especially for the 50 and 100 Mile distances. A race-time prediction built off your real fitness gives you a target finish for the whole distance; check your actual leg splits against that target after each repeat so you can adjust before a bad leg becomes a bad race.
⏵ Free tools to pace this course
With real food at every aid station and legs short enough to plan around, this is one of the more forgiving courses to build a proper fueling rhythm on, especially across the 50 and 100 Mile distances.
Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, and use the grilled cheese, pizza, and pancakes on offer to break up a diet of pure gels well before you actually need the variety. Mid-August in western New York can run warm, so keep sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range and lean higher through the middle of the day.
Because every leg passes through the same three aid stations, you can plan exactly what you want available at each one without guessing. Use that predictability to your advantage on the 50 and 100 Mile distances: stage specific foods or gear changes at the marina for each pass through, rather than carrying everything you might need for the entire race at once.
⏵ Build your fueling plan
Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight, your goal time, and a flat multi-lap ultra with the free ultra fueling calculator. Browse the rest of the free running tools at the tools hub.
⏵ Train for it with Summit Line
Get a race-day plan built around YOUR fitness and whichever Beast of Burden distance you pick. Summit Line reads your real training, builds the time-on-feet durability a flat, repeated course demands, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.
It runs along the historic Erie Canal Towpath in Lockport, New York, starting at Wide Water's Marina. Runners cover about a mile of paved trail before crossing the canal on one of Lockport's historic draw bridges, then follow the towpath roughly 6 miles to a second fully stocked aid station, and another 5.5 miles to a turnaround and third aid station in the Village of Middleport, about 12.5 miles from the start. The 25 Miler covers that out-and-back once, the 50 Miler twice, and the 100 Miler four times.
The terrain itself is about as forgiving as ultrarunning gets: a flat canal towpath with no real elevation change, which is exactly why the race has built a reputation as a popular first-100-mile choice and a fast, PR-friendly option even for veterans. The difficulty comes entirely from the distance and the repetition of the same out-and-back, rather than from technical footing or climbing.
Specific cutoff times were not published on the official registration page as of this writing. Given the flat, repeated out-and-back format, expect the race to set cutoffs based on the towpath's consistent terrain rather than technical difficulty. Check the current cutoff sheet on the official race site or at packet pickup before you finalize your pacing plan.
Beast of Burden runs twice a year on the same Erie Canal Towpath course, a Winter edition in January and this Summer edition in August. Any runner who completes the 100 Mile distance at both the Winter Beast and the Summer Beast in the same calendar year earns the "Double Beast Buckle," a distinct award on top of the standard finisher recognition for each individual race.
The marina start/finish and the out-and-back aid stations are stocked with a real mix of ultra food: Heed, water, coffee, Coke, gels, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken broth, pizza, pancakes, donuts, and more. With three aid stations packed into each roughly 25-mile out-and-back leg, you have frequent access to real food rather than relying only on what you carry.
It has built a real reputation as exactly that. The flat, non-technical towpath removes a lot of the variables that make a first 100 miler intimidating, climbing, technical footing, navigation, and the frequent aid station spacing means support is never far away. The trade-off is that a flat, repeated out-and-back tests mental resilience and pacing discipline in a different way than a mountain course does: there is nowhere to hide from the monotony of the same towpath four times over, so plan your mental strategy for that repetition as seriously as your physical training.
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<a href="https://runsummitline.com/guides/beast-of-burden-summer">The Beast of Burden Summer course guide</a><iframe src="https://runsummitline.com/embed/race/beast-of-burden-summer" style="width:100%;max-width:420px;height:180px;border:0;" loading="lazy" title="Beast of Burden Summer course guide by Summit Line"></iframe>This guide is independent and for planning only. The course details, dates, and logistics come from public sources and can change year to year, so confirm the current specifics with the official race before you register or run. The fueling and pacing advice is general and not medical advice.
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