⏵ Course guide · Central Mississippi one-mile loop
Clear Creek Ultra runs on private trails near Crystal Springs, Mississippi, on a single-track, one-mile loop the race itself calls "deceivingly cruel but too beautiful not to run again and again." I will walk you through the loop and self-reported scoring first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan built for a race you can stop whenever you choose, plus free tools to dial in your own numbers.
These facts come from the official mutsrunning.org site. Elevation gain per loop was not published there at the time of writing. Course markings and logistics can change year to year, so confirm the current details before you register or run.
There is no varied route here. A single one-mile loop is the entire course, repeated as many times as you choose within the 10-hour window.
The race describes its own loop as "deceivingly cruel," with creek crossings and hills that make the mile harder than it sounds on paper. Running it a dozen or more times for a full 50K means you get intimately familiar with every technical section, for better or worse, by the time you finish.
There is a 3-loop minimum, then it is entirely up to you how far to go, up to a full 50K, as long as your last loop finishes before the 5:00 PM cutoff. Loop counts are self-reported to UltraSignup rather than chip-timed, so an honest, careful tally as you go is part of the race itself.
The Start/Finish aid station, stocked with water, Tailwind sports drink, and food, sits right on your loop, so you pass it every single mile. That is a real advantage for dialing in your own fueling rhythm compared to races with aid spaced several miles apart.
Because you decide how many loops to run, pacing here is less about hitting a fixed distance and more about managing the mental repetition of the same demanding mile.
With creek crossings and hills inside a single mile, your per-loop time will naturally vary more than on a flatter course. Find a pace on your first few loops that you can hold with minimal drift, then use any slowdown from that baseline as your signal for when to stop rather than push toward the full 50K.
Because the format lets you stop at any loop count past the 3-loop minimum, decide in advance whether you are chasing the full 50K or a shorter, controlled effort. Making that call mid-race, when you are tired and the same mile is starting to feel repetitive, is much harder than deciding it fresh at the start line.
⏵ Free tools to pace this course
Passing the Start/Finish aid station every single mile means you can build a genuinely precise per-hour fueling plan, not just an approximate one.
Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour while moving and sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range. With aid every mile, you can adjust your intake in real time based on how you feel loop to loop, rather than committing to a plan you cannot change until the next widely spaced station.
Mid-October in central Mississippi can still run warm, especially by midday within the 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM window. Keep your fluid and sodium intake steady through the middle of the day rather than assuming fall temperatures will keep things cool throughout.
⏵ Build your fueling plan
Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight, your goal distance, and a mid-October Mississippi day 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 training plan built around YOUR fitness and the mental and physical grind of repeating one demanding mile. Summit Line reads your real training, builds the durability your goal distance needs, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.
Everything runs on the same single-track, one-mile loop. There is a 3-loop minimum, and you can keep going up to a full 50K as long as you finish your last loop by the 5:00 PM cutoff. Loop counts are self-reported to UltraSignup rather than chip-timed, so keeping your own honest count matters.
The whole event runs on a 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM window, 10 hours total. Because the course is a repeating one-mile loop, you have complete control over exactly when you stop, whether that is the 3-loop minimum or a full 50K, as long as your last loop finishes before 5:00 PM.
The race describes its own one-mile loop as "deceivingly cruel but too beautiful not to run again and again," with creek crossings and hills packed into that short distance. Running the same demanding mile dozens of times for a 50K is a real mental test on top of the physical one, different from covering new ground the way most ultras do.
With one aid station at the start/finish, which you pass every single mile given the loop format, you can build an extremely dialed-in fueling plan and refuel on your own schedule rather than waiting for widely spaced aid. Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour while moving and sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range, adjusted for a mid-October Mississippi day. Build your own numbers with the free ultra fueling calculator.
No. The race does not allow personal dogs at this event because the hosts have their own animals on the property. Plan your race-day logistics accordingly if you normally run or crew with a dog.
The one-mile loop format is unusual, but it has real first-timer advantages: aid is never more than a mile away, you can stop at any loop count once you hit the 3-loop minimum, and the $25 entry keeps the barrier low. What it demands instead of distance-management skills is mental resilience for repeating the same demanding mile many times over, which is a different kind of preparation than a typical point-to-point or wide-loop 50K.
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<a href="https://runsummitline.com/guides/clear-creek-ultra">The Clear Creek Ultra course guide</a><iframe src="https://runsummitline.com/embed/race/clear-creek-ultra" style="width:100%;max-width:420px;height:180px;border:0;" loading="lazy" title="Clear Creek Ultra course guide by Summit Line"></iframe>This guide is independent and for planning only. The format, date, and course 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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