⏵ Course guide · Kansas technical singletrack
The Free State Trail Run sends you around a rocky, technical 6.75 mile loop through hardwood forest on the Perry MTB Trails near Ozawkie, Kansas, run as many times as your distance requires: one loop for the Quarter Marathon, up to six for the 40 Mile. I will walk you through the loop and its climbing first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan built for a repeated technical course, plus free tools to dial in your own numbers.
These facts come from the official race registration page. Check the current year details, cutoffs, and aid stations before you commit. Race logistics change year to year.
Every distance at Free State runs the same 6.75-mile loop through hardwood forest on the Perry MTB Trails: one loop for the Quarter Marathon, two for the Half, four for the Marathon, and six for the 40 Mile. The loop was deliberately shortened from the full trail system, both for weather-safety reasons and to cut out the network's tallest hills.
Each loop carries 752 feet of ascent and 752 feet of descent. That is not a huge number on its own, but a 40-Miler running six loops racks up close to 4,500 feet of total climbing on rocky, technical singletrack, and the race's own course notes call it "very rocky and technical" without much apology. Treat every loop as real work, not a recovery lap, no matter how many times you have already done it that day.
The only staffed aid station, stocked with sports drink, water, Coke, Ginger Ale, and food items, sits at the start/finish area, which you pass every 6.75 miles. Two unstaffed water-only stations sit at mile 2.6 and mile 4.3 of each loop, so a hydration device is effectively required, and the race says so directly. Plan your carry accordingly rather than assuming aid will be close by all day.
One drop bag is allowed for every distance except the Quarter Marathon, staged near the start/finish, which you pass repeatedly during longer distances. Forty-Milers and slower marathoners are required to carry a flashlight or headlamp in that bag, since the field will be out well past dark on the longer distances. Use the repeated access to restock nutrition, swap shoes, or adjust layers, rather than carrying everything for the whole race from the start.
The single hard checkpoint, a 6:30 PM start on your final 40-Mile loop, gives you 10.5 hours from the 8:00 AM gun to finish five loops and begin the sixth. Build your pacing around that number, not around a generic ultra pace chart.
A grade-adjusted pace target accounts for the 752 feet of climbing per loop, but technical, rocky singletrack also costs time that flat elevation math will not capture on its own. Build in a buffer for footing, especially as fatigue accumulates over four, five, or six loops and your feet stop finding the smooth line as easily.
Because the course is loop-based, you get real pacing data after your first lap or two. A finish-time projection built off your actual early loop splits, extrapolated across your full distance, tells you honestly whether you are on track for the 6:30 PM final-loop start, while you still have room to adjust effort rather than finding out with two loops left.
⏵ Free tools to pace this course
With full aid only at the start/finish and water-only stops on the loop itself, your own carried nutrition matters more here than at races with aid every few miles.
Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, and think in terms of what you need to carry for one 6.75-mile loop rather than the full race, since you will restock at the start/finish every time through. That keeps your vest or belt light on a course where rocky footing already asks a lot of your legs.
A hydration device is close to mandatory given the two remote water-only stations at mile 2.6 and mile 4.3. Keep sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range, and use each pass through the start/finish aid station to top off both fluid and electrolytes rather than pushing to the next loop on what you started with.
⏵ Build your fueling plan
Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight, your goal time, and a rocky Kansas loop course 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, this exact rocky loop course, and your projected splits. Summit Line reads your real training, builds a plan for repeated technical terrain, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.
The course description undersells it: "not much elevation gain or loss" sits alongside a published 752 feet of ascent and 752 feet of descent on every 6.75-mile loop. Run the 40-Mile and you climb that six times, roughly 4,500 feet of total gain, on 100% rocky, technical singletrack through hardwood forest. Nothing about the terrain is extreme by mountain standards, but the constant, repetitive rock and root footing wears on you loop after loop in a way flatter Midwest courses do not.
Each 6.75-mile loop carries 752 feet of ascent and 752 feet of descent, and the loop count sets your total: one loop for the Quarter Marathon, two for the Half, four for the Marathon, and six for the 40-Mile, which works out to roughly 4,500 feet of climbing over the full distance. It is not big single climbs, it is steady rolling terrain repeated as many times as your registered distance requires.
Full aid, including sports drink, water, Coke, Ginger Ale, and food items, is only at the start/finish area, which you pass every 6.75 miles. The two remote aid stations at mile 2.6 and mile 4.3 of each loop carry water only, so a hydration device or handheld is effectively required rather than optional. Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, and use every start/finish pass to restock rather than trying to carry a full loop's worth of nutrition from the gun. Build your numbers with the free ultra fueling calculator before race day.
The race publishes one hard checkpoint: 40-Mile runners must start their final loop by 6:30 PM. From an 8:00 AM start, that gives you 10.5 hours to complete five loops and begin the sixth, which is a real number to pace against rather than an afterthought. The race also requires 40-Milers to carry a working headlamp or flashlight after 4:30 PM, so plan your gear for finishing in the dark even if you are on pace.
The course runs entirely on singletrack through hardwood forest on the Perry MTB Trails, with occasional views of Lake Perry breaking up the tree cover. It is described as very rocky and technical, and the 6.75-mile loop was specifically chosen, in part, so runners could be pulled off course quickly in severe weather and to avoid the trail system's tallest hills, which tells you something about how the rest of the network runs. Expect to watch your footing on every lap, fresh legs or tired.
The Quarter Marathon (one 6.75-mile loop) and Half Marathon (two loops) give newer trail runners a real taste of the technical Perry Lake singletrack without committing to a full ultra distance. For a first-time Marathon or 40-Mile attempt, the loop format is genuinely useful: you pass the fully stocked start/finish aid station and your own drop bag every 6.75 miles, which simplifies crewing and fueling logistics a lot compared with a point-to-point course. The trade-off is the technical, rocky footing repeated loop after loop, which rewards runners who have trained specifically on rooty, uneven trail rather than smooth path.
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<a href="https://runsummitline.com/guides/free-state-trail-run">The Free State Trail Run course guide</a><iframe src="https://runsummitline.com/embed/race/free-state-trail-run" style="width:100%;max-width:420px;height:180px;border:0;" loading="lazy" title="Free State Trail Run course guide by Summit Line"></iframe>This guide is independent and for planning only. The course details, dates, cutoffs, and aid stations 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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