⏵ Course guide · Nashville cult-classic trail marathon
The Flying Monkey Marathon runs 26.2 miles of big, rolling hills through Percy Warner Park in Nashville, more than 7,200 feet of total elevation change on a course the organizers deliberately left uncertified. Entry is by lottery. I will walk you through what makes this course hard first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan built for sustained rolling climbs, plus free tools to dial in your own numbers.
These facts come from the official Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon site. Check the current year details and entry timeline before you commit. Race logistics change year to year.
The marathon runs through Percy Warner Park in the Harpeth Hills, more than 3,600 feet of gain and more than 3,600 feet of loss across 26.2 miles. The organizers built this course to be hard, not fast.
This is not a course with one big mountain. It is built from repeated big and memorable rolling hills through dense woods, the kind of terrain that punishes a runner who treats every hill as a one-off rather than pacing for the cumulative effect of dozens of them over 26.2 miles.
The race explicitly will not be USATF certified and will not qualify you for Boston. The organizers frame this as a feature: a marathon built purely around running hard over a genuinely tough course, with no bands, wave starts, or crowds, and a promise that if the course runs long or short on your watch, that is just how it goes.
Entry is by lottery, with a limited number of charity spots available outside it. If the Flying Monkey is on your list, plan around the lottery timeline well before race season rather than expecting to register on demand.
With more total elevation change than many trail 50Ks packed into a marathon distance, a flat-road pacing plan will not survive contact with this course.
Leave your road marathon goal pace at home. A grade-adjusted pace target accounts for the constant climbing and descending here, giving you an honest number for what effort you can sustain across dozens of rolling hills rather than the flat number you might chase on a certified road course.
A vert-aware finish prediction, built around this course's 7,200+ feet of total change, will look nothing like a flat marathon time converter, and that is the point. Use it to set a realistic goal before race day so you are not chasing a number this terrain was never going to let you hit.
⏵ Free tools to pace this course
Late November in Nashville usually means cool, sometimes cold, race conditions, but 7,200+ feet of climbing will still drive real carbohydrate and sodium needs over the course of a longer marathon.
Aim for roughly 45 to 75 grams of carbohydrate per hour for a marathon-distance effort, leaning toward the higher end if the hills push your finish time well past a flat-course marathon pace. The official race page does not publish specific aid station food details, so plan to carry what you need and confirm current aid on harpethhillsmarathon.com closer to race day.
Sodium in the 300 to 500 mg per liter range covers most runners in typical late-November Nashville weather. If the day runs unusually warm or humid for the season, shift toward 500 to 700 mg per liter, especially given how much sustained climbing effort this course demands compared to its distance on paper.
⏵ Build your fueling plan
Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight, your goal time, and a cool Tennessee hill 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 race-day plan built around YOUR fitness, this exact 7,200+ ft rolling-hills course profile, and your projected splits. Summit Line reads your real training, builds a plan for sustained climbing on marathon distance, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.
The race's own copy calls the course "beastly," and the numbers back it up: over 3,600 feet each of gain and loss, more than 7,200 feet of total elevation change, packed into a 26.2 mile route of big, rolling hills through dense woods in Percy Warner Park. It is intentionally not USATF certified and not a Boston Qualifier, since the organizers built this as a hard, honest trail marathon rather than a fast, record-eligible one.
The official race page states over 3,600 feet of elevation gain and over 3,600 feet of elevation loss, for more than 7,200 feet of total elevation change across the marathon. That is an unusually large vert total for a road-adjacent-distance race, closer to a mountain trail race than a typical city marathon, and it comes from repeated rolling hills through Percy Warner Park rather than one sustained climb.
Entry is by lottery, with a limited number of additional charity spots available outside the lottery. The organizers keep the field intentionally small and low-key: no wave starts, no bands, no big crowds. If you want in, plan around the lottery timeline on harpethhillsmarathon.com rather than expecting open registration.
No. The official race page states directly that the course will not be certified and will not be a Boston Qualifying event. The organizers are explicit that this is deliberate: the race is about running hard over a genuinely tough course, not about chasing a certified time. If your gadget says the course ran long, they will not charge you extra; if it ran short, keep running.
The Half Monkey is the half marathon companion event, held the Sunday before the full marathon, November 15, 2026 ahead of the November 22, 2026 marathon. It shares the same Percy Warner Park setting and rolling-hills character as the full distance, at half the length.
It is a demanding one to start with. Over 7,200 feet of total elevation change on a 26.2 mile course is a serious step up from a typical road marathon, and the race is proud of being hard rather than beginner-friendly. If you have run trail before and want a genuinely tough, community-loved bucket-list marathon, this is a strong pick; if you are looking for an easier introduction to trail marathons, consider building up to this one.
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<a href="https://runsummitline.com/guides/harpeth-hills-flying-monkey-marathon">The Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon course guide</a><iframe src="https://runsummitline.com/embed/race/harpeth-hills-flying-monkey-marathon" style="width:100%;max-width:420px;height:180px;border:0;" loading="lazy" title="Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon course guide by Summit Line"></iframe>This guide is independent and for planning only. The course details, dates, and entry rules 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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