The course
The Headlands races run entirely within the Marin Headlands of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, starting and finishing at Rodeo Beach near Sausalito. The course strings together classic coastal trails, the Coastal Trail, Miwok, SCA, and Wolf Ridge among them, on a mix of singletrack and fire road. The 50 mile event runs roughly two ~25 mile loops, and the Trail Marathon runs a single ~26.2 mile loop. The peaks are not high, but both routes still pile on a lot of steep, repeating gain and loss.
Steep loops, not a mountain climb
The Headlands has no real altitude, the high points are only a few hundred to roughly a thousand feet, but the trails go nearly straight up and straight down the coastal ridges. So instead of one or two long mountain ascents you get vertical in short, sharp pitches, over and over. Across the 50 mile distance that adds up to somewhere around 8,000 to 10,000 feet of climbing and a nearly equal amount of descent, because you keep dropping back toward sea level at Rodeo Beach.
That changes how you race it. There is no single crux climb to fear and then recover from. The hard part is the pounding adding up, climb after climb and descent after descent, so the runner who paces the ups by effort and runs the downs under control, lap after lap, beats the one who attacks early.
Ridgelines, exposure, and coastal fog
A lot of the route runs along open coastal ridgelines with big Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay views on a clear day. Those same open sections are why the weather matters so much here. The Headlands can be cool and socked in with fog, especially early and near the coast, or warm and fully exposed to the sun by midday. Fog keeps you cool and damp but cuts your visibility, and a clear, warm day on the open ridges pushes your fluid and sodium needs up.
Plan for both. Carry or stash a light layer for a foggy, breezy start, and be ready to deal with heat and sun on the exposed climbs if the marine layer burns off. The weather you train in may not be the weather you race in, so rehearse your kit and fueling across a range of conditions.
Where the race is won or lost
Here is the thing. The climbs are not what get you, the descents are. Total descent roughly matches total gain, and those steep, repeated downhills shred quads that are not ready for them. Runners who bomb the early descents pay for it later, when every remaining downhill turns into a braking grind. So controlled, light downhill running and quad-specific training are some of the most useful work you can do for this race.
The loop format is the other half of it, and that part is as much mental as physical. On the 50 mile course you cover the signature climbs more than once, so you know exactly what is coming on the second loop. Bank a sensible cushion against the cutoffs on loop one, keep eating, and stay in it when the same hills come around again and you are tired.
Aid stations and cutoffs
The course is well supported. Aid stations sit every few miles stocked with water, electrolyte drink, fruit, salty snacks, and real food, and the longer-distance stations have more substantial fare. Because aid is frequent you can run relatively light between stations, but you should still carry enough fluid to cover the exposed climbs on a warm day.
The 50 mile event has historically carried an overall limit in the 14 to 15 hour range with firm intermediate cutoffs, including one at the completion of the first loop, while the Trail Marathon has a more generous limit. That first-loop cutoff is real, so do not hike the front of the race casually. Check the official Headlands cutoff chart for the current edition and build your plan backward from those times with a buffer.
Pacing strategy for the Headlands
A steep, repeating-loop ultra rewards patience and punishes ego. Pace this one by effort and by grade, not by the flat-ground numbers from your home training runs.
Pace the climbs by grade, not by clock
With thousands of feet of short, sharp climbing, your moving pace will swing all over the place between the steep ups and the runnable rolling sections, and that is exactly how it should be. Power-hike the steep pitches efficiently and run the gentler grades. Trying to hold a steady minutes-per-mile number across this terrain is a fast way to cook the climbs and have nothing left for the descents and the second loop.
Use our free grade-adjusted pace calculator to turn your flat fitness into honest effort targets for the steep Headlands climbs, so you know whether you are pacing the vert in a way you can hold or burning matches you will want later in the race.
Protect your quads for the descents
The course descends about as much as it climbs, so downhill running is the quiet crux. Hold back on the early descents, run them controlled and light instead of letting gravity hammer your legs, and your second loop will be a lot better. The runners who finish strong are usually the ones who still have working quads when the same hills come around again.
To set a finish goal that actually accounts for all that vert, use our vert-aware race time calculator. It works the climbing into your projected finish so you are not stuck on a flat-course estimate that the Marin Headlands will quietly blow up.
Use the loop, and reality-check your goal
The repeating-loop format is a gift if you use it. Run a controlled, well-fueled first loop, pay attention to how the climbs feel and where you lost or gained time, and adjust on the second loop instead of guessing. Bank a cushion against the first-loop cutoff so the back half is run on your terms, not the clock.
If you want to know how your fitness from a recent race carries over to a steep 50 mile effort like this, our race equivalent calculator helps you reality-check your goal time before you commit to it.
Fueling strategy for the Headlands
A steep all-day effort with swingy coastal weather makes fueling and hydration matter as much as fitness. The big variable here is the weather, so plan for both cool fog and warm exposure.
Carbs: ramp to the high end, on a trained gut
For an effort this long, target roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, leaning toward the high end once your gut is trained to handle it. Use a glucose-plus-fructose blend so you can absorb more than a single sugar lets you, and rehearse your exact hourly carb number on long training runs so 80 to 90 g/h feels normal, not experimental, by race day.
The constant climbing makes it easy to forget to eat, because your effort spikes on every up. So set a timer or eat at every aid station and keep the fuel going in across the whole race, not just when it feels comfortable.
Sodium and fluid: built for the conditions
Your sodium and fluid needs at the Headlands lean heavily on the day you get. On a cool, foggy morning you may sweat very little. On a warm, exposed afternoon on the open ridges your losses climb fast. Bias your sodium toward 500 to 700 mg per liter of fluid and match your fluid intake to the weather you actually get, carrying enough to cover the exposed climbs between aid stations on a warm day.
Dial in a personalized plan with our free ultra fueling calculator. Enter your weight, your goal time, and the expected weather, and it gives you a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine prescription per hour built for the Headlands duration and conditions. Then go test it in training across both cool and warm runs.
This guide is for planning and training, and it reflects publicly available information about the Headlands 50M and Trail Marathon (formerly the Headlands Hundred). Race details, including the date, course, distances, elevation, aid stations, and cutoffs, can change year to year, and a recent edition was cancelled. Always confirm the current specifics on the official Headlands race website before you train or travel.