⏵ Course guide · North Carolina timed classic
For 20 years, the Hinson Lake 24 Hour Ultra Classic has sent runners around a USATF-certified 1.5032-mile loop through the woods and over 16 wooden footbridges in Rockingham, North Carolina, for a full 24 hours. There is no distance to hit, only the clock. I will walk you through the format first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan built for a flat, repetitive day-and-night effort, plus free tools to dial in your own numbers.
These facts come from the official race registration page. Formats, caps, and entry details can change year to year, so confirm the current specifics before you commit.
Every runner here shares the same certified 1.5032-mile loop around Hinson Lake, on sand and gravel trail through the woods, crossing 16 small wooden footbridges including one 300-foot span over the lake itself. The race is really a contest of pacing discipline and mental toughness across as many repeats of that loop as you can manage in 24 hours.
At just over 1.5 miles, the loop is short enough that you will run it dozens of times over 24 hours, and long enough to have real character: sand and gravel underfoot, a run through the woods, and 16 wooden footbridges to cross every single lap. The course is USATF certified and the event is USATF sanctioned, so your distance and any records are on solid footing.
Starting at 8:00 AM Saturday, a large share of the field will be on the loop well past dark. The course is marked for race day and switches to chem-lights at night, so plan your own lighting and know the trail will look different after sunset than it did on your first few laps.
To prevent overcrowding on a short loop, all pacers must be registered entrants themselves rather than outside pacers joining just to help you. Keep that in mind if your race-day plan includes bringing someone in specifically to pace you late in the event.
With no distance target and no finish line to reach, pacing here is entirely about sustainable effort across the full 24 hours rather than a single split to hit.
A short, flat, non-technical loop tempts you to run fast early because it feels easy. Resist it. Pick an effort you could hold, with planned walk breaks, for the entire 24 hours rather than banking early laps you cannot sustain into the second half of the event.
Because the course is loop-based, you get honest, immediate pacing data after every single lap. Use a finish-distance projection built off your real early lap splits to see whether your current effort is sustainable across 24 hours, and adjust early while you still have room to.
⏵ Free tools to pace this course
Passing the start/finish and aid area every 1.5 miles is a real advantage. Use it to fuel on a schedule instead of by feel.
Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, and use the constant access to your own supplies to keep intake consistent across all 24 hours rather than front-loading early or letting it slip as fatigue sets in overnight.
Keep sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range, leaning higher through the warmer daytime hours. Late September in Rockingham, North Carolina can still run warm in the afternoon and cool off significantly overnight, so plan your clothing and hydration to shift with the temperature rather than setting one number for the whole event.
⏵ Build your fueling plan
Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight, your goal distance, and a full 24-hour effort 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 this exact flat, looped timed format. Summit Line reads your real training, builds a plan for sustained flat-ground effort and durability, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.
It is a timed race, not a fixed-distance one: you run a certified 1.5032-mile loop around Hinson Lake for 24 hours starting at 8:00 AM Saturday, and your total distance covered when the clock stops is your result. There is also a 100K category recognized within the 24-hour field, with its own overall awards, for runners targeting that specific distance rather than the full 24 hours.
The loop itself is not technical: a sand/gravel-maintained trail through the woods, USATF certified, with 16 small wooden footbridges including a 300-foot span over the lake. What makes 24-hour racing hard is not the terrain, it is running the same 1.5-mile loop dozens and dozens of times through a full day and night, managing sleep, fueling, and motivation long after the course has stopped feeling new. The event has sold out to its 500-runner cap in recent years, which says something about its reputation in the Southeast timed-race community.
A course this short (1.5032 miles) means you pass the start/finish and aid area constantly, which is a real advantage for fueling: you can restock or adjust every single lap instead of carrying supplies for miles at a time. Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, and keep sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range, adjusting for whatever late-September North Carolina weather brings across a full day and night. Build your numbers with the free ultra fueling calculator before race day.
Because it is a timed event, the 24-hour window is the cutoff. There is no distance to complete, only as much distance as you can cover before the clock stops. For runners specifically targeting the 100K award category, confirm any distance-specific timing details on the current registration page, since the primary format is simply time-based.
The course is a 1.5032-mile certified inner loop that circles Hinson Lake on a sand/gravel-maintained trail through the woods, crossing 16 small wooden footbridges, including one 300-foot bridge over the lake itself. The trail is marked for race day and uses chem-lights at night, since a large share of the field will be running through full darkness on a 24-hour clock.
The short, flat, non-technical loop removes the terrain risk that makes some first ultras intimidating, and the constant access to the start/finish area every 1.5 miles makes crewing yourself, or being crewed, dramatically simpler than at a point-to-point race. The challenge is entirely about pacing discipline and mental toughness across 24 hours of repetition, which is a different skill than covering a fixed distance. Registration fills quickly to the 500-runner cap, so plan to register early if you want in.
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<a href="https://runsummitline.com/guides/hinson-lake-24-hour-ultra-classic">The Hinson Lake 24 Hour Ultra Classic course guide</a><iframe src="https://runsummitline.com/embed/race/hinson-lake-24-hour-ultra-classic" style="width:100%;max-width:420px;height:180px;border:0;" loading="lazy" title="Hinson Lake 24 Hour Ultra Classic course guide by Summit Line"></iframe>This guide is independent and for planning only. The format, date, and entry details 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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