⏵ Course guide · Overnight Tulsa RiverParks ultra
Midnight Madness runs through the night on Tulsa's RiverParks asphalt trail, past Turkey Mountain and across the Williams Crossing pedestrian bridge, with a 100 mile distance built around an unusual flexible-start structure. I will walk you through the start times and course first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan built for racing through the dark, plus free tools to dial in your own numbers.
These facts come from the official midnightmadness.run site. Distance-specific cutoffs and entry fees were not published on the main event page at the time of writing, so confirm both directly before you register.
The primary 10.5-mile loop out of 41st Street Plaza defines the course for every longer distance, repeated as many times as your entry requires.
The loop heads south along the Arkansas River to 71st Street, passing Turkey Mountain, before turning back north and crossing the newly lit Williams Crossing pedestrian bridge on the return to 41st Street Plaza. Distance runners repeat this loop, or a portion of it, through the night and into Sunday morning.
Rather than one fixed start, the 100 mile lets you begin your first 50 miles anytime after 6:00 AM Saturday, verified by GPS watch or Strava, then join everyone else for the midnight start of your second 50. That flexibility is unusual for a 100 miler and worth planning around deliberately rather than defaulting to the midnight option for both halves.
Aid sits at the Turkey Mountain lower parking lot, the 41st Street Plaza start/finish, and an unmanned stop at the West Bank Soccer Complex, stocked with water, Gatorade, and sweet and salty snacks. Plan your loop-by-loop resupply around those three points rather than expecting aid at every mile.
Racing from midnight into the next afternoon changes the pacing math: your body's normal circadian dip works against you exactly when you need to hold pace.
On a flat, paved, repeating loop like this one, it is tempting to bank fast early miles while you feel fresh. Resist that. The overnight hours between roughly 2:00 AM and sunrise are where pace typically erodes fastest, so a steady, repeatable per-loop time serves you better than an early surge you cannot hold once fatigue and low light both compound.
Starting your first 50 miles earlier than midnight, even by a few hours, gives you a head start on daylight running before the overnight stretch begins, but it also means less recovery time before the shared midnight start of your second 50. Decide your first-50 start time based on your own overnight running experience, not just convenience.
⏵ Free tools to pace this course
Three aid points and a hot Tulsa July afternoon at the tail end of the race make hydration and caffeine timing just as important as raw carbohydrate.
Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour while moving and sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range. The aid stations stock water, Gatorade, and sweet and salty snacks, a solid base to build on, but plan your own gels or chews for the stretches between the three aid points.
Save caffeine for the overnight hours when your body wants to sleep rather than run, rather than front-loading it early. As the race pushes into Sunday, a Tulsa July morning and early afternoon can turn hot fast, so shift your focus from caffeine back to hydration and electrolytes once the sun is up.
⏵ Build your fueling plan
Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight, your goal distance, and an overnight-into-hot-July- afternoon Tulsa race 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 overnight, repeat-loop demands of Midnight Madness. Summit Line reads your real training, builds the durability your distance needs, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.
It is a genuinely unusual structure. You can start your first 50 miles anytime after 6:00 AM Saturday, self-verified with a GPS watch or Strava, so you are not locked into a midnight start for the whole distance. Your second 50 miles is meant to begin with everyone else at 11:59 PM Saturday, though you can start it any time after midnight if you finish your first half earlier. Either way, the general guidance is to be finished by 2:00 PM Sunday afternoon.
The 50 mile, 50K, and 10.5 mile all start together at 11:59 PM on Saturday night, right at the midnight the race is named for. The 5K Ultra starts just after, at 12:05 AM Sunday. All of it converges on the same overall finish guidance of 2:00 PM Sunday afternoon.
You are running asphalt trails along the Arkansas River through the Tulsa RiverParks system. The primary 10.5-mile loop heads south to 71st Street, passing Turkey Mountain, then turns north and crosses the Williams Crossing pedestrian bridge before returning to the 41st Street Plaza start/finish. Runners going for the longer distances repeat that loop, or portions of it, multiple times through the night.
The course itself, paved RiverParks trail, is far less technical than a mountain ultra, so the real difficulty here is the overnight format: running through the night and into the next afternoon on pavement, with the fatigue and navigation challenges that come with racing in the dark. The race's own "generous time limits" language signals it is built to be approachable for walkers and hikers as well as fast runners, which softens the difficulty for anyone respecting the distance they choose.
Aid stations sit at the Turkey Mountain lower parking lot, the 41st Street Plaza start/finish, and an unmanned stop at the West Bank Soccer Complex, stocked with water, Gatorade, and sweet and salty snacks. Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour while moving and sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range, and lean on caffeine strategically through the overnight hours when your body wants to sleep rather than run. Build your own numbers with the free ultra fueling calculator.
Yes, for a few concrete reasons: the course is paved and non-technical, aid is available at fixed points you will pass repeatedly, and the "generous time limits" the race describes are meant to include walkers and hikers, not just fast runners. What makes it a genuine challenge, even at a shorter distance like the 50K or 10.5 mile, is simply racing through the night, so treat your first overnight start as practice for the fatigue and pacing discipline that a full-distance overnight ultra later demands.
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<a href="https://runsummitline.com/guides/midnight-madness">The Midnight Madness course guide</a><iframe src="https://runsummitline.com/embed/race/midnight-madness" style="width:100%;max-width:420px;height:180px;border:0;" loading="lazy" title="Midnight Madness 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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