⏵ Course guide · 10-mile loop ultra festival
Potawatomi Trail Runs repeats a 10-mile loop at McNaughton Park in Pekin, Illinois, across six distances from 10 miles up to 200 miles, 1,500 feet of gain every lap and aid every 5 miles. I will walk you through the loop structure first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan built for repeated laps and multi-day racing, plus free tools to dial in your own numbers.
These facts come from the official UltraSignup registration page. Race director Mike Kelsey and the Potawatomi Trail Races Facebook page are the primary sources for updates, so confirm the current specifics there before you commit.
Every distance at Potawatomi, from the 10 mile to the 200 mile, runs the same 10-mile loop through McNaughton Park. Your distance is simply how many times you repeat it, with start times staggered so the shortest events begin latest and the longest begin first.
The loop mixes mostly singletrack dirt with some open prairie and several creek crossings, plus what the race's own description calls "endless rolling hills." At 1,500 feet of gain per loop, the climbing adds up fast: about 15,000 feet for the 100 mile, and more for the 150 and 200 mile distances.
With aid stations every 5 miles, you are never far from support, and free primitive camping is available on-site starting Thursday in a field you literally run past every loop. Most runners set up a home base there, using it as a personal aid station with easy pacer and crew access all weekend.
The 200 mile starts at noon Thursday with a 76 hour cutoff, which turns Potawatomi into a real multi-day event for anyone chasing that distance. Sleep strategy and mental pacing across four days become as important as raw fitness at that length, a very different challenge from the shorter distances on the same loop.
Because every distance runs the same 10-mile loop, your early laps give you real, directly comparable data for every lap that follows, a real advantage over a point-to-point course.
A grade-adjusted pace target for the loop's rolling hills gives you an honest per-lap time you can sustain across your full distance, whether that is 5 loops for the 50 mile or 20 loops for the 200 mile. Consistency across laps beats a fast opening loop that fades by lap five.
Because you get real split data after just one or two laps, a vert-aware finish prediction built off those early splits, extrapolated across your remaining loops, is far more honest than any generic ultra pace estimate. Check that projection against your distance's cutoff early, while you still have laps left to adjust.
⏵ Free tools to pace this course
Mid-April in Illinois can deliver a warm afternoon and a cold, wet night within the same weekend, and the longer distances here run through multiple full day-night cycles.
Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour. With aid stations every 5 miles and your own camp accessible every loop, you can keep your intake steady and precise rather than guessing at what to carry between long, remote gaps.
Sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range covers most runners for the shorter distances. If you are running the 150 or 200 mile, build in real food and a sleep strategy alongside your carbohydrate plan, since sustained multi-day racing runs on more than gels and sports drink alone.
⏵ Build your fueling plan
Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight, your goal time, and a swingy Illinois April weekend 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 rolling loop climbing profile, and your projected splits. Summit Line reads your real training, builds a plan for repeated loop racing, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.
Potawatomi is a repeating 10-mile loop through McNaughton Park, mostly singletrack dirt with prairie sections, several creek crossings, and what the race itself calls "endless rolling hills." Each loop stacks 1,500 feet of gain, so the 100 mile distance works out to roughly 15,000 feet of cumulative climbing, none of it from a single big hill, all of it from doing the same rolling loop again and again. The 200 mile option, run over four days with a 76 hour cutoff, is a genuinely different kind of challenge: less about raw speed and more about sustained sleep management and pacing across multiple days.
Each 10-mile loop carries about 1,500 feet of gain, which scales directly with your distance: roughly 15,000 feet for the 100 mile, and proportionally more for the 150 and 200 mile options. Because the same loop repeats, you get to know the climbs intimately by your later laps, which is both an advantage (no surprises) and a challenge (you know exactly what is coming).
With aid stations every 5 miles on a repeating loop, you have more frequent support than almost any point-to-point ultra offers, so use that to your advantage rather than over-carrying. Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, and sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range, adjusting for the swings a mid-April Illinois weekend can bring, anything from a warm afternoon to a cold, wet night. For the 200 and 150 mile distances especially, plan real food and sleep strategy into your fueling, not just carbohydrate per hour. Build your numbers with the free ultra fueling calculator before race day.
All races finish by 4:00 pm Sunday, which sets each distance's effective cutoff based on its start time: 76 hours for the 200 mile (Thursday noon start), 52 hours for the 150 mile (Friday noon start), and 34 hours for the 100 mile (Saturday 6:00 am start). The race also offers early start options for runners worried about the cutoff, though early starters are not eligible for podium awards even though they still earn a finisher's buckle.
Yes, with essentially no restrictions. The race's own rules put it simply: "no limitations here, bring who you need to help you finish." Combined with free primitive camping available on-site starting Thursday, most runners set up a home base in the field they run past every loop, giving crew and pacers constant, easy access throughout the event.
The loop format makes it a genuinely good choice for a first hundred: aid every 5 miles, a 34 hour cutoff, and constant access to your own camp and crew remove a lot of the logistical uncertainty that trips up first-time ultra runners elsewhere. The tradeoff is repetition. Ten laps of the same 10-mile loop tests your mental game differently than a point-to-point course does, and some runners find that repetition harder to manage than the physical climbing itself.
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<a href="https://runsummitline.com/guides/potawatomi-trail-runs">The Potawatomi Trail Runs course guide</a><iframe src="https://runsummitline.com/embed/race/potawatomi-trail-runs" style="width:100%;max-width:420px;height:180px;border:0;" loading="lazy" title="Potawatomi Trail Runs 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.