⏵ Course guide · Tennessee ultra

The Pistol Ultra Course Guide

The Pistol is East Tennessee’s flat, fast loop ultra, run on a paved greenway along Pistol Creek out of the Springbrook Pool Center in Alcoa. There is barely any climbing, the footing is smooth the whole way, and you can pick anything from the 10 mile up to a full 100. It has a real reputation as a PR and first-100 course, and the Tennessee 100 mile state record was set right here. I will walk you through how the loop actually runs, then give you a pacing and fueling plan built for a flat repeat course, plus free tools to dial in your own numbers.

⏵ Quick facts

The Pistol Ultra at a glance

Date: Saturday, March 13, 2027 (mid-March, into Sunday)
Location: Springbrook Pool Center, Pistol Creek greenway, Alcoa, East Tennessee
Distances: 100 Mile · 100K · 50 Mile · 50K · 20 Mile · 10 Mile
Course: Flat, paved greenway loop (about 10 miles per lap, roughly 200 ft of gain per loop)
Start: 8:00 AM Sat for 100M / 100K / 50K · the 50 Mile starts 8:00 PM Sat (night start)
Cutoff: 32 hours for 100M / 100K / 50K (everyone off course by 4:00 PM Sunday) · 50 Mile gets 20 hours
Notable: A fast PR loop course; the Tennessee 100 mile state record (14:01:37, 2024) was set here
Qualifier: No Western States, Hardrock, or UTMB qualifier status listed by the race

These facts come from the official race site, UltraSignup, and other public sources. The exact loop length, start times, cutoffs, and aid stations get tweaked year to year, so confirm the current race-day details before you register or run.

The course: a flat loop you run on repeat

The Pistol is built around a single paved greenway loop, roughly 10 miles long, that follows Pistol Creek and the park land around the Springbrook Pool Center in Alcoa. Each lap has only about 200 feet of gentle gain, so the climbing never adds up to much even at 100 miles. You run the same lap again and again: 50K runners do three loops, 100K runners do six, and the 100 mile is about ten times around. That loop format is the whole character of this race, for better and for worse.

Flat and fast, which cuts both ways

On paper this is a gift. No real climbs, no technical footing, smooth pavement the whole way, so you can run almost the entire course and actually hold a steady pace. That is exactly why people come here to chase fast times and distance PRs, and why the Tennessee 100 mile state record lives here.

The catch is that flat and smooth means relentless. There are no climbs to walk and no rough trail to force a break, so the exact same muscles take the exact same pounding from the first mile to the last. Your quads, calves, and feet never get a change of stress. Late in a long race that repetitive load is what starts to hurt, so build some easy pavement miles into your training and do not assume flat means painless.

The loop is a mental race, so use it

The real test here is your head, not the terrain. You will pass the same trees, the same creek, and the same aid tent a dozen times, and somewhere in the middle of the night that monotony gets loud. The runners who do well on a course like this break the day into laps instead of staring down the whole distance, and they have a job for each loop: eat here, change socks there, grab a jacket on this one.

The flip side is that the loop is also a huge advantage if you let it be. You see your crew every lap, your drop bag is always one loop away, and you are never stranded miles out on a mountain. Treat each pass through the start and finish as a quick, deliberate pit stop with a plan, and the loop turns from a grind into a rhythm.

Aid, crew, and the lighted night

Aid is close and frequent. The main aid station sits at the start and finish so you hit it every lap, and there is aid out on the loop too, which keeps the longest carry down to just a few miles. The stations are heated, which is a real comfort on a cold March night, and you can run with a pacer and use the same drop bag every time around.

Because it is a road and greenway loop, the course is lit for running after dark, so the night is safer and simpler here than on a remote trail. You still want a headlamp and a warm layer for the overnight hours, especially on the 100 mile and the 50 mile, which starts at 8:00 PM and runs straight through the cold part of the night.

Pacing strategy for a flat loop PR

On a flat, smooth course there is nowhere to hide a bad pacing plan. No climbs slow you down and no descents bank you free time, so even, honest pacing across every lap is the whole game here. Pick a pace you can actually repeat, then defend it.

Pace the early laps slower than you want to

Because the loop is flat and easy underfoot, your fresh-legged early pace will feel almost free, and that is the trap. Banking time hard in the first few laps on a flat course is the classic way to blow up a 100, because the same flat pavement that lets you fly early also lets you fall apart later. Pick the pace you think you can hold deep into the race, then run the first laps a touch slower than that on purpose.

A grade-adjusted pace gives you a real, repeatable target for this kind of course, so you are pacing off your true fitness instead of off how good the smooth greenway feels at mile 10. Lock in an even effort and let the steady laps do the work.

Set a finish goal and work it back into laps

This is one of the few ultras where a finish-time prediction is genuinely tight, because the flat profile means your training paces translate almost directly. Build an honest goal time, then divide it into a per-lap split you can read every time you come through the start and finish. That turns a huge distance into a simple, checkable target: am I on pace this lap or not.

With a 32 hour cutoff on the longer races, even runners chasing a finish rather than a PR have real room, so use a finish prediction to confirm your buffer and then protect it lap by lap instead of guessing in the dark.

⏵ Free tools to pace this course

Grade-adjusted pace calculator to set an even, repeatable per-lap target off your real fitness instead of off how easy the flat greenway feels early.
Race-time calculator for an honest finish prediction on this flat course, so you can break it into lap splits and plan against the 32 hour cutoff.
Race-equivalent calculator to turn a recent road or trail result into a Pistol goal you can actually hold for the full distance.

Fueling strategy for a long, steady effort

A flat course means you run more of it, more continuously, than you would on a mountain race, so your engine is working steadily for hours and the fuel has to keep up. The good news is that with aid and your drop bag every lap, dialing this in is easier here than almost anywhere.

Carbs: steady, high, and trained

For an effort this long, aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, leaning toward the high end if your gut is trained for it, and a glucose-plus-fructose mix so you can absorb more than a single sugar allows. Because you are running almost continuously on a flat course rather than hiking climbs, the steady burn keeps pulling carbs the whole time, so do not let your intake drift just because nothing feels hard early.

The loop makes this simple. You can stage exactly what you want at the start and finish each lap, so build a per-lap fueling routine and hit it every time around rather than trying to remember to eat out on the course. Rehearse your real hourly carb number on long training runs so 80-plus grams an hour feels normal, not like an experiment on race day.

Sodium and fluid: cool air still costs you

March in Tennessee is cool, so it is easy to under-drink and under-salt because you do not feel like you are sweating much. You still are. Aim for a sodium concentration around 300 to 700 milligrams per liter of fluid, biased higher if you are a salty or heavy sweater, and keep sipping on a schedule even when it is cold. Cramping and that hollow late-race flatness are usually fluid and sodium problems, not fitness problems.

Weigh yourself before and after a long training run to learn your real sweat rate, then build your plan around your own number. With aid and drop bags every lap you can refill constantly, so there is no excuse to ration, just keep topping off each time through.

⏵ Build your fueling plan

Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight, your goal time, and the duration of your Pistol distance with the free ultra fueling calculator. Browse the rest of the free running tools at the tools hub.

Train for this kind of race

A flat loop ultra rewards even pacing, a steady gut, and a strong head more than raw climbing legs. These guides go deep on the parts that actually decide your day at The Pistol.

⏵ Free calculators for this race

Run your Pistol numbers with our free, no-signup tools, then let Summit Line tie them all together with your real fitness and this exact flat loop course.

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⏵ Train for it with Summit Line

Get a race-day plan built around YOUR fitness, this exact Pistol loop profile, and your projected lap splits. Summit Line reads your real training, builds a plan for a flat fast PR effort, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute lap by lap, not guess at.

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The Pistol Ultra FAQ

How hard is The Pistol Ultra?

Physically The Pistol is one of the more forgiving ultras you can pick, because the course is flat and paved with only about 200 feet of climbing per loop, so the hills will not break you the way a mountain race does. The hard part is the loop itself and the mental side. You run the same roughly 10 mile greenway lap over and over, and on the 100 mile you do it about ten times, which means there is no scenery to distract you and no real excuse to slow down. The footing is easy and the aid is close, so what is left is honest fatigue, the monotony of the loop, and your own discipline. With a generous 32 hour cutoff on the longer races, most prepared runners who keep moving will finish.

How much elevation gain is in The Pistol Ultra?

Very little, which is the whole point. The greenway loop has roughly 200 feet of gain per lap, so the 50K stacks up only a few hundred feet and even the 100 mile comes in around a couple thousand feet total, give or take, depending on the exact loop. For East Tennessee that is remarkably flat. There are some gentle rolling sections and a little grade here and there, but nothing you would call a climb, which is exactly why people come here to chase fast times and distance PRs.

What is the cutoff for The Pistol Ultra?

The 100 mile, 100K, and 50K share a generous overall limit of about 32 hours, with everyone needing to be off the course by 4:00 PM on Sunday. The 50 mile is run as a separate night race that starts at 8:00 PM Saturday with around a 20 hour cutoff. Because it is a loop with constant access to the start and finish, the clock is easy to track in real time, so confirm the exact current cutoffs and any per-lap rules in the official race details before you commit.

Is The Pistol Ultra a good course for a PR or a first 100 miler?

Yes on both counts, and that is its reputation. The flat paved greenway, the short loop, the lighted course at night, and the constant aid and crew access make it about as friendly a place as there is to chase a fast time or to attempt your first 100. The Tennessee 100 mile state record was set here, which tells you how fast the course is. For a first 100, the loop format means you are never far from help, your crew, or a drop bag, so if something goes sideways you can regroup without being stranded miles out in the mountains.

What is the course and footing like at The Pistol?

It is a paved greenway loop along Pistol Creek and through park land near the Springbrook Pool Center in Alcoa, with grassy shoulders along parts of the trail. The surface is smooth and runnable the whole way, no technical rock or roots, which is great for speed but does mean your legs get the exact same repetitive pounding lap after lap. The loop passes the main start and finish aid each lap plus aid out on the course, and the path is lit for night running so you can keep moving safely after dark.

What is the weather usually like at The Pistol Ultra?

It is a mid-March race in East Tennessee, so expect cool and variable. Average highs sit around the low 60s Fahrenheit with overnight lows near freezing, and it can swing from sunny and mild to cold, wet, and windy, sometimes within the same race. The aid stations are heated, which helps on a cold night, but you should pack layers and rain gear and plan a warm kit for the overnight hours, especially for the longer races and the 8 PM 50 mile start.

This guide is independent and for planning only. The course details, date, loop length, start times, 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.