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⏵ Course guide · North Carolina ultra

Uwharrie 100 Mile and 100K Trail Run Course Guide

The Uwharrie 100 is one of the few true 100 mile and 100K trail ultras in central North Carolina, run on a 20.5 mile figure-8 loop deep in Uwharrie National Forest near Troy. There are no big summits out here, but the climbing never stops, the footing is rocky and technical the whole way, and you spend the night (sometimes two) out in a dark forest. The race earned its ‘simply unrelenting’ reputation honestly. I will walk you through the loop first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan built for repeated laps and a long night, with free calculators along the way to dial in your own numbers.

⏵ At a glance

Uwharrie 100 quick facts

Date
Saturday, October 17, 2026 (mid-to-late October each year)
Location
Wood Run Trail Head, Uwharrie National Forest, about 9 miles west of Troy, NC
Distances
100 mile (five 20.5 mi loops) and 100K (three loops)
Elevation gain
About 3,484 ft per loop · 100 mile: about 17,420 ft · 100K: about 10,452 ft
Start
6:00 AM Saturday
Cutoff
36 hours (6:00 PM Sunday), with intermittent cutoffs on the final lap
Entry note
100 mile requires a prior 50 mile (or Uwharrie 40 / Mount Mitchell Challenge) finish
Qualifier
No Western States, Hardrock, or UTMB Running Stones status listed by the race

These facts come from the official race site and UltraSignup. Check the current date, cutoffs, entry requirements, and aid stations in the race-day details before you commit. Race logistics change year to year.

The course: where Uwharrie is won and lost

The whole race is one 20.5 mile figure-8 loop, run five times for the 100 mile (about 17,420 ft of climbing) and three times for the 100K (about 10,452 ft). Each lap has roughly 3,484 feet of gain on rocky, rooty, boulder-studded singletrack under heavy canopy, with three aid stations: Start/Finish, Crossroads in the middle of the figure-8 (hit twice a loop), and Kelly’s Kitchen at the northern tip. Uwharrie is won by the runner who respects the footing and the repetition, not by the one who is fastest on fresh legs.

The loop: relentless, technical, no rhythm to settle into

Forget elevation profiles here. There is no signature climb to brace for, just constant short, steep, punchy ups and downs over roots and rock, lap after lap. The named grinders are Sasquatch Summit around mile 7.4 of each loop, with more climbing waiting near miles 8 and 16, and the late-loop climbs runners call the Soul Crusher and Hallucination Hill because they get meaner every time you come back to them. The toughest northern stretch dumps you out at Kelly’s Kitchen around mile 11.7, which is exactly why that aid station is there.

The thing that wears people down is that you almost never get to settle into a rhythm. The trail is technical enough that you are picking your feet up the whole time, and the climbs are too short to power-hike comfortably but too steep to run cheaply. Patience is the skill. Run the loop like you have to do it five times, because you do, and the runners who hold something back early are the ones still moving well at 2 AM.

The night: where this race actually gets hard

The biggest factor at Uwharrie is not heat or altitude, it is the dark. With a 6:00 AM start and a 36 hour clock, a 100 mile runner is out for a full night and well into a second, and even most 100K runners finish in the dark. You will spend hours by headlamp on busy, rooty, rocky trail where every step asks for attention, and that is mentally and physically taxing in a way fresh daytime miles are not. Practice night running on technical ground before race day, carry a bright reliable light plus a backup, and stage spare batteries in your drop bags.

The loop format helps you here if you let it. Coming back through Start/Finish every 20.5 miles gives you a clean reset: restock, swap your light, grab warmer layers for the cold Piedmont night, eat real food, and get your head right for the next lap. Treat each return to the hub as a checkpoint to fix problems early, not a place to sit and let the wheels come off.

Crew, pacers, and drop bags: stage it at the hub

Crew can meet you at Start/Finish and at Kelly’s Kitchen, but not at Crossroads, where the forest road is too narrow for access. Drop bags are allowed at all three aid stations, but you cannot pull a bag back from Crossroads mid-race, so put your important resupplies at Start/Finish and Kelly’s. Pacers are allowed once you have completed 41 miles (two laps), one at a time, checked in at Start/Finish, and no muling, so your pacer is company and a clear head, not a gear mule.

Because you loop back through the hub every lap, Start/Finish is the engine room of your race. Stage a chair, a full light and battery change, dry socks and layers, and your favorite real food there. A 100 mile day at Uwharrie is really five trips out from one base camp, so build that base camp to make each turnaround fast and deliberate.

Pacing strategy for a relentless looped 100

With about 3,484 feet of climbing per loop spread across endless short technical pitches, Uwharrie is about managing effort and repetition, not hitting a pace chart. Run the early laps slower than feels right, and let the course come to you.

Pace by effort and grade, not by the watch

Your flat-ground pace is almost meaningless on this kind of choppy, technical, constantly-climbing trail. What matters is steady, sustainable effort: hike the steep punchy pitches efficiently, run the runnable bits relaxed, and keep your output even instead of surging every little rise. The classic Uwharrie mistake is treating loop one like a fast trail marathon because your legs feel great, then watching your lap splits fall apart by loop three or four. Use a grade-adjusted pace to turn your real fitness into honest climbing and descending targets so you are not quietly redlining the first lap.

Build a finish prediction that respects the vert and the dark

Do not guess your Uwharrie finish off a road 100 or a smooth trail race. The constant climbing, the technical footing, the slowdown after dark, and the simple math of repeating a hard loop all add real time, and most runners lose a chunk of pace on the later night laps. A vert-aware finish prediction lets you set a realistic window and work backward into the 36 hour cutoff and those late intermittent cutoffs, so you know how much buffer you actually have when you start each lap instead of finding out the hard way.

⏵ Free tools to pace this course

  • Grade-adjusted pace calculator to turn your flat fitness into honest effort targets for the endless short climbs and technical descents.
  • Race-time calculator for a vert-aware finish prediction across five (or three) loops, so you can plan against the 36 hour and intermittent cutoffs.
  • Race-equivalent calculator to turn a recent race result into an Uwharrie goal you can actually hold lap after lap.

Fueling strategy for an all-day, all-night effort

A 100 mile day at Uwharrie can run most of the 36 hour clock, and even the 100K is a long technical day into the night. That makes steady carbohydrate, sodium, and a gut that still works at 3 AM just as important as fitness.

Carbs: steady, trained, and built to last all night

For an effort measured in the tens of hours, aim for around 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour and only push the high end if your gut is trained for it. The real challenge here is not the first lap, it is staying fueled through the night when your appetite is gone and sweet gels stop sounding good. Use a glucose-plus-fructose blend so you can absorb more, mix in real food and warm options from the aid stations and your drop bags, and rehearse your exact hourly carb number on long runs (including at night) so it feels automatic when you are tired and it is dark.

Sodium, fluid, and the cold-night swing

October in the Piedmont is mild by ultra standards, so you will not be drowning in heat-driven sweat, but you can still under-fuel and under-drink badly once the temperature drops and you stop feeling thirsty at night. Keep taking sodium with your fluid, roughly in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range and higher if you are a salty or heavy sweater, and do not let cold air trick you into skipping drinks and calories. Weigh yourself before and after a long training run to learn your real sweat rate, then build the plan around your own number rather than a generic one.

⏵ Build your fueling plan

Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight, your goal time, and a long Uwharrie night 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 Uwharrie loop profile, and your projected lap splits. Summit Line reads your real training, builds a plan for the relentless climbing and the night, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.

Start free →Explore the demo

Uwharrie 100 FAQ

How hard is the Uwharrie 100 Mile and 100K Trail Run?

Uwharrie is harder than its map makes it look, and that is the whole story of the race. There are no big mountains out here, the high points in the Uwharries barely top 1,000 feet, but the trail never lets up. Each 20.5 mile loop packs in about 3,484 feet of climbing on rocky, rooty, boulder-strewn singletrack with almost no flat to recover on, so the 100 mile stacks up to roughly 17,420 feet and the 100K to about 10,452 feet of relentless short climbs. The race calls itself ‘simply unrelenting’ and that is honest. The 36 hour cutoff is generous on paper, but the technical footing, the repeated loops, and a full night (or two) in a dark forest are what actually decide your day.

How much climbing is in the Uwharrie 100?

Each 20.5 mile figure-8 loop has about 3,484 feet of gain and the same amount of loss, per the official course description. The 100 mile runs that loop five times for roughly 17,420 feet of total climbing, and the 100K runs it three times for about 10,452 feet. None of it comes in one big sustained climb. It is constant short, steep, punchy ups and downs over roots and rock, with named grinders like Sasquatch Summit (around mile 7.4 of each loop) and the late-loop climbs that runners have nicknamed the Soul Crusher and Hallucination Hill because they get worse every lap.

What is the loop and aid-station setup at Uwharrie?

It is a 20.5 mile figure-8 loop in Uwharrie National Forest with three aid stations, so you hit aid roughly every five miles. The Start/Finish is the hub you return to at the end of each lap. Crossroads sits in the middle of the figure-8 and you pass it twice per loop (around mile 6 and mile 15), and Kelly’s Kitchen sits at the northern tip around mile 11.7, right after the hardest stretch. Heads up: there is no crew access and no drop-bag retrieval at Crossroads because the forest road in is too narrow, so crew can only meet you at Start/Finish and Kelly’s Kitchen.

What are the cutoff times for the Uwharrie 100?

Both the 100 mile and the 100K share a 36 hour overall cutoff, finishing by 6:00 PM Sunday after a 6:00 AM Saturday start. Because the course is so technical there are also intermittent cutoffs near the end: you generally have to start your last lap by late Sunday morning and leave Kelly’s Kitchen heading southbound on that final lap by mid-afternoon, or you are pulled. Those exact times can shift year to year, so confirm the current cutoff chart in the official race materials before you build your plan.

When can I use a pacer at Uwharrie, and what about crew and drop bags?

Pacers are allowed once you have completed 41 miles, which is two laps. You get one pacer at a time, they have to check in at Start/Finish for a bib, and no muling, so they cannot carry your gear. Crew can meet you at Start/Finish and at Kelly’s Kitchen, but not at Crossroads. Drop bags can be placed at all three aid stations, though again you cannot pull a bag back from Crossroads mid-race. Since you loop back through Start/Finish every 20.5 miles, that hub is the natural place to stage your big resupplies, a chair, and a light change.

What is the terrain and weather like at Uwharrie in October?

The footing is the defining feature: technical, rocky, root-laced singletrack under a dense forest canopy, with very little smooth or flat ground to find a rhythm on. Mid-to-late October in the central North Carolina Piedmont is usually crisp and pleasant by ultra standards, cool starts and nights with milder afternoons, but it can swing warm or wet depending on the year, and leaf cover hides the rocks and roots that are already trying to trip you. The big environmental factor here is not heat or altitude, it is the dark. You will run hours by headlamp on busy technical trail, so practiced night running and a reliable light setup matter as much as your fitness.

This guide is independent and for planning only. The course details, dates, cutoffs, entry requirements, 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.