⏵ Course guide · Santa Clarita hills ultra
The VALENCIA Trail Race stacks three nested loops, orange, blue, and purple, through the hills above Santa Clarita, with the 50K Ultra climbing somewhere around 7,000 to 8,000 feet over roughly 30.7 measured miles. Fifteen aid stations line the 50K course alone. I will walk you through the loop structure and cutoffs first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan built for stacked, repeated climbing. There are free calculators along the way to dial in your own numbers.
These facts come from the official race site. The site itself lists two slightly different elevation figures for the 50K (a homepage widget and a more detailed course-page reading), and notes that GPS readings vary by platform, so treat the vert as an approximate range rather than an exact number. Check the current year details before you commit.
Every distance starts near San Francisquito Canyon Road and climbs a 500 foot initial ascent to Station #1 before splitting onto its own loop. The 10K runs the ORANGE loop only, the Half Marathon adds a BLUE loop, and the 50K Ultra adds a third PURPLE loop on top of both.
Because the loops nest, you will pass some aid stations more than once, especially Station #4 at the Tapia Canyon peak, which the 50K field passes three times. Study the course-page walk-through and station sequence for your specific distance before race day, since the mile markers on a stacked-loop course do not map cleanly onto "new ground every station" the way a point-to-point race does.
The PURPLE loop, marked with yellow flagging, sends 50K runners out toward a large three-way intersection, a U-turn near Station #7, then a paved out-and-back on Dry Gulch Road to Station #8 (also your gear-drop point) before heading back through the same checkpoints toward the finish. This section carries the race's 7 hour intermediate cutoff, at roughly the 22.5 mile mark, so it is worth knowing exactly where it falls in your race before you start it.
The 50K Ultra course runs roughly half true trail and half fire access road, according to the race's own course description. That mix means faster, more runnable stretches on the fire road sections balanced against more technical footing on the singletrack portions, so plan your effort accordingly rather than assuming a uniform pace across the whole distance.
With a 7 hour intermediate cutoff around mile 22.5, on top of the 9 hour overall limit, this is a course where you want to know your split target before the gun goes off, not figure it out somewhere on the PURPLE loop.
A grade-adjusted pace target for the sustained Santa Clarita hill climbs gives you an honest number for effort you can hold across the full 50K, rather than a flat-ground pace that falls apart on the repeated ascents. Because the loops stack, an aggressive pace on the ORANGE and BLUE sections leaves you with less margin heading into the harder PURPLE loop and its intermediate cutoff.
The 7 hour cutoff at Station #8, roughly mile 22.5, is your real pacing checkpoint on the 50K, not just the overall 9 hour limit. Build a vert-aware finish projection and check it against that split by the time you reach the PURPLE loop, so you have room to adjust effort while there is still time to do something about it.
⏵ Free tools to pace this course
With 15 aid stations on the 50K course alone, this race gives you more chances to reset your fueling than most, but a 6:15 AM start still means you will spend real time in the exposed Santa Clarita heat.
Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, and use the frequent aid stations, stocked with GU gels and chomps, energy bars, crackers, and licorice, to supplement whatever you carry. Because you revisit some stations multiple times on the stacked loops, you can plan lighter carrying loads between them than on a point-to-point course with the same aid count.
Keep sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range, leaning higher through the exposed hillside sections as the morning warms. Gnarly Sports Nutrition Hydrate and Fuel2O electrolytes are stocked at every station, so you can top off your sodium regularly without carrying a full race's worth of mix from the start.
⏵ Build your fueling plan
Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight, your goal time, and a warming Santa Clarita hillside day 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 stacked-loop climbing profile, and your projected splits. Summit Line reads your real training, builds a plan for repeated hill climbing, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.
It is a serious climb for its distance: the 50K Ultra measures about 30.7 miles after a 2026 course redesign and carries roughly 7,261 feet of gain (the race's own course page notes GPS readings vary and calls this "the best reading we currently have"; a separate homepage widget lists 8,008 feet, so treat the vert as somewhere in that range rather than an exact number). The course stacks three nested loops, orange, blue, and purple, on about 50/50 trail and fire access road through the Santa Clarita hills, with a 9 hour overall cutoff and an intermediate 7 hour checkpoint at roughly mile 22.5.
The 10K climbs about 1,735 feet, the Half Marathon about 3,233 feet, and the 50K Ultra roughly 7,000 to 8,000 feet depending on which of the race's own published figures you use (the more detailed course-page reading is 7,261 ft). All three distances share the same base ORANGE loop and climb the same 500 foot initial ascent from the start before splitting off onto longer loops.
Every distance climbs a 500 foot initial ascent from the start to reach Station #1 and begin the course loops. 10K runners complete only the ORANGE loop. Half Marathon runners follow the ORANGE loop to Station #4, then peel off onto the BLUE loop before rejoining ORANGE to finish. 50K Ultra runners follow ORANGE, then BLUE, then a third PURPLE loop (marked with yellow flagging) that includes an out-and-back on Dry Gulch Road, before finishing the remainder of the ORANGE loop back to the start/finish. Because the loops nest inside each other, you will pass some aid stations multiple times, so know your course's specific sequence rather than assuming the mile markers are new ground.
Aid is dense here: the 10K passes 4 stations, the Half Marathon 7, and the 50K Ultra 15, stocked with water, Gnarly Sports Nutrition Hydrate or Fuel2O electrolytes, GU gels and chomps, salt capsules, energy bars, crackers, and licorice. Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour on the 50K, and keep sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range, leaning higher on the exposed Santa Clarita hillsides. The race itself recommends running with a bottle or hydration pack you can refill at each station rather than relying on cups. Build your numbers with the free ultra fueling calculator before race day.
The 10K cutoff is 4 hours, the Half Marathon cutoff is 6 hours, and the 50K Ultra cutoff is 9 hours. The 50K also carries an intermediate 7 hour cutoff (1:15 PM, given the 6:15 AM start) at Station #8 the second time through, after returning from the Dry Gulch Road out-and-back, at approximately the 22.5 mile mark. That checkpoint sits well before the course's two-thirds point by distance, so a slow start on the 50K leaves little room to recover before it.
The 10K and Half Marathon are approachable entries into this course's hills, with dense aid and generous cutoffs for their distances. The 50K Ultra is a genuine step up: roughly 7,000 to 8,000 feet of gain over a stacked three-loop course with an intermediate cutoff to hit by early afternoon. If you have trained on real vert and study the loop sequence beforehand so you are not surprised by repeated aid stations, the dense 15-station aid network gives a well-prepared first-timer real support through a demanding day.
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<a href="https://runsummitline.com/guides/valencia-trail-race">The VALENCIA Trail Race course guide</a><iframe src="https://runsummitline.com/embed/race/valencia-trail-race" style="width:100%;max-width:420px;height:180px;border:0;" loading="lazy" title="VALENCIA Trail Race 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.
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