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⏵ Course guide · North Carolina ultra

Weymouth Woods Trail Run Course Guide

Weymouth Woods is a flat, fast loop ultra in the North Carolina Sandhills, run on sand, pinestraw, and roots under old-growth longleaf pines at Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve near Southern Pines. It is about as far from a mountain race as a trail ultra gets, so the game here is pacing the soft footing and grinding out the laps, not surviving big climbs. I will walk you through the loop first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan that fits a flat, repetitive course. There are free calculators along the way to dial in your own numbers.

⏵ At a glance

Weymouth Woods quick facts

Date
Saturday, April 4, 2026 (spring 25K/50K)
Location
Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, Southern Pines, NC
Distances
50K (four 7.85 mi loops) · 25K (two 7.85 mi loops). A separate winter 50 mile / 50 mile relay also runs here.
Elevation gain
Minimal: flat-to-rolling Sandhills (a fast surface, sandy and root-laced). No official gain figure published.
Start
8:00 AM EDT, both spring distances
Cutoff
4:00 PM EDT (8 hours), spring 25K/50K
Aid / format
One well-stocked aid station at the start/finish each loop. Cupless: bring your own bottle or flask. Drop bags and a personal chair allowed at start/finish.
Qualifier
No Western States, UTMB, or Hardrock qualifier status listed by the race

These facts come from the official race pages and aggregator listings. The preserve hosts more than one event (a spring 25K/50K and a separate winter 50 mile), so confirm the date, distance, loop length, and cutoffs for your exact race before you commit. Race logistics change year to year.

The course: where Weymouth Woods is won and lost

The spring race is a loop course inside Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve. The 25K is two laps of a 7.85 mile loop and the 50K is four laps of the same loop, all starting at 8:00 AM. You come through the start/finish every lap, which is the one aid station, so the whole day is built around the loop and how well you ration your effort across it.

The loop: flat, runnable, and quietly draining

There is no big climb to plan around here, which throws a lot of mountain runners off. The loop rolls gently through longleaf-pine forest on sand, pinestraw, dirt, and roots, and it is genuinely runnable start to finish. That sounds easy, and the elevation profile is easy, but flat-and-runnable is its own trap: there is no climbing to force you to walk and recover, so it is on you to hold back early instead of letting the smooth terrain pull you into a pace you cannot keep for four laps.

The footing is the real character of this course. Soft sand saps your legs more than you expect, and the exposed roots are everywhere under the pine straw. None of it is technical the way a rocky mountain trail is, but late in the race, when you are tired, the sand feels heavier and the roots reach up and grab your toes. Pick trail shoes with grip and a little protection, and keep lifting your feet on the rooty stretches.

Run the loops even, not the first one fast

Because you repeat the same 7.85 miles, this course gives you brutally honest feedback. If your second lap is way slower than your first, you went out too hard, simple as that. The runners who do well here treat the opening lap as the easy one and aim to run the last lap nearly as fast as the first. On a flat loop, even splits are not a nice-to-have, they are the whole strategy.

Use the lap structure to your advantage. Every time through the start/finish is a chance to grab fluid and calories, drop a layer, swap a bottle, or check your watch against your plan. Know roughly what each lap should take and let the start/finish be your checkpoint. It keeps you honest in a way a point-to-point course never does.

Shade, sun, and a North Carolina spring

The pine canopy gives you shade for a good chunk of the loop, which is a real gift if the day warms up. Early April in the Sandhills can be anything from cool and crisp to surprisingly warm and humid, and on a flat course in the sun the heat sneaks up on you because you never get the cooling of a high-mountain breeze. Watch the forecast in race week and plan your fluid and sodium around it.

The flip side of a flat, runnable loop is that you are moving the whole time with no forced hiking breaks, so you generate and hold heat. If it is warm, dump water on yourself at the start/finish, keep your sodium up, and do not wait until you feel cooked to start managing it.

Pacing strategy for a flat, looped ultra

With almost no climbing, Weymouth Woods is one of the few trail ultras where you can actually pace off real splits instead of effort on a mountain. The job is to set a lap time you can repeat and then have the discipline to hold it when the smooth, flat terrain tempts you to go faster.

Set a goal lap time and bank nothing early

On a flat loop, the smart move is to figure out a target time per 7.85 mile lap and run the first lap at or just under it, feeling almost too easy. Do not try to bank time early on a 50K here. The course is forgiving enough that a steady, even effort beats a fast-then-fading one every single time, and the loop will expose a bad pacing decision by your second or third lap.

Soft sand still costs you a little compared to a hard road, so do not pace this off a road 50K split as if the surface is free. A grade-adjusted view of your real fitness, even on flat ground, helps you turn your training into an honest, repeatable lap target instead of a hopeful one.

Predict your finish and check it every lap

A flat course makes finish prediction unusually reliable, so use it. Build a realistic finish window for your distance, divide it into per-lap targets, and treat each pass through the start/finish as a checkpoint against that plan. If you are drifting slow, you find out at mile 7.85, not at mile 25 when it is too late to fix.

Translate a recent race result into a Weymouth Woods goal you can actually hold, then sanity-check it against the 8-hour cutoff for the spring 50K. On this course the cutoff is generous, so your real target is a time you are proud of, not just beating the clock.

⏵ Free tools to pace this course

Fueling strategy for a cupless loop race

Most runners are out on the Weymouth Woods 50K for roughly 4 to 7 hours, and the looped, cupless format actually makes fueling easier than a point-to-point race. You hit the one aid station every 7.85 miles and you can park a drop bag right there, so you can run your own nutrition on a tight, predictable schedule.

Carbs: steady, and easy with a drop bag every lap

Aim for around 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, leaning higher only if your gut is trained for it. The big advantage of a loop is that you never have to carry much: stash your gels, chews, or drink mix in a drop bag at the start/finish and reload every 7.85 miles. That makes it simple to hit a consistent carb rate instead of force-feeding yourself between far-apart aid stations.

Because this is a cupless race, you carry your own bottle or flask, so plan exactly what goes in it each lap. Practice your real race-day carb rate on long runs beforehand so 70 to 90 grams an hour feels routine and not like an experiment on the day.

Sodium and fluid: scale to the day, not a fixed number

Spring in the Sandhills can be cool or it can turn warm and humid, and on a flat course you are running the whole time, so you build heat with no climbing breaks to back off. Scale your sodium to the conditions, often somewhere around 400 to 700 milligrams per liter of fluid, and more if you are a heavy or salty sweater. Carry enough fluid to comfortably cover each 7.85 mile lap, then top off at the start/finish every time through.

Weigh yourself before and after a warm long run to find your real sweat rate, then build your plan around your own number instead of a generic guideline. The loop format means you can carry light and still never run dry, so use that.

⏵ Build your fueling plan

Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight, your goal time, and the conditions 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 Weymouth Woods loop profile, and your projected lap splits. Summit Line reads your real training, builds a plan for a fast flat ultra, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.

Start free →Explore the demo

Weymouth Woods Trail Run FAQ

How hard is the Weymouth Woods Trail Run?

Physically it is one of the more forgiving ultras you can pick because the Sandhills are flat-to-rolling with barely any climbing, so there is no big mountain to break you. The challenge here is different: it is a loop race on sand, pinestraw, and roots, and the soft footing plus the repetition is what wears you down. The spring 50K is four laps of a 7.85 mile loop with an 8-hour cutoff, which is generous, so most prepared runners who keep moving and fuel well will finish. Think of it as a fast, low-stress course where pacing discipline and your feet matter more than raw climbing legs.

How much elevation gain does Weymouth Woods have?

Very little. The course sits in the North Carolina Sandhills inside Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, which is flat-to-rolling longleaf-pine terrain, so there are no real climbs, just gentle undulations. The race does not publish an official elevation-gain number, and you should treat it as a fast, runnable profile rather than a vert grind. If you are coming from mountain races, the lack of climbing changes everything about how you pace and fuel it.

What distances does Weymouth Woods offer?

The spring event in April offers a 25K and a 50K, both run on the same 7.85 mile loop: the 25K is two loops and the 50K is four loops, starting together at 8:00 AM. There is also a separate, well-known winter event at the same preserve that runs a 50 mile and a 2-person 50 mile relay on ten 5-mile loops, and that one was reinvented from a long-running 100K. So depending on the season you can race anything from a 25K up to 50 miles here. Always check which event and distance you are signing up for, because the dates and loop lengths differ.

What are the cutoff times for Weymouth Woods?

For the spring 25K/50K, the overall cutoff is 4:00 PM, which is 8 hours from the 8:00 AM start. That is a comfortable window on a flat course, so the cutoff is rarely the thing that ends someone’s day here. Because it is a looped course, you pass the start/finish every 7.85 miles, so you always know your splits and whether your pace is on track. The separate winter 50 mile event has its own longer time limit, so confirm the exact cutoffs for whichever event you enter.

What is the footing and terrain like at Weymouth Woods?

The trail is a mix of sand, pinestraw, dirt, and a lot of exposed roots, all under a canopy of old-growth longleaf pines. It is genuinely runnable and not technical in the mountain sense, but the soft sandy sections quietly tax your legs and the roots will catch a tired foot late in the race. There is shade from the pine canopy, which helps, but you still want to respect the surface. Trail shoes with decent grip and a bit of protection beat road shoes here, and lifting your feet on the rooty stretches matters more as the laps add up.

How should I fuel for Weymouth Woods, and is it really cupless?

Yes, it is a cupless race, so you must carry your own bottle, flask, or soft cup. There is one well-stocked aid station at the start/finish that you hit every loop (about every 7.85 miles), and you can stash a drop bag and a chair there too, which makes it easy to run your own nutrition. For a 25K or 50K, aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour and sodium scaled to the warmth of the day, and use the loop-by-loop access to restock without carrying much. Run your exact numbers with the free ultra fueling calculator below.

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, and the preserve hosts more than one event, 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.